Why have You Forsaken Me, Oh Lord?

Why have You Forsaken Me, Oh Lord?

Isaiah 49:14

But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.”

                How many of us have had experiences in our lives that have caused us to speak these words or ones like them, “why have You forsaken me, oh Lord?”  There are more than just a few believers that have been cruising down life’s road just enjoying getting to know God and His goodness.  They are growing in their faith and were so confident in God when it happened.  They hit that bump in the road that upset the apple cart of faith and blessing, their world was turned upside down and now it seems as though God has failed.  We prayed, but God didn’t meet our expectations or answer those prayers the way we thought He should.  He allowed something in our life that we thought never should have happened.  All the pieces of the puzzle we had put together in our understanding of God and His faithfulness are suddenly scattered from the devastation, trauma or disappointment that has touched our lives. 

                Many times we go from asking, “why God”, to being angry and then walking away from Him.  We feel like whatever it is that has happened to us or someone we love is God’s fault because He didn’t intervene when we prayed and believed Him for it.  We feel like God has let us down, disappointed us or has even forsaken us.  How many of us have gone through our rebellious times when we were angry or disappointed with God?  Maybe some of you still are.  If you still are, why do you think that you are reading these words right now?  Could it be because God has not really forsaken and turned His back on you?  He keeps drawing you back, but like pouting and angry children we keep pulling away.       

                Allow me to share with you God’s response to Isaiah 49:14, following verse 14, “15 “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! 16 See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me. 17 Your sons hasten back, and those who laid you waste depart from you. 18 Lift up your eyes and look around; all your sons gather and come to you. As surely as I live,” declares the LORD, “you will wear them all as ornaments; you will put them on, like a bride. 19 “Though you were ruined and made desolate and your land laid waste, now you will be too small for your people, and those who devoured you will be far away. 20 The children born during your bereavement will yet say in your hearing, ‘This place is too small for us; give us more space to live in.’ 21 Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who bore me these? I was bereaved and barren; I was exiled and rejected. Who brought these up? I was left all alone, but these—where have they come from?’ ““

You see a faith unproven and without being tempered in the fire is not a faith that will stand, but a faith proven in fire will bear children that we aren’t even aware of.  Our faith has to be able to stand even when our understanding doesn’t.  We have to so know that the heart of the Father is love and grace towards us; even when He doesn’t meet our expectations it is not because He loves us any less or doesn’t care what we are going through.  Our faith must be proven to bring us to the next level in our walk with God.  You might say it is the passing from puberty to manhood in the spirit. 

Maybe now you are feeling like, “ I failed the test, so God probably can’t or won’t use me anymore.”  When Peter failed the test and denied Christ three times, did Jesus cast Him off and tell him he was disqualified?  It was that test that was needed to bring him into the higher ministry that God had for him.  Through that test he realized He could trust in no one, but Christ alone, even if it would lead him down a road and into places that he would not choose to go.  God has not disqualified you, He is telling you to get back up on that horse.  Don’t be afraid that it will throw you again.  Have faith that God is there no matter what.  Just because He doesn’t fit in the box of your understanding doesn’t make Him any less faithful, loving and true.

King David went through those times when he felt forsaken.  Where was God when Saul was seeking his life?  Why was God allowing this to happen to him, after all he had been anointed of God to be king?  David says in Psalms 71:10-15, “For my enemies speak against me; those who wait to kill me conspire together. 11 They say, “God has forsaken him; pursue him and seize him, for no one will rescue him.” 12 Be not far from me, O God; come quickly, O my God, to help me. 13 May my accusers perish in shame; may those who want to harm me be covered with scorn and disgrace. 14 But as for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more. 15 My mouth will tell of your righteousness, of your salvation all day long, though I know not its measure.”  David’s faith was being proven and tested before he could rule and reign. 

