tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-329132452024-03-07T03:09:34.033-05:00The Pen of the Wayfarer...ponderings on the journey of following Jesus Christ...Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger758125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32913245.post-35457302162102830692020-12-24T17:43:00.011-05:002020-12-24T18:10:15.889-05:00Christmas, 2020
<p>It's hard to believe that we are at the end of 2020. Whoever we were at the beginning of it, we are not that at the end of it. What we have done with it, and will do with it, is up to us. It's been a year to see what we are made of. Does our faith go down deep into our roots or is it just good enough for fair winds? Is God who we saw Him to be last year or have we discovered that He is quite a bit wilder and less predictable than the cliched boxes we have put Him in?</p><p>The biblical prophets, the true ones anyway, lived with and before a God who was afire with love, with justice, with mercy and truth. Their encounters with Him left them speechless but transformed. God's purposes are always what they have been: to show Himself the Father of a people who would reflect His Glory. The amazing and hard part, even for God, was that He gave people free choice, and with that, inevitably, came choices both good and bad. Realize, dear one, that your ability to choose is something holy, it is something that you yourself possess as a gift from God and with it, you will, by your choices, determine your destiny. Of course God is sovereign but He has offered you a choice when you came into being. Choose well. </p><p>This year showed us that earthly life can be shorter than we think and more out of our control than we hoped. Eternal life is what we all are really about and so we should be looking in that direction, looking for what is to come and what it will be like. We have to decide if we like that and want to live forever under the direction of One in whom there is no darkness nor shadow of turning. It is a fearsome choice. But how do I choose? pray the sinner's prayer? live an austere life? do good works? none of these completely suffice. </p><p>God is looking for relationship with us. He is looking for us to be deeply united with Him, even one with Him--to see His goodness and His good purposes and to work with Him to accomplish them. My life is not about doing more, or feeling I've succeeded or whatever goal the world tries to put on us, my goal is to be more and more connected to Christ and know what absolute safety that Love is all about. What if you were always jumping with a safety net? What if nothing separated us from God if we didnt want it to? The Apostle Paul said , "<i>"For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39).</i><p> Again and again I have seen that our union with God begins with surrender--not as a threatened knave, but as a free agent who can only unite with God by choice and compatibility. Our sense of aloneness stems from our unawareness of what blissful unity is possible with our Creator, and even with His people. What if we were safe? What if when Jesus said that He keeps all that have been given unto Him and no one can snatch them from His Hands that that was true? (John 10:28). What if you were free to be a child of God and to live from that protected place in the hand of God? There is the old expression, "safer than being tucked into God's pocket with the flap tucked down" --what if we were that safe, even if darkness raged against us and appeared to win? </p><p>There are, no doubt, more life storms out ahead of us. But let us put them to work for us, so that we are able to run our race with great faith and confidence in the One who keeps us safe even if our bodies fail. Each minute, in good times and bad, I am making decisions that affect my eternity. Look at the choices with adventure and curiosity and not fear! Choose well and choose wisely, dear ones! Surrender more and fear less! Godspeed!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32913245.post-91008402135032034392020-07-08T09:27:00.001-05:002020-07-08T09:27:37.505-05:00Learning Grace
The more we walk in grace, and understand the ways of God, the less we will be rigid and legalistic. The Apostle Paul says that "The Law is a tutor that leads us to Christ." (Galatians 3:24). <div><br /></div><div>When we navigate by the letter of the Law, we are still learning that all of God's ways are steeped in a bath of grace. We have yet to learn that we could fulfill what God desires without unduly strict reinforcements. True authority is very gentle but very effective and powerful.
Budding prophets can prophesy too harshly without the undergirding of grace. </div><div><br /></div><div>Budding evangelists can scare people with talk of hellfire rather than the love and grace of God. Budding teachers can give you lots of principles but not the seasoned life experience to show how that works out in real life. Budding leaders can see those they lead as a pack of wild stallions and pull back too hard on the reigns and hit too hard with the crop. They may focus on the task rather than the relational co-operation part that makes working as a team with a lot of strong members go forward as a joy rather than a job reminiscent of a chain gang!. We do not mature to a more detailed rulebook, but to the knowledge of who Jesus is. </div><div><br /></div><div> As we move toward grace we begin to act out of deep patience and self-control, we see the ways of God and are not focused so much on the success or failure of the task at hand but on the relationship being built between us and God and between us and each other. Each of us, to mature in our callings, has to move from the legality of the rulebook to the grace of what is intended by the heart of God. Put down the rulebook today and ask God, "What are you trying to teach me?" Part of that will be greater grace and less rigidity. </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32913245.post-90650862256039275982020-04-21T12:34:00.000-05:002020-04-21T12:34:23.893-05:00Hope for Life and the Scent of Water<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“<i>For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease. 8Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground; 9Yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant. Job 14:7-9</i></span></div>
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This morning, in the prayer meeting I was in, this verse was read. I’ve recently started to try to sprout some things hydroponically that I would have normally thought of as dead, done, or incapable of new life. I put an onion, rather mushy, in a cup of water and overnight it sprouted roots so long it took me aback. I did that with shriveled garlic bulbs, and now celery. I transplanted some motherwort yesterday and it drooped hopelessly until I watered it well. There is an important lesson here.</div>
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Think about the life that God has put in every living thing. We all need water to survive. We all like watching the sea, we like sitting next to water, we like to drink cold glasses of water on a cold day. Roots of plants gravitate toward water. In these verses from Job it speaks of a tree that is cut down and yet when it catches the scent of water it starts to bud. The scent of water. Not even water itself, but the mere smell of it gives hope.</div>
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I keep thinking about the onion though, it had been picked from a field somewhere in America, traveled in a truck or plane, sat at the store, then sat in my storage drawer til it probably almost lost hope, and then I put it in water and it showed its life springing from up from its depths. It’s continuing to put forth green onion shoots-- I don’t know how it makes them, but at night when I trim the shoots, by the next day, they grow back. Profound. Disturbingly, wonderfully profound: the strength of life.</div>
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I think I resonate with this because I can identify with the onion. Sometimes it seems like walking across a dry desert with no water in sight, and feeling like any hope of water is gone, but then encountering, first, the scent of Water from heaven, and then the Water of Life itself and suddenly coming back to life and feeling whole again. How powerful an experience! Animals in the desert know the scent of water, they know how to find their way to its life-giving place. We, too, have instincts for God. Jesus said, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink” (John 7:37). The prophet Isaiah also says, “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!” (Isaiah 55:1). In the Book of Revelation a River of Life flows through the city of God.</div>
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There are things that cannot be quenched in our souls until we drink of that water.<br />And how shall we drink? How is this not just some kind of religious phrase that sounds good but doesn’t connect with reality? Jesus addresses this when the pharisee, Nicodemus comes to him at night to discuss spiritual things (John 3:3-13). Jesus tells him he must be born of water and the Spirit and Nick doesnt get it. He says, “What? Go into my mother’s womb again?” Jesus, he had to be shaking his head, “You are a spiritual leader in Israel and you don’t understand this?” </div>
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We drink of that heavenly water through relationship with Jesus Christ. When we call out to Him, to quench our thirst, something in us is enlivened. Our spirit comes to life, like an onion responding to water, and we smell the scent of water, then drink of it. It is a spiritual process. I can’t explain how it happens just like I can’t explain how plants grow using just water. But the difference between drinking and not drinking is life and death. You know that. So go take a drink. And if you don’t know how, tell God about your thirst and let Him lead you to water. It will be then up to you to drink of it.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32913245.post-1596030813435134192020-04-15T19:51:00.000-05:002020-04-16T09:30:12.205-05:00Is it I, Lord?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We are approaching the end of Passover and Matthew’s gospel gives us the chilling account of the betrayal of Jesus by Judas. Judas had been out and about making preparations to betray Jesus but he sits down with all the other disciples at the Passover supper. Jesus is aware of what is happening, and I can’t imagine how painful this is to Him.</span></div>
