Faith Fiercer than Locusts, Joel 1-2

Rend your hearts not your garments.

It wasn’t just the bite of the cat when she thought I was ignoring her and running away this morning, I really wasn’t, I also actually DREAMED about her nip on my elbow, waking me up, and knew the reminder to get back to Joel the prophet, and my reading and writing. I am now in the last slim sections of the old testament, prophets abound with advanced advice. It is given with an wrap up punch. Lots of history. But compared to forever, a small slice of situational severity.

Yeah, there’s something to be said completing the reading of the Bible, I’m ALMOST there, filling my knowledge gap in these 10 years into my awakening. It wasn’t about a Bible rapidness, devotions devoured, but devotion newly discovered. My journey and likely yours too, has been page by page prodding by the Lord to absorb knowledge of Him and how He expresses His love to us. I bet the timing to finish these chapters is no accident. It’s a decade of devotion writing. I am reminded that the Lord has been devoted to us from before He began the universe. Jesus already set to save. The harvest now holding on for collection.

No wonder with this much devotion from the Lord, He had and has lessons to teach, waywards to warn and regroup. The old testament plights are for those to beg to not go back there in waywardness.

I heard that Joel the prophet’s writing could be applied for many stages of the plight of the wayward Israelites and Judah-ites who weren’t devoted as they could be, then devoured by exile to Babylon, escape to Egypt, and all generations in wandering plight in the punishment of their wayward ways. There were constant reminders to follow God in prescribed sacrifice and devotion, the promise of prosperity, but their worship of false idols prevailed and distracted them.

We all need to focus on the gifts over the gripes.

Halloween 31OCT is today, there is surely more fun than fright. They have parades not plight. But pockets of false idols and evil creep in, like excessive sugar pouncing unsuspecting souls. There are moments we fail to pay attention to each other, an evil of self-indulgence. There are idol-worship times of “keeping up with the neighbors” getting bigger and bigger yard displays, Halloween AND Christmas. It is SO GOOD to have Thanksgiving with simple thankfulness in the middle.

So we know there are ignorant times where we forget to count our blessings, not remembering that the Lord does want us to FOCUS on the future WITH HIM, step by step now, one day, one moment at a time, and not get bogged down by today’s pressures. We forget about our fortunes and surely our forgiveness in the Lord and start to fight each other where we should be forging ahead for the sake of others yet to hear.

We need to be teaching preaching reaching at a faster pace than the locust can devour a crop of people behind us. The scripture reminder is of the losses, the scripture prophecy is for and of the day of the Lord coming back too. Rend your hearts, see His sacrifice, know His Salvation.

Therefore let us stoke up the Holy Spirit fire of faith and keep going… Look for the Lord to lead the Way. Keep walking faster than those locusts.

Amen

“Return to the Lord your God, For He is gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, and of great kindness; And He relents from doing harm.“

Amen

—

Joel 1, Joel 2:1-13

The Locust Plague in Judah

The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.

The Land Laid Waste

Hear this, you elders,

And give ear, all you inhabitants of the land!

Has anything like this happened in your days,

Or even in the days of your fathers?

Tell your children about it,

Let your children tell their children,

And their children another generation.

What the chewing locust left, the swarming locust has eaten;

What the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten;

And what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten.

Awake, you drunkards, and weep;

And wail, all you drinkers of wine,

Because of the new wine,

For it has been cut off from your mouth.

For a nation has come up against My land,

Strong, and without number;

His teeth are the teeth of a lion,

And he has the fangs of a fierce lion.

He has laid waste My vine,

And ruined My fig tree;

He has stripped it bare and thrown it away;

Its branches are made white.

Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth

For the husband of her youth.

The grain offering and the drink offering

Have been cut off from the house of the Lord;

The priests mourn, who minister to the Lord.

The field is wasted,

The land mourns;

For the grain is ruined,

The new wine is dried up,

The oil fails.

Be ashamed, you farmers,

Wail, you vinedressers,

For the wheat and the barley;

Because the harvest of the field has perished.

The vine has dried up,

And the fig tree has withered;

The pomegranate tree,

The palm tree also,

And the apple tree—

All the trees of the field are withered;

Surely joy has withered away from the sons of men.

Mourning for the Land

Gird yourselves and lament, you priests;

Wail, you who minister before the altar;

Come, lie all night in sackcloth,

You who minister to my God;

For the grain offering and the drink offering

Are withheld from the house of your God.

Consecrate a fast,

Call a sacred assembly;

Gather the elders

And all the inhabitants of the land

Into the house of the Lord your God,

And cry out to the Lord.

Alas for the day!

For the day of the Lord is at hand;

It shall come as destruction from the Almighty.

Is not the food cut off before our eyes,

Joy and gladness from the house of our God?

The seed shrivels under the clods,

Storehouses are in shambles;

Barns are broken down,

For the grain has withered.

How the animals groan!

The herds of cattle are restless,

Because they have no pasture;

Even the flocks of sheep suffer punishment.

O Lord, to You I cry out;

For fire has devoured the open pastures,

And a flame has burned all the trees of the field.

The beasts of the field also cry out to You,

For the water brooks are dried up,

And fire has devoured the open pastures.

The Day of the Lord

Chapter 2

Blow the trumpet in Zion,

And sound an alarm in My holy mountain!

Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble;

For the day of the Lord is coming,

For it is at hand:

A day of darkness and gloominess,

A day of clouds and thick darkness,

Like the morning clouds spread over the mountains.

A people come, great and strong,

The like of whom has never been;

Nor will there ever be any such after them,

Even for many successive generations.

A fire devours before them,

And behind them a flame burns;

The land is like the Garden of Eden before them,

And behind them a desolate wilderness;

Surely nothing shall escape them.

Their appearance is like the appearance of horses;

And like swift steeds, so they run.

With a noise like chariots

Over mountaintops they leap,

Like the noise of a flaming fire that devours the stubble,

Like a strong people set in battle array.

Before them the people writhe in pain;

All faces are drained of color.

They run like mighty men,

They climb the wall like men of war;

Every one marches in formation,

And they do not break ranks.

They do not push one another;

Every one marches in his own column.

Though they lunge between the weapons,

They are not cut down.

They run to and fro in the city,

They run on the wall;

They climb into the houses,

They enter at the windows like a thief.

The earth quakes before them,

The heavens tremble;

The sun and moon grow dark,

And the stars diminish their brightness.

The Lord gives voice before His army,

For His camp is very great;

For strong is the One who executes His word.

For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible;

Who can endure it?

A Call to Repentance

“Now, therefore,” says the Lord,

“Turn to Me with all your heart, With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.” So rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the Lord your God, For He is gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, and of great kindness; And He relents from doing harm.

Lord, You ARE the Best

I was so frustrated, upset, even irate.

It’s a human thing – there is no debate.

I lost my keys and wow it was a frustrate.

I found them in 10 minutes but it was not so great,

I doubted and questioned the Lord – and that is my humbling trait.

I know better – and yet I was SO irate.

I found my keys in step retracing that could have been more direct.

It took me a while, I was not in a mood to jest.

I am grateful that first I ate dinner – food and thought to digest.

I am grateful that I DO have 2 cars to juggle and rearrange, I should not object.

But to lose keys when I wanted to relax – Lord forgive my upset.

Lord, I found no solace but to ask you to intervene – and you DID interject.

My keys were found within 15 seconds of my request.

Surely I do know the Lord is listening and gave my keys almost like a bequest.

To Him I had to give up from my protest.

To Him I had to give up control and my mess.

I knew these are the moments that I will regress.

I know that Jesus forgives and saves – oh that is best.

Thank You Lord for answering my frustrated request.

Lord, You ARE the best.

Amen

Purple Peace

It was a glimpse of my friend’s hair then stature then face that caught my eye at a recent town festival. We embraced immediately. Love that lady!!! and I feel love from her.

It did NOT matter that we had different color stickers on, acquired from opposite sides of the pavement pounder party pushers. We embraced and together perhaps not our stickers touched, but our souls did, as did our hearts. And we made quite the PURPLE PAIR.

Purple is red and blue – blue and red – PURPLE. Purple is the color of PEACE. Purple is the color of the royal prince of PEACE. Purple is the POWERFUL PEACE color for JESUS.

I’m glad that we can come together in purple. I’m blessed to know that we are together in Jesus.

Jesus said that someday we will all worship in spirit and in truth. We know from the Old Testament of many , many , many different lines of people and faiths and attitudes… we today are splintered light.

I pray we all see the light of Jesus.

Purple power to bring PEACE.

Amen

—

John 4:19-42

The [Samaritan] woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.”

Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.”

Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”

The Whitened Harvest

And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why are You talking with her?”

The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” Then they went out of the city and came to Him.

In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” But He said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.”

Therefore the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.”

The Savior of the World

And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all that I ever did.” So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. And many more believed because of His own word.

Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.”

Grow Time from His Vine, Hosea 14

It’s our first freeze, the growing season closes. I snapped up mini tomatoes and pulled in my poinsettia, a tropical plant, which thrived this summer outside. I didn’t take out the tomatoes or garden vines because the freezing will help make it obvious what won’t last the winter and I will strip back the garden then.

“For the ways of the Lord are right; The righteous walk in them”

I learned that Hosea’s poetry collection, presented in 14 chapters, is completed with this statement above – essentially reiterating a Bible-long sentiment: the Way of the Lord is the righteousness for us to walk in. The light to see and grow in, over idols which don’t last and waste precious resources. And the fruit of His Spirit comes like the fruit on us. Jesus said “I am the vine, you are the branches” – we are asked to bear fruit given by the Lord. The long time realization to come back to a loving all powerful Lord is echoed in the sentiment in Hosea 14 about God sharing His Grace to His people – His branches shall spread – Your fruit is found in me…it’s now GROW TIME, from HIS Vine.

These days we wonder of the harvests, the resources for days ahead. God’s people are His blossom, maturing and working towards harvest. His righteousness, setting the long suffering and wandering wayward Israelites and Judah-ites back on track, is reminding us of our righteousness too – it comes from the Lord. And with the proper connection, we are to fruit as well. Turn away from life that sours and tap into the joy of living for Him. The seeds we leave behind will be needed by the future generations.

What is not lasting will freeze away like the tomato plants, or tropical plants in the northern climes – the green leaves delicate. What lasts will last. Harvesters know fruit is enjoyable to share, the seeds to save and plant. Yet what lasts the cold? The Vine of the Lord sustains and survives in the winter, to bloom and fruit again.

“All flesh is grass, And all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, Because the breath of the Lord blows upon it; Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.” Isaiah 40:6-8 echoed in 1st Peter

A harvesting of the Lord’s people will come when Jesus comes again, meanwhile keep working the soil for souls, fish for men, share the love.

Closing out Hosea’s old testament sentiment, God’s Love endures – and is faithful – He will restore – His faithful (us) will heal.

Amen

Hosea 14

Israel Restored at Last
O Israel, return to the Lord your God, For you have stumbled because of your iniquity; Take words with you, And return to the Lord. Say to Him, “Take away all iniquity; Receive us graciously, For we will offer the sacrifices of our lips. Assyria shall not save us, We will not ride on horses, Nor will we say anymore to the work of our hands, ‘You are our gods.’ For in You the fatherless finds mercy.”

“I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely, For My anger has turned away from him. I will be like the dew to Israel; He shall grow like the lily, And lengthen his roots like Lebanon. His branches shall spread; His beauty shall be like an olive tree, And his fragrance like Lebanon. Those who dwell under his shadow shall return; They shall be revived like grain, And grow like a vine. Their scent shall be like the wine of Lebanon.

“Ephraim shall say, ‘What have I to do anymore with idols?’ I have heard and observed him. I am like a green cypress tree; Your fruit is found in Me.”

Who is wise? Let him understand these things. Who is prudent? Let him know them. For the ways of the Lord are right; The righteous walk in them, But transgressors stumble in them.

Isaiah 40:6-8 NKJV “All flesh is grass, And all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, Because the breath of the Lord blows upon it; Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.”

—

echoed in 1st Peter 1:13-25

Be Holy

Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For,

“All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever.”

And this is the word that was preached to you.

Power in Motion, Hosea 13 Reminds Again

It’s poetry in motion, prophet Hosea speaking of what God did and what He will do. Our Lord God is POWER IN MOTION.

Ephraim is the name given for all Judah plus Jerusalem plus Israel together as Israelite descendants from Jacob (Israel). The Lord chose this people and yet they flip flopped between worshipping their/our REAL GOD and Baal and false gods. We speak of lowercase gods as if they are real, but they are not real, not God and either made up like Baal or elevated up like Ceasars and Pharoahs and kings they choose to support or who ruled harshly to keep in control, or were like Saul appointed by God as one placating placeholder of earthly kings. Kings rulers not known to be able to make changes in the world like our One True God.

Jesus, as Savior, came to save with mercy, grace, and holy spirit correction to keep folks from corruption. Jesus came as the plan to save the Israelites AND Gentiles then AND those yet to come, those yet to hear about God. And those ALSO those pulled into worship and idolization of false hope and quick fixes like drugs money, etc.

There is no quick fix but the one who was broken to repair us. Jesus is the Savior God written about: “I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death.”… Power in motion, above all…

Let us plug into that power!

AMEN

—

HOSEA 13 NKJV

When Ephraim spoke, trembling, He exalted himself in Israel; But when he offended through Baal worship, he died.

Now they sin more and more, And have made for themselves molded images, Idols of their silver, according to their skill; All of it is the work of craftsmen. They say of them, “Let the men who sacrifice kiss the calves!” Therefore they shall be like the morning cloud And like the early dew that passes away, Like chaff blown off from a threshing floor And like smoke from a chimney.

“Yet I am the Lord your God Ever since the land of Egypt, And you shall know no God but Me; For there is no savior besides Me. I knew you in the wilderness, In the land of great drought. When they had pasture, they were filled; They were filled and their heart was exalted; Therefore they forgot Me.

“So I will be to them like a lion; Like a leopard by the road I will lurk; I will meet them like a bear deprived of her cubs; I will tear open their rib cage, And there I will devour them like a lion. The wild beast shall tear them.

“O Israel, you are destroyed, But your help is from Me. I will be your King;
Where is any other, That he may save you in all your cities? And your judges to whom you said, ‘Give me a king and princes’? I gave you a king in My anger, And took him away in My wrath.

“The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; His sin is stored up. The sorrows of a woman in childbirth shall come upon him. He is an unwise son, For he should not stay long where children are born.

“I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. O Death, I will be your plagues! O Grave, I will be your destruction! Pity is hidden from My eyes.”

Though he is fruitful among his brethren, An east wind shall come; The wind of the Lord shall come up from the wilderness. Then his spring shall become dry, And his fountain shall be dried up. He shall plunder the treasury of every desirable prize.

Samaria is held guilty, For she has rebelled against her God. They shall fall by the sword, Their infants shall be dashed in pieces, And their women with child ripped open.

The Walking Led, Hosea 12

“So you, by the help of your God, return; observe mercy and justice, and wait on your God continually.“

I’m stretching my left leg these days, it’s a small hamstring thing, it WILL get better I am assured. No worries. I tested my right leg in the same stretching exercises yesterday to see if it’s general old age or specific issue – but it’s specific, the right leg is fine. I’ve got the hamstring and also some hip pain, but it’s not something to stop walking, if anything I need to be walking more, good for every part of my body.

I joked that the Lord touched my hip, like Jacob, to get my attention. To both Jacob and me, we had to keep walking, be the “walking led” rather than “the walking dead”.

Jacob is so crucial in Bible history and fulfilling prophecy, he is the one whom God rename Israel, and his 12 sons, 12 tribes of Israel brought forth the tribe families. Sure, they were much trouble too, from the Joseph situation down the well, to the continued lack of following the Lord. Many times corrected and still in need of rescue.

Hosea spoke of Jacob in the prophet-way of their people needing directions and correction. Spoke of Jacob struggling (touching his brother’s heal, finding how to steal a birthright, and in getting the wife he wanted) and spoke concerning Jacob struggling until he found God. And then these words of Jacob getting his spouse: “Jacob fled to the country of Syria; Israel served for a spouse, And for a wife he tended sheep. By a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, And by a prophet he was preserved.”

Wow, doesn’t that sound like Jesus too? Serving for tending sheep (us), searching for a wife (us the church as His Bride), a time in Egypt, and a preservation (Jacob and sons by Joseph’s generosity and forgiveness and US as Gentiles and Israelites saved by Jesus fulfillment of prophesy)… wow…

Yes, old testament Hosea wrote of the time and the struggles. We can read in the salvation and the Savior… we can know to reach for God rather than struggle.

Thank You Lord for us being YOUR “walking led”… Keep walking my friends.

Amen

—

Hosea 12

“Ephraim feeds on the wind,

And pursues the east wind;

He daily increases lies and desolation.

Also they make a covenant with the Assyrians,

And oil is carried to Egypt.

“The Lord also brings a charge against Judah,

And will punish Jacob according to his ways;

According to his deeds He will recompense him.

He took his brother by the heel in the womb,

And in his strength he struggled with God.

Yes, he struggled with the Angel and prevailed;

He wept, and sought favor from Him.

He found Him in Bethel,

And there He spoke to us—

That is, the Lord God of hosts.

The Lord is His memorable name.

So you, by the help of your God, return;

Observe mercy and justice,

And wait on your God continually.

“A cunning Canaanite!

Deceitful scales are in his hand;

He loves to oppress.

And Ephraim said,

‘Surely I have become rich,

I have found wealth for myself;

In all my labors

They shall find in me no iniquity that is sin.’

“But I am the Lord your God,

Ever since the land of Egypt;

I will again make you dwell in tents,

As in the days of the appointed feast.

I have also spoken by the prophets,

And have multiplied visions;

I have given symbols through the witness of the prophets.”

Though Gilead has idols—

Surely they are vanity—

Though they sacrifice bulls in Gilgal,

Indeed their altars shall be heaps in the furrows of the field.

Jacob fled to the country of Syria;

Israel served for a spouse,

And for a wife he tended sheep.

By a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt,

And by a prophet he was preserved.

Ephraim provoked Him to anger most bitterly;

Therefore his Lord will leave the guilt of his bloodshed upon him,

And return his reproach upon him.

a BIG DAY TO BE ALIVE

WOOHOO! FIFTY-FIVE.

It’s a BIG day to be ALIVE.

It’s another new year, I do hope to THRIVE.

Ah… IGNORE these real aches and pains of FIFTY-FIVE.

I THANK YOU LORD, for in You, I do surely REVIVE.

…

I was born at the AM.

Morning is my JAM.

Writing is daily, might seem like SPAM.

But hopefully not when I strive to appreciate our great ‘I AM’.

…

At first I thought I could have a great big PARTY.

But NAH, after decompression time, I decided for my birthday I would just be contented to BE.

Be Still, be blessed, and BE ME.

(Besides my house is still too dirty.

Not YET party worthy…)

…

First, TODAY, I thank God for FRIDAY.

Is FIFTY-FIVE is the new TWENTY?

Well, however many years it’s going to be BUSY.

Life goal is to live it all HEARTILY.

I pray for direction and am thankful for MERCY.

Oh Lord, I appreciate GRACE and SANITY.

…

Let me pray FIFTY-FIVE IS A TREASURE DELIGHT,

A BLESSING THAT FEELS ALRIGHT.

Jesus says take it ONE DAY AT A TIME, RIGHT!

Thank You Lord for being our LOVE LIGHT.

…

Amen

People being People, Corruption, Hosea 10-11

For it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and showers his righteousness on you.

Love the person, hate the sin. Know the Lord loves each person.

Know that each person sins and whole peoples go off the deep end at times. But the Lord loves them.

I woke up with the name Voltaire on the brain. I don’t know why, I don’t know his writing in the 1700s, but a quick Wikipedia search tells me his writings stirred up controversy. I’m not going to dig too deep, just knew he was commenting on his time… There were corruptions in the monarchy and the close connection between government and church was fraught with abuse of power…

Yes, life history tells us that’s a theme… 2000 years earlier, Israel and Judah and corruption are the forefront of Hosea’s writing. Clearly the Lord calls out the corruption and of course the false worship. The Lord’s warning to Samuel, prophet, early on, was that kings will divert attention from worshiping the Lord. As Saul was corruptable, so was the long line of kings… Even as the lineage of Jesus was brought forth from the appointed David, after the Lord tapped him to lead, corruption marred the moments that could have been lived better by listening to the Lord.

Hosea wrote:

Their heart is deceitful, and now they must bear their guilt. The Lord will demolish their altars and destroy their sacred stones. Then they will say, “We have no king because we did not revere the Lord. But even if we had a king, what could he do for us?” They make many promises, take false oaths and make agreements; therefore lawsuits spring up like poisonous weeds in a plowed field.

CORRUPTION… a continuous issue… The Lord who raised His people (then and now) saw and sees corruption: “My people are determined to turn from me. Even though they call me God Most High, I will by no means exalt them.”

Love the people, hate the sin.

Jesus spoke in John 3:19-20: “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.”

We know history, we know sin, we know evil at a certain level. The Lord knows that the cure is His righteousness. He will bring forth His people and corruption will put on incorruptible Jesus as our Light and Leader to replace all earthly kings.

Thank You Lord for the Light!

Amen

—

1 Corinthians 15:53-55 KJV

For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

—-

Hosea 10-11 NIV

Israel was a spreading vine;

he brought forth fruit for himself.

As his fruit increased,

he built more altars;

as his land prospered,

he adorned his sacred stones.

Their heart is deceitful,

and now they must bear their guilt.

The Lord will demolish their altars

and destroy their sacred stones.

Then they will say, “We have no king

because we did not revere the Lord.

But even if we had a king,

what could he do for us?”

They make many promises,

take false oaths

and make agreements;

therefore lawsuits spring up

like poisonous weeds in a plowed field.

