PRAY FOR JERUSALEM

The Honorable Benjamin Netanyahu ~ Prime Minister of Israel. "Mike Evans is a fighter for freedom in a world of darkening and narrowing horizons. In his devotion to Israel, Mike has consistently demonstrated the moral clarity that is necessary to defend Israel against the lies and distortions of its enemies, and championed the Jewish people's claim to the Land of Israel." Give all the glory to God, for His hand on Israel. Mike's testimony, a son of a non-practing Jewish mother and a Christian alcoholic father - who suffered physical abuse, who hated Jesus ~ restored the home of Corrie ten Boom and turned it into a museum. He authored 32 books that honor God. Listen to what the Spirit is saying. Hear the Truth, Click CORRIE ten BOOM link."God does not have problems. Only plans," proclaimed Corrie ten Boom when a clerical error allowed her to be released from a Nazi concentration camp one week before all women prisoners her age were executed. Though she was released from the horror of Ravensbruck concentration camp, Corrie continued to live with a remarkable reliance on God, just as her family had as they hid Jews from Nazi terror. Generations of ten Booms held Christian prayer meetings for Israel for 100 years prior to World War II. In 1837, Willem ten Boom opened a clock shop. As dedicated Christians, the family home above the shop was always an "open house" for anyone in need. After an inspiring Dutch Reformed worship service in 1844, Willem started a weekly prayer service to pray for the Jewish people and the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6). His son Casper continued the tradition of prayer with his own family. These prayer meetings continued for 100 years—until February 28, 1944, when Nazi soldiers arrested Casper and his entire family for harboring Jews. During World War II, the ten Booms lived out their Christian faith by making their home a refuge—a hiding place—for Jews and members of the Dutch underground who were being hunted by the Nazis. Casper's daughter Corrie in this photo taken in 1907. Corrie was imprisoned for praying for Jews. During 1943 - 1944, the ten Boom family hid transiet refugees illegally. Refugees stayed with the ten Booms for a few hours or a few days until another "safe house" could be located for them. Corrie was a ringleader within the network of the Haarlem underground people caring about God's call to "Let my people go". The ten Boom family saved the lives of an estimated 800 Jews. Let us PRAY for Jerusalem and plant a seed of faith in God's plan to bless those who bless His people. I PRAY that the SEED I SOW to FREE God's PEOPLE, that this seed will flourish and bring about a season of prosperity for all who live and long to return to Jeruasalem. Cover them with Your unlimited grace!

PASSOVER SEDER

The Passover Seder is a Jewish ritual feast that marks the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover. It is conducted on the evenings of the 14-15th day of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar, which is late March, early April. The Seder is a ritual meal held for the purpose of retelling the story of slavery and liberation of the Jews in ancient Egypt. The Book of Exodus or Shemot in the Hebrew Bible commands the Jews to retell the story of the Exodus from Egypt: "You shall tell your child on that day, saying, 'It is because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.'" (Exodus 13:8) Traditionally, families and friends gather in the evening to read the text of the Haggadah, an ancient work that contains the narrative of the Israelite exodus from Egypt, special blessings and rituals, commentaries from the Talmud, and special Passover songs. The Bible tells that God helped the Children of Israel escape slavery in Egypt by inflicting ten plagues upon the Egyptians before Pharaoh would release his Israelite slaves. The Jews were instructed to mark the doorposts of their homes with the blood of a spring lamb and, upon seeing this, the spirit of the Lord passed over these homes, PASSOVER celebrates the mercy of God through the blood of His lamb. When Pharaoh freed the Israelites, it is said that they left in such a hurry that they could not wait for bread dough to rise (leaven). In commemoration, for the duration of Passover no leavened bread is eaten, for which reason it is called "The Festival of the Unleavened Bread". Seder customs include drinking four cups of wine, eating matza, partaking of symbolic foods placed on the Passover Seder Plate, and reclining in celebration of freedom. There is an obligation to drink four cups of wine during the Seder. Even the poor are obliged to drink the four cups. Each cup is imbibed at a specific point in the Seder. The Four Cups represent the four expressions of deliverance promised by God Exodus 6:6-7"I will bring out," "I will deliver," "I will redeem," and "I will take." Also the Four Cups represent the four worlds: 1) this world 2)the Messianic age 3)the world at the revival of the dead 4)the world to come. This also connects them to the four Matriarchs: Sarah, Rebeccah, Rachel, and Leah and the three Patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The four historical redemptions of the Jewish people: 1)the choosing of Abraham 2) the Exodus from Egypt 3)the survival of the Jewish people through the exile 4) to happen at the end of days. Therefore partaking in the four cups is very important for all Jews. THEMES for the Seder meal is slavery and freedom. The day begins at sunset and ends at sunset. The Jewish people were enslaved to Pharaoh and after the 10th plague struck Egypt at midnight, which killed all the first-born of Pharaoh to the first born of the slaves in the dungeon, and all the first born of livestock, Pharaoh let the Hebrew nation go. Effectively making them free people for the second half of the night. Thus, Seder participants recall the slavery that reigned during the first half of the night by eating matzo (the "poor person's bread"), maror (bitter herbs which symbolize the bitterness of slavery), and charoset (a sweet paste representing the mortar which the Jewish slaves used to cement bricks). Recalling the freedom of the second half of the night, they eat the matzo the "bread of freedom"and also the "bread of affliction" and then drink the four cups of wine. As they dip vegetables into salt water, the dipping is a sign of royalty and freedom, and the salt recalls the tears the Jews shed during their slavery. Since the retelling of the Exodus to one's child is the object of the Seder experience, much effort is made to arouse the interest and curiosity of the children and keep them awake during the meal. To that end, questions and answers are a central device in the Seder ritual. By encouraging children to ask questions, they will be more open to hearing the answers. The most famous question which the youngest child asks - "Why is this night different from all other nights?" After the asking of these questions, the main portion of the Seder, Magid, gives over the answers in the form of a historical review. Also, at different points in the Seder, the leader of the Seder will cover the matzot and lift their cup of wine; then put down the cup of wine and uncover the matzot—all to elicit questions from the children. The questions are asked by the assembled company in chorus rather than by a child, and are put to the leader of the seder, who answers the question. Originally, Jewish scholarship was all oral. Rabbis expounded and debated the written law expressed in the Hebrew Bible and discussed the Tanakh without the benefit of written works. Some Rabbis may have made private notes (megillot setarim) of court decisions. This situation changed drastically mainly as the result of the destruction of the Jewish commonwealth and the Second Temple in the year 70 CE and the consequent upheaval of Jewish social and legal norms. The Bible tells us to celebrate our freedom ~ PASSOVER from guilt to God with His truth: "There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus" for the blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ takes away the sins of those who claim Him as their Lord and Savior. Click into the SIMPLE WAY TO GOD and REJOICE in the One who came to give you Eternal Life. AMEN

Modern Miracles

Each year, according to His plan, God in His order, makes wine. He created an organism that turns soil, water and sunlight into a grape filled with juicy wine! My will is to thank God for this MIRACLE and drink up with praise on my lips! Wine is but water modified by the One who established the universe and all of nature. Today I shall experience the supernatural and surrender my will to His plan for my visit with Momma Mia in Santa Rosa! To act obediently, intellectually, volitionally, emotionally is to live according to His Spirit and trust that His best is where He leads us. 1 CORIN 9:26 "Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air."HEBREWS 12:1 "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." We sing praise as we run to You: "JUST AS I AM, without one plea, trusting that Thou blood was shed for me; waiting not to rid my soul of one dark blot; though tossed about, with many a conflict and many a doubt; I am poor, wretched, blind ~ in need of a healing in my mind; JUST AS I AM, Lord wilt Thou welcome, pardon and cleanse me? Thou bid me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. To Thee I come, Whose blood can cleanse each dark spot, O Lamb of God, I come, I come." AMENTo render back "my will" in exchange for "His will" is at times a very real struggle. The world is full of deceit. If we look to our family, friends or pyscologist, we find that the truth is hidden in layers of camoflage. But God has given His Spirit, the Spirit of truth and discernment. As born again people, we are new creations in Christ. MARK 2:22 "And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.” We can trust that if we surrender our self-will, our old ways that are so inflamed and swollen with years of selfishness - and seek God's viewpoint, we will be enabled to discern between what He says and what the world says and make wise choices. As a child, I thought like a child and when asked to do someting against my will I became incensed and bitter at the thwarting request that I give in! The first miracle Jesus performed was to celebrate the Bride and His Bridegroom, with adequate wine to be poured out to fill the souls of a thirsty gathering of His people. God in His mercy has educated me gently in order to "break His child's will". Looking back I ascertain my rebellion, my howling, my jaw setting, as I avoided total surrender with certain limitations. Fully compensated by God with less than His best, today I choose to surrender whole heartedly to His plan! Experience His love, grace and miracle today like the joy of JOB 32:19 "inside I am like bottled-up wine, like new wineskins ready to burst." Thank You Father for giving me Your Spirit of discernment. 1 Corin 2:10-14 "These are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit."

