More on Tears

Just because the tears come, doesn't mean the joy of the Lord has gone away. God made us emotional beings and one of the ways we show that emotion is through tears. So, it's ok.

The shortest verse in the Bible is about Jesus and His tears. John 11:35 "Then Jesus wept." In previous verses it says that Jesus was angry in His spirit after seeing and hearing the unbelief around Him. In fact, it says in verse 33 that Jesus was "deeply troubled." Even as they walk along to the grave of Lazarus, "...Jesus was still angry as he arrived at the tomb..." I think there is a blog here for later.

Jesus isn't the only person that wept, we can read of many who have shed tears. Psalm 69, David, the King of all Israel wept, many times! Another King, Hezekiah cried, Isa. 38:3. Now we come to the fishermen. We've known many fishermen, loggers, construction guys and the entire 25 years we lived in Alaska I never saw one fisherman, logger or builder shed a tear. Doesn't mean they didn't!

Peter, the great fisher of men spent three and a half years with Jesus, but in the end when he was tested, he failed because he denied his friend, the Son of God, Jesus. Matthew 26:75 "Peter wept bitterly." What bitter tears to have because of betrayal. God wasn't through with Peter though. God is the Author and Finisher of our faith and He faithfully did that job in Peter's life and now we have the epistles and life of Peter to be blessed by.

Others, the remaining disciples wept at the death of Jesus, Mk. 16:10, Mary washed the feet of Jesus with her tears, Luke 7:44. Paul serving the Lord with many tears, Acts 20:19. In Acts 20:31 because of Paul's constant watch care over the church, he cried night and day. Toward the end of his journey here on earth, Paul wrote that he had many tears for the church at Corinth because of the love he had for them.

So while we are here on earth, we will have tears. If tears don't come out of your eyes, they may have gotten stuck at the top of your throat. It's ok. One of these days we will be released from tears. But, in the meantime they are important enough to God that He stores them all in a bottle.

"I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, Look, God's home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever." Rev.21:3-4 NLT

Heros

Thinking about my list of heros. It's a big one! Over the years it changed, but many of the old heros have remained.

When we were kids our big heros were the soldiers, marines, navy, the whole bunch. Four of my uncles served the entire time of WWII. There were the baseball heros, Brooklyn Dodgers all the way! No, I didn't make a mistake, I know they are the LA Dodgers now!

When I got saved in 1960, my #1 Hero on the list was Jesus, and remains the same today. Jim was replaced as #1 for Jesus! Second on my list is Jim, he's my hero everyday too. Jesus is my Hero because He gave His life for me when I deserved nothing from Him. Family members are my heros!

Bible heros. Ordinary people who say yes to the Lord and change the world they lived in. In spite of great adversity. By His power, they got the job done. Noah, Abraham, Joseph, David, Gideon, Esther, Deborah, Nehemiah, Ezra, Jeremiah, Peter, Paul. God calls ordinary people who are sure they can do nothing on their own, but with the God of the universe, can do all things.

Church heros. Early saints and martyrs who lived and died for Christ. His name the most important thing to them. Every pastor and Church leader today that keep their eyes on Jesus and the vision He has for the Church are my heros. No adversity will ever stop the work of the Church. We have some heros in TRC!

Who do you have on your list??

Tears

"You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book." Psalms 56:8

We try so hard to keep those tears back sometimes. So hard in fact, some of us have been taught to not cry! Problem with that is, the tears get stuck somewhere in us. God has a solution for everything! The only thing we have to do is let them come, and He will do the rest. When our tears are collected, God is telling us He cares about those things. He keeps them as a memorial so we don't have to.

I first wrote about tears in 1977. They still keep coming! The past two weeks had many tears for many people. Last weekend was one of those times. I've had to wait until today to be able to write anything about the events. The Memorial weekend for Joe and Linda Knight didn't have the edge to the tears that has been there before. In fact, the Gala night was a night of resoration and healing. We never met Joe and Linda but we love the church that has come out of their legacy. New strength is here. Some old things passed away and the vision for the Church is ahead. The Lord isn't the only One saying, "Go, go!"

We saw and heard tears on Saturday night, but it was time. It was meant to be. Now there are more tears in the bottle.

I wonder if God intends our collected tears to be His river in heaven? Rev. 22:1-2

This I Know...

Two little words, "you know" or "I know". Everything can have its up and down times but when we say "I know..." these are the words from the Bible that makes everything steady. I started looking up verses with "I know" and "you know," or "we know" and discovered that God has caused His people to "know" some very important, stablizing truths for all times and especially during rocky times.Here are a few of them. Add to your list when you run across them in your study of the Bible.

"But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and he will stand on the earth at last." Job19:25

"Those who know your name trust in you, for you, O Lord, do not abandon those who search for you." Ps.9:10

"Be still, and know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world." Ps. 46:10

"We believe, and we know you are the holy one of God." John 6:69

"... I know the one in whom I trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until the day of his return." 2Tim.1:12

"And we can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments." 1John2:3

"This is how we know we are living in him. Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did." 1John2:6

"...the Holy One has given you his Spirit, and all of you know the truth." 1John2:20

"We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us." 1John3:16

"My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. And hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him." 1John3:18-19

"Those who obey God's commandments remain in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know he lives in us because the Spirit he gave us lives in us." 1John3:24

"We know that God's children do not make a practice of sinning, for God's Son holds them securely, and the evil one cannot touch them. We know that we are the children of God and the world around us is under the control of the evil one." 1John5:18-19

Have you noticed the epistle of John seems to be the book of "know?"

