Hello and welcome to One on One. We are so pleased that you've chosen Christian programming to be in your homes and we are honored and blessed that you have chosen us, Buddy and Veronica McLaughlin, to come and to break the bread of life with you and bring the good news of the gospel. This wonderful technology and wherever you're hearing is from, just thank you for allowing us to be with you today for sharing the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We just appreciate that you want to receive more of what God has to offer and we hope to plant seeds of peace, of joy, of confidence, of restoration, of prosperity in your life.
That's a mouthful right there. That is awesome. Planting those seeds and those seeds are Jesus Christ and the harvest is coming up. I mean, I was just drinking that in.
We all need that right now. I mean, it seems like many times in our lives that just a blanket, a dark blanket can shroud us, just can over cover us and we go through seasons of sorrow. We go through seasons of grief. We go through seasons of illness and things going on with our families.
We understand. We've been there. We've walked down that road and as you were saying all that, my mind was going to a dear friend and pastors of ours, Wes and Misty Comber and Wes Virginia that we just administered for them a couple of weeks ago and they have a dear son, Matthew, and he's confined to a wheelchair and he has some disabilities. But when he watches this program, he blows kisses to me and Matthew, I'm blowing you a kiss today and saying that we love you and we're going to be there for you and God loves you.
You know, it's the little things. It's the little things that we do for each other, they help each other and sometimes it's just blowing those kisses to somebody across the airwaves and just to say we are here for you and our partners. You know, we get your letters. We get your emails.
We get your phone calls. We are here for you. We have a team that pray for you and lift you up and know that you are not alone. So many times when we go through things, the enemy wants to isolate us and make us feel that we're the only ones going through that.
Well, it's not true. We all go through things. We all go through heartaches and I think you were going to share some of that even people may not know what you even went through as a child. We go through things.
You know, we go through times of sorrow, of grief that it just seems like the world is so heavy. Nobody can kind of break into your world because if you do you feel so isolated and you're grief and you're sorrow and you're pain can become so heavy it's like somebody takes a dark blanket and throws it over your world and all of a sudden it's just different and you're having to deal with it. When I was a young man, when I was 12, my father was killed, you know, was taken away in a car accident and then I know with you, your grandmother and your grandfather, you know, who really sewed into your life, it was such a blessing to Veronica. Just really, I mean, that's all she wanted to do, my first matter, I knew her mother very well.
I knew her father. But all she wanted to do was meet her grandparents. Go see her grandparents and go down there. She experienced, she went to experience her grandparents.
Then when they were taken away and all those things are gone, it's difficult to deal with and then her father was the same way when he was called home. It was a big void and there was a lot to deal with. You know, I lost my brother, my younger brother and I lost my mother and I've lost friends. And last year Veronica lost her best friend, Jackie Hess.
I mean, she went on to be with the Lord and the Bible tells us we should rejoice at these times. But man, in our humanly bodies, we can't, we've got to deal with this loss, this void, this darkness that seems to have crept in and tried to deal. You know, when I was 12, I didn't deal with grief very well. I didn't understand grief.
And you know, going to my dad's funeral and being there was just terrible. I mean, I just wanted to be anywhere but there. I wanted the world to be right again. I wanted to get back into it and everybody forget that I went through that.
You know, that's kind of how in a 12 year old mind you're dealing with grief and we didn't exactly have a lot of counselors back then and I'd say back then, but it was a while back. And to deal with things and you know, we dealt with them differently. But you know, what I remember about all of these things I've just talked about, the friends that we've lost, the family that's gone on to be with the Lord, I remember the people. I remember those who came and sat with us, who made the phone calls, who really wanted us to know that they were there with us and they were there for us.
And they wanted to sew into our lives to help bear the burden that we were bearing, to share the grief. I know that God loves us so much that when we suffer, when we cry, when we pain, he pains with us. He sorrows with us. I know God loves us that much.
And we love the wrong of them. I watched how he, how he took her in his arms and sheltered her and helped everything to be okay. And it's wonderful when we can do that for each other. And that's what we need to do is the body of Christ.
COVID has robbed us even of having the closeness, a friendship, a fellowship. And people have had to go through terrible things and terrible loss without being able to bring family and friends in to have this, this comfort of knowing that people love us. And I don't know, I can't tell you how to help them. I don't know, maybe driving over in their driveway and just sitting there in your car quietly.
And just loving them from afar. Texting them to look, I can't come in. Now I'm sitting in your driveway. And I'm going to help take some of this grief from you.
I want to help bear your burden. It's a tough thing to do to go through this life. And then to have those very intimate moments, those very moments that we want to be able to look back and cherish. Because I remember the voices, I remember the laughter.
I remember recalling the stories of lives who have gone on before us, of really embellishing on the things that made them so special to us from other people, how special that was Veronica, when we could count on others to do that. And they would come and be with us during those times. And sometimes you don't even speak. There's just silence.
And there's the prayers. And you know that people who love you are praying for you and lifting you up. There are people that are holding up your arms in very difficult times. I had a dear friend recently just lose her mother.
We did for funeral. Just a precious Saint of God. And I remember her calling me and just telling me, I don't know what I would have done without you and Buddy just holding me up. Sometimes we just need to be held up.
We just have gone through some very hard difficult things. Life can be very difficult. But we are the hands of Jesus. We are the feet of Jesus.
We are the heartbeat of Jesus that we can go to people and be there for them and their time of need. And we will never forget those people who uplifted us. I mean, when you look at us and you think, hey, those kids have it together, well, we have it together in Jesus Christ. But we've gone through some pretty hard things.
We've gone through hard life just like you have gone through. And thank God there have been prayer warriors. They are treasured people who would hold us up. You know, my best friend, we would pray together.
We'd laugh together. We'd cry together. We'd talk about church things together, ministry together. And I know where she is today.
And I know that she is still very aware of what we are going through in this life. But it was just so good to know that going through and walking through that, that we had people to hold us up and to pray for us. And then we have prayed for her family. She left behind a wonderful husband and two beautiful daughters who we are still trying to hold up and encourage and say, hey, we're going to make it through this journey together.
And that's what we're doing. We're making it through this journey every day. If you have breath in your body today, that means that God is not finished with you, that there is still a plan for your life regardless of how hard it may seem right now. Sorrow may last for the night, but joy is coming in the morning.
I prophesied that over you. God wants to give you his joy. And through those sorrowful times and those dark clouds of times, but he says, sometimes it's like a dark blanket is just placed over us. Sometimes I even feel like a seed that's planted underneath the dirt, underneath the heavy ground.
But I know when spring is coming and spring is here, thank God in the natural and in the spiritual, that when the sun comes and the timing is right, then we can spring forth out of the ground. I want to prophesy that over you today, that God is saying you may feel like you're in a very heavy place, a dark place, but his son is going to shine up on you. He's going to nurture you. He's going to water you.
And at that appropriate time, you're going to spring forth. There are souls that need to hear your testimony. There are people that need to hear your encouragement. You're an inspiration to somebody.
You work right where you are, right where God's planted you. Even if it's in your home, you can pick up the phone and you can call and you can encourage somebody or send somebody a text and say, Hey, I'm just thinking about you. I just love you. Hey, we are in this thing together.
We are a mighty force to contend with. And hell knows that. That's why he wants to divide and conquer. That's what the enemy does the best divide and conquer.
But even through COVID and coming out on the other side of this, we're going to come out stronger. We're going to come out unified. Our voices are going to be heard like never before. And yes, we've gone through some hard things, but buddy, we do it together.
We help each other. And sometimes it's just good to be there. There are times even when we're driving on trips or we're just in the house. No words are spoken, but just knowing that we have each other, just being in that presence is comfort.
And that's comfort also with Jesus Christ, knowing that we have him in our hearts. It's comfort to know that we can make it through. And there's a great example in the Bible. We all know the story of Job.
And it was a tough one. And I mean, man, he lost it all really quick. But what was the beautiful part about it is that the people who cared about him, who loved him, cared enough. They heard about the adversity is what the Bible says.
And they got together. And they planned a trip. And if you got your Bibles, turn to Job chapter 2, beginning in verse 11, it talks about his friends that they wanted to go to his place and mourn. So they made an appointment together to come and mourn with him and to comfort him.
And when they raised their eyes from afar and did not recognize him, they lifted their voices and wept. And each one tore his robe and sprinkled dust on his head toward heaven. So they sat down with him on the ground, seven days and seven nights. No one spoke a word to him where they saw the grief was very great.
Now think about that. Think about his friends, caring enough that all they wanted to do is to be there with him and sit with him without ever saying a word, validating the grief and the loss that he was having. And they wanted to do. They wanted to let him know.
Sometimes we can help someone without ever speaking a word. And it's called presence. It's called just being there. It's called holding them and laying them weep on your chest.
Or let them speak to you and talk about what they're going through. Just validating the things that they're feeling. You know, many times when someone's going through a difficult time, we don't know what they're for. We're always trying to figure it out how to fix it.
You know, guys, we're the worst. We want to fix everything. That's our job. We fix it.
And sometimes we just need to be there. We just need to be present in someone's life. We just need to be there for our wives. We need to be there for our family.
We need to be there for our friends. Just our body. Just like I said, maybe because of COVID, you can't go see your friend, but you go parking the driveway. Just let him know, hey, I'm there.
You can send text. You can bake a cake and send it over. You can do something to let them know, hey, I'm there for you. I can't bear your burden, but I'll take away all that I can.
I'll take away everything that I can handle. Everything that you will allow me to have, I'll take if I can take it off. That's what these guys were doing. Hey, Joe, you know, we get it, man.
You're going through a hard, hard time. And we get it. We hate it for you, but it doesn't push us out. We're still here for you.
You can say those things with just being there for someone. You know, this COVID thing I know is from the root of hell because it went against everything that God meant for us to be, have gainful employment, to have each other, to have fellowship, to have church. It took away the things that were so near and dear to us as human beings, as brothers and sisters in the Lord. It drove us away from each other.
I salated us where the enemy could come and convince us things are different. That's what happens when we let people just wallow in their own grief and sorrow. Their mind goes different ways. We need to be there to support them, to show them the love of God, to in some way to instill within them the peace and the joy that God wants us to have because of what He has planted in each of us.
Joe, without saying a word, you know, there's times where Veronica looks in my eyes without saying a word. And I know everything's okay. I know everything is going to be fine. I know that I'm loved.
I know that I'm cared for. I know that we're one. I mean, it's wonderful when you have someone that cares about you that much that can transfer all that information with just a loving glance. We should be able to do that with our loved ones, with our spouses, with our friends.
We should be able to share that kind of agape love that God has for us to give His Son on that cross. We should be able to share that compassion and to share that fellowship with others so willingly and so easily. And when you said that, you know, when we get one look from our Heavenly Father, when we get into His presence, when we feel the weight of the world is upon us, when we feel there is a spirit of hopelessness, hopelessness will tell you that things will never change. Why don't you just give up?
You know, there was a spirit of hopelessness that tried to come in World War II in England when England was being bombed by Hitler, but there was a man of voice, Winston Churchill, that would get on the radio and he would encourage, you know, just his voice would encourage the people and he would say, you will never, we will never, ever, never give up. Sometimes you just need some encouragement. Sometimes when you are in those pits and you can hear that voice and you can say, I'm never going to give up. The Holy Spirit will come to us in those times in that presence and he will say, I'm with you.
You cannot give up. I've seen your tears. I've seen when you have gone into your prayer closets. I have heard your prayers.
I am with you. I will never leave you and I will never forsake you. Just come and get into my presence. When I need encouragement, buddy's wonderful and I'm so glad I have a beautiful family, a beautiful daughter's, a wonderful mother, but there are times that I just have to get into the presence of God and say, God, I just need to be bathed in your presence.
I just need to hear your voice. I need you to tell me that everything is going to be all right. And there are so many times that he will download into my spirit and there are times that he will lead me to a scripture. And this scripture in John 1633, this is what Jesus said in the letters of read.
It says, these things I have spoken to you that in me, you will have peace, but in the world you will have tribulation. So you're going to have tribulation here. There's no way out of, not if you have tribulation, but when you have tribulation, but he said, give good cheer or be joyful. You know, sometimes it's very hard to be joyful in those times of tribulation, but you just have to know that you're going to get through it because he said, I have overcome the world.
That's our peace today. That's our joy. That's when we can go and we can lay our loved ones in the ground to know that we have joy that we are going to see them again. Yes, do we miss them?
We do, but we know that they are in the joys of heaven, that they are getting their eternal reward. And soon the Lord terries, you know, we're going to join them too. As the Bible says that we're going to go the way of the earth. It's part of life.
Endings are always new beginnings, but it's very important how you end, then how you're going to start this new beginning. And that's when Jesus comes in and says, hey, I'm going to give you my peace to carry you through. I'm going to give you all that you need. It may seem like your world is shattered.
And as we go back to Job, you know, I think about the Book of Job and sometimes I just shudder because I'm thinking, oh, he went through some really hard things. I never have to go through anything that hard where he lost his livelihood. He lost all of his children. He lost his health.
And then he has his friends. His friends come to comfort him. And then his friends then don't give him so much comfort. And they're looking at him and saying, you must have done something to bring this on.
And you're thinking, I really don't need friends like that. They started out good. They spoke. They should have remained silent.
But then they spoke, as Buddy says, you know. And I know going through some of the hardest things in my life, I have a dear mother and the Lord, Madeline Fletcher. When Buddy was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, the Lord gave her a dream to encourage me and gave her a dream out of Job, of all things. She said, I didn't know what Job 1113 was, but the dream kept saying Job 1113.
And she said, your daddy was in the dream. He kept saying, Job 1113, 1113. She said, when I got up in the middle of the night to read that, I realized what God was saying. And what Job 1113 says is very precious to me.
He says, prepare your heart to stretch forth your hands. Prepare your heart to get your miracle. And we got our miracle because Buddy didn't have cancer, Buddy was healed by the divine hand of God. Yes, God still does miracles today.
He still heals stage four cancer. He still heals all summers. He still heals arthritis and diabetes. We've seen it.
We have documented. I have papers on my desk of other people who have been documented. They have gone to the doctor and had stage four cancer totally healed. Why?
Because they prepared their hearts to stretch forth their hands. You know, when she gave me that scripture out of Job, Buddy, I thought, you know, God truly does have a sense of humor. You know, when you need comforted, you don't normally go to the book of Job, but that's the scripture that I held on to. That's the scripture that I walked in after they had done surgery and could not find cancer.
After they told us he did have cancer, the bopsie, we saw the cells on the screen that when you were lying there and I looked into your eyes and he was still kind of groggy. And I said, there's no cancer. And Buddy looked up and he raised his hands and said, praise God. The scripture that I held on to was in Job.
Prepare your heart to stretch forth your hands. What do you need to prepare your heart for today? Your heart's been so broken. Your heart's been so heavy.
It feels like the weight of the world is on your heart. Well, I'm here to tell you today, prepare your heart for God's got some great things in store for you. We're getting ready to go into a great season. We're getting ready to shake off this plague and we're getting ready to go into a great revival season.
We're getting ready. I feel like the great awakening is already here. We've been preaching the gospel for 20 years, but there's a new excitement that's coming up out of us. There's an urgency that's coming up out of us.
Why? The shaking has brought this great awakening and we're part of it and you're part of it. So dry your tears. Get up out of your grief.
We've all gone through things. Now, let's get about our father's business and let's get some soul saved. You know, when the throes of these things, it's hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Jesus told his disciples the same thing and John the same chapter verse, chapter 16, and verse 20 says, most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned to joy.
And I want you to receive that into your heart. All of this today was to tell you that your sorrow will be turned into joy, that we have a work to do for Christ. He wants us to have joy and peace in our life. Yes, sorrow will be here for the night, but joy will come in the morning.
And we want this to be your morning, that you can put the grave clothes off, you can pull the blanket of darkness away, you can look to each other with the assurance that you have a Lord that loves you and he's planted all these wonderful people in your life to raise you up and lift you up and to help carry you through. This time you don't have to bear all these burdens, but not all yours to bear. He says give them to him that his yoke is light and his burdens are few. So don't take all these on yourself and I encourage you if you can help carry the burdens of your brothers and your sisters, please engage with them, touch them, reach out to them, find a way that you can just be someone who your presence can make a difference in their days and their nights because believe me, I hope that's not you, I hope we're not talking to you but there are many out there we're talking to that are living there.
But if you're not, praise the Lord, but don't think for a minute there are not others who need you, who need the Word of God, who need to know some love and some compassion without words, whatever it takes, just make it happen. I want to speak into your lives today, I sense in my spirit that there are those who are watching us, it feels like your whole world is crashing in. You may have lost your job, you may have lost a loved one, you may have lost your marriage, your family, but I want to tell you that Jesus is coming into your broken situation. His presence is going to be right there with you, right where you are right now, I just want you to receive his presence and I just want you to just begin to breathe him in and say, God, here I am, I have nowhere else to go but to you.
He is here to comfort you, to give you that joy, to give you that peace. Don't buy in to the lies of the devil. That's what my best friend would tell me, Jackie, don't you buy in to the lies of the devil that he's left you, that he doesn't love you and even when her body was wrapped with cancer, she would raise her hands and she would say, I'm going to a better place. I know what God has in store for you, me, I am leaving this world in faith, I am not leaving this world in tears.
You know that God has a purpose for you today. He has a destiny. He has a horizon for you. So get up from wherever you are, dry your face, the dawn is breaking and joy is coming in the morning.
Some of our best times are ahead of us and we are not going to allow the enemy to steal that from us today. Well, we have counted it a privilege to come into your homes with the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Until we see you again this time next week, remember God is always faithful. Hello, everyone.
Veronica and I would like to thank you so much for partnering with Deaf Song Ministries through these many years. We appreciate your support, your love. We look forward each week to coming and being a part of your life in your homes. Bring you God's Word.
We are so humbled to receive your praise reports of salvation, of healing and restoration. We are excited to take this gospel across the world. We know this next season is bringing great harvest for His glory. Thank you and remember the best is yet to come.
We hope this program has enlightened and enriched your life. This ministry is made possible by the grace of God and your generous financial support. If you would like to partner with our ministry to spread the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, write, call or visit our website at www.buddyandvaronica.com. We look forward to visiting with you again soon.