Monthly Archives: April 2012

Christian Living, KWT Paraphrasing

Dish for Dish

Gallery Leave a comment

In the quiet of this morning doing morning blessings I heard Chuck Swindoll. He was speaking of kindness. Random acts of kindness. And with that, Scripture came to mind. I did not recall it verbatim nor even its Bible Address, but I got the message.

Here’s where I started.

What do ye more than they?

It’s the LORD speaking to the people reasoning with them that loving those who love you is no fine accomplishment. Loving those who hate you is the standard. And so when we dish back what is dished to us the question is WHAT DO YE MORE THAN THEY?

How different are we from the ones who railed upon us when we render railing back to them?

It’s a good question – JESUS asked it? How will I answer it? How will you answer it?

Matthew 5:

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.’
44 But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
47 If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?
48 Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
via Matthew 5 NASB – The Sermon on the Mount; The Beatitudes – Bible Gateway.

The Apostle Paul took his cues from JESUS and got in on the instructions too. We are only wise when we heed.

Romans 12:17 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

17 Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men.
via Rom 12:17 NASB – Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. – Bible Gateway.

Random acts of kindness, deliberate acts of kindness in response to deliberate acts of meanness, oh ABBA, what a huge and perfect standard. None of us are capable of doing it, but YOU LORD JESUS enable us. Thank You. What an honor and a privilege and a joy it is to rise above the normal and embrace Your enable-ment to do right in the midst of wrong. That is what I want. It is for that I pray for myself and for each who come here to read and pray. And in our coming to You this morning we bring our needs and the needs of others. Take a reading, LORD, on our hearts. See all the needs, see all the ills and disease and weaknesses, hidden and plain, and work miracles in us and through us. Heal our sick and raise the spiritually dead we pray. Amen and . . . .   .

We have the God-given Right to do right in this wrong World,
Praying (PFT)!

Christian Living

Fertilizer for the Garden of our Heart

Gallery 1 Comment

Dung.

In our society it is a polite word for feces, refuse, etc.  Albeit it’s a Biblical word as well. Have you noticed ABBA is not a prude?

Dung.  A word that came to mind as I prayed this morning.

Let me give it to you straight; just like it came as I prayed for myself and others.

May it be that the dung people heap upon us be turned to fertilizer so that we will produce even more of the fruit of the HOLY SPIRIT.

I think it’s a good prayer.  It was a new insight for me.  Forgive me for sharing it so graphically with you, but perhaps you will be helped even as I.

It is our business when we are maligned by others with words or deeds that are tantamount to refuse – dung – that we allow the Holy Spirit to use that dung as fertilizer – that is one of the uses of dung in the Scripture. Here see for yourself:

DUNG Excrement of man or beast. “Dung” translates several different Hebrew and Greek words. An ash heap or rubbish heap was used to convey the haunt of the destitute (1 Sam. 2:8; Luke 14:35).

The first mention of dung in the Bible is in connection with the sacrificial rites. The sacred law required that the dung, along with other parts of the animal, should not be burned on the altar but should be burned outside the camp (Exod. 29:14; Lev. 4:11–12).

A major disgrace for a Jew was to have one’s carcass treated as dung (2 Kings 9:37). Dung has been used as fertilizer for centuries. It is recorded in Luke 13:8 and Isa. 25:10 that the people of Palestine used it for that purpose. Dry dung was and is often used as fuel (Ezek. 4:12–15). Animal dung was used as fuel when it was mixed with straw and dried to a suitable state for heating the simple bread ovens.

Paul used a powerful metaphor with the word “dung” when he made a comparison between his personal knowledge of Christ and those who did not know Christ (Phil. 3:8). The word is used also in Scripture to indicate symbolically the degradation to which a person or a nation might fall (2 Kings 9:37; Jer. 8:2).

Gary Bonner[1]

[1] Brand, C., Draper, C., England, A., Bond, S., Clendenen, E. R., Butler, T. C., & Latta, B. (2003). Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (444–445). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.    (Logos)

Galatians 5:
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
23Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
24And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
25If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
via Galatians 5 KJV – Stand fast therefore in the liberty – Bible Gateway.

There is no way for you or I to live unscathed in this world. DUNG is going to come our way. Perhaps we will just step in a pile of it by our own lack of discipline and diligence.  Sometimes we even trip and fall headlong into it. Other times it is splashed on us by the falling of those around us. And then there are the times when it is flung at us with hurtful intent -perhaps the hardest of all to wash off.  Nevertheless, it is crucial that we take the dung in all its ugliness and putrid smell to the LORD of HEAVEN and allow Him to transform it into fertilizer so the Garden of our Heart will produce more and more fruit to His glory and the good of others.

Presently I have no update on the three-year old boy we are praying for since yesterday.  And, of course, there are others on all our minds as we gather here at our respective screens and times.  And so, ABBA, we come with our concerns for others and for ourselves and we petition You for help in all our matters. Those things that are pleasant and not pleasant; those things that bring us happiness and not; all of it we bring with us and surrender to You entrusting each and all things to You, knowing without doubt that You are capable but more than capable You are willing and have our very best interest in Your Heart and with our cooperation Your Best will come.  Thank You, our LORD and our GOD.  In JESUS name. Amen and . . . .    .

