Lord Bless

As I have said I won't do previous poems too often but today being Memorial Day I thought it seemed fitting.

                                                     Lord Bless

Lord Bless the memories

of those who have given their lives in service to our country

Lord Bless the soldier

at their post, where ever that may be

Lord Bless the families

who are left behind to continue on with their  lives

Lord bless the ones

who carry the scars as a reminder of their sacrifice

Lord Bless those

who have been and are prisoners to an enemy

Lord Bless the children

who hold a picture of the man they call their Daddy

Lord bless the wives

who sleep alone,

Lord Bless the parents

who wait at home

Lord Bless them,

the men and women

who have dedicated their lives

to protecting what we know as our country,

our freedom, our home;

the United States of America

Tracey J. Thompson

©5/27/06

"Lord Bless those who have given their lives"......I wanted something a bit more concrete to pray for...so I looked up some statistics starting with the Civil War... (Decoration Day was instituted in 1868 by the Grand Army of the Republic to decorate the graves of Union soldiers who lost their lives in the Civil War. Eventually the two competing decoration holidays, Union and Confederate, merged into one and included the honoring of all Americans who had died while in military service.  The term Memorial Day was first used in 1882, but was not declared the official name until 1967. At this point Memorial Day was May 30th...until the Uniform Monday Holiday Act in 1968 was passed and Memorial Day was moved to the last Monday of May, which took effect at the federal level in 1971)

NOW that the history lesson is over!  On with my thoughts

American military lives lost;

Civil War: 750,000

World War I: 116,516

World War II: 405,399

Korean War: 54,246

Vietnam: 58,204

Afghanistan War: 2,356

Iraq War: 4,497

The list of conflicts and wars is much larger, but I looked at the ones we are most familiar with.

That is a HUGE amount of casualties....add in the families and people that are also affected by this...not to mention those wounded.

LORD BLESS.....

We, as those who live in the country that these people fought for and defended, must remember in prayer all those affected, and for those who continue to serve knowing what the out come could be.

Whether we agree with any of these wars and conflicts....we can still commit to pray.

In Sunday school yesterday our lesson was on Peace.  Praying for Peace.  I thought how fitting for Memorial Day weekend...we pray for peace....because with peace  comes the end of conflict and with that the end of war.  We pray for the peace that Christ brings.  I also pray for peace for those amid the conflict, that Christ can give them inner peace as they live and battle in not so peaceful nations.

On Memorial Day we remember. There are pictures posted on social media of men and women in uniform who have served our country, cemeteries are decorated with wreaths and flowers and flags, parades with those in service now, and those who have been, wind the streets of many towns across the country.  Remembering names and stories and even statistics is our way of preserving the past, of making sure generations do not forget the sacrifice and loss that was done, in essence for them, and for those generations to come.

There are many instances in the bible  (more than 300 times in the Old Testament) where God commanded a memorial be built so they would not forget what He had done for them. Or people built and altar to honor and memorialize what God had done.   Noah built an altar in gratitude and honor that God saved him and his family and the animals from destruction. 
Abraham
The Lord appeared to Abram and said, "To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him. Genesis 12:7
Isaac
Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of the Lord. There he pitched his tent, and there his servants dug a well.  Genesis 26:25
Jacob 
Then God said to Jacob, “Go up to Bethel and settle there, and build an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau. Genesis 35:1
Moses
Moses built an altar and called it The Lord is my Banner.   Exodus 17:15
...and this list goes on.

Every day, as a Christian, should be a memorial day, should it not? We come before the Lord humbly, on our knees, grateful for what He has done for us...the sacrifice and the loss suffered for us.  Our lives should be that memorial....how we live and the choices we make should honor the One who allows us to live with His presence here and the assurance of eternity when we leave this earth. 

LORD BLESS......

I am ending today's with a short video that my daughter Marah put together last year for the National Day of prayer, but I believe it is fitting for today as well.

 Pray for Peace

A Marriage Celebration!

I had started to prepare a different message for yesterday....but since I didn't get it posted and I am posting today, May 23rd....I have decided to go a different route ( Excuses, Excuses will be next Monday!)
As I have been making preparations to celebrate 30 years of marriage today I began thinking about how I could impart my wisdom to you!  HA!
No wisdom to be found....but I can share with you a few thoughts God has shown me through this journey, this institution that He created!
The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.
But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
 The man said,

“This is now bone of my bones
    and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
    for she was taken out of man.”

That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. Genesis 1:18-24

30 years is worth celebrating!  But don't we celebrate each year of our anniversary...don't they even have "gifts" for each year...
1st year - paper
2nd year - cotton
...
25th - silver
etc etc

Since I was looking it up I did check 30.....it is pearl! (that might be another devotion!)

Jesus told a parable in which heaven was like 10 virgins waiting for their bridegroom.  Matthew 25

and Jesus refered to Himself as the bridegroom when His disciples were questioning Him about who was fasting and who was not...
 Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast. Mark 2:19-20

John the Baptist also referred to Jesus as the Bridegroom.
 To this John replied, “A person can receive only what is given them from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah but am sent ahead of him.’ The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less.”
John 3:27-30

SO He is our Bridegroom....we are to prepare ourselves for Him as we do for something as special as our wedding day. And His voice should fill us with joy!  How exciting that we BELONG to Him!

Shouldn't we celebrate that "marriage"!  That we, as believers, are the Bride and He is our Bridegroom!
Our Bridegroom has shown us what Love really is, we can Trust Him, He will never fail us! He can take care of ALL our needs.
 Isn't that worth celebrating!

One passage that God has used with me over the years is from Philippians 2
and to me it is a perfect model for a marriage relationship.

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

⁶ Who, being in very nature God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
⁷ rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
⁸ And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!

⁹ Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
    and gave him the name that is above every name,
¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
¹¹ and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.

As a husband and wife....we are made of the same flesh, we are both created in His image, but one must be willing to be humble, so that both can be raised up and God glorified!

If we can have the attitude of Christ in ALL our relationships, how much more content would this world be! 

Celebrate your marriage today.....but more than that celebrate the fact that you have a Bridegroom that loves you and has all the best for you!

IF you don't know this Bridegroom I talk about please email me ....or ask someone who has a relationship with Christ.  BEST decision you could ever make!

It is a "marriage" made in Heaven!

Are You Washed

As we sang the hymn Are You Washed In the Blood on Sunday and I was looking at the pictures up on the screen with the words,  my mind began thinking.....

I had used some water fall pictures from a hike I ACTUALLY went on with Kevin.  It was 7 miles to our destination and about 2.5 miles into the hike it began to rain and rain hard!  It continued to rain all night!
At our destination and where we made camp there was a river and upstream a bit was Wanika Falls.
From what I understand sometimes the water is just a trickle, not really a raging waterfall until a big rain. Mostly rock surface.

That is where my thought process comes in.....a rocky, hard surface, dirty, weeds and plants trying to grow out of the chinks in the rock.  
Isn't that us when we wander away from Christ, when we let busyness and life crowd in and cause the water to be just a trickle
Hard, rock like, with the "dirt" of the world covering us.  Sin trying to take root in the cracks we have allowed to form.
But when we come to Him, spend time with Him that living, life giving water begins to flow!  Sometimes slow at first, and it begins to clean the dirt....but the water becomes a torrent as it flows down over us taking with it all the "crud", the "weeds" that have taken root.
The more that water flows over us the less sin can take root, the world can not take hold!
And over time doesn't water make rock smooth?!   As we live our lives in Christ allowing the water to wash over us constantly, we become more polished, our "burs" and jagged edges are softened or even totally smoothed out.

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. Revelation 22:2








having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.  Hebrews 10:22

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”
 Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”
 “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”
Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”
 “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”
John 13:6-9

Dear Lord wash over ALL of me with a mighty torrent of your Living water!  And may it flood over and spill on all around me!

Up, Down, Up

Our pastor has been going through a series of sermons about the Israelites and their wandering through the dessert on their way to the Promised Land. AND we have been reading about the same journey in our Ladies Bible study!
As I have been listening and reading through Exodus...it hit me one day....."Moses went up the mountain."  "when Moses went back down to the people."  "God called Moses to the mountain top"   "He returned to the Israelites"
UP, DOWN, UP, DOWN.

Exodus 19
³ Then Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain and said,
⁷ So Moses went back and summoned the elders of the people and set before them all the words the Lord had commanded him to speak.
So Moses brought their answer back to the Lord.
¹⁰ And the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow
¹⁴ After Moses had gone down the mountain to the people,
²⁰ The Lord descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain. So Moses went up ²¹ and the Lord said to him,
²⁴ The Lord replied, “Go down and bring Aaron up with you.

Exodus 24 
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. You are to worship at a distance, ² but Moses alone is to approach the Lord

¹⁸ Then Moses entered the cloud as he went on up the mountain. And he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

⁷ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt.

³¹ So Moses went back to the Lord and said,

Do we feel like that sometimes in our walk with the Lord?  We have this great "mountain top" experience, we are hearing and seeing God every where! We feel we are walking right in step with Him!
Only to feel like we have fallen down the mountain; God seems so far away, we don't feel we can hear Him or know the direction He wants us to go, life seems overwhelming and dark.
It gave me encouragement, if a man like Moses who was truly "in tune" with God, had his ups and downs....of course I will!
In his ups and downs Moses was always following God's will.  God called him up to the mountain and He sent him back down again to do His business, His will.
When Moses was on the mountain he was in communication with God, conversation, he was actually in God's presence.
But when he went back down the mountain it usually wasn't a fun or joyous occasion because he was bringing news from God about what the Israelites needed to do or reminding them who God was and their lack of obedience to Him.

When he was on the mountain he was in God's presence, they talked "as friends would take face to face"
And some times it was for extended periods of time.
But he would always have to go back down to do God's work.

Exodus 33

¹⁰ Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshiped, each at the entrance to their tent. ¹¹ The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend.

14The Lord replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

Exodus 34

²⁹ When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord.

We should take joy and revel in our "mountain top" experiences, but know that they are preparing us and encouraging us for God's work that is to come. Some times those experiences will be brief and other times they will last quite a while, just as with Moses.
We need to be encouraged because His presence will go with us!  Our mountain top experience is the rest our souls need for the work.

We need to use our "mountain top" experience to change us!

We should look different to those round us...maybe even look "radiant" ...because we have been in the presence of our GOD!

So when we feel like our spiritual journey is constantly up and down....remember Moses....and remember that God has a purpose for each UP and each DOWN!

Prayers for you, that God gives you rest and encouragement in your UP and that He gives you guidance and perseverance in your DOWN and that you know that this won't last forever, He is going to call you back UP to the mountain soon!

You Fruit Basket, You!

BUT what kind of fruit basket are you!
In something I heard the other day it was mentioned ....what kind of fruit are we...and it got me thinking....not bananas, apples etc (though I have been known to be a bit "bananas' at times)

It was mentioned....plastic, rotten....and I thought....not quite ripe or full, rich, sweet and ready to be shared!

I am probably sounding a bit "fruity" now (sorry, it is one of those days)
I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.  He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.  I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other. John 15:1-17 

First of all, there is NO fruit without Jesus.  He said Himself, that we can bear no fruit unless we remain in HIM.  We MUST BE in HIM and remain in Him and His words must be in us. For His word to be IN us we must "ingest" it..."feed on it" daily.  Read your bible often!
With Christ in our lives we are "appointed" to go out a bear fruit...that will last...meaning things that have eternal consequence, things that further the Kingdom, that spread God's love.

By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them Matthew 7:16-20

How are we recognized??
Is our fruit rotten; Are our attitudes and actions miserable, unkind, unsharing, we are prickly to those around us.  We lack mercy and grace and compassion, we lack Christ.
OR we do have Christ but...
is our fruit plastic; false, insincere.  We look good, dressed in our Sunday best singing the hymns loudly...maybe our hands in the air, but it isn't real, it is just a plastic shell.
OR
is our fruit not ripe; we have the potential but we are not tending the soil, giving Living Water, feeding our fruit so it will grow
OR
are you full and sweet and ready to be shared!  Are you partaking of the Living Water daily, and tending your soil? Are you ready and willing to let the sweetness of Christ in you spill out on all around you?

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.  It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret.  Ephesians 5:8-12

Our source, the source of our fruit, needs to come from the Light, from heaven!

But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.  James 3:17-18

So today...(which is a day late...I apologize)
What kind of fruit are we?  I pray that you are ripe, full of sweetness and ready to share!