What Are You Clinging To?

We are not moving from this part of Job’s journey just yet.  We still have some examining to do …..there are still a few angles left unchecked.

Let’s read this from another translation, the NAS and I will emphasize a few things:

Job 2

AGAIN there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord. 

This does not sound as though Satan was excluded but it does elude that he was not sent an invite.  He was a party crasher!

And the Lord said to satan, “Have you considered My servant Job?  For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man fearing God and turning away from evil.  And he STILL hold fast his integrity although YOU incited Me against him to ruin him WITHOUT CAUSE.

We see that satan did not speak first.  Which does not surprise me, every deceptive person speaks after they get what they came for.  I do love the way that the Lord made a public spectacle of satan offering Job up in character and hitting it home by stating “and He still holds fast his integrity”.  I admire how he is able to state the snare of satan and keep his cool.  Did you notice he didn’t get confrontational at all?  This is what I mean when I state “The truth does not have to be defended, it is simply the truth!”

God tells us not to enter into arguments with fools.  He tells us not to give pearls to swine.  But he does tell us to speak His truth to everyone.  He tells us that we are to hold others accountable but leave vengeance to Him and Him alone.  He promises that He is a just and loving God.  I believe Him what about you? 

Satan however is always going to act in line with his character so he has to incite God again stating:

Skin for skin!  Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life.  However, put forth THY hand, NOW, and touch his bone…and his flesh…he WILL curse Thee….TO THY FACE!

He is saying come on God you know this will push him over the edge……test him…come on …..you know you want to do it.  Listen to his arrogance, it is despicable!  If he will treat the Lord God Almighty in this way you know he will not hold back any sucker punches with us! 

But “thank God” God is God.  He simply stated to satan:

Behold he is in YOUR power, only spare his life.

God reiterated that he did not have to do a thing, satan had the power if he could manipulate Job and He was not getting involved in acting so unloving toward someone He loved so.

Let’s look again now at what Job’s wife stated: 

Do you still hold fast your integrity?  Curse God and die!

What I find so15 fabulous here is how Satan had used his wife as a mouth piece, look how blatant he is.  The very thing that God said Job was holding fast to …..what was anchoring his steadfastness is what satan flung at him.  He is trying to push him like he did God by saying…..come on just drop your integrity in God, you know you want to …….it will feel SO good ……just this once ….what harm will it do……and your own flesh and blood the one you are united with in God is telling you to just forget about it!

I would like to end this today asking you to think about what it is you hold fast or cling to when the pressure is on and you are in crisis. Be careful that it is not a spouse, heavens knows they leave people all the time, they do not honor their commitments to God to love us and forsake others……till death do us part.  (Not to say that you should stay with someone who is abusive in any way, they were not honoring their commitment to God from the get go.  This is a generic statement at best okay…..) and we will get to the friends in a few days.  We should be clinging to our faith in the one who will never leave us nor forsake us.  Yet we are not to be islands.  We are to be interdependent, we speak of this all the time.

1 Corinthians 15:1,2

Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you unless you believed in vain.

I pray that each of us receive the full measure of that which Christ died to afford us.  And I pray that we not weight the balances of our actions but in all ways look to Him who perfects us and disciplines us as loved children.

With the love of our Christ,

Candace

Am I a Klepto?

Continuing on our topic of Yokes – what are we truly tied up to? What is harnessing us? You will know when you expose your thoughts by answering the following questions:

 

What are you protecting?

 

Your Love exposes the truth. Fear causes our loving arms to wrap around stuff / people / ideas forming a defense to keep what we cherish from being stolen. Liberty, generosity, trust, faith and love causes our righteous arms to support, protect from harm and yet free whatever is encircled by our care.

 

At times we deceive ourselves by not looking at this truth. We live such defensive lives we are not aware of the conversations going on in our own mind. Many of us are so fearful we constantly remind ourselves of how others fall short and that we are only doing what we must do because of their brokenness. While there is a mustard seed of truth in what we speak because ALL of us are a mess, it is important to remember: nothing can ever be taken from us when we are ready to give in a time of need. After all – we own nothing, every good and perfect things comes from Him.

