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CALL-WAITING
January 13, 1994
S ome people have said, "God
does not speak to me like He does to you."
The phone company has a service entitled "Call-Waiting"
that you can have put on your telephone. This feature will let you know
you have another call coming in while you are on the phone speaking with
someone. You have a choice to ask the person with whom you are speaking
to hold for a moment while you respond to the other caller or you can
ignore the other caller.
Everyone needs "Call-Waiting" in their lives.
To activate "Call-Waiting" in your life you must
obey God's commandment. "You shall love the Lord your God with all
your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind" (Matthew 22:37).
We might remember the heart and soul part, but our mind is the part to
which God directs His phone calls. Are we so busy that we do not allow
ourselves to be interrupted any time, any place to answer God's phone
call, for Him to talk to us, and possibly tell us something we've been
waiting to hear?
GOD BOX
March 17, 1994
T his term "God Box" was used
by my neighbor during one of our Bible studies. She said whenever she
has a prayer request she would write it on paper and put it into her "God
Box". This was her way of truly giving a prayer request to God. Because
it had a lid, she had to release the paper the prayer request was written
on to allow it to enter into the box.
The idea of a "God Box" sounded like an excellent one,
since so often when we pray without writing down our request, we don't
always let go and let God do His job. Self always wants to enter into
a "partnership" with God in trying to solve our prayer requests! I read
somewhere that when we worry about something we are trying to do God's
job. This wanting to help can also be related to our EGO, thinking that
we could somehow help in finding an answer; makes one wonder why we bother
to pray to God in the first place. If we remember that EGO stands for
"Edging God Out" we may find it easier to let go and let God do His job.
However, the term "God Box" can also stand for putting
God into a box when we pray. We tend to think that God is not always capable
of answering all the details of our prayer request. Seems to me
if we don't believe God can do a thorough job, why do we bother to pray?
Could it be we are praying from habit instead of faith and belief in prayers
to be answered by God in His time and in His way?
Think about when we were children. Some of us played in
a fenced in yard which made some of us want to get out and see what adventures
lay beyond the fence. If we never grew up to be able to go beyond that
fence of childhood (visible or invisible), we would not have found out
the answer to what lay beyond; we would have been kept in a "box" for
life. I don't know of anyone who truly wants to be kept in a "box" for
life, so let's not "fence" in God with limitations of our human capabilities
when we can experience true freedom through the power of prayer.
STUDENT
March 21, 1994
T he excitement wells up within
me as I begin to receive another message/lesson from my teacher, the Holy
Spirit.
God is the teacher, but Jesus is my instructor speaking
to me via the Holy Spirit that dwells within me. I have shared with many
that know that I am a "hugger," and some that don't know, that my name
is Peg Harris and my initials stand for "please hug." I tell people that
I am working on my PHD, which the Holy Spirit told me I would receive
when I get to heaven because that is when I will be "D" one.
He reminded me that we are all working on our PHDs. We
are all His children and we are continually going to His school. However,
just like some children we know, some of us like to "skip class." These
are the times we are not growing, and refuse to listen to our teacher.
In "God's school" we all begin in nursery school and continue on to kindergarten,
grade school, high school and college. Some will receive a PHD, but others
will not.
You see, not everyone will be going to Heaven. If we don't
listen to our teacher and accept His gift of Jesus as our personal Lord
and Savior, which is the most important part of our homework, we will
never be a graduate of "God's school."
For those wanting the best free education available, it
is highly recommended that you become a student in "God's school," and
your first assignment is to receive Jesus, and then you can begin working
towards your very own PHD. Maybe we'll meet in the "school" that holds
classes 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with no snow days or holidays.
| Teacher: |
Holy Spirit |
| Understudy: |
Peg Harris |
| Graduate's Home: |
Heaven |
BRANCHING OUT
March 23, 1994
Today was the fourth day of Spring, and
it was a picture perfect day with temperatures in the low 70s. I had to
walk home from the train station which, on a day like today, was a treat.
This is the season where my heart feels like it is ready to burst into
bloom along with the budding trees. The birds were singing, the sky was
blue, and the moon was peaking through. I began to think how the trees
would soon be growing new branches and leaves, once again ready to shade
us from the heat of the Summer sun.
We all have seasons of budding and branching out, which
is not always in the Spring. Life begins with a seed, the same as trees
and flowers. Our faith too begins with a seed planted within us by God
at our birth, which is sometimes only the size of a "mustard seed".
