Monthly Archives: August 2022

Queen of the Night

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Something personal. 

We have a plant.  Actually two.

Queen of the Night Cactus. Here’s a LINK to read about this special plant — amazing!  

One of the two plants bloomed this year!

What is so special about that?
Well, the Queen of the Night Cactus, only blooms at night, and only ONCE does each bloom open; it also closes by morning – not to open again.
Once a bloom develops on the cactus and that bloom begins to turn upward, you must keep watch.
Every night you must check to see if the bloom has opened.

Perhaps this reminds you of a passage of Scripture.
It does me.
The Parable of the Ten Virgins.  Matthew 25:1-13.
I hope you will read it.

5 Now while the groom was delaying, they all became drowsy and began to sleep. 6 But at midnight there finally was a shout: ‘Behold, the groom! Come out to meet him.’

11 Yet later, the other virgins also came, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open up for us.’ 12 But he answered, ‘Truly I say to you, I do not know you.’ 13 Be on the alert then, because you do not know the day nor the hour.
source 

More of our story and perhaps you will see the parallel of the parable. 

No upturn yet.
Still, we watched.  A few days passed and then the upturn began – sorry I don’t have a picture of ours but the link above will show you how it looks when it begins to upturn.

Our daily night watch began.  With a flashlight in hand, we stepped onto the back porch and peered into the darkness with the flashlight directed toward the Queen.
Nope. No opening.

On one particular night we looked early, 8:00 ish I think it was. 
No opening.
We chose to retire early that night, read Scripture, talked a bit, and we were just about to turn out the light. It was 10:00 ish.
Promptings.
You may think what you like but I am convinced Holy Spirit nudged me to go look.  Again.  And again He nudged.
We have to go I said.
We did.

Look what we would have missed had we ignored the promptings.
We would have missed the most beautiful, glorious flower I have ever seen — in our own backyard even! 
And you know what I believe?  Our Father GOD didn’t want us to miss it. He didn’t want us to miss that glorious beauty He prepared for us.
He doesn’t want us to miss the beauty of His Heaven either.  None of us. Not one of us does He not want to come, repent, receive and believe. 
All it took was obedience to the call, the promptings of GOD. 
That’s all it takes to see the glory of GOD. 

What have you missed because you have ignored the promptings of GOD? 

The blooms were closed by morning and they opened not again.

Love, Kathie 

Or

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Thinking this morning.
This started out as a Facebook post and grew to here. 

Have you realized JESUS The CHRIST is either GOD having come to earth in human flesh to communicate with us, to redeem us from our sins, and truly arose from the DEAD, or HE is the most corrupt, most EVIL, most VILE of all beings EVER?
And have you realized that The Bible is either the WORD of GOD or it is the vilest, most corrupt, insidious piece of writing ever put to paper?

You see my Friends, HE cannot be a good man, a good teacher, a good anything and say HE is GOD, and not be GOD.
The BIBLE cannot be a GOOD book and be filled with lies. It is either TRUTH or it isn’t.
And what if it is TRUTH and you regard it as lies, fables, fairy tales?
What then?
Or have you not read it enough to know what it says?
What if you really are called by GOD one day to give an account for believing or not believing JESUS and The Bible?  Romans 14:12

Where’s YOUR faith?
Does your faith say it is True or does your faith say all this is a lie?
Either position you take is FAITH, you see that don’t you?

You ARE relying on The Bible to either be true or to be a lie.
(Actually, you are staking your eternity on if the Bible is truth or lies.)

I am relying on it to be The Truth.
We both can’t be correct.
You do see that, don’t you?

16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is valuable for teaching the truth, convicting of sin, correcting faults and training in right living;     source 

Love, Kathie

Mirror – Beautiful

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1 Chronicles 17

Did you know that 1 Chronicles 17 and 2 Samuel 7 are companion chapters?
I didn’t until today, specifically. 
Today, as I began to read I said to myself, wait this reads like what I read a few days ago.  
So, I checked, and yes 1 Chronicles 17 and 2 Samuel 7 mirror each other. 

Even though the information mirrors one another, the account was fresh today. 
A different portion lifted off the page today. 
Here, let me share it with you. 

I encourage you to either pick up your own copy of Scripture or use this LINK and read verses 16 – 27.  Beautiful.  Absolutely beautiful.

David got the news, you are not going to build a House for Me. 
He took it in stride and went to sit before the LORD. 
And he began to talk to the LORD. 
He said to Him what my daughters and I have said often. 

