Feb 7, 2013

Exodus 26-27:21; Matthew 25:1-30; Psalm 31:1-8; Proverbs 8:1-11 (Easy-to-Read Version)

It is 6:50.  I have my tea, I have checked FB, I went to the bathroom.  I had a reasonably good night sleep.  At this moment I feel a bit sad but mostly good.  I at a bit anxious as I am about to start a strict diet that is quite costly.  I am going to need the Lord's supernatural strength and conviction to keep it up.  Yet this body is truly weighing me down and that needs to change.  So here goes.  Diving in Lord.

Dear Lord,

i pray that this day i am surrounded by a cloud of angles.  For your protection and for your glory.  i pray that I find myself singing your praises all day long.  Lord bring me your peace.  Forgive me that i let my mind be clouded with other things.  i know full well the grace, mercy, joy, peace and world rocking change that takes place inside me and even in my world around me if i just come into your presence daily and really spend time with you.  not much seems to happen when i keep one foot in my own thoughts or try and do my own thing while reading your word.  no you are jealous god that wants my full attention.  More importantly I need to give to to be able to retain what you have for me.

Worship at your feet and a wonderful way to awaken my spirit man.

Breath by Vineyard 

Matthew 25
⁶ “At midnight someone announced, ‘The bridegroom is coming! Come and meet him!’
⁷ “Then all the girls woke up. They made their lamps ready. ⁸ But the foolish girls said to the wise girls, ‘Give us some of your oil. The oil in our lamps is all gone.’
⁹ “The wise girls answered, ‘No! The oil we have might not be enough for all of us. But go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’
¹⁰ “So the foolish girls went to buy oil. While they were gone, the bridegroom came. The girls who were ready went in with the bridegroom to the wedding feast. Then the door was closed and locked.

²⁸ “So the master told his other servants, ‘Take the one bag of money from that servant and give it to the servant who has ten bags. ²⁹ Everyone who uses what they have will get more. They will have much more than they need. But people who do not use what they have will have everything taken away from them.’ ³⁰ Then the master said, ‘Throw that useless servant outside into the darkness, where people will cry and grind their teeth with pain.’

Prov 8
¹⁰ Choose discipline over silver
    and knowledge over the finest gold.
¹¹ Wisdom is better than pearls,
    and nothing you desire compares with her.

Lord it is 8am and I must run.  Yet I will return to pen the words you will give me over these verses you have called me to meditate on.  I await the great truths you will write on my heart. 

Feb 6, 2013

Ex 23:14-25:40, Matt 24:29-51, Ps 30:1-12, Pr 7:24-27

Lord,  I did not have much sleep.  Feelings of sadness are all around me.  Father please be the lifter of my head this day that I may delight in you and find the joy and peace that only you can give.  Help me to find forgiveness and love.  Lord help me to rise above myself and worship you.  Let my spirit man lead me rather than my flesh.

Worship and the word has restored my soul.  Bring it Lord.  For I am ready to take this day by storm.  Lord let it be you that lives within me that speaks.  Let your spirit be the keeper of my gates.  Open to what is good and closed to what is evil.  Lord let the gates of my eye's and ears work as you intended.  Let no weapon formed against me prosper.  Lord cover my thoughts that they would glorify you.  For out of the heart a man speaks.  May my heart be filled and directed by you.

27 “When you fight against your enemies, I will send my great power before you. I will help you defeat all your enemies. The people who are against you will become confused in battle and run away. 28 I will send the hornet in front of you. He will force your enemies to leave. The Hivites, Canaanites, and Hittites will leave your country. 29 But I will not force all of them out of your land quickly. I will not do this in only one year. The land will be empty if I force the people out too fast. Then all the wild animals would increase and control the land. And they would be much trouble for you. 30 So I will force them out of your land very slowly. I will do this as you grow and eventually take the land to be your own.


 [What a rich passage.  I would love to break this down among friends.  He is going to confuse those in battle against me.  Father make it so.  Lord who is my enemy this day?  Bring on that hornet to go before me and my sisters in Christ.  Yet he will not strip the land of my heart quickly of these enemies for the wild animals would increase.  Who and what are the wild animals?  Lord cause me to grow so that the evil can be evicted from this land where I live.

We must grow in numbers in proportion to those that he is removing from the flock.  For not all that are among you were yet called by name.  The enemy is among you.  Yet as you come closer to me they will feel the heat of my fire and yes the hornet will force them out.  Fear not the decrease for just as you must become less for me to fill you.  I must weed out the people that are the enemies of the vision I have cast for you.  For it is when they have been cast out of the temple courts and where their is much gnashing of teeth they will find their need for me.  Coming back weeping, repentant and ready to follow me.  For if you keep sheltering them from their own wickedness they will never know me.  For without repentance I can not come in.  Many Saul's live among your flock that I desire to change their name's to Paul.  The whores have found comfort among your men and the drunkards have no shame.  Yet these are my people.  They need a wave of my Spirit to come over them, bringing them to there knees that they will want to turn from their ways.  If you make it easy for them to continue to sin, by holding the Spirit off, there will be dead bones among you.  The road to redemption is not easy.  I had to die a torturous death but I have risen.  My redemption is at hand for all those that will put to death there selfish desires and follow me.  Let me say to your congregation what needs to be said that repentance can occur.  I beg of you, leader of my flock.  I have healing for them, I have hope, I have strength for their weary bones.  Hold not back the fire that must burn through this house.]
 
33 Each branch must have three flowers. Make these flowers like almond flowers with buds and petals.



[What joy it fills my heart that the Lord had so many things decorated with flowers.  Lord let my flowers adorn his people that we may glorify him.]





Matt 24
42 “So always be ready. You don’t know the day your Lord will come. 43 What would a homeowner do if he knew when a thief was coming? You know he would be ready and not let the thief break in. 44 So you also must be ready. The Son of Man will come at a time when you don’t expect him.


[Lord forgive us as we are sinful people that has found more pleasure at the hand of our sin than in the presence of the Lord.  Lord let us run into your presence for covering, for joy for peace and for the pleasure that our soul so deeply longs for.  Lord let us experience all that this body would ever need, that no counterfeit would ever satisfy.  Forgive us for the lies we have believed about you Lord.  That pleasure was the enemies idea.  Lord if we need to be thrilled, if we need to be swept away or if we just need to forget.  Your presence will supply all our needs.  Yet without the bitter regret that sin births within us.  Coming out of a love fest in the Lord, bathed in his blood we will be stronger, clearer, bolder, at peace, seeing this world as God sees it.  Seeing the lost for the Children of God they are.  Yes lord give us times that we may be swept away by you.]

Psalm
11 You have changed my sorrow into dancing.
    You have taken away my sackcloth
    and clothed me with joy.
12 You wanted me to praise you and not be silent.
    Lord my God, I will praise you forever!

[This is my song.  Lord I thank you that my situation does not dictate my dancing.  Lord that just as your passage above states.  You are weeding out the evil in my live slowly that the jackals not overtake my land.  Thank you Lord that even in the mist of a sinful generation, in the mist of sinful people I can praise you.  I can help lead your people to safety and wholeness while I am also being lead out.  My wholeness is not a prerequisite for my joy.  As long as I am clothed in you no weapon formed against me will prosper.  Lord let the covering you have placed over me extend to my children that they not be temped to sin by all that they see around them.  Keep their heart close to you.]

Feb 5, 2013

Exodus 21:22-23:13; Matthew 24:1-28; Psalm 29:1-11; Proverbs 7:6-23 (Easy-to-Read Version)

 

I pray Lord that my heart will yearn for your word as it has in the past.  That I would see you face to face in the pages of your word.  That I would meditate on what you are saying.  That I would find hope, purpose and direction for the path you have before me.  Lord, I pain for the trial that still lay before me.  I pain for the struggle of my flesh to look for happiness rather than your peace and joy.  Hold me fast.  That I may not sin against you in thought or deed.  Help me Lord for this season of waiting is long and I am weak.

Lord I thank you for the proverb today.  It so eloquently describes the temptation of the flesh.  Thank you as I have just written up instruction/boundaries for my kids in regards to the opposite sex.

January 26, 2013

Exodus 2:11-3:22; Matthew 17:10-27; Psalm 22:1-18; Proverbs 5:7-14 (New Living Translation)

Exodus 2:13 The next day, when Moses went out to visit his people again, he saw two Hebrew men fighting. “Why are you beating up your friend?” Moses said to the one who had started the fight.

14 The man replied, “Who appointed you to be our prince and judge? Are you going to kill me as you killed that Egyptian yesterday?”




[ Wow.  This verse struck me in how we may at time think he are helping someone out of danger when in fact we are scaring them.  Moses had not earned the trust of his people.  Nor were his actions well thought out in terms of the consequences they would have.  Help for someone else without trust or forethought is foolishness.]

Mathew 17: 25 ...But before he had a chance to speak, Jesus asked him, “What do you think, Peter? Do kings tax their own people or the people they have conquered?”

26 “They tax the people they have conquered,” Peter replied.

“Well, then,” Jesus said, “the citizens are free!


[Wow what does this say about our own system of taxation.  Are we a conquered people.  The more we are taxed the more we are oppressed.  it amazes me how much god's word still speaks to our everyday issues even though it was written so many years ago.]

Psalm 22: 9 Yet you brought me safely from my mother’s womb
    and led me to trust you at my mother’s breast.
10 I was thrust into your arms at my birth.
    You have been my God from the moment I was born.

[Wow.  The influence Mother's have in rooting our children in safety and trust.  Building in them the ability to trust God as they have been safe and well fed in our arms from birth.  As a friend of mine has said.  I had to be Father, Mother, God to my child.  This verse spoke to me about her.]

Proverbs 5:12 You will say, “How I hated discipline!
    If only I had not ignored all the warnings!
13 Oh, why didn’t I listen to my teachers?
    Why didn’t I pay attention to my instructors?
14 I have come to the brink of utter ruin,
    and now I must face public disgrace.”

[Lord if I had only learned this in my youth.  Pursing discipline only in areas I felt education would work to my advantage rather than letting it be the cornerstone for every area of my life.  Letting passion for both the good and the bad be my guide.  For passion for the good will lead to hard work but when hard times or desire fades so does the discipline.  Discipline must come from a deeper place within us than desire and passion.  It has to come from a love for someone.  That someone is God.  For God's love for us will never fade and it will always lead us towards righteousness.]

January 21, 2013

Psalm 18:19 He led me to a place of safety;
    he rescued me because he delights in me.


He delights in us.  Did you hear that.  He delights in you and me.  Forever and always.  May we walk this day with our head held high and a smile on our face with the knowledge of this delight.  Walking around wrapped up in this love, under it's power, swooning, bathing, and basking in it's power for it is from this place of delight we will hear his voice and fend off all counter fit loves.

Genesis 42:23 Of course, they didn’t know that Joseph understood them, for he had been speaking to them through an interpreter. 24 Now he turned away from them and began to weep. When he regained his composure, he spoke to them again. Then he chose Simeon from among them and had him tied up right before their eyes.

What love this story of Joseph and his meeting with his brothers shows.  His heart could have been so filled with hate and revenge.  Yet it isn't.  He is moved to tears as they unknowing repent before him.  Lord may our hearts stay forever soft before those that have hurt us.  For like Christ on the cross spoke.  "Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing?"

Heb 8

Proverbs 27

9 Perfume and incense bring joy to the heart,
    and the pleasantness of a friend
    springs from their heartfelt advice.

Heb 8
7 For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. 8 But God found fault with the people and said:

“The days are coming, declares the Lord,
    when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
    and with the people of Judah.
9 It will not be like the covenant
    I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
    to lead them out of Egypt,
because they did not remain faithful to my covenant,
    and I turned away from them,
declares the Lord.
10 This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel
    after that time, declares the Lord.
I will put my laws in their minds
    and write them on their hearts.
I will be their God,
    and they will be my people.
11 No longer will they teach their neighbor,
    or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,
    from the least of them to the greatest.
12 For I will forgive their wickedness
    and will remember their sins no more.”

13 By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.

John 13:1-10

John 13:1-10

New International Version (NIV)

Jesus Washes His Disciples’ Feet

Day 1: John 13:1

 

13 It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

 Day 2: John 13: 2-4

² The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. ³ Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; ⁴ so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist.  

 Day 3: John 13: 5-7

⁵ After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
⁶ He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”
⁷ Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

Day 4: John 13: 8-9

⁸ “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”
Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”
⁹ “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”

Day 5: John 13: 10

¹⁰ Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.”