Do You Believe You Have a Choice Regarding “Whatever It Is You Are Dealing With?”

With the recent revelation from Bruce Jenner, I felt compelled to set some things, well, straight (pun intended). The gay identity was one I never wanted, and it dawned on me one day that I should seek my Maker as to what His intentions were for my identity. My plan was to choose what He called right over what my feelings—and the world—called right. I chose Truth over comfort and momentary pleasure and found freedom from my old way of thinking. In the process, I found a heterosexual identity! In a world where a man could say he was born a man but was truly a woman on the inside—and be celebrated for it—one would think a man who did not want a gay identity and found a way to a heterosexual identity would be welcomed...tolerated. But I have not found the world too open about anything other than what feels good is right. Choosing righteousness over license is, in this current culture, not to be tolerated. Enough about that.

People often ask me if I am still tempted with same sex attraction. When I tell them that I still understand that temptation but it no longer has power over me, their reaction is often, “Then how can you say you’re changed? Nothing’s different if you are still tempted.” Nothing could be further from the truth.

Honestly, I had no choice in determining what would tempt me, but that in no way negates my ability to choose how I would respond to that temptation! In fact, even Jesus did not get to choose what He was tempted by—and He was tempted in every manner just as we are, yet without sin! We are either always creatures of choice or never creatures of choice. Our humanity has a conscience which gives us the power to choose. If we could not choose, every man would be a rapist. Every person would be obese. Every person would walk in constant anger. Every person would be hopelessly self-focused and full of pride. We always have a choice as to how we respond to a given situation. It just so happens that having a relationship with Christ gives us the power to overcome those temptations and to choose wisely much more easily than in our human strength! If temptation defined us, then we would succumb to the statement that “this is just who I am, so I might as well give in and be whatever my deepest feeling suggests I am.” Temptation does not equal identity.

I did not get to choose what I was tempted by. It was just there. But it was never intended to define me. Even without Jesus, I always had the choice as to how I would respond to any given temptation, be it sexual or otherwise. Always. It was only when I allowed the temptation to define me that I began to walk in failure and allow it to control me—control my life.

I recall the look and sound and feel of temptation in that area; I am reminded of it in the media and in the culture on a daily basis (does every TV show or movie have a same sex storyline these days? Pretty much). It’s in my face. But that “recalling” in no way defines who I am.

Temptation is a joy. What do I mean? When temptation comes my way in any area that could lead me to sin, I simply ask the Holy Spirit, “What is it, Lord?” My reason is simple. The enemy—the liar, Satan—desires my downfall. Temptation is intended to lead me to that destruction. I turn to God because the temptation has become my signal that God is up to something. Why else would the enemy be after me in a certain area if not to quell the work of God in my life?

So much time has now passed since I identified as gay that it is actually difficult for me to believe I was ever that way. Of course, the liar does not want me to forget, so he continues to try and trip me up in key ways—not usually of a sexual nature, either. He attacks me in the areas of my continuing vulnerability: my sense of security or my sense of being needed or my sense of the need of affirmation—all of which are now daily met in knowing Jesus. I am now so secure that I do not fear vulnerability, nor do I fear for my security, nor do I fear that others might not think my life significant. Temptation has been relegated to use for the kingdom purposes in my life.

When it occurs, I do not allow it to determine my direction. In the moment of being tempted, temptation is now like a fly that occasionally tries to land on the meal of God’s presence in my life. I shoo the pest away with the Word and continue to enjoy the feast of God’s amazingly abundant presence in my life, whether I receive threats and hate from the LGBT community (and I do) or not. The temptation to fear harm is handled in the same way as sexual temptation. “What is it, Father? Your son, Dennis, waits on You...and while I wait, I will apply Your Word to my existence, bathing my being in being with you.”

People can say I am not changed if I still understand temptation in my life, but for the doubters, here is a brief list off the top of my head of exactly what has changed since coming to faith in Jesus Christ:

• My belief system: I once believed I was born gay, until I was born again. I no longer believe I was ever born “that way.”

• My mind: I was transformed by the renewing of my mind.

• My sexual preference: I used to be sexually aroused only by men. The sexual needs of my life are now met only by my wife, and I crave her body, by the way...

• My outlook on life: I once was depressed and self-serving. I now look toward Jesus and lay my life down for the King and for the kingdom. I. Am. Changed. Period.

  Dennis Jernigan

• Excerpted from the book “Renewing Your Mind: Identity and the Matter of Choice” by Dennis Jernigan

  Photo courtesy of https://pixabay.com/photos/change-new-beginning-risk-road-3256330

• To hear the song “I Am Changed”, go to https://podcast.app/i-am-changed-a-choice-in-the-matter-e66307032?utm_source=ios&utm_medium=share

  I Am Changed

  WORDS & MUSIC

  Dennis Jernigan

  March 20, 2013

  Verse

  Some call me a fool
  For daring to say I’ve changed
  But if that makes me a fool,
  I wouldn’t trade what I’ve found for anything

I’m changed
Some call me a dreamer
For daring to walk away
From my old way of thinking My old identity now passed away I’m changed

Chorus

Changed from who I thought I was Changed by pure redeeming love Changed from death to life
And freed from every chain Changed from old identity

Freed from lies and freed to be who my Father says I am He calls me changed
I am changed!

Verse

Some call me a hater for daring to disagree
Come to my own conclusion of who my Father says I am called to be I’m changed
Some call me disillusioned
Some call it a mental break
But let there be no confusion

I am fully aware Fully awake And I’m changed

Chorus

Changed from who I thought I was Changed by pure redeeming love Changed from death to life
And freed from every chain Changed from old identity

Freed from lies and freed to be who my Father says I am He calls me changed
I am changed!

Point of View

How do you view the world around you? How does this worldview define who you are?

When contemplating the renewing of one’s mind - the changing of the way one thinks - one must have a clear and sturdy foundation from which to operate - a solid rock that cannot be shaken when it seems the entire world around you is falling to pieces. If we have a firm foundation from which to launch our thought life, we can walk in peace in the midst of a storm. We can walk in health while our body is wracked with pain. We can walk in joy in the very throes of sorrow. We can think clearly when the world has clearly lost its mind!

When faced with the dilemma of what to believe about one’s self, one must determine the foundation from which they currently operate. To simplify what I am speaking of, we must understand that every human thinks according to a certain worldview. From my own experience of walking out the journey of renewing one’s mind, I have come to the personal conclusion that there are three world views available to every man, woman, and child. A worldview is how we as humans view reality. Like the skeleton from which grow the flesh of our existence, how we view the world around us is our reference point for ideas and attitudes. This point of view shapes how we explain our very existence and define our purpose in life. Bottom line, our worldview is our comprehensive and over-arching system of beliefs.

One worldview that is as old as sin is the man-centric worldview. Some call it humanism. If man is the utmost and highest then every aspect of life must be viewed from that perspective. This kind of thinking leads to mankind thinking there is none higher than mankind. Man-Centric thinking can lead to mass-belief in wrong thinking. Ask Germany what they think of Hitler. Ask North Korea what they think of Kim Jong-un. I operated from this point of view for much of my youth, following whatever whim of human wisdom and new thinking brought into my life. This only lead to disappointment and starving for the next idea that I could pin my house to.

Another major problem with man-centric thinking is that every man, at some point, fails. Every man dies. Even the greatest thinkers have all died. Einstein. Edison. Where is the hope in that? What happens when humanism comes up with a new point of view to take the place of the last one? Where is the stability in that? To place one’s hope in a humanistic way of thinking is like building a house of straw and hoping it will protect you from fire. One spark is all it takes to cause that house to disintegrate. That is not a foundation from which I wanted my life built. I needed something more secure and stable.

Another worldview is the God-Centric or Christ-centered worldview. If I believe God made all that I see and made all that I am, my way of thinking about reality and about myself takes on a whole new dimension. From that point of view, I come to realize that I have believed many lies about myself and about the world around me. Of course, this begs the question, “Where do those lies come from?” If I operate from a God-Centric worldview, I take God’s Word - the Bible - as the Truth from which to operate and from which to build my identity. That Word tells me there is a deceiver - the Liar - Satan. He is vilely opposed to God and desires to destroy God’s greatest creation. Mankind. He does that through deception. This, of course, means the main battleground of my life is my mind. If we operate from the darkness of Satan’s lies, we walk apart from the God Who created us for fellowship with Himself. My victory over same sex attraction - over the lies of the enemy in general - has come from changing the way I think about the world around me. I now strive to see life from God’s point of view.

Yet one more worldview in even more sinister than the humanistic worldview. This worldview I call the Mixed Worldview. From my now experience, there have been times when I tried to operate from a mixture of the Man-Centric and God-Centric points of view. Like straddling a fence, this war of two opposing points of view leads to much pain and heartache. The tendency when mixing worldview is to blame God when things fall apart. One cannot serve two masters. A two-headed beast is called a monster for a reason! A monster demands to be fed. A monster operates from a self-centered point of view. A monster hurts rather than heals. A monster leads one to fear rather than to trust. A monster cannot every be satisfied. Why serve a monster? Why operate from such a shaky and shady foundation?

When deciding upon how to view the world, one must decide who the world came into existence in the first place. Either a big bang made it happen or God spoke it into existence. Those are our choices according to the two worldview we just talked about. I find it rather hypocritical for those who operate from a humanistic worldview to have no problem with the theory - the faith - that says we were planted here on Earth by some alien race yet have no faith to believe God could have spoken us into existence. Before you get to the place of renewing your mind and to the place of the hope for change, you must decide how you will view the world. Do you want something tangible and real or do you want a counterfeit? Thinking from God’s perspective leads to utter freedom and utter reality. Man-Centric thinking leads to - nothingness.

When I was a teenager, I loved listing to pop music. We were a hardworking farm family but we had very little extra cash for things as frivolous as the latest record. Many were the hours I spent listening to the radio and longing to have an LP of my own so I could play my favorites songs over and over again and again without the frustration I found in hoping the radio station would play those songs. Blessed was the day I heard a TV commercial touting a collection of the top songs of that year containing all the top songs of the day!

After several weeks of saving my hard-earned cash from chores I had done on the farm, I sent away for that album and then waited. Every day, I went to the mail box in the hope of finding that record. Finally, the day came when the postman came to the door of our farmhouse and handed me a large square cardboard packet that would not fit in the mailbox! My record! I rushed right up the stairs to the attic bedroom I shared with my three little brothers and placed it on the turntable. With ecstasy and exhilaration I gently placed the needle on the first song and went into a state of nirvana as the notes of the very familiar instrumental intro began to waft through the room. And then, the voice…

As I listened, something did not seem right. The singer sounded similar to the voice I had become so familiar with from the radio…but it was ‘off’. I thought this was supposed to be Mick Jagger! As I went to the next song expecting to hear Stevie Wonder, I was again disappointed and mystified at the voice that sounded mostly ‘like’ Stevie’s very familiar voice…but without the extra little vocal flourishes I had come to expect from him. Each song left me with the same thought/ They sounded similar but were obviously not the original singers of the songs I loved. Upon closer inspection of the album liner notes, I discovered the small print. “each song sung by a sound-alike artist”. These were fakes! I felt used and humiliated! I felt, frankly, stupid and gullible…and decided I would never buy a sound-alike recording again. Only the real thing for me! Deciding upon your worldview is much the same. You can settle for the fake - or counterfeit - or you can seek the real thing.

I find it veer interesting that when a government agent is being taught how to discern real US currency from counterfeit, he or she is never shown the counterfeit. They get to know the real money so well that when the counterfeit crosses their path, it is easily recognized as the fake it is. Deciding how you will view the world will be derived from that which you seek. If you seek to view the world from a humanistic point of view, you will one day find yourself let down by the weakness of such a perspective. May I challenge you to seek God through a relationship with Jesus Christ as the better - the real - perspective from which to operate?

What is your world view? What would you have to lose by considering viewing the world from the point of view of the Maker of that world?

Is it man-central or God/Christ-central?

Another way to put it: Is your hope in government or government programs? How is that working out for you?

