Thank God for those people, who God has called to build up our breastplate of righteousness.

I can feel, almost tangibly, when the chinks on my breastplate of righteousness are falling off. God's Word is faithful and reminds us to put on the whole armor of God. When I hear the brethren sing to God's glory of the truths of scripture, it seems as though my breastplate is being reinforced. The fiery darts of the wicked one come in and burn and bruise and make me sore. The songs of faith and truth strengthen my heart and my faith. The scriptures tell us to be filled with the spirit singing to one another in Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs, singing and making melody in our hearts to the Lord is essential for those whose hearts are downcast. There is a verse that says not to sing songs to a heavy heart and I have had that experience, as well. A heart so heavy with cares and pain that it cannot see a day when it could sing. God's healing came in spite of myself and it often came through the songs of the believers injected into my soul. I do remember, at my son's funeral, my knees were unable to stand. I felt that I would faint, any moment. The first hymn of the congregation seemed to come into my soul and body and strengthen my knees to stand and then to walk and even to stand at the cemetary. It was the song of the redeemed, I didn't want to hear it. I didn't want to be there. My body was completely given over to the grief. God used the means of the songs in the service to strengthen body and soul. Rarely, are we called to go through those kinds of seasons of unbelief and grief, thanks to God's mercy. But God has the remedy for our griefs and woes and unbelief. He uses the people of God. Songs that they have written. Voices annointed to minister for His faithfulness, instruments playing skillfully for His glory strengthen, encourage, build up and convict us; building our breastplate of righteousness. I think that we will see our armor, when we get to heaven and we will see, what we did to build and strengthen our armor and that which we have done to break down the armor that we have. I pray that we will be found faithful, in that day.

Babylon is fallen, fallen? Is 21:9

Wouldn't it be a sorry sight when we get to heaven and see that much of our labors were to try to raise Babylon from its fallen state. We think it is our job to resurrect the trampling that the Lord's foot is doing on our idolatry. He is trampling Babylon under His feet, through His Bride the church and we are setting up levers and hoya lifts to pick it up. I think that there was certainly a falling in Daniel's day as he broke the Word of God down for the people and prevailed in prayer with God. We have access to the great God of creation, Daniel bellowed to the deafened, educated world of his day. A Savior is coming and in the fullness of time, we will see that the kingdoms of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord, because of the sacrifice of Christ. Catechisms and Creeds, traditions of faith and life-giving habits are the toes of the feet trampling the Babylon under the feet of Christ. We still try to resurrect the pieces of the statue of subjugation and demoralization in our civilizations, but ultimately, Christ wins the conflict, regardless of our insane efforts to work against Him. Glory, Halleluia, His truth is marching...on!

"If thou art?" "If thou can'st?" "If Thou would'st"

The Lord was tempted by the devil, with ifs and thens. "If you are...then. If I am then." I think of the corrolaries and postulates that we had to memorize in High School and I think of Rudyard Kipling's if. If is a strong dare to us for good and for ill. The major life postulate and corrolary should certainly be,"If God be for us, who can be against us?" If we then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above, where Christ is? Oh how often my eyes and my heart are sunk in the mud of this life's concerns and difficulties. The thorns and thistles are choking out the word until I grab hold of the help in the true truth of life that I belong to Jesus. He will help us. He will sustain and recoup my mind, from the anxieties. He is for us. Halleluia, anyhow. Heidelberg and the catechisms are bombardments for the mind to dilute some of the tools of the enemy from totally sabotaging the soul, to the ultimate shipwreck of the soul. The help of God comes with the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimonies. Help us, Lord to love You and trust You, in these dark days and veil of tears. Christ is the light of that city!

Some situations may overcome us...

The older I get the more aware of my limitations, emotionally and socially. I get to my last nerve, alot sooner than when I was younger. Last night I misplaced some money and couldn't recuperate emotionally from the folly of it, even after the money was found. That is just a tidbit of the sensitivities of my aging infirmities. The elders, used to sing that song, We Shall Overcome. There is much to be strengthened by in that song. I imagine the "listening skies" as if God's ear is the sky above us. The faith that can give us strength to march on, forth is expressed by many of the spirituals and hailed in this season of the year. Sometimes, the scripures and the sentiment that caused our forefathers to pen many of the sentiments of overcoming illudes me. I just don't see the overcoming, in the trenches. I see the lights of explosives and the combat, but there is no light of the end of the tunnel of my conflict in sight. I feel jealous of the people who heartily express their commitment to overcoming. I feel like singing I am overcome. I am learning that Jesus is far above my emotions and John reminds me that He is even greater than my heart. He is above the principalities and powers that overtake me in the struggle and can vanquish every foe, with the "word of his power". He is exalted and no individual overcomes, truly without the corporate commitment of the "Body of Christ". God's listening skies are tuned to the cries of His children and not as they cry for their own individual needs apart from His church, but, as we are attached to the living and true expression of His life on the earth, He is glorified in allowing us to overcome, the world, the flesh, and the devil. God's church will overcome, not to the liberty of prosperity, necessarily, but to the liberty of truly expressing His will upon the earth. That is the delicate expression of the vision of what is overcoming to impress upon our children. Not our foot on the neck of our brother, but the freedom to serve our brother, in gratitude for what Christ has done and is accomplishing upon the earth through us. Thank God for a patient family and friends who love me through my unbelief. Maybe, I do see the light at the end of the tunnel, that way.

The Sin of Murmuring

It is a shame how the week or two after Christmas is the worst time of murmuring and complaining. Just last month, not even 3 full weeks ago, we were rejoicing in the beauty of the gifts of and to oneanother and here we are, looking at the specks and spots in oneanother. Shame on me. I am so very blessed with loving family and I wake up on the wrong side of the bed and I am pecking at them something awful. I miss my family and I miss NY. But, that is no excuse for jumping all over my loved ones about their flaws and foibles. Thank God for His grace and mercy with my sinful tongue. I love my family and my husband and trust God's mercy upon us. Help me Lord to express my gratitude for them, more than my disappointment in their deportment and embarrassments to me. Lord, You are the only faithful and true friend, help me to draw close to You in this very painful time. In Jesus Name. Amen.

Who's side are you on? They would ask the apostle Paul.

Romans 1;14

He answered them, I am a debtor to the Jews and to the Greeks. I have a place in my heart to see my people saved, but the Gentiles also, have made a contribution to my soul and I wish to see them redeemed, as well. What a hard place for Paul to be in the first century, it was. He articulated, in the book of Romans, a desire for the Gentiles to come to Christ. Paul had seen the children of Israel squander the inheritance of godliness and the brains that God had given them and he had been privileged to make full use of his brain and his faith. He had a vision that in Christ we could use our brains to find solutions and pray for God's intervention, with furvor. I think the closest that we have come to the vision of that fruition of blending of faith and study came before the World Wars. There was a quote that God has given us the tools in our minds to problem solve, for His glory. We plunged into the midnight of thought and faith going to opposite corners and I think that we need to pray for the dawning of the dance of thought and faith. ie. We have let the devil have much of the entertainment realm. We have not sought to wrestle godliness into our youthful enjoyments. The spiritual battle is fought for the development of the minds and disciplines of my children. Today, I am thanking God for the many, who wrestled truth and faith into my thinking.