Psalm 70 ~ May all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you!

Psalm 70

Make haste, O God, to deliver me!
O Lord, make haste to help me!

2 Let them be put to shame and confusion
who seek my life!
Let them be turned back and brought to dishonor
who delight in my hurt!

3 Let them turn back because of their shame
who say, “Aha, Aha!”

4 May all who seek you
rejoice and be glad in you!
May those who love your salvation
say evermore, “God is great!”

5 But I am poor and needy;
hasten to me, O God!
You are my help and my deliverer;
O Lord, do not delay!


It's been so long I can tell this story about my Daddy. Without embarrassment. 24 years later.


When my father decided to die, he planned very carefully. Evidently. I was so very shocked to receive the phone call. We had just gone to a new grocery store and as our family of four, with two small boys, left the grocery store - we stood with others to see the most amazing sunset. Brilliant. People were saying it was the most beautiful sunset ever.

The call came that my father, age 62, had died from Cancer not telling anyone. The phone call had yelling. It was really bad.

My parents had been divorced for 9 years and my father had married an "A List" friend of my mother's for 25 years. She decorated the Mayor's Ball. She ran the charity organization that backed the big city Ballet. She actually was opposed to prayer in public and went to Republican local committees to discuss this. Yes. She hired limousines for parties and took friends to tables with ladies who lunch and was reciprocated in kind. Christmas parties had car parkers that truly were not required, but showed so nicely.

Her children were 'out of the house' by the time of their affair and then the marriage, so my brother, age 10, was not invited. In fact, we were once introduced as my father's stepchildren. We were biological. She did ask with determination when my brother would be old enough to come over and mow their lawn since child support was paid. No vacations, no spend the nights, no phone calls.

And so the day of the funeral arrived, and we sat well to the back, no place had been left for his children or ex-wife, his family cousin, or some of their 40 year friends.


My stepmother arrived in a tangerine suit and did the eulogy. Very dramatic. At the end of her telling the crowd, about 400 people, she implied he had taken his own life in dignity for the refusal to be ravaged for cancer. The minister told that his wife had done the same thing. And the funeral was at a funeral parlor, where no cross could be seen. At the end of the main eulogy, my step-mother, threw up her arms in a V for Victory. She was genuinely confused, she had been certain for applause. Looking left and right in her tangerine suit looking for the applause, applause.

My cousin, sitting with us to the back, whispered said, "My God, she expected applause." My mother did agree.

I was so angry and so hurt I could hardly know how to breathe.

About a month later, my mother came to me with the actual photo - not used above - of my step-family holding up infants and all in dress suits with my step-mother glowing in her big, toothy smile with the orange, tangerine suit. I looked at the photo. Handed it back to my mother and said, "What?" She said, "Guess the event." "Looks like a baptism of the infants." "No, it's the after funeral family photo of your father."

It was so bizarre that I started calling people to find out what doctor, what cancer, what was the situation. I'd read a novel called "Wheel of Fortune" by Susan Howatch and I was going to find, ask questions, take names out why my father, my Daddy, had had such a strange send off.

And so for months I asked questions, went back and re-asked questions and pieced together a story of a man in a financial spiral told that dignity was life insurance and death was virtue. And located photos of my father during the last year of his life looking nothing like the man who had been such a good father before drinking became too much fun.

He had had a Very Strange Last Year of his life. I got the autopsy and read that he had a tear on his cheek. I'd seen him at Christmas, uninvited. He had not looked too great polishing things in a large kitchen. Wearing a beige apron with a red lithograph of Spaghetti. He looked afraid which was odd for him. Daddy had always been described as a Social Lion.

And Furious anger burned in me. I got one of the largest law firms in town and I sued the heck out of my step-mother. A divorce contract was unfulfilled about my father's Estate leaving us life insurance to be held all his life.  My mother had fought to get us remembered in his will. Mediation was sought to no avail. This would be a long process. It took years. I won. And I got permission from our priest, we were Catholic at the time. I had some very fine reasons to sue her. Step-monster.





Matthew 18:15-17

“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church,
let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector."

 
So how do you get over something like that. The fury was about a 60 on a scale of 1 to 10. This utter Hitler's Sister had taken someone I loved the best in this world and ruined him. And held up her tangerine suited arms waving the Nixon V for Victory - "the love of her life". Dear God if that were true, help us all.

I went to Group Therapy. I learned life lessons. I knew I would end a cycle of drinking and lack of communication, alcoholism, and despair. And I was told several times generational changes are hard life work.

And I drove carpool and went to Bible Studies and went to parties and did Garden Club and had luncheons and sometimes I felt like anger could blow my head off my shoulders.

And about six months into that, I was indeed praying furiously. Furiously was the word.

 
And I said, "Father God, I have reached the place where I am ashamed of this hate. Justified hate and terrible person, but now I am embarrassed because this is Your Child. Poor You, Father God. And I seriously do not know what to say to You. Amen."


I didn't even feel better. But about that time, one day I was driving around enraged and the thought that God gave me was, "Jesus is Living Water." And I longed for summer and swimming pools and children laughing like my very, very happy childhood. And I thought of slides and water and clean and pure.

And suddenly I had an answer. I could pray for Jesus to be Living Water. Every time I was enraged I prayed that. And water, in prayer, flowed over me and each time peace would arrive. Iin a few months, I was not furious.

And so I went back to Father God and said, "Father God, I think you saved my life. Thank You, Jesus is Living Water. Now, I don't even want to say I forgive her and I'd truly like to see her go to hell like a pig on a stake bbq. So what are we going to do with that? Because I have a feeling You Will help me. I loved Daddy. Thank You for taking care of my Daddy. And I have just great gratitude You have done that for Daddy. I will look to see how you help me forgive this dirt who rejoiced he died. Amen."

And you know, I felt ashamed of how much I really hated her. Because she is a human being and I'm saved by Grace. I became embarrassed but only to Father God.

Someone I love very dearly, like an Aunt, talked to me a lot about all of this - she sickened and to eventually die of cancer, fought the good fight and died bravely. She actually did have Cancer and Daddy had not. She was a life long friend to us and she was very Christian and very brave. It became time to make a Donation to the Cancer Society in her final requests. I was supremely grateful for her life. She called me to her house, gave me her loving blessing, right before she'd gone Home to Jesus. She said her last words to me were, "You were a great child to your parents. Always know that. The people who know you, are proud of you. I'm proud of you. Know always I love you."

And I sat down to give a donation, I felt understanding from Father God flow through me and He said, "When you give this check, we know it needs to be small for necessity and because I am in Charge. It will be a double portion. You loved her, nearly your aunt, and you are forgiven for being so angry with something so ugly - a different circumstance with the step-mother. You are forgiven a long time ago. Never let it be said that this came between my child, Anne-Laurel and Her Father God. Always remember your donation today, frees you from all guilt and proclaims you forgive what was truly awful and yet washes away."

I was free. I didn't have to pretend what she had done was right. Didn't have to pretend that she had good qualities. That she wasn't God's Child. She was. God knew on the real day we all see Jesus and have our deeds told back to us and we present our souls - that this was His Business with her. I would be just fine if she found Jesus and repented and all was well. In fact, I didn't need to know or be told the outcome. I was free. Totally free. And later when she was dying, I got a phone call for weeks to get my reaction. And I said my reaction is peace. We never heard from her in life, not in dying, not part of our lives.

We all go to God. I was fine. One Person insisted on mailing me the obituary and I just put that in the trash un-read with the certainty Jesus was handling all of this fine. I'd forgiven and He was in Charge. No hate, no involvement and no judgement was needed from me. God is God and all is capable and loving in His Hands. If Jesus made sure Salvation was her's, then God is Love and that's God. God is Good. This is His Salvation and His decision. My blessing was forgiveness forever. Whatever Word Jesus gave was Good.

