For Thy pleasure [Updated 2017]
Christmas Series table of contents
Merry Christmas!! I am presenting my Christmas Series again this year. If you want, go to the categories menu and click on the “Christmas” link on the right and look around.
Or, if you prefer, here is a table of my Christmas Series blogs to look through.
- The Most Wonderful Time of the Year http://www.firstofallpray.com/?p=7668
- O Holy Night http://www.firstofallpray.com/?p=7674
- The Forerunner http://www.firstofallpray.com/?p=7676
- According to Your Word http://www.firstofallpray.com/?p=7678
- Joseph http://www.firstofallpray.com/?p=7680
- Emmanuel http://www.firstofallpray.com/?p=7683
- The government http://www.firstofallpray.com/?p=7686
- Bethlehem http://www.firstofallpray.com/?p=7689
- O Little Town of Bethlehem http://www.firstofallpray.com/?p=7695
- No room http://www.firstofallpray.com/?p=7697
- Shepherds http://www.firstofallpray.com/?p=7699
- Interview with the magi, part 1 http://www.firstofallpray.com/?p=7702
- Interview with the magi, part 2 http://www.firstofallpray.com/?p=7704
- Interview with the magi, part 3 http://www.firstofallpray.com/?p=7706
- Heaven greets earth http://www.firstofallpray.com/?p=7708
- For Thy pleasure http://www.firstofallpray.com/?p=8114
- Faithful, joyful, and triumphant http://www.firstofallpray.com/?p=8107
- Christmas Eve http://www.firstofallpray.com/?p=7713
- I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day http://www.firstofallpray.com/?p=7715
May God bless you and keep you safe and sound throughout this holy season, and may you bring honor to Him in your life every day.
Warmly,
Dorothy
Read MoreFour life-changing insights from Luke 11
Jesus is the most profound, well-grounded Human in the history of the planet, and Luke 11 is chock-full of His wisdom. The fifty-four verses in this chapter reveal a universe of Truth; here’s a sampling:
Insight # 1: Developing a deeply personal, intimate prayer life isn’t as tough as you think.
…Lord, teach us to pray…Luke 11:1b
The disciples had a ringside seat to the compassion-packed power and wisdom of the Master. Wherever He went, amazing things followed; whenever He was absent, they knew He was off praying. As a result, it wasn’t surprising when they asked, “Lord, teach us to pray like You do.”
His answer was simple but powerful; the expected in-depth dissertation never came. Instead He shared a short set of priorities for them to pray about, and with this, the well-known Lord’s Prayer was launched. He told them:
- Honor God as your Father and treat Him and His name as holy (vs. 1).
- Ask for God’s will and kingdom to be established in your life and in the world around you (vs 2).
- Ask Him to provide your daily needs (vs. 3).
- Acknowledge your need for forgiveness in the specific areas where you’ve fallen short (vs. 4).
- Purposely forgive others who have wronged you in the same way you’ve asked God to forgive you (vs.4).
- Request that He lead you away from the things that tempt you (vs. 4).
Realize this: Jesus never expected His disciples to rattle off this little prayer, line by line, day after day, clocking in and clocking out. The Lord didn’t present this targeted outline to be used as a magic spell, mantra, or fix-it elixir. Instead, He provided these simple prayer points as springboards by which anybody could launch into prayerful intimacy with God, just by talking to Him about these things. And in this way, He opened the door for His disciples to get as personal as they possibly could with their Father.
The Lord invites you, too, to use the “bullet points” from the Lord’s Prayer to enter into deeply personal, very specific communications with Him. His door is always open; His welcome mat will never be pulled out from under you. And as you enter in, know that you’re praying just the way He prescribed.
Insight #2: Persistence pays off.
…because of his persistence he will…give him as much as he needs. Luke 11:8b
I’ll bet you’ve heard someone say, “I don’t want to bother God about that.” Maybe you’ve said it yourself, hoping the Lord would appreciate your humility. So you back away from praying about those needs you’ve hoped forever that God would take care of, and you tell yourself that you can get by without. And all the while you feel more and more distant from the One you long to know.
But then Jesus goes and tells a parable that flips your “don’t-bother-God” humility on its head!