                Then there is always the faithful story of Job.  Job didn’t just get his apple cart upset, satan hit him square between the eyes with a 4×4.  He lost everything but his life and that was so miserable he would have been happier dead. Yet, what was the testimony of Job?  Even when Job’s wife is telling him to just curse God and die.  His response in Job 2:10 is “But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.”  When Job had withstood the test and came out the other side we see God placing him in the position of a priest, praying and making intercession for his accusing friends, standing in the gap for his accusers.  It was an example not so unlike the Priest that stands in the gap and makes intercession for us.  Even Jesus didn’t get to take the easy way out.  Why do we think that we should?  God is not trying to destroy your faith, but to take it to the next level.  Let go of your anger, disappointment and your rebellion.  Turn again into His outstretched arms of love and acceptance.  God is not through with you yet, but He is training you for a higher order and deeper walk with Him.

                “And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee (Psalms 9:10).”

Blessings,

#kent

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Horns of the Altar

Leviticus 4:18
He is to put some of the blood on the horns of the altar that is before the LORD in the Tent of Meeting. The rest of the blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.

The Horns of the Altar

There were four horns on the brazen altar in the tabernacle of Moses. These were made of acacia wood and covered with brass. What was the significance of these four horns and why were they touched with the blood of the sacrifice?
The brazen altar was a type of the cross of Christ that was the place of the sacrifice for our sins. The brass speaks of the judgement upon sin. On the cross there were four ends and each of them was touched with the blood of Jesus. The top of the cross was touched with his bloody head from the crown of thorns placed upon Him. It represented the sacrifice of the Lamb to God, the Son of God given for the sins of the world, an acceptable sacrifice unto the Father. The two sides were touched with the blood from His outstretched hands that extended grace and the redemption of the cross to all of mankind. Lastly the feet that were pierced touched the bottom of the cross, His grace extended to the least and the lowest of men. The rest of His blood was poured out at the base of the altar of the cross when the side of Christ was pieced by the spear and blood and water issued forth. Thus, atonement was made for all of our sins through the shed blood of Christ.
As I asked the Lord what these horns represented, I felt He was saying these are my strength and grace in judgement to endure the cross and to become the living sacrifice I have called you to be. Psalms 118:7 says, “God [is] the LORD, which hath shewed us light: bind the sacrifice with cords, [even] unto the horns of the altar.” God has called us to salvation by calling us to be identified with Christ upon the cross and dying to this body of sin. In Romans 12:1 the Lord exhorts us, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, [which is] your reasonable service.” It has often been said that the biggest problem with living sacrifices is that they keep crawling off of the altar. We are to be bound to the horns of the altar by the love of Christ and the fear of God. It is His grace that is sufficient to keep us in that place of self-renunciation and Christ acknowledgement.
I am reminded of the Apostle Paul when he sought the Lord three times to remove the thorn that was in his flesh. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 12:9, “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” With the horns of the altar are the grace and the strength to endure the cross and suffer the shame. The judgements of God are at work in us now as we present ourselves before the Lord in Christ. He is at work in us performing His good pleasure and while death is at work in our mortal bodies the issue of that death is the blood of life. It is His blood in ours working life and becoming a godly expression of righteousness. These four horns of the altar are the anchors that bind us and keep us in all the directions that God is at work in our lives. There are times when our flesh cries out, “how much longer God.” His answer to us is that “My grace is sufficient.” Hold fast your course, even Jesus cried out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me.” That, which is working death in us now, will ultimately work to bring forth life. Lay hold of the horns of the altar finding His grace and strength there as He sanctifies and purifies us through the baptism of fire into His redemption purposes.

Blessings,
#kent

God is for You

Romans 8:28-39
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, we have been called according to his purpose. 29For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
31What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

