I dreamed a little dream of Thee. You spoke to me. You asked me what a balm does to a wound.
I answered and said, at first it stings. Then it penetrates the wound where a pain numbing effect takes place. It wraps the extremity up in a cooling effect as it softens the skin around the wound. The softer skin makes for movement that is easy and it doesn't make you flinch like hard and tight skin and muscles do. It is in this softened state that the wound heals. Sometimes, there's a smell. It permeates the air as the healing and restoration begins.
It is the place of meeting at the Watchtower. The Watchtower, once a boundary line wrapped up in enmity has now become a place of Light and Reconciliation. This is a place of healing and resurrection.
The Balm of Gilead has finished the work. It is the only Way. Let the Truth set you free to pass into the abundant Life promised to Abraham. It is the place where Jacob loses his limp for Good. 
Go forth, the Jordan is waiting for you to cross through.   

​Thank you for joining me today as we say goodbye to yesterday and our not so dear friend "Mr. Dead Ideologies". I know many have had events that didn't play out as expected. I would like to say a few words now to eulogize Mr. Dead Ideologies. 
Dear Dead Ideologies; rest in peace knowing that you were created by a mind of our own. You were never meant to exist in the first place. You were created in the wind of something that sounded good for our flesh but did nothing for our eternal soul. You itched ears for years with your temporary sweet nothings and promises as people waited for you to come to pass while losing sight of what is True. You have been talked about in sentences like "never meant to be this way" and "not what I signed up for" or "God has forsaken". You especially did a great job of getting people to blame God for what He never actually said or did. You did a great job of dividing what wasn't meant to be divided while bringing together what has no business being together. It turns out your official spokesperson is a liar and distorter of the Truth. Today, we say goodbye. 
Please, brothers and sisters, throw a little dirt on top as you pass by to symbolize the returning of what is carnal back to what is carnal. We look forward to the daisies that God brings from your grave. 
The Body of Christ will now thank God as we allow patience to finish having its good work and the rest of the Holy fruits to grow to completion through the Holy Spirit. Thank you all for coming in this historical time. Please go in the peace of Christ knowing that it could actually feel like war with the world. Don't forget to open your Bible for more information on how to overcome. 

I have always found it worth taking note of how the one lone chapter in the Book of Jude was placed as the last book of the Bible before the Revelation that was given to John. Jude could have placed great emphasis on the most wonderful things about our salvation in Jesus but instead he thought it was best to leave the Body of Christ with a warning. Jude narrowed it down to the three things to be on guard of in our own heart that will seek to destroy our faith or harden our heart if not dealt with.
The way of Cain is in complete opposition to the Way of Jesus Christ. Cain killed his brother and offered the earth the blood it required to keep us in bondage. Instead of improving his own life by heeding the correction from God, Cain killed his brother Abel who offered a better sacrifice to God. You could say Cain chose to offer the earth a sacrifice instead of God. the Rightful Owner of everything. This is the same choice Judas Iscariot made when he chose to kill himself instead of seeking reconciliation and forgiveness from Christ. Yet, Jesus saves His brother and sister and delivers us from our sin through the perfect offering of Himself to make us free. His sacrifice and resurrection have overridden the earth’s requirement for our sin. Get rid of the slave woman that will never be satisfied. Receive the Free Man that fully satisfies. (Genesis 4)
Balaam’s error was using the Truth of eternal things to cover the lies in his heart that loved to profit from temporary things (specifically, financial gain). There’s a name for that and it’s called divination. Balaam, a prophet who could not lie, taught the enemy how to use division and enticement to get God’s people to destroy each other for profit (sound familiar?). Jesus is the Truth with good plans to prosper our souls, build us up, and unite us.  (Numbers 22, 23, 24)
Korah’s rebellion is proof that jealousy can stir up the people to revolt against what God ordained. Korah stirred up the other Israelites to rebel against Aaron and Miriam who God had ordained in priestly roles as a priest and prophetess. In Korah’s jealousy, he ignored God's ordination and decided that everyone was a priest and prophet. This led to getting his followers swallowed up by the earth in a great earthquake. 
