Living By Faith

Look and Live

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

woman-looking-up-silh-sepiaDo you need healing?  Are you struggling in your efforts to receive it?  Do you feel surrounded and overwhelmed by the symptoms, the doctors reports, the unbelief of friends and family — crowding around you and choking off your faith?

The Psalmist in God’s Word felt exactly what you are feeling. He knew what it was like to be surrounded by so many enemies at once and hearing their taunting voices trying to convince him that God would not come through for him: “Lord, how are they increased that trouble me. Many there be that rise up against me.  Many there be that say of my soul, ‘There is no help for him in God.'” (Psalm 3:1-2).  But his response to that problem was to turn his attention to God. “But Thou, O Lord, art a shield for me; my glory and the lifter of my head.”

Another of our great forefathers in the faith, King Jehoshaphat, faced the same kind of situation: The kingdom of Judah was facing annihilation as the mighty armies of three nations came against it. Jehoshaphat called the people to a fast, and as they stood before the Lord, he prayed, reminding God of His faithfulness and saying, ” … We have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon Thee.” God gave them a total victory the very next morning.

In both instances, these men of faith did exactly the same thing to find a solution to their problem: They took their eyes off the enemy and put them on God alone.

That action is exactly what the Lord instructs us to do in the midst of what looks like a hopeless situation and certain defeat.  In Isaiah 41:10, He says, “Feat not, for I am with you. DO NOT ANXIOUSLY LOOK ABOUT YOU, for I am your God. If we have a God whose capable of defeating any enemy — and who has promised to do so — then we don’t need to look at the enemy, the problems, the imminent destruction. Where do we look?  We look at our God.

There is a light from God — and from His Word — that will lighten you. It will burn through the thick fog of doubt and suffocating fear and infiltrate you with its illumination and warmth. It will lift your faith — enlarge your faith — increase your faith — strengthen your faith — and bring you the victory.

There’s an old gospel song from the 1800’s by William A. Ogden entitled “Look and Live.”  The chorus of that song says,

“Look and live, my brother, live;
Look to Jesus now and live,
It’s recorded in His Word, hallelujah
That you only have to look and live.”

Yes, looking is the key.  But looking the right direction is what makes the difference in whether that key works in the lock. We MUST look to Jesus and His Word. Hebrews 3:1 admonishes us to “consider Jesus, the High Priest of our profession.”  That word “consider” in the original Greek means “exercise your mind on.”  What a perfect picture of the meaning of meditation.  We are to “exercise our mind” on Jesus.  Think about Him — about how He never — never — never turned down any person who came to Him for healing. And then think about how He is “the same yesterday, today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8).

Hebrews 12:2 says, ” … Let us run with patience the race set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.”  Jesus is the author of our faith, because He IS the Word of God. (John, chapter one). It is the Word that tells us of God and what He has done for us. Nothing but the Word can reveal to us the truth of God’s love, mercy, and healing, so nothing but the Word can create faith in us for those things. (Romans 10:17).  And that same Word continues to feed and strengthen our faith if we will keep our eyes on it.

We keep our eyes on Jesus by keeping our eyes on His Word.

So don’t look around you at the forest, dark with unbelief and fear. Look up to Jesus, your Healer — and keep looking up for as long as it takes. He isn’t going anywhere.  He’ll be right there when you look to Him, and He’ll stick with you until you have the full manifestation of your healing from Him.

 

 

My Cadillac For Your Camel

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

What Makes Something Valuable?

CAMEL'S IN DESERT

We all live by a value system of some kind. Each possession, each day, and each person in our lives has a different value, and sometimes that value changes. The title of this article is a joke, of course, poking fun at the truth that most value is relative. But what makes it relative? What, in the final analysis, determines an item’s value?

There are millions of affluent citizens of several nations who value their Cadillacs — or a number of other expensive automobiles with big gasoline engines — as one of the most important and life-enhancing items they could own. On a roster of possessions that represent the most positive assets in life, those glossy, high-powered autos head the list.

But let that Cadillac owner find himself stranded in the middle of a blazing desert: sand blowing into every nook and cranny, including his engine — no roads of any kind — no gas stations.  Suddenly, a slow-moving, bad-smelling, comically-proportioned camel is worth a whole lot more to that guy than the Caddy, and he’d gladly make a trade. Value.

By the same token, a woman who finds herself happily married to a kind, thoughtful man will value that man highly — more highly than any of the other people in her life. Her next-door neighbor may be married to Attila the Hun, and she finds herself valuing her time away from him with others much more than she does him.

The woman who’s wished all her life for a huge two-story home with five bathrooms, and who has the money to care for that house and hire help — as well as be free to stay home and enjoy it most days — will value that house highly. But the gal who struggles to make ends meet by working three jobs and going non-stop from sun-up to sun-down will value a one-bedroom apartment that is easy to clean and maintain with no extra fuss.

So what is it, really, that gives something its value? It seems that it is the owner of that ‘something.’  The person to whom the thing belongs and for whom it fulfills a purpose or meets a need is the one who imbues it with its value.

Well, I, for one am thrilled to realize that truth. Because I know for sure to whom I belong.  And I know for sure — because He told me Himself — what service I perform and what needs I meet for Him. Nor am I an isolated case. There are millions more just like me — yet unique at the same time — and bearing equal value in the eyes of our owner.

My owner is the God of the universe, the Creator of all things — including me. His Word tells me clearly (Revelation 4:11) that all things — including me — were created by Him for His pleasure. And, in fact that is my number-one job: to give my Heavenly Father and the Lord Jesus Christ pleasure. Surely, I am assigned to do other things: to love others; to teach them what the Word says about Jesus and how He, as God, came to save us from our own sin and rebellion; and to show by my whole life the true nature of God. But those assignments do not substitute for God’s original purpose in creating me: His own enjoyment of a family just like Him.

But not only does He own the whole human race because He created us. When we rebelled against Him and turned away, breaking our relationship with him completely, with no hope to get it back, God came in the person of Jesus Christ and paid the supreme price to buy us back into His possession. He made us the first time (an easy and delightful experience for Him); He bought us the second time (a gut-wrenching, horrific, thoroughly bloody experience for Him).

But you know what’s really interesting to me?  The Word of God tells us in Hebrews 12:2 that Jesus faced all of that sacrifice for us — laying aside the privileges of Divinity and re-defining Himself in human flesh, living a life never once stained by sin, and taking our sin and the horrible shame, beating, crucifixion, and separation from God that we deserved — because He saw something beyond that sacrifice that would give Him so much joy that it far surpassed the evil He would have to endure.

Now, tell me please, what joy could the Lord of the universe – Creator of all things — what possible joy could He have been missing that made such a horrific sacrifice necessary? The only thing He was missing was a relationship with man. Since man, by his own volition, had irrevocably broken that relationship, nothing could restore it at that point. The only hope was if God could find a way to “re-create” the human race — to make them righteous enough again to fellowship with Him.

The triune Creator had everything else He could possibly want, but not one of those things could give Him the joy that His relationship with us could give. Dear friend, it was for man — for you and me — that He longed. It was for you and me that He made the decision to suffer such agony and death.

So how valuable are we? Is there anything in the universe that could be bartered for you and me? Is there anything that can be offered to Jesus Christ in exchange for His relationship with us that would tempt Him to give us up? Not on your life, my friend!  He already made that choice, once and for all, when He laid down everything else for us.

Remember, He didn’t just decide to come down to earth for a moment in time and go through the motions. He came down to go through the reality of taking on our sin, taking on our separation and banishment from the Father God, taking on our death. His only hope was in the eternal Word of the living God, who had spoken that He would raise Jesus up with new life once the legal price for sin had been paid in full. Had that Word failed, Jesus would never have seen Heaven again, and we would be lost and undone — without God and without hope — forever.