You see, Jesus told a tale about a persistent man who pounded relentlessly on his neighbor’s door at midnight. A visitor had unexpectedly arrived; the man was out of bread and needed to feed his guest. The neighbor had already gone to bed; climbing out from under his cozy blankets was the last thing he wanted to do—friend or no friend. Surely Jesus was about to rebuke such loud, demanding racket; how very impudent of this man to expect his friend to get out of bed merely to help him out of a self-inflicted jam! You can feel it—you just know what Jesus’ punchline will be: “And YOU? Don’t you DARE bother God about your petty little needs! Don’t you know He’s busy running the universe?”
But wait! Jesus didn’t condemn this man’s boldness; He commended it! “I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs” (Luke 11:8).
Could it be true? Is Jesus actually saying to YOU, “Don’t you dare NOT bother God about your needs! And while you’re at it, stick with it until you get your answer!”? Believe it; your bold persistence doesn’t bother Him—it blesses Him.
Insight # 3: The lit lamp and the clear eye.
The eye is the lamp of the body…watch out, then, that the light in you is not darkness. Luke 11:34a, 35
Paul once wrote, “…I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…” (Romans 1:16).
Jesus said it this way, “No one, after lighting a lamp, puts it away in a cellar or under a basket, but on the lampstand, so that those who enter may see the light” (Luke 11:33). Why would anyone put a brilliantly glowing lamp in a cellar or under a basket? Could it be that they feel ashamed of the light?
Paul’s attitude toward the gospel was the opposite of shame; he embraced it as the power of God for salvation to everyone who believed. Jesus likewise highlighted what a normal, healthy attitude toward the Light looked like: Not hiding it; just letting it do its thing—SHINE.
Interestingly, right after Jesus taught about displaying—not hiding—the Light in your life, He said, “The eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye is clear, your whole body also is full of light; but when it is bad, your body also is full of darkness” (Luke 11:34).
I don’t know how many times I’ve read this section in Luke, but this time, I saw it differently. Could it be that Jesus linked our approach toward letting His light shine in our lives with the health of our vision? Could our perspective about the Light of Jesus—whether we hide it or let it shine—affect the clarity of our perception?
When you allow the Light to shine brightly in your life, do you safeguard your vision? By the same token, is your vision mucked up when you’re ashamed of the very Truth that once set you free?
If you are currently experiencing overwhelming darkness, confusion, or oppression, make tracks back to the Light of the world, soak up His rays, and allow His brightness to radiate boldly once again through you. His Light is unquenchable; the only one who can block it in your life is you.
Go ahead—pull that lamp back out from under the bed or basket where you’ve been hiding it. Bring it on up from the cellar and let its beautiful radiance once again be a beacon of Life to the world around you.
Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” John 8:12
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:5
Insight # 4: Cleanness—major on inner; minor on outer.
When the Pharisee saw it [that Jesus had sat down for lunch without washing up], he was surprised that He had not first ceremonially washed before the meal. Luke 11:38
Some of us seem to place top priority on how we appear to others, whether physically, socially, intellectually, or spiritually. We want to “get it right” on the outside no matter what might be happening on the inside. As long as we look good to others, that’s all that matters. Or is it?
Jesus, frustratingly so to the religious folks of His day, wasn’t too concerned at all about the externals. Oh, He nitpicked, but not about how people looked. He pointed His laser light on the inner workings of the heart—pride, ambition, kindness, and humility before God and man—motivations of the heart.
He said to them, “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the platter; but inside of you, you are full of robbery and wickedness” (Luke 11:39).
Imagine offering your friend a steaming cup of coffee or tea in an exquisite, sparkling cup. As they gratefully receive it and start to sip the contents, they notice crusty leftovers growing mold inside just below the lip of the cup. Then they notice something wiggling around, making figure eights in the brew. A critter surfaces and winks at them.
“What are you trying to do to me???? Are you crazy???” they yell as they toss your beautiful cup aside.
But you blink with astonishment and say, “But that cup is gorgeous! It looks so clean and sparkling in your hand!”
