God the Shelter
| “From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed; lead me to the rock that is higher than I”
(Psalm 61:2).
Jesus is to be the center of it all. Everything. |
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Learning Right with Might
“Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand” (Nehemiah 1:10).
Nehemiah was a Jewish man who served the pagan king of Persia. Nehemiah was living proof of some of the most important leadership principals: You cannot lead if you are not willing to follow. You cannot rule if you have never served. You cannot be over if you have never been under. You cannot give unless you have received. You cannot speak to the people if you have never listened.
Nehemiah was a man who waited patiently on God through prayer. Intercessory prayer involves waiting on God. When we wait we praise, persevere, and prepare for His ministry through us. Only those who truly wait on the Lord will truly understand the power of prayer.
Before we attempt great things for God, we must learn to wait on God’s timing. Don’t become impatient with God’s delays for it does not mean that God is denying. God is preparing you and I through prayer which leads to waiting upon Him for greater things than we could imagine. So be like Nehemiah. Yes, he suffered as he waited upon God. But he was learning and he was living and he was loving continually His God and the people before him as he prayed.
Repentence as Gentle Rain
“Then she arose…that she might return from the country of Moab; for she had heard…how the Lord had visited his people in giving them food” (Ruth’s 1:6).
Naomi left the Promise Land, the House of Bread, Bethlehem. She, along with her husband and sons, only planned to stay for a little while in Moab, but she ended up dwelling there in the land that is half-washed. She lost her husband and her sons to death. She was a broken woman who was living in a barren and pagan land.
Repentance can be dramatic, but most true repentance is like a gentle rain, slowly and surely softening the hardened soil of our hearts. In Psalm 23, the Lord “restores my soul” (v. 3). The Hebrew word for “restores” is shun, which means “turn” or “return.” When Naomi returns to Israel, to the house of the Lord, her own soul is restored.
If you a part of the group that is “weary and heavy laden“, return with your depression, anger, and withdrawal. You can come back complaining, but “come back.” Come to Jesus with your mess, grumpiness, loneliness, and your self-centered heart. He will clean you up. The point is to come back! He loves you with an everlasting love!
Christ’s Return
“Even so come Lord Jesus” Revelation 22:20b The longing that so many in the early church had for Christ’s return seems to have burned itself out in many churches and breasts of believers today. The “yearning” and the “fainting” for the return of Christ that has distinguished the personal hope from the theological one in Christians of that day was real and very personal. They could taste it.
We have spoke of the cross so much that I believe we have forgotten the beauty of the One who died upon that instrument of death. The saved person seems to be more about a contractual system than involved in a personal love. The “work” of Christ has been so stressed that we have eclipsed the person of Christ and His beauty.
To stay awake and long to see someone involves love and anticipation, and that seems to be lacking immensely today. There is power and joy when we long and love to see someone coming down that aisle, or arriving at the house. It changes the whole atmosphere and endeavors to bring all the senses of mind, body, and soul together. We have become too comfortable in this world today. The Lord Jesus pulls as a magnet that causes us to jump with joy when we think of Him and our seeing Him.
May we get our eyes off of ourselves, our problems, and begin to worship Him who is coming in grace, glory, and grandeur. What it does today for you and me will eliminate so much that really does not matter. When the heart is right then the eyes will be looking upward.
Influencers Who Refuse to be Influenced
“You are here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage” (Matthew 5:13, The Message). You know that salt seasons and stings. When you go to the movie theatre and order a drink you have to get popcorn and you want it seasoned with salt and butter, lots of it. It just makes all things taste better. Then you chase it down with an extra-large Coke that you pay too much for that cost them pennies on the dollar.
You also are aware that salt stings. If you step into the ocean water after a scratch or cut to your body, you realize quickly that you do not have to go far into the shallow water before you wince with pain. It burns and it truly stings.
You and I are to thirst after God. We are to craft our lives in such a way that our thoughts, our habits, our actions and reactions make people who know us simply crave God. We are salt in a dying society.
Even if others do not want our God, our lives will cause others to feel the sting inwardly of rejecting the One who loves them. If you live for the Lord Jesus you will encounter those who do not appreciate those who live and tell the truth. It is a stinging rebuke to their godless life, and inside, they wince in pain.
We are called to be salt – and not sugar! – in our world. We are called to season and to sting. It is good to be in a big salt shaker known as sanctuaries, huddled in fear of a big, bad world. But salty people do not need seasoning! It’s the ones who are headed to Hell who need to know there is a God who lives in us. It’s the blind who need seeing! We are not to be the bland leading the bland.
Daily Hope & Love to the Full
The two disciples, one whose name was Cleopas, both were headed to Emmaus, a small village. They each had a shattered hope and a stifled love. Why? The One they longed for who would free them from Roman bondage and spiritual darkness was dead. And even worse the body was found missing and could not be found. They were crushed and very saddened by the death of the Christ, God’s anointed.
What did the Lord Jesus do for them as they walked and talked toward Emmaus? He came alongside them and spoke with them of God’s plan from Scripture. He raised their very thoughts to God and explained and expounded the written Word. The Word of God tells us after the meeting with the resurrected Lord the disciples’ hearts burned within them.
God’s great desire is that we allow the Spirit of God to encourage us. Today take the Word of God and allow His Word to speak to you afresh and anew. For God’s Word is an encourager of good and true things. His faithful Word never fails as we walk in this world that wills to darken your faith. God’s Word delivers love and hope. He will be known to you as you break bread together by opening the Word of God and meditating upon Him.
Father please bring us to the Word of God over and over again. When we are downcast draw us to yourself. When we are discouraged pick us up with your staff and set us on our feet once more. We love you for You know we need You. In your Son’s name. Amen.
“But we hoped that it had been he who should have redeemed Israel; and, besides all this, today is the third day since these things were done” (Luke 24:21).
We Close the Door
“In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them” (2 Chronicles 29:3). King Hezekiah began to reign at the age of twenty-five years of age as King of Judah. His predecessors failed to follow the Lord. The condition at the temple was so much like many churches today–closed. Closed doors speak of no access to God and no service for God. While God has set before us an open door (Rev. 3:8), yet we close it by the way we live.
How do we close the doors of the church? We don’t witness. We don’t pray. The altar of prayer is cold. We don’t sacrifice. We think more of our lives then following the life God intends for each of us. When God looks around He sees plenty of rubbish in the church. No wonder the church of the Living God is so powerless.
What must be done? There must be a way given–for God wants to prosper His work. God’s heart is to get us to the point of total sanctification-set apart for God. Sacrifice of one’s person to the Lord’s service and a song in the heart leads to the reopening of the doors. God must start with you and me-the preacher and the people. For if God’s servants are not clean, God cannot bless His work.