Dear Bros in Christ,

Proverbs 27:17 As iron sharpens iron, So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.

Brothers in Christ, this monthly devotional is sent and meant to be an encouragement to all
and to build up and edify in the Lord Jesus Christ. Oikodome means "Builder". The Lord has
put this on my heart to send out a monthly Iron Man Oikodome {oy-kod-om-ay'} to build
up and encourage the men who love and follow Jesus Christ in their walk with Him.
Hebrews 3:13 "But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of
you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness."
PRAYER REQUESTS: If you have any prayer requests please send them and I will send them
out to the bros for prayer, if privacy is needed I will send in a discreet way.

JULY 2009

“THE BIG MERCIES OF GOD”

Psalm 57:1 Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me! For my soul trusts in You; And in
the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge, Until [these] calamities have passed by.

I remember the Lords tender mercy as I cried out to Him; He did indeed hear my pleas and
indeed did show great and awesome mercy beyond my understanding. You can never really or
fully comprehend the total mercy of the Lord when it is happening, it just comes gushing forth
and there is no way to turn it off- not that you would want to, it’s too big, to massive, it has
the power to bring you to your knees and usher in unstoppable buckets of tears from
overwhelming joy and unbelievable heartfelt praise and thanksgiving. You stand in awe and
just say Lord how did You do it or how can You do it or this is too wonderful for me and what
did I do to bring such magnificent blessings, (that answer is quite simple you did nothing) or
why would You bestow such miraculous incredible feats of Your undeniable power of love and
divine intervention. Words that are not known by me or could only be hoped to be learned in
my lifetime and then still they would not be fully adequate or wonderful or beautiful enough
and even still could never ever fully describe the ever-loving merciful God we serve. He is too
amazingly marvelous for us to comprehend, understand or fathom, words cannot come up
from a lifetime of learning our language or going thorough a life that is able to teach us or
would teach us how merciful our God is, it is only from seeing and experiencing His tender
mercies in our lives that we can see His great love for each one of us. His great mercy is able
to teach us and allow us to be able to see, feel, know and say how beautiful and sweet and
awesome and mighty our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is to us even in the midst of great
trials, tribulations, testing of our faith and sorrows.
Bros, I know from personal experience as I am sure each of you also do too, that the Lord is
merciful and hears our cries as His children as a Father hears the distress calls from the
hearts of His children, we have that heritage or birthright as His children that we can call on
Him anytime, anyplace and He will hear from on high…. And answer according to His Will;
know that He is full of mercy, love, grace and compassion for His children, His heart is set
upon blessing you and loving you and allowing you to come to Him in any situation, His heart
aches for you, for you to draw close to Him- that is His desire and He is willing to wait for you
in that time of your despair and looking for you to call just as a parent waits for that phone
call to hear from their child to know that all is well within them, so to is He waiting to bless
you, to be merciful, to show His great love and blessings to you, to pour Himself out for you
as a drink offering, to pour Himself into you to fill you with His goodness and mercy, His love
and all that He is, and was and is to come He gives to you because He loves you that much
bro.
A few years back my dear sweet mom went home to be with the Lord, man how we miss her
and still love her so much and think of her everyday. I often think of that season when the
Lord took her home. His great mercy He had on our family to allow us all to say goodbye to
her and He gave us three days where we could share, cry, laugh, pray, read scripture to her,
love her and listen to her give us that last advice that only a mom can give. I remember that
day before this all began I visited my mom in the assisted living home she was living and even
took her for an ice cream cone, I’ll never forget that day! The next day was Valentines day and
we had been invited to come to a little party they were having there where my mom lived, they
wanted me to bring my son as they so enjoyed having children around, in fact they were so
blessed by children. With the next day came news that my brothers’ father in law had passed
away whom he and my mom were the surviving grandparents from both sides of the family
and shared the same grandkids. So I decided I better go in the morning to share this news
with my mom as I did not want to go to the party and break this sad news at that time, I felt it
would be better to go first thing and then come back later for the party so that she was able to
have some time before hand to absorb this difficult news. When I got there that morning I
went to my moms room and she was not there, so I headed for the den area, then the TV room
and finally the dining area to no avail, she was not there, so I thought maybe she is bathing
or showering. I went to the front lobby and inquired at the front desk and they told me she
was around somewhere, so I searched again and still could not locate her. Finally I was
getting frantic; I asked what has happened to my mother, so the gal looked through some
clipboards and finally said oh your mom was taken to the hospital last night at around
midnight to my shock and disbelief. I asked why no one had called me, she then said oh we
called but no one answered, I said I have voice mail and then if you called me and got no
answer why didn’t someone call one of my three brothers of which she had all the numbers,
she offered the excuse they called all the numbers. I said which hospital is she in so she told
me, so I headed over there and called my brothers as I drove and told them what had
happened and none of them had a received a call about our mom either.

