Walk Boldly With Jesus

Come As You Are Series - The Man With Leprosy

Matthew 8:1-4 “When Jesus had come down from the mountain, great crowds followed him; and there was a leper  who came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean.”  He stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I do choose. Be made clean!” Immediately, his leprosy was cleansed.  Then Jesus said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”

This story of the man with leprosy is an excellent example of someone brave enough to come to the Lord, despite the religious and social laws that forbade him from doing so. Back when Jesus walked the earth, “The person with such an infectious disease must wear torn clothes, let his hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of his face, and cry out, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’... He must live alone; he must live outside the camp.” (Leviticus 13:45–46) While it wasn’t a civil crime to be around people, it was a religious and social violation that carried serious consequences — it cut you off from worship, fellowship, and daily community life.

This man would have known the consequences of coming up to Jesus and talking with Him. He would have known it was forbidden, and yet he was willing to risk it all for the chance that Jesus might heal him. Can we be that brave? Can we approach Jesus with all of our baggage, with the chance that He might be able to heal us, too? What if Jesus could heal your heartache? What if Jesus could heal all of your physical ailments? What if you didn't have to keep feeling whatever you are feeling?

Life doesn’t have to get worse before you come to the Lord. Life doesn’t have to get better before you come to the Lord. This man came to Jesus just as he was. He knew he shouldn’t. He knew he wasn’t good enough to go up to Jesus and ask for anything.  He knew he could get in trouble for asking Jesus for anything. And yet, he knew he needed Jesus to make him clean. He was willing to take the chance that Jesus could change his whole life. And guess what? Jesus did! He will do the same for you if you ask Him.

The man said to Jesus, “Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean.” He was showing Jesus that he knew how powerful he was. He was trusting in Jesus’s ability. He had the faith he needed to ask Jesus to heal him. Do you remember what Jesus said? He said, “I do choose. Be made clean!” Jesus will say the same for you. He wants all of us to be clean. He wants all of us to be healed and whole. He wants all of us to come to Him and let Him help change us. Can we do that? Can we be brave and ask Jesus?

Perhaps some of our hesitation to ask Jesus is that He might say no. I mean, the man with leprosy said, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” What if Jesus doesn’t choose to? What if we ask and He says no, what then? Asking Jesus for a healing takes a level of vulnerability that isn’t always easy, especially if others have hurt us in the past. If we feel we aren’t worthy, then it makes sense we would be nervous to go and ask Jesus for help. What if He says no, and then we are embarrassed that we even asked in the first place?

I used to be someone who hated to ask for something unless I knew the answer was yes. I had a somewhat irrational fear of being told no. I would refuse to return things to the store if they didn’t fit me or if I didn’t like them. I would always have Tony do it because I would be afraid they might tell me no, and I would feel stupid for even asking. I would be afraid to go up and ask if my kids could exchange their Happy Meal toy for another one, because what if they said no? It affected so many parts of my life, and yet I just couldn’t do it. It’s one of those things where you have a fear, and then shame about that fear, and then it just adds up.

For instance, I would want to just go ask if my kids could exchange their toys, but I was afraid they would say no, and then I would feel embarrassed. Then I would probably start to cry because that is what I do when I am nervous or when I feel embarrassed. Then I would feel even worse because I would be crying for no reason, and so I would cry even more. Then I would also feel bad because my kids really wanted the other toy, and I just couldn’t go up and ask.

Eventually, I learned to just ask. It is not a big deal if they say no. You just say, Ok, thanks anyway. I didn’t cry when they said no. I didn’t feel stupid when they said no. Actually, I doubt anyone ever said no. Who cares which toy the kids have? It is very rare that anyone at a store will say you can’t return something. So, most of my fears were not really necessary. Yet, they were very real and kept me from things that I would have liked to do.

I get why it might be hard for you to come to the Lord as you are, especially if you fear rejection. I want to assure you that the Lord is different than anyone you have met in this world. He doesn’t reject His children. He welcomes us with open arms anytime we turn back to Him. You might think you are different because you have turned away from him or turned your back on him too many times to count. It’s okay, he still loves you and is still waiting with open arms for you to come back to him.

What I love about this story of the man with leprosy is that leprosy is contagious. That is why those who had it needed to be separate from the community. However, when the man encountered Jesus, instead of the leprosy infecting Jesus, Jesus made the man clean. The good in Jesus, His love, peace, and healing touch, can make you clean too. All you have to do is be around Jesus, and you start to become like Him. He is infectious in all the good ways. His peace, love, and joy spread to all those around Him. When you are in His presence, you can’t help but start to feel all those things.

I understand that it is hard to come to Jesus like we are and ask Him for anything. We feel unworthy and unclean. Yet, it is worth the risk. Think about the outcome. In business, they always talk about your ROI (return on investment). If you can be brave and step out and come to the Lord just as you are, the return on that investment of trust is paid back a million times over. That first step of trust is hard, and there may be other times in your life when it is hard. Unfortunately, God doesn’t promise us an easy and stress-free life. He does promise us that He will always be there for us and that He will protect us and deliver us from our problems. He does promise us eternal life and all the provisions and strength we need to get through this life. He promises to use all things for our good. He promises so many things. We just have to be willing to take that first step and invite Him into this mess that we call our life. Can you be brave today? Can you ask the Lord into your life, even if you are afraid he might not come? I promise He will not reject you.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless each person listening to this episode. Lord, we love you and we want to come to you as we are. We want to be brave like this man with leprosy and just walk up to you and ask you to make us clean. Lord, help us to trust that we can come to you and that you will not reject us. Please help us to believe the truth that you are always ready to welcome us back with open arms.  Help us come to you Lord! We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen!!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. If you have not checked out my book yet, CLICK HERE! If you would like a signed copy, please reach out to me, and I will be happy to sign a copy and mail it to you. I look forward to meeting you all here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in June 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email [email protected]. Today’s Word from the Lord is, a vision “In every room, in every house, wherever you're sitting, you are filled to the capacity with angels. You are surrounded. Ceiling, floor, round, and round, as well as this room. As we were singing in tongues, as we were praising, they were marching in to surround us. And they were praising the Lord with us.”

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Come As You Are Series - The Broken Ones Are Beautiful Too!

Romans 7:19-20 Paul said, “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me.”

God knows we are broken. He knows we struggle. He doesn’t get disappointed. Instead, He celebrates every time we don’t give in to temptation. Every time we mess up, we can bring that to God with the assurance that He welcomes us with open arms and celebrates because we came home instead of being upset we messed up.