I love how Jesus came in and took care of all the damage Korah caused by allowing us to exchange our sin’s defilement for His Righteousness. Because we have such a perfect High Priest who fulfills all priestly roles, we each are now part of a royal priesthood and a holy nation. Each of us can now stand in the gap and speak God’s Word. There isn’t any reason for jealousy among us because we each have access to Jesus through our own personal relationship with Him. No one stands between us and Jesus. We individually have the King’s ear and have not come to a mountain of fear but to the mountain of Joy in Jesus, our High Priest (Hebrew 12). There is no need to seek man for what Jesus freely has given to each of us who believe. We will not find for ourselves a better advocate, defender, teacher, or intercessor than Jesus. (Numbers 16, 26)
I grew up on a lake. One of the scariest things I can remember is jumping into the lake on a busy day when the waves had no rhyme or predictable path. It was easy to get disoriented under water when the current was pushing from all directions. Sometimes, I didn’t know which way was up and would accidentally swim to the bottom instead of the top. In those times, I would calm myself down and remember my training to get back to the surface. I’m not a teacher but I do want to offer encouragement to each of us to persevere in the time we are in so that we may gain the Crown of Righteousness and finish the race. There is no need to panic if you’re feeling disoriented with the wild waves, read Jude (or listen to me read Jude in the video above). We can fortify our faith by guarding our own hearts from allowing greed, lies and unforgiveness, and jealousy to take root. The encouraging instruction we can gain from Jude involves keeping our eyes on storing our treasures up in Heaven, the Truth, and the Head who unites us. What a Gift God has given us in His Son and the Holy Spirit!
Jesus, we come before You and thank You for being our High Priest. We thank You for Your atonement. I pray Your Body will be encouraged to persevere in the Truth as declared by Your Word and Holy Spirit. Forgive us for any way we have taken that is not Your Way. Thank You for Your grace and mercy that keeps us from drowning. I pray Your people will be united by looking to You while allowing others the same liberty to pursue Your voice and direction for their own lives.  Help us to protect our hearts from the things Jude warned us about. May our love burn hot as we offer ourselves as a living sacrifice to You. In Jesus Name, Amen. 

Several years ago and after one particularly wet and snowy winter in the foothills of Mt. St. Helens, I was excited (and a little desperate) to get my kids outside on a hike. My 3 year old daughter and I had been looking at local foliage online during our long winter and were ready to go put our new knowledge to the test. I was surprised to see flowers already blooming so early in the season!
The flowers were perfectly beautiful! Upon closer inspection, I was absolutely amazed that they did not move one bit when the strong spring mountain winds blew on them. In fact, it was a little creepy. I thought maybe we had gotten a freeze overnight to render the blooms so hard and rigid. I poked one with a stick (yes, extreme scientific fact finding methods only in our household) and the petals and the stem all had the same hard texture. The petals should have been velvety soft and delicate and the stems should have been firmer. I took a picture and did a quick search on the flowers and came up with two results that looked exactly the same! It was a good idea that we hadn't touch it as it was a type of toxic fungus that caused breathing difficulties if the spores were inhaled. What?? It looked exactly like the flowers that usually bloomed outside our door.
As the rest of the spring played out, I noticed that many other copycat fungi was popping up everywhere next to the real creation. This fungus essentially studies and copies the flowers, the leaves, the ferns, and even the roots of the trees around us and became exact (almost) replicas of whatever it studied. To my understanding, the fungus highjacks pollinators and tricks them into pollinating them so they are able to take on some of the qualities of the real thing. What set the fungus apart from the real thing was what was inside. One was moveable with the wind and the other stood rigid when the wind came. The real version gets bruised, dirty, and in some cases looked like it had been through a war! The copycat version in fungus form looked beautiful, perfect, and dangerously delicious. One carried creativity and life. The other could only counterfeit what it saw but it was carrying illness or death to anyone who breathed it in.
For a few months now, I've heard this in my Spirit,
"Be careful. Be on guard against the yeast of the land".
Be transformed and set free with faith in the unaltered Truth. Christ has made us free. It doesn't do us any good to be a seasoned veteran if we forget how to be a soldier of faith. It is the Blood of Jesus that transforms through grace. Don't be seduced by lies masquerading as Truth that will be dangerously delicious if swallowed. Why would we want to rebuild what Christ has torn down if it brings death? Jesus builds the house. The rejected Stone is now the Cornerstone. Be on your guard of anything wishing to see circumcised flesh as the result without a care of a circumcised heart. Don't allow the yeast of the land to be what puffs up. Be moved by the Holy Spirit.
