I guess if I were to give this article a title it would be "Pray For Israel".  We are now living in confusing and tumultuous times.  As a Christian, I take note of what happens in the news concerning Israel.     Dr. David Jeremiah writes, "I believe America's future, in large part, depends on our relationship to the tiny nation of Israel."  His reason for saying this is what is written in Genesis.  The promise God made to Abraham, the father of the nation of Israel. 

 Genesis 12:1-3  Now the LORD had said to Abram:

"Get out of your country, From your family And from your father's house, To a land that I will show you.

2. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; And you shall be a blessing.

3. I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you: 

And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

  Dr. Jeremiah says, "Through His chosen people, God intended (and intends) to bless the rest of the human family.  He chose a Mesopotamian man named Abram and promised that he and his descendants would be a channel of that blessing. The entire population of planet earth--every man, woman, and child was destined to be blessed through the nation of Israel.

  Therefore, people who recognize God's purposes for Israel and do whatever they can to preserve, protect, and defend Israel will likewise be preserved, protected, and defended.  God, to whom Israel belongs, will see to it."

  He continues: "Now, I don't think the promise of Genesis 12 is an isolated binary event.  There are many other reasons why God blesses us and chastises us as nations.  Yet Scripture makes it clear that to the degree America stands with, befriends, supports, and defends God's chosen people, to that degree America will enjoy the favor of God."

  From there Dr. Jeremiah goes into how important it is for us to pray for Israel.  And that is one of the points I want to make.  Praying for Israel and their leaders and our national leaders is very important.  But I also want to venture into another direction that occurred to me as I have watched what is going on in our world. I see a picture in front of us.  A spiritual picture.  A picture of what God has done for us.  I do think "pictures" are a way God communicates with us.  Think of the ways that Jesus identified Himself to get some truths across to the people in a way that they would understand.  He said:

"I am the bread of life."

"I am the light of the world."

"I am the door."

"I am the good shepherd."

"I am the resurrection and the life."

"I am the way the truth and the life."

"I am the true vine."

   Jesus also used word picture stories (parables) to help the people understand spiritual things.  I particularly like the one in Luke 11 about the persistent friend wanting something from a neighbor (who didn't really want to get out of bed) but persistence won out.  And the one in Luke 18 about a surly judge and a widow.  She wanted justice and she kept at him until justice came.  If sinful, selfish humans give in when pestered, how much more will a loving God answer our prayers when we don't give up praying. (And I have things I'm not going to give up praying about.)  These are pictures to learn from.

  I think God has even given us pictures in nature that speak of spiritual truth.  Every autumn (where I live) the leaves fall from the trees and the trees appear to be dead.  But, come Spring, new leaves sprout.  It is like the tree has new life. 

  And a butterfly...what better picture is there for us to understand the resurrection than that of a worm who goes into a cocoon casket and comes out a butterfly.  It is like a picture of what we are in this life and what we will become (because of God's grace) in the next life.  There are probably many more I could mention, but I want to get to the picture I see in Israel right now.

  I see a ruthless, satanic, evil enemy who took captives with the intent of doing away with Israel. Then made trades, innocent children for jailed prisoners.  That looks a lot like what Satan our enemy did.  He took mankind captive by capturing the first two.  Mankind had to be bought back to be released from that spiritual prison.  

   A trade had to be made for Satan's captives to be released.  The cost to buy them back would be that Jesus Christ, God's Son, would have to die on a cross.  Jesus said "Yes, I will die to bring them back."...The one innocent for the many guilty.

 Jesus bought our pardon.  The prison door is now open.  We can walk out of Satan's prison.  And Jesus is the door.  The wonderful part is Jesus did not stay dead. He is alive in complete victory.  The other wonderful part is that we, by asking, can be forgiven and released from Satan's prison and we can spend eternity with our Lord and Savior Jesus the Messiah.

Pray for Israel.

Pray for worldwide revival.

Pray for an awakening.

