What are you doing here?

You shouldn't be here.

You should be here.

I'm in the process of moving.  I'm not near finished, but rather than post on both sites, I decided to forward any traffic from here over to the new site. 
Please ignore all the broken links over there...I'm working on them.

Oh! and if you have any tips on how to transfer archives I'd LOVE to hear them!

I think we can all agree that we are relatively free from religious persectution here in the USA.  While it's true that our enemy is tightening his grip, and it seems our freedoms are slowly eroding, there are fellow believers around the world who would gladly take our place.

Periodically, I will be posting for VOM about some of the persecution our brothers and sisters in Christ are facing.  What a privilege to join with these brave men and women; to lift these saints and their families in prayer.

• On February 2, a pastor's conference in Raipur, Chhattisgarh state was attacked by about 100-500 members of the Hindu militant group Dharam Sena. At least 10 Christian leaders were injured and property and money stolen. Pray God heals all those injured and that believers remain faithful.

Indeed My hand has laid the foundation of the earth,
      And My right hand has stretched out the heavens;
      When I call to them,
      They stand up together. 

Isaiah 48:13

• On Saturday, February 10, 58-year-old Christian, S. Stanley, was stabbed and killed by rioting youth in front of his house in Pavaloor, Kerala State, India. Youths assembled in front of his house shouting blasphemous abuses against Christians. When Stanley and his wife asked the youths to leave, they became angry and stoned the house. While Stanley was inside the house calling the police, the attackers climbed over the locked gate, entered the house and stabbed him several times on his back, neck and stomach. His wife was also assaulted, VOM contacts said. Pray for the family of this brother, especially his wife who sustained injuries from the beatings. Isaiah 48: 13; Psalm 41:3

 The LORD will strengthen him on his bed of illness;
         You will sustain him on his sickbed. 

Psalm 41:3
         

I love to watch people who are warm, friendly and at ease in a group.   They amaze me because I am so not that way.  I can suck the life out of a conversation and put even the most gifted conversationalist ill at ease!  It's true, I'm a social blackhole!  I've lived through the agony of it more than once.  I am painfully introverted.   (O.K., maybe I'm being a little bit dramatic...but occassionally this has been true.)

I understand that shyness is a part of the way God made me; I can live with that.  And yet I have never been comfortable with the self-centeredness that introversion suggests.  I can't help but feel that I've tipped the scale from acceptable, God given individuality to selfish, consuming introspection.

Just look a look at the definition of an introvert.

Introverted:   interested more in your own feelings, thoughts, and motives than in other people and the world around you; turned into yourself or pulled back inside a larger part

Contrast that with:

Matt. 16: 24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me." 

I Cor. 10:24 "Don’t be concerned for your own good but for the good of others."

I Cor. 10:33  "I, too, try to please everyone in everything I do. I don’t just do what is best for me; I do what is best for others so that many may be saved. "

Phill. 2:4 "Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too."

Luke 9:23 Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me."

Matt. 16:25 "If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it."

Gal. 5:24 "Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there."

Gal. 6:14 "As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in this world has been crucified, and the world’s interest in me has also died."

Matt. 10: 39 "If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it."

Hmmmm.... I knew something was askew!    I thank Him for being faithful to gently lead his sheep as a shepherd.  This topic was recently explored by The Road not Chosen, go check it out for a different angle.  I'm off to Google "conversation skills".

"Father, continue to guide this heart of mine.  Lead me down paths of Your righteoussness.  May I not become so focused on my own thoughts and feelings that my passion and interest in others is overshadowed.  Cause me to live outside of myself.  Teach me what it means to live for You.  Amen"

THAT is what our sacrifice of ourselves should be--"full of life." Not desponding, morbid, morose; not gloomy chilly, forbidding; not languid, indolent, inactive; but full of life, and warmth, and energy; cheerful, and making others cheerful; gay, and making others gay; happy, and making others happy; contented, and making others contented; doing good, and making others do good, by our lively vivid vitality,--filling every corner of our own souls and bodies, filling every corner of the circle in which we move, with the fresh life-blood of a warm, genial, kindly Christian heart. Doubtless this requires a sacrifice; it requires us to give up our own comfort, our own ease, our own firesides, our dear solitude, our own favorite absorbing pursuits, our shyness, our reserve, our pride, our selfishness.
ARTHUR P. STANLEY

My little thinker  is always thinking.  Usually about numbers. 

