ACT Ministries Blog

Absorbing God’s Word

“Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved for you are the one I praise.” Jeremiah 17:14

Applying God’s Word

This morning while praying with Louise, I found myself staring at a small figurine that is part of our table centerpiece. It’s a man and woman kneeling in prayer together. Louise and I love it. I smiled as I recalled how many times, I’ve repaired it. I’ve had to glue both figures together, each of the heads back on, an arm once and another time a foot.

This little figurine reminds me of how often God has healed my brokenness and saved me. It also symbolizes the importance of taking time each day to be with God.

The picture above is where Louise and I pray each morning. The one below is the centerpiece with Christ looking down at the figurine in the lower left corner. 

Accounting of God’s Word

Do I have a place to meet with God daily? How often has God healed my brokenness and saved me?

Absorbing God’s Word

“However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.” Ephesians 5:33

Applying God’s Word

The verse above is popular at weddings and yet I never heard the first eleven words when my late wife Joanne and I got married.

I did love Joanne. I was very loyal, worked hard, brought home my paycheck, washed the cars, took care of the yard, etc. Her request for a divorce after twelve years shocked me. She said I was “emotionally unavailable” to her. I had no idea what that meant.

Somewhere along the way, Joanne had lost respect for me as her husband because I didn’t know how to love her as myself. We went into counseling, did some communication workshops and BOTH put in the WORK necessary to save our marriage. We learned that love is not a feeling, but rather a choice.

The divorce rate in America is roughly sixty percent. Seventy percent of those divorces come at the request of the woman. Wonder why?

Accounting of God’s Word

Am I making choices every day to make my spouse a priority? Do I think love is a feeling or a choice?

Absorbing God’s Word

“Look at the nations and watch and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.” Habakkuk 1:5

Applying God’s Word

A friend sent me a link (below) about a revival happening at Asbury College in Kentucky.

Some students began praising God at a morning service and it has been going on spontaneously, 24/7 for ten days. People are coming from all over the country and the world to join together in worship. The line to get in is a half mile long.

When God’s people come hungry and thirsty to Him, He will show up. When His people humbly praise and worship Him, God will show up. 

Enough said! Enjoy the 4-minute interview between Tucker Carlson and the student body president of Asbury.

Accounting of God’s Word

How hungry and thirsty for God am I? When was the last time I came to God in humble praise and worship?

Absorbing God’s Word

“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:10

Applying God’s Word

During this year’s Super Bowl 57, there will be two TV ads about Jesus. You read this correctly!

A group of 75 anonymous donors have funded the ad campaign to heighten interest in Jesus and to raise the respect and relevancy of Jesus. These people are definitely part of God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for them to do.

I’m excited and encouraged! God’s not asking you and I to finance million-dollar ads, but He is asking us to do our part. What’s our part?

We can’t find out in advance what God has prepared for us to do, unless we meet with Him. We have to show up. Showing up is 90% of life. If we don’t show up, nothing happens.

Accounting of God’s Word

Am I showing up? Am I ready for my next assignment?

Absorbing God’s Word

“He told them: “Take nothing for the journey—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt.” Luke 9:3

Applying God’s Word

What’s Jesus saying to His disciples and to each of us in Luke 9:3? What He’s telling me is that I am only passing through this life and that the only thing I really need on my journey is Him. This is not my home. Home is where I end up after this life. 

For years, I worked hard to acquire material things and even harder to protect them. I wanted to make my mark and be remembered. Sadly, how I served God wasn’t even a consideration. Thankfully, my outlook on life and my purpose has changed.

Sometimes, I hear eulogies that boast about a person’s lifelong accomplishments. What a eulogy should boast about is how a person lived their life for Jesus.

Accounting of God’s Word

How would God write my eulogy, if I died today?

Absorbing God’s Word

“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” Revelation 3:20“

Applying God’s Word

I’ve enclosed my 15-minute talk from the WorkLight National Conference four months ago. (10-second blip @ 6min. 30 sec. point) The presentation is titled “Responding To God’s Love”. Although I responded “YES” to Jesus 36 years ago, it took a while for me to begin living that yes.

