On Eclipse day! "Oh Love that will not let me go"----Even when the sun goes partly covered...Am I ready to yield my flickering torch

O Light that follow'st all my way, I yield my flick'ring torch to Thee; My heart restores its borrowed ray, That in Thy sunshine's blaze its day May brighter, fairer be.

God is before and behind us! How can it be said that God follows all my way? When You are before me and when you are behind me, I am yielding my flickering torch to You! The eclipse seems to play act this spiritual truth. Here are our torches, Lord. It seems like it makes no difference, except when it is dark. My torch is committed to You! God's light is all there is. It is in subjection to, even the sun. When the sun kneels to pray to the greater light of Jesus, we must all look away. Don't look at the sun. It is getting humbled, as we all must be. Jesus is greater and still shines, even when the trusted lights are suspect in their duties. God brings and ushers in epochs and memorials to the day. We genuflect, only to Him and His purposes.

Even the sun sings Look at me Don't look, though!

the power of pride is catastrophic sometimes.

does my pride comfort my heart or am I really in God's will?-----a link to chapter 16 of the Christian's Daily Walk

At the first, when I read this book, I felt my soul was being flagellated and there was no hope for me. In my grief, I sought to find the right way to walk with God.

That is not the time to look at your condition of soul. When your comforts have been withdrawn, is not the time to exercise the most serious self-examination. It is the time to pray for mercy to see God's goodness and not to lose all hope. It is the time to say "Help, I am drowning!" There is no escaping our undoneness in the light of the perfectness of God. I am worthy of Hell. May I never get what I deserve.

Only by the grace of the merciful Savior who spilled His blood on my behalf and on behalf of all who seek Him. I want to live Holy unto Him until I see Him. Is that possible?

God grant grace to live wholly unto Jesus and be faithful to my confession of Him, in Jesus' Name. Amen.

James 5:11 Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy. James 5:12 But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation. James 5:13 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.

Proverbs 8

Proverbs 8:35  For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the LORD.

Daddy, where does the Favor of the Lord come from? Are we teaching our children to seek the favor of the Lord or the favor of man?

If there is any reason that people may need to take a break from church it is to discern whether their tradition is leading them to the favor of the Lord or the favor of man. “He is a good God fearing person, isn’t she?” Is that what they say about us?

What does that mean? Who are the people that make you genuflect before them? We have traditions that subjugate themselves to this or that person or construct of philosophies. We all have them. Many of us have established churches that instruct our little ones to fear strongholds and etc.

We are in captivity to the traditions that have been established before us. Many of which are directly and indirectly traditions of Babylon. We are not just submitting ourselves to the ordinances of man. We are worshipping others, in the relationship between the things that they have amassed in their traditions. The cast system of our making is passed down to the children and they fear. This fear, I see in the eyes of some of the little ones. We must teach them early to pray about their fears and their foibles. They are not able to put their minds around the rules that they are subject to. Some home rules and some outside rules, many bosses make them confused. We have to isolate the priority as being God and even the subjection to parents must be explained as under God, or we are placing ourselves as gods to them. I answer to God.

Discipling them into the faith should be in our minds, not subjugating them as slaves. This is hard.

Teach them to pray! Humble your hearts in your parenting.

Give us grace to do this, Lord!

Nehemiah 3 and Psalm 87 seem hand in glove to teach the children the unity of the People of God!

Nehemiah 3 seems to me the picture of the little dutchboy's finger multiplied by the number of people to stay the hand of God's judgment on His people and to restore the former glory.

In Nehemiah, the wall was already broken down and the floods of pagan culture had enveloped them and all but destroyed their way of life. Nehemiah's prayer was followed by the people working as a single hand and arm to the work of restoration. They were all sticking a finger in the dyke of division between themselves and their godless world.

They had been taken over and had been separated from their God{so to speak} with the intention that they become amalgamated. That was man's plan and the devil's plan, but God had not forsaken them. God was more committed to the covenant of His than they were or than providences could break. Their united tie to their God was not able to be snatched from them, much less their commitment to each-other's well being beautifully expressed in Psalm 87. Halleluia, that is a God-wrought bond.Let us rejoice in the faithfulness of God to His people then and much more to the Church that He has purchased with His own blood!

On to Nehemiah...

What an amazing experience that I had yesterday. I was not in the first chapter of Nehemiah; that had been the day before. I entered into Nehemiah's prayer by printing it out and meditating on it. Even though, I know the context and have been there at Nehemiah in my bible-time many times before, my recent state of mind makes it seem very new. I listen as though this is my very first time in the book. I am introduced to a man in Nehemiah, who clearly has a burden of prayer for His people. He commits it, intently to God in an amazing prayer and it could take me a year to really absorb the depths of His prayer and observation and identification with His people. I do wonder often if anyone today really relates to any group with that type of love and hopefulness.

My eye was on God's hand that kneaded into His Old Testament Saints {through many mothers' instruction, I might add} a sense of unity and identification with one-another's sins and blindspots. What we all do affects all of us, is the amazing perspective of Nehemiah's prayer. Perhaps, the sad state of being in captivity draws our eyes to a cleansing perspective. God had equipped Nehemiah with a vision and a plan of reconstruction. He prayed and left it at God's throne.

I couldn't relate to the leaving of the burden there. I was still stuck in chapter one, when I found myself at chapter 2, yesterday. Nehemiah's hands were already dirty and meeting the enemies and deeply engaged in the battle for God honoring reconstruction and protection of God's people. I wasn't ready for this in my heart. I wanted to stay at the throne and see God laying out the blueprints for Him. I wanted a promise to stand on or a word from the Lord to go on. The prayer happened and God seemed to say, what you are saying isn't the half of where your people are. I am there, God said and thrust Nehemiah straight into the solution, without a promise of completion or support. I guess that was obvious that God was more committed than Nehemiah was. But it shocked me. I wanted to know ahead of time, whether Nehemiah was going to succeed. I wanted to know what God thought about the prayer. Good praying, or something to go on. Next thing he was looking into the eyes of the enemy.

Nehemiah was a real man about it! There was a sense of blessing that men have that type of fortitude then and now.