 

Also, we must be aware that there are many times when we ourselves create crisis because we will not get up and do things ourselves. WE place expectancy on others in our midst to do the work for us. We choose not to look at what we are doing to them – and call it an unconscious mistake.

 

Ephesians 4:28, God lovingly took the time to tells us exactly what this looks like so that we may discern and take positive action to correct this as we transform through the renewing of our minds.

 

Thieves must quit stealing and, instead, they must work hard. They should do something good with their hands so that they’ll have something to share with those in need.

The original Greek word in the scripture above is klepto and yes it is where kleptomania is derived from. This condition does not really have anything to do with the value of items or even the act of stealing. It stems from mood disorders, addictive personalities or insecurity / lack of control. It is not thought out or planned it is more of an unconscious compulsion.

God explains how to get on track:

• Get conscious
• Look at what you have
• Look for ways to do good for others
• Get busy doing good for others

Think back about how Jesus related to people. Did he fix their discomfort by filling their lives with material comforts? No, he gave them truth, told them how to obtain what they needed. But when people had no other resource and it was a crisis he did give them physical things. 

 

I pray for God to keep our eyes on where we alone need to grow and being accountable for our own actions and walk so that we can be a lovely catalyst for tranformation of our communities.

 

With Love,

Candace

 

 

 

 

 

 

"I Spy with My Little Eye"

Can God Heal Your Vision without Lasik’s?

I can put this in a nutshell for us – Yes, because vision does not start with what is in front of you. It starts with the building blocks of yesterday. We only see what we believe is really there! Once we no longer believe what we thought we saw - we now see what we "believe is really there" and so on and so forth.  Crazy or sane?  What does God say?

We live by faith, not by sight. Yet faith comes by hearing – or so I have heard and read. I chose to believe those statements even when I had no proof yet.  And that is what my dad used to say is “proof in the pudding”.( I still don’t actually get that saying – ha-ha. )

We have had so many discussions about the science of interpreting the things in our midst and the snapshot our mind portrays as the full sight, so I will not regurgitate all that again. (I know…hold your applause).

The reason we are going here yet again is because God’s wisdom on “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind” is so multifaceted that we can’t drain His knowledge on the subject. Today, our purpose is to some handy tools of His trade as we tinker with our segmented thoughts / conversations which are running non-stop in our minds.

We have been trying to discern the promises of God on which we can build our faith. We know we have to plant them in our mind in order to counteract the misinformation which has been stored. I know you all have been diligent about doing this EVERY day – Right!

That’s awesome…so today, take out some of those “Conversations with YOUR Dad” after you read this. Write another conversation with Him. Write your thoughts if you choose. Ask Him some questions and be amazed at how He responds through situations, things you read or what others say. You might even be able to hear Him whisper the answer to you before any of those things actually take place.  If so,  He will simply use these encounters to confirm that you are indeed hearing His voice - so that you will believe.  Isn't He awesome!

To help us out,  we are going to look at one of Isaiah’s “Conversations with My Dad”. Isaiah is much better at conversing with our Dad than I am.  But I'm not going to get self conscious about that - I am just going to keep listening and believing He created us for conversation and relationship.  Why else would He have said "I do not desire sacrifice, but a body to call my own?"  All this today,  should put so many thoughts into perspective.

Remember as you are reading these verses that the Lord is talking about triumph. As you read it you might possibly have to remind yourself, segment upon segment, to have hopeful thoughts. And we are only reading it – no doubt, this is similar to some of our lives at times.

We begin in Chapter 24:1(GWT)

The Lord is going to turn the earth into a desolate wasteland. He will mar the face of the earth and scatter the people living on it. The same will happen to people and priests, male slaves and masters, female slaves and masters, buyers and sellers, lenders and borrowers, debtors and creditors.

The earth will be completely laid waste and stripped because the Lord has spoken. The earth dries up and withers. The world wastes away and withers. The great leaders of the earth waste away. The earth is polluted by those who live on it because they’ve disobeyed the Lord’s teachings, violated his laws, and rejected the everlasting promise.

That is why a curse devours the earth, and its people are punished for their guilt. That is why those who live on the earth are burned up, and only a few people are left.