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The text says, “As they were eating, He said, “Assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me” (Matt. 26:21). The disciples are extremely shocked and sad, after all, it's not something you want to hear after living day and night with Jesus for three years. It’s not something you bring up during the middle of a holy meal, yet Jesus did just that. He did it in the middle of His community, because its not just His betrayal, it is the community’s betrayal. He is aware of who the betrayer is, aware of all that will happen later that evening, and yet here He sits in the middle of His family, of which one is the betrayer.</div>
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I think Jesus did this prophetic act so that later when the disciples thought of it, they would know that Jesus knew and that His death did not come by chance, but was something that Jesus knew He was headed for and destined for. There is something disconcerting about following a leader who doesn’t see it coming. There is something incredibly inspiring about following a leader who does see it coming and stands up into His destiny despite what it costs.</div>
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Jesus does nothing to try and talk Judas out of it, but he does say that it would have been better for HIs betrayer not to have been born. I can only imagine the face of Judas going white then going red with increased blood pressure as he realizes that Jesus knows. I can only imagine. I can’t imagine.</div>
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Jesus extends the question to all the disciples and it hangs in the air like a heavy cloud darkening the atmosphere of the celebration of the Lord’s saving act to His people so long ago. But here is my point. As He looks at each of His disciples, they one by one ask, “Lord, is it I?” Each of them had the heart to find out if it was they themselves that would betray Him.</div>
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I’m sure their hearts were not completely pure and like a searchlight, this announcement by the Lord would bring up any times when they doubted that Jesus was who He said He was or anytime they had been pushed past their ability to understand and had thought to leave Him. I’m sure they quickly began to wager a guess as to who it was as they pushed aside any sense of their own guilt. Yet in that moment, suspended in some sort of eternal moment of decision, they had the courage to ask “Is it I?”</div>
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What a penetrating question that struck deep into their hearts, separating soul and spirit. For whatever reason, even Judas asks this of Him. Perhaps it was to cover his guilt, to appear surprised, even to test Jesus, perhaps all those things. His question springs as a cover for guilt and not as a genuine inquiry.</div>
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It is a time to allow the Lord to ask us tough questions. He asks these questions so the deepest things in our hearts can rise to the surface to be helped. He did this from start to finish in His ministry and He was doing it there and then--but He is also doing it here and now. His questions are never because He doesn’t know the answer but because He does know the answer all too well and we do not. Our hearts are expert at hiding the truth, the real reason, the actual cause. Jesus!</div>
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Let us let You search our hearts, dear Lord! Look deep, ask us the hard questions, reveal, uncover, expose so that You might make us true and straight as an arrow shot from the quiver of God. Let every pretense, every hiding place, be searched. We needn’t be afraid to admit we need help. So, Lord, Help us! Make us “pure and holy, tried and true.” Please.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32913245.post-9235639618637791552020-04-11T18:24:00.002-05:002020-04-11T18:50:51.426-05:00The Easter When Everything Changed<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I personally think that I will remember this Easter for many years to come.
It was the Easter we spent isolated in our houses while the world changed.
True story! But it needed to change. So much of life is waiting. The biblical tradition has a long history of waiting in it. Abraham and Sarah waiting
for a baby; Noah waiting for the rain to start; Elijah waiting on a
mountain; Daniel waiting for the exile to be over; Anna waiting for
the Messiah to be born; John waiting on Patmos for Jesus; the list is
much longer.<br />
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I’ve been waiting for a long time for what I sense I’m seeing. There are destined times and epochs in the “kairos” time of God. “When the fullness
of time had come…” Just when time is about to burst with waiting, it explodes into the purpose of God. The preparation for a servant of God
takes a long time, again, I can give you a longlist: Moses, David,
Daniel, Jesus, Himself, Paul, Timothy, John the Beloved. God can do what
He wants without us, but He has chosen to work with and through us, so
He has to polish, temper, and strengthen us so that we don’t snap out of pressure or lose our faith in the process.<br />
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Let’s face it, it's been cloudy for a good, long while. The prophet Ezekiel
speaks of a “cloudy and dark day” when the sheep are scattered and the
Shepherd has to go out and gather them. I have seen that look of fierceness
on the Face of the Great Shepherd in these last days, I have seen His
determination to gather those that are lost. The clouds of false belief;
man-made religion; lethargy induced apathy; confusion, dismay, and inability
to endure have clouded the Face of the Living God from those that need most
desperately to see Him.
So He is going to rise up and go looking for the lost sheep. He is going to blow the hindering clouds away. He is going to go into every last highway
and byway looking for those stuck in the thorny bushes of hopelessness,
despair, and shame. He asks us to go with Him. He asks us to gather with
Him for He has told us, “He who is not with Me is against Me, and who does not
gather with Me, scatters” (Matthew 12:30.<br />
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I have seen people who know God and walk with God come back to life in the last week. I have seen hope born, courage arise, purpose return. I’ve seen the glaze disappear from the eyes of the believers who have looked for Him so long, more than they who wait in the cold, dark night for morning. A
cloud the size of man’s hand appears overhead. The Lord is standing up to move. Don’t miss it. Prepare your heart, shake off your slumber, fill your lamp with oil, trim your wick. Stand up with Him.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32913245.post-24798117011891386022018-04-17T12:16:00.000-05:002018-04-17T12:16:19.226-05:00It's Easy to Hear God<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Did you know that it's easy to hear God? I'll bet that surprised you since you might not think so. I've encouraged my home group to write down a few things they have been seeking God about but with the expectation and the proclamation that it's easy to hear God and that they will obey when they hear.</div>
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A few weeks ago I was praying at the altar at church and God showed me that He clearly speaks to me but that I then take what He says and kind of put it through a test, passing it back and forth between "yes, I think its God" and "no, I'm not sure." I then run it through some kind of spiritual counterfeit machine and then i wait to see how i feel about it! All so that I can be sure I'm "hearing God" and not the voice of my own soul or the voice of the enemy. You could say its me trying to be careful and it is but it really ends up being kind of an insult to God and my relationship with Him.</div>
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What if you did that with your closest friends? What if they said something to you and you said, "Be right back, I've got to figure out if its really you saying this. " For the most part we know what our closest friends would say in any given situation, so why don't we feel confident in trusting that we can hear God? Do we know Him that well? If not, His Word is calling to be read and known! "His sheep hear His Voice, the voice of another they will not hearken to!"</div>
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Are we trusting the part of us that is flesh and wants its own way more than the part of us that loves God and is born of His Spirit and wants to hear God, indeed lives on every word that God speaks?</div>
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What if our daily proclamation was "I easily hear and confidently obey what God speaks to me!" I dare you to try this. You see, what happens is that we get so bogged down into questioning the hearing that we do not end up doing much at all. You would soon find out that if the enemy of our soul knows that you are going to act on what God says then he will no longer be able to use this stalling tactic on you.</div>
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Do you think Jesus had a hard time knowing the will of God? He said, "Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing" (John 5:19)... It was easy because it was his first and only priority! Any hindrance was pushed out of the way. He HAD to hear what His Father was saying.</div>
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Will you occasionally get it wrong because of your humanity? It is a possibility, but a self-correcting one. Isaiah writes, "If you go the wrong way—to the right or to the left—you will hear a voice behind you saying, “This is the right way. ·You should go this way" (Isaiah 30:21). And the thing is one thing has changed to make it even easier since Isaiah's day: now that Voice is within you if you are a believer! Obviously, the voice of God never tells you to do anything contrary to the Word of God. God is not going to tell us to hurt someone, to hurt ourselves, to go against His commandments, to act against the nature of who God is, etc.</div>
