A Review and a Small Rant

Yesterday I received a package containing a book and a note, requesting that I please read and review it on Amazon. I have to give the author props for bravado and risk-taking. In this brave-new-world-of-publishing era, inventive alternate avenues to market books not backed and promoted by established publishing houses must be cleverly devised and tried by the not so faint of heart. Given my fifteen year dug in maverick position on breaking the barriers of staid good-ole-boy publishing tradition, I cannot help but be impressed by this author’s audacity.

That said, I have no idea why I was chosen by this author, perhaps because I am an honest reviewer on Amazon and I am committed to saying what I think–the good/bad/indifferent? I am quite sympathetic of the desire for a serious review as opposed to the ‘friends and family’ attaboy that is so common in the accolades following self-published works. 

So, intrigued, with nothing pressing on my schedule, today I settled into my favorite chair and read it with a few minor interruptions.  

Attributable to it being only 155 pages, and my well-practiced ability to skim past irrelevant banter between characters, which is a common style flaw in first fiction, I was able to read it in just over three hours. A record even for me.

And then the dilemma set in. How shall I, no, should I? If this were merely a simple fiction story based on a theme constructed entirely from imagination, I could easily address the technical/mechanical issues so that the author might grow from the review, perhaps make some needed repairs. I would encourage him to pay for a professional editor and formatter. But this fictional representation of Biblical prophecy follows and repeats all the same tired mistakes of so many other attempts to predict the End Days Antichrist that I cannot in good conscience advise the author on the physical construction when the premise, however earnest, however painstakingly extracted from hundreds of End Days Doctrine sites on the Internet, is actually false and potentially dangerous. 

Thus, I am doing the review here because it promises to be more lengthy than a normal review ought to be. While I do honest reviews, I am not an arrogant know-it-all whose only joy in life is to smack down aspiring writers and thus this is the better reason I am not reviewing this in Amazon.

The book, Twisted Linen, by C.W. Cook, covers events over the course of a couple of weeks in September, 2017. The US has been all but destroyed and a quick but decisive war has concluded with Israel triumphant and putting finishing touches on the Third Temple. A dark and evil cult, the Hermetic Order of The Golden Dawn, is working overtime to bring certain Biblical prophetic mis-interpretations into being, i.e., the artificially manmade creation of the Unholy One Charismatics have come to refer to as The Antichrist. 

There’s plenty of action, twists and turns in the development of the characters. There is a sufficient amount of tension to keep the reader wondering how it will turn out. That’s the good news. 

Here’s the part that will not set well with those who think the Beast of Revelation 13 is a person, created by supernatural ‘scientific’ means: 

The Great Delusion is the misinterpretation of Scripture, having been cherry-picked from OT and NT over several centuries to fit the specific and temporal needs of clerics and theologians, all the way to modern times to include authors of best selling books like the Left Behind series. While Twisted Linen does not promote or even mention The Rapture, as fostered by Left Behind, it still clings to and depends on the now tightly woven fabrication of the Great Seven Year Tribulation and the Man of Perdition who stands in the Temple and desecrates it. 

All this flies in the face of Scriptures as they really are and not as they have been abused and misused over the eons. The theology of the Great Seven Year Tribulation comes, not from Revelation, but from the presumption that there is a 2000 year gap between Daniel’s 69th and 70th week prophecy. Christ warned His followers would suffer tribulation. Period.

How much more simple it is to shake off all the layers of man’s self-serving exegisis to grasp that Christ was the fulfillment of Daniel’s prediction that Israel had 490 years to ‘get it’ from the call to rebuild the second temple. That the second temple was destroyed on the 10th of August, in A.D. 70 -- the 9th of Av -- in Jewish reckoning, the very day when the King of Babylon burned the Temple in 586 B.C., the Temple was burned again. Titus took the city and put it to the torch. The fire raged so hot, the gold and silver  melted and ran down into the crevices of the floor stones. When it cooled down, soldiers tore up the stones to get to the precious metals, fulfilling Christ’s words that “no stone would be left unturned.” He also said that He would destroy the temple and raise it up again in three days. This was Christ Himself, in His own words, establishing the last Temple as being Spiritual, not physical. To ignore that or set it aside is to dismiss Christ Himself. A dangerous choice?

