Sabbath Bread {A Long Drink of Salvation}

“If you’ll hold on to me for dear life,” says God,

    “I’ll get you out of any trouble.

I’ll give you the best of care

    if you’ll only get to know and trust me.

Call me and I’ll answer, be at your side in bad times;

    I’ll rescue you, then throw you a party.

I’ll give you a long life,

    give you a long drink of salvation!”

-Psalm 91:14-16 (Msg)

Oh, Jesus - I know my part. 
Hold onto You with desperate abandon,
get to know and trust you while I'm here on this planet, 
and call out to You when I get into trouble. 
If I'll do those things, 
You'll get me out of every mess, 
bring me into Your promise, 
and satisfy my thirst for more than this flesh can contain. 
I am truly undeserving of a Love this abundant, 
yet I open my hands to as much of it as I can hold. 

Thank you Lord. 

Live or die?

“Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live! You can make this choice by loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and committing yourself firmly to him. This is the key to your life." 

-Deuteronomy 30:19-20a (NLT) 

The pastor's in the pulpit and his hands wave and dance with his words. He tells us to die, and says he's giving up himself for lent; invites me to do the same. 

Die to this flesh and its endless desires, lusts, prides. Increasing Jesus and decreasing me. 

"This world tells you that you need to 'find yourself.' Well, I did find myself and you know what I found? Yuck!"  Even as he says it, I can't believe it of him, but I know it's true of me. Yes, I've been on a search for me - the real me - and when I found her it was far from what I'd hoped. That woman, that me, she's nothing without her Rescuer. 

This life isn't about soul-searching as much as it's about God-searching. Seek Christ and you seek life. Find Him and you find it all. Forget to knock on His door, and emptiness will be the least of your worries. 

To lay down self and take up crosses - everything worth doing is difficult. 

A teacher at my workplace says it and I know it's true of following Christ too - "If this was easy, everyone would do it, right?"

The pastor goes on about carrying a cross and I'm breathless again with this one - "We're called to carry crosses, not guillotines." We can't crucify our flesh with one quick motion, like a guillotine. Crucifixion was a slow, public, humiliating, painful, lengthy death, that often took days to complete. And this Daily Cross is a process - a painful, long parting with flesh that has no destination short of heaven. Only then will we be glorified in perfection-life. Oh glorious hope!

Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow Me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it. 

-Mark 8:34-35 (NLT)

Sometimes choosing life means deciding to die.

It's hard eucharisteo to be thankful for the privilege of suffering, of dying with Him, but I'm okay with trying hard things. I can be thankful, even for this, because I know obedience is worth it. He is worth it. I know I've failed before, and I'll probably hold on to too much of myself again - but it's in the not giving up where I think He's pleased with His kids. So will you pray this with me too, Dear One?

Lord, please show me the parts of my life that need to be crucified today for Your glory and my good. Give me the strength and endurance required today to lay down my selfish desires and take up my cross for Your Kingdom. Please heal my heart even as I die a little every day, and revive me in Your presence with joy. Show me what You desire of me, and how to obey You more. Make my life a living sacrifice of love to You. You are worth it - worth the pain and every ounce of suffering. I need no other motivation than Your love. 

Quotes from Pastor Lance Lecocq with permission

Sabbath Bread {When the Trumpet Sounds in the Sky}

"Let us rejoice and be happy

    and give God glory,

because the wedding of the Lamb has come,

    and the Lamb’s bride has made herself ready.

Fine linen, bright and clean, was given to her to wear.”

(The fine linen means the good things done by God’s holy people.)

And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who have been invited to the wedding meal of the Lamb!” And the angel said, “These are the true words of God.”

And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It was prepared like a bride dressed for her husband.

