As A Christian Who Are You

I want to talk about who we are in Christ and remind you of some of the promises in the Word that we can stand on as believers. The Bible has a lot to say about the believer and the unbeliever.

In this lesson I want to focus on the born-again believer. In order to have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you, you need to be born-again! In today’s society it seems like anyone who claims to be religious or belongs to a religious group is called a Christian--not so. According to Jesus only those who are born–again are Christians. Check it out in the Word of God in John chapter 3, you don’t have to take my word for it.

******* As Christians we are empowered by the Holy Spirit. *******

If you can’t accomplish what the Lord has called you to do with the power of the Holy Spirit within you then you are not doing your part and you’re probably not walking in the Spirit. Or possibly you don’t know what your calling is. There is no greater power than the power of the Holy Spirit.  The Word says that our bodies are the home of the Holy Spirit, or the temple of the Holy Spirit. Think about it, is there anything impossible for the Holy Spirit to accomplish through our lives? No!
Remember this, "God doesn’t always call the equipped but He always equips the ones He calls." And don’t forget this, "unless the Lord builds the house ye labor in vain that build it."
The Bible says that we dwell in the heavenly’s right now. As believers Paul said our citizenship is in heaven and that is what we should focus on, not on earthly things. Think about what is most important to you. The Bible says, "where your treasure is, their will your heart be also. Read Luke 12:34

Romans 8: 37 says, "we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." What do you think that means?

Think about this, we receive everything that the good Lord has for us and we don’t deserve it and we didn’t do anything to obtain it. It is like we accomplished our own salvation and everything that goes with it, but we actually didn’t nor could we.
In Ephesians 2: 8,9, it says, "it is by grace you are saved through faith and it is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast." Which means that we can do absolutely nothing to obtain our salvation. There is only one thing that you have a choice in, and that is whether you will receive this free gift of salvation or not. Think of this, you can only come to Jesus when God draws you! You can only repent of sin when the Holy Spirit convicts you and you respond with godly sorrow, which comes only from the Lord.  So if you think you can receive this gift by any others means you are just kidding yourself.

Don’t be deceived, bad company corrupts good character and so does false teaching.
Jesus conquered sin and death and the grave for us but we receive all the benefits from what He did. Think about what this really means in your life and mine. What bothers me is that many believers don’t even seem to be excited about it.
This reminds me of the ten lepers that were healed and only one returned to
thank and praise Jesus and he was a foreigner, a Samaritan. Jesus said in Luke 17: 11–19, "were not all ten cleansed where are the other nine. Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?"

Jesus came to His own but His own received Him not. Let’s not follow their example.  Let’s praise the Lord and be thankful for who He is, and what He is and what He has done and also for what He is going to do in our lives.  Remember the Lord causes all things to work together for good in the lives of a true believer. Praise God!
God says in Jeremiah 29: 11, "I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper
you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
Now I want you to think about this and get excited because we are the redeemed of the Lord. The Bible says let the redeemed of the Lord say so.  This is not just a song we sing in our praise time in our comfortable pews when we are in church, no, it is so much more than that. We need to have a heart of praise and thanksgiving every day. We need to be excited about our salvation.
Think about the last time you were really excited about something, a time when
you were just bubbling over with joy.  Now think about the last time you were that excited about your salvation and your relationship with the Lord. Your relationship with the Lord should be the most exciting thing that has ever happened to you.  We need to be overjoyed about our relationship with the Lord and all that He has done in our lives. If you are, then notify your face more often so others will see your joy and seek to have it for themselves.
The Bible says in I John 4:4 that, "greater is He that is within us then he that is in the world." That is something to be excited about. The Holy Spirit in us makes it possible for us to do all the things that God has planned for us. The Bible says, "we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us." Check it out in Philippians 4:13. This means that whatever God’s will is for your life you can accomplish it with the Lord’s help. Praise God!
God’s Word says, "no weapon formed against us shall prosper." Isaiah 54:17 The Bible says, "when the enemy comes in like a flood the Spirit of God will raise a standard against him." Isaiah 59:19  We are sons and daughters of God. Check out Galatians 3:26–29. The Word says, "we have the mind of Christ and that we are covered by the righteousness of Christ."
John 1:12 also says, "but as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." We have everything we need to live a victorious life in Christ.
Now that you have all this information march on and be victorious in the Lord.
As God’s children we are not condemned, we have the power of the blood of Jesus in our lives to cleanse us of all sin and to break the power of sin in our lives. Praise God! We also have the power that is in the name of Jesus to come against Satan to make him flee along with all his demon helpers when they are striving against us. None of them can stand against us when we apply the name of Jesus with faith. Some day, at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father whether they want to or not and I don’t think that many will want to but they will have no choice. Add this to the power of God the Father and God’s Holy Spirit we have all the power we need to overcome in this life. Jesus promised us that we would have tribulations and troubles in this world but just like He overcame the world when He walked on earth with all the power we have in us we can overcome the world also! Praise the Lord!

