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December 10, 2023

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God is the God of Impossible Situations

Have you ever felt as if you were in an impossible situation?  Welcome to the very large crowd of humanity.  Last night, my husband and I were watching (again!) Darkest Hour, about Winston Churchill at the start of World War II.  As Hitler was taking over country after country in continental Europe, England found itself in an impossible situation.  Its army was cornered in Dunkirk, with Hitler’s armies closing in on three sides and the English Channel on the fourth side.  Churchill knew that he could possibly lose his entire army.  Roosevelt had so far refused to give support because Congress would not allow it.  Most in Churchill’s war cabinet, seeing the impossibility of the situation, wanted him to negotiate for peace with Hitler through Mussolini.  According to the movie, Churchill went out and spoke with some local citizens and also met with King George VI, and they, nearly unanimously, rejected the idea of negotiating with Hitler.  Churchill then gave an inspiring speech in Parliament, his citizen flotilla of ships saved most of the soldiers on the beaches of Dunkirk, and in the end, as we know, Hitler was defeated.

Dunkirk

We serve the God of impossible situations.  He seems to love them.  It gives Him credibility when there are no further options but to reach out to Him, pray and trust that He will save, and yet, if He chooses not to save us, we go on anyway.  Abraham, the father of faith, believed that God could give him a son, even when he and Sarah were too old.  He maintained his faith, even when God required him to sacrifice his son.  Moses had faith that God could save millions cornered between the Egyptian army and the Red Sea.  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, when threatened with a fiery death for not worshipping a statue, said to King Nebuchadnezzar:

 O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.  If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.  But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set. (Daniel 3:16 – 18)

There were also times when God allowed the situation to continue through to its end.  Many of the prophets died as martyrs.  Jesus prayed, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.”  (Matthew 26:39)  God did not miraculously get Jesus down off the cross, and yet Jesus maintained his faith and love.

In whatever impossible situation we find ourselves, we can follow their example.  Whether God saves us from the situation or not, we will maintain our love and faith in God.

We will not be careful to answer whatever situation stares us in the face.  If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, or from whatever it is, and he will deliver us out of it if He is willing.  But if not, be it known unto thee (the devil accusing us), that we will not serve thy gods, or let go of God’s divine principles that guide us.

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October 18, 2023

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Don’t Let the Light Go Out!

In our house, my dear husband turns lights on, looks at or does something in the room and then leaves the room without turning the lights off.  Then I go around the house turning lights off.  The most recent electric bills urge me on with my mission to eliminate lights in empty rooms.  With this scenario in mind, this morning I was in the bathroom determined to keep the lights off.  It was just before dawn, so it was still dark both outside and inside my little bathroom.  Nevertheless, with the help of the nightlight, I was able to get ready for work.  Strange, but as I got ready, I noticed that it got easier to see things around me even though the sun still had not come up.

It struck me that it could be compared to the situation of the frog that hops in a pot of cool water and doesn’t even notice that it is heating up.  He simply falls asleep and then that’s the end of him.

We live in a dark world.  As I am of a certain age, I remember a time when things were, in some ways (not all), more simple.  Life seemed to flow at a leisurely pace.  Stores were closed on Sundays.  Church parking lots were full.  Most men were providing for their families and many women stayed home with the children.  The children played outside freely after a full day of school where they either respected their teachers or they were in trouble with their parents.  My sisters and I had time to do our homework, knit our own hats and mittens, sew our own clothing and still have time to either go outside or help our mother in the kitchen.

Time has eroded the simplicity of life.  Like the frog in the pot, our world, and our lives in it, has gotten darker without our noticing.  As our world gets darker, we get used to it.  Perhaps we rationalize it and see the changes as just a fluke, or even as progress.  However, bit by bit, even stealthily the darkness has increased.  The drug situation has killed thousands, homelessness is endemic, mass shootings more common and our police force stretched thin.  Churches are nearly empty and if a child disrespects his or her teacher, it’s the parents who call, not to make the child apologize, but to upbraid the teacher.  We live in a dark world.  Don’t let the light go out.

