2020

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The Lord himself goes before you

and will be with you;

he will never leave you

nor forsake you.

Do not be afraid;

do not be discouraged.”

~Deuteronomy 31:8

Hello.

It is January 1, 2020.

Who knew we’d make it this far?

Who knew our heart

would still be beating this long?

God. 

God did.

And for that reason we rest.

And for that reason we trust. 

And for that reason we unclench our fists

and let go of control.

(What are we trying to control anyway…?)

During the past 365 days of 2019

How Many Times

did we get our own heart to beat?

Zero.

We did absolutely nothing to cause it to beat…

Yet here we are.

Here we are.

God has already gone before us

into 2020

and prepared our days.

He has prepared our moments

He has prepared our lives.

He took care of us yesterday

He will take care of us today

He will take care of us tomorrow.

So do not fear.

One of His Names is Jehovah El Roi,

The God Who Sees Me…..

even me.

He is that Big. 

He is that Good. 

Hello New Year. 

Hello 2020.

I need not fear.

God Himself has gone before me. 

Sigh…..

(Thank You Precious LORD)

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The Christmas Story…

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“Let the stable still astonish;

Straw, dirt floor, dull eye;

Dusty flanks of donkeys, oxen;

Crumbling, crooked walls;

No bed to carry that pain;

And then, the child;

Rag-wrapped, laid to cry;

In a trough,

Who would have chosen this?

Who would have said:

“Yes,

Let the God of all the Heavens and Earth

Be born here in this place?”

Who but the same God

Who stands in the darker, fouler rooms

of our hearts

and says,

‘Yes.’

Let the God of Heaven and Earth be

Born Here…”

~Jan Karon

The Christmas story makes no sense to human beings.

Here is not just

A god,

but THE GOD

Who Created The Universe,

Choosing to be born in a barn.

Yet the filthy,

foul smelling,

contaminated room

He chose to be birthed in

Compares not

To the depraved,

nefarious rooms

In our hearts

That He wishes to occupy.

He wishes to dwell in our hearts,

So that we may also

Experience a birth as well.

A New birth of our heart.

Who IS this GOD who does this?

Who IS this God that chooses us?

He is TOO GREAT to comprehend,

work out,

grasp,

fathom…

Who is THIS GOD

And What is His Name?

Wonderful.

Counselor.

Ever-Lasting God.

Prince of Peace.

I AM.

Jesus.

His Name is Jesus…

 

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Hope

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Hurry, hurry, step right up
See the sideshow in town for only fifty cents

Step right up, hurry, hurry before the show begins, my friends

Stand in line, get your tickets, I hope you will attend
It’ll only cost you fifty cents to see
What life has done to those like you and me

See the man with the broken heart, you’ll see that he is sad,
He hurts so bad (so bad, so bad)

See the girl who has lost the only love she ever had
There’s got to be no sadder show to see
No doubt about it, satisfaction’s guaranteed

So let the sideshow begin
Hurry, hurry, step right on in
Can’t afford to pass it by
Guaranteed to make you cry

Let the sideshow begin (hurry, hurry)
Hurry, hurry, step right on in
Can’t afford to pass it by
Guaranteed to make you cry

See the man who’s been cryin’ for a million years,
So many tears (so many tears)

See the girl who’s collected broken hearts for souvenirs

It’s more exciting than a one man band
The saddest little show in all the land

So let the sideshow begin
Hurry, hurry, step right on in
Can’t afford to pass it by
Guaranteed to make you cry…

~Sideshow

by Blue Magic

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,”  ~Jesus

~Luke 4:18

The most rejected man on earth was Jesus..

The most mocked and laughed at person

That ever existed,

Was Jesus.

He came to earth knowing

What He was in for…

Knowing precisely

What He would go thru…

And He did it.

He Joyfully did it.

He went thru the rejection

For you.

He went thru the rejection

For me.

And He did it

HAPPILY!

“…He was willing to die a shameful death on the cross

Because of the joy he knew would be his afterwards;

And now he sits in the place of honor by the throne of God.”

~Hebrews 12:2

“Greater love has no man

Than He lay down his life for his friends.”

~John 15:13 

He knew before the beginning of time

That we would need

A Saviour.

A Rescuer.

A Redeemer

From all of our

Mistakes,

Hurts,

And Wounds

That were inflicted on us

From ourselves,

And from others…

So He slipped out of Heaven

Where there was No Pain,

And entered a world

Where pain surrounded Him

And engulfed Him.

He GLADLY exchanged His Paradise

And grasped the demented world

So that if we would so choose,

We could have a Home with Him

In Heaven.

In Paradise.

So let the sideshow begin,

Hurry hurry,

Step right on in….

