You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.
John 15:16-17 NKJV
Do you believe in Creation?
Do you really believe God Almighty, Jehovah created you?
If you believe that God created you, then why did He create you?
Do you know for what reason and purpose God made you?
First I firmly believe we were created in the image of God by God and second I firmly believe we were created with purpose and reason. I do not believe we are an oops on God’s chart, any of us.
No one else may have wanted you or no one may have wanted me, but God does and has a plan, a purpose and a reason for me and you to walk through this life.
The sooner I realize this and also get a direction of His purpose, the sooner I can enjoy life and living for God in a way I never have.
I am afraid too many people spend too many of their days bemoaning the fact that they are not what they wish they were. Yes, all of us can and need to do a better job being all of what God wants us to be but we also need to find the trail of that direction and with joy, grow the abilities God has placed in our life. (Matthew 25:14-15)
If you want to enjoy living for God, zero in on what He designed you for and be excited being what He made you to be. When I say people spend too many of their days bemoaning the fact that they are not what they wished they were, I am talking about people who are not happy to be chosen. They are not happy being what God designed them to be. They want to be someone else.
Too many people in the church are blowing precious time pouting over the fact that they are not getting to do what someone else is getting to do.
This is like a Gazelle trying to be a Cheetah. Both are designed by God to be very fast runners. Both were created to live and perform in the same country or environment. But the moment a Gazelle tries to fill the role of a Cheetah is the day it will stop living. The same is true for the Cheetah. The Gazelle can fret and bemoan the actuality it is not a Cheetah but that will never change the fact it is not and can never be. Every moment spent crying over this fact is lost time being what God made it to be.
Every day you and I spend crying over the fact we are not getting to be and do what we would rather be and do is time lost, and time without production. God called you to be who you are and what you should be. The sooner we learn this the quicker we can enjoy being all God designed us to be.
God put us in our position to fill a purpose. If we want to enjoy being all we can be for God we desperately need to learn to be happy in the fact we were chosen and chosen for a reason. Then we need to fulfill that reason.
“Value of life lies not in the length of days, but in the uses we make of our days. One may live long yet live very little.” M. DeMontaigne
God has a great plan He put together for you and only you. No one else has a DNA chain like you. You were made on purpose and with a purpose. Its time you and I stop wasting ours and God’s time fretting over the fact we are not getting to do what someone else is getting to do.
The sooner we find our lane of purpose the sooner we will get to live with a smile on our face.
We cannot be intimidated and dismayed over the fact that we are not someone else.
Read the list of diciples in Matthew 10:1-4
1 He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.
2 These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John;
3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus;
4 Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. NIV
The book of Mark, Luke and also Acts give us this list again.
Four of the guys are never mentioned again outside these lists. Two of them, Thomas because of his doubting and Matthew because of the dinner he had to introduce Jesus to his friends, are only mentioned a couple of more times. There is a lengthy story of Philip coming to Jesus and then he is most know for his worry over how much money it was going to take to feed the 5000 and he also ask Jesus to show them the Father. This is all we read of him. Judas is known for betraying Jesus. Andrew’s is only claim to fame was the fact he brought Peter to meet Jesus.
Outside this we only read and hear about how many great things Peter, James and John did.
It was always Peter James and John. Peter preached here and healed this one and wrote this or saw this vision. On and on the list goes of the great things these three did.
We never get to read the book of Thaddaeus or we are never told how great a preacher Bartholomew was. Over half of the twelve disciples are never heard of again by name.
Where they important to the early church? YES!
Did they have a purpose and was used of God? YES!
Did they matter to the kingdom of the Lord? YES!
It is evident that they knew their purpose and they understood the reason God saved them and they were happy to do just that.
As you read the book of Acts you find other’s who are written about and greatly used of God. Men like another Philip and Stephen, men like Barnabas and Paul. You never read where Bartholomew and James the son of Alphaeus ever complained and pouted over the fact they didn’t get the breaks that Peter got and how that jonnie-come-lately, Paul wrote over 75% of the New Testament and went on two mission trips.
Each of these men knew their purpose, they understood their abilities and the talents God had handed them and they grew them and were happy doing the plan of God.
Yes, there are several others mentioned in the book of Acts, that seems to get bend out of shape but their end is horrible and unfulfilled. People like Ananias and Sapphira, and Simon the sorcerer, he became a believer the Bible says and followed Philip and was wowed by the anointing of God. But when Peter and John show up to lay hands on people he saddled up to them with intentions of wanting to be able to do something that Philip had not been able to do. Open the door to the Samaritans. Peter opened his mail for him and told him he was acting out of a bitter heart and in the bonds of iniquity. Acts 8:9-24
Jealousy and pouting over what you are not will give you a very bitter heart and you will never be able to be what God meant you to be. We have to learn to be happy about being chosen to do what we were purposed to do.
Look at a man named Ananias who steps onto the pages of scripture long enough to wittiness to Paul and baptize him in Jesus name. Ananias seems to ride off into the sunset of the scriptures and we never hear of him again.
