A message from the Macy's Day Parade, that stuck in my soul

Teach us, Dear Lord to number our days…

Live like you just came back from being 10 minutes late for the Judgment.

The only thing worse than being in the judgment on the wrong side, is knowing that all these people followed you into this awful place apart from the mercy and grace…  I knew better than to not trust in Christ, but these simple ones were beguiled and beguiled by their simple minds following me.  My love for them and sympathy for their plight makes my anguish all the more stinging.

The rich man said, please send Lazarus ( the smallest and least of your people)  to tell my brothers, don’t follow me here.  That is the thought of the eldest brother, deceived by his own devices and knowledgable that he has impressed the simple ones to tow the line behind him into the eternal ditch.  That is not just a pothole to be avoided.

Every pothole in NY seems designed to remind you that one day you will be driving down the road and the pothole of hell will rise to meet you, unless you are attached to Christ.

You are late,  The devil taunts, as his design was this all along.  He hates us and wanted us to have and share in the bounty of his deserts.

You should have been here from the first flame, as I was.  You should have known what it was to taste every mournful moment of having lost my first estate of beauty and fame.  I was beautiful, I was most beautiful, but I couldn’t be humbled in my beauty and nothing about torment is beautiful.  Every wicked memory is ugly. Every grievous lick of the flames is hideous and my only comfort is that I am not alone in my anguish, says Satan.  But as a brother and as an elder, I am tormented that my leadership has brought down an entire city into the flames.

And then I awake,  What day is it?  It is December first and Christmas is upon us, not even Christmas day, yet.  I have time to prepare my soul for the merciful advent of the only and true soul changing Savior.  

I am granted a merciful reprieve?  I am granted another moment’s borrowed breath?  Can I use it wisely, this time?  Can I keep my own soul out of that horrible pit and can I lead my brothers alike?

“O Come all ye Faithful!”

It is more truly close to midnight that we want to know.  All of the potholes are coming together to engulf us in the flames of eternity, if we are not attached to life.

Full of faith, not in self.  That would be the choice of the fool.  O come all ye who are trusting and loving a merciful and ever-present help in this earth.  There is no price to be spared to free your soul from the chains of sin.  Link yourself inextricably to Christ and His Church that your soul will have no questions, in that day.  Tell your underlings.  Show them the true and living way.  Help the trust Him also.

If they follow me, they will also be deceived.  It isn’t my help that you need, when you are facing eternity and judgment.  I haven’t paid it all for you.  I haven’t tasted death to deliver you from the eternal anguish.  JESUS alone can and does break the chains of sin.  Hold together with God’s people to build a greater city of guidance into life!

“Joyful and Triumphant!”

Not a single laurel on the head of the victor, but a triumphant part of the victorious bride of Christ who in symphonic combination link together to enjoy the joy and the triumph over the world’s real enemy.  The world’s real enemy is Death, Hell and the Grave.  God has sent a wonderful baby to show us the holy.  We couldn’t even see it without his deliverance and sacrifice to stoop so very low to bring it to us!

The hardest Hymn for me to sing...

Praise to the Lord, the almighty!

How many times have I been in worship and wondered,  what is making these people so happy.  They must have nothing wrong with them.  They must be professional praisers.  I love God and I love praise, but there is some times of my life, when praise is illusive to me.  

Praise to the Lord is a hymn that felt like a dagger of conviction for years as I worked through the grief of my losses in life.  When we lost our infant son and for years after that,  when that hymn came up in the Liturgy I was ready to leave.  I couldn’t cry 10, 15 years after the day and explain it to the people who had looked at me as a spiritual adult.  I am an infant in this portion of my life.  I am thinking too hard about my faith.  Why can’t you just accept God’s providence and stop asking him the questions that plague you so regularly.  Why can’t you just praise him, like your spiritual directors have instructed you.  I did the outward praise and external praise, but when that hymn came up, I couldn’t help but go all to pieces!

The King of Creation…

Almighty, is acceptable to my conscience, but the king of creation?  Catechism question:  God’s works of providence are his most holy, wise and powerful, preserving and governing all his creatures and all their actions.  All of creation and there is no thing that happens that wasn’t and isn’t in your control.  I know this in my mind, but when it comes to the things that go against my will, it is normal to recoil from this truth.  Let me tell you had it works in my soul.  I can think in my mind that maybe God missed it, than to think that it was his loving purpose to allow me to suffer through this or that trial.  An unsaved soul could grow to hate a being so powerful, who allows all the things that have happened in history.  I am not talking about all of the things in history, I am talking about the things that he has allowed in my life.  Why? 

It is always delightful to find out that I am not the only person who feels like this.  Many people have asked that question in Scripture, but the hymn writer seemed convinced and fully persuaded to guide us to sing…

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty the king of Creation…

Oh my soul praise Him for He is thy help and salvation?

Commanding my personhood to find a praise in every situation of my life, is the only help in every situation.  You are going to be helped by this exercise, whether you know it or not.  This is going to grow your spiritual sinew.  That is why you ought to praise him.

Not only don’t I like to be told to praise Him, when I am in pain, but I would much rather stay swimming in my sadness than grow from this problem.  I become angry, with the hymn writer and angry with God who allowed me to go through this difficulty and then make it this hymn that we would sing.  That is like not wanting to reach your hand up to the helping hand that is going to pull you out of the water and you are drowning.  That is exactly what it is.  I would rather keep my hands at my side and stand on the bottom of the pool than to raise my hand and reach for the help that is right there.  Some griefs take you to that point.  I can’t get up!

