Perhaps a let us give thanks post is in order on this November day, 2022.
Can you believe it? November 2022.
So what are some of the things you are giving thanks for today?
How about the extra hour on Sunday? Or perhaps right now it is only 7:21 but feels like 8:21?
How about something different?
How about we sing? Yes. Sing.
Are you ready?
You are welcome.
As I said in an earlier post I’ve been editing here at The White Stone today. I did not mean to edit this long.
Well, sometimes edits do not go as one intended. One should not convert a published post to a draft — that necessitates a re-publish. So here we are. (For the third time 
)
Brittle Star (again) Sometime in 2013 I think
IDOK DEVOTION FOR FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2010
Our Guide at the Sea, Sand, and Stars, situated in Orange Beach, Alabama acquainted us with many creatures, including a Brittle Star. To certain second graders, it looked like a small octopus.
Truth be told, only one thing about my field trip with Issy made me sad – really, really sad. Hearing about fins and tails and shapes of sea creatures and how each one works so perfectly in harmony to enable them to swim, find food, and escape predators just did me good – I loved it! And I suspect you are not surprised that as I listened I thought of The Father. I thought about how smart He is. I thought how AWESOME He is. I thought how ingenious He is. I thought how fun He is! And then I grieved that those precious children with minds like sponges soaking up all that important information about fish and seahorses and Brittle Stars and planets with their precision orbits, with the earth’s axis titled just right – all of it, and not once were they told all this came to be because God made it! Not once were they inspired to see how Awesome He is, how smart He is, and how fun He is! It still makes me sad!
But back to the Brittle Star. When our Guide told us that the Brittle Star will break its own leg off and leave it behind (it can grow another one) in order to escape a predator, a spiritual application began to form on the screen of my mind. Wouldn’t it be great if we were as ‘smart’ as the Brittle Star? Wouldn’t it be smart of us to be willing to voluntarily cut off those ‘appendages’ that make us prey for the Evil One? This Scripture came to mind and even though it is primarily speaking to an unsaved soul, you will probably see why it came to mind.
Matthew 18: 8 “If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life lame or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into the everlasting fire. source
And since I sat to write, this one came to mind too: Hebrews 12: 1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, source
I’ll not probe with you the laying aside of every weight or the sin which so easily ensnares, but I will trust Holy Spirit to do His job in each of us to shed His Light on those ‘appendages’ that make us prey. I will encourage us to pick up a few books to read; books on Astronomy, mammals, reptiles, fish and other sea creatures, and botany – there are so many! And when we have read and marveled and communed with Father about how AWESOME He is, gather our children, and our grandchildren and use those books and information to allow Holy Spirit to WOW them and open their hearts to soak up the Truth their schools are not telling them!
It’s been a ‘fishy’ week, hasn’t it? Bluegill and now Brittle Star. Have some holy fun this weekend! We love you with holy hugs!
Father, Thank You. I so enjoyed the wealth of information we were given about Your Creatures. I so enjoyed seeing Your Handiwork up close and personal. No ONE, nothing compares to You. You truly are AWESOME. You are so huge I cannot get my mind around You but what I do comprehend thrills and delights me. I love You, Father. I am so glad You are You. Now, help us teach our young about You even more faithfully. Help us not be shy about learning ‘science’ because in true Science You are there in the very heart of it! LORD, train us, like You did Daniel, help us excel in matters of Science and Astronomy – all that stuff that shows us You are the Creator. Put some excitement in us that will inspire our children and our grandchildren; to wake them up to the fact that YOU ARE THE COOLEST! That No One is more cool, more hip … whatever words they use these days for people they admire. I want my grand-babies to ADMIRE You. To admire You above everyone and everything. Hey, I want that for me too. So help me show myself faithful to that desire and cut off those appendages that make me devil prey.
We’ve had some prayer request activity today and You have heard our prayers, we renew them now, knowing You have not forgotten and neither will You, and more than not forgetting You will do according to Your will for wayward souls we want to come home; for strife and un-forgiveness, for physical bodies that hurt, for eyes that don’t see, for ears that do not hear, for babies to grow up healthy and strong, for Mommas to rest and grandmothers to be okay; all this and more we bring to You and thank You so much that we can. And thank You so much that You hear and answer. We pray for all our IDOK Troops, for their peace and safety. We pray for Israel’s peace and safety. We pray for America’s repentance. We pray for political offices occupied by immoral folks to be vacated and filled with people of character and righteous principles. We pray for revival in America. And we pray for an army of prayer warriors to come together and pray until we see You pour out Your Spirit on Your Sons and Your Daughters. LORD, I am excited to see what You are going to do with this IDOK ministry and other ministries all across this land. LORD JESUS I just want You to be lifted up, exalted, loved, and praised because You are worthy. Thank You for loving us and for enabling us to love You back. Amen and amen.
I have been reading and editing myself here at The White Stone today. Many of you may not know, but posts date back here for a long time. Here at this WordPress platform, postings go back as far as 2007. However, some of those posts were actually written in 2004 (maybe some even in 2003).
I have read, I think, three of my posts from 2008 today. One of those three actually a 2004 revisited in 2008.
Many of my posts back then I would give the time and weather conditions at the time of the writing in places like Al Asad, IQ. There was a reason for that – back then as a group we prayed for our Troops over there. One of those Troops was our beloved Tim. He’s home and retired from active Military Duty now. We are happy about that!
So! Would you like to read that old post? Maybe a couple of them?
Strength to Worship March 17, 2004 and Today
That’s about it for this sitting.
It’s Monday and I have sheets to change. 🙂 If you read The Guide
you will get that.
So far I have read about 8 verses. James is penning this to Israel in Diaspora. That means the Messianic Jews dispersed from Jerusalem to parts all around. Yeshua-loving, believing Jews that left Jerusalem due to life-threatening persecution.
And by chapter 3 of his letter, he begins with this: Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, since you know that we will be judged more severely. 2 For we all stumble in many ways; if someone does not stumble in what he says, he is a mature man who can bridle his whole body.
I am thinking some of his audience were thinking of becoming teachers of Scripture. He cautioned them.
Teachers use their tongues (today teachers also use keyboards).
James then goes into an extended exhortation about the importance of the tongue AND the impossibility of controlling it. He gives examples like big ships can be guided by a small rudder; horses can be turned this way and that by a simple bit; one spark of fire can burn an entire forest, but the tongue.
Oh, the tongue can burn down a life in a flash. and who can stop it?
7 For people have tamed and continue to tame all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures; 8 but the tongue no one can tame — it is an unstable and evil thing, full of death-dealing poison! source
Reading on, what does he say?
9 With it we bless Adonai, the Father; and with it we curse people, who were made in the image of God. 10 Out of the same mouth come blessing and cursing! Brothers, it isn’t right for things to be this way. source
I think I shall not expound on that but I am glad James did.
He explains only man does this. All the rest of creation produces fruit and actions as it was created. Read the verses and see what he means.
Chapter 3. It’s plain. It’s direct. It’s undeniable. AND it is disobeyed every day! Brothers, it isn’t right for things to be this way.
I think we cannot pray too much for each other to obey Chapter 3.
The White Stone 