Let's Celebrate

“Well done, my sweet pumpkin!”

A child on a treasure-seeking adventure.

An Easter-egg hunt.

The prizes are never difficult to find, but often as we get older, they become more difficult to seek. Maybe it seems as though you are overshadowed by others’ fortune. Maybe others seem to have an easier time finding the gems. Perhaps you have felt like nobody really cared if you found anything or not. What about those times you had such high hopes of finding abundant treasure, only to be brought down to ‘reality’ by the advice of others, or by your own expectations not being met. No matter how you got there, if you are too tired to even chance it, you have no idea what amazing gifts you are leaving on the proverbial table.

Abba Father -Creator Daddy – He promises that if we diligently seek Him and His treasures, and keep seeking, we will find and keep finding. The delighted child who has found the biggest, most sparkly and colorful egg runs to his daddy, and with a beaming face displays his amazing find. What does the father do? I love this picture. The two share an indescribable joy over this achievement!

“Look what I found, Daddy!”

“WOW! Way to go, my pumpkin….Let’s celebrate!!”

Matt 25:21  The master was full of praise. ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant…Let’s celebrate together!’

Psalm 119:162  I rejoice in your word like one who discovers a great treasure.

Isaiah 45:3 And I will give you treasures hidden in the darkness— secret riches. I will do this so you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, the one who calls you by name.

Matt 13:44 The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field.

The Enemy was Routed!

Since we are surrounded by so many examples [of faith], we must get rid of everything that slows us down, especially sin that distracts us. We must run the race that lies ahead of us and never give up. Heb 12:1

I was mad too. Frustrated! I was so hoping we would have a new President come January. Last night when I was watching the poll results, especially as the race started moving strongly toward the proverbial left, I made a decision – a choice. I was going to fight this battle in praises to our God. 2 Chronicles 20 paints a vivid picture of what happens when God is exalted and His people praise His Name in the midst of battle. So I sang praise songs to the King. I worshiped Him with all my heart. I cried out to Him and laid my expectations of the presidential race down. I focused on the greatness of our God. And He caused the enemy to be routed!

Oh, yeah, I know what you’re thinking: Umm, do you know how the election went?

Sure I do! But my victory is in the fact that I have my eyes on Jesus and not on the other. I imagine that is just how those wonderful “examples [of faith],” mentioned above, were able to hold fast to their belief that God would one day bring the Messiah. If I had been around during Abraham’s time, I would have started doubting that he was truly going to have as many descendants as grains of sand – most likely before Abraham was 30 years old I would be wavering.

Since we are surrounded by so many examples of faith, let us get rid of everything that slows us down, especially sin that distracts us. The word ‘sin’ is not necessarily referring to sex, drugs, and rock and roll – though these things are most certainly a distraction. Sin is anything that separates me from or hinders my view of God. I pray that you get my heart here. The things I have been reading on Facebook and Twitter are just that. There is name calling. There is cynicism. There is a huge focus on blaming the people who voted one way, or pointing fingers at the party who did that wrong. When these things are taking place, two things are happening:

1.    The focus is not on God, but on the circumstance, which ALWAYS causes the situation to lose perspective and have the illusion of being much larger than it is.

 

2.    People become the enemy, or at the very least, the focus of our venomous rants.

Focusing on the wrong thing slows us down. It distracts us from running the race well. The question is, how do we run the race well? Besides keeping focus on Jesus, our prayers must be strategic and focused. If we truly believe that our government is spiritually bankrupt, why are we not begging God to send Holy Spirit to move in the hearts of every person in government? Why do we not cry out for God to be lifted higher in Washington, in the White House, and everywhere our government officials convene? I believe there are many of us doing that already. So this message goes to those who are disgusted to the point of making divisive remarks about people, or our country. What we need more than anything is to be united again. God answers prayers like that. What we need is to stand firm, be strong and courageous about our faith. God answers prayers like that. What we need is for Jesus, Who is still on His throne, to be made known to all people across the country. God answers prayers like that.

Let’s seek His face. Not His hands. He is bigger than the scary waves!

Sex Trafficking At The Conventions | RedState

This is a very good article about Sex Trafficking, and it is disgusting to me that while we are trying to "hire" the next President, the support staff and campaign crews and candidates are contributing to slavery. If you were hiring someone at your company, this would likely be an automatic "Don't call us. We'll call you."

Sex Trafficking At The Conventions | RedState

The One Whom My Soul Loves

Wow, God! I can never seem to get over the fact that You have such deep love for me- for every one of Your children. And the lengths to which You will go to prove it simply stun me.

