Posted on 08/22/2006 7:56:23 PM PDT by JockoManning
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Author: Elisabeth Elliot Those who call Thanksgiving "Turkey Day," I suppose, take some such view as this: Unless we have Someone to thank and something to thank Him for, what's the point of using a name that calls up pictures of religious people in funny hats and Indians bringing corn and squash? Christians, I hope, focus on something other than a roasted bird. We do have Someone to thank and a long list of things to thank Him for, but sometimes we limit our thanksgiving merely to things that look good to us. As our faith in the character of God grows deeper we see that heavenly light is shed on everything--even on suffering--so that we are enabled to thank Him for things we would never have thought of before. The apostle Paul, for example, saw even suffering itself as a happiness (Colossians 1:24, NEB). I have been thinking of something that stifles thanksgiving. It is the spirit of greed--the greed of doing, being, and having. When Satan came to tempt Jesus in the wilderness, his bait was intended to inspire the lust to do more than the Father meant for Him to do--to go farther, demonstrate more power, act more dramatically. So the enemy comes to us in these days of frantic doing. We are ceaselessly summoned to activities: social, political, educational, athletic, and--yes--spiritual. Our "self-image" (deplorable word!) is dependent not on the quiet and hidden "Do this for My sake," but on the list the world hands us of what is "important." It is a long list, and it is both foolish and impossible. If we fall for it, we neglect the short list. Only a few things are really important, and for those we have the promise of divine help: sitting in silence with the Master in order to hear His word and obey it in the ordinary line of duty--for example, in being a good husband, wife, father, mother, son, daughter, or spiritual father or mother to those nearby who need protection and care--humble work which is never on the world's list because it leads to nothing impressive on one's resume. As Washington Gladden wrote in 1879, "O Master, let me walk with Thee/In lowly paths of service free...." Temptation comes also in the form of being. The snake in the garden struck at Eve with the promise of being something which had not been given. If she would eat the fruit forbidden to her, she could "upgrade her lifestyle" and become like God. She inferred that this was her right, and that God meant to cheat her of this. The way to get her rights was to disobey Him. No new temptation ever comes to any of us. Satan needs no new tricks. The old ones have worked well ever since the Garden of Eden, although sometimes under different guises. When there is a deep restlessness for which we find no explanation, it may be due to the greed of being--what our loving Father never meant us to be. Peace lies in the trusting acceptance of His design, His gifts, His appointment of place, position, capacity. It was thus that the Son of Man came to earth--embracing all that the Father willed Him to be, usurping nothing--no work, not even a word--that the Father had not given Him. Then there is the greed of having. When "a mixed company of strangers" joined the Israelites, the people began to be greedy for better things (Numbers 11:4, NEB). God had given them exactly what they needed in the wilderness: manna. It was always enough, always fresh, always good (sounds good to me, anyway, "like butter-cakes"). But the people lusted for variety. These strangers put ideas into their heads. "There's more to life than this stuff. Is this all you've got? You can have more. You gotta live a little!" So the insistence to have it all took hold on God's people and they began to wail, "all of them in their families at the opening of their tents." There is no end to the spending, getting, having. We are insatiable consumers, dead set on competing, upgrading, showing off ("If you've got it, flaunt it"). We simply cannot bear to miss something others deem necessary. So the world ruins the peace and simplicity God would give us. Contentment with what He has chosen for us dissolves, along with godliness, while, instead of giving thanks, we lust and wail, teaching our children to lust and wail too. (Children of the jungle tribe I knew years ago did not complain because they had not been taught to.) Lord, we give You thanks for all that You in Your mercy have given us to be and to do and to have. Deliver us, Lord, from all greed to be and to do and to have anything not in accord with Your holy purposes. Teach us to rest quietly in Your promise to supply, recognizing that if we don't have it we don't need it. Teach us to desire Your will--nothing more, nothing less, and nothing else. For Jesus' sake. Amen. |
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Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: Keep A Quiet Heart
Chronicle of a Soul
I kept a five-year diary from high school through college, and began spiritual journals during my senior year in college (1948), which I continue to keep. These are chronicles of growth: mental, emotional, and spiritual. It is astounding to go back through them and learn things I had completely forgotten. It is wonderfully faith-strengthening to see that indeed "all the way my Savior leads me," hears my prayers, supplies my needs, teaches me of Himself. As God said to Israel, "Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led these forty years in the wilderness."
My memory is poor. A journal is a record of His faithfulness (and my own faithlessness too--which teaches me to value His grace and mercy). If you decide to begin recording your pilgrimage, buy yourself a notebook (or one of those pretty flowered cloth-bound blank books available in gift and stationery stores) and begin to put down (not necessarily every day):
Lessons learned from your reading of Scripture. (If you put these in a journal instead of marking up your Bible, you will find new things each time you read the Bible instead of reading it through the grid of old notes. Worth a try?)
Ways in which you intend to apply those lessons in your own life. (Reading your journal later will reveal answers to prayer you would otherwise have overlooked.)
Dialogues with the Lord. What you say to Him, what He seems to be saying to you about some problem or issue or need.
Quotations from your spiritual reading other than the Bible.
Prayers from the words of hymns which you want to make your own.
Reasons for thanksgiving. (Caution: when you get into the habit of recording these, the list gets out of hand!)
Things you're praying about. You might choose to have a separate notebook for this, or an "appendix" in another section of the same book--date on which a prayer was prayed; date on which answered, with space for how the answer came in some cases.
If you have a family, I would strongly urge you as a family to keep a prayer notebook together. This will help everybody first of all to learn to pray about everything, instead of merely talking or worrying or arguing. It will also help you to be specific, to hold your requests before the Lord together, and then to note the answers and give thanks together (especially when the answers weren't the ones you were looking for).
As George MacDonald wrote, "No gift unrecognized as coming from God is at its own best: therefore many things that God would gladly give us, things even that we need because we are, must wait until we ask for them, that we may know whence they come: when in all gifts we find Him, then in Him we shall find all things."
