Daily Light July 15

Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Bless the LORD, you his angels, might in strength, who preform His Word, obeying the voice of His Word! Bless the LORD, all you His hosts, you who serve Him, doing His will.

For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. -I delight to do Thy will, O my God; Thy Law is within my heart. -He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, "My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Thy will be done."

Not everyone who says to Me, "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. -For not the hearers of the Law are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified. -If you know these things, you are blessed if your do them. -Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do, and does not do it, to him it is sin.

Matt 6:10, Ps 103:20-21, John 6:38, Ps 40:8, Matt 26:42, 7:21, Rom 2:13, John 13:17, James 4:17 NAS

On Being Prolife

While in Sunday school this morning, the subject of abortion and a Pro-life stand came up as a side issue. All the usual words about the right of the child. All words that I deeply and whole heartedly agree with. But sitting there in my Sunday school class, surrounded by like minded friends, it occurred to me that the church is allowing the world to lead the discussion, even in our private, one-sided talks.

Does a prolife stand start with a crisis pregnancy?
It is my view that by the time a woman has a crisis pregnancy, many life affirming principals have already been violated. The question of choose life or choose death is almost an afterthought to the sin that has lead to this crisis. I know this might be a little bit uncomfortable, but for me, being prolife is not about the fetus or an unwed mother. And it isn’t about the ability to finance a child.

I have never tried to nail down just how I explain what I believe. Before I start, I want to say that Jesus accepts us right where we are. The debt of our sin has been paid. The pain of the sin that was committed against us will be exchanged for the comfort of His own Holy Spirit if only we are willing to accept that by acknowledging His Lordship of our life by faith. (Send me a note if you want to know more)

My world view says that being prolife means one man who keeps his vow of marriage to one woman for as long as they both shall live. Being prolife also means that you walk away from violence. It means that mothers and fathers put their spouse above the children that they have. I do not know just how a man’s heart works, but I know that there is something about becoming a mother that changed my whole life. Not only would I have been willing to give a kidney for my child, I would give my heart, step in front of a charging bear, or just put their needs before my own. I knew love before I became a mother, but I did not know the love that would give up everything for someone else.

Being prolife means that I love my husband with a greater love then the love that I have for my child. Why? Because my children need me to love my husband to grow up with a healthy understanding of true love. They should not feel the emptiness that drives so many to “hook up” and give away what is meant to be kept until marriage vows are said.

Being prolife means that we are careful with our daughters not assuming that others can be trusted with our little girls. There are predators in the neighborhood and they target our little girls.

Being prolife means that we protect the eyes of our sons. I know that I failed my sons in this area. It isn’t just from movies and porn. All it took was a pretty girl holding a Thrush Muffler in a car magazine to make my sons sit up and pay attention. Three times in the Song of Solomon it says to not arouse or awaken love before the proper time. (SOS 2:7, 3:5 and 8:4). Because it is addressed to “the daughters…” it may be easy to believe that this is for girls. But I say that this is also for our sons. Protecting their eyes is not just about dictating what a woman can wear. It is about NOT encouraging our daughters with positive feed back for looking sexy (they look desirable even in school uniforms) but about teaching our sons to protect their eyes, to see a woman instead of a possible hook-up. How can we do that unless their dads honor their vows to their wives, putting each other before all else.

Unexpected pregnancies happen. Mother and child need loving support (mom will have enough fear and condemnation for herself without our help). I would hang from the chandelier to support mom in a choice for life. But lets not let the world lead the discussion, I want to talk of prolife in how I live and teach my children BEFORE there is a crisis.

The 11th Hebrew letter, Koph

The palm of the hand. The palm is the "wing" of the hand. The child of God lives in the refuge of the shadow of the wings, the hands of God... in His hands where our name is written (Is. 49:15).

Many who are dear to me believe that we can walk away from God, loose our salvation. They have good doctrine for making their point. But I have security in knowing that no matter what, my name is written on His palm, and as surly as there is a nail scare, there is my name, never to be forgotten.

In Hebrew, the hand is where the power is actualized. That is the reason we are to put our palms together when we pray. Palms together suggests calling on the power of the Spirit to be made manifest in our lives. It is the reason we are to lift our hands to the Lord, ready to receive his power when we praise his Name, a confession that our power is actually His.

