♥ I Love My Attorney ♥

#4 sent this to me and I couldn’t wait to share it with y’all. After living what I felt was a ‘decent’ life, my time on earth came to the end. The first thing I remember is sitting on a bench in the waiting room of what I thought to be a court house. The doors opened and I was instructed to come in and have a seat by the defense table. As I looked around I saw the ‘prosecutor.’ He was a villainous looking gent who snarled as he stared at me. He definitely was the most evil person I have ever seen. I sat down and looked to my left and there sat My Attorney, a kind and gentle looking man whose appearance seemed so familiar to me, I felt I knew Him. The corner door flew open and there appeared the Judge in full flowing robes. He commanded an awesome presence as He moved across the room I couldn’t take my eyes off of Him. As He took His seat behind the bench, He said, “Let us begin.” The prosecutor rose and said, “My name is Satan and I am here to show you why this woman belongs in hell…” He proceeded to tell of lies that I told, things that I stole, and in the past when I cheated others. Satan told of other horrible perversions that were once in my life and the more he spoke, the further down in my seat I sank. I was so embarrassed that I couldn’t look at anyone, even my own Attorney, as the Devil told of sins that even I had completely forgotten about. As upset as I was at Satan for telling all these things about me, I was equally upset at My Attorney who sat there silently not offering any form of defense at all. I know I had been guilty of those things, but I had done some good in my life – couldn’t that at least equal out part of the harm I’d done? Satan finished with a fury and said, “This woman belongs in hell, she is guilty of all that I have charged and there is not a person who can prove otherwise.” When it was His turn, My Attorney first asked if He might approach the bench. The Judge allowed this over the strong objection of Satan, and beckoned Him to come forward. As He got up and started walking, I was able to see Him in His full splendor and majesty. I realized why He seemed so familiar; this was Jesus representing me, my Lord and my Savior. He stopped at the bench and softly said to the Judge, “Hi, Dad,” and then He turned to address the court. “Satan was correct in saying that this woman had sinned, I won’t deny any of these allegations. And, yes, the wage of sin is death, and this woman deserves to be punished.” Jesus took a deep breath and turned to His Father with outstretched arms and proclaimed, “However, I died on the cross so that this person might have eternal life and she has accepted Me as her Savior, so she is Mine.” My Lord continued with, “Her name is written in the Book of Life, and no one can snatch her from Me.” “Satan still does not understand yet. This woman is not to be given justice, but rather mercy.” As Jesus sat down, He quietly paused, looked at His Father and said, “There is nothing else that needs to be done. I’ve done it all.” The Judge lifted His mighty hand and slammed the gavel down. The following words bellowed from His lips. “This woman is free. The penalty for her has already been paid in full.” “Case dismissed.” As my Lord led me away, I could hear Satan ranting and raving, “I won’t give up, I will win the next one.” I asked Jesus as He gave me my instructions where to go next, “Have you ever lost a case?” Christ lovingly smiled and said,  “Everyone that has come to Me and asked Me to represent them has received the same verdict as you.” ~”Paid In Full”~ Stop telling God how big your storm is.  Instead, tell the storm how big your God is!  Wow. Just wowl. Let me know what you think.

Today’s the Day to Pray

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This is the National Day of Prayer. Is it a day set aside for our entire nation to pray or a day set aside to pray for our nation? Whichever way you understand it, today is a day to pray!

According to Wikipedia, the first Thursday of May is “an annual day of observance held on the first Thursday of May, designated by the United States Congress, when people are asked ‘to turn to God in prayer and meditation’. The law formalizing its annual observance was enacted in 1952.”

So there has been a NDOP for a looooong time. I don’t know when I first heard about it, but it has always seemed just a little bit silly to me to set apart a day to pray. Don’t most Christians pray every day?

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (New International Version, ©2011)

 ¹⁶ Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray continually, ¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

 Did we need to have a day set aside for it?

Recently, I started thinking. (Good thing to do now and then.) It’s not really a day to remind Christians to pray. It’s a day set aside to remind everyone in the world that America is a praying Christian nation.

We may not all pray in the same posture. Some do it standing, some kneeling, others face down on the floor and yet others lifting hands to the Lord.

We don’t all pray the same prayers. Some pray only scripture, some prayers written by others and some of us wing it. 

And we don’t all pray in the same way. Some pray aloud, some silently, some murmuring and some through tears. (And some of us combine them all!)

But the point is, we are a praying Christian nation. And the world should know.

While I’m on the subject of prayer, I wanted to share a blog I happened on today that really blessed me. It’s written by a woman in Denver. I don’t know her, but I loved what she had to say.

This woman has a sweet voice, and on this blog she has a Bible Study she wrote on a “new” way to pray. (It’s not really new, but she shares it with a fresh view.)

If you have a moment, check it out. It’s called Pale Pearl. In the upper right hand corner, there’s a link to her Bible Study.

 In it she refers to scriptures that thrill the heart. James 4:8-“Come near to God and He will come near to you.” Zephaniah 3:17-“The Lord your God is with you, the mighty warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in His love He will no longer rebuke you but will rejoice over you with singing.”

Don’t you love the idea of God taking great delight in you? Not just delight but great delight! And to think of God rejoicing over each one of us, singing, just brings me to tears. 

Check out Jennifer’s blog if you get the chance.  

And don’t forget to pause today to pray.

Just One More Day!

Image via Wikipedia

Are you excited? Do you feel the pressure mounting? It’s almost here!

Remember the “Obama stopped the National Day of Prayer” spoof someone got me with on Facebook? (Thanks, Larry.) I blogged about it here.

Tell me the truth. When you first heard that rumor, in that very first twinkle of an instant, did you think, He can’t do that. We don’t need presidential approval. We’ll do it on our own!

All right, maybe everyone isn’t like me (Be very glad about that!) but I was ready to line up people along C-Town’s main street so we could make a statement while we all prayed together on the National Day of Prayer.

Now it’s May. And the National Day of Prayer is the first Thursday of May. Let me repeat that. The first Thursday of May. That’s like, uh, tomorrow. I can’t believe the time has flown so quickly, and now it’s here.

Just one more day! And *sigh* I still don’t know how I’ll be spending the day. But I will be praying.

When I realized the time is nearly here, another thought hit. What are we supposed to be praying about? Is there assigned praying? You know what I mean. Has anyone issued a list of things that need praying about? Are they listed in the order of importance? Will we know what to ask?

Or is free-for-all praying–where you talk to God about any and everything–the order of the day?

Did you know there are 224,457,000 (that’s two hundred twenty four million!) Christians in America? If every Christian in America spent a portion of this Thursday praying for America, can you imagine what might happen?

“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14.

If Christians (not everyone in America, just the ones who call themselves Christians) would humble themselves, pray, seek God’s face and turn from their wicked ways, then He will heal our land.

Be humble. Pray. Seek God. Turn away from sin. Isn’t that what being a Christian is about? Don’t all Christians already act like, well, Christians?

Apparently not.

From what I hear every day on the news and in the streets, our land needs healing, and needs it bad. We can do it–well, God can. If we’ll just act like the people we’re supposed to be.

So here’s my question for you. Will you pray tomorrow? And if so, what will you pray about?

I’ll be praying for America and her leadership. For my Small Town World. For my church and my family. And I’ll also be praying for a woman I’ve never met who has hit Another Lump in the Road.

What about you?

My Friend’s WGT

Have you ever wondered if God could see you? A friend of mine did.

She had a great life. But she was so busy working, keeping house, doing laundry and cooking as if she was a stay-at-home mom. She was exhausted.

Now this friend has never doubted God’s existence. She’s always known He created the world and authored the Bible—no doubt in her mind. But she also had a startling grasp of reality. She knew how many people were in the world and she knew all about the terrible problems that were out there. 

So she wondered if God saw her. Just her. So many people had drastic needs so much worse than hers. Did He even notice hers? 

