Jackie's Journey "Inspiring Imprints!"

Christina and Kim, my daughters, asleep in our jungle hammock

As a young missionary mother reading to these two little ones sitting next to me in a hammock in the middle of the Darien jungle, my heart yearned for books that would introduce my girls to bible-based, character-emphasized prince and princesses that they could aspire to become.  I would take every book I picked up and purpose to impose these two principles into the pages in terms they could understand that had eternal values targeted. 

These girls are grown and have given me seven grandchildren!  Christina encouraged me for years to sit down and put on paper what I did to the stories I read in those early years.  Her cry for these books for her four little ones was my primary motivation in writing The Princess Parable Series.

The opportunities are unlimited when it comes to God building His character in us, and then, into those we love.  Understanding the need and exercising the steps of action required to see them implemented is our challenge. 

When you look at your children where do you see their primary need?  Taking into consideration their age and temperament…maybe the need for them to be more alert or to respond more quickly in obedience?  Maybe rebellion is the issue or selfishness? 

Where would you begin to help

 the little prince or princess in your home?

 Values are based on the changing opinions of what people or groups of people practice in their principles or ideals.  Character is based on universal standards that are time-tested and recognized as being ethically correct.  Character is written in every person’s heart and conscience (Romans 2:15).  Even though the basic truth of a character quality is understood, there is a need for further clarification on how to apply the truth in our daily circumstances. 

I have collected positive character quality definitions for years because they describe pieces of the Godhead and assist in my personal spiritual exercise and transformation.  They equipped me to pragmatically instruct my girls as we walked through daily activities living in a culture very different than our own. The qualities of kindness and compassion wereright up there at the top!

 In the village where we lived, the Kuna practice of polygamy and early marriages combined with witchcraft and a village witchdoctor opened up interesting teaching opportunities.

It brought to mind a time not too many years ago when my two granddaughters accomplished an extraordinary act of compassion in just a few days.   I was asked to wrap a collection of gifts, gift cards and get-well cards with money that Catherine and Alexandra had gathered to give to Alexandra’s teacher at school.

Catherrine and Alexandra,

my granddaughters

Alexandra’s heart had been challenged to encourage this young single woman, who had recently left her parents and siblings on the East Coast to answer a call to serve at her school in our community here on the West Coast.

 This teacher had taken a daily six-hour cancer treatment three months earlier and had quietly gone alone for treatment here the last six weeks, not wanting to burden or inconvenience anyone else.  During her follow-up appointment, the doctors found the cancer had returned…aggressively!  

Alexandra tearfully shared with her sister, Catherine, the sadness she felt.  Catherine, who was the school’s “Kindness Club” director, immediately joined hearts and hands with her sister, their mother (Christina), and many who heard of the need. Within just a few days they had rallied friends, families, neighbors and they handed me a huge box-full of “gifts” to be wrapped!

We respond to life according to our character, good or bad.  Our wrong responses indicate our need.  Our correct responses validate our victories.  For me, this was a victory of a life-lesson well-taught and learned. The blessing of three generations clasping hands to compassionately encourage a hurting heart!

Compassion is doing whatever is necessary to heal the hurts and meet the need of another.  Christ is the greatest teacher that ever lived and our example. His compassion for us carried Him to the cross!  Living outside our own self-life, being alert to another’s pain and not walking by without lifting a hand is our “call to action”. 

“If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother

in need but has no pity on him,

how can the love of God be in him?” 1 John 3:17

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights. 

Jackie's Journey "Harried and Hectic Holidays!"

Did you enjoy your Thanksgiving week-end?

 These are busy days, are they not?  Friends and family gathered recently for Thanksgiving  and Christmas is just around the corner, lapping at our heels!  Preparation time, decorating, planning… is all-consuming and there is a thief that is also busy and focuses on robbing us of the best.

 Time in the Word can be lost to the immediate demands of responsibility and the whirlwind of activity around us. Finding a “War Room” where we can read and pray, uninterrupted, is imperative to maintaining our walk.  Little things can begin to bother us and when people “bump” us, we react selfishly.

