Homemade Ice Cream

“Go and teach all nations…”, Jesus said to His disciples.  Evangelism should be an integral part of our walk as believers.  But it can be very disheartening!  As I walked this morning, I began praying for those I long to know Christ.  Frustration mounts as I pray, for some of these I have been praying a long time and I see no results.   Seeing no results does not negate the work.  As I prayed, I told God how frustrated I am not being successful.  But I know and I prayed that it is His Work not mine.  His Holy Spirit is the Mover, the Instigator, the Power.  God never said for us to save them.  He tells us to teach them.  I think of all the people I’ve talked to that still walk in darkness.  I thought of all the people great preachers preach to Sunday after Sunday that do not respond.  I thought of all the missionaries giving their entire lives for the gospel that see little conversion.

I read an autobiography of a man named David Brainard.  He poured out his young life to the American Indians and saw very little results.  The book was depressing and yet it has encouraged me many times because David loved Jesus with all his heart and the results did not hinder his passion.  He obeyed the call, persevered and left it up to God.

As I battled with these thoughts in prayer, I began to give up my angst to the Power of the Spirit.  The prayer time was intense because it became a hard battle.  With that and the heat index, I began sweating and thinking of homemade ice cream.  And I remembered times of making that wonderful treat.  There were a few times the ice cream stayed runny.  Why?  Because we forgot to put in the dasher.  That thought led to the hand-crank, turning, turning, turning for an hour and a half.  How utterly frustrating to finish such a labor to find it was in vain.   I know earthly illustrations break down but I could not resist the thought:  the Holy Spirit is the "dasher".  We can crank and crank and crank but for all our effort, nothing solid will occur without the movement of the dasher.  I repeat: seeing no results does not negate the work.  We teach, lead, live godly, working hard as though it depends on us BUT praying hard, knowing that it all depends on Him.
"and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us."  Romans 5:5

                                                                                                                                                                                       

God Says It! He Does It!

"Ah, sword of the LORD, how long will you not be quiet?  Withdraw into your sheath; be at rest and stay still."  "How can it be quiet, when the LORD has given it an order?  There He has assigned it."  Jeremiah 47:6 & 7.
God has said in His Word that He does not change.  Believers draw comfort from this attribute and have hope.  However, I fear that unbelievers are deceived into thinking that God is like them and will change His mind about their sin.  This is a grave error in thinking.  This verse is one great big reality check into the actual thinking of God.  Once God gives the order, once He has assigned it, you can bank on its happening.  What God says, God does!
Therefore, as believers, we must "know the terror of the LORD and persuade men."  (2 Cor. 5:11)  God's orders, decisions are unwavering.  This needs to prompt our urgency in evangelism.  There will be a time when the waiting will be done.

Dry Springs

Spurgeon writes, "A selfish man in trouble is exceedingly hard to comfort, because the springs of his comfort lie entirely within himself, and when he is sad all his springs are dry."  He goes on to say that the Christian man has springs to comfort besides those which lie within.  "He can go to his God first of all, and there find abundant help; and he can discover arguments for consolation in things relating to the world at large, to his country, and , above all, to the church... Christian man!  learn to comfort thyself in God's gracious dealing towards the church.  That which is so dear to thy Master, should it not be dear above all else to thee?  What though thy way be dark, canst thou not gladden thine heart with the triumphs of His cross and the spread of His truth?  Our own personal troubles are forgotten while we look, not only upon what God has done, and is doing for Zion (the church), but on the glorious things He will yet do for His church."  

Prisoners

“There were those who dwelt in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in misery and chains, because they had rebelled against the words of God and spurned the counsel of the Most High.”  Psalm 107:10 & 11  

Yesterday a friend sent me her reflections on her meditation of Psalm 107:10-16:

“Prisons are most often not a room with bars.  They are darkness of heart, deluded thinking, a twisted philosophy.

                        Saved, but not free

                        Still chained in misery.

                        Not condemned, but yet bound

                        By ideas that confound.

                        To live in victory

                        He must shackle himself to Thee.”

As I read her thoughts on this passage, I realized that believers stay chained to wrong thinking way longer than they should.  Yes, her thoughts are about believers!  We tend to think more about unbelievers when thinking about prisoners in the spiritual sense.  But too often believers cannot be effective in the wonderful, transforming work of the Most High God because they stay “chained in misery” to their own thinking. 

God has given us a great work to do here on earth.  There are two parts to this great work.  The first is the transformation of our lives into the image of Christ.  The other is drawing those bound by sin to Christ that they, too, will be transformed.  That drawing, many times, is done with words blessed to us by the Holy Spirit through THE WORD.  But the drawing is also done by a life lived differently, victorious over sin and responding to the issues of life through Biblical eyes.  Yes, we’ll get depressed, beat down, worn out.  But by the grace of God, we do not stay that way!

As I continue to read through Jeremiah, this morning I read this cry from Baruch in the 45^th chapter: “Ah, woe is me!  For the LORD has added sorrow to my pain; I am weary with my groaning and have found no rest.”  Jeremiah in his response to Baruch says, “But you, are you seeking great things for yourself?”  John MacArthur writes the following on this passage: “Baruch had his expectations far too high, and that made the disasters harder to bear.  It is enough that he be content just to live.  Jeremiah, who once also complained, learned by his own suffering to encourage complainers.”

