PSALM 127 - Toil, Toil, Boil and Bubble

It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for He gives to His beloved sleep.  (Verse 2)

The blessing of the Lord makes rich and He adds no sorrow to it.   Proverbs 10:22

Do not toil to acquire wealth. Be discerning enough to desist. When your eyes light upon it, it is gone, for suddenly it sprouts wings, flying like an eagle toward heaven.  Proverbs 23: 4-5

I am a realtor at this time in my life. That means most of the time I work "for free." Countless hours that most clients take for granted are spent finding properties, showing properties, making appointments, learning the inventory, holding open houses, in hope. I've worked with people for two years who then never bought from me. In fact, some purchased from someone else. The other day, one of my kids exclaimed, "You did all that for nothing?" Nowhere in my life is it more obvious that God is my Source than in what I am about vocationally right now. It's sales. And it can be stressful.

But there is a time to say, "Enough is enough." To sit with my family or take a walk with my God and rest from the need to make it all happen. My clients aren't my source of income. My God is. And my God shall supply all my needs through His riches in glory in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19). If my life is taken up in the stress of making money, I have worried through the best part of it. Money and things are fleeting, at best. I know we need it to exist, but when it is the paramount thing we live for, it's an idol. And God won't compete with an idol.

Money has been on my mind lately. I'd sure like to make more. To give more. Lots of things on my plate right now for which I need the blessing of the Lord. In fact, I had a dream last night. I was walking along a path with one of my co-workers when I stumbled upon a clump of grass. When I looked down at it, I saw a fifty dollar bill folded and lying in the brown grass at my feet. When I stooped to pick it up, I noticed there were other bills beneath it. Four hundred dollars worth! My co-worker told me it must be a bonus! So, I kept it. And my first thought was, I could help my son buy the watch Bill wanted for Father's Day. When I awoke, I couldn't shake the dream or the disappointment that I'd not really found the extra money. I must be subconsciously a little worried. Thus this psalm, huh?

God's provision for us comes from His desire to give us what we need. He's our Father. He wants to take care of us. When we take on the responsibility that is His, we worry. Don't sleep. Toil until all hours of the night. Don't know when to desist! But our Father isn't concerned about giving us everything our eyes light upon. More stuff. He's concerned about giving us what we need. And if we are so anxious about getting that we will step on someone else's supply, taking what we want and putting someone else in need, we have gained "sorrowful" money. I don't want to take what someone isn't willing to give. I'd rather trust Jesus to allow the flow of provision to be without my grasping. So there's joy in it.

I am thankful this morning that I have no real basic needs. I'm writing this Psalm Calm while I sit at my dining room table as hummingbirds flit from tree to tree outside on the patio of my house which is a five minute walk to the beach. So, I have no complaints. And when I think of my brothers and sisters all over the world facing persecution and death because they are Christians, my perspective changes from my need to theirs. We are living in a tenuous world upon which our feet should tread lightly. And while we sojourn, our riches must be counted not so much in the things our eyes never get enough of, but on the face of Jesus, Who counted everything as loss to gain our lives eternally.

From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides You, Who acts for those who wait for Him.   Isaiah 64

PSALM 127 - Vanity, Vanity, All is Vanity!!

Unless the Lord builds the house, those who labor build it in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.  (Verse 1)

Life minus the Lord. Trying to imagine for myself what that would be like. The emptiness of soul. The lack of purpose. Grasping for meaning in idols that are meaningless. Futility of life, really.

Solomon wrote this psalm of wisdom. It smacks of his style. The theme of vanity. That all we do while we are here burns up and is lost. If we are disconnected from the Source of Life while we sojourn on the planet, our lives are essentially pointless. Why watch over a heritage that is hopeless? Guard a city that God has no interest in saving? Build a house without His guidance and approval? What's the point? If our God is preeminent over all things and turns His gaze away from what we are doing, we might as well give up. We have placed ourselves in competition with His will, thinking our giftings and our prowess are all we need to succeed. And some do, of course. Here. But it is vain for them. Empty of real satisfaction. Some of the most successful people in the world are destitute of peace.

Let's say I build a house for myself that God has nothing to do with. I hire an architect and a contractor to fashion my dream home. In my mind, it would look great on the sand near the ocean. So, that's where I put it. My entire life savings are poured into the construction. I spare no expense. And I'm ecstatic when we move in. New furniture. Expensive drapes. Marble. Granite. A showplace. As the new wears off, the reality of the cost of the upkeep is staggering. My financial situation changes dramatically. And my dream is now my nightmare. I work harder. Stress keeps me awake at night. The house is tied up in my identity by then. What will people say if I lose it? No peace. Just struggle. And then the storm comes. Unexpected. Out of the west a typhoon. It levels my dream. I have lost everything. I have no recourse but my own self-reliance.

Let's say I build a life for myself that has nothing to do with God. It's not a far stretch. Many around me are doing just that. It's like wandering through the jungle with a machete not knowing the enemy or even which side of the fight is the good and which is the bad. The life void of God chops at every tree, eats poison plants, makes camp in evil territory, blindly. By virtue of chance, it works for them sometimes. It looks like things are turning out pretty well. Even when they don't know they have ceded their lives to the enemy. They set watch over all they've gained in the jungle. Stay awake nights in order to make sure their territory is safe. But they don't know safe from unsafe. Enemy from Avenger. And God is nowhere to be found. Nowhere. Not a part of their folly at all. He didn't help build their city. He won't help keep it. That is mesmerizingly horrifying to me.

