Jerry and I are just coming through another one. Though still not where we hope to be (Jerry has not walked since January), as we wait for a reasonable recovery, we are resting in the will of the Lord where we are now.
We have been through many storms such as these, and expect that we may go through others before we get to the end of this life.
He has proven that storms are good for us (Romans 8;28-29).
They take us away from our home base.
They scatter our hopes for anything in this world.
They bring us in touch with people we have never known, some who have been hit worse than we have.
Through these times, He gives us hope and encouragement for others we meet, and find others whose hope is in Him.
We experience the Lord’s presence like no other time in our lives.
Just as Jesus’ disciples looked to Him and He spoke to the storm, He is with us through it and speaks peace to it in His exact timing.
Peace is never as real and powerful as when He brings us through.
Our love for Him is never stronger than when He endures with us.
Our joy is never greater; our faith never deeper planted in Him than through these times.
The sun is never brighter than when we come to a resting place in Him.
Our faith increases during these times.
Endurance, hope, strength, grace, and wisdom grow through these adversities.
The doors of heaven are opened for us, beyond our circumstances, to see the One who created us and redeemed us for Himself, so as to keep us by His power for eternity with Him.
The peace of our Lord is promised to all who endure the storms of this life for a life beyond this one.
He does not allow us to be overcome, but enables us to “press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:14
Gracious heavenly Father, we give you thanks for your grace, power and presence with us during the storms of life. You have always been faithful to keep us through all our circumstances, no matter how difficult they seem. There are many who are struggling. Please be with these; guide them and give them peace. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
Related post: God is Greater Than
“IN HIM WE LIVE AND BREATHE AND HAVE OUR BEING.”
Acts. 17:28
“AND WE ARE IN HIM WHO IS TRUE, IN HIS SON JESUS CHRIST. HE IS THE TRUE GOD AND ETERNAL LIFE.” 1 John 5:20
Dear Father, interweave between my human thoughts the truths and the authority of Your Word. I thank you and praise you that Your Words are Spirit and Life to me. In Jesus’ precious and powerful name Amen
Fran
What happens when the Little I Am (It’s About Me) meets THE GREAT I AM?
Armageddon! — The end of Me!
Imagine a man sitting on a park bench. God approaches and the man looks up at Him.
The effect is devastation.
A pile of dust begins to filter through the slats of the bench.
God is the only One left.
What would He then do? He could by His breath blow the dust away and be done with the simple creature who would never know what happened to him.
***********
Let’s picture a different God and Father who stoops to the ground, scoops a handful of dust, reforms it as a new creature, kisses it and breathes into it His Life, a Life that would never die.
The new creation is His plan for a new world— His eternal family and His kingdom of righteousness and holiness.
The new nature is the nature He reveals through His Son, Jesus Christ.
Our fallen nature that leads us to death is overcome by the power of His Spirit Who leads us and feeds us with His Word of Life forever.
This physical life will end in His timing, but God’s children will not die.
************ Christ abides in us forever. ************* We are kept in Christ and preserved for the inheritance He has prepared and promised to us.
Let us draw near in faith as we grasp this truth, reach out, touch Him —embrace Him as our Life —
********now and forever.********
He waits to be gracious to us.
**************
“He has made all things beautiful in its time. Also, He has put eternity in their hearts. Except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.” Ecc. 3:11
If you are unaware of the fellowship between God and His children and want to know more,CONTACT me.
“And He said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Matt. 18:3
Through trials, temptations, tribulations, traumas, travails, turmoil, threats, tensions, tumults, thundering, toxins, trepidation, trouble, teasing, transgressions, trespasses, talk, technology, tangles, thistles, thorns, tripping, trappings, trajectories, tragedies, trivia, tangents, turbulence, transitions, twisting, trembling, treks, tasks, tears, tides, trenches, torture, and tunnels, our Father is teaching, training, testing, and turning us into transparent, thoughtful, tender, and triumphant troopers of truth — for His name’s sake, His kingdom, — and for our joy in Him.
“Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have ordained strength, Because of Your enemies, That You may silence the enemy and the avenger.” Ps. 8:2
He does not need us, but He has chosen us, created us according to His everlasting covenant made with His Son “before the world was” — to make us His children, to love us, and bless us in this world which we will inherit when He has gathered all His children in Christ and finished His work here.
We can praise Him through whatever we must endure because we have an inheritance of eternal life which Jesus secured for us. By the things He suffered for us, making us joint heirs with Him, He will work in us all that is needful for us to accept the circumstances He is bringing us through.
It is through our weakness that He, by His power, accomplishes His plans in us — and all to His glory alone. We have little need of His grace until we find ourselves helpless. In this state, humility becomes our hope for Him to fulfill His covenant in and through us. The new birth — born of the Spirit — born of God — is necessary for us to praise Him as the “little children” we become in our conversion.
“I will bring the one-third through the fire, Will refine them as silver is refined, And test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, And I will answer them. I will say, ‘This is My people’; And each one will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’” Zach. 13:9
In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: “Do not fear; Zion, let not your hands be weak. The Lord your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.” Zeph. 3:16-17
“Jesus awakes, as a mighty man from his slumber, unwraps the napkin from His head and lays it by itself; unwinds the grave clothes in which love had wrapped Him and puts them by themselves; for He had abundant leisure; He was in no haste; He was not about to escape like a felon who bursts the prison, but like one whose time of jail-deliverance has come and lawfully and leisurely leaves his cell. He steps to the upper air, bright, shining, glorious, and fair. He lives! He died once, but He rose from the dead! There is no need for us to enlarge here. We only pause to remark that this is one of the most jubilant notes in the whole Gospel scale….Death is overcome! There is found a man Who by His own power was able to struggle with death and hurl him down. The grave is opened! There is found a man able to dash back its bolts and to rifle its treasures. And thus, brethren, having delivered Himself, He is able also to deliver others.”
Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892)
The context (John 12:23-33) from which Jesus’ words here are quoted was that which spoke of his impending crucifixion. “The hour has come” for Him “to be glorified.” That glorification awaited Him as He continued to follow the will of the Father; when He would be lifted up, and so draw unto Himself those that receive the truth of His word. These would die to themselves, take up their crosses and follow Him.
Jesus left in the borrowed tomb the seeds of new life for all those who belong to Him. He finished the planting that He came to do. He was raised and now waits and rejoices over every new plant. His Holy Spirit waters by the word of truth in each heart and brings to life what Jesus planted. Those seeds are eternal, continuing to bear fruit.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1
“So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”
Isaiah 55:11
“Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.” John 15:16
Dear Father, today, please bring forth new plants for your joy; and water what you have planted within us by your Spirit. Let the word of Christ dwell in our hearts richly so as to bring forth the fruit of your love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and temperance. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
So as not to miss any gods they might appease, the Athenians had set up an “unknown god” among the others. And so, Christianity today is seen as a religion among many others. The God of Christianity is “unknown” even to some who claim it as their faith. If we see little more than the surface of this way of life, we simply exist without the source and the power of this life. For the most part, we fail to differentiate between what other religions offer.
We must be sure that it is an offering; a supernatural offering between our God and us. It is a spiritual gift from the Lord God of Christianity, whom we know as Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of Jehovah, our Almighty God and Father, Creator of the heavens and the earth, and Redeemer of mankind.
Baptized as a child on a profession of faith, Christianity was basic but ineffective in my life until as an adult, I was drawn to read, then study; to write and teach what I was learning from the Bible. During those years, the Holy Spirit I was reading about in the Bible used God’s own words to transform my life. Through a new birth, with a new heart and spirit, my life was changed and has not been the same for decades. My books, articles, and poems attest to the revealed and fulfilled promises made to those He brings to Himself.
The best way I can describe this new way of life is with a parable I heard several years ago.
