In Our Darkest Hour
January 16, 2015
Acts 16:16-29
Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. 17This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” 18She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.
19When the owners of the slave girl realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. 20They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar 21by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.”
22The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten. 23After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. 24Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
25About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody’s chains came loose. 27The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. 28But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”
29The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
In Our Darkest Hour
As we endeavor to walk the walk of faith we come to experience and realize that God doesn’t just rescue us out of every bad circumstance and trial. The experience Paul and Silas have here is a case and point. God had something more far reaching than an immediate rescue or even the avoidance of a very unpleasant experience for His servants. Like them, there are times when our reasoning might be “God, I am doing your will and I am in your service, why are you allowing these things to happen to me? Why didn’t you come through when I called upon You?”
Remember the words of Jesus in John 16:33, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” If Jesus, the Son of God, had to endure the cross, despising the shame, then know that there can and will be dark and difficult times when we follow in His footsteps. The question then isn’t really are we going to experience trials and tribulations, those are almost a given. The question is how do we respond when we are in the midst of these dark times? Will we blame God for failing us? Will we give up and forsake the faith or will we do what Paul and Silas did in there greatest and darkest hour of despair. They were praying, praising and singing hymns unto the Lord. If you want to talk about a time when they might have had zero incentive to praise God this could have been it. They have been wrongfully accused, convicted, beaten within an inch of their lives, thrown into the inner, darkest dungeon and put into chains. Everything in the natural declared that they were defeated and God hadn’t saved them. Just stick a fork in them cause they are done.
These are men that no longer walk by their feelings and emotions. These are men that have entrusted themselves into the hands of God whether for life or for death. Their faith and commitment have superseded their circumstances. This is where we have to be in our walk and in our faith in this hour. In our darkest hour we cannot be murmuring and complaining about how God failed us. God is God and does all things according to His time and purpose which may be in direct contradiction to ours. So what do we do in these times? We worship Him. It doesn’t matter what happens upon the earth or how bad it gets, God is still on the throne. He is still sovereign over the affairs of men. Evil men may prevail for a time, but in the end they must answer to the Almighty.
Job 13: 15 says, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him…” This must become the motto and battle cry of God’s people. We are His in life and in death. We are His in health and in sickness. We are His in prosperity and poverty. We are His in freedom and in prison. We are His in justice and injustice. In all our ways and with all of our hearts we must be His.
We see God showing up in the darkest hour in the midst of praise and worship. He shows Himself strong and sovereign even in a naturally impossible situation. Through this travail and sorrow, salvation and life are brought forth to the glory of God. We are pregnant with His life and often the bringing forth of that life comes with much travail and sorrow, but joy comes in the morning. Light triumphs over the darkness and life over death. There is no greater honor we can have than to lay down our lives for Christ’s sake. Many saints have not been rescued as Paul and Silas were this night and eventually they, also, came to a time when they gave their lives for the gospel. The martyrs are the color guard of heaven. They carry the standard of His righteousness and the banner of His love. They are His elite elect and faithful ones, because they loved not their lives even unto death.
Many of us are in dark times or will be in the near future. They may or may not be life threatening, but they won’t be easy. In these times we must enter into His rest. We must resign to the truth that our greatest victory is found not in self-effort, but through prayer, praise and worship. In Daniel 3 when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow down and worship Nebuchadnezzar’s idol they faced sure death for not complying, but this was their response, “16Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. 17If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. 18But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.” This is the abandonment of faith into the hands of God. This is something that everything in the natural cries out against, but for the ones who know their God this is the place of our peace.
Blessinsg,
#kent
Self Struggle
April 7, 2014
Romans 7:24-25
What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Self Struggle
From my night I look out into the light.
I am drawn by its warmth and love.
There is a love that draws me out of my night.
But then the voices rush in that changes my gears.
They remind me of past hurts, disappointments and fears.
They remind me of all that I enjoy and would need to give up.
So I am drawn back from the light and from drinking His cup.
Back into the security of my unchanging heart.
Back into my dysfunctional darkness of which I’ve so been a part.
I hear the voice speaking into my spirit,
“Would you be made whole?”
“Would you be healed?”
“Would you be delivered and set free?”
Suddenly there is such a strong sense of duality.
Two men warring within me for dominion and victory.
One struggles to keep me in the darkness and need;
Bringing before me fears of change, and shame of my past,
Condemnation of sin and a half empty glass.
And what it will cost me to make the change?
The other man stands in His peace and light of His gain,
Arms extended and the truth of His love inviting me in.
