SelahV Today by hariette petersen

At Least He Prays

...at most?  He believes in the God Who can heal our land when we acknowledge Him and request His guidance.  In the end, we will all have to make up our own minds as to whether or not God will answer Gov. Rick Perry's requests for wisdom and healing as he led roughly 30,000 people in prayer in Texas this month.  We will all have to discern if his walk matches his talk--if his words are more than rhetoric based on principles or his principles form his words to honor our Creator.  Each will need to consider whether his words are to win and woo voters, or reveal his own integrity, and dependence upon a Holy God.

His critics can whine and fuss all they want, but I am of the opinion that whatever else Rick Perry does in this nation as a leader, he did the best thing any government leader can do.  He prayed.  He called on Americans to seek God's guidance with our broken government and economic chaos.  He sought Divine intervention to bring America back to a nation that thrives and achieves goals set before her to help ourselves and ultimately...other nations in the world.

Every time a person, be it a state legislator, or a President in the Oval Office emphasizes faith in their life, they are ridiculed and chastized.  What do these critics fear?  A God of mercy, grace and love?  A God of protection and provision?  In America, people are allowed to worship in freedom, without fear of persecution.  That includes our leaders. Unfortunately, in the last few years, cultural voices seem poised to eliminate as much public mention of God, Jesus and Christian faith as possible. 

Today I saw a report of a high school principal who organized a prayer meeting over the summer.  He simply invited a group of educators and parents to come together to pray for God's protection and wisdom to lead the children in the year to come.  It was not mandated. It had no students to persuade.  It was an invitation.  Is this a violation of church and state?  Seems to me, the state violates his right to free assembly, free speech and freedom of religion if they prohibit such.  But that's me.  Just because a minority of people decide we cannot have prayer in schools, can't teach students that the laws that rule our land come directly from the moral laws of the Ten Commandments, doesn't make it the correct interpretation of the law of separation of church and state.

Considering all the schools which have had children brandishing guns, knives and other weapons to wipe out entire classrooms, it seems it behooves us to pray.  We need to enlist every help available at our disposal.  Including and foremost the Sovereign.  No school is exempt, even schools of faith, as attested by the recent Memphis murder of a principal by a seventeen year-old student just three days after opening(/link) . 

It's odd when one thinks about how schools are limited and prohibited from mentioning God today. It's okay for federal and state employees to take time off for religious holidays, and okay for the citizens to pay their salaries, but it is not okay for employees (and in most cases, students), to proclaim for Whom the holiday is celebrated.

Critics of religion in general, and Christianity in specifics, deny the very principles upon which our country was founded.  They think the moral laws imposed upon its citizens came from the secularized minds of supposed atheists, agnostics, and diests.  However, for years the institution which turned out many of our presidents and legistlators, taught Biblical principles as a means for governing and thinking of justice and law.  I offer the example below an original rule from Harvard Law School in 1636:

 
Oh, to have rules like this honored in our colleges today--especially those which mold and manipulate the minds of future legislators and leaders of this country.  Americans are tired of teleprompted speeches filled with false hope.  Americans are fed up with polished politicians and legislators who have no principles, who are afraid to mention their faith, and who submit to the money-changers, and the ever-changing popularity of polls.  Folks are fed up with leaders who do not listen, but dictate.  They need someone willing to be humble enough to trust in God, and recognize, as the early founders of Harvard, "to lay Christ in the bottom, as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning."  Many might not know it.  But they need someone like that...whether it is candidate in the running now, or not.  Whether God raises up someone like that to help us remains to be seen.  At least I can pray.  selahV

When I Awake Too Early...

I sometimes do what I'm doing now.  I open my laptop and start writing.  Scary when the house is dark and that bright light slaps me in the head.  I need night vision glasses.  This is absolutely blinding.  I think I'll close my eyes and type.  Ah, much better.

