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Ministry Encouragement, Austin, TX (2024)

08/09/2024

A pearl is a beautiful thing that is produced by an injured life. It is the tear [that results] from the injury of the oyster.

The treasure of our being in this world is also produced by an injured life. If we had not been wounded, if we had not been injured, then we will not produce the pearl. ~ Stephan Hoeller

🤔I wonder if we could look inside our hearts how many pearls we might see there…

07/31/2024

Letting go sets us FREE!

What’s in your hand that you can’t let go?

The analogy of how hunters trap monkeys 🐒 to kill them is they cut a hole in a coconut just large enough for the monkey's hand to go through but not its fist. They hollow out the coconut and then fill it with fruits and nuts and hang it in the trees. The monkey sees the coconut with the nuts or fruit - put their hands in and grab a handful of it but can't get their fist full out of the hole.

Their freedom depends solely on them releasing their hold and sliding their hand out. Because of the greediness of the monkey and it refusing to release what's in its hand it leads to their demise when they're captured by the hunters.

We hold onto something so tightly that it keeps us from moving anywhere. We can become so paralyzed by our fears or doubts about the future that they trap us right where we are. Like the monkey with its hand stuck in the hole, we need to learn that letting go sets us free.

A few years ago, in a message to my Church I asked: “what are you hanging on to in your coconut that the enemy is going to capture and destroy you?”

One by one they came and the altars were full...I anointed all their hands with oil to release their hands from their coconut. One young man (visitor) holding on tightly-his hands in a fist-clinging to the 'world', and away from God said I want to be released. With tears streaming down his face (and mine) we prayed the prayer for salvation.

Don’t hold onto something so tightly that it keeps us from moving anywhere. Don’t become paralyzed by fears or doubts about the future that they trap us right where we are. Like the monkey with its hand stuck in the hole, we need to learn that letting go sets us free.

07/21/2024

Today I'm reminded of a "few" years back, in the mid 70's, when a man in our church in San Pablo, CA, challenged me one day to go with him and start a bus ministry.

We did.

Every Saturday, I'd dress up as a clown, or dress one of the boys as the clown and we'd walk the streets in that city. (In those days, kids loved clowns, especially with candy & balloons)🎈 We didn't have to look for kids, they came running to us. We'd spend 2 or 3 hours telling young people and children about Jesus and inviting them to come ride our BIG YELLOW BUS on Sunday.

We'd fill that bus every Sunday morning. Many times twice! Those little kids would run out of their houses many carrying their clothes in their hands, still with dirty faces from the night before. I'd lift them onto the bus, dress them and wash their faces and hand them a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Then the next stop, the same...and on we'd go to church.

There I'd teach them about Jesus. See them cry their hearts out giving their hearts to Jesus. From 4 years to 17 years old I saw lives changed, and today some of those "kids" are pastors, teachers, and servants.

I wouldn't trade those years for anything ...that was ministry! That was loving someone where they were and never asking them for anything in return. That was seeing lives changed and finding a heavenly "father" who loved them. It wasn't about me in a pretty dress, because many times that dress would be dirty by the time I got to church, it was about a child who needed Jesus.

God, today I pray give us people again, called to go out and find the lost and bring them in, instead of waiting for them to find our churches.

My heart is heavy today for our children and youth...I pray Lord, help me, help us all to never forget to go the extra mile for one of them and be a light - maybe the only light in their life - they will ever see. 🙏

07/13/2024

"The Little Foxes" ....
“..CATCH, TRAP, BRING THEM INTO CAPTIVITY....they WILL 'spoil' the vines (you) while the vineyard (church) is blossoming and the little foxes are running wild. (Song of Solomon 2:15).

Chapter 2 is a beautiful written passage about love and right in the middle of talking about love Solomon addresses the "little foxes." Even though there were BIG bears at times that would come through and trash the whole vineyard it's the little foxes that would sneak in at night and suck the nourishment out of the grapes on the vine.

The "big" things we are more aware of but it's those sneaky little foxes...like mosquitoes that have you bit before you realize it. Ever heard of Bear repellent? Probably not - because we're pretty cautious when we're in "bear" country...and if you know you're going to be where mosquitoes are at you protect yourself with repellent.

God's word is your repellent from the little sins that try to suck the life out of you - out of the church. Don't allow the little foxes to attach themselves to you.

07/13/2024

Truth!

07/12/2024

Thankful we serve a God who never sleeps or slumbers…He always hears our prayers!

