October 1 ... Malachi 1 - 4 "Keep the Revelation"

Honor me by bringing your best to Me (Malachi 1:11).  What is the best I can give my God this day?   Listen to Me.  Obediently listen (2:1).  Don't whine if you don't get what you want from God (2:2).  Don't break the faith-bond with your vowed companion (2:2).   God was there when you made your vow and inhabits the smallest details of marriage (2:15).  Guard the Spirit of Marriage within you.  Watch yourselves.  Don't let your guard down (2:16).   Return to Me so I can return to you (3:7).  Return by being honest (3:8).  Test me in your tithe and see if I don't open up heaven itself to you and pour out blessings beyond your wildest dreams (3:16).  God sees what you are doing and is listening in.  HE is taking minutes even this day as you talk things over.  Your names are written down for you honor Him so (4:2).  That's happening in the Unseen World this very day.  The Sun of Righteousness will dawn with Healing in His Wings.  Remember and Keep the Revelation (4:4).  Look ahead, I'm sending Elijah. 

What God wants me to hear in this book:  I have loved you!  "I have loved you in a way that people who live for no higher purpose than to enjoy this life do not realize...I have chosen you to be part of My plan to restore this earth to its full beauty and My people to their full beauty."  66 LL.  Yet, you weary Me with your idea that people enjoying the pleasant life of prosperity and peace are the real winners while saints like Paul and Mother Teresa are the losers---arrogance."  66 LL. 

"Return to Me, not for the blessings of life that bring pleasure but for the blessing of My Presence that sustains hope." Prisoners of Hope.  66 LL.  And God became silent for 450 years.

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As we close the pages of the Old Testament, what is one verse that God brings to your mind this day from all that you have read this year?  

September 30 ... Zechariah 8 - 14 "Pour a Spirit of Grace & Prayer Over Me"

Zechariah 8:6-8  - "Do the problems of returning and rebuilding by just a few survivors seem too much? But is anything too much for me? Not if I have My say.  I'll stick by you and do right by you."  

Hold tight, you who are listening (8:12).  You've gotten a reputation as a bad-news people, you people of Judah and Israel, but I'm coming to save you. From now on, you're the good-news people. Don't be afraid. Keep a firm grip on what I'm doing." 

God is keeping His Eyes on me.  Your King is coming! (9:9)  A Good King Who makes all things right...I'll release your prisoners from hopeless cells.  "Come home, hope-filled prisoners!"  

"I'll put muscle in My people.  I know your pain and will make you good as new (10:6)."  One Day!  

"I'll pour a spirit of grace and prayer over you.  Then, you'll be able to recognize Me as the One you so grievously wounded (12:11)."  HE will take His stand and the Mount of Olives will be split right down the middle.  My God will arrive!

 You have arrived!  Would you pour a Spirit of Grace and Prayer over each of us this very day?  Oh, how we need You so!

September 29 ... Zechariah 1 - 7 "Do Not Obsess Over Yesterday's Troubles or Today's Problems. Live as a Prisoner of Hope"

"Only in darkness could Mother Teresa learn to say 'my agony of desolation is so great and at the same time the longing for the Absent One so deep, that the only prayer which I can still say is---Jesus, I trust in Thee.  I will satiate Thy thirst for souls.' "  66LL

"If you could see right now what is happening in the Unseen World, you would be filled with hope.  You must trust Me for whatever tastes of Glory I choose to provide in this life as you continue to build the Temple.  You have become a prisoner of hope."  66 LL

Yet we all live in days gone by:  You wonder how you failed (3:1), contributing to your children's failures.  You worry that your faith was too small.  "Satan encourages an obsessive and superstitious look at your failure."  I see all your failure---I bathe you until you become a Sweet Fragrance.  66 LL

"The legalist in you will want to mourn what was painful in the past and what is still painful today (7:2-3).  You will want to focus more on healing past wounds and filling present emptiness than living in hope.  Do not obsess over yesterday's troubles or today's problems."   66 LL  Live in hope!

Find the present hope...
1:2 - Come back to me and I'll come back to you. Don't be like your parents.

Enter into the present hope...
1:5  Put up your measuring tape.  Don't try to figure things out.  "I'll be right there with you—God's Decree—a wall of fire around unwalled Jerusalem---your own city with no walls--- and a radiant presence within."  Nothing will happen to you or any of My Followers that has the power to destroy My Plan A.  66 LL  God is on the move!

Dress in the present hope...
3:3 - Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes.  What am I dressed in this day? 

Live as a prisoner of the present hope...
or you will be a slave to the past...
4:9  "Don't despise This Day of Small Beginnings."  A Day of Small Things.  Right on Time.  Right Direction.  Fully Alive. 

September 28 ... Haggai 1 - 2 "Running Around Taking Care of your House"

Haggai

Haggai spoke (1:4,5): "How is it that it's the 'right time' for you to live in your fine new homes while the Home, God's Temple, is in ruins?  God says:  "Take a good, hard look at your life.  Think it over." God says (1:9-10):  Honor Me. You've had great ambitions for yourselves, but nothing has come of it. The little you have brought to my Temple I've blown away—there was nothing to it. You've been running around taking care of your own house.  Tight-fisted stinginess.  God, reveal how I've been more absorbed in my marriage, my family, my ministry, my deliverance OVER Your Pleasure.  Is this about my satisfaction or Your Pleasure?

 Haggai's Message changed them (1:13):  God says, "I am with you." 
"No matter how discouraged you feel, no matter how little evidence you see of My Power, no matter how off course My Plan appears to be or how unlikely fulfillment of My Promise seems to be, no matter how dark your night or empty your soul, build My Temple.  I, the LORD of hosts, am speaking. So what does it mean for me to build God's Temple?  Whatever you do for My Sake that involves the sacrifice of self-interest, whatever you do to reveal Me to others when you feel least able to do so, whatever you do that pleases Me at any cost to yourself, that is building My Temple."  66 LL.

