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Willfully Dependent (again)

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IDOK DEVOTION FOR TUESDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2009

Willfully Dependent

I began reading today in Matthew 18.  That is the place in Sacred Word where Jesus said: 2 Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, 3 and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.  And I asked how are little children?  And He answered with one word: dependent.  And I am thinking, be they newborn, infant, toddler and even older, children are dependent.  Dependant upon their parents; however strong willed, however determined to touch what will hurt them, they are dependent upon those who gave them life. 

Do you see what I see?  Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.   Unless one becomes WILLFULLY DEPENDENT upon the ONE who gave him/her physical life – God Almighty – for Eternal Life, that One will never see the Kingdom of God, shall by no means enter in.  There is no way to enter Eternal Life without becoming dependent upon God.  That is willfully abandoning any means of our own to enter in and resting and relying only on the One Provision God has given for Eternal Life – Jesus Christ.  Is it any wonder that Jesus came as a Baby – dependent upon Mary and Joseph – to show us the way?  As the Son of Holy God was willfully dependent upon Mary and Joseph for every morsel of food that entered His mouth, so must we be dependent upon Jesus Christ for Life Everlasting and life here and now.  Oh my goodness!  Jesus Christ did come to show us the way to LIFE and it is as a little child – dependent!

I say it again, DADDY GOD, oh my goodness how simple and how sweet and precious is this message to us. May we look afresh and renewed again at every child we see and see the message You have for us – dependent.  Dependent on You for every breath!  Thank You for speaking to us this morning.  Thank You for giving us a Word.  And as I am thinking of beginning a New Year what better way to enter it than DEPENDENT upon You?  This I believe, this I KNOW, the more dependent upon You I know myself to be and practicing that dependence, the more INDEPENDENT of my flesh and the world I will be.  Make it, Lord God, my goal to be dependent upon You in practice; oh to practice dependence – this is good! Thank You, ABBA, and now we turn to pray; You know the many needs here and we are dependent upon You.   And we pray for each Dear Ones names spoken here asking You, Holy Spirit, to help them depend upon You and receive every help and blessing and healing and restoration that You so desire to give them.  We pray too for our IDOK Troops for their safety and well-being in spirit, soul and body; asking all these things because we can in You alone, Christ Jesus. Amen and amen.
Kathie

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My Obsession (again)

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IDOK Devotion for Friday, March 12, 2010
My Obsession
          Today I began to question something.  If you know me well you know I’ve got a thing about words.  At times to someone who loves me much I can be down right irritating when I analyze his usage of words; especially when I am not a professional myself.  Be that as it may, here are my wonderings today:  Should we be praying that God will increase our faith or strengthen our faith?  I am wondering if we do ourselves damage when we ask God to increase our faith?  Hear me out now. When we ask Him to increase our faith, are we not telling ourselves that we are lacking in faith?  How negative is that?! Does that not create doubt in us?   But if we ask Him to strengthen our faith can we not hear ourselves saying to Him – ‘Yes, LORD, I have faith.  I admit it is weak but I know You have placed faith in me.  I know I have the seed of faith and when You strengthen the faith I have it will be more than enough to believe You for this that I am asking of You.’  Irritating — isn’t it?  My obsession with semantics.  But somehow it helped me today.  It connected for me today. So I’ve been praying today for ABBA to strengthen my faith … and He is.   So I thought if I passed along to you the ‘fruit’ of my semantics obsession, perhaps it would help you too.   
          Colossians 2: (NIV)
6So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him,
7rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

            ABBA, I realize often times I am a bit over the top with this word usage thing but I liked it today.  Thank You for humoring me.  I pray it will help our IDOKs and Readers.  Thank You for strengthening the faith that You placed in me.  And I am confident You are going to keep on strengthening me and I am delighted about that.  Thank You.  Compared to carnal, worldly standards, I’d like to get just down right sickening with how wildly in love with You I am.  I’d like love for You and people to just exude from every pore of me. I figure that will take some time and some work but lets do it!  I am mindful that such conversation could be construed as silly, too familiar or some other negative connotation but I think I’m finally getting ready to run that risk – it’s easy here on the page of this screen – get me to the place that it is easy out there too in the midst of people that intimidate me.  In fact I’m asking You to grow and mature me to the stage that my love and reverence for You far exceeds my desire to please man, woman or child.  I am asking to come to the place that I just abandon myself to You; not that I would disregard the feelings of others but that I would be freed up to love and help them without being concerned about me.  Empty me of me and fill me up with You.  It’s time to move on, isn’t it?  Move on to others.  Others who will be spoken here with some serious needs.  Bless them, keep the safe from all harm, strengthen their faith, increase their knowledge of Your Word; help them more and more to know You and believe You.  In Jesus’ Name. Amen and amen.