This is, in reality, what we are doing when we place all our focus on how we appear to others—whether physically, socially, intellectually, or spiritually. We may be a beautiful, stylish, with-it looking vessel, but beneath the surface—where it really counts—we’ve let leftovers accumulate, growing mold and attracting critters. If this describes your situation right now, don’t be surprised if someone says, “No thank you” to your offered cup of tea.
Jesus declared, “You foolish ones, did not He who made the outside make the inside also? But give that which is within as charity, and then all things are clean for you” (Luke 11:40, 41).
When you pay more attention to the climate inside of you than you do to how others think you look, your outer appearance will reflect a pure heart sooner or later.
Then when you offer your cup of brew to someone, they will find its contents wonderfully refreshing and mold- and critter-free.
May you walk freely, simply, and boldly with your Friend, the Light of the world.
Dorothy
© 2017, Dorothy Frick
Read MoreConcerning Jesus’ directive “sell your cloak and buy a sword”
I wrote this today on Facebook:
Bear with me while I process something.
Two summers ago I awoke one morning in a vacation condo overlooking the beautiful Gulf of Mexico. But my heart was full of concern; I was puzzled. You see, I had just emerged that early Wednesday morning from a dream in which I was attending a Sunday morning service at my church. In the dream my pastor was teaching something that was totally unlike his personality or anything he’s ever said before from the pulpit.
He was teaching us that with times as they are, it would be appropriate for those of us who desired to do so to carry concealed weapons into the service.
He also asserted that if anyone bragged or displayed bravado or arrogance about it, he would immediately kick them out of the church, no questions asked.
I told one of the ladies (my friend Debbie K.) with whom I was vacationing about it first thing. We had no idea what God was saying although the message of the dream was in-your-face clear. It was June 17, 2015.
Imagine my shock and grief that evening when we learned that nine beautiful worshippers were gunned down in their church–the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church–during their Wednesday night Bible study.
And today, once again we are confronted by another slaughter in a Baptist church in Texas, where perhaps twenty or so dear ones have been killed. In addition, across the country, in a Fresno, California, Catholic church parking lot, two more were shot as church was letting out.
We can debate the gun issue; in fact, I’m POSITIVE it will come up. But the dream I had just 10 hours before that weasely young man murdered nine of my brothers and sisters at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church makes me wonder if the tables may have been turned if one or two of those saints had carried a weapon along with their Bible.
I recall one of the instructions that Jesus gave His disciples before He was arrested, brutally tortured, and crucified was different than anything He had ever preached before–and markedly unlike His personality.
He said, “…if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one” (Luke 22:36).
I’ve thought about this often since my dream the morning of June 17, 2015. I’ve thought about my pastor’s stern dream-warning concerning the attitude that must attend such weapon-bearing. And I’ve sought God concerning Jesus’ goal in giving this uncharacteristic directive.
Despite the Lord’s sword-instruction, nowhere do we see any of the New Testament believers/preachers engaging in swordfights or spreading the Gospel by means of the sword. Nowhere do we see any of the believers even defending themselves by means of the sword.
Nonetheless, it’s inescapable: The Gospel of Luke records that Jesus directed His followers at the time to carry a sword.
Because His disciples obeyed Him in other matters, there is no reason to believe they disregarded the sword-directive. Jesus had commanded them to go into all the world and preach the gospel; to go into the byways and highways; to teach and preach wherever they went.
And Jesus, Who understood the future better than most people can make sense of the past, realized that His followers would be easy prey for bad actors all along the way. Therefore, in His foresight, wisdom, and great love, He made provision for them–“If you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.”
And again, Jesus–Who is able read the minds and motives of men and women–knew this well: Most thugs are cowardly. If they see a sword slung around the shoulder of even the tiniest of His disciples, they would bide their time and find another–an unarmed victim–and leave the sword-bearer alone.
This is why I support the Second Amendment. I don’t like braggadocious attitudes about weapons; I DO like the idea that criminals will think twice before harming a man or a woman with a gun.
Thanks for reading.
Dorothy
© 2017, Dorothy Frick
Read MoreConcerning snakes and shoes and authority
Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you. Luke 10:19
…and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace… Ephesians 6:15
I had a ringside seat to an unthinkable feat when I was five—a literal, but very unintentional, snake-treading. And like all stories coming out of the early 60’s, this one had a happy ending…for everyone, that is, but the villain—the snake. But unlike other heroes of that era, our heroine’s “white hat” was a pair of sturdy boondockers.
