Moonlit sky on the Glasgow Farm

My 40 day fast ended abruptly before my head hit the pillow, on the first day! Yep, my plan was to… fast from complaining. I was pretty excited over the possibility of reigning all those negative thoughts… then I woke up on the first morning- and our pipes had frozen!

I stood with my blow dryer, blowing hot air on to pipes while Dale sawed huge holes out of our drywall to find where water was flooding behind walls.

The phone rang, I turned the blowdryer off. Someone was unhappy with their circumstances and were complaining- profusely… My thoughts were flailing… I got ready to stop myself because of my fast… but… then- I took the bait and went along with the complaining. How quickly my high hopes and ambition failed me!

Dale’s computer died. It wasn’t even its appointed time. It was still in its prime… Poor thing, he had to work on mine- which put me behind. My thoughts started to complain, but then I remembered- I was fasting!

That night, I had a rip roaring fire in the wood stove. I opened the door to load wood but my dog wouldn’t move. His back end pressed against the scorching hot stove door and caught fire! A large stream of dark grey smoke rose toward the ceiling. The fire alarm sounded, “Fire, Fire, Fire!” He ran. I chased him with a wet towel… He was fine. We both sat back down, by the fire. The house smelt horribly of burnt dog hair.

I said,“Lord, I failed terribly at reigning negative thoughts today. I don’t have the ability to do this in my own power. What would you suggest for the next forty days knowing my weak minded condition?”

I’d been reading in Exodus, so He spoke to me through it. I had just read Exodus 29 where Moses and Aaron were to offer a morning and evening sacrifice- an offering made by fire to the Lord of their first fruits.

I’m not a morning person and I would never choose to rise before the sun does, ever. So I decided that I would sacrifice those hours to Him. I would rise at O’dark-hundred every morning for the next forty + days to spend three hours alone with Him.

I started this past Sunday. I thought it would be impossible to get up, but He woke me before the alarm sounded. Then yesterday and today were the same — He woke me before the alarm… as if He’s excited about our time together.

The hardest part of getting up is that our house is FREEZING! We heat by a wood fire and by wee morning hours it’s just a few glowing coals left. The temperature in the house is 40ish degrees until the fire gets going. I load the wood and then we start to talk, Him and I.

It’s getting pretty exciting… How ironic that my sacrifice starts with us starting a fire together, kinda like in Exodus. The forty days will be over on Good Friday- and this year, Good Friday is even the first day of Passover! I can’t imagine what it will be like in 37 days. If you see me out and about you notice me glowing like Moses you’ll know why! His Shekinah Glory is EXPLODING!

Oh that my sacrifice be a sweet smelling aroma unto Him!

The Overflow of His Shekinah Glory

Ephesians 5:1 tells us to “Walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.”

2 Corinthians 2:14-15 “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God…”

Sparky and I the night he caught on fire