Kathie

 

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Wandering (again)

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IDOK Devotion for Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Wandering
          If I have seen it before I have forgotten.  So it is new this morning.
Exodus 20:2-4 (NKJV)
2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
            3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.
          In verse 2 I see the word ‘bondage’. Verse 3 commands us to have no other gods before Him?  I am learning more what that means. For me, one thing it means is when I deny the Truth within me to please someone else, I have bowed in worship to a false god and it is as surely bondage to me as was building bricks in Egypt to Israel. ABBA, came down and delivered Israel from Egypt.  But obviously they were still in bondage, they still had other gods before them – hence 40 years of wandering!
          I’m tired of wandering! I want all my idols gone and all my chains of bondage broken.  And I know Who can do it.  I know Who is doing it – link by link.  All praise and glory to JESUS – the Greatest of ALL Liberators!
          Philippians 3:13-15 (NKJV)
13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,
14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
15 Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you.
Amen and amen – LORD anything to the otherwise, moment by moment reveal it to us and by Your Grace we SHALL turn away from it!  And all IDOKs and Readers said AMEN? Amen.        
            Holy Spirit, I ask You to do Your Thing with this.  It’s a fast written one but I pray it will linger long and will be an instrument of transformation in each of us.   We entrust each name spoken here.  We expect great things in each life and each situation because You only do Great, LORD.  We entrust our IDOK Troops for peace and safe keeping today.  We entrust the Call to Prayer to continue and grow and build strength in Your People.  We entrust the government and the people of America to You.  We entrust the People of Israel to You.  We lay it all before You this morning and we believe You are able.  We not only believe You are able, we believe You are willing – LORD JESUS, You have shown this.  Thank You.  Amen and amen.
Kathie
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Rejoicing with the Choir (again)

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IDOK Devotion for Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Rejoicing With The Choir
          As I was backing out of our drive this morning, I noticed an attractive, modestly dressed, young woman walking toward me, so I stopped, let down the window to hear her invitation and to receive her written inducement.  It was to gather with others and commemorate the anniversary of Jesus’ death.  This commemoration will be held Tuesday, March 30 at 8:15 PM and I am warmly invited.  At this meeting, all will be given Scriptural answers to these questions: How did Jesus, by His death, provide a ransom? Why was this necessary?  For whom did Jesus lay down His life? And what can His death mean for you?
          I received her pamphlet because it would mean she would have one less to give to someone else and because I was on a tight schedule – too tight to engage her in conversation. Perhaps I won’t be so busy next time.  I’ve had some experience with Kingdom Hall Witnesses and have yet to find one that is willing to hear but that does not mean I should not try.  Does it? I’m glad I smiled and waved at the others in her party on my street too. Perhaps next time I will do more.   I think it would be spiritually criminal for any Christian to be unkind to a Kingdom Hall Witness.  But Christians’ conduct toward Kingdom Hall Witnesses is not my major point here.  I read the invitation.  I heard what she said and there was not one word about Jesus’ resurrection.  And I am now about to ‘preach’ to the choir, or maybe we will term it ‘rejoice with the choir’. 
          I submit to you that without Jesus’ resurrection, His death would be meaningless. His death alone will not ransom anyone.  His death alone leaves me in my sins and bound for Satan’s hell. 
          I Corinthians 15 (NKJV)
            12 Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen.
14 And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.
15  Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise.
16 For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen.
17 And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!
18 Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.
20 But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
          I serve a risen Savior, I know that He is living whatever man may say … He lives.  He lives.  Christ Jesus lives today.  He walks with me.  He talks with me along life’s narrow way.  He lives. He lives.
          Do some rejoicing today – Jesus lives in His flesh and bone RESURRECTED body and He will return for everyone who has received Him as Savior and Lord in that SAME BODY in which He ascended.  ALL who do not believe this and rest themselves in this Truth, are of all men the most pitiable!
          If you would like more information as to the doctrine of Kingdom Hall Witnesses relative to Jesus’ Resurrection, please see the web page at this link:
http://www.equip.org/perspectives/the-resurrection-of-jesus-what-do-jehovah-s-witnesses-believe   
            Holy God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, thank You that I KNOW You and I know You arose, LORD JESUS, as much as I know I am sitting here in this chair and that You will return even as You left.  That You are the ONLY GODMAN and one day Your FACE I will see.  And not me alone but every man, woman, boy and girl that has said yes to Your gift of salvation, having received Your Righteousness in exchange for their sins.   Cause me grow to never being quiet about this gift another day that I have left here.  And I pray for our IDOKs that not one of us will shut up about it.  
I pray now for rest and refreshing of spirit, soul and body for our IDOKs and Readers and every name listed here.   Again I pray for the protection and safety of our IDOK Troops.  You have been so gracious and so kind to us in this and I thank You for such grace.  Thank You, ABBA.  And now as I prepare to send this message, I pray it shall go where You want it to go and do what You want it to do in Your Name Jesus and in Your Name alone.  Thank You LORD.  Thank You.  I love You too.  Amen and amen.
Kathie