“Have I not been brought here to experience some great readjustment in my spiritual nature? (Yes! I can name so many experiences, especially Cairo, where this is the truth)  Instinctively the old nature at once cries out, “Oh, will it be very painful?  Hasn’t there been enough of it already, dear Lord Jesus? (This is truly what comes across my mind!)  And then I laugh.  Shall the clay vessel on the Lord’s wheel and under his loving, molding hands, think of pain in the last stage of a long, joyous yielding to his patient fashioning?  The only thing that matters is that the adjustment of abandonment to selflesss love be made perfectly, so that I stop seeking to be loved and abandon myself to the joy giving love to others.  How beautifully someone has summed this up in the words of an old Quaker lady quoted to me, “Self-sacrifice is the ectasy of giving the best we have to the one we love the most.”  ~ Hinds’ Feet On High Places

from my journal…(this is from a couple weeks ago as i came back from a weekend away from Cairo)

“Coming back to Cairo can be hard when I see it as something against my will.  Right now I cannot deny that I am supposed to be here.  Then, I wonder why it can be so hard.  It is because I see as God’s will and something I must do…BUT, if I want the Lord’s will to be my will, which I do, as it becomes my heart’s desire, may it not feel like such a duty, but a JOY.  It is a sacrifice, but I don’t want it to feel that way.   You have given me JOY to be here, you have given me joy even in sacrifice, may you change the way that I talk about Cairo…As I got out in Paducah to get gas, I saw a whole dead bird behind my car.  Blood was oozing out of it.  Normally, I would not look back, but I did.  As I did, the word SACRIFICE came to mind.  This is what people used to lay at the altar, now Jesus has offered himself in that place.  Then, Romans 12:1 came to mind, “…by the mercies of God(it is by his mercy that we can even do this) to present your bodies as a LIVING SACRIFICE, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship…”  This is the vision you want me to have with sacrifice in my life.  I am to sacrifice myself, my body, my desires AND this is WORSHIP.  This is an expanded understanding of worship that I’ve been seeking.  Worship is more than music or creative expression, it is a heart posture, a giving of oneself for the only one that is worthy.

Yet our Father also says that He desires obedience and not sacrifice.  I see what we would call a SACRIFICE could actually be OBEDIENCE in God’s eyes.  To even be able to sacrifice or act in obedience we need to SURRENDER our desires, our will to our Father who is in control.  This is a place that I come back to often.  Sometimes I wonder how He can be so patient.  I am actually sick of the returning to this place spiritually!  I keep wanting to have control or act as if I do have control over people, my life when Lord it is really all in your hands all along!  Lord, I am ready to act in what I know to be true.  Lord, I want it to be a joy to submit, obey and surrender to you.

These words, SACRIFICE, OBEDIENCE, AND SURRENDER have been rolling around in my mind and heart.  I do not have any rock hard conclusions but only beginnings of comprehension.  Lord, I need your understanding of them.

YOU THINK THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL.

in their homes, while they’re asleep,

when they’re out roaming the streets,

as they sit at their desks,

YOU THINK THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL.

when they are good and when they are bad,

whether they listen or not,

when words come from their mouth that shouldn’t be heard,

YOU THINK THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL.

when they’re joyful,

in their tears, hurt eyes and hard hearts,

YOU THINK THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL.

in the difficult,

in the sad,

in the injustice,

YOU THINK THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL.

whatever their shade,

black, white, or anything inbetween,

YOU THINK THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL.

let your love rule the day,

it does anyway,

speak softly over them Jesus,

so they may know…

YOU THINK THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL.

(There are so many children out there that do not know THEY ARE LOVED BY A HEAVENLY FATHER!  Why don’t we tell them??)

