A Home for Your Wounded Heart – By Thomas Koester

“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds” Psalms 147:3

“A wound where there is no weeping, writes, John Eldreged, is a wound that cannot be healed.” Your wounded heart can be healed. But you must share your wounded heart with God.

Wounds and scars, whether physical or emotional are essential to being human. It happens to all of us. The following is written on the back of my business card:

“Living a scarless life is not living at all. Sometimes our greatest triumphs lie in our greatest defeats. In all things, I am a child of God and never a victim. I do not, therefore, interpret tragic circumstances as mishaps, but a divinely scheduled trip to God’s beauty salon.”

If we only see ourselves as a victim in every crisis, loss, or betrayal, we deny the very instrument and tool for which God is doing his best work in us. When you refuse to become the victim and instead respond in praise and thanksgiving to God, you, therefore, thwart darkness and defeat the devil.

The devil wants you to wallow in bitterness and anguish. He wants you paralyzed, frozen in time and eternity with a wounded and broken heart. He knows that a heart not healed will keep you from God, keep you from salvation.

The old saying, “time heals all wounds,” is not from the Bible, it’s from the devil!

This is why Jesus of Nazareth read from Isaiah 61: 1

“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 heal and bind up the brokenhearted…”

Matter of fact, Jesus’ reading of the Isaiah passage was the official announcement of his earthly ministry.

The Psalmist, King David, penned:

“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds” Psalms 147:3

Job 2:9-10

“His wife said to him, “Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die!”

He replied, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.”

God is in control – He’s not only our Creator, but He’s our Father also. He touches our lives with wisdom and cares for us greater than our earthly fathers. He’s preparing us for eternity with Him and His actions are always with this in mind.

The devil wants you, if possible, to never meet your Heavenly Father. If he can’t prevent that, he’ll at least pervert it, by causing your earthly father to wound your heart and soul. When our hearts bare the scars of father’s wounds, it is so hard, if not impossible to trust God as our Everlasting Father.

And this is the central theme of Jesus’ ministry; to rescue you from the penalty of sin and the grip of the devil, and to heal your broken heart so that salvation can come to you.

“No one can come to the Father, said Jesus, except through me.” John 14:6

Your heart must be healed because it is to become your Heavenly Father’s dwelling place.

He alone is the home for your wounded heart. Trust him, He’s making you beautiful inside and out.

The Prodigal Father – Turning Your Heart Towards Your Children – By Thomas Koester

Don’t wait for your kids to find your heart, be brave and pursue theirs. It’ll change everything!

Before a nation collapses, the family collapses. Before a family collapses, the father collapses. Therefore, the fall of nations is the failure of fathers.

After a three-year hiatus due to the pandemic, Toni and I finally went to a movie theater in Angels Camp, California, to watch the sequel, “Avatar: The Way of Water.” We watched it in 3D at 48 frames per second. Wow!

The movie’s subtitle should have read, “The Way of Fathers.”

While the cinematography, special effects, action, and acting were all superb, the portrayal of the father’s role was unmistakable and powerful! Matter of fact so was the mother’s role. The importance of parents and family is something we rarely see in movies produced in Holywood.

While James Cameron wrote a fantastic story and script, the importance of fathers taking responsibility for their children was something to behold. Just like in the world of Avatar, our world needs strong, uncompromising fathers to survive!

I see the role and importance of fathers in the Bible, from the first chapter of Genesis to the last chapter of the Book of Revelations. From the last book of the Old Testament, the final chapter, and the last two verses, and to the opening of the New Testament, in the Book of Luke, chapter one, verses fifteen through seventeen.

Malachi 4: 5-6 (Last Old Testament Book)

“Look, I am sending you the prophet Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the Lord arrives. His preaching will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers. Otherwise, I will come and strike the land with a curse.”

Luke 1: 15-17 (One of the First New Testament Books)

15, ff “…And he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even in his mother’s womb. 16 And he will turn many of the children of Israel to their Lord God. 17, And he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the unbelievers to the wisdom of the just men: to make the people ready for the Lord.”

John the Baptist was the second Elijah spoken about in the Book of Malachi. It was his job to stir the hearts of fathers to their sons and daughters. Otherwise, the mission of Jesus to reconcile the lost sons and daughters of Israel to his Heavenly Father would have met hardened hearts.

Our roles as fathers are not only the most significant societal and cultural role; it is the single most important relational/spiritual role our children can have here on earth. Malachi is pointing out that a father’s estrangement (absence) from his children has the potential of cursing our land and creating avenues of destruction throughout our cities and towns. Estranged and absent fathers make ungodly and rebellious children. It also hardens the children’s hearts against the love of God, his Heavenly Father’s role, and ultimately His plan of salvation for them.