Was he important to the kingdom of God?
Was his abilities needed in the church? Yes!
Just because we never hear of him again, does he lose his importance to God’s purpose? No!
Somewhere in the early church doing day to day things for God, no doubt was a man named Ananias working for God with a smile on his face.
You may say or think, you are not getting to do what you feel you should be doing. There are a few things I want you to think about that I personally keep applying to my life along this line. I know what it is like to be looked over, not seeming to get the breaks. Matter-a-fact I get it pushed in my face still to this day. There are some questions I ask myself then about my purpose.
Am I preparing daily for what I feel God wants me to do?
You may say I don’t have to prepare I am ready. Be careful, you are getting close to taking the spirit of the one talented servant. Remember the Lord requires the enlarging of one’s gifts. If you are not enlarging your gifts then you have taken the spirit of the know-it-all one talented servant. (Matthew 25:14-30) You will not have a good end if you keep this spirit. I cannot just sit and wait I have to prepare myself, grow my abilities.
Has God opened a door of opportunity for my purpose?
A phrase I have lived by for years is that I can walk through any door God opens but I am not going to force any doors. I have found when I force doors I step into rooms of opportunity that I am not ready to perform in and/or are not ready to be evangelized. Rooms not ready for me to be there. I personally know what it is like to be in a place I had no business being. Because of that I experienced a set-back that cost me time. I have seen people force doors and find themselves so defeated that they lost hope and faith. Some never became what they were intended to become because of it. I have learned I don’t want to be any place that my gifts and God’s purpose for me hasn’t taken me there.
Am I comfortable enough being what God has planned on me being?
It’s easy to complain but the moment I realize that I can be everything God has planned for me is the moment I can be content. Philippians 4:11 I can be comfortable in what my God designed purpose is. Yet sometimes we do run low on patients.
There are two scripture my father would quote to me almost every time I complained about not getting what I felt I should have.
Psalm 37:3-8 NKJV
3 Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.
4 Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.
5 Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.
6 He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.
7 Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.
8 Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; do not fret — it only causes harm.
Proverbs 18:16 NIV
A gift opens the way for the giver and ushers him into the presence of the great.
God will do His part if I do my part with a right spirit. I have to keep reminding myself it’s not my kingdom, it’s not my church. It belongs to God who will do with it as He sees fit.
Learn to dream about what God is dreaming about for you.
Stop day dreaming about things God doesn’t have in your purpose and learn to dream and catch a vision that God has planned for you. Its how we become happy being chosen.
Pray, seek God and listen to His Word, find His purpose for your life. Take a spiritual gifts test if you need be to understand your talents. Then ask yourself:
What does God really have for me? (Grow in that purpose)
What will I have to change about me to do what God wants me to do? (Lose hindering attitudes)
What am I doing daily to grow the abilities God gave me? (Study and prepare to not be ashamed. 2nd Timothy 2:15)
If you will get your life in His purpose that He designed for your life, you will find the greatest joy you ever knew living for Him. Stop wasting your days and learn to be happy being chosen to do His purpose.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Continuing Hope
Hebrews 6:17-19 NKJV 17 Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath,
18 That by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.
19 This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil,
When we respond to life from simply the emotions of our heart we often take steps that can cause us to lose all hope and even give up sometimes. We cannot live without hope, we must have hope to survive.
This hope is not some packaged remedy that this world hands us but it is an everlasting hope that comes from the very presence of God. Hope is something we must have to live. Hope is that promise that even though we may not see the end or understand the reasons of life we hope against everything that we will get an answer and there will be life beyond where we are at the moment. The New Testament word hope, means; anticipate usually with pleasure, expectation and confidence.
We must have this hope to live for God and also to walk through this world. Hope is that unseen something that lets me smile anyway, that lets me sleep in spite of situations, that causes me to keep trying no matter the odds.
Hope! It causes me to reach beyond the failures and live a full life today and still dream about a better tomorrow. Hope! We will not last without it!
The writer of Hebrews says, “Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear… God did this… we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, Hebrews 6:17-19 NIV
We who have run for our very lives to God have every reason to grab the promised hope with both hands and never let go. It's an unbreakable spiritual lifeline, reaching past all appearances right to the very presence of God (The Message)
My hope is in God! That is where my trust must find solid ground! It is a lifeline that goes into the very presence of God, a line that I can hold to with confidence; this is where I find my hopes. That is where I can rest my soul. In this hope is where I can put all my marbles. In God everlasting arms is where I can stop and breathe deep knowing that if I stay there the promise for me and my days is that He will do the right thing. It’s where my faith is. Hope, is where my life must be lived out and ordered. I can cast my cares on Him because He cares for me. That is a promise, an order, a vowed promise of God that it is impossible for Him to lie about.
This is the only real and sure Hope, God does all things well.
