Ekloge - Claimed as his own

 

Remember jumping in the car with mom or dad and yelling out to your siblings, “I’ve got shotgun!” and hearing the others moan.

Claiming your spot. So what makes a location desirable? You wouldn’t want to reserve your seat in the trunk of the car, or claim your space in a garbage dump, would you?

So I came across this scripture the other morning that I’d never really looked at closely before.

In 2 Peter 1:10, God claims his spot:

“For this reason, beloved ones, be eager to confirm and validate that God has invited you to salvation and claimed you as his own.” TPT

First of all, you didn’t crash this party, or just happen upon it. You received a personal invitation from Father God. When the angels were writing out the invites, Daddy said to send a special invitation to Taffy Tucker Spaloss.

Then not only did he invite me, he also claimed me as his own. He staked out his spot – I’m sitting next to Taffy.

In the Passion Translation, the footnote for this verse teaches us that the Greek word translated ‘claimed as his own’ is ekloge (which means ‘from his logos word’). The footnote says “God spoke and you were his. You are meant to be a “chosen word” from his mouth, and you will not return to him void, but you will accomplish what he has destined for you to do.” (See Isaiah 55:11)

Don’t miss the meaning of this statement. Herein lies my value, my purpose, my raison d’etre. The God of the universe has claimed me as his own. He has declared in the presence of heaven and earth that I am his chosen word. My life has impact and purpose because he spoke my name.

And one day I will hear him speak my name out loud. When I step through the portal into heaven, pass through the throng of my loved ones who’ve gone ahead of me, and step into Jesus’ outstretched arms, I’ll hear him speak my name. I think of Mary Magdalene at the empty garden tomb, heartbroken because she believes someone has stolen the Lord’s dead body. But then she hears a soft voice, or is it just a breeze whistling over the desert bushes.

“Mary”.

“Did I really hear that? Is someone saying my name? It sounds… it sounds like...Jesus! Jesus, it’s you! You’re alive!”

Yes, it will be life changing to hear you speak my name. But you said to pray and declare on earth as it is in heaven. So could you speak my name now? Could you enable my ears today to hear you claim me as your own, ekloge? May I live today as your chosen word, accomplishing all that you wrote about me in your book. For I believe that “You saw who you created me to be before I became me! Before I’d ever seen the light of day, the number of days you planned for me were already recorded in you book.” Ps. 139:16.

I will NEVER leave you.

 

I was running around in my jammies on Saturday morning, trying to button up my Sunday School lesson for tomorrow. Finally finished, I headed toward the computer room to print out the story, when all of a sudden I smelled my favorite perfume. I walked on, smelled the collar of my bathrobe, but there was no fragrance there. After passing the scent several times in my travels between my prayer room and the computer room, I backtracked and found my jeans jacket hanging on the back of my sewing chair. I sniffed at the collar of the jacket, and there it was. Some of my perfume must have rubbed off on the collar the last time I wore that jacket.

I smiled and started to walk away. But then Daddy said “wait”.

I knew he was speaking. Something about stopping to smell the fragrance, and I knew he wanted me to stop what I was doing, still in my jammies and now it’s nearly noon, and write about what he was saying to me.

The day before, while I was doing my routine early morning walk before work Daddy had reminded me of a time many years ago when I was traveling home from a conference in the Chicago area. A 20 hour bus trip home. I was quite discouraged at the time, had just broken up, or rather was dumped, by a boyfriend, and had the awful experience of running into him at this conference. I just wanted to run and hide. But I made it thru the conference and got on the bus to return home, alone.

Only I wasn’t alone. I had this strange awareness of a presence over me, like a cloud over my head. You know the kind of sensation you feel when you’re with people in a room, even tho your eyes are closed, you can still sense that someone is next to you? It was so intense that I kept looking up, only seeing the ceiling of the bus, because I felt like something was actually hovering over me. As the hours passed by I realized that it was God’s presence I was feeling. He knew I needed his physical presence, God with skin on, to carry me thru that discouraging time.

For 20 hours he hovered over me. When I got home, the sensation slowly dissipated until I couldn’t feel him anymore. But I was so thankful that he had done that for me.

So as I walked yesterday, Daddy reminded me of that amazing intimate bus trip. Then he said, “that’s the norm. I’m always there, right above you, beneath you, all around you. Look for me.”

And I had to get ready for work so I’d never journaled about what he’d showed me. Until this morning – well it’s nearly noon now – when he blew on the fragrance of my perfume on the collar of my jeans jacket and said “stop and recognize the fragrance of my presence.”

So pause with me, ok? Maybe you’re still in your jammies, too:) Hold up your hand and count off on your five fingers as you recite Hebrews 13:5,

I will never leave you.

I will NEVER leave you.

Once more, I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU.

Enjoy the rest of your day!

Watch me, Daddy!

 

Daddy, I’ve been feeling “less than” again. Like I used to be, striving to do better than anyone else, chip on my shoulder. Not feeling accepted, like I have to strive for acceptance and be someone I’m not.

