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Do the sheep really know what the Shepherd does for them?

Posted on by elizabethprata

A list on this Father’s Day. If you’re saved, Jesus is the best Father.

sheep

The image of God as a shepherd points to his continual direction, guidance and care for his people.

Shepherd as a title for God-
Ps 80:1 See also Ge 49:24; Ecc 12:11

God’s people are his flock-
Israel is God’s flock Ps 95:7 See also Ps 79:13; 100:3; Jer 50:7; Eze 34:31

The church is God’s flock 1Pe 5:2 See also Lk 12:32; Ac 20:28-29

The tasks undertaken by God the shepherd-
The shepherd leads and guides Ps 23:2-3 See also Isa 40:11

The shepherd provides Ps 23:1 See also Ge 48:15; Ps 23:5-6; Hos 4:16; Mic 7:14

The shepherd protects Ps 28:9 See also Ge 49:23-24

The shepherd saves those who are lost or scattered Jer 31:10 See also Ps 119:176; Isa 53:6; Eze 34:11-16; Mt 18:12-14 pp Lk 15:3-7

The shepherd judges Eze 34:17-22 See also Jer 23:1; Zec 10:2-3; 11:16; Mt 25:32-46

God gives shepherds to be leaders over his people-
He gives David’s line Eze 34:23 See also 2Sa 5:2 pp 1Ch 11:2; Ps 78:70-72; Eze 34:23-24; 37:24; Mic 5:4; Mt 2:6

He gives individual leaders Isa 44:28; 63:11

He gives faithful leaders Jer 3:15 See also Jer 23:4; 1Pe 5:2-4

Manser, M. H. (2009). Dictionary of Bible Themes: The Accessible and Comprehensive Tool for Topical Studies. London: Martin Manser.

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Two or more good things about having a disability

Posted on by elizabethprata

I like to write about Jesus, His Word, and the things of the Word. But today I’ll write a bit about me, and then turn it to Jesus.

I have a disability.

I can’t smell.

I agree this is not a crippling disability, not one that hinders me in daily life as much as someone in a wheelchair, or a blind person for example. But not being able to smell does have its detriments.

As a teenager, my mother would not let me babysit because I could not smell danger- a fire, food burning, gas, et cetera. I also can’t smell when a baby’s diaper has to be changed! I never knew that farts smelled bad until I was a senior in High School. No one told me. I also never knew that cooking cabbage emitted a heavy, permeating smell, either. And so on.

As an adult, certain professions were denied me due to lacking this sense. Perfumer, chef, detective, chemist…

Even now, the lack of olfactory senses impacts me. When I cook I cannot detect when the food burns. I can’t tell if a food has gone bad, like milk or the fish I buy. I have gas heat and the lack of being able to smell if there’s a leak scares me constantly. I can’t smell smoke or electrical burning which was a problem when the electrical wires in my car got on fire and is otherwise a general safety issue. I can’t tell if my own clothes smell or not so I just wear them once and wash them to be safe. My trash can and the cats’ litter box…I never know if they’re stinking up the apartment and I worry when people come over.

Sometimes I get sad if I think about it, the pleasant things I’ve not been able to smell. A baby sweet smelling out of the tub. Mown grass. Bread baking The air after a rain. Flowers. So I don’t think about it.

I can’t complain too much. My day-to-day life isn’t impacted tremendously, as it would be if I suddenly was confined to a wheelchair or was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or was born deaf or blind. I’ve never been able to smell so in one sense I do not know what I’m missing. But I am missing something and that perturbs me once in a while.

The Lord knew ahead of time very person He was going to create. The Lord knits every person in the womb. He fashions us to His specifications and plan. So He made me this way. He is good and perfect. I have to see the good in it. Here’s the good:

1. He is protecting me. How? I’m autistic and I’m extremely sensitive to my environment. Light, noise, colors, and even my own clothes hanging on me, ply me with heightened sensations. They impact me through every molecule of my body. Not to mention the mental anguish I’d likely be feeling all the time. I understand that smell is often the trigger for memory recall which in turn raises strong emotions. If I could smell too? I’d keel over from overload much more often.

