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.
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.”
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.
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.
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?
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.
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 23:5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies: 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.”
This a a poem I just wrote based on a word the Lord gave me last week due to my current circumstances (cancer)
And in the silence there is peace It dwells above the noise and din And faith from heaven is released And fills completely from within
Beggings and pleadings are not heard By our own hand we are not kept afloat Yet Christ Himself in the midst of it all Keeps the storm at bay, asleep in the boat
I shall lie down, at peace in the silence When all around, the storm rages still Safe and secure in the depths of His glory In perfect peace at the center of His will.
I sleep in the midst of the lion's den They are held at bay by His heavenly hand His perfect love casts out all fear And in peace or storm I shall surely stand
I breathe in deeply the air of heaven It fills me and fills me with His perfect love A shaft of light shatters the darkness It leads me and guides me to my home high above.
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 love 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.
My hope is in the Lord my God, who dwells within my heart
The one who came and died for me, His glory to impart
The Christ who raised me from the dead
To live forevermore
The one whose broken ever chain and opened every door.
He's the Lord who whispers in my ear, He listens to my cries
The one who never ever sleeps, the one who surely died
He died for you and He died for me
He surely rose again
Removing every doubt and fear, removing every stain
He's my sunrise in the morning, the light for every day
To chase away the darkness and in my heart He stays
And there He always shall remain
Until my day is done
He gives me strength to carry on, the victory it is won.
He's the sunset of my life, He is with me to the end
He heals the very depths of me, the broken He shall mend
He lifts me with the rising tide
To stand on higher ground
He's with me through the waters, in Him I shall be found.
My cousin, who is just a few years younger than myself, has stage 4 prostrate cancer which has spread to his spine and to his liver. This was his initial diagnosis. Due to Covid and a general health crisis in Britain, he was not regularly tested. His father died of the same disease at roughly the same age. He lives in Wales and it is fairly rural. I have been to the small village of Lougher many years ago when I helped moderate a revival conference at Moriah chapel, the birth place of the Welsh revival. My cousin is an engineer and has worked all over the world and traveled extensively, indeed he has visited us in Kansas on many occasions. I have always really liked my cousin, he has many admiral qualities but we did butt heads on many occasions, both being younger and headstrong. Age and life and sanctification has knocked many of the rough edges off of us.
And so I found out that he had cancer when I was over in Scotland for my dads funeral back in March. I was deeply saddened by this report and upon my return to Kansas, I contacted him and we began to zoom on a weekly basis. The first thing that impressed me was his calm demeanor. He bore no ill will towards a system that had let him down. Nor was he angry at a particular Dr who specifically let him down. This is all the more impressive when you consider, that his dad, my uncle ( a wonderful saint) had been misdiagnosed and not properly treated at the beginning of his own battle with cancer that would lead to his demise. And so, his quiet demeanor and softening of heart and spirit is very heart warming and encouraging to me. He has a chair where he spends much time meditating on the Word of God and getting quiet before Him.
I want you to understand something. Such is the state of the health service in Britain in general and Wales in particular, my cousin has never seen an oncologist. He has only ever spoken to her over the phone. They told him that they were “going to throw everything at it,” and so begun a three month regimen of chemo and radiation treatment as well as hormone therapy and other drugs. The nurses were amazed that he never lost his hair and that he almost no side-effects at all. And so the course came to an end at the end of August and it took a few weeks for them to arrange images and blood-work. It takes a further month for him to get a call from the oncologist only to be told that his images had not been read by anyone ( she apologized) but that based on her own expertise she was somewhat pleased at what she saw but she would call again two weeks later and this time she would definitely have the radiologists reports.
Now you would think that all of this waiting would be agonizing, especially when you have returning pain in your lower spine. Yet, again, my cousins attitude was exemplary. Our sessions together are always good and our prayer time at the end of these sessions are always deep and meaningful to me. And so, just a couple of weeks ago, the day arrived that the oncologist was to call. The window for the call was either between 8am and 1pm, or 1pm and 5pm. So, you basically had to sit by the phone all day waiting on the call. And as he is want, he was sitting in his easy chair reading the Word. And as he is going through the psalms, this day he had arrived at psalm 20. His method was to read the psalm and mediate on it all day and so this is what he was doing.
