"A Horrible Pit"

 

“ I waited patiently for the Lord; And He inclined to me, And heard my cry. He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, Out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, And established my steps.” (Psalms 40:1,2 NKJV)

 

   When I was about 14 or 15 years old my best friend was Mike Harrington, and we had many an “adventure” together. He lived down the street from me and his house was on a small river. We spent many an hour rowing in his rowboat on the river, exploring the woods on the other side of the river, building tree houses (one in my backyard and one in his), and shooting homemade slingshots. 

 

One “adventure” we had was totally unplanned. He had come up to my house and we were returning together to his house, but instead of walking down the street we chose to walk along a creek that was in the woods between the houses of the neighborhood leading down to his house. We had done it many times before and we knew the creek well. It had rained a good bit the day before so the creek was deeper than usual and the water was rushing through the ravine it occupied.

 

As we approached a big bend in the creek we noticed that the usual sand bar had doubled in size and we stepped onto it to continue our walk down the stream. We had only gone a few yards when we both began sinking in the sand. At first our reaction was “no big deal, this sand is just a little soft today.” Then as we continued to sink up to our waist our attitudes changed quickly! One of us yelled “grab a tree!” And both of us headed for the nearest one. Mike went left and I went right and after a short few minutes we were both firmly holding on to a tree and pulling our bodies out of the sand!

 

Truth be told, we were probably not in real danger, but for a few minutes I had the vision of sinking out of sight into quicksand like I had seen in a cowboy movie or two! We had thought we were on solid ground when we stepped on the sandbar, but we were not!

 

The picture that the Psalmist, King David, portrays in the Scripture above is that of someone who has found themselves in a miry pit and is sinking out of sight. There is no tree around to help pull him out, and he needs God to come along and rescue him. God does that, and not only does He pull the person out of the mud, He places his “feet on a rock” and “establishes his steps.”

 

Are you in a place where you find yourself in a pit? Is it a pit of despair over the loss of a loved one, the loss of a job, rejection by those around you, the feeling of purposelessness , or addiction to a sin you can’t seem to shake?

 

King David says that: “he waited patiently for the Lord and that God heard his cry.” There is really only one Person who can help us when we are in serious trouble. We do not have the ability to save ourselves. It is not our intelligence, our good looks, our innate abilities, or physical prowess. We can only be helped by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

 

 David continues to show us what happened next: “He has put a new song in my mouth—Praise to our God; Many will see it and fear, And will trust in the Lord.” (verse 3)

 

Do you need a new song in your mouth? There is only One who can put that song there. Yes you know who: Jesus! Call on Him today! Put your trust in the only one on this planet, or in this universe actually, who can come to your rescue and put a new song in your heart and on your lips.

 

Finally David tells us: “Blessed is that man who makes the Lord his trust, And does not respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies. Many, O Lord my God are Your wonderful works Which You have done: And Your thoughts toward us Cannot be recounted to You in order; If I would declare to speak them, They are more than can be numbered.” (verse 4)

Take it from King David, “a man after God’s own heart:” If you “cast all your cares on Him, for He cares for you,”  (1 Peter 5:7) you will never regret it! He will come to your aid, He will set your feet upon a rock and you will have a new song in your mouth that will help other people find the Savior also!

 

 

PRAY

 

1.                   Lord, thank you for taking away my sins by dying on that cross on the hill of Calvary. Help me to trust in you today to handle all my problems as I lean upon your grace and mercy.

2.                   Fill me with Your Holy Spirit so that others will see how you have blessed me and taken me out of the pit and set my feet on a straight path of service to You.

3.                    Guide me in the paths of righteousness as I read your Word and try to learn more about what a gracious master you are to Your children as you slowly form us into Your likeness.

 

 

 

 

 

Jesus Loves Me!

 

   “For I am persuaded that neither death not life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38, NKJV)

 

    There are numerous places in Scriptures (the Holy Bible) that tell us of God’s love for us. We all have heard of John 3:16 that tells us that He loved us so much that He sent His own Son to die on a cross so that anyone that believes in Him shall have everlasting life. We are told of His “loving kindness,” “His mercy,” “His faithfulness,” and His “longsuffering,” in many places throughout the record of the Holy Scriptures. It is a simple, but amazing truth: God loves me and God loves you!

 

   Every once in a while it is great to read about a faithful servant of God that showed in their life how much they appreciated the fact that God loved them and gave Himself as a sacrifice on that cross and that he or she spent their life in service to the King of kings, and the Lord of lords. I read about two such ladies the other day in a article by a Rev. Dr. Nelson L. Price, the Pastor Emeritus of Roswell Street Baptist Church in Marietta, GA.

 

   He told the story of two sisters who lived on Constitution Island, in the middle of the Hudson River next to West Point, NY, home to the U.S. Military Academy. Their father purchased a summer home on the island in 1834 and sometime after that the sisters moved there permanently and lived out their lives there. Susan and Anna Warner were their names, and both became writers of novels. Among her several books, Susan wrote “The Wide, Wide World” and it was very successful, second only in sales to “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” in the 1850’s. Anna wrote “Dollars and Cents” and several others also.

 

    Besides writing, they established a Sunday School, and would row across the river and teach the cadets at West Point on Sundays for many years. Occasionally, on Sunday afternoons they would invite the cadets to come over for lemonade and cookies in their home. The sisters wrote a song for the cadets to sing not only in services but to be sung during drills. It was to remind these future soldiers of the Love of Jesus. It had been originally written as a poem in Anna’s novel “Say and Seal.” In 1861 the words were put to music, just prior to the outbreak of the Civil War.

 

   After Susan died in 1885, the Sunday School classes became Anna’s “one thought in life" and she continued teaching until her death in 1915. The West Point class of 1915 has been called the “class the stars fell on” due to the fact that 59 of its 164  graduates that year, became General officers during World War II. The most famous of them being Dwight David Eisenhower, and one of Anna’s Sunday School students for 4 years.

 

   Their home on Constitution Island is now a national shrine you can visit, and the two sisters are the only civilian women buried in the West Point Cemetery, in honor of their years of faithful service teaching generations of West Point Cadets in Sunday School. 

 

  Oh yeah, the song that they wrote for the cadets to sing in church and drills, I am sure you have heard it many times. The song is “Jesus Loves Me This I Know.” 

 

   The story is told that someone asked the internationally acclaimed theologian Karl Barth what was his most profound thought. He replied: “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”

 

  Yes the Bible does tell us that throughout the entire book! 

 

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3:16-17)

 

PRAY

 

1.    Lord, thank you for sending Your Son to this earth to take away my sins and to give me eternal life now on this earth, and for eternity in heaven.

2.    Lord, help me today to remember that You have bought and paid for me with a heavy price and that I live to serve You today.

3.    Fill me with Your Spirit, that You might live through me today and that anyone I come in contact with will see You in my words and deeds, and desire to know You also.