Notes On Life

By Dr. Jeanne Sheffield Estrada It’s autumn and you can feel the crispness in the air, so If you’re taking a walk i’s the perfect time to be alone with God to do some PRAYER WALKING!   Prayer walking is a type of intercessory prayer that extends beyond your own concerns, focusing directly on the needs of others and opening yourself to see them with God’s eyes and heart.   Prayer walks opens up your spirit to ask God to give you a heart for your neighborhood, your city, our president and country. It gives you a concrete means of doing something for the well-being of everyone while you ask the Holy Spirit to pray through you as your mind covers so many people, concerns and observe the world around you.   A great example of the power of prayer walking was when the Israelites marched and prayed seven days around the city of Jericho as well as Jesus’ trek through the desert for forty days in preparation for beginning His ministry.  Before you head out for a...

 A comedian brilliantly summed up the time-wasting worthlessness of click-bait on-line trivia saying: Imagine a mugger dragged you into a dark alley and said 'Gimme All Your Money!' but seeing how scared you were then said, 'Well, I’ll tell you what…see’n how scared you was, if you can tell me da top three movies Danny Devito has been in and I’ll let you go!' I don’t know about you, but I’ve fallen down that rabbit hole WAY too many times myself! So as silly as that sounds, this actually is a very subtle Spiritual Battle that all of us often and easily fall into. Now, while there is nothing wrong with viewing funny videos, interesting facts and other engaging content, as today’s verse warns, the more time spent in trivial things distances us further from spending time with God and reading His Word. This is a tough balance in today’s on-line 24-hour world where News Feeds, Instant Messaging and Social Media are constantly vying for our attention. As generally good and us...

 (Hope by itself is just  an Empty Bottle) There is a big difference between a 'Wish' and HOPE. One of these has power and substance, but the other is an empty shell — and here’s why. A WISH is a desire of the heart that has defined the shape of what you want but will always just be an empty outline of that which you seek. Wishing does not make anything come to pass except an emptiness inside that mirrors the emptiness of the outline you have drawn in your heart and mind. On the other hand, HOPE also creates the image of the thing desired but ** Will come to pass when filled with the application of FAITH! ** This is what the Bible means when it says that “Without FAITH it is impossible to please God.” God only responds to prayers and supplications offered up in FAITH, and when the 'Prayer Of Faith' is applied to 'That Which Is Hoped For' and offered up by asking according to God’s will (1 John 5:14) then the Bible promises us that “You shall HAVE what you SAY.” ...

 In the 1973 movie “Magnum Force” Clint Eastwood, after seeing his adversary meet his own demise, 'Dirty Harry' uttered the famous line, “Man’s Got To Know His Limitations.” While a popular movie quote, this says a lot about the hubris that some may unknowingly realize how they live their life — and the great fall that such unbridled pride can and will bring. For example, Pontius Pilot stood authoritatively before Jesus. Frustrated at Jesus’ non-responses he said, “Knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?” to which Jesus pointedly responded, ”Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above.” While Pilot was even warned by a dream of his wife not to sentence Jesus, he did so anyway - and like Lieutenant Briggs in that movie - due to their pride both he and Pilot met their demise. At times, we all act like Pilot. In our hubris we self-assuredly think that we can Do or SAY or BE anything we want, yet th...

 I once heard that it is possible to make the explosive TNT (Nitroglycerin) if you mix just the right amount of manure (nitrogen) and butter (glycerin.) Now I’m not sure if that that is possible but assuming this was true, it would indeed make a powerful combination. This idea of mixing two key ingredients together to form a powerful element is at the heart of today’s scripture lesson, and like this fabled union of nitrogen and glycerin, the act of mixing the WORD and FAITH when applied is Real Spiritual Dynamite! Hebrews 4:2 also says that when the Good News (i.e. The Gospel) is spoken to even those that that have the FAITH to BELIEVE, it’s message is indeed DYNAMIC! In the original language the word “power” in the following verse literally is our English word for 'DYNAMITE!' “The gospel (WORD) of Christ…is the POWER of God to salvation for everyone who believes (FAITH)” - Romans 1:16 Friend if you are just casually listening or reading the Word of God and not mixing it with F...

