Jesus hears our prayers!

I can hardly contain my joy for the blessings the Lord blessed my self and Jimmy with yesterday. He answered some of my prayer requests outright, and gave me one of the desires of my heart to boot. What was even better, is we had money to help someone at the end of their difficult couple of days. We shared friendship through out the day, and were able to be blessed with love of family and friends in very special ways.  We believe that God is able, and that he is willing.  We see his hand of blessing on our lives, and know that no co incidence could ever be so great as to make the details of God's answers fit the prayer requests so well. I know my God is real, and interaction from Him on our neighborhood, strengthens that belief in more than just us. 
I was awakened this morning with distant loved ones on my mind.  May God have as mighty a hand in their situation, for which I was led to pray, by God alone, as He bestowed on us yesterday. It is supposed to storm today. Praying now that God will keep us all safe, through whatever the storms bring. May the rain be just what our new garden plantings need. Praying for my daughter, who will travel today. Looking forward to seeing at least one of my grandsons today. Still healing from the poison ivy attack.  Thank you Lord for healing.
Can't beleive it is snowing still in places like Minesota. I really hope they get a taste of this lovely warm weather soon.
We need to be able to finish a number of things that are in process. I ask God's special intervention to bring a few things to completion. So we may move forward, and not become too disjointed. We sometimes feel we can out plan our finances on any given day. But we certainly can out plan our physical abilities.  We are so thankful to recieve the aid of our wonderful grandson, who is working toward taking his lovely girlfriend to prom.  Praying even now for blessing on that day, and on their time together. May they make good memories. Be safe, and remain holy.
Praying for my grandson's ability to do well at his new job, his first. Lord walk before him and prepare his way, and also his heart and mind. May he go there with joy, but also a sense of responsibility.  May he be a good addition to their work force.
Well, Jimmy is awake, and breakfast is not made. We have begun to appreciate the time we spend together at breakfast. Give us this day our daily bread...for our bodies and our souls.
Much love and praise to an amazing God. AMEN

Just prayer...

One of the verses which blessed me this week,
from my facebook page Prinked Ink ~ Inspiration

I come to the garden this morning as the sun gets just high enough to cast a stream of light into my bedroom window. But I come to simply pray. Since Jimmy has retired, we sleep in and stay up late.  He has worked quite hard lately on a number of projects that needed doing so badly. We have had the help of our beloved grandson, on the yardwork, and I am so thankful he is not alergic to poison ivy and oak as I am, because he has avoided the doctor visits etc that I have incurred. But I am so delighted to use this post to rejoice in a mile marker for him, because he got his first real job. Something he has been working on for sometime. 

I pray for him at his new job.  He likes to do things his own way, Lord. Help him to work at the necessary pace and still be cool headed, and wise in his choices. Help him handle money appropriately, and accurately. Give him the instincts he will need to stay focused and care about the profits for his company. Help him enjoy the customers without becoming overly involved with them that  it distracts him from necessary work.  Help him be cleanliness minded since he is handling food. And above all, may he have a testimony for you.  May he be kind to the children, and respectful of their parents.  Help him be a good employee at all times.
Thank you dear Lord for the new sink fixtures. Having to buy them has cut into our budget for bills. So we need money from an unexpected source.  About $200 for them and weekly food and gas until pay day.  You are our source, more now than ever. Lead us to make wise choices as we depend upon you in this new stage of our lives.  I am trying not to let threats of government's lack of wisdom to cause me to fear. 

Guide our leadership into a more responsible path. Help them figure out this train wreck of too much credit we extended ourselves all across the world. Lord bring balance to our nation, and financial blessing that will help us to repay our bills to other nations. We have forgiven other nations their debt sometimes. But they depend so deeply on us to help them in some nations, that our failure hurts people.

