The Birth of John the Baptist in the "Joy to the World": Can earth receive her king without everyone benefiting?

The Tongue our measure, as individuals and as a culture? Submission of the tongue to 1. the mind 2. fear 3. truth 4. God’s Word 5. the culture surrounding?

John the Baptist as a child reared in the fear of God and not the fear of man is my examination.

His head was severed from his body for having reproved the highest man in that land. {perhaps the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow} Our minds and hearts are searching for true and right instruction of our children. We desire to seize the day in terms of their greatest effectiveness for God upon the earth. Yet the song of Mary’s Baby in Negro Spirituals helps me to see the dichotomy of our African American parenting style. There is a subculture of rearing to the fear of man, that is clear in my watchfulness.

Why language learning early? Why math? These expressions of thought at an early age are debased as “other”. Other kinds of people engage in such. We train toward subjugation and asking permission. Am I allowed to think about this or that, mother? God is far above in the cast of characters from whom we borrow our breath? We can’t see Him for the cultural multitude telling us what to do. It is enough that we are allowed to live and have breath in this foreign land. We have been here for many years and we are still a subculture in our own estimations. This is something we must break the shackles of. where is the culture going? We must be at the helm of such thought or there will not be a straight direction.

Headless Horsemen, do not take heed to the lot that fell to John the Baptist for thinking and expressing his spiritual assessment of the culture around him!

Lord give grace to grow and to Stand in developing our minds!please...

Understanding and accepting some of the cultural themes expressed in our hymns and spirituals?

I don't dare think I can understand the cultural divides to some of the spiritual concepts expressed in our hymns and spiritual songs!

I know that scripture says that John saw a multitude that was diverse and varied, in worship to God. I sometimes wonder at the blindness that we harbor in our prejudiced hearts about God and about our brethren. I see my own tendency to accuse my brethren of hardness of heart as I sing some of the Eurocentric Hymns and cry at some of the blindness as I sing the Spirituals. Once in a while I find divergence in thought and the unity of the Spirit growing in our Christian Hymnity.

Hold to His Hand, God's unchanging hand. Song about personal responsibility to hang onto Jesus, no matter come what may.

How very often we are arguing about the semantics of a biblical truth, instead of embracing the truth it declares and living it out.

some cultures emphasize the embracing of learning and thinking about your "'ligion". some culture discourage personal thought altogether in lieu of living it out. I call this the Pragmatic, versus the Intellectual. Some argue you can't live it until you think it. Others respond thinking about it ain't living it.

As I was worshipping, I felt the Holy Spirit underline one of my special needs in both of these hymns and spiritual songs. One song says it

3 Covet not this world’s vain riches That so rapidly decay. Seek to gain the heav’nly treasures. They will never pass away. [Refrain]

the other song said it another way

Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise Thou mine Inheritance, now and always Thou and Thou only, first in my heart High…

Either way, I am convicted. Stop Coveting, I am not sure that I heed them not. I am sure that I am not completed in learning not to covet.

Especially in this season of the earth Christmas time, I could argue the Irish people were bragging about their ability to not heed to riches.{jealousy on my part} maybe they really have. The Blacks are reproving themselves and exhorting not to enter the covetous realm.

Either way, my accusation of the vehicle of reproof can keep me from the doing. Or I can humble myself and STOP COVETING. I receive the reproof from the Holy Spirit in "Negro Spiritual" and in Irish!

Though the Trials of life may surround like a cloud?

There's a peace in my heart that the world never gave, A peace it cannot take away; Tho' the trials of life may surround like a cloud, I've a peace that has come there to stay! Refrain: Constantly abiding, Jesus is mine; Constantly abiding, rapture divine; He never leaves me lonely, whispers, O so kind: "I will never leave thee," Jesus is mine. All the world seemed to sing of a Saviour and King, When peace sweetly came to my heart; Troubles all fled away and my night turned to day, Blessed Jesus, how glorious Thou art! This treasure I have in a temple of clay, While here on His footstool I roam: But He's coming to take me some glorious day, Over there to my heavenly home!

Jesus' light cuts through the darkness of trials, etc.I really don't like thinking about my trials, but it is when my peace is shaken that I realize the depth of the salvation which is purchased for me by my Savior and King. It is when the children say they are stranded here or there Between here and where they are, that my salvation is called into question in my own mind. Who do you trust? the devil asks. I trust Jesus, I say. But I am so used to trusting my care of my children that letting go of being able to bail them out of situations is so hard. That is most often the cloud that erases my vision of God's working in my life. This Hymn, this morning helped me work through the residual unbelief that this storm carried into my life. Each storm carries a level of unbelief to be overcome and worked through to see Jesus.

Righteousness Exalts a Nation?

esus Changes us personally and culturally, when invited to participate in our processes. Lion of Judah! Savior and Ruler of all! When I look at Tolkien’s observations of our culture and our racial culture, which I call Eurocentric Christianity: it seems he has a maternal sense of the ailments of our time and perspectives. We missed this and that truth in scripture. We emphasize this truth to the complete ambiguity of all the other commands of God. where is the rounding of our infected perspective that will truly help us to progress. He said we keep reaching lower and lower into the mire of muck to create new concepts in Christendom. We come up with freaks of scientific expressions of humanity that have very little resemblance to humanity in their behaviors. They have a warfare to fight and we if we would keep our souls in tact, must war against those creations of our own hands and wrestle them into compliance to Christ. This is true of the Sons of Ham as much as the Sons of Japheth. But we haven’t studied our pagan tendencies and our Christian consistencies. We seem to think in Ham that if we are children of the slaves our souls are “in Tact” {Young Gifted and Black). We must fight the good fight in our education as well as those for whom the bells toll{tongue in cheek}. God lends mothers who are devoted and praying a discerning eye and ear and God lends to teachers who are discerning and praying a hand at living our culture and raising our culture to a greater level of conformity to Christ. It is not just about what we do in Church to worship God. It is about our labors whether they are wood, hay or stubble and whether our trust is truly in Christ or is it in our cultural perspective about Christ. I love the Jonah Movie Veggietales, but I find the imbalance of our perspective expressed. Are all Blacks angels in the belly of the whale, singing our culture to Glory? I don’t think so. I think that God is trying us with one issue of our culture especially. If you cannot spend yourself as people have spent themselves for the sake of slavery on that issue of killing the unborn, perhaps you’ll not get a second chance for your soul or for your culture. IS there always a second chance? God give grace and mercy, but surely He has lines of demarkation that we mustn’t cross. When we stand and defend the killing of the unborns we are standing against Him. “Those who hate Him love death” Give us Grace Dear Lord, to steer our society from the precipice of death and give us a guidance toward life. Amen

Were you there?

Jesus is the center of redemptive history!

Are we Christocentric Christians?

I have always thought myself a Christocentric Christian. I have always valued my redemption purchased by the shed blood of Christ as my greatest possession. Does that mean I am a Christocentric Christian?

Recently, however my concentration on the New Testament has given me a confessional perspective, walking circumspectly. I am lamenting the many days that I have identified with good men and exalted their testimony above the redemption bought for me in Christ. It is a point that might seem small, but it really isn't. All of scripture and all of the examples of scripture are meant to lead us to the superiority of the only true salvation. Jesus is the example for imitation. I was a "doctrinal centric" Christian, and I don't think that is a bad thing. I have searched my thoughts, with the light of scripture for inconsistencies in my behavior to my faith and used these finds to confess my sins and bring my behavior and thought into captivity to Christ, with much varying degrees of success in these endeavors. Some areas of my life go into the wash of the Word and seem to come out with the same stains upon them. Some of the successes have lead me to a greater sinfulness of sedentary self sufficiency, which is nearly damnable and needs a greater cleansing.

Who will relieve me from the body of this death? I know that Christ has cleansed us from the weight of the law and the sins which so easily beset us. But, it doesn't seem to work for me. Recently, these struggles of political sort, seem designed to promote a season of self-justification. That is a dangerous and insidious spiritual cancer that cannot be cleansed with the usual applications of the Word. It is a season of basking in the light of the perfection of Christ more than ever before. He is my only substitute before the throne of Grace. None of the righteous men who have gone before have paid the price for my sins. Nor have they given example of right behavior in the light of the sin of self-righteousness. God give grace to stand in this evil day, please!

What Language Shall I Borrow?

O Sacred Head Now Wounded

How can I thank the dearest friend of mine for salvation?

Jesus paid it all for us to believe and make it all the way to the end of our lives believing Him. It seems perilous sometimes. Poverty, prosperity, health and sickness all seem conspired to trip us in our confession of Christ. In special times we tend to lean on self. In hard times we tend to blame God, but I never meditated on the importance of the borrowed language of thankfulness.

In my family, much emphasis was placed on people having clear articulation. Also, great accolades of verbal praise were heaped upon those who spoke "the Queen's English" {on the Jamaican side of the family especially}

From whom are we borrowing our language of thankfulness?

Many who articulate clearly and concisely use sparing words to lavish praise. Many of mean language remain very verbose in their gratitude. Written language of English seems retained for the Theologians to give praise in clarity to God.

We owe Him all!

We owe Him the language of our hearts. We owe Him the language of our lips. And we owe Him the passing on of the language of praise to an upcoming generation! Lest, we become mute and language become hellbound. I fear we already are on that path.

Levels of Confusion in the Soul?

Watching the Babies

I see the relationship between a community and their children. God gives us a trust in their hearts. We either shepherd them toward truth and right or we let them to themselves. As we give them consistent examples of well-meaning direction, they learn to trust and to follow righteousness...God blesses our efforts and solidifies our efforts in exalting our nation or degrading it.

Sometimes we think it is our responsibility to help the children by showing them the double standards and duplicity of life. That is not the job of parents and caretakers, that is the job of the devil and he will show himself to them erelong. When we prayerfully take the hand of God and work with him to mold children's thinking and imaginations it is a greater responsibility and has greater consequences than any other work that we do. The storms of life and the storms that come from the sea are nothing compared to the randomness of children who are left to themselves. Peace be still and the storm listens to God. Yet we let these children churn and whirl out of control and think nothing of letting them gain habits of destruction and anger that they will never be able to recover from. When we learn to heed our parents in being quiet, when our very souls seem to be upset and quaking, God can teach us to submit that same control to His Spirit. We submit, like the storm to the voice of God. He tells us, when to wail and when and where to place our anger and upsetment. God can use that. He doesn't miss. He always hits his targets. We are practicing so that we can be accurately and rightly used by Him in our quiet and in our loudnesses! God redeem and exalt our culture from the randomness of self directed children. Give us direction through your Spirit!

For the beauty of the sky

When I was a youngun, I complained and cackled before the Lord for every providential dissuasion from my plans. Why? Lord, don't you know that I had plans for that time that was lost to a flat tire. Oh so often, some great revelation of my children's lives would come out of the hours spent waiting for the tow truck or the help for our automotive distresses. We were privy to each other's every thought in the midst of a small car with 6 to 9 little people trapped inside on a highway or a major thoroughfare. I learned to see it as an opportunity to get to know the people that I was with, but yesterday it was a getting to know God in the sky. He has amazing moving pictures that are wondrous. I am grateful that the God of the universe entertains us in His mind and paints and designs ways to get our attention that are sometimes inconvenient, but always in His great love. Thank you Lord.

Like a weaned child...

When we wean...

Crying and fussing but it always comes too soon.  Why do we wean?  It is a graduation to the cup.  A letting go.  There aught not be fuss and fanfare because everyone must do it.  But often there is a hanging on to the sucking.  Where is my binky?   Some children are a. Little more needy of those things than others.  Does it mean they will be addictive sorts? Not letting go to anything that they latch onto.  Somehow I imagine my Junior carrying a receiving blanket down the aisle for graduation from Highschool.  No! I must be firm.  It doesn't really mean that.  It is an early opportunity to teach that every good and perfect gift comes down from the father of lights.   This is in fact a perfect opportunity to say and sing this verse to secure it into their conscious minds as they lament their loss.  God is good and is the ultimate comforter and as we let go of these creature comforts for greater freedoms we embrace the ability to comfort others and the ability to walk with God in a greater and more mature way.  "Help Lord hat I might sympathize with my child in his maturing and guide him to the God of all comforts!  Amen."

Think Again!

Praise To the Lord, The Almighty

Yes He is the king of creation. Learning to submit to His ways and His providences is sometimes hard. Everytime I hear that hymn, my mind goes back to that grieving season where everytime they would sing...

Hast thou not seen, how all thy longings have been granted in what he ordaineth?

I would cry and maybe have to leave the church. How can they all sing that? Why do they think that God has given them everything that they want all the time? That isn't true in my experience very often and especially when you stand at the graveside of your child. I couldn't sing that.

Between "Hast thou not seen..." and "ponder anew" is an entire school of learning that cannot be placed into words.

I blame Central's Choir for helping me get over that wall of the obstacle course of my faith. There was one day that they sang that hymn and the Holy Spirit used it to help me see the Amen of faith, which I had already known was there and to get to the "Think Again" of seeing the clouds of my despising the dark providence of the Lord pour the blessings of true trust in Him into my soul. It takes a long time and many people praying for you. It is a dark night that lasts forever, if you let it;but God has an exit to that dark tunnel. You won't find the exit until He gives you the jewels that He brought you there to receive. I pray that God will do that for you as well, who reads this.