Do you fathers understand your role and responsibility in God’s plan of salvation for your children? You will be held to account. Do you want to stand before God as a deadbeat dad?

There can be no more significant failure in a man’s life than to turn his back on his marriage and children.

The career is not worth it. An affair is not worth it. Money is not worth it. One more drink is not worth it. Your girlfriend is not worth it. Even your “ministry” is not worth the sacrifice of your children.

Suppose you’re on the fence about your marriage and your responsibility for your children. Suppose you’ve walked out of your marriage and your kids’ lives. Suppose you’re in an affair or about to enter one. Even the promotion in work or ministry could take you away from your wife and kids. Consider the impact on their lives and future and our culture before you walk off the cliff of selfishness. It is not worth it, men!

Go back home to the wife of your first love. Go back home to the family you’ve left behind. Go back home to the most extraordinary life a man can live. Rescue your wife, save your children and save your legacy!

Reconciliation becomes possible when fathers turn their hearts back towards their children, taking responsibility and becoming accountable for them. To reverse the curse, which is undeniably present in our culture, we fathers must turn back to God and walk in His ways so that we can again point our children to a greater Father to embrace, love, and walk with throughout their lifetime.

The success of marriage and unconditional commitment to our wives and children must exceed the failure rate of broken families and absent fathers. If this tide cannot be turned, then as Malachi has prophetically declared, our land will indeed become cursed and worsen rapidly.

Repair the breach, men! Turn your hearts back towards your sons and daughters. Repair your marriages and live up to your commitments. Turn your hearts back to God and walk with Him as your True Father and listen to His advice and wise counsel. After all, He is the Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Wonderful Counselor, and Prince of Peace. God is everything we need as men to become the fathers our sons and daughters need and our land requires.

To those sons and daughters that have lost their fathers due to death, you can still turn your hearts back towards him. Forgiveness is your most significant path to a new life, to a new future, and to become healed from your heartache.

This is the only path to a cure; to reverse the curse and restore our great Nation through restored families! Get it done, men!

…It may only take “20 seconds of courage.”

Make this your New Year’s Resolution, a Revolution For the Love of your children.

Prodigal fathers, come home!

“Just Do It!”

Set Yourself Free – By Thomas Koester

Maybe you’re not aware, but you’ve always held the keys to your own prison.

Did you know that our lists of unforgiven people become building blocks for an inner stronghold where hatred will fester and thrive?

We become deceived into thinking that our unforgiveness is justified due to the seriousness of the offense against us.

When we refuse to forgive, we end up owning the offense, or more accurately, the offense owns us. The offender, well, they, may have moved on, yet we are the ones that are needlessly imprisoned because of our own stubbornness.

Maybe you’re not aware, but you’ve always held the keys to your own prison.

Your forgiveness is the only key to unlocking your prison door. It is the only way in which you, yourself, can be forgiven.

“Your heavenly Father will forgive you if you forgive those who sin against you, but if you refuse to forgive them, he will not forgive you.” Matthew 6:15 – Jesus of Nazareth

In Jesus’ Name, let it go; forgive them, and set yourself free!

The Problems With Bullshit – By Thomas Koester

No, this is not a treatise on global warming or climate change or the negative impact of cow flatulence to our environment — far from it.

This is about fleeing false pretense and duplicit and becoming the real you. It’s about breaking down the fake areas in our lives and being honest with ourselves and others.

Wholeness can only be achieved by utter and complete brokenness; this is a profound spiritual principle. This is also the opposite of what the world thinks.

I like what Jerry Maguire said in his moment of breakthrough:

“… Two nights later in Miami at our corporate conference, a breakthrough. Breakdown? Breakthrough. It was the oddest, most unexpected thing. I began writing what they call a mission statement for my company. You know — a Mission Statement — a suggestion for the future. What started out as one page became twenty-five.

Suddenly, I was my father’s son. I was remembering the simple pleasures of this job, how I ended up here out of law school, the way a stadium sounds when one of my players performs well on the field… And suddenly, it was all pretty clear. The answer was fewer clients. Caring for them, caring for ourselves, and the games, too. Starting our lives, really. Hey, I’ll be the first to admit it. What I was writing was somewhat “touchy feely.” I didn’t care. I had lost the ability to bullshit. It was the me I’d always wanted to be.” – The Movie “Jerry Maguire”

You see a breakthrough, I mean, the kind of breakthrough we know we really need is always preceded by a breakdown. And, when we lose… no, rather, when we refuse to bullshit ourselves and others, we will become the person that we’ve always wanted to become.

