Beware of the Leaven of the Pharisees

Luke 12: 1-3
In the mean time, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trode one upon another, he began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known.
Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.

Made All Things

1 Corinthians 9 : 22, 23 ~~~

To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.

And this I do for the gospel's sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you.

Biblical Hebrew

I've been studying Biblical Hebrew. There are many good sites online. I picked one with audio pronunciations. It's been great and a real blessing. I learned the alphabet and can read some words. It is wonderful when I am using Blue Letter Bible, I can pull up the Hebrew for each passage and actually read the letters. These days I use Blue Letter Bible as my main concordance. I can no longer see the tiny print in my old Young's version. Shalom!!

Praying the Scriptures with Andrew Murray

"I am convinced that one chief cause why some do not grow more in grace is that they do not take time to hold converse with the Lord in secret. Spiritual, divine truth does not thus become our possession at once. Although I understand what I read, although I consent heartily to it, although I receive it, it may speedily fade away and be forgotten, unless by private meditation I give it time to become fixed and rooted in me, to become united and identified with me. Christians, give yourselves, give your Lord time to transfer His heavenly thoughts to your inner, spiritual life. When you have read a portion, set yourselves in silence before God. Take time to remain before Him until He has made His word living and powerful in your souls. Then does it become the life and the power of your life." ...Andrew Murray, The Lord's Table.

Great quote, isn't it? Spend time in the Word. Develop a relationship with the Word. Don't intellectualize about it, but absorb it. Listen to audios of portions, listen with your heart. Hide it in you heart. Let the Word Speak. Let it act upon you. Let it be a sword piercing through to your inner man. Let it have the impact upon you, don't resist it. Wait on it, it may take days or weeks, but the Holy Spirit will surely bring it to your remembrance in His perfect timing.     Susan.

Intensification

The storm is intensifying. The characteristic of the last days is the increase and intensification of the distress of nations. The increase of darkness, the wave of increasing deceptions, and the sense of the temple being measured, but the outer court is being left out (Rev. 11). Are we in the outer court, or are we in the place of being part of the testimony of Jesus Christ. He came to bring a sword, we are seeing the dividing of many things. Where will we be found? Are we following the Lamb whithersoever He goeth? Are we willing to "let the dead bury their dead"? Are we trimming our lamps, or will we be bound to the outer court which will not be measured into the testimony?
Brothers and sisters, stay in the Word, search the Scriptures daily, hold on to that which you have, stay close to Him, return to your first love. Try all the spirits, listen only to what you know the Lord is speaking to your heart. Be very vigilant that you will discern the signs of the times and aware of the coming storm.
While pondering these matters, I was uplifted in coming across this prayer from the early church....

We beseech thee, Master, to be our helper and protector.
Save the afflicted among us; have mercy on the lowly;
raise up the fallen; appear to the needy; heal the ungodly;
restore the wanderers of thy people;
feed the hungry; ransom our prisoners;
raise up the sick; comfort the faint-hearted.
(Clement of Rome, 1st Century)
Rev 12:11 "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death."

The Brook in the Way, Psalm 110

I want to share something I was emailing to a friend after a recent discussion. It had to do with waiting on God, and also just simply walking with Him and going along our way as He leads, not having our own agendas or plans to get to the end as we might think seems the best or fastest way. I have edited this slightly to put it in the form of a blog article, but this is basically what I wrote to my friend:
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As I was re-reading your email so I could reply to you, I was suddenly struck with a verse from Psalm 110. I have memorized that Psalm and often use it as a prayer. The last verse says, "he shall drink of the brook in the way: therefore shall he lift up the head". The concept of the Lord walking and journeying with His disciples seems to relate to "drinking of the brook in the way", in other words, as we go along. I think it also ties into the road to Emmaus somehow, but can't explain why.
I think the drinking of the brook "in the way" has something to do with how we must be in the last days (the people who are willing in the Day of His power). A moment by moment abiding, only doing what comes to us as we are walking with Him, and not going ahead of that. This will also be our means of protection. I don't know if what I am saying really expresses what I mean. But I kind of "see" it.
The coffee fellowships in open venues you mentioned are very similar to some that we have done. We aren't currently doing this right now, but have done it in the past and will do it again too, I am sure. The other day we were in a local diner eating breakfast. Right in the middle of eating, we were led to intercede in prayer for a situation we knew about, and right there we started praying just as if we had been in our own living room. I am expecting more and more of this type of thing to happen.
And the crucial part of this "drinking of the brook in the way" is its becoming the means by which the Head (that is, Christ) will be lifted up. -------------------
Susan.

