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MissionAccess
Celebrating Disability Ministry Worldwide
Free Indeed
Free From Haircare Bondage Indeed
Greetings & Blessings Faithful Followers of Team MissionAccess Worldwide! As we ponder what lies ahead on this whacky road we’ve trodden together, let’s talk FREEDOM (one o’ my fav topics). But where does it come from? And what does it mean to be truly free?
(Hint: gotta go to the Bible for that):
JOHN 8: 36 ESV “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
Consulting a commentary from scholars far more learned than I is always advisable, so here from Pulpit Commentary on biblehub.com:
“The incarnation of the Son of God as a veritable Son of man emancipates the soul fettered by the tyranny of nature and baffled by the mastery of time and sense, inasmuch as it discloses the august majesty of its own origin. Essential freedom accrues to him who knows that sin is pardoned, that death is vanquished, that the prince of this world is cast out.”
Bottom line: we are free.
OK, so we are free. Free from what? “Free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8: 2). What’s that? According to Romans 6: 23 ”The wages of sin is death.” But what does that mean? That’s referring to not just physical death but ETERNAL separation from God. That alone should cause us to tremble! However, in our current post-modern culture, the fear of God has largely been removed which we see play out daily in increasingly disturbing ways.
I confess to writing in a journal not so very long ago that “I want to do what I want to do when I want to do it!” Oh precious Peeps! That’s NOT freedom! In fact that’s the very definition of bondage. But the Good News is that while we are yet in the Land of the Living, there remains an opportunity for us to share the freedom offered lovingly to all who choose to believe in the One who sets us Free Indeed.
In His Accessible Grace,
Linda
PHOTO SOURCE: Thacker Fam Archive
Beauty For Ashes
Rejoice in His Beauty for Ashes!
Greetings & Blessings Faithful Followers of Team MissionAccess Worldwide! As we wave a fond farewell to Bartimaeus Baptist Temple’s (http://BBTemple.org) Homecoming #65, I am so honored to share a vision of what I believe Our Awesome Lord has prepared for us in the future.
Spoiler Alert! It ain’t retirement! Far from it.
In fact, I believe that we are entering what we’ll look back upon as the beginning of the Golden Age of our ministry.
Why do I say this? Because if we look back in scripture, we uncover something very similar that happened for God’s chosen people as recounted by the Prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 61: 3 (NASB 1995):
“To grant those who mourn in Zion,
Giving them a garland instead of ashes,
The oil of gladness instead of mourning,
The cloak of praise instead of a disheartened spirit.
So they will be called oaks of righteousness,
The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”
For context I include this commentary from BiblePortal.com:
“’Beauty for ashes’” is a promise to God’s people that He planned to get them out of their troubles and eventually send them the Messiah. This is clear from the background and context of the verse. Christians can still find hope and encouragement in these verses when they are going through hard times.”
Every year our Homecoming coincides with our national remembrance of 9/11/01 when we are reminded of the ashes. But behold the strong towers of defiance that rose up in their place! In the same way, I believe our weathered sign so eloquently captures the Beauty For Ashes that yet await our continued ministry efforts in our Golden Age to come. A Golden Opportunity for you to join us indeed!
In His Accessible Grace,
Linda
PHOTO SOURCE: BBTemple.org Archive
Play Ball!
Pastor David Whitmore with Bob Sorge in September 2009
Greetings & Blessings Faithful Followers of Team MissionAccess Worldwide! This season, let’s try something a little different, shall we? In fact, I was totally convinced that the Lord had given me a completely different message to share when this one fell right into my lap! The significance of that you shall see shortly.
This is a word of wisdom from Bob Sorge, a dear longtime friend of Bartimaeus Baptist Temple. No stranger to disability, Bob is a prolific author of disability ministry classics such as Pain, Perplexity and Promotion: A Prophetic Interpretation of the Book of Job, The Fire Of Delayed Answers, and Secrets of the Secret Place: Keys to Igniting Your Prayer Time with God. He masterfully crafts an especially encouraging message to people like you and me affected by disability who really struggle with questions like: “Lord is this really Your will for my life?” and “Are You still listening to me?”
May you be uplifted by this word in due season indeed:
I Am With You // Bob Sorge – YouTube
In His Accessible Grace,
Linda
The Joy Of Holiness
Dr. J. I. Packer
Greetings & Blessings Faithful Followers of Team MissionAccess Worldwide! Meet J. I. Packer, who went Home to be with the Lord in 2020, full of years at the age of 93, here speaking on Personal Holiness:
What a timely message as we enter a brand New Year! May I be so bold as to suggest that we focus not just on the principles but rather on The Joy of Holiness. Many times throughout the Old and New Testament we hear echoes of holiness but find it first as a command here:
44 For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, because I am holy. (LEV 11: 44 NASB)
Let’s look more closely at two key words:
#1 CONSECRATE: to devote to a purpose with or as if with deep solemnity or dedication.