But without the proper nourishment and watering it will never have a chance
to grow, bloom and branch out to reach others.
My walk home takes me past a creek, and hearing the
babbling water makes my spirit soar. The Holy Spirit began to speak to
me about how water begins as a trickle that comes down a mountain from
melting snow, and from this a stream of water begins, and this
stream of water flows into a creek, and the creek branches out
into a river.
We could not exist without these bodies of water, but
it is important to be careful where we choose to live, provided we are
blessed enough to have that choice. Some bodies of water can get very
dangerous and out of control and destroy our homes; not unlike our lives
that get destroyed when we make a bad choice. Branching out can be good
and bad depending on where our water source comes from, God or the devil.
The Lord tells us that Jesus is the vine and we are the branches, aside
from Him we can do nothing. The Bible is our watering source via the
Holy Spirit. There are still waters and moving waters; if you are a Christian
you need to keep on the move and spread the Good News about
Jesus. However, this does not mean that we are to become a babbling brook.
All rivers flow in the same direction. Our direction comes from praying
first for God's wisdom and discernment. He is the one to count on to guide
our "branching out" so that we don't go in the wrong direction,
and get in God's way; we need to do our job on God's time schedule, not
ours.
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MAIL |
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March 27, 1994
With all the publicity about the "Priority
Mail" service recently on the news, I was reminded about how many
choices we have when we send our mail. It depends on what we are mailing,
and how important we think it is, on whether we choose to send it Parcel
Post, 3rd Class, 2nd Class, 1st Class, Priority Mail, Federal Express,
etc.; the list becoming so long that unless you are a daily sender of
mail you may not be aware of all the choices available. Many folks are
not using the mail so much now as they are using "FAX" machines which
are activated by the telephone for a more immediate response to a message
sent.
What does priority really mean. I consider prayer
requests a priority, because I want them to get to God ASAP so
he can respond ASAP. The Lord tells us to cast all our problems on Him,
and for us to do this we must send a prayer message. This kind
of message is free of charge and gets delivered immediately by a Federal
Express person so quickly that it arrives sometimes before we have all
our words spoken.
If you believe in God and have accepted Jesus into your
heart as your personal Lord and Savior, Jesus becomes your "Federal Express"
mail carrier. Since I have received Jesus into my heart, I know without
a doubt, that He gets all my prayer messages to God even faster
than a "FAX" machine. He considers all prayer messages more important
than any other kind of mail we may be sending, and the only charge for
a prayer message is that we believe
that God receives every one with no delays, no postage due, no returns
because of address unknown, or forwarding has expired.
So in order to send your most important mail message,
make a call to God, speak the words to Him and end the call in the name
of Jesus (our Fed Ex prayer message mail carrier).
CONTINUING EDUCATION
April 10, 1994
I t is said the "You cannot
teach an old dog new tricks." What do we consider "old" and does this
apply to humans? Some may say we are too old to change, but this is not
true. If you believe in God, all things are possible. It is true that
we cannot change ourselves, but God can do it to us. I do believe, however,
that we must at least be open to the idea and willing to allow God to
work in our lives. Some older folks must believe they can still learn.
Look at the ages of some that have gone back to college or night school
to further their education; they had to believe that were not too old
to learn more or they would not have enrolled in a class in the first
place.
Believe it or not, we are all born with an automatic "faith"
in God, but it is the way we are raised by other humans as to whether
we keep that faith or lose it in the process of growing up. It also depends
on the ways in which we are "educated". As for myself, I have had faith
in God ever since I can remember, and I have always prayed to God since
I was a young girl. In my third year of marriage we stopped attending
church, in other words, I dropped out of "God's school." I am grateful
that God also has "Home Schooling" such as Christian TV and radio programs,
etc. All we need to do is call on God for help any time, any place. He
is always waiting to hear from us. It was by watching a TV evangelism
program that God convicted me. I placed my hand on the TV and accepted
Jesus by repeating the sinners' prayer as they spoke it on the TV program.
I was 37 years old at that time, and it was through this same program
that God made me realize I needed to get back to church. The first course
in "God's school" is on salvation and for us to have faith in God. Two
words your teacher will not use in "God's school" are "never" and "can't."
Philippians 4:13 tells us "I can do all things through Christ
who strengthens me." God's teacher, the Holy Spirit, is the only teacher
that will never, never tell you lies, but the devil (who tries to be the
teacher's aid) will try to make you think otherwise. We have to watch
out for this aid because he will never be absent from any course in "God's
school."
