Healing Your Wounded Heart – Your Greatest Day – By Thomas Koester

Don’t live with the pain. Time is not the Healer of all wounds; that’s a lie. God is the Healer.

“Keep thy heart more than anything that is guarded; for from it flows the issues of life.” Proverbs 4:23

“A wound where there are no tears is a wound that cannot be healed.” Author, John Eldredge – Ransomed Heart Ministries

A splinter under the skin, if left alone and ignored will eventually fester to a point of infection. Your body is rejecting the foreign object no matter how small it is, the pain calls out for your attention. If you ignore it too long, you could end up in the emergency room.

How about your heart?

Why ignore the pain?

Your heart is more precious than a finger; you can live without a finger, but you cannot live without your heart.

Sometimes we’re strong in the wrong things and at the wrong times, but to be weak in the right things and with a humble heart, can get God’s attention.

If you are hurting, in pain and are crushed in spirit, heart, and soul, you may be at the greatest turning point of your life. You may actually be dwelling with God in a high and protected place, but you must share your tears with God, or you’ll be swallowed up in bitterness and left alone on earth.

Isaiah 57:15

“The high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, the Holy One, says this: I live in that high and holy place where those with contrite, humble spirits dwell; and I refresh the humble and give new courage to those with repentant hearts.”

Psalm 51:17

“The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. God, You will not despise a broken and humbled heart.”

Let God encounter your tears, after all, He is the Everlasting Father. Share it with Him as your sacrifice. Come to Him crushed, broken, betrayed; come to Him rejected and despised. His Son, Jesus is well acquainted with all of this and more. He allows it to touch your life, not to destroy you, but to draw you closer to Himself.

God wants to father you…

Simply trust and turn to God and surrender your right to be offended; your anger for being abused; your self hatred for being molested, raped, and violated. God specializes with hurting and wounded people, and He’d rather be with you than with kings and queens.

The moment you offer up to God your tears and pain, you are with Him in spirit and in truth.

Isaiah 42:3

“He will not break the bruised reed, nor quench the dimly burning flame. He will encourage the fainthearted, those tempted to despair. He will see full justice given to all who have been wronged.”

God won’t exploit your bruises. He’ll not snuff out your heart, even if its barely beating and you feel life is over.

God desires to be your daddy…

Give it all over to God. If you do, He’ll see to it that justice is served, and you can give your revenge a proper burial.

Then, you’ll knock down your walls of despair and make them into a dance floor and you’ll dance with your Abba, just as He’s always wanted.

Don’t live with the pain. Time is not the Healer of all wounds, that’s a lie.

God is the Healer of all wounds, and He’s waiting to hear your cries directed towards Him, so that He may act.

“O my people in Jerusalem, you shall weep no more, for he will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. He will answer you.” Isaiah 30:19

Give it up to God. Let it out and drink in God’s presence and love, and so be healed and restored.

Become healed in the name of Jesus! He came to seek out the lost and broken, and there is no one he cannot save or heal.

Isaiah wrote about the mission of Jesus centuries before He arrived:

“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor…

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.” Isaiah 61: 1-3

You see, God wants to do an exchange with you, He’ll give you beauty, joy, and praise for all your ashes, mourning, and despair. It happened with me, and it could happen for you too.

This may be one of your greatest days!

Your heart and soul are God’s specialty. He wants to heal your heart and set you free!

The Rapid Collapse of America – By Thomas Koester

“If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” Psalms 11:3

While the collapsing of America has been slowly plodding since it’s inception some 246 years ago, in these past few decades, and especially these past two years, it has accelerated to breakneck speed. Like a speeding locomotive, too heavy and too fast to stop.

Historically, every failed Nation or civilization has indeed gone through what America and Western culture is currently going through. The key phrase here is “every failed Nation or civilization.”

What America is currently undergoing is the rapid decline of our freedoms of the many for the sake of individual liberties of the degenerate and the immorality of the few. Those with political power will ride the inevitable cultural implosion to greater power and dictatorial control. This is by design and not by coincidence.

Again, this is not a new paradigm but a “rinse and repeat” cycle of history and what happens with apathetic, contemporary people unwilling to learn from past historical mistakes. The treasures of historical knowledge has been purposely engineered out of our educational institutions, and unwittingly to the average American citizen and student.

This, by no means, excuses the average American citizen but is a sad and factual commentary of our collective willingness to seek pleasure and policies of appeasement in exchange for governmental control and free goodies.

