Prayer

Last Saturday as I sat down in my rocker to read, there was this very loud TWANG
and it felt as if I would fall over backward.
Something had broken on the rocker system, so I flipped the chair on its side to
have a look for the cause, and as the chair lay there, beside it was a fine pile
of graphite dust covering my carpet.
Wow I thought, this must have been coming for sometime,
for there had been these ominous groanings, from time to time.

After having vacuumed up the dust, which if one touched it, smeared into the
carpet, I unbolted the assembly mechanism to discover that one of the three
coil springs had broken, in a long fracture rather than cleanly strait through.

O LORD I muttered, this is all that I need now, I can’t afford to replace this chair.

As I stared miserably at the defunct assembly, that small soft voice we so often
SHUT OUT spoke, take heart, bind up the two halves like in a splint to make them one
again.
That’s what I did, and 20 minutes later I was sitting once more normally though with
apprehesion.

You see there are 2 large coils at the front of this off center rocker assembly, that
pull against the sitters body weight, and one smaller one at the rear to push against
the 2 in front to hold the chair level when unoccupied.
And it was one of the large front ones that had fractured and now sundered with
that loud TWANG. How could I tell? Well the part that had fractured earlier
was rusted while the fresh break was all shiny steel.

But the splinted coil was on the second day emitting a newer sound each time
that I arose. IT sounded like GRRTHWAT, I read as, thank GOD he’s getting up.

And while I was bolting the assembly back on I muttered a small prayer of
thanks and a request to ease this mess. LORD I need a new spring here
for each time that GRRTHWAT sounded, it must have stabbed a knife into
the head of the fellow who lives below.

Why pray for a spring, and not a new chair? Well the chair is in A-one shape
with the exception of needing a new foam cushion for my bum and now this
spring that was undone but tied up back into one.

In the apartment where I live they are always throwing out olde furniture and
just 6 months earlier there had been a similar chair, the covering worn bear
but the rest, frame and springs still functioning and yes
the small voice had prompted me then but then I had ignored HIM.

If only I had known then what I know now, right?
Well the upshot of that seemingly insignificant prayer is that it was
ANSWERED.

On my way to the library to NETWORK ONLINE, they were raising
a new tower, and the alley down which I used to walk had been blocked
but for some reason last Monday following that weekends chairs incident,
as the tower is done, I took and olde familiar course.
And there obscured by blackberry brambles was the back of an armchair.
And if I hadn’t been prompted by that small voice, I call and know as GOD
I would have passed by, unawares.
On Tuesday I passed by again and tugged it out of the briar for which I
now wear the scars, there it was, a cloned cousin of the one I own.
I flipped it over as best I could and yes it held the same assembly, though
This one was broken where the mounting tabs attached it to the chair frame.
I almost strutted home, like I had won the lottery.

Twenty minutes later armed with a screwdriver the cast off part was mine.
And with some effort and patience, my GOD answered and supplied
what I needed and yes am rocking once more silently in my haven.

We are promised, that GOD will supply our NEEDS. But many of us have
mistaken NEED with WANT. Something small breaks and we automatically
think in total replacement, and hence why we have so much waste, filling
our landfills, in higher and higher nonrenewable fuel costs, and our huge
carbon footprint/impact on the environment.

We could rebuild our cars, but after a few years we cast them off, and now
whereby the auto industry here is so sick, we could change our bad
institutionalized practices for better ones, but with an easy credit bail out
that’s not likely to happen too soon.

We are ADDICTS in almost every aspect of our lives, and in our prayers
we exemplify what James wrote about see JAMES 4

1 From whence come wars and fightings among you?
come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain:
ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
3Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it
upon your lusts.
4Ye adulterers and adulteresses,
know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?
whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
5Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain,
Is the spirit that dwelleth in us, of lusteth and envy?


Seems to me we have become unhappy PRAYER’s
People there aren’t any small prayers, just small PRAYER’s.