The Book of Galatians explains this much better than me. I read it often. It never fails to encourage my faith.

“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
Whitehall, Montana. May of 2020 in the heat of the Covid epidemic where everything was completely shut down. My family and I were heading to Butte for a quick diaper run. Normally when we traveled, even for just a quick trip, we loaded up on milk for the kids because we are known to take long and unexpected detours. This night we only took a couple of bottles after an exhausting day wanting to return quickly to where we were staying. It was a beautiful sunny Tuesday with rain expected in the evening. As we were nearing the town of Butte we saw the dark grey clouds starting to gather. It was early evening around 6:00 pm. We got our diapers and decided to pick up something to eat while we were out. It was now almost 8:00 pm and we decided to find an empty parking lot to eat our food before heading back to Whitehall. We found a nicely kept city park for our view. We found an empty parking lot, stopped the car, put it in park and left it running. Right away I noticed some smoke coming from the front of the car. I looked at the instrument panel and saw the temperature gauge read deep in the red. At first, I wasn’t too concerned as the car had an antifreeze leak and every day I had to top off the radiator a tad. I hoped I would find an easy fix. I got out of the car in a light drizzle, lifted up the hood and started looking for the problem. I saw the hose that connected to the radiator had popped off. I was comforted thinking it simply loosened and fell off and that I could just put it back on and re-tighten the hose clamp. Easy peasy. Fear quickly swept through me when I grabbed the hose and realized that there was nothing left on the radiator to connect the hose to. The entire piece that the hose clamps to had sheared right off. This was something I could not fix; I needed a whole new radiator. I got back in the car and looked at my wife and I could tell she could tell I was a little put off, which means I was really freaking out. I’m known in my house to be pretty excitable. My precious wife brought my heat level down just enough from the deep red that I was able to utter the following prayer: “Please send someone to help us Lord”. We decided to go ahead and eat our dinner while we tried to figure out what we were going to do. Here we were, stuck in the middle of a most unfamiliar and very much shut down town with no clue what to do. The kids had already exhausted their short allotment of milk and we were still exhausted. Rain, lighting, and thunder started raging and what happened next could only be written into a most predictable chaotic suspense movie……tornado sirens. Yes, tornado sirens started going off. We couldn’t see the skies, we were surrounded by buildings and tall trees, so we had no idea where the weather was coming from or where it was going. Winds came and whipped at us and hail pounded the car. After a short “what are we going to do, we have nowhere to go” moment we started laughing. A few minutes later the sirens stopped, the weather subsided, we checked out ok, and we thanked God for keeping us safe. Our heads began to clear, at least my wife’s did. She suggested we call a car rental place and see about at the very least renting a car to get back to where we were staying and figuring out where to get the car towed in the morning. She was able to get one person to answer a phone at 9 o’clock at night. The first answer was they had just closed and didn’t have any cars to rent. My wife was not about to give up so easy. She offered various scenarios that he could help us with but he was not choosing any of them. He was very apologetic and wasn’t even quite sure why he answered since he wasn’t able to offer any help. He was very nice and was trying really hard with my wife to figure something out. He then had an idea which meant he would have to sacrifice the rest of his evening to help us. He asked where we were and of course we had no idea. I got out of the car and went across the street to find out what the name of the business was. Remember that suspense movie script? We were stuck in Butte Montana in dark tornadic weather with no more food for our babies in a broken down car in the parking lot of a, are you ready for it? A funeral home. Well, at least we knew there was one of two ways we were getting out of there. Back to the rental car guy. He left his downtown office, went to his counter at the airport, got a car and brought it to us and then had his wife pick him up. He gave up his night and got his family involved to help us. God bless you rental car guy. While we were waiting for the miraculous rental car delivery, we still did not know what to do about our injured vehicle. Everything seemed to have calmed down for the most part, I wasn’t completely afraid of utter family devastation. Now the time that had transpired since our prayer for help was only about 15 minutes. My wife was praising the Lord while I looked one more time under the hood to see if I missed anything. Then a truck pulls up next to us in another light drizzle. “Y’all need some help?”. Fifteen minutes, max, after our prayer to send someone to help, help showed up. A man got out of the truck and we had a quick conversation about our situation and just as quick he jumped into action. He got on the phone with a local mechanic that he knew and had arranged to have our car towed in the morning. I don’t know if the mechanic was reluctant because we were strangers from out of town and he didn’t want to get burned but the man told him that even if we couldn’t pay that he would. That must have put the mechanic at ease because he agreed to pick the car up in the morning and give us a call when he came up with an estimate for the repairs. If that wasn’t already an extremely kind act, the man then offered us a house. He explained that his mom recently passed away and her house was still fully furnished but unoccupied and we were welcome to stay there as long as we needed. I thanked him for his generous offer but that we had arranged for a rental car and just a few minutes after that our rental car drove up. We thanked everyone for their most generous help and drove back to Whitehall where we were staying, got our babies some more milk, and called it an evening. In a couple of days, we went and picked up our car with a new radiator.
