You are currently browsing the monthly archive for October 2007.
On this day that is celebrated by many in darkness and that is perversely celebratory of death, fear and gore, I want to celebrate Life, Hope and Light. His name is Jesus. He is the great I AM. He is all we need, and as things on Earth become even darker His Light, through us, will shine all the more.
- Isaiah 60:2 (Whole Chapter)
Darkness as black as night covers all the nations of the earth,but the glory of the Lord rises and appears over you.
On this day that recognizes darkness, we should be all the more aware that we are the Light of the World. We are ambassadors of the Kingdom of God and are only here to bring His Kingdom and His will on Earth as it is in Heaven. There is no room for compromise and no time to waste. There are those in darkness that are waiting for the light of His love through you and me.
This is a day that we should ask the Lord to reveal any darkness in our own lives, so that His love and power can flow through us unhindered. As believers, we have a unique opportunity every time darkness tries to press in. We have the opportunity through our worship, prayers, and the life we live to blow holes in the darkness and bring down the plans of the enemy. So take advantage of this day. Take advantage of every opportunity to shine the Light of God into dark situations, whether they be personal struggles or the darkness in the world. We have the living God dwelling within us and because of His life in us we can make a huge impact on the world around us! Praise to our God, the one true and living God! May His name be glorified every day for who He is and all that he has done!
Another praise report from the Rehab front! As you know I was out of therapy for a while. I went back last Thursday. The PT did a re-evaluation, since it had been about a month since the last one, and because he thought I would have lost ground from not being in therapy. To his surprise, I had lost no ground, and in fact I broke my record (while making my insurance goal) for sitting unsupported. When I first went in the summer I could only sit unsupported for 5 seconds. Last Thursday I did it for 2 minutes and 45 seconds!
I also got to play with a new “toy” they got since I’d been there last. It’s sort of like an elliptical running machine, except it’s done sitting down. By moving the arm pieces I can move my legs. It’s the first time I’ve been able to move my legs in almost twelve years! Since then, I’ve begun to feel pain from the waist down (which is a very good thing)! I’ve had the sensation of touch for quite some time, but the sensations of pain, hot, and cold are on a different nerve track than touch and pressure. I went on that machine again this Tuesday. My hips rotate internally, so my knees have a tendency to knock together. I was able to keep them straight for several minutes at a time this round!
Today I went to therapy again. The PT that worked with me hadn’t seen me since before my little sabbatical. She couldn’t believe how strong my trunk was today! She kept saying that it didn’t make sense because I hadn’t been in therapy. I explained that once I get something back it stays, and that I had gotten a lot of prayer since she’d last seen me. She’s a Christian, but she still couldn’t grasp how much I’d changed while I was out sick!
My left arm and hand are still improving. I’ll give more details about that later. The really encouraging thing is that healing is happening and that prayers are being answered even when we don’t see it immediately. Keep believing!
Today I was off to physical therapy and my gas tank was on empty. Ryan had to get the kids to school, so I had to trust God to find someone to pump my gas. I drove down the road to the nearest town. There are three gas stations in a row there. The first place I drove up to had gas pumps from the 1970’s and I wasn’t quite sure they were still in operation. Just down the road was another gas station. I drove through, but thought I might have better luck at the next one. After realizing the pumps were closer to the door at station number two, I went back there, thinking that the people who run the store would be more likely to hear me honk if I couldn’t nab someone at the pumps. Once I got there, though, I realized that the music was so loud that no one would ever hear me honking! I started to become really annoyed with the loud, hip-hop music pounding, but thought it better to focus on getting help from someone at the pump.
I pulled in behind a lady who looked nice, and I thought for a moment that she would be my target, but she looked dressed for work and I thought she might be in a hurry. So, the guy with the big, red pick-up became the target. I watched him for a moment and then decided to make my move. I pulled around to an angle and trapped him. I rolled down the window and asked as politely as I could if I could ask a favor of him. Because of the blaring music, he didn’t hear me, but he waved kindly and started to get into his truck.
Desperarte, I forgot about being polite and yelled. Realizing that I was asking for some kind of help, the man walked closer to the car. I explained my predicament and asked him if he would pump my gas.
“Well, bless your heart,” he answered in true Southern as he agreed to help. I thanked him and circled back to the gas pump. I parked the car and handed the man my debit card. I’m telling you, I really have to walk by faith! The kind man looked at the card and then he looked at me and said, “I’ve never paid for gas at the pump before. I’m not sure I even know how to do it!”
Well, he figured it out, and just as he was beginning to pump the gas, I realized the song blasting over the loud speaker was the Christian song “I can Only Imagine”! After he pumped my gas for me he invited me to visit his church. I drove away with a tear in my eyes. This man had truly pumped my gas unto the the Lord and had truly reached out to me in His name. What an honor to have been able to receive a cup of water, or tank of gas, as the case may be, in the Name of the Lord. I was humbled and touched and blessed and got my need met all at once!
In our culture, we don’t often like to receive from or depend on others. Sometimes, though, it is a beautiful thing to give someone the opportunity and a reason to worship God by reaching out. So it leads to the question; who is actually the giver, the one providing for the need, or the one providing an opportunity to give?
I’ve never been invited to the First Baptist Church of Waxhaw, but now I may just have to stop by sometime and get to know the folks this real follower of Christ worships with.
Acts 20:35
I have shown you all things, how that by so laboring ye ought to support the weak and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, `It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”
- John 3:28 (Whole Chapter)
You yourselves are my witnesses [you personally bear me out] that I stated, I am not the Christ (the Anointed One, the Messiah), but I have [only] been sent before Him [in advance of Him, to be His appointed forerunner, His messenger, His announcer]. [Mal 3:1 ]
John the Baptist could have just as easily been called John the Forerunner. Forerunners are those God appoints in the Body of Christ to announce to the rest of us some way in which God is about to show up or something God is about to do. Often forerunners actually experience these things first. Sometimes, as in the case of John, forerunners are looked at strangely because they are speaking prophetically, by faith, things that obviously have not yet occurred.
My cousin, Karen, is a prophetic forerunner. When she heard me declare that I would someday run a marathon, she started training so she could run with me! (See “Running Together” August) She’s been running, and telling everyone who would listen, that I’ll be running too. Every time she runs, she uses it as intercession for me. How cool is that! It gets even better!
Yesterday, she ran her first marathon! CONGRATULATIONS KAREN! 
Medicine Park
The race was held in the Wichita Mountains (a place we frequented as children) in a place called Medicine Park. The race was run in the wildlife refuge amongst the buffalo. She was actually told that if she wore her IPOD, the park would not be responsible if she got run over by a buffalo! Medicine Park was named after Medicine Creek. The Commanche Indians believed the creek had healing powers.
Karen is half Commanche Indian. I can’t help but believe that God used this Commanche Indian to run in the same place as her ancestors declaring by her actions of faith the True Source of all healing. Only He can put these incredible circumstances together and he can only do it as we give Him the opportunitiy by saying “Yes!” to Him!
Passage Revelation 22:17:
17The [Holy] Spirit and the bride (the church, the true Christians) say, Come! And let him who is listening say, Come! And let everyone come who is thirsty [who is painfully conscious of his need [a]of those things by which the soul is refreshed, supported, and strengthened]; and whoever [earnestly] desires to do it, let him come, take, appropriate, and drink the water of Life without cost.(A)
The voices of the Bride and the Bridegroom are echoing loudly and often. In the churches and gatherings of believers I hear the cry. It’s being voiced in songs and prayers, declarations and sobs. There is such a longing for Jesus to come, not just in some future and celestial sort of way, but immediately and into the circumstances of Earth. His Bride is longing for His touch, His words, His comfort and His justice. The Bride says, “Come!”
At the same time His voice can be heard just as clearly calling to those who are thirsty. To those who are in love with Him, He says, “Come!” and to those who don’t yet know Him, but are aware of their need, he says. “Come!”
Everywhere I look it seems that people are in situations that cause them to be painfully aware of their need to be supported and strengthened. If you are in that catagory, I have good news for you! You qualify to drink freely of the Water of Life! Jesus is saying to you, the same thing you are saying to Him. “Come!”
If you are satisfied with where you are, and you don’t see any real need for Jesus to come and invade your life with His presence, I pray that your situation changes. If you’ve become comfortable in your spiritual life, I pray for holy dissatisfaction to grip your soul until you cry out for more of God in your life. If you think everthing is just fine the way it is, and you feel like you are somewhat in control of things, I pray that your eyes are opened and you see that you are poor and naked and needy of the only One who is in control.
May we all cry out together, “Maranatha!”
Jehovah Nissi. The Lord our banner. The Lord who covers us with His love, protection, Himself. He’s got us covered in every way. He’s got us covered in our battles and He’s got us covered in our hearts.
When the battles rage the hardest, He always sends relief to sustain us. This week it was through fellow warriors. I spent six hours in the car on Saturday for a hug. Really. It was worth it. Sometimes just the physical connection of our spiritual family is enough to get us through the next part of the battle. David said it like this:
1Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!
2It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments;
True fellowship releases an anointing. We didn’t even pray with our friends. We didn’t need to. The anointing, the covering, flowed because of love.
The battles are raging even harder now, but I know where to take cover.
“Sometimes the pressure builds around me and I feel about to break
I suffer painfully from wrongs done to me but vengeance isn’t mine to take
So let me glory in my weakness till Your strength’s revealed in me
It is Your grace alone that helps me carry on to be the man I long to be
So let Your life be perfected, Lord in me
Until it’s You they see
And though the trials never end
I’ve learned to take them as my friend
For each day He covers me.
Steve Camp, “He Covers Me”
The hand of God is always upon those He loves. Sometimes a touch from God is a hug or kiss and sometimes it’s a slam that puts us right on our face before Him. He always puts His finger on the places that need surrendering. At our house it seems that He plays us like a piano…always touching key places at the same time.
That’s how it is right now. He gives little reprieves then pulls the stray strings in our hearts and we are undone again. I once found the whole routine rather disturbing, and always longed to get out of it. I’ve come to not only expect it, but to actually enjoy it, in a strange sort of way. It’s always uncomfortable, and often painful, but still there is this sweet sense of intimacy that comes when the Lord touches places in our lives that we weren’t even aware of.
Although I worry and fret over circumstances like everyone, I’ve become less inclined to do so, as I’ve learned these times aren’t about the circumstances at all. They’re really about Him getting all of me. So I focus on what He’s after and hide in His heart and wait for Him to do what He will with the circumstances.
I went to a house of prayer yesterday with my very active six year old. He doesn’t have much patience for waiting in God’s presence yet, and I knew I was stretching him to even attempt it. Kids are amazingly keen in their ability to pick up their parents’ feelings. He sat down next to me and said, “Do you want to cry to God, Mom?”
“Yes,” I answered a little surprised at his insight. “Me too, but my tears won’t come out,” he replied as he sqinted his eyes.
“Let’s just cry with our words then,” I suggested. Earlier in the morning while reading the Bible, God had directed me to Matthew 10:47. It was the passage where Blind Bartemeus was cryng out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
Everyone around Him told him to be quiet. It wasn’t very dignified or polite the way he was carrying on, but he was desperate for a change. Jesus liked that and took notice. That’s where my heart is once again. It has become a familiar desperation, a recognizable ache in my heart. I’m beginning to understand that it’s not my heartache so much as it is His.
The word says that God gives us the desires of HIS heart. His heart desires, longs for and aches for us. I think He sometimes allows these circumstances in our lives not only so we feel how desperate we really are for Him, but also so we can comprehend how desperate He is for us.
So wherever you are today, know that God is drawing you, and if you’re in a difficult or painful place, you are even more blessed, because He is revealing His heart to you. Cry out to Him and He will surely take notice because He lives and died to hear the voice of His beloved.