See if you can fill in the blanks without looking. It would help you if you memorized these verses. God bless you and have a great day.



1. Luke 12:34 "where your _______________ is, there will your _______________be also."
2. Romans 8: 37 "we are more than _____________________through him who loved us."
3. Jeremiah 29:11 "I know the _____________ I have for you, plans to ____________ you and not to __________ you, plans to give you _____________ and a_________________."
4. 1 John 4:4 "greater is He that is ____________ us then he that is in the___________."
5. Philippians 4:13 "we can do _______ things through ____________ who strengthens us."
6. Isaiah 54:17 "no weapon formed against us shall _____________________."
7. Isaiah 59:19 "when the ________________ comes in like a flood the Spirit of God will raise a standard __________________ him."
8. 1 Corinthians 2:16 "we have the ________________ of Christ"

9. John 1:12 "but as many as received him, to them gave he _____________to become the sons of God, even to them that ___________________ on his name."
10. 2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a __________ creature: old things are _______________ away; behold, _________ things are become new."
11. Psalm 103:12 our ____________________ from us.""As far as the ________ is from the___________ , so far hath he removed
12. Ephesians 2:10 "For we are his______________________, created in Christ Jesus unto ______________ works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Betrayal Barrier

Betrayal is a hard pill to swallow. This is medicine that satan can use to further his agenda. This kind of medicine can poison the soul and destroy relationships.

I have a few questions I would like you to think about.
* Has a friend or a member of your family ever betrayed you?

• How did it make you feel?

• How did you respond to the situation?

• Did you lash out at the person or did you hold the anger inside and let it fester resentment?

• At any point did revenge ever enter your mind?

It is easy to respond with anger and resentment in these situations. But what kind of response should we have as Christians? The ideal and the thing we should do is to respond with kindness out of love but this is easier said than done.

There were many people in the Bible that experienced the betrayal barrier in their lives, even God Himself.

Lucifer betrayed God along with one third of the angels, and then Adam and Eve betrayed Him. And don’t forget the scores of people all through the ages that have betrayed Him also.

Joseph’s brothers and then Potiphar’s wife betrayed Joseph

King David was betrayed by his son Absalom.

Paul was betrayed by John, also called Mark, and on and on it goes.

What was the ultimate betrayal? It was when Judas betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. Now don’t forget the multitudes that have followed after Judas down through the years that also betrayed Jesus.

After it was all said and done what was Jesus’ response? "Father forgive them for they know not what they do."

Being betrayed by anyone is a horrible thing to experience. It is not easy to forget and it is even harder to forgive. Being betrayed by someone you love, someone you have prayed for, someone that is in your family, or a fellow believer is even harder. Think of who Jesus was betrayed by, some were fellow Jews and some were those that He grew up with. There were many types of people who betrayed Jesus and some were very religious people.

I have personally felt betrayed by many people down through the years ~ some in the church and some out of the church. One thing I have learned over the years is that it doesn’t matter who the person is or what their title is they may betray you someday.

Question: have you ever betrayed someone? Maybe you shared something that a friend asked you not to share with anyone else. Maybe out of anger you said unkind things that you wish you never said. Maybe you have acted like a friend to someone just to take advantage of that person.

Have you ever lied intentionally about someone just to cause trouble for that person? Or maybe you just wanted to make yourself look good so you ran your mouth about someone, hurting their reputation.

All these things and more would cause someone to feel betrayed

If you are guilty of any of these things then you need to be forgiven also and it should make it easier for you to forgive someone else. If we live long enough we will all need to be forgiven and we will all need to forgive? If Jesus was willing to forgive us when we betrayed Him then we need to be willing to forgive when we have felt betrayed. If you don’t think you are guilty of betraying Jesus then you are only fooling yourself. We have all betrayed Jesus because of the sin in our lives. So let’s let Jesus be our example and let’s get in the habit of always forgiving others. Then we will be pleasing God and receive His blessings and we will be set free. Praise the Lord.