 Sound familiar?

 One day away from the Word and I am aware of my desperate need and its crucial impact in my life.  Two days of skipping a time of allowing the Word to dwell richly in me and my husband, girls and grandkids are intensely mindful of my desperate need!

 The test:

What is my response when:

·      I am evil spoken of

·      My loyalty has been betrayed

·      My will is crossed

·      I am forgotten or neglected

·      My friends forsake me

·      I find compromise more inviting than maintaining claimed convictions

 My reaction reveals the REAL me:

  Am I a virtuous woman or a woman of hypocrisy?

                   (Hypocrisy is the practice of a person who is willfully living

                      in conflict with their soul (their mind, will, emotions).

 Which are you?

 We choose...

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights. 

Jackie's Journey "What is Failure?"

My youngest daughter, Kim, always told me growing up that her testimony was not interesting because she was not involved in sin, like testimonies she had heard over the years.  She was born in Panama and her first years were spent in the jungles of the Darien on the Colombian border. She was full of energy, animation and oh so, fun to be around to the extreme.  She definitely kept us entertained and laughing as she marched to her own drummer…and  she was sure she needed no help…”she could do it herself!”  Of course,  that meant her way…her timing…her willfulness…not unlike most of us!

 All any of us has to share is our failure and weakness translated into a life message for the benefit of another.  That is my position.  If God can use my weakness to manifest His strength for your benefit, I will praise His name.  Jim Elliot, (husband of Elizabeth Elliot) who was martyred at the hand of the Auca Indians many years ago, once said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”  His spirit of devotedness was shared in his prayer:

”Father, let me be weak that I might lose my clutch on everything temporal.

 My life, my reputation, my possessions.  Lord, let me lose the tension of the grasping hand.  Even, Father, would I lose the love of fondling. 

How often I have released a grasp only to retain what I prized by ‘harmless’ longing,

the fondling touch. 

Rather, open my hand  to receive the nail of Calvary as Christ’s was opened…

that I, releasing all, might be released, unleashed from all that binds me now. 

He thought heaven, yea, equality with God,

 not a thing to be clutched at.  So let me release my grasp!”

 True Christianity is an all-out commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ…an unconditional surrender to His Lordship…He is Boss!  When I was 19 years old and attending the University of Arizona, I had an opportunity to pledge a sorority.  After six months of maintaining above average grades, memorizing huge amounts of information and fulfilling the responsibility of a faithful pledge, etc., I faced the ultimate moment of commitment.

 I listened intently as each girl quietly slipped into a private room to pledge her total allegiance to Kappa Alpha Theta Sorority.  Racing through my mind was the moment a few months before that I had dedicated my life to God in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ.  When God walked into my life, everything changed for me.  My  total allegiance had already been committed.  I had nothing else to  give.  Allegiance to an organization no longer had any appeal to me.  My purpose in  life had already been defined by my new Lord, Jesus Christ.

 “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you,

for my power is made perfect in weakness.

Therefore, I will gladly boast all the more gladly

about my weakness,

so that Christ’s power may rest on  me.

That is  why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses,

in insults, in hardships, in persecutions,  in difficulties.

For  when  I am weak, then I am strong”! II Cor. 12: 9-10

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights. 

Jackie's Journey "Regrets?"

Many years ago, I read “Tortured for Christ” by Rev. Richard Wurmbrand.  It profoundly challenged me to purpose to follow Christ and cheerfully ‘count the cost’.  Over the years of service as a missionary, I was sometimes characterized, as ‘out of sync’ with the world, foolish (by the worlds standards), wasting my time in the jungles, robber of a “normal” upbringing for my two daughters, suffering needlessly with no running water or electricity (the world clamors for comfort and convenience), etc.…

 Yet, to this very day, I hold the awesome privilege of being a part of a very few who have lived without regret, counting the cost, determined to burn out serving and pleasing my God, first and foremost.  The life that comes from a vibrant, functioning God-consciousness in turbulent times is a tribute to the reality of the value of counting the cost, which could and usually does, include…suffering.

 “Suffering may help one to arrive at truth. ‘Tears, tears, bitter hulls but with such a sweet kernel,’ wrote the much-persecuted Romanian Christian poet, Traian Dorz.  Most people have an unjustified phobia against suffering. Unnecessary tragedy should be avoided, but we should also realize that there is much good in suffering. 

 Milton wrote his finest poetry after he became blind.  Beethoven composed his most beautiful music only after he became deaf.  The German philosopher Kant, who suffered from an incurable sickness wrote, ‘I have become master of its influence on my thoughts and actions by turning my attention away from this feeling altogether, just as if it did not at all concern me…’

 Solzhenitsyn wrote, ‘Blessed be thou, prison.’ The seven years in a Soviet prison made him the most powerful opponent of communism.  Richard Wurmbrand said about himself, ‘My 14 years in communist prisons were the most fruitful of my life.’ He knew of no great character formed apart from suffering. 

 A world without suffering would consist of weaklings.  What kind of love endures without painful sacrifice?  He who counts the sufferings involved will never be a daring hero.  Jesus made himself perfect through suffering. (Heb. 2:10) When Pope Alexander VI criticized by Savonarola for his unworthy life, offered him the position of cardinal in order to keep him silent, Savonarola answered, ‘May God keep me from being unfaithful to Him.  I do not desire any other red cape than the crown of a martyr colored with my own blood.’

 The highest state of a Christian is to be Christ-like.  Christ was called a ‘Man of Sorrows’ (Isa. 53: 3) and ‘the lamb slain from the foundation of the world’ (Rev. 13: 8) To be a Christian means to become a co-sufferer with Christ.  The more of His pain we are ready to share, the more truth we will receive.

 Someday we will sit with Jesus Christ and the Father on the heavenly throne from which universes are administered. (Rev. 3: 21) Our merciful God ‘will wipe away every tear’ from the eyes of His saints, and all will be able to rejoice whole-heartedly (Rev. 7:17; 21:4)” written by Rev. Richard Wurmbrand (1909-2001)

Do you have any regrets?

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights. 

Jackie's Journey "It's A Choice!"

We have all heard and probably repeated the old adage which is the biblical proverb, “Where there is no vision, the people languish and perish”.  (Pro. 29: 18) I have been focused on the vision God has for my life since I was in college.  It wasn’t until I understood that God has a designed vision for me that He makes available to any woman who desires to be a godly woman, wife and mom, powerful in her influence, firm in her faith. 

 “He has given us everything we need to live a godly life…” (II Peter 1:3)

(So, there are no excuses for patterns of failure!)

 There are two powers in relationships given by God that dominate the world.  The first is the power of authority.  It’s not a choice, its positional.  The second is the power of influence, which is a choice.  Which one is the greater or more powerful of the two?   The power of influence is the greater power because it is a choice and it chooses to have power over another person. Have you ever thought about it?  The man was given the power of authority and the women the power of influence. (Gen. 16:3)

 What determines our influence?

How is our power manifested?

 For good or evil, we woman are influencing ALL THE TIME.  We are a letter and “we are known and read of all men”. (II Cor. 3: 2) Others are always watching to see the REAL us through our responses to life’s situations and our attitudes which result in actions. We have been given a wonderful gift to benefit others, if we chose…

 In order to exercise the power of influence to glorify God and live-in harmony with others, we need to take a look at our attitudes.  “The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important that facts.  It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do.  It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill.  It will make or break a company…a church…a school…a home.  The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace that day.  We cannot change the past…we cannot change the fact that people act in a certain way.  We cannot change the inevitable.  The only thing we can do is play on the one thing we have, and that is our attitude.  I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it.

 And so, it is with you (and I)…we are in charge of our attitudes.” (Charles Swindoll)

Have you captured His vision for you?

How are you exercising that vision ?

Your life is your message to the world…make sure its inspirational!

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights. 

Jackie's Journey "Life Unraveling!"

                   “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in Him…Job 13:15”                               

 Our village was tucked away near the Colombian border and we lived in the silence of the jungle and its peculiar sounds.   One late morning there was an unfamiliar roar in the distance.  A large helicopter appeared and began circling our village, dropping low, looking for a place to land.  Before we knew what was happening, dust flew and the door slid open.  Men dressed in full military uniforms with machine guns jumped out and stormed into our house. Guns drawn, pointed directly at us, they began shouting commands with accusations!

 My life started unraveling before my eyes!  I quickly grabbed little Kim and Christina came running, clutching my legs. I reached down to reassure her, as Ralph stepped in front of us, whispering to me, “Remember, Jackie, this touched God’s hand first”. 

 We were being accused of being spies for the United States and they demanded we turn over our only means of communication to the outside world…our two-way radio!

I was trembling, imagining every plausible scenario of how we could be easily disposed of in the river and no one would know for months!  The truth that came surging into my consciousness was Job 13:15, “…though he slay me, yet will I hope in HIM”. 

 Still standing between the enemy and us, Ralph appeared calm and was responding in Spanish with an absolute, “We are not spies from America.  We have permission from your government to bring medicine to help this isolated group of people.” 

                              How had this happened?  What could we do?

 The next few moments stood still…their shouting gestures and my seeing no way of escape brought the verse in Job home to my heart.  I resolutely accepted His will, whatever that was going to be and instantly, peace prevailed.  What happened next was beyond belief!  To our utter astonishment, as abruptly as those militant soldiers barged in…they hastily, mid-sentence, without another word, turned and left!!  They did not ask for our passports or visas, nor did they take our rifles that were in plain view, hanging on the wall!  God had blinded their eyes, and in an instant, redirected their path.

 In the aftermath of my processing through this current event, Ralph gave me a definition for “tribulation” that comes to mind every time I am faced with a trial and I just want it gone…no processing…just gone!  “Tribulation is God’s fastest road to maturity”.  Well… missionary life had definitely put me in the fast lane to grow up!  The more life I live, the more I realize how much growth I need!

 This is that definition in a “mathematical” formula that changed my life and the way I look at trials, inconveniences, suffering and contentment.  It goes like this:

 Trials + Acceptance of the trial with joy and thanksgiving = Growth/Maturity

 I can respond to trials:

1.     By Benefitting from them

          The pressure of trials produces (Jas. 1:2-4):

2.     With Faith

3.     With Patience

4.     With Perseverance

5.     With Maturity

6.     With Wisdom

where I am …Lacking Nothing!

 OR

  Reacting to them and locking down emotionally with:  Impatience, Fretfulness, Why me?, Depression, Complaining, Rebelliousness or bitterness. 

 I choose to yield with gratefulness this morning and to recognize any form of tribulation, as a means to create a greater purpose in my life for the benefit of others. 

  What is your response? 

Jackie's Journey "An Extraordinary Life!"

“Where is the Life we have lost in living?” T.S. Elliot

 My daughter Kim walked into my bedroom with a list of 15 components for a satisfied life! Now…who wouldn’t want that inventory?   I was really interested in knowing what was on her mind and what was on that list!  She was so enthusiastic and I was REALLY curious…

I knew it was NOT going to be money, a big house with a pool, a Lamborghini or fame, beauty, maybe being 10 years younger or 20-pounds lighter!  No…this daughter doesn’t roll that way.  Sooo…what could those 15 “pieces of life” be?

Let’s take a look:

1.     A Divine life

2.     A Life with Purpose

3.     A Life of Faith

4.     A Life of Continuing Surrender

5.     A Life of Joyful Obedience

6.     A Life of Prayer and Praise

7.     A Life filled with the Holy Spirit

8.     A Life of Total Dependence

9.     A Disciplined Life

10.  A Challenging Life

11.  An Unshakeable Life anchored in God’s Truth; Resting in God’s Promises; Focused on God’s principles; Strengthened by examples in God’s Word

12.  A Fruitful Life Invested in other’s

13.  A Rich Life Saturated in God’s Word

14.  A Life of Love

15.  A Rewarding Life

 “Life is so short that the wood of the cradle rubs up tight

 against the marble of the tomb!”  G.S.

Let’s take a look at our life this week and take caution to focus on

the 15 qualities of this eternal, “extraordinary life”…

These notes Kim shared with me came from a Charles Stanley sermon. 

I’m so glad she shared with me…

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights. 

Jackie's Journey "Evil Trick!"

I am a person who does NOT like to be misled or tricked!  I am programed to take things earnestly and I don’t always get a good joke or know what everyone is laughing about at the dinner table.  So… to be deceived by any trick is certainly NOT in the docket I came in with! For me, understanding that in addition to crafty false teachers in any realm of learning and deceiving spirits, I can fool myself!  We are to “see to it that no one takes us captive through philosophy and empty deception…” (Col. 2: 8)

 There are many ways we moms can deceive ourselves.  Thinking others can sin and get away with it with no consequence, is one.  Hearing God’s Word but not doing it (Jas. 1:22; 4: 17); thinking I am something I’m really not (Gal. 6: 3);  not calling sin…sin (I Jn. 1: 8); thinking I am wise in the things of the world (I Cor. 3: 18, 19) ; thinking I will not reap what I sow (Gal. 6: 7); thinking that ungodly people who live lives of sin will share in God’s kingdom (I Cor. 6: 9); thinking I can hang out with bad people and they won’t have any bad influence on me. (I Cor. 15: 33); thinking I can be a good Christian and still hurt others by what I say. (Jas. 1:22)… are but a few of the lies we believe…proven out by the fruit of our life.

 Often when confronted by someone who is demonstrating love to us (more than they love themselves) and is taking a chance on our friendship to shed light on our area of need, we defend ourselves, instead of taking responsibility for it.  We refuse to face the bad things that have happened to us (denial of reality); or we escape from the real world by distracting activities (computer, video games, music, involvement in social media, losing ourselves and our issues (fantasy).  We withdraw from people to avoid rejection or we take our frustration out on others.  We make excuses or blame others for our problem.  There are names for all of these responses but none of them set us free from the “evil tricks” of Satan that work against us in life!

“The best way to show that a stick is crooked is

NOT to argue about it or to spend time denouncing it,

BUT to lay a straight stick along-side it.” (D.L. Moody)

 When faced with issues like legalizing marijuana (because we are told we must allow them to exist because we cannot legislate morality), I am reminded that The Law was given for the immoral! Pro. 12:17 Or abortion…the argument states that a full-term baby is only a “fetus”, hence…murder is acceptable!  Deception is believing a lie that begins when the mind and emotions agree on error and is fulfilled when we will to do it!

 We are responsible for the false philosophies we adopt.

 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, 

after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, 

and not after Christ” (Col 2: 8).

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights. 

Jackie's Journey "Who's Directing Your Steps?"

As moms, we not only are responsible for where we are headed, but we have little prince and princesses watching and following the path that we set!  They are stepping into the print we leave behind.  No pressure!!  Wise Jeremiah (the “Weeping Prophet”) in Jer. 10:23 makes this confession to God.   “I know, Oh Lord, that a man’s life is not in himself, nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps.”  If it is not our own…whose is it?    What is wrong with you or I directing our own steps?   Who can find his/her own talent or purpose in life without God?

 “Who is wise and understanding among you?  Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in humility that comes from gentleness and wisdom.  But IF you harbor jealous and selfish ambition in your heart, do not boast about it or deny the truth.  Such wisdom does not come down from heaven, but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil.  For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.

 BUT the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure, then peace loving, considerate, reasonable, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere, without hypocrisy.  Peacemakers, who sow in peace, raise a harvest of righteousness.” James 3:13-18

 What is your life currently producing?

     How many wisdoms are there?   What are the two sources of wisdom according to this verse?