God is for You

There are times we go through in life when it seems all of hell comes against us. There are times the enemy wants to condemn and defeat us through accusing voices within and without. There are times circumstances of life overwhelm and flood over us like a tsunami seeking tear away all that we have held sacred and dear to us. There are times that if we lived only by our feelings we would be utterly lost and forsaken. But, God says we are His predestined ones called according to His purpose.
Predestined and purposed for what?
Predestined and purposed to be conformed to the likeness of His Son!
Sonship will allow the world to tear at every fiber of your humanity so that it may reveal your destiny as a son. It causes us to turn from every reliance and dependence upon the world so that we might fully depend on Abba Father. That is why all things are working for our good even in the darkness and seeming discouragement of our life circumstances. Father is saying take heart, I am only allowing it to conform you by faith and steadfast obedience to that which you are called to become.
“I am for you, not against you”, says the Lord.
Hebrews 5:7-10 says of Jesus, “During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. 8Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered 9and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him 10and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek.” We have a promise to suffer persecution if we live godly in Christ Jesus. “As Jesus is so are we in this world. (1 John 4:17)” We will have our hardships, but Father wants us to know beyond a shadow of doubt those hardship are in no way indicative of His inseparable love for us. There is a principle in God that out of our dying to self and the natural realm, spiritual life is produced and propagated. The more we die to this life the more of Jesus is released into the earth.
Paul describes it this way in 2 Corinthians 4:7-12, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. 12So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.” Every assault of the enemy and this natural world should only serve to bring forth Jesus. Every time you are wounded physically, spiritually, emotionally, financially; it should only cause you to bleed more of Jesus into every situation, because that is who you are and what you are becoming.
This is why it is so important not to weigh your spirituality or God’s love for you by your circumstances. How can you be an overcomer, unless you have to overcome? God wants us to so get a hold of who we are. He so wants you to have a revelation of your identity in Him, your destiny and purpose in Him. If you have a secure revelation of that and that nothing in hell or earth can steal that from you, then you will overcome the enemy, “by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.” You will not fear or shrink back from the death in this life, because you have so much of a revelation of the life of Christ that dwells in you. In the understanding of that revelation is the peace of knowing, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” If God is so much for you, who can ever be against you?

Blessings,
#kent

The Righteous shall not be Forsaken

The Righteous shall not be Forsaken

Psalms 37:25
I have been young, and [now] am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.

Often times the walk of righteousness is not an easy walk. As we draw near to God, and more and more relinquish our life for His, we sometimes can be become discouraged and disheartened. All around us the wicked and the ungodly seem to be prospering and enjoying life while it seems we are facing one struggle after another. While life is an uphill battle for us, it seems to often be a roller coaster ride for others and we may be tempted to mummer, “This is unfair Lord.” The psalmist saw the same thing in his day. He gives an account in Psalms 73 of how he envied the prosperity of the wicked. “For I was envious at the foolish, [when] I saw the prosperity of the wicked (Psalms 73:3).” Do we ever get discouraged and think I’m tired of this walk of righteousness. Everyone is prospering and enjoying life and I’m trying to be godly and yet I’m struggling through life. Where is the equity God? The psalmist goes on to explain what he discovered and the folly of his reasoning. “This is what the wicked are like- always carefree, they increase in wealth. Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure; in vain have I washed my hands in innocence. All day long I have been plagued; I have been punished every morning. If I had said, “I will speak thus,” I would have betrayed your children. When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny. Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin. How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors! As a dream when one awakes, so when you arise, O Lord, you will despise them as fantasies (Psalms 73:12-20).” Proverbs 29:18 says, “Where [there is] no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy [is] he.” There are times when our vision becomes obscure when we start to look back at the world instead of steadfastly upon the Lord. The enemy would begin to coax our minds and hearts into thinking that the way of the world is far better. He is only able to do this as we get our eyes off of Jesus. We only need to enter into the sanctuary of His holy awesome presence to be reminded of what the end and the destiny is for the wicked and unbelieving. God is not withholding His good from the righteous, He is raising up His righteous to possess and rule all things. In order to do that the “things” cannot possess us. Only He, The Lord God, Pure and Holy, must possess us. Our destiny is not of this world, for this world and all of it goods soon are to pass away and perish with the using, but the possession we have in Christ is eternal and only increases from glory to glory.
Don’t allow yourself to become discouraged by the struggles you have in this world. It is by patience and steadfast faithfulness that we enter in and possess the greatest prize of all, God’s holy nature and manifest presence in our lives. What our God desires to give us is unmatchable by anything in this natural world. We must have the vision of what God’s heart and desire for us is lest we perish in the wilderness, failing to enter in and possess our inheritance by unbelief.
Let us take heart and faint not, knowing that the fullness of our salvation is near at hand. We can know that Paul was right when he said, “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with [him], that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time [are] not worthy [to be compared] with the glory which shall be revealed in us For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God (Romans 8:16-19).” We don’t need what the world has. They need what we have, for the scripture declares that the sons of God will be the instruments of God’s restoration and restitution in the earth. The outward apparel does not always reveal the wealthy man. The righteous is being purified to be the containers of God’s wealth and blessing. The blessing that seeks not it’s own, but is the dispenser of the life and love of God even as Jesus, the pattern Son.
If we want renewed vision and purpose we need only draw near by the blood of Jesus and enter the sanctuary of His presence. When we experience the richness of His manifest presence we will know without a doubt that there is nothing in this earth richer or more satisfying than Christ Himself.

