The devil may wear Prada, but the devil don’t get my days.
“…that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land…” Deuteronomy 11.21
“Seven times a day I praise You for Your righteous laws.” Psalm 119.164
Psalm 31.15 “…My times are in Your hands…”
“The bolts of your gates will be iron and bronze, and your strength will equalyour days.” Deuteronomy 33.25
“No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you, nor forsake you.” Joshua 1.5
“In times of disaster they will not wither; in days of famine they will enjoy plenty.” Psalm 37.19
“Teach us to number our days aright that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Psalm 90.12
“All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be.” Psalm 139.16b
I LOVE Christmas! I am not a very exuberant person by nature, not easily just all happy and light-hearted, but give me a vision and some understanding and I come alive. My Holy-Holiday-Calling is to remember and release a spirit of rejoicing in myself and in others as we make Jesus Christ and worshipping Him central to our sincere and over-the-top Christmas celebrating! And for all of the days of the year to follow…
“Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORDis your strength.” Nehemiah 8.10
The joy of the LORD is your strength. Are you hearing the sound?
This is the truth of this Christmas season for me. This is the message of hope God has directed me to over and again. This is the revelation of the gospel I am just beginning to understand. This is what the Apostle Paul tried to get through to the Philippians when he said “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again, Rejoice!” (Ph 4.4). This is what I heard for the millionth and the very first time this Christmas season. It is the words you hear Linus recite in “A Charlie Brown Christmas” and a sweet child’s voice inserted into Amy Grant’s 2008 Christmas hit, “I Need a Silent Night.” It is the truth above the roar of busyness and my epiphanic-fervor:
“Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of GREAT JOYwhich will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the City of David a Saviorwho is Christ the Lord.'” Luke 2.8-11 NKJV
The revelation of Jesus Christ and His arrival as our Savior was good news of great joy! Our strength indeed!
The Jesus and joy connection?
“I have told you this so that My joymay in you and that your joy may be complete” (John 15.11).
“Ask and you wll receive and your joywill be complete” (John 16.24).
“But I say these things…so that they may have the full measure of My joywithin them” (John 17.13).
God set forth (even commanded) celebrations for the purpose of joy for the people. One example:
“And on that day they offered great sacrifices, rejoicing because God had given them great joy. The women and the children also rejoiced. The sound of rejoicingin Jerusalem could be heard far away” (Neh. 12.43)
Joy is a verb. You gotta take action.
“I will rejoice in the Lord. I will JOY in the God of my salvation” (Habakkuk 3.18).
Jack Hayford’s notes in The Spirit-Filled Life NKJV Study Bible gives this on the word “joy” in Habakkuk:
JOY: Strong’s 1523: To joy, rejoice, be glad…contains the suggestion of “dancing for joy” or “leaping for joy” since this verb originally meant to “spin around with intense motion.” This lays to rest the notion that the Biblical concept of joy is only a “quiet inner sense of well-being.”…altho everything is wrong in Habakkuk’s world-he is leaping for joy over his relationship with God …
These can be joyless times. The “holiday season” may have just been one more drain on you after a year of disappointment or lack. The condition of our nation may be bringing fear. Religious duty, a significant loss in our lives, strain in our marriages, unhappiness at work or any number of things may cause us to put on the smile-mask a Christian “should” wear and yet feel as flat and used up as the neighbor’s giant inflatable Santa looks on the lawn this morning.
But the good tidings of great joy are for me and for you. So how do we appropriate it? How do we walk in the kind of joy that gives us the strength we need to endure? Repeat the sounding joy.
The sounding joy? Good news! Great joy! I have a Savior! He came to save me! I think I’ll jump up and twirl and spin around like a madwoman while I echo the angels as loudly as I can: Glory to God in the highest! Glory to the God of my salvation! And peace to us here on earth, goodwill towards us from You, Father!
It is possible, I truly believe, that this act of joy as a verb – to joy – may actually begin to bring true giddy life-giving happiness to my soul. The sounding joy: God is God! He is faithful! He rules! He reigns! I receive my King! I join with all heaven and nature in rejoicing that the curse has been broken on my behalf! He has saved me from certain death and a joyless existence! Glory to God in the highest!
Repeat the sounding joy. Repeat the sounding joy. Repeat, repeat the sounding joy!
Not just at Christmas, but – as needed!
Joy! Seriously – be glad and dance a little!…Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: Don’t let the enemy steal my joy! Not one day. Worship and crazy praise a must!
pictured: an etsy.com image, Stephanie on Christmas morning (in the midst of physical joy!) finding out she had received the antique oak dining table and chairs she really wanted, and the chalkboard in the kitchen with my “epiphanic” stuff on it (and I am preety sure I invented that word this Christmas!)
Even this morning as I was reading about how Solomon was building the Temple for the reknown and glory of the Name of the Lord and to establish his own house, I read this, surely a precursor to our Christmas ornamentation:
“He made wreaths of [gold] chainwork, as in the inner sanctuary, and put them on top of pillars; and he made one hundred pomegranates and put them on the wreaths of chainwork.” 2 Chronicles 3.16
I sigh wearily of hearing Christians who attribute all the symbols of Christmas to ancient pagan traditions. The tree, my brothers and sisters (created in the Garden where God walked first), the lights (Jesus IS the Light of the World, after all), the gift-giving (must I mention John 3.16 and the inspiration to all-gift-giving ever for all times based on this, THE most amazing gift ever?), and all the rest seem to be up for scrutiny every year. If I act a wee bit too joyous they remind me, like the father-in-law at Clark Griswold’s Christmas Vacation, “The little lights aren’t twinkling.” The bah-humbuggers want to drop-kick the joy and the meaning we have tried with our little human efforts to capture right out the door.
