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I have a good friend whose mother is dying. She is a dear old Christian (92 years old.) My friend has gone to be with her in these last few days to help in any way she can.

It's a hard thing to be with someone you love while they are going through this dying business! She says her mother is more than ready to leave planet earth and can't understand why she can't just die and be done with it.

I am reminded of PSALM 116:15 which says: "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." For us, death is our out-going. But for Him, our death is our home-coming. He is excited about it because we are about to come home to be with Him forever.

As the days of our lives draw to an end, our physical persons become weaker and weaker. But our spirits are actually becoming stronger. It is a process which seems to take time. But at some point our spirits get stronger than our physical bodies can hold and then at last we fly away!

When you are waiting to die or watching someone else go through that process it is hard to imagine why it can't just be over. But I think all the while God is busy preparing us a place. And one of the wonderful things about God is He is always right on time--never to early, never too late.

So when it is just the right time, the person is released from his body, released from the tether which holds him to the earth, and set free to fly home to the Father who is excitedly waiting for that home-coming. What a celebration there is waiting there for each one.

I don't like the dying process from a physical standpoint. But I do think it is an exciting time in which our true selves are not becoming weaker but stronger. It does not yet appear! Death remains a mystery in many ways. But what a wonderful thing it is to realize that if you are born again, there is a wonderful home-coming waiting just right there. No darkness and horror or flames for us! Only light and love and joy and peace. No more worry or concern or limitation or sickness. But real life which goes on for ever in the presence of the Lord.

There is a grace or anointing for dying just like there is for living. God help us when it is our time, to find that grace and to end our course well and in such a way that it is a blessing to others and not a torture! We go to a far better place. A place prepared for us by our Father who loves us best and most. Rev Mary  

I was reading in the Word today out of DAN. 5:12 when I had one of those experiences where you read something as you have for so many times before, but suddenly you see something you never saw there before.

When the queen was telling her husband of all Daniel's attributes and abilities, she said he had an excellent spirit and had knowledge, understanding, interpreting of dreams, showing of hard sentences, and DISSOLVING OF DOUBTS.

Now what an awesome gift that would be! To have an anointing to dissolve all the doubts in people's minds so that they could receive the truth. It would bring such peace into people's lives if they could just get beyond their doubts.

As the world gets darker, people are more and more questioning everything they thought they once knew. That includes their faith in God and their Christian belief system.

Daniel lived in a day when the kingdoms of men were changing and coming to an end. There was a lot of confusion and a lot of sin. But God gave him the ability to know things and understand things and interpret things that were currently going on and that would happen in the future as well. Then He gave Daniel the further gift of dissolving of doubts so that when he gave these interpretations, those who heard were able to accept the interpretation without the doubt that usually slows us down and brings confusion.

I decided to ask God for this gift at once! It is so evident to me that such a gift would be of great value to humanity in this hour when doubt is on the rise and faith is being shaken to the core.

Doubt or belief is a choice! God often reminds me that Christians were first called "Believers", not doubters. Doubt is the exact opposite of belief. And Belief and faith are the same thing. So doubt is the exact opposite of faith. According to the Word, faith comes by hearing the Word. So hearing God's Word must dispel doubt.

So I perceive that Daniel had the ability to hear God's Word and when he spoke what he heard from God out, it had the power to dispel (or dissolve)doubt. How great a gift is that!

Because of the necessity of the hour, I believe God will surely pour this gift out on us in this hour. Thank God He is the same yesterday, today, and forever! Rev Mary 

I've been thinking about how hard things seem to be these days and how we will live in these days. I've lived long enough now to realize that things are really changing in the world and not for the better.

I got to looking at Habakkuk 3 in the Bible. At the end of the chapter it says, Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall the fruit be in the vine; the labor of the olive shall fail and the fields shall yield no harvest; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls, yet will I rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.

In other words, even when everything goes wrong that can go wrong, this man makes a decision to rejoice and praise God. In so doing he is acknowledging that it is not God who has brought all this difficulty into his life. And he is also deciding not to let all the difficulty turn him away from his faith in God.

It really helps when you can identify who the enemy is! It isn't God who is bringing all this on mankind. He is not our enemy but our friend. He walks with us in the most difficult places in our lives if we will only let him.

People sometimes think that if you become a Christian you will no longer have problems in your life. That just isn't true. In fact all you have to do to see that is read a little in the Word of God. How about Paul? Peter? Well how about Jesus Himself? Life was pretty hard for all of them. What made us think it would be different for us?

