Mountains and Valleys by Pastor Karena Lout

                                                              

We often find that life is a journey of “highs and lows.” It doesn’t mean we can’t remain steady in the midst of it all but we need to learn how to follow the rhythm of Heaven. Jesus was just as comfortable going into the valleys as He was standing on mountaintops. He went to the mountain to receive His identity and to connect with His Father (Luke 6:12). Then He climbed down to the lowest point to model for us how to “be with” those trapped in pain, sickness and sin to bring real healing.

What I love about Jesus is that He wasn’t afraid to get messy. He wasn’t worried what people would think of Him. He didn’t yell down from the mountaintop to the woman caught in adultery. He got up close and personal, challenged the religious leaders and brought love and healing to the brokenhearted.  He never loved from a distance. We need a paradigm shift if we find that we’re spending more time trying to convince people that their lifestyle or behavior is wrong than we are convincing them of God’s love for them. As we’ve found in our own lives, it’s the kindness of Jesus that leads us to repentance.

Jesus also wants to meet us in the valley of our own hearts. Sometimes it’s easier to meet Jesus up on the mountain when we’re feeling “on top of the world” so to speak. But it’s often more difficult to invite Jesus to be with us in the valley, to believe that He would be willing to get low in order to empathize with our hearts (Phil. 2:6-11). I’ve found that as Jesus meets me and brings healing to my heart, these low places soon become high places because connection is what we’re all longing for.

As we learn to move with the heartbeat of Heaven, we become more aware when we need to go to the mountain to gain new perspective and when we need to go down to release what we’ve been given. God weaves these highs and lows into one beautiful dance. His mercy is the fuel and His justice is the vehicle. We need both in order to fully receive from Him. I pray that God would give you courage to go to the valley when you need to meet with Jesus the Lamb. I also pray He would give you new strength as you climb the mountain to connect in ever increasing ways with Jesus the Lion.

The Lord Will Fight For You by Pastor Karena Lout

There are a few things about this scripture God has been highlighting to me that I want to encourage you with. In this context, the word salvation in Hebrew is yasha which means, “to make room or space.” The Israelites were under great pressure, squeezed between the Red Sea before them and the armies behind them. God sent salvation to come and relieve the pressure. Some of you have been under suffocating pressure lately. I pray that as you receive God’s yasha, you would experience wide, open spaces where you can breathe freely. Stress, worry, and anxiety can’t live in that space.

The other thing I felt to encourage you with is to allow the Lord to fight for you. Over the years, I’ve had to learn to ask for help when I need it. That can feel unfamiliar and even vulnerable for some of us who grew up believing that we need to take care of ourselves. But it’s important that we pay attention when it’s time to take the boxing gloves off and rest.  Laying down your sword can feel scary. If you’ve been fighting for a long time, it can be difficult to imagine what life would be like without it.  I encourage you to ask Jesus how He’s going to protect you and fight for you. One of the most comforting truths in this life is that we don’t have to face challenges alone. I pray that you can rest in that today.

                                                                                        

Welcome TO A Clearer Future by Pastor Brent Lokker

What Lenses Are You Looking Through?

Whether or not you trust God and allow yourself to get close to Him has a lot to do with whether you want to. If you have a belief system that He is unsafe, manipulative, or prone to going off in fits of rage, you will avoid that relationship at all costs. That’s called survival, and we were made with a degree of common sense not to put ourselves in perilous situations if we have a choice in the matter. However, since God is your Daddy who loves you, who is always for you, and who chooses to use His infinite power for your good, avoiding Him would be to your complete detriment.

We each view life through certain lenses that are colored by our experiences along the way. If you had parents or other significant people in your life who misused their power to hurt you, it will be much more difficult for you to embrace the truth that God uses His unlimited power for your absolute best, to do you good all the time. If you were told growing up that you were good-for-nothing junk, believing the Father’s comforting words that He’s made you exactly the way He wanted and He likes you will be more difficult to accept. If you got the message growing up that whatever you did was never enough, your heavenly Father’s voice of approval and acceptance will not initially seem to ring true.

Can I tell you something you must hear? Every time a lie was spoken that tarnished your beautiful image, and every time your innocence was robbed because of an abuse of power, your heavenly Daddy wept for you. It is never His intent for the precious ones He loves to be damaged and taken advantage of. We have an enemy—the devil and his army of demons—who seek to destroy us. When we attribute everything that happens, good and bad, to God, we fall prey to the enemy’s plan to steal from us the intimacy with God we were made to enjoy.

God is good and the devil is bad. It’s critically important that we don’t mix up these two facts.

God gives free will, which sometimes leads to pain and tragedy, but He also has a way of miraculously turning everything to our good as we stay engaged with our Father’s heart through the process of restoration.

"We are confident that God is able to orchestrate everything to work toward something good and beautiful when we love Him and accept His invitation to live according to His plan." (Romans 8:28, Voice Translation)

Your Father knows every single thing that has happened in your life and He is more than able to override your pain with His love and compassion. He says to you, I’m going to love you the way you deserve to be loved. I will treat you as the prince/princess you are until you believe it and hold your head up high as My priceless treasure.

God is in the process of erasing the virus of past deceptions and lies from the hard drive of your mind and uploading you with His affirming words until you are left with your original programming. This will allow your operating system to function the way heaven designed it—clearly seeing the love of a Father who has always adored you and who has nothing but good in store for you. The amazing thing is, the more you receive His upgrades and believe them, the more you will live in the reality of His heart.

I am declaring the truth over you right now that Papa God is giving you His lenses of love through which you can more accurately look at yourself and the world around you. You are receiving your upgrade at this very moment!

With Much Love,

Pastor Brent

P.S.  This is an excerpt from my book Daddy You Love Me which is about to be relaunched as Always Loved.  In addition, the audio book version will come out shortly.  To the left is the cover of the Arabic version that will come out in a month!

            

Worship His Majesty by Pastor Todd Lout

Why does worship feel dull?  Are we going to a worship service and saying, “Meh, I don’t feel God…whatever.”  Do we feel agitated a lot of the time?  Irritable, crabby, negative?  Let’s snap out of it!  Let’s shake off the mundane, robotic execution of our busy lives and realized the glorious majesty of God again! 

There’s nothing like stopping the madness and recalibrating our focus by checking out what God has done, Who He is, His endless perfection in everything.  It’s a guaranteed brain enhancer.  Oh yeah! 

Here’s the deal, we were all made to worship God….to be loved and love back.  (Eph 1:11 & 12) It’s in our DNA.  It really is!  So when we’ve gotten in that slump where we let this thing become way down the list of priorities, we won’t be operating with our natural fuel.

Here’s some tips to get us jump-started. 

*Go outside and find a pretty flower.  Get really close to that thing and try to make out the details of it, ya know, just kinda get lost in it.  Then consider that HE designed all of that, right down to the detail, because He likes it, AND put it here for us to enjoy too.

*Follow and Instagramer who takes beautiful photos of nature all over the world.  (There are many to choose from)  Just look at some of those photos and realize the majesty of God in His creation.

*Think of the most horrific thing you know about yourself.  Maybe something you did or thought of doing.  Now think of the fact that this flawless Father already knows about that thing, (On a deeper level than you do, I might add), and loves you more than you’ve ever loved anything or anyone.

There’s so many things we can be intentional with to refocus onto the enormous, royal, perfect, shining love that is God.  From here, let’s turn our affections toward Him and worship all the time…every day…a lot!  Our whole being will come back into alignment with how we are wonderfully made and everything else will fall into place under that fact.  He is so worth it, and so are you!

                                                           Love, Todd Benjamin Lout