Crags or Cages?

 

“And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavored to go…” (Acts 16:10).

     Charles Spurgeon once said, “I’d rather be a lean bird in the woods than a fat bird in a cage.” What a sad sight to see a caged eagle beating its wings against the bars. But what a sadder sight it is to see a Christian who has given up and resigned to low living among that which is carnal and natural.

    There were a brand of pioneers who braved dangers, crossed 3,000 miles of ocean, and blazed another 3,000 miles of wilderness and desert to make a trail for America. Rugged spirits flocked here from every land. The Fathers of liberty risked security for liberty. Today we have traded liberty for security. And the soul is more fettered than ever because of it.

    What about us and our children? If we feather the nests too well the eaglets will never fly. The baby eagles might complain because they are no longer comfortable, but eaglets do not fly that way. If we feather our nests and feather their nests, taking out as much as possible the thorns, thistles, and prickly things, then be assured that eaglet will not fly as soon as it should, or as powerful as it could.

    Find a crag! Find a mountaintop and climb. Avoid a cage and find a solitary place to meditate “far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife.” Build your home high. An eagle needs an eyrie. You and I can see the whole battle from the distance. A prophet or a parent sees the whole picture like an eagle from a mountain crag.

Similar Posts

  • Ask Yourself, Are You REALLY Praying?

    “But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4).
    A much needed group of people do not attend the prayer meeting because it’s–forgive me for saying it–boring. They pray about the same things the same old way. We believe as Christians that our prayer life ought to be Scripture-fed, Spirit-led, worship-based praying. Yet, why do we not sense and see greater praying and great pray-ers?
    The observation of many is that the evangelical church does a great deal of complaining about the decay and demise of our culture, the low level of political discourse, and the advancement of religious darkness. Helpless as we are to stem these ominous tides, yet incredibly as it sounds, we still do not humble ourselves and pray. We lament that we have not seen revival, but we are not yet desperate enough to seek God for such an outpouring of God’s Spirit.
    I want to ask you to open your Bible and read its truth. As you study the passage begin to seek God in prayer. Offer to God these Scripture truths back to Him in prayer. Pray the Scripture back to Him. Concentrate in your efforts to use the Scripture as you pray.
    Don’t allow the “ministry of the Word” to become shallow to you. And please do not allow prayer to become superficial. The foundation of what we are and what we do is “prayer and ministry of the word,” even as the early church leaders did, according to Acts 6:4. We can change our church and our world! When we learn to pray effectively and fervently.

  • Heaven Is For Real

    “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea” (Revelation 21:1).

    Too many of us do not realize that Heaven is God’s idea and not ours. We base so much from our humanness instead of God’s reasonableness. Satan has come to blaspheme God’s name and His dwelling place and those who live there (Rev. 13:6). He wants to skew God’s reality of a place called Heaven.

    Do not allow Satan to cause you to think less than God desires for you. Heaven is God’s idea for you and for me. It is the place we should long for and desire more than anything. Really, we do desire this place called Heaven. Every desire to be fulfilled and satisfied is based on the desire to go to this place and dwell there.

    Cyprian, the third century church father, said, “Let us greet the day which assigns each of us to his own home, which snatches us from this place and sets us free from the snares of the world, and restores us to paradise and the kingdom. Anyone who has been in foreign lands longs to return to his own native land…We regard paradise as our native land.”

    God’s people are going to a tangible place, a real place, that is designed on God’s geographical map. It is not a place of disembodied spirits, for human beings are not suited for such a realm. What we are suited for–what we’ve been specifically designed for–it is a place like the one God made for us: Earth. God has never given up on his original plan for human beings to dwell on Earth. The climax of history will be the creation of new heavens and a New Earth, a resurrected universe inhabited by resurrected people living with the resurrected Jesus (Revelation 21:1-4).

