During the time of the Judges a man named Gideon (Judges Chapter 6) was called by God to put an end to the suffering of God�s people at the hands of the Midianites. Gideon was not a great military leader at that point or even a very powerful man. His family was from one of the weakest tribes in all of Israel.

When God told him to lead an attack against the Midianites, Gideon was reluctant, citing all that was going against him. God answered him: Verse 14 The LORD turned to him and said, "Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you?"

God basically says, �Look, Gideon. I�m the one sending you to do this. If I say that you�ll come out the winner in this battle, then you�ll be the winner. Anything you can think of as to why it won�t work is because you are looking at it as if you were the one at work here when it is really I who will bring defeat to your enemies.�

Gideon again pointed out that the odds were not in his favor: 15 "But Lord ," Gideon asked, "how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family."

God�s reply to him: 16 The LORD answered, "I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together."

So Gideon gathered up a bunch of farmers and shepherds, 32 thousand of them, and set out to do battle. Along the way, God wanted to be sure that everyone knew exactly who was doing the fighting so he had Gideon tell them all that if anyone was afraid they should go home now. So 22000 of these less than crack troops went home. So NOW, Gideon only had ten thousand left to fight with.

And God stopped him again and told him there were still too many men and they might think they were mighty warriors if they fought the battle now. So God used the way the men drank water from a stream to pare things down a bit more. The result was that Gideon was going to battle with three hundred men; none trained soldiers, against the forces of Midian, the Amalekites and their other allies from the people east of Israel.

As Gideon and his men began their attack, their enemies turned on each other and the result was a resounding rout. Thousands of trained troops were defeated by a reluctant leader and 300 farmers and shepherds�

And the Hand of God.

When Samaria was under siege by the Arameans (2 Kings 6 & 7) during the time of Elisha, and famine had depleted everything in the city and all looked hopeless, God raised up 4 men to provide the salvation of the city and the defeat of their enemies. These 4 men were not military leaders or political leaders. They were the lowest of the low. 2 Kings 7:3 Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, "Why stay here until we die? 4 If we say, 'We'll go into the city'-the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let's go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die."

Here were the poorest of all men in a city that had nothing left at all. While the city had food they were reduced to begging for existence. Now there was nothing left to beg for. Even the handouts of the wealthy were done. There was nothing left to do but to face their enemies.

Of course God caused the Arameans to hear the sound of thousands of troops coming with horses and chariots and they ran for their lives. Not only were the 4 lepers saved, but they returned to the city and told the king's men what they had found and before long the city had more food than they knew what to do with.

God often waits until we reach a point where we have nothing left before He acts. When He performs a miracle He makes certain that we understand where the victory really comes from. By waiting until we have exhausted everything in our own strength before acting on our behalf, it shows His mighty power and strength lest we should think that we actually had a hand in bringing about the miracle.

When He calls us to do something, He isn�t worried about what we think we can contribute to the cause. If we had what it required it wouldn�t take a miracle by Him to pull it off. Our station in life, the power we have or don�t have and even the help of others all stand in the way of God acting to bring us victory. It�s only when we have reached the end of ourselves, exhausted every avenue of handling it on our own and even the help of those around us has dried up that God can step in and show us how great He really is and how much He loves us.

It�s when the oil has run out and we only have enough left to get through the day that He will provide what we need on a daily basis until the task we were called to do has been completed.

He�s still doing miracles today, when we get out of His way and let Him have control�




:happyhanukkah:

I'm laughing because I truly believe that's how G-d talks to us and we just don't hear him.

So very true... So very true...

Oh Mark, this is perfect. thank you... Chai... did you read this? It's perfect. Read what he is saying and know this to be true.

"God's Will will never take you where God's Grace will not keep you."

and let us say AMEN....

Me too Queenie!

BTW, your post about your struggles and other's perceptions had me near tears too... it was almost like the feeling you get when you watch a REALLY good movie and the good guy finally wins in the end.

Love you girl. You are SPECIAL!!

Ughhhh.....You STILL have those picture's????......

Missy, I've already told you once to get rid of things....( especially before they do something harmful to your computer)......

Anywho, everything else is awe inspiring!!!!!

You continue STILL to amaze me. The simple joys you are finding in life is a lesson we ALL could learn.......

Loves ya honey

not2fun

You never know what they might be infected with...

your computer will end up with a VIRUS of sorts from her!!!!!

On top of the Hep C?

Oh goodness

NOT YET..... but I will when I'm ready.

PM - they are on it's way... What you said, brought tears to me. Thank you so very very much. You are SO VERY special to me and your encouragement, words of wisdom and presence makes me a better person in life. I love you so very much..

When I opened my mail, there was this stench.....

Eeeewwwwww......

Ho stench. LOL

Thanks Mark... this really helped me too...

And Queenie.. OK.... I'm very curious now.. I need to see these pictures...

,

Queenie, Thanks for the mail...I would have posted sooner but I was blinded by looking at them

Ok now remind me again why you were jealous of her??? Now I understand it clearly when they say the WS are in a fog --- in your case more like a brick wall! Of course remember your OW could have paid millions like mine and look like a silicone plastic demented barbie doll.

snicker snicker. You are a Goddess

Queenie,

Get rid of the pictures...

Dat's all I got fer ya.

Mark

In the time I have been on MB I have had several OP pics emailed to me.

Queenie, crack ho is officially THE ugliest pog I have ever seen. Proof that an A is all in the mind, cos damn, she sure is nasty. She even made PQ look good and thats saying something!

Flick looked and after recovering sight said something about 'swamp beast' and no paper bag could fix her problems.

Delete the pics before they melt your computer.

holy cow.... ROFLMAO

yeah what he said!!!!!!

Definitely a TRIPLE bag or better yet a full body bag...

Now it is ok to delete those pics and bring the actual pictures outside and have a burning ceremony unless they will pollute the atmosphere.

Ok... so here's the deal.....

When I came here I was skinsgal, a broken humiliated dry drunk angry woman who lost the only thing that really had ever mattered to her and didn't realize it until it was too late. The flat out truth is the problems that arose in my M were because I didn't honor my vows to G-d, forget my H and that I didn't protect, take care of, or nurture my M. I took it for granted. And so, I worked very hard to become a woman of G-d and metaphorphised into Queenie, who HAS to live a different way to continue healing from the WRONGS I DID.

What I did, sending many of you those pictures was so WRONG on so many levels. It was wrong for taking them and just not deleting them. It was wrong for character assassinating another human being regardless of what she has done and it was wrong because by doing it I was making myself feel better because I my self-esteem is taking a beating because I'm unwilling or unable to work on my weight.

This apology is for ME keeping my program clean and being that NEW person that G-d can be proud of. I am sorry for including you in my selfish needs and hope you can forgive me.

Please don�t respond to this and somehow understand and accept that this is the RIGHT thing for me to take care of and clean up, and to then simply move on.

You are three times a lady, my friend.....

I LOVE LOVE LOVE ya......

Not2fun

ps.....I accept your apology