Selfishness and pride are the most common evidences of wisdom from below… what follows a life of selfish ambition?

   What is the difference between a peacemaker and a peace keeper (doesn’t “rock the boat”?

Godly desires are always pointed toward others… those who need help.

 Isaiah asks, “Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the word of His servant?  Let him who walks in the dark and has no light, trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God”! Isaiah 50 10

1.     What is in the dark or darkness in this verse? (Do you know the future?)

2.     What does it mean to fear the Lord? (Do you hate and fear the consequence of sin?)

3.     Why is obedience required?  (God designed us to need a coach to guide us through life.)

 “But now all of you who light (your own) fire and provide yourselves with flaming torches…go, walk in the light of the torches you have set ablaze. This is what you shall receive from my hand.  You will lie down in torment”! Isaiah 50: 11

  What are our choices? (Do you seek His direction?)

     Is it natural to move towards God or away from Him?

    Are we prone towards submission or rebellion?

 Who’s currently directing your steps?

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights. 

Jackie's Journey "Got Purpose?!"

A New Year!   Another Opportunity!

 When you get to the end of this year, what do you want to look back on and say you accomplished…Personally? Professionally?  Spiritually? Relationally? 

 Would you like to make this year your most successful ever?

 How fruitful would you say you were this past year?  

Did you attain the goals you set? 

 How did you do with keeping Godly priorities?

 So often we think to be successful we need a sense that we are getting more out of life…more me time, vacation time, more quality time with our children, more opportunities to develop a more mature relationship with our husbands, more exercise, less weight…”its all about me”!  We are blinded by kids’ schedules (practices, meets, tournaments, tutors, recitals, award ceremonies and more).  We live in a maze of taxi driving (pick-ups and drop-offs), carpools, careers, vacations, parties, sleepovers, play dates, fears and circumstances that keep us from seeing the clarity of our designed purpose.  We are forever seeking balance…

 This is the opposite of what God envisions for us.  We are to live life, then, with a due sense of responsibility… not as (women) who do not know the meaning and purpose of life, but those who do…making the best use of our time, despite all the evils of these days…not being vague but grasping firmly what we know to be the will of the Lord.  Ephesians 5:15-17

 Fulfillment in life is not deciding what we want to do or become,

but discovering and completing the purpose for which God made us! (Gothard)

 True success in life is measuring what we are by what we could be (always seeking His purpose and meaning of life) and what we have done by what we could have done (by His grace).   “Faithful is He who calls us who (HE) will also do it (if we get out of the way, relinquish our will and yield to His!). It is achieving the full potential God planned for us. (ATIA)  We are destined with His purpose on our life. (Col. 1:28, 29)…”its not about me”!

 Are we focused on what God is focused on or are we hastily and thoughtlessly doing our own thing?  If we have not realized our life purpose and set eternal goals for this coming year, our present priorities to reach that goal are superfluous!  Our focus is blurred by the demands of the immediate on the altar of the permanent. 

 The key to a full and rich life is determined by our commitment

to pleasing God first! The alternative is failure…and I hate failure!

 When I was a young Christian I was challenged by Betty Scott Stams declaration of purpose.  She was a missionary to China and was martyred by Communists in 1949.

 “Lord, I give up all my own plans and purposes, all my own desires and hopes, and accept Your will for my life.  I give myself, my life, my all utterly to You to be Yours forever.  Fill me and seal me with Your Holy Spirit.  Use me as You will, send me where You will, work out Your whole will in my life at any cost, now and forever.”

 While at the University, I stapled that statement of purpose inside the flap of my Bible and it is still there today…a reminder of my commitment to my God, who gave His ALL for me, to “die daily”.  “If anyone would come after me (Christ), he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”  Luke 9:23

 Taken from Philippians 1:21 “For to me, to live is Christ and to die (to my will, rights, ambitions, entitlements, etc.) is gain.  It has carried me through life and has been my comfort while serving in the jungles of Panama until this day…

 Where is your heart fixed?

 What is your declaration of purpose?

~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights.