After the service Steve approached the ministers. He told them he wanted to see people the way the Lord saw them. No one would be worth redeeming, including himself, if the Lord saw people as irreparably damaged and grave-bound as he saw them.
They prayed for him, but his head would not acknowledge even the slightest kick of sympathy toward anyone.
It took time for Steve to receive the blessing he sought. When he did the dam of darkness exploded through the love of God.
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Denise offers the prompt word “kick” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.
“I never knew how to worship until I knew how to love.” Henry Ward (found on worship leader Toni Bogart Syvrud’s contact card)
Ezekiel 22:30 And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.
Revelation 13:16-17 16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: 17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
When I woke up this morning the dots were connected between these verses. If I’ve got this wrong let me know in the comments.
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Those with the mark of the beast show their support of the beast when they speak or through the things they do, because through their words or actions their support is visible to all just as if it were written on their foreheads or on their outstretched right hands. Those who stand in the gap refuse through their words and actions (indeed, even their unspoken thoughts) to be an advertisement for the beast.
We have a choice: either stand in the gap or take the mark.
Although this has been going on for thousands of years, it is hard to avoid today in the market place of ideas and in the physical things we buy and sell.
We can still repent and change sides. That mark is not a permanent tattoo. Although it is visible to all, it may be difficult to discern just what one is advertising and what one needs to repent of. If anyone is in doubt about what is true, remember what Jesus said and ask the Holy Spirit for help.
John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
When we make sure we are standing in the gap, we have rejected the mark. When we reject the mark, we become an offense which puts us in the gap.
1 John 4:7-8 7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
Leviticus 10:1 And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not.
Many Israelites, including Gideon’s own father, Joash, built an altar to the Canaanite sun god, Baal, near which they erected a wooden pole to the fertility goddess, Asherah. Gideon’s assignment was to destroy the altar his father built replacing it with an altar to the Lord upon which he would sacrifice the bull from his family’s stock of cattle that was as old as the seven-year Midianite oppression which the Baal couldn’t stop using the Asherah pole as dry firewood.
The next morning the men of the city were horrified to see what Gideon had done. They demanded that Joash bring Gideon to them so they could kill him for desecrating Baal’s hiding place. Abandoning his own idolatry to the point of rebelling against it, Joash told them to let that incompetent Baal avenge itself.
And that’s how Gideon became known as Jerubbaal, the man on whom Baal would have to take revenge all by its lonesome (which it could never have done).
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Denise offers the prompt work “stock” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.
I just heard that Oneta Hayes, a blogger whom I have read for some years, passed away on January 4th.
May the Lord bless the entire Hayes family and all of those who knew Oneta. Thank you, Jesus, for her faithfulness and love.
Three Recommendations
Jan writing in Mercy for the Day began the story, Book of Names, with the following:
Court documents were unsealed this week. Previously unpublished names were released. Trouble is. These people want to remain anonymous.
I wasn’t sure if I missed some political event which is likely since I don’t follow politics. Then I found out the story was going way beyond politics. The released names were those missing from the Book of Life.
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Pat Barrett’s book, Lives Forever Changed: My Spiritual Adventures With the Lord, recently became available from Barrett Publishing.
This is a book of Pat’s remembrances from 30 years of deliverance ministry written for those who would like to minister to people influenced by such darkness. It read like it could even be valuable for those suffering from such influences.
Pat told me that he was told that all we need do is get the hunger for the Lord out of our heads and into our hearts.
With names changed she tells her story of 28 years in an Anglican nunnery where manipulators gained power and took advantage of the women who gave their lives to God. This is a story of how she was set free and how she continued to love Jesus even after the experience.
She helps lead a worship service at the Upper Room in Fort Mill, SC, which we often attend on Saturday evenings.
Song
Finally, a song I heard this evening that reminds me of Oneta Hayes.
Luke 23:33-34 33 And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left. 34 Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.
The gifts had been collected over centuries from the time of the prophet Daniel. In obedience they waited for the star, a task they felt privileged to perform, knowing it could appear any night now. When it did they hastened toward Jerusalem to worship the King and deliver the gifts.
They regretted the attention, especially from Herod, that they drew to themselves in Jerusalem by asking for directions and so they left for home right after they found the Child. After they left at nightfall Joseph, awakened by a dream, quickly rose to take Mary with her Child to Egypt using the gifts the wise men left as means of support.
The next morning Herod went into such a rage upon hearing from his spies that the wise men were not coming back that, instead of just one Child Whom they couldn’t find anymore, he had all of the male children in Bethlehem and the surrounding area under the age of two killed.
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Denise offers the prompt word “task” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories. For what really happened see Matthew 2.
Poetry, Short Prose and Walking 