Once upon a minute there were two midwives who lived in a land of oppression. Their life's purpose was to help mothers in the travail and delivery of childbirth as they brought beautiful new children into the world. The women had big hearts full of love, and with that love, they were the first hands to hold new life as it pushed forth from the womb. Their hands were known as Life-Jackets of Love holding babies in the hope of delivering them to a better day.
          But, alas, there was a King in the land who thought there were too many of a certain kind of people. He ordered the two women to remove the Life-Jackets of Love and kill all of the boys who were delivered, but to let the girls live. The two midwives were so filled with Love, they refused to follow the orders from the government leader, and they let the boys live.
​          The King grew furious and ordered his people to throw all of the baby boys into the Nile River. In that day long ago, innocent children suffered from the hatred of folks who didn't know how much God loves them. In this day that we live in now, million's of innocent babies aren't even allowed to see the light of day before they die prematurely. They are killed before they are delivered from the womb.
                                                 All children are gifted on both sides of the womb.

DAY EIGHT WORD

“And shewing mercy
unto thousands of them
that love me and keep my commandments.”
Deuteronomy 5:10

          Today's Bible verse about love is a repeat from Exodus 20:6 and is repeated many times over in different paraphrases throughout the Bible. Why does God keep repeating Himself? Have ever heard a parent say to a child; "How many times have I told you that?" Love is supposed to repeat itself and reduplicate itself. God wants to enlarge His Love and deliver it repeatedly in greater ways.
          Unfortunately evil is also repetitive. In the story at the beginning of this article, you read my paraphrase of a true Bible story from Exodus 1:15-21. Innocent children have been sacrificed since the beginning of time. As time marches on, technology lends an expedient hand to the continued sacrifice of children. Abortion number in the millions every year. Millions of living children, whose hearts start beating in the womb at about six weeks old are killed.
          God's commandments are pretty clear, Love God, Love your neighbor and Love yourself. God talks a lot about Love, but He also mentions what He hates. Here's what the Message Bible says in Proverbs 6:16-19, 
Seven Things God Hates “Here are six things God hates, and one more that he loathes with a passion:
eyes that are arrogant,
a tongue that lies,
hands that murder the  innocent,
a heart that hatches evil plots,
feet that race down a wicked track,
a mouth that lies under oath,
a troublemaker in the family.”  
          The third thing that God hates is "hands that shed innocent blood." Is there anything more innocent than a child safely nestled in its mother's womb? Life isn't always perfect and new life doesn't always appear at the perfect time, but God always makes a way for those who trust in Him. He will make a way for that child to live if you just give the child a chance to live. Life for you will go on. Adoption is an alternative. There are agencies who will help you every step of the way. I personally know successful women whose mother's made the decision to give birth in horrific and abusive circumstances. God has blessed their efforts and travails.
          In today's Word from the Bible, we read about showing mercy to thousands who love God and keep His commandments (to love.) My prayer is that this article will reach thousands of folks who will do something to show God's mercy and save the life of a child in the womb. 
          Here are several links to organizations who can help  and provide information about making decisions about your pregnancy.                Southtowns Pregnancy Center          Northtowns Pregnancy Center

Thank You God for Life.
You are the Way, the Truth and the Life.
You make our hearts beat
Within six weeks of placing us in our mother's womb.
You knew why you made us before You made us.
Repeatedly You tell us about love being a more excellent Way.
Help us as we become voices for the voiceless innocents.
Teach us and guide us I the way we should go
With Your hand upon us.
The battle is Yours Father, we will stand and fight as You lift our hands.
Establish the work of our hands to battle for the lives of the innocent.
May Your Love and mercy cover those
Who don't yet know Your Love.
Bring them under the shadow of Your wings.
In Jesus Name.
Amen.

Author's Note: This article is part of a 21-day Series called, "YWAP Fast 2019." Each year, the YWAP Directors and countless other folks begin the New Year on a 21 Day Fast. We set aside extra time to honor God and seek His will for the New Year. This series will eventually be written in book form as a model to teach future YWAP generations. We welcome your comments or questions. Jesus loves you and so do we.
​

          As children we're told not to talk to strangers. As we get older we're told to be kind to strangers. As we listen to the news, we're told to beware of strangers at the borders of our country. How do we go the extra mile and show love to a stranger we're not sure we can trust?

