Let the Nations praise!!!

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My Healer

Pastor did a summer sermon series on the Names of God. Some of the Names he preached on were Jehovah Jireh - The Lord my Provider, El Shaddai - The All Sufficient One, and Jehovah Rohi - The Lord my Shepherd.

The last name he spoke on is Jehovah Rapha, the Lord our Healer. I love this name. When I took Systematic Theology I in college we had to memorize a whole bunch of the Names of God and I remembered this one by imagining Jehovah Rapha as Jehovah Wrap-a like a bandage-my Healer.

There are three ways Jehovah Rapha wants to heal you....

1. Emotional Healing - Psalm 147:3 "He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds."
2. Physical Healing - 2 Kings 20:5-6 "‘...Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will heal you..."
3. Spiritual Healing - Isaiah 1:18 “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool."

The thing about healings is that they come in may forms and not usually in the way we think they should. There are instantaneous healings like in Acts 28:8-9 "And it happened that the father of Publius lay sick of a fever and dysentery. Paul went in to him and prayed, and he laid his hands on him and healed him." There are also healings that occur over a period of time as in Acts 28:9 "So when this was done, the rest of those on the island who had diseases also came and were healed."

Yesterday morning I was straightening my hair when out of no where my neck popped and I could barely move. I couldn't turn my head at all. The pain was so intense I was brought to tears. I had a meeting that morning to get to so I cried (literally) out to Jehovah Rapha to heal my neck. As I cried I also worship Jehovah Rapha for the healing that was already happening in my body even though I couldn't feel or see it. I KNEW it was coming because I have chosen to believe what the Word of God says and it said that He will heal me, not He might heal me, but HE WILL HEAL ME!

By the time I got in the car to leave for my meeting I was still in a lot of pain. I relied solely on my mirrors because I couldn't turn my head at all. I was still in tears, so I called in the re-enforcements--my man of God. I tried to suck it up and not get all emotional but I couldn't. The pain was too intense As I sobbed, he prayed, and Jehovah Rapha healed.

In that instant I knew that Jehovah Rapha was giving me an instantaneous healing as well as a healing that would occur over a period of time. I felt immediate relief. I was able to turn my head enough to allow me to safely and somewhat comfortably drive to my meeting. The excruciating pain that had brought me to my knees never came back. Throughout the day the pain lessened. I went to bed with a moist heating pad on my neck.

I woke up this morning with only the slightest discomfort when I turn my head deeply to one side or the other. That's it!!! Jehovah Rapha displayed His instant healing as well as His on-going healing in me.

I just had to share this with you, because you may be going through a time in your life where you are in need of a healing of your own. You may have been praying for years wondering if God even heard your prayers. I want you to know that He does hear you and He wants to heal you! Don't give up. Your healing is coming! Jehovah Rapha is the Lord YOUR HEALER!

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Daniel's Gloves

I've been teaching the adult Bible study at church on Wednesday night during the month of July.  We've been doing the study NO PLAN B by Todd Phillips.  It's about how God has only one plan for dealing with the poor and oppressed of the world--the Church.  Not The Church as in a church but the church as in you and me.  He wants social action and the gospel to go hand in hand and work together.  Todd said in the first session that "the gospel gives our acts a reason to be and our actions give validity to the gospel."  I love that!

Earlier today a friend of mine who has been attending the study emailed the following story to me.  (Thanks Linda!)  As I read it I wept, because it is the essence of what we've been studying for the past three weeks.  It is so easy for us as Americans to look away and ignore what is going on right in front of us.  We're too focused on ourselves to bother with the homeless vet asking for food much less begin to even think about the starving disease-ridden children of this world. 

The problem seems overwhelming to say the least.  What could I, one person, possibly do to make a difference in a situation that is so vast?  All it takes is one person standing up and DOING something to make a change in one person's life.  One person!  You!  Me!  That is all that God is asking of us!

I sat, with two friends, in the picture window of a quaint restaurant just off the corner of the town-square. The food and the company were both especially good that day.

     As we talked, my attention was drawn outside, across the street. There, walking into town, was a man who appeared to be carrying all his worldly goods on his back. He was carrying, a well-worn sign that read, 'I will work for food.' My heart sank.
   
     I brought him to the attention of my friends and noticed that others around us had stopped eating to focus on him. Heads moved in a mixture of sadness and disbelief.

     We continued with our meal, but his image lingered in my mind. We finished our meal and went our separate ways. I had errands to do and quickly set out to accomplish them. I glanced toward the town square, looking somewhat halfheartedly for the strange visitor. I was fearful, knowing that seeing him again would call some response. I drove through town and saw nothing of him. I made some purchases at a store and got back in my car.

