Praise Him!

O give thanks to the Lord, call on His name; 

make known His doings among the peoples! 

Sing to Him, sing praises to Him,

meditate on and talk of all His 

wondrous works 

and devoutly praise them! 

Glory in His holy name; 

let the hearts of those rejoice 

who seek the Lord! 

Seek the Lord and His strength; 

yearn for and seek His face 

and to be in His presence continually!

1 Chronicles 16:7-11 .

I listened to a young Christian reading John 14 recently. She broke down and cried tears of thankfulness several times, overwhelmed by the miracle of God's love and forgiveness. She had a traumatic childhood that had set her up for much abuse and heartache, but the love of God has set her free. 

Behold the Beauty of the Lord

One thing I have asked from the Lord, 

that I shall seek:

That I may dwell in the house of the Lord 

all the days of my life,

To behold the beauty of the Lord

And to meditate in His temple.

Psalm 27:4

Sunday afternoons, a group of us head over the the nursing home for "church" in the cafeteria. Our friends there love to sing the old hymns. We continued to sing for about thirty minutes last Sunday - At the Cross, Sweetly Lord Have We Heard Thee Calling, Leaning on the Everlasting Arms...
They sang with such enthusiasm, it sounded like the Heavenly Choir had joined in. What a wonderful time we had worshiping Jesus, reading God's Word, sharing stories and praying for each other. 

Lily Flower

credit

One Sunday morning at church, a friend told me as she was getting dressed, she asked the Lord, "Is there someone you especially want to bless through me today, Lord?"

The Lord impressed her: "There is a woman with brown hair who will be wearing blue. Tell her that I love her and to ME she is as beautiful as a lily flower."

As she was greeting me, she realized that person the Lord had in mind was me. (She did not know that lilies were special to me and that Lily Valley is the name of my blog.)

Our precious Lord has so lovingly done for us what we could never do for ourselves. He has cleansed us and made us pure in His sight.

If only we could see ourselves as God sees us: We were made to be loved by God.

In Jesus' prayer for believers, He said:
The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.
John 17:22-23

God Even Listens to My Complaining!

I pour out my complaints before Him 
and tell Him all my troubles.

Psalm 142:2

If we don't release our voice in prayer to God, 

we will release it in frustration 
and in the flesh toward others.

John Belt

I must tell Jesus all of my trials,
I cannot bear these burdens alone;
In my distress He kindly will help me,
He ever loves and cares for His own.

Elisha Hoffman

Worship the Lord

Dawn and dusk take turns calling, 

“Come and worship!"

Worship the LORD in all his holy splendor. 

Let all the earth tremble before him.

Psalm 96:9

Pickled

On the Andy Griffith show from the 1950's, there was an episode where Aunt Bea tried once again to win the blue ribbon at the fair for her pickles. Andy and Opie hated her pickles, but couldn't get up the nerve to tell her, so she just kept on pickling!

If I take a cucumber and pour a little vinegar over it, that doesn't make it a pickle. If I want a good old-fashioned pickle, the cucumber must be fermented by soaking in a brine solution. At some point, between 4 to 6 weeks, it's a pickle, and it can never go back to being a cucumber again!

Father God,
May your children soak in the presence of the Holy Spirit until we are saturated with all You have for us.
May we marinate in Your Word until we obey You without trying to second-guess You. Change us from the inside out.

Praying for Wise Leadership

One of the greatest blessings of God on a nation is that He bless it with wise leadership. We are commanded to pray for our leaders, and this is one of the most important prayers we can pray at this time. We are not told to pray for the great leaders, or even the good ones, or ones we agree with, but the ones we have.  

I read about a group of people who are committed to pray for our leaders and for the coming mid-term elections every day through November 6. I pray for God's guidance for President Trump in the many decisions he must make daily. I pray that he will be surrounded by wise people like Joseph and Daniel of old.