(God Loves You)

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God-Of-Angel-Armies

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God has many names.

Many  names.

He is Jehovah Nissi,

My Victory.

Jehovah Rapha,

My Healer.

Jehovah Shalom,

My Peace.

Jesus called Him Father.

But lately,

We have needed

The God-of-Angel-Armies.

So that is the Name I cry out to.

We’ve needed a

Warrior God,

A Rush-To-Our-Defense-God,

 An I-Will-FIGHT-For-You-God.

And that is the name I call upon.

Whenever I cry out,

‘Oh God-Of-Angel-Armies come to our rescue!’

He Does.

I INSTANTLY feel His Presence.

Instantly.

We’ve felt such a need for a Redeemer,

For an All-Conquering,

All-Powerful,

Fearsome Warrior,

So I cry out and He is near…

I feel Him by my side…

Yes, the Holy Spirit dwells within me

and comforts me,

But He is also the one that quickens me

with the Name of God that we need for the moment.

And recently He has told me

God-Of-Angel-Armies…

Think of that name.

Lord-of-Hosts,

God-Of-Angel-Armies….

Angel ARMIES…

Mighty to Save…

All-Powerful!

CREATOR OF HEAVEN AND EARTH!!!

Who is like Him?

NO ONE!!! 

Not one single person or thing.

He is Great,

And Greatly To Be Praised.

That is the God I’ve been talking with lately.

That is the God I’ve been walking with lately.

That is the God Who has been showing me

situations, people and things around me

to pray about and to pray for.

He is the same God my mother used to pray to

and her mother used to pray to

and her mother’s mother,

and on and on.

With that legacy behind me

how can I not call out to

The Name Above All Names,

Who comes to our rescue?

God-Of-Angel Armies

is right by my side.

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Choices…

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The Bible says that we will cast our crowns at Jesus feet when we get to Heaven.

This act will be done out of gratitude for what He has done for us during our lives.

But here’s a question for you:

“What if our crowns are not made of jewels but instead

Made of our scars we accumulated here on earth?”

What if the crowns are our own Crown-of-Thorns that showed

How we overcame by the Blood of the Lamb

(Our salvation thru Jesus)

And the Word of our Testimony

(What we overcame with the help of Jesus?)

The Bible says that our thoughts are not His thoughts,

And our ways are not His ways,

But His thoughts and ways are higher than ours. Isaiah 58:8-9

~In other words, what we think is important is not what He thinks is important.

We deem cars and houses important and

He thinks human hearts and souls are important.

So the trials and tribulations we go thru here on earth

Are merely precious jewels of testimonies of how He helped us,

And are viewed thru completely

Different lenses in two different places.

In this life scars caused by trials are viewed with disdain,

But in the Heavenly Realm our scars are viewed as

Breathtakingly beautiful.

The difference is the lens.

The difference is the vantage point.

If we can see HOW God sees, then we would have perfect peace in our heart.

(Perfect Peace is the Peace-that-passes-understanding,

NOT the false peace that we get from the world.)

If we view hardships as God punishing us

And not loving us,

And if we view the rich people around us as

God loving them and blessing them because of their wealth

Then we will forever be forlorn,

We will forever feel abandoned

By our Heavenly Father.

And, we will view God as bad, not as loving.

What is Joy?

What is Peace?

Simple.

Joy and Peace equate to choosing the path of God

And trusting Him,

Even when it doesn’t make sense.

Why?

Because God is Good.

God is Good.

Never forget that everyone here on earth is walking towards some destination. Everyone.

No exceptions.

All of us are walking towards our Forever Home.

Our forever home is not earth,

If it was then we could talk to Abraham Lincoln

And all the others who lived before.

But we can’t, cause their dead.

They walked their journey here on earth,

Once-upon-a-time.

They each took their last breath here on earth

And took their next breath Over There,

In their Forever Home.

We each have had a choice to choose as we stood at the crossroads of life.

Just like they did.

The beauty of us,

The ones who are still alive,

Is we can still choose between two roads.

Our predecessors, who have died,

Can no longer choose…

Some sojourners, as they were walking, stepped off of the hard path

And began skating on the easier path of pleasure here on earth.

Nothing is wrong with pleasure,

But there are two types of pleasure, good and bad,

Just like there are two types of eternal homes, good and bad.

God refuses to be our puppet master, and allows us free-will to choose.

(Freedom-To-Choose.)

The choice is ours.

If we choose to go the more difficult way of the more narrow path of God,

Then odds are good, we will suffer scars, here on earth.

But those scars will turn into crowns in Heaven.

