Psalm 16 ~You will not abandon my soul

Psalm 16

Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.

2 I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord;

    I have no good apart from you.”

3 As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones,

    in whom is all my delight.

4 The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply;

    their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out

    or take their names on my lips.

5 The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup;

    You hold my lot.

6 The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;

    indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

7 I bless the Lord who gives me counsel;

    in the night also my heart instructs me.

8 I have set the Lord always before me;

    because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.

9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices;

    my flesh also dwells secure.

10 For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,

    or let your holy one see corruption.

11 You make known to me the path of life;

    in your presence there is fullness of joy;

    at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

When my children were very young, my father had divorced my mother for a decades old friend of my mother's. My father handled the inconvenience by changing all his friendships, his family he spoke to = down to having Holidays in out of town hotels and even changing out his beloved pets. My father met one of his grandchildren at lunch one day and suggested if we had lunch again, I should cook a dinner meal and not have luncheon food.

And one summer I began to dream of conversations, happy old days and the return of the family happiness. I'd dream of sitting and laughing with Daddy in my great-aunt Eloise and great-uncle's Cary's house. And instead of the elderly condition of the house, the house was back to my very young years and all was shining, planted, blooming and lovely. Instead, I got the phone call my father had died, when I was 30 years old. We were all stunned for about two years are more. And it was a very sad time.

Lately, with two mothers in Memory Care and Edward not being perfectly well, I dream of loss. Looking for someone who has died. And coming to the realization of 58 years or 43 years or 36 years of conversations will be over. I dream of the quiet.

I've had people come up to me and tell me of their dreams and I don't doubt I will live to be very, very old. And I know God has Hopes and a Future for me. It's the vast ocean of upcoming changes that feel unique - add to that the dreams of change.  The change is inevitable. But the dreams are present. The time has shown itself to be occurring and necessary as a Plan of God. I woke up one morning feeling jittery and out of kilter and I asked Abba, -why? 

Mark 1:45 

 But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in desolate places, and people were coming to him from every quarter. 

 Mark 7:37 And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

Suddenly, I felt better. Not just floating in the endlessness of space. Being part of the Plan of God. 

God being Almighty is pleased to be God  and Get to Know You.

Abba, Father

Thank You for filling our lives with Blessings we never thought to ask for. For the Blessing to come. For the love of years past still warms and brightens. Love never ends. And as Billy Graham put the Light of Christ into the football stadiums showing God's Light shines millenniums later, we pray, today, our faith reflects

 Your Steadfast Love and Your Hope and Your Joy.

Asking Love and Mercy of Your Plans in the Highest Name of Jesus, to see Your willingness and go there. Reading the Word of God and seeing the blessings You give, for wisdom, of good attitudes, and skilled in all Your wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding learning, and competent to do the work You give us to do.

Father, we bless You in Jesus' name for sharing Your blessings and gracious gifts. You are for each of us. Your mercies renew. Your Steadfast Love continues. Our God of Encouragement. Our God of Love. Daily You bless us. Open our eyes.

Jesus blessing and healing for Elliott.

Jesus blessing and healing us and our cares.

We ask today and tomorrow our Thanks for our loved ones coming into the Love, Joy and Comfort of Your Heart. We pray the comfort of all who have asked prayer. For all we have been given to pray for. And with the faithful, we pray the large prayers for our Nation under God. For the borders God has always crossed. His Word and His Work Eternal. For the faithful we know circle this earth with their prayers heard by our Father God of Love and Encouragement. His Word upholds all life.

 Thank You God, Your Word is Good. In Jesus we hope and rest and rejoice.

Amen Jesus is with us. Amen.

♔ Lord Jesus Saves! †  

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John 17 ~ Glorify Your Son

 

John 17

When Jesus had spoken these words, He lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, ² since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.  

³ And this is eternal life, 
 that they know you the only true God, 
and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 

 ⁴ I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. ⁵
 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
 

⁶ “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. ⁷ Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. ⁸ For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.  

⁹ I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. ¹⁰ All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. ¹¹ And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, 
 keep them in your name, 
which you have given me, 
that they may be one, even as we are one.


 ¹² While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.  

¹³ But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, 
that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.  

¹⁴ I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. ¹⁵ I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. ¹⁶ They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.  


¹⁷ Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. ¹⁸ As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. ¹⁹ And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

²⁰ “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, ²¹ that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²² The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one,  

²³ I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, 
so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

²⁴ Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. ²⁵ O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 

I made known to them Your Name, and I will continue to make it known, 

that the love 

with which you have loved me

 may be in them, and I in them.”

