272 - "Counsel for The Weakest" Zechariah 8-14

                                                                 

Zechariah 12: 7-8
God gives us this promise fast-forward to this very day. It's for the weakest. And my spirit perked up because of the faltering moments I encounter. Matthew Henry puts it this way: "God will protect and strengthen the meanest and weakest that belong to his church, and work salvation for them. And as a preparative for all this mercy, and a promise of it, He will pour upon them a spirit of prayer and repentance." These promises were a life-line to the Jews who cared so much about following God under the rule of the evil Antiochus. And these promises are for this very day, for our churches. May God direct our prayers and deepen our hope in the gospel.

Send the rain, O God.

Zechariah 8:1 - He is jealous for you. Let your hands be strong. Hold on tight.

Zechariah 9:1 - The burden of the Word. Let your eyes find their Resting Place. All eyes toward the Lord.

Zechariah 10:1 - Ask rain from the Lord. The Lord Who makes the storm clouds. And it is at this point in this daily reading that I weep. How long must we endure these hovering dark storm clouds that have lasted for years? God has compassion on each one of us. He will answer us. 10:6. And the beautiful last verse says: "And I will strengthen them in the LORD, and in His Name, they will walk." Thank you for making me walk again. On solid ground. 

Zechariah 11:1 - Open your doors that a fire may feed. 
Behold!~ A Day is Coming . . . Yes it is!

PHOTO:  

Standing here.  Thinking about being so weak, so needy, and so cared for by my 4 children who mean the world to me. 

271 - "Don't Despise Small Beginnings" Zechariah 1-7

                                                 

Find the present hope...
1:2 - Come back to me and I'll come back to you. Don't be like your parents. 

Enter into the present hope...
1:5  Put up your measuring tape.  Don't try to figure things out.  "I'll be right there with you—God's Decree—a wall of fire around unwalled Jerusalem---your own city with no walls--- and a radiant presence within."  Nothing will happen to you or any of My Followers that has the power to destroy My Plan A.  66 LL  God is on the move!

Dress in the present hope...
3:3 - Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes.  What am I dressed in this day?  

Live as a prisoner of the present hope...
or you will be a slave to the past...
4:9  "Don't despise This Day of Small Beginnings."  A Day of Small Things.  Right on Time.  Right Direction.  Fully Alive. 

PHOTO: My darkness matters to me, to Him. But it is not the Greater Story being told. There is Light that permeates the darkest of times.  The smallest of beginnings. 

270 - “He Is Here” Zephaniah 1-3

The Lord is Mighty to save.  He will save us!
He will be God to us!  He will be our All!
The Mighty One!  For the least of all.  For the worst of all.
The Lord is in our midst, Zephaniah 3:17
the Mighty One to save.
He will rejoice over us.
No matter what has happened to us---what shame, contempt, dishonor---
the LORD will honor us.  He will take care of His own.
In this life there will be tribulation.
Many are the troubles of the righteous,
but the LORD delivers him from all.
We can always rejoice in the love of our God.
No matter what befalls.

PHOTO:  The ocean.  Thinking about whatever befalls, we can always rejoice in God's Love.  That can never be taken away from us.  

269 - “God’s Way is in the Whirlwind” Nahum 1-3; Habakkuk 1-3

                                      

No better prayer for you today.
"Lord, I have heard of your fame;
    I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord.
Repeat them in our day,
    in our time make them known;
    in wrath remember mercy."
Remember mercy on each of these dear ones.
And,
I will wait patiently for the day of calamity ...
and though the fig tree does not bud;
and though the crops fail; 
and though the fields produce no food;
and though no cattle in the stalls . . .
"yet I will rejoice in the Lord,

The Sovereign Lord is my strength;
    he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
    he enables me to tread on the heights."
Habukkuk 3:17-19

 The prophet looked back upon the experiences of the church in former ages and all the beautiful things that God had done for them. Matthew Henry says that recovered him. 

Here it is. A beautiful outpouring of God's Mercy & Grace to those who put their trust in Him. The Lord is good to those who are good, and to them He will be a stronghold in the day of trouble. Nahum 1:7. But to those who turn their back, who distance themselves and choose evil ways, there is outpouring of wrath, of justice. This story is about Nineveh. 100 years before this, Jonah prophesied and the Ninenvites repented. Their city was saved. But, it happened again. They returned to evil and lived worse than before. Now, another prophecy of "irreversible doom." The same Almighty power exerted for the terror of Nineveh protects and comforts His own people. But the most beautiful metaphor is Nahum 1:3: the Lord has His Way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet. God speaks out of whirlwinds (Job). God descends in storms (Mt. Sinai). God rides chariots (Deut 32) to our help---the clouds are his chariots He rides swiftly. The clouds are like the dust raised by a multitude of horsemen riding full speed---an army in full march---at the head of which was the Lord Himself, ordering, directing, succeeding, before Whom None can stand. Have your way, O God!  

The Lord is Good.
A Stronghold in the day of trouble.
He knows those who take refuge in Him.
Nahum 1:7.
That's it.  All I have to do is climb into His arms.
So, how do you do that.

268 - “Pray To Be Delivered From Your Selfish Soul Rather Than Your Circumstances” Micah 1-7

                                 Sometimes,                I wonder if we have this afffliction thing upside down. We pray like crazy to get out of the bad circumstances---Paul didn't. Dr. Luke pens a direct quote from Paul in Acts 21:13: “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” And the people finally concluded: Let the will of the LORD be done.

Somehow, we talk about seeing our children graduate from college and get married and have babies. LORD, let me be there. We pin our happiness on things turning out right. Paul pens his happiness on the will of the LORD. 

Prophets cry "Peace" when they have something to eat. Micah 3:5
But do those same prophets cry "Peace" when they are treated poorly and good withheld.
No, those prophets "Declare War" against him who puts nothing in their mouths.

May we all pray like crazy not to be delivered out of our circumstances
but to be delivered from our selfish souls.

LORD, 
Thy Will be done
Our wills be undone.

PHOTO:  Nothing matters more than the will of God on Earth.

266 - Amos 6-9; Obadiah 1

 

Are we trying to have the best life here?  Everything falling into place in our world.
Days are coming.
The plowmen will overtake the reaper.
It's the day we all live for---the coming of the LORD for His people.

"Woe to those who are at ease in Zion,
and to those who feel secure on the mountain of Samaria." Amos 6:1
What is my security in.
The themes mesh---Isaiah wrestling not to follow King Uzziah.
Amos wrestling with the feel of security.
What does that look like in all of our lives?

Peace and personal comfort.  It's usually what most go after.Amos 7:7 - God showed me this vision: My Master was standing beside a wall. In his hand he held a plumb line.  "Read Amos and tremble.  God has dropped a plumbline to expose our wickedness---which is in all of our hearts, our relational sin.  Read Amos and tremble with the consciousness of your relational sin.  Worship that leaves UNCHANGED the way you relate to Me and to others is false worship.  I will not cooperate with any pursuit of spiritual maturity that leaves unrecognized and undisturbed your hidden energy of self-protection and self-enhancement.  You are wrongly conscious only of your unsatisfied desires in the Presence of My seeming indifference.  When you remain blind to your guilt, you seek Me for your purposes."  66 LL.

Amos 8: You give little and take much and never do an honest day's work. You exploit the poor, using them, and then, when they're used up, you discard them.  

"Without deep consciousness of relational sin, My people then and now feel falsely complacent in My Presence, unaware, and therefore, untroubled by how far short their style of relating falls below Mine" 6:1.  That is a very telling statement.  Complacent in God's Presence, unaware and untroubled by how far short our relating falls before a Holy God.   How have I changed in the past year, months, weeks, days? Worship that leaves unchanged the ways I relate to my husband, my kids, my friends, (and for me, especially to those who have hurt me deeply) is f.a.l.s.e.

Somewhere in my thinking, I believe I can get away with stuff.

I mean, I don't want to.

But it comes pouring out of me, shocking me to no end.

"As you have done, it shall be done to you;
your deeds shall return on your own head." Obadiah 1:15

One of the commentaries shared it this way:

Sin, thus looked upon in the glass of the commandment, will appear exceedingly sinful. Those will have a great deal to answer for, who are idle spectators of the troubles of their neighbors, when able to be active helpers."

The glass of the commandment.  We see through the glass to read the promptings.  And the Word sees through the glass right back at us.  

PHOTO:  Colorado Springs. Flying up in clouds at sunset. Do we live like we are 30,000 feet in the air or are we present on the ground?

265 - 'The Lion Has Roared" Amos 1-5

Another prophet in the picture.

While Isaiah is dealing with his strongholds, Amos is saying this:

The lion has roared;
who will not fear?
The Lord God has spoken;
who can but prophesy?”

Amos 3

So speak to to those strongholds.

They must go.

They have no hold on me.

Wrestle well.

You know what is right to do.

COME BOLDLY:  Timeless Prayers

O Father, may we hear your Voice saying this is the way walk in it.  May we grasp a little more deeper this day that You are roaring in our lives for goodness, for justice, for love.

PHOTO:  Santa Rosa Island.  In those quiet moments today, may we move to do away with the strong holds on all our lives.  Those strongholds that stop the very blood flow of life to us.   

264 - “Rend Your Heart” Joel 1-3

                                      

"Yet even now,” declares the Lord,
    “return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
13     and rend your hearts and not your garments.”

Joel 2:13.

Return to the Lord your God,
    for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love;
    and he relents over disaster.
14 Who knows whether he will not turn and relent,
    and leave a blessing behind him.

One of the lowest points of my life. 

I went to my friend Larry for help. 

He referred my impossible situation to God. 

He told me to go to another room and just listen.

He said I was way too frantic.  

Sitting alone in a very unfamiliar place, 

I randomly opened the Bible to the Book of Joel. 

I put my bony finger on the page and

it landed on Joel 2:13. 

I'll never forget the moment. The Presence of God. 

And the same thing happened tonight. 

Fighting back tears, I sat alone at a restaurant and read:

Joel 2:13.

And the rain came down on my soul. Poured down!

How do I rend this heart of mine?

PHOTO: The rain clouds are about to burst in my heart. 

263 - "Come, O God, Like The Rains" Hosea 7-14

A picture of life, at times.

