Many years ago, I fancied the delight of an English garden. Its fragrances were a welcomed cool trace across my visage in the heat of that two week stint in a hot Kansas summer. It many times invited me into that place of solace, a welcomed escape from the day at hand. I gazed upon those precious little flowers, their delicate arms were oft visited by those flitting butterflies and the stalwart bee intent on his toil. Times I am reminded of that pastime; it evokes memories and carries me into a place of long ago in my precious south, to a place where I enjoyed another sweet solace, the woodsy palace of prayer upon the hill.
Whispers of the Lord sweetly drawing near, like a flitting wing of an eagle drawing down to bring some peaceful comfort. Such always seemed to be a pleasant scent; a cooling calm in the face of some crisis. Firmly, crises are a part of every life. Sometimes the prayers of others are the fragrance, like the sweet savor before the temple, that brings the calm or a peace; your faithful friend intercedes, the Lord sends a restraining angel or He brings a new circumstance to thwart the heat.
Though that little English garden and I are apart, I have sensed the calmness and that wafty scent many times. In Iraq it was the whir of rockets screeching o’er head, it has been a stalwart calming , knowing that many were sending up a sweet savor for me. It was a rocket piercing my office, I being safely away; yet another sweet-smelling savor. It was the restraining Hand of the Lord that helped my precious wife and son that day out there on that highway, it was God’s precious favor granting prayers for many things over the years. How about you? Are you mindful of the precious interceding prayers of many for you? Are you grateful for the precious fragrance of those little English gardens? I will always remember that little garden and that hill of my childhood, where the Lord came. Where He walked with me, and He talked with me; where He even today tells me I am His own. Blessings. Sherrell
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Saturday, July 30, 2011
Friday, July 8, 2011
In Emergency; Let us Praise!!!
Upon David's coming of age the Lord took him through a great trial. Annointed King as a young man, enjoying a great victory over Goliath of Gath and leading multitudes of fierce successful battles with the Philistines, he now fled for his life from Saul who was intent on his demise.
We pick up this account in 1 Samuel 22:1. We read: 1Sa 22:1-2 ¶ David therefore departed thence, and escaped to the cave Adullam: and when his brethren and all his father's house heard [it], they went down thither to him. And every one [that was] in distress, and every one that [was] in debt, and every one [that was] discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them: and there were with him about four hundred men. Here we see that David was the real spiritual leader over Israel. Those that were repressed fled to him there, we see among them the indebted, the disenfranchised, the distressed.
I love his message to them; you find that in Psalm 57:1-5. Listen: [[To the chief Musician, Altaschith, Michtam of David, when he fled from Saul in the cave.]] "Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until [these] calamities be overpast. I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth [all things] for me. He shall send from heaven, and save me [from] the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth. My soul [is] among lions: [and] I lie [even among] them that are set on fire, [even] the sons of men, whose teeth [are] spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword. Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; [let] thy glory [be] above all the earth.
David's solution for his emergency is to praise and extol the Lord. His exhortation to these his loyal subjects who were in similar straits was to acknowledge Almighty God who was his protection! That is good counsel! Friend, we need to put our eyes upon the Father and His precious Promises from Scripture. He indeed will never leave nor forsake! I love this! Meditate.
We pick up this account in 1 Samuel 22:1. We read: 1Sa 22:1-2 ¶ David therefore departed thence, and escaped to the cave Adullam: and when his brethren and all his father's house heard [it], they went down thither to him. And every one [that was] in distress, and every one that [was] in debt, and every one [that was] discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them: and there were with him about four hundred men. Here we see that David was the real spiritual leader over Israel. Those that were repressed fled to him there, we see among them the indebted, the disenfranchised, the distressed.
I love his message to them; you find that in Psalm 57:1-5. Listen: [[To the chief Musician, Altaschith, Michtam of David, when he fled from Saul in the cave.]] "Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until [these] calamities be overpast. I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth [all things] for me. He shall send from heaven, and save me [from] the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth. My soul [is] among lions: [and] I lie [even among] them that are set on fire, [even] the sons of men, whose teeth [are] spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword. Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; [let] thy glory [be] above all the earth.
David's solution for his emergency is to praise and extol the Lord. His exhortation to these his loyal subjects who were in similar straits was to acknowledge Almighty God who was his protection! That is good counsel! Friend, we need to put our eyes upon the Father and His precious Promises from Scripture. He indeed will never leave nor forsake! I love this! Meditate.