Matthew 5:16  Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

John 12:35  Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9q-08aTNh8

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October 13, 2023

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Reading between the lines, praying for Israel

It has been nearly a week since Hamas’ despicable attack on Israel.  Nobody needs more horrific details.  At the bottom of this page, you can find a link to an article that I read this morning.  The headline is very deceiving, so I am hoping those who love Israel can ignore it.  Instead, as you read the article, read between the lines.  This article caused me to ask myself some questions.  Here they are:

  1. Israel has spent billions of dollars on high technology specifically earmarked to warn and save its citizens concerning incoming bombs.  Why hasn’t Hamas spent a dime to do the same?  Why do they spend all of the money they receive from other nations on more bombs to lob at Israeli citizens?  Why don’t they care enough about their own citizens to protect them?  Well, of course, they are never attacked unless they attack first, or unless there is a specific threat of them attacking.  Also, when their citizens are killed, it results in more sympathy and more donations.
  2. Also, since Israel knows that Hamas will not warn their own citizens, and since they know their controversy is not with the Palestinian citizens, but with Hamas, isn’t it unusual that the Israeli military sends out automated calls to people in Gaza to warn them?!  Do you know of any other nation in the world that calls citizens of the place that they are going to bomb in order to warn them that they should get out?  And since Israel does that, why don’t the people who receive the calls have some sort of warning system?  Perhaps a special bullhorn or something.  Granted, the warning calls give them only a few minutes to run.  Of course, Israel cannot give a lot of time.  That would end up in Hamas’ hands.  Also, other neighboring countries who are sympathetic to the Palestinian people could make it easier for the people in the most imminent danger to get out.  Since Israel has already given several days’ notice of their ground invasion, where are the buses and the extra help or whatever to help those people get out?
  3. The article blames the blockade for the lack of a warning system, saying that they can’t get the right materials to create such a system.  Would Hamas actually use any materials received for that purpose?  They receive a lot of sympathetic press with the current situation.
  4. Israel has made a vow: Never again.  They will do everything in their power to ensure the safety of all of their citizens.  They go out of their way to retrieve hostages.  They have studied and practiced how to launch precisions attacks and precision incursions specifically to save the lives of their citizens.  Why doesn’t the Hamas government value the lives of their citizens more than their inflamed desire to obliterate Israel?  The Washington Post says, “the terrorist group deliberately hides out in densely populated areas, using the large numbers of Palestinians there as human shields.”  That is just sad, and very evil.
  5. And finally, why do people living in countries that recognize Hamas as a terrorist organization then sympathize with them?  Sympathize with the people, not that government.  Free the people, not from the Israelis who live in peace until provoked, but free them from Hamas.  Help them build a government that respects the rights of its own people and those of its neighbors.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/12/middleeast/gaza-airstrikes-warnings-invs/index.html

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August 2, 2023

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Thinking of others before ourselves

We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification. For even Christ pleased not himself; (Romans 15:1 – 3a)

Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.  (Philippians 2:3)

In the quiet of the morning, in the peace of bird songs and silence, we can hear God’s voice simply.  Sometimes the riotous voice of twenty first century life surrounds us with its clamoring desire to be heard and noticed.  It wants constant attention.  Even Jesus went away at times to talk to God.  He knew the reality of these boisterous and needy voices.

Everyone we meet has such incredible needs.  Every. Single. Person. When you think about it, most of those needs have not been met, ever.  People either don’t pray or don’t know how to pray or don’t know that God is even listening or answering prayer.  Some are not ready to hear the answer.

This situation in our world is the result of so much selfishness.  Sure, some people are trying to live unselfish lives.  They are generous with both their time and money.  They are doing their best.  However, imagine a world where each citizen is living the Scriptures above.  Each one is esteeming others greater than him/herself.  Each one is listening to God’s voice as to how he or she can please others, that is, every and every person he/she comes into contact with.

