Delaware House of Prayer - MARCH 2012

Reminder for the Day - and EVERY day

We have a connection...

GOD knows the desires of our hearts and desires our hearts...Selah

These are a few of my favorite things....A Life Defined by Thankfulness

I decided in an effort to remember to be thankful to GOD for everything, that I will post things that are some of my favorites in life...small and big, what seem to some as insignificant or powerful...anything and everything...TOTALLY random because if you know me that it the way we roll around here.

I am striving to live a life that is defined by thankfulness. I want gratefulness to exude through every cell in my body. Praise comes from grateful hearts very easily...get the connection??? Do you want your life=your worship=your life to be a beautiful fragrance to our precious Father? (Your life IS your worship...it is not those songs they put up on the big screen on Sunday mornings - just sayin) Saying thank you is not enough. When you have a grateful heart, when your life has been touched my grace, you can't help but want to give your very essence as a living sacrifice to the Saviour you love with all of your heart.

Ok...to summarize

Lesson Learned: In EVERYTHING give THANKS...because it is GOD's will for my life...PERIOD

How beautiful that is...there is nothing left to "interpretation". I love that sometimes GOD is just as blunt as I am.

Also, if you know me well, I like all types of things...my tastes vary as the day is long. That provides a preface to my first "fav" post. Anyway...here is today's favorite:

http://youtu.be/v9NYZQ5bh0c

Photograph: Enrico Caruso

Caruso: By Lucio Dalla, dedicated to the Italian Tenor, Enrico Caruso

Qui dove il mare luccica
e grida forte il vento
su una vecchia terrazza vicina al golfo di Surriento
un uomo abbraccia una ragazza
dopo che aveva pianto
poi si schiarisce la voce e ricomincia il canto:

Te voglio bene assai
ma tanto tanto bene sai
è una catena ormai
che scioglie il sangue dint'e vene sai...

Vide le luci in mezzo al mare
pensò alle notti là in America
ma erano solo le lampare
e la bianca scia d'un'elica
sentì il dolore nella musica
si alzò dal pianoforte
ma quando vide la luna uscire da una nuvola
gli sembrò più dolce anche la morte.
Guardò negli occhi la ragazza
quegli occhi verdi come il mare
poi all'improvviso uscì una lacrima
e lui credette d'affogare.

Te voglio bene assai
ma tanto tanto bene sai
è una catena ormai
che scioglie il sangue dint'e vene sai...

La potenza della lirica
dove ogni dramma è un falso
che con un po' di trucco e con la mimica
puoi diventare un altro
Ma due occhi che ti guardano
così vicini e veri
ti fanno scordare le parole
confondono i pensieri.

Così diventò tutto piccolo
anche le notti là in America
ti volti e vedi la tua vita
come la scia d'un'elica.

Ah si, è la vita che finisce
ma lui non ci pensò poi tanto
anzi si sentiva già felice
e ricominciò il suo canto:

Te voglio bene assai
ma tanto tanto bene sai
è una catena ormai
che scioglie il sangue dint'e vene sai...
Te voglio bene assai
ma tanto tanto bene sai
è una catena ormai
che scioglie il sangue dint'e vene sai...

Now...in English:
Here where the sea sparkles,
and a strong wind blows,
on an old terrace overlooking the gulf of Sorrento,
a man holds a little girl in his arms
after he's been crying.
He clears his throat and sings the song again.

I love you so much;
so very much, you know.
It's a bond, now,
you know, that thaws the blood in the veins.

He looked at the lights, out at sea,
and thought about the nights in America.
But they were only the lamps of fishing boats
and the white of wake.
He felt the pain of the music.
He got up from the piano,
but when he saw the moon come out from behind the clouds
death seemed sweeter to him.
He looked into the little girl's eyes -
those eyes as green as the sea,
then suddenly a tear fell
and he thought he was drowning.

I love you so much;
so very much, you know.
It's a bond, now,
you know, and it thaws the blood in the veins.

