 By OSU Special Collections & Archives Thankfully, I have never had to cut down a tree before. But, if I ever had to, I know I would be thankful to live in our modern age where we have chainsaws that make the work a lot easier. Prior to having chainsaws, people used two-man crosscut saws to cut down trees. In America, crosscut saws were used as early as the mid-17th century. As you can see from the photo above, these saws were huge, and you needed help to weld them. So, you are probably asking yourself, what does this have to do with God? Well, much like the lumberjacks of the past who used crosscut saws, we need a partner to get our work done. As Christians, our partner is God. You may not have ever thought about God as your partner before, but, isn't He the most wonderful and able partner you could ask for? YES!! I am certainly grateful to have Him as my partner. In his book Intercessory Prayer, Dutch Sheets tells us, "Without question, humans were forever to be God's link to authority and activity on the earth. Here we have, I believe, the reason for the necessity of prayer. God chose, from the time of Creation, to work on the earth through humans, not independent of them. He always has and always will, even at the cost of becoming one. Though God is sovereign and all-powerful, Scripture clearly tells us that He limited Himself, concerning the affairs of Earth, to working through human beings." So, in order for God to work through us, we must partner with Him and do our part. God has the power and He gives us the authority to use His power. It's an amazing partnership. Thanks to Holy Spirit living in us, we have everything we need to use God's power in our lives. We simply need to recognize this, and harness it and get to work for the Lord. Chris Tomlin, one of my favorite Christian artists, wrote a song about this in 2018 called Resurrection Power. Here are some of the lyrics: You called me from the grave by name You called me out of all my shame I see the old has passed away The new has come Now I have resurrection power Living on the inside Jesus, You have given us freedom No longer bound by sin and darkness Living in the light of Your goodness You have given us freedom Listen to the song here: Are you ready to partner with God? Think of all you can accomplish! Let's start today.
I will leave you with a beautiful, powerful, and incredibly appropriate quote from St. Teresa of Avila: Christ has no body but yours, No hands, no feet on earth but yours, Yours are the eyes with which He looks Compassion on this world, Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good, Yours are the hands, with which He blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, Yours are the eyes, you are His body. Christ has no body now but yours, No hands, no feet on earth but yours, Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassion on this world. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.
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 I am part of a remanent of believers who knows that revival is coming. I have been praying for a revival in some form or fashion for a few years now. However, I have friends who have been praying for this revival for many, many years. One dear friend of mine has been praying for this revival for almost 30 years! (Wow! That is more than half of my life!)
Well, folks, the time is now. We are standing on the precipice. A great awakening is upon us. Actually, it is already beginning. Thank you, Lord!!! This world is crying out for help and hope. We, as a people, are desperate to be saved and for a saviour. The chaos and turmoil we have been living in over these last few years has finally reached its boiling point. What we need is God. And, praise the Lord, God hears our cries and He is answering us! True revivals are taking place all across this great nation of ours --from east to west. People by the hundreds are pouring into churches and tents and they are getting saved! They are being healed from sickness, disease, and addiction. They are becoming children of God--our brothers and sisters in Christ! Hallelujah!! And, I truly believe this is just the beginning. Oh yes, we are just getting started. Hundreds, even thousands--dare I say millions more will be saved before everything is said and done. The Lord our God is doing awesome things in this land. May we all go out and be a part of it. Watch this Flashpoint video from February 9 and it will give you a taste of what is happening. The dams are about to burst open wide. And, I can't wait. Thank you, Lord for letting us witness this. I pray that eyes all over the world will be opened and that an unprecedented amount of lives will be saved. I hope you will join me in this prayer!  I grew up listening to Tom Petty. His music, with and without The Heartbreakers, and The Traveling Wilburys and others, was a staple in our home. It is still hard for me to believe that he is no longer with us. But, I am thankful that his music and lyrics are!
I think all of you know by now that music is a very important part of my life. And, if you read my blog regularly, you also know that I like to take popular and/or secular music and look for God in it. Or, find a way to point any music that I listen to back to God. It is just something that I do. So, yes, I am doing it again! In the unprecedented times in which we are living, where I feel that the devil and his minions are freely showing themselves and obviously think they have the upper hand and control our nation, I have news for these demons, WE have the victory. God has already won. You have been beaten! You may think you have won, but not so fast--we Christian, we Believers, We WON"T BACK DOWN! And, so this song and these lyrics have never been more relevant. Thank you, Tom for sharing this anthem and your many wonderful gifts with us! Well, I won't back down No, I won't back down You can stand me up at the gates of hell But I won't back down No, I'll stand my ground Won't be turned around And I'll keep this world from draggin' me down Gonna stand my ground And I won't back down I won't back down Hey baby, there ain't no easy way out I won't back down Hey I will stand my ground And I won't back down Well I know what's right I got just one life In a world that keeps on pushin' me around But I'll stand my ground And I won't back down I won't back down Hey baby, there ain't no easy way out I won't back down Hey, I will stand my ground (I won't back down) And I won't back down  We all know how important our prayer life is to our spiritual growth. We should not only be praying each day, but we should be praying multiple times throughout the day. Actually, as Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." The pray without ceasing part should be our ultimate goal. (Look, I know it is not just something you jump right in and do. You have to work yourself up to it. That is part of what spiritual growth is all about.)
