Sometimes life can be just too much and it threatens to overwhelm us and drown us beneath the waves of afflictions and trials. Many times in my own Christian walk I have fallen to my knees and cried out to my Father in heaven. And He heard me and He “knows.” And just knowing that He hears and knows begins to lift our heads above the waters. Sometimes we are called to walk upon the waters, other times He takes us in the palm of His hand and lifts us above the fray, lest we lose our very minds.
He will not let us go under. He lifts us up to higher ground. The Lord intercedes for us before the throne. The Holy Spirit strengthens us and enables us to run and not grow weary, to walk and not faint. To rise up on wings like eagles! Glorifying God and praising Him and testifying of Him gives us strength and promotes in us joy and that joy is our very strength. We have joy where there should be no joy. We have peace when all around us is in turmoil. We love even when we are hated. We stand immovable upon the Rock that is higher than us. When life makes our head hang low, then He calls us to look up. Look up into the heavens from where our help comes from.
In all of these things we have choices. We choose to worship Him, not because we somehow are trying to manipulate the Lord, but rather from a deep wellspring of love. From out of the depths of this love we cry unto God with thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a mark of the saint. A heart that is full of thanksgiving is a heart that has encountered the presence of God and in that encounter peered into the depths of Calvary. And the vision that we see infuses itself into our spiritual DNA. The “knowledge,’ of Calvary informs every part of who we are. Without this “knowledge,” we can only be, at best, two dimensional. The head knowledge of Calvary can only promote the soulish elements of religion. Yet to encounter Calvary is to “know.” And it is from this “knowing,” that our hearts are primed.
There is a process of sanctification and it takes the wisdom of God and the power of the Holy Spirit to discern and navigate our way when we are dealing with others. Are they babes in Christ? Are they immature? Are they our weaker brothers?
Forgiveness should always be readily available from us, given what great forgiveness we ourselves have received. Yet oftentimes, as the flesh is being killed daily, by the cross we take up daily, we exhibit its characteristics until, slowly but surely, little by little, precept by precept, death upon death, we become more Christlike.
The process never ends, we never arrive, but the genuine saint is always making forward progress, even when he stumbles, the very stumbling becomes one more lesson to him. He hates the stumble, he agonizes over the failure. And in the agonizing, in the fire, we are being shaped and molded. The great impetus for it all is the burning love of God that blazes at the center of who we are. Our love for Jesus, our love for the Father is so great, because He first loved us, that our singular desire is to never let Him down, never disappoint Him.
When we inevitably do, the work of the cross and the love of the Father and the power of the Holy Spirit comes to bear upon us and we are changed. This is the genius of His love for us, we who are mere wretched creatures outside of Jesus. This is the astonishment of principalities and powers when the gaze upon us mortals and declare “What is man that you are mindful of us, and the son of man that you visit him?” ( Psalm 8:4)
They are astonished that our Father in heaven pays us any mind at all and visits us and loves us, even while we were yet in our sin. Astonished that He would sacrifice His very own son for us. We deserved nothing but hell and yet through His love and through His grace we received forgiveness and an eternal place in the heavenlies.
How indeed can we not forgive others in the blazing light of such forgiveness? Today is the day to forgive anyone, it’s such a thing of beauty and a reflection of the very God who forgave us!
Trouble came knocking at my door And a voice inside said don't let it in I opened it And it knocked me to the floor I got backup on my feet And it knocked me down once more
Chorus Jesus pick me up so I can stand again Jesus pick me up, I so dearly need you friend You are my Lord of Lords and King of Kings The man of many sorrows If you do not pick me up today Then there will be no tomorrows
I came to a bridge over troubled waters But the bridge was swept away I went down into the waters And in the darkness I heard Him say I will be with you as you pass on through And suddenly the waters withdrew
Then I came upon a mountain high To scale it I would surely die I asked the Lord to remove this thing So that I could rejoice and praise my King No My son, ask of me to give you power To climb every mountain and to scale every tower
Bridge
I'll be with you as you pass on through I'll be with you in all that you do.
