Praise the Name of Jesus

Lord, we praise Thee.                                 

Praise is the devil's death knell.  “God Calling” May 30th

 We signed up for one of those deals where you get it for so many weeks for free, then when you forget to cancel it, you have to pay. We had one of those little screens, separate from the phone and it was on my bedside table. It looked something like this:

This was at our old house in Warner Robins before Lydia was born. Claire was little and  it was around the same time that I was leading a "Weigh Down Workshop" in our home. This was a Christian weight loss seminar that went wrong. The lady who heads it, Gwen Shamblin turned it into to an aberrant "Christian" cult.

Back then she (Gwen Shamblin) had not turned it into a cult yet and her "ministry" was bearing much good fruit, people were losing weight and being set free from addictions etc. I had had a couple of women who came to my house every week to watch her videos. Like so many other Bible teachers and preachers she likened our "journey" to freedom to the Israelite's journey through the desert to the Promised Land in the Bible. Two years in a row I even went to her conference in Nashville, Tenn!

We had started looking for a new house also, at that time. This was before Bob decided to build a house.So in the midst of my busy, busy life (homeschooling 4 kids etc)- one night I had a dream; Bob and I were walking through a house and we were "driving the demons out of it". As we walked through the house, we sang,

Praise the name of Jesus

Praise the name of Jesus

He's my rock, He's my fortress

He's my deliverer

In Him will I trust....
Praise the name of Jesus

I looked out the window and all I saw was sand...... Then I awoke to the phone ringing...Bob was in the kitchen getting ready to go into work, so he answered it. I called to him and asked, "Who was that?" He replied, "Wrong number....they asked for Brother Smith"

It was one of those times, again, that I knew what the dream meant immediately. Your "house" often represents your body- the sand was the desert and lets just say we all battle our own "demons"- right? I felt that God was saying I would get victory/freedom/deliverance from my bondages from praising Him.

There are many places in the Bible where God's people win battles by simply obeying and praising God. Moses and the people escape from the Egyptians (Exodus 14-15) Joshua brought down the walls of Jericho. (Joshua 6) Gideon defeated the Midianites. (Judges 7). Once we had a cat I named Jehoshaphat (We did call him "Josh" for short though). I named him that because of the story in 2 Chronicles 20: Jehoshaphat King of Judah is told, “A great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea, from Syria; and they are in Hazazon Tamar” (verse 2).  Jehoshaphat prays to God: "......For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You." (Verse 12)

And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem bowed before the Lord, worshiping the Lord.  Then the Levites of the children of the Kohathites and of the children of the Korahites stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with voices loud and high. 2 Chronicles 20:18-19

  

Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Hear me, O Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem: Believe in the Lord your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper.” And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the Lord, and who should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army and were saying:

“Praise the Lord, For His mercy endures forever.”

 Now when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated. 2 Chronicles 20: 20-22

From "Christian thoughts and speaking" (A Facebook page):
Remember, a sacrifice of praise is when it costs you something, when you don’t necessarily feel like doing it. Praise Him, not because of how you feel, but because He is worthy. Praise Him in your midnight hour and get ready to embrace the freedom He has planned for you...

From; “I am a Woman of God” (Another Facebook page)

These are the 3 important things; the secret so you can do what Moses has commanded to God’s people. Yes you need these three important weapons to overcome the impossible.
• PRAYER
• POWER OF GOD and HIS WORD
• PRAISE AND WORSHIP

Start your day and end your day with these weapons and you will find that the impossible for man is absolutely possible in Christ!

And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation (deliverance) of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace."-Exodus 14:13-14

And I lifted my groggy head and looked at the Caller ID. I thought I was still dreaming, for it said: DELIVERANCE TABERNACLE.

The Lord is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation; He is my God, and I will praise Him; My father’s God, and I will exalt Him. Exodus 15:2

I will lift up the cup of salvation and deliverance and call upon the name of the Lord. Psalm 116:13

I will love You, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer;
My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

 I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised; So shall I be saved from my enemies. Psalm 18:1-3 


Sing praise to the LORD, you His godly ones, And give thanks to His holy name.---Psalm 30:4  

Seven times a day I praise you  for your righteous laws.  Great peace have those who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble.  Psalm 119:164-165

Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth,  and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:9-11 

It wasn't until we moved to Byron and had to go over to the North side of Warner Robins that I discovered exactly where "Deliverance Tabernacle" is because we would pass it on our way to North Davis Drive. It's on Elberta Road. Today (November 22, 2013) Bob called me to bring my sequoia to a tire place he was at on N Davis, so I drove by it and I saw this sign!

Are you in a battle? Or going through a storm? 
Why not try praising the name of Jesus?  See:
Video Bible Study: Storms Part 1

Here I am playing it on my flute

 Here's that song in song! I love it!

Raise The Banner 20:17- Audio Adrenalin

He Loves You Snow Much...More

Last Friday I answered a letter; It was from my new step mother (she is not “legally” my step mother- they just had a “ceremony” with their pastor). In it I told her many things I don’t believe she knows. One thing I said was that my Dad doesn’t know how to love me. I told her how God has helped me through that in the past and how He continues to sustain me. I told her about the trials my Dad and family went through in February of 2010. These things happened partly because of bad decisions made by my Dad’s church, my Dad and because of a novice con-artist. And my Dad had got mad at me? Me? I live 2000 miles away and had nothing to do with it! It hadn’t even been a year since my mom passed away (April 2009)- once again (as this has happened before) my family sunk into anger, confusion and chaos. It was the week of February 7th and it was about the worst week I’ve ever had in my life! (it’s definitely in the top ten!)I would talk to my sister and we’d both work ourselves up talking about this “problem” and what to do about it----- but there was nothing we could do! “Let go and let God” By the week-end I was so aggravated that I “unfriended” some of my dad’s “friends” on facebook (After all THEY got him into this mess, it stands to reason THEY should get him out) Then I stopped answering the phone and instructed my family to do likewise- my sister didn’t call anyways- I think she was sick of talking about it all too.







Then that Sunday it snowed! It was beautiful and we spent the day playing in the snow with our kids- (all but Teddy who was playing in the snow at the University of Georgia).That was February 14th. I said (in my letter) to my step mother that it was like God saying to me, “I’m sorry your Dad doesn’t know how to love you Susan, but I love you” That’s good enough for me! Then on Monday (January 10, 2011) God told me again (with this ice storm) and now I realize that He says it to me everyday…like when my husband, Bob or my children say, “I love you”, when He answers my prayers, when I get what I asked for for Christmas (or my birthday), when I spend an evening playing “Taboo” with the family and laugh so hard that I cry, when I hear a song or read something that speaks to me personally– even when my dog wags her tail and my cats purr…..it’s all God saying, “I love you.”







I rediscovered an old book of my mom’s in November (2010), it’s called, “Letting God” and it was written by A. Philip Parham. It’s a devotional with an entry for every day of the year. One of the first one’s I read was from November 17th; Mr. Parham tells the story of Mr. Kline; “He was a sad, sorrowful sort who felt that no one, especially God, cared for him. One Sunday he walked by a church and heard the words to an old hymn; ‘Saved by grace alone, this is all my plea, Jesus died for all mankind, and Jesus died for me’
When he heard the third line, ‘Jesus died for all mankind’ he thought he heard, ‘Jesus died for old man Kline’ He shouted ‘Why that’s me!’ Stopping in his tracks, he went into the church, accepted Christ’s special invitation and love, and became a Christian.
Whenever we feel a special and personalized call or prompting from God, it is no mistake. Individuals are brought to salvation one by one, and each encounters and then embraces Christ. Mr. Kline heard correctly. Jesus died for each unique individual. His love is reserved for each of us. Our recovery from addiction depends on believing that our Lord truly loves us, each one, with a special kind of attention that fixes on us- as if we were all that mattered.”



In my 2007 Christmas letter I wrote on the theme of “Love” and things that had happened to me that year: “I rediscovered my old weight loss seminar (The Weigh Down Workshop) this past spring and lost 20 lbs. I was dismayed to find out, however, that the founder has turned this weight loss seminar into a cult! Gwen Shamblin has strayed from her initial focus of loving God (instead of food) with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, to legalistic rules and coming out from all other churches (where her classes used to be taught!) to her church because she thinks it is right and all other denominations are wrong.” What I didn’t say though, was that Gwen Shamblin was “into” asking God for “signs” – even though in Mathew 12 Jesus says, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign.” He does not say, however, that He won’t give a sign. There are many places in the Bible where God gives His people “signs”. But there are also many warnings about them, like in Matthew 24:24 Jesus says, “For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.” Bob and I were recently sharing with someone how Christians are supposed to, “test the spirits” because everything that is really “supernatural” is not from God. (I John 4:1) The Bible says that Satan can transform himself to appear as, “an angel of light” (I Cor. 11:14) So we, as Christians need to be especially careful because we can even be deceived! With all this in mind and my doubts about Gwen Shamlin and her new church, however, I said a crazy thing to God. Since Gwen’s questions to Him were always about Him showing His personal love to her, I said, “God, do you love me as much as you love Gwen Shamlin?” He answered me with a Matthew West song I heard on K-Love : “Susan” He said to me, “I love you MORE”


“…I'm always thinking of you, Take a look around you, I'm spelling it out one by one…I love you more than the sun And the stars that I taught how to shine You are mine, and you shine for me too, I love you yesterday and today And tomorrow, I'll say it again and again I love you more….”
Ironically or rather Providentially next Sunday is “Snow day” in Awanas; One craft idea I had seen before is “Jesus Loves you Snow Much”

To read Part 2 of  "He Loves You Snow Much...More" go to my May 27th post (2011):
The Warrior Princess