Summer FMF Post-June & July -Through the Looking Glass

Tolerate and tolerance do not equate in today's world. God's command to preach the Truth of the Gospel is clear: do not add to or take away God's Word. If you fail to preach about hell and eternal separation from God, then there is no true love, respect, or need for the free gift of salvation. If you preach God is love, and there is no hell, then there is no fear of judgment—who needs God? 

God warns us as Christians from our Jewish beginnings through our Christian heritage not to add or take away anything to HIS Word. Scriptures contain the path to salvation-true salvation, the path to understanding God, gave us free will to worship Him-the one who created it all. You can't remove Romans 1 from understanding God's love or Galatians 5:19. It is our path to God- to understanding the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit- the one God, Father, Son, and Spirit. God says to spread the message with tolerance, love, and understanding of the lost. 

The Spirit draws and brings conviction to the lost, but we are commissioned to go and tell-not leave them in darkness or on the wrong path. 
Deuteronomy 4:2, Proverbs 30:5-6, and Revelation 22:18-19:

July 19, 2024
What do you MAKE of this? 
There is nothing that can separate us from God's love Romans 8:38-39. 
There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, Romans 8:27-28. 
There is a Spirit that knows our weakness, who intercedes to pray, when we don't know how to pray with groaning too deep for words. Romans 8:26-27. 
There is hope that God causes all things to work together for our good, whether from evil-doers, haters, or demons, Romans 8:27-28. 
There is a God that we can call "Abba, Father!, Romans 8:15.
There is true freedom and peace that does not come from the world or the American Constitution, but from the law of the Spirit of life in Christ has freed you from the law of sin and death, Romans 8:2.
There is coming a day that even creation will be set free, Romans 8: 21.
There is Jesus, who was raised from the dead, who gave his life and indwells you (of your own free will) (Romans 8:11).
There is only Jesus. 

Can we see God's hand working through hard times? 
That lump of coal may be a hidden jewel among the trials- remember that dark colors absorb light, and outer pressure creates a precious jewel inside. Maybe these are the jewels in our crown that we lay at Jesus' feet.

JULY 12 CAPACITY to see
The CAPACITY to see beyond oneself and trust God's plan for your life is a challenge. It is full of unexpected events, trials to trust, and benefits of blessings. 
"The American dream is nothing compared to following God's plan for your life. The church of the next generation is the outcome of our life, individually and corporately, as we take a stand for Christ(Gideon Speaker)." 
Today, we need TRUTH with SPIRITUAL DISCERNMENT as we take off our (western) spiritual blinders. As a christian with a westerner perspective, there things in scripture that I don't understand unless I look from with middle eastern perspective- (culturally, not from a Muslim, Hindu, etc. I've listened to preacher on YouTube like Voddie Bachman and Allen Nolan. Study for yourself to know the whole gospel story. God, the Father is not a Santa Clause. We are here to worship Him.)
Serving the Lord has challenges to give up what the naked eye sees and looking through your heart-eyes (Holy Spirit guidance) to know God's will.

June 21, 
Choice and our free will 
God acts through our prayers. 
Compassion for the lost
Concern about the possibility of hell for your neighbor
Confidence to speak the truth
Cooperation means to listen to the Holy Spirit
Caring manner is shown through kindness
Creative ways to spread the gospel will happen when you are prepared. 

July 5, Specificly seeing another person's point of view
I attended a local Gideon Faith Fund Rally today with a speaker from Slovakia, just below Ukraine. He told a story about the war many years ago and how two men ended up in jail. One man was a Muslim who read the Koran every day. One day, he asked the man beside him why he did not read something. The other man, an atheist, said I have nothing to read. 
The Muslim man said as he handed him a Gideon Bible, "Here, read this. Someone gave me this, and I don't believe in this stuff."  
The man began reading the Bible every day and was saved. His zeal for the Bible and Jesus led him to witness to the Muslim man who gave him the Bible and was saved. The former atheist, saved because a Muslim gave him a Bible, now heads up a Gideon ministry in Russia. 
Days are darkening in Russia. Christians are being watched and questioned. Please pray for him. 
We can no longer study scripture through a Western lens. Looking at today's war in Israel helps us to understand why God commanded the Israelite to wipe out certain groups of people. Hamas has no intentions of letting Israel live in peace. Grasping a bit of the Middle Eastern mindset puts a new lens on understanding the Old Testament and why specific actions were necessary to preserve the Jewish race. If not, they would not have existed. 
It is the same for us in the US. The live and let live philosophy has eroded our moral fabric to the point of putting porn books in school libraries, gender-altering surgeries, and abortion of the unborn to 28 days after birth. 
The blessings come by adhering to God's Word- which is a sword dividing good from evil. 

June 28, Same
Swimming with cousins and playing with friends, 
hoping summer will never end.
Hopscotch with sea shells, swinging high through the air, 
outside till dark and roaming without a care.
Farmer's market down the street loaded with snacks ready to eat. 
Family picnics with seed-spitting contests and fresh corn on the cob are simple ways to show how blessed we are. 


Reflecting over the years is like seeing through a rose-colored looking glass. I say rose-colored because as you (I) reflect, God's hand is sometimes evident and mysteriously absent. 
Remembering times spent with family and friends brings both laughter and tears. By weaving those same experiences for my children, I hope they can build cherished memories with their families someday. God is the same as He was yesterday, today, and tomorrow. God first established the family unit before communities, churches, cities, or countries. Looking back, I remember how much fun I had raising my kids. 

June 21, Choice
Compassion for the lost
Concern about the possibility of hell for your neighbor
Confidence to speak the truth
Cooperation means to listen to the Holy Spirit
Caring manner is shown through kindness
Creative ways to spread the gospel will happen when you are prepared. 

June 14, Cover/ Noahic Convenant 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NAzuNcs9Vs&t=8s
God will no longer intervene with man except through our prayers, and the end times. 
My son taught me a lesson that I did not understand. There are three ways we experience evil: 
1. By God's permission as with Job. Job showed all of heaven that man can and will honor God by faith.
2. There are demons that tempt man.
3. There are just evil people in this world who are full of greed, hate, self-serving, etc. 

So now when I look back and I don't see God's hand of restoration, it may be due to evil people in this world. My faith must hold true. 

June 7, FMF-Reverse
Seeing through the looking glass in reverse. 

Find clarity in 
a world of words with 
perspicacious zeal.     

In God's Word, 
seek perspicacious  
clarity.    

His mysteries
revealed by
the Holy Spirit.

I remember reading Hannah Hurnard's book, 'Hinds Feet on High Places and Mountain of Spices.' Both are an allegory of the Christian walk. Much-Afraid meets the Shepherd and journeys up the mountain to the high places under His guidance. She collects precious jewels along the way. But there comes a point when her load is too heavy, so she looks at each one and reflects on the lesson, the deeper the relationship with the shepherd, and her understanding of God's purpose for her. With a renewed spirit, she keeps them all and moves forward. 

Psalms 18:33 King James Version (KJV) - "He maketh my feet like hinds' feet, And setteth me upon my high places."
Habakkuk 3:19 The Lord God is my strength; and He will make my feet like hinds' feet, and He will make me to walk upon mine high places. 

Our direct link to God is through prayer. Looking back, can we see God's hand working through our trials and troubles? Do we cherish each lesson learned? When amid these trails and that jewel looks like a lump of coal, I remember that dark colors absorb light, and outer pressure creates a precious jewel on the inside. Maybe these are the jewels in our crown that we lay at Jesus' feet. 

(Noahic covenant)

June, May 31 through
Sometimes, hearing or reading something from another point of view brings clarity or the ability to see through a scheme. I am guilty of wanting to prove my worth and that I am valuable, too, so I fall prey to empty schemes. God's love is total approval, acceptance, and love. The insecurity, inadequacy, and inferior feelings come from the world's perspective, others, or my own. 


"The devil appeared to three monks and said to them: "If I gave you the power to change something in the past, what would you change?"
The first of them, with great apostolic fervor, replied: "I would like to prevent you from leading Adam and Eve to sin, so that humanity does not separate from God."
The second, a man full of mercy, said to him: "I will prevent you from straying from God and condemning you forever."
The third of them was the simplest and instead of answering the tempter, he knelt down, made the sign of the cross, and prayed: "Lord, deliver me from the temptation of what might have been and what was not."
The demon, screaming and trembling with pain, fled.
The other two were surprised and said to him: "Brother, why did you react like this?"
And he answered them: 

“First, we should never talk to the enemy.”
“Secondly, no one in the world has the power to change the past.”
“Third: Satan’s interest was not to prove our virtue, but to trap us in the past, so that we neglect the present, the only time God gives us His grace and we can cooperate with Him to fulfill His will.”

Of all the demons, the one that most holds men back and prevents them from being happy is “what could have been and was not.” The past is left to the mercy of God and the future to His providence. Only the present is in our hands. Live today loving God with all your heart.
(Modified from original text)
Ctto: Michael Acebedo Lopez"

spring in my steps
alacrity of purpose
wind at my back

Finding clarity
in a world of words,
perspicacity. 

In God's Word
seek perspicacious
clarity.

He has given us the Holy Spirit

When I first read last week's word, I thought of 'through the looking glass.' In Genesis, the names of each person gives us message of redemption. In the book of Daniel and the major and minor prophets, God's mystery are locked up in Revelation until now. The Bible is layered with meaning in its depths. God doesn't tell but knows we must discover it for ourselves. Then our heart is changed and truly belongs to Him.