September 27 ... Habakkuk 1 - 3 and Zeph 1 - 3 "Struggle Well & Wait in Confidence"

Habakkuk

Habakkuk asked God in Habakkuk 1:  Why do you force me to look at evil, stare trouble in the face day after day?  In Habakkuk 2, he braced himself for the worst.  But, Habakkuk was silenced by God.  His focus shifted away from frustration with what he saw in the world toward the Mystery of how God executes His plan.  Wait to see God's plan unfold.  Ask every question that rises in your heart as you live in this world. 66 LL.  "Quiet everyone---a holy silence.  Listen!"(2:20).  Tremble in agony as you live in a sinful, self-prioritizing world knowing no sin will go unpunished even though, for a time, God appears to be doing nothing (3:16).  Learn to wait in emptiness and frustrated desire for My Plan of Love to reveal itself (3:17).  "Only those who struggle in confusion and wait in hope will be strengthened to struggle well and to wait with confidence."  66 LL.   The prophet's prayer (3:1) - "Do among us what you did among our ancestors.  Work among us as you worked among them...as you bring judgment, remember mercy.  And though the cherry trees don't blossom...cattle barns empty...I'm counting on God's Rule to prevail.

 

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Zephaniah

  "My people were satisfied with how they were following Me.  They assumed I was satisfied as well.  I was not."  God begins this book by promising to make a clean sweep of the earth, a thorough housecleaning (1:2).  Do we enjoy the good life without seeking God with humble, broken hearts?   Time's up.  66 LL.  Wait for Me to pour out My death-dealing judgment on every self-centered urge that I discern beneath your religious veneer (3:8).  This letter begins with God's Promise to sweep away everything and ends with God's ironclad Promise to bring His People home, to change their hearts to that HE can look on them with delight (3:18-20).  No more using God for my satisfaction but for His Pleasure.  HE will bring home the homeless.  You've carried these burdens long enough. 
Painful partings will turn into glorious reunions. 

September 26 ... Nahum 1 - 3 "God Will Defeat Every Enemy Who Gets in the Way of Relationships and Rest

Nahum 1:2  God is serious business.  He won't be trifled with. No one gets by with anything.  Sooner or later, everyone pays.

Nahum 1:7   God is good, a hiding place in tough times. He recognizes and welcomes anyone looking for help, No matter how desperate the trouble.

Nahum 1:12  Even though you're on top of the world, with all the applause and all the votes, you'll be mowed down flat.

God sees Nineveh in all of us.  "Sacrificing love has not yet displaced self-serving demands in you or me."  66 LL

"No descendants energized by a relational style that opposes My style of self-giving will be allowed to crash My party. " Nahum 1:14

"Celebrate My plan now by relating in the middle of your hassles in a manner that reflects Me and shows your Confidence in My Plan."  Nahum 1:5  66 LL

"I swear by My Holy Love:  I will defeat every enemy who gets in the way of the satisfaction you desire, the rest you crave, the enjoyment you long to experience in relationships."  66 LL

It is God of Compassion Who looks down on our street this day, our corner in this world.  Nothing passes Him by unnoticed.  HE will defeat every enemy I face this season.  Will I reflect Him in the midst of my troubles?  What is my confidence in today?  Plan A????

September 25 ... Micah 1 - 7 "I'm Not Giving Up"

Micah 1 - God takes the witness stand against you.  ""The trial begins with no defense attorney and with God as prosecutor, judge, and jury."  66 LL

Micah 2 - HE has had enough.  There's no one to speak for you before God and His Jury.  Wow.  HE is the Ultimate Judge.  I'm on trial and guilty, always---but forgiven, always.  There's no preaching sermons that tell how you can get anything you want from God.  No. 

Micah 4 - Other people live however they wish, picking and choosing their gods. But we live honoring God, and we're loyal to our God forever and ever. On that great day," God says, I will round up all the hurt and homeless...I will make a strong nation out of the long lost, A showcase exhibit of God's rule from here to eternity.

Micah 6 - Listen now, listen to God: "Take your stand in court...Have I burdenened you, worn you out?  How can I stand up before God?  An armload of offerings?  My newborn child sacrificed?  No.  HE has already made it plain how to live, what to do, what God is looking for in men and women. It's quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be compassionate and loyal in your love, And don't take yourself too seriously— take God seriously.

My husband and I just met with a trusted, dear friend who stirs us deeply in conversation about where we are with God.  I'm struggling today with depression.  I will enter and embrace my confusion.  I will wait in Hope for God to show up.  When I read Micah 7 this day, I just wept.  Who has the answers on how to live---no man does. Maybe there's some good interpretation of truth.  But only HE is the Truth and the Way. "Will we permit Truth to humble us?  Will we accept emptiness as the path to knowing God?"  66 LL We can go to God and expect Him to meet us and HE is.  Here's what God says that spoke to me in my discouragement on arriving at places after six decades of life that I never expected. 

Micah 7 - I'm overwhelmed with sorrow...but me, I'm not giving up. I'm sticking around to see what God will do. I'm waiting for God to make things right. I'm counting on God to listen to me. Don't, enemy, crow over me. I'm down, but I'm not out. I'm sitting in the dark right now, but God is my light. I can take God's punishing rage. I deserve it—I sinned. But it's not forever. He's on my side and is going to get me out of this. He'll turn on the lights and show me his ways. I'll see the whole picture and how right HE is. And my enemy will see it, too, and be discredited—yes, disgraced! This enemy who kept taunting, "So where is this God of yours?"  "Unless I AM a God Who pardons sin, Who in mercy and compassion hurls your self-centeredness into the depths of the sea, you are doomed."  66 LL.  One Day!  I'm going to see Him and all of this with my own eyes— Oh!  That will be a Day!

September 24 ... Obadiah 1, Jonah 1 - 4 "Your Sense of Justice Blinds You to your Own Relational Sin"

Obadiah

Obadiah 1:15 "As you have done, it shall be done to you."  People think they are doing things right according to the Bible but...what survives out of that sometimes is not good and right with the LORD.  We can think we're right, but are we?  "God's principle of Divine retribution is always aimed at a higher goal than getting on with life or making things a little better.  He is always moving toward His Plan A to replace the kingdom of self-centered relating with the Kingdom of God-obsessed relating."  66 LL.