07/12/2024

When all else seems to be failing, God is there wherever we are!

02/23/2024

When life gets hard, and fear takes over, the noise is so loud we miss God’s voice and it’s easy to run and hide.
Enjoy this article by a very good friend of mine:

LOV’N LIFE MINISTRIES
“Bytes of Life”
Pastor Roland Scroggins

CAN YOU HEAR HIM?

Sometimes Christians are so focused on the power of God, and the move of God, and the fear of God that they are unresponsive to the whisper of God. Remember Elijah and how he ran to a cave to hide from the threat to his life by Jezebel? Scared and trembling he waited in the cave for God’s help. You can read about it in 1st Kings 19:9-18. He had just experienced the amazing fire of God in his confrontation with the Prophets of Baal and the Prophets of the Grove. Receiving the death threat from Jezebel and convinced that he was the last follower of God he ran for cover and hid in the cave and cried out to God.

Verses 11 and 12 reveals a strong wind that tore up the mountain, and an earthquake, and a fire - but God was not in any of those things. Then he heard a still small voice - and it was God’s voice.

Do you ever get so focused on the desire for God’s power that you never hear the voice? Is your desire so strong for demonstration that you are deaf to His voice? Do you crave the Prophetic and the spectacular so much that the noise is so loud it drowns out the voice?

Can you hear the whisper of God?

Everyone loves God’s powerful intervention when the enemy is threatening to overwhelm them. It is wonderful to see the enemy take flight when the power of God is evident. But Christians need to learn that God also speaks quietly with the same power. Elijah’s victory was to hear God speaking and that is the same victory you need. The enemy will always cajole and threaten but if you will listen to God’s voice you will be calmed and encouraged.
Circumstances may appear frightening but when you hear God’s voice you will be filled with faith and hope.

Don’t always look for the fire, or the wind, or the earth shaking quake. Those elements of His power are wonderful to experience but no more so than to hear His still small voice comforting your soul. Can you hear Him?

KEEP LOV’N LIFE – Roland & Janet lovnlifeministries.org
(If this “Bytes of Life” devotion touched your heart, please like and share. Thanks)

02/21/2024

Some times we all face days we’re ready to throw in the towel. If that’s ever been you, this is for you today:

Because it’s hard to read, here it is:

When things go wrong as they sometimes will
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill
And you want to smile but you have to sigh
When care is pressing you down a bit
Rest if you must, but don't you quit.
Life is q***r with its twists and turns
As ever one of us sometimes learns
And many a failure turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out
Don't give up, though the pace seems slow
You may succeed with another blow
Success is failure turned inside out
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt
And you never can tell how close you are
It may he near when it seems afar
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit
It's when things seems worse that you must NOT QUIT!

02/13/2024

Lord, keep us all focused on enlarging Your Kingdom!🙏

02/03/2024

Why does the Bible contain so many stories of hurting people? Why do we read one account after another of Jesus meeting people with problems?
A crook on a cross.
A wild man in a cemetery.
Nicodemus rejected.
Peter ashamed .
Joseph bewildered.
Martha bereaved.

Though their situations vary, their conditions don't. They have nowhere to turn. On their lips a desperate prayer. In their hearts a desperate dream. And in their hands a broken rope. But before their eyes stands the never-say-never, Jesus Christ, who majors in stepping in when everyone else doesn't know what to do.

These stories are not there to tell us what Jesus DID - they're there to tell us what Jesus DOES!!!!! It's God doing for people what people can't do for themselves!

02/03/2024

According to recent studies… 4,000-5,000 pastors quit each year. They don’t quit because they have a lack of faith in God. They don’t quit because they don’t believe in the calling God has placed on their life. Most don’t even quit because of financial reasons.

Pastors quit because they are overwhelmed with mental exhaustion.

Until you’re a pastor you’ll never fully understand what it’s like to carry spiritual burdens for people. Getting up in the middle of night, praying for your family of faith. Awakened in the middle of night with someone on your heart. Overwhelmed with concern by a persons absence or distance.

Your mind continually occupied with the presentation of the upcoming Sunday message - how to preach it, what to teach on, how do we apply it? Getting critiqued on a continual basis.

Being told you need to do better or that some areas of the church simply need to be better.
Pastors invest their whole life into people and yet people will turn their backs on their pastor at the first sign of a storm, usually without a conversation. Pastors stand in the middle of disputes.
Pastors stand in the middle of gossip.
Pastors council broken marriages.
Pastors comfort those who have suffered loss. Pastors navigate the waters of imperfect people with a desire to see each one thrive in their faith.