If you are reading this message and would like to have a personal relationship with Jesus and have your sins forgiven you might want to repeat this prayer.  Heavenly Father I am guilty of sin and I would like to be forgiven. I am truly sorry for my sins and I am trusting you to cleanse me and wash me whiter than snow through the blood of Jesus, your precious Son. Please take over my life and change me into your image and likeness and I thank you for doing this. I pray these things in Jesus precious name, amen.

If you truly are sorry and are serious, then welcome to the family of God. Now go and find a Bible teaching church and get a Bible and start reading it. You might want to pray before you start reading and ask the Lord to allow His precious Holy Spirit to teach you and bring all the things back to your remembrance whatsoever Jesus teaches you. And don’t forget to thank and praise God for helping you.

May God bless you!
　

It Will Be Worth It All When We See Jesus

There is a song that goes something like this
          "It Will Be Worth It All When We See Jesus"

When I think about my walk with the Lord over the years:
--I think of how the Lord has blessed me and my family many times.
--I can think of miraculous things the Lord has done in my life.
--I can think of prayers that have been answered and times that were so special  that I can’t explain the joy I experienced.

It has been quite an emotional experience also and some of it has been very hard.

I think walking with the Lord can be sort of like a merry go round, sometimes you feel like you are up and everything is going great and other times you feel like you are down and you don’t know if you will ever get back up again.  Depending on your situation and your circumstances your emotions seem to be out of control.
Many people are controlled by their emotions so their faith and their Christian walk seem to be controlled by the way they feel at any given time.

The Word says that we will have problems even tribulations and even be persecuted, there will be tests and trials. Jesus never promised it would be easy, in fact He said He didn’t come to bring peace but a sword and the members of one’s family would be against each other.

How should we respond when we are faced with all kinds of disappointments, troubles, temptations, tests and trials? James 1: verses 2 - 4 says, "My brethren count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations (which means various trials). Knowing this that the trying of your faith worketh or develops patience. But let patience have her perfect work that ye may be perfect and entire wanting nothing which means being complete, mature and finished lacking nothing." Our problem is too many times we see trials or tests as a hindrance, but God sees them as a learning tool. No matter what we experience (temptations, tribulation, tests or problems or trials) if we have the right attitude we can learn and grow from them.

There are three ways we can handle these things:
1. We can despise them by getting bitter angry and resentful and live a secluded life
2. We can faint under them by just giving up and throwing in the towel, so to speak, and just drop out of the faith completely.
3. We can learn from them by allowing God to teach us and to have His perfect will accomplished in our lives, we have the choice.

Or we could commit all these things to God knowing that He works all things out together for our good if we love Him and allow Him to.  In the end we will know that it was worth it all.

There was a man in the Bible that experienced more problems and trials and temptations and was also tested more than we may ever have to face and he never gave up.

Can anyone guess who I am talking about? Remember Job and what he went through?

Job was quite a remarkable man, a real man of faith and a man that loved and honored and feared God.  Job was very rich and influential and he was very faithful to God.  God had blessed him and his family abundantly and put a hedge of protection around him and all he owned.  The Bible says he was blameless and upright and he feared God.

Let’s read about his two tests that the Lord allowed him to go through and how he responded to them and what he learned and how God blessed him in the end.
Turn to Job chapter 1 and chapter 2
Now let’s read about how God blessed him. Job 42: 1 – 6.

I think when it was all said and done Job could say that it was worth it all.

So whatever a believer is facing today it isn’t a shock or surprise to God, He knows all about it.  So whatever it is God is allowing you to face it is for a good reason.  The Bible says, "all things work together for good to those who love God to those who are the called according to his purpose."  There isn’t a Christian alive that doesn’t have to carry his "cross."  A cross always represents pain and a cross can represent many kinds of things. It’s not what the cross represents that counts, it is how you carry the cross that counts. When Job carried his cross he did it with praise and thanksgiving. I don’t know anyone outside of the Lord himself that has faced any more than Job did.

It may be good to use Job’s example when we face trials and tribulations. Just like Jesus and Job and many others overcame their situations, the Lord will be faithful to help us overcome ours. Praise God! Remember, in the end it will be worth it all.

Think of the words of the chorus of this song:
"It will be worth it all when we see Jesus our problems will seem so small when we see Christ. One look at His dear face all sorrows will be erased so come and run the race till we see Christ."

Look this song up on the computer and sing it and I think it will encourage you, at least I hope it will. Praise God!