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When we live to do the will of God, we will know very quickly when we have gone off the path because the Holy Spirit, in our spirit, will warn us. "<i>Danger! Will Robinson, Danger!</i>" God wants us to tighten up our ability to not only hear God but to obey Him in this hour. Please start to walk in the place where you expect to hear God easily "<i>for as many are led by the Spirit of God are the sons and daughters of God" </i>(Romans 8:14) and "<i>all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory"</i> (2 Corinthians 1:20).</div>
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God is speaking clearly today, have a listen! and then obey!</div>
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P.S. I hear God saying that someone will read this and think they are so far away from hearing God. OK, so, no matter where you are at, how far away you feel from being able to hear God's voice, if you will ask Him, you will know the next simple step you must take. That is all you need. Take that step, and the next one will be given to you. Step by step, we can walk out of the darkness into light.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32913245.post-64889097267581693722018-04-09T10:29:00.000-05:002018-04-09T11:30:56.798-05:00 Nurturing Your Circle of Influence as Spiritual Parents and Grandparents<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<font-family: 11pt="" 400="" arial="" baseline="" font-size:="" font-style:="" font-variant:="" font-weight:="" none="" normal="" pre-wrap="" pre="" text-decoration:="" vertical-align:="" white-space:="">In our older years we can have much to give as spiritual parents or grandparents in the faith. Perhaps we have a bit more time as we retire, or perhaps our priorities in using our time change. The thing we can offer our circle of influence, especially those younger than us, </font-family:>is the wisdom learned from hard won lessons, but, more importantly, the loving presence that only comes with being able to nurture others with the same nurture that God has loved and nurtured you with.</div>
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There is a role of nurture and influence that no one can take from us in our older years if we remain faithful to God. There is a substantial dearth in the church for seasoned mothers and father in the faith who model the characteristics of Jesus. Or perhaps they are just a sleeping army! You can step forward and help fill that vacuum! </div>
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Paul writes, "<b>though you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have you not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have become your father through the gospel"</b> (1 Cor 4:15). Paul recognizes that many people can teach you things about Jesus, but not that many can protect, watch over, and make you feel the safety that a Father’s love gives. We get that sense of how to father (and mother) from having been fathered by God throughout our lives. </div>
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We know that people don’t just need truth, they need to feel our compassion, they need someone to bind up the scrapes, someone to cry with and run to when the way seems lost and hopeless. They need a strong figure that they can watch when it feels like they are drowning: one that stands head and shoulders above the storm and are themselves, watching and being Fathered by God. They need someone whose gives them the reassurance of a loving gaze when they feel lost or incapable. These love subtleties we simply do not have when we are younger.<br />
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Do you remember Radar O’Reilly, the company clerk from MASH? He knew exactly what was needed by some kind of “intuitive” radar. That kind of radar takes awhile to grow in us.
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So you can see how rare and how precious being a spiritual father and mother is. This does not</div>
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come in our youth--it blossoms, if it is going to blossom, in later decades. You can be an outstanding example, a brother, a sister, but you can not be a father or mother, even a grandparent in the faith, until at least a few grey hairs show! </div>
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Jesus said, “What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and put in his garden; and it grew and became a large tree, and the birds of the air nested in its branches.” (Luke 13:18,19). Be a place that is safe enough for “birds” to decide that it is a wonderful place to raise their young! Be a place where people can come in out of the world and stand under your branches and be sheltered. Be like a tree, firmly planted, that stays in its place for decade upon decade, giving shade in the summer and steadfast beauty in all seasons. </div>
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I can remember being a very young believer who felt she knew virtually nothing about God. An older couple, who lived near me, who had been Christians for decades upon decades, would give me a ride to church. I was thrilled because I saw the value of being mentored by someone who had been a believer for a long while and hoped they would mentor me. Unfortunately, these dear people had not been taught and encouraged to do that and thus my young heart went without their nurture. </div>
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So I am encouraging you, decades later, to be that person to the younger people God will bring to you. Notice people. Ask about them, Check in on them. Be a safe place for them. Listen to their fears, encourage their dreams. Bring soup to them when they are sick. Rejoice with them when they win! Tell them, humbly, how you pray but more importantly why you pray. Be real. Be transparent. Tell them that our Father in always there and will always be there and you know that for sure. Lots of people are falling through the cracks, lots of young people have absolutely no knowledge of God and no one to show them the way. Watch over the flock of God in such a way that others feel the Father’s love flowing through your bespectacled eyes, and your wrinkled hands.<br />
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God will love it. So will you. </div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32913245.post-81109318565684314152018-03-31T10:16:00.001-05:002018-03-31T11:17:32.499-05:00Waiting for Resurrection<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Our life with God is in the process of growing: there is a tension between the now and the “not yet.” While the plan for who He meant us to be was in the mind and heart of God before we were conceived, the living out of that destiny takes place, here on earth, through a process of time and trust.<br />
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On this day, Holy Saturday as the liturgical church calls it, Jesus is in a place of utter waiting and trust on God to resurrect Him. As a man He did not have the power to resurrect Himself, He had to wait for His Father. So likewise, we cannot bring life to ourselves but must surrender to God, knowing that His love for us will not forget us, will not abandon us, will not hurt us, but will bring us
to a higher life than we have known. This is not a hopeful truism, but a living truth!<br />
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Jesus understands waiting in trust for God to bring life and resurrection. He understands the vulnerability of waiting in hope, and trusting in faith. Today we can all say that there is something within us that is giving place, perhaps in fits and starts, to who we are yet to become. The sons and daughters of God are being revealed. The life of God is welling up within us ready to bud forth new things that will glorify and reflect God’s nature in us.<br />
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Ponder happily that this day signifies that we are moving from the valley of the shadow of death to our rightful place beneath the shadow of His wings! So let us surrender ourselves into the hands of our Father. Though we be in an “in-between” place, a place of almost there but not yet, we know that “He who has begun a good work in us will continue to carry it through to completion in Christ Jesus” (Phil 1:6)
Look to your Father and to your Saviour!<br />
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Resurrection awaits!<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32913245.post-53648861468076975862018-03-27T19:25:00.000-05:002018-03-27T19:44:01.697-05:00Stepping it Up a Notch at 60<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i> “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Return, O Lord, how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants. O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.” (Psalm 90:12-14) </i><br />
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While we are eternal beings in an ultimately real sense, we are also mortals while on this earth. The Psalmist tells us to “number our days” that we might gain perspective of how short earthly life is compared to eternity, and how imperative it is that our earthly sojourn count much for the eternal kingdom of God.<br />
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A couple of us at <i><u><b>Women of the Word </b></u></i>are turning 60 this year! With that comes a soberness of heart that causes us to turn to the Lord, and implore Him to use us as He wills. There can be nothing held back from Him in this hour. As our bodies age, our spirit can burn every more brightly because we identify with our Lord and understand His purposes and ways in an even greater way. The desire and pursuits of earlier decades give way to increasingly wholehearted and unreserved abandon to our God and His passionate work to win all peoples to Himself.<br />
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There are some things that can not be completely done when we are young because we do not yet have the experience. Maturity in God happens over the course of decades-- line upon line of faithful walking with God, day in and day out, through the many storms of life. While youth has energy, the seasoned have come to know that of themselves, they can do nothing and their self-trust has given way to trust in God alone, or at least a deeper understanding of that. There are no shortcuts to some things. Knowing where you end, and where God begins is a great wisdom.<br />
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Paul writes, “<i>Moreover [let us also be full of joy now!] let us exult and triumph in our troubles and rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that pressure and affliction and hardship produce patient and unswerving endurance.