When my emotions tell me to quit and give up hope, it is like saying I don’t believe in the promise of God. When I follow my feelings and lose hope, I am letting go of the lifeline enough to say God didn’t really mean the promises for me or I really don’t count to God . And in doing so I lose my belief, my faith, and have little hope that God is really there. Even though I know in my understanding there is an all powerful God, my time of pain or struggle takes my understanding from me and a then I choose not to believe. I then lose Hope. I look to myself for direction and fail to do the wise thing because I have become hopeless.
Yes, life attacks us, and the enemy comes. Even the Bibles says the enemy would show up. Scripture says, “When the enemy shall come in like a flood,… But the verse didn’t stop there. We are not left without hope! …the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him!”
A standard here is a flag or a pennant that represents the Lord is in charge, or the one who is leading. The word also means to cause to flee away.
During the Middle Ages, when the lord of the house was home his standard was flown out front. It told everyone in the country that the leader, the strong man of the house, was there.
Even though I can’t stop the assault of the cares of this world and the pain life sends my way, my hope is in the fact that God lives in my life and He has His standard flying over me. The Lord of my life is home.
Does this mean the enemy will not come? NO!
What it does mean is that strength for tomorrow is there and there is nothing that the Lord cannot handle in my life. There is hope in knowing I have the King of kings and the Lord of lords directing the ways of my life. I have hope there. I have hope that He will do all things well!
Realizing the importance of Hope we must keep hope and continue hope.
We live in a day that continually bombards us with pressure, so it is of utmost importance that we keep hope alive. That we hold tight to the lifeline that reaches into the throne room of heaven.
Over 25 years ago my wife gave me some printed notes from her pastor’s wife Vesta Mangun. They were notes from a lesson that was taught by her. They were entitled Seven Ways to Continue my Hope. Through the years I have studied these and taught them and passed them on to others. These seven points are from Vesta Mangun and some of the following lines. I have added my own thoughts over the years and borrowed thoughts from others that are also written in the line following the points. Please don’t blame any of the not so good thoughts on Sister Mangun. I am sure her lesson years ago was powerful and clear. But I hope you will find help in the thoughts written out here. I don’t believe they are the only ways but simply seven things we can do to continue our hope.
Seven Ways to Continue my Hope
1. God accepts us where we are and will help us there!
15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.
16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:15-16 NKJV
This knowledge will have to get in us or we will go under! My righteousness is as dirty rags but I can bring my hopeless life to God and He covers my life because of the blood of Jesus. I don’t have to accomplish some daring feat, I can simply go to Him, the Lord will touch me where I am and help me there. The Lord can be touched! Whatever the need, I belong to the Lord of the house and He will help me where I am at. The psalmist of the 46 Psalm sings a song here about troubles in life but keeps adding to the song that God will help. In verse 5 he declares God will help and that right early or the breaking of a new day. That is hope!
2. Sometimes resting is better than reaching, trusting better than trying.
1 I waited and waited and waited for God. At last he looked; finally he listened.
2 He lifted me out of the ditch, pulled me from deep mud. He stood me up on a solid rock to make sure I wouldn't slip.
3 He taught me how to sing the latest God-song, a praise-song to our God. More and more people are seeing this: they enter the mystery, abandoning themselves to God.
4 Blessed are you who give yourselves over to God, turn your backs on the world's "sure thing," ignore what the world worships; Psalm 40:1-4 The Message
After we have done all we can do, after praying, after fasting, the next move is God’s move to make. We can’t do the impossible only He can. So we call on Him and rest in the fact that The Lord of the House is in control.
Holman says of verse one, “In waiting I waited!” And of the pit in verse 2 he calls it, “a pit of noise.” I waited and waited and God lifted me from a noisy ditch.
T.F. Tenny said, “We praise God for open doors, but we don’t praise Him for closed doors. A closed door can be as much the will of God as an opened one.” I challenge you to wait and see what God will do. The Shepherd will hear the voice of the sheep. So take a deep breath and watch God work, wait patiently. Don’t cast away your confidence, there is a great reward that comes in being confident. Hebrews 10:35-39
3. Whatever your trial is, God will use it for good, if we will let Him.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28 KJV
A.D. Urshan said, “Thank God for anything that makes you pray.”
God will not leave us there to wallow in our valley; He will deliver us but in doing so the Lord will do a great thing with the ones whose hope is in Him. It’s God’s way of putting something in our hands to fight with! Cut the devil’s head off with your circumstance. Use your circumstances for the Glory of God; use them to come at the devil with a second wind.
The song “All is Well With My Soul,” was written while Mr. Spafford hung over the rail of a ship weeping because his children had drowned.
Thomas A. Dorsey wrote the hymn “Precious Lord, Take My Hand” while mourning the death of his young wife and son who died during the child’s birth. While sitting in the music room of a friend on a Sunday, he thought he was through with God, he said, “As my fingers began to manipulate over the keys, words began to fall in place like water drops falling from a crevice of rock.”
Take your valley and dig a well there, build a bridge there. (Psalm 84:6)
4. Remember every trial is only temporary.
6 I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime.
7 Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it's your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory. 1 Peter 1:6-7 The Message
The storm can’t last forever! A season is only an area in life. The sun will rise and will set but it will rise again. The winter will not last forever. Spring will come again with it fresh growth and start you towards a new harvest and production.
It is a hot oven that produces fresh bread. God is a God of all seasons and the season will change!
5. Look at hard times as discipline, not condemnation.
1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.
2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. John 15:1-2 NIV
A fruit tree bears fruit on new branches. Pruning or cutting will produce more new branches, thus giving more fruit. It is the will of God that we produce much fruit. Discipline causes us to do a better job. Don’t allow your circumstances to make you bitter. Allow tough times to cause you to grow.
Remember clay is shaped under pressure, hardened in fire, then used in honor.
6. Keep your sense of humor; laughter is the best medicine.
A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. Proverbs 17:22 NIV
What happens to us is not nearly as important as how we respond. Dried bones are lifeless and only a miracle from God ever changed them. We can become so bitter and crushed that we dry up and become a bitter life void of anything productive. Dried bones are only a reminder of what used to be, they are skeletons of past greatness. We can’t allow our life to go down that road. There are many reasons and blessings to still smile about. If laughter is internal jogging, take a few laps and you will feel better.- T.F. Tenny
7. Count your blessing; rejoice greatly!
A remedy that will work! Cling to all your past blessings and answered prayers. Don’t forget to remind the devil, this world, and yourself of what God has done for you in the past, and the prayers that the Lord has answered before. If He did it once, He will do it again. If God has touched me before, He will put His hand on me again!
Remember to praise and worship, shout and sing before the wall falls, because it will fall again.
Hope, it is in the Lord. I can’t lose hope because if I do it is as if God doesn’t matter to me and I could easily step across that line of an unbeliever. Yes, life will take the living out of you, so for that reason alone we can’t lose the hope God has promised us. We must hold with both hands the promises of God that is where my hope is, the lifeline into the presence of Jehovah.
Thoughts on Hebrews 6:17-19 The oath of God
What are the two immutable things which the oath of God, swearing by Himself, brings upon the field! What can they be but the Divine word and the Divine name or nature? Take first the Divine word. That is an immutable thing. The word or promise of God is always sure and trustworthy. But take in now the second of the two immutable things wherein it is impossible for God to lie; His name, His character, His nature, His being and continuing to be such as He is. What new security is thus given? Is it not in substance this: -- That God discovers to us a ground or reason of what He designs to do farther back than the mere sovereign and discretionary fiat of His absolute will; deeply fixed and rooted in the very essence of His being? Is it not that He puts the certainty of that to which He swears, not only on the ground of His having intimated it beforehand, but on the ground of a stronger necessity, in the very nature of things, and in His own nature; lying far back and far down, in His being God, and being the God He is? The thing is to he so. not merely because God has said it shall be so, but also because it cannot but be so, God continuing to be, and to be the God He is. This is what, in swearing by Himself, He means to tell us.
(From The Biblical Illustrator Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2006 Ages Software, Inc. and Biblesoft, Inc.)
18 That by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.
19 This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil,
When we respond to life from simply the emotions of our heart we often take steps that can cause us to lose all hope and even give up sometimes. We cannot live without hope, we must have hope to survive.
This hope is not some packaged remedy that this world hands us but it is an everlasting hope that comes from the very presence of God. Hope is something we must have to live. Hope is that promise that even though we may not see the end or understand the reasons of life we hope against everything that we will get an answer and there will be life beyond where we are at the moment. The New Testament word hope, means; anticipate usually with pleasure, expectation and confidence.
We must have this hope to live for God and also to walk through this world. Hope is that unseen something that lets me smile anyway, that lets me sleep in spite of situations, that causes me to keep trying no matter the odds.
Hope! It causes me to reach beyond the failures and live a full life today and still dream about a better tomorrow. Hope! We will not last without it!
The writer of Hebrews says, “Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear… God did this… we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, Hebrews 6:17-19 NIV
We who have run for our very lives to God have every reason to grab the promised hope with both hands and never let go. It's an unbreakable spiritual lifeline, reaching past all appearances right to the very presence of God (The Message)
My hope is in God! That is where my trust must find solid ground! It is a lifeline that goes into the very presence of God, a line that I can hold to with confidence; this is where I find my hopes. That is where I can rest my soul. In this hope is where I can put all my marbles. In God everlasting arms is where I can stop and breathe deep knowing that if I stay there the promise for me and my days is that He will do the right thing. It’s where my faith is. Hope, is where my life must be lived out and ordered. I can cast my cares on Him because He cares for me. That is a promise, an order, a vowed promise of God that it is impossible for Him to lie about.
This is the only real and sure Hope, God does all things well.