Anyway, tonight when I awoke I wondered if the Lord wanted a word with me, as He so often does in the middle of the night.  So I waited.  And within a milisecond, He brought my facebook friend, fellow blogger, and sister-in-Christ to mind.  It's easy to know why she entered my thoughts.  Recently she miscarried her first child.  Emily use to write for Devotional Christian.  Please join me in lifting her up in prayer.  It's a hard thing to lose a baby.  Especially the first.  One wonders if you'll ever have a child.  I know.  My little Paul only breathed 23 hours of air (and that was very labored), before he went to heaven.  WeeOne only lived about 3 months in my womb before she moved on to be with God.  It makes getting pregnant again very scary...fear you'll lose another baby.  It makes being hopeful something elusive.  It's something you are hesitant to even usher out of your heart.

anyway...will you pray with me now for Emily?

May God in His tender mercy fill her with peace overflowing today.  May she feel the spark of joy kindle again in her heart.  May the Lord give her and her husband comfort this very hour.  May their trust be renewed...trust that He will never abandon them, and trust in His all-knowing plan for the life he started in her and took back home much sooner than Emily had wanted.  May the moments she finds herself questioning her loss, and wondering why.  Please, Lord; turn her wonder into marveling.  Let her know she will one day hold her Amos in her arms for an eternity.  Until then remind her of those who've gone before her who are most likely holding Amos now.  And Lord, please send my son over to hold Amos awhile.  He so loved little babies.

May we all remember to pray for Emily when we waken in the night and think of her.  May we each use our time wisely when wakened. I most assuredly believe when I cannot sleep, it has a lot less to do with me writing and a lot more to do with me listening.  God wants to talk to me.  This time He wanted me to pray for Emily.  And He wanted me to ask you to pray, too.  God bless you all, and especially Emily. selahV

What the Future Holds

No one really knows.  For some reason, we cannot help but wonder about it, though.  We wonder what our kids will be when they are grown.  We wonder what their kids will do.  Will everyone stay in the same area, or will they move to all parts of the globe?  In these unsettling economic times, we wonder about employment.  Will we have a job next year?  next month?  next week?

I have two friends whose husbands have lost their jobs after a long tenure.  They are in their late fifties.  It's a scary thing.  They are knowledgeable, experienced and dependable.  By and large, those are qualities a prospective employer seeks.  However, financial pressures for corporations limit an employer's ability to hire older men with those qualities.  Younger, unproven and teachable people do not command the same salary commensurate with older rivals.

It's hard for my friends' husbands.  They have mortgages.  They are more apt to need their insurance coverage.  They are closing in on retirement age and every dime they put into a pension or 401-K is vital.  It's only natural for them to wonder about their future.  Will they have to relocate to another city, another state?  Will they lose everything they worked for their entire lives?  Could they really and truly end up homeless?  It's possible.  They do not know what the future holds.  But, fortunately for them, they "know Who holds the future."

When Job lost his entire family, grown children with families of their own, servants, livestock and possessions, he did not know how things could get worse.  When his body was wracked with sores and pain was his constant companion, he wondered what would happen next.  What was left for him to lose?  For Job it boiled down to complete humility and total dependence on his Creator.  He had every reason to listen to his wife and "curse God and die."  But he didn't.  He questioned his condition and circumstances, but he did not curse God.  God restored to Job all he had and more.

In the season of difficult circumstances, we are vulnerable to fear, to worry, and concern.  Yet, as Christians we are assured that when we put our trust in God, He will provide.  He will take care of us.  He will never leave us.  We do not know what tomorrow holds, but the daily trials are sufficient to battle without us borrowing battles beyond the horizon.  When the abundance of "what ifs" come my way, I remember that "The Lord will perfect that which concerns me." Psalm 138:8  I pray He gives my friends the same assurance as they wait upon His provision.

What about you?  Do you need God's sustaining grace to cover your heart and still your worried mind?  If so, I pray He fills you with peace today.  I pray you see Him move in such a way that it could only be Him to whom you give the glory.  selahV

POWERFUL Testimony by Wade Burleson

This is one of the most powerful testimonies of how God uses us in our darkest hours when we turn to Him.  Please read Wade Burleson's account of imprisonment in Mexico and be encouraged when you find yourself struggling with circumstances beyond your control.

