What do you call Hope?

"It's amazing to think that this small plant (inside the canyon) can survive here but it does."

(a quote from the photographer/author of the photo blog I follow where this shot can be found.)

Prayer and Prophetic Dreaming...Synergy of Imagery

Strange balance, these times when the thrill of waiting for the bizarre to be perfectly rationally "explained" by the Spirit of God because the explanation always comes with the call to some moral strain bearing witness to the depths He was willing to have His heart broken on our behalf.

Such is the beginning of explanations for things revealed to my friend, D., and me separately and corporately. Glimmers are flaring, suddenly offering many potentialities for study. Not long ago I sensed from You the following idea: expect more communication from Me, particularly regarding this idea of a transgressor being held to a proper boundary. Now in a rushing flood, I find other verses that contain all this imagery that D. and I have ben sifting through these last 6 months, and all that imagery shows up in a panoramic prelude to the verse she and her husband discovered prophesied over them in that stranger's prayer (so many things are proving providential in all this.)

First, the saga of all the revelation is found in entries last May--conversations with God, August 8, She Counts!, and one about the same time frame about the Courier and the Tinder. All these recently about D. and K. (her husband) and horses tie in here, too.

There are several places where the idea of taking someone's coat is mentioned. It is almost always in the context of a strong one taking the coat as a pledge for the debt a poorer one owes. There are rules about this sort of thing:

The basic rule of the coat as a pledge:
Exd 22:25
"If you lend money to any of My people who are poor among you, you shall not be like a moneylender to him; you shall not charge him interest.
Exd 22:26
"If you ever take your neighbor's garment as a pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down.
Exd 22:27
"For that is his only covering, it is his garment for his skin. What will he sleep in? And it will be that when he cries to Me, I will hear, for I am gracious.

The dignity preserved of the one owing:
Deu 24:10
"When you lend your brother anything, you shall not go into his house to get his pledge.
Deu 24:11
"You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you lend shall bring the pledge out to you.
Deu 24:12
"And if the man is poor, you shall not keep his pledge overnight.
Deu 24:13
"You shall in any case return the pledge to him again when the sun goes down, that he may sleep in his own garment and bless you; and it shall be righteousness to you before the LORD your God.

The ones I saw first regarding the taking of a garment, in this place it seems to say the garment of one who vouches for a seductress, twice given. Joseph would say "As proof it is from God."
Pro 20:16
Take the garment of one who is surety for a stranger,
And hold it as a pledge when it is for a seductress.

Pro 27:13
Take the garment of him who is surety for a stranger,
And hold it in pledge when he is surety for a seductress.

Bible side notes explain that in the following passage, both father and son go in to the same woman--possibly in a cultic prostitution situation. "Here the worshipers lay down by the altars for luxurious feasts (religious ones) on garments taken in pledge, in order to keep their own clothing clean. The borrowed clothes were to have been returned before sundown so that the owners would not be deprived of their coverings." (See again the Exodus 22 commandment)
What strikes me profoundly in this one is that the point here is that these ones who are worshipers are more concerned with their own cleanliness than they are with the care of those who owe them a debt People who "went to the place of worship but defiled God's law and brought more misery to the least of His people." One thing about the coat dream I had: the coats I saw were suit coats, and they were all perfectly uniform and tidy, all identical in a row. I put them away in part because the water coming off me would make them messy. I remember the same idea of how when Stephen was being stoned, Paul kept the coats of those doing the stoning...again that idea of keeping one's own coat clean, even while doing work they blindly believe is for God but is actually despicable to Him.
It seems that when the question arises according to the prompt of the Holy Spirit: would you set aside the neat orderliness of things for the sake of repairing a breach--would you allow things to potentially get rather messy if I the Lord your God say it is my will to use that period of disarray and potential pain to make a greater healing a part of the total story, what would ye say?
But here is the passage from Amos:
Amo 2:7
They pant after (trample on) the dust of the earth which is on the head of the poor,
And pervert the way of the humble.
A man and his father go in to the same girl,
To defile My holy name.
Amo 2:8
They lie down by every altar on clothes taken in pledge,
And drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god.

Amo 2:13
"Behold, I am weighed down by you,
As a cart full of sheaves is weighed down.
Amo 2:14
Therefore flight shall perish from the swift,
The strong shall not strengthen his power,
Nor shall the mighty deliver himself;
Amo 2:15
He shall not stand who handles the bow,
The swift of foot shall not escape,
Nor shall he who rides a horse deliver himself.
Amo 2:16
The most courageous men of might
Shall flee naked in that day,"
Says the LORD.

So I saw all these the other day. Then today, I found not only this idea of garments showing up, but just about all the imagery of these past days synthesized into these couple of chapters:

Interestingly, the staff here called Bands (in red) is the same Hebrew word I've been citing about in its usaga as "pledge" for it is the same word.
Zec 11:7
And I will feed 7462 the flock 6629 of slaughter 2028, [even] you 3651, O poor 6041 of the flock 6629. And I took 3947 unto me two 8147 staves 4731; the one 259 I called 7121 Beauty 5278, and the other 259 I called 7121 Bands 2254 ; and I fed 7462 the flock 6629.
Zec 11:14
Then I cut asunder 1438 mine other 8145 staff 4731, [even] Bands 2254 , that I might break 6565 the brotherhood 264 between Judah 3063 and Israel 3478.

I have more to consider from this chapter from Zechariah, and much from the one that follows it, and from some in Jeremiah, but do not have time right now. Bring me back to this, God.
May we continue to be evidence of this relationship with Thee in all these things:
Pro 20:5
Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water,
But a man of understanding will draw it out.

The Warrior is Tested

So the man and the maiden met her father:
the possessor
of her beginnings.
Counsel in courtship they received,
that their way might be pleasing in those days.
The father opened his lips with prudence,
and the warrior with right speech.
So the courtship blossomed
in the integrity of the man and the maid.

With a diligent heart he took her to see
where the mountains were settled;
With an honorable one she took him to see
where the fountains abounded with water.
With the primal dust at their feet
and the mist of high clouds in their hair,
all things most desirable to them fell away but for one:
the knowing of each other.
And as their wisdom grew sound,
their understanding strong,
then their prayers grew rich in the merging,
their hearts began to meld...
but they were, as yet,
untested.

Then one day, a crafty woman
called out to the warrior
in passing,
called out through the lattice of her cool dark house.

"Ask me what is to come..." she said,
and her voice was dead leaves, the ones refusing
to fall from the branch that, in life,
was their home.

Something in that voice took him back
to the day of the dragon...a day long gone.
"She prefers you," said the woman, her tongue
spread so neatly with reassurances
--like a doily--
perched on that voice's darkly polished surface.
"But...she will accept him.
First for lust, strangely come here while you are absent.
Then, for the sake of the people...and somehow, hmmm--"
the voice paused
"for you."