But you keep telling me that you love me right now, where I am, who I am. I hear you saying the words of a song: “You don’t have to change a thing. Just be here with me…”

“Rest in who you are because I love you for who you are. I’m not done yet, but I love you throughout the process, from glory to glory.”

Psalm 37:23 “The steps of the God-pursuing ones follow firmly in the footsteps of the Lord, and God delights in every step they take to follow him.”

Can you hear him cheering, like an unabashed daddy watching his daughter take her first wobbly steps?

You’d think I just ran a marathon, not stumbled across the living room.

“Watch me, Daddy!”

Grinning, he reminds me, “I delight in every step you take towards me.”

INTIMACY AND LADYBUG SLIPPERS

 

Intimacy and Ladybug Slippers

“Awake, O north wind! Awake, O south wind! Breathe on my garden with your Spirit-Wind. Stir up the sweet spice of your life within me. Spare nothing as you make me your fruitful garden. Hold nothing back until I release your fragrance.” Song of Songs 4:16 TPT

“So I kneel humbly in awe before the Father of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah, the perfect Father of every father and child in heaven and on the earth. And I pray that he would unveil within you the unlimited riches of his glory and favor until supernatural strength floods your innermost being with his divine might and explosive power. Then, by constantly using your faith, the life of Christ will be released deep inside you, and the resting place of his love will become the very source and root of your life. Then you will be empowered to discover what every holy one experiences – the great magnitude of the astonishing love of Christ in all its dimension. How deeply intimate and far-reaching is his love! How enduring and inclusive it is! Endless love beyond measurement that transcends our understanding – this extravagant love pours into you until you are filled to overflowing with the fullness of God! Never doubt God’s mighty power to work in you and accomplish all this. He will achieve infinitely more than you greatest request, your most unbelievable dream, and exceed your wildest imagination. He will outdo them all, for his miraculous power constantly energizes you.” Ephesians 3:14-20 TPT

It’s all the same message God has been speaking to me. It’s all about intimacy.

So what, you may ask, do ladybug slippers have to do with intimacy with God?

My ladybug slippers came to me identical, no left or right shoe. As I began to wear the slippers they became molded to my feet and now there there is a definite right and a definite left slipper. Now, if I wear them on the opposite foot, it doesn’t feel right.

God does that to me. He comes and make his imprint on my heart, on my thinking, on my emotions. He makes his soft spot in me, and now nothing else fits there but him.

It’s like the words of the song “Come away with me...Open up your heart and let me in…” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jagoM0WSSu4

My prayer for the Church is that she, like the bride of Solomon, be ruined for anything except God’s presence in the secret place. And may the Holy Spirit blow the fragrance beyond the secret place where those who don’t yet know the intimate love of a Father will be drawn to seek him out.

One generation makes your faithfulness known to the next!

 

Isaiah 38

Do you remember Hezekiah? Hezekiah was a king of Judah. His story is told in the Book of Isaiah in the Old Testament. As we read through the history of the nations of Israel and Judah we hear of king after king who “did evil in the sight of the Lord” and whose reigns were cut short. It is with a breath of relief that we finally read about a king that got it right! Hezekiah “did what was right in the sight of the Lord”, we read in 2 Chronicles 29. “Hezekiah repaired the doors of the Lord’s Temple and made them strong. He opened the Temple again.” (2 Chronicles 29:3)

So when we get to Isaiah chapter 38 and read about Hezekiah’s terminal sickness, our hearts cry out with Hezekiah, “Let me live!” Look at what I’ve done, how I’ve served you and repaired your Temple so your people can come and worship you again. Don’t let me die now! Why, God?

So Yahweh changes his mind. And we get to watch the whole thing play out in Isaiah 38.

Hezekiah becomes deathly sick. The Bible doesn’t tell us if he sent for the prophet, Isaiah, or if God just sent Isaiah to him to deliver the news of his impending demise. “This is what Yahweh has to say to you,” Isaiah began. “Set your affairs in order, for you will not recover from this illness. You are going to die.”

What went through Hezekiah’s mind as he considered Yahweh’s message? We don’t have to wonder, because Isaiah 38 recounts Hezekiah’s own rendition of the story, “Hezekiah’s Psalm of Praise” later in the chapter.

Hezekiah’s initial reaction to Isaiah’s death sentence: “He broke down and wept…” Then he did what any other child in distress would do, he ran to the Father. He “turned his face to the wall and prayed, O please, Yahweh, please, I beg you, let me live.” I’ve walked faithfully before you. “With all my heart I have sought to do only what is good in your eyes!”

Then Isaiah, barely having left the king’s palace, heard the voice of Yahweh stopping him in his tracks.

Go back to the king and deliver this message.

What? I just left there? Seriously?

Yes, seriously. Go and deliver this message to Hezekiah:

“Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city.” Isaiah 38:5-6

And Hezekiah’s gonna have a hard time hearing this change of plans, going from the depths of despair to the heights of joy, so when he asks you for a sign that I will do what I say, tell him this:

“‘This is the Lord’s sign to you that the Lord will do what he has promised: I will make the shadow cast by the sun go back the ten steps it has gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.’” So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had gone down.” Isaiah 38:7-8

I love it! Love it when you do the impossible as if it’s no big deal. You think nothing of just making a promise of an additional 15 years of life for Hezekiah, and then turning back the clock to confirm your promise!

You say, see if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing on you! See, look and see how much I love my kids and desire to delight their hearts! I take no pleasure in depriving my children out of anything they want or need – it is my joy that they be filled with wonder as they receive from my hand pressed down, shaken together and running over.

I encourage you to read through Isaiah chapter 38, in the Passion Translation if possible. Hezekiah’s’ “Psalm of Praise” describes what he felt as he prepared to die, weeping bitterly as he cried out to God: “..restore my health and give me life again!”

Now armed with Yahweh’s promise and seeing with his own eyes as the hands of time were turned back and the shadow receded on the steps, he pens this poem of praise so that his children, and their children, and now anyone who picks up the Bible, can read the story and believe with Hezekiah in this God who loves his own and joyfully works all things for our good.

“One generation makes your faithfulness known to the next!” Isa. 38:19

So we grab onto this picture of God’s character that he reveals through the prophet, Isaiah.

Do you need healing in your body today? Sing and declare the words of Hezekiah in Isa. 28:20 over yourself today:

“Yahweh is pleased to heal and save me! We will sing to the music of stringed instruments every day of our lives in Yahweh’s house!”

The Bullfrog Amen

 

Proverbs 3:5-8 “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.“

I’d memorized the first 2 verses of this scripture verse as a teenager, but now coming it across it again while I was researching scripture promises to pray over my bones, I discovered verses 7 & 8.

My latest bone scan, at 70 years of age, showed decreasing bone density, borderline osteoporosis. My doctor told me I needed to take active steps toward increasing my bone density, or I would be full blown osteoporosis by my next scan. She told me to increase calcium rich foods – that the body absorbs more calcium through foods than with supplements, and to increase my weight bearing exercise. Like walking, she said. Well I already walk a mile and a half nearly every morning before work.

I left the doctor’s office with some other ideas for saving my bones. I decided to research scripture verses to pray over my bones, and to ask a group of my closest friends to pray those verses with me over our bones.

This morning as I walked the Lord reminded me again of Proverbs 3:5-8. “Worry rots the bones”, he told me. “But trusting me in everything nourishes your bones.”

Then he asked, “Are you ready to trust me?”

“Repeat after me.”

He was giving me a walking Sozo!

“I choose.”

I choose, I repeated.

“To trust you.”

To trust you.

“Even when I cannot see the path in front of me.”

Even when I cannot see the path in front of me.

Just then I heard the bullfrog sing out in the drainage pond as I walked by.

“That was the ‘amen’!”

I smiled and echoed what the bullfrog was croaking, Amen!

4:32

 

I woke up while it was still dark and turned to glance at the clock as I often do when I awaken during the night. The digital clock read 4:32 a.m. Immediately I heard "Ephesians 4:32", a scripture verse I had memorized with my children when they were little. I had also composed a little melody that we would sing together: “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God for Christ’s sake, has forgiven you, Ephesians Four Thirty Two.”

So I lay there, half asleep singing the little song in my head, but the last phrase of the song, “just as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you” stood out to me. What does that mean? God does not forgive me for my sake? My repentance, or regret over my sin is not the basis of my forgiveness?

I thought of the phrase “for my sake”, and could picture me asking a favor on behalf of a friend.

“Would you please give my friend a place at your table?”

“What? I don’t even know her! Why would I have her over to dinner?”

“I know, I know, but would you please do it for my sake?”

“Oh, ok. I don’t know this lady, and don’t need another person at my table, but because I love you, and would love to have you at my table, I will give your friend a place at my table. For your sake.”

So the devil might complain to God about why he would forgive me, kind of like when he accused God’s servant, Job. “Why would you bless him? He’s nothing special. He only loves you because you have blessed him. Remove the blessing and he’ll curse you to your face!” the devil challenged.

And that’s what the devil does. He is the accuser, laying guilt on us, sending his spirits of discouragement, depression and doubt to cause us to hide our faces from God because we don’t deserve his forgiveness.

So Father God highlighted to me that little phrase this morning to remind me that he forgave me for every sin, every doubt, every way I’ve hurt his heart, not because I deserve it, or have made up for it with good deeds or penance, but for the sake of his son, Jesus. Because he came home to his Father on May 9, 1966 and asked him, “Would you please give Taffy Tucker a seat at your table?”

And Father God smiled and asked, “What has she done to deserve a place at my table, Son?”

That’s when Jesus said, “She’s with me.”