Trouble came knocking at my door And a voice inside said don't let it in I opened it And it knocked me to the floor I got backup on my feet And it knocked me down once more
Chorus Jesus pick me up so I can stand again Jesus pick me up, I so dearly need you friend You are my Lord of Lords and King of Kings The man of many sorrows If you do not pick me up today Then there will be no tomorrows
I came to a bridge over troubled waters But the bridge was swept away I went down into the waters And in the darkness I heard Him say I will be with you as you pass on through And suddenly the waters withdrew
Then I came upon a mountain high To scale it I would surely die I asked the Lord to remove this thing So that I could rejoice and praise my King No My son, ask of me to give you power To climb every mountain and to scale every tower
Bridge
I'll be with you as you pass on through I'll be with you in all that you do.
When the stroke goes down to the soul And the billows they begin to roll When the lightening fractures the sky above Shall we be found to be anchored in His glorious love?
When the ship is swamped and going under And the rain so loud and the clashing thunder Cause you to cry out and look up towards heaven Shall we stand upon God and not be so driven?
Surely goodness and mercy despite our afflictions Will follow us forever without contradiction And a table before us, a feast for a King Will cause our troubled hearts to sing
Of His majesty and glory and joy without measure As we gaze upon His righteousness, His heavenly treasure He maketh me lie down in pastures so green And beside the still waters eternally serene.
It has been a night of grief, yet a night of blessing. A night in which there may have been many things which we would wish forgotten., yet many more which we should wish to be remembered for ever. Often during its gloom, we called it “wearisome,” and said “When shall I arise and the night be gone? (Job 7:) Yet how much was there to reconcile it, rather, to fill us with praise because of it! It was then the Lord drew near, and the world was displaced and self was smitten, and our will conquered, and faith grew speedily, and hope became brighter and more eager, and the things that are unseen were felt to be real and true. (H. Bonar)
Brothers and sisters, suffering draws us close unto the Lord. The long night of illness or trial draws us closely to the fires of heaven. We see with eyes that can peer through the night and give us sight to see our heavenly Jerusalem. The fading parchments of this life become somewhat crude in the light of heavenly fires. What comfort the children of Israel must have garnered as the fire by night nestled above them in the calm assurance of His presence. The cloud by day that would shelter them from the blazing desert heat. Our songs in the night give birth to sight. Out of darkness there comes a sure knowledge that He is with us. To not just follow Him closely along the narrow pilgrim way, but rather to walk hand in hand with Him and hear Him so sweetly that our hear burns within our chest……bro Frank
I wrote this poem yesterday while I was having chemo. It was a long day but I very much sensed the presence of the Lord, in divine appointments and also a message from a dear friend who had just recorded the message in the middle of their prayer meeting in Estonia. He prayed for me and then his dear wife prayed for me and I could hear the other saints praying in the background. I was quite overcome to think how honored and how privileged I was. I was humbled, shed a few tears, then wrote this poem. You will notice that I use the word infused a couple of time π
When hope gives way to presence.
When the desire comes, it's a tree of life to me. And the tree nourishes the parts you cannot see Hope deferred causes my aching heart to long And in the longing creates in me a song.
Sing my heart, sing of all His glory Create in me the desire to tell Your story. To scale the highest mountain, just to shout your name Consumed by your majesty, ignited by your flame.
Come to me, draw me to your throne To that place I know that I am truly known And the tree of life infuses me with peace And your glory, from the depths of me, released.
Beyond the falling leaf there lies the pastures green And a heavenly river infused by glorious streams. Beyond the troubled waters you have surely come to me And you take my spirit over, to that place beyond the sea.