John 17 is perfectly the Mission and Prayer of Jesus Christ.

Joyful!

John 3:16 

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,

 but in order that the world might be saved

 through Him.

A great memory compliment for John 17 is Jesus holding up 3 fingers, for John 3:17.

John 3:16 

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:34 

For the One Whom God has sent speaks the words of God, 

for God gives the Spirit without limit.

If the Disciples hadn't seen Thomas correctly predict the death of Jesus, if they had seen this John's Gospel Chapter 17 telling all Glory of God's Plan, in the face of death, the disciples would have received Comfort and Strength. Instead, the events tell us the overwhelming Love God has for us in unbelievably wretched situations. God's Words comfort and strengthen and do not quit when the recipient, us, fails to hear.

Jesus tells in one of the Gospels, the people should believe from the works of Jesus. John 17 proclaims Jesus does not fail us, Jesus does not fail us, Jesus does not fail us even as His Life is on the line, and death approaches.  His Love and message do not change.

The last words of this, John's Gospel Chapter 17, Jesus prays for us today in Living Word. His last day message is the Name of God should be carried as Love. 

Jesus, we need.

Jesus, we call upon.

Jesus show Yourself.

And this is Communion

and we take ourselves to Church

to Honor Jesus

and take Communion

to be Nourished in our souls.

Abba, Our Father,

We long for You to Speak, "Peace." "Calm."

And Dwell in us, making us the People You long for.

Dwell in those we Love and pray for.

Strengthen us to do the good works You have for us to walk in.  We will Stand Firm and be Strong. Knowing in this season, stand not be tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine.

Let Love be genuine with Mercy.

Father, we prayed about 2020 Covid looking a lot like the Chapters of the Exodus. We pray for the birds and the problems with quail in Numbers 11. Two weeks ago, we prayed for 8 states declaring not to feed the birds because of mystery bird illness. 

This week, ten states have a ban on feeding the birds.

We do not have to feel helpless. We can Pray and God will hear us. We can shred newspaper, coffee grounds and eggshells and increase the earthworm population for the birds.

 Harris County, Texas had this problem for two months around March of 2021 and this healed.

Recommendations are for using bleach in the bird feeder, this hurts the paint. So, I'm going with nonporous extra human plates on the ground I will exchange daily 

and sanitize my hands and wash.

John 5:17
Jesus answered them, “My Father is working 

until now, and I am working.”

John 6:29
Jesus told them, “This is the work God wants from you: Believe in the One He has sent.”

We long for Your Love and help, Father God, to have Your Kingdom, Power and Glory upon Your Throne. The Fringe of Your Robe placed upon all of Your Good Creation. 

Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts. 

We pray more of Your Good Will filling the whole earth with Your Glory.

We will remember our answered Prayers. Like Harris County and the birds being healed.

 And live this Day. 

Looking in expectation You will strengthen us to Seek You first 

and find Your Kingdom being glimpsed enfolding us in Your Good Creation.

You are our hope now, always and in the coming weeks.

Covering us with the Name and Power of Jesus,
Covering with thanks the Doctors, Nurses, Hospital Staffs and their prayers.

 The joy of seeing family bicycling and walking. 

Good people. Holding up Life for one another.

We ask Jesus to Bless our Nation to please You

and for Your Love to encourage

and strengthen the earth in goodness.

In His Love, Jesus Christ saves us. Amen.

♔ Lord Jesus Saves! †  

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Colossians 1:19 ~ For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him †

Roman Catacomb art of Jesus, c. 4th Century

Colossians 1:19

For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him

One of the main reasons we all have our doubts, understood by Jesus Christ on the Cross, is life not going our way in difficult circumstances.  Like the older brother of the Prodigal Son. Life is not pleasing enough, delight in life is waned and God can't possibly be pleased to dwell in us. We feel angry, bored, frustrated beyond endurance and generally not a shining example of Jesus. Just like... the Disciples who did the work God gave them and changed the world. Doing what God asked of them. Probably not always graciously.  Paul, "The Apostle Paul" had to help Eutychus survive Paul's long, drawn out boring teaching when Eutychus fell asleep. The Scriptures are real, alive and gracious, filled with God's Mercy.

We see glimpses of Heaven!

We receive Comfort

and then we

Comfort others.

Hebrews 11:5 

By faith Enoch was taken from this life, 

so that he did not experience death: "He could not be found, 

because God had taken him away." 

For before he was taken,

 he was commended as one who pleased God.