Concerning snakes and shoes:
When I was a little girl, my mom took my sister and me shoe shopping. Easter was around the corner, but we weren’t looking for Easter shoes. We weren’t looking for sandals; we weren’t looking for Keds; we weren’t even looking for saddle shoes. We were shopping for what my folks called boondockers—leather hiking boots that came up over the ankles.
My parents had just leased a cabin in the woods for weekend excursions, and the land around there was “snaky”. Dad and my brother already owned boots, but we girls were bootless and needed to shop.
I remember the consternation of the salesman as he measured our feet for the boondockers. He was beside himself, trying to persuade us that what we really wanted were cute little patent leather shoes for Easter.
“No,” my mom insisted. “My girls need boondockers.” She would have been more thoughtful had she explained to the “Mr. Whipple” look-alike serving us that we needed snake protection for our country place, but I think Mom rather enjoyed shocking him. It was 1960; little girls didn’t wear such footwear.
After much hemming and hawing on the part of our flustered salesman, we were outfitted with our boots; and as we left the shoe store, my five-year-old mind imagined snakes snapping at the thick leather and I hoped they would respect the boundary at the top of my boot and politely limit their strikes to below the line.
I was faithful to lace up my boondockers every time I wandered out into snake country. Everyone in the family was. One day the five of us went out to pick the blackberries which grew wild all over the place. Each of us was armed with a cleaned out, empty paint bucket in anticipation of the bounty awaiting us. (I always ate more berries than fell into the bucket on these excursions.)
A huge patch of them twined chaotically by the side of a dirt road running down to the river. I was by Mom’s side as the family spread out, picking and plunking away, when suddenly she squealed, sucking in a lung-full of air and leaping sky high.
“I just stepped on a cat’s tail!” she gasped. “Jinks didn’t follow us out here, did he?!” She was referring to our big black and brown striped feline family member who always accompanied us on our country weekends.
My dad started poking in the berry brambles, “Here, Jinks! Kitty, kitty, kitty!” And then he jumped back. “Freda, you stepped on a copperhead!”
Sure enough, hidden under the blackberry brambles was a large copperhead with a squashed head. Dad poked it with a stick to make sure it was dead, and it was dead. Very dead. Terminated. By Mom—or rather, by her highly lethal, boondockered foot.
Awed, we all huddled around the carcass for a closer look. There it was, beautiful copper body with telltale dark brown hourglass-like markings up and down its spine, with a smashed—and very dead—copper head.
I am often reminded of this snapshot from my childhood. You see, I am witness to a literal serpent-treading. Mom was outfitted in the proper footwear, and although she had been unaware of the viper’s presence, she hit the bulls-eye. With one step she stopped the serpent, dead in its track.
Concerning authority in Christ:
We have authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means harm us. We just need to keep our feet shod with the proper footwear—our authority in Christ and the preparation of the gospel of peace. As we live our lives mindful of the truth, we will do damage to the enemy simply by obeying God.
So often we fear the “what if’s” of life and become incapacitated: “What if I miss God?”. Do you belong to Christ? Have you prayed? Are you in the Word? Do you walk in love? Then step out without fear. Your Father will lead you, and if you miss it, He’ll guide you out of that place and over to the right place. It’s far simpler than we believers of the 21st century have made it.
And I believe concerning you—an everyday Christian—that it’s very likely you have a trail of viper carcasses littering the path behind you. You have been outfitted to tread upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and as you’ve obeyed God in your life—even in the everyday, mundane tasks—I believe there’s a good chance that you have destroyed demonic schemes without even realizing it.
Next time Satan attempts to debilitate you with “what if’s” and seeks to intimidate you away from your adherence to God, just remember my mom’s boondockered feet and the squashed copperhead: Step out, obey God, and know that He will be faithful to guide you and to bring light to your path.
But don’t forget your boots. It’s snaky out there!
Dorothy
The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. Romans 16:20
© 2014, Dorothy Frick
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