This evening, as I was cleaning up after dinner, I was reminded of the wonderful old song "Ship Ahoy." I remember my uncle Dewitt singing it when I was a child. In the song, the phrase "Ship Ahoy" is a "wail of distress." This song paints a beautiful picture of what God does for us in rescuing us from the angry sea that can destroy us. The last verse is our call to those still in danger on life's stormy sea.

O soul, sinking down ’neath sin’s merciless wave,

The strong arm of our captain is mighty to save;

Then trust Him today, no longer delay,

Board the old ship of Zion, and shout on your way:

Jesus saves!

In Matthew chapter 25,we see the parable Jesus told of ten virgins. Five were foolish and five were wise. 

The wise virgins took oil in their vessels with their lamps, so they were prepared and ready for the Bridegroom to come. They were watching and waiting. When he called out to them, they ran to meet him and went with Him to the marriage.

The foolish virgins took no oil. They were not prepared. When the call came for them to go meet the Bridegroom, they found themselves not ready, in need of provision, with not enough oil in their lamps. When the Bridegroom came, they were distracted and gone to buy oil. Then when they tried to follow Him, it was too late. He said, "I know you not."

The ultimate message here is found in Matthew 25:13, "Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour when the Son of Man cometh."

Make sure you know that you know His oil is in your vessel. Don't get distracted. Nothing in this world is worth losing your soul.

This Same Jesus

Yesterday, I felt the thought “This Same Jesus” begin to turn over in my spirit.I asked the Lord what He wanted to teach me. I really did not remember the context from which the phrase came. I looked up the phrase and found it in the first chapter of Acts.

Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. Acts 1:11

My first thought was that it is interesting that this occurred after the resurrection, considering we just celebrated Easter. I read Dake’s notes on the passage. He said pretty much that before His ascension into Heaven, Jesus was visible, He had a real body, and that He would come back in the same form in which He left.

While that is all wonderful, and the basis for our Blessed Hope, I was not satisfied. I felt that I was missing something. Then tonight in the altar, I remembered a recent dream and it all came together.

I recently dreamed that my kids and I encountered a woman filled with evil. Protectively, I began to utter the name of Jesus in an effort to protect my children and myself from any effects of evil. However, as I walked and made some distance between her and us, I became convicted. I had something she needed: Jesus. He is the breaker of chains, and she was bound by chains. He could set her free.

In my dream, I turned around and began to call down the alley, “Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! There is power in the name of Jesus! There is power in the name of Jesus to break every chain. Break every chain, in Jesus’ name!” While I was praying outside, someone was praying with her wherever she was. That woman came out a door looking completely different. She was set free.

Tonight, in the altar service, I felt like the Lord was saying, “This same Jesus, whose name you use to protect yourself and your children, came to seek and save that which was lost.” While He wants to protect us, provide for us, counsel us, and be all we need. He came to save, deliver, and heal. People are bound by chains only He can break. It is time for me to let my light shine outward, love people, and lift up Jesus.

Whatever holds you down, there is power in the name of Jesus to break every chain.

I have not been here in years. I feel myself drawn to writing at times, and this seems to be the best place; so here I am.

I awoke this morning with thoughts of our Creator and how He made us for His glory. He made us for the sole purpose of worship and communion with Him. In my flesh, I wondered if that was a selfish move. He is the One with the power and authority. We are His tiny creations, and we are expected to exalt Him. In the same moment that I was wondering if God could be selfish, I was reminded of Jesus.

Jesus is proof that God is not selfish. God the Father gave us His Son as a gift on Earth. Then He gave His Son to die for our sins because of His great unselfishness. My flesh wanted to argue that God the Father did not die; God the Son did. Again, in the same moment, Truth washed over me. Jesus is God. He was man enough to feel pain and temptation, but He was God enough to give Himself to die, willingly, so that I could live. There is not one ounce of selfishness in my God. Jesus is the proof.

There is an old song called "So Much God" by Craig Edwards that says:

He was so much man that He slept in a boat, 
Yet he was so much God that the winds ceased when He spoke. 
He was so much man that He wept when Lazarus died, 
Yet He was so much God Lazarus came forth when He cried. 

He was so much man that He thirsted at the well, 
Yet He was so much God that He saved her soul from Hell. 
He was so much man that He died upon a tree, 
He was so much God that He rose in victory.

