Posts tagged #Flames of Fire

Jackie's Journey "Run...Fire!!"

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Fires can be devastating!  In the jungle there is no 911, no 

Fire Department, Fire Fighters or fire hoses and trucks…no place to run…

 One afternoon the entire village stood on the riverbank and watched across the rivers swift moving waters as a raging fire approached our settlement.  Like a tornado it swept across the forest floor consuming everything in its path.  The entire area was a patchwork quilt of gardens planted with bananas, rice, yucca, corn, and sugarcane… 

 Many of the new believers had fields laden with produce, as did their unbelieving neighbors.  Shocked at what we were watching, the believers began to pray.  My thought was…could that fire jump across the river?  The blaze began to pick its fields to blister as it “zigzagged” toward us. 

 To our utter astonishment the fire leaped over the believer’s fields and consumed the others. Not one field of a believer was touched! God’s demonstration of Sovereign control over the elements was undeniable. 

God was in that fire!

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“And I myself will be a wall of fire around it, declares the Lord, 

and I will be its glory within.”Zechariah 2:5

 Since time and memorial, the Darien jungle and its unpredictability had ruled!  Whether it was the fluctuating weather, the epicenter earthquake, the remote isolation, the absence of communication to the outside world, the challenge of transportation or the miscellany of wild animals, poisonous creepy crawlers, army ants, snakes and vampire bats…we were captive to the jungle around us. This was one of those days when my mind concurred with the reality.  

 We all stood amazed at God’s presence in that most obscure place.  He had been there all along.  The boldness of His Sovereignty was magnified in that raging fire. The assurance that regardless of the circumstance we were experiencing we were “…shielded by God’s power…”(I Pet. 1:5)was our pre-eminent thought as we stood “shaking in our boots”.  The promise that “the beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by Him; and the Lord shall cover him all day long” was as real that day as it ever would be.  We surely sensed that covering as we surveyedHishandiwork! 

 While buried in the jungle, I often sang a song taken from Psalm 32:7. “You are my hiding place. You will protect me from trouble and you surround me with songs of deliverance, whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You…”  Delivered and protected, standing on the edge of the Pucuro River, I was reminded of the truth “God makes winds his messengers, flames of fire his servants”! Psa. 104: 4 

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Ralph, my husband and God’s servant, teaching in our Kuna house with our daughter, Christina listening in.

 We are saved to serve, called to be “flames of fire”.  

Alive, dancing through life, consumed with the burden on His heart…

controlled by His sovereign will.

 “HE makes his ministers a flame of fire…”Psalm 104: 4

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~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is discipling and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights. 

Jackie's Journey "Motherhood...what a Glorious Calling!"

                                                          

                                                          

“Motherhood…what a Glorious Calling!”

“He makes the clouds his chariot and he rides on the wings of the wind.

He makes his messengers, flames of fire his servants.”

Our plane in Panama was called “Wings on the Wind”.  It was commissioned to take missionaries with the gospel into remote unreached areas in the jungles.  Being His messenger to an isolated tribe was a commitment that brought reality to my front doorstep!

Out here in California this past December we were inundated with consuming FIRES!  I had finished the Old Testament the end of November and had noted the means by which God chose to draw His people back to Himself.   He was looking for a God-consciousness with a repentant heart response that sought Him only with an undivided loyalty.  His people strayed from His ways and His will.  Fire was one of the four means God used to grab their attention!

“The fierce anger of the Lord will not turn back

until He fully accomplishes the purposes of His heart.”

Jeremiah   30:24

This Righteous and Holy God who “has loved us with an everlasting love and has drawn us to Him with loving-kindness” (Jeremiah 31: 3) is the same God who shouts for our attention in these days when our culture has been corrupted and deceived, as it draws us away from Him and His ways.  Uncontrolled anger is common practice in our homes, on the road, in our schools and churches, at concerts, in protesting groups, etc.  It has exposed a generation of people full of socially acceptable sins.  

We have parents who do not fulfill their scriptural responsibility to win and disciple their children (looking to their local church and Christian schools to do the job!); mothers, who are too comfortable with the “It’s all about me and my needs” mind-set; and father’s, who are too busy, distracted or disinterested to meet the spiritual needs of their families.

I don’t deny that it takes daily commitment and it is hard work!  However, “we are called by God to direct and correct young human beings who are born sinners Psa. 51:5, who by nature chafe against the instructions of God (Rom. 8: 9; I Cor. 2: 14), and are obstinately focused on pleasing their own selfish appetites (Eph. 2: 3).  And yet, even from the youngest of years, this work to curtail, limit, shape and redirect young rebellious lives is precisely what God requires us to do.” (Eph. 6:4; Pro. 22: 15)  Mike Fabarez

Take heart, special moms, our consistent, firm (without anger) and loving discipline will reap a harvest of peace (that’s right…our children will bring us rest and delight our soul (Pro. 29:17) and the work will be rewarded (Jer. 31:16).

Locking into God’s will and His ways will set you apart from the culture you presently live in.  Going against the culture means we are mothers of godly conviction (not caught up with every new fad or philosophy…wind and doctrine); mother’s with personal integrity.  We are virtuous with Godly understanding and knowledge from time spent in His word.  We are God-confident (not self-confident and entitled). We are yielded to His way and His will, not our own. We are women of great joy and gratefulness (regardless of our circumstances).  We are transparent before Him and hide no sin.  We are bold in our identifying and bearing witness of His Name.  We walk humbly with one another, not demanding our own way.  These attributes are His character… and His Spirit produces these things, as we get out of His way and submit to His leadership!

What is your commitment to God and your child?

Do your little princes and princesses see a mom and dad

Dedicated to Him… a flame of fire??

The parents of a righteous child have great joy…

Proverbs 23: 23

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~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America.  Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California.  My passion is discipling and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights.