The Story & More - with Nancy Jackson

Monday Meditation | John 1:9-13 - Episode 8

Monday Meditations – Episode 6 Originally written September 12, 2011 Today’s Meditation Verse: John 1:9-13 Amplified Bible 9) There it was—the true Light [the genuine, perfect, steadfast Light] which, coming into the world, enlightens everyone.   10) He (Christ) was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him.   11) He came to that which was His own [that which belonged to Him—His world, His creation, His possession], and those who were His own [people—the Jewish nation] did not receive and welcome Him.   12) But to as many as did receive and welcome Him, He gave the right [the authority, the privilege] to become children of God, that is, to those who believe in (adhere to, trust in, and rely on) His name—   13) who were born, not of blood [natural conception], nor of the will of the flesh [physical impulse], nor of the will of man [that of a natural father], but of God [that is, a divine and supernatural birth—they are born of God—spiritually transformed, renewed, sanctified]. This passage says so much. Jesus is the true light who came into this world, this earth which He had made. And yet the world, those on this earth did not recognize their maker. His Jewish people, did not receive Him. But that is okay because He came so that ANYONE can now receive Him and therefore become a citizen of His kingdom.  And those who were His people that rejected Jesus at that time, brought themselves under judgement. In verse 12 John tells us that anyone who receives Jesus was given by God’s authority the right to become a child of God. The walls were down, no more an exclusive club defined by lineage. Now anyone, regardless of race, vocation, or culture who received Jesus was given permission to become. In verse 13 we learn it isn’t by natural conception (Jewish lineage), not by physical impulse (just because you want to), nor by a natural father or person. Only by God and His divine supernatural birth are you born of God. Good works cannot get you there. Nationality cannot get you there. Force of will cannot get you there. Culture cannot get you there. Becoming a child of God cannot be done by any measure other than receiving Jesus. Once that genuine reception of Jesus happens (we will talk more about that soon in this week's Wednesday Word Study and Friday Finale) then anyone is given permission to become a child of God.   Each Monday I am going to be having ‘Monday Meditations’. I hope to bring to you each Monday a verse to mediate on for the week. This is not for memorization, but to think about and to dwell on. The word meditate, in the bible, means to mutter. So this week as you go about your life, think about and mutter to yourself the verse for the week and think about how it applies to your life. Meditating on a verse will bind it to your spirit and it will become part of you! The more of the Word you meditate on, the more it will transform you into the image of Christ!   Shop all versions of my novels here: Shop Here [https://nancyjacksonauthor.com/collections/novels] My Media Website: NancyJacksonPodcast.com [https://nancyjacksonpodcast.com/] Check out my website: NancyJacksonAuthor.com [https://www.nancyjacksonauthor.com/] Follow me here: Substack: https://nancyjackson.substack.com/ [https://nancyjackson.substack.com/] Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NancyJacksonAuthor [https://www.facebook.com/NancyJacksonAuthor] Twitter: https://twitter.com/NAJackson [https://twitter.com/NAJackson] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/najackson/ [https://www.instagram.com/najackson/] Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/nancyannjackson [https://www.pinterest.com/nancyannjackson] YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NancyJackson [https://www.youtube.com/@NancyJacksonAuthor] TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nancyajackson?lang=en [https://www.tiktok.com/@nancyajackson?lang=en]

Archive Story | Do Something Different - Episode 18

Archive Story Episode 18 Originally written January 25, 2024 Do Something Different If you’ve ever been on an old country dirt road, you know that through time the ruts just get deeper and deeper and more pronounced. Listen to my professionally narrated audio books and other podcasts here: AUDIO BOOKS & ALL PODCASTS [https://thestorywithnancyjackson.supercast.com/]. I can still see the rutted red dirt roads where I grew up. The road was much lower than the sides where tall, wild grass grew. Often there was also a strip down the very center that was grass. Because once the ruts were cut in, the only path for the tires was on those ruts. Our lives can easily become like those old dirt roads. We can get in a habit of doing something and then, before we know it, we’ve carved out deep ruts in