From Darkness to Light

Question: if you could see the way God sees when He looks at a "Born Again Believer" who has been washed and cleansed by the precious blood of Jesus, what is the first thing that you would see? I think you would see righteousness, holiness, purity and the Blood of Jesus. I don’t believe that anyone will see or get to Heaven without the blood of Jesus being applied to his or her life.

It seems that people think and teach that you can get to Heaven many different ways. This statement is a lie; nothing can be farther from the truth. Read what Jesus said in John 14 verse 6, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." So don’t be deceived there is no other way to get to God or to have a relationship with God or get into Heaven except through Jesus Christ. If there was another way, then Jesus suffered for nothing.
Think about this: if that is true Jesus was beat, whipped, spat on, hated, rejected, crucified, died and was buried for no reason. There are many that have been deceived into this way of thinking. Only the "walking dead" believe these things about Jesus.

Let me say this, I am not a Bible scholar and I never went to Bible college but I think I am in good company. None of Jesus’ disciples did either and some of them wrote parts of the Bible, in fact none of the men that wrote the Bible went to Bible College although some were well educated. Before anyone gets all bent out of shape when they read this, I have nothing against Bible College or Bible teachers if they are born-again and they teach the truth. But I believe the Holy Spirit is the true teacher and He resides in every born-again believer. The one that seeks Him and studies the Bible diligently, the Holy Spirit will teach and will bring all things back to their remembrance whatsoever the Holy Spirit has taught them. Praise God!

Getting back to my topic, the reason I said the "walking dead" is because everyone that isn’t born-again is spiritually dead according to God’s word. There are people that say they believe in God so they are going to go to Heaven but they live like the devil all week, be careful, St. Paul said to examine yourself to see if you are in the faith. He also said to work out your salvation in faith with fear and trembling. Think of this, the devil and the demons believe in God also, but I guarantee you that you won’t find them in Heaven.

It takes more than head knowledge and being emotionally stirred to get to heaven you have to be born-again, no ands, ifs or buts about it. When Jesus was here He was both God and man. The reason I say this is that the Bible verifies it. In John chapter 1:1--3 it says, "In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God, He was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him and without Him was not anything made that was made." John 1: 14 says, "And the word became flesh and dwelt among us." Who was the word? Jesus, also check out John 14: verses 7 – 11.

Today it seems like there is a famine of the Word and I don’t mean there is a shortage of pastors or teachers, what I mean is there is a shortage of the true gospel preached or taught. Entertainment and half-truths seem to be on the menu in many pulpits. It seems like being people friendly is the goal instead of the true gospel. Thank God there are still some pastors and teachers that make the Truth their priority. We live in uncertain times and people need to hear the Truth. You can spend all kinds of money on sound systems, on programs and saving all kinds of money in your church accounts to make your church more user friendly. You can even be the most popular pastor or teacher there is, but if you don’t teach the whole Truth, you will be held accountable in the end and you will miss out on many blessings while you are here. The Bible says, "unless the Lord build the house ye labor in vain that build it."

It seems that the poverty stricken countries of the world are experiencing God’s miracles and blessings more than we are. And this might come as a shock, they don’t have buildings that cost millions and many don’t have air conditioners and thousands of dollars in sound equipment and millions in their coffers, how can this be? Because they are not all cluttered up with outward appearance, their faith and their trust are in the Lord and not on what they can accomplish by their own means. The conviction of the Holy Spirit is what is important to them and not how they can stir people up by preying on their emotions. Only when the Truth is heard will people be changed. Only when the Holy Spirit convicts will hearts be broken and weeping over their sins will take place.

What the church needs is the fear of the Lord and godly sorrow and not all the trappings that man devises! When we stop trying to entertain people and lulling people to sleep with half truths, entertainment and user friendly teachings then the church will regain its power and souls will be converted and the captives will be set free. The sick will be healed and the lame will walk and blind eyes will be opened. If Jesus will be lifted up then multitudes will be ushered into the kingdom. Praise God! Then those who walk in darkness will see a great light and that light is Jesus for He is the light of the world.

Oh how we need a revival in the church so that we as God’s children will truly repent and turn away from sin. Then we will be an army to be reckoned with. God said, "if my people who call themselves by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I shall hear from Heaven and forgive their sins and heal their land." Praise God!

It would be good if we all started praying for revival. Then stop depending on "us" and get back to depending on the Lord and preaching the true gospel. Putting the Lord first is the main thing and then getting out of the way and letting Him build His house. He can do all things and if He needs to He can do it without our help. Praise God! He still wants to use faithful people so let’s not put barriers in His way by trying to further His kingdom in our strength and means. Let’s walk in His Spirit and not gratify the desires of the flesh, then God will accomplish His purpose. Praise God!

