Hope Is On The Horizon
by Stacey Lunsford Copyright © 2006
I was down and out in 2005 but Glory to God, I'm up and alive in 2006, writing about all of the tricks (acts or procedures intended to achieve an end by deceptive or fraudulent means) that "almost" turned me around. You see this last trial that I have overcome, it reminded me of Jesus death on the cross because it was a peculiar event that had unexpected and deceptive results like mine.
You see it "appeared" that all hope was gone when Jesus said "it is finished", bowed His head, gave up the ghost and died. Satan was happy, he thought that he had won but on the third day, God proved him wrong, when He brought back to life, His only begotten Son!
When they arrested me at precinct#9 and placed me in cell#8, for aggravated assault, they laughed and talked about me, as if they did something great! On the inside I was rejoicing because I was focused on Romans 9, verse 9 and verse 8, you see I remembered the promise. That is to say, it is not the children of the body [of Abraham] who are made God's children, but it is the offspring to whom the promise applies that shall be counted [as Abraham's true] descendants, Romans 9:8-9 (AMP),
With all the preliminary steps that they had to follow, they did an outstanding job trying to make me look and feel shallow, lacking depth of intellect, emotion, or knowledge. Didn't they do the same thing to Jesus? Psalm 2:1-6 (AMP), WHY DO the nations assemble with commotion [uproar and confusion of voices], and why do the people imagine (meditate upon and devise) an empty scheme? The kings of the earth take their places; the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and His Anointed One (the Messiah, the Christ). They say, Let us break Their bands [of restraint] asunder and cast Their cords [of control] from us. He Who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord has them in derision [and in supreme contempt He mocks them]. He speaks to them in His deep anger and troubles (terrifies and confounds) them in His displeasure and fury, saying, Yet have I anointed (installed and placed) My King [firmly] on My holy hill of Zion.
Acts 4:26-27 (AMP), The kings of the earth took their stand in array [for attack] and the rulers were assembled and combined together against the Lord and against His Anointed (Christ, the Messiah). For in this city there actually met and plotted together against Your holy Child and Servant Jesus, Whom You consecrated by anointing, both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and peoples of Israel, To carry out all that Your hand and Your will and purpose had predestined (predetermined) should occur.
"It is finished", is what they said, as they locked the gates, and labeled me a crook. I silently laughed because although I was incarcerated, I wasn't a criminal but indeed I was a crook. Holding on to the promise, I knew that somehow, and I knew that someway, God was going to make a way! My primary focus wasn't about getting out, it was on the lesson that God humbly taught me that day, "A crook from God's perspective."
Crook is to bend something. It's a bent or curved part of something. When my shoulder was severely dislocated during this domestic violence event that landed me in jail...my arm was curved, I could not extend it out, it was bent. When I was placed in jail, there was nothing that I could do or say to get out, I had to spend the night, until the judge set bail and my parents paid a fee to get me out. God used that time to bend (me, myself and I) into a Capital C because it was Jesus Christ who died on the cross, not me!
He confessed (admitted the truth) and did not try to conceal it, but acknowledged, I am not the Christ, John 1:20 (AMP)
He must increase, but I must decrease. [He must grow more prominent; I must grow less so.] John 3:20 (AMP)
Crook is a curved or hooked instrument or tool.
Curve is a round line that bends smoothly and regularly from being straight or flat, like part of a circle or sphere.
Romans 12:4-6, For as in one physical body we have many parts (organs, members) and all of these parts do not have the same function or use, So we, numerous as we are, are one body in Christ (the Messiah) and individually we are parts one of another [mutually dependent on one another]. Having gifts (faculties, talents, qualities) that differ according to the grace given us, let us use them: [He whose gift is] prophecy, [let him prophesy] according to the proportion of his faith;
Hook is a bent or curved piece of metal or other material, used to attach, suspend, fasten, or lift another object.
Joel 3:9-11 (AMP), Proclaim this among the nations: Prepare war! Stir up the mighty men! Let all the men of war draw near, let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, I am strong [a warrior]! Hasten and come, all you nations round about, and assemble yourselves; there You, O Lord, will bring down Your mighty ones (Your warriors).
Instrument is a tool used for precision work; it's somebody or something used as a means of achieving a desired result or accomplishing a particular purpose.
Isaiah 41:14-16, Fear not, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel! I will help you, says the Lord; your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. Behold, I will make you to be a new, sharp, threshing instrument which has teeth; you shall thresh the mountains and beat them small, and shall make the hills like chaff. You shall winnow them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the tempest or whirlwind shall scatter them. And you shall rejoice in the Lord, you shall glory in the Holy One of Israel.
Crook is a shepherd's staff which is a long stick with a curved or hooked end used by a shepherd to catch or guide a sheep.
Zechariah 11:7-9 (AMP), So I [Zechariah] shepherded the flock of slaughter, truly [as the name implies] the most miserable of sheep. And I took two [shepherd's] staffs, the one I called Beauty or Grace and the other I called Bands or Union; and I fed and shepherded the flock. And I cut off the three shepherds [the civil authorities, the priests, and the prophets] in one month, for I was weary and impatient with them, and they also loathed me. So I [Zechariah] said, I will not be your shepherd. What is to die, let it die, and what is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed; and let the survivors devour one another's flesh.
Jeremiah 2:8, [Even] the priests did not say, Where is the Lord? And those who handle the law [given by God to Moses] knew Me not. The rulers and secular shepherds also transgressed against Me, and the prophets prophesied by [the authority and in the name of] Baal and followed after things that do not profit.
Jeremiah 2:26, As the thief is brought to shame when he is caught, so shall the house of Israel be brought to shame--they, their kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets--
Jeremiah 18:18, Then [my enemies] said, Come and let us devise schemes against Jeremiah; for the law [of Moses] shall not perish from the priest [as this false prophet Jeremiah predicts], nor will counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, let us smite him with the tongue [making a charge against him to the king], and let us not pay any attention to his words.
Although precinct #9 was an uncomfortable, dirty, stink, cold and lonely place, it was a good place for me. For it's in that place where I was hallowed (cleaned out) set apart by God for His exclusive use. It was there in cell#8 that I relinquished possession and control of "self"into the Master's Hands, knowing that He had the Master Plan...to open those prison doors physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually; where unknown to me, I had to be locked up so that God could set me free!
I can see clearly now that the rain is gone!
It's in that prison cell that I was sent to die!
John 12:23-25 (AMP), And Jesus answered them, The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified and exalted. I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains [just one grain; it never becomes more but lives] by itself alone. But if it dies, it produces many others and yields a rich harvest. Anyone who loves his life loses it, but anyone who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. [Whoever has no love for, no concern for, no regard for his life here on earth, but despises it, preserves his life forever and ever.]
Hope Is On The Horizon...
Who were chosen and foreknown by God the Father and consecrated (sanctified, made holy) by the Spirit to be obedient to Jesus Christ (the Messiah) and to be sprinkled with [His] blood: May grace (spiritual blessing) and peace be given you in increasing abundance [that spiritual peace to be realized in and through Christ, freedom from fears, agitating passions, and moral conflicts].
Praised (honored, blessed) be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah)! By His boundless mercy we have been born again to an ever-living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, [Born anew] into an inheritance which is beyond the reach of change and decay [imperishable], unsullied and unfading, reserved in heaven for you, 1 Peter 1:2-4
Hope Is On The Horizon!
I see it, I feel it and I am walking all up on it!
With Kingdom Love,
Stacey Lunsford
Hope Is On The Horizon
Arise & Shine Productions copyright © 2006
