Next time you get Spam - seize the opportunity!

This is from an incredible Saint who received a chain email.
The chain email is first then, her response.


BANK ACCOUNT!!!
This is AWESOME ... something we should all remember.
A 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud man, who is fully dressed
each morning by eight o'clock, with his hair fashionably combed and
shaved perfectly, even though he is legally blind, moved to a nursing
home today.
His wife of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary.
After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home,
he smiled sweetly when told his room was ready.
As he maneuvered his walker to the elevator, I provided a visual
description of his tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been
hung on his window. I love it,' he stated with the enthusiasm of an
eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy.
Mr. Jones, you haven't seen the room; just wait.'
'That doesn't have anything to do with it,' he replied.
Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time.
Whether I like my room or not doesn't depend on how the furniture is
arranged ... it's how I arrange my mind. I already decided to love it.
'It's a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice;
I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the
parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful
for the ones that do.
Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open, I'll focus on the new
day and all the happy memories I've stored away.. Just for this time in
my life.
Old age is like a bank account. You withdraw from what you've put in.

So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank
account of memories!
Thank you for your part in filling my Memory Bank. I am still
depositing.
'Remember the five simple rules to be happy:
1. Free your heart from hatred.
2. Free your mind from worries.
3. Live simply.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less.
Pass this message to 7 people except me. You will receive a miracle
tomorrow.
Now, STOP! Did you hear what I just said. You WILL receive a miracle
Tomorrow. So send it right now!
Have a nice day, unless you already have other plans.

====
Dayna's Response forwarded to the dozen of recipients on the email chain.

Hello everyone. Most of you do not know me, but I was included on this mass email chain for a reason, and am being led to respond to it. I pray the response blesses you.

I saw this email circulate about three years ago, and I thought it had a good message. After having been through many, many trials in my life at that time, I thought "this is a great way to look at life, I am going to try it." Well, that is all I could do, try, but I was not successful because I alone did not have the power to accomplish any of the five simple rules. Let's face it, how many of you have been able to free your mind from worries? Or better yet, how many of you who are truly honest can free your heart from hatred?

Three years ago when I received this email, I was faced with surgery and possible cancer. With that news, I had one single thought, "if I die, where will I go?" Is there an eternity? If so, is there an Heaven and an Hell? Have I done enough good in my life to make up for the bad? Oh, people that knew me wouldn't say I was a bad person, but that was because they only saw a very short snapshot of my life, and because they could not see into my heart or my mind to know what I was thinking or the real reason why I did "good things" to help people. Trust me, my motives were all purely selfish.

Finally, the night before surgery, that thought was so heavy on my mind, I told my husband, "if I die tomorrow, I am going to hell, I know it." Praise the Lord He gave me that revelation because He caused me to seek Him. A few short months later, I found Him and repented and surrendered my life to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now and only now, can I apply the five simple rules listed below. Before the Holy Spirit came to live in me there was absolutely no way I could free my heart from hatred or expect less...people always disappointed me! That was because I did not know God's love. Romans 5:8 says "But God commandeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

I challenge all of you to try to follow the five simple rules listed below with your own power and strength, and when you fail, which I know you will, I challenge you to seek God with all your heart. The Bible says Deut 4:29 "...thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul." If you do that, God truly will reveal Himself to you (because God cannot lie). Then when you find Him, run to Him because He will be waiting for you with open arms. You must repent (turn from sin) and surrender your whole heart to the Lord Jesus Christ, but once you do, all the stuff of this world will no longer matter to you. You will truly have a heart free from hatred and a mind free from worries. The material things will not matter so you will definitely live simply, and because of that, you will give more because now you will have a lot more money! Finally, you will stop expecting anything because you will know how unworthy you were of the gift God gave you.

I send this email because the Holy Spirit directed me to do so. Please consider it and seek God's wisdom for the answers, not man's. I followed man's wisdom for 42 years and it only ever brought me heartache, even if I never voiced that heartache to people around me, I had it, and I was in so much emotional pain. Here's the deal, everyone of us has lied and stolen something at one point in our lives, and if you are honest, you will admit that. Because of that, we have broken God's law, the Ten Commandments, which separates us from God in this life, and will guarantee us eternity in Hell after we die. I do not want that for any of you and I do not even know you. But, God sent His Son Jesus Christ to live a perfect life and be a perfect sacrifice for you, me, and all mankind. When Jesus Christ willing went to the cross and shed His innocent blood for us, He paid our fine for us. He took upon Himself the full wrath of God for our sins. Wow! Then on the third day, He was raised from the dead, defeating death, sin, and Hell. It is that power and that power alone that can give us eternal life. God made the way for us to be reconciled with Him and spend eternity in Heaven, but He left that choice up to you, me, and all mankind. What choice will you make? You are not getting this email by accident. There are no such things accidents or coincidences. You are getting this email because God is calling you. The Bible says we only love God because He first loved us. I pray you make the choice to repent and follow God and the Lord Jesus Christ with all your heart today. Remember, by not making a choice, you are making a choice and it is "no God, not Your will but mine," and if that is your choice, God will honor it when you die.

I pray you have a blessed day!

Sincerest Regards,

What would you say in 30 seconds?

I was watching one of the life guards hoist the no swimming warning flag today and gave him a Trillion Dollars for his efforts. The guard – Andrew thanked me then stopped to read it.

He told me he was a Believer but not quite sure of a few things. He said he repented but wanted to know more of what the word and action really meant. I explained that it is not just saying you’re sorry but a deliberate action by you to want to change, tell God you are sorry for all the things you did against Him and that you want Him to help you change. It means you must make a 180 degree turn from your sin; it is an action on your part. And you really need to pray with a humble heart to God to help keep you on that direction away from sin.

