When I tell people that I am going home to Scotland, many people say, innocently enough, things like "oh that must be really nice, I wish I was coming with you, you are so lucky." I usually just nod and smile. How can they know that Scotland to me, in great part, is the land of my lost childhood. The land where I buried my son, where I almost lost another. Some of the darkest years of my life were swallowed up by alcohol and drugs, lost in oblivion, in the land of my birth. And yet I do love it. I love the people. I love the mountains and the valleys and the river that ran through my valley, the River Clyde. It is emblazoned upon my mind. Here below is a poem I wrote which might give you a better understanding of what it means for me to "go home." I wrote it to the fallen pieces of my heart that I left behind so long ago. I am sure many Americans could relate to this, it would just be the their own small town, the place of their birth. The battleground. I'm now going back to the battleground To see if the pieces of my heart can be found I left them where they fell so many years ago In the midst of a perpetual winter, underneath the falling snow I want to gather them up and tell them where I've been Of the sunshine that I've walked in and the glory I have seen A land so far from this place, that dwells on higher ground Far removed from the frozen land and from the battleground And so to all the pieces that I had to leave behind I have a brand new heart and a fully restored mind Amidst the flame and fire of the battles long ago Ive come to show you something of what it means to grow. The heart that's cut to pieces and memories departed He came to raise you up again and heal the brokenhearted He'll take from all the ashes, and there beauty shall be found Where once was broken pieces amidst the battleground.
Archive for October, 2021
The battleground
Posted by appolus on October 27, 2021
Posted in bible, Charisma Magazine, Christian, christian blog, christian living, Christian poetry, Christianity, healing, Jesus, poetry, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, The presence of God, the remnant, The State of the Chuch and Manifest presence, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | 6 Comments »
In the shadow of His presence.
Posted by appolus on October 26, 2021
Hos:5:6b But they shall not find him; he hath withdrawn himself from them.
It is one thing to fall into iniquity, it is another thing to fall in your iniquity. To fall from the grace of God is to seek another hand to raise you up. When calamity falls upon a person or a community or a nation, whom shall they call out to? To those who call out to God alone He shall lift them up. If you seek the Lord with a divided heart you will not find Him. He will have withdrawn Himself. The world has not sought God in the day of their calamity, they have sought to walk in the precepts of their own humanity. What a tragedy. This is the prelude to judgement. God withdraws.
Saint, we must not go down that road. We must trust in the Lord our God. We know that in our lives there has been times when we have quenched the Holy Spirit. David cries out to God in that most holy of Psalms “Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.” What an anguished cry from David in psalm 51. Only those hearts who know the Lord in intimacy and who are baptized in His Holy Spirit could ever understand what it means. To lose the joy of His presence, to consider eve for a moment that we have displeased the One that we love causes us great anxiety. In those situations we have to seek Him out with everything that is in us and fall down before Him in that most Holy of places, the throne of grace and find our restoration.
The nations that have named the name of Jesus have dealt treacherously with the Lord. Their condemnation is just and the judgement that shall begin with them is just and Holy. As for the saints of God there is healing in His presence. We draw near to Him and He draws near to us. We humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord and He raises us up. We seek only Him. We have no other lovers to run after unlike those who declare His statutes and hold His covenants in their mouths in unrighteousness because they hate His word and despise His correction. Yet, His children shall call upon Him in the days of their troubles and He will deliver them and cover them under the shadow of His wing. The dwelling place.
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Trust in Him alone.
Posted by appolus on October 24, 2021
Psalm 146:3 Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.
This psalm, considered to be written by David, is remarkable. Here is a prince indeed, a King himself, shouting aloud for all the world to hear that men should not put their trust in him. Our hope must be in the Lord! We are called to praise the Lord with all of hearts and with all of our souls and sing praises to God while we yet still have our being on this earth. David is telling us not to trust in princes, even good ones like himself for he is but a man whose body shall be laid in the ground like every other man. Rather, trust in the Living God who made the heavens and the earth. Trust in the God of justice. Trust in the God who gives food to those who truly hunger, hunger after Him. In doing this you will have food for your soul.
Trust in the Lord who gives freedom to the prisoners. He came to set the captives free. He came to set at liberty, those who are bound by the chains of sin and hell and death. Trust in the Lord who opens the eyes of the blind. And in doing so you can truly sing ” I once was blind but now I see.” You will have eyes to see the glory of the risen King. Eyes to see His majesty. Eyes to see the train of His robe which fills the temple. Trust in the Lord who raises those who are bowed down. He gives grace to the humble. He elevates the lowly in spirit. He dwells in lofty places with the broken and the contrite. Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and He will raise you up. Men die, all men die whether they are rulers or princes or presidents or kings, trust not in them. Rather trust in the Lord who reigns for ever and forever. Happy is the man whose hope is in the Lord.
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He is near.
Posted by appolus on October 21, 2021
Psa 145:18 The LORD is near unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.
This Scripture here in Psalm 145:18 says that the Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth. He may feed the world and give provisions for mankind by His gracious creative hand, but to those who worship Him in Spirit and in Truth, He is near to them. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and by Him and in no other way, we come near to God. Listen to the words of one who calls upon Him in truth, David, from this Psalm. Starting at the beginning we see the marks, the words of those who are near to Him…….”I will extol you my God…….I will bless your name forever and ever……Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised……Your greatness is unsearchable………..I will mediate on the glorious splendor of your majesty……your Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom. These, my fellow brothers and sisters, are the words of one who calls upon Him in truth. Who worships Him in Spirit and Truth, who knows by personal experience that He is the way, the truth and the life.
And how shall we know them? We shall know them first by their Love for God and the treasure that shines through them through earthen vessels. This love for God translates into love for one another, love for those who are near to Him and call upon Him in truth. This nearness, this proximity to God translates into personal holiness and creates the desires of our hearts which the Lord then fulfills for they are His desires. The language of this psalm is the language of heaven. The way David speaks about the Lord is the way the genuine saints speak about the Lord. Its the same language because its the same Spirit that resides in us that resided in David. To call upon Him in truth we must have truth in our inward parts. The depths of our heart, the very essence of who we are. This is where Truth resides and it cannot be hidden, for the Lord resides in broken vessels that He may pour through them His glory so that it may be seen of men.
Posted in bible, Christian, christian blog, christian living, Christianity, church of england, church of scotland, Daily devotional, Devotions, God's love, Jesus, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, The presence of God, The Psalms, The State of the Chuch and Manifest presence, the state of the church, theology | Leave a Comment »
Know me!
Posted by appolus on October 19, 2021
Psa 139:1 O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me.
This is one of the most intimate statements in all of the Scriptures. So very personal. Can you say this? Have you been searched by God? This word “searched,” is from the primitive root to “penetrate.” Has God invaded every part of who you are? Are you known by God? This, of course, is no abstract truth for of course God knows everything and everyone. No, this is a very intimate form of the word. Have you ever looked into the eyes of another human being, one who is being deceptive and say right to that person “I know exactly who you are.” Its a declaration of a knowledge that goes beyond anything to do with outward evidence. This is do with the inner man, the inner woman. David is declaring that God “knows,” him in the most intimate way. He says that “even from afar you understand my thoughts.” It is something akin to a husband and wife who are “one,’ and knows the other ones thoughts in ways that only they can.
This is the kind of relationship that every genuine saint has with the Lord. We walk in the sure knowledge that He “knows,’ our every thought. This is far beyond any human intimacy. To be one in spirit is far beyond being one in flesh. It is the ultimate intimacy. And of course the trouble with this kind of intimacy is that on the one side is perfection and holiness and purity, and on the other side is us, very much flawed by our flesh. This is why intimacy is such a difficult issue. It may be the most difficult of all the issues. At the root cause of all failings in the saints is a lack of intimacy with the Lord. Jesus of course knew this. Time and again he told us to abide in Him, to continue to abide in Him. To take up the cross, not once, but daily. Abiding in the Lord and in His Word, while carrying the cross is one sure way to stay very close to the Lord, to maintain that intimacy that can be so easily lost. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, on a daily basis, on a moment to moment basis, and draw near to the Lord and He will draw near to us. And in that nearness there is intimacy and out of that intimacy flows the beauty of Holiness.
There are two very different kind of men in the Kingdom. One man shies away from this intimacy. He sets up camp at a safe distance and there he dwells. He stays within that camp and looks on from a distance, not unlike the Israelites who watch, from their camp, the tent of meeting. They worship God from afar but Moses and Joshua come to that tent of meeting and entered in. They have come to seek that intimacy. Men like Moses and Joshua could just as easily cry out to God what David cried “search me O God and know my heart, try me and know my anxieties and see if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.” We have taught men from when they were boys, to guard their hearts, to pretend that they are fearless and to be independent. All of that works against intimacy, deliberately so. The only answer is surrender. Surrender into the hand of God and allow yourself to be consumed. Allow yourself to be searched. Seek to be known. This is the way of everlasting and He desires to lead us in it.
Posted in bible, Christian, christian blog, christian living, Christianity, church, church of england, church of scotland, Daily devotional, Devotions, God's love, intimacy, Jesus, revival, testimony, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, The presence of God, The Psalms, the remnant, The State of the Chuch and Manifest presence, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
A vision of the state of Christendom
Posted by appolus on October 19, 2021
Fifteen years ago my wife and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. We decided decided to go to the city of Dubrovnik in Croatia and use that as our headquarters and travel for 16 days through-out the region. Shortly before leaving for the trip the Holy Spirit spoke to me. He told me I was going to have a significant encounter and that it would change everything. I assumed I was going to meet someone. We rented a house that was actually attached to the walled city, it was part of the stone drawbridge and had a magnificent stone terrace that overlooked the enchanting harbor of the city.As I stood there one day, basking in a warm sun that was rising majestically from behind ancient mountains, a glorious and indescribable presence enveloped me. I had experienced the manifest presence of God many times before but nothing like this. It seemed to permeate my very DNA. Every part of me was alive and captivated, from my head right down to my toes and all around me.
Suddenly I was in another place.I was looking at what I could only describe as some kind of amalgam of the old testament Tabernacle and Solomon’s temple. In a grand square there was a great number of people. I asked who they were and was told they were the vast majority of people who called themselves Christians.They were standing in what I was told was the court of the gentiles. A great sadness came over me as I witnessed a tremendous amount of activity going on in the court. I wondered why they were not passing through a low door that was in a wall that led to the inner sanctuary. I was told that they would not bow down which would enable them to pass through the door. I could see what was behind the door in the wall, it was the inner sanctuary.
There was first a brazen altar. It was a foul-smelling place but was deeply loved by God. The few who came though the door brought sacrifices of sin it seemed to me. They were coming forward not to get something but to give up foul-smelling sins that had so easily beset them. It took great humility to come before this place and acknowledge these secrets of their heart but they were readily burned up in a fire that continually burned. People sacrificed rags and were clothed in fine white linen. People sacrificed perversions and were given purity. Lies were sacrificed and truth was given. All manner of sin was replaced by holiness and purity.Then they moved forward to the lavar bowl where they washed themselves before moving on to be fed by shewbread which filled them in a way that they would never again hunger. Then they stood in the light of the lampstand, no longer ashamed but washed clean and made pure and able to stand in the light of God for He had cleansed them. Lastly their prayers began to rise up like incense and come before the throne of God Himself.
I looked again at the vast crowd outside of the manifest presence of God, engaged in much activity in the court of the gentiles and I was amazed that they would not enter. So close to entering in, but so unwilling to give up the things of this world, too proud to bow down and enter through the door, too ashamed to give up their innermost foul-smelling sin.Suddenly I was back standing on the terrace. I looked out over a motionless sea where it met a cloudless sky and the rising sun warmed me with such a fierce intensity. In this fire of His presence I was alive with a life I knew would never end. This was my promised encounter with my glorious indescribable Jesus. This was when my writing began in earnest. I knew that the time was short and that I was to write to and encourage the remnant saints of God, those who had bowed down and enter into the glory.
I was to encourage them and also to encourage anyone in the court of the gentiles who would have an ear to hear, to bow down and enter in and leave the court behind. To come away, come out from among them, and to enter into a place that required all of our hearts.I was to stand in the midst of the Jordan, so to speak, and encourage the saints as they passed through from the wilderness into the promised land. Like all the pilgrim saints experience , the long narrow way home is often a lonely, weary and exhausting road. But we have glimpsed something glorious have we not? We have in our mind and soul and spirit saw something of our eternal destination.
It is high and lifted up. He is high and lifted up. The Lord Jesus is not only our companion along the way He is our destination. Don’t ask me to explain that. He is behind me and He hedges me around about, He goes before me and He dwells within me.Yet my destination is the unadulterated presence of the living God where the flesh is no longer a barrier that limits the glory. A place where this world is no longer a distraction nor competes for my attention. To finally dwell in a high and lofty place where I know as I am known. Oh to know as I am known, tis another world indeed, it is our world, it our home, it is our destination and every step we take is another step closer. Keep on walking saints though the road seem hard and lonely, keep on walking and lift up your head and see the glory. It is closer than you think.
Posted in bible, Christian, christian blog, christian living, Christianity, church of england, discernment, End Times Eschatology, intimacy, Jesus, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, The presence of God, the remnant, The State of the Chuch and Manifest presence, the state of the church, theology | Leave a Comment »
This last day calling
Posted by appolus on October 18, 2021
And Jehovah said to him, Go through in the midst of the city, in the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark on the foreheads of the men who are groaning and are mourning because of all the abominations that are done in her midst (Eze 9:4)The people of God that were marked were the remnant. Judgment was coming but the remnant were marked on their foreheads. They groaned and were in mourning for the condition of Jerusalem. Do you groan, are you in mourning for the state of the world, the state of the church? Will you heart be satisfied with anything less than to walk in the presence of the Living God? Have you tasted of the heavenly food and drunk from the waters of life? Has it ruined you for everything? If you have answered yes to any of these questions then you belong to the remnant church of God. This church has been known by many names down through the centuries, the Waldenses, Albigenses, Lollards and Hussites and Brethren. There was the Anabaptists and the Moravians, the list goes on. God has always had a witness in the land, He has always had His remnant that would not “bow the knee to Baal.”
The remnant man or woman carries their cross. Carrying a cross is a lonely business. Its their very loneliness that compels them to seek an even closer walk with the Lord. The trials of the cross, the narrowness of the path, the desert and the wilderness that often stretches out before you. A lack of fitting in. Your primary goal in life is to see the Lord Jesus high and lifted up. You often despair at your own walk even although people may tell you that you are a wonderful man or woman of God. You hear that and it makes you cringe. You know how far you fall short of a God that you have seen high and lifted up. You long for everyone to radically encounter the Living God for themselves. You hear people say that they would like the anointing and you wonder. You wonder if they could walk through the refining fires of the living God. Would they really want their whole lives dismantled? Would they like the bread of adversity and the waters of afflictions to be their teachers? This is the lot for those who walk the narrow path.
They are often troubled on every side yet rescued from distress. Many times perplexed but pulled from the valley of despair. Persecuted, but knowing they are not alone. Thrown down and trampled on but saved from being destroyed. Dying it seems by many troubles but the life of the Lord Jesus shining out from you despite the darkness of your many trials. All of these things, the things that would destroy many, yet in you they cause the life of Christ to spring forth. An abundance of grace upon your life that speaks to the glory of God and the love of the Father for His children. In all of these things we do not faint, we rise up by the power of the Holy Spirit. The outer man may be perishing but our inner man is renewed daily to the glory of God and the amazement of a dying world.
The remnant know that just as the world hated their Lord and crucified Him, they too will be hated and killed all the day long for His names sake. And just as He arose, they know that they too will arise. As they draw nearer to “the one who was pierced,” and He pours out His Spirit on them and they become more like Him, then the same forces that came against their Jesus, hell and all its fury, will come against them. They know that “unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it abides alone, but if it dies it brings forth much fruit.
God is calling forth His remnant in these days of gross darkness. He is calling them out of dead and dying denominations. He is calling them out of Babylon, He is calling them out of compromise, He is calling them out of Sodom and Gomorrah. He is calling the saints to stand as one upon the Truth. He told us that His word was a lamp unto our feet and He is calling for us to follow the light despite the gross darkness on every side. All of this comes with a great cost. There is a price to pay for coming out of dead and dying churches and denominations. There is a price to pay for coming out of Babylon. There is always a price to pay for standing upon the Truth especially in the latter days when the world has truly turned against all aspects of His truth. We are living in a valley full of decisions now that the Lord is at the door. Shall we falter near the end of the race or shall we finish the race that has been set before us? We are surrounded by a cloud of witness saints, therefore stand strong in Jesus. Do not be ashamed of Him before a wicked and adulterous generation. If we stand with Him now in the days of gross darkness, we shall stand with Him forever in the light of eternity.
Posted in Babylon, Christian, christian blog, christian living, Christianity, church of england, church of scotland, End Times Eschatology, Jesus, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, The presence of God, the remnant, The State of the Chuch and Manifest presence, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
And we rose up and praised Him.
Posted by appolus on October 17, 2021
Psa 137:1 By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
It is a sad day when we sit down to weep. Memories come rushing into our minds like a river that never stops flowing. Our tears and our sadness only add to its flow as we consider the source of our pain. We remember how it was. We are left with the vague shadows that the world calls memories. Yet, what is a memory? It’s a pale imitation of what once was real. We grasp onto them, yet they are like gossamer butterflies flitting through our minds. Our hearts cry out for one more moment, just one more day and yet the knowing of that impossibility is the source of our sadness. The children of Israel had taken it all for granted and now it was no more.
How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land? How shall we who dwell in a foreign land rejoice when the enemy has stripped it all away? How shall we respond to the jeers of an enemy who taunts us and asks us to sing our songs of victory now? Shall we do as the children of Israel did? Shall we hang our harps upon the willow tree in our midst?(v2) How shall we in our day sing in the midst of great loss? Can we rejoice in the depths of captivity when the enemy seems to be so victorious? What do we have that the children of Israel did not have? Jesus said in John 14 that He would not leave us as orphans. He would send the Helper, the Holy Spirit. Jesus says that He has prepared a place for us, even in the presence of our enemies. There is a table set before us, a feast of His presence. It enables us to take the harps down from the willow tree, the tree of weeping, and play a song of victory, right there, in the midst of our circumstances.
“And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.” (Acts 16:25) The harp had been taken down at the midnight hour and the power of God came down with it. As the praises and the prayers went up, down came the power of God and it shook everything. That harp is in our hands brothers and sisters. That prayer is on our lips, those praises are in our mouth. And the power of God never fails, it is eternal. The children of Israel sat down beside the raging river of weeping. We have been made to sit down in green pastures and the river that flows is the still waters of peace and joy and comfort. Even in the valley of the shadow of death we shall not want, for He leads us and He guides us and He comforts us. And in that comfort that He sent us, the Holy Spirit, we are victorious and we find that He inhabits the praises of His people.
Posted in bible, Christian, christian blog, christian living, Christianity, church of england, church of scotland, Daily devotional, Devotions, Jesus, revival, testimony, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, The presence of God, The Psalms, the remnant, The State of the Chuch and Manifest presence, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
The weight of our guilt.
Posted by appolus on October 16, 2021
When the Spirit of conviction comes upon a man or a woman, as in Acts 2, then we see a people crushed by the sure knowledge of the horrendous nature of their crime. The weight of their guilt crushes them. They are, as Scripture tells us, “stabbed in the heart.” To be stabbed in the heart in the natural means certain death, there is no recovery from it. As it is in the natural, so it follows in the supernatural. They are slain, and then they are born again. In the dying they cry out “what must we do!!!,” and they find life. I have always likened that to “woe is me…….I am undone.” Renting of shirts and hearts being stabbed, I’d like to see a lot more of that. And it all begins with an emboldened baptized in the Holy Spirit Peter, unashamed and unafraid to point to the crowd and say “you crucified the Christ.” And like a supernatural arrow shot from the bow of the Holy Spirit, they are stabbed right through the heart.
The only way we can understand the magnitude of His mercy, is to understand the magnitude of our guilt. He may have taken our sins, but it is a vital aspect of salvation that we understand and experience our guilt. This can only come by revelation, the true depths of it, so that we may be able to scale the true heights of His glory. There is a direct correlation between the depth of the revelation of our guilt and consequent knowledge of His grace and mercy and this effects the depth of our walk with Christ. It primes everything. It sets the context for everything. Those, we are told, who are forgiven much, love much. And it is not so much the magnitude of the sins committed, rather it is the revelation of the guilt revealed and how we respond to it.
Posted in bible, christian blog, christian living, Christianity, church of england, church of scotland, Jesus, revival, testimony, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, The presence of God, the remnant, The State of the Chuch and Manifest presence, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Surely I have calmed my soul.
Posted by appolus on October 14, 2021
Psalm 131:2 Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul.
I cannot tell tell you how many times my soul has cried out from its depths for quiet and for calm. In an ever changing world and sometimes extremely tough circumstances, how much value can we put upon this? To be calm and to be quiet in your mind as opposed to a raging stormy sea of noise and anxiousness and fear. Then of course there is the accuser who may be ever whispering in your ear. David says in the opening verses of this Psalm that his heart is not haughty nor his eyes lofty. He does not concern himself with matters that are too great for him nor too profound for him. There are a few things to be said of that, I have two.
Firstly there are the matters of our day and we get caught up with them, much like the world does. Watch any news at all and perhaps you begin to feel the weight of it all pressing down upon your shoulders. In a news cycle that runs twenty four hours a day, we may find ourselves drawn into crisis after crisis. And yet who are we saints? The Lord’s kingdom is not of this world. We know how this world ends, we already know it yet somehow we can get caught up with it and feel its weight. We need to lay that down. David was a king when he made his opening statements of this psalm. A king! And yet he says he did not concern himself with great matters! Surely the answer is he trusted in the Lord His God. If a king can do it and lay his burdens down, surely you can?
Secondly and more interestingly, listen to what David’s brother says to him when he, the young shepherd boy comes into the armies camp in 1 Sam 17:28 …”I know thy pride and thine wickedness of heart.’ Eliab was angry with his brother. He accuses him of being prideful and haughty. Why? Because David has just heard Goliath mock the armies of God. David was indignant and had a mind to kill Goliath. This would have undoubtedly shamed not only his brothers but every man among them that this boy was willing to fight this giant when they were all so very afraid. David had not sought this situation, the situation found him. And God moved in his heart. Brothers and sisters we should not concern ourselves with great matters, nor should we pursue things that are to profound for us. Unless you are in the Lord these matters will crush you. It is only by His Spirit that we should pay any mind to any matters at all.
And so brothers and sisters. Do you seek to be quiet in your mind and in your spirit? Do you seek to walk in peace , a peace that surpasses all understanding? Then do this. Seek the Lord your God with all of your heart and your mind and your spirit. Let that be your life’s works. Do not watch things that make you anxious, in fact be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication and thanksgiving make your request known to God. Let your heart be bathed in thankfulness. One more thing. David was falsely accused by his brother. Perhaps, way back when, when you were young, you were raised with slander instead of love. To this day you still hear the accusations ringing in your ears and echoing throughout your soul. Time and again it raises its ugly noisy head. I want you to know that your total identity is found in Christ. He thought so much of you that He died for you. God so loved you that He made an enormous sacrifice to save you. All that matters is what He thinks about you. Rest in that. Be at peace. You are loved by God and in the end, that is all that matters. And in this knowledge there is no burden.
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Oh Lord, your time draws near.
Posted by appolus on October 12, 2021
Psalm 119:126 It is time for You to act, O lord, for they have regarded Your law as void.
Is that not your hearts cry dear saint? In a fallen world where gross darkness is covering the land and the name of God is blasphemed everywhere. In a time and place where day has become night. Right has become wrong and truth is trampled in the streets. What used to hide away among the shadows and the alleyways now marches down Main street with its banner held high. And if the enemy would have his way then it is the saints who would have to hide among the shadows in the dark-lands of the alleyways.
Can you not here this Scripture ringing out from Romans “for I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ , for it is the power of God unto salvation………………for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness ………for since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead , so that they are without excuse, because although they knew God, they did not glorify God.” O Father in heaven, glorify your name in all the earth?
And of course our Father in heaven glorified His name in all the earth through the name and the power of the Lord Jesus and we cry “glorify your name again Lord.” In verse 136 the psalmist says ” Rivers of water run down from my eyes, because men do not keep Your law.” Those rivers, brothers and sisters, are still running deep for our Lord Jesus is mocked and ridiculed and rejected. Shall we not cry out to God with our whole hearts? Shall we not rise before the dawning of the morning and seek the one whose tender mercies are great? Many are out tormentors and enemies yet we shall not turn from His testimony. Verse 161 says “Princes persecute me without a cause, but my heart stands in awe of Your Word.”
Lord, we stand in awe of You. We look to the heavens and know where our help comes from. The foundations may be destroyed and the Princes of this world may hunt us down but we trust in you that you may glorify Your name through us. Christ in us, the hope of glory! Behold, the nations are as a drop in the bucket. To whom shall our God be likened to? Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told to you from the beginning? He shall bring the Princes of this world to nothing. They shall not keep root. For we shall lift up our eyes on high and behold the One who has created all things. And we who are weak are made strong. Even the youth shall faint and be weary. And young men shall utterly fall, but we who wait upon You shall renew our strength, we shall mount up with wings as eagles. we shall run and not be weary, we shall keep on walking and not faint (Isa 40)….glory to God
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Into the depths.
Posted by appolus on October 10, 2021
Psa 119:2 Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with their whole heart.
This is the beginning of Psalm 119 and is a continuing themes throughout. Seeking the Lord with our whole hearts. With our whole hearts. It is the key to an abundant life in Christ. Can I suggest that to seek the Lord with anything other than our whole hearts is an exercise in futility. If we do anything in this world half heartedly we know we shall not succeed. Secular folks know this all too well. How is it that we could ever imagine that we could seek the Lord with anything less than all that we have?
In verse 32 the psalmist says that “I will run the course of Your commandments for you shall enlarge my heart.” This is a beautiful way of saying that I will run after my Lord, I will run after His ways, I will be diligent and delight myself in His ways. When I do this, then my very heart in enlarged. My capacity to love the Lord and the world will increase. My ability to forgive and to show mercy will be full to overflowing in this heart of mine that is now significantly deeper. Running after the Lord with everything that we have is like excavating the depths of our hearts. Into that excavated heart flows the river of life from the throne of God.
In verse 111 the psalmist tells us ” Your testimonies I have taken as a heritage forever, I have inclined my heart to perform your statutes, forever, to the very end.” Oh, the magnificence of a fully committed heart that is resolved to believe and to follow the Word of God and the promises of God until the very end. There is a huge difference between being on a boat in a shallow river than being on a ship in the deepest ocean. In the deepest ocean one senses and can feel the power of its depths. It is moved by the wind and heaves forward in massive powerful waves. This too is the power that resides within the heart of the saint who has sought and found the Lord with His whole heart. Come away from the shallow rivers saint, and come into the depth of the deepest of all oceans, the Fathers heart.
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Light shall arise.
Posted by appolus on October 8, 2021
Psa 112:4 Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness: he is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous.
We see in Exodus 10:22-23 that a great darkness fell upon Egypt for three days. This darkness was described as “thick,” or “gross.” Yet, in Goshen, the children of God dwelt in light. When Jesus hung upon the cross there was a gross darkness that fell upon the land from the sixth hour until the ninth. Gross darkness is undoubtedly judgment from God and in both the above examples it led to an exodus. Moses would lead the children out of bondage and slavery by the power of God. Jesus would do the same.
To those who are covered by the righteousness of Christ there arises light from the deep darkness. And it leads the way to victory. We saints will undoubtedly encounter darkness and gross darkness in our lives, maybe you are experiencing it right now. I want to tell you saint, that the light that is within you, the light of Christ, shall overcome this darkness. He will rise up in you and by His power you shall conquer the darkness. In Micah 7:8 the prophet says “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.”
Remind your enemy today that even though you may have fallen, you shall arise by the power of God. Even though you may at this moment be sitting in darkness, your Lord shall be a light to you. In Psalm 139 David says that even the night shall be as light to him. Even if he made his bed in hell, there Gods light would shine into the darkness. Where can you go from His Spirit saints? What can separate you from such a love as this? Commit your situation into His hands and He will raise you up as light arises from darkness like the breaking of the dawn. The devil himself will tremble as he hears a strange noise coming from the midst of the darkness, it shall be the praises of God from the saints. This is light, and in that there is no darkness.
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No more rebellion.
Posted by appolus on October 5, 2021
Psalm 106:7 When our fathers dwelt in Egypt they remembered not the multitude of thy mercies; but rebelled at the sea, even at the Red sea.
This is one of the most famous scenes in all of the Bible, and it is very instructive for us. The Israelites had been delivered from bondage. They had been taken out of slavery and freed from their cruel taskmasters who hated them. And now we find them at the Red sea with the Egyptians bearing down on them. And this is where we are told that they rebelled. It is rebellion not to trust God. It is in effect a disobedient act, an act likely to provoke God. Does this seem harsh to you?
Listen to the accusation they make against God . They ask Him if there was not enough graves in Egypt that you had to take us to the wilderness to die. They remind Moses that they had already told him they would rather serve the Egyptians in slavery than to die in freedom. Yet despite all of this, God would save them. Moses says to them, in our moderns words “shut your mouth and see the Salvation of your God.” You might think that sounds like an angry retort, it was. Moses was disgusted and God was none too pleased.
For the average human being, there is nothing more important than saving their own lives. Given the choice between life and slavery or freedom and death, the vast majority will choose slavery and life. And this is where God’s remnant saints emerge. A people who love not their lives unto death. A people redeemed from the world and transformed in spirit. A new creation in Christ, the very same Christ who came to die, and not only to die, but to die the death of the cross. Shall we not follow Him? Did He not teach us that those who try and save their lives will lose them, and those who lose their lives for His sake will gain eternal life?
This is the fragrant army of the saints. This is a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light (1 Pet 2:9) Those who desire to live above all else, who desire the things of the world, will indeed have them, but they will also have leanness of soul. And out of that leanness they shall exchange the glory of God and fall down before the molded image, the golden calf. They shall forget God. They may honor Him with their lips but their shallow hearts will be far from Him.
The saints are soon to face another such Red sea. Yet this time, when their backs are against the wall they shall not cry out in bitter recrimination against their God, nor shall they beg for deliverance. They will glorify Him. They will gladly trust their God even if it means complete destruction. And they will do this because no matter what, God is worthy to be praised. And we can join with Job, a man blameless in the sight of God, and say “Even if He kills me, yet shall I trust Him.”(Job 13:15)
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Who He is!
Posted by appolus on October 3, 2021
Psa 104:1 Bless the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty.
Oh brothers and sisters, is He not high and lifted up? He is clothed with honor and majesty and glory, bless the Lord oh my soul. He lifts my spirit up and it soars into the heavens as I consider His great love. And who among us could consider His great love without looking to Calvary, the culmination of the very source of all love! It is because He loved us first that we know anything of love at all. It all flows from the depths of the Fathers heart and was manifested so vividly on Calvary where the Blood of our precious Jesus was spilled.
We talk a lot of what Jesus did but rarely do we hear words of who He is. A man or woman looking back in history can talk about what Jesus did, but only one who knows Him can talk about who He is. We talk a lot about what Jesus can do for us, but rarely do we simply just consider His glory and His majesty and His honor. The fact that He is clothed with these things. We cannot look to Jesus and not see the impenetrable light that He is wrapped in. When we look from the darkness and the dimness of this world and see this magnificent light then it begins to penetrate every part of who we are. The power of God falls when He is lifted up, not for what what He can do for us but simply for the marvel of who He is.
Consider the pressing need of Paul and Silas in the deep dark dungeon. They needed to be healed, they needed to be delivered, but none of that was their chief concern. The pressing issue of their torn and broken bodies, chained in darkness, wracked with pain, was to praise Him. To lift up their voices in praise of the God that is high and lifted up. The God that is clothed with majesty, the God that dwells in such a great light that no darkness could possibly exist. And down into the darkness of that dungeon fell the glory and the power and the majesty of God. If I be lifted up. If I be lifted up. If we lift up the name of Jesus then down comes the power. The power to draw all men unto Him. The power to overcome darkness, the power to stand when we should fall. The power to see when we are blind. The power to love when we should hate. The power to transform the broken sinful lives of men and women. Glory to God.
There has never been a greater need for all the world to see a manifestation of Jesus. It can only come through us, for we are the bearers of the light. We have been called to testify to His majesty. We have been called to testify of His glory, we have been called to testify that He is high and lifted up and the train of His robe fills the temple. Come see a man who told me everything I have ever done. Come see the Christ. People must encounter Christ for themselves. Second hand information is of no use to anyone. It’s living waters that they need. And only those who can testify to a living Christ can lead people to the Living waters.
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A Call To The Remnant 