Congestion

When we wake up in the mornings, even if we don’t have a cold, we experience minimal congestion in the sinuses and chest area, especially in geographical regions where the climates change drastically from hot to cold and the seasons like to play with our minds.  When we begin drinking water and hot fluids, this stuff we call mucus and/or phlegm beings to break up, become diluted and flows more easily from the body through our coughing, swallowing, or blowing the nose.  In times of extreme colds and flu season, the mucus build-up may be so great that it becomes a film over the eyes.  When one suffers from a “head cold” the congestion can fill all of the cavities in the head causing stopped-up ears, nose and watery eyes (and dry eyes) as the eyes do their job of trying to wash this stuff away.  The doctor will take his light and look into your eyes, throat, nose, and ears to see how badly the cavities (caves, holes) are filled.  You probably talk with a nasal sound and thus everyone can see that you are suffering from congestion.

Things just are not flowing and moving as they normally do and should.  Something has happened along the way to slow things down, and now even you have been slowed down to a snail’s pace in your daily life and affairs.  All you want to do is lie down and be still, but your Megamind bids you to get up and get out, and get on with life, otherwise nothing will work without you.  WRONG!  Life will go on, with or without you, but how you deal with the congestion before you (without you) will decide how and whose life goes on – with or without you. J

Most illnesses and diseases in the body and soul are reactions to some kind of outside “substance” or stimulus.  For every kind of information we receive into ourselves through our five senses and our sixth sense – the mind – the body has a response and/or reaction to.  The body must process everything we do or don’t do whether positive or negative, short termed or sustained and part of its response is to release chemicals from certain organs which travel in the blood to and through all of the other organs.  Picture in your megamind (just love this word and the movie too) a highway with many exits and entrances.  Traffic is coming on and off all day long at fast and slow speeds. Vehicles with poorly maintained engines and such, giving off pollutants into the vehicles behind them.  Cough!  Yuck.

On weekdays when everyone is going to work at the same time is usually when traffic jams (not jelly) occur, and because of impatient drivers (whether they’re on time or not) accidents happen stopping the movement of traffic altogether.  You know when your six year old comes into your bedroom talking funny, he says “I’m stopped up mummy.  I can’t breathe through my nose.”  You then get the picture of a traffic jam.  (Jam has pieces of fruit and more sugar than jelly so you can see why we call them traffic “JAMS” and not traffic “Jelly” J)  Now might not be the best time for a meal.  You can eat after you finish reading this blog.  LOL  Anyhoooo, nothing’s moving.  Until this traffic jam is cleared up.  But how in the world can an already crowded freeway (I won’t mess with that one) be cleared when every vehicle on the road is a part of the problem?

Authorities on motorcycles and even police cars have to make their way through the narrow spaces between the cars and trucks and along the median.  They are “authorized” to go where common folk cannot go, and make commands which by law the regular people must follow.  They have to assess the situation and implement a solution.  Let’s go back to the nasally head for a minute.

I find that in the morning time, the more I drink water and hot tea, the better I begin to breathe, not just in my head, but in my chest as well.  This is because the fluid and heat of the fluid are authorized to go where nothing else can go, and break up that traffic jam in the head and chest.  Hmmm,  Somehow you knew that this message was not just about traffic jams and jelly in the head and on the highway.  And you’re right! J  Let’s go for a ride with the top down.

While spending some time in prayer with the Lord I felt led to keep my mouth shut so I could hear what was going on inside of my head and heart.  See, the mouth can be speaking one prayer while the head is thinking something else.  If you don’t believe me, do two things, not at the same time mind you.  First, call someone on the telephone and just talk, and see how soon or eventually you will be saying one thing but thinking another.  And depending on how close you are to the other person, you might just confess to them what’s going on with you.  Second, read Isaiah 29:13.  Here the Lord complains that His people say one thing but their hearts hide something else.  So I didn’t want to be a parrot in my prayers.  I wanted to know what was in my own heart and the way to do that was to keep my mouth closed in the presence of the Lord, and listen to the conversation between His heart and mine.

