Jackie's Journey "Ignorance is Bliss!"

The Darién Gap: What to know before you go.

Wait… Maybe don't go…too late…

We went!

Inside the Darién Gap,

one of the world’s most dangerous jungles…!

“Ignorance is bliss”.  I’ve heard that said all my life.  Reality struck this week when reading on line about our location in the jungles of Panama. I am  going to share now, what I am sooo glad I did not know…when we headed up the Pucuro river to our Kuna village near the Colombian border in the Darien Gap!

 It all started the day we drove the Pan-American Highway, which is an epic 19,000-mile route that starts in Alaska and terminates in Argentina.  It’s continuous except for a small section missing along the southern border of Panama, often referred to as one of the most inhospitable places on the planet — this is the Darién Gap.

 It’s 66 roadless miles of dense, mountainous jungle and swamp filled with armed guerillas, drug traffickers, and some of the world’s most deadly creatures covering the border of Panama and Colombia. 

Just to mention few:

·       Fer-de-lance pit vipers (killed regularly)

·       Drug traffickers and FARC armed guerillas ( FARC kidnapped and killed our three missionary men out of our Kuna village homes)

·       Brazilian wandering spiders (pictured above; one made its way onto my sheet hanging on the clothes-line and then was carried into my house!)

·       Black scorpions (it took Ralphs size 14 army boot to kill the one under our bed!)

·       Jungle heat and dirty water (95 degrees and 95% humidity!)

 It brings me great comfort to know that God withheld this information from me. The Gap is most famous for: Things that will kill you.!  Who knew??  The list of deadly things inside the Gap is lengthy, and dehydration and starvation are the least of the obvious concerns. Instead, there were very real threats.

 The lawlessness and lack of residents made the Darién Gap a perfect path for drug traffickers of cocaine, fentanyl  and etc.  They passed through our village, using the  trail about 18’ from our house!  We had no idea who these strangers were and  would  offer food, drink and a place to sleep the night. Always with the intent of presenting Christ in the course of the evening.

Active since 1964, FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces) armed guerillas dropped in by helicopter one day to terrorize us into leaving.  A backpacker from Sweden was shot in the head in 2013 and found two years later. Multiple others have been kidnapped for weeks or months after venturing into the Gap.

 Everything in the jungle is giant sized!  Spiders fill the jungles of the Darién Gap, but one of the most threatening is the Brazilian Wandering spider. “You’re going to have a really bad day if this bites you!”. This family of spiders (there are more than one!) has a leg span of five to seven inches. They wander the jungle floor at night and love to hide in people’s hiking boots, logs, sheets(!) and  banana plants. Bites from this spider can cause death in 2 to 6 hours.

Jungle scorpions look like they’re from another planet.  The black scorpion calls the Darién Gap home.  The one I killed under our bed was 9’-11’ long!  They live under rocks and logs and hunt for larvae and cockroaches at night.

The Darien Gap boasts of malaria carrying mosquitos, burrowing Botflies, Chiggars galore, an unreal volume of disease-carrying ticks, blood-sucking vampire bats, flesh-decaying trench foot, even undetonated Cold War bombs!  And let’s not forget the river crocodiles (I never saw one)…and snakes that hide in the massive tree trunks that grow into the river’s edge.

Even the trees teach a lesson to be learned, as the 8” spikes on the Chunga tree demonstrate. One brush against its spiny exterior introduces all kind of infecting bacteria, plus, a wound full of embedded spines.

So, the Darién Gap sounds downright peachy to visit, doesn’t it?

My husband used to talk to me, his “little much afraid”,  before our first trip to Panama,  about Jesus sending out the seventy-two with specific instructions to “count the cost” and then, he reassured me that they were “given authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm (them) you.” Luke 10: 19 

With that promise we went and it was better than “peachy”…

It was the beginning of a journey with God that changed my life…

~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 "Storms May Come and Go...BUT!"

Do you ever feel like the bluster all around you is an indication of what the future holds?  The tornado is coming…what do I do?   There is no “stop” in the midst of the swirling tempest. At times, it seems like the downpour is all we can take.  We find  ourselves rushing into the wind, hopelessly grasping for some “relief”.  Sometimes it is hard to see the forest for the trees. 

 “Our God in heaven does whatever pleases Him. Psa. 115: 3  The storm that was sent to break us, is going to be the storm that God uses to make us!  When we come out of the storm, we won’t be the same person that walked into it.  That’s what the storm is all about!”

