Traditions and BLTS

Years ago, when both of my children were young, our family decided to write some values, and basically it came down to this:

• God
• Worship
• Food

In our home, we serve the Lord, we worship the Lord, and we eat! We go to church every week and serve our Lord. With just our family, we could be the whole worship team. haha! Our family has always gathered around food.

Traditions are things that parents “hand over” or “deliver” to their kids. They are beliefs, behaviors, or customs passed down in hopes that they continue over time.

We gather every week for family dinner. It started on a Tuesday. #tacotuesday, when Sarah and Jon got married in 2018. Then we moved to Fridays, where we have been since. #familyfriday. So every Friday, we gather as a family, hang out, talk, touch base, and eat.

One of those traditions within a tradition is taking a photo of Hubby and Son-in-Law when the tomatoes my hubby grows are ripe and delicious, and we have BLTS! Everyone is on some kind of diet, so little ones.

Because they used to be HUGE….LOL!!

Church and Testimony

This past Sunday, my hubby and I spoke at church to tell of his testimony of healing. On Saturday, July 8, 2023, my husband received a whole-body healing. He woke up and helped a friend that morning. He came into the house and went to make some food, and suddenly was aware that his body didn’t hurt. He had a lot of hard manual labor, wear and tear, and an extensive knee injury. He was on a lot of pain medication for many years. But that day, God healed him: pain gone, knees perfect, shoulders perfect, back perfect. He ran, jumped, and praised God.

The Promise of God

We tell our testimonies to remember what God has done. 

And all that God has done is for our overcoming! WE ARE OVERCOMERS! Amen. 

As Chad said, “We overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony.” So we overcome by what Christ has done and by remembering what God has done. So it’s not really about us. 

In a message called GOD HEALED ME – we are celebrating stories of God’s supernatural healing: physical, emotional, spiritual – restoring wholeness.

But first, what is the promise of God when it comes to healing? 

Without God, our existence is actually quite miserable. In a passage of Psalms 107, we get a picture of HUMAN without God. 

Fools suffered affliction
because of their rebellious ways and their iniquities.¹⁸  They loathed all food
and came near the gates of death.

Psalm 107:17-18

They are foolish, suffering affliction, rebellious; nothing satisfied them; they are near the gates of death. It is a miserable existence. 

But we also see how God answers this condition of human existence.

Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble; he saved them from their distress. ²⁰ He sent his word and healed them; he rescued them from their traps. 

Psalm 107:19-20

NOTICE:

They cried out 

He saved them,

He sent His word,

He healed them,

He rescues them.

Let’s look at this with a New Testament example:  In Acts 3, Peter and John – went to the temple. A lame man was being carried daily to the temple’s “Beautiful Gate” to beg for money. The man asked Peter and John for money as they entered. Peter stated that he had no silver or gold, but commanded him in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth to walk. 

So this man cried out for help, and Peter gave these words – in the name of Jesus 

Peter took the man by the right hand and raised him, instantly healing his feet and ankles. The man jumped up, walked, leapt, and entered the temple praising God. 

Peter then used this opportunity, as all the people around are astonished by what had just happened, to preach the gospel, sharing how God glorified His servant Jesus, whom the crowd had rejected and handed over to Pilate despite Pilate’s decision to release Him. He accused them of rejecting the Holy and Righteous One. He explained that it was faith in the name of Jesus that fully restored the man to perfect health right before their eyes.  

Then he says this:

In this way God fulfilled what he had predicted through all the prophets—that his Messiah would suffer. ¹⁹ Therefore repent and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped out, ²⁰ that seasons of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send Jesus, who has been appointed for you as the Messiah. ²¹ Heaven must receive him until the time of the restoration of all things, which God spoke about through his holy prophets from the beginning. 

Acts 3:18-21

JESUS, is the MESSIAH the ONE who came to suffer for us, ultimately for the purpose of and the promise of the restoration of all things. 

Healing isn’t a payoff for good deeds. 

It isn’t giving because anyone is so good they deserve it. 

Actually, healing was and is God’s plan and promise from the beginning because we were foolish, suffering affliction, rebellious; nothing satisfied us; and we were near the gates of death.

By His grace, He gives it – as a taste so that we can see His goodness and glory. It is and has been His promise all along. 

PRAYER OF HEALING:

(a prayer by Patrick James Miller, an author and coach, that I modified a little for our church setting – pray it for yourself, if you like!)

Father, We come honest before you. 

(Just take a moment to ask the Lord to heal you in the area that you are needing) 

SAY THIS WITH ME: I repent of my own sin, and I repent of the sin in my bloodline that I did not commit and still carry. Wash me. And wash it in the blood of Jesus. SAVE ME, LORD! 

Galatians 3:13 says, “Christ redeemed me from the curse by becoming a curse for me.” That already happened. We are standing in it right now.

REEDEEMED BY THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB

So I break it:

• Every curse of poverty and lack.
• Every curse of sickness, addiction, and early death.
• Every curse on marriage, on our children, our homes, and on our names.

I break every curse:

• of rejection, shame, fear, and confusion.
• Every word spoken over these people that God never spoke.
• Every agreement that was made in a dark season that we never took back.

It stops here. SAY THIS WITH ME: It stops with me. Every spirit that came into my life through a curse, you have no legal right and no claim. The debt was paid. Come out in the name of Jesus.

Now, Father, we have swept the house, and it is empty, but we are not leaving it empty.

Psalm 100 says to enter your gates with thanksgiving.

Say this with me:

• Thank you for the breath in my lungs that I did not earn.
• Thank you for this day that I was never guaranteed.
• Thank you for every hard thing you did not waste.

Now, Father fill every room that just got emptied:

• Fill our faith—where doubt lived, let worship live.
• Fill our family—where silence lived, let the table of communion live.
• Fill my finances—where fear lived, let provision live.
• Fill my friendships—where isolation lived, let brothers and sisters live.

Leave nothing vacant, Lord 

SAY THIS WITH ME: I am not cursed; I am blessed. I am the head and not the tail, and what God has blessed cannot be cursed. Set a guard on this house. Post thanksgiving at the door. 

MAY OUR TESTIMONY BE FROM THIS DAY FORWARD THAT GOD HAS HEALED ME! 

In the mighty name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.

Psalm 107: 21 Let them give thanks to the Lord 

Thanks for listening,

Starla