"Where I found Truth, there I found my God, the Truth itself, which since I learnt, I have not forgotten.... Too late I loved Thee, O Thou Beauty of ancient days, yet ever new! too late I loved Thee! And behold, Thou wert within, and I abroad, and there I searched for Thee... Thou calledst, and shoutedst, and burstest my deafness. Thou flashedst, shonest, and scatteredst my blindness. Thou breathedst odors, and I drew in breath and pant for Thee. I tasted, and hunger and thirst. Thou touchedst me, and I burned for Thy peace."
"[W]hen in all gifts we find Him, then in Him we shall find all things."
The words of George MacDonald as always bless me, and the final quote - from Augustine - rapturous glory.
Mercy and Truth abound here because of thee, dear JockoManning!
You are most welcome. Your kind words are appreciated, very much appreciated.
jm
[Following very inspiring to me, jm]
Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: Keep A Quiet Heart
Scripture: Genesis 4:7 Psalm 19:13
The Path of Lonliness
God's Sheep-Dogs
From a friend whose son, two and a half, had to have surgery for a cyst (always a worrisome sign): "The cyst was benign! We are so grateful! We set the Lord before us so we will not be shaken for the living of life. Our goal is not to be comfortable and have everything turn out fine, but to be godly and make an impact on our dying world and its values.... May God continue to refine your life message as 'He keeps you from willful sins as His servant; may they not rule over you' (Psalm 19:13). Barrett (my son) memorized Genesis 4:7, and as he faces temptation he says the verse.
He is learning to make wise choices and to be obedient.... We have not spared the rod on him but it has really worked.
He says, 'The rod drives out my foolishness.'"
That letter came on the same day that I was reading Hannah Whitall Smith's Everyday Religion. She quotes George MacDonald. His words illuminate what Barrett's mother wrote:
"Man has a claim on God, a divine claim for any pain, want, disappointment, or misery that will help to make him what he ought to be. He has a claim to be punished, and to be spared not one pang that may urge him toward repentance; yea, he has a claim to be compelled to repent; to be hedged in on every side, to have one after another of the strong, sharp-toothed sheep-dogs of the Great Shepherd sent after him, to thwart him in any desire, foil him in any plan, frustrate him of any hope, until he comes to see at length that nothing will ease his pain, nothing make life a thing worth having, but the presence of the living God within him; that nothing is good but the will of God; nothing noble enough for the desire of the heart of man but oneness with the eternal. For this God must make him yield his very being, that He himself may enter in and dwell with him."
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Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Because I had been invited to write a new biography of Amy Carmichael of Dohnavur, Lars and I visited the work she founded in South India. We arrived on their monthly prayer day in time to attend the evening meeting. The House of Prayer is a beautiful terra-cotta-colored building with a red tile roof and a tower which holds the chimes that play a hymn at 6:00 A.M. and 9:00 P.M. There is no furniture inside except a few chairs for older ones and decrepit foreigners such as we who aren't used to sitting on the floor. Everyone filed in in perfect silence, bare feet moving noiselessly over polished red tile floors, and sat in rows according to age, the tiny ones up front, dressed in brightly colored cotton dresses. Behind them sat the next age group, girls in skirts and blouses; then came those in skirts, blouses, and half-saris; finally the "accals" (older ones who look after the younger) in blue or purple or green saris. All had smoothly combed and oiled black hair, many of them with flowers in it. An Indian man played the little pump organ while they sang several traditional hymns in English, as well as songs written by "Amma" (the Tamil term of respect, used for Amy Carmichael). There was Scripture reading, then a prayer of thanksgiving for the new child who had just come, a little girl of two whose mother could not keep her. Her new mother, an accal, carried her to the platform and stood holding her while they prayed and then sang "Jesus Loves Me." At another service in the House of Prayer, Lars and I sat in the tiny balcony which leads up to the tower. We looked down on the lovely scene made even brighter this time because the smallest children had been given colored flags to wave in time to the music of certain songs; a custom instituted by Amma which I think should be adopted by every Sunday School and church, for it enables the tiny ones to participate by doing something even when they are too young to know the words by heart. Older ones played tambourines, triangle, and bells, while one drummed softly with a leather flap on the mouth of a clay pot. I was allowed to use Amma's room for my reading and writing. Called the Room of Peace, it is spacious, has high ceilings and tiled floors, many doors and windows opening onto a verandah on three sides where there is a walk-in bird cage. A brick runway leads from the verandah to a platform under the trees where, following the accident which disabled her for the rest of her life, Amy Carmichael used to be taken to sit in the cool of the evening. Glass-doored bookcases, filled with her beloved books, stand around the walls of the room. Above them hang paintings of snowcaps by her friend, Dr. Howard Somervell, of Everest fame. There are hand-carved and painted wooden texts, "Good and Acceptable and Perfect" (referring to the lesson she found so hard to learn after the accident, of acceptance of the will of God), "A Very Present Help," "By one who loveth is another kindled" (from St. Augustine), and, the largest of all, blue letters on teak, "God hath not given us the spirit of fear." Also on the walls are a mounted tiger head, a pendulum clock, and one of the very few photographs ever taken of Amma. In that Room of Peace I was glad not to be wearing shoes (nobody wears shoes in the houses of Dohnavur)--it seemed holy ground as I studied the marginal notes and underlinings of her favorite books, read the handwritten notebooks in which she explained for members of the Dohnavur Fellowship the "pattern shewn," the principles and practices which the Lord had given her at the inception of her work. I thumbed through worm-eaten ledgers, clippings, photographs--priceless documents that trace the day-by-day history of a task accepted for the Lord, the rescuing of little girls from temple prostitution and little boys from dramatic societies in which they were used for evil purposes. In later years the work included children in other kinds of need. The most powerful witness to the quality of the service Amma rendered is to be seen in the Indian men and women who were reared there and who have remained to lay down their lives for others. Pungaja, for example, lives in the compound called Loving Place, where some of the mentally handicapped are cared for. "I have no professional training," she told me. "The Holy Spirit gives me new wisdom each day to deal with them. Some are like wild animals, but the Lord Himself is my helper. I can't see on one side, but even in my weakness He has helped me. First Corinthians says that God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the mighty, that no flesh should glory in His presence. "One day I went to Amma with a burdened heart, but when she hugged me all my sorrow went. "'What work are you doing?' Amma asked me. I told her. "'Do you find it difficult?' I said yes. "'These are soldiership years,' she said. "Now it is my joy to serve these very difficult people." She spoke quietly, looking out into the courtyard where some of them went back and forth. She had lost an eye as a child, and her face revealed suffering, but I saw the joy she spoke of written there, the joy of a laid-down life. I saw it in very many faces in Dohnavur. They do not mention that there are no diversions, no place to go, no time off (except two weeks per year--I asked about that). They do their work for Him who came not to be ministered unto. We came away smitten, thinking of Amma's own words from her little book If, "...then I know nothing of Calvary love." The meaning of the living sacrifice, the corn of wheat, the crucified life, had been shown to us in twentieth century flesh and blood.
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THE MIKVEH OF THE BRIDE
By Bishop Dr. Dominiquae Bierman
So he went down and dipped seven times in the Jordan , according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. 2 Kings 5:14
Shabbat Shalom dearly beloved:
It was my wedding day, the 23rd of January 1990; the day that we would be married by the Rabbis, which is the only legal way for two Jews to be married in Israel . My Messianic wedding was scheduled for April; however our relationship was going to become legal under the “Chuppa” (wedding canopy) that day! It had been a very hectic day to say the least! The papers from the USA proving that Baruch was a bachelor and a Jew had not been given to us yet. We had to literally fight with the clerks in the Chief Rabbinate of Jerusalem to release them to us on time. We had been refused marriage in Baruch’s home town in Maaleh Adumin in the desert of Judea because they had discovered that we were Messianic believers. Posters warning the public about us were posted in the synagogues.
Finally, Adonai opened the door in the city where my family lived, but we needed the documents from the Chief Rabbinate. YAH had spoken to me that the wedding would be on the 23rd, yet it did not seem possible. We were being beaurocratically harassed and I have had no time for “Bridal Preparations”. As we had to wait for our papers, I escaped to the hair dresser to at least comb my hair in an attractive manner and yet after this day of sweat I had not time for shower, let alone for THE MIKVEH which is the ritual bath all Jewish brides have to undergo before marriage.
Finally we got the papers and the time was near 5 PM . We needed to travel to Raanana that is more than one hour away from Jerusalem and arrive there before 6 PM . The local Rabbi would be leaving at 6 PM and there would be no weddings afterwards. We had no one with us. In fact nobody knew that this was going to be our wedding day. The celebration would happen in April. With the wind in our backs we “flew” to Raanana in Baruch’s double cab Volkswagen truck. We made it at 6 PM sharp however the Rabbi had just left! We were devastated and said to the secretary to please call him back! This was not our fault, it was the Chief Rabbinate.
A very reluctant Rabbi made his way back to us, but he made it! That was a miracle already. I was stressed and exhausted and had stretched my faith to the limit. We sat across the Rabbi’s desk and he asked me the dreaded question: “Do you have your Mikveh certificate, the proof that you have taken the ritual purification bath according to Jewish Law?” I was pale and began to say:
“No, because…..” He did not let me explain ANYTHING! My NO was enough. The Rabbi slammed his fist with full force on the table and he said- THE WEDDING IS CANCELLED.
I could answer nothing, I was speechless and I prayed silently: “Father this is your turn now, I have done all I could do….” Then the face of the Rabbi changed from hard to soft and compassionate and he asked me. “If I let you get married, will you go immediately to the Mikveh and will NOT TOUCH with your husband until the full purification bath requirements would be met? “ I solemnly promised him that with all of my heart and so did my husband to be. We will not touch, no, not even hands until the bride would be pure and holy according to the Law. We sighed with relief. Our Father and Matchmaker had intervened once again!
Right after the Chuppa Wedding took place we took the Rabbi home and I was dropped at the local MIKVEH HOUSE.
There the women received me like a QUEEN. “A bride, a bride has arrived, they shouted! They began to assist me with gusto for the purification waters. I felt like I Was in Heaven, I have had such a hard day and welcomed the assistance, the treatment and the preparations to be pure in the eyes of God and man. I welcomed this Cleansing Bath! The ladies helped me remove my clothes and I was naked. They helped me with instructions on how to prepare: I had to remove all makeup, all nail polish; all jewels and yes even cut my nails so that no dirt could hide underneath! All hair had to be trimmed so that no dirt could “hide”. My hair had to be thoroughly shampooed, my ears absolutely clean! I could have no traces of blood or any impurities. Nothing could separate my body and the Waters of Purification. These waters can only be true rain water, not any man-made “treated water”.
Now the ladies in charge oversaw my immersion. I had to immerse 7 times with the fingers in my hands completely OPEN to allow the water to reach EVERY CORNER of my body. The immersion needed to be thorough and full. Not a trace of my body could be seen as I immersed. No, no flesh! Not even a hair! Echad, shtayim, shalosh… One, two, three, four, five, six, seven- SHEVA! I had done it! As I rose from the water after the seventh immersion, I was greeted with the traditional greeting of MAZL TOV! I was officially certified PURE and ready to become ONE with my husband. I cannot begin to describe the feeling of exhilaration and release that I felt. I felt as pure as a little, innocent child that had never sinned and yet more feminine than ever. I was glowing!
After the shower I got dressed up and these wonderful ladies took care of combing my hair and of giggling a lot because they knew that an eager husband was waiting for me outside. I needed no makeup and my hair was wet. I looked radiant, fully renewed! The ladies took my right and left arm and as a bridal delegation they accompanied me to the truck where my newly wedded husband was waiting. I was glowing, he was enthralled to see me…Our married life was about to begin.
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My dearly beloved friends: It is the passing through the MIKVEH that defines if the wedding will take place or not. It is only the ones that are willing to be totally purified that will marry The Jewish Bridegroom. Y’shua is and forever will be a Jewish Bridegroom! And the only way to become a BRIDE to be truly MARRIED is to be purified thoroughly! Not only by removing our external clothing (such as pagan feasts and all kinds of wrong “habits”) but by not allowing ANY DIRT to hide anywhere in our souls. All Jewish brides need to “pass the inspection” of the ladies in charge of the Mikveh. Just like they checked me to see if my nails were short enough, if there was no flow, if my ears were clean, so the Holy Spirit is in charge of inspecting the Bride of Messiah prior to the wedding, the Ruach in Hebrew as you well know by now is in female gender.
