Happy New Year
Greetings PAC family. It’s been awhile since I’ve posted here and part of the reason is that it’s winter and I don’t do winter well. Hopefully that will change soon as I try new things to keep motivated.
I just finished a study in 1 John and James and thought I’d do it again because there is so much to learn. One of the topics that is heavily studied in this Bible study is fellowship. This is a good thing for me to be focused on in the winter because my nature says to curl up with a book until May. God says not to! Tonight I’m reading 1 John and am being reminded to love – everyone, not just those easiest to be with.
The apostle John says in chapter 1 verses 7-9: Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment for you: rather it is an old one you have had from the very beginning. This old commandment – to love one another – is the same message you heard before. Yet it is also new. Jesus lived the truth of this commandment, and you also are living it. For the darkness is disappearing, and the true light is already shining.
As I read this tonight, I clearly heard God telling me that loving others, whether I want to or not, is really important. It’s a commandment, not an, “If you feel like it!” Sometimes I want to withdraw my love and encouragement if I feel I’m being ignored and left out. I want to hurt that other person like I thing they are hurting me. But is it really love if it’s conditional? God is telling me to grow up, lose the pouty face and love even when it hurts. So I press on and do the best I can with God’s help. I ask for His heart and His eyes to see others as He does. I can’t base my/Christ’s love on whether it gets returned or not. If Christ did that, where would we all be?
I need to be picking up my Bible more.
—Alison Lehman
The Tongue and the Heart
A few nights ago Tim and I had a conversation about prayer and I had expressed some frustration. It seems that when I pray about a specific weakness I have, that weakness gets introduced over and over again and then I feel defeated. Does this ever happen to you? I have inherited the character trait of boldness from my dad. This mostly comes out when I am frustrated or angry and then I’ll say something I shouldn’t have. I was telling Tim that I’m frustrated at praying, “God, put a guard on my mouth and help me to be careful with my words.” Why? Because when I pray this, it seems like I have less control than ever. I then feel like, what’s the point of praying that prayer if it just makes me worse?
Tim’s response to my dilemma was interesting. He said maybe I should change my prayer. Okay, so what do I pray instead? He suggested that I pray for God to show me the needs of the people around me and to help me meet those needs. That makes sense. Last night I was spending some time in Matthew and Matthew 13:34 says, For whatever is in your heart determines what you say. It doesn`t get any clearer than that. So it seems that if my heart is right, what comes out will be a reflection of that, therefore I need to pray for God to make my heart right. Sounds like that will be a more effective prayer.
–Alison Lehman
When Life Gets Hard
Where does your heart generally go when life gets hard? Are you a glass-half-empty or glass-half-full kind of person? On Facebook recently, there was a story of a couple, Christa and Justin who have had to endure things way beyond what you’d expect anyone to endure. Christa has chronic pain and her journey over the last number of years has been put on a video. I watched it over a week ago.
Throughout the video I was silently begging God to heal this girl and give her and her husband much needed rest. What she and Justin had to go through and still do is nothing short of exhausting, excruciating and mentally mind boggling.
What amazed me the most throughout this whole video was Christa’s and Justin’s faith. Even though they were asked to tolerate and live through the unimaginable they did it with so much grace and still continue to. Instead of focusing on the negative, which was constant pain, Christa chose to use her “feeling well times” to encourage and bless other people. She is crafty so she makes cards and emails others who need prayer or encouragement. I have emailed with her some and am continually blessed by her positive attitude. Lately when things get difficult for me, I look back at her example and try to remain as positive as possible. I am now dealing with an ankle injury and am tempted to feel sorry for myself but in light of what others endure on a daily basis, I choose to say “Thank you God, that I can walk and that the pain is only minimal” and then I pray for Christa and Justin and others who need God’s grace. Christa has taught me a lot about being thankful in all circumstances.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bYdFoqQw18 Here is their story!
