09/22/2022–The Beginning, the Middle, and the End
(Click on Video Thumbnail Below, to Watch on YouTube)
Psalm 63:1-2 (NKJV)
O God, You are my God;
Early will I seek You;
My soul thirsts for you; my flesh longs for you.
In a dry and thirsty land where there is no water,
so I have looked for you in the sanctuary,
to see Your power and Your glory.
Psalm 139:1-18 (NKJV)
O Lord, you have searched me and known me.
You know my sitting down and my rising up.
You understand my thought(s) afar off.
You comprehend my path and my lying down,
and are acquainted with all my ways.
For there is not a word on my tongue,
but behold, O Lord…you know it altogether!
You have hedged me behind and before,
and laid your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me.
It is high. I cannot attain it [by myself].
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I ascend into Heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in hell, behold! You are there!
If I take the wings of the morning,
or dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall on me,”
even the night shall be light about me.
Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from you.
but the night shines as the day.
The darkness and the light are both alike to you,
For you formed my inward parts.
You covered me in my mother’s womb.
I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Marvelous are your works, and that my soul knows very well.
My frame was not hidden from you, when I was made in secret
and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Your eyes saw my substance, while being yet unformed,
and in your Book, they all were written–
the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.
How precious, also, are your thoughts to me, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand.
When I am awake, I am still with you.
I just finished watching & listening to Bill Vanderbush present this very short statement on YouTube (again…a perfect fit).
“The Number One Question of Humanity!”
08/20/2023–Reflecting on this theme
It dawned on me today, as I was getting this ready to be put into a Grandma’s Got Grace video for this coming Wednesday, that this really is my testimony…the story of my life with God.
My Beginning…I have vivid memories from the time I was two years old (a few that were probably a bit earlier). I literally walked with God, and I was with Him and the angels in Heaven. I saw and heard things from there, and I told people about them, as soon as I had words to use. By the time I was 12, there were lots of people who had gone to my parents to let them know that, in their opinions, I had a very strange, vivid imagination, I was making up stories for attention, or I was flat-out lying. They all thought I should be getting some sort of psychiatric help, basically.
My Middle…So…at that point in time, I got tired of being one of the weirdest people in our small town of [Old] Valdez, Alaska, and I made up my mind that I would no longer walk with God. Just like that. Period. For 14 years, I did my very best to do everything I could to NOT walk or talk with Him. Because I DID know Him, and know Him well, I definitely knew the kinds of things that I shouldn’t be doing, so those were the things I DID. I won’t go into what all of those things were. I think you probably have plenty of frames of reference. I call those my “walk-away years.”
By the time I was in my early 20s, I was beginning to be very much aware that though I was still trying to get away from God, He was not letting me do so! He was EVERYWHERE! If you go back and read through the scriptures again, you’ll see what I mean.
My End…I’m nowhere near my end in this world, even though, as I write this, I’m only three months away from being 74 years old. I have now RETURNED TO the Lord. Since the year 1975, I have never looked back, and I never will. I absolutely know who I am, and where I belong, and that’s with God (from BEFORE I was born, during the time I spent TRYING to get away from Him, through all of the “nearly-48” years since I TURNED AROUND and RE-entered the arms He had been holding out to me all the time, until the very moment I’m reading this to you) and beyond.
We were created in God’s image — as eternal beings. No matter if we die and leave this earth, we still live on with God. We are part of Him. He has promised over and over and over again, to NEVER LET US GO.
GUESS WHAT???!!!
Every single person who has been born on Earth — EVER — is the same–whether they know it [yet] or not! Let’s read through the words again…
BONUS…Check out Isaiah 49.
— Speaking of WAKING UP —
(Click on the photo to go to the YouTube video in a new tab.)
— Speaking of “THE BEGINNING” —
— Speaking of “THE MIDDLE” —
Here are some of the captions on the newspaper in the stand behind Brandon, in the cover shot. I had to go full screen on my 32″ monitor, and still couldn’t get all the tiny print. What I DID get, however, brings really good LIGHT to the lyrics (which can be found at: https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/brandonlake/countem.html, by the way).
Newspaper Name: “The Prodigal Times”
The Credit Line (just above the headliner title: “Brandon Lake + other words I couldn’t define”
Top Left Ad Box: “Will He Return?”
Bottom Left Photo: “The Empty Tomb”
Bottom Right Photo: An Empty Cross (?)
These things all make perfect sense, as you see Brandon and the choir begin to sing, “You are Holy,” then the “Glory of the Lord” begins to shine around them all, then they find their very own nametags already on the “white robes” in the store.
Also, at the end, the newspaper left burning on the street — after the prodigals RETURNED (as I did, in my MIDDLE) — is reminiscent of the National Flags (not just in the U.S., but in other countries all over the world) being BURNED ON THE STREETS, because the devil is trying his hardest to get RID of those who are getting wiser and wiser to his ways and turning their backs on him, as they RETURN to the Lord forever.
— Speaking of “THE END” —
— Speaking of “ ” —
* * * * * * * * * *
Scriptures from the New King James Version (NKJV) ®
Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson (All Rights Reserved).
Less than 500 verses of scripture used by general permission.
* * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * *
“Songs of Hope and Joy” (My YouTube Playlist)
* * * * * * * * * * * *
My Grandma’s Got Grace YouTube Channel
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Powerful Prayers (Listed on My Website)
* * * * * * * * * * * *
I just finished reading through the following newsletter.
It goes PERFECTLY with this!
“Give Him 15” message from Dutch Sheets
And now, a few minutes after writing the above,
I continued checking my e-mail, and got
THIS message, from Joseph Prince
It ALSO fits perfectly!