That is how heaven functions.  People think of others first.  People esteem others greater than themselves.  They are like Jesus, not pleasing themselves, but searching how to please those that they are with.  That is heaven.  In heaven, needs are met.  Everything and everyone works together.  We have an expression on earth: “as a well-oiled machine.”  Imagine such an environment where every single person is thinking of others.  Every single person is putting others first.  Everyone and everything would work “as a well-oiled machine.”

We can have heaven on earth.  The kingdom of heaven is not somewhere outside of us in a far off place.  The kingdom of heaven is within.  We can make it happen in our little circles of life, the ripples of which will spread outward in all directions.  Sometimes, we may have to take time in the morning to fill ourselves with God in the quiet of the day, before the voices begin to clamor for our attention.  We may have to go to a quiet place to find that inner peace for ourselves so that we can give it to others.  We can create heaven on earth.  It starts with the peace that we have in our souls because we know God.

For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will extend peace to her life a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream. (Isaiah 66:12a)

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December 26, 2022

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Provoking others to jealousy

 “I say then, Have they (speaking of the Jews) stumbled that they should fall?  God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.”  (Romans 11:11)

What provokes one person to be jealous of another?  Normally, that one has something the other wants.  What could Christians have that would provoke the Jewish people to jealousy?

The answer is: sometimes nothing.  Sadly.  Sometimes Christians are miserable sad sacks, complaining and depressed.  Other times, Christians don’t believe they can overcome sin, and so the world goes on, continuing its sad descent downwards.  In my lifetime, I have seen things that I never even dreamed of when I was young.  To see the problems that we have in the world these days, it is often clear to a Christian of a certain age that satan has taken hold of our planet and is quickly taking total control and dragging it down to hell.  Many people are just following along with the crowd like little lost lambs.

As we, being Christians, watch these things happen, verses from the Holy Scriptures come to mind.  In His amazing kindness, God  gave us descriptions of these times and explanations of what is actually going on.  We read the following verses from Revelation 12:

“And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.”

In heaven, Michael and his angels won the battle with satan and his angels.  So, now that the old devil is on earth, we are stuck with it.  What are we going to do?  Go along with the whole world, all of whom are deceived by him?  That would be a complete travesty.  No! We MUST use the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony.  How so?  The blood of the Lamb is his life.  Our testimony is our life lived.  What are we doing with the life of Jesus?  Are we living according to the principles that he taught us?  He died a supremely cruel death in order to leave us the testimony of his life.  Are we supposed to think that we are forgiven and saved and therefore just look for blessings?

We have to live the life that Jesus taught and lived himself.  He had requirements of his early disciples.  We can find out what those requirements are. That battle that was fought and won in heaven is now raging on earth. We have to continue the battle.  Yet, it’s not us battling, but Jesus in us.   It’s his life, his words, his testimony, but if we don’t live it, how are we any different from the rest of the world?  We would be heading down the same path as them.  The New Testament emphasizes that we have to overcome.  When we do, and when people meet us and FEEL Jesus’ life, then they will wonder, “what’s so different about this person?”  “Why do I feel so different when he/she is around?”  That’s what provokes a person to jealousy.  That’s what makes that person we met want whatever it is that we have.  That’s what overcomes this world.

Let’s allow Jesus’ life to live through us.  Let’s provoke others to jealousy, not because of the nice car or the super house we have, or even because we can sing and praise God more loudly than the next guy, but because of the life we are living, proof positive that Jesus’ life works!

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December 6, 2022

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Free the Prisoner!

prison photo

Do you check the news headlines as you drink your morning coffee?  Or do you avoid it and head straight to social media and friendly faces?  I can’t blame anyone for not wanting to start the day with distressing news from around the world.  Besides the ongoing war in Ukraine, people are in the streets risking their lives by protesting the government in China (unheard of just a few years ago!) and in Iran.  In Haiti and El Salvador, gangs rule the streets and people are afraid to leave their homes.  Even when they stay at home, they risk being attacked and raped or murdered.  In some countries in South and Central America, crime is rampant. These are just a few of the hotspots in our troubled world.