If, in your first course, you are obedient and do your
homework, which is to receive God's free gift of His son Jesus, then it
is important to do daily homework of reading the Bible. The Bible is required
reading not just for this course, but for your lifetime. Don't hesitate
to ask questions; this is done by praying (talking) to God in the name
of Jesus and the Holy Spirit will answer. We need to pray daily for God's
wisdom and discernment so He can teach us how to handle all kinds of life
situations. This way we will be better equipped to discern whether it
is our teacher or his so called aid (the devil) who is trying to teach
us. It is very important to be in class every day, if we skip, we may
fail, and when we fail a subject, it means we must repeat that course
again and again until we pass. God's school counselor is the Holy Spirit
and he will assign the course(s) you need next.
Table of Contents
CONTROL
July 14, 1994
E verybody wants it, and when they don't
have it, there are many different reactions such as anger, helplessness,
frustration, etc. After all, what seems more natural than for people
to desire to have control over situations and their own lives?
People think they have control over their own lives, but
then look how they allow themselves to be controlled by other people,
food, cigarettes, television programs, newspaper articles, gossip; the
list is unending. If we didn't have this desire to be in control
we would probably have no more wars and no cause to get angry. This
need to be in control is what causes so much aggravation and stress, because
we not only desire control over our lives, but we try to control
others and situations.
What does the word "Control" mean to you?
Some dictionary definitions are: To exercise authority or dominating influence
over; direct; regulate. A recent example of giving up control
for me was when I put the "two goldfish" back in the pond in our yard.
If you read the parable of "Two Goldfish" you will understand how
I was trying to protect them from harm and death by keeping them in a
controlled environment. I could only do this temporarily, eventually
I had to let them be on their own and pray for their protection. At
first I debated on whether to put the goldfish back outside; I didn't
want any wild animals to get them or polluted water to kill them. It
was a difficult decision, but one that I knew I had to make, so I put
them back in their home in the outside world and trusted God to care for
them in His way. This was just God's way of giving me a lesson in
control.
Children love their parents enough to do what is asked
of them most of the time. Did you always do what your parents asked
of you? God does not make us love Him, but He would like us to choose
to do so. The most important way to show God that we love Him is
to accept His son Jesus into our hearts as our own personal savior, but
for some people they are afraid they will no longer have control
over their lives. The was we mess up, why would we want to keep
control! The first sin was committed because Eve chose to
believe Satan when he told her it was okay to eat from the tree of forbidden
fruit because it could make her and Adam as knowledgeable as God, so Adam
and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. This happened because God created
us with our own free will to make choices, and sometimes we listen to
the wrong people and make life changing mistakes that are not always good
for us. If we listen to the right person, which is God our father
in Heaven, then we would willingly want to give Him control over
ourselves and everything else for that matter! The only way to have peace
in one's life is to ask God to take "Control" of your life, and
after asking Him you have to allow Him to do the controlling. It
is a matter of giving up our will for our lives and asking for God's will
for our lives; "Thy will be done." We need to do this on a daily
basis because we keep taking back the CONTROL.
WITNESSING
January 16, 1995
God continues to witness to me
via the "Two Goldfish" whom I have named Fan and Fair. Fan is gold and
fancy and Fair is almost white and looks like a plain fish. They survived
another summer and seemed to be content in their outside pond. After being
inside for the winter, they seemed friendlier when I put them outside,
they did not hide from me as I walked by their pond; maybe they recognized
me. This is what we should be like after we receive Jesus into our hearts,
we should be friendlier and not hide from God so He can continue to feed
and care for our daily needs.
Since the weather was so mild this year I waited until
December before bringing Fan and Fair inside for another winter. My husband
and I purchased a new fish tank so Fan and Fair could be in our living
room instead of being kept in a room upstairs where they were always alone.
This is why God is preparing a mansion in the sky for us, so that when
we die and go to Heaven we will not be alone, but we will be with God
forever. Fan was caught right away (same as last year), but Fair gave
me more trouble than last year. I went out every 15 to 30 minutes one
evening trying to catch Fair, but he always slipped out of the fish net.
I remembered my son has a big fish net in the basement, so I retrieved
it and told my husband I would catch Fair for sure now. Not so, Fair still
eluded me because the water was cloudy. Needless to say I was getting
very discouraged and tired of trying to catch Fair. The next morning I
began to try again and caught him almost immediately, this was because
the water was clear and he could no longer hide in dark corners.
The message I received from Fan and Fair this year was
that God cares about us no matter what we look like, plain or fancy, he
wants all of us to come to Him. Some of us come easily, but others put
up a great struggle and continue to try and hide. When we don't confess
our sins to Jesus, we are hiding in the darkness and keep slipping away
from God. When we confess our sins to Jesus, God forgives us, thus clearing
the water in order that we may see and hear God more clearly. Everything
needs light in order to grow and remain healthy. As frustrating as it
gets, God wants to use each of us as "fishers" of men (Mark 1:17). He
wants each of us to share the love of God with people and to continue
planting seeds of faith until they finally give in and are more than willing
to be caught. A big net didn't mean anything! We cannot bring anyone to
Jesus on our own, it is the work of the Holy Spirit to clear the water
so people can be caught in God's timing, not ours, and it is our job to
keep trying no matter how frustrating it gets (Matthew 13:47-51). Prayer
is the key to activating the work of the Holy Spirit. It is our prayers
that will help clear the water so people can hear God's message and be
drawn to His net. If you are a Christian, prayer and witnessing
are definitely part of your "Job Description"!
WALKING IN FAITH
January 25, 1995
Walking in faith,
as most folks know, is not an easy thing to do. One of my favorite hymns
is "Trust and Obey", for the path which we should take is not always
clear. This is why one needs to pray first and then trust and obey God.
1 Peter 1:3-9, 14-15
In 1991, my husband and I faced heavy financial problems, not knowing
how or what to do (what path we should take). It was because of this I had
lost my peace that can only be restored by God. I prayed and asked God to
restore His peace to me. My husband and I mutually agreed that the path
to take was to claim Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Then one morning I was walking
to the train station, and part of this walk is going up a long, steep hill.
God spoke to me that morning, saying, "Peg, you don't like this hill, but
have you noticed you never focus on the hill, you just take it one step
at a time until you reach the top. This is the way I want you to face this
financial problem and all future problems in your life, one step at a time,
and when you reach the top of the hill, you will be stronger in your faith."
On the way up the hill that morning, after hearing this message from the
Holy Spirit within me, I found a dime and I received another message that
God would continue to meet all my needs. God's PEACE returned to me that
morning, before I reached the top of that hill. Our bankruptcy papers were
filed on December 31, 1991, and as I walked through the train station parking
lot to get in our car I found a shiny new penny. Again, God told me he would
continue to meet our needs and that He has given us a brand new beginning.
A week or so later upon walking home from the train station and going
down the same hill, I found a dirty old penny in the dirt. My immediate
thought when I picked up the penny and looked at it was, no matter how bad
this penny looks, it can still be used. God spoke to my heart and told me
no matter how bad I felt I could still be used and was perfectly good in
His sight.
This morning, Wednesday, January 25, 1995, walking up that same hill
to the train station, only now on a repaved road, I received another message.
The road has been renewed, my walk is smoother, including the rough edges,
but I must remember there are always other roads with many potholes, and
there will be many new paths that I will travel, and new paths are usually
not paved. Thus, I will continue to pray and trust in Jesus to do the leading
and clear the paths so I may continue walking in faith.
BRANCHES
April 16, 1995
"I am the vine, you are the branches."
John 15:1-8 (i.e., God is Headquarters and we are His
Branch Offices).
What kind of branch are you? New? Old? Healthy and growing? Dead? Broken
off? Hanging on? Injured? Stretching out? Standing alone? One among many?
There are two flowering crab apple trees in our front yard. At a quick
glance they give the appearance of being healthy, especially in the spring
when they are in full bloom. The fact is, the trees have many dead branches
on them and the trunks of the trees are being eaten up by insects from
the inside and are getting weaker and will eventually die.
Just like trees, some people give the appearance of being healthy when
they are really being eaten away on the inside from sinful lives or ill
health. These people need to give their lives to God, ask His forgiveness
of their sins and accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
If you were a tree climber as a child you know that you needed a lot
of branches on a tree to be able to climb to the top. Christians are the
same, we need each other to be able to climb higher and become one among
many. So be an active Christian and become a healthy and growing,
stretching out, one among many branches today. You can do this by regular
church attendance, daily Bible reading and much prayer.
Then trust (have faith) in God to use you to help others to heal and
grow so there will be much rejoicing when you get to heaven, which is
the end of a Christian's climb.
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