Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Where Were You?????

Job 38

Whaaaaat???? R U Serious?????

Yes I love the 38th chapter of Job!

Can we explore a few of the highlights.

We know the story of Job, he was set up as the unlikely challenge between God and the devil.
Next thing you know the hedge was allowed to be breached and a great wind took his children,
animal and property in a moment in time. As Job goes through the process of grieving over his loses and reevaluating his situation, he gets the third degree from the church folks, the worst advice possible from his wife and he falls sick.

The chapter starts by God answering Job out of the whirlwind..... That in itself is amazing!'

Next thing you know God is asking Job "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?" (4)

Who laid the cornerstone of the (earth) when all the morning stars sang together?
In recent years Nasa has recorded sounds of the stars.

Who shut up the sea with doors.....(8)..and here shall thy proud waves be stayed. (11)

Hast thou commanded the mornings (12)

Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea? or hast thou walked in the search of the depth? (16)

Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death? (17)

Where is the way where light dwelleth? and as for darkness, where is the place thereof, (19)

Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail, (22)

Hath the rain a father? or who hath begotten the drops of dew? (28)

Out of whose womb came the ice?.....(29)

Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven?...(33)

..... or who can stay the bottles of heaven (37)

Any one of these concepts I can meditate on forever. Several scientific truths have been discovered because man became curious at these scriptures.

I am always awed by these questions that God put forth to Job. We serve an amazing, creative, perfect God!

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Rachel's Tomb

Rachel, the wife of Jacob, mother of Joseph and Benjamin, matriarch of the nation of Israel and matriarch of our Rachel's Heart, is celebrating the anniversary of her death this Sabbath. This is celebrated by a pilgrimage to Rachel's Tomb which is within Palestinian controled territory making this a dangerous trip. Several times over the years Rachel's Tomb has been a target of violence but the IDF has always maintained the security of the site.

Rachel as you remember died in childbirth after giving birth to Benjamin. This was a miracle in itself after Rachel had remained barren for so long. Jacob chose to bury Rachel there on the roadside, and it became a prophetic gesture as Rachel's tomb was passed time and again as the children of Israel were taken into captivitiy.

Jer 31;15-17 was Rachel's prayer for her children's safe return to their borders and it is the basis of our mission on Rachel's Heart.

Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.
16Thus saith the LORD; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the LORD; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy. 17And there is hope in thine end, saith the LORD, that thy children shall come again to their own border.

As I sought the Lord for direction in setting up Rachel's Heart several miracles took place. First He directed me to set apart Fri 6pm to Sat 6pm as a time for prayer and fasting for our children. I did not realize at this time that this was the Sabbath.

Also I was impressed upon with specific instructions to make a bracelet for Rachel's Heart. The foundation of the bracelet was to use a red string, anointed with rose scented oil. I am not a jewelery maker by any stretch of the imagination, but I did follow the instructions of the Holy Spirit. Little did I know the mystery of Rachel's Tomb and the red string.  There is a tradition of receiving a piece of red string that is wrapped around the cenotaph at Rachel's tomb to wear around your wrist. This is part of a reminder of prayer, particularly for fertiltiy and for safety in childbirth.

What a wonderful confirmation of the instructions of the Holy Spirit. We will continue to pray for our own children's safe return from the wandering in sin, as we take the time to remember Rachel weeping in Ramah for the return of the children of Israel.

Monday, October 15, 2012

Malala, a voice of religious freedom

Although most have never heard of Malala before the fateful day of  Oct 9, 2012 when the Taliban made a disgraceful attempt to quiet the voice of Malala, women everywhere are taking up her cause. Malala, the Taliban claimed, had too many "western" ideas and was too secular. They cowardly walked up to her van, asked who she was and shot her in the head and neck along with a another of her female classmates.

When researching this pearl of Pakistan I found that she first became an irritant to the Taliban in 2009 when she started a blog, "Diary of a Pakistani School Girl" that was first published in the BBC Urdu online. She started under a fictional name as she brought readers face to face with the terror that she lived with on a daily basis in her homeland of the Swat Valley. As the struggle of the Taliban took root over the local governments, the passion of Malala rang out over the internet. The Taliban did not believe in the girls going to school or wearing pretty dresses. Malala did just that, despite the chilling threats of  a man that walked up behind her on her way home that said, "I will kill you".

Well three years and a National Peace Prize later, the Taliban could not allow this child's voice to ring freedom along the hills of the Swat Valley. Some voices echo no matter, some souls refuse to be silenced, Malala is one of those.

Malala means "grief stricken" how sadly prophetic. When I heard this I immediately remembered a Biblical story of five sisters that petitioned Moses for justice. One of those five sisters had the same derivative of the name Malala. Her name was Mahlah and her sisters were; Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.  Mahlah meant "sickness" and it is easily seen that is where we get the word malady from.