But He did see Heaven again. He came up out of that grave with eternal life to offer anyone who would accept the sacrifice He had made. (John 3:16-18, 1 John 5:11-12). So when we accept His sacrifice and accept Him, that new life comes into us and we are “born again.” (John 3:3-5). We become “a new creation: a new species,” created in the righteousness of Jesus Christ Himself. (2 Cor. 5:17).

Yes, it’s easy to identify Jesus Christ as our owner — twice over. He created us; then he paid for us. A critical reader will stop here and note the fact that I am repeating this point for the third time in this article. And he would be correct. I am repeating this astounding truth so many times because this world has a way of draining it right out of us. It’s so easy to give mental assent to what we’re discussing here but miss the power of it as a reality in our lives. So once more I will remind all of us:  He laid everything on the line — Heaven, His eternal throne, His own life — for us. And therein lies our value.

It doesn’t matter how we feel about it. It doesn’t matter what we think. And it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks about the situation. Our worth is set for eternity, and no one — absolutely no one — is going to get Jesus to trade us for anything else at all..

When Is ‘It’ A Baby?

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

Exif JPEGBefore I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you,” said the Lord to the prophet Jeremiah. (Jer.1:4, NAS). Obviously, the Lord Himself considered Jeremiah a human being worthy of being consecrated to the work of God’s kingdom long before he came out of his mother’s birth canal. There are numerous passages of scripture that verify that God believes the being growing inside a mother’s womb is a real person from the time of its conception. But for many in the world’s society today, the Biblical references aren’t enough to convince them of the sanctity of the life of the unborn. 

They believe only hard, cold, scientific facts. So what are those facts? What does medical science and genetic research have to offer by way of understanding the pivotal question on which abortion decisions hang: ‘When is it a human being?’

The following scientific facts clearly chronicle the development of a fetus in the mother’s womb. The facts concerning viability are taken from an article in the New England Journal of Medicine, published in 1993:

Exif JPEG01 Days:  Conception takes place
07 Days:  Tiny human implants in mother’s uterus
18 Days:  Heart begins to beat
21 Days:  Pumps own blood through separate circulatory system with its
own blood type.
28 Days:  Eye, ear, and respiratory systems begin to form.
42 Days:  Brain waves recorded, skeleton complete, reflexes present

07 Weeks:  Photos show thumb sucking
08 Weeks:  All body systems present
09 Weeks:  Squints, swallows, moves tongue, makes fist
11 Weeks:  Spontaneous breathing movements; all body systems working
16 Weeks:  Genital organs clearly differentiated; baby grasps with hands,
swims, kicks, turns, somersaults,  (movements usually not
felt by the mother)
18 Weeks:  Vocal cords work; baby can cry.
23 Weeks:  15% chance of viability outside the womb if birth is premature.
24 Weeks:  56% of babies born at 24 weeks survive
25 Weeks:  75% of babies born at 25 weeks survive

In 1981 a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee held hearings on the following question: “When does human life begin?” One of the doctors who testified at those hearings was Dr. Hymie Gordon, then Chairman of the Department of Genetics at the Mayo Clinic. He said, “By all the criteria of modern molecular biology, life is present from the moment of conception.”

A similar testimony came from Dr. McCarthy de Mere, a medical doctor and law professor at the University of Tennessee. He said, “The exact moment of the beginning of personhood and of the human body is at the moment of conception.”

Dr. Jerome Lejeune, known to many as “the Father of Modern Genetics,” also testified (before the Louisiana Legislature’s House) that human life begins at conception. “At no time,” said Dr. Lejeune, “is the human being a blob of protoplasm. As far as your nature is concerned, I see no difference between the early person that you were at conception and the late person which you are now. You were, and are a human being.” He went on to point out that within three to seven days after fertilization the sex of the baby can be determined, and that each human being is unique – different from its mother – from the moment of conception. (All of the above testimonies can be found in the permanent records of their respective hearings.)

Dr. Lejeune, who passed away in 1994, is renowned throughout the world for his work in the field of Genetics, receiving the Memorial Allan Award Medal, the world’s highest award for work in that field. He is also the doctor who discovered the genetic cause of Down Syndrome and received the Kennedy Prize for that discovery.

Another medical doctor, an anesthesiologist Paul E Rockwell, shared this personal testimony in Handbook on Abortion, by Dr. and Mrs. J. C. Willke: “While giving an anesthetic for a ruptured ectopic pregnancy (at 8 weeks gestation), I was handed what I believe was the smallest living human ever seen. The embryonic sac was intact and transparent. Within the sac was a tiny human male swimming extremely vigorously in the amniotic fluid. …

“This tiny human was perfectly developed, with long, tapering fingers, feet and toes. It was almost transparent, as regards the skin, and the delicate arteries and veins were prominent to the ends of the fingers. The baby was extremely alive and swam about the sac approximately one time per second, with a natural swimmer’s stroke.

“This tiny human did not look at all like the photos and drawings and models of ‘embryos’ which I had seen … obviously because this one was alive! When the sac was opened, the tiny human immediately lost his life and took on the appearance of what is accepted as the appearance of an embryo at this stage of life.” 

Exif JPEG

Anniversary

40 years ago this month, seven U. S. Supreme Court justices demonstrated their ignorance and inhumanity by passing legislation that made it legal to murder children as long as they were still abiding in their mothers’ wombs, and the murderers didn’t have to look them in the face at the time the deed was done. The case was referred to simply as “Roe vs. Wade.” 

Not only was this court decision sad enough. We also had a Congress full of legislators who had the constitutional right to pass a law that would have over-ridden that court decision, but who refused to even make the effort to do so. Our nation has reaped the rewards of both the decision by the court and the lack of action by the Congress. Is God punishing us?  No. Let me say that once again: No.  God is not judging us or punishing us.

How do I know that? The Word of God says we are living in the dispensation of His grace and mercy, brought to earth in the person of Jesus Christ, who told His followers clearly that He had NOT come to judge, but to save. He then commissioned His church to do the same. So God’s not operating as Judge right now. There will definitely come a day when He does judge the entire world, but for now mercy is the operating procedure of the day.

However, God does not have to judge us or punish us.  There are two laws at work in this earth identified in scripture as the “law of sowing and reaping,” and “the law of sin and death.” Those two laws work all the time to bring back to the human race the harvest of what they have planted — be it positive or negative. We have planted death and destruction by the murder of millions of innocent children every year.  I say “we” because our citizenship as a whole has deliberately and repeatedly set into office people who have sworn publicly to invest their time and effort in furthering the agenda of the abortionists. The man or woman in the voting booth who purposely sets into office (empowers) the candidates who promise abortion are just as guilty as the doctors who perform the actual murder.

So what have we reaped? Our economy is in a state of disaster; our crime rate is through the roof; our drug traffic worse than ever. We have more people on welfare than ever before, and the number of sick, suffering, and dying people in this “medically advanced” nation increases significantly every year. Political candidates from all parties promise to “change” those conditions if we will put them into office, but they cannot change them. Legislators pass laws and Presidents issue executive orders, but they do not really change anything. Why not? Because the nation is reaping what it is sowing. And until we stop deliberately murdering innocent children, we will continue to reap a harvest of death in all the other areas of our society.

I’m not talking about children who die as a result of warfare. Abortion supporters in this nation try to hide behind that smoke screen. They point to war deaths and insist that those kinds of deaths are of more importance that abortions. They conveniently ignore the fact that millions more innocent children die every single year in sterile hospitals and clinics established in a land where there is no war than in all the wars this nation has been involved in for decades. I am deeply saddened to see children die as a result of war, but those deaths are a by-product of the efforts on both sides to put down an “adult” enemy who is seen as a threat to the peace and welfare of the other nation. That action is NOT in any way the same as the deliberate, researched, pre-meditated, expertly-executed murder of innocent children inside the wombs of individual women who are no threat to anyone else’s life or safety.