I love the warmth and the peace of His presence,
But then the darkness crowds in, causing me to withdrawal again.
Inwardly I am grieved at my fallen state.
Only fleeting joy, broken promises and empty estate.
I look back over the wastelands of my life.
All I see is heartache, brokenness and strife.
What is my purpose if this life is all there is;
If I continue to choose this self-life instead of His?
His love is faithfully pursuing my wretched soul.
What can He possibly see in this lump of coal?
This time when He invites me, I run with a new reply.
I cast my wretched self upon His grace and cry,
“Change me and fill me with yourself and your love.”
“I would be made whole.”
“I would be healed.”
“I would be delivered and set free.”
Please Lord, take and fill all of me.
The magnitude of His love and peace floods my heart.
I sense His blood cleansing every filthy part.
Hope and joy are now abounding through my soul.
I finally relinquished my will and gave Him full control.
A new day has dawned in this heart and soul of mine.
Transforming power and new direction do I find.
“What a wretched man I am!
Who will rescue me from this body of death?
Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
Blessings,
#kent
When God is Silent and Understanding Fails (Part 2)
February 19, 2014
When God is Silent and Understanding Fails
(Part 2)
Job34:10-15
10 “So listen to me, you men of understanding. Far be it from God to do evil, from the Almighty to do wrong. 11 He repays a man for what he has done; he brings upon him what his conduct deserves. 12 It is unthinkable that God would do wrong, that the Almighty would pervert justice. 13 Who appointed him over the earth? Who put him in charge of the whole world? 14 If it were his intention and he withdrew his spirit and breath, 15 all mankind would perish together and man would return to the dust.
Did Job deserve all of the calamity and misfortune that befell him? Was it a judgement from God for some hidden sin? Job 1:1 begins by telling us about Job’s character and how he was viewed in the eyes of God, “There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name [was] Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.” The judgements or afflictions that befell Job weren’t about his sin. While we may not have all of Job’s integrity we are washed in the blood of Jesus and all of our sin is taken away, so when calamities befall us, is it always because of our sin? We often automatically condemn ourselves when bad things happen and assume it’s God’s displeasure with us. It may be His pleasure not to condemn us, but to do an inner working of grace and purification that is perfecting His holiness in us. As God desires to bring us into a priestly ministry, there is purification and sanctification that brings one to the altar where all one is of themselves, is poured out. Look for instance at the life of Paul. In 2 Corinthians 4:7-12 Paul expresses His priestly ministry, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. [We are] troubled on every side, yet not distressed; [we are] perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us, but life in you.” We have come in recent years to equate spirituality with prosperity and blessing. Certainly we do serve a God that prospers and blesses us. We can see that Job had been enjoying the fruits of prosperity and blessing at the hand of God for many years. While we don’t deny His promises and His blessings, if we look we will see that there are inner blessings and workings of God that go far beyond the outward ones. God is more concerned with the inner workings of our spiritual man than He is with our earthly comforts. Spiritual overcomers are not raised up in the ease and comforts of life; they are raised up because they have experience and confidence in spiritual battles. They learn to stand in the test and overcome by the word of their testimony and the blood of the Lamb. We see at the end of Job, that through his experience, Job has found God on a new level. What Job thought he knew of God and how he justified himself he realizes that there is so much more to God. In Job 42:5-6 he says, “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor [myself], and repent in dust and ashes.” The more this life is consumed the more we realize our life is in Him and not of us. Job 42:10 says, “And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.” It was Job’s friends that condemned him that God was displeased with and it was Job that God commanded to stand in the gap, sacrifice the animals for them and pray for their forgiveness. There is that new and greater dimension of ministry that God is preparing a people for. Romans 8:18-19 tells us, “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.” Are we not these sons of God that creation is waiting for? Let us not faint in the process that God is taking us through to prepare us for the glory that shall be revealed. God loves you, Christ ever lives to make intercession for you and He is perfecting that which concerns your faith. …”What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we notreceive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips (Job 2:19).” In Job 40:8 God asks, ““Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself?”” Hold fast and don’t give up when God is silent and you feel forsaken, “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of [our] faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2).”
blessings,
kent
Bridge over Troubled Waters
November 27, 2013
Bridge over Troubled Waters
John 14:1
Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.
