PITFH Newletter Blog

These days I love to sit and ‘muse’ with my Father.  One of Webster’s definitions of ‘muse’ is: to become absorbed in thought; to turn something over in the mind meditatively and often inconclusively.  The following article is taken from my musing on the subject of idolatry of self. 

Galatians 5:19-21 NLT:  “When you follow the desires of your sinful nature (idolatry of self), the results are very clear:  sexual immorality (adultery and fornication), impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other signs like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.”  (italics mine.)

The Message translation says it this way:  “It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time:  repetitive, loveless, cheap sex’ a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community.  I could go on.  This isn’t the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God’s Kingdom.”

Father’s love empowers our freedom from self-idolatry.  Read the rest of this entry »

        “We can study God, and gain a historical and intellectual knowledge of Him.  But we don’t know Him until we personally experience Him,” says David Crone in his book The Power of a Life Message.” 
        I have mentioned in several of my articles that you can know the Word of God and not know the God of the Word.
        Here is what A. W. Tozer wrote in his book The Pursuit of God in 1948.  “Sound Bible exposition is an imperative must in the church of the Living God.  Without it no church can be a New Testament church in any strict meaning of that term.  But exposition may be carried on in such a way as to leave the hearers devoid of any true spiritual nourishment whatever.   For it is not mere words that nourish the soul, but God Himself, and unless and until the hearers find God in personal experience they are not the better for having heard the truth.  The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of their hearts.”
        Quoting David Crone again, he says, “I am thoroughly convinced that you cannot know God unless you experience Him.  To experience means to ‘participate in personally’.  The word most often translated “to know” in Scripture (Hebrew word ‘ginosko’ ~ italics mine) is a Jewish idiom for sexual intercourse and refers to knowledge by experience.  Jesus used this word when He made the statement, “You shall know (ginosko) the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”  John 8:32.  Many people intellectually know truth, but it is not libertaing until they know that truth experientially.”
        If you are having difficulty truly experiencing the unconditional love of your Heavenly Father, prayer ministry at Places In The Father’s Heart is designed to help identify and remove root issues and wounding that may be hindering you from the experience I am speaking of here.  We encourage you to visit our website and click on the Prayer Ministry link to learn more.   http://www.placesinthefathersheart.org/ 
Blessings,
Roger

Greetings from the Taylor household and offices of P I T F H:
We had a great Seniors laugh today and thought we would share it with you. Recently we have moved further into the technology world.  Our computer sounds when we receive an email or a Skype telephone call (Smile, you’re on candid camera!).  We have one land line phone and two cell phones. We have a new de-humidifier which signals us when its tank is full.  We have a timer on our stove to let us know when to take something out of the oven (if we remembered to turn the oven on!), and we have a weather radio in the bedroom which signals us when threatening weather is approaching.  If we are counting correctly, that’s eight different signals, buzzers, alarms or rings that sound at varying times!
This morning we were found running to different parts of the house when one of them sounded.  We were trying desperately to determine just what we should do…answer a phone, take something out of the oven, get ready to talk to someone over the computer, empty the water from  the de-humidifier or go turn everything off because of a pending lightening strike!!  Whew!  It was a zoo of confusion for a minute or two and then we just sat down together and had a good laugh!  A merry heart doeth good like a medicine!
Blessings from our house to yours!
Roger and Gerri   

When Mary and Martha sent news to Jesus that their brother, Lazarus, was about to die, Jesus didn’t respond the way his friends expected. He actually snubbed their request. The Bible says when Jesus heard that Lazarus was sick, “He then stayed two days longer in the place where He was” (John 11:6, NASB).

For Mary and Martha, those were two very long days.

 Doubts tormented them. What kind of friend was Jesus, anyway? Why did He ignore their urgent plea? Why didn’t He drop everything and rush to their aid? Mary was especially frustrated and distraught about Jesus’ seemingly insensitive delay. Read the rest of this entry »

             Today some families will celebrate and fathers will be honored, respected and loved on.  It is a good time for all.  Some will not celebrate Father’s Day because it is a painful day.  This day is a reminder of abandonment, rejection, and/or abuse issues that never seem to go away.  Some do not know who their father is.  For some father is deceased.  For some father is just absent.  Some have substitute fathers they will honor today and that is good, but it not the real thing and falls short somehow to meeting their need for the love of their father. 

            There is a similar situation going on today in another family.  It is the family of God. Read the rest of this entry »

        For many years, I walked in huge co-dependency mostly with my kids, but also in other relationships as well.  I have discovered in my healing journey that this is not uncommon when there is an angry spouse in the household.  We co-dependents often over compensate with our love to try and make up to our children for the lack of expressed love that fails to come when one mate is angry and disengaged.   We should not, however, use that as an excuse for our own failures and sin.  Read the rest of this entry »

Here is an excellent article by our dear friend and mentor, Al Ells, of Leaders That Last, Mesa, AZ.   

“He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” There once was a parishioner who received recognition for being the humblest man in the church. As an award, the congregation gave him a pin to wear. The following Sunday, the pastor wore his new pin, and the congregation took it away from him for being too proud. Sometimes humility is like this: As soon as we think we are humble, we are not.

Humility can conjure up depressing images of self-abasement and groveling, however, this is not the true meaning of humility. Perhaps we can best understand humility by attempting to see ourselves through God’s eyes rather than our own.

Preacher Charles Spurgeon defined humility as making “a right estimate of one’s self.” Another noted speaker stated, “Humility is not denying the power or gifting you have, but admitting that the gifting is from God and the power comes through you and not from you.” After World War II, Winston Churchill embodied humility when he said, “I was not the lion, but it fell to me to give the lion’s roar.”

To truly repent from, or “put off”, pride requires that we embrace, or “put on”, humility. James 4:10 says, “Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord and He will exalt you.” I have compiled a list of 12 suggestions that I have gleaned from others regarding how to humble yourself. Since humility is a godly trait, you will find that they are all parallel to the most basic tenets of the Christian faith. Read the rest of this entry »

       Have you noticed?  Are you aware that major areas of life as we have known it in America are being challenged?  It seems more and more of us are fed up with the same ole – same ole and we want change.  That fits well with our Heavenly Father because He wants change also.  In fact, He has already begun the change in the Spirit realm and is moving ahead into His new season for humanity.  We humans have choices to make.  We can choose to follow God into our destiny with Him and the unknown of this new season, or we can choose to continue down the path of what we have known and feel safe and comfortable with.  This is a serious choice.  Following after God leads to life and blessing, but following our own path or remaining in our comfort zone (our control) will eventually lead to separation from God and His provision for us.  Read the rest of this entry »

From time to time there is an article that crosses my path that totally arrests me in the power of the Holy Spirit.  The following article, “Decisions That Define Us” written by Dave Crone of The Mission in Vacaville, CA is one of those articles.  What follows in written form describes our hearts here at PITFH.  We hope that you will be as blessed as we have been to see in print what we feel expresses the heart of our Father for His church today.  Blessings,  Roger Read the rest of this entry »

We have often been asked why we are not doing any social networking.  There are three primary reasons.  The first two are important and third is really at the heart of this ministry.
1)  We don’t have the time administratively to oversee anything but email at this time.  Perhaps in the future when we have more help either through volunteers or paid staff we will be able to take on ‘facing and tweeting!’ 
2)  We have been concerned about privacy issues with social networking.  Consumer Reports June 2010 issue had a great article on page 24 and it seems to confirm our concerns.  The report states that 2 out of 3 US households use social networks.  They did a survey  of 2,000 online households this past January and found the following:

*  Within the past year, 9% of social network users experienced some form of abuse, such as malware infections, scams, identity theft, or harrassment.

*   Many social network users are naive about risks.  Forty percent had posted their full birth date, exposing them to identity theft.  Twenty-six percent of Facebook users with children had potentially exposed them to predators by posting the children’s photos and names.  One in four household users were not aware of the service’s privacy controls. 

*   Among all computer users, established threats, such as spyware and phishing e-mail scams, persist at high levels and virus infections increased significantly since last year.  Forty percent of online households surveyed reported that they had at least one virus infection in the past two years. Read the rest of this entry »