Something that keeps ringing in me . . .

"I shall not die, but live, and declare [Proclaim; Recount; Tell] the works of the LORD. Psalms 118:17

Thank you for your concern

First, allow me to thank you for your love and concern, I’ve have so blessed to hear from you. I am back to work and spent at yesterday at ATS working with the Capstone Project, (a program for graduating M.D. students.)

I have had additional testing done, and will be meeting with my physician this week to discuss next steps. With Barbara’s and my families help I am changing my eating habits, drinking a great deal of water, (Yuck! SMILE!) As you might notice, I’m spending my evenings and weekends away from the office.

My weekly prayer time with you today begins with a devotional I read on Sunday morning, I will conclude in prayer.

The Blessing of Having an Enemy

Sunday, 10 April 2011 12:00 AM EDT R.T. Kendall Daily Devotionals - By Love Transformed

Afterward, David was conscience-stricken for having cut off a corner of his robe. —1 Samuel 24:5

When you know that a person is obsessed with you and is out to discredit you, you are very, very blessed indeed. This doesn't happen to everyone. You are chosen, for behind your enemy is the hand of God. God has raised up your enemy—possibly just for you! King Saul's pursuit of David was the best thing that could have happened to David at the time. God did David a very special favor: he raised up Saul to keep him on his toes, to teach him to be sensitive to the Spirit (1 Sam. 24:5), and to teach him total forgiveness. Saul was David's passport to a greater anointing.

When you totally forgive your enemy, you have crossed over into a supernatural realm. Perhaps you are like me and wish you could excel in all the gifts of the Spirit; you wish you could have a hand in signs and wonders; you'd love to see your usefulness intensified and extended by a double anointing. The gifts are supernatural; that is, they are above and beyond the natural order of things. There is no natural explanation for the truly miraculous. But if you and I totally forgive someone who is truly an enemy, believe me, we have just crossed over into the realm of the supernatural.

I believe this is the highest level of spirituality that exists. This is as good as it gets. Totally forgiving an enemy is as spectacular as any miracle. No one may even know, though. You quietly intercede for them in solitude. Only God, the angels, and the devil know.

You and I can do something exceedingly rare: forgive an enemy (if we have one). Loving an enemy defies natural explanation.

It begins with having sufficient motivation. I am literally seeking to motivate you in these lines to do what very few do—but which all can do: totally forgive anyone who has hurt you. And the blessing is beyond words to describe.

Excerpted from Total Forgiveness (Charisma House, 2002).

Father,  I thank you for my enemies. You have a purpose for both of us. I thank you for choosing me for this ‘blessing.’ You are behind where I am and where I’ve been. You have had your hand in every phase of my life. Certainly they have kept me on my toes. You are working all things for your purpose, even that which I can’t see or make sense of. Because of your work through my enemy I am becoming more sensitive to your Spirit. I thank you for this passport to our next and greater anointing.

Help me as I extend to these that have wounded and hurt me, you love and grace, even when they don’t know about it or want it if they did. So I thank you for your supernatural gifting in my life, yet to brought out, because of what you know is best for me. I need your grace to forgive as I have been forgiven, even by those who could (or should extend it) but won’t. You loved me when I didn’t deserve it, you expect me to extend the same grace the those who like myself don’t deserve it. Jesus, I complain, I can’t! Your response to me, I know, that’s why I’ve given you MY Spirit, “and I can do all things through Christ who strengthens (enables) me.” Yes, Lord, AMEN. So, I thank you for stepping over into the supernatural. One perhaps I don’t ‘see or sense,’ but I know now where I am, moving and becoming more and more like yourself.

I ask you to bless them, these my enemies for your purpose where they created, and for my devolvement you allow them to go just so far and no further. The wounds are deep and deeply felt; this is where you pour in the oil and wine of your healing, that I may be the means of healing for others. Pour out your riches blessings upon them, their families, businesses, ministries and lives; bring healing to their wounds; they are your anointed, I dare not touch them.

Come now Holy Spirit and do your best work in me and these, because we are both and all your children. This I pray in the Strong name of Jesus, Amen.

Love ya,
T.A.B.

When you carry your Bible

When you carry the Bible, Satan gets a headache.....
When you open it, he collapses....
When he sees you reading it, he faints.....
When he sees that you are living what you read, he flees......
And when you are about to forward this message...
he will try and discourage you..
I just defeated him!!!  Any other takers?

Life without God is like an unsharpened pencil - it has no point.

A Shout out to my my Wife Barbara for this one.

Senior Texting Codes -

ATD..At The Doctors.
BFF..Best Friend Fell.
BTW..Bring the Wheelchair.
BYOT..Bring Your Own Teeth.
FWIW..Forgot Where I Was.
GGPBL..Gotta Go Pacemaker Battery Low.
GHA..Got Heartburn Again.
IMHO..Is My Hearing-Aid On.
LMDO..Laughing My Dentures Out.
OMMR..On My Massage Recliner.
OMSG ..Oh My! Sorry, Gas.
ROFLACGU....Rolling On Floor Laughing And Can't Get Up.
TTYL..Talk To You Louder --
TGNTS - Too Good Not To Share

 

A Response to today's Devotional by R. T. Kendall

1 John 3:21

Father, thank you for a fresh reminder of my need to forgive. And it can’t be a forgiveness of my lips; it must be of my heart by your grace. I’m certain I’ve wounded others, without knowing it or meaning too. I am not a perfect person. I would like to be, but understand, as long as I am in this body in this world I won’t be perfect; yet you are perfecting me in your love, that I might demonstrate your love for others.

There are a few relationships that seem hopeless and without to ability to repair. I can’t fix them, but I can give them over to you and ask you to forgive me for my part in the breakdown. I can confuse people, (you did), which causes a withdrawal, anger and frustration. Others forget that I too am a forgiven sinner, with the power to “go off half cocked,” and go in the wrong direction. But where I have the power, I can repent, trust you, obey your correcting command, and walk with you in the light of your love and teaching.

Jesus, that I might have an experience with you that goes beyond knowledge and/or information, an experience of your love and forgiveness, that enables me to do the same for others.

Here Lord, is my wounded heart, broken in a million pieces, by acts and the words of others, who believe they were right in or about a situation; and here is my sin against them as well. You who has died for us both, and all; I present myself to you. I thank you for your Spirit which forgives, saves and restores me with the Father; I thank you for your forgiving spirit, poured over and into me. I may never be forgiven by them, but when we meet again before your throne, we will embrace each other and weep because of the grace and forgiveness we both where shown.  

For someone in pain and hurting today . . .

Job 14 (The Message)

Job 14

If We Die, Will We Live Again?

 ^1-17"We're all adrift in the same boat:
   too few days, too many troubles.
We spring up like wildflowers in the desert and then wilt,
   transient as the shadow of a cloud.
Do you occupy your time with such fragile wisps?
   Why even bother hauling me into court?
There's nothing much to us to start with;
   how do you expect us to amount to anything?
Mortals have a limited life span.
   You've already decided how long we'll live—
   you set the boundary and no one can cross it.
So why not give us a break? Ease up!
   Even ditchdiggers get occasional days off.
For a tree there is always hope.
   Chop it down and it still has a chance—
   its roots can put out fresh sprouts.
Even if its roots are old and gnarled,
   its stump long dormant,
At the first whiff of water it comes to life,
   buds and grows like a sapling.
But men and women? They die and stay dead.
   They breathe their last, and that's it.
Like lakes and rivers that have dried up,
   parched reminders of what once was,
So mortals lie down and never get up,
   never wake up again—never.
Why don't you just bury me alive,
   get me out of the way until your anger cools?
But don't leave me there!
   Set a date when you'll see me again.
If we humans die, will we live again? That's my question.
   All through these difficult days I keep hoping,
   waiting for the final change—for resurrection!
Homesick with longing for the creature you made,
   you'll call—and I'll answer!
You'll watch over every step I take,
   but you won't keep track of my missteps.
My sins will be stuffed in a sack
   and thrown into the sea—sunk in deep ocean.

 ^18-22 "Meanwhile, mountains wear down
   and boulders break up,
Stones wear smooth
   and soil erodes,
   as you relentlessly grind down our hope.
You're too much for us.
   As always, you get the last word.
We don't like it and our faces show it,
   but you send us off anyway.
If our children do well for themselves, we never know it;
   if they do badly, we're spared the hurt.
Body and soul, that's it for us—
   a lifetime of pain, a lifetime of sorrow."

God Loves Failures - R. T. Kendall

For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength. —1 Corinthians 1:25

Jacob is one of the most important characters in the Old Testament. He was the grandson of Abraham, the son of Isaac, and the third of the patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. If we look at Jacob's life, we soon recognize that the Bible does not cover up the weaknesses and frailty of its heroes. Jacob, whose name was later changed to Israel, was not a particularly attractive person.

If ever there was anyone who knew the guilt of failure, then Jacob is your man. The name Jacob means "heel" (or possibly "deceiver"). Jacob was the world's greatest manipulator. He wanted to control people. He was a terrible parent and brother. He stole his twin brother Esau's blessing, and, by cunning, he tricked him into selling his birthright.

Jacob may have been a complainer, a controller, but God loved him. "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated" (Rom. 9:13). Jacob, though not a very nice guy and not a very attractive person, was loved by God. When it came to the end of Jacob's life, the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews chose one event, which says that "Jacob . . .worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff" (Heb. 11:21). It shows him in his old age before he died, looking back on his life, a life riddled with guilt, but a life that, when it was all over, turned out as if it were perfect. He got his son back. He learned to appreciate Leah and the things God had done for him.

The "Jacobs" of this world aren't very pleasant, but God loves them.

God loves failures. Do you know why? It's because He wants to take your life, turn it into a trophy of grace, and bring you to the place where you see that His hand has always been on you. He wants to turn that failure into a blessing.

Excerpted from All's Well That Ends Well (Authentic Media, 2005).

How often have I felt like a failure, truthfully, very often. I am one He loves, and so are you. Love ya, T.A.B.