Neighbor Love

You shall love your neighbor as yourself. --Leviticus 19:18

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. --John 13:34

God does not say, "Love your neighbors." You cannot love the whole world. He says, "Love your neighbor." So take one person, one family. Start to pray for that family. Start to look for their problems, their needs--spiritual, material, psychological, all kinds of needs. Don't go to them with a tract; you will look like a salesman. Go to sell yourself. Go to give yourself to them. Let them know that you love them, and give your service to them. Jesus didn't say, "Let your mouth speak before men in such a way that they may hear your nice words and glorify your Father." He said, "Let your light shine"--your love! Good works are the evidence of our love.
(From the book "Disciple" by Juan Carlos Ortiz)

Love.... that's not much to ask of us!!!

The Oxygen Of The Kingdom

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another. --John 13:34-35

The oxygen of the Kingdom-love. I found that it is not one of the virtues of the Christian life-love is the Christian life. It is not one of the most important things-it is the one thing. The quality of eternal life that Jesus gives is love. It is the oxygen; there is no life without it. The only thing that will go through death and into the eternal is love. Love is the light of the new Kingdom. Listen to what John says: "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and every one who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love" (1 John 4:7-8). When love is generated from the inside, it solves all kinds of problems. The fruit of the Spirit is love-as well as joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Love is not one of the elements of the Christian life- it is the element. Love is the life itself. Are you really aware of the importance of love? Only if you understand this can you be open to the Spirit. Love is the Christian life. Many other things such as gifts and worship are nice, but love is the life.
(from the book "Disciple" by Juan Carlos Ortiz)

Living In The Kingdom

If any one wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it. --Matthew 16:24-25

We must flee from darkness and the kingdom of selfishness, where everyone lives for himself and does his own will. We must get into the Kingdom of God, where everyone lives for God and does His will. To be in the Kingdom, we must die to ourselves. But many people who have been saved don't yet understand that they are slaves. They want to keep on doing their own will. It won't work. When we find Jesus, it cost us everything. He has happiness, joy, peace, healing, security, eternity, everything.
So we say, "I want this. How much is it?"
"Well," "it's very expensive."
"Well, I have ten thousand dollars in the bank."
"Good-ten thousand dollars. What else?"
"Well, I have a few dollars here in my pocket."
"That's fine. What else do you have?"
"Well, nothing. That's all."
"Where do you live?"
"In my house. Yes, I have a house."
"The house, too, then."
"You mean I have to live in my camper?"
"You have a camper? That, too. What else?"
"I'll have to sleep in my car!"
"You have a car?"
"Two of them."
"Both become mine, both cars. What else?"
"What more do you want?"
"Are you alone in this world?"
"No, I have a wife and two children..."
"Oh, yes, your wife and children, too. What else?"
"I have nothing left! I am left alone now."
"Oh, I almost forgot! You yourself, too! Everything becomes mine-wife, children, house, money, cars--and you too."
Then He goes on. "Now listen--I will allow you to use all these things for the time being. But don't forget that they are mine, just as you are. And whenever I need any of them you must give them up, because now I am the owner." That's how it is when you are under the ownership of Jesus Christ. We have done wrong in the past by not telling people the whole story. We've told them that everything Jesus has becomes theirs, but we forgot to mention that everything we have becomes His. And there's no lordship if we won't do that. So it is with the Lord. We are "in Christ." It is up to us whether we stay there or not. In order to remain in Jesus, we must lose everything and become Jesus. We lose our life. We treat Jesus as if He were our slave. Servants don't say, Lord, do this and do that." Servants say, "Lord, what do You want me to do?" The satisfaction of the servant is to see the Lord satisfied. May God help us to do with joy what servants in His Kingdom do.
(From the book "Disciple" by Juan Carlos Ortiz)

Servants Of The Kingdom

But which of you, having a slave plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, "Come immediately and sit down to eat"? But will he not say to him, "Prepare something for me to eat, and properly clothe yourself and serve me until I have eaten and drunk;and afterward you will eat and drink"? He does not thank the slave because he did the things which were commanded, does he? --Luke 17:7-9