Trust in God

Today 10 years ago I stepped outside of my home on Benjamin Holt Drive in Stockton and noted a dark sky and thunder clouds. With an unsual stillness in the air I walked toward my car and a frantic neighbor ran out shouting something inaudible. As I was running late for work I dismissed the incident. No music was to be found on the radio, all channels were broadcasting the terror of a plane crashing into the Word Trade Center. When I arrived to work at Guaranty Bank on the Miracle Mile, as the assistant Manager I hurried to relocate the breakroom television to the teller line. As the entire staff prepared to open the bank, together we watched the second plane crash into the 2nd tower. The shock of witnessing flames and people jumping from the tower held Hennie Tupas, Cecily Thrower and myself stilled by fear. Today during the 10th anniversary of 911, the entire cast of Congress stood on the steps of the memorial and sang God Bless America. At 10:28 AM Eastern time, as the clock struck the moment when the 2nd tower fell, a bell rang out to announce a time of Silence. Mayor Guiliani chose to read from God's Word from Ecclesiastics. "A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck what has been planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to gain, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace." Today I choose to DWELL on God's PROMISES for PEACE, for FAVOR, for BLESSING, for a LIFE of LOVE, JOY, HEALTH and HAPPINESS. Today I am in agreement with God! This is the DAY that the Lord hath made and I will rejoice and be GLAD in it! Today I choose to THRIVE and BLOSSOM in the TRUTH. Today I choose to release my FAITH in GOD, not in what the NEWS reports. Paul was shipwrecked, imprisoned and yet he said "Thanks be to God who made me more than a conqueror!" People and circumstances do not determine my destiny, GOD does. The victory is MINE as the room of my MIND is filled with what God says. I am strong, healthy, happy, victorius as I have the FAVOR of GOD! On September 11, 2001 I was planning my 50th birthday party and I was blessed by all those family, friends, co-workers and neighbors who attended that red, white and blue celebration. On September 11, 2011 my plans for my 60th birthday party are in place. Doyle, Hennie, Diana, Sue, Nancy, Jobi, Debby, Steve, Cathy will all join me to celebrate what God has done in their lives over the last ten years!

911 RENEWAL

We cannot live forever or experience eternal life in heaven without God's forgiveness. (EPHESIANS 1:7a) Forgiveness is available to all, (JOHN 3:16) But, forgiveness is NOT automatic. (MATTHEW 7:21) Our Holy Father God cannot and will not allow sin in to heaven. He is the righteous One who judges the world. (JAMES 2:13) All people have sinned, and all people fall short of the glory of God as they continue to lie, steal, denounce God, doubt God and hide from His truth while speaking His holy name disrespectfully. (ROMANS 3:23) A sinner can enter heaven when they TURN away from sin as their inbred conscious speaks to them. (LUKE 13:3) As they TURN away from temptation and TURN to Jesus Christ for help, strength and courage. (ROMANS 10:9) As we continue to TURN, confess or repent our sins, we live and experience His grace, His forgiveness, His mercy NOW and in the eternal hereafter. (JOHN 10:10 and JOHN 14:3) If a person asks "How can a person know God is real, that He will forgive, love and protect me?" By FAITH we are saved, not by works. Trust that Jesus died for you personally and ask Him to forgive you. Speak your faith and give up your ways to happiness, forsake all that you have been trained to trust and trust the Word of God, your Creator and PRAY: Lord Jesus, I know I am a sinner and have displeased You in many ways. I believe You died for my sin and only through faith in Your death and resurrection can I be forgiven. I want to turn from my sin and ask You to come into my life as my Savior and Lord. From this day on, I will follow You and trust that Your grace will enable me to live a life that pleases You. Thank You, Lord Jesus for saving me and filling me with the Holy Spirit. Amen.

WE GOT DEGREES

The degrees that distinquish us, that set us apart, that extinguish all fear of not measuring up. The degrees that give us confident freedom in our daily walk and boldness in our talk are divine! For we did not receive degrees that makes us slaves to comparing oursleves, or seeking accolades from man. Having attended the school of hard knocks, we now possess three prized degrees! A BA, a PHD, and a DD degree!
BA = Born Again. A DD is not a Doctorate in Divinity, it is a self-proclaimed degree in Disturbing the Devil! Our PHD does not mean a Doctorate of Philosophy, but it is our degree as we are Past Having Doubt. When you know that you know, that you know that you know --- exactly where you will spend eternity, there is a boldness and confidence that rises up in you. You get all excited, you are compelled to share the truth, to share in the great commission. A huge audience awaits our message! We have the truth that the world is desperately seeking! An important POLE was recently taken and it revealed that 94 % of all people in the world believe in God! But they are still confused about who God is and where they can find Him. Time to lift up our diploma, our bible and talk about Jesus! Christians, it is time that we came out of the closet! It is time we shared the good news outside the church, outside our circle of believing friends! Zig Zigglar reminds us that there are more closet bible believers than there are pastors to spread the good news! So for all those who are unemployed --- We have the priviledge of working for the King of Kings! Understanding that the Bible is a collection of inspired letters from God to His people, for the purpose to encourage, inform, and teach His ways to those He created for a purpose. He knows what we hide, what is behind the smile, and what our motives are even if they are blurry to us. God knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for us in accordance with God's law. The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are in His presence, that we are equipped and given understanding of what is right. We know the truth and we are born again in the Spirit, and made ready by the authoritative voice of God's Word. Our royal responsibility as the adopted, priviledged children of the King are: 1)Invite people to observe the peace we have in the midst of chaos. 2) Talk over choices with God, and listen for His instruction. 3)Be prepared to listen with compassion to those who are brought into our experience. 4) Speak from the heart, trust that the Spirit will give you the words to speak. 5) Share how God brought us out of bondage. How the King freed us from the jail of guilt and forgave us for our foolish choices. 6) Explain that Jesus gave His life in order that we are able to be presented to the Holy Father as blameless in His sight. 7) Tell others that we surrender our life to Christ, because He gave His life for us, and as a result we have a private Counselor, a Holy Helper always available 24 hours a day. YAHOO YAWEH! We gladly give all praise to God for the priviledge to love as we are loved! We give all credit to the Holy Spirit who gives us the power to overcome and live free of guilt, worry, shame or confusion. Halleluiah and AMEN!