Thank you for the trillium and other wildflowers. Please help them live in my yard for many years to come. Long after I am gone.  They are such a blessing.  If I might ask for one more blessing from the wild, help us find a pitcher plant that can be happy here. Or a couple so they might multiply.
I pray for our neighbors who need thee.  One arriving home from the hospital with stents in his legs, and one due to the ambulance yesterday...what ever their need. 
I pray for myself, for healing from whatever caused the rash and swelling. Help me to remember to take the time to avoid exposure from now on.  I must wear gloves and wash in bleach water like the doctor said. Renew our strength Lord to enjoy our remaining days on this earth, and to do what will be a blessing while we are here. We need to have our physical home painted and dressed in newness. There is old wood, old peeling paint, old carpet and flooring that are in desparate need. Please provide just as you did for the roof.  I am accepting your blessing even before it arrives.
Lord thank you for peace of mind. Peace for our country at this time. Peace in my marriage. Help me to keep peace precious in my life.

Bless the marriages of my children and step grand children. Help Carley get well soon. I pray for the babies on the way. Help those families with their needs, and to take on wise and Godly attitudes for life's ups and downs. You have brought one to a better place, now Lord give the other a heart for your grace.  Give their wives strength and blessings.

Thank you for the flowers.  Help us be able to fill the planters we bought last year with beauty.  It would be such a shame to not be able to use them.  I prefer plants that will come back year after year, and multiply. But according to thy will I look forward to your bounty.
I accept your blessings on me, and pray that someone looking in might also be willing to surrender the out come of something in their life to you, and simply accept your bounty. May they see the love you have for us, as a great plan to truly bless us.  And may great things come their way as well, from the blessed hand of God.

You are worthy of praise, you are a wonder and a friend. You are my strength. My anchor. I love your still small voice. I love the peace you bring. I love walking with you, in assurance and love. I praise you for your mighty hand of protection and security. For your promises, and that you keep them. For the future you have planned for me and my family. For food and necessities which I did not always have. I praise you for good health and restoration from the tole life takes on our bodies.  I ask you for life that is well lived according to your desires for us on this earth.  Thank you for rest, and also for activity. Give us strength to exercise properly. Thank you for a our present state of stability. I needed a rest from life's chaos.

Help Jimmy to adjust to daytime life, and find an ability to sleep well at night. It might be a new thing that he sleep well at all. Please bring healing to that area of his life. We have looked into almost everything the doctors can do. But in their inability is the greater blessing that you are the great physician, and have no lack of ability to act upon his life with the miracle he needs.

"I come to the Garden alone, while the dew is still on the roses, and the voice I hear...."   Thank you for being there Lord.

May I hear your voice, clearly. Lead me now Lord as I stand silently before you. AMEN


Later in this day -------------THANK YOU so much Jesus for your mighty answer to prayer. ANd so fast!!!

Remembering the Crown of Thorns and the One who Wore It

It's Easter morning and I wanted to post a blessing. As we were on an excursion this week,  we first went to check out an area a friend told us about, to see it the first warblers had made it to the high places yet. It had lots of forrest service roads and no foliage on the trees, so we got to see some amazing looks into distant mountains that we don't normally get to see. Pine warblers were everywhere, and putting on their Sunday best.  Bright shiney yellow fluff balls hanging in lots of trees along the hillside parking lots and overlooks.  We had one worm eating warbler, a chippy or two, but everything else was a local regular...sparrows, and robins, woodpeckers, and jays, chickadees and titmouse. There was one odd call, similar to a peacock that we couldn't figure out. Grouse maybe? But what captured our attention was the bright white mountain top, we could barely see behind the distant mountains. It barely peeked over the tops of the others, until we got to the highest spot.  It was just a sliver of sparkling jewel, which without binoculars and scope, seemed more like clouds than snow.  Where, we wondered, was so much  snow?

As we drove to lower altitudes, the day was early yet, and I caught on right away that my husband was not finished prowling yet. We took a road toward the Hiwassee River, and came across the most amazing old country church.

 

It had a historical marker, that shared some of it's history, and it was obviously in need of stablizing, for many of the rocks that were it's support had fallen from the foundation. But you could still climb the steps and look inside the window. The glass had been removed, and I could stick my camera through the window frames, and take picts of the bare bones interior. Only a few pews suggested it was a small congregation, a few families at most who attended, but I could almost hear the love and imagine the hours spent fellowshipping there. The walls had been yellow, but most of the paint and stain had weathered away from the pews and pulpit. But the windows, 3 on either side, opened the whole area to views of the river outside. I could see myself day-dreaming while the pastor tried to keep my attention away from that view, if I had been a child on one of those pews. What must it have been like in the fall!

There was a platform for the choir, backed by a door that went upstairs. the pulpit was far left and was small. The setting sun cast a shadow across the front of it, and made it the center of attention in the now sadly unattended room.

I took a number of pictures of the architectural elements inside and out. I noticed that outside there appeared to be old blue buttermilk paint under the paint that was wearing away from the porch ceiling, and the double doors were large enough to bring a piano through.

 

 

 My husband called me to come see the gardens, which had white crocus just finishing their bloom.  It was easy to see there had been love in this place. The banks of a spring had been lined with old bridge iron. Along the bank of the river, under a tree, the flower garden showed signs of daffodils ready to bloom, and many more flowers to come with the spring. There were large flat rocks placed here and there on each level as you walked down. It was obvious that they had been sat upon often. I imagined Sunday School classes being held there in Summer under the shade of that tree, and in the cool breeze coming off of the flowing waters. 

Just above, near the spring, was a sprawling leafless bush. And I was hugged by God's spirit, when I came close and saw what it was. Taking sustenance from the waters was a Crown Of Thorns tree.  How appropriate for a church to have this as a centerpeice to its gardens. The thorns looked treacherous. I had to pause and just stare as I thought of the crown that was woven from thorns just like these. And they placed it on the head of the one I adore. Since this was Easter week, I knew this was my Easter present from God. To be blessed by this old church, to find this garden, and to feel one with saints of another time, who worshipped and loved the same Christ.  To know they loved my savoir, and planted this bush by the waters that flowed to the river.

 Their garden was like a journey, through the Easter Story. Beginning with the crown of thorns to the place where the river of life flowed.  I imagined that children were able to see with their own eyes what that crown might have looked like. That thorny old crown, meant to mock the KING of our hearts. Interestingly, I recalled that the real name of the bush, I beleive, is "Mock Orange," because of its blooms and its fragrance.

How many prayers may have been prayed there.  By the river, where it only seems right that the members of this church were baptised.  I wondered if it was shallow enough.  The old pictures out front, showed a store and a nice large home had been nearby. It had been a community built around their church, with wagon roads, and farms and barns.

Here on the river, I am sure they caught fish, and surely there had been at least one fish supper. And it was clear to me, the pastor and people who built this church were celebrating the life of Christ, and being true to his call to be fishers of men.

I was so blessed by this lovely gift from the Lord.  I hope you can sense the joy that was in this place they way I could. If I were to have a church that inspired me, I would choose it to be just like this one.

Happy Easter Morning!

 

The Feast of Atonement 7 days + 3

Revelation 1:8

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

In my last post, I discussed the number 8. How it means new beginning, and that the second Sabbath, came about because God ended his own work week with rest on the seventh day, but asked man to start his week there, resting in God's finished work and from that day forward man's new beginning would be on the 8th day, or the second Sabbath. We looked at scripture in Leviticus which gave feast days for celebrating these truths, and which celebrated grace, and blessing and how God was the beginning of their productivity and the end of it, and that the six days in between the two Sabbaths was the number of man, of his work.

In that post I tried to stay strictly on track with the subject of how that new beginning theme began, but I want to day to make an exclaimation mark upon the subject as further proof that I am not reading something into the numbers that isn't there.

God himself established this pattern. As a cycle of hope for a future. And the verse at the top of the page re-interates it. So much so that God repeated the verse and emphasized it through the writer of the book of Revelation.

May I note that we look closely at the chapter and verse for this statement.  I believe that it is no accident that even the registration of the verses, enforces the number system of God. Chapter 1, verse 8.

• The two days that represent the Sabbaths that sandwich mans week.
• The number one represents beginning, the number 8 - new beginning
• The math equation: 1 + 6 + 1 = 8  ~  God -man- God = new beginning
• And expanding it to the words in Revelation,  God is the beggining and the end, and it"s our lives he has sandwiched in between.

And he is present on all the days in between.

Once again, God sets down his Holy sequence. Begin with him and end with him, and count on him on all the days in between. Start in his rest, end in his rest, and labor completely bracketed by his finished work. Every time we reach a seven, a day when something is complete, we always have a new beginning..
and it is a cycle of rest in him, and in his finished work. His day of rest is our day of new beginnings.

I am so blessed by this message.  God built this message into the very creation. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

But I want this post to recognize a second set of numbers as well.

TODAY WE CELEBRATE THE CRUCIFIXION OF CHRIST

In the feasts of the atonement there are two separate days celebrated.
On the surface they seem redundant. God gave one feast that was represented by the 7th month and 10th day and one was the 7th month and 15th day,(which I discussed last post).  Both are called the feasts of redemption. Also they are described in conjuction with atonement.

In the first one, the Israelites were to have a solemn feast, not a celebrating feast. It was a time for seeking God for the forgiveness of sins or consideration of God's work in their lives. This feast was 7 days plus 3 days. Seven represented taking a complete or whole week to take part in the feast, but the extra 3 days were to represent God. The triune God. 

The Day of Atonement

²⁶ And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ²⁷ “Also the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. ²⁸ And you shall do no work on that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the Lord your God. ²⁹ For any person who is not afflicted in soul on that same day shall be cut off from his people. ³⁰ And any person who does any work on that same day, that person I will destroy from among his people. ³¹ You shall do no manner of work; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. ³² It shall be to you a sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict your souls; on the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you shall celebrate your sabbath.” Bible Gateway.

(Notice the Sabbath again begins in the evening, even as Jesus died before the soldiers came to break their legs because it was about to be the Sabbath. Just as in our last post, we saw the foreshadowing.)

In this feast, we find the foreshadowing of the Crucifixion. But because of the 3 days following the week of affliction, there is given an expected time to follow this Sabbath even,t before the end of the affliction of their souls would be complete.It is clear that we are being told it would be a very sad time.
 Christ rebuked the Scribes and Pharasees because they didn't see him when they read the verses. He was saying, if we search the scriputures we will find him there. >

John 5:39

You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.

 

Some saints were said to be more willing to test the things they were being taught by searching the scriptures. Something the Thessalonicans failed to do. The disciples taught that Jesus fulfilled the scriptures and was the final sacrifice, the completion of the years of foreshadowing.

 

 Acts 17:11

These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.

 

One of the places they were looking was at the numbers and what they had been taught their whole lives those numbers stood for. Why keeping the feasts was on certain dates, and were observed for a certain number of days or weeks. They knew there was a significance.

Why the 10th day of the seventh month? The 10th day was 7 days (God's completed work) plus 3 days, which may be obvious that they indicate 3 unusual days.  The number of 3 is significant for a couple of reasons. 3 represents the trinity of God. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Even the Israelites understood that God had 3 forms of revealing himself to them. When the old scriputures say: the angel of the Lord, they knew this being was from God, but they couldn't understand who he was. Even in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve knew him. This was Jesus.  Many knew the interaction with the Spirit of God, and he was present often with representations of being in the fire, wind or water.  Not the figure or image of a man, but totally unseen except for the element that showed his power and presence. But they also knew God as a disciplinarian and guide, a loving attribute who provided. Jesus called Him specifically, the Heavenly Father.  One God, but a triune being.

 

The 3 days represent the trinity. But they also forshadow that upon completion of his work, and beginning with the day of rest, God the Son would be resurrected on the 3rd day. 

 

I am blessed to be able to observe the first day of that 3 days today. And on Easter Morning I Will rejoice in the 3rd day.

 

Thank you Dear Jesus for Dying for me and for the promise of ages that you would bring new life to all mankind in only 3 days! AMEN

The Number 8 is for New Beginning

From only 1 bloom last year to dozens this year!

 

God called the light Day,

 and the darkness He called Night.

 So the evening and the morning

 were the first day.

Genesis 1:5 

__________________________________________________________

It is not a fluke that this scripture says the evening and the morning were the first day.  God intended that we look at our life in the opposite way most of us see it. We wake, work hard, and end our "day" exhausted and so ready for bed that we can't sleep sometimes.  But God would like for us to think of our day in this way:

Prepare for your day with rest, awake ready to tackle the day, and use the hours until evening when rest once again will begin your new day.  If you let that sink in, it will give you a glimmer of God's desire for a more positive look at how he is there to bless each day. By beginning our work rested.

In the story of the Crucifixion of Christ, we discussed that Christ had finished his work in man's body, as man would have done, and was totally exhausted, discouraged and quite ready to just die when it was over.  He had taken on all the elements of life in the most literal way, and literally was ready to lay down and die. 

I recently noted that among people I know there are at least 20 who have come to a point in life that they feel like it might be better to just lay down and die. Some have even done something about how they feel by acting upon that discouragement.  I do not condemn them, because I myself have been there! I know what it is to believe there is simply nothing you can do to turn your life around, though you have tried, in prayer, no less, to honor God to the best of your ablility.  I have felt driven to the last thread of hope, and have found myself lost and helpless. I begged God to help me out of the pit. Jesus allowed the prince of this world, "ole Satan," to influence the people around him in such a way that it carried him to a place that he would experience what we experience when we are there.  Allow me to quickly interject that Jesus could have with one word stopped it all, but he chose not to. Think about how many times during those last hours it is said of him that he spoke not a word.

What does that have to do with Bible number sequences?

Watch closely. "The evening and the morning were the first day."  In accordance with that peice of scripture, the Jews sought to have the legs broken of the men who remained alive on the crosses, because they realized that they were about to break their own law that they so fiercely enforced on their own people.  The bodies had to be attended to before the Sabbath, the 7th day, because you simply couldn't do such things on the Sabbath. It was considered unholy.  No work was to be done on the Sabbath. Now, we discussed that God himself established that law in the very first book of the Bible, so why shouldn't it still be viable.  It was, but the Pharisees and Saducees had take the laws and made slave masters of them. Even these poor men on the crosses had to fall under the "law" and were not allowed to die in their own time.  By breaking their legs, they would die quite quickly because they couldn't push themselves up any longer to fight for life. (John 19:31) They would literally be suffocated to death as much as if someone put a bag over their heads.

Do you see the irony of it.  Some, I am sure saw it as merciful, but the Synogogue leaders saw it as keeping the law. In other words: they now became murderers in order to keep a statute of not breaking the Sabbath. It was the upside downess of this kind of thinking which discusted Jesus, and probably others as well. When Jesus said they should not worry so much about the splinter in someone else's eye before they pulled the log from their own, in one of his parables, this is the kind of thing he was talking about.  Which was more wrong?  Making these men suffer and die for punishment until it suited the religious leaders to put an end to it, in order to make them look good, or kill the offenders quickly in the first place so they didn't have to suffer. 

The religious persons of Christ's day had taken God's mercy out of the equations in life and instilled laws that put them in control.  God's laws were not meant to put anyone in control but God. They were meant to protect, and shelter his people from harm and disease and so much more.  They were supposed to show his grace and mercy, help and protection. 

Now where does the first day come into play if it was God's seventh day they were suppposedly honoring? Now recall that they were keeping the letter of the law which started the new day in the evening. That's just it. It was God's seventh day, but in his own words, the evening and the morning were the first day. God wanted his rest day to be man's first day. This is confusing until you view the cycle. 

Before I get into the number 8, notice that the scripture says, to labor for 6 days and then rest again from labor a day. The number six is the number of man and his works. It is sandwiched between 2 of God's rest days. Man's first day of work is the day after God's 7th day. Man works on his days, rests on God's day, and begins again to work on the first of man's days. However, God asked man to take his rest day, and claim it as man's first day. The eighth day forever after the first week of God and man, is the beginning of man's week.

