Daniel 4:28-33
28 All this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar. 29 At the end of the twelve months he was walking about the royal palace of Babylon. 30 The king spoke, saying, “Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my majesty?”

33 That very hour the word was fulfilled concerning Nebuchadnezzar; he was driven from men and ate grass like oxen; his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair had grown like eagles’ feathers and his nails like birds’ claws.

Looks like King Nebuchadnezzar turned into an animal. When God speaks, we should listen! I wonder how hard it is for most of us to hear God’s voice. Can you imagine, hearing that message directly from heaven? At times, I wish I could hear God so clearly. Sometimes, when we go through our lives, we’re unsure about so many things. We pray about them, think about them, wondering what God wants us to do and we still are unsure. Do you think you ever hear God’s voice as clearly as King Nebuchadnezzar?

~Cecelia Dowdy~

What do you think Samson’s life would’ve been like if he’d been born during modern times?

Read Judges – Chapters 13-16 to get the full Old Testament account of Samson’s life.

Samson was a strong man who battled with his lust for women. He even married a Philistine woman – someone who was not of his faith. He was strong and mighty, killing a lion with his bare hands and killing a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey.

He hooked up with a Philistine harlot, Delilah, and because of his lust, his common sense escaped him. Delilah grilled him about his source of strength until his defenses broke down and he told his secret – no razor had ever come upon his head and his strength came from his seven locks of hair.

The secret was out and Samson paid the price for the mistake he made because of his lustful weakness. He was mocked, blinded and imprisoned by the Philistines. When his hair began to grow back, he asked God for strength, and then he pushed the two pillars with all his might, bringing the temple down, killing the crowd, as well as himself…

Judges 16:28-30
28 Then Samson called to the LORD, saying, “O Lord GOD, remember me, I pray! Strengthen me, I pray, just this once, O God, that I may with one blow take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes!” 29 And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars which supported the temple, and he braced himself against them, one on his right and the other on his left. 30 Then Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” And he pushed with all his might, and the temple fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So the dead that he killed at his death were more than he had killed in his life.

What do you think Samson’s life would’ve been like if he’d been born during modern times? Read tomorrow’s blog entry to find out more about a very interesting book that’ll answer that question!

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Daniel 3:15-18
15 Now if you are ready at the time you hear the sound of the horn, flute, harp, lyre, and psaltery, in symphony with all kinds of music, and you fall down and worship the image which I have made, good! But if you do not worship, you shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you from my hands?”
16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. 17 If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. 18 But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.”

Remember in the book of Daniel when Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego refused to worship Nebuchadnezzar’s gold image and as a result, they were thrown in the fiery furnace. Nebuchadnezzar even had the furnace burning seven times hotter, he was so angry. It was so hot that some of the king’s men were killed by the flames when they escorted Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego to the furnace. But, God protected them, and as a result, Nebuchadnezzar promoted the threesome.

Do you think you if you’d been placed in that position that you would’ve bowed down to the golden image, or would you have had faith that God would’ve protected you from the fire? How deep would your faith have been?

That’s a tough question to answer. I know we need to love and trust God, but when faced with the fiery furnace of death, versus bowing down to a false idol, we know what we should do, but do have have enough faith in God to actually do what we’re supposed to do? Do you think you would’ve bowed down to the image, begging God for forgiveness later?

~Cecelia Dowdy~

This entry is a bit different from my usual blog post. It’s been awhile since I posted scriptures on my blog.

Hold on a second….do you enjoy chaste sweet Christian novels? Try Raspberry Kisses – an Amazon bestselling novel with about 300 reviews. Download today and tell your friends and church buddies by sharing this link. Now back to the Old Testament…

I was reading the Old Testament a bit this morning, and I wondered about something. I’ve wondered this before, but was never very vocal about it. When the two angels come to visit Lot and his family to warn them about God destroying Sodom and Gomorrah, the male residents of the town descended upon Lot’s house – they’d seen the beautiful angels and wanted to have sex with them. Lot then said he had two virgin daughters and he could send them out and the men could do with them as they wished. Was Lot just not thinking when he said this? Was he scared, and not in his right frame of mind? The wicked people were about to break the door down until the angels struck them with blindness so that they could not find the door. The angels then said that God would be destroying this place and that Lot and his family needed to leave.