Desolate, Drought, Devastating.

Bend Down, O God, and hear our prayer.

"Ephraim has hired lovers.  Even though they hired allies among the nations.  They multiplied altars for sin... They forgot their Maker while multiplying fortified cities."  Hosea 8:8-10.  
They played the harlot and loved the earnings. 
There's a point here. 
God's Words, His Story of Hosea and a harlot represents a welcome, a wooing, a wonderful invitation for more.  More than what this old world offers.

God yearns your way.
From the days of old, your very first days, He was there.
"Yet it is I who taught Ephraim to walk,
I took them in My arms;
But they did not know that I healed them...
And I bent down and fed them.  Hosea 11:4
But they were bent on turning from Me.  Hosea 11:7
Am I bent on my own will?
Do I feed on the wind? Hosea 12:1

The Lord is His name.
Therefore, Return to Kindness and Justice.
Wait for your God continually.  Hosea 12:6
Expect Him to do much.  He has.  He is.  He will.

"You will be irresistibly drawn to My Love and able to give it to others when you discover in your own experience that the love I have planted in your heart can never be destroyed by rejection, betrayal, criticism, or any other form of unlove you receive.  True love reveals itself as the strongest of all passions when your impulse to hate those who hurt you is fully felt."  66LL

Come, O God, Like the Rains.

Unannounced.

Unnoticed.

So Needed.

She followed her lovers and forgot God, even when she was married.  Consulting wooden idols.  Asking diviner's wands to inform them.  "Playing the harlot, departing from God."

God says:  He will go away until you acknowledge your guilt and seek His Face.  He does not say when you learn to be grateful or once you are doing well or when you do the right things.  No, it's when we acknowledge our guilt and seek His Face not seek changed lives/changed behavior.  He will come back when we repent not when we just recall good things, count our blessings.  

Hosea 6:1 - “Come, let us return to the Lord.

For He has torn us, but He will heal us...

Let us press on to know the Lord.

And He will come to us like the rain,

Like the spring rain watering the earth."

Hosea 6:3

Hosea 14:1-3 - "You're down but you're not out."  66 LL talks about how these verses are the model for repentance, for crying from your heart as you lay in the ditch of your sin.  "Requiring relief from your pain is wailing on your bed. 

What is the greatest good of my life?  I've so hung on to my reputation, my recognized ministry, my worth as an individual based on what others think...but, no, I must "let go" of demanding any good other than the good of knowing my God.  What is my greatest good this day?

Hosea 14: 7-8  "God is the One Who answers me and satisfies me.  Everything you need is to be found in Him."

Hosea 12:6 - What am I waiting for?  Wait and Expect God to show up.  You are waiting for God not for any man to do anything.  Don't ever give up on Him.  

May we owe no man anything but to love them.  

PHOTO: A picture of life.

262 - "A Door of Hope" Hosea 1-6

It's a Beautiful God Who pursues us when we are unlovely.

"I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness,

and speak tenderly to her."

And I weep.  

There.

I will give her a door of hope.

Hosea 2:14-15.

And I will have mercy on No Mercy.

And I will say to Not My People, You are my People."

Hosea 2:23.

So stirring.

May Hosea be ever so real in each of us.  

May we cry from our hearts for what affects us so this day.  

No wailing from our beds, O God!  

Help us to truly repent as the Great Story beckons.  Help us to find You.  

Oh! Laodicea, you thought you were doing okay.  But, no.  You talked your way right into heaven but you didn't end up there: "I am rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing." Rev 3:17.  And, God spits you out of his mouth.  Don't you know that you were wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.  Yet, where we are today, we cannot easily say those kind of statements or we miss the revelation of our purpose here.  The whole Bible is revelatory. 

PHOTO: Outside my classroom door for 15 years. Common Grace is always here. Redeeming Grace is forever mine. 350 

261 - "Go Your Ways to the End of Days" Daniel 10-12

White and Tried. 

This life.

Daniel 12:13 - But go your way till the end of all days. And you shall rest and shall stand in your allotted place at the end of the days.”

"Amid the crash of matter and the wreck of worlds,
the Lord Jehovah will preserve His own." C. Spurgeon
We need not fear.  Let us go on our way.
Find rest for our souls.  This world knows so little.
When have we truly been at rest in our souls?

White and Tried.
This life.

This we know.
This world will end.
May we live fully alive.

Go.
Rest.
Stand.
This is your lot.
This is your life.
No fiery furnace.  No den of lions.
Can keep us from walking with God.
May we become a parade of pleaders who won't let go, who will keep on.
To the end of our days.

Father, we pray the words Charles Spurgeon wrote over 100 years ago for this day:
May we live - "calm resolute in duty, brave in conflict, patient in suffering,
let us go, keeping to our road, and neither swerving from it nor loitering in it." (Spurgeon)

PHOTO:  Thinking about the end of times, the mountains laid low, the earth burned up.  And like that fiery furnace---there will be no smell of smoke on those who trusted to the end.  

260 - "May We Be Caught Praying" Daniel 7-9

Our names.  

Our Acts of Faith.  

Our Decisions to Overcome Evil with Good.  

Our Moves to Owe No Man Anything But Love.  