Generation to Generation

God knows us by name and He desires that we call on Him by name. Debby, Diana, Kathy, Mona, and Babs have each used a method of study and have had a personal word from the Lord! AMEN ~ PSALM 67 May God be gracious to us and bless us and make His face shine on us— so that Your ways may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations. May the peoples praise You, God; may all the peoples praise You. May the nations be glad and sing for joy, for You rule the peoples with equity and guide the nations of the earth. May the peoples praise You, God; may all the peoples praise You. The land yields its harvest; God, our God, blesses us. May God bless us still, so that all the ends of the earth will fear Him. ~ "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will— to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that He lavished on us. With all wisdom and under
standing, He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. In Him we were also chosen,having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory." Ephesians 1:3-12 ~ "Again Jesus began to teach by the lake ~ “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.” Mark 1:1-20 "For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.” ESTHER 4:14-15"Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others." Phillipians 2:1 "With the Lord Jesus Christ nothing is impossible. No stormy passions are so strong; He can tame them. No temper is so rough and violent; He can change it. No conscience is so disturbed; He can speak peace to it and make it calm. No person ever need despair, if they will only bow down their pride, and come as a humbled sinner to Christ. Christ can do miracles upon their heart. No person ever need despair of reaching their journey's end, if they have once committed their soul to Christ's keeping. Christ will carry them through every danger. Christ will make them conqueror over every foe. What if our relatives oppose us? What if our neighbors laugh us to scorn? What if our place be hard? What if our temptations be great? It is all nothing, if Christ is on our side, and we are in the ship with Him. Greater is He that is for us, than all those who are against us." RC RYLE ~ The Holy Spirit abides within each believer on this side of the cross. John the Baptist was born in the spirit ~ LUKE 1:35-37 "The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.” AMEN this is a PROMISE from Almighty God! As a mother worries about her child, she is not trusting God's plan and purpose for His child's life. The mother of Jesus sang this out when greeted by the leaping of John the Baptist in the womb of Elizabeth. “My soul glorifies the Lord
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for He has been mindful
of the humble state of His servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is His Name.
His mercy extends to those who fear Him,
from generation to generation.
He has performed mighty deeds with His arm;
He has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
Ruth Bell Graham was born at Qingjiang, Kiangsu, China, as Ruth McCue Bell. Her parents, Dr. L. Nelson Bell and Virginia McCue Bell, were American medical missionaries at the Presbyterian Hospital 300 miles north of Shanghai. Ruth returned to the U.S. at the age of 17 in the fall of 1937, and enrolled at Wheaton College, outside Chicago, Illinois, where she met Graham. They married on August 13, 1943. In 1945, after a brief stint as a suburban pastor, her husband became an evangelist for Youth for Christ. The Grahams moved to Montreat near her parents where the Grahams continued to live for the rest of their married life. Despite Billy Graham being one of the world's most famous Baptists, his wife remained a Presbyterian and often taught Sunday School. Between 1945 and 1958, Mrs. Graham gave birth to five children, whom she raised — sometimes single-handedly — while her husband was away on extended national and international evangelistic crusades. The three daughters and two sons who survive her are all actively involved in ministry, including eldest son Franklin, who heads the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) founded by his father. Ruth Graham had been in frail health since suffering spinal meningitis in 1995. This was exacerbated by a degenerative osteoarthritis of the back and neck that began with a fall while testing a swing she made for her grandchildren in 1974 that resulted in chronic back pain for many years. During the final months of her life, Graham was bedridden and had contracted pneumonia. The day before Ruth's death, Billy Graham released a statement through the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association stating, "Ruth is my soul mate and best friend, and I cannot imagine living a single day without her by my side. I am more and more in love with her today than when we first met over 65 years ago as students at Wheaton College." On Monday, June 11, at Ruth's request and subsequent to consultation with her family, she was removed from life support. On June 13, 2007, following her decline into a semi-coma, Billy Graham announced that he and his wife had decided to be buried beside each other at the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, North Carolina. Ruth died at 5:05 p.m. June 14, 2007, at her home. Since the death of his wife, it has not been an easy adjustment period for Rev. Billy Graham. One month after her passing he was rushed by ambulance to a hospital. Ruth and Billy were married for 63 years. Rev. Graham's health has been fairly strong. He was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease in 1990. PSALM 63 ~ You, God, are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for You,
my whole being longs for You,
in a dry and parched land
where there is no water.
I have seen You in the sanctuary
and beheld Your power and Your glory.
Because Your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify You.
I will praise You as long as I live,
and in Your name I will lift up my hands.
I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise You.
On my bed I remember You;
I think of You through the watches of the night.
Because You are my help,
I sing in the shadow of Your wings.
I cling to you;
your right hand upholds me.
WE PRAISE THY HOLY NAME