Of course, the experts at promoting abortion rights have worked for years to sell the public the lie that a baby in the womb is not really a human being. Those lies have been refuted time and time and time and time again by honest medical scientists (not to mention the Word of God.) Yet the abortionists still cling to the lie and work overtime to continue to insult our intelligence with it. This article is an attempt on my part to shine the spotlight on truth instead.

On January 22 of this year, thousands will point to the calendar and “celebrate” the 40th year of what they see as a landmark court decision and a step “forward” for this nation. I’m calling on every intelligent, reasoning, honest citizen of this country to wake up and use his good brain and his moral conscience to look at that date and recognize it for what it is. And this year, in recognition of the “anniversary” of that deadly decision, look abortion in the face and call it what it is: murder. Then go to work and DO something about stopping it. Help our nation come to a place where we celebrate life instead of death.

~~~

(Photos show a permanent hall display in Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Catholic School in my hometown in the U. S.)

Warning: Watch What You Say!

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

GREEN WARNING SIGN 2
Words have power. They can inflict wounds that last a lifetime or heal a broken heart. They can soothe a troubled child or ignite a revolution. They can destroy a friendship or kindle the flame of love. In fact, God’s Word says that the very power of life and death is in the words that we speak. (Proverbs 18:21). He also says that we will be justified or condemned by our words. (Matthew 12:37). As we move forward into this new year, one of the wisest things we can do is be extremely — extremely — careful what words we speak out of our mouths.

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

This is an amazing true story by Ted Pavloff, and I want to share it to encourage the readers of my site as well.
Sandra

A Walk in the Word's avatarA Walk In The Word

In honor of Veteran’s Day, I am sharing this story with my readers. It is actually a small book, published by St. Ellen Press, which tells how God miraculously intervened in the lives of an entire Marine Corps unit during World War II. Although it’s my story, and that of the other 321 men in my squadron, it is primarily HIS story.  In the past few years I have shared free copies of the book with hundreds of soldiers who were in the midst of horrible combat overseas. In response, I have received numerous testimonies of how the book strengthened their own faith and helped them experience miracles of protection and deliverance as well.  I am grateful to be able to share it here. If you are reading this post and are a member of the armed forces — or you have a loved one who is — you may…

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Picture It and Write Challenge: ‘In the Beginning – A One-Act Play’

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

I originally posted this short one-act play a few months ago, but yesterday I came across a writing challenge connected with the picture below, and I thought the play fit the challenge perfectly.  So I’m sharing it as my response.
Here’s the link:  Picture It and Write:  http://ermiliablog.wordpress.com/2012/10/21/__picture-it-write-42/

In The Beginning: A One-Act Play

Time: Creation, Day 1
Place: Heaven, looking down at planet Earth
Cast: God and One Inquisitive Angel

Conversation:

Angel to God: “What are you doing, God?”
God: “I’m lighting my planet Earth.”
Angel: “Why does it need light?”
God: “Because I am creating a brand new species — MAN — and I want him to live there.”
Angel: “A NEW species? What are you going to do with him?”
God: “Love him.”
Angel: “What will he do for you?”
God: “Give me pleasure.”
Angel: “Will he give you pleasure that is different from what the rest of your creation gives you?”
God: “Oh, yes. He will be a speaking spirit just like me, who will be able to choose by his own free will to love me and communicate with me constantly.”
Angel: “Have you thought that he could use his free will to choose NOT to love you? He could end up giving you a lot of trouble.”
God: “Oh, yes, he will give me  A LOT of trouble. … But to me he is worth it!”

Our Homing Device

| Sandra Pavloff Conner
San Juan Capistrano Mission
Photo by Jon at pdphoto.com

In the early morning of October 23 — just 11 days from today — thousands of swallows will lift off the grounds of the San Juan Capistrano mission, circle the mission once, and begin their pre-scheduled 7500-mile flight back to their home city of Goya, Argentina. They will have spent 7 months at the mission, enjoying the warm climate and excellent food — and offering their share of the work to keep the eco-system in its proper balance — particularly by destroying about a billion insects. But it will be time to go home, and those swallows will not fail to leave at exactly the appointed moment.

