An Open and Shut Case

For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. James 3:2

Like I've said before, my mind is a swarm, I have so many ideas about what to write. So, how do I decide where to start? Well, it will just keep on coming up, like "word vomit" until I can no longer hold it back. (Jeremiah 20:9) In the book of Job, chapter 33, it says,

"For God may speak in one way, or in another, Yet man does not perceive it." (Job 33:14) Yet the Apostle Paul says in I Corinthians 2 that now we can understand it, because we have the Holy Spirit! So God will bring up the thing I should write about in different ways, like (#1) in His word, the Bible:

The Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned, That I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary. Isaiah 50:4

“Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord? Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say.” Exodus 4:11

To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven.....A time to keep silence, And a time to speak....Ecclesiastes :1 & 7




I had thought about writing on the mouth on more than one occasion. Joyce Meyer has so many wonderful Biblical resources - one book that I've read is called, "Me and My Big Mouth".

 And the Bible has so so much to say about your mouth! There's a great resource I've mentioned before called, BibleGateway and you can go there and click on Keyword Search, choose what version of the Bible you'd like (I like the New King James or The Amplified, a great modern translation is The Message) and you can put in any word and it will look up where it is in that particular translation. How cool is that?


Right now, I am in the middle of writing many different things (my first speech for adults, my book, my blog). A couple of months ago Brother Jerry was preaching from the book of Acts. In Acts 8 is a story about Phillip being told to go talk to an Ethiopian eunuch who was reading in the book of Isaiah. Phillip explained to him how Isaiah 53 (also many other places in the Old Testament) was foretelling of Jesus. I've read this many times before but this time verse 35 stood out to me, it says, "Then Philip opened his mouth..." and then I thought, wait a minute, these verses just also said something about the opposite! The verse in Isaiah 53 says,

"...So He opened not His mouth...." (Isaiah 53:7, Acts 8:32)

And when I looked it up in Isaiah, I noticed it says it twice in verse 7!: "He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He opened not His mouth;
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
So He opened not His mouth."

There's much to be said about keeping our mouths shut in the Bible. Once I put in my status: Therefore he who is prudent will keep silence in such a time, for it is an evil time. Amos 5:13 Could I possibly keep my big mouth shut??? For once???

In Isaiah 53, Jesus is compared to a lamb as He is in other places in the Bible but what about the places where He's referred to as a lion? Like in Revelation 5? In verse 5 He's called a lion and in verse 6 He's called a lamb. In my "Enjoying Everyday Life" Bible, Joyce Meyer has a note in Revelation about this titled, "lion or lamb?". Joyce says, "Throughout the Gospels, Jesus seems to act in two contrasting ways." She says how in Matthew 27 He confronts the money changers in the temple with "lion-like intensity". I also remember Him calling the scribes and Pharisees a "brood of vipers", now that's not very lamb-like!

In John chapter 8 He's speaking to some people who claim to follow God because of their nationality:
"I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father....You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.” (John 8:38 & 44)
 
Joyce goes on to say, "What are we to learn from His communication patterns? He was a lion when He needed to be and yet always a lamb- He never sinned or failed to be excellent in speech." Jesus was BALANCED. Just like it says to be in the verse I quoted before in Cougars, Cages and Confessions about that faux lion, Satan: Be well balanced (temperate, sober of mind), be vigilant and cautious at all times; for that enemy of yours, the devil, roams around like a lion roaring [in fierce hunger], seeking someone to seize upon and devour. I Peter 5:8 (Amplified)


So, how do we know when to speak and when to shut it? I think we need to learn to "Walk in the Spirit" like it says in Galatians. Also ask yourself, "What's my motivation?" to bring glory and honor to Christ?- then say it! Or don't- depending on which would honor Him. Are you afraid? That's Satan! He's trying to shut you up! Or make your life speak so loudly that noone listens to your words!

Say what you wanna say And let the words fall out- Honestly, I wanna see you be brave...Sara Barielles

Once I put this in my status: Do you ever obsess about "What should I say?" I do this all the time! Anyways, I was doing it again yesterday and when I was doing my (Tammy Melton) Bible study, she said to look up John 12:12 but I accidentally/Providentially turned to Luke 12:12: "For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say." :-)

Also if we keep busy Praising the Name of Jesus, then Satan won't be able to distract us so easily.

In his book, "Epic: The Story God is Telling" John Eldredge explains how all the stories and movies we love are from the Bible and based on God's story of redemption! The conflict or the problem, then the battle of good vs. evil and the ultimate triumph of good.


I've already compared myself to the little mermaid and said that in the Bible Christians are called God's sons and daughters and He is the King, therefore we are His princes and princesses. I wrote about this before many times, one place is on my website: Jamie's Bible

The Little Mermaid is a Disney movie based on the Danish fairy tale by Hans Christian Anderson. In the movie, Ariel, the mermaid falls in love with a human (Prince Eric), has a fight with her father and so goes to the sea witch for help. Ariel represents us, her father God and the sea witch represents the devil. Ultimately, her prince defeats the sea witch and her father has a change of heart and turns her into a human. And they live happily ever after!

But before all that the sea witch takes Ariel's voice in payment for making her human. This reminds me of how Satan wants to steal Christians "voices" through sin. I heard the saying, “Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay and cost you more than you want to pay.”

URSULA (The Sea Witch)

Oh, and there is one more thing.
We haven't discussed the subject of payment.

ARIEL
But I don't have-

URSULA
I'm not asking much, just a token really, a trifle!
What I want from you is - your voice.

ARIEL
But without my voice, how can I-

URSULA
You'll have your looks, your pretty face.
And don't underestimate the importance of body language, ha!

Then URSULA says,
Now, sing!

Let's sing and speak for our King not for Satan!

Sing, O daughter of Zion!
Shout, O Israel!
Be glad and rejoice with all your heart,
O daughter of Jerusalem! Zephaniah 3:14

If you return, Then I will bring you back; You shall stand before Me; If you take out the precious from the vile, You shall be as My mouth. Jeremiah 15:19

Oh, give thanks to the Lord!
Call upon His name;
Make known His deeds among the peoples!
Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him;
Talk of all His wondrous works!
Glory in His holy name;
Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord!

Seek the Lord and His strength;
Seek His face evermore!
Remember His marvelous works which He has done,
His wonders, and the judgments of His mouth...

1 Chronicles 16:7-12

And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. I Corinthians 2:4-5

“Write the vision And make it plain on tablets, That he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry." “Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him; But the just shall live by his faith." Habakkuk :2-4


The plans of the mind and orderly thinking belong to man, but from the Lord comes the [wise] answer of the tongue. Proverbs 16:1

In my "Everyday Life Bible", Joyce Myer says, "God promises if we open our mouths, He will fill them (See Psalm 81:10), and Jesus promises to give us words and wisdom that none of our adversaries will be able to resist or contradict (See Luke 21:15)."



Here's another (very) short blog post on Words

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

Joy

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 18: 1-4







Papa Elf: "And where do the reindeer get their magic from?"
Buddy: "Christmas spirit, everybody knows that."
Papa Elf: "Well, silly as it sounds, a lot of people down south don't believe in Santa Clause."

Papa Elf: "And every year less and less people believe in Santa Clause. I mean we have a real energy crisis on our hands."
Buddy: "Oh."
Papa Elf: "I mean just see how low the clausometer is."
Buddy: "That's shocking."

The movie, Elf with Will Ferrell has become one of our most favorite Christmas movies. The kids even made snow flakes and paper chains to decorate our living room like Buddy (Elf) does in the movie.

It seems all the great classic Christmas movies have a similar theme, whether it’s A Christmas Carol, A Wonderful Life or A Miracle on 34th Street someone concludes life is better with faith, hope & love.





 

Even The Grinch decides; “Maybe Christmas….doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas…perhaps…means a little bit more!”




Buddy the Elf epitomizes child-like faith. Of course you know I’m not going to suggest you believe in Santa or even trust the people around you because even the best of them will fail you. However, Jesus said if you humbled yourself as a child and trusted Him you would be greatest in the kingdom. (verse above)

Walter: "So, go on."
Buddy: "Go on with what?"
Walter: "Are... Are you gonna sing a song or something or can I just go back to work?"
Buddy: "A song? Uh, yeah. Anything for you, dad. (starts singing) Um, I'm... I'm here with my dad. And we never met. And he wants me to sing him a song. And, um, I was adopted. But you didn't know I was born. So I'm here now. I found you, daddy. And guess what? I love you. I love you. I love you!"
Walter: "Wow, that was weird."



Buddy has unconditional love for his newly discovered, "daddy", even though his dad rejects him at first, that doesn’t stop Buddy from continuing to reach out to him. At one point Buddy’s brother Michael, says to his dad, "Buddy cares about everyone, all you care about is yourself." So, of course, in the span of just a few weeks his dad has a change of heart just like Scrooge and the Grinch. Things in movies have a way of working out in 90 minutes, but in real life they may take a little longer. So, I say we should love God and those around us and trust God with the outcome. I’ve heard it said you can have JOY, if you put Jesus first then Others and then, lastly, Yourself.








Gimbel's Manager: "Why are you smiling like that?"
Buddy: "I just like to smile. Smiling’s my favorite."

My quotes came from: Moviewavs