CLICK >> HERE to Read Saved From Hell, by Wade Burleson.  God is so good!

Thank you, Wade, for posting this story.  You should submit it to Billy Graham's Decision Magazine.  Then they'll reprint it in Spanish.  selahV (a.k.a. hariette petersen)

SO THANKFUL FOR GOD'S MERCY

Sometimes life doles out the most difficult circumstances.  Crucial.  Threatening.  An innocent action coupled with foolishness can be one's undoing.  Consequences may loom that has one quake in fear of the unknown.  The pit can be so wide and deep the possibility of getting out of it is beyond any control or ability we may assume we have.  We can only bow our heads, bend our knees and pray for mercy.  Like Joseph, sometimes what others mean for evil, God means for good.

Sovereignty.  God is in control.  Always.  Sometimes He simply wants to remind us that only He can make the difference in our lives.  Sometimes He wants to show us how much He truly loves us and hears our pleas for His divine intervention.  When our stupidity leads us to the edge of an abyss, He indeed holds our hand when we slip and stumble. 

I stand amazed at the mercy of God.  Over and over again, He pours out mercy when we deserve none.  I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever.  May I continue to offer to others what God so readily gives me and mine.  May we give Him all praise for every detail of our lives.  Every single detail.

Thank You, Lord, for friends who pray when I need them.

Thank You for Your constant love and goodness.

Thank You for Your intervention and mercy.  selahV 

MORE THAN MANY SPARROWS

It's an amazing thing.  Jesus could have chosen any bird in the sky to compare the value of humanity to God.  He could have picked the regal eagle, the beneficial purple martin, the peaceful dove.  Yet, He picked a sparrow.

^"29Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. ³⁰And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. ³¹So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows." Matthew 10:29-31

Could we not be "worth more than many" eagles? Bluebirds? Doves?  Perhaps.  Yet, as I consider our Savior's words, I think how perfect His sparrow analogy is.  An eagle is a majestic, powerful bird.  A dove depicts a gentleness, amiability.  Bluebirds are colorful, shy and guarded.  Of course we'd assume God would care about those birds, just as we favor them in our environment.  However, a sparrow--the near-worthless sparrow, is the lowly fowl.  It sports no peacock plumes of grandeur.  In fact, sparrows are drab and unattractive in comparison to most birds.  They are notoriously nasty little creatures. They carry and spread multiple diseases; they destroy eggs and young of bluebirds and helpful birds, such as purple martin.  They push and shove all other birds from feeders; they're mean and menacing.  Sparrows are self-centered, self-serving and greedy.  Considering that "all [men] have sinned and fall short of the glory of God", could there be a better bird to show the least of the kingdom?

Ask any birdwatcher; you'll learn quickly that sparrows crowd out the beautiful cardinals, are arch enemies to the bluebird and purple martins.  They are annoying and eat the majority of seed in every feeder filled to attract other birds.  I wonder.  Could the Lord have wanted us to see that the lowest of low fell under the watchful eye of our Father?  He desired that we see even the least of this earth is watched and considered by the Most High God?  Even the worst of nature is not unnoticed.  How much greater we are to our Heavenly Father!  "Worth more than many sparrows.

When we are threatened by life's circumstances or man, we have every reason to rest in God's grace.  He knows.  He cares.  Jesus said so.  Rejoice, my friends, rejoice! selahV

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SECOND VERSE

To hear the second verse of the Star Spangled Banner, just click on the video below.  What an ear-opening heart-warming scene at a Tea Party Gathering.

WHATEVER CONCERNS ME

CONCERNS THE LORD.

And at this very moment, He is perfecting all things for good.  He will not forget that I am His workmanship.  He does not forget that I need Him every moment.  He does not ignore the actions of those who mistreat me.  He has a purpose to fulfill in me and with me.  I am His child.  I can trust Him when others are untrustworthy.  I trust Him when others seek to do me harm.  I trust Him when life seems an unending trial of heartache, trouble and difficulty.  What seems impossible, is held in the palm of my Father's hand.  My name is written in His palm.  He knows everything about me--my thoughts as well as my going out and coming in.  He sees it all and knows the schemes of man who seek to harm me and mine.  He will not forsake me.

