Tag Archives: Hope

Joel Richardson Shares Message of Hope in Evening Service

Those who attended the special service Tuesday evening, June 30th were given a message of hope from bestselling author and internationally recognized teacher on the middle east, muslims and the islamic culture, Joel Richardson.

“ “The day is coming…after the storms…we’ll be raised up…and we will see Him…and embrace Him!  That is reality. We will see Jesus with our own eyes, sitting on the throne in Jerusalem.  It will be as real as we are right NOW. ”  Richardson went on to say  “Let us encourage each other in these days.  If our hope is fixed on saving our country we will miss saving the world.  We have to encourage one another!”

Mr. Richardson spoke of a great revival in Egypt and of how the Lord is working in both Iran and Iraq.  Mosques are emptying and thousands are coming to Christ.   “My heart is encouraged that people are waking up across the earth.  My hope is the encouragement tonight will be at the foundation of everything we do.  As we approach the days to come, we remember to prepare out of faith and not out of fear.  We have confidence in our God and we have confidence of what IS coming!”

We All Need Hope and Encouragement

Lori and I and our Master’s Media group recently attended a Master’s Commission conference in Dallas where we met so many wonderful people!  While we were there, over 100 kids wanted information for the Master’s Media training here at Morningside.

In Dallas, we met a Master’s Commission group from North Pole, Alaska that just knocked our socks off.  There was an immediate connection – hearts to hearts – and we invited them to come to Missouri to visit us on the set to get a feel for what we do here in our Master’s Media training.

So, our friends from North Pole came to see us this week, and there was instant magic in our midst!  While they may have come to receive information about our media training, they also brought us an invaluable gift.  They encouraged us greatly!

The gift of exhortation always brings hope – not false hope, but hope based on the promises of God.  The world is longing for such a message.  While we try every day to bring a message of hope and encouragement to our viewers, we also need to receive hope and encouragement now and then!

I’m convinced that as we draw closer to our Lord’s return, this world is going to experience many upheavals.  As we have said before, everything that can be shaken will be shaken, including many people’s faith.  If ever there was a time when we needed the ministry of encouragement, it is now.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more, as you see the day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:23-25 NASB)

What day is the author of Hebrews talking about?  The day when Jesus returns!  Between now and that day, we need to be encouraging each other as never before.  Whether you have a ministry of encouragement or not, we can all stimulate each other to love each other more, to help each other by doing simple, good deeds, and by gathering together to worship and praise the Lord as we see the day of the Lord approaching.

Love,

Jim

Becoming a Hope Craftswoman (Pt. 3)

That afternoon at the Dream Center, I looked out at the women and saw brown faces, black faces, and white faces.  The color of their skin varied, but the pain in their eyes was the same.  Hard living had aged many of them beyond their years:  a girl grows up way too fast in the ghetto.  They were listening intently, and I knew they understood my sorrow when I admitted that my bad choices far from ended with my decision to marry Jesse.

As I shared even more of my life story with the women at the Dream Center, I could tell that many of them related to the deep personal pain that stemmed from my bad choices.  Some of them were sobbing openly; many had tears in their eyes.  The joy is that I was able to share not just the pain and brokenness but the fact that God had loved me back to wholeness.

“God can only heal what you are willing to reveal,” I told the audience.  When I gave an invitation to come forward for prayer, the response was overwhelming.  Most of these women had already committed their lives to Christ, but there were still so many deep hurts that needed healing.  One woman who wanted prayer shared with me that she had had five abortions.  She was praying and sobbing to the point of having dry heaves.  Some of the other ladies were afraid she was going to throw up and wanted to help her, but I asked them to leave her alone.  It doesn’t happen that often, but sometimes a woman’s grief can be so intense that she gets physically sick.  In that case, it’s actually best to let her get that out.

As I had sensed in my spirit, God did something powerful that day for these women.  I was honored that He would use me as his chosen vessel.

Over the years, God has presented the opportunity over and over again to share my story with hurting women.  While His healing power has worked in my life to restore me to wholeness, there are many still suffering.

I share my story because it makes Jesus real to others who are hurting.

My story isn’t pretty – it isn’t easy to hear.  I am not proud of it – but it’s my TESTIMONY and it is holy unto God.

What I brag about today is not the past – but the future in Christ that I now have and others can have through the loving, forgiving, healing, covering Blood of Jesus!

HE took my sin to that Cross at Calvary so long ago.

HE will take yours too!  Receive Christ today as your Savior!

Love,

~ Lori

Becoming a Hope Craftswoman – Part 1
Becoming a Hope Craftswoman – Part 2

Becoming a Hope Craftswoman (Pt. 2)

About eighty women attended the meeting that Friday afternoon.  It was a treat to have my “girls” there—not only Kelli, Morgan, and Nicks, but Nina Atuatasi, my Samoan “daughter,” who showed up just before the meeting.  Nina, a gifted musician, had arrived in the Los Angeles area a few hours earlier and surprised me by driving over for the meeting.  Before I preached, she sang two songs and ushered in the presence of the Holy Spirit.

“I don’t trust people who haven’t been through something,” I told the ladies.  “And I have a feeling that most of you have been through adversity.  You’ve known some deep pain and heartache.”  Many women responded vocally.  As I began recounting my personal story, I also preached about making choices—how bad choices get us into trouble, but “God choices” get us out.

In the back of my mind, I could hear my father—who sounded just like Archie Bunker on the old All in the Family TV show—saying, “You’re a bad picker, Little Girl.”  Dad was so right about that.  My teenage years were full of bad choices, with disastrous and far –reaching consequences.

