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Philippians 4:6-7 says...

Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.





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Matthew 18:18-19 says...

Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.
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Morning Devotional...



Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
Hebrews 4:16

What a glorious invitation is given to us!

With every confidence we can come to the throne of grace and "take by the hand" the mercy that is offered.

But when is it offered? "In time of need." G. Campbell Morgan suggests that "it is a colloquialism meaning 'in the nick of time.'"

So often when assailed by fear and doubts and when overwhelmed by severe problems, grace arrives 'in the nick of time'--just when and where it is needed.
--James Comte

Hello folks.

Another day has passed.  Summer is going by so fast.

I have a prayer request:
We have an issue here in our household that needs to be solved.  I have been praying about it for months now.  I feel that God isn't answering our prayers in that area.  I don't know what to do.  Sorry to bug you all about it.

We are just about ready for our garage sale.  <sigh>  it is hard work.
I had to cry today looking at the little tiny baby cloths that Chandraya and Lila Mae used to wear. 

I better get to bed we have an early day tomorrow.

Soni

Hi Everyone....

I recieve an email called daily encounter and I just thought it might be relevant to most of us, I was encouraged by it.

1] RISING ABOVE DISCOURAGEMENT

"Hope deferred makes the heart sick; but when dreams come true at last, there is life and joy" (Proverbs 13:12, TLB).

"These boys won't make it. Go back to Liverpool, Mr. Epstein, you have a good business there." This is what a recording company executive told the Beatle's manager at their first audition!

"That kid can't play baseball. He can't pull the ball," is what the manager of the Brave's Tripple A team said about Hank Aaron in 1952. Aaron went on to hit 755 home runs, breaking all previous records.

Remember, no matter what the critics say, in God's economy, everybody has a purpose and everybody has something of value to offer. Never give up until you know what your talent is; then sharpen it, dedicate it to God, and give it all you've got. Take courage. Nothing you do for God will ever be in vain. Remember, too, that one of the greatest ways we can serve God is by helping others--and every one of us can do that every day.

Also, as long as what you are choosing to do is in harmony with God's will, then dream big dreams, work hard, trust God and in time you will reap what you sow and be richly rewarded. Know your God-given dreams and keep hope alive no matter what the setbacks and never ever give up.

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please help me to know my God-given life purpose and dream. Help me to be faithful to this calling and keep hope alive so that I will never give up and in due course will receive the reward that comes from serving you. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name. Amen."

Hello and Blessings to all!
Especially to Pat who was kind enough to remember my birthday and make sure I knew she remembered!!
What a blessing from above this sweet spirit is to all of us.
I have missed you all so greatly.
I have been up and down a road that has been both rocky and uplifting. The Lord, in His gentleman fashion allowed me to wander far off where I had no business wandering, but true to His Word, His Holy Spirit has rescued me and redeemed me once again.
Today is a day of rejoicing at His wonderous Grace and Mercy. We truly do serve a loving Father and I am so pleased and humbled to be called one of His own.
Much has happened since I last visited this site, but suffice it to say that He never left me or allowed me to get too deep into the things of this world that so easily distract us. I am very blessed to say that in His economy, nothing was wasted and much was gained.
The proof of all that He is in my life came to light just 2 weeks ago when I found myself in the midst of a ferocious storm while out on my boyfriend's 35 ft fountain race boat.
The swells were reaching 8 ft, the hail was stinging every exposed inch of us and we couldn't see one foot in front of the boat.
No markers to show us the way, no moonlight to shine a path for us, just a GPS with a few trails from past trips to follow. The tide was at it's lowest point, however, and even the GPS could not tell us if we were about to go aground.
At this point I must tell you that I DO NOT SWIM, and am deathly afraid of being in the ocean, but the peace and calm that overcame me was such that could only have come from Him. It was then that I realized just how strong my faith in Him  and my belief in all that His word has to say really is.
I remained up top rather than going below for the entire ride home, with complete certainty that He is not done with me yet and would guide us home without incident.
My faith was rewarded with a safe trip back to the dock and a renewed wonderment at His love for me and His trustworthyness.
My life is wonderful these days. I have a part time job as a desk clerk in a resort that I love, a boyfriend who cares for me enough to get his life together for the sake of the relationship and a God Who is bigger than I ever could have imagined.
So today, as I turn 51 yrs old, I praise Him for all that He has given me, for all that He has showed me through His Word and for all the wonderful things in my life.
I also give thanks for each and every  one of you and for the opportunity to get to know you all BEFORE we get to  the Heavenly Mansion in the sky.
I will be gone for the weekend, but will be in touch on Monday just to remind you all how special each and every one of you are.
I pray you will all have a very blessed day.
And Pat, I can only say, I want to come to your house in Heaven. I just know it will be one of the most beautiful places He ever prepared.
Blessings to all.
Joann

