Faith during trials

   “I waited patiently for the LORD; And He inclined to me, And heard my cry. He also brought me up our 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)

   Psalms 40 is a beautiful Psalm, written by King David. It is a great Scripture to read whenever you are going through a trial. I remember my pastor telling us one time "that you are always either going through a trial, coming out of a trial, or about to go into a trial, all of your life." In my short 71 years on this planet I can say that has been true for my life. Life can be difficult! There are trials in your job, in your family, your church, your nation, and any other organization that you can get involved with on this terrestrial ball.

   David tells us that when he was in trouble he waited patiently for the LORD. Now that is something I haven’t always been to good at; waiting patiently for anything is not my strong suite. But look what happened when David did that! God heard his cry. God reached down and pulled him out of a horrible pit. He took him out of the miry clay. (Can you just imagine your feet stuck in some deep claylike mud and you struggle to put one foot before another as the clay holds tight to your boots!) Then God set his feet on a rock and directed his feet where to walk safely and securely! Thank you Jesus!

   “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. Blessed is that man who makes the LORD his trust, And does not respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies." (verses 3-4)

   When God has delivered you from a trial, do you rejoice, and make sure that everyone knows that it was God who got you through your trouble? Are you praising God with a new song in your mouth? If you do, others will see it and they will be able to put their trust in the Lord also! You will be blessed if you make the Lord your trust and don’t put your faith in men, especially those who are liars.

    “Many, O LORD 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 and speak of them, They are more than can be numbered. Sacrifice and offering You do not desire; My ears You have opened. Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require.” (verses 5-6)

    It is difficult to count how many times the Lord has come to your rescue if you are his child. I have a hard time recalling all the wonderful times He has intervened in my life and shown me the path I should take, or made me take a path I did not want to take, but now I can see that it was the best path for me! You don’t need our sacrifices, only our obedience and desire to place You first in our lives.

   “’I delight to do Your will, O my God, And Your law is within my heart.’ I have proclaimed the good news of righteousness In the great assembly; Indeed, I do not restrain my lips, O LORD, You Yourself know. I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart; I have declared Your faithfulness within my heart; I have declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation; I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth From the great assembly." (verses 8-9)

    It is the desire of David to do the will of God because he has His law written in his heart! If I have hid God’s Word in my heart, I know and want to do exactly what God wants me to do. I will proclaim the good news in the church and wherever He sends me to share the good news with those who need to hear. I will tell others of God’s faithfulness, salvation, and lovingkindness because I want them to enjoy the same blessings that I have received from my God!

      PRAY

1.   1. Thank you Lord for taking me “out of the miry pit.” I was going nowhere until You came along and rescued me from a life of sin and rebellion. 

2.    2. Thank you Lord for writing Your law on my heart and giving me Your precious Word to read daily so that I may know You and allow Your Holy Spirit to transform me into the person You want me to be.

3.    Fill me with Your Spirit, and use me in any way that You choose today. My desire is to be a   

       faithful follower and steward of all You have blessed me with.

God chose me?

   “Then He took the twelve aside and said to them, ‘Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished. For He will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon. They will scourge Him and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again.’” (Luke 18: 31-33)

   Jesus made the sure the disciples knew what was about to happen to Him as He made His last trip to Jerusalem. They had walked with Him, and lived with Him for three years talking about the Kingdom of God and how they were to live as members of that kingdom. We know from all four Gospel accounts of the life of Jesus (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) that even though He had spoken plainly, and had explained in detail the meanings of the various parables he spoke, they still did not understand how it was that He was to die and then rise from the dead. He would fulfill the Scriptures that spelled out what would happen to the Messiah. (See Isaiah 53)

   

    Jesus had a simple plan. He would pour His life into these twelve men (even though he knew that one would betray Him) and these eleven would then have the job of telling the rest of the world. He made it clear that they did not chose Him but that He had chosen them. (John 15:16) If you are a follower of Christ, that is still true today. You did not chose Him, He chose you!

      

    How can Jesus have such faith in us to carry out His will when we are weak and unqualified people, just like those disciples, 2000 years ago? He can because after He died on that cross for our sins, He came back to life and spent 40 days teaching those disciples, and then ascended into heaven.  He then sent us someone to be with us and teach us every day for the rest of our lives: the Holy Spirit! 

   Oswald Chambers can always put things in the proper perspective. He has this to say about the brave comradeship of God: 

   “The bravery of God in trusting us! It is a tremendously risky thing to do, it looks as if all the odds were against Him. The majority of us don’t bother much about Him, and yet He deliberately stakes all He has on us. He stands by and lets the world, the flesh, and the Devil do their worst, confident we will come out all right. All out Lord succeeded in doing during His life on earth was to gather together a group of fishermen—the whole church of God and the enterprise of our Lord in a fishing boat!