Sorrow leaves it's mark upon the soul As the Lord shapes us and takes back what the enemy stole With an iron penβand lead in the rock, it is written The genuine work of God, His composition
He has written His word upon the heart that He has given And with many a blow, sin from our soul is driven Shall we not welcome the rod that can never miss? And with a warm embrace, direct it with a kiss
We can count the cost, then embrace the cross or lay it down and suffer the loss Remember each one is crafted by His hand And are designed so that no man can still stand It's by His Blood and sorrow they were crafted And they seal the wounds whereby we are grafted.
2Co 4:17Β For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;Β
Heb 12:1Β Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,Β
This word weight is used both times in the scriptures with the context being very different obviously. It can mean abundance or burden or load. Now clearly sin is a burden to the soul, a load not easily carried. It slows us down, much like if we were attached to an anchor and had to drag it behind us. We have all felt it. Yet Heb 121:1 is compelling us, with a vision, to lay that burden down. Look up with spiritual eyes and see that we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses. Those who have gone before us, the angels of heaven, the Kingdom of God. See the things that are eternal. See the Lord Jesus Christ high and lifted up. When we look to Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith then sin loses it’s power and its hold on us.
When we lookΒ not at the things that are seen, but rather the things which are not seen then there is a power released in us. The light of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ begins to shine forth from the depths of our very beings. This treasure that dwells in the depths of our hearts pours forth like the rising of the sun after the long night. What a welcome sight for all those who dwell in darkness to see the rising sun shine forth from us, and it draws men to God. Rather than our afflictions causing us to look downΒ and to fall into sorrow, let our light afflictions cause us to look up and to be encompassed with the eternal abundance of His glory. With eyes to see, we peer into the glories of the world to come. We are overcome with His majesty, with His glory, with His holiness, with His joy. This power truly comes to pass in the midst of our afflictions for it is then that God has commanded His light to shine forth from the darkness.
It seems to me that an old soldier’s life would be marked by the battles in which he fought. He could look back and remember the wars in which he participated. He would remember certain foxholes. He would remember the comradery with his fellow soldiers. He would certainly remember the ones he fought back to back with. In many ways he would acknowledge that he had been shaped by each battle. Little by little, precept upon precept, he would become the soldier he is. And even when his wars are all fought, he will always be a soldier. I know that the battles I have fought have shaped me. The seasons that I have walked through have molded me. I remember well the foxholes I have been in at particular times with saints, brothers and sisters, that I have loved as David loved Jonathon.
The seasons of loss, the seasons of victories, the seasons of crying out to God. There are secret times when I have despaired. Times when only the Lord would see the tears upon my pillow, many a sleepless night I have walked where it was just me, all alone, with my Lord. Yet I can say that while all of those battles and seasons have shaped and molded me, none of them has identified me. I am not the guy from the broken childhood, not the guy who lost a son, not the guy who has a special need son. Not the guy whose son went to prison, not the guy who fought for his grandson. And now, not the guy who has cancer. My sole identity is the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. No neighbor or friend would know my background, unless at certain times I could share small portions of my life to comfort them with the very same comfort I have known. Each poem I write I write is either from the battle-field or from the memories of a battle fought. They are forged in the fires of battle or spring to life from from heaven’s throne-room. I wrote this one yesterday. A soldiers poem from a present battle.
THE THORN THAT PIERCES
Shall I shrink back from the crown of thorns Shall I fall away when I’m battered and torn Shall I not rise though broken and wasted And declare heavenly treasures that I have tasted.
This earth is neither my portion nor my rest And these thorns are but my heavenly test Pierced and broken but never defeated I look to heaven where soon I’ll be seated
I cast my eyes upon dark Calvary’s hill And from the valley floor seek to go higher still Closer and closer and closer to thee Where chains are broken and from fetters set free
The night is far spent and the day is at hand And with Your help alone I will surely stand The storm may rise and the waves grow higher Yet to be where you are is my one desire
Nearness to God is the source of it all Whether we walk or run, or stumble and fall Through the storms, through the rain, the day or the night He is there upon the waters, what a glorious sight.
