Lion of the Tribe of Judah

This past Wednesday, I went with a group to Oak Grove Arkansas for a Camp Meeting at a church called Harvest Assembly.

This church was out in the middle of a hay field nestled in the hills of Arkansas. It was a beautiful new church with the most hospitable people that fed the visitors a meal before services started.

Inside the church, behind the platform was this beautiful banner made by one of the women in the church. I don't think I have ever seen one this beautiful.

When I walked in and saw it, I was reminded that our Savior Jesus Christ came first as a lamb, and is getting ready to return as the Lion from the tribe of Judah.

Here at our weekly Bible Study, we have been studying about the harvest and in particular about the harvest of souls in these last days. God puts little reminders in our everyday lives of what He is doing in these last days and what He is going to do. I realized this when I saw the sign out in the middle of nowhere that read 'Harvest Assembly'.

Matthew 9:37-38....Then He said unto His disciples, "The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray you therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth labourers into His harvest.

My revelation from this trip is: I went in September, during the fall feasts, the season of harvest. The name of the church was Harvest Assembly, and we are to declare that the Lord is coming soon to all we can. We are to be the labourers to bring in the harvest of souls.

This banner declares that Jesus is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and every knee is going to bow to Him one day soon regardless of who is being prayed to at our capital this week-end.

How Fast Are Your Prayers

I'm a person with a personality of analyzing things I see. Although I don't have a very scientific mind, God has given me a spiritual mind as He has all His children, to see spiritual things in what is going on around us.

Does this picture of a plane breaking the sound barrier have a spiritual truth in it about prayer and about the catching away of the believers referred to as the Rapture?

When a plane travels faster than the speed of sound, a phenomenon happens that can be seen with the eye. A cloud forms around the plane then a loud boom is heard.

When we pray, just how fast do our prayers move in the atmosphere? Do they cause a phenomenon in the heavenlies like a plane breaking the sound barrier with a cloud and a boom?

It is documented that light travels faster than sound. We recently had an evangelist at our church that spoke about his friend that is a scientist for Nasa. He was told that Nasa has discovered that light travels faster than originally thought. One of the experiments done showed that when light reached point B, it had not even left point A yet.

When we receive Jesus, the light of the world into our spirits, then when we pray, our prayers not only have sound in them but light also. So that would mean that the moment we pray, our prayers are already in the throne room before we finish praying.

Concerning the Rapture, 1 Corinthians 15:52 says......In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incoruptible and we shall be changed.

We know that 'in the twinkling of an eye' is a speed that's very fast. Could it be like the speed of light, before we left we are already there with the Lord? We know there is a sound, the sound of a trumpet. Will this phenomena be like the picture of the plane above???

We know that when Jesus left, a cloud received Him..Acts 1:9. Acts 1:11..the angel said He would return in like manner.

What would all of this mean at the point of death here on earth for a believer? Would that mean that at a point of leaving, we are already in His presence?? I know that the scripture says to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord but just how fast does that transition happen????

I don't know but it sure brings me comfort thinking about these things.

I pray that your name be inscribed in The Book Of Life.

Reflections Of The Past

This is a special time of year for our family. The season marks the birthday of our only grandchild Allison and the season of healing our daughter Amanda received three years ago. They are both a reflection of God's grace, mercy, restoration, and healing power.

The journey began in 2006 when Amanda became pregnant with Allison. It was a time in a young woman's life that she always looks forward to, having that first child. Amanda was finishing up her degree in college when our 'Job' experiences began in her third month of pregnancy.

She was having severe pain in her stomach. We made many trips to the hospital that year, 16 to be exact. Sometimes it was overnight and sometimes it was up to two weeks. There were many tests done that could be done on a pregnant woman. Different doctors were called in but no one could figure out what was causing the problem. All they could do was treat the symptoms and so she was on morphine or demeral during her stays in the hospital and other pain meds when not in the hospital.

It was truly a 'One Day At A Time' walk with the Lord, praying each day for the battle she faced that day while still trying to live in a state of expecting the joy of a new baby. We stood on Jeremiah 1:5..Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee and that is the verse she used on the baby shower invitations.

Amanda experienced kidney stones, kidney infections, her gall bladder was removed, blood transfusions, diabetis which would show up then it wouldn't, eclampsia, yes eclampsia, resulting in a seisure on Labor Day and therefore the emergency delivery of a baby 7 weeks early.

I could write a book. It was unbelievable. Yet God was with us throughout the ordeal, giving us a healthy grandbaby with no effects from all the medications, tests, and gall bladder surgery.

Amanda came home without the baby then one week later Allison came home. We were so thankful and thought the battle was over only to have Amanda back to the hospital 3 weeks after delivery with severe pain again.

This time they found something. They said it was a mass in her small intestine. My parents came and stayed with our premature grand-baby while I stayed with Amanda. Her husband Chris had to work to keep the insurance they desperately now needed.

Her intestine was telescoping on itself along with growths inside of it which was the source of the pain all along. She had another surgery with the removal of part of the intestine along with the growths inside. The recovery was long with a very weak but determined daughter.

I watched her stand in faith throughout that year and in the years that have followed. I heard her prayers to God during that time and I heard her intercede for her baby. They are both very healthy now. They have a new home and Amanda has that job she worked so hard for.

It was a time of growing closer to the Lord and growing closer with those that stood in the gap and prayed for us. It was a time when no man, doctor, or nurse had the answer and God's Word stood alone.

So this Labor Day I look at the picture above which is a reflection of God's grace, mercy, restoration and healing power.

And I proclaim "GREAT IS OUR GOD".

The Tale of Two Pots

This is a picture of what I did with my bird bath after it developed a crack in it. Looking at this reminds me of The Tale of Two pots that was published in Christian Parenting Today 1999.

It seems there once were two pots. They were carried by the King's Water Bearer on opposite ends of a long pole. One pot was perfect: well-decorated, beautiful, flawless. The other pot was very pretty, too, made of the same good clay and bright colors, nearly perfect--except for a single crack.
Each day, the King's Water Bearer would make the trek down from the palace to the river below and fill up each pot. While both started out full of water, the cracked pot left a trail of droplets along the path.
As the years passed, the cracked pot came to dread the day's journey. It was always the same: watching the perfect pot pour out his contents into the King's cistern without having lost a single drop, then pouring out his own offering, which seemed so much less. Which was why, at last, the cracked pot spoke up.
"Oh, Water Bearer," said the pot. "Please replace me. I have tried my hardest, but I know I've failed to be what you want me to be."
"That is not so," said the Water Bearer.
"It is!" said the cracked pot. "Just look at my offering next to the perfect pot's. It's so little. I'm ashamed of what I bring before the King."
"Enough!" said the Water Bearer, his face as dark as a storm cloud. "The perfect pot fulfills his purpose, that is true. But it was the King himself who picked you. And you have fulfilled his plan."
"I have?" said the cracked pot, full of confusion.
"Have you not noticed the hill we walk up every day?" asked the Water Bearer.
"No," said the pot quietly. "I've been so busy looking at the crack and watching the water dripping out."
"Look now," said the Water Bearer. The pot looked and saw that all along one side of the path grew beautiful flowers.
"Have you not seen me spreading seeds as I walked up the hill?" asked the Water Bearer. And then he said in a kinder voice, "Those flowers grow from your loss, little pot, and they please the King."
And at last the cracked pot saw that --crack and all--he did fulfill his Master's purpose.

(Thank you Ann for sending this to me in 1999. It has blessed me every year as I am watering my flowers and thinking about the revelation of this tale.)