Is your hope in another person? Anyone let you down lately? Just wait. They will.

Is your hope in financial success? What happens when you lose everything you hold dear because your focus was solely on finding your reality in financial success? What happens if you lose it all?

Is your hope in fame? Do you really think being famous will add one iota of hope to your existence? What happens when you’re not the cool kid anymore?

Is your hope in what others think of you? What happens when you fail? What happens when they turn on you? What happens when you face loneliness? Does the fear of what people think of you determine how you view yourself? Does it determine your choices in life? Is that a good way to live?

Is your hope in God? You need to decide before any true change is even possible.

Dennis Jernigan

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” Jesus

Matthew 6:24 NASB

'I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. 'So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.

Revelations 3:15-16 NASB

Photo courtesy of https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2018/02/12/07/59/road-3147659_1280.jpg

The Root of the Issue

“…and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

Jesus

John 8:32 NASB

If you we are not defined by our feelings and if we are people of choice, what does that say about our current state of feeling? How do we get to the place of not allowing our feelings to define us? Just how do we get to the place of making wise choices in spite of our feelings? As with anything in life, we get there by starting at the beginning.

When I was a boy, my family had a large garden. This garden was a main source of food for us. We canned tomatoes. We froze corn. We canned green beans. We grew potatoes and okra and carrots and radishes and anything else that might provide sustenance for our family through the winter months. It was my joy to help with that garden - at least during certain phases of said garden! It was a treat to help cut the potatoes into seed potatoes, making sure each cube of potatoes contained at least one eye. I thoroughly enjoyed the planting of the seeds because it meant that in the coming days I would experience the privilege of watching the seeds spout and the tiny leaves breaking through the ground in search of sunshine. One of my joys was also when harvest time came. For some reason, I loved following the plow as my dad would lay the furrows over exposing mounds of ready-to-eat potatoes!

Some things about gardening I did not enjoy so much, though. One of my memories of helping with the garden was that it needed to be tended in spite of the summer’s heat. Tending to that garden involved making sure pests did not ruin the plants. Going from cornstalk to cornstalk and painstakingly applying the pesticide power was tedious. And potato bugs! My mom would pay me one penny for each potato bug I came to her with, borne in via the coffee tin she provided for the task. While fun at first, the sheer number of potato bugs seemed daunting and never-ending, so numerous were the leaf-eating insects. While the tasks of applying pesticide and the capture of potato bugs seemed tiresome and boring after a while, my least favorite chore would prove to be a wealth of truth-drenched wisdom that would prove vitally useful in my later years. That chore? Weeding the garden!

Nearly every day of each week, my mother would assign me a particular row or sets of rows of vegetables to weed in the garden. Using the hoe I had been assigned, I would make my way up and down each row of that garden, chopping the tops off the green shoots of weeds that had somehow made their way into the row. It was easy to see the weeds that grew between the corn rows, but difficult to see the weeds that grew between the bushy stalks of the ever-expanding green beans. I quickly came to realize that I could skip some of the weeds in the rows of green beans since my work - or lack thereof - would be obscured!

This worked well for me until a week or two had passed and my mother’s inspection called my weeding skills into question! Pulling back the bushy heads of the green bean plants, she showed me where the weeds that I thought had been hidden so well had almost overgrown and overtaken the plants we were depending on for food. After this, she took me to the rows of corn I thought I had done a great job on were being overtaken by weeds as well. “I thought you told me you had weeded these rows of corn and that you had weeded the rows of green beans!” My feeble response, “But mom, I did!”

Firmly, she took me back to the rows of green beans and had me kneel down and pull back the leaves of the bushy green bean plants. “Son, weeds grow where you cannot necessarily see. Just because you can’t see them does not mean they aren’t there. And those weeds among the corn? Just because you use a hoe and chop them down, does not mean they are not still there. You never kill a weed until you get to the root. You can chop off the top of the weed all day long and never get rid of it. That means you’re going to have to expose the weeds among the green beans and you’re going to need to pull them up by hand, roots and all. Same with the corn. And don’t just leave the weed plants nearby. Place them in the burn pile otherwise they will take root wherever you throw them. You must dispose of them properly.”

As with weeds in a garden, we can allow wrong thinking to take root in our minds or we can chop at them with good intentions - or we can get to the root of those wrong thoughts and rid them from the garden of our mind once and for all. Which sounds like the better option to you? Of course you opted for the truth, right? Yet, you still find yourself a bit bewildered as to exactly how to do that. First things first. Just what is the truth? Until we settle that issue, we might as well be chopping off the tops of the weeds - or worse still - pretending they can’t be seen.

Dennis Jernigan

Photo courtesy of https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2015/04/19/11/52/dandelion-729693_1280.jpg

Orientation Does Not An Identity Make

Orientation is “the ability to locate oneself in one's environment with reference to time, place, and people; the ascertainment of one's true position, as in a novel situation, with respect to attitudes, judgments, etc.”

When one finds one’s self lost in the physical world, we are really saying we are not familiar with the environment, so we do not know where we are in relation to our surroundings. We must then do what? Orient ourselves—or re-orient ourselves. We think nothing of reorientation in this sense…but when it comes to our identity, it’s a whole new ballgame. In my own life, I once felt oriented to homosexuality but felt lost in that identity. So what did I do? I decided that I would re-orient myself.

We hear so much these days about a person’s sexual orientation - as if that is what defines us. If that were the case in my life, I would be defined as a homosexual, fearful, self-focused, raging lunatic…but none of those things defines me - even if I was oriented toward them. When I was a boy, I had a temper. At the smallest of perceived threat or perceived humiliation I would typically fly into a rage of angry outburst, lashing out at whomever happened to be in my path. If I did not get my way, I would turn red and shake with anger. My orientation was toward anger. My mom’s explanation - even when I was a boy - was that I came by it naturally! She told me on more than one occasion that my anger was in my blood due to my fiery red-headed great-grandparents! In no uncertain terms she was telling me this was my orientation!

As I grew older, I became intensely fearful of being rejected and made it a practice to go out of my way to ensure that people would like me; that I would be the best at everything so everyone would think highly of me. I was oriented to perform for the approval and acceptance of others, yet that approval-seeking orientation did not - and does not - define me.

During my entire childhood and well beyond my college years, I was oriented to be self-serving, self-seeking, and self-focused. Everything I did and portrayed myself to be was centered around - me - me and my wants and desires, often at the expense of others. This was my orientation, yet I am not defined as a self-centered person any longer.

Jesus Christ gave me a brand new identity and, in the process of my relationship with Him, showed me that I am not to be defined by my past failures, by my present circumstances, by whatever may tempt me, nor by the gay community. Only One gets to define me. My Maker. When I determined that God would be the one to define me, He quickly reminded me that my original orientation was toward sin…and my particular sin was the behavior of homosexuality - even if that orientation was not by my choice! You see, we do not get to choose what will tempt us, but in Jesus I have been given the grace to choose what is holy and righteous. Orientation does not define me. Never has. Never will.

My story is my story and my story is meant to condemn no other person, yet many call me a hater for saying I used to be gay but am no more…while applauding a man who says he is a woman trapped in a man’s body…while applauding anyone who comes out as gay. I’m not telling anyone they have to do anything. This is just my story…yet I am constantly condemned for coming out as straight! Who exactly is the hater? Just sayin’. I condemn no one, but God’s Word is clear when it comes to what He thinks of homosexual behavior. Here are just a few of the many verses in Scripture:

"Do not practice homosexuality; it is a detestable sin."

Leviticus 18:22, NLT

"If a man has sex with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is abhorrent."

Leviticus 20:13, Msg

"Instead of believing what they knew was the truth about God, they deliberately chose to believe lies...Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. And the men, instead of having normal sexual relationships with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men...."

Romans 1:25-27, NLT

As a friend once told me, we can have comfort or we can have Truth. Only Truth sets us free. God’s Truth - not man’s truth. God does not call temptation sin. Jesus was tempted in every manner just as we are - yet without sinning! Therefore, temptation - be it homosexual or otherwise - does not equal sin. It is what we do with the temptation that determines if we sin or not. Follow the temptation. Sin. Find the way of escape. No sin.

“For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.”

Hebrews 4:15 NASB

This means that temptation does not define us! This also means that, since we were all born oriented to sin - that orientation does not define us either! That’s great news! That means if you are oriented to lying or stealing or slandering or harming others or alcohol or drugs or ‘you fill in the blank with whatever you’re oriented toward’ that you have been given a way out!

“No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.”

1 Corinthians 10:13 NASB

Did you get that? God will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we are able to bear, but makes a way of escape - always. But that way of escape comes via a relationship with Him. After the Lord set me free and gave me a brand new identity, the temptation did not suddenly cease in my life. If anything it intensified…but I began to take God at His Word and began to (still do) call out to Him whenever temptation would rear it’s ugly head. He began to remind me to respond out of my new creation nature and to see life from a new point of view. HIS point of view.

“Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Romans 12:1-2

I was born oriented to sin. True. But that orientation no longer defines me. Just like Lazarus, I walked out of my old dead life as alive as I could be in Jesus, but I was not as free as I was going to be. Jesus told those around the risen Lazarus to loose the grave-clothes from him. He had been bound up in the bindings of death. I did not want to be merely alive. I wanted to be free from my old orientations and from my old ways of thinking…and through a relationship with Jesus Christ, I was set free (and still in process!). Are you tired of being defined by your orientation or by your temptations? You can be free. Free to be who Father God has called you to be all along. Jesus Christ will meet you and love you right where you are…but the best news of all is that He loves you enough…to not leave you there. Seek Jesus for the answers you need.

The following are some tips and things you will need for the trip:

1. 1. Map, GPS, personal guide, and roadside assistance, all in one: You will need a guide for your journey—and I have the most wonderful news! The Lord has given us the Holy Spirit to guide us through our spiritual journey. He is better than OnStar! He is always with us. Never sleeps. Never takes a break. We have but to acknowledge Him and He is ready and willing to meet whatever need we have! Walking in the power and filling of the Holy Spirit is like having the world’s best GPS and best roadside assistance possible. He is available day and night, twenty-four/seven. We have but to decide if we will trust Him or trust our feelings. He will never contradict the Word, while feelings often do!

   2. Know your final destination: When taking a journey, we generally have a destination in mind. Our destination? Wholeness in Jesus. How do we get there? We seek Jesus and we follow the roadmap. What is our roadmap? The Word of God. When in doubt, go to the Word!

   3. A traveling companion: The joy of getting there is in the journey—and every journey is made sweeter and joy made more tangible when we have someone to share it with. I know it is redundant, but we are never alone—even if we feel like it! And what do we do when our feelings are messing with our journey? We get to the Truth. And Jesus is the Truth.

   4. Provisions: Heading out on our journey, we never know what we may encounter. We may find ourselves stranded by high water or deep snow. Regardless of what tries to hinder our journey, we must have provisions along the way. And guess what? Our traveling Companion is both food and drink! Jesus is the Bread of Life. Jesus is Living Water. We but need to eat and drink of His presence whenever our soul is hungry or thirsty.

   5. Extra fuel: From time to time, we will grow tired and weary in the journey, but, again, our Companion provides the filling of power and He even provides rest as we undertake whatever leg of the journey we find ourselves on.

"Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” —Jesus (Matthew 11:29–30)

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13)

5. Extra fuel: From time to time, we will grow tired and weary in the journey, but, again, our Companion provides the filling of power and He even provides rest as we undertake whatever leg of the journey we find ourselves on.

6. Keep your eyes on the road: While that goes without saying, we need to remember one of the ploys of the enemy is to try and get us focused on the failures of our past. To live our lives according to our past failures is equivalent to driving down the road by looking in the rearview mirror. Doing so leads to nothing but disaster! We use the rearview mirror simply to glance back occasionally to help us keep our bearings. This reminds us of how far we have come and helps us stay oriented on the Truth!

7. Good music: When Melinda and I travel, we often put on the music of 2nd Chapter of Acts and Keith Green—and sing! There is nothing like worshiping Jesus and singing as if no one is listening to cover the sometimes tedious parts of the journey with sheer joy. Worship helps us maintain our focus on Truth. Truth always set us free and takes our eyes off of us. Sing your way to Truth and to freedom.

8. Do not fear the side trips: Life has a way of taking us down unexpected roads. Rather than dread such momentary side trips, why not turn the point of view around to put on a heart of adventure? Unexpected circumstances are simply opportunities to watch God come through! It is the little spontaneous adventures that often lead to the grandest of vistas and deepest release of joy.

9. Expect grand vistas: The first time I saw the Grand Canyon with my children took my breath away. It was so massive my human brain could not fathom what I was seeing, which made me think I was seeing a grand panoramic painting! As my children stood their mouths agape at the splendor, my heart was ravished with deep joy at sharing this unexpected splendor with those I love most. Our attitude, when traveling with the children, was to make each and every experience the children had a learning experience if possible, regardless of how mundane or non-special the landscape might appear.

You can ALWAYS get off the merry-go-round

Dennis Jernigan

Photo courtesy of https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2020/03/02/16/19/vintage-4896141_1280.jpg

The Process of Healing

This week’s blog is an excerpt from my book, Renewing Your Mind. You will find a link to purchase this book at the end of this post.

When faced with the need for healing of our minds - the way we think about ourselves - the enemy would love for us to feel overwhelmed by the mountainous terrain that our stinkin’ thinkin’ raises before us. Let us remember that we are on a journey - an adventure - here and that journeys require time and planning. After all, it may have taken years to build up the mountains of wrong thinking you now experience, so it may take years to tear it down. Like a building that we build with our thoughts, we tend to build it brick by brick. When tearing down that building, it is often necessary to tear it down in the same way, brick by brick…thought by thought. Bottom line? Healing is a process. The process of healing was brought home to me through the years in very tangible ways, complete with physical reminders of deep spiritual Truths.

Many years ago, I was working on my farm with my tractor. Having been grading the gravel road to and from my barn using the box blade scraper, I needed to take the heavy implement off so I could attach the brush hog and do some mowing. A box blade is like a small road grading blade one can attach to one’s tractor and scrape dirt and gravel and the like. While the blade itself is about 5 feet across and 24 inches deep, on the front of the implement are 4 long spikes called rippers that are spaced in front of the blade. The rippers cut through the ground and break it up, allowing the scraper to then come along behind and scrape the broken ground up. The entire apparatus weighs several hundred pounds.

In a hurry to get to my next task and having performed the changing of implements many times before, I did not take the time to go through all the necessary safety steps. As I disconnected the hydraulic arm to which the right side of the blade was attached to the tractor, it slipped off before I was ready - because of the vibrations of the still-running tractor. Before I could get out of the way, the blade fell from the tractor and onto my right leg. The ripper did its job, ripping right into my lower calf and pinning me in a very awkward position beneath the large rear tire of the tractor.

My first thoughts? I do not wish to die this way. The tractor still running and the goats, notorious for climbing on any and everything, were nearby. All I could think - and I am serious about this, LOL - was my friends would mock the way I died at my funeral! “Can you believe he was killed by goats?” If I ever needed to be in control of my thoughts, it was in that moment. After several minutes of pleading with the Lord to help me find the strength to remove myself from this entrapment, He came through. As I looked down at the wound, I saw a gaping hole in my leg exposing my tendon, muscle, and bone!

Not realizing I was in shock, I could only think of covering the wound and getting the flap of dangling flesh back in its proper place. Calmly, I pulled the flesh over the hole in my leg and held it there, walking all the way from behind the barn to the house bent over awkwardly while trying to keep the flesh in place! As I neared the house, Melinda came out and I showed her the wound. Wasting no time, she helped me get into the car and she drove speedily to the nearest ER seven miles away. Nearing the ER, I told her to simply drop me off and park the car while I did the preliminary check-in.

Approaching the nurse station, I told the receptionist that I had injured myself and needed help. She calmly replied, “You’ll need to fill out some paperwork.” Still in shock, I felt overwhelmed to the point I could do no more. Turning around from the window, I simply slumped to the floor beneath the window - and sat. As Melinda came through the door, she asked, “What are you dong down there?” All I could muster to say was, “I need to do some paperwork.” Bursting through the ER door to the triage unit, Melinda shouted, “My husband needs help!” And help came!

Two surgeries later, I was sent home to heal. Miraculously, there were no broken bones. Just nerve damage and the wound itself, which had been nicely stitches closed, seemed merely incidental after the fact. A lot of trauma for such a seemingly small wound. Little did I know but that little wound would have far-reaching effect upon my life - and the way I think!

After a few days of rest and recuperation, I noticed the bruising around the wound was not getting any better. In fact, the flesh over the wound seemed to be growing darker and darker, fading from deep blue to deeper black. And it began to develop and odor - like rancid, decaying flesh. Since this did not seem right, I went back to the surgeon and showed him my wound. Without saying a word, he simply began to cut away the flesh, once again leaving a gaping hole in my lower calf, revealing the inner parts once again. I asked him, “When can you do a skin graft to cover the wound?” His answer sent holy chills through my being.

“A skin graft will not work for this kind of wound. For this type of wound to heal properly, it must heal from the inside out.”

With those words, “It must heal from the inside out”, I knew in that moment that the Lord was going to be teaching me a few deeper things about healing. Confused, I asked him what he meant? I asked him how that could be possible. He then explained to me the process of healing.

His instructions, while simple, were full of profound life-giving truth. He instructed me to soak the wound twice a day in a bucket of warm water. In that water, I was to mix a cup of Tide detergent and soak for 30 minutes. His explanation for this? The wound needs to be as clean as possible in order to promote healing. As those words sank into my mind, I could not help but think of and relate this need for cleansing to the human need to confess one’s sins. As I have already stated in a previous chapter, you will know the Truth and the Truth will set you free…but the first step Truth requires is our own honest confession - or cleansing! And the added bonus? Simply learning to rest in - soak in - God’s presence! Awesome in and of itself, but the doctor was not through.

Following up the need for soaking and constant cleansing, he prescribed a large roll of gauze, sterile and clean. The purpose of the gauze? I was to pack the wound with said gauze as soon as I was through with my morning soak…packing it as tightly as possible so as to not allow any foreign materials into the wounded place. In addition, he instructed me to pull the gauze out before soaking at the end of the day. Curious, I asked him why. He told me that as I pulled the gauze out - which will probably hurt a bit, but will be worth the pain - any dead, and decaying material would adhere to the gauze and be removed from the wound, brining even more cleansing! Awesome! But, wait! There was more!

“As you remove the gauze, make the edges of the wound bleed as much as possible.”

What?! His words once again sent chills through my soul. “There is life in the blood. The blood will bring life-giving nutrients to the wounded places and slowly but surely, the wound will gradually close as the flesh grows back.”

All I heard was ‘There is life in the blood’. Just as with the physical nature of the healing properties of my physical blood, the life of a new creation is healed as the blood of Jesus - the cleansing, redeeming, healing, mind-changing, debt-paying blood of Jesus - is applied to the wounds of our mind by simple faith!

As time went by, my mind was consumed with such thoughts! As my mind began to heal in new ways, so the wound on my leg began to heal. Pondering this process, I understood the need for cleansing. With honest confession comes Truth. Truth sets me free. As I placed my faith in the power of the blood of Jesus Christ, the wounded places in my mind began to come back into spiritual alignment with God’s Truth. Confession and the blood were easy to see…but I still did not fully understand the need for packing the wound…so I asked the Lord what the packing material for my spiritual, mental wounds was.

He simply whispered to my mind, “Son, what did you pack into your wounded that came as a result of leaving your past identity?”

Without missing a beat, I said to Him, “What shall we say then? Am I to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall I who died to sin still live in it?” That’s Romans 6:1-2 NASB. Before I could say another word, He asked, “And what did you pack in the wounded place when the enemy would threaten you with humiliation and condemnation?” Again, without hesitation, I quoted Micah 7:8. “Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy. Though I fall I will rise; Though I dwell in darkness, the LORD is a light for me.”

And then it hit me. The packing material of my life since being born again…had been…the Word of God! In every wounded place caused by the lies of the enemy, I had packed the Word of God…and just as with that physical gauze, I would pull the Word out of the wound and drag out more impurities…and then I would repack the wound again and again and again! Healing is a process - and I thought the lessons I had learned from the tractor incident were it…but there was still more.

After a year of healing in my body and in my mind, I was finally well enough to play basketball again. In my first pickup game since my wounding, I was making a cut toward the basket - when someone hit me on the back of my left ankle with what felt like a baseball bat! Sounding like a literal explosion in my mind, the piercing pain sent me spinning around, crumpled, to the floor. Writhing in pain, I shouted to my buddies, “Who hit me?! Did you guys see who hit me?!”

Confused at my response, one of the guys simply said, “DJ, there was no one near you. No one hit you.”

The MIR later that evening revealed a completely shattered and severed Achilles tendon. Due to the circumstances, we had to wait 10 days for the surgery to take place. As soon as I came out from under anesthesia, the surgeon said, “Mr. Jernigan, we did not have enough of your tendon left to put you back together.”

Before he could continue, I moaned, “Oh, no!” in disappointment.

Continuing, he simply said, “But we were able to repair the tear.”

“But, how?” I asked.

“During the time between the wounding and the surgery, so much scar tissue had formed that we were actually able to harvest some of that material and bridge the gap between the wounded places. We put you back together.”

By whose scars and wounds and own torn flesh was I granted healing that birdied the gap between my wounded, broken places and the Maker of the Universe? By the scars of Jesus I am being healed! Healing is a process…and scars are like altars testifying to the healing power of God! What do my scars represent?

When I was a small boy, I was in the pasture petting one of our horses. We called him Big Red. As I petted him, he began to nip at my fingers. This caused great fear in my little heart, Spying the mulberry tree on the fence line, I ran with all my might to the safety of the tree, as Big Red kept pace with my little-boy run for my life!

Safely climbing the tree to what I thought would be refuge, I was horrified to realize that Big Red could still reach me! My only recourse? I could jump the barbed wire fence to the safety and security of the other side! If there had been an Olympic event called Fence Straddling, I would have won gold that day!

No sooner had I been released from the ER than my mom asked me how I was doing. My response? “I can’t wait to show the scar to my brothers and my cousins!”

A scar is what’s left of a wound as a reminder that says - in a spiritual sense - “Yes, I went through that terrible, horrible, hurtful event…but look what my God did!” That is a kingdom-of-God perspective on the process of healing. Own your scars but give glory to God. Rather than those hurtful memories being like stones draped around your neck that drag you down to despair and self-focus, cut them away with the Truth thats says, “Yes, I went through that, but see what my God has done!” Healing is a process - a process meant to restore hope and bring healing at every point along the journey. Even when pain is involved, joy can be the result if the process is seen from the Maker’s point of view. Who made doctors? Who gave man the wisdom to create medicine? Who is the ultimate Healer? The One Who made us.

One more thing. There is only one time a follower of and believer in Christ should give up hope. We should give up the hope of ever changing our past! Stop trying! It cannot be done. Face it in honest confession and go through the process of healing in the areas of past failure and regret. Allow the Lord to take the rabble and messes of your life and bring something beautiful out of the rabble and the mess! He is able is we let Him see our wounded places. Open up your heart to Him and let Him be the Great Physician. He is a safe place for healing to take place. Soak in His presence. Pack the Word into the wounds of your mind. Apply the healing balm of His cleansing blood to your wounds…and allow His own wounding to bridge the gap between you and your Maker!

My final thought: I am healed. I am being healed. I will be healed. Where I am is in process…and the process looks a lot like Jesus!

Dennis Jernigan

This week’s blog is an excerpt from my book, Renewing Your Mind. That book is available at https://www.amazon.com/Renewing-Your-Mind-Identity-Matter/dp/1613143737/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3N47GTSZSICUS&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.AzdEHdBTMOTtUENfsWu4UA.rEySNTWd5PjcLS3PBVNeo0LNB1xEIbKunU8vtZH1PfE&dib_tag=se&keywords=Renewing+your+mind+dennis+jernigan&qid=1741190586&sprefix=renewing+your+mind+dennis+jernigan%2Caps%2C161&sr=8-1

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Back to the Basics

When I was first diagnosed with Parkinson's, I had an honest to goodness crisis of faith. I found myself being bombarded with thoughts and feelings that were all over the spiritual map of my life. It took me quite a while before I was able to re-orient myself to what I consider to be true North.