I am thankful.

Blessings!

Whose Perspective

I may be 44, but I will never stop learning, as long as I am conscious. The most profound thing I have learned in the last six to seven months of my life is so simple, so basic. I do not see from God's perspective often. He is infinite, and I am finite. He is holy; my righteousness is as filthy rags. He is all-knowing; my mind is limited to what He allows me to know.

After my daddy had received radiation for a few weeks, he continued to get weaker. He had no desire for food or liquids. My mother urged and prodded. He complied and consented, but he did not seem to enjoy eating anymore. He ate strictly to stay alive. He took in precious little. Thus he developed an intestinal blockage that made him even sicker.

Less that one month after being diagnosed with cancer, he was hospitalized. Everyday they x-rayed his abdomen and were unsure if he had a blockage or a growth. Each day we grew closer to believing it was a blockage and not another growth.

Since I was out of school on Friday of that week, I offered to stay at the hospital for Mom to rest. The night before, she instructed me to call her as soon as I arrived and let her know how he was and what kind of night he had. When I arrived, he looked better. He felt better. He wanted to eat. He wanted to go home.

I called mom to update her. After giving her our news, I told her I wanted to play her song I had heard the night before. It was such an encouragement to me. The song was "Child, Your Cries Have Awoken the Master" by the Isaacs and recorded by the Mike Bowling Family. She listened and rejoiced. Like the song says, she had prayed all night. She had not rested, and she was receiving a divine answer the Master had heard her cries.

She said, "Oh, that is my answer!" She received such a victory, and we were all very encouraged. I truly believed that God had answered our way. Daddy was going to get better. I did not know if He was healing him supernaturally or gradually, but I was convinced that the days ahead would be better for him.

As unpopular as the thought may be, I misunderstood. I was looking at things from my perspective. I cannot yet see from God's perspective. What I really never even considered was Daddy's perspective. Now, when I read or hear the words to that song, I have to try to listen from Daddy's perspective. It says:

It hit you without any warning,

The storm of your life had begun,

Seeing no hope in the distance,

You're frightened and nowhere to run,

By now your vessel is filling,

And you're thinking that you'll surely drown...

Daddy was the one going through the storm. Mother was always with him. Even in her own weakness, she took care of him and kept him bathed in prayer. My sister, her son, my husband, children, and I did everything we could do for him. We prayed for him and told him how much we loved and appreciated him. We told him we were believing God for a miracle.

A couple of days after he was home, we were back to the same old fight. He did not want to eat or drink. Mother prodded, and he would comply with some little something: milkshake, yogurt, popsicle, gatorade... I was very disappointed that our victory was so short lived, in my perspective. Each day he told us he was weaker. Each day he looked thinner. Even his hair thinned unbelievably.

When I spoke of healing, he said, "I have so much suffering behind me, it seems foolish to ask for healing. I might have to go through all of this again." When he spoke of parting, I did my best to be brave and tell him that we did not want him to go, but if that was God's route, then He would sustain us somehow.

After he left us, I really did not undersand what the whole point was for that song that seemingly gave us victory for a day or two, from my perspective. It was months before I could mention this to my mother. We talked about that song, and she expressed how wonderful it was that God gave us that in such a dark hour. I finally told her that I thought that song meant he was going to get better. It says, "Child, your cries have awoken the master." It says, "it's time to rejoice..."

She explained to me that the Lord sent that song in a time when she would need to be sustained. That song meant to her that He was going to be there, to hear her, to provide what we needed, in any hour in any circumstance. She said it ministered to Daddy. From Daddy's perspective, I guess it meant his sickness was almost over. It meant press on just a little longer.

There was cancer pressing against Daddy's vocal chord on one side. It changed his voice. That song also says, "He knows your voice." God never lost hearing of Daddy's voice. Daddy was too weak to really pray or outwardly rejoice, but God heard his heart. God encouraged him, His child, all the while Daddy was encouraging us, his children.

I will not be puzzled anymore. I do not even claim to know I totally understand it all now. I can only say I trust my Father fully to know better than I. I can say that I have no need to know it all or understand it all. I can lean on Him and not my understanding. He is big enough to hold the whole world yet small enough to care about the minute details of my life and even count the hairs on my head.