In a recent interview, William Shatner, the famous 'Star Trek' actor now 95 years old made some startling comments about his life and dying. When asked to name a passion that has heightened with age — especially after his two encounters with life-ending cancer — he said, “Staying Alive“ and went on to say (and) “Not dying − that’s always a good thing.” He reflectively continued; “I’m always anxious about that. I’ve thought about dying a lot.” But Shatner’s most poignant thought is one that is perhaps shared by the majority of people when he honestly stated: “I’m so not ready to die. It petrifies me. I go alone. I go to a place I don’t know. It might be painful. It might be the end.” As today’ scripture says, we all have the “Sentence Of Death” and while death is inevitable where we 'Go' is not UNKNOWN. The Bible is very clear that there are two possibilities after death and you are the one that chooses which place that will be. Scripture promises to all who believe, tru...

 Mt. Shasta is one of California’s tallest, and being young (and inexperienced) foolishly agreed to scale it with some mountain-climbing friends. About 1,000 feet from the top we stopped to rest with a choice of two divergent paths leading to the summit. My experienced buddies choose the shorter but more difficult approach to the top but I was too tired to keep up and made a very foolish decision by going it alone along the other longer, easier path that hooked around the back of the plateau to a giant red rock below the summit. Behind 'red rock' was a razor thin path hugging along a high vertical rock wall. At the end of that path the wall was low enough to get up to the plateau below the summit, however the path ran precariously along the top of a steep icy slope that descended over one thousand yards to the abyss below. One slip meant an unstoppable slide to certain death. I proceeded cautiously, stepping carefully along previous cleat tracks but just as I almost reached the...

 For centuries great minds have asked this question, and there are many ways people continue to look at it. Plato said it was the “Ultimate search for Knowledge,” fellow Greek philosopher Aristotle thought that it was ”Fulfilling our Potential“ while Confucius sought to “Live a life of Harmony.” Others like Friedrich Nietzsche prescribed it as “Understanding the meaning of Suffering” and American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson thought it “Traveling along the road of life, no matter how Bad.” All these - and many others from around the world - may indeed have a certain degree of merit, but they all very interestingly follow one theme. It is a focus on SELF. As today’s final words from the wisdom book of Ecclesiastes concludes, ultimately we have been given that life — every breath, every heartbeat, every step along that road — by God. Our life while enhanced by knowledge, peace, and determination is ultimately attributed to and suspended by the one who created us, and not we ourselves. It...

  John Harper was a Scottish preacher aboard the ill-fated Titanic. As the ship continued slipping down to its inevitable doom he loudly ran across the decks urging only woman and children into the lifeboats. Then in determined desperation ran from person to person pleading with people to give their lives into the hand of Christ in order to save as many souls that the lifeboats could not. One man outright refused the offer — to which Harper took off his life jacket, gave it to the man and said, “Here. You need this more than I do.” Plunging into the dark icy north Atlantic Harper reportedly saw the man at a distance while continually calling out on all to be saved, again repeating his plea to as many that could hear him. While Harper and 1,496 souls perished that fateful night, as the story goes the man that Harper had given his life preserver to was not only saved in this life, but accepted Christ and was saved in the life to come. While the veracity of this account has been chall...

 A tribal native from the deepest part of the Amazon jungle was brought into the big city and was amazed at what he saw. There were giant 'huts' greater than the tallest trees, light without fire, and air conditioning to squelch oppressive heat. However when he returned to his village the thing he was most excited about was seeing a WHEELBARROW. Here was something he could really use to effectively do to leverage what he needed to do that he could not do using just his own strength. When we share our faith while working in and through Christ it is like that wheelbarrow! The word 'effective' in today’s verse in Greek (ἐνεργὴς) is the root of our English word ENERGY! Just as the wheelbarrow helped the native to effectively do his work, Christ in us is the 'Energy Power Source' that always leverages us to effectively accomplish all that we can do to furthering the Kingdom of God. Friend, when you use the 'wheelbarrow' of the Power Of God in all that you do ...

 John Bunyan’s classic 1678 novel “Pilgrim’s Progress” is an allegory of our lifelong journey from birth to death and the challenges we encounter as ‘sojourners upon the earth’ along the way. As today’s scripture passage from the Book of Chronicles reminds us, this journey along the road called ‘Life’ may seem often like it will never end but the reality is- as this verse accurately states — we are all indeed “… like a passing shadow, gone so soon without a trace” and who, what and where we were will be no more. Friend, our steps and our time on this planet is Extremely SHORT , but Eternity Is LONG  — and too long to be wrong about what comes next. Our mortal life is indeed like a shadow that comes then is no more and it is wrought with all kinds of traps that can get us caught up in the miry mud of sin. Therefore in order to finish well we are encouraged therefore to “Lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us RUN with patience the race that is ...

 A Credit Balance You Cannot Afford Did you know you have a type of ‘Credit Card ‘ with no spending limit that lets you get anything you want? Yes, and it is called Free Will  — but just because it is ‘FREE’ doesn’t mean it is not going to cost you something… and here’s how you run up your balance. Each time you sin that transgression is added to the ledger of your debt and the Bible warns us that the danger is that the balance due is like having a card with a compounding interest rate that is so high that no matter how hard we try to offset that debt (and pay it off by doing good works) It Is A Debt That Can NEVER Be Repaid . Your unlimited free will credit card allows you to ‘Charge Ahead’ without being aware that when the final statement comes it will be impossible to ‘Pay Off The Penalty’ . However there is a way to erase that sin-debt and this is what God’s MERCY and GRACE is all about. You see the message of the Gospel is that when Christ died on the cross, the Bible says t...

  The story of the young widow from the Book of Ruth has been a favorite in women’s Bible studies but as the title of this message suggests, there is another even more valuable lesson to be learned here. Ruth and her sister both lost their husbands, and being widows in Jewish culture left them vulnerable. At this TIME, both were at a turning point. While her sister decided to return to their original home in Jerusalem, Ruth made a CHOICE instead to stay with her mother-in-law. Little did she know that that decision would be the beginning of a beneficial turning point in her life. Once at the PLACE her mother-in-law brought her to she introduced her to a wealthy relative of her late husband named Boaz, and as the story goes Ruth went from a poor widow to his bride and the RESULT was to birth a child and become the great-great grandmother of one of the most significant figures in Israel and her people; King David. Friend you see, God works in ways to accomplish His purposes beyond wh...

 American humorist Will Rogers once aptly said, “Everybody’s ignorant, only on different subjects.” Conversely, while being filled with all the knowledge in the world can be beneficial in this life, it has No Benefit in eternity if you are IGNORANT about who Christ is, what He did in the world and for the world and what that means to you. You see, many have the mistaken idea that Christ was simply a historical figure and inspirational teacher that helped found a new religion. Instead, Christ was the personification and incarnation of LOVE as a gift to free the world from sin and death and to bring eternal life for all who seek to know HIM. As the Apostle Paul wrote: “If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus Christ is the LORD' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9 Friend, This Is The Single Most Important Fact That You Cannot Be Ignorant About! Do NOT be WRONG ABOUT CHRIST but right about everything else! Believe on Christ an...

  Free-style rock climbing is one of the most dangerous sports, and as this picture tragically shows, when ALMOST a step was MISSED, the result was a great fall. Today’s words of the Psalmist is a pensive reflection of what might have happened if he had taken a misstep, because the fall that could have happened would result in severe consequence. In the Christian walk we need to constantly “Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.” (Proverbs 4:26) In fact the Greek word for WALK literally means to Walk Around the dangers that could be along our path in this life. It has been said that '30 Seconds Can Change Your Life' and that is why just one bad decision - ONE MISSTEP - could lead to an irreversible consequence. Friend, life is full of difficult choices. That is why we must always be on guard of what we do, say and think because “If you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't FALL. (1 Corinthians 10:12) Where are your steps taking yo...

  Palliative Care is a treatment for people with cancer. It does not heal, treat the disease or clear their wound, but provides patients relief from their symptoms and emotional support. Sadly, many churches today are practicing Palliative Christianity . They provide a comfortable church environment, emotionally inspiring music and sermons that lift up spirits. Many excellent programs and activities are available for everyone — but there is one essential thing missing. While the BIBLE may be PRESENTED The GOSPEL is not Being PREACHED . 2 Timothy 3:5 warned us of this saying that some churches could “Have a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.” The gospel is foremost “The POWER of God unto Salvation” (Romans 1:16) and it is the only sure cure of “…loins filled with a loathsome disease where there is no soundness in (the) flesh.” (Psalm 38:7) These are churches that provide a safe gospel of Comfort but not a gospel of Transformation to living as dedicated disciples...

 There is -and has been from the beginning of time- a raging conflict on earth...and all of us are at its center point. This is a battlefield for the heart and minds of all souls that are currently going 'TO AND FRO' ON the earth and where they will all eventually all go once life is over and they are placed UNDER the earth. The grave will not be the determining factor of who won that battle. It will be YOU — the soul that is at the center point of the battle of TO AND FRO. While God above and His angels fight FOR YOU and the Devil and his angels fight AGAINST YOU it is YOU that will be the decider of which one will win. You will either Deliberately make that choice or by Dereliction make that choice, and once in the grave the choice you make while also walking on this earth 'TO AND FRO' will determine your eternity. Your 'To and Fro' time will end one day. What will be the outcome of that battle? God Bless Your Day Jesus Loves You NotesOnLife.org    *If this me...

  What is the greatest “Existential Threat?” For some it is destruction by mankind’s impact on Global Warming , for others destruction by Nuclear War , destruction by a worldwide Fatal Pandemic , or perhaps the destruction of humans by Robots and Artificial Intelligence . While there may be some validity in one (or even more) of these possible events, there is one ultimate & final “Existential Threat” that is far greater and deadlier than all these combined and that is The Eternal Destruction Of THE SPIRIT & THE SOUL . You see, all of us are composed of three parts; Our BODY (our physical self), the SPIRIT (the life force inside the body that sustains our physical body), and the SOUL (which resides in the body that is the core of who each one of us truly and individually is). Physical death happens when our spirit leaves the body and the soul and spirit will then go somewhere, and the Bible says that is to either: “Eternal LIFE” “I give them ETERNAL LIFE and they shall ne...

  Each year in the USA almost a half-million people die or are severely afflicted with debilitating diseases because of smoking. Even though the warning was clearly posted on each pack they chose to Ignore The Message until one day their choices catch up to them in sickness or an avoidable early death. Ignoring the call of the Gospel is very similar. Just as people smoke and know that it is 'bad' for them they continue on because they never felt it was important to 'Do Something About It.' Likewise many know that it is 'good' for them to pay at least some attention to God at Easter or Christmas but that also is not enough to consider God and the offer of eternal life and salvation through Jesus Christ. While not on their daily emails or favorite web sites the message that life will one day end and preparing for this is also something that never seems important enough to seek for today, yet one day the time will pass When Ignoring What Will Come Will Be Too Lat...

 Henry Ford once famously said, “Whether you think you can, or think you can’t, you’re right, ” and sadly for many people when it comes to the practice of their faith what they deny in word, thought, and belief is exactly what they will get. For example, some Christians don’t believe that supernatural healing happens today and — no surprise — no healing will occur! Others don’t believe that God wants to bless them and that ‘being spiritual’ means they should suffer in this life and — no surprise — that is also exactly what they will get. Perhaps the most serious thing to NOT believe is that Jesus is coming back again, and especially that Christ is returning before that to gather His church and take them away in the rapture. [see 1 Corinthians 15:52–53] Some esteemed Bible teachers go so far as to say that if you don’t believe in the rapture that when it comes then — no surprise — you will not be taken up and will remain for the tribulation. As today’s scripture admonishes us, i...