Psalm 91
1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will saya to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”
3 For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler
and from the deadly pestilence.
4 He will cover you with his pinions,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
5 You will not fear the terror of the night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
6 nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.
7 A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
8 You will only look with your eyes
and see the recompense of the wicked.
9 Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place—
the Most High, who is my refuge—
10 no evil shall be allowed to befall you,
no plague come near your tent.
11 For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways.
12 On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.
13 You will tread on the lion and the adder;
the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.
14 “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him;
I will protect him, because he knows my name.
15 When he calls to me, I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will rescue him and honor him.
16 With long life I will satisfy him
and show him my salvation.””
Romans 12:2
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Romans 12:18
If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
If being popular and having a hearth of a soul to invite Jesus in, to live in harmony, worry free and peace - my grandmother Anita would not have lived to be old. She believed in Loving the Lord God with alllll your heart and soul and loving. And speaking your mind. Anita was the worriest of mighty prayer warriors. Once she was at the State Fair of Texas and a man was having trouble getting his horse down the planks, Anita said, "Oh here." She was in her sixties or fifties and she took off her sweater wrapped it around the horses face and spoke cheerfully and in an authoritative tone, the horse was led by bridle down the plank the horse had been afraid of.
Anita fed 20 to 40 people at lunch during the Great Depression from her 2 bedroom frame home where she lived (they added on a bedroom for 3) from 1917 to 1992. I can't report any of the people she fed for the duration came back to honor her. Anita had a Bible Study at Kessler Park United Methodist Church for decades and the number that attended was in the 40s. I can't report that into her 90s these people had lived as long as she had. Anita's circle of friends really numbered about 5 people and 4 were related to her.
When I had a problem, I'd call my grandmother. I knew her prayers were effective and direct to the Throne of God the Almighty where she approached with confidence.
The night Grandmother Anita died, Dallas had an electrical storm that made the Dallas Morning News. It centered over Methodist Hospital and Downtown. Where Anita was Passing to Jesus Christ.
The storm did not have a break, it jumped from cloud to cloud. There wasn't any rain. We were not in a drought. The lightning was beautiful, well defined, and horizontal. Never did this storm make a noise, never did it stop. Never did the lightning go vertical to ground. The clouds seem to light up like Christmas rotating lights. The Dallas Morning News Headline said, " No Lightning Storm on Records Like This Unusual Storm." 1992.
The Lightning began as sun was setting and continued until Anita was just about gone. I told my mother, as we stood with Anita, and saw the storm from her Hospital Window, high off the ground, "Father God is giving Grandmother Anita a State Funeral send off." I told Grandmother this, but she was breathing now peacefully, which would cease easily in a few minutes.
Grandmother had lived a full 94 years. Riding a covered wagon with her many siblings to visit her grandmother. She had lived when traveling from Dallas to 80 miles north of New Orleans - Richardson, Louisiana - took 3 days to find a part in a river that was easy to take the car across. Many, many tires would blow and you carried tires in the trunk. Sandwiches were carried in a cardboard shoe box wrapped in wax paper.
She has spent a year in her life in a round metal contraption, in a hospital, called an iron lung to recover from phenomena at age 40. Her father had died at age 40 from not having antibiotics. Grandmother also lived in her 40s during the era on no antibiotics, but the iron lung kept her alive for a year. I had pneumonia in my 40s, threw out my back for 5 years with the coughing, and took Tamiflu and recovered. Grandmother never passed a TB test, but never had TB, her lungs were always that scarred. The next 18 months saw the invention of antibiotics. Her husband, Ray, died while she was in the crisis and she was not told for that year.
Her wedding rings were worn for the next 52 years as a widow. Grandmother Anita told us of seeing Ray in Heaven and she spoke of these occasions with great Joy. Her details never varied. I dreamed of Grandmother visiting me in 2013. She told me each day just simply follow the Lord and rely on His ways and have peace. She nodded with assurance and said with Jesus, this will end well.
Now how does this tie into Scriptures.
7 A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
Anita might have been such a worrier, and she was, that she could have died of anxiety. Almost any week.
She certainly saw as many troubles as any human being had ever seen. One family member told me Anita was cursed. I actually laughed. And was asked why in the world That was funny. I said Anita saw herself as BLESSED and that was Grandmother Anita's Life. Gratitude filled her heart and praise could come out with such fortitude.
She is missed. Anita would be 118 years old in Heaven.
Her son was prayed for diligently. And he came to know the Lord in his 70s. Anita was fruitful on earth, and probably danced in Heaven like the speakeasy she'd rather we didn't speak of as the Prohibition Flapper she was. She was still doing the Charleston in her late 80s. And playing the ukulele.
(She said she and Ray went once a month. They liked the lavish one in the First Republic Bank in Downtown Dallas, which was a Speakeasy after hours. And they looked blissfully happy in the grand old black and white photos. I asked her how the police didn't see the revelers in the beautifully set up tables through the glass doors. She thought a minute and laughed. "Lord knows.")
in the heavenly realms, 11 according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. 12 In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence. 13 I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory.
14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15
from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.
16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!
Father God,
We learn about life around us stretching to see the good. Grandmother Anita is one of the Living Parables of my life. Inspiring me.
I give Anita sized Thanks for my arm being benign. Whoooop!
I give Anita Grandmother Sized Profound Thanks to Father God, for her daughter, my mother, being helped with recovery from her UTI that is not a stroke. Giving thanks for the 3 cousins, her amazing boy friend, Jack, and my sister-in-law Mary Jane. Their help allowed my surgery to go through.
Thanks Father God for this generation where you get more than a bullet to bite on.
Clean health is a blessing, blessing, blessing of Father God.
Father, forgive me for doing a meme of political satire. I realized as I finished that wit, I'd just written a post on being the Person you'd want to vote for and being Upward with words.
Blessings abound to go home with two people I love after surgery and have the 3rd bring dinner.
The wonder of how painful a 2 inch incision with medication is on an arm, with the realization of Jesus whipped by Pilate.
The Blessing of thinking Peter was carried by Jesus on the very water. And the custom of the day, to kiss upon the cheek. I wonder if Peter was carried as a broken leg buddy, a baby or a fireman. But I would bet earnest money that kiss on the cheek happened for the rescue.
I am profoundly grateful for my rescue and Thank Father God for being covered with the name of Jesus.
We lift up those we love to know and Delight in Jesus' Love. We lift up all our cares and are lifted. We lift up this Nation and Know the Might and Power of God. We lift up our communities and the Church.
Settling ourselves in the hands that pulled Peter way up and going far.
Jesus the Lord! Amen.
♔ Lord Jesus Saves! †
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