our road. Are You In A Rut I have habits I’ve developed, and they are very good habits. I make my bed the very first thing when I get out of bed each morning. I have additional morning, and then evening routines. These are very good habits, but sometimes I believe we need to jar things loose in our lives and that can only be done by doing something completely out of our norm. People interest me - greatly. I listen to many documentaries on all types of people. I like to know why and how they lived their lives, and how it benefitted them or not. Paul Simon Once I was listening to a documentary on Paul Simon. Someone I believe to be one of the greatest songwriters of all time. His song, ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water [https://youtu.be/VWu760_jIok?si=nha7TYSoluMhghiZ]’, was their biggest hit. Ironically, it was the last recorded song on their last album before parting for solo careers. They did not know at the time that the song would become the hit that it did. I don’t think that would have mattered. It was simply time for them to do a new thing. The interesting thing I’ve heard Paul Simon say in a few different documentaries is that he has no idea where the song came from. He is not a religious person [https://youtu.be/Bi6NFPhsGyM?si=66mZOwcIe0ekXvQ-]. He is certainly not a Christian; he is Jewish and says he doesn’t ascribe to any faith. He Did Something Different However, before he wrote one of his most famous songs, he said he had been on a binge of listening to gospel songs for days on end which was totally out of the norm for him. I’ve never heard him say why he did that, other than he was just compelled to do something different, to listen to different music. After weeks of listening to gospel music, he was lying on his bed one day with his guitar in hand and was just casually strumming. Out of nowhere came the song. To this day, he says he has no idea where it came from. Creative Ideas From Out of Nowhere Have you ever had a creative idea or a thought that just came out of nowhere? I know I have. I’ve also been stuck searching for a creative idea in a sea of nothing. When we are in a sea of nothing or are traveling down the same rutted road, there is no room for change. Trying to bounce out of those ruts is difficult because of the surrounding obstacles. Sometimes, we just stay in those ruts because we are afraid [https://nancyjacksonauthor.com/blogs/inspirational/the-fear-of-change] to do anything different. I believe that doing something different is critical to our growth as a person, our creative flow, and our success. It doesn’t matter if you are a businessperson in corporate America, or an artist with a paintbrush, just do something very different. Expand Your Horizons Go some place you’ve never gone to before. Listen to music you’ve never listened to before. Talk to people you’ve never talked to before. Get involved in a new group. Learn something new. Expand your horizons. I have a lot of retired friends who are doing well. I have friends who are looking forward to retiring too. However, I have also seen friends and family who have literally withered up and died just a few years after retirement. Life Is Meant to be Lived If you are of retirement age, embrace this as an opportunity to do something completely different. Don’t let age or your surroundings stop you. If you are young and have just graduated high school, don’t cling to the old friends. Love them, keep them dear to your heart, but embrace new people of all ages and nationalities. Go to places you’ve never been in your life. Embrace variety. If you are approaching middle age and have harbored a dream in your heart for far too many years, move forward. Develop a plan and do something different that will help you achieve that dream. In fact, no matter your age, dream and plan to achieve that dream. Even I Have to do Something Different I love to write and I have so many novels and even non-fiction books in my heart and on my list to write. But, sometimes I just need to do something different. In the spring of 2023, I began to water paint. Both writing and painting are creative endeavors, but very different in thought and skill. When I feel bogged down, I just stop and do something different. On days that I have planned to write, but know I need to jar myself, I paint instead. Habits, good habits are crucial to living a good life. But sometimes we just have to intentionally break out and do something different. Shop all versions of my novels here: Shop Here [https://nancyjacksonauthor.com/collections/novels] Check out my website:  NancyJacksonAuthor.com [https://www.nancyjacksonauthor.com/] Follow me here: Substack: https://nancyjackson.substack.com/ [https://nancyjackson.substack.com/] Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NancyJacksonAuthor [https://www.facebook.com/NancyJacksonAuthor] Twitter: https://twitter.com/NAJackson [https://twitter.com/NAJackson] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/najackson/ [https://www.instagram.com/najackson/] Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/nancyannjackson [https://www.pinterest.com/nancyannjackson] LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancyajackson/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancyajackson/] YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NancyJackson [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBawU_f3R6wfeNv2vytrfmA] TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nancyajackson?lang=en [https://www.tiktok.com/@nancyajackson?lang=en]