What We Did With our Lives---and How Aware we were of our Sin.    Daniel 7:10

Oh may we be caught praying! "While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my plea before the Lord my God, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the first, came to me in swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice." Daniel 9:21. We may never ever see an angel deliver our prayer, but we hold fast to the very Word of God for His Precious Promises are all "yes." And we wait in prayer.  Confessing our own sin.  Daniel pointed the finger at himself first.  He is dealing with what stirs inside of him---though pale in comparison to the depths of sin surrounding him. 

And the angel clarified: "At the beginning of your pleas for mercy a word went out, and I have come to tell it to you, for you are greatly loved." Daniel 9:23.  And how the Promises and the Passion of being greatly loved just melts our hearts. 

This prayer life intrigues and invites.  Make me want to set a hundred Bell Tower alarms as reminders to pray.  

Oh Father, teach us to pray.  Every day, I say the "Our Father," hallowed be Thy Name.  Give us today our daily bread and forgive us like you do for the Daniels of the world who are so in touch with the darkness that lurks within---right smack dab in the middle of all the Goodness. Send your Mercy. Make us Good.  You Alone are Good!  We long for You, Our Father.  

PHOTO:  Watching the Texas sun rise in the sky. Thinking here about being "greatly loved" and what that really means for me today.

259 - "Leave The Stump" Daniel 4-6

                              

Leave the stump, bound with a band of iron and bronze. Daniel 4:15. Metaphorically speaking, the band of iron represented afflictions. There was hope that the stump might shoot forth back into life. That was my story a decade ago. Beth Moore shared this verse with me. It was a deep glimmer of hope in a very dark abysmal of a time. A verse about King Nebuchadnezzar who was a "monument of the power of Divine grace, and of the riches of Divine mercy." M.Henry He recovered from his madness. Recovered from his pride of forgetting God. "Whatever affliction God is pleased to lay upon us, may we have cause to bear it patiently, and to be thankful that he continues the use of our reason, and the peace of our consciences." M.Henry. The shoot sprang forth---that's me. 

I felt like I was about gone in 2006 January. The irons of affliction had done me in.

That summer, I started to sprout. 

Little by Little.

I came alive.

And that tree grew back again.

And I can now give shade to others once more. 

PHOTO: The stump.

258 - "Turn or Burn" Isaiah 1-3

                                                        

Ashpenaz went looking for skilled youth with a spotless record in Israel. You never know when you are living life when a knock may come on your door. Am I being faithful in the things I know, I do, I have. And Daniel makes history, not a show-stopper but a surrendered soul. May we be found faithful where we are.  

And here's a quote for all times, all moments: Dear King, we have no need to answer you in this matter of worshipping your gods with a little "g." Throw us in the lion's den. "Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of your hand." Determined---they will not serve or worship the king's gods with a little "g." Daniel 3:18.  

"And the hair of their heads was not singed, their cloaks were not harmed, and no smell of fire had come upon them." Daniel 3:27. Blessed by the God of these 3 men.  And what this God did for these 3 servants made an indelible mark on all who watched, on all who hear 2,000 years later.  Isaiah 43:2 is true:  When you pass through the waters, God will be with you.  When you go through the fire, you will not be burned.  A metaphor of grace.  You will be taken care of.

Oh Father, When we read these beautiful stories of surrender and calm in the midst of horror, help us to walk in Your Ways, not the show-stopping celebrity world in which we live.  Whatever men may do to us, may we know You are with us.

PHOTO:  The sunset tonight.  Pondering what it means to really be alive.  To not miss the Grace of God in the midst of suffering.  To find His Presence there, here.

257 - “The Lord is There” Ezekiel 46-48

“And the name of the city from that time on will be:

the Lord is there.”
Ezekiel 48:35

This prophet.  Ezekiel.

He paid such a dear price with his life.

All for God.

All in for the people.

That Redeeming Love would restore their lives

and they would build God's temple.

This prophet.

One commentary said:  Ezekiel's words possess "such spiritual beauties and excellencies which are beyond all praise."  Proving to successive generations what heavenly wisdom Ezekiel shared.  And it still holds true for each of us this day.  

Oh! that God would restore our lives to live for Him and not for ourselves 

or anything this world has to offer.  Oh! The Unsearchable Riches of Christ!  Redeeming Love.  How can it be?

PHOTO: It's an old faithful dog in the city where all the kids grew up. I can see them in the treehouse hurling balls in a dodge-the-ball game. The Lord was there in that city where we lived. In that backyard where we loved. 

256 “Live Low in My Own Life” Ezekiel 43-45

 

"And I fell on my face." Ezekiel 43:3.  What causes me to fall on my face?  I can think of times:  cancer, betrayal, loss, grave disappointmentsx, depression.  Seems like it is when something happens to me rather than what stirs within me.  Ezekiel saw a vision concerning what God would do to the people of the city---destroy them.  And the immense glimpse of suffering and shame overwhelmed Ezekiel with sorrow.  And he fell.  Facedown.