A prisoner was held captive for years, not knowing where he was. He existed in an obscure stronghold in a foreign country. His food and drink were barely enough to keep him alive. Since he knew no other way of life, he did not wish for anything else.
One day a stranger entered his cell and told him about life outside his captivity. He had come to deliver him. At first, the man could not vision anything beyond his own existence, and so refused to follow him out. Unknown to the prisoner, the stranger had broken through the outside barrier of the stronghold to save him. He was there, not to be refused; and so, stayed with him, living off the same fare by which the prisoner had been fed most of his life. At times he would open the cell door and lead him down a long dark hallway to show him the light outside. Not used to the light, the prisoner would soon move back to his comfortable cell.
With time, the stranger presented truths about the light, each day praying with him and leading him a little further out from his cell. Gradually getting used to the light, he was drawn more; then more, to it. One day, his eyes becoming used to the light, embraced the light, walking with the stranger into a new life outside himself.
As I contemplated writing this post, I was reminded of an old TV series Mission Impossible. A different mission presented to the team with every episode including the statement, “This is your mission if you choose to accept it.” The missions involved seemingly impossible situations providing an escape for captives.
I imagined what this would have looked like for Jesus before Creation. He and the Holy Spirit were the team, Jesus being the one who would suffer and sacrifice to bring His people out of their bondage. His mission from God the Father was to go down, go to, and live with the captives on earth; live in full obedience to God’s law, which no man had ever done, and provide a true understanding of the laws of His kingdom. He would be the light from heaven to people living in darkness, under oppression and sin. He would at the appointed time, be offered up as a means of appeasing the unknown God and ascend back to the Father, where He would live and reign for us as His people. He would send His Spirit of light from heaven; through His Word bring us out of our captivity and guide us into all truth.
Jesus accepted and fulfilled His mission. His Holy Spirit is now fulfilling His mission in our hearts and lives as we continue to follow Jesus.
Gracious Father in heaven, we praise you for so loving us that you sent your Son to be a propitiation for our sins. Lord Jesus, we thank you for being the author and finisher of our faith; for breaking through and enabling us to follow through this darkness until we see you in your full glory. Holy Spirit, we know your presence and power of the life of Christ in us. Continue to reveal and fulfill all that the Father has willed for us as your people. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
Fran
‘As a man thinks in his own heart, so is he.’ Pro. 23:7
To counteract the entrance of millions of illegal immigrants into the US, President Trump signed orders to send 1500 troops to secure the southern border.
The American people have suffered in different ways from those of discontent who have come here illegally.
Without upholding the laws set for all people a nation cannot stand.
Such conditions are an analogy for what I call “Invasion of the Mind.”.
This invasion shapes our character and the persons we become.
Our Senses and Our Devices
Our God-given senses are the means whereby we watch and listen to what is available.
In this century, the invasion has become even more detrimental. The media is a common influence coupled with our devices to shove all things into the secret places of our minds and hearts – shaping individuals, families, neighborhoods, cities, states, countries, and the world. We are more connected – nations to nations – than ever before.
Many children are allowed to watch and listen to anything they choose without knowing how they will be affected. And when they come to a point in life where their choices have produced a negative outcome, they are unable to accept correction.
They are happy with their own choices and do not understand why others cannot be happy with them.
For centuries, the world and its atmosphere has been invaded with such images and words that has changed the overall landscape and the appearance of nations that have become more and more divided, from each other, even as within.
Inner Transformation
With the knowledge of what is happening all over the world, we are continually receiving data and adding to the data in our own way to the files of our knowledge base.
Our culture is continually changing by the invasion that continues.
What is the answer to this dilemma that seems unstoppable?
Restoration
We must restore the ramparts that have been torn down.
We must consider how we are personally susceptible to this invasion, agree that we have been experiencing this phenomenon, and admit this as a need to be addressed.