The people who live in Samaria fear

for the calf-idol of Beth Aven.

Its people will mourn over it,

and so will its idolatrous priests,

those who had rejoiced over its splendor,

because it is taken from them into exile.

It will be carried to Assyria

as tribute for the great king.

Ephraim will be disgraced;

Israel will be ashamed of its foreign alliances.

Samaria’s king will be destroyed,

swept away like a twig on the surface of the waters.

The high places of wickedness will be destroyed—

it is the sin of Israel.

Thorns and thistles will grow up

and cover their altars.

Then they will say to the mountains, “Cover us!”

and to the hills, “Fall on us!”

“Since the days of Gibeah, you have sinned, Israel,

and there you have remained.

Will not war again overtake

the evildoers in Gibeah?

When I please, I will punish them;

nations will be gathered against them

to put them in bonds for their double sin.

Ephraim is a trained heifer

that loves to thresh;

so I will put a yoke

on her fair neck.

I will drive Ephraim,

Judah must plow,

and Jacob must break up the ground.

Sow righteousness for yourselves,

reap the fruit of unfailing love,

and break up your unplowed ground;

for it is time to seek the Lord,

until he comes

and showers his righteousness on you.

But you have planted wickedness,

you have reaped evil,

you have eaten the fruit of deception.

Because you have depended on your own strength

and on your many warriors,

the roar of battle will rise against your people,

so that all your fortresses will be devastated—

as Shalman devastated Beth Arbel on the day of battle,

when mothers were dashed to the ground with their children.

So will it happen to you, Bethel,

because your wickedness is great.

When that day dawns,

the king of Israel will be completely destroyed.

God’s Love for Israel

“When Israel was a child, I loved him,

and out of Egypt I called my son.

But the more they were called,

the more they went away from me.

They sacrificed to the Baals

and they burned incense to images.

It was I who taught Ephraim to walk,

taking them by the arms;

but they did not realize

it was I who healed them.

I led them with cords of human kindness,

with ties of love.

To them I was like one who lifts

a little child to the cheek,

and I bent down to feed them.

“Will they not return to Egypt

and will not Assyria rule over them

because they refuse to repent?

A sword will flash in their cities;

it will devour their false prophets

and put an end to their plans.

My people are determined to turn from me.

Even though they call me God Most High,

I will by no means exalt them.

“How can I give you up, Ephraim?

How can I hand you over, Israel?

How can I treat you like Admah?

How can I make you like Zeboyim?

My heart is changed within me;

all my compassion is aroused.

I will not carry out my fierce anger,

nor will I devastate Ephraim again.

For I am God, and not a man—

the Holy One among you.

I will not come against their cities.

They will follow the Lord;

he will roar like a lion.

When he roars,

his children will come trembling from the west.

They will come from Egypt,

trembling like sparrows,

from Assyria, fluttering like doves.

I will settle them in their homes,”

declares the Lord.

Israel’s Sin

Ephraim has surrounded me with lies,

Israel with deceit.

And Judah is unruly against God,

even against the faithful Holy One.

In Dependence

Independence – That’s the name of the road I saw as I drove by this latest trip up north… And I thought how WONDERFUL to be able to be free to travel and to know “the kids are alright!”… However, they told me the cat misses me, LOL. I am going to be happy to be home, not just so the cat doesn’t miss me anymore, but home to know I got out, displaying and portraying my independence…

It was easy traveling, especially in the mild weather, because I knew where I was going and I have been there before. So my independence is in and on dependence of comfort, space, direction, and food of course and rest.

Shouldn’t that be us with the Lord? A dependence of comfort, space, direction, food for thought and rest for peace. The Lord, much more than the cat, misses us and wants us close.

We have to take clues on our behavior out in the world just like Smokie The Bear warns us about fire danger, which is moderate right now. Be careful.

Be careful in the world but don’t be afraid to live.

And like the farmers, we need to pay attention to the weather. The weather in our lives creates the whether in our lives. God will help.

We need to be IN dependence of the Lord for independence of living – ONE STEP AT A TIME.

Amen

Light in the Darkness – Proverbs 15

All the days of the afflicted are evil, But he who is of a merry heart has a continual feast.

It’s not just food for the stomach, there’s food for the soul and a hungry heart to be satisfied. A merry heart heads Proverbs as well as the Lord’s wisdom. Us living on what God feeds us is a delight and good. A merry heart has a continual feast – what a blessing!

I have travelled up to my alma mater to speak to the students and faculty and friends about my career journey success and how they can embark on their careers… blessed to share!!!

I believe in the sentiment Proverb: “Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, Than a fatted calf with hatred.” – to scale back the excess. So this and to go feel the love… so to have herbs AND beef in a local flair sandwich was satisfying to the stomach as was the conversation to the soul…

I know all the activities today will be satisfying to the soul too… so excited to speak with everyone.

Last night I stood up on the hill in fair darkness and saw the milky way a bit. I know it is there, and when it is darker in the light pollution, the lights in the sky are brightest and the stars so numerous… light in the dark. That’s us looking for God in our hearts – Light in the dark where we shut out the light pollution which is like evil blocking our view…

Keep a clear view. Know God’s words and work for today. If: “The heart of him who has understanding seeks knowledge, but the mouth of fools feeds on foolishness.” – THEN I PRAY WE LOOK FOR GOD IN OUR LIVES – we hunger to LISTEN AND HEED. Slow the foolishness feeding frenzy and get to a quiet place. The more we look, the more we know. The more we hear, the more satisfied our souls.

AMEN

…

Proverbs 15:13-18, 21-33

13 A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance,

But by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.

14 The heart of him who has understanding seeks knowledge,

But the mouth of fools feeds on foolishness.

15 All the days of the afflicted are evil,

But he who is of a merry heart has a continual feast.

16 Better is a little with the fear of the Lord,

Than great treasure with trouble.

17 Better is a dinner of herbs where love is,

Than a fatted calf with hatred.

18 A wrathful man stirs up strife,

But he who is slow to anger allays contention.

. . .

21 Folly is joy to him who is destitute of discernment,

But a man of understanding walks uprightly.

22 Without counsel, plans go awry,

But in the multitude of counselors they are established.

23 A man has joy by the answer of his mouth,

And a word spoken in due season, how good it is!

24 The way of life winds upward for the wise,

That he may turn away from hell below.

25 The Lord will destroy the house of the proud,

But He will establish the boundary of the widow.

26 The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord,

But the words of the pure are pleasant.

27 He who is greedy for gain troubles his own house,

But he who hates bribes will live.

28 The heart of the righteous studies how to answer,

But the mouth of the wicked pours forth evil.

29 The Lord is far from the wicked,

But He hears the prayer of the righteous.

30 The light of the eyes rejoices the heart,

And a good report makes the bones healthy.

31 The ear that hears the rebukes of life

Will abide among the wise.

32 He who disdains instruction despises his own soul,

But he who heeds rebuke gets understanding.

33 The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom,

And before honor is humility.

AUTHENTIC JESUS

It was really special to be home for a short day and have dinner with my family. It’s nothing like having your own family around your birthday time. It’s authentic and it feels so good.

The talk at the table was about the Fall foliage and how it is different this year and they have not lost their leaves yet, and the colors are muted. But when I drove through the mountains, those colors were vibrant.

People like to look for authentic seasons. I think this eighty degrees is very strange for october. It looks like fall, but it doesn’t feel like fall.

The books at the booksale could have keep me busy shopping for days. I had just a short time and found a few things. Mostly I just enjoyed looking. I did not pick up any of these assorted books about Jesus (in the photo)- but got some Bibles, Red Letter Bibles. That’s where Jesus’s words are highlighted. And I thought to myself it’s wonderful to write about Jesus, I certainly do, however I want to read DIRECTLY from Jesus… Somebody else’s interpretation may not be authentic to me. We need to read and know TRUTH.

Authentic… That’s the best…

Our PERSPECTIVE… it changes like the fall foliage, about how you envision where you are from, and where you see yourself in time. But Jesus? That’s an authentic relationship to give us HIS perspective.

Authentic…
Blessed…
TRUTH…
Amen

Going and Coming

It’s Fall Y’all… Saturday was a beautiful break in the Poconos… So blessed from sunrise to sunset… and then some..

A long weekend, so needed for me as a getaway to not be coming and going hectic. It’s going (meaning leaving work stress) and coming (meaning being in a different mode, different time uncrunch, different stuff) and relaxing with friends and having a s’more too…

What puts perfect in the unperfect is the appreciation of blessings over stressings. We need, in life, the unwind to work out kinks in our systems and respool later. If we don’t unwind, we won’t know where and what our emotions and brains and dreams relax into.

When I look at a feather (turkey?) it’s so intriguingly intricately beautiful. The strands of a feather work in concert, yet so fragile to be glued together. And then each feather has it’s own quill support, best God invention is that many are together for flying. How amazing. Each strand comes together, like each rock or drop of the waterfalls, like each stroke of paint, like each reflection of molecules making a sunrise or sunset, like each person in this world of ours which God blessed and blesses us with.

Imagine the beauty in one day, in the unwind. Then imagine the beauty of heaven divine… That’s going to be unfathomably beautiful…

His perspective is not just in the strands of a feather or sunset together, but very good from the children He loves together with Him.

God’s smores and more will be our delight. His delight? Us…

We are going and coming to Him.

Amen

No Old Nonsense Now! God Walks With Us!

It’s a GOOD day for a GOOD day… a new day. The poets agree, the prophets agree, the people agree… And GOD? God MADE it a NEW day.

I shut down my computer after work yesterday and walked into a short vacation, a mental and physical one, with part of this quote (displayed at work) fresh on my mind:

“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

Oh yeah!

And the sunrise in the mountains today on vacation, it was worth the chill walking… It’s a new fresh good day.

What makes it good? All good things are from God. Well, we are reminded of God being with us all the time. That is Good, that is God. God wants only good for us!(sometimes we need tough love but it’s love all God to bring the good out of it.)

The new-to-me person at work saw my bracelet of the scripture: “I can do all things through Christ”, and surely he did not hesitate to tell me God was with me, with us. God is good. All the time, even when we forget.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

Let us not forget about this being a fresh new day, a moment of peace, a sunrise sweet, a day begun. A day born but even better, we are born into TRUTH, of our blessings through Jesus. God wanted and WANTS to call us the GOOD of His morning.

He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

Today there’s places to go, talking to do, rest to take, hope to hold, and nightfall again to come. Yet constant in our days is the newness and the Lord.

GOD IS GOOD… let us walk with Him, He already walks with us.

Amen

James 1:17-18 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

Protection for Purpose

Writing down what is personal can also be protective.

Our hearts lock away treasures of knowledge,

Our lips find open and closed ears,

But our writing is a tool – a stockpile in a train car going somewhere,

In a space protectively shared, or not.

All known to You Lord, all for You..

Protection has a Purpose.

Ignore, downplay, bark at, and laugh at the devil and he will cringe,

Say the name of Jesus and the devil will flee,

The devil fell, remind him of that,

The Lord saved saves and will save, remind yourself of that just as much as you remind the devil “HANDS OFF!”.