Praise to the Lord, the almighty, the King of Creation, Oh my soul praise him for He is your help and salvation…

He is the only one who can pierce through the crippling effect of unbelief.   Get up!  Get up!  He is the help of your soul! 

All Ye who hear, now to HIs temple draw near, praise him in GLAD ADORATION.

What is glad adoration, when I am grieving?

The candle of the Lord?

Proverbs 20:20

The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly.

Praying for the condition of the young pastors that I know! Seek God and don't follow the crowd.

The Bravery and the Impertinence of telling God’s people what to do!

One ought to shudder to think of the judgment upon people who take it upon themselves to speak for God through the scripture.

When God’s people are suffering in various visisitudes and you come to them with platitudes, beware.

God’s people are His own and He carries the rod.  apply the rod sparingly.  Instruction and care are in order.

God’s people mustn’t be thrown around and battered like a rag doll and beware of the authority which is given you in the lives of God’s people.  He is the Lord Sabaoth who comes to judge His people and doesn’t take your ridicule and gossip about the state of their souls lightly.  Do you share it to gain counsel or to ridicule your brethren in private?  Do you give the reigns of a soul that God has given you to another?

God hates the sower of discord! God hates the pride of place and beware that your authority hasn’t taken you into that place where you ridicule and diminish your authority.  Many men fall prey to this malady and I fear they will not know the state of their souls, until eternity carries them before the throne of Grace and Truth.  

Their Angels?

Preparing to meet your baby and the angels that protect him or her.

I can actually remember 33 years ago, not having met the guardian angels who have become dear to me, as I watch them do their jobs so beautifully.  I delivered a baby girl first and those first words to me were better than any Christmas present that I could ever get.  My mommy and daddy came to meet her, but the feeling of her dearness coming close to me at the birth is most precious. 

I nursed too long at the first session and a month of soreness was the result.  I didn’t know how to get her off.  I wasn’t ready for the suction.  Mom said, get her off of there, you are going to be sore!  She was right!  Natural birth was delightful and great.  My attendants were adorable and attentive, but I was eager to get my new dolly home and dote on her.  

We doted and doted and rested at home and there were no interruptions to our parental bliss.  She knew that she was the center of our world and we committed her to the Lord and gave her the reality of our faith by praying with her and guiding as best we could, all these years.

The shield of faith is the best gift to give your children.  Help them see the spiritual dimension of the things that happen, if you can.  Give them a truth that is incontrovertible to hold onto and you will see the angels come and support your feeble attempts.  God is more supportive of parenting than the best parenting expert.  

I do miss my dear prayer partner and mature woman friend and daughter.  She has grown to be a spiritual guide in my life.  More than I could have even asked from God!

Prayers for my sons!

Do we have any heat?

These weakened North Carolina spoiled children find a morning where it is 39 degrees outside going up to 59 or so a frozen tundra.   No, I will not turn on the heat in the house, yet.  This is the first frost to us.

39 is not freezing yet!  32 is freezing outside.  They are men.  But, they are men who were reared in the warm and perfect temperatures of the Carolinas.  It is truly the garden of eden here.  They don’t appreciate the perfection of such temperatures.  Autumn came for a photo opportunity to entertain the children for Halloween.  It will return to summer temperatures before long and in the meantime the natives complain and the women can pull out their carefully preserved mink coats and celebrate the momentary winter that has come.  I have learned or am learning to enjoy the daily routine of seasonal changes that come for a day or a week in stead of the few months of winter that we enjoy in the north land.

Like the lights of broadway, the seasons and the warmth shine every day for these people.  When they go out for a minute, they complain as my son did this morning.  Don’t we have any heat?  NO!  It is 69 degrees in the house and I am not about to turn the heat on for that.  It gives us something to talk about.

Men don’t ordinarily talk about recipes and shopping sprees and so I can’t find much to converse with them about.  I am not into internet games per’se.  So their lives have become somewhat an enigma to me.  Unwittingly!   They are all men and we have music as a commonality and Church.  Other than that, their lives are their own.  I thought I was a buttinsky type of a mother.  But I have awakened to my complete inability to  carry on more than a moderately dynamic conversation with these young men.  

In politics, Bernie carries their minds.  In music and life Kanye has the new curiosity.  In other things they are live and let live types of fellows.  I didn’t think that kind of man could come out of a militant woman as I am.  But they are.  That is life. 

This brisk morning has called me to clean my house and warm my heart to the reality of their lifestyle choices and pray for the invigoration of the Holy Spirit to enliven their lives and give them a sense of purpose and direction.  In Jesus’ Name Amen.

A Vision of Praise, A Vision of a Victorious Church!

Instructed Praise!

Judith McAllister is more than a singer.  She guides the people into a posture of worship to glorify God.

Imitating the Church Triumphant, although we are still in the battle for our souls.  We mustn’t be ignorant of our continued battle.  We must fight the fight, but we must include in our prayer, petition and worship.

When we enter into the battle with the praise that is due our God,  I believe that the angels themselves enter into the battle with us.

God is glorified by the fruit of our lips worship and praise to our God.  We have learned much about petition and imprecatory prayers and requests, coming boldly, but not as much about the praise that glorifies our God.  He is worthy of Praise.