The power of opera!
where every drama is a sham;
where, with a little bit of make-up and mimicry,
you can become someone else.
But two eyes that look at you,
so close and so real,
make you forget the script,
confounding your thoughts.
And so everything became insignificant,
including the nights in America.
You look back and see your life
like the wake [of the boats].
Ah yes! Life is ending,
but he wasn't worried about it any more.
Instead he felt happy
and began to sing the song again.

I love you so much;
so very much, you know.
It's a bond, now,
you know, that thaws the blood in the veins.

When I get closer...

When you get close to the one you love, you are filled with happiness and joy, your heart beats faster, you hang on every word soaking in every moment with them...

When you get close to GOD, all these things happen and more. GOD has been taking me through journeys in visions off and on for the past week. I continually have this "stirring" inside of me and I'm asking GOD what to do with it. I am exhausted when I wake up because it seems that I've been up all night with GOD.  The fervor and enthusiasm doesn't go away when I wake up and get moving, so I know it's HIM.  I think now through a lot of prayer and seeking HIS face HE's going to show me whatever it is that HE is trying to convey to me and how to proceed.

What I don't understand is the complacency of believers today. Why would they not want to experience their LORD is this intimacy? Why don't they think that falling before the Holy of Holies in worship and prayer is a privilege and not a right. It is only by grace. GOD's chosen ones knew how to FEAR the LORD in reverence and honor. I see us taking it for granted. I'm choosing not to. I'm not going to grow cold. I'm not going to fall for the lukewarm worship. I'm not going to be too busy to go about the Master's business. I'm pressing in. I want to be stirred and shaken. I want more...more LORD.

Singing in the Car

Prayer is the vehicle that we use to communicate with our Father, however, I think many times we confine it to the "standard" definition. Since Jesus Christ Himself taught us how we should pray, don't you think there might be greater dimensions that you are to experience when speaking to the Holy One? Both prayer and praise release things, bind things, move GOD's hand...so (spontaneously) I started singing out my prayers to GOD this morning...singing of His wonderful mercy and grace, His power and abilities, thanking Him for the wonderful things He has done for us and what He will do. I called out to Him with requests counting on Him to do as He promises to do as the awesome Father GOD He is.

Prayer has many different flavors, "feels"...It can be quiet, it can be a shout, it may be silent or in weeping cries...or in some cases...a song. GOD's Chosen People many a time reflected on His goodness to them or wailed out in cries for mercy and deliverance. I can't wait to hear David singing to GOD as described in the Psalms. Like I said, prayer is a vehicle. There are many different types...just remember my dear brother or sister in Christ, the car doesn't start unless you get in it and turn it on. It doesn't run well unless you keep up with things and maintain it. The same principle applies to our prayer life. I want to know GOD so well while I'm on this earth that we won't have that "awkward" moment when I fall at His feet, never fully engaging in my relationship with him and only being an acquaintance all this time. In all things with prayer and supplication...GOD is the supreme LOVE of your life. Think about that for a moment. Relate it to human relationships. GOD as the lover of your very soul deserves your PASSION, your ATTENTION, your COMMUNICATION, your LOVE, your GRATEFULNESS, your SERVICE, your AIR YOU BREATHE. Relinquish control and in reckless abandon give your heart and everything you have and are to the Master. Experience HIM like you never have before.

2012 - An expectancy and an urgency as we spread the GOOD NEWS

Isaiah 55

Invitation to the Thirsty

¹ “Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost.
² Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and you will delight in the richest of fare.
³ Give ear and come to me;
listen, that you may live.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
my faithful love promised to David.
⁴ See, I have made him a witness to the peoples,
a ruler and commander of the peoples.
⁵ Surely you will summon nations you know not,
and nations you do not know will come running to you,
because of the LORD your God,
the Holy One of Israel,
for he has endowed you with splendor.”
⁶ Seek the LORD while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.
⁷ Let the wicked forsake their ways
and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
⁸ “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the LORD.
⁹ “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
¹⁰ As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
¹¹ so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
¹² You will go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
will clap their hands.
¹³ Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper,
and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.
This will be for the LORD’s renown,
for an everlasting sign,
that will endure forever.”