They long for spiritual breakthroughs. Your pastor craves the very best for you. All of this, while trying to battle their own flesh and grow in their own relationship with God.
Pastors see the posts.
Pastors hear the whispers.
Pastors endure the negativity.
Pastors are continually caring for the sheep while fending off the wolves.
Pastors pour out and pour out - rarely being poured into.

What keeps a pastor going? YOU!

You - the person who is genuinely hungry.
You - the person who worships with passion and freedom.
You - the teenager who is striving to be a follower of Jesus.
You - the single mom who understands the beauty of the hope found in Christ.
You - the one who walks through the door for the first time because you’re in search of peace, hope, and community.

Pray for your pastor. Serve with your pastor.
Talk with your pastor. Encourage your pastor.
They are human. They need You more than you think!

01/19/2024

“Just Checking in Today”
A Minister passing through his church
In the middle of the day,
Decided to pause by the altar
To see who come to pray.
Just then the back door opened,
And a man came down the aisle,
The minister frowned as he saw the man
Hadn't shaved in a while.
His shirt was torn and shabby,
And his coat was worn and frayed,
The man knelt down and bowed his head,
Then rose and walked away.
In the days that followed at precisely noon,
The preacher saw this chap,
Each time he knelt just for a moment,
A lunch pail in his lap.
Well, the minister's suspicions grew,
With robbery a main fear,
He decided to stop and ask the man,
'What are you doing here?'
The old man said he was a factory worker
And lunch was half an hour
Lunchtime was his prayer time,
For finding strength and power.
I stay only a moment
Because the factory's far away;
As I kneel here talking to the Lord,
This is kinda what I say:

'I JUST CAME BY TO TELL YOU, LORD,
HOW HAPPY I HAVE BEEN,
SINCE WE FOUND EACH OTHERS FRIENDSHIP
AND YOU TOOK AWAY MY SIN.
DON'T KNOW MUCH OF HOW TO PRAY,
BUT I THINK ABOUT YOU EVERYDAY.
SO, JESUS, THIS IS BEN,
JUST CHECKING IN TODAY.'

The minister feeling foolish,
Told Ben that it was fine.
He told the man that he was welcome
To pray there anytime.
'It's time to go, and thanks,' Ben said
As he hurried to the door.
Then the minister knelt there at the altar,
Which he'd never done before.
His cold heart melted, warmed with love,
As he met with Jesus there.
As the tears flowed down his cheeks,
He repeated old Ben's prayer:

'I JUST CAME by TO TELL YOU, LORD,
HOW HAPPY I'VE BEEN,
SINCE WE FOUND EACH OTHERS FRIENDSHIP
AND YOU TOOK AWAY MY SIN.
I DON'T KNOW MUCH OF HOW TO PRAY,
BUT I THINK ABOUT YOU EVERYDAY.
SO, JESUS, THIS IS ME,
JUST CHECKING IN TODAY.'
Past noon one day, the minister noticed
That old Ben hadn't come.
As more days passed and still no Ben,
He began to worry some.
At the factory, he asked about him,
Learning he was ill.
The hospital staff was worried,
But he'd given them a thrill.
The week that Ben was with them,
Brought changes in the ward.
His smiles and joy contagious.
Changed people were his reward.
The head nurse couldn't understand
Why Ben could be so glad,
When no flowers, calls or cards came,
Not a visitor he had.
The minister stayed by his bed,
He voiced the nurse's concern:
No friends had come to show they cared.
He had nowhere to turn.
Looking surprised, old Ben spoke up
And with a winsome smile;
'The nurse is wrong, she couldn't know,
He's been here all the while.'
Everyday at noon He comes here,
A dear friend of mine, you see,
He sits right down and takes my hand,
Leans over and says to me:
'I JUST CAME BY TO TELL YOU, BEN,
HOW HAPPY I HAVE BEEN,
SINCE WE FOUND THIS FRIENDSHIP,
AND I TOOK AWAY YOUR SIN .
I THINK ABOUT YOU ALWAYS
AND I LOVE TO HEAR YOU PRAY,
AND SO BEN, THIS IS JESUS,
JUST CHECKING IN TODAY .'

If this blesses you, pass it on. Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart

May God hold you in the palm of His hand and Angels watch over you..