Prayers

If all mankind had been righteous and only one man a sinner, Christ would have come to endure the same cross for this one man. He so loves every individual.

ST. AUGUSTINE

Hello to all of my Christian Brothers and Sisters,

I have been absent here lately and I must apologize for that. I was not really in a good place with my walk in the Lord's light. I recently undertook a journey both inward and outward to re-orient myself towards the path that Jesus would have me walk.  I will post a little of that as the words come to me.

KIR, Your recovery gladdens my soul. Continue your impressive work here as you always have as God sends you more healing.

You have all been in my Prayer's and I hope you all have been well. 

My daughter had come to visit for a week and after she left I went alone to the Desert for the weekend. These are some of my studies in the word and my observations concerning them. In no way is this anyofficial interpretation of God's word, it is merely some observations I have made.

And he brought him forth abroad,
and said, Look now toward
heaven, and tell the stars, if
thou be able to number them:
and he said unto him, So shall thy seed
be. 
(Gen 15:5)

I imagine a night much like this past Saturday being the occasion for this conversation between God and Abraham.
 I am then struck by the thought that not only is this prophecy physically true in me (My Dad's Mother's maiden name
 was Rothstein!) but that I have been given the truly awesome chance to be a spiritual  fulfillment of God's promise to
 Abraham as well! For wasn't that really the Saviors mission? To allow those not literally descended from Abraham to
 partake in Abraham's covenant with God? It struck me then that I have an awesome chance but also a frightening
responsibility! Now that I have knowledge of and insight into these things I can no longer claim that I didn't know of
my duties to God!
I Got down onto my knees on that ridge in the Desert and wept and cried out to God that I was very
 angry with him because I believed he had given me far too much to deal with! I had a little tantrum and finally it was
like there was a  voice saying to me "Your suffering has not been in vain and is only a 10th that mine was! You have
also been blessed greatly!" And I realized that that was true as well and that enabled me to pour out to the Lord Jesus
 my Gratitude at all the miraculous things he has given to me. From the very life I still have left and to the very special
gift of watching my children grow up and become good Human beings! I have wonderful friends and advisors and a
Family that loves me and supports my efforts at positive change! This was the beginning of my ongoing progress
towards gratitude and humility.

As Csf says, It's just my 2 cents worth.

To my two sisters in Christ, KIR and Razor. It is such a blessing to see you, and to see how you both are enduring! You both are an inspiration! I pray that the both of you continue to heal where healing is needed. Let us all remember, (For we Walk by Faith and not by sight) "2 Corinthians 5:7".

And to each and everyone, may you all be blessed, and may our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ watch over and protect you in his blood from all hurt, harm and danger. Amen!

Love to you all!

KIR, I love some Rich Mullins, I have Crones Disease and when it flairs up really bad and I cannot get out of bed his song "Hold Me Jesus" comes to my soul and I start praising God with it. God is so awesome! I can actually feel the Holy Sprit wrap me in his love and I am put to sleep! That is just one thing that makes Jesus such an awesome savior.

Mr. Clutch, I continue to pray for your Cats return.

Lord, I come to you today and lift up everyone on this thread. Lord, I praise you and declare you King of Kings and Lord of Lords! Thank you for your neverending Love and Grace! In Jesus Christ name I pray. Amen!

Good morning all and may the Lord make His face to shine upon you all today!

Cblue, awesome writing.  We all need to be committed to our 'quiet time' with the Lord and as your writing shows, He will speak to us the messages we need to hear.  God is the 'still, small voice' and I'm sure it is harder for me to hear Him if I never eliminate the 'noise' in my life (although not everyone needs to go to the desert, but it's great you have that beauty and stillness available to you!)  Keep it up.

Dawn, my sister, you are always an encouragement!  Good to see you.  Indeed, we walk by faith and not by sight--I wished I had a Teletubby kind of view screen into my own abdomen so I could tell what was going wrong with me (yes, it is supposed to be a silly wish from a controll freak!), but thank God, we cannot see and control everything and thus must put faith in something/someone, and I choose God, the Lord of Creation.  I am fearfully and wonderfully made and HE is the one who sees into and ahead of what befalls each of us.  Who better to rely on?  Some put their trust in princes and others in chariots, but I will rely on the Lord, my God. 

RazorG, you have the same taste as Anita and I!!!  I sang to myself in the ICU "Hold Me Jesus" over and over, along with "In the Presence of Jehovah" to stay quiet.  For those of you who may not know the song, here is part of it:

"Sometimes my life just don't make sense at all
When the mountains seem so big, and my faith just seems so small,
So hold me Jesus, 'cause I'm shaking like a leaf
You have been King of my glory, won't You be my Prince of Peace."