"The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O LORD, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands." Psalm 138:8

Oh, Lord my God.  Most High in all the earth and beyond, perfect that which troubles the hearts of those on my mind at this moment.  Assure them of Your steadfast love, mercy and constant watchcare.  selahV

Wrong Thinking, Number 5 of 11

Think with me for a minute, okay?  When you think about yourself and your accomplishments, do think you are worth about the same as a "Dum-dum" lollipop wrapper?  Do you relate more to the butterscotch sweetness of the solid ball of sugar once blanketed by that paper wrapper?  Or do you feel more like a tiny square of useless litter that belongs in the trash?  I've often felt like the latter--the "litter".  Basically, that comes from a lifetime of being told I was that "wrapper".  This brings me to Number 5 of my little series on "Wrong Thinking that causes us problems". 

DISCOUNTING THE POSITIVE:  (DtP).

If you are afflicted with "DtP", you insist that your accomplishments or positive qualities "don't count".  You discount any positive someone points out about you.  You find it extremely difficult to accept compliments.  You find it tremendously guilty accepting validation for anything you do.

I love my stepmother (hold that thought).  She came to live at our house when I was five-and-a-half.  When my father unloaded the U-haul (or whatever kind of truck it was), with all her belongings, her three-year-old and seventeen-year-old sons, I felt like we'd been invaded.  The number one thing I remember being unloaded was a metal horse that moved up and down and rolled forward when you stood on the metal stirrups.  Excitement bubbled up inside my heart as I moved toward it.  With one fell swoop, my exuberance was slapped away when my new step-brother pushed me aside and was validated for doing so.  "That's not yours, honey.  That is Thomas's."  That was the beginning of being told or shown that love, praise, and goodies belonged to her youngest son--not me.

I tell you that little story, not for sympathy.  No, I tell you to shed a glimpse of understanding into what caused a rather timid child, who'd been abandoned by her birth mother at age 3, to grow up with low self-esteem.  Abandonment coupled with favoritism for another--neglect coupled with verbal abuse, can warp the mind of a child and cause them to grow up thinking they "don't count".  But still, I loved my stepmother.  I came to understand her mental illness that went untreated and undiagnosed for her lifetime.  I also came to realize that what she was, and how she treated me, did not determine my ability or my worth.

The joy in discovering that God loved me and sent His Son to die for me, long before I was ever born, exploded within my heart with an intensity that I cannot begin to express with words equal to its splendor.  Growing in Christ showed me more and more of the mystery of God's love, the sovereignty of His love, the abundance of His love, and the watchcare of His love, the provision of His love, the mercy of His love, the forgiveness in His love and the acceptance of His love.

There are many times since I learned these things that I have wrestled with the DtP thinking.  I have fallen prey to the evil one who has nothing good to say about me.  I have listened to his accusations (and sometimes truly believed them), that I do anything I do, not because I love my Savior and Lord, but because I want the praise of man.  The hardest battle to fight is this one--especially when, along with the negative whisperings of Satan, I audibly hear the voices of people who agree with the Accuser of accusers.

However...

God is faithful.  He forever reminds me I am His child.  I belong to Him.  I am an heir.  I own, through the riches of Christ's glory, my Creator's approval through the blood of Christ which took all my sin away, and blanketed me with His grace.

I often wonder what good my writing does.  I often wonder if what I do makes any difference at all in the kingdom to encourage, edify or bring glory to my Lord.  Every now and then God sends me a visible, tangible validation that what I am doing matters to Him and to others.  It's kind of like getting that "smiley face" on your English essay.  God does that for us, not to puff us up, but to validate us, and to encourage us to keep doing what we are doing, despite the odds against us, despite the whispers of the evil one.