#2 HOLY: dedicated or consecrated to God or a religious purpose; sacred.
Note that “holy” is repeated twice, signifying its importance to Our Awesome Lord & Savior. What better time than now to recommit our hearts, our minds, and our lives and unleash the Joy of Holiness exceeding abundantly!
In His Accessible Grace,
Linda
IMAGE SOURCE: j i packer – Search Images (bing.com)
Formed Into Love
#GBK Indeed!
Greetings & Blessings Faithful Followers of Team MissionAccess worldwide! Langston Hughes, legendary poet of the Harlem Renaissance of the 60s, penned the timeless poem entitled “Tired”:
I am so tired of waiting,
Aren’t you,
For the world to become good
And beautiful and kind?
Let us take a knife
And cut the world in two-
And see what worms are eating
At the rind. (1)
What’s crazy is that I started seeing the words “good and beautiful and kind” popping up everywhere! In fact it is the title of an excellent book by Rich Villodas: “Good and Beautiful and Kind: Becoming Whole in a Fractured World.” Rich is the Brooklyn-born lead pastor of New Life Fellowship in Elmhurst, NY. His book is a very personal testimony of how to live out our faith, not just by what we are doing, but how we are doing it. It all comes down to one pivotal question:
“Am I Being Formed Into Love?”
Here’s how it works: before you say anything, before you do anything, ask yourself “Is It #GBK? (Good? Beautiful? Kind?)” Think of it as a shortcut to Being Formed Into Love.
Oh Precious Peeps! It doesn’t have to be big. Or profound. But that’s exactly how we make a difference in this fractured world. Because even in this rotten world—no, let me rephrase that—especially in this rotten world, we are desperately needed to be #GBK for His Glory indeed.
In His Accessible Grace,
Linda
Today IS Someday
Time Is Precious Peeps!
Greetings & Blessings Faithful Followers of Team MissionAccess worldwide! Usually I begin with an audio or video clip but when I did a search for today’s lesson entitled “Today Is Someday” all I came up with was a song by Mariah Carey, an on-line gift shop and an RV park! So I guess the Lord is telling me to MOVE ON and get to His Word ASAP!
“But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.” (2 Peter 3: 8 NASB)
At the time of the writing of this letter, 30 or 40 years had already passed since Christ’s resurrection, so people were questioning whether Christ was really coming back or not. And now today, 2000 years later, well maybe up ‘til just months ago, people were saying the same thing about the return of Christ. But now with what we see playing out in Ukraine, scoffers ain’t scoffin’ no more! And while there is still time, I pray that they take full advantage of God’s generous offer of salvation indeed.
That’s where we come in Peeps!
Though God has Eternity, for us Time is Limited and Time is Precious. So remember that Today IS Someday! His Heart is revealed in the very next line: “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not willing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3: 9 NASB)
Therefore Precious Peeps, let us rise up and boldly share the Good News of Jesus Christ while there is yet precious time left here in the Land of the Living for His Glory.
In His Accessible Grace,
Linda
Happy New Revival!
#LETUSWORSHIP Sean Feucht
Greetings & Blessings Faithful Followers of Team MissionAccess worldwide! Here’s a Joy Bomb to usher in New Year 2022 indeed: New Years Eve Recap – Miami Florida – Sean Feucht – YouTube
That was none other than Sean Feucht of #LetUsWorship, an evangelistic firestorm launched to combat the tyrannical 2020 Cali lockdowns aimed to silence our God-given right to worship and praise our Awesome Lord. Born humbly on the Golden Gate bridge, lo and behold just over a year later #LetUsWorship rang in the New Year with a mighty roar on the freedom-loving shores of Miami, Florida.
According to Sean, so far they have shared the Good News of Jesus Christ with nearly 500,000 people nationwide and have witnessed 40,000 professions of faith! And they are just getting warmed up.
My prayer is that we see God’s magnificent hand orchestrate a Happy New Revival right here in Dallas, TX! Here is our focus verse:
ISAIAH 22: 22 NASB
“Then I will put the key of the house of David on his shoulder;
When He opens, no one will shut,
When He shuts, no one will open.”
I truly believe that Dallas is ripe for revival, but the key is with us, with our hearts.
Revival starts with our personal confession of how we are simply falling short of the Glory of God with a sincere recommitment to repent and pursue holiness at all costs in the future. May our humble prayers unleash a Revival that spreads farther and faster than any virus indeed!
In His Accessible Grace,
Linda
PHOTO SOURCE: https://d38trduahtodj3.cloudfront.net/images.ashx?t=ig&rid=CoastalCarolinaFair&i=sean-night-square.jpg
All Good & Perfect Gifts
Coming Down From The Father Of Lights
Greetings & Blessings Faithful Followers of Team MissionAccess worldwide! This message I truly believe is a good and perfect gift downloaded directly into my sleepytime brain to encourage both me and you during even these the most perplexing of times inded.