The man ran then on swift foot,
no longer prone to listen,
but to act.
With sure foot, he took the palace gates,
but found the throne room garishly altered,
gem and stone replaced
by a faded sort of plushness.
Two women sat on lesser thrones there;
Women whose soft whiteness made gleam
the eyes of milling captains caped in purple,
men who--even in the palace halls--
felt need of swords and spurs;
who loudly rattled bucklers, shields and helmets,
comforts of war slung under every arm
and across every shoulder.
The would-be warrior saw one of the women
...was his woman. Sepulchre though she was.
She and the one who was her sister
(he now realized)
held a central throne empty, preserved
for the captain of this horrific vanguard troop.
So the man hid behind a pillar,
staring, though the horror of the view
shredded his heart, then left its threads
to whip on the billows of despair.

But even now, that captain took the room
with pomp and swagger,
in flashing vermilion, his belt well-tooled
with weaponry of a pearliest golden,
but still flimsy to a knowing eye.
Nevertheless, the women stood and shouted to the company assembled:
"Behold, of all the desirable young horsemen on horses--
of all the choice men--
here is the finest, our governor and commander: Rehum Rahim II!
Call to remembrance, O people,
the glory of his youth
and the strength of these days of his manhood!"

So the assembly applauded this warrior
whose eyes shone brilliant, but not at the sounding of his name...
for they were, instead, well set to deliver hatred's inheritance,
to uncover the nakedness and shame of a perplexed people,
delighting in it even as one might
delight to uncover a dish of delicacies for a parlor guest.
This was Rehum Rahim, but the people did not see it.
For to some, a word
(in particular, a name)
is larger than any deed done, or yet to do.

In shock and dismay did the man leave the great hall.
In despair did he seek a face---any face--
still familiar in its affections.

Past nine rooms, then ten he walked
unnoticed--
Drawing little attention from the confident siege force
now encamped there.
Rebellions were not even a fleeting concern for these usurpers.

Now the would-be warrior--
so full of horror and distaste at all things war-like--
found the kitchen
where his gaze met familiar eyes.
His wandering feet halted; his outcast soul paused.
He entered the room.

The old sage (who never aged)
squatted there,
stoking a fire built of smoking peat
and bones.
"Bring that pot there, Lad.
I wondered when I'd see you..."
So the horror-stricken warrior--
knowing something of the nature of this old man--
brought the pot to the fire
without a word, without a gesture of urgency,
though many words begged the speaking.
Together they put water in that pot,
filled it with choice cuts of meat
and spices.
For slaves, the fare a master consumes
is nothing more than a working aroma.
Thus this bowed-down man appeared a slave
of the new palace order.
The younger man's heart ached at the thought of it.

As the boiling meat began to give up its savory steam,
the old man finally found a comment worth the making.
"You surely wonder why your love is so stationed
at the side of--"
"Yes! How is she given so whole-heartedly to that Vermilion Prince?"

"I'd ask how are you so fully escaped?
Ah well, your freedom is to me opportunity
to open this old mute mouth.
She'll recover her sanity, when deceptions fall away
and truth ceases to be prey to the likes of him.
But it will not return to her easily."
The old one drew his gaze around the stony walls of the gritty kitchen
like hands move around the face of a clock
until a view of would-be warrior was in his sphere.
"But what of you? What will you do with the Lord's sign?
With this grace of knowing how far you've come
from the days of your own arrogance and vain-glorious ambition?
What will you do with this Vermilion Prince--
so much the man you once aspired to be--
when he does think to take with one stroke, the desire of your eyes?"

The warrior sat on the floor then and stared into the flames,
even as the bones baked to powder
--like chalk dust--
and still, the old man stoked the flame.
The hapless warrior stared into those flames
as one out of mind, but in truth,
as one gone deeper still into mind,
to the recesses where, like secret rooms,
the heart goes to do its thinking.
He searched, and he sat.

And as he did, the pot's scummy water boiled off.
Its meat charred and burned away..
Still, the old man stoked the flame,
until the pot itself appeared as a hunk of rippling orange glow.
Waste
--that long-forgotten proof of the true condition
of the Need-less,
where even the act of wasting
is an act of grace,
and mysterious comfort to the slowly waking--
Waste found its voice in the hissing metal.

"I believe it is finished," said the old man, kicking down the coals.

Billy Graham's Prayer for our Nation, as read on Paul Harvey

Got this as an email and wanted a record of it...

THIS MAN SURE HAS A GOOD VIEW OF WHAT'S HAPPENING TO OUR COUNTRY!> >> >> > 'Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your > > forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your > > Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly > > what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and > > reversed our values. We have exploited the poor and called it the > > lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have > > killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists > > and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our > > children and called it building self esteem. We have abused power > > and called it politics. We have coveted our neighbor's possessions > > and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity > > and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have > > ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it > > enlightenment. Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; > > cleanse us from every sin and Set us free. Amen!'

> >> >> > Commentator Paul Harvey aired this prayer on his radio program, > > 'The Rest of the Story,' and received a larger response to this > > program than any other he has ever aired. With the Lord's help, may > > this prayer sweep over our nation and wholeheartedly become our > > desire so that we again can be called 'One nation under God.

Prayer and Prophetic Dreaming...Running with the Horse Theme

I looked back, and guess I didn't blog this one. I think, however, I still have the email I sent back in June:

Blessings and honor to you guys! During my Bible study this morning, I came across a passage that makes me think I know why I had that visionary dream of K. I told you about yesterday, D. It also explains why his garment seemed to be the most important thing in terms of things prophetic. Interestingly, I had the dream about K. the very night after being at Horizon for a ballgame at which it rained, a confirmation that this is largely about the way God speaks to and through K. through water--God's emblem of wisdom--as you described to me. Here's what I put in my journal about the dream I had:
I saw K. at the baseball field, only it was not "just" the baseball field anymore. I saw him in a transfigured place and in a transfigured state. These things struck me about him in that state--
he had the eyes of a watchman
the chest and shoulders of a strong warrior-trainer
the stance of a guard-protector.
And I sensed a title spoken over him--the keeper of the games. I don't understand that part, though.
It seemed like his call was to prepare warriors for God and to guard and protect them while they were within his training ground, hence his stance inside the field's fence, and my comment during church last night about the graphic on the screens behind the worship-song lyrics showing a fence "for no apparent purpose." (smile)

These visionary dreams always have some element that proves the person's free-will is never compromised, so the image seemed to have the possibility of running two different directions: either as this trainer of God's warriors or as a Roman centurion-type who was training gladiators to die. (Reflecting back from today's position of things being manifested more fully, I see this was the garment of a charioteer, but at the time this was not yet perceptible, the other woman's prophecy and the verses from B.'s mouth in the pulpit were needed to complete the purpose of the beauty of the garment.) We all always have those choices before us, but the clue to the choice K. is making was in the garment he wore (reminds me of the parable about the one kicked out of the wedding feast because he wasn't in the right wedding garment. K.'s garment told the "rest of the story.") He wore a sleeveless tunic, belted at the waist (which made me think of all the verses about the benefits of being well-girded) and woven of fine fabric. But its color seemed most important, too. It was the color of blood, but not the bright red blood that is just come from the heart, rather it was the darker blood that is in the veins. "Blood on its way back to the heart," I thought in the dream. (Right now, that K. is working with kids for whom our best hope is that they are on their way back to the Lord's heart--this is utterly apropro.) And it seemed a very good thing to be on the way back to the heart of God. Yes, I wish I could make you see how lovely was that fabric!

