Messenger Moments

Psalm 139:23-24 NKJV

 Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties;
And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way

everlasting. 

     While waiting for a recent memorial service to start, I was watching a video of the life accomplishments of a remarkable Christian man. Suddenly, memories of last year's passing of my son, Geoff, flooded my thoughts and brought tears to my eyes. 

     There was no memorial service for my second son’s passing. Tragically, he had suffered three failed marriages. Geoff was the natural father of four children and four stepchildren. He was also a grandfather to several beloved grandchildren.

     Although his recent companion of 7 years said she would call me when she spread his ashes at her family cemetery, the call never came. It’s been over a year, and I’ve still heard nothing.

     As I looked around at the somber faces of the many people who came to pay their respects for a beloved Christian man, I wondered how many men, women, and children have “passed” through this world and never had anyone to memorialize them. Someone to care, someone to show others that their passing meant they had lived, breathed, walked, and talked with them, and that they had shared moments of their life from time to time.

     I am afraid that far too many people have lived invisible lives. Never memorialized for the time, however short or long, that they spent on earth. Never recognized by anyone who cared that they were once living, breathing, thinking, productive, and passionate human beings. Totally invisible to everyone save the God who created them.

     Our world is filled with millions of homeless souls, unloved, uncared for, and mostly forgotten by everyone except for other forgotten souls and God.

     Each day, tens of thousands of these unloved souls succumb to death, sometimes alone, but always lonely. They are the invisible.

     My message for you today is this: reach out, vocally touch someone with a kind word and a caring smile. Be Jesus to others, let them know they are not invisible. Make their day!

Amen and Amen

Based on the book, “I Surrender All” By Priscilla Shirer

     Chapter 3 of “I Surrender All” by Priscilla Shirer opens with a story about a Japanese soldier who emerged from a jungle in the Philippines in 1974 following a visit from his recently retired superior officer advising him that he was discharged from his duties. Although leaflets were airdropped over many Pacific islands in 1944 informing any remaining soldiers that WWII had ended, this dedicated soldier refused to believe his “tour of duty” was over. Unbelievably, he had spent 30 years living as though he were still fighting WWII.

     You’re probably thinking, how sad…he wasted 30 years of his life believing that his 'marching orders' to defend a remote landing strip in an island jungle were still valid.

     Priscilla Shirer, author of this study, writes on page 75, “Consider this chapter your new marching orders, fellow soldier.”

     I was at Red Lobster recently, having a well-deserved break from cooking…provided by my husband, who said, “I figured you could use a break.” During the course of a fabulous meal of crab-stuffed mushrooms, langostino lobster dip, coleslaw, and clam chowder, strains of “Happy Birthday” were being sung at another table. God reminded me of those who had experienced a new birthday that day by giving their life to Christ.

     When I read about the 30 years a dedicated soldier had spent defending a cause no longer relevant, I can strongly relate to the book "I Surrender All".

     Jesus, as our “Lord and Master,” has put a new purpose and cause in each Christian’s heart. Our old way of living before Jesus is dead and gone. Yet sometimes we are “still acting like we are in a battle that’s already been won.” Priscilla says, We are 'living below our spiritual means, scraping by, hiding out, and operating in fear.”

     Know this, dear sisters, as Christians, we are in a 24/7 battle with satan. We have a target on our back because we have received our “marching orders” from Jesus. Therefore, we have become a prime target of the enemy.

     Matthew 28:19-20 KJV

     19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

     Simply put, we have been given a command from Jesus. He doesn’t ask us, He tells us to “Go”. We are new creations, free and no longer under the curse of sin. We have a new identity and a new purpose. To go and teach others about Jesus.

     Galatians 2:20 KJV

     20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless, I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

     Romans 6:11 KJV

     11 Likewise you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

     Many Christians still live as though they are drowning under the weight of sin and oppression skillfully delivered to them by their enemy, satan. Much like the Japanese soldier who could not and would not believe WWII had ended. Today, many Christians carry their burden of sin in a backpack that weighs them down and keeps them from being all that God designed them to be as children of a loving God. 