Our hearts are often burdened and troubled with many things, our children, our marriage, our loved ones, our finances, our health and the list goes on. Jesus tells us this is a part of this earthly life. “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)” It is true to the selfless nature of Christ that in the last hours before His apprehension and subsequent crucifixion Jesus is not trying to find comfort for Himself, He is instead comforting and reassuring His disciples, preparing them for what is to come. In our lives we will come to these crossroads of great tribulation when our world will get turned upside down. It will be hard to make sense out of the devastation that we feel and heartache we may incur, but Jesus wants us to know that He has not forsaken us in these times. The Holy Spirit has been given to us to be our comforter, our peace, our reassurance that God has not left us or forsaken us. Our Father doesn’t rescue us from all of the tragedies of life. We are destined to walk through them and the consequences that sin has had in the earth. The peace we have is that our Christ lives in us. He is the source and the resource of our ability to walk through the fires and trials of life and not have the smell of smoke upon us. Invariably our first inclination is to begin reasoning and fighting in the power of our flesh, but our salvation is not in us, it is in Him. It is entering into the rest of our God and knowing ‘He is working all things to the good of them that love Him and that are called according to His purpose.’ Our peace comes only as we enter into that place of faith and trust. We know that we serve a great God, who is sovereign over all the earth and the affairs of men and while God doesn’t always change the course of history or events for our particular circumstances, that doesn’t mean He isn’t at work in them. We get so nervous when we are not in the driver’s seat, but God is well able to guide and direct our situation far better than we are. When Job was met with the tremendous tragedies that took his children, his wealth and his health, was he effected emotionally? You bet that he was What made the difference with Job is that he knew life was not about the things of this earth, it was about his relationship with the Father. Job 1:20-22,”20 At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship 21 and said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. [c] The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised.” 22 In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.” How different from so many today who face trials only to blame God and turn away from him because He let these bad things happen to seemingly good people. Even as the second set of trials were laid upon Job with the afflictions of his flesh, his response bore out his rest and full relinquishment of his life to God. Job 2:7-10, “7 So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. 8 Then Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes. 9 His wife said to him, “Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!” 10 He replied, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.”
Our peace in the midst of our tribulation comes from not being devastated by what is happening without, but by turning within. It is by worshipping our God in the midst of trials, by placing ourselves fully within His hands to perform whatever it is He would work out through what we may only see as evil. He is our ark of safety, our fortress, our high tower, our shield and buckler. The Overcomer dwells within us. He has conquered death and the grave; He ever lives to make intercession our behalf. If our eyes and our heart are upon Him, then we are already looking at our victory regardless of what is happening without.
Is your heart troubled today? We have become anxious about many things. Perhaps we are angry with others because they are not doing something to help us. Martha was upset with Mary, her sister, because she was setting at the feet of Jesus feeding off of His words, rather than helping with the natural food preparation. Complaining to Jesus, He tells her, ““Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”” Instead of being anxious, we also need to choose the one thing that is needed, which is feeding off of the Word of God and sitting in His presence. If you need that peace today, you will find it there in His presence as you rest in Him. He is that bridge over troubled waters.
blessings,
kent
When God is Silent and Understanding Fails (Part 2)
November 15, 2013
When God is Silent and Understanding Fails
(Part 2)
Job34:10-15
10 “So listen to me, you men of understanding. Far be it from God to do evil, from the Almighty to do wrong. 11 He repays a man for what he has done; he brings upon him what his conduct deserves. 12 It is unthinkable that God would do wrong, that the Almighty would pervert justice. 13 Who appointed him over the earth? Who put him in charge of the whole world? 14 If it were his intention and he withdrew his spirit and breath, 15 all mankind would perish together and man would return to the dust.