I could write an entire lengthy treatise on the fallacy of the concept of the 2000 year gap, but more importantly the absurd conclusion that Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection was merely a blip in the continuum, that rather than the spiritual turning point in God’s plan for humankind, Christ uttering, “It is finished” only meant that He was done with His human body, not that He, Himself, being the final, perfect sacrifice, was the one who made the covenant with many, (Mark 14:23) And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave to them: and they all drank of it.  (14:24) And he said unto them, This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.) not some future super power standing in a temple made by man. By the way, the word temple is used eleven times in Revelation, and in every case it is a spiritual reference, not a physical building.

How long shall we be allowed to blaspheme God by setting aside, making light of what Christ did, does, and is, just to make room for and accommodate manmade doctrine? How long shall we depend on skewed, misleading dogma to trust and count on? 

Not to put too fine a point on it:

The Third Temple is spiritual  - not made with hands

Christ’s death and resurrection was the ultimate and final sacrifice–to begin animal sacrifice again would be the ultimate blasphemy. Why would God allow that?

The Beast of Revelation 13 is a global man-made system, run by many who are anti Christ, and is already fully functioning in this era

Jesus Christ is our All in All, our First Fruit, Sabbath Rest, Latter Day Rain and the truth of this is as easy to find as reading Scripture without being bound up to preconceived notions.

That whosoever will believe will be saved, whether Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male of female. This is what I refer to as Inclusion Theology. 

I realize no one wants to hear these things, as simple as they are. But if we are allowed to believe an error how can we ever know the truth? If we are open to trust false doctrine, are we set up to be blindsided? More importantly are we open to being allowed to be blinded like the Pharisees were?

I’m going to wrap this up with a profound teaching by T-Austin Sparks, an anointed man of God who said it better than I ever could. Take from it what you will.

I tell you the truth, you will all see heaven open and the angels of God going up and down on the Son of Man, the one who is the stairway between heaven and earth. (John 1:51 NLT)

No thought that God has ever expressed dies. There is no lapse of any thought that God has expressed. God expressed His thoughts in the very conception and constitution of the Israel of old. They were in all that was said about Israel and in all that was revealed as to God's purpose in Israel. God expressed His thoughts concerning Israel in a multitude of ways. That Israel failed to answer to the thoughts of God. His thoughts concerning Israel were never fully realized because of their rebellion. So that Israel was passed by, but God's thoughts were not put aside. All those same thoughts are taken up in a new Israel.

Jesus Himself becomes the inclusive new Israel. You remember that when He referred to Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel, He said to Nathanael: "Ye shall see the heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man" (John 1:51). So Jesus is the new Israel in person. All the communications of God and Heaven to man are by way of Jesus, the new Israel. All God's thoughts in the past ages are taken up in the Lord Jesus in the first place. All that was ever intended by God concerning Israel and was lost by them, is carried on in the Lord Jesus, and then transferred by Him to His companions and the companions of the heavenly calling – the new Israel, which is spiritual. This opens up a very big realm for you.

For Him,

Meema

Good Morning, Father - Part 7 - Rejection

Sometimes I clean out files and find things I have written and set aside then forgotten. When I rediscover these musings, it’s not unlike finding myself when I didn’t even know I was missing. 

I am going to share, over the coming posts, one at a time, a small collection of devotionals I wrote over a decade ago, titled, Good Morning, Father. In His unfathomable wisdom, He knew I would need these affirmations and faith strengthening words in a future time unknown to me as I typed them. And now the time has come.

May you be blessed with whatever you need.

For Him,

Meema

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Introduction 

Sunrise is the renewal of a promise. A chance to begin again, afresh, with all the bad choices of the previous days behind us, every new day is an opportunity to seek to serve God and use whatever time we have remaining to us better than we have ever done before.  We cannot know how many mornings we are granted, but if we make it through the night to see another dawn, we are given the gift of time, at least once more, to get it right. For by the amazing grace of our Sovereign God all the wrong living we have done in the past is forgiven and forgotten in the instant we are willing to surrender and move forward toward Him and His will, relinquishing our own.