Protection has a Purpose.

Protection for Purpose.

All known to You Lord. All for You Lord.

Don’t get derailed,

A Jesus train has tracks set down.

A fretful journey can shake your box car.

The train car can be a fridge and preserve or a platform and display.

You might be wrapped in bubble wrap or bolted to steel.

In whole, you are IN the Lord and on His Journey for you, with you, on the way to His Purpose.

Keep steaming forward. He is IN you, God’s Got this.

Protection for Purpose.

God’s Love moves us.

Let the Spirit guide us.

Jesus is the Way.

Amen

Hosea 6789 Sour Grapes, Israel and Judah in Trouble, Fig-ures…

It’s not a pity party for Israel and Judah, it’s a PURITY plea God makes.

Hosea the prophet captures the harsh words, the people and the kingdom are self-destructive by not listening. And God desires mercy over sacrifice. Pleading to have them listen. “What can I do with you, Ephraim, What can I do with you, Judah? Your love is like the morning mist like the early dew that disappears. Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets, I killed you with the words of my mouth – then my judgments go forth like the sun. For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings. As at Adam, they have broken the covenant; they were unfaithful to me there.”

—

God said Israel was founded with knowledge of the possibilities: “When I found Israel, it was like finding grapes in the desert; when I saw your ancestors, it was like seeing the early fruit on the fig tree” – Oh what JOY God has in His creations – very good – desiring them to understand.

We in modern times must see the times have continued, people’s attitudes returning to disobedient sour grapes – and yet new wine was made with a fresh restart of Jesus’s forgiveness becoming the needed grace for God’s mercy. Israel and Judah may have gone off the deep end, but there was a net waiting there – a Fisher of Men…

Amen

—

Hosea 6789 excerpts:

Israel cries out to me, ‘Our God, we acknowledge you!’ But Israel has rejected what is good; an enemy will pursue him. They set up kings without my consent; they choose princes without my approval. With their silver and gold they make idols for themselves to their own destruction.

—

The days of punishment are coming, the days of reckoning are at hand. Let Israel know this. Because your sins are so many and your hostility so great, the prophet is considered a fool, the inspired person a maniac. The prophet, along with my God, is the watchman over Ephraim, yet snares await him on all his paths, and hostility in the house of his God. They have sunk deep into corruption, as in the days of Gibeah. God will remember their wickedness and punish them for their sins.

An Interesting Day

It’s pure processing my writing today,

And hopefully God will find in it, in me, a devotion along my way.

Yesterday was a long but good interesting day.

I’m not saying this in a complaining way.

I also came home blessed like I did feel earlier in the day.

This just was a day of a day…

If God throws us curveball, we say HEY!

If God is slowpitch, we may say OK.

God says “Batter Up” either way.

I know we should just let God call the play.

God gets us running the bases, many bases, anyway.

In a narrow way.

I’ll surely wonder how to do best while not complaining along the way.

So today.I start fresh, HOORAY!

Today.

God’s Way.

Can we all say OK?

Lord give me the best of Your Way into my day.

Amen and hooray!

Yesterday I drove crazy lots, but got home fine.

Yesterday I had deadlines to deadlines, but finished fine.

Yesterday I prayed and knew God was in control, so I kept working hard and ON HIS TIME.

Yesterday I ate ONLY 3 bites of lunch, but survived fine.

Yesterday I rushed and time slowed, amazing in God-time.

Yesterday I just kept going, I really told myself to NOT mind.

Let me praise today and get going fine.

And YESTERDAY?

Now history in the back of my mind.

Back of my mind is behind the path YOU newly LIGHT, all the time.

A new day. Just fine.

Amen

—

Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. Psalm 119:105

Faith Makes It Possible, Luke 1

I thought I am SO busy I don’t know if I have time to write this morning but the Lord showed me something on the floor in the clutter of the room, but for a moment I thought it was one of my dollar store stickers that said: “FAITH does not make it easy – FAITH makes it POSSIBLE”… Amen to that and then some. Amen to not easy. Amen to FAITH making things work, and work together for His purposes. We can believe in this message. We can believe God will ALREADY and ALWAYS be with us. (and especially since He Holy Spirit used but a swirl in my vision for something that was NOT that sticker – wow)

“For with God nothing shall be impossible.” Luke 1:37 KJV… This was the angel Gabriel talking about Jesus to fulfill a plan for forever. If God can work out the WHOLE plan in advance and see it succeed, He can work on our plans now, as we faithfully try to align with Him. We project tough things into this trust statement if we trust God’s Word, which we should. We should also remember FAITH is believing in things and direction unseen. We got to give it to God…

Mary and Elizabeth would bear sons of great importance… Jesus and John the Baptist… surely God can help us with the little and big things today and always…. let us apply FAITH. Jesus IS the Possible – Trust God for everything possible.

Amen

—

Luke 1:26-38 NIV

In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.”

“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

A Stretch Job for God, Hosea 4-5

Then they will seek My face; In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.”

Thank God I have an option for Physical Therapy – I can’t wait to stretch my muscles, I’m not sure what would damage and what is good for my hamstring pull and I have not been babying it much, healing on the go. It takes time. It’s not an alignment issue but an attachment one. That attachment restores alignment.

I can’t complain, it will heal but need Physical Therapy to help to know which way to go. I’m looking forward to that. I joke a little bit of God touching Jacob’s hip as he struggled with God, and got Jacob’s attention. I was grumbling some last week about discomfort then drove by a one-legged man, oh, stop my grumbling… Similarly knowing past damage to my shoulder is completely healed – and so last week when I walked by a man with one arm, it was like seeing a child with one arm while mine was on the mend years ago, I again told myself to stop grumbling… Start stretching…

I see in my reading about grumbling forgetful people who lived into generations of grumbling, and God knows they would have been better to count blessings and stretch. I feel like I have been reading a broken record in these chapters of Hosea, about Israel northern kingdom called Ephraim, the son of amazing Joseph, with the dreamcoat and amazing story going to Egypt and giving life-saving food for his brothers, father Jacob in a famine, and giving forgiveness to brothers who abandoned him. This now next few generations repeats the grumbling and eventually healing: Idolatry, abandonment, restoration. It’s both an attachment and alignment issue. They choose idols over God.

Hosea writes of the long drift. “Ephraim” the son of Joseph’s name, is used for identifying the northern kingdom of Israel which drifted. With Judah not far behind, “Judah” (a brother of Joseph) being the identifier for the southern split kingdom. After Solomon’s line, it all fractured and yet a small remnant remained for God’s purpose of bringing Jesus through the line of David who came from the line of Jacob, renamed Israel for the people of God.

Maybe these people didn’t have the hip pain like Jacob to remind them to rely upon God, worship Him. Maybe our aches and pains are that too, not God inflicted but used for a God-convicted focused view to remember to rely upon Him. REATTACHMENT and RESTORATION.

WE ALL NEED OUR PHYSICAL THERAPIST IN JESUS… STRETCH US LORD, STRETCH OUT LOVE.

AMEN

—-

Hosea 4 and 5 NKJV

God’s Charge Against Israel

Hear the word of the Lord, You children of Israel, For the Lord brings a charge against the inhabitants of the land:

“There is no truth or mercy Or knowledge of God in the land. By swearing and lying, Killing and stealing and committing adultery, They break all restraint, With bloodshed upon bloodshed. Therefore the land will mourn; And everyone who dwells there will waste away With the beasts of the field And the birds of the air; Even the fish of the sea will be taken away.

“Now let no man contend, or rebuke another; For your people are like those who contend with the priest. Therefore you shall stumble in the day; The prophet also shall stumble with you in the night; And I will destroy your mother. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.

“The more they increased, The more they sinned against Me; I will change their glory into shame. They eat up the sin of My people; They set their heart on their iniquity. And it shall be: like people, like priest. So I will punish them for their ways, And reward them for their deeds. For they shall eat, but not have enough; They shall commit harlotry, but not increase; Because they have ceased obeying the Lord.

The Idolatry of Israel

“Harlotry, wine, and new wine enslave the heart. My people ask counsel from their wooden idols, And their staff informs them. For the spirit of harlotry has caused them to stray, And they have played the harlot against their God. They offer sacrifices on the mountaintops, And burn incense on the hills, Under oaks, poplars, and terebinths, Because their shade is good. Therefore your daughters commit harlotry, And your brides commit adultery.

“I will not punish your daughters when they commit harlotry, Nor your brides when they commit adultery; For the men themselves go apart with harlots, and offer sacrifices with a ritual harlot. Therefore people who do not understand will be trampled.

“Though you, Israel, play the harlot, Let not Judah offend. Do not come up to Gilgal, Nor go up to Beth Aven, Nor swear an oath, saying, ‘As the Lord lives’— “For Israel is stubborn Like a stubborn calf; Now the Lord will let them forage Like a lamb in open country.

“Ephraim is joined to idols, Let him alone. Their drink is rebellion, They commit harlotry continually. Her rulers dearly love dishonor. The wind has wrapped her up in its wings, And they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.

Impending Judgment on Israel and Judah

“Hear this, O priests! Take heed, O house of Israel! Give ear, O house of the king! For yours is the judgment, Because you have been a snare to Mizpah And a net spread on Tabor. The revolters are deeply involved in slaughter, Though I rebuke them all. I know Ephraim, And Israel is not hidden from Me; For now, O Ephraim, you commit harlotry; Israel is defiled.

“They do not direct their deeds Toward turning to their God, For the spirit of harlotry is in their midst, And they do not know the Lord. The pride of Israel testifies to his face; Therefore Israel and Ephraim stumble in their iniquity; Judah also stumbles with them.

“With their flocks and herds They shall go to seek the Lord, But they will not find Him; He has withdrawn Himself from them. They have dealt treacherously with the Lord, For they have begotten pagan children. Now a New Moon shall devour them and their heritage.

“Blow the ram’s horn in Gibeah, The trumpet in Ramah! Cry aloud at Beth Aven, ‘Look behind you, O Benjamin!’ Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke; Among the tribes of Israel I make known what is sure.

“The princes of Judah are like those who remove a landmark; I will pour out My wrath on them like water. Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment, Because he willingly walked by human precept. Therefore I will be to Ephraim like a moth, And to the house of Judah like rottenness.

“When Ephraim saw his sickness, And Judah saw his wound, Then Ephraim went to Assyria And sent to King Jareb; Yet he cannot cure you, Nor heal you of your wound. For I will be like a lion to Ephraim, And like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear them and go away; I will take them away, and no one shall rescue. I will return again to My place Till they acknowledge their offense. Then they will seek My face; In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.”

My Sermon: Pearls of Wisdom and Treasure in Plain Sight

Blessed to share in my “Back to School” series

Pearls of Wisdom – and Treasure in Plain Sight – Sermon 13OCT

Matthew 13 scripture:

The Parable of the Hidden Treasure – “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

The Parable of the Pearl of Great Price – “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

The Parable of the Dragnet – “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered some of every kind, which, when it was full, they drew to shore; and they sat down and gathered the good into vessels, but threw the bad away. So it will be at the end of the age.