When my emotions tell me to quit and give up hope, it is like saying I don’t believe in the promise of God. When I follow my feelings and lose hope, I am letting go of the lifeline enough to say God didn’t really mean the promises for me or I really don’t count to God . And in doing so I lose my belief, my faith, and have little hope that God is really there. Even though I know in my understanding there is an all powerful God, my time of pain or struggle takes my understanding from me and a then I choose not to believe. I then lose Hope. I look to myself for direction and fail to do the wise thing because I have become hopeless.
Yes, life attacks us, and the enemy comes. Even the Bibles says the enemy would show up. Scripture says, “When the enemy shall come in like a flood,… But the verse didn’t stop there. We are not left without hope! …the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him!”
A standard here is a flag or a pennant that represents the Lord is in charge, or the one who is leading. The word also means to cause to flee away.
During the Middle Ages, when the lord of the house was home his standard was flown out front. It told everyone in the country that the leader, the strong man of the house, was there.
Even though I can’t stop the assault of the cares of this world and the pain life sends my way, my hope is in the fact that God lives in my life and He has His standard flying over me. The Lord of my life is home.
Does this mean the enemy will not come? NO!
What it does mean is that strength for tomorrow is there and there is nothing that the Lord cannot handle in my life. There is hope in knowing I have the King of kings and the Lord of lords directing the ways of my life. I have hope there. I have hope that He will do all things well!
Realizing the importance of Hope we must keep hope and continue hope.
We live in a day that continually bombards us with pressure, so it is of utmost importance that we keep hope alive. That we hold tight to the lifeline that reaches into the throne room of heaven.
Over 25 years ago my wife gave me some printed notes from her pastor’s wife Vesta Mangun. They were notes from a lesson that was taught by her. They were entitled Seven Ways to Continue my Hope. Through the years I have studied these and taught them and passed them on to others. These seven points are from Vesta Mangun and some of the following lines. I have added my own thoughts over the years and borrowed thoughts from others that are also written in the line following the points. Please don’t blame any of the not so good thoughts on Sister Mangun. I am sure her lesson years ago was powerful and clear. But I hope you will find help in the thoughts written out here. I don’t believe they are the only ways but simply seven things we can do to continue our hope.
Seven Ways to Continue my Hope
1. God accepts us where we are and will help us there!
15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.
16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:15-16 NKJV
This knowledge will have to get in us or we will go under! My righteousness is as dirty rags but I can bring my hopeless life to God and He covers my life because of the blood of Jesus. I don’t have to accomplish some daring feat, I can simply go to Him, the Lord will touch me where I am and help me there. The Lord can be touched! Whatever the need, I belong to the Lord of the house and He will help me where I am at. The psalmist of the 46 Psalm sings a song here about troubles in life but keeps adding to the song that God will help. In verse 5 he declares God will help and that right early or the breaking of a new day. That is hope!
2. Sometimes resting is better than reaching, trusting better than trying.
1 I waited and waited and waited for God. At last he looked; finally he listened.
2 He lifted me out of the ditch, pulled me from deep mud. He stood me up on a solid rock to make sure I wouldn't slip.
3 He taught me how to sing the latest God-song, a praise-song to our God. More and more people are seeing this: they enter the mystery, abandoning themselves to God.
4 Blessed are you who give yourselves over to God, turn your backs on the world's "sure thing," ignore what the world worships; Psalm 40:1-4 The Message
After we have done all we can do, after praying, after fasting, the next move is God’s move to make. We can’t do the impossible only He can. So we call on Him and rest in the fact that The Lord of the House is in control.
Holman says of verse one, “In waiting I waited!” And of the pit in verse 2 he calls it, “a pit of noise.” I waited and waited and God lifted me from a noisy ditch.
T.F. Tenny said, “We praise God for open doors, but we don’t praise Him for closed doors. A closed door can be as much the will of God as an opened one.” I challenge you to wait and see what God will do. The Shepherd will hear the voice of the sheep. So take a deep breath and watch God work, wait patiently. Don’t cast away your confidence, there is a great reward that comes in being confident. Hebrews 10:35-39
3. Whatever your trial is, God will use it for good, if we will let Him.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28 KJV
A.D. Urshan said, “Thank God for anything that makes you pray.”
God will not leave us there to wallow in our valley; He will deliver us but in doing so the Lord will do a great thing with the ones whose hope is in Him. It’s God’s way of putting something in our hands to fight with! Cut the devil’s head off with your circumstance. Use your circumstances for the Glory of God; use them to come at the devil with a second wind.
The song “All is Well With My Soul,” was written while Mr. Spafford hung over the rail of a ship weeping because his children had drowned.
Thomas A. Dorsey wrote the hymn “Precious Lord, Take My Hand” while mourning the death of his young wife and son who died during the child’s birth. While sitting in the music room of a friend on a Sunday, he thought he was through with God, he said, “As my fingers began to manipulate over the keys, words began to fall in place like water drops falling from a crevice of rock.”
