655 - The Destroyer Has a Plan

A very daunting task for me is explaining to my kids that God has their lives all planned out and it is for their good. The clique term of "God's will" is something I want them to be very familiar with and learn to seek at all costs.

I remember seeking the Lord (and still do) about various situations in my life. God always came through and revealed to me what to do, but it was not without much effort. I didn't know where I was suppose to go to college. I just remember knowing that I wanted to help pay back my parents by getting a scholarship for all they had done to get me to this level of tennis. And most importantly I was looking to find my Baptist husband. (Isn't it funny when our requests are so specific. I think God wants us to be more broad about our requests and see Him come through with all the details. I needed to just pray and hope for someone to marry me - God didn't care about the denomination!)

I want to make sure my kids are well aware of Jer. 29:11. "For I know the plans for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." God is not out to smoosh them. He is not out to spoil them from all the fun. He is not out to destroy their future and make them a zombie in Christ! No, my Lord and adventurously awesome Savior is a blast. I want to make sure my kids know that.

But as much as I want them to know and live in the belief that God is for them and has wonderful plans for their lives - for His glory - I need them to know there is one, the defeated one, out to destroy and demolish them! John 10:10 says, "The thief comes only to steal, kill, and detroy..." This thief is not just a scary monster. This thief is Satan himself that can be disguised as a good time. He can be disguised as something innocent on the internet, something that everyone else is doing, something that no one else will ever know about... Satan too has a plan for their lives. If he can not get them into Hell, he will do everything to make their lives a living Hell and bring as many others down with them as possible. Satan is real and really wants to kill!!

As we are getting closer and closer to Thanksgiving my heart does rejoice in the Savior and all He means to me. I am thankful for His mercies and grace. I am thankful for salvation and redemption! But I am also very much aware and thankful for His protection. God works all things for my good and His glory, Satan just wants to see his plan for me to be a reality as well - steal my joy, kill my relatiosnhips, and destroy my walk. I cling to "greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world!" I pray you will too!

533 - I just Gotta Know

This morning everything is so calm - not so much last night. Everything seems to be fine around here, but in Jackson, Tn. at Union University things have been turned upside down. Oh Lord as I was looking at their destruction I could not help but tear up. It is awful what the storm has done to the campus, but praise You all are ok at this time!! Our friends, the Neibels, have a daughter there and I have 2 cousins there as well. All are ok at this time. But oh how I wish I could have been there last night during the storm and after. This is a school that loves Jesus - the faculty, the administration, the students - for the most part. This is one of those times Union shines. I would have loved to seen all the kids gathered around for prayer - and I am sure some singing as well. I would have loved to seen all those professors that seem to be so stuffy out in the destruction and helping out. It is just how they are. Wonderful people! I would love to have seen the students helping one another - those that have never talked before for whatever reason. I would have loved to seen those of great faith still praising the Lord for all the world or town to see. I know my Union will rise again. I know things will be even better. I know they will rise up and say they are blessed. Just how they do things and how they raise their people and students!! Love it! I am praying Ps. 91 for them all.

"Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know." Jer. 33:3

Hope your yesterday went well. I had some huge voctories that I will not bore you with, but know that He is working in me. I do not have it all together - you know that if you have been reading this blog for any amount of time - nor do I pretend to have it together. So I am learning and claiming scripture as we go!! 2 days down - ......lots to go! ha! So how does the scripture above pertain to anything with being healthy and reaching goals? I will try to explain what I hear the Lord saying to me now.

Yesterday we really focused on calling out to one another - spurring on - for encouragment and help. I reminded you at the very end to never neglect Him in your cry for help, but that was not the focus. The neat thing was that I did not know today's verse would be about calling out to Him. God is making sure we never forget Him in our everyday living. He has a Word for us today - I can't wait to see how it ends up as I type... It is almost a mystery for me as I never know what direction He takes me when I am writing!!

I believe I have confessed to you that I am an emotional eater. I was scared last night in the storm and I wanted to chomp. When I am bored I want to chomp down. If i get mad - I want to take it out on some good chips. When I am celebrating nothing is better than hot chocolate chip cookies. Yep - that is me. I can find any reason to eat! But the bottom line is when I have some form of anxiety, stress, unknown - whatever you want to call it - I replace that faith in the Lord with food. Does anyone else do this? Please tell me I am not the only one.

Priscilla Shirer called me yesterday and told me that if "Christ would die for me then why in the world would He not speak to me". (Yes, she is my close friend.) This is it - very plain and simple today - When anxiety hits - when stress mounts - when emotions flare - when the unknown makes itself known with no deatils - when we want to know why we act a certain way or react a certain way - WE ASK HIM!! He is longing for us to search His heart - he seraches ours constantly! He wants to speak to us and tell us the whys and hows and the what to dos about things going on in our lives. He wants to reveal to us the way we should go because His plans are for our good, not to harm us. Jer. 29:11. He wants to be our destressor, our completor, our waymaker, our calmer downer, our peace!!!!!!!!! But we have to ask.

The word "call" in the verse above means to cry out looking for a specific answer. It is not or is rarely just a random cry out or call out with no purpose. It is the same word used when Adam called out the names of the animals. (There had to have been purpose with Hippo. hee hee) And the word "tell" means to give a specific answer when a question has been asked - to reveal - and it can mean to tell things one may not have any way of knowing. Lastly in that verse one of my favorite words - yada - means to really know, perceive, to understand - He will tell us things we do not know!!! Do you get it??? If we cry out, ask, call out to our Lord He will respond in such a way that gives peace with answers. He may not be extremely specific, but He might reveal "you are going to be fine" and that is worth knowing during major stress. He very well might tell you something very specifc for your life - He can and does and will - but we have to pause, take time out, and ask and THEN listen. Listen can be the hard part.

Our Lord wants us to turn to Him for guidance, to Him for solutions, to Him for consolation, to Him for restoration, to Him for refuge, to Him for answers................... not food that I do so often! Can anyone bear witness? Can anyone see this thing through with me? Can anyone hear me now? I need to yada - know!!

PS - is everyone's spell check not working on their blogger?

PSS - For those that don't know, I had a first cousin, his wife, and their 2 young boys killed in a tornado just a few yers ago - hense my fear of storms, etc.

PSSS - and no, Priscilla is not my real close friend - silly girl!

495 - Living Close, Clean, and with Purpose

Dear Lord, I am very rushed on time this morning. I have a purse party this morning at Lincoln School in Carmi and then another one tonight at Rachel's house in McLeansboro. So I have to get completely ready for the day before I walk out at 7:45. Back to the old working routine!! Lord, help us all and I do mean that! I pray that all goes well today and tonight. I pray that there are many, many sales of both purses and Rachel's beautiful baskets. Thank you, Lord!

This morning I found myself at an odd scripture - it was odd to me! I am asking the Lord for specific direction in regards to a specific challenge I feel like He has placed on Speaking Thru Me Ministries. I will reveal that challenge as I know the specific directions! Lord, Ginger and I am desperately seeking your will. She had lunch the other day with Kay. Of course Kay is a woman of huge wisdom and conviction. We feel like that was a divinely appointed time and much is to be taken and considered and prayed over from that appointment - so we are. Reveal, Lord!!

This morning in Jer. 13:1-11 it about a linen belt. Just the bottom section of my commentary said this was much like underwear. Now my first thought or exclamation was - Why does the Lord so often deal with matters of the privates - underwear, circumcision, etc. I do remember a study I did with Beth Moore and her explaining very carefully and precisely the meaning and relevancy of circumcision. It was a touchy subject to say the least and she did it without using any words that would have made you squirm - but I can not think of which study it was. Maybe Patriarchs??? Who knows!!

God tells Jeremiah to take his belt or underwear, knew ones he just had purchased, and put it on. Then after a short time HE tells him to take the underwear and go bury them in a crevice of Perath. So he does. Then the Lord after many days later, tells him to go dig up the belt only to find it "ruined and completely useless". So I am just thinking out loud here, but unsure totally here about this scripture. God explains that He will ruin the pride of Judah. They are doing anything but bringing Him honor and glory and He will ruin destroy that pride - they are fixin' to go into 70 years of captivity. He wants Israel to be bound to His waist like the belt and its original purpose.

I would hate to wear a pair of undies (oh i hope I don't get weird Google ads because of this blog and word content) that have not been washed and dried with fabric softener. Just the way things are these days. I thinking a round about way they may have been the same way back then. God is saying that the underwear that are used, unclean, and possibly rough and stiff are not of any use, useless!! #1 the guy wore them for a short amount of time I am sure making them at least undesirable if not unclean. Then he was asked to bury them and the dirt certainly gets them dirty. THEN just by the fact of nature running its course they were probably rained on. Have you ever not dried your clothes the right way - they get all stiff and yucky!! So now we have undies that are unclean, dirty from the soil (no pun intended), and probably stiff and uncomfortable from the elements - without purpose. Am I getting anywhere???? Lord help!

So the Lord is then saying He wants His people to be like the belt around His wait - living close to Him, Clean, and with Purpose. Only by living so close and intimately with the Father can we hear clearly from Him and know His heart and desires. Ps. 25:14 "The Lord confides in those who fear Him..." Isn't that awesome!! The Lord confides, He tells his heart and dreams, purposes, plans for us - but only if you are up close and intimately involved with the Savior - only through displaying a deep fear, awe, respect, reverence will those things be revealed!

The Lord requires us to be clean. Constant state of becoming blameless, seeking forgiveness, and righteousness! We only become clean and holy through the blood of Christ. When we are not "fessed up" the effectiveness of the Holy Spirit is diminished in our lives - He is quenched! I want clean underwear every single day - the Lord needs a clean vessel to work through. (Wow this is kind of crazy to me - just the talk of underwear and my holiness. ha ha)

And of course the Lord has purpose, makes purpose for us, and is purposeful to us! Just like the underwear when they are soiled and stiff - they lose their purpose. Oh Lord, help me to never be stiff necked. Those times that i get that way help me to be softened by your grace, mercy through discipline. Lord, I am seeking Your Will!! I need to hear from you and desire to do nothing else but what you ask. Lord, give Ginger and I a Word to confirm what we are hearing. Thank you for the intimacy of underwear talk and applying it to my life - You amaze me Lord!! Wow - am I close any of this one Lord?? Reveal to me or have someone else direct me closer to what You are taking about in this passage!!! I love you - May today be blessed by You and your favor fall down on today's events!! I love you!!