Actually the Spirit is using many women in these End Times to help inspect, cleanse and prepare the Bride for the Wedding. In fact only women can prepare the Bride. A TRUE BRIDE will allow herself to be inspected and will not resent it or feel humiliated. I felt privileged and I believe that those that truly belong to The Bride of Messiah will also feel privileged rather than “threatened” by the invasion of their “privacy”! There will be no wedding without A MIKVEH. The whole Ecclesia has to be immersed in the True Waters of Torah of His Word and wash away all impurities in a thorough way and then She will be ready!
“That He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.” Ephesians 5:26-27
This is an invitation to the TRUE BRIDE to enter into The End Time MIKVEH and Wedding Preparations. This is THE MAP REVOLUTION.
In The Mikveh
Your friends in Israel
Rabbi Baruch and Bishop Dominiquae Bierman
PS: There is no wedding without a thorough purification.
“Without holiness no one will see the Lord” Hebrews 12:14
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See details at www.kad-esh.org
“FOR ZION ’S SAKE I WILL NOT KEEP SILENT”
Watch the live broadcast from the mountains of Jerusalem by Bishop Dominiquae Bierman
Shabbat 4th November 10am Israeli time
(Repeated at 12pm , 2pm , 4pm and 6pm )
( 10am = York 3am; London 8am ; Manila 1pm ; Sydney 5pm )
** See special repeats of last Shabbat broadcast on MAP Revolution TV, click on the link from our English web site www.kad-esh.org.
THanks much.
Dear Friends in the Nations,
Lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders are organizing a Gay Pride Parade in the city of Jerusalem on November 10, Krystal Nacht, the anniversary of the beginning of the Holocaust in Europe. Jerusalem councilwoman Mina Fenton called the parade an "insult to Holocaust survivors" and insists that the parade offends "every national value, both historic and religious."
We must stand with the Jewish people to stop this desecration of Jerusalem. I have just signed the Jerusalem Prayer Team's petition to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, encouraging him to halt this outrage. Please visit the link below and add your signature to our letter of support for Prime Minister Olmert. Urge him to stop this abomination.
http://tool.donation-net.net/CTBF/GayPride2006.cfm?dn=1032&refer=2049
Blessings in Y'shua
Kad-Esh MAP Ministries
www.kad-esh.org
Phone + 972 523 781 553
Fax +972 2 533 3534
Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: Keep A Quiet Heart
Thanksgiving for What is Given
Some people are substituting "Turkey Day" for Thanksgiving. I guess it must be because they are not aware that there's anybody to thank, and they think that the most important thing about the holiday is food. Christians know there is Somebody to thank, but often when we make a list of things to thank Him for we include only things we like. A bride and groom can't get away with that. They write a note to everybody, not only the rich uncle who gave the couple matching BMWs, but the poor aunt who gave them a crocheted toilet-paper cover. In other words, they have to express thanks for whatever they've received.
Wouldn't that be a good thing for us to do with God? We are meant to give thanks "in everything" even if we're like the little girl who said she could think of a lot of things she'd rather have than eternal life. The mature Christian offers not just polite thanks but heartfelt thanks that springs from a far deeper source than his own pleasure. Thanksgiving is a spiritual exercise, necessary to the building of a healthy soul. It takes us out of the stuffiness of ourselves into the fresh breeze and sunlight of the will of God. The simple act of thanking Him is for most of us an abrupt change of activity, a break from work and worry, a move toward re-creation.
I am not suggesting the mouthing of foolish platitudes, or evasion of the truth. That is not how God is glorified, or souls fortified. I want to see clearly what I have been given and to thank Him with an honest heart. What are the "givens"?
Thankless children we all are, more or less, comprehending but dimly the truth of God's fathomless love for us. We do not know Him as a gracious Giver, we do not understand His most precious gifts, or the depth of His love, the wisdom with which He has planned our lives, the price He pays to bring us to glory and fulfillment. When some petty private concern or perhaps some bad news depresses or confuses me, I am in no position to be thankful. Far from it. That is the time, precisely then, that I must begin by deliberately putting my mind on some great Realities.
What are these "givens"? What do I most unshakably believe in? God the Father Almighty. Jesus Christ His only Son. The Holy Ghost, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, the life everlasting. Not a long list, but all we need. "The necessary supplies issued to us, the standard equipment of the Christian." We didn't ask for any of them. (Imagine having nothing more than we've asked for!) They are given.
Take the list of whatever we're not thankful for and measure it against the mighty foundation stones of our faith. The truth of our private lives can be understood only in relation to those Realities. Some of us know very little of suffering, but we know disappointments and betrayals and losses and bitterness. Are we really meant to thank God for such things? Let's be clear about one thing: God does not cause all the things we don't like. But He does permit them to happen because it is in this fallen world that we humans must learn to walk by faith. He doesn't leave us to ourselves, however. He shares every step. He walked this lonesome road first, He gave Himself for us, He died for us. "Can we not trust such a God to give us, with Him, everything else that we can need?" (Romans 8:32, PHILLIPS). Those disappointments give us the chance to learn to know Him and the meaning of His gifts, and, in the midst of darkness, to receive His light. Doesn't that transform the not thankful list into a thankful one?
Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: Keep A Quiet Heart
Hints for Quiet Time
Having a quiet time with the Lord every day is absolutely essential if you expect to grow spiritually. But you have to plan it. It won't "just happen." We're all much too busy. Early morning is best, and there are plenty of scriptural precedents for that (Jesus rose "a great while before day"; the psalmist said, "In the morning shalt Thou hear my voice").
If you meet the Lord before you meet anybody else, you'll be "pointed in the right direction" for whatever comes. God knows how difficult it is for some to do this, and if you have a reason you can offer Him why early morning won't work, I'm sure He'll help you to find another time. Sometimes the children's afternoon nap time can be quiet time for a mother. At any rate, plan the time. Make up your mind to stick with it. Make it short to begin with--fifteen minutes or so, perhaps. You'll be surprised at how soon you'll be wanting more.