“May the Lord answer you in day of trouble………………May the name of the God of Jacob defend you…………May He send you help from His sanctuary…………And strengthen you out of Zion……….May He grant you according to your hearts desire and fulfill all your purposes…………..Now I know that the Lord saves His anointed……… May the Lord fulfill all of your petitions……….He will hear from His holy heaven with the saving strength of His right hand…………….some trust in chariots and some in horses but we shall remember the name of the Lord our God…..they have bowed down and fallen but we have risen and stand upright……save Lord! May the King answer us when we call.”
As my cousin was taken up with these thoughts the hours got away from him. He looked at the clock and realized it was almost noon. No calls. He glanced at his phone and to his great surprise there was two “missed calls.” It was from the oncologist. Now, my cousin is in an engineer. There is always a purpose in what he does and does not do. He looked at his phone to see how it was possible that he could miss not just one, but two very important calls. Was the volume off? No. As he looked further he realized that his phone was set to “do not disturb.” Now, he had not set the phone to do not disturb. In fact he had never set that phone or any other other phone to “do not disturb. He said he would not even know how to do it and of course, given the highly important nature of the call that day, even if he did know how to do it he would not have.
Suddenly the Lord impressed upon him that He did not want my cousin to be disturbed by the oncologist. And that he was not to be disturbed, rather he was to listen to Him and what He was saying to him through the word. Brothers and sisters, I have no doubt at all that it was the hand of the Lord Himself or some angel that pressed the do not disturb button on my cousins phone. There comes a time in all of our lives when there is no help from anyone. No help from the system, from the medical field or any other avenue. Whereby only the hand of the Lord Himself can save us and keep us and guard us from all alarm. We are not to be disturbed but rather we are to trust in the Lord and the power of His might. Whether we live or whether we die we are to stand fast in Him and He is to be glorified. All of this flows from trust. Be encouraged today brothers and sisters….do not be disturbed and do not allow the world to disturb you. In this world we shall have troubles, but take heart! Jesus has overcome the world.
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 itself 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.
It’s an erroneous idea that justification is an imparted robe of righteousness put over a dirty, filthy fellow who terribly needs a bath and is filled with cooties and the accumulation of the dirt of a lifetime, who stands boldly in God Almighty’s holy heaven, among seraphim and cherubim and archangels and the spirits of just men made perfect, and blithely and flippantly says “I belong in hell. I’m a filthy man, but what are you going to do about it? I have on me the robe of Christ’s righteousness and that’s enough.
God only saves sinners who know they are sinners. He saves only sinners who admit they are sinners, but He saves sinners and turns them from being sinners to being good men and full of the Holy Spirit. When we teach anything else, we are teaching heresy. John Newton was a Puritan and would have been horrified if he heard the doctrines we are hearing now. (A.W.Tozer The dangers of a shallow Faith pg 73-74)
Can you hear what Tozer is saying? He is identifying a teaching that has become a common doctrine taught across the board in Christendom. At best it’s a shallow faith, at worse it is no faith at all. A faith that is without transformation. A faith that seeks to hide from the fact that true faith transforms the bad man to a son of the Living God. A man who formally walked in darkness but who now walks in the light. A man whose righteousness in Christ and Christ in him reflects upon the unrighteousness of the world. A city set on a hill for all to see. He washes us by His very own Blood. And we are washed whiter than snow. We are indeed regenerated and only the regenerated can be sanctified.
In a desperate desire to please the world and not offend them, we have taken the stigma of sin from them. We have done the world no favors. Those of the shallow faith, born out of fear, say to the world that the Christian and them are both the same, the only difference being is that we have a technicality. That is a lie and, and Tozer calls it heresy. A cross-less Christianity has risen up in the ranks of Christendom and at the very same pace as it has risen up, the world has sunk down deeper into the mire of darkness and self delusion. A Christ-less Christianity, a whole generation of those who desire no Lord but only a Savior, is falling into the same dark pit of hell as the world is.
