It's On!

Today we are doing battle.

There are a lot of you dealing with spiritual corruption, division and lies. Today, in the name of Jesus, we will pray against that.

Philippians 4:6 instructs us to, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."

And 1 Thessalonians 5:17 instructs us to, "Pray continually."

Praying down lies and spiritual corruption. Praying up God's wisdom, strength and armor. I'll be dropping specific scripture prompts throughout the day. You can do this!

Begin with Matthew 6:33, "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."

In this battle, we must first understand that this is not about us. This is about God and His glory. His church and His people. If you are joining this battle because you are feeling wronged or irritated about a way that you have been treated, stop. Refocus. Seek first the kingdom of God. This is not about you. Angry on behalf of God? Okay. Hunker down.

In battle, we must arm ourselves.

On to Ephesians 6:10-20, "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, HAVING GIRDED YOUR LOINS WITH TRUTH, and HAVING PUT ON THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, and having shod YOUR FEET WITH THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take THE HELMET OF SALVATION, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak."

Praying for a clear conscience...

1 peter 3:16-17, "Keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. It is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil."

Praying that those who would speak up for righteousness will have the boldness of Nathan and the hearers of their words will have the heart of David...

II Samuel 12:1-13, "The Lord sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.

'Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.'

David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, 'As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this deserves to die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.'

Then Nathan said to David, 'You are the man! This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’

“This is what the Lord says: ‘Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity upon you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight. You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’”

Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”

Don't fret because of evildoers, but continue to commit your way to the Lord...

Psalm 37:5-6, "Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun."
Liars, be aware - the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world...

II Corinthians 10:1-6, "By the meekness and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you—I, Paul, who am “timid” when face to face with you, but “bold” when away! I beg you that when I come I may not have to be as bold as I expect to be toward some people who think that we live by the standards of this world. For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete."

We will forgive as Christ has forgiven us...

II Corinthians 2:5-11, "If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you, to some extent—not to put it too severely. The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient for him. Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him. The reason I wrote you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything. If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him. And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes. "

Warning against rejecting wisdom...

Proverbs 1:20-33, "Wisdom shouts in the street,
She lifts her voice in the square;
At the head of the noisy streets she cries out;
At the entrance of the gates in the city she utters her sayings:
“How long, O naive ones, will you love being simple-minded?
And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing
And fools hate knowledge?
“Turn to my reproof,
Behold, I will pour out my spirit on you;
I will make my words known to you.
“Because I called and you refused,
I stretched out my hand and no one paid attention;
And you neglected all my counsel
And did not want my reproof;
I will also laugh at your calamity;
I will mock when your dread comes,
When your dread comes like a storm
And your calamity comes like a whirlwind,
When distress and anguish come upon you.
“Then they will call on me, but I will not answer;
They will seek me diligently but they will not find me,
Because they hated knowledge
And did not choose the fear of the LORD.
“They would not accept my counsel,
They spurned all my reproof.
“So they shall eat of the fruit of their own way
And be satiated with their own devices.
“For the waywardness of the naive will kill them,
And the complacency of fools will destroy them.
But he who listens to me shall live securely
And will be at ease from the dread of evil.”

Matthew 18:19 tells us there is power in numbers, "Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven."

"Almighty God, the giver of all good things, without whose help all labor is ineffectual, and without whose grace all wisdom folly, grant, I beseech thee, that in all my undertakings thy Holy Spirit may not be withheld from me: but that I may promote thy glory, and the salvation of both myself and of others." - Samuel Johnson 1709-84

Worship In The Waiting

Waiting. My.very.favorite.thing.to.do

or not.

We've all been there. Waiting for answers from the doctor, waiting for our insurance to approve a referral, waiting for that special someone to propose, waiting for our spouse to come home from far away lands, waiting to know if we got the job, waiting for our kids to move out. eh hem. You get the point.

I've been doing a lot of waiting in recent days, and in all honesty - I am ALWAYS waiting for something. Whenever the circumstance of having to wait arises my first response is an audible sigh of impatience and my toe starts tapping.

