Trying Times - “INCREASE”
by
Dr. Gale A. Ragan-Reid (5/29/2013, 6/1/2013, 6/15/2013, 6/18/2013, 6/22/2013)
“Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer” (Psalms 19:14, KJV [God's manifold blessings]).
Giving honor to our Lord and Saviour, Christ Jesus,
We pray “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer”(Psalms 19:14, KJV [God's manifold blessings]). There comes a time, in a woman's life, when she must feel the need to confess her sins before God, to receive forgiveness. We think why good works planted in supposedly good ground, the manifold blessings do not COME FORTH as the blessings SHOULD COME FORTH, THE YIELD FROM THE SOWING IS MINIMAL, in comparison to what was reaped in proven and tested good ground? Is sin blocking the flow of God's blessings or is sin blocking the faith of believing that God's blessing will yield a bounteous harvest for abundant living?
Is that why we judge ourselves by praying, Psalms 19:14, to qualify ourselves, in redemption of sins, to receive what we have prayed for? We ask God to prove our words and meditations as acceptable so that we might receive blessings from a God of strength (Jehovah Chatsahi, The Lord my Strength, Psalm 27:1, KJV) and a Christ, who redeems (Jehovah Go'el, The Lord my Redeemer, Isaiah 49:26, 60:16, KJV) us from sin and to accept the words of our mouth and the meditations of our heart as proven by a God of strength and Christ of redemptive power. Why would a friend say, “She never has any money? And, everytime you do one thing for her, she jumps down on you and wants you to do something else.” I overheard a friend say this to someone else and in my heart I felt the pain of betrayal so much so that it rendered me speechless, stilled me, for a while.
I delivered back to this friend the same betrayal of overhearing and the sting of betrayal, rendered him speechless, as well. We always think our friends are loyal and respectful of us and at best would hold us in high esteem and at least would prefer to say nothing rather than trash our good name. Nowadays, that thought simply was not true. We can count on less people than we thought we could and the ones we thought we could are not for sure that they can be or want to be responsible to us, in faith, as we go forward in good faith works.
The coldness and blackness of his words struck my heart an underhanded blow of inconsistency that I did not think I would ever have to face or deal with. He did not measure my works as I measured my works. In his perception many of the things I did amounted to nothing.
The works he measured for value were the delivery of money to his hands, only. I cooked, cleaned, prayed, worshipped God, helped in church services, attended many different churches in fellowship with him, talked to him and made myself available (By this, I mean, I adjusted my schedule to his arrival, which took away time already set forth and put in place, for my good works). All those tasks held no value to him. I thought about all the meals and plates I prepared amounted to no value. He did not want to hear about Christ Jesus even though he attended his church and other churches, every week, and participated in all activities, to the point that his personal BEST task was that he was driven by the collection of money.
If, he could not dominate the talk session, then, frustration and hatred set-in, to vindicate his manhood. He could not tolerate open and liberated, freely flowing words of God, Christ, the disciples or anyone else. He merely wanted cash money or to know I had a way to make cash money. For him, money answered all things. “The Preacher (Ecclesiastes 10:19, KJV [Wisdom better than strength]), sought to prove the vanity of everything under the sun, firstly, announcing the truth as fact, then,
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proving it by the Preacher's experiences and observations, notably said, “A feast is made for laughter,
and wine maketh merry: but money answereth all things”(Holy Bible, n.d.).
This was a man, who believed in money, cash receipts and the competition to amass as much as
he could each day, to meet payroll of his family's business and his daily expenses, knew little of common decency. Even though his money bought all the things I delivered to him, he held little regard for the delivery of the things money bought before receiving the cash. He had a great need to see the money first, before he used it to buy goods and services. He had to SEE the money. I thought to myself, if, he would pay for the goods and services, he received from me, instead of regarding everything I did for him, as free, my earned wages would speak volumes to his rejection because then, I would have cash money.
In retrospect, my time spent with him did not bear fruit because he did not permit it to grow; he blocked the growth with evil talk behind my back and he created a stumbling block and erected walls between me and those who supported my efforts. He did this while he made sure he gained the fruits of labor and required that I pay for all the works he did. When I refused and I still required he do works, gratis, as well, he found his satisfaction in talking behind my back, with half-truths, only telling of his works to all who lent him an ear. However, those who know me, even of me, for the woman I am, also, knew of my works for him, as well and also knew of his stained reputation of doing the same thing, trashing the name of a good woman, over and over again. This was a man who had little regard for a woman except when it totally benefitted him.
Well, this was “a preacher's experiences and observations, of truth, indeed; an 'Ecclesiastes' moment” (Holy Bible); perhaps a teachable moment, when I found out there was a strong possibility that he would behave just that way. That teachable moment came as a warning not to believe the words that came out of my friend's mouth and to go the other way just like the street signs say, “Turn Right” or “Turn Left”, we must listen to those sent to warn us, for it could be the Spirit of Christ in them. With the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart proven before man and God to be acceptable in the sight of God, I moved towards INCREASE, in prayer to immediately improve my financial conditions, by praying aloud the 72nd Psalm, KJV [A prayer for the righteous poor]. And, I called on John the Baptist, saying his name, three times, next, I prayed out aloud, to assure myself of an endless supply of money, the 26th Psalm, KJV [Of trust in the Lord, not to slide]. I created the endless supply of new money by reciting aloud the Lord's Prayer (St. Matthew 6:9-13, KJV), three times.
Most importantly, to attract cash money from every corner of the globe, I recited aloud the 132nd Psalm, KJV [David's hope in God]. For money to rain down from the heavens, at every turn to startle me, I prayed seven days, each day, verses 17-24 of the119th Psalm, KJV [Sundry prayers and praises]. On the seventh day, to keep those who hated to see anyone receiving blessings (receiving what they prayed for) to keep back jealousy, the green-eyed demon monster, I prayed aloud the 49th Psalm, KJV [Worldly prosperity a vain hope]. There are so many times, we pray for increase, money, prosperity, riches, wealth and yield and we give up, when we are knee-deep in sin. God's presence cannot be denied in our life no matter how checkered a past we have, God is still on the throne able to deliver to us what we prayed for.
God is present (Jehovah-Shammah). He is with us. His spirit is with us. God spoke to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:16-18; 3:9, 13, 16-17, KJV). The LORD appeared to Abraham in the plains of Mamre as he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day (Genesis 18:1, KJV). God spoke to Jacob between Beersheba and Haran when he lighted upon a certain place to rest for the night (Genesis 28:10-11, KJV [Vision of Jacob's ladder]). In the Egyptian houses, the LORD gave Israel favor to borrow jewels of silver and gold as well as raiment so that the things they borrowed they could take when He led them out of Egypt (Exodus 12:35-36, KJV [The firstborn are slain]), God appeared on Mount Sinai and spoke to Moses (Exodus 18:18, KJV), God spoke to Joshua to go over Jordan (Joshua
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1:2-18)...
“Firstly, Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene at the sepulchre, after resurrection – first appearance (St. John 20:18, KJV [Christ's resurrection]); next, Jesus meets the women (Mary mother of James, Salome, and Joanna) on their return to the city – second appearance (St. Matthew 28: 8-10, St. Mark 16:8, St. Luke 24: 9-11, KJV), Jesus seen by Peter (Cephas, I Corinthians 15:5 – third appearance (St. Luke 24:34), seen by the two disciples on way to Emmaus – fourth appearance (St. Mark 16:12, 13, St. Luke 24: 13, 35, KJV), later, after eight days, Jesus came again to the disciples and Thomas who missed him the last time, was there (St. John 20:26-29, KJV [the incredulity of Thomas] (Jesus appears to the ten, Thomas being absent) – fifth appearance (St. Mark 16:14, St. Luke 24: 36-49, St. John 20:19-23), to the disciples came Jesus and stood in the midst, and breathed on them so that they received the Holy Ghost (St. John 20:19, 22 KJV [Christ's resurrection]), Evening of Sunday after Easter day, Jesus appears to them again, Thomas being present – sixth appearance (John 20: 24-29), The eleven go into Galilee, to a mountain appointed. Jesus appears, and commands them to teach all nations – seventh appearance (St. Matthew 28: 16-20, St. Mark 16:15-18, KJV), Jesus shows Himself to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias, he stood on the shore, -eighth appearance (St. John 21:1-24, KJV), Seen of above five hundred brethren at once (I Corinthians 15:6), probably along with the eleven – ninth appearance (St. Matthew 28:16), He is seen by James, then by all the apostles (Acts 1:3-8; I Corinthians 15:7) – tenth appearance. In all, 538 (549 if the eleven (Matthew 28:16) be distinct from the 500) persons are specified as having seen the risen Saviour: also, after His ascension, St. Paul (I Corinthians 15:8)” (Holy Bible, n.d.).
In reflection, the salvation history of woman reminds us, Eve disobeyed God (Genesis 3:13, KJV), Sarah laughed at God (Genesis 18: 12-13, 15, KJV), Hagar despised (competed against) Sarah; for the wrong of Sarah's decision was upon her when she gave Hagar to Abraham. Hagar had to flee away pregnant with Abraham's child, Ishmael (Genesis 16: 5-11, KJV), Rebecca switched Jacob for Esau to take Esau's blessing (Genesis 27:15-23, KJV), Rachel took her father's idol god when she left with Jacob (Genesis 31:30, 32, 34, KJV, [Laban pursueth Jacob]), Tamar dressed like a harlot to deceive Judah, her father-in-law, in order to bear children, under her dead husband's name (Genesis 38: 13-16, 26, KJV [Tamar deceiveth Judah], God made a covenant with Israel so they (daughters and sons) would not covenant with the inhabitants of the land to go whoring after the gods of the inhabitants of the lands (Exodus 34:14-16 [God's covenant with Israel]), Rahab, the harlot saved her family by hiding Joshua's spies (Joshua 2:1, 3-5, 6:25 [Rahab's covenant with the spies and Jericho is destroyed]... Esther replaced Queen Vashti, who refused to come at King Ahasuerus' commandment by his chamberlains (Esther 1:11-22, KJV [A queen to be chosen]). In trying times, like these, we find an even stronger need to draw nigh to God, so he will draw nigh to us...than ever before, forgetting the past...as we press toward the mark for the prize... and run our course to the finish (James 4:8, KJV; Philippians 3:13-14, KJV; II Timothy 4:7, KJV).
This is the word of God. This is the gospel of the Lord. Amen. Amen.