We live in an age where social media lets us see what everyone is doing. Social media has many benefits. I get to see photos of friends I haven’t talked to in years. We can notify everyone with one post about the biggest things in our lives. We get to post all the amazing things happening in our lives. It also has downsides, and one of them is that people tend to post all the amazing things and leave out all the bad stuff. Which in itself isn’t bad. I mean, who wants to read about negative things? However, when we see all the good and none of the bad, our brain tells us stories about how everyone else has it all together. Everyone else can do all the things, so why can’t we? Why are we struggling when no one else is? Our mind starts to play the comparison game. Comparison is the thief of joy. We can go on Facebook for 20 minutes, then feel terrible, and we can’t figure out why. It’s because we compare ourselves to others and decide everyone else has so much more than we do, they are so much further along than we are, they are happier than we are, and so on. We may not even realize we are doing it. Do you ever notice your mood change after spending time on social media? That could be why.

We can do the same thing when we look at the various saints or we look at the people of the Bible. We can look at how God used them and get discouraged. We can tell ourselves He will never use us like He used them. We put them on a pedestal and assume that they were so holy, which is why God used them. We look at all they did for God and are sure they were much holier than we are. We tell ourselves they had it all together; they must have said their prayers perfectly, always worshiped God, and were always perfect. We do this with people we see in church, too. We see the Deacon, the Priest, the minister, and his wife; we think they must be so holy. They must not have the struggles that we have. Let me tell you a little secret: they struggle just like we do. No one is exempt from struggling. No one has this life figured out.

I found an article titled' The Bible Heroes Who ‘Failed Forward’ by Greg Laurie. I just want to read you the beginning part, as it shows us that these people came just as they were. They didn’t change before God used them. God knew who they were, and he chose them anyway.

Pastor Levi Lusko tells the story of collecting shells on the beach with his daughter Clover. Levi was looking for the nice shells that were in good condition. Meanwhile, Clover was picking up all the broken shells.

When her little hands couldn’t hold any more shells, she turned to her father and said, “Daddy, the broken ones are beautiful too.”

I think God sees things the same way.

The New Testament book of Hebrews includes a collection of great heroes of the faith, men and women whom God used and blessed. I find that interesting because these people messed up. They weren’t perfect examples.

But the funny thing is that chapter 11 of Hebrews mentions only their victories and not their mistakes. That is because God sees what we will become, not necessarily what we are.

In fact, a lot of people we read about in the Bible messed up. Abraham, the father of faith and of the Jewish people, lied about his wife twice. His son Isaac did the same thing. Sarah, Abraham’s wife, laughed at the promise of God and then denied that she laughed.

Jacob lied and connived. Noah got drunk. Samson was immoral. Gideon was fearful. Rahab was a prostitute. David had an affair and then had someone murdered to cover it up. Elijah was deeply depressed and didn’t want to live. And Jonah ran from God. The disciples fell asleep when they should have been praying, and Simon Peter openly denied the Lord. Then there was Moses, who killed a guy.”

This article shows us that these amazing people in the Bible weren’t perfect. Could God have selected perfect people to do these things? Yes, absolutely. He is God. He can do whatever He wants. Yet He didn’t. He chose people who had made mistakes. He chose people who had done things that we might think are unforgivable. He chose people who probably didn’t feel up to the task. He chose people who failed more than once. Do you know what these people all had in common? They said yes. Not all of them said yes the first time they were asked, but God wouldn’t have used them if they didn’t cooperate with Him. I love that Greg said in his article that God sees what we will become, not necessarily what we are.

The same is true for you. If you want God to use you, all you need to do is say yes. There is a song I love titled Nobody by Casting Crowns. The lyrics confirm that God uses the unlikeliest of people to do the most amazing things. God isn’t looking for perfect people. Just like we talked about in previous devotionals in this series. Jesus didn’t come for the righteous; they do not need a savior. God is looking for ordinary people to do extraordinary things. The song starts out:

Why You ever chose me

Has always been a mystery

All my life I've been told I belong

At the end of the line

With all the other not-quites

With all the never-get-it-rights

But it turns out they're the ones You were looking for All this time

Is this you? Have you always been on the outside looking in? Have you always been told you wouldn’t amount to anything? Have you always struggled to feel worthy or part of the crowd? Have you always felt different or less than? Have you been told you are either not enough or too much? Have you been told no one would ever love you? Well guess what? You are the one God has been looking for all this time.

The song goes on to say:

'Cause I'm just a nobody

Trying to tell everybody

All about Somebody

Who saved my soul

Ever since You rescued me

You gave my heart a song to sing

I'm living for the world to see

Nobody but Jesus

This is great because it says, I’m living for the world to see nobody but Jesus. Would you relate as much to those in the Bible if they were all perfect? If they were perfect from birth and never made the wrong choice? I know that is how we see them in our eyes. Yet, when we learn they weren’t perfect, don’t we feel better? Isn’t it somehow comforting to know they aren’t perfect? If God only used perfect people, then we might say, Of course, they could do that; they were perfect. However, when we hear about some ordinary person doing something extraordinary, we know it had to have been God. No one is looking at the ordinary little shepherd boy, David, and saying that He killed Goliath because he is just that good and he is that strong. It is clear that God was with Him, and He could only kill the giant because He was with him. The song points out people that God chose and why they probably wouldn’t have been our first choice.

Moses had stage fright

When David brought a rock to a sword fight

You picked twelve outsiders nobody would have chosen

And You changed the world

Well the moral of the story is

Everybody's got a purpose

So when I hear that devil start talking to me saying

"Who do you think you are?” I say

I'm just a nobody

Trying to tell everybody

All about Somebody

Who saved my soul

I want you to remember this when the devil starts talking in your ear, too, because he will. I am not even talking about if you have some big mission for God. Even if you try to come to God in prayer, the devil will get in your ear and ask, “Who do you think you are?” “Why would God want to hear from you? Remember that thing you did last week? Do you think he will ever forgive you for that?” “God has more important people to talk to.” “God has better things to do than to listen to you complain about the same pain you have been complaining about all month.” The enemy can be relentless. When this happens, not if, but when, you need to be armed with truth. That is what this series is all about. During this devotional series, we have been finding the truth in the scriptures, in songs, and in the lives of those who came before us. My prayer is that by the end of this series, we will be so confident in our ability to go to the Lord just as we are when the enemy asks us, “Who do you think you are?” We will be able to say I am a child of God. I am a son or daughter of the one true king. I am worthy because Christ died on that cross for me. I can come to God just as I am because of God’s mercy and grace. God doesn’t want me to wait till I am perfect to come to Him. He wants me to go right now, right where I am. I know you might not be there yet, but we are done with this series yet!