This month is the anniversary of my father's death. And I know Jesus is in charge and I will see my father again with great joy and supreme Love.

It shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.
~ Julian of Norwich




Father God,

Jesus, the Holy Spirit and Your Messenger Angels will come to us, even in our sighs, and the Power of the Most High will be with us in our depths. Jesus will cover us in His Name, the most powerful name in all holiness.

Today and even to our old age, we will see the Marvelous and Wondrous Works of You, God. Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law. He is the Spirit and the Truth.

The Prodigal Son is a process. Father God forgives us immediately and thank You for being a Father who will help His children.

Nothing is impossible with God.

Father we are Your children, born of the Willingness and Word of Father God. Let us live, move, have our being and abide according to Your Good Will and Word.

Let us know the Life within Your Words. Hurry to do the Good Works You have prepared. In this, we will see Great Joy - do live Your Will.

For this we pray for ourselves and loved ones, concerns to find a companion for my mother to continue her gratitude for her home, her life and friends, our hearing and ears. For Edward who won a tournament in DG today and is in great joy. For the people who work hard for elderly parents. And the hope as our futures rise up in our children and grandchildren. Our communities, Church and for this Nation in the grips of this unending election, that 9% are even pleased with. We will vote and pray for Your Favor. Knowing You hear these prayers and answer.

Thank Jesus. Amen.

♔ Lord Jesus Saves!  †

1 Corinthians 13:13 ~ Love

1 Corinthians 13:13

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

I received a cross in the mail and was pleased. The cross was smaller than I thought and I realized that was good, too. The message of Jesus Christ's salvation is much more compelling and eternal than I could every be privileged to say.

Salvation is from the Lord Jesus.


Isaiah 51

Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness,
you who seek the Lord:
look to the rock from which you were hewn,
and to the quarry from which you were dug.


The faith and bedrock I saw my family do life with. The people who live long lives of hope.


2 Look to Abraham your father
and to Sarah who bore you;
for he was but one when I called him,
that I might bless him and multiply him.



Our blessings only come from God.

3 For the Lord comforts Zion;
he comforts all her waste places
and makes her wilderness like Eden,
her desert like the garden of the Lord;
joy and gladness will be found in her,
thanksgiving and the voice of song.



This is a wonderful verse. And not for the days when we feel comforted. The memory of comfort. I believe in the Son when the sun is not shining. When parents are frail and loved ones have a terminal diagnosis. When the path tells you, you must be strong to Jesus. Jesus is where you need comfort the most. We come into this world, usually alone, and to Jesus we bring our soul with Him alone. And in reality, this is the Person, This Son of God, we need the most.


4 “Give attention to me, my people,
and give ear to me, my nation;
for a law will go out from me,
and I will set my justice for a light to the peoples.

THIS is the LIGHT of Jesus within us. This is our bedrock. Weep when we must weep. To be real. To be genuine. To be sincere. To go forth. To go far.



What is Heaven? His People. To hear Jesus say, "My People."
To hear Him call us "His Nation."

5 My righteousness draws near,
my salvation has gone out,
and my arms will judge the peoples;
the coastlands hope for me,
and for my arm they wait.


6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
and look at the earth beneath;
for the heavens vanish like smoke,
the earth will wear out like a garment,
and they who dwell in it will die in like manner;
but my salvation will be forever,
and my righteousness will never be dismayed.



7 “Listen to me, you who know righteousness,
the people in whose heart is my law;
fear not the reproach of man,
nor be dismayed at their reviling.


8 For the moth will eat them up like a garment,
and the worm will eat them like wool;
but my righteousness will be forever,
and my salvation to all generations.”


9 Awake, awake, put on strength,
O arm of the Lord;
awake, as in days of old,
the generations of long ago.
Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces,
who pierced the dragon?