I am not good at writing out something I would like to say to someone face to face; I feel awkward and heavy handed and I do not like to say anything in case I offend unintentionally.

Sonja, my heart goes out to you. Most of us experience unanswered prayers, we know what we are praying for is right and according to the will of God; however, nothing seems to change. 

A friend Ian, contracted Leukemia, his family were from a pentacostal background.  We prayed for him believing God can heal him; he passed away three years and 3 months ago. 

My first marriage was a disaster, I prayed that there would be a change in the heart of Janet and she would resolve her anger at me and save our marriage.  She came from a family who were committed Christians.  I had never hurt her, but was completely committed to my highly demanding working career and that was her stated problem with me. No matter how I prayed, she would not be reconciled.  The breakup of the marriage impacted every area of my life, but gave me the opportunity of getting close to God.

There are other issues which involve my family which has not been resolved; however, my hope lies in surrender to God, where the problem becomes His and not mine. 

I am sure your circumstances are different,  I will place you on my morning prayer list and will remember you until your issues are dealt with.  If we encourage and pray for one another, God will hear our prayers.

PSALM 7 : 9  NIV
O righteous God, who searches
minds and hearts, bring to an end
the violence of the wicked and
make the righteous secure.

In a world of organized crime,
gangs, and predators, we have some
real work cut out for us if we are
going to influence the violent part of
contemporary culture to to change its ways.
Maybe the place to start is down on our
knees before the Father, asking Him to
use us to make a difference in our
violent world!

PRAYER...
Loving Lord and Father
of all peoples, please
forgive us for anything we
have done to condone or
accept the violence that is
entrenched in many parts
of our world today.
Please bring the evil and hostile
trend towards violence to an end.
Frustate and defeat those who use
violence.
May your people be an example of
productive, compassionate, and
non-violent living.
Please give strength and protection
to all who face the threat of violence
because of their faith.
In Jesus name.  AMEN.

                                        Phil Ware.

Bye love Ria  (https://www.christianphotographers.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fchristianphotographers.com%2Fforum%2Fsmi%2Fbible.gif&hash=d247eef380fddef6f370a809f5652dc286a28a43)

GOODMORNING ALL 10.55 in Holland  (https://www.christianphotographers.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fchristianphotographers.com%2Fforum%2Fsmi%2Ff_rose.gif&hash=0b5a445619d38c53535a5caa41044cec40548644)

PAT thank you very much for the devotional
this morning and yesterday for the lovely hymn.

PAT and Etta Sue thank you booth for your words about the prayer from yesterday.
Yes we live  in an other culture but we all are children of the same God. And i think when we are coming in Heaven we also talk the same language.

Etta Sue a beautiful site have you put yesterday on CP i
have saved it to my favorites. Now can i often take a look.


MIEKA i love you very much and pray for you. I am missing you when you not are on CP :-*


PAPA JOHN you also have put a lovely website on CP yesterday. Thank you very much.

LIZ thank you for the little joke yesterday.


HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHINENLITE (https://www.christianphotographers.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fchristianphotographers.com%2Fforum%2Fsmi%2Fbirthday.gif&hash=2a5d888c1719643733a3a7b44046c065bd14ad73)      HAVE A VERY NICE AND BLESSED DAY.