Take your valley and dig a well there, build a bridge there. (Psalm 84:6)
4. Remember every trial is only temporary.
6 I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime.
7 Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it's your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory. 1 Peter 1:6-7 The Message
The storm can’t last forever! A season is only an area in life. The sun will rise and will set but it will rise again. The winter will not last forever. Spring will come again with it fresh growth and start you towards a new harvest and production.
It is a hot oven that produces fresh bread. God is a God of all seasons and the season will change!
5. Look at hard times as discipline, not condemnation.
1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.
2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. John 15:1-2 NIV
A fruit tree bears fruit on new branches. Pruning or cutting will produce more new branches, thus giving more fruit. It is the will of God that we produce much fruit. Discipline causes us to do a better job. Don’t allow your circumstances to make you bitter. Allow tough times to cause you to grow.
Remember clay is shaped under pressure, hardened in fire, then used in honor.
6. Keep your sense of humor; laughter is the best medicine.
A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. Proverbs 17:22 NIV
What happens to us is not nearly as important as how we respond. Dried bones are lifeless and only a miracle from God ever changed them. We can become so bitter and crushed that we dry up and become a bitter life void of anything productive. Dried bones are only a reminder of what used to be, they are skeletons of past greatness. We can’t allow our life to go down that road. There are many reasons and blessings to still smile about. If laughter is internal jogging, take a few laps and you will feel better.- T.F. Tenny
7. Count your blessing; rejoice greatly!
A remedy that will work! Cling to all your past blessings and answered prayers. Don’t forget to remind the devil, this world, and yourself of what God has done for you in the past, and the prayers that the Lord has answered before. If He did it once, He will do it again. If God has touched me before, He will put His hand on me again!
Remember to praise and worship, shout and sing before the wall falls, because it will fall again.
Hope, it is in the Lord. I can’t lose hope because if I do it is as if God doesn’t matter to me and I could easily step across that line of an unbeliever. Yes, life will take the living out of you, so for that reason alone we can’t lose the hope God has promised us. We must hold with both hands the promises of God that is where my hope is, the lifeline into the presence of Jehovah.
Thoughts on Hebrews 6:17-19 The oath of God
What are the two immutable things which the oath of God, swearing by Himself, brings upon the field! What can they be but the Divine word and the Divine name or nature? Take first the Divine word. That is an immutable thing. The word or promise of God is always sure and trustworthy. But take in now the second of the two immutable things wherein it is impossible for God to lie; His name, His character, His nature, His being and continuing to be such as He is. What new security is thus given? Is it not in substance this: -- That God discovers to us a ground or reason of what He designs to do farther back than the mere sovereign and discretionary fiat of His absolute will; deeply fixed and rooted in the very essence of His being? Is it not that He puts the certainty of that to which He swears, not only on the ground of His having intimated it beforehand, but on the ground of a stronger necessity, in the very nature of things, and in His own nature; lying far back and far down, in His being God, and being the God He is? The thing is to he so. not merely because God has said it shall be so, but also because it cannot but be so, God continuing to be, and to be the God He is. This is what, in swearing by Himself, He means to tell us.
(From The Biblical Illustrator Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2006 Ages Software, Inc. and Biblesoft, Inc.)
Friday, July 2, 2010
Life, It Can't Stop at a Rubble Heap
Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me. Micah 7:8 KJV
On September 11, 2001 terrorist took control of two air planes and flew them into the twin towers of the World Trade Center. Hundreds died in this attack as the two mighty structures crumbled to the ground. All that was left that day was a pile of rubble to remind us of what had happened. There twisted on the ground were the remains of these two mighty buildings. Tons of steel, concrete and wood lay without purpose and seemingly usefulness. All that was left was a memory and bitterness of what had been. But it didn’t end there that day. As America looked at her day, purpose and the need to rise above the terror of the moment began to get up. Purpose to go beyond the pain of the day griped the hearts of most. Plans were put into action as people begin to make up their mind that life was not going to stop at a pile of rubble. America would not be known as a people that threw in the towel and quit at a terrible event in her life.
One of those places where purpose decided not to stop at the rubble heap is seen in what was done with the steel from the two towers. The steel that lay twisted and seemingly unusable down town New York City was gathered and a cry seems to go out of the lips of those with purpose that we will not stop and finish as a rubble heap.
Thus the USS New York
It was built with 24 tons of scrap steel from the World Trade Center. It is the fifth in a new class of warship - designed for missions that include special operations against terrorists. It will carry a crew of 360 sailors and 700 combat-ready Marines to be delivered ashore by helicopters and assault craft.
Steel from the World Trade Center was melted down in a foundry in Amite, LA to cast the ship's bow section. When it was poured into the molds on Sept. 9, 2003, "those big rough steelworkers treated it with total reverence," recalled Navy Capt. Kevin Wensing, who was there. "It was a spiritual moment for everybody there."
Junior Chavers, foundry operations manager, said that when the trade center steel first arrived, he touched it with his hand and the "hair on my neck stood up." "It had a big meaning to it for all of us," he said. "They knocked us down. They can't keep us down. We're going to be back."
The ship's motto? "Never Forget"
In short we will not end in a rubble heap.
Life, it can’t stop at a wreckage pile!
We each know the feeling of failure. That depressing feeling that says we have made a wrong choice and we feel it’s over. Though it may not have taken our life or even caused us to be with God in our life we still understand the fact that we wish we could go back and re-do some things and make different choices. To some life and its decisions have kelp you up at night and caused you to lose the productivity of many days. We have second guessed our living and we wish we would have done some things differently. We understand the power of forgiveness and know God has and can wipe the page clean but in the back of our mind screams the words of Satan or the phrases of simply life, “You’re a failure, all that is left is a heap of what should have been, look at the mess you produced.”
But today I want to challenge you no matter how big the crash was, no matter how final the fall seems, you can’t finish your life at a rubble heap. You can’t stop at a place with no hope connected to it. No, it may never look like it once did. Yes, life may have to take a new turn.
But whatever you do don’t allow your life to stop at a rubble heap. Pick up the parts and make a new run from a fresh direction. Get up and build something out of what has been beaten down.
It was a woman named Corrie Ten Boom that survived a Nazi Concentration Camp and wrote a book about her faith in God that touched the world. It was she who said, “It gets dark under the wings of God.”
No she never planned on writing such a book. Her day dreams never included such a story. But her life took a turn that left her at a rubble heap and Corrie Ten Boom decided that life is not going to stop here and she wrote a story that touched a world. Her dreams had to be re-dreamed, her plans had to be reshaped, and her life was never the same. But her life didn’t stop at a rubble heap.
In your life, it may have been a sin, it may have been a bad choice, it may have been a wrong decision, it may have been a bad hand dealt to you, it may have been simply the way life turned, but you need to make up your mind today I will not finish here. Life is not going to stop at a rubble heap. Your dreams may have to be reshaped, your goals may need a fresh start, your direction will have to change but you can’t stop at a rubble heap.
Psalm 84 is a hymn that was given to the chief musician to be sung with a harp from Gath. It was to be a joyful and pleasant hymn.
Yet it was written during a time of a rubble heap.
The sons of Korah sang this psalm, as from the soul of David. They reminded him of the foundation of his hope, communion with God remaining with him though now fleeing from Absalom. The song tells a story of Israel making their way up to Jerusalem for the feast days. As they make their way across the country they had to go through places that were often hard to get through. In the dry places there were no place to stop and be refreshed. In the wet and marsh places they could hardly cross.
So according to what we read in this Psalm Israel dug pools and wells in the dry places so that when they came that way again there would be a cool refreshing place to stop. And in the wet places the place of Baca they built a bridge so that their next crossing would be easier.
They refused to allow the circumstances of their day to stop them and keep them from getting to the place of the Lord.
David may have passed some of these places as he is running from Absalom and sang this song.
4 Blessed are those who dwell in Your house; they will still be praising You. Selah
5 Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, whose heart is set on pilgrimage.
6 As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a spring; the rain also covers it with pools.7 They go from strength to strength; Each one appears before God in Zion. Psalm 84:4-7 NKJV
You can’t stop at a rubble heap. This life is a pilgrimage. Go through the dry places, get across the flooded places. Life just can’t end at a rubble heap.
Yes, you may have to re-dream your dreams.
Yes, you may have to re-set some of your goals.
Yes, you may have to make some life change and find a new direction. Yes, you may have to deal with some sin that is shadowing your life.
But if we would but take the spirit of the prophet Micah as we stand there looking at what seems to be all that is left and purpose in our heart, Life it can’t stop at a rubble heap.
Don't, enemy, crow over me. I'm down, but I'm not out. I'm sitting in the dark right now, but GOD is my light.
It goes on and says …it's not forever. He's on my side and is going to get me out of this. He'll turn on the lights and show me his ways. I'll see the whole picture and how right he is. Micah 7:8-9 The Message Translation
Pick up the pieces and build a ship, write a book, dream a new dream, pray a fresh prayer, repent of your sin and make a Life Change.
Life can’t stop at a rubble heap.
On September 11, 2001 terrorist took control of two air planes and flew them into the twin towers of the World Trade Center. Hundreds died in this attack as the two mighty structures crumbled to the ground. All that was left that day was a pile of rubble to remind us of what had happened. There twisted on the ground were the remains of these two mighty buildings. Tons of steel, concrete and wood lay without purpose and seemingly usefulness. All that was left was a memory and bitterness of what had been. But it didn’t end there that day. As America looked at her day, purpose and the need to rise above the terror of the moment began to get up. Purpose to go beyond the pain of the day griped the hearts of most. Plans were put into action as people begin to make up their mind that life was not going to stop at a pile of rubble. America would not be known as a people that threw in the towel and quit at a terrible event in her life.
One of those places where purpose decided not to stop at the rubble heap is seen in what was done with the steel from the two towers. The steel that lay twisted and seemingly unusable down town New York City was gathered and a cry seems to go out of the lips of those with purpose that we will not stop and finish as a rubble heap.
Thus the USS New York
It was built with 24 tons of scrap steel from the World Trade Center. It is the fifth in a new class of warship - designed for missions that include special operations against terrorists. It will carry a crew of 360 sailors and 700 combat-ready Marines to be delivered ashore by helicopters and assault craft.
Steel from the World Trade Center was melted down in a foundry in Amite, LA to cast the ship's bow section. When it was poured into the molds on Sept. 9, 2003, "those big rough steelworkers treated it with total reverence," recalled Navy Capt. Kevin Wensing, who was there. "It was a spiritual moment for everybody there."
Junior Chavers, foundry operations manager, said that when the trade center steel first arrived, he touched it with his hand and the "hair on my neck stood up." "It had a big meaning to it for all of us," he said. "They knocked us down. They can't keep us down. We're going to be back."
The ship's motto? "Never Forget"
In short we will not end in a rubble heap.
Life, it can’t stop at a wreckage pile!
We each know the feeling of failure. That depressing feeling that says we have made a wrong choice and we feel it’s over. Though it may not have taken our life or even caused us to be with God in our life we still understand the fact that we wish we could go back and re-do some things and make different choices. To some life and its decisions have kelp you up at night and caused you to lose the productivity of many days. We have second guessed our living and we wish we would have done some things differently. We understand the power of forgiveness and know God has and can wipe the page clean but in the back of our mind screams the words of Satan or the phrases of simply life, “You’re a failure, all that is left is a heap of what should have been, look at the mess you produced.”
But today I want to challenge you no matter how big the crash was, no matter how final the fall seems, you can’t finish your life at a rubble heap. You can’t stop at a place with no hope connected to it. No, it may never look like it once did. Yes, life may have to take a new turn.
But whatever you do don’t allow your life to stop at a rubble heap. Pick up the parts and make a new run from a fresh direction. Get up and build something out of what has been beaten down.
It was a woman named Corrie Ten Boom that survived a Nazi Concentration Camp and wrote a book about her faith in God that touched the world. It was she who said, “It gets dark under the wings of God.”
No she never planned on writing such a book. Her day dreams never included such a story. But her life took a turn that left her at a rubble heap and Corrie Ten Boom decided that life is not going to stop here and she wrote a story that touched a world. Her dreams had to be re-dreamed, her plans had to be reshaped, and her life was never the same. But her life didn’t stop at a rubble heap.
In your life, it may have been a sin, it may have been a bad choice, it may have been a wrong decision, it may have been a bad hand dealt to you, it may have been simply the way life turned, but you need to make up your mind today I will not finish here. Life is not going to stop at a rubble heap. Your dreams may have to be reshaped, your goals may need a fresh start, your direction will have to change but you can’t stop at a rubble heap.
Psalm 84 is a hymn that was given to the chief musician to be sung with a harp from Gath. It was to be a joyful and pleasant hymn.
Yet it was written during a time of a rubble heap.
The sons of Korah sang this psalm, as from the soul of David. They reminded him of the foundation of his hope, communion with God remaining with him though now fleeing from Absalom. The song tells a story of Israel making their way up to Jerusalem for the feast days. As they make their way across the country they had to go through places that were often hard to get through. In the dry places there were no place to stop and be refreshed. In the wet and marsh places they could hardly cross.
So according to what we read in this Psalm Israel dug pools and wells in the dry places so that when they came that way again there would be a cool refreshing place to stop. And in the wet places the place of Baca they built a bridge so that their next crossing would be easier.
They refused to allow the circumstances of their day to stop them and keep them from getting to the place of the Lord.
David may have passed some of these places as he is running from Absalom and sang this song.
4 Blessed are those who dwell in Your house; they will still be praising You. Selah
5 Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, whose heart is set on pilgrimage.
6 As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a spring; the rain also covers it with pools.7 They go from strength to strength; Each one appears before God in Zion. Psalm 84:4-7 NKJV
You can’t stop at a rubble heap. This life is a pilgrimage. Go through the dry places, get across the flooded places. Life just can’t end at a rubble heap.
Yes, you may have to re-dream your dreams.
Yes, you may have to re-set some of your goals.
Yes, you may have to make some life change and find a new direction. Yes, you may have to deal with some sin that is shadowing your life.
But if we would but take the spirit of the prophet Micah as we stand there looking at what seems to be all that is left and purpose in our heart, Life it can’t stop at a rubble heap.
Don't, enemy, crow over me. I'm down, but I'm not out. I'm sitting in the dark right now, but GOD is my light.
It goes on and says …it's not forever. He's on my side and is going to get me out of this. He'll turn on the lights and show me his ways. I'll see the whole picture and how right he is. Micah 7:8-9 The Message Translation
Pick up the pieces and build a ship, write a book, dream a new dream, pray a fresh prayer, repent of your sin and make a Life Change.
Life can’t stop at a rubble heap.
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