I’m just rambling, but I wondered if any of my blog readers had any thoughts or opinions about this. I’ll start off by telling what I think. I think Lot didn’t want God’s angels harmed, and that’s why he offered his daughters, but, I don’t think he would have actually sent his daughters out to those evil men to be violated. I don’t think he was in the right state of mind when he offered his offspring and I think he would have figured out that he shouldn’t have offered his daughters to the men, and I don’t think the angels would have allowed the daughters to be sent out there. Also, the angels knew how the people were in this city, and that’s why they didn’t want to stay at Lot’s house in the first place, but Lot strongly insisted, but the scripture states that the angels wanted to stay in the square.

I’ve copied and pasted the scripture below:

Genesis 19
Sodom and Gomorrah Destroyed
1 The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. 2 “My lords,” he said, “please turn aside to your servant’s house. You can wash your feet and spend the night and then go on your way early in the morning.”
“No,” they answered, “we will spend the night in the square.”
3 But he insisted so strongly that they did go with him and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking bread without yeast, and they ate. 4 Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house. 5 They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.”

6 Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him 7 and said, “No, my friends. Don’t do this wicked thing. 8 Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.”

9 “Get out of our way,” they replied. And they said, “This fellow came here as an alien, and now he wants to play the judge! We’ll treat you worse than them.” They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door.

10 But the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door. 11 Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old, with blindness so that they could not find the door.

12 The two men said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here—sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here, 13 because we are going to destroy this place. The outcry to the LORD against its people is so great that he has sent us to destroy it.”

In addition to the scripture outlined above, there’s another scripture in Judges which is a similar situation as Lot and his daughters. Please leave a comment on this post if you have any insight. 

~Cecelia Dowdy~

I’ll admit that although I read my Bible regularly, I’m not an expert about the subject of Bible prophecy. Let me tell you why I decided to blog about this topic today.

On Sunday night, I was watching the History Channel, and they had a special on about the Mayans and their calendar. Supposedly, the Mayans predicted that the year 2012 would be the end of time and that is when their calendar stopped? This is going from my sketchy memory, and I didn’t even watch the entire show because I got tired and went to bed.

Anyway, seeing that show made me think about the subject of Bible prophecy (Just wanted to point out that the Mayan prediction had nothing to do with the Bible). I do recall reading that the Apostle Paul told the early Christians that prophecy was an important spiritual gift.

Another reason I felt like blogging about this is because I wanted to tell about my limited experience with Biblical prophets/prophecy (or those claiming to be so). I was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness until I was twelve. At that age, my dad stopped me from going to the Kingdom Hall (that’s what JW’s call their church). Since the JW teaching was all that I really knew, I thought what they said was “The Truth.” (That’s what JWs call their teaching.)

Fast forward six years, I’m in college, and I decide to hook up with JWs again since I thought they told “The Truth.” While studying with them, my eyes started getting glassy and my head started spinning when they taught me that the generation of 1914 would not pass away before the real return of Christ (or the end of times), also, Christ came invisibly/spiritually to earth in 1914….

That’s around the time they started “losing” me, also, the fact that they used these years to predict things didn’t seem right to me. When a JW came to my door last winter, I asked about their prediction of the generation of 1914 not passing away before the end of times. He said they didn’t believe that anymore, and I thought to myself…”Hmmm, false prophets.”

I feel uneasy when someone predicts something in the name of God and then changes their mind or it turns out it’s not true.

My other experience with prophecy happened back in 2002, back when my first book, Promises To Keep, was released via Crossings and Black Expressions book clubs. I’d received an email from a Washington D.C. librarian, stating that she was having a
50th birthday party for her sister, and they wanted an author to attend this event. Eager to promote my novel, I agreed to come.

I went to the party located in an upscale neighborhood in Maryland. While I spoke, people asked me questions. Somebody asked me about sending my book to Oprah. I replied that I’d sent the novel to Oprah, but got no response. The birthday woman/guest of honor, touched her head quickly and looked at me and said, “You’re going to be on Oprah one day.” Then she turned and resumed her conversation with the person she’d been talking to.

Later, one of the guests said to me, “Did you hear what she said about your being on Oprah? She’s an ordained prophet, so you should listen to her.”