Thank the Lord for His own chosen generation. His own Royal Priesthood. His own, specific purchased people. A people intentionally called out of darkness, not to dwell there any more but to dwell in His marvelous light. A people who have indeed been regenerated, indeed been washed in the Blood of the Lamb, a people who fear God and not man. A people who have been empowered by the Holy Spirit to be a witness to the world and if need be, using the same word, a martyr for the cause of Christ. This is the true history of the Church. A people not ashamed of the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus and not just the parts that are convenient to our own well being. Tell the world all day long that God loves them and the world will either like you or ignore you. Quote them the mostly unquoted portion of John chapter 3 and they will hate you.
Joh 3:18 He that believes in him is not condemned: but he that does not believe in Him is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Hear my cry in the day of trouble
Lest I fall in the night, lest I stumble
Lord send me help from heaven above
And wrap me and hold me in thy glorious love
Strengthen me Lord, is my hearts desire
That I might be strong as I walk through the fire
Lift up my head, keep me from the flood
Let me stand in thy might, covered by your Blood
And in your name we shall raise up our banner
Of righteousness and holiness, your very own standard
That the world might see your strength and your power
In the darkest of nights, in an ungodly hour
And we shall remember the name of the Lord
For in our hands there's a two edged sword
It's the Word of God,our strength in the night
That enables us to go on, to stand and to fight
Some men trust in chariots and horses
Yet the children of God trust in heavenly forces
It's not by our strength nor even our might
But by the Spirit of God who prevails through the night
So save us Oh Lord and answer our call
Lift us Oh Lord when we stumble and fall
Onwards and upwards to thy heavenly gates
Where your glory and splendor forever awaits
For, behold, the LORD is coming forth out of his place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth. And the mountains shall be molten under him, and the valleys shall be split, as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are poured down a steep place.(Mic 1:3-4)
In the previous verse the word of the Lord says this …..”Hear all you peoples! Listen O earth and all that is in it, let the Lord God be a witness against you.” He is speaking to the world and He continues to speak to a lost and dying world. Matthew Henry writes “though God never deceives the faith of the upright, he will disappoint the presumption of the hypocrites.” The Lord comes forth out of His place, His seat of mercy, and comes down to us, the peoples of the earth in judgment. When His presence departs the temple, when Ichabod is pronounced over those who call themselves by His name, then follows judgment. It is a fearful thing for the peoples of the world to face a God before whom the very mountains melt away and the valleys melt like wax before the fire and the barbarians rise up as in a flood.
How often we have cried out to God to rend the heavens and come down? And how often has His mercies flowed down in torrential blessings? Yet that is not all that flows down. For everything there is a season. A time to live and also a time to die. A time of peace but also a time for war. A time for God’s blessings and mercy but also a time for judgement. We are surely facing such a time. A world who refuses to listen to God. A world who adamantly defies Him and all of His ways and all of His words. A world who mocks the living God. Oh that His name would be treasured in our streets but rather it is defiled. Defiled by the unbeliever and the presumption hypocrite who would presume upon His mercies while openly causing His name to trampled underfoot.
We are a world totally devoid of statesmen, it is part of God’s judgment. Our reliance upon our own strength and wisdom, as if they were mighty mountains, shall fail before our very eyes. And less we think too much of ourselves the barbarians rise up and rip the child from the womb and rape the women in front of their own children before burning them alive. And after they have finished their barbarous works the world either cheers or looks away, not willing to look into the darkness of their own souls as one who looks into the abyss. When we choose to look into the abyss then the abyss looks back and swallows us whole.
In order to expose the foundations, then all that lies above them must be torn down. The light of day, the light of Christ, the judgements of God shall reveal the underlying darkness of the souls of men and they shall see themselves in all of their rebellion and all of their true natures. As each veneer of civility is ripped away by God, all that is left standing will be the very essence of men. And it will be clearly shown that in this world there are but two kind of men. Those who have been transformed by God and those who are in rebellion against Him.
I think the closer to God we walk we see Him in everything. We see Him in the rains. We even see Him in the midst of our pains. We hear Him in the thunder, and in us it produces awe and wonder. We see Him in the changing seasons. Autumn is such a blessed relief to the heat of summer, and we have many reasons to consider our own lives as the leaves become vibrant and beautiful with age…..and then they fall. And when the snow covers everything, we see Him in this wonderland.
