Today is going to be a very special, very meaningful day for me. I get to go back, for the first time, to minister to—and with—the Counselors and Staff at the Christian camp where I first accepted Jesus as my Savior. I’ll be doing, first, a session on Leading a Child to Christ in the afternoon and, then, in the evening I’ll be speaking at the Counselor and Staff Commissioning Service.

Thank You, my ABBA, for this humbling and beautiful privilege!

Forty-two years ago when I was seven (yes, that currently makes me forty-nine for all you math whizzes in blog-cyberspace—FIFTY in December!), my parents sent me and all four of my siblings (all of us born within five years from oldest to youngest!) to a camp for one week. They needed a break. I don’t think it really mattered much to my parents what camp would take us.

But! It mattered very much to our God.

For just one short week back in 1967 I attended Ontario Bible Camp in Oswego, NY. And through the faithful servant hearts of the OBC staff, and especially through the Camp Chaplain’s clear, powerful and loving sharing of God’s grace and truth through God’s Word, Jesus became my Savior. Oh! What a difference a moment…a day…a week—orchestrated by the loving heart of our God—can make in a life!

For God so loved the world that He gave His One and Only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

Jesus entered my life with His passionate love for me and His eternal salvation. I knew, then, that no matter what the hands of others would do to me, I was still held in God’s perfect, loving, strong, good hands.

Thank you, ALL of you, who have served over the years at OBC—or in any form of ministry, formal or informal—to share with others the grace and truth of our Lord Jesus Christ, His salvation, His transformation and His outrageous, unfailing love!

Your seemingly small act of service in the Name of Jesus, the Name that is above ALL names—ABOVE the names of abuse, incest, rape, fear, brokenness, hate, anger, my own sins, the evil I have done and the evil done to me—has made ALL the difference in my life! For all eternity!

Before I left OBC I was given a Bible.  And it was—and is—only through God’s intervening love, God’s living and active Word and God’s intimately present Spirit that my life has been completely healed and transformed—from a broken, abused child to a mighty woman-child of our Sovereign God!

Yes, today is going to be a special, very meaningful day for me at OBC! Thank you, JESUS! It is All from you and it is ALL for you!

May we ALL seek to let Jesus use us to touch at least one life for Him! Oh! What a difference a moment…a day…a week—orchestrated by the loving heart of our God—can make in a life! Amen!

In love, peace and purposeful passion,                                                               Sylane

All things aren’t good. But God always is…

And we know that in all things

God works for the good of those who love him

and are called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28

And God’s very greatest purpose for those of us who love him and have responded to His passionate, saving love call is that we would each be…

…conformed to the likeness of his Son…

Romans 8:29

So, no, all things aren’t good. But God always is.

Our own sinful choices separate us from God. Our own sinful choices and the sinful choices of others against us can break our hearts, warp our minds, rob us of peace, security, possessions and stability, and severely injure and even destroy our bodies.

It is only through the sacrifice of Jesus that we can receive the full and free forgiveness from our Holy God that we desperately need. It is only through the resurrection power and transforming love of Jesus that we are able to fully and freely forgive all people of all sins against us…no matter how grievous and evil those sins are.

So, no, all things aren’t good. But God always is. 

God is good when we face tragedy and disasters in the natural world—whether from floods, fires, earthquakes, tornadoes, famines or drought. God is good when we face broken relationships or bankruptcy. God is good when we or someone we love dearly is ill or crippled, injured or dying…or dead long before we were ready to say goodbye.  

These things are not good. And God is not asking us to pretend that they are.  

God is good. And because of His sovereign authority and unfailing love God is able…and desires…to work all things for our good as we trust in Him and His good will that purposes to make us evermore Christ-like in every circumstance and season of our lives.

May we each choose to let our Good God hold our heads and hearts, even when things aren’t good, so that Christ’s image will be powerfully reflected in our lives…and in our character!

In love, peace and purposeful passion,                                                               Sylane

P.S. For personal and ministerial reasons I will be taking a bit of a sabbatical from writing new devotional posts, although I will stay open to God’s good leading anytime He wants me to write a new one!

Be blessed by the love of our Lord Jesus Christ that is unfailing and transforming when times are good and when they are not! Amen!

Today is April 15th. This is TAX DAY in the United States. We have a debt to pay. All of our taxes for the previous year come due today.

Some of us may actually be getting a refund because our tax debt was already paid. (I’m happy for you! Really!)

Many, maybe even most, of us, however, still have a tax debt that we need to pay out to our government. Today.

Some of us may try to finagle our tax forms to ensure that the amount we owe is doing some version of what I call: “The Tax Limbo Dance.”  You know, “How Low Can You Owe?” 

Some of us may even choose to completely ignore our debt—ignore our responsibility—to pay our required tax amount. Determining in our own minds that it is we—not the government, nor anyone else—who decides what we do with our money and everything else that belongs to us.

Well, maybe some people will get away with the finagling that is done in figuring the amount of tax debt they owe. Others may seemingly get away with disregarding their debt all together.

Whatever our attitudes and our consequent actions are regarding the payment of our US taxes—our Lord Jesus has something to say to us. Really?

Yep. Jesus has something to say to us, not only about what we need to give to our governments, but Jesus has something, much more important, to say about what we need to give to God.

Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and give to God what is God’s. 

Matthew 22:21

I’m pretty sure that Jesus is telling us here that we each need to fulfill our responsibilities to the governments under which we live. And that includes paying our tax debt as a US citizen. Today.

And yet far beyond that, I believe Jesus is challenging us to really think about what actually belongs to God. And, then, Jesus is calling us to act faithfully in giving back to God all that belongs to God.

You and your accountant—or maybe Turbo Tax—will figure out the debt you owe in taxes.

As for figuring out what belongs to God, God makes that perfectly clear to us. No finagling here at all!

The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it,

the world and all who live in it! 

Psalm 24:1

Yep! All that exists, all that we have, all people everywhere, all of our very lives truly belong to God!

And, Oh! God really does want us to live—knowing and believing—the truth that we belong to Him! Our loving God desires the very best for our lives. And that comes to us when we give our lives fully back to the One, our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave His life for us!

Yes, living in the truth that we each completely belong to God is freedom. No fear of being audited. No finagling to look a little better. No need to ignore our debt.

Jesus has accepted the full responsibility to pay the full price of our full debt to God. Believing this truth, living this truth, is our way to “give to God what is God’s.” 

This is the true debt free living!

In love, peace and purposeful passion,                                                               Sylane

I’m in New York City this morning. For me personally, I love this city…because God loves this city…or rather, God loves every single person in this city…just as God loves every single person in the world!

For me whenever I’m here I am so powerfully aware of how very different we people are…how many different sizes, shapes and shades of skin we people come in, how many different countries, cultures, socio-economic and language groups we people come from, how many different perspectives and preferences we people have.

Here in NYC, I am sharply aware of so many different people with so many differences. Yet, the Word and Spirit of God confirm to me even more sharply that God loves every single person passionately and fully…and that our Lord Jesus Christ has been fully offered so that each and every person may know the salvation and intimate love of our Heavenly Father!

For God so loved the world

that he gave his one and only Son

that whoever believes in him

shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16

May we as messengers of this powerful truth of God reach out to all others around us—no matter how similar or different to us they may be—with the saving, transforming love of our Lord Jesus Christ! 

In love, peace and purposeful passion,                                                               Sylane

Today I wanted to share the reflections I wrote for our most recent TBG newsletter because Easter is not just for a day for a child of God.

The Resurrection and The Life—Do you believe this? Do you believe Him?

“I am the resurrection and the life.

He who believes in me will live,

even though he dies;

and whoever lives and believes in me

will never die.

Do you believe this?”

John 11:25

Do I believe this? Do you believe this?

We cannot choose to stay passive in our attitude about Jesus. He demands an answer. We have to either acknowledge the truth of who Jesus is-or we need to admit that we are actively dismissing Him.  

We cannot be passive about Jesus.

There is nothing passive about the way that Jesus went about His ministry-His interaction and interruption of time, space and people’s lives.

There is nothing passive about the way that Jesus taught people God’s truths; nothing passive about the way He healed people from multiple maladies; nothing passive in His exorcism of demons or His raising the dead to life. And Jesus certainly didn’t go to his death passively. Without fighting His crucifixion, yes. But His death was actively planned for, prepared for and chosen by Him with a purpose: He alone could be the full and worthy atoning sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins by our Holy God.

Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life. And believing this frees us completely from the bondage of sin and death-for all eternity…and right in the very midst of the lives we are living now.