In reality, we’ve all chosen to worship America and all its bounty rather than the God of Heaven, Earth’s only Redeemer.

“If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” Psalms 11:3.

Unfortunately, 21 Century Christianity has been too preoccupied with Church. You may not think so, but darkness does, and the Lord of Darkness celebrates our easy relinquishment of the Church’s Kingdom of God duties and responsibilities. If the Church had been occupied with the Kingdom of God as an occupying force for King Jesus, we would not be this far down the river, and perhaps the “foundations” could’ve been repaired.

Our task was to occupy until He came — To preach the Gospel of the Kingdom, to bless the world with the rule and reign of God’s Son. Not hasten the day of destruction because of our misguided disengagement, our pre-tribulation theory, and premillennial exfiltration madness.

As surely as the sun rises in the East, our future leaders will be as degenerate, morally vacant, and deranged as the voters that vote them into power. Our ignominious milestones of the first this, or the first that; the first gay Senator, first transgender Congressman, first Islamic-Extremist Representative, and our first LGBTQUIZ President, etc. will become the millstone of slavery around every citizen’s neck; rich or poor, black or white, gay or straight, liberal or conservative.

Unapologetically, the only option for recovery and change is to turn away from our individual and corporate sins, repent, and turn wholeheartedly to God — without delay, seeking His forgiveness for our willful disregard of His laws, and the greatest gift given to all humanity, that is Jesus Christ, God’s only way of salvation.

Without the Church’s acknowledgment of Jesus Christ as Lord and King, America’s greatness will undoubtedly collapse, and not even Donald J. Trump or Ron DeSantis can make America Great Again.

It is my hope and prayer, as I’m sure it is yours also, that our better days as a people and a Nation are yet before us. But this is all up to God and not up to a politician or political party. The two things that can change the fate of this Nation is a repentant Church and praying Saints.

Can I get an amen?

The Children of A Lesser God, Part 2 – By Thomas Koester

This is Part 2 of my first two-part article about the plight of 21st Century American Christianity.

My “fued,” if you will, is not against the true Church or authentic Christianity. It is an article of warning, challenge, and calling out believers that have been sold a false god, making them into a lesser child.

Nehemiah prays for God’s children…

“Behold, we are slaves this day; in the land that you gave to our fathers to enjoy its fruit and its good gifts, behold, we now are slaves. And its rich yield goes to the kings whom you have set over us because of our sins. They rule over our bodies and over our livestock as they please, and we are in great distress.” Nehemiah 9:36-37

Politicians, Legislators and Presidents will not return us to a Great People or a Great Nation, but confession and repentance of God’s People will.

Nehemiah continues…

“But they- our ancestors behaved presumptuously; they rebelled and did not obey your commandments. They refused to obey and did not recall your miracles that you had performed among them. Instead, they rebelled and appointed a leader to return to their bondage. Nehemiah 9:16-17

Jeremiah laments…

Death Is on the Prowl

God ‘s Message yet again:

“Go stand at the crossroads and look around. Ask for directions to the old road, The tried and true road. Then take it. Discover the right route for your souls.

But they said,

“Nothing doing. We aren’t going that way.”

I even provided watchmen for them to warn them, to set off the alarm. But the people said,

“It’s a false alarm. It doesn’t concern us.”

And so I’m calling in the nations as witnesses:

“Watch, witnesses, what happens to them!”

And,’ Pay attention, earth! Don’t miss these bulletins. I’m visiting catastrophe on this people, the end result of the games they’ve been playing with me. They’ve ignored everything I’ve said, had nothing but contempt for my teaching. Jeremiah 6:16-19

We’ve exchanged the Glorious Gospel for a seeker friendly message so as to build our Churches in numbers rather than faithfulness to God and His ways.

We’ve changed the blood of the New Covenant, the precious blood of our Lord and Savior, into that of the blood of animals, and we therefore proclaim people sinless by emotions rather by repentance and faith. We teach tolerance but not obedience. We preach the Love of God trumps all other attributes of the one and only True Living God of Scripture. Who’s wrath against sin and those who make sin their lifestyle still remains. Though they know it or not, their day of judgment is being held back.

Faith, belief, repentance, and obedience to The risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ is mankind’s only escape from the wrath of God. For who needs to be saved from a God of Love? And, if we only preach God’s love and tolerance, what becomes of the shed blood of Jesus Christ? And, for what purpose does his death serve if God is only Love?

