Breaking News: A Tornado Stole the Fire at a Picnic for the Mute

What a beautiful day for a picnic! ...Gray skies, billowing clouds, ominous thundering sounds in the distance, and debris flying everywhere around the picnic site, BUT EVERYONE IS OK, and NO ONE'S TALKING. The perfect setting for their annual Mute Picnic.

In Psalm 58 there is some amazing insight to God's attitude and actions towards those too quick in announcing their own personal righteousness(attained apart from the love of God's righteousness) but mute when it comes to righteous judgment (attained by ignoring God's love for sinners)... Very scary words like -
The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: Let them melt away as waters let them be as cut in pieces. As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away : like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun. PRETTY SCARY!!!

What is even scarier is that these people blend into the congregation of the Righteous...you know? (The Saved, the Born Again, His Kids) ...these people are found right in the midst of the assembly of God's people. These "Mute" actually have a contagious affect on the congregation as a whole.

As I was reading this I actually stumbled over this verse like one with impaired vision without his glasses trying to walk through a room of blurry obstacles ...Oh I love it when God makes me think about eternal concepts....

Psalm 58:9 Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind , both living, and in His wrath. Here is a loose but devotional translation of this statement ... Before your large cooking pan can begin to sense the start up heat needed to prepare for a much needed meal --a tornado will come in and remove not only those who are under the firey wrath of God but those who have been revived also. QUESTION ... Without a meal we have what???? ..........hunger. Without meals for a long period of time we have ...........starvation. Nothing available to put in the pot may be evidence of a famine.

Sounds alot like the lives of individuals all across this land ...NOTHING IN POT, TRYING TO START THE FIRE ...a whirlwind of useless activitiy all around them carries away their much needed sustenance from Above. Before they are even aware of the Famine, they are right in the middle of it.

Amos 8:11 KJV
Behold, the days come , saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:

Are we in the midst of this famine?

Micah 6:8 KJV
He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

Matthew 5:6 KJV
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled .

Don't go out like the mute assembly who shut their mouths when something is very wrong in the Kingdom.

HLFA,

Jeff

The Other Room - Beyond

I had a dream I could fly ...I would just take a deep breath, hold it and begin to float into the air ...If I did a little run and jump prior to the deep breath, I could put distance on the flight. It was awesome in the dream ...but didn't work at all once I was awake. Somewhat disappointed as a child, but the older I get I realize the power of being human, really human... In Christ.

Do you know something ???....there is a great gift to be found in our limitations as humans... REALLY.

One of Satan's biggest rip-offs is when he nudges us to believe we can magically do the impossible (this is incredibly tempting for some).

Another masterful lie that feeds our need for pity ...is that we have less potential than someone else ...comparisons kill dreams quicker than anything.

LET'S KEEP IT SIMPLE
Do not be something you are not.- that would make you a fake! Do not try to do the truly impossible.. you would have to fake it.
Be grateful for you ...God made you for full fellowship with Him in Christ ...Your limitations keep you trusting and reaching for Him.
BUT ... Use your limitations to the fullest. HUH?
I did not say.. do not dream: For dreams allow for new possibilities....................... but not impossibilities.

The impossible is God's department and He is wise enough to know when it is time to reveal it to us.
Ezekiel 36:26 - A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you:
and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh,
and I will give you an heart of flesh.

Do you have a tough time with perfect people? God does too ... He resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.

The most awesome thing about our God, while on this Earth, he spent time with the unremarkable of this world. He loved the unremarkable of this world.

My prayer is that the most remarkable thing about me would be my devotion to Jesus, and the things that might be considered remarkable about me by others would be one more avenue of service to others in the King most remarkable ... Jesus. Go ahead and fly ... preferably Southwest or some other air line .... and love others while you go!

HLFA,

Jeff

Into The Other Room - After 5:00 PM, October 12th

2 Corinthians 5 (personalized)

For she knew that if her earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, she would have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this she groaned , earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with her house which is from heaven: If so be that being clothed she would not be found naked.

