May 30, 2012

We Can't Even Make It Right; Much Less Upright

Ecclesiastes 7:13 Consider the work of God, For who is able to straighten what He has bent 

Psalm 42:  Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me?  Hope in God for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance.

Hosea 11:7 My people are bent on turning away from me, and though they call out to the Most High, he shall not raise them up at all.


Tell me, you who are bent on being under the Law, will you listen to what the Law [really] says?
Galatians 4:21

We know the verses about the doors that God opens cannot be shut, what God has put together let no man asunder but what about what God has formed?  We know that when He formed the earth as we know it, he placed everything which He had formed, then He "set" it - and said it was good.  But then came man - He formed us and then gave us over to free will. 


Going a bit deeper on our previous topics of Peter and Habakkuk, I added the scriptures above.  I want us to ponder some things:

If our understanding becomes weight to our soul, if our spirit is grieving - struggling to find release from the debris we pile upon us, wouldn't that make us bent or cast down?  When God gives us over to our depravities the weight of it all buries us deep. Within our selves we are bent never to be right with God. The holy spirit hoists us up into Christ in whom we have our confidence and right standing in God's presence.
Therefore, there is "No Way" for us to come into His presence - because nothing but righteousness, purity and the fullness of life is capable of withstanding His magnitude of radiant power. 

Our of Love for us - not desiring us to perish He made "A Way", ONE and only One way to protect us.  He desires a body to relate to and not sacrifice.  Since there HAD to be a sacrifice to upright things it had to be perfect as to not get muddled.  His way had to be hammered,  stretched, worn down, intensely heated and reshaped - everything necessary to straighten our God forsaken form.

Our pride, arrogance, what ever we desire to label it, wants to be able to be reformed and made just within ourselves.  Until we accept "that we are, what we are", which is totally unsalvage -able and a wreck, we will NEVER, truly accept Christ's rescue and deliverance.  Why? because we don't want to give up the honor and glory of all our hard works and deeds.....

But therein lies the problem; without His spirit merging with our soul, He isn't the power source enlivening us making us able.  Therefore the things we do outside His body are earth bound and committed to death. (refer to Habakkuk 2:4)

I pray for us what Habakkuk prayed:  Oh Lord, now I have heard your report and I worship you in awe for the fearful things you are going to do.  In this time of our deep need begin again to help us, as you did years ago.  Show us your power to save us.  In your wrath, remember mercy ~ Habakkuk

In Jesus name, Amen
Kisses,
Candace

May 29, 2012

Is Your Spirit or Your Soul Upright?

Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.  Habakkuk 2:4


Peter and Habakkuk are not letting me go guys - but I can't apologize, because they are leading me somewhere.  AND I'm going to run after them!
Peter wrote about God's timing, people following their own desires and what the prophets of old told us was to happen on "The Day of the Lord".  (If you did not catch that one, I linked it for you).  We then discussed one of those prophets, Habakkuk.  Habakkuk wrote of his complaint with God, He could not understand why there was so much injustice.  He did not hold back when complaining, but He was so fool either.  His soul was NOT lifted up, it was right within him....so he feared the Lord and waited in reverence and faith for the reply; God being faithful to the upright did not disappoint.  

We have already discussed that God instructed Hab to write His answer LARGE so no one could miss it.  What we have not covered are the details of what he was to write, so here it is:

Note well:

Money deceives.The arrogant rich don't last. They are more hungry for wealth than the grave is for cadavers. Like death, they always want more, but the 'more' they get is dead bodies.  They are cemeteries filled with dead nations, graveyards filled with corpses. Don't give people like this a second thought. Soon the whole world will be taunting them: 

 "Who do you think you are—  getting rich by stealing and extortion?  How long do you think you can get away with this?"
Indeed, how long before your victims wake up, stand up and make you the victim? You've plundered nation after nation. Now you'll get a taste of your own medicine. All the survivors are out to plunder you, a payback for all your murders and massacres. 

Who do you think you are— recklessly grabbing and looting, living it up, acting like king of the mountain, acting above it all, above trials and troubles? You've engineered the ruin of your own house. In ruining others you've ruined yourself.  You've undermined your foundations, rotted out your own soul. The bricks of your house will speak up and accuse you. The woodwork will step forward with evidence. 