At the end of the presentation, each of us had a chance to reflect on the sins that keep us from having a closer friendship with Jesus. They are: Anger, Unforgiveness, Resentment, Sexual immorality, Jealousy, Judgement, Impatience, Selfish ambition, Self-indulgence, Addiction, Greed, Lying, Fear, Gossip, Laziness, Self-pity, the Occult Superstition. 

During the Reflection period, we were encouraged to ask God’s forgiveness and to open the door of our heart to a more meaningful relationship with Jesus. 

Responding To God’s Love! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5gCFSQWLFo

Accounting of God’s Word

A question posed by Fr. Mike Schmitz – “If God’s not waiting to love me, why am I waiting to let Him?” Am I still making God wait?

Absorbing God’s Word

“Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.” Matthew 18:19

Applying God’s Word

On our way home Friday night, we pulled up behind a truck that was stalled in the intersection. As I approached the vehicle, I noticed a woman behind the wheel and I offered to help. Our attempts to start the truck failed.

There was no way I could move this truck by myself. I silently asked God for some help. I didn’t know that this woman, Athena, was doing the same thing. At that very moment two men jumped out of their car and said they could help. Thank You, Lord! Athena said, “God’s taking care of me.” I smiled and said, “It’s what God does.”

After we pushed her truck to safety, Athena accepted a ride from us. She was going to her church a short distance away.

Prayer is so powerful and really works when two of us agree on it.

Accounting of God’s Word

Have I agreed with someone in prayer lately? Do I notice when God answers those prayers?

Absorbing God’s Word

“Challenge” “Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures; yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.” Psalm 90:10

Applying God’s Word

Last weekend, I watched the last quarter of a football game. Interesting! The teams had already played hard for three quarters, but worked even harder during the fourth and last quarter.

There are also four quarters in the lifespan of an average human being (0-20, 20-40, 40-60, 60-80). I’m at the tail-end of my last quarter already. It went by so fast. I worked hard during the first three quarters, but I know that this last quarter is just as important, if not more so. 

I don’t really have anything to prove. There’s no bucket list of things I’ve missed out on. I wake up each day praying that God will present me with another opportunity to tell someone about him. I don’t care if He asks me to block, run or catch a pass, as long as I’m in the game and on the field with Him. There’s still time in this last quarter to win one for the Gipper.

Accounting of God’s Word

Which quarter am I in? Do I take the field with Jesus every day?

Absorbing God’s Word

“Challenge” “Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires.” John 8: 43-44

Applying God’s Word

Last week I wrote about how difficult it is to face the truth, tell the truth and live the truth.

One of my biggest obstacles to saying “Yes” to Jesus was change. That meant the little white lies had to go along with so much more. Satan had convinced me that the way I was living was right. That was just another lie.

Unfortunately, we live in a world governed by people who tell lies. Jesus warns them about Satan, but they do not have ears to hear. They are hell-bent on carrying out the desires of their father, Satan.

I love this quote from the Trappist monk, Thomas Merton. “In the devil’s theology, the important thing is to be absolutely right and to prove that everybody else is absolutely wrong.”

Accounting of God’s Word

“Challenge” Which theology am I following? Who am I listening to?

Absorbing God’s Word

“I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth.” 1 John 2: 21

Applying God’s Word

I know what it is to bend the truth. It’s not as though I enjoy telling a lie. I stayed very close to the truth for the first 17 years of my life, but broke away from living the truth in the Navy. I used lies as a defense mechanism and a method to gain acceptance with others who lied.

I was in my early thirties when I realized that my life was a lie. I had become the person I never wanted to be. Something had to change and I knew it was me. I couldn’t have done that without allowing God’s WORD to dissect and mold me into the person He wants me to be. That process is ongoing.

When I read the word of God, I take it very personal. I ABSORB IT, I APPLY IT and I am ACCOUNTABLE TO IT. That is how I am ending 2022 and the way I am beginning 2023.

Accounting of God’s Word

Did I live out God’s truth in 2022? Will I live out God’s truth in 2023?