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those who are listening. Lord, I ask you to show us how wonderful we are in your eyes. Please help us to really believe that you want us to come to you just as we are. We love you, Lord, and we want to believe it! We want to believe you love us even though we are deeply flawed. We want to believe you love us even though we sin. Please help us Lord! We ask all of this in accordance with Your Will and In Jesus’s Holy Name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. We are coming to the end of this Come As You Are series. If you have an idea of a topic you would like me to cover next, please reach out and let me know. Also, please check out my book; it is on Amazon right now. Walk Boldly With Jesus Devotional: Who I Am: Discovering God’s Truth About Me. If you do get the book, I would be really appreciative if you could leave a review on Amazon. It doesn’t have to be long, and it doesn’t have to be glowing. Just leave an honest review, even if it’s just one sentence; it will be helpful. I need to have a certain number of reviews before I can run ads, and that would help more people find the book. I look forward to meeting you here again on Monday. Remember Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed weekend.

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in June 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email [email protected]. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “I saw their ways, but I will heal them and lead them. I will give comfort to those who mourn for them. I, the creator, who gave them life, peace to the far and to the near, says the Lord, and I will heal you.”

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Come As You Are Series - Your Sin Did Not Cause Your Illness

John 9:1-3 "As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”  Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.”

Another reason we might struggle to come to the Lord is that we think our sickness is somehow a punishment for something that we did. We were awful teenagers, so God is repaying us with this chronic pain that we have. We think that our sins from the past are catching up to us, and that is why we got cancer or why our child is sick now, why our loved one is sick. If we look to the Bible, Jesus addresses this for us in today’s verse.

You are not sick because of your sins or because God is punishing you? What if you are sick so that God’s works might be revealed in you? What if God is going to use this illness for something amazing? God did not cause you to be sick. God does not cause illness. God is a healer, it says so in Exodus 15:26, which says, “He said, “If you listen carefully to the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you.” However, God can use your illness for all kinds of reasons.  

I heard a story in a book written by Heidi Baker and her husband. They were trying to heal a man from the Middle East. I can’t remember where exactly she said he was from. Her friends asked them to come because they had had great success in praying over people and having them be healed. The man whom they were praying for was muslim, and so were all of his family members. Heidi and her husband thought that the man would be healed when they prayed over him, and it would be a lot of Glory for God because all those in the room would see him healed and know it was God who did it. They prayed and they prayed, but the man was not healed. They had a trip planned, so they had to leave. However, when they got back, they heard that the man was still alive. They went to visit him, and this time he had twice as many people to visit him because they were sure he was going to die. So all his relatives came, even those from out of town. Their friends asked them to come and pray one more time. So then they prayed over him again, and this time he was healed, and all of his family members became Christians. God used his illness, and he healed him, but he healed him in his timing, not our timing, not like when we thought he would have healed him. And so the same can be true for us.

Another saint who had to deal with a lot of illness was St. Teresa of Lisieux, who is another doctor of the church. And yet she died at age 24. She had tuberculosis. Again, she was very dedicated to the Lord. She loved Jesus. She spent so much time in prayer, and she really wanted to be a missionary. That was her goal. That was her dream for how she thought God would use her to take her all over the world to spread the love of God. And yet she never got to go anywhere because she was so sickly.

And yet she is the patron saint of missionaries because she prayed for all the missionaries who were there. And her writings and her work are now spread throughout the whole church. So even though she wasn't able to go herself and spread the word, God used her, even with her illness, to become a doctor of the church and to spread the word of the Lord.

I just want to encourage all of you that if you're thinking that you can't come to the Lord because you have too much sin, or you're thinking you're sick because of something you did, or you're thinking that God can't use you because of what you've done or because of your illness, I just want to assure you that none of that is true. You're not sick because of your sins. You're not counted out because of anything you've done. God still wants to use you. And all the sins or the illness that you feel have discounted you, God could use them for good. Don’t give up on your hopes and dreams. Don’t let anyone tell you they won’t happen. You have a miraculous God who can make anything happen. Just keep bringing it to the Lord! Just keep coming to the Lord, and He will be there for you!

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to the episode. Lord, you are the almighty one. I ask that you help us realize we are not the cause of our illness. I ask you to help us know that you are not punishing us. Our illness is not from you and is not because of our actions. Help us to know how loved and wanted we are, just as we are. Help us to know how much you truly love us! We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I am sorry I didn’t bring you an episode at the beginning of this week. I was in Ecuador. I got back very late Tuesday night. I look forward to sharing about the trip with you next Wednesday. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in June 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email [email protected]. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “Build up, prepare the way. Remove the stumbling blocks from my people's path. For thus says He who is high and exalted, living eternally, whose name is the Holy One, on high. Indwell in holiness, and with the crushed and the dejected in spirit, to revive the spirits of the dejected, to revive the hearts of the crushed.”

CLICK HERE ✨ JOIN WALK BOLDLY WITH JESUS MENTORING (Live Tuesdays + recordings available — $30/month)

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Are We Underestimating Praise?

2 Chronicles 20:21-22 "After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying: “Give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures forever.”As they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated.”

In this chapter of Chronicles, God’s people have armies coming to attack them from three different places.  Things were not looking good.  Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel son of Zechariah as he stood in the assembly.  He told the king and all the people of Judah that they shouldn’t be afraid because they was not their fight, it was God’s fight.  He told them to march down against the invading armies, but that they would not have to fight the battle.  This is where the verse picks up.  “After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying: “Give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures forever.”

Jehoshaphat and his army were headed into what seemed like a hopeless battle.  There were three different armies waiting to destroy them and to take their land.  You would think they would have the soldiers lead them this battle.  Even if they trusted God, you would think just to be on the safe side you would have the soldiers go first.  However, King Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise Him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out to face the armies.  “As they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated.”

Did you catch that last part?  It doesn’t say once they started fighting the Lord gave them victory.  It doesn’t say their enemy was defeated by their mighty hand.  It says as they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against their enemy and they were defeated.  They didn’t even have to fight a single person.  They didn’t have to lift their hands at all in this fight, they just needed to lift up their voices.   Do you have enemies that you need defeated?  Are you praising God now while you are in the middle of it, or are you waiting until you get out of it?  I have known that praise is important for some time know.  I have even done other episodes on how important it is to praise through the storm, not just after it is over.  However, I didn’t know about this story.  I didn’t know about God destroying three armies with praise alone.  

