hard-pressed

Is Dairy Queen Calling My Name?

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I don’t know – but I think Dairy Queen is STILL calling my name – I had it (a simple but classic vanilla with chocolate dip) a year ago now in Las Vegas visiting a friend and it hit the spot then right? – and the mouth feel of the chocolate melting was the draw… But I can’t remember now whether it satisfied me at that point last year – mentally sure probably on a hot day with kids in the care so we went to the drive thru – but the taste I don’t remember – too long ago to remember. I still have the photo – and I know that I was wanting that ice cream before I got it – those things I remember – but what about the result? Hmmm… I don’t remember…

I thought that then yesterday (separate occasion for getting ice cream) that I would enjoy the ice cream from a local place (not Dairy Queen) and I did enjoy it – but then it became too much to finish – it was too much that I couldn’t get the other half into the freezer because I was driving and well I continued to keep eating it – I thought hmmm, maybe my eyes were too big for my taste… And maybe I was craving salty not sweet… Oh well, it is all melted away now in my memory and stomach… (but maybe not my hips, lol)…

So, isn’t that like us – our tastes change – the seasons change – the flowers change…  And these giant mums I saw yesterday are so beautiful right now and the colors are perfect for THIS season – and in spring we would prefer different colors… Our tastes change – by training or by introspection. And the flowers I had all summer will be gone in a freeze snap so quickly – they were beautiful – but temporary but gone after growing so strong for months (I am holding on to them with a cover at night protecting against the frost and freeze for now). Surely these flowers show us how life is so temporary here on earth – how the colors and flowers and tastes change so fast – and how we are not always fulfilled in each season of life… Doesn’t mean we don’t live our best – but we are to remember that there is more to life than each season we are in.

Honestly NOTHING, NOTHING could be the same soul satisfying ‘thing’ or ‘thought’ than like how the Lord fulfils us. What could be? NOTHING…  There is nothing like THE LORD to fulfil every nook and cranny of our souls, of our minds, of our hearts, and of our tastes in the life forever that He gifts… There is no one like THE LORD to call us – call us by name and by a new name in Heaven…

“All flesh is as grass, And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, And its flower falls away, But the word of the Lord endures forever.” 1st Peter 1:24-25a from Isaiah 40:8, NKJV

Meanwhile we travel in this temporary state – doing what we can – living best we can – loving as much as we can. And even in stress, remembering the hard pressed nature of the clay that the Lord has made us – we are to be STRONG because of Him – and FILLABLE like an earthen vessel – fillable with the Holy Spirit to keep moving us.  And as the “Jesus Always” devotion stated for the day (yesterday) – things in life – good and bad – are temporary – and nothing here – good or bad – will ever ‘out do’ the forever life – the ETERNAL WEIGHT OF GLORY.

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. 2nd Corinthians 4

Maybe I will try again for a different ice cream like me switching flower seasons – but honestly I am NOW sensing switching into apple cider season – not ice cream but warm spiced cider for sipping… We long for that satisfaction that we THINK we want – that chocolate-covered shell that Dairy Queen gives maybe I will wait on it until spring and wait for it as a fraction of the thought of waiting upon the Lord.

And I WILL have that warm cider – and the warm soup and cup of tea as good system satisfiers for the moment. Temporary satisfiers WHILE we think of the Lord Who Was and IS and Will Be our BEST Satisfaction of all…

AMEN

You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Psalm 16:11 NKJV

2nd Corinthians 4:13-18

And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed and therefore I spoke,” we also believe and therefore speak, knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.

Seeing the Invisible
Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

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Psalm 16 NKJV
The Hope of the Faithful, and the Messiah’s Victory
A Michtam of David.

Preserve me, O God, for in You I put my trust.

O my soul, you have said to the Lord, “You are my Lord, My goodness is nothing apart from You.” As for the saints who are on the earth, “They are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.”

Their sorrows shall be multiplied who hasten after another god; Their drink offerings of blood I will not offer, Nor take up their names on my lips.

O Lord, You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup; You maintain my lot. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; Yes, I have a good inheritance.

I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel; My heart also instructs me in the night seasons. I have set the Lord always before me; Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.

Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will rest in hope. For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Clay Pots needing to be filled – Jeremiah 18

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Even angels long to look into these things.

Oh Holy Spirit – I love the Lord’s Word – it is meaty and solid and yet leaves plenty of room for a space in the middle of you to be open and receiving and movable and fresh – yes – a jar of clay that has that space for the Holy Spirit to be in us – a fresh filling!  The Holy Spirit brings us the Glory of God in our midst – we are to call upon Him and ask for a fresh filling.  While discussing the Holy Spirit in my bible study class and how we are made of clay by our Father the Potter, I find today here in Old Testament book of  Jeremiah, where he instructs the people based on the messages directly given to Him by God, that God says “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel. This was God’s message to have Israel repent. Jeremiah was watching a potter at his wheel reworking old clay into a new vessel, “shaping it as seemed best to him.”

We are formed and remain His, He forms us as He sees best. As Isaiah (chapter 64:8) teaches: But now, O Lord, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our potter; And all we are the work of Your hand. Do not be furious, O Lord, Nor remember iniquity forever; Indeed, please look—we all are Your people!

In the New Testament, Paul writes a letter to the Corinthians that we are jars of clay, hard pressed by the world – the stress and the circumstances – but honestly that makes us stronger and able to be filled. STRONG and able to hold something! We are shaped by the inside and the outside to be functional and fillable. We are to ask for this fresh filling of the Holy Spirit – a baptism of Spirit.

Oh to be re-filled and re-filled and movable and ready to be poured out into a situation. Oh Lord, we ARE clay pots needing to be filled. Even angels long to look into these things – the Spirit pointing us to Jesus.

Thank You Lord for the work of Your Hands and the Life of Your Son and the Spirit of Yourself bringing us always to see Your Majesty and Plan.

Amen

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At the Potter’s House (Jeremiah 18:1-11)

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.  Then the word of the Lord came to me. He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel. If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it. Now therefore say to the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, ‘This is what the Lord says: Look! I am preparing a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. So turn from your evil ways, each one of you, and reform your ways and your actions.’

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Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ Acts 11:16

2 Corinthians 4:6-18 NKJV

For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us, but life in you. * And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed and therefore I spoke,” we also believe and therefore speak, knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God. * Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

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1Peter 1:8-12

Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.