New wine dries up, and grapevines waste away. All happy people groan. Joyful tambourine music stops. Noisy celebrations cease. Joyful harp music stops. People no longer drink wine when they sing. Liquor tastes bad to its drinkers. The ruined city lies desolate. The entrance to every house is barred shut. People in the streets call for wine. All joy passes away, and the earth’s happiness is banished. The city is left in ruins. Its gate is battered to pieces.

That is the way it will be on earth among the nations. They will be like an olive tree which has been shaken or like what’s left after the grape harvest. They raise their voices. They shout for joy. From the sea they sing joyfully about the Lord’s majesty. Honor the Lord in the east. Honor the name of the Lord God of Israel along the coast lands. From the ends of the earth we hear songs of praise that honor the Righteous One.

But I kept saying. “I’m wasting away! I’m wasting away!” “How horrible it is for me!” “Traitors continue to betray, and their treachery grows worse and worse.”

Disasters, pits and traps are in store for those who live on earth. Whoever flees from news of a disaster will fall into a pit. ‘Whoever climbs out of that pit will be caught in a trap. The floodgates in the sky will be opened, and the foundations of the earth will shake. The earth will be completely broken. The earth will shake back and forth violently. The earth will stagger. The earth will stumble like a drunk, and sway like a shack in the wind. Its disobedience weighs heavy on it. It will fall and not get up again.

On that day the Lord will punish heaven’s armies in heaven and earth’s kings on earth. They’ll be gathered like prisoners in a jail and locked in prison. After a long time they’ll be punished. The moon will be embarrassed. The sun will be ashamed, because the Lord of Armies will rule on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem. He will be glorious in the presence of his respected leaders.

Did you stick with Isaiah long enough to hear the Gospel? Do you know what I mean? The Gospel is the good news which follows the bad news – the Gospel is “always in all ways” the reason for our Hope. And He made a request of us – to ALWAYS be ready to give them a reason for our hope.

 So here was Isaiah’s, in Chapter 25:1-9 (GWT)

O Lord, you are my God. I will highly honor you; I will praise your name. You have done miraculous things. You have been completely reliable in carrying out your plans from long ago.

You have turned cities into ruins, fortified cities into piles of rubble, and foreigners’ palaces into cities that will never be rebuilt. That is why strong people will honor you, and cities ruled by the world’s tyrants will fear you. You have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in their distress, a shelter from the rain, and shade from the heat. (A tyrant’s breath is like a rainstorm against a wall, like heat in a dry land.) You calm the uproar of foreigners. The song of tyrants is silenced like heat that is reduced by the shadow of a cloud.

On this mountain the Lord of Armies will prepare for all people a feast with the best foods, a banquet with aged wines, with the best foods and the finest wines. On this mountain he will remove the veil of grief covering all people and the mask covering all nations. He will swallow up death forever!

The Almighty Lord will wipe away tears from every face, and he will remove the disgrace of his people from the whole earth.

The Lord has spoken. On that day His people will say, “This is OUR God; we waited for Him and now HE will save us.”

I thank God for Isaiah; for his Love and diligence to “write for God”. I pray that we believe, write, paint, sing and profess what we believe to honor of Him. I heard Him whisper to me once’ “If it is so, so it is and soon they will see it to BE”. I request that we “see by faith”, because His son made this request available to us. I request that our “voices join together” as the ONE in the wilderness even this very moment. And I request that we “run toward what we hear” so that we will be there to usher Him in with the praise He deserves, as ALL eyes See, bend their knees and receive.

For this is Gods good and pleasing will – that none should experience his anger. Instead, that we put on faith and love as a breastplate and our hope of salvation through Christ as a helmet. Now clothed in our Glorious armor let us fight with the joy in our heart. May we pierce them with the Loving truth which brings life – not death which their weapons bring.

In Him we can DO this – honest!
In Him we are ONE and Risen INDEED!

Kisses,
Candace

Are We Stones Comprising The Pathway, Or An Awkward One That Make Someone Trip?

As I was reading the devotion for this morning, different scriptures kept popping into my mind.  The verses in 1 Corinthians 10 where we are being implored to learn from the experiences of the God’s people as they were being led by Moses. “They drank from the spiritual rock that went with them, and that rock was Christ.” and “We shouldn’t put the Lord to the test as some of them did.” 

Think about when Christ was in the desert being tempted.  Satan suggested that Christ turn the stone into bread.  Christ knew he had to trust the love of God, not test Him.  He followed that by stating God’s word, “Man cannot live on bread alone but from every word that precedes from the mouth of God”.

I have often pondered and conversed with God about the reason Moses didn’t get to enter the promised land but only see if from afar.  God wanted him to exemplify that we are to converse through relationship, love.  Striking that rock was a complex reaction.  It was based on Moses’ frustration with the people so he was lashing out.  He wanted to demonstrate power….his power or Gods?”  Christ is our rock, through Him we are delivered, rescued, saved eternally for relationship.  What if symbolized Moses striking Christ himself?  If it appears that we are forcing God to give us what He was wanting to freely give us, I can only imagine how that must make God feel.  There is no liberty or joy in that.  God tells us where there is Christ there is liberty.  I think that Moses conversing with the rock, relating the dilemma and his concerns would have been pretty cool.  That being said, I cannot begin to wrap my mind around all the pressures that Moses must have been under.  So I am going to just thank God for getting him through it all and allowing Moses to see the promise even if from a distance.  Moses must have been elated knowing God had delivered them so he could get finally get some rest.

I pray that we not tolerate insecurity and pride, but that we allow His spirit to transform us as we walk through out the emotional reactions we subject ourselves, others and HIs kingdom to.  May God  be glorified as we trust in Him to provide as He sees fit and in His timing.  Let us exemplify this rock as our alter place where we lay our ways of accomplishing things down and do it the way God has requested, so that His life may pour out and all may come to the knowledge of His saving grace.

Enjoy this day….it is a gift directly from His hand.  And you didn’t even have to force Him to give it to you, did you?

Kisses,

Candace

Management By Force

– by So Hillman TGIF

"Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink." - Numbers 20:8

Moses and the people had been traveling for days without water. The people were thirsty. They were complaining and grumbling about their plight, and Moses became the object of their complaining. Moses sought the Lord for wisdom on how to handle the situation. The Lord instructed him to speak to the rock and water would flow. This would be a sign that God was still in control, that Moses was still the leader, and that God was their provider.

When it came time to speak to the rock, Moses' disgust with the people became so great that instead of speaking to the rock, he angrily addressed the people and then struck the rock twice. The water came out, in spite of Moses' disobedience. But the Lord was not pleased with Moses.

This was a time for Moses to operate at a higher level. No longer was he called to touch things with his staff to perform miracles; it was a time for him to speak to the problem. His very words would have changed the situation. Moses' staff represented two things-his physical work as a shepherd of sheep and his spiritual work as a shepherd of the people. God was calling him to move into a new dimension of using his staff. Up to now, Moses had always been commanded by God to touch something to perform the miracle. Now it was time to speak God's word to the problem.

However, Moses made the mistake many of us make. He used his instrument with force to accomplish something for God. He took something God wanted to be used in a righteous manner and used it in an unrighteous manner. He used force to solve the problem. This disobedience cost Moses his right to see the Promised Land.
Have you ever been tempted to use your power, skill, and ability to force a situation to happen, perhaps even out of anger? God is calling us to use prayer to move the face of mountains. The force of our ability is not satisfactory. God is calling each of us to a new dimension of walking with Him. Pray that God will give you the grace to wait on Him and not take matters into your own hands. Then you will not be in jeopardy of failing to move into the Promised Land in your life.

The Original "Big Fish" Tale

It is with  great joy that I open this to you today!  Although I am sorry for not having the ability to stay on course with our study of Genesis, today I truly believe I can tout that the computer is fixed!!!   What a roller coaster.  So with gusto let's dig back in . 

Genesis 1:21 (NAS)
And God created the great sea monsters, and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:22 (NAS)
And God blessed them saying, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth."

Genesis 1:23 (NAS)
And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.

To understand what God was "preparing in advance" or setting in motion on this fifth day He created to support all times, we have to take a microscope to this day.  For instance what is the reality of these great "sea monsters".  To know that we would have to know the Hebrew word in which we derive it from.  Tanniyn or Tanniym is a huge fish, a marine or land monster; a dragon, a sea serpent; a water animal, a shark or a crocodile as it pertains to these scriptures.  There are other definitions but today we are only looking at these.  The others are more metaphoric in nature.  Let's look at how God has utilized those through out His creations history.

