HAPPY AUTUMN

I just want to wish all of you a blessed Thanksgiving Holiday....

Below is an e-mail a precious friend sent me...that says it all....

H A P P Y    A U T U M N!!!

The 7 Ups! 1. Wake Up !! Decide to have a good day. 'This is the day the Lord hath made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.' Psalms 118:24 2. Dress Up !!   The best way to dress up is to put on a smile. A smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks. 'The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.' I Samuel 16:7 3. Shut Up!! Say nice things and learn to listen. God gave us two ears and one mouth, so He must have meant for us to do twice as much listening as talking. 'He who guards his lips guards his soul.' Proverbs 13:3 4. Stand Up!! . . . for what you believe in. Stand for something or you will fall for anything. 'Let us not be weary in doing good; for at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good...' Galatians 6:9-10 5. Look Up !! . . to the Lord. 'I can do everything through Christ who strengthens me'. Philippians 4:13 6. Reach Up !! . . for something higher. 'Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will direct your path.' Proverbs 3:5-6 7. Lift Up !! . . your Prayers. 'Do not worry about anything; instead PRAY ABOUT EVERYTHING.' Philippians 4:6 A POSITIVE THOUGHT If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it. If He had a wallet, your photo would be in it. He sends you flowers every spring, and a sunrise every morning. Whenever you want to talk, He'll listen. He could live anywhere in the universe, and He chose your heart. What about the Christmas gift He sent you in Bethlehem ; not to mention that Friday at Calvary . Face it, He's crazy about you.  God answers Knee-Mail!

Key to the Christian Life

I'm sure each of you have experienced a time when it seemed like your prayers bounced off of the ceiling...
For several weeks the Holy Spirit had been dealing with me about my prayer life (He still is)... I'd pace the floor at night with thoughts that defeated me before I ever knelt down...
In the earliest of the morning hours, I once again found myself pacing...crying out...Lord, I come...I do not seem to understand how to come anymore...is it sin in my life?...Help me.
I knelt down, half expecting an answer...racing thoughts once again filled my head...analyzing, condemning, reasoning with logic...all mixed with trying to get past my own needs and the obvious need to know how to intercede...
Until I heard my name being oh so sweetly whispered, "Joy" I had an instant conscious sense of the Lord's presence...that familiar and unspeakable visit that only He makes, right on time, full of mercy and grace...
"Joy, Look up...focus...I'm right here with you...focus...be still."
With the eyes that can see only those things that are of the Spirit...I saw Him...I saw Love...patience, kindness, long suffering and so much more in His gentle smile.
"I've been here all the while, waiting for you to just focus on the fact that I'm here...waiting for you to be still...Today I have given you a key that will open up doors to peace and rest...So many times I have heard you say, "there's something missing".....and I say to you, it has been your bondage to self made goals, works, and contemplation of imagination."
"Surrender your thoughts to me...your reasoning...your manipulating control of mind that wants to make a way where there seems to be none...I Am the Way...I Am the Truth...I Am the Life...these three are but one to you, nothing else matters...Come to me, sit with me for awhile, and let us reason together, let this be the beginning of your ministry unto Me, and my revelation to you."
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Rejoice! For it is the Father's will, to give us the Kingdom....

This morning as I turned on my computer and was faced, as usual, with the never ending news around the world...the one announcement that caught my eye, was that of Christians in Iraq being killed for their faith.

This news is nothing new...lives of Father's precious ones are being snuffed out all over the world...
My own heart is grieved at the apathy of my feeling any deep conscious and experiential identification with their horrific and solemn sacrifice...
I've never felt such helpless-ness like this before...almost a vulnerable hypocrisy,  exposed to waves washing me to a transparency, leaving me uneasy in my comfortable-ness as a Christian...
Lord...I'm ashamed of my total lack of comprehension...true compassion and intercession on my brethren's behalf...my flesh knows nothing of the reality of such suffering...
I am obviously callous, indifferent, apathetic and pathetic concerning the complete surrender of my life to your interceding presence in me....
I confess to the morbidity of my confession...to the empty and clueless vessel that I am...
Help me....precious and wonderful Savior....Help me...
Explode within my heart..."Let there be Light"....move upon the voidness of my soul, Breath of God, Blessed Holy Spirit Word.
Let me kneel beside your interceding heart and "KNOW" with every fiber of my being,  what great Love has come to deliver us from this sinful and cruel world,  in total victory and promise of your eternal keeping, unto that Day...
Day Star rise within me,  Shine in the darkness...an exceeding great Light...
You are Father, Lord, blessed and eternal Holy Spirit...my God...allowed be Your Name...I surrender to your kingdom...let it rule in me, in the power of your might, by your Word and your Holy Spirit...even according to your will and good pleasure...let it be done...
Let the love of the brethren be your banner over me with love.
Not just in word or deed...but in the strength of your faith, your wisdom, your fellowship...
Let me truly embrace those who face the reality of persecution by those who do not know the meaning of Love...who are zealous without knowledge...
They are just flesh and blood...tools of a more cruel and dark force of unseen principalities and powers that would destroy God's kingdom and his host's...
Fit me for battle Lord...in heart, in soul and in mind...
For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever...Amen

LORD, HEAL MY BROKEN HEART

Lord...I want to thank you that you do not put bandages on broken hearts...that you have promised to heal the broken hearted.
I still remember when my grand-mother passed away...and they said she died of a broken heart...How could someone who loved you with all their heart, die of a broken heart?
I never really understood...and for awhile, I didn't even want to understand...it was cruel to make my grandma suffer that way, to die that way...
Until I learned that, you my Lord, died of a broken heart...
that our hearts might be healed of their broken-ness...that our lives might be healed of the helpless and hopeless abandon to a fate we feel has absolute power over our destinies, our hopes and dreams...the desires of our heart. 
Numberless people have suffered broken-ness in millions of ways...libraries and instituions have volumes of books that offer council and words of wisdom, even the Bible falls short of it's promises to those who walk in blindness and unbelief,  in pride and self-centeredness....These bandages are helps to the broken hearted....but they will not heal it....
There's only One Way to heal a broken heart...and that is the Way of Love...the Light of Love...the Word of Love...the Spirit of Love...the Life of Love that heals to the uttermost...renews and strengthens with the Word of promise, the word of faith, the word of hope...that "ALL THINGS WORK TOGETHER FOR GOOD TO THEM THAT LOVE GOD."...
LORD, ONLY YOU CAN HEAL A BROKEN HEART.