I questioned whether I was a good husband or not. I questioned whether I had been a good dad to my children or not. I questioned whether I was a good grandfather to my grand children or not. I even questioned whether I was a real man or not.

Then, believe it or not, I went through a period in which I found myself unable to feel guilt or shame or even joy or happiness. I just felt - nothing. Parkinson’s just has a funny way of playing with one's mind and it took me a while to figure out just what that looked like for me. I found myself juxtaposed between scattered feelings of all manner and no feelings whatsoever. Talk about confusion! I honestly did not know what to do, but I knew what true North was for me, and true north for me is Jesus Christ. So, I did the only thing I knew to do. And what was that?

When I don't know what to do, I always go back to the basics of my faith. This simply involves me saying to my own soul, out loud if necessary, what the foundational truths of my life are. Regardless of whether I feel anything at all when I make these statements, they have a way of anchoring my mind to truth into reality and have a way of bringing peace to my mind. Here are just a few of the foundational statements I proclaim to my own heart and mind:

Jesus Christ is the rock of my salvation.

Jesus Christ took my sin upon himself, went to the cross, died for me, shed his blood for me, and rose again to bring me a resurrection power is a new creation in Christ.

I choose to fix my eyes and my thoughts on Jesus Christ.

I am never alone because God is always with me.

God's grace is sufficient for me regardless of my circumstances.

When I was born again I was given the mind of Christ. I can choose to think the thoughts of a new creation in spite of my circumstances.

I am loved in spite of my failures.

I am loved in spite of what the world thinks of me.

I am not defined by my past failures.

I'm defined by my Maker and by Him alone.

God has sent his Holy Spirit to comfort to me in my sorrow.

He has empowered me to be an Overcomer.

Whether I live or whether I die, I will be with the Lord, so what's the worst thing that can happen?

Either way, I am with Jesus. When life leaves me disoriented, I have but to look to Jesus and regain my bearings in spite of my circumstances.

Last but not least, I choose to worship Jesus in spite of my circumstances because I know God inhabits the praises of his people.

I have only touched the tip of the iceberg concerning the truths I speak to my own heart and mind when I face periods of confusion or chaos or calamity in my own life. The bottom line is this: I do not plan times of confusion or chaos or calamity, but I have a plan set in place just in case I encounter them, and my plan simply requires me fixing my eyes on Jesus and speaking truth to my own mind. When you don’t know what to do, just go back to the basics. It can be the difference between chaos and peace. I encourage you to choose peace. Now go and give yourself a good old-fashioned talking to…and expect Jesus to meet you there.

Dennis Jernigan

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O, the Glory - Dancing Before the Lord

In this week’s blog I share the stories behind a medley of songs that I cannot believe I have never told you about before. In the early days of my public ministry I used these songs together quite often because they simply brought me so much joy. People grew so accustomed to the simple piano introduction of the first song that they would began shouting and clapping in anticipation of the - I don’t know a better way to say it - of the fun they were about to have. It felt as if I was trying to rein in a massive group of horses - and it was glorious.

That first song is called “O, The Glory” and it came to me on January 14, 1987. I was serving as lead worshiper and as a song receiver at Western Hills Church in Oklahoma City at the time. We were experiencing a wave of worship of the Lord Jesus Christ and we quite naturally began to desire to worship the Lord with our entire being. To worship with our entire being meant not just the use of our voices and our hands, but with the very real yet very intimidating desire to dance before the Lord. We had all come out of lives of bondage to sin and had experienced deep woundings, but this was a time when we needed to put off the grave clothes of sin and sorrow and to put on the garments of praise and joy.

The Psalmist tells us in Psalm 30:11 NIV

11 You turned my wailing [mourning] into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy…

“O, The Glory” was one of the first songs the Lord gave me at Western Hills concerning dancing before the Lord! This song took us through many months of reckless abandon-and innocent rejoicing as we sought to praise Him with our whole hearts. Those were such incredibly awesome days filled with joy. Like little children in a candy shop, we were amazed and filled with curiosity at all God desired for His children in the area of praise.

Amazed that we had believed the lie that we could not worship in the dance because it was a worldly form of worship. Amazed that we could worship in the dance and still be modest and holy! God must have gotten a good laugh out of watching us step in these waters cautiously first…and an even greater laugh when He gave us those little nudges toward ‘the deep end!’ In His presence there is fullness of joy. Let us worship Him with all we are - spirit, soul and body.

In Isaiah 44:22-23 NIV we find the Lord responding to the nation of Israel for the way they had turned away from worshiping idols. He said, 22 “I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you." 23 Sing for joy, you heavens, for the LORD has done this; shout aloud, you earth beneath. Burst into song, you mountains, you forests and all your trees, for the LORD has redeemed Jacob, he displays his glory in Israel.

The next song in the medley, “With A Shout Of Glory”, and it came to me on August 28, 1989. It was approximately a year earlier when we began a ministry to the Body of Christ in Oklahoma City we simply called The Night Of Praise. We invited the Body of Christ to come together once a month for the sole purpose of exalting Jesus Christ as Lord in worship and praise and intimacy with Him by the Holy Spirit. Soon, many came each month representing hundreds of individual church bodies from many different denominations. We realized that our common denominator was Jesus and that our purpose was to lift Him up. As we did this, our praise became weapons in the hand of the Holy Spirit. This song was born as a song of warfare and as a means of lifting up the name of Jesus. In fact, His name is to be shouted and celebrated as this song is sung. I encourage you to ask the Holy Spirit to give you a vision for the lives of others and use this song as a means of intercession on their behalf.

The third song in the medley - “I Will Celebrate Your Presence, Lord” – came to me on July 28, 1988, simply born out of the joyfulness of knowing Christ and worshipping Him with reckless abandonment. This is one of those songs that just ‘happened.’ In other words, I believe it poured forth from my heart as I meditated on the goodness of the Lord.

Psalm 149:3-4 NIV says,

3 Let them praise his name with dancing and make music to him with timbrel and harp.

4 For the LORD takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with victory.

I honestly believe God takes more delight in me than I take in Him…and honestly, that makes me want to worship Him all the more. Are you ready to celebrate the presence of the Lord? Go ahead and rearrange the furniture in your living room and give yourself some dancing room and then just dance for the Lord…dance with the Lord…dance like only He is watching. Are you ready?

Jeremiah 31:10, 13 NIV says, 10 "Hear the word of the LORD, you nations; proclaim it in distant coastlands: 'He who scattered Israel will gather them and will watch over his flock like a shepherd.' ... 13 Then young women will dance and be glad, young men and old as well. I will turn their mourning into gladness; I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.

Friends, let me remind you. Our God is good and faithful and desires nothing but our best. There will be times of mourning, but He will turn that mourning into gladness. There will be times of great sorrow, but our God will bring comfort to our broken hearts and will replace that sorrow with joy. Joy is as simple as knowing I am never alone. Ever. That’s something worth dancing for.

Dennis Jernigan

To hear The Dennis jernigan Podcast version of this blog, go to https://www.patreon.com/posts/o-glory-medley-121929633

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A Shoulder to Cry On

This week I am sharing the story behind my song,”A Shoulder to Cry On," featured in my live worship album, "I Will Trust You," birthed on October 2, 1992. Sometimes, we pour out every ounce of ourselves until we're drained and weary. This burnout isn't exclusive to church leaders; it's a risk for all who carry the life of Christ within. It's crucial to pause, refill our cups, or we'll wither away into ineffectiveness.

This song arrived at a moment when I had emptied myself completely the day before, realizing I had nothing more to offer amidst the urgent needs around me. I honestly needed a shoulder to cry on. All I could do was surrender to God. In those moments, my heart could only whisper, "Thank you, Holy Spirit, for always being there for me."

Philippians 3:7-14 NASB 7 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, 9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from [the] Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which [comes] from God on the basis of faith, 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; 11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained [it] or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. 13 Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of [it] yet; but one thing [I do:] forgetting what [lies] behind and reaching forward to what [lies] ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

God's Word provides a clear roadmap on how to stay refreshed and fortified to press onward. Let's dive into this passage from Isaiah for some divine wisdom:

Isaiah 40:28-31 NASB 28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth Does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. 29 He gives strength to the weary, And to [him who] lacks might He increases power. 30 Though youths grow weary and tired, And vigorous young men stumble badly, 31 Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up [with] wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.

The Message Bible says it this way in Matthew 11:28-30:

 “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

And get this from wisdom from 1 Peter 5:6-10 NIV:

6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 8 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. 10 And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.

Psalm 30:4-5 The Message says:

All you saints!

Sing your hearts out to God!

Thank him to his face!

He gets angry once in a while, but across a lifetime there is only love.

The nights of crying your eyes out give way to days of laughter.

If you're running on empty, feeling drained, or on the brink of surrender, here's the plan. Let's seek solace in the Lord today, allowing His love, strength, and grace to fill us to the brim. And while we're at it, let's stay primed to pour out that overflow to those around us in need. And when our reserves are depleted, refill your tank with His presence, over and over again.

Let's pause for a moment as we immerse ourselves in this song, allowing us to release our burdens and worries onto His sturdy and capable shoulders. If tears need to flow, let them. If a sigh of relief is in order, go ahead and release it. And if all you need is to bask in His presence, then simply be still. His shoulders are wide enough to carry every weight we bear. Let's lean into Him at this very moment.

Dennis Jernigan

To hear The Dennis Jernigan Podcast version of this blog and to hear the song, go to https://www.patreon.com/posts/shoulder-to-cry-121407237

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The Middle of Nowhere

Today, I'm excited to share the story behind my song "The Middle of Nowhere" from my 12-song collection of the same name. This song was born on March 3, 2017, when I was asked to minister at Hartley Christian Fellowship in Hartley, Texas - a town about 78 miles north of Amarillo that the locals affectionately refer to as "the middle of nowhere."

As I prepared for my visit, the pastor asked me to address the congregation's need for "renewed passion and an openness and love for our changing community culturally" - a return to their first love as followers of Christ. This request resonated deeply with me, and the phrase "in the middle of nowhere" just wouldn't leave my mind.

The more I pondered that idea, the richer the meaning became. Literally, Hartley fit the Cambridge Dictionary's definition of being "far away from any towns and cities and where few people live." But I knew there had to be a deeper, more spiritual significance to being stuck in the middle of nowhere.

So I kept meditating on it, and a poignant quote from Dag Hammarskjöld, the Swedish economist and diplomat who served as the second Secretary-General of the United Nations, began to echo in my thoughts: "Pray that your loneliness may spur you into finding something to live for, great enough to die for." This sentiment would prove to be a powerful thread woven through the song that emerged.

As I continued to reflect and pray, the lyrics and melody started to take shape, born out of that sense of isolation and the longing for a deeper connection with the Lord. I hope that as you listen to this song, you'll be encouraged to seek that fuller intimacy with our Savior, even - or perhaps especially - when you find yourself in the "middle of nowhere." Because that's often where we discover the fullness of His presence.

The middle of nowhere - it can feel like being lost in the wilderness, both physically and spiritually. Just as the Israelites wandered the physical wilderness, their journey was a reflection of their inner spiritual condition. The wilderness they traversed was a tangible demonstration of the unseen battles raging within.

I imagine the Israelites, freshly freed from the bondage of slavery in Egypt, finding themselves suddenly surrounded by endless expanses of desert. The hot, dry air, the endless horizon, the sense of being utterly alone - it must have felt like being in the middle of nowhere. Yet, even in that desolate landscape, God Himself led them, guiding them by a cloud in the day and a pillar of fire by night. He parted the Red Sea to deliver them. And daily, He provided manna, fresh sustenance from heaven.