Take a single book of the Bible. If you're new at this, start with the Gospel of Mark. Pray, first, for the Holy Spirit's teaching. Read a few verses, a paragraph, or a chapter. Then ask, What does this passage teach me about: (1) God, (2) Jesus Christ, (3) the Holy Spirit, (4) myself, (5) sins to confess or avoid, (6) commands to obey, (7) what Christian love is?
Keep a notebook. Write down some of your special prayer requests with the date. Record the answer when it comes. Note, also, some of the answers you've found to the above questions, or anything else you've learned. Tell your children, your spouse, your friends some of these things. That will help you to remember them. You'll be amazed at what a difference a quiet time will make in your life.
Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: Keep A Quiet Heart
Interruptions, Delays, Inconveniences
Emily, wife of America's first foreign missionary, Adoniram Judson, wrote home from Moulmein, Burma, in January 1847:
"This taking care of teething babies, and teaching natives to darn stockings and talking English back end foremost . . . in order to get an eatable dinner, is really a very odd sort of business for Fanny Forester [her pen name--she was a well-known New England writer before marrying Judson].... But I begin to get reconciled to my minute cares." She was ambitious for "higher and better things," but was enabled to learn that "the person who would do great things well must practice daily on little ones; and she who would have the assistance of the Almighty in important acts, must be daily and hourly accustomed to consult His will in the minor affairs of life."
About eighty years ago, when James 0. Fraser was working as a solitary missionary in Tengyueh, southwest China, his situation was, "in every sense, 'against the grain.'" He did not enjoy housekeeping and looking after premises. He found the houseboy irritable and touchy, constantly quarreling with the cook. Endless small items of business cluttered up the time he wanted for language study, and he was having to learn to be "perpetually inconvenienced" for the sake of the gospel. He wrote after some weeks alone:
"I am finding out that it is a mistake to plan to get through a certain amount of work in a certain time. It ends in disappointment, besides not being the right way to go about it, in my judgment. It makes one impatient of interruptions and delay. Just as you are nearly finishing--somebody comes along to sit with you and have a chat! You might hardly think it possible to be impatient and put out where there is such an opportunity for presenting the Gospel--but it is. It may be just on mealtime, or you are writing a letter to catch the mail, or you were just going out for needed exercise before tea. But the visitor has to be welcomed, and I think it is well to cultivate an attitude of mind which will enable one to welcome him from the heart and at any time. 'No admittance except on business' scarcely shows a true missionary spirit."
There is nothing like the biographies of great Christians to give us perspective and help us to keep spiritual balance. These two are well worth reading. It was J.O. Fraser who so inspired my husband Jim Elliot with missionary vision that Jim planned to name his first son after him.
One more quotation--this from an out-of-print book, The Life and Letters of Janet Erskine Stuart. Says one who was her assistant for some years, "She delighted in seeing her plan upset by unexpected events, saying that it gave her great comfort, and that she looked on such things as an assurance that God was watching over her stewardship, was securing the accomplishment of His will, and working out His own designs. Whether she traced the secondary causes to the prayer of a child, to the imperfection of an individual, to obstacles arising from misunderstandings, or to interference of outside agencies, she was joyfully and graciously ready to recognize the indication of God's ruling hand, and to allow herself to be guided by it
Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: Keep A Quiet Heart
My Life for Yours
About ten years ago, a young Canadian woman sat in the assembly hall at the University of Illinois in Urbana, along with seventeen thousand other students attending InterVarsity's missionary convention. She thrilled to the singing of the great hymns, led by Bernie Smith. She heard the peakers. "I remember the incredible excitement and desire to know and serve God that I experienced at that time. Now I have walked through some deep waters, and I feel compelled to write to you," her letter to me said. She had read two of my books just before the convention, and I happened to have been among the speakers. Another was Helen Roseveare, author of Give Me This Mountain and other books. At the time, Barbara was especially moved by the thought of the cost of declaring God's glory. Her letter told me this story:
Three years after Urbana she married Gerry Fuller, "a wonderful man who demonstrated zeal for Christ, a passion for souls, a beautiful compassion for hurting, broken people who needed to know the healing love of Jesus Christ." Following seminary and student pastorates, he became a prison chaplain and an inner-city missionary. Then he married Barbara and together they worked in Saint John, New Brunswick, with street kids, ex-convicts, and glue-sniffers.
The time came when Barbara saw Gerry seeking the Lord with such great intensity it made her question her own commitment to Christ. Was she prepared to die to self as he was? What was it that drove him to pray as he did--at least once until four in the morning? Was her own love for the Lord as deep as his, or was it perhaps shadowed by her love for her husband?
Gerry had a nephew named Gary, "a quiet guy with an artistic nature and talents that had been squelched as a child, leaving him very insecure, undisciplined." He couldn't hold down a job, got in trouble with the law. When relatives consented to his using their vacation cottage, a neighboring cottage was broken into. The owner called Gerry to say that his gun had been taken; Gary was the prime suspect, but they didn't want to call the police until they'd called Gerry.
Gerry was "scared stiff," but knew what he had to do the next day; put his whole trust in God, go to the cottage, try to persuade his nephew to turn himself in. He and Barbara went to bed.
Next morning when they prayed together he asked the Holy Spirit especially to strengthen Barbara in raising little Josh and Ben. Should she go with him to see Gary? She was relieved that his answer was no--"If anything happens to him, the children will need me," was the thought that flashed into her mind.
Gerry said goodbye. Barbara fasted, prayed, cared for the little boys, worked in the garden, waited. All day she waited. He did not come. Oh well, Gerry was always late for everything. No doubt they were deep in conversation. He had tried so often to help Gary. Lord, may He help him now.