Though the days we have wasted cannot be changed, the new one, unfolding in front of us, holds the promise to be the one that could make it all okay.

It’s our choice.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Good Morning, Father,

We need to talk. I’m nursing a small wound and I need your Divine guidance here. I know You understand what I am referring to. The stinging words that fired the arrows into my heart came unexpectedly. Surprise can go opposite directions, sometimes producing delight, other times inflicting pain. I have been wrestling with how I should respond, knowing my words should be tempered as Your words would be. This is harder than it sounds, but I know I will regret anything less. 

Part of me wants the author of this hurt to know how disappointed I am and the mature part of me understands and accepts it doesn’t really matter in the long run. At first, I experienced only a mild discomfort and I tried to dismiss it, rationalizing like I do sometimes. The truth is, I am relieved by what will be the outcome, because it releases me from an obligation. So, why can’t I let go of it? Is it because a deeper truth has emerged? Is it facing this truth that is the source of the queasiness in my stomach?

It’s the old nemesis REJECTION isn’t it? Okay, then, now the monster has a name.

I call it out, knowing You will be there with me.

Rejection, I rebuke you. You are an internalization of self-love. Like all devises of satan, you tug and pull at the core of true human worth. But I recognize your tactics. You start with self-pity, pumping up the ego like a balloon, blowing it all out of shape. Then you stick pins in it until it deflates and feels bruised and abused. Finally, you blame everyone and everything else for whatever remains. The battered ego eagerly accepts this conclusion because it then feels justified to lash out in a self-serving futile attempt to claim restitution.

When the dust settles, what is left in ruins is often a relationship. Marriages, friendships, business partnerships. Then you, never damaged in the battle, move on to wreck havoc somewhere else.

I’m on to you and I say you can’t play here. Go away.

Thanks, Father, the hurt is all gone now. You always have the key that opens the rustiest locks. And the best part is, since I worked this out with You, I’ll not have to deal with those ugly, unchangeable regrets. 

You know I hate those most of all.

Your servant,

Meema

Good Morning, Father - Part 6 - Trust

Sometimes I clean out files and find things I have written and set aside then forgotten. When I rediscover these musings, it’s not unlike finding myself when I didn’t even know I was missing. 

I am going to share, over the coming posts, one at a time, a small collection of devotionals I wrote over a decade ago, titled, Good Morning, Father. In His unfathomable wisdom, He knew I would need these affirmations and faith strengthening words in a future time unknown to me as I typed them. And now the time has come.

May you be blessed with whatever you need.

For Him,

Meema

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Introduction 

Sunrise is the renewal of a promise. A chance to begin again, afresh, with all the bad choices of the previous days behind us, every new day is an opportunity to seek to serve God and use whatever time we have remaining to us better than we have ever done before.  We cannot know how many mornings we are granted, but if we make it through the night to see another dawn, we are given the gift of time, at least once more, to get it right. For by the amazing grace of our Sovereign God all the wrong living we have done in the past is forgiven and forgotten in the instant we are willing to surrender and move forward toward Him and His will, relinquishing our own.

Though the days we have wasted cannot be changed, the new one, unfolding in front of us, holds the promise to be the one that could make it all okay.

It’s our choice.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Good Morning, Father,

I thought we were going to talk about patience this morning, while  I was sitting very still, my finger poised to hit the shutter button. Photographing hummingbirds does require a certain amount of patience.  But as I waited and watched your tiny winged creatures dart in and  out from their safe perches in the trees to the feeder and back, I realized there was something else to ponder, leaving the sticky  topic of patience for another day.

The hummingbirds that have claimed this feeder guard it against all intruders. Not being schooled in hummingbird culture, I don’t know why they are so territorial, but it appears to me it is likely that it’s just about the instinct of survival. They are doing what they are compelled to do. They happened upon this bounteous supply of life giving sustenance and they protect it for themselves with their lives. They aren’t about to share because the hummingbirds have no idea that I exist and can and would be willing to refill it for them indefinitely. 