I am home alone my husband is with my father to the hospital in the city Groningen for his prostate
cancer. I hope and pray that everything is good.
Yesterday evening and this night we have had a lot thunder storms.
It will not be summer in Holland a lot people have a cold
here.

Proverbs 23 : 12
Apply your heart to instruction and
your ears to words of knowledge.

                       YOUR VOICE OF TRUTH

                       Today, Lord, and every day,
                 I will set my heart in Your direction,
                    taking time to be still before You,
                        to go deeper into Your Word,
                    to listen carefully for Your voice
                            of truth and guidance.

Love and prayerfully for you all
Ria   (https://www.christianphotographers.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fchristianphotographers.com%2Fforum%2Fsmi%2Fbyebye.gif&hash=8859d570f4eed25598673bd093ec19d5f359d442)

                                 (https://www.christianphotographers.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fchristianphotographers.com%2Fforum%2Fsmi%2Fhaveaniceday1.gif&hash=09049306fab79cdc97b5e3a00080b5a73579cbab)

So many good messages in here and so often someone needs a prayer answered.  Yes, it does often come "in the nick of time" - it is the perfect timing and we barely recognize it.  My best to all. 

Carol

Good Morning.

Quote           YOUR VOICE OF TRUTH

                       Today, Lord, and every day,
                 I will set my heart in Your direction,
                    taking time to be still before You,
                        to go deeper into Your Word,
                    to listen carefully for Your voice
                            of truth and guidance.

Thank you Ria for that prayer. I did not sleep well last night, I woke up at midnite and slept fitfully the rest of the night, having all these strange little dreams that I do not remember, only one do remember. It was about my dogs escaping the yard and causing trouble in the neighborhood, crazy stuff.

Sonja I am praying for your family situation.

TTYL[/b]

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good morning everyone :)

Pat.. thank you for this devotional... I don't have an effective prayer life.. I find it very hard to pray at times.. my mind gets bombarded with everything the moment I go in to prayer.....

does anyone else have that problem?


Happy birthday Shinenlite  have a wonderful day :D

Soni, you will be in my thoughts and prayers as I go throughout my day.
I hope all goes well with the garage sale as well.. they can be very draining.

Gareth.. thank you for the exellent words of encouragement! I enjoyed reading it.
I'll print them out and show them to my kids.

Ria- I've written down "your voice of truth" and I'll put it in my pocket so I can be reminded myself of these words during the day  :) your father is in my thoughts and prayers today.

Thanks folks!  It means so much to me to know you all are thinking of my family.  Gives me warm fuzzies. :-)

good morning
We had 7 from our church on the trip counting 2 sponsers.... over all there were about 6400 people in attendence.... we had like 5 or 6 different countries represented.... it was kool
Sarah

Good Morning folks!

We've had the strangest weather here in my part of the world lately.  It's July but it sure doesn't feel like July weather very much.  We've had so much rain but what a saving on our water bill that is going to be!

First of all, Soni, I was here a little earlier and read your prayer request so went off and prayed for you sweetie.  Sometimes we don't think that the Lord is answering our prayers because we don't get the answers that we really want but maybe He's saying, "No" or maybe He's saying, "In a little while" or maybe He's trying to teach you patience.  We just don't know but my prayer for you is that you'll be satisfied with the Lord's answer as His ways are perfect and as Christians we wouldnt' want anything less than perfect.  God bless you dear Soni as you bring your little family up in the fear and admonition of the Lord.

Hayley, it's difficult to have a good prayer time.  This is something I've struggled with for many years but now that I'm alone, I find it easier.  When the children were young it was difficult as there was always a condition of "Grand Central Station" in our home.  Jack worked shift work for many years and we were hardly together at the same time.  Just try to find a little place of your own and just cry out to the Lord and He WILL hear you.  Remember the verse I gave you in Romans that says that even when we can't pray as we ought, the Spirit Himself does it for us.

Nice new pic, Hayley!


Thanks for your words of encouragment today, Gareth.  They meant a lot to me.  I get discouraged often.  Just running this website sometimes makes me discouraged and I must learn to rely more on the Lord to help.  And being without a car is difficult too for someone living on their own.  Amazing how we seem to rely on these vehicles and then when we don't have them, realize that they really are a necessity.


