The Boy in the Blanket God’s Love Found Its Way Into My BrokennessBY: LESLIE KOWALSKI You wouldn’t call my childhood the happiest one a person could have. Growing up in a tiny, run-down house as the tenth of twelve children—with parents who struggled with mental health issues—I certainly learned about the fear of God. But I didn’t know how much God loved me. We were very poor, and we rarely had enough food. My father would sometimes shoot squirrels from out of the bathroom window so that we could eat, and other days we would crawl through grocery store dumpsters looking for food. We didn’t have any blankets, so in the winter we put our legs through the sleeves of moth-eaten coats. It was a hard life, but things began to change when, at twelve years old, I started babysitting for my oldest sister. She and her husband were Catholic, and I would attend Mass with the family. I could feel the presence of God in that church. My faith kept growing through marriage, the… Read More »The Boy In The Blanket
Blog
Your blog category
Advent – The Dress Rehearsal One example of something different between men and women are dress rehearsals. Men hate them, but women love them and whether you like it or not, we have a very special dress rehearsal coming up. It’s called Advent. When we have important company coming over what do we do? We clean house and spruce up the place. For everyday guests we might make the place clean and orderly but for special guests we go further. For them, we don’t just put clutter away, we actually sort it and throw it out (Ladies, think when your future mother-in-law is coming to visit). But what about those once-in-a-lifetime, really special guests? What if it were (insert name here… the Pope, the Queen, the President, etc.) who was coming? Someone who would be followed by the press and their own entourage? Now we’re talking about a formal dress rehearsal. Well, guess what? In about a month, Jesus is coming. Are you ready? I’m not. In fact, I’ll probably never truly be ready to… Read More »Advent: The Dress Rehearsal
Advent: The Dress Rehearsal
Are you saved? “Are you saved?” she asked me. “Absolutely, and I hope to be in heaven one day.” I replied. “Brother, if were are saved, then you would know you are going to heaven. When were you saved?” she asked“Just today” I said.“Well, Halleluiah!” she exclaimed. I knew what she meant, but I was headed to a destination and I was on a tight time scale. I would have loved to have talked more with my rather jubilant sister but time did not permit. I anticipate that the conversation would have angled toward the topic such of “once saved always saved” which I do not ascribe to for several reasons: But so what? There are lots of words that are not in the Bible that we know plenty about (words like internet, porn, abortion and television). Are we to assume these things don’t exist? Of course not. Look, we are not automatons or machines that God programmed to think, act, and feel in a certain way. We are free beings created in His image.… Read More »Are You Saved?
Are You Saved?
He was a well-loved, elderly priest in who fell and injured himself very badly. In fact, it was to be a fatal injury. He had been severely afflicted with scoliosis for most of his life and while he was about 5’10” in height, with his back disfigured the way it was he probably stood about 5’0”. In fact, he was so bent over that when he consecrated the Eucharist, he held it up over his head but was unable to look upon it while doing so. Though retired as a priest, he volunteered his time at a hospital for many years and was well loved by the staff. He was especially good friends with the hospital Chaplin, who was a nurse and an ordained pastor at her church. The Chaplin (who is a personal friend of mine) has a very special gift. When God allows it, she can see the angels and the saints. Since she’d formed a very close relationship with the priest and since she was a nurse, she was standing at his… Read More »Healed Before We Enter Heaven
Healed Before We Enter Heaven
How to pray effectively We all pray, but do we pray well? People often say to me “I pray but nothing happens, why is that? Is God ignoring me?” No. The book of James says, “You ask but do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.” (Jas 4:3) But what does this mean and how do I fix it? Well, recently, I ran into someone who needed prayer and the result was (what I call) a textbook perfect example of how to interact with God in prayer. Allow me to explain. When I pray, I’m usually praying for someone else’s needs (this is called supplicating prayer). Supplicating prayer is powerful because it is unselfish since the focus is on someone else. Praying for ourselves is fine, but when combined with other factors, such as fasting, a pure intent and whether other people are praying for you, it is even better. I often say that healing prayer is 95% dependent on God and 5% on me (but I have to leverage… Read More »How To Pray Effectively
How To Pray Effectively
We are body AND soul Although we don’t see it, a sick soul can cause a sick body. The amount of people who ask me for prayer for physical issues that actually have a spiritual component to them is incredible. What do I mean by this? Well, we are made of body and spirit and while we cannot see our spirit with our physical eyes, we know it is there. This why a sick body can cause a sick soul and why a sick soul can lead to a sick body. “But John” people say “how can you say that? There’s no physical evidence or proof that a soul exists!” Well, just because we can’t see feel or touch something does not mean it doesn’t exist. There are things that we know to exist that are completely immaterial. “That’s impossible!” people say. Oh really? How about gravity? Gravity is immaterial, yet no one would deny that it has great effect on us. Interestingly, although we can measure its effect on material things, we can’t measure… Read More »We Are Body And Soul
We Are Body And Soul
Forgiveness vs. Reconciliation Christ forgave everyone; why can’t I? One of the hardest things to do, whether it’s in a prayer session or in life, is to forgive. This is because we look at forgiveness through our lens, not in God’s. Here’s an example. Let’s say that you do something to me and I forgive you. Forgiveness does not mean that you were right, and I was wrong. It does not mean that you and I will be best friends from now on. Nor does it mean that I have persuaded you towards my way of thinking and I will “feel” better. In fact, these conditions more closely describe reconciliation than forgiveness and the two are distinctly separate. This is why we can have forgiveness AND reconciliation, forgiveness and NO reconciliation, but we can’t have reconciliation without forgiveness. Forgiveness is a decision, not a feeling. Jesus forgave everyone but I seriously doubt he felt better after doing so because He was nailed to a cross. It’s also important to note that forgiveness involves 2 people… Read More »Forgiveness vs Reconciliation
Forgiveness vs Reconciliation
I would have to say yes, but admittedly, I have a prejudice opinion. Why? because I’ve seen God heal over one thousand people. But, you weren’t there and you didn’t see it. I get that. Trust me, I fully understand this is a hard concept to grasp. It is even for some Christians, much less the stray non-believer who somehow wandered to this page and may be reading this right now. But all apologetics has to start somewhere so I’ll take the easy way out and start with an explanation from a Christian viewpoint. Why does God heal? Ah! Now we arrive at the most important question – why. Simple; He loves us! And healing is just one of the many tools in God’s toolbox that He uses to try to fix us. God loves to fix things. He fixes the weather, He fixes relationships, He fixes job situations and He fixes broken hearts. But no matter what God fixes, He does so for one reason and one reason only – to draw people to… Read More »Does God Still Heal People?
Does God Still Heal People?
Let’s look at four healing stories in the Bible that demonstrate four different levels of faith. The shallow end of the pool of faith is found in Mark 9:17-29. LEVEL ONE FAITH: “IF YOU CAN…” “And one of the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a dumb spirit; and wherever it seizes him, it dashes him down; and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid; and I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.” And he answered them, “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.” And they brought the boy to him; and when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. And Jesus asked his father, “How long has he had this?” And he said, “From childhood. And it has often cast him into the fire and into the water,… Read More »What role does Faith play in prayer and healing?
What role does Faith play in prayer and healing?
Introduction I didn’t do it. In fact, I didn’t do any of the things that you are about to read. I was there, and I saw them happen, but I didn’t do them. The fact of the matter is, I can’t do any of these things, only God can, and the good news is, that you can’t do these things either. In fact, I’m hoping that this ministry will give you the confidence to go out and “not do” even greater things! Does that sound weird? Maybe it is because something weird is going on. What do I mean by this? Christians all over the world are praying for one another and miracles are occurring. In churches, homes, shopping malls and at bus stops. Just open up your favorite browser and search for “street healing”. As I’m writing this, I did and found over 450 MILLION (million – with an “M”) hits. That’s more than the population of the United States! Something weird is definitely going on! But this isn’t exactly new either. Read the… Read More »Introduction