Earth Is Crammed With Heaven-Live Barefoot!

 Back in mid-April , during my Bible study time, the Spirit impressed upon my heart, that in my reluctance to accept and be content with my new dietary restrictions because of my intestinal dysmotility and gastropareses, I was essentially being like the Israelites in Num 11 & 21.  Not only does this medical issue cause me a limited diet, or else face painful consequences. It also requires new habits, like walking. A lot. Like 4-5 miles a day to help food move through my system. My walking pad that I purchased in January bit the dust, so it's back to walking outside, in this oppressive heat. Much like the desert the Israelites wandered, I'm sure.  I've recently began listening to Billy Graham sermons as I walk and today one of his sermons was on accountability and what transpired in Genesis 3. As I listened, the Spirit again impressed on my heart that Eve's sin was discontentment. She was in paradise. She could eat of any tree but that of the tree of the knowledge of...

 Sunday, June 15, 2025 Prayer - "Call to me and I will answer you and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known." Jeremiah 33:3 The word for "call" used here in Hebrew is Strong's 7121, qara' (קָרָא), and carries the idea of reflecting on His name. In Hebrew a name (shem) is a one-word summation of the totality of a person. Qara' is first used in Gen Chapter One where we see God "called" the light day, the darkness night, the expanse heaven and the dry land earth. He brings the animals before Adam to see what he might "qara'" them. To qara' serves as a declaration of purpose or function, of identity.  I find it interesting that the preceding verse here in Jeremiah also directs us back to God's role in creation. "Thus says the LORD who made the earth, the LORD who formed it to establish it --the LORD is His name (shem)." There are two places in Exodus where God reveals His name to us. In Exodus...

 Yesterday as I was going through my "verse of the day" type calendars for the month of May. The one with a focus on mother's sent me to 2 Timothy 1:5 "I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well." Vocabulary and word study is predominantly what my study time is focused on. It has a way of opening up the Word of God and drawing me in as I meditate on its meaning(s). Yesterday, the word for dwell stood out to me.  Let me back up a little to say that there are certain passages of Scripture that take up permanent residence in my mind. I may not have them memorized but the topic and the teaching is there. John 15 contains one of those passages. It's the "abide" chapter, where Jesus tells His disciples (and therefore us) to abide in Him and He will abide in us. Some translations will say "remain".  Whenever I read this verse, I conn...

The Hebrew language always fascinates me with the way it breathes new meaning into old stories, making them new. For the past day or so, the Lord has had me in the early chapters of Genesis. Originally the lesson was on the Hebrew word for "name" being "shem." And how in Hebrew there's the understanding that it isn't just what someone is called, it's a " one word summation of the totality of a person " to quote Chad Bird. In Hebrew thought it was also about prophecy and how whenever a child was given a name, it would reflect their parent's hopes for the child's nature and future destiny. It's interesting the name Noah chose to give his eldest son, was simply "Shem" who was the progenitor of the Semitic people from whom God's chosen people came. Strong's says the name "Shem" is "often associated with the concept of " renown ," reflecting the importance of legacy and reputation in biblical na...

 Monday, April 14, 2025 5:00 a.m. Yesterday I mentioned that the discourse between Moses and the LORD that takes place in Exodus 33:12-34:9 has been lingering in my mind.  A few days ago, I came across an old post from Katie Davis Majors  that referenced 1 Samual 12:20 & 22 "Do not be afraid,” Samuel replied. “You have done all that is evil, yet do not turn away from the Lord with all your heart… for the sake of His great name the Lord will not reject His people, because the Lord was pleased to make you His own." So much is said here, but what caught my attention was the phrase, "for the sake of His great name." It's in Exodus 34 that the LORD tells us His name and expounds on it a bit further than what He had told Moses back in Exodus 3:14-15, "God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the G...

Sunday, April 13, 2025 9:30p.m. The Spirit called me to the exchange that took place between Moses and the LORD in Exodus 33 and 34 , several weeks ago (March 20th) and it has lingered there in the back of my mind ever since. This morning the Unveiling Mercy devotion dealt with the way Moses' face shone after speaking "face to face" with the Lord.  And it was no small thing then, whenever the Instagram account of Ruth de Jesus  made the connection also to this place in Scripture to Romans 3:23. Paul tells us, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." The Greek word is hustereó and it means  to lack , to fall short, to be in need , to fail.    In Exodus 34:6 we read all that we're lacking and all that we're in desperate need of when the LORD proclaims his very nature. He is, "The Lord—the Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth, maintaining faithful love to a thousand generatio...