The Inner Circle

A visual thought I had: Concentric rings of hedge, 

📖 “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. Job 1:10 

Satan speaking to God about Job. 

Who doesn't want a hedge of protection?!

📖 Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” Psalm 91:1-2

They are called a labyrinth, made from hedges!

There is an opening in the wall of shrubbery to enter and follow the path as we find the way to the center.

In my mind it represents our lives; we have a pathway before us with many twists and turns and there is an entrance to that path, an easy access, but how many of us bull straight through the hard way...getting snagged and scratched and poked along as we go, slugging it out in the brush rather than finding the path.

📖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. John 15:2

Jesus was speaking about pruning away the stuff that has grown up around us and in us that gets in the way of our relationship with Him...but sometimes it may be what we have gotten ourselves into that gets in the way and needs pruning away.

We want that inner place....the peace that we can find in it...that close relationship with Him.

How can we get inside that hedge an easier way?

By making sure our focus is on Him....He gives us clear direction in His word.

📖 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:37-40

📖  For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  John 3:16

📖 He has shown you, O man, what is good;

And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justly,
To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8

If God is before us...then we will know the direction to that opening in the hedge.

Many of us have to learn along the way...we jump in thinking we have got this...but we are allowing self-centeredness, pride, self righteousness to lure us into thinking we know what we are doing. Or anger, jealousy or bitterness have clouded our hearts and we plunge ahead blindly, and then we are missing the peace we were hoping to find within that hedge 

📖 Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. John 14:27

If we are still and allow our focus to be on Him

we can have humility,  gentleness,  kindness 

and love...

📖 He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” Psalm 46:10

📖 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13

and we find ourselves right at the opening...we can step through, follow Him and find peace with Him.

However...my visual imagery is one of concentric circles!  It is a continuous journey!

🙏I pray you seek Him today, so that you see His path clearly, and you find the way to peace. ❤

🎵 Step By Step. Rich Mullins

The Road Taken

 Sunday I did a bit of traveling....to PA to pick up middle daughter. I have done the trip before....route 11 to 81 ...that is it! But I was getting off at a different exit, so I put the new stop in my Google Maps App ...told me 6.5 hours...seemed about right...calculated when I needed to leave to be there by noon..all good.

Hit the road at 6am...scheduled arrival 12:15. 

Early on it told me to take a turn I wasn't expecting.  "That is ok...maybe it is rerouting me around the summer festival, or road construction". 

I continued on...following every turn it told me,  I began to wonder...it hasn't brought me back around to Route 11??

I pulled over and took a closer look at the whole picture ....it was having me travel all different roads...curious? Maybe because my destination was different than usual? My arrival time was still 12:15...so why not continue on this route?!  An adventure...on my own!  

I appreciated the small towns and villages, gas stations in each one if I needed. Flag lined streets, parade remnants, road side stands, very little traffic and no large trucks.

Never went more than 25 miles or so with out Google voice telling me "in a quarter mile turn..."

Not as monotonous as the interstate. 

When family members called they would ask "Where are you?"  "Not sure,  little town on route?.."

My husband wanted to know "Why I was going that way...out of my way!?"  "This is the way the map sent me... I don't know why"

I had thought of finding  the interstate and getting on. But I was still on schedule...so why not stay on this route.

Well, once I got to my destination....I ended up having some wait time.  I decided to check out my map. I knew I was going home the usual route ...straight up 81. When I put it into Google Maps to see how long (since the trip down was just over 6 hours)....something wasn't right...it wasn't showing 81 as a route. 

It was then I realized a filter had been checked..."avoid highways" !!!!!!  Unchecked the box and the route home via 81....just under 5 hours!🤦‍♀️

📖In their hearts humans plan their course,
    but the Lord establishes their steps. Proverbs 16:9

As I drove home the usual route; faster; all kinds of vehicles traveling 70 or better...2 or 3 or even 4 lanes, ducking and diving. I realized how peaceful and enjoyable my drive down was.

Maybe someone (I am sure my husband) would say "Before you set out...take a look at the whole picture!"

But maybe then I would have said no...that way is longer and slower.

Sometimes we need to just follow the directions and trust.

I think about our journey here...as we follow Christ, sometimes the direction doesn't make sense. It isn't the usual way, but if we trust Him and follow, who knows what adventure we might find.  It may take us longer, but there is a reason and a purpose in the direction...Maybe just to see if we will follow.

📖 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”  John 8:12

And sometimes the road is familiar, what we know, but there is purpose in that too. 

🙏No matter the road  you are traveling today, trust in the One who makes the map. Trust Him to be with you as you travel and when you reach the destination. ❤

📖 The Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him;
24 though he may stumble, he will not fall,  for the Lord upholds him with his hand. Psalm 37:23-24

Healing

 We pray for healing when someone is sick, even with serious, fatal illnesses....we have been praying for healing a lot lately.

But I was thinking on it...we all want healing for someone who is sick and facing illnesses...and we do pray for that,  but there is another healing that is far more important....healing of the soul or spirit.

Jesus healed many people of physical infirmities,  but He was more concerned about their eternal soul.

📖 Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.” Luke 17:12-19 

Jesus expects to see a change in our heart and behavior when we have been healed.

📖 Some men brought to him a paralyzed man, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.” At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, “This fellow is blaspheming!” Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, “Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralyzed man, “Get up, take your mat and go home.” Then the man got up and went home. When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to man. Matthew 9:2-8

The forgiveness of sins, the healing of the soul is a priority.

📖 The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”  “Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.”

The man took Jesus at his word and departed. While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.” Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and his whole household believed. John 4:49-53  Because of a physical healing, the entire household experienced spiritual healing!

📖 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing. John9:1-7  

Whether physical healing happens or just healing of the soul or both,  it is to point to God. When physical healing does not happen, our responses should point to God as well.

We know, sometimes healing takes place, and other times it feels our requests aren't answered. 

But our first concern should be the soul. If, for what ever reason, God only knows,  the physical body fails we can have assurance that their soul was saved by grace, healed by mercy and we spend eternity with our Savior. 

🙏My prayer for you is healing; that you experience a renewal of your soul, whether you come to understand and believe who Christ is for the first time or you have been broken and need to be bathed in His love. May your soul find healing today❤

🎵 The Healing.   Blanca & Dante Bowe

Because He Says So

 Visiting my dad..on day...36 I think...his voice was a bit clearer...mom and I were telling him" you are going to get better and get home"  he responded in his whisper;  "I know, that is what the Lord told me." 

AMEN TO THAT!  

It doesn't mean tomorrow, it doesn't mean it will be easy, but Dad knows he will be getting better and going home because the Lord told him so! We did not get a chance to ask him "at what point the Lord told him."  Early on in this ....or recently...since he was able to come off the ventilator. 

How many of us, when our circumstances look grim, hold on to what the Lord tells us?

📖  This is what the Lord says— your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go.  Isaiah 48:17

📖  Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you. Isiah 54:10

📖 “This, then, is how you should pray; “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.. Give us today our daily bread.  And forgive us our debts l,  as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation,but deliver us from the evil one.’

For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. Matthew 6:14-13

📖 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”  Matthew 14:27

📖 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26

 📖 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one wèho asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Matthew 5: 39-48

📖  When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” Luke 5:20

📖  Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace. Luke 7:50

 📖 Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear.

30 For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them.  But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well. Luke 12:22,30-31

 📖 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:18 -20

 📖 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:37-40

Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. Mark 11:22

These are only a small portion of "what the Lord said".   Open up a Bible and read much more.  Spend time in prayer, have faith in what the Lord says. 

🙏My prayer for you this week is that you want to read what the Lord says, you spend time in His word and with Him and hear what He has for you.❤

🎵Speak To My Heart Lord Jesus. Marilla Ness