Now today as I read my Bible reading, I come across this verse that makes me see God's important connection He's drawing to other things He's been saying through these visions He gave me for Horizon. Look at this from Isaiah 9:
3 You have multiplied the nation
And [fn1] increased its joy;
They rejoice before You
According to the joy of harvest,
As men rejoice when they divide the spoil.
4 For You have broken the yoke of his burden
And the staff of his shoulder,
The rod of his oppressor,
As in the day of Midian.
5 For every warrior's sandal from the noisy battle,
And garments rolled in blood,
Will be used for burning and fuel of fire.

Keith, you are being called to offer holy fire somehow. This verse also brings me back to remembering how much lately God has highlighted the image of sandal straps on people's feet, so much so that I prayed in the moms' prayer group, asking that we might all be like John the Baptist, who professed himself unfit even to loose Christ's sandal strap because He realized the excellence and majesty of his Lord. But here the sandal image is again, only now for the warrior, and the warrior whose garment has been rolled in blood...these are they who are to be led by Keith, those who rejoice according to the joy of the harvest and who know that the Lord has broken the rod of their oppressors.

But equally significant to that is the image of the garment dipped in blood being used for burning. This takes me back to my own calling to recognize and tell about the soaps found in Malachi. Here's the passage again:

"Behold, I send My messenger,
And he will prepare the way before Me.
And the Lord, whom you seek,
Will suddenly come to His temple,
Even the Messenger of the covenant,
In whom you delight.
Behold, He is coming,"
Says the Lord of hosts.
2 "But who can endure the day of His coming?
And who can stand when He appears?
For He is like a refiner's fire
And like launderers' soap.
3 He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver;
He will purify the sons of Levi,
And purge them as gold and silver,
That they may offer to the Lord
An offering in righteousness.

I've told quite a number of people about this dream of the soaps, but I've always added the fact that my part was just that: a part, for I only saw the soaps. Nevertheless, for us to have been called to live out this passage, God made it clear that the soap is not the only refinement involved. Someone would be called to the role of the refinement by fire, and while the launderers are spoken of in multiples, even as I saw the nine bars, the one called to be the refiner with fire is a singular person. Might that person be K.? So I pray that K. may be given the supernatural witness that will purify with fire those things that are not to be purified with soap.
Two things are large in my prayers and study about this passage--one is that both fire and soap are purifying agents, but they can't be used interchangeably. What needs soap would be destroyed by fire and what needs fire isn't affected at all by soap. So I pray that we can see the difference. Up to now, two bars of soap out of the nine I saw are come and gone. But apparently the days of the refinement of fire are also looming before us. (Are now here.) The second thing is that in both passages the end result serves as our inspiration to get us through the strain of the days of purification...in the Isaiah passage it is the victory of the harvest and the freedom from oppression and in the Malachi one, it is that the people are purified so that they may have the privilege of offering to the Lord an "offering in righteousness."

God has been saying lately to me to get ready for Him to come before us with His majesty on display. I'm thinking we'd better buckle our seat belts for that ride!

That was the end of the letter. But this fall, what struck me when D. told me that K. received a prophetic call to "run with the horses" and found the Scriptural confirmation that this would be a season when God's call on him would ramp up, was that the way I saw him in this dream of mine was that the best way to describe his garment was that he was dressed as a charioteer. As one who controls the horses, and the Keeper of the Games title fits with the idea of chariot races quite well. As is often the case, I find things in real life running a confirming parallel to these dreams...for in Yahoo news today is an article about a chariot being excavated in Bulgaria where no complete chariot has ever been retrieved before, only bits and pieces of them as looters have taken the most valuable parts of many of these Thracian artifacts over the years.

Also interesting is the fact that I found another reference about horses that attaches these things God has to say to K. and D. to those very ideas He's been iving me, prompted by dreams and visions about some indiscretion becoming an issue this year...In Jeremiah 5, it says, "When I fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves in troops in the harlots' houses. They were as fed horses (or, well-fed lusty stallions) in the morning: every one neighing after his neighbor's wife. Shall I not visit (punish them) for these things?...Go yet upon her walls and destroy; but make not a full end (do not completely destroy.)"

That fire I was considering as I spoke to K. and D. in the letter this summer makes a more pointed appearance in both this NT passage and in the life of our student body this week, as several suspensions and an expulsion flared like a flash fire over the course of just two days this week, as "transgressions" came tumbling out as if from behind a firewall that was suddenly removed. Too heavy is the solemnity for now to see whether a new era is come to potential birth.
1Cr 3:9
For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, you are God's building.
1Cr 3:10
According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it.
1Cr 3:11
For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
1Cr 3:12
Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,
1Cr 3:13
each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is.
1Cr 3:14
If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward.
1Cr 3:15
If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
1Cr 3:16
Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
1Cr 3:17
If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.
1Cr 3:18
Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.
1Cr 3:19
For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, "He catches the wise in their own craftiness";[fn1]
1Cr 3:20
and again, "The LORD knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile."[fn2]
1Cr 3:21
Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours:
1Cr 3:22
whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or things present or things to come--all are yours.
1Cr 3:23
And you are Christ's, and Christ is God's.

Right now, almost all of this fire burns in the arena where K. works and has the greatest responsibility and influence. Thank You, God, that You kept him here to ride this chariot. Preserve him and the one called the Day who might carry this fire to other corners of this place...for I'm not sure it is all finished just yet. (Interestingly, the Dean of the Bible College has the last name Day. Is it that "I'm sovereign and I don't waste a thing and I make every detail of My word have its way of being true in the circumstance where I plant it" side of You revealing Himself here, O God? Hmmm...)

Finally, I think of my own dream some time ago about a spotted horse that--for lack of a better word--seemed rather stupid, or at least ignorant and without wisdom. It was inside a fenced area, but had found a weak spot in the wire fencing and was trying to break through that fence. I was outside the fence, but knew the horse should stay inside, so when I was given a tool meant to repair the wire fence, I went to work with it. When the horse realized it no longer had an easy way to breach the fence, it wandered back into the center of its designated pasture. Not long ago as I was reading a Blackaby book called Experiencing the Cross, this image was given a Biblical label: transgression. To transgress, by one definition, means to go beyond a boundary or limit. Somehow, we are called to control these horses and repair these fences, and God in His heaven sends images that parallel each other from a myriad of sources including His word to teach us His ways of dealing with the strain of the day--teaching us how to "redeem the time, for the days are evil."

Have I not asked this before: for those who think God's hand isn't strong on all this and His awareness isn't acute enough to be of effect, I'd ask...where have you been while He's been talking about all this these last few months!?!

A footman or a horseman?

