PSG FOR WHAT AILS YOU!

 

Ever feel like running away?  Where do you go to get away, to get alone?

My sister runs to her ‘tower room’ on the 3^rd floor of her home in rural PA, her writing place, her ‘time with Jesus’ place, her creativity place.

King David also went to a ‘tower room’:  “I will hurry off to hide in the higher place, into my shelter, safe from this raging storm and tempest.” Ps. 55:8 

Maybe the place we visited in Israel, Ein Gedi with its brooks, waterfalls and caves was one of those “higher places” where David went to hide.  I can imagine him wading in the cold water, refreshing himself, then stretching out on a warm rock to dry off in the sun, but I digress…

Interestingly enough, sometimes the danger we’re hiding from is not what we think.  The deceived leadership sometimes thinks invaders from outside are the main problem, so they guard the walls day and night, when “the real danger is within the city.  It’s the misery and strife in the hearts of the people.” Ps. 55:10

Oh, God, people need you to be their hiding place!

In Psalm 55: 17 David gives 3 practical actions (thank you!) that I can do to hide in the shelter of God’s embrace.

1.     “Every evening I will explain my need to him.”                            

 But he already knows my needs so why do I have to explain myself to him?

Because pillow talk with Daddy is better than silent tears on my pillow...

I think of my son, Christopher almost every night as I go upstairs to bed.  Chris was always a night owl, often going to bed as I was getting up for work in the morning.  I used to whisper as I passed his door on my way to bed at night, “Go to bed, Buddy!” sometimes out loud, sometimes under my breath.  I think of Chris, can’t believe he’s really gone, and the tears come. 

David said to explain my need to God.  Don’t stuff it.  Don’t give yourself the excuse that “here I am with the same problem I’ve come to him about for the past 3 days, 3 weeks, 3 months, 3 years…” If it’s bothering you, he cares and he wants you to talk to him about it.

Remember, “pillow talk” with your sister or brother – if you had the privilege of sharing a bedroom with a sibling as I did, or sleepovers with close friends where night time led to secrets shared in the dark?

Daddy says, come and tell me, explain it to me.  Don’t say, as one of my dearest friends often does – “you don’t understand!”  Tell me. Explain yourself.  I want to understand.

Come and explain your need to me.  And not just once.  Do you need to talk only once to your friend, your husband or wife, your brother or sister, your mom or dad, and it’s done?

Embrace the feeling of comfort you receive when God shares your joys or your sorrows, the shelter of being known by someone who adores you.  Daddy loves you and wants to hear all about it, again and again.  The good, the bad and the ugly.  And the burden is so much easier to carry when it’s shared with someone else.  Or better yet, when I just unload it on him and let him carry it for me, like Corrie Ten Boom’s father did for her in her book, In My Father’s House. 

 2.       “Every morning I will move my soul toward him.”

 What does that look like?

No shame over last night’s unloading on God.  His arms are still open wide to me, beckoning me to come and rest my head on his shoulder.

What is my soul?  My mind, will and emotions, the real me – who I am on the inside.  The person I may try to hide by running into my tower room - that’s the person that needs to move toward God.

So I draw near.  I consciously turn toward God and not away from him.  I snuggle with Daddy, like David did every morning.

He’s always happy to see me.  He’s watching as I open my eyes each morning, waiting for me to come and snuggle, to move my soul toward him.

 3.      “Every waking hour I will worship only him.”

 According to Christianity Today, “true worship … is defined by the priority we place on who God is in our lives and where God is on our list of priorities.”

So, when problems are elevated above God… When anything takes precedence – good or bad – over first place in my thoughts, time, actions… Then I need to come back to #3:  “Every waking hour I will worship only him.”

Nothing is too big or too small for God.  One of my favorite teachers, Pastor Bill Johnson says: “If it matters to you, it matters to God.”

Don’t elevate the issue or it steals your focus.  You can’t focus on the problem and on God.

Like God says in Proverbs 3:5-6, “in all your ways acknowledge me and I will make straight your paths.”  I see a squiggly road map, but Jesus just gives it a shake, like shaking the wrinkles out, and there before me is a straight road.

What good advice from a man after God’s own heart: PSG!

1.       P - Pillow talk every night.

2.       S - Snuggle every morning.

3.       G - God first all day long.

The Front of the Line

 

Is it legal to ask God to favor someone, to skip over others and bring them to the forefront? To pray for others in line for a job, a rental, a home, that God would pull their applications to the top of the pile, the “front of the line”? I’d prayed that way before, but was it legal?

I discovered the answer to my question this morning in Psalm 47:4: “He marked our inheritance ahead of time, putting us in the front of the line, honoring Jacob, the one he loves.”

If God does it, then it must be ok for me to ask him to do it for the ones I love and encounter along the way, right? So I left for work armed with this new truth, and a prayer: Jesus, let me be close to you today, hearing your every whisper, your direction, your instructions, your encouragement.

Well into my day, a client came to the office to sign some paperwork. He was having some legal problems and our office had prepared a Motion to file with the Court to hopefully get him some relief. In addition to his legal problems, he also had his foot in a walking cast.

“What happened to your foot?” I asked.

“Oh, it’s multiple stress factors from being on my feet all day long at my job,” he responded.

Stress in his legal issues. Stress in his body. And now the waiting begins for the overloaded Court to get around to hearing his Motion? Sounded to me like someone needed to be moved to the front of the line.

So I told him about the verse I had read in the Psalms that morning, about how God moves people he cares about to the front of the line, so it must be ok for his kids (me) to ask him to do that for others. And I prayed aloud for God to do just that, to bring his case to the front of the Court’s calendar, and to heal every fracture in his foot. It seemed to me as he left the office that day with a smile on his face, that he was walking a little lighter knowing that God cares about him, his legal issues, his fractured foot, and that it was okay to ask God to move him to the front of the line.

And the promise is for me, too!

So I declare today that You marked out my inheritance ahead of time, before the foundation of the world you knew me, putting Taffy at the front of the line, honoring your Taffy as the one you love. Like John, your “beloved” disciple, I am the one laying across your chest, leaning close, listening to your every word with the cadence of your heartbeat as my anchor.

I don’t know about you, but I would have fainted unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of God - with skin on, before my eyes - in the land of the living.

Oh, God let your people in Afghanistan and Haiti see your goodness today, while they are still alive.

“I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait – entwine yourself in the Lord, yes, keep on waiting – for he will never disappoint you! Psalm 27:13-14,

But God, I do get disappointed!

But you promise that you won’t disappoint me. There is a difference.

The Shema

 

Last night I was cranky.  Maybe that’s why my family left me alone for the evening and went about their business.  I realized that I needed to spend some time with Jesus.  So I turned on The Chosen and binge watched the first 3 episodes of season one, because whenever I watch The Chosen, I feel like I’ve just been with Jesus.  Jesus with skin on.  I see him more clearly, feel his nearness as I watch his story unfold on the screen.

So, episode 3 was about Jesus interacting with a group of children.  At one point in the episode Jesus asks the kids to recite the Shema, and he sits there listening as the little ones proudly speak out the familiar words taught to every Hebrew child:

“Hear, O Israel!  The Lord our God is One.  And you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your strength..”

I kept watching Jesus’ face as he listened and gazed at the faces of the children.  He was all filled up!  So proud of them.  Yet I also saw sorrow in his eyes.

Why?

He knew what lay ahead for the children, and for himself.  Yet he was all filled up, listening to them worship, trying so hard to please him.

After that, we turned the TV to the ongoing worship and prayer service at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City – Jim had joined me by then.  And a group of kids, actually young adults, was singing love songs to Jesus.  And I saw his face again, all filled up as he gazed over each boy or girl singing about his goodness, his glory, the people in the room  dancing, singing, some laying on the floor worshiping.

And you, Jesus were all filled up, overcome with love for each one, but maybe some sadness, too?  Sadness for the hardships your kids will face.  Your kids in Afghanistan, many of whom may be with you before the week ends.  Who love you with all their heart, souls and strength – to the very end.

And I am all filled up, seeing you all filled up.  Knowing that you see, and you care.  Nothing misses your gaze.  No one falls to the ground without your notice, not even a sparrow.

May I always be counted among your kids, Jesus, loving you, pleasing you, serving you, my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Yeshua Hamashiach.  Who for the joy set before you – your kids – endured the cross, despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God, where you ever live to make intercession for us.

The Golden Secret

 Walking with Daddy thru the Psalms, Psalm 16:  The Golden Secret

 

“Keep me safe, O Mighty God.  I run for dear life to you, my safe place.”

 

The Mighty God, the Creator of the Universe is the one who keeps me safe. I don’t hesitate to run to him, even though he is the King of the Universe.  He is my safe place and he’s always ready to receive me, even when he’s sitting in the Court Room judging important matters.  He never turns me away.  He always has time for me.

 

“So I said to the Lord God, ‘You are my Maker, my Mediator and my Master.  Any good thing you find in me has come from you.”

 

If I’m kind, I learned it from you.  If I carry peace, it’s because I am safe in you and can offer security to others by bringing them into your safe place.  If I know the words to sustain the weary, it’s because you gave me an instructed tongue and taught me to listen with open ears to all you say. (Isaiah 50:4)

 

“And he said to me, ‘My holy lovers are wonderful, my majestic ones, my glorious ones, fulfilling all my desires.’”

 

Daddy, it’s all you, start to glorious finish. How is it that I can be part of fulfilling your desires?!? How can that be?  How incredible that my weak love fulfills you!  Your goodness is so overwhelming to call me wonderful, majestic and say that I am one who fulfills the longings of your heart.  Somehow when I hide myself in you, you end up blessed.  Incredible!

 

Walking thru the Psalms with Daddy: Image Bearers, Psalm 8

 Image Bearers...

“Look at the splendor of your skies,
    your creative genius glowing in the heavens.
    When I gaze at your moon and your stars,
    mounted like jewels in their settings,
    I know you are the fascinating artist who fashioned it all!
    But I have to ask this question:
⁴ Why would you bother with puny, mortal man
    or care about human beings?
⁵ Yet what honor you have given to men,
    created only a little lower than Elohim,
    crowned with glory and magnificence.
⁶ You have delegated to them
    rulership over all you have made,
    with everything under their authority,
    placing earth itself under the feet of your image-bearers.” Psalm 8:3-6 TPT

But I have to ask this question.  When I look up and see such wonder and workmanship above, I have to ask:  Compared to all this cosmic glory, why do you bother with “puny, mortal man”?

I gaze at the stars, or watch the ocean breathe in and out, seemingly endless, stretching out beyond my sight and I think, “why me?”  Daddy, why am I in your thoughts and plans?  Crowned with honor like a queen or king.  

Why do you delegate authority to a bunch of fishermen, “placing earth itself under the feet of your image bearers?

Daddy, who is your image bearer?

It’s everyone I’ve created; even the deceived ones were made to carry my presence.  Biden.  Harris.  Soros. Each was made in my image, made for my glory, even though they may not be representing me well.

Jesus, you represent Daddy so well!  You are the exact representation of the Father.  Help me to take off what hides your image in me.  Take off fear, unbelief, hatred, deceit, unforgiveness, bitterness.  So others see Jesus.  If they can just taste who you are they will feel the tug of their hearts toward Charis, home, toward everything worth living for.

Daddy, help me to look like Jesus, talk like Jesus, smell, taste, see, feel like Jesus.  So that others will feel like they’ve been with you – hearts burning/yearning for you like the disciples felt when Jesus met them on the road to Emmaus after the resurrection (Luke 24:32) – when they spend time with me.

 

Walking thru the Psalms with Daddy.... Psalm 139

 

Psalm 139.

“Lord, you know everything there is to know about me.”

Last night Jimmy and I watched Season 2, Episode 1 of The Chosen, a wonderful ongoing series about Jesus.  One of the scenes in this episode featured a Samaritan man and his family, and how Jesus healed his broken leg.  After his healing, the man confessed to Jesus that he was the one who robbed and left for dead the man in the Good Samaritan story.  The man said to Jesus, “Why me?  If you only knew what I’ve done!”

Jesus’ eyes said it all. “I know exactly what you’ve done and I love you still with all of my heart!”

Psalm 139:24  “See if there is any path of pain I’m walking on, and lead me back to your glorious, everlasting ways – the path that brings me back to you.”

Daddy, what is a “path of pain”?

Grieving Chris and Melody is a path of pain for me.  But I didn’t cause it, or choose to walk on it, did I?

Commentators suggest that the path of pain in Psalm 139: 24 is a path that causes pain to God, anything that offends his heart.  Like choosing to live under the “Great Sadness” like Mac, the main character of William Young’s novel.

“The house you build out of your own pain”.  That’s how Young explained the reason for his book’s title.  It’s “a metaphor for the places you get stuck, get hurt, get damaged.  Where shame or hurt is centered.”

But how can a path offend Daddy, Jesus, Holy Spirit?

If it leads me away from you.

If it’s foundation is based on lies.

If Jesus isn’t walking there with me.

Jesus won’t go there if it’s lies.  Instead, like personified Wisdom in the book of Proverbs, he comes and call to me from the better path and invites me to follow him there.

