"All it Takes is a Made-Up Mind!"

Barefoot, the Evangelist stands maybe Five Feet; she may top  5'3" in high heels. Yet her voice rings with the authority of a 6-foot-tall Marine Master Sergeant. 

For years, she ministered at a monthly Saturday noon gathering of women at her Church, where she served as an Evangelist.  Congregants of several denominations throughout metropolitan Denver attended.  Clearly directed by the Holy Spirit, the Evangelist always began with communal prayer, then welcomed the Holy Ghost to lead the way. 

Just recalling, "All it takes is a made-up mind," engenders revelatory lessons that feed me years later.  Evangelist Dallas Burleson (nee Johnson) would remind attendees of God's Word, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you" (Jeremiah 1:3a, NSRV).  

Further, she'd explain through Old Testament Joshua, that God had given us an either-or choice. "Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River of the gods of the Amorites... but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord,: (Joshua 24:15, NSRV).

Most significantly the Evangelist declared, "for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a  spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline" (2 Timothy 1:6, NSRV).  He gave us more than enough to live fruitful lives, she reassured.  Why then, do so many of us wallow with the hogs that the Prodigal Son had been forced to do after he squandered his inheritance? Why in fact, did the reprobate son finally repent and return to his father's riches? 

 Didn't a happy and relieved father reward the wastrel with a loving welcome, after having him cleaned up and robed in the finest garments.  Indeed, a great soiree resulted for the Prodigal, fatted calf and all!  Rhetorically, she wondered if any of us saw ourselves in the prodigal?

Then what makes the difference between us and the prodigal, she queried.  All it takes is a made-up mind!  A made-up mind stops procrastination, blaming others, and deep-in-the-belly fears of the known and unknown.  Making a decision frees us from frivolous, ego-driven, time-wasting, and bound-to-fail alternatives.  The Evangelist would challenge each one of us who came into this world, that we brought everything within to live fruitful, fearless lives of service.

Evangelist  Dallas would return again to the Prodigal Son, who'd wasted his money, prestige, and confidence in riotous living.  BUT, she reminded us, that an enormous difference exists between feeling wads of money in pants pockets and feeling scant pieces of lint there.  Life demands a choice. 

 James, a half-brother of Jesus, advised, "If any of you is lacking wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you.  But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed like a wind; for the doubt being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord!" (James 1:5-8, NSRV).

Clear as Baccarat crystal, a made-up mind frees us to depend neither on "self," nor to rely on our own opinions, (Proverbs 3:5a, tPt), the Evangelist exhorted. ThankYou, Jesus. because like the Prodigal Son, name unknown, I can forgive and be forgiven my checkered past, to stride home, regally robed, and clothed in my right mind.

Thank you, Evangelist Dallas, for our Saturday noon Appointments with God!