What lingers with you as you read the book of Obadiah.  It's a story that I think will remain with me.  I'm so touched deeply as I read of God's intervention to step in to take sides with Israel and punish Edom for treating Israel so badly.  I'm touched because it is our God Who will take care of His church..."My Son has the authority to build His church, and no power, not even the gates of hell, will overcome it (Matthew 16:18)."  This verse has so startled me this day that God is caring for me, His church. 


There is an Obadiah quote that will linger with me forever, I think.  "When your spouse mistreats you, a child hurts you, a friend betrays you, a colleague responds unfairly to you, your sense of justice blinds you to your own relational sin that is equally worthy of judgment."  66 LL.  Thank you God for making me into someone whom you love. 

Jonah

"No prophet was more successful in his ministry nor more offended by his success... Following My call always requires that you die to your self-interested and self-righteously moralistic understanding of life." 66 LL

Jonah 2:8 - May we not miss the Grace of our God and forfeit our lives for worthless stuff.  

"You reduce Me to a God Who is supposed to submit to your understanding of what matters most.  You do not discern the lethal self-interest behind the purposes for which you seek Divine Approval.  You are wrong to demand My cooperation with your understanding of life.  Because I love you and because My plans for you are good, I demand your cooperation with Mine.  There is no other way to enjoy My Presence."  66 LL

"When your life hits a bump that I could smooth but don't, will you continue to think I should surrender My Wisdom to yours and do what you think best?"  66 LL.

September 23 ... Amos 6 - 8 "Unaware & Untroubled by our Relational Sin"

Amos 6:4  Woe to those who live in luxury and expect everyone else to serve them! Woe to those who live only for today, indifferent to the fate of others! Woe to the playboys, the playgirls, who think life is a party held just for them! Woe to those addicted to feeling good—life without pain!  those obsessed with looking good—life without wrinkles! They could not care less about their country going to ruin.
Amos 7:7 - God showed me this vision: My Master was standing beside a wall. In his hand he held a plumb line.  "Read Amos and tremble.  God has dropped a plumbline to expose our wickedness---which is in all of our hearts, our relational sin.  Read Amos and tremble with the consciousness of your relational sin.  Worship that leaves UNCHANGED the way you relate to Me and to others is false worship.  I will not cooperate with any pursuit of spiritual maturity that leaves unrecognized and undisturbed your hidden energy of self-protection and self-enhancement.  You are wrongly conscious only of your unsatisfied desires in the Presence of My seeming indifference.  When you remain blind to your guilt, you seek Me for your purposes."  66 LL.

Amos 8: You give little and take much and never do an honest day's work. You exploit the poor, using them, and then, when they're used up, you discard them.  

RELATIONAL SINS:  * treating people as things to be used for personal advantage - the sin of Damascus 1:3     *valuing financial gain for self over well-being of others - the sin of Gaza 1:6     *regarding one's word as breakable when self-interest is served - the sin of Tyre 1:9     *seeing nothing wrong with nourishing hatred against people who hurt you deeply - the sin of Edom 1:11     *justifying harming others to increase personal satisfaction - the sin of Ammon 1:13     *presuming vengeance is a legitimate personal right - the sin of Moab 2:1     *disregarding the absolutes I reveal as the standard for all relating - the sin of Judah 2:4     *pursuing satisfaction by following a plan for life that is self-serving and not God-glorifying - the sin of Israel 2:6

"Without deep consciousness of relational sin, My people then and now feel falsely complacent in My Presence, unaware, and therefore, untroubled by how far short their style of relating falls below Mine" 6:1.  That is a very telling statement.  Complacent in God's Presence, unaware and untroubled by how far short our relating falls before a Holy God.   How have I changed in the past year, months, weeks, days? Worship that leaves unchanged the ways I relate to my husband, my kids, my friends, (and for me, especially to those who have hurt me deeply) is f.a.l.s.e.

September 22 ... Amos 1 - 5 "The Lion Has Roared"

Over and over, God said in Amos 1:  I am not putting up with her sin anymore.  Amos 3:8 - "The Lion has roared—who isn't frightened?" God has spoken---what prophet can keep quiet? Amos 4:2 - "This is serious---I, God, have sworn by My Holiness."  You are cruel to the down-and-out; meant to the poor.  "Indolent and pampered, you demand of your husbands, 'Bring us a tall, cool drink!' "  Amos 4 says that you bring your tithes, and offerings, and sacrifices as a kind of religious show.  "You know, don't you, that I'm the One who emptied your pantries and cleaned out your cupboards, Who left you hungry and standing in bread lines? But you never got hungry for me.  You continued to ignore me."  Yes, and I'm the One who stopped the rains three months short of harvest.  But you never got thirsty for me.  You ignored me... I hit your crops with disease.  I revisited you with the old Egyptian plagues...but you didn't notice me.   I left you devastated.  But you never looked my way.   You continued to ignore me.  All this I have done to you.  Time's up!  Prepare to meet your God!  Amos 5:6 - So seek God and live! You don't want to end up with nothing to show for your life.  Hate evil and love good, then work it out in the public square.  Maybe God, the God-of-the-Angel-Armies, will notice your remnant and be gracious.  Weep loudly, 'Not me!  Not us.  Not now!  At God's coming we face hard reality, not fantasy— Amos 5: 21-24 "I can't stand your religious meetings.   I'm fed up with your conferences and conventions. I want nothing to do with your religion projects, your pretentious slogans and goals. I'm sick of your fund-raising schemes, your public relations and image making. I've had all I can take of your noisy ego-music.  When was the last time you sang to me? Do you know what I want?   I want justice—oceans of it. I want fairness—rivers of it. 

 The Lion has roared.  

Do you hear Him? 

Are you hungry for Him?  

Are you thirsty for Him? 

  

September 21 ... Joel 1 - 3 "He's Ready to Cancel Catastrophe"

Joel 1

Make sure you tell your children.  What---we want to know.  Don't let this Message die out.  Get in touch with reality---and weep!  Am I in touch with reality today?  Really?  "My country's being invaded by an army invincible, past numbering.  Worship has been brought to a standstill.  Declare a holy fast."  Well, should we round up everyone in the country?  Judgment Day has come.   The Strong God has arrived.  Wonder why our communities, our country is not "taken" with the daily arrival of the Holy One?