We, as Christians at least, must appeal to our heavenly Father to reveal His Commander-in-Chief to us, our Lord Jesus Christ – to whom He has given all authority and power. In His name, we pray for them to send the Holy Spirit and His Sword – His powerful Word to guard our minds, our senses, our knowledge of Him, His truth, and His plans for us. We must, by His mighty power, take captive our thoughts in obedience before Him. (2 Cor. 10:5)
We must gird up our minds and examine our thoughts in relation to His Word.
This is only an alien country for God’s children. We are blessed to be a citizen while we still have the freedom to know from His Word the protection and promises for the life He has planned for us, but we are here in a holding pattern, in preparation for that eternal country that is promised to us for eternal life.
God’s Words are sentinels, standing guard on the wall of our minds as watchmen against the enemy’s entrance from all borders.
Submitting to His Guarding and Girding our Minds
To know His plans for us, we must admit our need for guarding and girding our minds, submit our minds to Him and commit to the direction of His Spirit and Word.,
He appeals to us by His great mercies to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice to Him. (Rom. 12:1-2)
Our bodies are the housing for all He created by which He would reveal Himself – through our faculties He speaks to us by His Word and in the power of His Spirit.
They are effective to do all in us that He wants to do – creating in us the image of His Son who is the express image of our heavenly Father.
Is anything I am saying foreign to you? If so, please take the Bible in your hands and read as if you have never read it. Ask our Father for His Holy Spirit to make His Word your guard for your mind and your life – and your soul that is eternal.
Guard your mind in everything you see and hear, touch and handle.
Ask these questions of every word and image. Good or bad, they will find a place in your heart and take over your life.
Is this precious to our Father, from His mind and heart to mine to draw me closer to Him?
Is this from Him to keep the world’s thinking from entering?
Is this good for me and for those I love?
Will this enable me to love Him and those who love me?
Will this bring unity in my thinking with His and my family?
Will these thoughts be those He wants me to share with others?
Will these thoughts, images, and sounds mold me into His image and prepare me for His eternal glory?
Praise Him that He knows where we are. He knows our thoughts and the power of His Spirit and words that conquer, arrest, and remove those invading thoughts and images and enable us to live joyfully with Him.
Pray for His Spirit of Truth to guide you into all truth, for conviction of sin for how you have opened your mind to illegal thoughts, and His goodness will bring you to repentance, reconciliation, renewal, and blessed fellowship with Him. Through you He will reveal the power of His presence and truth to others.
Gracious Father, we are desperate children, captive to the world’s thinking, its devices, its ideologies. We need your resources, your power, your orders for our protection from those who would remove your grace and truth that protect us. Restore your walls, your Words, your standards, and bring to fruition the life you planned for us through Christ our Lord. Reveal Christ, your Son, as the means for our liberty from those who enter to spy out and destroy the freedom you have given us in Him. Bring the power of your church – the body of Christ — to unity in Him to set the standards you have placed upon us, and through us to the world. This is our only means to experience the love, joy, and peace you give us. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
Recently I have added the name of a young man to my Prayer Roster. Joseph is a brilliant artist; one I hope the Lord will use in the ministry of His Kingdom.
He needs the power of the Lord’s Spirit within him to order and manage his life.
I relate well to this msn. My prayers for him include prayers for myself, especially in this latter stage of my life.
He, in his 30’s, and I in my 80’s, have much in common.
We have been given gifts from our heavenly Father, and we are both struggling to move forward with these gifts.
Beyond the fact that we see ourselves in a stronghold of the flesh, our procrastination keeps us bound to ourselves and limits the talents we are given – kept from God and hidden from others.
In Our Flesh
Our means of deliverance begins with understanding where we are in the flesh.
The apostle Paul speaks of man as ‘spirit, soul, and body.’ (1 Thess. 5:23)
The purpose of this post is not to start another book (which I might never finish) but to speak briefly about the work God calls us to and the work that He does in and through us.
Tendency to our Feelings
“Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
These words from Simon Peter to the believers of his day are as true today as when he wrote them. He compares two natures in the beginning of his letter. Anyone who meditates on these words will come away with a new perspective of where we are, who we are, and why we are here in this present world.
