Daily Bread - July 2, 2004

But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs. And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs.

Your heart is heavy. Give it to me during this time of grief and heaviness. I have shed the love of God in your heart. Now love will minister to your grieving heart and will lift the heaviness from it. Rehearse no longer the events of the past. Forget them, and leave them behind in the consuming fire of my love. I am love, and my love is a consuming fire. I have sent a fire through your heart, not for bad but for good. The fire of my love is burning up the effects of the poisonous darts that have been shot into your heart. Well-aimed darts have taken their toll on you. You are deeply wounded. Grace has been given to you that bitterness does not come near you. You have grown in me and in the grace of God. You are not a stranger to the battlefield. Being wounded is not a new thing to you. What did you expect in the house of your friends?

I was wounded in the house of my friends. You are not greater than your Master. I was wounded by my own. You came to do good. Now you have been rewarded with evil. You cannot cover up evil by enveloping it with empty good words and deeds. The taste of evil is the same whether it is wrapped in evil or wrapped in good. Evil will not depart from the house that rewards good with evil. Forgive those who have despitefully used you and who persecute you that you may be a child of your Father who is in heaven. I make the sun to rise on the evil and on the good. I send rain on the just and on the unjust. If you love only those who love you, what reward do you have?

Even the thieves do that; therefore, love your enemies. Bless them that curse you, and do good to them who hate you. Pray for those who separate you from their company, reproach you, and cast out your name as evil for my sake. Rejoice in this day, and leap for joy, for your reward is great in heaven. This is the manner in which the prophets were treated. I am the stone that the builders rejected. You are a child of the stone; therefore, have you been rejected. Be not deceived by flowery words and good speeches, for their throats are open sepulchres. With their tongues, they use deceit and the poison of asps is under their lips. I will appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed. Behold how I take the wise in their own craftiness. I will disappoint their devices, and their hands will not be able to perform their enterprise. Be poor in spirit, and I will save you from their swords, their mouths, and the hands of the mighty. The poor has hope.

Happy is the man whom I correcteth; therefore, despise not my chastening. I have made you sore, but I have bound you up. I have allowed you to be wounded, but now your hands are made whole. I have delivered you in six troubles, yea in seven, and there shall no evil touch you. From the power of the enemy's sword, I have saved you. I am hiding you from the scourge of the tongue, so be not afraid of destruction when it comes. You shall laugh at destruction and famine. Your tabernacle shall be in peace. Your spiritual seed shall be great, and your spiritual offspring shall be as the grass of the earth. You shall come to your grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn comes in his season. Hear these words, and know that good has come to your door and seized you in its hands while mercy has lifted you above the wrath of your enemies.

Amos 3: 7 - 8

Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets. The lion hath roared, who will not fear? The Lord GOD hath spoken, who can but prophesy?