Oh! Ezekiel! We will meet you one day. We'll worship together with You this God you so adore. "I looked, and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the temple of the Lord. And I fell on my face. And the Lord said to me, “Son of man, mark well, see with your eyes, and hear with your ears all that I shall tell you concerning all the statutes of the temple of the Lord and all its laws." Ezekiel 44:4

And here we go again. Overcome with awe! "The humblest posture of adoration and the expression of a holy awe." (M.Henry). Facedown. "The more we see of the glory of God the more low we shall lie in our own eyes." (M.Henry). And that thought explains to me how in the midst of my living life and being gravely offended, even this day, that I may make my ambition to find the glory of God and desire to live low in my own eyes. It's been a harrowing of a day and I really cannot share it with anyone, so I'll give it over to my God Who deeply cares. My roots have been twisted and turned.

And God charges Ezekiel to take extra care to observe with his eyes. A very careful observant learner. Ezek 45:5. Matthew Henry states a beautiful "In acquainting ourselves with divine things, we must not aim so much at an abstract speculation of the things themselves as at finding the plain appointed way of communion with those things, that we may go in and out and find pasture." Oh that we find pasture. Great peace have those who love God.

PHOTO: Father, help us find a gripping peace that won't let go of us.

255 - "When We Despair of Difficulties We Face ... " Ezekiel 40-42

                                                      

Ezekiel 40:1 In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city was struck down, on that very day, the hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me to the city." There is no mistake of the exact moment when he knew that God brought Him to that place. And our God has brought us to the place we sit this day. Dare we trust Him for more as we lift up open broken hands to His.  

This vision goes until the end of the book.  It's so hard to understand but we trust when we get to those rough patches, don't we?  Matthew Henry put it this way:  "Humbly search concerning it, get as far as we can into it and as much as we can out of it, and, when we despair of satisfaction in every difficulty we meet with, bless God that our salvation does not depend upon it, but that things necessary are plain enough, and wait till God shall reveal even this unto us." 

PHOTO:  Walking Galveston beach. Pondering how God's Hand is on our lives. Such mystery.                                  

254 - "Jealous For His Name" Ezekiel 37-39

                                     

And the Word of God came again to Ezekiel. I don't know that I've ever noticed how many prophecies came to this holy man who maintained justice and rightness before God.

And the Hound of Heaven pursues once again and forever.  Them and us.

Ezekiel 39:25 “Therefore thus says the Lord God: Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on the whole house of Israel, and I will be jealous for my holy name."

613 commands they had to obey.  How could they even remember them all.  No one could live them out every day.  Impossible.  The Jewish system and all its rules.  From 10 Commandments to over 600.  And God is moving to redeem.  Christ came.

Christ's invitation:  Come to Me.  Doesn't matter if it's just one rule.  Always breaking one.  Oh, that we live attached to the One Who can do something about all this weariness and woe.

Father, we are touched deeply by Ezekiel and his holy living and preaching and loving and prophesying.  You truly are the Hound of Heaven.  And You will never ever let us go.  Help us to know this day Your Holy Fire and Desire for each one of us.  You are jealous for me---as the song says.  May we sing it today!

PHOTO:  The Hound of Heaven comes.  From the days of Jerusalem to the days of hill country, He comes.

253 - "Set A Watchman Over Your Heart:" Ezekiel 33-36

Ezekiel was made a watchman over the country.  Ezekiel 33:7  .  Whether the response was positive or negative, Ezekiel went to serve.  For whom do I carry the burdens of this life?  These prophecies are to be chanted.  So that they may know that He is God.  This is Ezekiel's calling.  To warn sinners about imminent danger. 

"It becomes us to weep and tremble for those who will not weep and tremble for themselves."  Matthew Henry. mouths speak of love, but their hearts are greedy for unjust gain." Ezek 33:30.

Men care more about the temporary than the eternal when they overlook settling their sins with God. 

One commentary talked about how they set watchmen to guard their houses but not their hearts.  When their happiness or misery is at stake, Matthew Henry says:  "they are offended if ministers obey God and give faithful warnings; they would rather perish listening to smooth things." 

"Indeed, to them you are nothing more than one who sings love songs with a beautiful voice 

and plays an instrument well, for they hear your words but do not put them into practice."
Ezekiel 33:30-33

All that happens any normal week of our lives---the cutting, the distractions, the heart piercing words flung your way. Cast them His way---the gracious providence of God. PHOTO:  Watchmen.Taken in Israel.

252 - "Who Are You Like In Your Greatness?" Ezekiel 29-32

You will know that I am the Lord! 
How many times did God make that statement?
God is always seeking, always beckoning, always calling. 
And how long do we go without acknowledging this day that He is Lord!

God speaks to Ezekiel, once again.  Prophesy!
And how many times has God initiated a Word with Ezekiel?
I wonder if Ezekiel ever wavered, ever wondered? He is just like us. Always returning.

And God says to Ezekiel.
Ask this of Pharaoh:
"Who are you like in your greatness?" Ezekiel 31:2
What a telling question.
There is One Who asks the questions we must answer.
It is He.  The Lord. 
Be prepared to answer the good questions, the right ones.
To Whom else shall we go?  John 6:66

Dear Father, Do we remind You of Yourself?  Or are we so full of our own selves and our own plans that we cannot see out.  Fill us with Yourself.  Draw us in.  Draw us up. I Peter 4:1-2 says to "think of your sufferings as a weaning from that old sinful habit of always expecting to get your own way." I lost a $600 opportunity 11/12/23 at 8am because I did not speak up fast enough.  I have been beating myself up---why? I wanted to have it my way and walk off with the $600.  God is weaning me.  

