I know what I’ll be doing in 2017. A dear friend gave me a 1000 piece 20 X 26 inch puzzle of the Chicago Cub championship and historical icons. Balls, bats, pennants—no photos. To this point in life, my puzzle challenge has been limited to seven pieces—you know the 3/8 inch thick pieces. What if I can’t do this? Where am I going to put it during the process?

John Eldredge talked on his podcast today about preparing for Christmas with an emphasis on survival. I’ve heard the phrase many times, but it really struck me this morning: “You’ve got to fight for the joy.” What does joy look like and feel like to you? It feels to me like it is larger than fun or laughter, but include those things.

Writer Jeff Goins asked in his blog if Saturday Nite Live is funny anymore. I saw the spot he was talking about—my answer was “Not even close.” So, joy has to be more than silly, clever or sarcastic. But what?

Many of my friends are really busy in this season. They must “fight” for a few minutes beyond preparing for the family gatherings or worship events or seasonal work. For many of us those things are not where the battle is. We just have organized our calendars, seasons, thinking, meditating around wounds and memories that should have traveled the sewer lines long along. Why is it so difficult to flush that?

What kills or maims your joy? I don’t have an adequate answer or explanation. Christmas joy becomes a spiritual warfare battleground. I have four couples within my care zone who are dividing households this Christmas. Some are negotiating who gets the kid(s) for Christmas day. I go into a deep dark hole just thinking about the kids. I have to go to serious spiritual war to keep Christmas from representing everything but “good news of great joy.” Some of the battle armaments:

• An excessive amount of my favorite music.
• Emphasis on blessing rather than intercession.
• Praise–Who Jesus is
• Releasing the situations that hurt me and those who wrote on my “permanent record” less than kind, true things.
• No cursing. I will—at least for the season—ask God to bless.
• Spend as much time as possible with people I like to listen to and to hug.
• Hold my wife’s hand and thank her. She’s such a fine lady.

Tying my shoe lace this morning, I discovered I had a rock in my shoe. Where did that come from? My first hope was that it was in my shoe and not my sock. Before moving, I had to decide what I was going to do if it was inside my sock. I decided to walk on it all day. That decision lasted three steps.

First I had to wrestle with my knee-length sweat sock which somehow had gotten glued to my longjohns. I successfully got the boulder out and then couldn’t get my sock back inside my long-legged warmers. So I had to take off my jeans, drop my…. You get the idea and probably an image that will ruin your holidays.

Fighting for the joy usually means doing the work to get the rock out your mind, soul or repetitive thinking.

Joy to your world!

© D. Dean Benton   writer—wonderer—wearer of longjohns

Go into any studio. If the piano is “in tune”, it is tuned to A=440. If a piano tuner comes to your house or church to tune your piano, the standard will be 440A. That means “A” will vibrate 440 times per second. Since WW II 440-A has been the international standard of “in tune.” That just makes everything efficient.

I’m finishing writing a book entitled, When Whales Sing. I learned that whales and birds sing tuned to A-432. Nature as a general rule is tuned to A=432. The 432 tuning is warmer and healing. If you check YouTube, you can find relaxation cuts of whale singing as well as birds who know how to sing.

We’ve received ads for music in 432 from health-oriented websites. We have a series of CDs. It sounds New Age, therefore unsatisfying to me. The chords have no resolution. The chord progression is not predictable. For me, that makes the music less than healthy. Yelling “No, that just ain’t right!” does not help my adrenals.

The Isaacs—who are Gospel singers—sing and play “Jew-grass” music. That is their fun statement that celebrates their Jewish heritage and bluegrass sounds. Their harmony is so tight it is a threat to glass. The Isaacs are part of the Gaither Homecoming troupe and appear on the Grand Ole Opry. They have recently released an album. They predict the 432 tuning can be felt in your soul. It is satisfying to me!

I like their new album: “Nature’s Symphony in 432.” I got mine from Amazon, but it is available from most outlets. Not only is the music superb, the lyrics are gripping and tell life stories. The lead singer had a still born baby—one of the songs is about parental healing. The brother has a family member captured by addiction. He wrote and sings, “If That’s What it Takes” and it is gripping. There is a soprano vocal lick of three words that is as catchy and surprising I’ve ever heard.

If you have the music app “Spotify” you can listen to the album free and decide whether you want to download or buy the CD.

I am startled that the little bird outside our window whose song is wonderful and the robin who sat on the peak of our house from early song calling for our attention and answering with a song, all sing on the same pitch—tuned alike. And I’ve read that when God sang you and me and all the earth into being He did so tuned to 432.

The liner notes on the album are worth the price of the album.

©2016 D. Dean Benton—writer, wonderer, soul-tender

Do you ever listen to Joel Osteen with both ears and wonder if he is smoking weed? Can what he says really be true? Of course I believe it can and he is not growing illegal stuff in his basement. B…

Source: Organized

Do you ever listen to Joel Osteen with both ears and wonder if he is smoking weed? Can what he says really be true? Of course I believe it can and he is not growing illegal stuff in his basement. But, when he finishes his message, I often think, that’s not where I usually live.