  • The Third Day

    God is the Lifter of the Head

    “And it came to pass the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, that he made a feast unto all his servants: and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants.”                                         –Genesis 40:20

    The Lord Himself is the lifter up of the head (Ps. 3:3). So many times we depend upon people to help us, but their help never comes. Psalm 60:11 says, “Give us help from trouble; for vain is the help of man.”

    It was the third day that the butler and the baker were lifted up and out of imprisonment to be placed before Pharaoh. Pharaoh’s birthday meant salvation to the baker and condemnation to the baker.

    Poor Joseph was left in prison–he who had done nothing amiss (Gen. 40:15). It was two years before the butler remembered Joseph before he would be freed. And God is the One who brought the situation to mind once again.

    God is with Joseph as he waited upon His God (Gen. 39:21). Joseph had his own dream and we have God’s promise, He will never leave us. The experience of Joseph led him to serve others even while waiting in prison. God will allow each of us to wait upon Him so that he may “put iron into our souls” (Ps. 105:17-22).

    Remember the power of the third day. God raised His Son and He will raise you and me up as well. If the Lord controls us, it makes little difference who commands us. God gives victory in the place of defeat, honor in the place of shame, health in the place of sickness, and restoration in the place of a fall.

  • An Independent Spirit

    “So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded to do, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty” (Luke 17:10).

    God’s people are called to be together and to serve together. One of the most respectable sins that is taking place today is the sin of individuality – the pride of an independent spirit.

    This spirit of independency is killing our country and our communities. The church is not strong. Why? Because the church is the one organism God has brought together. When one part of the organism begins to withdraw from the body of believers as a whole then cancer begins to show up. And it will metastasize to the point of corrupting other parts of the body.

    When the human spirit expresses itself apart from the body of Christ, then we can be sure that it will cause harm to the family of God and to the person’s family. The spirit of independency expresses itself in two areas: a resistance to authority, especially spiritual authority, and an unteachable attitude.

    When we are young, we tend to think we know it all. When we are old, we tend to think we are not needed. God has given the family so that we will learn to submit to one another in love. God has given the church so that we will learn to obey God’s headship and to do it with joy and not with joblessness.

     

  • Praying the Bible

    “When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness”  (Acts 4:31).

    On the cross the Lord Jesus only said out loud seven brief things. The Romans had flayed His back until it was ribboned and torn, and was seen by every eye that passed by. Severely dehydrated, His entire body weight hanging on three nails that held Him to the wood, the Lord of love had to push himself upward to be able to talk, and then only briefly before releasing and settling downward.

    Understandably, then, everything Jesus spoke from the cross was important. And as He lifted himself up each time I am convinced that He prayed through the verses of Psalm 22. As He weighed back downward, wrestling on those nails, He continued to pray silently through Psalms 22. Oh! How that pangs my heart. Yet, oh, how, it rejoices my soul! His first prayer from Psalm 22:1, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” The last prayer was from Psalm 31:5, “Father into thy hands I commit my spirit.”

    Jesus prayed the Psalms. The final act of His earthly life was to pray the words of a psalm, the Word of the Bible. Friends, if the Lord Jesus prayed the psalms and the Bible, and the early church prayed the psalms should we not do as well? There is power in praying the Bible.

  • Leadership Matters

    “I have set before you an open door, and no man can shut it…” (Revelation
    3:8).

    What determines the ability of a leader to function? What is the difference
    between a Pastor, Song Leader, Sunday School Teacher, Deacon, Youth Leader,
    or a Church Member who is successful and others who are unsuccessful. Is it
    their genetics? Is it their family background? What about their birth? What
    makes a leader succeed? Is it their giftedness or personality that makes for
    success.

    No, none of these. The single most factor that makes a successful leader
    from an unsuccessful leader is their persistence. No matter the obstacles,
    no matter the differences, it is the ability to pursue their God-given goals
    by moving forward. The heart is devoted, the face is set, and to do or die,
    is not to reason why.