"Who do you think you are— building a town by murder, a city with crime? Don't you know that God-of-the-Angel-Armies makes sure nothing comes of that but ashes,Makes sure the harder you work at that kind of thing, the less you are? Meanwhile the earth fills up with awareness of God's glory as the waters cover the sea.

"Who do you think you are— inviting your neighbors to your drunken parties, Giving them too much to drink, roping them into your sexual orgies? You thought you were having the time of your life. Wrong! It's a time of disgrace. All the time you were drinking, you were drinking from the cup of God's wrath. You'll wake up holding your throbbing head, hung over— hung over from Lebanon violence, Hung over from animal massacres hung over from murder and mayhem, From multiple violations of place and people. "What's the use of a carved god so skillfully carved by its sculptor? What good is a fancy cast god when all it tells is lies? What sense does it make to be a pious god-maker who makes gods that can't even talk?


Who do you think you are— saying to a stick of wood, 'Wake up,' Or to a dumb stone, 'Get up'?
   Can they teach you anything about anything? There's nothing to them but surface. There's nothing on the inside.


 "But oh! God is in his holy Temple! Quiet everyone—a holy silence. Listen!"


Now after reading this if you felt your soul rise up within yourself to shout YEA - Gettem' God.....I ask you to pause and remember a couple of things:

    • behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him
    •  The Lord isn’t slow to do what he promised, as some people think. Rather, He is patient for your sake. He doesn’t want to destroy anyone but wants all people to have an opportunity to turn to him and change the way they think and act.
If our confidence is in God, His spirit will make us upright and not down cast.  However if it is confidence in all we can do, then our soul has erected itself apart from the spirit.  More on this later.

I pray that you sit at His feet and pray for those who are living as if they are going to die eternally.  But remember to get out of the way of destruction yourself.  Pray on the run if you must!  God is faithful to save those whom He has called and foreknew - Honest!

Kisses,
Candace


©Candace Huffmaster 2012, All Copyrights Reserved
Kaleidoscope Butterfly, Inc™

May 27, 2012

How Long Oh Lord????

If you never read anything else we discuss, do not miss this one.  Why, because this topic God said "it is not a lie"........literally! Read on:

We all go through the times when we do not understand the reason we are going through difficulties due to someone else's stubbornness or rebellion.  We ask ourselves questions like:  Does God really expect me to help this person when they are simply receiving what they created?  Is it selfish of me to not help where I can so that this individual may see that there is a God that loves him / her when they are bottoming out?  Is it disrespectful to God if I do not "put on joy" as I am having to deal with people that always put their wants before the burdens they are allowing to crash in on my life with disregard to the weight is has on me?

So what do we do with that.  Well I pray that during our next conversations God will really speak up, because this is the road we are headed down as we discuss Love honestly.

In the book of Habakkuk we studied where this man of God was deliberating “How long, Oh Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, ‘Violence!’ but you do not save.” He goes on to ask about all the imbalance, injustice and oppression taking place and questions why God is just watching it all happen. God did respond to Habakkuk, but Habakkuk waited for the answer trusting that He would. God said listen Habakkuk to my reply and write it down REALLY big so everyone knows the answer, and tell them it isn't a lie - it is GOING to happen, AND it is going to happen at the appropriate time - not early and not late. He then describes the person it is going to happen to. He says "look at the proud person he is not right in himself. He then describes the one he sees suffering by their actions and describes what He sees. "But the righteous person will live because of his faithfulness"

Now he really explains things to Hab as he expounds stating He sees it all. He sees their arrogance,and how their soul is not upright in them.  God keeps giving them the opportunity to make fair decisions since He has allowed them to have the power.  He, obviously, has allowed them to obtain the truth so that they KNOW their actions are unfair......and yet.....they keep on keeping on as if God isn't watching, isn't caring, isn't there.  Not that the next thing God stated through Habakkuk would have been comforting, but at least it did validate these down trodden folks sentiments: God told Hab that it was going to get worse because He knew their callous, selfish, manipulative and uncaring ways. 

What I read next gave me courage, comfort and strength though - God wanted Hab to write it down LARGE for everyone to see.  The reason was this:  So that they would read it and RUN.

Habakkuk 2:3"Then the LORD answered me and said, "Record  the vision And inscribe it on tablets, That the one who reads it may run. "For the vision is yet for the appointed  time; It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; For it will certainly come, it will not delay. "

So how can all this help us today?

