I hope so!

Do you ever find yourself saying things like..."I hope those politicians get their act together!" or "I hope the economy turns around soon!"?  For some "hope" may just be an expression,  similar to the one we all hear way too much... "Oh my god!" ( I did not capitalize that because most people that say this probably don't have a god that is worth capitalizing.  I often wonder when I hear those words, if that will not be a judgement point for them... "You knew I existed by your proclamation, why did you not do what I said?")  
On what or whom (including yourself in the possibility you may be a control freak) is your hope based?  For some it is the American way, for others their spouse, job, their own abilities or even their political party.  I have been in organizations where the pastor or the church (the structure, people, the style or organization becomes the answer and thus hope for the people.  Is your main way of "getting" people is to invite them to "your" church [In reality it is not yours, well the organization, style, beliefs and structure may be, but it is Jesus that died and rose from the dead for it, it belongs to Him!]  The Church is not a building or man made denomination or any 401c entity... and while we are on this subject... the "incorporated" status of most church organizations makes it, in the eyes of the courts, a State institution, because it is given the status and power of incorporation by the State and is under partial control by the rules and laws of the State... I thought this nation was started to get away from that...An incorporated entity protects the organization and its officers and makes them less vulnerable in law suits and matters of money.  So by the incorporated status the State, in which the papers were drawn up in, becomes their protector, shield and hope...this is a SELAH moment... Does the organization that you belong to preach reliance on God and is incorporated?  If so, they are lying to you through their actions, whether by deceit or ignorance!) [sorry, I will now get back down from my soap box]...If your main way of "getting" people is to invite them to "your" church is to tell them about the meetings or brag on the pastor or maybe what you do there, and we have all done it, your hope, trust and reliance may just be in that thing or pastor and not in your relationship with the Almighty!  If you find yourself in that position my recommendation is for you to develop your relationship with Him...Jesus talked about, in at least one of the gospels, people facing the Father and His dispute with them was not what they did, but rather "I never knew you". That speaks of relationship!  When you have one with Him it displaces all other things and gives you a confidence like no other thing or person can. Here is the verse that got all this started today...
Ps 33:22 Let thy mercy, O LORD, be upon us, according as we hope in thee.
To get the mercy you must first locate your hope.  After you locate where all your hope lies then to whatever portion of mercy you desire from God you want you may want to learn to put and equivalent amount of hope in Him. To have hope there must be trust and relationship. Make a decision today and watch where or in what  you put you hope. I sure do hope so anyway!

A Psalm 84 Attitude

Life will not be measured so much by what you encountered (or didn’t encounter) but how you reacted to it.  Let’s take a quick look how to be a success in God’s eyes not only when times are good and easy, but also in harder times.

Ps 84:3 Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O LORD of hosts, my King, and my God.      

 4 Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee. Selah. (there's a SELAH moment, don’t just pass over it)

Vs 3 and 4: Sparrows will nest anywhere and aren’t intimated.  We can come in boldly into God’s presence just like the sparrow (the old “worm am I” mentality is for Satan’s bunch).  God’s presence is your strength and  dwelling   (where you stay and yes, it is possible).   It is a place of stability, refreshing and calmness.

Ps 84:5 Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them.

Vs 5:  when troubled or hard times come and you are used to operating only in your abilities/strengths you are in trouble (see Sun June 26^th post).  You’ll be struggling to find answers and the ability to not only survive but to come out ahead.  It will be twice as hard because you are not only facing your current issue(with all its pressures and voices, you know like the ones that taunt you with the “You’re going to die” or “fail” routine), but also trying to stretch out of yourself and trying to reach and develop a deeper relationship with God (which is possible, but remember you’re also fighting your problem with this selfish my way attitude and abilities and the “voices”). It’s like heading for a cliff in a car and you haven’t even learned how to operate it yet (the learning curve is intensely quick…can you say pressure?)   For those who are already trained in operating in His strengths  (or yours that have been retrained and cultivated by Him) you are also led by a heart that is established and will follow after Him.   (Quick note:  I have seen couples and pastors go through hard and/or stressful  times (including building projects) only to fall, leave or divorce and have come to realize that they probably survived in their own strength and when it is over they are beat physically ,mentally and spiritually and have nothing left to give to their spouse or congregation, so they leave.)

Ps 84:6 Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools.

Baca =weeping.  These people have already been established by practicing  vs 3-5 so that when the hard time came instead of going inward and mourning and questioning they instead called up their strength (their relationship with the Father) and have now turned the place of weeping into refreshing (the well).  Not only are they able to thrive in hard times they have captured God’s rain and have a place of refreshing for others even though they themselves are in a hard place.  (note:  that in the verse it says going through Baca not residing!   HINT! HINT! HINT! Mark and celebrate the good times not the tragic and/or bad times.  If you mourn a certain day for what hard or tragic thing happened in the past you are living in Baca and have yet to go through it!

Ps 84:7 They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appears before God.

Strength to strength (see Sun June 26^th post)see they are becoming stronger and not bogged down by what they have been through.  Why? The rest of the verse repeats the answer… they are often if not continually in His presence.

Don’t wait for trouble to come to be closer to the Father practice now …maybe even today!

All Cracked Up, Stop and Think About That!

SELAH – Sometimes we get in such a hurry to do what we think we ought to… like read the Word, that we  skim over or feel so familiar with it that we don’t think about what it is says.  This is what the “SELAH” is for, that is in the Psalms, the brakes of the Word, the “Slow down! There is something important here for you if you’ll just ponder on this for a while!” It is a point of deeper meaning, if you’ll look.

While listening to Milea read a Psalm, on a recent road trip,  I did a little SELAH moment.  So now, I get to give you my rendition of the Ps 143:6 Selah…

Ps 143:6 I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land. Selah.

  …“as a thirst land”  Thirsty land is first of all land that hasn’t been getting its share of water, for one reason or another,  so unless you live where its sandy the ground gets hard and starts to shrink and crack.  Now as a gardener that is not a good condition to be in.  (In Minnesota we used to describe potholes on highways which were so big a VW Bug would disappear into them,  in some of the ground shrinking and cracking dry times we get in KY if a skinny girl were to fall into one of these chasms  she would disappear- unless her arms were out to stop her from going all the way down and visiting China.)  Secondly, dry ground doesn’t absorb water well.  I have come home after a huge rain and looked at my yard expecting those cracks to be gone, only to see them still there!  What happens is the ground gets so hard and dry that it cannot absorb the moisture easily and expand back, a lot of the water has either run off or gone down into the cracks and wetted the earth down deep but the surface still looks the same and is still in need of more rain to fully recover.  That is why, if we’ve been dry around our house before a rain comes,  I will water the areas around plants and trees to get the soil ready to drink in the rain instead of letting all the rain just run off.  Think of a dry hard sponge… when you first start to use the sponge, it needs a little work and lots of water to get it to the place of getting ready to absorb and hold more water.  It is the same with the ground.

We too are like the earth and that sponge; we call out for the rain of God, but then not see or perceive any result.  Don’t give up!  He did send some, it just ran in deep to heal your ground.  Call for more.  Soak yourself under His spicket.  You will start to see the gashes in your body or soul start to heal and become whole.

How do we get dry like that in the first place?  Sometimes its sin, sometimes it is just getting too busy and we forget or put off the drink for a later time.  When I get dehydrated my eyes fell low on fluids and they can get a little blurry.  Not getting a regular wetting from God will warp your vision and how you perceive things.  Let all that go along with any condemnation and just start fresh today with a shower, to wash, absorb and refresh (we will all appreciate it if you would :) ) Repeat as needed…  Daily showers are a good thing… SELAH!!!