Actually I think it's funny! God has been one of my "Readers", He heard me spouting about having "patience" and decided to try mine!  When our cable went out at 3:10 pm and I began to call Comcast to report it, the frustration began. All my neighbors were calling and we all got different answers, the only common thread was that we were each told that no one had called to report an outage and unless/until that happened they would not send help. I got irritated and asked them to look at the amount of money I pay a month for their service and wondered if that didn't make me eligable for help even if no one else had called. To put it mildly, their advertisement of wanting to care for and appreciate their customers did not happen for me nor three of my neighbors that were affected. About the time I was ready to scream, it struck me funny! I thought about all the scriptures and lofty words I had been writing about patience and love and I had to just laugh at myself for not realizing that I was just before magnificently failing the test to see if I believed what I had been teaching! Lesson learned! I wanted to say that I was glad God wasn't like Comcast where I was put on hold repeatedly and then told it would be three days before I got helped because not enough people had called, but then I remembered a story found in John 11(exerpts) So the sisters sent word to Jesus, "Master, the one you love so very much is sick." When Jesus got the message, he said, "This sickness is not fatal. It will become an occasion to show God's glory by glorifying God's Son."Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, but oddly, when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed on where he was for two more days. After the two days, he said to his disciples, "Let's go back to Judea."......"He said these things, and then announced, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep. I'm going to wake him up."The disciples said, "Master, if he's gone to sleep, he'll get a good rest and wake up feeling fine." Jesus was talking about death, while his disciples thought he was talking about taking a nap.Then Jesus became explicit: "Lazarus died. And I am glad for your sakes that I wasn't there. You're about to be given new grounds for believing. Now let's go to him."  Did you notice (v 1) that Lazarus is referred to as "the one you love very much" and then again "he loved Lazarus and his sisters very much!" But He waited three days before he went to help, why? So that God would be glorified in Lazarus being raised from the dead! Point taken, sometimes we have to wait, didn't I already say that? I was more thinking of the parable where the Shepherd goes after the one lost sheep while leaving the ninety-nine behind, or pictured Him telling the disciples to bring the children to Him, while the others had to wait!When I finally realized that and irritation gave way to mirth, I found a lady named Carla who solved the whole thing and within thirty minutes I was back on-line and able to do what I feel I have been called to do...be an exhorter with the written word in the form of this simple little devotional blog! Be blessed, pray, but not for patience, you get a test!

When I was a little girl I thought my daddy was the biggest, strongest man there could ever be, Superman certainly had nothing on him! When I was five we lived in Lockhart, S.C. It was a "Mill Village", which meant that everyone who lived there worked for the mill. I don't remember what they made, may have been sheets, towels, I am not sure. The street we lived on had a dead end and the church my dad pastored was at the end of that street. Little identical houses lined both sides of the street, we lived in one of those small houses. The Superintendant of the Mill took a liking to the "preacher" and when one of the foremans moved, he decided to let us move into that larger house, it was high on the side of a hill. There was no refridgerator in that house so we were to take our old one there. No one was avaliable to help move it so daddy wrapped a big leather belt around it and somehow attached it to his back.  I can still see the ladies and young boys standing with wide, unbelieving eyes watching my super dad hoist that big fridge on his back and walk it up that hill, sweat pouring off that big, crooked, Armenian nose. As I have grown older, so has he, so that now I know that his physical body is not invincible, as I had once believed, I offer him a helping arm. Oh he is still very strong, I tease him that he "dead-lifts" 230 pounds every time he stands up, because he has to push himself to his feet using the strength of his massive arms and chest, but still, he is old. Psalm 34:2 My soul shall make its boast in the Lord; the humble shall hear of it and be glad. As a child we are convinced of our daddy's greatness and will say "My dad can do anything"; then we realize that he is indeed human. However, for the child of God, the opposite is true, as we grow in understanding of the greatness of our Lord. As growth increases our awareness of His greatness, both in His love for us and in His power toward us, we will become increasingly more dependant on Him to direct us and enable us. That defines "walking in the Spirit". Then we increase in our desire for childlike worship-ready praise that is vocal and visible in our celebration of Him! Psalm 131:1-3 Lord my heart is not haughty, nor my eyes lofty. Neither do I concern myself with great matters, nor with things too profound for me. Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul, Lke a weaned child with his  mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. ...hope in the LORD from this time forth and forever. In this Psalm David is describing himself as a small child, looking to God for everything in the way a child looks to its mother. True maturity looks less and less to our own wisdom for answers or to our own earthly strength for results and trusts the Father entirely. Then when God moves on our behalf, we will find ourself bragging about Him to anyone who will hear it! It is important to ask ourselves if people know who our "Daddy God" is. My Daddy God has been so good to me, He answers all my prayers, yes ALL, sometimes He has to tell me no, but even when He does say no, I always end up undertanding why...that's how good He is. Sometimes it seems that He looks down the road and "knows before I call" and "answers while I am yet speaking!"