4 And endurance develops maturity of character (approved faith and tried integrity). And character produces joyful and confident hope of eternal salvation. Such hope never disappoints or deludes or shames us, for God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us. While we were yet in weakness [powerless to help ourselves], at the fitting time Christ died for us in our ungodly condition Romans 5:3-6 Amplified)</i>.<br />
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By the time we turn 60, our character is soberingly starting to show itself for what it is. Now is our wake-up call to be awake, and surrendered, and fit for the Master’s use. For if not now, when? If we have not taken the claims of Jesus upon our life seriously, we had best get down on our knees. And if we have, there are always deeper, more wonderful depths to plumb.<br />
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I feel that I am only getting to the starting line and I have endeavored to run the race with sobriety for these many decades!
God views our life from the finish point. He stands at our finish line and beckons us to run well, run with abandon, run with character, run with grace. So let us do that, with all our mind, heart, soul and strength. There is no time to lose, and no time like the present to press into God.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32913245.post-72183545891509599872018-03-13T10:21:00.000-05:002018-03-13T13:22:53.737-05:00Truth in Another Direction<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Day to day, week to week, month to month or even year to year, our beliefs can remain fixed in a certain ways. We "believe" things because that is what we were raised with, what we feel life has taught us, or that is what our family or church has taught us. We form our lives around those beliefs but I can guarantee you that they are incomplete, and being incomplete, they distort and limit.<br />
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I hate to tell you this, but your beliefs about God are currently constrained by what you think you know.
What you know may be true, but it is incomplete or your experience of it is incomplete. Paul writes, "we see through a glass darkly" 1 Cor 13:12. When Jesus spoke with and taught people you will notice that He was always telling parables that would interrupt old patterns of thinking so that His Truth could find a way in. He knew that He had to overcome the layers, and to be so bold, the lies, of what people had been taught about God. Let me tell you a secret: Jesus is still doing that with you right now!<br />
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For all the truth that you have, there is truth to be found in the opposite direction. If you dwell in the truth, the good and beautiful truth that God is love, then one day God will take you into the fields were He hates (Proverbs 16:6-9) and makes war (Ex 15:3) (Matthew 21:12-17) all with good reason. There are untold facets of God that we will miss if we live in the shallows. We tend to settle into those places, into those beliefs, into those verses, that we are comfortable with: but God loves us enough to hate that! He wants to show us that He is the I AM. That He is beyond our categories and our current thoughts about Him. In the Chronicles of Narnia, CS Lewis writes this:<br />
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<i>“Aslan is a lion- the Lion, the great Lion." "Ooh" said Susan. "I'd thought he was a man. Is he-quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion"..."Safe?" said Mr Beaver ..."Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.” </i><br />
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Do feel both alarmed and comforted when one day, perhaps this day, you hear roaring coming from the back of your wardrobe. It is God coming to take you into truth in a seemingly opposite direction. It is God coming to show you the fullness of who He is. He is not safe, but He is good. Prepare for take-off.>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32913245.post-63236777591895328172018-01-01T16:07:00.002-05:002018-01-01T16:15:26.164-05:00Thoughts as the Old Passes into the New <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
It has been an interesting year. Somewhere along the line I felt like I have fallen through the back of my wardrobe into a landscape much wilder than Narnia. The prophet Isaiah, had a year like that, only I imagine it was even more intense, "<i>In the year King Uzziah died, he writes, I saw the Lord high and lifted up and His train filled the temple." (Isaiah 6:1) . </i> His look at God spun him around and threw him to the floor. There was nothing much left of him but his eyes and his ears.<br />
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A seraphim approaches him and puts a burning coal on his lips, and while this purges him, it makes him aware that his speech does not do God justice. And all that he hears spoken around him and by him falls far short of the glory of God. His own lips are not prepared to be in the Presence of God. And yet, he sees God and God sees him and his response is to want to speak purely of God and for God.<br />
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I'm not sure what I've seen this year, but its like having spent a long time climbing to a top of a very tall mountain, a mountain that has to be climbed with trepidation, step by step, and takes all of your attention so that you cannot look around til you reach the summit. And then, the last step, as you stand and look to survey what you have climbed up there for, is one vast, immense panorama of incredible splendor and beauty and order and wonder as far as the eye can see. Yes, that's where I've been. <br />
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To have a place to stand and see oneself in perspective is an INCREDIBLE gift. One that has blown me away to the degree that I have dared to look. There are things in life that tend to close down our vision of God and ourselves. We end up with a kind of a tunnel vision born of fear. We can only see a small section of the path straight ahead and sometimes that is all we need to see, but there are also times when the blinder's come off and we are allowed to see the whole panorama, all of it at once, for God only knows entirely why, but definitely for a reason connected with one's destiny.<br />
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Last year I had the pleasure of visiting the Isle of Man. I don't know who named it that, but on the ground it's beautiful but normal. It's Man. It's what born of man, and belongs to man, and is of man: just like so much of our experience. There is a mountain peak on the Isle called Snaefell. Its the only place on the island where you can see seven kingdoms just by turning around : England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Mann, the Sea, and Heaven! To see the panorama from the top is to somehow change you, to pull you out of Man and to bring you up to a higher place.<br />
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I'm acclimating to the higher place, I'm acclimating to the great expanse of Heaven, to the Kingdom of God unfolding in ways that I could not see a year ago. I'm acclimating to being mostly only eyes and ears, and having angels touch my lips with coals, and seeing the train of God's glory fill the temple. If you know what I'm saying, you have been there, and if you don't quite know what I'm saying, I'm not sure I can explain it.<br />
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I intend to let whatever is happening have its full work! I intend to stand and breath in the thick smoke of God filling the temple. I intend to let God change me and use me in whatever way He chooses. I intend for 2018 to be an amazing year. Lord, make Your dwelling place in me as I make myself a fit dwelling place for You! </div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32913245.post-51139664024390018012017-12-28T13:30:00.000-05:002017-12-28T13:49:13.724-05:00Leadership Lessons from Return of the Jedi<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I'm going to post a few notes each day about what I learned about leadership from Return of the Jedi. *Spoiler Alert*<br />
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The first one is this:
Good leaders, even if they have fallen out of the saddle, and retreated to sort things out, are willing to get back up on their horse and lead when the time is ready.<br />
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The older Luke Skywalker is found hidden away, far from the madd'ing crowd, on an island far from society. Ironically, in real life, the site where they filmed Skywalker's hermitage is Skellig Michael, one of the earliest monastic locations in Ireland. You had to be brave to live there but you went there to get away from the world and focus on God. It was for extreme seekers. You had to know how to dig deep to make it there.