Just yesterday, a precious gal from India--a Hindu transformed by the blood and life of Jesus, "facebooked" me and told me she'd been blessed by some of my devotionals.  She wanted to "friend" me.  What a blessing!  What an honor!  But the greater blessing is that the Lord allows me to now pray for her family to come to Christ, too.  Blessedly for her, her family did not cause her problems with her conversion.  Folks, that is amazing.  Many missionaries have been killed for sharing the gospel in India.  Pastors have had their churches torched, and watched their families and members of their churches slaughtered for daring to profess Christ as Lord.  My new friend reaffirmed something for me yesterday and today.

I am not a wrapper.  Neither are you.  God is working all things together for good to those who are called according to His purpose.  Give your life to Him.  Let Him show you the sweetness He can bring forth from your yielded life.  Don't let Satan, or anyone else, discount your value in this world.  selahV

ADDITIONALS POSTS YOU MIGHT ENJOY:

Ten Things To Do When You're Ready to Explode 

When You Want to Know What to Do

When You Are Wrongly Accused  

YOU'D THINK I WOULD LEARN

After having a monstrous tree split and shake the earth outside our front window, you'd think I'd have enough sense to stay clear of tall trees with creaking limbs ladened with ice.  Uh...nope.  This morning I had to go out and take some more pictures of our once-in-a-lifetime (I hope), ice-storm aftermath.  My husband and grandson followed me across the street as I backed up to get a more panoramic view of the treespan.  While I was snapping photos, a neighbor I'd never met came up to snap some of her own.

I walked down the street to check out her house and that area of the neighborhood.  As I walked, I snapped photos of various icings.  I saw one tree where all kinds of limbs had already dropped from a gigantic tree.  I looked up at it and could hear it cracking and creaking in the light breeze.  It was filled with mistletoe.  It occurred to me as I walked on, how absolutely nutty it was of me to stand beneath those limbs and stare up at the mistletoe.  I thanked God as I scooted on; its creaking sound was behind me.  My husband and grandson followed after me.  Just as they passed out from under it, a 10-foot frozen limb came crashing down on the very tracks we'd all three left in the light snow.  God really does take care of the simple and foolish.  Doesn't He?  Gratitude doesn't begin to describe the feeling in my heart.

Below are some more photos of our tree and the damage on our neighbor's house and line.

The photo above shows my house in the center of the split.  One half the tree went on my house, across our drive and rested lightly on our neighbor's 8-ft. fence. (I'm so grateful it didn't do any damage.)

This is the view looking at the tree from East to West on our street.  You can barely see my neighbor's house or mine for all the limbs.  This just boggles my mind.  No one was hurt.  I'm so giddy about that I could shout for joy!

GIGANTIC TREE SPLIT BY ICE STORM

Hubby and I sat watching Fox News just now and a thunderous crash with splitting limbs interrupted our viewing. We went to the front door and our gigantic Mulberry shade tree was split in two.  The side that fell went to the left of our house and fell across the driveway and lawn of our neighbor.  It barely scraped her roofline.  Her house was spared.  Our vehicles sat in the driveway on the other side of the tree that is precariously close to falling now.  My husband unfroze the doors and moved the cars down the street where there weren't any trees.  As I took photos of the destruction, we could hear crash after crash, scraping, and splitting around the neighborhood.

It's so sad.  That tree is the one all my grandchildren have climbed and marveled at.  We look forward to the leaves dropping at the first freeze in the Fall.  We love the shade it provided during Oklahoma's blistering 108 degree summers.  Now, it will soon be a memory.  My husband said the remaining half of the tree that is precariously leaning toward our front porch is split, too.  It will need to come down with the rest of it after the....  Nevermind.  It just fell.'

Now that part is lying across our driveway, over our other neighbor's fence, and onto our porch and garage front.  God is so good.  So very good.  Just fifteen minutes ago, my husband was standing there scraping the Malibu so he could move it out of the driveway.  Now we are just listening to the creak of the large trunk of the tree moving with the wind against the house.  We are so blessed.