“How fast we learn in a day of sorrow. It is as if affliction awoke our powers and lent them new quickness of perception. We advance more in knowledge of Scripture in a single day than in years before. We learn songs in the night, though such music was unknown before. A deeper experience has taken us down into the depths of Scripture and shown us its hidden wonders.” (Horatius Bonar)Β
And I will give you the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel. (Isa 45:3)
When darkness comes knocking at our door and we come to the end of our own resources, we cry out into the night. There is a hidden treasure that awaits the saints who are overtaken by afflictions. Out of the darkness, God Himself has commanded that light would shine. It shines into the depths of our hearts and dispels all fears. Our perceptions change. Worldly things that were important yesterday, are no longer important today. Our hearts and our minds are drawn up into high and lofty places. Our brokenness allows the hidden treasures of God that lie within us to pour forth as never before. The night watches, so dreaded by men, becomes our sanctuary. A holy place where the Lord Himself gives us a song. Is there a more sweeter sound that the song that resonates in our heart in the night? The contrast of darkness only serves to illuminate the brilliance of the light of God.
Down we go, down into the depths of the Word and His truth and His promises. And as we are taken by the depths of His love, we are lifted to the heights of His glory. The precious hand of God wherein we lie, closes over us and holds us tight as the storms and the waves reach up to try and pull us down. Yet, they cannot, for nothing can pluck us from the hand of God. Every precious word of God becomes a shaft of light that pierces through the darkness. And that light warms us and envelops us and keeps us from the icy blasts of this world with all of its ravages. We become super sensitive to His presence and to His promises and to His love. We begin to actually live one day at a time just as our Lord and Master Jesus told us to. And what a glorious way to live with our eyes truly set upon Him.
As we consider the lilies of the field, as we consider the sparrows of the air, as we understand that His eye is on the sparrow and He clothes the grass of the fields with much more splendor that Solomon was ever arrayed, we understand His eye is on us. And in the knowing of this, in the depths of our heart, there arises great joy. Joy in the darkness? Joy in the affliction? Joy in the depths of infirmities? Yes, yes, yes!!! It is the joy of the Lord. And the joy of the Lord that rises up from the darkness is our strength in the night. Β You will show me the path of life: in your presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. (Psa 16:11) His presence is my song in the night. His presence is my fullness. His presence is my joy. He alone lifts me up to the mountaintops from the valley floor. In fact, they are both alike to Him for where He is, is Holy ground…..bro Frank.
Interesting story with this tree. Before it ever existed, I had a tree planted, by professionals, about six feet in front of it. It never flourished. I prayed for it as well but in the end it died. I pondered that as I removed it. Well, the very next year this tree was born. I did not plant it. It is, what they call, a volunteer. I watched it grow. I did not water it, pray for it, or do a single thing to enhance its growth. And here it is, several year later in all its splendor. The birds love it.
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I think about what it means to try and produce things in our own strength, by the power of our own hands. Especially in ministry. And all the time the wind of the Holy Spirit is doing His work. Seeds come from who knows where and life begins. What God initiates, always flourishes. With men it is hit and miss but the Lord never misses, He always accomplishes what He sets out to do. This magnificent tree, it’s position in the yard, it’s incredible growth, all His work!
The Lord, of course, was acquainted with sorrows and sufferings and this gives us strength to know that He knows and He sees all of our afflictions. In the end, our walk must simplify as we mature in Him. We must decrease and He must increase. This decreasing is something of a mystery. Perhaps diminished is also a good word, to be diminished in our own estimations of our “self.”Β
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The greater damage we do to self, the clearer the two kingdoms become. The kingdoms of this world and its ruler, and the Kingdom of God, that was, and is, and is to come and it’s ruler, the Lord Jesus. How do we “diminish,” “self?” How do we decrease? How is the hold that self has on us loosed? Only by the cross. Only ever by the cross. The flesh refuses to die, it refuses to relinquish control. We cannot negotiate with it or compromise with it. Absolute surrender, which is so offensive to the world and self, is our stance. Therefore it’s a battle to the death. No quarter to be given.
