A Sinners Prayer
Oh Heavenly Father I come to thee
Heart broken, defenseless, on bended knee
You gave me life on your creation,
A life I have lived with determination,
To fulfill every dream without salvation.
But try as I might, not a dream came true
Impossible, because I lived without you.
Oh Precious Father, I kneel at your feet
My life as it is, filled with hate, and deceit.
You were here for me, I couldn’t see, to ask you in
Oh my beloved Father, what a fool I have been.
I have taken everything you gave for free
Not even a thank you, how selfish of me.
Oh Father, you gave your only son
He died on the cross to save everyone.
You gave Jesus, because you loved me
Jesus gave His life, to set us all free.
Father, you gave us the greatest gift of all
You gave us a chance to have life eternal.
Oh heavenly Father, I pray to thee
A sinner, I am, here on bended knee,
I promise to love thee, honor and obey
I ask your forgiveness, and to live your way.
Oh Lord, I pray make me whole again
I give you my heart and soul, You win!
Oh gracious One, my life and my heart is empty
Fill me with your love, kindness, good and plenty
Take my hand, oh Lord, and I’ll fallow you
Like Jesus our savor, my love, forever true.
As I pray oh Lord, I feel you come near
“Come closer,” Jesus said, “You have nothing to fear!”
I can feel the emptiness being filled from above
I surrender my soul, in return for Your love.
Spoken, Written and Dedicated to our Lord Jesus Christ, by Lynda Bates-Zimmer,
April.1990. This is my Testament of what God can and will do for you if you only ask….
Had I not asked, I truly believe I would not be alive today…..my life was about to be taken and my children’s lives were in danger.......
If you think God can't change your life then read on......He changed mine!
Oh Heavenly Father I come to thee
Heart broken, defenseless, on bended knee
You gave me life on your creation,
A life I have lived with determination,
To fulfill every dream without salvation.
But try as I might, not a dream came true
Impossible, because I lived without you.
Oh Precious Father, I kneel at your feet
My life as it is, filled with hate, and deceit.
You were here for me, I couldn’t see, to ask you in
Oh my beloved Father, what a fool I have been.
I have taken everything you gave for free
Not even a thank you, how selfish of me.
Oh Father, you gave your only son
He died on the cross to save everyone.
You gave Jesus, because you loved me
Jesus gave His life, to set us all free.
Father, you gave us the greatest gift of all
You gave us a chance to have life eternal.
Oh heavenly Father, I pray to thee
A sinner, I am, here on bended knee,
I promise to love thee, honor and obey
I ask your forgiveness, and to live your way.
Oh Lord, I pray make me whole again
I give you my heart and soul, You win!
Oh gracious One, my life and my heart is empty
Fill me with your love, kindness, good and plenty
Take my hand, oh Lord, and I’ll fallow you
Like Jesus our savor, my love, forever true.
As I pray oh Lord, I feel you come near
“Come closer,” Jesus said, “You have nothing to fear!”
I can feel the emptiness being filled from above
I surrender my soul, in return for Your love.
Spoken, Written and Dedicated to our Lord Jesus Christ, by Lynda Bates-Zimmer,
April.1990. This is my Testament of what God can and will do for you if you only ask….
Had I not asked, I truly believe I would not be alive today…..my life was about to be taken and my children’s lives were in danger.......
If you think God can't change your life then read on......He changed mine!