However, if we choose to reject God and go for the easier route here on earth,

Our reward will not be a Crown-of-Joy but instead

A Chain-of-Regret.

And both rewards are results of choices.

And both rewards are Forever.

The Bible says, ‘Choose you this day whom you will serve.’

Bob Dillon put it this way, “You gotta serve somebody”…

If you are reading this there is Tremendous Good News.

~It’s not too late for you.

Each day is a crossroad of decision.

As the new year begins and yesterday is but

A memory-vapor in-the-mind;

You can choose your Forever-Home.

You, like Abraham Lincoln,

(And the rest of the people who have gone before us,)

Will definitely live Somewhere

After your time here on earth is gone.

But it’s a choice, that you make today,

And if you are still alive tomorrow,

You will get the Beautiful Gift of another

Day-of-Choices.

The choice may bring scars with it.

But if you view your scars thru the lens of Eternity,

Than the scar might turn into a crown and

Bring you an Everlasting Joy.

(Smile)

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Good Morning God…

Every morning around 2:30 I sense a tapping in my spirit.

God wants to spend time with me…

Tap, Tap, Tap…

“Wake  up Debra, I want to talk to you…”

Tap, Tap, Tap…

I open my eyes and think, ’30 more minutes…’

And roll over and go back to sleep.

But sure enough every morning around 3:16 am,

My eyes pop open and I get up.

“Ok God, I am getting up…”

I jump out of bed,

Walk into the kitchen,

And pour my cup of coffee.

If it is winter, I sit on my sofa looking out the window at the dark sky,

If it is summer, I sit outside and stare at the amazing stars in the morning sky.

And I begin talking with God.

“Good Morning!” I will say,

And the stars twinkle back at me,

The conversation has begun;

The communing has started.

I share with Him my heart…and my longings,

And He answers me back,

With Peace,

With Comfort,

With Warmth,

With Joy.

It is a Peace, Comfort, Warmth and Joy that tells me,

I am dearly Loved,

I am dearly Cherished,

I am His.

He is Mine.

No wonder He wakes me up so early…

He LOVES to talk with me,

I LOVE to talk with Him…

God eagerly awaits our time spent together.

After all,

I am His favorite…

And so are you.

(Smile)

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Plastic Church

Some years ago, sometime in the 90’s, I attended a church here in Colorado Springs.

It was a church full of Who’s Who,

And What’s What.

And when I would look around at these people,

I knew something was off, but I didn’t know what.

After all, they were Who’s Who.

I felt like Horton, in the Dr. Suess Book,

Horton Hears a Who.

I sensed something but couldn’t put my finger on it.

Until one night I had a dream.

I dreamt that I was walking around a department store

And all the women from this church had plastic masks on.

They were scurrying to hurry and adjust their fake masks so they wouldn’t fall off.

I remember thinking,

“Don’t they know that I can see they have a mask on?”

And then I woke up.

A few nights later I had another dream.

I dreamt I was walking down the hall of this church

And I fell into a secret room.

Hanging on the wall of this room was an old hag.

The hag was dressed in old torn clothes

And when she saw me she gasped saying,

“What are you doing here?”

I responded,

“What are YOU doing here?”

She said,

“Oh, never mind me, I just hang around here.”

And then I woke up.

I woke up.

I have been awake to churches ever since then.

Whether or not you believe in Jesus or not

I am here to tell you a fact.

He is Coming Back,

But this time He’s not coming as a lamb to lay down His Life,

He is coming as a Lion

And that Lion will judge,

The Judgement will begin with the church.

Jesus threw out the money changers in the temple of his day,

And He will do it again.

He has been represented as a charlatan, a fraud,

By people who wear masks, and are nervous about being found out.

Good News……

It is all about to end.

Everyone can feel the shaking,

And it is the Rumbling of the Lion of Judah,

Coming back.

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Alone…

“Elijah went up by a whirlwind into Heaven.

And Elisha saw him no more…

~2 Kings 2:11-12

This story in the Bible about Elijah and Elisha,

Has always made me sad.

God said that He was going to take Elijah away,

And Elisha knew it as well.

Elijah was Elisha’s mentor,

He was his leader,

Elisha leaned on Elijah.

As they were walking towards the Jordan,

A company of men came up to Elisha and said;

“Do you know that the Lord is going to take your master

Away from you today?”

And Elisha replied,

“Yes, I know it,

So be quiet!”

It bothered him.

He knew he was going to have to go back alone…

He knew he was going to have to travel alone…

He knew that he was going to finish the race alone…

The one person he was depending on to be there by his side

Was leaving.

Elisha was going to have to recross the Jordan,

By himself.

Everywhere he had gone with his master before,

He now faced alone.

Alone.

