Myrtle Day – a beautiful woman. I can see her smile but only with my mind’s eye, for now.  She went to Heaven yesterday. Please remember her sons and families and many, many dear friends in your prayers.

Dennis, Joey and the Umbrella
Click HERE to read at original post

Friday, Dennis was right on target. Some days there is a lot of wisdom in the ‘Funny Papers’.
Picture this: Mom is standing at the door; Dennis and Joey are stepping off the stoop into the peppering rain and she hears Dennis say to Joey: “C’mon, Joey, If you wanna see a rainbow, you gotta put up with a little rain.”

How insightful is that! As we live and breathe here on planet earth unpleasant and down right hard stuff comes our way but we can be sure if we keep looking up the rainbow will appear. However, there is one more thing I need to mention about Dennis and Joey and the rain … Dennis had the umbrella. I think the umbrella gave Dennis a leg up on his upbeat attitude, don’t you?

I think you and I have an umbrella against the enviable rain that falls upon each and every soul … His Name is Jesus. Question is though — do we have Dennis’ attitude about our rainfall?

Matthew 5: (NKJV)
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, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,
45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
46 For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
47 And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so?
48 Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

At first I thought this passage fit perfectly for our illustration, but now I think the ‘fit’ needs some consideration. Obviously Dennis and Joey’s rain was one of those ‘hard’ things that come to us in life since they were looking for a rainbow. Bad stuff is inevitable upon the JUST (that’s us who are saved) and the UNJUST (that’s those who have not said yes to Jesus for Salvation). Before writing this IDOK devotion, I think I may have overlooked that in this passage it is Father who is doing the SENDING which gives me a whole new light on this. Father only sends GOOD STUFF, so the sun and rain in this passage is good and beneficial and pleasant, not bad; not something that we have to wade through and hope to find the rainbow. But rather the kind of rain that you stand out in with your head back, your mouth open, arms stretched out, twirling around laughing. And on top of all that glorious fun you see the rainbow! It’s that kind of stuff He sends and we the JUST benefit from it. The UNJUST do too; but just maybe they don’t know from Whom it comes. We do! We need to tell them!
Think about it this way: lost folks benefit from just walking around this planet with us but they still need to come under our UMBRELLA for Eternal Protection and we still need to offer our UMBRELLA to folks getting rained on — be it pleasant rain or unpleasant rain. I sure hope I get to share my UMBRELLA with someone who doesn’t have ONE today. How about you?

Father, thank you for the weekend; for sermons heard, for family and friends, for good food, for little boy birthdays, for mercy and grace.  . . .  We pray for strength and practical helps for parents taking care of parents and we pray for repentance for wayward children who are diseased and ill because of sin and unholy choices. And we pray for healing of those whose minds are tortured – somehow Lord reach them even as You did the man in the tombs. Again we bring America and pray for her repentance and revival and again we pray for IDOK that we be willing and useful vessels to help this Country return to holiness. As we do daily we remember our IDOK Troops and we pray for their safety in mind and body and spirit and we ask You to bring them home to us safe and sound and more in love with You than when they deployed. Thank You for the UMBRELLA picture and as we see umbrellas and as we use them, help us praise You each time for the protection from hell and sin that You have given us in Christ Jesus and it is in His name we offer this prayer. Amen and amen.
*****
Revelation 2:17 — His Ministry to you,
Kathie

This one for our re-chewing pleasure comes from 2007. November 28 to be exact. Perhaps some of you will enjoy it for the first time today.

Jack Frost – Real or Fiction

Are you aware that the Father takes delight in you and that He thinks about you all the time?… Jack Frost

Names are important and what is associated with a Name is crucial. The quote today was spoken/written by Jack Frost. If you go to your Internet browser search window and type in just ‘jack frost’, the first page of links you receive has nothing to say about the author of our quote. But if you type in ‘jack frost author’, up comes Jack Frost – Christian writer.

Jack died this year on March 5 (2007) leaving his wife, children, grand-children and a couple of books behind.

‘Experiencing the Father’s Embrace’, and ‘Spiritual Slavery to Spiritual Sonship’.
Strange, isn’t it? Hardly a person is not familiar with the elfish creature who personifies crisp, cold winter weather and there’s a movie by that name as well. I believe Michael Keaton portrays him.

But how many of us heard of Jack Frost, Christian writer, before today?

Most of the people who occupy (past, present or future) this planet, live and physically die with little or no recognition, certainly not as much as Jack Frost, an imaginary creation.

Isn’t it GREAT to know that Father God has RECOGNIZED you and shall NEVER forget you?

Enjoy a portion of Psalm 139 and acknowledge by your thinking, talking and ‘walk’ today that YOU are on the Mind and Heart of the Creator of the Universe, even if only a handful of people know your name!

1 O LORD, You have searched me and known me.
2 You know my sitting down and my rising up;
You understand my thought afar off.
3 You comprehend my path and my lying down,
And are acquainted with all my ways.
4 For there is not a word on my tongue,
But behold, O LORD, You know it altogether.
5 You have hedged me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is high, I cannot attain it.
7 Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
8 If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.
9 If I take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 Even there Your hand shall lead me,
And Your right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall on me,”
Even the night shall be light about me;
12 Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You,
But the night shines as the day;
The darkness and the light are both alike to You.
13 For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother’s womb.
14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.
17 How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
18 If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand;
When I awake, I am still with You.

We are in Awe of You Father Lord. You know each and every one of us, nothing about us is hidden from You and You love us still! Thank You Father.  . . .   And we pray for the Peace of Israel and the Repentance of America and all this we ask in Jesus Name.
******
Revelation 2:17 — His Ministry to you,
Kathie

I scanned a few and selected this one. I think it may set as well again as it did in September 2008. If you would like to read it as it originally appeared click HERE.

Are We Convincible?

First I read this in Colossians 3:
2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

This passage is so big how do we get our minds around it? Only the Holy Spirit Himself can speak to each of our hearts the impact He desires for these most powerful, promising words. And then I read these verses:

12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

If you go back to verse 11 ‘God’s chosen people’ becomes clear.

11 Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

So WE, you and me, ALL who are IN Christ, are holy and dearly loved. Can you appreciate that today? Can you appreciate that you ARE dearly loved today? But not only are we dearly loved, we are holy in Christ Jesus. That’s harder, isn’t it? We think we are being humble if we refrain from seeing ourselves as holy, don’t we? Yet, He said we are a holy people. That is the way ABBA sees us. Who are we to refuse to see ourselves as He sees us? And what do we miss out on if we continue to resist this Word to us? Is it possible that we will go lacking in some crucial elements of holy living? I think so. Like compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. If we refuse to allow the Holy Spirit to convince us that we are holy, doesn’t it seem reasonable that we will continue to manifest unholy behavior? If we refuse to allow the Holy Spirit to convince us that we are dearly loved by ABBA, doesn’t it seem entirely possible that we will not love others or even ourselves as He has commanded us to love? If we refuse to allow the Holy Spirit to convince us that we are fully forgiven, isn’t it highly likely that we will not readily forgive others? Can we begin today to allow the Holy Spirit to wrap our arms around this TRUTH: that we in Christ Jesus are a holy people that Abba Dearly LOVES? I think really, really believing this just may be one of the greatest honors we can give our KING and Father. Do you agree?

Holy Spirit, our request to You today is that day by day we surrender to You and allow You to convince us more and more that in You Christ Jesus we have become a holy people, a people that You ABBA dearly love. A holy people that You desire to live through manifesting Your compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience and forgiveness to this world.

*****
Revelation 2:17 — His Ministry to you,
Kathie

Click HERE and pray for today’s Dear Ones and their needs.