10 Was it not you who dried up the sea,
the waters of the great deep,
who made the depths of the sea a way
for the redeemed to pass over?




11 And the ransomed of the Lord shall return
and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
they shall obtain gladness and joy,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.



12 “I, I am he who comforts you;
who are you that you are afraid of man who dies,
of the son of man who is made like grass,


13 and have forgotten the Lord, your Maker,
who stretched out the heavens
and laid the foundations of the earth,
and you fear continually all the day
because of the wrath of the oppressor,
when he sets himself to destroy?
And where is the wrath of the oppressor?


14 He who is bowed down shall speedily be released;
he shall not die and go down to the pit,
neither shall his bread be lacking.



This is Prayer.


Norman Vincent Peale wrote this:

A man in Toronto at a gathering of advertising and sales people to whom I had been asked to speak. He confided to me, “I have found two things in life that made everything different for me. The first—and it was the greatest single experience I ever had—was finding Jesus Christ and committing my life to him. And the second thing was that I learned to pray. These two things,” he declared, “revolutionized my life.” And he added, “What a pity that so many human beings never find Christ and never learn to pray! They miss the greatest things in this life.”

This is what Jesus has been saying to us through the years, and really astute people make this discovery. Christ can change your life. Prayer can change your life. Some people think you only come to such a change in one certain way. Nothing could be more false.


One way in which prayer can change your life is by teaching you to think creatively. The way you think spells the difference between living life well and living it poorly. Prayer is an activity that sharpens the mind and thereby brings the believer into harmony with the great Mind. Now the mind, by which we remember and perceive and understand and dream and think—this is the divine within us. Through mind and soul, an individual has contact with God. Prayer is the con- tact of the soul with God through the mental process whereby the individual conquers his own weaknesses and enters into life abundant.

True prayer requires discipline, it requires pain, it requires the agony to think. But when you do think prayerfully with Jesus as your guide, you break free from the defeats which have encompassed you. I do not believe there is any problem, any defeat, any difficulty that cannot be overcome through prayer.

I have a friend who runs a big bakery business, which he built up from nothing. He was himself the company’s first baker, as a matter of fact, and he claims he can still make better bread and cakes than most of the present bakers. And one day he described to me a significant experience he had some years ago. He was faced with an extremely worrisome problem. He would pace the floor half the day trying to figure out a solution. He lay awake at night brooding over it.

Then, one day as he sat in his office feeling completely baffled, he chanced to glance at his mother’s picture hanging on the wall. “My mother,” he told me, “was a Kansas woman reared on the farm where I was born. She had never had much schooling. But in the hard, good life she and my father lived together she had learned many things in the school of experience. And she used to say to us children, ‘When you have a problem and you’ve worked as hard as you can at it, given it all you’ve got, and still you haven’t solved it, the thing to do is just walk away from it and think about God. But don’t talk to God about the problem. Talk to him about himself. Tell him how much you love him. Talk to Jesus and thank him for all he has done for you. Tell him you want to be his faithful follower. Have fellowship with God and with Jesus.’”

So my friend in his perplexity looked at the picture of his mother, departed long since but still living and still speaking to him in thought. And he decided to leave the problem for a while. He took out his Bible and read some passages his mother had marked in this same book. He thought about Jesus and he rededicated himself, acknowledging that he felt he had not been growing as he ought, that he’d been less than himself. Then after a time he turned back to the problem. Did he get an answer immediately? No. But now he felt calm about it. He was confident he would somehow be able to handle it. And presently—later that same day, as I recall it—he did find a satisfactory solution. So prayer is a mental process.

Oftentimes a person will complain, “I’ve prayed and prayed and I didn’t get what I wanted.” You didn’t, eh? Well, who said you were supposed to get what you wanted? Prayer isn’t a device to get you what you want. Prayer is a means of bringing you to the point where you will accept what God wants. If you’re using it just for getting what you want, you’re engaging in an improper and degraded use of it.