Joel 2 

God's Judgments are on its way.    Great and terrible!  It's not too late.  God's Personal Message to me, to you:  "Come back to me and really mean it!  Come fasting and weeping, sorry for your sins!  Change your life, not just your clothes."  Rend your heart not your garments!  Why?  Our God is Kind and Merciful.  He takes a deep breath and puts up with a lot from us.  Extravagant in Love, He's always ready to cancel catastrophe.  God, would You think about canceling the catastrophe I'm in?  (Joel 2:14).  You God, the God Who has set me back on my heels in wonder!  Could you cancel a thing or two?  Thank you for restoring the years the locust ate up!  Thank you, God, for pouring out your Spirit.  Waiting in Hope for your arrival today.

September 20 ... Hosea 8 - 14 "God's Love Can Never Be Destroyed By Rejection or Betrayal"

Hosea 14:1-3 - "You're down but you're not out."  66 LL talks about how these verses are the model for repentance, for crying from your heart as you lay in the ditch of your sin.  "Requiring relief from your pain is wailing on your bed.  I want you to repent, to cry from your heart, identifying how you've hurt Me and incited My anger, and to give up all hope of finding satisfaction for your soul from anyone or anything but Me."  What is the greatest good of my life?  I've so hung on to my reputation, my recognized ministry, my worth as an individual based on what others think...but, no, I must "let go" of demanding any good other than the good of knowing my God.  What is my greatest good this day?
Hosea 14: 7-8  "God is the One Who answers me and satisfies me.  Everything you need is to be found in Him."

Hosea 12:6 - What am I waiting for?  Wait and Expect God to show up.  You are waiting for God not for any man to do anything.  Don't ever give up on Him.  And Hosea 11:1, don't run off when others call to you.  Remember, He may be waylaid.

What lingers with me from the Book of Hosea is this quote from 66 LL:  "You will be irresistibly drawn to My Love and able to give it to others when you discover in your own experience that the Love I have planted in your heart can never be destroyed by rejection, betrayal, criticism, or any other form of unlove you receive.  True love reveals itself as the strongest of all passions when your impulse to hate those who hurt you is fully felt."  Have mercy, O God, on my impulses to hate---may we owe no man anything but to love them.  Would you help me to get to that better place? 

September 19 ... Hosea 1 - 6 "As Sure As Dawn Breaks, So Sure His Daily Arrival"

Hosea 1 - Fitting into God's plans for Hosea meant marrying a whore.  My life is full of confusion at this juncture.  If I was Hosea's mother, I would be really confused that God wanted this for my son---my thoughts, my ways are not God's thoughts and ways.  HE doesn't want "their horsepower and manpower."  It will be God Who saves!  God doesn't exist for Hosea, for me, for you.  We exist for Him.  "The furthering of God's Glory, not the fixing of our lives."


Hosea 2 - Gomer, the whore, didn't know that it was God all along Who wined and dined and adorned her.  "Here's what I'm going to do:  I'm going to start all over again. I'm taking her back out into the wilderness
 ...I'll turn Heartbreak Valley into Acres of Hope." Hosea 2:15 - When they finally hit rock bottom, maybe they'll come looking for me."
 

Hosea 6 -  "Come on, let's go back to God. He hurt us, but he'll heal us. ...We're ready to study God, eager for God-knowledge. As sure as dawn breaks, so sure is his daily arrival. He comes as rain comes, as spring rain refreshing the ground."  Hosea 6:7 - I'm after love that lasts, not more religion. I want you to know God, not go to more prayer meetings."  

September 18 ... Daniel 10 - 12 "Furthering God's Glory Not Fixing Our Lives"

Daniel 10:12 -  "'Relax, Daniel,' he continued, 'don't be afraid. From the moment you decided to humble yourself to receive understanding, your prayer was heard, and I set out to come to you. But I was waylaid..."  So the question to me this night is:  Have you humbled yourself to receive understanding?   Dwight Edwards says that according to the Bible, the main point of our spirituality is the further of God's glory not the fixing of our lives!  So the question isn't whether God is giving us understanding but the question really is am I humbling myself?  The question isn't whether HE is responding to me or on my side but whether I am genuinely on HIS side and responding to HIM and what HE wants done in me and through me. Edwards says "it isn't how God fits into what we're doing, but how we fit into what God is doing"...HE runs the universe and is sometimes waylaid, and we must fit in.

Daniel 10:18 - "Then this humanlike figure touched me again and gave me strength. He said, 'Don't be afraid, friend. Peace. Everything is going to be all right. Take courage. Be strong.' "Even as he spoke, courage surged up within me. I said, 'Go ahead, let my master speak. You've given me courage.' "  God, would you speak today through humanlike figures and strengthen us all.  Give us courage to face what You have allowed in your Severe Mercy.


Daniel 12:13 - "When it's all over, you  will be on your feet to receive your reward."  Oh my!  Oh my!  Oh my!  This last verse in Daniel stirs me so.

September 17 ... Daniel 7 - 9 "Sound-byte Theology"

Daniel 7

7:10  The courtroom was called to order, and the books were opened.   Our names.  Our Acts of Faith.  Our Decisions to Overcome Evil with Good.  Our Moves to Owe No Man Anything But Love.  What We Did With our Lives---and How Aware we were of our Sin.

Daniel 8

Compassion is our only hope, the compassion of you, the Master, our God.  We paid no attention to you when you told us how to live, the clear teaching that came through your servants the prophets.
"'Turn your ears our way, God, and listen. " 

Daniel 9
 
While I was pouring out my heart, baring my sins and the sins of my people, Gabriel stood before me and said:   'Daniel, I have come to make things plain to you. You had no sooner started your prayer when the answer was given. And now I'm here to deliver the answer to you. You are much loved!

