Wednesday, March 30, 2016

The Trees Are Going to Clap Their Hands! -continued


“How blessed are the people who know the joyful sound!  O Lord, they walk in the light of Your countenance.  In Your Name they rejoice all the day.  And by Your righteousness they are exulted” (Psa. 89:15-16).

Hey Gang:  Did you even stop for a moment in the midst of a very busy day and look up into the sky and wonder what they are doing up there, tight at that moment.  Did you know there are more than nine references in the Bible to the truth that God is going to roll up the sky one day:  Isaiah 34:4 reads, “And the host of heaven will wear away, and the sky will be rolled up like a scroll”.   Tell me that would not get some folks attention - including the author of this epistle.

Picking up where I left off in the last morning thought: A girl on the Oregon trail, after many hardships as they trucked to the West, wrote on the cabin wall, “I have known what it was to believe in God, but now He came so near that I no longer simply believed in Him but knew His presence there…that calm strength, that certainty of One near and all sufficient, hushed, and cheered”.
“He came so near” words that are etched deeply in the hearts and souls of all who threw their lives into the arms of the Lord when they found themselves deep in the wilderness.  

Her words are echoed by many of us who have walked the path of pain. We cry out Lord, why do you allow bad things to happen to good people”.  And he quietly speaks to the deep recesses of our heart, ”So that you can experience my nearness to you and help you understand how much I love you”.  

And now I talk from experience.  I get totally and completely angry with the prosperity advocates who are leading multitudes of people down a path that leads only to frustration, and pain.  Their message; ‘If you are sad or unhealthy or without the bangles and beads of the world, you are not walking with the Lord.’ That is a message directly from the pit!

In my studies of Psalms I find two very clear paths: those times when David was dealing with a ‘back-against-the-wall experience’, and the other when he was ‘praising the Lord for providing a way through those wilderness experiences.’  In Psalm 28 he cried out, ”Do not be deaf to me Lord” For If you are silent I will go down to the pit” (vs.1).   But in verse 7 he also cried out “The Lord is my strength and my shield; My heart trust in Him, and I am helped, Therefore, my soul exults and with my song I shall thank Him”.

But you say, David was a man after God’s own heart and had a very special relationship with Him.  The “very special relationship” is correct, but Jesus said, “I stand at the door of every heart and what to come in and have a very special relationship with you!” (Rev 3:20 Gramp’s version).  He also said It is the desire of my heart that no one, not one single person perish, but that one day ALL will be in attendance at the Marriage Feast of the Lamb.

Sooo, my friends, we all have choices on whether we will cry out to God, when the rubber-hits-the road, or retreat into our war closet and cry out as David did, “You are my strength and my shield, My heart trusts in you”.  Your choice.

Blessings,


 Gramps

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