Today becomes the by-word. Yesterday is gone and I cannot change it. Tomorrow is only a hope, not even a promise, but today, today is mine. Today I can start that diet, write that letter, send a card to a friend, and take my granddaughter to lunch. Today I can put into motion all those wonderful 'what-ifs' that have been niggling in the outer edges of my mind. Today I begin again.

Spring is a time for forgiveness and for change. Beginning again implies we failed the first time and maybe a second, third or more. But, in the spring all that is forgotten and there is renewed hope; possibilities are endless.

 To harness all the energy that comes with this season requires an important commitment on my part. I must be willing to put the past behind me, forgive myself and anyone else involved in my failures, and look forward. For our weak human nature that is not always the easiest thing to do. Jesus is the ultimate example of forgiveness. He forgave me and He has forgiven millions of others for horrendous deeds.

 If Jesus can suffer the shame of the cross and love us while doing it, why do we have such a hard time forgiving ourselves and each other?

Unforgiveness is the acid that eats away our hopes. How can we hope to move forward if we are chained to the past by bitterness and unforgiveness? Families that learn the art of forgiving can be a positive influence anywhere. Families, who harbor grudges, refusing to see the other person's side, live in anger, hate, and bitterness that will, by its very nature destroy them.

 Learning to live a life of forgiveness is not easy. It requires a lot of pain and struggle. People hurt us both intentionally and unintentionally. We must remember that they and they alone will answer to God for their actions. We will account for our own. When we trust God to keep score, our minds are free to do other things. We can concentrate on the important things in life with fewer lines and wrinkles.

 While learning the art of forgiving others we must not forget that it is just as important to forgive ourselves. We all make mistakes, have regrets, and hurt others. We fail, grow weary and even undependable at times, but we must accept that weakness, strive to overcome it, and move forward.

Forgiveness brings change. By choosing to forgive, we choose life, and set in motion all those wonderful things found on a beautiful spring day.

 I was often the last one to drift off. I would wait until the others were asleep and I would ask my dad questions until I couldn't stay awake. Eventually, I learned to recognize the difference between truck lights and car lights. At one point, I could even tell what kind of car was coming toward us by its headlights and when a train was coming.

I could see the trains very far away and it thrilled me to be able to tell dad about the trains with such great accuracy. I asked him why the train light was so much brighter than those on the cars and trucks were. He told me that trains were so much more powerful than the smaller vehicles and they needed more light to see far enough ahead to travel safely.

One day while I traveling with my dad I realized that during the day, I couldn't see the trains as far off. It seemed that their lights weren't shining as bright. In fact, I could hardly tell that it was on. I noticed that I could see the train before I could see the light. Daddy explained why that light wasn't bright in the daytime. There was no night to make it shine.

As Christian women, we can be doing fine; everything is just great in our corner of the world. Blessings seem to be flowing into our lives. Then the bottom falls out and nothing seems to be going right. The difference is like day and night. The Lord said that it rains on the just and the unjust. He asked us if the world came against Him why would we expect it to be different for those that loved Him. He gave us His Word as the light to shine in front of us in the world of darkness. He said His Word was "a lamp to my [our] feet, and a light to my [our] path" (Psalms 119-105).

Today's Christian woman can be like that train. The train still has it light on during the day. However, we should be the brightest at night. When we hide God's word in our heart, His light shines through us in every circumstance. When everything is going right, the Word, living in us in is shining. It goes before us clearly revealing the tracks God has laid out for our lives, and shining brightly for others who need it. Though it may not show up as bright as it does when we're surrounded by darkness.

When darkness presses in on us, and it appears that we may stumble and fall, we have His Word to reveal the path ahead and show us the direction we should go. Unlike the world, our knowledge that God is with us, and His Word buried in our hearts, helps us keep our eyes are on our heavenly journey and not stray when things go wrong.

Lost women everywhere are looking for something that shines bright and stands out in the darkness. When we're moving on with the love, joy, and peace of God shining brightly through us, we can be a beacon of hope. Like that train, we will be visible for a great distance ahead. The darker it is around us the brighter our light will shine.