I don't think an angel will appear to us this day with such an answer.  We must live in the Confusion and Mystery OR am I demanding that God come down to my level to help me understand what in the world is going on in my life?   "Daniel spent hours trying to make sense of God's words (8:15) and his efforts to understand left him exhausted (8:27).  Do I want sound-byte theology?  Wisdom without struggle?  Formulas without Mystery?"  66 LL. 

September 16 ... Daniel 4 - 6 "Three Times A Day He Knelt in Forbidden Prayer"

Daniel 4:  14 - A holy watchman called out to King Neb:  You will be brought down low.  Pride does go before a fall.  But, God says:  "Leave the stump and roots in the ground, belted with a strap of iron and bronze."  This verse has so captured my heart over the years.  God has brought me to nothing but also said:  ENOUGH.  HE has belted iron chains over my rooted stump.  HE will grow me back aGAIN.  God arranges kingdom affairs and makes leaders out of losers.  I may be a loser but not in His Sight.  "I was given my mind back and I blessed the High God, thanking and glorifying God, who lives forever (Daniel 4:34).
At that very moment, the fingers of a human hand appeared and began writing on the lamp-illumined, whitewashed wall of the palace (Daniel 5:5).  You have been weighed on the scales and you don't weigh much (Daniel 5:27). What is really going on inside of my heart?

 When Daniel learned that King Darius signed the decree forbidding anyone to pray to any god except the king, Daniel continued to pray to God just as he had always done. His house had windows in the upstairs that opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he knelt there in prayer, thanking and praising his God.  The King couldn't change his decree so he ordered Daniel into the lions den.  When the King heard that God sent His angel to close the mouths of the lions so they didn't hurt Daniel, the king was so happy.  There wasn't a scratch on Daniel who trusted his God. 

Septemeber 15 ... Daniel 1 - 3 "God Is Able But Even If He Doesn't"

Daniel 1

God had given four young men knowledge and skill in books and life (1:17). Daniel determined that he would not defile himself by eating the king's food or drinking his wine, so he asked the head of the palace staff to exempt him from the royal diet.  Daniel even appealed to a steward."  I like this young man of nobility who is not afraid to appeal to the secular world for the sacred.

Daniel 2

Again, Daniel appeals to the chief of the royal court who was planning Daniel and the whole company's execution.  Then, Daniel goes straight to the king to appeal.  How moving when Daniel returns home to ask his companions "to pray to the God of heaven for mercy in solving the mystery so that the four of them shouldn't be killed along with the whole company of Babylonian wise men (2:18)."  Either God comes through to answer their prayer or they die.  Talk about dependence for their next breath.  What difficult situation do you face this day that we may pray to the God of heaven for mercy?  Daniel interpreted the dream about a smashed statue.  Who is strong in your life like that statue?  Even iron-ceramic statues can crumble under competing Kingdoms.  Only One Kingdom will stand. 

Daniel 3

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego ignored the King's decree to kneel and worship Neb's gold statue.  "If you throw us into the fire, the God we serve can rescue us, o King.  BUT, even if He doesn't, we still wouldn't serve your God and worship this statue.  Our God is able to rescue us from your hand BUT even if He doesn't (3:18), we will not advance that kingdom.  Only One Kingdom built by God.  How will we serve and advance that kingdom today?  

"The LORD is There" in the cities and now in the fire.  "Look.  I see four men walking around in the fire (3:25).  Not a hair singed, not a scorch mark on their clothes, not even the smell of fire on them (3:27)."  What am I living out in my marriage, my ministry, my parenting, my life that can only be explained in terms of "The LORD is There?"  Praying God's mercy on you this day for a miraculous rescue for those of you in the fire.  Praying God's mercy for the statues to crumble in the competing kingdoms in all of our hearts. 

September 14 ... Ezekiel 46 - 48 "Name the City: 'God Is There' "

Ezekiel 48:35 - "The four sides of the city measure to a total of nearly six miles.  From now on the name of the city will be Yahweh-Shammah:  'God is There.' "   How beautiful is that!  God welcomed them and invaded their homes.  "It was---and is---My Plan A to bring the dry bones of My selfish people to life [Ezekiel 37], to  create a community over which I could write the words that close this book:  'The LORD is There.' " 

As we close the book of Ezekiel, take a moment and listen to what one thing God said to you as you watched and wondered about Ezekiel's life?  For me, it was God's Voice speaking to me about rejoicing in my suffering...

What is it that I want more than the pleasure of my God?  Do I want justice in the face of looking like a failure more than I want to worship Him?  "The power of our flesh is turned loose in the ways we relate." 66 LL. May the Hope of Joy in suffering now so grip my heart!  Will I celebrate?  Does my present difficult circumstances in relationships and loss and confusion cause me to worship my Beautiful God all the more?  If I'm not worshipping Him in my pain, I'm not rejoicing in suffering.  And if so, I'm not aware of my redemption.  May our hands not be over our eyes and ears but awestruck over our mouths at what HE has already done for me and for you!  Mold your world for your own Goals OR mark your day for His Glory!  HE is right here.

---

'

September 13 ... Ezekiel 43 - 45 "Liminal Place Where You Sense the Presence of God"

Ezekiel 43:4  - "The Spirit put me on my feet and led me to...the Bright Glory of God."  Do I think I have to pull myself together and stand up in hard times?  God will put me on my feet again. 

Ezekiel 43:9 HE will move in forever. 

Ezekiel 43:27 "I'll accept you with pleasure, with delight.  Decree of your God, your Master!"  Unbelievable that God accepts me with pleasure and delight.  So many memories this day of people who have not delighted in me.  But!  Overriding Presence of the One for Whom I know takes pleasure in me.  It's a liminal place where you sense the Presence of our God.  It's the place of what is seen and Who is  Unseen.  On my feet in midst of overwhelming pain sensing the Presence of God that no man can create!

Awestruck!  With my hand over my mouth!

September 12 ... Ezekiel 40 - 42 "Menial Measuring for The Glory of God"

Ezekiel 40: 1-3
"In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year on the tenth of the month—it was the fourteenth year after the city fell—God touched me and brought me here. He brought me in divine vision to the land of Israel and set me down on a high mountain. To the south there were buildings that looked like a city. He took me there... and I met a man deeply tanned, like bronze. He stood at the entrance holding a linen cord and a measuring stick.  Ezekiel's instructions:  Look and listen carefully to all God is going to show you.  That's why you've been brought here.  And then tell Israel everything you see."  So the deeply tanned man went to work measuring everything.