I asked him if he went to rescue someone, pulled them back in from the surf and knew they had 30 seconds to live and wanted to go to heaven, what would you tell him?? He said he could not tell anyone in 30 seconds. I reminded him of the thieves on the cross on each side of Jesus when He was crucified. Andrew said he remembered the story and then I suggested to him it only takes about 30 seconds to read it. I summarized it for him and reminded Andrew that the thief who knew of Jesus and admitted he was guilty and deserved the punishment, but Jesus did not, was told he would be in Paradise with Jesus.

Two others, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. And Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." And they cast lots to divide his garments. And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, "He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!" The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine and saying, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!" There was also an inscription over him, "This is the King of the Jews." One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, "Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!" But the other rebuked him, saying, "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong." And he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." And he said to him, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise." (Luke 23:32-43)



We spoke some more and he asked some more great questions. He needs some in depth study and discipleship. I suggested getting some materials from John MacArthur, John Piper, LivingWaters.com and some other solid Biblical teachers. Many are free on-line in downloadable print or MP3.

He thanked me and off he went to save lives from the surf!

The False Gospel needs to be Stopped

I met Sara and her husband today while handing out tracts at the beach. Both were in Narcotics Anonymous and Sara has a “Christian Counselor” who was a Christian all her life. More comments about what Sara said about this person follows. Now you know why it’s in quote marks…..

We talked about the law and if she ever really repented and understood what Jesus’ Death Burial and Resurrection really meant. She was not too sure but knew when she read the Bible God spoke to her. That’s between her and God and I did not get into that discussion. She told me that her one real question is about the people who never hear about Jesus and why they would not go to Heaven. Sara would not use the word Hell. She wanted my opinion on that question but then went on to say, her counselor talks about that all of us our Children of God and one day we will all bow before Jesus.

I explained we are all creations of God but only Believers are Children of God. This is explained throughout the Bible. As far as everyone bending their knees before Jesus I said that everyone will not go to heaven and Jesus made it clear that many will say Lord, Lord and He will say go away I never knew you, you worker of lawlessness. Sara was very surprised. Seems like her counselor friend only gave part of the truth.

We got back to the question about not everyone hearing about the name of Jesus and whether that person would go to Hell because of this. My opinion of this, as I explained to her is God has put the Law on everyone’s hearts and there has never been any group ‘discovered’ that did not have some basic moral principles of lying, stealing, adultery, etc. God knows what is on the person’s heart and He will reveal truth to them. Exactly what and how that happens is up to God.

I took Sara through the Law and the payment Jesus made on the Cross. But it’s up to the repentant person to also to want this payment Jesus made for us. Sara mentioned accepting Jesus into your heart. I suggested to her - Don’t confuse the modern Gospel fluff about acceptance of Jesus it is nowhere in Scripture. Jesus does not need our acceptance but our surrender.

Sara and her husband walked away in a good mood and pleased they heard the truth.

To God be the Glory

From David:

I was at Indialantic this morning with Jeff and had an opportunity to
be witness to the Good, the Bad, and the Glorious.

the Good
We had an opportunity to share the Gospel with Garrett, a young man
who attends church in Viera with his girlfriend. Please pray for
Garrett.

We had an opportunity to invite Ron, a local Christ-follower and
former seminary student, to attend an evangelism class at a local church and to learn
about another way to share his faith.

the Bad
It was hot, with a heat index of over 100 degrees, with few people on
the boardwalk, and most wanting to be on the beach or in their
air-conditioned cars.

Jeff got a $15 parking ticket from the ever-vigilent meter patrol
while he was deeply engaged with Lisa and Megan. For the cost of a
parking ticket, we got to be witness to...

the Glorious
Lisa, the mom, and Megan, the daughter, recognized their true sinful
nature, repented of their sins, and surrendered their hearts and lives
to Jesus. The angels are rejoicing in heaven this day over a mother
and daughter accepting Christ.

Is sharing our faith worth it all? A thousand times over!

We serve an awesome, incredible, amazing, incomprehensible Lord. To
Him be the glory!

No Language Barriers for the Gospel!

Carrying tracts in multiple languages can really open doors! I have a small plastic bag with tracts in different languages such as German, French, Arabic, etc. I only keep about 10 or so of each, except if I am traveling to a place where a specific language is spoken, then I take a few hundred.

While waiting ( a common occurrence in my work) for my flight to leave, I went to get a coffee. I heard the couple in front of me speaking German. They left and I got my coffee, set my bag down to fish out the pack of German tracts, a little disappointed I was not fast enough - always be prepared! Then I heard someone behind me say “Are these seats taken?” I turned and there was the German couple, who I invited not only to sit down but I’ll give them each a million Euros to do so. They thanked me for the tracts but were focused on something else, so I left them to read the tract.

On the way to my gate, I walked by a flight boarding to Vienna. The Holy Spirit got my attention and reminded me that I have these tracts and they don’t do any good for me to carry around. I got out the German tracts I had just put away and started to give them out. This fellow was interested and then his wife returned and scoffed when she read it. I went back to talk to him but the flight was boarding and he had to leave. Well – they had a 9 hour flight to read the Gospel message.

So now I see a new fishing ground – the gates for departing flights where I can give out tracts in whatever language they are speaking. There is always the English version but when a person receives a tract in their native tongue, they are much more likely to read it.

FFMMinistries.com has links for tracts you can download for free.