Chapter 10 from Pilgrim's Progress

Questions

The Lords Day

Marketing day for the soul!

What are we shopping for?

Where do we go? 

What do we need? 

Why do we still have needs, as Christians?

Who is supplying us?

There are indeed many blessings from celebrating a Lords Day Sabbath.  Lord Sabaoth, His name,from age to age the same.  Do we believe that?

Be Glorified Today?

Oh we sing the diddies...

They are a blesssing, but sometimes misunderstood.

I think that the Hymns are like the dictionary for the diddies!

Father, I know that all my life is portioned out for me, The changes that are sure to come, I do not fear to see. I ask Thee for a present mind! Intent on pleasing Thee.

What an in depth perspective of what we are asking in "Be Glorified, Today" Help, Lord for me to keep my sanity in the midst of the crisis. Help Lord, me to keep my eye on the intention of my life that I have set for myself.

Like a pivot, on the tennis court: would you know how to do it, were it not instructed to you. Can we be sure, what we are praying in Be Glorified? I don't want to be outside of Your will, but I can't possibly know what that is. God's will isn't mystical, in terms of obedience. But we make it so, when we pray such bland and unspecific prayers in corporate worship. Help! is the prayer when I am drowning But Present mind prayers, when my soul can think to articulate my request.

Father, I know that all my life Is portioned out for me,

And the changes that are sure to come,

I do not fear to see;

But I ask Thee for a present mind

Intent on pleasing Thee.

I ask Thee for a thoughtful love,

Through constant watching wise,

To meet the glad with joyful smiles,

And to wipe the weeping eyes;

And a heart at leisure from itself,

To soothe and sympathize.

I would not have the restless will

That hurries to and fro,

Seeking for some great thing to do,

Or secret thing to know;

I would be treated as a child,

And guided where I go.

Wherever in the world I am,

In whatsoe'er estate,

I have a fellowship with hearts

To keep and cultivate;

And a work of lowly love to do

For the Lord on whom I wait.

So I ask Thee for the daily strength,

To none that ask denied, And a mind to blend with outward life While keeping at Thy side; Content to fill a little space, If Thou be glorified. And if some things I do not ask, In my cup of blessing be, I would have my spirit filled the more With grateful love to Thee — More careful — not to serve Thee much, But to please Thee perfectly. There are briers besetting every path, That call for patient care; There is a cross in every lot, And an earnest need for prayer; But a lowly heart that leans on Thee Is happy anywhere. In a service which Thy will appoints, There are no bonds for me; For my inmost heart is taught “the truth” That makes Thy children “free;” And a life of self–renouncing love, Is a life of liberty. Hymns and Meditations, 1873

Repentance

Michael Lemays book The Death of Christian Thought tells me that I let my racist bent get the better of me in my response to a book reading that punctured the vestiges of my racist mentality.  I do repent for that and realize that it is principalities and powers that are the attackers in such a battle and not racial or hair texture bents.(although I think there is some providential relationship that we are supposed to notice.). Still I wouldn't dare believe that it has been revealed yet what that relationship is.

The essence of the argument is that Christian Thought is dying in our era, some blame it on Laodicea and some on decisionism and some on racism.   I think we must untangle a woven web of different vines that are choking out Christian thought.  It is my belief that the legend of Merlin and Camelot was an expression of an awakening to the power of Christian thought.  The fact that Merlin is seen as dabbling in the magical,  contrast of the power of Lancelot,who was raised in a Biblically educated family,seems shadowed by the completely superstitious era that we are looking at there.

If we can whittle away the other characters for a moments glance, there was a family who raised their son to believe the Bible and he rose to some prominence in supernatural powers...  There was a lot of supernatural wizardry going on, but coming out of the dark ages, any of the wonders of progress would seem wizardry to those people.

My point to bring it up is that we can either return to those dark ages and allow thought to rot under the cannibalism of idolatry as we see it and God may allow us to see Camelot-like restoration or the complete annihilation of our culture, or we can recoup the ancient landmarks and pick up the pieces of Christian thought, while we have the opportunity.  Only a fool would want to go back to the dark ages, but there may be some nuggets of truth that our entire culture missed in the translations of what happened in the Rennaissance.   I don't think we need to go back there to see it.

Let's untangle the vines which are choking out the Word from our culture.  It's not mystical it takes effort and mental effort.

"colorless Evangelical Thinking".

The Unchristianizing of the English thinking mind?

The growth of a polytheistic world view in thinking and the rejection of Christian testimony as legitimate in e public arena...

Slavery affected India and the Americas in different ways.  The dehumanization of an entire race of people has remained a global phenomenon.  We legitimize certain expressions of overcoming the repercussions and devalue others.  Whatever gets you on the economic totem pole is actualized.  Religion is valued if it motivates you to get up from poverty and self deprecation.   

There seems some relationship between the way we view our hair and our thinking.  The Indians got the white mans hair some how in the interaction and the American blocks got an interspersing of the complexion.  This complexion phenomenon crops up at very unassuming times.  You can have two black parents have a nearly white colored child with straight hair and a biracial couple have a very dark child.  It seems odd, but that doesn't seem to happen in the Indian interaction.  They keep their moderate tone of complexion and the hair is the only showing of the interaction between them.

I may be begging the relationship between the respect for their thinking that was received and the hair.  I only use it to show the relationship.  There is a relationship between a culture that divorced itself from the African thinking in America and an amalgamation that was allowed in India.   They really respected their maintaining an idolatrous relationship and despised the acceptance of Christianity, because of the conviction that its acceptance brought.   How could a person see Christ in the devaluing of their humanity?

How could a person embrace a religion that relegates them to eternal subhuman status?  We will be judged by our respect for the humanity of others.  White and Black now as even in thinking must find a way to reconcile the unpaganism of our Christian routes, or the polytheism of India stand in the wings waiting to subdue us all.  Reading books on thinking and mind development, the Middle East has flooded the market with philosophies.  While we Christians still think that the growth of Christian thinking is leaning on a crutch of emotional ineptness.

Where are the developments of truly Chritian thought? Line upon line, etc.  God give us grace to recapture the lost comradery to develop a "colorless Evangelical Thinking".

A few thoughts about chasing God's heart

David's strategies and Saul's

Saul started out reacting to conflict...

Saul started out asserting his authority...

Saul started out dividing the people...

The woeful lack of seeking counsel from God or man...

He did not request prayer or guidance from elders

Psalm 23 as David's example of strategizing

Looking at God's perfections and seeking to emulate that.

The concept of giving others what they don't deserve...in a good way

Peacetime strategies...

Not imitating the bad that's been done to me...

Accumulating to yourself counsellors of goodness.

Seeing the kingship as an opportunity to share Gods mercy with His inheritance...

Samuel lamented the disobedience of the people, but he was also swift to bring them back to a view of repentance and obedience as a way of life.

David made himself accountable by writing the thoughts of his heart concerning so many matters.  God helped him sort out his thoughts and reflect righteousness...

I know that I am not worthy to Receive You Lord!

Is the doctrine of total depravity too deep a concept for child rearing?

It seems premature when you look into the eyes of your helpless newborn to suffuse yourself into the realities of what he or she really is.  But it isn’t.  You look into nutrition for this human child.  You don’t go to the pet store or the plant store for its food.  In the same way, you should be prepared for the day when he shows out in the real human way that all children do.   

“Be not forgetful to entertain strangers” is my favorite verse when I had been expecting.  Some have entertained angels unawares.   I am still sure that some, if not all of my children may still be Angels, yet I am instructed to rear them as humans even though.  

The truth about their condition in Adam will inoculate them from the shock that their sins would have incurred.  We are born with a propensity to sin, but when we sin we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

The memorization of scripture may have been poopooed as a puritanical relic from bygone eras, but many a millennial Christian has had to make use of their parental home training when negotiating the curves of real life and this has been true of every epoch of time.   Social media and the  Internet and solar powered cars do not change the real and true make up of humanity, nor that of sin.   We need a savior more than we need a new cell phone.  We need a Savior more than we need to post our updated status or Instagram this event.  We need a Savior and all of these conveniences simply enforce the intensity of that truth.

Be the one who knows the depths of truth about yourself.  I am not good on my own.  I am not worthy of the goodness Jesus spent and lavished on me.   I need his undeserved favor

When I come into Your presence:

I would not even presume to think that I know what humility means. I ask Your Word to search my soul, Dear God. I would not even know that I am puffed up in pride, if Your Word hadn't told me so. I cannot humble myself, Dear God because my soul is impotent to such things. I am in pride to put myself forward as an example of worship and praise. You alone are worthy of all the glory and I condemn in my own soul, even the outward expressions of such self aggrandizement as to think that I am truly humble, when I know that I am not.

I look at my hands and remember that you have said to cleanse your hands and to cleanse my heart and remember that I have no power to do so. My expressions are of imploring and exaltation that I know that although I am altogether unworthy of your attention, You promised to cleanse me, even from this day's defilements. I would not presume to take the glory from a holy God in turning my attention to myself. God cleanse my heart and my hands and my mind and make me worthy to lift them unto You in undefiled and selfless worship for Your Glory, because of the blood of Jesus. Amen.

For The Beauty Of The Sky!

Psalm 90:17 And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.

I looked out of the front door, as I was watering my needy flowers and the sky was what reminded me that God sometimes has to put his pen into the inkwell. The clouds made me think of the ink as it starts to run out of a pen. I was sad for a generation, who may not be able to notice the daily handiwork of a loving Father. His daily love letters in the sky, might be erased for them, because people don't communicate like that anymore. They don't have many people who use inkwells up to tell them how much they love them. God does. This morning He looked like He had to put His pen back into the inkwell and place another line over the spotted lines of what He was writing. I am not big enough or old enough to read the words, I can only see when He has to stick His huge pen back into the well to get more ink.

I do hope He has some special cyber secrets for the next generation in the sky...

I am sure He does! He would never leave us hanging, like that:}.

And Your Father, who sees in secret?

Is there a Heavenly Father, who sees in secret? Are we nurturing a faith in our children that teaches them to trust in God's providence?

My upbringing was somewhat different than many, but I think the time in which I grew up lent itself to a family dependence as opposed to an individualistic perspective. God cares for us as a village, as well as a person. But, when we pray, it is personal. I pray to an eternally personal father, who knows my heart, as well as my words. Our relationships with our children should have some relationship to those truths. We should seek to know our children and teach them that there are some who would do them well and some who would do them harm and that they don't really know the difference yet. Teachers and parents are ordinarily the purveyors of good to them and etiquette should be instructed to give them a border and guide to find out which is which. If a stranger is inclined to respect your parents guidelines or your teachers guidelines, they should be included in the respected and trusted circle and if not, special care should be taken.

We teach "the squeeky wheel" premise. The most noise should get the most attention. And then we are appalled to see the results of our instructions. We are always attempting to reinvent the curriculum and the syllabus, instead of lifting it to higher places with God.

Lord give us grace to allign ourself with the favor of God and to draw our country to righteousness to exalt us and not succumb to the will of the enemy, who seeks to take our culture to Hell. God return us to Yourself! Halleluia.

How do we seek His Face?

Matthew 18:10 Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.

For many years I have thought that seeking God's face was a posture of prayer. On my knees, on my face, repitition of words or silent in the sacred was my imagination of seeking the face of God. Now a days, I have more often felt in the presence of the face of God, when playing "Teentsy Weentsy Spider".

Go Figure?

The Joys of an Exultant Good Friday!

He Is Risen! He Is Risen!

Even on Good Friday, it is true that the price of our redemption has been paid by Christ! Sometimes we think that if we meditate on the passion of Christ enough it will help us to appreciate the price of our Salvation. He paid it all! Every drop of the cup of the wrath of God is drunk by our Lord Jesus on our behalf. We are redeemed and we are not paying Him back by suffering with Him on Good Friday or for the 40 days. We are not investing partly in our redemption by doing so.

I fear that so often I have been guilty of needing to flagellate myself because I felt that Jesus required it from me for some part that He hadn't accomplished. Maybe I am not really grateful if I don't do the stations and follow him foot to foot in His sacrifice, or follow every word of the seven last words to the furthest point. Am I paying part? Am I understanding the gravity of my deserts? If I am doing the former, I am deceived. If I am learning the latter, I am in the rights. It is not the doing or the not doing, but why that is important. I cannot pay God for my redemption. I cannot invest part in my Salvation. I cannot ever fully understand. But I can rejoice in spirit, like the man born blind and be in the right. Or I can sit sullen and identify with my Savior and know that I didn't deserve what He bore and ask for the grace to rejoice, when it truly sinks in. Both are right responses, depending on your growth in grace.

Don't judge your sullen neighbor or your hedonistic brother, when you are not in his shoes.

Certain details of the funeral day are clear as day 29 years later and some of them pale!

I recall the beauty and the comfort of beautiful people with groceries to feed the people. I remember the delight of sitting next to my father in the front row of church, which would never happen again. I remember the pain in my deepest soul and the questions without answers, that kept my knees quivering and kept me from standing up for the wobble.

Most of all, I remember the sound of a mighty congregation singing that breathed strength into my wobbly knees, to get up and worship God in my darkest hour. I will never forget that wonder. There is power on earth to breathe strength into the faint and it is a corporate strength. I am eternally grateful to God for that strength and prayer that saves the weakest and faintest cry.

Each year, God takes me into the dark cave of my grief to give me new strength to march on in Grace and Confidence of His Love. I never look forward to the entering and I never want to leave the cave, once I am in there. It is a fiery entrance, a piercing and anxiety-producing entrance. The cave is dark behind it, but God always meets me there. He seems to explain His uses of means to hold me up and uses of pain to draw me to Him, but never answering the multiple questions. They become insignificant, in His presence. Sometimes it is a loud praise that comes out of the cave and sometimes it is a silent wonder. Sometimes, like Mary, I have a magnificat and sometimes like Zacharias I am struck dumb. But, it is always an amazing and love-filled interaction with my Dearest Friend and confidant, the Lord. He is still walking me through the griefs of life, I don't always like it. But I love Him each day for being there with me.

I stand by the graveside, in my heart for the entire month and ask and ask and the silence on that front is deafening. You would think that I would have stopped asking, by now. My heart can't stop asking. My heart is in the many pieces and God holds it in front of me and breathes on it and puts it back in my chest. Just keep breathing and marching and there are more answers to come and more battles to fight. That is always the answer to my questions.

A Mighty Saint is on the Runway, the sky seemed to say for 2 whole days.

Charlotte was engulfed in a real encapsulating fog. It was the proverbial thick as peanut butter fog. That kind of fog used to make me afraid, until Aunt Ed passed. Aunt Gwen stepped out of the fog to us, in her white fur coat and said, Ed's on the runway. Ever since that moment the fog has reminded me that someone is going home to glory or into eternity. It makes me pray and it makes me rejoice for Heaven's gain.

This time it was a tremendous gain for Heaven and a tremendous loss for the earth. Most of America's proselytes can claim their soul salvation to the preaching of this mighty man. What a warrior for men's souls he was and what a symbol of the beauty of a seed sown in faith reaping some thirty, some sixty and some a hundred fold. The entire State of NC seems a more blessed place for having housed and nurtured this heroic family that sent their daddy and husband far and wide to win the lost. The State and the Country are none the worse for his travels. Like Gulliver a giant soul, he preached a very big God. He changed the entire dynamic of evangelism for everyone after him. He boiled the gospel down to the reality of change in the soul and heart. Jesus can soften the heart of a wicked sinner. That is the hardest job in this world. Everything after that can fall into place, once a heart becomes Jesus' home. One soul at a time, in mighty clouds of masses of people came to hear him preach about Jesus. So many became changed that there could be no church to house them all. What a great reception he must have had in heaven!

Deep in my heart, I do believe

Revelation 21:7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

Overcoming is not an exercise in emotional gymnastics. Although, faith is essential, there must be something more...

When I find the more, I will write about it. I believe we will overcome. But I must find the overcoming, by turning over stones in my life...

Glorify Him

Psalm 50:23 Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God.

Praise and Worship opens our eyes to the spiritual dynamic in the world that we live in. Glorify the Lord and you will see the truth that protection from God is sent down daily. Bless the Lord and He will give you the new eyes to see His truth.

What is ordering your conversation aright?

That could be my meditation for the rest of my life. I would never come to the end of that correction in my soul. Ordering the conversation of my mouth is a daunting task! Thinking about what I say, before I say it. That is hard!

Choosing words that will accurately depict my message and delivering them without provocation and anger is hard, sometimes. Some people have boiled it down to a few four letter words that they never utter and yet they use Ivy League words to deteriorate and denegrate entire people groups and think that their conversation is ordered aright. I would rather be on the corner with the hoods, foully despising my existence and behavior in real penitence, than sitting on the wall repudiating people in exalted language. I have been in the company of both. If my cursing is the repudiation of my sinful state, it may be an expression of penitence. If my exalted language is an expression of my sense of superiority, I know that God is not impressed at all with me. Finding the right use of the right language for the occasion is my own quest!

God, please give me the right eyes to see my pride and vanity and the heart to confess and forsake it,

In Jesus' Strong Name, Amen.

No one ever cared for me like Jesus!

What happens the day that you start trusting Christ in your pain?

It takes a long time, sometimes to start trusting Christ again after a devastating blow. Walking is very difficult and questioning in our pain. I have in awe, looked at many strong believers, who take the blows and get right back up and seem not to feel the pain. I cannot relate to that kind of rebound. I walk for months and days in complete unbelief of God, after devastation has hit. My faith is the first to jump off the boat. I don't know why. I have heard people say of others, "He is taking it well or poorly."

I have never been able to understand that question or the answers that people give to the questions. I really don't get it!

Then, after they diagnose your pain and your response they start spouting off prescriptions of scripture and diatribes of complements and reasonings that fall to the ground like a pile of rubbish. They all have the answers. They all have a reason for this pain and yet they don't feel it like I do. That makes me angry. I get on my knees and I say "Where are you, God?" Why would you have let me down in this? Where are these people getting all of this counsel from? Is their dagger supposed to heal the pain, because it isn't?

Days and months and years pass and the darkness of unbelief is almost some pillow that you never expect to end. Everyone's glances and looks seem painful, as well. You try to hide yourself from the searing pain of eye to eye contact. That is the closest the devil can take any believer to hell. He can't take your soul. It seems he has, though!Jesus cares and He has a wonderful plan even for your pain and sorrow. God is worthy of the praise, in your sorrow. He lifts you up over the clouds of the spiritual and emotional conflict as you engage in the painful discipline of opening your mouth to exalt His name, when your emotions are untoward and unable to even feel. He is using your own words to lift you over the trial to see the greater purpose in your life and in the spiritual conflict that you are engaging in. There is not always a complete answer on this side of Heaven, but there is heavenly intervention to endure. Chapter 10 of the Christian's Daily Walk has some helps and encouragements to get up and think about your Christian responsibility in your adversity and this is the link there.

God's avenging His elect and Bearing LONG with us...

Luke 18:7 And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?

Luke 18:8 I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

Luke 18:9 And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:

Luke 18:10 Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican

The delicate balance of seeing God avenging his elect, who cry day and night and the parable of the publican and the pharisee.

I often say, dear Lord, I don't see how there could be faith on the earth, when you come again. There is so much to be angry about and the anger of man cannot accomplish the work of God. It is by grace and through faith. Just as Abraham prayed for his dear family that had relocated into a wicked city and yet he couldn't see that there was no reason on earth that he had been chosen to act as an advocate. None of us can stand in the presence of God. There was a mirroring of behavior that God was doing with Abraham. You gave up everything you knew to follow the Word of God and God did the same to him. None of us can imitate that faith and we must just come under the faith of Abraham through the advocasy of Christ. We must without having seen Jesus, believe that His sacrifice is sufficient to cleanse us and to make us His Holy Church in our advocating for faith on earth. Lord would you allow us to find true faith and unifying faith in Your Holy Church. Lord, would you give us grace to find the common ground in Christ and stop exalting the differences. If we don't we may find that our attachment was not to Christ at all. Lord make us able for the glory of Christ and the victory of His Church on earth. Amen.

One of the earliest mentions of death in our Bibles...On the subject of departing from the snares of death

Proverbs 13:14  The law of the wise is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death. 

Proverbs 14:27 The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death.

Many people had died in the scriptures by the time this passage was there.

Genesis 21:16  And she went, and sat her down over against him a good way off, as it were a bowshot: for she said, Let me not see the death of the child. And she sat over against him, and lift up her voice, and wept.

Hagar was an example of one who escaped early, the guillotine of death for herself and her son, through her faith in God. The subject I am meditating on is "avoiding the snares of death". She was a believer in the true God, in spite of the testimony of the man of God in her generation. Abraham had left them out to die. He had not provided sufficiently for their life outside of his home. God intervened amazingly and made promises to Ishmael for his future life. They weren't woven into the spiritual covenant with Abraham, but they were woven into the covenant of life of the earth as a creature, through faith. It is not surprising that they would have emphasised the activities of consistency as opposed to the heart of religion. They have been deceived for generations because of the bitterness of being the forgotten part of the family and left to die. Jesus ready stands to save the child of the promise and the child of the earth.

Help us Lord, not to miss what you are saying about avoiding the snares of death on either side of the promise. Every promise of life is fulfilled in Christ! If we are deceived on this side of the promise to believe that our goodness has wrought it, we will miss it. If we believe that our having been used and taken advantage of wins the redemption of it, we have missed it also. In Christ the earth is saved for the Hagars and our souls are saved for the daughters of Sarah. Christ, we pray that You will make these promises of life effectual for our ultimate salvation and the improvement of life and healing on the earth, through Your Church for the glory of Christ and for the satisfaction and comfort of His Holy Soul! Amen.

Motivations to men and women are spiritually discerned

Proverbs 12:3  A man shall not be established by wickedness: but the root of the righteous shall not be moved.

Proverbs 12:4  A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband: but she that maketh ashamed is as rottenness in his bones.

Why do I see CS Lewis everywhere?

Leviticus 24:10 And the son of an Israelitish woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the children of Israel: and this son of the Israelitish woman and a man of Israel strove together in the camp;

Leviticus 24:11  And the Israelitish woman's son blasphemed the name of the LORD, and cursed. And they brought him unto Moses: (and his mother's name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan:)

Leviticus 24:15  And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, Whosoever curseth his God shall bear his sin.

Leviticus 24:16 And he that blasphemeth the name of the LORD, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the LORD, shall be put to death.

Revelation 13:1  And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

Revelation 13:2  And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.

Revelation 13:3  And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.

Psalm 42:6 O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar.

Proverbs 11:1 A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight.

Proverbs 11:2  When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom.

Proverbs 11:29  He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind: and the fool shall be servant to the wise of heart.

Proverbs 11:31 Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth: much more the wicked and the sinner.

It seems to me that the blasphemies of our era are in the entertainment field. And yet, it seems that the stones of mercy that God is covering us with are bringing or able to bring captivity captive, even when we have sold our activities{sign on the hand} and our consciences{sign on the forehead} to the devil and witchcraft. I think that is why he named it the Lion

the Witch

and the Wardrobe.

The deadly blow of having sown the seeds of witchcraft into generations seems awesome. Yet, God sent Christ for just such steeping in sins! The Father seems to pen the love story of His public untangling our earth from our own jumping and intermingling Christianity with Witchcraft. We are and were the pagans, but in as much as we still cling to our witchcraft we are not yet cleansed. God is untangling us. God is taking captivity captive, even there.

How God Nurtures and feeds us like the Hummingbird

I watched the movie of the hummingbird's nest on Prime Video. I was enamored with the unequivocal example that God shows himself in the smallest details as in the largest.

The heavens declare the glory of God

His eye is on the sparrow...

but his determination to make us like himself is in the Hummingbird. Doesn't He tend and nurture and protect and cover and dote and feed and follow us like that hummingbird did in the movie? I was inspired and shouted loudly the definitive instruction of a purposeful creator to teach us His Holy Ways, through the smallest of creatures that we can see.

A Hummingbird's nest on top of a clothesline? Who Knew?

Give us this mountain, Lord!

Will we, like Caleb pray and strive to be those who fulfill the destiny of inheriting the vision of our forefathers?

Matthew 18:10  Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.

Revelation 4:7 And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.

Perhaps each of these beasts were era's of the church. First, like a lion eating unrighteousness and establishing Biblical precedents. Second learning to live as a calf, chewing the cud of truth and learning to establish traditions of uprightness. Third, seeing humanity affected by Scripture in family practice and in governing, more broadly. And then lastly, the mountain that I seek, living above the fray of circumstances. Learning to see the distances that we must traverse to grow in grace and build a world that lives and walks circumspectly. Lord, may it be, that whether our forefathers meant to or not in choosing our eagle as our land's bird, that we be in the last category and inherit, not just their government, but the new Heavens and the new Earth. For Christ's Glory, amen

How can we know that our prosperity is not a block against our souls?

Revelation 3:2  Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God.

God is expecting mature worship from mature souls. Sometimes, we shame ourselves for our immaturity in character, with as much as God has invested in our maturity. You are acting like a child"He seems to say to Sardis in Revelation 3.

What a chilling thought that is, that God could look at your spiritual expressions and see the heart of them are not for Him. How could this have happened to my soul? Perhaps, I thought that I was doing things for God and they were really for my own pride's sake. Perhaps, I never even took thought. Possibly, it didn't matter to me, whether God was in it or not. I try to think about the people in Gad, in Jesus' day. I don't even think it mattered to them that they were harboring hard thoughts of God and that the demoniac was a symptom of their corporate condition.

Psalm 32:7 Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah. Psalm 32:8  I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.

Jesus did to those, spiritually marginalized people, what He often has to do in our souls. He comes right to the door of our depravity. He heals the dirtiest spots and still requests entry and we invite or reject Him.

Proverbs 1:26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; Proverbs 1:27  When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Proverbs 1:28 Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:

As the Gadarenes were more concerned about the loss of the pigs, than Jesus being among them; that might be our condition in our spiritual blindness. Is the loss of the possible gains of greater concern than inviting our Savior to abide with us? That is the cutoff point. Sometimes He shields us from even seeing our folly. The outworkings of our rejection of Him, might be hidden from us. That is why we have a community of faith. Church and fellowship can give us a mind to accept and serve Him. Our inborn "Cainish" jealousy can be turned to slay our unbelief, instead of our brother, by the mercy of God.

Proverbs 1:32  For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.

Dear Lord, do not allow our prosperity to kill us and our faith! In Jesus Name. amenProverbs 10:22 The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.

Soul, Do You Have the Spiritual Initiative and Discipline to Make it to the Finish Line of Life, in Faith?

Proverbs 24:1  Be not thou envious against evil men, neither desire to be with them. Proverbs 24:2 For their heart studieth destruction, and their lips talk of mischief. Proverbs 24:3 Through wisdom is an house builded; and by understanding it is established: Proverbs 24:4 And by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches. Proverbs 24:5 A wise man is strong; yea, a man of knowledge increaseth strength.

From Time to time, my minds eye recalls the very last gaze into my dearest Grandmothers' eyes. She had suffered for years from cancer and it had deteriorated her body. The agony of body and soul that I saw there. The sadness that I couldn't ease any of that, by presence or song. We had done all our comforts and now it was time for the goodbyes. I said words that felt blank and insignificant in the light of the eternity that she was facing. She had shared her favorite hymn with me earlier and I had thought this visit was for me to tell her how very much she had meant in my life. She said, don't say anything at all. Don't sing, just sit there. I did that and I cried for years later that I couldn't ever tell her. Did she know?

I would trade every trophy to have gone back and not have missed those silly things she wanted me to do. Shopping? Watch tv? not as important as a tourney! Now it was. My Father cried buckets of tears, like I hadn't seen ever. The tears came from behind his hand like a fountain. Why couldn't I have taken her to the movies and done those silly things? He had the same sentiments that I did. Chasing the next level of greatness in the park scene seemed more important at the time. Scholarships that it lent us may have been okay, but they were no comfort at her gravesite.

Learning to prioritize responsibilities and not miss the really important things for the trivial is difficult. Women have unusual stumblingblocks to seeing God's mercies in their pain. Scripture tells us this and I have found it true in my experience.

The accuser seems to have a megaphone deep into the soul of women as we age. He accuses your every service and labor pain. He accuses God's every goodness and mercy. Perhaps this is part of the curse, as well.

Accumulating good counselors and good counsel, who can cut through your most foolish defense of your sin, is best. Try not to give the devil as much to accuse your soul of and keep short accounts with your loved ones, so that you are ready at the moment's notice, should it come that swiftly.

Proverbs 23 notes from Sunday school

Minister Walker Friendship Cafe Sunday School Lesson!

Eating friends : fun seekers

Business friends: team players

Counsel friends :project workers

School friends: learning with

Knowing who is trying to manipulate you and why? People watch what you eat...how much...are you greedy in public...? Do people tell you what they observe? Or do they use it to humiliate you and set the parameters? Stay focused on the learning projects above all the other pursuits on every level! That will keep you out of reach of the manipulators!

The concept of cyber cookies! saftety procedure cookies! Deceptive friends!

Stress relievers... Vs.17 who you should never envy...sinners...people who are characterized by their behaviors! Proverbs 23:21 KJVS [21] For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags. How to make your momma happy Vs25 Some things not to get caught up I. Even in the little dab will do ya's! Why are most people that you see on the side of the road . In a woeful circumstance... Proverbs 23:29 KJVS [29] Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? Now it is a secret place to be...that is more dangerous! Proverbs 23:32 KJVS [32] At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. Ps 119:how can a young man....

Now as I read this set of wise instructions, I see several categories of friends and acquaintances and how they influence me which are placed before me for my assistance and usefulness.

Some buddies that I think about in the passage are authorities around and about us. They are watching to see how their influences can be used for their best promotion.

ie. When you sit to eat with a ruler, watch out! The bigger kids, the richer kids, the smarter kids, etc. know how to use their presence as a magnet for their own comforts and pleasantries. If you are like them and exalt them, they will try you in your loyalties, at the table. They seem to know that at the table you are most vulnerable.

The Family Table can be a trying place for the manners and courage that you can have in the daycare, the school cafeteria, the college dorm and throughout your life. Fathers must understand this to wisely use their comforts and encouragements to grow Godliness in their children. If you are accepted at home, it is a strong influence of confidence in your life.

I remember being very little and seeing certain people who affected my parents discipline and hating them for it. My mind said, why do they listen to that person and keep me from doing what I want because of them? I was 7 when this was severely impressed on my heart. My mommy was 27, when I was 7 and she asked her grandmother if I could go into the water at the beach this close to having eaten. Mu said, "You know better, Camille." and that was the end of it! I huffed and puffed and was as angry as I could be. That kept me close to MU and mother playing in the sand next to the baby, while everybody else was enjoying the cool of water. I was seething.

Before the sacredly passed down half hour had passed a cloud came into Mu's view and she said to another grandchild, not my mother, Anne, tell everyone to get to the car a storm is coming up quick.

We packed up quickly and were at the car when torrents of showers and bolts of lightning struck all around the car and my father had to go back and forth carrying this one and that one to their cars, while we were safely snug in the car.

My seething developed into an awe! I guess that woman knows God, I said to myself and that is why my mother didn't even let her finish her sentence and followed it to the letter, on that occasion.

Unfortunately, we are teaching free thinking lessons to 2 year olds, by our lack of instruction and clarity and more often than not, they may never get to know people who they can really trust their knowledge of truth and God. That is very sad to me. Fathers and mothers innoculate their children from seeking counsel from foolish, when they show honor to people who have a proven character. When we listen to our children and honor their opinions, from time to time we are winning their hearts to become one of the people who might be our confidant and we theirs. Let's not miss these tiny opportunities to win our children into friends, as well. Letting them know why we do things and hearing their childish reasonings for things are often roads into their hearts.

Pastor Martin said, one time years ago that listening to your little one's story about "wormypoo" and crying with her about little emotional traumas at 2 years old will open doors when she is thinking about this or that fellow. I poopooed the significance in my mind, but followed it and have found it truly the case.

When my heart is overwhelmed?{Considerations from the maternal prayer of Anna in Siam}

Our Father," I could not but ask in the darkness of my trouble, did it need so bitter a baptism as ours to purify so young a soul?

When we pray as mothers, so often our concerns are for our welfare, but far more the spiritual welfare of our children. God sees our distresses.

After this bitter disappointment that the King was not a welcoming monarch for her and her son, Anna says to her son that we must pray. Her heart, however is that his faith be purified and not stamped out, by this dark distress. God gave her a heart to see his youthful enthusiasm and that the fears had not yet settled into his own soul. He was trusting that God had guided her to a safe and exciting situation for them. He had seen griefs and hung onto his faith. But could that remain if more ugly circumstances awaiting them?

Her heart prayer, she penned; as her mouth prayer was simply to allay the fears of her young disciple.

A mother's brooding!

The Whinings that we would allow, if there weren't little ones in hearing distance. Not because I am so strong, Lord am I silent in my struggles, but my faith is small right now, that You know what you are doing and I needn't give the air the benefit of knowing that providence has me questioning Your power and Goodness! God, make me silent when my prayers are for the benefit of venting my unbelief. My faith{and perhaps every mother's faith}isn't strong enough to watch my child lose their faith in God.

so often my mind goes to Grandma Ruth's real question "Where's your faith?" at the loss of my baby. I really didn't get the blow from her, on that. She was asking me, where is the faith that I see those "Baptist Women" show when they go through these things? You are acting like we do! Faith and unbelief are alike in grief, for sure. She was trying to make me prove that I am a Christian to her, to lift her eyes from her unbelief and to make my mother get up from the blow. I couldn't do that. Parts of my faith died with that baby. God knows that and mothers and grandmothers have to carry the corpse of their childrens' dead faiths. She was crying under the power of the grief of mine dying. Mother pall-bearers in the griefs try as they might have a greater burden than carrying the body. If there were no God, it would be a hopeless task. Only He can breathe on a dead part of your faith and awake it to usefulness on His Kingdom plan.

In this prayer, Anna says, Lord please have mercy on me not to see my child's eyes lose hope in You. We can all enter this prayer. Amen.

Learning to take time in the presence of God! {Seems an elderly task}

The first thing to go in cyberspace is taking time

Time to read, seems tedious. Time to reason and form an argument, as well. Time to meditate is swiftly becoming like the Latin language, dead! I think.

It made me say that perhaps like the salt that engulfed Lots wife, our gracious God marks the place where the Spirit leaves a culture, by killing the language right there. Have you lost the time to meditate? Have you lost the ability to meditate on Christ for a whole day? Have you lost the ability to sit in a portion of God's goodness for a minute? New Yorkers have always had their own time calculations. "Takes too long, next!" Do you have to take so much time and attention on anything but a construction project? Let the professionals do it. The professionals cannot construct your soul, to grow in the grace of God. If you don't take the time to devise and learn the structures and the mathematical calculations that will project your soul from your sinful estate into the heavenlies, the professionals may have to scrap the project.{ a horrible thought!}

Learning to tarry before the Lord!

Taking time before the Lord to know that the truths heard are the truths received into the soul. Christ can and may confirm your soul in a moment's time, but like a diet, it didn't take a minute to get into this point in your sin. God may make you tarry in your lack of assurance and that may be the case. If you are not willing to wait on God for his spiritual confirmation of your condition, perhaps you are not ready to leave the presence of the Lord. Come back to the spot where the Lord has met you and tarry there until your heart confirms that He is holding you in His unbreakable grasp. Don't let your faith die, like the Latin language. Remember Lots Wife! God can break the grasp of even the pillar of salt! Trust HIM!

Post Christmas Meditation from Psalm 10

Psalm 10:3  For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the LORD abhorreth. Psalm 10:12  Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up thine hand: forget not the humble. Psalm 10:16  The LORD is King for ever and ever: the heathen are perished out of his land. Psalm 10:17  LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear: Psalm 10:18  To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress.

Do we bless our own covetous hearts?

What a good reminder, this few days after Christmas?

Am I as grateful for my gifts and blessings this day as I was on Christmas Day? Am I looking for the new acquirements and what I will put on my list for next year? Am I seeking to float favor with others for the position that they hold by giving them things and accolades, when it is clear that they are in need of reproof and rebuke. Am I Giving gifts when they need a spanking??

Christmas is a good lesson of favor and Blessings. Learning of the Naughty and Nice list is just the beginning of what God wants us to see from the celebration of this holiday, should we choose to celebrate it. God is sweeter and kinder than Santa and His list is far more exacting and gracious. The price for our sins has been paid in Christ! But God still abhors covetousness. We have built our society on covetousness. Help us to rebuild that part.

Contentment Sermon by Cal Walden, probable good listen! Is my mouth calling God's favor or His abhorrence? What I say and how I say it is very significant, especially to little ones. They follow every verbiage line. from Bridges Proverbs 10

11. The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life; but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked. The Indwelling Spirit—"a well of living water"—is the glorious privilege of the righteous. (John, iv. 14; vii. 38.) Hence his mouth, replenished from the heavenly source, is a well of life, sending forth refreshing waters. (Chap. xvi. 23.) The precious talent of speech is thus consecrated to His service, "who made man's mouth." "Grace in its measure is poured upon our lips" (Ps. xlv. 2); and our "tongue" becomes "our glory." (Ps. lvii. 8 ; cviii. 1.) Wit, originality, imagin- ation may furnish ‘the feast of reason, and the flow of soul.’ But how poor is this pleasure compared with the godly instruction—perhaps with little intellectual attraction—that pours forth from a well of life! Servant of God! honour your high privilege of thus ministering a blessing to the Church. (Verse 21; xv. 7. Eph. iv. 29.) Enlarge its exercise by increasing your spiritual store, and walking in closer fel- lowship with your God. What owe you to His grace, who hath made your mouth a well of life; while the violence of the wicked falls back upon themselves, and covers their mouth with confusion?

He knows that we are prone to wander! I must run to my Savior for cleansing and comfort in my foibles! There are little ones following me into my pit of departure. Help, Lord! Like running for a stray bump on the third, I am sometimes headlong falling over myself in my remembering the rearing days and trying to stear forward in my own soul. God help! Amen. Thank God for Grace and Mercy!

Expressing and Experiencing Love Twice Removed?

I am still working on a precious scarf for my dear Ethan. It is not perfect, by any means. It is the work of a month of knitting and purling and straightening on the needles. When my father said he wanted a silk scarf, I had no thought of knitting one. I never thought of knitting him a woolen one. He said he wanted to look like Humphrey Bogart with a 6 foot silk scarf hanging off his overcoat. I could identify with the thought of wanting to be a "proper gentleman" in every outward expression. I knew what he meant.

There is something humble and demeaning about wearing homemade clothes. But there is one thing that is for sure, there is a personal love and care that goes into a season of knitting for a loved one. There is a spiritual covering of prayer and intention that is unmatched. Sometimes, when I go into the thrift store and feel the stitches of an old discarded afgan, I feel that direct expression of love and that is what I am trying to imitate, when I knit for my loved ones. It is a palpable and direct expression of love that covers the body and gives a great worth to life. Somebody loves me enough to caringly craft this garment and prayed for me in every stitch.

I don't shop much! I don't feel comfortable in the stores. I was so moved to shop with my daughters the other day and in awe of some of the stitch patterns that come off of the looms of today's machines. I feel the cloths and try to find that sense of loving delight that I find in the thrift stores. I don't know that I feel anything, but the pleasure of perfect fabrics. I do love the feel of perfect fabrics also. But, I prefer the feeling of real love directed toward me. I wonder if the children of today feel covered. I wonder if they can reason from the gifts and things that their parents shower on them to the reality of the love that they are experiencing.