Jesus is never passive. He is passionate. He is present. He has purposed to offer us His very life and the power of His resurrection. We need only to receive what Jesus us offers as we believe Him and who He says He is: The Resurrection and The Life!

May this be the truth you believe this Easter…and every day as a child of God—with the fullness of its power and the depth of its peace!

In love, peace and purposeful passion,                                                               Sylane

This is the day after THE DAY. Yesterday was Easter. Churches were filled well beyond their usual attendance numbers. I’m okay with that. I’m just so thankful for any opportunity that people will allow themselves to take to hear the message of hope—the very message of life—found only in our Lord Jesus Christ!

Pray for all those who went to Easter services yesterday! Some may have attended because of a sense of duty to a religion…or a sense of duty to family…or maybe others were cajoled into attending by a faith-filled (or annoying) friend or family member.

And others attended these Easter services as sincere believers in Jesus Christ who wanted to join in the celebration of all that our Lord Jesus has accomplished through His death—His greatest act of humility—and through His resurrection—His great act of Sovereign power! All this was motivated and accomplished by our Holy God’s passionate and unfailing love for all people!

Does Easter…Will Easter…make a difference in your life—whether you are a sincere believer or you are one of those who was cajoled into attending the services? Does…Will…the beautiful, passionate, outrageous love of Jesus Christ really make a difference in your life? Does…Will…the sacrifice of Jesus’ life and the power of His resurrection make a difference in your daily-day—filled with so many responsibilities and distractions—life???

Jesus calls out to each one of us, right in the midst of our busy, responsibility-laden, distraction-filled lives:

“The time has come. The kingdom of God is near.

Repent and believe the good news!”

“Come, follow me…and I will make you fishers of men.”

Mark 1:15, 17

Yes. Even the day after THE DAY is the time! The time to repent and believe…the time to follow Jesus and the time to reach out to others with His unlimited love, with the hope offered through His death for our sins and His eternal resurrection and with His passionate and intimate power that transforms lives both practically and spiritually!

This is the day after THE DAY! Does…Will…the grace and truth of Easter make a difference in your life…and, thereby, in the lives of others?

HAPPY EASTER—each and every day!

In love, peace and purposeful passion,                                                               Sylane

On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb.

They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them.

In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them,

“Why do you look for the living among the dead?  He is not here;

HE HAS RISEN!

Remember how He told you, while He was still with you in Galilee:

‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified, and on the third day be raised again.’ ”

Then they remembered His words.

Luke 24:1-8

JESUS HAS RISEN! Always Remember!

This Truth changes everything! This Truth changes all who believe!

JESUS HAS RISEN! Always Remember!

Jesus has conquered the power of sin.

Jesus laid down His pure life to purify us by His own blood shed on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. And through this act of ultimate love, Jesus bore the full punishment of condemnation and separation from our LORD so that we who trust in Jesus as our Messiah-our Savior may approach our Heavenly Father as His holy, dearly loved children! 

JESUS HAS RISEN! Always Remember!

Jesus has conquered the power of death.

Our Lord Jesus could not be bound by the cords of death! He is the Lord of Life—with all power and authority to eternally conquer death and to grant eternal life to all who believe!

Jesus Himself assured us of this great hope, this great victory over death:

“I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me

has eternal life and will not be condemned;

he has crossed over from death to life.

I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come

 when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God

and those who hear will live.

For as the Father has life in Himself,

so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself.

And He has given to Him authority to judge because He is the Son of Man.”

John 5:24-27

JESUS HAS RISEN! Always Remember!

And Jesus desires each one of us to hear and believe His Words of Grace and Truth:

I died for your sins. I alone could do this. I Am GOD. You are forgiven. You are free of all blame and all shame. I bore it all for your freedom!

I have eternal life to give you. I alone could do this. I Am GOD. You need never fear death again. I swallowed it up in full victory. Death cannot hold my children—you who believe in me. I have already rescued you from death and brought you into the promised eternal life with Me!

JESUS HAS RISEN! Always Remember!

You have a choice to make. We all have a choice to make about Jesus.

Believe the message of Jesus and receive the salvation and eternal life that comes through Jesus Christ alone.

HOW? Ask Jesus, even now, to be your Savior. Let God know that you believe that Jesus is His Son who died for your sins and rose from the dead to give you eternal life.