Let me explain: to combat my ever-progressing MS I have been on the Coimbra protocol (high-dose Vitamin D to help treat autoimmune disease) since Summer 2019. Though I decided to discontinue this somewhat controversial treatment, I have in fact noticed some noticeable improvements including lucid dreaming. And praise God I had a doozy!
But before I share the dream let’s look at one of my favorite verses found in the Book of James:
James 1: 17 NASB
17 Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.
I want to focus on just two words, the first being: GIFT. Now when I think of “gift” I think of a brightly wrapped box with a big bow and a card with my name on it!
But the second word is: EVERY which appears twice. Sometimes His best gifts come in far, far different packages than we expect which Laura Story captured so well in her song “Blessings.” Or like my dream may have no physical wrapping at all yet seems cloaked in mystery nevertheless. Ah but what a joy when our Awesome Lord creates something just for You! And though we just don’t necessarily understand we can take incredible comfort in knowing it was meant for us and for us to share.
So here’s my dream along with a hopeful interpretation I believe the Lord laid on my heart:
I dreamt that my Beloved husband Larry and I were riding together probably on DART when it came time for me to exit alone and proceed with some predetermined task. And though it was dark, I felt no fear until I encountered a flashing neon DETOUR sign ahead. My heart sank and though in my scooter I navigated my way through a gauntlet of construction DANGER roping to flag down a worker donning full reflective bling. “What am I supposed to do?” I anguished helplessly. The worker, who was a petite Hispanic woman, answered me confidently “God will take care of you!” and I awoke amazed.
WOW whatever was all that about?!! Well since the time that I dreamt it I truly believe that our Awesome Lord gently laid this comforting interpretation on my heart:
Peeps you may feel that you were just going about your business when BAM suddenly you found yourself alone in a strange place surrounded by flashing-neon danger. But yet again Praise God He was right there waiting to protect and to guide you through it! And though it may seem neither good nor perfect at the time, you can rest assured that He is there every good & perfect step of the way.
In His Accessible Grace,
Linda
IMAGE SOURCE: Thacker Family Archive
Peace, Be Still
“Peace Be Still” by Reverend James Cleveland 1962
Greetings & Blessings Faithful Followers of Team MissionAccess worldwide! This season I am thrilled to bring you a message that I believe was hand-picked by our Awesome Lord to not just pick you up temporarily with a spiritual sugar high but to truly equip and enable you to fulfill the purpose for which you were created.
First, a little context for our scripture focus found in Mark 4: 39:
By this time Jesus has assembled His team, performed some miracles and done some teaching. Now He is “fixin’ to” (as we say in TX) take them on their very first Road Trip (or in this case, Sea Cruise). But instead of a little karaoke with His Team on the Lido deck, Jesus opts for turning in early for some well-deserved ZZZZs when a killer storm explodes overhead! Terrified, they rush below deck to rouse Jesus from a deep sleep lamenting that they are all…gonna…die! And accuse Him of not caring.
39 And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. (MARK 4: 39 KJV)
I chose the KJV (King James Version) because even my go-to translations simply did not capture the gravitas of this pivotal event. Because that is my hope and prayer: that you grab hold of the power of His peace in your lives!
Oh precious Peeps! We who are made in His image and believe that He lives within us have that same power to calm not just the storms in our lives but to unleash its power to transform the lives of others just like Jesus did. So Unleash it today indeed!
In His Accessible Grace,
Linda
IMAGE SOURCE: Peace_Be_Still.jpg (200×200) (wikimedia.org)
Trust In The Lord Indeed!
“GLAMMA” SHEA CHRISTMAS 1959
Greetings & Blessings Faithful Followers of Team MissionAccess! Allow me to share a very special memory about my grandmother who left me a legacy that continues to empower me a lifetime later.
Meet Katherine “Katy” Shea (aka “Glamma”) pictured here in her fashionable home in the tiny town of Salem, OH that could easily have been featured in Better Homes & Gardens indeed! But it was not just her home but she herself was a Fashionista in her own right wearing an outfit that could easily pass for haute couture six decades later.
But she left me something even more timeless: in fact over time it is a verse that has quite literally held me and continues to hold me together:
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart
And do not lean on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He will make your paths straight.
(Proverbs 3: 5-6 NASB)
When I started really feeling the effects of my MS I used to walk my pups in the early morning singing these words to myself with a silly little tune that still sparks a flicker of hope that even now encourages me deep, deep in my soul.
So let me suggest a Life Application to you and to our nation:
Suffice to say many of us may have been less than thrilled with the outcome of the last election. But at some point Precious Peeps we need to trust in the Lord no matter what. So switch off the TV and power down the smartphone and trust God to straighten things out.
In His Accessible Grace,
Linda