Favoritism; January 8, 2024

Posted on January 9, 2024 by jgarrott

1 Timothy 5:21 I charge you, in the sight of God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels, to keep these instructions without partiality, and to do nothing out of favoritism.

In the middle of various detailed instructions about pastoral ministry, Paul puts in this very strong admonition about favoritism. This sort of thing can creep into almost any situation, from the family all the way up to international politics. The most striking Biblical example is the way that Jacob treated Joseph, which created such jealousy in Joseph’s brothers that they sold him into slavery. The thing is, we all have preferences, and such things are entirely natural. What is wrong is treating people differently because of our preferences. This is specifically speaking of pastoral ministry, and favoritism in that context has even caused church splits. God has His sovereign choices, as Paul quoted Malachi saying for God, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” (Romans 9:13) However, we aren’t God, and we are to treat people equally. That said, we need to remember that people aren’t going to respond equally. I think God’s choices are because He knows how people are going to respond down the line. Jacob and Esau certainly had different attitudes toward God! We don’t have that knowledge, however, so we are to give everyone equal opportunities. That is currently a hot-button political topic these days, with all the discussion of “equity” as opposed to equality of opportunity. In a sports framework, tryouts are valid, but we must never exclude people from the start, saying, “You aren’t allowed to try.” Every one of us is imperfect, “damaged goods,” if you will, and that is all the more reason not to show favoritism. God’s love is universal, and it is up to each individual how they will respond to it, and not up to any human being to specify how anyone else is allowed to respond to God.

Having been in pastoral ministry over half my life, and frankly, not by my own choice, this is a very “live” topic for me. I must be an “equal opportunity pastor,” assigning responsibility and giving praise with an even hand. There are an infinite number of differences among people, and I need God’s wisdom for how to interact with each one. That is particularly true for the emotionally needy. I must be gentle and loving, but not pampering. Spoiled children are not genuinely happy children. The fact that different people need different levels of attention isn’t the same as favoritism. When I come right down to it, I flat don’t have the wisdom to keep it all straight, so I must maintain awareness of my total dependence on God.

Father, thank You for Your example of grace and mercy, toward me and toward everyone. Help me be an unobstructed channel of that grace and mercy toward all, letting “love cover a multitude of sins,” as Peter put it, (1 Peter 4:8) so that the Body of Christ may be built up, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Expressing Faith; January 7, 2024

Posted on January 8, 2024 by jgarrott

1 Timothy 5:8 If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

There are all kinds of hypocrisy, and every one is obvious to God. Sadly, we hear of elder abuse all the time. The situation isn’t always cut and dried; Paul himself writes right here about the attitudes and activities of those who invite or don’t invite being taken care of. However, younger generations who are self-centered and stingy are a blot on society, and Paul says they have discarded faith. It could be argued whether he means “their faith” or “the faith,” but in either case it comes down to living out what we say we believe. If we really believe that we are hopeless sinners apart from the grace of God, then we will seek always to allow the character of Christ to be manifested in and through us. Several years ago WWJD, What Would Jesus Do, was all the fad. That is good in itself, but when it is just a fad it becomes meaningless. As James famously pointed out, when we just give lip service to God’s truth, we are just deceiving ourselves, and probably not anyone else. (James 1:22) Indeed, claiming faith and then not living it out is worse than not claiming it in the first place, as Paul says here.

This is very pointed to me right now, because I have hurt one of the church members by being accusatory when I should have been appreciative. The incident in question might seem minor, but again as James said, “We who teach will be judged more strictly.” (James 3:1) When people look to me as a spiritual father-figure and mentor, every word and action tends to bear more weight than is comfortable at times. I would like them to respond that way when I am sharing God’s truth with them, but not so much when I am being merely human! As many teachers have pointed out, the expectation and even demand that we be perfect can be a huge burden at times. However, again as Paul said, “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:13) I am to be grateful for this further breaking of my stubborn pride and allow God to turn this incident around for the blessing of everyone involved, for His glory.