What Christianity offers is a way to live victoriously in the midst of the difficulties of life. It isn't an escape from life. Troubles come to everyone (and with increasing speed these days.) But Christianity offers to those who choose it, a friendship with someone who will always love us, never leave us nor forsake us. Someone who doesn't want to condemn us or judge us. Rather someone who is always there to help us.

How I thank God for God! I really don't know how anyone can live without Him in these days. He is always there to help me understand what is going on and help me deal with what ever circumstance I find myself in.

Life is hard! But He alone makes it worth living. He even helps me get the most out of it and enjoy it. He prepares a table right in front of me, in the very presence of my enemies. And there He dines with me and strengthens me.

So, no matter what is going wrong today, I will make a decision not to blame Him but rather to praise Him and thank Him for my salvation. It's another good day because today is the day of salvation! Rev Mary

We are excited to be hearing news of spiritual revival breaking out in the USA. So far there have been reports from FL, GA, and NC. God is on the move!

As usual, when God decides to do something He seems to enjoy picking unlikely people and situations to work through. It is almost as if He says, "You want the move of the Spirit? Okay. But if you REALLY want that you will have to take it from those I chose to use."

More than once I have turned up my nose at God's choices only to humble myself so that I can receive what is being offered. But then, who really wants to be so proud you miss what God is doing?

We are hearing of healings and miracles and that is wonderful. But to me, two of the greatest testimonies are that there is an outpouring of hope and an anointing which is instantly changing people so dramatically that they do not even seem like the same people.

There has been such a condition of hopelessness on the people of God in these last few years. We have been worn down with the battle and our faith has been so attacked on so many levels. It is wonderful to hear people saying that they went to some of these meetings and came away totally refreshed and with new hope that God really is going to do exactly what He says in His Word.

And as a pastor, there is no better news than to hear that people who seem to have been virtually untouched by teaching and the Word of God for years, suddenly have become doers and not hearers only. What could be more wonderful than suddenly being able to deal with problems that have gone on for years, even when we try and try to deal with them in ourselves?

Yet as exciting as these reports are, I find myself crying out to God for such a revival to come to my own heart, my own community, my own church! It isn't enough to just hear about others experiencing these things. We need revival ourselves! And when I consider the other nations we travel to for missionary work, I can tell you there isn't a nation in the world that does not need to experience the kinds of manifestations that are being testified to.

And so we will continue to cry out to God for His wonderful presence and power and ability to change the unchangeable. Surely God will hear our cry and come down! Rev Mary

I have been thinking about how blessed we are that we live in the world after Christ came rather than before He came. There's always a lot to be thankful for but that comes close to the top of the list.

When you see in the Bible how before Christ man had no release from the curse of sin and death and think what that would mean to your own life and your children and grandchildren it is just amazing!

The Word tells us that the curse was passed from one generation to the next unto the third and fourth generation. So not only were you personally cursed by sin and separation from God, but for generations after your family line was cursed.

The curse was automatic. It was the result of not doing everything that was written in the law (which of course, no man could do.) Christ came to redeem (set us free, buy us back) from the curse so that not only we but also the generations of our family which came after us, would not be cursed.

In GAL. 3:10 the Bible says: For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse for it is written: Cursed is every one that continues not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.

That is a virtual sentence of death because nobody could follow all those rules all the time! But I thank God for verse 13 which follows after and promises: Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.

When we receive Christ as our personal savior, the curse that has been passed down through our family lines from generation to generation is finally and completely broken! It could never be done with natural, brute strength or human ability. Those curses are so strong and have been strengthened through generations of unholy family members who refused to walk in the blessings of God.

But the moment we received Christ, the curse was broken and no longer had the ability to be passed on from one generation to the next. In its place there entered a blessing based on the righteousness of Christ, not our own righteousness. And so where before there had been generations of curses, now there was a clean sheet of paper and the first thing written upon the sheet was blessing!

As with all things involving God, faith is involved. Though it is irrefutably true that Christ redeemed us from the curse, we must invest faith in this fact in order for it to be activated in our lives. It took faith to be cursed (when you believe you are cursed that is having faith that you are cursed) and it takes faith to activate the blessing (when you believe you are redeemed from the curse you are investing faith in that fact and blessing is activated in your life.)

Today is a blessing day for me! Today I will pass down to the next generation of my family the great blessings of God. They will receive no curse through my blood line but rather blessing through my faith in Jesus Christ. I am not powerless to leave a wonderful inheritance for my children and grandchildren. I am a redeemed grandma and mother. What a blessing! Reason enough for another good day! Rev. Mary