Tag Archives: Faith

Is Jesus really enough?

9 Apr

Walking by Faith, Not by Sight

Janet Perez Eckles

Janet Eckles Perez

cooltext173078713213329I received a peck on the cheek as I hugged a small, frail woman. “Welcome beautiful visitor,” she said.

She brought small bowls of rice to feed the children who gathered outside her tiny nipa hut nestled in the rural areas of the island of Mindanao, Philippines.

In the midst of the humid, scorching heat, she fed them. They sang songs, and then she nourished their souls with Bible lessons.

Fighting mosquitoes and wiping sweat beads off my forehead, I listened and observed her joy, her passion, and patience with those little ones. As we were about to leave and head to our next stop in our missions trip, I hugged her. “I admire you,” I said. “You have so little and give so much.”

She gave a shy giggle. “When you have Jesus, you have enough,” she said.

Can that be so? Can Jesus really be enough?

Here are three questions to determine if He’s truly enough for us:

1. If we lose all we value, can we still declare we believe and trust in Him?

2. If our plans fail, our heart is broken, and our future looks bleak, will contentment still fill our hearts?

3. If His ways contradict ours, will we still embrace joy?

And if we had nothing, can we repeat what Habakkuk 3:17-18 declares? “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.”

No matter what you’re facing today, can you still rejoice in Him?

Source: Is Jesus really enough? | Janet Perez Eckles

I am thrilled to share this news about Janet

What a delightful shock to receive the news that I was chosen as the winner of the 2016 Alumni Merit Award by my alma mater, Southeast Missouri State University.

How ironic! When I arrived at that campus so many years ago, I was overcome by homesickness. I was the queen of insecurity, shy, and fearful I’d never make it to graduation. Could it be God had His own plan in spite of it all?

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Cosmetic surgery? How to become the new you

2 Apr

Walking by Faith, Not by Sight

Janet Perez Eckles

Janet Eckles Perez

03-25-16 cosmetic surgery

 

I just heard that Costa Rica is the place to go for a make-over of the body. You know those muffin tops? They can be gone now. Or if you want a little tuck here, a little fat removed from here, some added there. The whole body can be transformed.

“And the price is incredibly reasonable. You can come back a new woman,” my friend said. I’m having all kinds of extra stuff removed even getting these ugly age spots off my hands.”

“Not me,” I said, “I had all that done years ago.”

The transformation was complete. Los of changes and enhancements took place. And I got a great deal. It costs me nothing. Well, change that…it cost my pride.

I undressed my heart and left my pride at the door. Then I lay down on the table of humility. That’s where I underwent a soul transformation. When Jesus came into my life, He became Lord of my imperfections.

He removed pounds of insecurities. He carved out fear, the kind that made me think I wouldn’t make it through the trials. He pulled out unsightly lies, misconceptions, and negative thoughts from my mind.

I came out a renewed woman—new thoughts, new attitude, new approach to life. And He even removed those spots of gloom that formed when I faced adversity.

All was gone. And great news, His invitation is directed to all of us. He plans to perform soul surgery because He has a purpose. “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:2)

We can’t know His will unless we let Him renew us. We can’t relish in His glory if we do not endure the change. In addition, we cannot expect glory unless we’re willing to have Him perform the transformation on the operating table of His love.

What needs a little improvement in your life these days?

 

Visit Janet’s blog to learn more.  Cosmetic surgery? How to become the new you. | Janet Perez Eckles

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Bag Lady

28 Mar

My Take

DiVoran Lites

1

Six regulars minus the pastor’s wife are waiting for Sunday School to start. The phone in the kitchen rings. We ignore it because we know the pastor hears it in his office. In a minute our door opens and the pastor’s wife sticks her head in. “There’s a lady on State Road 405 heading for church in her wheelchair and she says the chair won’t go anymore, so now she can’t get here. The Sunday school teacher and his nephew leave and the co-teacher takes over.

Apparently Mission was accomplished. Toward the end of class, the teacher comes back and asks if one of us ladies can help the woman who is now in the bathroom. I get the distinct impression this is not my bag. For one thing I don’t know how big she is or how much help she’ll need. For another, I haven’t been doing any resistance training lately, (or ever). Ruth gets up and goes, she’s the minister of music and takes care of handicapped seniors during the week. She’ll know just what to do.

It’s time for praise team practice. Ruth pushes the wheelchair lady into the church and we go to meet her. I’ll call her Queenie.

While we’re on the podium singing, Queenie takes food from one of several bags hanging from the handles of her chair and eats breakfast. When she finishes she takes out two small tablecloths and covers herself for warmth against the air conditioner.

I am fascinated by this person who would set out for church in her motorized wheel chair even though the church was ten miles from where she met the man who invited her and where she usually hangs out. Later, Ruth tells me Queenie can walk, but the wheelchair is her only means of transportation. I want to study this person, but that would require staring, so I just dart glances hoping she won’t catch me. She has a loud booming voice and I hear her tell her new retinue that she wants to sit in a chair. Four or five people help her get settled. The next thing I know she’s broadcasting over our singing into her cell phone.

We have a short break between Praise-team practice and church when I teach the children. I walk around a bit and then go into the Sunday School room to see if everything is ready. There’s Queenie snoozing on the floor with her wheelchair nearby. It’s a very small room and I’m eagerly expecting ten lively, curious beautiful children in a few seconds. I tell her I’m sorry, but we need the room. She somehow manages to leave.

Queenie must have gone back into the church because after Sunday School I pass the minister’s office and hear voices. Queenie is getting help and counseling and I’m glad. I like to see people loved and cared for and I do a fair share of it myself, but this time I minded my own business and I don’t regret it. There were plenty of people to help and my focus was to be on the praise team and the children.

That’s the sort of thing that happens when we’re really listening for God’s voice. He does say, “This is the way, walk ye in it,” (Isiah 30:21) but I don’t believe he meant for us to automatically jump into what we’ve been taught before we ask God what He thinks and what He wants us to think. The old way is to study the rules and follow them. The new way is to nurture the Spirit of God which lives in us and follow his leading all the time, in everything. (Hebrews 8:13).

Around the time when the, “What would Jesus do?” phase swept over our land I read, “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” (John 5:19) You know who said that, don’t you? You don’t have to figure out what you should do, you just have to ask the Father what He wants you to think and do. Number 1. Ask. Number 2. Think Number 3. Do or don’t do.

It may sound difficult, but it doesn’t take much time, and you can get into a habit with it. I’m just starting, but already I can see how much better it is to walk in that kind of contact with my Father in Heaven who loves me. You can live a well-ordered life if you learn to know and trust the One who gives the orders.

If you’d like to know more about this concept, study your Bible and also try Dr. Caroline Leaf online. She’s a cognitive (thinking) neuroscientist (brain and mind specialist) who is showing how science is finally catching up with the Bible.

 

 

 

 

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Will God answer my prayer? Five keys.

26 Mar

Walking by Faith, Not by Sight

Janet Perez Eckles

Janet Eckles Perez

03-18-16 keysI sat beside a delightful lady at a recent prayer gathering. She related with passion each of the steps of her healing from a devastating car accident.

“The healing was miraculous,” she said.

Broken bones healed with no need for casts, cuts on her face healed with no scars. And doctors said she would lose her teeth as they had turned gray because they began to die due to the severe impact. But God healed them as they turned white before her eyes, leaving the doctors stunned.

We all listened in awe. But after the astonishment subsides, do we sometimes wonder: Why aren’t our own prayers answered and why do miracles seem to pass us by?

I imagine Joni Erickson might have wondered the same from time to time while spending her life, paralyzed in that wheel chair.

But even when we question, God still insists for us to bring our requests before Him. (Philippians 4:6)

And when we do, here are five steps to make sure He will answer them:

  1. Readjust our priorities. If we seek the answer to our Prayer with more passion than we seek God Himself, His patience rather than answers is what will be at work. (Matthew 6:33)
  2. Resist the temptation to recite memorized, perfect prayers, with lovely words and deep insight. God simply wants the genuine expression of our heart. (1 Samuel 16:7)
  3. Recognize that sometimes we don’t know how to pray or what our requests should be. So we can freely ask for Him to show us what to pray for. (Psalm 139:23)
  4. Remember that His answer is always in His timing, not ours because a thousand years in God’s sight are like a day that has just gone by. (Psalm 90:4)
  5. Relish in the fact that while we wait, He’s working in us, in our heart, in our situation. He has the answered already prepared. (Ephesians 2:10)

Why follow these steps? Because “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him” (1 John 5:14–15).

Visit Janet’s blog to read more: Will God answer my prayer? Five keys. | Janet Perez Eckles

IN THE NEWS

Sometimes God says “yes,” sometimes he says, no,” and sometimes He says, “not yet.” The key is to trust Him no matter what the answer. My dear friend and I prayed for God’s hand to open doors in places where only He can. And this time His quick and clear “yes” left us in awe. I received an invitation to minister to women in Quito, Ecuador. I’m packing lots of gratitude in the suitcase of my heart.

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How to fight fear, three steps.

19 Mar

Walking by Faith, Not by Sight

Janet Perez Eckles

Janet Eckles Perez

 

 

03-15-16 Boxing gloves

Sometimes the biggest obstacle is the fear we pack in our suitcase when we travel through life.

We stood at the doorway of the hotel room. “Is there anything I can do for you?” the lady who picked me up from the airport asked.

“Well…thanks,” I said, “only one thing…can you go in the bathroom and tell me which is the shampoo and which is the body lotion?”

Strange question, isn’t it? Well, when you are blind and the hotel room is a foreign place, a bit of navigating is needed to get familiar. But the tough part, the really tough part is determining which is which among those little containers lined up on the bathroom counter.

I learned the hard way. I’ve shampooed with body lotion. And yuck, I have spread shampoo on my body, assuming it was body lotion. I’m okay with that because all that’s part of the adventure when I travel to speaking engagements.

But, this true story made me think twice about staying in a hotel room alone:

Some years ago my husband was traveling in Europe, and he would leave me alone with only my maid in a large house, far from neighbors. One night, after my habitual reading of the Bible and prayers, I went to bed. As soon as I entered our room, I saw, in the mirror, the reflection of a man hiding behind the wardrobe. I was terrified and thought of screaming for help, but I knew it would be useless.

Determined to trust in God, I walked with trembling legs, and with as brave a heart as possible, took my Bible that was on top of a small table and sat in the chair nearby. I started to read in a loud voice chapter 53 of Isaiah, and then knelt down and started to pray asking God for His protection against thieves and every kind of evil.

Then I got up and sat in the chair again. I felt a hand touch my shoulder and a voice saying: “Don’t be afraid. You are safe. I came here to rob this house, but this chapter is the one my mother used to read to me, and your prayer reminded me of her prayers. I am going away now. You don’t need to be afraid of anything.

She saw the shadow, but being blind, I’d never see one. But know what? Fear never moves in with me in any hotel room or anywhere. And it won’t with you either if you believe in these three promises in Isaiah 41:10.

  1. God’s presence is with us: “Fear not; for I am with you…”
  2. No intruder is a match to His power because He says, “…be not dismayed; for I am your God…”
  3. He will come to our aid when fear tries to make us weak. He said, “I will strengthen you…”
  4. He will come to our aid when fear attacks our thoughts. He says, “I will help you…”
  5. His protection is stronger than any outside force. He promises, “Yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness.”

No matter where you travel, I invite you to make a reservation in the hotel of His grace. That’s where fear dies and faith grows.

Visit Janet’s website and sign up for a free gift: How to fight fear, three steps. | Janet Perez Eckles

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Four things you must do when facing a plate full of issues.

5 Mar

Walking by Faith, Not by Sight

Janet Perez Eckles

Janet Eckles Perez

4

Recently, someone asked me the same question many have before:

When you lose one sense, like in your case, your eyesight, is it true that other senses develop and sharpen?”

“Sure is,” I said, “in my case it’s my sense of humor.”

I looked toward the mirror; I never have a bad hair day. And when you can’t see, eating can be fun, too. With a plate full of food before me, every bit is a surprise and meals end up being an adventure.

But it’s quite different when life presents a plate full of difficult issues. We look closely at all of them, and before we know it, we get a bad case of emotional indigestion. Here is how to avoid it:

  1. Use each challenge as a channel to taste God’s grace.
  2. Use every disappointment, heartache and even tragedy as an opportunity to savor the sweetness of God’s comfort.
  3. Use each moment of joy, triumph and success is a chance to delight in His provision.
  4. Use each setback as an opportunity to sit back and wait in expectation.

