Naked And Empty Handed

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  Two days in a snowy wonderland brings a sweet peace and relief that has us in a forced lock down from the busyness of life.  This has been a time to get out of the fast lane and enjoy the moment and beauty of winter. 

Part of the snowy scenario reminds me of a movie called "Red Dawn" when the USA was invaded and overrun by a communist country who wanted to destroy our way of life. This morning with those thoughts framing our conversation, the Holy One reminds me of the importance of knowing his voice and in that 'knowing", yielding to His wisdom apart from the written Word.

The Holy Spirit takes me back in history.  "I spoke to Noah before a blueprint could be put on paper.  I spoke to Abraham before My promise was written.  I spoke to Moses before the law became the law."

His reminder fits right into the important lesson I have been learning in this season of my journey with Jesus:  God reaches out to His Creation first.

It is almost funny how we  scurry around looking for fig leaves when we first realize we are naked.  There is something that clicks off in our head when it's our time to "find God".  We know we are missing something in our life and it is something big.  That moment hits and we suddenly realize we are naked and empty handed.

The shock of that self-awareness drives some to look around for fig leaves and offerings to make ourselves acceptable to the Sovereign God "we find".  Religion enters into our bag of tricks as the fig leaves to cover our nakedness, and good works become our offerings.

If we would take a look back to the Garden before the fall, we would find 2 naked people in a sweet fellowship with the Creator delightfully unashamed and empty handed.  The pair were created empty handed.  The benediction over them in Gen 1:28-29,  tells us that God gave......  The Lord God brought all things to the man even the animals to see what he would name them.  Gen 2:19

The knowledge we have about our origins in creation were passed from the beginning through oral communication,  from God's lips to Adam's ears, and from Adam's lips to his children's ears and on and on until one day much later, the Word was written.  The relationship with the Creator began intimately and was sustained orally before one word was written. 

We can chart man's separation and distance from the Creator due to the fall but there is still Noah, Abraham and Moses who are examples of men who were searching for the One True God and found Him personally and apart from the written Word.

This is not to de-value the precious, priceless, powerful written Word of God, but the Holy One makes His point that true fellowship is personal and just like any other love relationship conversational inner-action is required.

We who live on this side of the Cross have the unspeakable gift and privilege of intimacy with our Creator unlike the ancients we read about.  We have been given the bridge that connects us with the Trinity.  The Holy Spirit is our indwelling connector.  Just like we are created in God's image and 3 parts in design as Body, Soul and Spirit,  we, by the Holy Spirit, are mysteriously connected with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit BY the Spirit.

So here we are: Spirit to spirit in the fullness of a love relationship together with the Savior God of all Creation and by His Spirit we are eternally connected regardless of how we all may "feel" on any given day.   Trying to find ways to be acceptable in and of ourselves is a pointless waste of time and energy.  It doesn't diminish the need to do good works, it just defines the reason. 

Religion calls for good works in an effort to earn God's favor that we already have.  If God had such disfavor for us He would not have sent His Son who laid down His life to bring us back into relationship.  Love on the other hand calls for good works to share the wonder of God's favor to the ignorant world around us who still in their own way are searching for the One True God that we have already found.

Religion also misses the point that God moved in our direction first.  Religion prides itself on having "found God" while relationship humbly acknowledges that God found us. 

Back to the point of today's conference with Holiness.  Days like today with all the world at a standstill offers a perfect time to sit and listen for the voice of the shepherd.   Jesus said, "My sheep hear my voice and they follow Me".    I laugh to myself at the irony of being called a "sheep" knowing full well that sheep can't read.

The hard reality and subtle point of the movie, "Red Dawn" is that there may come a day when Bibles are burned and the written Word is taken away.  If we have come from the place of realizing we are naked and empty handed and completely comforted in our relationship with our God,  knowing His voice will sustain us.  Religion cannot offer that.  On that day we might all have to say, "Speak Lord your servant is listening".  I Samuel 3:10.

The question becomes, "On that day, if it were to ever come to pass, would we recognize His voice?

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?

                  

Creative Words Spoken Here

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  Life is changing at a very accelerated pace.   Hopes fade as the reports of economic stagnation and violence here at home and around the world highlight the "doom" that most feel in their being. 

