We are on the eve of the most evil days on our calendar. Sadly, most who read this will think I'm going a bit overboard. I'm not … I promise you!

This past Sunday, I had the privilege of presenting a sermon I entitled, Deliver Us From Evil, based on the phrase from the Lord's Prayer. It has occurred to me that most of us pray amiss when we pray those words, especially if we willingly participate in the evils of things such as Halloween. Yes … I said evil.

It is understandable that the "world" celebrates this day since they have no relationship with the Holy One of Israel. But, it is NOT understandable that Christians celebrate Halloween … not in any shape, form, or fashion. I found a quote that sums up what I'm trying to say and really puts the controversy into perspective: "For a Christian to celebrate Halloween is as bizarre as a Holocaust survivor celebrating Hitler's birthday." Stop a moment and re-read that. There's no difference.

Jesus shed His most precious, pure, spotless, and holy blood so we can be FREE from evil, FREE from the penalty of sin and death, FREE from the chains that bind us to the grave. Yet, so many in the Body of Christ willingly celebrate the "lord of death" every October.

Halloween isn't a cute, innocent excuse to have a party. It's not even a fun time to do something strange by dressing up and parading around the neighborhood with a bag expecting strangers to fill it up with candy. And, anyone who thinks so is blinded by the father of lies himself.

If you're a parent or grandparent, please … don't allow your children or grandchildren to participate in the "high holy day" of the occult world. Don't allow them to partner together with the archenemy of God and call it cute or innocent. Any celebration on this day is falling into the trap of the enemy—he lures us by making it fun and all about the kids.

I have put together what I've called an 'INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING' about the origin and the dangers of Halloween. Please feel free to download the .pdf file, share it with others, pass it around to friends and family. Then, please … pray protection over your children and your grandchildren. Pray for their minds and hearts and souls to be protected from seeds of evil and lies and deception from taking root and growing in them. Take some time and do some research … become informed and stop allowing the enemy's tactics prevail.

Paul gives us the answer to the bombardments of evil being shot at us as firey darts by the enemy of our souls. Ephesians 6 gives us clear explanation about how to fight against the spiritual forces of darkness ruling this world. But the Armor of God is absolutely no good to us unless we put it on and use it. The 'INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING' covers this as well.

I pray this year, the eyes of many will be opened and the malicious deception of the enemy will be exposed. I pray that you, a blood-bought Christian, won't become another one of the multitudes of people who contribute over $2.4 Billion to the Halloween profiteers. The only two more popular reasons for partying on our calendar are New Years Eve and the Super Bowl.

Take a stand … make a determination in your heart and say with me, "I Won't Compromise!"

© Jan Ross
All Rights Reserved

Blessings,

Gwenn

Labels: divorce, faith, marriage

I was reading 1 Corinthians last night and was struck by the following verses:

“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.” 1 Cor 15:3-5

Remember Peter? As one of Jesus’ disciples, he had listened to Jesus’ teachings and saw him perform many miracles. Peter had walked on water, witnessed the Transfiguration, and claimed he would follow Jesus to death. Yet when Jesus was captured and put on trial, Peter vehemently denied his relationship with him three times just as the Lord had predicted.

“Peter replied, "Man, I don't know what you're talking about!" Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: "Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times." And he went outside and wept bitterly.” Luke 20:60-62

From there the Lord was crucified and Peter was left to his own thoughts. I can’t even imagine what Peter must have felt for those days following the crucifixion. At this point he looks like a complete failure. When the “going got tough”, Peter folded.

But look at what happened according to 1 Corinthians. The Lord appeared to Peter alone before appearing to the rest. We know that all of the disciples had scattered like sheep during Jesus’ capture, but it was Peter who openly denied the Lord and was confronted with his own failure by the rooster’s crow (and Jesus’ gaze). If anyone needed face-time with the Risen Lord, it surely was Peter. And that is what he got.

We don’t know what the Jesus said to Peter when he appeared to him, but we know that Peter went from cowardly denier to bold proclaimer. In the second chapter of Acts it is Peter that addresses the crowd with the truth of Jesus’ crucifixion and converts 3000 to “the way”. Peter’s failure was no obstacle to God.

And so it is for us. We have a Savior who is willing to meet with us personally, even when we have failed him. He can lift us back up and continue to use us despite our failures. How lucky we are to serve such a loving and merciful Lord!

Labels: Carrie, christian living

This is going to be a quick entry, but I just had to tell you how God is working in my life.

Recently, my husband has put us on a tighter financial rein, both because we felt we weren't saving as much as we'd like, and because we were not being as responsible with our money as we should. Although this was his decision and not mine, I have been trying to abide by it. Since I'm the one who has paid the bills for many, many years, I was pretty stressed when I saw how much he chose to carve out of our budget.

I went to God and asked Him, as I have in the past, to be Lord of our finances. Interestingly, last month, I opened two bills (on the same day, no less), and found that I had significantly large credits on each. I had a $152.92 credit on one bill, and a $385.36 credit on our electric/gas bill! I have no idea where those credits came from. I don't know if I overpaid, and I haven't gone back to check.

Fast-forward to September 26 when I began my freefall into free lance writing--my ministry for the Lord. I knew I was putting even more stress on the budget, but I went again to the Lord and asked Him to provide. Only yesterday, while I was in prayer, I told the Lord that I was feeling frustrated, because even though I've been sending out lots of articles and queries to various Christian mags, I've heard nothing back. In this case, no news is good news, but still, no news means no pay. I told the Lord that I knew I shouldn't be worrying about money, but sometimes it's hard not to.

