"Something More"

"All Scripture is given by inspiration of GOD, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of GOD may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work." 2 Timothy 3:16,17

Dear Friends,

When i was in college back in the early 80's, i was pretty clueless when it came to knowing what i wanted to be "when i grew up." I knew i wanted to play basketball for the "Lady Warhawks," from the time i was old enough to see them play, and GOD gave me the desire of my heart to play for my junior college right down the street. The neat thing about that "desire," that GOD placed it in my heart at an early age, is that HE used it to lead me to come to know CHRIST as my LORD and Savior through my coach. Myra King knew JESUS in a personal way, and everything she said and did reflected her love for CHRIST. As the words penned by Joachim Neander from Praise to the LORD the Almighty proclaim, "Hast thou not seen how thou desires all have been granted in what HE ordainteth?" Beyond basketball...i was just pretty much trying to major in something that "sounded good." Now, i realize the LORD was leading my footsteps, even when i didn't realize it, and after majoring in business at my junior college, i decided to change to some counseling classes my last two years, and i ended up taking a lot of psychology classes, along with my business classes to get a business/psychology major. Since i had become a CHRISTian at the beginning of my junior year, i knew that if i ever did any counseling, i wanted it to be CHRISTian counseling...based on the WORD of GOD. My senior year, i had the bulk of my psychology classes after we got married at the end of my junior year, and the LORD did give me a clear calling then...to be a Titus 2 woman-to love my husband and children if he blessed us with them, and be a "keeper at home. " I am so glad we were married, and my dear husband kept me on track with the WORD to combat the false teaching i was learning in my psychology classes. Though i don't remember many details about those classes (that lack of memory of mine is a blessing and a curse-in this case a real blessing), I do remember those being days of intense "spiritual" warfare to renew my mind with the WORD of Truth to wash out the bad stuff i was learning in the psychology classes. I didn't fully understand why the LORD had led me to take all these classes which seemed like a waste of time to me, but when i look back, i realize it was during those years, that HE was really solidifying in my heart and mind that HIS WORD was sufficient for whatever our troubles are...without adding man's made up psychology, lies from Satan, to try to heal people's hearts and hurts.
A few weeks ago, we went to a "Code Blue Rally"(www.codebluerally.com) that i have mentioned several time in my emails since because it made such an impact upon me. Brannon Howse, www.worldviewweekend.com spoke about the "Emergent Church," "cultural Marxism," "pagan spirituality," and "Pantheism," and how these have invaded the church, our culture and society. We see the results in our weakened churches, and our culture that is abounding in "spirituality," but not the TRUTH of the Bible. I wasn't familiar with that term, "emergent church," and I have been told since then it is another term for "New Age,"(that's the old term), , like "CHRISTian yoga," meditation that "clears your mind," and the world's false teaching's invading the church. To find out a lot more info on the emergent church click on...http://www.crossroad.to/News/Church/emergent.html . I learned the term "Pantheism" when i was in college and one of my professors claimed to be a "Pantheist," Pantheism (Greek: πάν (pan) = all and θεός (theos) = God, literally "all God" -ism) is the view that everything is part of an all-encompassing immanent abstract God. In pantheism the Universe, or nature, and God are equivalent. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheism.

It is beginning to dawn on me, that those false philosophies that i was acquainted with in college have just continued to permeate throughout not only our society but the weakened church and well, we're just seeing the consequences of that through what is going on all around us...could it be that "GOD is setting HIS face," against our country and judging us for turning to "mediums and false spirits?" I think so. Our country was built upon Judeo CHRISTian principles and when those principles are gradually taken away, and replaced with paganism, "political correctness," evolution, whatever you want to call it...even in our churches, we see the results of it today. There is nothing new under the sun and we see this in Leviticus when GOD told HIS chosen people the Jews to separate themselves from mediums and familiar spirits. He knew they would corrupt HIS people and lead them away from HIMSELF, and that is exactly what we are seeing in the church and our society today.