People all over this world, people everywhere, are becoming frustrated and weary of being imprisoned, either by Covid restrictions, by government regulations, by crime or by too much materialism.  Here in the USA, we are mostly blind to our situation, but many are prisoners, some are prisoners to possessions, jobs,  image, social media or technology while others have become prisoners of drugs, violent video games, or computer porn. We are all in many ways prisoners.  The hardest prisons to see are the ones hiding in our thoughts and feelings, but they are the ones that keep us behind the strongest bars, the bars of fear, worry, anger, covetousness, etc.

May those prison doors be loosed!  God says that He hears the groaning of the prisoners.  He hears our cries for help.  He told us that thousands of years ago, but we have failed to believe it.  Thousands of years ago, King David was in real trouble.  In his aching distress, he cried out to the Lord and wrote Psalm 102.  His plea for help so many years ago sounds just like the cries of people nowadays who are tired of being controlled by one thing or another.  Then in verse 19 of the same psalm, Almighty God calls down from His spectacular heaven and answers the plea. “The Lord looked down from his sanctuary on high, from heaven he viewed the earth, to hear the groans of the prisoners and release those condemned to death.”  Years after King David laid bare his soul’s cry, Isaiah prophesied of a future time of freedom.  Isaiah 61:1 “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,”  More years passed and a man named Jesus said, This is that day!  He went to the local synagogue and opened the Scriptures to the very roll where Isaiah had prophesied.  Luke 4:18, 19 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free.”  He quietly put the book down and simply said, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”  The people in attendance that day were stunned.  What?!  How can this be?!  He was just the guy they knew as Jesus.  Yes, just Jesus, beautiful, pure, true, holy Jesus.

Maybe we are still stunned by that statement, but Jesus was once a man just like us.  He understands us.  He can relate to us.  Jesus has the key to our prisons.  He knows what is holding us in them and preventing us from being free.  He is the key. He can free us from the deepest hell.  He is the most beautiful being, stunning beyond words, and yet he gets us. If we read his story and do our best to live out his truth, we will be free indeed. Know the truth and the truth will make you free.  Jesus is the truth. 

“I am the way and the truth and the life.”

Be free!

prison with keys

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September 25, 2022

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“The way of truth and love have always won.” Gandhi

Someone read this quote to me recently along with other Gandhi quotes about truth.  I found them very comforting in this time of trouble that we live in.  I hope you appreciate them as well.

Mahatma Gandhi Quote: “When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants a...”

Mahatma Gandhi Quote: “Truth alone will endure, all the rest will be swept away before the tide of time. I must continue to bear testimony to t...”

A beautiful and always encouraging song: “It is well with my soul.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbNm_Kdez8o

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August 14, 2022

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God speaks to our soul, individually and forever kindly

This morning I was looking into the author of the book, Banhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy.  His name is Eric Metaxas and I found this amazing video of his testimony.  It’s only 3:19 minutes long and is well worth a watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2p2EhwbVyg

Eric talks about a dream that God gave him and how that dream led him to believe in Jesus.  The main point that he wanted to make in publishing his testimony is that God speaks to each one of us in a way that only we can understand and relate to.  That has huge meaning to each one of us because that means that this enormous God, the God of every man, woman and child who has ever lived, knows each one of us individually, completely and intimately.  He knows what we like and don’t like.  He knows how we think, and He’s not disturbed by it.  He wants to help us to change the way we think (and act) and in order to do so, He is willing to relate to us in a way that we will understand Him, in the deepest language of our heart and soul.  He knows what will touch us.  He loves each one of us uniquely.