But, the focus of my post today is to impart a little nugget of wisdom to you. If you want your prayers to be more powerful--if you want them to truly come alive and wield the power of God--then start praying the Word of God. There is nothing more powerful than echoing the words of Jesus Christ, but you must do so with conviction in your heart! Not only are there tons of scriptures that are prayers in the Bible that we can pray, but there are scripture models that help us guide our prayers. Paul has numerous prayers we can follow. Many of the Psalms are prayers. We can take basically anything from the Word of God and turn them into our own prayers. We simply must be awake and intentional in using them for ourselves. (We also get a vast education in all the things we can praise and thank God for as well!) So, there are also many times in life when we might not know exactly how, or even what to pray, and again, the Bible comes in handy. You can read the Word and find a variety of prayers that can apply to your situation. This is just another one of the countless reasons why it is vital to read the Word each day and to stay grounded in it. This is also why the Word is alive and breathing--its contents are as valuable and needed today as they were thousands of years ago. (See Hebrews 4:12) What if you can't put your prayers into words, even after all of this? Well, the beautiful thing here, is that even if you can't put your prayers into words, or even intelligent thoughts, the Lord knows our hearts. In Romans 8:26 Paul shares with us, "...but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God." The Holy Spirit fills in for us! He takes the groanings of our heart and turns them into intelligible prayers that God can hear, understand and answer! Hallelujah! When we pray the Scripture, we can be ensured that our prayers are being shaped by God's Word. And, that is where the power lies--and that is the key to making our prayers truly powerful.  While 2020 has overall been a pretty craptastic year, some wonderful things have come from it. (At least, they have for me.) I thought I would share the 2 most important things that happened to me in 2020. First, I must note that I have never liked politics. Not office or workplace politics and certainly not government politics. I ascribe to the “less is more” point of view. (The less government, the better.) Therefore, I have regarded myself as a Libertarian. And, while my views are decidedly conservative, I have never much kept up with the goings-on in Washington D.C. That is, until this year. 2020 has opened my eyes to just how far this country has fallen away from our Constitution and the foundations on which this great country was founded and from where our founding fathers laid it. It is both mind-numbing and heartbreaking to see just how far down into the pit we have fallen. And, as Christians, we are to take at least some blame in this. As a whole, we as a Church have NOT stood up for Christian values the way we should have. We have been watering down Biblical truths and letting things slide in order to look “progressive” and be “politically correct.” We have been lax in sharing and standing on true Christian values and the true rights and wrongs that the Lord teaches. The two most vital, in my humble opinion, is the abolition of the nuclear family and thinking that abortion is somehow ok. Or, at the very least turning a blind eye to these things. So, now that my eyes have been opened about what is going in our government and politics, I can do my best to fight for what is right. It is not about being Democrat or Republican, or Libertarian. What is right is being on God’s side and standing on His truths. And, opening the eyes of everyone in this country to the truth of what is going on. You can read more about these in my posts A Time For War and A Great Awakening. This was the first good thing that happened to me this year. The second and easily the most meaningful to me, is the fact that I have been spending a lot more time with God. And, honestly, a lot of this has to do with point number one. I have been meeting with friends, having fellowship, and praying for this country and President Donald Trump. I have joined in an online prayer group led by Father Frank Pavone that prays every weekday evening. It is streamed live on Right Side Broadcasting Network. I have been doing Bible studies with two different groups of friends. I have studied Our Bodies Tell God’s Story by Christopher West and Walking With Purpose by Lisa Brenninkmeyer. I have dug into the beautiful books of Mark and Romans with in depth 12-week studies. And, I have read and studied my first ever encyclical letter written by Pope John Paul II called On the Mercy of God. And finally, I just stared a new study on my own of the book of Isaiah. Spending more time with the Lord in prayer, in studying His Word and in fellowship with my brothers and sisters in Christ have been life-saving this year. Growing spiritually is so fundamental. I am so grateful and thankful for this time, despite all the ugliness that has come out of this year. I wouldn't trade it for anything.  We can learn so much from the Word of God. The Bible is our instruction book on life and in it the Lord tells us everything we need to know for any and everything you can possibly think of. In His “Book of Life” the Lord provides us with the answers to every question we could ever have. We just have to get in there, read it, and spend good quality time with Him there to understand. It is easy and it’s not. As I have noted in previous blog posts, reading and understanding the Word of God is not always an easy thing. But, if we truly want to learn about God and His will for our lives, it is imperative that we commit time to being in His Word. (As an FYI, I have found it hugely impactful and enlightening to listen to Bible teachings online. Might I suggest Faith School with Keith Moore?) Today, I wanted to share a lesson that I have learned that many of you may not understand or agree with, and that is ok. However, I feel pressed by the Holy Spirit to share it with you nonetheless. In Ecclesiastes chapter three, the Lord tells us that to every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven. In verse eight, He says, “a time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.” Let’s talk about a time of war, shall we? Why war and why now? Because, dear brothers and sisters, I truly believe that we are in a spiritual battle like none we have ever witnessed before. There are demons striking terror into the heart of our great nation. And, they have been at this warfare for quite a few years now. And, I have had enough! We MUST take a stand and we MUST FIGHT! To share the words of Pastor Gary Hamrick: “I am angry with the spiritual forces of evil that have hijacked the hearts and minds of people in an effort to try to capture the soul of America. And I am angry with demonic principalities and by extension, demonic principles that have influenced millennials, Gen X-ers and Gen Z-ers with godless philosophies and the doctrines of men. I am angry with politicians who are either knowingly or unknowingly pawns of darkness instead of agents of light who are advancing a godless agenda that is destructive to our country. And thus I cannot be silent. I will not be silent, and neither should you. America needs to wake up and it starts with the Church of Jesus Christ. We need to wake up, Christian, we need to wake up Christian, this is a battle, this is a war. This is not a game. It's a spiritual battle that we are facing for the heart and soul of America and for the heart and soul of the next generation. I have never felt as passionate for and concerned about America as I am today. We, as the Church of Jesus Christ, are God's restraining force in the world today against evil. And if the Church of Jesus Christ does not rise up and fight the good fight of the faith, who will? If we abdicate our role and our responsibility as ambassadors for Christ and as agents of truth, then evil will triumph. It was Edmund Burke who said the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing. And so I, I can't remain silent and to do so would be evil. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a pastor in Germany. It was part of the German resistance that opposed Nazi Germany, Bonhoeffer said this, quote, "Silence in the face of evil is itself evil and God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act" end quote.“ I am talking about politics here. And, I know what you are thinking: religion and politics should not mix. For whatever reason, this ideaology has been tattoo’d on our brains – but it is NOT true. Here is the real truth, again from Pastor Hamrick: “For the first couple hundred years of American history, pastors would preach election sermons. And I only get to bring these books out every four years when I do an election sermon. But I have two volumes here of political sermons of the American founding era from 1730 to 1805. These are published sermons of what pastors used to do, how they used to get up in their pulpits and talk to people in their congregation about the social issues and call out the politicians. Why? The reason is because they wanted their folks to be biblically literate so that people could make an intelligent decision based on their sanctified conscience about the social issues and the political candidates and how they either did or did not align with the Bible, which is the source of all truth. The truth is that God has been at the center of our religious freedom and faith and politics have been intertwined from the very beginning, from the founding of our nation in 1776, not 1619. Wake up, but 1776 when the Declaration of Independence was penned. Listen to the various references to God in the Declaration of Independence. It starts with, quote, "the laws of nature and nature's God" in the first paragraph, it establishes that our, quote, "unalienable rights come not from government," but from, quote, "our creator". That's paragraph two. It appeals to, quote, "the supreme judge of the world". That's the last paragraph. And then it invokes the protection of, quote, "divine providence" in the signature line of all fifty-six signers when they pledge to each other their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor. And then Congress actually instructed churches to read the Declaration of Independence from their steps so that everybody could hear across America. Churches were demanded by Congress to do such a thing. In fact, the Falls Church, the Episcopal Church, the old Falls Church in Falls Church was one of those locations where in 1776, the Declaration of Independence was read from the steps of the church. That's how the news was dispersed in a day without social media. It was pastors who led the charge with the American Revolution to sever ties with Great Britain because of the oppression and tyranny of the government, in particular oppression into tyranny of religious freedom. Pastors led that charge. Pastors like Jonas Clark, who formed the Minutemen militia in Lexington with 70 men from his congregation who fought against and defeated 700 British who marched against them in the first war, The Battle of Lexington, in the first battle, the Battle of Lexington, of the Revolutionary War, April the 19th, 1775. So enough of the history lesson. Here's a little Bible lesson. One of the earthly institutions that God ordained and put in place to help mitigate human behavior in human life is government. That's Romans Chapter 13, and God tells us in Romans Chapter 13 through the pen of Paul that the purpose of government is to basically cultivate the good and punish the evil and that God ordains a ruler or a leader, whomever that person might be, be it a king or be it a prime minister or be it a president to be instruments of his righteousness. I'll put Romans 13 verse four up on the screen. The ruler is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. Again in other words, God's intent for government is twofold