Quit Ye Like Men
Good evening sister saints!
Praises to our heavenly Father for He is the giver of all good things!
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. James 1:17
For those of you who follow along here, you know I'm always saying 'doesn't even nature teach you'...and then share what it is I'm seeing that God has put in place, in nature, to teach us. Today it's going to be a couple sunflowers. A while ago we saw this sunflower growing out of a little hole in the pavement...
You can see a video of it in a post I wrote HERE. It was encouraging to see the power of God in allowing this flower to grow in such strange and hard circumstance. Well, sad news....we were just by there the other day on our way back through and someone chopped it down. It went from thriving in the power of God to dead because man chopped it down. We'll talk about this later....
Let's look at another sunflower example...
A few weeks back I was walking and saw a little sunflower plant growing in the crack of a sidewalk and sent it to a sister and shared something to the fact that some saints are by themselves but they can flourish and be strong in the Lord like the little sunflower giving us an example.
We came back through this town and I saw that same sunflower (growing strong) and took a picture, sent it to her and she returned both pictures with the scripture:
How precious to see it growing strong and producing flowers with more buds to open soon. We see two examples here, both were flourishing and one got chopped down. Let that not be us sisters, allowing someone (or satan) to chop us down in our faith and bring us to death. Let us press on in life.
Sometimes we may feel alone or small in a big world but we have a mighty God who put us where we are, to do His works and shine our light to those who He wants us to. It may seem hopeless and lonely at times but our Father has His reasons for all things and our lights are twinkling throughout the world.
Someday we shall all meet together before the Lord if we continue on but until then, His lights are scattered, doing their good works unto Him. Regardless of what we see people doing with this truth we share, know that our labor is not in vain in the Lord because He is glorified in it all.
We too, can flourish where we are planted if we stand brave and strong in the Lord and drink from the rich well of the Word!
But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. John 4:14
Brother Jim used to say that we will grow as fast as we want which means there are many who are lack in zeal to grow, mature and obey the Lord and therefore are immature and weak, and there are others who are so zealous that they grow and mature very fast and end up strong (see how fast that sunflower grew in a few weeks time). If you find yourself struggling and weak, wondering why you are not growing in the Lord as you would like, read James...
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. [8] A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
James 1:5-8
We daughters of the most high have access to all the wisdom of God in His word through the Holy Spirit and we can be strong in it. I picked the title 'quit ye like men' because it means to be brave.
Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. 1 Corinthians 16:13
And see the same in the Old Testament:
Be strong, and quit yourselves like men, O ye Philistines, that ye be not servants unto the Hebrews, as they have been to you: quit yourselves like men, and fight.
1 Samuel 4:9
We sisters need to learn to be brave and we can because we have the power of the Holy Spirit, we have the God of the universe watching over us and it doesn't matter what goes on in this world, we need to have our focus on Christ and we can press through this life on earth, brave and strong because....
Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. 1 John 4:4
I want to share something that I see in some of you that I know personally...I see a strength in those of you who are diligent in pouring out for the saints. I see you growing stronger and braver the more you give, the more you care, the more you share and it's all a blessing from God to His obedient daughters. I see sisters being brave and standing on the word of God and not going along with their unbiblical family. I see sisters who are married to unbelievers and some know that they are in danger of potentially losing their husband because of their faith but they bravely stand. I see sisters bravely pushing against the world while raising children to be called out and separate from it. Through the power of God we can be brave and stand fast in the faith, not letting anyone chop us down, unless its a man literally killing us for our faith and in that case, if we stand strong we will reap the reward of eternal life for enduring.
Praise God for His power to be brave and overcome!
Last night a trucker was looking for a spot to park...
And he found one right in front of us so he was backing in to fit. We have to be brave out here in this world, sleeping in parking lots, sometimes without any light or anyone else around which could open the door to someone looking to cause trouble while we sleep. But we don't fear because nothing will go unseen from our Father. Remember that sisters...
Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Hebrews 4:13
I was walking and made an audio for a sister and on it I happened to mention that I was very thirsty because it's been hot, dry and smokey and that I should have brought my water with me, when I got back to the van I sent her this picture with thankfulness to the Lord. She returned it with the scripture:-)
It's 105 degrees as I type this and we're blessed to have a cool spot to sit inside with a table to work of which we are thankful. I was able to catch up on all my paperwork from our jobs and do some media cleaning of old pictures and files, yay! Brother Jim treated us and we shared a cup of ice cream.
Small blessings that are greatly appreciated and I'd share my portion with you:-) We do pretty well in the heat but it can be a bit tiring in the van life since we don't indulge in the luxury of running an air conditioner at night so we learn to adapt. We have fans and when it's really hot we use wet rags to cool off until we fall asleep. It's a small price to pay in our flesh compared to the price our Savior paid for our soul. Too often we hear people complaining about the weather and then allow it to control their lives which ultimately affects the sharing of the gospel or the encouragement of the saints. Let's be sure to show our flesh who's the boss.
But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. 1 Corinthians 9:27
I had to share this grasshopper as they are all over the place out west here.
Awesome!
And this, just because.
Lord willing, we may be in a busy tourist area tomorrow for preaching and the sharing of the gospel but we shall see how it all turns out but regardless, the gospel is going out all over. How are you doing about sharing the GOSPEL? It requires you to be brave...
I have to go for now but look forward to, Lord willing, stopping by here again tomorrow.
Love to all my obedient sister saints who love the body of Christ!
Sister Deb