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Let me Show you the Secret of Deborah
Do you feel alone and scattered from the Body of Christ?
Were you exiled because you became a Christian but then feel alone still because you are misunderstood even by Christians? Or have you wandering around the fringes of Christianity because you feel like you don’t belong?
Deborah, a biblical Judge, was called to gather the people of Israel together and establish it as a village again.
Our Biblical Ground Work
Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, judged Israel around 1250 B.C. She sat under the “Palm Tree of Deborah” and the children of Israel came to her for judgement. While she was judging she sent for Barak.
Barak was a general who had previously been told by God the he would go to war against Sisera but He obviously needed to be told again because Deborah had to remind him, “Has not the Lord God of Israel commanded…” After they finished with the war we find out more about Deborah in her song about the victory in Chapter 5.
Village life had ceased until she became a Judge. People did not travel the main roads. They were in hiding. There was no war implements among the 40,000 in Israel. She gathered volunteers, reestablished village life and formed an army with Barak. Then she sent him out to defeat Sisera, and ultimately cause the destruction of Jaban, the king of Canaan. All while judging Israel.
Our Biblical Life Lesson
When everyone is scattered, Deborah did what every leader should do, establish village life again.
You can call Deborah many things, judge, general, prophet, leader, councillor, and mother but she is the one thing that is a secret to most, the builder of a village. In Judges 5:7, Deborah says, “Village life ceased, it ceased in Israel, Until I, Deborah, arose, Arose a mother in Israel.”
She lead them into establishing the village life again, with a protective army as well. Barak was the General in the village army but he was not as secure in his role without Deborah but she, obviously, was secure in her role as the village leader, prophet of God, and judge of the Law for Israel.
Do those roles sound familiar to you? Are you establishing a village for God?
Being secure in your role as the leader of your “Village” is not dependent on people putting you into place, it is dependent on God putting you into place. Establishing a village is a strong place to be but highly misunderstood by most people. They call you wife and mother but you are the Village leader.
You are also a part of other villages therefore you fall under other village leaders. The Body of Christ is a nation with many villages. Establishing a village of Christians takes many leaders, working together, to put everyone in the place the Lord wants them to be in.
Deborah, under God’s leadership, established village life again from an oppressed Nation of Israel. They learned to love each other and protect each other under her guidance. How are you guiding your village?
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Behind the Scenes of a Name
Have you ever been called something other than your given name? Or even had a description added to your name?
Rahab the harlot knows exactly what you are feeling. Her name throughout history has had a description added to it but not always for the reason you think.
Let’s first see what the Bible has to say about her.
Biblical Ground Work
Joshua 2, 6; Matthew 1:5-6; Hebrews 11:31; James 2:25
Harlot defined in Hebrew and Greek
Strong’s H2181 Zanah (zaw-naw) – to commit fornication, be a harlot, play the harlot (forced or voluntary).
Strong’s G4204 Pornē (par-nah) – any woman indulging in unlawful sexual intercourse, whether for gain or for lust (voluntary).
Rahab lives with her family in Jericho, the first city our warring Israelites come to. This is a most peculiar story but very note worthy. To get a better picture of why they are at Jericho read Joshua 1.
The Israelite’s have been responsible for bringing, along with their presence, great fear in the Canaanites. The Lord had already done some pretty awesome stuff up until this point but more awesome miracles were about to come and everyone knew it.
Joshua sent some spies into Jericho to check the temperature of the people. Rahab the “Zanah” hides them and tells them how freezing cold all the people are. They are shaking in their boots with fear because of the Israelite’s. They know it is the powerful God they worshipped doing all of this. When they see the Israelite’s coming they know the awesome God who calls them His children is coming with them.
Rahab is also called to this God, so she hides the spies and lies to the kings people to protect them. She sneaks the spies out but not before she gets a promise from them that her, and her family, will be saved. They give her a scarlet cord to put on her window and tell her to bring her family into her house. She immediately puts the cord out and is obedience with her silence.
They are successful at returning to Joshua with their report because of Rahab and indeed she is collected by those same men before they burned down the city. She is absorbed by the Israelites and marries a man named Salmon.
Rahab is in the family tree of the tribe of Judah resulting in the long awaited birth of Jesus the Christ. She is honoured for risking her life to save the spies by James, the brother of Jesus. She is, my lovelies, forever immortalized by the Bible, just for us to see.
Biblical Life Lesson
You never have to overcome the names people call you, you always have to overcome the names YOU call yourself.
The adjective to describe Rahab in the Old Testament was probably used to shame her and remembered by the Jews as a blot in their history. But by the time Matthew mentions Rahab he is telling us that our history only proves one thing – IT DOES NOT STOP GOD’S PLAN FROM GOING FORWARD.
Jesus is the result of this union between Salmon and Rahab the “Pornē”. The writer of Hebrews and James, add this description to her because they are encouraging you to overcome your past names and shape your future into God’s plan for your life.
A name used to shame you can be turned into an encouragement for you and for others.
I have been called shame invoking names, but the Lord will changed my name to suit who I am in Christ. Revelation 2:17 say “To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.”
As you conquer the shame of those names, He gives you a new name, that only you will know. He will grow you into that name as you deepen your relationship with Him. The shame and the name will fall off of you and your new name will cover you.
As I deepened my relationship with Jesus He revealed to me what my given name actually means. Kathleen means pure and Victoria means victory. My name is Pure Victory. Not Icky Vicky, ugly, dumb, stupid, lazy, liar or any other name people have called me. I have a new name.
In the comments on Facebook tell me what your name means and if you believe it.
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Spiritual Strength
I have been going to church for 15 years. There have been times when I have not attended due to circumstances beyond my control but overall I have attended one church or another for that time frame. I have been teaching Bible Studies for at least 10 of those 15 years. I claim my blessing from God, for the great understanding of the Holy Bible, and the great zeal for applying it into my life, even when it hurts.
The application of the Bible is how we can gage our maturity in the words preached to us by the Holy Spirit and by the Book that is meant to teach us maturity. The Holy Bible is a circular book. It gives us information to apply into our life, then, to do it Biblically, we have to go back into the Bible to understand how to apply it. Do we see the people in our church doing it that way? Are our fellow pew warmers and example of that?
Let’s look at what kind of people are sitting in the pews next to us right now. As I see it there are three: those who love Jesus but don’t know Him, those who know Jesus but don’t love Him and those who love Jesus and know Him.
Those who love Jesus but don’t know Him are those who are sitting beside you because their mom sat beside you. They love Jesus because their mom loved Jesus. They love Him because people told them loving stories about Him. They may have seen His work or heard about His work in the lives of others but they know it not in their own life because they know Him not. It’s sad but very common. Is this you?
Or maybe this is you. Those who do not love Jesus but know Him are also sitting beside us in the pews. They are the ones who know Jesus but do not believe who He is. They have also been in the church for a long time based on their knowledge of Jesus. But the more they know Him the more they hate Him. Their hatred is not something they keep to themselves, they want us to hate Jesus too. They are the false prophets among us. They love Him not.
And then there are the people who love Jesus and know Jesus. These are the ones sitting beside you who worship Jesus with all their being. They want to know Jesus and they want to love Him more. They are addicted to the way they feel about Jesus. They have the spiritual strength we envy.
Guess what. You don’t have to envy it, you can have it too. You can know those who love Jesus for no reason of their own and those who hate Jesus because their knowledge is not perfected about Him. It is all about your knowledge.
We know that it takes time to learn. Knowledge lingering around in our heads without pondering its importance to our life causes our knowledge to be incomplete. No mystery is solved, no problem worked out, no advanced knowledge gained, no spiritual growth resulting in no spiritual strength.
A Christian without spiritual strength is a weak Christian. Someone who is swayed by a false prophet into hating Jesus. Someone who is lulled into thinking, the Jesus they love, is their Jesus and not their parents. We got out of the mud with our spiritual strength would it be a good thing to land back in there again. It would be tragic to say the very least.
Spiritual strength comes from loving Jesus and knowing Him or vise versa knowing Jesus and loving Him. Any other way will not give us the strength we need because we will not even know we have it. Do a search this week on strength in the Bible. Learn about the strength we have in us as a result of the Holy Spirit bringing it with Him. Then believe it so you can use it to ward off deception.
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The mud
One of the questions I spent my life trying to answer was, why am I here? I felt so insignificant. It wasn’t just the family I was brought up in, but also the way I was living my life, too. I knew when I became an adult I was no long able to blame my family for my inactivity in my own life. Because I was not an active participant in my own life, I was buried in the lives of others, my friends, then my man and then my kids.
What I did not know, until I knew Jesus, was although I was wallowing in the mud, I am not an ameba in the mud. My life has purpose just as your life has purpose, otherwise we would not ask the question. We are here at this time in history for a reason despite what the evolutionist believes. Do not believe that we are the result of a destructive explosion the actually created life in some million year old mud puddle. We are not meant to dwell in the mud while waiting for death. We are meant to see and know the purpose of our life and move toward it.
I am pondering the future therefore I must ponder the past. I ponder it with amusement and amazement. I laugh at how invisible I thought I was and how invisible I must be in the future. My purpose has brought me full circle in my thinking. I believed that I was invisible in the past and it hurt me, but I know that I must be invisible in the future to glorify Christ which excites me. My past was painful, but my future is hopeful. How does one reconcile this phenomenon?
This very morning it came to me. In the past I was invisible because I was in mud. I believed that you looked at me, but you did not see me because of the mud (life’s mistakes, worldly views of beauty, you know that MUCK) I was covered in. I was sinking quick in this mud and had no way of pulling myself out. I knew one thing though, you could not pull me out because you were human too. At one point in my life I would love for you to join me in the mud but time in the mud made me empathetic toward everyone in the mud.
I needed spiritual strength to get out of the mud, eternal strength. Earthly strength was not going to do it, it couldn’t. Eternal strength was the power I needed to understand what chosen invisibility should look like. The eternal strength I have is Jesus. I am in Him (I am invisible) and He is the strength I need to do anything He has anointed me to do. I become invisible because I want you to see Him. My purpose was given to me by Him to glorify Him. When He is glorified, souls are saved. The most important part of being a Christian.
If you are in the mud today, know that you must come out. You are not meant to wallow in the mud but be invisible while you learn from your anointing. My time and effort as a Christian is to show you the way out. I am annointed to do that therefore I too learn from my anointing. That is why I live. Jesus will be found, and He will be glorified whether you follow His purpose or not BUT what wonders you will behold if you do. COME OUT OF THE MUD.
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The tongue’s direction
I started reading James yesterday, in my personal time with Jesus. If any book of the Bible stops me in my tracks and causes me to ponder my past, it is this book. I even pondered where James came from. I read the introduction to this book first in my Archeological Study Biblewhich caused me to ponder this man, James, the brother of Jesus. He is His brother of a different father. Raised in the same household but grew up with different ideas and characteristics. James even mocked Jesus (John 7:3) as brothers would.
Now, here is this same James telling us who to be, with faith in his Brother, Jesus. This is a 180-degree change, mocking to loving, disobeying to obeying. Do we think that he did not grow up hearing the story of his mother’s immaculate conception? Did Mary not tell him and Jude about the miraculous conversations they have had with people about their Son? I am not sure about you, but I would have told all and obviously Mary did because otherwise how would the writers of the Gospels have known.
James became a prominent figure in the Jewish Christian Church in Jerusalem (Acts 15) but he too was not without fault. He had the same fault as all of us, mocking what he did not understand. O, you have never done that? Lucky you, I am guilty as sin from doing that. I have thought it and I have spoke what I thought into existence. My mouth has been the bane of my existence, from the very moment I was born.
Prosperity teachers tells us that we can speak something into existence like a car, or money, or friendship or love. God is the only one who can speak something into existence, all the rest of us can only speak encouragement or discouragement into existence. As I read James I am reminded of my existence before, and even after, Jesus claimed my life. I cringe at the hurt I have caused with my rudder.
Today, I am making new friends and am reminded that they do not know who I was. They see me completely different as the people from back then. Most of the friends I had back then are no longer my friends today, but some still are. I have hurt many people with the thoughts I have chosen to think, then to mouth. Words that have meant to discourage AND also words meant to encourage.
Either way, my words have been the deciding factor of our friendship and they will continue in that manner. If we back our words up with our actions, we will either gather people or repel them. James says that the man who has mastered bridling his tongue can also bridle his body (James 3:2). This has been my goal throughout all of my walk with Jesus. I want to bridle my soul which in turn can bridle my body, faith perfected.
Whether you are an introvert or an extrovert, you need to bridle your tongue. For introverts you need to speak when someone needs you to speak and for extroverts you need to just shut up. We all have this issue, hence the book of James, and we all need to bridle our tongues and make it go where the Spirit wants it to go.
You ask, “Where is that?” Psalm 145 tells us exactly where our tongue should go. It should proclaim the works of God rather than our own because we are all a work of faith in progress. Hearing about the works of God will strengthen our faith and progress our works of faith. Remember the works of God in your life and tell of them. I share as much as I can with my new friends because they need to hear it. I am not proud of who I was, but I am proud of who I am. The Lord has done a great work in me and my tongue’s direction is the Spirits direction.
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New Nanosecond, New Me
Have you heard the saying, new year new you? My son, Alex, said it the other day while referring to one of his friends. As I was reading the Bible this morning, in Hebrews, my mind was going nuts about the new information I was understanding. I am also reading another book called The Subtle Art of not giving a [bleep] by Mark Manson. This book is also adding new understanding to my repertoire. I will never get tired of knowing something new. I will never get tired of caring for the new me.
The most fascinating thing about “new” is that it replaces”old”. Don’t miss this. It REPLACES the old. Old is boring and [don’t mind my lack of diction] OLD. It is stale and unproductive. No matter what you believe, it is not right, it is wrong. I know you are thinking, “Hey, I like the old! It’s comfortable. It’s sustainable. It works for me. It’s EASY.” Well, despite you’re comfort level in the old, every nanosecond you are becoming new. Every nanosecond the world is becoming new and you are staying old.
Since I became a Christian, the Lord has been changing me. Sometimes, to be nakedly honest, I hated it. I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord in February of 2003. In 2019, it will be 16 years of change, more change, and even more change. It has been filled with sorrow, pain and trials giving birth to this new me. Using the world’s standards, I see this new me as a failure. I have done nothing significant. I spend a significant amount of time changing my mind. From the outside [since no one can see my mind, except Jesus] it looks, to me and to you, as if I have done nothing and as a result gone nowhere. I fight the battle of the “failed life” every day. I spend a lot of time thinking about who I am NOT.
2019 will be my naked “who I am” year. I am throwing off the old black outfit. Don’t get me wrong, I have been nakedly honest all my life, but only about my negative experiences. I do not mind getting naked about my failures, but my successes are a whole new outfit. I care about my failures because they lead me straight into my success, but they are old, moth eaten and not a flattering colour for me. Every nanosecond I am made new by Jesus. Every nanosecond His mercy covers me. He created me to be clothed in white, but I am continually dressing myself in black. I am going to be a success, throwing off the black this year, and clothing myself every nanosecond in white.
I will remember the black pile of clothing on the floor behind me but will look upon the white I wear. I want you to see the white also, knowing that it came from stripping off the black, thread by thread. I break Jesus’ heart every time I sew black threads through my white garments. How am I going to combat this habitual sewing of blackness? I think I will end the day with a “Note to Self” answering the question, “What have you been successful doing today?” Since I hate not knowing the answer to any question, I will be sure to provide myself with an answer.
Happy New Year everyone. What were you successful doing today?
Kathleen is a Christian who has been improving her life skills since her life with Jesus began. In her own revolutionary style, she is using this knowledge to teach and to write novels that teach.
Happy is she, preparing for 2019. She is beginning the Hope Devoted Women’s Ministry this year to serve the women of Essex county with what she has learned from Jesus about living the abundant life through improving her own life skills. Her first book in the “Crown for Life” series entitled The White Picket Fence, Crown for Life Pursues Biblical Boundaries has been published and she is writing her second book The Path to Somewheresville, Crown for Life Pursues Biblical Planning in LaSalle, Ontario, Canada.
Kathleen has raised four children and is now spending time loving on her grandchildren. Each day she learns something new about Jesus and her relationships with her family and friends. She has a full life and is proud to be called a child of God.
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Living on the Fence
Before my kids were old enough to ask questions about Santa Claus I was still living that pagan ritual but now I am saved and being asked questions by my grandson. I had no idea what to say. How do you encourage imagination without lies? This is the question all Christians are faced with this time of year. Here is what I encourage you to do, and what Jesus has put on my heart about Christmas, and every day, that you would know the truth.
There was a real man, named Nicholas, who did what the Spirit moved him to do. He fed the poor, gave gifts to the orphans and helped the widows. He did what the Lord told him to do and as a result the spirit of what he did lives today, his fruit. We can believe this story and know that it was ordained by God because it lives in our knowledge. You need to bring this whole story home with the story of Jesus.