My husband compares God's Word to the white stripes in the center of the highway on one of our dark, soupy, foggy Houston mornings. Sometimes the fog is so dense we can't see the taillights on the car in front of us until we're right up on it and it's hard to be sure that we're in our lane. By keeping our eyes on the white stripes and carefully watching the limited visibility offered by our headlights, we can arrive safely at our destination.

When we rely on God's Word in this dark, soupy foggy world we live in, we have the same assurance that we will arrive safely at the destination God has planned for our lives.

 Forgiving others is an art. It's not something we do naturally. Like any other art it is something we can learn to do. Although some people do seem to be born with a disposition that makes them more incline to forgive, nobody naturally forgives everyone in every circumstance.

We are each born with our own unique temperament, which is the basic blueprint of much of our behavior and personality. Other factors, such as family, birth order, and environment blend with our temperament and help make us the people we are today. Inherent in our temperament is our propensity to forgive or to hold a grudge.

We can go into any hospital nursery or daycare facility, watch babies for a few moments, and quickly see these temperaments in action. A tiny little girl wrapped in a pink blanket in the corner will smile (yes babies smile) and coo at the nurses. She takes everything in stride. The little bundle of joy next to her will scream when she's touched, or not held, or not fed quickly enough.

In the daycare, we can watch three-year-olds interact and see the strong willed Choleric line all the other children up to play the games her way. The Melancholy will tolerate this as long as she likes the Choleric, but she won't be told what to do for long. The Phlegmatic isn't impressed with her ideas or her game, but she will play to keep peace. The Supine will follower her anywhere and obey every command while the Sanguine is too busy laughing with her friends to concentrate on the game. These five basic temperaments are the building block of our personality. Our temperament strongly influences our ability to forgive.

 Ideally, we learn to forgive others in a family where parents wisely guide and teach us. Unfortunately, most parents are struggling with their own issues and grudges and they fail to teach this important principle to their children.

The Bible has many things to say about forgiveness. One of my favorite Scriptures was written to the Hebrews, "Looking diligently lest any fail of the grace of God, or lest any root of bitterness springing up disturb you, and by it many are defiled" (Hebrews 12:15 MKJV).

If we dont learn to forgive others, we can easily destroy our own lives and the lives of everyone we love or who love us. We all know people who were wounded early in life and never to let go of the pain. Bitterness seeps into everything they do. They cant trust and are always looking for the bad rather than the good in others. They offend easily and quickly get angry for the smallest slight, where real or perceived. Unforgiveness saps energy and destroys our creativity. It makes us horrible people to be around.

 We can all learn to forgive. When we do, our relationships are stronger and it is easier to accept God's forgiveness. Jesus suffered more pain and humiliation than any of us ever will, yet while He was hanging on the cross some of His last words were, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do" (Luke 23:34 MKJV).

Jesus wasn't looking at what they were doing to Him. He recognized that these mortals would stand before God one day and account for their actions. He knew that He was here for one purpose and the cross was part of that purpose. He learned to trust God with the plan for His life, including the cross.

 Years ago, we resigned a church that we had worked hard to build into a thriving, beautiful group of wonderful people. It was difficult for us because the congregation wasn't aware of the tension between some of the board members and us. This was one of the most painful experiences in my life. Before it was over, a couple of men got ugly and treated us badly. We loved those people and never spoke out against them, even taking undeserved abuse at times during the transition.

 One day when two men were being rather harsh in a church meeting God showed both my husband and son two angels sitting on the platform. They were weeping. Each of them had a pen and scroll in their hands. They were writing down everything that was taking place in that meeting. The angels were as grieved as we were.

God used that experience to show me that He was aware of what we were going through and it was all being recorded. We understood that those men would stand before Him one day and account for the actions that day. That difficult period in my life was a turning point. From then on, I knew that He was in control even when I couldn't be.

 Every one of us experience bitterness and hurt. We grieve over the unfair things people do to us. We must work our way through it. We can't allow ourselves to hold onto the bitterness and let it destroy us.

 If we can take our eyes off the one who has hurt us and focus on the eternal consequences of their actions, we can even love them. God isn't as concerned with what we go through as much as He is with our response to it. Our response to injustice is the mortar that goes between the bricks of events building our lives.

 Forgiveness isn't an option. We can't choose whether we will forgive. It's necessary. Without it, there is nothing but pain and anger ahead. Alexander Pope was right when he said, to err is human, and to forgive is divine.

 It's important to appreciate the price Jesus paid for our salvation. It's the only way to know the value of His sacrifice. The writer of Hebrews reveals, "And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission" (Hebrews 9:22). To purge is to "get rid of whatever is impure or undesirable." Blood is the only thing that can remove sin. For centuries, God used the blood of animals to teach us the importance of Jesus' blood.

The Bible shows that it was necessary to shed blood for man from the very beginning. Immediately after declaring the curse on Adam and Eve, God had to kill an animal to provide clothing for them. Every important event in the Old Testament either preceded or followed animal sacrifice. God didn't demand this because His needs. It was done to illustrate the importance of Christ's blood to man's limited human understanding. It also revealed the immense sacrifice He would make for us.

 Old Testament man had only one hope beyond the grave; this was God's promise to Abraham. God gave Moses the Law while Israel wandered in the dessert. It was rigid. There was little flexibility in its demands. It declared "an eye for and eye and a tooth for a tooth."

 God promised Abraham a son who would be the source of a great nation. The nation of Israel would one day bring man's Redeemer into the world. Abraham believed God. This was the only way Old Testament saints could have hope. It was in the promise that one day a Redeemer would come. Their hope was a future hope. They hoped that one day their Redeemer would be born of the seed of a woman.

The law was limited in what it could do for man. It could only point out our flaws. It told us how corrupt and evil we were. Yet we had no power to change. It was like receiving an invitation to an elegant dinner and standing in front of a mirror to get ready. In the glass, you can clearly see a large smudge of dirt on your face and your uncombed hair. You try to wipe the dirt off your face and you realize that you can't move your arms. Time is passing quickly, but you can't wash your face or comb your hair. This is your only chance. You know you can never enter unless you are spotless. What can you do?

According to the law there was very little you could do except to wait on a promised comb, washcloth, and the freedom to move so you can use them. There is nothing you can do. You are completely dependent on someone else. Jesus brought the washcloth, the comb, and released us to have the freedom to clean up. It all came by His blood. His blood washes and cleans our hearts, giving us the power over self and Satan to get cleaned-up and to stay cleaned-up. Through His death on the cross and His resurrection, we can walk in the freedom God intended for his daughters.

A few days later, the FBI arrested him and questioned him for several days. They wanted to know how he got the information about the new radar guidance system. It took him some serious talking to convince them that he had acquired his information from the dreaded horn beetle.

It turned out that the radar guidance system that he had discovered was a new, state of the art, guidance system that NASA had begun to use in space travel. The 'secrets' were kept under lock and key, and only a limited number of people knew of its existence. Everyone involved in the project had the highest security clearance. The FBI couldn't believe that a mere agriculture scientist could possibly know of its existence and the intricate details of its operation.

Some scientists believe that the horn beetle has been around for three million years and makes up one forth of the animal population on earth at any one time. NASA stumbled onto the radar guidance system that God had placed in this insect so long ago.

Many of man's wonderful 'creations' are like this simple horn beetle. We think we're so brilliant and yet all we really do is uncover God's marvelous design that is already functioning in the universe.

Have you ever wondered how a salmon finds its way back home to spawn? After it hatches, it travels sometimes thousands of miles to the ocean and lives there for four to six years. Then, swimming upstream, it returns to the same river or stream where it was born to lay eggs and reproduce. It does this through its refined sense of smell.

Most things in nature have an even number of rows or lines. Corn always has an even number of rows on each ear. Watermelon has an even number of stripes and so does cantaloupe. It's impossible to understand how people can see God's design in the world and not believe in the Creator who put so much detail into it.

I heard Paul Selah once say that to believe in the 'Big Bang Theory' makes about as much sense as believing that an explosion in a printing plant resulted in the creation of the Webster's Dictionary.

God often used nature to get our attention. I have a pastor friend who was staying at a hotel in Alaska during the winter. He was going through a devastating experience in his life and was questioning his relationship with God and even his calling to the ministry. During a difficult moment, he went out to walking in the icy snow surrounding the hotel and wound up on a park bench next door. Of course, there was nothing green anywhere around him and the cold weather didn't help his mood any.

He closed his eyes and cried out to God in his pain. When he opened them, he noticed a single blue flower that had bloomed near the edge of the bench he was sitting on. He didn't know how long it had been there, but it was beautiful, the only living thing in all that ice. He told us that God had placed it there just for him.

God has a way of doing that. A bird singing, a single cloud the size of a fist, the smell of a new born baby, or a flower growing through ice and snow in Alaska can get our attention and reach our hearts wherever we are. With our busy schedules, we often forget to take time to appreciate the wonders of God's creation.

We all go through trying times and get discouraged at times. Or we get so busy doing His work that we forget Him in the process. God's sweet voice is easy to ignore or push aside when life's pressures push in on us. Sometimes we need to slow down, sit outside in a lawn chair, and breathe deeply as we contemplate the Creator who loves us so much, that He will use His own creation to bless and encourage us.

Life's battles aren't like the games we played as children. The weapons aren't imaginary and more than the one with the loudest lungs determines the victory. There are much greater stakes at the end of our war than those in our childhood games.

Our war began long ago. Satan deceived one third of the angels into rebelling against God and his government. God evicted them from heaven. He could never allow anything unholy to remain. To do so would destroy the sinless, beauty of His kingdom.

Earth was the perfect place to confine these malefactors. God could have simply annihilated the rebel who had loosened so much evil with his pride and lust for power. He could have vaporized these evil angels with a mere thought. God, however, had a plan, to avoid future uprisings of rebellion in His kingdom, and show the watching hosts the true nature of sin. He chose to deal with it here and prevent future uprisings and a repeated cycle of rebellion and death throughout eternity.

What better way to end all possible traces of sin than to plant a beautiful garden on this little planet, Earth? God created man and placed him there. He was dependent on God for everything. Yet, he could also choose to obey God or not. Although he didn't realize the spiritual results, God gave him two choices.

If Adam had obeyed God, he would have won the privilege of drawing all of his energies, drives, and desires from God's Spirit and have heaven on earth. Because he disobeyed, however, Satan took man's nature captive. When the first Adam yielded to his desires and lust, he destined all of his descendants to bondage to the elements of this world.

We perceive the world through our five senses. We see, taste, smell, feel, and hear our world. This is because we became alive to the world through the flesh and lusts and drives there. Adam's disobedience disconnected us from God, joining us to the elements of the world. Like a lamp cord, Adam plugged us in to a dead outlet. Before the fall, man communed with God because he was alive to Him, when sin entered; however, he died to God, becoming alive to the world.

God knew that Adam would fall dooming future generations to bondage to our lower nature. This did not catch Him off guard. God already had a plan. Jesus, the Son of God took up a temporary residence here. He was born of a virgin, and lived a life of sinless perfection.

As the Second Adam, He died to sin. Through rejection, deprivation, persecution, and many other dealings with sinful man, sin continually tempted Him. On the cross, He died completely to sin's power. Jesus redeemed mankind in this selfless act of love and made a way for fallen man to come alive again unto God, as he died out to the world.

God has used sin for thousands of years to prove Himself through the lives of men. In Moses, He prepared a nation to lead an obedient people to victory. He brought Jesus into the world through this special nation. In Joseph, He taught that faithful obedience, even in unjust circumstances, would lead to victory. In David, we see that God longs for His children's repentant hearts to cry out to Him for forgiveness and victory over sin.

Sin must run its appointed course. Like a river, begins small, grows in size and speed, as it rushes to its final destination, sin began in one heart, but eternity will reveal the results of its devastation and tragedy.

As we live unto God, we can live an obedient life in the power of His resurrection. The life of Jesus: His victorious, triumphant, and overcoming life is in each of us. As we die to sin and self, we become alive unto God. This gives us victory over any battle that we must fight. It is a fight to the finish, and the stakes are high: eternal life, or eternal separation from God. Thanks to Jesus, we can have victory in this most important battle: Life!

Approximately every 50 years or so, God shines his light onto a new facet of his plans for 'Operation Man.' In addition, he places a new emphasis on the gifts necessary to bring his plan to fruition for each age. Although his gifts are the same and will never change, history reveals that Christians in every generation brush the dirt off of buried truth bringing it to the light as God uses it to demonstrate his power. 

The baptism of the Holy Spirit, tongues, and the manifestation of certain gifts were seen sporadically throughout the centuries. Most of the early church fathers had some level of this experience at least once in their lifetime, even though they didn't fully understand it. Many of them lived their entire life and ministry from the power and sweet memory of this one unique experience or moment with God. 

We can see as far back as the 19th-Century how the early holiness movement and the Keswick 'Higher Life' movement ushered in an unprecedented time of revival. The first known person to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues was a woman named Agnes Ozman on January 1, 1901. She was a student in Topeka, Kansas. From Kansas, the Holy Spirit worked at Azusa Street in California for years. Today's Pentecostal movement began from these roots. Our founders started the Pentecostal Church of God in 1919.

During the 1940's, the Pentecostal Church of God more than doubled in size, increasing in churches, ministers, and constituents. The middle of the 20th-Century was an important time of renewal for the church. The large ministries of that period operated in the gift of healing. People like Oral Roberts and Kathryn Kulman lead the church into a new era of growth and prosperity. Healing was the expected result of faith and prayer.

Many of the churches and movements that grew so prosperously in the decade of the forties and fifties have reached a point of escalating decline in the latter part of the 20th-Century.

Today we're in a new century and a new era. God wants to do a new thing in our generation just like he has done in preceding ages. He is sweeping the dirt off hidden truths for our generation. He is moving through churches and bringing in the sweet fragrance of life. God is raising up leaders with vision. He is looking for mature, seasoned, capable men and women who hear his voice and know his Spirit through a deep, intimate, personal relationship.

The Holy Spirit is breathing a new spirit of revival into the church. Like the pastors and ministers in the forties, today's minister must seek the face of God and become sensitive to the moving of his Spirit. We can't expect him to bless our stale, outdated, outmoded programs. People are looking for something with life and excitement. They won't stay long in a church that has the stench of death.

We're living in one of the greatest times the church has ever known. These are the last days. You and I are hand picked vessels God is using to bring life to his church as we anticipate and work for his soon return. I hope you feel as exhilarated and as honored I as do.

 At other times, He leads us into the next step of our journey as He did king David, who fought a lion, then a bear. Only after he was ready did he battle Goliath. He was stepping up each time by facing what was in front of him and doing the right thing. Each step prepared him for the next one. He endured and became proficient at what the Lord had for him.

 As women, we often know that God has called us to serve Him and accepted it. The ministry isn't something that just happens or that we trip into. Sometimes people seem to be standing around waiting for the Lord to drop, knowledge, ability, and skills down upon us so that they will suddenly be able to do God's work. That rarely happens. God uses women in every occupation, but He expects us to be prepared when opportunity knocks.

 Paul said "study to show yourself approved..." (II Tim 2:15). If we intend to achieve God's plan for our lives we must first gain the wisdom and knowledge we need for a strong foundation. One of the most important things Jesus did was to train the disciples. He spent three years ministering and training them, teaching them how to minister.

 When God puts a calling in us, He is also calling us to learn things that we don't know. The Disciples submitted themselves to the ministry under Jesus for three years. Jesus taught them. They lived their lives with Him and became friends, willing to share His hardships and the burdens. They took on the vision that Jesus had for the lost. They realized the truth of Jesus' calling.

 The ministry isn't just the glorious, rewarding, self-fulfilling, exciting adventure that it appears. We must understand the full commitment. Peter was committed to Jesus from the start. He started following Jesus because he thought that He would take the kingdom back for the Jews. He wanted a physical kingdom. Eventually, he realized the vision of the eternal purpose of the ministry. Peter eventually became the leader for the local church. The true purpose of the ministry became his hearts desire. The truth was more important than his desire for the physical kingdom. The eternal kingdom was much greater that the earthly one.

The disciples became Apostles only after Jesus called them out. The word "Apostle" means, "sent out". They did not charge out on their own into a ministry. Jesus sent them out in agreement. In Acts (8:14) Peter and John were sent by the Apostles to Samaria. The importance of this is that one may think that he is ready for the ministry ahead of him; but only one that has been down the road knows what is needed to make the trip and what is required for the successful completion. Most ministries failed or lack in success because lack of training and knowledge.