Getting Personal
When Life Is Too
Much
Written by Lynda Bates-Zimmer When life gets too much to bear at best I go to a place full of peace and rest. A place that sets my soul soaring free, Filled with songs of glorious Victory. There is no place that can compare Upon this earth of hate and despair. To this of sweet quite pastures green And visions of beauty, yet not seen. And in this place of joyful bliss I have a friend, to whom I confess, My burdens I lay down at His feet His love and comfort is complete. With nail scared hands He draws me near And gently calms my every fear. No sweeter a voice have I ever heard, When He stills my tears, with just one word. Not for a moment will He not care Not for a moment will He not be there Not for a moment will He ever depart His love deeply planted within my heart. While we tarry in this peaceful place I gaze upon His radiant face, Never have I felt such love divine, He tells me I am His, and He is mine. The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe (Proverbs 18:10).........Father God you are my Strong Tower! In You I will trust and obey! Thank-you Lord, for you picked me up, when I fall, thank you for giving me your courage and your knowledge. "Getting Personal” Is a true life story.....Gods Words, His Mercy, His Love and His Grace.....my story. The words written here have been given to me by God, it is really...." His Blog" of how He changed my life, brought me to the Cross, and of what He has done for me.......I am only His pencil. Without His guidance and Love for me I would not have the courage to share this story with you! After all, it is..... PERSONAL! Personal between my Lord and me…and yet, God has asked me to tell it to you! Therefore, for whatever His reason, I will Trust and Obey Him. First, starting with how my disobedience got me to this point of obedience… On January 1, 2012, I was sitting and listening to our pastor’s message when God reminded me of a message, He gave me for His congregation twenty years ago. (I have carried that message in my bible all these years, but I had put it away before we moved so it would not get lost) At the time Pastor was speaking about God moving in 2012 and how we as believers should “take hold of God’s plan for us”. I thought it strange that I would think of that old message at that time. The fallowing Wednesday evening was Life Group, the first time I had attended this group, we just moved here a couple months ago. We were finishing our bible study, when the Lord again reminded me of this old message and wanted me to talk about it, but instead I stayed quite, letting others speak. I felt uneasy and unsure of what God wanted me to do. After all I had just met most of these people, and I was new to the group, surely God didn’t want me to butt in and tell them about some old message? What would they think of me? Who was I to come here and start sharing a message God gave me for another church twenty years ago, besides, what did that message have to do with this group? Or for that matter with this church? I went home that evening without saying anything. When I was reading my bible and praying before bed, God again spoke to me about the message, I asked Him what he wanted me to do with it and why? The answer I got was “SHARE IT!” That’s not God speaking, I thought. That’s ridiculous I told myself, and went to bed. The next morning while I was reading and praying, the Lord told me to go find the message… what was up with this message? Why would God insist on me finding this message? Still pondering this, I set about doing my housework, only to have this nagging thought, or rather a strange feeling that I had to find that paper with the message on it. The more I tried to ignore it and carry on with what I was doing, the stronger the feeling got! So, with little enthusiasm at I searched through every drawer and cupboard, it was not where I knew I had put it! Two days later, my house in a mess, frustrated, frantic and at my wits end, I finally called out to God to show me where the papers where! His answer….”SEEK!” So seek I did…only this time I asked Him to help me find them…in prayer, He showed me the file where I had put my study papers and the poems I had written many years ago. In the middle of them all, was the message! I read the message again, and tucked the papers back into the bible where they belonged, and went to bed exhausted! It was Sunday morning and I woke up at 4:30 with a very strong feeling that I was to give those papers to my Pastors. During my morning bible reading and prayers, that feeling kept getting stronger, and the words, “give it to Pastors M and R to read”, kept popping into my mind, and then I’d think…. no way this isn’t what God wants! And yet, that nagging thought still persisted, I was to give it to the Pastors. While on my way to church, I decided, “if” it really was what God wanted, He would give me some kind of a sign…Praise and worship, a time when we sing our hearts out for our Lord, giving praise to Jesus, and promising to…wait a minute every song was about …Trusting and Obeying…OK, I’m trying to trust, and obey, but Lord, I need a sign…! Enter Pastor R, all fired up and talking about…Trusting and Obeying! Enter Pastor M, time for part 2 of “Take Hold”…… two minutes in to the sermon, my ears started to burn, five