Father, thank You for all You allow me to go through. Thank You for the good day of fellowship yesterday as we went in a group to help out some of our number. I do pray for the brother who will be returning to Taiwan today, after being here very sacrificially for the past three months as a volunteer carpenter. I pray that You would continue to guide him in Your plans for him, for his blessing and the advancement of Your kingdom Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Things Taught by Demons; January 6, 2024

Posted on January 7, 2024 by jgarrott

1 Timothy 4:3 They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth.

I have long been aware that “forbidding to marry” was the first example Paul gave of “things taught by demons,” but this morning it hit me that “abstaining from certain foods” is the second example. The reason marriage has always been in my awareness is my disagreement with the Catholic doctrine of the celibacy of the priesthood. Knowing Church history, I have been aware that the origin of that teaching was entirely political, and it came up over 1,000 years after the start of the Church. Its falsehood is all the more obvious when we realize that Peter, the first “Vicar of Rome,” was the only one of the first 12 apostles that we positively know was married! And of course, forbidding marriage has resulted in all sorts of destructive perversions. All of that said, the second doctrine mentioned has been rampant in recent years, with “vegan” becoming a buzzword that didn’t even exist 50 years ago. Allergies and the like are legitimate reasons to avoid certain foods, but they have no spiritual implications, and are certainly different for each individual. Overeating isn’t the only way to be controlled by food! The demonic origin of such fads is obvious from the way pride gets wrapped up in it all, with people feeling they are “superior” for abstaining from meat, or animal products of any sort. The irony in this case is that there is plenty of research that shows an omnivorous diet produces the best results for human beings, hands down. Even cutting out animal fats has negative consequences, and over-processed foods are destructive in quantity. The point is to believe that God has created everything, and what He has created is good, if we will relate to it in submission and obedience to Him.

Having been allergic to milk, cheese, and chocolate from around 3 to around 10, I certainly understand about allergies. I have also seen people be destroyed by overeating. And, I have known people who have been deeply wounded by the prohibition to marry. I am well aware that anything can be abused, and I need to keep myself in submission to the Lord rather than to human tradition. Of course, the temptation is always to pride, to feeling “I know better than they do.” I have always appreciated C. S. Lewis’ observation that one thing we can be sure of is that when we get to heaven, we will discover that we were all wrong somewhere. Paul speaks several times of those who get caught up in prohibitions as “weak,” and tells us, “Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak.” (1 Corinthians 8:9) I am to speak the truth in love, but not put people down when they don’t have the same understanding of things that I do.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You also for the training You are giving me in pastoral ministry, right in line with what You said to me yesterday morning. I do pray that my mistakes would not have lingering negative effects, but that the Body of Christ right here would continue to grow on all levels, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Families; January 5, 2024

Posted on January 6, 2024 by jgarrott

1 Timothy 3:5 (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?)

This parenthetical comment, stuck into an exposition on Church leadership, could hardly be more timeless and timely. As comes out again and again, family relationships are God’s idea, which is why the devil attacks them so strongly. Ephesians 5 is clear that the relationship of a husband and wife is to be a mirror of that between Christ and the Church, and there are countless places throughout the Bible that speak of God as our Father. That’s why the “epidemic of fatherlessness” on the human level is so tragic, as well as demonic: if we have no human father, and no right relationship with him, we will have great difficulty believing in and relating to our Heavenly Father. That is exactly the devil’s goal. This particular verse is addressing this issue from the father’s side and pointing out its importance. Paul puts it as a rhetorical question, because the answer seems so obvious. If we can’t handle the relationships in our biological family correctly, then how can we handle the relationships in our church family? And it’s worth noticing here that Paul doesn’t use “love” in this discussion. It isn’t that love isn’t expected and important within a family, but that if our focus is on emotions, we’re likely to mess everything up. This is a point that Dennis Prager mentions from time to time. He has two sons, one biological and one adopted. The adopted one was born to a meth addict mother, but was adopted by the Pragers at birth. He obviously had a genetic predisposition to addiction, and got into alcohol and drugs into his teens. However, Dennis didn’t coddle him, and he eventually came out of it and is currently very effective as an addiction counselor. He was the guest on a recent episode of Dennis’ Fireside Chat program, and the mutual respect and love between them was obvious. Those who are in church leadership are to say and do everything in love, but that must be on the foundation of respect. Parents who don’t raise their children to respect them are doing them a horrible disservice and incubating untold tragedies. Pastors are to do the same, or the Church will fall apart.

