Tag Archives: United States

The Last Thing (again)

IDOK DEVOTION FOR WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2010

The Last Thing

I’m just going to put this one out here just like it came to me way early this morning. The Last Thing our children and grandchildren need is for them to see us being unfaithful to the Scriptures.

Hebrews 10: 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.  [source]

In a Kathie Whitestone Thompson paraphrase: we better be walking the talk at home and in a Bible Believing, preaching Local Assembly (Church)!  The LAST THING we should be doing in the days before THE DAY is failing to LIVE the Scriptures.  It’s not just the world at stake here, it’s our ‘babies’ and our ‘grandbabies’.  So we have to ask ourselves what Scripture passages am I not consistently living?  The key word is consistently – not perfectly, but diligently and faithfully refusing to compromise what we know He has commanded us to do and, yes, to not do too. 

My Dear Sisters and Brothers, it’s been a long day.  Let’s pray.  We love you all.

ABBA, You are so good to me!  Thank You for this Word to us today and I am asking You to gently or firmly confirm this Word to us individually and to do so in such a way that there is no room for doubt just what portion of Your Word we, individually, are not faithfully living.  I ask You to make it so uncomfortable for us that we will not rest until we confess and cease to transgress Your Commands.   Thank You, Holy Spirit, for watching over Your Word to confirm it and make it alive in us.  Thank You for the promises You have given us, both the conditional ones and the unconditional ones.  Thank You that we can ask anything of You and according to Your will, You will do it.    And so, ABBA, according to Your Will we ask that You minister and tend to every person whose name may be spoken here.   We pray too for our IDOK Troops, for their safety and protection in spirit, soul and body and for their safe returns home.    I pray Your People will find their voices and places to stand and serve You and this great nation called America.  I pray, You will bless the people of America with conviction.  Lord, I am asking You to be merciful and convince this people of sin, of righteousness and judgment to come if Your Gift of Salvation in Christ Jesus alone is refused or neglected. I ask for Peace for Israel and that You will subdue all their enemies in the Mighty and Holy Name of Yeshua.  Amen and amen.

Kathie

As a Post Script over three years later; this Word is fresh again and I need it!!

Thee and Me (again)

IDOK DEVOTION FOR TUESDAY, JANUARY 26, 2010

Thee and Me

            May I tell you I would love to be a poet, but, alas, I am not! However, Calvin Miller is.  I meet him in June of 2004 and he autographed a book for me – When the Aardvark Parked on the Ark.  It’s a children’s book that grown ups can read.  This poem from his book and a verse a two from DADDY GOD’s Book, I think, will be our devotion today.  See if you find a correlation, even a revelation. Does this poem speak volumes to thee, or is it just me?

EATING WITH YOUR EYES OPEN

If a cannibal asks you to dinner don’t groan

Just find out if he ends his dinners alone.

Be sure, above all (if dinner’s at five),

He has it all cooked before you arrive.

Cannibals do have quite excellent taste,

But keep on your side of the table, alert

If your host licks his lips and stares past dessert.

Cannibals are big eaters and terribly strong.

And believe me, their friends never last very long.

Galatians 5: (New King James Version) 14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another! 16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. [source]

This seems to me to be breaking devotional rules,

It’s not something I would normally do.

But I pray this serious subject spoken in what I think, a silly way,

Will ring true in our minds and our souls, this day.

Maybe then we will not pick up a knife and a fork,

To devour someone who should be so close to our heart.

DADDY GOD, I confess I am still sick to my stomach thinking about ___________ and family; I feel drained of words.  I just want to sit here in silence.  Oh how that Mother must feel. Oh DADDY, how do You do it?  How do You bear all this?  I know I wouldn’t have the capacity to understand even if You told me. Help these families; help them breathe, hold their souls together, keep them sane with this insane news.

I can’t just keep sitting here, staring at this screen, the hour is late, bodies are tired.  Comfort us and rest us, I pray.  And tend to every soul written here.  And our IDOK Troops, still we pray for protection and safety and comfort and healing of wounds and safe returns home. Amen and amen.