minutes, and I was checking to see if there were flames, then Pastor M said those words… “IT MEANS…GETTING…PERSONAL”! I felt like someone had knocked the wind out of me. I’m not sure how much of the sermon I heard after that, but I can tell you I do know what God was speaking to me! The next thing I knew, the sermon was over, and Pastor R was standing in front of me, somehow I managed to mumble something about having to show something to her and Pastor M. and dug the papers out of my bible all the time mumbling something about twenty years ago and that I didn’t know why but God said to give it to them to read…then Pastor R asked me if I blog? “Well…..not really,” I choked out trying to answer her. God has been telling me to write and SHARE with others! Instead of doing what God asked me to, I hesitated! Oh I wrote poems, but would tuck them neatly away in a folder, so no other eyes could see them! My insecurities kept me from obeying God and trusting Him! I did not think they were good enough. I did not want to be a laughing stock or ridiculed! So slowly, these past few days, I started posting in my notes a few of the poems I wrote, thinking I would start with them. So far so good, I breathed a sigh of relief, only one person like them, that was my daughter, and well…I just will not say anything and maybe no one will read them! WRONG! You just cannot hide anything from GOD! Apparently, He has “Facebook” too! You see, as I was in meditation and prayer last night, God poked me and said, “Where is the message? Why are you not sharing with others?” My answer was, I am working on it Lord, but I just cannot seem to get the courage to do as you are asking! I want to trust and obey you, but it is just too hard! I pleaded with Him again, “Why Lord, do you want me to share my poems and stories? Moreover, why would you Lord want them out in the open here on Facebook? I am not perfect; I have not always been trusting and obedient to you. Even now, as I put these words to paper, I am questioning you and doubting that it is YOU, and not my flesh. I prayed for conformation that it was really You speaking, telling me to share this, and even after you gave me conformation from several verses, sermons and through many people I still hesitate! Where do I start? What do I say? How much do I tell? Who will see it? What is the purpose? I cannot do it; it is just too hard to bare my life to all! ” And then as I sat and listened to God…..HELLO…REVELATION! I finally got it! God gave His only Son! How hard was that! Jesus came and died on the cross for me! How hard was that! Beaten, ridiculed, laughed at, and nailed to a cross, Jesus did it for me, how hard was that? It does not matter how many people read it, or if I think it is good or not! God was asking me to trust and obey him, how hard it that! Did I not ask Jesus to come into my life, to help me fallow in His footsteps? I gave my life to Jesus! Therefore, instead of asking “why”, I should say “why not” and just do it! God does not ask us to do anything, He does not think we can handle. If we trust in Him and obey Him, our rewards are far greater than what we can dream of having. I have always wanted to go to Africa, Kenya to be pacific; unfortunately, I have never had the chance to go, or the finances. When I started to write these words that God has given me, I received a text, asking if I still wanted to go to Kenya. A wonderful woman at our church, founded an orphanage in Kenya, and she is going in February and would like someone to go with her. I still do not have the finances, but I can tell you one thing, I believe and trust that God will supply the means for me to go. This year, in 2012, I am taking hold of Gods gifts and promises and believing in all that God has for me! |
The Early Church
Twenty years ago, on the 17th of January, I publicly, gave my life to Jesus, and attended a Pentecostal Church in the small town where I lived. It was quite a large congregation and most Sundays the pews filled to capacity. Our Pastor and his wife were very much for having the congregation share the stories of how God was moving in their lives, as well as taking part in the ministry and Gods word each Sunday Service. Now at this time of my life I was very shy, if there were four people in a room and I only knew one of them, I could hardly choke out a “how do you do”, without fainting! “D,” our pastors’ wife held Bible Study in her home every Monday morning, to which I attended faithfully. At the end of each Bible study, we had questions to answer for the next week. Now, I was a new member of this Church, so you can imagine my surprise, when our Pastor asked me to share with the congregation, my answer to one of these questions! After much prayer, and a week of no sleep I found myself standing at the pulpit delivering Gods’ Message…. The Early Church (Acts 2:42-47) “Getting Personal” The Question: How does your church compare to this fellowship of the early believers? What would need to happen for your church to become more like this one? My explanation to the congregation the fallowing Sunday: This was one of the questions given to us at our Monday morning Bible study. After much hand wringing and serious prayer, I sat down and started to answer then stopped, threw out that paper and started again and stopped. God was supposed