We have the God-given Right to do right in this wrong World,

Prayer Requests

Prayer Request – 3 year old child

Gallery 1 Comment

I received the following prayer request today. Please join with us in praying.

“Kathie, Need Your Prayer Warriors help PLEASE
The 3 yr old that swallowed the DRAINO has now developed BRAIN LESIONS the whole outlook at best is bleak
Need Prayer Warriors to stand in the gap”

I know very little about this little boy other than a co-worker of someone close to me  is acquainted with his mother. 

ABBA, this is such a tender matter on so many fronts. The precious child would seem at the point of death, brain lesions now upon all the other conditions that must surely have come upon him and his mother, the agony of soul that she must be experiencing. All this and more, no doubt.  Without a doubt You could speak a word and all would be healed and with our limited vision that seems right and yet I am reminded LORD of what You prayed in the Garden so I pray it here – if possible let this death cup pass from this little boy and give him life abundantly here but if not somehow be glorified in this ABBA that souls will be eternally changed and rescued in JESUS name. And, HOLY SPIRIT, I pray for peace and comfort beyond our comprehension for this mother and other family members who love this little boy. I pray You will send people with material, tangible helps for the her and the family. I pray for hugs when she needs them and many, many others to pray and stand in faith for this family. And, LORD JESUS, comfort this little one as only You can. Amen and . . . .   .

We have the God-given Right to do right in this wrong World,
Praying (PFT)!

Christian Living, Guests

Fire Ants

Gallery 1 Comment

We were a bit off kilter this weekend and on Saturday my beloved omitted the reading of Our Daily Bread at breakfast. So he had some additional reading this morning.

The writer of Saturday’s ODB was David McCasaland and it was entitled Stick Together.  He talked about fire ants. You know those pesky creatures that hurt like the mischief when they sting you? This is what Mr. McCasaland reported about them:

“For years, scientists have wondered how fire ants, whose bodies are denser than water, can survive floods that should destroy them. How do entire colonies form themselves into life rafts that can float for weeks? A Los Angeles Times article explained that engineers from the Georgia Institute of Technology discovered that tiny hairs on the ants’ bodies trap air bubbles. This enables thousands of the insects, “which flounder and struggle in the water as individuals,” to ride out the flood when they cling together.”

And if you will click HERE and read the devotion you will see a spiritual correlation of ‘sticking together’ in the Body of CHRIST for the good of us all. And I believe Scripture bears that out.

However, what I was reminded of this morning as my beloved read was this:

Psalm 19:1-3 The Message (MSG)

1-2 God’s glory is on tour in the skies, God-craft on exhibit across the horizon. Madame Day holds classes every morning, Professor Night lectures each evening.
3-4 Their words aren’t heard, their voices aren’t recorded, But their silence fills the earth: unspoken truth is spoken everywhere.
via Psalm 19:1-3 MSG – A David Psalm – God’s glory is on tour – Bible Gateway.

And from there, here:

Romans 1:20 New Living Translation (NLT)

20 For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.
via Rom 1:20 NLT – For ever since the world was created, – Bible Gateway.

And how about this translation:

Romans 1:20 New Century Version (NCV)

20 There are things about him that people cannot see—his eternal power and all the things that make him God. But since the beginning of the world those things have been easy to understand by what God has made. So people have no excuse for the bad things they do.
via Romans 1:20 NCV – There are things about him that people – Bible Gateway.

And from there, here:

Psalm 14:1 King James Version (KJV)
1 The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.   . . .  

via Psalm 14:1 KJV – The fool hath said in his heart, There – Bible Gateway.

There are a few of ABBA’s creatures that I am not wild about but I can learn something about HIM from each of them and when those creatures I am not wild about invade my space I learn something about me!

HE IS AWESOME! ALL WISE and ALL KNOWING. We act like fools when we don’t trust Him. Would you agree?

ABBA, thank You for this morning’s thoughts; I pray we will all ponder them until they have a niche in our hearts that will control how we think, what we say and how we respond to Your Creation, those we like and those we don’t. I know You understand. Thank You for the smile.  Thank You for the privilege of communication and thank You for each one who comes here to read and pray and for them and for myself I pray we will have ears to hear and eyes to see the things You desire to individually show us today. I pray for peace and safety in each life and for each burden and care that they bring here, shared with this ministry and not shared, I ask for strength to trust You and for You to heal our sick and wounded and comfort those grieving. I pray for wisdom and practical helps for families and for prodigal sons and daughters to soon find themselves in their respective pig pens and come home to You and to their families. No person in my ‘world’, ABBA, is without conflicts; thank You that You are more than sufficient for all our troubles; help us lean on You, rest our whole selves upon You in JESUS name and for His sake. Amen and . . . .    .

We have the God-given Right to do right in this wrong World,
Praying (PFT)!