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As we go down this road, by the power of the cross and the power of the Holy Spirit, we begin to turn a corner at some point. As we surrender to surrender our eyes begin to “see,” things more clearly. We begin to hear the call of heaven more loudly. It begins to fill us and fill us with a greater longing to only live in the Kingdom of God. The things of this world begin to lose its grip on us. We can picture ourselves in the dungeon with Paul and Silas, praising God in the darkness of the midnight hour.Β
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Paul “learned,” to be content. He did not just suddenly arrive at the place where he could declare all things loss as dung in comparison to be found in Him. He walked through many fires and afflictions. He suffered greatly with infirmities. He was hungry and naked, shipwrecked, lashed to within an inch of his life. He was despised and rejected. All of this happened to him as he walked down the path the Master has blazed for us. Shall we continue down the narrow path brothers and sisters?
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This narrow path leads to Calvary, the ultimate death. Can we say, with our Lord ” for the joy that is set before me?” What joy is this? The joy of fulfilling the will of God in our lives. His will, not ours. His will, which is so violently opposed by our flesh and fights so viciously to exercise its own will. His will is the solid Rock upon which we stand. His will is the center of all that exists. His will is our very spiritual existence. Death to the flesh begins to leads us to an unobstructed view of His will.We see more clearly His desire for us. His desire for us becomes our desire for ourselves. The desire of our hearts is to glorify Him in all that we do.
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Let everything that does not bring you peace, let everything that does not bring you to this place, go. In the end we love Jesus more than everything. Which was our genuine declaration in the beginning of our walk. Our peace in Him, our joy in Him, is our strength. Without this strength we can do nothing. When all those around us are floundering, when all are losing their heads, then we must be found in Him. We cannot go down with the ship, rather we must walk upon the water and reach out our hand to them. We walk upon the water by keeping our eyes on Jesus. Lift up your eyes today dear brothers and sisters, and see where your help comes from. Reach out to Jesus, take His hand, and never let go!
George Matheson, the great old, blind Scottish preacher once said, “The hour of thy loneliness will crown thee. The day of thy depression will regale thee. It is thy desert that will break forth into singing. It is the trees of thy silent forest that will clap their hands .. the thorns will be roses. The valleys will be hills. The crooked will be straight lines, the ruts will be level. The shadows will be shining. The losses will be promotions, and the tears will be tracks of gold. The cup of suffering you prayed would pass from you will be your constant royal crown in the sweet by and by.”
The Lord sees us. He knows us. He comforts us. His comfort is strength and joy where there should be none. And though darkness may press in on us from every side, His light triumphs over it. Even the darkness is light to Him, and then, of course, to us. When the landscapes of our lives seem to stretch out before us in endless deserts, suddenly even the sand cries out, and the very rocks cry out, glory, glory, glory to the Living God! When the silence floods in and we struggle to hear anything above its noise, suddenly, glory to God the silence is broken. Just one word from our Lord shatters the deafening silence and our hearts and spirits are filled with His majesty.
Sometimes the thorns of life invade our lives yet from these thorns come magnificent roses. I am reminded of the Lord’s crown, and yet truly, He was crowned in a higher place. He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Crown Him with many crowns, but first the crown of this life which was overcome. And now we overcome in Him. Paul once said that he considered the loss of all things as nothing, as less than nothing, for he only wanted to be found in Him. If our losses in this world lead us into the depths of Him, then we should surely be found praising Him in the midst of every situation. I praise Jesus today.
There is a cup in this life, and we are asked to take it, to take it all. Jesus led the way in the garden, and if He could take that cup, the cup that was filled with all the sin of this world and would lead to the death of the cross, then surely, in His power, and in His might, we can drink down the cup given to us. And in just one of the countless paradoxes in the Scriptures, we see that as we willingly drink this cup, there is another cup that simultaneously begins to fill and overflow………..Psa 23:5Β You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies:Β anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Deep calls unto deep At the noise of your waterfalls And in the daytime Your loving-kindness calls And when the nighttime comes Your song shall be with me And even in the darkness, I shall see.