Ezekiel knew God's touch.  Where do I sense this day the touch of God?   A postcard came in the mail a few weeks ago about a new church plant launching out today.  OneChapel in ATX. God brought me there.   The pastor felt God's touch and moved from Colorado Springs to start this church this day.  I don't know if we will end up there.  But God was in the place!  As soon as I started sharing with friends that we were going to visit OneChapel this morning, it turns out that the lead pastor came from a church in the Springs where we know several awesome families.  And here in Austin, all last week people kept showing up from different walks saying they knew the church planters.  Psalm 81:10 They opened their mouths this morning and God Himself filled them. 

Lord, make us all like Ezekiel, so willing to follow your Voice, your Touch, your Face to do any work, even if its menial measuring.  It's not about numbers.  It's all about God's Glory!

September 11 ... Ezekiel 37 - 39 "Memories of Shame Over Betrayals Will Fade"

Ezekiel 37

Prophesy on these dried up bones and they will come alive.  Ezekiel 37:10 - They stood up on their feet, a huge army.  The bones were the house of Israel, dried up without hope.  All hope was gone.  Right now, we're all singing:  "Them bones, them bones gonna rise again..."
'God, the Master, says: I'll dig up your graves and bring you out alive---and you'll realize that I am God.  I'll save you out of your old sinful haunts. Whatever it is we have replicated from our past to make our lives work---God is saving us from ourselves.   I'll make a covenant of peace with you that will hold all things together.

Ezekiel 39
25 -29 "But now I will return you back.  I'll be compassionate with all of you, and I'll be zealous for my holy name. Eventually the memory will fade, the memory of your shame over your betrayals of Me, when you lived securely in your own land, safe and unafraid...I'll leave not one soul behind.  I'll look you full in the face."  My word.  My message.

When did we live securely, safe and unafraid?  Did we live in denial?  The memory of our shame over our betrayals (plural) of forgetting about God will  f.a.d.e.  That is a supernatural work of the Spirit of God.  The supernatural is stirring in you this day.  1 Cor 2:3-4 Your life is a demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit so that the faith of others may rest not on how wise you are and process all this stuff but on the power of God. 

September 10 ... Ezekiel 34 - 36 "I Myself Am Your Shepherd"

Does Ezekiel have any friends?  Does Ezekiel care?  Wonder what he thought about every time he received a prophesy of doom?  Did He welcome it?  I've thought a lot today about how I have spent way-too-much of my life looking for a God Who was on my side, watching my back, answering my cries for help.  The question isn't is God for me and on my side, the question is am I truly on His side.  The question is not is He listening to me but am I responding back to Him?  Dwight Edwards calls it:  "The furthering of God's glory not the fixing of our lives."

Ezekiel 34
1 -6 God's Message came to me: "Son of man, prophesy against the shepherd-leaders of Israel. Yes, prophesy! Tell those shepherds, 'God, the Master, says: Doom to you shepherds of Israel, feeding your own mouths! Aren't shepherds supposed to feed sheep? ... You don't build up the weak ones, don't heal the sick, don't doctor the injured, don't go after the strays, don't look for the lost. You bully and badger them. And now they're scattered every which way because there was no shepherd—scattered and easy pickings for wolves and coyotes. Scattered—my sheep!—exposed and vulnerable across mountains and hills. My sheep scattered all over the world, and no one out looking for them!"
   This passage so makes me want to find and shepherd those who are lost and hurting in my city this night.

So listen to what God says about this:
10 "'Watch out! I'm coming down on the shepherds and taking my sheep back. They're fired as shepherds of my sheep. No more shepherds who just feed themselves! I'll rescue my sheep from their greed."  That's something!

11 - "God, the Master, says: From now on, I Myself am the Shepherd. I'm going looking for them. As shepherds go after their flocks when they get scattered, I'm going after my sheep. I'll rescue them from all the places they've been scattered to in the storms....and bring them back to their home country."
Okay, in light of my life, this passage just reduced me to tears.  God is my Shepherd!

 Again, I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep. I myself will make sure they get plenty of rest. I'll go after the lost, I'll collect the strays, I'll doctor the injured, I'll build up the weak ones and oversee the strong ones so they're not exploited.

23 -24 "'I'll appoint one shepherd over them all: my servant David. He'll feed them. He'll be their shepherd. And I, God, will be their God. My servant David will be their prince. I, God, have spoken.

Ezekiel 35
And there's more people for Ezekiel to confront.  Did this overwhelm Ezekiel?  Go after Mount Seir because they've kept this age-old grudge going against Israel: You viciously attacked them when they were already down, looking their final punishment in the face.

...and here's what God will do:  UNBELIEVABLE...."I'll give you a new heart, put a new spirit in you. I'll remove the stone heart from your body and replace it with a heart that's God-willed, not self-willed. I'll put my Spirit in you and make it possible for you to do what I tell you and live by my commands.  Dwight Edwards in his book Revolution Within wrote:   "The key to the Christian life is not obedience to God's standards.  That statement may sound like out-and-out heresy to you, so let me hasten to say that obedience to God's standards is a hugely important part of Christian living."  Of course, you cannot read the Bible without coming to that conclusion.  However, "in true spirituality, obedience to God's standards is the by-product and inevitable result of something that's centrally more important."  Only God can make it possible for me to obey. 

September 9 ... Ezekiel 31 - 33 "It's How You Live"

Ezekiel 33 - "You, son of man, are the watchman. I've made you a watchman for Israel. The minute you hear a message from me, warn them. Tell your people, 'A good person's good life won't save him when he decides to rebel...
Ezekiel 33:20 "'Still, you keep on saying, "The Master's way isn't fair." We'll see, Israel. I'll decide on each of you exactly according to how you live.'"   And, they'll realize that I am God when I devastate the country because of all the obscenities they've practiced.

