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By faith I go

By faith I can

Yes I will

I’ll follow Your plan

The Hebrew month of Elul is quickly coming to a close. The season of our Repentance should be producing a field ready to sow. What do you want next years harvest to produce? Plowing, planting and waiting on harvest is very hard work. If you are being stretched, The Lord may be preparing you. He may actually be strengthening you. Harvest is not a season for the faint hearted. Jesus said , “The Sower sowed the word.” In Hebrew that literally is “God decreed a thing.” I want my field and my heart to be good ground and produce a harvest, some thirty, some sixty some one hundred fold. What size harvest are we preparing for?

His Plan

Because I know

You beckon me

I will come away

Return to see

 

Fear on the inside

Muffles a scream

What if I can’t

Is this just a dream?

 

Then I remember

Straighten to steady myself

It is in You alone scripture says

My soul finds rest

 

If I don’t follow

How will I grow

I’ll push in and continue

And study to show

 

Lord order my steps

Delightful way

I’ll let go and trust

Yes, simply believe today

 

By faith I go

By faith I can

Yes I will

I’ll follow Your plan

 

 

Poem written by laurette laster © 2017

Psalm 62:5 (NLT)

Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in Him.

Psalm 37:23 (NLT)

The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives.

 

Poem by Laurette Laster © 2017

A few years ago Greg and I went to Circle N Diary, for some fresh milk. On our way we noticed several plowed fields. I turned to Greg and said; “Remember how The Lord showed us, referring to the plowed field,  this is a perfect picture of the season of repentance? This plowing of the fields shows us how to do the work for preparing our hearts during Teshuvah.” The season of Teshuvah is leading into Yom Teruah or Day of Shouting, also known as Rosh Hashanah, and then to Yom Kippur. We reminisced about a few years ago at this same time when Greg was working in Celina TX. By visiting and returning to rural areas, we are reminded of process and the importance of process.

 

In our quick fix, microwave societies many people may not understand the concept of ‘process’. Seedtime and harvest are the measurable process in the kingdom of God. Today we may be led to think more along the lines of keep the seed-just give me my drive through harvest. Without the process of seed and time there is no Harvest. God doesn’t skip important steps nor does He allow us to. If we were allowed to skip over this process we would not be able to relate to The Sower. If we skip the ‘seedtime’ step it will eliminate and nullify the entire process.

 

Plowing is very hard work. Often in Christianity and as Christians we get so excited about reaping a harvest that we forget the hard work and the nourishment and rest required to bring in the harvest. I have a few fond memories from years ago that I believe will describe the hard work of  harvest time.

From the time I was five until I turned twenty two, my mother owned and operated her own restaurant. Our family worked at the restaurant on and off throughout our lives. In late summer one year when I was about seven, my brother, got a job hauling hay. This was before the invention of round balers and the large road bale trailers. This was during the time when workers literally bent over and picked the bale up off the ground, and tossed the bales onto the trailer. The bales typically weighed between fifty to one hundred pounds. This was a job that got you fit and strong for sure. There would be workers on the trailer responsible for stacking the hay. When the trailer was stacked high and wide all the workers accompanied the full trailer to the barn. Then the process was repeated in the opposite order. The bales would tossed off the trailer where other workers would then begin to stack the bales in the barn. From the beginning with cutting, to drying, to baling and then the  hauling and stacking  the hay in the barn were all crucial stages of the hay harvest. Once they were baled getting them out of the field and into the barn needed to happen quickly. You sure didn’t want it to rain on your baled hay. The workers were paid by the bale, so the quicker the job was done the sooner they had cash in their pockets. Farmers wanted workers who he could count on to work quickly.

When hay hauling season started, my brother and another worker would come to the restaurant for breakfast each morning before going to the hay field. I remember as a little girl watching them eat. My grandmother was the cook this particular summer at my moms restaurant, so see would “make sure those boys were fed good.” When my brother and the other hay haulers began for the day,  they didn’t eat again until the work day was over. So eat they did, for sure. My brother’s breakfast consisted of about eight slices of bacon, six fried eggs, a large mound of  hash browns and six to eight pieces of buttered and jellied toast. I ask him one time. how can you eat all that? He replied, “Hauling hay is hard work and we will not eat again until late tonight.” I know he was telling me the truth because I actually helped in the hay field one summer while in high school. Harvest in hard work.

Repentance is cleansing our souls and preparing our hearts for a large harvest that is pleasing to God. We are breaking up fallow ground in order to plow and thus uproot any dead or useless roots. When we see a plowed field we know it is time to sow the field. We can trust the knowledge of the farmer, because he is investing his time and is financially responsible for the field. We can trust that agriculturally it is time to replant the field. Timing is everything. We know a prudent farmer knows when it is time to sow seeds for a new harvest.

Even if we produced and reaped a good crop last year, we still must prepare and ready our field (heart) for this seasons planting.

Rosh Hashanah is known as head of the year in the agricultural season. This day it is said is the day the books in heaven are opened and examined. God takes out the books to read and makes decisions concerning our destiny for the upcoming year. Our reward for the coming year based on last year’s crop, success or failures. It is believed during the Ten Days of Awe we can do charity and change the results of last year before He closes the books and seals our destiny for the upcoming twelve months. We understand that in Christ we are forgiven but that does not eliminate reaping what has been sown. Bad seed, bad harvest. I pray we plow under any crop failures and useless foliage that is taking up space in our field and receive new seeds and plant for new and exciting harvests.

I pray this past year has yielded a great fruit harvest. As we prepare for Rosh Hashanah and the Feast of Ingathering we need fruit. What will be in gathering if there hasn’t been a bountiful harvest? Many of our holiday traditions in the United States of America come from the Fall Feast of God. We will be looking at these soon.

 

So let’s explore this a little more deeply. Teshuvah m’ahavah, turning from love of – what?

——————–

Rabbi Toba Spitzer

What did we turn away from?  In the traditional commentaries, the answer is: love of God. In this understanding, sins are those things which estrange us from the sacred, which create a sense of alienation from that which is Ultimate and good. We become estranged from our own Godly nature, and from our divine Source. We experience a kind of hunger in our souls, a profound sense of spiritual alienation and distance from the divine. Teshuvah from love is motivated by that hunger and that thirst, a yearning for intimacy with God. As the great medieval philosopher and rabbi, Maimonides, wrote in his Mishneh Torah:

“Teshuvah is great because it brings a person close to the Shekhina, to God’s Presence in the world…Teshuvah brings close those who are far off.” (Hilchot Teshuvah 7:6)

 ————————-

 

Don’t miss the season of Teshuvah.

Teshuvah is truly my favorite time of the year.

Once a field has been plowed and planted with new seed, this freshly planted field hungers and thirsts to be watered. So it is with us!

Let us pray

Dear Heavenly Father, I now understand this unquenchable thirst and this hunger is from You and is Your doing. I realize this is You drawing me to You. This yearning to uproot the things of the world and get them away from me and to plant truth is from You. It is Your pure love for me allowing me to sense and know a change is near. As I have been uprooting dead works and preparing my heart during this season of Teshuvah, I realize it is time to think about future crops. Show me Lord what You have for me. I want to plant what You desire, show me what pleases You, Lord Jesus. I want a hunger and thirst that only You can satisfy. I turn away from ‘diet drinks and sugary sweet drinks, empty calories’ so I will crave only living water. I realize the things of the world only leave me empty and wanting more. Jesus I want living water so that I never thirst again. A water that is available through relationship only. No more religion Jesus, I want a real and lasting relationship with You.  I desire a genuine relationship that will cause others to hunger and thirst for You. Show me Your glory. Amen.

 

God bless you and keep you and make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you and give you Shalom.

Until next time, thank you for listening with me. Laurette

 

Teshuvah is the appointed time and the season of our repentance. A season and an appointment for my heart check.

On Tuesday I talked about The LORD showing me that repentance is a sign in maturity. I say ‘in’ maturity not ‘of’ maturity because they are actually two completely  different seasons.  We can live and become another year older. Just because we get another year of life does not necessarily mean we learned the lessons required to take us beyond where we are in our spiritual life.

A Season in Time

A time of reflection

A time to assess,

What is working well?

What is causing duress?

A time of reflection

Take time to inspect,

Is my life bearing fruit?

The kind He expects?

 

I’m not to compare

Or look at another,

Not to be jealous

Nor envy a brother.

I am only measured

By His perfect design,

So I must access this heart

Never allow for decline.

Oh my soul, listen

Align with His word,

Become a doer

Of what ears have heard.

A season in time

Set aside for reflection,

This is my heart check up,

And I have no objection?

 

Poem written by laurette laster © 2018 August.

 

I’ve heard that you can have twenty years experience, or you may have one years experience twenty times. When we as Christians hear about repentance we may ask the following question. Well I’m in Christ do I still need to repent? The answer is yes. Yes we repent for many reasons. In all actuality we should be growing in grace and truth as we continue our walk with The Lord. Holy Spirit is helping us. In Romans we read that we may not even know how to pray. “And, in like manner also, the Spirit doth help our weaknesses; for, what we may pray for, as it behoveth us, we have not known, but the Spirit himself doth make intercession for us with groanings unutterable,” (Romans 8:26 YLT). We can intercede for others and repent on their behalf. In intercessory prayers we are asking for The Lord to grant them the grace to repent and change. We discussed the verse, “For it is the grace of God, God’s overwhelming goodness that leads a person to repentance.”  Only after seeing and experiencing the amazing goodness of God and His attribute of beauty and love, do we experience Godly sorrow that leads to repentance never to be repented of again. There are actions, sins, overt and covert, that we will never commit again. However as long as we are growing up, speaking the truth in love, into The Head which is Christ Jesus, we must have a repentant life style. This is not to say we have a woe is me lifestyle. No this doesn’t even compare to actual repentance. Repentance is life being lived and knowing and acknowledging there is a higher way to handle situations and conversations with God. The heart of repentance is maintaining a teachable spirit.

“Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning,” (Proverbs 9:9 ESV).

 

According to the Talmud, God created repentance before He created the physical universe, making it among the first things created. (Nedarim 39b).[1]

A few years ago The Lord gave me an illumination of His creation. He put a thought or an idea in my head for me to meditate and think on. Ever since this revelation came to my mind, I have wondered about this. Is this why God began with evening as His recorded time when speaking of day? Could this be why God listed night first? He called the evening the start of the day.

 

In the beginning, Genesis 1 it says; the evening and the morning were the first day and the evening and the morning were the second day, and so on.

If God were going to require something of us we can be assured that He makes the way visible and plain. We are responsible for discovering what He requires and then we must choose by having a teachable spirit to do what He requires. If this is so, wouldn’t it make sense that God would make a way for us to wash off the day’s dirt or wrongs before retiring? Of course it would. Why? Because we know and believe God is our Perfect Creator and The God of perfect order.

The Bible tells us our heart is awake while our body sleeps. We want to be clean from any offenses so we can hear clearly what The LORD wants to tell us. Remember in Exodus the children of Israel were told to wash their clothes before coming to meet The Father. Repentance is washing our minds and our souls so we can come before our Father in the morning.

Let us pray

Dear Heavenly Father. I come before you today asking that You show me and teach me Your ways. I desire to know Your ways not simply Your acts. Lord Jesus You said repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near. Usher me into all truth by Your Holy Spirit. My heart’s desire is to know You in a deeper more intimate way. Show me Your beauty and goodness, that others may see and desire You. Amen

Don’t miss the wonderful season of The LORDS drawing. He requires we return with our whole heart.

Shuv, turn or Teshuvah, return

Teshuvah is truly my favorite time of year.

God bless you and keep you and make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you and give you Shalom.

Until next time, thank you for listening with me. Laurette

 

Rosh Hashanah is almost here. It is my favorite time of the year.

I love when our Lord sends confirmation. It isn’t that I doubt, because I do not doubt the importance of this season. I do however wonder if I am able to communicate the woven pattern and importance of these seasons to others. This season of Teshuvah and leading into Rosh Hashanah and The Day of Atonement are very important to our Heavenly Father.

In 2008 an employee and a friend of mine ask me, “What is Rosh Hashanah?” She said, “I know you will know.” I felt like I should know but I didn’t. In fact I had never heard of Rosh Hashanah that I could recall. I had no idea what Rosh Hashanah was. So I had to use my life line and phone a friend. The friend I called was my mom. I explained to my mom that I needed some information about Rosh Hashanah. My mom said she would get to work on this and get back to me soon. About two hours later my mom called and said she had sent me several emails on Rosh Hashanah. Mom said, “Oh Laurette, you are going to want to search this out.” And was she ever right. Thus began the journey and the search for more of Him. I am hungering more and more for more of our Lord.

Embrace

Come away from noise and hurried bustle,

Unsettled times, life’s constant rustle.

When apart with You, my heart feels calm,

Your Spirit, Your Voice, silence all alarm

While inwardly my heart is groaning,

Lord, eyes and ears You are honing.

My safe refuge my hiding place,

I come away to seek Your Face.

And hear You calmly speak a Word,

My soul finds rest, safely assured.

In quietness and rest, loves solitary place,

Your words in my heart, intimate embrace.

That I may know, feel safe and secure,

Quiet and still, full trust, so sure.

Silence the chatter and thoughts that drown

This simple truth; You have never let me down!

Or reneged nor forgotten nor even blinked,

Each one sealed and delivered, signed in red ink.

Shall I continue to go and still believe?

Awaken my heart, embrace and receive.

For every Word out of Your Mouth is true

My rock, my refuge, certain trust, Yes I do!

laurette laster © 2017

Psalm 119:114,119 MSG Bible

You’re my quiet place of retreat; I wait for Your Word to renew me…..

Therefore I lovingly embrace everything you say.

I believe in 2008, Rosh Hashanah was the last days of September and the first day of the month of October. I told Greg, whom I barely knew at the time that we needed to teach on this subject at our bible study. He agreed and the study began. On Monday the day of our bible study I was reading and searching and studying my notes, emails, and bible frantically. I had been studying already and now the day had arrived to begin the teaching. I had so many things to get done this day which was my day off. I had decided I would have to set my notes aside and get onto housework and mowing my lawn.

It was almost 5:30 when I was finishing up the mowing. Did I mention I was frantic? I was hurrying and praying and asking The Lord, “please help me; I need to be in the shower now.” About that time I hit a patch of leaves and scattered them all over the yard. Looking back it wouldn’t have been such a big deal, but at the time it was to me. I finished the mowing and went to my shop to get a rake to rake up the mess I had made. By this time I am extremely frantic and I was praying fervently. “Lord help me, I am teaching on Rosh Hashanah and I don’t even have my notes in order and the people will be here soon and I don’t have enough knowledge to teach this. Help Me Father I need Your help.” At that very moment I heard the audible Voice of our Heavenly Father. He said to me, “LAURETTE, THE TREE IS IN ROSH HASHANAH!”  Needless to say I have never been the same. I still to this day think about this with such awe. My Heavenly Father spoke these words to me. Out of His Voice I heard His Words. Heaven opened over a frantic young woman as she was raking leaves. As I was studying and desperate to learn more about Him, my Heavenly Father, and my Lord, and understand Holy Spirit and His seasons, He spoke audibly to me concerning them. I always think back to this time when I am teaching this. If it was important enough for heaven to come down and open over me, a frantic young woman mowing her lawn, and for God Almighty, Himself, to speak to me about it, He must want us to understand. Did He give me a mandate to teach this? Is that why He spoke to me audibly? I like to think He did give me this mandate.

I stopped dead in my tracks. With my rake still in my hands, I stood up straight and I turned and looked toward my 65 foot tall tree, and I got it, I understood, and I got it. (Today I like to think, I might have looked like Moses leaning on his staff as in the movie, The Ten Commandments, as I leaned on my rake, not really but maybe this was good for a laugh). As I looked at my tree I got it. All my hours of reading and studying were nothing compared to His words. I’ve since heard, what you cannot explain simply you do not understand fully. That is a right on statement. Wow isn’t this a perfect picture of our Lord explaining Rosh Hashanah and repentance to me, with 7 simple words? I didn’t realize until writing this that it was seven words. There is a teaching in that. Simple! A simple explanation yet so deep it has opened up years of study for me. And I have only scratched the surface.

My one hundred plus year old tree was shedding its leaves or repenting of its leaves. The leaves represent a growing season. A season of growing, learning, and lessons learned over the past year. It also represents a season of letting go. I must let go of the old to prepare for the new. I take the invaluable lessons learned into my core (roots) to give me nourishment. I repent of the dead works, the things and ways that cannot go with me into the upcoming season.  As Christians we are like trees. We go through seasons year after year. This is how we grow and become strong and become mature or old enough to bear fruit. Repentance is a sure sign of maturity and maturing. Wow now you know why, Teshuvah and the season of our repentance is my favorite time of the year. I heard His voice and I hear now, just like this happened yesterday.

Isaiah 55:6 Call upon The Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near.

This scripture in Isaiah is recited often during the Hebrew month of Elul and during Teshuvah. This scripture is pointing out the truth of the King is in the fields. This scripture also points to the meaning, there are set times and appointed times that are in God’s hands.

As I meditate on this scripture there are nuggets of deep truth that we would do well to know and understand. This verse expressly speaks of appointments and appointed times or seasons. I will not search for something if I do not know it is lost. I cannot find something if I am not looking for it. How will I know to look? I will not look if I haven’t seen or heard there is something missing for which I am to search for.

Also, I cannot speak to someone who is out of my range of communication. Neither can I speak to someone who isn’t interested in what is important to me.

Our Heavenly Father, The God who knows how many hairs are on our head wants us to yearn to know more about Him.

Appointed times are for our benefit and learning. If I am going to reap I must sow first. It would be foolish of me to await a harvest if I didn’t plant anything. I would not knowingly plant out of season. And it is certain I cannot harvest if I didn’t plant any seed. We must be able to rightly divide and understand God’s appointed times. Then we decide to go after, to return (Teshuvah) to the heart of our Lord with our whole hearts. He wants our whole hearts.

The word integrity comes from the root work integer. The definition of integer is any whole number. Meaning it is not a fraction or a decimal. It is a whole number. It isn’t a fragment or a percentage. It is a whole number. The LORD wants our whole heart not a part of percentage. Our soul may be fractured or in pieces yet we know we have promises for healing. In Psalm 23 David tells us The Lord is our Shepherd, and He restores our soul. To enable The LORD to heal our soul we must come and return to Him. We bring Him all the pieces of our mind, our will, and our emotions, the deepest part of us, our entire heart. He has restored my soul and He longs to restore your soul. I am certain of it.

Think about the game we played as kids of hide and go seek. Wouldn’t it have been sad if you were playing this game with friends, and you went away and hid and no one came to search for you? In scripture our Lord Jesus tells us that blessed are those who hunger and thirst, for they shall be filled. That is a picture of searching for the fulfillment of our soul starvation. We know Jesus is The Bread of Life (hunger) and we also know He is Living Water (thirst).

Remember His Mo’eds are times and seasons of rehearsals. What if when He comes He doesn’t find you? This is the season of Teshuvah and is not a game and Our Lord is not hiding from us. He is signaling to us. The Lord is wooing us into action, to seek Him. Each time and each season we seek, we grow into a deeper more mature relationship with Him. As we continue to become closer and closer, He leads us into truth and away from harm.

If we wander off, He permits us to go. He doesn’t want us to wander off yet He allows us to go away. Then we begin to hunger and thirst realizing we are in a desperate drought. Then we do what we are known for, we send out our SOS signal, and call out to Him. Jesus said in the beatitudes; blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteous for they shall be filled. The plan is that we use our minds and understanding and grow up. When we become mature we stop future wandering. Because just like that tree we are now rooted and grounded.

Then shall we know if we follow on to know The LORD, His going forth is prepared as the morning. He shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and the former rain unto the earth.

Teshuvah my favorite time of the year,

Don’t miss this.

God bless you and keep you and make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you and give you Shalom.

Until next time, thank you for listening with me. Laurette

I pray this is a turn around year and better than any we have had.

Yom Teruah is one week away. May we be inscribed for a good and sweet year. “L’shanah tovah tikatev v’taihatem – May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year.”

Hosea 6:1-3

Let us know; let us press on to know The LORD; His going out is sure as the dawn; He will come to us like the rain, like the autumn and spring rains come on the earth.

The Latter and Former Rain

There is way that seems right to man

But in the end destruction

For when we seek to go our way

Ends in ideology and destruction

 

There is a way that is proven

To be right and even desirous

This is The Way our Lord advised

To advance His kingdom, Jesus required us

 

For when we seek to go our own

We thwart God’s power and toss

Having no one to blame we’re deceived

And become an enemy of the Cross

 

But if we continue on to know

Pursue knowledge, let us come and grow

We have so many securities

So many proofs He longs to show

 

For as the evening and the morning

The darkness turns into light

The Former and the latter

Becomes a continuous passage right

 

Let us pursue the knowledge

Of The Lord as we continue on to know

His going forth is established

As the morning, He has spoken and He shows

 

He will come to us and heal us

Where we are torn He longs to heal

When we pursue with all our heart

Continue on to know His will

 

Harvest rains in spring and autumn

Our Lord sends rain in season

Lord water our hearts and show

Your going forth and reason

 

Come and let us return to The Lord

our wounds He hath bound

Call upon His Name

While He is near and can be found.

Poem written by laurette laster © 2018

This is a precious season of Teshuvah, an appointed time set by our Heavenly Father. How do we Teshuvah and then Return with our whole heart? We must set our renewed minds to do the will of God.

In the New Testament Mark 12:30 we hear our Lord Jesus Christ as He quotes from the book of Deuteronomy, 6:5. Read these two passages and you will find that our Lord Jesus inserts the word “mind” in the text in the book of Mark. This is the key to fighting the spiritual battle and winning. If we are fighting yet never winning something is wrong. We know that our soul is mind, will, and emotions, right? So why did our Lord make specific mention of the word mind and set it apart by itself?  It is because we will have to have the renewed mind of Christ in searching and determining the will of God for our lives. To him who knows what is right but doesn’t do it, it is sin. “If, however, a man (mankind) knows what it is right to do and yet does not do it, he commits a sin” (James 4:17 Weymouth). Have you committed any sins?

 

“I will give them a heart to know Me, [understanding fully] that I am the LORD; and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with their whole heart.” (JEREMIAH 24:7 Amplified). This is to say we return with our entire renewed spiritual mind.

 

“I will heal their backsliding; I will love them freely: for Mine anger is turned away. (Hosea 14:4).

Teshuvah is not a season but a life style for born again Christians. We cannot walk a perfect walk nor do we get a complete change of mind at our conversion. We receive a born again spirit and the unction to begin again. However the decision remains our own to complete and walk out. We must do the work of renewing our mind. Read Romans 12:1-3

The Greek word metanoia is also translated as the word Teshuvah, meaning to change your course and return. The Greek word for mind is dianoia, where we get the word diagnoses or understand. Metanoia is to change your mind. Metanoia: change of mind, repentance. Dianoia is to understand the need for repentance.

