“I was blinded by the intense light and had to be led by the hand to Damascus by my companions.” Acts 12:11
This event in Saul/Paul’s life was so monumental and it fascinates me. Right now the part that fascinates me the most is the blindness that came as a result of finally seeing The Light. Why did it blind him rather than cause him to see better? I mean, I understand the physical realm ramifications of looking directly into the Sun are that you are blinded by the light. And perhaps the spiritual ramifications of looking directly at the Son are being blinded by The Light. But while Jesus was doing His ministry, people weren’t blinded from looking upon His face; they were healed of their blindness.
This topic fascinates me even further since I wrote about it last week in A Chosen Instrument. A day or two later one of my sons friends was over playing Nerf Darts with him and accidentally hit me in the corner of my eye with a dart from across the room. He felt horrible. But in that very moment I knew that it was something very important and connected spiritually somehow. I sat with my hand over my eye for quite some time. And when I took my hand away and tried to open my eye again I had a blind spot in my eye! A blind spot that is still there, at the top of my vision like a blinder covering my eyes. I’m still trying to find out if that’s a good thing or not spiritually. Physically it’s just annoying and concerning to me. (So I would appreciate your prayers for my eye to be completely healed in Jesus’ name.)
I would LOVE to hear your insights on the spiritual meanings you’ve found in Saul/Paul’s blindness and how you feel it has meaning in these scriptures. It CERTAINLY was a turning point in his life.
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*Get this! I just went back to find the post I linked to at the top of the page here, and read the prayer aloud to Sean while he was making his breakfast and when I said, “In Jesus’ name, Amen” He said that the “de-scale” light on the coffee maker just came on!!!!! LOL!!!!! God is so hilarious!!!! And AWESOME!
The Story: OK, so I’ve been struggling to keep up with the pages for the Story. It’s in chronological order and was written to be read in that order. This has been bothering me greatly. So after much discussion with Sean we decided to do something a little different with the Story. Sean’s going to have a blog of his own, I’ll link to it as soon as it’s up. He is planning on writing through the Story when we get that up and going.
“Since he couldn’t find out the truth in all the uproar and confusion, he ordered that Paul be taken to the fortress.” Acts 21:34
Have you ever played Dizzy Lizzy? It’s a really fun game with two teams running a relay race. You start with a bat, one end touching the ground and the other end touching your forehead. Then you have to spin around the bat ten times before running down to the end of the field and back tagging the next teammate so that they can do the very same thing. It’s one of the most hilarious things to watch in the world! When it’s your turn, when your teammates yell out, “ten” and you stand up straight, it’s no longer you that’s spinning, but your entire world is. And you’re trying to stumble around in order to make some movement toward the end of the field, but you really don’t get very far because, well, because you’re dizzy from the spinning and you can’t really see straight. Your balance is usually off and it takes a few seconds for everything to straighten back up again so that you can really RUN.
That’s how I have felt this last week. With so many changes that have hit all at once, mainly the kids being home for summer vacation, it feels like I’ve been thrown into a Dizzy Lizzy game. June 1st hit and my team shouted, “ten”, and I went to run and instead I felt like I just stumbled through this entire last week. I’ve always done my reading and usually my writing in the morning because it’s calmer in the mornings. But last week I found that it was very difficult to do. With work and taking care of the kids and getting them on track it was very difficult to get the reading done let alone any real writing. I was having trouble putting two thoughts together let alone sentences that made sense! There were some days I didn’t finish until 10pm or later! So yesterday during the quiet of my Sabbath I took the time to pray and to PLAN. I looked at my schedule and realized that there was really only one way that this was going to work, get up REALLY early and do it while everyone was asleep.
So here I am at five in the morning, reading and tapping away on my little computer, storing up the Truth for the day. (And PRAYING for a nice nap later in the day, I run on SLEEP not caffeine.) And when I got to the end of today’s Word of the Day, this verse hit me like a ton of bricks. “Since he couldn’t find out the truth in all the uproar and confusion”. It’s so much more difficult to find out the Truth, the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth when everything around you is dizzy and chaotic. If you’re world is spinning from change or trauma it’s kinda hard to focus in on the Truth your seeking when you’re simply trying to figure out which direction you’re going. And that’s what hit me; Satan is the Author of Chaos! He is the Father of Lies and the Thief of Truth and if he could keep me spinning, then he could keep me from finding new Truths. And oh! If he could keep me from finding new Truths then he could keep me from telling them to you so that you would know them too.
But God is good and gracious and is an ever present strength in times of trouble. He is the Author of Order, the Father of Truth and the Giver of Revelation. And most of all, He LOVES us. He wants us to know His Truth, to seek it like a buried treasure, hidden from those who would scorn it. But like the great Father playing hide and seek with His two year old, He doesn’t hide it where it’s truly hard to find if you’re actually looking for it. Often it’s right out there in the open you just have to have the eyes to see it and the ears to hear it, which He gives you readily when you ask.
Which brings me to realize; I haven’t shared my Morning Prayer with you in a VERY long time!!! I’m so sorry! This prayer was given to me straight from Holy Spirit on the day after my pilgrimage on the Emmaus Road. (The Walk to Emmaus, click here for more life changing information on this amazing weekend with Jesus!) He then began adding to it throughout the weeks and months that followed. I’ll be giving you the core of the prayer, but I’ll tell you that, for me, every morning it comes out a little differently.
