His Plenipotentiaries

What a mouthful! Plenipotentiares. That's what I read this morning in a reading from A. J. Gordon.

"Behold, I give unto you power... over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall by any means hurt you." (Luke 10:19)

Jesus says to us, "I have the authority. I have won it for you. I give it to you. Use it in My Name! You shall act in My place, even as I acted in your place." We go, authorized as His plenipotentiaries. But, even as we go, our every step is contested. Therefore we must meet Satan's persistence with our own clear insistence. Our taking must be "as deep as [our] lives; it must be as intense as the opposition." (And then, maybe a bit more!)

"And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief." (Matt. 13:58)

Head, Shoulders, Hip and Toes, Hip and Toes

HEAD: I am trying to use it today! I have a lot to do to prepare for the Thanksgiving Bash. I was awake quite a bit last night and started thinking about how one of Kari’s goals in coming back to Costa Rica was to help lighten our load more. So, I started listing all I have to do and all that she can help me with. I’m so excited that today she readily signed on to help! Here’s a list of some of the things I’m recruiting her for either today or over the next few days:
1. Revise and print Thanksgiving menu; look over and organize needed recipes and figure out what we still need to buy/do
2. Help me come up with a “program” for Thursday so I know what we are doing and have bases covered
3. Talk to Tulio about bouquets and come up with vases
4. Find decorations: crayons, shawl, bittersweet, pumpkin bowls
5. Organize serving dishes and cooking stuff we will need
6. Call David Obando about the words for the Thanksgiving Day songs and make a document for those and maybe one for writing up a thanksgiving prayer to God (one for each person – pretty with clipart – maybe like a place card)
7. Help me with stamps on newsletters
8. Errands in SI: PO, bookstore for Thanksgiving tablecloth paper, etc
9. Maybe fix Arroz con Pollo with me???
10. Help organize devo photos and pages for Grandkid Devo
11. Organize Allmamirecipes.com
12. Work on calendar and “to-do” list for Alpine and ARC’S short-term teams

SHOULDERS: I think the above would take a lot of load off my shoulders. Regarding Woody’s shoulders: he just left to meet with Eric Gustafson over breakfast. They plan to meet regularly in order to be more proactive about financial issues for the LAMC.

HIP: Yesterday I saw Dr. Manley for my left hip. Just as Dr. Longworth thought by my pain description to him by phone, it is bursitis – tronchanter bursitis, to be exact. It probably was caused by favoring my right knee (infection) as well as my right foot (neuroma). I had to have two shots. The first was deep, guided by ultrasound. It was a mixture of cortisone and a local anesthetic. Double ouch! It hurt a lot. But, within minutes the anesthetic helped the pain. He also injected separately an anti-inflammatory, since my stomach can’t handle the oral version. Woody may have to give me shots every day for three more days. (You can do it, Woody!)

TOES: See photo. Don’t look too closely at the toes themselves, please. Just enjoy the “Pedal Christmas Spirit.”

The Chain is Her Conscience

I tell lots of stories about our 104 pound dog because I learn a lot of things from her. My brother Vito circled one verse in my prayer book and he wrote in the margin, “Celeste.” The verse reminded him of my walks with her.

1 Kings 8:23 talks about walking before God with all our hearts. When I walk Celeste, she couldn’t be happier. She is always eager to see the next thing on the path. That’s just how we should be! We should walk very closely to God (Heel!), and look forward to wherever He takes us.

Today I was thinking about another dog lessen. It is sometimes very hard for Celeste to resist running through our invisible fence. The fence is supposed to keep her inside by shocking her if she crosses the line. But, sometimes she feels like it’s worth it to run through the shock line… like if another dog shows up or she sees a squirrel outside of our property.

Recently Celeste ran out to chase another dog. After I got her back into our yard, I put her choke chain on and literally dragged her into the shock area so that she would remember clearly and painfully the consequence of escaping our yard. I am still working with her to teach her to obey consistently. So, while I sit outside on our step, spending time in God’s Word, I keep her choke chain nearby. As soon as she steps near the limit, looking longingly at dogs just outside her reach, I pick up and shake the choke chain. Just the sound of it makes her immediately jump back about 10 feet and to quickly decide to abide by the limits we’ve set.

That choke chain is much like our conscience. 2 Corinthians 1:12 talks clearly of the biblical concept of the conscience. If we are going to “listen to the choke chain” we must behave consistently – whether at church, at home, or wherever we find ourselves. We need to ask God to be totally in control of our lives and hearts so that even people outside our church notice that we belong to Jesus.

We need to be very sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit in our lives. But, we also need to accept His forgiveness and not echo a voice of condemnation. Like a tape recorder, sometimes we play over and over again the same tape that condemns us. Play. Rewind. Play. Rewind. But, remember, once God forgives us, he cleanses our consciences and doesn’t want us to grovel in our guilt.

This is a family prayer I wrote in my devotional for our Porter grandkids:

God, please convict us and guide us through our consciences. We want to please You without having to “cross the shock line.” Instead, help us to obey You from the get-go, using our consciences to guide us rather than convicting us of what we’ve already done wrong. Right now, though, we want to listen to You speak to our hearts about anything that we might have done wrong – whether it is a bad attitude, lack of thankfulness, hurtful words, or disobedience. We confess our sin before you, God, and now we thank You that You forgive and remove our sins from us as far as the east is from the west. Help us to live with a clear conscience today. Whenever Satan wants us to replay the tape recorder, help us remember that You have compassion on us and we should have compassion on ourselves as well. Thank You that Jesus paid the price for all our sins and paved the way to live guilt-free each day. Amen.