————-

I put on my 16th birthday gift from my Dad – a string of pearls – I love pearls and I love the concept of pearls as nature-made gems – even those forced – as a bead or something could be seeded – but regardless these are special stones – unique and treasured.

I have many favorite memories as a child – one of them is so vivid to me – but only snippets – I am sure my imagination has morphed my memories – but this one is from being at SeaWorld in Florida – late 70’s early 80’s – we took so many trips as kids with my parents – sometimes twice a year driving to Florida – until our teenage years – it was nice to have that time together – and I still love to travel – see other sites… Disney and SeaWorld were “inexpensive” then – and we almost always stayed at relatives houses – that was fun too… love trips… learning by living…

On this occasion we were in SeaWorld and there were swimmers diving for pearls – for the oysters – in a glass encased pool – like mermaids or just divers – and they would watch for your direction as you told them what oyster to pick – you never knew what you would get and even if you would get a pearl. Oh – my Dad loved gemstones – he was a banker and he saw the monetary value, yes, but he especially saw the beauty of them. So I can remember him excited, picking out an oyster – and I got to pick one too – we all did – and one of us – I don’t remember who – got a pink pearl – wow – special and more rare – and I remember us waiting in line with other people so anxiously awaiting to see what their oyster contained… would it be the rarest of the black pearls? – or would it simply be empty?… hmmm…

The other part of the memory is that we had to then decide what we did with that pearl – just take it for the nominal price of the dive? Or have it mounted in a necklace? Of course, these were the days that I remember the tourist traps of gift shops and everything under the sun in plastic – but this was a real precious item – yet was the treasure of the pearl better if it were displayed or if you kept it hidden in a bag and forgotten…

Looking for the real treasure!

The parables – these are treasured stories – a mechanism for Jesus to teach, that we have a treasure in Heaven to be desired. Yes, Jesus as our treasure and Jesus reminding our treasure is in Heaven. We are to remember Him and what He did for us in coming to forgive our sins and make it possible thru Him to be His Treasure in Heaven.

We not to DISPLAY Jesus as what He did for us as a string of pearls of our purchase – He was the one who purchased this Way. And we search ways to not find ourselves flauntingly DISPLAY JESUS, but to PORTRAY Jesus as a Way of Life. Portray and Emulate Jesus – be His and teach others.

Jesus first had to teach the Way – and imagine the lessons people were motivated to hear – the crowds that followed him – either as hope – or a sideshow attraction – or a prophet – or a healer – or the ones who went after him as they saw Him as a blasphemer…

And these parables – were a vehicle to perk ears open – to understand Jesus more – why He came to earth – why He loves us so much – and these parables are back to school moments – and this one parable intrigued me as the shortest – Pearls – in a set of 3 parables – I love how God loves numbers and 3 is a special number isn’t it? – they say we remember things in 3’s – and we are to know of course Three in One – God Jesus and the Holy Spirit – three. So the scriptures were read this morning – and I want to reiterate them here –

(The Parables of the Hidden Treasure, the Pearl of Great Price, and the Dragnet)

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”

AH – so Heaven is worth it! God’s great price to have us in it… A treasure…

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”

AH – finding a very special pearl is worth it. This reminds me of the lost sheep – another parable – how finding the one lost sheep is worth it…

47 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered some of every kind, which, when it was full, they drew to shore; and they sat down and gathered the good into vessels, but threw the bad away.”

AH – not all will go to Heaven – the good made good by Jesus we know – but the bad, hmmm… this reminds me of scripture prophecy of Jesus returning to gather us – one taken to heaven and the other left (The Great Disappearance)…

AH – but let us get back to the PEARL of wisdom about that PEARL – it is simple enough – HEAVEN IS A TREASURE – God looking for a treasure in us and we looking for a treasure in God – in being with Him forever – the prophets spoke so often: like in Jeremiah 32:38-40 “And they shall be my people, and I will be their God: And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them…”

I want us to think of a person new to these concepts, sitting in the crowd just listening – maybe a child there who is just now learning who God is – CURIOSITY – and then let us think about whole multitudes of people who were NOT there but then heard the stories of the stories – perhaps from the few disciples who travelled with Jesus place to place – or perhaps years later.

The Pearl – the shortest of these parables – just hear about the pearl – the treasure – the price… The child may comprehend and new ears later get ahold of Jesus as the answer to the question… like we always ask in the children’s message… Isn’t it good to have One Word – Jesus!

AND on the flip side I also want to think of maybe an OLD-TIMER there – one who knew the stories of old back to Adam and Eve – there would be one coming to be the Savior and especially this person to know the prophecies – And this “old timer” may not have put all the pieces together at that point – they would have either heard or heard years later – remember these bible chapters were written soon after and up to 60 years after Jesus arose and ascended to Heaven. The “old timer” would have to have the Holy Spirit to understand this gift from God – to hear Jesus as the Way the Truth and the Life…

I am not an old timer – maybe I am now – I myself have been enjoying the prophets Ezekiel and Hosea and their descriptions of how the people of the time would be best to follow God and follow His laws… That is a history that cannot be ignored – that God was faithful even when the people weren’t – And can we even imagine God’s feelings for His children of Israel, those of the time and now – wandering – following God then abandoning the Lord and the Law of Moses – again and again. Imagine now the HOPE of God for His children to return to looking towards Him… and bringing back them/us/His children for a price, forgiving and forever-ing the relationship. A NEW COVANENT – a pain process that turned into purpose – a pearl which now shines – for the beauty shows up in the LIGHT.

For Jesus as a teacher – this section is making people ponder and take hold of something that will open their ears when God chooses to open their ears – we know Jesus is talking to a specific audience – those who write and those who teach: Jews with a NEW IDENTITY – JEWS who take Christ as the fulfillment of the Law:

51 Jesus said to them, “Have you understood all these things?” They said to Him, “Yes, Lord.” 52 Then He said to them, “Therefore every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old.”

WHOA – this is truly deep and we all must move deeper into the Word. Old and new to treasure… ah – the scribes can bring out the stories of the new – that Jesus walked the earth – AND the stories of the old – the faithfulness of God to an unfaithful but chosen people…

And there is one more section of TREASURED scripture – to talk about – the treasure open to one who looks for SEEING IT IN A DIFFERENT LIGHT – Treasure realized… Jesus was sorry for the people who did not realize – those in His hometown in the days he went back – I am not saying that later they didn’t get it – because we know of many people “got it later” – people who shunned then embraced that Him as the Christ – the Lord. How many of those “pearls of wisdom” nestled in their brains and then maybe later on they remembered – like James Jesus’s brother… or were taught and Holy Spirit came to them – some even had a “road to Damascus” experience, like Paul.

SO Jesus hidden in plain sight rejected at Nazareth. Matthew continued:

53-58 Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these parables, that He departed from there. When He had come to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue – they were astonished and said, “Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works?” [So obviously they saw the works]

Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this Man get all these things?”

[I aways wonder “what things” – were they distracted by the earthly treasures and not seeing the heavenly One?]

“So they were offended at Him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house.” Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.”

I love how Jesus’s brothers and sisters are mentioned – and I love knowing that James – his brother – became so devoted and wrote a tremendous scripture book in the book of James…

And I appreciate that people who rejected Him originally and those still who reject, can, after a Holy Spirit helping of education, can take Him then into their hearts – they could take Him as Lord and Savior – because they surely went “BACK TO THE BOOKS” – they THEN connected the dots of everything that happened and happened for a reason…

I don’t have my pearl from SeaWorld – but I also put on these earrings of fresh water pearls – they are different – and long – shiny yes but not the same as salt water pearls – and also a gift from my Dad. And thinking of both saltwater pearls and fresh water pearls as old and new treasures – I am reminded of how Jesus came for Jew and Gentile alike – The followers like Peter and Paul would understand this later we learn this in the book of Acts – the Holy Spirit chose the people – of all kinds – to accept this treasure…

I want us to ALSO think about pearls and how they are made – pearls are made from irritation – a piece of sand or foreign object inserted into the oyster – and then layers of calcium carbonate are adhered to the object and the pearl is created by the oyster itself – that the treasure – like the treasure of Heaven is taking a sinful person and making them beautiful and whole and covered with the blood of Jesus and now appearing new and unblemished and pleasing to God Almighty.

Heaven on earth itself is the ability for us to know the value of Heaven – and act now like we will there – be thankful, gracious, forgiving, and whole… Pearls may be formed from the Pain but that pain is now precious… Pearls get polished but not like a rock – they are carefully polished – and pearls are naturally going to vary in their brightness, their shine… Isn’t that us too? We are to be the SHINE of God to be the treasure of God – understanding His treasure in heaven thru Jesus.

So – our back to school short take home message can be just that Heaven and getting there is a treasure… Jesus is the ANSWER.

Jesus came to save us – to teach us the Way – and to demonstrate how to live – this is again and again mentioned in scripture – what do we do with our knowledge and how do we live?

And in our old wisdom – let us remember these words of Paul to the church in Corinth 1Cor 2 snippets: “We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”

“… as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.”

And “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.” – And: “For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” – we have the mind of Christ.”

May we hold onto the small pearls of wisdom AND the big treasure of knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus and live to Portray Him – not just display Him…

—–

Won’t you pray with me:

Lord – we treasure these times to learn that You taught – that You came to all Jew and Gentile – old and young – simply spiritual and to break down the complex complications… may we simply know you as the answer – Jesus… Lord, You are so precious to us – may we worship you in spirit and truth and learn more and more of your work for us here on earth.

Amen

Raisin Cakes? Hosea 3

I ate an oatmeal raisin cookie yesterday, was so good, was left at my work kitchen counter in a bag of half a dozen. Yum. And it reminded me of the days at work that we had less and shared more, especially our time and comradery as a whole group and not a pocket here or there. This moment was late on a Friday and I was hanging signs for the festive fall “do something different” week we are planning for some old time fun, from dress up to wackiness and of course costumes on the day of 10/31… I hope we are bringing old-fashioned joy and the spark of spirit into work. I hope people participate! I try to remind folks that now “these are the good ole days” for our future.

Clinging to “it used to be this way” should not prevent us from “let’s try this new thing”… Most of all, we long-timers must be aware of how fast thing move and how changes are inevitable – don’t cling to the world – cling to God and His Hope.

If I have the hope of rekindling the feelings of old, I can’t even imagine God’s feelings for His children of Israel, those of the time of writing in Hosea, the prophet, and of the whole of His children to return to looking towards Him, like a return of the commitment between a husband and wife, where the husband already knew before marriage (portrayed in the Hosea 1-2 scenarios) of the unfaithfulness that wife would have. This is Hosea portrayed as the Lord, on purpose for the writing and teaching, as a faithful one bringing her back for a price, forgiving and forever-ing the relationship.

