Faith, Author at FollowingJesusUS.com

God’s Commandments

“Inasmuch as I lifted you out of the dust and made you ruler over My people Israel, and you have walked in the way of Jeroboam, and have made My people Israel sin, to provoke Me to anger with their sins, ³surely I will take away the posterity of Baasha and the posterity of his house, and I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat.” 1 Kings 16:2-3

Jeroboam was a sinner who led the people of Israel to sin. He created an idol to worship (a golden calf) and actually engraved “Yhwh” on it. So he not only created an idol, he tried to name it God. And sadly, many in Israel followed him.

Is not a similar event happening in America? Are there not those who are trying to call “evil good and good evil”? Are there not those who are trying to claim that all religions are true, when the only way to Heaven is through Jesus Christ? Are there not those who are preaching that sinful behavior is actually good behavior and that any and all gods lead to Heaven? How sad for those who follow them.

The first commandments that God us gave make His Will known:

“³Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”

“⁴Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. ⁵Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; ⁶And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.”-Exodus 20:3-6

Jesus’ coming did not replace these Commandments!

Prepare, Pray & Be Ready!

Warning: God’s Judgement

“For I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of this land, declares the Lord. Behold, I will cause each of them to fall into the hand of his neighbor, and each into the hand of his king, and they shall crush the land, and I will deliver none from their hand.”-Zechariah 11:6

God’s Judgement will come, for the only thing needed for God’s Judgement to occur is for God to remove His Hand of Protection.

Prepare, Pray & Be Ready!

The Rosary

Someone once asked me, “Why do I pray the Rosary?”. There are a lot of reasons that I pray the Rosary, but a very important reason is that Mary, Our Blessed Mother, always brings us closer to Her Son Jesus. She points the way to Jesus and prays for us as we go.

I find praying the Rosary also gives me a lot of Peace. I worry less :). The Lord is with Mary; and He loves Her. She is His Mother. And the Rosary, all Rosaries, begin with the Cross 🙂

Much of the Rosary is actually in the Bible. It begins with the Our Father, the prayer our Lord Jesus Christ taught us. (Matthew 6:9-13)

Much of the Hail Mary is also in the Bible: Diocese of Brooklyn and the University of Dayton are just two sources you can read more about this on line.

When I think back to when Mary was on earth, caring for Jesus, loving Him as only a Mother can, I stand in awe. To be charged with raising the Son of God! Wow! To stand at His Cross, hurting with Him and for Him, but Trusting God. The Love and Trust that Mary had in God, Her willingness to obey God no matter what the cost, are simply amazing 🙂

I know that God would have picked the most loving Mother for His Son possible, and the most obedient! And to think She loves us! We are indeed Blessed 🙂

Prepare, Pray & Be Ready!

The Gray Horse: A Warning

While praying to Mary, Our Blessed Mother, I saw a gray horse.

“So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth.”-Revelation 6:8

There are those who find it hard to accept God’s Warnings. But God warns us because He loves us. God doesn’t ever want us to suffer and so He warns us so that we can follow Jesus and go Home to Heaven!

Prepare, Pray & Be Ready!

Staying On The Narrow Path

“The Narrow and Wide Gates”

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. ¹⁴But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it”

There is a tendency among Americans to think that the vast majority of people go to Heaven. Sadly, this is not true. Jesus told us in the above verses that only a few find the way to Heaven. And while we want to tell everyone we love that they are going to Heaven, no matter what choices they make in this life, if we truly love them, we will tell them the Truth-their choices matter!

God sent Jesus to Save us, but we have to choose whether or not we want to be Saved. In other words, we need to choose to accept Jesus as our Savior. For a Gift, no matter how wonderful, is not received unless it is accepted!

So many will say, “I accepted Jesus so I can do anything I want”. This is not true. For if we truly believe in Jesus, if we truly accept Jesus as our Savior, than we will Follow Him. And to Follow Jesus means to Follow the teachings of the God’s Word! And we don’t get to change those Teachings!

“For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.” – Revelation 22:18-19

If we wish to go to Heaven, we need to accept Jesus as our Savior and Follow God’s Word as it is, not as we sometimes wish it were…

Call on Jesus today and Follow Him to Heaven 🙂

Prepare, Pray & Be Ready!

Upon The Wings Of Eagles :)

While praying the Rosary I saw a huge eagle flying towards me and I was reminded of the Bible verse:

“But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.” – Isaiah 40:31

“shall renew their strength”. Notice, it doesn’t say that we will necessarily be healed. Perhaps we will be. But perhaps our strength will be renewed to help us to deal better with the physical and emotional symptoms of our ailments.

Perhaps our strength will be renewed so that we can deal with the loss of a loved one, the loss of a dream, the loss of our job which allows us to support our family…

Perhaps our strength will be renewed so that we might do our Father’s Will. Perhaps it will be renewed so that we might love more like Jesus does.

Whatever the reason, we need to seek what God would He have us do with our “renewed strength” 🙂

Prepare, Pray & Be Ready 🙂

God Does Answer Prayers!