     Deep within me, the Spirit of God kept speaking to me: 'Don't go back to the office until you've at least driven once more around the square.'

    Then with some hesitancy, I headed back into town. As I turned the square's third corner, I saw him. He was standing on the steps of the store front church, going through his sack.

     I stopped and looked; feeling both compelled to speak to him, yet wanting to drive on.. The empty parking space on the corner seemed to be a sign from God: an invitation to park. I pulled in, got out and approached the town's newest visitor.

     'Looking for the pastor?' I asked.

     'Not really,' he replied, 'just resting.'

     'Have you eaten today?'

     'Oh, I ate something early this morning.'

     'Would you like to have lunch with me?'

     'Do you have some work I could do for you?'
    
    'No work,' I replied 'I commute here to work from the city, but I would like to take you to lunch.'

     'Sure,' he replied with a smile.

     As he began to gather his things, I asked some surface questions. Where you headed?'

    '  St. Louis  '

    'Where you from?'

     'Oh, all over; mostly   Florida ..'

    'How long you been walking?'

     'Fourteen years,' came the reply.

    I knew I had met someone unusual. We sat across from each other in the same restaurant I had left earlier. His face was weathered slightly beyond his 38 years. His eyes were dark yet clear, and he spoke with an eloquence and articulation that was startling. He removed his jacket to reveal a bright red T-shirt that said, 'Jesus is The Never Ending Story.'

     Then Daniel's story began to unfold. He had seen rough times early in life. He'd made some wrong choices and reaped the consequences.. Fourteen years earlier, while backpacking across the country, he had stopped on the beach in Daytona.. He tried to hire on with some men who were putting up a large tent and some equipment. A concert, he thought.
    
    He was hired, but the tent would not house a concert but revival services, and in those services he saw life more clearly. He gave his life over to God

    'Nothing's been the same since,' he said, 'I felt the Lord telling me to keep walking, and so I did, some 14 years now.'

     'Ever think of stopping?' I asked.

     'Oh, once in a while, when it seems to get the best of me But God has given me this calling. I give out Bibles That's what's in my sack. I work to buy food and Bibles, and I give them out when His Spirit leads.'

    I sat amazed. My homeless friend was not homeless. He was on a mission and lived this way by choice. The question burned inside for a moment and then I asked: 'What's it like?'

     'What?'

    'To walk into a town carrying all your things on your back and to show your sign?'

    'Oh, it was humiliating at first. People would stare and make comments. Once someone tossed a piece of half-eaten bread and made a gesture that certainly didn't make me feel welcome. But then it became humbling to realize that God was using me to touch lives and change people's concepts of other folks like me.'

    My concept was changing, too. We finished our dessert and gathered his things. Just outside the door, he paused He turned to me and said, 'Come Ye blessed of my Father and inherit the kingdom I've prepared for you. For when I was hungry you gave me food, when I was thirsty you gave me drink, a stranger and you took me in.'

     I felt as if we were on holy ground. 'Could you use another Bible?' I asked.

     He said he preferred a certain translation. It traveled well and was not too heavy. It was also his personal favorite.. 'I've read through it 14 times,' he said.

    'I'm not sure we've got one of those, but let's stop by our church and see' I was able to find my new friend a Bible that would do well, and he seemed very grateful.

    'Where are you headed from here?' I asked.

     'Well, I found this little map on the back of this amusement park coupon.'

     'Are you hoping to hire on there for awhile?'

    'No, I just figure I should go there. I figure someone under that star right there needs a Bible, so that's where I'm going next.'




    He smiled, and the warmth of his spirit radiated the sincerity of his mission. I drove him back to the town-square where we'd met two hours earlier, and as we drove, it started raining. We parked and unloaded his things.

    'Would you sign my autograph book?' he asked.. 'I like to keep messages from folks I meet.'

     I wrote in his little book that his commitment to his calling had touched my life. I encouraged him to stay strong. And I left him with a verse of scripture from Jeremiah, 'I know the plans I have for you, declared the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you; Plans to give you a future and a hope.'

  'Thanks, man,' he said. 'I know we just met and we're really just strangers, but I love you.'

   'I know,' I said, 'I love you, too.' 'The Lord is good!'

   'Yes, He is. How long has it been since someone hugged you?' I asked..

     A long time,' he replied

    And so on the busy street corner in the drizzling rain, my new friend and I embraced, and I felt deep inside that I had been changed.. He put his things on his back, smiled his winning smile and said, 'See you in the New Jerusalem.'

    'I'll be there!' was my reply.
    
