Author: Valerie Cullers

Survive or Thrive?

Valerie Cullers 14 Comments

Recently, my husband and I watched several episodes of Season 7 “Alone” on the History Channel. We then skipped to the end to find out who won. The man who made it the longest out in the forests of British Columbia had an amazing set of skills. Once he was dropped off, he made a shelter that was well constructed. He was able to shoot a deer with his bow, and he built a smokehouse to process the meat. When the meat ran out, he built a trap line. Not only was he able to survive 73 days in the wilderness alone, he seemed to thrive for the majority of his time there. The other contestants had some of the skills he had, but none seemed to have all of the skills he demonstrated.

I thought about what might be coming down the pike for all of us. Will there be energy or food shortages? I have been watching Europe, and I don’t know if what is happening there is a harbinger for what is coming to the United States. What kind of skills will we need if things indeed do get difficult here? On the practical side, it wouldn’t hurt to know how to grow a garden, and we should definitely think about alternative forms of energy for our homes.

On the mental and emotional side, as believers in Jesus Christ, we should be working on our skill set now so that we are able not only to survive in a difficult economy but to thrive. The first thing we will need to do is to keep our eyes on the Lord: “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.” Isaiah 26:3 We must also know the word of God so that we will not fall prey to every rumor we hear, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Psalm 119: 105. We need to learn to depend upon the Lord for our sustenance (even if at the moment we have plenty of money), “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Phil. 4: 19 One of the hardest skills to develop is the ability to hear the Spirit’s voice. In this world of constant activity and noise, we will need to be intentional if we are going to take time to hear what the Lord is saying to us. Even Jesus was intentional about spending time with the Father so He could hear His direction. “Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He (Jesus)went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed.” Mark 1: 35

I don’t know about you, but I know that I need to be working on my skill set. I want to be able to depend on the Lord and hear His direction in a better way. I want to know the word so that I am not led astray. (I can’t tell you how many hundreds, if not thousands, of emails were circulated this past weekend telling everyone that the Rapture was going to happen this past Tuesday.) And for sure, I know that I need to spend more time in prayer and learn to keep my spiritual eyes on Him.

What other skills do you think we are going to need if things get difficult economically? I would love for you to add to the discussion!

Image by Rasto Volansky, Courtesy of Pixabay.

Resilience

Valerie Cullers 11 Comments

“Resilience – the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties, toughness.” Oxford Languages

A few weeks ago, my husband and I were listening to a man who had been on the History Channel’s Alone series. He had made it 43 days alone out in the forests of British Columbia. He talked about how he made it, and he stressed that most of all, it depended on a person’s mental outlook. He said that resilience was the most important quality a person could have in that kind of a difficult situation.

He also talked about how he had planned what he was going to do when he was dropped off in the woods alone. Then came the shock after he was dropped off. Nothing was like he thought it would be. That’s when the resilience kicked in. He had to get over his shock and quickly adapt to his surroundings.

I thought about what he said a lot. I thought about many believers who are convinced that there will be a Pre-Tribulation Rapture. I have been in groups where people are talking about what might happen in the future, and they say, “I don’t have to worry about anything, I won’t be here.” They are so convinced that they have a handle on what their future will be like that they won’t entertain any other possibilities.

To quote Joel Richardson, “I find that to be a problem pastorally.” If perhaps the Rapture doesn’t happen at the time they think it will, what will they do? Will they be in shock and have a difficult time adjusting to their new reality? Will they think they have been duped by the teachers who have taught them this belief without giving them the caveat that perhaps it could happen a different way?

I have been concerned about this for a long time. No one knows the day or hour of Christ’s return for His church. We should all be ready at any time. But we must not be so foolish as to think that we may never go through any difficulty or persecution before He comes back. Only those in the American church are so cavalier as to believe such nonsense. When you speak to Christians in other countries, especially those in the 10/40 window, they are concerned about sharing the gospel and living for Christ today. They already face persecution and many difficulties, unlike we in the West do. Let us not live with a false sense of security. We need to be resilient and tough regarding the future, for no one knows for sure when the Rapture will take place.

Photo by Svklimkin. Courtesy of Pixabay.