I know Christians can lose every earthly thing, too. We can be caught in a web of shame set up to destroy us, yes. But it's the knowledge that God isn't even concerned about me I'm so self-reliant that is so terrifying. I may have built on bad soil before...I have...but I'm not lost to Him. I have guarded stuff He hates...in vain. But Jesus has been my Deliverer in my folly. Christ lives in me! I'm never separated from His eyes on my life and His hand on my journey, even when I rebel against it on occasion. Where would I be if I build for my own vanity? How can I be safe if I rely only on my own perspective? If the Lord isn't building in me, I won't have the wisdom to create anything of value outside of Him. We know, as Christians, that even the typhoon or the raid on our dwelling in the jungle can have purpose. That our God, Who never leaves us or forsakes us, is there when life rails against us. But without Him, it's all pointless. Fate and chance. And then we die.

Here is the amazing thing about the Lord. Even if He didn't build your house, doesn't live there, wasn't invited, the moment you ask Him in, He's there! There might be a need for structural changes and the rearranging of furniture (or even another home entirely), but that's the price for having God's company. You might be in the jungle with a dull machete, surrounded by the enemy you are finally able to see. Scared and destitute, all it takes is calling His Name for you to be watched over and protected. There isn't a situation far enough out there where God won't hear a cry for salvation! The One Who was completely uninterested in your situation when you were doing your own thing, suddenly wraps His Presence around the life given over to Him and makes all things brand new. By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; by knowledge the rooms are filled with all  precious and pleasant riches.  Solomon.  Proverbs 24

PSALM 126 - Farming in the Desert?

Lord, restore our fortunes again like springs in the desert. Those who cry as they plant crops will sing at harvest time. Those who cry as they carry out the seeds will return singing and carrying bundles of grain.  (Verses 4-6)

Do not be fooled: You cannot cheat God. People harvest only what they plant. If they plant to satisfy their sinful selves, their sinful selves will bring them ruin. But if they plant to please the Spirit, they will receive eternal life from the Spirit. We must not get tired of doing good. We will receive our harvest of eternal life at the right time if we do not give up.   Galatians 6

What does it take to begin again when everything dries up? When it feels like we are back to the beginning? Square one? Like a farmer whose crops failed because of drought. All his hard work lying seared on acres of parched land. The hopefulness that came with throwing the seeds into row after row of mulched dirt now turned into mourning for the lost revenue of his labor. But he is a farmer. What is there to do but begin again? Again plant seeds in the same old ground, crying as he goes. What if this crop fails, too? Where will I be? What will we do? The painful drudgery of sowing, sweating in the hot sun, hoping for rain in its season.

Ever plant for a season only to have the crop turn brown around the edges? I've just been through that season. But many of us have planted seeds into our kids, our jobs, our community or even our churches only to have them look like they were planted in the desert. Everything came up dried out and worthless. It's hard to then begin to plant anything again. To not think, I must not be a farmer after all. But we get up out of bed, throw off the lies of the enemy and the hard facts of the crop, pull on our overalls and pick up a new bag of seeds. In spite of the ache in our hearts and the lack of desire, it's time to get to work on next year's seedlings. If we look at the failed crop, concentrate on what didn't happen to all we planted and worked so hard for, we won't have the energy to plow the fields again. To work up a sweat in the hope we will reap--that God will bring streams in the desert. The planter can't know what will happen to the crop. All she can do is plant good seed. That's why we sometimes cry when we plant. All the what ifs? badger us as we cultivate the faith to sow anyway. Planting is a faith thing.

Reaping on the other hand is the prize. Enjoying the sun on our faces as we move down row after row of ripened fruit, plunking the harvest into basket after basket. Forgetful of all the work of hoeing and hoping, we plop ripe fruit into our mouths and savor the sweetness of the harvest. Enjoy all the seeds that fell on good ground and responded to the sunshine and rain God provided for this season. Thankful we didn't give up in the process because reaping is hilarious joy! It's what made us replant. Not give up. This joy of holding the fruit of our labors in our hands.

Life isn't all harvest. It isn't all sowing, either. We must recognize it as a seasonal process. We don't have anything to reap if we haven't planted anything. And, of course, it's important what we plant. Bad seeds. Bad fruit. Good seeds. Good fruit. But good crops can go bad without enough water and sunshine. It is God Who causes the growth. We depend upon Him just as the farmer does. So if the season is dry and your fruit lies curled up in the heat of adversity, don't give up. Sow. Sow. Sow. For you will reap in due season if you don't faint. And it will be worth the tears with which you water the crops when you bring home a bundles of fruit you can barely carry!
 

PSALM 126 - Something to Talk About

Then they said among the nations, "The Lord has done great things for them." The Lord has done great things for us and we are glad.   (Verses 2b-3)   italics, mine

Are people talking about you because they see that God has done great things in your life? Of course, we might not know that, but it's a question I asked about myself this morning when I read this. I know people talk about the mistakes I make. I hear about that. Know I'm far from the perfection I seek. But  my God has done amazing things in my life to get me to this chair that slips under my dining room table as I write in the sunny morning while hummingbirds flit around the feeder on the back porch. I'm here by God's grace, slathered in mercy, covered in His love and anchored by His peace.