Here's another, do you know this one?

"Jesus loves me this I know,
for the Bible tells me so..."

All Bible verses are taken from KJV or NLT

Stand

That's the way we get the victory, standing. Read this command the Lord gave Moses when it was his time to stand. Exodus 8:20 "Then the Lord told Moses, Get up early in the morning and STAND IN PHARAOH'S WAY as he goes down to the river [one of the worship objects of all Egyptians, the Nile River]. Say to him, This is what the Lord says: Let my people go, so they can worship me."

It probably was the last thing Moses wanted to do. He stuttered, had no confidence in his abilities given him by God. Couldn't quite trust God all the way, in spite of numerous assurances. Moses obeyed, maybe his knees were shaking, but he was standing. God was faithful to all he promised Moses and because of God's faithfulness, Moses was the great leader of his people out of slavery.

All of us have been where Moses was, scared. Moses had good reason, Israel had been slaves to Egypt over 400 years and he was told by God to stand in the way of the slave master. But, the more he trusted the Lord, the stronger Moses was.

It's time to stand. Right in front of Pharaoh. The Pharaoh for us today is anything and everything that holds us prisoner and keeps us from worshiping God with all that we are. We've been fasting for liberty, freedom, breakthrough and that's exactly what the Lord wants to give us. Time to rise early and stand.

The Debt

Pastors Jeff and Melinda have led us well in the Awakening21 fast these last weeks. Jim and I have been reading Isaiah 58 every day and one phrase keeps sticking out in my heart; "...cancel debts." Isa. 58:8 MSG. Talk about flying in the face of American culture! If I can use an analogy, our cultural 'scripture' would say: "Show me the money," or, "You owe me." This is not a call to abandon our contract debts, this has more to do with forgiving personal offense. However, God is blessed when we forgive money debt too.

Matt. 18:21-35 is the parable Jesus told about the unmerciful servant who refused to forgive the debt of a fellow servant. They were ALL servants of the king, ALL in the same boat, but one chose to hold on to the debt and threw his fellow servant into prison for non-payment of the debt. Of course, in prison there is no way the servant will ever be able to repay the debt. Forever in debt. That's the way unforgiven offenses are, holding the person in the prison of our making, except we are the ones that end up in prison too. At some point we will come face to face with the king.

I see Isaiah 58 as a call to spiritual maturity in the body of Christ. This is the meat of the word. This is a scripture that if we take it to heart will eternally change us. Another step in faith to faith, glory to glory. This is the denying of self just to please Christ who has given all for us. This is one of the greatest breakthrough scriptures in the Bible. This is the rhema that sets us free from the degradation of offense when it lingers. This is the scripture that will lead us out of offense or help us forgive the offense before it gets deeply into our hearts. This is what we are fasting and praying for. God does what He says He will do, this is His covenant with us who will follow His word. God says "if" and "then." The 'if' part is ours to do, the 'then' part is what God will do when we first do the 'if.' No mistaking anything in this scripture, God is ready to do exactly what He says He will do.

Why are we fasting and praying? Is it not... Fill in the blank space. When God does a work, it is mighty. Expect to see Him do just what He promised.

God bless you in this great step of faith.

Days

No, I do not have the ability to see Jim's blue eyes on twitter. That's what happens when you blog early in the morning. But I can text him and say, come home so I can see your blue eyes and ask how your day was! This blog idea began with the twitter from Down Under, Pastor Brian Houston; "Gidday." Wonder what we tweets made of that day the 20th? All our days and nights are from the God who created them and all things.

"Then God said, 'Let there be light.' And God saw that the light was good. Then he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light 'day' and the darkness 'night.' And evening passed and morning came, marking the first day." Genesis 1:3-5.

As I wrote the blog titled "Twitter," there was a new blog moving around in my brain about days. YesterDAYS, toDAYS, future Days, and the decisions we make in this gift of days we are given by God. Making it count every day, or just floating by in this life. Putting decisions on the shelf somewhere or taking steps in faith when we don't know what the outcome will be. (Marriage is like that, a step of faith whether we know it or not.) No one can know what the future holds for us, but our days are made up of many decisions. Some small, some very big, some excruciating.

One DAY Abram (Abraham) heard God tell him to leave his country and family for a place he knew nothing about. It must have been like taking the last known stairstep into darkness. But he followed God's will and it has changed and influenced the entire Church. One day, one obedient man.

Days pass and before we know it, we are moving into the seventh decade, at least I am! There is nothing we can do to change any day we have lived, just thank the Lord we had every day, because our times are in His hands. He is the one who uses each day for His glory no matter what happened or didn't happen. God said the light of day was good, I'm thanking God for the light of every one of my days.

Today is a new day, a gift. Tell someone you love them. The new day is opportunity. Surprise. Open doors, closed doors. Laughter, lots of that. (One twitter friend said she had a goal of 25 laughs for the day, excellent!) Encouragement. New steps of faith. How about this one? Sunday is another opportunity to worship with family and friends. Jesus is worthy of all praise! God wants us to have breakthrough, so come ready to praise.

I can't imagine a more exciting day to be living in than the 21st century. Whatever the day holds, give it everything you've got!