274 - "We Are Not Out of the Way of Divine Visits" Matthew 1-4

                                               

God broods over Matthew 1. The non-pristine genealogy of The Messiah.

This is not just a genealogy of famous men. There are some names, we know too well for their impropriety, their immortality, their idolatry.  The descendant of Abraham, of David, well---He saved the whole human race. Every single one of us has been living in darkness. Matthew 1 is a place where God the Son stooped and stepped into history to save us from ourselves.  

 in the NT, the question of living right, good morals, is center stage. If I drop a piece of info into the right slot, would it be morally right?  Do I live by morals alone? "Here is the rub: one must be more zealous to please God than to avoid sin. One's obedience to God must be forward-oriented and zealous and free, and to be a mere moralist or pietist would make such a life impossible." Eric Metaxas. Matthew 3:3 Prepare the way. It's not about "doing" but about "being," and You, Holy Spirit, to help us in this life of ours prepare the way for our Lord.  

Mary treasured up all that had happened and weighed it in her heart. How do I weigh my present circumstances?  For the Glory of God?  It was Angels who were the heralds of her newborn Son, a newborn Saviour.  Found smack dab in the midst of their honest calling, industrious shepherds, who were where they were supposed to be keeping watch over their flock.  "We are not out of the way of Divine visits, when we are employed in an honest calling, and abide with God in it." So, lead that honest, humble life and let God have the honor of your life and its work.  Here comes Peace in this lower world of ours.  Peace is Here.  Fully ponder.  

PHOTO:  The sun on my perspicacious face and the moon on my unknown back.  You never know when God will show up and make our paths straighter. 

273 - "The Sun of God Rises With Healing in its Wings" Malachi 1-4

                                                       

Honor me by bringing your best to Me (Malachi 1:11).  What is the best I can give my God this day?   Listen to Me.  Obediently listen (2:1).  Don't whine if you don't get what you want from God (2:2).  Don't break the faith-bond with your vowed companion (2:2).   God was there when you made your vow and inhabits the smallest details of marriage (2:15).  Guard the Spirit of Marriage within you.  Watch yourselves.  Don't let your guard down (2:16).   Return to Me so I can return to you (3:7).  Return by being honest (3:8).  Test me in your tithe and see if I don't open up heaven itself to you and pour out blessings beyond your wildest dreams (3:16).  God sees what you are doing and is listening in.  HE is taking minutes even this day as you talk things over.  Your names are written down for you honor Him so (4:2).  That's happening in the Unseen World this very day.  The Sun of Righteousness will dawn with Healing in His Wings.  Remember and Keep the Revelation (4:4).  Look ahead, I'm sending Elijah. 

What God wants me to hear in this book:  I have loved you! Most people I know who are not Christians are living to enjoy this life to the hilt. But, we are chosen by God to love and fully live. Psalm 50:2 - Perfect in Beauty is the God who pours out of you kids. God wants to use you to restore beauty on his earth and in the lives of those you love.

"Return to God. Not just for the abundant life blessings He gives but for His Very Presence He bestows. 

Disturbing questions here in these chapters...  
Do we ask the same questions today?

How have you loved us, God, cause we don't see it.
How have we polluted you, God, cause we don't know.
How have we wearied you with our words, God.
How do we really return to you.
How have we robbed you.
How have we spoken against you.

If we really understand the sin in our hearts, we wouldn't be asking these questions. We are guilty. And it is covered. And God pursues us even in the midst of our sins. So return and repent. For there is a First Coming of Baby Jesus that we know---and a Second Coming of Christ, burning like an oven, where all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. Malachi 4:1

But you. Fear His Name.
The Sun of Righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. Mal. 4:2
And you will be like Jerusalem dancing once again.
Leaping like calves from the stall.
The Great Day is just Around the Corner.

That's what Malachi said.

And the Lord goes silent for a few hundred years. 450. 

Now, we have no prophets.

We have the sacred scriptures, the Living Word.

PHOTO:  The Sun of Righteousness.  Photo of the Sun taken at my favorite spot in the wide world. Being with Grandkids is my favorite spot in the world. 

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.