Laura and I had a wonderful time at the special gathering to honor mom today! It was great to be with so many of you and just celebrate her life, enjoy her paintings and just connect some with so many of you from church today! Thank you for all of your love, prayers and support as we continue to grieve and also at the same time celebrate mom too.

Lots of emotions today. What a beautiful service to honor mom and lift up Jesus to all of the people there. The support and love of our church, and family has been something in the midst of losing mom. There was even a time in her funeral service where people shared stories about her. It went on and on. She touched a lot of people. The graphic here is from the funeral service and the flowers are part of one her own paintings. Mom was quite an artist.

Yesterday, mom went home to be with the Lord. She had gone in for surgery just a few days ago and she didn’t survive the recovery. We are all grieving her loss. It’s hard to believe. She was such an encourager to so many here at The Church Upcounty. Mom rarely missed a Sunday gathering at the Regal Theater. There’s incredible comfort to know that she didn’t suffer a lot and that she’s now with Jesus in heaven. Laura and I are so grateful to so many at the church for all of your love and support - already. It truly speaks volumes to us.

In the current Narnia movie, the Pevensie children had the incredible task of trying to defeat an evil king and his army. During their preparations for battle, they came up with ideas and tried to figure things out on their own. Lucy had another idea though. She believed that Aslan, the Christ-like lion character, was there to help them defeat their enemies. Eventually, all of the Pevensie children believed that Aslan was there to help. As they depended on him, he provided some offensive weapons such as walking trees that helped overcome the army of King Miraz in a final battle.

We also have some weapons to help us deal with the spiritual battles that we face daily.

2 Corinthians 10 [3] For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. [4] For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. [5] We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.

The image that the Apostle Paul is presenting here is similar to an offensive battering ram that is designed to tear down strongholds. The strongholds that keep us down - perhaps more than any other - at the negative thinking patterns have the potential to control our minds for years and years - and keep in bondage to things that are not reality. For example, God says that anyone who is a follower of Christ is forever loved by him no matter what. Sometimes when we fail, we get into the self-condemning thinking that convinces us that God doesn’t love us anymore.

The battle for our minds can be intense. For instance, negative self-talk can overtake us at times. When it comes to life with God, there’s one word that matters most: perspective. Our perspective of God, faith and life determines whether we live in victory as the battle goes on all around us … or in defeat. Our perspective of God, faith and life will determine whether we live in joy, peace and contentment – even as the battles rage on around us. What’s the perspective that God wants us to have as we face these battles raging on all around us? We don’t fight for victory, we fight from victory. The sure, solid hope of a life with Jesus Christ is that we can say — we’ve won.