Thanks again, dear Ria.  I enjoy your little devotional each day.  Thanks!

Lovely to see you dropping in Carol.  Are you going away soon on a trip?

It was good to see you drop in Joann.  I hope that you'll be able to make it a daily visit.  You've been missed.  Hopefully, you're having a wonderful birthday today.


I'm so sorry you didn't sleep well last night, Marilyn.  Boy!  It's awful when that happens.  I have nights like that and in the morning I feel as if I've run a marathon!  LOL

Hi Sarah!

My goodness!  That's a lot of folks meeting together.  You must have had a wonderful time!

(I almost missed seeing your post as we were posting close together!)

Hi everyone.  It is a beautiful sunny and warm day here in Georgia and it is good to be back home again.  I was lazy again this morning and didn't get up in time to go walking (will resume that routine next Monday).  I did go to the men's coffee and enjoyed the time with my friends. 

While we were at coffee this morning a friend of mine came in and was recruiting people to work for a distributing company stuffing envelopes with political campaign literature.  While it pays only $7.50 and hour my daughter, wife and I thought we would try it as you can work a few hours or several.  I am awaiting a call back from the man in charge.  Our elections are a couple weeks away.

Today is Pat's birthday and so this evening I am taking her to one of her favorite places to dine.  Just what we need to be doing is eating out more after doing that for almost 2 weeks but birthdays are special times and she shouldn't have to prepare a meal on her birthday.

On the subject of birthday, I also want to extend best wishes to Shinenlite (Joann) on her birthday.  It sounds like you had quite a harrowing experience on the boat and am happy that all worked out well.  You knew where to put your trust.

Sarah, I was tired out just reading about all that you and your group did on your trip to Nashville.  Sounds like you had a marvelous time. 

Pat, the devotional this morning was excellent as was the one yesterday.

Sonja, hope you have good weather and lots of buyers for your garage sale.  Know you all have done a lot of preparation.  I will be praying for your seemingly unanswered prayer need. 

Gareth, thanks for sharing that devotional piece concerning rising above discouragement.  There are many instances of people being told they couldn't do something and they don't let that stop them and they go on to do great things.

Ria, I do hope your husband has a good report on your father.  Has he been in the hospital long?  I may have missed picking up on something you may have written in the last few days as had lots of messages to catch up on and tried to read through them rather quickly.

Hayley, I can relate to your statement concerning prayer life.  I know that prayer is so important and yet sometimes I find it difficult to pray and to keep my mind from wandering. 

Mieka, it was good to see you posting again.  Are you back in the States to stay for a long while?

Hope everyone has a good day.

Sarah, thank you for the good report of your visit to Nashville.  I'm glad you enjoyed it.  Looks like you had a busy time.  Isn't that Opryland Hotel fabulous?

Sonja we don't know just what your family problem is but we know you are praying and you feel that your prayers are not being answered.  Be patient and continue to stick in there and put your trust in God. 

Larry, Happy Birthday, to your Pat.  I hope you enjoy your birthday dinner tonight.

Mieka it is always good to see you here.  We hope you are doing well and that you can continue to come in often.  Also, though I like the little girl, I would prefer to see your pretty face.



--- Papa John          <:))))><<   
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WOW!!!

Look who's online!

the opryland hotel was unbelievable it was so HUGE it took us around 30-45 minutes to walk from one end to the other.... which we had to do everyday...... although shannon and i got accrossed it in 10 minutes on time since it was 1150p and we had to be in our room by midnight and we were on the other side of the hotel :-\ we walked/jogged really fast lol..... oh well it was fun
Sarah

Sarah ~ Sounds like you had a wonderful time on your Youth trip to Nashville.  Pretty active trip but then you are teenagers!!!

Sonja ~ I will and do have you and your family in my prayers.  Also praying for your yard sale to be profitable and fun for the whole family.

Shinenlite ~ Happy Birthday.  Thanks for sharing your story with us.  God does work in mysterious ways but His ways are always right.