God made boundary lines for containment in the beginning of creation; He called them good! Which let's us  know that when others disregard proper boundaries they are supposed to be isolated so that damage is contained.  If they do not choose to come away from destruction or want to keep causing weakened structures around and over them, then things will only crashing in on themselves.   For some reason it isn't always obvious to some of us, that if we stay in their midst as these metaphorical walls become real weights and bondage that we too are going to be injured.  It is almost as if we think God is going to reach down and pull us out because it is not His will for us to be crushed? 

When you think about it isn't it ludicrous to rush in to rescue them?  People are SUPPOSED to feel the gravity of their decisions; that is what SIN is designed to do.  If it get unbearable for them maybe they will stop inflicting pain on themselves!!!  We know they are not going to care about the pain crushing in on us as we block it from hitting them.  So stop rescuing them, or they will never learn and God's justice will never be seen by others in the mighty way He has planned.

Let's stop rewriting the scriptures to say things they do not say.  Sometime we are supposed to "See the writing on the wall" and RUN like Forest Gump "in faithfulness"!  And maybe, just maybe when we get out of the way .......THEY will see the writing that our big head was blocking from their view.

What writing in on your wall?
Who are you trying to "suck it up" and "save?
Remember, we aren't here to "save" that is Jesus job.
We are supposed to show them the way out......
So put on your runnin' shoes baby!
.................think about it.

Write about it - I love you all,
Candace

If you are feeling like you cannot withstand much longer, as always click on the blue lettering in each post for similar topics.  However here are a few which are specific to waiting:



©Candace Huffmaster 2012, All Copyrights Reserved
Kaleidoscope Butterfly, Inc™

May 25, 2012

God is NOT slow!

I want to start by saying thank you to the lovely ladies who met for a journey group today.  These groups are always a highlight to my week.  When there is such an openness...a vulnerability in your sharing of thoughts, hopes, and even intimidation's there is an amazing intangible, unreasonable sense of connectivity which transpires.  What a gift you all give me - well not really me, I simply receive it for Him!

We spoke about how He does not want a sacrifice, but a body to call His own.  When we come together corporately like this and love each other unconditionally, that is what He receives! Isn't He awesome; meeting our needs in such VERY real ways through out the moments of our days?

One of your questions / statements brought to my mind the verse telling us how God is not slow.  We were speaking of the difficulties experienced, and the experience gleaned from waiting on God.  We also spoke about how all things return to God fulfilled; how if it is "returning" to Him it must originate from within Him.  All that is not from within Him will fall away, so self made things are not eternal.  I have posted from my journal on the Kisses C page, save that for tomorrow to think on.....in His presence. 

As for today, here it the verse on God is not slow, which I promised to send you.  And as for the painting on opportunity for cross referencing it to the poetry on Eden (asked for after group) I have linked the word opportunity to the Art of Survival page for you to pull that up.  If you have any problems please contact me.

2 Peter Chapter 3 (GW)

 Dear friends, this is the second letter I’m writing to you. In both letters I’m trying to refresh your memory. I want you to remember the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and what the Lord and Savior commanded you through your apostles.

First, you must understand this: In the last days people who follow their own desires will appear. These disrespectful people will ridicule God’s promise by saying, “What’s happened to his promise to return? Ever since our ancestors died, everything continues as it did from the beginning of the world.”

They are deliberately ignoring one fact: Because of God’s word, heaven and earth existed a long time ago. The earth appeared out of water and was kept alive by water. Water also flooded and destroyed that world. By God’s word, the present heaven and earth are designated to be burned. They are being kept until the day ungodly people will be judged and destroyed.

Dear friends, don’t ignore this fact: One day with the Lord is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. The Lord isn’t slow to do what he promised, as some people think. Rather, he is patient for your sake. He doesn’t want to destroy anyone but wants all people to have an opportunity to turn to him and change the way they think and act.

10 The day of the Lord will come like a thief. On that day heaven will pass away with a roaring sound. Everything that makes up the universe will burn and be destroyed. The earth and everything that people have done on it will be exposed.

11 All these things will be destroyed in this way. So think of the kind of holy and godly lives you must live 12 as you look forward to the day of God and eagerly wait for it to come. When that day comes, heaven will be on fire and will be destroyed. Everything that makes up the universe will burn and melt. 13 But we look forward to what God has promised—a new heaven and a new earth—a place where everything that has God’s approval lives.