     I’ll close with two scriptures:

     Ephesians 1:4-5 NIV

     4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—

     Matthew 11:30 NKJV

     30 "For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

Amen and Amen

by Anne @ mygospelmessenger.com,

     It is my morning “routine” to seek the Lord in prayer and read a variety of devotionals by Christian teachers I admire and respect.

     Today’s devotional by Oswald Chambers spoke to me about what “prayer is”. 

     As you read the following devotional, quiet your thoughts and concentrate on allowing God’s Holy Spirit to impart a “teachable moment” about prayer to your day.

     Praying you have a beautiful, blessed day and weekend.

Anne @ www.Mygospelmessenger.com

John 14:12 NKJV

12 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.

     Prayer does not equip us for greater works- prayer is the greater work.

Yet we think of prayer as some commonsense exercise of our higher powers that simply prepares us for God's work. In the teachings of Jesus Christ, prayer is the working of the miracle of redemption in me, which produces the miracle of redemption in others, through the power of God. The way fruit remains firm is through prayer, but remember that it is prayer based on the agony of Christ in redemption, not on my own agony. We must go to God as His child, because only a child gets his prayers answered; a "wise" man does not. 

Matthew 11:25 NKJV

25 At that time Jesus answered and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes.

     Prayer is the battle, and it makes no difference where you are. However God may engineer your circumstances, your duty is to pray. Never allow yourself this thought, "I am of no use where I am," because you certainly cannot be used where you have not yet been placed. Wherever God has placed you and whatever your circumstances, you should pray, continually offering up prayers to Him. And He promises, "Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do." 

John 14:13 NKJV

And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

Yet we refuse to pray unless it thrills or excites us, which is the most intense form of spiritual selfishness. We must learn to work according to God's direction, and He says to pray.

Matthew 9:38 NKJV

"Pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest" 

     There is nothing thrilling about a laboring person's work, but it is the laboring person who makes the ideas of the genius possible. And it is the laboring saint who makes the ideas of his Master possible. When you labor at prayer, from God's perspective, there are always results. What an astonishment it will be to see, once the veil is finally lifted, all the souls that have been reaped by you, simply because you have been in the habit of taking your orders from Jesus.

My Utmost for His Highest October 17th “Greater Works”

Devotional Oswald Chambers

My Utmost for His Highest October 8, 2025

by Oswald Chambers

Matthew 11:28 NKJV

28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

     Isn't it humiliating to be told that we must come to Jesus! Think of the things about which we will not come to Jesus Christ. If you want to know how real you are, test yourself by these words-……."Come to Me…."

     In every dimension in which you are not real, you will argue or evade the issue altogether rather than come; you will go through sorrow rather than come; and you will do anything rather than come the last lap of the race of seemingly unspeakable foolishness and say, "Just as I am, I come." As long as you have even the least bit of spiritual disrespect, it will always reveal itself in the fact that you are expecting God to tell you to do something very big, and yet all He is telling you to do is to "Come . . . ."

     When you hear those words, you will know that something must happen in you before you can come. The Holy Spirit will show you what you have to do, and it will involve anything that will uproot whatever is preventing you from getting through to Jesus. And you will never get any further until you are willing to do that very thing.

     The Holy Spirit will search out that one immovable stronghold within you, but He cannot budge it unless you are willing to let Him do so.

     How often have you come to God with your requests and gone away thinking, "I've really received what I wanted this time!" And yet you go away with nothing, while all the time God has stood with His hands outstretched not only to take you but also for you to take Him. Just think of the invincible, unconquerable, and untiring patience of Jesus, who lovingly says, "Come to Me. . . ."

Note: mygospelmessenger.com

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

     Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

     This scripture is a request to surrender ALL to Jesus Christ, including the way we care for our bodies. This is a short list; you might want to add a few things of your own.

     the things we watch on television, or on our laptop,

     the things we listen to that assail our ears with ungodly rhetoric

     the types of clothing we wear

     the food and drink we consume; are they healthy choices

     the type of exercise we do to keep our bodies strong 

     Think about all the things we do to our body without weighing the consequences. We should always pray about the way we care for our bodies; physically, mentally and spiritually. Always, ask yourself….does what I am doing honor and glorify my Father God?

Amen and Amen

By A. Jennings, Mygospelmessenger.com 

Galatians 1:15-16 KJV

15 But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace,16 To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood:

     Paul knew that only God’s Holy Spirit could give him the power to do the work God had created him to do. So, he sought the help of the Holy Spirit and not flesh and blood.

     Oswald Chambers in his October 6th devotional, says “if all that Jesus Christ can do is to tell me I must be holy, His teaching plants despair”.

     I had a close Christian friend who struggled with the concept of regeneration and holiness. She was aware of the scripture in 1 Peter 1:16 that says; “for it is written, be holy, because I am holy.”

     My friend became convinced that she was worthless as a Christian and a human being. She had such deep feelings of despair that she believed she was permanently broken and of no use to God, the world, or herself. Only God knows if her despair led to suicide. Medical authorities called it “an accidental overdose,” while we who knew her and the many times we had “spoken with” and “prayed her off the ledge” were left with a question mark regarding her death.

     Satan lays heavy burdens on Christians who are struggling with life’s many woes. He keeps putting the seeming impossibility of “be ye holy” into our path as something we can achieve by working at it. If my friend were alive today, she could testify to the futility of working to achieve holiness.

     Satan knows that he cannot take our soul, but he works like the devil to deflate our spiritual connection with God by continuing to assail our Christian beliefs and purpose. For some, like my friend, it can become too much to bear.

     Brothers and sisters, only God’s Holy Spirit can accomplish this task of Holiness in our lives. When despairing thoughts come into our minds, we must immediately pray and ask for God’s help and deliverance. 

     John 16:33 KNIV says; “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

     Take time each week to attend a Bible-believing church, become involved in a small group Bible study, spend a few minutes each day on a daily devotion, and develop a prayer relationship with God about everything. These few things play a gigantic role in God’s regeneration process in our lives.

Amen and Amen

By A. Jennings, Mygospelmessenger.com 

     Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Romans 5:12

     As everyone who is familiar with my posts and my spiritual beliefs knows, Oswald Chambers is one of my favorite spiritual leaders. His biblical teaching, spiritual guidance, and determination to lift up Jesus Christ and Him Crucified were nothing short of exceptional in the few years Mr. Chambers was among us.

     Today’s October 5th devotional in “My Utmost for His Highest” gives us a clear picture of sin and our inheritance of this “gene of sin” determined by Adam and Eve’s selfish fall from grace. What follows are two paragraphs from “The Bias of Degeneration” by Oswald Chambers.

     “The disposition of sin is not immorality and wrongdoing, but the disposition of self-realization…..I am my own god. This disposition may work out in decorous morality or in indecorous immorality, but it has the one basis, my claim to my right to myself.

     Sin is a thing I am born with and I cannot touch it; God touches sin in Redemption. In the cross of Jesus Christ God redeemed the whole human race from the possibility of damnation through the heredity of sin.

     God nowhere holds a man responsible for having the heredity of sin. The condemnation is not that I am born with a heredity of sin, but if when I realize Jesus Christ came to deliver me from it, I refuse to let Him do so. From that moment I begin to get the seal of damnation. “And this is the judgement” (the critical moment) “that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light.”

     O.C. has quoted directly from the following Bible verse.

John 3:19 KVJ

And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world…and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

     Our deadly sin, therefore, is not the inherited sin of Adam and Eve, it is the self-centered rejection of God’s propitiation for sin, His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ.

Amen and Amen

By A. Jennings, Mygospelmessenger.com 

 In Memory of Charlie

     Tens of thousands gathered today in Phoenix Arizona to honor Charlie Kirk Founder of Turning Point USA, an organization that Charlie began which focused on reaching the youth of America regarding their true purpose in life.

     As I watched today’s program, I could not help but draw a sharp contrast with today’s, September 21st devotional by Oswald Chambers titled, “Missionary Predestinations”.

     Since I lack the eloquence of Charlie Kirk’s speaking or writing abilities and the spiritual and scriptural abilities of an Oswald Chambers, I felt today’s memorial services called for publishing the devotional in OC’s own words.