I can’t go with you to the “land of what ifs”, he says.  That is a lie – it doesn’t exist except in your thoughts when they’re based on lies.  Come walk with me on the water – seems impossible, right?  But not when I’m holding your hand.

"Woe"

 

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who replace darkness with light and light with darkness, who replace bitter with sweet and sweet with bitter.” Isaiah 5:20

I think of legislation allowing murder of the unborn.

Euthanasia.

Marriage redefined.

Drag queen story hour.

How it was ok to malign the President of the US daily on a popular talk show.

Daddy, what do you mean when you say “Woe” to those deceived people?

One day their eyes will be open, and they will realize they are blind and be appalled at what they did, or allowed to be done.

Then you and my Church will need to be there to give them hope, clean garments to replace their hole-filled, blood spattered clothes. The water of the Word to wash their hearts and restore them to relationship with Father God.  It is my job, says Holy Spirit, to open their eyes, and once they see I pass them to Jesus for cleansing in his blood, and then you go take them by the hand and lead them to Daddy.

You can’t do it if you hate anybody.  Let love do its perfect work first in you.

1 Corinthians 12:30:  “And now I will show you a superior way to live that is beyond comparison.”

The love chapter, 1 Corinthians 13:  If I don’t express myself with love, my words are reduced to the hollow sound of nothing.

If I prophesy with great accuracy, foretell the future, reveal hidden secrets, but have never learned to love, then I am nothing.

“Love is large and incredibly patient.  Love is gentle and consistently kind to all.  It refuses to be jealous when blessing comes to someone else…
“Love is a safe place of shelter for it never stops believing the best for others.”

Daddy, how do I love that way?

How do I love my kids that way?

How do I love my city that way?  My nation?

“Woe!” is that cry of agony from the heart of the Father as he sees people not getting it, calling good evil and evil good.  The cry of Jesus as he wept over Jerusalem.  The tears of the prodigal’s Dad as he watched daily for his son to return.  It’s not a cry for judgment or revenge or punishment, but the cry of a grieving Daddy.

Daddy, “break my heart for what breaks yours, everything I am for your Kingdom’s cause.  Show me how to love like you have loved me.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVPYVXITk5w.

Help me to love with open arms like you do, a love that erases all the lies and sees the truth… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Y1ROPUdUNU.

Time for Dreams to Come True

 I don’t know how God speaks to you, but with me, he usually drops little hints and reminders for me in various places, and from several different people, each adding a little more to what he is teaching me.

This time, it started with a verse in Psalm 105:19 that jumped off the page during my morning time with Jesus in his word.

“God’s promise to Joseph purged his character until it was time for his dreams to come true.” Ps. 105:19

Joseph was a dreamer, for sure, from the time he was a young boy.  And it’s true, his dreams didn’t come true for a long, long time.  So how did God’s promise to Joseph purge his character until it was time for his dreams to come true?

How does that work, that purging process?  Sanctification.

First, Joseph had to believe the promise, even though he couldn’t see it.  It must have helped that his family all understood the meaning of his dreams, the sun, moon and stars all bowing down to him, and got down on him for thinking that his family would one day bow to him.  They understood, but they didn’t believe it, and his brothers got pretty angry about the thought of bowing down to their annoying kid brother.  But Joseph chose to believe God in spite of his circumstances.  He held on to hope, and the Scriptures say that the promise purged his character.

Purge:  to get rid of something or someone, often suddenly.  To get rid of impurity, to cleanse, to purify.

In order for his dreams to come true, Joseph had to remain alive.  I wonder if that thought occurred to him as he lay in the deep hole his brothers had thrown him into.  Or while he was led away to Egypt in slavery.  Or when the wife of his master entrapped him and had him sent to prison.  What kept him going?  His life was truly purged of anything and everything.  All his rights had been stripped away when he became a slave.  He owned nothing.  In the darkness and solitude of prison that truth must have been palpable.  He had nothing, nothing but hope in the promises of God.  And because he still trusted  God, he served his prison master well and came to a position of service in the prison.  Then he used his favor with God to interpret dreams for 2 fellow prisoners, asking them to remember to tell Pharaoh about him, that he was unjustly accused and in prison.

Finally Joseph was remembered and given the chance to interpret a dream for Pharaoh himself.  He gave the credit to God for his ability to interpret dreams.  Pharaoh was so grateful and so impressed with Joseph’s intelligence and creative strategies that he hired Joseph on the spot to be second in command in the land of Egypt, to manage the nation during the 7 years of prosperity and the 7 years of famine.

