Electric chair, hangman’s noose

Esther's Petition

As I looked at the beautiful stylized gold-colored cross on the back wall of a church sanctuary one Sunday morning, I thought how clean, how neat, how spotless, how sanitized, how painless it looks. Blood-free.

The Holy Spirit began speaking to me, as he often does when I’m meditating on something.

“Try seeing an electric chair fastened to that wall,” he said. “Visualize a hangman’s noose, or a guillotine blade.”

I thought about those things for a moment, seeing them clean and empty.

“Now try seeing one of those being used, smell the odor of burning flesh or the gush of bright red blood.”

It took a while for me to get those images out of my mind, as the congregation sang “At the foot of the cross.”

Most believers in this country don’t seem to mind it too much, standing at the foot of a pristine, blood-less cross affixed…

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God’s timetable and textile factory

First posted in 2008. Still interesting, I think.

Esther's Petition

Interesting things keep jumping out at me as I read in Exodus about Israel’s wanderings, if you really should call them that, in the wilderness. Most of them probably thought of it as wandering, but I’m sure God had a map, an itinerary and an agenda – in order words, a plan.

One thing I wondered about was how long it took to do certain things. Getting from Egypt over to the territory across the Red Sea and make camp that first time, for instance. How long did that take? Well, to know that you need to know when they departed from Egypt, don’t you.

According to Ex. 12:40-41, “The Lord’s people left Egypt exactly four hundred thirty years after they had arrived.” (Contemporary English Version). Notice that word exactly. Somebody thought it was important to keep track of the dates. There are about 600,000 Israelites, not counting women…

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Revival: pitchers and torches

Originally posted on June 29, 2013.

Esther's Petition

June 29, 2013

Last night as I was about to fall asleep, the Lord spoke to me about the revival that is happening around the world.

He showed me an image of an army with pitchers in their hands. Inside the pitchers were lit torches, unseen to the enemy until exactly the right time.

Those torches are the fires of revival around the world, the Lord said. Right now they are hidden to the enemy.

They won’t see the light — the fire of God — until I give the call to break the pitchers and reveal God’s fire.

That was all he said to me then. I asked him to remind me of it this morning so I could look up the scripture about that.

I found it in Judges 6. Gideon was called by God to raise up an army and defeat the Midianites. It’s a fascinating account.

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