Since I’ve been a pastor for over half my life, and a father for longer than that, I can’t say this doesn’t apply to me! I am very thankful to have had a human father who took parenting seriously, though he was at times distracted by his huge load of other responsibilities. He didn’t do a perfect job, but then no father does, I would think. My own children have turned out such that I am proud of them, and I think justifiably so. My spiritual children have been a mixed bag. They run all the way from some in full-time ministry to others who have totally disappeared, in my observation at least. I have been more hesitant to apply discipline in the church context than in the family context, and that hasn’t always been good. (Of course, church members don’t have the same automatic connection to me that my biological children do.) I am to seek the good of the church just as I do for my family, and be willing to make the same sacrifices. Delegating responsibility is a continuing challenge for me, but God is faithful even when I’m not. This is something I’ll be involved in for the rest of my life, because even when I retire from the pastorate, my children will still be my children, both biological and spiritual. I am constantly dependent on God’s wisdom and guidance, and I must never forget it.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Our local church family is growing at this point. I pray that my relationship with each member will be exactly as You desire and intend, for their blessing and Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Prayer for Those in Authority; January 4, 2023

Posted on January 5, 2024 by jgarrott

1 Timothy 2:1-2 I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone–for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.

The last part of this passage reminds me of the ancient Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times.” We certainly live in interesting times today! As I write, Japan has had a major earthquake and a spectacular aircraft collision at the busiest airport in the country, and that’s all within the past four days. And of course that doesn’t begin to touch on the major turmoil that’s going on all around the world. All of these things seem totally out of our control, but that’s what the first part of the passage is about. How many people genuinely pray for “kings and all those in authority?” I’m registered with Intercessors for America, and each of their frequent newsletters has three political figures listed at the bottom, with a place to click if you are praying for that person and a number to indicate how many people have clicked. I don’t know how many people receive those newsletters, but the number of those praying is seldom very large. And that’s just America! I remember how touched a Romanian evangelist was quite a few years ago when I told him I regularly prayed for Gorbachev, who was not long after that very instrumental in the dissolution of the Iron Curtain. How many people today pray for Putin? I don’t think we realize that our prayers make a difference. We need to think of the context at the time Paul wrote this. The “kings and those in authority” were for the most part far from godly men, yet Paul said to “offer requests, prayers, intercession, and thanks” for them. When we see such lying scoundrels in power, it’s hard to respond that way! However, we need to remember a verse from Proverbs: “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.” (Proverbs 21:1) The Bible records God using a lot of people who didn’t believe in Him to accomplish His purposes, starting with Cyrus the Persian who sent the Jews back to Judea. People can be very stubborn, but they are no match for God, and we can pray to God! I think we all take the privilege and responsibility of prayer too lightly.

And of course I’m preaching to myself here. I do pray for various world leaders from time to time, and particularly American leaders, but I seldom if ever pray for Prime Minister Kishida, and I don’t even know who represents Nagasaki in the Diet! (I can’t vote in Japan, but he does have an influence on my environment.) I do pray for our mayor, but then I know him personally, having conducted his wedding. We have recently acquired a prayer warrior in this church, and she is an inspiration to me. At 75 I realize that I am just scratching the surface of prayer, even though prayer is extremely natural to me. As I have commented recently, I have no idea why prayer works, because why would the Creator listen to me? However, I have experienced countless times of seeing prayer work, and I am to respond in gratitude and obedience. As James said, “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective,” (James 5:16) and “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) I have no excuse not to pray!