“With God all things are possible” – Matthew 19:26

As many of you know, I have suffered from a number of illnesses. Heart failure, Dilated cardiomyopathy, Sub-Aortic Membrane (heart), Thoracic Aortic Aneurysm, Lung Disease, Asthma, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Raynaud, Graves Disease, Hashimoto, TED, Multiple System Atrophy…

But I am always able to do everything I need to do and I am also incredibly happy. In fact, probably happier than anyone I know. And I have grown closer to our Father-God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and Mary. And I know that is because God does answer prayers-every day. But sometimes not in the way we think He will…

Sometimes God heals us, but sometimes God doesn’t. Sometimes God, who is always fair :), gives us something else instead. And sometimes, if we are very lucky, it is the Gift of Faith 🙂

I may not be well, but I have always been able to do what I need. Notice I said that I can do what I need to do. If I can’t do it, I must not need to! And there may be plenty of things I want to do, but can’t, but I can also do things that other people can’t. For example, since I have more time available, I am able to pray for others often :).

The answer to our fears about whether we can do something for not, is Trusting God. For example, I have a brain MRI in a closed MRI machine later today. I am horribly claustrophobic and afraid of doing this test. Silly I know, but fears are always kind of silly when we consider the power of God, lol. But despite my fears, I am Trusting God that it will go well and I am going.

Another example, I use a cane now to walk, but I still go to the beach with my husband, because we need to go.

Last example :). One time, several years ago, I completely passed out and went to the beach that afternoon. Why? Because I needed to set the example for my children that we always need to live each moment to it’s fullest, for each moment is a Gift from God. And so I asked God for Help and He Helped me 🙂

I have all the usual symptoms of the above illnesses. On some days, I find it difficult to walk and to stand. I also have all of the typical bouts of fatigue and pain. I should be heavy hearted, but I am not. My heart is happy and light. And I know that this is because God is helping me. My illnesses may not have been healed, but my prayers have been answered! Because I definitely do not feel that I am suffering as much as I might and I am closer to God than ever 🙂

A word about suffering. When we do suffer, whether it be from an illness, a loss of a loved one, a job loss(it really does not matter what kind of suffering, for suffering is suffering), it helps to remember that suffering can have a greater purpose – if we let it.

For one thing, we can offer up our suffering for others. We can offer our suffering up for the lost. And we can choose to offer it up to Jesus.

Because He loves us, Jesus suffered horrifically on the Cross! Although our suffering will never be as terrible as Christ’s, we can offer our suffering up to Him as a way to share in His suffering and grow even closer to Jesus.

God is always Faithful and always answers Prayers. If you are having trouble seeing His answers, ask Him to show you. And end each prayer with “thy will be done”. For God’s Will is always better than our own 🙂

You might be wondering why I am sharing so much personal health data. It’s because I am so grateful to our Lord. Because of God, my very life is a living testimony to God’s Prayers Answered. And I want you to know that He will answer yours too-if you let Him 🙂

Prepare, Pray & Be Ready!

Entertaining Angels Two :)

Newsboys is the same band that sang in the God’s Not Dead movie 🙂

“For it is written: “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully”-Luke 4:10

Several years ago, I was parked at the mall. There was a huge, huge, hairy spider in my CD holder. (Yes CD holder :). And then somehow it got in my coffee cup!

Now anyone who knows me, knows that I used to be deathly afraid of spiders. I can’t say why; it was just my fear. Some might say a spider – phobia, lol…I honestly did not know what to do. I screwed up all of my courage and grabbed the coffee mug by the handle and threw it on the ground.

But then I truly didn’t know what to do! I was parked in the mall and leaving it on the ground just did not seem right, but there was also no way I was going to pick that mug up again with the spider in it.

All of a sudden, I saw an old man walking quickly towards me. And yet, I really couldn’t see where he was coming from. The area that he was walking from had no cars parked! He stopped in front of me and picked up the mug and shook out the spider and handed it to me. He never spoke a word. And then he just walked quickly on, but there were no cars in that direction either.

I got back in my car and thanked God for rescuing me 🙂

And I remembered my friend’s words from many years ago about Entertaining Angels :). “”you never know when you are entertaining angels”.

Prepare, Pray & Be Ready!

Entertaining Angels :)

” For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways”- Psalms 91:11

Many years ago, I sat with a very close friend. We were praying for one of my children. My child had been very sick and the doctors felt that my child’s kidneys had been effected very badly. Like any other mom, I was very worried and scared for my child.

My friend sat with me, praying with me. And then she said something that seemed strange at the time. She said that “you never know when you are entertaining angels”.

A few days later I was at the market getting dinner to cook for that night. There was a very elderly gentleman getting into a very, very old car. He opened the car door and sat down with it open. He looked too tired to close the door.

I hesitated a moment, he was a stranger and I didn’t want to interfere where I shouldn’t. I also didn’t want to hurt his pride. Finally I walked over there and asked him if there was anyone that I could call or could I take him anywhere. But he said no, he thanked me and drove off. As I stood there for a few minutes, I remembered what my friend had said about Entertaining Angels. I stood there a few more minutes praying for him. I just wanted to be sure he was okay.

The next day I had to take my child back to the doctor, we needed to plan next steps. But the specialist said something I wasn’t expecting. Let’s wait.

From that moment, my child got better. All of my child’s problems and illnesses were cured. I took him back to the doctor a few months later and my child’s tests were perfect. The blood test that had indicated my child had an autoimmune disease was negative and the marker for it never showed up again!

Angels, at God’s direction, do watch other us. Miracles do happen. Don’t every give up. Just keep praying and keep believing 🙂

Prepare, Pray & Believe 🙂

Keep Praying :)

While praying the Rosary, I heard Mary say that there will be a “better Vicar and then a good one”.

The Pope is also called the Vicar…

Prepare, Pray & Be Ready!