"And I wake up in the night and feel the dark
It's so hot inside my soul, I swear there must be blisters on my heart
So hold me Jesus, 'cause I'm shaking like a leaf
You have been King of my glory, won't You be my Prince of Peace."

"Surrender don't come natural to me
I'd rather fight You for something I don't really want
Than take what You give that I need
And I've beat my head against so many walls
I'm falling down, I'm falling on my knees."

"And the Salvation Army Band's playing this hymn
And Your faith rings out so deep it makes my resistence seem so thin
So hold me Jesus, 'cause I'm shaking like a leaf
You have been King of my glory, won't You be my Prince of Peace."
--the late Rich Mullins

I bolded a line that describes quite literally how I felt physically during this trial, like I was burning up.  Jesus indeed held me close throughout.  "I will never leave you or forsake you."  He is true to His word, for He cannot be anything but true!

Dear loving Savior, I thank You for Your love and comfort, for Your sacrifice given willingly that I would never deserve.  Teach me to live like You, in a way pleasing and honoring to You, for You alone are worthy of praise.  Teach me to rely on You, on Your guidance and teachings and on Your presence and promises.  I love You, my Lord, and I need to love and trust and honor You more.  Make me what You would have me to be, to Your glory, Amen.

KIR, I love the song "In The Presence of Johoviah" also! Be blessed KIR and Godspeed in your recovery. Thanks for sharing the lyrics to HMJ. What a great song!

Your brother in Christ,

RazorbackG 

WORDS OF LOVE

"Fear not, for I am with you;
Be not dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you,
Yes, I will help you,
I will uphold you with My righteous right hand."
Isaiah 41:10

Don't we all keep cards and letters from friends and family that were sent to us to encourage, reassure us of their love, remind us they are there for us, or thank us for being part of their lives?  In times when we are lonely, stressed, doubtful, or sad, we take out our cards and letters as reminders that others care and we are not alone. 

Our Father has sent us such a love letter in His word, our Bible.  Do we take it out often enough to remind ourselves of His love, constant presence, promises, forgiveness, and faithfulness to us?  Do we respond to Him in prayer often enough to remind us His gift of His Son was meant to re-establish a two-way relationship with our Creator.  Do we cry out Abba, Father, often enough to live in dependence upon the One Who upholds us in His mighty right hand?

Practice daily, even hourly, the communication and reminder of God's lovingkindness to us.  The advice of others, the reminders of their care for us is kept in our minds; how much more should we practice the presence and interaction with our Father in heaven.  A gift so great it must not be squandered.  He loves us perfectly.  Avail yourself of His word and His promises and praise Him in love in return.  Our Father seeks a relationship with us.  Spend time with Him and learn and love and heal.

KIR

Inspiring reading cblue.

Yesterday, my left leg was quite painful. It was swelled to about twice normal size and is mostly blue and purple. I awoke this morning at 2 and it looked worse and as I dozed off in the recliner with my leg elevated I considered going to the emergency room sometime today if things weren't better. A fews hours later my leg was still multi-colored but the swelling was going down, and now it looks almost normal.

The point is, just like the line from your post that I quoted above, progress in a situation does not always smack you in the face, it's more often a gradual thing that you won't be aware of until you look back and see where you've been. Think of the maple tree and how it seems that one spring day buds are on the bare branches and then tiny leaves. It doesn't happen overnight, the tree has to bring the sap up from the roots to regenerate the life we see and it's a time consuming process.

Don't be frustrated by what you might think is slow progress carolinablue. Rejoice that progress is being made, even when you don't know it's there.

I receive a daily devotional from Ravi Zacharias Ministries.  This ministry specializes in, among other things, apologetics and defending the faith.  I found this morning's devotional to be thought provoking and wanted to share:

05/9/08
Hoax or History?
Jill Carattini

The memorable cover of a news magazine read in bold print, "The Art of the
Hoax."(1)  The pages presented everything from crop circles and television
psychics to hoaxes involving the events of 9/11.  The driving force of the
entire storyline was perhaps the question posed in one of the many
articles:  Are we vulnerable to hoaxes even in the information age?  Their
response was an obvious and resounding "yes."  Their advice was equally
clear:  "Distrust and verify."

Such advice almost seems unnecessary for an age inundated not only with
information but also with skeptical thinking.  No one wants to be duped.
And it is certainly necessary to think critically and verify truth.  But
may I pose a few questions lamentably left out of these articles focused
on verifying truth:  First, are we any less susceptible to believing
inaccurate information by distrusting everything?  And is this philosophy
any less a belief-system based on faith of some sort?  Moreover, skeptical
or not, will we be honest investigators?  When we approach an event that
seems to defy the laws of nature will we be honest examiners before crying
hoax?   

In fact, many have deemed the resurrection of Christ a hoax on the premise
alone that miracles are not possible.  But this is not entirely being
fair-minded.  Without proof of atheism, which is also impossible, it is
not entirely reasonable to exclude supernatural explanations from a list
of possible options.  If supernatural explanations have been eliminated
from the onset of our investigation, what happens when there is no natural
explanation for an event?  

Scottish skeptic David Hume is perhaps history's most famous critic of the
miraculous.  Hume once stated that if historians consistently agreed that
the Queen of England died and then reappeared a month later, he would be
willing to accept any explanation but a miracle of God.  Responding
to Hume's thought-experiment, philosopher William Lane Craig marks an
essential clue in investigating the miraculous.  Says Craig, "I would
agree that a miracle without context is inherently ambiguous....The
religio-historical context is crucial in understanding miraculous events.
This is why...the Queen's return would only perplex us [while] the
Resurrection gives us pause."(2)  Craig's response posits the importance
of the context in which Jesus performed his miracles, a context that was
brimming with religious significance, and therefore cannot be separated
from any consideration of the whole.  The supernatural acts Jesus
performed were an authentication of the divine authority he was
simultaneously claiming.  He had professed equality with God, which was
why many of the religious leaders accused him of blasphemy, and his
startling miracles were further attestation of his startling claim.
What's more, his resurrection was the crowning end to the unparalleled
claims for which he was crucified. 

To further investigate the resurrection as hoax or history, we might think
of the situation the disciples faced following the crucifixion of their
leader.  Under Jewish law, anyone crucified was literally under the curse
of God.  Yet, despite having these predispositions to the contrary, the
disciples indisputably came to believe that Jesus was resurrected from the
dead--and they remained willing to die for that belief until the end.
Furthermore, it was culturally unprecedented that women would be named as
the first witnesses of the resurrection and given such a primary role in
the story, since they were simply not considered credible witnesses at
this time in history.  The gospel writers' recording of the testimonies of
women only further points to the truth of the story, since anyone trying to
pull off a hoax would have clearly seen this as a fatal blunder. 

It is a historical fact that Jesus was crucified. (Even those who did not
come to believe in Jesus as the messiah clearly spoke to the veracity of
his crucifixion.)  It is also a fact that there was more than one
testimony that the disciples and others were with Jesus after his
death.  All of them, and countless others, went to their deaths
proclaiming this was possible because the one crucified had been
resurrected.  The historicity of these events is not in doubt.  The
question becomes: how will we explain them?  In fact, a reasonable mind
cannot be criticized for deducing the miraculous: that God raised Jesus
from the dead that first Easter morning.  Yes, hoaxes do abound.  But can
we reasonably conclude that the resurrection is one of them?

Jill Carattini is senior associate writer at Ravi Zacharias
International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.

(1) U.S. News and World Report, "The Art of the Hoax," August 26,
2002.
(2) William Lane Craig as quoted in Lee Strobel's A Case for Faith
(Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000), 91.

-----------------------------------
--------------------------------
Copyright (c) 2008 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM)
"A Slice of Infinity" is aimed at reaching into the culture with words of
challenge, words of truth, and words of hope. If you know of others who
would enjoy receiving "A Slice of Infinity" in their email box each day,
tell them they can sign up on our website at
http://www.rzim.org/slice/slice.php.  If they do not have access to the
World Wide Web, please call 1-877-88SLICE (1-877-887-5423).

Copyright notice:  "A Slice of Infinity" may be copied and re-transmitted
by electronic mail, and individual copies of a particular "A Slice of
Infinity" may be printed, provided that such copying, re-transmission,
printing, or other use is not for profit or other commercial purpose.

Any copying, re-transmission, distribution, printing, or other use of "A
Slice of Infinity" must set forth the following credit line, in full, at
the conclusion of the portion of A Slice of Infinity that is used:
Copyright(c) 2008
Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM).
Reprinted with permission.
A Slice of Infinity is a ministry of Ravi Zacharias International
Ministries Ravi Zacharias International Ministries may withdraw or modify this grant
of permission at any time http://www.rzim.org.