-Revelation 19:7-9, 21:2 (NCV)

"His righteousness, His blood, and everything He inherited from the Father He gives as the dowry to us who are known as His bride. So rejoice, dear believer, in your union with Him who 'was numbered with the transgressors,' and prove you are truly saved by living a life that makes it abundantly clear that you are 'numbered with' those who are a 'new creation' (2 Cor. 5:17) in Him." - Charles Spurgeon (Morning by Morning)

Lord, this is our Glorious Hope. Help us live our lives worthy of having been saved. You are worthy.

Sabbath Bread {daily expect this}

"Since everything here today might well be gone tomorrow, do you see how essential it is to live a holy life? Daily expect the Day of God, eager for its arrival. The galaxies will burn up and the elements melt down that day—but we’ll hardly notice. We’ll be looking the other way, ready for the promised new heavens and the promised new earth, all landscaped with righteousness." 

- 2 Peter 3:11-13 (The Message)

Lord, thank You for this hope. You might come today, Jesus - and I want You to make me ready in every way to see You. Refine me, Father. Fill my soul afresh with this glorious hope and perspective. This could be the day you open the heavens and lift us out of this wreckage into the hope of the aftermath. All I am hinges on this hope - today could be the day I see Your face. 

Sabbath Bread {Where He lives}

For this is what the high and exalted One says—
    He who lives forever, whose name is holy:
“I live in a high and holy place,
    but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly
    and to revive the heart of the contrite.
 I will not accuse them forever,
    nor will I always be angry,
for then they would faint away because of Me—
    the very people I have created.

I was enraged by their sinful greed;
    I punished them, and hid My face in anger,
    yet they kept on in their willful ways.
 I have seen their ways, but I will heal them;
    I will guide them and restore comfort to Israel’s mourners,

    creating praise on their lips.
Peace, peace, to those far and near,”
    says the Lord. “And I will heal them.”

-Isaiah 57:16-19 (NIV)

[emphasis added]

Thank You, Father, for your patient grace. I praise You because You live not only in the heavens, but also with each person who is broken, humble, contrite, and mourning over his or her sin. Though I have fallen into sinful ruins many times in my life, You are always there the meet my heart when I humble it before you, turning Your wrath to comfort and my ruins to glory. You amaze me, Father. Your mercy is amazing.

photo credit: Rebekah Ceol

When I Want To Stop Fighting

I'm gonna to be honest. Tuesdays aren't easy for me.  I committed to God that I would research, pray, educate myself, and promote awareness about Human Trafficking every Tuesday but ... it's painful.  

Some weeks I contemplate not doing any of it.  It's so hard to force myself to look at this horror.  It hurts to fill my mind with thoughts of children as young as four years old being raped in exchange for money (and often not even for exchange, but just as abuse).  And if you've been with me for the past few months on Tuesdays, I know you're probably feeling the same way.  Just to let you know, I have a passion to fight for abolition on the other days of the week too.  My research has been nearly non-stop.  And when I'm not researching, I'm often praying.  

The truth is, as much as I want to take a break, God keeps calling me back to this.  Because how could I take a break when she can't?

photo credit: joy.org

What keeps me fighting most days is a vision. A vision of something different.

A vision of children and women valued as treasured human beings, not sex objects.

A vision of healing for those who thought it once impossible.

A vision of an army of abolitionists, rising up to defend the defenseless, vulnerable, weak.

A vision of brothers who refuse to let their sisters be raped by strangers, who stand against their own parents who sell daughters to brothels and pimps.

A vision of reformed sex-buyers and traffickers who have come to their senses because they looked into the eyes of a girl and saw Jesus there.

A vision of prayers like continual cries, rising to the Father's ears and bringing Him glory when He delivers these souls into His Kingdom.

A vision of rescue for girls too young to know this evil.

A vision of people who will stand up and say, "This is not funny."

A vision of a generation of girls who know they are worthy of being loved as a princess, because they have known the joy of being loved by the King.

A vision of many, many men and women who will just listen.  Long and hard and with nothing but compassion.

A vision of intellectuals, professionals, politicians, and prosecutors who will speak up and do something.

A vision of fathers who open their eyes to an option other than poverty or selling their daughters - the option to be the provider of their families, as God calls and leads.

Do you see it too?

"There’s hope for your future,
    declares the Lord.
        Your children will return home!"
                 -Jeremiah 31:17 (CEB)

Lord, You see this vision too, don't You?  I believe You can do this. Change our world. Free slaves.  I have to believe in Your power to overcome, to redeem, restore, and revive.  Without that faith, I won't be able to keep fighting this unspeakable, evil, terror-stricken, torture-driven horror.  But with this faith in Your capable hands to change a human heart - I can keep going.  Please return our children, humanity's children who belong to all of us, home.  That is the only hope for our future. And if You are declaring it, then I choose to believe it again today.

edited re-post from earlier this year

Sabbath Bread

"Great and amazing are Your works,

        Lord God, the All Powerful.

    Right and true are Your ways,

        King of all nations.

4 

   

 Who will not fear You, Lord?

       

 Who will not glorify Your name?

    Because You alone are holy,

        all the nations will come

        and worship before You,

    For Your righteous judgments have been revealed."

-Revelation 15:4 (VOICE) 

just a bit of stillness

Praying quietly here in the nest for victims of the tornadoes' wakes, as well as for victims of trafficking and injustice all around this twisting globe. I hope you'll be praying with me too.

Longing for Home in the stillness of His Hand,

R

there is a thief who comes to steal ...

... he comes into thoughts and feelings with evil motives to rob you of your joy, peace, love, strength, clarity, light, and courage.  Replacing his strongholds of fear, doubt, condemnation, and indifference in place of what he's taken.  

And this happens so subtly you barely realize until it's already done within the recesses of your mind.  In the depths of your heart.  Of mine.

Been there?  Yes. We all have.  We are none of us immune to this thief.  We live in a place where he has been permitted temporary reign.

But we are not citizens here.  We are made for somewhere Higher.  Created for something more than endless days of this robbery. If you listen carefully, your heart will whisper back to you ... I long for more than I've known.  There must be Someone who can restore all that's been stolen.  Someone who can protect me from this daily con artist.

And your heart is right.  Jesus came to brace you, and embrace you.  There is indeed a Redeemer who can guard you.  Take control of this thief and make him give it back.  

photo credit: Hays Cummins

"Restore to me the joy of your salvation
    and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me." - Psalm 51:12

Restore - give back, make right, put back

Joy of Salvation - is there a greater joy than this hope for eternity with Him, when the enemy of my soul is removed and destroyed?  Is it any wonder this is our helmet, the guard of our mind and thoughts? (Ephesians 6:17)

A Willing Spirit - 

PRAYER TO THE HOLY SPIRIT

Breathe in me,
O Holy Spirit,
that my thoughts may all be holy.
Act in me,
O Holy Spirit,
that my work, too may be holy.
Draw my heart,
O Holy Spirit,
that I love only what is holy.
Strengthen me,
O Holy Spirit,
to defend all that is holy.
Guard me, then,
O Holy Spirit,
that I may always be holy.

 -Augustine of Hippo (Algeria/354-430)

To sustain me - until He comes again. He is coming again.  I promise.  Even better - He promised.  (John 14:28)  And not like a thief to steal my joy, but like a Rescuer-Thief, come to steal me back from my captor. "the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night" (1 Thessalonians 5:2)

When I feel the snake slithering back into my brain with thoughts and whispers of condemnation, fear, and confusion, do you want to know one simple thing I've learned to do?

Helmet check.

I am forever saved by His blood, which was a free gift of grace and He is coming back for me someday. Thank You, Jesus.

And once again, gratitude has sealed me.  Saved me from being robbed.

It's Thursday, and I'm thankful again today.  Most of all for my Salvation.  Oh, God I'm saved!  And not only that - safe!

And, as if I needed anything more, He keeps giving ...

"He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?" -Romans 8:32

Here are a few of my all ...

