Thursday, September 17, 2009

I could use a new skin... or at least a good ironing!!!

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It's not easy being me. Honestly, I'm not exactly sure how hard it really is, I really just wanted to say so. I suppose I'd rather be me than anybody else I know. And I'd be horribly embarrassed for anybody else to have to be the me that I am. I may at times be hard on myself, be ashamed of myself, be disgusted and dissatisfied and discouraged with myself, often not like (and even hate) myself... but I guess I'm comfortable here. I wouldn't know how to be somebody outside this skin of mine.... although, I would truly be tempted (if the option were there) to trade skins with lots of others I've seen while still keeping the inside the same.

Wouldn't it be neat to simply zip out of your skin because you didn't like the shade or the shape or the age or the color of the one you've been wearing (it's too big, it's too baggy, it's too short, it's too saggy).. and zip into another that you've specifically picked out to put on? Or even better yet, wouldn't it be fun to have a closet full of skins to wear on the whim of the mood of your moment?

I don't know. I'm mostly prone to sameness. Too many skins hanging in my wardrobe would be too overwhelming and probably rot from lack of wearing. I'd probably have a favorite... and I'd wear my favorite daily. All the time. Night and day. Inside and out. Tanned year round! Skinny forever! Perfectly proportioned! Beautiful always! Sensationally stunning!

Okay. Well then, if I had the option to look like that, then surely I'd think again about settling for this inside I've got. It's far from perfect and I've got so much work to do on it. It's too unorganized, too ditzy at times, frazzled too often, and way too flittery. It procrastinates, hides when it's scared, and lives in denial when things are too painful. It's happier than it used to be, and laughs a lot; but still mean comes out uninvited at times in a matter of only a second. It can be proned to rebel rather than simply submit, and is often stubborn over things that is really quite silly. It beats myself up, and sometimes others too, but mostly because it's mad at itself and not at you. God's working on it and I'm trying to repent and relent, but His work's not done and won't be finished and perfected until He comes to take me Home to Him. I suppose until then I'll continue to pray for the changing He's doing, and pray that He'll tender my heart into willing!

Wow, at the patience He has! At His unfailing love! At His faithfulness that's everlasting.

Wonder if sometimes He'd like to respond to my earlier statement and say, "If you think it's hard being you, you oughta try being Me! It's surely not so easy! I've got beautiful skins that don't know that they are, and insides that forget that I'm living inside them!"

Wow... when you put it like that!

What an honor!

God has that wardrobe of skins in His closet that I suggested that it'd be fun to have in mine, and He's picked out and chosen each one individually.... and actually wears them all - all the time! Not one's too young or too old, too tall or too thin, too wrinkly or too heavy. Each one is proportioned just right and sized and equipped for His journey. He's made some into doctors, some into teachers, some into drivers or lawyers or scholars or preachers. He has some shaped for sportcoats  others purposed for gym shorts, some uniformed as cooks, or cut out as nurses. He's molded some to be stay-at-home moms, and some He's made as moms that are working. Some have been formed as artists, or framed as beauticians, or made into waitresses or writers or welders or wrestlers. Some sit still and are wheeled in chairs, and some due to illnesses are, for this season in their lives, mostly sleeping beauties. Some wear white, some dress in stripes, some sleep in the day, some sleep at night.

Skins! In colors of all kinds. Shapes of all sorts. Each sized to perfection. Contoured from all ages.

Beautiful!

Every single one in His eyes He sees as beautiful to Him. And amazingly, He finds each one that wants to worthy of wearing Him.

He's honored to wear our skin. He wants to! He died to! He resurrected from the dead to! He fights to! He intercedes to! He graces, gives mercy, forgives to! He bought the thing! He bought the thing! He bought the thing! He paid for it with His own blood! He died to ransom it! To redeem it! To restore it! To renew it! To refuel it!

It sounds so overwhelmingly wonderfully crazy to me! But Jesus wants to wear my pitiful skin to display the splendor of His Glory in! Incredible! And not only that, He wants to display His splendor inside the skin of you too!

Fantastically miraculously amazing! No matter what my outside looks like, I'll always be beautiful when He's in my in!

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

I'm a 'they' and a 'them'... and so saying! If you're a 'they' you also ought to 'say'!

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I have spent days milking what God has said to us in Psalm 107. I love what He says there. His words are huge! He says so much. He draws such a vivid picture of His people and how He delivers them. Whoa, at the reflection this psalm shows of God's faithfulness and His UN-FAIL-ing LOVE toward His children! His GOoDness astounds me! Wow, at His love that truly endures through all of our wanderings, our rebellion, our faithlessness, and our folly. He loves us so. And thus, continues to go to such extremes to save us!

Below you'll find some of the noting I've done as I've dug through the verses of this song. I hope you enjoy a piece of my dig as much as I did.

Psalm 107:

"1 Give THANKS to the LORD…. laud Him, praise Him…., for He is Good; His love….. His goodness, His mercy, His faithfulness, His loving-kindness….. endures forever…. continuously, for ever and ever, indefinitely, always, unendingly.