That sequence is recognized more clearly in this verse:
 

Also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep the feast of the Lord for seven days; on the first day there shall be a sabbath-rest, and on the eighth day a sabbath-rest. Leviticus 23:39  ( Why we worship on the 8^th day)

 

In this Levitical law, which was intended to give a holiday, with

 feasting and celebrating the abundance of food that the people had worked so hard to raise in crops and then harvest. They were ready for a break, and what better way to rejoice than to eat the fruits of their labor.  The date given to celebrate was 15/7 - the 15th day of the 7th Jewish calendar month.

(We most often would say 7/15.) 

In the numbers for this date are 1 and 5. One is God, 5 is grace.  Symbolically this means 1 (God) plus 5 (Grace) equals 6 (the number of man.) Who does God grant grace through out the history of interactions with man. Man of course. (that one may have a bit of me interjecting something I see but the next one is strictly by God's design.

The number 1in the number 15 actually, of course, stands for 10, the number of atonement; and 5 the number of grace.  Grace follows atonement. Without atonement there can be no grace. Jesus died for our sins, paid the price, fulfilled the law, offered the sacrifice, even to the point of death for any sin that might require that for atonement, and it was done. Once it was finished, we are no longer under law, but free from the law, by virtue of the atonement.  We are under grace.  They are legal terms that derive from religious law. Even though the Israelites didn't understand Christ's death, they understood their own sacrifices for atonement. They understood that the dates were selected to have meaning.
 

Now on this day of grace, the people were told to rest and rejoice. Not in those words, but they were not unaware that the number seven, or the seventh day meant they were being given rest that was likened to God himself taking rest. By God's grace they could take these days of rest and find joy in their labors, by accepting the blessings from God, partaking of all that was good about the harvest. 
 

Now look closely at the feast days of Lev.23:39 -
7 days of rest plus one.  (7x7 plus 1 = 50 or 10 [atonement] x 5 [grace] = 50 [the day of atonement])
7 plus 1 = 8 The day of beginning again.
 

They were told to feast for seven days. But those 7 days were sandwiched between a Sabbath and the next Sabbath, or the 8th day. The verse specifically says, "on the first day there shall be a sabbath-rest, and on the eighth day a sabbath-rest."
Is it a little more clear?

After the atonement, Grace. This verse forshadows the time when Christ would bring atonement and rest from his work, so that we might have grace. The fruit of his labor would bring forth a new beginning. The eighth day. Man would have a new start, complete with the finshed work of Christ, and beginning in the freedom of Grace. This feast mimics the second week of God when he established that man, whose number is 6, should begin his life of work symbolically on the 8th day from the very first of creation. For Christ is was the end of a segment of his work, for man the beginning of all things new, a new creation, a new means of joining God's family, etc.
 

If we dedicate our rest days to God, in memory of his creation works, consecrating the day to God, we gift the day to honor him on his day. The seventh. But he then began the cycle of atonement and new beginning, by allowing his last day to become our first day. Each type, or forshadowing must make a full picture. And this only is a true forshadowing when we understand the whole of how God set up the picture and also fulfilled it.  ~Reversing the week to begin with rest, just as he had the day.

The evening and the morning would begin our day with rest, so our bodies might be prepared, and now the Lord was asking us to begin our work week with rest, to prepare for the coming week. It was a gift from God, just as salvation is a gift, and life is a gift. He looked into our needs and provided for them. Because in the above feast, the eighth day is the last day of the feast, which was celebrated for 7 days, (the number of completion,) God was saying that from this point on, they were to recognize that God had given them rest to start a new week, a new segment in life, a new year of preparing, planting and reaping the harvest...all things new in life. (Note in my next segment, I will discuss this sandwich of days that begins with a Sabbath and ends with a Sabbath.)
 