To the Lord my Rock I run beneath thy wings And in the night watches I listen to the angels sing When darkness is all around Send out Your light to me Shackles are broken, and I am free
A very present help Though the mighty waters roar And mountains they fall down Yet your Spirit helps restore My troubled heart in times of need Within my chest it surely leaps As the deep within my soul calls out to Deep.
This is the word from the Lord that led to my last poem. This video is an update of my current sitution, may the Lord be praised through all of it………………..bro Frank
“And in the silence there is peace. It dwells above the noise and the din. Above the begging and the pleadings and the raging storm, there sleeps Jesus in the boat. Shall we too arrive at the place where sleep is not dependent upon the storm being stilled? Where trust lies down among the lions. Where perfect love casts out all fear. This is the Kingdom of God, this is the rarified air of heaven. This is the shaft of light that pierces the darkness and guides us home.”
The Lord is the strength of my life He is the ground upon which I stand And though war has risen and come after me I'm confident in the God who has set me free!
And in the secret place of His tabernacle He's set me high upon the Rock And His pavilion is a home and shelter to me I am confident in the God whom I can see.
This one thing is the desire of my longing heart That I may dwell in His house forever And behold His beauty and His marvelous grace And forever and continually seek His face
I would have lost heart, but for this one thing His beauty and the glory of His might And when everything's gone and I'm all alone I shall seek His face before His throne
Wait on the Lord when it all goes wrong When the world and it's ways presses in When the night has come and there's no way ahead Wait upon the Lord and bow your head
Fall to your knees and lift up your hands Cry out to the one from above And without any notice, quite suddenly You shall drenched by His marvelous love.
The very opening line from David in Psalm 18 is “I will love you O Lord…..my strength.” He is our strength at all times. His love for us and our love for Him creates the Kingdom of God in our hearts. It creates the atmosphere of heaven that surrounds us. It creates the light that shines forth from us to a dark world. In this particular psalm, David is writing about many years of trials and brokenness, years when he was hounded by Saul and surrounded by enemies. Years mind you. Not a day or a week or a season, but multiple years when, for all intents and purposes, he was not moving in victory. His enemies seemed to have the upper-hand. Now the question becomes “shall we be faithful yet.” Shall we still follow the Lord with all of our hearts even when our prayers are not answered? Even when we have been backed into a corner? There have been times with all the great saints of the Bible when for multiple seasons and multiple years nothing seems to be going right.
Abraham waited so very long, over twenty five years, for the child of promise to be born and with every passing year, at least in the natural, the promise became less likely. Did he stand? Jacob, on the run so to speak for multiple years, not fulfilling his destiny. Moses, all that time in the desert, having run from the Egyptians. Over and over again the story goes. Joseph and his dream, yet between the dream being fulfilled there lay ahead of him rejection and betrayal and slavery and imprisonment. And so here we are with David. Saul is dead, his most implacable enemy. God has delivered him after countless years of wilderness wanderings and betrayals and rejections and tests. And David begins His thanksgiving to God by highlighting his love for God and acknowledging His strength. He is the Lord His rock and his fortress and his deliverer. The God in whom, all through the dark days, the valleys and the caves, he trusted. God was his very shield, the horn of his salvation and his stronghold.
He called upon the Lord his God when the “pangs of death,” surrounded him. He called upon his great loveΒ when the “floods of ungodliness,” made him afraid. When the “sorrows of hell,” surrounded him and the “snares of death,” confronted him, he called upon God. In his distress he “cried out to God.” And time after time he got the breakthrough. Not necessarily from his circumstances, no, his breakthrough was “He heard my voice from his temple.” His cry had come before His Lord and even just in the knowing that God knew and saw his afflictions, there was victory in that alone and he was encouraged by living waters. How many times was Paul told not be afraid for the Lord his God was with him? The breakthrough in every situation is first and foremost to “know” that “God is with you.” Now some may say that we should always know that as His saints. I would just answer with saying that it is one thing to know something in our heads, it is quite another to recognize the manifest presence of a God who walks with His children.