- the privilege of soothing J's belly pain when cramps from that bug kept him groaning through the night ... and Your healing

- chicken curry, jasmine rice, and naan bread

- close snuggles with my Guy on the couch - a perfect Sabbath thing to do

- sunshine streaming in onto the couch and floor, and a few moments to bask in it

- forgiveness when I have good intentions, but a less-than-great delivery of them

- Your healing also for little A

- fifth-graders singing Battle Hymn of the Republic in music class - Your praises rising here, even in public school!

- Psalm 14:2 - and that You are looking for me as I search for You too.  We find each other in Your presence, wherever I am!

- grocery shipping with my Guy, and for his help

- K's independence to wake up early and finish her essay

- the gift of surrendering my burdens to You and Your strength when I don't have it

- funny videos of little L on fb

- millions of snowflakes all around the windows of C's sunroom, and shared coping through the winter - gratitude

- J walking with a book in the hall

- this quote in my devotion:

"We struggle to reach the bottom of our own well, trying to get water for ourselves.  Beware of sitting back, and saying, "It can't be done."  You will know it can be done if you will look to Jesus. The well of your incompleteness runs deep, but make the effort to look away from yourself and to look toward Him." -Oswald Chambers

-  this song -  there is really nothing like your love





Lord, You've given me all these things and I'm thankful.  This gratitude the seal on my Salvation, and my helmet.  You guard me and I would be nothing without Your love.

when giving gets hard ... [re-post]

This week has been ... real.  I've been spending more time with faces than with screens, and  ... I'm okay with that.  I'm still reading (so I can give you more book reviews on Mondays), still fighting (more to tell you about Anna, and the fight for freedom on Tuesdays), still learning to live radically Simple (part of the good pruning this week has been felt here in the nest, yes?), still thankful on Thursdays (and every day), and still writing - preparing more prompts and encouraging words for more Fridays ... But this week has been about faces, not screens.  Thank you for grace.

Today I have a re-post for you, though. Something to think about if you're weary (which I know many of you are - thank you for the vulnerable trust of honesty).  I don't know it all, but I do know two things from previous experiences in the pit of weary:  we can't give up, and Jesus Christ is a never-empty fountain of life.  We know the source for our re-filling.  If we keep going back to Him, we don't have to stay in the weariness pit.  Take it from one who knows.

So, without further ado ...  "when it's hard to give" [from November, 2011]:



"Sometimes it's hard to give." -Cynthia Aldrich, Missionary to Haiti as we rushed around her table at dusk trying to get the right sizes of baby clothes to mothers waiting outside her gate.

So when is it too hard to give? When do you stop giving because it gets too complicated? Is it when the people in need are starting to abuse your generosity and rely less on God and their own part? When is the moment when giving gets too difficult to keep giving?

I just want to throw this out there. Argue with me if you must.

Sometimes it's hard to give, but it's never too hard. We keep on giving.  Because we're never really as empty as we feel.  When we know the Fountain, He can always pour us full again.

It was hard for God to give. Does that shock you? Do you think it was easy for Him to give manna and quail to his whiney, gripe-y kids? You assume ease for Him to deliver His people into the land of milk and honey, defeating tribe after tribe, just so they would turn away from Him and worship the very idols He hated? You don't think God has feelings too? Think again.

In the book of Hosea, God laments the betrayal of His people as they had turned away from Him to worship other gods and had abandoned His love and plan for them. He demonstrated it through the prophet, asking Hosea to marry a prostitute as an object lesson to the people. Being the obedient man of God, Hosea took Gomer as his wife, who subsequently left him to go back to her life of sin.

" 'I will punish her for all those times when she burned incense to her images of Baal, when she put on her earrings and jewels and went out to look for her lovers but forgot all about me,' says the Lord." -Hosea 2:13 (NLT)

But God had Hosea rescue her again, proving his love for her and His love for all of us, His Bride.