His latest contemplation has been along these lines.  If one-quarter of infinity is still infinity and twice infinity is still infinity (he arrived at this on his own),  then infinity can't be infinite because it's value never changes.   ('Value' is my word here...I can't remember the exact way he communicated this to me.)    So, if infinity is not forever increasing, then it's not infinite. 

Did I explain that right?  Basically he reasoned that infinite is finite because it's value never changes when it is divided or multiplied.

It's not so much the concept that stops me in my tracks, (although that does amaze me) as the depth of thinking required to get there.

Anyone want to lone me a couple of Physics and Math textbooks to add to my stack of bedside reading?

  ~(My incredible husband took this picture on the summit of Mt. Shasta.)

I will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried.
ZECHARIAH 13:9

AS the purifying process is carried on, "the refiner watches the operation, with the greatest earnestness, until the metal has the appearance of a highly polished mirror, reflecting every object around it: even the refiner, as he looks upon the mass of metal, may see himself as in a looking-glass, and thus he can form a very correct judgment respecting the purity of the metal. When he is satisfied, the fire is withdrawn, and the metal removed from the furnace." See Jesus, as the Refiner, watching "with the greatest earnestness" the purifying of thy soul in the furnace of earth. His hand has lighted the fire which is now separating the pure metal of holiness from the dross of sin in thee. His loving eye is ever eagerly watching for the moment when the purifying work is done. Then, without a moment's delay, He withdraws the fire, and the purified soul is removed from the furnace. See, again, when it is that the purification is completed; it is when the Image of Christ is reflected in us, so that He can see Himself in us as in a mirror. Raise your eyes, then, amidst the flames, and see the Face of Jesus watching you with the tender pity and intense interest of His love.
                                                                      ~GEORGE BODY from Joy & Strength

My flesh prickles against authority.   

My will stiffens when met with opposition. 

Too many times I have caught myself squirming in the trap of self-sufficiency.  Believing that I am capable of directing my life’s course; of making my life’s decisions (and many more times, I’m sure, I’ve not caught myself!)  

I like to do things my way. 

I am told my adversary is more beguiling (which interestingly can be interpreted as ‘charming’) than any other creature the Lord created. 

Is he appealing?   Yes.   

Is he creative and omniscient?   No. 

He has used the same basic strategies from the start.  He may tweak his packaging a little, but at their foundation his deceits are unchanged.

 Since the beginning of time when the serpent crafted his deceit and said, “…Your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods…” mans’ desire to rule his own destiny has been apparent.  Satan’s lie, and our human inclination to believe it, is in evidence everywhere.  From Satan’s lies in the Garden to the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness,  from man made ‘religions’ to the mantra of our culture, from the demand of the toddler to the soaring incidence of selfish divorce. I want to do it my way.  

I know what is best.

Yet I neglect God’s voice on the matter.

His admonition through the prophet Jeremiah,  

“…the heart of man is deceitful above all things.”   (Jer. 17:9)

His thoughts in the days of Noah, 

"And GOD saw that the wickedness of man [was] great in the earth, and [that] every imagination of the thoughts of his heart [was] only evil continually."  (Gen. 6:5)

His words at the dedication of the temple when Solomon addresses the condition of mans heart, 

“What prayer and supplication soever be [made] by any man [or] by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart…”  (IKings 8:38) (emphasis mine)

His wisdom displayed in the Proverbs,

“The foolishness of man perverteth his way: and his heart fretteth against the LORD.”  (Prov. 19:3)

It is clear from the Scriptures that my very heart can not be trusted.  No wonder Satan targets my own heart’s desires to bring about the eternal ****ation of my soul (yes, I know, HSblogger will block half of this word!).  His work is half done before he has even begun.

This is the definitive battle for my soul.  Will I place myself on the throne in my life or will I humbly bow before the Living God as He takes His rightful place as Lord of my Days?

"When there is famine in the land, pestilence or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers; when their enemy besieges them in the land of their cities; whatever plague or whatever sickness there is; whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by anyone, or by all Your people Israel, when each one knows the plague of his own heart, and spreads out his hands toward this temple: then hear in heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and act, and give to everyone according to all his ways, whose heart You know (for You alone know the hearts of all the sons of men), that they may fear You all the days that they live in the land which You gave to our fathers.

(I Kings 8:37-40)

It is Well With my Soul

~Horatio Spafford

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Refrain

It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

Refrain

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

Refrain

For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
If Jordan above me shall roll,
No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.

Refrain

But, Lord, ‘tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
Oh trump of the angel! Oh voice of the Lord!
Blessèd hope, blessèd rest of my soul!

Refrain

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

Refrain