Our Country was found on Christian and moral principles, and by the rule of law. America became a people of renown, of freedom, liberty, and justice for all.

Our Nation was lost because we pastors and churches have abandoned our Christian principles and our moral standing under God and before the nations. We’ve abandoned the preaching of the cross and the resurrection of our only Redeemer. Sadly, the resurrection of Jesus Christ and his birth have become nothing more than semi-religious holidays.

We have full churches, but empty Christians. We have Christian couples fornicating, but freely worshiping. We have Christian marriages adulterating but actively serving. We have Christian youth sexually experimenting with their bodies, but attend warm gatherings and rallies for Christ. We’ve trained them with double standards, one set for school and the other for church. Our youth of tomorrow are the double standards of today’s adults. And all this is just fine?

Our Nation is lost not because the ungodly sin, but because the righteous practice, tolerate, and preach a distorted and confusing relationship with God!

The condition of the Church is directly related to the condition of our pastors; to the messages they preach, and the duplicity they tolerate. All in exchange for notoriety, fame and market share of transient Christians, and the unsaved seeking a friendly Sunday morning message. We’ve become more excited about a new visitor rather than a new saint.

One Wednesday evening service my Senior Pastor allowed me to preach a message titled: “Children of A Lessor God.” When I stopped preaching, people were weeping in their seats and falling on there knees at the alter. My Senior Pastor and I had to literally and carefully step around and over our repentant brothers and sisters, and began praying for them one by one. Others came forward to assist us with prayer or join their brothers and sisters.

After things quieted down, I will never forget what my Senior Pastor said:

“There is no way you can preach that way on a Sunday morning.”

I was both confused and shocked! It is precisely why our Churches and Christians are in the state that they are in because we don’t preach the Truth of God’s Word nor preach Christ Crucified to redeem sinners from God’s terrible wrath.

When we refuse to preach the weightiness of God, people will not experience the weightiness of their sins, and God then becomes less in their lives.

We have become children of a lesser God and therefore have a lesser Church, lesser Nation, and have become a lesser people.

Many years ago, between 1975 – 1978, I was attending two churches. The Walnut Creek Christian Reformed Church was the church my parents brought my siblings and me to. The second church, Concord Christian Center, was the church my girlfriend attended, which I visited from time to time.

At the Walnut Creek Christian Reformed Church, they read the Ten Commandments each Sunday service. The Ten Commandments were presented as God’s goodness and grace to his people. The Reverend taught in an expository manner, being faithful to context and textual meaning.

At Concord Christian Center, there was no reading of God’s law and, honestly, very little reading of the Scriptures. The worship part of the service was the highlight, with a full course band, singers, and highly emotional songs. The pastor’s messages, while loosely based on Scripture, were mostly topical, centering on physical blessings and prosperity. This church adopted the high school that I would eventually graduate from in June 1978.

At CCC, several marriages ended. Many of the divorced married other ex-spouses within the church. Fornication and adultery were not uncommon. While CCC may have been a fun and exciting place to worship and fellowship, the people there became lesser as God was lesser. This is one of my pivotal experiences that lead me to preach on a Wednesday evening service, “Children of A Lesser God,” back in 2007.

So, just as the Israelites wanted to go back to Egypt, our nation is headed back to Europe, the very place our founding fathers had fled. The ancient Israelites wanted to go back to Egypt, to return to slavery under a new Pharaoh. We seem to be headed into a new style of slavery by unelected bureaucrats, technocrats, and globalists. We want this 21st Century enslavement because we see ourselves as a lesser people.

It’s up to God’s people to stand strong as His Chosen People, as His Holy Nation and a Royal Priesthood of True Believers! We must shake off our false identity as Children of a Lesser god and be His Children of The Great and Mighty God, God of the Angel Armies!

Do you want to be a great people, a great man, or a great woman? A great nation? Then reject the lesser god of your life, cast him off like a worn-out shirt.

If you’re attending a church that emphasizes a false and fake gospel, a tolerant love guru, a genie god, or a Geico god, where it’s “so easy, a caveman can do it.” Find a God-honoring Church that worships God in Spirit and in Truth. A Church that aids you in becoming a Child of The Great God of Creation.

So goes the Church, so goes the Nation.

Where in The Heaven Are You? – By Thomas Koester

Until the “world” has been removed from you, you are no good to the Church or world. It is all about your proximity and not your prosperity! It is not what you have but rather where you are.

