The Lord is my Banner is the literal translation for Jehovah Nissi. This is the name we turn to when we are having serious problems. Moses declares that when we lift up our hands to him in trouble the Lord will go to battle for us. We read about this in Exodus 17:8-16, when Moses lifted up the “rod of God” asking God to help them defeat their enemies.

We are not unlike the Israelites; we are attacked on all sides. Many want to defeat us in our Christian Walk, our own flesh wars against us when we are tired and warn out. The Christian life can be a constant battle between our sinful nature and the Spirit of God. There are struggles we cannot win alone ~ no matter how hard we try. When I try to fight my battles I get tired just like Moses, it is only with God’s help I am victorious.

Do you want Victory? God only asks that we live as he has called us. If we are walking in Him He is fighting for us! David knew this personally, in Psalms 118:6, he declares “The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid, what can man do to me?”

Are you raising God’s banner? Is He fighting your battles or are you trying to do it alone? God waits for you to invite Him into your battles ~ why don’t you turn your battle over to Him today? “…We are more than Conquerors through him who loved us.” Romans 8:37

LDJ

Christ is greater than Moses…

Hebrews 3:3-4
“For this One has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who built the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God.”

The heading in my bible above chapter 3 in Hebrews reads; “Christ is greater than Moses.” And as I read the above verses they made me think of how often we hear honor being given to the things of this world rather than the creator of the things of this world. There are a number of TV shows narrated by people who truly are in awe of an object or animal etc… but whose eyes are blinded to the fact that it is an arrow. Huh?? Yes, I said an arrow; pointing at none other than the Creator. Whether it is a crocodile, a whale, a tree, a flower, an ocean, a painting, a house or a human, it’s all His handiwork. Even a painting needs an artist to envision it; a house needs substances to be made from. I love the term “man-made”, we take such pride in ourselves sometimes, nothing would be “man-made” without first creating the man! Now don’t get me wrong I think there are many educational programs about the world God created. But it would make me feel better to admit that some of them make me…well…nuts! When I see a man “fawning” over a snake or a tarantula that he’s trying to tell me evolved over a gazillion years…well, like I said I get nuts! I have had a family member say; “we are so glad we decided to make our little girl.” I remember when I didn’t know Christ and I wanted to have a baby. His dad and I planned on it, we hoped that we would get pregnant; it wasn’t a surprise when five months later I was pregnant. But I knew that it was God who let me be pregnant…I wasn’t yet saved but I knew without a doubt that this was beyond anything I or my husband had created in and of ourselves. From time to time I will admire this child of mine, look at his face, his hair, even his finger nails and say wow he looks just like his dad and I mean just like his dad! But his Designer, his Creator is the Father God, Creator of all things; who is worthy of all honor. As we admire beautiful, awesome things He so delights to let us see, touch, feel, smell and taste; let us venerate HIM and only HIM.

Dina

Praying together…
So ladies what do think about that idea? No… not with the women, I mean with your spouse, fiancee, or boyfriend. Maybe you already do that, maybe you never have, maybe you’d like to… There are many couples who for whatever reason do not pray together. They may be in prayer fellowship with the Lord individually but not as a couple. They are missing a real blessing.
How often do you hear about married couples who are not enjoying physical and emotional intimacy in their marriage? I did not pray with my husband, we were not saved when I was married so that was not our practice. The marriage suffered as a whole.
I feel burdened to stir up your thoughts on this subject. Marriages in the church are suffering, and it hurts me deeply to watch couples who love the Lord end up divorcing. Or maybe staying together but emotionally and functionally divorced in a relationship with no signs of life.
The Lord came to give us life in abundance! John 10:10; “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”
Please don’t misunderstand; I know there are serious problems out there even in marriages that have a healthy prayer life and intimacy. But…I also believe praying together can change things. It would be hard to stay angry at someone you are praying with. It would be great to share your dreams, fears and concerns together before the One who holds the power to make things happen.
Why not be real with each other and with God (He already knows your deepest thoughts and emotions anyway). If I marry again, I hope prayer will be a central part of our life.
Dina

Jehovah Rapha “When you need Healing”

So often in life we speak of the strength and power of God to get us through the tough times in life. The Egyptians faced all kinds of hardships in the Wilderness and it is there we are introduced to Jehovah Rapha ~ “I am the LORD who heals you” (Exodus 15:26). This is the God who can heal physically and emotionally.

The fact that God needs to be the “Lord who heals” tells me several things about myself. First, there will be times I will need physical healing. Second, and probably more importantly, I will need emotional and spiritual healing. Even the best of us have “down days” and times of discouragement. In 1 Kings 19 we see Elijah needing the touch of Jehovah Rapha. Elijah prays the most powerful of prayers in 1 Kings 18 ~ then he learns Queen Jezebel plans to kill him. So what does he do… he runs away and flees into the desert and asks God to take his life. Have you ever been that discouraged? Take heart the “Lord of Healing” is available to you just like he was to Elijah. God sent an angel to give rest and nourishment to Elijah then Elijah travels to Mt. Horeb where he talks with the Lord. (1 Kings 19:9-12). After Elijah pours out his heart to God ~ the Lord healed him through a whisper. Are you looking for grand fireworks from God? Listen, He is there in a still small voice.

When you are weary and burdened, Jesus invites you to come to Him and he will give you “rest”. Do you like Elijah need to seek his emotional rest? Jehovah Rapha is ready to HEAL.

LDJ

Miracles of care.

Matthew 14 tells of the great miracle of Jesus feeding the 5,000. In fact, it was 5,000 men besides women and children. Jesus had gone to a desert place to be by himself. He had just heard of the terrible death of John the Baptist, His cousin. However, He was not alone for long.

Great multitudes came to find Him. He had compassion on them and not only healed their physical bodies, but fed them as well. From one boy’s small lunch of two fishes and five loaves of bread, He fed thousands. The disciples had said, “Send them away.” Jesus said, “Give them to eat.” Can you just picture that miracle of Jesus continuing to break the fish and bread without them disappearing?

Then when the multitudes left, He went again to be alone, this time to a mountain to pray. The disciples had gone into a ship out on the sea when a big storm came. The winds and waves brought great fear to the men. Then another miracle happened. Jesus heard the cry of the disciples and walked on the water to them. They feared it was a ghost. Jesus calls to them, “It is I. Don’t be afraid.” Peter’s cry to Jesus is, “Lord, if it’s you, tell me to come to you on the water.” And Jesus said, “Come!”

Peter began to walk on the water to Jesus. However, the storm with its great waves caused Peter to fear, and he took his eyes off of Jesus and began to sink. Then peter cried out, “Lord save me!” And Jesus immediately did! He reached out His hand and caught him, but said, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” When they got into the boat, the storm stopped, and all of them in the boat worshipped Jesus. They cried out, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

Lessons to learn are about the compassion of Jesus:
He cares about your needs, your fears, your life.
Also know that Jesus wanted to be alone – to pray. If He needed this, what about us?
And we can’t take our eyes off of Jesus. This is when we fall.

I thank Him for His love and for His care. Truly He is the Son of God and Savior.

Dottie

Sabbath Rest
What is Sabbath rest? The precedent was set in the Book of Books; God’s Holy inspired Word, in Genesis 2:2-3; “And on the seventh day God finished His work that He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all His work that He had done in creation.”
“he (Moses) said to them, “This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD;’… — Exodus 16:23

“See! The Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore on the sixth day He gives you bread for two days. Remain each of you in his place; let no one go out of his place on the seventh day.” — Exodus 16:29

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” — Exodus 20:8

What comes to your mind when you consider the Sabbath? Is it one of those things that’s been relegated to the historical record and thus deemed, not for us, and not something we can realistically do today?

More and more I am thinking about it. I guess it’s because I keep hearing the Lord’s call to develop some quiet and stillness in my week. Times when I cease from my laboring; from all clamoring, all busyness…everything!

Many books have been written on this topic and I admit I’ve only partially read one of them. Despite that, I am drawn to figure out how to cultivate this discipline in my life.

This Victory call is a simple attempt to scratch the surface and encourage us all to think about doing as the Lord God of heaven did -He rested!

One baby step that I’ve made in this direction has been to prepare my Sunday meal on Saturday afternoon or evening. I know it’s not much, but it goes a long way toward helping me to get more rest in my Sunday. We come home from worship service, we eat our dinner and I go into chill mode.
Another step is to get all my clothes washed and ready for my upcoming work week, on Saturday evening instead of Sunday night. Baby steps, baby steps. Nothing profound or new, but it makes a marked difference in my Sunday if I don’t have to cook and do laundry.

Understandably, I’m no theologian, so I can’t say with any degree of authority that we “should” all cease and rest on the Sabbath. I don’t even know that it has to be on Sunday or if it’s Saturday. But I can and will say that rest is a beautiful thing. Setting a day apart each week that is different from all the rest, has to be a good thing. Don’t you agree?

Taste and see that the Lord, He is good. Stephanie

Should, Should, Should!

I have a confession to make. I am appalled at my own personal use of the word ‘should’. For months now, my awareness at my casual use of ‘should’ has grown tremendously.
I think the spark for all this awareness came first and foremost from the Holy Spirit resident in my believing heart. Secondly, from a number of conversations I’ve had with my daughter and son.
More and more, I’ve become vividly aware, of the use or dare I say overuse and misuse of the word in the body of Christ. We say it in reference to ourselves and just as much, if not more often, in reference to other people. It’s no wonder, that so many of us feel no sense of victory. Living my life with a list of all the things I should be doing better, or that I should have done better is to live life in virtual defeat.

How you may ask. The shoulds give us an out when we willfully sin. For example, the TV is on and your ear gates and eye gates are being assaulted by images which affect your Christian sensibilities. But rather than turning it off or turning to something more life-giving, we sit and watch, knowing and even feeling that we should not. When it’s all over we either think or say something like, I really shouldn’t have watched that.” “I should’ve spent that time doing something more constructive and God-honoring.”

Now you may not be the “TV Watcher”, you may be the “Cookie Monster” who stands with her hand in the bag, devouring the cookies until, all of a sudden, your brain engages after the 12th cookie and you say to yourself, “What am I doing? I shouldn’t have done that. I should’ve stopped at 1 or 2.”

Okay so that may not be you either. Maybe you’re lying in bed trying to doze off to slumberland, but your brain won’t shut off because of your ‘should have’ list. You know the list that some of us have of all the things we were going to accomplish that day, beginning with purposeful time in the Word; just being with Jesus. We might drift off into sleep night after night feeling and thinking, “I should have done more. I should have done it better. I should have spent time with the Lord. I should have hugged my kids. I should have kissed my husband. I should have called my Mom, my dad, etc. I should have screamed less, played more, whined less, eaten less, exercised….etc., etc., etc. I don’t need to go on.

This “Victory Call” is a challenge and an encouragement to all of us. Let us choose to move beyond the “should have and should be”, and choose to will and to do and to be all that God has called us to be. We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

Stephanie

I was involved in teaching a weekend seminar here at America’s KESWICK on a particularly difficult topic. Well the topic itself isn’t difficult but to most wives it is very difficult. Add to that mix that the women I was speaking to were women whose husband’s are either currently in the Colony of Mercy or have been in the past which means their husband’s have been involved in addiction as a lifestyle.
Our topic on this particular weekend was the unconditional call of God for women to respect their husband’s. The teaching was based on a book by Emerson Eggerich: Love and Respect which expounds on Ephesians 5:33, “Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.”
Some of the women okay more that some, really struggled with this biblical command. I finally said to them, “Your argument is not with me nor the author of the book, your argument is with God, it’s His word.”
I was out walking the following Monday on a beautiful, sunny, warm day rehearsing my Scripture memory verses when I came across Romans 11:33-12:1, “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! ‘Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?’ ‘Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?’ For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.”
That alone would be sufficient to give us cause to delight in our obedience to the Lord, simply because He is worthy. But the verse continues, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is your spiritual act of worship.” It’s when I read the last verse that it hit me. Our obedience to whatever the command of God may be is a spiritual act of worship, an act of worship. That puts things into a fresh perspective. Obedience is not about what others are doing or not doing, it’s about our relationship with Jesus Christ and our desire to worship Him through our obedience.

Diane

My very first counseling class was taught by David Powlison, the best earthly teacher I ever had. One of his first lecture illustrations had to do with a commonly used expression or phrase. The words ending the phrase are as varied as are the situations it is used in. However the beginning words, “You made me…” remain pretty much the same. And more often than not the phrase implies that someone other than the speaker is responsible for something that the speaker has said or done.
Let’s say, for example, that in a heated conversation with someone I become angry. Let’s say that in my anger, I then use my words to insult, abuse, or tear down. Fast forward to the end of the scene, where by now, I am calm and attempting to explain my actions. It’s in that situation and many others I have observed over the years that we are likely to say things like, “You made me so angry.” “You made me very upset.” “You made me lose my temper.”
Standing in front of the class that night, Powlison held up an empty Styrofoam cup. Satisfied that we saw it was empty, he proceeded to pour water into it. He then proceeded to lightly punch the cup with his fist, which then caused water to come out of the cup. He looked at the cup that had lost some of its contents and then looked out over the silent lecture hall and asked this simple question. “What made water come out of the cup?”
You probably have the same expression on your face that most of us did. Some of us thought, surely this was a trick question. A number a hands shot up seeking permission to answer his question. Every single person he called on gave the same answer, “Sir, water came from the cup because you hit the cup.” It was the first response that had come to my mind.
In his ever humble way he let us all know that our answer was incorrect. The correct answer was as follows: “Water came out of the cup because water was in the cup.”

Huh? You’re kidding right? We all know that if he hadn’t hit the cup, the water would have stayed inside. We sat thinking through this concept, and as we began to ponder his words, the truth sunk in. What spills out of us when heat, pressure, stress, etc., is applied to our lives, came from within and not from without. Yes, everything that happens to us has an impact on us. One way or another we are affected by “stuff”. How we respond; what we do and say is entirely up to us.

“The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” –Luke 6:45
In other words, what the mouth commonly speaks, generally agrees with what is most in the heart.

Ponder this, my sisters. Consider the fruit of your lips in the details of your everyday life and praise God that He hasn’t left you without hope for true help and change.

“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” Romans 8:37

Stephanie

Getting to KESWICK (Part II)

“Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the LORD, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.” Psalm 37:3-6

So how did He do it? I don’t know why it should be any surprise, our God parts the sea and He walks on the sea! First thing that had to happen was for me to actually apply for the job! I was folding laundry one day and the Lord spoke so clearly to my heart, He said; “Stop folding laundry and go give Mr. Welte your resume.”
It took a little time to hear back from Keswick, and in the mean time I had every prayer warrior in my church on this assignment. And they did pray me right in here. The continued commute to work was actually a blessing, as I listened to some great bible teachers and Christian music for three hours every day. The Lord was using that time well in my life.
The call finally came from Keswick for an interview and formal application and then it was time to wait again. Oh, how I love to wait!!! One day while I was leaving work I was very discouraged, I didn’t think I would get the job, it had been too long. And as I walked out the doors I prayed; “please Lord let it be today.” As Bill Welte loves to say, “Our God is the God of the previous.” The message for me to come to Keswick was already on my voice mail. I got the job, but still all these obstacles. One by one they were crossed off the list in my bible!
1. Sold house in three days for CASH and more than I thought it would.
2. Apartment opens up at Keswick.
3. I am able to have storage on the grounds.
4. There is a school bus that comes right to Keswick.
5. Finances are worked out.
6. My son did struggle with moving, but since then, the Lord has given him a second home with his dad a few blocks from where we used to live! God is good.
I’ve been working at Keswick since the summer of 2002 and I love it here. It’s been a growing experience for sure. Keswick is truly a special place because it’s filled with so many very special and gifted Staff and guests. In addition to my regular job responsibilities I also have the privilege of sharing with you through Victory Call. It still amazes me that the Lord lets me have a part in His awesome plan and do it with such a great team of people here at America’s KESWICK, where God is still speaking to hearts and transforming lives every day!

Dina