I thought. “Hmm. She’s an ordained prophet. What, exactly, makes someone an ordained prophet?”

What’s the point of this post? I’m not sure! I’d be interested in hearing if any of you have had any experience with Bible prophecy. Has a prophet ever told you something that became true later?

I’d think if a person is prophesying something in the name of Jesus, then, ultimately, it will come true. I don’t think they would change their mind later and say, “I didn’t prophecy that right. This is what God’s telling me now!”

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Acts 6:15 (NIV)
All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

Acts 7:51-59 (NIV)
51″You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit! 52Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him— 53you who have received the law that was put into effect through angels but have not obeyed it.”
54When they heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. 55But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56″Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
57At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, 58dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep.

Man, what powerful words! Can you imagine being stoned to death, then telling the Lord to forgive those persecuting you? Makes you stop and think of those suffering for the sake of the Lord. Imagine the pain of being stoned to death…brutal…makes me think, you know, as a Christian, I haven’t been through anything remotely related to this. Such suffering and intense physical pain. When you think your life is getting tough, think of how Stephen suffered…think of how Jesus suffered…

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Luke 10: 1, 9, 16-18 – From the New King James Version
The Seventy Sent Out
1 After these things the Lord appointed seventy (NOTE, SOME MANUSCRIPTS SAY SEVENTY-TWO) others also, and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to go. 9 And heal the sick there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ 16 He who hears you hears Me, he who rejects you rejects Me, and he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me.”
17 Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.”
18 And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. 20 Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”

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This scripture made me stop and think. I didn’t know if readers wanted to read all of the verses in between, so I just copied and pasted the ones that I felt were related to what I wanted to say today. Can you imagine Jesus giving power to these 70appointees, allowing them to go from town to town, driving out demons in his name? It’s also important to note that Jesus told the 70 not to rejoice in their exorcizing abilities, but to focus on their eternal gift in heaven.

I can imagine how hard that would be. Can you envision, being able to drive out demons in Jesus’s name, and then not be exited about it? Instead of being astounded about your earthly ability, you would need to focus on living forever in heaven.

~Cecelia Dowdy~

A Demon-Possessed Man Healed
Luke 8:26-39 NEW KING JAMES VERSION
26 Then they sailed to the country of the Gadarenes, which is opposite Galilee. 27 And when He stepped out on the land, there met Him a certain man from the city who had demons for a long time. And he wore no clothes, nor did he live in a house but in the tombs. 28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out, fell down before Him, and with a loud voice said, “What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You, do not torment me!” 29 For He had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For it had often seized him, and he was kept under guard, bound with chains and shackles; and he broke the bonds and was driven by the demon into the wilderness.
30 Jesus asked him, saying, “What is your name?”
And he said, “Legion,” because many demons had entered him. 31 And they begged Him that He would not command them to go out into the abyss.
32 Now a herd of many swine was feeding there on the mountain. So they begged Him that He would permit them to enter them. And He permitted them. 33 Then the demons went out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the lake and drowned.
34 When those who fed them saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country. 35 Then they went out to see what had happened, and came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons had departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. 36 They also who had seen it told them by what means he who had been demon-possessed was healed. 37 Then the whole multitude of the surrounding region of the Gadarenes asked Him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear. And He got into the boat and returned.
38 Now the man from whom the demons had departed begged Him that he might be with Him. But Jesus sent him away, saying, 39 “Return to your own house, and tell what great things God has done for you.” And he went his way and proclaimed throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him.

This is a powerful scripture. Everytime I read this, it stays in my mind for a long time. It kind of reminds me of a Peretti novel. I could imagine Frank Peretti or Ted Dekker doing a biblical fiction piece on this demon possessed man.

Plus, the fact that Jesus made those evil spirits to come out of the demon-possessed man, and then allowed them to go into the swine, thus causing the swine to drown in the water, just proves what God can do.

I can’t imagine being possessed by a legion of demons, so much so that one can’t even live among society, but up in the tombs, separated from others….

Just makes me stop and think, and be a little afraid, but to come to appreciate God’s power…

~Cecelia Dowdy~

While doing my daily Bible reading, I read the following recently. I thought this scripture was powerful (Mark 16:9-20):

Mary Magdalene Sees the Risen Lord

19 So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. 20 And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.