Miracle Story | A Double Miracle - Episode 18

A Double Miracle When my father had surgery at MD Anderson Hospital to remove the cancer behind his esophagus they had to remove his voice box. That was such a devastating and hard pill to swallow. Listen to my professionally narrated audio books and other podcasts here: AUDIO BOOKS & ALL PODCASTS [https://thestorywithnancyjackson.supercast.com/]. His ordeal in the hospital was a very hard one. He was in intensive care for eight weeks. The last couple of episodes have discussed the miracles that transpired during that time. Demon of Death First the intercession I did to push back the angel/demon of death. Then the letter I wrote to him about what it really meant to be born again and how God didn’t want us to follow rules and rituals, but just have a relationship with him. In that letter I invited him to call out to God and begin that relationship. The last episode told of how he let me know that it was ok. It still brings tears to my eyes. I Had Prayed For My Father I had prayed my entire life for my father. I prayed that he would quit drinking and God delivered him from that very thing, suddenly and without warning. I had prayed many times for his healing and each time it came miraculously. There are so many precious miracles surrounding my father. But let me say, that all of those were the culmination of one answered prayer in particular, the prayer where I prayed for him to be born again. I prayed simply, daily, that God would not let my daddy die without knowing him. That prayer alone paved the way for all the others. God Spared My Daddy’s Life For my daddy to not die before he knew God personally, he had to live. A premature death would have ended that prayer without an answer. So God did honor him with life, through my prayers and he did come to know God in a personal way. His recovery from the cancer surgery was a long one. Because they had to remove his voice box they had let us know, obviously that he would no longer be able to talk. They sent him home with a device that he could hold up to his throat and it would vibrate and act somewhat as a mechanical voice box. He Could Talk But here is another miracle. He didn’t use it because he didn’t need it. He could talk on his own. It was rough and course and somewhat like if we have a ‘horse’ throat. But yet another miracle and Dr. Gepfort was amazed. He too wrote that miracle up in the New England Journal of Medicine. About a year and a half after his cancer surgery, he was working on the farm again and living life just as he always had. He and my mom were traveling some and things were looking good. The Cancer Was Back However on a follow up visit a year and a half after the surgery, they found cancer again. This time it was in his lungs. When I got the news, I was in my bedroom on the phone with my mother. Once I hung up I sat down on the end of my bed and said to myself, “Well, I guess I will just pray again.” Then I heard in the most gentle and compassionate way, “No, this time he is going home.” It hit hard, but I knew it would be okay. Revelation of Heaven For the past year my best friend and I had been on a tangent studying about heaven. During that time I had received such revelation knowledge about it that it was literally real to me just like any other place that we go. I had begun to experience the reality of it, not just as a theoretical place, but truly feel and experience it. When God told me that he was going home this time, It was just like my father was going to another town or state. That is how real it was. There was no grief. It wasn’t what I wanted to hear, but it was already decided. God had fulfilled every prayer I had ever prayed regarding my father including the one about being born again. I believe he did not want me to pray another prayer. He wanted me to just rest in him and the fact that it was time. The Very Best Miracle He had sustained my fathers’ life miraculously until he came to a relationship with him. The very best miracle and the point of it all. When the time came and my father died, because of the real feeling I had about heaven, there was never ever any grief. I didn’t cry. In fact God showed me in a vision how my father was there. He had his full red hair back and he was younger and more vibrant. It was so incredibly real to me. How could I grieve? To this day, 39 years later, I have never grieved for my father. I can’t call him or go visit him as though he were in another town, so I do miss him. Never Grieved From time to time I do ask God to tell my father that I love and miss him. I do this because the bible makes it clear we are not to pray to or attempt to communicate with the dead. But there is nothing that says I can’t ask God to give him a message for me. The revelation of heaven remained acutely real for such a long time. I yearned for it. Not because my father was there, but because of the magnificence of it. What I had come to know through the revelation knowledge that God had given me was something I can’t put into words. And the yearning for it was almost more than I could bear. I Missed My Father There were times I yearned for it so much that I wanted my life to end so I could be there. Let me be clear not commit suicide, but just for my life here to be over so I could go home. I often said if he would give everyone that kind of revelation of heaven then there would be a full world of Christ followers. But God wants us to come to him, to have a relationship with him, not just because of heaven. Then after having battled that for several years and having agonized over the yearning, I asked God to take away that revelation. I needed to go back to a place where I could live my life fully here, unhindered without yearning for heaven. And he did. That acute revelation faded and faded until I came to the place I had been before my father died. I carry with me the knowing of its magnificence without the full feeling of it. I am groping for words to explain something that is totally intangible in my spirit. I know more than I did, but now it is a head knowledge and yes a heart knowledge too, but no longer an experiential knowledge as it had been before. Does God Answer All My Prayers? If you have listened to all my writings so far on miracles you may be feeling like every prayer I have ever prayed has been answered with a miracle and that God has never denied me a request. That isn’t true. This is a series on miracles and this one shows that sometimes God says no. I can’t tell you why, but he decided and that is the way it was. He saved me from the effort and angst of praying prayers that he knew he would not answer. That has happened since, but in a positive way. I had a premie grand baby born at 1.9 lbs. I began to earnestly pray and God stopped me. I heard, “I’ve got this.” And I knew he was already taking care of my sweet grandchild. I Don’t Have All The Answers I don’t know why God does what he does. I don’t understand his timing. I just know t...

Do You Fear Having an Open Mind

Do You Fear Having an Open Mind? Monday Meditations – Episode 5 Originally written September 5 2011  posted here: https://forthesakeofthetruth.com/2011/09/05/monday-meditations-acts-319/ [https://forthesakeofthetruth.com/2011/08/08/monday-meditations-2-timothy-316/] Today’s Meditation Verse: Acts 3:19  Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away. Have you ever had an Etch-a-sketch? I may be dating myself here, but I did as a child. It was one of my favorite toys! I would painstakingly work and work to produce a spectacular work of art.  I really never came close to the visions that I had in my mind, but I kept trying, day after day.  The coolest thing about the Etch-A-Sketch was that as soon as I made a mistake I could instantly wipe it away as if it had never been there and start all over. I wouldn’t even stop to think about it. I’d shake it and — Boom — away it would go. Now sometimes that wonderful feature on an Etch-A-Sketch was a two edged sword. There were times that I would have a great picture going and then by accident I would bump it or shake it and it would all be wiped away, and I could not recover it.  When something was wiped out, it was gone forever and could never in any way or fashion be recovered. No matter how hard I tried, I could never recover it again.  Well that is how far removed our sins are. They are not recoverable. So as we are drawing on the Etch-A-Sketch of life and we make a mistake, just shake it (off) and move forward. Start again with a clean slate and move forward with Christ.  The past mistakes are over and gone, wiped away. Don’t allow the enemy to keep bringing them up and reminding you of them. Remind him that they are gone, wiped away never to be recovered. Move forward with hope for tomorrow, knowing that the old is gone and the new is just ahead.  And should we make another mistake, and we will, we have Christ to wipe it clean — again.  