1.  I loved it how, yesterday, when John called to set up an appointment for Gavin to meet with Pastor Steve, the lady was so matter of fact and said (regarding his lack of speech), “Well, we can take care of that!”  She put him on the prayer list and the morning group list.  I love women with a sword!

2.  I spent time out at this lake near where we live and had some time to pray and read.  It was nice.  Kinda sunny because the sun was going down and was right in my eyes, but it was nice and quiet.  I think I might do that more often.

3.  I feel like I’ve just started school again.  I started reading some books on spiritual warfare and began to realize just how much there is to learn.  I don’t know if my calling is to battle in the same way that John’s is, but I do know that, as his wife, I am to support him.  And to do that, I need to know what’s going on.  A dear friend, Susan, once told me I was a psalmist.  I don’t know what that means, but I ran across an interesting statement in one of the books about how David (THE psalmist) would play for Saul and the evil spirits would leave (in his case they came right back later, but it was a temporary reprieve).  I can’t play (yet), but I can write.

If you pray, here’s what I’m praying for:

1.  Discernment – I want to see more clearly and hear more clearly.  I want to be able to discern truth from lies.

2.  My purpose – I’m still not sure what my role is in all of this.  I know that I am called to raise my children and that I love words, web design, technology, and helping teachers teach better.  And music.  And once upon a time I liked to read.  And organize (but not papers – sooooo tedious).

3.  Revelation – I want to know God deeper than ever before.  I am still very confused about who He is (personal vs. communal, loving vs. vengeful, interested in me vs. interested in the “Big Plan”) and how I fit into His family (red-headed step child who was adopted, beloved child, bride of Christ – but isn’t that Israel?, peon who is part of a vast kingdom,…).  Into this category falls understanding this whole spiritual warfare thing.

4.  Financial breakthrough – whether it’s warfare, a generational curse, bad luck, or just life, it would be nice to not have to be scraping by every month.  It would be nice to be able to save a little money so we don’t have to live paycheck-to-paycheck.  It would be nice to have a place of our own.  It would be nice to be able to afford Christmas presents for our boys without wondering how to pay for them.

Psalm 119:165

Those who love Your law have great peace, And nothing causes them to stumble.

Obedience to His law causes peace.  Knowing His law keeps me from messing up.  It’s like knowing the speed limit on a street.  If I know it, I’m less likely to go too fast and get a speeding ticket.  Sure, I can know it and disregard it; however, if I LOVE it, I’m probably not going to knowingly ignore what it says.  There is peace in knowing that I am walking in the right path and doing what God asks of me.  Sometimes I wonder if, as long as I’m obedient to God’s law, He isn’t all that concerned about the other choices.  In other words, my choices are all fine as long as they are in alignment with His law.  I’m not going to make decisions that break His law if I love it.  And there’s a peace in knowing that.  Perhaps the focus should shift from making the right choice about something to obeying His laws and commands and then weighing what I do against that standard.

“When I put my whole life in His hands, I do not erase the possibility of doubt.  I simply refuse to accept it as real.” (Skip Moen)

I love this!  It’s like the little child with a monster under her bed or in his closet.  :)  Much of faith (perhaps all) is a choice I make to believe.

“And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.” (1 Peter 5.10)

This verse was part of a longer post reminding me about the three men who were thrown into the furnace for refusing to worship the kind of Babylon.  Even heated seven times hotter, the fire did not kill them – and the mysterious “fourth man” hung out with them in the midst of the flames.  Silver is refined in a pot, but gold in the fire.  Maybe God’s going for the gold.  :)

“I pictured the act of rolling out dough. I don’t know if you are familiar with southern cuisine……but I like to “roll” my own dough for chicken and pastry. I roll it very thin and it almost melts in your mouth. There is a certain point where, if rolled too thin, it falls apart. If you cook it too long, it also becomes mushy and the consistency is less than desired. May I say that the One who gives us Bread of Life is working in your life RIGHT NOW, and He will make sure everything is PERFECT FOR HIS GLORY!”

