A Day In the Neighborhood and the World





Sunday morning my alarm clock went off. It was my prayer team’s day to do prayer ministry. I hadn’t felt well in the night and was still feeling sick. I hit the sleep button on the clock and wrestled with the idea of getting up and going or staying home and resting. The alarm went again. I hit the sleep button again.

I thought about how a couple that is on my prayer team said they may not be there because they are hosting a family from Ethiopia at their home for the weekend. They host a lot of families that are traveling from Africa. The wife, a quiet, gentle, God-loving woman who has been given a mission door into the heart of Africa and her husband, a retired pediatrician, reach out in ways no one would assume if you saw them. My Mom is on the prayer team too, and she was vacationing in Florida so she wouldn’t be there, but she had made efforts for a substitute in her place. I lay there thinking there may not be anyone to pray. Substitutes don’t always make it in. The alarm went off again. I hit sleep. This time I thought, “I can pray from bed.” So, I did.

As I lay there praying, the guilt of not being at church and the possibility of no one being there to do prayer ministry, gnawed at me. This time, when the alarm sounded I got up. I walked down the hall at church to the prayer room, having already missed one of the services, and I saw my doctor friend. He was standing in the door and razzed me for coming in half-way through. I jokingly told him, “I needed a doctor!” I was surprised to see him and thought he must have chosen to hold to the commitment of prayer while his wife cared for their visitors elsewhere.

He assured me that they had enough people that came to do prayer ministry and that I would not have to stay. But, he said, his wife was at the church and she told him that she wanted me to meet the family and that if he saw me, to have me look for them. I was about to go and look and one of the other prayer people came in. She asked where I had been and I shared I hadn’t felt well, but that I felt worse for not coming. She instantly prayed for me to be well and so too, came the Doctor friend praying for me and the health of my family. I did begin to feel a bit better. He told me to hurry and find his wife and there was only five minutes left for me to do so before the next service started.

I did find them. They were here from Ethiopia. Their little girls were dressed in bright, colorful dresses with puffed out ruffled skirts and beautifully braided hair. Their shoes looked like new and were bright white running shoes with neon colored stripes on them. Their ankle socks were just as white against their beautiful brown skin. They were like a bouquet of flowers. The tiniest one held up a leaf on a popsicle stick that she had colored in Sunday school. Her leaf was the perfect accompaniment to her floral self. They were darling. Their Mom was beautiful and she greeted me with a kind and polite smile as she looked to her host for direction in the meeting. There was a bit of nervousness in her manner, too. Her husband greeted me also with politeness and my friend insisted I continue to walk with them and meet their sons. They were tall, young men that appeared years older than their actual age. Teenagers leaning against the wall like any other teenager.

My friend began to tell me quickly in just a few sentences that the wife’s brother had just been placed in prison the day before. He and 51 other people were imprisoned by another tribe because some of them had been translating the Bible. I then recognized the look on her face. What I had thought was nervousness in meeting me was the underlying concern for her brother and the others. This was foremost on her heart. She had politely brought a smile up to her face when she met me, but her heart was carrying a far greater concern. Then my friend told me that her husband, who is a pastor in Ethiopia, had been working under a church denomination and had some protection under that, but in his time in America, he learned that the denomination was not holding to the Word of God as they do in Africa. He had just made the decision to hold to God’s Word and left the protection of a people who did not believe as he did. I saw in him the grief he carried for the falling away that he had been witness to. He was mourning over this loss. And he stood out as one who would not bow down as all the others would and had. His height emphasized that sense to my heart and I also saw the reality of his concern for now being unprotected by people and title and what he was about to return to with so many now in prison. He was standing in the righteousness of Christ and His Word at whatever cost it may be to him.

In the brief moments of the information given to me and the sudden light into their heartache, I began to pray out loud for them. It was all I could do. I was helpless. I closed my eyes and held my hands out towards them. I don’t even remember what all I prayed except for God’s help, hand, peace, freedom and covering. I finished praying and opened my eyes. They stood there with their eyes still shut. She stood still and then opened her eyes. She had tears. I looked to him and he left an impression on me that I will live with for the rest of my life.

