As For Me And My House

Last night I came into my home after an extended work day to misery and tears. The spirit of offense was in full form and emotions were high as weariness wove itself around labored aching bodies and minds. 

My mom has a phone that she struggles to use. Last night she attempted to answer it and missed the call. So I said "You need to get a new phone that you can use". She was offended and what was a simple comment made with no ill intent became blown up and out of proportion.

My younger sister who has been the primary care giver for my older sister has been herself feeling ill. I said to her "there is still shake in the fridge to be used before it goes bad." She responded that she made it for my older sister when her head was pounding and she is doing her best. At which point she burst into tears and sobbed into her hands for the next 5 minutes. 

I honestly felt like I had stepped into an episode of Twilight Zone. What in the world...? was my own thinking.  It continued into this morning, right after a really good devotion on the prayer line.   Another question and another blow up. So much for being an epistle of Christ I thought.  I tell you this much,  I was the constant in the middle of it all.   So, I did what I knew to mend the brokenness. 

Prayed. I asked my prayer partners for help and did a bit of my own. That is when the spirit of God began His ministry in me. I started to meditate on the words of Joshua..."As for me and my house we will serve the Lord". 

Beloved, if you are where I was last night then you want to recognize the enemy behind the discord. The disguise is good but the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to see the truth. A war had been waged against my house and it was not taking prisoners alive. I needed a weapon that could destroy the lies and restore peace . Holy Spirit (because I don't think this was me) prompted me to declare the following as I prayed and you can too:

As for me and my house:

We will be in unity

We will exhibit love

We will be in peace

We will help each other

We will be kind

We will walk in oneness

We will serve the Lord

How about it friends? Make the declaration of peace for you and your house. It will destroy the weapons of the enemy to kill, steal and destroy your family! As for me and my house....

I am not a dog

I don't know how I would have handled this situation if it were me.  What would you do if someone called you a dog?  What if they said you are a dog and that is why we have to train you? Would you fight or flee?  Thankfully, I didn't have to decide on this but my son had this experience.  A colleague of his decided to attack him verbally and said those things to him.
 
My son can become enraged - wolf like in his ferocity and scary in his response.  He reminds of the hulk.  Mild mannered until someone gets him really angry and then its hello Green Monster and bye-bye David Banner.  I was told that my son upon being insulted stood up.  I imagine he raised himself up to his almost 6 feet height.  I imagine his voice bellowed  out across the lunch room. I imagine he muscled up his arms and fisted his hands.  I imagine he saw red and breathed heavily.  I was told he didn't throw a punch and for that I am glad.  Two wrongs will never make one right.
 
I applaud him because he held on to the little bit of control he might have had left.  Maybe it wasn't him but God that held him in check.  Who knows?  I certainly don't.  Yet I do know this, it pays to pray over your children.  For some reason, this devil decided to come up against my son but God prevailed.  The prayer of the righteous does avail much and we have been praying.  I heard and I prayed some more, for vengeance belongs to God and He will repay.

Doesn't it make you wonder though?  Just what would do if this were you?  Friends, I pray that we would be able to hold on to Christ in the midst of the name calling.  I pray that we would not lose our heads, cool or control and thereby our testimony for Jesus.  I pray that we would be willing to walk away and give up the right to be right, choosing righteousness instead.  If anything you could say, I am not a dog and walk away.  :-)

My Brother Prayed

Tonight we all gathered at the house for my sister's birthday.  She has been through so much since last year and we felt the extra specialness of this particular day.  It has been a custom for us to do a birthday blessing.  Many, many years ago God impacted me with the traditions of the Israelites and how they blessed their sons before death.  I tweaked it to what is now our customary blessings party.  As my sister says, we give the roses while our loved ones are alive.

As we were together we took turns to speak and then it was my brothers opportunity.  We expected a speech, reflective of the past and a well wish for the future.  He didn't do that.  My brother prayed.  As I listened I felt like this was so right.  I heard in my mind, the word Priest; the Priest of our clan had taken his position.  The upside down of our world had finally been righted.  I listened with a grateful heart to my Father.  My sister has said it best, "For years I have prayed for him, but tonight he has prayed for me."  She said it was the best moment of her birthday celebration and I believe it will always be remembered as the night my brother prayed. 