At six years old, I virtually ran down the aisle of our huge Baptist church and told the pastor I wanted to give my life to Jesus. Very young. But I knew Jesus came into my heart to live. Even then. On a retreat several years later when I was in high school, I visited a chapel at Mary Hardin Baylor college by myself. Alone there, in the bright warm sunlight of south Texas, God met me. A ray of light I can still feel on my face warmed the space around me. It was there I told the Lord I'd go wherever He sent me. Thinking I'd be a missionary, maybe. I am. We all are. Here I am in California by the beach.

In college, disturbed by doubts, needing adult answers to hard questions about faith, I challenged God to be real to me. Sat for hours in the University of Texas library digging for extra-biblical truth about Jesus. There is quite a cache of it, by the way. Finding myself one night asking Jesus to be the lord of my life, not just my Savior. My first teaching job was in a small town in Texas, Class B high school. By a weird set of circumstances only God could orchestrate, several of the students at the school became Christians. Bill and I needed a place to teach them about Jesus. God provided the use of an abandoned church and we helped grow those kids up their faith. I have seen Jesus heal the sick when I pray. I've watched financial miracles provided where there just was no way. I've sat time after time praying with someone as they ask Jesus into his or her heart. That is the "great thing" I can't get over. The changed life that a relationship with Jesus brings.

Linda was the first. Depressed and languishing. She noticed the change in me as I walked through my days at college. We lived in the same dorm. So, she asked: "What happened to you?" "Jesus." My only response. "I need that." Tears sparkling in her eyes. So I told her the great things He'd done for me. The great thing. My salvation. Her spiritual hunger was as obvious as her physical hunger would have been. In dire need of being saved from the aching in her heart. "Do you think He will come into my life, too?" Desperation for something to fill the void that made her eyes hollow and her mind swirl. "Yes! He will!" And He did. She asked and received. Then she asked, "Will I still feel this in the morning?" When I came down before breakfast the next day, I stopped by Linda's room to check on her. She hadn't slept. Lay in wide-eyed wonder at the experience of being finally full. "He's still there," she said with a wide smile that lit up her face. Made her eyes twinkle. And He's never left her.

I spoke with a young woman last week about her faith. She said it's private. She only speaks about it with a select few. I understand that she's a relatively new Christian, and I didn't press her on it. But it did make me think how that's possible. To know Jesus, experience a total life change, and not share it. The most wonderful thing in the world has happened to you, and you keep it to yourself. The more I know Him, the more there is to say about Jesus. He is absolutely amazing! I love Jesus more than I can even put into words! Every day, in every way, my God does great things for me. He's allowed me to share Him with hundreds of people over the years and to introduce them to God's ways. And these people are everywhere. All over the world. Living it out just like I am. They may not be talking about me because Jesus changed them, but they are talking about Him! Telling others the great things Jesus has done for them so that others follow Christ because they see a change in someone near.

I want to give the world something to talk about.


 

PSALM 126 - Landing On My Feet!

When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with shouts of joy. (Verses 1-2)

"Kay always lands on her feet," I heard a friend say not long ago. She was looking around our home here at the beach. Wondering at how, after the financial struggles Bill and I had endured, we were still okay. If she only knew. Knew how thankful I am. Knew that for me it is still like a lovely dream I don't awaken from. Knew that without the blessings and intervention of my Father, I'd be nowhere, physically or spiritually. Yes, I landed on my feet because the Lord restored not only our finances, but our lives. The heavy burdens of a couple of years lifted. The weight of the albatross removed from our necks. And there are still shouts of joy. Still laughter and love at our dinner table. So thankful. So beyond thankful.

The Israelites were in Babylon for seventy years. A lesson from God. He wanted them to know what they were missing without Him and their homeland because they took Him for granted, worshipping other gods, living outside of His ways. Babylon. The land of great excesses. Of false gods. Of fornicating before idols. Of gluttony and promiscuity and selfies (probably). To Babylon, God said: "I was angry with my people. I profaned My heritage. I gave them into your hand. You showed them no mercy. On the aged you made your yoke exceedingly heavy...Now, therefore, you lover of pleasures, who sit securely, who say in your hearts, 'I am, and there is no one besides me'...These two things shall come to you in a moment, in one day: the loss of your children and widowhood shall come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and the great power of your enchantments." Isaiah 47.  (italics, mine) What a nightmare to be captured by our own vanity. To think we are the most important thing in all the world and there isn't anything besides ourselves. What are we incapable of when we become our own small-minded god? Apparently, there are not limits. The Babylonians were the ones who threw Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego into the fire and Daniel into the lions' den. Made an idol of the king to which the entire nation must bow. God let His forgetful, unfaithful people see what a nation without Him looked like. It was a nightmare!

Cyrus came at the end of the seventy years and delivered the Israelites from Babylon and declared that they should go home to their land and rebuild their own temple. Can't you imagine them streaming, now elderly and losing strength, back to the Holy City. Home. Finally. They'd dreamed about this day. Told their children about the plenty in the land--about the beauty of the hills. Jerusalem--where God dwelt with them. Laughing and shouting to be freed from the decadence and ungodliness of Babylon. Dancing with happy feet in their homeland again without restraint. God restoring what was lost. Hoping now they'd understand what it is to be in a foreign land where self is the only god. I can feel it in my heart right now. The warmth of nearing God. Finally, finally, free to love Him instead of their own puny selves.