    He began his journey again. He headed away with his sign dangling from his bedroll and pack of Bibles. He stopped, turned and said, 'When you see something that makes you think of me, will you pray for me?'

     'You bet,' I shouted back, 'God bless.'

    'God bless.' And that was the last I saw of him.

     Late that evening as I left my office, the wind blew strong. The cold front had settled hard upon the town. I bundled up and hurried to my car. As I sat back and reached for the emergency brake, I saw them.... a pair of well-worn brown work gloves neatly laid over the length of the handle. I picked them up and thought of my friend and wondered if his hands would stay warm that night without them.

    Then I remembered his words: 'If you see something that makes you think of me, will you pray for me?'

    Today his gloves lie on my desk in my office.. They help me to see the world and its people in a new way, and they help me remember those two hours with my unique friend and to pray for his ministry. 'See you in the New Jerusalem,' he said. Yes, Daniel, I know I will...

“I shall pass this way but once. Therefore, any good that I can do or any kindness that I can show, let me do it now, for I shall not pass this way again.”

So take a moment to ask God what He would have YOU do today.  Something that is seemingly small and insignificant to you has the potential of radically altering another person's life for all eternity.  Nothing is too small for God to use!

There is NO PLAN B...

Join me Wednesday nights for a brand new study of God's remarkable plan to rescue the world!

WARNING: This study just might mess with your current worldview. Be prepared to Get Uncomfortable!

The Latest on the Homefront

This morning as sat down for breakfast my kitchen was filled with the Presence of God.

What does that mean?
How do I know?

I don't know how to explain it other than to say I suddenly knew I was surrounded by pure love. I felt it like I feel the clothes I'm wearing. It was as if the Lord Himself walked in, sat down at my kitchen table, and said, "Ok Girlie. Here I am to fill you with my love and carry you through today."

Puddle. I was a puddle.

I read Oswald Chamber's timeless My Utmost for His Highest and was blown away yet again that through Christ's resurrection I have been given a completely new life. All of the old junk in my life is gone and He has made ALL THINGS NEW!!! (2 Corinthians 5:17)

His Resurrection Destiny
by Oswald Chambers in My Utmost for His Highest

"Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory?"

Luke 24:2

Our Lord's Cross is the gateway into His life: His Resurrection means that He has power now to convey His life to me. When I am born again from above, I receive from the Risen Lord His very life.

Our Lord's Resurrection destiny is to bring "many sons unto glory." The fulfilling of His destiny gives Him the right to make us sons and daughters of God. We are never in the relationship to God that the Son of God is in; but we are brought by the Son into the relation of sonship. When Our Lord rose from the dead, He rose to an absolutely new life, to a life He did not live before He was incarnate. He rose to a life that had never been before; and His resurrection means for us that we are raised to His risen life, not to our old life. One day we shall have a body like unto His glorious body, but we can know now the efficacy of His resurrection and walk in newness of life. "I would know Him in the power of His resurrection."

"As Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him." "Holy Spirit" is the experimental name for Eternal Life working in human beings here and now. The Holy Spirit is the Deity in proceeding power Who applies the Atonement to our experience. Thank God it is gloriously and majestically true that the Holy Ghost can work in us the very nature of Jesus if we will obey Him.

When I copied that into this post, the verse got cut off. It's Luke 24:26 not 24:2, but I didn't realize that until I had first gone to verse 2 and read that "they found the stone rolled away from the tomb..." I was overcome with... I don't know what, but look at that. THE STONE WAS ROLLED AWAY AND HE WASN"T THERE ANYMORE!!! Are you kidding me!? Nothing else needs to be said.

Puddles. More puddles. I read on...

Verse 45 says, "then He opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures." If he opened their minds to understand His Word, he will do the same for me!!! Little old me!!! Who I am that He even knows who I am??? I'm no one.

No longer just puddles. We're talking small ponds now!

I read on... He then ascended to heaven and the disciples returned to the temple where "they stayed continually...praising God." When you understand the cost of your salvation you can't help but continually praise God. You know where you have been and you know where you should be, but because God loved you so much He made a way for your life to be redeemed. He made a way for us to break free from the consequences of our sinful lives. It was through Christ's death that our debt was paid and it is through is resurrection that we find ourselves able to spend eternity continually praising God!




Oh how He loves you!!!

Puddles? Small Ponds? Fuggetaboutit!!! Oceans, now. Deep, wide, endless oceans.

My One and Only...

...New Year's resolution, that is...

IS...

this...

If you wanna join me, go ahead and sign up.  Let me know and we'll be memorizing buddies.

This is my verse...

(And I'm doing this from memory. Thank you very much.)