Blessings,
#kent

Forgiveness is in the Forgiving

Forgiveness is in the Forgiving

Matthew 6:12-15
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Forgiveness is a subject we have talked about before and while we accept the words of Jesus here in theory, how are we at practical application? When someone really wrongs you, hurts, betrays, cheats or deceives you, how quick are we to release forgiveness. Most all of us go through those times in our lives when we have every justification to really hate someone and not forgive them in the natural way of thinking.
Allow me to use myself as an example here that may not be so different from something you have experienced and quite possibly you have experienced worse. Recently I met a lady and did some work for her. She is a professing believer, her dad she has told me, is a preacher and her mom a missionary. She is a businesswoman running several companies. She hires me last minute to do some work for her the same day and then the next day. Each time she keeps me waiting three or four hours before her and her people are ready to go. Both days we work quite late. Now I have asked for a $500 retainer up front which she has her assistant pay me with a check. Making a long story as short as possible she owes me over $1500 dollars for the work I have done for her. While she has made many promises to pay she hasn’t. What is worse is, I have since found out that a number of other people, including other photographers are owed money they haven’t been paid. What is even worse is the check for the $500 came back after about two weeks with insufficient funds. This is about the time I reached the end of my patience, put in a call to lawyers, and let the lady in a stern and blunt way know that I was ready to take action if she didn’t get this resolved. Her promise was to pay me half in cash the next day and then the other half a few days later. Well, again she didn’t follow through. Do I have every right to be angry and sue her? You bet, in the world I do, but what is God’s way? If I pursue a legal course of action and do all that I can to expose her fraudulent behavior, have I really forgiven her? Here is the practical place where our faith and trust in God and obedience to His Word has to override our natural feelings, emotions, anger and lack of forgiveness. Does she deserve for me to forgive her? Did I deserve for Christ to forgive me? If I harbor that unforgiveness who is the one that is damaged most by it, her or me? The Word says if I don’t forgive others, neither can God forgive me. My personal forgiveness from God is dependent upon my forgiving others who have offended and wronged me.
There are areas where some of you have been deeply wounded and hurt, far more than I was. Perhaps, you may feel it is impossible for you to forgive that person or persons. We often have to leave the judgement and the vengeance to God, that is His and not ours. The key to our emotional and spiritual healing in these times begins with us simply confessing and giving it over to the Lord. Our emotions and feelings may not be there yet, but if we can begin to take the step of faith to release those who have offended us, then we have taken a step toward our own emotional healing and recovery.
Matthew 5 is full of principles that are utterly contrary to natural thinking and reasoning. In Matthew 5:43-48 Jesus says, “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust
For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more [than others]? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”
I have shared this today so that in a practical way we all might see that God is wanting us to conform to the higher standard of His Word. These kind of experiences are where the rubber meets the road and we have to live what we say we believe, otherwise how are we any different than those who have offended us?

Blessings,
#kent

This Day

This Day

Genesis 50:20
But as for you, ye thought evil against me; [but] God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as [it is] this day, to save much people alive.

