BRINGING HOME

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I helped lead prayer at The Worship Room House of Prayer last night.

If I had to choose a theme for the evening it would be SHOW US HOME. At one point, during the devotional worship set, I began to sing a simple spontaneous chorus.

” OPEN OUR EYES TO SEE THE BEAUTY OF THE LORD. OPEN OUR EARS TO HEAR THE SONG GOD SINGS OVER US, THE SONG THAT CALLS US HOME.”

During our time of worship with the word we meditated on Song of Solomon 4:9 “You have captured my heart, my treasure, my bride. You hold it hostage with one glance of your eyes, with a single jewel of your necklace”

Photo by Aniket sharma on Pexels.com

The meditation again turned toward the idea of home as we repeated the line, “We are Your dwelling place and You are our home.”

Then, during our intercession set, I began to pray in the Spirit and I had this deep sense that I was calling the power of my heavenly home into this earthly realm to invade it and heal it. My prayer came from Isaiah 64 “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,
    that the mountains would tremble before you!
2 As when fire sets twigs ablaze
    and causes water to boil,
come down to make your name known to your enemies
    and cause the nations to quake before you!”

I have this sense that a. very important part of ministry now is to bring the essence of Heaven to Earth: The love, the joy, the peace, the patience, the kindness, the goodness, the faithfulness, the gentleness, and the self control. We may not be able to experience the fullness of these things until we get to Heaven, but what we can bring of those things now we must.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO BRING A PIECE OF HEAVEN TO EARTH TODAY?

DALE

/ joseph elon lillie / 6 Comments

I received word at 4:35 A.M. this morning that my mother-in-law, Dale Stevens, went home to be with Jesus.

I cannot say she passed away, because for Dale, while death was a moment of weakness,I know it was also the moment that led to her greatest strength. As the Apostle Paul wrote, “So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body..’ Death has been swallowed up in victory.‘.” 1 Cor. 15:42-44, 54

I have to say, Dale was a wonderful mother-in-law. She cared for her family with an indefatigable passion and a living faith and she accepted me into her family and cared for me as a member of that family. Even after my wife and I divorced Dale never cut me out. She always left a door open for me and kept relationship with me even across the miles. I will always be thankful for her love and care. I am praying now for my ex wife, her sisters and all their husbands, their children and my children and all that extended family as they mourn this foundational loss.

Tina (my ex wife) called from South Carolina, the other day and asked if I would sing over Dale in her hospice bed. I had the opportunity to sing over her twice and each time I sang songs of our hope in Heaven. As I sang, I was reminded that we may be parted for some moments now, but soon we shall all be reunited around the throne of the Living God.

SURVEY

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I visited town hall the other day. I needed to renew Snug’s dog license and to check in with the Planning Commission to see if our building project was even viable.

Snug’s dog license was a quick matter. He just had a rabies shot in the fall, so he is good through next year. After the town clerk’s office I stopped over to see Nicole Roberts at the planning commission and I spent about twenty minutes telling her about our plans.

The Vicarage sits on two pieces of property which my father acquired at different times in the 1970’s. The property we are planning on building the cottage on has plenty of frontage and set back so the building project is a go, but on further inspection it was discovered that the main house of the Vicarage, while grandfathered in, is not actually a buildable lot any longer. It is short by three feet of being buildable.

The advice is to have the lots surveyed so we can build on the empty lot and then give some frontage to the main lot so that also become buildable so we can add a garage or something in the future.