" 'But then I will win her back once again. I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her there . . . I will make you my wife forever, showing you righteousness and justice, unfailing love and compassion. I will be faithful to you and make you mine, and you will finally know me as the Lord.' " -vs. 19-20

God gave. And then He gave again. And then He gave some more. His people have never been thankful, really, myself included. I've trampled the Cross in disobedience and thought He would be done giving me grace. It was hard for Him, but He gave once again. His mercy is not cheap. The high price of His blood is no small trinket, rather the greatest gift ever known. And on my face before Him, He gave it again. It is in His character and nature to give and keep giving, no matter how hard it gets or how complicated people make it.

And so we should do likewise. To one another. To the poor. To missions. To the brokenhearted. To prisoners. Give, and never stop. Like Him.

yes, even today ...

It's honesty time, Friends.

As much as I write and talk and preach and text and journal about hope and joy ... it slips through my hands too, sometimes.

I went to bed last night grieving, grumpy, and frumpy, and I woke up the same.  Too much to do, always running late, never enough time, letting myself down ... and tell me where Simple is supposed to fit in?

I'm not sure how many times my heart will be able to break and mend, break and mend, break again ... but I am sure that this hurts.  To listen to an hours-fresh widow plead to wake up from this nightmare, to hear of regrets over time not spent with a dad ... to pray for the mom to keep the baby so a friend can adopt the precious little bundle, only to learn that abortion claimed another bloody point today ... to endure another slug to this gut - I have emotions too.  With angry fists I pound the bathroom counter this morning, and though my lips and tears are silent, my heart screams it louder than a bullhorn.

"Is there anything good in this world?"

And He doesn't have to answer.

I already know there is.  Looking down at my fists, I'm already repentant, knowing the problem is not His blame.  These hands have closed again.  Of course there is good in this world.  I've counted nearly 2500 gifts, and it's only been over a year since I started.  I wonder how many I could have counted if I'd begun sooner.  So many.  Books and books of them.  Thousands and thousands since I've come into this forsaken, fallen planet. This place where I am not a citizen.  This very place where I can still receive good, because He is good, gives good, and defines good. But my hope is that I belong to a place much higher.

Of course it's not His fault and though I'm allowed to despair, I'm not to be despaired.  That is not my identity.

"Spiritual lust causes me to demand an answer from God, instead of seeking God Himself who gives the answer. What have I been hoping or trusting God would do? Is today the "third day" and He has still not done what I expected? Am I therefore justified in being dejected and in blaming God? Whenever we insist that God should give us an answer to prayer we are off track. The purpose of prayer is that we get a hold of God, not of the answer." -Oswald Chambers

And when what we want is Him, we'll never be sick.

"Hope deferred makes the heart sick,
    but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life." - Proverb 13:12

"Take delight in the Lord,
    and he will give you the desires of your heart." -Psalm 37:4

photo credit: National Geographic

My delight is in Him, and He gives me Himself.  I'm not sick because I have the hope I want - though I don't have the results I pleaded for, I do have Him.  So I have hope for joy, and He's all I need.  My hands are opening again as I preach this to my own soul.  There are good things in this world, and I've seen them, held them, written them, thanked Him for them.

Here are a few:

- Your freedom that reigns over every place I'll surrender, and hope for Your Majesty to come even more in my life

- brown ribbon and more paper for more gratitude, always more - for all this grace

- pretty souvenirs from India, brought from my Guy

- listening for long minutes after the service to J, T, and others  - a wonderful testimony of Your loving hand at work

- for this breath and the next: "He's the One who runs the earth! He cradles the whole world in His hand! If He decided to hold His breath, every man, woman, and child would die for lack of air." -Job 34:13-15 (Msg)

- " ... a plain and simple life is a full life." -Proverb 13:7 (Msg)

- humility ... "anyone who thinks he is something when he is nothing deceives himself." -Galatians 6:3 (NASB)

- for binding the enemy's lies and loosing Your truth over me (Matthew 18:18)

- audio clip from IRM's founder: a brother with many rescued sisters, and many more to rescue

- encouragement from You through my Guy to keep pressing on in obedience, regardless of results

- warmth in the cold weather, and strength to keep hoping for spring

- J finding a good book to read

- privilege to minster to R and her family

- a bit of sunshine this evening, and a lovely sunset tonight of orange, blue, and violet

- for Your unending love, unconditional faithfulness, unsurpassed power ... and that I get to know You

- science experiment about crystals with J

- for opening Your hands of goodness to me, and for opening my hands again to receive it - more of it, all of it.


Lord, forgive me again for clenching and pounding fists.  I find myself in so much trouble and trials when I close these hands.  May I learn, once again, the power of opening them in trust, believing that you WILL put good into them.  Please accept these open-handed thanks.  You are still Good, even today.  You are so very worthy.  My gratitude is all I have that You want. And it's Yours.

when injustice screams and you can't help but help ...

This thought, like a thread, weaves through my days lately ... what if?

What if Harriet Tubman and her fellow abolitionists hadn't fought? What would have happened to an estimated 100,000 and their descendants? 

What if Corrie ten Boom had not risked her life and sacrificed her family?  "The Jews whom the ten Booms had been hiding at the time of their arrests remained undiscovered and all but one, an old woman named Mary, survived." (Wikipedia) 

What if we refuse to fight this horror with everything we have?  What will happen to her?

Photo credit: National Geographic

Injustice bleeds into confusion when I let my heart surrender to broken.  I. Don't. Get. This. At. All.

How can you sell the daughter you nursed? The one who sat on your knee and played with your beard?  How, oh how could you?

The Lord answers, “Can a woman forget the baby she nurses?
    Can she feel no kindness for the child to which she gave birth?
Even if she could forget her children,
    I will not forget you.
See, I have written your name on my hand.
    Jerusalem, I always think about your walls.
Your children will soon return to you,
    and the people who defeated you and destroyed you will leave.
Look up and look around you.
    All your children are gathering to return to you.”
The Lord says, “As surely as I live,
    your children will be like jewels
    that a bride wears proudly.

              -Isaiah 49:15-18 (NCV)

I have hope and I will not stop fighting.  

Lord, make me like Harriet and Corrie - make me strong and help me fight with perseverance and hope, making a different destiny for precious lives in bondage now.  They are destined for freedom, and I don't want to find out what will happen if I don't fight.  I will do whatever it takes.  Because they are worth it.  And You are worthy.

Some links to organizations who are also fighting for JUSTICE:

A21

F.R.E.E

The Exodus Road  (two more days left to order your t-shirt.  Be an billboard for change and support real rescues)

What if you fight too?

Tuesdays we fight ... for justice

The Lord wakes me up with a verse this morning.  Wakes my heart before my eyes can hold open.  And I kind of love that He does that.  He knows I want to be up writing, but 1:00 a.m. is a late bed time, even for me, and 5:00 a.m. comes fast when you're a sound sleeper. So I grab my buzzing phone, snap off the alarm, climb back into the warm sheets, and beg for a few more minutes.  His answer to my plea - 

"Rejoice in our confident hope." -Romans 12:12a (NLT)

I only know it because my Guy and I resolved last year to teach vs. 9-21 to our kids, and isn't it in the teaching where we do our best learning?  And so I know it, but today my heart learns it over again, and it's not only written but engraved there now.  Because oh, how desperately I need hope right now. 

I've plunged into the passionate awareness of human trafficking once again, and once again I'm broken as I hit the bottom of this sludge.  It's everywhere I turn - on the web, and in my blog reading list, on the news, and in my email, in the new books on my kindle, and - I know God doesn't send me subtle messages this way.  He's shouting battle orders in my ear.  "Fight - for My precious ones!"  How could I ever go AWOL now?  The missionary tells my Guy over skype that the ladies will minister at a prostitute village. I'm not going with them this time, but my heart is.  I cry for a day and then two, and now a week.  "These tears are such powerful prayers," a dear friend reminds me from across the country over the phone.  I read the stories and study the statistics and see the faces with dead eyes, and oh how I reach and claw and scramble for just a thread of hope.

