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A Safe Place

For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten… Son …God did not send the Son into the world in order to judge (to reject, to condemn, to pass sentence on) the world, but that the world might find salvation and be made safe and sound through Him. (John 3:16, 17; Amplified)

And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and [especially] wicked sinners came and sat (reclined) with Him and His disciples. And the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, Why does your Master eat with tax collectors and those [preeminently] sinful? But when Jesus heard it, He replied, Those who are strong and well (healthy) have no need of a physician, but those who are weak and sick. Go learn what this means: I desire mercy… and not sacrifice… (Matthew 9:10-13, Amplified)

Jesus was and is and always will be a safe place. He is the express image of the Father Who is love. Love creates a safe place for those who need it. And don’t we all need it?

…You have loved back my life from the pit of corruption and nothingness, for You have cast all my sins behind Your back. (Isaiah 38:17, Amplified)

Above all things have intense and  unfailing love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins [forgives and disregards the offenses of others]. (1 Peter 4:8, Amplified)

I am thinking of two people as I write this. The first is a young lady that was sent to me for help. She had been diagnosed with cancer and told she probably only had about 6 months to live. I often said of her that she knew the law, but didn’t know the love. For four years I loved her unconditionally.

She had been told all her life that she didn’t measure up to His word. She didn’t know His love. So I allowed His love in me to create a safe place for her. I was that safe place because of His love.

She got to a place where the doctors said they could do nothing for her. I kept telling her that He loved her and that He healed her because He loved her. I kept telling her that I loved her. When all hope was gone in the natural she finally received His love and she received her healing. She is now cancer-free. She needed someone to be a safe place for her during that four year battle with cancer. Love was that safe place.

The second person I think of is my husband. It’s sad that often times the people we are the hardest on are those we live with. I just had the most wonderful time at a marriage conference with my husband. The speakers shared many beautiful and helpful things that have already helped to improve our marriage. As I listened to the speakers, I also heard a still, small voice speaking to my heart. I heard God, Who is Love, tell me, “Be a safe place for him.”

Right now if you need a safe place. Run to God. Receive His love and protection. Then let His love flow through you and become a safe place for others.

For no man ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and carefully protects and cherishes it, as Christ does the church… (Ephesians 5:29, Amplified)

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Christmas in July

I attended a prayer group the other day. As our time of prayer was drawing to an end, I heard the Lord say something unexpected. He said, “Do you see what I see? Do you hear what I hear?”

It caught me by surprise as I was thinking, “Isn’t that a Christmas song? God, it’s July.”

Then I heard a scripture from Song of Solomon.

…[while you are here] …in the sheltered and secret place, let me see your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.” (Song of Solomon 2:14, Amplified)

Seeing His children gathered together, with their faces lifted to heaven in prayer, was both lovely and sweet to Him.

Those words, “Do you see what I see? Do you hear what I hear?” stuck with me the rest of the day. And I found that anytime I was tempted to see myself in an unlovely light I would think “Do you see what I see?” I am lovely in His sight.

I’ve been taking voice lessons recently. My voice teacher is challenging me to sing in ranges I am not very comfortable with yet. I don’t like what I hear. But what does He hear? “Do you hear what I hear? To Me your voice is sweet.”

What do you see and hear when you look at your children? Parents always seem to think their child is the handsomest or prettiest they’ve ever seen and their child’s voice, no matter what it sounds like, is the sweetest sound on earth.

When God sees and hears us, He hears His child singing, praying, speaking to Him. He sees His child, created in His image, learning to walk in His ways. We may see shortcomings. We may see failures. He sees and hears His child and to Him you are lovely and and to Him, no matter what you sound like compared to others, the sound of your voice is sweet.

…let me see your face, let me hear your voice… (Song of Solomon 2:14, Amplified)

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Faithful Love

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever. (1 Chronicles 16:34, NLT)

Faithful – Firm in adherence to, constant, true to, worthy of belief. (Webster’s, 1828)

Love (hesed) – loving-kindness, steadfast love, grace, mercy, faithfulness, goodness, devotion. (Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary)

Faithful love, constant devotion.

