OUR LIVE COAL


Genesis 16:7-15 relates how Hagar, a simple Egyptian servant girl, ran away from her cruel mistress.  Hagar's son (rejected from becoming the promised child) would become the "father" of the Arab world. Yet, God spoke to Hagar by a spring of water in the desert, telling Hagar to name her child Ishmael (God hears), because the Lord has HEARD and PAID ATTENTION to your affliction.  Hagar calls God:  a God of SEEING... Him Who SEES me. 


Leah, Jacob's "less-favored" first wife, had been forced on Jacob after he had worked seven hard years for Rachel, Leah's sister.  And when the Lord SAW that Leah was despised, He made her able to bear children (Genesis 29:31-35).  Leah says:  because the Lord has "SEEN" my humiliation and affliction...  now my husband will love me because  the Lord "HEARD" that I am despised.


Who is this God Who actually SEES and HEARS us, Who PAYS ATTENTION TO our affliction????

Isaiah 6 gives us a picture in the vision God gave to the prophet Isaiah of the throne room...
I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, HIGH and LIFTED UP,
  and the skirts of His train filled the temple!

Above Him stood the seraphim; each had six wings: 
with two [each] covered his face, and with two [each] covered his feet, and with two [each] flew,
And one cried to another and said:  HOLY, HOLY, HOLY is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of His glory!!

And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who cried,
and the house was filled with smoke!


The burning, fiery seraphim could worship the Lord, but only with face, eyes, and feet covered. 
They could not even look at God or expose their feet in the presence of the Most Holy God!


Isaiah's frantic response was:  Woe is me!  For I am undone, ruined!  For I am a man of unclean lips!  
...for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts!


Isaiah, and all of mankind, including me and you, ARE NOT WORTHY or ABLE or CAPABLE of worshiping the King of Kings - because we are full of sin.  And death is our penalty.  And God is a just God.  But God is also a God of intense, unbelievable love for us.

Isaiah relates what happened next...
Then flew one of the seraphim to me, having a live coal in His hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar; and with it he touched my mouth and said, Behold, this has touched your lips;
your iniquity and guilt are taken away, and your sin is completely atoned for and forgiven.


This is a picture of Jesus Christ, our Live Coal.  God the Son stood up from that high and lifted up throne, moved out from under the seraphim crying out His holiness, and stepped down to earth to "burn up" for us.  He Himself became the burnt offering and the sin offering required in Leviticus 16:2-17.  And so.....
OUR INIQUITY and GUILT ARE TAKEN AWAY,
and OUR SIN IS COMPLETELY ATONED FOR and FORGIVEN.


A couple weeks ago, before the ban on crowds, we had an evening of praise at our church.  But I could not have worshiped, no matter how much I wanted to, without that Live Coal...

touching not only my lips and each and every word, but also every thought from birth to death, including every despicable, vain imagination, every unholy movement of my hands or feet,
my heart with all its self-centeredness, all that I have done or said or not done or said against His will,
all my  purposes and goals and desires that were not in line with His, all my disobediences...

and purifying it all.
All my iniquity and all my guilt - taken away,
All my sin - completely atoned for and forgiven.

Because He loved us enough TO BECOME THE LIVE COAL for me and for you.


And that same holy, Almighty Ancient of Days is sitting on that same throne today, in total, complete, absolute control over the entire world, including over the COVID-19 pandemic. 
The Lord sat as King over the deluge; the Lord [still] sits as King forever!  (Psalm 29:10)


And He calls us to worship, not to fear the terror...
The Lord reigns, let the peoples tremble [in awe of HIM]. 
He sits [enthroned] above the cherubim, let the earth quake...
Extol the Lord our God and worship at His footstool.  (Psalm 99)


And He gives us an example that somewhat mirrors our today...
Though the fig tree does not blossom and there is no fruit on the vines,
the product of the olive fails and the fields yield no food,
 though the flock is cut off from the fold and there are no cattle in the stalls,
YET I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the God of my salvation!
The Lord God is my Strength, my personal bravery, and my invincible army;
He makes my feet like hinds' feet and will make me to walk [not to stand still in terror] Habakkuk 3:17-19a.


Lord, in this day when fear wants to take hold and wring us out,
enable us instead to come to You in praise and thanksgiving, knowing that You are our personal God,
Who sees us in our struggles, Who hears our cries, Who pays attention to our affliction. 
May this "terror" that you have allowed to go through Your hand bring worldwide revival
and Kingdom goals, as it softens hearts, crumbles strongholds, and draws the lost to You,
the One Who stood up from His throne and stepped down, in love, to be our Live Coal.

                                                                                                                                                Scripture from Amplified Bible

Our Song in the Night

We've had much heavy rain here in Florida lately.  The ditches in my rural, wetland area have at times been more like a creek gone wild, raging through the subdivision.  Standing on top of the huge double culvert at the end of my drive, listening to the water rushing through less than an inch below the ends of my feet, I was shocked to see an alligator come through the culvert and emerge right under my feet.  Even though the gator (swiftly jerkng his head back toward me) seemed as shocked to see me as I was him, it definitely seemed appropriate to immediately and swiftly vacate the area.

I was not expecting danger under my feet when I stepped onto that culvert.  In the same way, we don't expect tragedy in our lives when we step into a new day.  But sometimes it hits with a vengeance - like the second a TBI slammed into our lives and instantly changed everything forever.  Like that gator, it was unsolicited, unexpected, unwanted.