 “The river was  beating against the rocks in huge dashing waves.  The lightning was flashing; the thunder was roaring; the wind was blowing; but the little bird was asleep in the crevice of a rock, its head serenely tucked under its wing…sound asleep!  That is peace…to be  able to sleep in the storm!   In Christ, we are relaxed and at peace in the midst of the confusions, bewilderments, and perplexities of this life.  The storm rages, but our hearts are at rest.  We have found peace…at last.” Billy Graham

 My girls and I used to sing a song in the jungle when the rain was so fierce it came through the bark walls and half-way across our living room floor! The thunder was so loud our tin roof shook and the wind and lightning filled the whole Darien with light!  The river, eighteen feet from our front door, could rise 10 feet in a few hours!  We were on alert, in the event that the rivers rage would come over the bank and into our house…

 It was great comfort to lift our voices in song, as we cuddled together in the hammock that was hung from beam to beam in that little remote room. The “storms may  come and go but the peace of  God we will  know.” We were wet, but we were at peace.  God knew and directed the rain, the river and  our hearts when we surrendered our will to His.

 Maintaining the right focus makes all the difference.

 Stand up in the storm this week and in gratefulness,

Find peace by yielding to His will in your life…

~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 "The Sureness of Uncertainty!"

Being sure of something is a forever quest because life is so full of uncertainties!  Knowing we can count on someone is a welcomed consolation in times of turmoil, shock and confusion, but the promise of its permanence is unknown. Having confidence in an outcome is a luxury we don’t always have, but we think our well-being depends on it. There is very little in life that we can be absolutely certain about; yet, it is the mark of the “common-sense” life that we find ourselves in.

 “Use your common sense, Jackie”, my Dad used to say to me.  I wondered about everything and the future was at the top of my list!  What if…or what happens next?  Then…out of nowhere, the day of uncertainty becomes a drastic reality!

 “Gracious Uncertainty” is the mark of the spiritual life.  The very nature of our spiritual life is that we are certain in our uncertainty.”  We are uncertain of our next step,  BUT we are certain of God. Oswald Chambers 

 HE has the plan, direction and purpose. The unsure fades, as long as our eyes are focused on HIM and not our circumstances. We can be certain HE will take care of all the uncertainties. The simple surrender to His will over our own; the abandonment of self-preservation (trying to make it work and failing miserably),  “brings a spontaneous, joyful uncertainty and expectation”.

 Knowing God is sovereign and needs no help from me, apart from my intentional surrender and obedience to Him, is a certainty I can put my confidence in.  Understanding HE is not only in control, but HE has my best interest at heart and has divine purpose in it all, brings that spontaneous, joyful expectation.

 “Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is my strength.”

Neh. 8: 10b

 Have a great week…

~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's Worth Dying For?"

During the reign of Maximian in the third century(A.D. 286), repeated persecutions were brought against Christians.  Yet the greater the persecutions, the more  the early church grew.

 One day Maximian ordered  all his armies to assemble near the city of Gaul.  Tens of thousands of soldiers were there.  They stood at attention to give a loyalty oath which included the killing of Christians.

 The captain of 6,ooo men, known as the Thebian Legion replied to this oath by saying, ”We  will fight and die for Maximian in battle, but we will not kill Christians.  We, ourselves, are all Christians.”  

 Maximian became infuriated.  He ordered their ranks to be decimated.  Every 10th man was killed by the sword.  The remaining legion still refused!  More men were killed until the entire legion was martyred for their faith!

 The tens of thousands who watched saw men who had something worth dying for.  Soon, thousands became converted, and in A.D. 313 the entire Roman empire adopted the Christian faith.

 These men were strong in God’s Spirit.

Their faith was grounded in conviction, not preference.

 We live in a time when our fear of God is at an all-time low and our love of the world and all it offers, is at an all-time high!  God wants us mighty in spirit, “’To be strengthened with might by HIS SPIRIT in the inner man.’”

 This means God’s Word is dwelling richly in us, we are sensing His presence and recognizing His promptings. We are alert to spiritual dangers that would draw us away from Him and His purpose in our life and we are discerning of wrong attitudes and ideas that would neutralize our ability to make decisions with godly convictions and His blessing.

If HE is worth dying for…

HE is worth living for…

~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 "Profoundly Unbecoming!"

In life we are confounded with choices, preferences and demands.  They come as fast and as remarkably contradictory, as presumably thinkable!  Demands on us and demands we make on others!  We live in an age of personal rights and what we consider a “need”.  If life and experience have taught me one thing, it would be that my “needs” are minimal and my wants are unreasonably extravagant!