Wednesday Word Study – Episode 5 Originally written September 7, 2011  posted here: https://forthesakeofthetruth.com/2011/09/07/wednesday-word-study-repent/ [https://forthesakeofthetruth.com/2011/08/08/monday-meditations-2-timothy-316/] Acts 3:19 Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away. This is the Strong’s Greek Concordance Number: 3340 [http://strongsnumbers.com/greek/3340.htm] Transliteration: metanoeó Phonetic Spelling: (met-an-o-eh’-o) Definition: I repent, change my mind, change the inner man (particularly with reference to acceptance of the will of God), repent. When I first learned the true meaning of the work ‘repent’ I was very surprised!!  The church I had grown up in taught us that repenting was telling God you were sorry and that you wouldn’t do it again, then asking Him to forgive that sin.  It was usually a one-sided dialog where we repeatedly kept telling God how sorry we were. It was usually accompanied by remorse and a sense of guilt. But because of the shame, we never really allowed the Father to work on our heart.  It was if we kept Him at arm’s length while we babbled on about how sorry we were that we thought would make it all right. So, the remorse, shame and guilt stayed, and afterwards, because we had not allowed ourselves to receive from the Father, we went away unchanged, untransformed and we made the same mistakes and operated in the same sin again and again.  But the true meaning is to ‘change your mind’!  I copied this from the Biblios website under the Strongs word section: 3340 [http://strongsnumbers.com/greek/3340.htm] metanoé? (from 3326 [http://strongsnumbers.com/greek/3326.htm] /metá, “changed after being with” and 3539 [http://strongsnumbers.com/greek/3539.htm] /noié?, “think”) – properly, “think differently after,” “after a change of mind”; to repent (literally, “think differently afterwards”). The phrase above “changed after being with” makes so much sense to me.  When we are with the Father after doing something wrong, we will change our mind and realize that what we did was wrong and that we should not do it again. Being with the Father will change our heart and when we leave His presence we will desire to be different and to do different than before.  If we will take our remorse, shame and guilt to Him and allow Him to reaffirm His forgiveness and love, we will see a new and better way. Our selfish desires will fade away more and more as we go to the Father in repentance, but not just admitting a wrong done, but receiving His transforming grace, instruction and love in regards to the matter. That would make sense.  If we thought it was a good idea, or if our selfish desires were leading us to that behavior, then we will change our minds and believe that it is behavior that is not beneficial to us or the kingdom.  Therefore, we will strive to never do it again.  Being with the Father will change both our hearts and our minds.  His immeasurable love and grace will give us the power to live a Holy life. But we must move toward Him so that that change can occur.  We must take our mistakes, our sin, our missteps and deeds to Him so that He can reveal the truth of our behavior to us.  As He does, He will also show us His loving heart and that kind of love never fails.  It never fails to transform us into His image, little by little, day by day. Friday Finale – Episode 5 Originally written September 9 2011  posted here: https://forthesakeofthetruth.com/2011/09/09/2413/ [https://forthesakeofthetruth.com/2011/08/12/led-or-driven/] You Might Change Your Mind This week our word study and mediation focused around the word repent.  If you have ever spent any time at all in any Christ based church in the world you have heard the word repent.  But what I was taught was the meaning of the word from a small child on up, was not what the true meaning was. I have been doing a lot of word studies in the past few weeks and very surprisingly when we go look at the root Greek word, it doesn’t have the same meaning that we believed it to have.  I am not sure just how the meanings of the words have become so distorted through the years, but it is vitally important that we know the truth of what is being said in the gospels, for our sake as well as others. The word repent in the Greek means ‘to change your mind’.  It doesn’t mean to beg for forgiveness every time we become aware of a wrong we have committed.  It doesn’t mean for us  to beat ourselves up in an effort to punish ourselves for that wrong.  It also doesn’t mean to force our behavior to change without the transformative power of God. But realize this, all behavior begins in the mind with your thinking.  No action is carried out without a thought first.  It may be a lightning fast thought that we are not initially aware of, but the brain controls every behavior, thought and deed.   Even involuntary...

Friday Finale | You Might Change Your Mind - Episode 5

Friday Finale – Episode 5 Originally written September 9 2011  posted here: https://forthesakeofthetruth.com/2011/09/09/2413/ [https://forthesakeofthetruth.com/2011/08/12/led-or-driven/] You Might Change Your Mind This week our word study and mediation focused around the word repent.  If you have ever spent any time at all in any Christ based church in the world you have heard the word repent.  But what I was taught was the meaning of the word from a small child on up, was not what the true meaning was. I have been doing a lot of word studies in the past few weeks and very surprisingly when we go look at the root Greek word, it doesn’t have the same meaning that we believed it to have.  I am not sure just how the meanings of the words have become so distorted through the years, but it is vitally important that we know the truth of what is being said in the gospels, for our sake as well as others. The word repent in the Greek means ‘to change your mind’.  It doesn’t mean to beg for forgiveness every time we become aware of a wrong we have committed.  It doesn’t mean for us  to beat ourselves up in an effort to punish ourselves for that wrong.  It also doesn’t mean to force our behavior to change without the transformative power of God. But realize this, all behavior begins in the mind with your thinking.  No action is carried out without a thought first.  It may be a lightning fast thought that we are not initially aware of, but the brain controls every behavior, thought and deed.   Even involuntary actions were instilled in an earlier thought process.  Highly skilled martial arts learn involuntary actions by thinking and practice and repetition. Let’s look at a few commonly known scriptures with the word repent in them and substitute with ‘change your mind’ and see what we get. Acts 2:38 Peter replied, "Change your mind and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Acts 8:22 Change your mind about this wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. Acts 3:19 Change your mind, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, Revelation 2:16 Change your mind therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. Luke 24:46-49 46) and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, 47) and that the changing of one’s mind for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48) “You are witnesses of these things. 49) “And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” So when you are engaging in wrong behavior you may think it is the right thing to do at the time.  Even if you know down deep inside that it isn’t right, you justify it at the time.   For instance, you know you should go the speed limit, but you justify speeding because you will be late for work.  You haven’t really changed your mind to the belief that you should not speed at all, for any reason.  You still believe it is okay to speed some of the time. So, when we see that the word repent means to change your mind, that is the beginning of changed behavior.  Once the light of the Word is shed on a subject and revelation knowledge is received, it changes your mind.  You then have the power and ability to live it out. If you try to change your behavior only without really changing your mind, then you will not have the power to continue on the right path.  True change starts in the mind, but must drop into our spirit to bring life changing power. True change comes from transformation from the inside out, by first changing your mind. So, today read the Word, meditate on the word and allow it to change your mind.  After being with the Father your mind will be changed. This study is a culmination of this week’s Monday Meditation and the Wednesday Word Study. By drilling down on specific scriptures and then specific words, we can begin to gain a better understanding of the Word of God and therefore apply it to our lives more accurately. The Friday Finally episodes take both the Monday Meditation and Wednesday Word Study and pull them together for an overall teaching to equip and train us for a more Godly and beneficial life. Shop all versions of my novels here: Shop Here [https://nancyjacksonauthor.com/collections/novels] My Media Website: NancyJacksonPodcast.com [https://nancyjacksonpodcast.com/] Check out my website: NancyJacksonAuthor.com [https://www.nancyjacksonauthor.com/] Follow me here: Substack: https://nancyjackson.substack.com/ [https://nancyjackson.substack.com/] Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NancyJacksonAuthor [https://www.facebook.com/NancyJacksonAuthor] Twitter: https://twitter.com/NAJackson [https://twitter.com/NAJackson] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/najackson/ [https://www.instagram.com/najackson/] Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/nancyannjackson [https://www.pinterest.com/nancyannjackson] YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NancyJackson [https://www.youtube.com/@NancyJacksonAuthor] TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nancyajackson?lang=en [https://www.tiktok.com/@nancyajackson?lang=en]