A man once was given a job to do that he was physically able to do, had the understanding of how to do the job, even had a clear personal motive with vision of what was to be accomplished by his labor. However, he did not have the tool, an axe, that was needed for him to perform the task at hand, felling a tree. So he entered into covenant with an owner of an axe. He would borrow the axe, use the axe, and return the axe.
He went to work.
In the course of his carrying out the task the axe head came off the handle and going into the river by which the man was working, it quickly sank out of his sight and out of his reach.
The man became distraught because he could no longer perform the task, meaning his vision, his goal which motivated him could not come forth and he realized he was without resources to obtain another axe to complete the task and honor the covenant he had entered into with the owner of the axe.
No doubt in my mind the man went to cussing and praying. Lets be real and honest … the first thing that usually enters my thoughts when something like this happens is not prayer … nope, sorry folks but I go right to the nature of who I am … my father’s son and I was also a sailor.
After the cloud from that rather one sided conversation disappears I then go to prayer. Don’t judge me. Stay focused on the story. When the worker's prayer came it was not elaborate. There were no flourishing words rolling off his tongue. No clever catch phrases sure to capture the attention of God. Just a few desperate words from an undone heart.
Amazing to me is that God had already made provision for this man, even before the event happened and before he prayed. Sound familiar?
Get this! From this man’s heart and then from his mouth came an appeal to Heaven!
God acts. Yahweh has a true prophet on sight; by the way the prophet was there at the request of this worker and all his co-laborers ( reference 2 Kings 6:1-7).
The Spirit of God instructs the prophet to do something that made absolutely no sense to human logic and the out come was something that was doubly impossible and completely unable to be understood in the natural.
God instructs the prophet to cut a stick and take to the river’s edge and then toss that stick into the approximate area the worker had indicated where the axe head sank.
This done the next action is something that only God can do … from its submerged hiding place the axe head rises to the surface of the water of the river and floats in clear sight and reach of all there to witness this act of God. The prophet instructs the worker to collect the iron axe head from the water. At this the worker kneels by the river’s edge and takes hold of the axe head; did I mention that this is a solid iron object that should not be floating on water.
The worker was able to complete his task reaching his personal goal and also honor the covenant with the owner of the axe head all because God cared enough to intervene on the man’s behalf.
Why would God care to do this? The answer is both simple and complex and in my opinion can be stated in this way: Yahweh had entered into a covenant with the forefathers of the worker and the prophet as well. Yahweh acted according to the covenant HE was in with that man’s forefathers and the descendants of the forefathers of which this worker was as well as the prophet. Even though the worker lived generations after God entered into the covenant with Abraham he reaped the benefit of the covenant. That is how covenant works, generation to generation to generation.
So why am I writing this … America has lost the axe head, or tool, it borrowed to do a task, lead the nations in the way of righteousness (note I did not say perfection) and can not find it!
Unless God intervenes on the behalf of America, America will not be able to continue the task. It seems impossible that America could be in this place so divided, bewildered, dismayed, unable to lead. The axe head is there it is just not visible … it is just out of reach … America needs God to intervene and cause the axe head to float. Yahweh entered into a covenant with our forefathers as they made an appeal unto Heaven in the early workings of forging this nation America.As our forefathers began to take on the oppressing tyranny that would hinder the purposes God has for America they in unity of mind and heart made an appeal unto Heaven and now once again America must make an appeal unto Heaven. For that is the simplicity and complexity of the matter. An appeal unto Heaven may not make sense in the natural. Logic of men may press for another way that is more sensible to human reason, but An Appeal To Heaven is the only solution to America’s dilemma.
By the way, I stopped my cussing about this and have gone to praying. Just saying. RH
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Monday, October 7, 2013
At age 63 I am setting at my desk writing from reflections of how blessed I am. Married to the same woman for going on 43 years, two beautiful daughters who honor and respect their mother and I, two son in law’s who love them and honor them, two beautiful, gifted, and God fearing grand-children. I must mention years of good health, steady job from which I retired in 2011, same for my wife and my children and children’s children, well except for the retirement thing. However, Denise is working on an exit plan from her long term employment. We have set a few goals along the way and met most of them but honestly for us it has been a journey of faith, hope, and love. It has been good.
There is a very simple reason I can say that and it does not come from having a lot of processions or lots of money or because I am an American.
Now that said, this journey of our family has not been without struggles. Struggles with each other, extended family, friends, co-workers, school teachers, church folk, complete strangers (most of those being drivers of the other car). Like everyone else I spent a lot of time looking for the reason and or the cause of our struggles; in other words I wanted someone to hold responsible, to blame, to bring to accountability and last but not least experience justice for all the “suffering” and “pain” from broken hearts, lost dreams, misplaced or unfruitful plans and delays (some traffic related).
God took his fair share of the blunt of the hot wrath from The Rev. Rog. So did my wife, children, co-workers, peers, and the list could go on. Yep, I dodged the bullet as much as I could just like many people but also like many I came to post-struggle places that can only be describe, by me, as fields of grace and streams of mercy. Once my eyes were opened to where I had arrived I realized that it was me myself and I that opened the door for a lot of those struggles; those of my own as well as those suffered and endured by my wife, children, son-in-law’s and, grand-children, again the list could go on.