Sometimes we are trying to fight our enemies on our own.  We know we need God and yet we ask Him for so much we feel we should try to do this one on our own.  Yet, instead of leading with praise we lead with anger, frustration, sadness, jealousy and whatever other emotions we are feeling in the moment.  Can you think of a time when you have charged into a situation with your emotions leading the way?  How did that work out for you?  For me, it never works out.  When I go into a situation on my own, without inviting the Lord to come with me, it never works out as I intended it to.  However, when I do think to praise the Lord while I am in the middle of a difficult situation, it always turns out well.  

There are times when we think God has abandoned us.  We are praying and it does not seem like He is with  us. Maybe we are the ones who have abandoned God.  We may be praying, but are we praying with a hopeful heart?  Are we trusting God will come through for us when we pray?  Are we praising God for all He does for us?  God is working in our lives every single day, are we praising Him for that?  I talk a lot about gratitude because I think it is so important to go through life being grateful for what we have.  I think when we are grateful with what we have God blesses us with more.  Being grateful is also a great way to shift our mood if we are feeling sad, or having a bad day.  Sometimes all it takes is a perspective switch and we can turn our whole day around.  

Praise is different from gratitude.  Sometimes we can be praising God for what we have and what He has done for us and yet praise is so much more than that.  We can also praise God fro who He is.  Sometimes we are in a situation where we may not want to or be able to praise God for the situation. For instance, in this verse God’s people were not praising God for the situation they were in.  They were not grateful they had three armies coming after them.  They were praising God for “the splendor of His Holiness.”  They were praising God for who He is.  He is the the Fountain of Life.  He is the great “I AM.”  He is the Just One and He is the King of kings.  He is the Lord of Lords and He is the Light of the world.  He is the Lord our God.  He is the Way, the Truth and the Life.  

How often are you praising God for simply being God?  How often are you spending time in prayer thanking and praising God for being everything you need Him to be?  Maybe the next time we are in a hard situation, instead of charging into the situation with our guns blazing, maybe we can lead with our praise.  Instead of leading with our anger, frustration, sadness, we can lead with our praise.  God is always there for us.  Let’s be there for Him.  Let’s give God the praise that He so rightly deserves.  The thought just came to me that not everyone knows how to praise God.  There is not specific way.  I love to listen to praise and worship music, which is really any Christian music.  I am also part of a prayer group and we praise outloud to the Lord thanking Him for all He has done and all he Is.  I say phrases such as those listed above, things such as, you are the Light of the World, You are the Word made flesh, You are the King of the Kings.  You can also think back to all you have and thank God for that one by one.  You can thank God for everyone He has brought into your life.  Praise is time spent with the Lord when you are either thanking Him for something or you are talking about all the reasons He is awesome!!  I challenge you to find some time in your day today and praise the Lord.  You can do it silently within your own heart, or you can shout if from the roof tops, and everything in between.  Whatever you feel comfortable with.  The more you praise the  more comfortable it will feel to you.  Also, the more you praise the more you will see God working in your life.  

Dear Heavenly Father I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, help us to praise you more.  Put praise for you on our hearts so we long to do it.  Give us a thirst for praising you Lord.  It is so amazing how you defeated Judah’s enemy when they started to praise you.  Lord, we have many enemies and we need you to defeat them.  Help us to praise you first instead of trying to fix it all our selves.  We love you Lord, you are so powerful.  You give Light to our lamps.  You straighten our crooked path.  You are always by our side and we am so grateful.  I ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you on Monday.  Remember, Jesus loves you and so do I!  Have a blessed weekend.

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Come As You Are Series - Can A Leopard Change Its Spots?

Jeremiah 13:23 “Can an Ethiopian change his skin or a leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil.”

What really struck me when I read this was kind of like an aha moment: we tell ourselves we can't come to God until we have it all together. And yet, we can't get it all together without him.

I think that's why the enemy tells us we don't need to go to God. We're not good enough to go to God. Wait a little while, get it all worked out, and then you can go to God. The enemy is putting this in our minds because he knows that on our own, we can't do anything.

But through Christ who strengthens us, we can do all things. It really struck me when I read that verse that, yeah, we can't change on our own. So why do we think we can't go to God until we have it all together, until we've figured it out, until we've perfected this or that? When we actually need him to help us, we need him to change our hearts, we need him to change our lives, we need him to show us the way.

As I talked about in one of the other devotionals, we need to attach our yoke to God and to Jesus and let them show us the way. All these scriptures are pointing out that we don't have to have it all together. We don't have to know how to pray. We don't have to pray perfectly before we come to God. God wants us to come to him as is, just as we are, and he will help us figure all the rest of it out. He will help make our struggle easier, but we have to come to him.

The Lord honors our free will. If we want to go at it alone, if we want to do this life on our own, God's going to let us, and that's because he loves us and because he wants us to love him, truly love him. And you can't have true love if you don't have a choice in it.

And so it's very important that we invite God into our struggles, that we invite God into our mess, that we come to God even when we're a mess, and we ask him to help us. Because if we don't invite him in, he's not coming in. He's going to let us do it on our own if that's what we think we want. He's not going to take away our free will.

There was an article I read about coming to God as you are, and they had this passage from “Steps to Christ,” and I want to share it with you. "With the rich promises of the Bible before you, can you give place to doubt? Can you believe that when the poor sinner longs to return, longs to forsake his sins, the Lord sternly withholds him from coming to His feet in repentance? Away with such thoughts! Nothing can hurt your own soul more than to entertain such a conception of our heavenly Father. He hates sin, but He loves the sinner, and He gave Himself in the person of Christ, that all who would might be saved and have eternal blessedness in the kingdom of glory. What stronger or more tender language could have been employed than He has chosen in which to express His love toward us? He declares, in Isaiah 49:15, “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!”

I want you to take a moment and think about your own children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, or friends' children. Think about any kids that you've ever been close to. What would you do if they came to you when they had just messed up, when they had done something really bad? Would you turn away from them? Would you want them to have to figure it out on their own before they brought you the situation? Or would you want to be there with them? Would you want to walk through the situation with them hand in hand? One month in mentoring, I was talking about praise and worship, and I was thinking of David and how he always turned back to the Lord, and it's amazing to me. I mean, he murdered someone, and he repented and turned back to the Lord. When he had an affair with Bathsheba, he turned back to the Lord. David was always turning back to the Lord, and I don’t remember ever reading anything where it says he was too ashamed to turn back to the Lord or he felt like he wasn't good enough to turn back to the Lord.

When I really thought about David always turning back to the Lord, I just thought, Wow, that is a man who knows his identity in Christ. That is a man who knows his Heavenly Father, and he knows the love that the Father has for him. David was so sure of who God was and the love he had for his people. I mean, David went up against a giant when he was a child because he was sure God had his back. Don’t you just wish you had that faith? Don’t you just wish you knew without a doubt that God was always going to be there for you? Even when you were in danger, in trouble, running for your life, you still knew God was working all things for your good.

This is my prayer for myself, each one of you, and honestly, the whole world. I want nothing more than for each person to know how ridiculously loved by God they are and that he is right there with them. I wish everyone knew they could rely on the Lord for all their wants and needs. Yes, wants, not just needs. God cares about all the things that are important to us, not just the things we need. That doesn’t mean that God is going to give us everything that we want because we want some pretty silly things sometimes.

Also, not everything we want is good for us. For instance, my son wants a motorcycle. Just because he wants it doesn’t mean it is good for him. Sometimes, we may want something, and yet God knows that if we got it, it wouldn’t be good for us. So, he closes those doors sometimes, and it hurts in the moment, but He wouldn’t be a good Father if He just gave us everything we wanted, even if He knew it would hurt us in the long run. For instance, you have this promotion that just came up at work, and you didn’t get it. You are really upset, and then you find out more about the job, and you learn that you would have had to travel a lot more, and then you are relieved because you didn’t want to be away from your family.

God knows us better than we know ourselves. God formed us in our mother’s womb. He has seen our whole lives from beginning to end. He not only knows what is good for us and what isn’t, but he knows what is best for us. He knows our innermost desires before we even know them. Come to the Lord, just as you are, and let Him change you in all the best ways!

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode. Lord, you are amazing. We are so grateful for all the love you give to us. Please help us to accept that love more Lord. Help us to realize we are helpless without you. We don’t need to wait until we change to come to you because we can’t change without you, but we can do all things through you! Lord, we love you and we ask all of this in accordance with Your Will and in Jesus’s Holy Name. Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I would like to ask you all for prayers for me. I am headed to Ecuador to pray for my brother-in-law’s best friend, who is not doing so well. His name is Anibal. If you could keep us all in your prayers. I am praying for safe travels and also for healing miracles. I am praying he will be completely healed and all mental and physical functioning will be completely restored. I am praying for peace, strength, and love for him and his family. Please join me in these prayers. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in June 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email [email protected]. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “Most ears will be open. Most ears are waiting. They're waiting to hear that I love them, that I cherish them, that they are precious to me. They need that word. The world is falling down upon them.”

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Today, I am bringing you three witnesses from my prayer group. Each week, we take 10 minutes at the end of our prayer meeting, and we thank God for all he is doing in our lives. We share the various ways we have seen God show up in our lives. Each week, people share, and what is amazing is that He shows up in our lives in so many different ways. Sometimes healings, sometimes an outpouring of love or peace, sometimes provisions. So many different ways. If you are looking at ways He is showing up in your life, you will see them too.

I wanted to share something about last week's prayer meeting. When we lifted up the basket, I had some really important, not that any of our intercessory prayers or requests are unimportant, just a couple of really big ones, and it was the Feast of the Holy Angels. So I said to my guardian angel, Guardian angel, I can't be there. I know everybody's praying for my things, even though they're not in the basket, but would you take them and put them in the basket?

This is in my imagination. And while you're there, would you get all the other guardian angels, all the angels in that room, to lift the basket up to God? There we go. So I'm picturing this. I'm imagining this. But as I see them, or as I'm imagining them lifting it up, all of a sudden, the basket turned golden. Because the prayer meeting was running late, I didn't get to share that. But there's more to it now, because one of my petitions was for a wonderful priest I know who was going for a biopsy that afternoon. And I figured I wouldn't hear from him until I saw him for Mass this coming week. But I got a text message from him that afternoon saying they didn't do the biopsy. They couldn't find the tumor.

Last week, I took somebody to one of these places for cancer treatment. And while I'm out in the lobby, I had the opportunity to share with a variety of people of different faiths some of the wonders that God has done, and also share some psalms and stuff. And one particular lady didn't have any hair. She had had a double mastectomy a couple of years ago and had a very severe infection in her chest cavity. Didn't have any teeth and had some major other ailments going on. And I asked her, were you brought up in a faith? And she says, No, no faith at all in the home. And I said, Well, could I share some psalms with you? And I shared like 91. She had tears in her eyes. I shared 100. And when she gets called in, she gets about 15 or 20 feet away, and she turns around and says, This is the first time in two and a half years I've felt peace.

Saturday night, I was in an adoration. The same person who told me about the Eucharistic Rosary by Wording Knowledge came in. And I said to her, You've been telling me about all these healings wherever you go. I wonder if you'd want to just pray for me now. I'm not asking for a healing on demand, but, you know, whatever the Lord wants. And I explained to her that chiropractors for years have told me that there's a rotation and a tension in my pelvis so that one leg is twisted up higher than the other, and that throws my gait off balance, and at least our leg isn't bowed down. And I don't want to go back to chiropractors and have them give me a little relief and take a lot of money, you know? I'm just tired of that. And so if the Lord wants to do something about that.

First, I felt tingling in one foot, and then tingling in the other foot. But then all of a sudden I felt weak. I couldn't hold myself up. And she said, Oh, the presence of the Lord is so strong, isn't it? And then when she stopped, it was because she had a confirmation that it was done. And so I was standing, I went a little way, and I'm walking like I'm drunk. So that was my sign that the Spirit had been there. So I said, Okay. I wonder how that's going to manifest in my body. Thank you, Lord. It's been so long, part of my lack of faith and all that. Bless her, and just get me home because I drove there.

I got on my bed, and I said, Well, let's just see about this. Because if I, on my back, put my legs out straight, my ankle bone here is usually about this far from the other ankle bone. Those ankle bones line right straight up. Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you, Lord, for all the amazing ways you are working in the lives of those in the prayer group. Thank you to all of those in the prayer group who are willing to share the ways the Lord is working in their lives, so that it can build the faith of all those who hear it. We love you, Lord, you are amazing!

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Come As You Are Series - I Have Not Come To Call The Righteous

Luke 5:30-32 “But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

The theme for the devotional is “Come As You Are.” I chose this because too many of us feel we aren’t worthy to come to God as we are. We think we need to get it all together before we come to God. We believe we have to clean up our lives, and then we can come to God. I can see why we might think this, as that is what society tells us. That is what it looks like on Social media. It seems like everyone else has it all together, so we need to get it together before we're ready to ask God for anything. We can’t attend mass or church service because our kids don’t behave, or we don't have the right clothes, or because we make bad choices.