Prisons for us as believers can be manifest in many ways: complaining, setting expectations too high, bitterness over hurts inflicted by others, mental mulling, and the list goes on.  What this does to our witness is devastating.  We have no bars because “if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.” (John 8:36)  So what do we do with this prison of our own making?  Set our face toward heaven and fight the battle, tooth and nail until God takes us out.  He is true.  He is there.  He is real.  He is in control.  Live what you say you believe!  Just keep getting up and fight the enemy of our souls.   As long as he can keep you in those prisons, even though you are saved, he can keep you from being effective for the gospel of Jesus Christ.   Reflect on 2 Peter 1:2-8.  Shackle yourself to Christ!!  He has already won the victory and we know that this effort is not in vain!!

                        

It Will Cost Your Life!

Obedience, trust, faith!  When used about God, these words must go beyond mere feelings or emotions.  You either believe or you don't.  There is no middle ground.  Granted, it is a learning process but the cost is high when we doubt or stray.  Jeremiah 42:6 is a bold claim from the people of Judah.  They are good words but apparently they were based on momentary fear or need:  "Whether it is pleasant or unpleasant, we will listen to the voice of the LORD our God to Whom we are sending you, so that it may go well with us when we listen to the voice of the LORD our God."  Great advice: "whether it is pleasant or unpleasant, we will listen..."  They knew the benefits of obedience yet going to Egypt was a temptation that held greater sway.  So in the same chapter, verse 20, Jeremiah tells them: "you have gone astray at the cost of your lives."

Recently, our pastor warned from the book of Proverbs, chapter 7, to be proactive in guarding against temptation and sin:  "Suddenly he follows her as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as one in fetters to the discipline of a fool, until an arrow pierces through his liver; as a bird hastens to the snare, so he does not know that it will cost him his life."

Men ignore the warnings of God to the detriment of their eternal destiny!  They have "gone astray at the cost of their lives."  Faith comes by hearing God's Word.  Trust comes by learning God's dealings with man in His Word.  And obedience comes as a result of our growing love for Him Who loved us enough to make every provision for our eternal safety.  It doesn't get any better than that!!

The American Dream

The following is a quote from a young man named Bryan, used as a promo for a "Don't Waste Your Life" Conference in 2008.
American Dream:  "A lot of it, I feel, goes back to the value system that we have.  Without a benchmark to ask the bigger life questions of what’s valuable, if we don’t go back to the Word of God, if we don’t go back to how God has revealed Himself to us, then we’re basically left with opinions and instincts.  And our instincts are corrupted by sin and the opinions are a dime a dozen.  And so to live according to instincts and opinions really is a worthless pursuit, when God has revealed Himself in His Word and through His Son, Jesus!  And what’s valuable and what’s worthwhile to pursue ourselves, to engage ourselves with, left to speculation, we will stray all the time, every time, we will sin, we will miss the mark and we will be judged for that!

In humility, if we ask the bigger question: What is valuable to God?  And as we look to the Word, as we look to the Son, God reveals those answers, and the answers surprise a lot of us.  Because really the answer is:  Make a life in pursuit of God and His greatness and you’ll be satisfied and God will be glorified."

"That Preacher!"

Jeremiah 42 tells of the Israelites asking the prophet to go and talk to God for them.  They say, “Please let our petition come before you, and pray for us to the LORD your God…that the LORD your God may tell us the way in which we should walk and the thing that we should do.”   Jeremiah answers, “I have heard you.  Behold, I am going to pray to the LORD your God in accordance with your words; and I will tell you the whole message which the LORD will answer you.  I will not keep back a word from you.”  They say, “May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act in accordance with the whole message...”   Jeremiah does what they ask.  He prays and ten days later, God answers.  Jeremiah delivers the message to the people.  But in chapter 43, it says, “But as soon as Jeremiah, whom the LORD their God had sent, had finished telling all the people all the words of the LORD their God—that is all these words—all the arrogant men said to Jeremiah, ‘You are telling a lie!  The LORD our God has not sent you to say…’”

I shake my head in wonder as to the lunacy of those people.  What are they thinking, going against the Word of God?  As I pondered this, a thought came to mind.  How like we, when the pastor delivers a sermon from God’s Word and we don’t like what we hear.  How many times I have heard, “That preacher!”.   We are quick to blast the messenger when all they are doing is delivering the message.   As I continued to think on this, I was reminded of the Spurgeon devotion of this morning:  “Brethren, pray for us.”  1 Thessalonians 5:25.  “We [ministers] treat with souls for God on eternal business, and our word is either a savour of life unto life, or of death unto death.  A very heavy responsibility rests upon us, and it will be no small mercy if at the last we be found clear of the blood of all men.  We see many backslidings, and our hearts are wounded; we see many perishing, and our spirits sink.  We wish to profit you by our preaching; we desire to be blest to your children; we long to be useful both to saints and sinners;  therefore, dear friends, intercede for us with our God.”

All I can add to that…May we be found faithful!

Blooming Toward the Light

Early this morning I went for my regular walk.  In one of the yards I passed were some yellow wildflowers about seven inches tall.  The blooms on the flowers were a beautiful, pale yellow.  I noticed the bloom on one was cocked to the right.  Looking again, all of the flowers were cocked to right (east) facing the rising sun.   I know this is not a new discovery, but it still intrigues me!  I turned completely around to look at the yard as a whole and all those little pale yellow flowers had their blooms completely turned the same direction as a well-trained army with their eyes on the commander.

I was reminded again (and actually this makes twice this week) that we need to “preach the gospel to ourselves” at the beginning of every morning.  We, too, should be like these little flowers with our eyes on the Light from Whom we get our direction and power for the day.   “Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith…”  Hebrews 12:2