We need to retrain our mind set as James wrote and the rest of the BIBLE
points out again and again, not to be as if we held any tenure in this temporal reality.
Paul wrote,
as if we owned NADA, and as we are like the illegal aliens, most nationalists
love to harp their angst against, when it comes to jobs won or lost.

So many of us when we have received of GOD, of HIS bounty and blessings,
end up grandstanding as if we were worthy, or we had by our own merit achieved the
conclusion, but many of us fall into the same pit as did Moses, Nebuch and many others.
Selfishness steals from GOD to whom all CREDIT goes and comes.
We are thankless when something does come undone.
Remember JOB who suffered a worse TWANG than I that Saturday,
who said , if by GOD the good comes, for which I was happy to take,
and now the BAD, why should I not also be happy to sing HIM Thanksgiving.

Imagine if our hayseed sized faith could pray more realistically and we would
come to appreciate the receipt, by giving to GOD alone the glory for the GRACE
and blessed gifts HE allowed us to take temporary possession of.
And not that we mark ourselves by stuff or
STUFF mars the man/woman as OWNED by dust.

So many of us have so much. 1/3 of this world consumes without a thought or
care of where it came from, while 2/3 of this world hasn’t enough to EAT, to
wear, or shelter, a bed much less a rocker chair, or hope of what tomorrow will
deliver.
I thank GOD for the broken spring and today’s broken economy. These are lessons
we need to experience in order that we might more wisely learn how to pray for
others as like we pray for ourselves and our loved ones.

My prayer now is, GOD spread the wealth, either we are all poor together or
we are all rich and not subject to the whims of selfish men or the outdoor weather.

People we need to end this wasteful slide of entropy. We throw out so much that
took so much energy and effort to produce and move, in order that you may kick
back and rock about. All of it can be recycled, rather than thrown away, to end
up in some hole, ocean, or furnace which just spews it’s waste into the envelope
we breath, or fouls our food, our water and our short lives.

I thank GOD someone left that chair there, and I received by that castoff item
what was missing in mine.
I thank GOD, that Israel also cast off Jesus much as that chair had been, that I
might have an opportunity to have my own coil restored, and that,

GOD provided it all, SON and resource.
And that we might all find the better course to,
Spread the wealth and teach us to get on in this life with less, and to appreciate
the bounty be it small or large as well for us to see our final worth as being that
of what we consume, value and to others bestow.

PAX

[Soulheart3]

I liked your story and I agree that bad things/hard times are typically what draw us closer to the Lord and ultimatly they are truly better than any GOOD times in the sense we DO draw closer to the Lord through them. Praise God for the Hard Times!

Originally Posted by PASHA

Prayer

Last Saturday as I sat down in my rocker to read, there was this very loud TWANG
and it felt as if I would fall over backward.
Something had broken on the rocker system, so I flipped the chair on its side to
have a look for the cause, and as the chair lay there, beside it was a fine pile
of graphite dust covering my carpet.
Wow I thought, this must have been coming for sometime,
for there had been these ominous groanings, from time to time.

After having vacuumed up the dust, which if one touched it, smeared into the
carpet, I unbolted the assembly mechanism to discover that one of the three
coil springs had broken, in a long fracture rather than cleanly strait through.

O LORD I muttered, this is all that I need now, I can’t afford to replace this chair.

As I stared miserably at the defunct assembly, that small soft voice we so often
SHUT OUT spoke, take heart, bind up the two halves like in a splint to make them one
again.
That’s what I did, and 20 minutes later I was sitting once more normally though with
apprehesion.

You see there are 2 large coils at the front of this off center rocker assembly, that
pull against the sitters body weight, and one smaller one at the rear to push against
the 2 in front to hold the chair level when unoccupied.
And it was one of the large front ones that had fractured and now sundered with
that loud TWANG. How could I tell? Well the part that had fractured earlier
was rusted while the fresh break was all shiny steel.

