Blog Archives

How someone’s words saved my life: My tribute to Lowell Lundstrom

12/25/2013

            To my regret, I only heard Lowell Lundstrom preach three times, that I can remember. But those three times changed my life. The first time I heard him preach was at a crusade in 1976, about three weeks after I have gotten saved. My friend, John, signed me up to be a counselor and I wasn’t mature enough for that. Here came this family of four up to receive counsel and well, as you can imagine, I was overwhelmed. The head counselor came around and saved the day. I believe this took place in Benson, Minnesota in July of 1976. Lowell preached and talked about "fire escape evangelism." How people would give their hearts to the Lord when they were in a dire situation, but when the pressure was off they would go back on their commitment. This
always stuck with me.

            I remember another time I heard him preaching on television and he talked about a red Bible. He had purchased one and a lady wrote in and told him that this is the Midwest and your Bible was too flashy for us Scandinavians. He got the point and switched back to a black bible. He taught me this: become like the Romans to win the Romans. Some things in our culture we should fight against and some things we should try to fit it and not push our personality likes. Lowell knew the difference, and because of him I do to.

             My greatest encounter with Lowell Lundstrom would take place at a church growth seminar in Willmar, MN with Pastor Tommy Barnnet from Phoenix, Arizona. I believe it took place in January (not sure of the year-1988 or 1989). Lowell made this comment that later saved my life and helped birth a ministry in me. He said “people in churches, want a preacher who can deliver the freight.” Later when I went through a seven year trial that changed my life that I call “Seven years in Hell” his words would come back to me. I was trying to trust God and figure out from scripture how to be healed, it was like Lowell himself was there with me saying “you got to be able to deliver the freight.” These words would be a catalyst for me to keep going and I did get
divinely healed. Then after I received my healing, I knew God wanted me to have a divine healing ministry and to help others receive their healing, too. These words now became “Scot, are you gonna deliver the freight? As a result "How Can I be Healed Ministries" was born. As you can imagine, and if you knew my wimpy personality, the learning curve was hard. Guess what, in a couple of weeks, I get to deliver the freight with God's help. With the help of my Pastor and church elders, I am going to do my first four week teaching series on Divine Healing.

             So would I have accomplished this without Lowell Lundstrom’s words? NO! I want to encourage you to do what Lowell did for me; speak a life changing word into someone’s life. You never know what those words might do. I think now about my eight year old grand daughter, Samantha, who lives with us, how can I influence her for
Jesus. What will be my legacy through her?

             As I close this blog, I think about those that are hurting this Christmas who have lost loved ones. I am approaching that situation with one of my parents. I am so grateful for Lowell Lundstrom and his life changing words to me. His preaching and music were two of his greatest gifts, but they were not his greatest gifts; are great as they were. His greatest gifts were Lisa and Londa, his two daughters. I don’t know them personally except through Facebook, but when I read their posts, I see their Dad coming out through them as well as their mom. This is Lowell’s greatest legacy and his life’s blood and work will continue through them. I know they are hurting and missing their mom and dad, so pray for them as I am.

             Remember, you never know what an aptly spoken work can do; it can encourage or as in my case it can be a deal maker-a life savor. Encourage someone today whether by phone or text or FB.

   “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works” (Hebrews 10:24)

“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12)

0 Comments

Four things I finally learned to do that have changed my life!

12/22/2013

1 Comment

             Number one is to say I’m sorry; please forgive me. I
don’t know why this is so hard especially for men. I have found this to be liberating. "Confess your trespasses to
one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.” (James 5:16)

            Number two is to say thank you. I believe God honors a grateful heart. “And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.” (Colossians 3:15)

            Number three is to tell people I love them and say some encouraging words to them as God leads me. I found it is more exciting to see others succeed than myself. Whenever I extend grace, it’s like I get more back. I love turning into a spiritual coach and being someone motivator, cheerleader and there biggest fan. “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”
(Hebrews 10:24,25)

            Number four, whenever God gives me something, I act on it. I try to it immediately, if I can’t I do it a.s.a.p. But I always do it, no exceptions! Whenever, I do this, God always gives me more. “Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things.” (Matthew 25:23)

1 Comment

So what’s God’s part and what’s my part?

12/19/2013

0 Comments

            If you have every wondered about the sovereignty of God, I believe Ephesians 2; 8, 9 addresses it. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

           Grace is God’s part. It is what Jesus already did on the cross for us: Salvation/Healing/Financial help, deliverance from bondages just to name a few. He has already banked that in our account.

           Faith is our part. We must believe with just a simple
child-like faith. So where do I get faith from. Romans 10:17 says “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”    A child simply believes what he or she is told. He or she doesn’t really question the possibility of it
or analyze it. They simple accept and trust. We must get the doubt out and then that little mustard seed of faith that we all have will work. We renew our mind. Instead of looking at things with natural eyes only, you can begin to look at
things with spiritual eyes as the Bible begins to take root in
you.

            Start small and work your way up. We build a bridge from the Spirit world to the natural world when we simple believe. We just take what God already have provided for us. We stand on his promises. If you work it and keep working it, it will work for you. After all God promised it. I think most
people quit if they don’t get immediately results. Don’t fall into that trap. Refuse to be denied. God won’t let you down.

0 Comments

Coming out of the closet: why I kissed Steve goodbye

12/18/2013

0 Comments

            For years there was this guy in my life. I can't remember the first time I met him. It was so long ago. He was like a twin brother to me. I know something always bothered me about him. I really didn't like what he would try to get me to do. It seemed he was always trying to get me into trouble. Would a real friend do that?

            I tried to ignore Steve and hoped he would just leave me alone, but he was persistent. It seemed he always showed up at the worst times. I finally told him, listen, I don't want anything to do with you. He just laughed. It was like one of those movies where the menacing person they thought that they had gotten rid kept coming back when they least expected it.

            There he was it seemed everywhere I went. It was like Steve was saying "I'm back." I didn't want to have a relationship with this guy. After all, I was a Christian and it was just plain wrong! I wondered if I could get some kind of restraining order against to keep him out of my life. But restraining orders don't work on this kind of person.

            So what did I do? First of all let me tell you this. Steve is not a real person or is he? He is the personification of my sin nature. I am not sure who named him. I just remember
saying to my wife, Ginelle, that was Steve, not me. She said we want you around here, not Steve. Get rid of Steve. We both made a little joke out of it. Neither of us wanted him around, but we didn’t know how to get rid of him. I prayed, we prayed, but Steve kept coming to visit. If you read Romans chapter 7, you will see Paul's struggle to overcome the sin nature. “For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.” (Romans 7:15)

             First let me differentiate between the flesh and the sin nature. The flesh is the natural part of us. It is our human will, natural characteristics, etc. You could say it is neutral in a sense. The sin nature is the bad or evil part of us. The flesh must be yielded for sin nature to control us. For example,
if I choose to watch a horror movie, I am opening the
door to fear in my life. I am enticing the sin nature to activate. The same is true with lust or anything else. What role does Satan play in all this? I believe he piles on. Ever see a football game, where the guy on bottom can't get
up because all of these guys are on top of him.
“Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? (Romans 6:16) Fool around with it long enough and he’ll own you.

               So what can a person do? First, let me say that your willpower is no match for the sin nature or Satan. You must place your faith in Christ, and renew your mind. “For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.” (Romans 7:15)

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:1, 2)

             When I think back now I can remember some of the things Steve would get me to do. I fully cooperated with him. I remember one time trying to fix my desk and it just
wasn't going right, and finally after a couple of hours just losing my temper and grabbing the thing and just demolishing it in a fit of rage. Not only had I scared my family with my temper, I had to buy a new desk and was very ashamed. Maybe you struggled with temper or lust or judging or just not doing what God called you to do. You can overcome it through Christ! I did!

               I finally had to kiss Steve goodbye. I took him on a long drive and gave him some money for bus fare. He still tries to show up on occasion. If I have been neglecting my spiritual life even a little bit I make a course correction because he looks for a little hole to slip through. Now when he comes knocking at the door, I just turn him away and put him back on the bus. I stand on the promises of God's Word and pray in the spirit. What can I tell you it works, nothing else did. “For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” (Romans 8:6). Carnally, means naturally as well as sinfully.

              So say goodbye to your Steve, you won't regret it. The great thing about these Biblical Principles is one size fits all. It works for everything and everyone.

0 Comments

Why I don’t believe in Santa anymore?

12/13/2013

0 Comments

                         I know some of you are thinking because he is make believe right? No that’s not the direction I’m headed. Isn’t Christmas supposed to be about the birth of Jesus?

            Let me ask you this “would you be willing to share your birthday with someone else? My wife’s birthday is coming up soon. I think I’ll bring along one of my
co-workers who has the same birthday and we can all celebrate together. I’ll surprise my wife; I’ll pick up Jim from work and surprise her. I am sure she will be so excited to share her special day with one of my co-workers. Some of
you women probably are ready to crown me. I don’t blame you. I would never do that to my wife. I treasure her. I honor her birthday. We are exclusive in our relationship. Her special day is for her only and not to be shared. I don’t
bring co-workers along to celebrate her birthday. Does God deserve any less?

            My daughter-in-law’s father, who is a pastor in the cities, shared something one day that I had never thought about. Did you ever think about this? Santa can be everywhere in one night (omnipresent). He knows if you have been naughty or nice (omniscient). He had the power to bestow gifts worldwide (omnipotent). In case you didn’t get it, these are the basic qualities of God. Am I stretching the truth, I don’t think so. Satan often appears as an angel of
light. In this case he dresses up in red and white suit and appears grandfatherly. Satan is jealous of God, and wants to draw attention away from him. If he can’t do it outright, he will join in and corrupt the thing.

             God is a jealous God. He wants to be worship exclusively! Isn’t it sad that we care more about what other people think and not about what God thinks? I know some of you are thinking this is really not that important. I know from experience that when I didn’t pay attention to the small things, I was unable to stand up for the big things.

             Has he been successful? I personally hear more people say to kids “what did Santa get you for Christmas” than anything to do with the birth of Jesus. So there is my challenge to you: If you are going to worship the God’s one and only son, Jesus and celebrate his birthday, please do and be exclusive-be unwilling to share it with anyone else.
God will honor it.

"And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light." (II Corinthians 11:14)

"For I, the Lord your God, I am a jealous God" (Exodus 20: 5)

0 Comments

Reinventing Jesus-Can we just make up our own Jesus?

12/12/2013

0 Comments

            People often say “this is what I believe.” For instance, “I just believe God is sovereign, nothing can happen unless he wants it to.” Where’s that at in the Bible? Or “I just believe that Jesus understands when we fall short, after all we are only human.” These are kind of half truths. God is sovereign in the sense that he is all powerful and in charge of everything. But if a person says he controls everything, I would say oh really; you mean he sponsors murder and rape. Obviously, man has a free will and does things that are completely out of the will of God. And as far as falling short, Jesus does understand, and wants to help us, but he isn’t pleased with it. Just look at this incident involving the
disciples in Matthew 17:14-21

            And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. So I
brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him.” Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.” And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”

             He called the disciples faithless and perverse. I don’t know about you but I don’t want him to call me that. It seems like we have lowered the standard so much today, that Christians aren’t much different than unbelievers. That is a
crying shame. We shouldn’t be powerless, we should have the goods. There should be a difference! What if Jesus showed up in the flesh today and saw us trying to get people healed what do you think he would say? As far as we can tell his disciples had had a good track record up to this point. They just ran into a different situation that they weren’t prepared for. Jesus expected them to get it right and the same is true today. He told us that we could do the same
things he did with the help of the Holy Spirit in John 14:12. But do we really believe it???

             One truth I have found in my life as a general rule is this. If I try to figure things out with my head only it usually leads to some soft hearted, false belief that accommodates human weakness. I have tried to train myself whether the thought starts with me or not, to go to the Word and confirm it. So do opinions count? While it is true that everyone has a right to their opinion that is really where it ends: truth must always trump opinion. We have made people’s opinions and the fear of offending them a brick wall in our lives. If I give you my opinion and it doesn’t line up with the Word of God, I want you to reject it. It’s the truth we know that sets us free (John 8:32).

             So are you going to reinvent Jesus or accept the one of the Bible? If you make up your own, it really just is an extension of yourself and it will do you know good. You can’t be your own God! You need someone greater. But if you go to the Word of God and accept the one of the Bible, you will have a true friend who sticks closer than a brother, and all the power you ever needed.

0 Comments

He was at the right place at the right time!

12/9/2013

0 Comments

            I used to feel sorry for a certain person in the Bible. He never got a chance to share his faith or do anything. I’m talking about the thief on the cross, but he was at the right place at the right time.

         “Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, “If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us. But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, “Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong. Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” And Jesus said to him,
“Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:39-43)

           Then one day it occurred to me, this thief who hung on the cross next to Jesus has witnessed to more people than I could ever dream of. His life made a difference. The other mocked Jesus, but this guy got it. He knew it wasn’t too late. It might be 11:59 pm, but he rebuked the other, and asked
Jesus for salvation. Wow! That just blows my mind. Jesus was touched by this man’s faith. He took him with him. He serves as an example to us today.

           He was at the right place in the sense that he was next to Jesus, but there was something even more important. His heart was in the right place at the right time. I think of some of the people who Jesus ran into: the woman at the well, the woman taken in adultery. They were at the right place at the right time and their hearts were ripe. They received Jesus’ grace.

           You are at the right place at the right time. It’s never too late. I reached out to Jesus when I was in my late 40’s and he gave me a second chance to know him intimately and have a ministry. If you desire him to change your life, no matter what age you are, he will do amazing things. Just ask; like the thief on the cross did.

0 Comments

Think in reverse: will I get this life right for Jesus?

12/8/2013

0 Comments

             I remember hearing a story. I am a little fuzzy on the details. I believe it went something like this. I believe it was Charles Finney. He was challenged by his law professor. He asked him what he was going to do after he graduated. The
conversation went something like this. So what are you going to do after you graduate Charles? Well practice law. What are you going to do after that? Well, get married and have some kids? And what will you do after that? Well some day I suppose I will retire? Then what will you do after that? Well I suppose I will die and then go to heaven. So what will you have accomplished on earth for the Lord?

            That was the million dollar question. If we could think it reverse. Will we get it right down here? I am not talking about being saved; I am talking about walking it out according to the Bible. When I was forty-seven years old, I had a crisis of faith and this question just scared me to death. I knew I had lived a sub-par life in so many ways as a believer and a minister of the gospel. If you have listened or read my testimony you know that I prayed a prayer, a very dangerous prayer, in 2005. I prayed “God whatever you have to do to change me, do it, just spare my life, give me a vision of heaven or hell.”

              I went through what I call seven years in hell to change me. I came out a different man. I am still learning and
changing.

             So who do you want to be: if you are a guy do you want to be Tom Brady or the Apostle Paul? If you are a woman do you want to be the winner of American
Idol or Kathryn Kuhlman. In case you don’t know who she was, she was a woman, just an ordinary woman who was mightily used by God in divine healing in the 60s and 70s. She said that God used who because nobody else would take the job and she was willing. My point is this: is there a desire for us in our generation to seek spiritual excellence? I wonder if we think it is unattainable, so we just give up.

             I found that it is attainable. I am living it out. What I knew existed, I have found to be true. I have made a commitment to walk it out myself. As I stated in my testimony, I was the biggest wimp who ever lived. If God can change me, he can do the same or more for you.

             I want to get this right. I only have one chance. Life is so short and it is slipping away from each one of us. I wish I have figured this out twenty or thirty years ago. I am thankful that with God’s help it did become real to me. I believe God will reward us in heaven according to our faithfulness and the motives of our hearts. He will look at our individual lives and the gifts and callings he has put within us. But everyone will be rewarded and held accountable to what do they do with the Great Commission found in Mark 16:15-20 and Matthew 28:19, 20. This is what we will be mainly judged on for rewards and obedience. These are really Jesus final
instructions to all believers. Did I disciple people? (Win and teach and train them) Did I get people healed? Did I help people get set free from bondages? Did I assist people in getting filled with the power of the Holy Spirit and teach
them to walk in it?

             Will you get this right? I challenge you to think in reverse. Wouldn’t be a shame if you were a successful person in this life but failed to do what Jesus commanded you to do. Think of it this way, if you saved for retirement (which you should) and had plenty of money for that fifteen years after you retire but didn’t strive for spiritual excellent for Jesus, that would seem pretty sad and short-sighted in the light of eternity. Souls that you led to the Lord you can
take with you. You and they can rejoice in heaven forever and ever, and your reward never corrupts, and God gets all the glory!!!

0 Comments

How someone’s words saved my life: My tribute to Lowell Lundstrom

Four things I finally learned to do that have changed my life!

So what’s God’s part and what’s my part?

Coming out of the closet: why I kissed Steve goodbye

Why I don’t believe in Santa anymore?

Reinventing Jesus-Can we just make up our own Jesus?

He was at the right place at the right time!

Think in reverse: will I get this life right for Jesus?

Short and Straight to the Point!

Archives

Categories

DOES GOD STILL HEAL TODAY? PLEASE WATCH MY TESTIMONY "TEN YEARS IN HELL" AND FIND OUT!!!