September 2, 2011, my family sat in a tiny exam room of a doctor's office and heard that my daddy had abnormalities in one lung. The chest scan report actually said that it looked like lung cancer. I did not know they could speculate on an official report like that. Stunned speechless...

A rough couple of weeks followed, filled with hurry up and wait. Hurry to get another test and wait a weekend for the results... This led to six weeks of radiation, a couple of weeks of homemade treatments suggested by a friend, one week of hospitalization, and too few days with my precious daddy.

Many days he would say, "If I lose as much strength from today to tomorrow as I did from yesterday to today, I will not be around much longer." We did not want to hear those words, but he knew the changes he was experiencing.

In his last days, he very wisely and lovingly prepared his family as best he could for our parting. He told his only adult grandson things he needed him to know. He told his oldest child, already widowed herself, that we were all going to have to part soon. He told all of us that the thief on the cross, as he faced death, looked to Jesus as his hope. He said that this was put in the Bible as an example for us to know that even in death, we have hope in Jesus.

We sang around his bed some but not nearly enough. Our time was too short. October 29, 2011, Daddy took his last breath and stepped into the divine presence of our loving Lord.

He has been gone over four months. We all miss him very much. His wife of over fifty years, his children and his grandchildren still cry at any given time, even at unexpected times. What I miss most is the pride and joy in his face that I saw when he saw me. It gave me a sense of value that I will never be able to explain.

Some people say that a girl links her daddy's qualities to God. That only works well if her daddy knows God and knows what a child needs to believe about Him. I learned unconditional love from my daddy (and mother too). My daddy made me feel safe, protected, loved, and treasured. It is easy to see God as all of these and more. I thank God for my daddy and mother. I miss Daddy, but I don't mind the tears too much. He is worth every one, and then some...

Blessings

Four Days

God promised me something once. He told me not to fear that He had a plan & when He worked out His plan, we would KNOW it was HE who did it. I held on to that promise for something specific many years. The devil would perch himself on my shoulder & taunt me and say it was never going to happen. I still held on.

One day I received negative messages that made me think I had hammered away toward nothing. I felt like I was at the end of the road. My dream died. I gave up. I even told my husband that I quit that particular fight. I was done. See, God is God & He is all powerful, and I believed if what I wanted was His will, He could drop it in my lap. I gave up my fight and decided to let the Lord fight my battle, but in doing so, I had to let go of the way I wanted it to be. I had to be open to God's way being different than mine.

You know what? He did drop in my lap what He wanted me to have. A few days later, I received the call that said what I had waited to hear for so many years.

Tonight, I was singing the song Karen Peck sings called "Four Days Late." I was thinking about my story. And then it occurred to me. I have never noticed this before, but my giving up was on a Friday, and my good news came on the following Tuesday. It was four days late.

My Grandmother used to say, "He is not on our time. His ways are not our ways, but when He steps in, He is always on time." How right she was. I am thankful God is on time, even when I don't see it.

Blessings

In His Strength

I remember learning the scripture, when I was a child, that says 'I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me." I also remember singing many times Jesus Loves Me, which says, "they are weak but He is strong." Even as a little girl, I knew that "they" meant me. All of my life, my parents, my Sunday School teachers, my pastors, my school teachers (at a Christian school) poured the Word into my mind so I could hide it in my heart. The messages are so simple a child can understand.

God, the Master Creator knows us better than anyone else, and He made His message simple on purpose: so we could get it. He did this so we could get it at a young age. Our minds are constantly inundated with all kinds of thoughts: duties, responsibilities, blessings, tv shows, radio programs, email, news, conversations, the kids' need for clothes to be ironed. Need I go on? As cluttered as our minds get, the simple messages from God's word are powerful enough to penetrate the most cluttered mind and bring peace.

I have had a stressful couple of weeks, and the thought that has been my stay is from a song by Steven Curtis Chapman: His Strength is Perfect.

We can only know
The power that He holds
When we truly see how deep our weakness goes;
His strength in us begins
Where ours comes to an end.

One morning last week, I prayed and asked the Lord how I would have strength to do all I need to do, and it was like He said: You just say the Word, and I will take care of it. So I am continuing to say everyday, "His Strength is Perfect," but I do not see it until I am out of strength myself. When I am emptied and can't go on, He steps in and takes care of it. He gives me what I need to keep pressing on. I am very thankful for His hand on my life.

Be blessed.