Be blessed, Pray, brag on your Daddy God a little!

While some are having vacations and BBQ parties, there are others who are steeped in problems and heartache and it seems no one wants to hear about it. It is to that second group that I say: Hello all you Davids'out there, a man often in deep trouble!  David was an exceptional young man, a shepherd, a poet, a song writer, a King and a man after God's own heart, who came to a valley of decision, prevailed (withstood) and won! When I compared us in God's armor to David trying to wear Saul's armor it just stayed in my mind, so I am back...with David. Young David went to take food to his brothers, fighting at the front line, and heard a roar going up from a "bragadocius" giant named Goliath. The Philistines and the men of Israel were on standing on hills on opposite sides of a valley. That valley belonged to Judah ,the tribe of Praise, and the Philistines were determined to fight for it and win. This story could be in tomorrow's headlines, couldn't it?  It is said that the first thing on your mind in the morning and the last thing on your mind before you go to sleep are the most important things in your life. Goliath made sure that the first thing the Israelites heard in the morning and the last thing before they went to sleep was his brags about tearing them to pieces and feeding their bodies to the birds!Well let's cut out all the details for the sake of space and say that David convinced Saul to let him have a shot at the giant (sling shot that is). David was part of the tribe of Judah and had been raised to praise God, abiding in praise as you can read in his Psalms, and this was HIS valley too! He RAN toward the Giant spinning that slingshot and even though he had chosen 5 smooth stones, it only took ONE! BANG, right in the only unprotected spot on his head, between his eyes, and down he went! When we are facing a giant who is trying to take away our property, our praise, our happiness, we must face him head on and throw that stone of prayer and praise and down him! David then jumped up on his chest and cut off his head (this is rated PG13 for violence). He took that head into his tent and put it on a pole! The head represents authority, we take authority over the giants in our lives when we ask God in the name of Jesus and use stones made from the blood He shed on the Cross! When He died for us He gave us the authority to be-head our giants (problems). John 14:12-14"Believe me: I am in my Father and my Father is in me. If you can't believe that, believe what you see—these works. The person who trusts me will not only do what I'm doing but even greater things, because I, on my way to the Father, am giving you the same work to do that I've been doing. You can count on it. From now on, whatever you request along the lines of who I am and what I am doing, I'll do it. That's how the Father will be seen for who he is in the Son. I mean it. Whatever you request in this way, I'll do. Face it, Jesus healed crippled and blind and lepors and raised the dead...if he left us with the power to do what He did, then can't we at least face our giants knowing that He will be there for us? YES we can! Come on David, sing a Psalm, let's start with a verse from 91:15-16 He shall call on Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him, with long life I will satisfy him, and show him My salvation! That is God giving us HIS promise to be with us when we face our giants, and He, unlike some of us, KEEPS His promises! Be blessed, Pray and Face your giants with praise!