Whew!  I am winded.  I went out and bent down beneath the twin trunks on our side of the three-trunk tree and waddled out into the street to take pictures.  It's dark now, and I don't know if you can tell how bad it is.  It should make several ricks of wood for my daughter's fireplace when my grandsons get it all cut up.  Wow.  I'm really gonna miss that tree. selahV

 

 

Devotion for Today, and "IF God is in Control..."

Last week I wrote a devotional for Devotional Christian entitled: When Life Falls Apart, Jesus Holds It Together.  It is published today at their site.  I am compelled to link it here for my readers in light of some of my posts of late.

It is not my intention to create more fear in our lives as I write about combustible gases on tankers, trials of terrorists in New York, and the injustice of health-care reform in America.  It's also not a weakness in my faith that nudges me to write prayer requests for my brother's situation with emphysema or the safety of his daughter as she lives in New York city.  My faith is strengthened by my dependence on the Lord.  My posts are meant to show our complete reliance upon Him as we do what He leads us to do in the scheme of things as we walk in this world.  I was reminded by a dear friend today that nothing and no one can do anything "unless it is given to him of the Lord".  In other words, God is in control.

We might ask, as a reader recently wrote me via email, "If God is in control, does that mean He is controlling us?"  Whew!  That's some  heavy stuff to lift above our finite minds, isn't it?  To believe otherwise would make us seem to question the sovereignty of God.  But to dissect the entirety of this question, one must also remember God's sovereignty is big enough to allow us choices in life.  With every choice comes a consequence.  And the blessing within God's protective grace is that He is, indeed, in control of the consequences, too.  Who are we to challenge His decisions?  Who are we to tell Him when to pour forth rain, withhold it, or grant us sunshine?  Who are we to decide which calamity will bring greater peace? Who are we to tell him that our illness is not the best part of His plan for us? if we trust with all our heart that He rules upon this earth as He sees fit for His glory?

Maybe the question we should ask is, If God is not in control, do I want to be?  Really?

ABSORBING Lessons From a Broken Chopstick--REVIEWED part 2

I'm haunted by images Mary Anne Phemister described in her book, LESSONS FROM A BROKEN CHOPSTICK.  If any woman has ever had a reason to throw a pity-party for how she was forced to grow up, Mary Anne is that woman.  But she doesn't throw a pity-party.  That action would be inconsistent with the brave and courageous Mary Anne whose persevering spirit defied life's hardships to break her emotionally, and destroy her spiritually.  There are times I longed to reach inside the pages of her book, wrap my arms around her, and shelter her from the turmoil, upheavals, and uncertainty.  Other times I wanted to grab her--whisk her away from her forced exile in a strange land.  I wanted to join her, to walk alongside and simply be her friend.

Mary Anne touched a chord inside my soul.  As I wrote a portion of a review of her book [link], I felt a need to say something more.  I didn't know quite what.  Between the lines that Mary Anne offers in her manuscript of memories, were spaces in which my thoughts and emotions ran rampant with questions.  Questions for God.  These questions led me to consider how God fills all the empty, loveless spaces of our lives with His unfathomable grace.  Mary Anne's accounting challenged me once more as Job; how dare I question what God allows to those He calls according to His purposes?   

You need to read Mary Anne's contribution to missionary life.  See how our Sovereign Lord pours out His grace upon her and leads her to forgive, to love, and persevere.  Perhaps you'll find, as I, God's unforsaking, unrelenting, all-sufficient power to carry a child through the difficulties of life when questions have no answers.  May you find it as absorbing as I did.  selahV

LESSONS FROM A BROKEN CHOPSTICK, by Mary Anne Phemister, Published by Hannibal Books.

IT JUST DOESN'T END

Day after day.  We lift our eyes unto the hills from whence cometh our Help.  Day after day a perpetual avalanche of trials roll down upon us.  Sometimes I wonder if we will ever dig our way out of the mound above us, around us, beneath us.  Just when we break the surface and our fingertips feel a ray of sunshine, we're covered again.  The earth seeks to swallow us whole.  It just doesn't end.