Gareth Parkes ~ Thanks for sharing.  I, too, wonder if I pray for one thing and someone else prays for the opposite, how can God answer both of our prayers?  I just realized as I type that question that God's answer is always right.  We asked for the wrong things.  Also a few days ago in the Upper Room was this thought for the day....God doesn't promise us an easy journey, just a safe landing.  We all have problems (journey) but it is the 'safe landing' that we should focus upon.

Ria ~ Thanks for your devotion.  Yes, it does seem that violence and crime are in our face daily.  The media thrives on reporting the bad stuff.  TV runs amuck with violence and crime.  Even Disney videos have violence.  I guess if John Q Public would stop reading and viewing such things, they would stop publishing and producing such things.  I know if they rated my TV viewing, violence and crime would not be a priority!!

Happy Birthday to Larry's Pat, also!!!!!! 

Today is a so-so day.  I worked too hard yesterday so I need a day of rest.... ::)  Ivalou is leaving with friends to visit friends in southern Indiana and will be back sometime tonight.  Kaye Don and Barb are in Michigan and will be back tomorrow sometime.  I am home alone!!!!  Someone has to keep the home fires burning, right?
<:))))><<~~<:))))><<~~<:))))><<~~<:))))><<~~<:))))
"What light?  I'm still looking for the tunnel!!!"

ya'll speakin of prayer reminds me of one of our sevices..... the speaker said there are four things everyone says in a prayer.... 1. Bless _______ (fill in with things like me, our country, our church, this person, the food etc), 2. be with me/us 3. watch over and protect us 4. forgive us....... then he said this shouldn't be our prayer 1 god has already blessed us we need to say allow the _____ to bless him (like allow this food we eat to be used to bless you or instead of god bless america.... america bless god, god has already blessed america look at all we have) 2. be with us.... do we really want god to be with us being that he is already IN us so which do we want god to be with us or in us?? 3 watch over and protect us..... refer to 2 we want him to be with us yet we want him to watch over us?? well which is it?? 4 forgive us..... hasn't he already done this when we asked him into our hearts??
sorry that just reminded me of that.... anyways ttyl
Sarah

Soni I have been thinking and praying about your situation.

Here is my response to "Why doesn't God seem to answer"

He does! 

When your children ask you for something you evaluate the request, take into account what plans you as a parent have, and the rest of the families needs and then make a decision.  All that the child sees is the request and while you take the time to make a decision the child may begin to think that you are not going to answer.

That child has "tunnel vision"  they forget that you have more to consider than their request.

As children of God we tend to have tunnel vision.  We need to try to take in the whole picture, and get a bit of an understanding of what the answer to our situation will impact.  The impact is like a row of dominos.  One falls and the whole line falls.

Also you have many people watching you.  Watching you wait for an answer may be all they need to see to bring them to Christ or to strengthen their faith in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Keep on keeping on Soni, He has answered, you may just have to wait to know what the answer is!!!!!

Sarah   It sounds like you got some really good teaching there!

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Soni, I was looking around the net today and found this site.  Looks like some fun there for Chandraya!

http://www.clorisa.com/clorisa/

Here I am again!  I have already been for my exercise and taken my car in for an oil change ... then I stopped to get gas (in the car)  before coming on home.  :P

It seems I will get to see my young soldier grandson (Bryan) in another week or so.   :D  Joy and John are in the states, and drove from Sacramento to Ft. Lewis, Washington last weekend.  Joy says they had a good visit with Bryan, but she would like to spend more time with him.  Soooo   John has made a deal with his son-in-law (in Portland) to care for his woodshop while he's in Mexico.  That means John will be loading up the woodshop next week and hauling it to Portland.  Joy says I can meet them along the road (I-5) and she and I can drive my vehicle to Washington while John goes on to his daughter's and visits and sets up the woodshop in its new home.

Joy and I will get to visit with Bryan and then I'll bring her back here for a visit before taking her on to Sacramento to rejoin her husband.

All this should begin on or about July 18.  I am just a bit excited ... ::)   ;)  Joy says Bryan really is looking forward to seeing his grandma, too!   :D

SONI~Like Pat, I read and prayed for your request earlier this morning.  I have since read the responses you've received...all good!  I believe what LADYBUG posted is exactly what I would have said <if I'd been able to come up with the right words>  Very good, LADYBUG!  Also, as my good friend has said, the only way we can be sure all our prayers are answered all the time is to pray "right prayers."  What is a right prayer?   "Father, not my will, but Thine be done!"  That's also known as surrender.   :P  His will is always perfect, y'know

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOANN!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PAT HANNA!!!
And God's richest blessings to you both.

We are working on our old motor home, trying to get it cleaned up so we can sell it.  I didn't realize we had left so much STUFF in it!

Busy day at the Damons, but wanted to stop in and greet all of you!

Thanks folks for the prayers.

Thanks Pat for that site.  I will let Chandraya take a look later.

Also thanks Papa John for that site you post yesterday.

Subj: Insight for Leaders 
Date: 7/9/04 5:31:52 AM GMT Daylight Time
From: lmi@flash.net
To: tozer@litmin.com
Sent from the Internet (Details)



July 9   

The Church: The Right Kind of Leaders

Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers,
not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly,
nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples
to the flock. 
--1 Peter 5:2,3

I believe that it might be accepted as a fairly reliable rule of
thumb that the man who is ambitious to lead is disqualified as a
leader. The Church of the Firstborn is no place for the demagogue or
the petty religious dictator. The true leader will have no wish to
lord it over God's heritage, but will be humble, gentle, self-
sacrificing, and altogether as ready to follow as to lead when the
Spirit makes it plain to him that a wiser and more gifted man than
himself has appeared.

It is undoubtedly true, as I have said so often, that the church is
languishing not for leaders but for the right kind of leaders; for
the wrong kind is worse than none at all. Better to stand still than
to follow a blind man over a precipice. History will show that the
church has prospered most when blessed with strong leaders and
suffered the greatest decline when her leaders were weak and time
serving. The sheep rarely go much farther than the Shepherd.  The
Warfare of the Spirit, 191,192.

"Give me the heart of a servant, Lord, that I might be the right kind
of leader. The world lauds the take-charge, aggressive driver; You
ask for humble servants. Make me Your servant today, I pray in Jesus'
name. Amen."

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Dear Sonja, be encouraged, and have patience. :)
Never forget that God desires the best for you but your desire is not always His!

-------------------------------------------------------------
Prayers are not always answered immediately. This may be a bit uncomfortable statement in age that is after fastfood and everything instant. Someone said that God responds to prayer in three ways: the first is an immediate answer "yes"; the second is a definite "no"; and third is "wait." Sometime we may have to wait for months or even years for prayers to be answered. However, nobody wants to wait. It would be easier to quit on a need than wait for the prayer to be answered but the Bible has a different perspective on waiting for our prayers to be heard.
The Bible says in Isaiah 40:31,
"but those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint."

The word translated "waiting for" is a very common Hebrew word and there is no special meaning to it. However, the historical context of this prophetic oracle gives it a very special significance. This is addressed to the Jewish exiles in Babylon. A group of people who had lost their homes, their land and their temple. They were a group of people who were going through a time of testing, which was very heavy on their faith. They needed proof that their God is still living and is able to save as he did in the times past.

The military defeat, and the losses of all sort has raised a few serious questions. These questions have divided their community as well. There were some exiles led by their prophets who believed that their God is still able to redeem them. They wanted an immediate end to the exile and wanted to go home, because they believed that their God is able to save. He is still powerful. Their mistake was that they thought a God who is mighty will not demand patience. Prophet Jeremiah had to struggle with this problem. He wrote a letter to the exiles and asked them not to think that they will return immediately. In his letter found in Jer. 29 he advises them to settle down in Babylon, to plant vineyars, to build houses, to give their daughters in marriage and to take wives for their sons. In other words, to have long term plans for their life in exile! He advised them so not because Yahweh has given them up, but he knew that it will take another seventy years for Yahweh to bring them back to their land. So he advised them to take it as it is. However people were not willing to wait. They went after prophets who prophesied an immediate return. This unrest lead to rebellion which was duly suppressed by the Babylonians. According to Babylonian sources, thousands of people were killed as the Babylonian suppressed the rebellions led by these prophets of impatience. It was their faith that God is going to act soon that led them to this misery. God is able to deliver us; but he has his own time.

On the other extreme is the group of exiles we find in the book of Ezekiel. Especially chapter 14. These exiles are well settled. They have come to terms with the reality. They had come to terms with their thinking that Yahweh is defeated, his temple is destroyed, Bel and Nebo the gods of the Babylonians have won the victory. There is no point in following a God who is defeated. So there is no point in hoping for a return. So they decided to follow gods that were available. They gave up Yahweh who as far as they are concerned has turned his face against them.

This passage in Isaiah gives here another alternative wait for the LORD. In this waiting there is faith, but it also implies patience. This is a life style that is marked with confidence and patience. Living with a heavy baggage of apparently unaswered prayers must be time of 'waitng for the Lord", a patient anticipation for the mighty arm of the Lord to be revealed.

The message of the Bible is clear. God is always powerful and there is no limit to his knowledge and power. However, he has his time and his ways as well. God knows better than anyone. The patient waiting for God to answer our prayers is founded on this basis.

The heroes of faith in the Bible are people who exhibited tremendous sense of patience. The book of James (5:11) mentions Job who though in time of pain and abuse did not give up his hope. He was not willing to give up at the advice of his wife nor when his friends condemned him. He was willing to wait and his patience was rewarded. The one who composed the beautiful Psalm 123 is another example of this patient waiting.

To thee I lift up my eyes, O thou who art enthroned in the heavens!
Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD our God, till he have mercy upon us. (Psalm 123:1-2)

The Psalmist is willing to wait on till God shows mercy upon him.

The passage from Isaiah not only demands a patient expectation but also promises that this waiting is a useful spiritual exercise. They who wait upon the Lord with hope and confidence in his mercy is surely going to be strengthened. The period of waiting and the increased confidence that the answered prayer would bring is certainly a boost to faith.

The Bible talks about how the suffering and pain that would accompany while answer to prayer is delayed can turn out to be a blessing. In the book of Romans it is an elevator to a higher degree of spirituality.





 
by Dr. Paulson Pulikkottil

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 THE LOST COIN.


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HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ALL. :)

Chris, is that a coin?  What's the value?  (I'm over here on the left of the pond, you know.   ;D )  What do the letters D. G. and F. D.  stand for?  I do know REG. is for Regina or queen.

A quiet day today - dishes, beds, laundry, etc., etc.  plus about 4 1/2 hours working on the town website.  So no news of note from the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains.   

Soni, I'll be asking for God's perfect solution to your family problem and that you all see it as such, even if it's not at all the solution you "think" you want. 

I have been here about 4 times since I got home from work but I have not posted. I had about 3 calls from Al today and 2 while I was at work; he thought he was being a pest. Not So brother Al.Glad to help you out.

I have been doing a few letters back and forth with a Real Estate agent brother who goes to Al's church. I worked with him looking for a house before I moved up here. Yes I am thinking about buying a house if at all possible.

I have plenty of time  to make any decisions,  please pray that whatever the decision it will not be my own but the one God wants me to make. Too many times I have made wrong decisions in my life, most of them BC (Before Christ.)

Soni I am praying for your family.

Jane Yippee you get to see Bryan real soon.

TTYL

hey ya'll,
Just got back from playing basketball this evening we had the last 3 games of summer league.... the last one was our roughest..... we won all our games this week except 1 (which we played 12 games i think) right now i am kinda glad it is over as i am so sore from gut checks (elbows to the stomach) and forearms in my back and neck oh well its over til october 1st  :-\ well i'll ttyl
Sarah

Just catching up again since I will be heading to Ohio at 8 a.m. in the morning.  Hope the sun is high enough to not be setting on my hood!! 

I am praying that ya'll have a God blessed night and tomorrow.

Have a safe trip, Etta Sue.  Will you be back tomorrow too?


Time to lock the door...

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