We are his hands (and feet) in this world. We can do nothing on our own, but because of the sacrifice of the Son of God, by His nail pierced hands, we stand clean, ready to do His work in this world by his power.

Here I am, ready to start my day, with all my ideas, plans, hopes... but until I put my hands together in prayer, to seek his will rather then my own, to live by faith rather then sight, I have no power to accomplish the will of my Lord. No doubt he keeps me, no doubt I cannot be snatched from his hand, and often that is enough. Yet, on days like today when I long to do His will, to know that when I see Him face to face I can know the joy of "well done thou good and faithful servant", I take a moment, put my hands together and seek his face in the shadow of his hands.

July 11, 2009
Mrs. Hagerty

Chris and I took the dogs to Mukilteo Beach for an evening walk. Beautiful night after a blah day. I did not think that I would like this park once the city took it over from the state, but they have done a lovely job with it. The tide was in so we could not go far. Still, we had to go somewhere. Bible Study is canceled until August because of vacations.

I love Wednesday night Bible Study. Maybe even more then I like Sunday morning church. The time spent in a home with dear friends, studying the Word, praying, even just laughing. It gives me a charge that I need to keep my heart from turning inside of itself.

We are in the book of Luke, and probably will be for a long time at the rate we go. But I like the pace. Slow enough to keep up with serious study in the midst of our busy week. At least one question came up last week, maybe two. I'm not sure if one of them was my own, unspoken question or if it came up in the group.

Our passage was Luke 4:31-44. The first question has to do with understanding the word, "rebuked" as in;

And Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be quiet and come out of him!"... Luke 4:35a

Zodhiates tells me that Messiah censored (to suppress objectionable content) the demon.

I understand that He did this to the demon, but why? Where is the harm in the proclamation that Jesus is, "the Holy One of God!"? Shouldn't that be a help to him?

I have noticed that the congregation was amazed by his authority. Authority looks like a theme in Luke chapter 4. The chapter begins with the devil's temptations. The second temptation has to do with authority. The devil has authority over all of the world. He gained it from Adam, the rightful steward of the world. But Adam lost it when he sinned. Now, in Luke 4, the devil says that he will give the authority of the world to Jesus if only Jesus will bow down and worship the devil. Instead, Jesus resists the devil and the authority that he already has begins to shine. People see it and are amazed. So, what (you may wonder) does this have to do with the rebuke of the demon who says that he knows who Jesus is.

I was born-again in a little Pentecostal church in Lake Stevens, Washington. The congregation had a practice of rebuking demons in Jesus name. But they insisted that they did not have authority over the demon unless they new who it was by name or title. I did not much buy into the practice. But I wonder now if that is not exactly what the demon is doing. When he tells Jesus to mind his own business (what do we have to do with you?) he adds that he knows who he is, in the same way the Pentecostals did back in Lake Stevens while engaging in spiritual warfare. Was this his way of trying to assert authority over Jesus?

Jesus shut him up. The one who shut the mouth of lions for Daniel, shut the mouth of the wicked. This same Jesus has promised to never leave me, to never forsake me. The truth of his voice sets me free from the roaring lion of Peter. Truly, what can anyone say to discourage me.

Let me hear your voice my dear Jesus!

Picnic at Ben's house

It was a rare, brilliant day in the PNW for Independence day 2009. Ray and I took the dogs out in the morning for a run to Spencer Island to place Ray's Geo-Cache. Then we went to Robe Valley to pick up Jason and have a picnic at our nephew, Ben's home.

Jason and Dennis had hiked up to Pinnacle Lake that morning. You can see Jason's new do for the day. His poor head was all sun burnt where there used to be hair.

Dennis with Rebecca's son Derick at the kid's table.

Don and Doreen were their with Don's dog, Toby. Chris came later in the day.

Rebecka's Red, White and Blue Shortcakes.

Surprise

Sometimes work has an immediate reward!

I'm out hacking away at the mess that has grown outside of the fence when the glisten of rubies catches my eyes. Now I wonder if these will be pie or just sprinkled on ice cream? Either way, yum. These little black berries that we prize in the Pacific Northwest are all up and down the bluff outside the fence.