Down But Not Out!

 

 Wednesday, May 31, 2017

 “Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy.  Though I fall I will rise; Though I dwell in darkness, the Lord is a light for me.  I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against Him, Until He pleads my case and executes justice for me.  He will bring me out of the light, and I will see His righteousness” (Micah 7 8-8).

 Hey Gang:  Her name was Sheila and she had just gone through a very tough wilderness experience where the alligators had nearly won and she wrote the following when she was at the bottom, trying frantically to get up:

 “I did not understand that God’s most precious gifts come in boxes that make your hands bleed when you open them.  Inside is what you have been looking for all of your life. Only God can do that.  Only His love is as fierce and relentless as our deepest pain and unspoken fears….I longed for rescue, He gave me relationship.  I wanted deliverance, He gave me companionship in the ruins.

 Does that not sound reminiscent of the apostle Paul when he wrote, “That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings”.  (Phil. 3:10).

Oswald Chambers prayed, “O Father, pierce a hole in the darkness so that I can behold the face of God.”

 A girl on the Oregon trail, after many hardships, as they trucked to the West wrote, “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 echoed in our heart and soul 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 understand how much I love you.  Just some encouragement as you begin this new day in the mission field, (Your home, work and friends and neighbors).  Moses penned these words of assurance for those who love the Lord their God with heart and soul: “Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the Lord your God is the One who goes with you.  He will not fail you or forsake you” (Deut. 31:6).

  David wrote the following when he was fleeing for his life from Absalom his son: “O Lord, how my adversaries have increased!  Many are rising up against me.  Many are saying of my soul, there is no deliverance for him in God.”  But You, O Lord, are a shield about me, My glory, and the One who lifts my head.  I was crying to the Lord with my voice, and He answered me from His Holy Mountain, Selah.

 “You O Lord, are a shield about me!”  Hallelujah!!!  “Come before the Lord with joyful singing.” 

 Blessings,

 Gramps