Joseph makes this statement in Genesis to his brothers who had sold him into captivity in Egypt. What would have appeared to the outward man to be a shipwrecked and cursed life, God was using to train the man that would be the salvation of his people and many others as well.
How is your life? Maybe it seems anything but blessed. Trials and tribulations may be old familiar friends. Outwardly your life may look like the tabernacle in the wilderness, covered with badger skins, very ordinary looking to the world without. The question is, “what is God working within you?” How is He preparing you for your destiny and are you partnered in faith with Him as He prepares you for “this day”?
Joseph couldn’t have possibly understood the entire calamity that touched his life. Most people would have become very disillusioned and even bitter against God. We see in Joseph a calm faithfulness. The dignity and stature of his life wasn’t dependent upon his status or circumstances it was in knowing who he was and in knowing his God. How many lives and stories have missed a great ending because people gave up and lost their faith? All Joseph had was a few dreams and an upbringing that had taught him about Jehovah. There was a connection of faith in God that Joseph never let go of even in the worst of times.
We must lay hold of the truth that Joseph found. What others may have meant for evil God meant it unto good. It is all leading us to “this day” when our purpose is realized and we are brought forth to fulfill the purpose of God in our lives. You may already be at this point or you may still be in the process. Everyday of life has a purpose, even if it is just enduring in hope and faith. Know that God has a destiny and purpose for each one of us. Our life is about finding that purpose and fulfilling it in God’s time and His way. We can only know that and realize it as we walk each day with the Lord and pursue His will for our lives.
Be like Joseph and don’t lose hope. Hold fast even in the darkest of times, because it is always usually darkest just before the dawn.
“This is the day the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalms 118:24)
Blessings
#kent

Mystery Seed

John 12:24
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

Mystery Seed

Behold a mystery is in the seed,
If it remains alone it cannot feed.
Only buried in the earth can it grow,
Only in dying can its true-life flow.

Unplanted, a life for self is barren,
Planting in others is a life of sharing.
Only in giving are we made complete,
Only in dying can life bring forth seed.

Death brings a release of what is held in you.
The death of a seed gives life anew.
Life springs forth out of a forsaken shell,
For us it was released through a cross and nails.

As our Savior became a seed planted in the ground,
He released eternal life to those all around.
He was multiplied through the death that He died,
The resulting harvest is from death now glorified.

We, His believers, are now His seed.
We, likewise, must give our lives for those in need.
Through losing ourselves is our life truly found.
It is His life in us that springs from our ground.

Because we willingly became a planted seed,
The Life in us can now meet another’s need.
The death of the seed has a harvest brought,
It is the price that it is paid for all He has sought.

It is now for us to be the seed planted in the ground,
To loose the captive and those that are bound,
We pour out our lives and through His life give,
The mystery is: “that through one death, many may live.”

Blessings,
#kent

Leaking Cisterns

Leaking Cisterns

Jeremiah 2:13
For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, [and] hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