Now honestly I realized, after the amazement of my having found myself there, I was not the cause of the majority of my personal and the other’s struggles. Why? Well, Life on this plain is a struggle. It is suppose to be. It did not have to be that way, Eve could have listen to the earlier voice that had spoken wisdom to her about the forbidden fruit, Adam could have intervened and exercised a husband’s protective covering over his wife and stopped her (gently). In other words the original mom and pop could have resisted the serpent’s taunt and tease thereby avoiding the fall, but they did not choose that path. The fall happened and as it has been said before, the rest is history.
Now you may be thinking “Ok, The Rev. Rog is on the path of wrath again!” Laying the blame upon a dead and gone couple who can not defend themselves.” Well, not really. All that the original mom and pop could have done to avoid struggle I could also do now or could have done in the past if only I would have listen to Holy Spirit. That is what I meant by coming to realize that I and I believe you too are continuously brought to a broader place than our struggle or struggles we are currently in because once resting in fields of grace by the streams of mercy we can come finally realize there is a much greater need than to know the reason for struggles and or who caused a struggle in the first place. The revelation of my need, and I believe for all of us, is to forget and forgive.
Forget the offense and forgive the offender. This practice is not original with mankind. No, originally it was practice by God, not Allah, Buddha, or any other false god conjured up over the ages by mankind. No the God I speak of is the one true and living God, Yahweh. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, The God of Israel.
So, my journal thought today ends with this, we will always have struggles but there is a place of complete rest as we work and walk through each struggle. A place of Yahweh’s making that is broader than where we were in the place of the struggle. Here anyone you and I can come to learn the forgetting and forgiving nature of Yahweh and are shown, since you and I are made by Him in His image, that you and I can practice the same practice as He. Here in this place of rest in grace and mercy I can overcome, and so can you, every struggle.
Indeed, life is good!
There is a very simple reason I can say that and it does not come from having a lot of processions or lots of money or because I am an American.
Now that said, this journey of our family has not been without struggles. Struggles with each other, extended family, friends, co-workers, school teachers, church folk, complete strangers (most of those being drivers of the other car). Like everyone else I spent a lot of time looking for the reason and or the cause of our struggles; in other words I wanted someone to hold responsible, to blame, to bring to accountability and last but not least experience justice for all the “suffering” and “pain” from broken hearts, lost dreams, misplaced or unfruitful plans and delays (some traffic related).
God took his fair share of the blunt of the hot wrath from The Rev. Rog. So did my wife, children, co-workers, peers, and the list could go on. Yep, I dodged the bullet as much as I could just like many people but also like many I came to post-struggle places that can only be describe, by me, as fields of grace and streams of mercy. Once my eyes were opened to where I had arrived I realized that it was me myself and I that opened the door for a lot of those struggles; those of my own as well as those suffered and endured by my wife, children, son-in-law’s and, grand-children, again the list could go on.
Now honestly I realized, after the amazement of my having found myself there, I was not the cause of the majority of my personal and the other’s struggles. Why? Well, Life on this plain is a struggle. It is suppose to be. It did not have to be that way, Eve could have listen to the earlier voice that had spoken wisdom to her about the forbidden fruit, Adam could have intervened and exercised a husband’s protective covering over his wife and stopped her (gently). In other words the original mom and pop could have resisted the serpent’s taunt and tease thereby avoiding the fall, but they did not choose that path. The fall happened and as it has been said before, the rest is history.
Now you may be thinking “Ok, The Rev. Rog is on the path of wrath again!” Laying the blame upon a dead and gone couple who can not defend themselves.” Well, not really. All that the original mom and pop could have done to avoid struggle I could also do now or could have done in the past if only I would have listen to Holy Spirit. That is what I meant by coming to realize that I and I believe you too are continuously brought to a broader place than our struggle or struggles we are currently in because once resting in fields of grace by the streams of mercy we can come finally realize there is a much greater need than to know the reason for struggles and or who caused a struggle in the first place. The revelation of my need, and I believe for all of us, is to forget and forgive.
Forget the offense and forgive the offender. This practice is not original with mankind. No, originally it was practice by God, not Allah, Buddha, or any other false god conjured up over the ages by mankind. No the God I speak of is the one true and living God, Yahweh. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, The God of Israel.
So, my journal thought today ends with this, we will always have struggles but there is a place of complete rest as we work and walk through each struggle. A place of Yahweh’s making that is broader than where we were in the place of the struggle. Here anyone you and I can come to learn the forgetting and forgiving nature of Yahweh and are shown, since you and I are made by Him in His image, that you and I can practice the same practice as He. Here in this place of rest in grace and mercy I can overcome, and so can you, every struggle.
Indeed, life is good!
Isaiah 33:20-22
The Voice (VOICE)
20 Ah, just look at Zion! The city where we celebrate,
where we make our God-appointed feasts.
You’ll see a Jerusalem at peace, untroubled, undisturbed,
like a permanent tent with stakes driven deep and ropes that never break.
21 There, the Eternal, so splendid and regal,
will be for us a place of broad rivers and wide canals.
No large boats will pass through them—
no mighty ships will sail their waters.
22 For the Eternal One is our Judge; He has prescribed our laws;
He rules over us, and He is the One who will save us.
where we make our God-appointed feasts.
You’ll see a Jerusalem at peace, untroubled, undisturbed,
like a permanent tent with stakes driven deep and ropes that never break.
21 There, the Eternal, so splendid and regal,
will be for us a place of broad rivers and wide canals.
No large boats will pass through them—
no mighty ships will sail their waters.
22 For the Eternal One is our Judge; He has prescribed our laws;
He rules over us, and He is the One who will save us.
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