I don't underestimate trials to take me back to center. To get me where God needs me to be. I certainly don't always hear Him loud and clear. I've absolutely experienced making myself the center of my own universe. Walked almost off the edge of the earth in an effort to quell an aching heart. Only to discover my heart pants only for my God. Nothing else satisfies. We can stuff our lives with pleasures, buy the store out, travel to exhaustion, amass unspeakable wealth, rise to unprecedented power or recreate our physical bodies at the hands of some cosmetic surgeon, but we won't find peace or purpose that way. We weren't created for fame and glory. It will kill us. Make us legends in our own eyes. But when the Lord says "Enough," it can all be gone in a second. Sometimes it takes God letting us have our own way for a bit to see we turned down a wrong way street with no outlet. To understand we can't call on our wealth, fame, beauty or ingenuity to get us out of our personal Babylon. And when we hit the wall at the end of the darkened alley, fall to our wobbly knees in the realization we are stuck and lost in a nightmare with no good ending, and cry out "Help me, Jesus!", He's standing there, all white in the murkiness, not so much disgusted by our filthiness as disappointed in our disobedience. Wishing...wishing we'd listen this time. And then He takes us back home to His heart. Cleans us up and restores what was lost. How in the world could we ever go wandering again?

So they returned to Jerusalem like we return to Jesus. And we can sing with them what Judah sang upon their return in Isaiah 26: We have a strong city. He sets up salvation and bulwarks. Open the gates, that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in. You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You. I am thankful that my Father is a builder of my walls and a rampart around my heart. The Restorer of my soul (Psalm 23). The One Who catches me when I'm tumbling upside down and makes me land on my feet!



 

PSALM 125 - Would You Give Your Kid to Save the World?

But those who turn aside to their crooked ways the Lord will lead away with the evildoers! Peace be unto Israel!   (Verse 5)

"Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God and there is no other. By Myself I have sworn; from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return. To Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance." God  Isaiah 45

When our daughters were young, maybe five and seven, we went to see "Gospel Road." It was the Johnny Cash version of the New Testament with a blond-haired, frolicking Jesus who wandered the desert with his disciples while Cash's song, "Follow Me Up and Down," played in the background. Yes, Jesus turned the tables over in anger at the temple when he saw the moneychangers defiling His Father's house. Yes, He healed the sick, touched blinded eyes, taught in the synagogues and forgave the gravest of sinners. But what was captivating about this particular Jesus was that He was so engaging. He tousled the hair of the disciples and wrestled with them as though they were brothers. Instead of the pious and stodgy Jesus that some Renaissance art makes Him out to be, the Christ of "Gospel Road" was lovable. A child would want to sit on His lap. Ask Him questions. Touch His curls. And so, in the end, when Jesus hung alone and bloodied on a cross, Vanessa wailed. Wailed with such grief I was shocked. "No!" she screamed into the church pews. "No, Mommy! They are killing Him!" And the tears were for One she loved. For a death she only partly understood. For a Savior to Whom she'd just that summer given her precious tiny heart.

Can you imagine giving your child for people such as we? I can't. I've tried to think it. I don't get very far. To offer up the children of my body to save people who would spit on them while they die. Knowing they don't understand in the moment the gravity of salvation and that they might turn away from it though the sacrifice was made. Could I, like Mary, listen to the moanings of a child whose blood dripped on the sand in front of me and not implode? No! No, I couldn't. But if I did...If I gave my Will to save others, I would have no patience, no mercy, if they turned away and spat upon that sacrifice. Ridiculed the blood. Laughed at the name. No. If my child died for you, you would need to own it.

So when those who call God cruel because some will be judged in the end to be unworthy of heaven, I would challenge them with this: What would you expect from a God Who gave His Only Begotten Son to die as the sacrifice for your sin? There is nothing more God could possibly do to show His great love. There is nothing more valuable God could possibly offer so we can be saved forever. If we decide to turn away and reject His provision for our eternal salvation, He's got nothing left. Jesus gave it all. God will either be our Savior or our Judge. And He has the right to decide our fate based upon what we do with Jesus. The Son wasn't simply a good teacher. He actually taught heresy if He isn't God the Son. Jesus wasn't simply a prophet who prophesied His own sacrificial death. God's Son is a liar if we make Him only a good person. Good people don't make up stuff about being God. Jesus is either Who He said He is...or He's no one. And His-tory bears out the truth of Jesus's life.

The heart of God cries out: "Turn to Me and be saved!" If we turn aside to idols, other gods, or our own philosophies (which become idols as well), we will be judged by our dismissal of the unprecedented act of love our Father was willing to go through in order for us to be with Him forever. One day, whether we follow Jesus today or not, all knees will bow in acknowledgement of His great sacrifice. Some of us to His glory. Some of us to our shame. To reject such a sacrifice, wave it off, ridicule it as beneath our intellect, use the very name of Jesus to spice up our cursing is abhorrent to the Father Who watched the writhing work of our salvation. Up from the grave, in power and might, Jesus orchestrates the end of all things here. Therefore, God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ if Lord, to the glory of God the Father.   Philippians 2

Peace be to us. He is our peace with God.  Ephesians 2

PSALM 125 - Onward and Upward!