This analogy is awesome (especially if you’ve had good old-fashioned southern biscuits)!  God never rolls things too thin or cooks things for too long.  He is the perfect chef!  Now, if the chicken will just stay in the pot…

One thing I’ve craved is community, and I find it interesting how much of that I find in these friends whom I’ve never met!  Their openness and insight pours soothing balm over my life.  We may live worlds apart (literally, since some are as far away as Australia!), but a common love and passion connects us.  How incredible is that!

I am SO blessed!  Thank you Yeshua for Your love and for Your children!

Psalm 119:32 (NIV)

I run in the path of your commands for you have set my heart free.

I think the tendency is to think of commands (laws) as binding and restrictive, but they are meant to give freedom.  When the boundaries are well defined I can run freely within then, and I am not frozen in one place out of fear of overstepping an invisible line.  To have no laws, no guides for living, is terrifying, because then it’s all up the individual, and individuals in our Greek-minded world tend to look out for self first.

The commands in Torah are not to restrict, but to set apart.  That’s what holy means.  Holy is set apart, different.  When God says to be holy like He is holy, He isn’t asking us to live in a commune, He’s asking us to be different from the world around us.  And that’s what His commands, His Torah, do.  I was listening to a commentary by Skip Moen and he told a story of a young missionary or minister in England.  This man lived within walking distance of a church, a synagogue, and a mosque.  He noticed that whenever there were young men who were disillusioned with life and searching for…  satisfaction, I guess… they almost always turned to Islam.  Why?  Because Muslims are different. They are set apart by the way they live.  They have boundaries written out in the Koran.  They live according to a very distinct set of guidelines that regulate how they dress, how they act, what they eat, how they worship, etc.  These men were looking for something different, and Islam offered it to them.

We naturally desire these things, because God is a god of order.  Imagine if God’s people, Israel and the followers of His Way, were set apart (different from the world) the way that God commands, by living by Torah but also by reflecting the heart and love of God!    Yes, we live in the world, but it should be clear by our actions where the world ends and where we begin.  Perhaps then, given the choice, these lost ones would choose to find hope and peace in the love, rule, and reign of Yeshua – because it is set apart, because it is different, because it offers freedom from the world’s chaos.

God provides commands for living that free us from constantly asking what we should do next.  It’s there.  laws that bring peace and rest and laws that set out hearts free to truly live.

Numbers 6:24-26

The LORD bless you and keep you; The LORD make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; The LORD lift His countenance upon you, And give you peace.

This is the blessing that Aaron was to give the children of Israel (which, if you accept and obey Yeshua you are grafted into the covenant, and I think this blessing is for you, too).

The LORD bless you and keep you;

The first part is blessing and protections, that I understand.  But what does it mean for G-d’s face to shine upon someone?

The LORD make His face shine on you and be gracious to you.

…  Okay, did a little research and found that G-d’s face shining on someone meant salvation in the midst of battle – rescue when all else seems lost and when failure is sure without reinforcements [1].  So the second part is about rescue from certain defeat and showing mercy towards them.

The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.

Here’s a random thought, what if “lift up” actually meant to carry or bear continuously (that is part of what this word means in Hebrew) and “countenance” (being the same word as face in the previous part of the verse) meant before and behind or forward (this is the adverb meaning of the word)?  I can’t read Hebrew, but it would certainly give meaning to this phrase… The LORD carry you forward/before and behind and give you peace (completeness, safety, health and welfare).  That’s a lot more significant as a blessing.

To receive this spoken from a priest, directed by G-d…  that would be like G-d speaking it over you.  It’s a beautiful blessing about protection and blessing.  I wish we used it more often now.

[1] Moen, Skip. “Back To The Beginning.” Hebrew Word Study | Skip Moen . N.p., 22 Apr. 2010. Web. 2 May 2010. <http://skipmoen.com/2010/03/22/back-to-the-beginning/>.

Leviticus 3:-7

LOTS of sacrifices.