Farewell Patricia

Valerie Cullers 17 Comments

“OVER AND OUT”

My dear friend, Patricia, found out she had inoperable cancer about three weeks ago. She put it on Facebook so that her friends and family knew. Her hubby asked people to come for short visits as they had put her on hospice.

A friend and I went a few days later. She was upbeat and wanted to share some things about her life with us. There were no tears from either side, hers or ours. Instead, there was a peaceful acceptance as we prayed together for the last time.

People came that first week and then she had difficulty talking as her lungs continued to fill with fluid. She posted short notes on Facebook and then a few days later turned off her phone. She continued to post on Fb and then about ten days ago came her final post. Her last words to us were “Over and Out.”

I can’t tell you how that post comforted me. She knew she was passing into the arms of Jesus and was ready to go. It took about ten days until she finally took her last breath. The woman lived a life of love and in the end she went fearlessly into the next life. Farewell, Patricia. I will miss you but you will always be a shining example to me.

Photo by Gerd Altman. Courtesy of Pixabay.

Good vs. Saved

Valerie Cullers 11 Comments

“Good people don’t go to heaven, saved people do.” Skip Heitzig

Billions of people on earth are busy doing good works in order to get to heaven. They are doing things such as fasting, following religious traditions, giving alms, feeding the poor, going to church, etcetera. They are trying their hardest to be good enough so that when they die, they can go to heaven.

The problem with this approach is how do you know when you have done enough to get in? Do you think that God puts all of our good works on one side of the Celestial Scale and our bad deeds on the other side, and then if the good ones outweigh the bad, we are admitted into heaven?

The problem with this kind of thinking is that our good works are not quantifiable. How much do we have to give in order to have really done a good work? Does showing up for church or at the local temple qualify as a good work? Do we get credit for being nice to our family or those who love us? Who’s keeping score, and when do we know when we have done enough?

I spoke to a person a while back, and we were talking about good works. He certainly had given more to the needy than most people, and I’m sure he hoped that would count for something when he stands before the Lord. He was raised in church, but somehow had forgotten about Jesus. So, I asked him, “If we can get to heaven by doing good works, why did Jesus have to come to earth to die for our sins?” He didn’t have an answer to that.

The answer to that question is, by way of inference, that of course we can’t get to heaven by our own good works. That is exactly why Jesus had to come to earth, because none of us is good enough or can do enough good works to get into heaven. Someone had to pay the price for our sins in order to secure our way into heaven. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” John 3: 16-17

Are you trying as hard as you can to be good enough for God? Are you doing good work after good work in order to be accepted by Him? Why don’t you take a step back and take a good, hard look at Jesus. Can you see that He is the only One who can get you where you want to be when you die? Let me know if this is a new thought for you.

The Eyes of Faith

Valerie Cullers 21 Comments

Have you ever been praying for someone, and you only see them as they are? Maybe they are making a bunch of mistakes. Perhaps they are sabotaging themselves at every turn. Their behavior has made you think of them and react towards them in a certain way. We seem to be locked into seeing them in a negative light and we treat them accordingly.

Perhaps we need to take some time and think about how the Lord would like their lives to be. What would that look like? If we can come up with a positive picture of them in our minds, then perhaps we can pray for them that way. We would be seeing them with the Eyes of Faith. Faith that when God intervenes in their lives, their lives will look much different.

The amazing thing about this is that when we can do that, we begin to treat them differently. We begin to treat them with more respect, and we are not so negative towards them. We speak to them about the possibilities in their lives and try to help them see a different future for themselves.

When they can see themselves in a different light, it helps to dispel their negative self-image and sometimes they can believe in themselves again. People who are caught in a negative cycle of behavior have lost hope in themselves and their actions may become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Is there someone you need to begin to look at with the Eyes of Faith? I know there is in my sphere. Remember the Scriptures say, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.” Hebrews 11:1 Let’s hope for the best and see those caught in a negative spiral with the Eyes of Faith. It just may help change their world.

Image by Daniel Hannah. Courtesy of Pixabay.

Flip the Script

Valerie Cullers 13 Comments

The other evening, I couldn’t sleep. I began to pray for a member of our family who keeps making mistakes over and over. As I prayed for him, I talked with the Lord about the things he kept doing. Eventually, about 1:00 A.M., I fell asleep. The next morning, when I woke up, I was discouraged and didn’t know why. I thought about it and realized that I had been focusing on the mistakes this person kept making. I could see I needed to flip the script.

