{"id":35,"date":"2012-03-21T02:59:00","date_gmt":"2012-03-21T02:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ladymacblog.com\/?p=35"},"modified":"2012-03-21T02:59:00","modified_gmt":"2012-03-21T02:59:00","slug":"squeeze-the-tomato","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ladymacblog.com\/?p=35","title":{"rendered":"Squeeze The Tomato"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
(What a stunning river it was that day, so calm… at surface level…)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

I don’t know if I can ever comfortable write out all that happened when our neon was totaled.\u00a0 A big truck pulled out in front of us and made an accordion out of our little car.\u00a0 So many people where there for us, little miracles where pieced together after the fact, and although it shouldn’t have been so we where all okay… physically.<\/p>\n

A conference speaker said ‘When the tomato is squeezed you see what was inside.’<\/p>\n

When I sat physically paralyzed by shock, after the accident, I received one of the most amazing miracles of my life.\u00a0 I assumed the worst and yet was praying, with seemingly no will power of my own, over and over and over ‘Thank you Jesus.’… I didn’t feel abandoned in that moment, I realized I didn’t let go of my faith when I thought it was over and I didn’t feel alone… far from it… I have never felt so wrapped up in my saviors love, so secure in my eternal salvation and so THANKFUL for Jesus having me!<\/p>\n

This was years ago, before we had our last two kids.\u00a0 Where is my heart day to day?\u00a0 When the big events aren’t happening how is it doing?\u00a0 Am I devoted to him, unconditionally as I live my pretty undramatic regular life?\u00a0 Am I devoted to him when my undramatic life gets a good dose of drama or trauma?\u00a0 We are called to trust.\u00a0 When we do we soon discover all these kinds of questions are answered in him and by him, because Jesus takes care of it… if we can just trust.<\/p>\n

Proverbs 17:3<\/div>\n
(American Standard)<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
“The refining pot is for silver,\u00a0<\/div>\n
and the furnace for gold;\u00a0<\/div>\n
But Jehovah trieth the hearts”.\u00a0\u00a0<\/div>\n

We will be refined and purified, through out this life, by our Lord.\u00a0 We can’t do any of the cleansing.\u00a0 This is the very reason Christ came!\u00a0 He is our doctor and wants our sickness!\u00a0 The hard things in life reveal where we are at in the process but they also can be used by the Lord to burn away our impurities, as gold is purified by the furnace.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Jeremiah 17:9-10<\/div>\n
(The Message)<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u00a0“The heart is hopelessly dark and deceitful,
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0a puzzle that no one can figure out.
But I, God, search the heart
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0and examine the mind.
I get to the heart of the human.
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I get to the root of things.
I treat them as they really are,
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0not as they pretend to be.” <\/div>\n

We are sick.\u00a0 Often we can drum up guilt over what we see coming up from our heart and more so from what we know is there, masked with our performances.\u00a0 We are afraid of what we don’t know about ourselves.\u00a0 We crush ourselves with guilt when we fall… AND YET we can ask the Lord into our temptation instead of wait for the fall.\u00a0 We can let him in to examine the darkest store rooms of our heart, to discover what we don’t even know about.\u00a0 If we would just stop fighting our deceitful heart on our own and stop punish ourselves with guilt, neither have benefit… instead surrender our pride, pride in our abilities and strength, and hand the heart over to the Creator.<\/p>\n

The enemy wants us to believe we are beyond hope when our dark recesses are exposed.\u00a0 He doesn’t want us to allow the Lord to clean it out.\u00a0 He is a liar.\u00a0 Trust in your Savior!<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
Psalms 3 1-4<\/div>\n
(American Standard)<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
1<\/sup>Jehovah, how are mine adversaries increased! Many are they that rise up against me. <\/div>\n
\u00a02<\/sup> Many there are that say of my soul, There is no help for him in God. Selah <\/div>\n
\u00a03<\/sup> But thou, O Jehovah, art a shield about me; My glory and the lifter up of my head. <\/div>\n
\u00a04<\/sup> I cry unto Jehovah with my voice, And he answereth me out of his holy hill. Selah\u00a0<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
So I would like to punish myself, on a regular basis, for how sloppy my devotion to him looks each and everyday, but I need to stop working on things in my own strength and learn the lesson I was taught in that car accident… Jesus knows all about all the dark and all the deceit in my heart.\u00a0 Still he faithfully holds my heart, fixes it, and loves me.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
REMEMBER God is not fair, he is merciful!<\/i><\/div>\n
Jesus is Jehovah’s mercy to us!<\/i><\/div>\n
AND JESUS always honors repentance!<\/i><\/p>\n
P.s. The tomato metaphor and other inspired portions of this post I gleamed from the teachings at conferences put on by SPOKEN WORD MINISTRIES (teacher being Boyd Hopkins).\u00a0 LINK<\/a> to find out more about this excellent discipleship focused ministry. <\/b><\/span>
<\/i><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

TTFN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(What a stunning river it was that day, so calm… at surface level…) I don’t know if I can ever comfortable write out all that happened when our neon was totaled.\u00a0 A big truck pulled out in front of us and made an accordion out of our little car.\u00a0 So many people where there for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,7,15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ladymacblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ladymacblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ladymacblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ladymacblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ladymacblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.ladymacblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ladymacblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ladymacblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ladymacblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}