When I got to the hospital and found my mom and saw that she was in a confused state and
didn’t really know where she was or what was going on, I asked the nurses and Doctors what
has happened to my dear sweet mother. They said she got sick at around midnight,
complaining her stomach was really hurting and she was very sick, they had done x-rays and
all that stuff and said she had a very large tumor in her stomach and it was probably
cancerous and at the time was thought to be inoperable and eventually it was found that they
were correct in their thinking. I couldn’t believe it bros, just a few hours earlier I was having
ice cream with my mom and now she was on her deathbed… I was angry, hurt and with a
torn heart. I tried to talk to my mom and finally asked the Doctors why she was not herself
and why she was in this coma like condition and why she did not respond when I talked with
her and even as she looked at me it was as though she didn’t recognize or know me her son.
She was like this for a few days, by now my brother had come from out of state as well as my
moms little sister whom she loved and her husband, with family gathered around in the days
ahead and much prayer being lifted up asking God for His will and the grim news ever coming
forth from the Doctors, it was sad to see her and yet know she didn’t seem to know us or even
know where she was or what was going on. My brothers and I were praying and seeking the
Lord in that time as we were pacing about between home and hospital and asking for His
mercy the Lord suddenly brought my mom out of this coma like condition that had covered
over her like a blanket that she was deep under, now she knew who we were and we were able
to communicate with her. We were able to share with her and relive old times together, to
pray with her, to read the Bible with her, to have my son in law play his guitar and sing to
her, to tell her how much she meant to us and how much we loved her; it truly was a miracle
from God. She was still able to dispense advice that only a mom can to her grown sons and all
her grandchildren, it was a sweet blessing from the Lord that lasted a sweet three days and
then she drifted back to the original state until the Lord took her home a few days later.

I share this with you bros because God in His wisdom and Great abundant mercy gave us the
blessing, privilege and honor of seeing Him perform a miracle for us so we could spend a few
days with my mom and share, laugh and cry with her and say goodbye. The Lord loves us so
much that He wanted us to be able to say goodbye in a way that He knew we needed and
really blessed us beyond belief. He allowed all my moms close family to be able come and be
there that three days so we could do that, so Bros know that God loves us that much that He
can and will do awesome an mighty things for us and with us not because we deserve it but
because He loves us and He is a merciful God who loves you more that you could ever know
or fathom and He showed us that great love in those days and even today evermore does His
love and mercy shine forth with each new day….
Just as David cried out that day and asked God to be merciful to him and fled into the cave
from Saul and God gave him refuge in the shadows of His wings David’s soul trusted in the
Lord and we can know that as the Lord gave David great comfort and refuge from his
calamities we can know that He will do the same for you, even as He did for me and my family
that day until the calamities have passed by as we made our refuge in the shadow of His
wings, (Psalm 57:1).
He is faithful and full of mercy for you and me and His desire is to put us under His waterfall
of continuous mercies washing down over us in that day, that we might rejoice because He is
our God, mighty and awesome is He and always will He be all of that and more, for words that
we do not have to describe His indescribable love and mercy for each one of us!

Psalm 116:5 Gracious [is] the LORD, and righteous; Yes, our God [is] merciful. Amen!

Luke 6:36 Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. Bros be merciful
always just as our Father is merciful, look for ways to be merciful, go out of your way
today to be merciful you will be blessed!

Matthew 5:7 Blessed [are] the merciful, For they shall obtain mercy.

Thank you Jesus for your tender mercies!

In His mercy and love,

Daniel Wright
Iron Man Oikodome
Proverbs 27:17

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