Our Rescue! Page 11

“He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.”
Psalm 18:19

This verse drops us into the safety of open space as it visually leads us into a spacious place.  But, to fully appreciate our current locale, we must first read the fire and brimstone  rescue by the Lord himself , as described in verses 4 -15: 

“The cords of death entangled me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.
 The cords of the grave coiled around me;
the snares of death confronted me.
In my distress I called to the Lord:
I cried to my God for help.
From his temple he heard my voice;
my cry came before him, into his ears.
The earth trembled and quaked,
and the foundations of the mountains shook;
they trembled because He was angry.
Smoke rose from his nostrils;
consuming fire came from his mouth,
burning coals blazed out of it.
He parted the heavens and came down;
dark clouds were under his feet.
He mounted the cherubim and flew;
he soared on the wings of the wind.
He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him the dark rain clouds of the sky.
Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced,
with hailstones and bolts of lightning.
The Lord thundered from the heaven;
the voice of the Most High resounded.
He shot his arrows and scattered the enemies,
great bolts of lightning and routed them.
The valleys of the sea were exposed
and the foundations of the earth laid bare at your rebuke O Lord,
at the blast of breath from your nostrils.”

In the above scene….as the wind thundered, the earth shook, lightning flashed and arrows soared….as God flew on the back of a mighty angel, no less, we were rescued! The Lord did not hesitate.  He moved quickly.  He called Nature and a Guardian into his immediate command and flew.  He didn't ponder....or consider.  He moved into action for His loved one.  Verse 16 will read as our last chance of survival if we acknowledge our own powerlessness in this drowning world:

“He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters”.

Verses 17-19:  “He rescued me from my powerful enemy,
from my foes, who were too strong for me.  They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the Lord was my support.  He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me”. 

 Why such a bold rescue???  Because He delighted in me!  With the cinema as it is today I can envision this scene on the big screen.  It is epic my friend!  There is nothing like it when the mightiest of the mighty saves the day.  Psalm 18 is written about just this character.  Not as in the “main character”…but as in the character of The Almighty God.  This is the God to whom we pray; the God to whom we give our daily thanks; the God to whom we go to church to ponder.  While there do we ponder the power of this mighty warrior referenced in the above scripture?  

THIS is the God we serve: The God who knows our where-abouts and can control the elements, part the heavens and fly on the back of a guardian angel, a cherubim, to swoop down and draw us out of deep waters.   Deep waters?  Deep trouble, deep anguish, deep pain, deep fear, deep hurt, deep emotion, deep despair, deep depression, deep loss, deep waters….the depths of hell my friend.  He’s real…let’s admit it.  He is powerful…let’s be aware of it.  He is in control… let’s surrender to that….for even the forces of hell agree and bow at the mention of his name.

Philippians 2: 9-11
 “Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
 and gave him the name that is above every name,
 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth
 and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father”. 

Song Recommendation:
On My Knees
BY:  Jaci Velasquez

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By-8BN316mM

For Jim, who has been drawn out of deep waters. 

"The Lord is with you, Mighty Warrior" Page 10

Romans 4:17 says “God… calls things that are not as though they were”.  The title of this page, which is actually scripture located in Judges 6, is an example of that.   In this passage God is encouraging Gideon to stand in his faith, to be courageous….and then God proceeded to call him a Mighty Warrior.  Gideon was not yet displaying the courage of a mighty warrior and he knew it; but God encouraged him with this empowering descriptive and boldly called things that weren’t as though they were.  This is a reminder that we must move past our emotions, those tumultuous beliefs bouncing around in the psychology of our minds and, with courage we do not know we have, stand in our faith.  How will we ever become that modern-day mighty warrior until we’ve done just this; stand when our legs are shaking, speak when our voice is quaking, and love when our hearts are breaking.  We must become what we not yet are…to achieve what has yet to be.

 It is with a longing to understand death that I compile these thoughts…for as I write this my uncle is spiritually walking through the Valley of the Shadow of Death.  The other day I went to visit him.  I stood at his bedside as he sought breaths that were hard to find, called for help in his time of need, and asked to be held as he sensed his life was faltering.  I pondered my uncle’s spiritual location as I stood there, momentarily choosing to be in that valley with him.  I held his hand and tried to clear my head of emotions so that I could bravely pray and stand guard over him as best I could.  I prayed that God would send angels to stand guard as well, and then turned my shift over to them… because I was faltering.  My emotions poured forth…and my frail, human heart began to break.

We become nostalgic at times like this.  We want this life to be eternal.  We want our loved ones to always be with us…yet we know this is humanly impossible.  Death is that one thing from which none of us can escape.  My mind tried to pull forth things I could remember about my uncle and I realized how much he reminds me of my father, his brother. With emotion, my heart began to beat patriotically knowing that he was a military man.  I viewed the metals on his dresser that displayed his bravery and honor….and I watched as he courageously took in those painful breaths that also displayed a very specific form of bravery and honor.  Standing on the cusp of this life and the next, knowing that it includes walking through a valley that is shadowed with death, is exactly like that of a military man braving it all. Just as the Lord spoke to Gideon…I wanted to tell my uncle “The Lord is with you, Mighty Warrior” and I did, in my own way.   Visiting with him was, indeed, precious for it allowed me to acknowledge that death is a part of living and it vividly reminded me that each breath is a gift that literally binds us to this world; but, what of the next?

 Scripture says in James 4: 14….”What is your life?  You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”   This vanishing includes a journey that is beyond the scope of our understanding.  We can only imagine the spiritual journey one takes when leaving this earth and entering the spiritual world so vast that its gates are made of ivory and its streets of gold.  Scripture says In I Corinthians 15:26 “The last enemy to be destroyed is death”.  II Timothy 1:10 says… “But it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel".  The Holy Bible is full of this revelation!  The above scripture states that we have eternal life through belief in our Savior Jesus Christ…and our hearts beat of this truth as well.     

          Scripture states in Ecclesiastes 3:1
 “He has made everything beautiful in its time.  He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”

What does this mean?  From the beginning to the end, deep within our hearts, we absolutely know that we are meant for eternity.  Do you think it ironic that our hearts long to live forever, that we love so deeply that we can hardly bear losing a loved one?   We sense that there is something beyond ourselves….yet we cannot fathom it.   The best-selling book of all times, the Bible, states there is life after death.  All our human hopes would certainly be fulfilled if we took this amazing opportunity to be saved from the sin of this world and blessed with eternal life.  You are invited by God himself into eternity through the scripture in John 3: 16

 “For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
  Simply confess that you believe! 
“I believe!”

 We all have a legacy that is imperfect, but none-the-less, beautiful.   My uncle has a family history worthy of remembering.  The picture-book of our lives is there for this purpose.  With this said, we know that memories don’t suffice nor console.  There is really no way for us to reconcile losing a loved one…. but the more we know of God the easier it is to find a peace with this parting.  When we know God we are confident that “all things work for the good of those who love him”.  When we know God we have a trust, set deep in our core, that allows us to hold to our faith and accept the inevitable.  

 More importantly than all of this…when we know God we know that we will meet again in eternity.  Until then, we can stand confident in our faith that through the compassion of our Creator, we will smile again, love again…find joy again.  Time is an amazing healer -just as Christ is.  And just as His life floods beyond time-lines and still teaches and heals us with historic scripture and amazing grace…the passage of the very time He created will flood over us and attend to our fragile hearts.  Although we long to have our loved ones with us daily…we know that we will surely see them again in the heaven….in a way that will exceed all expectations of even our best days with them on earth.   God says it’s so…..biblical text confirms this….and I believe.  Do you?

“Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands”. 
II Corinthians 5: 1

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.  Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day-and not only to me, but also to ALL who have longed for his appearing”.
II Timothy 4: 7-8

In honor of Johnny Abrams-
who lived a full life!

Song recommendation
Who am I?
Casting Crowns

click this link to listen to the song "Who Am I?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VU_rTX23V7Q

Lord, Help my Unbelief! Page 9

Our heart can fool us when it has slipped into unbelief!  Doubt easily creeps in bringing with it fear and confusion.  When this happens we must find our footing again.  We must step back onto the platform of faith, climb to the top of our watchtower and scan the horizon for God’s handiwork.  We must silence the doubting heart than can mislead us into despair.  We must over-rule the foolishness of unbelief with a head full of scripture, with a conviction that God wants the best for us…and with a steadfast mental and spiritual assurance that our “God is the ‘lord of hosts’ who can summon unexpected reinforcements at any moment to help His people.  We must believe that He stands between us and our difficulties… and what troubles us will flee before him, as clouds in the wind”1

To the physical world we must say “I believe in the unseen!”
To the laws of Nature we must say “you don’t fool me!” …
and to the unbelieving heart we must command “silence, you lying tempter!”

We’ve been taught that our hearts know the way through the rugged terrain of life.  We’re taught to follow our hearts because our emotions have credence.  The truth of it is…that we must move out with faith…and allow our emotions to catch up.  Our emotions want to take us one way…but our faith knows of another.  Inevitably, our hearts will get confused with emotion and, when blended with worldly standards, untruths will settle in and soon we have been misled.  Fooled! 

When this happens we must call emotion what it is; temporary… and turn back to faith, which is eternal.  It is purposed!  It is mental and spiritual!  It is a choice!  We must spiritually climb out of the valley of despair up to a precipice and call out “God!”…or simply whisper “Lord”.  We must purposely seek out truth for we are blind to it when fear and unbelief come onto the scene.  We must boldly bound all fearful thoughts that so easily ensnare and work to separate ourselves from the worldly dissonance with a single release of power, called prayer.   We must quiet our hearts, silence our emotions and make sound decisions free of the worldly influences that caused the fear in the 1^st place- for worldly noise and busyness can veil us from the truth of heavenly purposes.

  After we’ve made the climb out on this mental and spiritual precipice with our minds free of emotion, and our hearts free of fear we find the peace of God and are able to sense His presence... for the distractions of this world become silent.  Now in God’s presence we stand in truth…and He stands watch with us, looking down over our triumphant battle.  Tomorrow we will rise and do it again for this sinful struggle with fear and unbelief happens daily.  We have to face this world every day with purpose and intent or it will capture our hearts,  fill us with fear, hide the truth, distract us with the unimportant, and  pour noise into our heads till we can’t think clearly and we’re left to the demise of worldly decay. 

What is the point here?  Unbelief see’s us as easy prey.  It is simple to fall out of our stance of faith...and when life gets the best of us it is very tempting to do so.  It’s difficult to remain hopeful; faithful.  We can spin our wheels and spend our time seeking reasons why faith in God is necessary…. or we can generate our faith by adamantly affirming that disbelief is absurd. 

Scripture says in Isaiah 7:9
 “…if you do not stand firm in your faith you will not stand at all.”

 Hebrews 11: 6 says
“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."

Hebrews 11:1 says  "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for;
certain of what we do not see”

Faith is a requirement and with it everything is possible (see Mark 9: 23).   Ask God to help you overcome your unbelief and He will.  The scripture above says he will reward those who earnestly seek him.  Sincerity is mandatory if you want to see God work in your life.  A flippant prayer will flip only so far.  “God whispers into the quietness of a humbled heart”.   Add the ingredient of sincerity into your faithful heart and just watch as the impossible becomes possible, your needs are filled, the favor of God arrives on your doorstep and goodness and mercy follow you all the days of your life!  See Psalm 23.

"Above all else guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of Life."
Proverbs 4:23


Song Recommendation:
Here With Me
By:  MercyMe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74CNUExD4I8

Footnotes:

1-Streams in the Desert