Decree God's Promises

Yield now and be at peace with Him;
Thereby good will come to you.
Please receive instruction from His mouth
And establish His words in your heart.
If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored;
If you remove unrighteousness far from your tent,
And place your gold in the dust,
And the gold of Ophir among the 
stones of the brooks,
Then the Almighty will be your gold
And choice silver to you.
For then you will delight in the Almighty
And lift up your face to God.
You will pray to Him, and He will hear you;
And you will pay your vows.
You will also decree a thing, 
and it will be established for you;
And light will shine on your ways.
When you are cast down, 
you will speak with confidence,
And the humble person He will save.
He will deliver one who is not innocent,
And he will be delivered 
through the cleanness of your hands.”
Job 22:21-30 NASB

In his book Intercessory Prayer, Dutch Sheets talks about verse 28: DECREE A THING. He says that the word "thing" could be better translated promise. This made me think of the time when Jesus told His disciples Ask the Father in MY NAME. When I pray, I can ask for whatever is in line with the Name of Jesus, which represents all that God is....His Word, His covenants, His commands. 

So I started asking the Lord to show me passages of His Word to pray. I write these out, and 'decree' them out loud. Just like when I plant a seed in the ground and do not see results immediately, I know that God is working in the lives of those for whom I pray because the good seed is the Word of God. He honors His Word, guards it, waters it, and shines His light on it.

Who Ya Gonna Call?

Someone said, "In a crisis, remember 911....and that stands for Psalm 91:1
He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

Yet there is something better than knowing to call out to God in times of trouble. It is enjoying His presence moment by moment.

One way I can relate to this to think of a nursing infant. He is not worried about where the next meal is coming from. The one who loves him unconditionally IS his provision.

This is from Baptism of Love written by Francis Frangipane. www.frangipane.org

"There is a place greater than knowledge; it is a simple, yet eternally profound place where we actually abide in Christ's love. This is, indeed, the shelter of the Most High."

This is the Amplified Bible's rendering Ephesians 3:17-19: "May Christ through your faith [actually] dwell (settle down, abide, make His permanent home) in your hearts! May you be rooted deep in love and founded securely on love, that you may have the power and be strong to apprehend and grasp with all the saints [God's devoted people, the experience of that love] what is the breadth and length and height and depth [of it]; [that you may really come] to know [practically, through experience for yourselves] the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge [without experience]; that you may be filled [through all your being] unto all the fullness of God [may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself]!" .

You Are Father's Much Loved Child

You're going to learn to live in the outrageous goodness of the majesty of the love of God. I'll tell you, no one is going to be safe from a blessing where you're concerned, because you're going to be a giver. You're going to take that out into the streets, the highways and the byways, and the love that you carry is going to change things in people and situations all around you.

You're going to be a magnificent agent for change because that which flows through you gives you such confidence in who God is that you can bring God into any situation that you encounter, knowing that He will show up because you are His much loved child. And there is a power that is going to work in you. It's called confidence.

He is going to get an immeasurable amount of glory through your life, your heart, your childlike simplicity. You're going to carry a weight of glory towards heaven. People are going to see Him in you. People are going to be touched by Him in you.
-Graham Cooke

Father God, 

May we have the power to understand how wide, how long, how high, and how deep Your love really is.

Back to First Grade

When  I was teaching a second grade reading group, I noticed that one little girl had tuned me out. Then when I called on her to answer a question, she had no idea what the lesson was about.

I told her that she and I needed to talk about it at recess. I explained to her that she needed to sit up tall and pay attention because she was going to learn so much this year at reading time.

"Oh," she told me in an unconcerned voice. "I learned to read in First Grade."

Later as I chuckled at her over-confidence, I had to admit that sometimes in living  life, I feel like I have to go back to first grade and learn the same lessons over and over. I just hope that I come out of my "lessons" more willing to listen to the Teacher.

Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”

Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment.

Matthew 22:35-38

Your Lovely Face

Then Jesus told him, 
“Because you have seen me, 
you have believed; 
blessed are those who have not seen 
and yet have believed.”
John 20:29

To keep Your lovely face

Ever before my eyes

This is my prayer

Make it my strong desire

That in my secret heart

No other love competes

No rival throne survives

And I serve only You

Graham Kendrick