He said to me, “you notice how your sinuses and chest cleared up as you continued drinking the water.  You were washing your organs with water.  Your body is 98% water and thus water is the only fluid authorized to flow throughout the entire body to cleanse and heal, to clear things up.”  I continued listening while Holy Spirit said “the more you spend time washing in My Word – the Logos, it clears away all the gunk that causes congestion in your heart and soul which blocks you from letting my Word transform you into My ‘personality likeness’" (for we are spiritual beings made into His image, but our social skills don’t reveal the image of Christ dwelling within.  So our souls must be continually washed to clear up the internal traffic jam.).

One of the main reasons this process is necessary is so that we can fully “act” without pretense, hypocrisy, falsehood, in spirit and in truth like Jesus did when He walked the earth.  When He speaks a Rhema Word into our hearts we SEE it as He sees it with our spirit, and then we SAY it as He says it.  Next we DO it – the works we SEE Him doing, whatever they may be.  But there can be no Saying without first Seeing and there can be no seeing without first BEING and there can be no being without first YIELDING.

It’s not complicated, but what makes it difficult is what’s inside of us already – it gets in the way, clogging things up, stopping things up.  Congestion.  Not processing well all that’s coming into our “space”, or trying to process too much of the wrong stuff, or trying to process too many things at the same time.  Remember the entrances and exits on the highway – a lot of vehicles coming on trying to go in the same direction at the same time within and through a limited amount of space.

We become, and become like what (and who) we ingest spirit, soul, and body.  The good and best things received in the right doses at the best and right times can keep things flowing at a steady pace.  Of course the wrong and bad-for-us substances (in whatever forms – material or immaterial) can and will clog and stop things up, and we find ourselves sitting by the side of the road waiting for a tow truck. J  However, the GOD things received on a daily basis throughout every 24 hour period we are allowed to breathe J can and will keep things flowing and moving as they should – stopping at the red lights, driving the speed limit, keeping the safe distance between vehicles, obeying the warning signals, taking the best route which may not always be the quickest J, but will help avoid unnecessary troubles and delays.  Checking and changing the oil, using the best gasoline and keeping the tank full, checking the air level in the tires and the treads too, carburetor, antifreeze, catalytic converter, shock absorbers, etc.  I’m not talking cars here people, but our lives – spirit, soul, and body.

I have a book which I use to help me understand my dreams and visions and the author says that when you’re dreaming about a car – driving a car, more than likely you are receiving a message concerning your life.  Hmmmm.  Congestion on the highway of life.  There is help and it is called the Word (the Logos and the Rhema) of God.  The breath of God.  Jesus the Christ Himself.  But in order for it (Him) to keep you flowing and to keep things flowing within you (us) we will have to spend copious hours bathing in it (Him) and drinking it (Him):  the Water of the Word.  You wash your car and body in water, not in milk, tea, coffee, wine, or juice, for water is the only fluid qualified and authorized to cleanse everything.  When pollutants get into our eyes we don’t rinse them out with tea or juice.  The doctor irrigates our ears with . . . water.  It is the only substance authorized and qualified to wash us fully – inside and out.  “So that He (Christ Jesus) might sanctify her (His Bride, the church – you and me), having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word, . . .”  Ephesians 5:26 [Parentheses mine.]  Water is our best Friend.  J

Peace.

May the WORD Be With You!

I grew up on “Star Trek” black and white, color, it didn’t matter. Just so I got to see Captain Kirk and Dr. Spock and the rest of the Starship Enterprise crew. I guess it is safe to say that STILL I am a die-hard Trekkie!!

Then along came some other great sci-fi movies, but for some reason I didn’t rush to see them or greet them, but as time passed I heard names like OB1 or O Be Wan or O Be One. Be one what? Hmmm. Not sure how to spell that name but an easier one was Luke SkyWalker or Luke Sky Walker, for maybe he had three names like most of us do. (Now it’s Walker Texas Ranger for me.) Hmmm again. Princess Leia or Lay-a. Nothing spectacular about that name, but I did begin to see girls and women with long hair now wearing their hair in pretzeled buns around their heads. I guess they went to “Princess Leia’s Hair Salon”.