God loves you so much. Your Heavenly Father wants you to hear and believe; God wants you to be set free from the power of sin and the judgment of death.

God wants you to know the total forgivess that Jesus alone offers and the hope and joy of eternal life with the Soverereign and Holy God of all creation!

Believe. And thank God for hearing your confession of faith in Jesus as your Savior. Tell someone about your decision to trust in Jesus for your forgiveness and eternal life!

Welcome Home, precious one, Welcome Home!

 JESUS HAS RISEN! Always Remember!

In love, peace and purposeful passion,                                                               Sylane

Oh! Those Spritual Dwarfs: Prideful, Fearful, Sinful, Shameful, Whiny, Grumpy and Dopey (and all of their evil friends, of so many other names. You know: Lustful, Forceful, Sneaky, Meany, Nasty, Busy, Two-face…on and on!) wreak horrible havoc within our minds, our bodies, our souls and our relationships.

What are we ever going to do? What can we do? Those dwarfs just keep yapping and shouting and telling us we have a right to think what we think, do what we do, live like we live. And, quite honestly, they are right in this one way: we do have a choice. Always.

It was God’s loving will for us to give us the gift of freedom of choice. But! We must be wise! Choosing anything other than God’s way is no freedom at all. And turning our backs on God and our focus on ourselves is an ugly, vicious, evil, LYING trap that the Spiritual Dwarfs would have us believe is the ultimate way to assert our independence, freedom and control over our own lives!

This is a deadly lie. And God wants us to live. God wants us to choose life. The BATTLE for our minds, bodies, souls and relationships has always been about life and death. Always.

In the Garden of Eden…Obey our Loving God and LIVE. Disobey and die.

God spelled out this choice so clearly as He was leading His people out of slavery and into the Promised Land.

…I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to His voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life  Deuteronomy 30:19-20

It has always been about choice. We have to realize that: Everything we think, say and do is either bringing more life or more death to our minds, bodies, spirits and relationships.

And God wants us to choose HIM because HE is our LIFE. Our LORD is our FREEDOM. And it is in choosing to live listening to the loving, life-giving TRUTH of GOD–and obeying it–that we are able to kill the Spiritual Dwarfs. 

The choice is still, and always will be, about life and death.

Jesus has already died and rose again to conquer the influence and lies of the Spiritual Dwarfs! Let’s choose this resurrection-power of Jesus! Let’s choose life! Let’s choose freedom!

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again be a yoke of slavery! Galatians 5:1

You have heard these words of Scripture before from me. And I’m sure you will hear them again. I wish I could tell you that God’s words and God’s ways are what I always choose. I do not. Darn it!

Yet, these words of TRUTH are as is GOD. GOD never changes. Even if I waiver in my behavior or my circumstances are like a roller-coaster ride or a crushing storm. GOD is LIFE. GOD is my LIFE. And that never changes.

GOD’S TRUTHS are LIFE and they are FREEDOM to me. They are my song. They are my breath. They are my guardian to my mind, body, spirit, and relationships.

What to do? Choose the LORD–His love, His life, His freedom. That’s: What To Do! And the Spiritual Dwarfs will by killed. In this, they have no choice! Jesus has already conquered! Amen!

In love, peace and purposeful passion,                                                               Sylane

Every Spiritual Dwarf is a LIAR. Each of them DENIES some TRUTH of GOD.

Hear DOPEY as he speaks his LIES: ”I just don’t know nothin’. I don’t know what to say…I’ll never be able to talk real good to nobody ’bout Jesus. So, I’ll just say nothin’ at all. ’Cuz if anybody really wants to hear ’bout Jesus, they’d ask a pastor or a priest or somebody who really knows. Not me.  I don’t want to bother nobody. I’ll just be nice and fun, dance around, smile a lot. I want people to like me. So, I’ll just live and let live. Yep, that’s how I’ll shine my light. Better for me that way ’sted of talkin’ ’bout Jesus. Yep, I think I’ll just stay quiet ’bout Jesus.”

DOPEY denies the POWER and PROMISE of GOD to give us the Words, the Ways and the Wisdom to share our faith in Jesus–which others desperately need to hear so they may know GOD’s Saving Truth for themselves.

