The Evil will Attack

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”  Ephesians 6:12 NAS

God has been so good to me as I wrestle against evil like never before.  He continues to protect me as the enemy’s fiery darts come my way.  And I am so thankful as I wear the full armor of God! 

I don’t think I’ve ever stood as firm against such evil for often I found myself telling our Lord “I can’t take it anymore”.  Actually, I remember the last time I said such words and although I did not hear an audible voice, within me, I knew God was telling me “YES you can through ME”. 

These past few weeks, as I have been reading the Gospels, over and over God has shown me how important prayer is! And close behind prayer, I see in Luke how important it is to have total faith in Jesus.  How do we show such faith, it’s through obedience to His Word.  They go hand in hand for obedience strengthens faith and faith draws us to be obedient.  Luke 21:19 says “By your endurance you will gain your lives.” 

Prayer…faith…obedience.  We will endure all matters of evil as we take up the full armor of God and stand firm.  Through Him we can go forth into what He has called us to do. 

God’s Blessings…a twin and a fire

I just want to share the goodness of our Lord with you today.  Sometimes it’s the little things that we hardly recognize or think about that are our biggest blessings. 

This actually started last evening but has got me to pondering life in general and to be so thankful for the love and protection of God, my Heavenly Father. 

I worked yesterday but around 5:30 I decided that I was going to mow the yard. 

The grass was uneavenly high due to the lack of rain these last few weeks.  When I got to the back yard, I mowed outside the fence before mowing inside.  While mowing, I kept smelling something burning.  I wasn’t sure where it was coming from and as I mowed, I kept looking around.  There was once certain part of the yard where it was stronger than the other. I never pinpointed the source and moved to the grass inside the fence.

As I finished up, I hadn’t smelled any further burning and took the mower into the garage and closed up the garage.  I went in to my barking little love bugs and asked if they wanted to go out back with me as I needed to close gates.  Yes, I talk to my dogs like they are my kids and believe it or not, they answer me back! 

I went to close the side gate when I saw smoke coming from my compost pile.  Not a bit of smoke but SMOKE.  Like there was no denying that it was smoke and that I needed to act fast.  I grabbed a potato fork close by and went to the pile and moved it around. 

Yikes! More smoke and sparks that were lighting more of the compost and trying hard to make fire.  At that point, I ran to get my hose.  I pulled it as far as it would go and then had to run to where the hose was wound up and unwind.  In that process, I hit my left arm on something (it was so fast and I was moving to get that hose) and there was blood.  It looked to be more of a scrape but don’t they bleed the most or certainly hurt the most?  I turned on the water…

I pulled and pulled to get the hose towards the compost pile where smoke was billowing and filling the surrounding area.  Oh, I was hoping that no one would notice or call the fire department! 

Everything happened so fast but I was able to get enough hose at the burning sight that I just started spraying it with water and it seemed to cause more smoke and brought further terror into my thinking that it was spreading instead of dying out. 

I am telling you this 75 year-old lady was moving like I haven’t moved in a long time!  I got the fork and spread more of the compost out so that I could spray water on more of the smoking area.  There were still some sparks but the water was drowning them…causing more smoke.  I soaked that compost for another few minutes before noticing that my arm was hurting and although not lots of blood, it looked nasty.  I laid the hose on the now non-smoking compost and let the water run.

I went into the house and on my way to bandage my wound, I grabbed the phone and called Sean.  He answered as I am putting ointment on my wound, and, as a story-teller, I started giving Sean a blow by blow of what had taken place in the last 10 minutes…or maybe I started the story from when I started mowing.  He said later, “now that my friends have met you, they now know where I get telling long stories”.  But my story was too long and Sean finally says, “is there fire?”  I think I told him there was fire but I wasn’t sure if it was totally out or what I should do. 

Fifteen minutes later, Sean was helping me with the remains of what could have been a dangerous situation.  Then he took over, more water, more spreading out.  All was under control! 