16 Then David went in, sat before Adonai and said, “Who am I, Adonai, God, and what is my family, that has caused you to bring me this far?   source 

And as I kept reading:

19 Adonai, it is for your servant’s sake and in accordance with your own heart that you have done all this greatness and revealed all these great things.   source

Have you ever read anything so beautiful?

IN ACCORDANCE WITH HIS VERY OWN HEART — and for the sake of His servant, HE has done these things. 

Is GOD good to you? 
Now you know why — simply because He is GOD and He wants to and because He is GOD, He can NEVER want to do less than GOOD for you. 

As I close, please be sure to read verses 16-27. 
You don’t want to miss the beauty, the wonder, and the awe. 

In particular — let us shout this not only with our voices but our deeds:

20 Adonai, there is no one like you, and there is no God besides you — everything we have heard confirms that.  source 

Love, Kathie

Lessons From Kings

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2 Kings 25

What a chapter.
Most of it is way over my head in learning but I do get a couple of things pretty well, I think. 

Two years.
Two years Jerusalem was under siege by the king of Babylon.  
It was a successful tactic. Nebuchadnezzar starved them out. 
Henious. 
But before you get too violent toward Neb, know this — had Israel/Judah repented of her idolatry, captivity would not have happened. 

Lesson: repent of all idolatry immediately.  Idolatry will surely put the worshipper in chains and eventually bring eternal death.

If you want a glimpse of how brutal this got check out what happened to king Zedekiah, particularly in verses 6 and 7.  But prior to that, you will read he fled the City and oh when they caught him. 

Then there is verse 12. See what you think. 

12 But the commander of the guard left behind some of the poor people of the land to be vineyard-workers and farmers.    source 

Do you wonder why? I do. 
Did he leave them as a tiny bit of compassion or were they so insignificant (he thought) that they could be of no help or harm to Babylon?

And then as we read on there is Gedaliah. 
A voice of reason.  
Hear what he said.

24 And Gedaliah swore to them and their men and said to them, “Do not be afraid of the servants of the Chaldeans; live in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will go well for you.”  source 

Was he saying, perhaps not but if not he should have?
Repent. Trust GOD, take the punishment we have earned, live in the land, obey the king (as long as we are not commanded to worship him) and things will go well with us.

Guess what? 
There’s a BUT in the next verse.
A big one!

25 But in midautumn of that year, Ishmael son of Nethaniah and grandson of Elishama, who was a member of the royal family, went to Mizpah with ten men and killed Gedaliah. He also killed all the Judeans and Babylonians who were with him at Mizpah.     source

Lesson: Truth is not popular. 
Speak it anyway. 
Yes. It might get you to Heaven swiftly but isn’t it true of a real Christian – to live is Christ and to die is gain? 

Love, Kathie 

Translates

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It’s Monday and the first of the month.
August — already!

We have a brand new month —  what will we do with it?

2 Kings 5

Verse  11 But Na‘aman became angry and left, saying, “Here now! I thought for certain that he would come out personally, that he would stand, call on the name of Adonai his God and wave his hand over the diseased place and thus heal the person with tzara‘at.      source 

I thought for certain

Translates:   he had made up his mind. He had it all worked out. He had played the scenario over and over in his mind about how this would go.

It didn’t. 

Verse 12 Aren’t Amanah and Parpar, the rivers of Dammesek, better than all the water in Isra’el? Why can’t I bathe in them and be clean?” So he turned and went off in a rage.       source

Why can’t I bathe in them

Translates: Why, GOD? Why won’t You do it my way?  I had this all figured out. Why are You messing with my plan? 

So he turned and went off in a rage.

Unclean and unhealed.  Rage gets us NOWHERE with GOD. 

Verse 13 But his servants approached him and said, “My father! If the prophet had asked you to do something really difficult, wouldn’t you have done it? So, doesn’t it make even more sense to do what he says, when it’s only, ‘Bathe, and be clean’?”    source 

But his servants approached him

Translates – and there we have it.
It takes a Servant to hear; not the soul in a rage, seeking their own way but a person with a Servant Heart willing to hear AND obey GOD. 
So, want to get rid of your leprosy? Translated — the sin that so easily beset us?
Hear and Obey GOD — no matter how foolish-looking, humbling, and distasteful it is to our flesh. 

Go dip in the Jordan 7 times. 
Do you have a Jordan, GOD has asked you to dip in — 7 times.
I’m questioning that for myself too. 

There’s a lot more in 2 Kings 5.
I hope you will read it.

Love, Kathie