​​...BY MY SPIRIT...

​“So he answered and said to me: ‘This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the Lord of hosts.’” Zechariah 4:6 NKJ

This newsletter is a very personal one for me. Recently I have been diagnosed with cancer. It doesn’t matter where it is in my body or if I am a man or a woman a Jew or a Gentile. This is where I am in my life and it is the path that God has called me to walk. Many people may think that God does not allow hard things to happen to His children, but I tell you from personal experience, that is a lie of satan. That is a rosy, soft, fuzzy gospel that has absolutely nothing to do with the God of all the Universe. I am not certain why the Lord wanted me to write this month’s newsletter on such a personal note, but I can tell you that He does have a reason and a purpose and my part is to be open to Him and to write what I believe He is giving me. My prayer is that you the reader will open your heart to God and allow Him to touch what ever place there is in you that He desires to touch.

I have already had my surgery and have started my chemotherapy. It is going well and some of the side affects are different from anything I have ever experienced before. Before I go on I want to explain something. This is not the first time that I have dealt with this. Many years ago, I had my first run in with cancer and I have been free of it for quite a while. The doctors do not consider this a recurrence but a new cancer and from their point of view that is good. From my point of view it really doesn’t matter. It is what it is and I must face that. When I first found out that there might be a problem and I needed to go in and have some test, I moved immediately into denial. I will not pull any punches with you. I was upset and for about an hour. I even refused to go in for the test. This just could not be happening to me again. There was no way. I had been there and done that and I was cured and that was the end of it. But, in reality, it wasn’t the end of it. It was the beginning of a journey that I did not want to make at the moment. A journey, quite honestly, I could not believe that God was asking me to walk. I had really believed that I would never have to go through cancer again once I had been cured. That was an assumption on my part that was not based on reality. But through the tears and hurt, I could feel His big strong arms around me, steadying me out and whispering quietly to my heart that it was true and that HE was right here with me; and no matter what I had to walk out He was guiding and leading and walking with me and that He did indeed have a purpose in this.

Many of you reading this may not realize that you can have that kind of a relationship with God, but you can! I know, because I do. He gave me the relationship when He gave me His new life through His son Yeshua many, many years ago. I have walked with the Lord through some hard places and some of the most wonderful places, also, and the one thing that I can testify to anyone is His faithfulness. It is perfect. It is always there and learning to rest in His arms of love has been one of the most treasured parts of my salvation and walk with God.

There Are No Small Things

“‘For who has despised the day of small things? For these seven rejoice to see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. They are the eyes of the Lord, Which scan to and fro throughout the whole earth.’” Zechariah 4:10

There are no small things in God’s eyes. He cares about everyone, and everything that is happening to you and to me. Yes, He does allow hard things to happen some times and He also brings the good and wonderful things into our lives. HE is the One True Sovereign Being in all the Universe and He has made everything and called it good. In His hands and through His power and wisdom, everything is good. It is when we, in our own flesh, mess with what God is doing that we cause trouble. Many times things happen in our lives because we have made some very bad choices and we must walk them out. God never forces us to do it His way. He always gives us the opportunity to do it with Him and through His power but He will not force us. God does not have strings on His people like puppets. That is what satan does. Satan is the one with the strings trying to pull us or push us into this or that. No, God does not have to do that and He will not do that. We must come to Him and want Him and reach out to Him even in what we think is something small. What is small? The Bible says that the mustard seed is the smallest seed and that the mustard seed can grow into a tree big enough that the birds can come and make their home in it. Mark 4:30-32 NKJ

This news letter may not be easy for you to read. You may be going through something very hard right now or perhaps this brings back an old memory that you would just as soon leave forgotten. What ever it is, it is not small to God. Where ever He is trying to touch you or me is no small place. It is what He is about at this hour and when you think about the God of all the Universe being about something in your life or mine...that is a big thing!!! God says that He rejoices in the day of what seems small and He wants us to rejoice also. God rejoiced when He saw the plumb line in Zerubbabel’s hand for God knew what was going to happen. God is the only One who can take whatever is going on in your life and mine and make it right... even if in our eyes it looks wrong. We are not all wise or all knowing or all seeing or all present everywhere in the universe at once. God is. The word of God, in Gen. 1:1 tells us that He is the creator God. Rev. 1:11 states He is the beginning of everything and the end of everything. HE is all that there is!!! He is all we need to know and all we need to have. If everything is in God, and you and I are in Him, then that is all we need to know. God is really all we need. Our minds and emotions and desires tell us that we need a lot more than that. What we need is what He gives us for what ever reason He has.