I find my personal solace in the relationship I enjoy with my Lord through His Holy Spirit and look forward to meeting Him at first light.  With what I "see' going on and having the call to intercede in prayer and petition, I constantly feel the burden and fight to not become overwhelmed with sorrow.

There is such a temptation to simply "go" with what I see is so wrong, bad, or evil as if nothing can be done, and I sometimes forget that I am an ambassador for the Creator God.  I am a representative of the Sovereign Savior whose earth life modeled "interrupting" the chain of bad things with miraculous fixes of all sorts.

The Holy One speaks to that commission:  To follow in the footsteps of my Jesus and join with Him in speaking Creation's life over those things that seem dead or evil or corrupt in the world today.

The Holy Spirit reminds me that my commission is not unlike the one Jeremiah was given so many generations ago.  Each believer has a similar commission and that is to speak what we hear the Lord speak and do what we see the Lord do.  Jeremiah listened.  "therefore, this is what the Lord says, "If you repent I will restore you.  If you utter worthy not worthless words, you will be my spokesman."  Jeremiah 15:19

The back burner story of my life parallels Jeremiah's which is a temptation to wring my hands rather than fold them.  In my mind and his, were deep questions about the persecution he was getting for speaking God's words of warning to the people.

For me, there has been a deep conviction to warn of the consequences to come for failing to remain true to our Kingdom and our King, yet and while living out the reality of a "shoot the messenger" reaction from those who should know better.

Jeremiah's message to the nation was a hard one and his doubt came in wondering where God was in his persecution and pain.  Like Job who sat waiting for God to speak, Jeremiah did as well.

But God...never fails...and He did speak!

God exhorted Jeremiah to repent for his doubts;  his worthless words questioning his commission and his calling.  God's answer was His reinstatement of Jeremiah's mission and the promise of His faithfulness.

Today, as the Lord speaks to my mission and His faithfulness, I hear Him say, "Speak words of creation not destruction".

The exhortation sends me to my file cabinet of old spoken words.  I realize it is filled with declarations and statements that agree with what I see, not what I desire, but more importantly, not what the Word of God proclaims.  What I "see" and then go on to agree with or make statements confirming such conditions, only serves to empower the one orchestrating the evil. 

My mind recalls the Life of my Savior when He walked among us.  Never did He wring His hands and agree that blindness, lameness, spiritual darkness or even death should remain unchallenged or unchanged.   Jesus never said that the blindness wasn't "reality" at that moment, but He offered to speak restoration of sight to the eyes.   Jesus never looked at the poor pathetic victim and agreed that their condition was to be pitied and not corrected.   Creative power to change lives and circumstances was what He modeled and then delegated to His followers. 

I am humbled to realize when I agree with the travesty of what is so wrong and fail to speak Heaven's Good Will over-ruling that which is evil, I am failing to rightly represent the Sovereign King I serve.

The enemy of our soul delights to hold all of us in bondage to his wickedness and in ignorance as to our authority to change what we see that he has orchestrated on earth.

Today, the Holy One in His gentle and encouraging way is reminding me that the power to change what we see on earth that is contradictory to His will, is in the tongue.  The tongue that is surrendered to the Holy Spirit of resurrection life.

The promises of God are for everyone who is called into Salvation and restored in relationship to our Creator God and Heavenly Father through the life, and death of the resurrected son, Jesus the Christ.

Every promise written in the Holy Scriptures are mine to claim.  With that being said, I know that as I take the challenge to find all those priceless promises of good things in His Word,  I will also get the wisdom and conviction about what Holiness wants to correct in me.

Just like today, the Holy One convicted me that He wants to change some of the language of my heart. He wants only worthy words spoken.  He wants me to grasp the power of Creation's words.  He wants me to participate with Him in changing what is wrong and fixing what is broken.

It is a privilege to join with Him in creating an atmosphere where the best things in life can flow, in spite of what I "see" at any given moment. 

Abraham, the Patriarch of our faith, in his old age, "was enabled to become a father because he considered Him faithful  who had made the promise."  Abraham did not agree with the evidence he saw when he looked at his 100 year old body and his 90 year old wife.  

We need to have the same faith resolve when it comes to the promises of God no matter what we "see" in the earth realm.  Faithless discouragement can cause me to verbally agree with the evidence that wickedness rules life and circumstances.  That is patently untrue but if we yield to that lie, we will be unable to stand against it.  God waits patiently for our participation. 