And sometimes it's not the big things that seem to be ready to eat us alive; rather, it's an accumulation of the little, day-to-day irritations and problems and hurts and struggles that try to take us down.  I was there last week - food poisoning, while at the same time dealing with mangled AC condenser blades and fire starting in an electrical wire (because a bird got caught in the blades after a storm took the protective grate off), preceded by two weeks in Illinois dealing with an extremely difficult tenant situation with nasty repercussions.  I was in pain and feeling beaten down, exhausted, alone, and discouraged, until words of a song by Mark Condon, from a DVD I had turned on, penetrated.... "Peace of God cover me, cover me, cover me.  Peace of God cover me, through the storm, cover me....."

It brought back that dark night 24 years ago when I had awakened from a coma to realize that (1)Steven was severely brain injured and may never come out of a coma and probably would be extremely injured if he did, (2)the accident was possibly my fault, and I could be sued for everything we had, and (3)my injuries were bad enough that I wasn't sure of walking or anything else. 

I remembered how peace came down over me like a blanket in the middle of that bleak night, when God took me to Psalm 62:2, "He alone is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold, I shall not be greatly shaken."  And I remembered....He was there in possibly the worst night of my life. 

But that wasn't all.  Turning the pages of my Bible, I saw note after note written in the margins, all dated, each telling about some troubled time, but each written beside a part of His Word that He had used to bring me peace during that specific time.  To quote a few of the verses God used........

"He hushes the storm to a calm, to a gentle whisper, so that the waves of the sea are still. "
Psalm 107:29

"I remember You upon my bed and meditate on You in the night watches, for You have been my help, and in the shadow of Your wings will I rejoice."  Psalm 63:6-7

"Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved but abides and stands fast forever.  As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people from this time forth and forever."  Psalm 125:1-2

"Fear not, for I am with you; do not look around you in terror and be dismayed, for I am your God.  I will strengthen and harden you to difficulties, yes, I will help you.  Yes, I will hold you up and retain you with my right hand of rightness and justice...For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand.  I am the Lord, Who says to you: Fear not; I will help you."  Isaiah 40:10, 13

"When you pass through the water, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you."  Isaiah 43:2a

"For we walk by faith, not by sight."  II Corinthians 5:7

As many of you already know, my husband, Steven, wrote a "letter to God" after he read the Word each day.  In addition, as he started a new journal, Steven would sometimes write a short statement in the beginning of that journal.  Here is what Steven wrote in the beginning of one of the journals shortly before his TBI....

  "A new blank book.
   Who knows what will happen in the future?
   How the arrangement of joys and sorrows, excitement and the valleys of life will be.
   But every step of my walk of faith will be taken with You by my side, Lord.
   You know the way.
   You know that the pathway is possible.
   You know when I should rest and toil.
   You know me.
   As I write in these pages, I will know You better -
   Your love, faithfulness, loving discipline, and your holiness, justice and mercy for me!
   So I need not fear what these pages will hold. 
   They will be only a record of our walk together - toward home."

Looking through His Word and through the pages of my journals and Steven's, I see so clearly how..... "Your statutes have been my song in the house of my pilgrimage" (Psalm 119:54),  
for.... "They cry to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivers them out of their distresses.  He sends forth His Word and heals them and rescues them from the pit and destruction"  
(Psalm 107:19, 20).

Lord, thank you that You constantly carry us through and give us peace, and that Your Word is there to always be our Song in the Night.

NEVERTHELESS

Friday was my granddaughter Rachel's wedding.  After days of non-stop craziness and finishing up at the very last minute, everything turned out beautiful.  Five vases of wispy greens (intermingled among white candles and tiny white string lights) meandered down each of the thirty-five long black-clad tables set up for both wedding and reception.   An arbor covered with white tulle and graced by five elegant lanterns stood as sentinel on the stage over the lifetime vows of two awesome people committed to loving the Lord with all their hearts while spending a lifetime together doing the work of the Kingdom.  Everything progressed wonderfully, and, at the end of the night, generously considerate guests choosing to join in  cleanup shortened what would have been an all-night job to a few hours.  And the wedding day was over... well thought out by my precious granddaughter and new son-in-law, and well executed.

However... (there's always a "however", eventually, to all of life here before Christ returns...) the next morning I was feeling kind of down, thinking (of all things) how my outfit for the wedding compared quite unfavorably to all of the other elegant ones flitting about the room.  It was actually an old dress and jacket resurrected from a daughter's long-ago wedding (!!) - because hours of shopping had not produced an acceptable outfit, and time simply ran out.

But God...  in His great love and patience with me...  took me that morning to Psalm 73:21-28 [Amplified].  For my heart was grieved, embittered, and in a state of ferment...  Wow, He hit it right-on!  So foolish, stupid, and brutish was I, and ignorant.  I was like a beast before You.  And now we're talking about the reality of what we not only WERE but, really, still ARE, compared to our Lord, so consistently gentle and considerate with us. 

NEVERTHELESS...  I am continually with You.  You do hold my right hand.  Always, through every kind of day, our Best Friend not only walks with us, but actually holds our hand - intimate, personal relationship.  You will guide me with Your counsel..  Oh, what a blessing, to be guided by the Ancient of Days, each minute, in each problem situation, in each bit of life - if we but ask; the reality of who we really are beneath all the cover-up does not stop His forever-love!  And afterward You receive me to honor and glory.  No matter that we are foolish, stupid, brutish, ignorant, decades out of style, so broken in so many ways ... He lays honor on our head.

Whom have I in heaven but You?  I have no delight or desire on earth beside You.  That is where our Lord wants us - where everything else pales and falls flat beside our relationship with Him and with Who He is!  All else eventually "blows away in the wind,"  for what seems good and desirable is here today and gone - in a moment - EXCEPT THE LOVER OF OUR SOULS!  My flesh and my heart may fail (our bodies don't look or act the way they used to), but GOD IS the Rock and Firm Strength of my heart and my portion... FOREVER!  No one else's opinions, nothing, really matters - only our Lord.  And He will never fail us.  We will let people down.  Others will let us down. But He will never fail us.  It is good for me to draw near to God;  I have put my trust in the Lord God, and made HIM my refuge (not in "what people think of us", what we can do, our financial security, our health, the success of a surgery or business, our accomplishments, the achievement of our goals), that I may tell of all Your works.  As we fellowship with Him each day, listen to Him, and lay our trust in Him for that day and what the future holds, we are then able to glorify Him with that specific day. 

Lord, place our focus on trusting You and Your way for our lives, on loving You with all our heart, mind, and soul.  In those times or seasons or even lifetimes, of tough, tough days, may we nevertheless glorify You as we do the work You've laid out for each of us... until, as Your bride, we see You face to face - the Lover of our Souls Who laid down Your life to dress us in the wedding gown of Your Own righteousness.    

"Fear not, for I am with you; do not look around you in terror and be dismayed, for I am your God.  I will strengthen and harden you to difficulties; yes, I will help you!  Yes, I will hold you up and retain you with my right hand of rightness and justice."  Isaiah 41:10

These are the words the Lord gently reminded me of the Sunday morning shortly before Hurricane Irma made landfall on the west coast of FL.  Having evacuated to Alabama Saturday morning at 3:00 a.m. with two cars full of little ones (because we were in the direct path of this Category 4 Hurricane), it seemed I was having a bit of a teary "Jacob" struggle (Genesis 32:24) with God that morning.  I was not only stressed over the safety of so many but also struggling to be at peace with whatever havoc Irma would wreak that day.  Before we had left that Saturday morning, I had bagged pictures and journals and put them in tubs for protection and then decided that my Bible with all the dated notes in the margins - records of His faithfulness - was definitely going with, along with all important documents.  When family asked if there was anything else that it would really be hard to have destroyed, believe it or not, I said, "my floor."  Go ahead and laugh if you want at the idea of trying to pack a floor on top of the minivan...... but I could hardly handle the thought of my floor being destroyed for the third time in a few years, along with all the mess and expense.  I kept thinking about those 9 windows and 8 French doors still uncovered, with hundreds of huge oak trees and 200 ft. tall pines on the property.  The wild thing was, this was the same verse that the Lord brought to me the first time I had to jackhammer out the floor.  And it was 11 months after this first tear out that the Lord began to really teach me how He would "harden me to difficulties" (as I realized that the next floor would also have to be torn out, in addition to dealing with a ton of other seemingly nasty situations).     

The second verse the Lord took me to that Sunday morning was Psalm 84:  "Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.  Passing through the Valley of Weeping, they make it a place of springs....They go from strength to strength....".  I assumed the Lord was telling me there would be a time of weeping, but that I needed to come out of it praising the Lord, pulling my strength from Him.  And the praising needed to start right then, that Sunday morning.

Sitting there in Alabama watching pictures on the news of what Irma was doing along the coast with the storm surge gave an unbelievable visual for Exodus 14:21-31, where God stretched out His hand and pulled the Red Sea back for the Israelites to cross on dry ground and then let it come crashing back to drown the Egyptians in a mad deluge of fury.  What awesome, unbelievable power our God has - and how tiny our understanding of the true reality of that power! 

Heading home Monday afternoon (without mothers and children, who had to fly back later), we saw the power of Irma unleashed.  I held onto Isaiah 41:10 and Psalm 84 as we fought the wind trying to skirt Irma's current path while in AL and then traversed FL back roads to avoid flooded, closed, and backed up interstate - while keeping an eagle eye out for downed trees across the road and flooded roadways.  It was weird going through towns and cities that were completely dark, having a group of around 100 policemen pass us at one time, and going by station after station with no gas......almost like we were walking through the pages of Revelation.  Usually when we did see an open station, it was guarded by policemen, with no access to the typical motorist.

I arrived home Tuesday morning at 3:00 a.m. to no worse than downed fences (thankfully!!) and tree branches covering the ground like a carpet, with power, postal service, and perishable supplies not available until a few days later.  This time, my "Valley of Weeping" had been mostly in the mountain of "What If?"  Others, however, had a much bigger, ongoing "valley of weeping", both in FL and Texas.  Maybe you are one of those.  Or maybe you are just beginning to deal with a new TBI or some other kind of extreme stress. 

As the world spins down further and further and weather continues to escalate, we will possibly all find ourselves in some additional terrifying situations - until that day the Lord calls His own up to Him, away from the trauma.  Two things.....  

(1) Like God commanded the Israelites, we need to constantly remember what God's faithfulness has been to us in the past.  For Steven and I, the most memorable time would be the song of His faithfulness throughout the dark night of 18 years of severe TBI (so incomparably harder than "floor" problems).  I'm sure you all have your own dark nights of His faithfulness stored in memory boxes that need to be kept open. 

