It's September!

Yes, it's September and I haven't been as regular as I would like. Lots of things going on offline, however if wouldn't be fair for me to just drop the ball, totally. Is that even possible...when you drop a ball, isn't it just dropped totally? Okay then, now picking the ball back up. :)

My photo today is of some of the pumpkins I've harvested, so far. The rest (about 30) will be harvested in the next couple of weeks. That's the scarecrow I bought to put in the garden to scare the birds away, but then I decided I didn't want him to get dirty. So he hasn't even seen the garden, much less spent a night there. lol

Well, I had said that in the month of August I was expecting God to do great and mighty things. And God did! Some of it is kinda hard to explain as it was spiritual. I'll try my best to share it. But have you ever heard that some things can't be "taught, but must be caught?" I think that's it...it can't be truly explained but must be experienced.

So probably the best way to start to explain it, would be to look in the 4th chapter of Judges at the events that happened during the time that Deborah was a judge in Israel. Awesome stuff. Deborah is one of my favorite women in the Bible. I've read these two chapters (4&5) in Judges countless times. Here Israel was under the oppression of a Canaanite king who had 900 iron chariots, and God's people didn't have any thing equal to face such a formidable foe. And God used a woman, Deborah, to raise up an army to fight and bring about deliverance.

Now Deborah, who was a prophetess, had already been navigating conflict (as a judge) between the people for 20 years, before she had an "awakening" and rose to the rightful position that God had ordained for her. In the victory song, sung after they won the battle, it outlines the events from beginning to end. (Judges 5) To share just couple of verses that lay the foundation...

"The highways were deserted,
And travelers walked along the byways
Village life ceased, it ceased in Israel
Until I, Deborah, arose
Arose as a mother in Israel" (vs 4-5)

"Awake, awake, Deborah!
Awake, awake, sing a song! (v 12)

When Deborah begins her song, she is telling how life was in Israel...village life had ceased, the highways were deserted, the people were living oppressed and basically hidden. The community was dead. Dead until she, Deborah, arose and took her place as a leader. When she had her awakening, and took her place, the whole community benefited and flourished.

As I said before, I've read these chapters many times. But I finally saw,with God opening my eyes through a teaching I heard by Lisa Bevere, that Deborah had to have this awakening before she rose up to her full potential to do all that God had for her to do. And she helped liberate a nation. It was like a whack on the side of my head.

God used this to truly awaken me to some things I had not fully realized about my self and what He had ordained for me to be and do. My eyes have been opened, and instead of berating myself for not living it sooner, I remember Deborah was judging for 20 years before she arose to her full position and potential. So it's never too late.

And that's just one of the things He did. There are others that dug just as deep, and were just as earth-shaking. Alas! These "AHA" moments are hard to explain as they must be experienced.

But...just think. We all have the potential to go further than we already have. And we all have something that will make life better for others. And just think, if Deborah never rose to her potential, how bad life would have continued for those around her.

Does it make you wonder if there are some areas in you that need to be awakened? You never know until you ask the One who knows, as He is the only one that knows all that He has put within you.

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!

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit Galatians 5:22-25

I think today was a "test" day.

Ever have one of those when it seems almost everything is testing your resolve-- testing to see if you live what you say.

Hey there--Are you going to let the fruits of the Spirit--love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control--rule in your life today?

Just one instance... the company we have our Internet service through has been 'correcting' a billing error for almost two months now--and it's still not fixed. I have a long list of of names and ID numbers of customer service supervisors who assure me that they are taking care of making sure the billing is properly credited for services they over-billed us on. Each one assures they are making the correction and yet it is still not corrected. It would probably be easier to resolve if the company had a central customer center, but no... I've talked to these agents in various parts of the world--Panama, the Philippines, the Caribbean, etc. It's almost impossible to get an American, and when I've asked to be connected to one, I'm told that it's all by chance who you get, and so I'd have to hang up and call back and hopefully get someone I want to talk to.

This is just one example -the businesses I've had to deal with today all had areas of incompetence and not- so- good customer service. Arrgh! Boy did I exercise long-suffering (patience) today. And kindness. And self-control. :)

And then that ever-lurking-in-the-shadows enemy Discouragement kept hanging around trying to impede progress. Seems like at every turn he was laying in my path, trying to trip me up. I had to just keep stepping over him and demanding he move on. What a pain he was! He can be cruel and relentless. The words he screams are harsh and negative. At one point he almost had me close to tears. I made myself be faithful to continue on, despite him.

I did get my Sister Love (above) portrait painted today.

On Building Drought Tolerance- The words you speak.

For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Hebrews 4:12

We live in a world of gross darkness which constantly pulsates fear and negativity into the atmosphere. Not surprising since the Prince of this world (satan) is one whose mission is to kill, steal, and destroy, as Jesus says in John 10:10 . Jesus himself came to give life, and to give it more abundantly.

Another key to building drought-tolerance is not just meditating on the word of God, but speaking it into the situations that challenge us. God has given us immense power in words. There are many scriptures that speak of the power of the tongue and its effect.

For example- Proverbs 18:20-21

A man’s stomach shall be satisfied from the fruit of his mouth;
From the produce of his lips he shall be filled.
Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
And those who love it will eat its fruit.

Jesus says in Matthew 12:34-37

"For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

When going through tough times, the temptation is always there to complain " Why is this happening to ME!' And even when times aren't so tough, we're tempted to speak what we see or feel.

"I just don't know how I'm going to make it. Things are so hard right now and I don't see anyway out."
Now granted, that may be a fact, but focus more on truth.
The fact may be that you don't know how you're going to make, but by focusing on and speaking the truth which is God's word, that is sharper than any two-edge sword, the power of His word is released to work on your behalf.

"My God shall supply all your need according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus. " Philippians 4:19
"God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble." Psalm 46:1

There are many promises of God that meet any situation we may face.

Yes, undeniably the economy is in the tank.
Yes, times are difficult. People are losing their jobs. Businesses are going under.
Yes, you may have to make your money stretch more while paying higher prices for necessities.
Yes, many believers are in spots where only divine intervention is going to be their salvation.

But where others speak with fear, we can speak out words of hope for ourselves, and to them.

I love the way David does things. He faced many hard times, and he cried out to God with many hard questions.

How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?
² How long shall I take counsel in my soul, Having sorrow in my heart daily? How long will my enemy be exalted over me?
³ Consider and hear me, O LORD my God; Enlighten my eyes, Lest I sleep the sleep of death;
⁴ Lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed against him”; Lest those who trouble me rejoice when I am moved.
⁵ But I have trusted in Your mercy; My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation.
⁶ I will sing to the LORD, Because He has dealt bountifully with me.
Psalm 13

Ever felt like David? Like God has just forgotten you and your troubles? Though David starts off on a sorrowful, weary note, he doesn't end there. Though the fact was that it seemed his enemies were prevailing against him (our enemies today can be financial problems, health problems, rebellious children, unfair employers, back-biting people), he remembered how God had always come through for him and that's the note he ended on. Speaking the truth of the trustfulness and mercy of God.

So instead of just saying the facts, let's speak out the truth.