For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest on the land allotted to the righteous, lest the righteous stretch out their hands to do wrong. Do good, O Lord, to those who are good and to those who are upright in their hearts!  (Verses 3-4)

Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The One sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems...He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which He is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following Him on white horses. From His mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On His robe and on His thigh He has a name written: King of kings and Lord of lords.  Revelation 19   italics, mine.

We are at war. Never forget that. And it matters Whose side we are on. The enemy of our souls, the prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2) leads his army into disobedience. The scepter in this foul ruler's hand demands disobedience to God. Delights in the defeat of the righteous. Laughs when we are imprisoned in his dungeons of despair. Trapped in wrong. Even doing his perverse bidding. Christians writhe, addicted on beds of pain. Some are jailed for heinous acts. Or tricked into adultery. Maybe lied to about each other. Fractured by jealousy. The rule of wickedness making us run, play dead or acquiesce to avoid the fight of our lives. Given over to Satan's agenda because we lost strength and are emptied of courage. We lie down and take it.

Bill and I watched the Band of Brothers series recently. The World War II story of Easy Company of the 101st Airborne Division. The group of men were together from jump training through D-Day, the siege of Bastone and Operation Market Garden and to the end of the war. The fighting was fierce. Many men died in battles so intense it defies logic that anyone could've survived. Because they were an elite group, chosen and trained to be undaunted, they ran into enemy fire, dodging bullets and jumping into ditches as they moved forward toward an uncertain victory. Many lost limbs. Soldiers died in each other's arms. Others had to be left on the battlefield dying without comfort. A few of the veterans who survived were interviewed at the beginning of each episode. Many years later their eyes still filled with tears, their voices became almost inaudible, as they recounted the ferocity of the war. It had become so routine, there were days when they couldn't remember what they were fighting for. It was too painful to think of home. And, most had to put the thought away because the expectation of making it to the end was too hopeful to contemplate. Then Easy Company happened upon a death camp. Startled and nonplussed, they unlocked the gate and wandered among men so emaciated and weak they could barely move. The dead were stacked up in piles. The stench overwhelming. The Jewish prisoners fell into the arms of the soldiers, thankful. Finally, rescue. And the men realized why they were fighting. Camp after camp was discovered. Incinerators full of bones. Evil trying to make evil right. The work of the greater enemy whose army has come to steal, kill and destroy. Using men to do his bidding.

Our war is more subtle but just as real. I've been wounded by the orders from the scepter of Satan. If we for one minute forget that we aren't ruled by him, he'll step in and try to devour us. But wait! We have a King. A Lord above all lords. We have marching orders. We have armor (Ephesians 6). We have victory. Jesus came so that the throne of Zion be filled once and forevermore by a Righteous King. No more will the scepter of another rest on our holy land. But we must declare our allegiance to the King. Fight against the invasions of the enemy into our territory. We know the end of the story. But the King of kings and Lord of lords isn't just fighting at the end of time. He's our King right now! Why would we take orders from the prince of this world? If we listen, we can hear our Ruler say, "This is the way, walk in it (Isaiah 30:21)!" Lest we become caught up in the war and find ourselves bloodied and alone, the Lord Himself came to vanquish our enemy. Died on the final battlefield to give us His victory over even the last enemy, death. So stand up! Put on your God-given armor and push through today, warrior princesses and princes! Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the whole armor of God that you might be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6). italics, mine 

Onward and upward!

PSALM 125 - A Very Bad Dream

As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds His people, from this time forth and forevermore.  (Verse 2)

The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him and delivers them.  Psalm 34:7

I had a dream the other night about my son, Will. He was small again, maybe three or so, and I couldn't seem to find him though I could hear his desperate cries for help. It was clear Will needed rescuing. Horrified, I ran like a crazy woman toward his voice. All I could think of was getting to my son, determined to ease his terror. Then I saw Will's little red face, tears streaming into his open mouth, "Mommy! Mommy!" he cried. He was behind a fence being held against his will by faceless people who tried to drag him away from his death grip on one of the fence railings.

"Will!" I screamed.

"Mommy!" he screamed back as he held on to the fence for his life.

I careened into the fence and grabbed my son by his torso, pulling with everything in me against the grip of his captors. As I put my arms through the rail and fully around Will, his body gave and catapulted through the fence on top of me as we fell to the ground. Without a second to spare, I grabbed my son up, held him tightly in my arms and ran. Ran so fast my heart was beating out of my chest when I awoke to discover we were safe. It was only a dream. The rescue only necessary in another world.

But it dawns on me this morning that this is the very thing this verse means to me. The mountains that surround Jerusalem are higher than the hills on which it rests. If you stand in the midst of the city and look to the panoramic horizon, the landscape of mountains resembles a walled fortress. Incoming missiles from the evil one have to go over the wall. Battalions must scale it. Horses must surmount it. Just like the mountains protect the city, my God protects me. The enemy must go through Him to get at me. I am in His encompassing arms. Cradled against His chest. Rescued from danger after danger.

The picture of baby Will in trouble. Of my heart and feet racing to any place where I could run to hold him in my arms. That is the picture of my Father when I call to Him in my need. Whether I'm all messed up because I screwed up or whether I've been unfairly trapped by the evil one, it's all the same to my Father. My open bawling mouth is filling with my own tears and I need saving! "Abba! Abba!" I cry. And the sound of His footfall shakes heaven as He barrels to my rescue, surrounds me in His embrace and rushes me out of danger. From this time forth and forevermore.

PSALM 125 - Like A Rock!!

Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever.
(Verse 1).

You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks of a better world than the blood of Abel...Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.   Hebrews 12

 Zion means fortification. The Jebusites first ruled over Zion in the city of Jerusalem, but David overthrew them, conquering Zion and calling it the City of David. During his reign, the king made it an even mightier fortress. Zion included the temple area by the time Solomon built the ornate edifice for his God. When Jesus came to us, Zion was the alternate name for Jerusalem. Zion. Where God lives and fortifies His people. The holy tabernacle was the site of the sacrifices that purged the Jewish people of their sins. God chose to meet with His people in its sacred interior--the Holy of Holies. To cleanse them, instruct them, look at them face to face, to hear their pleas, to cradle them in safety and to build them up in faith. It was the seat of the Old Covenant. The law. But in A.D. 70 that Zion was obliterated. The Old Covenant passed away with it. No more animal sacrifices needed. The New Covenant in the blood of Jesus, our forever atonement, established a new city that would last forever, founded by the victory over Satan, the last stronghold of man, overwhelmed in battle by the spilt blood of God's Only Begotten Son. As you come to Him, a living stone, rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are built up  (fortified, strengthened) as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: "Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone and precious, and whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame." 1 Peter 2.

The first Zion was a physical earthly place. A real live hill in the Holy City. But something took place in heaven when Jesus ascended there to His Father. A ceremony. A christening of the new Zion where Jesus stands with His army to rule and to fight for those of us who have surrendered our lives to His lordship. Zion is just as real as it was when it existed in Israel, but it's now much more expansive. The Precious Stone that laid its foundation declared all who come to Him to be citizens forever of the mighty fortress where He reigns. Nothing will ever shake heaven. God cannot be forced to move. Evicted or vanquished. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. I am safe when I run to Zion.

Feeling vulnerable today? Like the foundations of your life are quaking with the troubles here? Know you a citizen in a fortified city under the leadership of the One Who rescued you from death then bought you a mansion in the New Jerusalem. None of life's earthquakes can rattle us to the point of absolute defeat. Because we trust in our God, we are like the city itself. Hedged in. Protected. Built up in faith. Motivated by love. Secure in our adoption. Precious beyond knowing to the One Who stands atop heavenly Mount Zion while His army sings and plays their harps in a symphony that sounds like the thunderings of a mighty cascading waterfall (Revelation 14). Jesus is in complete control of all things from His vantage point. Everywhere. All the time. When we trust in Him we rely upon the One Who cannot be vanquished ever, ever again. Believe in Him Who rules the heavens and the earth. It is He Who does the shaking, so we are safe from any other. If you belong to Him, you are fortified against the troubles of today and the wrath to come. Hedged about on all sides like the original Mount Zion was surrounded by hills. Warring angels are beckoned for our sakes and the Holy Spirit edifies and strengthens us. Trust. Don't be moved. Our faith is built on a solid rock.

Therefore, be steadfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. 1 Corinthians 15.

PSALM 124 - Hooah!!

Praise the Lord Who did not let them chew us up. We escaped like a bird from the hunter's trap. The trap broke and we escaped! Our help comes from the Lord Who made heaven and earth.  (Verses 6-8)

I remember my mother saying, "They need a good chewing out!" Meaning, of course, whoever she was talking about needed to be set straight. But the word chewing seems an interesting choice in light of this psalm. Also back then I often heard, "She chewed me up and spit me out!" This mastication example is brutal, if you think about it. What does chewed food look like, for Pete's sake? And, gross! Spit me out? My ESV Bible says it this way: Blessed be the Lord Who has not given us as prey to their teeth!" What to do when someone just wants to eat us alive.

2006 was a rough year for me. There truly were people who preyed upon me and my business. It felt like they were alternately hunting me down or lying in wait. Within the business, there were troubles. I had my own personal issues to work through. It all came to a head one day when I found myself in my literal prayer closet crying out to the Lord with all I had in me. Vanessa overheard me, as she lived with us at the time. Distressed by my distress, she prayed for me and then left the house to go to work. On her way, she called me. "Mom, the Lord has shown me something. I know it's Him."

"I need to hear what He said." I quieted myself. Got still.

"You are in the lion's den," Vanessa began, "but God said, 'I have shut the mouths of the lions. They will not hurt you.'" Her voice was shaky, like she was nervous or something. "I know that is from God, Mom."

I knew it, too, somehow. It strengthened me. Actually gave me a palpable power to stand up and declare to the enemy that he could not get his teeth into me. From that day forward, I prayed in my prayer closet, donning the whole armor of God (Ephesians 6). "I put on the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the belt of truth and the shoes of the gospel of peace," I declared. Then when I took up the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit, I believed I had them in my hands. "I wield these weapons against you, evil one, in the power of Christ!" No lions were going to eat my purpose, my joy, my life! Not listening to any chewing out from! Not going to be the dinner demons spit up on the sidewalk!

One morning a few days later, my friend, Marlana, called. "I've been praying for you today, Kay." I love it when she does that! "I see you with something in your hand when you pray. Like you're holding something in your fist. What are you doing?"

Hmm. "Fighting," I said. "With all my might. It's the sword of the Spirit and the shield of faith."