PHOTO:  A fisheye of Washington state.  Wondering about this greatness thing.  God has put in our hearts a measure of success.  May we never live for greatness but only for Him.  To God be the glory, the greatness. 

251 - "Keep Your Lamps Burning" Ezekiel 25-28

        

Oh Ezekiel, Son of man,
set your face and prophesy.
Ezekiel 25:1

Tell them:
Hear the word of the Sovereign Lord.
The people have desecrated the things of God.
They have clapped their hands/ stomped their feet
with malice in their hearts. But they will receive from God
what is due. 
May we be found faithful right where we type our stories.

In this celebrity society of ours.

We hallow looks and lavish lifestyles.

It's the very thing that can turn us away.

How arrogant to think we want success stories.

If we could just do it over again.

But our hearts are proud.

And we'd become proud again.

May we walk humbly this day before our God. the lamps burning for the Lord.
God led them there by Light.
God is there.
He is alive.
The Temple recognizes the God who is there.
We are The Temple today.
What God said is still alive.
And I am still here.
Eternal flames burn bright to say
Our God is Alive in me.
And He leads me out every single day.
Keep your lamps burning bright.

Exodus 27:21 -  From evening to morning, it's a lasting ordinance for the generations to come---keep the lamps burning before the Lord.  What does that mean for this one-year-old Ezekiel in this photo?\

PHOTO: The sky tonight. Set my face like a flint to walk in your ways. Your heart became proud
on account of your beauty,
and you corrupted your wisdom
because of your splendor." Ezek 28:17

250 - “Stand in the Gap” Ezekiel 22-24

  

 

"I searched for a man among them 

who would build up the wall 

and stand in the gap before Me for the land, 

so that I would not destroy it; 

but I found no one."  

Ezekiel 22:30

 

God, make us men & women who

will Stand in that Gap

and See You.

These verses are so real, so hard, so true.  God gives us over to ourselves if we do not surrender.  May we bow before the Mighty One in humble honor, adoration, and love.

 “For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will deliver you into the hands of those whom you hate, into the hands of those from whom you turned in disgust." Ezekiel 23:28. 

We all deal 

Father, forgive us!  May we turn our eyes to You.  Revive us in your ways.

PHOTO: Bridge over troubled waters. Troubles come to all but our arrogance creates so much more trouble. 

 

"See My Glory

not in my Holy Wrath

but now in Merciful Love.

My Plan is to free you to dance.

But My Mercy is Severe.

My Love stops

at Nothing 

to bring in My Kingdom

to renew My people

to draw My servants into radical dependence on Me

as their First Thing."

66LL

 

249 - "A Severe Mercy" Ezekiel 20-21

There you will remember your conduct and all the actions by which you have defiled yourselves, and you will loathe yourselves for all the evil you have done. You will know that I am the Lord, when I deal with you for My Name’s Sake and not according to your evil ways and your corrupt practices, you people of Israel, declares the Sovereign Lord.’” Ezekiel 20:24

Oh! To know that my God deals with me not according to my evil ways but calls me by name.  I am His Name's Sake. 

 In the seventh year, the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month, some of the leaders of Israel came to ask for guidance from God. The Master said:  Have you come to ask me questions? As sure as I am the living God, I'll not put up with questions from you.  God did say:  Get rid of all the vile things that you've become addicted to.  Don't make yourselves filthy with the Egyptian no-god idols.  I alone am God, your God.  But they held on to the no-gods of Egypt as if for dear life and said: We're going to worship gods we can make and control." 

No Lists!  "See My Glory, this time, not in Holy Wrath but in Merciful Love, Severe Mercy, Radical Dependence.

PHOTO:  Between the mountaintops and the valleys where we live every single day.  There.  Present.  Alive.  Known.  Accountable.  Repentant.  Alive.  Grasped.  Surrendered.  Between the mountaintops and valleys.  Every single day.  Present. 

248 - "God Overrules Every Event" Ezekiel 17-19

When we stand before the Lord, we will give account for our sins.  Our souls will die if we keep on sinning and do not repent.  ;"Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine." Ezekiel 18:4

"The Lord overrules every event for the eternal good of believers. All souls are in the hand of the great Creator: he will deal with them in justice or mercy; nor will any perish for the sins of another, who is not in some sense worthy of death for his own."  Matthew Henry

Our times are in His Hands.  All our days; All our ways.  Consider what you are doing----not to do penance--- for His Finished Work is complete.  

May we see through the filter of Truth what it means to walk in Truth.  Strengthen us in the inner man that we walk by faith not by what we see.  

PHOTO:  Whether we live in Ezekiel's day or the generation in this Dallas photo, God remains the same.  His finished work covers all our sins.  So what will I do with this besetting sin?  Will I wrestle well and lean hard on the One Who holds our souls.