to help cultivate the good and to punish the evil of a society. Government is not the savior Jesus is. But government can cultivate the good and punish the evil to help maintain a prosperous and orderly society. And thus when we have opportunity in our land to be a part of this process, to vote in the free country in which we live, then we as Christians must choose leaders. We must choose men and women who best represent a biblical worldview in terms of policies and procedures that will cultivate the good and punish the evil. It is our responsibility and a privilege that we've been given. That when we are voting, we're voting for policies and procedures that will then give a mandate to government in terms of how they are to conduct themselves and the rulers regarding policies and procedures to cultivate the good and to punish the evil in our land. Listen, this is about policies and procedures. This is not about personality. Presidential race is not a personality contest. Get over it. It is not about personalities. When there is a choice between policies and procedures and personalities, I'm going to choose policies and procedures every single time. Every single time. Because that is what will affect the daily life in a society, a nation will rise and fall on the policies of a king, not the personalities of a king.” I am sorry this was so verbous – but as Pastor Hamrick already told us, it needed to be said. We need to know American history and Biblical history. They go hand-in-hand. As Americans we need to be educated. But, I feel like as Christians we especially need to be educated. Why? Because there are times in life we need to fight. Now is a time of war. And, we need to be well prepared as we possibly can be. And that means we need to be on God’s side. And guess what? God is on our side! He sent His Son to die on the cross for not only our sins, but our freedom. So, Christians, suit up. It’s time for battle. While we already know that God has the victory, we still have a vital role to play. We are God’s hands and feet and voice. We must proclaim the victory. We must stand firm on His Word and not falter. We must speak the truth of God’s Word to anyone and everyone we can. We must educate our brothers and sisters on the history of this great nation and the fact that our Founding Fathers devised it so that God would be at the center of it. And, believe me when I tell you it will be a battle royale because the devil does NOT want us to know the truth. He wants to control us; our hearts, minds, bodies, and our nation. And he will use every trick in the book to bring us down in an attempt to make us lose all hope. That is where he wants us: hopeless. For if we are hopeless, we will lose sight of God. DO NOT LOSE HOPE AND DO NOT LOSE SIGHT OF GOD. There is a remanent of us believers who know the truth. And that truth WILL set us free. That truth is that God is for us. God loves us. God wants us to live in freedom. And, just keep on trusting and believing and praying and fighting. WE WILL WIN! I urge you to watch Pastor Hamrick's sermon. I have watched it multiple times. He was gracious enough to send me the text so that I could share some it with you here. Watch him in action here. #fightthegoodfight #atimeforwar #spiritualwarfare  A while back I learned about the Japanese art form of Kintsugi. Kintsugi means "golden joinery." It is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with lacquer mixed with powdered gold. The philosophy behind this is to treat the breakage and repair as part of the history of the object, rather than to just disguise it.
Isn't this just beautiful? As you can see from the photo above, I think it makes this once ordinary bowl breathtaking, don't you? This is what God does for us as human beings. He takes our brokenness, our hurts, and our sorrows and with His heroic love He starts to make us whole. The Lord's love is not just any old love, His love is a triumphant mix of mercy, grace, tenderness, forgiveness, and kindness. His love heals us. His amazing and potent love; His combination of ingredients makes us golden. Over time, as we bask and grow in His love, we will go from glory to glory. And, as such, we will become more and more like Him. One might even say more golden. (See 2 Corinthians 3:18) This is what it means to grow spiritually in Christ. And, I don't know about you, but I want to be more golden--more like Him. And, we are all broken, aren't we? Each in our own way. Some of us are more broken than others. But, praise God, He can heal us. All we have to do is ask Him. I know that sounds too easy--too good to be true. But, it IS true. How do I know? Because, not only does the Bible tell me so, but I have personally experienced it for myself. I may be broken, but because of God's love for me, I am now beautifully so! My cracks are being sealed with God's golden love for me. His love makes me whole. And, as typically happens with me, this reminds me of a song I need to share with you that reinforces this thought: Beautifully Broken by Plumb. Here are the lyrics: Every tear, every doubt Every time you've fallen down When you're hurting, feeling shame When you're numbing all your pain When you've lost your way And feel so far away You're not You're beautifully broken And you can be whole again Even a million scars Doesn't change whose you are You're worthy Beautifully broken Every fear of being loved For who you are no matter what When you're stumbling, with each step And you're haunted by regret And the darkness closes in Just listen You're beautifully broken And you can be whole again Even a million scars Doesn't change whose you are You're worthy Beautifully broken You're beautifully broken (beautifully broken) You're beautifully broken Oh, the god who made the stars Is the god that made your heart And he's holding you right… |
WELCOMEI am so glad you are here! I am Erica Strickland, a girl who loves God. My goal here is to simply share His love and light. Categories
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