Look, the pagan worship gave raisin cakes, such an unusual tidbit to point out, but surely God will give (and did give) the whole vineyard! God gave it and then took it back at great price. I didn’t read the scholars, I just like sitting in my mind and fingers writing with the idea of Jesus, the vine being God’s payment to buy us back from sin and death as a price unfathomable. Jesus the Vine, us the branches, God the Vinedresser trimming and making stronger – and the fruit that is fresh and alive always coming from His growth of spiritual fruit on us.

And now is still of course the time to think about the FUTURE goodness, God-promised goodness, the goodness of His Name, the realness of His Truth, the Wholeness of realizing the Oneness with God. We should stay loyal to God in these growingly “later” days.

The children of Israel, and us too, a blessing to turn from the world and refocus upon Him, upon what we can do, how we can live. A focus to focus on Him.

A raisin cookie or raisin cake? Nothing compares to the fruitful life with the Lord.

Amen

—

Hosea 3 NKJV

Israel Will Return to God

Then the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by a lover and is committing adultery, just like the love of the Lord for the children of Israel, who look to other gods and love the raisin cakes of the pagans.”

So I bought her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver, and one and one-half homers of barley. And I said to her, “You shall stay with me many days; you shall not play the harlot, nor shall you have a man—so, too, will I be toward you.”

For the children of Israel shall abide many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, without ephod or teraphim. Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days.

Thank YOU Lord it’s Friday

Thank YOU Lord it’s Friday,

Yes, I really mean it this time.

Yet I should praise each day,

I should really silence my whine.

Should be no complaints, no cringing today,

No hurricane, flood, freeze, I’m really just fine!

I’m tired, yes, and behind my agenda, sure,

Simply I just desire catch up time.

Yet, Friday is both freedom and busy.

A day of asking – “where did the week go?” – I never have enough time.

Fridays zooms by reminding us WE ARE NOT IN CHARGE OF TIME.

So beware, today, like life, we will run out of time.

Why Lord, Why?

Why can we NOT stop time?

Perhaps You desire us to instead feel the stop in Heaven,

Feel the true Heavenly unwind.

So for now, I’ll make hay while the sunshines,

I’ll pick up my tasks, I’ll work hard, I’ll continue my rhyme.

I’ll try to remember “these are the good ole days” for doing good,

And be wary of what pulls me away from feeding off YOUR Vine.

I THANK YOU LORD, for Friday, for devotion time, and especially for Your Vine.

Amen

Worth the Wait, the Way Works

When are weeds worth the wait?

And wilderness the wonder?

When do leaves and trees and colors please?

When they WOW the watchful one.

When is life’s weight lighter?

When we WORK the WOW.

Life, it’s not worth the worry,

But wow, worth the work…

In autumn, the weather wanes,

The workers work, prepping for winter.

Prayers for waning weariness.

Prayers for persistent praying.

The worst is sometimes the way,

The Way of remembering,

The Way forward for depending,

The Creator worked worry into WOW.

In times of worry,

Work the Way of Wonder.

God and His angels will wait upon you to wait upon Them.

God will keep us hopeful and whole.

Amen

It’s All About Devotion, Hosea 2

‘Mercy is shown.’

Life, what is the meaning of life?

Surely living knowing God’s Love and Devotion to God because of God’s Devotion to us, with us, for us. Trusting God is from seeing and believing in His Faithfulness – and from thousands of years of unfaithfulness by people, God STILL wants not just a civil relationship but a SACRED one. He looks to us as a bride for a husband and more than that, in Hosea the prophet’s writing, a husband taking back a very adulterous wife, a people who worshipped fake made up Gods with the real stuff God gave them. GOD HAS MERCY IN ORDER TO RESTORE THEN RESTART THE RELATIONSHIP.

God IS Love. When people (us too) have love that is misdirected, squandered elsewhere, and start chasing after second best that is a falsehood and does not even exist, that is not devotion. The meaning of life is devotion to the Life-Giver not the life style.

I was watching cats yesterday morning, they are more comfortable with me now after a week and two cats came up for pets even, the reserved one only came for the food, she and they are devoted to their owner more than me, good, and yet interesting as they share thankfulness, but you know their loyalty is reserved. The dog at my neighbors, I went to see yesterday evening, was at first apprehensive until he heard my voice and when I saw him recognizing me, I even got a tail wag. Immediately I let him outside to do his business. He had refused to acknowledge another neighbor earlier in the day, shaking and too freaked out to trust, he was not comfortable for someone he didn’t know well. I fed him and waited around to give company, the dog however immediately was pining for his owners, glued to the windows, loyal, wanting, waiting. And oh the political canvasser knocking on the door got an earful! Protective, knowledgeable, devoted. Imagine if we were to be that devoted to God and shook off anyone and anything that was not our real devotion.

God Almighty provides. A people provided for in old testament times, you would expect, would be the people to acknowledge that He DOES provide. And God asks this. Yet they (and we) get distracted and lose touch. And Hosea’s writing about the unfaithfulness of the people of Israel and Judah worshiping Baal, a false god, could ALSO mean all our unfaithfulness to what we cling to besides the One True God. We thank things and people before God, whereas we should thank God for people, provisions, and hope.

When fear begets falseness, steady devotion keeps us connected. Wisdom helps us wait on God, and be wandering less than we would if we did not already know God provides.

And we DO know God provides.

Devotion is a way of life, devotion with meaning, let us acknowledge and recognize God’s blessings and correction. Devotion, a way of life, because God stays devoted to us.

Amen

“… In lovingkindness and mercy; I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, And you shall know the Lord.”

—

Hosea 2 NKJV – The Lord’s Love for His Unfaithful People

Say to your brethren, ‘My people,’ And to your sisters, ‘Mercy is shown.’

God’s Unfaithful People – “Bring charges against your mother, bring charges; For she is not My wife, nor am I her Husband! Let her put away her harlotries from her sight, And her adulteries from between her breasts; Lest I strip her naked And expose her, as in the day she was born, And make her like a wilderness, And set her like a dry land, And slay her with thirst.

“I will not have mercy on her children, For they are the children of harlotry. For their mother has played the harlot; She who conceived them has behaved shamefully. For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers, Who give me my bread and my water, My wool and my linen, My oil and my drink.’

“Therefore, behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns, And wall her in, So that she cannot find her paths. She will chase her lovers, But not overtake them; Yes, she will seek them, but not find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband, For then it was better for me than now.’ For she did not know That I gave her grain, new wine, and oil, And multiplied her silver and gold — Which they prepared for Baal.

“Therefore I will return and take away My grain in its time And My new wine in its season, And will take back My wool and My linen, Given to cover her nakedness. Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, And no one shall deliver her from My hand. I will also cause all her mirth to cease, Her feast days, Her New Moons, Her Sabbaths — All her appointed feasts.

“And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, of which she has said, ‘These are my wages that my lovers have given me.’ So I will make them a forest, And the beasts of the field shall eat them. I will punish her For the days of the Baals to which she burned incense. She decked herself with her earrings and jewelry. And went after her lovers; But Me she forgot,” says the Lord.

God’s Mercy on His People

“Therefore, behold, I will allure her, Will bring her into the wilderness, And speak comfort to her. I will give her her vineyards from there, And the Valley of Achor as a door of hope; She shall sing there, As in the days of her youth, As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.

“And it shall be, in that day,” Says the Lord, “That you will call Me ‘My Husband,’ And no longer call Me ‘My Master,’ For I will take from her mouth the names of the Baals, And they shall be remembered by their name no more. In that day I will make a covenant for them With the beasts of the field, With the birds of the air, And with the creeping things of the ground. Bow and sword of battle I will shatter from the earth, To make them lie down safely.

“I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me In righteousness and justice, In lovingkindness and mercy; I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, And you shall know the Lord.

“It shall come to pass in that day That I will answer,” says the Lord;

“I will answer the heavens, And they shall answer the earth. The earth shall answer With grain, With new wine, And with oil; They shall answer Jezreel. Then I will sow her for Myself in the earth, And I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy; Then I will say to those who were not My people, ‘You are My people!’ And they shall say, ‘You are my God!’ ”

Spiritual Rift needs a Lift, Hosea 1

It’s not that I wanted to find a “connection” (disconnection) between my doctor visit and the the rift of Israel from God in divided kingdom times of the old testament, but I did.

As I stopped myself from falling last week, I caught myself, putting full force body weight upon my left leg, felt a small but real pop. It hurt and made it initially hard to bend or squat, yet it felt increasingly better over the weekend, it didn’t slow me down too much and I did take it “easier” plus massive ibuprofen. When engaged in conversation or thought, I didn’t notice it at all.

When I arrived at the doctors office Monday, I purposefully had not taken any morning ibuprofen so that I might gauge my status. The orthopedic doctor was excellent in diagnosis even without a scan. Hamstring pull, attachment tendon small tear, not full, and completely heal-able with physical therapy. It was when I rolled to my stomach on the table and tried to lift my left leg up in back, like a superman pose, that it wouldn’t lift. It was very telltale for the diagnosis, I could lift my right but could not engage my left leg to behave normal. No lift. A rift. (And somewhere in this adventure there is a gift, to be determined) …

Ah, Hosea, the prophet of Israel to teach via demonstration, God chose Him to talk about that RIFT between the long bickering non-listening people of the divided kingdoms and God. Ah Hosea… In what could have been a good life, this was the time of northern and southern kingdoms Israel and Judah knowing separation by rift – after Solomon’s son’s line fractured communities – times of separation from God by rift of not worshipping Him. Like a wandering on the map like in Moses’s time, this was fully a Spiritual wandering that included bad kings who did not lead their people in devotion to the One true God. The RIFT was real. God knew He would have to heal and how. God bless the repair.

I was totally engaged with the doctor’s diagnosis for my RIFT, and grateful he was teaching an intern so I could also learn, and I heard the small talk of “hamstring” which I already knew I at least minimally strained with a pulled muscle, soreness down the back of my leg. Not my back, not my hip, but my leg attachment to my pelvic bones. A specific moment of rift, a missing part of completeness that WILL be repaired and needs strength and stretching. I will be fine, thank God, even going back to my favorite PT people.

Rifts are to be dealt with. That’s another reason God sent the prophets, urging repairable reconnecting to God. Spiritual rifts require repair. God kept His line through King David alive for Jesus to come out of Bethlehem in the land of Judah. They and we needed/need Him.

Now we must know even with our injuries and illnesses and strife seemingly non-repairable-on-earth that there will be healing in Heaven as gifts of reconstruction. Like God calling us His, the children of God will come together. The people will rejoice again. Jesus our Savior saver. And like my leg will raise again, the spiritual rift needs a lift.

Come Jesus come.

Amen

—

Hosea 1

New King James Version

The word of the Lord that came to Hosea the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.

The Family of Hosea

When the Lord began to speak by Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea: “Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry And children of harlotry, For the land has committed great [spiritual adultery] harlotry By departing from the Lord.”

So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. Then the Lord said to him: “Call his name Jezreel, For in a little while I will avenge the bloodshed of Jezreel on the house of Jehu, And bring an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. It shall come to pass in that day that I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.”