I love a song called Truth Be Told by Matthew West. Let me read you some of the lyrics because I wish we all knew the truth.

Lie number one, you're supposed to have it all together

And when they ask how you're doing

Just smile and tell them, "Never better."

Lie number 2: everybody's life is perfect except yours

So keep your messes and your wounds

And your secrets safe with you behind closed doors

Truth be told

The truth is rarely told, now

I say I'm fine, yeah I'm fine, oh I'm fine, hey I'm fine, but I'm not, I'm broken

And when it's out of control, I say it's under control, but it's not, and you know it

I don't know why it's so hard to admit it

When being honest is the only way to fix it

There's no failure, no fall

There's no sin you don't already know

So let the truth be told

How true is this song? We think that we need to keep it all together because everyone else is keeping it all together, but that’s the thing, they aren’t holding it together either. We are all just pretending. I love it when it says, There is no failure, no fall, there’s no sin you don’t already know. Why do we think we need to keep our mess from God when He already knows about all of it? There isn’t anything we can keep from Him, so why are we so ashamed to admit it? The song goes on to say…

There's a sign on the door that says, "Come as you are," but I doubt it

'Cause if we lived like it was true, every Sunday morning pew would be crowded

But didn't you say the church should look more like a hospital

A safe place for the sick, the sinner, the scarred, and the prodigals

Like me. Well, truth be told, the truth is rarely told

This is where Matthew West reminds us what Jesus said in the verse above. Not what the world says, but what Jesus says. Come as you are. Imagine how full churches would be if everyone knew they could truly come as they were. If we all knew that God wants us, even when we don’t have the right clothes or do the wrong thing. Even when we yelled at our kids or our spouse, even when we stayed out too late drinking, God wants us just as we are. No matter what it is, you can come to the Lord. The song ends with…

Can I really stand here unashamed, Knowin' that your love for me won't change?

Oh God, if that's really true, then let the truth be told

This is the truth that I wish everyone knew. The truth is that God loves us completely and fully before we are even born, and that love never changes. It doesn’t matter what we do or even what we don’t do. He still loves us the same. We can do nothing to make Him love us more or less than he already does. When we see how the world sees us, we think God is the same. We think that we're not worthy of his love until we get it all together.

However, in the verse above, Jesus tells us something different. God sent Jesus to die on the cross for us while we were still sinning. If you want to know how much God loves you, it says in Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Hear that again: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

This is how God demonstrates his love for us. This one statement shows us that we don't have to be perfect to come to God. Jesus didn’t wait for us to have our lives together before he died on the cross for us, so why should we wait until we figure things out to come to Him?

The verse above says that those who are well have no need of a physician. Those who are righteous, those who are not sinning, those who are praying perfectly, and those who are getting it all right have no need for Jesus. Jesus died for us, for you, and me, and he did it strictly because he loved us. He did it because the Lord wanted us to come to him. The Lord didn't want anything to be in between us. When Adam and Eve sinned, there had to be a separation, and God hated that. He hated that we couldn't be with him.

He hated that they brought this upon themselves and wanted to redeem them. God could have done that in any number of ways, and the way he chose to do it was to become human and to take all of our sins upon himself, and when he did that, when Jesus died on the cross, the veil between us and God was broken, and that means we don't have to be perfect to come to God. We don't have to get it right before we come to God. We can come to God just as we are, and God loves us just as we are.

If we look through the scriptures, we will find God repeatedly telling us that we don’t have to have it all together to come to Him. He is calling us to come to Him just as we are, in our brokenness and woundedness, and He can fix us and heal us. When we look at the people that Jesus was drawn to in the Bible, it wasn’t the most religious people or the people who were doing everything right. It was the tax collectors and the sinners. If Jesus can use those he chose to use in the Bible to do amazing things, then we can come to God and lay our problems at His feet, and He will help us. All He wants is for us to invite Him into our mess. Will you invite God in today? Even in the mess?

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless each person listening to this today. Lord, we are sorry we don’t come to you more often. We are sorry we let our shame and our guilt put up a wall between us. Lord, we invite you into our mess right now. We invite you to sit with us in the mess and help us clean up our mess. Lord, we want to be with you, and we want to come to you. Please help us. Show us how you think of us instead of how the world thinks of us. Lord, we ask you to take away our shame and our guilt. We ask you to remove anything that is getting in the way of us coming to you. We love you so much, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and Jesus’s holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. If this podcast has been blessing your life, would you consider sharing it with someone today? I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you, just as you are, and so do I. Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in June 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email [email protected]. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “I have called you to be my witnesses. I have called you to talk of me to others. I have called you to bring the broken and the weak. I am here for them, and I will breathe upon them. If you carry my love to them.”

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Come As You Are Series - Come All Who Are Weary

Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

This is not the verse I was planning to talk to you about today, but after the night I just had, I am hoping that the Holy Spirit will talk to me as He talks to you tonight.  I remember hearing a teaching on this verse once, where they explained why farmers would use a yoke.  A yoke is a wooden crosspiece that is fastened around the neck of two animals and then usually hooked to a plow or a cart.  This yoke allows them to pull loads that they would not normally be able to pull on their own.  I think I also remember the person explaining that a younger animal is usually paired with a more experienced animal.  This way, the more experienced animal can set the pace and teach the younger one.  This seems to fit so perfectly with this verse.  

The Lord is calling us, all who are weary and carrying heavy burdens.  I don’t know about you, but this evening I am feeling pretty weary, and my burdens are feeling pretty heavy.  The Lord is calling us, and it says He will give us rest.  God is calling us to take up His yoke and to learn from Him.  That is such a great visual for me.  I got an image of this giant wooden yoke on the ground.  I go up and put my head in it, and God puts His head in, and my burdens are suddenly weightless.  I wish it were that simple.  I wish we could just hand God our troubles, and then we would feel this enormous weight off our shoulders instantly.  I think it can be this simple sometimes.  I think we get in our own way sometimes.  We want to hand our problems over to God, and yet we also want to hold on to them.  We don’t want to completely release them, because then we wouldn’t be in control anymore.  

