Deuteronomy 30 ~ Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live

Deuteronomy 30

“And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, 
which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you, 2 and return to the Lord your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, 3 then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you.


4 If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there he will take you. 


5 And the Lord your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. And he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. 6 And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. 

7 And the Lord your God will put all these curses on your foes and enemies who persecuted you. 8 And you shall again obey the voice of the Lord and keep all his commandments that I command you today.

9 The Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your cattle and in the fruit of your ground. 


For the Lord will again take delight in prospering you, 
as he took delight in your fathers, 10 when you obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, when you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.



11 “For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. 

12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 

13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 

14 But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.

15 “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. 

If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules,then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. 

17 But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, 18 I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. 

You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. 19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse.

Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, 
loving the Lord your God, 
obeying his voice and holding fast to him, 
for he is your life and length of days,
that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, 
to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob,
 to give them.”

The Power of God.
He is enlightening us in order to know hope. 
God has placed all things under His feet. 
His incomparably great power for us who believe. +

How to obtain His blessing -  mercy sown. Keep praying for all you know to be kept in this blessing. The Lord's Face shines on mercy bestowed and graciousness. The Lord turns His face to those who give earnest peace.

 


Sinners. Jesus chose Brothers who made mistakes and bothered Him. Jesus sometimes told His Brothers to wait and sit outside. Jesus knew something about His Brothers and He expected their best to shine forth in time.


And Jesus left no doubt as to where He was going.  Thank God.

Father God blessed all of those Jesus forgave with forgiveness. 
Peace arrived. The Brothers of Jesus wrote of Love. The disciples of God wrote of Love. Blessings arrived and arrived. Love earnestly. Love genuinely. Be patient. Love again.







Jesus worked through Blessing and Curses to die for us on a tree - cursed.

James 3:11
Can both fresh water and bitter water flow from the same spring?


Blessing and curses...


Isaiah 45:9
“Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ or ‘Your work has no handles’?"


Jeremiah 18
5 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 6“O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.


Hebrews 13:8
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.











Psalm 145

The Lord is righteous in all his ways
and faithful in all he does.

The Lord is near to all who call on him,
to all who call on him in truth.

He fulfills the desires of those who fear him;
he hears their cry and saves them.

The Lord watches over all who love him,
but all the wicked he will destroy.

My mouth will speak in praise of the Lord.
Let every creature praise his holy name
for ever and ever.




I read the post article from Norman Vincent Poole several days ago on giving up on begging God for the solution to prayers hammered and yammered on to God about. So one of my long time prayers refused to yield good news. Instead of being false or cheery, I took off my shoes, stood before Father God and did the praise. I said maybe you have a good reason for saying No to what I can't bring forth. Maybe this is good news. Maybe you have a good reason for saying 'No' Father God. And as I prayed praise to the Lord Father God from Psalm 145, my heart felt better. I had lived in difficult circumstances before.

And as I said thank you, Good News came in. God wants to be thought of first and trusted.




Proverbs 16:32
Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.


1 Thessalonians 5:18
Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you

Cora Ten Boom and the fleas.

Romans 8:28
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

And this is also saying that God's Purpose triumphs all works. This is in His Good Hands.

Philippians 4:8
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.

Romans 12:21
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.



What is give to us as new creations of Christ Jesus - is today. His Mercies renew. We can make new attitudes. This is what we are building on tomorrow. Jesus told the son of the widow of Nain, "Rise up."

Rise up.


John 14:31
"I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here!"

Father God,

We will not give up on Life. We will continue to pray for those who are ill. We will not give up on Words of Life.

I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. We have done grace and patience before, and we can believe that character is formed and strength. Help will arrive.

Calling to Jesus Christ, asking Him to pray with us - with Him - let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger. Lately when words fail me, I sing Jesus, Jesus, Jesus over the people I pray for completely silently when I wake up. This is cheering me up a lot. Like David, I will hope continually and will praise you yet more and more.

God is going to find me, I will be the sheep He finds and holds to Him.

I believe this for myself, the ones I love, my communities, my Church, my nation. I believe this for all the people holding on to Jesus Christ with Faith.

Jesus is Lord. Amen.

♔ Lord Jesus Saves!  †

Psalm 100 ~ The Lord is good ! +

Psalm 100

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
2 Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!

3 Know that the Lord, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his;[and not we ourselves]
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!

5 For the Lord is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.

Matthew Henry Commentary

Psalm 100

An exhortation to praise God, and rejoice in him. - This song of praise should be considered as a prophecy, and even used as a prayer,  for the coming of that time when all people shall know that the Lord he is God, and shall become his worshipers, and the sheep of his pasture.

Great encouragement is given us, in worshiping God, to do it cheerfully. If, when we strayed like wandering sheep, he has brought us again to his fold, we have indeed abundant cause to bless his name.

The covenant of grace set down in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, with so many rich promises, to strengthen the faith of every weak believer, makes the matter of God's praise and of his people's joys so sure, that how sad soever our spirits may be when we look to ourselves, yet we shall have reason to praise the Lord when we look to his goodness and mercy, and to what he has said in his word for our comfort.





