In the Heat

You, O LORD, keep my lamp burning;
my God turns my darkness into light.
With your help I can advance against a troop
with my God I can scale a wall.

As for God, his way is perfect;
the word of the LORD is flawless.
He is a shield for all who take refuge in him.

For who is God besides the LORD ?
And who is the Rock except our God?

It is God who arms me with strength
and makes my way perfect.

He makes my feet like the feet of a deer;
he enables me to stand on the heights.

He trains my hands for battle;
my arms can bend a bow of bronze.

You give me your shield of victory,
and your right hand sustains me;
you stoop down to make me great.

You broaden the path beneath me,
so that my ankles do not turn.

Psalm 18: 28-36

August is typically the hottest month of the summer in So Cal, and this month has been particularly relentless. Temperatures have been 100 degrees and up. The heat has been turned up, in more ways than one, which is one reason I haven't posted lately. The editor for two columns that I write for suggested, and then allowed me to go on sabbatical until September, due to all the things that have been happening.

So that's it...I've been on an unplanned sabbatical.

It started with unusual losses. From the beginning of July until just last week, five close friends have lost family members, with two of my friends each losing more than one. It's been a time of memorial services and funerals. It's been very strange, and a bit overwhelming.

Not all the heat has been tragic. A lot of energy has been going towards ventures whose time for realization has finally come, and a lot of planning and executing has been, and is still being invested in that as well. There are several major things that have to be completed in the next few weeks. Prayers are needed!

The garden, for the most part, is doing well. I've been spending mornings in the pumpkin patch using natural methods to fight aphids and powdery mildew fungus, so that's been taking a bit of time, but the pumpkins are doing well. I'm trying to determine what type of pumpkins they are, as they don't seem to be growing to Jack O' lantern size. Their seeds came from a pumpkin about the size of a soccer ball, and so far these are about the size of grapefruits, and they're starting to turn orange. They could be sugar pumpkins ---the best kind for pies.

Zucchini is finally sprouting...Yaay!

Unfortunately, our grapes all dried up. We don't know what happened. One day they were fine and then checked a few days later, and they were all raisins. What a disappointment! The vine produces these wonderful sweet grapes, and this was the first year we were set to have a bounty of them, and now there's nothing. The corn hasn't fared well, either, with this heat wave.

Paid work for me has been scarce, and I still no contracts for anything...yet. But I know God is moving and something is about to break through.

I'm still focusing on miracles of the Bible, specifically those involving women. So I'll start back posting on that tomorrow!

I will remember the works of the LORD;
Surely I will remember Your wonders of old.
I will also meditate on all Your work,
And talk of Your deeds.
Your way, O God, is in the sanctuary;
Who is so great a God as our God?
You are the God who does wonders;
You have declared Your strength among the peoples.
Psalm 77:11-14

Do you know what it feels like to be in a no-win situation? One of those where no matter how you look at it, you're going to come up on the losing end?

In 2 Chronicles 20, King Jehoshaphat was facing a no-win situation. He had just received disturbing news that the Ammonites, and their allies, were in full force battle-array with plans to decimate his kingdom.

Understandably, Jehoshaphat was afraid. The Ammonites were a plundering and marauding group of people. Predatory. Uncivilized. No rules of engagement, no civilized protocols of war... just blunt, brute force. No way to reason with the unreasonable. No way out. Except...God.

Jehoshaphat immediately "set himself to seek The Lord and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah." (v3) All the people fasted and gathered together to pray and hear from God.

And Jehoshaphat passionately petitioned the Lord, saying:

O LORD God of our fathers, are You not God in heaven, and do You not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations, and in Your hand is there not power and might, so that no one is able to withstand You?

Are You not our God, who drove out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel, and gave it to the descendants of Abraham Your friend forever? And they dwell in it, and have built You a sanctuary in it for Your name, saying,
‘If disaster comes upon us—sword, judgment, pestilence, or famine—we will stand before this temple and in Your presence (for Your name is in this temple), and cry out to You in our affliction, and You will hear and save.’

And now, here are the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir—whom You would not let Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turned from them and did not destroy them— here they are, rewarding us by coming to throw us out of Your possession which You have given us to inherit.

O our God, will You not judge them? For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You.” (vs 4-11)

Personally, I find the simplicity of this prayer powerful. In essence, Jehoshaphat was recounting and remembering the things God had done for them before, while reminding himself and the people of the greatness and magnificence of God. This prayer is a declaration of faith.

In facing difficulties, when we remember what God has done for us in the past, it strengthens our faith to trust Him to bring us through the trial at hand.