We see Him when we hear a baby laugh or see the first stumbling steps of a little calf. We see Him in the rainbow that caresses the waterfall and we see Him in the mountains that stand so very tall. The rivers, the oceans, the eagle flying high, we see Him standing with us when a loved one dies. Brothers and sisters, if you don’t see Him everywhere, do you see Him anywhere? Lord give us eyes to see your beauty all around, and give us such a heart that in you we want to be found.
No matter where we live brothers and sisters, no matter what our situation, no matter the trials and the tribulations we face, better to do it all in the loving arms of our Lord and dwell in His passionate embrace.
Oh the beauty of His manifested presence
It is all the world to me
Not to be held captive by this life
but rather unrestrained by it, and set free
My eyes have seen the King
And they now belong to Him
My heart within me burns
Brighter than a thousand suns
The celestial road opens up before me
And down this road we walk as one
And this is the path I want to be found on
Until my time on earth is done
My heart beats to the rhythm of His
And everything falls into place
I see Him high and lifted up
The beauty of His holiness, the splendor of His grace
Draw me nearer blessed Lord
that I might mortify
That I might cast upon thy cross
what thou has crucified
And in the dying comes the rising
As I lift my hands on high
And your Spirit falls upon me Lord
That I might testify.
I am undone in the presence of thy throne
Your glory has stripped me all away
All that is left is what you've redeemed
And through me your impenetrable light has streamed
Draw me closer, closer, closer every day
Every week, every month, the passing years
Closer with my heart and with my life
With my thoughts and with my prayers and with my tears.
Oh the beauty of His manifested presence in my life, daily. It causes me to take my thoughts captive, less they take me captive. When my mind is set on Him, as I walk with Him, daily, then fear flees away. Does not my heart burn within me? I see His beauty and it is high and lifted up. I rest in the beauty of His holiness. And as I do that, then the world and all its distractions flee away. My eyes have seen the King and they now belong to Him. My heart within me burns and to Him all of me turns. The celestial road opens up before me and we walk as one. And this is the path I ever want to be found on, until my time on earth is done.
My heart beats to the rhythm of His heart and everything is right with the world. In this place I take no offense for I am found in Him. And when I am found in Him I can only see Jesus. I can only sense the glory and the majesty and the beauty of His serenity. In this place there is no fear. In this place there is no worldly ambition, there is only the drawing. And once caught up in the gravity of His magnificence then I simply surrender to the pull. Letting go of the things of this world, allows me to unfurl, like a banner that flutters in the wind of the Spirit. As the old hymn goes …Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord,
to the cross where Thou hast died; draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to Thy precious, bleeding side.
Draw me nearer, nearer blessed Lord that I might mortify, that I might cast upon thy holy cross what thou has crucified. And in the dying comes the rising as I lift my hands on high, and thy Spirit falls upon me that I might testify. I am undone in the presence of thy glorious holy throne. where in the midst, the precious Lamb and His Blood that did atone. And all of heavens host cry out “Holy is the Lamb,” as they dwell before the King of Kings, before the great I Am. Lord I would come to thee, I would draw closer every day, closer with the passing days and with the passing years. Closer with my whole heart, closer with life, closer with my thoughts and prayers and closer with my tears.
Mar 9:49 For every one shall be seasoned with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.
Every genuine saint shall be seasoned with fire. Now we know that we are called to be salt and light to the world and if the salt has lost its flavor, what is it good for? Its good for nothing. The fire for the saint is the seasoning of his or her life. Trials and tribulations and infirmities, this is promised to us all. How do we react under such circumstances? When the darkness comes to consume us, will it yet find the light? It is such an honor and a privilege to suffer well for the sake of Jesus. It speaks to the principalities and powers who watch your life. It testifies to the darkness. It proclaims to the spiritual wickedness in high places. The rulers of this world understand many things but they do not understand the man or the woman who has been so fully transformed that they praise God in the midst of suffering.