I cannot thank You enough for choosing me to walk the path I am on. I know many of the turns I have taken over the years are not ones You would have wanted me to take. But how can I thank You, ever, for making those mistakes a beautiful offering to You?

I should have been discarded.

Tossed aside.

Forgotten.

Not MY daughter!! I hear You whisper with as much firmness and passion in Your voice as I would see on a Hollywood screen, but it’s the real thing!

I read stories of miracles You work in the lives of others. I read Your Word which oozes passionate love and desire between a Mighty King of Kings and the objects of His adoration. I watch You work in the lives of women who should have been discarded, by the standards of the flesh. I see the moments of Rhema – revelation, their eyes lighting up, filling with tears because of how much awe You bring.

King of Glory, Hosanna in the Highest! I wish I could sit here all day like this with You. But thank You, from every ounce within me I thank You. And I have most assuredly found the One Whom my soul loves. Your left hand is under my head, and Your right arm enfolds me. My heart truly beats for You.

Jericho - Day 7 Fruit of the Promised Land

And the manna ceased the day after they ate of the produce of the land. And there was no longer manna for the people of Israel, but they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year. Joshua 5:12

Before Moses died, he spoke to the Israelites at length about the Promised Land, and its benefits. He made sure they knew that they would have to choose to follow the LORD and to listen carefully to His commands. He told them the land they were crossing over was not land in which they were to merely exist, but that they were to possess it. This land was a land of hills and valleys that drank water from the rain of heaven, and the LORD Himself cared for it. The farming they were used to was the hard soil of the Egyptians, and produced for them a yield like a small vegetable garden, and that after much toilsome labor.

Moses reminded the people that God had provided food in their wilderness wandering – manna, which they did not know. In fact, the word manna means ‘what is it’. This makes me laugh a little, imagining them all whispering, “Ooooh! What is that?”

“Yes, yes it is!”

And they really never got it. Many of them did not understood that one day they would be eating so bountifully that they would never hunger again. They merely existed on a virtually unnamed product of the wilderness.

Jesus told the argumentative Pharisees that their fathers ate manna, and died, but He offered Bread that would bring eternal life. He also told them that the Kingdom of God would be given to people who would produce its fruit. What is the fruit of the Promised Land – the Kingdom of God?

I believe it is all about becoming that new creation. Letting go of the wilderness food, and slave gardening. A seed that dies, rises from the dirt a new thing. It does not cry, “Wait! Make me a seed again!”

No, it bursts forth in the power of the creator, drinking and drawing nourishment from the rich soil of the Promise. It grows taller, stronger, larger, and leaves behind fruit and seeds that sprout up in its wake and essentially lives on and on in influence.

So, my marching friends, are you going to dive into the rich soil of Canaan, drink deeply of His Living Water, and feed bountifully on the wonderful Bread of Life? Are you going to possess your new territory instead of merely existing? There are hungry people all around you who are still dining on wilderness wheat, and unless they see you thrive, will never taste the fruit of the Promised Land - the hidden Manna!

Your fathers ate manna and died… John 6:49

He who eats this Bread will live forever. John 6:58

He humbled you and allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know. Deut 8:3

To him that overcomes, to him I will give of the hidden manna. Rev 2:17

Since today is day 7 of our Jericho march, I encourage you to go back and read each of the other days to symbolize marching around the fortified city seven times. Then raise your battle cry to heaven, and wait expectantly for those walls to fall down. Remember that the LORD is the One Who is fighting that battle, and even if it does not look like the walls have fallen down, this does not mean that they have not!

Praise YHWH!

Seven

Jericho - Day 6 The Reproach Has Been Rolled Away

After all the males had been circumcised, they rested in the camp until they were healed. Then the LORD said to Joshua, "Today I have rolled away the shame of your slavery in Egypt." So that place has been called Gilgal to this day. Joshua 5:8-9


Gilgal was the place the Israelites encamped after crossing the Jordan. It was harvest time, they had erected a monument of stones to be a remembrance of how the Lord brought them out of the land of Egypt, and they were about to celebrate Passover before heading to Jericho for battle.

There was a little hitch, however. None of the generation who crossed into the Promised Land had been circumcised. The rite of circumcision was, for the chosen nation of Israel, the very thing that set them apart from the other nations – people who were viewed as vile, detestable, and a reproach. The wandering treasures of the LORD had forgotten, or perhaps not so much as forgotten as settled for less by discontinuing this sanctification ceremony. Someone who feels the reproach of having been enslaved by the other nation, even at times wishing to go back, might not have much motivation to engage in a practice in which only the righteous would be worthy to participate.

