ARE YOU WITH ME?

All my journaling thus far has been from THE MESSAGE. And I will probably continue using it in the months to come. Yesterday I ran across a passage in Acts 4, verses 25 and 26, as follows:

Why the big noise, nations?
Why the mean plots, peoples?
Earth's leaders push for position,
Potentates meet for summit talks,
The God-deniers,the Messiah-defiers!

They did meet long ago--Herod and Pontius Pilate met with nations and peoples, even the leaders in Israel itself. And the result? The crucifixion of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Was anyone in prayer about that meeting? The deciples?

Now, generations later, we have big noise again from Messiah-defiers. Now is the time for all good men and women to come to prayer. We must pray like we have never prayed before. Pray that God will have His way among us, and that whatever way He chooses, we will obey with faith. These are times of unsteadiness which means all the more reason for faith. I would prefer peace. No war sounds perfect. But I give my choice, my preference, up to the Lord and whatever way He leads me, I will follow. Maybe my heart will be in my throat, but I will follow.

Is anybody with me? You can find me on facebook .

Until we are all together at least in Spirit,

Jo

GOOD , OLD HEZEKIAH!

Poor old Hezekiah! Sick as a dog. Even sicker. Deathly sick. He prayed to God and God gave him a reassuring sign. But the sign, instead of making Hezekiah grateful, made him arrogant, which, of course, made God angry. Stupid, stupid, stupid Hezekiah. It's really stupid to make God angry, right?

Hezekiah loved God. He was a great King, Judah's king. He was a picture of a man on the way to death who loved God and prayed for healing. No mistake so far. God answers his prayer. Hezzie gets well. Hezzie, dumb and dumber, says something like, "God so loves me. He must be very pleased with me to grant me healing! So watch out, folks! The great Hezekiah is back!" Arrogance has a way of assuming we deserve the most for our least.

God has such a generous spirit. Why would He not grant a request to someone who asks? Then, wouldn't it be more holy to be humbled by God's consent to our request? Or would we be more like Hezzie and have assumptions of our worthiness? "I have been faithful to God. Yes. God will say "Yes." "

If I thought to receive a "yes" only because I deserved it, I would receive nothing. There is no room for arrogance, no place to entertain thoughts of what I deserve for God isn't measuring my worth. God is only interested in revealing His worth.

Indeed, God is worthy, always. Let me count the ways....

God is generous.... and nothing I can do would make me worthy of His generosity. Lord, I am grateful for all You are. jo

WE ARE THE HOUSE! AMEN!

Hebrews 3:6 in THE MESSAGE tells us that God is the Master Builder and He builds 'houses'. Now the houses are you and me, each of us designed exactly as the Master Builder desires. Everyone in the world is a house built by God. Now the Son is to be in charge of each house. He's the Director or Headmaster. We are to think of Him as Master, the One who can help us through life on this earth as long as each 'house' exists and He's the One who will meet us when we go to His House, the Big One in the Heavenly Places.

As Christ is the Big Boss, each house must remember that it's very existence is to be handled by Christ. We don't run the operation, yet our Director of Operations has grace enough to listen to our ideas, and our requests. Christ doesn't promise, but He gives us either what we desire or something better, something so much better for us in the long run that we can trust His decisions. Sometimes we grumble when we don't get our way (we don't like the neighborhood, or our kitchen's too small)and we can't understand why His ideas are superior to our own. Then, we're reminded that He is the Big Boss and we are to be gracious and accept the Master's plan. All in all, we find an incredible joy from being gracious and trusting.

The size and shape of our 'house' really doesn't matter; sometimes the smallest 'house' can be the friendliest by far. Our Director, however, does like a clean 'house.' None of this messy, untidy, dirty 'house' for Him. Nope. We need to keep that broom and dustpan handy and use it frequently especially when we feel rebellious and stubborn. All 'houses' do go through untidy periods now and then and it's Oh, so easy to give in to the voice of contrariness.

The best thing that we 'houses' can do is keep a good line open to our Director of Operations. He works hard and has an incredible, heroic history in working for our good. He deserves our best, our best work and our total confidence and gratitude. So let's give him a great big 'Thankyou.'

PRAISE YOU, JESUS!!!