There is so much more hidden in this verse, and it brings up more questions than I have answers for as well, that it gives me great pleasure to say I don't know it all now.  The Spirit of God hides away depths of jewels in every verse. All of scripture is a mine waiting to be dug, full of golden nuggets. And for me, the numbers and sequences with their meanings and symbolism, make it all the more pleasant for me to dig.  It also quiets my mind from wondering "why" sometimes.
If it seems like it is all twisted together, it is. The intircacies of the numbers and their meaning are so entwined that no human could invent it without it being flawed. It is like a Crochet pattern of one exqusite thread being woven through out centuries of text.

Consider for example that a day is 24 hours. 3 x 8.  Could mean God through out our day.
or 21 hours plus 3 or 3x7 plus 3, God completes our day, begins and ends our day.
 

Dr. Charles Stanley did a set of sermons once, which showed the levels of Spiritual growth based on these numbers. At the time, I was in the 6th level, the level of man, tired of trying under my own steam to be Christlike enough, discouraged that life had not gone a I planned, and feeling deserted by God. Over the months I begged God to bring it all to an end, so that my pain would go away. I was physically ill, and chronically mentally ill.  I see it now as Satan's design, and he wanted me to fail as a Christian, so that all I beleived would seem to be of no value to anyone else. He wanted me to die, so I could be of no help to anyone else to becoming a Christian or to help them through the hard times. But because of Dr. Stanley (and a number of other men and women of God who were honoring God in the words they spoke,) I realized I should have victory over Satan, and not let him defeat me. As I sought for truth on how I could overcome stage six in my life, it loomed very large at me that 6 being the number of man, must mean that I had been trying it man's way.  I was well aware that we had attended churches that taught things I didn't believe were in God's word. I had felt for a long time that a couple of people were like the religious men of Jesus time. Using God's word against their flocks instead of to benefit them. They were legalistic and domineering and lacking in fruits for their labor. I made a commitment to find my end to the misery and see where the 7th day led me.  The 7th day was the day of my healing, a day of restoration to faith and health in so many ways. It was my day of rest from the turmoil and sorrow. It was my gift of new life.
 Dr. Stanley didn't teach about the eigth day, but I knew when it began that it was my era of new beginning and by then I was well aware of the Bible numerics. I new that this was my symbolic new beginning. The place where I was able to stop trying to live by laws and adherence to someone's judgements of me. I was free, to live in Christ by Grace, the way I knew all along I should, but allowed people to take that away from me. 
Each time, life brings me to a stopping place, I remember that in God there will always be a day of rest, which will also be my new beginning. My eighth day. There would be no one Lording over me to suppress the fruits of my labors from being blessed by God.
 

This brings up my final thought for the Leviticus feast day on the 15th day of the 7th month. This Feast was all about being glad there had been a harvest. That the blessings on the people had been about fruits for their labors, and that 7 days of rest, was appropriate for working so hard. But they were spending that 7 days knowing who blessed the work they did. They were to honor God for bringing increase to their efforts. When there is no increase, God is not in it. Sometimes with churches, Satan makes a false copy of this truth by drawing people to a charasmatic individual, who promises wealth. It's a sly, upside down version of the truth. So people respond. But these pastors then can begin to control their people by using guilt trips, bringing up their sin, as if they still have something to do to have righteousness.  Christ took care of sin. In God's eyes, Christ's death brings complete and utter forgiveness, (atonement) and a new day full of grace. In Satan's upside down version, Christ died, because we were so full of sin, and therefore we must do something about our guiltiness.  This is one of the reasons I am glad there is a Leviticus Feast celebrating the increase. Because, what God wants our life to be about, is not worrying over sin, but working for the increase.  That alone is what God will bless.

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Thank you dear Jesus for a new beginning. That when Dr Stanley talked of the stages of life, he allowed that there would be a day that I could take a rest from trying to be a Christian. And on that day I could take up a new understanding of life, that God gave grace to begin again. Please nourish hurting hearts with the wonder of your Word, and how you used numbers to prove that you are working in lives. May the numbers give assurance that you do have a plan for our lives to bring good and to increase to our labor, and bless us.

(New number: 2 = blessing)