5-29-08, Back Covers
 
....be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.     Ephesians 6:18

Back Covers

There’s an expression, ‘He’s an open book.’   If people were books, the  back covers would be just as important, or more, than the front covers.
 
The front cover is minimal info: title, author. Something nice, like a photo, or graphic design.  The back cover usually has lots of information: endorsements, an author blurb, what the book is about and why you should buy it and read it.
 
We can be assaulted, emotionally or spiritually, in our most vulnerable places.  Coming up from behind, attacking from the back, is the sneaky way. “Stabbed in the back”’.  
 
It is wonderful and wise to daily “put on” the armor of God, as we are instructed by St. Paul in the bible (Ephesians, sixth chapter). However even with the breastplate, which covers all our shoulder area and front, protecting some vital organs, our backs are still bared.
 
Picture a circle of people, all facing forward, side by side. Now picture the same circle as each person turns to the right. This is how we ourselves, can be the protection for another’s back attacks. We can cover each other’s backs by blanketing them with prayer.
 
Intercession for another person couldn’t be easier: ‘Lord, please bless____ .”  Often while you are intereceding in prayer, Holy Spirit will show you specific ways to pray.  These prayers of the saints are so important they are referred to as the incense that fills the golden bowls in the throne room of God (Rev. 5:8).
 
Thank the Lord, He has provided human back covers, none other than the saints - who just happen to be the believers. That is good news.

5-22-08, Trapped

Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.  1 John 5:5        
You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.  1 John 4:4


Trapped

It was irresistable. Too warm and sunny, too lovely an afternoon to not take a few minutes to sit outside on the back porch where we were staying.  I moved the rocker over to get a better view of the moss-covered towering oaks.  Ah, this was good.

A cat crawled into a space under the house. Bees busied themselves around a clematis vine. I heard a faint buzzing.  Another mosquito? Thought I’d cleared out the corner of the porch of those pesky critters.  

The hum persisted. Turning around, I spied a glint of green.  Near the sliding door was a glass bottle.  It looked antique-y.  The glass  stopper had a green bee, or fly perched ontop.

I picked it up, an saw that there were legs about ½ inch high to keep the bottle barely off the ground. It also had a fake bottom - a large hole with a lip around the inside of it. Inside were a couple dead flies, and another flying frantically around the top trying to get out.

Apparently the insects entered from underneath. They could leave the same way they came in, but it looked as if for some reason they didn’t do that.  They would continue towards the stopper, which was a dead end.

Sometimes  we feeled trapped.  We try and escape pressures of the world, panic or just give up from the stress, yet sometimes the way out is available. Jesus overcame the world and all its trappings (John 16:33*) and He has told us that we can too.

We are more than conquerors in Christ (Romans 8:37**). Our Saviour rose from the dead and transcended circumstances; we can too b/c  our lives are hidden IN Him (Colossians 3:1-3***).

Let’s start living out the truth, above our circumstances.  We are not trapped.  We are more  than conquerors in Him who gave His life for us and saved us.

This is good news!

*John 16:33     "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
**Romans 8:37   No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
***Colossians 3:1-3     Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.  For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
   Rev. 2:7  To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life.  Revelation 2:7

Irish Thursdays, inspirational messages by Sally I. Kennedy, ©2005
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