14 Therefore, dear friends, with this to look forward to, make every effort to have him find you at peace, without spiritual stains or blemishes. 15 Think of our Lord’s patience as an opportunity for us to be saved. This is what our dear brother Paul wrote to you about, using the wisdom God gave him. 16 He talks about this subject in all his letters. Some things in his letters are hard to understand. Ignorant people and people who aren’t sure of what they believe distort what Paul says in his letters the same way they distort the rest of the Scriptures. These people will be destroyed.

17 Dear friends, you already know these things. So be on your guard not to be carried away by the deception of people who have no principles. Then you won’t fall from your firm position. 18 But grow in the good will and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Glory belongs to him now and for that eternal day!

Amen.

I pray that each of us bless all that is around us - not curse.  We are light, let the darkness BE darkness - but as for us, we have no part in the deeds of that darkness. So separate! (I say that with love AND emphasis dear friends)

Kisses,
Candace


©Candace Huffmaster 2012, All Copyrights Reserved
Kaleidoscope Butterfly, Inc™

May 23, 2012

Where Is Our Rudder Heading Us?


A small rudder on a huge ship in the hands of a skilled captain sets a course in the face of the strongest winds.  A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything...or destroy it!  It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire.  A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that.  By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell!   ~ James 3: 4-6 The Message


We spoke last week about the importance of knowing our story.  The stories of our life are nothing more than the merging of words: our word and the words we've heard.  But they are so much more than letters merged together, God created all things with them.  A year or so ago we broached this topic when speaking of Job's story:

Words. What do they really mean? God utilized them to create the world, then had them written so that we would know that. He also told us:  they are a double edge sword,  they have a great power and recompense, to etch them on our heart, to bind them about our waist, to wear them as a garland around our neck, to wrap them around wrist and to never let them leave our mouth. 

God also explained how to serve them:  to always speak them, sometimes to hold them, not to give them to fools, to realize they are pearls and not to feed the pearls to swine.  He asked us:  to speak them even when we know people will not listen, not to withhold them when they will teach, to speak them in love and kindness, advising us that, they can harm or heal and that they have action for good or evil. 

God's bottom line was this:  Ultimately they give life or cause death so we must understand our words because anything we propel out from us on some level we did in by faith. But sometimes our words expose the direction our rudder is heading us.....and it isn't where we've been telling everyone we were going.

There is no doubt, that the whole when to speak and when to "shut ye ole pie hole" can become a bit overwhelming……ESPECIALLY if we are leaning on our own thoughts with our eyes focused on our self.    Satan knows this!   But let's not focus on him, let's focus on what God says - and what He says is that  there is nothing new under the sun! This is great news, it means that evils bag of tricks is "predicable".  Let’s not be so naive (maybe that is a bit harsh) easily overtaken. Let's take the time to look at our history of words swarming about us all.  Let's not be one of those weak willed women (or men) ever learning but never knowing.  We can go through many days, but never learn one thing and we never mature enough to learn how to use our rudder to head us in God's desired direction.  Let's grow up a bit, we can do it!

If you want to read Job's story which I referred to above, click here. If you have ever felt like there is no where else earth for you to go because evil is attempting to force you off the last snippet of ground you are wobbling upon so you might as well just end all the terrible mess……..or better yet just beg God to curse the day you were born.  Then you know how Job felt when he basically said “Job OUT!” 


Today,  I cry out for those in riding the storm riddles sea of words.  I pray that our faith not fail so that God's name will not be put to shame.  He promised WE would never be put to shame when we ride the seas of His goodness.

That's all I need to have the wind of hope lift MY sails!
With the Love of our Christ
Kisses,
Candace

©Candace Huffmaster 2012, All Copyrights Reserved
Kaleidoscope Butterfly, Inc™


May 20, 2012

Opportunity is God's Divine Design

Todays thought is posted on our Art of Survival page.  Click the picture to read more

Watercolor: Opportunity
By: Candace Huffmaster
Exhibit: Glimpse of His Glory
Date: May 18 thru June 24

May 14, 2012

Opportunity to Shine

Think about all the opportunities we are given in a day.  Think about the ones you decide to act upon.  I hope the "thought for today" will lead you to relate your choices with Him.  Then, decide for yourself, as you think on God's will, did you reflect darkness or light?