Their visit to the centuries-old California mission began in Goya at dawn on February 18 — as it has every February 18 for at least the past 200 years.  They arrived at Capistrano on March 19 — as they have for at least 200 years — and, yes, all the mission bells did ring, just as Leon Rene’s 1940’s song says.  There is a great celebration at the mission every year, and thousands of people turn out to welcome the birds to their summer home.  All events are planned well ahead of time because there is absolutely no doubt that these lovely swallows will be right on time.

Argentinian magazine correspondent Enrique Bermudez, who writes for Para Todos Magazine, has made a thorough study of the swallows. He says they fly most of their 7500 mile journey at an altitude of 6600 feet and fly at a speed of 18 miles per hour. His research shows that swallows are masters at following a flight plan that takes advantage of every favorable wind. And somehow, in spite of all kinds of unpredictable natural events, they arrive exactly at the appointed time on March 19, year after year after year. How awe inspiring is that?

Well, it must be pretty inspiring for the majority of people because the event has been immortalized in word and song for decades now. Unfortunately most people any distance away cannot be present to celebrate the event, but all of us have the privilege of witnessing a similar miracle right in our own back yards if we care to take notice. We have scores of “closer-to-home” birds that migrate north and south at exactly the right time every year — returning at the same appointed time when the seasons change.  In my neck of the woods, the most prominent migratory birds are the geese, and their v-shaped flight patters make designs across our skies for several weeks each fall as they follow their God-given homing devices to their places of winter refuge.

And so it is in every little burg and hamlet across the planet. Then when spring pops out from under winter’s blanket, ducks, geese, and birds of various sorts find themselves on the move again, and without fail, all the members of each species of bird know exactly where they are going. Just like the Capistrano swallows, they all have this built-in guidance system that we call “instinct.”  It’s an internal radar, given to them by their Creator, that doesn’t fail to take them exactly where they need to go: south in the winter, north in the summer, and even to the highest rafters of the crumbling mission at San Juan Capistrano.

But what about us?  People.  Do we have our built-in homing device turned on?  It is keeping us focused on our perfect destination? No matter what the season in our lives, our perfect place of safety and fulfillment is always the same place: The Almighty, Eternal, Living God.

What time is it in your life? Is it time to migrate to a new place in your spiritual walk? Do you find yourself feeling the need to live on a higher plane? Or is it getting a little dark and cold where you are now, causing you to long for more warmth and light and nourishment?

Well, the Word of God makes it clear that we each have a built-in homing device with its own internal radar. That Word tells us that we do not have to “anxiously look about us,” trying to find our path. (Isaiah 41:10). All we have to do is set our hearts on the one who created that homing device. (Prov. 3:6).  And even more directly, we are told that we will find Him through Jesus Christ, who is “the way” into the heart of that Creator. (John 14:6).

Do you have your radar zeroed in on the almighty God of the universe? If so, you have a fantastic journey ahead of you.  If not, maybe this changing season is a good time to make an adjustment.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Movement

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

Moving Forward and Clearing the Hurdles

You will see in this exceptional photo that the horse is literally flying over this double hurdle with a measurable amount of clearance. A particularly difficult feat, and a beautiful sight to behold. I was inspired to see in this photo the meeting of a challenge in a quote from a woman named Dorothea Brande. She said: “Act as if it were impossible to fail.”

The beautiful horse in this picture believed he could fly over this hurdle with room to spare.  That is the only reason he is doing it successfully.  I found that looking at this picture and dwelling on it encouraged me to challenge myself to do the same, and I’m passing on that challenge. Whatever it is in your life that you need to — or even want to — accomplish successfully, believe that you can do it.  See yourself doing it.  Throw your heart over the hurdles that look like they could hinder you.