At last the sound of a car. Eagerly Barbara looked up from her weeding. It was the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. She froze, then fell to the ground sobbing. Gerry was dead. But looking up at the bewildered faces of her sons, four and two years old, she pulled herself together, took their little hands, and told them Daddy was with Jesus and they wouldn't see him again for a long time. "From that point on there was the sense of being carried through the whole dream-like event. God surrounded me with His presence and an overwhelming sense that 'It's all right.' I knew He was in charge."
The murder was a deliberate act. Gary is serving a life sentence in a penitentiary with some who were led to Christ through Gerry's witness. They loved Gerry, but for love of his Lord they have forgiven his killer. A number of lives have been changed as a result of his testimony, but "in spite of the good things that came of his death there is always the WHY," Barbara writes. "As you say, we must let God be God. It's hard to explain, though, to a tired three-year-old when he wails, 'I miss Daddy!'
"One of my greatest blessings and comforts came as a surprise about six weeks after my husband's death when I discovered that I was pregnant with a baby conceived the eve of his homegoing. And how like the Lord and His perfect timing to present me with a beautiful child on Easter Sunday--the girl I had prayed for. Her name is Marah Grace and it is by God's grace that she has made my bitter wafers sweet.
"People say I am brave, but I don't see any great bravery in walking through one of the difficult experiences of life. God is the One who strengthens us at the time for the things we must face. My greatest fear was the fear of losing Gerry, but when the time came God swooped under me as a great bird and carried me on eagle's wings above the storm.
"So that is my story. I wanted to share it with you--I feel somewhat akin to you. My husband went in obedience to God, well aware of the danger, and laid down his life for Christ's sake. My task is to follow that example and to instill in my children the values Gerry and I shared: the supreme value of knowing Jesus Christ and serving Him with our whole selves."
Thank you, dear Barbara, for being one more faithful witness to a wholly faithful and sovereign Lord. Like Jim Elliot, Gerry knew that "he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." He would have understood the motto of the Coast.
Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: Keep A Quiet Heart
Scripture: Romans 12:1-2 Psalm 25:12 Psalm 25:4-5
How to Discover What God Wants
A young woman came in great perplexity to a Scottish preacher, asking how she could resolve the question of her own desires when they seemed to be in such contradiction to the will of God. He took out a slip of paper, wrote two words on it, handed it to her with the request that she sit down for ten minutes, ponder the words, cross out one of them, and bring the slip back to him. She sat down and read: No Lord. Which to cross out? It did not take her long to see that if she was saying No she could not say Lord, and if she wanted to call Him Lord, she could not say No.
No question comes up more often among Christian young people who face what seem to be limitless options than this one of how to discover what God wants them to do. What, exactly, is one's calling?
There are two very simple conditions to discovering the will of God. Paul states them clearly in his letter to the Romans, chapter 12. The first is in verse 1 (Jerusalem Bible): "... offering your living bodies as a holy sacrifice, truly pleasing to God." The place to start is by putting yourself utterly and unconditionally at God's disposal. You say Yes Lord. You turn over all the rights at the very beginning. Once that's settled you can go on to the second, in verse 2: "Do not model yourselves on the behavior of the world around you, but let your behavior change, modelled by your new mind." I said that the conditions were simple. I did not say they were easy. Exchanging a No Lord for a Yes Lord has often been painful for me. But I do want a "new mind"--one that takes its cues from the Word of God, not the mass media. I pray for a clear eye to see through the fog of popular opinion, and a will strong enough to withstand the currents--a will surrendered, laid alongside Christ's. He is my model. This means a different set of ambitions, a different definition of happiness, a different standard of judgment altogether. Behavior will change, and very likely it will change enough to make me appear rather odd--but then my Master was thought very odd.
Paul goes on to say that these conditions are "the only way to discover the will of God and know what is good, what it is that God wants, what is the perfect thing to do." No wonder we scratch our heads and ask, "What is the secret of knowing the will of God?" We haven't started at the right place--the offering of that all-inclusive sacrifice, our very bodies, and then the resolute refusal of the world's values.
"Make Thy paths known to me, O Lord; teach me Thy ways. Lead me in Thy truth and teach me; Thou art God my Savior."
Psalm 25:4, 5, NEB
"When we cannot see our way
Let us trust and still obey;
He who bids us forward go
Cannot fail the way to show.
Though the sea be deep and wide,
Though a passage seem denied,
Fearless let us still proceed,
Since the Lord vouchsafes to lead."
Anonymous
"If there is any man who fears the Lord, he shall be shown the path that he should choose."
Psalm 25:12, NEB
AMEN! AMEN! AMEN!
Wonderful doc.
Author: Woodrow Kroll
Source: Lessons on Living From David
Scripture: 1 Samuel 17:47
The Lord's Battle
1 Samuel 17:47
"Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s, and He will give you into our hands."
The Lord’s Battle
When King George VI gave his Christmas address to the British people in 1939, World War II had just begun. The German armies had conquered northern Europe and a long war lay ahead. In his speech the king quoted these words from a book by M. Louise Haskins: "And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year, ‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.’ And he replied, ‘Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.’"
As David faced the prospect of confronting a seasoned warrior nearly twice his size and vastly more experienced in battle, he also knew where to place his faith—not in the security of swords and spears but in the power of God. David knew that his skill would not save the day. Instead, the Lord would be the deciding factor. It was His battle.
Life is filled with giants that are bigger than we. Seemingly insurmountable obstacles can dog our every step. But when faced with overwhelming odds, it’s comforting to know that the outcome doesn’t depend on us. Of course, we must be obedient and do our part. Whatever skills or gifts that God has given us must be used. But having put forth our best efforts, we can be assured that God will be the One who ultimately determines the battle’s outcome.
Rest in the knowledge that the battle is the Lord’s. He is the One who gives the victory.
The Lord’s battle is our victory.
Gift of You!
Do you know someone caught in the addiction of alcohol or drugs? Or maybe you find yourself in that spot and you don’t know where to turn . . . what to do to free yourself from the addiction.
As Christians, we’re so good at asking God to free us from our problems and our issues, and when it doesn’t just happen . . . when we wake up the next day and the addiction is still there . . . we wonder why God didn’t answer our prayer and come to our rescue.
