Take My Yoke 12/22/21

22 December 2021 - Manna by Dorothy and Tony Callies 

                        And Merry Christmas to you!!!!! 

Theme: Take My Yoke 

            I like to share my personal devotion what this meant to me. I ask my Heavenly Father as to why there’s only some healing in some ways that kept Tony and me going. I kept quoting Scriptures as part of daily bread, like Lord’s Prayer says, “Give us this day, our daily bread.”  

            God has blessed us in several ways. But I would like to see Tony being completely healed from a broken right shoulder that are still painful when he gets up and moved around with walker which he held on so tightly, and so carefully that he would not lose his balance as he struggles to walk very slowly. [Surgeon cannot fix his shoulder due to his age and high risk of losing the use of right arm.]  

                What Tony’s like when he sits on his power chair? With his right arm and shoulder resting comfortable and it is not painful. He can use his right arm for sign language, to eat, to read newspaper, etc. in a limited way. Tony used his left hand and arm to help with his weak right arm. This is where I ask God for this specific healing area.  

            It was as if Tony was carrying a heavy load on his right shoulder which are tilted or slant a little lower than his left shoulder. He struggled to get his shoulders straight up while with walker. Often as if he carried something very heavy on his right shoulder. I had assumed that Satan put a lot of pressure on that area so I commanded him to back off and leave Tony alone. At times it helped, but still not 100% yet. That left me puzzled until . . .  

            This morning I came across the devotion about Matthew 11:28-29. What stands out of that verse was “TAKE MY YOKE.” Read Joseph Prince’s devotion, “Intimacy with the Lord.” Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest. TAKE MY YOKE upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.              I was impressed. My question was, “What exactly is the yoke that Jesus was talking about?” I dig deep. I thought that was a big issue, YOKE. I wrote it on my notes from the technology dictionary Merriam-Webster. It comes handy. I know computer does give word meaning, but to me it’s simpler. Here’s goes. 

            Yoke: 1) A wooden bar or frame by which two work animals (as oxen) are joined together at their heads or neck for pulling a plow or load. 2) A frame fitted to a person’s shoulder to carry a load in two equal portions. 3) Something that brings about a state of hardship, PAIN, or slavery. 4) Drudgery= hard work, dull or mentally slow at work.  5) Toil: long hard labor are usually done by hand.  

            Yoke: The earliest sense of our Modern English toil was “a long, hard struggle in battle.” It is natural enough that in time this came to be used to refer to any long hard effort (hard work of mind or body).  

            Meanwhile, I often check with Tony and it happened I noticed the lights from bedroom means he’s up. I checked with him sits on the bed. He asked me, “What’s up?” I told Tony that I read devotion about “Intimacy with the Lord.” I explained what Joseph Prince was sharing that even when we quote Psalm 91, it is intimacy that Jesus wants. Like it says, He covered me with His feather and under His wings … that’s intimacy with Jesus. So we hugged together. We felt God’s blessings.  

            Tony was impressed then he rubbed his right shoulder was discomfort with pain so I took the gel to rub his shoulder to ease the pain. I rubbed his muscle to relax his tense arm so he could get up to the bathroom by himself. He has to decide whether to go back to bed or get to the power chair while I was working on Manna. He got up himself from the bathroom with struggle.  

            I put Manna on hold and I took the fluffy robe to keep him warm. With walker, he walked to the power chair. Took the newspaper to read. I got him coffee. Turn on TV for morning News.  Then I’m back to Manna, hope to finish it and send it out to you.  

            Now where was I? Thinking about Yoke. What was Jesus telling me about? He said, “Take My yoke.” Now I realized that He wants intimacy, means that we constantly depend on Jesus. Whatever we go through, Jesus is carrying yoke with us, be together in all we do. I sensed a joy when I see God giving strength to Tony to move around independence. This is what I often see … constant strength from God along with Jesus and us bearing the “YOKE TOGETHER.”  

            I sense God’s blessing and inner joy to share this with you. You know what’s like for Tony to go through. Tony often has his up and down, but Therapist said to me while Tony was exercised walking with walker, “I can see Tony’s determination.” I was impressed and blessed to hear her said this. God’s strength continues into Tony to keep walking whenever he needs to walk.  