The whole event occurred from about 8 pm to 10 pm, although it felt like it lasted an entire day. It ended suddenly just as suddenly as it began. We moved through every emotion possible and through all the chaos God was with us the entire time working out what the enemy meant for harm for our good.
​Again, Romans 10:13 says “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved”. We called on His name and we were saved, it’s as simple as that, just a few words, and then we waited, although at the time nothing seemed simple. Someone showed up and took care of everything for us, more than we could have asked for. God took care of everything when we couldn’t, even amidst fear and doubt, He was still faithful. That’s how much God loves us, He goes all the way for us. If you find yourself in trouble, no matter how big or small it seems, call on the name of the Lord and He will be right there with you. All you need is just a few simple words.
Hi, this is Karrie now, I thought I would share some things from my perspective of the event. We had plans to be at a hotel in an unnamed city center about two days drive away that we had to cancel due to the delay in our car being fixed over the next week. I opened the news on my phone to read of extreme violence to bystanders during a riot that was going on at the exact time and place we would have been staying. Praise God for the delays in our life that we don’t know about. I think God allowed me to see what He protected my family from to recall in the future for when He asked us to do things or go places that didn’t make any bit of common sense. If ever you feel delayed, thank God! He goes before us!
Another thing, we were seasoned mountains and wilderness travelers. We always, always, always drive prepared with food, water, extra blankets, etc. We know how quickly weather and situations can change and that help isn’t always nearby. That night in Montana, we decided to jump in the car carrying only what we thought we would need for an hour drive round trip. We had done a deep cleaning inside the car that day and didn’t put our emergency essentials back in the car. The weather turned cold with the rain, and we didn’t even have a receiving blanket to cover the kids in. Unprepared even after years of being overly prepared and God still blessed us and kept us out of His supply of sustainment. Our toddlers sat in the back seat singing silly songs about the love of Jesus to bide their time. Also, I did not tell Rick to call me precious in his account, haha. 

As a person who completely over-indulges in the origin of words and sayings (and chile rellenos when I make them, if I am being fully transparent), I woke up one morning about 15 years ago with the saying “Bottom of the Barrel” in my head. The answer has lived in my head all these years for such a time as now.
Wind-powered ships didn’t reach their destination as quickly as they do now and required supplies and food supplies to be carried in barrels. Most food items were pickled or stored in salt brine or oil for preservation. However, if you were reaching for the “the bottom of the barrel” you were likely to pull up smashed and damaged food items due to the weight of everything that had been placed on top. Less than stellar was the quality of the items at the bottom even though they were the same items as on top. Sailors tried to combat this oppression of food by turning the barrels over to keep the weight balanced evenly. This meant that each of the food items had at one time or more during the journey been “at the bottom of the barrel”.  This method would leave ALL the food being smashed on longer journeys that required patient endurance if something didn’t change.
Through the years, especially in my younger days, I was obsessed with the wisdom of King Solomon. I wish I could say it was due to my profound piety, but Proverbs is where I found all of my money-making wisdom as I wanted to see my face on Fortune’s list of most powerful women someday. My biggest takeaway was that God hates dishonest scales, and an accurate balancing of weights find favor with Him and so I tried to live my life like that. I quickly learned that keeping balanced scales was impossible for me.   “An eye for an eye” or just “being a good person” would never settle the scales of injustice in my life (whether I was the one lifted or the one tilting down). I kept finding myself short.  Behind every pacifist is a desperate desire for honest scales. A pacifist who can’t get the scales to balance will eventually give up on everything that means anything to them and end up with a hardened heart, or worse, a bleeding heart that will eventually bleed out. Without Jesus, my only hope was that the barrel would get turned eventually. I didn’t dare believe in karma because I was too aware of my own wretchedness. I had too much fear and concern to be agnostic. I had seen God and satan too much to be an atheist. I had too much sobriety to go with the flow. 
