Rest Your Hope

 

Let’s rest our hope
upon the grace

brought to us
by Christ

being obedient
and not conforming

to former lusts
and vice.

**********

“Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ,”

“as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance, . . .”

1 Peter 1:13,14 NKJV

**********

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Glory And Brilliance

 

Blessed are you
when you do

what I ask
you to

for you will see
My glory

and promises
come true .

**********

Lord, I long to see You glorified.

**********

“Moses and Aaron went into the Tent of Meeting, and when they came out they blessed the people, and the glory and brilliance of the LORD [the Shekinah cloud] appeared to all the people [as promised]. Leviticus 9:25 AMP

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The Things Which He Suffered

 

 

You learned obedience
through suffering

even though You are
God’s Son

and being perfected
became the Author

of our eternal
salvation.

**********

I can learn obedience for You are with me.

**********

“. . . though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered”

“And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.”

Hebrews 5:8,9. NKJV

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That Very Same Day

 

As God said
to him

so Abraham
did

that very
same day

he circumcised
them.

**********

I can do what You tell me, for You are with me.

**********

“So Abraham took Ishmael his son, all who were born in his house and all who were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house, and circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very same day, as God had said to him.”

Genesis 17:23 NKJV

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Willing

 

I know You
will help me
do all You ask
me to

for You love me
and desire
my willing walk
with You.

You establish my willing obedience.

“So I spoke to the people in the morning, and at evening my wife died; and the next morning I did as I was commanded.” Ezekiel 24:18 NKJV

Obey My Word

 

Oh what adventures
await

each time you
obey

feeling My power
within

seeing My glory
displayed.

You establish an obedient life for me.

” ‘Will you not receive instruction to obey My word,’ says the LORD.” Jeremiah 35:13 NKJV

Cause Me To Know

“Cause me to hear Your
lovingkindness in the morning,
For in You do I trust;
Cause me to know the way in
which I should walk,
For I lift up my soul to You.”  Psalm 143:8

I am noting that David doesn’t say “cause me to see You, Lord”, in this portion of scripture.

Lord, please help me to exercise my faith – to hear You and know You even when I’m not seeing what I want to see.  And here’s a simple poem . . .

Relying On Him

bonneylake-sumner.patch.com

Cause me to hear You
when I can’t see

cause me to know the way
You have for me

let me not rely
only on sight

but trust in You
my Lord, my Delight.

Inside Israel – First installment – Passover

 

Hi and welcome to a look inside Israel today, as our sis in Jerusalem shares about the Passover preparations!  Thank you and God bless you as you read and pray! Now, here she is . . .

Beloved sisters and brothers,

 

 I look forward to sitting down to write to you because I picture you – and over the years I have grown to stand in love with the body, His body, more and more in wonder.  May each of you be blessed and encouraged in Him.  May we all draw nearer to Him in spirit and in truth.  May His Word be our delight and daily food and may we walk in it for His glory alone, particularly as the time grows short. 

 

I’ve had a repetitive ‘message’ in my heart lately, actually growing in intensity, ‘to be ready’- ‘prepare’.  That is the wonderful thing about The Lord; I don’t need to know ‘WHAT’ exactly it is that I must be ready for, but He leads in the preparations of heart and path ANYWAY.  That gives me such peace!  I have ‘suggestions’ in my heart, and some understanding, but most real to me in this time is:

 “Trust in The Lord with all of your heart and lean not unto your own understanding.  In all of your ways acknowledge Him and He WILL direct your path”. Proverbs 3:3-5.

 

These ‘instructions’ that I have felt so deeply in my heart of late are reflected in the natural as well, as it is time to prepare for Passover – Pesach in Hebrew. 

 