Today, I choose faith.  Today I choose to utter worthy not worthless words.  Today I choose to declare that the goodness of all God's promises are mine and I choose in purpose that only creative words will be spoken here.

The Holy Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?

           

Father Love

The Holy One calls to me this morning. Each day represents a fresh start. As a temporal widow that truth is so important to my emotional well being. The past is gone, the regrets of yesterday must be left behind, and the lessons learned must be carried forward.

If we chose to live in the past we will be useless in today.

Having said that, deep healing sometimes requires a fresh look at an old wound. Today the Holy One pulls back the bandage for some fresh air on an old heart injury.

Mine is a big family. Marriage became a melting pot of his, hers, ours and theirs. God's purposes arranged for that beautiful tapestry of lives interwoven. The trial of life and the Hand of God always make for an interesting collision, especially in the dynamics of relationships.

God's ultimate purpose is to bring us into the image of His Son. The image He is after is not the physical but rather the relational image of a Father to His child. We are taught and have seen graphic examples of the physical torture Jesus suffered and the sacrifice He made for us.

The suffering Son was marred beyond human recognition. Isaiah 53:4, "Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God., smitten by Him and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace (with God) was upon Him, and by his wounds we are healed".

I often wondered why He had to go through all the maiming of His physical body. I ponder the question "why" did he submit to the torture inflicted by Roman soldiers and the Cross of crucifixion? Was there not a less brutal way to save our souls?

But then the Lord delivers a mental picture of one of our wounded warriors laying on a hospital bed. Their physical pain and the emotional trauma is off the charts of any other human experience. Jesus the Savior of mankind, looked down through the ages to this day and that wounded warrior. He chose to go through all that physical torture to be able to whisper into that ear, "I know how you feel".

The love of the Savior caused Him to surrender to all the forms of suffering that His Beloved might go through and there is nothing that we can take to Him that He does not understand from His human experience in a flesh and blood body. Today He is addressing an emotional injury that has been inflicted on all generations through weak human vessels.

The love of a father is the earliest and most important relationship we need in order to truly grasp the picture and face of God. That sacred relationship between the father and child is the target of such evil in these end times.

Outside influences, personal rejection and spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms have targeted the fathers and wrecked havoc on the role ordained to represent the Father Heart of God to their children. I see how relational alienation and estrangement in our society makes it very difficult to find our way back to our Heavenly Father through Christ Jesus the Son.

The Holy One has welcomed me into His presence today to share a truth for healing that is like the balm of Gilead to my heart.

Strained relationships seem more extreme in an Italian family. Passions seem to ratchet up and perceived betrayal is often handled through the ultimate severing and disownment of the offender. My temporal husband passed over into eternity with the stigma of being disowned by his family of origin. That emotional pain was always just under the surface of his ideas about family. The Sword of Christ is a God ordained reality but that doesn't lessen the sorrow associated with it's purpose.

The Holy Spirit directs my intercession today to that deep family wound with a stunning truth. "Jesus' death on the cross nullified every curse. He made all things new and gives everyone the hope of a fresh start. Everything is washed and purified by His shed blood".

I believe that to be true, but He continues,

"Even the curse of the Father disowning the Son".

I am utterly speechless with that revelation and it's profound implication. Jesus suffered the emotional disownment that all of us fear, and many have suffered in the human arena.

On the cross and for the first time in eternity, the Son was emotionally and relationally estranged from the Father. For the first time in eternity, the Father was emotionally and relationally estranged from the Son. The picture of Trinity broken is shocking to my mind, and yet I realize the day, when Jesus said, "My God why have you forsaken Me?" was ordained before man ever sinned and the effects of betrayal were ever suffered.

I never really thought too far past the physical torture and human betrayal inflicted on my Lord to process the ultimate sense of abandonment and father-rejection He went through that day. Human betrayal is one thing, but Father estrangement is killer.

I feel the sorrow and I feel the joy. My heart is broken and healed all at the same time. John 3:1, "How great is the love the Father has lavished upon us, that we should be called children of God".

Jesus suffered the wrath of His Father, taking on our sin to remedy the separation and heal for us the Holy disownment all humanity would otherwise be be forced to endure. The curse has been broken as has the generational chain through which it is passed. I must take claim to the healing provided so that my Savior did not suffer His emotional brokenness in vain.