2 Let the redeemed of the LORD s-a-y this……
..… Let the avenged speak….. Let the ransomed tell….
Let the purchased pronounce…. Let the delivered recount….
Let the liberated state…. Let the released express…
Let the set free give tongue and impart this….

[KJV - “Let the redeemed of the LORD say so… ]

those
He redeemed from the hand of the foe…
….. those that He rescued from their enemy,
from their adversary, from their oppressor,
from their afflicter, from their distress,
 from their trouble, from their affliction,
from their sorrow…….,


3 those
He gathered from the lands,
from east and west, from north and south.

4 Some [of those] 
wandered in desert wastelands……
strayed to deserted lands, drifted to desolate places,
staggered to solitude, were seduced to ruin,
were mislead to waste…..,
finding no way [no road, no distance, no journey, no manner,
no habit, no course, no moral character] to a city where they could settle…. abide, remain, inhabit, sit down, dwell, stay.
 

5 They
were hungry and thirsty,
and their lives…. their souls, their life, their person, their appetite, their desire, their emotion, their passion, their heart, their mind,
their will, their character…….… ebbed away…. turned aside, grew feeble, grew faint, grew weak, failed, enveloped into itself.
 

6 THEN they
CRIED OUT to the LORD I-N their trouble,
and HE delivered them….. snatched them away, rescued them, saved them, plucked them up, recovered them, took them out..…FROM their distress.

7 He LED them by a straight….. a right, correct, pleasing, fitting, proper….
way…. road, direction, journey, manner, path, habit, course of life, moral character…
to a city where they could settle…. abide, remain, inhabit, sit down, dwell, stay.
 

8 Let THEM
give THANKS to the LORD FOR His unfailing love AND His wonderful deeds…… marvelous deeds, extraordinary deeds, distinguishing acts, the things He does beyond our power, the things He does that is too difficult for us to do, the things He does that is too surpassing in greatness for us to be able to understand, His wonders …… FOR men.


9 FOR HE s-a-t-i-s-f-i-e-s
…… He satiates…. He fills…. He fulfills…. He gives in excess…. He enriches…. He gives plenty…. He gives enough to……
the thirsty ["the longing soul”….. the mind that runs to and fro, the desires that rushes back and forth, the emotions with a ranging appetite, the desires and passions that frantically search and is eager and greedy and thirsty for something]

and f-i-l-l-s ……… replenishes, overflows, gives in abundance, satisfies completely, fills to full, wholly and accomplished………. the hungry …. the one stricken with hunger, suffering being famished, failing in strength, starved!….. with good things ….. with pleasant, with agreeable, with good, with excellent, with glad, with happy, with what’s beneficial, with happiness.

10 Some
sat…. dwelled, remained, inhabited, stayed, abided in, continued, tarried….. in darkness…. hidden in obscurity, secret places, places of the night, concealed in the dark…..

and the deepest gloom,

prisoners…… those taken as a prisoner, a captive, being bound to, tied, imprisoned, harnessed, bound with cords…….…. suffering…… afflicted, miserable, troubled, bowed down, oppressed, stooped…. in iron chains…. tools of iron, harshness, strength, oppression,

11 for they
had rebelled…. they disobeyed, they were bitter towards…. against the words…..[eber] the utterances… the words, the sayings, the promises, the answers, the discourse, the commands of God


and despised… abhorred, detested, hated, loathed… the counsel….. [etsah] counsel, advice, plan, purpose…. of the Most High [The One (the Name) Above ALL Names! The MOST Highest and Uppermost].

12 So He subjected them…. He humbled their hearts, He subdued their wills, He lowered them (to bow the knee, to fall on their knees), He bowed their knees…. He subjected their minds, their appetites, their emotions and passions…… to bitter labor…. to toil, to trouble, to labor, to sorrow, to grief, to pain, to wickedness, to labor (especially with toil and weariness), to anguish, to misery,

they stumbled…. they staggered, they tottered, they were injured and ruined and overthrown, they were made weak and cast down……, and there was no one to help… no one to support them, no one to give them aid, no one to lend them a hand.

13 THEN they
CRIED OUT to the LORD I-N their trouble,

and HE saved them FROM their distress.

14 He BROUGHT THEM OUT
of darkness and the deepest gloom

and broke away their chains.

15 LET THEM
give THANKS to the LORD FOR His unfailing love
AND His wonderful deeds FOR men,

16 FOR HE b-r-e-a-k-s down…… breaks into pieces, rends down, wrecks, crushes, shatters….., gates…. doors, lids, jaws…… of bronze…. copper, bronze, fetters, lusts, harlotry, chains, filthiness, steel…… and cuts through bars….. fortresses, gates, cross-beams, bars..….. of iron…..iron, tools of iron, harshness, strength, oppression.