This is the topic my friend D. (she is this one who is my prayer-partner in all these things) said came up in a prophetic prayer made over her husband last spring. "He will run with the horses," said the prophet-woman in prayer over K-my friend's husband and a man who has also appeared in my own dreams hand-given by God. Then the season of waiting and wondering what it meant ensues. I've found it to be a spiritual principle in things prophetic: the days of Sabbath. The time between the revelation and the consummation of the thing revealed. A period of time when faith has its perfect work, when watching and praying prove themselves, when pure devotion to God plants itself in a field that looks full of stones and weeds and says "nevertheless, good will grow here." When confusion or even unholiness seem to glow in the heart of the thing God claims is in His hand for the future, then faith says, "He alone will reveal how this is good and fight. I see with eyes not yet perfect, but that which is perfect will come after this Sabbath commitment, and the imperfect part will dissolve away." Then time and chance--those things that Solomon in his wisdom said touch every man's life and are therefore both the domain and the strategic tool of God's enemy--these become instead the very tools by which God is victor.
Moses in the giving of the law said it like this:
Exd 23:12
"Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female servant and the stranger may be refreshed.
Exd 23:13
"And in all that I have said to you, be circumspect and make no mention of the name of other gods, nor let it be heard from your mouth.
And so it makes sense that there should be talk of a circumspect heart accompanying talk of a sabbath.

The prophets say it like this:
Isa 55:13
Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign [that] shall not be cut off.
And so we have the promise that this law and precept is ever at our hands for good when we join God in His seasons of rest and work.

What at last came of that strange prophesy? Just a week ago, here in a season of discouragement and wrestling with gnats and gorillas at every turn for this precious couple...more than any human knows but the two of them as flesh of each other's flesh. Now this verse comes up during a church service and gives D. chills in its prophetic significance:
Jer 12:5
If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? and [if] in the land of peace, [wherein] thou trustedst, [they wearied thee], then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?

An encouragement, like Jesus come along and with a soft compassion making that address, "O ye of little faith..." before giving some word that will bolster the heart in places where is needs shoring up. They will need to run with the horses, in fact they will run with the horses. They needed to know God promised it in this day! So He sent them word of it before it ever made sense, before it ever became a promise of how precious they were in His hand.

As I pray for them on this topic, I find another passage relating simultaneously to footmen and horses:

1Ch 18:3
Then David destroyed the forces of King Hadadezer of Zobah, as far as Hamath,[fn1] when Hadadezer marched out to strengthen his control along the Euphrates River.
1Ch 18:4
David captured one thousand chariots, seven thousand charioteers, and twenty thousand foot soldiers. Then he crippled all but one hundred of the chariot horses.
1Ch 18:5
When Arameans from Damascus arrived to help Hadadezer, David killed twenty-two thousand of them.
1Ch 18:6
Then he placed several army garrisons in Damascus, the Aramean capital, and the Arameans became David's subjects and brought him tribute money. So the Lord gave David victory wherever he went.

I've heard You say that this seems to be the era of Defining the Remnant in the place where I work. And, here You present yet another reference to that concept.
Bless these friends of mine! And thank You, for how rich it is to hear the story of Your using the same mode of communication with them that You use with me, Lord God!

The eagle and the cave-fish

There is no such thing as a proud holiness.
So said Oswald Chambers in the devotional I read this morning. The words ring loudly in the caverns of my mind, in the places unexplored as pride begs I look instead at the resplendent autumn that cloaks the ground above that dank darkness hidden below the surface. But You made them all--both the fields and the caves--as homes to Your uniquely-made creatures. Both the cunning eye of the eagle who sees nearly everything and the blind fish who see nothing and know nothing but the world of the dark cave, who would argue that no such world as the eagle's could possibly exist based on their experimental reality. You offer Your same essence to both, miraculously made fit for both to receive.

For some time, I've pondered the unwittingly sad and impertinent cry of the fish who can not dream beyond the cave. But...I fear too long I've presumed wrongly about that eagle. I've thought him to naturally consider his environment not only more lofty in actuality, but also more lofty in purpose than the humble domain of the sightless fish. In truth, if one can't see the beauty, the honorable humility fashioned into the one, then the holiness of the other is lost under a mantle of pride.

Prophetic Dreams Find Company, a letter

To my dear young friend who steps up and sometimes shares some of the dawning moments of his own dream-ministry (as one of my long-term friends--a long-seasoned Christian--calls my own ministry.)

I've thought about the dream you shared with me the other day. You dreamed a brick house on the property where we work had been invaded by entities that were bad. You dreamed that you rose up to take these invaders on in battle, but the equipment you had in hand was a strange meld of real and toy weaponry. You dreamed that when you were in the house, you were in danger of "losing" the battle, so you retreated, running to a barn across the campus. I think about the first dream you shared with me, one in which you were walking on ice, and slipping, began to fall backward, but woke before you knew whether you actually "fell" or not. I think God is giving you the second dream partly in answer to your questions about the first one: of what you'll do when the ice becomes a problem. It may also be in part to prepare you for what that ice itself might look like.

My own place of work there on campus is back near that barn where you escaped in your dream, so I'm rather familiar with what happens there. Here is what I see in the "real world" that after all is only a shadow of the Real World. It is a place where:

• fires are kindled, often to burn off dead wood; and not for sitting and enjoying as in the camp-fire site on the other side of campus. Here are the functional fires.
• a little cemetery can be viewed behind a fence, causing the existence of ones long dead to be remembered by unlikely members of future generations, given the hidden and remote nature of that little cemetery
• tools are stored and things are repaired.
• And then interestingly, just yesterday, it became the place where one of the campus buses went for a good washing. Considering how just the day before I mentioned to you about my son's dream of his activity on a bus, and my own observation that dream-world vehicular travel often signifies a person's spiritual journey, and the more people the vehicle carries, the larger the group in transit together spiritually. If that is the meaning, then I think it is a good sign for the corporate church that its bus gets washed periodically. (smile)

Yes, I do believe that little barn represents a dear place of activity to God. That your dream-self knew to run to such a place for renewal in a time of need is very good.

Here's one other thing: pay particular attention to those elements that seem strange, like the weaponry you were using. Often in my spiritual dream, the things most inexplicable at first are the most meaningful later. Here is an example.

I had a dream in which I traveled in a car with a bunch of kids. We were trekking happily along when suddenly a blinding blizzard came up out of no-where. In white-out conditions, I hit the brakes, and got the car stopped just before it crashed into a wall of wreckage: cars that had been piled there for decades, covered in a blanket of snowy frost so old it looked more like freezer-burn than snow. A deep twilight had suddenly fallen and a soft snow continued to glowingly drift downward. A group of young hikers (at this point, people were now reduced to foot traffic) came up and asked if I had a knife for cutting through the wall of debris. I said yes, but it was only a small box cutter I had in my purse, one given to me by my husband. One young man--the leader of their group--took my little box cutter, ran his thumb along it, and then looked at me like I was an idiot.

"This isn't even sharp" he said.

"But you're feeling the wrong side of it!" I exclaimed, but before I could get him to check the other side of the blade, someone else came up with a gorgeous knife--shiny, curvy and with a pearly golden porcelain handle. I knew it to be lovely, but far too flimsy for use in the job they intended, nevertheless they took off with it eagerly toward the wall of cars before I could convince them otherwise. I had this dream about three years ago. I still am learning what it means.