Silent Scream

I want to talk to you about a subject that I think affects many people.

Let me share my version of a story with you that I heard awhile ago. There was a Priest who was a young man without much experience in the Priesthood. The day had come for him to give his first sermon and the older Priests were worried about how he would do and what he would say. The young Priest had a nice aquarium and some beautiful fish that he enjoyed and took great care of. When he wanted to relax he probably sat in front of the fish tank and watched his fish swim lazily around the tank. The morning he was going to give his first sermon he got up and started to prepare for the day ahead of him. At one point he went over to check on his fish and he was startled to see that all his fish had died. Then he realized that the heater was turned up so high that it killed every one of his fish. Needless to say he was very sad. As he looked closely at his fish he noticed that they were all swelled up and they looked scared, as if they had a silent scream on their faces. Then he went to church and stood before all the people and the older Priests sort of held their breath wondering what he would say. He started out telling the congregation what had happened to his fish. Then he asked a question that probably took everyone by surprise. His question and my question to all of you who read this is similar. How many of you are silently screaming inside about something that you feel you can’t share with anyone else?

As we live life there are many things that happen over the years that we feel like no one would understand. Maybe you tried to share these things with someone and all you got was condemnation and judgment, so you carry the guilt and shame around living a miserable existence. Maybe you feel these things are so personal that you can’t share them.

Maybe you were in the service and were responsible for taking others’ lives and you can’t forgive yourself.

Maybe you have had an abortion or maybe more than one and your guilt is so overwhelming that you are screaming inside and you don’t dare to share it with anyone.

You may have been a pimp or a prostitute or possibly in the gay lifestyle and you would like to be set free but you are afraid to tell anyone.

You may have committed so many crimes that you are feeling overwhelmed by them and the guilt is tearing you apart.

You may have been divorced in the past or you may have lost a loved one that you can’t get over.

There are so many things and reasons why you may be screaming inside that you feel you will never be set free.  I am not going to tell you that there aren’t any consequences for some of these things because there are.  But I am here to tell you that none of these things are the unpardonable sin and you can be forgiven and set free.

I want to share something that happened to me while living a Christian life.  I am only sharing this with you in hopes that the Lord will use it to help you in your pain, suffering and guilt and I hope you will let Him.

First let me tell you that God is not only willing but He wants to set you free because He loves you and He understands what you are going through.  If you read my testimony you know a little about me.  What I am going to share is something that happened after I had committed my life to the Lord.  At the time I was very excited about what had happened to me and I wasn’t shy about sharing what had happened and in fact I did it quite often and I am still sharing, Praise God! It seemed like I was studying the Word most of the time like I just couldn’t get enough of it.  My relationship to God was very close and it seemed that I was talking to God most of the time and He was blessing my family and me tremendously. But as time went on I started thinking about some of the things I had done in my past and I was feeling very guilty about them. Like I said earlier I was reading the Bible quite often and the Lord was teaching me many things. Then a problem began to take place, as I continued to read I came across things that started to scare me because of the guilt I had over some past experiences.

Because of losing relationships, it seemed like everything I had at that time that really mattered to me I wasn’t capable of loving because it was like part of my heart was missing. I never knew what real love was at the time, and to be honest, I still struggle with it because I hear about it far more than I ever experience it. Think about this; saying you love someone doesn’t prove anything if all it is, is just words. This has been my experience over the years but it may not be yours and I hope it isn’t.

As time went on, I started to feel like God didn’t love me either and I went into a deep depression. I know now that satan was trying to destroy my relationship with God, but I didn’t know it at the time and I was totally devastated. My life became a nightmare; I lost all my confidence and felt like I didn’t want to do anything. I remember sitting down to eat and I would break down and cry.  As time went on I felt like what, I think, Cain felt like after he had killed his brother Abel and was banished from God’s presence and had a mark put on him. This happened in the Bible in the book of Genesis. He then became a wanderer and an outcast, being separated from man and God. I felt that the worst thing that could happen to me had happened, I was separated from God and I would never be able to get back to Him.

I had a tremor at the time and I also had severe asthma. Between the tremor and the asthma medicine, I had to take quite often, I was shaking quite a bit.  As time went on I was shaking much more between the tremor, the asthma and the depression and I was going down hill fast. This went on for about twelve to fourteen years which seemed like a lifetime. All the time this was going on I never went to see a doctor but I did press into God seeking Him in prayer more than I think I had ever done before. And believe me I have spent many hours with the Lord over the years and I still do, I am not bragging just stating a fact. Not many people knew I was going through this because I kept it more to myself and some pastors and a few friends at the time. These people prayed for me but nothing seemed to happen and I was scared and miserable.

All during this time period my wife and I were teaching Sunday school and going to church. It seemed like I would go into church feeling horrible and I would come out, after hearing the sermon, feeling like a train had run over me, but it didn’t stop me from going.

I remember one Sunday after teaching Sunday school going to see a friend of mine in his Sunday school class. While I was there I met the man that God would use to help deliver me from this terrible situation I was in, Praise God!  This man’s name was Dan Comfort and he was a super nice guy.  If I remember right, he came to my house at least once a week for two years and demonstrated and shared with me how much the Lord loved me unconditionally. This man didn’t just talk about love, he showed it by his actions. He lived around thirty miles from where I lived but he was faithful to what he felt was his calling, thank the Lord. This man knew what love was and I have met very few like him since.

Now I would be amiss if I didn’t mention a wonderful lady that helped me see what I call unconditional love. You might say that no human can express this kind of love and I won’t argue with you about that. But I have experienced what I would call unconditional love for many years. This lady has something that many women will never possess. I have known this lady for about thirty-five years. During my "freaky" years in the world we partied together, she knew me in times of anger and rage when I would smash things and rant and rave and throw fits. Many times I would be out of control.  She was there when I would park my motorcycle in our front room in front of my television set.  She was with me during the years of my smoking, drinking, popping pills and marijuana use. When this lady said she loved me, she meant it.  She has been with me in my worst years and my better years and she loved me through them all.  When she married me I didn’t even love her but she loved me. How could I love her when I didn’t even know what love was.  I can remember times that I am ashamed of when I hurt her feelings but she still loved me and never held anything against me.  She has never had to have the last word in an argument, trying to be the winner in an argument never interested her.  Have you ever tried to argue with a wall? You will never win even if you do get the last word in! It is very hard to argue with someone that doesn’t argue with you. And let me throw this in, she has never tried to change me by ranting, raving and complaining like so many people do after they get married. She has always left the changing to the Lord, she knows He is the only answer and the only one that can change me if I allow it to happen. I am not trying to say my wife is perfect, there are a few things I would like to change about her, but I will leave that to the Lord. I think my wife treats me like a king and she treats everyone else with respect. She is a very godly woman and I am so blessed to have her and I do love her very much. She has been a wonderful wife, mother and grandmother and a friend and all my kids will vouch for that.  When I first met my wife I thought she was beautiful, she was twenty-three at the time.  She may not be as beautiful on the outside now but she is more beautiful on the inside.  One thing my wife has that I wish every woman had, and that is a sweet and gentle spirit, which is far more important than being beautiful on the outside. All the beauty in the world means nothing if you are ugly on the inside. The Lord showed me, through my wife, that He could love unconditionally and that He loves me that way, Praise God!

I have said all this to let you know that I was delivered from my depression and you can be to. God is no respecter of men, He treats all of us equal. The Lord said, "if you seek me with all your heart, you will find me." The good Lord uses many different ways to set people free, for me it was prayer, Dan and my wife, for you He may use something altogether different.

One thing I do know, the devil is here to kill, steal and destroy holding in bondage everyone he can. But the Lord has come to set the captive free, to heal the sick, to open blind eyes and to even raise the dead and to proclaim the wonderful year of the Lord. So there is always hope as long as you are willing to seek Him.
And let me say this, the Lord is not shocked by your circumstances or your sin He knows all about it. I think the thing that bothers Him the most is when you won’t confess your sin and repent and receive His love and forgiveness. He wants you to trust Him to set you free. If you confess that you are a sinner and then ask Him to forgive your sins and tell Him that you are in need of his grace and forgiveness and then ask Him to be Lord of your life and you truly repent, it will happen. The Lord is not willing that anyone be lost but that all will come to repent. Jesus suffered terribly for our sins, shedding His blood so that we could be forgiven and set free of sin and guilt. Please let the Lord set you free and let Him turn that silent scream into laughter. Let these words come true in your life "weeping comes in the night but joy comes in the morning" Praise God! Let the Lord heal the years that the locust have eaten up and receive the joy of the Lord that surpasses all understanding. May God bless you.