For I am the LORD, I change not… (Malachi 3:6, KJV)

In this is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation (the atoning sacrifice) for our sins. (1 John 3:10, Amplified)

For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son… (John 3:16, Amplified)

But God–so rich is He in His mercy! Because of and in order to satisfy the great and wonderful and intense love with which He loved us… (Ephesians 2:4, Amplified)

You are dearly prized and greatly loved. Loved with a great and wonderful and intense love. And that’s never going to change. Selah.

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Make Me

He maketh my feet like hinds’ feet: and setteth me upon my high places. (2 Samuel 22:34, KJV)

He makes my feet like hinds’ [firm and able]; He sets me secure and confident upon the heights. (2 Samuel 22:34, Amp)

The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet likes hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places… (Habakkuk 3:19, KJV)

“The hind is a female red deer whose home is the mountains. The rear feet of the hind step in precisely the same spot where the front feet have just been. Every motion of the hind is followed through with single-focused consistency, making it the most sure-footed of all mountain animals.” (hannahscupboard.com)

Now to Him Who is able to keep you without stumbling or slipping or falling… (Jude 24, Amp)

There is much I could say about the above scriptures regarding how we are made to have hinds’ feet, what it means to have hinds’ feet and what are the things that cause us to stumble and fall. However, today there is just one word that I want to draw your attention to. It is the word make.

Why do so many of us (the creation) work so hard to make ourselves what we ought to be? While all the while, God (The Creator) is saying, “Let me make you and mold you. Let me lead you and guide you.”

Now may the God of peace…strengthen (complete, perfect) and make you what you what you ought to be… (Hebrews 13:20,21; Amplified)

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. (Psalms 23:1-3, KJV)

For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:13, KJV)

With all these promises in His word that He will make us, He will lead us, He will work in us, why are we trying so hard to be and to do these things?

Instead of going through life like someone forging our own way through thick vegetation with a machete. Let us submit to the hand that is molding us. Let us yield to the work He is doing in us. Let us simply take the hand that is leading us. Let us let Him make us sure-footed and set us on high places.

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Known

A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. (John 13:34-35, KJV)

I’m known for many things. I’m known for being a little lady who likes little things. I’ve been lovingly teased about my tiny purses, tiny shoes, tiny notebooks, my tiny Bible and my new hobby of growing tiny Bonsai trees. Oh, and did I mention I have a tiny dog too.

I’m known for my curly hair and for always having a smile on my face.

I’m known for ministering God’s healing power to the sick through His Word and through prayer. Some even refer to me as the “healing lady”.

But the scripture above is what I want to be known for. He said that all would know that we are His disciples by our love for one another.

I endeavor to be known as one who loves like He loves. The legacy I want to leave is that I loved God and that I loved people. I want to be known by my love.

Father, teach me to love.

I love you.

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Why Am I Here?

I met a very interesting man once. He was introduced as a life coach. The minister introducing him said of this man that he had a very unique way of helping you find the answers already placed within you by God, simply by asking the right questions. I spoke to this man about the crossroads I had come to in my life. Unable to decide which way to go. I don’t remember all that we talked about, but I remember him asking me two questions that day that changed my life forever.

The first question: “What are you afraid of?” My answer: “Failure.”

The second question: “What would failure be to you?”

He asked me this question several times. I answered it several times but he just kept asking me, “What would failure be to you?”

And then the answer that was deepest within my heart finally came out. “Failure to me would be to not follow the Holy Ghost.”

In yesterday’s post I asked a question: “Why am I here?” As I write this, it is Sunday morning and in a few hours church congregations will be meeting all over this nation. Just as I mentioned yesterday about walking into that grocery store and asking, “Why am I here?” This morning as we walk into churches let’s ask ourselves, “Why are we here?”

Recently I was presented with the question of why I am at my current church. For the next few days, within my own heart, I answered that question several times, and several times I was presented with that question again and again. I was surprised by some of my initial answers. Many of them had to do with me and what the church could do for me. Then the answer that was deep within my heart finally came out. “I am here to love — to love God and to love people.”

It reminded me of a scripture from First Corinthians 13.

