MARK 2:14 (2026)

MARK 2:14

As he (Jesus) was walking along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.

---- my own,

Can you recall how many times I have called you to be Mine, ever since you were a child? Do you remember how glad you were of My Presence and your awareness of Me? As a child, you desired so much to do all I asked of you, and you experienced My closeness and My love for you.
Now recall the times when the spirit and the flesh were at war within you, during the years of your childhood, your adolescence, your teenage years, and your young adulthood growing into womanhood, and how many, many times the flesh won. Often there was never even much of a struggle; you just gave in to the desires of the flesh, to your own will, to pleasure, to concupiscence. You made compromises and justifications for your choices, although you knew full well that you were choosing the lesser things over what was true, good, holy, pure, and beautiful. You shut your conscience to the inner voice of My Spirit.
How often, ---- my own, I said to you, “Follow Me,” and you pretended not to hear My invitation. How many times you felt the discomfort in your spirit over the choices you made, but you ignored it and went ahead and did what your flesh clamored for.
Eventually the time came when you heard My invitation, when you were at your lowest, at your most broken, when your world was shattered. You did stop, listen, and say, “Yes, I will follow You.” Even then, the road has been rocky; there were times you vacillated and flirted with the flesh and succumbed to its clamorings.
Now, as your hair grows grey and your body slows down with the advance of time, you are finally Mine. Now you belong to Me. Stay Mine for the rest of the time allotted to you, and I assure you that I will be with you always. The closer you draw to Me, the closer I will draw to you and give you all that you need to bring you safely home.
Continue to pray, to hope, and to trust, and do not worry. Fear, worry, and anxiety about anything have no place in the lives of those sealed in the Holy Spirit. Have no fear, ---- my own. I have overcome the world.

MATTHEW 18:12-14 (2026)

MATTHEW 18:12-14

What do you think? If a shepherd has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost.

---- my own,

Consider yourself the lost sheep. See yourself far away from home, alone, friendless, in the cold in the wilderness, with no hope of ever being found and restored to the people and places you have known and loved.
Now think of how it makes you feel that I, Good Shepherd, and My Father will, without a second thought, leave the ninety-nine sheep and go in search of the lost one. We will not rest until the one that is lost is found, comforted, healed, taken care of, and carried if necessary, and restored to the rest of the flock. Such is the love of God, ---- mine.
This is why I say to you over and over again, and so does My Father: Be not afraid, have no fear, do not be anxious about anything. Why do you worry? Why are you anxious? Why do you go about burdened and heavy laden when I have revealed to you the love of God?
Is there any greater love than this ever known, that God who so loved the world that He sent Me, His only and most beloved Son, into the world, not to punish the world for its wickedness and its faithlessness, but to lay on Me the punishment for the sins of the whole world beginning with the sin of Adam until the sins of the last man? I paid the ultimate price with My life so that I, by entering into your death, could make it possible for you to receive the life of the Son of God.
The Father loves you. I love you, and the Holy Spirit living in you enables you to experience the abiding love of the Father and the Son. So why are you afraid? Why question? Why doubt? Why are you despondent and sad? Why do you feel discouraged about the faithlessness of man when God is at your side, above you and below you, at your side on the right and the left, and within you?
Do not be anxious about anything, ---- my own, but have this confidence in Me that I, who shed every drop of blood in atonement for your sins and for your redemption, have opened the way to the Father's house so you may enter and live and reign with Me as My bride forever and ever.