So, the children of the fearful, rebellious, obstinate, disobedient, chosen ones of God had not been circumcised, or been set apart to God. The act of circumcision in its deepest meaning is a cutting away of the sinful flesh from the heart. The rolling away, so to speak, of the old nature, the shame, the reproach, the disappointment of the way things have been up to that point. This generation of Israelites had to live with the stigma left upon them by their parents, and their grandparents. And this stigma could have been a burden that they would not put down, as their ancestors chose. What if they were so humiliated by what their relatives had done that they became bitter? What if there was sheer embarrassment in the thought of the other nations possibly knowing about their ancestors being swallowed up by the earth because they were thieving, loud-mouthed, trouble-makers?

But instead, they cut away the humiliation and disappointment, and became a brand new chosen people. They had entered into their inheritance of the Promised Land, so there was no need to carry around the drudgery of the shame because God Himself rolled away the reproach of Egypt off of them.

I know that there are things we do ourselves which cause deep shame, regret, disappointment – reproach. And we have loved ones who, in their rebellious state, act shamefully, hurt and even humiliate us and others. I urge you to keep your heart circumcised from the drudgery that kept the treasured wanderers of God stuck on the other side of the Jordan, away from their Promised Land. You, my precious set-apart friends, have entered into your Promised Land, and God has rolled away that reproach from off of you. Stay in the camp until you are healed, and then let’s get back to the march!

To you they cried and were rescued; in you they trusted and were not put to shame. Psalm 22:5 ESV

Oh, guard my soul, and deliver me! Let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you. Psalm 25:20 ESV

Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame. Psalm 34:5 NIV

And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. 12 That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet this is no cause for shame, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day. 2 Tim 11-12 NIV

The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin [rolls away the reproach] of the world! John 1:29 ESV brackets mine
Six

Jericho - Day 5 Silence the Enemy

As soon as all the kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan to the west, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard that the LORD had dried up the waters of the Jordan for the people of Israel until they had crossed over, their hearts melted and there was no longer any spirit in them because of the people of Israel. Joshua 5:1

The LORD silences our enemies. He causes confusion in the camp of the adversary. He confounds the plans of the one who comes to steal, kill, and destroy. How else would some soldiers who are blowing horns and carrying a big box be so scary to a city behind thickly fortified walls? Why else would there not be sharpshooters firing arrows through windows at the silly guys marching around the city?

But sometimes our enemy taunts us, and lies to us, before the battle. He says things to cause our spirit to faint within us. 2 Kings, chapter 18 says that King Hezekiah faced this problem, only the enemy came along and spoke frightening words to his entire army. Messengers for the king of Assyria taunted them, reading aloud a diatribe written by the king, saying, “Do not let Hezekiah deceive you into trusting God. God will not save you from me – just look how many countries I have defeated. Just look how strong my army is. Just look at everything I have, and everything I have done, and all that I can do.” When Hezekiah is given this threatening letter, he immediately humbles himself and takes it to the LORD, lays it open before the altar of God, and prays, “God, You are the only One Who can do anything. Please, deliver us from the hand of this enemy so that Your Name will be known in all the land.” The LORD answered, “Because you came to me, I have heard you.” And the enemy, 185,000 people were struck down in the middle of the night by the LORD.

King Jehoshaphat was faced with a very similar situation. A great multitude of enemy soldiers came against Judah, and King Jehoshaphat took the problem to the house of the Lord. He cried out to God, reminding God what He had done for His people, and that He alone is the God Who rules over kingdoms and nations, and that He alone possessed power and might. God answered Him very much the same:

“ You need not fight in this battle; station yourselves, stand and see the salvation of the LORD on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out to face them, for the LORD is with you.” 2 Chron. 20:17

They went out to face the enemy the next day, singing and praising God, and by the time they got to the top of the hill overlooking enemy camp, every one of the enemy had been “self-slaughtered.” God had caused the enemy to turn on themselves!

So, my friends, your enemy is no match for the King of Kings – for Jesus the Lion! Take your situation before Him, lay it all out on the table for Him. Remind Him that He is the One Whose Name is great in all the land. The Lord will silence your enemy and confuse his plans and you will not need to fight this battle because it is God’s battle – and He will be with you!

He will guard the feet of his faithful servants, but the wicked will be silenced in the place of darkness. 1 Sam 2:9

But the king will rejoice in God. All who trust in him will praise him, while liars will be silenced. Psalm 63:11

In your unfailing love, silence my enemies; destroy all my foes, for I am your servant. Psalm 143:12

Five.