Luke Skywalker had long retreated from the public eye. He's tried to forget that he's gifted. He's tormented by his failure. When Rey comes and starts to feel the Force, she stares at him boldly and says, "but I couldn't feel you in it, you've cut yourself off from it, haven't you!?"<br />
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Luke knows that being on the razor edge of fighting for good puts you up close to bad, and that you can lose your balance. But he has cut himself off from the Source of his life. He is trying, like the prophet Jonah, to run from his call and bury his gift. Good leaders deal with the mess of sorting this out in their own lives. Sometimes it takes time. Working through the process of failure is what makes them good at leading when they get back up!
Good leaders acknowledge that spiritual battle has real dangers and work through it. It makes them more aware of their need for God. Good leaders don't go forward in their own power, they know when to retreat, but they also know when its time to rise back up.<br />
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Sometimes they need help, a mentor like Yoda, or a reason to do it, like the young Jedi warrior Rey showing up on his proverbial stone doorstep asking for help. Rey knows she has a gift, but she needs "someone to show me my place in all this." We all need that methinks. We don't care that you've failed, we want you to use what you have to help us because if we have come asking for help we recognize that you still know more than we do--even when you have failed. If your heart is right, you get past the failure, learn from it and become a better warrior, even a mentor. If it's not, you die on the island alone and let the world fall into the hands of the enemy.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32913245.post-70106173182201470612017-12-21T13:33:00.000-05:002017-12-21T13:33:16.257-05:00My Christmas thoughts...A Testimony from Bethlehem's Shepherd <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
A Testimony from Bethlehem’s Shepherd<br />
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It feels as if it were yesterday, that wildly unexpected visitation in the fields, when the Angel of the Lord came to us. Now is the time of year, your earth years, not heaven's time, where my story is told again and again, as it should be. But allow me to share it myself as the exact facts are more glorious than you know. And please, I say it is "my story" because it is so precious to me, but it is our story, us shepherds in that field near Bethlehem, and it is your story and it is, most of all, our Jesus' story.<br />
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We were sitting around on that dark, brooding night, passing our time by whittling, or chatting, or daydreaming of better days. We did not realize that the most incredible wonder was about to happen. I was not sure if I was dreaming or awake when I first saw the Angel, but one's mind would not have the material to create a dream of such a glorious being. He was majestic, clothed in a great light that seemed to push us back and down to our knees. He was suddenly there, far taller than a man, shining like the sun, staring deeply into my eyes. I was terrified. My heart was beating so loud and fast that I thought to run but could not move my legs. His gaze held us there. His words astounded.<br />
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<i>"Don't be afraid,</i>" he said, "<i>I am sent from God to bring you some very happy news: In the City of David your Saviour is now born, and not just your Saviour, but the Saviour of all people. The sign you will look for will be in an unlikely but fitting place --for you will find the the Baby from heaven wrapped in lambskin swaddling clothes and placed in a feed trough."</i><br />
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I know that your nativity scenes feature a little wooden stable, or perhaps, your tradition suggests a cave, or perhaps your imagination suggests the backside of a very full country inn, where the donkeys who accompanied the travelers were housed. It was not like that really. You see, I was a special kind of shepherd, still quite looked down on, but less so than the ordinary shepherd who sat keeping sheep safe In the middle of nowhere. You see, that night I was tending the flocks in the shepherd's fields outside Bethlehem watching over the lambs that were born for temple sacrifice. I worked at Migdal Eder, which nurtured and cared especially for the Passover lambs, the ones that must be perfect and without blemish.<br />
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Migdal Eder was where Rachel gave birth to little Benjamin "Son of My Right Hand", the youngest son of Jacob (Gen 35:21), you will see the hint that God put in that! Migdal Eder means "the tower of the flock" because there was a tower there and that is where we cared for the newborn lambs. The chosen baby lambs were wrapped in swaddling clothes and placed in a manger so they would not hurt themselves--they had to be perfect for the sacrifice! The prophet Micah was the one that linked Bethlehem with Jesus -- “<i>But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah,Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting.</i>” (Micah 5:2) but you missed the hint of the exact spot--Migdal Eder!<br />
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The prophet Micah, it seems to me, refers to Migdal Eder when he writes: “<i>And you, <b>O tower of the flock,</b> the stronghold of the daughter of Zion, to you shall it come, even the former dominion shall come, the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.</i>” (Micah 4:8). From this verse grew up the understanding amongst our people that the Messiah would first be declared here. And so He was!<br />
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Oh my! I bow my knee to God when I think that He came to us shepherds, came to us nobodies, to tell us our King had come! Who was I and Who would write such a story? Only God! Blessed be He!<br />
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I find it amusing, now, in looking back, that we who earned our living as shepherd's, were not considered trustworthy enough to bear witness in court and yet the High King of Heaven's courts trusted and blessed us with the announcement and the announcing of the Messiah! That is what our God is like though, yes? Always confounding the high and mighty and revealing Himself to the humble of heart.<br />
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Please believe me when I tell you that it was sometimes hard to be humble after the events of that night--so privileged did all we shepherds feel! But what mystery is this? the High King of heaven, born of a woman, a baby wrapped safely in lambskin like a sacrificial lamb? and put in the feed trough like those destined to be sacrificed?<br />
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Now and forever it is the first duty of the shepherd to keep the flock safe, the little lambs....I cry when I think that He is My Shepherd, just as I, for a few blessed moments, was His shepherd. I cry when I see how He shepherded us in His low estate, giving Himself as the sacrifice for our sins. Who could have thought this story up?<br />
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The Angel came and spoke, his voice like a thunderstorm, and then behind him the heaven themselves opened to reveal a great multitude of heavenly beings--more angels and God knows who, singing in the most incredible harmony of love and adoration: "<i>Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth, peace and goodwill toward all people</i>." Do you know what it is like to hear heaven sing?<br />
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We ran to the tower to find them--you know it was not December-- and there they were! The same glow that was with the angels was resting on the little One in the manger. My heart turned over within me when I laid eyes on Him--so small and serene yet so full of something so large, so very large.<br />
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His parents looked up, startled to see us, we were so bedraggled and bug-eyed, standing before their Baby in awe! We tried to explain, tried a hundred times before it made sense to us or to them--our words tripping out of our mouths...but they would get very used to odd stories and unlikely spokesmen. Mary looked at Joseph, then down at Jesus, for that was His Name, and started to cry. Joseph just looked at us like he had seen a ghost.<br />
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We could not contain ourselves, I'm not sure how far we ran that night, telling everyone what had happened, babbling the story out like mad men. Of course you can guess the ones who believed us and the ones who did not. It did not matter--we had seen the Truth! We had heard heaven sing! We knew! God, we knew! The Little Baby, wrapped like a sacrificial Lamb, the angels, the Light, the Glory! We could not really have known completely how it all fit together, but we knew our lives had forever changed!<br />
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I tell you all this to remind you that there is always more glory to the Story than you know. I tell you this to remind you that God comes to the lowly and the humble and the forgotten and not to the high of heart. He does this because that is what He is like. So as you celebrate His birth, please remember what I have told you and let your heart kneel before Him....perhaps the heavens will open and you will hear the host and inhabitants of heaven praising Him. Forever praising Him.<br />
<br />
Won't you join us?<br />
<br />
_______<br />
my story here is fictionalized but based on some very interesting facts.... if you want to read more about Migdal Eder, check out Alfred Edersheim's, "The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah's" commentary on Migdal Eder, and read various other commentators various takes on the subject. I'm going to love to hear what actually happened from the shepherds themselves one day.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32913245.post-80828470106302520492017-11-16T18:58:00.000-05:002017-11-16T18:58:53.902-05:00Just One Look<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i>Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.” (Mark 10:21)</i><br />
<br />
<i></i>It often seems like personal transformation takes a long time, sometimes a lifetime, and in some respectable way it does. We are always journeying deeper into God and thus being transformed by that process. But in God's design there are spiritual wormholes of a sort-- strategic moments that can take you quickly from one place to another, even though the distance traveled is quite vast.