I had an "AHA" moment today. Another one of those times where a commonly used scripture moves (in my mind) from the 'placation' category to the 'THAT'S God's plan and it is good' category.

Today that scripture is Isaiah 40:31:

Yet those who wait for the Lord
Will gain new strength;
They will mount up with wings like eagles,
They will run and not get tired,
They will walk and not become weary. (NASB)

The Message Paraphrase begins its emphasis on this verse
in verse 27

Isaiah 40:27-31
Why would you ever complain, O Jacob,
or, whine, Israel, saying,
"God has lost track of me.
He doesn't care what happens to me"?
Don't you know anything? Haven't you been listening?
God doesn't come and go. God lasts.
He's Creator of all you can see or imagine.
He doesn't get tired out, doesn't pause to catch his breath.
And he knows everything, inside and out.
He energizes those who get tired,
gives fresh strength to dropouts.
For even young people tire and drop out,
young folk in their prime stumble and fall.
But those who wait upon God get fresh strength.
They spread their wings and soar like eagles,
They run and don't get tired,
they walk and don't lag behind.



Hm. Why would you ever complain? Can I tell you that I am not now, suddenly happy to be waiting for the things which I am waiting for (With the exception of GGG's wedding cause the anticipation of that absolutely wonderful event is like electricty! - but it sure wasn't fun waiting for the proposal. just sayin.) However I am purposing today, this moment that I will worship IN the waiting because I know that God is good and His timeline, His plans, His will are perfect. He can and does do far better than I can ask or imagine, and more to the point - He can and does do far better than I can do myself. "Knowing this, S4J - why would you ever complain?" I will work to rejoice when God says, "Wait."

And to that end, I am posting this video of a song that makes the idea of waiting feel good and right - and I am making a 'waiting' playlist on my ipod. Another thing I know about God is that He doesn't leave us without tools to do the things He asks us to do. I challenge you today to find as many uplifting and/or godly songs about waiting and bind them together in a way that will see you through and encourage you in the waiting.

In fact, leave the titles in the comments so I can add them to My playlist too!



Blessings on your day,

Be My Guest

*Waves*
Hello, all! Our beloved S4J has a really nasty cold and her hand is still healing- she asked me to come on over here and post a guest blog to chat with ya'll about a conversation she and I had the other day over the phone.

If she were to tell this tale, she'd likely tell it with music or pictures, both artistic mediums that she uses skillfully, but I can do neither of those things. For over 20 years, she has been the melody in our friendship, singing the soundtrack and holding my hand for just about every major life event I can think of- high school graduation, my wedding, the births of my children... and nearly every "small" event too- nervous breakdowns, crises of faith, burnt dinners. We have honest, raw, silly, hysterical, logical, weepy, giggly, smart, stupid, deeply spiritual conversations pretty much every single day for longer than I can remember. As for me? Well, I'm not the singer or the photographer, but I have always loved that I have the privilege of humming along... even if I'm out of tune.

So anyway, back to the phone conversation we were having this week. We were talking about that verse in Romans...

And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.

... how true that is for S4J and I. We talked about how she willingly held adorable twins this week with her crippled-from-fresh-surgery-hand knowing full well that she shouldn't . We talked about how often I wake up and turn on my computer before I do my quiet time with Jesus, even though I know if I do, I won't find the time to sit with Him before the end of the day.

We discussed our stupid, selfish natures, disappointed with ourselves when we behave as though we haven't already learned what's best for ourselves- physically, spiritually, emotionally. It's bad enough when we discover something new, but it's just frustrating when we do something ridiculous and we know better.

Why, why, why do we keep doing stupid things when we know we should not? Why do we keep not doing what we know we should do? It's simple; because we are sinners. We're sinners in need of a Savior. Since the beginning of sin, we've delighted in things that are bad for us and complained about things that are good for us.

I find much comfort in Romans chapter 8 in which Paul talks about this same topic with his friends. He points out that while we sin because we're sinners, there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus, that we are no longer bound to sin and we are not slaves to it. There's so much comfort in realizing that the Bible is filled to the brim with humans who fell short all the time- even in Paul’s day… even Paul! There's peace in knowing that we have Jesus Christ who did what we are just not able to do... live a sinless life.