I don’t think the Advent wreath on which I light a candle is some all-holy-get-me-into-heaven thing. Nor do I believe God is displeased that I annually string lights and drag out the Nativity set and wrap gifts for the people I love.
What is a wreath after all? It is something woven into a circular shape and hung purely for its beauty. Or placed on the head of some one royal. It is part of my Christmas, my Christ Mass, my worship of the Christ (Christmas=Christ worship). While I am living to proclaim the reknown of the Name of the Lord on the earth, I am also establishing and decorating my home at Christmas. Solomon did it for the love of God. And so do I. His were real gold, heavy in richness. Mine are simple branches woven and beribboned.
Someday, the wreath of my life, the things I have feebly woven together in honor to God will be the crown on my head. But like the twenty-four Elders in Revelation
“[they] fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives until the Ages of the Ages and they cast their wreaths down in front of the throne…” Rev. 4.10 wey
The traditions we keep aren’t sacred. They are just our ways of celebrating and enjoying the story of our redemption, God’s plan, a Savior! They just mark our deliverance from darkness into His marvelous light. They are only the symbols we use to try to depict a God so great that even our words fail us.
Let me have my wreath and worship with it, too…Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: Weave golden moments and bejeweled treasures together into love-wreaths for people all around-even and especially the bah-humbuggers.
Times are hard right now for a lot of people. A newer friend of mine just lost her job and is now homeless, living in her car. Another friend’s brother-in-law is having to work across the state, away from his wife and young children to keep food in their mouths. An amazing pastor’s wife has breast cancer and is facing major surgery in a few days. One beautiful family struggles through prolonged accusation and custody hearings, sapping life-strength one agonizing day at a time. A brother is fighting his way back to his family from addictions that have ripped his soul, and crushed his family’s hearts. Everywhere I look, the result of the fall is wreaking havoc.
Yet, in these same circumstances and many more I am watching, grace is flowing like water. The faithful are rejecting the fear and looking to Jesus, and oh, what a beautiful sight as their faces reflect the glory of the One who is holding them steady – walking right beside them through these things.
Think about this, my friends, and don’tloseheart. This is what Jesus did so He could complete HIS work in YOU:
“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” Hebrews 12.2-3
He is your Author, your story-writer and He endured it all so He could make sure it ends with a glorious flourish. He is in all the way to the finish with you!
Dave and Tara blew me away singing the last part of a Michael W. Smith song at church on Sunday. I did a quick search for it this morning and the video actually captures, right toward the end, what I have been “seeing” in the Spirit in the lives of the people I mentioned here – a looking to Jesus, a receiving of His healing and blessing. Check out the video and stay with it, and then sing it, declare it:
Healing rain, I’m not afraid to be washed in heaven’s rain.
Healing rain is falling down. I’m not afraid! I’m not afraid!
Healing rain is falling down.
I’m not afraid! I’m not afraid!
Don’t lose heart. Don’t be afraid. He is not finished yet…Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: He. Is. My. Author. My story is His.
I ripped this off from a currently-circulating e-mail forward (20%) and added my own (80%). I am grateful to have my legal citizenship in this great country. I thank God that I live in a place where I enjoy the right and the privilege of voting, but this world is not my home. I am part of the Kingdom of God and am really just an alien passing through. :) Each presidential election seems to increase fear in our hearts, on both sides of the political fence, but I am hanging on for that “peace that passes understanding.”
Top Ten Truths No Matter WHO Wins this Election:
10. God is FOR us. (If God is for me, who can be against me?)
9. Jesus LOVES me, this I know. (This may be the simplest and most amazing truth ever)
8. The Holy Spirit will continue to LEAD, GUIDE, and DIRECT our lives.
7. God is thinking about us and has good plans for our lives (Jer. 29.11).
6. When I call on the Lord, He will hear me and answer me – telling me the things I need to know (Jer. 33.3).
5. The heart of the king (and the president) is in God’s hands and God can turn it whichever way He desires (Prov. 21.1).
4. This generation will declare the mighty works of the Lord to the next and there will be no end to the increase of HIS Kingdom and HIS government (Psalm 71.18, Isaiah 9.7)!
3. I will praise Him. The reason I live is to worship Him. (These are words from my two “life songs.” This is my commitment, my declaration – He IS the theme of my song, wherever I may lodge, whoever is president. Psalm 119)
2. The Word of God will STILL be true.
And the #1 thing that will still be true regardless of how this election turns out?
God will remain faithful. BecauseHe is.
Stay in peace, my friends, for He is with us always…Jeanie
Threatened by a forecast of freezing rain turning to snow, we are actually hosting a magnificent and sunny day fully lighting the multi-faceted palette and texture of fall. Fluttering madly in the autumn breeze and dancing to the tune of the wind chime, the once-emerald leaves of the Aspen clump are becoming more golden by the hour. The burning bushes are flaming as scarlet as they can be and potted flower heads are bowing in reverance to the power of the season as it blows by, sometimes in a whisper, sometimes as a roar.
Psalm 65.9 The Message
O, visit the earth – ask her to join the dance!
…fill the God-river with living water. Paint the wheatfields golden.
Creation was made for this!
Drench the plowed fields, soak the dirt clods with rainfall…
Set the hills to dancing! dress the canyon walls with live sheep,
a drape of flax across the valleys!
Let them shout and shout and shout! Oh, let them sing and sing!
I am singing my head off to You, O Lord, and trying to sing as loud as the trees which are clapping their hands and the bushes which are dancing (the twist) for your pleasure. You have made all of creation so holy, so set apart for Your glory. Can I live my life as free, as abandoned?