Connecting with God
If you’ve been around PAC lately you’ll know there have been a couple of prayer initiatives going on. Were you part of it? If you weren’t do you feel like you missed out? The first time, when we did it for a week, I signed up once. That first time was a neat experience. The room was set up nicely with a mellow mood; it seemed the right place to pray. The second time around when the initiative lasted a month I signed up maybe four or five times total. At the beginning I started off strong because there were pamphlets that had lots of stuff in them to pray about. As the initiative moved forward, I got tired and restless.
I think the biggest reason is that I don’t do well when I sit and pray in one spot. I don’t connect well with God sitting in a chair with my eyes closed. It feels awkward and uncomfortable. I have noticed lately that what does work for me is nature. We have a dog named Cole and I am the lunch duty person when it comes to walking him. If the weather is nice, I take him north up to the field at the end of 8th street. This summer has been amazing in terms of warmth and sunshine and I’ve connected with God very easily here, numerous times. I don’t always go with the idea in mind that, “I’m gonna go walk the dog and pray.” Most of the time I’m just wanting to get the dog walked so I can move on to other things. Almost every time I get up to the end of 8th street, I effortlessly move into a spirit of peace and prayer. This is my connecting spot. This is where God speaks to me and it’s a beautiful thing.
If you find prayer really difficult, maybe you just haven’t found your connecting spot yet. Can I make a suggestion to try praying in different places or settings until you find the right fit? I’m not looking forward to the weather changing because I don’t do well outside in the cold. I’ll be looking for that new winter spot!
—Alison Lehman
Trials
I’m working through James in my Bible reading right now and one of the first things this book talks about is trials. James says that when we come up against trouble or trials in our lives we should see it as an opportunity for joy. Seriously? Never thought of trials that way before. He says that when our faith is tested, our endurance has a chance to grow and when our endurance is fully developed, we’ll be strong in character and ready for anything. Well, I’m all for the strong character thing and to be ready for anything would sure relieve a lot of stress and anxiety. Like anyone else, I don’t like trials. They scare me and then sometimes I doubt. Christ always gets me through them but that doesn’t mean it’s easy.
Romans 5:3 says, “We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they are good for us – they help us learn to endure. And endurance develops strength of character in us, and character strengthens our confident expectation of salvation. And this expectation wil not disappoint us. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hears with his love.”
So even though trials are difficult and scary, it’s sure good to know God has a purpose for them and they aren’t thrown at us because He’s angry with us. Hang in there and know that good will come out of them.
–Alison Lehman
No Man is an Island
This past Saturday I went to a Beth Moore simulcast in Winkler with a group of women from PAC. It was fantastic! We thought there were only two groups of us that were registered but when we got there we saw three others from PAC. It wasn’t just the Simulcast I was looking forward to but the company on the drive down to Winkler. I went with three other great women whom I love dearly but don’t have a lot of contact with throughout the year. We all work and some of us are at different stages in life.
The Simulcast was wonderful. Beth Moore is a genuine lady on fire for God who has come from a past of addiction and abuse. She is intense 
and admits it freely but she has a way of igniting passion in others, giving us hope and courage to press on. One of the key things she talked about on Saturday was that “We are made for good company.” We weren’t meant to do life by ourselves. We need each other and we need to surround ourselves with others who can build into us, encourage us and love us for who we are. I can do life for a period of time on my own but it leaves me feeling discouraged and empty, without strength. At the end of this simulcast I was FULL. I was overflowing with love, joy, and contentment. The worship was a wonderful way for me to praise God for what He does in me daily. My calf muscles were aching because I’m changing running styles but I was grateful that I couldn’t stand…it gave me a great excuse (not that I needed one) to get down on my knees and worship in humility. I feel like I want to do that at church sometimes but there isn’t room and I’d feel self conscious about it.
Are you doing life with others? Do you have men or women in your life you can do small group with or LTG or go to a simulcast with? It’s so important not to isolate yourself and hide out at home alone. If you’re not sure who to connect with or how to get connected, talk with Gloria Willms or her team at the info booth at church. They can help you plug in and if you haven’t been to a conference or simulcast before, you wanna go. It fills your tank, it really does.
–Alison Lehman
Kids Rock!
I’m getting excited. Wanna know why? Because Fall is coming and when Fall comes so does a new season of KidsChurch (PAC Kids Rock). Tim and I serve in what will now be called “Remix” which is a group of kids in grades 4-6. We have just launched some new grade sevens into the service and are receiving new, excited grade four kids. Part of the reason I’m excited is because we have new curriculum called Flyte. Stafford let us take it home to review and to check it out. Our son, Cameron, saw it and was ripped off that he’s not going to be in PAC Kids Rock anymore. He is in grade seven now and will be going to Junior Youth. I think it’s going to catch the attention of the kids and I think they’ll get excited about it, too.
Another reason I’m excited is because I feel honoured that God would allow me to build into His kingdom this way. I am not an expert with children but God has given me a heart to want to build into them, to teach them about His outrageous grace, love, mercy and 
power. Not only do I get to do something powerful for God’s kingdom but I get to do it with cool people. Excellent! Part of what makes Remix a great place to serve is our team. We encourage each other and build into each other as we serve the same kids but on separate Sundays…and that is just our Remix team. There are other teams as well and on Sunday mornings we gather around, catch up with each other, pray and launch out for the morning. Team is a big deal to us. It’s important and is what helps to keep us going. I am proud to do ministry with this group of people and am looking forward to a new season of PAC Kids Rock!
If you’re interested in building God’s kingdom in this way, you can talk to myself or Stafford or anyone else on the team. We’d love to serve with you. Check out PAC Kids Rock online
–Alison Lehman
The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven
By Karen Gross
This book is so amazing that I know I cannot do it justice with this review, but I will give it a try. Regardless of your religious beliefs, this New York Times Bestseller should be on your ‘must read this summer’ list.
Six year old Alex Malarkey died in a horrific car accident in 2004. He saw five angels lift his father’s body out of the driver’s 
seat and lay him in the ditch beside the car. Then he went through a long, bright white tunnel. He didn’t like the music in the tunnel. But then he got to Heaven, and there was powerful music, which he loved. He saw the five angels and his Daddy in Heaven. Alex saw that his father had injuries as bad as his own, but God was healing him in Heaven and sending him back. Daddy asked God if he could trade places with Alex, but God said no. Then Alex saw his Daddy’s spirit return to his body next to the smashed car.
Alex can’t say how much time he spent in Heaven. He says that time in Heaven has no past, or future, it’s just always now. He saw one hundred and fifty pure, white angels with fantastic wings who were all calling his name. They told him to go back. He did go back, but Jesus stayed with him and held him as he watched the doctors in the emergency room work on his body. The accident left his body paralyzed, but the time spent in heaven gave him knowledge and wisdom far beyond his years.
This is a true story, written mostly by Alex’s father Kevin, but with portions written by eye witnesses, paramedics, doctors and other medical professionals who treated Alex, family members (including Alex’s mom Beth, and Kevin’s father who is a medical doctor), pastors, and others who have played a part in Alex’s life. There is also a page or two at the end of each chapter written by Alex himself, who was twelve at the time the book was published in 2010. The portions written by Alex were not edited in any way.
The Malarkey family was a typical American family, except for the fact that they had four children aged six and under! The youngest was a newborn – just home from the hospital the day before. (According to America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2010, the average household size declined to 2.59 in 2010, from 2.62 people in 2000.)
On Sunday, November 14, 2004, Kevin and Beth were trying to get everybody ready for church, “fighting the forces of chaos” (which I can completely relate to, although I only have two children). It was finally decided that Kevin would take Alex to church, while Beth would stay home with the three little ones. Little did they know that in a few short hours, their world would change, and the word “chaos” would take on a whole new meaning.