How Great Is Our God

How Great is Our God

The splendor of the King, clothed in majesty;

Let all the earth rejoice, Let all the earth rejoice.

He wraps Himself in light and darkness tries to hide;

It trembles at His voice, it trembles at His voice.

How great is our God! Sing with me "How great is our God!"

And all will see how great, how great is our God!

    I love this song written by Chris Tomlin, Jesse Reeves, and Ed Cash. I'm not sure that with our human brains it is entirely possible to take in and grasp just how very great our God really is. But, I think it is good to try. I think God desires for us to try.  It is one of the ways we get to know Him.

     Recognizing His greatness is important.  I think all people who believe in God have a basic understanding that God is great.  I am convinced that God wants us to have a personal understanding of how very great He is.                                             

   The way to get that understanding is to get close to Him and spend lots of time in His word.  An awareness of His greatness affects our praise and worship of Him.  It builds our faith that He truly can do anything. And, when you combine that view of Him with the awareness of how much He loves us...well, that is a pretty good combination to guide us, and to fit us for battle against our enemy, and we do have an enemy. One who does not want us to know how great our God is.

Scriptural testimonies of God's greatness:

  It may seem like a strange place to start, but I want to start in the book of Job.

Job 1:1 There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil.

2. And seven sons and three daughters were born to him.

3. Also, his possessions were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very large household, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the East.

  Job was a man of God who was a man of great possessions and great faith.  According to scripture Satan and God had a discussion about Job.  Satan surmised that Job loved God so much because God blessed and protected him.  So, to measure Job's devotion to God, Satan was given permission from God to bring some pain and misery into Job's life.

   Then, in one day all of Job's wealth was taken and all of his children were killed by a tornado.

Job 1:20 says: Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped.  And he said: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, And naked shall I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD."

Well, that didn't work out too good for Satan so he tried again.

Job 2:7: So, Satan went out from the presence of the LORD, and struck Job with painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.

   Now, surrounded by a wife who tells him to curse God and die, and friends who are not very comforting, we find in chapter 9 verse 4 his response to his not so helpful friend Bildad.  This grieving, pain racked man says this: "God is wise in heart and mighty in strength.  Who has hardened himself against Him and prospered?   Then, in verses 5-9 he speaks of the many things in nature that God has done proving His greatness.  Then, in verse 10, in spite of his grief and pain, Job says, "He (God) does great things past finding out, Yes, wonders without number. Job had an understanding of how great his God was even in very difficult times.

   Job passed this test of his faith in God and God restored to him his wealth and his family.

   We will all have some "Job times", (maybe by God's design, maybe by our own doing, or maybe by our enemy trying to discourage us) times that are difficult and drain us and discourage us and scare us and leave us empty and grieving.  Those are the times that we need to know and cling to the greatness of our God.

   King David understood how great his God was.  I am so thankful for David and thankful that he was a word person, and that he wrote down all those words that came into his heart. And I am glad that what he wrote was written from a gut level place in his very human heart.  David was so real.  A sinner who loved his God.  A human who knew how great his God was.

In Psalm 18  David writes of how his great God brought His greatness down to a personal level, to David's level. (to our level).  God was not a distant unknown power to David.  He was David's LORD GOD. A GOD that David had a close relationship with.

PSALM 18:

1. I will love You, O LORD, my strength.

2. The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer;

My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the

horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

3. I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised; so shall I be saved from my enemies.   (We too have an enemy)

4. The pangs of death surrounded me, And the floods of ungodliness made me afraid.   ( "floods of ungodliness" that we see rising in our world should cause us to be concerned. Concerned enough to pray to our great God)

5. The sorrows of Sheol surrounded me: The snares of death confronted me.

6. In my distress I called upon the LORD, And cried out to my God; He heard my voice from His temple, And my cry came before Him, even to His ears.   Skipping to verse 16

16. He sent from above, He took me; He drew me out of many waters.

17. He delivered me from my strong enemy.  From those who hated me, For they were too strong for me.

18. They confronted me in the day of my calamity, But the LORD was my support.

19. He also brought me out into a broad place; He delivered me because He delighted in me.  (God delights in us)

  David was close enough to God to know that God delighted in him.  He felt God's love.  We can and need to get that close so that we can know that God delights in us.   This knowledge is empowering.

35. You have also given me the shield of Your salvation; Your right hand has held me up, Your gentleness has made me great.

39. For You have armed me with strength for the battle; You have subdued under me those who rose up against me.  

(We also have an enemy who fights hard against us.  It helps in this battle to know how great our God is when we need to subdue our enemy)

46. The LORD lives! Blessed be my Rock!  Let the God of my salvation be exalted.

Psalm 31:19  Oh how great is Your goodness, which you have laid up for those who fear You, Which You have prepared for those who trust in You in the presence of the sons of men! 

Psalms 48:1  Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in His holy mountain.

Psalms 71:19 Also Your righteousness, O God, is very high, You who have done great things; O God, who is like You?

Psalm 77:13  Your way, O God, is in the sanctuary; Who is so great a God as our God?

Psalm 86:8-10 Among the gods there is none like You, O Lord; Nor are there any works like Your works.  All nations whom You have made shall come and worship before you O Lord, and shall glorify Your name.  For You are great, and do wondrous things; You alone are God.

Psalm 92:5  O LORD how great are Your works!  Your thoughts are very deep.

Evidence of His greatness    (AND GOD SAID!)

A. His great creation

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

   In 6 days God created it all. He spoke it into existence.  The solar system (and beyond) water, plant life (with seeds) fish and birds, bees, and butterflies and all the other animals big and small.  It is a great and powerful God who can create life and provide all that each of those kinds of life need by speaking it into existence.  Food...water...air to breathe.

   "Let there be light!"

   "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters and let it divide the waters from the waters."

   "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place and let the dry land appear."  

   "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years."

    "Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens."

   "Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth." 

He spoke, and it was so!  And it was good!

 Favorite greatness example #1.  At a precise time every year, a few days after a particular full moon, corals of every kind, all together in unison spew out millions of tiny eggs and tiny sperm into the sea.  It is supposed that the lunar cycle determines the exact moment at which this miraculous spawning event takes place.  The eggs float quickly to the surface.  The sperm are free swimmers and quickly find a mate.  After the egg is fertilized, a tiny embryo develops within 24 hours.  The tiny baby coral is ready to settle after about 5 days.  It drops to the bottom and if it settles in a good place will live and grow for many decades.  This is such an amazing display of nature's mystery that in some areas tourists go to watch the fascinating event.

Favorite greatness example #2.  I live up on a mountain.  I don't have to look too far to see things that shout "My God is great, there is none like Him!"  One year I found a strange pod cocoon.  My curiosity got the best of me and I brought it in and put it in a jar to see what would come out of it. After about a week, I noticed the jar looked strange.  I went closer to get a better look.  Hundreds of tiny alien looking creatures were all over in that jar.  Praying mantis babies!   I still look for the pods and enjoy this evidence of a very great and awesome God.

Favorite greatness example #3.  I don't like spiders, but a close look at a spider's web shows absolute intelligence.  God's intelligence.  And in the fall baby spiders go ballooning on strings of spider web to get dispersed to other areas.  Every insect, bird, animal and reptile that passes thru my yard is a unique creation of an awesome, powerful and great God.  Sometimes I think God allows me these glimpses because "He delights in me."  And, it causes me to recognize His greatness.

Favorite greatness example #4. 
Sometimes things grow voluntarily in my yard.  Some of them I like, some I'm not so fond of.  If you ponder where those seeds came from that make a whole new plant, you realize they came from a plant, which came from a plant, which came from a plant...all the way back to creation.  No human ever created a seed that would grow a plant that contained within it more seeds when it matured.  I think the more we let ourselves be amazed at how great our God is, the more He will amaze us, and the more we will praise Him, and the more our faith will grow.

The Greatest Evidence Of His Greatness

   One reason that we need to keep in mind at all times how great our God is, is because our enemy does not want us to see the greatness of our God. Our enemy wants us to leave God out of our situations.  He wants us to depend on our own strength instead of God's strength.  He wants us to not value God's priorities. He wants us to seek man's wisdom instead of God's wisdom.

   Nor does our enemy want us to see His love.  For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  This is the greatest demonstration of just how great our God is.  That He would love us that much.

 

    

    If I had one wish for my family it would be this:  That they would understand completely and fully how deeply God loves them, how powerfully Jesus loves them.  As children we sang the Sunday school song "Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so."

    But do we know?  Do we really have any idea how very very much we are loved by our Savior, our God?

   I'm not so sure we really do.  I think we can spend too much time at an invisible mirror.  We know ourselves well.  We see ourselves pretty clearly.  We know well all our battles, our past bad choices.  We know the words that have stormed out of our mouth at unguarded times.  We know the thoughts that slither and flit thru our minds that aren't always kind.

   This is where the struggle to really embrace God's love for us will come from.  Our own selves.  Looking in instead of up.  He knows the battles we face, our frustrations, our anger, our humanity.  And still He chooses to love us.

   Looking around instead of up can also hinder us from knowing Jesus loves us.  Sometimes people grow up in homes that are scarce in the love department and it is easy to fall into the trap of assuming that God loves in the same manner as mankind.  This is especially true when is comes to love from our earthly fathers.

   So many children are growing up in homes with no father, some with emotionally absent fathers, some even with abusive fathers.

   Our heavenly Father loves us like no one else ever could.  There is no comparison.  Don't look in at your failures, and don't look around at the failures of others. Look up. Jesus never fails.

   Everything about our Lord, every action, every word spoken, and everything within Him says, "I LOVE YOU!"  His love is a gift that we can accept or reject.

   He didn't just say it.  He proved it when He allowed Himself to be crucified on a cruel cross taking with Him the sins of all.  Our sins are paid for through this act of love. Our part is simply to accept it. Accept the love of our Savior.  We do that by believing that He died for us, repenting of our sin, and inviting Him into our life to be our Lord.

   Jesus loves me this I know....and no one can take that away. 

   

IS YOUR PLATE TOO FULL

    I came across a post on my face book page that talked about God putting us in a holding pattern at times. You can find it here: 

https://hutchcraft.com/a-word-with-you/your-mission/stuck-in-a-holding-pattern-7240?fbclid=IwAR2TmfVNeP8HDy-FgPmzTpm0nKSFUQhtoQPTxxZ32pIDub6d-4D3jCuCb-w  

 A holding pattern like an airplane waiting to land until all is safe.  This is not a place people like to be.  Waiting.  We don't like to wait, but we will all have times of waiting.  Sometimes they are orchestrated by God.  I tucked this information away to chew on.  A couple of weeks later during my prayer time I felt these words of God impressed to me.  "Be Still And Know That I Am God" .  I hadn't been thinking about that verse, but I think God wanted me to think about it.  To take it in.  To believe it.  The verse is found in Psalms 46:10 It reads:  Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!

   I think my first thoughts were...I know You are God.  Be still?  Be still?  My mind started contemplating on why God was asking me to be still.  Surely He knows what all is on my plate and all the things that fall to me to take care of.  Be still....that sounds like a luxury, like a vacation.  But that is not the whole message.  Be still and know that He is God.  It is like He is saying, put yourself in a holding pattern and think about how powerful and loving I am.

   I finished my devotion and prayer time and began my day still pondering what God was saying.  One of my tasks for that day was to do some Christmas shopping.  I had seen a little bench with a scripture verse  in an advertisement from a nearby shop. I couldn't remember what verse was on it was...but I thought the bench was really cute and that maybe my daughters might like one. 

   I set out to look for Christmas treasures at the store that had the little benches.  As soon as I stepped onto their porch...there it was...a beautiful handmade bench with these words:  Be Still and know that I am God.  Immediately I thought, OK, I'm listening, I'm hearing you Lord.

   I bought the bench and told my hubby that it was the gift we were giving each other.  He was pleased (probably because he wouldn't have to go shopping).  But, he liked the bench too.

   All the words of the 46th Psalm are important.

1. God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.

2. Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;

3. Though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling.

4. There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, The holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High.

5. God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved; God shall help her, just at the break of dawn.

6. The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved;  He uttered His voice, the earth melted.

7. The LORD of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge.

8. Come behold the works of the LORD, Who has made desolations in the earth.

9.  He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;  He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two; He burns the chariot in the fire.

10. Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!  

11. The LORD of hosts is with us;  The God of Jacob is our refuge.

  In verse 8 the word desolations means emptiness, bleakness.  We can find ourselves in some pretty bleak or empty, hard and discouraging places, but God says:  Be still and know that I am God: I will be be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. The LORD of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge.

   The words in this chapter speak of wars and weapons.  We are in a war every day.  We have an enemy.  But greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world.  

   I started to wonder...what does God mean that He wants me to be still.  (Then I got this mental picture of a hyper toddler and a parent trying to get them prepared for the day saying patiently, "Be still.")

   Why is it so difficult for us to be still?  Maybe because we are trying to handle things on our own.  Maybe we reason that God doesn't care about all those mundane things on our plates.  I needed to be reminded that our awesome wonderful God is a God of tiny details as well as big world events.  I think the message here is if He can handle big world wide events...He can handle my stuff, and your stuff.  And, He wants to.

   I love nature and all the things of nature. You don't have to look very far to see just how detailed our God is.  The intricate web of a spider.  The pattern on the back of a turtle.  The colors that He painted all the different birds that come to visit.  The sounds they make.  The sound a frog makes.  The way leaves work to bring something into the tree and release something different back into the air.  I discovered something by accident one year when some sunflowers came up voluntarily in my yard (from bird seed probably).  I saw the way they faced in the morning and then the way they faced in the afternoon.  They always faced the sun.  I should be as wise as a sunflower and keep my eyes on the source of my strength.

  My life is not too complicated for God, nor it it too mundane.  His love for us is so great.  His wisdom to be Lord is so far above ours.  Be Still child...Be Still.  Stop fretting.  Be still and consider how great is our God.  It is about being patient...about being able to wait. There is that word that no one likes.  Wait for God's direction.  God knows that undone things can bug us.  But He knows what might be more important.  Be Still...and find what is important to Him.  And by the way, He will wait with you.

Psalm 27:14 says: Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD!

Psalm 62: 1-2 says: Truly my soul silently waits for God; From Him comes my salvation.  He only is my rock and my salvation; He is my defense; I shall not be greatly moved.

   I'm guessing we all have stuff on our plates that we don't want there.  Stuff we really don't want to have to deal with.  Stuff we ignore or pawn off onto someone else...Stuff we deal with in our own in a helter-skelter way...Not trusting God to help, not waiting for His leading.   He wants to be LORD of our plates.

   I love David.  I love reading his honest unreserved words.

Psalm 69:1-3  In this psalm David gets really real with God.

1. Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. (Has your plate ever felt that full?)  I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing:  I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. (Have you ever felt that overwhelmed?)  3. I am weary with my crying; my throat is dry; my eyes fail while I wait for my God.  (David got tired, he felt overwhelmed, he felt vulnerable, He cried...but what did he do?  He waited for his God.)

Be Still....Do not fret....and KNOW that He is God.  Give him your plate.  Seek His wisdom for all things and wait for His leading, His wisdom.  Be willing to wait for Him to act, to answer, to lead and guide.

Blessings