Pesach begins a month after Purim.  If you have been reading these letters over the past 18 years, you know that the preparations for Pesach are INTENSE!  Several years ago the rabbis grew alarmed that so many women were having nervous breakdowns and even committing suicide during this preparation season of cleaning and ‘koshering’ the home, and they realized that many women became deeply burdened trying to remove every possible crumb of leaven from their homes.  When I say ‘intense’ I mean that people on the third floor were removing screens from windows and boiling them, least there have been a ‘dust of leaven’ caught in the screen.  Scrubbing every crack in the home with toothbrushes when you have 8 or 10 children can be quite a challenge.  Many people felt compelled to REPLACE sofas, refrigerators, stoves…and for some…ALL furniture, because there MIGHT be some leaven stuck somewhere.  The ‘joke’ was; ‘And we thought we were slaves in EGYPT!’, but there was much more truth to that then ‘joke’. Then there is the replacing of all of the food and the cooking for 20 or more people…the list drove many women to true madness.  THANKFULLY, the rabbis began to speak with one mouth the message that God was more interested in the leaven in the heart then a possible crumb in an undiscovered corner…AND…encouraging women to remember that dust is not leaven.  In other words, preparing the house for Pesach does not necessarily mean that it needs to be immaculately clean.  The commandment is simply that there is to be no leaven seen in our homes for 8 days. It has not done away with all striving, particularly in the most religious communities, but it has seemed to lessen the panic as Pesach rapidly approaches.   

 

Pesach is perhaps the most significant of all of the prescribed holy days in Judaism for many reasons.  What a beautiful and deep study the study of Pesach is, and it is surprisingly marvelous to many at just how much the observance of Pesach has remained the same since it was commanded by God to the Jewish people some 5,000 years ago. 

I myself look with wonder as the preparations begin yearly…seemingly planted into our very genetic material…similar to the migration of animals; they lift their noses to the wind and ‘know’…it is time to move.  So it seems with us.  ‘Prepare for Pesach!’

 

All of the foundational meaning and directions for the observance of the holyday are found in the book of Exodus, clearly laid out.  During the years that we raised our children in the ‘diaspora’ or ‘exile’ (how BLESSED I was to be ‘exiled’ in such a wonderful land!) we used the book of Exodus as our ‘haggada’ during our Pesach ‘seder’.  A haggada is a small book read through the ‘seder’ meal – which literally means ‘order’ (as there is a prescribed ‘order’ to the meal and ceremony).  The content of the haggada has changed over the years and each community has their own style and content, although they all contain the basic story of Passover.  History and traditions of each community is added to their haggada over the years (sometimes they don’t change their haggada for 100 years or more and continue the reading of the teachings of the old sages as they wrote many years before) but the little beautifully illustrated ancient books are used in each home during the seder meal.  As I said…we used the book of Exodus and we added in the fulfillment scriptures proclaiming The Lamb of God Who came to take away the sin of the world.  We wondered at the Precious Blood that spoke of better things then the blood of Abel and washed our sins away as the blood of lambs and goats couldn’t do…The Blood that, applied to the doorposts of our hearts, prevails even today…and we worshipped The Risen Lord even as we ate the unleavened bread and recounted the extraordinarily intricate perfect plan of God from its inception!  It is quite a vivid revelation to understand that sin costs dearly…that God gave us a perfect picture of just how awful sin is in His sight- and how loudly blood speaks!…that the death of a pure innocent lamb was needed to cover the awfulness of sin…and it still is…but has been paid once and for all at the cost of even greater pain.  What a mystery, so full of love and pain and exquisite wisdom that His children would follow Him in His way!  And yet we haven’t.  How can this be? 

 

Oh, but I am WAY ahead of myself!  Forgive me for getting caught up in the meaning of Pesach.  It is part of the preparation of my heart personally. 

 

(Stay tuned for part 2!)

ani b’derek

Rejoicing In The Middle

“He turned the sea into dry land;
They went through the river on foot.
There we will rejoice in Him.”  Psalms 66:6

How many of us are in the middle of the river, on foot, right now?

Oh Lord, we desire to rejoice in You right now, before we even know what the outcome will be.  And here’s a simple poem . . .

We’re There

ohealerhealthyself.blogspot.com

How did it feel there
between the walls of water
walking on the sea’s bottom
following the way He’d made?

Let us rejoice now
in the middle of the miracle
that happens each time
we trust Him and obey.

Finding Favor

“Now Esther had not yet revealed her kindred and her people just as Mordecai had charged her, for Esther obeyed the command of Mordecai as when she was brought up by him.”  Esther 2:20

Esther still obeyed Mordecai after she had found favor in the sight of all who saw her . . .after the king loved her and made her queen instead of Vashti.

Lord, we desire to please You and find favor by being obedient to You always.  And here’s a simple poem . . .

Trusting To Obey

Source – wordofmouthministries.blogspot.com

Obedience
becomes a matter

of us
trusting Him

enough to
obey others

knowing He is
over them.