When Joseph’s brothers came to Egypt to buy food from the ruler of Egypt, they bowed low in honor to their brother, Joseph, whose dreams were coming true at last.  The years of waiting and suffering, purging had done their work on Joseph’s character such that Joseph was filled with love for his brothers who had caused him so much suffering.  Joseph could say to them, “You meant what you did to hurt me, but God turned it around for my good, and for the good of our nation, to preserve the lives of my family, and my people during the famine.”

I heard one of the pastors at church speaking at a recent service, reminding us that we need to stop thinking only about today, here and now, and consciously sow into the next generation.  Again I thought of Joseph.  On his death bed Joseph instilled hope in his family by asking of them one special request.  “When God brings his people out of Egypt and into their own land, you must carry my bones and bury them in that land.”  It wasn’t just a dying wish, it was also a seed of hope, a dream, planted in Joseph’s family.   It wasn’t “if you ever get out of Egypt”, no it was “when God brings you out of Egypt into your own land.”

Joseph’s family took his dying request very seriously.  Over the hundreds of years the Israelites were stuck in Egypt, made slaves to serve Pharaoh and the Egyptian people, they never forgot about those bones.  I wonder if they were ever tempted to just bury Joseph’s bones there, get that coffin out of their home?  When the kids would ask, “Why are we keeping that old coffin here and not burying it?” they would hear the story again.  One day, God will deliver us from slavery.  And history shows us that the promise was fulfilled, and their dreams did come true.

Joseph instilled another promise into the hearts of the next generation.  If God’s promise to Joseph purged his character until it was time for his dreams to come true, wouldn’t God repeat the testimony now thousands of years later, for my generation, and my children and grandchildren.

Saturated in his goodness. This is no arms length transaction.

 

I work in the real estate industry as a paralegal.  Occasionally, when a house sells well under market value, I get a phone call from the local tax office with the question: “Was this an arms length transaction?”

So I’ve been reading in the Psalms lately and this verse jumped out at me from Psalms 66:12:

“You’ve allowed our enemies to prevail against us.  We’ve passed through fire and flood, yet in the end you always bring us out better than we were before, saturated with your goodness.”

What does it look like to be saturated with your goodness, God?  What can I compare it to?

A stale piece of bread, soaked in eggs and milk to become a delicious breakfast of French toast.

Stiff willow boughs, soaked in the creek until they’re pliable, then woven into a beautiful basket.

Being so aware, so saturated in the goodness of God that I leak that goodness, leaving soggy footprints of goodness behind me.

When you hug me, you get wet, too.

“God, keep us near your grace fountain and bless us! And when you look down on us, may your face beam with joy!” Psalm 67:1

What’s all this got to do with “arms length transactions”?

Daddy never holds me at arms length.  He never treats me just like everyone else.  I’m his kid, saturated in his goodness, living near – or even in - his grace fountain, splashing goodness on anyone and everyone who comes my way.  And his face beams with joy when he sees my soggy self, splashing around in his fountain.  The pool’s open!  And the water is delightful!  And everyone’s invited to join me there.

 

Follow me, Not the Ball...

 

My friend Bill, took our office dog, Duchess out for a romp yesterday.  Duchess usually comes to Bill with her favorite ball in her mouth when she wants him to play with her.  But yesterday her joints were inflamed and she needed a leisurely walk instead of a more intense game of fetch.  When Bill tried to leave the ball inside, Duchess kept her focus on the ball and wouldn’t follow him out the open door.

“Duchess! Follow me, not the ball!”

That phrase stayed with me long after Bill and Duchess’ walk.  So I asked Daddy if he was trying to tell me something.

“Yes, Taffy, follow me, not the ball.”

I thought of those old singalong TV shows from before my time where you were told to “follow the bouncing ball” as the words of a song scrolled across the TV screen.  The ball helped you get the rhythm of the song correct.

But Daddy was saying the opposite this time.  Follow me, not the ball.

But sometimes I can’t find the ball, and sometimes I feel like I can’t find you!

When you can’t find my hand, look for my face.

Sometimes I’m so focused on what I think I need, or what I want, that I can’t see Daddy at the open door.  I’m just like Duchess not taking her eyes off the ball when what she really wanted and/or needed was to be outside with Bill.

So today I choose to look to you, Daddy, not looking for provision, or the “ball” in your hand, but looking for your face, your presence.

“Lord, when you said to me, ‘Seek my face,’ my inner being responded, ‘I’m seeking your face with all my heart.” Psalm 27:8