Your Breath in Me

“God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” John 4:24 (NIV)

“This is the breath I breathe. . . . Your holy presence, living in me.” These words are in the first verse of the wonderful chorus, Breathe, by Michael W. Smith. John 4 tells us that God is spirit. Perhaps we can experience God with our very breath, breathing in God’s spirit, exhaling the staleness inside.

The Bible tells us the name of God is Yahweh or YHWH, as there were no vowels in the Hebrew language of the Old Testament. Someone once said that Yahweh means “air” or “breath,” YaaaWeeeh. So, God is the very breath we take. We walk through air with our every step. And yet, we say, “Where are you God?” When we live in God and he in us, we are in His kingdom whether we acknowledge it or not – he is there, in the each breath we breathe. We cannot seek God “out there.” God is found “in here,” when we worship Him in Spirit and in truth. Let us pray:

“Holy Father, you are spirit and I find you in spirit and in the truth of the words Christ taught us. May I realize your kingdom around me and within, as the angels in Heaven breathe in your presence. Today, I choose to breathe in your spirit and exhale the dark clouds that bind me. Inhale your spirit, exhale darkness. Inhale your spirit, exhale darkness. Forgive me when my mind tells me it can’t be that easy and I seek you in the world. You are found within the spirit I have invited to live within me. For this amazing miracle, I give you thanks and glory. In the name of your son, Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen”

Doris

"God gives us stories that testify to His love. Let me tell you mine.”

Copyright 2015 Doris Gaines Rapp

Some of the Books by Doris Gaines Rapp

Novelette:

News at Eleven (Glo Magazine Jan, Feb, March, and April 2015 – now on newsstands and online at  http://www.glo-mag.com/view-our-issues/ - page 50-51

Post-to-Phone Messages

Prayer for Release of Anxiety

Streams in the Desert, Tracks in the Snow

“Do not call to mind the former things, or ponder things of the past. Behold, I will do something new. Now it will spring forth; will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.”  Isaiah 43:18-19

Did you not listen to the things spoken, or read the words written? You are suffering. I understand your grief, your loss, your anger and your fear. Everyone has had their time of darkness. Don’t you know that God is there, not hiding in the dark but leading you out of the black shadows? How? What is your part in walking the path out of the pit of despair? The first sentence of Isaiah 42:18 — “Don’t keep rehearsing the things that have hurt you, or think about the past.”

Easier said than done? It’s easier done than living in the darkness. An old saying  goes, “Someone harmed you, shame on them. Re-inflicting pain on yourself every day by rehearsing that injury? —shame on you.”

Let go of yesterday each new day. Repeat, “I choose to find water in the desert and tracks in the snow,” at least three times during the day. Then follow that declaration by giving God all the praise and glory for delivering you. It is the “and then” that is the most important— and then, live the rest of the day, aware of it, knowing God has heard your prayer and will carry your burden for you. You will not have to rehearse the pain so you don’t forget it any longer. Give it up to God and thank him for receiving it – KNOWING, not HOPING, that God will find a path for you through the desert and across the deep snow. Let’s pray:

“Holy Father, Love of my life, I bow in your presence. Just like Esther of Old, I reach out my hand and receive your scepter, which invites me to enter into your presence. From this moment on, I give you the pain of the past and choose to dwell on it no more. I know you are gracious and full of compassion. I know you will accept my injury and turn my weeping into joy. You will show me the streams in the desert and the tracks in the snow, so that I may walk with you each day in peace. For this blessing, I accept it and know it is real, and thank you for the fulfillment of your promises. In the name of your son, Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen”

Doris

"God gives us stories that testify to His love. Let me tell you mine.”

Copyright 2015 Doris Gaines Rapp

Novelette:

News at Eleven (Glo Magazine Jan, Feb, March, and April 2015 – now on newsstands and online at  http://www.glo-mag.com/view-our-issues/ - page 50-51

Give Thanks for Ice

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18 (NIV)

The news ticker at the bottom of the TV screen was on continuous repeat from last evening through this morning. Updated from hour to hour with additional schools that were on delayed opening or closed completely, it was in a continuous loop under the evening’s favorite programs. When I was a child, we listened to the local radio station for school closings.

I remember one year my sister, Donna, and I waited with Mama for Daddy to come home from work. He was late and a blizzard raged outside. We sat in the sun room surrounded by windows, and watched the snow and sleet fall so thick we couldn’t see the road a few yards in front of the house. We all worried, but Mama had a way of discounting danger and lifting up the beauty in each flake. “It’s already falling in small, clumpy snowballs,” she said. “Half your work is done.” I laughed because I was sure there would be no school the next day.

Daddy walked in late, when the frozen sun had already given up fighting with the freezing day and night had overtaken our corner of Ohio. He had ice cycles hanging from everything: his old fedora hat, his eyebrows, his nose and his square Gaines chin. He chilled down to his ice crusted shoes. After hugs and kisses, Mama quickly drew a hot bath for him. By the time he had thawed, he felt fine.