Many inexplicable images float in that dream, but over these last three years I've learned many things about its meaning. I've learned that the wreckage of the cars is like the wall that marks the end of this age of man. The snow is the prophetic covering that tells us there is more on the other side, (where/when the lion lays with the lamb and a little child safely plays at a snake hole, etc.) but that snow is grown so old in its waiting to melt and have its eventual effect on its world that the light has dimmed to faint twilight. Most recently, the tools in hand came to greater clarity, but that took much more faith to receive. It went like this:

In a completely different setting, I prayed a visualization prayer in which I made intercession for those people I mentioned in a recent blog--the ones trapped in a ring of cardboard that from the outside looked small and easily taken apart but from the inside seemed to encompass massive and inescapable space. I pulled people out of that space in this prayer-vision, because I came at them from the outside and because God approved my belief that I could operate as part of their rescue team. But in the original dream, I--and many others--were existing in that place on the "inside" instead of outside--the place beyond the powers that deception could play. Altogether the dreaming and waiting, the spending of myself in prayer and the sharing of the vision of the prayer with another were required for any further understanding to enlighten the "wisdom" of the dream inself. I learned that the wall of crashed cars, if viewed from the proper perspective--i.e. outside its caging powers--might indeed be a thing of "similar material" to what I penetrated in my intercessory prayer. In that case, a box-cutter would be the perfect tool and the perfect image for God to give me in the dream, despite the years that would go by before I'd be ready to understand what was His brilliant purpose in using that imagery. In His timelessness, He would know what I'd be exposed to as "visual aides" in the day when the eyes of my understanding should be opened, and so He used those very images, knowing I'd ponder them in my heart until life highlighted them again.

What's more, at the same time these puzzle pieces began to fall into place, I went to church and found myself breathless at the pertinence of the picture on the front of the bulletin. In that picture, a man stands holding a piece of cardboard in front of his face, literally a box cut and unfolded. On it is scrawled "Mind Games" in heavy marker. He holds it in front of his own face, keeping the wall in front of him, but still he peers over the top, a sign of hope for something different outside the wall. During the service, an easel on stage held a similar piece of cardboard that said "Abandoned by God." By the end of the service, the worship team flipped the cardboard to show what the other side of the "wall" had written on it: "Loved by God." The next week, the image was repeated with the words "I Can't Do It!" and by the end, the backside of the cardboard said:"God Can!"

So what could have been chalked up as an "I ate pizza too late at night" type of dream in which a wall of crashed cars were something I adamantly believed could be taken down by a little box cutter...instead of laughing it off--that very dream became an opportunity for the Spirit of God to tell me things most profound and undeniably from His very hand: that a wall of flimsy mind games (ones that looked so powerful and stopped so many when viewed from the wrong side) could easily be taken down with the right tool--one specifically designed for the cutting down of mind games, but that I should not expect the population at large, especially when reduced to foot-travel to be willing to consider what the wall might be made of from His perspective. After all, many cars had crashed there...and I myself nearly so.

So if the Spirit of God revealed to you odd-looking weaponry in your arsenal, I pray that you be watchful until He "melts the snow" regarding them, showing you what they really represent. And when you run to that barn, may you find what He would have you take up instead! It will be not only for your good but for the good of many when you come out on the other side of this one, my friend!

And a Child Shall Lead...

...and the wisdom comes through the babes. This has been a theme God said to watch for this year, and indeed it has proven true in three situations already: "hearing" God through contact with the observations of young people in times when my own busy world crowds out my own powers of observation. The most recent episode brings to mind my sense of wonder at the economy of God in His use of imagery--like fallen leaves incorporated back into the environment as a new season's compost for growth, God makes that principle true in the perceptive life of the spirit as well, making a point of the fact that all wisdom of any value comes from Him, lest we forget.

I have friends who have a son that is a student at the school where I work. They also have an older son who has "left the faith" for a more new age philosophy of life. I know this by their profession, as I have never met this elder son and his wife. But, the family is precious enough to me that I took the plight of their pain over this son's faith to You, Lord, in intercessory prayer and You gave me one of those visionary dreams that start with my lone work of visualization and end a surprising work of the Spirit.

In this one, I was in prayer for this couple's faith and for the incredible strain of life they face right now when suddenly I saw a cardboard corral contained them. It was small, only about 10-12 feet in diameter; but when I ripped through the cardboard to enter it, from the inside it seemed endlessly large. Inside, it was dark and sulphuric in smell. Demonic creatures that had a power to startle thought not hurt lurked everywhere and would suddenly come up like a mad wolf, snapping teeth and then just as suddenly recede only to be replaced by another on a different side. Exhaustion set in quickly as the strain of this jarring attack kicked up adrenaline again and again.

I thought, I should get them out of here. But then, the question popped into my mind, "What if I'm 'making all this us'? Is this some vision or is it just wishful dreaming?" It felt as if God said, "Do you believe you could get them out?" I considered it a moment, then said, "Certainly, if that's Your intention for me." Immediately, the actual smallness of the environment became my perception again, and I saw the hole in the cardboard wall that I'd created in the first place. I drug them out through that wall. We were all exhausted, but they collapsed on the ground, and their clothes were sooty and smoking. Also, I was facing outward but they were still facing inward--like they still weren't really aware of me as their rescuer nor of the gap that permitted their exit. And so I pulled them out with an arm around each of their waists, but they did not really see me.

I had this dream last spring, even telling the father of both these boys about it. Just recently, the second son, the one I know as a student at my school, has become someone You have highlighted as significant for prayer. As I've prayed for him, I've watched, as You always have these two go hand in hand. In my classroom one day, I posted a scripture that had been distributed by one of the teachers as a blessing on us all. It's from Zephaniah 3:17:
The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will quiet you in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.
Only there was a typo that spellcheck wouldn't have caught. Instead of save the typist had put same. (Reminds me of the t-shirt my principal laughingly told us about in the teacher's workroom: Spellcheck is impotent.) Many kids and some adults had come and gone and seen that mini-poster up on my bulletin board, but none had seen anything but the word that is "supposed" to be there, until this boy came in. "Same-" he said, pointing. I looked, amazed. He was right. I hadn't noticed because I hadn't really "read" it, owing to the fact that this is one of my favorite verses and I see it in my head whenever the words of it begin. And in that moment, the boy became something You marked with transcendence--seeing things not just as they should be out of habitual expectation, but as they are. This is a gift that is pertinent.

Then Sunday in church, I grabbed a bulletin and after settling down in service, experienced a chilling observation: cardboard was being used in the message in a significant way. On the front of the bulletin was a picture of a man standing, holding a cardboard sign in front of his own face that says "mind games" on the front of it. His eyes peer over the top of the sign. On the platform, an easel was set set up as a "visual aid" to the lesson. Displayed on it was another sheet of cardboard on which was written: abandoned by God. At the end of the service (one about the "mind games" God's enemy uses to trick us into diminishing our true and clear faith) came a song of rejoicing when the cardboard was turned over and on the back said, "Loved by God." I asked You, O God, whether to share this with the young man. then for two days, kept running into him every where I turned. Finally, I told him we should meet and pray about something. We met during homeroom--10 minutes was all it took to share the dream and to pray for whatever his part might be in the work God is already doing in the lives of those in his brother's family.