Have you heard of the expression, “Hitch your wagon to the right cart?” or “Don’t hitch your wagon to the wrong horse?”  Both of these came to my mind when I started talking about what a yoke meant.  I was thinking that if I had my choice of anyone to hook my yoke to, it would be the Lord.  There is no one else that I would rather rely on and no one more powerful.  I love the idea of taking His yoke and learning from Him.  The Lord has so much to teach us. Even in this verse, He says, “I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your soul.”  How awesome would it be to find rest in your soul?  Can you imagine what that would feel like?  When I imagine rest in my soul, I imagine peace about all things in life.  I imagine I am stress-free and have no anxiety.  I imagine I am filled with hope and joy.  

I really feel as though the Holy Spirit is reminding me of Rick Warren’s definition of joy and wanting me to share it.  I have talked about it before, but right now I feel the Holy Spirit telling me that I am not the only one who needs this refresher right now.  Rick Warren’s definition of joy is as follows: “Joy is the settled assurance that God is in control of all the details of my life, the quiet confidence that ultimately everything is going to be alright, and the determined choice to praise God in every situation.” Wow, yes, I did need to hear that tonight.  For me tonight, this is a reminder that joy doesn’t mean I am always happy about everything.  This to me means that it is ok that I am sad tonight about things going on, and that doesn’t mean that the situation has taken away my joy.  I do know that God is in control of all the details of my life.  I am sure of it.  I am grateful for it because He does a much better job than I could do.

When I think about it, truly think about it, I do have a quiet confidence that ultimately everything is going to be alright.  Does that mean that I know how it is all going to turn out? No, no at all. Does that mean that I know when it will get better?  Nope, I don’t know that either.  However,  I do know that eventually everything is going to be ok.  Will it be exactly as I wish it would be, probably not.  But that is ok, because God’s plan is better than my plan and His ways are higher than my ways.  The last part of this definition is the part that we forget about a lot.  It says, “the determined choice to praise God in every situation.”  Wow, that is not something I always think of.  Then, even when I do think of it, I don’t always want to do it.  For instance, tonight was a rough night.  Do I want to praise God for tonight?  Not really?  This is where I think we get confused.  We think that praising God is about thanking Him for the situation we are in.  There are many ways to praise God without thanking Him for the specific situation.

For instance, even though it was a rough night, I am thankful that I have kids to argue with.  Some people don’t, and I realize that even when parenting them is difficult, I am still blessed beyond measure that I have them.  I am grateful to the Lord for giving me amazing friends.  Friends who dropped everything they were doing to say a quick prayer just because I said I needed some.  If it wasn’t for the argument tonight, I wouldn’t have had the amazing gift of peace that I felt immediately after they prayed.  That is something that I am not sure I have felt before.  I have heard people say that I felt your prayers, and I always thought that was nice, but I didn’t truly understand what they meant until this evening.  Not even 5 minutes after I asked my friends for prayers, this immediate sense of peace came over me.  That is definitely something to praise the Lord for.  We can also praise the Lord for being amazing.  He does so much for us, and even if we don’t want to praise Him for the current circumstances, we can praise Him for being awesome and for the amazing outcome that we know He is working on as we speak.  

In all the books about miracles and faith, the authors always talk about how important praise is.  I think this could be the secret ingredient that many of us are missing.  How often do we praise the Lord?  I mean, truly spend time thanking the Lord for all He does and praise Him for being our almighty Lord and Savior?  What if we all tried to praise Him more this week and see how much better our week goes?  When you start to feel down or get in a bad mood, think of 10 things you are grateful to God for.  The bible verse Luke 16:10 came to mind just now.  The verse says, “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.”  If we appreciate what we have and praise the Lord for it, God will entrust us with more.  What if the Lord is waiting for us to be grateful in our current circumstances before He moves us out of them?  Can we spend just 5 minutes today praising the Lord?  When I am finished with this episode, I am going to listen to 5 minutes of praise and worship music.  That is another great way to praise the Lord.  If you can’t think of anything to say, you can always just listen to music.  I have heard many people say that singing is praying twice.  So if you feel as though you just don’t know what to say, sing a song; they have amazing songs out there that say all the things you want to say.  

Remember, all of us who are weary and those of us carrying heavy burdens, come to the Lord and we will find rest.  Take up His yoke and let Him help you carry your load.  Wouldn’t it be so much easier if you weren’t the only one carrying it all?  You are not alone.  God is there, He is offering you His yoke, reach down and pick it up!  Through the Lord, we can find rest for our souls.  Whose soul could use a little rest?  I know mine could.  How about yours?

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that You bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, the devil is having a heyday with our families, and we ask that you intercede for us. We ask that you show us how to kick him out of our lives once and for all.  Lord, we ask for your protection over our families and give us the strength to keep fighting another day.  Lord, we love you so much, you are so very amazing!!  You have given us all so much, and we are so very grateful.  Lord, we ask that you fill us with your love, peace, and joy.  I ask that you wrap your arms around each person listening to this today and give them a squeeze.  Help them to feel your love a little extra this week, Lord.  I sense that I am not the only one who needs this week, Lord.  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.  

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I am so grateful to have you here. I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow. Have a Blessed Day.

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in June 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email [email protected]. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “Continue on your road. You have been called to a divine purpose. Walk with your spirit. Use the gifts given to you by the Spirit. I have called each one of you by name. I have called you here.”

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The God of Hope

Romans 15:13 “ May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

The God of hope, what a great way to refer to the Lord.  He is the God of hope.  All hope can be found in Him.  I like the thought of God filling me with joy and peace as I trust in Him, don’t you?  I feel as though that would be reassurance that we were doing the right thing.  Actually now that I just said that I can see how this is the case.  When we are trusting in the Lord, we are filled with peace and joy.  Can you think of a time when you had a decision to make and you felt completely at peace with it?   Can you think of a time when you were so happy and filled with complete joy?  Think about these circumstances.  Can you see how you were trusting the Lord in them?

The second half of 2020 and the first half of 2021 were really tough on our family.  Actually they were tough on most families as we were in the middle of a pandemic, and we were stuck in our houses for a lot of it.  It was not an easy time for anyone.  However, on top of all of this we had a lot of other things going on that made it even more difficult.  Probably some of the hardest parenting issues we will ever have to face, and we have faced a lot of parenting issues.  Although it was a really difficult time, I was filled with joy and peace for much of that difficult time because I was trusting that the Lord knew what was best.  We were encountering situation after situation that we had never encountered before.  We didn’t know what to do or how to handle most of it.  What do you do when you are in a situation and you don’t know what to do?  You turn to the Lord.  I spent a lot of time in prayer.  I asked the Lord at every turn which way He wanted me to go.  I relied on Him to get us through it.  I am not saying this to boast at how great I am for turning to the Lord.  I turned to Him because I did not know what else to do.  This is usually why we turn to the Lord.  When we have tried all we can think of on our own and nothing worked.  