Some days you have to see the humor to go on with Grace. In the 1930's, Frank Adams wrote a long children's story about 'pig not going to market' i.e. "Stick won't beat pig, fire won't burn rope and pig won't go to market." In the early 60's, perhaps Marilyn wrote 'The Munsters'. But in 1995 Elizabeth Bennett rode again in "Cold Comfort Farm" made a great movie, the long version of the book is very good.



Flora, who is an aspiring writer, decides her way forward is to live, while writing, with relatives. Her city-based relatives show no interest, so she sends letters to her country, country relatives.

Seed parables of rural life, the family includes, among others, an insane matriarch locked in her room, a love-mad and graceless granddaughter, a grandson who plays quite a lot, an antique manservant who fails to notice when a cow's leg falls off. And a suitor Fiora is having to fob off as she weaves life.

Flora soon realizes she can resolve the situations once she has assessed and solved each person's problems. In the process of her endeavors, the multitude and complexities of the farm expose the family and Flora.


Highly-educated Flora Poste, intelligent, wittish, fashion-addled, aimless, and seemingly shallow ascends upon her rural family. As life progresses, more of the family sees Fiora has a nack. Flora contrives to marry off the granddaughter to a local grandee, seals the deal for the grandson to go off to Hollywood, and generally manages life with precision and cheerfully. All not only lives Happily Ever After, with improved Good Manners and better haircuts.

All seem faintly ridiculous, as time progresses affections for ALL these characters grow. By the end, we are actually happy to see all happily settled. And.. Flora no longer seems like a conniver but a clever and sympathetic heroine-more Elizabeth Bennett.

All the while. unlikely becomes the impossible, then all things are fairly possible, but with a growing Love, they are resolved in the end.


+ So really, the story is not about Fiora. In fact, Fiora just might be the path, the rocky places, the sun and the root,  thorns and good soil. + +

The Hand of His providing Blessings and Woa

The Lord Himself promoted David, and Solomon. They knew that not all of life was smooth and easy. Solomon made his own life difficult and spent a vast number of his years trying to get the Lord God Almighty to talk to him. Going to the less than holy places of other gods' to just get God to speak to Solomon again.

The point being this - is  - life Cold Comfort Farm? All people could say that. And as David and Solomon grew in maturity, they both recognized the Lord of Lords and King of Kings brings us both sorrows and great joys. The point of life is the Prodigal Son - this is my soul to God the Father - interweaving all things for good for those who love the Lord God. 

I once heard a CEO say that trouble was fun. It gave you a seat of drama, paraphrasing here, and the squabbles and the fuss - the solution was going to be interesting to watch. Maybe a sense of adventure is needed, with life being so transitory.

If God is going to interweave, and Jesus says what we do to the least of our brothers - is what God sees in us. It seems that interweaving and bring seeds of encouragement, joy, hope, faith and Love would be what God would want - with complete sincerity - working towards Love. Rebuke, be steadfast, stand firm - for the Joy of the Lord. 










Now what idea is this. When we hold firmly to Jesus. We are not going to let Him pass by without reaching out to touch Jesus :

Billy Graham had the idea. "I've read the last page of the Bible, it's all going to turn out all right.”

Because this long road is this: The Prodigal Son grows up and sees His Father running to him, a long way off.

Father God,

You are Good, Your Hope and Future is in Your Plan for our lives. Your willingness to walk upon the waters, brought us into Your strength and goodness. Being carried over the water, the shock of cold, the warmth of rescue. The solidness of Jesus' Love as the foundation, stronger than any rocking ship.

In Jesus, we will be this:

Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kind.

Believe in Jesus and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory

A joyful heart is good medicine

So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.

This is the day the Lord has made. My mother has reoccurring Pneumonia, this is how we woke up today. And many phone calls found this to be an antibiotic tablet and continued Physical Therapy with a good appetite. The Specialist said rest. In Jesus we will put our trust. Believing Jesus will work this for my mother's good. Not lightly, not without days of tears. The cost for all of us is great worry. Weeks out of town.

We will not stop believing in Life. We know from where our lives come. Jesus the LORD.
Asking He will cover my mother fully with His Loving Name, Jesus. Asking for health for Edward - he came in third in his recent Tournament. And finished second last night, we have not seen this in some time, when it was very regular before. An eagle on a 1,000 foot hole. Finding goodness from each day. Believing the Lord God has good plans for us all.

Doing like the Catholics do, be with us this day and in the hour of our death. Asking suffering to flee, for ourselves, our loved ones, our communities, Churches believing in Jesus the Lord and His Word, for this Nation. All of us, believers, calling on Jesus around the world.

The night my Aunt Clarice passed on, I greeted the phone call announcing her passing, saying she had visited me. I got a glimpse, a tiny glimpse of God's Temple and the Gates of Heaven. I would say Thank You, To Father God Almighty. And say in Heaven, the  the Hill is the Temple, The Temple is raised High and Towers - the Magnitude - Vast -  Announcing the Majesty of God. What we see in this life - is just a glimmer, a glimpse of what God in His Strong Love has prepared for us to walk in. 

Let us have hope, faith and Love.


Jesus is God. Amen.

♔ Lord Jesus Saves!  †

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!  †