And she conceived again and bore a daughter. Then God said to him: “Call her name Lo-Ruhamah, For I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel, But I will utterly take them away. Yet I will have mercy on the house of Judah, Will save them by the Lord their God, And will not save them by bow, nor by sword or battle, horses or horsemen.”

Now when she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son. Then God said: “Call his name Lo-Ammi, For you are not My people, And I will not be your God.

The Restoration of Israel

“Yet the number of the children of Israel Shall be as the sand of the sea, Which cannot be measured or numbered. And it shall come to pass In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ There it shall be said to them, ‘You are sons of the living God.’ Then the children of Judah and the children of Israel Shall be gathered together, And appoint for themselves one head; And they shall come up out of the land, For great will be the day of Jezreel!

Angel Armies, All the Time

Beach reading… Heaven… both being at the beach just for the afternoon and reading in this little book about Heaven, yeah. I love understanding more about Heaven – and how we will get there. make no assumptions about angels and know that Jesus IS the Way. “…and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.”

Angels. It’s something we don’t think about, Angel armies. Yes, we believe in an angel here and there intervening “if we’re lucky” – but all of scripture shows God’s workers are working everyday everywhere. If we can appreciate the companionship of a cat or dog, can we wrap our heads about the constant buffer zone of angels? … hmmm… I know there is a purpose in protecting people, we are God’s children.

I enjoy the summer and stretching it. 75 degrees in October for us is unusual and still ice cream weather. But my palate has now changed from key lime and toasted coconut which were my summer flavors to now Nutella ice cream, oh… yum… Autumn holding onto summer – this is the transition time to show us all seasons are beautiful. Every season has a flavor and space.

And I saw the Camp Meeting Ocean Grove tent cabins stripped down without their canopies, flowers, decorative pieces. If you saw one alone you would think it’s the size for lawnmowers and yet collectively and then when open, they collect people together for community. These beautiful things are from the late 1800s early 1900s and colorful and a statement of sturdy yet temporary, like us on earth..

The chapel near the big tabernacle is even older than the tabernacle and the doors were open so I walked in. The windows stood as a testament to faith of long gone souls moved on… The simple arrangement of pews and altar was quiet and yet I felt a reverberation echo of faith from the ones who still bring the Spirit here to worship. It’s a time capsule of what the angel armies helped the faithful build.

After some ice cream I took a powerful nap on the beach, resting a pulled leg hip muscle. Sat on the beach (yes there were about a hundred people in my sights) reading and listening to waves and eating a delicious takeout pork roll egg cheese sandwich (it’s a jersey thing). And as I promised myself in compromise, I parked my chair next to the charging station at the boardwalk pavilion. Back to the sun, summer in the past, work in the front.

Yes, I brought my laptop as I’m trying to write the missing sections of my presentation about my sabbatical, which is very elaborate and in teaching style, and no one is even asking me to do it, but I feel an intense drive to present it, 3 different presentations. Yeah. It’s my vehicle for encouragement, science style, to find the passion in the project and the learning and in using your skills. A woman walked by and commented at what a wonderful outdoor office I had – and yes I said it was a work presentation I was trying to finish – she said “may the sun set on your presentation that you finish it”… Nice.

Ah, angel armies – if we have the drive to work, and finish work, imagine that the angels have a never ending drive and ability. It’s not that we tempt God and His angels for protection (Jesus told us not to), but angel armies are a buffer zone for us to keep living to our fullest! And confidence builders to open new chapters and close the old ones too. Like the closing of the season, it finishes. Don’t worry, there will be new seasonal joys ahead…

Enjoy this next quarter rotation around the sun… Enjoy the fall season and the never ending season of angel armies protection. Don’t be afraid to finish what you started so that you can start something new.

Smile, God loves us.

Amen

Matthew scripture about Jesus and angels: and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%204%3A1-11&version=NKJV

It Takes All Kinds of Good

And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.I find that we might all be more fulfilled when we have the blessing in finding a place for God to use us. I believe in the “Holy Spirit push pull and drop you into place”. I believe we can make immense impacts in serving. I believe in God’s ability to show each person their purposes by His gifts to them. I believe no gift is too small.

Every person is different, so each God-given-gift is uniquely different and purposeful expressed through them. Imagine a world of people who know this, share this, live in this – that would be Heaven on earth.

Some examples that just strike me include: Search and rescue people, teachers, counselors, support services, musicians, comedy folk, muscles for moving stuff, people with big trucks willing to help, animal care folks, food delivery, community servants, teachers, group leaders, medical teams, most everyone who helps, people with supportive smiles everywhere.

If you have any skills, then use any means to share them. And don’t grow weary, because it’s not about the thank you but the God view…

And weariness might take a toll, but each day is a fresh start. Don’t forget God made this day, keep going.

Keep going…

Amen

—

Galatians 6:1-10 NKJV

Bear and Share Burdens

Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For each one shall bear his own load.

Be Generous and Do Good

Let him who is taught the word share in all good things with him who teaches.

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.

Heavenly Healing Repair

When one pulls a muscle, it’s like every cell, every muscle strand has to get fixed. One wouldn’t replace to repair the whole thing without complete surgery, it’s not like putting in a modular component like a new light bulb. Big swaths of tissue are interconnected, so even for the small repairs, it’s a gradual process as the body yields, repairs, reworks all while still in motion. Muscles working together help immensely and immediately the swelling prevents more injuries. Just like fevers fight for you in an immune system, so does everything. It’s good to take time to stop, reduce the spasms, and allow time to start deep healing. But don’t freeze in inactivity if working the system helps.

Praise be to God for healing.

When we come to realize we need Jesus in our life, it’s just like every mini moment has to get readjusted on the maximum scale and vice versa as every max issue is in Him, resolving like a miracle. First the spasms need to be reduced (Be Still), and then the problem has to be more visible (I am fearfully and wonderfully made), and then the peace comes to us (Immanuel, God with us). Jesus knows the intricate fixes or the whole replacement. He also will restore to even better when we are revived heavenly. Soulfully, now, we are new creations in Jesus. Restoration of the soul. Later, restoration of the flesh.

God will remake us, the Potter He is, into a “good enough” and then some, … Repairs by bandages, by coveralls, by blood overlay, by heavenly healing. And it’s not just us for us, it’s together all for His Bride, as the combined fellowship of believers, collectively called to work together.

You know when we fall in a trip of the footing, sometimes we catch ourselves but pull muscles. They say to stay limber and roll into a fall, be like you chose to roll… We aren’t gentle to ourselves like that, our minds worry about the things we carry and don’t want to spill over saving ourselves. Sometimes we do fall and face bruises. Emotions are bruised in embarrassment more than the muscles. But we must look at our lives in the Lord so MUCH MORE from His perspective than ours. When we as a human race fell from the faltering of Adam and Eve, God knew. God knew before time. God Who walked with them felt the pull away and the sorrow, Jesus from before times took on the pain, and the Holy Spirit swung into repair mode. If the pain and sacrifice (the lamb was slain) was in motion before we stepped onto the earth, who are we to not melt into His Healing now.Heavenly Healing Repair is awaiting, and so is today’s rest. Not idleness but movement within boundaries of us, and blessed continued repair to the people through Him.

Be Well, Be Willing, Be Strong.

Be believing in Him.

Amen

Luke 4:16-20

So Jesus came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah.

And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him.

I HEARD, Daniel 12

I HEARD

I heard on earth about HEARING.

Michael told Daniel there is a time of trouble.

But in it, I heard LIFE.

Everlasting LIFE

After the strife.

A RESTORATION OF LIFE.

I HEARD

I heard on earth about TIMING.

The Riverbank man in linen said a time shall be for a time, times, and half a time.

And in it I heard “FINISHED”

Time for strife

Time for life

Time for everlasting to beginnings and ending to ends.

I HEARD

I heard on earth about UNDERSTANDING.

The Heavenly Word to Daniel talked about WAITING.

For in it, I heard TRUSTING.

I heard REFINEMENT.

I heard RESTORATION.

I heard REST.

I heard INHERITANCE.

I HEARD

I HEARD HOPE.

May we all be wise enough to wait and watch and wonder – and HEAR.

That in trust, is HOPE.

Trust in Hope. Hear it.

HOPE.

Amen

…

CHAPTER 12 – last chapter of Daniel

“At that time Michael shall stand up, the great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, Even to that time. And at that time your people shall be delivered, Every one who is found written in the book. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, Some to everlasting life, Some to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise shall shine Like the brightness of the firmament, And those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.

“But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.” Then I, Daniel, looked; and there stood two others, one on this riverbank and the other on that riverbank. And one said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, “How long shall the fulfillment of these wonders be?”

Then I heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand to heaven, and swore by Him who lives forever, that it shall be for a time, times, and half a time; and when the power of the holy people has been completely shattered, all these things shall be finished.

Although I heard, I did not understand. Then I said, “My lord, what shall be the end of these things?”

And he said, “Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall be purified, made white, and refined, but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand.

“And from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety days. Blessed is he who waits, and comes to the one thousand three hundred and thirty-five days.

“But you, go your way till the end; for you shall rest, and will arise to your inheritance at the end of the days.”

The People who Know their God, Daniel 11-12

Daniel is not so much a puzzle as it is a placement of knowledge that is not open to us, yet. Scholars will say this chapter account of kings and war is this or that, and the end times math is confusing, even for people convinced of their interpretation. So our best non-scholarly knowledge is laid plain, GOD KNOWS, and we want to be: “the people who know their God”… The people who know their God will be OK at the end, according to the heavenly messenger to David, and will be refined for the beginning to the new times. Like Daniel is told, we also may rest (grave rest) until reawakened physically. Spiritually we can rest too in that we won’t know everything except to know the end is coming sooner than later.

“Although I heard, I did not understand. Then I said, “My lord, what shall be the end of these things?” And he said, “Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall be purified, made white, and refined, but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand. Dan 12:8-10

We can try to have discussions of this with people who don’t get God history let alone understand human history (textbook ignorance or personal accounts). It’s hard to have complete conversations. The present forgets the past, which completely impacts the future. We could try to be on this side or that side of human issues but we err humanly. So only God knows the wisdom for us to work for. And we are to live each day wisely preparing our hearts and sharing the good news of HOW to get to the end. Repentance, Restoration, Renewal, Reaching., Realizing.

Let us be thankful Jesus knows the Way.

Let us be people who know their God.

Amen

“But you, go your way till the end; for you shall rest, and will arise to your inheritance at the end of the days.” Daniel 12:13

Full text:

Daniel 11 and 12 link

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Daniel%2011-12&version=NIV;NKJV

—

Daniel 11-12

New King James Version

Warring Kings of North and South

“Also in the first year of Darius the Mede, I, even I, stood up to confirm and strengthen him.) And now I will tell you the truth: Behold, three more kings will arise in Persia, and the fourth shall be far richer than them all; by his strength, through his riches, he shall stir up all against the realm of Greece. Then a mighty king shall arise, who shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will. And when he has arisen, his kingdom shall be broken up and divided toward the four winds of heaven, but not among his posterity nor according to his dominion with which he ruled; for his kingdom shall be uprooted, even for others besides these.

