“God’s chosen fast changes the spiritual climate (in your life and world). Fasting, along (or coupled) with prayer (though fasting in and of itself can be a form of powerful, silent praying), can move you from being a cloud-watcher to (becoming) a rainmaker, from being reactive to proactive, from being a thermometer (in)to (becoming) a thermostat. Fasting can change everything! Pastor/Writer Ken Gurley, The Book on Prayer, pg. 280 (italics, words in parenthesis and exclamation point added by me, Denny Beckham, 4/11/25).
Category: True Life Stories
“Is There Not a CAUSE?”
OPERATION FIRM FOUNDATONS
I Samuel 2:8b,9a (MSG)
“For the very structures of earth are God’s;
he has laid out his operations on a firm foundation.
He protectively cares for his faithful friends, step by step…”
More Founding Truths/Scriptures:
“God’s Business is putting things Right; He loves getting the lines straight, setting us straight. Once we’re standing tall, we can look Him straight in the eye.” Psalm 11:7 (MSG)
“The LORD is our Rock.” Psalm 31:3; 89:26 (thru 37)
Isaiah 28:16; 42:11b; 51:3; 58:12; 60:18
“The LORD our Home.” Psalm 90:1(&2); 91:1,2,9,10
“And I will place the solitary in families…” Psalm 68:6
“I will bring you back Home…” Zephaniah 3:17-20
What’s important to God is beautiful to me. In other words, when I follow Jesus with all my heart, I am fulfilled (because I’m not ‘only’ pleasing God but I’m also doing what I was created and called to do!). Rhema rooted in the belief that God is Good…and looking out, ultimately, for ‘only’ my good; i.e., ‘Father (Abba) knows best’!
II Samuel 22:17-25 (MSG)
I Samuel 15:29 (KJV & MSG)
Yes, God hates sin because it separates us from Him. But also because it fosters condemnation AND causes us to become doubtful and (even) more selfish.
Live it…UP!
“Hold on to things lightly (not tightly), love deeply (not shallowly), forgive always (not sometimes) and LIVE without regrets (FOR GOD, ‘the same merciful Savior yesterday, Today & FOREVER’)!” Pastora Patty Conner, The Rock Church/Pentecostals of Simi Valley, Mother’s Day 2024 (words in parenthesis added by me).
“Try Tears.” General William Booth, The Salvation Army.
“Grown men don’t cry. Again, life lies. Jesus wept. Shouldn’t I?” Ken Gurley, in The Book on Prayer, pg. 258 (italics added by me, dkb, and: I have, time and again, personally experienced powerful breakthroughs to Christ…when I’ve sought Him with all my heart, by His Grace!).
“Faith-fool?”
“Faith is saying ‘yes’ (to God) before you’re ready!” Apostolic Pentecostal Preacher in wonderful message at Long Beach, CA
Churchwork
“I don’t ‘go to church’ anymore; I go to…’assemble’.” Brother/Musician/Man-of-God/Friend-of-mine, Ron Wilson San Antonio, TX. (In other words, He IS {part of} the Church, Christ’s Bride and Body and People on Earth and, therefore, embraces ‘Lifestyle Christianity,’ living for God {not self}, by His Grace, every day!).
One TRUE Love
Sin is…pursuing our own pleasure and/or path to false comforts we keep trying to believe will satisfy or even save us, then learning, once again, that we’ve been in denial AND duped (by the devil and his partner-in-crime, our own fallen, proud, short-cut, easy-way-out, lazy natures). So let it be High Time now for us to finally come Home to the Only True Comforter, Jesus…
Ultimate Justice
“(God’s) Love is more just than justice.” Henry Ward Beecher (as found in Stormie Omartian’s devotional, That’s What Love is For, pg. 52.
Creative WONDERS
An artist is revealed in the work he creates…and in the abundance of the work he created.
I am sitting on the beach this evening, watching the swells roll in toward me. Each wave builds as it approaches, ascending, taking shape, deep greens below sweeping upward into translucent aquamarine. A sculpture in motion, curling forth like shavings from a jade carving. The sheer elegance is enough to take my breath away. The wave I’m fixed upon crashes to the sand like a work of art toppling from its pedestal, but before I can feel the loss, another is rushing to take its place, sweeping upward, forward, utterly mesmerizing beauty. Then comes another, then another, and another, in an unending processional.
I look down. Scattered at my feet lie a thousand shells, delicate, intricate, the work of a jeweler. An artist with very small tools and exceptional eyesight (and skill). If all this is the work of an artist’s hand, what does it tell us about the artist(‘s heart)? Creation is epic and intimate. He is epic and intimate. Everywhere around me, an obsession with beauty(…and) great attention (paid) to detail.
But most of all, I am thunderstruck by the abundant generosity strewn around, constantly rolling in. It’s as if someone took the family silver and ran down the beach, tossing handfuls here and there like a madman” (or ‘in reckless abandon…but better’).
From John Eldredge’s Beautiful Outlaw book and small group series Participant’s Guide, pg. 13. (letters and words in parenthesis added by me for clarity and/or refinement.)
MORE THAN a Substitute
“Jesus didn’t just die for me, He died as me! What’s more, He was buried and rose again as me; that is, in my place, knowing that I was unable to do so, much less efficaciously. This…and nothing but this.” Pastor/Coach/Entrepreneur/Author of Wealth with God curriculum, Jim Baker.
Ponderings of a Sojourner 