If God fixes his eyes upon us, we will be overcome by a mighty interaction that can forever change us, and change us quickly!<br />
<br />
In Mark's gospel we see Jesus gazing upon a spiritual inquirer, with a transformational offer: The rich young man was not seeing the big picture of his life and came to Jesus-- seeking, yes, but seeking in his own small box, for a small answer from a small God. He knew he lacked but couldn't imagine what that lack really was. He thought he wanted to know how much more religious he would have to be to get rid of the dull ache in his quickly emptying soul. Jesus calls him to give up his money, not to Jesus ministry, but to the poor.<br />
<br />
Jesus knows he will need a personal gobsmack, and not like what he was getting from the "we'll take your money for God" types, but something truly earth shattering, to ever have hope of being able to fly free. The real bounty here is the gaze of Jesus opening an opportunity to risk it all to get something far better.<br />
<br />
Ponder with me for a moment, these words, " and Jesus, looking at him, loved him"---Can you imagine the power of that look? Can you imagine the compassion pouring forth from the heart of the Father through the eyes of Jesus? Can you sense what Jesus saw as He looked, knowing, understanding, all that stood in this young man's way before He could truly enter the kingdom of God?<br />
<br />
Dear ones, one look like that could transform your whole life. Know deeply that God is looking at you with that kind of compassionate gaze. He sees the obstacles, he sees your humanity, he understands all that is clouded and broken. And yet in one instant His look of love has the power to heal and transform.<br />
<br />
Gaze upon us, O God!<br />
<br />
And not only that, God wants to impart that same powerful ability to us to gaze compassionately into the eyes and hearts of those around us. There will come a day, and may it be very soon, even today, that we as followers of Jesus are able to gaze into the hearts and souls of men and by one look, bring the opportunity for transformation. May we make the Father's love so apparent to each that we encounter that when they look at us, they see the love of the One who can change impossible situations, the One that can by one look, call us forth and bring that which is dead to life. May we as the corporate people of God look with great compassion on others, and truly love them, so that they find courage to follow Jesus into the life the are meant to lead.<br />
<br />
Can you feel God looking at you in that way?<br />
<br />
I can..... and you can, too.<br />
<br />
Open your heart. Jesus is looking at you, dear friend, right now.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32913245.post-23529124646992348992016-12-25T10:03:00.001-05:002016-12-25T10:26:43.727-05:00Notwithstanding, Joseph<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
from Matthew 2<br />
<br />
<br />
Merry Christmas, Everyone! here is something I was pondering from the Christmas story in Matthew's gospel today...</div>
<br />
In this portion of the Christmas story, this difficult and heart wrenching portion, we see God's sovereignty and His Provision amidst the humanity and nobility of Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus. God must have loved and respected Joseph very much for the place that he is called to stand in was a very difficult one. Yet, we see the character of Joseph rising up to meet the challenge in the best way he knows how. God does not have perfect people to work with, the only perfect One in this scene is still a vulnerable Baby who is put into the hands of the two people God felt would do Him right.</div>
<br />
The Holy Family is off to a difficult start. An entourage of wise men show up in Jerusalem inquiring where the "King of the Jews" might be. Scripture says "When Herod the king heard of this, he was<br />
troubled and all of Jerusalem with him." Oh dear. This one statement most likely sums up a scene of complete uproar. Herod is not so stupid as to dismiss the Magi as misguided mystics. They know something he does not and he demands they, and the local priests, tell him the truth so that he can make evil use of their spiritual gifts. He feigns spiritual interest in wanting to worship this king and you see the cinematic closeup shot of his face twisted in jealous horror hidden by a wan grin. The Magi have come in good faith, they do not, it appears, understand the rotting political and spiritual milieu of first century Israel. There is no king but Herod. There will not be another king if Herod has anything to do with it.
Then God begins to intervene. He warns the Magi and they escape by another path, leaving a tricked-by-God Herod angrily left to vent his cruel anger.<br />
<br />
God then warns dear Joseph, to take the sweet family to Egypt. "To Egypt?" echoes Joseph, but he has already faced far more difficult things to believe and so to Egypt they go. All that "it might be fulfilled."
Meanwhile, Herod, possessed with indignant, vengeful rage, decrees the horrific slaughter of the holy innocents : no child under two years old escapes Bethlehem and the surrounding towns alive. No doubt "the lamentations of Rachel weeping" are heard all the way to Egypt, Joseph pondering and worrying and keeping watch over his adopted, precious Son: each night never really sleeping soundly but listening for things that go bump in the night.<br />
<br />
Later, another dream comes, the angel of the Lord announcing the "all clear" to dear Joseph. "Return to Israel, for those who seek to kill the Child are dead." And now here is my point in all this: Joseph takes Mary and Jesus back to Israel "not withstanding" says the King James version. Joseph only half believes that God has gotten it straight. After all, Archelaus, Herod's son, was now king, and does the fruit fall any closer to the tree than that? Cruel and tyrannical; murderous and treacherous, Archelaus was not exactly safe. "Does the Good God have all the facts?" thinks Joseph. So just to be sure, just to be safe, Joseph heads not back to Bethlehem, where the only two year old boy would stick out like a sore thumb in the bereaved township, but into the backwoods of the Galilee.
And who can blame him? In this we see that God is watching all the way, guiding Joseph as the leader of his dear family, and that even when God says it is safe, overcautious Joseph is obsessively diligent: no one shall hurt the boy on his watch! Dreams are dreams, and guidance from God a luxury mostly for the rabbis, but in the real world of carpenters, knives and swords are real dangers and death a real possibility. And thus unfolds the heavenly story come to earth and the fulfillment of scripture even because of Joseph's overkill. Matthew records all this and notes "so that the Scripture might be fulfilled, "Jesus comes to live in Nazareth for the prophet says, "He shall be a Nazarene."<br />
<br />
Can you see yourself in this story of Joseph? I can.
When God says, "Go!" it is easy to ask,<br />
"But are You sure?"<br />
"Yes, I AM"<br />
"But are You, sure, sure?"<br />
<br />
I am not condoning questioning God when He tells us something, but our response may not always be an expression of rebellion but of the very human feeling that we do not want to endanger those in our spiritual care or the work of God given to us. To the degree that this is predictably how decent humans think and not open disobedience, God weaves our moments of hesitation and the resulting detours, into the grand story of His Redemption, "notwithstanding". I reckon He weaves all our downright failures in too, for "all things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to His purpose."<br />
<br />
What is beautiful, and fearful, about this story is that we can see God being God over tragedy and over the tiny, narrow, glorious road that led to our salvation. In all our humanity we try our best, we put our trust in God and obey, sometimes a bit slowly, a bit to the left or a bit to the right, but God is still well in control, well overseeing the details, well able to perfect all that concerns His kingdom.
