Marching Orders #624... "ICU (Psalm 139)"

LET THE

SONSHINE

..."Your eyes light up your inward being.

A pure eye lets sunshine into your soul."

Luke 11:34a

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P.O. Box 675

Whitehouse, TX 75791

I.C.U. (Psalms 139)

ICU...

ICU to someone in the medical field means, "Intensive Care Unit"... to onliners, it means..."I know you are there...I can see you on my Buddy List." To God, I believe it means BOTH!

Does God really know where "I am at", all of the time? Is He truly watching over me intensively to the point that nothing can happen to me without His knowing about it? So often I wonder...God! Where are you? Don't You see what is happening? Don't you care? A person lying in ICU in a hospital might think the same things about their doctor...or even their God. They may feel like they were left all alone to suffer, when the truth is, they are getting the most intensive attention the hospital and their doctors have to offer...they just don't see it or feel it because of all the pain they are in.

When we are suffering, physically, mentally, or spiritually, going by what we can see or feel is dangerous. This is the time we need to walk by faith in God's Word, and not by sight or feelings. So, what does God's Word say about His care...does He know where I am? Does He see what is happening? Does He care? Is He in control?

To dispel doubts in this area...read Psalms 139...read it over and over...my favorite version of this Psalm comes from the Living Paraphrased Bible...

Psalms 139:1-5 (LBP)

O LORD, YOU have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit or stand. When far away you know my every thought. You chart the path ahead of me, and tell me where to stop and rest. Every moment, you know where I am. You know what I am going to say before I say it. You both precede and follow me, and place your hand of blessing on my head."

Selah! (Just think about that!) The LORD knows everything about me...He even knows whether I am sitting or standing...He knows my every thought...He has charted out a path ahead of me and He's going to tell me where to stop and rest. EVERY MOMENT He knows where "I am at"! He goes before me and follows me... He thoroughly encompasses me, placing His blessing upon me. Let me tell you a story that clearly demonstrates this.

We were traveling to do a crusade in Carlsbad, N.M. We had driven about 10 minutes past Abilene. It was about 1:00 A.M. Sunday morning. We had our puppet team following in another vehicle, when all of a sudden their lights dimmed and went out. It was on a rather deserted stretch of highway. The alternator on their station wagon had quit. So my husband removed it and started towards town. I questioned him...I was looking at the circumstances in a very realistic way. There was no parts store in sight...it was early in the morning hour on a SUNDAY, and if there was a shop, it would be closed, so why was he wasting his time going to look for a replacement alternator? He told me why...He prayed and God told him to go on and get an alternator! YEAH... RIGHT! I thought.

About fifteen minutes later he returned. Steve started installing the alternator. He's a man of few words and didn't say a thing...and like St. Nicholas, he went straight to his work. I thought, well, maybe he prayed over it, or tinkered with it and was going to try to see if it would work now. Then I heard the car start. He said, "We're ready to go!" What had happened?? God KNEW WHERE WE WERE...He had charted our path...He knew where to let the car stop... He had preceded us some years before and had an individual build a 24 HOUR, 7 DAYS PER WEEK GENERATOR & ALTERNATOR REPAIR AND EXCHANGE SHOP on a side road about one half mile from where we had broken down!!!

(In all our travels, to this day, we have never seen another shop like this stuck out in the middle of nowhere like this one was.)

So often we stop just short of the miracle we need because we are looking at the circumstances and are going by what we see and feel instead of by what God tells us.

Ps. 139:6-7..."This is too glorious, too wonderful to believe! I can NEVER BE LOST TO YOUR SPIRIT! I CAN NEVER GET AWAY FROM MY GOD! (Emphasis mine)

God goes on to promise that EVERYWHERE WE GO, His hand will guide us, and His strength will support us! How precious it is to know (and to believe) that He is thinking about me CONSTANTLY! How awesome to know that He wrote a book about my life BEFORE I was even born... That He KNOWS what page in that book we are on and He KNEW IN ADVANCE what to write on the pages after the trials I go through, and He is able to turn circumstances around to work for my good..(Romans 8:28)... Just read it...it's all there in Psalms 139:

Ps. 139:13-16

"You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body, and knit them together in my mother's womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! It is amazing to think about. Your workmanship is marvelous---and how well I know it. You were there while I was being formed in utter seclusion! You saw me before I was born and SCHEDULED EACH DAY OF MY LIFE BEFORE I BEGAN TO BREATHE. EVERY DAY WAS RECORDED IN YOUR BOOK!" (Emphasis mine)

God knows where "you are at"...He knows all about your trials and the circumstances that you are facing, and He has a divine plan to place His hand upon your head and bless you... Don't allow the devil to stop you "half a mile short" with bleak and hopeless circumstances. Keep on going down the road... pray, read His Word...allow Him to speak to you, to lead and guide you. Realize that He knew beforehand what was going to happen and He knows how He will work it out if you will trust Him.

We have all allowed ourselves to doubt, to stumble, to get off of His perfect path and plan, just like David did. And like David, in verses 23 & 24, we need to ask for, yearn for, the searching of our ways and the testing of our thoughts by God, and be willing to cleanse, and discard anything unpleasing to Him. Lord, I pray...

"Search me, O God, and know my heart; test my thoughts. Point out anything you find in me that makes you sad, and lead me along the path of everlasting life." (Ps. 139:23-24 L/B/P)

In Him, and He in me,

Marlene

MARCHING ORDERS #624

Marching orders are compiled from paraphrased verses out of the Living Bible. No commentary is added...they are the pure Word of God.

"As Christ's soldier do not let yourself become tied up in worldly affairs, for then you cannot satisfy the one who enlisted you in his army." II Timothy 2:4 L/B

They traveled with the Ark at the front of the column to choose a place for them to stop.

My times are in your hands. - (God) will personally select his choicest blessings for his... people: the very best for those he loves.

Lord, lead me as you promised me you would. . . . Tell me clearly what to do, which way to turn.

Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him to help you do it and he will. - In everything you do, put God first, and he will direct you and crown your efforts with success. - If you leave God’s paths and go astray, you will hear a Voice behind you say, “No, this is the way; walk here.”

Because the Lord is my Shepherd, I have every-thing I need! He lets me rest in the meadow grass and leads me beside the quiet streams. - He is like a father to us, tender and sympathetic to those who reverence him. For he knows we are but dust. - Your heavenly Father already knows perfectly well that you need them. - Let him have all your worries and cares, for he is always thinking about you and watching everything that concerns you.

(Living Bible:)

Numbers 10:33.

Ps. 31:5. - Ps. 47:4.

Psalms 5:8.

Ps. 37:5. - Prov. 3:6. - Is. 30:21.

Ps. 23:1-2. - Ps. 103:13-14. - Matt. 6:32. - I Pet. 5:7.

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