• Every 60 seconds, a child is sold for sex worldwide
• Human trafficking is the 3rd largest global industry, behind drugs and guns  
• The average age of entry into pornography and prostitution in the US is 13 years old.
• There are an estimated 27 million slaves in the world today… or about 1 in every 250 people.
• Sex trafficking cases have been reported in all 50 states and in more than 90 cities across the country.
• In the United States alone, it is estimated that there are 200,000 slaves.
• More than 1 million children are exploited in the global commercial sex trade each year.
• Today, the average price of an individual slave is $90.
• Approximately 800,000 – 900,000 victims are trafficked annually across the international borders worldwide.
• The US is the second highest destination area in the world for trafficked women.
• Last year, the slave industry made more money than Google, Nike, and Starbucks combined.
• There are more people in slavery today than at any other point in history… Including the 300 years of trans-Atlantic slaves trading from Africa.

Those are nauseating numbers, but I refuse to look the other way for even one more day.  If I vomit I vomit.  If I cry, then I cry.  Am I or am I not a follower of the One who picked up a cross and put down His blood?  Monkey see, monkey do, and I will become more undignified than this.  Lay down my life for just one of these ...

Oh, God - please ... stop this murder of innocence, this killing of innocents, dead long before they stop breathing. I can tell in their eyes.  No life remains.

But when you put the Word in your soul, God will bring it back to you at just the right moment, and what did we study a few months ago ... ?

"The Lord took hold of me, and I was carried away by the Spirit of the Lord to a valley filled with bones. ... They were scattered everywhere across the ground and were completely dried out.  Then he asked me, “Son of man, can these bones become living people again?”

“O Sovereign Lord,” I replied, “You alone know the answer to that.”

Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to these bones and say, ‘Dry bones, listen to the word of the Lord!  This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Look! I am going to put breath into you and make you live again!  I will put flesh and muscles on you and cover you with skin. I will put breath into you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”

... So I spoke the message as he commanded me, and breath came into their bodies. They all came to life and stood up on their feet—a great army.

Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones represent the people of Israel. They are saying, ‘We have become old, dry bones—all hope is gone. ...Therefore, prophesy to them and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: O my people, I will open your graves of exile and cause you to rise again. ... When this happens, O my people, you will know that I am the Lord.  I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live again and return home to your own land. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken, and I have done what I said. Yes, the Lord has spoken!’”

(from Ezekiel 37 - NLT)

I studied it and prayed it for the friend I send for just one.  It hits me again and it hits her too, on the same day.  She calls and we cry together, tears reaching through cell towers and satellites and around the world.  Tears that move mountains and bring bones back to life with His word.  Breath of Life. 

Today - this day - we have hope for the dead eyes.  Hope for the statistics.  Hope for the individuals.  Hope for this girl.  Hope for that woman.  Hope for our generation and our world.  Why?  Because we know the God who does things like this - He takes the deadest of the dead and - gives them BREATH. Will I go and send and speak for and give toward His resurrection work in these lives?  I don't have a choice - it is fire in my bones.  Will you?

Today, we "rejoice in this confident hope:" We love the God who does miracles like this.  He sends rescuers to break their chains.  He brings healing.  He changes the indifferent into the passionate.  He gives life, and then a breath.  It is hope.  It is confident.  And I rejoice.

Want to know how you can get involved in the war against human trafficking?  Click these links and refuse to bury your head in the sand another day.

The Exodus Road - funding undercover investigators, real rescues, changing this injustice once life at a time

F.R.E.E. International - stopping human trafficking here in the United States, with the love of Christ

Tune in here from the nest next Tuesday for even more hope in the face of injustice.  Together we fight for Him and the ones He loves!