The fact of the matter is, He presents the solutions to us and we don’t recognize them. We don’t recognize the solutions because they take work, and we want our solutions instantly . . . we’re looking for a quick fix. So we walk right by them. Stop for a minute and think about this . . . “faith” is a verb, not a noun, and the only evidence of our faith is if we do something . . . if we act on it! You see, you’re waiting for God to act...and He’s waiting for you to act first.
Well, Christmas is coming, and if you want to give a gift that matters, what better gift can you give to someone than the gift of you!
It requires that you do something—pick up the phone and call 1-800-NEW-LIFE and ask about the program at the Calvary Center. Whether it’s for you, your spouse, a child, a friend, a co-worker, a parent . . . give us a call . . . take that first step and see how God works. Call 1-800-NEW-LIFE today! Help someone give “the gift of you!”
You can find treatment for substance abuse in the Calvary Center’s 30-day residential program. And, beginning December 1, Calvary will also be accepting admissions for treatment of Compulsive Gambling.
FOR ZION ’S SAKE I WILL NOT KEEP SILENT
Shabbat shalom dear friends and prayer warriors!
Israel is in need of much prayer this week:
Because of the constant launching of Kassam rockets from Gaza. Because of the infamous Gay Pride Parade in Jerusalem .
GAZA
Since the forceful evacuation of Gush Katif and its 8000 Jewish inhabitants, Gaza has been a source of constant threat to the city of Sderot , Ashkelon and others. Children are going to school in fear. In order to alleviate the situation, the IDF launched operation “Autumn Clouds”; which has been mildly successful. However Kassam rockets are still falling even after the military operation. Remember to pray Psalms 83, Jeremiah 12:14-17, and also please pray for mercy for Israel according to Psalms 102:13-22
From Arutz 7
Israel police are operating on a Level 3 alert following the deaths of 19 Arab civilians in an apparent IDF mishap during a retaliatory artillery attack against rocket launching areas in northern Gaza . Palestinian Authority leaders and terrorist organizations have called for Arabs to attack Jews both in Israel and worldwide.
Police reported more than 80 terror alerts this morning, including 15 “hot alerts,” referring to credible intelligence information of specific planned attacks.
The alert status was expected to move to Level 4 Friday morning if the (Gay Pride) parade was to have been held as scheduled.
Pride Parade in Jerusalem
This is the 3rd time in the last three years that the international community of homosexuals tries to march in Jerusalem . For two consecutive years we and others have prayed and fasted and The Holy One of Israel has intervened to stop it. However this year the Supreme Court has defended the “rights” of the homosexuals to exhibit their lewdness in the Holy City in spite of definite threats of violence. The Orthodox Jews have organized over 3500 buses (!) to bring people from all over the country to protest while they march in Jerusalem and especially around the Knesset (Parliament) and Government quarter. The Moslems in the city are equally incensed by this desecration of the Holy City and the Vatican has called Israel “to rethink”! On top of it their marching day is Friday the 10th of November which is the anniversary of Kristal Nacht the official beginning of the Nazi Shoa (Holocaust!) and the Torah Portion for this Friday is Genesis 18-19 about Sodom and Gomorra!
GOOD NEWS is that the organizers of the parade “have thrown in the towel” and have cancelled because of the many terror threats due to what happened in Gaza and will be holding the event in the close quarters of the Hebrew University campus instead (see news from Arutz 7 above)
From Arutz 7
In light of dozens of terrorist warnings and hundreds of thousands of expected protestors, the homosexual parade scheduled for Friday has been replaced by a rally. Only minor protests are expected.
While the Supreme Court prepares to hand down its response to four petitioners who demand that the parade be legally stopped, the organizers have essentially thrown in the towel on their own.
Fearful that the police would cancel the parade because of both increasing terror warnings and unyielding religious-community threats to actively protest it, the Jerusalem Open House - organizer of the parade - pre-emptively canceled it on its own.
Instead, it will hold a closed event in the stadium of the Givat Ram campus of Hebrew University , not far from the government complex.
Please keep praying to obstruct and dismantle this ungodly event in the Hebrew university and that the organizers will get totally DISCOURAGED from trying to do it again next year! Let us remind Yah of His promises in Ezekiel 36:21-32. Remind Him that His Holy name is at stake if this defilement is allowed in His Holy City that He calls His Throne.
“At that time Jerusalem shall be called The Throne of Yahweh, and all the nations shall be gathered to it, to the name of Yahweh, to Jerusalem . No more shall they follow the dictates of their evil hearts.” Jeremiah 3:17
Pray that Israel comes into His MIKVEH!
Much love in Y’shua,
Your friends in Israel,
Rabbi Baruch and Bishop Dominiquae Bierman
“FOR ZION ’S SAKE I WILL NOT KEEP SILENT”
Watch the live broadcast from the mountains of Jerusalem by Bishop Dominiquae Bierman
Shabbat 11th November 10am Israeli time
(Repeated at 12pm , 2pm , 4pm and 6pm )
( 10am = York 3am; London 8am ; Manila 1pm ; Sydney 5pm )
** See special repeats of last Shabbat broadcast on MAP Revolution TV, click on the link from our English web site www.kad-esh.org.
INTEGRITY
A Shabbat Letter from the Mikveh
By Bishop Dr. Dominiquae Bierman
“The integrity of the upright shall guide them” Proverbs 11:3a
Shabbat shalom dearly beloved:
Last Shabbat I wrote that this is a time of cleansing for the Bride of Y’shua; a time to pass through the Mikveh. A Mikveh is a ritual bath for purification. A bride needs to dip into the rain waters seven times. Prior to the dipping she has to go through a thorough cleansing she needs to be inspected by the women in charge to make sure that there are no traces of impurities, (not even under the finger nails!) In Israel there are no recognized weddings without a certificate of purity from the Mikveh. Y’shua is a Jewish Bridegroom and He will not be able to marry His Bride unless she goes through the cleansing “Mikveh” in the Waters of His Word.
“That He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.” Ephesians 5:26-27
Today we will address the issue of INTEGRITY and let the Word wash us clean.