In the Other Room. 
However, her present room was now filled with so many familiar voices ....faces somewhat familiar would float in and out of her field of vision. She tried so hard to focus on the clock on the wall but it seemed an impossible venture. The hands of this naughty clock would either continue a strange whirling dance or disappear into a blur, while alluding any fixed position. From one of the booming voices in the the room there was an anouncement of what day it was; "like this bit of information held some special significance" .... She would close her eyes and rest awhile...hoping to dream ...of the Other Room. Her rest would be deep, but soon interrupted by the smells, the sounds, the touches, hair stroking, forehead kisses, hand pats, hand rubs, vocal assurances, gentle tear wipes, and soft hugs. These expressions of a caring life were a constant barrage in her present room . In her waking moments there was always a flux of this barrage caused by welcome and unwelcome visitors, whose relentless questioning (without a stable resource for answers), made sleep a welcome retreat in which to escape. Too many challenges to remember "then" when she wasn't quite sure what was "now". 

Right there with her at all times was her constant friend called "Pain", and believe me , she knew this friend intimately. On-lookers could sense her pain while visiting, and not that she wanted them to sense it, but this made many of her visitors face their own mortality. She was very aware of this pain and definitiely had not requested nor requisitioned special supplies to ward off Pain's attacks. This friend was was pressing in on every vital organ in her body. As she was growing more feeble day by day, this friend was growing stronger and more in control of her situation. It was unfamiliar to hear her whining and she rarely complained unless this friend was pressing her mercilessly. This friend would continue to help her focus on things that last forever ... where the clutter of life would be gone and the simplicity of loves overwelming care would be known... soon ... in the Other Room.

She had little fear of this friend named "Pain" for she knew this friend would be her ticket to ...the Other Room. As she began to fail, the reality of the impossible began to flow from the comfort of the Other Room into her life. 

Some of her last brief expressions: "Impossible!" --- "Love people!" --- " I want to follow Him." --- "Do you get it now?" --- "I'm dying!" --- "I love you!"

Here is one of the descriptions of this room that she loved to hear in song form ...look at the words and imagine, fill in the blanks ...these are normal things that we face here but will not be present in the Other Room.

Revelation 21:4 - And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; (from their eyes) .....................

A Drastic change of tear wipers and there shall be no more death, ...............SEPERATION no more
neither sorrow, .............................................................................................MOURNING no more 

nor crying, .......................................CLAMOUROUS CRYING WITHOUT ANSWERS no more
neither shall there be any more pain:

..............................GREAT TROUBLE, INTENSE DESIRE, INSCRUTIABLE PAIN never again
for the former things are passed away ...the First things, familiar things ...are evanescent (fading away like a morning mist), gone. Forever.

This OTHER ROOM is nothing like here and now ... praise the One who has prepared this room for ..........Her and those who love Him too.

Theresa Redding/Lambe walked quietly into the Other Room on Tuesday, October 12th around 5:00 PM our time, to find "All things new in Jesus".

Jesus said : Let not your hearts be troubled you believe in God believe also in Me. For in My Fathers house are many mansions, if it were not so I would have told you. And I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am .. you may be... also.
John 14:1,2,3

HLFA,

Jeff

There will be a memorial service for Mom on Sunday November 14th at 3:00 PM at the Brethren Fellowship, Lincoln Way East, Chambersburg, PA 17201

Shib-aw-thah'-yim...Sevenfold...Again

You don't understand what I'm going through!!

You are right, but it is not me whose understanding needs an adjustment...needs focus ...needs to believe the truth not ignore it just because of your grave disappointment.
Or just because you think you have turned your back on God because you have cried "I Hate You!" (What child hasn't said that to his or her parent(s)?)
In fact your dissappointment with the situation actually has you blaming God because "if He really loved you He wouldn't let things like this happen". (Don't be affraid to face this ...face to FACE)
Go ahead and blame Him ...He is big enough to take it .... He is big enough to not let you go...

It's OK ...He was there during the offense , He is here here and totally in touch with the feelings of you're suffering He's not leaving just because you think you have pushed Him away ...GOD loves His kids more than that! Unless you are not His.

R U HIS?.......Listen closely .."He hath said, I will never leave you nor forsake you!" (Heb. 13:5)
We will throw the "NEVERS" around like we really can control that moment ...no one but GOD Himself can promise NEVER....we will always fail in the "NEVERS" and the "ALWAYS".