METANOIA Strong’s Concordance 3341 Original Word: μετάνοια, ας, ἡ
Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine
Transliteration: metanoia
Phonetic Spelling: (met-an’-oy-ah)
Short Definition: repentance, a change of mind
Definition: repentance, a change of mind, change in the inner man.

DIANOIA Strong’s Concordance 1271 dianoia: the mind, disposition, thought

Original Word: διάνοια, ας, ἡ
Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine

Transliteration: dianoia
Phonetic Spelling: (dee-an’-oy-ah)
Short Definition: understanding, intellect, mind
Definition: understanding, intellect, mind, insight.

 

diánoia (from 1223 /diá, “thoroughly, from side-to-side,” which intensifies 3539 /noiéō, “to use the mind,” from 3563 /noús, “mind”) – properly, movement from one side (of an issue) to the other to reach balanced-conclusions; full-orbed reasoning (= critical thinking), i.e. dialectical thinking that literally reaches “across to the other side” (of a matter).

Once we are born again we have spiritual eyes and ears that see and perceive and hear and understand a new language.  We must learn and grow spiritually just as we did physically.
“As we are growing up” into The Head which is Christ, expect some blunders along the way. I assure you, you will mess up. Do you always speak the truth in love? Have you walked away from correcting someone that you know The Lord wants to instruct? Have you missed the opportunity to impart wisdom for fear of not fitting in? Have you maybe thought they won’t receive my instruction? I challenge you and me, that we are to speak the truth in love, and our Lord Jesus will then cause the increase. How can there be harvest without seed sown.

 “There are two kinds of backsliders. Some have never been converted: they have gone through the form of joining a Christian community and claim to be backsliders; but they never have, if I may use the expression, “slid forward.” They may talk of backsliding; but they have never really been born again. They need to be treated differently from real back-sliders–those who have been born of the incorruptible …

Dwight L. Moody—The Way to God and How to Find It.”

 

What does it mean to be wholeheartedly committed?

The example, The Lord gave was when He was in the garden of Gethsemane. Jesus said, “Never the less not my will, but Thy will be done.”

And we know Jesus was talking about going to the Cross. He became completely committed to the will of God and the plan of God for His life. We read in Isaiah that He set His face like flint.

Now We Must Set Our Faces Like Flint

Isaiah 50:4-7 (NKJV)

4 “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. He awakens Me morning by morning; He awakens My ear to hear as the learned.

5 The Lord God has opened My ear; and I was not rebellious, nor did I turn away.

6 I gave My back to those who struck Me, and My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard; I did not hide My face from shame and spitting.

7 “For the Lord God will help Me; therefore I will not be disgraced; therefore I have set My face like a flint, and I know that I will not be ashamed.”

A true revelation of The Cross of Christ is how God changes our hearts. This is how He made a way for our return. The Cross of Christ is the beginning of turn. There is so much more. He rose again that we may have life and life more abundantly.

Let us pray

Dear Heavenly Father I come to You today in complete turning. I turn my mind, my will, my emotions, and my heart, completely over to the correction of Your word. Oh forgive me for holding back and thinking it was ok. Forgive me for thinking I couldn’t do what You have ask me to do, thinking only of my lack of strength while denying Your grace. Your grace is sufficient and more than enough for all I need. I do not want to live a half hearted Christian life. Lord Jesus You gave all for me, help me give all for You. God, You gave me life and I want to live my life for You.  I dedicate all of me, to all of You, this year. I want this year and this season to be a turn around year in my life. Turning, not only for me Lord, but for the many others I may reach for You. I long to walk in Your favor and blessings and also to be a part of the ministry of reconciliation for my family and for Your family. Jesus I pray this prayer in Your name. Amen

 

Don’t miss the wonderful season of The LORDS drawing. He has torn but He will heal.

Shuv, turn or Teshuvah, return

Teshuvah this is my favorite time of year.

God bless you and keep you and make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you and give you Shalom.

Until next time, thank you for listening with me. Laurette