Other Lives/Other Hardships

If you take the time to read God’s word, you will find many people who lived and walked with God and who went through a lot of different experiences with Him. Some of these experiences they brought on themselves out of disobedience or lack of trust or fear or many other things. In other situations, God was doing the designing and teaching them to follow orders and directions to bring about His perfect will in their lives and in the lives of others. We can start with Adam and Eve and move on to Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and on and on. The most important one is Yeshua. The Son of God lived a full life even though there are many of His growing up years about which we have no specifics. The word of God tells us at the age of 12 Yeshua was in the Temple in Jerusalem instructing the scribes. After this He went home with His family and learned obedience. (Luke 2:41-49) His walk with God was a constant, and became a public ministry at the age of about 30. In the next 3 years He went through some wonderful moments -- and some of the most horrible any human being could endure. His heavenly Father was with Him all the way to the cross. Yeshua was made sin for all of mankind. (2 Cor.5:21) The Father turned away from Him because God cannot look upon sin. That was probably the darkest moment in Yeshua’s life for His Father had always been there with Him and for Him until that moment. But did Yeshua loose heart? NO! Mark 15:33 tells us that He did cry out: "My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” Jesus could not be prepared for that. Even though He knew that His Father could not look upon sin, He would not have been prepared for the total abandonment He felt when the Father turned His face away from Him. At that moment, Yeshua was made sin for every man, woman and child upon this earth. In this great moment of pain, Yeshua surrendered His life and spirit to His Father’s hands. O that we can learn to rest in those Loving Hands and Arms and understand that we will never be forsaken, for Yeshua has paid that price for us. No matter how hard or wonderful things are, the fact of God’s Love and Care never changes.

Come To Me My People Come

The Chosen of Israel, the blood of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, need to come to their Father. He longs for His People; His Covenant People. He longs to heal the land He has given them, to bring them in to His Arms and Protection, to commune with them. Zechariah gives a clear picture of past, present and future times for God’s People with Him. Zechariah 8:10 shows some of the daily life in Jerusalem right now. There have been some very bad shooting attacks in and around Jerusalem this week. Men and women have been hurt: shot at by snipers in and around many of the roads. God says also in this verse that He will set everyone against his neighbor. I cannot explain that to you. I know, as I have said, God has purposes in circumstances we cannot understand. Doesn’t God want peace? Yes! But God wants real Peace–His Peace. Peace that starts in Himself and flows out to His People and all mankind. Israel, the U. S., the U. N., every land and people must stop looking to each other, governments, programs, etc. to solve anything. Only God is the Solution and only returning to Him fully – individually and as a nation of priests – can Israel truly be free. You and my and all of man’s life is in the God of Israel.

There is a song that I have and the first few lines are: "Come to Me My People Come, there’s no need to be afraid of your Father...". What a wonderful thing it is that all the people of God never need to be afraid of our Father in heaven. No matter what is going on in our lives, He is there and wants what is best for us always... in all ways! If you are afraid to come to Him, then tell Him so, for He already knows it. He just wants you to be honest with yourself and Him and say so. If it is sin, bring it to God and let Him show you His perfect blood-cleansing flow, from the Heart of our loving God. Is it fear or rejection or hopelessness? Whatever it is, He is greater than anything any of us need. He is the only answer you will ever need.

And me? I’m walking with my Lord on a journey that can only take me deeper into Himself. Amen

From My View

Being one who loves and lives with a cancer patient is hard and a blessing all at the same time. I am blessed by my Father in Heaven to be able to walk this course with my friend. It is a hard walk. It is a painful walk. It is a heart wrenching walk. But nothing changes the fact that it is a course where God is doing the leading and we are doing the following. No matter the hardness, pain, heart-wrenching... He is there: Ever faithful to His children.

I start to tell my friend that I am so sorry that this is happening but I cannot say that. It is the road God has chosen. He has His reasons and the only number one thing we have to do is to TRUST OUR LORD. It’s easy and hard all at the same time.

Satan throws his nasty thoughts in but they are rejected fully and told to flee. Our God is Greater than our enemy.

We must remember that satan is already defeated. If the children of God can remember that one FACT, then anything God gives us can be accepted as a blessing from His Hand.

SUFFERING 1

There are so many views of suffering that it is hard to find two or more people who are in agreement. Life gently rolls along, until some crisis in our life causes us to face the reality of life, rather than the no hassle existence in which we intended to live. Much of our temperament needs an overhaul. But how would we prefer to visualize the thing called suffering?

Suffering denotes unpleasantness, pain, enduring affliction. We don't like to look at the subject of suffering because it is something which is not pleasing to our soul, our flesh or our spirit. Our soul--mind, will and emotions--would prefer to dwell on nicer things. When given the choice, I think most people would like everything to be nice and sterile. But we do not live in an uncontaminated world. It isn't wrong to dislike suffering--I sure don't! The important thing is that we allow God to use the times of suffering in our lives as vehicles to grow us up. Life is so full of pain and suffering that there isn't enough time, paper or computers to list each thing! It is hard to explain to a child when something sad occurs. The child is somewhat insulated from the grown-up world for a time. But even that is not true for each one. You know, Jesus didn't ask His Father to remove all the suffering from His disciples. He requested that they be held in the Father's heart and strengthened as they proceeded through life. The thing that actually makes it easier for believers in Christ is that we know the ending! Still, that does not insulate us from suffering but merely makes our pathway one of hope instead of desperation. One of victory instead of defeat. We are not like mice going through the maze but, rather, we have God's Holy Spirit to guide and direct us--spirit, soul and body--in and through each and every situation. Remember the saying from a few years back "Stop the world, I want to get off"? It's not always easy being a person! Suffering comes in many suits and sizes: with plenty to go around. There is never a shortage. No one is immune from some form of suffering. But somehow we need to learn how to deal with ourselves when we are in the midst of suffering. How do we manage ourselves in such a way that others will see the light and life of Jesus at work?

Is there a way to accomplish this? Maybe we can all learn together as we search for the answers through God's Holy Spirit. We need to adjust the way we perceive "suffering". Suffering is not pleasant but it can be turned into a product that produces some worthwhile “side benefits”!

1 Used by permission.