“Proximity,” definition: nearness in place, time, order, occurrence, or relation.

Life comes to us in seasons. It unfolds like a story. Until we move with the Spirit of God, according to our individual story and cooperate in the seasons he has ordained, we will be of little eternal use to God. Our proximity needs to change from running away from God, to drawing near to him. And, at times this may be what’s behind the difficult seasons you go through. Remember the story of Jonah? He could not out run God, and his running from God was making him awful company.

Sometimes “surviving” is an ordained season from the Lord. Sometimes he takes us, one by one into the wilderness to remove worldliness from us. While simply living at “survival mode” may not be our choice, it may indeed be the season the Lord has ordered. We should not look to be removed from the world, rather we should look to have the world removed from us. A trip through the Land-of-Not-Enough (survival) sometimes leads us to the Land-of-Worshiping-Him.

Why did God want his people to be set free from Egypt?

Was it so he could lead them into the promised land, flowing with milk and honey?

Nope!

It was so His people may come to the wilderness to worship Him there!

Exodus 7:16 (New International Version)

“Then say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to say to you: Let my people go, so that they may worship me in the desert.”

God chose a unique people to show the world that he is a unique God. His first step was to bring his people into the desert. A land of just surviving, so that his people could learn to live in the Land-of-More-Than-Enough. The Land-of-Just-Surviving, trained his people not to forget Him, while they were to live in a land of worldly treasures. Since they so quickly refused God’s process of removing Egypt from them and the reproach of a “slave mentality,” God allowed his people to linger for a generation in the Land-of-Not-Enough, living at a basic survival mode with God as their sole (soul) provider.

Stop using the methods of the world to transform his people. We are not meant to be a “subculture” but a counterculture. We think we need to resemble the world in order to reach the world? God forbid!

We have got to maintain our worship of God. Our only hope in doing so, is to get the world out of us. You cannot use the same tools the world uses for worldliness and expect to be transformed into a spiritual people.

2 Corinthians 10 (New Living Translation)

“We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God.”

1 Peter 2:11 (New Living Translation)

“Dear friends, I warn you as “temporary residents and foreigners” to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls.”

Unauthorized acts of Righteousness

I would caution you to be careful of what you parrot when reading books of men, and mimicking the ways of “rock stars.” There are many worldly ministers and authors who are too accustomed to worldly ways to be of any spiritual good. It may seem good here on earth and may produce results, but will it be recognized in heaven and will the “results” be eternal?

It’s not the ministry outcome, which should be measured, but rather it’s method. If it is a worldly method, no matter what the result or outcome, it is lawlessness and an abomination to the Lord. The definition of “lawlessness,” is unauthorized acts. In the biblical sense it means “unauthorized acts of righteousness.”

Wow! How can righteousness be considered evil acts? Let’s take a look…

Matthew 7: 21-23 (ESV):

I Never Knew You

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

You see, your proximity is far more important than your prosperity, far more important than your talent, your “bling-power” or your religious glittering image. Proximity has to do with the nearness of your relationship with God. Not your talent, not your “anointing,” and not your wealth!

It’s not “what you do” as a Christian or minister of the Gospel; it’s not how many demon butts you kick, how many prophetic words you speak or how fluent your prayer language is. It’s not how many show up for your concerts or sermons; how many people make a decision for the Lord because of your fine singing, powerful preaching, or earth-shattering-mighty-works of God. If it is not done in accordance with the will of our Father in heaven, it is unauthorized acts of righteousness and it stinks to high-heaven. Only those who do the will of the Father, are those who know and are known by the Father in heaven. You can’t practice righteousness apart from intimately knowing God as “Father!” No matter how warm and fuzzy it makes you, and your audience feel.

You are so lost…

Lost in yourself, lost in your ministry and lost in your “so-called good works.” How lost are you? Worse yet, how lost are your disciples? Those you’ve taught, those who follow your every move and ministry trick. It may not be the stage of life you learn of your errors, but the throne of God, at Judgment Day. Repent of your lawlessness. It’s not about just doing it right, but by knowing God as Father and then doing His will, His way.

Which is better, a Worldly Church or a Churchy World? Get the world out of the Church and you will have a Church which will change the world. Our value to the Church is our clean hands from worldliness. A corrupt pastor can only corrupt, no matter how pretty and charismatic he may be, underneath and behind the scenes, he may be falling apart, but before the Church he’s Johnny-on-the-spot.