Peace floods my soul. Just as the Holy Trinity was restored in love, we can trust that our families can be restored too. I know that my prayers and petitions have a strong basis in the principles and precepts and precedents established by my Heavenly Father.

Today is a new day and a fresh start!

Even as we have felt the pain of human rejection, we can know the unconditional love of the Father. By His (Christ's) wounds we are healed, even and especially the emotional ones.

The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?

    

    

The Lord's Unconditional Love

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  Sweet peace fills the room and I feel His love like a warm blanket around my soul.  Life and the battles I am in, bring confrontations that are not easy nor always understood.

If it were not for the wisdom of the Holy One, I would be in a loony bin due to the tainted perspective of a world crazed by sin. 

Today, the Holy One speaks of His unconditional love, but not in the familiar ways I have heard Him in the past.  He speaks gently to my heart, "The only way you can get to My Holy and unconditional love is to have your human and conditional love challenged.  At that point you will become either a hater or a lover in the truest sense of the word."

I go back through the lessons I have been learning in the recent trials of life.  Each one has ended with a final test which seems to determine whether I can move on into a new season and lesson or stay where I am for a re-do.

It's almost like the years the nation of Israel circled Mt. Sinai because they rebelled and refused the lessons in obedience and faith that would permit them to enter the promised land. 

Our Great and Gracious Sovereign God, who knows the end from the beginning stalls our forward motion until we capture and apply the lessons He provides in today.  Like a child who still needs protection by a parent, God sets up boundaries around us to keep us in the safe zones for our own good.

If we exit a trial without the purpose in it achieved, we will have to face a similar one until we are fully grown in the purpose and pass the test with application to our life and for our future trials.  Godly character is built one day and one lesson at a time.

The Holy One continues to reveal truth:  "Evil is a hater and that is why you are called to love.  Love is the only force that is not deafeatable by evil".

The blast of that revelation hits all my brain cells.  It is so true.  The enemy of our souls is a hater.  The enemy of our soul hates God.  The enemy of our soul hates us.  The enemy of our souls hates all that God created and wants to despoil all that is good.

I see clearly how the enemy of my soul hates even my enemies. Those who would despitefully use me are being despitefully used by evil. 

I am permitted by God to hate evil and that hatred of evil presses me into service for my God and King.  Psalm 45:7, "You love righteousness and hate wickedness, therefore God, your God has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy". 

Many will come to this point of distinction and see no difference, yet there is a big difference between being an evil hater and a hater of evil.

Unconditional love does not give wickedness a pass.  Unconditional love warns due to the reality that wickedness harms the perpetrator as much as the victim.   Unconditional  love efforts to stop the wickedness when given the opportunity, time and proximity to the evildoing. 

Our great misunderstanding of God's unconditional love rejects the idea of consequences for bad form and abuses the mercy of grace.  Ask any evildoer about the frustration when their will is thwarted, and we will see that they miss the protection that the thwarting represents.

Conditional love fails in all situations because it can only operate within the boundaries humans use to define it. Conditional love never sees past it's own satisfaction to the Cross that lies beyond those boundaries. 

How then do I move past the hurt, pain, and even anger at the ones who have offended?  For all my valiant heroic self-effort to rise above the human emotions, I am taken right back to the words of my Lord Jesus the Christ, "Apart from Me you can do nothing"  John 15:5 NIV.

I know in my flesh I am hard pressed to operate at the level of love that pleases the One who died in His love for me.  To really understand what unconditional love is and what unconditional love isn't we must always look to the Model.  Drawing from the well of God's Grace, I can find the purity of His unconditional love.

By and though the Presence of the Holy One, who dwells within me, I begin to see the great exchange needed.  Human emotions are not to be trusted.  Human emotions wall me in and other people out.  If I choose to live in that form of emotional isolation, I am limited in service to my Lord.  

The persecution by others who are  under the influence of the evil one, only drives me deeper into God's Sovereign purposes for my life and His will.

Unconditional love is not something I can generate.  Unconditional love can only come from surrendering to the Holy One, my human conditional love.  As with all the trials having to do with my transformation, I come back to the Divine mandate of surrender.  For me to live is Christ.  If I truly desire and believe that to be possible, I must be willing to make that great exchange:  my life for His.

We live in a world spinning out of control.  Evil abounds and evil doers are everywhere.  The conditions on the ground are no different than when Jesus came into the world and said in John 12:47, "I did not come to judge the world, but to save it".  Jesus did not come to stop the flow of justice but to better identify evil, call it out and warn the ones who live in it.

Evil will always persecute Holiness and Holiness will always confront evil.    God's unconditional love does not want any to perish but for all to come to the saving knowledge of His life layed down for each one of us.  The bigger reality of our human enemies is the depravity of the human heart.  Change that and the evil doing will cease.

My conditional human love is being challenged.  Will I surrender it to the great love of God?   Our morning conference does not change the conviction nor the commission to call out wickedness or battle evil while on earth.  Instead, It has been a call to check the motivation of my heart.  I know I am to separate the sin from the sinner while remembering the enemy of our soul is an equal opportunity hater.

The devil hates the human agents he is using to further his evil agenda as much as he hates me.  This truth gives me a fresh perspective.  Compassion fills my heart as I get into sync with my Lord's unconditional love even for those  evildoers in life who cross my path. 

I am finding that the Lord's unconditional love for others is hard but not impossible as I make the great exchange.

The Holy Spirit is calling.  Can you hear him?

 
     

Never Judge THE Judge

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  The battles on earth have taken yet another turn.  The blessings of my Lord come as sweet surprises from out of the blue.  Blessings that I never imagined would come; the blessings I had not thought to even ask for, suddenly appear.

Such blessings fill a void and empty place in the bigger picture of life.  The Holy One speaks of His recent blessing, "This is why you must never judge THE Judge".

Way back in the beginning of each trial I have gone though, there were days and times when all I could see was the confusion and chaos, that had no rhyme or reason for the suffering I was experiencing, in my opinion. I always knew the Lord could have stopped it but He didn't.  In those moments, it is the human temptation to judge God, if I am being completely honest from my heart with Him.

In the working out of His plans and purposes, the reputation of our God comes to places of unholy judgement from His created.  Thankfully nothing stops His work in our lives, not even our whiny voices that declare, "but that's so unfair".

I have buckled so many times during my life trials in the trust department of my relationship with my Lord. He has said at various times, "I know you trust My Will but do you trust My ways?"  The two are very different, when I stop to really think about it.  One is ultimate and the other is circumstantial.

I understand why the Children of Israel were told to build altars at the places of God's Divine intervention and victories.  They were to be reminders of God's past faithfulness inspire trust in Him for the current situations that seemed so out of control.

Today is a day of processing all the Lord has done in this life trial, putting the pieces in their proper place, and to celebrate the picture it reveals of the Lord's ultimate plan, which is always for our best.

The Holy One takes me back to Job's life yet again, for a deeper understanding of his internals that were not much different than mine.  Job's answer to God's powerful revelation of Himself reflects his heart.  Job 42:1-3, "I know that You can do all things; no plan of Yours can be thwarted.  You asked, "who is this that darkens My counsel without knowledge?"  Surely, I spoke of things I did not understand. Things too wonderful for me to know."

While Job did not outwardly judge the Lord, I sense that in his heart of hearts, he questioned and there were thoughts of "judging the Judge" for the outward circumstances he was suffering.

When God chose to speak, all error was corrected, and Job's suffering was seen through another lens.  Job was a man changed for the better and the legacy of his encounter with Holiness is the testimony we read about in the book that bears his name.

The hope of Job's life is our hope.  The certainty of God's Sovereignty and faithful love is for us.  It is a mistake for us to "judge THE Judge" as we move through the earth realm and experience the trials He permits to touch our lives until the last piece of each puzzle is set into place.

Since trials on earth are either, just a part of the Salvation experience or the Sanctification process, we must learn to withhold judgement until all the pieces are put into place.

There is nothing quite like the sudden appearance of sweet but unexpected blessings to remind me to "never judge The Judge".  He is Sovereign and always works to the good for all who are called by His Name.

The Holy Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?  

  

       

Prove Yourself To Yourself

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  The majesty of Holiness are the first thoughts of today.  Those thoughts are shortly followed by ones that rest upon the mystery of Holiness.

The Holy Spirit sometimes teases my mind with fragments of thoughts that challenge me to chase after His wisdom.  Today, in the midst of His swirling mystery, He said,
"You must prove yourself to yourself".

One of the great mysteries of Holiness that I ponder is God's sovereignty and the matter of man's free will.  Who can understand all the evil that humanity conjures up and inflicts on each other.  Where does the Lord's sovereignty and intervention start and end in the issues of this temporal life?

Such a deep subject to start the morning, but it's one that drives my curiosity and runs just under the surface of my conscious thoughts.  The Lord knows my struggle and broaches the subject with me.  It is always an open ended discussion in that while there are pieces added to the puzzle, it's never quite finished, so mysterious are His ways.

I  enjoy our early morning conferences and, in fact, I live to know more about the magnitude of my God and His creative Genius.  I wonder about His wisdom in granting His creation free will, especially when I see how man uses it. I am particularly interested in understanding if God himself ever over-rules our free will.

Looking back over my life, I see that I have had freedom to choose, but only from among the choices of "fate" AKA, God's Divine provision, that He made available.  If God is in ultimate control as the ultimate Sovereign Authority, I must acknowledge that He orchestrates what choices I have available and permits me to use my freedom therein.

Outside of time and space, God sees the end from the beginning.  My choice in a husband was mine to make in free will, but only from among those He orchestrated to enter my life. He knew in advance who I would choose, but I didn't.  In all matters of life and the choices I make, I am learning about myself.  He already knows me, but throughout my life, part of the the deep challenge is for me to get to know myself. 

I am not in a place of having to prove myself to the One who knows every cell in my body and every hair on my head.  I am honestly in a place of proving myself to myself, like an athlete who competes with his own record and not that of anyone else.

The Creator watches over the process, permitting the trials and choices available through them, to hone me.  The goal is for me to conform to the image of Jesus Christ, the One in whose image I was originally created.

True and completely free will is for one purpose:  To accept or reject Jesus Christ, the Only begotten Son of God as the pathway back to the Creator and into the heart relationship He offered after the fall. 

God already knows the choice we will make but we don't.  Everyone who has been born of the flesh is given the same choice and the freedom to make it, therefore all men are without an excuse.

I still had this lingering question of His Divine Hand and where the choices of others might impact His will for my life or the lives of His people called by His Name.  Abraham was one of His people and the Holy One takes me back to his life in Genesis 20.

Abraham was called by God and he answered the call.  His choice was sound.  He became God's friend.  But Abraham was not perfect and dealt with flesh issues just like we do.  During his life journey, and from the account in Genesis 20, we read that he buckled to his fears and even sold out his wife Sarah, telling a foreign king that she was his sister and not his covenant wife. 

Back in those days, kings had harems and a multitude of wives, but not God's chosen.  Abraham had but one wife, Sarah, yet he chose to forsake her in fear for his own life.  That was Abraham's free, however horrifying, will.

So, did God leave Abraham to the utter devastation of his free will and the cowardice therein?  Did God just watch from a distance and not intervene for the beloved couple?

Genesis 20:3,  "But God came to Abimelech in a dream one night and said to him, "You are as good as a dead man because of the woman you have taken.  She is a married woman".  The king countered with his confession that he had been deceived into thinking the woman was a sister not a wife.  

Genesis 20:6, "Then God said to him in the dream, "yes, I know you did this with a clear conscience and so I have kept you from sinning against me,  That is why I have not let you touch her."  Now return the man's wife, for he is a prophet."

Abraham's failure and God's intervention are telling in a myriad of ways and I cherish the picture of each one. The fear of God truly does over-rule the fear of man and even the sub-conscious fear of self.  Abraham's buckling was far from over and he even repeated this same betrayal, yet God's intervention never stopped. 

While we inhabit our flesh bodies, the choices we have to make in our free will may not always be the best. I am thankful to see God's Sovereign intervention when a godly person blows it.  And then there is the dream of the foreign king, and our fears for our unsaved loved ones.  I see more questions beginning to surface in my mind for another day.

But this morning, as I come to a better understanding of my God, even in the matters of free will, I know we are all safe in His hands and I can focus on the greater purpose in the circumstances He ordains.  Under His watchful eye, I can prove myself to myself and make necessary corrections when I fail.

Not all of my questions of the Holy One are answered in a day and the picture is not anywhere near complete, but here is one more piece I can add to the puzzle of my life.

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?