Then today, I opened up this month's electric/gas bill, and I still have some of the credit left over...I'd forgotten about last month's large credit. I still had $221.95 of credit sitting there, so this month we have another "free" electric/gas bill--and still with some money left over to apply to next month.

The point is, God always provides, and he ALWAYS provides in ways that we would not expect. No, I haven't gotten another check for my writing in the mail--yet--but I received something even more wonderful. I was given clear-cut evidence that my amazing Heavenly Father is taking care of us. That He hears my prayers. And that I should keep on falling...into this ministry...and having ruthless trust.

I just love being His child, because God is just a kick...don't you think?

Blessings,

Gwenn

Labels: God's provision, trust

There are days when I close my eyes and try to imagine what it was like when God first commanded Israel to commemorate and keep the feasts and holy days. I imagine the people who are suddenly reminded of the season by the blast of a trumpet, the ten days of awe, and the call to solemn assembly.

There was a time when I thought all those scriptures were meaningless to us as believers in Christ. These scriptures were never brought up in our church as I was growing up. Neither were they referenced by our Sunday school teachers , and there were very few (if any) references to the holy days or festivals of the Lord in Bible studies I attended. It was assumed, though not specifically articulated, that these were historical events with no meaning for us.

Leviticus 23:31 tells us, "This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live." How wrong were my assumptions! I repented …

Today, the trumpet still blows calling us to solemn assembly. Although the High Priest has no temple in which to do service, there is no blood sacrifice to be offered on the altar, there is no atoning blood to sprinkle on the Mercy Seat, and there is no fire of God to consume the sacrifice, we can find profound revelation in the Atoning Sacrifice, Jesus Christ, Yeshua the Messiah.

There are set seasons in God's timeline; we see this referenced throughout the Word of God. God's times and seasons are perpetual … they never ceased. God's call to a season of repentance was not for a dispensation, but for all generations-"the generations to come". They were not for His people Israel only living in Israel, but for all generations wherever they live-"wherever you live" (ref Leviticus 23:31).

There is more than enough reason for us, as Christians, to heed the call to repentance and fasting, to enter into a season of solemn assembly, to honor God's times and seasons. We are truly living in the time of the harvest. The fields are ripe and ready, but the hearts of so many of God's people are far from ready simply because we, the Body of Christ, lack the attention to repentance.

True repentance includes Godly sorrow (ref 2 Corinthians 7:10). How often does the Church gather together to grieve over her own sins, to mourn the fact that we all miss God and fall so short of His glory (ref Romans 3:23)? Some way, down through history, we have forsaken God's call to seasonal and perpetual repentance (throughout all generations), somehow thinking we are blood-bought through Yeshua's incredible sacrifice and no longer need to set ourselves apart unto God for a season of mourning our sin.

The ancient Jews who feared God listened for the blast of the trumpet signaling a time of true repentance and fasting and seeking to right the wrongs in their lives. They feared God's judgment if they had unrepented sin in their lives. They used the Law-the Torah-as their plumb line and repented for the many ways they had failed God and their fellow man. It was a season of atoning for sins and wiping the slate clean for all sins committed against God in the past year, praying God would accept the sacrifice of the High Priest and the sprinkling of blood on the Mercy Seat and grant His people mercy rather than judgment.

We need the mercy of God now more than ever before. This nation has been reeling in natural disasters with increasing intensity for the past few years. Each time a disaster strikes we see a precursor to God's judgment being levied against all of mankind because humanity as a whole has strayed so far from Him. We need God's mercy!

So, let the trumpet be blown in Zion. Listen to the Spirit's call to solemn assembly, to join together with all the saints to repent on behalf of ourselves, our families, our communities, our churches, our States, our nation, and our world.

____________
Copyright © 2008 Jan Ross
*Copyright © 1997 Daybreak Music Ltd.

Labels: Christ, Days of Elijah, feasts, God's holy days, harvest, Jan Ross, The Christian Woman

Labels: faith, trust

A few years ago PBS aired a show called Frontier House. The basic idea was to place three families out in Montana to live life as it would have been like in 1883 out on the frontier. At the end of the show, the families were judged by historical experts as to how well they had set up their homesteads to be able to survive through the winter. In 1883, if their homes weren’t sturdy and their provisions weren’t stockpiled, they wouldn’t live to see spring.

In the day of home heating and grocery stores, we don’t have to worry too much about surviving the winter. We rely on those amenities to keep us warm and fed. Unlike the frontiersman of 1883, we have tamed winter.

But we haven’t defeated winter. If we lost electrical power in this country, we would be exposed to the harshness of winter. Those amenities that we had relied on would no longer protect us and we would have to look for new ways to survive.

Never become too dependent on the material things of this world. In the blink of an eye, all of those things can be lost. The only thing that you can depend on no matter what is God.

The people on Frontier House were living a fictitious life. If they hadn’t succeeded well enough to make it through a Montana winter, it didn’t really matter – they were going back to their 21st century homes. But how we carve out our lives as Christians in this world does matter. Yes, we’ll ultimately return to our home in heaven. But like the people on the TV show, we will be judged on how well we do in the life God has placed us in for now.

Stockpile for yourself spiritual goods that will see you through the tough times and store up treasures in heaven. Study the Word, spend time with the Lord, and live for Him. Learn now to rely on Him completely. Don’t wait until you have no choice.

Labels: Carrie