February 2017
Happy Valentines! Isn’t it wonderful to know that we are so loved and forgiven by God. Before receiving His grace, our hearts were filled with guilt and shame, but now His faithful love fills that emptiness.
“May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.” 1
An Insightful Response…
Here's a letter from James in Canada, an elementary school teacher for 35 years, writing,
“Your ministry accentuates a very important word – ‘emptiness’, which is the result of original sin. People suffer from it, and they are aware of it, perhaps? You and I got ‘bewildered’ for one reason or another. We were lost, searching and empty. We sought answers and fulfillment.
From what I’ve read, your emptiness leading to Spahn’s Ranch is correlated with low self-esteem, because you ‘lived in the shadow’ of your brother. As an elementary school teacher of 35 years, I have witnessed how kids shut down when peer pressure or teasing affects them.
In 1962, eight kids and myself were skipped from grade two to grade four. My report cards, which I still have, show that I was first or second up to grade six. But like you, I eventually ended up in the ‘shadow’ of the new age group. All we nine kids eventually flunked out along the way, some with drug/alcohol issues. I’m the only one of these nine who got a university degree, only because of God’s grace as I finally found some peers to help me.
As you lived at Spahn’s Ranch, I almost ended up at a ‘hippy house’ at university where drugs were rampant. Your ministry shows what can happen when ‘bewilderment and emptiness’ happen. Drugs and hippy communes fill a hole of despair for a while, but eventually the drugs get out of control, and at Spahn’s, Manson took control. The rest is sad history in a 1960s movement that began with ‘flower power’, but ended with civil despair (Vietnam, racial violence and assassinations).
Thank God I had good, studious friends; one got me out of going to the ‘hippy house’, who I moved in with. He and the landlady, a teacher, set up ‘stability’, and I got through the university. You ended up with Manson and went from Charles Watson to the infamous Tex Watson – though you are Charles Watson now. Your ministry is now getting the word out there. That word you proclaim in Jesus, Who will fill the ‘emptiness’ with His love. People need to heed it. Keep up the good work. There is a social need more than ever. God Bless, James, Ontario, Canada.”
Filling That Void…
In the 60s, my love tank was on EMPTY, and I was trying to fill it with the wrong octane. I’m talking about erotic (Gk. eros) love, which will never propel our life by satisfying our deepest need – divine love (Gk. agape).
When the Lord began to deal heavily with my heart in late ’74, I couldn’t explain what was happening to me, but now I realize as that great Christian Saint Augustine said, “…the heart of man is restless until it finds it rest in Thee.”
Augustine knew what he was talking about; he’d spent a lot of years running from God himself, just as I had. But it was time to start running and face the inescapable love that was being poured down on me. I had a void in my life that only God could fill, according to Augustine’s writings from the Bible.
God Fills That Void…
Maybe you’ve come upon this site for the first time like many, and it’s debatable if you’ll return. If not, you’ll miss out on my book, “Will You Die For Me?” (unless you download id). It reveals how God filled my void in Chapter 21, entitled “Day”, plus I share many Bible promises on the site. For instance, Peter says:
“By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.” 2
God has provided everything we need to live a full and meaningful life, but contrary to new age beliefs, the Bible doesn’t teach that man nor woman is born divine. Jeremiah wrote, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it.” 3 Jesus said, “You must be born again,” 4 in order to participate in God’s nature through faith in Christ. Then, we grow though practice into all he has designed us to be. The apostle Peter continues,
“And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.” 5
Be Filled with Love…
Regardless of your past, God has a wonderful future for you securely in His hands, if you will respond to His promises by faith. You have the opportunity to grow to understand His love, forgiveness, truth and grace! God has supplied all we need to love each other just as He has loved us. Peter says,
“In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.” 6
God’s love fills our void when we are born again. This enables our soul (mind, will and emotions) to be transformed to love everyone freely as the fruit of the Spirit flows from our hearts into our actions – the divine flow.
This site is all about God’s overflowing love to the world. Your response to God’s love and grace increases the flow of His love to everyone around you. John the beloved wrote:
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” 7
A Prayer for You…
“I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.” 8 In Jesus name. Amen!
Scripture References (NLT):
- Eph. 3:19
- 2 Pet. 1:3
- Jere. 17:9 KJV
- John 3:3-7
- 2 Pet. 1:4
- 2 Pet. 1:5
- 1 John 4:7,8 NKJV
- Eph. 3:16-18