Then I saw children with plastic swords that glowed in the dark or that lit up and maybe made a sci- fi “whirring” sound when they swung them, and the children would say something like “I am Darth Vader!” I wondered who is DV? (Do not change the order of those letters please. LOL!) Not long afterwards I learned that Darth Vader was the dark lord of this saga and his voice was played by one of my favorite actors of all time, James Earl Jones! Now what a voice, and he’s the reason why I finally watched “Star Wars” for the first time, several years after its initial release.

I loved the line “may the force be with you!” J Yeah, during those years I was in school and I found myself needing a lot of force from time to time. I never had a sword to swing at anyone though, at least not one that lit up or glowed in the dark. But I had another sword, “invisible” yet more powerful.

The other day I was reading a story about some guys who went fishing. It was their job, their livelihood not a hobby, and they knew that you catch fish best at night. But for some reason, when the sun came up on this particular day, they still hadn’t caught any fish. It was going to be a lean day at the fish market. So they began to clean their equipment and prepare to head on home to get some breakfast and shut-eye, for maybe that night would yield better results.

But all of a sudden a stranger was walking by and some folk were following him. It appeared that he was giving a tour of the area, but then he stopped in front of them and got into one of the boats. He told the owner “push away from the shore please.” Well, you can imagine the thoughts going through his head but instead he kept them to himself, as far as we know, and obeyed. Then this man began teaching the people from the boat and more people came. The owner of the boat thought “oh great. Now I’ll never get home.” “Hmmm, wouldn’t it have been wonderful if we could have caught some fish like this guy seems to have captured these peoples’ attention? Wonder what kind of bait He’s using?”

Well, if you can’t beat ‘em you might as well joy them, so he also began to listen while cleaning his equipment. Then just as suddenly as before, this “tour guide” teacher said to him “hey, throw your nets on the right side of the boat and catch some fish.” But the expert fisherman became a little miffed and said “man we’ve been fishing all night long and there just ain’t no fish biting in this area right now.” But then he saw the look in the man’s eyes, something strange and compelling making him feel kind of funny and he responded, “oh all right, since YOU say so I’ll do it.”

Suddenly (I think that’s about the third or fourth time I’ve used that word in this story. I think it’s important for us to take note.) he yelled to his partners in the other boats to come quickly and help him for his net was breaking! He realized then that he had been naked in the presence of a man who had a Word. A powerful Word. A Word with authority. A captivating Word. A Word to change his job’s situation and outlook. A life-giving and life-changing Word. The man with the Word was inside his boat and . . . and . . . so he bowed down and asked him to leave his presence for he was a man without a word. He was speechless. J

But this Man with the Word had a Word for him, and all his crew too. “Follow Me, and I will make you to be [more than just fishermen working for a pay check] ‘fishers of men.’” (Emphasis mine.) As time went on He said (and I’m narrating as I watched His activities unfold :->) ”I’ll give you a word that will cause the fish to jump into your net! Heck, they will even pay your taxes for you, at My Word. They will multiply from just two and feed 5,000, 4,000, and 7,000 men, women and children – at MY Word.” (The gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.) Think about this the next time you sit down to a fish fry, or are just enjoying some Long John Silver’s and Cap’n D’s crunchies and fries. (We don’t have those restaurants in France so I’m using my memories as I write this one yall. Send me some please. LOL!!)

He also told them “I will give meaning to your very existence. I will show you how to touch heaven and bring God down to earth to touch and reconnect with His creation. I will give you a Word that will show you your life’s purpose and help you fulfill your destiny. I will show you how to walk with God and perform His works on the earth, with MY Word.” “I AM the Man with the Word and the plan.” (Jeremiah 29:11) “I AM the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.” (Revelation) “I AM, I was, and I always will be. “In the beginning God . . .” (Genesis 1:1)

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was With God and the Word WAS God.” John 1:1. Hmmm, I just love this verse. In the beginning God had a Word. What is Himself for 400 Alex? LOL!!! In your beginning, for your beginning unto your ending God had and continues to have a Word, - for everyday is a new beginning. As the future becomes the present becomes the past He’s already there; always has been and always will be. And always with a Word. What is His Word today for you, for me? (And don’t forget, everyday becomes Today, and God is the same yesterday, today and forever! Whew, He covered ALL the bases.) He says, “I will never leave you nor forsake you. I will be with you until the ends of the earth.” (Matthew 28J) Sounds like a never ending story of great Words. HE IS THE WORD.

And may the Word be with you!! R2D2 & C3PO over and out. Beam me up Scotty!

Peace.

Preservatives

This past weekend while recuperating from a grueling week of work and traveling and teaching and rehearsing and . . . I watched one of my favorite movies again: “Bulletproof Monk” starring one of my favorite Asian actors Chow Yun-Fat. Of course he doesn’t know he’s one of my favorites, neither does ignorance of that fact prevent him from getting paid for doing what he does – act. As a matter of fact he’s banking on (pun intended) folk like me to continue making sure he gets paid. Hmmm, we seem to be going right in the direction I want to go and I didn’t know it. He’s keeping me happy and I’m keeping him happy and we’ve never ever met. Imagine that.

In the movie he is the next monk to protect the sacred scroll from evil people for the scroll has special powers. The monk before him protected it for 60 years but never aged a day over 25. When he passed on the scroll to Chow (I don’t think he minds me calling him by his first name) he said “I’m now going to do something I’ve not done in over 60 years. Take a vacation.” But he was killed instead by foreign enemies who wanted the scroll. As Chow fought and then “died” in the first 15 minutes of the movie, he took with him the sacred scroll which no one could find. Many years later he appeared in the United States where we learned (yes, I was there too.) that he had hidden the scroll on his body. He too did not look a day over 25 years old, even though he died.

As the story continues we learn from Chow that the power of the scroll is preservation. The person who preserves and protects the scroll is also preserved and protected by the scroll. The scroll made him bulletproof so he healed quickly and always survived a bullet wound, or a death fall, like in the first 15 minutes. This one particular line that he shared with fellow actor Seann William Scott, let me paraphrase it as I recall it, “he who protects the scroll is protected by the scroll” is the one that excited me. I was like “wow” yeah!!! Who wouldn’t want to protect and preserve something that’s going to reciprocate in kind like that? Then immediately another person came to my mind.

I thought about a man who lived a very long time ago on another continent and who died at a very young age, but he accomplished so much – more in three years than most of us do in a lifetime. The deeds He did and the Words He spoke changed the world forever, and continues to do so. His Words were so powerful and are powerful that people would be (and are) healed even though he didn’t touch them, even if he was in a different city! People suffering from violent multiple personality disorders which caused them to isolate themselves from society would be relieved of their mental and emotional torment with just one sentence from His scroll, I mean His mouth.

Even before that, before He was born His Father started it all just by speaking His thoughts and His Words became reality. Light, sunshine, moon, stars, water, etc. If you can name it, it’s because He said it first. But what I recall reading about Him, from His autobiography if you will, is that He said His Words are “life”. Then He said, well one of his followers, John by name, said it about Him for us: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” Humph. Imagine that. Then He spoke His Word into the earth to accomplish certain things, which means He spoke Himself into the earth so He could DO certain things. Hmmmm. Inside His Words are power – power to GIVE life and power to SUSTAIN life. Power to PRESERVE life and power to RESURRECT life. Power to RESTORE life and power to ENERGIZE life. Power to START life and power to END life. Now that’s some power. In words. That’s what was on the monk’s torso in the movie that sustained and preserved his life for over 60 years – words. What’s tattooed on my torso – my heart? What words are preserving me?

I guess you know by now, or maybe you don’t, but just in case, for those who don’t know, I am talking about God Almighty, the Creator of the Universe, and His Son Jesus the Christ, the One Who said “I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life”. Hmmmm. Four m’s that time, again. He also said “If you abide in (live in) ME (talking about Himself) and My Words abide in (remain in) you and continue to live in your hearts, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.” John 15:8. Now He means more than just writing His Words on our bodies. He means for His Word to become such an important part of our lives, our very beings, who we are and what we do, how we believe and what we say, where we go and with whom, etc. that the things we ask for from Him would be the things He would also desire and would ask for from His Father, for us and if He were in our shoes. Again.

If we follow closely in His footsteps we see and hear that most of the time He requested “life” for everyone with whom He came in contact. Life for their bodies if they died (remember he raised Lazarus, and two other un-named teenagers from the dead, male and female.); life for their health when they were sick – the Centurion’s servant and the Syrophenician woman’s daughter, and both of them from a distance. He never made it to their houses. Just to name a few. Everything Jesus asked for from His Father He received, except one thing, because everything He asked for was what the Father wanted to do in the first place. Jesus carried not just ON His body, but inside Himself – He WAS and is the scroll on which God wrote His love letter to the world.

Those very Words preserved Him because He preserved those Words. He didn’t add to them neither did He take away from them. Read the promise and the warning in Revelation 22: 18-19. The promise He gives us is we will be kept by the very words we keep. We are what we say because what we say is usually what we believe, or what we will eventually believe if we continue saying it long enough. Another scripture says we are “snared by the words of our mouths.” Proverbs 6:2. On the positive side then we are Preserved and reserved, sustained and constrained, and restrained and . . . by the words of our mouths.

“Thy Word have I hidden in my heart that I might not sin against Thee”. So I won’t miss You, the mark and plans you’ve set for me, my life, my destiny. But one of my mostest (I just love this incorrect word) favorite scriptures is the one where the writer says to God “Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in Your book all the days [of my life] were written (words) before ever they took shape, when as yet there was none of them.” Psalm 139:16. This means God said something about us, me before I was ever born. He wrote it down so He wouldn't forget it. (gheesh, I'm truly my Father's daughter.) The Old Testament also tells us that the priests were instructed to wear the names of each of the tribes of Israel on their clothing every time they went into the Holy Place to burn incense in the presence of God. Why? To keep their names and His promises to them ever before Him. He made a promise to Abraham in Genesis about the children of Israel before they were ever born, before he ever had one son and long after Abraham died, the priests continued to remind God of what He said about his offspring. God’s Words to Abraham about his offspring preserved them as they also in turn struggled to preserve God’s Word within themselves.

Around France, and maybe even other parts of Europe there are these machines on walls in different places much like soda machines, snack machines, newspaper machines, but they’re called “Preservatives”. When I first saw one I of course was confused because I thought of chemicals we put into foods and other things with shelf lives to prolong their lives on the shelf. So of course I had to have a closer look and of course I learned something new that day. As a woman, I could be offended because to me it implied that having unprotected sex with a woman is dangerous and a man needs to “preserve” himself while using her to satisfy himself. But of course, it is supposed to work both ways, when it is working properly. An equal opportunity product. Preservative is the French word for condom. It’s designed of course to protect both partners, thus prolonging their shelf lives. J No offense taken.

When you read the ingredients on some food products you will see the phrase “no preservatives added” which means the shelf life is normal, and shorter than those with preservatives, and they’re supposed to be all natural too, like fresh fruit and veggies. You must consume them very soon. Frankly, I don’t think we could live very well without preservatives because living in today's society is fast and expensive. We need all the help we can get to prolong the life of everything we acquire.

Jesus is the Great Preservative – Preserver of Life. When we receive Him into our lives and in turn give our lives to Him, He enters our hearts and souls and the preserving or preservation begins. The more we honor Him and allow His Words, which represent Who He is, to transform our thoughts, desires, emotions, will, intentions, intellect, deeds, actions, and words the more we are preserved in every part of our lives. And yes we can live longer because His Words are health to our bones too, not just our spirits and minds. “Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, Sweetness to the soul and health to the bones.” Proverbs 16:24. Words that preserve I’m convinced must be pleasant and sweet. So the next time you get on an all-natural health food kick, and you find yourself scrutinizing all the ingredients on every label of every product you buy, and you see the words “preservatives added”, remember to ask yourself, what would life be like without them? Especially without the Great Preservative.

Peace.