There is nothing wrong with children knowing the story of Nicholas, especially if they know who Jesus is. It is those who do not believe in Jesus who perpetuate the inflated story of St. Nick or Santa Claus. They know there is something out there, that is spiritual, and they attribute it to Santa this time of year and any other timely mythical character that man has created. The Devil is at work convincing people of the validity of these characters, so those people do not have to believe the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of God is active all year round. The fence is erected.
Now, read the Bible, Ephesians 3:15-4:3. This is a prayer for those who have jumped up onto the fence. This is a prayer that each of us who believe, should put to work each day, and be reminded of, when we are tempted to kick someone off the fence. The Lord put them up onto the fence, in our presence, for us to support Him in His work. Our calling, to support Jesus in His work on this earth gathering His people together, is more important than telling people what we know. He gives us the knowledge we need, even if it is secular knowledge, to bring His people down off the fence into the faith. All knowledge can be used to help someone who is on the fence.
If you are saved and still on the fence I say to you, keep asking questions of Jesus and He will answer them using people and the Bible. If you are talking with people who are on the fence do your best to make sure you don’t kick them off because they will not come down on the side of Jesus. You will have bruised them and left a nasty taste in their mouth about the Body of Christ. If you are saved and keep jumping up onto the fence about specific topics, stop it. Mature Christians don’t jump up on the fence because of a topic they are pondering. They question Jesus, asking for the truth, knowing they will receive it and believe it.
People on the fence are asking questions looking for the truth. We ask questions of Jesus, as mature Christians, expecting Him to answer them. We ask question, of mature Christians, expecting them to know the answer from the Bible or help us find the answer from the Bible. The goal for every Christian is to get off the fence and believe God.
I pray this prayer over you and every person who is on the fence about the truth. Pray this prayer over yourself if you are on the fence. If you are a mature Christian, pray this prayer every time you are tempted to hop up onto that fence. There is no grey area with God only with humans. When we are in that grey area we need to make sure we don’t climb up on the fence. The Spirit, in the inner man, has the strength you need to know the truth and you will be filled with all the fullness of God. Isn’t that what we all want?
Merry Christmas
May the Lord bless you this Christmas with His fullness through your faith.
Kathleen Derbyshire
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Come Down
It is my goal alone to help you handle life better. Life can, and will, bring us to a breaking point. People will shatter your expectations of them and they will go beyond your expectations. In my personal Bible reading time today I came across a set of verses that knocked me to the grounded again.
I have been playing with who I am and what God wants me to do. I have deemed myself ineffective, unworthy and unequipped to perform my duties. I have tried to redefine myself multiple times, without success, because I am who He created me to be, regardless of how I feel. I must say, “He is so wonderful to allow me time to play and to learn.” I adore Him more for it.
In my wandering, I came to a see-through mountain that I could not climb, nor could I traverse it. I had to simple stand in front of it and look at what everyone else was doing on the other side. It made me sorrowful to have to watch others serve Jesus while I wait. It made me jealous to see women leading women while I learn. It made me want to prove I am capable, but am I?
Today, I discerned, that I am not. I still have much to learn about serving Jesus. Take a look at the verses that made me come down off my pedestal. Read with me 2 Corinthians 6:3-10. These verses scream from the other side of that mountain; invisibility. I have spent my whole life trying to prove myself, to many people. People who don’t know me at all, to people who have access but chose not to know me. I even get wrapped up in proving myself to me. I must continue learning, there is no one who knows me better than Jesus does. He consistently proves that to me.
There is no one who knows you better than Jesus either. The offense we feel when someone, who doesn’t know us and who doesn’t care to know us, causes us harm, belongs within these verses. No matter what our feelings, we are to give no offense, so our ministry is not blamed. I am still working this out. I need to learn “confident invisibility” knowing, that I am known by Jesus.
My ministry is to show you everything God has taught me, from the Bible, through my own tribulations, needs, distresses, imprisonments, tumults, labours and sleepless nights using patience, purity, knowledge, kindness, the Holy Spirit and sincere love. I stood before a Holy mountain therefore I removed my shoes. While my shoes are off, I will learn and when He makes my feet ready to spread the good news, I will be ready to go.
My story, is the story that will prove to you, that our God is the God of hope (Romans 15:13). He is the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6). He shows us what perfect love looks like because He loves us perfectly (1 John 4:18). He calls us to love each other deeply, because that kind of love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8).