Praise raises our minds eye from an earthly to a heavenly perspective.  We see the God who is above it all and we are helped in the heart of the matter.  Do we believe that God is above our circumstance?  Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.  John the Baptist saw that Jesus was the Christ, but we are in a dimension above that of his faithful sort.  Because of the ability that we have to interact with heaven and intercede for the condition of our world.

The angels of the children are in the face of God regularly, why?  because of their praise and service for the future.”  do we imitate them?  Do we imitate their service and praise?  We will be looking into the face of God, by the purpose of God.  

Proverbs 29:18

Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.

Is my heart at Wormwood or at the Cross? Thank you CS Lewis for painting the shadows for the educated.

Decieved by my elite status?

What is the difference between God produced Faith and self induced faith?   The question is are we connected to the vine in reality or just in mental ascent.  Is the missing part of us yearning after itself or after a greater connection to the giver of the parts who himself is whole!

We live with the light of our praise looming and lighting our path, or we live with the light of Christ sacrifice for our sins lighting our path.  One path is well lit and the light is guiding us blindly to our destruction and the other is sometimes very very dark and we have only a flashlight of our understanding that we deserve Hell to follow.   You are great, you are great, says the devil!  and afterward he boasts.  I have him!

Does he have us or does God?  False faith despises this question.  Never should you look at your steps and see where they are leading you.  Look only at the imagination of your heart being attached to Christ.  Is that a real or a false imagination?  do we know where our activities lead us?

Herod’s words were so beautiful that all the people felt comforted and exalted him as a god for being so eloquent.  The worms came to prove that they were deceived and ate him up.  That is the deception of elitism.  I am right because I can prove my point with magical words?

Lofty speech not with standing, God’s word is the plumbline{straight or crooked}  . do we want to feel good or do we want to get things accomplished.  Do we want to stomp out the wine on the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored?  We must get dirty in our speech and in our activity to get to where the grapes of our demise live,  deep in our dirty hearts…

My Dear Wormwood,

You report in your last letter that your patient intends to purchase a “good study bible” with the determination to begin regular readings. My dear nephew, calm yourself, as you seem rather troubled by this decision. If well managed, there is no cause for concern. You fail to remember the countless patients, firmly in the grasp of our father below, who own multiple copies of that ancient book.

I would in fact go as far as to advise you to encourage both the purchase and the intended readings. You see, your influence in how your patient reads the book can be very useful to your mission. Instead of weaning the ambition, make it your aim to twist her motivation for reading. Make it all about her—her determination to be a “good Christian,” the application of truth to her life, the importance of gaining the Enemy’s favor. Whatever it may be, at no point should knowledge of the Enemy Himself be the goal.

Allow me to explain. I once had a patient who began to claim allegiance to the Enemy. Rather than discourage the profession, I gradually molded her understanding of Christianity to that sugary version that focuses strictly on the self. She was made to see her faith as merely ethical—her focus on kindness and fair treatment of others. This, she believed, was the primary objective of the faith; she saw it as the embodiment of the Enemy's very nature—an unconditional love that excuses all terms and conditions for the sake of human happiness and fulfillment. Certain of this supposition, she read the Book mostly to affirm her view. Delightful!

You begin to see my point, I hope. Rather than dissuade the readings, make the readings about her. Let every passage be application for her life rather than knowledge of the Enemy and His work. By this, she will steadily restrict herself to the “relevant passages” and will seek to understand them primarily for their usefulness to her life. In so doing, she becomes the central agent of her own change and yet barely changes since she remains anemic and infantile in her understanding of the truth. The possible results are too delicious to consider: discouragement, indifference, guilt, justification of sin, you name it!

 In all this, always remember that the Enemy means for the human creature to know Him; worse still, He intends for them to rely on Him for everything. One ancient writer claims that even the faith to believe comes as a gift from Him. And once belief has come, it is the Enemy Himself who enables the creature to grow. It would almost seem as though He “seals them” in Himself, woos their affections, transforms their minds, and turns their hopes from the momentary joys of this life to the “surpassing glory that awaits.”

Pardon my mention of these things, Wormwood. I hate even to write them. But they must be said for that is in fact what that Book claims. And know for certain that every inch of it drips with these vexatious assertions! To our Enemy, there is no “irrelevant” portion to these Writings. They ALL speak of HIM! Each part echoes with that horrid news of His salvation of the human creature from His own wrath, sin and eternal death.

That, Wormwood, is why I charge you to keep your Patient’s attention away from the Enemy and largely on herself! Let her “study” be self-centered and petty; and then lukewarm and halfhearted until she gives it up all together for something more interesting—but always resolving to “get back to it.” Do this nephew, and prove yourself useful to the cause.

Your affectionate uncle,

Screwtape*

* This post is inspired by C.S. Lewis' 1942 satirical book on demonic temptation and God's triumph, The Screwtape Letters.

Tagged: The Screwtape’s Letters, C.S. Lewis, Biblical Illiteracy

Help my eyes to be toward the Lord, Please.

Psalm 25:13 

His soul shall dwell at ease; and his seed shall inherit the earth.

Psalm 25:14  

The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant.

Psalm 25:15 

Mine eyes are ever toward the LORD; for he shall pluck my feet out of the net.

The search for the spiritual ease of the soul is a true one.  I have meditated on the futility of the fatal ease, that the time of refreshing often eluded me, considering that an enemy might be in the ambush.  That is not always the case, now, is it?

When the soul is in true possession of a dominion there is an ease to that that is from the Lord. Who gives all things richly to enjoy and gives abundance, adding no sorrow with it.

If God says the soul of the righteous will dwell at ease, it is so! 

Help Lord, that I can enjoy the ease of sins forgiven, with your blessing and not be fighting the spiritual ease that is a gift from Heaven!  Bless all of your own to be blessed to know the reality of the warfare of the soul to be the comfort for them.  Because of the Work of Jesus on our souls’ behalves.  Amen

Cosmetic of a meek and quiet spirit?

  Hebrews 10:1 

For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.

Of what use, Cosmetic

Eye Shadow

Turn my eyes upon your law, Oh God!  It is a shadow of the good things to come and not the image of the things.

We would seek the showers of blessing from attempted obedience to you~

You are faithful and we have fallen again and again from the purposes that you have had for us.  And yet your mercy is there and free for us to receive.  The beauty and purpose of the law being on the outside of the real, may we see in truth the purpose of the real relationship that you sought to draw us into.  We seek to be truly attached to the vine and not deceived by our own impulses or by other peoples schemes.  May we see and give to God the glory of the reality of loving Him and serving Him in truth!  

Christ’s sacrifice has given us the means to truly know and Love God and the world with our might.  Strengthen us for that purpose, Oh God.

For the good of your church and for the good of the world that we live in.  In Jesus’ Strong Name, Amen

The silent invisible dominion of Paradise Lost?

In the image of God He created them…

Fighting for the development of the self controlled mind.  The importance of guidance and development of children’s minds and not just herding them, as cattle and manipulating them.

Lost, Lost are the skills and the pertinence of the necessity of certain skills that for many generations have rendered developed intellects.  Why?  We have computers to do that to us. 

If we render the human mind useless to us as a horse an carriage, we will have no longer be in the image of God.

The fact that it was unfathomable that my son could imagine going into your mind and finding a fact, was sad!  It is what we teach to.

They get it, for the moment.  Tolkien saw the day of Orks where there minds were programmed from without.  We must stand against that sad reality that we live with.  God give us grace to recoup the use of the mind and the importance of fine motor and gross motor skills to the use of the mind.

May every child have the ability to develop a mind palace for the glory of God! In Jesus' Name

uncrossable rivers?

We Bring the Sacrifice?

The Sacrifice  of Praise!

The sense of the presence of the Lord among us is desired and requested, not presumed upon.   How often do we presumptuously gather, expecting to hear from God and not waiting upon the Lord?   God can come in His mercy or in His wrath to enter into our worship.  Presumption, I fear is most often our way.  Presumptuous that we are here and God must follow our protocol.  No, sometimes He says to us.  I will not follow your protocol.  I will follow righteousness and the fear of the Lord, as my word demands.  See what God said to His own children who had been led by his hand out of Egypt.  Righteousness and following the fear of God is more important to God, than protocol.  Certainly.  He has given us instructors and people to guide us in His Word, for many, many years and still we stand at the bottom of the mountain of the Lord and profess that we don’t know what He demands of us. 

God comes near, at times and restores our joy.  Not always, but sometimes.  He reproves us, sometimes and we are undone.  We have not loved you as we ought…

We owe Him praise and worship.  That bill we don’t pay!  That bill we keep for our presumption.  Not in heart and certainly not in word do we praise Him and it condemns us each time we gather for some lesser event to praise MAN.  We praise each other and we praise ourselves, but God’s praise is empty!  Let us think and restore the praise of the Lord in our midst!

When You Are a Soldier!

Psalm 71:9  

Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength faileth.

Psalm 71:10  

For mine enemies speak against me; and they that lay wait for my soul take counsel together,

Psalm 71:18 

Now also when I am old and grayheaded, O God, forsake me not; until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to every one that is to come.

Psalm 71:19

Thy righteousness also, O God, is very high, who hast done great things: O God, who is like unto thee!

How we lament the days of swiftness of body and mind, when they are gone?

We imagine the enemy who was in earlier days coming and chasing us down and we can no longer deliver ourselves, much less others.  when the legs are aching and the mind is slower our heart laments.  Like a dear friend who has passed away we lament.  Was our trust in our own strength?  Was our trust not in the Lord to enable us to overcome?  Was our trust in our swiftness of mind and body?  

If so, we are truly in a sorry state!  No! Even now our trust is in the Lord to deliver us. 

My father in law looked at me and said Do you think you are helping me?  God has put it on your heart to help me.  I didn’t understand the anger of needing help in our aging times.  I do now.   God give us the heart and mind to serve you as we age.

Proverbs 11:18 

The wicked worketh a deceitful work: but to him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward.

Proverbs 11:28

He that trusteth in his riches shall fall: but the righteous shall flourish as a branch.

Proverbs 11:29  

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

Is it a coincidence that the judgment of Egypt was prefaced with "And at Midnight..." That was truly a midnight of knowledge of God

Exodus 11:4 And Moses said, Thus saith the LORD, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt:

Exodus 11:5 And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts.

A Fearful midnight upon the earth it was for God to go to such means to convince a sinner of His greatness! Pharaoh had entered a battle of wills that he had no way of winning. God was done with granting the mercies that were in the earlier battles. God was merciful all through and yet He clearly gave us His purpose or we would have considered Him a bully to have even entered the contest. He was intentional that the world would have a clear testimony of who is the greater, Pharaoh or God and that none in any generation would have excuse to miss this truth.

Proverbs 10:3 The LORD will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish: but he casteth away the substance of the wicked.

Our access to God and the blessings are not because of bloodline at all. We must always acknowledge that our relationship to God is through His Son and not through our own bloodline. That is a very clear thing that was said by God in Exodus about the Pharaoh. The essence of false religion is that all people are equally related to God. God said I made a difference between Israel and everyone else. His plagues were the public expression of that to the world and the wise of the earth got it.

Although you belong to the greatest country on the earth, Egypt, if you lift your hand against Israel or the Church in the NT time, you will be thrust down to the dust. That Pharaoh may know that God has set a line of division between Israel and Egypt he continues to mark that distinction regardless of our heedlessness. If we come in any other name, you are condemned. Jesus’ name alone is salvation!

“And at midnight” are we the foolish or the wise virgins? The bridegroom cometh! the judgment is upon us! Our children taught of the Lord, Jesus or given to the flames of the hedonism of our culture. We are delivered into the blessings of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, through the blood of Jesus alone. As a unit of the Church and no other means at all. We are not lone receivers. We are not personal inheritors of random blessings. That was the deception of Egypt. Pharaoh had dominion and was the greatest personal example of God’s letter of intention for human beings on the earth in having dominion and yet his fist was in the face of God! God said my letter of intention of man’s purpose is subjugated to the blessings of relationship, first.

What does it profit a man?

To gain the whole world?

And to lose his own soul?

To lose his firstborn son?

I say that those things are nearly synonymous sometimes??

Jesus does care about what we care about!

What God hardens he also can just as easily soften!

Exodus 10:1

And the LORD said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh: for I have hardened his heart, and the heart of his servants, that I might shew these my signs before him:

Pray that the opposite might be said of your children in this generation.  That God himself would say that he has softened the hearts of this generation!

The dark mist of misrepresentation being upon them, still they set their hearts to seek the Lord!  And that we would find it so that God himself had softened their hearts in spite of the inconsistency of their parents and the misdirection of the media and the gaffaws of many statesmen before them.  Still they could see the will of God through the fogs of misrepresentation.  They could see the agenda of death that was set before them.  And they chose the agenda of life, not for the glory of education or any man.  They chose to glorify God in their bodies and represent the agenda of life in their homes and in their public discourse regardless of the stigma that it sent them.   In Jesus’ Name Amen.

Didn't my Lord deliver Daniel and not Pharoah? Lest I forget...

So the morning began,   Halleluiah and coffee and a private appointment with the King of Glory!   I guess I wake up early because I like to feel like I am his first patient and he truly lets me feel that.  Today it was the story of a faithless idiot, who kept trying God and brought about the global warming that stoked the flames of faith in the entire godless early world.  How could one think of himself as above the God of the universe.  He was truly trained to think of himself this way and he never departed from it.  God engaged him in several armwrestlings to warn him and he never felt inferior.  That was his catechism.  The chief end of his faith was to worship self and enjoy himself.   He challenged Gods every right.  Does God have rights over us?   The whole rest of scripture shows who believed that interaction and who did not.  

I believe that encounter was for the sake of the educated world of that time.  No one who was alive could have missed the challenge.  Like a challenge of a person on a ladder of better and worse in tennis.  Everyday Pharoah called God to challenge His sovereignty and God condescended to the challenge.  May my prowess in any arena subjugate itself to the glory of God.  May my every excellence shine to the Glory of the one and only all superior and all gifted creator and redeemer.  May humility and grace point others to Christ and not the testimony of how God had to subdue my overly exalted view of self.  In science in thinking, in sports and all else may””” ,” Jesus reign wherever the sun does its successive run”.

May our catechism get rear a generation who are other centered and not self glorying!  For the sake of the Gospel and that our world may be subdued to the love of Christ!  Amen.

Give Grace, Dear Lord to Overcome the dominion of our sin and Plagues, Please, Please, Please!

Exodus 5:18  

Go therefore now, and work; for there shall no straw be given you, yet shall ye deliver the tale of bricks.

Oh what a harder taskmaster the Pharaoh of sin is than Pharaoh himself!

Do we not search and seek for greater benefits from our sin, when our hearts are wedded to the sins??  My soul seeks to be delivered; sinner and saint alike seek deliverance from sin.  As it were we say to ourselves, Let my soul go, that I may go and serve my King and Lord.

Either a hardening happens or it doesn’t.  We are in the most dangerous situation who have heard and had our hearts exposed to the true and living Word of God.  We close our eyes and go toward the darkness with abandon.  God himself tries to stop us through His truth and we catapult headlong into our own demise.  

How long will God deal with us?  This question isn’t asked in this licensious era of the world.   How long will God continue showing us the consequences of our sins as He did Egypt in Moses’ day?  How long will we act like Pharaoh over our own souls and God not let us go unto our own way?  

His mercy restrains us.
His goodness puts up with us and gives us plagues and problems to help us know our wrong.
His faithfulness allows us eyesight to see where repentance is

And yet we still seek the straw to make sin’s bricks..Help us see and be delivered Dear Lord!

Amen

Excellent Speech?

Excellent speech becometh not a fool!

I say that to myself very often.  Especially when I am wowed by a truly well spoken youngster or other.  I say to myself let us truly see if his deportment lives up to that wonder.   I know my own foolishness that my speech precludes.   How did you know that only a real fool has such wonder in their speech? Not always, but often.  The humility of a drawl and the humility of the New England Caaaaa" seems synonymous with the lisp in Spanish to remind the elite that their speech doesn't fool God about their condition.  God will snatch that tongue right out of your mouth, if you don't mortify the pride of good diction.

Is ain't yo crown said pop Winans to Donnie when he won that lifetime achievement award.  We have much to look forward to if we cast our trophies on the Lord.  He does as much with them as he does with our cares...

Good diction is impressive, but I thank God for the many glances of warning that I have received from loving African American mommas who have warned me of the danger of imitating Queenly pride when speaking"the Queens ENGLISH".  It is not a mark of pride so much in the African American community as much as a mark of assimilation.  You can hide under your perm and your complexion and your speaking skills, but you cannot hide that you are Black.  It will come out one day!  Don't let it come out in the true shame of missing heaven on account of it.  I pray for the young preacher man who spoke deeply into my heart on Sunday evening.  What a wonderful experience to admire great vocabulary? But would to God that his heart for souls and compassion were as potent as his speaking.   My husband says that to me every day, almost in many different ways.  You have the ability to pull out a word that means what it takes me a million words to say,  but God isn't impressed at all.  

Prayer and compassion are indeed more than Words and I hope that young men and my sons learn that as well!

What went Ye out to see? Thoughts on the sermon from a young pastor, yesterday at Trinity...

Speaking in the authority of God is tricky for the young preacher these days.  Older people need reminders of the usefulness of God in the listening.  The distraction of telling someone since I am preaching and you are not, is a comic aside that was certainly a distraction if only a humorous one.  We must be careful of not diminishing the authority of Gods word  and the usefulness of God using our youth.  We don't need that.  God is using our youth and we should expect more, but humor must be carefully timed.

I also think that an admonition to encourage the downtrodden was missed in the sermon.  Listen to Gods dealings with them, AMEN.  But also be ready to bare burdens together to the throne of Grace!

The expectation of Jesus to meet you in your hardest need was or didn't seem to be emphasiized or pointed out at all.

Much time was spent on whose question was it.  And not much on the response of Jesus to give tangible credible encouragements to the down trodden.  Jesus could have said how dare you question, he didn't.  He knew Johns death was imminent.  But he didn't tell him that.  He turned Johns eyes upon Jesus and that is what we must do...

Looking at what is dark is ineffective to trial bearing.  Praise and Thanksgiving give power to those who may be fainting under the weight of suffering.  Where is the sacrifice of praise?

John the Baptist was the greatest and most used prophet. But, he that is least in the Kingdom is Greater than He. How?

Let us not miss the intimacy of Christ dimension of New Testament Faith.

The God of our Data Gap (information gluts) or the God of our heart ‘ligion.  Do you know him?  or Are you studying Him?  The Man after God’s own heart was sometimes ignorant of the details of data for lack of study, but he was always in pursuit of God in his personal experience.  This is what we are learning when we sit at the feet of suffering Saints of God and others who have learned to know God well.

Sometimes, I hear us justifying our woeful lack of expectation from God on our behalf because we are studious and we are too deep for the masses to embrace our doctrine.  Are we desperate for God’s presence in our everyday?  Are we waiting for God to fulfill our prayers to be amongst us in power and in numbers, also?

We plead for the showers of blessings that others have known.  We plead that in wrath you would remember mercy.  We plead that You would not leave us without your presence in our worship.  We have exalted the polished and the beautiful for our leaders and helpers and perhaps ignored the less polished Saints for positions in leadership and we must learn better.

We have a greater presence of God than John the Baptist had.  What did Jesus mean that he that is least in the Kingdom is greater than he?  He was used amazingly in the building of the Kingdom of God.  But his experience was without the fellowship of the Church the Bride of Christ and his experience was without the effective sending of the Holy Spirit as it is now.   We have a daily and continued expectation of God to impose himself on us by His Spirit.  What is more than a conqueror experience in our trials?  It is the reality that God’s light of faith is shining and drawing others to himself through our difficulties and that He deigns to draw the closer to those whose situations are hard.  He is carrying us!  He is not someone to whom we have to send others to ask of.  He is right with us in our sufferings.  Our grief may blind us to that experience, but that doesn’t make it any less true.  God is far closer to His suffering Saints than we can even know.

Thank You God for the New Testament experience of faith and love of you!

The Wind is a Whisper!

The First Sunday of the Scopes Trial imagination

The powers of hell were roaring as the Twenties were in midswing.  Is the bible a suitable ingredient in American Education?  Who knew that this would be the question that would be answered and continue to be answered in 1925 by the Scopes Trial?  Were we to inherit the earth or the Wind?

A Suitable consequence for a country that had all but forgotten God in its revelry and consumption of war-games.  The world had forgotten God and was reeling from the economic crisis that the abolishment of slavery had sent.  What do we do with all of the people who have been used in body and soul and now have not the skills to become of any economic use?

Crash, it all came tumbling down and the stock market crashed and people went scurrying to find a place to hide from the economic crisis.  My family migrated from Jamaica, some about that time.  That real and unthwartable push to better the life of yourself and your children was worldwide, Blacks and Whites alike.

The reality of the Industrial Revolution had made the service industry a minimal useful economic equalizer.  Everybody was learning to recreate themselves, as we are now.  Some had little skills and some had none at all.  What do we owe our people and our children?  Preparations for life…  Where will that come from?  Is the Bible Relevant?  Is Darwinism?

Someone died at the end of the Scopes Trial and I call him the Steven of Darwin!  A great Theological Mind Gave his all to tell us the house was on fire!

Thoughts from Genesis 26

The Faith and Dominion of Isaac!  

Like the first star that proceeds from the father of faith, we seem to miss the significance of this Patriarch for the light of faith in Abraham and the complexity of the faith of Jacob.  

So packed is this dominion and the pursuit of faith in Isaac, it seems that I could write all day about it.

1. Dominion of the wells and fighting for it.
2. A man in the image of his father, flaws and all
3. Lover of his own wife
4. The high value of single eyed love of the vow of marriage and love of God. even of the ungodly in that day.
5. the keeper of vows sees God as a keeper of vows
6. the faith of one man lifting the faith and consistency of the entire region
7. Grief at the loss of his father had made him miss losing dominion of the water wells.
8. God made him fight for that which was his, already by inheritance
9. The expression of ungodliness in that day was in reserving the water only for those who had means and knowledge to find it.  Over control of natural resources, taxing the poor for needed items, like water and basic provisions is a greater expression of ungodliness.
10. He thought their expression would be to steal his beautiful wife and kill him.  They expressed that they attempted to live according to vows as he did.  I think Abrahams lies to the peoples had been effective in teaching basic skills of godliness that were traveling through the communities.
11. People wanted to compete with the joy that was seen  in the community of faith that Abraham created.  
12. Like the water that they drank from the wells. Thankfulness for this provision made them want to imitate his faith and consistency to God’s truth.
13. Isaac had no idea that his faith was growing the faith on the earth even before he could teach the truth of the reality of God’s mercy.

Just a thought

I really don't like the acceptance of masculine behaviors in regular play with girls and boys.  I don't like the way it is acceptable for girls to take charge in playing games as a regular way.  Boys seem to dumb themselves down and not even try to take initiatives and the ones who do have to fight for that right.  Then we tell them to treat girls more gently, but the girls provoke like a boy.

In the play yard there aren't female and male choices.  There are only gender neutral games available.  We need some choices of doll and cooking and jump rope and some games that are uncompetitive.

Respectful behavior to oneanother should be a must.  Respectfulness to teachers is an extension of their behavior with one another and we teachers should model respectful behavior to the children.  They will model what they are shown.  Love one another?  Simple etiquette, preferring one another?  Esteem in others more highly?  How does that look?  Not a door mat, but humble submission must be modeled or they won't learn it. 

The humble, submissive attitude that God was pleased with in us in slavery and post has grown into bitterness and acceptance of aggressive behaviors.   It is not language differences, it is attitude acceptances.   Not!

The respect for what God has wrought in our midst is not.

God told Abraham that He was his shield.  If Sodom and Gomorrah accepted deliverance from the hand of God and gave him not the glory, that was where God hardened their hearts.  The symptom was the spiritual takeover of Homosexuality.  The sin was not seeking God and thanking Him when Abraham was used to show them the way.  When we receive from God a mighty deliverance and don't give God the glory, he lets parts of his shield down.  The shield was spoken to Abraham and as his children by faith we are recipients in Christ of that shield.  If we emulate our father.  If not we are our own shield.   I can't shield myself and if I am not doing the works of my spiritual example Abraham in Christ, there are consequences.  Succumbing to the wrong influences of our generation.   Perhaps we are saved, by the skin of our teeth as it were, but not experiencing real spiritual dynamism.

Are the fruit of the Spirit a set up?

As I reminisce about my own spiritual journey, I remember thinking tha God doesn't answer my prayers because I must not really belong to Him.  I remember trying to pray opposite prayers for a while to trick God into doing what I wanted him to do.   I am not sure that any other children do this, but I am sure that when we teach children the scriptural truths we must listen to their perceptions and guide them to see what God is saying.  

   For instance, we should make it clear that we cannot obey God or our parents without the spirit's assistance and we cannot blame the Spirit for us not using the fruit of the Spirit in our behaviors.  We err on both sides in this instruction.  We teach them to expect right behavior from themselves and we teach them that they are culpable when they don't follow the right way.  When the Spirit does bless their behavior and give them grace to follow through, we should teach them to praise God.  And we should teach them to pray for help to do right!!!  We should also do the same!

Gauge and Gage of the LANG! The tongue our measure?

I really believe that the dominion of excellent speech is given to the Spanish because of deNada...that is my opinion.   God blesses the culture that exalts him.  They have humbly pursued truth and riches in their history.  But their language and their literacy is sublimely biblical...

"Excellent speech becometh not a fool"

I bought today that the foolishness of the insertion of lisping onto the speech on purpose seems very Jacobian to me.  Somebody using an irony to make a point.   The lisp is considered more excellent in Castilian. Like HellerD for Madea.   The more we pursue exaltation of ourselves in excellent speech the more foolish we sound...   I am not being proud, Lord.  My lisp lets you know that I know the right way to say it, but humble myself through deliberate lisping...

I think the reformation in Spain was lingual.  The tongue must be sharpened to strengthen the mind, but not to the damning of the soul.. Are we not the most exalted of us the most foolish, they seem to say.

The Sense and Sensibility of the presence of God?

The Sense and Sensibility of the presence of God? Is it an evasive thing? Do we hide our sense of hollowness, behind a veil of sacred pretense? Where are you God? Are you here with us? You said you would be with us when we gather? And yet is that the case? Still, we convince ourselves and connect in words only and not beseeching God to truly attend our gatherings. We stand like the emperor without his new clothes and pretend to be clothed. “Could it be You make your presence known, so often by your absence?” Michael Card Our children are laughing that we are continuing to gather with such an “invasive” absence of God’s presence. Do we implore Him to be with us, in our prayer meetings?” Chase we the almighty dollar so that we cannot attend anymore? It isn’t a priority. We know we will see Him on Sunday… We comfort ourselves. “He knows my heart” Have you moved away, Lord? You promised to inhabit our praise? Where are You, Lord? I do not really feel bereft of the presence of God, but it is a great fear of mine to be insensible of the absence of God and truly deceived by my own religiosity. My practices replacing his presence. I think that is why He chose someone like Amos and someone like Obed Edom to be present with. There is no religious veil to cut through. I would want to be that way and not deceived by my own thoughts of religiousness, Nor the comparison of others with myself. Forgive my making light of your presence, Lord. Forgive my acceptance of the status quo of your love and attention. Help me to know You in the reality of Your lifting Your people to greater usefulness in our nation and our world. For the Church’s Sake in Jesus’ Name, Amen

Where is my prayer hat?

I felt that God was impressing on me the importance of the covering of the head. I told you the story of that, Elyse. What a providential thing that your father bought me a prayer hat, while I was asking God about His impressing me about that? I found it yesterday and lost it today. What is that supposed to mean?

I am loving the interactive nature of my present relationship with God. He is very hands on with me and doesn't give me much time to write about our conversations. The sky is His peekaboo. He stands behind it and tickles me with the beauty. He stands behind my interactions with the children and shows me His own corrections of my simplicity. My prayer hat is part of a longer conversation about the fact that God is weaving our humanity into His showing both sides of the tapestry of His providence. The pretty side of the outworkings of humanity and the underside of the spiritual battles that allow us to enjoy Him! Halleluia, what a Savior!

Be Not Many Masters?

The Greater condemnation of being masters

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:

I think it not an accident that Pilgrims Progress specifically discusses the sons of Japheth as being in view, and their salvation. Shem and Ham are both in the judgment of God, upon the earth, but the sons of Japheth have a burden upon their backs, that perhaps the other two brothers haven’t. They are aware of the dominion that they have received. Dominions in the spiritual and dominions in the earthly. Have they like Esau traded their birthrite? I don’t think so, but we all must follow and study to show ourselves approved unto God, whether in spiritual dominions or in the earthly. The burden of many souls being provided for, through your earthly fortunes is a challenge at best. Whether you will end up to be the rich man who stepped over Lazarus daily and cracked the whip in fear to your subordinates, wreaking terror; or were a benevolent benefactor to God’s people and strangers, is up for grabs. What is God saying about the greater condemnation of being a Master?

We have only one master, God. Have you no responsibility, if you have grown in your status to bring others who have served you up as well. If you were blessed to find childcare that treated your child with kindness and civility and you are now a billionaire and that young woman is still starving in the hovel of the streets trying to feed her family caring devotedly to the next generation. Whose fault is that? Why is it a well paying job to be a governor and not a childcare worker? We care not for that position. Our culture shows as much and will continue to do so, until we care for the children with our pay as well as with our considerations of gratitude.

I was grateful for childcare, so that I could pursue my dreams, they say. I was grateful to drop them off and become what I was supposed to be, a master! All can do the same? should we? Who cares for the children? the unambitious. the “uniapetors”. Their souls will show the vanquish. Help us Lord to care about the fallout of our over ambitious mindset.

Fiery Darts? Calling and Election Sure at the Wicket gate?

might it be…that the burden on the back of Christian is the reality that eternity is not promised and that not until after the experience at the Interpreters House might he have the eyegear to see the desperate condition of unbelief. He thinks that it is faith alone. He thinks that there are no precipices on the journey and is deceived as to the reality of falling away. Easy believism was prevalent, even then. Our kind and thoughtful pastor gave us a reality check, which belongs to the church, should she choose to accept the revelation of this reality. The Wicket Gate is a turning point. Turning points to make our calling and election sure. Is the church subject to deceive people of their state, with regard to their calling and election.

We must be sure we are on the right way.

we are a privileged people===privileged to protect!

God’s knitting needles are the lives of the unborn versus our privileges, whatever they may be… Pick that up, He says to us. No! I will not give up my privileges to care for this inconvenience. Unplanned inconvenience. I will do as I want! God is in Marra with us as a church. He is forsaken of us. excuses for voting on the side of death. Do we deserve the infinite worth of the blood of Jesus if we are voting for the death of the prophets and our future?? We have left our God? Marra is His Cry for our desertion. God give us grace to pick up the pieces of the death that we have wrought through the industry of abortion and make God great in our hearts again! convenience vs. God’s glory?

Ruth was grafted in as a first fruit of the gentiles~~~Am I a Designing Woman or a Resigning Woman?

Ruth's conscription into the kingdom of God was God's design, but he allowed her faith in Him to be part of the grand design. He brought her from afar. He brought her from idolatry and from grief to enter into the design of the mosaic of the heritage of the Messiah.

Habits that were natural to her became part of her children. I am sure that God intended it as this. Are we participating in designing the habits of faith in the next generation, or are we resigning ourselves to the status quo?

Ruth 4:11 And all the people that were in the gate, and the elders, said, We are witnesses. The LORD make the woman that is come into thine house like Rachel and like Leah, which two did build the house of Israel: and do thou worthily in Ephratah, and be famous in Bethlehem: