JOYFULNESS AND HALLELUJAH!!

          I'm very grateful and I'm filled with rejoicing!  Today at three churches I was hugged and loved and appreciated, even though I have difficult times to walk clearly and to speak carefully.  Sometimes my brain and body issue is a real challenge to me and to others.  DUH!  I look forward the do what I can in our world and I instantly look forward to Heaven!!  
      Yes, day-by-day, moment-by-moment, I focus on my Heavenly Father and Jesus and piles and piles of others, including family and friends, pastors, and kind neighbors that took care of me and dropped the Lord into my heart when I was a good person sometimes and a fighter sometimes.  I know I've been protected and carefully healed by the Lord a number of times, even when in a fighting home when I was a young kid.  I was taught to be a fighter when I was just turning 5 in July, '50.        
      It's a huge blessing that the Lord broke into my life and did not let me enter suicide which occurred when I was in my late teens.   In Tacoma and Seattle between ages of 18 to 20, I had become in very sinful situations, back in 1964 to 1966, and knowing about it through what I'd known of the Lord I truly thought I'd be murdered or arrested for murdering someone.   It's a blessing that the Lord broke strongly into my life when I was 20.  In all these 50 years He has been such a miracle for me and my family and friends.  So much changed through and for Him.

      So I'm filled with rejoicing and joyfulness!! 

 Through eternity!! 

 Just like many of you the word is

     HALLELUJAH!!!

DAY OF ETERNITY... BEGINS FOR US!

HILLS AND MOUNTAINS FLOURISH

AND WHEN THEY DO, WE DO!

... ETERNALLY ... 

TODAY'S JOY...WORSHIP...PRAISE

Physically, I'm struggling today.  Tiredness, dizziness, etc.  Tomorrow I have to hit the road to Portland area... not far from here ... and a couple days after that I truly begin to hit my way home, but won't be there until next Sunday night, at the earliest, because I'll be stopping a couple places in eastern Oregon to teach a couple blog-friends about a particular form of spiritual warfare. 

HOWEVER, I wrote this poem even before I came to the Lord.  I was about 19 years old; wrote it in Seattle.  How can I NOT share it today when I know my struggles are held in the Hand of my Dear Father Who loves me.  Nothing/NOONE else counts.

Oh, and today's Word that struck me is Nehemiah 8:10, The joy of the Lord is my strength.  And this poem has "joy" in it.


HIS HAND... HIS LOVE

He gave me His hand and led me
Across stream,
and River,
and Mountain.

He gave me His Spirit to draw me To the Wonderful
sin-cleansing
fountain.

He gave me His Grace and Compassion
His Joy, His Righteousness, too.

He gave me His Love and Mercy
And created a life wholly new.

He gave -- I received --
........Eternal Peace. He gave -- I received --
.............Love never to cease.

INTERCESSOR JOHN HYDE

The Lord laid it on me recently to read -- re-read -- the book written by his three co-partners, "Praying Hyde".  The portions were written in the early 1900s, and the book is considered a prayer classic.

John Hyde was born in Carthage, Illinois, in 1865.  His dad was a Presbyterian pastor.  Then, after collage, in 1892, John went to India.  And, except for very few times when going to other countries to rest and intercede or preach and teach at revivals, he remained only in India.  He died in Massachusetts at his sister's, forced to return to the States because of an extremely serious heart problem.  He arrived shortly before his death.

His main God-job, from 1892 until his death in 1912, was intercession.

However, in the book a paragraph struck me.   Hard.

This was written about him by a prayer companion:

We feared his poor weak body would sink under the strain, but how marvelously he was sustained all the time!  At times that agony was dumb [i.e. quiet], at times it was his crying out for the millions perishing before our eyes; yet it was always lit up with hope.  Hope in the love of God --- Hope in the God of love.

=======================================
Part of my spirit is heavily involved in intercession ... but rarely is my body in the "closet" that is so needed and necessary for prayer.  Mine is often [too often??] a walking, driving, looking-in-faces, watching-the-world-overview phase of life.  And, the only description of John that fits me, is heart pounding, stomach wrenching, spirit crying, body trembling -- aspects just like his life.  He, however, sometimes saw the face of our Lord, the angels surrounding circumstances, seeing the heavenly eternal world which encouraged him to keep on keeping on.

Crying for days, travailing for India and the world --- and, then, seeing godly consequences, he would rejoice.


What a blessing that would be today.  For me.  For many others.

Oh, and John's last words at death:  

"Shout the Victory of Jesus!" 

=======================

AMEN and AMEN!!