Holding On

This verse jumped out at me last night. In this time of increasing darkness covering the earth and rampant deceptions everywhere, it seems this is what we are to do, earnestly seeking Him and to just hold on.

Jude 20-21----
But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,
Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
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Little Flock

Lately I have been seeing something wonderful going on amongst His people. Small groups of handfuls coming together as a hidden remnant. "Come my people, enter thou into thy chambers and shut thy doors about thee, as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast....".... Isaiah 26:20. That is not an exact quote, but as close as my memory serves me right now.
I have a scattered internet group of friends in various places, and I stay in very close contact with them and they all are saying the same thing, He is leading us back to simplicity, and staying below the radar screen. A deepening of intercession for one another and a deepening sense of everything that can be shaken is being shaken and peeled away. A sense of entering the time when deception is very rampant, and I kind of see us huddled together in little enclaves, clinging to the Lord's Word. Kind of like in Malachi, chapter, 3,... those that meet together and speak of Him, one with another, and think upon His Name.
Often, it is just my husband and myself, gathered to watch and pray, and I always have a great sense of all of my internet contacts being with me, and we pray for them. Other times, we are blessed with others of this small and simple flock here in NW Georgia, often partaking of the Lord's Table together. But we are indeed a hidden away bunch, and that is the way He has planned it in this time.
"Where two or three are gathered together, there I am in the midst of them."

"The desire of our soul is to Thy Name,
and to the remembrance of Thee."
Isaiah 26:8.

The Undying Flame

I am currently reading a book by T. Austin-Sparks called "The Battle for Life". I had been seeing that we are all in a battle to retain our possessions (spiritual), we are all facing onslaughts of various kinds in these days. We really need to hold fast that which we have. I was led to get this book down off the shelf and am overpowered by the depth and strength of it.

Just before this quote, he had been talking about Zechariah 4 and the two living olive trees that continually pour the oil into the pipes to the bowls on the lampstand. They are living trees, not a cistern, but oil being poured continually, ever fresh, not stored up, and maintained at full strength continually. I think this also relates to the parable of the virgins. The marginal reading in Matthew 25 reads "our lamps are going out" which gives a good sense of this necessity of the continual need of the oil.
Here is the quote, I am sure this book is available, maybe even online, just do a search for T. Austin-Sparks---

The Undying Flame (from "The Battle for Life")
p. 9---
"It is the testimony of an unfailing life, an undying life, an all-sufficient life; the testimony of a life which is not an abstract, which is not something stored up, but something which is coming all the time from an inexhaustible stream; a mighty, glorious life. As the light burns, it is a constant declaration of victory, and that a victory over death, death which would seek to quench the light, quench the flame, smother it. It burns in the mist of surrounding death, a continuous declaration that death has no power to quench it."
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On Fasting

Thinking of fasting.

Fasting is a form of continual prayer.

Silence is another form of fasting, fasting from our own words, our own scatteredness, our own forms of thinking, our own activities and interactions, our own busy-ness.

It is also a fasting from the words, the chatter, and the scatteredness of others.

It is a protected place, a place in His presence with an armour of protection.

It is a form of separation from the world.

It is continual prayer, with our inner life tuned to listen. The listening for what He will speak.

Our Lord kept a Holy Silence.

He only spoke what He heard from the Father.

He did not need to speak, but spoke for the sake of others. It only took three words to raise Lazarus from the dead, and even those words were not necessary except for the others who were present.

Silence is another form of love.

A respect for the solitude of our brother or sister.

A respect for what the Lord may be doing in their lives.

A listening instead of storming in.

A non-possessiveness of those things the Lord may speak to us, not having to force others to hear, unless we are led by the Spirit to share.

A keeping and a hiding of His word in our hearts.

Speaking only as we are led to speak by the Holy Spirit.

The freedom to not have to talk because others require it.

The freedom to say what we are given to say.

The enlargement of spirit that stillness, and quietness creates within.

"Be still, and know that I am God." ~Psalm 46:10

(Photo taken this week in NW GA as we approach Lent)

Snow

Psalm 147~~~

He sendeth forth his commandment [upon] earth: his word runneth very swiftly.
He giveth snow like wool: he scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes. He casteth forth his ice like morsels: who can stand before his cold.
He sendeth out his word, and melteth them: he causeth his wind to blow,
[and] the waters flow. (vs. 15-18)

Photo, recent snow in NW Georgia