The Daily Scroll

 The struggle is real, but the Lord has it under control. “Give thanks to the LORD of Heaven’s Armies,     for the LORD is good. His faithful love endures forever!” (Jeremiah 33:10)

The Daily Scroll

And I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good for them. I will put a desire in their hearts to worship me, and they will never leave me. I will find joy doing good for them  (Jeremiah 42:40-41)

The Daily Scroll “The Hitchhiker” by Gene Markland

It was a rainy mid-week afternoon. I was running errands in my pick-up truck when I noticed a man pushing a bicycle down the road. His bike had a flat tire and he kept looking back over his shoulder to find someone to give him a ride.

Rarely would I pick up a hitchhiker these days, but I felt the leading of the Holy Spirit to offer him a ride. I pulled over. He put his bike in the back and got in. He looked a little disheveled as he gave me directions to a nearby apartment complex where he was headed.

The Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, “Feed him.”

I hadn’t planned all of this, but I followed the Holy Spirit’s leading and offered my rider lunch at a nearby fast food restaurant. As we sat in the parking lot eating burgers, the Holy Spirit impressed upon me to witness to him.

I asked the hitchhiker, “Do you know Jesus as your personal savior?” He didn’t, so I explained the plan of salvation to him.

He said, “I really need this man.”

So we prayed and he asked Christ into his heart. As we finished lunch and were about to leave, the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart and said, “Give him the money in your wallet.”

I thought, “Whoa! Is this really you Lord?”

He said, “Give him the money in your wallet.”

Taking a deep breath, I replied silently, “OK Lord.”

Reaching into my wallet, I couldn’t remember what was there, a five a ten? “Oh no,” I thought to myself, “it’s a twenty!”

I obeyed the Lord and took the twenty dollar bill from my wallet and handed it to the hitchhiker. I told him, “This is from Jesus. He wants me to give it to you. He loves you man.”

The hitchhiker sat there stunned. He held the twenty in both hands staring at it in amazement. After a moment he spoke and said, “Nobody ever did anything like this for me before. It must be God.”

Then he slowly lifted his head up toward me and looked directly in my eyes and said, “I was on the way to kill my estranged wife.”

Suddenly the whole situation changed. It took my breath away. Like a man on the edge of a cliff, I suddenly realized that a life was hanging in the balance. We were only two blocks away from the apartments where she was and I knew that I had to get him away from there.

He continued and told me how this encounter was a miracle and he knew that God was stopping him. He agreed to go in the other direction and leave her alone. I drove him far away from that neighborhood.

I’m reminded of another chance meeting on a road as described in the Bible (Acts 8:26-38), involving a follower of Jesus named Phillip. An angel told him to go down a certain road where he saw a man sitting in his chariot reading the scriptures. The Spirit told him to go to him. After a brief conversation, Phillip explained the plan of salvation to him and even baptized him.

The man turned out to be a very important government official. There’s no telling how many people that man influenced in his life, all because Phillip followed the leading of the Lord and reached out to him.

We just don’t know whom we’ll meet that needs Jesus. But if we are open to the Holy Spirit and sensitive to follow His leading, He will use us in amazing ways.

A friend of mine was in line at the grocery store when the Holy Spirit told her to pay for the groceries of the woman in front of her. Going back in forth in her mind for a moment she wondered, “Is this really the Lord?” She was just coming out of a tough financial situation herself. But with fear and trembling, she stepped up, swiped her own card into the machine and paid the woman’s grocery bill in the name of Jesus. She didn’t know the amazed woman’s financial situation. She just obeyed and displayed the love of Christ. Later at home, the Lord gave her a hallelujah blessing.

A routine moment to us could be a moment of life or death to someone else. God can make our ordinary day an extraordinary day of service. So be open, be prepared, and be used of the Lord!

The Daily Scroll

 Work with no regrets. Finish well. Don’t leave any opportunity untested and untried. God gives creative ideas, dreams, and desires of the heart as long as He is the kept in the center. Look back with no regrets for missed opportunities. And if you find one...

                                                        remember, it’s never too late. - Gene

The Daily Scroll

 When you’re deep in thought in the middle of the night and the cares of the day weighs you down. Think upon the one who holds the answers in his hands. Your father in heaven knows your needs and loves you. Turn to him in the midnight hour. To you he’ll show his love and his power. Deep in thought in the middle of the night? Turn to Him to make things right. Turn to him to make things right.- Gene

The Daily Scroll

 Who is the man who hates God? Who is the woman who despises the mention of His name? An arrogant and haughty generation, that’s who. For God is the same today as He has ever been. Those who know Him Love Him and recognize that all blessings flow from Him and His love for us. These who do not know Him disregard Him, ignore Him, and blaspheme His name. 

Many lift their fist heavenward and curse Him who they do not know, and yet believe in their unbelief. This could be called demonic madness. But for all who suffer this delusion, I want you to understand and know that God loves you as much as He loves me. He wants to bless you, heal you, and deliver you from an insane world on the verge of collapse. The Bible instructs us to search for God while He can be found, for there is coming a day when the heavens above will be as brass, and the world will be caught up in judgement. So seek now and you will find Him. Read the Bible, learn of His ways. Time is short. - Gene

The Daily Scroll

 “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:24)

So when we pray, it’s the most wonderful opportunity to experience our spirit joined with the Spirit of God. When we become born again, we ask Jesus into our heart, but there’s more to it than that amazing experience. We are born again into the Spirit of God, our spirit made alive in His Spirit, for He is Spirit. 

All the goodness, all the glory, all the love of God given to us freely. Thus the adventure begins. As we worship Him, them, in Spirit and truth we plug in to all that God is. Think on that. Meditate on that dear Saint. We don’t have to wait to die to experience His presence. No, He is here with you and in you now, in this life. So we must seek Him with our whole heart, and He will be found. He has a unique relationship with you, one to which you may explore in the Spirit. Seek Him, experience Him and love Him in the Spirit. - Gene

The Daily Scroll

 The Lord God is Sovereign in Heaven, on Earth, and in all of the Universe. Why? Because He created all things. All that is, came from Him. How can the creation be sovereign over its creator. It cannot be. In a time in which we live, a time of turmoil everywhere we turn, we have the knowledge that our Sovereign God has the ultimate control. 

He has given us free will to love Him or not; to serve Him or not; even to believe in Him or not. That is because we are His children and we’re made to love Him. But like us, what joy can be received from someone, even a child who is “forced” to love you? Empty.

Don’t be deceived by the gods of this world who cause division, fear, and unrest. Do not mistake His patience for weakness or His nonexistence. For He is long suffering, patient and kind. But as the Bible teaches us, when He’s had enough, He acts and acts swiftly. God, our God, is in control and used His prophets to warn us of such a time as this. A time that we are encouraged to look up! Our redemption draws close. - Gene

The Daily Scroll

The winds of change are blowing across the United States. America is at a crossroad. Do we follow the Lord with our whole heart, or do we follow our own wisdom? For those who love the Lord and seek his face daily, you know the answer. Our nation is in grave danger. For the prophet Jeremiah spoke the word of the Lord against Israel because of their great sin, and though his life was threatened he spoke the word of the Lord. And I saying to you right now on this date that the vengeance of the Lord is at hand. Discipline starts in the house of God. However, those who do not believe in God will feel the wrath nevertheless. 

Those who believe in God, especially you prophets, know what’s about to happen. Now’s the time to prophesy the words of the Lord. Now is the time for the prophets to stand and testify of the word of God. Now is the time for pastors to speak the truth, the unvarnished truth of sin and the repercussions that come with it. The world at large defies the word of God and the concept of sin, the concept of repentance, and the concept of falling into the hands of an angry God. 

God’s word is true he will not be mocked, and the great sin of our nation including the violence against mankind, and the violence against the unborn, will not go unpunished. Hear the word of the Lord, repent of your sins, seek the face of God, or prepare to withstand the onslaught that is coming to a weak and sinful people. 

Stand up Prophets! Speak the true word of God. Not the goody goody message that keeps people lining up for blessings. Don’t be fortune tellers tickling the ears of innocent people looking for a “Good” word. You better tell them the truth for you are accountable to God. If you speak in His name you better tell them the truth. You better be giving them the true word of God or you’ll be heaping damnation on on them and your own selves. Better to sit down and shut up than speak in error. Now I speak this in love... repent! Repent! This is the only way out. This is the only way of salvation. Religion is of the devil! But salvation is of the Lord! He died for you, and rose to receive you. Anyone who preaches any other gospel...reject! As the Apostle Paul spoke. Faith in Jesus Christ alone. Christ alone. Christ alone. -Gene

The Daily Scroll

“For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.“ (I Thessalonians 5:3)

Saints of God - Watch and pray. Watch and pray. - Gene