Staying Alive in Fire Fighter Time! Enjoy some CPR training to all my First Aider Friends!

Post by Chattanooga Times Free Press.

Deliberations from Deb's Den

Prayer

 Today's note on my perpetual calendar goes like this:"In my view... the greatest need is for husbands to begin guiding their families, rather than pouring every physical and emotional resource into the mere acquisition of money." James Dobson: From Straight Talk to Men and Their Wives, Page 64.

I have come to see this as one of the major factors in the struggle with rebellion in the youth at this time.  I read a poll back in c2002 that said that 40% of children grow up in homes without a father.   Separation, divorce, pride are all factors in this.  And then their mothers work full time to pay even the basic bills. The opportunities for sharing quality family time together seems less and less. 

Who is raising our children?  I work as the administrator in a Christian daycare and I can see where today's children are being "institutionalized."  Babies and toddlers in childcare, pre-school, earlier kindergarten ages, "Latch Key" kids... Don't get me wrong; our teachers at Little Lambs Christian Daycare are of the highest quality; nurturing and caring women who go above and beyond the call of duty to love these little lambs into the Kingdom of God.  However, I also recognize that this is still not God's highest for these children.

Luke 1:17 says that "He shall... turn the hearts of the fathers to the children."  God knows the answer to the problem... and He SHALL work in the heart of FATHERS!!!!

I had been reading the October Newsletter from Covenant Keepers where women are there to pray and call forth MEN who would become intercessors to stand in the gap. Husbands and fathers who are called to pray and become watchmen on the walls. (Isa 63:6) In Jeremiah 9:17-21 the LORD calls the mourning women: skillful wailing women, to pray so that repentance might come to the men… “that our eyes may run with tears and our eyelids gush with water.” Women must fulfill that call and pray for more men (their husbands and the fathers to their children) to take their rightful positions as heads of households,and to become the Watchmen on the Walls. Not just to pour all their resources into making money, but to protect their families from the attacks of the enemy!!! 

I had my heart transformed by this Covenant Keepers article… it was such an eye opener on how to pray into rebellion in our youth. The writer calls it simply the “outer manifestation of a broken heart.”  Divorce between parents produces a brokenness in the Spiritual “One Flesh” unity…. It produces broken hearts in our children and teens that many times results in open rebellion.
Rebellion is also a sign of lost respect for authority, and children often lose respect for their parents who are unfaithful in marriage and not true to their promises and their words.  This is characterized by rebellion to authority in schools and in the work place.. and ultimately in the cities, provinces and in the nation...

How wonderful it would be for men to see the need of their children for quality "Family Time."  How valuable it would be for men to work on their relationships with their wives, so that marriage and divorce would not be an option... "NO BACK DOOR!! from day one of the marriage." 

The best avenue to acquiring this... PRAYER.  

Women, cry out that our men will get back up on "The Wall" and intercede for our families as only they can!! 

LORD, men would die in wars past for our freedom and liberty... make men aware of this same need to lay down their lives for their  families now... and battle and intercede in prayer.

Women pray that men would answer their calling to be "Watchmen on the walls" protecting their families from the attacks of the enemy!

AMEN!

Deliberations from Deb's Den

Fireproof... ADEBnego (sic) Style....

"Fireproof".... I wonder what God was thinking when He invented fire?

A while back I had a dream.... sort of being caught in a fire. In the dream, I was a young child and I was being chased by someone much bigger than myself. In my childlike state, I ran into a fireplace and climbed up the chimney to get away from my pursuer. Fortunately, he was too big to actually reach me. "I will just wait until you come out" he bellowed.

It was then that God started to turn up the temperature on my faith... He was testing me via a dream... How long would I stay protected from the enemy in that chimney? I could feel faith being challenged by fear.

First of all, timing was a factor. How long could I stay in a chimney and live? I recognized that there were various options to consider. I knew that, at that point, I couldn't go out the bottom of the chimney, because the danger was down there. I also recognized that looking upwards, was the only way out.... A good rule for all of life, don't you think?

Next, came the fear about how long I would last in a chimney without food and water. The enemy could just wait me out until I either came down or died of starvation and thirst. But then I was reminded that if God could provide water from the rock and quail from the sky for the Israelites, He could probably make a way for my hunger and thirst to be filled even in this tight spot. I also recalled times of fasting and prayer where God alone sustains you. I felt my faith starting to rise.

Finally, I sensed the enemy starting a FIRE in fireplace. As the heat and the smoke began to raise, I felt that fear try to take hold again. Then God brought to mind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego when they were cast into the "burning fiery furnace." King Nebuchadnezzar actually commanded that his men should "heat the furnace SEVEN TIMES MORE than it was usually heated!" But Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were men of prayer! God not only protected them in the fire, He walked with them in the fire... and then He delivered them from the fire. And He didn't just deliver them ... the fire "had NO power" over them. The smell of smoke didn't even cling to them!

Then I woke up.... Did I get out of the chimney? How did my dream end... ??

Well, I felt my hope rise and my faith stand strong in God's Faithfulness. This summer, only God knows how close we came to going through that forest fire in the Kootenay's, and only God knows what other fires may await us in the future. I know that I can get on MY KNEES and call out to God. I also believe that God CAN make me "FIREPROOF."

From here on in, just call me "A-Deb-Knee-Go!"

• Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with wrath, and the form of his face was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He spoke and commanded that they should heat the furnace seven times more than it was usually heated. And he commanded mighty men in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to throw them into the burning fiery furnace. Then these men were tied up in their slippers, their tunics, and their mantles, and their other clothes, and were thrown into the middle of the burning fiery furnace. Then because the king's commandment was urgent, and the furnace exceedingly hot, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was amazed. And he rose up in haste and spoke and said to his advisers, Did we not throw three men bound into the middle of the fire? They answered and said to the king, True, O king. He answered and said, Behold! I see four men loose, walking in the middle of the fire, and there is no harm among them. And the form of the fourth is like a son of the gods. Then Nebuchadnezzar came near the door of the burning fiery furnace. He answered and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come forth and come here. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, came forth from the middle of the fire. And the satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king's advisers gathered and saw these men on whose bodies the fire had no power (and the hair of their head was not scorched, nor were their slippers changed, nor had the smell of fire clung on them). Nebuchadnezzar spoke and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent His Angel and has delivered His servants who trusted in Him, and have changed the king's words and have given their bodies that they might not serve nor worship any god except their own God.
  (Dan 3:19-28 MKJV)

His ways are NOT our ways...

I was just wondering about the processes that God allows us to go through to become "More like Him." He easily could prevent every hardship in our lives if He wanted to. The fact that He chooses not to is important in His perfect plans for us... His plans "to prosper us and not to harm us." We can grow closer to Him (and ultimately more like Him) by understanding His reasons for allowing our trials and tribulations.

One story that I want to share with you happened to me over the summer. Things were NOT going the way I had planned. A job that I had really enjoyed had ended suddenly, my children and I were going through custody and access struggles with my husband's ex-girlfriend, finances were being stretched, bills were piling up, and I still had to take a trip across B.C. to go pick up one of my daughters at our Grandparent's Cabin.

On the way, our vehicle started to act up. It is a long and winding story, but suffice it to say, that the cost of the repair was going to be more than the car was worth... So, basically we were now tired, broke and without transportation! Fortunately, God got us where we were heading, thanks to several "God-incidences" and a Greyhound bus, but we also found out shortly after that the place was 15 km away from a forest fire!! (see July's "Summer's Journey - Through the Fire "Blog for that story) .

Anyway, we had been out at the cabin for several days, when everything that was happening started to hit me hard. I was in "pity-party heaven." Oh, whoa is me... I was so hard done by and nothing was going right... blah... blah... blah... Cry... Cry... Cry.... etc. etc. etc. The sky had been sunny, but then the clouds were sure starting to roll in bringing on the rain. It was the type of sky that you could still see some sunny patches, but the rain was coming down. It was the type of sky that usually brought rainbows... BUT this time, there wasn't even a rainbow.

I actually started to complain to God that at LEAST in the midst of everything I was going through, He could have given me a rainbow, give me some promise of good in the midst of everything that was going wrong... BUT THE RAINBOW WASN'T THERE....

Can you just picture Him shaking His head and chuckling. I wonder what He thinks about when He sees his kids going through this type of whimpering. Here we have an Almighty, All Loving, All Powerful God, Sovereign God, but we still think we know better than He does.

I had cried well into the night, and was still in "a mood" the next day and the weather was about the same as well... still raining. Things in my life hadn't changed, but this time, when I went out onto the patio, He greeted me with not one, but TWO Rainbows! It was beautiful! And then I remembered my whining from the day before.... I could almost see His eyes twinkling as He looked upon me with just a touch of mischief in His eyes. "Surprise!"

When I listened closely in the midst of that incredible view, I recognized His voice... "Yes, child... My promises are always true." I may not know all that God purposes for my life when I go through these trials, but I have to believe in Him and remember, 1) God is Always Good, and 2) I can Always Trust Him... because I've come to know this is the Character of God.... He Loves me, and I know that anything I go through will ALWAYS be a part of His perfect plan....