But so often, we - like the Israelites - become fixated on the wilderness around us, blind to the love, presence, and power of God at work in our lives. We gaze upon our circumstances and declare ourselves lost in the middle of nowhere, neglecting to see the ways the divine is moving.

Being in the middle of nowhere can be as simple as feeling alone, even amidst a crowd. I imagine standing in the heart of New York City, surrounded by millions during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and yet sensing an overwhelming sense of isolation, as if no one can see you.

But the good news is that we can never truly be alone, for the God we are in relationship with is always with us, wherever we may find ourselves. In fact, I've found that being alone with God - allowing myself to be fully seen and yet fully loved - is a profound way to recharge my spiritual, emotional, and physical batteries. Jesus Himself would intentionally withdraw to solitary places, to commune with His Father and find the strength to continue His mission.

So perhaps being in the middle of nowhere is not something to fear, but an invitation to draw nearer to the One who promises to never leave or forsake us. It's in those quiet, isolated moments that we may just discover the fullness of His presence.

When we are willing to stand alone for our faith; whenever we are willing to speak Truth to those we love; whenever we risk loving through service; we face the risk of being misunderstood. Because of the nature of my own story - freedom from homosexual identity and now identifying as heterosexual - I often feel as if I live in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of being misunderstood. The simple fact of the matter is that if we pursue Jesus with the passion He pursued us, we will be misunderstood.

Each of the apostles had to walk through the wilderness of being misunderstood. They preached love. The world heard hate. The world - thanks to the deception of the enemy - is walking in darkness apart from Christ. The most loving thing to tell someone is that they need a Savior because of their sin. No one wants to be told they are wrong about anything, yet that was one of the most loving things ever spoken to me. “Dennis, you are in sin.” Just as Stephen who was stoned to death for his faith in Christ, we may be misunderstood to the degree that our very life is threatened.

Just as with the children of Israel who had the choice of seeing and experiencing God’s love, presence, and power, Stephen chose to see from the Lord’s point of view while in the middle of nowhere. While being stoned to death for preaching the Truth of Jesus, He chose to look into the heavenly places, ‘but being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; and he said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”’ Acts 7:55-56 NASB

The stoning continued but so did the faith of Stephen. ‘They went on stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord and said, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” Acts 7:59 NASB

When finding ourselves in the middle of nowhere, whether in a desert, in a crowd, or being stoned, we must recognize and realize that even there we are not alone. In fact could it be that finding one’s self in the middle of nowhere is a good - and grand - thing? It all depends on the point of view, I suppose.

We can look at the cloud of obscurity and see only darkness, or we can recognize it as the very guide that leads us. We can view the fiery trial as a threat, or we can take comfort in the pillar of God's protection. We can focus on the raging sea with no way through, or we can marvel at its parting.

Even the smallest things can take on new meaning. That bare existence? It can become manna from heaven. That emptiness? An opportunity to be filled. That brokenness? A chance to be poured out.

I imagine standing in the midst of a vast, barren desert, feeling utterly alone. But what if, in that solitude, I find the chance to truly meet with my Maker, to bask in the oasis of His love? The wounds that once seemed so isolating could become an offering to the Healer.

You see, the middle of nowhere doesn't have to be a place of desolation. It can be transformed into a sacred space where we encounter the God who meets our every need. Where we feel most lost, He can be most found.

So perhaps this "middle of nowhere" is not something to fear, but an invitation to shift our perspective, to see the love, presence, and power of our God at work, even in the most seemingly desolate of places. It's there, in that stillness and solitude, that we may just discover the grandest things.

Dennis Jernigan

To hear The Dennis Jernigan Podcast version of this blog and to listen to the song, go to https://www.patreon.com/posts/120884339

Photo courtesy of https://pixabay.com/photos/desert-drought-dehydrated-arid-279862/

Oh, Give Thanks

I am so excited to share the story behind my song, “Oh, Give Thanks To The Lord”, which is a part of the album titled “Sanctuary”. I received this song on April 6, 1983.

After I graduated from college in 1981, I moved to Oklahoma City and lived for a time with a good friend and his mother. My friend, Chuck, had received a vision from the Lord that included me writing hundreds of songs and multitudes of people singing them. This seemed incredulous to me since I had not been allowed to major in song-writing at the university I attended because they saw no potential in me. When my friend shared his vision with me, he also shared the vision of us singing together in a trio. With another close friend from our college days, Johnnie Ann, we formed a trio called “Spirit Song” and we soon recorded an LP - a vinyl album - called “Let the Song Be Sung” and began singing at various churches and gatherings in Oklahoma. Before we knew it, we were on a tour of the east coast of the US as an opening act for Gospel singer, Doug Oldham. We thought we had arrived.

During this period of my life, I had assumed my church music degree would land me a job as music director of a church, but the only job I could find during my first year in OKC was driving a school bus for the local school district. While there, I met a fellow bus driver who happened to be the founding pastor of a brand new church. When I told him about our trio, he invited us to minister there on several occasions. His name was Randy Miller.

After ministering at his church one Sunday morning, Randy came to me and encouraged me with the Scripture, Psalm 107:1-2, and told me he felt God was going to give me a song from these verses.  Guess what?  He did!  Little did Randy know of the magnitude of impact these verses were to have on my life.  Taking these words to heart in 1988, God led me to publicly share my testimony of what I had specifically been redeemed from.  This song even came back to my mind and I began to use it again to encourage the body of Christ.  When we realize our position in Christ of righteousness and holiness by virtue of His sacrificial blood, I believe we cannot help but lift up our hearts in gratitude to Him. I first sang this song with our trio, “Spirit Song”, but never got to record it because we disbanded after three years…but they were three of the best years of my life.

When it came time to release a new album from my ministry, this song came back to my memory and I included it as the finale to my album, “Sanctuary”. The verses Randy quoted to me that proved to be the catalyst and inspiration for this song are life to my soul:

Oh give thanks to the LORD, for He is good,

For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

Let the redeemed of the LORD say so,

Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the adversary…

Psalm 107:1-2 NASB

I Timothy 1:12-17 NASB

I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

I Timothy 1:12-17 NASB

Over the coming days, take time each day to express your gratitude and thanks to God for all He has done to set you free from the hands of the enemy. An attitude of thanksgiving looks good on you and me and tends to clear the air of the confusion the lies of the enemy try to cloud our minds with.

Dennis Jernigan

To hear The Dennis Jernigan Podcast version of this blog, go to https://www.patreon.com/posts/oh-give-thanks-120393883

Photo courtesy of https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2020/04/22/11/59/thank-you-5077738_1280.jpg

Sanctuary

In the midst of 2013, Melinda and I faced a significant setback in our ministry, a blow that seemed designed to silence us and render us irrelevant; to cancel us and our ministry. Reflecting on those challenging months, I realized the enemy's attempts to thwart us. During that turbulent summer, as I sought solace in worship, the need for a safe haven to heal our wounds became crystal clear. We longed for a sanctuary.

While lost in a musical reverie in my home studio, I stumbled upon a guitar riff that echoed the spirit of the movie "Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou" – a film that holds a special place in my heart for its family-friendly charm. We've watched it so many times with our children through the years that lines from the movie have become a part of our everyday conversations. "Do not seek the treasure," "I nicked the census man," "Now there's a good boy," along with favorites like "Mrs. Hogwallop up and R-U-N-N-O-F-T," and "We thought you was a toad," not forgetting my favorite, the classic, "That don’t make no sense!" These shared moments of laughter amidst life's challenges served as a sanctuary for my family.

As I reflected on the idea of God being my sanctuary in the midst of trials, and with the movie's inspiration lingering, a song began to take shape. It swiftly became a personal favorite, a heartfelt ode to my relationship with God. Keeping the production raw and simple, I envisioned people gathered on front porches, belting out this song...

The name of the LORD is a strong tower;

The righteous runs into it and is safe.

Proverbs 18:10 NASB

The name of the Lord truly serves as a sanctuary for my soul. When seeking peace, I find solace in Jehovah Shalom - the Lord is my Peace. In times of need, I turn to Jehovah Jireh - the Lord is my Provider. For guidance, I lean on Jehovah Rohi - the Lord is my Shepherd. Seeking healing, I trust in Jehovah Rapha - the Lord is my Healer. Longing for righteousness, I find refuge in Jehovah T’sidkenu - the Lord is my Righteousness. For holiness, I seek Jehovah M’Kaddesh - the Lord is my Holiness. When I simply need His presence, I rest in Jehovah Shammah - the Lord is Here. And for victory, I rely on Jehovah Nissi - the Lord is my Banner of Victory.

In life's various seasons, we all crave sanctuary for our souls. It's incredible how God reveals His nature through these names, offering us protection and peace in every circumstance. So, find your sanctuary in His presence as you journey ahead. He's always there, ready for us to call out to Him, to run to Him.

Dennis Jernigan

To hear The Dennis Jernigan Podcast version of this blog and to hear the song, “Sanctuary”, go to https://www.patreon.com/posts/sanctuary-119914398

The photo is courtesy of https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2013/10/23/12/29/church-199778_1280.jpg

The Safe and Mighty Arms of Your Love

Are you win need of safety and shelter in any area of your life. If so, I would like to share with you the story behind one of my songs. This song is titled "The Safe and Mighty Arms of Your Love,” and was received on May 9, 2019.

This song was born out of a personal trial my wife and I are currently navigating. With a damaged vocal cord and a Parkinson's Disease diagnosis on my plate, and with Melinda faithfully by my side through it all, the journey has been a challenging one. While there are rough days sprinkled here and there, medication helps tilt the scale towards more good days than bad.

Fighting health battles is no walk in the park and drains one in every possible way. But let's not overlook the unsung heroes in these battles – the caregivers. They bear a heavy burden silently. Melinda witnesses my struggles, supporting me through moments of discouragement, grieving over the diagnosis, and lifting me up emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and sometimes even physically. In many ways, I believe the caregiver's suffering matches, if not surpasses, that of the one facing health issues.

This song blossomed as my way of offering her solace amidst the constant care she bestows upon me. I can sense the weight of my needs on her shoulders. I catch the tremor of fear in her voice as she bravely leans on her faith to support us both. I know she stands alone when she crumbles into tears, worrying over me as I sleep.

This song, though deeply resonant with my own struggles, is dedicated to her – a gentle touch from the Lord to soothe her weary soul as she witnesses my battle with illness. It's my humble effort to uplift her, the one who tirelessly uplifts me. May it bring healing to her heart, soul, and mind, and may its soothing essence reach you and yours too.

"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;

A broken and a contrite heart, O God,

You will not despise."

Psalm 51:17 NASB.

Songs like this one may sound easy to sing, but living out their message can prove to be quite the challenge. Personally, I hold unwavering faith in God, trusting Him wholeheartedly. I firmly believe in His goodness, His desire for my ultimate well-being, and His ability to work even through the trials like Parkinson's for my benefit. Regardless of the circumstances, I find solace anytime, anywhere, under any conditions, within the secure and powerful embrace of His love because His love is flawless, and perfect love drives out fear. Embrace His love and trust in it today.

Dennis Jernigan

To hear The Dennis Jernigan Podcast version of this blog and to hear the song, go to https://www.patreon.com/posts/safe-and-mighty-119425174

Photo courtesy of https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2017/12/01/03/16/holiday-2990058_1280.jpg

This Is My Destiny

How does one put on the truth when the reality of their life says one thing about their identity yet God calls them something new?

All I was I lay aside now dead to sin, to God alive!

Romans 6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?

Romans 6:2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?

Romans 6:3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?

Romans 6:4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

Romans 6:5 For if we have become united with {Him} in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be {in the likeness} of His resurrection,

Romans 6:6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with {Him,} in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;

Romans 6:7 for he who has died is freed from sin.

Romans 6:8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,

Romans 6:9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.

Romans 6:10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.

Romans 6:11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Romans 6:1-11 NASB

Born again into a new identity!

Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know {Him} {in this way} no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, {he is} a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 2 Corinthians 5:16-17 NASB

Once asleep to God in sin now wakened by the blood and cleansed!

