latest GOOD NEWS DAILY – Sept 18

“This is a new day. I want to do it right.”

A clean slate. A new beginning. Another opportunity to live in a manner pleasing and honoring to the Lord. Another day to love and bless Him. To praise and worship Him. To serve and obey Him. To be in awe of Him. To be close to Him. To cry out to Him. To pray to Him, to seek His face, to listen to Him. To grow more like Him. In His image. To grow closer and closer to Him, yes. And to tell the world about Him!

Thank you Father for a new day! This is the day you have made as your Word says. May I and all those reading this live in a manner this day and always that brings glory and joy and praise to your name!

Thank you Lord! AMEN!

Friend, will you join me in living day in and day out with deep faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and with ever-growing love and devotion to Him and His ways?

love & blessings,

lara

Once you fall in love with the Lord Jesus Christ, once you know Him personally and intimately, once you turn from your sins and turn totally to Him, once you surrender all to Him, once you become totally His, once you know His love and find it’s never ending, once you fall in love with the Bible and live according to the ways of the Lord, once you live day in and day out knowing you are promised forever with Jesus rather than forever in hell and the lake of fire as you faithfully follow Him, once you know the joy and thrill of serving Him, the privilege of telling the world about Him, and the amazingness of drawing closer and closer to the Lord of the universe and being filled with more and more of His Spirit, once you see the fruit He bears through you as you bow down before Him with a humble, faithful heart, once you feel His presence and spend time alone in His presence, once you cry out to Him and watch how He hears and responds to you, once you consider being in His forever glorious face-to-face presence you get to look forward to through a life submitted to Him, oh, the mice, the roaches, the vomit, the cussing, the craziness of this life, and the sacrifice of comfort and ease and serenity in the world around you, it all pales in comparison to the wonder and magnificence of belonging to Jesus and abiding in Him forevermore and helping others to have the same! To know and have and follow Jesus forevermore, YES!

Are you fully surrendered to Christ, friend? Living utterly for Him? Are you holding onto comfort and ease, or are you holding onto Jesus and whatever His will for you is no matter the cost? Have you tasted the goodness and wonder of the Lord? Follow Him, follow Him, follow Him yes!

My response? Okay, I confess. It was this.

“I don’t like that,” I essentially said.

Details of what we were discussing? More accurately, of what the Lord was giving me instructions about? Details don’t matter. What matter is how this message might apply in your own life.

“It doesn’t matter what you like,” the Lord replied to my heart.

Remember, always measure what you believe you hear with the Bible because the Lord only speaks in line with His Word.

Would the Lord tell me it doesn’t matter what I like? That I need to obey Him no matter the cost to my flesh? That I need to be willing to make sacrifices for Him? To forsake all for Him? To say yes to Him even when I don’t want to? YES!

Sigh. Smile. Hard? To follow Jesus? YES! Beautiful? Awesome? Amazing? The best way to live? The right way to live? Yes!

How often are we to take up our little crosses for Christ? To deny self and follow Him? To die to self? EVERY SINGLE DAY. And, friend, the reward of being in His forever presence, of drawing ever closer to Him, of knowing Him more and more, of rejoicing in experiencing His love for us and ours for Him, there is no temporary pleasure on this earth, no little sacrifice we could possibly be asked to make, that compares with the enormity and splendor of being Christ’s forevermore!

Are you walking in obedience to Christ? Is there something you’re quite sure the Lord is calling you to do you haven’t done? Please obey. For Christ’s sake! And enjoy the rewards of living a life of obedience to Him. The greatest reward of all? JESUS FOREVER! AMEN!

Blessing #142

““Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” John 10:1-5

Utterly amazing, isn’t it? The last thing we deserve in the world considering we are all sinners destined for hell and the lake of fire forever apart from God are His love, mercy, grace, peace, hope, joy, forgiveness, lordship, sovereignty, power, friendship, fellowship, and the promise of forever and ever with Him instead. This we can have through repentance, faith in Christ as Lord, and true devotion to Jesus as Lord. We are lost sheep, friend, without Jesus! But He, the GREAT SHEPHERD, the GOOD SHEPHERD, wants us to be in His forever fold. He is the door to everlasting life with Himself. He calls us to Himself, allows us to recognize His voice, speaks to us as His very own sheep once we entrust our lives to Him, and teaches us day by day when we become His followers to recognize and follow His voice rather than the voice of the enemy, or the voice of this world, or of our flesh. Yes, His very own voice allows us to hear and follow Him now and forever!

This message, friend, isn’t about that woman’s book. It’s about you and me and the practice of listening to God. The Lord speaks to His followers personally to their hearts ALWAYS AND ONLY IN LINE WITH THE BIBLE, but the NUMBER ONE WAY THE LORD SPEAKS TO ALL PEOPLE EVERYWHERE AT ALL TIMES is IN AND THROUGH THE BIBLE!

Tragically, I would not be surprised if more people in this modern day world have gone running for that bestselling book than they have gone running to the Bible.

Yet there is no more important person and place to whom and which we must run continually than THE LORD JESUS CHRIST AND THE BIBLE.

Are you listening to God? Are you reading the Bible daily? Are you living by it? Please, friend, please, I beg of you, do!

“You are rushing. Slow down,” the Spirit of God told me.

I had finished a little piece of writing and figured I was done. But something didn’t feel right. As I considered what to do, I knew the Lord wanted me to get rid of the piece of writing and start again. That’s when He told me I needed to slow down. Not just write to write. But write what He puts on my heart to write. When He does.

Know what this makes me think about? We need to be sensitive to the Spirit of God when we serve God. To His every desire, His every instruction, to His will, His timing, to every detail He places on our hearts, to when to move, to when to stand still, to when to rest.

Jesus Himself looked to the Father for His instructions. He was completely submitted to Him right down to the words He spoke.

We need to be sensitive to the Spirit of God – and to submit and surrender.

Are you? Am I? Let us do so! Yes!

Life in New York City in my second season of streets ministry work here ain’t easy, but it sure is amazing. The opportunities to talk to people about Jesus and to give out my Gospel tracts and devotionals are endless, and this alone thrills me. I also have tons of time to write and publish my Gospel tracts, devotionals, and books because the Lord called me long ago to sacrifice a social and entertainment and vacation and marriage and family life so I would be wholly consecrated to Him and my ministry work.

This said, it can all be exhausting at times. And sometimes I’m overwhelmed with the details, with the day-to-day stuff on top of my ministry work like working out apartment issues, health insurance issues, administrative issues, finding socks and better sneakers issues given a foot issue, car issues, bills issues, issues, issues, daily issues which for me take up time I don’t have lots of extra of and which I sometimes wrongly allow to weigh me down and distract me from my calling.

Best way to pray for me and this ministry is however the Lord leads you as often as He leads you that His name is glorified in all I do and say. Hallelujah!

Thank you!