I then remembered Ruby, a friend of mine, who would say, “Don’t pray the problem!” I looked back at the evening before, and that’s pretty much all I had been doing. So what should I do instead? I prayed about it. The first thing I needed to do was to get my eyes off the person and his problems and place them on the Lord.

I spent that day focusing on the greatness of God and his ability to answer my prayers. After all, He created the universe. He keeps the stars fixed in the heavens and the planets spinning in alignment. Surely, He has the ability to help solve the problems that concern me. Psalm 113: 4-6 says, “The Lord is high above all nations, His glory above the heavens. Who is like the Lord our God, Who dwells on high, Who humbles Himself to behold the things that are in the heavens and in the earth?” Clearly, our God has the power to answer our prayers.

That evening, after thinking about the greatness of God, I felt the Lord nudging me to be thankful for the things He had done for me. He reminded me of the time when I could have accidentally killed my brother. He was not even injured after the incident. My entire life would have been ruined had I hurt my brother, but God, in His mercy, prevented that from happening. He also reminded me of the times He protected me during the years when I was not living for Him. Psalm 118: 1-2 says: “Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.” Surely, I could see how God had been merciful to me and that He would be merciful to my relative.

The last thing I was reminded of is to be careful where I put my faith and focus. The Lord instructs us in His word to believe that He can and will answer our prayers. The disciples had been trying to cast out a demon, and they were unable to. Jesus showed up on the scene and cast it out. The disciples wanted to know why they had failed. In Matthew 17: 20 Jesus answered, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.” Again, even though this problem seemed impossible to solve, the Lord was reminding me that nothing is impossible for Him.

So the next time you become discouraged in prayer, flip the script and remember Ruby and her advice, “Don’t pray the problem!” Place your focus on the Lord, His greatness, His mercy, be thankful, and have a little faith in Him. He can do anything!

Photo Courtesy of Pixabay.

Intentional

Valerie Cullers 14 Comments

A few weeks ago, my husband and I were watching a historical movie about WWII. The movie was going great and then Bam! Someone threw in a vulgar expletive. A while later, in an especially relevant part of the movie, the beginning of a sex scene between two men was flashed on the screen. When the movie ended, I asked my husband, “Why do they have to put that stuff in? After all, it is not relevant to the story.“

I then remember listening to David Heavener about a month ago. He is an actor, writer and director who has been in Hollywood for over twenty years. He talked about how the writers are intentional about what they put into the scripts. There is nothing that they put in that is not purposeful to their aims. If they want to promote an agenda, you will find it in the script somewhere.

So then, I began thinking about many of the problems we are facing in our society today…how many of them are intentional?

The Border Crisis…Intentional.

High Gasoline Prices…Intentional.

Sexualization of our Children in Schools…Intentional.

Criminals Released on our Streets…Intentional.

Chaos in our Cities…Intentional

The list continues. One thing I don’t think is intentional is the high inflation that our government’s policies have caused. Let us not be naive as we wonder why so many things are happening in our society. The causes and subsequent effects of so many of the policies are intentional. You have to ask yourself why and behind the smoke and mirrors, you will find the answers.

Image by Intographics. Courtesy of Pixabay.

The Foolish Things

Valerie Cullers 15 Comments

Last weekend I was looking at Facebook and noticed a man I had gone to school with had posted a sermon he was giving that Sunday. I listened to it for a while and I was amazed at what the Lord had done in his life. He was one of those kids who was a cut-up in school. You could always count on him to do or say something funny. If only the people who had gone to school with him could see him now.

Then, I thought about myself. There was definitely a time in my late teens when I went down a wrong road. I’m sure that anyone looking at me then would not believe that I would be a committed Christian now. I am amazed at what the Lord has done with my life, also.

Why would God do this for those of us who are so unworthy of His love and forgiveness? Because that is the way He works. Scripture says, “But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise,” 1 Cor. 1:27 I mean really, what kind of a God would choose people who totally do not deserve the restoration He gives? Because simply, that is the way He gets the glory for what He does. The Scripture goes on to say, “and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.” 1 Cor. 27-29

I know so many of you do not feel worthy of coming to God. You feel you have gone too far, sinned too much and made a complete wreck of your life. You wonder why would God want you? Because God works in ways that are just opposite of how the world works. He DOES see the value in you and knows that He can take you just the way you are and change your life in a way that no one would believe. And like the Scripture says, He will get the glory for what He does.