On the way home from church, Kevin was talking to Beth on his cell phone while driving. Alex interrupted to say, “Dad, I’m hungry. When are we going to be home?” Kevin, still on the phone, turned to answer Alex, and then in Kevin’s words: “The deafening crunch of metal ripping metal flashed and then faded into brilliant silence.” (p. 7)
The rest of the book recalls one miracle after another. Alex’s injuries were severe. A senior medical officer on the scene told a police officer to contact the coroner’s office and cancel the MedFlight, but by then the chopper was already landing. Alex was flown to Columbus Children’s Hospital. The doctors in the trauma room did not expect him to live. He had suffered an internal decapitation – only skin, muscles and ligaments were holding his head to his body.
The first miracle was that Alex survived at all, and that Kevin sustained no serious injuries from the accident. Alex remained in a coma for two months. Kevin and Beth’s home was a ninety minute drive from Children’s Hospital, and they had three little children, including a newborn.
The Malarkey family experienced the love and care of God more during those two months than they could ever imagine. They had just moved to a new town and had just begun to attend a new church. Between family, friends from their new church and friends from back home, they had meals, childcare, and all of their financial needs met. They were surrounded by an army of prayer warriors in the hospital and at home.
There are just so many stories that Kevin relates about miracles in this book; so many answers to prayer; so many “Divine Coincidences” – I will just relate one more. Chapter six is about a surgery that Alex’s doctors planned to do to fuse the vertebrae in his neck. The downside of this surgery would be that Alex would never regain full movement in his neck. Kevin and Beth agreed very reluctantly, as this would impede his movement when Alex was fully healed, as they and “Alex’s Army” of prayer warriors had faith would happen eventually.
The night before the scheduled surgery, a friend named Sue was sitting and praying at Alex’s bedside. At about 3 am, she felt the presence of three angels. They were standing behind Alex, with their hands on his neck.
The next day, Kevin and Beth were informed that the surgery was unnecessary. The doctors concluded that the vertebrae had healed without medical intervention. They had no explanation how that could have happened, but the x-rays before and after clearly proved healing.
A few days later, a complete stranger named Melissa phoned, and told Beth that she had seen a vision of Alex and angels. She painted what she saw, and asked if she could send it. When the painting arrived, Kevin and Beth were awestruck – it showed three angels behind Alex’s bed, with their hands on his neck – exactly what Sue described had happened the night before the scheduled surgery to fuse the vertebrae in his neck was cancelled.
The miracles got more amazing. When Alex came out of his coma and regained the use of his voice, he astonished everyone with the stories of where he had been and what he had experienced in his spirit while his body lay in a hospital bed.
Kevin was leery about believing Alex at first, but there was no way for Alex to know all that he knew. Alex told his father details of the accident, even things that happened after the MedFlight helicopter left. He remembered being in the hospital emergency room, watching from the ceiling. He said that Jesus was there with him, and held him, so he was not afraid. Alex noted that the doctors and other medical workers were sad and talked a lot about him not surviving. He saw them attach a steel bolt to his head, and when they started putting something down his throat, Jesus moved him into Heaven so that he would not watch what they were doing. He didn’t want Alex to remember later and be scared.
This book was so fascinating; I would love to quote everything that Alex said about his time in Heaven, but I would rather you read the book.
Alex is twelve years old now. He doesn’t really like all of the attention he gets. When people tell him that he is amazing, he tells them, “God is amazing. I’m just a kid.” Although in some ways he is a normal twelve year old, he has a connection with Jesus and with angels that astounds anyone who spends time with him. He still visits Heaven occasionally, and he frequently sees and communicates with angels.
Some may ask why God chose to let Alex survive the accident but remain a quadriplegic? Alex has been healed in increments, which have been medically astonishing, but a full healing all at once would surely silence all naysayers. For that matter, couldn’t God have just prevented the accident in the first place? Yes, I believe He could. But that is not what God chose to do for Alex.