He stood tall but weak beneath the most pure and beautiful humility I have ever seen on a man. He stood with his arms held out and his hands opened up to receive any of what God could give to him in his hour of sheer vulnerability and the unknown ahead for him. He lingered there in prayer and the presence of God. He had peace on his face with eyes closed and his face tipped up toward the LORD. He stood as humble and bravely as a Daniel before the LORD in his dedication and love for all He is to him. His love for his Savior was greater than any love he had for himself. I saw a man, not knowing what will be, but knowing what is true. His family around him: sons who would see his bravery, daughters who would see his gentle strength and a wife that would be led through this hardship by a man who serves the LORD with all of himself.

That day in my own neighborhood, where I almost let a little bit of sickness keep me in bed, was a day that had more in God’s plan than I could have ever imagined could be. I prayed one prayer that day at church. But what I received was a lasting impression on my heart for people who are enduring persecution for the Word of God. My heart was broken that day, broken from out of its calloused, media infused reports to face ones, whose eyes I got to look into in their hour of pain for the real persecution in their lives that they would be flying back to that afternoon. While people, families, unaware and happily moving past us from Sunday school to church, a pancake breakfast and onto whatever they had planned that afternoon before the snow fell. Me, I had to work and hold a house open for people who were shopping for a new home. It all was trivial now.

 The depth of life is life itself in the One Who created us all. To Him be honor and praise.

Revelation 7:11-13  ESV  11And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

13Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” 14 I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”

 

On Guard! ~ Love Languages

A fight is stirring up in me. I have been noticing the hurts in people, but didn’t really know what was going on. Now I see better a variety of ways of what’s happening and its source. I'm seeing it in people's love languages, their giftings/talents and their faith struggles. There’s an enemy to trounce. This will be a three-part series.  So, here’s a sword, People. (Sounds of clattering swords being tossed before you) and here are your coverings. (Not exactly flattering, but very protective gear)

Here we go:

Love Languages.  I wrote a bit on this before, but this is going beyond that.

You may have read the book “The Five Love Languages” by Gary Chapman, Ph. D.  It has excellent information that was sectioned into five ways that people receive love. It helps you pin-point their hot button and your own to understand how best to love another. There is a flip side, I have found too, and that’s what Satan/the enemy has been using. Here are the love language categories and you can see where you may fit and those you love may fit.

Physical Touch

Words of Affirmation

Quality Time

Gifts

Acts of Service

When you recognize what it is that means the most to you out of these, you can see that when you receive love in that way it does more for you than the other ways do.  But, here’s where I am seeing the flip side. I am seeing what Satan uses to hurt people to far greater ways than we have recognized for one another. Satan knows how you are loved best and so that is the very thing he wants to rob and destroy to cause the greatest amount of pain. Sometimes the one inflicting that pain isn’t even aware of it, but is more an act through the enemy. When we know the source of the evil intent beyond the person in flesh and blood, because the Word says that our battle isn’t against flesh and blood, it is easier to not be as upset with the person, but know its source. It even makes you better able to forgive that person, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

Ephesians 6:11-12   11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

With every precious way of the most meaningful way of love for each individual also comes their tender achilles. To the one who cherishes physical touch thrives with snuggles, pats, handshakes and may tend to sit extra close to a person. When that touch is denied, or worse, done in a harmful way, it cuts so much deeper. The wound hurts more than anything else because it is a gesture that is the opposite of the language of love they need in a loving physical touch. It’s an abandoning and an emotional pain at the heart-level that is much deeper than bruises and when it comes with bruises, I can’t imagine the pain. (If anyone is in an abusive environment one must get out of it and seek professional help and guidance.) Understanding the additional emotional pain in physical abuse if their love language was physical touch, is very important to be aware of.

Words of affirmation help one flourish in that love and it establishes them. All love languages, when received in each of their way, establishes the person in love. Language is powerful and each of these five is considered a language of sorts. The one who needs language itself as its love language already has a double dose of emphasis on the importance of communication. Negative words, yelling, degrading, or not speaking (the silent treatment) crushes the spirit of the one whose love language is words of affirmation. It is a stunting of growth and in some cases can be death to their spirit and hope. Words of encouragement are like a breath of life to them.

A quality time person is devastated by quick hellos and good-byes. They are desperate for companionship and deep connection and feel abandonment even though someone may love them dearly but is “busy.” The person not getting the quality time interprets being unloved. It really isn’t about them, it is often truly, just busy people, but when we recognize this we can make better strides to really be there for the person who truly needs quality time. Scheduling it and making a routine of it can help children and adults who need quality time. They know they are valued and counted and chosen as an important part to your life.

People who love to give gifts also like to receive them. I have a mother-in-law who loves to send cards. She talks about the cards she sends to people and how she wishes they would send one back because she likes to see the stamps etc. I’m terrible about sending cards and I have to very deliberately and intentionally send them. When I recognize her love language as gifts, it also involves her cards. Neglecting to do the same for her hurts her much more deeply than just a missing card. It is a symbol of love to her. I see her heaviness at Christmas time when she puts up the few cards that she has received and mentioned the names of all the people she sent them to. It’s love to her and by our not noticing or unseeing eyes, Satan tromps around and hurts her in her heart’s interpretation for love.

This one is pretty common, Acts of Service. If you are having a harder time identifying someone’s gifts, it may be Acts of Service. These people are usually quiet and not very demanding, but are always there to help. They may be nurses or in the health field, or volunteer to bring meals or host baby showers or fix your car or stop at the store for you. When you aren’t there to help them when they need it, because they always are the ones serving they hardly ever ask for help, it hurts. When they reach the point to ask someone else for help, they really need help when they ask! When they aren’t helped it is extremely painful and disheartening. Being let down feels like being unloved. It’s because they have already gone the extra depth of hurting because the "helper" has had to ask for help and then to not get the help REALLY hurts.

Satan has had a heyday with this stuff. The enemy silently slithers and goes for the achilles.

Genesis 3:14-15 ESV  14 The LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you will go, And dust you will eat All the days of your life; 15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel."

Getting sick enough of all these depths of hurting in the hearts of every dear person and being aware now, has given me a drive to be proactive against it; to be defensive and offensive.

On Guard!

Sometimes it takes something to rile us up into action and boldness. I am reminded of this kind of attitude from an event that happened a while ago.

I received a phone call that our daughter had been in a bad car accident on her way to church. We lived close by and drove quickly to the accident site. The car was rolled over and smashed against a pole. I jumped out of our car before it had fully stopped and ran to the ambulance that was parked in the road with its lights flashing. I grabbed hold of the silver latch of the door of the ambulance and burst inside of it. No knocking, just threw open the door and stepped up in. I saw my daughter on a board with neck brace, her dress strewn across her and her nylons torn. I knelt down immediately by her, wedging in by the Emergency attendant and placed my hands on my daughter and started praying. My daughter later told me that I came in there like I owned the place. I hadn’t thought about it, I just did it. That’s the boldness, that’s the fire of His Spirit, that’s the surge that says, “No, the enemy doesn’t get this!”

 Because…God has given us authority.

 Luke 10:19  Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you.

We can do better! We can stop this junk because Satan has been sneaking around going at this from the backdoor and we have seen him. We can pray to be more aware of how to love and how we hurt. We need to love in all manner of ways. We have been given the position to bruise the serpent’s head, and authority to tread on the power of the enemy. We can love better and we can pray more!

In the power of forgiveness, I have learned that that is the beginning of healing and new life. The boldest example is in Christ’s forgiveness of us and our new life that comes.  You may not feel the people who hurt you deserve forgiveness, but neither did we when Christ forgave us. He did it out of love. A lot of times, the people that hurt us don’t even know that they needed forgiveness or caused such hurt. It isn’t that you need to go to them and say, “I forgive you,” but if you forgive them in your prayers and ask God to heal you in those wounds, He gives us that healing. You let go of bitterness and your right to judge them and put it back to God’s right. What God does in healing is really miraculous. From there, you are enabled to be more sensitive to the way you love others and the victory of love from God becomes the victory you have authority with and can stomp the enemy. There is healing to be had and love to be unleashed and in love we can all move from strength to strength.

Psalm 84:7 ESV  They go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion.

 

 



Dealing With Rejection

 

Over the years, rejection has come up not only in my own life, but for many of my friends and family. I have had people come asking for prayer over varying degrees of rejection and pain.  The wounds of rejection go deep and are often long lasting and can result in behaviors that are sometimes harmful.

Rejection from fathers is rampant in our country. I am seeing a generation of broken-hearted children in the bodies of adults. Women are drawn to unhealthy relationships with men just to have a relationship. They haven’t seen the love from a father so they don’t know what a healthy love from the man they seek should look like.

Likewise, the men have not had a father that was present, or committed or willing to hold them gently with loving strength. Men want to do better, but they weren’t handed down a toolbox to keep things running smoothly in a family relationship. Rare is the man that overcomes on his own. Devotion and determination with love are the traits of the LORD that propel them to succeed.

Mothers have rejected by their own needs being empty and so they search more for themselves or have to fill more roles in the absence of a father than give for their children. Again, the children inadvertently feel rejected.  This can be in reverse too, when the father has the children. The parent rejections are the deepest rejections and carry the most adverse responses from the grown children later in life.  From these comes the spiritual handicap for people to understand the love from their Father God and the comfort and counsel through His Spirit. Deaths of parents can cause a child to misunderstand, feeling a sense of rejection, too.

Rejected from a spouse leaves the wounded with the disability of understanding the love of Jesus. The Bible says men are to love their wives as Christ loves the church and gave Himself up for them. When rejected by that man, how can women understand and believe how much Christ loves them and is committed to them even through their wobbly and imperfect faith and that He loves them as they are for always?

Smaller rejections come in simple things like not making the team. Not being picked for a part. Not getting the job or the promotion, not getting into that school or class. Not getting that girl to date you or that boy. There is rejection of our words or what we have said that is true and people reject it. Advising children toward a healthy behavior or those kinds of advice for friends or family and it is rejected. Input you may have given to help a business do better or a church or community and it is rejected.

And then our response…why even bother?

But guess who knows every kind of rejection you have felt? The LORD. He has undergone and continues to be rejected. He loves like a perfect Father. He counsels and gives us His wisdom to live a good life and it is rejected. He offered Himself and His life and was rejected of His perfect sacrifice. He came with fulfilled promises and was rejected. He offers peace, hope, love, forgiveness and He is rejected. He loves as a jealous lover and is rejected for something cheap. The fullness of His value is ignored because we are busy or self-sufficient or stubborn. He knows our wounds. He knows our rejections and He too, sits beside you knowing every rejection you have felt.

But what He said from the very beginning is, “I chose you.”

He chose you as a beloved child of His. He chose you as a partner for the great wedding feast. He chose to walk along side you and hold you and comfort you and guide you. He chose to forgive every one of your sins and has unending patience for your short-comings. He gives you everything you need to live in love and His toolbox is filled and He has shown us how to use those tools through His life with us on earth in Christ.

He is devoted. He promises to never leave or forsake you.

 He puts His arms around you and holds the tops of your hands and arms and shows you how to move. He places His hands on you and blesses you. He lets you touch His wounds to prove it is Him. He lets you ask Him to do things for you. He only asks that you don’t reject Him and that you receive Him as LORD and Savior. That you don’t reject His gift of dying for you to come back to be with you for always in the brilliant cleansing through His perfect blood and holiness. So, that you wouldn’t reject His Name, but would love it as a child of His.

He chose you. And chooses you over and over again no matter where you stray or how you fail; He receives you with His arms around your neck the moment you come back to Him. He never thinks, “Why bother?” He continues to receive you because He chose you for always. His is the ultimate “Forever Home.” He can heal you from all past rejections because He takes those rejections on Himself. Ask Him to heal those areas of hurt and pain with His perfect love knowing His full acceptance of you. Know that you are chosen and loved.

 John 15:14-17  No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

"You're Bare"

 

 



A friend called and said, “Okay, what’s going on?” She had me on her heart for two days. Earlier in the week someone else called me and said they’d been praying for me against discouragement. It had been that kind of week. Those promptings that they prayed for me and had to connect with me mattered. They really mattered.

It has been a strange time and frankly, a struggle to know whether or not the things I have been doing mattered. Did the writing even matter? Disappointment and “discouragement,” the very word that the other had sensed, had come. My profession also had many doors shut this week that had previously seemed to be answers to meet our needs. Call after call, I received messages that clients have decided not to continue at this time.

I felt stripped. It all appeared to turn into nothing. The one who called asking me what was going on listened to me and she said, “You’re bare.”  That was the feeling. Stripped from every bit of labor I had made and hopes for fruit. It was humility. The humility of having nothing ahead: no harvest, so to speak. I did feel naked. If I were to ever receive anything, it was going have to be from the LORD. The reality that I can’t do anything on my own hit me hard. The passing away of someone this week in his height of ministry reminded me that nothing belongs to us. It’s all God’s and in God’s mercy and grace we receive. Every fruit from my labor would have to come from Him.

Farmers have experienced this. Their crops planted, tended and growing only to be destroyed by hail, or drought or flood. They stand there looking at all they had worked for, now gone and decide: do they put themselves out there and do this anymore or sell the farm and go onto something else?

The temptation came to go back to what I know I could do for myself. A way to cover myself like having more credentials in various areas to be considered a candidate to meet what man was requiring from me in order for me to succeed. I wanted a covering. Go back to school? I don’t know. This writing, what good was it?

But, I stopped. I can’t stop writing. I can’t stop sharing the things God places on my heart to share. I have to keep going through with it. It feels to me as if it were life itself.

The verse that had always been mysterious made sense to me all of a sudden. The mysterious young man who had been following Jesus and had been wearing a linen covering over his naked body, left it when the people came to take Jesus away and the young man fled naked.

Mark 14:51-52 ESV  And a young man followed him, with nothing but a linen cloth about his body. And they seized him, 52but he left the linen cloth and ran away naked.

He ran away bare, stripped and in Gill’s commentary it reads,” back to where he had originally come from.” When it got tough and he let go of what little covering he had; he fled. I had almost fled.

 Then, soon after, it says that Jesus was stripped. But, Jesus didn’t flee.

Matthew 27:28  And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him,

He stayed. He held up under the incredible difficulty of humility and persecution to death. He fulfilled what He was sent to do no matter how the King of kings was stripped bare and then mocked in a scarlet robe; the color of His precious blood. All that looked horrible and humiliating in God’s plan would reach its glorious fulfillment. Sin would be defeated and He would defeat death and live again. Glory would be known by His hand and His alone. No matter what man did, God would be known.

And so it is, sometimes continuing on leaves you naked, bare, but to flee the One from whom life comes from for my own covering hinders experiencing the fullness of all He is to be.  As one recommended later on to me, she said, “Praise.” 

Isaiah 61:3 KJV  To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.

 

What Is Lent About?



Some are familiar with choosing to give something up for 40 days prior to Easter.  The 40 days comes from the 40 days that Jesus fasted while He was led into the Wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tempted by Satan.

 The Holy Spirit led Jesus to be tempted by Satan?!

Yes. A lot of people think that God won’t work in that way, but He does allow temptations to come in order to strengthen us in our resolve of loving God more than ourselves and the complete peace and joy that is found in that. A newfound strength in a closer relationship with Him comes in enduring trials. The  angels were sent to tend to Jesus and help restore Him following that time. God restores us too following those times.

 God appears to use times of trial and testing prior to a big move of His to produce major influence for His kingdom. Jesus was tempted just before He began His public three year ministry which led to His redemptive death and resurrection.

Forty is often the waiting and renewing and growing time. Human gestation time in the womb is 40 weeks. The rains of Noah’s time were 40 days and 40 nights. The Israelites were in the wilderness 40 years and then led to the Promised Land. Those times of 40 are not times of ease, but they repeatedly lead to some sort of new life. For our 40 day observance of Lent, we are led to the resurrection celebration.

The three types of temptation that Jesus overcame were a letting go of His human desires for the purer relationship to God and Holiness. These three insights I have highlighted are a good reflecting place that are noted by John Paul Jackson. (He is currently in need of prayer for some serious health conditions and in his own trial for breath and enough oxygen to reach his organs. If you would, say a prayer for him. You may be like a ministering angel tending in prayer.) I added the corresponding scripture that I believe he was associating these temptations to.

1.      Tempted to think too highly of ourselves.  Matthew 4:5-7  Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’ 7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

 

2.      Tempted to promote ourselves to gain authority and favor with others. Matthew 4:8-10   Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. ⁹ “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”  Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’

3.     Tempted to use our gifts/talent to satisfy our own desires  Mark 4:3-4  The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”⁴ Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” 

God’s gifts to us are good and the talents given, His authority in us as His child is a blessing and a covering of protection in His love, and God is who lifts us as He wills. In all these things, Jesus showed that He remained humble to the Holiness of God over any ego or worldly desires. In exhaustion of the trial and the giving up of Himself in physical satisfaction of food for those 40 days, He was immediately tended to by angels.

He held out and Satan left.

When He was to be tempted again later by Satan through Peter’s words, He could stand up to it. Matthew 16:21-23   21From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day. 22Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, "God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You. But He turned and said to Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God's interests, but man's."  See how He has overcome His own desires as a man’s and kept it on God’s interests?  He had endured a trial.
His next one would be the greatest one to the point of sweating blood by the pressure of the weight of the world’s sins about to come upon Him at the cross. He didn’t run. He asked that the cup be passed from Him, but He said in the form of man and God in Luke 22:42 saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”

These 40 days are a time to think more of God and less of ourselves.  It isn’t only about the giving up of the things, but it is the choice of devoting more of ourselves to God and not letting  things take precedence over Him or letting ourselves take precedence over Him. Not even in what we think is an act of our own  sacrifice, but seeing His sacrifice and desiring to be humble to Him in what He has done in giving us all the things that He has and Who He is. How can we live more fully in Him? Stand more firmly on His Holiness. Our sacrifice cannot make us Holy, but we live to be in His holiness through trials and temptations.

Living for Him is not limited for 40 days, but through all of life’s trials, knowing that His ways are best and that there is no greater thing than living for Him and His Kingdom come. 

(To my great sorrow, something just happened as I was about to press publish on my blog. I was texted that John Paul Jackson just passed away. I'm in shock and sorrow, but I know He has endured to God's glory; living unselfishly for Him. The timing is heart-wrenching, and I will not remove what I wrote. We all need to know that this life is temporal. The desires we let go of here for what is of God is of the greatest thing we can do for all of eternity. What matters is the LORD, always and forever and in Him we have been saved.)  Lent is for Life.

Could It Be!!!

Photo Credit to John Angerson

 

Ezekiel 37

There are few chapters in the Word right now that thrill me as much as Ezekiel 37. It starts out with the prophecy of the Dry Bones and God has Ezekiel prophesy to the bones. Spirit-filled breath of God blew and breathed life on these bones. They came back to life!

Have you ever prayed prayers so long for someone and those prayers had not been answered? That person seemed as good as dead spiritually and then, out of nowhere and yet everywhere, like the wind from four corners, God’s Spirit came and brought life into them or a situation that you were certain had earlier been doomed.

The bones were there like men who had died and wasted away. Is it men who had not fed on the Word of God or the Living Water? Had they not received the breath of Jesus as He breathed and said, “Receive My Spirit”? They fell…  The Fathers of faith had been given their Messiah, but many refused to receive Him. Many others had faith and stepped away from it or got mad and gave up or died in dead religion. Dry bones.

But, God said to Ezekiel, “Prophesy!” The bones would live again! The bones would come together, they would begin to connect as the sinews grew back and joined them. They come back with muscle and flesh upon them again, but they had no breath; no life of His Spirit. But God told Ezekiel prophecy to the winds! To the Spirit! And it came and the men came back to life!

Ezekiel 37:14  And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.”

This is the hope I aspire to. This is the power of the Word of God and His Spirit for all that appears dead. There is life to come! It will come, it is coming! I’m seeing and hearing about it!

A Jewish rabbi in his synagogue is beginning to see the Spirit of Christ. He was talking to the people of his congregation at the time of Christmas about Christmas! He was recognizing the Life in Jesus. He was sharing what were things that connected in Jesus as Jew. The sinews were growing in him. The bones were connecting. He was intrigued and open and he asked the people to be open. Are the fathers beginning to turn their eyes to the children?

I am experiencing many Christ followers tracing back and understanding the Hebrew in Jesus; the meanings of the feasts in the character and life of Jesus and the laws that He fulfilled. It is powerful revelation as the children are turning back to the Fathers of the faith. It is with new and opened eyes and the breath of His Spirit revealing and teaching these things. It is growing and growing and growing.

A Jewish girl found her Messiah in a shopping Mall in Minnesota, USA. She was from Israel and she had been in America for three years.  A team of people purposely chose to give their afternoon to be used by the LORD. The team was made up of an ex-gang member, an English as a secondary language teacher, a 10 year old child and one of my friends went with them. The child prayed and asked God to give them their divine appointment.

Walking through the mall, a young woman grabbed one of them by the arm as she recognized a bracelet that was being worn and used by the larger team that was sharing the gospel of Jesus throughout the city. The young woman asked what it meant. Her quiet friend stood near and listened.

One of them began to share; my friend. She had been one that had been studying the Hebrew roots. Her family had been on multiple trips to Israel. The one given to share had been given the common grounds to share from. The two young women spoke fluent Hebrew, but broken English. My friend asked how she could pray for them. The outgoing one said, “Pray that I can find my way.” The quiet friend then spoke and said that in her 24 years, no one had ever asked to pray for her.

My friend shared with the women about Jesus/Yeshua. She asked if they would consider Yeshua as Messiah. The quiet one listened and wanted to invite Jesus, Yeshua into her life as Messiah.  My friend told her, “We weren’t here by coincidence.” The quiet one reached out and grabbed her arm and said, “I know. I’ve been waiting for you to come.”

A few weeks later the team returned to that Mall to find another person that the LORD may lead them to. There was the louder, bolder young woman who hadn’t been ready at the previous time. She saw them and said, “You came back for me!” She too asked Yeshua to be her LORD.

These stories happened within a few months of each other.

Following the prophecy to the dry bones in Ezekiel 37 is the next great prophecy of the two sticks becoming one. One stick was for Joseph (the stick of Ephraim). Many commentaries and studies indicate that the people of Ephraim are those of the Bible and the Church. The other stick is for the people of Judah. Judah is said to be the people of the Tanakh, the Hebrew Canon, and Jewish people.

The two sticks held together would become one stick in his hand. While I read that passage, I imagined the Cross. They are two sticks that are made into one in the hand of Ephraim; the Church. As Jesus said that the most important commandment is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one” in Mark 12:29. He is God and Savior; Messiah Yeshua. The anointed one saves.

Ezekiel 37:15-26  The word of the Lord came to me: 16“Son of man, take a stick and write on it, ‘For Judah, and the people of Israel associated with him’; then take another stick and write on it, ‘For Joseph (the stick of Ephraim) and all the house of Israel associated with him.’ 17And join them one to another into one stick, that they may become one in your hand. 18And when your people say to you, ‘Will you not tell us what you mean by these?’ 19say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am about to take the stick of Joseph (that is in the hand of Ephraim) and the tribes of Israel associated with him. And I will join with it the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, that they may be one in my hand. 20When the sticks on which you write are in your hand before their eyes, 21then say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather them from all around, and bring them to their own land. 22And I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. And one king shall be king over them all, and they shall be no longer two nations, and no longer divided into two kingdoms. 23They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions. But I will save them from all the backslidings in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

24“My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes. 25They shall dwell in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children’s children shall dwell there forever, and David my servant shall be their prince forever. 26I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore. 27My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 28Then the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.”

This chapter is a chapter of great hope and great joy that is coming and it is beginning to happen. It is a prophecy that we get to begin to understand and see start to take place.  To the praises of God, I pray that you too are encouraged and thrilled in the way He is moving! These are just a few stories that I am aware of.  Taste and see that the LORD is good!

Isaiah 40:3  A voice of one calling: "In the wilderness prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

*A back-story to the photo that I was given permission to use is a gift like I had never imagined. I was searching for crosses being held in the hand. I came across this and found it in a blog page. I asked the photographer if I may use it. He told me he would be delighted to let me use it in my own little blog. He gave me his web site to link to for the credit line.  I looked up his site and discovered that John is a renowned photographer in England. He has world-wide awards for his photography and has photographed some of the highest profile people in England and in the entertainment industry as well as photographed faith-filled communities and has heart-filled photos that tells the stories of the nation’s homeless people. What a beautiful man that gave a beautiful gift of the use of his photo; two sticks made as one, held and lifted up.