For those of you who are struggling right now, come to Him. He is waiting to take your life and make it into something beautiful. Just call out to Him and you will be amazed at what He will do with your life. How do I know? Because I see what He has done in mine.

Photo by Tanya Patxot. Courtesy of Pixabay.

Zoonosis

Valerie Cullers 10 Comments

Recently, I have been asked by a couple of people what plague or disease I thought was coming next. People are understandably concerned after having dealt with Covid over the past two years. The women I have spoken to thought possibly Ebola would be the next pandemic we would experience. After watching outbreaks of Ebola over the last several years, I wouldn’t think so. Ebola does seem to be controlled with proper sanitation, hospital stays and isolation. One must have close contact with a person with Ebola to get it.

Covid, Ebola, Monkey Pox, Swine Flu, and Bird Flu are all examples of zoonosis. Zoonosis is “a disease which can be transmitted to humans from animals,” Oxford Dictionary. The worst epidemics in history have been caused by a vector (flea or mosquito) transmitting the disease from a host to a human. One only has to think of the Bubonic Plague that killed millions during the Middle Ages as an example of zoonosis.

It seems that what people are most concerned about are the viruses that exist in labs today. Is gain of function research being done on them? Are some of them being genetically engineered to cause them to be transmitted in an aerosol form? Are some of them being developed as bioweapons by governments of the world? According to the UN, “Historical biological weapons programmes have included efforts to produce: aflatoxin; anthrax; botulinum toxin; foot and mouth disease; glanders; plague; Q fever; rice blast; ricin; Rocky Mountain spotted fever; smallpox; and tularemia, among others.”

I do think if we knew what was going on in labs in other countries that we would be quite concerned as my friends are. Other countries do not have the constraints our labs do, and the laws governing them are different. There is always a chance of an accidental leak or in the case of war, deployment of a bioweapon could be unleashed.

Scripture does tell us that in the last days we will experience plagues and Revelation does mention that many will be killed by the wild beasts of the earth. The word used is “therion” which in the Greek, is the diminutive of “theria,” a word used to denote a wild animal or beast. Sharon Gilbert believes that this word might have to do with the bacteria or viruses that come from the beasts of the earth.

No matter what is coming down the pike in the future, we know we cannot depend on man, science or our government to save us. Surely they will try to use whatever is available to them as far as medicine or vaccines to help the population but modern medicine can only go so far, especially if some virus has been genetically altered in a lab. If nothing else, Covid has taught the world that man is indeed susceptible to zoonotic viruses and that it will take a while for pharmacological help to reach the general population.

What’s next? I have no idea. I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it. I believe we each only get today (that’s why it is called “the present”). We are not guaranteed another one. Rather than live in fear, we can trust our lives to the Lord and leave our future in His hands. I rely on the words of Psalms 23 and 91 to find peace in an insecure world. We are, after all, finite and we need Someone greater than us to provide the protection we need from seen or unseen forces.

Image by Kalhn, Courtesy of Pixabay.

Uncontrolled

Valerie Cullers 2 Comments

Such great thoughts on the importance of Fathers!

jparquette's avatarQuo Vadis Blog

“Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains.” Nuke LaLooch (played by Tim Robbins) in Ron Shelton’s screenplay for “Bull Durham”

Snowy Owl at Hamden Slough National Wildlife Refuge Lee Kensinger Snowy owl at Hamden Slough National Wildlife Refuge in Minnesota by Lee Kensinger.

Kim Crocker, a volunteer at the Sachuest National Wildlife Refuge near us, reported a tale that reminded me of the rule of fang and claw, talon, and blood. After an absence last year of any overwintering snowy owl at the refuge, this year we have two visitors, neither of them yet fully mature, but hardy enough to make the trek from the tundra. Snowy owls can live nine years in the wild and up to twenty-eight in captivity. Fully grown, they have a wingspan of close to five feet: beautiful, formidable hunters, and relentless predators.[i]

Mr. Crocker told me the ranger observed a Cooper’s hawk make a quick kill, probably a vole or field…

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