DOPEY may seem harmless enough–even cute, and, oh, sooo likeable. But his lies are insidious and dangerous. DOPEY’s lies of not knowing nothin’ or not wanting to bother nobody are falsely humble at best, and completely untrue from one who has accepted Jesus’ gift of salvation for himself.

At worst, DOPEY’s lying influence leads us to a place of not caring and having no true compassion for the precious people around us who will die in their sins unless they know the salvation that comes through Jesus Christ alone.

The live and let live attitude sounds respectful and maturely tolerant. But, it is actually a cruel and costly lie when the price is someone’s eternal separation from the Holy God of all creation. 

DOPEY must be killed so that others may hear and believe the amazing gift of love our God offers to all who place their faith in Jesus as Savior. DOPEY must be killed so that others may live now, and live for all eternity in the grace, truth, peace and presence of God. 

God tells us HIS TRUTH: God calls each and every one of us (not just the clergy or professional ministry workers) to be Ambassadors of Christ. All of us who have accepted God’s loving, free gift of forgiveness for our sins and eternal life through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ–are called to share in the ministry of reconciliation with people who have not yet known the grace and truth that God offers to them. And who all need God’s salvation as desperately as we do.

God gives us each the POWER we need–even as frail, flawed, finite and, yes, even still very likeable and fun people–to share the salvation of Jesus!

We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 2 Corinthians 4:7

All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And God has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are, therefore, Christ’s ambassadors, as though God is making His appeal through us. 2 Corinthians 5:18-20

God tells us HIS TRUTH: Along with all the POWER of GOD that has been given to us, we also have the PROMISE of GOD to give us the Words, the Ways and the Wisdom to share our faith in Jesus. We do need to be prepared always to share our hope in Jesus–even if our words may seem bumbling or insufficient to us. GOD’S LOVE is perfect. And GOD will cause His LOVE for the world–for each person–to flow through us, even if we are a bit insecure or unsure about what we should say.

[Jesus said,] “…do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say [about the Lord Jesus], for the Holy Spirit will teach  you at that time what you should say.” Luke 12:11-12

[Jesus said,] “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8

[An angel of the LORD said,] “Go…and tell the people the full message of this new life!” Acts 5:20

[The Apostle Peter wrote,] “In your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” 1 Peter 3:15

[The Apostle Paul wrote,] “I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it was written [in Habbakuk 2:4]: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’” Romans 1:16-17

 God tells us HIS TRUTH: God calls us to truly love other people enough to risk sharing our faith in Jesus with them so that they may have opportunity to know and believe the PROMISE and POWER of GOD in their own lives. God calls us to love other people enough to risk that they may misjudge us or may not like us anymore. Jesus risked it all for us! For our salvation and eternal life with our ABBA! And we are called to be risk takers–uncovered a bit–so that we will be more and more like Jesus and share the freedom GOD offers, rather than the deadly bondage of DOPEY.

…where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.2 Corinthians 2:17-18

To kill DOPEY (and we must!) we must trust our Sovereign LORD’s Eternal Truth: In Christ, we have the POWER and PROMISE of GOD to give us the Words, the Ways and the Wisdom to share our faith in Jesus! And it is both our joy and our job to tell what we ourselves have received: Eternal Salvation and Eternal Life with our Holy Loving LORD!

So, let’s get out there! Let’s dance and sing and tell about the love of Jesus so that others, too, will know for themselves God’s greatest and truest joy–now and forever!

In love, peace and purposeful passion,                                                               Sylane

Every Spiritual Dwarf is a LIAR. Each of them DENIES some TRUTH of GOD.

Hear GRUMPY as he speaks his Lies: “That person makes me so angry! Everything he’s doing is just to make me crazy and make my life more difficult! I can’t stand the way that person acts! Who does she think she is to do that to me? I am so sick and tired of all the crud that keeps getting dumped on me! I am flippin’ done with always having to be the mature one! I am so sick and tired of always having to make sure that everything gets done–IF it’s going to get done right!  At home! At work! Everywhere! I never get a break! My boss, my kids, my spouse treat me like I’m their personal slave! They’re idiots! I am so totally ticked off at all these stupid, insensitive, selfish people that are making me and my life so miserable! Somebody’s going to be getting an ear-full from me today! And it’s about time! And that stupid driver who just cut me off! He better be watching his back! Arrgghh!! I just want to slap somebody!!!”