    We say, ‘It’s out of all proportion that God should choose me—I am of no value’; the reason He chooses us it that we are not of any value. It is folly to think that because a man has natural ability, he must make a good Christian. People with the best natural equipment may make the worst disciples because they will ‘boss’ themselves . It is not a question of our equipment, but of our poverty; not what we bring with us, but what He puts in us; not our natural virtues, our strength of character, our knowledge, our experience; all that is of no avail in this matter; the only thing that is of avail is that we are taken up into the big compelling of God and made His comrade. (I Cor. 1:26-28)” (Oswald Chambers, Place Help)

   Have you been “taken up into the big compelling of God?” Why not start today?

PRAY

1.    Oh dear precious Lord, thank you for choosing me to be Your disciple! Fill me with Your Spirit today that I may be used by You to advance Your Kingdom on earth.

2.    Thank you that “not many mighty, not many noble are called.” (1Cor. 1:26) Thank you for choosing unqualified me!

      3.   Help me today to stay focused on You, and being obedient to the path You have directed      
            me to walk today. Help me not to turn to the right or the left but to stay on the straight    
           and narrow.

Thank you Ravi Zacharias

    “His lord said to him, ‘Well done good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’” (Matthew 25:21, NKJV)

   Recently the world lost one of its best and brightest minds. We also lost an awesome man of God who was faithful to accomplish great things for God’s kingdom here on this planet. Born in India, his family immigrated to Canada, and later he made his home in Atlanta, GA. He was born into a church going Christian family in India, but did not accept Christ as his Savior until he was recovering from a suicide attempt as a teenager. From that moment on as he heard the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ from a Bible in the hospital room, he was on fire to serve his Lord until the day he went home to Jesus.

   Although I can’t claim to know him personally, I consider him a mentor of mine who made a great impact on my spiritual life and has assisted me to be more sold out for Jesus with each encounter, whether in person as a speaker, in his many books, or his thousands of radio programs. He was diagnosed with sarcoma, a rare form of cancer recently and is now in heaven, where I am confident was met by Jesus by the words written above in Matthew 25. 

  Here is one of the last messages he left with us, for Easter 2020, before he departed to glory:

    “I am writing this from a cancer hospital in Texas. Two months ago I was startled after back surgery to learn I had sarcoma, a rare form of cancer, for which I am undergoing treatment. I have had a healthy life blessed by God, so this came as a shock. 

   I have always believed in the power of the message of Easter, but I believe it even more so now. It is the ultimate message of hope beyond all hopes; in fact, it is the ultimate grounding of hope. 

   I’ve been lying in my bed thinking how much the physical world reflects spiritual truths. Cancer is literally one rogue cell that begins to replicate itself, bringing death closer each day and overtaking a genuine life-giving cell. It’s amazing how this reflects the story of the fall in Genesis, when the Enemy of our souls caused Adam and Eve to question God; ‘Has God really spoken?’ Instead of choosing the life-giving breath of God, they allowed the rogue cell of disobedience and self-determination to overtake and metastasize in all of humanity.

   Now, as we collectively spend billions of dollars battling this rogue cell, we have mainly two options before us: radiation, which zeroes in on the troublesome cells, or chemotherapy, a confluence of approaches including a litany of medications—like shooting buckshot in the dark, killing not only the bad cells but also the good ones. And so, in the end, the victory may be pyrrhic, perhaps costing the victor more than the vanquished.

   When we rebelled against God, there remained in God’s economy the need for a savior, a perfect savior. That perfect savior was provided by God himself, in his Son. That gives an idea of how much God values every individual life. As the prophets foretold, the redeemer would come. He would be crucified  and buried—the normal destiny of a spiritual cancer. But in an amazing prophecy, Jesus rose from the dead in three days, the victor truly victorious. God’s life-giving breath was restored to us.

   And so with the apostle we can raise the question. ‘O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?’ (1st Corinthians 15:55). Sin is the rogue cancer cell within us, but the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus turned the tide in favor of God’s created order. So let us celebrate this Easter with gladness of heart and let us not look for life among death, because the grave is not victorious. It is the ultimate reversal of the fall, the ultimate cure.

    As Nicholas Wolderstorff of Yale said when he lost his son in a climbing accident, ‘When we have overcome absence with phone calls, winglessness with airplanes, summer heat with air-conditioning—when we have overcome all these and much more besides, then there will abide two things with which we must cope: the evil in our hearts and death.’