Did Job deserve all of the calamity and misfortune that befell him? Was it a judgement from God for some hidden sin? Job 1:1 begins by telling us about Job’s character and how he was viewed in the eyes of God, “There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name [was] Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.” The judgements or afflictions that befell Job weren’t about his sin. While we may not have all of Job’s integrity we are washed in the blood of Jesus and all of our sin is taken away, so when calamities befall us, is it always because of our sin? We often automatically condemn ourselves when bad things happen and assume it’s God’s displeasure with us. It may be His pleasure not to condemn us, but to do an inner working of grace and purification that is perfecting His holiness in us. As God desires to bring us into a priestly ministry, there is purification and sanctification that brings one to the altar where all one is of themselves, is poured out. Look for instance at the life of Paul. In 2 Corinthians 4:7-12 Paul expresses His priestly ministry, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. [We are] troubled on every side, yet not distressed; [we are] perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us, but life in you.” We have come in recent years to equate spirituality with prosperity and blessing. Certainly we do serve a God that prospers and blesses us. We can see that Job had been enjoying the fruits of prosperity and blessing at the hand of God for many years. While we don’t deny His promises and His blessings, if we look we will see that there are inner blessings and workings of God that go far beyond the outward ones. God is more concerned with the inner workings of our spiritual man than He is with our earthly comforts. Spiritual overcomers are not raised up in the ease and comforts of life; they are raised up because they have experience and confidence in spiritual battles. They learn to stand in the test and overcome by the word of their testimony and the blood of the Lamb. We see at the end of Job, that through his experience, Job has found God on a new level. What Job thought he knew of God and how he justified himself he realizes that there is so much more to God. In Job 42:5-6 he says, “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor [myself], and repent in dust and ashes.” The more this life is consumed the more we realize our life is in Him and not of us. Job 42:10 says, “And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.” It was Job’s friends that condemned him that God was displeased with and it was Job that God commanded to stand in the gap, sacrifice the animals for them and pray for their forgiveness. There is that new and greater dimension of ministry that God is preparing a people for. Romans 8:18-19 tells us, “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.” Are we not these sons of God that creation is waiting for? Let us not faint in the process that God is taking us through to prepare us for the glory that shall be revealed. God loves you, Christ ever lives to make intercession for you and He is perfecting that which concerns your faith. …”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 (Job 2:19).” In Job 40:8 God asks, “”Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself?”” Hold fast and don’t give up when God is silent and you feel forsaken, “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of [our] faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2).”
Blessings,
kent
The Hard Places
August 12, 2013
The Hard Places
Genesis 18:14
Is any thing too hard for the LORD?…
Are you in a hard place today? Does an answer and a solution seem almost impossible? Then we must pose the same question that the Lord posed to Sarah, Abraham’s wife, who laughed when the Lord told Abraham that she would have a son in her old age. Sarah, being around ninety years old and her husband being older had a hard time believing even the Lord when He spoke this word to Abraham. “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”
There are times in our lives when we are in those hard places where the only place we have to look is up. Unfortunately, so many of us leave God as our last resource rather than our first. This is often why our situations go from bad to worse. The Lord wants our hearts to be submitted wholly to His will and purpose. It is often the hard places in our lives that bring us back to a place of humility and desperation for Him. There is no where else to turn, so we turn to Him. Sarah laughed because she didn’t see how even God could give her a child in her state of life and yet He did just as He said He would do. We have a bad habit of pretty much shutting God out of our lives when things are going well, but here we come running when things go south. While the Lord is so often gracious to help us in these times of need, it isn’t always, as we would expect it to be. The Lord is interested in something more eternal than our immediate crisis. Sometimes we don’t get the answers we think we want, because there are times God allows things to be torn down, so that He can do a new thing that could never happen if we continued on as we have been. “Nothing is too hard for God,”but then “His ways are not our ways,” so the results and answers to our cries in these hard places may be different than we had anticipated. We can never put God in a box and say He will do things a certain way, even if He did do them that way last time.
The hard places are the places we stand upon the Word of God and His promises. It is also a place where we must say, “not my will, but thy will be done.” The promises of God are for a purpose. They are not there to meet our every whim and desire they are given that we may be partakers of the divine nature; ” Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. (2 Peter 1:4).” Sometimes our hard places are the result of the corruption that is in the world and in us. God’s promises are to bring us out of that place and not to pacify and accept it. If God doesn’t seem to be meeting our cries for His help in those hard places maybe we need to step back and see why we might be there and what we need to do correct areas of our life that may have brought us to that place.
We are speaking in general terms, but that Holy Spirit wants to talk to some of us today. He wants us to know that nothing is too hard for Him, but what we see as deliverance may only result in our further destruction. How many times have we seen kids get themselves into dire straits, which were really the consequences of their actions? If we as parents always bailed them out, then the consequences never worked there intended purpose which was to bring correction and discipline to turn that person away from making more bad choices. That is why God doesn’t always rescue us. There may be lessons we need to learn first, there may be areas we need to seek the Lord about and areas we need to repent and ask forgiveness.
God is there for us in those hard places, but those hard places are there to do a greater work of grace in us. 1 Peter 4:12-19 puts our trials in perspective to what the will of the Lord is: “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy [are ye]; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or [as] a thief, or [as] an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters. Yet if [any man suffer] as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf. For the time [is come] that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if [it] first [begin] at us, what shall the end [be] of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls [to him] in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.” Through your hard places, allow the Lord to have His perfect work in you. Hold fast to Him no matter how he chooses to answer. Job waited a long time to see His answer, but he never lost his confidence toward the Lord and we mustn’t either. God is faithful in His time and His way not ours. “Nothing is too hard for Him.”
Blessings,
kent
tricklesoftruth 