<br />
<br />
The more we see this truth, the more we see that it is really all God and very little of us, and because of that we can really start to enjoy the bit parts we play in the Kingdom of His Dear Son. So find your place, and say your line in the Christmas play, and rejoice in God and celebrate that He is the One who scripts the Christmas and Easter and Happily- Ever-After story<br />
for His People. We are blessed. So very blessed.
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32913245.post-30121396270926175722016-04-20T13:01:00.005-05:002016-04-20T13:03:02.145-05:00Greater Than all My Failures<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<i> Some One larger than all of my failures is stirring inside of me. .. Let the Holy</i><br />
<i>Spirit arise within you and do His Work. God is not worried about what you are not or not</i><br />
<i>yet. He is jealously guarding what He has planted within you. Let it rise up amidst the weeds.</i><br />
<i>His life will mold you and make you even in challenging circumstances. It is immutable life.</i><br />
<i>It is eternal. </i></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0United States40.3130432088809 -70.4882812527.824686708880897 -91.14257825 52.8013997088809 -49.83398425tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32913245.post-82288001605148391082015-04-05T09:51:00.000-05:002015-04-05T09:51:16.492-05:00The God-Sent God<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<br />
It is Easter Sunday. It is a reminder that our problems here were so big that they could not<br />
be fixed from afar. Some problems are like that. In an age where I can look through a webcam<br />
at some distant part of the earth, or have a doctor diagnose my condition remotely, or speak<br />
with people at the far end of the globe instantaneously, we tend to forget that some problems<br />
are too big for any of that to help. .<br />
<br />
It would be a pitiless God who created people, set them upon the earth, watched them<br />
bring ruin upon themselves and yet do nothing about it. If He merely watched from<br />
afar, what would that say to us? But He sent us His Son. In humility. Incognito to those<br />
who would not see. <br />
<br />
Sometimes, when something is really broken, you have to send the right Man to fix the<br />
problem, and sometimes He might have to come a long way. Such is the Christmas<br />
and Easter story. We weren't sent just anybody to fix our problem. We were sent the<br />
God-sent God. God did not send a messenger, someone to get the job done (as if<br />
just a messenger could), and check to see the delivery confirmation number to<br />
see if he arrived. No, God sent God to help us. What that means exactly and how<br />
He did it, we shall only understand One Day. But today we can know that He did<br />
not send just anybody, but His Only Begotten Son. Spirit of His Spirit. Eternally One.<br />
He sent Himself. Sometimes there is only one Man for the job. Thankfully, it was<br />
the Right and Righteous One, Jesus. Thank God for the God-sent God.<br />
<br />
Hallelujah, He is Risen! Happy Easter!. </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32913245.post-78480472916426556732015-02-16T18:18:00.000-05:002015-02-17T09:36:04.736-05:00On the Old Landmarks Disappearing<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Today, I walked to the corner of the street where I have lived a good deal of my life.<br />
Today, it was so very different. The house on the corner of my street was sitting mostly in<br />
a dumpster: knocked down to make progress. I honestly did not recognize what I was looking<br />
at. The old landmark was gone. This is the fourth time that this has happened this year<br />
and its strangely symbolic. The local developer decided to buy up as much land as he<br />
could going down my street.. This last house was 30 year hold out. They just wouldn't sell<br />
even though the house was abandoned, derelict, and had not been inhabited for decades.<br />
In some ways it should have been demolished long ago, in others, it should have been<br />
restored. Nevertheless, it was still a landmark with its own warning message.<br />
<br />
The house next to it was demolished just before this one. My friends lived there when<br />
I was a child and when I told them, we were upset together. Before it was demolished<br />
I went up to the empty window, stuck my head inside, and what hit me was a wave<br />
of happy childhood memories. Scores of people had lived there since the days that<br />
I had played there but just for a moment, it was 1967. Time is wobbly like that..<br />
<br />
The house next to that one had been demolished last fall. The last occupants were<br />
a black lady and her son and her dog, Precious. That's how I got Precious.--the<br />
people had to move to make way for "progress" and progress didn't care one whit<br />
that Precious would not be permitted to stay in the only other housing available<br />
to the family. So, while I leave out a lot of the story, I inherited the dog I vote most<br />
like Jesus. My other dogs have not been the greatest Christians, this one outdoes me,<br />
paws down. <br />
<br />
Then the house two doors down from me, also fell to the wrecking ball. It shook<br />
our house for two days and I couldn't bear to look. It was Miss White's old house<br />
and it was built the same year that ours was. Now instead of telling people that are<br />
trying to find my house that I am the sixth house on the right, I will have to tell them<br />
something entirely different. Somehow, that is just plain eerie.<br />
<br />
Do you know why I've told you all this? Because in a similar way our spiritual<br />
landmarks are disappearing and the wrecking ball is right next door shaking our<br />
houses and I wanted you to ponder that with me.<br />
<br />
The dictionary describes landmark as "<i>a prominent or conspicuous
object on land </i><br />
<i>that serves as a guide, especially to ships at sea or
to travelers on a road, a </i><br />
<i>distinguishing
landscape feature marking a site or location</i>."<br />
<br />
Today when I walked down to the corner, I felt the exact same feeling of dis-ease<br />
that I've been feeling for several years spiritually. I will miss the sense of coming<br />
toward home and seeing that which marks my home area, that which is familiar<br />
and comforting in its gift of stability. It's all changed and until I get used to it,<br />
its going to bother me. Some change is required, some contains a deeper message.<br />
<br />
Those landmarks had been there since I was a child. I had watched similar<br />
ones fall along the way, but now it was right next to me, Likewise spiritually.<br />
Proverbs tells us:"<i>Remove not the ancient landmark," (Proverbs 22:28) </i><br />
<br />
There is good spiritual reason for that: remove what is meant to guard<br />
and soon a generation and all that come after will not be able to find their way.</div>
<br />
If the foundations be shaken, what can the righteous do? (Psalm 11:3)<br />
Our spiritual landscape is changing and nothing much looks or feels familiar.<br />
Landmarks give us a sense of stability and order. They guide us. They help us know<br />
our boundaries and respect our space. If they disappear how will we<br />
know that we are still on the right path?<br />
<br />
Most of the people I respected as leaders as I grew up spiritually are now<br />
with the Lord. I heartily lament this. I often sit and wonder what they would be<br />
preaching or saying now, here, this very minute. Others have lost their way or changed<br />
their path, or I'm not sure.what. They don't feel the same. They don't sound the<br />
same. They don't preach the same--if they still preach and not just chat.from<br />
the pulpit, if there even still is a pulpit.<br />
<br />
When did everything change? When did the One Way sign change to Multiplex Rotary<br />
Ahead? When did the Stop sign change to Pause and then Sneak Through?<br />
When did the Red Light have a Rainbow painted over it? When did the Wrong Way<br />
sign get replaced with Any Way You Want Will Get You There? Our landmarks<br />
have disappeared, shifted, or are being replaced. Some may have needed to be, most<br />
did not<br />
<br />
Much earlier in our North American history explorers would set a landmark to mark<br />
a land claim as their own. Later, unscrupulous others would come and remove the landmarks<br />
thus taking things that were not theirs to take. A very different America emerges<br />
if that had not happened. Compare that to the current spiritual landscape. <br />
<br />
<br />
The Book of Job says, "Some remove the landmarks, they seize and devour the flocks"<br />
(Job 24:2). Landmarks are removed to confuse and erase boundaries. They undo order and<br />
leave the flocks open to danger. So what are we to do?<br />
<br />
God says, "One more time will I shake the heavens and the earth, and the sea and the<br />
dry land and I will shake all nations and the Desire of Nations shall come" (Haggai<br />
2: 6 &7, )<br />
<br />
Now we must set our eyes on Jesus alone. All is being stripped away in the purposes<br />
and plan of God. We must seek the Truth that is revealed in and by Christ Jesus. He<br />
alone must now be our Landmark and our High Tower. Lesser things, even all things<br />
that are not built on the Firm Foundation of Christ, will be swept away in the coming<br />
storm. On Christ the Solid Rock I now must stand, for surely all other ground is sinking<br />
sand.<br />
<br />
Peter wrote to early Christians, "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery<br />
trial which is to try you as though some strange thing happened to you, But<br />
rejoice inasmuch as you are partakers of Christ suffering, that , when His glory<br />
shall be revealed, you may be glad also with exceeding joy "(I Peter 4:12, 13) .<br />