The servant in the first century was a genuine slave-a person who had lost everything in this world. His liberty, his freedom, his will, even his name was gone. When Jesus told His little story about a master inviting his slave to eat first, the disciples laughed. The slave had to serve the master first-always. Jesus then concluded, "So you too, when you do all the things which are commanded you, say, "We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done'"(Luke 17:10). We may not like to hear it, but it is true: We are the slaves of Jesus Christ. We were bought by the Lord. We've heard so often that Jesus died for our sins. That's only part of the story. The reason He died and was resurrected, says Paul, was to be the Lord of all us slaves. He explains it very wonderfully in 2 Corinthians 5:15 - "He died for all, that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf." Jesus brought the solution. His death on the cross and His resurrection really means this: Any slave who looks to the cross in faith is allowed to count that death as his own death. He dies: Satan loses him.
(From the book "Disciple" by Juan Carlos Ortiz)

First Day of CEC

This morning I took my little man Eli to his first day at Hazel Green Child Enrichment Center. Don't let the happy look in the car fool you! Things went really well considering this was all new for him. He wanted me to "hold you" which means he wanted me to pick him up. One of the teachers said I'll hold you and he went right to her. As I drove out of the parking lot (really really slow) I watched (they were playing on the playground) and he looked fine. No tears is very fine to me! I have prayed that God will watch over him and help him feel loved and secure.... I'm going to keep that faith and trust.... remember.... I'm working on keeping my Joy! Oh how these little precious ones that God shares with us can fill our hearts with all kinds of emotions. I thank Him for each moment... even the less happy ones!!

I'm keeping my Joy!

Today's been one of those days... you wake up saying "Oh thank you Lord for another day. Forgive me for my wrongs and let me please you today". You have your morning cup of coffee watch a little news and up you go to get ready for this new and wonderful day. Then it starts... while putting your make up on you have a hot flash from ----! No really, you can see the sweat beads popping out all over your freshly put on make up so you have to put more on cause the old has dripped to the floor. You leave the house on your way to drop off the grand kids. The first one was a breeze so we are on track again with this good day. The second one takes you forty five minutes due to "issues" with the sitter which causes you to arrive at work around 9:30 (good thing the boss is on vacation). You have a lunch date with a friend at 11:30 and need to leave work at 11:10 because it's in Madison. You do the math.... your not at work long enough to do anything before it's time to leave. Your lunch turns into a "deep" conversation because of "issues" with your friend and God is just telling you to stay and talk.... so you do. You get back to work at 3:30. Oh what the heck... just go home! You get home with the oldest grandchild, decide to sit on the deck and watch her swim, your neighbor comes over with her kids so you have good company, all is well again. You did get two more charms for your new Pandora bracelet so I say it's an okay day... you made it without hurting anyone. Then, the phone rings (your thinking "don't answer it") you should have listened to yourself. With NO notice you now have NO sitter for the little grandchild due to those "issues". Your neighbor is off tomorrow and will be more than glad to watch him while you tell your daughter to call the daycare that you wanted to send him to when school started anyway. She is concerned about his lack of "potty" interest.... all I can hear is .... good will come of this!! I did it.... I made it through the day and did NOT lose my Joy! Concerned .... sure.... I'm human..... however, I will trust that God knows what is best and will provide for us if we just trust in Him!! Thanks for sharing my day---- and my Joy! Feel free to keep us in your prayers!!

Happy Birthday To Me

As this day comes to an end, I'm thinking of how blessed I am. The people in my life both past and present. Fifty Two.... wow.... I can remember when I thought that was really old. Now, it's just a number and I hope to keep counting! Thank you God for allowing me time here to spend with my family and friends. Please let me show them every chance I get how special they all are and how much I love them.

The Gospel Of The Kingdom

Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me. -- Matthew 11:28-29

We like to hear about the first verse, verse 28. But Jesus' words, "Take My yoke upon you," are not so popular. You now live for the King, not for yourself. If you want to read the gospel of the Kingdom, go back and read the verses you never underlined, because that is the truth you lack. I do not underline the Bible anymore, because underlining divides the verses into first class and second class. Everything is important. This is the gospel of the Kingdom: "Repent, and believe!" You either will or you won't. We are not saved because we agree to a certain doctrine or formula. We are saved because we obey what God says. All Jesus says is, "Follow Me!" He doesn't say where, or how much He will pay us. He just gives the command. Salvation is a commandment. God wants everyone to be saved, because all have sinned. So He commands us to repent. If we don't, we are disobedient to God. This is why there is a punishment for people who don't repent. If it were only an invitation, there would be no punishment. Salvation is submission. Salvation means coming under Christ. You become a citizen of His kingdom. You are covered by His protection. If a person from another planet were to come and see how Christians live, he would think that Jesus had said something like this: "Seek ye first what you are going to eat, what you are going to wear, which house you are going to buy, which car you are going to drive, which job you are going to take, who you are going to marry--and then, if any time is left, and it it's not too uncomfortable, please do something for the Kingdom of God." My purpose is to extend the Kingdom. So inch by inch I must recover the things that belong to God. To do that, I have to eat; to eat, I have to work. But the purpose of it all is to extend the Kingdom of my Lord. That means my values have to change. I don't work at Ford Motor Company to earn my livelihood. I work because God needs that spot on this earth; He needs one of His soldiers to conquer it for Him. And Mr. Ford happens to support my conquest. But my real Lord is Jesus Christ. Or else I should stop using the name. Because Jesus asks, "Why do you call Me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?"

