EYE IN THE SKY

EYE IN THE SKY

I woke up at about 3 a.m. and went outside to see the stars on a moonless night. It was cloudy all day, but tonight the sky was clear and the stars magnificent. In the northern sky, I could see one of the best-known constellations—the Big Dipper. There are 87 stars named in this constellation, and they all have meanings centered on a sheepfold. The star names are translated “lamb,” “flock,” “the assembled,” “the appointed,” “the gathered.” The constellation and stars are mentioned several times in the Bible, referring to the flock of God.

 

If you draw a line connecting the two stars at the farthest end of the dipper, they point straight to the North Star, which is the end star in the Little Dipper’s handle. This North Star is the central point of the heavens, and all the other stars move in circular paths around it. However, it is interesting to note that at one time, this central star, around which all others concentrate, was in the constellation Draco, the dragon. But it has slowly and steadily moved into the Little Dipper, the small sheepfold of God.

 

If you follow the curve of the Big Dipper handle, you see two very bright stars. The first is Arcturus in the constellation Bootes. Bootes is a man walking rapidly with a spear in his right hand and a sickle in his left. “Bootes” comes from the Hebrew root word meaning “the coming.” The constellation is referred to in Psalm 96:13: “For he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth.”

 

Still following the curve from the handle of the Big Dipper, you come to the bright star, Spica, in Virgo’s left hand. Spica means an ear of corn. It also has the name Al Zimach, which means “branch” and is found in Jeremiah 23:5: “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.”

 

God arranged the stars so that even in the flurry of technology and the barrage of inconceivable inhumanity, we can still look around us and always see something created by a loving God. If we only take a look, we can see that a God of love and magnificence is still over it all.

 

Love, Carolyn

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WISDOM AND HEALING

WISDOM AND HEALING

My job was to do touchups in the high roller rooms at one of the local hotels. My knee started hurting, then my thigh, then my back. I forgot to just ask for wisdom from the Lord on what it was and what to do to make it go away. I took ibuprofen and was handling it myself. The pain subsided somewhat, but it wasn’t going away. I persevered on my own for about two weeks, and it was wearing me down. I finally woke up spiritually, took it to the Lord, and asked my roommate Jane to pray for me. I went off to work like every other day. Only this day, I got the revelation of what was causing my pain and the revelation of how to get rid of it.

 

As I sat down on the floor to patch and touch up the baseboard and then crawled along to the next spot, I got the news flash – I was sitting in a scrunched-down position with both legs tucked under me to the side, and I was bent over. I put my legs on the other side, and the same exact pinch happened on the other side, and I realized I’d been sitting and crawling in this position for about two weeks, 7 hours a day. No wonder I was having pinches and pain. I made a conscious effort to change how I was positioning myself, and the pain dissipated and is nearly gone.

 

Just because you don’t have an instant miracle of healing doesn’t mean God’s not healing you. He’s given us many ways to get pain-free and healed.

 

God designed our bodies to heal themselves. If we take care of our bodies, natural healing comes faster.

 

Also, I’ve learned that certain sicknesses, diseases, and demons also need specific environments to thrive in, so changing our bodily environment on the inside will cause the disease to die or the destructive evil spirit to leave.

 

There’s much to learn about healing, but whenever we get sick, there is always one thing we should do first, and that is:  to take it to the Lord in prayer. Ask Him, “Should I go to the doctor? Ask someone to pray for me? Drink more water and take a couple of aspirin? What should I do, Lord?”

 

We ask for His wisdom on what to do to get healed. God wants us to be healthy, so He’s glad to give us His wisdom.

 

James 3:17 says: “The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.” And James 4:2 says: “Ye have not, because ye ask not.” So we need to ask.

 

If we’re unsure about hearing from the Lord or what we think He answered, then we can ask a trusted Christian friend to corroborate or at least pray.

 

God says of himself, “I am the Lord that healeth thee” (Ex 15:27). Whether it be through a doctor, a prescription, a miracle, a dietary plan, or just changing your position on the floor like I had to do, a healthy body and a sound mind (2Tim. 1:7) are important in God’s good plan for our lives.

 

Love, Carolyn

 

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INSTINCT AND CHOICE

INSTINCT AND CHOICE

In Las Vegas, October is the month for tarantula migration. At this time of year, the males come out of their burrows and walk across the desert seeking the females. Some travel over 50 miles to find her. It’s instinct. As humans, we have the instinct to seek God, our creator. The difference between animals and us is that we can go against our God-created nature. Unlike animals, we have the free will to deny instinct—we have the choice to say no, and crawl right back into our holes.

 

It’s in our nature to seek the truth, a truth that is deeper and farther reaching than even our conscious minds are aware of sometimes. It’s just a part of who we really are. Some people distract themselves and busy themselves, so they don’t confront this essential self-awareness. Others know they’re seeking but don’t know who or what.

 

That was the case with the Apostle Paul when he went to Athens. He went to where the people gathered to discuss philosophies and beliefs and “addressed them as follows: ‘Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious in every way, for as I was walking along, I saw your many shrines. And one of your altars had this inscription on it: ‘To an Unknown God.’ This God, whom you worship without knowing, is the one I’m telling you about’” (Acts 17:22-23).

 

The Greeks were such seekers, they didn’t want to miss out on any deity, so they even put up a shrine to the one they might have missed! Hilarious, but it goes right along with our human nature to seek the truth. When Paul came along, he had the opportunity to tell them about the God they didn’t know and the significance of His son Jesus Christ.

 

In Jeremiah 29: 12-14, our God gives just a few of the great benefits of searching Him out:

 

“I will hear and heed you. Then you will seek Me, inquire for, and require Me [as a vital necessity] and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will release you from captivity.”

 

But like the tarantula, our journey across the desert has its obstacles, and that’s why we need to seek the Lord every day and in every situation. It’s so easy to fall into some kind of mental, emotional or even physical captivity if we dare to think we can do fine on our own. It’s pretty simple really. God created us, Jesus knows everything about us, and we are just not that smart!

 

For the tarantula, there are the huge rocks to go over, the snakes and predatory birds to avoid, and the cholla cactus that throws out barbed spines if you even get close to it. You don’t even have to touch it for it to become an enemy. And then there’s the infamous tarantula hawk, a large orange-winged wasp about two inches long.

 

The tarantula hawk is mostly passive at every other time of the year, eating only vegetation, but when the tarantulas migrate, the female wasp becomes vicious.

 

She flashes those beautiful orange wings and injects her paralyzing venom into the spider, then pulls the paralyzed victim (about eight times her weight) into a hole below the sandy desert floor. The spider may or may not awake out of the paralysis as it becomes the first meal of the baby wasps whose eggs were injected into its hairy flesh.

 

The point: seeking has its dangers. The journey has unseen obstacles and hardships. But the tarantulas don’t just stop. They carry on—it’s instinct. A few get stung by the wasp and won’t make it, but most of the seekers find what they’re seeking. It’s the same with us.

 

God’s Word says, and Jesus confirms: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened” (Matt. 7:7-8).

 

Sometimes we read a scripture or say a scripture to ourselves and think it should work, and then we get disappointed and discouraged when we don’t get the results. That’s because we keep it in our realm. We say it to ourselves, and it doesn’t go where it needs to go. We read and say, “Ask.” But we don’t DO the asking.

 

Instead of just reading and saying the scripture to ourselves, we need to speak directly to our God and/or say it to our Lord Jesus: “Lord, your Word says ‘ask,’ so I AM ASKING You now. I am SEEKING You now.” Bend your ear to me now and answer me. I am listening and expecting. Thanks for being here with me now. Amen.”

 

There are many examples in the gospels of those who sought after Jesus. I love the story of Zacchaeus, who was a short man and climbed up into a tree to be able to see Jesus unobstructed by the crowd. And what did Jesus do? Luke 19:5 tells us:

 

“When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” The Carolyn translation would go something like this: “Hey, buddy, come on down. I want to spend some personal time with you, so let’s go to your house.”

 

The male tarantula’s instinct is to seek a mate once a year. Our instinct by nature is to seek our Lord and God daily. Let’s follow that instinct and go with the plan our creator has set before us, one day at a time.

 

Love, Carolyn

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GOD GAVE US NEW CLOTHES

GOD GAVE US NEW CLOTHES

God sent Moses to the Egyptian Pharaoh with a message: “Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, ‘Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, ‘Let my people go’” (Exod.5:1). But the Pharaoh wouldn’t do it, so God sent plagues throughout the land, but the Pharaoh still wouldn’t give in. Finally, God told Pharaoh that if he didn’t let the Israelites go, all the firstborn would die. To protect the Israelites, God told them to put lamb’s blood on the top of their front door and on the sides.

 

“For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the Lord will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you”(Exod.12:23).

 

The blood was like a huge body wrap over the whole house, so that the destroyer would know it couldn’t touch that house.

 

“And it came to pass, that at midnight the Lord smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead” (Exod.12:29-30).

 

The Egyptians were so scared, they rushed the Israelites out as fast as they could. “The Egyptians were urgent upon the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste; for they said, ‘We be all dead men’” (v. 33). The Egyptians saw that our God is a God of action, and if he could kill all the firstborn, he could kill them too!

 

Today, the blood over our houses is not that of lambs, but, the blood of Jesus, and it protects us in the same way the blood protected the Israelites in Egypt. Every day when Jane and I pray, we symbolically spiritually pour the blood of Jesus over our house, our property, our neighborhood, and our bodies.

 

The protection of Jesus is always close. It’s kind of like the inner garment Jesus wore himself, like a body wrap. It was a special undergarment that was worn next to the skin. It had no seams, so there were no holes in its protection. It was such a unique piece of clothing that even when he was crucified and the soldiers divided up his clothes, they were afraid to cut the inner garment, so instead, they gambled for the entire garment in one piece.

“Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part. . . . Now the coat[undergarment] was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said therefore among themselves, ‘Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be’” (John 19:23-24).  

 

In Isaiah 61:1-3, we read this about some clothing Jesus would give us:  “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me. . . to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.”

 

The “garment of praise” is to protect from the spirit of heaviness. We put it on with righteous pride like the banner of victory Moses held up for Joshua when he was fighting the Amalekites. We praise God and continue to carry the banner of victory, claiming it high in our minds and in our mouths.

 

“And Moses said unto Joshua, ‘Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand.’ So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek: and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.

 

“And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses’ hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.

 

“And Joshua discomfited [overthrew] Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.

 

“And the Lord said unto Moses, ‘Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.’ And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovah-nissi: 

 

The name Jehovah-nissi means “the Lord my banner, the Lord my victory.” (Exod.17: 9-15).

 

As God promised, He would wipe out all the Amalekites, and though they were not all destroyed in this battle with Joshua, the very last ones were destroyed by Solomon’s sons later in history.

 

Another important part of our attire is the shield of truth.

 

“His truth shall be thy shield and buckler” (Ps.91:4).

 

The Hebrew word for shield indicates that it is a large shield that covers the whole body. It has fierce, sharp protrusions that are pointed like hooks. It guards by prickliness and is piercingly cold. It’s the “cold truth’ and people don’t like it, but we’ve found out that God’s truth isn’t always the cuddly kind, right? Look closely at the shield in the painting by Steve Gould, that I’ve included here. I think it’s pretty awesome!

 

So what do we look like today in our God clothes? We have the covering protection of the blood, the body wrap of Jesus, the garment of praise in our mouths to keep us from getting depressed, the powerful and prickly shield of truth, and we’re carrying the banner of God’s victory into every battle we enter.

 

Go get ‘em!

 

Love, Carolyn

LIFE LESSONS TO EMPOWER US:

 

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OH MY, I'M SO OFFENDED!

OH MY, I’M SO OFFENDED!

My 12-year-old washing machine stopped working. When I went to buy a new one, the worker told me they had a new delivery service and could deliver within two days. But they couldn’t tell me when the delivery would happen, so someone had to be home all day. What?!  They expected someone to stay home all day waiting for the washing machine? That was crazy. I was appalled and offended that they would expect us to put up with such an inconvenience! Added to that, Jane overheard two ladies in the store complaining about the delivery service, so we were ready for a hassle, but what could we do?

 

As it turned out, our offense was unfounded. The delivery service called us the evening before, and though we had to wait on the line for about 15 minutes, a very nice woman answered and gave us a 2-hour window for the delivery. Two very polite young men arrived on time, installed the washer, took the old one, and finished the process in only 10 minutes! Our offense was totally out of line! Sorry, Lord!

 

These days it seems that we are so easily offended by everything: the internet is too slow; the traffic is too fast; the radio isn’t playing the songs we like; the neighbor’s dog is barking, and so many other things I can’t even begin to name. If we started to count how many things annoy or offend us in just one day, we’d probably shock ourselves.

 

Offense is bad for the heart. It’s bad for the nerves. It’s just bad for the universe in general. Matthew 24:10 tells us that when people carry offense, they “shall betray one another and shall hate one another.” Let’s make a real effort to change the course of offense in our world. It’s become quite a big problem. But this kind of problem doesn’t get changed by a mandate or demand. This problem gets solved by one person, making one decision, one incident at a time. And you are that person, and I am that person. We can change our world by changing how we respond to it, one person at a time.

 

First Corinthians 13 is the Bible chapter on God’s love. Verse 5 tells us the love of God “is not easily provoked.” God’s love is like a river; when it comes to an obstacle, it just goes up and over or around. It doesn’t stop and have a hissy fit but just keeps flowing. We need to be more like that, to stay healthy and out of stress.

 

Jesus said this to His disciples: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27). We need not get so riled up about everything, but calmly and prayerfully observe, then engage in life from a Godly point of view, a God-loving point of view. The Lord will help us and guide us. I’m not saying it’s easy; I’m just saying we need to judge each event on its own merit and not jump to conclusions (especially negative ones) so quickly.

 

We have a real problem in America with critically biased news. But we all are plagued at times with certain biases in our everyday attitudes and actions. Jane and I were offended by our perception of what the washing machine delivery would be like. We were biased by what we heard and swayed to think negatively; instead, it turned out more than wonderful. We need to be more careful about letting offense go wild and ruling our actions rather than allowing the wisdom and peace of God rule.

 

The disciples of Jesus were offended because someone who wasn’t part of “their group” was healing people. But Jesus handled it.  John self-righteously declared, “Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he followeth not us: and we forbad him because he followeth not us. But Jesus said, Forbid him not: for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me. For he that is not against us is on our part” (Mark 9:38-40). Jesus had a way of answering the disciples calmly with the truth and removing the source of their opposing bias.

 

When my experience with the washing machine delivery turned out so great, I immediately got on the phone with the store where I bought it. I told the lady in the appliance department the whole story and that the only glitch was that you had to wait on the phone a little bit before someone answered. She was thrilled to hear it and asked me to fill out a short survey so that others would know the truth. I pray that this will help stop the negative talk in the store and support the delivery company with their business.

 

We have a challenge presented to us in Philippians 1:10: “That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ.”

 

Our greatest goal is to love God above all else and love His Word. That is the only answer to peace and the removal of offense. “Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them “(Ps. 119:165). Now that’s an extraordinary promise and challenge, wouldn’t you say?!

 

Love, Carolyn

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