Father, thank You for this strong reminder. Help me not slough it off but allow it to change my daily habits, growing me more and more into the child that You desire, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Praise God! January 3, 2024

Posted on January 4, 2024 by jgarrott

1 Timothy 1:17 Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Several places in his letters Paul breaks his narrative to pour out a doxology, a declaration of praise to God. Here, he has just been talking about what a lost cause he was before Christ met him on the road to Damascus, and he is overwhelmed by the magnificence of God’s grace. How often do we take time to think of how incredible it is that God would accept, much less choose, us as one of His children? If we would do so in all honesty, then praise would well up from within us no less than it did from Paul. Indeed, no human being is worthy in themselves of being accepted and acknowledged by God, but He does it anyway, for all who will come to Him in repentance and faith. The better we understand our own unworthiness, the more we will praise and love Him! This is the polar opposite of entitlement, which is why the devil works so hard to foster an entitlement mentality in as many people as possible. When we understand how hopeless we are without Christ and how secure we are in Him, we can’t help but be overwhelmed with gratitude, which will produce a level of peace and joy the world knows nothing about. The devil can’t stand that, so the more grateful and joyous we are, the more effectively we are resisting him!

I was thankfully raised to be grateful, and our home environment was certainly one of love for God, but I didn’t learn much about active praise to God until I was introduced to the Charismatic Movement in 1973. These days that style of music has become common, but sadly, many Christians and churches have adopted the style without adopting the heart attitude that generated it. Performance isn’t praise. I was blessed with musical ability, and I am certainly to give my best to God, but if I am more worried about my performance than I am about the One to whom I am singing, then it is worthless. If my life isn’t a praise to God, then what I do in church is going to be hollow. Teaching and leading others to praise God is a joy indeed, but it must come from a heart that realizes how totally unworthy I am for the task. I am to praise God that He enables me to exercise the privilege of doing that, just as Paul does in the verse just ahead of this. God is more than worthy of all the praise in the universe!

Father, thank You for this reminder. Help me indeed overflow with praise to You, regardless of what is going on around me. We had reports of two tragedies here in Japan just yesterday, but that in no way diminishes the praise that You are due. Help me put everything into context, so that Your name may be acknowledged as holy and Your rule and reign be established as Your will is done, by me and by everyone, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Working; January 2, 2024

Posted on January 3, 2024 by jgarrott

2 Thessalonians 3:10 For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.”

I think it was the state of Maine that discovered that when they instituted a work requirement for Welfare payments, their Welfare rolls dropped by 75%. This wasn’t some cruel, draconian rule, but simply a requirement that to receive welfare, an able-bodied man of working age had to be at least looking for work. The Japanese for this verse puts it even more casually: “who doesn’t want to work.” I think the English is a little better here, because plenty of us do things we don’t necessarily want to do. Everyone needs a vacation from time to time. That’s actually a major reason for God’s institution of the Sabbath. However, everyone also needs a sense of accomplishment, that they are making a difference in the world. “Guaranteed income” destroys that, and is a major reason why the children of the wealthy so often turn out so badly. The son of the current president is certainly a case in point. Some people are internally motivated and will always be productive, regardless of their income status, but I’m afraid they are in the minority. Paul isn’t being mean here, he’s just recognizing the human tendency toward indolence, and what a destructive thing it can be. We need to encourage each other, not being critical or demanding but laying down logical ground rules of behavior, so that people will recognize and resist the lies of the devil.