A famous trapeze artist from two generations ago was training a new student who, one day, suddenly became filled with fear as he looked at the precarious perch where he had to perform.  He froze — couldn’t move a muscle — and began to gasp, “I can’t do it! I can’t do it!”  The long-time veteran put his arm around the young man and said, “Yes, son, you can do it, and I will tell you how: throw your heart over the bar, and your body will follow.”  The Word of God backs up that premise with the truth from Proverbs 23:7, which says of man, “As he thinketh in his heart, so is he.”

The horse in this picture threw his heart over those bars.  He believed he could make that jump with plenty of room to spare.  So he did.  He simply acted on what he believed.  When you go through a difficult situation in your life and the hurdles seem so enormous that you feel you’ll never clear them – or when you find yourself facing the challenge of doing something that looks a little too big or too high for you – come back and take a long look at this photo.  Meditate on it; then obey Dorothea Brande’s wise words:  “Act as if it were impossible to fail.” Make one forward movement, and the rest of the moves will follow.

God’s Yearning to Heal You!

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

I originally wrote this article for the “Healing From Jesus” blog, but I feel the message is so vital for people who are in need of healing that I want to share it on my “By the Book” site as well.  For some reason, I could not get it to re-blog without making the picture huge, so I have simply shared this link to the original post:  God’s Yearning to Heal You!

‘The Day I Forgot To Hate’ – a short story by Ted Pavloff

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

A wonderful story to celebrate Memorial Day and all of the soldiers who sacrificed for us. I congratulate Ted on his creativity and talent for taking personal experiences during WWII and turning them into enjoyable stories. I hope he does many more.

A Walk in the Word's avatarA Walk In The Word

(In honor of Memorial Day, I am sharing another of my veteran’s short stories.  This story, like “The Day I Forgot To Hate,” is fictitious, as are the characters, but it is based loosely on some of my own experiences as a Marine during World War II.)

It should have been another ordinary day at the Cole farm, but the conventional pattern of activity was abruptly altered when the letter arrived. In effect, a new day was born and Cynthia was making the most of it with an explosive brand of excitement that seemed especially reserved for such an occasion.

Ben, her husband, suddenly found himself being recklessly danced around the simple but spacious kitchen. He did not resist.

“Just think,” Cynthia gleefully exclaimed. “Just think!” Isn’t it wonderful? It’s…it’s unbelievable!’

She released her encircling grasp around Ben’s waist, raised to tiptoe and kissed his tanned cheek. Any…

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Finding Healing

| Sandra Pavloff Conner

As most of you know, I am not only a writer and teacher, but a minister of the Gospel as well. Over the past few weeks, some other faithful Christian ministers and I have begun to unite our efforts for the purpose of creating a brand new blog site that will be devoted to helping people receive healing from the Lord Jesus Christ. There are hundreds of thousands of people in the world today who are sick and suffering. Sometimes, they can get the help they need from medical science, but more often than not – especially in the case of truly life-threatening diseases and conditions – they can get only a brief respite from symptoms and long, painful, treatments that carry no promises of complete recovery.

I have been in ministry for nearly 40 years, and have been privileged to teach people the truth about how much God wants them well, and how He offers that healing through the finished work of Jesus Christ. I have seen God’s Word and the power of His Spirit deliver people from some of the most ghastly physical maladies and restore them to perfect health. So have the other ministers that I am united with in this effort. So have scores of great teachers and ministers of the Gospel from the last two centuries.

But people have to know the truth before it can set them free. So that means they have to know the truth about healing from the Lord before it can set them free from sickness and infirmity. This new site, “Healing From Jesus,” is dedicated to helping people KNOW – and helping them RECEIVE health from the Lord.

So if you know anyone who is in need of healing of any kind – for body, mind, emotions – or who needs deliverance from addictions or other debilitating conditions – please let them know about “Healing From Jesus.” Give them the opportunity to take advantage of the ministry offered on this new site. Here’s the link:

Healing From Jesus