(From the book "Disciple" by Juan Carlos Ortiz)

The "Gospel According To The Saint Evangelicals"

The below is from a book I'm reading. I will share with you as I go through it. Please remember I'm only taking portions of the book to share, if you would like to read the entire book the name is "Disciple" by Juan Carlos Ortiz. It's not a newly printed book, my boss and friend bought several copies online and is sharing one with me.

And why do you call Me, "Lord, Lord" and do not do what I say? Luke 6:46



Lord doesn't mean today what it meant when Jesus was here. Back then it meant the maximum authority, the first one, the one above everything else, the owner of all creation. The gospel which we have in the Bible is the gospel of the Kingdom of God. It presents Jesus as King, as Lord, as the maximum authority. Jesus is at the very center. The gospel of the Kingdom is a Christ-center gospel. But in recent centuries we have been hearing another gospel-a man-centered, human gospel. The minister says, "People, if you will accept Jesus-" (You see, there is already a problem, because it is Jesus who accepts us, not vice versa. But we have put man in the place of Jesus, so man is very important now.) We are always appealing to man's interests. Jesus is the Savior, the Healer, and the King coming for me. Me is the center of our gospel. Our prayers are man-centered. "Lord, bless my home, bless my husband, bless my cat, bless my dog, for Jesus' sake, amen." That prayer is not for Jesus' sake at all-it's for our sake! You must come and give yourself to Jesus and fulfill His demands when He speaks as Lord. We must let God take out our brains, wash them in detergent, brush them, and put them back in the other way. Our whole set of values must be changed. God is the center. We must change our center of gravity. He is the sun, and we revolve around Him. The Gospel according to the Saint Evangelicals (the Fifth Gospel) is taken from verses here and there in the other four Gospels. We take all the verses we like while we forget the other verses that present the demands of Jesus Christ. We cannot cut Jesus Christ into pieces and take only the piece we like best. Paul's gospel was summarized in Romans 10:9: "That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved." He is the Lord. He is much more than Savior. You see, the Fifth Gospel has made a strange thing: an optional commandment! You do it if you want; if you don't, that's all right, too. But that's not the gospel of the Kingdom.

My note from Kaylin

i love u



I left my laptop for a moment and returned to the above message..... did she get in trouble for touching it..... NOT! I think I'll just save my post I was going to write for next time.

I love you right back my sweet girl!

28 years ago today...

I was two weeks past the due date, hot, and thinking I had a very bad case of indigestion. Did I mention that I also had one of those horrible summer colds? I woke up around 3am not feeling so well, it took Bob about one second to decide we were going to my mom's. She knew that indigestion didn't come every ten minutes... so after a phone call to the doctor off we went to the hospital. After hours and hours of waiting and watching other women come and go they decided to induce my labor and break my water... that was the first time I saw my knees in months. I still was being so brave and not wanting any drugs.... all natural. It was not long until I was asking for those drugs.. however.. I didn't get them because it was time to have our baby (we had no clue if it was a boy or girl). Here we go to delivery... and a few minutes away... we have a beautiful baby girl.

Bob and my dad had said all along that if it were a girl they would have nothing to do with her.. Wrong! The second they saw her they were wrapped. Now it's time for a name, we knew that if it were a boy the name would be Robert Clayton Milam because Bob's dad is a Sr. and Bob is a Jr. so.... no need to worry about a boy name. Bob wanted to name her Bobbie Lynn (after him and me since my middle name is Lynn). I said no thanks. She was named Kerrie (after my dad's middle name Cary) Melissa (after my great friend Tina Melissa). I did mention that I had summer cold with stitches in my private.... not a good feeling. Well, that's the day my first and only child was born. I wanted more children however, God knows what is best for our lives and HE knew she would be enough for me. I thank him for giving me the experience of pregnancy and allowing me to have my one healthy little girl. Happy Birthday my daughter.
I forgot to mention that also on this special day of June 2, 1982 it was my parents 25th wedding anniversary..... she was God's present to them.