I guess since Kathy gave her update on Chris, I might as well report on
Gretchen.  We still are not sure where Gretchen is spiritually.  We do know
that she did not pass her last drug test.  In fact, since they switched to
the swab of the inner mouth drug test last time, she told her case worker
that she knew she wasn't clean at that time.  I guess she figured her
chances were better if she admitted it up front than to be told after the
sample was analyzed.  I believe Gretchen wants to do right but she is
deceived into thinking she can't.  This is correct, of course, because
nobody can live the Christian life without Christ being Lord.  We have a
whole entire generation of born again Christians today, who know theology
and doctrine and the Christian way of life but they don't know Jesus as
Lord.  I know because I lived 45 years as a born again Christian but didn't
know Jesus as Lord until 4 years ago.  Pretty pathetic, I know, and not much
of a testimony but it is the truth.  Fortunately, I am not now where I was 4
years ago and I do know what it means to be under the Lordship of Jesus.
Oh, I am far from arrival.  That will be when I die or the Lord returns but
in spite of everything, I wouldn't change where I am now for where I was
before regardless of the amount of money.  What's this have to do with
Gretchen, you ask?  Gretchen was in a Christian drug rehab home for 9
months.  She was isolated from the world by the home and by the church that
ran the home.  It was no drug program at all but rather the Christian form
of cognitive therapy and so called spiritual behavior.  This is a very poor
substitute for true conversion and salvation and Lordship salvitic
experience.  Why?  Because, it doesn't work unless you continually live in
that same environment.  My daughter has been in the process of learning that
no matter what you think or feel, He is in control, like it or not.  You can
either live your basic daily Christian life through church attendance and
membership, prayer, Bible reading, winning the lost to Christ, becoming a
pastor, counselor, missionary, Bible seminary professor, raising your hands,
shouting, and yes, even speaking in tongues, like it or not, and about
anything else you wish to include in your Christian life, but performance
based Christianity goes only as far as your performance.  By the way, for
those who don't know, I am filled with the Holy Spirit and I speak in
tongues but this does not make me walk in Lordship any more than the church
I am a member of, which, for that matter, happens to be the church I pastor.
The problem with this way of Christian living is that somebody is always out
performing you and if you don't know how that makes you feel, you will
eventually experience the spiritual pain of spiritual failure.  If you have
not figured it out by now, the Enemy knows more theology and doctrine, not
to mention tricks and games and foolery, than any Christian on the planet.
He, Satan, will use anything, and everything, to fool you into thinking, it
can't be done.  Well, ain't that nice.  The devil finally got something
right.  You can't do it but Jesus can.  So how do we get from here to there?
If you stop trying, you have begun a new way of life you never knew was
available.  I have a lady who drives 30 minutes across town every Tuesday
and Thursday to spend two or more hours in my office in prayer sessions.  We
have been doing this for perhaps 9 months.  She is born again and so is her
husband.  They met in bible college and were married after graduation.  She
is a former paralegal and he is, by training, a license psychologist,
although he isn't doing that work at the moment.  They have been married for
25 years but there marriage, for years, has been going down hill.  She sat
in my office today and told me of a miraculous change in their marriage that
is too long for me to detail now.  I started praying last week, after our
Thursday prayer session, asking the Lord what could be done to help change
things for this sincere woman who really loves the Lord and who has lived in
depression all her life.  By the way, if I told you her childhood
background, not to mention all the counselors, Christian and nonchristian
therapists, plus all the psychologists and psychiatrists she has been to in
her life, you would cry and fall on your knees and thank God for what you
have right now regardless of how bad it is.  You couldn't top this woman and
her misery no matter how bad you think things have been.  Yet, Jesus is
living through her so big, I could hardly sit still as she told me of the
tremendous breakthrough she has had in recent days.  Is it going to turn out
all roses?  I don't know the answer to that question but what I heard today
is nothing short of a God miracle and proved to me once again, Jesus ain't
fooling around when He says, I am Lord of all.  I sat and listen to her
testimony today and rejoiced in my spirit like I had just gotten born again
back when I was five years old.  So what's the problem?  The same problem my
daughter has and that is, she believes lies about herself which are totally
contrary to God's truth in His Word.  How do you get to those wounded
places?  The only way I know is through prayer.  If you don't know how to
pray and how to commune with the Lord, you best be finding someone who can
teach you how simple it is.  Otherwise, you'll never hear His voice and John
10 4 says, if you can't hear His voice, you'll be following a stranger's
voice.  Remember, Victory is not something you have, it is who you are.  If
you truly have never experienced what I just said, Jesus isn't the Lord of
your life and you are just living the Christian life.  That doesn't mean you
are not born again, of course, so don't get the two things mixed up.  Let's
see.  I think I am supposed to pass the offering plate now.  Isn't that how
it works?  On second thought, just send me an offering of 25 dollars for my
book, which I haven't written yet, but if I get enough 25 dollar donations,
I'll write one for you.

Phil.


Has He Ever Crossed Your Mind?
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