            Okay, that’s news for today. So may God bless you as you read this Manna with joy that God is blessing you today however you go through.  

 

Dorothy   

 PS. God loves you and so do I. :-)

 

The Parables 11/10-19/21

10-19 November 2021 - Manna from Dorothy & Tony Callies

Theme: Prophecy on Parables

 Psalm 78:2 “I will open my mouth in a parable …” This is from Old Testament King David, the prophet prophesied that ‘the future Messiah’ will tell lots of stories to the people. Parable means compared from earthly stories to heavenly stories.

             It happened already in the New Testament from Matthew 13:34-35 “All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake He not unto them: That it might be fulfilled (happened already) which was spoken by the prophet, saying, “I will open my mouth in parables …” In NCV, This is as the prophet said: “I will speak using stories …”

            Translate: Jesus told many, many parables. He wanted to show them what heaven was like so He compared earthly stories to heavenly stories. Jesus knew that people loves stories. Jesus knew that people would listen to the stories that are usually easier to remember to pass them on to others.

            Here is one example of Parables that I like very much to share. This kind of parable was used to compare what happened to God’s Word that was preached to four kinds of people and how they handle God’s Word who received them.

            The Parable of the Sower are four types of soil how the grounds respond to the seeds that are thrown to the grounds: Hard ground, stony ground, thorny ground, and good ground. Jesus compared the seeds that was thrown to the grounds are God’s Word that was being preached to the people who heard the words. People who heard the Word are like the ground. There are four types of people who received the Word of God.

            **Hard ground, the seeds were thrown on the ground, but the birds picked up the seeds.  This compare to a person who heard God’s Word preached to them, but soon they forget because the devil stole the seeds from their hearts.

            **Stony ground, the seeds were thrown into the ground, but it did not go deep enough. The seeds grew fast to become the stalks, and the sun burned it up. This compare to the person who heard God’s Word into their hearts with joy, but when they were persecuted and troubles came, they gave up easily because God’s Word did not take a deeper root in himself to become stronger.

            **Thorny ground, the seeds went into the ground and the plants grew, but the thorns also grew and choked out the plants. This compare to a person who heard God’s Word in their hearts, but the care of this world and being deceit to become wealthy, these choked the Word and he wasn’t successful spiritually.

            **Good ground, the seeds thrown into the grounds and it grew well and multiplied greatly. This compare to a person who received God’s Word into his heart, and understands it and his spiritually fruit grew and God blessed him greatly.

            Jesus used this parable to show us that people have a choice what to do with themselves when they heard God’s Word. Jesus gave us this parable to prove how important for us to study God’s Word into our hearts so our lives would be multiplied with God’s blessings. This parable of Sower enlightened my inner spirit that the Bible study is so very important to understand God’s Word that lead to our spiritual growth.

            The conclusion of Manna that O.T. prophesied on parables and introduced the N.T. fulfillment that Jesus gave many parables. There is a purpose in each parable that Jesus had given that applied to different situations. It means there’s an answer in each parable for us to find it by studying them. So what more could I say except God bless you?

 Dorothy

Crown of Thorns 11/9/21

 02-09 November 2021 – Manna by Dorothy & Tony Callies

Theme: Nine a.m. & 3 p.m. and Crown of Thorns

             “The Old Testament priests had two daily sacrifices, one in the morning at 9 a.m. and the other in the evening at 3 p.m. Jesus was crucified at 9 a.m., and He died at 3 p.m., thus fulfilling the type of both the morning and evening sacrifices. At the time of the evening sacrifice, all of God’s judgment had fallen on the body of Jesus. The floods of God’s judgment were ended by the sacrifice of Christ. (Written by Joseph Prince’s devotional books) 

            Dorothy: I was impressed with the Old Testament’s type of lambs sacrificed at 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. as a daily reminder that Christ would be a sacrificed Lamb of God. John the Baptist quoted, “Behold the Lamb of God” and he must have known about the lamb sacrificed was a type of Christ as a Lamb of God. So I searched the Scriptures from NCV and it touched my heart to realize the Old Testament’s daily lambs sacrificed as a prediction of future Calvary of Christ. In the New Testament, it was fulfilled from reading the selective verses from NCV:

            Mark 15:25 “It was nine o’clock in the morning when they crucified Jesus.”  Matthew 27:45, 46a “At noon the whole country became dark, and the darkness lasted for three hours. About three o’clock Jesus cried out …” John 19:30 “… “It is finished.” Then He bowed his head and died.”