The Apostle Paul (appointed by God and not man) was an easy convert for Christ because he had already been studying the Law for years and had a zeal for righteousness that had not yet been quenched. Jesus allowed Paul to be blinded physically in order for him to see clearly. Isn’t it funny how when Christ poured out His grace and healed Paul of his blindness something like “scales” fell from his eyes? Trying to keep balanced scales blinded Paul from seeing Jesus and the justice He had already poured out. Paul eventually concluded that everything that could be considered weighty on his side of the scale was garbage in comparison to gaining Jesus. Paul was intent on snuffing out the Way and ended up walking the Way. 
Through Jesus, the scales are now paid in full; sin has no sting, death has lost its victory, no crushing bottom of the barrel placements, and I am now listed as a powerful woman in the Book that matters most. 
Paul’s zeal no longer left him thirsting for what he could not take hold, nor did it leave him as a murderous hypocrite but in advancing the ministry of reconciliation to God (the ministry of grace). He was desperate for his own people to take hold of the Promise that the ancestors had labored so hard for (thank you!) but God saw it best to place Paul in the ministry of grace for the gentiles. In the end, Paul testified before the gatekeepers of both. I would call any of the fruit from that a double blessing from the same “Tree”. 
Without Christ, the best thing this world can offer in the way of fairness or restitution is to turn the barrels of oppression over occasionally. You could be on top of the barrel one day and on the bottom the next. I don’t know about you, but this has never been good enough for me nor did I want someone else to be squashed at the bottom just to get my short time at the top (bitter rewards). Look around you, justice is a thirst that can’t be quenched without Jesus.  It might bring moments of gratification, but it won’t satisfy and will end in death for all if we take justice into our own hands (besides, we don’t have what it takes). How do we overcome? Through the word of our testimony. Jesus is Lord! 
God didn’t lie when He said He hates dishonest scales and that favor comes through an honest balance. Nobody can pay the cost to balance what we have been given, and nobody can pay the cost of what we have taken. Not even one of us.  God is a God of justice. He didn’t give us Life through Jesus for us to keep trying to balance the scales or to keep striving at something we will never grasp on our own or to be angry at someone when we think they’re not doing their part. He gave us Life to prosper us and to live it abundantly and eternally. He gave us Life in Christ so we could live through Him. He gave us a constant rest from striving. He gave us grace upon grace. The irony is one must lay down their own life first because pride will never allow God His vengeance. Vengeance belongs to the Lord (thank God!). When God sees those who believe, He sees His Son. And since God told His Son to sit while HE makes His enemies His footstool, we can rest our souls too. We no longer have to be out of balance with Him. It’s been Paid in Full. 
God, thank you for the awesome gift You have given us in Jesus and the ability to understand what we have received with the Holy Spirit. Bless and strengthen those who are willing to rest while the world spins. All of our hope and fountains are in Jesus. Lord, show each of us what we need to allow to rest with you. I pray you would help each of us to cast our cares on You and believe that Your shoulders are big enough to carry them.   Amen
This prayer only becomes understandable (or desirable) to someone who will cease striving in their soul in exchange for rest in Christ. Pride likes to strive. Success comes through rest. Sounds so crazy and mixed up, doesn’t it? Only in Christ can we rest while we work. What if resting our soul in Him was exactly what God’s answer is to us when we ask Him what we should be doing to fight our enemy (not flesh and blood) or the battles that we are facing? Will we listen? Do you associate rest with death or laziness? Or do you see resting your soul in Christ as a now thing for the living? Jesus is Lord!
“The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.
But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”

​But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 
​2nd Corinthians 12:9-10 
Weakness is often thought of as something bad. Not many want to admit weakness even though we all experience it. Do not be ashamed of weakness. God wants us to delight in our weakness because then He can be our strength. Are you feeling weak right now? You are not alone. Consider it joy. The weaknesses we experience are often used by God to make us strong in unexpected ways. I am talking about the weaknesses we experience as described in the above verse.