And (2), Scriptures like Isaiah 41:10 and Psalm 84 need to be written on our hearts, bringing assurance in times ahead that no matter what the future brings, God will be with us, He will actually use what we are going through to strengthen us and draw us closer to Him, and He will bring us into a "place of springs" - where we can praise Him in the midst of it all.

Lord, prepare us for whatever each of our futures hold.  Teach us, one by one, to draw our strength from You and to continue to praise You, no matter our circumstances.

A. Holy Spirit

From the day Adam was created thousands of years ago, God has had a personal relationship with specific men and women.  Adam & Eve, Job, Abraham, Isaac & Rebekah, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Samuel, David (even as a shepherd boy in the fields), and the prophets are some examples recorded in Scripture of men and women actually talking back and forth with God!

In Judges, God began something a little different, starting with Gideon (Judges 3:10) and continuing with Jephthah (Judges 11:29), Samson (Judges 13:25; 14;19; 14:6; 15:14), King Saul (1 Samuel 10:10; 11:6), King David (1 Samuel 16:13), and others.  In each of the above Scriptures, God's Word tells us:  The Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and sometimes it adds "mightily" upon.  However, this special Holy Spirit indwelling was different from how the Holy Spirit indwells believers today.  Then, it was for a very specific work, and usually wasn't permanent (except with David), coming with each need and then departing.  With Saul, it was taken away forever when he continued to disobey God.    

Even though David was given the Spirit permanently, he was still afraid, after he sinned with Bathsheba and Uriah (2 Samuel 11), that God would remove His Holy Spirit.  Listen to David's fear:  cast me not away from Your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me... (Psalm 51:11).    

Around 33 AD, everything changed when Genesis 3:15 was fulfilled.  At that time, Christ took ALL our penalty for ALL our sin - past, present, and future - so the Holy Spirit can now live inside us every day, every hour.   

Just recently, the Lord gave me a song about the above, part of which follows...

 2000* years ago, as You hung on a cross,
The Father gathered all my guilt, and You took it in.
And condemnation poured through holy veins that had known no sin.
The Father turned His back, and groaned in agony.
And it crushed You down to death, and they laid You in the tomb.
And hope died in Jerusalem, when they laid You in the tomb.

But then...  You.. ROSE AGAIN!
And LEFT MY GUILT IN THE GRAVE...  Forever...  Forever...  Forever."

Our Lord's death (for our sin) and resurrection, cleared the way for a permanent relationship with God ...  so that the Holy Spirit in believer's hearts would NEVER be taken away (1 John 14:16-17)!

Today,  when we're struggling or discouraged, tired, afraid, losing hope...  we don't have to wait for the Lord to "come down to the garden" to talk with us.  Nor do we have to be concerned that He will leave us, like Saul, because of "one more sin, that broke the bank of His grace".  Today, He walks with us all the time, inside of us, quietly, waiting for us to acknowledge His Presence, waiting for us let Him carry our pain.

The Journey

When God called Abraham (in Genesis 22:1-2), Abraham responded with Here I am.  The Hebrew meaning of this phrase indicates that Abraham was saying, "I am here and available to You, God."  To Abraham's shock and utter horror, God replied (Amplified):  Take now your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love...  & offer him... as a burnt offering.... 

So... This 113 yr old man rose early in the morning and, heart breaking, tears streaming down his face, started out with Isaac and two servants on a three day, soul-wrenching journey to Mt. Moriah.   When they reached the base of the mountain, Abraham dismissed the servants & laid the wood on Isaac's back.  Looking up, he could see in the distance the place where God had asked him to do the unthinkable - slay his beloved, long-waited-for son, Isaac.

When they reached their destination, Abraham bound his son, and Isaac, though he certainly could have overpowered this ancient man, submitted to his father.  Abraham, blinded by tears, then picked Isaac up and laid him on the altar, believing he was going to have to slay this precious son  and then watch him burn!

Then Abraham stretched forth his hand (can you imagine a terrible pause here?), and took hold of the  slaughtering knife to slay his son (Genesis 22:10, Amplified) .....

But God called out from heaven for Abraham to STOP!  And God provided a ram, caught in the bushes, for a replacement sacrifice.

Hebrews 11:17-19 tells us that Abraham, believing fully in the promise of descendants from Isaac, reasoned that God was able to bring Isaac back to life.  Nevertheless, the situation would have been unbelievably dreadful for both Abraham and Isaac!  But Abraham had come to the point of believing, "You are God.  I am not."  So he walked the pathway that God asked him to walk.

But God was not asking Abraham to do what He Himself had not done.  God the Father walked a like pathway with His Own Beloved Son, but much longer than three days....

·         from before the foundation of the world (1 Peter 1:20, Amplified),

·         to Adam's sin - you will lie in wait and bruise His heal (Genesis 3:15, Amplified),

·         to the manger 4000 years later - He will save His people from their sins (Math I:21, Amplified),

·         to Jesus' arrest and conviction 33 years after that,

·         and then the final journey from the Praetorium to Golgotha -    Pilate gave sentence... they led Him away... And when they came to the place that is called the Skull, there they crucified Him.... And Jesus prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:24-34, Amplified).

No ram was caught in a bush to take the place of the Lamb of God on that cross.  The Father had to watch His Son slowly die in torture, and the sight was so terrible that God shrouded it in darkness... and then turned His face away as He laid on His dying Son the guilt and iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6, Amplified).

All for the love of you and me.

For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He even gave up His only begotten Son... (John 3:16, Amplified.).

Fire and Brimstone, Yet Swimming in Mercy

When Abraham graciously told Lot to take his choice of the land before him (Genesis 13:5-9), Lot looked and saw that everywhere the Jordan Valley (Plain of Siddim) was well watered.  Before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, it was all like the garden of the Lord (Garden of Eden), like the land of Egypt, as you go toward Zoar.  Then Lot chose for himself the Jordan Valley and traveled east.  So they separated.  Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the Valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom and dwelt there (Genesis 13:10-12, Amplified Bible).  

Five cities nestled in a row, north to south, in this extremely lush area that Lot coveted - Sodom was the most northerly, then Gomorrah, followed by Zoar, Admah, and Zeboiim.  But the men of Sodom were wicked and exceedingly great sinners against the Lord (Genesis 13:13, Amp.). 

Because of his love for Lot, Abraham later rescued these 5 cities when they were sacked by Mesopotamian kings, bringing Lot and all the other captives back, along with all of the stolen goods (Genesis 14:1-24).   Twenty to twenty-six years later, when Abraham was 99 years old, the Lord (the Son of God) and two angels (all in the form of men) appeared before Abraham.  The Lord told Abraham that he was going to destroy the Plain of Siddim "because the shriek [of the sins] of Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is exceedingly grievous.....the cry of it which has come to Me" (Genesis 18:20-21, Amp.). 

Jude 7 (Amp.) says:  "...Sodom and Gomorrah and the adjacent towns... gave themselves over to impurity and indulged in unnatural vice and sensual perversity."  Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, and Zephaniah, in addition to Jewish texts and Rabbinic writings, expand the picture of the cry that reached heaven from these cities: lies, adultery, arrogance, blasphemy, and extreme torture of foreigners looking for refuge and those who would help them.  In spite of all this depravity, Abraham pled for mercy for all the inhabitants, if only ten righteous could be found.  But there were not even ten!

Truly, Lot made a TERRIBLE decision in choosing to allow earthly benefits to take precedence over the fact that his children would be brought up in such spiritual depravity!  Nevertheless, GOD WAS MERCIFUL to Lot!  The two angels warned Lot, "Whomever you have in the city, bring them out of this place, for we will spoil and destroy, for the outcry and shriek against its people has grown great before the Lord, and He has sent us to destroy it!" (Genesis 19:12-13).  In the morning, the angels urged Lot to hurry out of the city with his wife and daughters.  BUT HE LINGERED.  So... "the men seized him and his wife and two daughters by the hand, for THE LORD WAS MERCIFUL TO HIM, and they brought him forth and set him outside the city...and said, Escape for your life!  Do not look behind you or stop anywhere in the whole valley; escape to the mountains, lest you be consumed (Genesis 19:16-17, Amp.).  Lot, however, begged to be allowed to escape to the "little" city of Zoar, which plea was granted.

"Then the Lord rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of the heavens.  He overthrew, destroyed, and ended those cities, and all the valley and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground" (Genesis 19:24-25).  Deuteronomy 29:23 and Hosea 11:8 make it clear that the cities of Admah and Zeboiim were included in the destruction.  Zoar, however, was spared, as Lot asked.

But, sadly, Lot's wife "looked back, and she became a pillar of salt" (Genesis 19:26).  The Hebrew word here for "looked" means "to intentionally look with desire".  Her heart and allegiance were still back in the city, so she stopped running, and the destruction overtook her.  Abraham also "looked" at the burning city, but this Hebrew word indicates just the action of gazing.  Assuredly gazed with extreme horror, as "the smoke of the country went up like the smoke of a furnace" (Genesis 19:28), laying waste the valley that Lot had so much coveted (See Jesus words in Luke 17:32).

Archaeological surveys and excavations have identified five cities situated in a line (running north to south), southeast of the Dead Sea.  The Sodom cemetery was first discovered in the 1960's and then 4 other cities were uncovered in 1973-1979.   Zoar (formerly Bela), Admah (Feifa in Arabic), and Zeboiim (Khanazir in Arabic) have not yet been excavated.  Zoar is the only one of the five cities that did not undergo violent destruction.  It continued on for many years as a flourishing city.  

SODOM (Bab edh-Dhra) and GOMORRAH (Numeira) EXCAVATION.... (aish.com,Biblearchaeology)

·         A thick, spongy ash, ranging from 4 to 20 inches in depth and containing fragments of wooden roof beams, covers the entire area.

·         Numeira is the more well preserved of the two cities.  There, every room was covered in ash and burned debris.  Mud and brick detritus (from the collapse of the city's mud/brick structures) sometimes covered the ash.

·         There is evidence that both cities met their end at the same time.

·         There is also evidence of 2 obstructions about 20+ years apart.

·        Found in the excavations are clay figures of many goddesses, wooden staffs, sandals, reed baskets,   
        pottery, and jewelry, many with Mesopotamian influence.

·         Paleoethnobotany discoveries show wheat, barley, dates, plums, peaches, grapes, figs, almonds, olives, nuts, lentils, watermelon, chick peas, pumpkin, and flax seed in the excavations (verifying the original extensive fertility of the area).

Brimstone (gafrit in Hebrew), or sulfur, was likely a hydrocarbon called bitumen - a highly flammable substance naturally occurring in the Dead Sea area in pits.  All five cities were established parallel to a major plate boundary (or fault line) called the Dead Sea Rift.  The pressure caused by two large tectonic plates in this fault has created a number of past earthquakes in the area.  This same pressure also has the capability of forcing subterranean matter (such as bitumen) to the surface and up into the air.  Some geologists are suggesting that an earthquake along this fault line caused flammable bitumen to be spewed high into the air, ignite by lightening or some other source, and fall back on the four cities.   

25% of the water of the Dead Sea is salt or potash deposits, which is a concentration higher than any other lake in the world, and the Dead Sea has no fish or marine life.  However....scientists are now finding life in springs at the bottom of the Dead Sea!  (Job 38:16 talks about the springs of the sea, but scientists did not know springs existed under the sea until 1977 when hot springs were discovered in the Galapagos Rift.)

This historical account in Genesis of the five cities holds a number of thoughts for us to consider...

 1.  How and on what basis are we making our choices, our decisions - through prayer and listening to the Holy Spirit - or by what looks good in the world's eyes?  What voice are we listening to - the Holy Spirit - or our own flesh and pride desires?

2.  What are we "looking back on with desire" that God has clearly defined as "off limits" for us?

3.  Are there instances in our own life where God has pulled us by the hand and drug us away from temptation, possibly by allowing difficult circumstances in our lives?

Lord, thank You for Your continual redemptive works in our lives, drawing us into closer fellowship with You.  Thank You for Your ongoing mercy when the shriek of our own sins reaches Your ears!  Thank You for showing us, little by little, the absolute truth of Your Word.  Most of all, thank You that Your own blood has saved us from eternal fire and brimstone and instead guaranties us fellowship with You forever in a land where streets will be paved with gold, where every tear shall be wiped away, where death, pain, and suffering shall be no more, and where we shall see You - face to face!  Halleluiah!

UNBROKEN COVENANT

Abraham, born as "Abram" sometime between 2215 and 2055 BC, grew up in Ur, a city that was south of Babylon (now in present-day Iraq).  Archaeological excavations of Ur reveal homes (dated 2047 to 1750 BC) with 10-20 rooms, including a lower floor for servants, an upper floor for the family, a guest chamber with a lavatory, and a private chapel for idol worship.  Ur boasted a school with clay tablets for reading, writing, and arithmetic.

God first called Abraham in Ur (Acts 7:2-4).  In response to that call, Abraham's father, Terah, left their home and land, took his family and a large entourage, along with provisions, and set out walking on a journey of around 850 miles to Haran (Genesis 11:31-32).  After Terah died in Haran, God again called Abraham to "Go for yourself away from your country, from your relatives and your father's house, to the land I will show you" (Hebrews12:1, Amp.).  God accompanied the request with a Covenant Promise of land, a name, blessings, and many descendants who would turn into a great nation.  He also promised Abraham, "In you will all the families and kindred of the earth be blessed" (Genesis 12:3, Amp.).

The Word of God tells us that "And he [Abram] believed in the Lord, and He counted it to him as righteousness" (Genesis 15:6, Amp.).

So Abraham, at 75 years old, took off again on a long, hard journey - until, about 750 miles later, God told him to "STOP" (Hebrews 11:8).

However, it wasn't long until "righteous" Abraham blew it.  Fear of a famine caused him to flee to Egypt with his wife Sarah (Sarai), where he REALLY blew it - encouraging a situation where Pharaoh took Sarah as his wife.  The Lord, in mercy, scourged Pharaoh's household, so Pharaoh returned Sarah to Abraham (Genesis 12:10-20). 

Abraham continued to mess up...

·         his faith grew weak, and he complained to God (Look... no child! Genesis 15:3, Amp.);

·         he tried to fulfill the Promise himself, by creating a child through sex with a servant (Genesis 16:1-4);

·         both he and Sarah laughed when God (for the 4th and 5th time) again reminded them of the Covenant Promise (Genesis 17:17; 18:15);

·         he repeated the same atrocity that he had fallen into with Pharaoh, only this time with Sarah and King Abimalech (Genesis 20:2-18).

Yet God continued to have patience and mercy and grace.  And, in spite of Abraham's many sins,
GOD NEVER BROKE COVENANT.  When Abraham was 100 years old, Sarah gave birth to their "promised child" - Isaac, whose name means "laughter" (Genesis 21:1-7).  Around 400+ years later, the nation of Israel left Egypt for their Promised Land.

God is the same with us as He was with Abraham.  The Ancient of Days has made a "new" Covenant with us.  By the atoning blood of God Himself, He has (like with Abraham) "declared us righteous".  And even though we sin, every day, HE NEVER BREAKS COVENANT with us.  He is still our Abba Father (Galatians 3:13-4:6)! 

Halleluiah.  Thank you, thank you, thank you, Jesus!! 

God's Gentle Confrontation

When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, we see God gently confronting them.  You would think that God would immediately come down hard on Adam and Eve, but Genesis 3:8-13 recounts four calm and loving questions God asks them (even though He already knew the answers):  "Where are you?...  Who told you...?  Have you eaten...?  What is this you have done?"

We see the same gentle confrontation with Cain in Genesis 4:6-9, even before Cain slew his brother:  "Why are you angry?  Why is your face downcast?  If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?"

Then God counsels Cain:  "But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it."