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; now that I have become a man, I am done with childish ways and have put them aside… And so faith, hope, love abide… but the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:11,13; Amplified)

I heard a minister once say in reference to this scripture that a child tries to manipulate people to get what he or she wants. However, a mature man manipulates himself to be what others need.

Why are we going to church today? To love God and to be loved by Him. To love people and to learn how to take His love to others.

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Sent to Love

Carlyle said there was no truer gentleman in Europe than Robert Burns, the ploughman poet. It was because he loved everything — the mouse, and the daisy, and all things, great and small, that God had made. So with this simple passport he could mingle with any society, and enter courts and palaces from his little cottage on the banks of the Ayr. ~ Henry Drummond, The Greatest Thing in the World

With this simple passport — love.

In the heart of Africa, among the great Lakes, I have come across men and women who remembered the only white man they ever saw before — David Livingstone; and as you cross his footsteps in that continent, men’s faces will light up as they speak of the kind doctor who passed there years ago. They could not understand him; but they felt the love that beat in his heart. ~ Henry Drummond, The Greatest Thing in the World

Why am I here? What is my purpose? Those questions can be asked concerning our very existence, or they can be asked as we simply enter a room. As I enter the grocery store and ask myself that question, the answer can be as simple as “I’m here to get milk.” But there’s another answer to those questions that applies no matter where we are in life, in space and in time, “I am here to love.”

One day I was at the gas station when an older woman passed out. I rushed over to her. I placed something under her head as others called 911. I prayed for her. As she came to I gently smiled at her and told her it was going to be alright. I saw her many times after that. She was going through a very difficult time in her life and each time I saw her I knew what my purpose was for being in this woman’s life. I was there to love her.

A friend invited me to join a group of people from another church, from another denomination, in a home for prayer. At first I saw no reason to go, but I felt a nudge from God that I was to attend. So I went and as I sat there in that room full of strangers I thought to myself, “Why am I here?” And the answer was the same that it always is no matter where I go, “I am here to love.”

To be quite honest, I wasn’t there to show them my impressive prayer skills. I wasn’t there to impress them with my latest revelation from God. I wasn’t there to critique their prayer skills. I wasn’t there to see what they had to offer me. I was there to love. And that was reason enough for me.

Wherever you go today, whoever you meet today, don’t forget to take your passport. Don’t forget to love while you are there.

Love is the passport that helps you enter into any society and causes His light  in you to shine wherever you go.

Ye are the light of the world… Let your light so shine before men… (Matthew 5:14,16; KJV)

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HIV Healing

I know the title of this blog post may seem a little odd, but as I have monitored the hits on my blog for almost two years now, this is the search term that shows up almost daily. People looking for answers, looking for healing from a deadly disease. I’d like to address those people in need of healing, no matter what the disease, in today’s post and in future posts to come.

Let’s take a look at the Gospel (the Good News) found in the book of John chapter five beginning in verse two.

Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever diseases he had.

And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole? The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me. Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed and walk. And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed and walked…

Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.

This is one of the most beautiful accounts in the Bible. Why do I say that? Oh, just let me tell you what all is in this passage.

In verse two we are introduced to a Hebrew word Bethesda. Bethesda is made up of two Hebrew words bet, which means house, and hesda, which means mercy. The place where the sick came to be healed was at the house of mercy. This man was healed at the house of mercy. What is mercy for? It’s for when you didn’t do it all right. You made mistakes. You did some things maybe you shouldn’t have then mercy comes along to make it all right.

The Hebrew word hesda (mercy) comes from the root word hesed. What is hesed? God’s unfailing love. He has mercy on us, because He loves us. He wants to have mercy on you, because He loves you, no matter what you’ve done or haven’t done.

After the man is healed he runs into Jesus again. Jesus tells him at this time to sin no more, so that nothing worse comes on him. This man had sin in his life, but it didn’t stop him from getting healed. What is that? Mercy.

Jesus didn’t address the man’s sin until after he was healed. He then addresses it later. Why? Because He loves the man and he doesn’t want him to have anything worse to come upon Him. Was He saying, “I’ll make you worse if you mess up again”? NO, NO, NO, NO, NO! He was saying, “Sin has natural consequences and I don’t want that for you, because I love you.”

One part of the passage I didn’t share was where he was asked who healed him. The man didn’t know. He didn’t even know Jesus and he was healed. What’s that? That’s mercy. That’s God’s unfailing love at work.

Throughout the Gospel accounts men and women in need of healing came to Him and said, “Son of David have mercy on me.” Every person who uttered those words was healed. Their faith was not in their own faith, in their own abilities, or in their own works, their faith was in His mercy. Do you believe He is merciful?

O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His mercy and loving-kindness endure forever. (Psalm 136:1, Amplified)

It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:22-23, KJV)

…He delights in mercy… (Micah 7:18, Amplified)

He is merciful and He always will be, because He is love (1 Jn 4:8) and He always will be. He delights in mercy. He’s not put out with you because He has to show His mercy to you yet again. He delights in showing mercy.

His mercies are new every morning. The mercy you need today was waiting for you when you woke up this morning. It’s a free gift. Just say, “Lord, have mercy on me and heal me.” Then rest in the fact that He is faithful. He has heard you. He loves you and He delights in showing you mercy. Be healed in Jesus’ Name.

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To Have and to Hold

I love it when I read the Word of God and one little word comes alive with such depth and meaning it almost takes my breath away. Today, that one little word was the word “holds” found in Psalm 63:8.

I cling to you; your strong right hand holds me securely. (Psalm 63:8, NLT)

He holds me. The Creator of the Universe holds me securely in His hand.

As I was thinking about this, the phrase “to have and to hold” came up in my heart. It reminded me of some things I had heard concerning ancient Jewish betrothal customs. Here are just a couple.

The cup – “…the young man would pour a glass of wine for the young woman. If the young woman drank the wine, it would indicate her acceptance of the proposal.”

The preparing of a place – “During the betrothal period, the bridegroom would prepare a wedding chamber for the honeymoon. This chamber was typically built in the bridegroom’s father’s house.” (quoted info from http://www.iclnet.org)

This of course brings a few other scriptures to mind.

And He took a cup, and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, Drink of it, all of you; For this is My blood of the new covenant… (Matthew 26:27, NKJV)

There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. (John 14:2-3, NLV)

For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. (Ephesians 5:31-32, KJV)

The price of His blood was paid so that He could have me. And now that I am His, He is holding me. Selah.

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Speaking of Love

“I love you.”

Three words a parent says to their newborn as they hold them in their arms for the first time. Three words we hear from that special someone and realize this is for real, this is the one. Three words we heard from our Heavenly Father when we heard of the sacrifice of His Son on our behalf.

I am very thankful that after that first time my parents said those three words to me, they never stopped saying them. Forty years later they are still telling me of their love. I am thankful that my husband has continued to say them to me for the last eighteen years. And he has heard them and will continue to hear them from me.

There was a day when I heard for the first time about God’s love for me. As I read what His Son had done for me, along with the written words, I heard that still small voice say those three little words. “I love you.” His love changed everything in my life. His love changed me. And I am very thankful that every day since, I hear those three little words from My King.

As I read His word, I hear Him say, “I love you.” As I hold the communion elements, the bread and the cup, I hear Him say, “I love you.” As I see my prayers answered, I hear Him say, “I love you.” When I see His work in my life, through protection and provision, I hear Him say, “I love you.”

When fear or anxiety over a situation tries to rise up in my heart, I hear Him say, “I love you.” And all fear melts away.

When the enemy says I will never have my heart’s desire, or that I won’t be healed this time, I hear Him say, “I love you.” And all shadows of doubt fade in the Light of His Love. He is for me. So what or whom shall I fear?

As a parent we will forever be saying, “I love you”. As a wife or husband, we will forever be saying, “I love you.” For eternity He will hear me say, “I love You.”

And for eternity we will hear Him say, “I love you.”

He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love… (Song of Solomon 2:4, Amplified)

…love one another [just] as I have loved you. (John 15:12, Amplified)

I love You fervently and devotedly, O Lord… (Psalm 18:1, Amplified)