You’re divinely purposed to become a living act of God’s love and glory. You can’t become what your Creator has intended until you surrender your own mess. That is, your constant self-effort of holding the broken pieces of your life together. Living in fear and dread that your secret life will be exposed at any moment to a live audience is exhausting!

Living a life on constant defense and acting codependently, or as an enabler, justifying the actions of your false self at the expense of your true self. This is the definition of what I’m referring to as a “mess.”

You can not become assembled in body, mind, and spirit, all the while holding everything together. You are robbing yourself of the very strength and energy you need by wasting it on supporting your falseness and phony facade.

Stop being driven by voices inside your head, echoing the curses of your mother or father, or from the other significant persons in your life.
These curses are the voices of “false coaches,” driving you to repeat a cycle of self-destruction and family dysfunction.

These curses are carcinogenic to your desire towards wholeness and wellness. They are the cancerous agents eating away at the divine purpose for which God has created you.

“Gloria Dei est vivens homo,” wrote Saint Irenaeus, which means:

“The glory of God is a living man.”

The glory of God is you fully living, and not your daily self-destruction and learned dysfunction.

In the human body, you can not build muscle without first tearing down the muscle you have. Tearing down the muscle requires a determination to submit to the pain and deny yourself comfort. Likewise, you must have a willing determination to submit your very life and comforts to God.

James says it this way:

4-6 “You’re cheating on God. If all you want is your own way, flirting with the world every chance you get, you end up enemies of God and his way. And do you suppose God doesn’t care? The proverb has it that “he’s a fiercely jealous lover.” And what he gives in love is far better than anything else you’ll find. It’s common knowledge that “God goes against the willful proud; God gives grace to the willing humble.

7-10 So let God work his will in you. Yell a loud no to the Devil and watch him scamper. Say a quiet yes to God, and he’ll be there in no time. Quit dabbling in sin. Purify your inner life. Quit playing the field. Hit bottom, and cry your eyes out. The fun and games are over. Get serious, really serious. Get down on your knees before the Master; it’s the only way you’ll get on your feet.”
James 4:6-10 (MSG)

Pride is self-destruction, low esteem, self-loathing, and such, is what’s been behind your self-effort of “holding it all together.” This is why pride always precedes a profound fall. There is nothing good in this kind of a fall because it’s always a fall from grace and not towards it.

Do you want God’s grace? Become truly humble. Oh yes, it is painful to stop your self-salvation and accept Truth and to act on it. But the light, which will come flooding into your darkness, will bring with it the wholeness and wellness you’ve been searching for.

The problem with bullshit is that it is no respecter of persons, race, religion or age… it flows from all of us and keeps us from the truth.

“Men love darkness, rather than light,” this is true. But you can not become the man or woman you were meant to become all the while remaining in darkness. Just as painful as it is to build muscle, is it painful at first to step out from darkness into God’s marvelous light!

The gain from the pain of coming into the light is worth the life of wholeness and holiness.

Did you know that embracing your brokenness rather than hiding it will cause collateral beauty?

There may be a divine and strategic purpose behind your brokenness that, when shared with others, may cause a chain reaction of hope and healing in you and in them.

This moment, you’re standing at a crossroad — at a turning point; your next decision can create a paradigm shift of unprecedented emotional and spiritual change.

You just might find peace and rest for your troubled mind and your weary soul.

“The Lord said to his people…

“’You are standing at the crossroads. So consider your path. Ask where the old, reliable paths are. Ask where the path is that leads to blessing and follow it. If you do, you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not follow it!’” Jeremiah 6:16 (NET)

Stop hanging out with the “We will not follow it” crowd!

You no longer belong to the crowd who refuses to follow the right path.

Stop staring at the crossroads put before you this day and follow the right path. Stop saving yourself and fall into the grace, mercy, and the love of God, and you will become the man or woman you’ve always wanted to be. After all, God put the desire to be his love and glory in you so that you may fully live to a world content with dying and taking you with it.

Breakdown before breakthrough. God is waiting if you are willing. Open up to God, or find a trusted friend to help lead you to his grace.

May I be honest and a bit crass?

It is my prayer that you’ll lose your ability to “bullshit!” – Amen

The Power of Forgiveness – A True Story – By Thomas Koester

“Reconciliation Starts Here – Forgiveness Starts Here …This is Why it is Such A Powerful Weapon.”