A friend that i have not talked with in several years emailed me this week. This friend and i used to have good conversations about the LORD and encourage one another. Several years ago, she began going to a "counselor," who used false teachings, to lead my friend into believing some terrible lies about her family, very dishonoring things about her parents. As a result, this friend cut off all communication with her family, and me , because i am a friend of her family. I sought to reach out to her this week through email and when she responded it was very clear that she is still "consumed" with bitterness towards her parents. It was interesting to me she often used the word "truth," in her email...when in fact, she has been deceived by false and deceptive counselors. When i wrote her back, I used the TRUTH of Scripture to reach her heart, not man's psychology, or "doctrines of demons." I pray the LORD will use that TRUTH to bring healing to her life. One of the Scriptures i shared was Leviticus 20:6, "And the person who turns to mediums and familiar spirits, to prostitute himself with them, I will set MY face against that person and cut him off from his people. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am the LORD your GOD...for everyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. He has cursed his father or his mother. His blood shall be upon him." GOD shared this Scripture with me the very next morning after i received the email and HIS TRUTH couldn't have been better wisdom for me to share with my friend who is struggling with the lies she has believed. She has become in "bondage," to them, loosing the blessing her parents who love her and wants to share her life, but more importantly, the blessings of a loving FATHER, who has given us everything we need pertaining to life and godliness..."seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence." 2 Peter 1:3. HE blesses us and reveals HIMself to us as we walk in HIS ways...and HE "sets HIS face against us and cuts us off from HIM" when we turn from HIM to false teachers and counselors, mediums, familiar spirits, whatever you want to call them depending upon the age of time. My friend made the mistake of turning to the "doctrines of demons," false teachings that are straight from the pit of Hell," instead of turning to GOD's WORD for her counsel and thus, has been led away from GOD, and her family. "The SPIRIT explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron." 1 Timothy 4:1-2

This past weekend, Hannah Beth and I had the wonderful opportunity to attend a "True Church Conference," at Grace Life Church in Muscle Shoals, Al. We, along with several other friends from our church including our pastor and his wife, the Wisners, the Radcliffes, the Clays, the Carpenters, Swinney's, and believers from all over the United States, and the world gathered together to be encouraged in the LORD through the beautiful singing, preaching of the WORD of GOD, and wonderful fellowship. What a tremendous unexpected blessing it was to be able to go for two days and hear men such as Paul Washer, http://www.heartcrymissionary.com/, Voddie Bauchom, who was raised by a Buddhist mom, http://www.voddiebaucham.org/vbm/home.html, and David Miller, who suffers from a degenerative disease that keeps him bound physically to a wheelchair while he preaches. GOD is SO powerful through this man in his weakness as he quotes Scripture, "line upon line," while he preaches, http://www.deliveredbygrace.com/?p=459. There were other preachers there, but these are the ones Hannah Beth and i had the privilege of hearing as they preached on the Conference theme..."the Wonderful Grace of Repentance." The purpose of the conference was to bring glory to GOD and encourage pastors and the church in true doctrine. I wish that i could have transported each one of you there for this tremendous weekend of hearing the TRUTH preached...men who are filled with the HOLY SPIRIT of GOD, and taught on the meaning of true repentance before GOD...Repentance that only comes as GOD by HIS HOLY SPIRIT convicts our hearts of our sins, and "brings life where dead, sight where blind...." David Miller. You can purchase the DVD's from the conference, i think, through Grace Life church www.gracelifeshoals.org. Paul Washer preached that True repentance means, "a change of mind, brokenness, renunciation of good works, turning to GOD, a continuing and deepening work," all of which are evidences of true repentance and true salvation. Voddie Baucham, spoke on "Brokenness," Friday evening, being broken before GOD, as David was in Psalm 51 after he committed adultery with Bathsheba. I think he said David wrote Psalm 51 a year after he had done that, and then had her husband, Uriah the Hittite killed. David is describe in the Bible as a man after GOD's own heart.
He was, according to Acts, a man after God's own heart:
And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the [son] of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will. Acts 13:22 (See also 1 Sam.13:14)

I have shared many times the weight of guilt that i felt before GOD in HIS great love for me saved me from my sins...GOD in HIS mercy was "breaking my heart," over my sins against HIM and resulted in HIS regeneration in my heart. David Miller says that Regeneration or being "born again," is: "a change of heart wrought by the HOLY SPIRIT by conviction of sin to which the sinner responds with repentance toward GOD to the LORD JESUS CHRIST." This brokenness over my sins did not stop the day HE saved me, but continues to this day, as HE shows me over and over what a sinner that i am...and it just makes me love HIM all the more, that HE loves me, with all my willful and rebellious ways and "bad manners," as Charles Spurgeon puts it. In Charles Spurgeon's Feb. 26 Evening reading, he explains more fully the meaning of the "Wonderful Grace of Repentance:"