For it was the {Father's} good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, {I say,} whether things on earth or things in heaven. And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, {engaged} in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach… Colossians 1:19-22 NASB

Born again to be who He called me to be!

Jesus answered and said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." John 3:3 NASB

All I have I lay aside - run the race to gain the prize

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2 NASB

For the sake of knowing Jesus Christ in me!

Philippians 3:7 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

Philippians 3:8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,

Philippians 3:9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from {the} Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which {comes} from God on the basis of faith,

Philippians 3:10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;

Philippians 3:11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Philippians 3:12 Not that I have already obtained {it} or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:7-12 NASB

I cannot yet fully see all I’m truly called to be

1 Corinthians 13:9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part;

1 Corinthians but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.

1 Corinthians 13:11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.

1 Corinthians 13:12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.

1 Corinthians 13:9-12 NASB

Knowing Christ reveals my hope and destiny!

Galatians 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the {life} which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

Galatians 2:20 NASB

He calls me child!

1 John 3:1 See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and {such} we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.

1 John 3:2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.

1 John 3:3 And everyone who has this hope {fixed} on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

He calls me to his side eternally!

John 3:14 "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up;

John 3:15 so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.

John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

He calls what once was lost now found;

Matthew 18:11 ["For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.]

Once bound to sin - now free!

John 8:34 Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.

John 8:35 "The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever.

John 8:36 "So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

He calls me holy!

1 Peter 2:9 But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR {God's} OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;

1 Peter 2:10 for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD; you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY.

Revelation 1:4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne,

Revelation 1:5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood--

Revelation 1:6 and He has made us {to be} a kingdom, priests to His God and Father--to Him {be} the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Calls me righteous!

2 Corinthians 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin {to be} sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

By the blood redeemed!

Revelation 5:9 And they *sang a new song, saying, "Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood {men} from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.

Revelation 5:10 "You have made them {to be} a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth."

He calls me overcomer crowned with victory!

Revelation 12:11 "And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.

This is my destiny!

Colossians 1:25 Of {this church} I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the {preaching of} the word of God,

Colossians 1:26 {that is,} the mystery which has been hidden from the {past} ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints,

Colossians 1:27 to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Colossians 1:25-27 NASB

What once bound me is no more!

Galatians 5:1 It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.

What was stolen is restored

Joel 2:25 "Then I will make up to you for the years That the swarming locust has eaten, The creeping locust, the stripping locust and the gnawing locust, My great army which I sent among you.

Joel 2:26 "You will have plenty to eat and be satisfied And praise the name of the LORD your God, Who has dealt wondrously with you; Then My people will never be put to shame.

By the resurrection power of my King!

Philippians 3:10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection

What was old has been made new;

Hebrews 8:13 When He said, "A new {covenant,}" He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.

Lies and doubts replaced by truth!

Romans 13:12 The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.

Ephesians 4:22 …in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit,

Ephesians 4:23 and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind,

Ephesians 4:24 and put on the new self, which in {the likeness of} God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

What was silent now resounds, “I am redeemed!”

Galatians 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us…

Psalm 107:1 Oh give thanks to the LORD, for He is good, For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

Psalm 107:2 Let the redeemed of the LORD say {so,} Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the adversary

Psalm 107:3 And gathered from the lands, From the east and from the west, From the north and from the south.

He calls me servant;

Matthew 23:11 "But the greatest among you shall be your servant.

Matthew 23:12 "Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.

Calls me warrior;

Calls me royalty!

1 Peter 2:9 But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR {God's} OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;

He calls me resurrected one!

Romans 6:5 For if we have become united with {Him} in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be {in the likeness} of His resurrection,

Romans 6:6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with {Him,} in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;

Romans 6:7 for he who has died is freed from sin.

He calls me His redeemed!

Galatians 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us…

He calls me higher; Calls me far beyond my wildest dream!

Psalm 42:7 Deep calls to deep at the sound of Your waterfalls; All Your breakers and Your waves have rolled over me.

Psalm 42:8 The LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime; And His song will be with me in the night, A prayer to the God of my life.

1 Corinthians 2:9 but just as it is written, "THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND {which} HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM."

Isaiah 40:30 Though youths grow weary and tired, And vigorous young men stumble badly,

Isaiah 40:31 Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up {with} wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.

He calls my heart to come and be all He can see!

Jeremiah 29:11 'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.

Jeremiah 29:12 'Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.

Jeremiah 29:13 'You will seek Me and find {Me} when you search for Me with all your heart.

Jeremiah 29:14 'I will be found by you,' declares the LORD, 'and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,' declares the LORD, 'and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.'

He calls me chosen! New creation!

Trophy of His grace!

2 Corinthians 4:15 For all things {are} for your sakes, so that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God.

2 Corinthians 3:2 You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men;

2 Corinthians 3:3 being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

He gives me strength to fight the fight and run to win the race!

Psalm 118:14 The LORD is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation.

He tells me he delights in me while singing over me,

Psalm 32:7 You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble; You surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah.

Zephaniah 3:17 "The LORD your God is in your midst, A victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy, He will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with [singing] shouts of joy.

Accepting me as His beloved bride-to-be!

Ephesians 1:5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,

Ephesians 1:6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

Revelation 22:17 The Spirit and the bride say, "Come." And let the one who hears say, "Come." And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.

This is my destiny! This is my destiny!

•My lack of understanding or ability to see what God sees never negates the truth! That brings me great joy and peace as I pursue Him.

• I simply respond to the truth in faith regardless of whether I feel like a new creation or not.

• I put on the truth. I change my attitude. I change my behavior. Feelings follow.

• The truth has the awesome ability to transcend any feeling or circumstance I face.

• The truth sets me free from the snares of fleshly feelings and actually taps me into the emotions of my Creator.

• The truth sets me free from the snares of hopelessness by taking my eyes off of me and my circumstances and placing my gaze upon the goal of my calling, Jesus Christ.

God saw something in Gideon that Gideon could not see. In Judges, we find the story of the Israelites being held captive by the Midianites. The whole nation is reduced to fear and trembling for many years. Our story begins with Gideon cowered down in a threshing pit fearfully going about his work yet hidden from the eyes of the Midianites. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appears to Gideon and declares, “The Lord is with you, O valiant warrior!” Valiant warrior? Wouldn’t the term yellow-bellied chicken have been more appropriate? Yet, when God looked upon Gideon He saw a valiant warrior! As Gideon learned to walk in his true identity he was given more and more authority among his own people...and eventually led them to overcome all their enemies. If Gideon had not believed the Word of the Lord he never would have walked in the reality of his true nature. He never would have seen the potential of his destiny fulfilled.

• As a new creation learning to see myself as God sees me, I must also learn to see others the way he sees them. I can no longer judge people according to all I see, but I choose to judge them according to their destiny and true calling.

• With other believers I can make appeals for them to put an end to sinful behavior based upon their identity in Christ.

With my own children, if I see them sin - caught lying, for instance - I can say, “Son or daughter, you lied to me...but that is not who you are. You are not a liar. A new creation’s true desire is to tell the truth. You are a truthful person. Put off the old and put on the new of who you really are.” In that way, we confront and deal with sin, yet we tear down only the sin...and not the person. This is how we build one another up. This is how God builds us up! In this way, we each become testimonies of God’s grace to the world...like trophies that declare the power of God!

Who does Father say I am?

• He calls me a trophy of grace.

While this is not a Scriptural term, it does express Scriptural truth. What is a trophy? A trophy is a tangible reminder of some great accomplishment or achievement. The redeemed life is a trophy or reminder to all who see of one of God’s greatest achievements - you! Paul the apostle suffered much, yet he believed his sufferings and the display of God’s grace to carry him through them had a profound purpose. “...That the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God (2 Cor. 4:15).”

Who does Father say I am?

• He calls me a letter, written to all mankind (2 Cor. 3:2-3).

As others see the changes God brings about in our lives, it is as if He has written a love letter for everyone who comes in contact with us to read! My life without Jesus spoke volumes. My redeemed life reads like a letter that was written with the greatest of care. My desire is that God be glorified for all He has done for me - so I open up that letter (my heart) for others to see and read. My desire is that, as they read, their lives are brought to a saving faith in Jesus Christ as well!

What do others see when they read our lives?

• Will we allow others to see and read or will we hide what we have experienced of God? We have nothing to be ashamed of by being honest.

• Honesty is a byproduct of truth. Truth sets us - and others - free! Let us see beyond our own perceptions and see what we cannot always see. Let us see ourselves as Father sees us. Let us see others as Father does.

Who does Father say I am?

He says I am a winner!

He gives me the strength to fight the good fight of faith and to run the race toward the goal for the prize of my highest calling! Though I fall, I get up and keep running! To win a race I must run that race. “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you win (1 Cor. 9:24).” The Word also says, “Let us lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart (Hebrews 12:1-3).”

Who does Father say I am?

• He calls me a fighter!

I do not give up - I am tenacious concerning my desire to conquer sin and to glorify my Redeemer. I fight the good fight of faith by taking hold of the eternal life to which I am called, declaring the truth to all who would see or hear - I am redeemed! (1 Tim. 6:12)

• Father delights in me more than I in Him. His thoughts toward me outnumber the sands of the sea (Psalm 139:17-18). Mine towards Him come nowhere near that! I do not have to earn His acceptance or approval. I already have it by virtue of the redeeming work of Christ upon the cross. God’s Word says that He has made us accepted in the Beloved...accepted in Christ! (Ephesians 1:6). He calls me His bride...and calls Jesus my bridegroom. One day, my truest identity will be fulfilled in the consummation of true oneness with Christ in the eternal glory of heaven. What joy and pleasure to know I do not have to wait until heaven to experience that joy. I am known by my God in a deeply personal and intimate way...and He allows me to know Him! This is my destiny...’that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection...’ (Philippians 3:10)

My destiny?

• To be all God has called me to be! The overcoming testimony of my life? A fragrant aroma. “Thanks be to God, who always leads us in His triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place (2 Cor. 2:14).”

• In am a treasure born of God’s spirit to be given back to Him as a sacrifice of praise.

“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not ourselves (2 Cor. 4:7-12).” We will be afflicted in this life - but we will not be crushed. We may be perplexed by the twists and turns of our life - but we will not despair because we have hope. We will be persecuted for the sake of righteousness - but we will never be forsaken. We may even be struck down because of our faith - but we cannot be destroyed! Why? Because this is part of our identity and destiny in Christ. This is who we are!

“Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal (2 Cor. 4:16-18).”

• Believer. This is your destiny. This is who you are called to be. I am so proud of you! Keep your eyes fixed upon Jesus. Enjoy the journey. Enjoy getting to know your God. I cannot wait until we have the time of eternity to share one another’s stories of God’s redemption. Look for me around the throne...I’ll be waiting to hear and testify God’s goodness with you forever!

Dennis Jernigan

To hear the song, “This Is My Destiny”, go to https://www.patreon.com/posts/challenge-for-118949086

Photo courtesy of https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2020/02/04/16/57/road-4818808_1280.jpg

The Stories Behind Three Carols

First of all, Merry Christmas to all of you! I am beyond thrilled to dive into some of my all-time favorite Christmas carols, especially when I get to sing them with my favorite duet partner.

I firmly stand by the belief that God doesn't let anything go to waste - not our pain, not our scars, not even our stumbles. This truth resonates deep within me. Christmas, a time that should be filled with joy, can often stir up feelings of sadness or stress for many. It's a season where loneliness, financial strain, and life's challenges can cast a shadow. I believe this stems from a collective forgetfulness of the true reason for this festive season: the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Melinda and I have always emphasized the significance of celebrating Christmas as the day Jesus entered the world. We instilled this value in our children and crafted numerous family traditions around this core belief. In 2004, we embarked on a musical journey by recording the Jernigan Family Christmas album, a testament to our devotion. I aimed to blend traditional Christmas carols with my own compositions, pouring our hearts into every note.

Among the gems on this album is a medley featuring three beloved carols: "O, Come All Ye Faithful," "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing," and "O, Little Town of Bethlehem." And who better to harmonize with than my lifelong singing partner, my wife Melinda? Her voice is pure magic to my ears, and the unity we share while singing fills me with boundless joy. But before we serenade you with this medley, let's take a quick trip down memory lane to explore the rich history of each timeless song.

The hymn "O Come All Ye Faithful" (Adeste Fideles) has seen its authorship attributed to various figures over time, from St. Bonaventure in the 13th century to King John IV of Portugal in the 17th. However, the prevalent belief points to the text originating from Cistercian monks, with different provinces of this order in Germany, Portugal, or Spain receiving credit at different periods.

In contemporary hymnals, the credit for the text often goes to John Francis Wade, whose name is linked to the earliest printed versions. Wade, an English Catholic residing in France as an exile, earned a living by copying musical manuscripts found in libraries. His exquisite calligraphy likely prompted clients to request his signature on the copies he produced. In 1751, he compiled his manuscript copies into a printed work titled Cantus Diversi pro Dominicis et Festis per annum (Songs for Sundays and Holidays Through the Year), marking the first printed source for Adeste Fideles.

On the other hand, the iconic hymn "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing" traces back to Charles Wesley, who penned it as a "Hymn for Christmas-Day" included in the 1739 collection Hymns and Sacred Poems by John Wesley. The initial stanza heralds the birth of Jesus, with Wesley's original composition commencing with the line "Hark how all the Welkin (heaven) rings." It was the adaptation by George Whitefield in his 1754 Collection of Hymns for Social Worship that transformed it into the familiar "Hark! the Herald Angels sing." Another alteration occurred in the 1782 publication of the Tate and Brady New Version of the Psalms of David, where Whitefield's version with the repeated line "Hark! the Herald Angels sing/ Glory to the newborn king" at the end of each stanza emerged, shaping the rendition we commonly hear today.

Wrapping up our festive hymn journey, we arrive at the enchanting tale behind "O Little Town of Bethlehem." Crafted from an 1868 text penned by Phillips Brooks, this carol has captured hearts on both sides of the Atlantic, albeit set to different melodies. In the United States, it dances to the tune christened "St. Louis" by Brooks' creative partner, Lewis Redner. Meanwhile, across the pond in the United Kingdom, Canada, and Ireland, it finds harmony with "Forest Green," a melody unearthed by Ralph Vaughan Williams and introduced in the 1906 English Hymnal.

The lyrical beauty of "O Little Town of Bethlehem" unfolded from the mind of Phillips Brooks (1835–1893), an Episcopal priest who served as the rector of Church of the Holy Trinity in Philadelphia before leading Trinity Church in Boston. His inspiration for the carol struck during a visit to the Bethlehem village within the Sanjak of Jerusalem in 1865. Three years after this profound encounter, he penned the poem for his congregation, with his talented organist Lewis Redner (1831–1908) weaving in the music.

And now, for a delightful anecdote straight from the pen of organist Lewis Redner himself. Prepare to be inspired by his words as he sheds light on the creative spark behind this cherished carol.

“As Christmas of 1868 approached, Mr. Brooks told me that he had written a simple little carol for the Christmas Sunday-school service, and he asked me to write the tune to it. The simple music was written in great haste and under great pressure. We were to practice it on the following Sunday. Mr. Brooks came to me on Friday, and said, "Redner, have you ground out that music yet to 'O Little Town of Bethlehem'?" I replied, "No", but that he should have it by Sunday. On the Saturday night previous my brain was all confused about the tune. I thought more about my Sunday-school lesson than I did about the music. But I was roused from sleep late in the night hearing an angel-strain whispering in my ear, and seizing a piece of music paper I jotted down the treble of the tune as we now have it, and on Sunday morning before going to church I filled in the harmony. Neither Mr. Brooks nor I ever thought the carol or the music to it would live beyond that Christmas of 1868.”

That is amazing to me that the writers of this beloved Carol never thought it would live beyond that Christmas of 1868. Simply amazing.

I love sharing the stories behind songs and hymns. It's like getting to hear them come to life. And I hope you have enjoyed the little glimpse behind the scenes of these beloved Christmas carols and that they would help enhance your times of personal worship in the coming holidays.

Why don't we take some time now and sing these three beautiful carols and take our minds off of the cares of this world and fix our eyes upon the reason for the season, Jesus Christ. You will find the link to hear the medley below.

Have a most blessed Christmas in spite of your circumstances. Jesus is God With Us in the midst of those circumstances. If you ask me, that makes for a very merry Christmas. Now go and be who Father says you are.

Dennis Jernigan

To hear The Dennis Jernigan Podcast version of today’s blog and to sing along, go to https://www.patreon.com/posts/carol-medley-118102280

Photo courtesy of https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2018/11/27/19/51/religion-3842228_1280.jpg

“Hallelujah! to the Baby Who Came”

The word ‘hallelujah’ literally means ‘praise the Lord. It is not some meaningless word meant to fill up musical space in a song. When I think of or sing that word, I am always filled with joy when I use it. It is not a word I take lightly. During this season - Christmas - we have so much to be grateful for, first and foremost being the advent of Christ, our Savior. Today I am going to be sharing the story of how one of my favorite Christmas songs was born. That song? “Hallelujah! to the Baby Who Came”.

The coming of Jesus had long been prophesied so many times in the Old Testament. As a case in point, picture this: a child born to us, a son given to us; a name that rings out - Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. That's Isaiah 9:6 for you.

Now, let's backtrack a bit. For a couple of years, I had been making my way to Oral Roberts University every Thursday, mentoring students on everything from songwriting to life's big questions. One fine Thursday afternoon (which happened to be November 8, 2012), with a gap in my schedule, I sat at the keys and let the music flow. Before I knew it, I was belting out a sweet, simple melody about a baby born in a manger, here to be our solid ground. The first verse and chorus? Landed in my lap just like that. Hallelujah!

As the days went by and I kept singing, it dawned on me - this was a worship chorus tailor-made for celebrating Christ's birth. Fast forward to teaching it at my home church - and let me tell you, the glory of God? It rained down in that place. After worship that night, my wife, Melinda, asks the question: "Did you plan that bridge to lead folks into singing from the heart - singing in the Spirit?“ And I just grinned, "You bet I did!"

I get it, not everyone feels at ease belting out tunes on the fly. Cue the bridge, inspired by the Lord, nudging me to slip in the innocent phrase 'Merry Christmas' to ease folks into that spontaneous, heart-to-heart melody to the Lord. So, picture this - as the layers of melody and lyrics start to weave their way into needy human hearts, it's like this invitation to just let loose and lift the Lord up with your own spontaneous praises. My hope? That, just like the atmosphere in my cozy living room church, you'll truly feel that divine glory as you pour your heart out in worship to Jesus with this song.

Here's a little nugget from Luke 2:4-7 for you: Joseph, the man from Galilee, made the trek to Bethlehem with Mary, who was due any moment. And in that humble setting, Mary birthed her firstborn, swaddling Him in cloths and laying Him in a manger - no room at the inn, remember?

As we gear up for the weeks ahead, let's make it all about Jesus - celebrating His birth and all the goodness He's poured into our lives. How? By carving out that special space for Him in the deepest corners of our souls, in every nook and cranny of our existence. Let's deck the halls of our hearts with His presence. And remember, go and be who your heavenly Father says you are and sing “Hallelujah! to the Baby Who Came”!

Dennis Jernigan

To hear The Dennis Jernigan Podcast version of this blog and to hear the song “Hallelujah! to the Baby Who Came”, go to https://www.patreon.com/posts/hallelujah-to-117625704

Photo courtesy of https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2024/05/03/14/21/ai-generated-8737159_1280.png

Extreme Gratitude

We define gratitude as ‘the quality of being thankful with a readiness to show appreciation for something or to someone and being ready to return kindness.' In God’s Word we are encouraged to give thanks in everything.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NASB

16 Rejoice always,

17 pray without ceasing,

18 in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.

What does everything mean? It means EVERYTHING! Even when have been emotionally wounded? Even when we face physical difficulties such as Parkinson’s (which I personally deal with)? Regardless of our circumstances we are to express gratitude to God. Why is that? Simply put, God causes all things to work together for our good…and He walks through those circumstances WITH us. We are never alone.

Romans 8:28 NASB

28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to [His] purpose.

When we learn to see and live our lives from God’s point of view, we tend to develop an attitude of gratitude. Expressing our gratitude to God makes us very aware of His presence with us and opens a channel between us through which He pours out his grace upon us to take the next step. He meets us right where we are - but loves us enough to not leave us there. We find it easier to give god thanks in all things, but not so easy to give God thanks FOR all things.

Ephesians 5:15-21 NASB

15 So then, be careful how you walk, not as unwise people but as wise,

16 making the most of your time, because the days are evil.

17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord [is.]

18 And do not get drunk with wine, in which there is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,

19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your hearts to the Lord;

20 always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to [our] God and Father;

21 and subject yourselves to one another in the fear of Christ.

Why would God want us to give thanks for bad things that happen to us? I believe it is because He wastes nothing…and when we have an attitude of gratitude even FOR all things we must endure in this life we are able to put down the lies of the enemy that constantly come against us. Gratitude is, in a sense, part of the armor of God we have in our arsenal by which we defeat the liar and walk in the light of truth - and truth sets us free.

I encourage you to give God thanks in all things and for all things and walk in freedom. That’s extreme gratitude - and it looks good on us. It is a choice, but we are people of choice. Just give thanks. That’s what I am choosing to do.

Dennis Jernigan

To hear The Dennis Jernigan Podcast version of this blog, just go to http://podcast.dennisjernigan.com/e/extreme-gratitude-an-interview-with-author-rick-carr/

Phot courtesy of https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2019/03/29/05/12/worship-4088561_1280.jpg

Always Be Grateful

Now, get this - for several months before our eleventh grandchild, a little boy, was born, I had already started affectionately calling him Theodore or Theo. Anytime our daughter and son-in-law were around, I'd ask, "How is Theodore doing?" Little did I know, that was the baby's actual name! Can you imagine the surprise on their faces when they finally had to pull me aside and ask me to stop using the name, because that was indeed the name they had chosen?

Well, Theodore Fox Songer made his grand entrance into the world on January 14, 2019 at 11:58 AM. My wife, Melinda, had spent the entire night supporting our daughter and son-in-law in the delivery room, while I, having been driven to the point of exhaustion due to Parkinson’s, had to catch some shut-eye in the car. Needless to say, neither of us got much rest that night.

After saying our goodbyes, we embarked on the 2-hour drive back home. To keep myself awake, I started praying for little Theo, and asking the Lord to bless him - especially in light of my own health challenges, including damaged vocal cords and a Parkinson's disease diagnosis. The words "always be grateful" just kept flowing through my mind.

By the time we arrived home, I had received the gift of a brand new song - born on the very same day as my grandson, January 14, 2019. I recorded it the very next day, and our daughter even played it for Theo that same evening. Hearing that he had already listened to the song lifted my heart to heights I cannot even begin to describe.

This song holds such deep significance for me and my family - whether they fully realize it or not. You see, far too often we allow the enemy to shift our focus to what we don't have, rather than appreciating the abundant blessings all around us. And let me tell you, that one perspective leads straight to despair, while the other opens the door to true, abundant life.

By the way, did you know that the name Theodore means "God's gift"? Well, let me tell you, that's exactly what our eleventh grandchild, little Theo, is - a precious gift from God Almighty. And I, my friends, am a truly blessed man.

As the scripture says in Ephesians 5:20, "And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." Now, when I say "everything," I mean EVERYTHING - even the challenges, like my Parkinson's diagnosis.

You see, when I dwell on the Parkinson's, I can easily slip into a deep depression. But when I choose to focus on using this as a catalyst to draw even closer to Christ, I find that a wave of pure joy floods my entire being. I have so much to be grateful for, my list is simply too long to bore you with. But the key is this: I choose to focus on what I have, rather than what I don’t.

My greatest joy comes when I shift my focus outward, to the needs of others. That's why I plan to never stop ministering in some way, shape, or form. My best advice? Fix your eyes on Jesus, and not on your circumstances. It's when we keep our gaze steadily on Him that our deepest needs are met.

You see, for me, gratitude is the quickest path to the very center of God's heart, and the surest way to battle depression. Having a grateful heart and attitude is like taking a couple of big, joyful bounces on a diving board. As I express my thankfulness to the Lord, my heart springs high into the atmosphere, soaring over the troubles of life, and plunging me right into the deepest, most intimate place in God's presence.

Through every heartache and hardship, you can instantly reset your attitude by going back to the default settings of a new creation in Christ. It's really quite simple, my friends - have a thankful heart, and always, always be grateful.

Dennis Jernigan

To hear The Dennis Jernigan Podcast of this blog, just go to https://www.patreon.com/posts/always-be-115345283

Photo courtesy of https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2015/08/13/20/06/flower-887443_1280.jpg

I Choose Joy

I'm honored to share a story with you today - one that emerged from the midst of my own trials.

You see, it was just four months after my Parkinson's disease diagnosis that this particular song - I Choose Joy - came to me on April 12, 2019, a gift amidst the challenges I was facing. With a diagnosis like that, and the added burden of vocal cord damage, it would be all too easy to succumb to a self-focused mentality of "poor me" or "why me?" But the utter reality is that we have a choice in how we respond to the circumstances we face.

I know firsthand how easy it is to become consumed by negative thoughts, allowing them to fester and grow like an infection that never heals. It's like becoming the Dead Sea, taking in the debris of "stinking thinking" without ever flushing it out. But I'm here to tell you that God wastes nothing - not our sorrows, not our wounds, not even our failures.

This song, you see, is my attempt at focusing on what is good, right, true, and pure, despite my circumstances. It is a confession of truth to my own soul, a reminder that we get to choose what we think about and how we respond. And my prayer is that as you listen, it will do the same for you.

You know, whatever we choose to focus on, whatever thoughts we put or allow in our minds, that's exactly what we're going to get out of it. It's like the old saying goes - "Garbage in, garbage out." But on the flip side, "Joy in, joy out!”

And that's exactly the approach I'm going to share with you today. You see, there's this powerful verse from Philippians 4:8 that's really become a guiding light for me:

"Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”

Isn't that just incredible? It's all about taking control of our own thoughts, choosing to focus on what's good, right, and true. Because when we do that, it transforms our entire mindset and outlook…and brings with it joy!

1 Peter 1:3-9 NASB

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to [obtain] an inheritance [which is] imperishable, undefiled, and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in [the] last time. 6 In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, 7 so that the proof of your faith, [being] more precious than gold which perishes though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 8 and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, 9 obtaining as the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

I urge you to choose to walk in joy today - in spite of your circumstances.

Dennis Jernigan

To hear The Dennis Jernigan Podcast version of this blog as well as the song, I Choose Joy, go to https://www.patreon.com/posts/i-choose-joy-114868539

Photo courtesy of https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2016/11/29/09/49/blonde-1868815_1280.jpg

Atom Bomb

I am so excited to share the story behind the song, Atom Bomb, from my new album called, Sanctuary, yet hesitant at the same time. It is a difficult song to sing because it brings up hurtful memories for me but, at the same time, it brings much inner healing. This song came to me just a couple of weeks before Christmas on December 9, 2021. The story behind the song is one of shattered dreams and broken hearts and came on the heels of the diagnosis of Parkinson’s I had received less than 2 years earlier.

You know, as I reflect back on the events that inspired this track, I can practically feel the weight of those shattered dreams, the heaviness of those broken hearts. It's as if the very air around us has been charged with an electric current of emotion - one moment serene and peaceful, the next, rocked by the tremors of life's most devastating blows.

Just imagine the scene: your dear friend, watching helplessly as her mother slips away, the grief palpable, the sorrow etched into every crease of her face. And then, the unimaginable news of a child violated, the shame and fear paralyzing her, leaving her feeling utterly alone. It's enough to make your heart ache, isn't it?

And then, as if that weren't enough, the news of a family torn apart, a grandchild lost, the finality of that decision reverberating through their lives like the shockwave of an atom bomb. You can almost hear the cries of anguish, see the tears streaming down their faces, can't you?

It's in the midst of these earth-shattering moments that we find ourselves questioning everything - our faith, our purpose, our very identity. How could a good God allow such pain to infiltrate the lives of those we love? Where is the hope, the refuge, the intimacy we so desperately crave?

But you know, my friends, even in the darkest of valleys, even when the bombs of life seem to be raining down all around us, there is one truth that remains steadfast: God wastes nothing. Not our sorrows, not our wounds, not even our failures. Instead, He takes those shattered pieces and weaves them into a tapestry of redemption, a masterpiece of grace.

And it is with that unwavering hope that we press on, trusting that the One Who holds the universe in the palm of His hand will guide us through, will carry us when we can no longer walk. For when we find our refuge in Him, we discover that there is no challenge too great, no obstacle too daunting, for the one who makes even the demons tremble at the sound of His name.

So, let's dive in, shall we? Let's unpack the story behind this powerful song and see how the God of all comfort can transform our deepest wounds into sources of unshakable strength. I can't wait to share this journey with you.

During the same period of time we heard the aforementioned stories from heartbroken friends, Melinda and I received some devastating news of our own just 2 weeks before Christmas. Can you just imagine the look on our faces, the pain etched into every feature, as someone we hold very dear renounced their faith in the very God we'd built our life upon? It felt like the foundations of our world were crumbling beneath our feet, leaving us grasping for any semblance of stability. The weight of those words were utterly crushing, like a punch to the gut that left us breathless and reeling.

And then, to have that news delivered in such a matter-of-fact, out-of-the-blue way - it's no wonder it felt so life-shattering. If I were taking to you right now, the tremor you would hear in my voice, the crack of emotion, is not due to Parkinson’s. As I tell this story I am still trying to process the magnitude of what was said. It's as if the very air in the room has been sucked out, leaving me struggling to catch my breath.

But amidst the devastation, the glimmer of hope that our relationship remains intact - that is truly a lifeline. A reminder that even in the midst of the storm, there is still light to be found, still reasons to cling to. It's as if you can feel that thread of connection, that unwavering bond, keeping me tethered to the one I love, no matter how turbulent the waters may become.

And then, just when I thought I couldn't bear another blow, the news of my nephew's brain tumor - it's enough to make my heart sink, to have that familiar ache of grief well up within me once more. The thought of my brother, already reeling from the loss of his wife, now facing the possible loss of his only son - it was almost too much to bear. Even now, saying those words causes my hands to tremble as my mind tries to process this latest devastating development.

But then, the glimmer of hope - the successful surgery, the benign diagnosis, the possibility of a better future. It's as if the clouds had parted, and a ray of sunshine had broken through, illuminating the path forward. Our family breathed a collective sigh of relief, the sense of renewed energy and purpose, as my nephew embarked on his road to recovery, transformed in ways I never could have imagined.

When we encounter various trials and the emotions that go with them that threaten to overwhelm us, the rawness of those emotions, the vulnerability of those moments - it's enough to make your heart ache, isn't it? The harsh words spoken, the wounds inflicted, the fear and anxiety that seem to permeate every corner of your life. It's as if you can practically feel the weight of it all bearing down on you, crushing the very breath from your lungs.

And in the midst of that devastation, that sense of utter hopelessness, the questions that plague your mind - how can one possibly hold on to their faith when it feels like everything has been reduced to rubble, like the debris of an atom bomb has been scattered all around you? It's enough to make you want to curl up and hide, to shut out the world and all its pain.

But then, you remember - you have a safe place to fall apart, a refuge in the arms of the One who knows you better than you know yourself. You can almost feel the warmth of His embrace, the gentle whispers of reassurance that wash over you, reminding you that your identity, your very worth, is not defined by the circumstances that seek to destroy you, but by the unwavering love of the God who created you.

In those moments when the world seems to be crumbling all around you, you have the steadfast truth to cling to - that your God is with you, that He loves you, and that He will never waste the pain you endure. It's as if you can feel the weight of those words, the power behind them, like a soothing balm for your weary soul.

And it is from that place of unshakable faith, that wellspring of hope, that you find the strength to pour out your heart, to give voice to the emotions that threaten to overwhelm you. The words of the song that came out of these events, they're like a lifeline, a beacon in the darkness, offering solace to those who find themselves in the midst of their own devastating "atom bomb" moments.

My friend, in these times of shattering, when it feels like everything has been destroyed, may you find comfort in the knowledge that you are not alone. That the God who holds the universe in the palm of His hand is the same God who holds you, who weeps with you, who promises to make all things new. For it is in the darkest valleys that the light of His love shines the brightest, guiding us home, restoring us, and reminding us that He truly does waste nothing.

In the midst of these emotional atom bombs, these earth-shattering moments that leave us questioning everything, it is in these very trials that we find the opportunity to deepen our trust, to strengthen our faith, to discover the unshakable refuge that can only be found in the arms of our Savior. For it is in the darkest valleys that the light of His love shines the brightest, guiding us through the storm and into the promise of a brighter tomorrow.

I cherish the comfort and reassurance found in those timeless words from Romans 8:28 - “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to [His] purpose.” The Word of God is like a warm embrace, wrapping us in the promise that even in the midst of the most devastating circumstances, our God is at work, weaving together a tapestry of redemption and restoration. I hope you can feel the weight of that truth, the solidity of it, as it settles deep within your soul. I encourage you to take a few minutes and listen to the song, “Atom Bomb”, and lay your broken heart and all your burdens at His feet.

Dennis Jernigan

To hear The Dennis Jernigan Podcast version of this blog, go to http://podcast.dennisjernigan.com/e/atom-bomb/

Photo Courtesy of https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2012/11/28/09/32/explosion-67557_1280.jpg

Tried By Fire

During the month of January 2022, one of my sons was thrust into a horrible ordeal that would take nearly a year to get through…and all I could do was watch and offer comfort and support. One of the first things the Lord gave me for him came in the form of a song on July 14, 2022. As a dad, I wanted to ‘fix’ the problem, but realized very quickly that I could not - would not - be able to do so. The details are not mine to share, but he has given me permission to share the basics.

He was wounded emotionally and mentally and had his faith severely tested to the point of questioning all he believed in. His suffering was intense and overwhelming to the point of feeling defeated and feeling like giving up. He moved back home and set up a portion of my studio as his own work station and worked from home - in the same room as me - for a year. For me, it was like I had died and gone to heaven…just working ‘shoulder to shoulder’ with my son. A treasure I will not soon forget.

Through the course of that entire year we had many one on one conversations in which he bared his heart to me. After several such encounters, he asked me what I thought about what he was having to go through. I told him that the pain he and our family were going through was worth it for the sheer amount of intimacy and honesty and love I felt between him and me. That may sound selfish in a way, but it is the truth of how I felt…especially given that I have Parkinson’s and life seems somehow more precious than ever to me.

His birthday is July 15. As I pondered what to give him as a token of my love for him, the Lord filled my heart with the words and melody of the first verse and chorus of a song and I recorded and gave it to him. In January of 2023 - almost exactly a year after his fiery trial had begun - the Lord gave me the second verse. I added it to the previous recording and sent it to him again as a way of saying how proud I was of him for the way he faced the fire and came out shining like gold.

God’s Word urges us to pray Psalm 26:2 which says:

Examine me, LORD, and put me to the test;

Refine my mind and my heart.

1 Peter 1:3-9 NASB 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to [obtain] an inheritance [which is] imperishable, undefiled, and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in [the] last time. 6 In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, 7 so that the proof of your faith, [being] more precious than gold which perishes though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 8 and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, 9 obtaining as the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 1 Peter 1:3-9 NASB

A year after all this began, my son moved back to the city he now calls home, tried and tested by fire, and a shining example of how to live honestly with an adventurous joyful, attitude and extend love to others he meets along the way. May this song encourage you to do the same.

Dennis Jernigan

To hear The Dennis Jernigan Podcast version of this blog, go to https://www.patreon.com/posts/tried-by-fire-113979141

Photo courtesy of https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2018/02/25/14/30/bronze-cast-3180684_1280.jpg