But the splinted coil was on the second day emitting a newer sound each time
that I arose. IT sounded like GRRTHWAT, I read as, thank GOD he’s getting up.

And while I was bolting the assembly back on I muttered a small prayer of
thanks and a request to ease this mess. LORD I need a new spring here
for each time that GRRTHWAT sounded, it must have stabbed a knife into
the head of the fellow who lives below.

Why pray for a spring, and not a new chair? Well the chair is in A-one shape
with the exception of needing a new foam cushion for my bum and now this
spring that was undone but tied up back into one.

In the apartment where I live they are always throwing out olde furniture and
just 6 months earlier there had been a similar chair, the covering worn bear
but the rest, frame and springs still functioning and yes
the small voice had prompted me then but then I had ignored HIM.

If only I had known then what I know now, right?
Well the upshot of that seemingly insignificant prayer is that it was
ANSWERED.

On my way to the library to NETWORK ONLINE, they were raising
a new tower, and the alley down which I used to walk had been blocked
but for some reason last Monday following that weekends chairs incident,
as the tower is done, I took and olde familiar course.
And there obscured by blackberry brambles was the back of an armchair.
And if I hadn’t been prompted by that small voice, I call and know as GOD
I would have passed by, unawares.
On Tuesday I passed by again and tugged it out of the briar for which I
now wear the scars, there it was, a cloned cousin of the one I own.
I flipped it over as best I could and yes it held the same assembly, though
This one was broken where the mounting tabs attached it to the chair frame.
I almost strutted home, like I had won the lottery.

Twenty minutes later armed with a screwdriver the cast off part was mine.
And with some effort and patience, my GOD answered and supplied
what I needed and yes am rocking once more silently in my haven.

We are promised, that GOD will supply our NEEDS. But many of us have
mistaken NEED with WANT. Something small breaks and we automatically
think in total replacement, and hence why we have so much waste, filling
our landfills, in higher and higher nonrenewable fuel costs, and our huge
carbon footprint/impact on the environment.

We could rebuild our cars, but after a few years we cast them off, and now
whereby the auto industry here is so sick, we could change our bad
institutionalized practices for better ones, but with an easy credit bail out
that’s not likely to happen too soon.

We are ADDICTS in almost every aspect of our lives, and in our prayers
we exemplify what James wrote about see JAMES 4

1 From whence come wars and fightings among you?
come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain:
ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
3Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it
upon your lusts.
4Ye adulterers and adulteresses,
know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?
whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
5Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain,
Is the spirit that dwelleth in us, of lusteth and envy?


Seems to me we have become unhappy PRAYER’s
People there aren’t any small prayers, just small PRAYER’s.

We need to retrain our mind set as James wrote and the rest of the BIBLE
points out again and again, not to be as if we held any tenure in this temporal reality.
Paul wrote,
as if we owned NADA, and as we are like the illegal aliens, most nationalists
love to harp their angst against, when it comes to jobs won or lost.

So many of us when we have received of GOD, of HIS bounty and blessings,
end up grandstanding as if we were worthy, or we had by our own merit achieved the
conclusion, but many of us fall into the same pit as did Moses, Nebuch and many others.
Selfishness steals from GOD to whom all CREDIT goes and comes.
We are thankless when something does come undone.
Remember JOB who suffered a worse TWANG than I that Saturday,
who said , if by GOD the good comes, for which I was happy to take,
and now the BAD, why should I not also be happy to sing HIM Thanksgiving.

Imagine if our hayseed sized faith could pray more realistically and we would
come to appreciate the receipt, by giving to GOD alone the glory for the GRACE
and blessed gifts HE allowed us to take temporary possession of.
And not that we mark ourselves by stuff or
STUFF mars the man/woman as OWNED by dust.

So many of us have so much. 1/3 of this world consumes without a thought or
care of where it came from, while 2/3 of this world hasn’t enough to EAT, to
wear, or shelter, a bed much less a rocker chair, or hope of what tomorrow will
deliver.
I thank GOD for the broken spring and today’s broken economy. These are lessons
we need to experience in order that we might more wisely learn how to pray for
others as like we pray for ourselves and our loved ones.

My prayer now is, GOD spread the wealth, either we are all poor together or
we are all rich and not subject to the whims of selfish men or the outdoor weather.

People we need to end this wasteful slide of entropy. We throw out so much that
took so much energy and effort to produce and move, in order that you may kick
back and rock about. All of it can be recycled, rather than thrown away, to end
up in some hole, ocean, or furnace which just spews it’s waste into the envelope
we breath, or fouls our food, our water and our short lives.

I thank GOD someone left that chair there, and I received by that castoff item
what was missing in mine.
I thank GOD, that Israel also cast off Jesus much as that chair had been, that I
might have an opportunity to have my own coil restored, and that,

GOD provided it all, SON and resource.
And that we might all find the better course to,
Spread the wealth and teach us to get on in this life with less, and to appreciate
the bounty be it small or large as well for us to see our final worth as being that
of what we consume, value and to others bestow.

PAX

Pasha, just an excellent and well thought out post. I can understand the world falling into this predicament, they are blind to truth and live only for today. But what is sad is that we Christians are as guilty...no.... more guilty than those in the world, for we have been given the value of life values by God Himself. Yet, in our greed, we still want the best this world has to offer, and then have heaven too! It is time we wake up from our dream before it becomes a nightmare.

Jesus said that to whom much is given, much is required, but we have no fear of our accountability for is that sin not one covered by the blood as well? Our greasy grace says,

"It is ok if I live like the world when he says not to, worldliness is just sin, and Jesus paid the price for all my sins, so it's all good. It's ok, just put it on my tab, and my father is picking up the bill."

Our only hope is that we die of an illness that gives us plenty of time to refelct on our folly and truly repent, because if we pass to the next life quickly, with our sins unrepented of and unconfessed, we can indeed forget getting our bills paid for by the blood of the precious lamb who died to save us from this present evil world.

YES SOULHEART3
Knowledge and Wisdom are both good and worth finding,
but they also have truly bad downsides,
just study the life of Solomon to see the truth of this. Love does not puff up.
Perfect Love drives out pride.
Faith, Hope, and Love are the greatest of all things we can strive for,
and the greatest of these are Love.

It seems we tend to most often overlook or be preached to overlook the
eventual fall from grace that Solomon and thus also Israel experienced.
But then that fall was only a stumble at first, like the first earth quake
rumble as a precursor of a major one coming if something isn't undertaken
We are also taught OUT of CONTEXT about DAVID who at first was all for
GOD's heart, but on his final bed he had made, the advice he continanced
to Solomon was not of GOD's heart but CAINS.
Another thing we aren't often told when other aspects of DAVID are raised
in a manner to SUIT our own vain agenda.

As SUPPOSED children of the GOD who sired JESUS thrice we seem oft
too reluctant to get to know our ABBA's HEART, and so we follow those
we were as children foolishly taught to OBEY lest we stray away from
the CHURCH"s MAINSTREAMED WAY.
PAX

Hi Bruce, Amen
Jesus said that to whom much is given, much is required,
but we have no fear of our accountability for is that sin not one covered by
the blood as well? Our greasy grace says,

"It is ok if I live like the world when he says not to, worldliness is just sin,
and Jesus paid the price for all my sins, so it's all good. It's ok, just put it on my tab,
and my father is picking up the bill."