Weakness can come in any form; financial, physical, mental exhaustion,  lack, and many more. Recently I was praying for strength. During my prayer I heard God tell me to “Do what you can from where you are” and “You are strong when you are weak”. I immediately received the wisdom that sometimes God uses our weakness to keep us in His will and not get ahead of Him. I was praying for strength but it is my weakness that keeps me right where I am supposed to be. It is easy for us to think we know where the best place for us is but sometimes God has a better place for us to be. I am guilty of trying to press on before I have further instruction, which can create obstacles and hardships because I did not wait for patience to have its perfect work (James 1:4).
I have heard about God being strongest when I am weakest for many years, but a recent revelation wrote it on my heart. I immediately felt encouraged knowing that I am as strong as I can be when I am the weakest because it is God’s strength working in me. I became so thankful for where I am at and excited to see what I can do from here. I know when the timing is perfect I will be healed of my weaknesses and given strength for a new adventure. I will rejoice that God places me right where He wants me to be.
Don’t let weakness of any kind discourage you. Embrace the adventure that you're on. Get encouraged that God loves you so much to use weakness to make you strong. You are strong! God wastes nothing. He has the strength to move us even if we have no strength. Fill your heart with the Joy that you are in God’s will and right where you are supposed to be. Don’t let discouragement stop you up because you want to be doing something else. Know that God is right there with you and leading you to serve in the most important way in this season.  He will uphold you with His Righteous right hand no matter how weak you feel. Blessings!
Lord Jesus,  display Your Strength through our weakness. Use our weakness to accomplish Your purpose for Your Glory. Mighty are You God, Amen.

Harvest bread (pumpkin) in the spring? Yes, for I tell you the Harvest is now.
Seek the Lord while He may be found. Do not worry about what is all around for God is using the pride of men to accomplish His purpose. Look up. Eyes on the Prize set before us. Eyes on Jesus.
“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.
Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.
Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together.
Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”
Pumpkin bread has traditionally been made in our home as a celebration to the first day of Harvest. This year, we had an urge for it while the calendar was reading late spring. Here's the recipe in case you want to taste it too. Lovingly received from my Aunt Lucille over 25 years ago at our wedding shower and slightly adapted.
Harvest Bread (pumpkin)
3 cups Granulated Sugar
3 1/2 cups AP Flour
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Nutmeg
2 tsp Baking Soda
1 cup Oil (we use olive oil)
1 tsp Vanilla
4 eggs
2/3 cups Water
15 oz Can of Pureed Pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie filling, Libby's is always the best)
Mix all ingredients. Pour into loaf pans (we get three big ones). Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes. Enjoy the Harvest season!

The photo above is of a drawing done by our son David. He describes it as his prayer drawing to God. In it, God is written above the Earth. David is standing with his arms lifted up praying for God to bless and pour His grace on all people (his words). It is the Goodness of God that draws us to repentance and turns us to His Light. Let's join David as he prays for the nations to come under the grace of Christ and walk in His Light.
Hide It under a bushel?
NO!
We're going to let It shine!
Let It shine! Let It shine! Let It shine!
The blessing and grace is here through the work Jesus did on the cross!
Nations, receive it. 
What is brought into the Light is no longer darkness. 
“Wake up, sleeper,
    rise from the dead,
    and Christ will shine on you.” 
Ephesians 5 explains all we need to know about walking in the Light of Christ. 
Ideas: We like to give our children journals to use to write down or draw their prayers and praises. They are invited to share their prayers or they can choose to keep their prayer journals private. We do not share anything without their permission or suggestion to do so.

 Human wisdom tells us not to mix business with pleasure and the boss has no friends. 
Yet, there is pleasure in God’s Presence (Psalm 16:11).  Jesus is all about the Father’s business and the Father’s business is all about us dwelling together with Him. The Father and Son want to call us friends (John 15:15).
“For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength." (1 Corinthians 1:25)
Maybe it’s time to make sure all trust and boast is completely in Him. Like Abraham, we can all have a Good Friend by believing Him (James 2:23; Isaiah 41:8: John 14:6).
Lord, we believe, help our unbelief. (Mark 9:24)