THANKSGIVING!

Today, I give thanks for the Lord’s goodness and promises over my life. I remember…and lift up my voice in JOYFUL SURRENDER. He that promised is well able to bring into completion what He began in you and me. Join me as I rejoice in Him and through Him.

God will bring you and me to OUR DESIRED HAVEN:

Psalms 107:28-30
Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed. They they were GLAD when it grew calm, and he guided them to THEIR DESIRED HAVEN.

You and I offer Him OUR THANKSGIVING:

Psalm 107:31-32
We gave THANKS to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for me. We EXALT him in the assembly of the people and praise him in the council of elders.

I don’t know at what point you are in life, but remember…He is still MIGHTY to save, heal, deliver, restore and make all things NEW! Come to His Gates with praise and to His Courts with THANKSGIVING! Say…the Lord is good and His mercies endures forever. Rejoice, rejoice and again, rejoice!

GLORY TO OUR KING, now and forevermore!

NAKED TRUST

Genesis 22:5 He said to his servants, ‘Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then WE WILL COME BACK TO YOU.”

Of late, I have this strange yet not frightening feeling that someone is watching my every move. Its almost as if…my privacy is being violated at every step I make but at the same time…I don’t feel exposed to danger. This morning, the Lord finally put these words into my heart. NAKED TRUST!

Let’s begin by defining these two words separately;

NAKED means…having the body unclothed; undressed; having no covering; EXPOSED; unsupported by authority etc.

TRUST means…reliance on and confidence in the truth, worth, reliability, etc., of a person of thing; faith; custody, charge or care of; to allow someone to do something with the confidence in his/her good sense of honesty etc.

What is NAKED TRUST then? Naked trust can be defined therefore as a show of PUBLIC CONFIDENCE in a person or thing.

We all get excited when we read the story of Abraham as he waits for God to fulfill his promise to give him a son. It takes trust to believe God will do as He promised…in spite of the many obstacles along the way. Abraham believed God…and in time….Isaac, the son of promise was borne to him in his old age. After sometime, we see the very same God who gave Abraham his son come back with a strange request. A request which has no promise attached to it. I WANT YOUR SON! Take him to the altar…and I will meet you there.

SOW YOUR SEED WELL

Ecclesiastes 11:6 SOW YOUR SEED in the morning, and at evening let not your hands be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well.

For those who read my blog regularly, you might be aware that I have complied a manuscript…which someday I hope to find a publisher and yes…my memoir will finally hit the bookshelves. But meanwhile as I wait and trust God for the opportunity to get published…I want to share and rejoice with one of my blogger friends, Elaine Olsen.

Although I don’t know Elaine personally, I met her through the blogging world sometime in December 2009 and my heart was hooked to her writing ever since. May I say, she has a passion for the Lord, her family…and yes, the written word. Every time, I visit her blog….PEACE FOR THE JOURNEY, my heart is always stirred by the passion in her words…words which cut through and bring at times relieve, at times a radical change of heart but at most, I feel her heart…and my own lost in the things and purpose of God for her life. She is a LISTENER...and God is speaking into her heart…and she in turn, writes it out for you and me, to help us along our journey towards our heavenly dwellings.

She has SOWN HER SEED WELL….and the Lord has made a way for her. A few weeks ago, she got her first book published and I truly recommend it for reading! The book title is;

PEACE FOR THE JOURNEY:in the pleasure of his company
~f elaine olsen~

For the details on how to purchase your copy, please click on the link above! SOW YOUR SEED WELL…God is faithful.

2 Corinthians 9:10 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.

God bless you!

YOUR LAST ENEMY

1 Corinthians 15:25-26 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. THE LAST ENEMY to be destroyed is death.

I have heard this declaration by Christians more often than not. ‘I HAVE NO ENEMIES.’ But the truth be told. Yes…you have enemies. In fact, from the very moment you openly declared your allegiance to follow the Lord Jesus, your first and greatest enemy became the devil. The devil uses other agents to oppose the purpose of God from being accomplished in your life. And while his agents maybe physical, emotional or spiritual…the most effective of them all is when he uses people.

This morning….the Lord whispered these words into my heart. ‘I WILL USE YOUR LAST ENEMY TO THRUST YOU INTO YOUR DESTINY.’ Suddenly, I understood what that meant. Throughout the bible history, we see people who rose up to oppose God’s chosen servants. And while facing their enemy, in human weakness, God always entered into their situation to show Himself strong on their behalf.

DO YOU HAVE PEACE?

John 16:32-33 “But a time is coming, and has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me. I have told you these things, SO THAT IN ME YOU MAY HAVE PEACE. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.

Do you have peace? You may say that is a broad question…and I admit it is. What does peace have to do with you? Most definitions of the word peace…are derived from the state from the outside which defines what happens on the inside. For example, when someone is mean and unfriendly to you, you may feel uncomfortable or restless in their presence. Or when there are chaos around, you tend also to lose focus and a sense of harmony.

In the above scripture verses is hidden wisdom in the words of Jesus to his disciples. Yes…Jesus was about to go to the cross. It was going to be the climax of events that had unfolded 3 years earlier. But…it wasn’t going to be the climax the disciples were anticipating. It was about to be very ugly….in fact, very CHAOTIC and VIOLENT. Oh yes…their world was about to be turned upside down. And Jesus was preparing them for it. So…when He was talking to them about HAVING PEACE, they had no slighted clue what was ahead.

ENCOURAGE YOURSELF IN THE LORD

1 Samuel 30:6 David was greatly distressed because the men were talking about stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. But David FOUND STRENGTH IN THE LORD HIS GOD.

STRENGTHEN according to my Collins dictionary means: to fortify, brace up, consolidate, ENCOURAGE, GIVE NEW ENERGY TO, etc.

In other words, we can read this sentence like this: But David ENCOURAGED HIMSELF IN THE LORD HIS GOD.

This morning, I had plans to write on a different topic altogether. But as I was conversing with my husband, I felt the Lord leading me into this direction. The Lord made it clear to me that there are many out there who need not to be encouraged, BUT TO ENCOURAGE THEMSELVES IN THE LORD.

What do I mean by ENCOURAGING YOURSELF IN THE LORD? Let’s go back to the storyline in 1 Samuel 30. David was not yet the King of Israel….but Prophet Samuel had already anointed him as the next king of Israel. The mantle of kingship had already be passed on to David, yet he wasn’t yet at his rightful position. King Saul had plotted more than once to kill him, but he had escaped to the land of the Philistines. Together with six hundred men, he settled in the land of Gath with Achish, son of the King of Gath….and joined his army. On several occasion, he went out with his men to raid the surrounding lands, leaving no man or woman alive but came back to Achish with sheep, cattle, donkey etc. Achish thought David was no longer loyal to his countrymen…and even when the time came for the Philistines to face the Israelites in battle, Achish included him and his men in their army.

But as they were preparing to enter into the battlefield, the rulers of the Philistines army who didn’t approve of David…because they already knew of his earlier conquest against them asked Achish to send him back to his place of assignment, that is, Ziklag.