Psalm 5:11

But let all who take refuge in you be glad;

Let them ever sing for joy.

Spread your protection over them,

that those who love your name may rejoice in you.

Prayer

Nov. 4 - Pray for women at the conference needing to receive or offer forgiveness for sins or offenses of the past, to be free to embrace their critical role in advancing God’s kingdom.  * I Sam 14:7  “So his armor bearer said to him, do all that is in your heart.  Go then; here I am with you, according to your heart.” 

Did You?

Prayer

Nov. 3 – Pray that our workshop leaders will have complete freedom to share what God has given them according to His agenda.  Pray that Jan will be equally free in sharing a very personalized message to our attendees.  Pray that women will experience freedom and joy that comes through embracing God’s ways and understand the need to be completely dependant on God. *John 5:30  “By myself, I can do nothing...I seek not to please myself, but Him who sent me.” John 8:36  “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

Prayer

Nov. 2 – Pray that God will remove barriers and fear in women, allowing God to “stretch” them outside of their comfort zone.  Pray that each woman will humbly realize that she has plans and purposes to fulfill from the Lord, and that fear and self-doubt are barriers that impede God’s plan for her.  Jer. 29:11  “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.”

Prayer

Nov. 1 - Pray for traveling mercies and protection for our speakers, our guest workshop leaders, and the women traveling from other cities. Ps. 139 “For you know our going out and coming in, you compass all our paths.”  Ps 23 “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me…..”

Prayer

Oct. 31 – Pray for the younger women and teenage girls to feel valued and compelled in their hearts to come.  Pray for them to feel an inclusive, nurturing and mothering spirit among the women. *Song of Solomon 8: 8-9 “We have a young sister and her breasts are not yet grown.  What shall we do for our sister for the day she is spoken for?  If she is a wall, we will build towers of silver on her; if she is a door, we will enclose her with panels of cedar.”

Prayer

Oct. 30 – Pray that God will grow sown seeds, water seeds, keep the weeds from growing up around the seeds, and that He would tend the gardens of our hearts and minds to bring a bountiful harvest from the time at the conference. *Rom 8:26-27 “The Spirit helps us in our weakness.  We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us, with groans that words cannot express.  And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit.”

Prayer

Oct. 29 – Pray for husbands of attendees and for families – especially prodigal children.  Pray for marriages to be renewed and restored through God’s cleansing and healing.  Pray for sensitivity, love and an understanding ear for husbands and families after the women return.  Pray for those struggling with singleness that they may understand in greater measure the heart and passion God has toward them. * Hosea 10:12  “Sow to yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground. For it is time to seek the Lord until He comes and showers righteousness on you.”

Prayer

Oct. 28 – Pray for women who are anxious, overburdened and overwhelmed.  Pray that their minds and hearts are fertile ground so that the Word of God can penetrate and meet their needs.  Matt. 11:28 – 30 “ Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Prayer

Oct. 27 – Pray for the willing women who are preparing for the workshops, many are operating out of their comfort zone, but not out of their gifting.  Pray that their topics will be an easy work of love with meaningful, life changing effects. *James 1:5 “If any of you lacks wisdom he should ask God who gives generously to all without finding fault and it will be given to him…”

Prayer

Oct. 26 – Pray for those deciding whether or not to come, that God will stir their hearts and open the way.  Pray that no weapon formed against the conference will prosper. *Mark 10:49-51 “Jesus stopped and said, Call him – so they called to the blind man – Cheer up! On your feet, He’s calling you!  Throwing his cloak aside- he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.”  Is. 54:17  “No weapon forged against you will prevail and you will refute every tongue that accuses you.  This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord.”

Prayer

Oct. 25– Pray that women would hunger and thirst for righteousness.  Pray that God will bring tenderness and receptivity to His Word and that the participants will be challenged to respond.  Pray that He will receive all the glory for the work He will accomplish in hearts that are yielded to Him. * Matt. 5:6  “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled.”

Prayer

Oct. 24 – Pray intentionally that all participants will abound in strength, health, wisdom, clarity, direction and sensitivity to the Holy Spirit.  Pray for the coordination of all details to come together for women taking responsibility for various details, with no complications or frustrations. *Ps 32:8  “I will instruct and teach you in the way you should go.  I will counsel you and watch over you.”  Phil 1: 9-11  “And this is my prayer – that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight that you may be able to discern what is best and be pure and blameless until the day of Christ.” 

Prayer

Oct. 23 - Pray for the women to show themselves friendly, consider others above themselves, and to see relationships grow.  Pray that women would feel connected to God and to each other during the conference, no one feeling alone or isolated. *Phil 2: 3-4  “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourself. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.”