Oppression, Suppression, and Depression
Born into this world of ‘corruption’ we are always under a state of oppression.
Without understanding this, and turning to God’s Word for the knowledge of ‘life and godliness’ (our only means for a fruitful life in this state) we suppress the truth that He gives us in HIs Word.
Without the truth revealed by God in His Word, we have nothing to hope in, stand on, or live for in this world.
We search, reach for, and hold on to whatever is close and, in the end, have nothing substantial or relative to true life – nothing of godliness, which is the life God produces within us.
Depression manifests itself in different forms seen from one level to another in different stages.
Depression becomes the stronghold of our spirit, soul, and body, keeping us immobile.
Depression keeps us down, captivated by self, to obey the flesh in its weakness in all areas of life.
Depression leaves us deflated with no room for what is good or godly.
Where is our Hope?
As ‘spirit, soul, and body’ I must relinquish all that I am to God, our heavenly Father, who, with His Son and Spirit gave me life through the first man “Adam” through all generations.
I must see and know the One whose ‘divine power’ gives us ‘all things pertaining to life and godliness.’
I must admit my weakness and my need for His wisdom and strength.
I must submit all I am to Him and His Son, Jesus Christ, who has brought us to our Father through His death and resurrection to receive the power of His life in us.
I must commit to His direction by His Holy Spirt through His Word.
From the stronghold of oppression, suppression, depression, and procrastination, He, by the penetration of His Word, permeates our minds with His truth, and perpetuates His love and the life of Christ in us and through us.
As ‘partakers of His divine nature’ He fills us, lifts us, moves us, keeps us on the right path. In our struggles, He reminds us of His ‘exceedingly great and precious promises.’
He inhabits our praises, so that we speak to Him of His truth, never losing sight of Him and knowing the power of His presence with us. He, with the gifts He has given us, works in and through us to accomplish all He wants to do — for His glory and our joy in Him.
.Gracious and loving Father, We praise you that you have made us your children, not by anything we could do, but by your planning and covenant made with your Son before the creation of anything. How blessed we are to know you and to live in fellowship with you and your eternal family. I praise you that you have called us and given us the gift of eternal life and individual gifts through which you are working to reveal the power of your presence in the world today. In Jesus’ name I pray, I thank you, and praise you. Amen
Dead leaves are proof of an ending of the old and the anticipation of a new season of Nature.
If we consider where we have been as a nation recently, we must believe that our God and Father has given us a reprieve.
“Oh, that You would rend the heavens! That You would come down! That the mountains might shake at Your presence—
To make Your name known to Your adversaries, That the nations may tremble at Your presence! Isa. 64:1-2
He has answered prayers for our concerns about the season we have been experiencing –
With His judgment looming over us, He has truly shown us His mercy in not cosuming us.
As our pastor has reminded us: we cannot sit back and boast of anything good any man has done.
We cannot rest on our laurels, any greatness of any nation or of any man. Any good in this country, from the beginning, has been by the mighty hand of God, our Father and Creator.
“His greatness is unsearchable.” Ps. 145:3
Now we have the opportunity to return to our roots, for us to stand in the light of His grace, and move forward with the truth while we still have the freedom to proclaim His name among the nations.
Four years is a short time, with no guarantee. Except for our diligence to obedience and His presence with us, the enemy will steal His blessings from us.
Our hope is based on His promises as we trust Him, repent from our individual seasons of rebellion to His Word, live in praise, prayer, and proclamation of His truth with each other and those outside the church.
We must gather as His people during these uncertain times to multiply our ranks, to pray for unity through the sound preaching and attendance of God’s Word and worship.
We must be restored by His Spirit to reverence and awe – as His children to live in humility and wonder of our God and Father. .
He makes the nations tremble – But, In His loving kindness and tender mercies, He opens His heart and love to us.
If you understand what He has been doing in recent events, return as His child to the body of Christ –to the Church where He dwells with His people – in individual hearts and as His family.