Warring Kings of North and South

“Also the king of the South shall become strong, as well as one of his princes; and he shall gain power over him and have dominion. His dominion shall be a great dominion. And at the end of some years they shall join forces, for the daughter of the king of the South shall go to the king of the North to make an agreement; but she shall not retain the power of her authority, and neither he nor his authority shall stand; but she shall be given up, with those who brought her, and with him who begot her, and with him who strengthened her in those times. But from a branch of her roots one shall arise in his place, who shall come with an army, enter the fortress of the king of the North, and deal with them and prevail. And he shall also carry their gods captive to Egypt, with their princes and their precious articles of silver and gold; and he shall continue more years than the king of the North.

“Also the king of the North shall come to the kingdom of the king of the South, but shall return to his own land. However his sons shall stir up strife, and assemble a multitude of great forces; and one shall certainly come and overwhelm and pass through; then he shall return to his fortress and stir up strife.

“And the king of the South shall be moved with rage, and go out and fight with him, with the king of the North, who shall muster a great multitude; but the multitude shall be given into the hand of his enemy. When he has taken away the multitude, his heart will be lifted up; and he will cast down tens of thousands, but he will not prevail. For the king of the North will return and muster a multitude greater than the former, and shall certainly come at the end of some years with a great army and much equipment.

“Now in those times many shall rise up against the king of the South. Also, violent men of your people shall exalt themselves in fulfillment of the vision, but they shall fall. So the king of the North shall come and build a siege mound, and take a fortified city; and the forces of the South shall not withstand him. Even his choice troops shall have no strength to resist. But he who comes against him shall do according to his own will, and no one shall stand against him. He shall stand in the Glorious Land with destruction in his power.

“He shall also set his face to enter with the strength of his whole kingdom, and upright ones with him; thus shall he do. And he shall give him the daughter of women to destroy it; but she shall not stand with him, or be for him. After this he shall turn his face to the coastlands, and shall take many. But a ruler shall bring the reproach against them to an end; and with the reproach removed, he shall turn back on him. Then he shall turn his face toward the fortress of his own land; but he shall stumble and fall, and not be found.

“There shall arise in his place one who imposes taxes on the glorious kingdom; but within a few days he shall be destroyed, but not in anger or in battle. And in his place shall arise a vile person, to whom they will not give the honor of royalty; but he shall come in peaceably, and seize the kingdom by intrigue. With the force of a flood they shall be swept away from before him and be broken, and also the prince of the covenant. And after the league is made with him he shall act deceitfully, for he shall come up and become strong with a small number of people. He shall enter peaceably, even into the richest places of the province; and he shall do what his fathers have not done, nor his forefathers: he shall disperse among them the plunder, spoil, and riches; and he shall devise his plans against the strongholds, but only for a time.

“He shall stir up his power and his courage against the king of the South with a great army. And the king of the South shall be stirred up to battle with a very great and mighty army; but he shall not stand, for they shall devise plans against him. Yes, those who eat of the portion of his delicacies shall destroy him; his army shall be swept away, and many shall fall down slain. Both these kings’ hearts shall be bent on evil, and they shall speak lies at the same table; but it shall not prosper, for the end will still be at the appointed time. While returning to his land with great riches, his heart shall be moved against the holy covenant; so he shall do damage and return to his own land.

The Northern King’s Blasphemies

“At the appointed time he shall return and go toward the south; but it shall not be like the former or the latter. For ships from Cyprus shall come against him; therefore he shall be grieved, and return in rage against the holy covenant, and do damage.

“So he shall return and show regard for those who forsake the holy covenant. And forces shall be mustered by him, and they shall defile the sanctuary fortress; then they shall take away the daily sacrifices, and place there the abomination of desolation. Those who do wickedly against the covenant he shall corrupt with flattery; but the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits. And those of the people who understand shall instruct many; yet for many days they shall fall by sword and flame, by captivity and plundering. Now when they fall, they shall be aided with a little help; but many shall join with them by intrigue. And some of those of understanding shall fall, to refine them, purify them, and make them white, until the time of the end; because it is still for the appointed time.

“Then the king shall do according to his own will: he shall exalt and magnify himself above every god, shall speak blasphemies against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the wrath has been accomplished; for what has been determined shall be done. He shall regard neither the God of his fathers nor the desire of women, nor regard any god; for he shall exalt himself above them all. But in their place he shall honor a god of fortresses; and a god which his fathers did not know he shall honor with gold and silver, with precious stones and pleasant things. Thus he shall act against the strongest fortresses with a foreign god, which he shall acknowledge, and advance its glory; and he shall cause them to rule over many, and divide the land for gain.

The Northern King’s Conquests

“At the time of the end the king of the South shall attack him; and the king of the North shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter the countries, overwhelm them, and pass through. He shall also enter the Glorious Land, and many countries shall be overthrown; but these shall escape from his hand: Edom, Moab, and the prominent people of Ammon. He shall stretch out his hand against the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape. He shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt; also the Libyans and Ethiopians shall follow at his heels. But news from the east and the north shall trouble him; therefore he shall go out with great fury to destroy and annihilate many. And he shall plant the tents of his palace between the seas and the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and no one will help him.

Prophecy of the End Time

CHAPTER 12 – last chapter

“At that time Michael shall stand up, the great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, Even to that time. And at that time your people shall be delivered, Every one who is found written in the book. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, Some to everlasting life, Some to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise shall shine Like the brightness of the firmament, And those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.

Although I heard, I did not understand. Then I said, “My lord, what shall be the end of these things?”

And he said, “Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall be purified, made white, and refined, but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand.

“And from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety days. Blessed is he who waits, and comes to the one thousand three hundred and thirty-five days.

“But you, go your way till the end; for you shall rest, and will arise to your inheritance at the end of the days.”

Jesus, always Rock Solid

I’m not as sure-footed as I used to be. I would have enjoyed the challenge of the bold boulder field 10 even 5 years ago. But these are not smooth – these are challenging pointed rocks. The moment I stepped onto it, I decided it was better to crawl. Plus I didn’t have a great pocket for my phone in my pouch. I did have sturdy shoes on, good, and nestled my feet in. I stepped out into the field. It was worth it.

I realized this relates to us navigating life and Jesus holding tight and providing our rock solid foundation. We want to be good and sure-footed, but can’t always be, We are human. will make mistakes, knowing and even not knowing, we will guess, fail, sin. And faking a sinless life is pride, and pride is not to strive for. And knowingly being stuck between a rock and a hard place is just that, being stuck and needing a Savior save. Can’t ignore our missteps and footfalls, can’t even talk our way out to be back to a perfect we never were.

In life the challenge IS tough… we walk in broken boulders, broken rocks, earthly living. Repentance is asking for the repeal of the death sentence.Yes Jesus, the sure path is surely holding on to us. One Rock of Heaven HOLDS, not moving like earthly crumbles and craters.

I turned around to go back to the open path. At first I was just as nervous. But then I realized I really had come a long way. I took this photo. It’s not the path out but the path back. The path out I HAD prevailed, even though I had held onto the boulders and was so slow, I really did accomplish getting out there. So now, I was ready to trust and take it slow again. Go back in.

Yes, we do move and get places – may we put our trust where it should be. God gets the credit. And as for our sins and sideswiped lives? We HAVE to rely upon Jesus. It’s not ninety percent us and ten percent Him. It’s not ninety percent Him, ten percent us. Our repentance is our reliance upon Him, 100%.

Jesus is the One we need, He who is Worthy. His Rock. We can step carefully, hold tight, and often it’s actually best if we ask if He will carry us.

Amen

—-

Matthew 7:1-14 NIV

Judging Others

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

“Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.

Ask, Seek, Knock

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

The Narrow and Wide Gates

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

—

Luke 13:1-9 NIV

Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”

Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’

“‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”

Be Strong Now, Be Strong, Daniel 10

There’s so much going on. But we should head the words of God’s messengers:

BE STRONG NOW, BE STRONG.

Imagine thousands of years of strife, unknown and known. It’s interesting to think that Daniel, in his visions and dreams, was chosen to be a prophet and was then strengthened by a God who knows it’s tough to imagine the future, but God was showing that He Almighty had a process. So can we be strengthened too? God needs us up and running for his work and ours.

BE STRONG, BE STRONG

Jesus in the garden was strengthened by angels just before his arrest, God knows it’s tough – knowing that the process to peace included pain.

BE STRONG, BE STRONG

We have small challenges, large insurmountable issues, frightening thoughts for tomorrow let alone today (and we should always let today be today and let tomorrow worry about itself). God wants to bring us back to today and strengthen us – emotionally and physically too. Think of the task of the prophets who saw the turmoil day to day, lived in the wars of the time, and saw visions of wars to really end all war, and know they had to be strengthened. Us too. So take the Lord’s fortification and keep keepin’ on…

“Let my lord speak, for you have strengthened me.”

AMEN

—

Daniel 10:14-19 about a holy being from heaven explaining the vision, strengthening him.

Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision concerns a time yet to come.”

While he was saying this to me, I bowed with my face toward the ground and was speechless. Then one who looked like a man touched my lips, and I opened my mouth and began to speak. I said to the one standing before me, “I am overcome with anguish because of the vision, my lord, and I feel very weak. How can I, your servant, talk with you, my lord? My strength is gone and I can hardly breathe.”

Again the one who looked like a man touched me and gave me strength. “Do not be afraid, you who are highly esteemed,” he said. “Peace! Be strong now; be strong.”

So when he spoke to me I was strengthened, and said, “Let my lord speak, for you have strengthened me.”

All of Daniel 10

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Daniel%2010&version=NIV;NKJV

Debbie Upper

A Child of God Awakening to His Love

Month: October 2024

Faith Fiercer than Locusts, Joel 1-2

Lord, You ARE the Best

Purple Peace

Grow Time from His Vine, Hosea 14

Power in Motion, Hosea 13 Reminds Again

The Walking Led, Hosea 12

a BIG DAY TO BE ALIVE

People being People, Corruption, Hosea 10-11

In Dependence

Light in the Darkness – Proverbs 15

AUTHENTIC JESUS

Going and Coming

No Old Nonsense Now! God Walks With Us!

Protection for Purpose

Hosea 6789 Sour Grapes, Israel and Judah in Trouble, Fig-ures…

An Interesting Day

Faith Makes It Possible, Luke 1

A Stretch Job for God, Hosea 4-5

My Sermon: Pearls of Wisdom and Treasure in Plain Sight

Raisin Cakes? Hosea 3

Thank YOU Lord it’s Friday

Worth the Wait, the Way Works

It’s All About Devotion, Hosea 2

Spiritual Rift needs a Lift, Hosea 1

Angel Armies, All the Time

It Takes All Kinds of Good

Heavenly Healing Repair

I HEARD, Daniel 12

The People who Know their God, Daniel 11-12

Jesus, always Rock Solid

Be Strong Now, Be Strong, Daniel 10

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