This seems very pointed to me at the moment, because I have just retired from school teaching and my schedule looks remarkably empty. Of course, at 75 manual labor isn’t the logical answer, but YouTube certainly isn’t either. The devil is very skilled at stealing my attention and my time, and I need to be purposeful in submitting it all to the Lord. Yesterday I did waste some time, but finally got around to my autobiography, and I ended the day on a much better note than might have been. Today I have message preparation for Sunday as well as a ministry appointment this afternoon, but tomorrow is clear all the way to prayer meeting in the evening. I need to approach each day as an opportunity to serve my Lord through serving the people around me, so that I will not let the devil trick me into losing the peace and satisfaction the Lord intends for me.

Father, thank You for this reminder, right at the beginning of my first year of “retirement.” Help me never “retire” emotionally from my service to You, but always seek to be Your agent of blessing, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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The New Covenant; January 1, 2024

Posted on January 2, 2024 by jgarrott

Jeremiah 31:33 “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel
after that time,” declares the Lord.
“I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.

I think we lose sight of what it means that God is a Covenant God. He doesn’t do things on a whim, but rather lays things out clearly. Man, on the other hand, is about as reliable as a weed in the breeze, which is an image that is used repeatedly in the Bible. God laid things out clearly through Moses, expressing in very concrete terms what was good and what was not, the benefits of being in right relationship with Him and the consequences of rebelling against Him, and we took it all lightly, desiring the blessings but feeling entitled to them, minimizing or ignoring in our minds the consequences of rebellion. That’s why God chose a different tactic, no longer depending on an external set of rules, but instead writing His rules in our heart. In our perverseness we again tried to flip that, saying, “Whatever is in my heart is right and true,” forgetting that “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9) That’s why the current fad of “my truth” and “your truth” is such a total crock of baloney. God writes His law in our heart if we will receive it, not if we deny it and pretend to be the ultimate authority in all things. The situation is so dire that God had to send His Son to take the penalty for our rebellion, but again, we have to accept His sacrifice as taking the penalty we deserved, and not as something to which we were entitled regardless. In English we lose an opportunity to understand this situation by calling the parts of the Bible “Old Testament” and “New Testament,” because modern English has forgotten the meaning of “covenant” that “testament” originally had. In Japanese, the word for “covenant” is the same as “contract,” and the characters used to write it include the one used for “testament” in speaking of the Bible. The fact that the New Covenant frees us from legalism has made some people run off into libertinism, “if it feels good, do it,” but even Paul had to deal with that. He wrote extensively about it, including the famous statement, “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” (Romans 6:1-2) However, he also wrote a whole letter, Galatians, to counter the evils of legalism, of thinking we can be saved by our own efforts. As he wrote to the Ephesians, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God–not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9) Last year our verse for the year was the one after that, speaking of all the things God has planned for us to do, but it all starts from accepting the contract God has laid out for us, signing it with the blood of His Son, just as Jesus said when He instituted Communion just before His crucifixion.

Wow! This is deep indeed. I need to understand that I am under contract, and I need to communicate that understanding to the believers. Thankfully, it is God who writes it on our hearts, just as He says here, by His Spirit. I need to be transparent so that people will be able to read what is written on my heart, and I need to encourage the believers to be likewise. If we will do that, then the people around us will become hungry and thirsty for what they see we have, and many will be brought out of darkness into light.

Father, thank You for the privilege of baptizing someone yesterday into whom I planted the seed of the Gospel over 10 years ago. He hasn’t even been in contact for most of that interval, so I had nothing to do with the watering, but You brought the increase and the harvest. I do pray that he would grasp indeed what You have done for him, to walk in the fullness of the New Covenant as a shining witness, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Weakness; December 31, 2023

Posted on January 1, 2024 by jgarrott

Hebrews 5:2 He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness.

It is an interesting thought exercise to think about what it was like for Jesus to taste weakness for the first time. He was born into the same physical weakness that we are, when He had been absolutely omnipotent. That degree of shock boggles the imagination. However, that was His choice: complete identification with humanity. As it says in the chapter just before this, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are–yet was without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15) That last qualifier is important, because it is perhaps the most important difference between Jesus and us. He experienced all our weaknesses and triumphed over them for our sake. He triumphed, but we have no record of how much He had to struggle in the process. When we experience temptation we need to remember what Paul said about it: “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13) That’s what the writer of Hebrews is saying: Jesus can help us because He’s been through it too. Weakness is a touchy subject for a lot of people. We don’t like it! Paul had to go through a rough time to come to terms with it, but after God reminded him of His grace, he was able to say, “That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:10) Weakness is part of the human condition, but Jesus experienced it for us so that in turn, His power may rest on us.

This is something I need to remember constantly, but then, I get reminded of it pretty regularly! Physical weakness is something I have to deal with more and more as I get older, but at this point I think I am stronger than the average for 75. However, I’m not to presume on that, but exercise wisdom. (There’s an interesting play on words for you!) All I have been through to this point has made me stronger emotionally, but I still have to remember consciously that God is my refuge and strength. (Psalm 46:1) I can easily become unglued on my own! Spiritual strength is the big issue, and the big danger here is conceit. Countless spiritual leaders have gone down in disgrace because they thought they were somehow above all that, and that laid them wide open to attack. I’ve got to remember that my strength and wisdom are no match for the devil, and so rely totally on God, who is omnipotent.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for this past year, and that I have indeed grown some, as my younger daughter, at least, has recognized. Help me keep growing, depending not on me but on You, so that Your power may truly be manifested through me, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Deception; December 30, 2023

Posted on December 31, 2023 by jgarrott

2 Thessalonians 2:15 So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.

This chapter is, frankly, not one of my favorites. I don’t like to read about the deceptions the devil vomits out. However, it’s no worse than any accurate news feed today! The absurdities that are proclaimed would be totally laughable if so many people weren’t led astray by them. We now have a pope speaking of “blessing” homosexual “unions!” We have “institutions of higher learning” churning out students and graduates who hate God and anything that represents Him. That has been behind antisemitism from the beginning, because the Jews were chosen by God for Him to work with and through, so those who hate God hate Jews automatically. (That’s not to say that Israel’s political decisions are always correct, but that’s a different discussion.) God created the union of a husband and wife to represent His relationship with His people, so the devil has gone all out to distort and pollute everything involved in that. Churches as human institutions are certainly flawed, but the devil has seized on that to make people throw the baby out with the bath water, as the saying goes. And the list goes on and on. Believers are called to stand firm on the words of Scripture, just as Paul says here. We aren’t to hate those who are deceived, but we are to hate the one behind the deception. We are to speak the truth in love always, because human logic is no match for the truth of God or the love of God. Lines are being drawn ever more clearly, and we need to be alert and careful. We don’t want to be among those deceived! In all of the confusion, we need to keep our eyes on Jesus (Hebrews 12:2) and let His Word and His Spirit guide us, knowing that in Him we have the victory.

This has recently come close to home with a sweet girl coming to this church who has been deceived by teaching that because some of the things about our celebration of the birth of Jesus coincide with various pagan festivals, Christmas is an abomination. I too am saddened by some of the things that are done in the name of Christmas, but that doesn’t change the fact that the Creator sent His Son to be born as a human baby, to share our circumstances and then to die in our place so that we might have life. That is certainly worth celebrating! My ministry is going to be pivoting to more outside events, starting with a small conference in February, and I need to be careful that everything I say and do isn’t useful to the enemy in creating division, but rather draws the Body of Christ together to the unity in Him that He prayed for just before His crucifixion. (John 17) I need to help people be so aware of the truth that lies and deceptions are instantly exposed for what they are, and the Body of Christ built up.

Father, thank You for this reminder and clarification. I pray that I would be an accurate, effective representative for You, speaking Your words in Your love and living those words out, destroying the lies of the devil and bringing people into Your kingdom, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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