Torrents of Rain

"Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me. Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell Me, if you understand. Who marked off it's dimensions? Surely you know! Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown dawn its place, that it might take the earth by the edges and shake the wicked out of it? Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep? Have the gates of death been shown to you? Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth? Tell Me, if you know all this! Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail, which I reserve for times of trouble, for days of war and battle? What is the place where the lightning is dispersed, or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth? Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm, to water a land where no man lives, a desert with no one in it, to satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass? Does the rain have a father? Who fathers the dew? Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you raise your voice to the clouds and cover yourself with a flood of water? Who endowed the heart with wisdom or gave under standing to the mind? Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? Do you give the horse his strength or clothe his neck with a flowing mane? Does the eagle soar at your command and build his nest on high? JOB REPLIED TO GOD: "I know that You can do all things; no plan of Yours can be thwarted. You asked 'Who is this that obscures My counsel without knowledge?' Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things to wonderful for me to know." Sunday August 29, 2011 is the day to ADMIT to GOD that I have not had enough faith to trust Him with my son, or my future. Humbly I admit that trouble overtakes the innocent and the guilty - and in my time of trouble, I choose to seek God and trust Him because God is in control, He is sovereign, He is just and He loves me. He will restore me fully as I cling tightly to my faith in the only One who is trustworthy! AMEN Tropical Storm Irene banged into the edge of New York on Sunday, unleashing rain and 65-100 mile per hour winds on a city girded for the worst. 4 million homes left without power and 9 left dead as the salty floodwater sloshed into lower Manhattan, threatening Wall Street, the heart of the worlds financial hope. The New York Stock Exchange can run on generator power, but how many traders will show up for work Monday? The Eastern Seaboard spent the day nervously watching the storm's march across a swath of the nation inhabited by 65 million people. The hurricane had an enormous wingspan — 500 miles, its outer reaches stretching from the Carolina's to Cape Cod — with wind gusts of 115 mph. It was the first hurricane to make landfall in the United States since 2008. Irene hurled her thunder almost six years to the day after Katrina ravaged New Orleans. Experts guessed that no other hurricane in American history had threatened as many people. At least 2.3 million were under orders to evacuate, it is unclear how many obeyed or, in some cases, how so many actually could. JOB 38-41 - God said He was reserving the store houses of snow, hail, rain for times of trouble. God used hail to help Joshua win a battle. Joshua 10:11 - Armies keep weapons for battle and God maintains all the forces of nature in His control. Sometimes He uses them to confound the scientist, or those opposed to His sovereign rule. Man cannot fathom all of God's ways and resources. God can and does unleash and restrain nature according to His plan and will. God alone commands the storm - and because nature is beyond our control, how silly of man to question God's authority and ways! AMEN

INTERRUPTIONS

PARDON me, what did you say?When God interrupts our routine, His purpose is to call us back to Himself when we are off track. Abram self-corrected in Genesis 12. God interrupted Abram with a command: Leave everything you know and follow Me. The command was radical and changed the course of Abram's life because he obeyed! When we disobey and interrupt what God is doing in our lives, our disobedience is a result of selfish stubborness and unwillingness to do that which we know to do. (James 1:13-15) Walking with God requires that we follow Him. We were not created by God to simply pack our Creator around in our side pocket, or choose to add Jesus into our journey. Read about David and how he stiff armed God and did not go into battle 2 Samuel 11. When we follow our desires, our temptations to live as everybody else does, our disobedience is the sin that leads us into more depravity. Satan also seeks to interrupt our relationship with God. The truth is found in our Father's Word, His warning to us about the great deceiver, the one who plans to trip us and devour our souls. Satan uses deception and he always seeks to destroy our peace. Satan will whisper lies, and attempt to confuse our focus while he consistently dismisses the attributes and promises of God. What is the interruption in your life today? What is its source, and even more important, what is the purpose of that interruption and how are you responding? Ambivalence defined: simultaneous and contradictory attitudes or feelings toward an object, person, or action. Are you ambivalent to God's call?

"Each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. … Don't be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows" (James 1:14,16-17).