Christ came to reconcile our past and future so that we may live real and abundant lives in the present. Time and forgetfulness cannot heal old wounds; this is why Christ announced his anointing through the reading of Isaiah 61:

“The Sovereign Lord is upon me and has anointed me to preach good news to the spiritually poor and impoverished, to heal the brokenhearted, setting captives free, and proclaiming release for the imprisoned.”

Yes, he came for our salvation, but he also came for our healing, to release us from our captivities, and to set us free from our bondages. All of these things are from our past. The above list is most often what has happened to us, and Christ is ready to go there with you.

I was the guest speaker at a men’s retreat a few years ago for a men’s group from a Church that I had not visited or was familiar with. At the opening of the retreat, I was introduced to all the men in the group, and one of the men was familiar to me. I introduced myself to this gentleman, and I immediately recalled that this man had molested me as a child some forty-seven years earlier.

What ended up happening was nothing short of a miracle and the beauty of the Kingdom of God — peace between the lion and the lamb was about to occur.

God had given me the message of reconciliation and forgiveness a few days before the retreat. But before God would allow me to preach on it, he asked me to reconcile with this man now and at that moment and to forgive him before I do anything else.

So, with God’s grace and power, I cooperated with His Spirit of forgiveness and mercy. I had kept this man’s offense to myself and proceeded with the rest of the retreat. I walked with God into my past. Christ Jesus brought us peace, healing, freedom, and release. Chains fell off that weekend, and a new friendship was born.

Later I learned that this man had become a Christian shortly after he had molested me so many decades ago. But, until I had forgiven him, I was buried under a mountain of shame and hatred.

Through Christ Jesus, God reconciles the world back to Himself, including our past. Sometimes his Spirit of Grace brings us backward to negotiate past hurts, captivities, and imprisonments. Whether it’s us behind the bars of hatred and unforgiveness or whether we’re the jailer holding the keys to someone else’s past offenses. We have divine weapons against fear, hatred, and unforgiveness, but we must use them.

Through the Men’s Retreat, God had shown me that we could only stumble over our past if it is left in a state of unforgiveness and left unreconciled. Because God is eternal, the Alpha and Omega, he exists in our past, present, and future. The works of Christ, destroying the works of the Devil in all the areas and seasons of our lives, are both completed and ongoing in a multidimensional way, unhindered by time and place.

All governments are upon his shoulders. The expanse of his Kingdom shall know no end. He is the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Wonderful Counselor, and the Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6. He is there all the time and in every area of our lives, past, present, and future, but you must believe and obey Him and listen to His voice.

I cannot stress how significant the voice of the Lord is and how important it is to listen, follow, and obey. Read the Bible as though it is written to you first before anyone else. You’ll then know what to do and how to do it.

“He has shown you, O child, what is good; and what the Lord requires of you, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.” Micah 6:8

We can enter into our future with triumph because Jesus Christ has triumphed over our past. If we work with him, he will bring us to forgiveness, even forgiveness for our past enemies, abusers, and those who’ve betrayed our hearts. It worked out for me, and it can work out for you too!

Forgiveness is such a powerful weapon for good. It “liberates the soul.”

God presented me with the opportunity at that retreat — God did not force me to forgive; he set up the circumstances. I could’ve gone on hating the perpetrator, exposing him to public shame, condemnation, and ridicule. But hatred, condemnation, shame, and self-ridicule were the same mountains on top of me.

God softened my heart, and Jesus gently led me to the cross, and there, at His cross, miraculously, both of our mountains were removed, our hearts softened, and forgiveness was granted to us both.

Journey with God as he leads you, and do not dismiss your past, but have the courage and faith to follow Him wherever he leads you.

Maybe the circumstance that you’re presented with here and now is your opportunity also to give and receive forgiveness.

I can promise you this when you forgive; it’s because God is already there, showing you the way; he wants you to be free.

“Reconciliation Starts Here – Forgiveness Starts Here …This is Why it is Such A Powerful Weapon.”

Love Is On The Way – A Note From Heaven – Delivered By Thomas Koester

In that day, you’ll become as bright as the stars in heaven and all your worries, hurts and imperfections will be gone, gone and gone, never to return.

I can’t wait to show you all I’ve prepared just for you. Let me continue to prepare you for all of it; the highs and lows, the turbulence and difficult days are all masterfully handled and orchestrated by me.

Be patient and remain true to me, as our time together is always approaching nearer and nearer. Things will get rough just before they’ll get better, so watch carefully for my signs and ready yourself — I love to come through for you, because I’m in love with you…

…Love is on the way!

Your Loving Abba-Father,

God