tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068701701529803799.post4415565121695300281..comments2023-10-25T03:25:43.334-04:00Comments on Christian Fantasy Author Lorilyn Roberts: PRISONS OF THE MIND - CAN DEAFNESS SET THE CAPTIVE FREE: Devotional by Lorilyn RobertsLorilyn Robertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03397365249052526720noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068701701529803799.post-72689681870252578992013-02-14T00:57:15.558-05:002013-02-14T00:57:15.558-05:00The Old Testament prophecies about Jesus is what c...The Old Testament prophecies about Jesus is what convinced me He was who He said He was. I read the Gospel of Matthew when I was 12, and when I read about all the prophecies He had fulfilled, I believed then He had died for me. Then I had a hard time accepting the fact that I was good enough to die for. Not that any of us are, but I must have recited the sinner's prayer a hundred times before I realized I was already saved. I laugh now -- part of my own insecurity. I wanted to make sure I didn't get left behind. Lorilyn Robertshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03397365249052526720noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068701701529803799.post-5677982270634388132013-02-14T00:53:12.364-05:002013-02-14T00:53:12.364-05:00Amen, Rose.
Thanks for sharing. What a story abou...Amen, Rose.<br /><br />Thanks for sharing. What a story about your life. I didn't know how your life had been impacted by deafness and alcoholism. My birth father was an alcoholic also. Terrible how it affects families.Lorilyn Robertshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03397365249052526720noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068701701529803799.post-3549364094520577332013-02-14T00:42:10.204-05:002013-02-14T00:42:10.204-05:00I like that phrase, radically reoriented. It's...I like that phrase, radically reoriented. It's amazing how Satan so distorts God's truth. I also struggled with the feeling of being worthless when I was young, and to reorient that thinking into the right mindset, we are worthless in ourselves, but completely worthy in our relationship with Christ, it totally turns the truth on itself. Satan can't do anything with that, so all he can do is try to make it difficult for us to have a relationship with Christ. <br /><br />I was recently struck with something that I heard John Piper say, "Satan tries his best to keep us from having a quiet time with God not with bad things but with good things." I now work very hard each day to have that quiet time, because it's hard to have a relationship with someone you don't spend time with. That's a radical reorientation from before, when I was always beset with guilt for not getting enough good things done. Thanks for sharing, Katherine.Lorilyn Robertshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03397365249052526720noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068701701529803799.post-1797710611039454582013-02-14T00:33:10.631-05:002013-02-14T00:33:10.631-05:00It is amazing, isn't it. Until you have taste...It is amazing, isn't it. Until you have tasted God's goodness, you can't imagine the difference the relationship with Him makes in your life.Lorilyn Robertshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03397365249052526720noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068701701529803799.post-34100249853323429912013-02-14T00:31:15.855-05:002013-02-14T00:31:15.855-05:00I love your comparison to gemstones, great analogy...I love your comparison to gemstones, great analogy, Teena, especially when you think about the fact that God has made each of unique, and God doesn't make mistakes -- He can us for His glory, warts and all, as I like to say.Lorilyn Robertshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03397365249052526720noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068701701529803799.post-26143681496704829242013-02-13T12:23:12.490-05:002013-02-13T12:23:12.490-05:00I was born with a disease called Usher Syndrome; I...I was born with a disease called Usher Syndrome; I am very hard of hearing and legally blind. I can deal with my not hearing very well, it’s the blindness that’s difficult. <br /><br />At an early age I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior and he has helped me through the difficult times of life. But although I was a Christian, I was still in bondage by Satan; I had the fear of Rejection. I studied and learned how to rebuke the Spirit of Rejection and now I’m on top of the world shouting, Jesus is the King of King and Lord of Lords! Jesus was the most rejected person on earth.<br /><br />Now the Lord has turned my curse into a blessing. I wrote a book sharing Jesus in the last days. The book is about Revelation and Bible prophecy. When writing the book I had to learn how to share Jesus with people and one of the most convincing arguments is Jesus fulfilled 333 Bible prophecies concerning his birth, death and resurrection. Mind blowing.<br /><br />http://www.biblelineministries.org/articles/basearch.php3?action=full&mainkey=JESUS-FULFILLMENT+OF+ALL+PROPHECY<br /><br />Another thing is the power of prayer, if in doubt pray. Just pray, he will hear you.<br /> <br />Blessings,<br /><br />Patience Prence<br />Patiencehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05028583177836984582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068701701529803799.post-64936667719764484782013-02-13T10:48:11.360-05:002013-02-13T10:48:11.360-05:00Dear fellow writer, I don't feel adequate to a...Dear fellow writer, I don't feel adequate to add anything to Lorilyn's passionate and true words exhorting you to accept the Greatest Gift of all--Jesus into your heart, except that I am praying you will do so. But you and I do have some experiences in common so I will speak to them<br /><br />My maternal grandparents who had a profound influence on my life were both deaf--my grandmother from birth and my grandfather after having spinal meningitis as a baby. They raised one child--my mother. They both held jobs--my grandmother ironed for Goodwill and my Papa was a tailor at Levi Brothers clothing store in downtown Louisville. They didn't drive, but took the city bus to work each morning and home at night in all kinds of weather. They were both known for their great work ethic and their dependability. They also rode the bus again each Sunday morning to church, and I often went with them. The churches in our neighborhood didn't have deaf services so they rode the bus to a Baptist church in downtown Louisville where they could experience God's Word preached and fellowship with other Christians.<br /><br />So, I encourage you to seek out a church in your area that holds deaf services or has a sign language interpreter so you can hear God's Word preached and have fellowhsip with Christians who are deaf.<br /><br />All I know of you is in Lorilyn's response, but since she mentioned that you have overcome your alcohol addiction, I applaud you for that. One of the reasons my grandparents had such an influence on my life was that due to my dad's alcoholism they often had to take my mom and us 6 kids (later 7) into their two bedroom home and share their food with us due to my dad's violence when drunk and also spending all his money on liquor. So, I do hope and pray your wife or children never have to experience any of those hardships. My dad was sober the last 18 years of his life after he started attending AA meetings at the age of 46, but he never accepted Jesus as his Savior until 2 weeks before he died at the age of 64. So, I know people can leave alcoholism behind without accepting the Lord, but my dad still lived a very selfish life up until his salvation in the hospital bed. He spent his money and time as he wanted on cigarettes, gambling, betting on horses, etc. <br /><br />So, again, I hope and pray you will accept Jesus as your Savior now while you have time ahead of you and can treat your family with God's love by His Spirit living in you and enabling you to serve Him and others. Don't wait like my dad did. None of us know how long we have on this earth, but God wants you to live for him now and to spend eternity with Him! Even if we never meet on this earth, I pray we will in heaven someday, my fellow-writing friend.Rose McCauleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03351484742067839801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068701701529803799.post-42130480819872366592013-02-13T10:33:08.920-05:002013-02-13T10:33:08.920-05:00A wise teacher once told me that to repent is to “...A wise teacher once told me that to repent is to “radically reorient.” <br />I am eternally grateful for the morning in church that the pastor prayed, “Heavenly Father, we give you thanks for forgiving all our sin, not because we deserve it, but for Jesus’ sake.” It wasn’t as if I hadn’t heard it many times, but on that day, I was ready to hear the truth. The light dawned. It wasn’t up to me after all. I don’t know where I got the idea that I needed to be perfect before I talked to God, but I had already learned that I could not be perfect even for a day. In this prayer, I came to understand that Jesus really did die for all my sins and for my sinful inability to be perfect as God is perfect even for one minute. I reoriented radically when I let go and realized I could not perfect myself. I radically reoriented when I trusted that Jesus had endured an unthinkably cruel death on the cross in order to save me from a force, Satan, who wanted to do the same thing to me.<br />The experience might be compared to that of being picked up in a whirlwind and set down on a different path. Radical reorientation. I felt as if a ton of bricks had been lifted off my shoulders. I felt new. Even more, I felt as if I could go to God the next time I failed him and ask for forgiveness, knowing I would undoubtedly fail yet again. That was a radically new concept for me, to accept the truth that I would never in this life be perfect. You think being deaf is an imperfection. Ha! Try dealing with the complete inability to see the good in other people, because you are so fixated on trying to be the perfect one yourself. That attitude is deaf to the truth about self, and that attitude makes it impossible to get reoriented, because you have so much invested in the path you are on, doomed though it may be.<br />I was completely changed when I experienced God’s full forgiveness of all my sin through Christ and for His sake. I saw all my sin and all my sins, and I mourned them, but instead of letting that knowledge paralyze me, God’s forgiveness lifted it all away and set me free to be the person God had created me to be. Satan had used my willingness to acknowledge all my sin as a tool to prevent me from ever becoming the person God intended. I thought I was so worthless and inept that God could never use me for anything good. In my radically reoriented life I discovered that I was somebody special to him. He freed me to discover and develop my gifts in service to him. <br />There is nothing that compares to knowing Christ in a loving, forgiving relationship. In ancient Babylon, three Hebrews were put on trial and threatened with being thrown into a blazing hot furnace. Their crime was their unwillingness to worship a golden statue the king had set up. They were important administrators in his kingdom, and they were good at their jobs. The king didn’t want to lose them. He pleaded with them just to do what he asked and save themselves from being burned alive. Today we would say, “Go along to get along.” They replied, “If our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and out of your hand, O king, let him deliver us. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods and we will not worship the golden statue that you have set up.” In other words, the pain of being burned up in that furnace did not compare with the joy of living their lives in relationship with God. They could not “go along to get along,” because they did not want to give up that relationship. I feel the same way about my “radically reoriented” life.<br />Katherine Harmshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04811091606967385803noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068701701529803799.post-89258727264821672202013-02-13T09:53:39.542-05:002013-02-13T09:53:39.542-05:00Lorilyn wrote, "The devil will give you what ...Lorilyn wrote, "The devil will give you what you think you want—God will give you Himself". Many people reject Jesus because they think their lives are fine and better be left as they are. The gift of Salvation is more than conquering the odds of life or acquiring the finest things the earth has to offer. The gift of Salvation is primarily about having a Father-Daughter or Son relationship with the Creator of the universe through His precious Son, Jesus Christ. Through Salvation God is calling us to know and enjoy Him personally. This is the greatest gift that cannot be compared to anything of this world. Having God Himself dims all that glitters of this world. God loves us so much that He just wants us to have Him and having Him brings along His joy, peace , liberty, and astonishingly, His mind.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17875269537879684587noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068701701529803799.post-8804471279221033402013-02-13T06:48:19.012-05:002013-02-13T06:48:19.012-05:00The apostle Paul, in his writings, spoke about hav...The apostle Paul, in his writings, spoke about having a thorn in his flesh. It was something he disliked in himself, some perceived weakness which he prayed for God to remove. (There has been much speculation as to what that was.) However, despite those prayers, God didn't remove it. Even those who follow Christ have things that are a part of them they long to change or remove. Strange that you would talk about this on this blog today, Lorilyn. In my book The Treasure Seeker: Finding Love and Value in the Arms of Your Loving Heavenly Father, I talk about women as being lost treasure, something God values greatly, like a gemstone. I also speak to how God works on refining us. Like gemstones, we have both flaws and inclusions. Flaws can be chipped off or smoothed out. Inclusions are a part of who we are. We may wish to be rid of it or be angry at God for including it as part of us, but it will remain a part of our nature. I have two inclusions that have caused me much pain. They are the flip side to the same coin for me. The first is the inability to do math or logic types of things. It is not a mild malfunction but a severe one. The other is being made a highly creative person. You may think that is a desirable trait, but I can tell you that even as we speak it is causing all kinds of issues...primarily the ability to stay focused on one thing. What I have learned is that God can work in us despite that and he can use those quirks to serve others and be an inspiration. If you can possibly embrace that difference or what you perceive as an oddity, I think God will use it in an amazing way to connect and inspire others. He has done the same with many others, including me. There is little hope if we try to do it ourselves, but great hope when we allow God to work through us.Teena Stewarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00361059522725591939noreply@blogger.com