Then came Your economy, and the gift of further revelation every time I'm willing to go out in faithfulness to Your call. I woke the next day remembering another dream I had that suddenly has a glimmer of "spiritual logic" in its imagery. At least two and a half years ago, I had a dream in which I took a car load of young people happily forward when suddenly we hit a blizzard, a white out that caused me to slam on the brakes. When the car came to a stop, it was resting before a wall of crashed cars. The light was as that of twilight and the snowy cover on the cars seemed ancient, like snows that lay across them for centuries. I knew that it was important to break through that wall of crashed cars, and so began searching around for a way to get through when suddenly a group of young hikers came up looking for a knife for the very same purpose. I fished around in my purse until I found a little box-cutter my husband had brought home from work. One of the young hikers ran his thumb along the knife, saying, "Why this isn't even sharp!" He looked at me like I was an idiot while I said, "But you felt it on the wrong side!" But just then, someone else came up with this beautiful display knife...lovely in appearance, but to my perception far too flimsy to be at all effective. Nevertheless, the group of young hikers were enamoured with the knife and took it off to attempt to cut down the wall.
Not until after a leap of faith did I see the parallels of walls that appeared flimsy from the outside but massive from the inside. Nor did I see the parallel that a simple box cutter for cutting cardboard boxes would be sufficient for this mind-games wall, but no one can believe it because the wall has been there collecting snow for centuries. That even this wall should be cardboard offends our intellect and bemuses us as on some deep level we think there surely couldn't be any "new song" come form You that hasn't already been "heard" by some great mind of the last 2,000 years...certainly not through some plain little plastic box cutter that is almost an embarrassment to pull out as the tool of choice against such a wall...almost as embarrassing as a handful of pebbles against Goliath...

Is the gift of prophecy dead?

(...because some say it died when the text of the Bible was complete.)



Trees rarely greet fall color as a cluster.
Clusters come, gradually
and full-blown color, eventually.
But at first...
(while still the days are full of heat
and chilled airis but a thing of the deepest hours of the night...)
at first,is the inspiration of the one lone tree.
Somehow (it is for God to say when and how and which tree)
it makes the change.
Its branches as flares, flung outsaying,
"Yes, my color serves as prelude to winter's death season,
but whence comes this fear of change?
Is not spring ever chasing winter away?
So I'll wear my red and my purple and my orange.
Bold and brash, confident in the time for every purpose under heaven.
Though I stand alone for now;
still, autumn cometh.
Though some nearby me rustle their green all the more loudly when they see me;
still, I know...
Even now is the time to send the sap deep, and let the colors glow."

What Do You Call an Abomination?

All too often one man's blessing is another man's curse. We long for the control found in a black and white world of rules, but rarely do we get what we want. And this is a gift from God, for as William Young says in The Shack, "Rules can't love you." If we try to force these rules to replace the one who gave them and adjust their significance, then we prove Blaise Pascal right when he says:
Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from a religious conviction.

When I try to think about why we perpetuate this, all I can think is that it has to do with the human limits that we would like to put on God in our attempts to further our own understanding of Him, and this is not an understanding brought to us by His revelation of Himself, a thing gifted into our acknowledged spiritual poverty. Rather this is an understanding we seek to garner for ourselves, thereby making ourselves His equal. Why do we limit God this way? Why can't we just trust Him? In fact, why can't we even see ourselves doing this? For instance, is it not easy to "play God" as we read verses like the following and promptly designate a "player" for each part that is being honored or condemned? More importantly, couldn't someone else read the same verse, taking the same people we called "righteous" and "wicked" and reverse them in his own reading? How can this be??

• He who covers a transgression seeks love,
  But he who repeats a matter separates friends.
• An evil man seeks only rebellion;
  Therefore a cruel messenger will be sent against him.
• Whoever rewards evil for good,
  Evil will not depart from his house.
• He who justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the just,
  Both of them alike are an abomination to the Lord.
• He who has knowledge spares his words,
  And a man of understanding is of a calm spirit.

God made me laugh the other day in an interpretation He gave me from His word for a strange dream I had in which I wandered around doing the work He gave me totally naked but for a pair of shoes. I was self-conscious about my lack of attire, but oddly no one else in the dream seemed to notice I only wore shoes. And in the end, because I'd been faithful to the work I was given, I received an even better pair of shoes...but still no clothes. (He's often playful with me like this...making me shake my head while He chuckles gleefully.) Soon, He showed me a purpose in this imagery, it was a way of calling me beautiful...His words say:
Sgs 7:1
How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O prince's daughter!

If you read the rest of that chapter, the woman being described is described in minute detail, and could easily be bare, but for her sandals. She is being admired for her loveliness. But it took me a while to see the dream through this verse, to "receive" this message from it.

What's more, don't we picture glamorous glittering sandals showing off the beauty of her feet as she moves when we read this verse? But I've been walking around in an orthopedic boot meant to immobilize my ankle due to some tendon irritation caused by a bone spur. So here as I limp along like a pirate with a peg leg--this is His time for giving me the sense of the verse and of the dream. (And if you've done any back-reading in this blog, you'll know why the boot is indeed making my foot lovely in His economy.)

It makes me think, what if Samuel hadn't been ready to see beauty and the call of God outside the obvious? What if he hadn't asked Jesse, "Isn't there another son besides these seven you present to me?" How would David have become king? I think more now than ever, we leave our Davids out in the field and forget they may be chosen kings. Or send them to battle as errand boys, all the while missing that they are God's chosen warriors. Why do we do this? Why do we spend all our energies comparing ourselves to each other while ignoring those who have not yet attained any Christian-world status except in the pond of God's say-so (a pond many don't see anymore anyway as they're busy trying to decide whether to be big fish in little ponds or little fish in big ones...ya-da, ya-da, ya-da.)

I think Tozer speaks well about what leads to these errors:

An infinite God can give all of Himself to each of His children. He does not distribute Himself that each may have a part, but to each one He gives all of Himself as fully as if there were no others.

And the bottom line is: as humans we simply can't copy this relationship potential. We as parents can love our children individually and without preference, but we can't give ourselves with that "100% available to everyone" margin. Eventually, one of our children is going to get sick and need adjustments to be made, adjustments that come from time and attention that might have gone to another of our children.

Thank goodness God judges the hearts, because underneath it all He sees that for many who appear cruel in their judgment, the seeming cruelty springs from a heart's desire to be deeply special to his Creator. Still, in our limited vision we have a tendency to want to put God in a box so we can comprehend Him on that level. We want to "know" what it means to be acceptable to Him, and we measure it by how acceptable we think others are to Him and whether we'd be acceptable to Him in the same circumstances. So we lapse back into debates about eating meat sacrificed to idols without knowing it.

The bottom line, I believe, is that this relationship of preferencial equality in the eyes of our God, this is a thing we can never really understand in this lifetime, we can only trust He speaks truth when He says He can fully love us and fully love the ones who hurt us. He can give that love with equity, yet without a stain to our dignity. This we can not emulate, so we can not really comprehend it--at least not that I've seen, but I pray for it to become more real to me with each passing day.

