Just A Little Kid

Good morning, Dear Friends and Family,

It's a beautiful day here in our beloved NC. There's a wonderful breeze and we're praying for rain. The leaves are just starting to turn. I sat on my deck this morning and saw beautiful hues of yellow, orange, and red.

I spoke with Dad. D. in the nursing home, and he asked me to enjoy them for him..... I also spoke with one of The Treasures, one of our 4 Great Aunts. All of them had hoped to spend a couple of weeks at the Old Farm place again this year, but they are too bad to make it. What wonderful memories we share of those visits!!!

For my morning devotions I read from I Kings 20. Benhadad's great host of an army had been thoroughly defeated the day before by Israel. The next morning, Benhadad's advisers said to him, " Their gods(Israel's) are gods of the hills; therefore they were stronger than we; but let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they."

So now, we find the children of Israel camped like little children in the valley like two little flocks of kids, while the Syrians filled the country. Now, how venerable are "little kids?" Everyone knows that sheep are practically helpless by nature, without a good shepherd. Thus..the odds are against them!

Now(listen to the drum rolls!!!!!!!!!!!), a prophet walks onto the scene with these words for God's people. The Syrians have said, "Your god is only a god of the hills, NOT of the valley! Now God will deliver the enemy into your hands, and YE SHALL know, that I AM

THE LORD, THE GOD OF THE VALLEY!"

Well, I'm sure you know the rest of the story. Israel has a great victory, a wipe out!

Certainly not in their own strength, but of THE GOD OF THE VALLEY! Okay........ after reading that passage, I sat on my swing and talked to God. Lord, this morning, I surely feel like a "little kid." Circumstances and obstacles loom over me, and I'm frightened. But my God, is the God of the valley as well as the mountain. What a wonderful assurance! Once again, God spoke through His living, breathing, encouraging, Spirit filled Word. God's voice........ No, not through a prophet... but as Hebrew tells us, "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son......"

Do you feel like a little kid this morning? We really are, you know. But we have a Good Shepherd, a great God! Are you in the valley this morning? Does today's circumstances, needs, proposed plans, events, hover over you with unanswered questions? Look up! Look at Him! Not only is He the God of the mountain, but He is an unchanging God. Whoahoo........what does that mean? That He's engineering and orchestrating all the moments before you on this day! Got that! It is a bit overwhelming, isn't it?

Thank you, God, for today's message. It wasn't in a great wind, an earthquake, or a fire(as Elijah discovered), but through that still small voice, "Fear not, my child........I'll never leave you or forsake you! I'm STILL God!"

Still His child,

Linda

From Shades of Night

Good morning, Dear Friends and Family,

It's a cool sunny morning here in NC. It appears fall may be around the corner. The leaves are just starting to turn. I so much love this time of year.

I'm sitting in my recliner with my vibrator, heat on my back. It feels so good.

I just finished reading aloud, Ephesians 1 and 2. Whew! What a wonderful "dose." I think I'll go in the strength of it all week! Chapter two was titled, "Saved by Grace." As I was reading aloud for Jon and me, I had to keep pausing.........it was just too overwhelming! From verse one to verse six, I was taken from the depths of despair to heights of glory.

Paul reminded me that in time past I walked according to this World, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and was by nature a child of God's wrath. How awful! How hopeless! How dark!

Then verse four:

But God...

What about God? Who is rich in mercy! Who has great love! Who even when we were dead in sin, quickened us! Raised us up! And...

Made us to sit together with Him in heavenly places.

That in ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus! For by grace are we saved by faith.

Wow! That's what I call transformation! That's what I call change! That God should love a sinner such as I, how wonderful is love like this!

This morning, I'm aching from head to toe! I feel paralyzed in the grip of physical pain. But I'm soaring with the eagles in my soul! Suddenly even my temporal doesn't seem so important! I'm sitting with Jesus in Heavenly places!

Once again, He has spoken to me through His precious Word! God is so good, always, all the time!

FROM SINKING SAND HE LIFTED ME — HE LIFTED ME

In loving kindness Jesus came

My soul in mercy to reclaim,

And from the depths of sin and shame
Through grace he lifted me.

From sinking sand he lifted me,
With tender hand he lifted me,
From shades of night to plains of light,
Oh, praise his name, he lifted me!

He called me long before I heard,
Before my sinful heart was stirred,
But when I took him at his word,
Forgiv'n he lifted me.

His brow was pierced with many a thorn,
His hands by cruel nails were torn,
When from my guilt and grief, forlorn,
In love he lifted me.

Now on a higher plane I dwell,
And with my soul I know 'tis well;
Yet how or why, I cannot tell,
He should have lifted me.

Hope your day is blessed,

Linda