I grew up with two amazingly interested Grandmothers. My parents were only children. And I was an only child for 8 years. My parents' young photographs were so identical, my grandmothers had to study the photo to decide if the photo was my mother or my father. My brother was born when I was 8 and he began to speak in interesting, full sentences when I was 11 years old. One Grandmother taught Bible Study for 42 years in the Methodist Church, Kessler United Methodist Church. And she expected us to be pleased with her because she was our grandmother and diligently applied, "the comment" of truth and necessity and opinion - almost always. A very wonderful woman who could be ramrod straight. Anita Lucille Richardson Willard of Richardson, Louisiana, a suburb of Franklinton in Washington Parrish. B. 1898.

Hebrews 13:16 

And do not forget to do good and to share with others, 

for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

My paternal grandmother told me when I was in college, when she read the Scripture, she could understand and hear what God was telling her mind. She fully expected me to believe her. She married an Episcopal Priest in 1973, Rev. Wm Tate Young. She was 66 years old. And she expected to be believed matter-of-factly, that day because she believed, very strongly, in our beautiful souls and loving goodness abilities. 3 of her 4 great-grandchildren are named for Grandmother Bit. Augusta Elliott Wilson Anderson Young of Bolivar County, Mississippi.

1 Chronicles 29:17

I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity. 

All these things have I given willingly 

and with honest intent. 

And now I have seen with joy 

how willingly your people who are here have given to you.

If you had to picture God the Almighty, Creator of All Things, you would expect His Son as a Teacher who is fully informed and able to command a classroom. Like Anita could do. However, Jesus drew in an entire Town of Capernaum the first Sermon He gave.  But we see glimpses of God in all of His Creation. And Grandmother Bit could be counted on for the Truth, the Expectation of Higher Action and Living, drunkenness (unlike Jesus) and God's own Love.

We are drawn to friends who Love us.  Jesus had conflict because He didn't wallow in giving Comfort. Jesus spoke the Truth and expected Love, Truth, Way and Life to set us Free. Jesus' own view of Life is Joy.

2 Peter 1:17

He received honor and glory from God the Father 

when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, 

"This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased."

Jesus kept on choosing the Disciples beyond Good Friday. Jesus expected to see John's Gospel Chapter 21, when Jesus cooked fish for breakfast while the Disciples had left hiding in their room, to go back to fishing. Something they knew how to do. Most of them. They were doing their best. In front of God of the Universe.  Jesus tells us He is Steadfast Love. We can be diligent and not give up. Even on the days we simply fish for fish.

Galatians 1:10 

Am I now trying to win human approval, or God's approval? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.

The Disciples were doing what Job did when he grieved. Simply looking for companionship. Doing what they knew to do. Fellowship. Fishing by making a living to feed their wives and families.  God knew He would provide the God given Glory. God Glory comes from God who is willing to give us the Kingdom of Heaven and provide the breakfast, on the beach.

 

Genesis 33:10 

"No, please!" said Jacob. "If I have found favor in your eyes, 

accept this gift from me.  For to see your face is like seeing the face of God, 

now that you have received me favorably."

Going physically to Church builds strong communities and puts our faith and our families by

example, to put strong roots down, bringing goodness and mercy into our lives. Not allowing faith to be scrubbed out by the busy roads of life upon seedling faith.

Jesus did not appear remotely to the Disciples,

Jesus took the time of the Almighty to take Himself to them!

Way, Truth, Life!

Abba, Father,

This Verse is for us

When we ask You to dwell in us

and we seek You first.

Galatians 1:15 

But when God, who set me apart from birth and 

called me by His Grace, was pleased

All of God's Righteousness and Abundant Willingness

is appreciated. We have prayed over all things, we didn't even know about

in Trusting God's Will.

Giving God our Best Portion First,

The People we Love

Praying God to fill them with His Comfort,

Filled in His Mercy

and Love.

We have cast all our cares on Father God, Who cares for us.

We have lifted up all the various worries for this life,

our Nation, the Agenda of Authority, The Church and Her Victory in Jesus Christ.

We have lifted up to Jesus the Nation.

We have lifted up Schools

We have lifted up Employment. Jobs. Health. Vaccinations.

In our Father God's Willingness.

We have believed God and Trusted Him.

We will seek God first. 

For Elliott, Healing.

For all the people we pray for.

We pray for Peace, God's Help for Love to flourish and establish,

peace and to finish well.

In Jesus' Highest Name,

Amen.

♔ Lord Jesus Saves! †

♔ Lord Jesus Saves! †  

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