I am reminded of MATT 25,31-44 the CULLING of the herd, in the scripture
it states the unbelievers from the believers.
I often shake my head at myself as I do @ others, for who among has
truly believed? For if we had would we still be making those sorry excuses?
If we had wouldn't we have repented? If we had won't the words of Mk.16, 17+18 be applicable?
The disciples asked Jesus to INCREASE their FAITH?
What was His reply to them?
WE all have a measure of faith, but so few of us ever train up that
unseen muscle which as the saying goes, USE IT or LOSE IT.
So many on STERIODS who are misleading the seekers whose MORAL
is almost as low as hell itself.
YOU asked, what might we do to IMPROVE this CALLING?
I'll bump your post forward with the ANSWER.

Originally Posted by PASHA

Hi Bruce, Amen
Jesus said that to whom much is given, much is required,
but we have no fear of our accountability for is that sin not one covered by
the blood as well? Our greasy grace says,

"It is ok if I live like the world when he says not to, worldliness is just sin,
and Jesus paid the price for all my sins, so it's all good. It's ok, just put it on my tab,
and my father is picking up the bill."

I am reminded of MATT 25,31-44 the CULLING of the herd, in the scripture
it states the unbelievers from the believers.
I often shake my head at myself as I do @ others, for who among has
truly believed? For if we had would we still be making those sorry excuses?
If we had wouldn't we have repented? If we had won't the words of Mk.16, 17+18 be applicable?
The disciples asked Jesus to INCREASE their FAITH?
What was His reply to them?
WE all have a measure of faith, but so few of us ever train up that
unseen muscle which as the saying goes, USE IT or LOSE IT.
So many on STERIODS who are misleading the seekers whose MORAL
is almost as low as hell itself.
YOU asked, what might we do to IMPROVE this CALLING?
I'll bump your post forward with the ANSWER.

Is it not strange that we say we love our Lord, but the word of God says:

"Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him."

Are we like the disciples who stayed in the safety of the boat or like Peter, who was bold enough to get out and walk on the water.

Yes, he eventually doubted and began to sink, but can you imagine how pleased the Master was that he had a disciple who was bold enough to, in the middle of a violent storm, risk all, life and limb, to get out of the safety of the boat and walk on water to His master because there was one more safe out amongst the distant tumultuous waves than his little boat of human effort could afford him?

By the way, PASHA, I am beginning to appreciate your posts more and more.

DID pete really believe, or did Pete just trust Jesus because he could see
Him standing on the ever shifting moment?
So many of us tend to mix and blend the 2 quite separate idioms as being
the same thing.
Take that fellow who was doing wonders in the name of Jesus, and yet
instead of the 12 being happy that there was someone who actually believed,
turned to Jesus, DEMANDING that He make him stop.
Much as we in todays society fall back on laws to protect what we believe
is OUR JURISDICTION, like the Jews who believe that GOD is only for them
and we christians tend to agree in a sort of round about manner, while
we also love to think that the same GOD is only our purvey now, while
we look down our collectly trained noses at anyone who doesn't agree
or see things from our perspective, and thus we christians look down our
whited noses @ those of ISLAM and say, well too bad they don't worship
the same GOD.
It always comes down to our preconceptions, those ideals they seeded in us
while we were still young and which many a poor soul finds very difficult to
break with, and then we are also subject to our own often skewed insights
due to the grace of GOD and HIS time to acquire a modicum of experience
to reflect up.
QUESTION to all, we treat the treatise of the BOOK as if that were all there
is, and yet how many of you think the 1200- 2000 words that are recorded
of Jesus is all that He spoke? How many of us tend to not see the gaps in
the pixels the book reveals, or worse we read them as if they had all just
happened in an instant and that there isn't some sort of evolution taking
place even herein?

What's my fondest desire for all believers no matter their religion?
NOT to be so cullible, so blinded by them who are equally blind but
whom we were trained to fear or revere.
GOD freed me, and shown HIS light into the NIGHT most menschen
stumble in and all I wish and hope for is that more folks come to see not
by the trained nerds candle watt, but by the brilliant strobe of Jesus
who is but a mere reflection of His ABBA, all creation's GOD.