Hi all,
Remember to register for our next Zoom web meeting on the 25th at 1pm US/Canada Central time. Each meeting is different and it is also exciting to see and have the chance to meet so many from all over the world. Hope to see you then.
Thank you for prayers for Chris: He seems to be holding his own, but wondering why dad can’t come and get him. He knows people are sick, but the house manager said he told her a few times, “But dad’s not sick, and he’s coming to get me.” When we talk to him that dominates our conversation. The group home tries to keep the residents busy, but they have alot of time on their own.
It is frustrating that staff at the group home can take residents out on a bus ride, but if I were to take him on a similar day trip, when he got back he would face 14 days locked in his bedroom there in quarantine. I’ve been in conversations with everyone from a US Senator to Oklahoma state health department heads to an attorney to local leaders. All agree the federal government must recognize emotional health as being as important as physical health, especially for those who can’t understand what a pandemic is.
Meanwhile, work on our house continues – the water damage to the kitchen leak was extensive, resulting in replacement of sub-floor, cabinets, what we call in our area ‘sheet rock’ (wall board), and flooring. Insurance covered about half and we are thankful we’ve had help for most of the rest. Thank you!
We are trying to coordinate work on the mud room area for Chris and the kitchen together, and hope to be done in the next 2 weeks. Thanks again for your prayers and financial help with all this for it has been a difficult time for us on so many levels.
What makes them afraid, does not make me afraid:
Isaiah 8:12-14a (NET Bible)
12 “Do not say, ‘Conspiracy,’ every time these people say the word. Don’t be afraid of what scares them; don’t be terrified.
13 You must recognize the authority of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. He is the one you must respect; He is the one you must fear. For He will become a sanctuary…”
The voices ‘out there’ may have significance, but what makes others afraid, does not make me afraid, for the Lord is Who I reverentially respect and honor, and He also is my sanctuary.
I’ve had at least 2x in visitations the Lord say to me: “What are these things to you? (Another time He said: “What is this to you?”) As for you, you must be about the Father’s business.”
That is true for us all – what has the Father set before us today? That is our focus. That is our direction. The other voices out there? It’s interesting, concerning, but not fearful, for He saw it all ahead of time and there is peace to be had and held onto.
In Philippians 4:6-7 Paul says if we follow his step-by-step instructions in prayer, we will by the end of that prayer, be in peace. Many do not know how to make a request to the Father, so they feel just as burdened and worried when they say ‘Amen’ as when they started with “Father…”
Paul said in verse 6 to “Be anxious for nothing.” That fear has to be dealt with first. Get rid of the fear even if it takes you a day, week, weeks, to deal with before you ever make your request. Be anxious for nothing. Once you can obey that by not being anxious, then Paul said to make your requests made known to God, with thanksgiving. With thanksgiving. Not to try to move Him or convince Him or impress Him.
But just out of the fact you dealt with the fear and worry before you opened your mouth, then you made your request, then you can of a pure motive and clear conscience, give thanks. It is THEN that v7 says the peace of God will come on you and “guard” your hearts and minds.
The Greek word ‘guard’ means to act as a sentinel, a military guard, “To actively display whatever defensive and offensive means are necessary to guard.” In other words, peace is both defensive AND can take the offensive against the flaming arrows of the enemy, in this context, fear and worry.
But you have to guard the peace, you have to fight for it. Hebrews 4:11 says ‘let us labor to enter into His rest’. You may have to fight through the fear and worry and concerns to enter into His rest, and once there you may have to defend your peace, your rest. But learn how to do it. Walk with Him and put yourself to the task of staying in peace.
Precious faith
Some will recall from my visitation last December how the Lord said the times were soon coming when one’s faith would become ‘precious’ to them. I think what we’re in now is at least part of that. When the freedom to attend a service in a building or to meet corporately with others is taken away, it removes its 2 main elements of those services: Worship and the Word.
A person who is hungry enough will develop their own worship time, their own worship songs flowing from their heart, and will also dust off the Bible and start reading it. Taking part in online worship and online sources for what the Bible says are not the same as developing one’s own worship and one’s own time in the Word.
This is a good time to consider unplugging, and instead ‘plug into’ your own worship, your own reading of the Bible on the shelf – not the phone App – but the paper and ink Bible that in years past you wrote in and highlighted passages. Let us reacquaint ourselves with the old and familiar ways.
The dictionary defines “precious” as: “An object, substance or resource of great value, something not to be wasted nor treated carelessly.”
We are in a time in which many realize their faith is precious to them. How do we show our esteem, our regard, for our faith and walk with the Lord? Spending time with Him reflects those values. A walk and talk with Him as you walk outside does wonders…and you can hear His still small voice inside, in things observed along your path that He put there to bless you, and so on. Value that time. What we have in Him is precious.
We live in a culture where many have come to the Lord by simply adding Jesus to their lives, to their schedule, for the purpose at least in part, of making their lives better, rather than giving their lives to Him to do with as He chooses. Now is a time to examine our hearts – did we just add Jesus to our lives, or did we give Him ours?
Part of elevating our faith in our hearts to the place of being precious, means we look for people who also hold their faith precious and of great value. That’s where relationship- based faith enters, where people of similar faith become our most trusted and precious friends. It’s when we see Christ in them and overlook differences because our mutual faith is so precious. Look for such in this time. Invest in those relationships. We are each other’s resource. When the pantry is bare, our friends in faith should already be that safety net long in place, long a part of our lives.
I also want to remind you of our October conference in Tulsa – this lockdown will lift, and we will once again be looking at future plans – October 8-11, information is on our web site.
Thank you once again for being part of our lives!
John & Barb
