Thank you

8-17-23

Thank you that Jodi is back

thank you for helping me switch conference rooms

Thank you for the peace I feel

Thank you for the beautiful day

Thank you for the reminder not to entertain "If onlys" and to produce good fruit for your kingdom by letting you direct me

The priest was a person who approached God on official business. He came before God to plead for the people. He was not there as a private individual, coming to offer his opinions or advice to the Lord. His garment set him apart, even in his own mind, to do the work of intercession before God. He officially bore the names of Israel on his shoulders and upon his heart. Ex 28:30

Too often we take the liberty to approach the Lord casually, offering our opinions, advice and judgements about others to Him who sits upon the throne. Without thinking we come before Him through the veil of His flesh "dressed" in soulishness, forgetting that we must clothe ourselves in HIS Righteousness, aware that His Spirit is upon us. We forget that we are anointed with oil more precious than any earthly symbolic counterpart. How glorious it would be if we understood all this! How glorious it would be if we came before God to insist that He bless the one we are praying for: that He would not relent but pour out blessing, grace, and mercies, and that he would bring them into the fullness that He has intended for their lives, that HIs victory on Calvary would be efficacious in them and that God would be glorified. How glorious if we came before God with a Bible, worn out from use and wet with tears to plead for Israel in this manner - to insist that God work in order that the whole world would know His great power to save to fulfill and to transform even a nation that has so long strayed from Him.

How glorious it would be if we came before God for His body, His bride, insisting that He sanctify her, cleanser her, and complete her that He would glorify HIs name in her and shine through her and shine through her with holiness and grace.

For such God is looking (see Ezekiel 22:30) Will it be you?

Ezekiel 22:30 NLT

30“I looked for someone who might rebuild the wall of righteousness that guards the land. I searched for someone to stand in the gap in the wall so I wouldn’t have to destroy the land, but I found no one.

Ps 23:3 he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.

Ps 37:11-29

11The lowly will possess the land

and will live in peace and prosperity.

12The wicked plot against the godly;

they snarl at them in defiance.

13But the Lord just laughs,

for he sees their day of judgment coming.

14The wicked draw their swords

and string their bows

to kill the poor and the oppressed,

to slaughter those who do right.

15But their swords will stab their own hearts,

and their bows will be broken.

16It is better to be godly and have little

than to be evil and rich.

17For the strength of the wicked will be shattered,

but the Lord takes care of the godly.

18Day by day the Lord takes care of the innocent,

and they will receive an inheritance that lasts forever.

19They will not be disgraced in hard times;

even in famine they will have more than enough.

20But the wicked will die.

The Lord’s enemies are like flowers in a field—

they will disappear like smoke.

21The wicked borrow and never repay,

but the godly are generous givers.

22Those the Lord blesses will possess the land,

but those he curses will die.

23The Lord directs the steps of the godly.

He delights in every detail of their lives.

24Though they stumble, they will never fall,

for the Lord holds them by the hand.

25Once I was young, and now I am old.

Yet I have never seen the godly abandoned

or their children begging for bread.

26The godly always give generous loans to others,

and their children are a blessing.

27Turn from evil and do good,

and you will live in the land forever.

28For the Lord loves justice,

and he will never abandon the godly.

He will keep them safe forever,

but the children of the wicked will die.

29The godly will possess the land

and will live there forever.