247 "Let The Wind of Your Holy Spirit Blow" Ezekiel 14-16

Ezekiel 14:14 ~ Noah, Daniel and Job were in its midst, by their own righteousness they could only deliver themselves,”  Noah could only focus on his family, his sin.  He could not save the whole world.  Same with Daniel and Job.  Only Christ can rescue us and save us from ourselves, from this world.  All three of these men were rescued, delivered, and held by a very Good God while their world crumbled around them and they could do little to save people. 

Noah - A guilty world drowned.  They didn't listen to his words.
Daniel - Raised up only a few in his country.  They didn't buy into his prayers.
Job - Lost 10 children; his reputation; all his friends; his position. 
They couldn't save their communities, their children, their contemporaries. 

Ezekiel knew Daniel well.
Daniel was in his 14th year of captivity when these words were written.
"The holiness of any man can only avail for himself."  John Gill
So let go of your control over your children, your community, your co-workers.

God, You wrote:  "You make the winds your messengers, fire and flame your ministers.  O God, let the Wind of Your Holy Spirit blow over our unholy lives and make them come alive.  Blow away the chaff that does not matter---those things we take too lightly---those times we live for here not Eternity.  May Your Fire fan the flame of our faith.

PHOTO:  Washington state. 

246 - "What Do I Mourn More Than Distance from God?" Ezekiel 10-13

                                                          .  

God stretched out what looked like a hand and took me by the hair of my head. The Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and in visions of God. Ezekiel 8:3.  God beheld his servant, the precious Ezekiel.  Before the elders.  And he brought this glorious friend to Jerusalem in spirit.  That he might show this holy man what sin looked like to Him.  Oh!  That we may see our own sin this day. Make me more aware of what lurks within and without.  

Look at the beautiful words God gave Ezekiel.
God's Gospel promises to give us all a new heart and a new spirit. Ezekiel 11:19.
Matthew Henry says it this way: God puts a new spirit within us, a temper of mind agreeable to the new circumstances into which God, in His Providence, will bring us. 
Undivided hearts.  Unattached hearts.  Unbelievable.

Ezekiel 10:1 - The Temple was filled with the Presence of God.Ezekiel 12:1 - God's Message came to me: "Son of man, you're living with a bunch of rebellious people. They have eyes but don't see a thing, they have ears but don't hear a thing.

God's Message: 'You'll eat your meals shaking in your boots and drink your water in terror because your land is going to be stripped bare as punishment for the brutality rampant in it. ... Then you'll realize that I am God.'" 
  
Time's about up.  ""Your hand has been over your eyes.  It belongs over your mouth." 66 LL.  I stand silenced before a holy God for 4 reasons seen in the Vision that I read about in 66 LL:

1. The idol of Jealousy - desire to feel loved, to enjoy good relationships, to be affirmed, to see yourself as worthy of respect and entitled to a pleasant life.  These desires become your idol of jealousy when they rule your life.

2.  The idol of Appreciation - when you, in the secret place of your heart, want something more than My Pleasure, the power of your flesh is turned loose.

3.  The idol of Self-interest -  when self obsession sinks its way into my conversations.  When you value anything above Me, when self interest rules your life, you feel only your desires for what is available in this world:  good health, warm relationships, fulfilling work and you assume it is my job to satisfy those desires.  

4.  The idol of false hope.  exchanging true hope for false hope when you turn from Me to enjoy the smug satisfaction of superiority.

Do I mourn at the failure of my spouse to love me well or the failure of my ministry to affirm my gifts and calling or the failure of my friends to appreciate me----do I mourn that MORE than I mourn distance from God?

Startling Note: Beth Moore came up to me at a conference and said: God has pulled you by the hair of your head out of your church and moved you on. She really knew very little of the story.

PHOTO:  Between the mountaintops and the valleys where we live every single day.  There.  Present.  Alive.  Known.  Accountable.  Repentant.  Alive.  Grasped.  Surrendered.  Between the mountaintops and valleys.  Every single day.  Present wherever God has yanked you from.

245 - "God Quickens Dead Hearts" Ezekiel 5-9

                              

Ezekiel 5:7 God, the Master, says:   You've been more headstrong and willful than any of the nations around you.  ...  I'm going to do something to you that I've never done before and will never do again: turn families into cannibals—parents eating children, children eating parents! ...  . Then you'll know that I was serious about this that I'm a jealous God and not to be trifled with.  Epidemic disease, unrestrained murder, death—and I will have sent it! I, God, have spoken." 

Ezekiel 6:8  Every place where you've lived, the towns will be torn down and the pagan shrines demolished. Corpses everywhere you look! Then you'll know that I am God. ... This is what God, the Master, says: Clap your hands, stamp your feet, yell out, "No, no, no!" because of all the evil obscenities rife in Israel. They're going to be killed, dying of hunger, dying of disease—death everywhere you look.  Because I am angry, furiously angry. They'll realize that I am God...

Ezekiel 7:2 The end of business as usual for everyone. It's all over. I'll make you pay and you'll realize that I am God.' It is I, God, Who have hit you. 

Ezekiel 8: 1 In the sixth year, in the sixth month and the fifth day, while I was sitting at home meeting with the leaders of Judah, it happened that the hand of my Master, God, gripped me.  HE said: "They can shout all they want, but I'm not listening."