Wow!  The priests were busy!  There are an awful lot of sacrifices that were to be made.  Although, they often pertain to different classes of people, so it may not have been that many to remember.  Most though do focus on unintentional sins.  Only one is for an unintentional sin – lying or stealing.  That one involves restoring what was taken plus extra, and then the person also had to make a sin offering.  Another thing is that if a person is unclean and they participate in or consume any of the sacrifice they would be cut off from Israel – exiled.  They wouldn’t be able to offer sacrifices, and that meant they wouldn’t be forgiven and they wouldn’t have that special relationship with God.  No wonder they tried so hard to keep from being defiled or made unclean!  Same thing if a person ate the fat from an offering or at blood.

What the heck is a wave offering?  And a heave offering?  Other than those two weird things, there was a grain offering, a burnt offering, a sin offering, a trespass offering, the consecrations, and the peace offering.  That’s a lot!  But I suppose that if you’d grown up with that as part of your life it wouldn’t be nearly as complex sounding as it is today when it’s archaic.  Thankfully, we don’t have a Temple anymore, and because of that and because of Jesus, we no longer have to offer sacrifices like this.

The Hebrews always put the most important things at the beginning (they didn’t much care about chronology, like we do today).  So, since the sacrifices are the first thing in this book (which was also the first book the children read and learned to write from), they must have been critical.  They established and enabled the relationship between YHWH and His people.  They didn’t want to do anything to mess that us, so they put it first.  It was the first thing you learned because that relationship was the most important thing in their lives.  Is it the most important thing in my life?  Do I put that relationship first?

Psalm 16:8

I know the LORD is always with me. I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me.

I feel pretty shaky a lot these days.  Between proposed education bills that would base my livelihood on the motivation that my students have to strive to do better and congress pushing huge bills that push us closer to socialism than to republicanism, life seems rather turbulent.  Things seem so up-in-the-air.  Hope is working on funding, but it’s an arena I’ve never entered, and I feel at a loss during this stage.  This verse reminds me that I’m not alone.  God is always right beside me to be my strength, my guide, and my protection.  I can stand tall and firm because He is there.  I just have to remember that when I’m freaking out. 

The Prince of Peace by Skip Moen

Matthew 12:21

And his name will be the hope of all the world.

This is actually Jesus quoting from Isaiah (42:1-4) regarding a prophecy made about him.  I thought it was fitting because during this time of year (Christmas) the name of Jesus is heard more often (since that’s the real reason we celebrate).  His name is hope.  Hope is good, especially right now when things are so decidedly bad with our economy, wars, government and all the little details that stress us out.  Hope is that flickering flame that is the last thing to get extinguished.  Hope, no matter how tiny, holds on through even the worst of times.  Jesus is there all the time, even when there’s no money in the bank and no jobs to be had; when there’s corruption all around and no one to help you; and when the world has come crashing down and your heart is shattered.  He is hope.  His name brings hope because He is bigger than the storm.  He has the power to calm the storm.  He has conquered all these things and more.  He is the rest of your heart, the quiet place to grieve, the safe harbor to weather the waves, the hand you can hold, and the champion of your cause.  We all need hope to keep moving forward.  Jesus is that hope.  Have you tried Him lately?

Matthew 11:28

Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.

How beautiful are these words!  There are days when I am so tired that I’m not really sure how I’m awake.  There are times when the budget isn’t working, the bank account is almost empty, my children aren’t well, my husband’s job is not going well, I have a huge project that’s overwhelming me and no time to do it in, and it’s almost too much to bear.  I’m not made to carry all of that!  I may be responsible for dealing with it, but God didn’t make me strong enough to carry it.  At least, not all alone.  That’s why I love this verse.  It’s all about laying those things down.  I can trust God to carry those things and to give me rest.  I can put them down at His feet and trust Him to take care of all the details.  His rest is more refreshing than any break I can find or make.

But I have to come.  He’s not going to chase me down and yank my burdens away from me.  That’s rude.  He allows me to make the choice to come and surrender.  He’s waiting for me.  And he’s really happy when I get there because He’s big enough for my issues.  He’s bigger than my storms.  He loves to help me.  But He’s waiting for me to remember how much I need Him.