Kevin says of his son, “when people ask me if my faith is shaken because Alex hasn’t been fully healed, I can respond with a firm no. Certainly Alex is going to be fully healed, whether here on earth or in Heaven. How that occurs is God’s choice, yet I am totally convinced that his healing will occur in this life.
“God has touched so many lives and brought so much good out of Alex’s pilgrimage that I know God is not only directing His plan, but He is also directing the timing of His plan. That’s where our confident hope rests.
“And . . . It Isn’t Over Yet!
Spiritual Warfare: (an addition to the article)
Right after the accident, after he saw the angels carry his father out of the car, he saw Satan in the front passenger seat of the car. Satan told him “Your Daddy is dead and it’s all your fault.” But then he went to Heaven and everything was perfect.
After Alex came out of the coma and regained his voice, he asked his father repeatedly, “Are you my father?” Kevin thought this was a sign of memory loss, but years later, Alex told him it was because the devil told him his father was dead.
Alex is able to see angels and demons. He says that there is a spiritual war that never stops – angels against demons. Sometimes he hasn’t been able to visit Heaven because there was too much warfare going on. He says that it is scary when he sees a demon, but his daddy taught him how to pray to make them go away: “Devil – or demons – in Jesus’ name, leave my room and leave this house. By the blood of Jesus, I command you to go. Leave me alone.”
Alex says that people are always curious to know about demons. He knows much more than he wants to about the devil and demons, but he doesn’t like to talk about them. He does give a very detailed description of what they look like and the lies that they tell. When angels come to visit him, he knows each one by name, but he says that one demon is just like another to him.
There is also a lot that Alex has learned about Heaven that he is not allowed to tell. He says that we have to wait to know some things.
Taken from THE BOY WHO CAME BACK FROM HEAVEN by Kevin Malarkey. Copyright © 2010, 2011 by Kevin Malarkey. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved
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Read more: http://bookstove.com/book-talk/the-boy-who-came-back-from-heaven-a-book-review/#ixzz1U1ua7U00
What if it Isn’t True?
by Karen Gross
So what if I die and there is nothing? What if I spend my whole life in obedience to God and His word, and then it turns out that it was all a fairy tale made up by men? Will it have been worth it?
Absolutely! Let’s say that none of the things I believe about God are true. (This is not what I am saying, I do believe that everything I read in the Bible is true.) But just for the sake of argument, I will explore this notion. Let’s say that when my time comes to take the big dirt nap, that’s all it will be. No soul to pass on. No new body in heaven. No consciousness whatsoever. Then what?
Then nothing. I won’t know anything. I will just be out of my misery. But I will have no regrets. Living my earthly life as a Christian will have been worth it. I will not have given up anything that would have enriched my life. The list of things that Christians are not “allowed” to do – smoking, drinking, promiscuity, drugs, etc. – those things would not have made me happy. The “play now, pay later” attitude would be catching up to me by now.
I need to make this clear – living a life of denying oneself the “pleasures of the world” is not a ticket to heaven. The Bible clearly teaches as in Romans 3:20, “no one will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.” We are saved by God’s grace (see my article Faith Without Works is Dead for a more complete answer on this topic).
http://relijournal.com/christianity/faith-without-works-is-dead/
If there is no Holy Spirit indwelling Christians, and the “fruit of the Spirit” (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control) are just character traits that Christians are trying to develop by normal human effort as opposed to being the result of the influence of the Holy Spirit – I don’t see how this could be a bad thing.
And if the peace and comfort that come from prayer are really just the result of brain chemicals, well – it still brought me peace and comfort. And as for the supposed answers to prayer, these can usually be explained away. The power of positive thinking, group hypnosis, scams, and outright lies could account for most of the allegedly miraculous answers to prayer. But if anyone was fooled by a false miracle and joined the Christians, and then it turns out that we were wrong, they will just end up pushing up daisies with the rest of us for eternity.