“But the stranger that dwelleth with you
shall be unto you as one born among you,
and thou shalt love him as thyself;
for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt:
I am the Lord your God.”
Leviticus 19:34

          The man from Eritrea was sleeping in a discarded cardboard box from a refrigerator. He had moved it next to the basement window of the church where we ran a five day after school program. As the kids ate their meals in the dining room, they could see the shadow of the man as he crawled inside his cardboard living quarters. It became a normal sight for them.
          Everyone was welcome in our youth center. We originally called it a Teen Drop-In Center, but the needs of the community quickly dictated who our helping hands would serve. The man originally came into the youth center through the doors like everyone else. He didn't speak any English, but it was easy to see he was hungry and tired. We fed him and then he went to sleep on one of the many couches in the game room.
          The Youth Center was located in a gang infested, impoverished part of the city. Anything could be stolen at anytime. The man had been given a free phone through a social assistance program. He plugged it in to charge and then went to sleep. When he woke up his phone was gone. This too was a normal sight for children to see, a person angry over something stolen.
          He had come to us as a stranger and was treated as family. Someone treated him as a victim and now he looked at all of us as traitors who had abused him. He blamed us for stealing his phone. He would never step foot in our center again. Still, he continued to live in his cardboard box. The girls who worked in our kitchen would make him a plate of food every night and we would take it out to him. He refused to take it, but we would leave it at the edge of his box where he left his shoes.
           It was a strange sight to see; his shoes were placed in a manner similar to what one would do upon entering a house and removing their shoes. This was January in Buffalo, NY. The temperature could easily be anywhere between 0 and 30 degrees Fahrenheit. He must have a habit or a memory of an earlier time in his life. Someone must have taught him to remove his shoes upon entering his home. Even though he was living in a cardboard box, he retained his respect for entering a living quarters.
          Shifting to a more spiritual look at this story, your living quarters of life is in your heart. Habits, memories, trust, love, brokenness, kindness and things such as these make up the items in your living quarters. This man was a stranger, the girls went the extra mile after the man put a wall around his heart. We know he received some comfort because he ate the food. All we can do is pray that their act of kindness will become like the shoes at the edge of his cardboard box - a memory worth repeating. That would be a ripple effect of going the extra mile. Thanks for your time. Go the extra mile.

Thank You God for giving us Your Word .
You show us that we're all strangers
Just sojourning through a temporary place to live.
Our home in this world is short
In comparison to our eternal life with You.
Help us to live and love those who we may consider strange.
Give us wisdom in dangerous situations, 
but yet give us the ability to love in all situations.
We will always have strangers among us.
Sometimes we will be the strangers.
Give us the ability to go the extra mile
In showing love to strangers worth repeating.
Ripple our love and let it lead to You.
In Jesus Name.
Amen

Author's Note: This article is part of a 21-day Series called, "YWAP Fast 2019." Each year, the YWAP Directors and countless other folks begin the New Year on a 21 Day Fast. We set aside extra time to honor God and seek His will for the New Year. This series will eventually be written in book form as a model to teach future YWAP generations. We welcome your comments or questions. Jesus loves you and so do we

Life's too short to hang onto your grudge. 
Let God  take care of being the Judge.
Folks get mad and refuse to budge.
Our grudge becomes an ugly  smudge.
Grudgen' and smudgen', and never budgen',
through life we be trudgen',
but it's God who should be doin' the judgen'.

“Thou shalt not avenge,
nor bear any grudge
against the children of thy people,
but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself:
I am the Lord.”
Leviticus 19:18

          On September 11, 2001, one of the worst terrorist attacks in America's history, took almost 3,000 lives. Many folks have a story about where they were when the news broke about the hate-fueled attacks. I was driving on the New York State Thruway on my way to Chautauqua High School to give a speech to the Freshman Class. As I heard the news on the radio, my first reaction was disbelief. I thought I was listening to a modern remake of Orson Welles "War of The Worlds." Reality didn't take long to hit home.
          The shortness of our lives is what I thought about as my speedometer pushed past 65 miles per hour. Many things in my life at that point were in disarray and were causing me a lot of emotional pain. One of them was a business breakup that deposited some unforgiving grudge in my gut. There's no way to describe adequately what happened next. The grudge of unforgiveness became like a weight on my shoulders. I was aware of its heaviness, but then suddenly it was lifted off. I literally felt my body being pushed up toward the roof of my van. The release was so powerful, I smiled as tears  formed around the edges of my eyes. God had pulled from me what I could not release myself. I was freed from my grudge!
          The 19th chapter of Leviticus is God's lesson on how to be holy. In the second verse we read, "Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy." The 18th verse is at the midway point and is one of the most important ingredients of holiness. So important in fact, that Jesus quotes the verse when he's asked by religious scholars to tell them what the greatest commandment is. In Matthew 22:37-40, Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18; "Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” I noticed that God is prefacing his remarks about loving your neighbor with some good advice about not holding onto a grudge. How can a heart have love when it's holding a grudge?
          People will do you wrong, intentionally and unintentionally. Even if they offend you on purpose, I could make the case that they still don't know what they're doing. As guilty people hung His innocence on a cross in a gruesome humiliation, He responded in humility, grace, mercy, compassion and love as He said; “Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” Luke 23:34
          Life's too short to hold onto grudges and thoughts about retaliation. Let God take care of business. He always does in the end. “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” Romans 12:19 Let your end be free from vengeful thoughts. Let your now be filled with humility, grace, mercy, compassion and Love. Removing unforgiveness requires God's help. Give your grudge removal projects to Him with a sincere heart and He won't let you down. On the contrary, he might lift you up when driving on life's highways!

Thank You God for lifting us up
When we're weighed down with unforgiving baggage.
Your Son set us free from guilt.
He took our weight of sin upon His innocent shoulders.
Help us God to be holy ln the same way.
Your Word tells us
To turn the other cheek
And go the extra mile.
Only by the grace found in You
Can we possibly do those things.
Help us to live one day of forgiveness at a time.
One act of grace.
One act of mercy.
One act of humility.
One act of compassion.
One act of Love.
Breathe on us O Breath of God.
With one breath you can lift us
Into a sudden moment of beautiful forgiveness.
Not by our might O Lord,
But by Your power.
In Jesus Name.
Amen

​Author's Note: This article is part of a 21-day Series called, "YWAP Fast 2019." Each year, the YWAP Directors and countless other folks begin the New Year on a 21 Day Fast. We set aside extra time to honor God and seek His will for the New Year. This series will eventually be written in book form as a model to teach future YWAP generations. We welcome your comments or questions. Jesus loves you and so do we.

          It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood when families have dads embracing fatherhood! Many men think freedom means walking away from the children they've helped bring into the world. True freedom is found in the choice of surrendering to a more excellent way of Love.  The men in the picture above spent 13 weeks learning how to be better fathers or get ready for fatherhood. They could have been hanging out in a bar, playing ball with some friends or whatever else guys get together and do, but they chose to be dads.
          There's a movement in Buffalo to teach men about the blessings, responsibilities and benefits of fatherhood. The Nurturing Fathers Program was facilitated by Antoine Johnson at Bennet High School in the Bennett Parent Center. Antoine is the Fatherhood Coordinator with the Buffalo Prenatal-Perinatal Network Inc. He's done a great job getting this program up and running with enthusiasm. 
          The generational plague of absentee fathers can be stopped with a proactive approach to teaching fatherhood. It's time that all schools teach young men and women about responsible parenting. Now is the time for schools and  Courts to mandate attendance in Fatherhood Programs. 

“And if the servant shall plainly say,
I love my master, my wife, and my children;
I will not go out free:”
Exodus 21:5

          When times were hard, men would sell themselves as laborers to employers or masters. Sometimes they were in debt and were sold until they could pay their debt. Laws gave them freedom after certain requirements were met or after a definite time of service. If a man was given a wife by his master and they had children, both the wife and children were the property of the master. When the man served his allotted time to pay his debt, he was free to go. Free to go without his wife and children.
          Love is the only thing that would make anyone stay when they have the choice to leave. Freedom by oneself is lesser freedom than the freedom found in being a servant in God's Love. If the man chose to stay, he would stay forever. It's easy to think of our own culture in a physical world when we think of freedom and bondage. The lesson here is more reflective of forever freedom in Christ.
          Some folks run from God because they think doing life His way will restrict their freedom. That couldn't be further from the truth. The way I see it, there's two types of freedom. There's freedom of self that does what we want to do and then there's freedom in Christ which compels us to do what we were created to do. True freedom is believing in the unseen and trusting the will of God. by following the freedom of our own selfishness we'll land in the bondage of sin. If we live a life of ignoring God's freedom, we'll eventually find ourselves in hell with the devil as our master. There is no more freedom of any kind at that point. 
          Without Christ in our lives, we are unable to escape the bondage of sin. A man should love his wife the way Christ loves the church. The Bible makes it clear that fathers are supposed to teach their children God's best practices for living a life of freedom within God's Love. A father has to have a strong relationship with his children to do that. If you're a guy with kids, it's time to Man-Up and Be A Dad!

Father,
Thank You for another day of opportunity.
A day filled with unseen potential.
A day of new beginnings for families everywhere. 
Your Word says that God is Love.
A Father is supposed to be love to his family just as You are to us.
Help mothers and fathers in all families become
Partners in a holy heritage of children.
Even if they are apart,
Give them the ability to unite in the best interests of children.
Help us not to provoke our children to anger.
Cover children with a father's love in Spirit and in Truth.
In Jesus Name.
Amen.

Author's Note: This article is part of a 21day Series called, "YWAP Fast 2019." Each year, the YWAP Directors and countless other folks begin the New Year on a 21 Day Fast. We set aside extra time to honor God and seek His will for the New Year. This series will eventually be written in book form as a model to teach future YWAP generations. We welcome your comments or questions. Jesus loves you and so do we.

          Moses climbed a mountain to receive God's ten Commandments. Some folks say they were spoken as one word. I know from the experience of climbing mountains, there isn't one word to describe the what you feel when you reach the top. At least not in human terms anyway. When asked to describe what it's like to stand on top of a mountain, I simply say "God blows you away with what you see!" One word will not describe the whole experience of planning, hiking, exertion, exhaustion, pushing almost beyond your limits - until you finally stand on top of the mountain. Unless that one word is "God."

“And showing mercy
unto thousands of them
that love me,
and keep my commandments.”
Exodus 20:6

          The Ten Commandments were summed up in two commandments by Jesus in Matthew 22:37-40 
    “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy               mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as             thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
          Everything is all about one word "Love." The world is filled with  written documents and signed agreements, spelling out every possible way that the agreement could be broken. Some folks even sign a prenuptial agreement just in case their agreement to love each other fails. The focus of most contracts is on how many ways they can be broken instead of the one way they could be fulfilled - Love.
          Thinking about standing on a mountain with God is similar to thinking about how much I love my wife. My goal in studying the 280 verses about "love" in the Bible, is driven by my desire to love people the God loves us.  
          When I have moments of lapses in judgement, God's mercy is there to cover me. Mercy is just another form of love. It extends the meaning of love to; favor, kindness, goodness, lovingkindness and merciful.
          Just before God gave the people His Ten Commandments, He reminded them that He brought them out of their bondage in Egypt. That's a great reminder for all of us. Everyone has their own personal bondage. All of us have fallen short of being examples of God's Love. One word - Love.

           “For God so loved the world,
               that he gave his only begotten Son,
                    that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
                         but have everlasting life.”
                              John 3:16
      

Thank You for the mountains, God.
You give us highpoints of Love.
You lift us from valleys of bondage when we ignore Your Love.
Show mercy in this minute to someone
Too weak to take a step toward You.
Your Love covers our repentance.
Help us turn back to You after we've fallen on the mountain.
Sometimes we fall so far and so hard,
The mountain seems unclimbable.
Lift us, gather us, push us and demand from us -
An accountable love.
May we be worthy of
The greatest Love that You have to offer,
Jesus Christ.
In His Name we pray,
Amen 

          Our society is driven by a competitiveness that demands out performing others to win the prize. The Super Bowl, World Series, Stanley Cup and the Olympics provide examples of a "best performer takes-all" mindset. Does that spill over into our other relationships like friendship and marriage. Are we duty bound to perform or does love fill us with the desire to accomplish acts of love naturally?

“And Leah conceived, and bare a son,
and she called his name Reuben:
for she said,
Surely the Lord hath looked upon my affliction;
now therefore 
my husband will love me.”
Genesis 29:32 King James Version

.              Leah was the least favorite wife in an age where it was permissible to have more than one wife. Her husband Jacob had performed seven years of service for her father Laban and received her as his wages. Sounds kind of crass, but they lived in a different time and culture than we do now. Their customs followed traditions based on the needs of the times. Her father used her as a pawn in a scheme to deceive Jacob. Leah believed her pregnancy with a son would finally give her love in her husband's eyes.
          She had performed her duties as a wife well. This would be the first born son for her husband. Surely this would catapult her into first place in the competition for "best wife."  That was a title that seemed to evade Leah all the days of her life. That may seem sad if you only look at one part of who this woman was. Examine the generations that came forth from her womb and you will find Jesus Christ came through her blessings of motherhood.
          Leah did the best that she knew how. She was mistreated as a daughter, a sister and a wife, but God blessed her as a mother. Leah performed her duties out of a desire to love her husband and family. Here are the results of her excellence in motherhood: Her third son Levi became the father of the tribe whom God chose to serve as priests in the Tabernacle. Her fourth son Judah was chosen by God to carry out His promises of blessing all people through Abraham. Jesus was from the Tribe of Judah. 
          Though Leah had done her best to perform as a wife and seemingly failed, her life as a mother gave birth to priests and ultimately a King. Leah sacrificed herself for others. Jesus seemingly failed to save his people when he died on a cross. Jesus sacrificed Himself for others. Leah was a great woman. Her works are worthy of God's praise.
          True love will desire to give - no matter the cost. True love will desire to be dutiful in acting out that love. True Love lives on forever.  "We love because He first loved us."  1 John 4:19 

Thank You God for loving us
while we were still being selfish and turning away from You. 
There are no requirements to receive Your Love
other than to believe it so much that we understand the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.
We don't have to perform to receive your Love.
Knowing You arouses our desire to please You by loving others the way You love us.
Help us to see the big picture of a person's life,
not just little snapshots of what looks like their failures.
You are God who turns ashes into beauty.
May the ashes of our failures
become the sacrifices for future generations
to learn about the beauty of Your Love.
​In Jesus Name.
Amen.

“Look at the birds of the air;
they do not sow or reap or store away in barns,
and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you not much more valuable than they?”
Matthew 6:26 NIV

          Time as measured on a clock seems to be an absolute period defined by hours. minutes and seconds. Stare at a clock and time passes slowly. Stay busy and time moves more swiftly. Happiness tends to shorten time, whereas anxiety lengthens the hours in a day. How much time is in your control? Can you lengthen or shorten time?

          In the Bible Verse above, Jacob had to work seven years to earn the right to marry Rachel. The dude was so in love, he paid no attention to how long seven years were. This story has a funny ending (unless you're Jacob!) If you read yesterday's story, you saw how Jacob learned about trickery and deceit. After those seven years, Jacob was tricked into serving seven more years because he married the wrong wife! (In his eyes she was the wrong wife, but God was working everything into something good.) The clock doesn't measure how long it takes for our actions to come full circle, but it will surely come to pass. On my second morning without coffee, the thought of 19 more coffee-less mornings seems like a very long time! This too shall pass.
          Measuring time by the highs and lows of our emotions will surely impact the perceived length of our travails and triumphs. Time can be on your side, if you practice a mindset of gratitude. Anxiety will always be a drag, but refocusing on what you have to be grateful for will lessen the time focused on what you're anxious about. Happy times will always speed by and never be long enough, but if you spend some time being grateful for the hard times, they'll make the happy times even sweeter!
          Everything works together in time to create something good for those who trust God. The picture at the top of this story shows Pilate "washing his hands" or removing himself from the responsibility of an innocent man who is about to die. We know that Jesus was in excruciating agony in the time before his death. In the time before he was crucified, he asked God to take away the times he was about to face. The times were so bad that he was sweating beads of blood. At his last Supper. Jesus gave thanks as he broke the bread, even as he was about to be broken.        

     Love – that’s the word that settled into my spirit last night. It happened while I was reading a book called “How To Study The Bible” written by Dwight L. Moody. The word “love” is a “focus word” for my 21 Day Fast which begins today – 1/1/19. The first Bible verse I read as I began my fruit and vegetable fast, was about a guy who loved meat. God used a bit of irony here in getting personal with His humor!
   Moody’s book contains a story about how he studied love. He said that by the end of it, he was filled with the desire to show love to everybody. Last night I told my wife Linda, “That’s what I want! The desire to show love to all people.” This was just after I made a disparaging comment about someone who irritates me. God has impeccable timing as He demonstrates perfect parallel parking between my pride and His grace. 
     There are some folks in the world that I find myself being very critical of in a judgmental way. I want to lose that part of my character. Being judgmental because somebody irritates you can be a root of pride. I don’t know about you, but I’ve tripped over many haughty roots in my life. My goal here is to reduce the tripping and increase the love.
     The Online Version of the Blue Letter Bible is a great resource for studying. This morning, I began my study of love by looking up the word in the original King James Version Bible. The word occurs 280 times in the New and Old Testaments. Other versions of the Bible contain more as the word is more freely used. My plan is to study all 280 occurrences of the word love. I desire to know what God wants me to know about His Love through His Word.    

"And make me savoury meat, such as I love.
​and bring it to me, that I may eat:
that my soul may bless thee before I die."
Genesis 27:4 KJV

          This comes from a very cool story about what can happen in families. Hunger, deceit, cunning wisdom, trickery, dishonesty, frailty, blindness, weakness all rolled up into one big human ball of inadequacy. God used that mess and made it into a small puzzle piece in His Love Story.
          In days of old, a father would give a major portion of his estate as an inheritance to his first born son. Isaac is a dad nearing his final days on earth and wants to bless his first born son Esau. His wife Rebekah has a different plan. She believes that her other son Jacob is more worthy of receiving Isaac's blessing. Together, the mom and the second son devise a plan to steal the father's blessing.
          If you were to only read a small snippet of this story, you could be tempted to lay all the blame on the woman in the story. Several years earlier when Esau was very hungry, he sold his birthright to his brother for something to eat. His lackadaisical attitude about something of extreme importance lead to the loss of his father's blessing. Rebekah must have known about her son's weak stomach, so she took matters into her own hands.
         Later on, history shows what God does with folks who stand up in times of adversity. Jacob wrestled with God in  Genesis 32:28 "And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed." We read about Esau in Malachi 3:1 “And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.”
          It's important to note that mother Rebekah heard from God before the boys were born. Genesis 25:23 "And the Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.”
          Some guys go to jail with weak stomachs. Prisons aren't known for cooking the way mom does. A newbie in a cell with a hungry stomach succumbs to the temptation of a beef jerky or a cupcake. Little does he know that this "loan" from his Bunkie (cell-mate) is the first step in an extortion plot that may cost him his life (birthright.) When he can't pay the inflated fee for the jerky, the price goes up. Twenty bucks in food quickly becomes the an extortionist debt of many times that amount and keeps growing. The debt is never satisfied and neither is the devil.
​          There is a hunger for love that we all have. A weak stomach will fall for the temptation of counterfeit love. God's Love is fallible and will never leave you or forsake you. Study His Love and He will replicate Love in your life.

Thank You God for Your Love.
Your Love is extravagant, always enlarging and never ending.
Strengthen us when we are weak.
Give us strong stomachs in times of adversity.
Cause us to question You in hard times; too often we question our faith.
It's You who has the answers and a plan.
Your Word is full of Truth for those who take the time to examine it.
Give us eyes to see Your Wisdom.
Give us ears to hear Your truth.
Give us hearts that know Your promises.
Give us strong stomachs with discernment in times of physical weakness.
In Jesus Name.
Amen. 
​

   Youth With A Purpose begins our 18th year in 2019 with a fast as our Keys to the Kingdom Planning Strategy.
     We fast and pray as we seek answers from God as to this years focus for our ministry.
     As the next 21 days unfold, we'll ask God (appealing to heaven,) for a Word for the Year appointed for YWAP. 
     Praying and planning in seeking God's direction minimizes our mistakes in doing our best to teach young people how to become Christ-centered mentors for the next generation.
          Following the same strategy that helped us write a book called The YWAP Fast, we'll detail the answers God gives us on a daily basis. Here on our website you'll find an article that gives a story, a Bible Reading,  A Prayer and some Deep Thoughts. Here's an example from a previous fast when I almost drove by a man laying on the sidewalk with a metal leg because I didn't want to be late for church. 
          Our fast follows the pattern of a Daniel Fast. You can find it in the Bible, Daniel 1:12, 10:2-3 For 21 days beginning January 1, 2019, we'll eat only fruits and vegetables while consuming only water. The object of our fast is to focus on God and His plan for YWAP. Thanks for praying for us. We appreciate your comments and please fast with us if you're comfortable in doing so.