January 19, 2009

You shall Not Be Earthbound
Where thou lodgest, I will lodge.  Ruth 1:16

Mount up on the wings of My power.  For there are powers of the air to be subdued and conquered.  You need faith and the liberty and power of the Holy Spirit to overcome these and rise above them.
My Church shall be an overcoming church, and My Bride shall be a heavenly being.  I will take to Me one who has chosen to make My home her home, even as Ruth did.  But she who turns back like Orpah shall not enter into My inheritance.

When I read this I thought, what do I write, but these are the thoughts that are with me:
It is many years ago since my Uncle Harry died, but the verse read at his funeral still sticks in my mind.  It was Isaiah 40:39-41:  He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.  Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.  They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

Then on another occasion we were visiting Gary and Shirley Olson at Elbow Lake, the pastor spoke on this passage: Isaiah 6:1-9a  In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple.  Above him were seraphs, each with six wings; With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.  And they were calling to one another;  'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.'  At the sound of their voices the door post and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.  Woe to me I cried. 'I am ruined!.  For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.'  Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.  With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips;  your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.  Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'whom shall I send?' and who will go for us?  And I said, "Here am I. Send me!".....

God wants to cleanse us, in this scripture there were hot coals, but we have Jesus blood to cleanse us from sin and all unrighteousness.   And he wants to send us.....I appreciate the verses in Isaiah 40 because when we are overwhelmed by what is happening around us, I believe God wants to be our help to over come obstacles in our lives, and about us.  And sending us, it may be to the person next door, to the person we work with, or to our family.  All he asks is our faithfulness.

Father help us to be focused on you and not on the natural things about us.  When we focus on the natural things it is overwhelming and we lose sight of all that you have for us.  Help us to not look back but to look ahead, to keep our eyes on you.  In Jesus name.

Yesterday, we were at Sunday School and Church. Gene is sharing with us a video about Israel, it is so timely in the light of events in the world.  We are reminded in Psalm 122:6  Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.....  During church we had a report about Nicaragua, and those going shared about their expectations for this year.  We saw a video from past year.  It was very good, I had not seen it.  Again a good offering was taken.  Jack and I were both tired so we went home and had naps.    In the evening I focused on getting information organized for income tax.  Today is a holiday from school.  But I feel it more important to remember why.  Our country in the beginning made a lot of bad choices, or atleast a lot of bad things happened for the African American people.  Now as we reflect on the sacrifice of Martin Luther King, Jr. and others, and to see that today we have actually elected an African American president.  We have come a long way.  We are also reminded to pray for those in authority, so praying for our president is very important.