Marlana got it. And I was blown away that the Lord showed me through her vision of me in prayer, that He saw me there in the closet, in the near darkness of my place of prayer, in an upstairs room of a house in a neighborhood in California in America in the world. Me. Fighting against the one who would devour me. It wasn't about what people were trying to do to my life. It really never is. The enemy has come to lie to, steal from and destroy me. To chew me up and spit me out.

I'm still doing that most days. Drawing the sword from the imaginary hilt and picking up the shield from the solid ground beneath my feet and declaring I won't be dead meat for some roaring lion in need of a meal. I am a daughter of the Most High God, a princess warrior, a beloved bride purchased and redeemed to eternally be with the Bridegroom. I'm fully equipped for every good work, covered in grace, filled with the Spirit, dressed in fine white linen. No weapon formed against me will prosper because that toothless lion has been stripped of all his power and authority at the cross of Christ. And you already know I lived through 2006 with my head held high, delivered from the fowler's snare, the trap broken. I fly free.

But this is war. And though I try to be so diligent, I still get caught sometimes. A little snared by the enemy today, even. I recognize the battle lines, though. The ones I won't cross. Especially delightful to the enemy is self-deprecation, offense, bitterness, judgment. Not going there! Sword drawn, shield in place, I intend to stand my ground and follow my Commander into what's ahead today. The God Who made heaven and earth is my Help, my Defender, my Judge and my Father. Hooah!!

PSALM 124 - Surfing on Troubled Waters

If it had not been the Lord Who was on our side...then the flood would have swept us away, the torrent would have gone over us. Then over us would have gone the raging waters. (Verses 4-5)

Thus says the Lord, Who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters..."Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing. Now it springs forth. Do you perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert...for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to My chosen people, the people whom I formed for Myself that they might declare My praise." Isaiah 43

It was very windy at the beach yesterday. When Vanessa and I took a late evening walk along its shores, the waves were rough and noisy, frothing with each curl and landing foamy very high on the sand. There were none of the ubiquitous surfers braving the dangerous conditions, for these waves could smack a person down into the sandy bottom and break him or sweep him out too far from shore. When our children were young and went to the beach with us in the summer, we told them if they become frightened by a wave that looks a little too big, they should sit down in the sand beneath and wait for the wave to pass over them. It saved them many a rough tumble. Waves that catch us turn us upside down and sideways, disorienting us. We lose our equilibrium as we fight to right ourselves and breathe. The ocean is a dangerous place. I've heard the sirens as they blare on Pacific Coast Highway, racing toward a swimmer pulled unconscious from the raging water or a rip tide. I've seen the lifeless body of a surfer as lifeguards bend over him performing CPR one last hopeful time. We can be overcome and swept away.

Let's say we are stuck in an overwhelming flood today. Perhaps not actual waters, but the torrents of problems that drown us. You know what I mean: divorce, addiction, financial crisis, failing health, children who've wandered into harm's way. It feels so overwhelming that we just want to lie down and quit. Medicate ourselves because there's nothing else we can do. We can't stem the mighty flood nor know when it will relent. Life drowning us in the murky tumult that tosses us about and keeps us from catching our breath. If we aren't saved, we'll drown. If the Lord is not on our side, we're sure to perish.

I honestly don't know how people survive this world without my God. It's like a car saying to the Ford Motor Corporation: "Thank so much for making me a Mustang. Now I'm going to drive myself. I don't want a person telling me where to go or what to do. I am, after all, a muscle car." The Ford won't get very far on its own power as it tries to function in a way for which it wasn't designed. The one who formed it knows how it works best. No, I'm not a car. I have a bit more free will than an object, but the sense that I've been designed with purpose, placed in this world to go somewhere and do something is hard to escape. The knowledge that we have a reason for being is intrinsic in all of us. That God stamped us with His image from the beginning is clear. God wants to be with us. On our side. It's His desire to help us navigate the sunshine and the storm. Going it alone is as ridiculous as the car thinking it'll just drive itself, thank you very much. Uh, where? why? when? Minus God we shoot in the dark. When life rolls in like a flood, and it does for everyone some time or other, what keeps us afloat if God isn't making a way through it for us?

Moses and the Israelites watched the Red Sea wall up on either side as they walked through on dry land. Noah rocked the teaming flood safely in a boat. Jonah was burped onto shore from the belly of a huge fish. Daniel sat in a lion's den while the stupefied lions cowered in a corner unable somehow to eat their prey. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were thrown into a furnace blast that killed the one who opened the doors to throw them in, yet the hairs on their heads were not singed. And just so we never forget that God never leaves us or forsakes us, Jesus came to earth to be overwhelmed in the flood so that we never, ever have to. He became the Way through every downpour. Jesus slept in the boat when a storm at sea scared His disciples nearly to death. They woke Him. "Don't You care that we are dying?" Screaming over the crashing waves and pounding rain. "What are you so afraid of?" Jesus yelled back. "You have so little faith!" Then Jesus got up from his nap and told the winds and rain to stop. And there was calm. But the winds and rain weren't the real problem in the mind of Jesus. It was the fear of them that disabled his good friends. If we know that God is one our side, making a way where there is no way, doing a new thing never before done just to save us from the storms, we have all we need. He makes a way because He formed us and loves us. If you don't believe it, just look at the cross.




 

PSALM 124 - Whose Side is God On?

If it had not been the Lord Who was on our side--let Israel say now--if it had not been the Lord Who was on our side when people rose against us, then they would have swallowed us up alive when their anger kindled against us.  (Verses 1-3)

If God is for us, who can be against us?  Romans 8

When Jesus prayed for us all to be one as He and the Father are one, I know He believed that is not only possible, but necessary. But what happens when we are at odds with our brothers and sisters? When we think we're right and they think they're right and we can't seem to reach an agreement? Or our relationships are breached completely because we can't see eye-to-eye? What then. Which side is God on?

I'm not going to answer that question. I know. Then why ask it, because it happens to all of us if we venture very far from our own front door? I don't know the answer, but I'm swimming in the situation now. A time when those I love with all my heart are estranged over disagreement. And I don't want to be right so much as I want to be precisely in the middle of God's will doing what He asked me to do. I know they feel the same. So, what to do?

In my walk with Jesus I must constantly remember that He isn't always, or maybe ever, doing what I think He is. As He sees the whole of my life stretched out before me, has already walked out there in  the future into the things He's prepared for me, Jesus isn't a bundle of nerves wondering how it's all going to turn out. I know He's on my side. Working out in me what needs to be done. Moving deeply, also, in the lives of my brothers and sisters. And sometimes that looks like we won't ever agree with one another. Where God is taking me because He's on my side leads down a different path. Perhaps I must just wave good-bye for now and press on as they must, too. It's my heart I want to protect in the process. Guarded against judgment, offense and anger. My Father loves all His children the same. And we all need to know Him in ways that are specific to our lives and our purposes. I know I relate imperfectly, often rushing into situations like I'm trying to save a drowning man. It's hard for me to get my heart and mind still. In fact, I'd have to say I know what's wrong with me to a much greater degree than I could break out a list of what's right. Abba isn't about taking sides in an argument. He's about changing our hearts and minds so we look ever more like Him. He's all for that! 

God is on my side. Like a dad who sticks up for his daughter then later tells her what she did wrong...or right. The never-ending process of being a child of His. And if I didn't believe that my Father is on my side...and theirs...I'd be completely swallowed up by circumstances. Bereft and despairing. But I'm not. Today I know He's got us all right there in His hand. I must learn my lessons and move on into God's plans just as those brothers and sisters we find ourselves at odds with must go on. Our unity exists in the fact that we still have the same Father, Who, counter intuitively, can be on our sides when we are on different sides of the fence. And one day, when we gather to dinner together with Jesus, we won't remember what divided us as we sit family style and rejoice in our togetherness. I know we can do better here on Earth. I want that in my own heart to the degree it is up to me. Past that, all I can do is walk on, walk on. If God is for me, for my growth in Him, for the perfecting of my heart and for my brothers and sisters, too, then we won't be swallowed up in anger. What, indeed, would we do if the Lord weren't on our side--say it Christians--what would we do?

PSALM 123 - I've Had More Than Enough of This!

Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us, for we have had more than enough of contempt. Our soul has had more than enough of the scorn of those who are at ease, of the contempt of the proud.   (Verses 3-4)

Mercy triumphs over judgment.  James 2:13

Up for the third straight night stretched out before the Lord in my place of prayer downstairs. I have a burdened heart. Not just for myself, but for others who it seems to me, have just "had enough." Enough of being stuck in the same old rut. Enough of the cancer that ravages the body and the chemo that brings nausea, pain and sleepless, seemingly eternal, nights and days. Enough of struggling for excellence and feeling bypassed and ignored. Enough of praying the same prayers day after day for years without answer or closure. Waiting. Waiting. Enough already!

I read a quote by T. D. Jakes a couple of days ago. "Most believers think God works when the blessing comes. That's not true! God is working on you and your faith when the blessing is delayed!" Or, as Vanessa so poignantly put it, God is teaching us how to trust in total darkness. When we have no idea what He is doing, we need to know that He is "doing." I'm pretty sure what I am learning from my recent experiences and in the onlooker's view of those struggling around me, is to give God credit for working things out in the supernatural that we can't do in the natural. And to have mercy on ourselves, not just on others.

Need a little mercy for yourself today? I do. I've been brutally judging my giftings and abilities the past few days. Wondering if they are usable or if I've squandered a few years of my life on things that God doesn't want to bless. Giving to others the power to define me. A power they don't want, even. You know, that stops us cold when we do that. Puts up a roadblock that says, "You can't" or "You aren't." So, I'm done with that today. Enough is enough. My God says who I am. My Father dictates my self worth. Mercy. Mercy. Let it go. (Sorry for all you mothers who are sick to death of that Frozen song!)

As for the others I cry out for, if today is not the last day of the struggle and the cup of suffering still has dregs to be poured out, I ask our God for mercy there, with all my heart. And grace to push through as Jesus did on the cross. To drink to the last drop until it is finished. To have unfathomable courage to wait for their salvation. I know that many nights they have questioned, "Why the affliction?". What did they do wrong to deserve their horrendous plight? Again, they must have mercy for themselves. Judging the illness to be some retribution from God is counter-productive to relaxing into His will with the knowledge that Jesus is in the suffering with them. Our God drives our lives toward glory in a fallen world filled with disease and disappointment. By His great mercy we are not overwhelmed.

"Fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you. When you walk through fire you will not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior." God. Isaiah 43