Normally, I don’t go outside when evening comes because I don’t like the mosquitos or other bugs.  Normally, I shut the gate before taking the mower back to the garage.  Normally, I don’t go out with my doggies.  But God…

God just happened to lead me to mow towards evening…bugs!  God just happened to have me leave the gate open.  God quickened my senses that I was smelling burning before there was ever smoke.  God helped me think clearly enough to spread the compost and get the hose and water it down.  Praise God for His protection and guidance! 

But that’s not the end of God’s mighty hand working in my life.  I woke up in the night and thought about my brother, Pat.  It was his 75th birthday.  So, when I was 9 months old, my life changed completely because all of a sudden, I had a baby brother.  At my early age, our young mother had determined not to have two children in a crib or in diapers.  So I went to a big bed and was potty trained (I’m pretty sure my mother was the one who was trained). 

Pat and I are the same age three month of each year.  When we were not even five years old, our mother made many of our cloths and we had matching shirts made from feed sacks.  I remember many time people asking if we were twins.  I’m sure we told some that we were. 

They say that twins are connected in a way that other siblings are not.  Although Pat and I are nine months apart, I think we do have that twin connection. 

I recently read J.D. Vance’s book and was struck by what he referred to as the hillbilly connection.  They care for and stick by their family, no matter what.  And I thought about our family and how disconnected our family has been much of my life.  But this morning, as I “sang” happy birthday to Pat through a text, I was blessed by his response,

          “Good to hear from my twin sister!!! Love you”

So, in my old age, God has reminded me of how blessed I am to have a “twin” brother and how forgiving he is and how loving he is!  Each year for the past 75 years, I have had the blessing that many have not had…a twin brother. 

I share this story with you because truly, I am a story teller but I also am praying that you won’t wait until you are 75 to look deep into your family and grasp the love that God has blessed you with. 

Integrity

Isn’t it funny how we can get so focused on certain phrases or words? 

This morning I started reading Psalm 119 and couldn’t get past the first verse.  How blessed are those whose way is blameless.  Who walk in the law of the Lord.” (New American Standard Bible)  Now, I have a reference by the word “blameless” which says, complete or having integrity. Then I looked the verse up in the NIV and the NLT.  I was especially intrigued with the New Living Translation which says, “Joyful are people of integrity, who follow the instructions of the Lord.”  Short and sweet and to the point. 

It didn’t stop there, I then went to a very old dictionary, which are the best when you want to know the real meaning of a word.  In my 1968 copyright dictionary, we find integrity under the word integer with a meaning of entire, whole, entire all pertaining to the math field.  Interesting.  Not being a math person, I continued to search.  Down at the bottom of this word meaning is the word integrity, also a noun meaning the state of being entire or complete.  Genuine.  Honesty.  Uprightness. 

In a little newer dictionary copyrighted 1977, we find the word integrity as it’s own word meaning soundness, incorruptibility, and completeness.  They show the synonym honesty as well. 

With all that being said, this one verse reminds me of Psalm 1 telling us how blessed a person is that stays away from the counsel of the wicked, sinners and mockers.  Our delight should be in the “law of the Lord” or perhaps we could just say that we find joy in the Word of God, especially when we takes steps to obey it. 

Will we ever be blameless while on this earth?  Probably not for all people sin.  Can we walk according to the law of the Lord?  Jesus came to show us a better way for no one can keep the Law but Jesus. 

We can put our trust in Him.  We can confess our sins and work daily to lead a better life with integrity.  A genuine upright life that is full of honesty.  We may fail daily but we ask God to forgive us and pick ourselves up by the bootstraps and strive to live a life of sound incorruptibility. 

What would this world look like if more people made it a goal to live such a life?  A life of honesty—that what you say would be true.  Not only would those around you know that what you say is true but that it would honor God. 

For we never take that pat on the back without giving the glory to God who is the One who has guided us along this way.  And for what purpose?  So that He can bless you! 

Where do we get joy or feel blessed?  By doing what the Bible directs us, one step at a time.  You don’t just read the Bible and do it, it’s a process that will last a lifetime but what happiness it brings. 

Read Psalm 119 with me and tell me what especially touched your heart.