If you’re in that place right now–facing tough, painful issues, I invite you to close your eyes. Let your soul savor God’s promises. His promises that say He is at work in that situation. He’s about to bring the solution. And until He does, he’s holding you ever, ever so close. “How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (Psalm 119: 103)

Source: Four things you must do when facing a plate full of issues. | Janet Perez Eckles

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Three Bible Truths That Struck Fear in my Heart

18 Feb

On the Porch

Onisha Elllis

I'm a winner

Last week as I tried to write this blog, I couldn’t seem to put my thoughts together so I decided to let it rest for a week. I posted my first ever “teaser” and used that time to mull and pray for clarity of thought and words. Until age twelve I spent a lot of time at church. My mother was a Sunday School teacher, my dad a deacon as well as the Training Union director and they both sang in the choir. ( It was a wonderful choir). When they were needed at church, I was there too. Although there were some people who did not behave in a loving, Godly manner, most appeared to be genuine believers, whose desire was to serve God. It was in that church where I gave my heart to Christ and learned how much he loved me.

Lucerne Park Baptist Church, Orlando, Florida

Lucerne Park Baptist Church, Orlando, Florida

Over the years I  heard a LOT of sermons, good ones too. Yet there were three teachings of Jesus that I feared:

  • Don’t be a milk drinker
  • The gate to heaven is narrow
  • I never knew you.

I didn’t see how my imperfect self could ever measure up.

Don’t be a milk drinker

The passage that admonished me to not drink milk is Hebrews 12:13-14. Verse 13 reads:

 For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.

milk-glass-frisch-healthy-drink-nutritious-krug-2

Sermons based on this verse admonished me to stop needing to be spoon fed and grow up.  I turned to Biblegateway to get a more readable translation and found The Message Version.

11-14 I have a lot more to say about this, but it is hard to get it across to you since you’ve picked up this bad habit of not listening. By this time you ought to be teachers yourselves, yet here I find you need someone to sit down with you and go over the basics on God again, starting from square one—baby’s milk, when you should have been on solid food long ago! Milk is for beginners, inexperienced in God’s ways; solid food is for the mature, who have some practice in telling right from wrong.

Sometimes it seemed that as soon as I started on the solid food of  God’s word, I would relapse to the milk diet. I worried that I was stalled there forever, destined to be a milk drinker.

The gate to heaven is narrow. Matthew 7:13-14  worried me a lot during my childhood and early adult years.

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” NIV

I was surrounded by Godly people. How was my mess of a life going to fit through that gate?

Woman crossing suspension bridge

 

In my lifetime, I have seen a trend to “widen the tent” or in this case, the gate. The Message translation explains this far better than I can.

13-14 “Don’t look for shortcuts to God. The market is flooded with surefire, easygoing formulas for a successful life that can be practiced in your spare time. Don’t fall for that stuff, even though crowds of people do. The way to life—to God!—is vigorous and requires total attention. “

This one doesn’t frighten me now. I believe that narrow gate will hold all who earnestly seek the ways of the Savior.

I never knew you. My heart quaked when I considered this scripture, Luke 13:27

 But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. NIV

Puzzled girl

 

How could he say that?

Once again, I turned to The Message and read several more verses.

23-25 A bystander said, “Master, will only a few be saved?”

He said, “Whether few or many is none of your business. Put your mind on your life with God. The way to life—to God!—is vigorous and requires your total attention. A lot of you are going to assume that you’ll sit down to God’s salvation banquet just because you’ve been hanging around the neighborhood all your lives. Well, one day you’re going to be banging on the door, wanting to get in, but you’ll find the door locked and the Master saying, ‘Sorry, you’re not on my guest list.’

26-27 “You’ll protest, ‘But we’ve known you all our lives!’ only to be interrupted with his abrupt, ‘Your kind of knowing can hardly be called knowing. You don’t know the first thing about me.’

Banquet room

 

I love how Jesus admonished them to mind their own business and to put their mind on their own life with God. I have learned that spending time with God is not giving him my list of daily requests, rather it is daily giving myself to him. I confess, I am still learning.

Many, many years ago, DiVoran Lites shared with  me her theory of fiery darts and I have never forgotten it. To paraphrase, Satan has a bundle of darts at his disposal and he chooses ones that will attack weakness.

For me he attacked the maturity of my faith (milk drinker), my worthiness to enter Christ’s kingdom (narrow gate)  and my fear of being rejected ( I never knew you). DiVoran suggested that when those darts arrived, I should mentally reject them and return them to the sender. I do this by claiming God’s word in my life, especially the verses that I call my “cling-tos”

I’d like to share with you one of my favorite “cling-to” verses.

Romans 8:38-39

38 For I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can’t, and life can’t. The angels won’t, and all the powers of hell itself cannot keep God’s love away. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, 39 or where we are—high above the sky, or in the deepest ocean—nothing will ever be able to separate us from the love of God demonstrated by our Lord Jesus Christ when he died for us

Nothing, nothing  can separate me from his love! Isn’t that the best? .

 

“See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands.” -Isaiah 49_16a_-2

 

 

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A teaser for next week’s blog

11 Feb

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

I'm a winner

 

I seem to be needing to use some extra brain power and Divine inspiration to put this weeks planned blog together. So here is a teaser.

Three Bible Truths That Struck Fear in my Young Heart

 

  • Don’t be a milk drinker

  • The gate to heaven is narrow

  • I never knew you.

I’m not sure about the title. Is truths the best word choice for those verses that bounce around in one’s head creating doubt and fear?

Sad dog under covers

 

 

 

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Perspective – Circumstances

8 Jan

 

 

This touched a tender part of my heart today~Onisha

 

god-breathed

Treasure Beach, Jamaica, is an earthly paradise, but in this beautiful place you can also find extreme examples of land and seascape: warm inviting water, threatening jagged reef. Like the photograph, life is so often a portrait in extremes. In the hours of one day it is possible to experience the sweetest, uplifting highs, only to find yourself cut to bits by unexpected, devastating lows. We’ve all experienced these contradictory days. Yet, through it all one fact holds true, the Word of God stands eternal. Whatever I am going through in my life, whatever injurious circumstance I, or someone I love, might be experiencing; the Word of God is a lifeline if I reach out and open the book.

 

 

Please be sure to read the rest of this: Perspective – Circumstances

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Anticipating heaven. | Janet Perez Eckles

12 Dec

Walking by Faith, Not by Sight

Janet Perez Eckles

Janet Eckles Perez

 

Once in a lifetime you meet somebody that prompts you to say, “I want to be just like her.” Let me tell you about Karen. Like millions, she has faced cancer, but hers is a rare type;., the survival rate is alarmingly small. Yet, for years, she has defied all odds and survived its claim on her health. But Karen hasn’t just survived; she is living her days to the fullest. Though years of treatment have zapped her energy, she keeps going, again, defying all odds, baffling all doctors.

But Karen has another secret: she has no fear of death. She knows Christ. She knows heaven awaits her. And certain of her eternity, her courage can fill her hospice room. Karen displays the confidence few possess. She has even taken her husband shopping for the suit he will wear at her funeral.

Like many of us have chosen the centerpiece for the table at our wedding reception, Karen has chosen her tombstone which you see in this picture. (click link below to visit Janet’s blog) Could it be that Karen was put on this earth to fulfill God’s unique plan and also to teach the rest of us that death cannot bring about fear? Death of the physical body is the doorway to life eternal, the beginning of the perfect life, and the anticipation of glorious living.

As of this writing, Karen has been told it’s only a very short time before she faces Jesus. But she holds to her faith. She has all plans in place.

She has prepared her family. And in doing so, perhaps she prepares us to see her example, so that we, someday like Karen, will declare the words of Paul: “Where, O death is your victory? Where, O death is your sting?” “…

Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 16:55 and 57) Has Christ who lives in you also erased the sting of death?

Read more:  Anticipating heaven. | Janet Perez Eckles

 

I’m working on a new book. And this time, a hot topic will fill its pages:

• What does God say about immigration?

• Does His law contradict man’s law?

• Is deception justified when facing desperation?

The answers will be in the book…and as always, I’m in prayer for wisdom and God’s favor.

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