This song speaks of where our heart is.  We have been waiting in Cairo.  This is a place that often feels like a desert.  It kind of looks like one, but it is more than that.  We often feel like we are like the Israelites, waiting, just waiting to get to the Promised Land that we know the Lord wants to bring the people of Cairo to.  As it turned 2008 I sensed for my life and for Cairo that it would be a year of “new beginnings”.  It turns out that 40 years ago was the height of the civil rights movement in our country and in Cairo.  Martin Luther King was killed in 1968, forty years ago.  Throughout scripture God moves in 40 year time periods.  Our address at our center is actually 2008 Martin Luther King Drive!          

There has been a new steadfastness and perseverance in my spirit.  I now know for sure that I will not leave this “desert” until I see the rain.  I do not know how much of God’s harvest I will see in this city, but I know I will see the beginning.  We are waiting.  I am waiting.  The rain of God that I am talking about will open hearts to Him.  His Holy Spirit wants to dwell here.  The rain will till the soil here.  God will bring His people to the Promised Land.  Are we ready?  I am.  We are.           

It just so happens that it is raining ice right now as I type this…odd, or is it?! 

“Oh, I’m waiting in this desert, just waiting for the rain.   Oh, but I won’t leave this desert until I see the rain.  And I’m waiting in the wilderness of promises yet fulfilled.   Oh, but I won’t leave this wilderness until I see the rain.  I’m waiting for the rain.  Oh, I’m waiting for the rainI’m just waiting for the rain.  Oh, I’m waiting for the rain.  For I have heard the story told of a prophet who prophetized.  Of the rain that would come in the middle of a drought of a sign of the rain to come.  And though years have come and years of gone.  We’re still waiting for the rain.  Oh, but I can see the clouds gathering now.  Are you ready, are you ready for the rain?  Open up the heavens and let it rain, let it rain, let it rain.  Open the heavens and let it rain, let it rain, let it rain“ “Let it rain God, let it rain…let it rain…” 

 -Misty Edwards (unplugged cd, for those that are not familiar with Misty, check her out, God truly speaks through her music.  Much of it is of the time we are in right now.) 

“Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD;
    his going out is sure as the dawn;
he will come to us as the showers,
   as the spring rains that water the earth.”-           Hosea 6:3

“…for waters break forth in the wilderness, And streams in the desert;  The burning sand shall become a pool, And the thirsty ground springs of water…And a highway shall be there, And it shall be called the Way of Holiness;  The unclean shall not pass over it.It shall belong to those who walk on the way;  Even if they are fools, they shall not go astray. No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it; They shall not be found there, But the redeemed shall walk there.And the ransomed of the Lord shall returnAnd come to Zion with singing; Everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; They shall obtain gladness and joy, And sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”- Isaiah 35:6b-10 (you should read ALL of it!)

(A friend e-mailed this scripture to me a couple weeks ago saying that it is encouraging to people in a “desert”.  That morning, we had just been praying for the redeemed in Cairo!) 

 Do we often think of God, the Father, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, our Comforter, as a KING?  A KING is one who reigns over “a land” and has people in that land that are “subject to him”.  This is the King that we can find in the Word.  This is the King of the past.  He is the King of the now.  He is also the King of the future.  We forget too often that this King is indeed going to come back.  What a celebration this will be!  We need to get think about this so we can get excited!  He will then have complete control at that time of everything of the land, and He will even have His own government.  What that looks like, we can only know in part right now, but we can pray for the Lord’s wisdom and revelation.

When we look at our God as a King I believe it allows us to also see Jesus in a new way.  At least it does for me.  Within the last week I have heard this same audio sermon by this pastor named Shadrach Meshack Lockridge, that has been dead for years now.  It is titled, “My King”.  I heard it in two different places!  It is in situations such as these where the same message seems to follow me, that I know God is trying to teach me.  I want to allow you to be challenged as I have, so I am copying here the sermon’s words.  As you read ask yourself, DO I KNOW MY KING?  Allow how God is described soak into your heart, and soul.  Seek Him where He may be found, in the Bible, and the world around you.  May we live only my friends for this King…

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