From “Tales From the Hasidim” Rabbi Moshe of Kobryn said, “When a man suffers, he ought not to say, “That’s bad! That’s Bad!” Nothing that God imposes on man is bad.  But it is all right to say, “That’s bitter!”  For among medicines there are some that are made with bitter herbs.

Kathie

 

Stringing to Freedom (again)

IDOK DEVOTION FOR WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27, 2010

Stringing to Freedom

Romans 8: (New International Version) 1Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,  [source]

            Okay, right now I am just thinking out-loud.  If I sense condemnation that should be to me a red flag waving that in that area, I am not FREE, that is I am not experiencing the freedom that Jesus died to give me.  I am enslaved to something or someone other than Him.  Slavery to anyone or anything other than Christ is a death sentence — for a Christian it is the death of our joy, worship, cheerful service and most likely a whole lot more. Galatians 5: (New International Version) 1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. [source] I underlined for emphasis – it means WE have to do something to experience this freedom He is talking about.  True it is a gift but like gifts from human hands, if we don’t put that ‘ring’ on it does not shine on our finger.

So when I feel that condemnation or I hear it in my own head, I know (at least I am beginning to know) that I have become a slave to whatever it is that has caused me to feel condemned. 

            When I sit and allow the screen of my mind to be filled with images of what she said, or what he did; what they think of me; or worse yet, allow myself to sit there looking at images of how they might be thinking that sermon applies to me and not to them – I am NOT free.  BUT in these recent days, I am learning! Praise HIM I am learning to be FREE!  By His Grace, I am learning how to live FREE in a very costly, enslaving, mean, hostile, debilitating society.  Today is a good day and by His Grace, we will string another day to this day, tomorrow and on and on we will go. 

            I am mindful that this is a pretty personal piece to send out to you; but, hey if there is even a chance that sharing some of my steps to learning might help someone else – I’m on it!  If I am anything, LORD, make me REAL!

How do I honor You in addressing You?  How do I even attempt to encompass in a Name Who You are?  The Great I AM.  How can it be that the Great I AM lives and loves within me?  It’s too much for me, but I accept, DADDY, I accept.  Keep the communion coming; keep pouring on the revelation; keep drawing me into intimacy with You.  Stretch me and fill me and stretch me and fill me, again and again and again, all the way, every day till I see You, Jesus.  Till I behold Your very Hebrew Face; till I see and touch Your Holy hands and feet; till feel Your very real Carpenter Strong and yet God Strong Arms around me.  Oh, LORD, I want to be shamelessly, radically with total abandonment in love with You.  Above all things I could and do ask for, give me this, get me there as close as You can before I see Your Holy Hebrew Face.  And, LORD, for my freedom You died and rose again; oh, I don’t want to waste any of it.  I pray for freedom; freedom from every curse of my flesh, the world and the devil; and not just for me but for all Your Daughters and all Your Sons.  

So, I can ask that for every one of our IDOK Troops, that individually they will lean on You as their very best Friend and the Lover and Keeper of their souls and their very great Reward.  You are good to entrust us with so many to pray for; so many lives we can touch with prayer.  Even when we don’t word it all just right, You are mindful of them, not a one of them listed here do You overlook.  You are amazing! So I am just trusting You with them; to individually give them grace and help just like You would if I specifically asked for just what it is they need.   This is includes Israel too and this Nation we call America and Pastors and Local Churches, all of them represented and connected to these names and email addresses.

And, yes, oh yes, I love You, too!  I cannot fathom it how You could love me or how You could even make it so I know You do, but You have and I do.  Oh, I long to see Your Holy, Beautiful, Holy, Hebrew Face, Face to face.  Even so, come, LORD JESUS, come quickly. Amen and amen.

Kathie

I think I shall leave this quote for a few more days – give it time to bear some more fruit.

 From “Tales From the Hasidim” Rabbi Moshe of Kobryn said, “When a man suffers, he ought not to say, “That’s bad! That’s Bad!” Nothing that God imposes on man is bad.  But it is all right to say, “That’s bitter!”  For among medicines there are some that are made with bitter herbs.