  The answer lies in the radiating Son of God who deals with the death cell of disobedience and restores the living cell. How sublime a truth! What a message of hope!

  May we be moved to wonder and worship this week as we contemplate the cross and celebrate our risen Lord. Our cities smell of death. We need the aroma of life—his name is Jesus Christ.” (From the Gospel Coalition by Ravi Zacharias, April 9, 2020)

   Thank you Ravi, we miss you but we are so thankful that our Lord allowed you to walk among us these many years. You have been a “true and faithful servant” of our Lord Jesus Christ and although we will miss you, you life lives on in the lives you have touched and continue to touch in your books, radio programs, and podcasts. 

   Jesus told us in Matthew, chapter 7: “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few that find it.” (Matt. 7:13-14)

   Ravi Zacharias is a man who took the narrow road of obedience and faithfulness to the Lord Jesus Christ and made a big impact for the Kingdom with his time on earth. May we be more obedient and faithful also so that we may enter that narrow gate also when we leave this earth. 

PRAY

1.    Thank You Lord for giving us your saint Ravi Zacharias and for the example he gave us to live our lives completely for You.

2.    Thank You Jesus, for allowing us to hear from You, through your faithful servant Ravi, and we ask you to help us to live more for you today.

3.    Fill us with Your Holy Spirit today and use us to make a difference for You in our families, communities, and for our nation.

Lord help our nation to turn to You during these difficult times of viruses and riots, and injustice everywhere. Give our nations leaders wisdom that comes from You, and not our fallen world

God is with you always!

   “After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, it came to pass that the LORD spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, saying: ‘Moses My servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land I am giving to them---the children of Israel….. ‘No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you.” (Joshua 1:1-2,5)

   Are you going through a rough patch in your life right now? If you are, there are many opportunities to forget that, if you belong to Jesus, He is with you every step of the way. If you are in pain emotionally, physically, spiritually, or financially you can be assured that our Savior is walking at your side. Paul David Trip, in his excellent book “Suffering” does a great job of reminding us just how faithful our Lord is when we lean on Him, and not our own strength, to get us through the trial we are facing. 

    “’I will not leave you or forsake you.’ This promise found in Joshua 1:5 is given numerous times in Scripture. Every time one of God’s children, or the whole community of God’s children faced something hard, new, difficult, or overwhelming, God greeted them with this promise. He never called them to task, sent them to a destination, or led them into difficulty and then abandoned them. No matter how hard the situation or inadequate their response, God was with them and for them. The declaration that he would never leave them is a significant reminder and protection for everyone who suffers. 

   First, these words are a humbling reminder that God remains faithful to us no matter what, not because of what is in us, but because of what is in Him. If the consistency of my prayer or the faithfulness of my worship of the constancy of my of my obedience were what bought me His continued presence, He would have forsaken me a long time ago. I know that is true of me, and I’m sure it’s true of you, that in moments of travail, I often fall way below God’s standard. Sometimes confusion interrupts my prayer, or wonderment about what God is doing gets in the way of heartfelt worship. Sometimes I listen too much to the lies of the Enemy or feel too weak to do what God has commanded. Sometimes my heart is filled with more envy than gratitude, and my mouth speaks more complaint then praise. Sometimes I would rather have relief from pain than the sweetness of His presence. Sometimes I’m just mad that God has let such a hard thing enter my door. There are moments when I don’t want to read His Word or hear songs of His goodness. Sometimes in my travail, I avoid the fellowship of His people. Sometimes I take my pain out on those around me.

  ……Suffering brings you and me to the end of ourselves. It exposes and confronts us. It makes it harder and harder to hold on to the delusion of our righteousness. This is why it is so important to remember that God is faithful to us, not because we are righteous, but because He is. He continues to love us, not because we perfectly love Him, but because His love for us remains perfect. He remains near, not  because we’ve never though of running away, but because He would never turn His back on the promises He has made to us. You didn’t earn His faithful presence by your obedience, and your disobedience won’t take it away. The central message of Scripture is that God is with us forever because of one thing: HIS GRACE! 

    In your suffering, with so many things to worry about, you don’t have to waste your spiritual and emotional energy on the fear that you will be forsaken by the One who has the power to do for you what no one else can. He is in you, He is with you, He is for you, and He will never leave…..

    But in all the emotional and spiritual ups and downs, on the good days and the bad days, when you fight or succumb, one thing is sure. Your Lord is with you, and there is no struggle without or war within that will ever drive Him away. And His presence guarantees that in your suffering, you will have everything you need.”

  (Paul David Tripp, “Suffering,” Pages154-157) 

   You are not alone. If you are a child of God, if you have accepted Him as your Lord and Savior, then there is nothing you can do to lose the love of God, or to cause Him to abandon you in your time of need and suffering. “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)

   PRAY

1.    Lord thank you for being the Faithful One, even when I am not; the Strong One when I am not; and the Loving One when I am not.

2.    Fill me with You Spirit today that I might remember just how faithful and dependable You have shown Yourself to be in my past and that You will be the same in the future.

3.    Help me to live this day with Your strength, Your power, and with Your love, so that I can handle another day of this suffering that You are walking through with me. 

Revival in the Congo

   “How beautiful upon the mountains Are the feet of him who brings good news, Who proclaims peace, Who brings glad tidings of good things, Who proclaims salvation, Who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’” (Isaiah 52:7)

   Doctor Helen Roseveare was a British doctor who spent over 20 years as a missionary in the Belgian Congo/Zaire in the 1950’s and 60’s. She was an awesome woman of God, who not only worked tirelessly for her Savior for many years, she also suffered greatly during a period when she was held captive for several months by rebel soldiers during a civil war. She has written numerous books about her experiences in the Congo and they are all excellent reading. Recently my wife and I read her book entitled “Living Sacrifice, willing to be whittled as an arrow.” One of the stories she tells is of a mighty revival that happened in her local church. Here is how she described what happened: 

   “The Holy Spirit was poured out on the local church. For years, senior missionaries, church pastors, and faithful African women had been praying earnestly for such a visitation. They had started with one night a week each month given up to prayer. Then as prayer became more importunate, they added one day each month set aside for prayer. As the sense of urgency grew, a daily midday prayer meeting was held. May spent hours in prayer and fasting on their own as well. God heard.”

   “For ten days, a strange stirring had begun among the local workmen, and the Holy Spirit began a work of conviction in many hearts. Different ones confessed to thefts and returned stolen property. Others confessed to bitterness against white employers, and to jealousies regarding possessions, and they sought forgiveness. Others spoke of idleness, wasting their employer’s time, discontent with working conditions: and they began working harder with a better spirit.”

   “Then suddenly, on the Friday evening, at the weekly fellowship meeting, the Holy Spirit was poured out upon one hundred folk gathered at the Bible school hall. It was indeed a mighty, unforgettable awakening. Initially, there was a repercussion of shock and fear, as all over the hall, people were being shaken by the power of the Spirit, under the grip of the conviction of sin, or else a surge of irrepressible joy and release. Was this truly of God, or had some other spirit come among us?”

   “As we heard the confessions of sin of those deeply convicted by the Spirit, and then how they claimed the shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ for cleansing and forgiveness; as we saw their faces change and light up with great inner joy, we knew the movement was truly of God. No other spirit would glorify the Lord Jesus, or convict men of sin, and lead them to the cross for forgiveness. Men and women were under a deep constraint to see sin as very sinful, no longer making excuses for their ‘weaknesses and failures.’ Coldness of heart, petty jealousies, loss of temper, lack of desire for the things of God, impatience, irritability, all were called sin and confessed in order to be cleansed and forgiven.”

    

  “Each individual entered into a new relationship with God. They became filled with joy. They sang. The singing was out of this world, filled with the joy of revival. Days and nights merged. Everything else was laid aside throughout that first weekend and the following week. God cleansed and revived His church. The joy was infectious, the singing vital and pulsating with life. There was a sense of abandonment in love for God….”

   “Prayer became the central pivot of the work of the revival. Initially directed towards the needs of those of our own number who remained resistant and obdurate, slowly the burden changed, and a deep hunger grew for the salvation of the thousands around us. Witness teams began combing the surrounding villages, telling forth the Good News of salvation. As they told others what God had done for them, and as their faces radiated their newfound joy and peace, hundreds came under conviction of sin, and were won to the Savior. Hardened skeptics and amused scoffers alike were smitten down under the convicting power of the Spirit, unable to resist His compulsion. Many broke down in tears and wept their way to the cross.’’ (Living Sacrifice, by Helen Roseveare pp. 41-43)

   Doesn’t that sound like something you would love to see in our church and our community? Who are those who will get together and pray for revival to begin with us, so that we can take it to those around us? Are you ready? Are we ready to get serious about our church being a “house of prayer?”

“Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” (James 5:16)

PRAY

1.    Dear precious Lord, please help me to have a desire to spend time in prayer for my family, my church, my community, and my nation.

2.    Help me to find others who are willing to cry out to You for revival among those of us who call you our Lord and Savior.

3.    Fill us with Your Spirit today and show us our sins that we need to confess to one another so that we can be part of what You desire to do for our church and for our neighborhoods.