We must live in the fellowship and joy of our Father, His Son, and the Holy Spirit as one people, to prove to the world the power of his presence among us.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who, in Christ, Has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places.” Eph. 1:3
When this blessed season is done and we face another onslaught from the enemy, we will be prepared, equipped, ready, and victorious, rejoicing with Him our victor, our Lord and King — His triumph in and through us. — now and forever.
“But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;{ 1 Pet. 2:9
“See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” Eph. 5:15-16
In Praise to our Father, His Son our Lord, and His Holy Spirit. Love and blessings. Fran
In the last four years, I have been more vulnerable than ever, and prey to what has come across my radar. Mixed with a lot of good, there has been much in a quagmire of offers as I have hoped for ways to exit the grave of mourning. When death still seems to loom as the mode of everyday existence, anything can appear as a solution, some with astounding promises, and almost impossible to refuse.
Such has been my spiritual warfare and training ground as I have been taken captive a few times (amazed at other times that I was enabled to turn and take our Father’s hand). It is the harder way but the way He promises to love, care, direct, and keep us in the path of Life as He has planned it.
As I started this post, I was reminded of a 2016 post, The Idolatry of Technology. The technology of our present day is precisely used for good and for evil, depending on who is leading the way for each of us. I am personally obligated to live in compliance with our Father who created all things. My human nature carves for any and all things of this world that appeal to my fleshly desires and feelings. Many techniques can be used to gain the information and the help I am looking for.
LOSING MY ANCHOR
During fifty-nine years together, Jerry became my anchor — we were “one flesh” — learning to depend on each other. He was my physical leader; I was his helpmate, according to God’s design. Our Father brought me to Christ many years before He gave Jerry a new heart. His gain of true life in Christ came after the loss of his leg. Through this natural experience, we both learned the need for more than physical life and to see beyond our needs to understand the needs of others.
We were united together in heart, mind, soul, and strength in Christ nine years before he was taken home and I was left alone. Those years and the last four for me were the time for our Father’s working — especially these last four — no technique but His supernatural power could accomplish His holy, eternal, will for His own glory. Such has been His means to glorify Himself and to prove the love and joy that is mine in Him.
No method man will devise can hallow His name, set up His kingdom in our hearts, and establish His will in our lives — as His name, kingdom and will are operative in heaven. He has no method but His will and power to accomplish what He established in HIs everlasting covenant with each of His children before Creation. In His timing, He continues to redeem a people for Himself through whom He is revealing his presence and power in the world of darkness.
Strategies are unnecessary for God our Father to bring His children to Himself and to accomplish in them all He desires of us. By His Holy Spirit alone, He draws us to Christ, His Son, through whom we come to Him for that “eternal life that was with the Father and manifested to” mere men while He was on earth. Jesus was the Word of Life that continues forever in the hearts and lives of His children. He still speaks to us today through His written Word. By His Spirit and His Word, we have the power of His presence within us for all we need. We have abundant life in and through Him — from death to Life, we are His and His alone, forever. No intelligence accumulated by men has the wisdom and knowledge of God revealed only through His Son, to us and our children. Deut. 29:29
I praise Him for bringing me through this stage — from a dark mourning to a new bright morning. By His Holy Light and Life given to us by His Holy Spirit, He will continue to show me “the path of life.” Anything without the Spirit of Christ living in us is deception and darkness.
“You will show me the path of life. In Your presence is fulness of joy. In Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Ps. 16:11
Gracious Father, we praise you for revealing Yourself to us — to lost children, who need a Father. As little children, in our new birth with a new heart and a new spirit, we ask your forgiveness for seeking other ways and ask that you continue to strengthen us, help us, hold us by our right hand, uphold us by your righteous right hand, and guide us with your Spirit of truth, and your counsel, that afterward you may receive us into your glory. Reveal through the power of your presence to others. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen Fran
Peace is never as real and powerful as when He brings us through.