However, I would love to change this.  I would love to turn to God first in every circumstance, not just when I feel stuck and don’t know what to do. This is what the Lord wants too.  He is always there for us and He is happy when we turn to Him in times of trouble.  However, I am sure He would also love it if we turned to Him in our every day decision making.  Or, what about when you do know what you want to do?  What about stopping to ask God what He thinks about you taking that job you want or buying that car you want.  You may already know what you want to do, but what if we stopped to run it by the Lord and see if He thinks it’s a good idea?  Sometimes our decisions can be clouded by superficial things or we have the wrong motivation driving our decision making and we don’t realize it until it is too late.  Invite the Lord into all your decisions.  Wouldn’t it be great to feel that peace and joy of trusting the Lord all the time?

This verse ends with, “so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”  I don’t know anyone that would turn down the chance to be overflowing with hope.   This verse also tells us where hope come from, the power of the Holy Spirit.  If we want to have more hope, we just have to ask for it. Jesus tells His disciples in John 16:23-24 “ On that day you will ask nothing of me. Very truly, I tell you, if you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.  Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.”  If we want to have more hope in our lives all we need to do is ask the Lord for it and we will receive it by the power of the Holy Spirit.  

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord we ask that you fill us all with joy and peace as we trust in you.  We all want to overflow with hope, please show us how.  Please fill us with the power of the Holy Spirit.  Please help those that have given up on hope, or have forgotten how to hope.  We love you Lord, you are so amazing.  You give us so much to hope for.  We are so grateful for all you do for us.  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!

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Come As You Are Series- Mary Magdalene

Mark 16:9 “Now when He arose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons.”

Mary Magdalene is mentioned several times in the Bible. She is mentioned in all four Gospels. That is unusual, as most stories are mentioned in one or two of the Gospels, but very few are mentioned in all four. This shows us how special Mary was to Jesus. It shows what an important role she played in His life. The Bible doesn’t tell us much about who Mary is as a person, but it does tell us a few things.

First, it tells us in today’s verse and also in Luke 8:2 that she was delivered from 7 demons. Second, we know she was present at the crucifixion. Third, we know she went to anoint Jesus’s body in the tomb after his death. Lastly, as today’s verse tells us, Jesus appeared to her first after He was resurrected. Of all the people in the world that Jesus could have first shown himself to, He chose Mary Magdalene. That is pretty cool. Again, Jesus is showing us that our ways are not his ways and his ways are not our ways.

If we had to choose someone to be the first person who saw Jesus, I don’t think we would have chosen Mary Magdalene. I think if it were me, I would have chosen Mary, his mother. Or what about Peter? He was chosen to be the rock on which the church would be built. Why wasn’t he the first? Jesus is constantly doing things in the Bible that we don’t understand. He is doing and saying things that shake things up. I am sure Jesus had His reasons for choosing Mary Magdalene to be the first to whom he revealed his risen self. I am sure Jesus has his reasons for choosing you, too.

Jesus saved Mary Magdalene from 7 demons. Do you feel like you need to be delivered from some demons? Do you feel like you are struggling in an uphill battle? If so, you are not alone. We are all fighting something. One great thing about this story is that it shows us that Jesus doesn’t just heal us or free us from our demons and then walk away. He stayed with Mary Magdalene, and she stayed with Him. She became one of His followers. Are you one of his followers? Do you stay close by Him and listen to all He says? Do you try to get to know Him and to spend time with Him?

Mary did. She put in the work. She was so grateful for the freedom that Jesus gave her that she stuck by His side, trying to learn all that she could from Him. We can do this too. We can’t follow Jesus around as one of His disciples anymore, but we can listen to all He says by reading scripture. The New Testament is full of Jesus’s actual words. We don't have to guess who He is, or what He said. It’s all in the New Testament. There are actually verses in the Old Testament that talk about Jesus as well. As you can see, even though Jesus is not walking on earth, we can still be His followers and we can still get to know Him.

Even though we don’t know why Jesus chose Mary Magdalene to be the first person to see him alive, we do know that He did choose her. Jesus is choosing you, too. I don’t know what He is choosing you for, but I know that He is. I know you don’t think you are worthy, and you might not even feel up to the challenge, but He is calling you anyway. You might worry that no one will listen to you or that no one will believe you if you try to share the message of the Gospel with others. Guess what? You wouldn’t be the first person they didn’t listen to. The very next verse after today’s verse says, “She went and told those who had been with him, as they mourned and wept. But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it.”

Just because Jesus chooses us doesn't mean everything is going to fall into place and be easy. We live in a broken world, and not everyone will see what Jesus sees in you. Not everyone will believe what you have to say. Not everyone will support the calling God has placed on your life. That is ok. Jesus also appeared to two other disciples, and when they told everyone, no one believed them either. Just because others didn’t believe them doesn’t mean what happened wasn’t true.

Of all the people in Jesus’s life, He chose the one who had been delivered from demons as the one to reveal His risen self to. He didn’t choose the one we would have chosen. He didn’t choose the one who was perfect and blameless. He didn’t surround himself with people who were perfect and blameless. He surrounded himself with regular, everyday, ordinary people like you and me. We don’t have to clean ourselves up to be around Jesus. We don’t have to heal ourselves of all our demons before we come to Jesus. Jesus healed Mary of her demons. She didn’t wait until she was healed to come to Him. She couldn’t have healed herself of her affliction. She needed to come to Jesus as she was, and He healed her. He will do the same for you. Come to Him with all your baggage. Bring your demons. Bring your fears and your worries. Bring all that you have to the foot of Jesus, and He will heal it. He will take all of that from you, and He will replace it with love and with peace. Come to Him just as you are, and He will take care of everything else!

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode. Lord, we want to come to you as we are. We want you to free us from our demons. We want you to choose us when you could choose anyone. Lord, we ask for you to help us come to you. Help us get to know you. Help us turn our demons, fears, and worries over to you. We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in May 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email [email protected]. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “We have a steed, a fine horse, and on that horse is the Lord with a big flowing cape, and as he rides by us, he scoops us up with one arm, tucks us under the shield of his armor, and he says, “I may not swoop you up every time and deliver you from your discomfort.” Then the image changes, and he's on his feet, and he's walking behind us, and he gets closer and closer to us, and then he hides us under the cape he has. He says, “But I may walk with you through all your distress, so fear neither being scooped up nor walked with. I am always there.”

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