So I have to thank the Lord for protecting me and shielding me from what I know would be an overwhelming overload every moment of the day. If I could smell no doubt I’d also be undergoing an continuous scroll of memory playing on the screen in my mind, a roiling of emotions I wouldn’t know how to handle, and there’s enough of that already. So again, thank you, Lord.

2. It is a gift from the Lord, to me. How? The first thing I’ll smell will be heaven. What a gift.  I’ll go from zero to a billion quadrillion in one moment, a blink of an eye (or in this case, a twitch of the nose). I’ll be able to smell whatever the Lord has designed for us and I’ll never have to smell sewage, vomit, fecal matter, the trash can, body odor, or any other terrible smell. I’ll be made whole in an instant, demonstrating His power and soon enough, the lack will be wiped from my mind and forevermore, my glorified body will be perfect. I can wait. What’s a few decades of living with a disability when that great truth is on the horizon?

For those who love Him, He does good all the time, our whole lives from womb to grave. If you have endured a disability, and again, I know mine is minor compared to many other peoples’, just know that the Lord made it this way for divine purposes. Since He is perfect, your part in it as is mine, is divinely ordained for our good and His glory. Look for the good in your situation and try not to dwell on the bad, the worrisome, or the frustrating. Dwell on the positive of your situation here and now and think of the good things that will come. Most importantly, see how you can glorify the Lord in it.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. (Philippians 4:8).

As a lost person, it used to infuriate me when I saw on the news or something, a Christian praising the Lord for their cancer diagnosis, or forgiving the murderer, or thanking Him for some devastating thing most normal people rage over. I never could understand it. But that’s the point. We are a people set apart, not of this world. We don’t act like the world because we have the Light, and the world comprehends us not.

But Christians think of the things that are pure, and honorable, and just, and lovely. That means we think of Jesus. He gives the eternal perspective. He is worthy of praise, even in and through the disability.

Think about it.
tiger lily

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The Practical Grace of Alana L.

Posted on by elizabethprata

Alana L. is a Christian, a wife, a mom, an entrepreneur, and a Youtuber. She has been making videos about her life as a mom in Christ for five years, which are published nearly every day. In her first couple of videos, Alana articulates the Gospel and her beliefs. The remaining videos are simply how these beliefs play out during a regular old day, a kind of practical grace.

One video I liked of hers was just over 1 minute long. It showed an empty glass on the floor next to a rocking chair. Her husband had left it there after getting up from eating his sandwich. You know how the Mexican standoff begins, you sinfully say to yourself, ‘Well if he couldn’t bring the glass to the sink, I won’t.’ Or passive-aggressively waving the glass around while asking “Are you done with this glass? I’ll put it in the sink for you.‘ Or just ignore the glass and leave it for him to pick up eventually, when he gets the hint. [They never get the hint]. Or…how to handle this issue lovingly, and what thoughts Jesus would want us to have as Alana muses (while taking the glass to the sink). Practical grace.

Sunny Shell at Abandoned to Christ has some thoughts on motherhood, fatherhood, and family-hood titled The Hands That Rock The Cradle, Heals or Hurts The World

Please read her piece for an encouraging thought for the day. Then enjoy Alana L.’s take on living it out. She covers submission, wife-hood, spanking, discipline, homeschooling, working from home, raising boys, cleaning, marital irritations, lovemaking and attractiveness, bitterness, and more. All the things. Her videos run from 1 minute to 20 minutes. Enjoy.

Alana Lagares Youtube Channel

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The Sifting Hour

Posted on by elizabethprata

My pastor is preaching slowly through Jonah. I love Jonah. What’s not to be intrigued by? The book has everything. A disobedient prophet, action, sovereignty of God, grace, patience, repentance, revival, and miracles- ten of them! (Jonah 1:4, 1:7, 1:15, 1:17, 1:17, 2:10, 3:10, 4:6, 4:7, 4:8).

I think it is amazing that the Spirit inspired Jonah to write his deeds down –  all of them, from the petulant, to the racist, to the rebellious, to the glorious. The Bible doesn’t hide our foibles, sins, and rebellions. The Bible is not a sanitized record of perfect human behavior. Far from it. It’s an honest record of our relationship with God.

Anyway, there’s danger, action, and supernatural miracles, ten of them, in just four short chapters. So naturally I bought the book Moby Dick at Amazon and started reading it. LOL, of course I’m following the pastor and reading the actual Bible. I also listen to other sermons on the topic, as well as give a repeat listen to his sermon later in the week, thanks to podcasts.

But it’s summer, and I’m tired of reading badly written modern books, and the trusty classics never fail me. I had never read Moby Dick, though I’ve read some of author Herman Melville’s short stories. I started reading it and I’m in love with the story.

I got to chapter 9 and Father Mapple’s sermon. It’s a good one, and it’s on Jonah, of course. In the book, Mapple is preaching to New Bedford seamen, including whalers. They’d click with the topic. In Moby Dick, Mapple illustrated the supposed scene as Jonah was ushered to his bunk in the bowels of the ship,

The air is close, and Jonah gasps. Then, in that contracted hole, sunk, too, beneath the ship’s water-line, Jonah feels the heralding presentiment of that stifling hour, when the whale shall hold him in the smallest of his bowels’ wards.

I read that stifling hour as “that sifting hour.”

I like “that sifting hour” better. Not to re-write Melville. But the phrase stuck in my mind. It brought me to Peter. The Lord told Peter,

Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. (Luke 22:31-32).

This one verse clues us in to so many things. The spiritual war. Satan’s activity. Satan’s targets. God’s sovereignty that satan needed to ask permission. Our cluelessness about whom satan has asked to sift like wheat today. The fact that Jesus prayed for Peter.

It wasn’t more than a few hours that Peter encountered his sifting hour when he denied Jesus three times.

Thoughts of ‘the sifting hour’ brought me to Job.

And the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” (Job 1:8).

Satan’s answer certainly reveals that satan had considered Job, more than once.

Then Satan answered the LORD and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.” (Job 1:9-10).

Satan had in fact been carefully watching Job for a long time. He’d noted the hedge, the increase of possessions, the blessings (plural) and all the sides of Job’s life that satan had tried to access, unsuccessfully thus far. Yes indeed. Satan had considered Job.

The sifting hour did come to Job soon after. Absolutely everything was taken away from Job. Except his wife, who told him he should die.

Our own sifting hour might come soon enough. Satan does have a lot of power in this world, being the god of it. (2 Corinthians 4:4. Ephesians 2:2). He messes with God’s people, he has power to bring winds/tornadoes, to draw fire from heaven, to incite armies to raid your home, and to attack your health. Those are just a few of the things satan did to Job. Satan has much power, and is allowed to operate within that power fully as long as it is within God’s will and permission.

Our trials do not always come from satan. Sometimes God Himself brings about chastisement and we endure a sifting hour. He appointed the storm in Jonah’s case, appointed a big fish to swallow him, appointed the hot wind to scour Jonah, and appointed the worm to eat the shade sheltering him. All to bring about obedience and repentance so God’s will and plan would proceed.

Your and my sifting hour might be coming tomorrow or today or next week. Either because we are devout, like Job, or because we are rebellious, like Jonah, or somewhere in the middle like Peter to strengthen our faith. If we stand for Jesus in this world we will have troubles. (John 16:33). When we rebel and are not repentant, we can expect discipline. (Hebrews 12:6, Proverbs 3:12). Trials strengthen us, James says.

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4).

The sifting hour is something I dread emotionally but spiritually I know that it will be good for me in the best possible way- my faith will be strengthened and Jesus’ glory will be gotten.

Let’s go back to Peter’s sifting hour and focus on the wonderful part of the scripture. Satan has asked to sift you like wheat and Jesus said,

but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.

Our Mediator and interceder prays for us! John 17:20-23 shows once again that He prays for His sheep. Has ‘the sifting hour’ come upon you? Rest assured that Jesus ordained it, appointed it, and is praying for you and is interceding for you and intends the best for you. And when it happens to me, I’ll repeat those comforts to my own mind and heart as well. Jesus said in His high priestly prayer, this is-

-so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. (John 17:23b)

What is sifted out of the chaff is love and glory. And this is the best of all.

fear not verse

Posted in encouragement, Uncategorized

How is incense like prayer?

Posted on by elizabethprata

Yesterday I wrote about incense, and how the LORD told Jeremiah to tell the people that their sacrifices of incense were not going to be received, because of their sin. He was going to send judgment instead. I’d said that there is a connection between incense and prayer, to be explored today.

First, let’s look at the Temple and the altar of incense, called the golden altar. (Exodus 39:38).

for the altar of incense made of refined gold, and its weight; also his plan for the golden chariot of the cherubim that spread their wings and covered the ark of the covenant of the LORD. (1 Chronicles 28:18–19).

The Lexham Bible Dictionary explains that pure incense was manufactured from equal parts of the following substances:

•      stacte—oil of myrrh
•      onycha—an extract from a Red Sea mollusk
•      galbanum—thought to come from the gum of an umbelliferous plant
•      frankincense

This mixture was seasoned with salt (Exodus 30:34–38). The LORD raised up perfumers whose job it was to produce the incense. (Exodus 30:34-38). One of the responsibilities of the priest was to keep incense burning on the altar daily. (2 Chronicles 13:11). Not to burn it was disobedience. (2 Chronicles 29:7-8).

There’s much more to the actual incense ingredients, blending, burning, and spiritual uses, but for now, let’s turn to the main idea for today- the connection between incense and prayers.

Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. (Zechariah, in Luke 1:8-11)

John Owen in his commentary on Hebrews makes a distinction between the two times incense is used in the temple.

Whereas, therefore, there was a twofold use of the altar of incense; the one of the ordinary priests, to burn incense in the sanctuary every day; and the other of the high priest, to take incense from it when he entered into the most holy place, to fill it with a cloud of its smoke; the apostle intending a comparison peculiarly between the Lord Christ and the high priest only in this place, and not the other priests in the daily. discharge of their office

Incense both accompanies and symbolizes prayer. ( Psalm 141:2; Revelation 5:8; Revelation 8:3-4). The burning of incense as a sweet smelling offering before the Lord, indicated the worshiper’s duty to present prayers or offerings that were pleasing to God (1 Samuel 2:28).

When the New Covenant came, the new way of praying came. (Matthew 6:9, HebrewsNo longer needing a priest to intercede,no longer needing incense to symbolize types and shadows, we now have the Spirit in us to intercede, and resurrected Jesus next to the right hand of the Father to intercede. We can ourselves go boldly before the throne of grace.

John Owen in his commentary on Hebrews lays out four ways incense is like prayer.

1.) In that it was beaten and pounded before it was used. So doth acceptable prayer proceed from “a broken and contrite heart,” Isaiah 51:17.

(2.) It was of no use until fire was put under it, and that taken from the altar. Nor is that prayer of any virtue or efficacy which is not kindled by the fire from above, the Holy Spirit of God; which we have from our altar, Christ Jesus.

(3.) It naturally ascended upwards towards heaven, as all offerings in the Hebrew are called “ascensions,” risings up. And this is the design of prayer, to ascend unto the throne of God: “I will direct unto thee, and will look up;” that is, pray, Psalms 5:3.

(4.) It yielded a sweet savor: which was one end of it in temple services, wherein there was so much burning of flesh and blood. So doth prayer yield a sweet savor unto God; a savor of rest, wherein he is well pleased.

Owen further observes:

We are always to reckon that the efficacy and prevalency of all our prayers depends on the incense which is in the hand of our merciful high priest. — It is offered with the prayers of the saints, Revelation 8:4. In themselves our prayers are weak and imperfect; it is hard to conceive how they should find acceptance with God. But the invaluable incense of the intercession of Christ gives them acceptance and prevalency.

What an inexpressible privilege it is to pray. The curtain is parted, we may boldly approach the throne of God. He not only hears our prayer, he Himself intercedes for us when we utter groanings too weak to understand. (Romans 8:26).

Do not neglect prayer, a sweet smell of our sacrifice of praise to our Lord who hears.

smoke2