30 -32 "As for you, son of man, you've become quite the talk of the town. Your people meet on street corners and in front of their houses and say, 'Let's go hear the latest news from God.' They show up and sit in your company. They listen to you speak, but don't do a thing you say. They flatter you with compliments, but all they care about is making money and getting ahead. To them you're merely entertainment—a country singer of sad love songs, playing a guitar. They love to hear you talk, but nothing comes of it.

Ezekiel 33:33  When all this happens—things like God calling Pharaoh a pompous old goat and reducing him to an unhallowed grave, crashing the city to smithereens —they'll realize that a prophet was among them."

I'm so taken with Ezekiel's humble calling.  "To this one I look, he who is humble and contrite and trembles at His Word." Isaiah 66:2  Here's a man who does all three even in the midst of his own tragedy, losing the love of his life. 

Do I realize there is prophet among us?  Another day dawns and a little more fresh hope. Who is like Ezekiel speaking God's Words to us today?   Do I realize that HE is God this moment, this week, this life?

September 8 ... Ezekiel 28 - 30 "Fresh Hope from The Dawn of Deliverance"

Ezekiel 28 - God's Message came to Ezekiel to say:  "Your heart is proud  ...  and even your money has gone to your head.  Another of God's Message came to Ezekiel to give to the King of Tyre:  "You had everything going for you.  I threw you, disgraced, off the mountain of God."  And yet another message came to Ezekiel for Sido and Ethiopia and Egypt:  "I'm against you."  Ezekiel 29:21 says:  "And then I'll stir up fresh hope in Israel—the dawn of deliverance!— and I'll give you, Ezekiel, bold and confident words to speak. And they'll realize that I am God."  Time's up!

God is right on time.  Always.  Never a day late.  Time's up!  I'm wondering why I didn't change in days gone by?  Why do these people refuse to follow their God?  The Dawn of Deliverance is stirring up fresh hope for our sin.  I need fresh hope tonight.  Rise up, o God, with the dawn.  A sure thing!  Lam 3:21-23 says when I'm downcast, I call THIS to mind: I have hope in my afflictions.  Because of God's Great Love, I'm not consumed for His Compassions this day will not fail.  Great is His Faithfulness, not man's.  I will wait for Him, not for any man.  As sure as that sun will rise this morning, His Mercies are brand new for us this day to cover our sin.  Waiting in hope with you this morn on The Dawn of Deliverance!  Will you wait and watch with me for fresh Hope?

September 7 ... Ezekiel 25 - 27 "More Mayhem and Massacre"

Ezekiel 25:1 - God's Message came to Ezekiel at the exact moment...preach against Ammon and his people.  Ezekiel 26  - Prophesy against Tyre and God will introduce them to the terrors of death. 
Ezekiel 26:15 - "Oh Tyre, won't the ocean islands shake at the crash of your collapse, at the groans of your wouned, at your mayhem and massacre?

What is friendship?  Did Ezekiel have true friends?  He just lost the love of his life.  And his God is asking him to keep on confronting those who are living in sin.  Ezekiel was not a popular guy.  I wonder how he dealt with his aloneness.  Wonder what he was convinced about to be a voice crying in the wilderness. 

September 6 .. Ezekiel 23 - 24 "Titanic with Terror"

Ezekiel 23: 27 - You won't think back on Egypt with stars in your eyes. ... Two sisters who drank from a cup of idols canyon-deep and ocean-wide. ... Because you've forgotten all about me, pushing me into the background, you now must pay for what you've done."  God said to Ezekiel:  "Son of man, will you confront Oholah and Oholibah with what they've done? Make them face their outrageous obscenities, obscenities ranging from adultery to murder."

Ezekiel 24  The Message came to me: "Son of man, I'm about to take from you the delight of your life—a real blow, I know. But, please, no tears. Keep your grief to yourself. No public mourning."   So Ezekiel told the people, "God's Word came to me, saying, 'Tell the family of Israel, This is what God, the Master, says: I will desecrate my Sanctuary, your proud impregnable fort, the delight of your life, your heart's desire. The children you left behind will be killed.'   Unbelievable.  Perform none of the usual funeral rituals. You'll get dressed as usual and go about your work. No tears. Ezekiel will be your example.  Yes, Ezekiel, you'll be an example for them. And they'll recognize that I am God."

What a price the Son of Man paid to be an example.  He lost his wife in the midst of his ministry.  Ezekiel wanted God's Will, God's Plan A more than his own.  What do I want more than the Love of my God?  What person am I holding on to?  Is it for God's Glory?  "Through Ezekiel's strange behavior in the middle of grief, I was teaching My people that only in hopelessness will the mouths of the arrogant be closed.  And only then will the glory, the sheer Beauty, of My Plan become visible."

What a tragic different road for two sisters than the narrow path Ezekiel chose.
"For without You, what am I to myself but the leader of my own destruction."  St. Augustine

September 5 ... Ezekiel 21 - 22 "They Forgot About God"

Ezekiel 21

 Son of Man, say 'God's Message: I'm against you. I'm pulling my sword from its sheath and killing both the WICKED and the RIGHTEOUS. Because I'm treating everyone the same, good and bad, everyone from south to north is going to feel my sword! Everyone will know that I mean business.'  Groan!  Double up in pain!  Make a scene!  Because they forgot about God!  God looked for someone to stand up for Him and stand in the gap---couldn't find anyone!  Sword!  Sword!

How popular is Ezekiel's message?  What does the righteous think?  Help me to understand God in this.  "Seventy times in this letter I explain that I do all that I do for one purpose:  that My people will know that I AM the LORD.  To know Me in My Holiness is to know yourself in your sinfulness."  66 LL.  Do I know myself?

September 4 ... Ezekiel 18 - 20 "A Severe Mercy"

Ezekiel 18 ~*~
If you live upright and well, you get the credit; if you live a wicked life, you're guilty as charged.  But a wicked person who turns his back on that life of sin and keeps all my statutes, living a just and righteous life, he'll live, really live. He won't die. I won't keep a list of all the things he did wrong. He will live. Isn't it my pleasure that they turn around, no longer living wrong but living right—really living? ... The upshot is this, Israel: I'll judge each of you according to the way you live. So turn around! Turn your backs on your rebellious living so that sin won't drag you down. Clean house.  Get a new heart! Get a new spirit! ...  "Make a clean break! Live!  How encouraging to know there is "no list" of all I've done wrong, even though I think there's a tally.