I don't want to say that he doesn't pray on his own.  I am sure he does, but the significance of this moment is more than I can put into words.  For us, it was a mark in our family history that we hope to be repeated often.  We hope that from this, our sons will see what it looks like to be a man of God.  From this, we pray that other men in our family will be empowered to follow Christ.  We hope that our daughters will be able to wait for a man with a heart for God as he displayed tonight. 

Friends, no matter how far we have strayed from the truth, it doesn't make it void.  Families are right when they operate as God intended.  When the man in the home rises up to be the Priest and love his wife as Christ loved the church it is right. When wives submit to their husbands it is right.  When children honour their parents it is right.  This is God's truth and it is right.

So, let us continue to pray, me for you and you for me.  Let us pray that our men will rise up in Christ, that women will be as God created, submissive and a help mate to their husbands and that children will come back to the days of honour. 

Let us make it like the day my brother prayed.

We Won't Go Back

Healed.  Saved. Loved.  I write those words even as I am listening to James McDonald's telling the church, Christ died for our sins.  He was scourged (beaten) to within an inch of death for me.  He took upon Himself my sins and paid the penalty.  His beaten body allows me to say I am healed.   His death upon the cross has causes me the freedom to say I am saved.  His submission to the plans of the Father allows me to know I am loved.

All of this resonates with me even more so now.  There she was, sobbing at the dinner table.  Her body was again placing limits upon her mobility and quality of life.  We had been here before I thought.  We won't go back.  We waited for years for bulging discs to be re-aligned.  We waited patiently for her to be able to drive in a low car.  We waited through her longsuffering and years of infirmity.  We waited for her to be independent again.  We waited, and now that we have it, we won't go back to the days of pain and restrictions, darkness and despair.  NO!

The Lord Jesus has suffered for this very moment.  His back was ripped open and blood poured out so that today healing is our bread.  We won't go back. Loved ones, I don't know what is happening in your life.  I don't know what old chain wants to reattach itself to your new found liberty in Christ. Whatever it may be, resist it.  Shout it out loud "I won't go back!"

Jesus has said that you are free, therefore stand in His liberty and be not entangled, AGAIN with the yoke of bondage.  So that bed of infirmity that wants to keep you in it, say NO.  That old boyfriend or girlfriend that calls out of nowhere, say No.  That old habit or old life that is looking not so bad now, say NO.  Declare to yourself and anyone else with ears to hear "I WONT GO BACK!"

Help is here - take it

Have you heard the story about the guy who prayed to God for help but didn't take what was offered and died as a result? Well, while I might have butchered that story, but I wanted to focus on my own house hold.  My sister has gone through a very rough week.  Starting last week Wednesday, we had all packed up to go to chemo-therapy with her.  My brother joked about the "famine food"  we were hauling with us to the all day hospital visit. My youngest sibling declared that this could be a perfect siblings night outing as we were all together for this trip.  After a surprisingly "quick" treatment session, we headed home with light hearts and joyous spirits. 

Why is it that bad things seem to wait for the cover of darkness to occur?  Have you ever noticed that?  As it happened, that same night my sister had to be taken to emergency in chronic pain.  She groaned all night into the morning.  After coming home, we thought it was over only to be wide awake all through the following night.  Her agony was real and painful for me to watch.  I sought Google for every remedy I could, find but to no avail. As a final resort, I offered her some pain meds.  She was almost delirious with the level of pain she was feeling and I wanted to take the edge off for her; offer some relief.  She looked at the pills and declined the offer!   

So there we were again at the hospital, where she screamed and cried out.   It was intense and now I was helpless - the Tylenol 3 was at home. The help she had rejected was now unavailable and she suffered greatly.  This story has a happier ending than the man who died in my re-tell above.  She was able to get some relief from the nurse who gave her what I had offered before - Tylenol 3.  Oh the irony of it all.  She slept for a while, having now some relief if only for a little while.

