Jackie's Journey "Dare To Be Audacious!"

In “A Royal Christmas to Remember”,  the five princesses are confronted with a deliberate and planned attack against their kingdom.  A sudden rap on the door of the castle calls their father and the knights away, and in their absence, a band of marauding outlaws forcefully enters the castle kitchen doors and the five princesses are faced with pending danger. What would they do?

Captured and held captive until help arrived!

Not all of us will be faced with the threat of danger or death, but all of us will be faced with choices that could alter our entire future.  Sometimes it comes by our own volition (the cause-and-effect sequence/ we reap what we sow) and other times it is forced on us by God’s over-powering will and purpose. 

 We are responsible for being alert to what is going on around us and to act accordingly.  My best friend’s daughter was at a concert with friends and a shooter began killing people randomly in the crowd.  She walked away, but remains haunted by that indiscriminate act.  We watched in horror as threat became reality when Charlie Kirk was shot down before our eyes!

While ministering in the jungles of Panama, a group of Colombian guerrillas entered our village and kidnapped three young missionary men. They were martyred and two of the fathers had small children. 

 We are in perpetual warfare with an enemy that is a master of deception.  When danger lurks, “the righteous are called to be bold as a lion.” Proverbs 28:1   We are to be bold in the face of death and confident that what we have to say or do is true and right and just in the sight of God.   Boldness is welcoming any suffering that comes from doing what is right with joy and thanksgiving.

 The most powerful people on the face of the earth are those who have no fear of death. My husband had no fear of death or of man.  For 60 years I observed his total confidence and freedom to live and experience life as God means it to be.  He was bold in his leadership of our family and his witness before men with his faith. God is calling me to that same courageous spirit this morning…

 Will you join me?

 “We fear men so much because we fear God so little.  One fear cures another.

When man’s terror scares you, turn your thoughts to the wrath of God.”

William Gurnall

~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 "I Can Do It Myself!"

Shortly after daybreak, an arctic explorer stood at the base of an eight-thousand-foot mountain.  The temperature was thirty below zero.  He was about 600 miles from the North Pole, when suddenly, a strange feeling overcame him and he considered turning back.  His uneasiness was heightened  by the unusual pattern of tracks in the snow.  He quickly recognized that most of the prints belonged  to arctic wolves!

 As he continued up the mountain, the wolf prints disappeared. However, he still sensed an eerie presence.  Something was watching him. Pulling himself up to the next snowy rise, the man was stunned by a rush of fur that flashed by his face! Wolves??  Polar Bear??

To his amazement it was a Musk Oxen.  The shaggy animals swiftly formed a circle, standing shoulder to shoulder, horns lowered and their young calves tucked inside the wall of protection.

 The ravaging wolves had no recourse but to retreat.  There was power in numbers.  Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted another wolf that was now coming right for…him!  Only five feet away stood the huge wolf pack!  The wolves were no match for the combined protection that the musk oxen gave each other.   BUT the wolves were fearless against one man who tried to make it on his own…(condensed Bill Gothard material)

 Do you know anyone who says, “I can do it myself?”  I think there is a little of that independent spirit in all of us.  We forget the danger of trying to make it on our own. Most of us are convinced we have it covered…no help needed in our decision-making process. The savage wolves in life are just waiting to pounce…they come in different forms, but the end result is all the same.  There is self-rejection, rebellion, guilt, bitterness, anger,  purposelessness, habits and addictions, peer dependence, financial bondage….

 Understanding that the only safe place on this complex and confusing planet is to be wrapped inside the circle of the perfect will of God, walking in the light and truth of HIS Word.  This is our only hope. Facing the tomorrows independently of HIM is to invite the inevitable, like the arctic explorer.  None of us can do it alone…

 Which wolves are after your soul?

~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.