So, what's the point of realizing that we've messed up? That we mess up a lot? That we shall certainly mess up much more in the future? Well, I think there are a few things that can happen (and none of them involve giving up or feeling guilty) :

First: Recognizing when we sin against our better judgment can give us inspiration to improve. That awful feeling of being wrong can be used to motivate us into not behaving that way again if we don't sweep it under the carpet or let it paralyze us.

Second: It can make us appreciate our salvation. That Christ would die for us KNOWING that we would continue sinning is an absolute miracle. Seeing ourselves for what we are should give us a fresh gratitude for His sacrifice.

Third: It can cause us to give more grace to others. We can remember that even well-meaning people do things they don't want to do. Sometimes people who don't mean to hurt us know they should do things but don't. Realizing we do this too should make us kinder and more patient. You know, that whole... to whom much is given much is expected thing. We can’t expect from others what we are unable to accomplish ourselves, can we?

All in all, we just want to encourage you all to keep plugging forward. Don’t get discouraged that you’ve done dumb things. You sin because you are a sinner. That’s no surprise. The miracle is when we break from our sinful nature and do the right thing. And to get a miracle, there’s only one direct route… through Jesus. The only defense… and what a marvelous one it is… is to put our trust in Him. We have to trust God to provide everything we need to resist the ‘shoulds’ and ‘certainly should nots’- and when he provides what we need, (self control, patience, kindness) we need to actually use those tools. That way, hopefully, our regrets will decrease and our victories will increase…all for His glory!

Please join me in praying for an extra dose of those tools for S4J, as she struggles with being both invalid and infirm. Thank you for letting me hijack S4J’s spot. Hopefully, she’ll be back and making the blogosphere more beautiful and melodic soon.

AVADIJ-E4 - Grand Finale

Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we'd better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how He did it. Because He never lost sight of where He was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—He could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now He's there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility He plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!

Hebrews 12:1-3(The Message)

AVADIJ-E4 - June 28

As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.

Psalm 103:12

AVADIJ-E4 - What Day Is It Now?

Broken glass seems to be becoming a theme in my life. Wonder what it all means....
Pity really, this is from the set I was going to keep.

and now on to....

Because Your love is better than life, my lips will glorify You.

Psalm 63:3

AVADIJ-E4 - June 24

A fierce storm blew through our area today. It came up quickly, put down a lot of rain and hail and brought mighty winds. Sadly, we weren't prepared for this storm and the things located in our outside work area took somewhat of a beating. Here I am, living and breathing ~ and so I praise the Lord! A view of the destruction.......

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.

Psalm 150:6

AVADIJ-E4 - June 23

I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand upon the earth.

Job 19:25

Go to the window you look out the most and clean it(the inside AND the outside)! You'll be surprised at how it changes your environment. If that inspires you - do all the windows in the room!

AVADIJ-E4 - June 22

But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.

1 Corinthians 14:40

Friends, this may possibly be my favorite part of our new (in progress) kitchen....

The message center!

AVADIJ-E4 - June 21

How great is God—beyond our understanding! The number of His years is past finding out.

Job 36:26

AVADIJ-E4 - June 20

What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us?

Romans 8:31

Brought to you in song by the Chicas of Faith Worship Team...

AVADIJ-E4 - June 19

The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.

Psalm 145:8

I am so thankful to be a recipient of God's grace, compassion and love!

AVADIJ-E4 - June 18

The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to Him in song.

Psalm 28:7

A Verse A Day - I Have Repented

Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings. Day and night they never stop saying: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come."

Revelation 4:8

AVADIJ-E4 - June 11

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.

Numbers 6:24-26

This, my friends is my prayer to you in your comings and goings.

Brought to you in song by Mel and the Praise Team. Absolutely one of my all-time favorites and I am not a 'hymn girl'

Verse A Day

The Lord your God is with you,

He is mighty to save.

He will take great delight in you,

He will quiet you with His love,

He will rejoice over you with singing.

Zephaniah 3:17

Want to hear it in song?? From the album I have been urging you to get!!

AVADIJ-E4

Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.

Hebrews 13:15