Song: A Crown of Thorns

A rugged cross, became His throne.

His kingdom was in hearts alone.

He wrote His love in crimson red,

And wore the thorns upon His head.

(Iran Stanphill, Melodies of Praise)

             Dorothy: To me that was the most powerful fulfillment in the New Testament when you know about the Old Testament daily sacrificed lambs that reminded the children of Israel about the coming of Christ. John the Baptist prepared the way for Christ and told two disciples, “Behold, the Lamb of God.” They followed Jesus and stayed with Him until Andrew realized who Jesus was. Andrew ran to find Peter and said, “We have found the Messiah!”

            The Samaritan woman at the well said, “I know that Messiah comes, which is called Christ ...” This shows me that Andrew and the Samaritan woman knows about Christ’s coming. How? Through daily sacrificed lambs, they knew Christ is coming and both of them discovered Christ as the “Lamb of God.” This just made me want to worship Him.

            This short Manna is powerful thought “daily sacrificed lambs.” No wonder, Jesus offered to disciples a communion, bread and juice to “do this in remembrance of Me.”  His broken body and His shed (flow from cut) blood for our salvation and for our healings.

Song: Look to the Lamb of God

Are you weary, does the way seem long?

Look to the Lamb of God;

His love will cheer and fill your heart with song,

Look to the Lamb of God.

Chorus: Look to the Lamb of God,

Look to the Lamb of God,

For He alone is able to save you;

Look to the Lamb of God.

[James M. Black, Melodies of Praise]

God bless you,

Dorothy

His Workmanship 10/17/21

17 October 2021 - Manna by Dorothy and Tony Callies

Theme: His Workmanship (A highly skilled worker)

 Ephesians 2:10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained (to become a Christian worker or minister) that we should walk in them.”

            The movie called, “The Gospel of John” the part that impressed me when Jesus quoted, “My Father and I are always working.” It was from John 5:17 that Jesus had just healed the man of 38 years of being crippled, he got up and walked. It happened on the Sabbath day that the religious Jew complained against Him for working on Sabbath day. Still Jesus said that He and His Father are always working.

            Why this impressed me? I tell you why. In our everyday lives, I often wondered what does God do when things happened to us. I read one story of a man who wrote about his friend who had just lost his wife and he was in deep grief. He asked God a question, “What do You do when a man is grief over the loss of his wife?” It felt like there’s no profit when a person is grief. (What does it profit when a person grief?)

            Then he received a vision: A melting pot of gold with refining fire.  The dross (a waste or foreign things) appeared on top of melting gold, Jesus wiped the dross from the top of the melting pot. The refining fire makes the gold clearer. Jesus explained that He was working on man’s life of grief, making his gold richer as Jesus continued to remove the dross of man’s life. So the man’s grief was not a waste, but a “grief” was a refining fire.

            That really hit me! Because Jesus was working but we don’t see it. That’s what FAITH is all about. Ephesians 2:8 “By grace you are saved through FAITH; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.”

            Using the verse John 5:17 to remind me that Jesus is working which was why Paul explained, ““For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works” (Ephesians 2:10) The word, workmanship means the art or skill of workman: Craftsmanship also means a highly skilled worker. That we should walk in them meaning be trained in God’s Word to become His worker? Something to think about.

            My friend if you are grieving, know this that Jesus is working … He is not ignoring you … as we sometimes felt that way. I just know that God does cares no matter how Satan tried to “buffet us” that God doesn’t care. I used the John 5:17 to tell Satan off that God is working … and boy that’s feels good!

            May God richly bless you!

 Dorothy