I pray.  I seek God only.  I know there is no one other than He who can help.  The problems are too insurmountable.  If only we could catch a breath of air between the pressures.  But it seems we are meant to be crushed.  We do not know what to do.  We cannot do anything that is not circumvented with the rising of another sun.  Does God have someone He meant to send to us and they did not hear His voice?  Does someone hear His voice yet ignores Him?

There are no ships to come in.  The tunnel ahead is dark.  I still cling to my Lord.  When will the snow melt?  When will Spring begin, my Sovereign?  selahV

AFFLICTION'S VEILED BLESSING, THE PLACE OF HELP

Affliction.  You think it is meant for harm.  You feel like the difficulty is sent to destroy you.   Health deteriorates.  You lose your income.  You lose your home.  You lose your loved ones.  The present day seems so dark that the future isn't even a thought.

"The actual things in life are sordid and decaying and wrong and twisted, but we do not look at them; we look at the eternal things beyond, and the consequence is that in the actual tribulations and circumstances of the moment, pain works for us as an eternal hope.  We have all had the experience that it is only in the days of affliction that our true interests are furthered."  Oswald Chambers, The Place of Help, 1935.

"But if God so clothes the grass of field, which today is alive and green and tomorrow is tossed into the funace, will He not much more surely clothe you, O you of little faith?  Therefore do not worry and be anxious, saying, What are we going to have to eat? or, What are we going to have to drink? or, What are we going to have to wear?  For the Gentiles (heathen) wish for and crave and diligently seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows well that you need them.

But seek first of all His kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right), and then all these things taken together will be given you besides." Matthew 6:30-33. [Amplified, emphasis mine]

To the world, it is strange to trust blindly in the promises of God.  Some folks think they are archaic and obsolete for our times.  I've lived 60-plus years now.  And in those years, I have been with and without.  But I am still here.

Even before I came to know Christ as my Savior, I can look back on my life and see the fingerprint of God's grace, provision and divine sovereignty.  There is no doubt in my mind, that Jesus is my all in all.  And my husband once preached, "If Jesus isn't Lord of all, He isn't Lord at all."  All means all.  The circumstances of affliction are not a surprise to Jesus.  He knows.  He prepares for it.  He plans for it.  And He supplies through it.

God gave His Son a "cup" to share; He did not remove its bitterness.  God gave His Son a crown to wear; He did not remove the thorns.  God gave His Son a path to walk; He did not remove the stones.  God gave His Son a "cross" to carry; He did not remove its weight.  God gave His Son our sin to bear; He did not remove its pain.

"If God has made your cup sweet, drink it with grace; if He has made it bitter, drink it in communion with Him." Oswald Chambers, Run Today's Race, 1968

"The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me." Psalm 138:8.  Jesus makes intercession for me and you.  The hovel we live in today will be our mansion in eternity.  The affliction I face today is God's veiled blessing.  For through affliction, I am mildly sharing in the sufferings of my Savior.  Jesus is my place of help.  To God be the glory, great things He has done.    selahV

[© SelahV Today,hariette petersen, 2008]   

  

CAN YOU REALLY TRUST THEM?

  They were arguing over whose turn it was to stand on the coffee table (yeah, their mom lets them do it).  HayJae had nudged Kinsey a bit too hard on her previous turn and she fell as she stepped down.  This time Kinsey didn't much trust her bigger sister's offer of help.  Even though HayJae was sorry, even though HayJae was extending the hand of grace and help to Kinsey to get down--Kinsey was wary.  She didn't trust HayJae's words of assurance, either.  She just didn't believe the sincerity I heard with my own two ears.  Previous action had limited Kinsey's trust.

Do you have someone like that?  Is there someone you do not trust because you remember a past grievance?  Is there someone to whom you cannot give your hand, even if another extends theirs?  You aren't alone.  Unfortunately, some folks take it a step further:

They don't trust God.

Something happens in their lives.  A tragedy.  A loss.  An insurmountable difficulty.  A rejection.  An unfair treatment when trying to do what is right.  A betrayal.

Yet, when we are trusting God, tribulations of this sort only prove how much more steadfast He is.  My entire life has been wrought with enormous trials.  Though not as many as some folks I know.  And in each and every situation--deaths of my sons, loss of material possessions, income and health--God has been faithful.  He has always been the Person I could turn to.  He has always been faithful to get me through every single circumstance.  For "The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me." Psalm 138:8.

God's ways may not be my ways.  His timing may not be my timing.  But I want them to be.  And He knows that.  Therefore, His hand never, ever lets go of mine.  And He won't let go of yours either.  selahV

[© SelahV Today,hariette petersen, 2008] 

SOUNDS OF WARNING AND PROPHETIC FULFILLMENT~~~When You Don't See It Coming

I was lying in my hammock last week on one of those wonderfully hot windy Oklahoma days.  My husband is adamant that I need more vitamin D.  So of late, I have tried to go out and simply lay in the embrace of my hammock, beneath the sheltering branches of my pecan trees and soak in the rays of diffused Vitamin D.

As I lay there watching the sway of the mighty limbs above me, I heard an intermittent "pop", "pop".  I stared at the spot where just last fall a horrible windy storm broke off the tops of my pecan trees and left them precariously dangling from the main trunk.  Some of these limbs had already fallen, but they weren't much bigger than a rosebush trellis, so I lay there looking at the shredded limb and wondered how long it could hang onto the tree.  I wondered how one could get up there to trim it.  As I lay there pondering, I realized that should that limb decide at that very moment to break loose, by the very angle in which it dangled, it would drop directly on my head.

I got up.  I prayed, "Lord, help me find a way to get that thing down safely."

Later I told my hubby about the creaking and popping that I took as a warning.  I wondered if there was any way he could get up there and trim it.  I told him how I felt about that gigantic 30-foot limb that hung by, what appeared to me, a few grains of wood.  Hubby went out and looked at the limbs and said, "Nah.  They don't look like they'll fall.  And even if they did, they won't fall there."  I usually trust my husband's opinion completely with things.  Just the submissive lady I am, I guess.  But for some reason, I didn't have much faith in his evaluation.  I replied:

"Well, I don't think I'm going to lie in that hammock till all these windy days are over in Oklahoma."  (If you know anything about Oklahoma, that meant on most days I wouldn't be venturing out to collect much Vitamin D.)  Well, hubby scoffed and reaffirmed his evaluation.

A new day.  The following day I went out to water Rowdy.  Lo, and behold, look what lay in the middle of my hammock:

Can you believe it?  God, in His omniscience, forewarned me.  Now, odds are I could have missed the fateful moment when the limb came crashing down.  But then who knows?  Nevertheless, that is not the point I wanted to make with this post.  The real point is that from my husband's perspective, standing there looking up into the trees, he could not see what I saw from my vantage point.  I was lying in the hammock.  I could see the angles.  I could even see the fragmented limbs.  Sometimes we make judgements and finalize decisions based on a limited view of things.  Such was the assessment made by my husband.

When I saw the size of that limb, I shivered at the thought I'd had the day before.  It was 9 inches in diameter.  The force that dropping 20 feet above me from that tree could very easily have killed me had I been lying there.  It further sent chills down my spine when I considered how my darling grandchildren loved to lie in it and stare at the sky and listen for the Cardinals whistle.  Is God not great?  I had no way of getting that limb down safely unless I found a tree-trimmer.  Hubby wasn't all that worried about it.  But God honored my desire and met my need before I or my grandchildren could be harmed.  He brought that thing down with a whisper of His breath.    

There are many things we are warned about in the Word of God.  He even gives us His Holy Spirit to punctuate His cautions.  God has an angle on life that we often do not, cannot, or will not see.  He has provided accounts of saints, and the wisdom of Solomon to show us the way.  He wants to keep limbs of circumstance and branches of consequences from crashing down upon us.  He seeks to protect us and give us the wisdom to know when to get out of harm's way.  His guidance is available to all.  It is infallible.  Oh that we would heed His alarms and alerts even when we cannot see what lies ahead in the hammocks of our lives.  selahV

[copyrighted, SelahV Today, 2008]