Job is considered to be among the first books ever to be written.  He made the first reference to them in a conversation he was having with God when he said, " Am I the sea or a sea monster that you have set a guard over me?"

Isaiah praised God saying "O Lord, you are my God.  I will highly honor you; I will praise your name.  You have done miraculous things.  You have been completely reliable in carrying out your plans from long ago.  He then speaks about the future for God's people saying, "On this mountain the Lord of Armies will prepare for all people a feast with the best foods, a banquet with aged wines, with the best foods and the finest wines.  On this mountain he will remove the veil of grief covering all people and the mask covering all nations.  he will swallow up death forever.  The Almighty Lord will wipe away tears from every face, and he will remove the disgrace of his people from the whole earth.  The Lord has spoken.  On that day, his people, will say "This is our God; we have waited for him, and now he will save us. - Let us rejoice and  be glad because he will save us."  A bit further down He is talking about "that day" when we are saved.  Listen to what he shares. " on that day the Lord will use his fierce and powerful sword to punish Leviathan - that slippery snake, Leviathan, that twisting snake.  He will kill that monster which lives in the sea.  On that day sing about a delightful vineyard.  I, the Lord, will watch over it.  I water it continually.  I watch over it day and night so that no one will harm it.  I am no longer angry.  If only thorn's and briar's would confront me! I would fight them in battle and set all of them on fire.  or else let them come to me for protection.  Let them make peace with me.  Yes, let them make peace with me.

Now let's move on to Jeremiah, his last prophecy was about how King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had devoured the Israelites.  He had thrown them into confusion, turned them into empty jars, swallowed them like a monster filling his belly with their delicacies; then he spit them out.  They were begging for violence to be done to Babylon, for its people to be held responsible for their deaths.  Further down God told his people to leave - to run for their lives.  Not from the evil of the Babylonians but from the burning anger of the Lord.  He did not want them to be around when His vengeance was brought to fruition.  This is exactly what He was speaking of through Isaiah as He said "if only they would confront me I would fight them in battle and set all of them on fires"...or else let them come to me for protections - Let them make peace with me.

The one reference I would have thought would be obvious was Jonah and the "whale".  However, there seems to be some ambiguity about the correct translation of this "fish - really big fish".  I will look those up and get back to you tomorrow on that one. 

As for today - we must realize that God's plans are not only perfect they are perfectly ordered.  We simply have free will as to "if we will face Him".  The ridiculous part is when we choose to not face Him, we must turn our back on Him.  That is not a pretty sight when I picture it.  Think about how you feel when some one repeatedly ignores your efforts to have relationship with them.  We might get hurt for awhile, but then we get heated about it.  This is because we are made in the Image of God.....and that's what He does. 

Just remember in your anger - Do not sin!  Vengeance is Mine says the Lord.
With the Love of Christ,
Candace

Life Cannot Grow if a Seed Has Not Been Planted

Yesterday we spoke about the metaphorical seeds planted. We spoke about things we believe to be true. Let’s relate this to purchasing a pack of seeds we believe to be daisy’s. We buy the packet, not really knowing what a daisy seed looks like. We get out our terracotta pots, fill them with dirt, poke the appropriate holes into the rich soil, and tear open the packet. Next we take one precious seed at a time, place it tenderly in that hole and press soil over it. We water it, fertilize it, and move it to get the right light. We brag about what will be coming up soon. We think of how we are going to use the flowers. We remember times in the past associated with this particular flower or how lovely it will be.

This is the same buy in we do when we are planting thoughts, planning our futures. We do it one seed at a time. Think a bit more today over the subjects we have been discussing over the past few weeks. Go back in the archives and read “Be Angry and Not Sin”

I leave you with these thoughts:

Anger stems from passion, however anger is not the first emotion felt.  Each one of those emotions kindle the fire, which ultimately causes a spontaneous combustion. We then are moved to action, the action we take moves us with zeal toward the passion. Keep in mind, unless the passion is righteous, we will be propelled deeper into darkness, despair and death.

I pray that you follow your heart, and that your heart is after God’s own.

With Love, in Christ,

Candace