Why?

We receive a variety of blogs and daily articles including what prophets are hearing. This came from Doug Addison:

I keep seeing storehouses in Heaven with our names on them. For every time that you have given, prayed or reached out to the Lord and have not seen a return or response—the answers to your requests were actually being placed into a storehouse in Heaven for you. There was never a time that God did not respond to your prayers. The fact that you did not see the answer come to Earth does not mean that He did not respond… Starting in December you are going to see your storehouse begin to open over you.

I was writing in one of my new books called It Is Today! During the previous night, I heard one word in the quiet: “Organize.” Now there is a section in the book about “How life gets organized.” It is easy to organize our lives around our wounds. I took a break from writing to check my Facebook incoming and one of my friends posted those words close enough to make me think she had been visiting my dreams or revelations. Perhaps plagiarism?

Stephen Mansfield writing :

“I believe most men make peace with their defects. They accept their flaws as simply the way they are, and so they never declare war on those parts of themselves that keep them from exceptional lives. Mediocrity becomes their lot in life; getting by their only hope.

“The question we all face is not whether or not we have defects. We do. Every one of us. The question is whether we are capable of envisioning a life defined by forces greater than the weight of our flaws. The moment we can—the moment we can envision a life beyond more mere compromise with our deformities—that is the moment we take the first step to weighty lives.

“…always a work in progress. They don’t despair. They don’t settle. They don’t expect perfection of themselves. They understand that these destinies are fashioned in a man’s struggle against the enemies of his soul.”

(Mansfield’s Book of Manly Men, Thomas Nelson, 2015)

Have you calculated “flaws” that you organize life around are enemies of your soul? How about organizing life to put yourself in position to receive Heaven’s storehouse open for you?  I have a couple of suggestions.

©2016 D. Dean Benton       Dean@DeanBenton.org

We’ve moved the plants indoors, off the porch into every warm room with a flat space. Carole stored a dozen of them in the guest room which also currently houses Christmas décor debris. I moved two…

Source: Reaching for The Light

We’ve moved the plants indoors, off the porch into every warm room with a flat space. Carole stored a dozen of them in the guest room which also currently houses Christmas décor debris. I moved two into my office which has the ability to turn green things into brown.

I don’t know what kind of plant it is, but it is in a very large coffee cup shaped container. I will dump cold coffee remains in it. I placed it on level two of my work desk the last flat spot in front of one book shelf. Carole says it is a fern. I don’t know about that. Maybe that is what happens to ferns when watered with coffee.

It has been in the office about a week or ten days. It has sent multiple shoots about ten inches. It is reaching for the light. It is on a 4-5 foot journey across my desk, but it is jogging. I have never seen anything grow that rapidly. Carole says it is an outdoor plant and is used to an environment with lots of light.

Reaching for the light. Ah, I have found my mission statement!

©2016 D. Dean Benton     DEAN@DEANBENTON.ORG         bentonministries.com

Benton Books, Blogs & Blurbs

The political season bruised my soul. All the craziness ripped a lot of words out of me—it’s been like I didn’t want to add any more into the air. I am enjoying the cabinet selecting. A whole bunch of Iowa Democrats will be glad that Brandstad is going to China. They’ve been wanting to send him somewhere for a long time—I’ve heard the preferred destination. He has done a lot of work in China working for Iowa grain and meat producers. I would never have guessed that appointment, but it seems good.

I’ve been reading a bio of Winston Churchill. He would not have been a predictable appointment in many Brit’s minds. He went through long seasons when he was despised and isolated. Stalin received a delegation to Moscow led by Lady Astor. Stalin asked her about Churchill. She replied, “Churchill? Oh, he’s finished.” That was 1932.

“During the war years, he repeatedly inspired the British people with his nerve. His favorite place to wait out Nazi air raids was on the rooftops of government buildings.” The Character and Greatness of Winston Churchill, Stephen Mansfield, (Cumberland House, 1995)

On this Pearl Harbor Day, it is impossible to think what World War II would have been without Churchill. I shudder to think of it. What history would have missed had Lady Astor been right—“Oh, he’s finished.”

So, I thank God for leaders in the Greatest Generation and pray God will raise up such people of character and courage for our times.

Be safe and vigilant.

©2016 D. Dean Benton   DEAN@DEANBENTON.ORG

We have seen and heard much about the White House in recent months. As you remember, the first White House was burned by the British in the War of 1812. The government was sent into hiding. Dolley Madison insisted on staying behind to hide treasures. She cut George Washington’s picture out of the frame and hid it or sent it by messenger into safe keeping. She had one more task before bidding farewell and leaving to join her husband:

Mrs. Madison set the table for 40.