It has been too long since Christianity has produced authentic saints of God. Men and women who’ve not bowed to Baal (worldliness), nor kissed his feet, that is to tolerate sin within and without. You become what you worship, and you’ll eventually act out what is within your heart. It is far better to confess to a brother in this life now, rather than it being exposed in the Halls of Heaven and at the Throne of God.

If seasons of survival, living in the Land-of-Not-Enough, are the surest way towards righteousness and clean hands, then let us all travel there for a season of change. It is our part to wash our robes.

Revelation 22:14 (The Message)

“How blessed are those who wash their robes! The Tree of Life is theirs for good, and they’ll walk through the gates to the City. But outside for good are the filthy curs: sorcerers, fornicators, murderers, idolaters—all who love and live lies.”

Job 17:9 (New Living Translation)

“The righteous keep moving forward,

and those with clean hands become stronger and stronger.”

Jonah 2:8 (New International Version)

“Those who cling to worthless idols

forfeit the grace that could be theirs.”

Mark 8:36 (New International Version)

“What good is it for a man to gain the whole world,

yet forfeit his soul?”

Where in the Heaven are you?

Find a trusted friend and let him know where you truly are, so that you may find the needed rest for your weary soul.

Jeremiah 6:16 (TLB)

“Yet the Lord pleads with you still: Ask where the good road is, the godly paths you used to walk in, in the days of long ago. Travel there, and you will find rest for your souls. But you reply, “No, that is not the road we want!”

Yes, it is the road you want. It only takes twenty seconds to do the right thing.

Become so heavenly-minded that you’ll do earthly good. Maybe you’ll be recognized in heaven!

My Allergic Reaction To Asking For Help – By Thomas Koester

Isn’t it true that there are a ton of things that people are allergic to? Wheat, nuts, milk, eggs, bees, cats, dogs, etc. How about being allergic to asking for help?

You see, that’s my problem, I may not have food allergies, but I am allergic to asking for help. I have a terrible time asking for it, and this can cause a lot of pain in my life; you know, like backaches, neck pain, and all kinds of body aches and anxieties.

Therefore I amass too much for my shoulders to bear. We are to share one another’s burdens; this is true, but the burdens we do take on must be within the boundaries of God’s will. And this is where I get into trouble. I resist God’s will for lack of patients and a sense of urgency.

In Fall 2013, I loaded myself up like a pack mule. I can’t count how many times my wife, Toni, would be frustrated seeing me loaded down with stuff. Like a macho man – okay, like a macho idiot, I try to move or carry everything in one trip.

Well, I was off on a business trip, with my loaded backpack, luggage in my left hand, and several shirts and a coat in my right hand, headed downstairs in a hurry.

Suddenly, my left foot scuffed the carpet enough at the midpoint landing, causing my left foot to skip a few steps. My 255 pound body, backpack, and luggage caused my left quadriceps to snap like a dried twig and shred apart. The momentum flung me like Superman the rest of the way to the first floor! I nearly cleared the entry way, landing half my body into the dining room! The entry and dining room floor is solid oak.

Being allergic to asking for help nearly killed me. After the surgery, it laid me up for three months. Which, by the way, gave me ample time to learn an important lesson…

…Go for lighter burdens!

Jesus said: “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matt 11:30

“Are you tired and burned out on religion? Then come away with me, and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me, and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” Matt 11:28-30

So, I take this time to reflect and reset my attitude and train myself to trust the will and purpose of God, and taking on the easy yoke of Christ. I desperately need the lighter burdens of his call on my life. I need the freedom to be a child of God once again, and not the “big independent guy” that looks like he’s got it all together.

To be more than what I am called to be as a son, brother, husband, and father is where pride will gain the upper hand, and ignoring actual shouts of “no” or “too much” from within. If I refuse, the false self and poser will lead to my destruction. Any person in ministry and in life, must live and act within the constraints of true and genuine humility or become a destructive force against their community, family, and their own life.

Jesus preaches to the crowd…

“Say only yes if you mean yes, and no if you mean no. If you say more than yes or no, it is from the Evil One.” Matt 5:37

Nothing but the Cross

“Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. It would help if you had forgiveness before the day’s out. Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ’s law. If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived.” Gal. 6: 1-3.

It’s all about burden sharing, a little of mine, for a little of yours.

Oh, and by the way, take care of your allergies, especially your allergy, asking for help!