Three campfires have been blazing recently. In my own life and/or the lives of those I love.
The first is a global campfire. Tens of thousands around the world gather every morning to listen to Your Word, Lord… and to pray for each other. Who would have ever imagined that technology — a cell phone app / ministry called Daily Audio Bible — would make such communion in community possible?
How we are warmed to the core with a felt sense of Your Presence, Pleasure, Purpose and Power!
The second is our front deck campfire. Our daytime temperatues in Virginia are dropping quickly now when the sun sets — from the sixties into the forties. Fall is here and we have fallen — or jumped?! 🙂 — into the nightly tradition setting our fire pit ablaze.
How we are warmed to the core by those flaming logs and red coals… as we huddle under a black sky with more stars than we could ever hope to count!
The third is a cancer campfire. Started in secret, as if by arson, in the body of a beloved friend. Now raging like a wildfire, threatening to quickly reduce her time on Earth to ashes. We are not warmed by this fire, Lord. It chills us to the core.
All we want is for this fire to be put out… and for our friend to live on. So we huddle together in vigil. Locking our Shields of Faith. We gather together in battle. Fighting on our knees.
Asking for Your miracles… and mercy.
“Because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us…” (Ephesians 2:4-7)
At Your direction, Lord, I have been spending hours each day writing about my own journey through the Valley of the Shadow. Testifying about Your glory and goodness… and how You wove this Valley (and others in my life) into a taspestry of Victory.
How I long for the day when the time for valley living is past!
“God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Revelation 21:3-4)
Would yesterday be too soon, Lord?
Longingly,
Abba’s Girl