IDOK DEVOTION FOR WEDNESDAY, MAY 26, 2010

Praise Reports, Prayer Requests and Updates:

Tirade: a long angry speech; a public denunciation.  Up until this writing my denunciation was private.  However, I’m about to make it public … tirade subdued now though.

A line from the song we heard for Tuesday (Better Than a Hallelujah)

We pour out our miseries
God just hears a melody

DADDY heard a melody just a bit ago.

I would say nothing sets me off more than an attempt to take something from me that I believe is rightfully mine, when I am  not of a mind to give it.   And as I was pouring out my ‘melody’ to DADDY GOD  I realized what was the real problem here.

Let me set the stage for you. A certain insurance company has been gladly receiving insurance premiums from us, so in my eyes they owe us.  When I see the doctor they are supposed to timely pay.  They often don’t, at least not without a few phone calls and some haggling.   And today, well today they again tried to stick us with the bill.  And what did I do?  Yep! A private tirade! (Thankfully, it was actually my beloved who talked to the company representative.)

And it’s not the first time.  There have been many, many occurrences with this insurance company, the US Government,  Oil Companies, Power Companies, Water Companies, Phone Companies and the like wherein a tirade ensued.   You’d think I’d be used to it by now and would take it all in stride.  I am better though — there was a time taking my apartment parking space that I paid for would get you a note on your car advising you to not park in my space anymore.)  So what’s at the root of my rage – that’s not a pretty word; but truth is truth. In each of these incidents, I believed myself to be defenseless, helpless, overpowered and brutalized by a merciless bully.  I know that’s little over the top (especially as to the parking space), but you get the point. Right?  Taking from me what I  believe to be duly mine when I am unwilling to willingly give  it – be it money, a parking space, a privilege, a position, the list could go on and on, threatens me — it takes more than the believed possession, it takes my  security.   And would you agree, especially in women, without security, we have nothing?  Without our sense of security we feel brutalized.

What I, and perhaps some of you, must get our  ‘spiritual gut’ around is that our feelings cannot be trusted, but GOD can and must be trusted! HE is our only REAL SECURITY.  And NO BODY put HIS BABY in a corner and gets away with it! Albeit for our growth, He often delays His sure justice, but even then we are in the Shadow of the Almighty.

Hebrews 13:⁶so that we confidently say,
“THE LORD IS MY HELPER, I WILL NOT BE AFRAID.
WHAT WILL MAN DO TO ME?”

Psalm 91: ¹ He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
² I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress;
My God, in Him I will trust.”
³ Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler
And from the perilous pestilence.

For deeper thought and probing shall we consider: Could it be that when God asks us to give up that which we are not ready to give  up we fight Him because we have believed those lying feelings from the Evil One that ABBA is the Brute?

To review the list of names for prayer, please click here.

What a day! Not an ideal one and as we read this morning, not one that I shall ever have again; oh, I hope so!  Thank You, LORD, for mercy and grace and forgiveness which is of all gifts most precious.  Having read our names, again I pray for each of them, not knowing the full depth of their needs and knowing that I cannot adequately know, but I do know You are faithful and You love them and us perfectly.  Thank You for doing what is right for each of them and us.  We pray again for our IDOK Troops, praying for their safety and protection and safe returns home.  Praying again for Israel, for peace and protection, looking forward to the future You have for them and Your Church.  I pray for rest, courage, strength and security for the Body of Christ, all over this globe. Amen and amen in JESUS Name.

IDOK DEVOTION FOR TUESDAY, MAY 25, 2010

Praise Reports, Prayer Requests and Updates:

Judy is still not doing well; our prayers continue to be needed.

This song is ministering to me today.  It’s sung by Amy Grant.  Better Than A Hallelujah.

And as it ministered I ministered in homekeeping and now as I sit to write it’s Tuesday already …. this has not happened in a while.

One verse. Proverbs 3:27 (King James Version) ²⁷Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it.

Simply, let us do all the good we can today.  This Tuesday, May 25, 2010 when it is done will be done forever.  It will not come to us again. Let us do well by it and one another.

To review the list of names for prayer, please click here.

ABBA, You know the hour, You know where we all sit in this moment; You know when I get up and when I lie down.  Just as You recorded for us to read in Psalm 139:

¹O LORD, You have searched me and known me.
² You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
You understand my thought from afar.
³ You scrutinize my path and my lying down,
And are intimately acquainted with all my ways.
⁴ Even before there is a word on my tongue,
Behold, O LORD, You know it all.

My peace is in this that You know.  Thank You.  I pray we will all do well today, for ourselves and for others.  I ask You to keep our IDOK Troops safe and protected today.  I pray for the Peace of Israel.  I pray for the repentance of America.  I pray for our list, for each one.  Judy, You know the need there. Andrew, You know the need there too.  And we KNOW You will do good for us all.  Amen and amen in JESUS NAME.

IDOK DEVOTION FOR MONDAY, MAY 24, 2010

Praise Reports, Prayer Requests and Updates:

I am here way early to start writing for Monday, but what’s that old saying, ‘strike while the iron is hot’.   I have only read Scripture so far this morning as my bases to begin and that Scriptural address is Philippians 2:14 and 15.   I am warning you now it a firm word, unyielding to our flesh and I’d be surprised if we liked it — some of us might even search for an argument.  Here’s verse 14 first — Do all things without grumbling or disputing;

Firm, unyielding, leaving no room for buts.   Not some things but ALL things.  So I looked up the word ALL and sure enough it means  ALL –  leaving nothing out. Being or representing the entire or total number, amount, or quantity is how my on-line dictionary reads.  And the definition continues with this: Each; apiece. So we can look at the word ALL and view it as  all things we do collectively must be done without grumbling or disputing OR we can envision ourselves in each individual duty, act, activity we doing absent our grumbling or disputing.  OUCH! And DOUBLE OUCH!   With an order that big I’m thinking if I can’t do certain things without grumbling and disputing, perhaps I just should not do it at all! Wonder how inactive that would make me?  Hmmm.

Lets move on here and go back to verse 12.

¹²So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling;

Have you heard part of this verse interpreted that salvation is by works?  Don’t be deceived here.  Salvation comes ONLY by faith and faith alone in JESUS CHRIST.  The work comes in the walking out our salvation in the here and now.  JESUS did the work of saving us from the penalty of sin – that’s a done deal at our re-birth.  Presently we are in the process of being saved from the practice of sin — that’s where the WORK comes in and you know as well as I do — IT IS WORK!  I heard someone say once, don’t recall who, that ‘it took only a moment to get me out of hell but it ‘s taking a lifetime to get the hell out of me’.  And it is that getting the hell out of us that we best be cooperating with JESUS in doing with ‘fear and trembling’.  We ought to have so much reverential awe (fear) for Him that the thought of not doing what He asks would cause us to shake (tremble) in our sandals.  And I dare say if we had such reverential awe of Him we would not find verse 14 so much a hurtle.   Verse 13.

¹³for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

Look at that!  God in us!  Why is that so hard for us to get our minds and wills wrapped around?  Must be that hell in us that has to be worked out!  And He is here.  He is willing.  It is HIS good pleasure to be here within us to WORK in us.  Don’t you just want to worship Him right now, reading this verse?  Oh I wish I had words to describe this!  Oh how Awesome and Good You are LORD GOD and Father!  It is worship.  It is reverential awe and love — worship —  that will empower and enable us to embrace verse 14.

¹⁴Do all things without grumbling or disputing;

And secondary to worship,  verse 15 gives us added support to walk out, work out verse 14.

¹⁵so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world,

¹⁶holding fast the word of life, . . .

Think about it! What aids the crooked and perverse so mightily to remain in their crookedness and perverseness?  You got it! Our grumbling and disputing in the church and our individual lives.

Momma must have got this saying from DADDY: If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at ALL.

To review the list of names for prayer, please click here.

DADDY, I love You.  I really, really do.  Thank You.  Thank You for teaching me that I really, really DO love You.  This message is stern, it’s hard but I am so grateful for it.  I feel so loved by You in it. Thank You.  LORD, thoughts and longings to see You, Face to face are becoming sweeter and sweeter to me.  Thank You. Thank You.  And because the calendar tells me I am much closer to that day than I used to be, in the time I have left I want to stop grumbling and disputing and I want to help others stop it too.  DADDY, forgive me and Holy Spirit, help me  — just slap me in the mouth PLEASE when I even start to form the complaints in my head so they won’t come out of my mouth.  I know it is possible.  You would not tell me I must if it were not possible to do, at least to get really good at practicing it here and now.  Holy Spirit, please make this message as sweet on the other side of the screen as it is on this side.

You know the names and faces and hearts of every soul on our list and I am bringing them to You right now.  I want them to love You with all their hearts.  I want them to KNOW You are trustworthy.  I want them to trust You to take care of them, to give them what they need.  I want them to rest in You and work in You in the capacity that You have called each of them in this day, in this very season of their journeys.   And I am asking you to again protect and keep safe our IDOK Troops.  I have not heard from LeGrand lately but he’s doing great, isn’t he?  Thank You, ABBA.   As I am about to put this away to be posted on Monday, the weekend has hardly even begun.  I pray for safety for our beloved IDOKs and Readers.  I pray You will speak to them even before this writing reaches their screens.  I pray they will gather in their respective places to corporately worship You on Sunday and I pray individually they will worship You in their homes and vehicles and wherever they go and do.  Thank You, DADDY, for this ministry; still don’t know why You let me do it but Thank You.  Thank You in JESUS mighty and holy blessed perfect name.  Amen and amen.