I told the women at the Dream Center how Jesse and I had decided we would get married in the summer, after I graduated.  My last year in high school, I was in the DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America) program, so I only went to class for half a day, and then I went to my job.  One afternoon in late April, Jesse picked me up after work, and he had an engagement ring for me. Standing there in from t of Diamond’s department store, he put a diamond on my finger.

My mother was devastated when I told her I was going to marry Jesse.  “Lori, please wait,” she begged me. “You’re too young.”

“I’m older than you were,” I snapped.

“That’s true—and it’s why I know firsthand how hard it is.”

She looked pained.  Mom had been just sixteen when Dad , who was eighteen, pressured her to get married.

“Besides, you can’t stop me.  I’ll be eighteen at the end of August, and then I won’t need your permission.”  I was stubborn and determined.  “So either you sign the papers for me to get married, or we’ll go to another state and elope.”

Mom kept trying to talk sense into me, but I wouldn’t listen.  She knew that Jesse hated his mother, and that was a huge warning sign for her.  “He doesn’t have a good family relationship,” she said, “and he won’t be good to you.” I turned a deaf ear to every reason why the marriage wouldn’t work.

(to be continued)

Becoming a Hope Craftswoman – Part 1
Becoming a Hope Craftswoman – Part 3

Becoming a Hope Craftswoman (Pt. 1)

I opened my Bible to 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, which I had often prayed over in my ministry: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”

“Heavenly Father,” I prayed, “please help me to show my wounds today, so that you may use them as a source of healing.”

It is never pleasant to relive the past when I share my testimony.  But I do it because God uses it to comfort others.  A hurting woman knows I understand her pain and suffering when she hears that I have been down the same road.  And when she receives healing from God, she will extend that same comfort to yet others so that the circle of wounded healers widens.

I’ll never forget the first time I shared a short testimony before a group of women at Phoenix First in the fall of 1990.  I had panicked at the thought of standing before the pastors’ wives and the matriarchs of the church and telling them even the briefest highlights of my sordid past.  I had been a Christian for only about eighteen months, and I still carried a dump truck size load of shame about my past sins, even though I knew God had forgiven me and completely changed my life—in fact, he had called me into full-time ministry.

They’re going to shun me, I thought.  They’ll talk about me, and I’ll never be able to hold my head high.  I’ll have to leave the church.  They think I’m the perfect little Christian, but when they find out. . .

On and on the accusing voice assaulted my mind.  My stomach was so tied in knots; I didn’t think I could go through with it.  I nearly backed out at the last minute, but I managed to battle my fear and honor my commitment to give a five-minute testimony.

I was petrified as I stepped behind the pulpit—the spot usually occupied by Tommy Barnett, one of the most respected pastors in America.  What an incredible honor.  Some one thousand women were in the audience, about six or seven hundred from the inner city and three or four hundred ladies from Phoenix First.  The lights were dimmed, so I couldn’t see their faces.  But I definitely heard them respond when I took the microphone and said, “From the time I was seventeen to the time I was twenty-one, I had five abortions.”  The loud gasps throughout the audience paralyzed me for a moment, but I finished my story and then sat down to listen to the other testimonies.  Well, now they know, I thought.  I wondered if anybody would even speak to me, or if they would just avoid me.

One of the first people I saw afterward was Marja Barnett, my pastor’s wife.  Phoenix Fist Assembly is a huge church, and as I recall, she had never spoken to me before, except perhaps to say hello.  This beautiful, gracious woman came over to me, kissed me on the cheek, and then clasped my hands.  “Oh, Lori, you poor thing,” she said in her lilting Swedish accent. “I never know you have such a horrible life—I can’t believe what you go through.  I’m so happy you are in our church.  I love you so much!”

I don’t remember exactly what she said after that.  All I know is that Marja’s love and acceptance flowed over my soul that day like a healing balm.  Now, eight years later, she had invited me to the Dream Center, and my heart’s desire was to extend the same encouragement to those who needed it.

(to be continued)

Becoming a Hope Craftswoman – Part 2
Becoming a Hope Craftswoman – Part 3

Can These Bones Live?

What could be more unlikely than a pile of human bones living again?  It doesn’t seem like a very intelligent question to ask and an even more impossible thing to actually occur.

Yet, God Himself asked the question of Ezekiel as he looked out over the valley of dry bones:

And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live?

and I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest.
—EZEKIEL 37:3 

As Ezekiel looked at the dry valley of bones, he had no hope.  He saw only bones that appeared to be dead, dry and beyond hope.

There was a reason God asked Ezekiel if the bones could live.  God wanted Ezekiel to know that the bones could live, and that he had a very important role to play in their living.  Let’s read on:

Ezekiel 37:1-10:  Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! 5 This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’”

7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.

9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.

In these last days, there are many of God’s people that appear to be dead, dry and beyond hope.  The battles have been fierce, and while they appear to be defeated, don’t count them out just yet.  In fact, it is the Lord’s heart to count them in!  The Lord is raising up an army – a vast army from the bones of those who appear to be lifeless and without hope!

It is the prophetic call and responsibility of the Church to speak life to the dry bones within.  The Lord said “I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it!”

From my own personal experience, when you have been down for such a long time, and someone tells you that you CAN get up – it’s as life-giving as the very breath you breathe!  You can rise again!  You may have been told it’s over, you’re done.  But, God says NOW is the time, NOW is your time!

Jesus came to give hope to the hopeless.  It’s time we learn to speak life to those who need encouragement and hope.  When you speak words of life, you are literally creating the will to live – and that is Jesus’ heart!

NOW is the time to speak life to someone!