17 Some
became fools…… those who despise wisdom, those who mock when guilty, those who are quarrelsome, those who are licentious [immoral, wicked]….. through their rebellious ways…..though their ways of rebellion, roads of wrongdoing, distances of guilt, journeys of sin, manner of trespasses, paths of breaking away, direction of revolts, habits of wrongdoing, course of crimes, misbehaving character……

and suffered afflictions….. oppression, depression, being bowed down, humiliation…. because of their iniquities……. perversity, depravity, guilt, fault, mischief, sin…… because of their wrong doing, iniquity, their bending, their turning, their twists, their distortion, their perverted-ness.

18 They
….. “their soul”….. their person, their appetite, their mind, their desire, their emotion, their passions, their will, their heart, their character…… loathed……abhorred, detested ……. all food…. “all manner of meat”…. food supply, meal, eating………. and drew near the gates [doors] of death.

19 THEN they
CRIED OUT to the LORD I-N their trouble,
and HE saved them FROM their distress.  

20 He sent forth His Word… (dabar) word, words, sayings, utterances, commandments, business, occupation, acts, commands, promises, talk….. and healed them…and made them healthy, healed them, cured them, repaired them, sewed together their wounds to mend them (one stitch at a time)……;

[ I love that! I love that He still ‘sends’ forth His word! And that He ‘sends’ it forth in a myriad of ways…. through His Scripture, in a devotional, through the mouth of a preacher, a teacher, a friend, a card….etc. He still sends forth His Word in hopes to bring healing. ]

He RESCUED… He delivered, He saved…… them from the grave….. from destruction, from the pit.

21 LET THEM
give THANKS to the LORD FOR His unfailing love
AND His wonderful deeds FOR men.

22 LET THEM 
sacrifice thank offerings… “And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving….”…. confession, praise, thanksgiving…..(comes from the root: yadah – to throw, shoot, cast, to profess, to confess; perhaps to show or point out with the hand extended! (from the idea of the hand being cast forth, i.e. extended… hence to show by the extended hand), give thanks, laud, praise) …………

AND TELL… count, recount, relate, number, rehearse, declare, to scratch, to scrape….. of His works… His deeds, His acts, His businesses, His pursuits, His undertaking, His achievements, His work, His deliverances, His judgements, what He has fashioned, what He has accomplished, what He has made…… WITH SONGS OF JOY….. a ringing cry, singing, a proclamation, joy, rejoicing, gladness, praise.

23 Others
went out on the sea in ships;

they
were merchants….. their occupation, their work, their business, their service, their use…… on the mighty…… much, many, great, abounding in, more numerous than………. waters.

24 They saw
……. “These SEE”……They look at, They inspect, They perceive, They consider, They observe, They give attention to. ………. the works of the LORD, His wonderful deeds in the deep.

25 For He spoke and stirred up a tempest that lifted high the waves. 26 They mounted up to the heavens and went down to the depths;

in their peril [ra’] their courage [nephesh] melted away [fainted, softened, dissolved, dissipated, was consumed, perished].

27 They
reeled and staggered like drunken men;

they
were at their wits' end …. end of their wits, end of their ideas, end of their wisdom.

28 THEN they
CRIED OUT to the LORD I-N their trouble,
and HE BROUGHT them OUT of their distress.

29 He stilled the storm….. tempest, whirlwind, storm, rage, trouble…. to a whisper; …to a calm, to a silence, to stillness…. the waves of the sea were hushed…silenced, quieted, made still, made inactive….

30 THEY
were glad……. joyful, merry, rejoicing……. when it grew calm…..when it ceased, when it hushed, when it was silent….,

and HE GUIDED them…..lead them…. to their desired haven…..their pleasure, their purpose. their delight.

31 Let them
give thanks for the LORD

FOR His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds FOR men.

32 Let them
exalt Him….. lift Him, raise Him up….. in the assembly of the people and praise Him….. boast in Him, make Him to shine, celebrate Him, renown Him, glorify Him ….. in the council of the elders...."




Did you see it? Did you see the theys and the thems, the somes and the others? So many of them were me! Incredible, when you really stop to think about it! I'm a "those"....... (one of those that God has "redeemed")....... I’m a “some” that wandered, and that was a prisoner taken captive and put in chains...... I’m a “they”…. and a “them”……… so many of those that God is talking about here.

This is the psalm that prompted me to name this blog with the name that I did. It is because of all that God has done for me that there is now a fire in my bones and I am compelled to say! He TELLS us to say... and thus,  I fully intend to SAY SO!!

Say what exactly? What am I supposed to be saying?

That the LORD is GOoD!!! And that His love ENDURES forever!

I hope you find great 'delight' in our Savior, and that you not only see yourself in these scriptures; but that you are convicted to do a LOT of 'saying' about God's love because you are!

Again... Let us give thanks for the LORD, for His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds for men. Let us exalt Him, lift Him, raise Him up in the assembly of His people and praise Him, boast in Him, make Him to shine, celebrate Him, renown Him, glorify Him in the council of all that we meet!


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