I have to tell a story about my life here as well.  I was studying in another country during my junior year abroad in college.  One morning I was sitting on a bench in the hallway at the university before class.  As a teenager, I was a shy person and had a lot of self pity, but I was feeling lonely on that day being so far from home.  Down the hallway, there were some girls that were arriving for class.  They had all traveled to that country as a group from a university in Florida, whereas I just went there by myself.  That morning, they were all greeting each other and smiling and chatting.  In my mind I was envying them and yet at the same time thinking I was better than them.  At that very moment, a very loud voice in my head said to me, “If you want to have friends, you have to smile!”  I looked around wondering if anyone else had heard that as well since it was so loud, but no one flinched or moved a muscle.  It truly shook me.  I couldn’t deny what I heard or what He had said.  How could anyone know me so completely and know exactly what I had been thinking and feeling?!  The voice did not speak to me angrily in spite of my envy and arrogance, but it was just very matter of fact and completely accurate.  The accuracy absolutely blew me away, but it also caused me to see myself the way others might see me.  Who wants to start up a chat with someone who always has such a sad face?  A revelation about my attitude and behavior was born.  Slowly but surely, that voice changed my life.  I had just met God my Savior.  He saved me from myself, brought me up out of a deep pit and set me up on His mountaintop.

Our Father is such a loving and kind father to each one of us.  He only wants us to search for Him and find Him.  The instant we do, He pours out His love and leads us ever close to Him, not at all as He leads others, but in a way that is unique to us, so that each one of us can know Him and come to love Him.  It is not always an easy path.  Nowadays when I sometimes find myself slipping back into a moment of self pity, in His kindness, He brings me out of it and reminds me of His infinite love.  He shows me that He can only allow something to happen if it will somehow help me, even if it’s just in some small way, to know Him better.  I grew up thinking that He was a very angry God.  He may sometimes have to speak difficult truths to us, but there is no anger in Him ever.  

He does that for each and every one of us.  Every day.  He is just amazing.  The best.  The only.  Our one true constantly loving Father.

Jeremish 31:3  The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.

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July 7, 2022

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God is what we need

Shocking.  Distressing.  Grievous.  Deplorable.  Another mass shooting.  Our national news has been disheartening lately.  Why?

We are a murdering nation.  Episode after episode of multiple deaths in shootings.  When will we stand up to it?  Why are we as a nation allowing this to happen?

We are a murdering nation. On June 25th, 1962, the U.S. Supreme Court said that school sponsored prayer in public schools was unconstitutional, effectively kicking God out of schools.  Since that time, God has been progressively shut out of our communities.  We have murdered God.  Then, in 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion in the case of Roe v. Wade.  Since that time, millions of innocent unborn babies have been murdered.  Even with the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade, the fight concerning abortion has not ended.  In fact, it has split our country even further.  I understand that some women are faced with dire situations in their pregnancies for a variety of reasons.  I don’t feel that I can speak to their pain or tell them what to do.  However, those situations do not account for the more than half a million abortions performed per year.

Is it any wonder that a spirit of mass murder has taken over our country?  We can’t blame God for this catastrophe.  This is completely on us.  We can only blame ourselves and, like righteous Daniel, confess our sins and ask for God’s forgiveness.

Da 9:4, 5  And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, Keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments; We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments.

The father of a teenager murdered in the Columbine High School shooting in 1999 wrote a touching poem.

Your laws ignore our deepest needs,

Your words are empty air.

You’ve stripped away our heritage,

You’ve outlawed simple prayer.

Now gunshots fill our classrooms,

And precious children die.

You seek for answers everywhere,

And ask the question “Why?”

You regulate restrictive laws,

Through legislative creed,

And yet you fail to understand,

That God is what we need!

Well said, Darrell Scott, father of Rachel Joy Scott.  God is what we need.

God in a heart

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March 9, 2022

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Sing a Grateful Song — On Scripture

This beautiful post is being reposted from a blog called On Scripture by Lisa Urbani. We are so grateful for God’s neverending love and for those in this world who love Him.

Sing unto the LORD, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. Proverbs 30:4 KJV We who are saints, the set-apart people of Yehovah, should live in a way that reflects the fact that we have been redeemed from the grasp of the enemy. We can sing a new song. […]

Sing a Grateful Song — On Scripture