 C. S Lewis said, “When I am in the presence of God, it seems profoundly unbecoming to demand anything!”  We just celebrated Christ’s surrendering HIS will completely and HIS victory over death…our promise of resurrection. “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; YET not my will, but yours be done.”  Luke 22: 42  In anguish our Savior cried out on the Mount of Olives, as HE faced death in our place!” 

 How often in our choices, preferences and demands do we stop and consider HIS will first?  Do we seek the author and finisher of our faith in the midst of our decision-making process? Do we take thought to get into HIS presence and acknowledge that the God of the universe has a will to be considered?  Can you hear His voice when HE whispers HIS will to you?

 Have you ever put your will in “neutral”; having no preference or will of its own in regard to making a decision?   Our battle ceases when we acknowledge HIS sovereignty and accept HIS perfect will for us.  HE’S got the plan and it is for our good…we are blessed if we find which way God is moving and get in harmony with HIM.

 The history of all the great characters of the Bible is summed up in this one sentence:

 They acquainted themselves with God, and acquiesced HIS will in all things.” Richard Cecil 

 Have a great week…

~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 "A Divided Heart"

Sometimes, don’t you just wish you knew the future?  Just a little heads-up?  Life is so full of obstacles, decisions, and the unexpected, it would be nice to know a little ahead!  Shortly before God called my husband home, he texted me Psalm 86:11 with the note…”Prayer for our family this week”.  This was the verse…“Teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart that I will fear your name (the beginning of wisdom).  I will praise you, Lord, my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever.  For great is your love toward me; You have delivered me from the depths, from the realm of the dead.”

 In a way, this was prophetic.

He left this earth for his heavenly home the following week!

Ralph had given me the verses I needed to begin to journey on… before he left!

 An undivided heart is one that uses difficult and impossible times to demonstrate our commitment to God and those HE has called us to serve.  This is called LOYALTY. Loyalty is the bonding of individuals in a long-term commitment of sacrificial support and defense. Infidelity or unfaithfulness is total betrayal to God and our designed purpose.

 Each of us has loyalties to certain people or things.  We are all loyal to something!  We are loyal to things on earth(family, friends, money, job…) or we are loyal to things in heaven (rewards, abstaining from sin, godly relationships, walking in holiness, faithful in our witness and service). Loyalty is one thing a leader cannot do without.

 All day long we are making decisions that tell us where our loyalty lies and to whom!  It reveals what our mind is focused on.  We are to make our decisions based on two things:

1 – Am I loyal to the authority responsible for me?

2 – Am I standing with those I am serving in their time of need and making them first, more successful than myself?

 I guess the question is: 

Do we doubt God’s sovereignty during adversity

or do we draw nearer to HIM?

Hence, my prayer for us this week…

“Relying on HIS faithfulness, give us an undivided heart”…

~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 "Thorns and Thistles!"

“By His wounds we are healed”.  Isa. 53

 Family celebrations are on the horizon!  The cross is the center of our commemorating the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  His selfless and sinless sacrifice in our place is our reason to celebrate and praise His Name.  We call the holiday Easter and for a moment in time we stop and rehearse His ultimate sacrifice…His life for ours on that thorny, thistled “old rugged cross”.  Not only did he die for us but also on the third day He rose from the dead and gave us the promise of a resurrected life after death! 

 This deliberate and divine act of love was to give our lives promise, plan and purpose.  We are destined and programmed to serve others first, not ourselves.   In our Easter release to the Princess Parable Series, “A Royal Easter Story”, we have introduced our five young knights who present a challenge that draws our young princesses into a chariot race that reveals the truth of what the cross teaches. 

 Do you live a life selflessly and sacrificially serving others?

 We cannot be consumed with a life that seeks its own and find life abundantly.  It is an impossibility.  Local churches open their doors on Good Friday to give us the opportunity to take a personal account of our commitment to our first love and renew our loyalty to live as Jesus challenges us to live…Holy!  We are reminded to live serving others, as He did, with eternal values and purpose in view.

 As women, we are dedicated to living and then, teaching the character of Christ to our little princes and princesses.  We focus on drawing their attention to the importance of serving, helping and caring for others.  That is why we find ourselves saying, “Can you comfort your little brother” or “Will you help mommy?”  Teaching by example, without excuse, is the most powerful tool in our toolbox!  We are “known and read” by these little eyes and ears.  They know if the cross is real in us, or not.  We don’t fool them, but we do confuse them when our life message does not speak the reality of Christ in us!

 Are your little ones confused?

 “Then said Jesus to his disciples, IF any man will come after me,

 let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”

Matt. 16: 24

 The cross holds the hope of humanity.  Denying self-life (our pride and selfishness in all its ugly forms)…and taking up His cross (His desires and His perfect Will for us)…  authenticates His life in us.  Living life consistently with no unconfessed sin and nothing between us and another person enables us to follow Him.  “His crucifixion is the key; His resurrection the door…it is only by His death that we have the mandate to enter into the gates of eternal life.  His door is open always.  Christ is King.”  Isrealmore Ayivor

  “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless, I live;

yet not I, but Christ lives in me:

and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God,

who loved me, and gave himself for me?”

Gal.  2: 20

“There are no crown-bearers in heaven who were not cross-bearers here below.”

Charles H. Spurgeon

~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 "A Divided Heart?"

Sometimes, don’t you just wish you knew the future?  Just a little heads-up?  Life is so full of obstacles, decisions, and the unexpected, it would be nice to know a little ahead!  Shortly before God called my husband home, he texted me Psalm 86:11 with the note…”Prayer for our family this week”.  This was the verse…“Teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart that I will fear your name (the beginning of wisdom).  I will praise you, Lord, my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever.  For great is your love toward me; You have delivered me from the depths, from the realm of the dead.”

 In a way, this was prophetic.

He left this earth for his heavenly home the following week!

Ralph had given me the verses I needed to begin to journey on… before he left!

 An undivided heart is one that uses difficult and impossible times to demonstrate our commitment to God and those HE has called us to serve.  This is called LOYALTY. Loyalty is the bonding of individuals in a long-term commitment of sacrificial support and defense. Infidelity or unfaithfulness is total betrayal to God and our designed purpose.

 Each of us has loyalties to certain people or things.  We are all loyal to something!  We are loyal to things on earth(family, friends, money, job…) or we are loyal to things in heaven (rewards, abstaining from sin, godly relationships, walking in holiness, faithful in our witness and service). Loyalty is one thing a leader cannot do without.

 All day long we are making decisions that tell us where our loyalty lies and to whom!  It reveals what our mind is focused on.  We are to make our decisions based on two things:

1 – Am I loyal to the authority responsible for me?

2 – Am I standing with those I am serving in their time of need and making them first, more successful than myself?

 I guess the question is: 

Do we doubt God’s sovereignty during adversity

or do we draw nearer to HIM?

 Hence, my prayer for us this week…

“Relying on HIS faithfulness, give us an undivided heart”…

~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 "OK...OK...I Surrender!"

This should be an interesting year for me…the Lord took my love and life partner on the 7th of this month …

the test of His Lordship in my life will be my next challenge…

What an incredible blessing to be able to jot down thoughts and rehearse what God continues to teach me through His Word and the people and events in my life.  Thank you to those of you who continue to follow my journey with the King.

On behalf of our family, we would like to extend our deepest gratitude

for the love and suppor that you have showered

upon us throughout this journey of temendous loss and hope.

 All any of us has to share with others is our weakness translated into a life message for the benefit of another.  At the Celebration of Life for my beloved husband, Ralph, so many communicated how his life had touched and influenced theirs. We both trust God has used our flaws to manifest His strength for your benefit.  Every weakness I have is an opportunity for God to show His strength in my life.

 “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.  Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, 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

Jim Elliot, husband of Elizabeth Elliot, who was martyred at the hand of the Auca Indians, once said:

 “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” 

 Genuine Christianity is an unconditional surrender to His Lordship!

 While attending the University of Arizona I was invited to join Kappa Alpha Theta, a national sorority.  I had a sense of acceptance and grew to love the girls and the accountability.  After a semester of initiation, we had a night of mild hazing that culminated in stepping individually behind a veil for the final step of becoming a Theta.   As the pledge of loyalty was read and the words were spoken to me… I was asked to repeat them.   I instantly realized I had already pledged my loyalty to my new Savior, Jesus Christ. 

 A few months earlier, over the Thanksgiving holiday with my parents and sisters, I had attended a church service and had heard for the first time in my life that I could know God in a personal way through my total surrender to His Son, Jesus Christ.  Standing behind that curtain I was struck, profoundly, when I realized I had already given my total allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ that Thanksgiving weekend!   When He walked into my life everything changed, I had no more allegiance to give.

 Time has tested on life’s stage that unconditional surrender

 I made to my loving Savior and Sovereign Lord in those college days.

 What is your present commitment?

 When we talk about a total surrendering of our lives to the Lordship of Christ, we are talking about yielding all our rights and expectations! 

·      A dying to self and self-attitudes

·      A yielding of all entitlements and self-interest

 WHAT…WAIT A MINUTE!

 Don’t we run from the people and circumstances that call us into total commitment?  It is much easier to go with the flow as the secular, ungodly world dictates to us relativity, independence and “I have my rights!”   The world’s motto: “Strength only…show no weakness!”  The human struggle wants HIS power to do OUR will.  

 Is humility a position of strength or weakness, in your opinion?

 Humility is me… seeing the contrast between my spiritual condition (a sinner) and God’s holiness and then surrendering all to receive His grace to live Christ-like, not Jackie-like!  

 Phil. 3:10   Grace is doing His will with His power!  It is acknowledging His presence and His power to live the Christian life.  Victory is living in that truth! 

 Are you living in Victory?

 Have you surrendered your life to His Lordship?

~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 "BROKEN HEARTS!"

“This past Wednesday was Valentine’s Day. The “heart” narrative and symbols of that day got me thinking.  We are told that it is totally acceptable to trust and follow our heart.  In fact, we are taught that our heart can decide what is right for us! A person will leave a church and say, ‘I did not feel right in my heart there’. A man may leave his wife and children for a younger woman saying, ‘My heart was not in my marriage any longer’”. (Letgdbetrue)

 What about the young couple who is confident of a life-partner because they are “following their hearts”? The phrase “I’m going to follow my heart” is used regularly to validate violations of moral, ethical and scriptural principles when decision-making.

 I recently listened to an audio, sent by my granddaughter, Alexandra Grace, that was so on point regarding the use of the word “heart”. How often do we hear the advice, “just follow your heart” when facing difficult decisions? Or “You can trust your heart”…

 This past week was Valentine’s Day. It seems appropriate to address issues of the heart.  This blog is taken from Proverbs 28: 26 and “heart” is used as a metonym for affections, inclinations and thoughts.

 “He that trusts in his own heart is a fool:

but he who walks wisely…will be delivered.”

 “Your heart is your internal set of desires and needs that affect your decision-making.  This is not your conscience.  This is your anti-conscience!  This is the set of passions that drives most men and women. God has spoken about our heart.   He said, ‘The heart is deceitfully wicked above all things and desperately wicked: who can know it?’” Jer. 19:9 (letgodbetrue)

 The fact that our heart has an opinion and passion about everything and reacts instantly to what it wants, should be our first warning sign in decision-making.  “If you follow its direction, you are a fool! If you listen to your heart, you are a fool.  If you follow your heart, you are a fool.  If you make decisions even partially influenced by your heart, you are a fool.  You are submitting to the most deceitful, depraved and dangerous source of information on earth.”

 Now that we have stated the obvious…it is clear that 

we are our own worst enemy…

 What are we to do?

 At the fall of man in the garden, all affection for God, spiritual truth and wisdom died. Our desires became corrupted…no longer a desire to seek God, please God or obey God. We took on a new leader who is bent on destroying us; who came to do three things: steal, kill and destroy us.. (Jn. 8: 44)   Steal our joy, opportunity…; kill our bodies…; and destroy our relationships, vision and destiny.  He tells us our heart, which is led by feelings, lust and arrogance of our own thoughts, will lead us. We are fools to believe that plan, let alone follow it! “We do not have the right to our thoughts; but we do have a responsibility to right thoughts”! (Letgodbetrue)

 “True wisdom is learning to mistrust your heart, reject its voice, and make all decisions on the basis of absolute and objective truth.

 Where is the source for such fabulous decision making?

 In the inspired words of the living God recorded in the Bible! It is learning God’s words and training yourself to make decisions based on them that you can be wise and saved from the deceitful impulses of your depraved “heart”. (letgodbetrue) Fearing God and asking God to direct our footsteps according to His word is the beginning of wisdom. (Psa. 119: 133) This is the key to being delivered from the pitfalls and obstacles that clobber and confuse those who have chosen to “follow their heart” … “The degree of our wisdom is the degree to which we can crush our ‘heart’ to submit to the words of God in the Bible”! (letgodbetrue)

 How wise are you?

~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.