Ezekiel 20 ~*~
In the seventh year, the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month, some of the leaders of Israel came to ask for guidance from God. The Master said:  Have you come to ask me questions? As sure as I am the living God, I'll not put up with questions from you.  God did say:  Get rid of all the vile things that you've become addicted to.  Don't make yourselves filthy with the Egyptian no-god idols.  I alone am God, your God.  But they held on to the no-gods of Egypt as if for dear life and said: We're going to worship gods we can make and control."

No Lists!  "See My Glory, this time, not in Holy Wrath but in Merciful Love, in My Plans to free you to dance with Me.  But My Mercy is severe.  My Love stops at nothing to bring in My Kingdom, to renew My people, and  to draw My servants into radical dependence on Me as their First Thing."  66 LL

September 3 ... Ezekiel 16 - 17 "Your Beauty Went to Your Head"

We live in such a celebrity society.  If you know any of those people or rub shoulders with them, your stock goes up.  How sad.  I sat at a prestigious gathering of the country's best athletes and the announcer said:  "Look around.  Anybody who is anybody in our country is in this room tonight."  Oh my.  There are no "big people" and "little people" in this world. 

Ezekiel 16: 15 -16 "Your beauty went to your head and you became a common whore ... and then you took your sons and your daughters, whom you had given birth to as my children, and you killed them, sacrificing them to idols.  Not once during these years of outrageous obscenities and whorings did you remember your infancy.  ... You were different from regular whores in that you wouldn't accept a fee...you perverted whoredom."   They didn't remember what God had done for them. 

Ezekiel 16: 44 - 45  "Like mother, like daughter. You're the daughter of your mother, who couldn't stand her husband and children. And you're a true sister of your sisters, who couldn't stand their husbands and children. ...  What a reputation to carry into history: outsinning your two sisters!"

Ezekiel 16: 59 - 63  "God, the Master, says, I'll do to you just as you have already done, you who have treated my oath with contempt and broken the covenant. All the same, I'll remember the covenant I made with you when you were young and I'll make a new covenant with you that will last forever."

No matter how grave the sin.  No matter how horrific are the consequences.  If we are willing and we surrender, God will make us new again.  A New Covenant.  Covered.  Not what we deserve.  Lasts forever.  Unbelievable! 

"To know Me in my holiness is to know yourself in your sinfulness." 66 LL.
No big people.  No little people.
  Do I really know myself?

September 2 ... Ezekiel 13 - 15 "Using People to Make Yourself Popular or Rich"

How many times has God said:  You are going to realize that I am God.  What makes me realize that on this day?

Ezekiel 13  "Son of man, Ezekiel, preach against the prophets of Israel who are making things up out of their own heads and calling it 'prophesying.' ...  When people build a wall, they're right behind them slapping on whitewash. ...  I'll make that wall you've slapped with whitewash collapse....  You'll realize then that I am God.  Even concrete walls crack and crumble. They announced all their visions telling us things were just fine when they weren't at all fine. ...'Doom' to the women who sew magic bracelets and head scarves to suit every taste, devices to trap souls. Say, 'Will you use living souls to make yourselves rich and popular? Wonder if God looks at some authors today as using people while they become rich.  You have profaned me among my people just to get ahead yourselves, used me to make yourselves look good—    In verse 20, God says: 'I am against all the devices and techniques you use to hunt down souls.'

Ezekiel 14 - You have installed idols in your hearts. ...to all who install the wickedness that will ruin them at the center of their lives and then have the gall to go to the prophet to ask me questions—I, God, will step in and give the answer myself. I'll oppose those people to their faces, make an example of them—a warning lesson—and get rid of them so you will realize that I am God.

 "God sees both the 

DEEP LONGINGS in my heart that the good things in this life can never satisfy and the DETERMINED ARROGANCE that thinks those good things should satisfy, and that thinks I'm entitled to the satisfaction.   

Do I feel that kind of desire to seek God above ever other good thing?  Or do I believe that I should have the good things of life and make it my priority to get them? 

September 1 .... Ezekiel 9 - 12 "Mourning Distance from God MORE"

Ezekiel 9:1"Executioners, come!"  

Ezekiel 10:1 - The Temple was filled with the Presence of God. 

 Ezekiel 11:1 - Then the Spirit picked me up and took me to the north gate...Oppose them, son of man. Preach against them.

Ezekiel 12:1 - God's Message came to me: "Son of man, you're living with a bunch of rebellious people. They have eyes but don't see a thing, they have ears but don't hear a thing.

God's Message: 'You'll eat your meals shaking in your boots and drink your water in terror because your land is going to be stripped bare as punishment for the brutality rampant in it. ... Then you'll realize that I am God.'"
  
Time's about up.  ""Your hand has been over your eyes.  It belongs over your mouth." 66 LL.  I stand silenced before a holy God for 4 reasons seen in the Vision that I read about in 66 LL:

1. The idol of Jealousy - desire to feel loved, to enjoy good relationships, to be affirmed, to see yourself as worthy of respect and entitled to a pleasant life.  These desires become your idol of jealousy when they rule your life.

2.  The idol of Appreciation - when you, in the secret place of your heart, want something more than My Pleasure, the power of your flesh is turned loose.

3.  The idol of Self-interest -  when self obsession sinks its way into my conversations.  When you value anything above Me, when self interest rules your life, you feel only your desires for what is available in this world:  good health, warm relationships, fulfilling work and you assume it is my job to satisfy those desires.  

4.  The idol of false hope.  exchanging true hope for false hope when you turn from Me to enjoy the smug satisfaction of superiority.

Do I mourn at the failure of my spouse to love me well or the failure of my ministry to affirm my gifts and calling or the failure of my friends to appreciate me----do I mourn that MORE than I mourn distance from God?