So, am I listening to God where I am this day?  I wonder what is happening in the Unseen World of our United States of America?  The Unseen World of the Brandon household?    If we could really see and listen, we would be filled with such hope and courage.  But, this is frightening.  The people of Ezekiel's day never realized that God was God.  God made them pay.  We must ask every question that comes to mind as we read the horror of what God did to make these people cannibals.  So what is God's response?  I hit them with this terror for not listening to Me.  What will He do to our family and friends this day who choose not to follow Him?  All I know is that we must first look within and pay whatever price to follow Him and tremble before a Holy God and learn so much more to wait in our emptiness for His Plan A.  "Only those who struggle in confusion and wait in hope will be strengthened to struggle well and to wait with confidence."  66 LL.  Isaiah 30:15.

This is what the Sovereign Lord says.  Ezekiel 5:5.
He wants each of us to know that He is God.
And that life is not found in the multitude of opinion, people, things.
Not found in the strength of a man; nor in the power to do spiritually good.

Regeneration is the will of God, not the will of man.

God quickens dead hearts. 

God enlightens dark places.
By His Spirit.  By His Word.
This is what the Sovereign Lord says.

PHOTO: Snapped in Israel, where God wanted them to know that He is God. 

244 - "Stand On Your Two Feet" Ezekiel 1-4

                        

And he said to me, “Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak with you.” Ezekiel 2:1.

This verse God spoke to me when I was at the absolute lowest point of my life.  Not exactly the spot I would go to.  Precisely what God did.  I stood and His Power entered into me and set me on my feet.  Ezek 2:2.  I stood cause I purposed in my heart to go with God in the midst of harrowing circumstances.  It is never about how strong we are.  It is always about how strong HE IS in each of us.  

So, don't be afraid.  Tell that to yourself.  Mean it.  "Be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are rebellious..."  Ezek 2:7.  Speak my words to them anyway.  They will not be willing to listen to you because they are not willing to listen to God.  Ezek 2:7.

Oh Father, may Your Hand be strong upon each of us.  Ezekiel 2:14. 

Make us a watchman for our family and our ministry.

PHOTO: I almost died at this lake. I passed out unexpectedly and could not get up when I awoke. God stood me back on my feet through a phone connection and a dog barking that led people to where I was near the lake. They called an ambulance. God spoke to me. 

243 - "Complain of Evils Felt Not Evils Feared" Lamentations 4-5

                                       

Restore us to Yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored.  Lam 5:21. 
I sit in a funk, despondent in my present circumstances.  And since I am the only one talking to myself tonight, it's hard to know if I have fully repented or keep taking it back?  You see, this is about how others are responding to me---and it shouldn't be.  May we all find a deeper trust, an abandoned surrender.

 "Is any afflicted? Let him pray; and let him in prayer pour out his complaint to God. The people of God do so here; they complain not of evils feared, but of evils felt." Matthew Henry.  And that touches something in me.  May I look at what is happening and then gaze at God's Pardoning Mercy, God's Sanctifying Grace, and God's Kind Hand of Providence.  We owe everything in our lives today to His Mercy.  Under the Mercy.  And we are attached to the Giver of Grace.  Under the Grace.  Identified with the Giver of All.   Restore us this day, O God.

Dear Father, the Giver of Grace.  We need Your touch this day.  May we come to You with our woes and not to any man.  Restore unto me the joy of my salvation in this despondent day.  

PHOTO:  Rock Springs.  The no-filter view from my balcony as I stand in a rough patch and cry out to the Giver of Grace.

242 - “The Worst Is Never The Worst” Lamentations 1-3

  

Lamentations 1:1 - How empty the city, once teeming with people...1:8 - Jerusalem, who outsinned the whole world is an outcast.  1:9 - She played fast and lose with life; she never considered tomorrow.  1:16 She weeps buckets of tears and not one person cares for her soul.  What are her tears for?  What are my tears for this evening as I sit at a Starbucks contemplating my future?  Are they for myself?  If so, I will think no one cares for my soul.  It's just not true because of Lamentations 3. 2:19 - Get up each watch night and pour out your heart face-to-face with the Master.  Lift up your hands.  Lift up your head.

God poured on the trouble and hard times.  He locked me up in deep darkness.   He's got me cornered.  BUT, there's one other thing I am remembering that gives me a grip on hope:  God's loyal love couldn't have run out, His merciful love couldn't have dried up. They're created new every morning.  How great your faithfulness! I'm sticking with God (I say it over and over).  He's all I've got left. God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits, to the woman who diligently seeks. It's a good thing to quietly hope, quietly hope for help from God. It's a good thing when you're young to stick it out through the hard times. When life is heavy and hard to take, go off by yourself. Enter the silence. Bow in prayer. Don't ask questions: Wait for hope to appear. Don't run from trouble. Take it full-face. The "worst" is never the worst.  Why? Because the Master won't ever walk out and fail to return. God's got my back.     

PHOTO:  I couldn't sleep the last few weeks of my pregnancy with Britt. Probably out of fright. Whatever. It was the worst---but never the last worst. God was merciful and gave me this baby to hold all my days. I couldn't love him more. He meant the world to me. It was a token of God's love waiting 7 years for this most precious moment to arrive. I never got over it. I never got over Britt. I never got over God.