Look at the response of God starting in the seventh verse, this is the response to David who was constantly crying out to the Lord His God. “Then the earth shook and trembled.” Not unlike what happened to Paul and Silas in the dungeon. A devouring fire came forth from the Lord and “He bowed the heavens and came down…………He rose upon the cherub……He flew upon the wings of the wind.” “He sent from above and He drew me out of many waters.” He saw the many situations of David and He moved on his behalf, this faithful man of God who ever cried out to Him. And in the end , after many many faithful years in the valley and in the cave, God himself delivered David from all his enemies, especially his greatest enemy, Saul. Shall He not also deliver us dear brothers and sisters? Shall He not hear our cries from the valley?
If you have been going through a long and arduous test or tests. If there seems to be no light at the end of your circumstances. If you have been surrounded by the pangs of death and great ungodliness and sorrow besets you on every side and the gates of hell themselves has come against you, keep crying out to God. He is your strength. He is the Rock upon which you stand. He is your fortress and you can run into Him. He is your deliverer and your strength in whom you can trust. He is worthy to be praised in the midnight hour. He sees the afflictions of His people. He knows, He cares, He is actively working on your behalf even when you are not aware of it. He ever intercedes for you before the throne and in truth, it is the reason you still stand. He prepares a table before you in the very presence of your enemies and in due time He shall bow the heavens and come down. He is faithful even in the midst of darkness and when we cannot see the way ahead, He is the way ahead brothers and sisters, cry out to Him today for He is your strength.
Speaking of man, Paul says in Act 17, to men on Mars hill, that God has determined their preappointed times and boundaries of their dwellings. That is really quite a mouthful. What does it mean? Can it be true that we have a preappointed time set for us by God? Can it be true that we have boundaries that God has set over us in regard to our “dwellings.” A boundary is a limitation or a line set. In our lives as saints we have boundaries that we are called to live within. And so, where we abide is limited to Gods determination for us and how long we live, likewise. And in this there should be great peace. Yet, for the most part, we find that our boundaries are the source of most of our anxiousness and discontentment.
Is it not true that we lay down boundaries for our children? We determine where they can go and the times in which they can carry out their activities. We set curfews for them and discipline them in order that they would know and respect their boundaries. We do it with a loving heart and a desire to see them grow up into the best adults they can be. It seems to be universally true that most children despise their boundaries and long to go where they cannot. They want what their friends have. They want to do what their friends do. And in this they clash with the will of their parents. It often referred to as a “battle of the wills,’ and frequently exhausts parents. Some parents seem to be better than others in these matters. Some are too strict and some are too lax and some put down no boundaries at all. The end result of this is the society we live in.
When you were saved dear saint, God imposed boundaries upon you. He gifted you and then called you to live within the boundaries of that gifting. He has predetermined the number of your days which also constitutes a boundary. Now, the question is, are we at peace within the boundaries that God has set for us? Or, do we rage against them? Do we go to great lengths to go beyond the boundary of our gifting? Do we take extreme measures to try and extend the boundaries of the days of our lives? Can I suggest to you that the work of the flesh, our flesh, is to deny the boundaries God has set for us. We try and go beyond our calling and are jealous of others for the same reason that Adam and Eve took what they were told not to take. It’s sin and rebellion. And in this sin and rebellion there can be no peace. Only when we surrender to the boundaries God has set for each of us personally can we truly know the peace that surpasses understanding.