For now I walk according to this: no matter what my "opinion" of another person, I will myself to interact with him or her and intercede in prayer while bearing in mind what Tozer said: that You have given Yourself to that person as fully as if I did not exist, as if that person were the only one for You. This is my surest way to commune with Your purpose on behalf of another. But how often will we pray in this manner? Lord, make me able.

She Counts!

subtitled: Roll with the Changes

A while back, I posted this blog about a dream that had not yet come to be fully revealed:

http://sdmen.blogspot.com/2008/05/on-having-conversations-with-god.html

Now, I'm finding potentialities are being defined through the bizarre imagery of that dream...Specifically, I was working in a room with a woman who is a friend and prayer partner of mine. Suddenly in that room appears a rack of coats that we've been given charge over. I ascertain that the coats should not get wet from the water that had suddenly begun spewing out of me as I was suddenly like a fountain. We moved the coats into another room we could see through an interior window. In that room sat a ridiculously bug-eyed young man who was "bad" in my dream-self's estimation. We returned to the room where we'd been working after giving the coats over to him. We were satisfied that we'd done the right thing. Then suddenly, a man who was my principal last year but is no longer employed by my school re-appeared in the dream, sitting in front of that interior window. I sat down next to him to say hello, and he leaned over and kissed me. The point of the kiss seemed to be that the man on the other side of the window should see it.

Many hesitate to share such dreams, expecting pop-psychology psychoanalysis to make anyone and everyone see the symbolic revelation of my own most personal darkness, things that one would rather keep secret from the public at large. Such is the nature of modern-day dream interpretation. I've learned not to be so worried whether my personal character becomes a target in dream revelation, even weird, seemingly "improper" dreams, because in "these" dreams, the imagery has more to do with what God is revealing that with what I am like in my secret self. (smile)

I blogged (as seen in the link above) that all over Proverbs is the use of imagery attaching the idea that fountains of water represent wisdom shared. I figured that out last spring. (The woman from my dream and I have been praying together over the imagery of this dream for months now.) As the summer progressed, I experienced a few things that made me think I was approaching the time when the rack of coats image would be explained. Then just the other day, I came across these verses in Proverbs 27:

13 Take the garment of him who is surety for a stranger,And hold it in pledge when he is surety for a seductress.

or in the NIV:13 Take the garment of one who puts up security for a stranger;hold it in pledge if he does it for a wayward woman.

Suddenly, my having a rack of coats could point toward a situation where someone(s) vouches for an other when he (they) shouldn't. Still a little vague, but something to go on. That these ones should be moved outside the realm of receiving "wisdom" from me began to make sense, as I'd prayed to know how I was to "recognize" these coats when they "came into the room."

Likewise in Proverbs 24, I found this:

23 These things also belong to the wise:It is not good to show partiality [to those] in judgment.24 He who says to the wicked, "You are righteous," Him the people will curse;Nations will abhor him.25 But those who rebuke the wicked will have delight, And a good blessing will come upon them.26 He who gives a right answer kisses the lips.

or in the NIV: 23 These also are sayings of the wise:To show partiality in judging is not good:24 Whoever says to the guilty, “You are innocent”—peoples will curse him and nations denounce him.25 But it will go well with those who convict the guilty, and rich blessing will come upon them.26 An honest answer is like a kiss on the lips.

Another indicator besides dreams that runs along this train of thought: I'm going to miss two days of school these first two weeks of the year for two seemingly diverse medical issues: I must see a podiatrist as my heel has a bone spur that is seriously affecting the tendon and I must see a dentist as I have several fractured teeth that need attention before they fall apart in my mouth. ThenGod showed me this:

Pro 25:19 Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble [is like] a broken tooth, and a foot out of joint.

I remembered that sometimes it isn't just dreams that a prophetic gift brings, but the opportunity to be a living enactment of something scriptural. So I continued watching, and I began to believe it was time to share these new discoveries of scriptural connections with the woman who is my partner in these things.

But first, I prayed: God, it appears that treachery, a wolf in sheep's clothing, is what You're indicating here. Who would You have me trust with what You're saying? Who should come alongside me in prayer over these things that are completely mysterious right now and that show no signs of coming true in this day? I don't want to breed hysteria or panic. Nor do I want to breed contempt. Especially, I don't want--in my zealousness--to warn off the very ones You're saying should be allowed to walk in judgment. How do I keep from saturating with this wisdom someone who later might show up as one of those coats I'm called to put away from me? Am I even supposed to share all this with the woman who appears as my partner in Your work, O God? Taking risks is always a feature of vision-casting. I'd take the risk of believing in my own vision of her as my partner. I talked to her. I went to share the first of those scriptures with her...the one about taking a garment from someone who is collateral for a stranger.

And so You used that leap of faith to refine the vision, as is also true of this walk of visioneering. It happened like this:

We randomly ran into each other in the office of the church's bookkeeper. D (my friend) was in there because she worked for the church's summer camp for kids and it became her job to correct a mistake made by the coin-rolling machine. It had rolled coins improperly--putting dimes in the penny rolls, etc. She was dumping the rolls of coins, checking them for mistakes and re-rolling them where the machine had made errors.

When I asked God, Did I do the right thing in sharing with her what You're teaching me about this situation, O God? And, if I did wrong, will You fix the results?" You answered me: "Consider what she was doing when you spoke to her."

I thought about it. She was correcting mis-rolled coins. The machine-the system that we presume is surely far more infallible than a lone human--it was this machine that actually erred grossly, and this woman went in its wake and rectified the problems it caused. Not only that, but the type of problem--mis-rolled money--put me in mind of Proverbs 20:10:
Divers weights, [and] divers measures, both of them [are] alike abomination to the LORD.

So was it right to share with her? I got an emphatic Yes! along with a greater discernment of her role in God's work: she would see and make right the divers weights and measures that are an abomination to the Lord, and in a world where the "machine" we presume to be reliable proves faulty. God, bless her in this calling! What a task to have the Lord entrust to your hand. I am honored to be companion to her, lifting her up in this work for You! Strengthen those hands You've given her, God! Let it be she doesn't faint!

Just the other day, her husband, K., gave me another scripture to pray about: Psalm 73. I wonder if he realized it, too, had a garment reference that works with understanding this dream You gave me? The Psalm in total contains the reflections of someone who has made the effort to have a clean heart, but who sees the prosperity of the wicked and nearly slips into envy of that ease of life so often found in those who walk apart from Thee.

One of the descriptors of these wicked ones is in verse 6: Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them [as] a garment.

Interestingly, the next verse explains the "bug-eyed" boy in the next room in my dream, because verse 7 says of these wicked: Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish.

My Bible references another Psalm as companion to this one in some of its imagery: Psalm 109. It is called the Song of the Slandered.

Do not keep silent,
O God of my praise!
2 For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful
Have opened against me;
They have spoken against me with a lying tongue.
3 They have also surrounded me with words of hatred,
And fought against me without a cause.
4 In return for my love they are my accusers,
But I give myself to prayer.
5 Thus they have rewarded me evil for good,
And hatred for my love.

6 Set a wicked man over him,
And let an [fn1] accuser stand at his right hand.
7 When he is judged, let him be found guilty,
And let his prayer become sin.
8 Let his days be few,
And let another take his office....