A cistern is a well, pit or a storing place usually of water for any who may not be familiar with what a cistern is.
Jeremiah is unveiling the state of Israel as the Lord sees them. He would speak to us much the same way in this hour. We are a people that began with a faith in Christ and His righteousness. He was our fountain of living waters. He washed us in His blood and made us whiter than snow. He clothed us with the righteousness of His saints and He was our source of life and the focus of our daily living. We rejoiced in His fellowship and had great joy in our relationship with Him. Unfortunately, little by little our fidelity began to wane. Gradually the Lord ceased from being our all in all as we began to turn our eyes and hearts to other things and desires. Without even realizing it we began to move away from our fellowship as our focus and dependence became more and more on the world around us. Outwardly we would deny that anything was wrong with our spiritual state, but inwardly we knew we were losing the fountain of our fellowship and life.
What do we do to hide this spiritual breech of intimacy and life we had with the Lord? We create substitutes. We hew out our own cisterns of religious and spiritual appearances so that we can maintain a façade of spirituality and holiness to those around us. We don’t openly forsake the Lord, but we create a storefront of spirituality while, we live out our own desires in the backroom. Obviously this façade is our broken cisterns. They are fashioned like the real, but they are created in the flesh and as a result cannot hold the life of God. For those casually looking in everything may seem right and good, but we have become like Jesus’ description of the Pharisees, “whitewashed grave sites, full of dead men’s bones.” In our deception of ourselves we deceive others and lead them down our same path of destruction and ruin. Jeremiah 2: 19 says, “Your wickedness will punish you;
your backsliding will rebuke you. Consider then and realize how evil and bitter it is for you when you and have no awe of me,” declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty.” When we lose that fear, awe and respect for the Lord it takes us into dangerous territory. Many of us may find ourselves there today if we honestly and without guile search and discern our own hearts. The Lord warns us of our state so that we might judge ourselves and turn from our wicked ways, before God Himself has to judge us. This is where we return to those first principles of repentance from dead works. This is where we acknowledge our sinful and deviant ways before the Lord and turn back to Father with a broken and a contrite heart which the Lord says He will not despise. This is where we abandon the cisterns of our own making and turn again to drink from the fountain of living water. There we will find His grace and forgiveness if we will but fear Him and repent.
Father is calling those out who will hear His voice to be separated unto Him. It is not yet a separation unto judgement, but the lines of spiritual separation are being drawn between the sheep and the goats, the wheat and the tares. Let Him who has an ear hear what the Spirit is saying to the church in this hour. “Come out from among them and be ye separate.”

Blessings,
#kent

Our First Love

Revelations 2:3-5

You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. 4Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. 5Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.

 

Our First Love

Many times our marriages and our relationship with Christ have a lot in common.  They both are built upon love and relationship.  They generally start out with great commitment, emotion and passion to love and serve the Lord or to love and serve our spouse.  Through the course of life with all of its trials and demands the polish and gold tends to wear thin on the feelings and commitment we first felt and lived toward the Lord and toward our spouse. Many of us have endured many hardships together and we have trusted the Lord through many of them.  

Even though we are good people, who have worked hard for our marriage and for our spiritual relationship the dynamics have changed.  We’ve somehow lost the closeness and the intimacy of relationship we once had.  

This word “forsaken” in verse 4 in the Greek means, “ to depart, as of a husband divorcing his wife, yield up, expire, let go, let alone, to disregard, to leave, to omit, neglect.”  Do any of these words speak to our hearts as to our relationships in our marriage and in our walk and relationship with Christ?  We are still here in body, going through the motions of marriage and relationship, but have our hearts left the room?  Have they grown cold with complacency?  Sometimes our marriages are measured by how well we tolerate one another rather than how well we really love and bless one another.  Even in our Christianity we so often get in the rut of being religious, going to church, giving our tithe or doing our duty, but our heart and passion are no longer in it.  

It is a time for stirring up the embers and throwing on some new wood.  It is a time we must blow and breathe new life back into the fire of our relationships.  I’ll admit I have been bad about becoming so caught up in my business and the things that concern me, that I have neglected the weightier matters.  Somehow we come to take for granted that this loved one will always be there and everything will be fine, meanwhile we allow the foundation to rot out from under us.  One day we wake up and our house is in ruin.  The signs were all around but we didn’t heed them until our lampstand had been plucked from us and suddenly we found ourselves shut out.  

Here the Lord is warning us about our relationship with Him and also what can happen in our marriages.  We must return to that first love, the courting, the dating, the intimacy and attention that we gave to our partner then.  It can be no less with Christ.  It is not our works that save us in our marriage or our Christianity, it is the relationship that we maintain and cultivate with the one that we say we love. For me, it is often my communication that fails the most.  I get caught up in my own little world and when I fail to communicate, I find I am failing in my relationship.  That communication, especially that which shares my heart, is what my wife needs from me.  She has to feel that connection with my heart to feel close to me and a part of me.  I think this often comes more naturally to women as a general rule than men, but it doesn’t mean that we as men can neglect it.  We have to cultivate it, even when it doesn’t come naturally to us.  It is always remembering that love is not about us, it is about the object of our love.  When we love the Lord or our spouse the way they need to be loved, we will find that our needs are met in our giving and loving.  Let us endeavor to return now to our first love, not just in word, but in deed and with all of our heart. 