Lately, I’ve been focusing on opening my heart to FULLY receive His love for me today. I’ve been spending a lot more time praying about the receiving of love lately; that I would receive and see and feel and appreciate His love for me more and that I would then translate that love to my husband and my children and my friends more. Love conquers all! These three remain, faith, hope and love the greatest of these is love! If faith the size of a mustard seed can move mountains, what can love do??? THAT’S what I want to find out. THAT’S the secret hidden treasure I search for every morning. If His love for us is the greatest treasure in all the land, then that’s the treasure I’m seeking. That’s the treasure I want to find. That’s the treasure that can do more than move mountains, it can heal wounds inflicted so deeply and so badly that there seems to be no human hope of healing them. But Jesus’ Love can!
Jesus’ Love can move more than mountains, it moves Heaven and Earth to find a single lost little lamb. And then brings it lofted upon shoulders back into the flock where there is such rejoicing in Heaven, the likes of which has never been seen.
Today is Sunday, and that means it’s Sunday SHMILY day! Sadly, I don’t really have that many pictures to share with you this week; though God gave me hundreds of hearts and smiles. But they were all so quick there was no way for me to photograph them. However, on Friday I was able to get this beauty on “film”!
And in our first watermelon of the season too! He is so sweet!
The Story: From “After this Paul and Barnabas had a sharp disagreement…” on p 411 to the end of the second paragraph on p 416.
“He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since He is Lord of heaven and earth, He doesn’t live in man-made temples and human hands can’t serve His needs. He Himself gives life and breath to everything, and He satisfies every need.” Acts 17:24-25
As a mom, the number one phrase we hear is usually, “Mooooom…. I need…” The number two phrase is, “Honey… I need…” As mothers we are constantly shepherding our flock to still waters and green pastures, finding missing socks, absent backpacks and books and yes, upon occasion even the missing child. We spend so much of our days meeting everyone’s needs. And I think that is why this verse may just be one of the mom verses of the year. “Human hands can’t serve His needs. He Himself gives life and breath and everything, and HE satisfies every need.” There is absolutely nothing that your hands can do to serve a need that God has. Rather, it is HE that satisfies every one of YOUR many needs. Isn’t that such a WONDERFUL message???
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As a side note, I could really use your prayers friends. This week has been SO DIFFICULT trying to get posts written! There have been quite a few changes in schedules and summer vacation has started and, well, it’s just been a lot for me to handle. I’m confident that I’ll get there, but, until then I would really appreciate your prayers. THANK YOU!!! 😀
The Story: from page 407 to the last full sentence on page 411
“Brothers listen! We are here to proclaim that through this man Jesus there is forgiveness for your sins. Everyone who believes in Him is declared right with God – something the Law of Moses could never do.” Acts 13:38-39
After spending the last hour and a half studying these two verses, translating them from the original Greek into English and then trying to write about them; I’ve come to the point of realizing that I can’t explain this message any better or more clearly than the NLT just did. Happy 5th of June!
The Story: from “After many days…” at the very bottom of page 400 to the bottom of 405
“God has made it clean.” Acts 10:15
OK, I’m going to admit, this is a stretch as a devotional, but it fits my life perfectly today! And hey, God had me write a post on dishwasher gunk and this is right along those lines.
The kids have been home from school on summer vacation for 4 days now. Over the winter, being shut in for the majority of it and then all the construction this spring, the house has gone downhill fast especially their rooms. And we’ve all been working hard for the last month or two to really get things spiffed back up. Now, there have been many occasions when I’ve talked about my obsession with perfection and neatness and how I’ve had to deal with things not being precisely perfect. Case in point, last night I noticed that my hairspray, mousse, and getll all have varying levels of “hold” from 2-4 and I had to resist the urge to put them in order. And just as I decided against rearranging them into ascending order I noticed they were already in descending order, and I brathed a sigh of relief thinking, “that can be good enough”.
Yes, I really am that particular. Sad isn’t it? It took months for me to allow the spoons and forks in the drawer to NOT spoon together so that someone other than me could put them away. And lets not even get started on the left over container drawer!
It’s all about control and order and me allowing the other members of my family to have some. Here in our house we emphasize teamwork. But if I’m the one doing all the cleaning while they’re doing all the messing that’s not a very good team. We ALL live here, we all make the messes, we all clean them up. I’ll admit, it’s been extremely difficult giving up my OCD ways in order to have an imperfectly clean house, but it’s been worth it. I mean seriously, think about it, what’s more important – that the spoons all face the same way or that they’re all clean and put away?
As my children have aged and life has shifted from changing their diapers to shaping their hearts I’ve had to change my ways and how I do things. For years I did it all myself – mostly because I had to. (And developed quite a few “particulars” because of it.) But that’s not the case now. They’re seven and (almost) twelve, they need to learn how to empty a dishwasher and do their own laundry, how to clean and organize a room and to, yet, even clean a toilet. We’re a team and as a team we all work together to make our home an enjoyable place to live in… instead of a hazardous waste dump.
So! On Monday I gave the children the “we’re a team” speech and handed them a (short) list of chores that had to be done before the TV came on. And for the last week or so I’ve been pinning things to my “Home” board on Pinterest to get inspiration for a fun chores list for them to track their progress. And this is what I’ve done.
First I made a list of all the things in our home that need done every week, leaning heavily on the items from the lists that I had pinned earlier so that I wouldn’t miss anything. Then I took that list, divided it into fourths and made a master list for each member of our family. They look something like this:
