Strong Tower of Safety
June 19, 2023
Strong Tower of Safety
Proverbs 18:10
The name of the LORD [is] a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.
Our middle son was almost to turn two years old, as he lay limp in his crib, his body feverish and alarmingly ill. It was a time in our lives when we were walking and trusting God for divine health and healing. We were full of concern as we held and watched this little lethargic body. It was at critical time that I remember one evening Sharon calling upon other brothers and sisters in the Lord to pray. I remember going through the Word of God and reading the promises concerning healing from God’s Word over this little one. I was reminding God of His Word, of His Promises and of His faithfulness. The Lord so mercifully heard our petitions and in His faithfulness He turned the tide in little Jonathan’s illness. The fever began to lift and strength began to come back into his body. The Lord restored him to health and gave him back to us.
There are many stories in our lives of how we have seen God’s faithfulness, healing and provision in our lives. There are also times when God didn’t respond like we believed for or thought that He should have. Did that make Him any less God or any less faithful? I’m sure Job must have wondered why God didn’t respond to him as he held fast his faith in the midst of the total devastation of his life. After he had lost his family, his wealth and his health, his wife comes to him in Job 2:9-10, “Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die. 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.” Job had come to know God in a way that many haven’t. He knew that God is God come rain or shine, light or dark, good or evil. We are not always going to understand God’s timing, His ways or why things always go as they do, especially when we have tried so hard to stand in faith. We have the advantage as readers to be privy behind the scenes of what was taking place in Job’s life and the dialogue between God and satan. Most of the time we are like Job we don’t know all the whys and wherefores of why things happen as they do, so can we still trust God? The fire that God allowed in Job’s life simply served to bring forth and reveal the purity of the gold that was within him. We always think in terms of what preserves or blesses our flesh. God thinks in terms of what will reveal His nature and character in us. God’s desire is not to preserve our flesh but to bring forth the likeness of His Son. “Jesus, though he was a Son, learned obedience through the things that he suffered. (Hebrews 5:8).” When we walk the way of the cross it is not going to always be sunshine and lollipops, there are going to be times of darkness and trial.
King David became quite familiar with these times as he fled Saul and his efforts to kill him. In those times, did he get mad at God or blame God for his troubles? No, it only served to drive him deeper into faith and reliance upon the Lord. These are a couple of the things David wrote as he went through these threatening times. In Psalm 18:2 he writes, “The LORD [is] my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, [and] my high tower.” In Psalms 144:2 he writes, “My goodness, and my fortress; my high tower, and my deliverer; my shield, and [he] in whom I trust; who subdueth my people under me.” It is easy for us to believe when we do see the mighty hand of God move and we see our miracles and our deliverance. The question is, ‘what does it do in us when God is silent, and seemingly fails to show up in the way that we have prayed and believed?’ These are the times that our faith is really tried. Do we truly love God for who He is, or do we only love Him for what He can do for us and give to us?
Is He still our high tower, our defender, our trust and our salvation? Our trust is not in our prayers but in God’s sovereignty, love, divine wisdom and His plan.
I have often questioned God about why things did or didn’t take place after I have prayed and believed, but I still have to know that He is the Potter and I am the clay. He shapes and molds our lives and He commands our destiny. We must rest in His hands and trust them to shape our lives in the way that pleases Him.
He is still our high tower of safety and the One in whom we place our trust. He is still God and He still loves us.
Blessings,
#kent
God’s Ways
November 17, 2022
Isaiah 66:2
Has not my hand made all these things,
and so they came into being?”
declares the LORD.
“This is the one I esteem:
he who is humble and contrite in spirit,
and trembles at my word.”
God’s Ways
The hand of the Lord moves in mysterious ways, His wonders to display.
We often don’t understand why He moves to bring about what He may.
His wisdom is so far above the wisdom of the of this earthen man,
But be assured He is working all things according to His master plan.
Faith is the confidence to believe what you don’t fully understand or know.
It operates in the principle that where you plant believing, it will surely grow.
It is not a recipe, but truth we lay hold of with a witness in our heart.
Where we operate out of the love of God, we know His Spirit will impart.
Father doesn’t always operate out of our wisdom, mind or will,
But He is still the voice that speaks to the storm and tells it to be still.
He doesn’t always rescue us from every struggle, hurt and trial,
But His grace is sufficient working in us to help go that extra mile.
Hold fast to the One who loves you far beyond this earthen life.
Take the hand of Him who walks with you through all the struggles and the strife
Even when God’s hand moves to allow you in tribulation and pain to take part.
When you don’t understand the hand of God, know that you can trust His heart.
Kent Stuck
Blessings,
#kent
Why have You Forsaken Me, Oh Lord?
March 30, 2021
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
She is the One to Pursue
October 6, 2020
Proverbs 3:13-18
Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding, 14 for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. 15 She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her. 16 Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor. 17 Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace. 18 She is a tree of life to those who embrace her; those who lay hold of her will be blessed.
She is the One to Pursue
Proverbs puts wisdom in the feminine gender and basically tells us, “if you want to pursue a woman or that which will bless and fulfill your life, then pursue wisdom. With her comes her companion understanding. Together they are more profitable than silver and their returns are better than gold. ‘She is more precious than rubies and nothing else you desire can compare to her. Solomon is speaking this out of a place of experience, because he has found her and has come to know her value and worth. She is a tree of life because she brings us into the knowing and understanding of God and His ways. Pursue the will, the mind of God and His purposes in our lives, acknowledge Him in all of our ways. Then are we courting wisdom; for her nature is found in the attributes of our God. Wisdom is an attribute and personality of God that should be pursued by us His beloved. Ultimately, we must learn to operate out of this attribute and so it is imperative that we find her and be united with her.
We often hear her speaking to us through the Word of God. We hear her in the words of Jesus, the apostles and in the prophets, but do we actually reach out and embrace her and draw her to our heart? Jesus defines the difference of this in a parable that He gives in Matthew 7:21-27, “”Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ 23Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
24″Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”” In this parable we learn a priceless key of kingdom principle and wisdom. In Christ our relationship and our intimacy with knowing Him is not in the hearing, but in the doing. I think with shamefulness at all the times that I have heard the word of the Lord and even understood it, but then I didn’t really do it. It doesn’t matter what we do in the Name of Jesus if the nature of His Spirit and the character of obedience are not there. This passage tells us that there will be those who appeared to be great men of God doing signs and wonders, but the Lord didn’t know them. They might have had the power and the miracles, but they didn’t have the relationship. They had found and bound themselves to wisdom; because the attribute of wisdom is that she does the will of the Father as well as reveals the mind of the Father.
Just as wisdom and understanding are sisters, so are faith and obedience. You don’t want one without the other. Just as faith without works is dead, so is obedience without faith, because without faith it is impossible to please God. Sometimes our greatest deception is in that fact that we know the Word of God and we hear the word of God. We may be in church every Sunday and read the Word of God every day, but if we miss the doing then we remain the foolish man. The “doing” is the cement that is added to the sand to produce the concrete. Sand, by itself, is not a good foundation, but we know that concrete is a good foundation because we all build our houses on them. The difference is the cement, which is the “doing” of the word. Our greatest wisdom and understanding is in realizing that all else in our lives is shifting sand without the daily implementation of the word and principles of God into our lives. Perhaps that is why the world sees such duality and hypocrisy in our lives. They also, hear the words, but fail to see the substance. Even with Solomon who taught us this we see that he failed to hold fast to her who he knew to be so valuable and precious. He let other lovers and affections into his life that took her place. Even the wisest among us can become fools if we let go of her who is wisdom and life. May our lives be such that we are pursuing hard after her (Wisdom) today so that we not only know about God, but know the will and the do of His good pleasure.
Blessings,
#kent
Coming into the Light
September 16, 2015
Coming into the Light
John 12:44-50
44Then Jesus cried out, “When a man believes in me, he does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. 45When he looks at me, he sees the one who sent me. 46I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.
47″As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it. 48There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day. 49For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. 50I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.”
When we see and comprehend Jesus as the Son of God, that understanding brings spiritual light and illumination. We have before us a pathway of light that we might walk into and take on the nature of that light. Many who have seen Jesus have seen a great light. They even acknowledge that He is that light of God that is come into the world. Many of them sit in church every Sunday and while they acknowledge the light they still abide in darkness.
We can see the lights of a great city from a great distance. We can acknowledge that it is a city and we may even admire it, but until we move there and abide there we are not citizens of that city. Many who acknowledge Christ miss this point. We are not children of God by mere association and agreement with Truth. We must come into Truth and have our residence and being in that place.
If we simply hear the words of Jesus and the gospel, but they never really become a part of who we are and part of our nature then it will be the very Word that we said that we agreed with that shall judge us. When we are truly born again of Spirit, we are no longer trying to be holy or spiritual by association, we are holy and spiritual because we have embraced the Light by faith and asked Him to come into our hearts. Now we are to be the expression of the Light that burns within us. We abide in the truth and in the Word of God because that is now who we are. As the children of Light we must continually exercise the Light of God’s Truth so that we are conformed to the same nature as the Light that we possess. God has called us to be the Light of our world and to be the expression of His truth before men. Our obedience to the Word of God is our abiding in the truth and the light. Faith embraces it and obedience brings it into substance.
Are we abiding in the Light? We can be all around the Light, but until we become the vessel of the Light we abide in darkness. The Light glorifies the Father and acknowledges Him in all of its ways. For He is the source, the generator, the dynamo of all that is Light and Truth. All that embrace God’s light and power will put away the works of darkness and come into conformity with the Light.
Blessings,
#kent
The Spirit of a Jackass
September 14, 2015
Jeremiah 14:6
“Wild donkeys stand on the barren heights and pant like jackals; their eyesight fails for lack of pasture.”
The Spirit of a Jackass
Oh that men would praise Him rather than sing mournful hymns and songs. Oh that men of the cloth would have restored to them spiritual vision and insight. The religious man perishes and is made like dry bones. He pursues God only with his mind and intellect while his heart is far from Him. He has not the faith to embrace and hold the things of God because he stands upon the barren heights of man’s religion and tradition. It is what he has been handed down from his fathers and it is what he has learned to embrace. Now, as a wild donkey, he stands upon the barren and desolate heights of religious intellect and the traditions of his fathers to find he like the jackal is looking for some dead thing to feed upon. His spiritual eyesight fails to see that God is so much more than the cathedrals of theology and learning. He is not only the God of the past, but of the here and now. He doesn’t know how to find and relate with God in his own present tense. His soul is lean though his head is full of knowledge. He dwells in the land of famine and feeds upon the fodder of human reasoning. He has a form of godliness, but denies the power thereof. Thus, he finds no pasture and rest for his soul, but wrestles with fears, doubts and unbelief. The product of this man is found across the landscape of religion. They have their structures, their forms, their incantation, ceremonies and holy words, but their lives are devoid of the life giving power of true relationship and fellowship with Father God. There God is kept in their holy box instead of being a living fire in their hearts.
Though the truth is spoken to them they can not hear. They will not receive for they are like the wild donkeys, stubborn and set in their ways. They, in fact, resent and despise those who live in and speak the truth, for they are the heretics of their religious box. The religion and their tradition have become their idol and indeed it is the religion and form that they worship and not God.
Jeremiah 14:10 says, “This is what the LORD says about this people: “They greatly love to wander; they do not restrain their feet. So the LORD does not accept them; he will now remember their wickedness and punish them for their sins.” The strongholds of religion will fall. Their religious walls have only served to hide the hypocrisy and sin of those who inhabit them. The Lord Almighty has judged the form and tradition of religion, because like the law of Moses it has become an instrument of death and not life, it has only condemned with judgement and fear instead of giving life, liberty and freedom. God does not dwell in edifices and structures of men, but in the living stones of His peoples lives and hearts. “Unless the Lord build the house they that labor, labor in vain.” The Lord will establish His house. 1 Peter 2:4-10 speaks the mind of God concerning His house, “As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— 5you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6For in Scripture it says:
“See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” 7Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,
“The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone,” 8and, “A stone that causes men to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for. 9But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” This is God’s temple and this is His house that He has built through the hands of His Son, Jesus Christ.
God is calling His true people out of the former traditions and forms of men into the relationship with Him whereby you may cry “Abba Father”, Papa God. Our God is a God of relationship not of form and dead letter. He is desiring to bring you into the fellowship of His family and communion with His Holy Spirit. That relationship is not one of ceremony but of knowing Him in the intimacy of your heart and life through Christ. Wild Donkeys will not hear this word for they are stubborn and stiff-necked, determined in their own way even when it leaves them in famine and desolation, but those who have spiritual ears will hear and come out from among her to find that true and living church which isn’t in an organization, but is a living, functioning organism of His life, love and fellowship. This is the word of the Lord to His people this day.
Blessings,
#kent
Having Eyes, We do not See
September 2, 2015
John 14:8
Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
Having Eyes, We do not See
Sometimes we can miss the forest for the trees. What is right in front of us we fail to see. Our natural mind and thinking often hems us in and keep us from seeing a bigger picture. Jesus, the man which they saw, held and touched was the Christ. He was the incarnate manifest expression of God in flesh. Jesus was the prototype and example of God’s Spirit living in human form. That is why knowing Jesus is the revelation of expressing the Father.
“Show us the Father and it will satisfy us.” What had Jesus spoken just before Philip asked this question? John 14: 6-7, “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
Philip’s thinking was exactly why God had to meet with us on our level of understanding and thinking. We always perceive God through the filter of our natural thinking and understanding. What God is helping us understand is that He is not flesh and blood or an old, majestic white-haired man setting upon a throne in heaven. Jesus tells us in John 4 that ‘God is Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.’ If God is Spirit then it only stands to reason that He has given us a spiritual book in our Bible. If it is a spiritual book then how is it going to best be comprehended and understood, with a natural mind of a spiritual mind? If we are to truly comprehend God in some true measure then we have learn to use another dimension of our mind rather than just our intellect and natural reasoning.
After Philip asked Jesus to show them the Father, Jesus replies in John 14: 9-14, “Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. 12I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” Jesus speaks something to His disciples that the rest of the religious world of that day would have considered flat out blasphemy. Common thought would have been, “Jesus, a man, identifying Himself with Father God and calling Himself one with Him. Who does He think He is?” He knew who He was, but others didn’t know Him for who He was. The revelation of Christ in you is to bring you into the spiritual revelation and knowledge of who you are in Christ. Jesus Himself has identified us with Himself and the Father, but most of us are still living in this old paradigm of our natural man. If you are a new creation in Christ Jesus then you must know that He has placed within this new creation the characteristics and the nature of Himself. Many of us have grown up in religion and yet we still don’t have a true revelation of who we are in Christ. We still view Christ as up, out and away from us, rather than the substance of our being and life.
John 14:23, “23Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.” Jesus came to earth to live before us a relationship of Father and Son. While Jesus acknowledges the Father as greater, His purpose is the expression of the Father in complete and total obedience. His life is not about Jesus the man as some in Hollywood have made Him out to be, His life is Jesus the Christ, the complete surrendered human expression of God the Father. Jesus is the example of what He wants to do in and through each one of us who are a part of His body.
When people ask us to show them Jesus, will we be able to reply as Jesus did to Philip, “Have I been so long with you and you have not seen the Christ?” This is mind that must be in us, that we know our purpose as the expression of Christ in whatever capacity, gifts and callings He has placed upon our lives. Our purpose is to express Jesus, the Christ, as He expressed the Father, for together, with Him we are one.
Blessings,
#kent
The Road back to Love and Intimacy
August 28, 2015
Colossians 3:18-19
Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. Husbands, love [your] wives, and be not bitter against them.
The Road back to Love and Intimacy
Remember when your romance was as sweet as honey and the love of your life could do no wrong. You adored them, idolized them and wanted to spend every moment together. Many of us, looking back at those younger years, ask ourselves, “what happened to that first love?” We still may love each other, but many couples struggle with the “feelings of love” that are missing. The romance has died way down and now you may find that instead of really loving and cherishing that wonderful man or woman you are struggling to get along with them. The man may feel like the wife is always nagging him, he can never do enough or anything right, she doesn’t respect and honor him. The woman may feel like the husband has become an insensitive jerk that never communicates or works through the problems, he doesn’t meet her needs. Over the years and the cycles of good and bad times, we can accumulate a lot of baggage. If I ask you if you love your husband or your wife, you would quite likely reply, “will of course I do,” but neither one of you may be experiencing the love from one another that you feel and know should be there. We may say we hold no unforgiveness toward one another, but in reality both parties bear scars, wounds, unresolved conflicts and issues that linger in the subconscious ready to rear their ugly heads at the right moment, opportunity or provocation. We find that we fail to often treat each other with the love, dignity and respect that both parties are due in a marriage.
Fifty percent of our marriages fail due to these kind of issues, but how many more are struggling and hurting? We need to return to that place of intimacy and closeness that we once shared, but we can’t until we are able let down the walls we’ve built up and are willing to let go of all the offenses, hurts and bitterness that we carry.
When the Word says, “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord,” that submission might be just creating a safe place where your husband can share with you. It needs to be a place where you aren’t venting your anger, frustration, criticism and unhappiness, no matter how justified you may feel with those feelings. If you want your husband to communicate and be sensitive to your needs, you have to create an atmosphere of submission where you really want to see, feel and understand his heart. That can be a hard place for a man. He may not be in touch with his feelings the way you are, so be gentle and be patient and above all, be kind.
“Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.” Husbands can be very confrontational, critical and harsh, but many repress their feelings and emotions. They retreat into that shell of seeming insensitivity and non-communication. Many times it is a response of self-preservation. Often the harder the wife tries to break through that seeming insensitivity with harsh or critical words the more the husband withdrawals. If you want the turtle to stick his head out of the shell you have to stop beating on the shell and make him feel that when he sticks his head out it won’t get bit off. Husbands can hold a lot of things in their hearts that they may not even be fully aware of. Their means of retaliation may be more passive or subtle, but it may be coming from a bitterness that has built up in their hearts against their wives. They, on the other hand, need to really listen to the heart of their wives and make those needs their goals to fulfill. They need to make them feel secure in your love for them and remember them often in the little gifts, the things you do and say. Marriage is a teaching ground for unconditional love and service. It is where we should both be learning to lay down our lives for the other. Love is not always about feeling, but about commitment, covenant and a decision to love your spouse unconditionally even when they don’t derserve it.
Maybe we need to come together as a couple where we can agree that the love of Christ is going to rule and dictate our behavior and response to one another. We need to hold one another, not sexually, but intimately, while we confess our sins, our hurts and failures to one another. We need to truly commit to a willingness to really forgive and hear the other person’s heart. We need an uninterrupted time of reconciliation where we can write down and commit to one another some realistic goals where we will begin to address some of our deepest issues. Keep it simple and not more than we can realistically deal with at one time. Start with just three things each. Then let’s make a date for our next intimate time we can meet with the same right heart and attitude, in the love of Christ to see how we are doing. Again, we need to keep it safe and non-confrontational. This is a team project and we can’t succeed if we only have our own agenda and interest at heart. We can’t expect to mend and restore a broken down barn in a day or even a week, it will take time to restore, just as it took time to deteriorate. We can change the cycle and the direction of our marriages if we will both commit to it and stay with it. We will begin to see our true intimacy and love begin to come alive in our feelings and the way we treat one another. God wants to see our marriages strong and alive with His love. There is a lot of truth to the addage that ‘the family that prays together, stays together’. It is hard to be right with each other when we are not right with God. If we are committed to Christ, then we must also be committed to one another, for we are one flesh. Together let’s build the road back to true love and intimacy like we had in our first love.
Blessings,
#kent
Riches in Christ
July 24, 2015
Riches in Christ
Colossians 1:27
To whom God would make known what [is] the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
Did you ever express the desire to be rich? When you find Christ, you have found the storehouse of God’s riches. There is none to exceed them in all of the earth. Many people miss His riches, because it doesn’t have all the glitter and shine that earthly riches have. It doesn’t make you the most prominent and honored by the people of this world. That’s why so many missed Jesus. They were looking for the worldly standard of riches, but the King of Kings was born in a barn, to a meager couple. In the world’s eyes, His mother had gotten pregnant out wedlock and no doubt bore the shame and reproach of an illegitimate birth. Farm animals and shepherds were the King’s attendants. There was nothing that rang of riches by the world’s standards. Yet, in heaven, the angels rejoiced and heaven celebrated the fact that the King of Kings had been born in the earth of a virgin to bring salvation to men. They were full of glad tidings, because they recognized the rich gift that God had just deposited into the earth, but the world comprehended it not.
What you and I contain in Christ is nothing less than phenomenal. We contain a treasure that the universe would covet, but your next door neighbor might not even notice. We contain the potential glory that even the angels of heaven stand in awe and wonder. How often do we, ourselves, treat this treasure and the riches within us as every day and common? We carry within our earthen vessel the outshining of the Father’s glory and yet so many of us have become complacent with it. 2 Corinthians 4:6-7 says, “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to [give] the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” Why we miss the Christ in us, is because there is still so much of us, that, like the world, we don’t even begin to appreciate and cherish this treasure within us. Think about what that means, “Christ in YOU!” The reason we don’t appreciate the Christ is because the “YOU” is too big. It is still trying to be our treasure instead of it just facilitating the Christ, who is our treasure. Ephesians 2:4-7 tells us, “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us; Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised [us] up together, and made [us] sit together in heavenly [places] in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in [his] kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.” Look at the position in which God has placed you…”made [us] sit together in heavenly [places] in Christ Jesus.” You and I are in the Christ. We are in the King. We sit down at the right hand of the Father in Him. Colossians 3:1-4 reaffirms this, ” If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, [who is] our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.” This is so often such a hard concept for us to really grasp and live in the reality of, “that it is no longer I that live, but Christ that lives within me.” We are one, as a husband and wife are one. Our name is now His name. Being faithful in our fidelity to our Lord Christ, all that we are is now to please Him and for His glory alone. Likewise His covenant with us is too meet our need. Paul tells us in Philippians 4:19, “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Christ and us now live unto each other. He is the motivation, the focus and the strength out of which we live and move and have our being. The heart of God for all of His people is, “That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:2-3).” You see Christ is our riches and our treasure house in which all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are stored. Could we, with these finite minds, begin to comprehend what we fully possess in Christ? It is not possible, for the natural mind and understanding doesn’t comprehend it, but the Spirit of Christ within us does. 1 Corinthians 2:9-12 says, “9However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”[a]— 10but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.” We have the potential of understanding and having a revelation of far more than we may think, but it will never be through the natural mind. You and I are a rich people today. Let us be careful not to despise, treat lightly or common the gift and riches that we have been given. They are often masked in pain, suffering, persecution, and adversity. All are the processes of bringing the gold out of the darkness and into the light; so let your light so shine before men, Christ in you, the hope of glory. He is our riches and treasure for eternity.
Blessings,
#kentGod
tricklesoftruth 