Even after Cain lets his anger take over, violently attacking and killing his innocent brother, God  gives Cain an opportunity for repentance with a gentle question:  "Where is your brother Abel?"

In Genesis 6:5 and 12, God acknowledges the horrible wickedness of ALL living persons (except righteous Noah).  "Every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time!...for ALL humanity had corrupted their way upon the earth and lost their true direction."

God explains to Noah that He is going to destroy all mankind by a worldwide flood, but that through an ark that Noah will build, God will save Noah and his family and representations of each kind of animal, bird, and creeping thing.  So Noah (starting at age 480) diligently works away on the ark for 120 years.  About 20 years into the work, Noah's first son is born. 

But notice......all the while Noah is working, he is constantly preaching to the lost (I Peter 1:11 and I Peter 3:19-20).  So here again, we have God gently confronting.  For 120 years, God's patience prevails with these horribly wicked people!!

But, out of possibly 3 billion people at that time, not one repents, including Noah's father, Lamech, and grandfather, Methuselah.  Both have walked with Adam (Lamech was 65 when Adam died), and Methuselah has seen his own father (Enoch) walk so closely with God that Enoch was actually "transferred" to heaven instead of having to die (Hebrews 11:5).  But Methuselah dies the year of the flood, at age 969, without God, and Lamech dies 5 years before the flood, at age 777, also still entrenched in his own wickedness, notwithstanding that their own son and grandson had been God's instrument, for somewhere between 75 and 120 years, to plead for their repentance.

Today, God still gently confronts us, as His own children, through the Holy Spirit Whom He so graciously implanted in our hearts, quietly and lovingly pleading with us to turn from sin areas in our life and walk fully with Him.  Sometimes we listen; sometimes we don't.  But He continually and patiently calls us to "master the sin that is crouching at our door".

Lord, thank you for Your extreme patience with each of our areas of sin.  Thank you for becoming our substitute lamb for those multitudes of sins.  Help us to listen to and obey Your gentle, quiet voice within us.  Teach us to master those sins, bringing joy to Your heart and praise to Your name.

Driveway Cat

My neighbor has an old, old cat, named DC for Driveway Cat, because he's always laid in the middle of the driveway expecting every car to drive around him.  He's mangy looking, missing most the fur from his neck, skin full of gross bumps and warts, hunched over like an old man.  A couple weeks ago, DC adopted me.  The middle of my driveway became his right-of-way.  The rocker in my gazebo became his.  And my front door often showcased DC's mangy old face peering in at me, with his meow music reverberating off the porch and crunching through the glass.  After a couple futile tries of returning him to the neighbor's, and the old cat meandering back across the busy road to re-establish his domain, my neighbor simply brought DC's food supply and deposited it on my front porch.

I've never been exactly a cat lover.  And DC, well....he doesn't make loving cats easy.  In addition to his "less than lovely" appearance, he constantly talks, with a loud, long, twangy m-e-o-w.  He about drove a repairman crazy yesterday.

But little by little, DC is kind of working his way into my heart.  Maybe a little.

I was thinking, we're kind of like DC - covered with all kinds of gross warts of sin, getting old and ugly....
Yakking away, constantly complaining.  Two seconds after God blesses us, whining for another.

But God loves us.....still.   And not "a little."  Enough to lay down on a cross and die for us.  Knowing all we would become.  Knowing all the self in us.  Cognizant of each "ugly", all down through the years.

And unlike me with DC, He is always there for us... on time, all the time. 

Lord, you don't see our ugliness.  Our warts are all covered over forever.... by Your own blood.  You see each one of us as part of the beautiful bride of Christ, adorned in a robe of pure white, betrothed to the Holy One - the Ancient of Days.  Oh Jesus....THANK YOU!!!  

"For God so loved the world....."

(published June 2018 in More Than Survivors)

AND GOD REMEMBERED

In the days of Noah, when the earth was only 1,656 years old (around 2347 BC), the fountains of the great deep broke up and burst forth in great geysers of water raining back down upon the earth.  The windows and floodgates of heaven were opened.  And for 40 days the earth was deluged with water and catastrophic trauma, until all flesh that moved on the earth ceased to breathe, and all birds of the heavens perished.  Only Noah and all in the ark remained alive.  Genesis 7:11-23

However, Genesis 8:1 tells us:  "But God REMEMBERED Noah and all...with him in the Ark..." (NASB).  The Hebrew word for remembered is zaw kar' and means "to be mindful of, to express concern, to act with loving care".  Noah was not "forgotten" and then "remembered", as we would think.  Rather, he was ALWAYS in God's thoughts.  Listen to what His Word says about those who are His.....

 "For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong in behalf of those whose hearts are blameless toward Him..."  II Chronicles 16:9a, Amplified.

"Fear not, for I am with you; do not look around you in terror and be dismayed, for I am your God.  I will strengthen and harden you to difficulties, yes, I will help you..."  Isaiah 41:10, Amplified

"...for He Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support.  Not.  Not.  Not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down [nor] relax my hold on you!  So we take comfort and are encouraged and confidently and boldly say, 'The Lord is my helper; I will not be seized with alarm'...".  Hebrews 13:5b, 6, Amplified

A little over four weeks ago, my grandson, Gabe, was in a terrible collision, where the car he was driving went partway underneath a steel panel truck and had to be cut apart with the jaws of life to free Gabe to be flown to emergency care.  But God had not forgotten Gabe.  Rather, He had placed His hand at just the right time, in just the right place, to angle Gabe's car in just the right way, to keep it from going any further under the panel truck.  Otherwise, Gabe would have lost his life or been severely brain injured.