Missionary Predestinations

Isaiah 49:5 NIV

     “And now, saith the Lord that formed me from the womb to be His servant.”

     The first thing that happens after we have realized our election to God in Christ Jesus is the destruction of our prejudices and our parochial options and our patriotisms; we are turned into servants of God’s own purpose. The whole human race was created to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

     Sin has switched the human race on to another tack, but it has not altered God’s purpose in the tiniest degree; and when we are born again, we are brought into the realization of God’s great purpose for the human race, viz., I am created for God, He made me.

     This realization of the election of God is the most joyful realization on earth, and we have to learn to rely on the tremendous creative purpose of God. The first thing God will do with us is to “force thro the channels of a single heart,”….the interests of the whole world. The love of God, the very nature of God, is introduced into us, and, the nature of Almighty God is focused in John 3:16…… For God so loved the world that…

     We have to maintain our soul open to the fact of God’s creative purpose and not muddle it with our own intentions. If we do, God will have to crush our intentions on one side however much it may hurt.

     The purpose for which the missionary is created is that he may be God’s servant, one in whom God is glorified.

     When once we realize that through the salvation of Jesus Christ we are made perfectly fit for God, we shall understand why Jesus Christ is so ruthless in His demands. He demands absolute rectitude from His servants, because He has put into them the very nature of God.

Beware lest you forget God’s purpose for your life. 

by Oswald Chambers "My Utmost for His Highest"

September 21, 2025

Today’s Verse: Mark 6:34 (NKJV)

     “And Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So He began to teach them many things.”

     When Jesus saw the crowds, He didn’t see a nuisance; He saw people in need. His compassion was so deep it moved Him to His very core. He looked at them not as failures or enemies, but as sheep—helpless, wandering, vulnerable, without a shepherd to guide or protect them.

     The answer He gave was not food, entertainment, or distraction. He gave them His Word. He taught them many things, because truth is what anchors the wandering, strengthens the weak, and brings life to the lost.

     So today, remember that Jesus sees you. In the multitude, He sees your personal need. He knows your fears, your wounds, and your longings. And He responds with compassion, shepherding you by His Word.

     Let His voice guide you. Open His Word. Trust His care. For the Shepherd of your soul has not forgotten you—He sees you, He loves you, and He leads you still.

LIFT Daily Prayer-September 22, 2025

By Jack Hibbs

Founder & Pastor of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills. Founder & President of the Real Life Network.

By Oswald Chambers, “My Utmost for His Highest”

1 Corinthians 2:4-5 NIV

4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power,* 5 so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

*Every Christian should have this message from OC emblazoned on their heart. “it’s about HIM, it’s not about me”! 

     Paul was a scholar and an orator of the highest abilities. When he says that he didn’t use “wise and persuasive words” in delivering the gospel, he isn’t speaking out of self-deprecating humility. He’s saying that if he’d tried to impress people with his talent when he preached the gospel, he would have veiled the power of God. Paul knew that belief in Jesus is a miracle produced by the redemption—by the sheer, unaided power of God—not by making fancy speeches.

     As disciples of Jesus Christ, we are called to follow Paul’s example. If we are going to preach the gospel, we must practice a special kind of fasting—not from food but rather from eloquence and impressive diction, from everything that might hinder the word of God coming through us to reach others. The power of the redemption does flow through the preaching of the gospel, but we have to recognize that this power is never due to the personality or the eloquence of the preacher.

     “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us” (2 Corinthians 5:20). Preachers are representatives of God. We are commissioned to present his gospel, not human ideals. If it’s only because of my charisma that people desire to be better, they’ll never get anywhere near Jesus Christ. Anything that flatters me in my preaching will end in making me a traitor to Jesus, because I will prevent the creative power of his redemption from doing its work. “And I,” said Jesus, “when I am lifted up . . . will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32).

*Additional Study:

Psalms 18-19; Acts 20:17-38

Wisdom from Oswald

Beware of bartering the Word of God for a more suitable conception of your own. Disciples Indeed, 386 R

*Additional: A. Jennings