Wait a minute — “Give thanks for the Ice?” The next morning’s sunlight bounced prism-like, multicolored beams off the ice and snow all over my world on Barton Avenue. A phone call to the small grocery on Wilmington Pike, where Daddy had abandoned his car in their parking lot the evening before, brought news that his old Dodge lay completely buried under everything that the storm had dumped. He put his feet up on the footstool, picked up his Dayton Daily News, delivered by a teenager with a sled, and sipped his hot coffee.

I stood at the dining room window and plotted my strategy. The four foot tall drift in the back yard would make the best ice and snow fort a ten-year-old could build. No one thought about wind-chill factors or hypothermia at that time. A pair of pants under my leggings, a warm coat over layers of sweaters, mittens, a hat and a scarf across my face was all I needed. Two neighborhood friends, Nancy and Edna, joined me as we dug out the ice covered snow fort and crawled in. It was a perfect day and a fantasy-laced way to spend it.

We are to be thankful in all things, for that is God’s will for us. I’ve written about this passage before, but I guess I needed a reminder. When we get a snow and ice blizzard, we receive ice castles at the same time. Many of us are so disappointed with the storm we forget to take advantage of the changes the storm brings with it. If we are thankful for the blizzard, we are more likely to find the opportunity for a glorious, sunny winter day, where magical blessings lie buried beneath the icy crust. Let us pray:

  

“Father of sunny sand-covered beaches and ice-stacked igloos, I thanks you for the blessings of each. You know my heart, dear Lord, the things I like and those I don’t. I give them ALL to you as a gift offering. I choose to find ice beautiful and snow like dancing angels that float down to bless me. I choose to live completely in you, oh Lord, so that you may live in me. Forgive me when I do not see your blessing in the storm. May I lift you up in all circumstances, so that those around me may also receive daily blessings and not disappointments. Everything you give us has a blessing inside, like a locket full of your love.  For all these things, I thank you and in the name of your son, our savior, Jesus Christ I pray. Amen”

Doris

"God gives us stories that testify to His love. Let me tell you mine.”

Copyright 2015 Doris Gaines Rapp

Novelette:

News at Eleven (Glo Magazine Jan, Feb, March, and April 2015 – now on newsstands and online at  http://www.glo-mag.com/view-our-issues/ - page 50-51

Novels:

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Stop Hiding from God

“Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.” Genesis 3: 8

Oh, come on now, do you really think you can hide from the Lord God? Apparently, Adam and Eve thought they could. They disobeyed God by eating the fruit from the forbidden tree, then when he actually drew near to them and “walked in the garden,” they hid from Him. These two beings of light and life, thought they could look like a tree, and deceive the creator of everything. If your child hid in his/her room among their blocks, books, and toys, would you be able to recognize them, your own child, among the other things? Adam and Eve didn’t look like trees and they certainly didn’t have branches with delicious fruit. They deceived themselves into thinking they could go unseen in the garden that was no longer their shelter, their home. Listen again, they deceived themselves.

We do the same thing. We don’t follow God’s plan for us: we don’t eat healthy food; and we don’t make choices that serve Him and not ourselves. You fill in the blank with all the other things we don’t do. Then, we all do the same thing. We hide from the Lord God by cluttering our garden with excuses, among them, our belief that we know what God wants for us when we haven’t even first gone to Him in prayer. We deceive ourselves into believing that God will never find out if we admit our poor choices to Him. We also deceive ourselves into believing we still belong in the garden, the Kingdom, among believers when we no longer look like them. Only disobedient children cover their eyes with their fingers and believe they cannot be seen. Dear ones, we are the ones who can no longer see the Lord who walks in the garden in the cool of the day. God has not hidden from us. When we actually believe we can hide from Him, we have missed our blessing, walking with Him “in the cool of the day.” Let us pray:

“Father, LORD God, creator of the Garden and all who reside there in, I praise your Holy name and thank you for each of the blessings you have given me. You had always intended for me to walk with you in the garden and to dwell there in your safe keeping. Forgive me when I have believed that I know, better than you, what is best for me. May I spend this New Year in the garden with you. I know, the key to the garden gate is one simple word, ‘Yes,’ and yet I try to find the hard-way in. For 2015, LORD God, I say ‘Yes’ to you. Your son, my savior, Jesus, stands just beyond the garden gate, waiting for me to let him in, so that I may receive your blessing, of walking with you in the cool of the day. In his precious name I pray. Amen”

Doris

"God gives us stories that testify to His love. Let me tell you mine.”

Copyright 2015 Doris Gaines Rapp

Novelette:

News at Eleven (Glo Magazine Jan, Feb, March, and April 2015 – now on newsstands and online at  http://www.glo-mag.com/view-our-issues/ - page 50-51