Evening: Wholly Clean
"Behold, if the leprosy have covered all his flesh, he shall pronounce him clean that hath the plague."
--Leviticus 13:13
Strange enough this regulation appears, yet there was wisdom in it, for the throwing out of the disease proved that the constitution was sound. This evening it may be well for us to see the typical teaching of so singular a rule. We, too, are lepers, and may read the law of the leper as applicable to ourselves. When a man sees himself to be altogether lost and ruined, covered all over with the defilement of sin, and in no part free from pollution; when he disclaims all righteousness of his own, and pleads guilty before the Lord, then he is clean through the blood of Jesus, and the grace of God. Hidden, unfelt, unconfessed iniquity is the true leprosy; but when sin is seen and felt, it has received its deathblow, and the Lord looks with eyes of mercy upon the soul afflicted with it. Nothing is more deadly than self-righteousness, or more hopeful than contrition. We must confess that we are "nothing else but sin," for no confession short of this will be the whole truth; and! if the Holy Spirit be at work with us, convincing us of sin, there will be no difficulty about making such an acknowledgment--it will spring spontaneously from our lips. What comfort does the text afford to truly awakened sinners: the very circumstance which so grievously discouraged them is here turned into a sign and symptom of a hopeful state! Stripping comes before clothing; digging out the foundation is the first thing in building--and a thorough sense of sin is one of the earliest works of grace in the heart. O thou poor leprous sinner, utterly destitute of a sound spot, take heart from the text, and come as thou art to Jesus--
"For let our debts be what they may, however great or small, As soon as we have nought to pay, our Lord forgives us all. 'Tis perfect poverty alone that sets the soul at large: While we can call one mite our own, we have no full discharge."

I remember one of the very first things i was "broken over" after i was a "new creation in CHRIST," and that was being disrespectful and dishonoring of my parents...I was deceptive and lied to them about where i was, what i was doing. I had to go to them and ask them to forgive me for my sins against them...and i wanted to, the HOLY SPIRIT convicted me, and the HOLY SPIRIT gave me the desire to go and make things right with them. What wonderful love the FATHER has for us to reveal our sin to us so that we can confess it, and ask others to forgive us...and just as our FATHER forgives us of our sin when we are in CHRIST, HE commands us to forgive others when they sin against us...that is evidence of true repentance. If we don't forgive others, then that is a big "RED FLAG," that we might not be in CHRIST, our heart not being regenerated by HIM. "If you forgive the failures of others, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. Matt 6:14.
One of the greatest stories of Forgiveness, Restoration, and the transformation that GOD's TRUTH can bring about in a person's heart that i have heard in recent memory is by a lady named Janice McBride. I had never heard of this lady until a couple of weeks ago when a friend introduced me to her through her CD's. Honestly, I didn't really want to listen to the CD, but when i put it on to play, i knew it was "Something More," something really special, as i listened to the lady share her testimony of how she had been physically, sexually, and abused in every way as a child by her own Mother. GOD in HIS sovereign plan, saved Jancie McBride and through the power of HIS HOLY SPIRIT, and the TRUTH of HIS WORD enabled her to eventually forgive her Mother and see her Mother come to know JESUS CHRIST as her LORD and SAVIOR. I hope that when you have time, you will listen to this amazing testimony of Brokenness, Salvation, Forgiveness...and GOD giving Janice McBride "Something More than she could imagine."

http://www.janicemcbride.com/Images/Janice%20McBride's%20Personal%20Testimony.mp3


A couple of week's ago, i had the privilege, and it was a great privilege, to go and hear the southern gospel group the McKamey's www.mckameysonline.com . The very first time i ever heard the McKameys was on TV a few years ago, and honestly, i laughed at them. They were very "twangee," and some might say, "hillbilly." Well, GOD had a few lessons to teach me about HIS truth, and the more i listened to the McKamey's and the words of their songs, the more their songs began to grip my heart, and drew me closer to the LORD...and i was hooked, they have become one of my very favorite groups. I can't explain it except that when they sing, the power of the HOLY SPIRIT seems to rest upon them, and their songs are true doctrinally, and encourage the believers hearts. I Corinthians 1:27 says, "but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong." Their daughter Sheryl, who had to leave the road singing because of a very difficult and long illness, wrote a powerful song called, "Something More," which i have referred to throughout this email. GOD in HIS goodness has restored her health and she is planning to start singing with her family again on the road...wow! During the years of her illness GOD blessed her with so many powerful songs that ministered to hurting folks including me:).

In just the way that i thought the McKamey's were "foolish,"(FATHER forgive me), GOD has shown me how very powerful HE is through them to minister to HIS children's hearts, there are many "wise" people today who think that JESUS and the message of the cross is foolishness.
"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." I Corinthians 1:18
There is nothing new under the sun about that or about the false teachers whether they be termed mediums and familiar spirits, New Age, Pantheism, Moral Relativism, "Emergent Church," or what ever false doctrine and false teaching is packaged up in.
JESUS has "Something More," to offer us, the LIVING WATER of HIMSELF, that makes us a new person in CHRIST when we repent of our sins, and turn to HIM, forsaking all to follow HIM. HE left HIS HOME in heaven to come down and die on a wooden cross for your sins and mine. HE died, was buried, and then rose from the dead three days later where HE ascended to the throne of heaven and sits beside the right hand of GOD. The TRUE WORD of the BIBLE tells us in John 3:16 that "GOD so loved the world that whosoever believes in HIM shall not perish but have everlasting life."
How i praise the LORD for the journey in TRUTH that HE has been so gracious to lead me on, to protect me from the false teaching that is all around us. One of my great fears in this email is that i would share something with you that isn't correct or accurate concerning GOD's WORD. If i do that, will you please email me and let me know where i did so that i can correct that and let others know of my error? How thankful i am for a husband who has been such a staunch defender of the TRUTH of GOD's WORD and kept me and our family from turning away from that TRUTH over and over. It is imperative that we get the TRUTH right and share the TRUTH of the GOSPEL with those around us. It is a matter of eternal life and death for us and for those GOD has called us to be a witness to. If you ever have questions about your relationship with CHRIST, please feel free to email me...i would be honored to talk with you further about HIM.
As for my friend, it's not too late for her to be healed in her relationship with her parents, and most importantly the LORD JESUS CHRIST. It will take "the wonderful grace of GOD's repentance"- brokenness over her sins, turning away from the "polluted waters," of the world's false teachers, and putting her faith and trust in the LORD JESUS CHRIST to bring healing to her life.
JESUS is the GOD of "Something More," and HE specializes in redeeming our brokenness and sin and giving us beauty for ashes.

"The SPIRIT of the SOVEREIGN GOD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor; HE has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, and release from darkness for the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor, and the day of vengeance of our GOD; to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion, to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of HIS splendor." Isaiah 61:1-3.
That's my GOD, the GOD of "Something More"... Praise HIS name who delights in redeeming our sin, through the blood of HIS SON JESUS CHRIST. HE does "exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think."Ephesians 3:20. Please pray for my friend and ask the LORD to bring true repentance to her heart and CHRIST's healing to her life and her family... thank you so very much.
With all HIS love,
Mitzi
"Something More" by Sheryl Farris (McKamey's daughter) John 4:7-42

She came to the well in the middle of the day
searching for something that would take her thirst away.
But SOMEONE was waiting there and much to her surprise
a simple conversation raised questions in her mind.
When the talking was over she knew HE was the ONE
for HE had seen right through her and knew all that she had done.

Chorus:
HE gave her more than she could imagine
Something more than she could ever dream.
Something more than this world could offer.
Something more, something more.
Something more than she'd ever hoped for.
Something more than she'd ever known.
Something more beyond comprehension.
Something more, something more.

You can come to this well anytime of day
If you're looking for something to take your pain away.
JESUS will be waiting there and don't you be surprised
if a simple conversation changes your whole life!
HE'll give you living water that in you will arise,
a spring of water welling up to eternal life.