The other big deal for Christians, the fellowship of the church, has been a bad experience for some. Humans can be quite cruel and insensitive, so any church that allows humans to join will include these human traits and more: rudeness, prejudice, narrow-mindedness, intolerance, and bigotry. Wars have been started for the sake of religion. Any time the church gained political power, there was corruption. Does this mean that without Christianity these things would not have happened? Nonsense. Atheistic communism, Islamic regimes, self-centered monarchs, and evil dictatorships with no religious affiliation have fared no better.
It may be a surprise to some that many Christians have very good relationships with the people in their church. My church has been like a family to me. These are the people I have called on when I needed a ride to the hospital and a babysitter in the wee hours of the morning, and the people who have provided food, rides, childcare, money and support in so many ways when we have needed it. I wrote about them in The Best Church in the World.
http://relijournal.com/religion/best-church-in-the-world/
I know that my church isn’t the only one filled with people who genuinely love and care for one another. As a family, not every experience is positive, and I know that I have been selfish, insensitive, and rude sometimes; and there are some people that I would rather not spend too much time with, but honestly – in every town I have lived in I have found a church that feels like family.
So when I die, if it turns out that I have been wrong about God, and heaven and hell, and it turns out that there is nothing after this life, I would say that – no – I have no regrets. But what of those who believe that there is no God and no afterlife; those who have lived by the belief that they have no one to give account to for what they did with the knowledge they received about Christ – what if it turns out that they were wrong and the Christians were right?
God does not send people to hell for any specific sin that they have committed. We have all been born with a sinful nature, separated from God because Adam and Eve chose to believe Satan rather than God. Like it or not, Satan gets us by default if we reject God’s gift of reconciliation. It really is a matter of choosing sides.
What is a Christian? http://relijournal.com/christianity/what-is-a-christian-2/
The Devil Went Down, Part 1: Eden http://authspot.com/poetry/the-devil-went-down-part-1-eden/
Love Like He Does
I’ve been reading in 1 John this month learning about God’s love and how it applies to how I live my life. I struggle with this thing called love in more ways than one. It sure is easy to love the people I get along with well but it’s tough to love others the way Christ wants me to. I feel like this topic is very much in my face right now and God is wanting to show me some things. I was on my treadmill this week listening to Chris Rice and his song, “Love Like Crazy.” He sings, “If the world’s ever gonna change, you gotta love like crazy,” and “You gotta love like He does.”
As I mulled that over, I thought, If Christ didn’t love unconditionally, there’s no way I’d be part of the family of God. I fall short in so many ways. I am thankful that He loves me just the way I am, mistakes and all. What would I do if I had to earn His love? This makes me realize how important it is to love like He does. I changed because of His unconditional love. If I want to be an example of Christ, I need to love without condition, too. This seems really difficult at times and I admit there are times when I don’t want to but if my strength comes from Christ I have the ability to do so. It is not impossible.
In 1 John this morning I read, “Such love has no fear because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid , it is for fear of judgment, and this shows that His love has not been perfected in us. We love each other as a result of His loving us first. If someone says, “I love God but hates a Christian brother or sister, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God , whom we have not seen?”
My first thoughts were, I tend to have difficulty loving people I fear judgment from. It’s easy to love others who love me but when it comes to those whom I think are judging me for my parenting, the way I do my job or the way I dress, I want to run the other way or judge back. The last thing I want to do is love. In 1 John it says that if we fear judgment His love hasn’t been perfected in us yet. So does that mean I am not secure in Christ’s love for me, completely, (because if I was, I wouldn’t fear man and his/her opinions of me?) Interesting and probably true. Honestly, if Christ has my back, what can man do to me?
At any rate, these are just some things I struggle with. I know I need to love like He does, but it’s hard sometimes.
–Alison Lehman