In our own collision, God did not stop my husband's severe TBI, but still, He had not turned His eyes away from Steven.  Rather, He kept both of us alive, and capable, equipped, and strengthened to do the exact Kingdom work, in His time, that He had ordained for us.  And He carried us, through the collision aftermath and all the years following.  Likewise with each of you.  God REMEMBERS you.

Five weeks ago, a Menzi Muck operator was almost finished removing the blockage in our drainage outflow ditch (through a special exemption from governing environmental officials).  The operator, however, needed an immediate change in the exemption plan, for the imminent safety of both the operator and the machine - requiring an exit that had previously been expressly forbidden by the environmental officials.  In God's absolutely perfect timing, a senator's staff just "happened" to call while I was on the phone with the operator and the landowner, to see if help was needed with getting an exemption for the blockage.  Not having time to even take the call, I emailed the situation back to the senator's staff.  By the time I reached the appropriate environmental official, the senator's legal staff had already talked to the head of the environmental agency, and orders were coming down to the official who needed to give the ok!  God's eyes were on the situation.  He "remembered".   His timing was perfect, to the second.

Lord, open our eyes to SEE that when we are afraid and think we are forgotten and forsaken, we are still "remembered" by the One Who loves us so much.  For, even before we were born, Your eyes saw us down through the ages, Your thoughts "were mindful of" our sin, and You "acted with loving care" to choose to hang on that cross, that Your atoning blood might be poured over the alter of sacrifice...for us.   

(published May 2018 in More Than Survivors)

See "Our Journey", above, for brochure.


Published a few months ago in "More Than Survivors"........

A couple nights ago, I was awakened out of a sound slumber at 1:00am by a neighborhood dog.  The animal was obviously in great distress, for he was howling - almost shrieking or wailing - non-stop.  (It somewhat resembled ear-shattering "surround-sound" on my FL wetland acreage). I went outside to try to determine which direction the sound was coming from, and it seemed to be issuing from the direction of my friend's home.  I knew that her husband was away from home on business, so I went back inside, dressed, and hopped in my car to go check the situation out.  When I arrived at the end of my lane, the night suddenly resumed its peaceful quietness, with only the normal sounds of the wetland stirring the darkness.  Still concerned, I drove the short distance and pulled in front of their locked gate.  There were no alarming sounds coming from the homestead; however, as I sat there, a tiny pinpoint of light traveled across their property and then went out.  I sat there trying to make a logical, wise decision on whether or not to call my friend, possibly waking her up. 

End result.....I decided to go back home and email my friend to call me as soon as she got the message.  Figuring I would also call her first thing in the morning, I tried to go back to sleep, but uncertainty about my decision made that a little difficult.  As it turned out, she was fine and had slept through the whole incident.   Obviously, the problem was not with her dogs.  Perhaps the "terrified dog" was a wild animal in the wetlands, but we aren't certain of that, and we still have not figured out an explanation for the light, either.  In hindsight, the decision was probably the right one, but it could so easily have been the absolute wrong one - especially if that light represented an intruder on the property with malicious intent. 

The evening before, in our Bible study, we had discussed the first verse in Jude, where Jesus' half brother, Jude, writes to those who are "dearly loved by God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ."  It struck me how vast was the difference between how I loved my friend and tried in a very small way to keep her safe - and how the Father dearly loves me and keeps me! 

I guessed at a decision with my friend that turned out ok but could have been disastrous.  God never guesses concerning me.  He knows my life from beginning to end, before I ever came to be (Jeremiah 1:5).  He knows my coming and going (II Kings 19:27; Psalm 121:8) and all the incidents and their results that I will come into contact with throughout my whole span on earth (Psalm 37:18a).  In fact, every single one of those incidents must go through His hand of permission before it can intersect with my life (Job 1:9-11, 2:6; I Corinthians 10:13).  He only allows what will in some way work together for good for my spiritual walk and for the Kingdom of God (Romans 8:28).  The whole concept of evil, free will, and God's sovereignty is too difficult for our finite minds to have a complete grasp on, but that inability to understand the fullness does not take away from any part of the truth of Scripture (II Timothy 3:16).  Nor can our finite minds even begin to get an indication of the true and complete scope of being so "dearly loved" (John 3:16) and "kept" (Psalm 61:3, Psalm 91) by the Creator and Ruler and Sovereign of all the universe. 

                                      "The Lord my God illumines my darkness" (Psalm 18:28b)

God was right on top of that situation with my friend.  He "had her back" - and her front and all around her (Psalm 34:7).  He would not even consider allowing harm to my friend that was not in His perfect plan for her life.  God's love is a "walk in there and confront the evil face to face" kind of love, "even if it killed Him" - WHICH IT DID.  At the cross, He confronted Satan and all Satan's cohorts face to face for you and me, and DIED in that confrontation with the world's evil (including my own evil and your own evil).  But, three days later, He rose in victory over all death and over all evil for all eternity and, after 40 days, ascended to the throne.

Lord, open our eyes a little bit more to the vastness of the scope of Your "dear love" for us and to the  overwhelming peace that should come in the knowledge of Your "keeping" us (and each of our loved ones) through all situations on our journey through life.