Remember, in Christ there is no condemnation, guilt or shame - only mercy and grace; receive it, extend it and rejoice in His presence.  After all, that is His hearts desire for you, for us all.

Kisses,
Candace

Genesis 1:6,7,8
1In the beginning God created heaven and earth.2The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep water. The Spirit of God was hovering over the water.3Then God said, “Let there be light!” So there was light. 4God saw the light was good. So God separated the light from the darkness. 5God named the light day, and the darkness he named night. There was evening, then morning—the first day.6Then God said, “Let there be a horizon in the middle of the water in order to separate the water.” 7So God made the horizon and separated the water above and below the horizon. And so it was. 8God named {what was above} the horizon sky. There was evening, then morning—a second day

Yowm is a Hebrew word meaning:day, time, year, yesterday, today, tomorrow, a 24 hour period, day as opposed to night.  It is a "division of time", a working day or a day's journey.  When used of the collective past it is life time, in generic terms it is a period within time.

I combine all this to help us understand that God has purpose, thought and intention with every inclination within Him as well as what it creates.  He is what we are to be.  We ARE to strive to the best of our abilities to reach this lifestyle or manner of living out our lifetime.  If we do not, not only are we not useful, but we are against what He is striving to accomplish.  Do not be deceived!

The bible speaks of being deceived many times.  Sometime we are deceived and  at times we just ignore what we know.  This is another thing to not be deceived about, there is a difference.  God recognizes who falls into transgression and who is rebellious.  God tells us in Galatians 6:7

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sows , that he will also reap.

In James 1: 16,17,18 He tells us not to be deceived or fooled:

My dear brothers and sisters don’t be fooled. Every good present and every perfect gift comes from above, from the Father who made the sun, moon, and stars. The Father doesn’t change like the shifting shadows produced by the sun and the moon. God decided to give us life through the word of truth to make us his most important creatures.

While God was creating everything good and perfect, separating light from dark and determining what they produce. He had already decided to give us life through the word of truth to make us His most important creatures.

I pray ‘this day in time” that you will not be deceived. That you will remember How Good the Lord is and not turn away, but run in all fullness toward Him that created you.

With the Love of our Christ,
Candace

I leave you with this poem to help us think about what we are sowing today.

Choice of Life

The light of dawn pushes out the dark,
As His rays sear through the dense skies,
The heat hits,  it penetrates, it condensing our lives......
And we see they're our own.......... separate lives.

We walk out our moments, two feet which can’t part
If they could, flesh would rip from pulls force.
See, the battle lies deep, not pressed from outside,
The mind willing....but our heart won't divide.

Our tongue is a razor, as it slashes to and fro...
Like a machete it clear for our conscience to take hold.
Defend and survive or thrash and destroy?
.....Lay weapons down to commune with our soul?

Life will be lived no matter where we go,
Whether resisting or planting, each choice we tow.
Our moments build tomorrows, one stone at a time,
So, Take time to choose through deliberate thought,
Be conscious of tomorrows path you'll leave behind.

By Candace Huffmaster


original 2006 ©Candace Huffmaster 2012, All Copyrights Reserved
Kaleidoscope Butterfly, Inc™


May 11, 2012

Perceive the Opportunity

It never ceases to amaze me that no matter how deep I go, into striving to understand just one thought stream of God, the layers continue to peel away.  It seems that what I wrote May 2 in my journal was the beginning of a journey onto a new plain.  We discussed the topic "God is faithful to His faithfulness" and what I wrote prior to that I did not post, till now:

We never know the moments, the plans of God.  His ways are so much loftier than our highest ideal.  And yet when crisis comes, do we remember His promises?  If we did we would hold them up and tout them through the airwaves as a shield defying the images and words which hurl themselves into our presence. 

God made sure to forward us that if we do not know Him, we cannot perceive what He can accomplish in our situations.  If we only speak and hope based on our or man's limitations, what real or lasting hope is there?  If we do not abandon the thoughts of destruction in order to believe, without doubt, that His word is truth, what is left to save us? If we are not willing to confess boldly that He alone provides, rescues, restores, renews and transforms then He will not be given the glory for what He has accomplished through our lives.

I am stopping here and over the next week we will be diving into His concepts to discover opportunities.
Please spend time with Him, read His words, ask for understanding and believe....

With Love,
Candace

©Candace Huffmaster 2012, All Copyrights Reserved
Kaleidoscope Butterfly, Inc™