And in this incident, God's people didn't even have to go to battle. The word of the Lord came through the prophet declaring that "the battle is not yours, but God's." (v15). They were given specific instructions on what to do, being assured that the Lord was with them.

All they basically had to do was show up, sending the worshipers out first singing praises to God, and the Lord caused the enemy to fight amongst themselves and kill each other off.

It's an awesome story of deliverance that I encourage you to read.

Oh Lord, you are God in heaven, and you rule over all the kingdoms of the nations, and in Your hand there is power and might, so that no one and nothing is able to withstand You. Oh Lord, as you have helped me in the past with (situations), I look to you now for your help. For God I have no power over these things and I don't know what to do, but my eyes are on YOU.

The Lord is my light and my salvation Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life Of whom shall I be afraid? Psalm 27:1

Ever felt like the odds were stacked against you? Or had times when you were surrounded by challenges at every turn?

The prophet Elisha had that problem with a situation in 2 Kings 6:8-23. There was an entire army sent to capture him and bring him to the king of Syria.

This great army, with horses and chariots, had gathered in the night. When Elisha's servant, Gehazi, arose early in the morning, he was met with this frightening site. Surely he and Elisha were done for!
Or so it seemed.
Alarmed, Gehazi frantically asked Elisha--what were they going to do?
They were surrounded. The odds were stacked against them.

Elisha was unperturbed. He told his agitated servant "Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those with them."(vs 16).

Say that again, Elisha? We have more with us than what we see is against us?

And Elisha prayed, and said "Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see." Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. vs 17.

The mountain was filled with an angelic army that had horses and fiery chariots! Can you imagine such a sight! The answer, their deliverance, was there...Gehazi just couldn't see it until Elisha prayed that God would open his eyes so he could see into the supernatural realm.

And the army of God trumped the army of Syria.

Sometimes we just need God to open our eyes so that we can see the answer to the problem or situation we're facing. Doesn't matter if it seems the odds are stacked against you. You may be surrounded by what appears to be insurmountable challenges. But our God is a deliverer and He has the final say on any situation.

Oh Lord, I will not fear because those with me are more than those who are against me. Open my eyes that I may see.

A Month for Great and Magnificent Things!

Oh come, let us sing to the LORD!
Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving;
Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.
For the LORD is the great God,
And the great King above all gods.
Psalm 95:1-3 (NKJV)

It's August!

I had already planned, during this month, to focus on some of the miracles and awesome things of God recorded in the Bible. This morning the thought came to me to look up the origin of the word "August" and I was surprised at what I found. I knew the month itself was named after one of Roman emperors, Augusta, but the name itself goes deeper.

August is a somewhat popular baby name, and in checking name sites, I found the name means great and magnificent. Hey, I like that! Our God is definitely great and magnificent and how fitting to explore His greatness and magnificence during this month.

A little further digging revealed more from another site: the word has Latin origins that means dignified and holy. One of its adjective derivatives 'augere' means to increase.

Okay. I proclaim this a month of experiencing the Greatness and Magnificence of a Holy and Dignified God, who will show Himself mightily through areas of Increase.

This is what I'm believing God to be and to do in my life this month. Great and mighty things.

Grab that expectation by faith and its yours as well!

This month started off fittingly with me having my own little miracle this morning!

I have pumpkins growing in my garden!

So why is this a miracle?

First off, I live in the desert. To get anything other than desert native plants to grow here, you have to labor with the soil. For those who live in areas where you can throw a seed in the ground and forget about it and have wonderful things pop up all over the place...that rule doesn't apply here. Nothing grows without a huge investment of sweat-equity.

Second, pumpkins grow through pollination. You must have bees to pollinate the female flowers at the right time, or they have to be hand-pollinated. I learned this when I started with the vegetable garden last year. I don't take it lightly that we've had lots of bees around our garden this year. I prayed for them, and I thank God they are here to do the pollination way better than I can.

Another thing that amazes me...I checked the pumpkin patch Tuesday, just a few days ago, to see if there were any female flowers (there were plenty of males!) and I didn't see any, nor did a cursory review reveal any budding pumpkins, but today, they are definitely there!

So why even bother with growing things when it's so difficult to do so?

There are two main reasons we're growing this garden...no three.

It's a life lesson. It's doable. It's difficult, but doable. A lot like things in life. All the conditions may not be perfect to achieve something, and it will require more work to do it, but you can enjoy the fruits of your labor if you just go ahead and labor with it.

Two: I want to have a community garden where kids in the neighborhood can learn to grow things, and also benefit from the life's lesson of difficult, but doable. And kids like pumpkin patches. So the garden for these two years is our serving as our proving ground.

Three: We get to eat our own homegrown stuff!