 

Blessings,

kent

The Righteous are not Forsaken

 

The Righteous are not Forsaken

Psalms 37:5

I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.

 

Psalms 37:4 says, “Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD upholdeth him with his hand.”  As a people in general and as Christians I doubt that there are very many of us who don’t face times of real trial and struggle in our lives and many of us more than we would care to talk about.  For many of us, life is often a continual struggle, especially as we attempt to walk out our faith with faithfulness and obedience.  When we do really try and walk closely with the Lord we may find all of hell seems to be unleashed against us or we make some mistakes and then we are overwhelmed with guilt and condemnation because we blew it.  There may be those times we fall, stumble and falter in our walk with the Lord, but remember there is someone stronger than you walking with you.  Praise God we don’t have to rely upon our own strength and righteousness to get us to heaven.  Jesus is our High Priest and Intercessor who is always standing in the gap for us and pleading our cause.  

2 Timothy 2:11-13 tells us, “The saying is sure and worthy of confidence: If we have died with Him, we shall also live with Him. 12If we endure, we shall also reign with Him. If we deny and disown and reject Him, He will also deny and disown and reject us. 13If we are faithless [do not believe and are untrue to Him], He remains true (faithful to His Word and His righteous character), for He cannot deny Himself.”   The desire of the Father’s heart is that we grow up in the fullness and likeness of Christ.  He has given us the Holy Sprit to help us in that process.  It has been said that the Holy Spirit is a perfect gentleman and doesn’t violate or force our will if we make choices other than Him.  In fact, we often don’t realize how we can offend and hurt the Holy Spirit by our attitudes and actions.  Many of us need to reconcile that relationship with Him.  The thing about God is that if most of us received what we deserved we would have been cast off a long time ago, but God’s heart is always to draw you back to His righteousness and to Christ.  The enemy would like you to think that you have burned your bridges and there is no way back, but the grace and love of God is so high and so wide and so deep that it can span the greatest chasms of sin.  He just wants us to repent and give our lives, without reservation, back to Him.  Even when we fall and fail, the Lord is there for us to pick us up again if we will let Him.  

Life holds many tests and trials for us, some we pass and others we don’t.  We are all in the process of maturing and growing, all too often we poop in our pants and make messes along the way.  We must remember that our past failures can be our future stepping-stones to victory and overcoming.  God will let us fall down.  He will let us make our mistakes and we often have to suffer the consequences, whatever those may be, but He hasn’t turned His back on us.  If we will cry out to Him, if we will repent and begin seeking Him with our whole heart we can find that place of forgiveness, fellowship and communion with the Holy Spirit again. 

If some of us, or others that you know, are struggling today; God hasn’t abandoned you. He has finished the reconciliation upon the cross and now He lovingly waits for us to respond back to Him.  Many people perceive God in unfair and unrealistic ways because of how they have been treated or how they have been impressed and perceived God by the example of those claiming Christianity.  They are turned off to God because of us.  We, like Paul, must remember that our whole mission in life is to suffer whatever is necessary so that others may come into the kingdom. In 2 Timothy 2:10 Paul says, “Therefore I [am ready to] persevere and stand my ground with patience and endure everything for the sake of the elect [God’s chosen], so that they too may obtain [the] salvation which is in Christ Jesus, with [the reward of] eternal glory.”  May God’s love likewise be extended through us so that we are willing to love even the unlovely for whom Christ died.  Let us continue to encourage and exhort one another to faithfulness.  God loves us and will not forsake us, even in our weaknesses and times of greatest trials.  He may not miraculously save us out of our circumstances in the way we might like to see, but He is there with us, walking it out and giving us grace. 

Don’t give up, don’t give in, but always fix your eyes upon Him.  He will carry you through and He will provide the way and the means.

 

Blessings,

kent