These were the daughter's of Zelophehad. He had no sons and had the untimely death that coincided with those that were taken by God in the rebellion of Korah. The daughter's petitioned Moses in the male dominated Jewish justice system that they should be awarded their father's inheritance so that his name would not appear as if he had died in the rebellion. Moses then petitioned the Lord on their behalf and God upheld the rights of the daughters which caused a whole amendment to be made to the inheritance laws. Num 27:1-11 

You would think after God had spoken justice was served, but Moses died and Joshua took over and the daughters of Zelophehad had to petition Joshua and remind him of the statue that God had rewritten especially for them. Josh 17:3-6

Religious freedom is a still a struggle for women. Women be silent in the church, Women sit on the left side of the church, women have more legalistic rules and expectations upon them. Yet women are the majority of the church and women give their time and resources  to the church. Hmmmm. I'm thinking we have a long way to go yet, but as more courageous young women like Malala lift their voices like Esther, "...so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish" Es 5:16 Religious freedoms and justice will be granted to the women of today.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Conspiracy Theory

I'm not usually the one coming up with conspiracy theories, but something happened over the weekend that has me wondering.

Around 10:30am on Friday at work our internet and phones went out. It is notable that our computers are vital to submit the medicare/medicaid billing information to the government for reimbursement which is what my job is. Needless to say as the afternoon went on we were limited in what we could do and I sent my crew of nurses home.

Our administrator was told that road construction near by had cut through a trunk line of the cable network and probably wouldn't be on till late. Comcast is our local cable provider.

When I came home I told Paul about it and he went to the bank to pay some bills and they were doing everything by hand. They were told that they would be off line for four days. I thought that was odd that they were offline but the stores were all online. Also I thought it was an odd coincidence that this was a three day weekend for the government with Columbus day so the next business day would be in four days.

I thought to myself, I bet ours won't be back online till then either seeing that we are a government entity.

Then I saw that our friend Angie in Madison, IN was also having cable problems. I contacted her and she was told that her cable was cut also. Madison, IN is 3 hours away and they are run by Metronet.

Sure enough when I arrived today, the internet and phones were down until late last night.

What is up with that? Just saying it seems odd. My cell phone on Friday would not call out and today every time I called my mom it went to my voicemail.

Several people had phone problems and they said it had something to do with AT&T but I don't have AT&T and they didn't either.

Needless to say it put all our work behind. Could this be what would happen if we were to undergo a cyber attack? Are we all dependent on a system that cripple us in a blink of an eye? This fiber optic underground that travels at the speed of light can also come to a screaming stop just as quickly.

If anyone has any insight on this I would be interested in hearing it. In the meantime it reminds me to remember where my source is.

 When all the world's systems fail, my Jehovah-Rohi, the Lord is my Shepherd.
When the drug companies contaminate the drugs, Jehovah-Rapha the Lord is my healer.
When my employer cuts my pay, Jehovah-Jireh, my Lord provides!
 When wars and rumors of war fill the airwaves, Jehovah-Shalom my Lord is Peace.
When cruelty is the rule of the land, Jehovah-Tsidkenu,The Lord Our Righteousness.
 When I feel that I stand alone in the midst of my enemies  Jehovah Shammah, The Lord Is There!
 
 
Pray for me and I'll pray for you!
 
Love and Hugs
 
Heidi

Monday, October 8, 2012

Listen to the Holy Spirit

Saturday evening I was on the couch and my dear friend Tonya kept coming to mind. Every time I thought about her I would whisper a prayer to my Father for her. She is a great nurse raising seven children of a blended family. At any moment in time I am sure she can use some prayer. She is a great Christian, exuberant in her faith, I call her the Cheerleader for God!.

Her name kept coming to me with more frequency and now an urgency. I wanted to call her, but I knew she was working a twelve hour night shift so I texted her instead letting her know that the Holy Spirit was bringing her to mind and I was praying for her.

Early in the morning she texted me back. Her oldest son had been involved in a car accident that night. He flipped the car four times when he swerved to miss an opossum. Not a scratch, praise God and she thanked me for being obedient to the urging of the Holy Spirit.

How many times a day I wonder, does the Holy Spirit urge us but we overrun the Spirit with our flesh; we are too busy, that is not our usual routine, we don't believe we have the money to do that. We can come up with a variety of excuses to ignore the urging of the Spirit.

When we were in Kentucky, we were not far from the terrible church bus accident that happened. So many testimonies came from that tragedy. One in particular has stayed with me.

This was a father who had lost his teenage daughter. He always stayed home on her birthday and visited her grave with roses. Tomorrow was her sixteenth birthday and he had an important meeting that would put him on the road. He was really torn by this. He awoke the next morning in the hotel room and bought the sixteen roses not really knowing what to do with them. The Holy Spirit was telling him that he should hand them to a young girl that he would be directed to. He wrote the card to his daughter telling her Happy 16th Birthday. He passed several young girls, no, no, no then the Holy Spirit directed him to a young girl that looked haggard and worn. He handed her the roses and told her the Holy Spirit had directed these to her.

She read the card and broke down in tears. She had prayed the night before and told God that if He was real he needed to reveal himself to her tomorrow or she would talk her life. This would be her sixteenth birthday.  Needless to say she knew that God had not only revealed himself to her but gave her a beautiful birthday gift.

Little acts of love and kindness never go unnoticed. My favorite quote is one by Mother Teresa, "We can do no great things, but we can do small things with great love."

Listen to the Holy Spirit. Ask to be guided to someone each and every day. You will be amazed. It may mess up your routine, it will probably not be something you would normally do, but God has directed our steps and our destinies way out ahead of us.

Praise God, Be Still and Know that I am God!

Love and Hugs to you all

Heidi