14 Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord,
And let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.
15 Let them be continually before the Lord,
That He may cut off the memory of them from the earth;
16 Because he did not remember to show mercy,
But persecuted the poor and needy man,
That he might even slay the broken in heart.
17 As he loved cursing, so let it come to him;
As he did not delight in blessing, so let it be far from him.
18 As he clothed himself with cursing [this "cursing" is about one bent on accusing Your children, not just about someone who is a potty-mouth] as with his garment,
So let it enter his body like water,
And like oil into his bones.
19 Let it be to him like the garment which covers him,
And for a belt with which he girds himself continually.
20 Let this be the Lord's reward to my accusers,
And to those who speak evil against my person.

This Psalm is truly a prayer for empowering God's agents to deal with one who is deeply anti-Christ in the way he interacts with Your people.

Finally, just this morning in church, the speaker reminded us what Paul's role was before Jesus Christ got hold of him: he held the clothes of those who killed Christians. When he realized what he was doing, he surely left off that job and never held a coat in that manner again!

Now, if I were taking notes in a lecture, here is what I'd say I've learned so far. May God receive my "homework paper" and make red letter corrections so that I can re-submit it for further review:

• Someone (or several ones?) will vouch for the wrong person. It could involve a "wayward woman."


• This partiality for someone who is actually in judgment at the hand of God will ultimately lead to public disgrace for that person who has been given the authority to "assess" the righteousness of others.


• Honesty will prove a better breeding ground for community spirit under God than will an orderly commonality that springs from fear of judgment and harrassment. Fear of judgment may only make sin go into hiding. In other words, making the effort to appear above reproach may only free up the secret sin to run more rampant in the dark, rather than being the proof that someone walks in integrity as we'd hope it to mean. (So often it seems we put all our eggs in the basket that weighs "the appearance of evil." I personally believe the people of God are always better off with a David, broken before Nathan, than with a Saul, costumed before the medium of Endor.)


• None of this will show itself until "times of trouble" hit.


• A friend of mine will be called to recognize and play a part in setting right this inequity in the weighing of things that matter to You.


• Despite what You foretell here, these ones/this one that You blatantly classify as evil will nevertheless appear to have all they ever ask for, and some may follow one who seems to get everything he wants. The pride of this favored status will breed a sense of appropriateness in adopting "violence" (and not just indifference, although that would be bad enough) toward Your needy ones.


• One who is falsely accused will break this pattern, being heard by God when he prays that the garment of accusation should return and be borne by the one who wove it in the first place. As he curses, so may he suffer a curse.


• My friend and I, in praying behind the scenes over this, will have an awakening much like Paul knew when he realized he was unwittingly holding the coats of those who were persecuting the God he most longed to serve. Give us the strength to accept such a revelation if that part is right, O God. And, remind us continually to embrace the atmosphere of Your sanctuary where discernment is--like air--breathable, lest we become bitter and "offend the generation of thy children."

And thank You in advance, O God, for being a teacher who requires mastery-learning before You take me any further. Thank You that no matter how long it takes me to "get" one of Your lectures, Your timing remains perfect. You always have me perfectly prepared when the exam rolls around!

Finally, thank You for showing me yet again the elegance with which You convey a message: taking one small image (a dream of a rack of coats) or taking one frustrating event (re-rolling coins that should have gone rightly into their papers in the first place) and using these to define a ministry calling and a divine pupose that You confirm through many glistening gems found embedded throughout Your holy book.

Once again, Your brilliance is breath-taking!

What Do You Call Authority?

(a fantasy on the story of Christ's temptation in the wilderness, a possible epilogue
and the corroborating verses)

"Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is."
But when the time neared, a man--a porter, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. Then Jesus Christ, taking him up on a high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the Lord Jesus said to him, "All this authority I will give you, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore, if you will worship before me, all will be yours."

And the man removed from thence unto a mountain and pitched his tent, and there he builded an altar unto the LORD, and called upon the name of the LORD. And the Lord granted the man authority there. Some did say, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or, 'Look, He is there!' But the man said, do not believe it! For false christs and false prophets will rise and show signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. But take heed; see, Christ Himself did tell us all things beforehand. And so the man said before all creatures of heaven and earth: "He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me. Now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church." So the man came again unto the place of the altar which had been there at the first: and there men called on the name of the LORD.
And the man reminded the people of the words of the Lord Jesus: "For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed [is] he that cometh in the name of the Lord." And though the abomination of desolation did likewise stand in the place where it ought not, sowing tares of confusion, still the elect remnant of the people did call the porter blessed and did acknowledge that he came in the name of the Lord.

Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Jerusalem. And news of Him went out through all the surrounding region. And He was among them, glorified by all.

NOTES:
'These things says the Son of God: ...But hold fast what you have till I come. And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations--
'He shall rule them with a rod of iron;
They shall be dashed to pieces like the potter's vessels'--
as I also have received from My Father; and I will give him the morning star...
...I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, [and] the bright and morning star.
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."'
Rev 2:18, 25-28,
Rev 22:16
Rev 2:29

When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.
Proverbs 29:2

And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom [is] an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.
Daniel 7:27

If any man speak, [let him speak] as the oracles of God; if any man minister, [let him do it] as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
I Peter 4:11

[For the Son of man is] as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch.
Mark 13:34

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.
John 10:1-3


But some of them said, He casteth out devils through Beelzebub the chief of the devils...[He said]If Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? because ye say that I cast out devils through Beelzebub.
And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast [them] out? therefore shall they be your judges.
But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you.
Luke 11:15, 18-20

"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls,
who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.
Matt 13:45-46

"Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife." And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God...The twelve gates were twelve pearls: each individual gate was of one pearl.
Rev 21:9-11, 21


Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. For "He has put all things under His feet." But when He says "all things are put under Him," it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted. Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.
I Cor. 15:24-28

[Jesus says] Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away. And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch!"
Mark 13:31, 37

As Paul said to the Romans...

...God forbid! I offer this in answer to the progression of thought that might follow from my last two blogs, prompting the question: do you disrespect the office of pastor entirely now?

I was reminded of the preciousness of that office when it is accepted graciously and humbly by a person called to it when just yesterday I took my youngest to spend the night with a friend, whose father happens to be a pastor. I sat in their church's foyer, visiting with the pastor's wife, (who is also the mom of my son's friend.) In my estimation, I've operated in my gifts and received from theirs better with this couple in ministry than any but maybe one other couple. I am of the opinion that when people really "get" the idea of being one body but many parts and those parts operate correctly, it is as lovely a thing to be as is available to mankind. And when the people of God can navigate even those times when one part or another becomes a "less honorable" part requiring modesty in the integration of the whole, then all the more is God honored by those who perceive His plans and cooperate! And if one part has the discernment to suffer and rejoice with another part, what an amazing honor to God that can be! I know, because this family has operated alongside mine in this way, even as I believe we've operated this way alongside theirs, too.

Thank You, God, for giving me the privelege of being able to profess that I've indeed walked these verses with Your people!

I Corinthians 12:

18 But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don't need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don't need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.