R U HIS? ....... And "Lo, I am with you ALWAYS even unto the end of the World."(Matt.28:20)

If so ...R U LISTENING? ......
And then comes the tempter pointing you in this direction: "unless ... I'm just to get over it and move on" (just get over it and move on)??? ..
And here is the place we want to quit: .."I don't know where to start"??? ...

Start by ending the act of making your heart sick (by putting off hope ...dragging it behind you ...instead of letting it rise before you)!

here is where we can walk down a familiar path and see what it was that we missed because "We are not healed!"

"shib-aw-thah'-yim"
Proverbs 10:28 The hope of the righteous shall be gladness: but the expectation of the wicked shall perish . "shib-aw-thah'-yim"
Proverbs 11:7 When a wicked man dieth, his expectation shall perish : and the hope of unjust men perisheth . "shib-aw-thah'-yim" ....
Proverbs 13:12 Hope deferred maketh the heart sick : but when the desire cometh , it is a tree of life."shib-aw-thah'-yim"

God deals in the sevenfold ...His love will meet you at the point of the offense and carry you though ...sevenfold.
Quit stacking the odds against you and trust His "Sevenfold" love for you. NEVER against you ...ALWAYS for you.

HLFA,

Jeff

God's Peek-a-boo

Such simple but wonderful entertainment for hours, days, weeks, months 

...for a baby who first becomes aware of his surroundings, "PEEK-A-BOO !"

... for a toddler who is wobbling from point A to point B,  "PEEK-A-BOO !"

... for a pre-schooler who is able to now run and hide,  "Allie -Allie - Home Free!"

... for an elementary schooler through the teen years who have learned to kick the can or get into a Sardine Can - Get's a little scarey when you are the last one searching ...waiting to have the wits scared out of you by the hiding group of quiet fish. "RAAAAAARRRR!"

...Into adulthood, we seem to think we don't need this game anymore, BUT we are the ones who seem to be most affected by "SURPRIZE!!"
Trusting Jesus has not made us immune to the need for this game ... maybe it has intensified the need by causing greater hunger and thirst for the ever aluding "righteousness" - "the presence of God". 

Have you ever said "God never does anything specific for me" ?  Have you ever felt left out from the blessings of God?
 
Isn't it amazing how we are left to ourselves right before a blessing? What????
 
Read what God has used the writer of Ecclesiastes to deliver to our hearts about the end of our lives:
Ecclesiastes 12:1-7

1 Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth,

 while the evil days (scarey days) come not, nor the years draw nigh ,

  when thou shalt say , I have no pleasure in them;

 
2 While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened , nor the clouds return after the rain (some dark days might be ahead):
 
3 In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble (hands get weaker) ,
and the strong men shall bow themselves (legs don't have the same strength),
and the grinders cease because they are few (teeth start having problems),
and those that look out of the windows be darkened (eyesight starts to fail) ,
 
4 And the doors shall be shut in the streets (more time spent inside),
when the sound of the grinding is low (work is not as important),
and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird (small things will startle you),
and all the daughters of musick shall be brought low (hearing begins to fade) ;
 
5 Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high (fear of falling) 
and fears shall be in the way  (fear of life's activities),
and the almond tree shall flourish (harvest passes you by ..time flys),
and the grasshopper shall be a burden (small things wear you out),
and desire shall fail (you may not even want to eat):
because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets:  --GET THE PICTURE?
 
6 Or ever the silver cord be loosed (graying -white hair?),
or the golden bowl be broken (loss of memory or stroke),
or the pitcher be broken at the fountain (loss of bodily functions),
or the wheel broken at the cistern (heart attack).
 
7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
 
It may seem to the disconnected observer that old age is a curse ...but to those willing to trust as a child and see ---
it appears that God is preparing us for the greatest , most wonderful game of PEEK-A-BOO that eternity has to offer
.......ABSENT FROM THE BODY, PRESENT WITH THE LORD.
 
Fear not what is ahead ...
"Peek-a-boo"
Jesus loves you!
 
And just as I was squinting... to see the buttons to push... for the password to the exit door ...........
 
HLFA,
 
Jeff