to be helping me get this question answered without hurting anyone’s feelings. However, something was not right! Either God was not giving me an answer, or He misunderstood the question! Well…I had a week to get the right answer so, I decided to pray about it some more. In fact, I prayed, I prayed, and then, I prayed some more, until at last, Sunday evening arrived, and I still had not finished answering this last question of the assignment! It was not that I did not get any answers from God! NO, that was not the problem. My struggle was, the answers were not what I thought they should be, and they were just too…well to be honest, too personal! Then, the light came on! That was what we were supposed to do, was it not? “Getting Personal”, that was the heading of the question! I realized, it was not God who misunderstood the question! It was I, who was missing the point! Now armed with paper and pen, I voiced a prayer to God that He would tell me what HE wanted me to write down. HIS answer is what inspired the fallowing... (At this point my knees were knocking together so loudly, I was sure everyone in the building could hear them. Not to mention, I was shaking so hard, the words on the paper were a total blur! I took a deep breath, silently sent a prayer up to God to get me through the rest of the message without passing out. My mouth was so dry, and I reached over, grabbed the Pastors’ water, and choked down a sip of it.) Gods’ Message: Then blurted out, “Compared to the fellowship of the early believers, I feel my church has a very long way to go!” The whole room went completely silent…I opened my mouth to speak again and nothing came out! Then suddenly, it was as if God reached down and gave me a slap on the back of my head and the words came flowing out! “But, I am not pointing fingers at my Pastor, or my fellow brothers and sisters in the congregation when I say this, because I have come to see that “My Church” begins with ME! It is not the building I go to every Sunday morning. On the other hand, for that matter, the Pastor, or whom I sit with! It must begin with me, and how and where I am at, with my Lord Jesus! It would be much easier to place the blame on the Pastor, or brother and sister so and so, but after much prayer and thought I must confess, that I have to yank the “plank” out of my own eye before I can begin to “fix” the speck in theirs! Now, in order for me to do that, I have to be honest with God and myself. I asked myself, am I like the early believers? It pains me to have to admit that I am not, because I am not completely in tune with my God! Too often, I find, I have put Him on the back burner because something else has popped up and demands my attention. I have confessed to giving my All to Him. How many countless times have I sung, “I surrender ALL”, but in truth I have given Him nothing! I have not been willing and open to Him, trusting Him to meet all my needs, whatever they may be. I take my problems, needs, and yes, questions to Him, but do I really listen and hear what He is saying to me? Most often not, and if I do not get an answer right now, do I wait for that answer, or do I try to help him fix it? So, what changes do I need to make? Primarily, I must put God above all things! He must come first in my life before everything else. I have to spend more time in His Word and be in continuous prayer not only for myself, but also for my fellow believers. I must be open and obedient to the Holy Spirit. Waiting on Him for as long as it takes willingly ready at all times for Him to use me. Trusting Him to lead and guide me and give me His wisdom to do what He has asked me to do. I must be constantly seeking the Lords’ face and His will, not focusing on what is going on around me, for the Lord will let me know what is of any importance to me or not. Should I do this, I will become more like the early believers. I will have the love for my fellow believers I will not see their faults, only their needs. I will be in constant harmony with the Holy Spirit, with Him leading and guiding me to those who need to know Him. I will then have the boldness like Peter, cowardly Peter, to tell it like it is! Only then will I be of one mind and in one accord with my fellow believers and most importantly God! The early believers were of one mind, breaking bread and eating together, worshiping together, nonstop in the temple, they went from house to house meeting with people. It may be difficult in our current times now for all believers to gather together daily, eating together, but we can be in continuous prayer with our Lord, seeking His face and His will, asking Him to give us the boldness to have the power to claim the victories He has already won for us! “IT IS DONE! IT IS FINISHED!” We only need to reach out and “TAKE HOLD” of those VICTORIES! I cannot sit back and wait for my Pastor, or fellow brothers and sisters and believers of the Lord, to do it first! It must begin with me in constant prayer with the Lord, seeking His face, waiting for His answers, and be in communion with Him. It is up to me to manifest the same Spirit in me, as the early believers did. Only then will my church be like the church of the early believers. I praise and thank God for the gifts He has given me, I now seek His face for the wisdom to use them! Amen. |