It is otherworldly. The Kingdom walk is no where better expressed than when we rejoice in our eternal life and the Kingdom to which we now belong. It is no better illustrated when we love our enemies and forgive those who hate us and despise us and would use us and destroy us. To count the fire as a flavoring rather than a destroyer is supernatural. It cannot be counterfeited. Many may rejoice when the “blessings,” abound. Many may give glory to God when all is going well. Yet it is the “few,” who fall to their knees amidst great loss, yet raise their hands towards heaven and cry out “blessed is the name of the Lord.” He who gives and He who takes away and He who flavors us with fire is to be praised. In the fire only the flesh is burned. In the fire only our worldly ambitions disappear. The wood and the hay and the stubble burn, but the treasures of darkness are purified and refined.
Who indeed? We humans love to deify men. We love to lift them up and glorify them. Christians in particular love to do this. It is really an abomination to God and shall not be overlooked. Diotrephes is the logical conclusion of the lifting up of men which is why the apostle Paul tackles this issue head on. If we elevate men, men will love it. If we desire to follow men, and we so often do, the very same men will love it. They will, of course, for decorum’s sake, deny any of this. Even as men lift them aloft above their heads, they will feign giving Jesus the glory, but their actions and the actions they allow in others denies this. Paul smashes into this head on in his typical style and no holds barred words. “Neither he who plants is anything, not he who waters, but God who gives the increase,” is everything. We are nothing without God, even that which we have was given to us. What then can we glory in, other than Christ? How could we ever let stand for one minute anyone who would try and raise us up? God forbid.
This month is “pastors appreciation month.” While most people will celebrate a birth “day,” or the day we were married or some other special day, here in the west we have pastors appreciation month, where they will be plied with gifts and monies and admiration. Obviously since senior pastors run their “own churches,” they factor this month into the calendar. In other words they organize this for themselves. This is a month where their salaries are boosted. It is a money getting month. I am aware that not all “pastors,” do this and that specifically, the American non denominational pastor have taken this to dizzying new heights, or rather, depths. It is so far from the Gospel, so far from the Word of God, so far from how Jesus lived, so far from the humble early beginnings of the church. A sign of the times and a marker to measure the maturity and the heart of one who claims to be a leader. To indulge in this is akin to indulging in Halloween. Entirely secular and worldly and shameful to the witness of Jesus. There is but one Body.
He who plants and he who waters are one. One Body. One work here on earth. Nothing rises above the spiritual parapet save Jesus Christ. If you look up and see a man, God help that men. If you look up and try to raise up that man to anything other than what He is in Christ, part of the Body, one in nature, then God help you. All of it robs from God who gives the increase. All of it robs from Christ who is preeminent. Its all robbery, its all theft, its all religion. Diotrephes loved the preeminence and allowed himself to be raised up and encouraged others to raise him up. Men like this make themselves indispensable . This means they steer the sheep towards reliance upon them and not the great Shepherd. Do you know anyone like this? Unless we are forever pointing men towards the Word of God and the risen Christ then we are of the priesthood of Diotrephes. Carnal in nature, carnal in spirit and if it remains so, then lost forever. Jesus Christ first, Jesus last and Jesus forever. The old enemy has caught more men in this trap then any other. More seductive than women, more seductive than money, the greatest seducer of all, power and the desire for it and the lust of it, in all its many manifestations.
My uncle was a dispatch rider in the WW2. He was a private. It was a dangerous mission so the High Command were never going to waste men of higher rank in delivering messages. In the scale of things, in the order of importance, the rider was the least important. You could always replace the rider. What was important was the message. The one sending it and the ones receiving it. It is so in the Kingdom. The one delivering the message can be easily replaced. We brothers and sisters should remember that lest we think too highly of ourselves. We are simply one. The message is all important. The message is preeminent and Jesus is the message. Jesus is the author, and by His Blood He came to deliver this message Himself. What general or high ranking officials would ever lower themselves by delivering the message themselves? Yet, the greatest communication ever delivered to men had to be delivered by the greatest one that existed, the One who ever existed, God’s only Begotten Son. Remember this with all of your hearts brothers and sisters, some of us plant, some of us water, but God……but God….but God always has and always will, give the increase by the power of the Holy Spirit.
A Call To The Remnant 