As I studied their routine, flitting in to drink, then off to guard from a distance, I felt sorry for the Ruby-Throated who kept trying for a chance to partake. For a few moments a part of me wanted to find a way to thwart the sentinels who would not share. But nothing I could think of felt right. Every consideration went against nature and more to the point it went against my nature. It is not in my nature to intervene even if some of the birds must suffer from want and lack because of the choices of others. Of course, I would love to see them share and nurture each other, but I can’t make them. It would be artificial and tiring to be forever manipulating how they behaved. How satisfying it would be to see them realize it for themselves and behave nobly on their own.

And what will they do when I must stop filling the feeder in October so that they will go south for the winter? My desire to feed them is strong, and I dread watching them come to where the feeder was, hungry and desperate. It will be hard to watch. But I know that if I keep the feeder full, they will die from the harsh cold that they are not equipped to survive. The benevolence of my providing the feeder must not overcome the greater good of encouraging them to do what is in their best interest even though they don’t understand the bigger picture.

Even if they knew that I existed, or acknowledged me as their benefactor, would they be angry with me for removing the food they need? Would they hate me? Would they declare that I don’t or can’t exist because they are experiencing the hardship of an empty feeder? Would they determine that I am not fit to be their overseer or worthy of their trust because they see an empty feeder as unconscionable injustice at the hand of a capricious and unfeeling nonentity? 

And if some of them had evolved enough to believe that I existed and reached out in petition for the feeder to be returned, would they lose their faith if I didn’t do it? How many of them will surely die if they don’t see the importance of abandoning the spot where the feeder was and go south to avoid the coming freezing temperatures?

Oh, dear Father, is this how it feels to You, to love your children and wish to do for them, to long to guide them, and then have them deny or curse You when they can’t understand the hardships that must befall them and that make them move on? When they do not trust You?

I’m sorry, Father, for the heartache. I think I understand now, though I doubt I could survive the pain You must feel.

Your servant,

Meema

Good Morning, Father - Part 5 - Wisdom

Sometimes I clean out files and find things I have written and set aside then forgotten. When I rediscover these musings, it’s not unlike finding myself when I didn’t even know I was missing. 

I am going to share, over the coming posts, one at a time, a small collection of devotionals I wrote over a decade ago, titled, Good Morning, Father. In His unfathomable wisdom, He knew I would need these affirmations and faith strengthening words in a future time unknown to me as I typed them. And now the time has come.

May you be blessed with whatever you need.

For Him,

Meema

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Introduction 

Sunrise is the renewal of a promise. A chance to begin again, afresh, with all the bad choices of the previous days behind us, every new day is an opportunity to seek to serve God and use whatever time we have remaining to us better than we have ever done before.  We cannot know how many mornings we are granted, but if we make it through the night to see another dawn, we are given the gift of time, at least once more, to get it right. For by the amazing grace of our Sovereign God all the wrong living we have done in the past is forgiven and forgotten in the instant we are willing to surrender and move forward toward Him and His will, relinquishing our own.

Though the days we have wasted cannot be changed, the new one, unfolding in front of us, holds the promise to be the one that could make it all okay.

It’s our choice.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Good Morning, Father,

I need Your wisdom, Lord.

My friend is a man of extremes and so he is unwise.  His passions often lead him to a limited knowledge, but at the start of each new quest, he immediately handicaps himself by demanding of himself nothing less than his perception of perfection.  He has no concept of how enormous wisdom is and that he has only uncovered the smallest spot. He is a blind man describing an elephant by the hand-sized part he has touched.

My friend is a man of extremes. He desires to be thought of as right more than he hungers to know genuine wisdom. He has not learned that the first step is to relinquish control to You. Furthermore, he requires that he will like what he discovers, so he brings his own measuring tools and preconceived specifications with him on his quest, just to insure everything aligns with his preconceived perceptions. More than anything he wants to be the one to define You, Father. He erroneously believes that his burning desire is all that is needed to open the door. He does not see that he presumes to want You, the Almighty, Sovereign God, to conform to his ability to understand. He cannot see that his folly keeps him confined to his high regard of his own intellect and ability.

My friend is a man of extremes. How do I tell him that wisdom cannot be found in the extremities? How can I show him that wisdom is always wedged deep in the middle, striking a clean but narrow path through the center? How can I tell him, that to find You, Father, he needs to remove himself from the extremes and walk toward You with empty heart and mind, ready to receive rather than instruct? How do I tell him that You reveal wisdom on Your terms, not ours–in Your ways, not ours?