God never intended Elijah to stay with Elisha.

Once upon a time Elijah mentored Elisha,

But then there came a time when Elisha,

Had to put into practice

What he had learned when he was being mentored.

And he had to do it alone.

It is the same for you and me.

There is a season of learning,

And a season of doing.

And the season of doing,

Must be tested alone.

This causes distress inside you…

This causes distress inside of me…

But it must be done.

We have to cross our Jordan’s alone.

God wants us to trust in Him alone.

God wants us to lean on Him alone.

God was with us when we took our first breath,

And He will be with us when we take our last.

Him Alone.

When all is said and done,

It will be Emmanuel,

It will be God With Us….

So we will not really truly,

Be Alone.

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WholeHEARTEDness…

Let no man deceive you by any means:

For that day shall not come,

Except there come a falling away first,

~2Thess 2:3

The problem with deception is that you don’t know you are deceived.

If you knew you were deceived,

You’d walk away from the lie and embrace the truth.

Lovers of the truth are less likely to be deceived,

But anyone can fall into deception.

And if you think you are above the possibility of falling into deception,

You are walking in a deception called pride.

~Jennifer LeClaire

Charisma Magazine

“And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father,

And serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind,

For the LORD searches every heart

And understands every desire and every thought.

If you seek him, he will be found by you;

But if you forsake him,

He will reject you forever.’

~1 Chronicles 28:9

Yesterday morning as I was having my devotions,

The scripture came to mind about seeking God

With all my heart.

As I was looking it up I found lots of verses

That talked about seeking and finding God,

When you searched for Him with your whole heart.

I knew God was speaking to me,

But I also knew that He had more to share with me,

So I held onto those scriptures and waited.

This morning as I was reading online,

I ran across an article posted last January,

About one of the Newsboys founders

Now saying he  no longer believed in God

And was calling himself an atheist…

The article was written almost a year ago,

But I just read it today.

Old news to some…

New news to me.

Incredibly sad news to me.

The Bible clearly says that in the last days,

There will be a falling away…

The Bible also says that some will appear before God,

And say, “But Lord, I did this in your name,

And I cast out demons in your name!”

And He will reply;

“I KNEW YOU NOT…”

‘But if from there you seek the LORD your God,

You will find him

If you seek him

with all your heart and with all your soul.’

~Deuteronomy  4:29

‘Then you will call upon Me

And come and pray to Me,

And I will listen to you.

You will seek Me and find Me

When you search for Me

With all your heart.

‘I will be found by you,‘ declares the LORD.’

~Jeremiah 29:13-14

‘I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD.

They will be my people,

And I will be their God,

For they will return to me with all their heart.’

~Jeremiah 24:7

The answer lies within this next scripture…

‘Now devote your heart and soul

To seeking the LORD your God.’

~1 Chronicles 22:19

 

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Loneliness…

We were created for Relationship…

God is relational.

God said, “Let US create man in OUR own Image.”

God is the Father,

God is the Son,

God is the Holy Spirit.

God is Three-In-One.

God desired to have a relationship with us.

God walked in the garden with Adam.

God laughed with Adam,

God sang with Adam,

God and Adam were friends.

God created Adam with free will and free choice

So that Adam could freely laugh and sing and walk of his own choosing with God.

Adam had choices and decisions to make and one day he chose wrong.

He chose to follow a deceiver instead of his Friend.

God came looking for Adam….

Adam hid.

It was the first time fear had entered into the heart of man

And man ran.

And God ran after man.

God did not turn away from his precious creation

God came calling out for his friend…

The friend that He Loved.

But sin had entered the heart of Adam

Adam felt it and hid.

Just like a child, he hid.

The only solution was for God Himself to pay for Adams sin choices.

He had to.

No one else could.

No created being was sinless.

Because of Adam, the seed of sin was planted inside the rest of humanity.

So God Himself stepped down from Heaven,

Came in the form of the most helpless creatures on earth,

A human baby.

God the Son, Jesus, allowed the whipping and the punishment,

Designed for man, to come to Him.

He had always been in perfect relationship with God the Father,

He never knew what it was like to be separated from God the Father.

When He died on the cross and the great exchange took over,

He cried out,

My God, My God,

Why have you forsaken me?

Jesus became sin for us,

So He felt the loneliness and abandonment that sin always produces,

Except that in His case,

It was not His sin

 It was ours….

For the first time ever God the Son experienced loneliness…

So that you and I could experience relationship.

God missed His walks with man,

God missed His talks with man

God wanted that relationship back,

So He pursued us as only a Great Lover could…

No more loneliness for you,

No more loneliness for me.

Thank you Jesus.

Thank You.

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