I cannot tell you enough how getting through the hard times with Jesus, will help you reap the rewards in this life. I already have the hope of heaven instilled in me. Steadfastly remaining in the hope on earth is where I faulter. 2019 will be the year I learn to sustain hope on earth by using 2 Corinthians 6:3-10 as my guide.
I invite you to join me in the pursuit of hope on earth. There is nothing that can happen to me on this earth that will change my hope in heaven. Jesus Christ is my Lord and Saviour. He will always be my Lord and I will always be His bondservant. Let me help you, in 2019, make this claim as well. Together, we can come down from our pedestals, and raise Jesus up instead.
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Only the Lord knows Them
The woman, Meish (Mee-yish), and her husband Ish, have joined a small group to worship God and to pray for each other. They consist of both men and woman who are of the same mind, Jesus Christ. Their means are not their own and they rely heavily on the Holy Spirit to guide them through life and prayer. They have a list of verses they work out each week then come together to discuss them, gather a new list, and seek God’s face for direction. They know each other not but they know the Lord has brought them together for His purpose which they are seeking to find. The Lord is the only one who knows them and their heart.
They are finding freedom while seeking the will of God for their life and for the sake of the group. The Father’s will is not just for each one of them but for the whole of them, just as it is for the whole of this world. They know they are being made alive by the Spirit while they set their minds to serve him each week. Meish is the first to tell the group that it has been a brutal year. As she explains her heartache, they pray for God to give her a heart that delights in His laws during this time. They prayed the path Jesus has paved for her would become clear to her, so she has the hope of activity. They know the heartache of not knowing what God expects from them.
Each of them has a prayer to pray and more verses to ponder as they bid each other good night and exit the meeting place. Ish hugs Meish, on the way out, to comfort her. Ish has changed significantly over the years so Meish believes him and takes solace in his hug. They will go through more hard times together, to be sure, but fortunately they have the love of their small group as well.
The group verses from last week are Colossians 1:9; 1 Peter 2:15-16; 1 Peter 3:18; Psalm 119:143; Psalm 119:18; Psalm 119:105; Psalm 1:1-2
If you would like to walk with Meish as she ponders her weekly verses go to The Biblical Directionist Facebook page and like it to continue on this journey with her and her husband Ish.
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Day by Day
There is no better story than the story of Jesus. He, not only told us to live in the world, but live in the Kingdom of God as well. The next best story is the story of our life. Our life should emulate the life of Jesus so let us combine our life with the life of Jesus. The story of His life should match the story of our life, minus one thing; the knowledge of God. We must grow in the knowledge of God, so we can hear what the Father says to us and do what we see Him doing. This is always easier said than done, but let us at least attempt it every day in our life. We will join the story of the gathering of a group of Christians already in progress.
A group of Christians were pondering the need to pay taxes to the government that was corrupt beyond measure. They talked with each other and prayed about their feelings when one of them was reminded, by the Holy Spirit, about a story Jesus was involved in. He relayed the story to the Christians about how Jesus was being test, just as they were, to go against the government. “Jesus didn’t gall for it so neither will we,” he said to the group. They all agreed together as one and paid their taxes. They gathered themselves into Christ on this day and did what they were supposed to do to leave a legacy of righteousness so when the fulness of time comes, they will be missed by all those they have touched. They are going to be gathered together by Christ on earth today and in heaven later. It won’t hurt them to bring a little heaven to the earth while they are here.
The legacy they will leave is the prayer and supplication they have sent up to the ears of God for their brethren and their neighbourhoods. They thanked God for the government and all they do to keep them safe as well as all the people who have crossed their path over the years. They pledged to be accountable for each other in the coming years that they would not put the world in front of Jesus nor their brethren. The Lord will be their Shepherd through all time until the end of time as they know it. They know they will walk a path not sanctioned by Jesus, but they have each other and Jesus to reason with as they find their way back. They have scarlet gowns they will put on sometimes, but Jesus will wash it clean in our repentance.
On their knees before the Lord, His thundering voice always appears. They do not comprehend the wonders of the Lord sometimes, but they trust Him to provide for them daily as they follow the path set out for them. Still on their knees, they beg the Lord to help them love Him more than they love the world. They ask if the lusts of the world would be removed from them that they would love His people more. They want what He has. He is willing to give it, day by day.
Romans 13:6; Ephesians 1:9-10; 1 Timothy 2:1-2; Joshua 24:15; Isaiah 1:18; Job 37:5-6; 1 John 2:15-16