I have been traveling this narrow path toward You for so long, Lord. You well know that sometimes I have rushed forward and made great strides. And sometimes I have spent years standing completely still. All along the way You have been more than patient with me. In those rare, shining moments when You have given me a tiny revelation and a glimpse of the smallest corner of wisdom, I have been struck down in deep and profound humility. I have been stripped of my petty self-realization and thrown to the ground by Your surprises. I am left there, paralyzed by the great truth that You have revealed to me, and the knowledge that I was granted the gift only for my complete obedience and subjugation to Your will, not my own understanding. It is only then that I have realized that the more I learn, the less I know. There is no end and no conclusion. Wisdom is not a destination. Your mysteries cannot be solved mathematically or with logic. Wisdom, by design, is made of an other-worldly element that cannot be analyzed with the limited human mind.

Unfortunately, Father, my friend’s name is Legion. He is only one of many. I don’t know how to tell them.  Grant them Your wisdom, Father that they might begin to know You.

Thank you, Lord,

Your servant,

Meema

Good Morning, Father - Part 4 - Prayer

Sometimes I clean out files and find things I have written and set aside then forgotten. When I rediscover these musings, it’s not unlike finding myself when I didn’t even know I was missing. 

I am going to share, over the coming posts, one at a time, a small collection of devotionals I wrote over a decade ago, titled, Good Morning, Father. In His unfathomable wisdom, He knew I would need these affirmations and faith strengthening words in a future time unknown to me as I typed them. And now the time has come.

May you be blessed with whatever you need.

For Him,

Meema

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Introduction 

Sunrise is the renewal of a promise. A chance to begin again, afresh, with all the bad choices of the previous days behind us, every new day is an opportunity to seek to serve God and use whatever time we have remaining to us better than we have ever done before.  We cannot know how many mornings we are granted, but if we make it through the night to see another dawn, we are given the gift of time, at least once more, to get it right. For by the amazing grace of our Sovereign God all the wrong living we have done in the past is forgiven and forgotten in the instant we are willing to surrender and move forward toward Him and His will, relinquishing our own.

Though the days we have wasted cannot be changed, the new one, unfolding in front of us, holds the promise to be the one that could make it all okay.

It’s our choice.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Good Morning, Father,

I am on the horns of dilemma. Can we talk about it?

You know me. You know me better than I know myself. You also know that I have been reaching for higher spiritual understanding. In this sometimes painful quest, I have discovered that the more I learn, the more there is for me to learn. And in much wisdom is much sorrow. The caveat here is that the more one learns the greater is his/her responsibility to what is gained. But speaking up lands me in trouble every time. What I need to learn, Father, is when to speak and when to be silent.

The email was one of those touchy feely ones referencing an article about the power of prayer. It seems that learned and respected researchers have discovered, to their complete amazement, that prayer works. It is a great mystery. Their experiments even conclude that prayer works, in both directions as well. When a control group prayed for laboratory organisms to grow, they did. Conversely, when they prayed for the organisms to stop growing, they did.

 

The conclusion was that prayer is magical and works because it is magical.

Instantly I saw the subtle hook hidden in the text. By man’s great intellect, the act of prayer is elevated into a mysterious god in and of itself. (Yawn) Yet another pagan version of worshipping the creation instead of the Creator. The point that God heals us by our faith in Him is quietly and diabolically smothered in the esteemed scientific concept that prayer, even without faith, is what heals, not You. Once again, the world’s system overrides and effectively eliminates the need for a Sovereign God.

Without thinking twice I sent a reply that I am sure was unexpected. I did not mean to shock or anger, but in my defense, I am so tired of the world inventing new gods to worship. And worse yet, good-hearted people falling into the traps. I am beyond weary of satan working overtime to find ways to lead people away from You by pulling gently at the vulnerable heart strings. I am sick to death of the complex idols mankind builds for itself to worship in order to do nothing more than avoid the simple truth. But did I do more harm than good by pointing out the fallacies in the premise of the article?

I’m walking on a razor’s edge now. When to speak, when to hold my tongue? When to serve You by calling down misinformation, or when to let the chips fall where they may. I am not whining, Father. You know I have always been willing to follow a path not paved by consensus. I am grateful to admit that over time I have become much less concerned about what people think of me. I can take ridicule, especially on Your behalf. I just need more refining, I think.

Will You polish me, Father, so that I might serve You better? 

Your servant,

Meema

Good Morning, Father - Part 3 - Fear

Sometimes I clean out files and find things I have written and set aside then forgotten. When I rediscover these musings, it’s not unlike finding myself when I didn’t even know I was missing. 

I am going to share, over the coming posts, one at a time, a small collection of devotionals I wrote over a decade ago, titled, Good Morning, Father. In His unfathomable wisdom, He knew I would need these affirmations and faith strengthening words in a future time unknown to me as I typed them. And now the time has come.

May you be blessed with whatever you need.

For Him,

Meema

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Introduction 

Sunrise is the renewal of a promise. A chance to begin again, afresh, with all the bad choices of the previous days behind us, every new day is an opportunity to seek to serve God and use whatever time we have remaining to us better than we have ever done before.  We cannot know how many mornings we are granted, but if we make it through the night to see another dawn, we are given the gift of time, at least once more, to get it right. For by the amazing grace of our Sovereign God all the wrong living we have done in the past is forgiven and forgotten in the instant we are willing to surrender and move forward toward Him and His will, relinquishing our own.

Though the days we have wasted cannot be changed, the new one, unfolding in front of us, holds the promise to be the one that could make it all okay.

It’s our choice.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Good morning, Father,

The emails come from well-meaning friends and I am compelled to write about something that I know will not rest easily on many if not most of them. Even though I know there is nothing I can say that will change the determination and quest to “uncover” all the truth about who/what caused it and, where, and how this country has fallen, I am going to attempt to offer some perspective to temper what I perceive to be a kind of self-induced hysteria.

It isn’t that I am blind to what Satan has managed to accomplish but I cannot forget that Satan can only do what You allow, Father. It took some scary events in my loved one’s life, and thus mine, to bring me to a new understanding about how easy it is to slip down a false path, even with the grandest and noblest of intentions. I saw, first hand, what giving over to worldly fear can do to the spirit.

While I am not saying that The Body should hide it’s collective eyes from truth and bury itself in the sand, there is more insidious danger in lusting after sensational and shocking information garnered from news sources, primarily the Internet, than there is in being completely ignorant of it. For one thing, knowing about all that is going on underneath the glittering mask can’t change anything unless the point of knowing it is to pray for delay or ask for protection for those who will be affected by the unfathomable evil that permeates every level of our lives. The sinister and hidden enticement is in believing that the only way we can be informed is through the written words of other people. 

When did we stop depending on the Holy Spirit for our knowledge?

We must not ignore the inherent danger of falling under the spell of the thrill of discovering the down and dirty unless we can also temper the sensation with the only reason for exposing it. When the basic reason becomes the skill of the hunt, soon the point is lost in the hunt. Satan is always at the ready to hook into any weakness we have and the hunger for knowing can quickly become an obsession and then a master. I’ve seen it happen over and over. This kind of thing only gives  latitude to Satan and is not unlike any other obsession, regardless what it is. Obsessions, of any genre, take us on self-built paths away from the only thing we should be focused on, which is Christ at our center.

I know that some people feel a call to ferret out the nasty truths and I can’t dispute that–each of us has our own calling. But I know this, You do not tell us to merely shine light in dark places, You tell us to focus on the One who is the Light. This is the true path to what we should know. At this point in time we must learn and fine-tune the power of spiritual warfare because the days are over when educating ourselves is the same as arming ourselves. The only power we have ever really had is through Christ. So, who or what can I fear if I am focused on Christ?

I’m sure I am not saying this right and perhaps I won’t be able to convince anyone that gasping in fear and horror over every new learned thing about that which is coming at us like a runaway freight train is not where we should be spiritually. Whether or not we know all the nitty-gritty facts does not alter that we should be standing, humbling and preparing ourselves in peace and trust, praying for strength against all those horrors that we can’t even begin to know, believing that our faith and trust will be the conduit to anything and all that You deem necessary for us to know. This stance far better represents Christ in us than wailing and gnashing our teeth against those things that have been ordained and must come to pass.