Why did Jesus say we get what we want if we are abiding in His Word?

Because to Live in His Word is to Abide in His Will. When His Will and our hopes align.

This is why all the family of Jesus and all the Disciples met daily to pray. Their hopes and their faith and their Love - aligned in Jesus Christ.



Father God,
Help us to pray in a manner pleasing to you. To have the understanding that life is a series of rejoicing problems are solved and to continue to have hope faith and Love in all seasons.

Jesus we Lift our concerns to You. You will tenderly handle them. We lift up our Loved Ones. We lift upour communities and Churches. And this Nation. Rejoicing people all over the World call upon Jesus from Knowing His Love.

In Jesus. Amen.

♔ Lord Jesus Saves!  †

Acts 9 ~ He called for the believers

Acts 9

Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. 3 As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.

“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. 6 “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

7 The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. 8 Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. 9 For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.

10 In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, “Ananias!”

“Yes, Lord,” he answered.

11 The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. 12 In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.”

13 “Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. 14 And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.”

15 But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. 16 I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”

17 Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, 19 and after taking some food, he regained his strength.

Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus. 20 At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. 21 All those who heard him were astonished and asked, “Isn’t he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on this name? And hasn’t he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?” 22 Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Messiah.

23 After many days had gone by, there was a conspiracy among the Jews to kill him, 24 but Saul learned of their plan. Day and night they kept close watch on the city gates in order to kill him. 25 But his followers took him by night and lowered him in a basket through an opening in the wall.

26 When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple. 27 But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus. 28 So Saul stayed with them and moved about freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. 29 He talked and debated with the Hellenistic Jews, but they tried to kill him. 30 When the believers learned of this, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.

31 Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace and was strengthened. Living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers.

32 As Peter traveled about the country, he went to visit the Lord’s people who lived in Lydda. 33 There he found a man named Aeneas, who was paralyzed and had been bedridden for eight years. 34 “Aeneas,” Peter said to him, “Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and roll up your mat.” Immediately Aeneas got up. 35 All those who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.

36 In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (in Greek her name is Dorcas); she was always doing good and helping the poor. 37 About that time she became sick and died, and her body was washed and placed in an upstairs room. 38 Lydda was near Joppa; so when the disciples heard that Peter was in Lydda, they sent two men to him and urged him, “Please come at once!”

39 Peter went with them, and when he arrived he was taken upstairs to the room. All the widows stood around him, crying and showing him the robes and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them.

40 Peter sent them all out of the room; then he got down on his knees and prayed. Turning toward the dead woman, he said, “Tabitha, get up.” She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter she sat up. 41 He took her by the hand
and helped her to her feet. 

Then he called for the believers, especially the widows, and presented her to them alive. 42 This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord. 43 Peter stayed in Joppa for some time with a tanner named Simon.





Peter, cannot walk on water. The second time, Peter did not try. Peter was forgiven and restored in relationship when Jesus, conquered death, and made breakfast.

Paul, fights with John Mark. Goes to Asia and is told to go another place. Has to loose his vision to gain Jesus.


What Peter and Paul have together is what we have together today.


Matthew 18:20
For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.

John 15:7
If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.



What really is occurring in Acts 9 is this:

Jesus is alive and working today:
In His Righteousness and Jesus' Name:
He said, “Tabitha, get up.”
He took her by the hand
and helped her to her feet.



Father God,

You alone are God and You alone are Good. Bless us to live and abide in Your Being. Where we live and move and have our being as Children of God.

Bless us to see all things work together for Good, for those who Love Father God and Jesus and work
according to His Purpose. We shall live upon every Word of God.

Bless us in our concerns to look with Joy to You. Bless those we love. Our Communities and Churches and in Your Glory, lift this Nation. Let the Light of all believers of Jesus Christ Shine. Amen in Jesus.

♔ Lord Jesus Saves!  †