 



On a Mission to Knowing-Growing

Earlier this week someone began reading from the Bible the assignment God gave to Samuel for him to go to Jesse and anoint the new king of Israel. This time it struck me how much Samuel was told to the detail of this, but he was not given the most important part; who that king would be until God Himself declared him. God didn’t immediately tell him it would be David.

Samuel was told specifically that it was a son of Jesse and God even gave specifics about Jesse that Jesse was a Bethlehemite. But, God doesn’t say David. God gives Samuel words to say and what to bring for a sacrifice in order to secure his safety and how to organize a gathering to anoint the new king. But, He doesn’t say it’s David.

God gave plenty of help and direction, but He withheld the specific of who it would be. God had learning planned. He was allowing Samuel, Jesse and us to grow in the grace and knowledge of our LORD. We get to see God’s heart compared to our own as we go one after the other with Samuel and Jesse, to the place of learning and knowing the grace and love of God. As each son is brought forward, God shows us how we don't see the way He does. We have a tendency to qualify people based on our impression of their credentials and disqualify people who seem to not have earned it outwardly. God doesn’t want us to fall from our own steadfastness; our own thoughts of what is the right way, but yield to what is His right way.

God desires us to grow; to grow in the grace and knowledge of Him.

In this example we get to learn what God looks at. He looks inwardly by His Spirit. He is looking into ours. It isn’t our accomplishments that we have done outwardly either, it is what we are inwardly in relation to Him. And in David He is so pleased that at the time of acknowledgment and anointing, God’s Spirit “rushes upon him and does not leave.”  In such an outwardly unlikely king, he is graced by the Spirit of God.

The LORD has Samuel on this mission to go through the process of growing and seeing His grace. He gets to learn and grow in this knowledge of it. A quick answer to who the king would be at the beginning would have fallen away as mattering much to us, just as maybe you hadn’t held onto the information that Jesse was called a Bethlehemite.

A quick full answer sometimes loses its impact. There is impact there in that quick bit of information and we don’t often look at it because we hadn’t processed through it first. We usually recognize it in David. Jesus is to be born from the house of David and Jesus was to be born in Bethlehem. It started with David’s father, Jesse, a Bethlehemite. But, I’m sure you remember the part of this story more in the realization of God’s choice in David better, because He purposed that learning to be one to grow in His grace and knowledge of Him learning at how much He looks toward the heart and not at just a little boy. You also may see how you too would have thought it would have been one of the older and more established and “ready” sons to be king. We get to grow through the process that led up to the answer.

How many times has God sent His people somewhere, but doesn’t give them all the answers up front? He knows the answers and what will come. But, His withholding is for our growth in the grace and knowledge of Him. God is very much a method teacher.

 Finding oneself going in a direction that the LORD has led you in, but you haven’t reached the place of its fulfillment is the education of growing in His grace and knowledge.

 It happened to Samuel, to Jesse and to all of us that reads it. It happened to the Israelites that were led out of Egypt towards the Promised Land. It happened to Peter in the full on forgiveness of his own forsaking of the One Who never forsook him. And days later Jesus rose again and immediately visited Peter. Then, following the personal visit from Jesus risen, out bursts Peter in the boldness of the gospel. Peter grew in grace and knowledge of his LORD Jesus Christ.

As you study the Word of God, we begin to know it better and revelation often comes as we are now able to process in reverse. We look back at what God said especially in Isaiah for example, and see the power in the prophecies. God reveals Himself in the process of our learning and in that we are growing in grace and the knowledge of Him. Best Teacher ever! He reveals when He knows it's time.

2 Peter 3:17-19 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, 18but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

The text of David anointed as king. 1 Samuel 16

Fill your horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.” 2And Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears it, he will kill me.” And the Lord said, “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’ 3And invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do. And you shall anoint for me him whom I declare to you.” 4Samuel did what the Lord commanded and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling and said, “Do you come peaceably?” 5And he said, “Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice.” And he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice. 

6When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him.” 7But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” 8Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” 9Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” 10And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen these.” 11Then Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your sons here?” And he said, “There remains yet the youngest,a but behold, he is keeping the sheep.” And Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and get him, for we will not sit down till he comes here.” 12And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the Lord said, “Arise, anoint him, for this is he.” 13Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward. And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.


A quote from Alexander Pope ~ “Some people will never learn anything, for this reason, because they understand everything too soon.”