I fear and reverence You, Father, but I do not fear what the world can and might do to me because though I may lose a few skirmishes, there is nothing the world can do to me that You have not intended because the war is already won.

...And yet though He slay me, will I trust Him...

Your servant,

Meema

Good Morning, Father - Part 2 - Blessings

Sometimes I clean out files and find things I have written and set aside then forgotten. When I rediscover these musings, it’s not unlike finding myself when I didn’t even know I was missing. 

I am going to share, over the coming posts, one at a time, a small collection of devotionals I wrote over a decade ago, titled, Good Morning, Father. In His unfathomable wisdom, He knew I would need these affirmations and faith strengthening words in a future time unknown to me as I typed them. And now the time has come.

May you be blessed with whatever you need.

For Him,

Meema

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Introduction 

Sunrise is the renewal of a promise. A chance to begin again, afresh, with all the bad choices of the previous days behind us, every new day is an opportunity to seek to serve God and use whatever time we have remaining to us better than we have ever done before.  We cannot know how many mornings we are granted, but if we make it through the night to see another dawn, we are given the gift of time, at least once more, to get it right. For by the amazing grace of our Sovereign God all the wrong living we have done in the past is forgiven and forgotten in the instant we are willing to surrender and move forward toward Him and His will, relinquishing our own.

Though the days we have wasted cannot be changed, the new one, unfolding in front of us, holds the promise to be the one that could make it all okay.

It’s our choice.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Good Morning, Father,

Thank you for the message. I needed to hear it and I record this so that others might benefit from it as well. Let me see if I got it right.

I was covered in sawdust, working in my shop, when I felt the call to stop, sit down and write. I am familiar enough with this urging to obey instantly, even if I don’t know why. I turned off the sander, shook off the fine wood dust and sat down to type, what exactly I wasn’t sure. Even an hour later, after the page was done, I thought it was about something else. I sent the letter to its destination. This morning after quiet reflection of the whole day and all the parts and pieces that came together to make it, I see what the message was really about now. 

We don’t know what a real blessing is or how to thank You for it, do we?

We think we know. We see blessings as only good things coming our way. We pray for them for others and ourselves. We define them as luck, miracles, good fortune, financial rewards, relief from pain and heartache, success, happiness or emotional uplifting. We thank You, Father, for our homes, food and children. Sometimes we stretch a bit and even thank You for those lesser blessings like a sunny day when we have an outdoor activity planned, as though the sun only shines on us. It never occurs to us to consider our hardships as blessings, even if down the road we benefit from them. And since we don’t recognize these as blessings, we never offer our gratitude to You for them, Father. This, then, is the lesson we all need to learn.

The gentle truth of it settled in on me as I recalled a conversation with a friend, who recently wrenched her knee and must now have major surgery that will keep her immobile for a month. She was distraught even though the doctor told her that an old injury would have caused her to be crippled in a year’s time if she hadn’t had this new accident to call attention to it. The pain of this accident and the inconvenience the surgery will impose are both blessings. When I pointed this out to her, she agreed, with a hint of reservation. I hope she thanked You. If she didn’t it is because we are conditioned to only appreciate the easy blessings. We glibly use the term, “blessing in disguise” but we don’t instantly apply it to the difficulties thrown across our paths. 

Only You, Lord, know what is truly best for us. We rant and rave and grieve over loss. We rail against hard times and sometimes foolishly, like children, we shake our fists at You, citing unfairness. We think because we are troubled that we have been forgotten. But when we allow ourselves to spend time being sad over a sharp turn our life has taken, are we being disrespectful of You and the faith we should have in Your plan for us? Could we but lift our eyes to thank You, would we more readily find the strength to overcome our grief when it has become a crutch or a stumbling block for our ability to move forward? Could our distress be turned to joy by merely exercising gratitude? Could it be that simple? If we choose to cling to our grief, when an opportunity for relief is provided, are we being willful? 