“Dolley Madison always knew that anything was better with a good meal and she was always looking for a reason to throw a party.”

Festival of Thanks. Will you have four or forty at your Thanksgiving Table? Or one? We wish you warmth in your heart(s) and a reason to sing thanks.

With our affection

Benton—Dean & Carole

Benton Books, Blogs & Blurbs   Dean@DeanBenton.org

There is a closet in my office jammed with stuff that used to be of value. There is inventory of booklets I wrote, outlines of my seminars, family pictures—stuff like that. And files of letters from people who were touched or needed to tell me something–positive or negative.

I don’t know the date. Fifteen years or longer? I sent the letter below to our email tribe. I  think it occurred in eastern Nebraska.

WHAT I HEARD THIS WEEKEND

It is a cheap motel. We’ve stayed there a couple of times. Never felt threatened. Spartan, but clean. I was alone. To offset the six hours of driving, I was exercising in the motel. Suddenly a dozen squad cars were outside. A drug bust three doors down. I finished exercising and opened the door for fresh air. The busted guy was unsteady on his feet with his hands in cuffs behind his back. He was definitely high. From the distance to him from my doorway, I saw pain on his face that the drugs did not disguise. The look left no room for hiding. It is the look of lostness. What I saw was not just the agony of getting caught, but the recognition of lostness. Into my spirit came the words of Jesus: “You who are weary, come to me….” I don’t want to forget that look.

At 4:50 a.m. I was wide awake. I had left the light on all night. I didn’t feel threatened or unsafe. I just knew something was going on. A person gets used to motel/hotel sounds and feelings. I know when they are benign and when I should recheck the door brace. I didn’t need to check the bar. I knew a protective bar would not keep out what was going on in someone’s life—the person/people a room or two away.

At 4:55, a car engine started Then I heard the tires on the blacktop. Then I heard the voice of either a little girl or a young woman saying, “Oh Mommy! Oh Mommy.” Perhaps, “Oh Lonnie/Ronnie….” Then, “Don’t leave. Don’t do this. Please come back. Come back. Don’t….” The driver didn’t listen.

Like a barge horn in the fog, that voice cut through every other sound during the night and the next day. It was what I heard at 11:47 a.m. Sunday when I sang, “Come home, come home, if you are…come home.”

I don’t want to forget that sound. It was for those tears that Jesus cried. It was for our lostness that Jesus said, “Father, I’ll go.”

……………..

I wonder where they are and how life is for them after these 15-20 years. I know Jesus’ words have not changed and He is singing on pitch—“Come home.”

©2016 D. Dean Benton      Benton Books, Blogs, Blurbs–   DEAN@DEANBENTON.ORG

Carole has been after me to “tidy” up my office. My rule is “don’t touch or move anything” while I’m writing. I’m concerned the muse will get upset and leave or won’t be able to find his “spot.” I’ve been having back and neck problems which demanded I shift my writing desk and (Carole’s idea) make room for a bed in case an out-of-town relative stops in for the night. Well, we had moved a bed out years ago to make room for another desk. The third desk turned out to be just another flat surface to stack things.

I caved. I took 150 books to Goodwill and put two desks together and got rid of stuff so I would have a surface to work on. I uncovered stuff belonging to my Grandmother that was an archeological dig reaching into the 1890s. I found books I didn’t know I had that spoke to my moments—that was scary and while organizing my book cases, I found real treasures. And my grandmother’s doll got involved. Another story. I talk about that in my book It Is Today! (Will be published next month.)

I stood in front of the dusty books to re-read John Eldredge’s Waking the Dead. Then I found his audio CDs called The Four Streams. He writes about the Four Streams in Waking the Dead. A spiritual journey was on for me. The Four Streams are the way God restores us: Discipleship, Warfare, Counseling and Healing.

“Why are so many people struggling with depression and discouragement? They’ve lost heart. Why can’t we seem able to break free of our addictions? Because somewhere along the way in a moment of carelessness or desperation, we gave our hearts away, and now we can’t get them back.” (Waking the Dead, Thomas Nelson, 2003).

How do we get our hearts back?

“Intimacy with God is the purpose of our lives. It is why God created us. Not simply to believe in him, though that is a good beginning. Not only to obey him though that is a higher life still. God created us for intimate fellowship with himself….” (Walking With God, Page 12—Eldredge)

One of my favorite Bible passages is about Hagar. She was Sarah’s handmaiden and the mother of Ishmael. (Genesis 16) In what she thought was the end of life, God looks for her and finds her hiding. After that encounter:

“She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: ‘You are the God who sees me,’ for she said,’ I have now seen the One who sees me’” (Genesis 16:13).

Hear God ask you—“What’s going on in your heart? Why are you crying? You look troubled. I’ve got time—let’s talk.”

©2016 D. Dean Benton       Writer, Wonderer, Soul Tender