Was she special to Him? Did He even hear her prayers, and if He did, did He answer? 

So my friend drove across town one afternoon , and as she drove, she prayed. I don’t know the exact words of her prayer, but she poured out her heart to God. Do I matter to you? Do you see me? Are you close to me?

She stopped at a stop sign, and as she started through the intersection, she glanced up and saw a marquee with only three words.

I’M STILL HERE.

My friend’s heart nearly stopped and she had to blink hard to be able to see because hot tears filled her eyes.

God heard her prayer! And he answered! Immediately in no uncertain terms.

Jehovah God is here and He loves her as if she were His only child.

I wish you could hear the awe in my friend’s voice as she tells about this day. I wish I were a better writer (and listener) so I could share her emotions with you as she did with me.

Not long after that, this friend and I found we were going to the same Beth Moore Study in different places. This is a friend I rarely see, and I don’t think we’d ever discussed Beth. But God had brought us this connection through Him.

A WGT? Oh, yes!

Celebrate

If you read yesterday’s blog, I mentioned I was going to a celebration of Gene Williams’s life. I went along with Dad, Jeffrey, Amy, Cindy and Deb–all the sibs who live in Oklahoma. (#4 was there in spirit)

I knew it would be a celebration, but I had no idea how much I would enjoy it. Yes, I saw lots of friends, but that wasn’t what I enjoyed most. We got to visit and catch up on what was happening in the lives of lots of people, but that wasn’t it, either.

What I truly enjoyed was worshiping while surrounded by my family. We don’t get to do it often–Jeffrey goes to The ‘Ford to worship, Cindy to the church where her husband serves, Amy to the Baptist with her husband and Deb sings on our worship team and sits up front. (While I really enjoy the back.) 

So yesterday, singing with Deb on one side of me and Cindy on the other was a little bit like Heaven. They both sing beautifully, and what was funny was while they both sing alto or tenor, they never sang the same part.

I sing soprano. They couldn’t hear each other, but we sounded like a trio. Okay, maybe we could use a little practice 😉 but together we made a joyful noise! 

 The funeral had a full worship team. I couldn’t see some of my favorite people up there, but I heard my friend Junebug played the keyboard while holding her grandaughter.

Isn’t that a beautiful picture? A woman teaching her granddaughter to praise God before the child can even carry on a conversation?

She doesn’t only tell her, she shows her. I love it!

The part of the service I enjoyed most was when Marsha, Gene’s daughter, spoke. She touched the heart of everyone at the service, telling us of her father’s faith in God. How he rarely met a person without asking them if they knew Jesus.

When Gene was in college, he received an award from ROTC because he saved another man’s life. They were in a chemistry lab and somehow his lab partner caught fire. The guy panicked and started to run, but Gene stopped him and beat out the flame with his bare hands, saving the man’s life. When help came, Gene told them he was fine, but when he tried to open the door to leave, the skin on his palms came off and he collapsed.

His palms were tender after that, but because of that God gave him the gift of healing.  

She said they took him from the hospital to a healing service once, and while they were there, he prayed for the others, not himself. I don’t think that suprised anyone who knew him.

She told of their final communion together in his hospital room and of the scriptures they prayed over him. 2 Cor 5–the entire chapter, but  special verses stood out.

Verse 1, which talks about the earthly tent we live in and when we leave it, we have a heavenly house for eternity. And verse 8 where we’re told that Christians who are absent from the body are present with the Lord.

Speak at your own father’s funeral–even a celebration–can’t be easy, but she did a fantastic job. When I told her that, she said, “If I did, it was all God.”

My brother told Marsha about when he was a kid. He loves to hunt and as a teen, because our dad doesn’t hunt, he asked Gene if he’d take him some time. Gene took Jeffrey several times, and for the rest of his life he’s been grateful.

I wonder if Gene ever knew how much he affected others’ lives?

I wonder if any of us realize how much we all affect the lives of others?

Sometimes, without knowing, we hurt them. More often, by asking God to work through us, we can help, support, encourage and love them.

And never cease to pray for them.