Tag Archives: Mary

Copy Paste Chew Again

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

 

Christian Living, KWT Paraphrasing, Questions

SLA

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And another week has begun.

We are into our third week of Summer. A summer, I am hoping, to be packed with learning and sweet memories for my GRANDS to carry with them through their lives.

There is a skill to learning, don’t you know? A most valuable skill, wouldn’t you say? And my GRANDS are not the only ones needing to learn the skill of learning.  And I know just the Teacher!  And I believe the steps to learning have been revealed to us. THE TEACHER used them Himself. Here let me share with you what I have found.

Luke 2

Remember the account of JESUS at twelve? Joseph and Mary left Jerusalem thinking He was within the caravan with some of His cousins. And when it came time to make camp for the night, naturally they went looking for Him. And when they did not find Him they returned to Jerusalem. Can you imagine the horror of not finding Him for three days?? I mean think of it! You have been entrusted with GOD’s SON and you can’t find Him?!  Seriously, what Mother’s heart would not be in a gut-wrenching panic even for a moment of not knowing where is her child – much less THREE DAYS?!

Finally, they go to the Temple and there He is!

Learning! 

46 Then, after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. via Luke 2 NASB – Jesus’ Birth in Bethlehem – Now in – Bible Gateway.

Three words, in particular, are my focus for this message.

Sitting. Listening. Asking

The steps to learning.

SIT.
To learn anything. Scripture. Math. Science. How to cut hair. You name it. Learning requires us to POSITION ourselves. To be still. Sit! Put ourselves in an environment conducive to the art of what we wish to learn.  JESUS was in the Temple. Smart move. We could learn a lot from this 12-year-old GOD-BOY!

LISTEN.
JESUS was not sitting there checking His Facebook, or playing a game on His iPad or iPod.  He was listening. He gave the teachers His attention! He heard their words. He considered what they said. He played the words, the concepts, the ideas in His mind examining them. He listened. We have to LISTEN if we expect to learn.  JESUS did. And if GOD did. Who are we not to?

Perhaps we don’t like the concept of JESUS learning; because learning denotes there is something we do not know and didn’t JESUS know everything?  As the GOD-INFANT, GOD-TODDLER, GOD-CHILD, GOD-BOY?  No, He didn’t. HE LEARNED. He allowed Himself to be limited because we humans are limited. He learned.  So can we, following His practice – Sit. Listen.

ASK.
If we sit. If we listen. We will surely have questions. Sometimes I have questions but I don’t ask. I don’t ask because I don’t want to appear ignorant. There’s a word for that kind of ignorance – PRIDE. I need to learn better.  :)  And I will.  JESUS modeled the pattern for us. The least we could do is use it!

Sit. Listen. Ask.

Simple isn’t it? And there is no art of schooling to which we cannot apply it.

Sit. Listen. Ask.

I am glad to be learning this — aren’t you?

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

Thank You, JESUS, for this simple and profound tool of learning; help us practice it well for Your glory and our good. Thank You, Father, for each soul who comes here to read and to pray. I am asking You to bless them for coming; whatever their needs I pray they will find You faithful today.  I pray for strength and courage, wisdom and discernment, peace and security, and for our sick and afflicted I pray You will heal them and for the wayward and rebellious I am thanking You that You will not give up on them and You are continuing to pursue them. I pray, HOLY SPIRIT, for You to help them repent.  And we remember Israel, praying for peace and safety, and for America, we pray for a great awakening unto repentance. Thank You, Father, for perfecting Your saints in JESUS’ name. Amen and amen.

Celebrations, Passion Week

Resurrection Sunday!

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Some time before dawn the stone was rolled away! Not so JESUS could get out but so we could see that He had!!

Matthew 28:2 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

2 And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it.
via Matthew 28:2 NASB – And behold, a severe earthquake had – Bible Gateway.

And so the Women who loved Him so much went to the tomb while it was still dark.  Would anything  but a powerful love send a woman to a cemetery in the dark? 

John 20:1 New American Standard Bible (NASB) The Empty Tomb
1 Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene *came early to the tomb, while it *was still dark, and *saw the stone already taken away from the tomb.
via John 20:1 NASB – The Empty Tomb – Now on the first day – Bible Gateway.

See Matthew 28:1-8; Mark 16:1-8; Luke 24:1-8; John 20:1 for the details of the women’s visit to the tomb.

See Luke 24:9-12; John 20:2-10 as Mary Magdalene reported to the Disciples that JESUS’ body was missing from the tomb. Peter and John immediately ran to the tomb to see for themselves. 

There were a lot of going(s) to the tomb that Resurrection Morning and it was Mary who was first privileged to encounter JESUS after His resurrection.

Mark 16:9-11 specifically identified this Mary but it is John’s account in Chapter 20 that is my favored account. It’s the one I identify well with.

John 20:11-18 New Century Version (NCV)
11 But Mary stood outside the tomb, crying. As she was crying, she bent down and looked inside the tomb.
12 She saw two angels dressed in white, sitting where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and one at the feet.
13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”
She answered, “They have taken away my Lord, and I don’t know where they have put him.”
14 When Mary said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know it was Jesus.
15 Jesus asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Whom are you looking for?”Thinking he was the gardener, she said to him, “Did you take him away, sir? Tell me where you put him, and I will get him.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.”Mary turned toward Jesus and said in the Hebrew language, “Rabboni.” (This means “Teacher.”)
17 Jesus said to her, “Don’t hold on to me, because I have not yet gone up to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going back to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ”
18 Mary Magdalene went and said to the followers, “I saw the Lord!” And she told them what Jesus had said to her.
via John 20:11-18 NCV – But Mary stood outside the tomb, – Bible Gateway.

As surely as Mary heard JESUS speak her name, I have heard Him speak mine.  To be sure Mary heard His audible voice with physical ears and I have not (yet). But just as assuredly the ears of my heart heard Him call, ‘Kathie’, and I answered! There have been many great days in my life but no day (so far) compares to that one!But there is a day coming that will far exceed that lovely day in November 1975! Verily, verily without this Resurrection Sunday we are remembering today there would be no great days for any of us.

JESUS also appeared to the other women: Matthew 28:9-10.  And to the two men on the Emmaus Road: Mark 16:12-13; Luke 24:13-32. And in the evening, He ‘popped in’ on the Disciples :) : Mark 16:14; Luke 24:36-43; John 20:25. And for 40 days JESUS at various times and places met with His disciples teaching and preparing them for His Ascension to Heaven and His Commission to them and us to carry on His work: Acts 1:3; Matthew 28:19-20.

Many passages, many happenings we have read this week, ABBA, every Word true and faithful. Thank You, LORD. Thank You, LORD, for Your mercy, Your grace and patience as You wait for souls to believe. Thank You, HOLY SPIRIT, that we are not left on our own to believe; that You call us, help us and empower us to believe You. Thank You. For without You we surely never would.  You know I am thinking particularly of one near and dear to me, You know the diagnosis, it scares us and we cling to You for peace and ask You to heal her. And there are others, many others with illness and diseases; and as scary and hard and life altering as these things are You defeated death and hell so we proclaim what our brother Paul said, “we are afflicted, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; struck down, but not destroyed by these things; we trust You and we desire first and foremost that You be glorified in us. HOLY SPIRIT, pour out upon us as we gather to worship, anoint Your Messengers in worship centers and Sunday School classrooms, exalt JESUS and draw men, women, boys and girls to worship HIM. Amen and . . .   .

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