It got me thinking about how we all are at times.  I throw no stones because I am sure I have done something similar.  Why do we reject help?  God Himself is our very present help in times of trouble but we opt to ignore, don't ask or simply decide on our own course of relief.  We are foolish when we delay his best for our "good".  I held out those same pills hours before and she said no - God holds out His perfect solution to us and we say no.  The proverb says that what we feel is right in our own eyes often leads to destruction.  Can I get an AMEN?

Friends, Help is here and we ought to just take it.  Lets not be unwise or unwilling but instead lets be pliable and surrender to His plans.  He is the best resource.  He is our help. He is our strength.  He is the great I AM that fulfills and supplies every need.  Don't tell Him no, just say yes.

God is Still God

One day, my nieces were in the car with my sister.  Two of them were so excited about their upcoming trip to Jamaica. It sparked a discussion about swimming with the dolphins and all the other things they anticipated doing.  Not to be left out, three year old KK decided she would add her piece to this merriment and contribute as best she could. So she began to tell them about how she remembers visiting this place that boasts of a very large turtle.  Apparently this turtle was just about to eat her but didn't. (pause) She then ended with this, "God is still God."

I get excited all over again. Yes. God is still is still God.  In my house, we are on repeat with these words that have so encouraged. Friends, it doesn't matter what I see or even what I feel - God is still God.

I know. You have challenges. You may even wonder why are these things happening to you?  Why did so and so become ill? Why did you lose your job?  How will you survive?  Why was this accident not prevented?  God is still God. In the midst of these things good or bad, He did not lose His deity, might or love for you.  He is still the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8).  He remains the unchangeable God.

I hope and pray that these words from the mouth of babes have encouraged you.  I hope they will cause you to muster up that courage to continue this walk with Christ and weather through the storm.  Beloved, God is still God.

Malachi 3:6-7The Message (MSG)

^6-7 “I am God—yes, I Am. I haven’t changed. And because I haven’t changed, you, the descendants of Jacob, haven’t been destroyed....

The Engagement

There once was a man who lived as some would say a prodigal life.  He was far away from God, living to please himself, by his own rules and by what he deemed right in his own eyes.  The end for him was guaranteed destruction. He didn't know it, but he was relentlessly pursued by two entities.  One was far greater than the other. One deceived and there was no truth in him.  One was truth that offered a liberty he had never known.  One hated his soul and the very image of him.  One loved him and gave his son's life for him.

There once was a woman who was always searching.  All her life she knew there was more.  She felt a void that nothing could fill - not husband, sons, job or cash.  She was empty and in darkness.  She had heard that there was light, but she stubbornly refused the Way.  She saw evidence of the truth but logics and reasons kept her away. 

Then one day, what they knew and what the felt came head to head. A conflict. A struggle.  A surrender.  Both had something happen, not at the same time, but still they would journey together.  Their eyes were open, and now they  were brand new.  They had been pursued relentlessly by the Father Himself, and through His son they were both now reconciled. He wooed them with a love that was beyond their understanding.  He lifted the veil from their eyes, he brought them into light, he rescued them from an enemy that sought only to kill.

And so it is that today that we all celebrate the engagement party of this couple, not to each other, but to Jesus the son.  He is the bride groom and they are now the bride.  In anticipation of the wedding, they have shed themselves of the old and are reborn.  Their baptism I imagine brought the Father great joy.  If only we could see the clouds rolled back and the Heavens revealed.  I imagine the joy of Heaven which I cannot with great justice describe, try as I might.  Surely the angels sang louder; surely there was joyous applause as these two finally surrendered to discover that they win. 

If you find that I am more dramatic than usual, it is only this, this couple are my brother and his wife (my sister).  They are the miracle we have been praying for, and it is only the beginning.  Beloved, do not despair, God is at work behind the scenes of your loved ones.  One day too, you will be at the engagement party.  Wait on the Lord and again I say wait.