BEND YOUR KNEES TO BEND GOD'S EAR!

Help me, Lord! 

I can no longer bend my knees. But...I can call out to you, my father

Thank you for your Word! (Psalm 86:1-7)

1. Turn your ear to me, O Yahweh because I am oppressed and needy. 
2. Protect me because I am faithful to you. Save your servant who trusts you. You are my Elohim. 
3. Have pity on me, O Adonay* because I call out to you all day long. 
4. Give me joy O Adonay, because I lift my soul to you. 
5. You, O Adonay, are good and forgiving, full of mercy toward everyone who calls out to you. 
6. Open your ears to my prayer, O Yahweh. Pay attention when I plead for mercy. 
7. When I am in trouble, I call out to you because you answer me.

Help me, Lord!

*The only difference between 'Adonai' and 'Adonoy' is a kind of regional accent. Those are the same exact words, no difference.

CHRISTMAS DAY : HOLYDAY

Auto-correct doesn't want to accept holyday! Probably because it is not "politically correct".

Earlier this month I came across the term in a Carol Mead devotional. Her reference was to the "gift of peace" from Psalm 122:6-8. The passage resonated with me as I often pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

But God....in His love and mercy showed me how easily it is for the holidays to become crazy busy with worries about perfection....aka all about me. Will others appreciate my gifts or see them as hokey? Will my food at the Sunday School party be a hit? Will it look festive? Will no one even taste it? 

Conviction---the holidays are not about me. God showed me in a very clear way. 

In order to "de-sensitive" (a Mead word) transitory things, I need to take the I out of holiday.

H o l I d a y. My focus has been on myself. A substitution is needed.

If one exchanges the I for a Y, the focus changes & the substitution is worthy.

H o l Y d a y

Y is the Hebrew word for Yeshua or Jesus the One whose death was our substitutionary atonement and whose birth Christians celebrate at Christmas! My Jewish friends might substitute their Y as for Yahweh but they would not say it aloud.

One of my greatest joys is to see family, friends & others seek Jesus......

and to rejoice when they find Him. I know no greater joy! (3 John 1:4)

Today to my family friends and blog readers, I pray that there will be peace within you---a deep, abiding peace from Jehovah, the One True God.

Happy Holyday!

Y= Yahweh

2/10/10 Preparing to write a blog on “Y = yoke” I began to mull over all the ways the Lord had carried my burdens this past year. Indeed his yoke is easy and burden is light and I had learned much from His humble and gentle heart. (Matthew 11: 28-30) But God……………showed me Himself through Elijah via 1 Kings 17 and a devotional by St. Trphon the Martyr.

Elijah, whose name means “Yahweh is God,” was a prophet whose name is significant because he prophesied during a time when the worship of Baal threatened to extinguish the worship of God (Yahweh) in Israel. (Ryrie Study Bible)

YHWH

Elijah had predicted a drought in the land, “neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.” (1 Kings 17: 1) and the Lord provided a brook of fresh water and the ravens fed him while he hid in the place the Lord provided for him.

“Some time later the brook dried up.” (v. 7) Have you ever had a brook dry up in your life? Maybe a brook of fellowship dried up as you attended the funeral of a believer with whom you had enjoyed the partnership of the gospel or stood at the grave of a beloved family member. During this time of recession many have seen a financial brook dry up. For some a business failure has completely dried up their river-beds. For others the “cuts” and years without raises have slowly eroded their “just in case” stockpile or retirement funds. A friend’s brook of a happy marriage no longer bubbled with happiness but dried up as she faced the ugly bare rocks left by adultery. Last year, fears of facing pain and surgery dried up my brook of good health.
But Yahweh…….speaks to us and provides for us just as He did for Elijah. “Then the word of the Lord came to him:” (v.8) Then (to me that’s almost synonymous with “in God’s timing”) God’s word came. Maybe Yahweh allows those dried up brooks in our lives to get us to the point where we’ll be able to hear Him.

Life is full of “dried-up brooks” but Yahweh is there. He is the Lord of life, even the dried-up brooks. For it’s in those dried-up brooks where we are attuned to clearly hear His word---if we’ll just listen.