I understand that sometimes You chastise us for disobedience, just as any loving parent must. But even this is a blessing, is it not? We need to remember what love is and what it does do as well as what it isn’t and doesn’t do. It makes us feel good, to be sure, but it also holds our hand through the dark when we don’t know the way. It teaches us to grow and learn and trust the small voice that You use to speak to us. It doesn’t coddle us into believing You are a genie whom we can go to for only the good stuff in our lives. You love us even when we aren’t particularly loveable or when we reject or forget to use the tools You provide for us to make it through this hard knock life. 

Thank You, Father for loving us and for all our blessings, even the ones that hurt.

Your servant,

Meema

Good Morning, Father - Part 1 - Courage

Sometimes I clean out files and find things I have written and set aside then forgotten. When I rediscover these musings, it’s not unlike finding myself when I didn’t even know I was missing. 

I am going to share, over the coming posts, one at a time, a small collection of devotionals I wrote over a decade ago, titled, Good Morning, Father. In His unfathomable wisdom, He knew I would need these affirmations and faith strengthening words in a future time unknown to me as I typed them. And now the time has come.

May you be blessed with whatever you need.

For Him,

Meema

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Introduction

Sunrise is the renewal of a promise. A chance to begin again, afresh, with all the bad choices of the previous days behind us, every new day is an opportunity to seek to serve God and use whatever time we have remaining to us better than we have ever done before.  We cannot know how many mornings we are granted, but if we make it through the night to see another dawn, we are given the gift of time, at least once more, to get it right. For by the amazing grace of our Sovereign God all the wrong living we have done in the past is forgiven and forgotten in the instant we are willing to surrender and move forward toward Him and His will, relinquishing our own.

Though the days we have wasted cannot be changed, the new one, unfolding in front of us, holds the promise to be the one that could make it all okay.

It’s our choice.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Courage

Good Morning, Father,

I apologize for yesterday. I don’t understand where it came from but when I looked up in the rear view mirror and saw the police car, I was overcome with panic. Instantly, I did a run down. License? Okay. Seat belt? Buckled. Left turn signal? Blinking. I knew I hadn’t been speeding before I came to the stop light. I couldn’t think of a single reason to be afraid. Then, when the light turned and I went left and the police car went straight, why was I still filled with lingering anxiety? It wasn’t much, really, just enough to give me pause and make me examine what was underneath it all. You know how I am, always looking for the deeper meanings.

I did a mental search through a backlog of sludge; moments of dilemma when I felt I had been unjustly punished or at least hauled up by the short hairs for no good reason. I thought about how fragile and vulnerable we are, sort of like astronauts space walking outside the space capsule. Our lifelines could be struck and severed in an instant by any number of stray hurling space debris. Unfair, unjust. That was it. I am afraid of unjust, undeserved trouble.

But wait a minute, since we can’t possibly avoid seemingly unearned problems in this life, what if the issue isn’t about circumstances deserved or undeserved. Maybe it’s more about how we deal with the mammoth trees randomly felled in front of us. Do we see every obstacle as an opportunity to grow closer to You? Or do we shrink back in debilitating fear feeling sorry for ourselves and cursing our rotten luck? Are we truly surrendered to Your will in our lives or do we just give out lip service and when the chips are down we cave like sink holes? Are we constantly seeking ways to pad our paths with foam rubber so it won’t be bumpy instead of learning what the bumps along the way have to teach us? Do we think we can be held less accountable if we cling to our guilt instead of giving it to You and being done with it?

I guess it comes to this, then, I shouldn’t fear anything at all because I know You are charting my course. I asked You to, so I shouldn’t be forever second guessing Your strategy, should I? So, this must be faith refined to its simplest definition. Believing that You, Father, can do anything You choose to do isn’t really faith. Faith is accepting what you choose for me, standing firm, and not being afraid of what I cannot see or understand. Certainly, my bad choices must contribute to the pot holes in my path, I know this. But even so, I can still trust You to use my stupidity to some good advantage if I remain open to the possibilities and simply trust You as a child trusts a parent.

So, is the absence of fear, courage? 

I don’t think so. Courage must be the willingness to obey and serve You regardless of the rewards. . . or the consequences.

Thank you, Father, for courage.

Your servant,

Meema