In the world we saw, back in the 60s, women discontent with their lot, wanting to have what men had. They were discontent with their boundaries and therefore simply pushed beyond them. They raged against their boundary. No doubt they were cheered on by any number of voices telling them they could be whatever they wanted to be and that they had no limits. It has become a virtue of the world. People who are not happy with their gender are told that their gender is not a boundary and that they can be whatever they want to be. They rage against their boundary. Men desire their neighbors wife. they want what they cannot have and they rage against this boundary. People are told that they are going to die and they go to every conceivable lengths to avoid this. They rage against the boundaries of time. Saints not happy with the gifting God has given them, strive to be something they are not. This is raging against the will of God for our lives, it is all sin.
It is within the boundaries that God has laid down for us that we are to seek Him who desires to be found. It is within these boundaries that we are told “He is not far from each one of us.” To go beyond our boundaries is to wander far from God. It is in our nearness to God, that we “live and move and have our being.” We cannot shape our own destinies and then call it God’s destiny for us. God is not like gold or silver or stone, something that can be shaped by art or the devices of men. It is He who lays down the foundations. It is He who determines the place in which we shall live and it is He who determines the number of our days on this earth and it is He who has appointed a day in which He will judge the world by the Lord Jesus Christ. Note the words used by Paul “determines, appoints, sets, boundaries.” Our God is a God of order and He calls us to His order. And this order, this peace, this joy, this contentment can only ever be found when we are found living within the boundaries He has set down for each of us individually.
“Today I am going out and I am going to cast a shadow.” Imagine someone made that statement. Obviously we cannot cast our own shadow. The shadow comes from the fact that we are outside standing in the sun. For only by being in the right position at the right time and only by the presence of the sun itselfΒ could a shadow ever be cast. The power is not ours, the only power we have in this regard would be to put ourselves in a position where a shadow would be cast. The power comes from the sun and the very nature of God’s creation.
Can I put it to you that “ministry,” works by exactly the same principle. The problem with us is that we give something a name and it takes on a a whole other character. Ministry is not a thing, it’s a person, and its a person who resides within us by the power of the Holy Spirit and His name is Jesus. You cannot “do,’ ministry and you cannot “join,” a ministry. You can do works and join organizations, but none of that is necessarily Jesus working in us, and I would make an assertion that most of it is not. When we act according to our nature, the nature of Christ in us, then we are “ministering.” It’s merely the overflow of Christ in us to others.
No sun, no shadow, No Son, no ministry. If He is not at the beating heart of what we do, If He is not the one operating through the very gift He gave you for His very own purposes then we are merely indulging in what we think we should do. And what we think we should do is almost entirely wrong. We allow others to tell us what they think we should do. We allow others to identify “gifts,” in us that are no gifts at all but merely our human natures. For example, someone is a good musician “you must join the worship team.” Someone is naturally kind “you must join the care team.” Yet what we have in us by reason of our DNA and the environment we were raised in is not what should lead us and guide us.
The only thing that should lead us and guide us is what flows from our new nature. For the flesh is dying or should be. That cross that we take up is killing the flesh and leaving behind only that which is refined by the fire of God Himself. Out out of this refinement we find our place in the Kingdom of God. Out of this fire we walk in an entirely new direction. What flows from us to others only matters in the eternal things of God when it only comes from Him. In our own strengths and giftings we shall surely grow weary and tired and often discouraged. Yet when the Lord is flowing through us and we are moving in Him the very opposite thing happens. We run and we do not grow weary. We walk and we do not faint. We mount up with wings as eagles and leap tall mountains in Him and the world is shaken by this passion that flows from us.
And whether this passion takes the form of Evangelism or exhortation or healing of giving or speaking wisdom that casts down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, it will not be easily ignored or dismissed by the darkness. The shadow only takes the form of a very pale imitation of what is actually real. It’s the one whom the Sun shines upon that basks in the light and is warmed by it’s rays. The shadow is flat and without form and without power. We have been called to walk in the light as He is in the light and we shall have fellowship one with another. And when we walk with Jesus shall not our hearts burn within us? And shall not others benefit from this heat? That heat, that light, those rays are ministry and everything else is but the shadow.
A Call To The Remnant 