<br />
Beloved, this is not gong to be an easy time. We find ourselves in a sea of confusion<br />
and we must navigate by the Son alone. All shall be well if we are focused on Him,<br />
but do take care.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32913245.post-23689450686517561262015-02-16T17:31:00.001-05:002015-02-16T17:31:55.836-05:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32913245.post-74103232984491006402015-02-02T15:58:00.001-05:002015-02-02T16:02:47.833-05:00Finding God in the Great Silence<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><b><i>We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature - trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence... We need silence to be able to touch souls. </i></b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><b><i>--Mother Theresa </i></b></span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">winter walk in Robinson State Forest. Agawam, MA</span></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32913245.post-65866265802645175802015-02-02T13:16:00.001-05:002015-02-02T13:16:43.542-05:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></i>
<i><b><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px;">“It isn't as bad as you sometimes think it is. It all works out. Don't worry. I say that to myself every morning. It all works out in the end. Put your trust in God, and move forward with faith. The Lord will not forsake us. He will not forsake us. If we will put our trust in Him, if we will pray to Him, if we will live worthy of His blessings, He will hear our prayers.” </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px;">― </span><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/313356.Gordon_B_Hinckley" style="background-color: white; color: #666600; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;">Gordon B. Hinckley</a></b></i></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32913245.post-70950668309887464732015-01-24T17:06:00.001-05:002015-01-24T17:06:19.629-05:00The Lord Jesus Christ is the common Denominator<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<em style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">“There is a brotherhood within the body of believers, and the Lord Jesus Christ is the common denominator. Friendship and fellowship are the legal tender among believers.” </span> </em><strong style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><i>~ J. Vernon McGee</i></strong><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></span><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Mr & Mrs Finch waiting patiently for their turn at the feeders. </span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32913245.post-82919593574569528742015-01-23T16:20:00.000-05:002015-01-23T16:20:16.946-05:00Fellowship with God refreshes the soul....<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTkJZI-t5rcAgBbobJhUiQRcq9-_vtAQpD7KZ8OnU40vwYv9wQug9EGQgg73AbFioaZgydq9h-K-lWtTNUenE7yzUD-lrIKbA1XVlL-ZyoaFrglaNWXJmOkz0CyAJZX-ZwoDDr/s1600/bcopy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTkJZI-t5rcAgBbobJhUiQRcq9-_vtAQpD7KZ8OnU40vwYv9wQug9EGQgg73AbFioaZgydq9h-K-lWtTNUenE7yzUD-lrIKbA1XVlL-ZyoaFrglaNWXJmOkz0CyAJZX-ZwoDDr/s1600/bcopy.jpg" height="512" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #93c47d; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px;">“Fellowship with God refreshes your soul: it allows God to speak into your life for the next level of your life endeavours. Your life will always speak louder in the light of God’s Word.” </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px;">― </span><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8197435.George_Mfula" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;">George Mfula</a></span></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32913245.post-79733229918298784362015-01-22T17:45:00.002-05:002015-01-23T11:25:32.234-05:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">We learn to soar, even in winter, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">sitting next to each other on our proverbial telephone lines, </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">creating beautiful music</span> together as we await </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">warmer climes and better seasons. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Hope is a wonderful thing!</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32913245.post-70409410621343333742015-01-21T16:24:00.002-05:002015-01-21T17:37:46.454-05:00Open Heaven!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHgRH7hjF5o5NN9W4lxTF_8yIJ_EBlVI4iJr1v_vUUMYYW75INb4pIrN-x9SFcQnYk6O98CC5F8DrrxrGgfL3_skFpSCO7NzUP1T3ZCDuuAE9jINqxdv6KS_cra8EF6-v8LAEG/s1600/sunsetwinter+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHgRH7hjF5o5NN9W4lxTF_8yIJ_EBlVI4iJr1v_vUUMYYW75INb4pIrN-x9SFcQnYk6O98CC5F8DrrxrGgfL3_skFpSCO7NzUP1T3ZCDuuAE9jINqxdv6KS_cra8EF6-v8LAEG/s1600/sunsetwinter+copy.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="version-KJV result-text-style-normal text-html " style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">
<h1 class="passage-display" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.1; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">
<span class="passage-display-bcv" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding-right: 10px;"><br /></span></h1>
<h1 class="passage-display" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.1; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">
<span class="passage-display-bcv" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; color: #93c47d; display: inline; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding-right: 10px;">Psalm 5 </span></h1>
<div class="chapter-1" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span class="text Ps-5-1" id="en-KJV-13975" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; color: #93c47d;"><span class="chapternum" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; bottom: -0.1em; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial; font-size: 24px; font-weight: bold; left: 0px; line-height: 0.8em; position: relative;">5 </span>Give ear to my words, O <span class="small-caps" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span>, consider my meditation.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span class="text Ps-5-2" id="en-KJV-13976" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; color: #93c47d;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">2 </span>Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto thee will I pray.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span class="text Ps-5-3" id="en-KJV-13977" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; color: #93c47d;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">3 </span>My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O <span class="small-caps" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span>; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span class="text Ps-5-4" id="en-KJV-13978" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; color: #93c47d;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">4 </span>For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span class="text Ps-5-5" id="en-KJV-13979" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; color: #93c47d;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">5 </span>The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span class="text Ps-5-6" id="en-KJV-13980" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; color: #93c47d;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">6 </span>Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing: the <span class="small-caps" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> will abhor the bloody and deceitful man.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span class="text Ps-5-7" id="en-KJV-13981" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; color: #93c47d;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">7 </span>But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy: and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span class="text Ps-5-8" id="en-KJV-13982" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; color: #93c47d;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">8 </span>Lead me, O <span class="small-caps" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span>, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies; make thy way straight before my face.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span class="text Ps-5-9" id="en-KJV-13983" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; color: #93c47d;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">9 </span>For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulchre; they flatter with their tongue.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span class="text Ps-5-10" id="en-KJV-13984" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; color: #93c47d;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">10 </span>Destroy thou them, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions; for they have rebelled against thee.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span class="text Ps-5-11" id="en-KJV-13985" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; color: #93c47d;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">11 </span>But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span class="text Ps-5-12" id="en-KJV-13986" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; color: #93c47d;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">12 </span>For thou, <span class="small-caps" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span>, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield.</span></div>
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