Integrity according to the Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary is:
An unimpaired condition
Firm adherence to a code especially of moral or artistic value
INCORRUPTIBILITY
The quality or state of being COMPLETE or undivided
HONESTY
In Psalms 15 we can see another description of INTEGRITY as a requirement to “dwell in the Holy Hill of Yahveh”-
SPEAKING TRUTH IN THE HEART!!
“Yahveh, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in Your holy hill? He who walks uprightly, And works righteousness, And speaks the truth in his heart;” Psalms 15:1-2
Those that have a heart filled with TRUTH and they speak truth to themselves, they will be able to stay in Abba’s Presence. Those that “lie to themselves” they will not be able to dwell in His Presence. Inner lies will keep people from entering into and from remaining in the Presence of Yahveh. In other words “self deceived” people and liars will be in outer darkness away from His Love and Light. This can be a temporary condition until a person repents and turns; or it could be a permanent condition of banishment from His Presence, if a person persists in loving his/her lies more than God.
When we lie to ourselves, we actually love darkness rather than Light. People that lie to themselves are hiding like Adam did in the Garden of Eden. The outcome of his sin + his hiding, (lying to himself about his responsibility,) got him thrown out of the magnificent and luscious Garden of Eden! (Genesis 3)
People of integrity are FIRST HONEST WITH THEMSELVES and that is the rule of thumb! Integrity is not only about an “external air of honesty” or looking good on the outside by doing all “the right things religiously”; rather it is by being what I would call “brutally honest with myself”. Only then the external actions will be pleasing unto YAH (God).
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.” Matthew 23:25-26
Y’shua rebuked the religious hypocrites that pretended to be clean, honest and moral but where full of self deception and filth inside. They did not “speak truth in their hearts” and could not dwell in Yah’s Presence. Y’shua called them BLIND. That is what self deception or speaking lies to ourselves does; it makes us BLIND. A person that has been blinded by inner lies and self deception will normally plead IGNORANCE when rebuked or confronted with their sin or their lack of integrity. They will normally say: “I can’t see it”. A counselor may ask “Do you see what I mean?” and they will plead ignorant and blind.
When we can’t see our own sin, though others can; that means that we are suffering from lack of integrity, inner lies and self deception.
A person in that condition will be self defensive any time he/she is corrected and will provide a myriad of “stories” and “excuses” to justify their sinful condition rather than simply acknowledging their sin and repenting. A person like that cannot be trusted to lead or guide anyone in The Way; because they are blind. Blind people do not make good guides as they can make you fall into a ditch.
When the Pharisees where concerned about Y’shua’s disciples eating with unwashed hands, Y’shua told them,
“Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.” Matthew 15:11
And then they got offended and felt rebuked because he spoke truth to them. Self deceived, religious people will always get offended when TRUTH is spoken. You know why? Because truth is LIGHT. When the lights get turned onto a person that is accustomed to darkness and inner lies, it is very bothersome; so the reaction is to reject the light (the truth). The best way to do it is by getting offended and by justifying one’s own immoral condition.
Then His disciples came and said to Him, “Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?” But He answered and said, “Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.” Matthew 15:12-14
People that insist in rejecting the light, being offended when corrected and making excuses for their inner and outer lies, will be eventually uprooted from His grace and Presence. They are just like weeds are to be uprooted from a good garden. Weeds are never planted by The Father but Trees of Righteousness are. Those are people that are honest with themselves and follow Y’shua’s lifestyle of faith and obedience. True Trees of Righteousness HATE lies and they are constantly concerned about pleasing and giving Glory to the Father ALONE. They are INCORRUPTIBLE! Those are people of integrity. Yah can trust them, and you can trust them, because they do not trust themselves but God ALONE!
These are not religious people that “do everything right”, but rather truly spiritual people that are constantly seeking Him. They maintain their hearts clean from the WEEDS of self deception, inner lies, compromises with sin, evil, and EXCUSES for their condition.
“That they may be called trees of righteousness the planting of Yahveh that He may be glorified” Isaiah 61:3b
The difference between “weeds” and “Trees of Righteousness” is that one is planted by The Father and one is not. One will remain in His Presence and one will not, but rather be uprooted and burnt like all weeds should. If not they will choke the trees and spoil the garden.
Maybe you have been functioning as a “weed” though you are a “Tree of Righteousness”? Maybe you have allowed self deception, inner lies, excuses and denials to blind you to the truth of your condition. Maybe you get offended and self defensive when corrected? Maybe you are blind already and the weeds are affecting your vision. I have good news for you! Get into the Mikveh, wash away your sin, your self deception, inner lies, and CHOOSE TRUTH! Choose to be honest with yourself FIRST and then with others. Remove the weeds from your soul and adopt INTEGRITY. INTEGRITY is the lifestyle of the True Trees of Righteousness.
INTEGRITY OF THE HEART is when you care about nothing more than pleasing the Almighty ALONE and giving Him Glory. Therefore your behavior towards others is in accordance to God’s moral ethics and in harmony with Y’shua’s righteous character!
The Word of God says that INTEGRITY shall guide us! In other words, we will not get lost on the way. Integrity will be our EYES, and we will see clearly where we are going. Better than that, we will be going on the RIGHT WAY , the Highway of Holiness!
A highway shall be there, and a road, And it shall be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it, But it shall be for others. Whoever walks the road, although a fool, shall not go astray. No lion shall be there, Nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it; It shall not be found there. But the redeemed shall walk there, And the ransomed of Yahveh shall return, and come to Zion with singing, With everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, And sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Isaiah 35:8-10
When you walk in the integrity of your heart, you will walk in holiness, and you return to Zion , to Yah’s Covenant. When you return to His Covenant and Kingdom ways, to the Gospel “made in Zion ”, to His Commandments, and Torah instructions; then you will have great JOY. Integrity brings JOY!
People of Integrity leave an inheritance of blessing to their children :
“The righteous man walks in his integrity; His children are blessed after him.” Proverbs 20:7
As we finish this letter let us pray the following prayer with King David:
“Vindicate me, O Yahveh, For I have walked in my integrity. I have also trusted in the Yahveh; shall not slip. Examine me, O Yahveh, and prove me; Try my mind and my heart. For Your lovingkindness is before my eyes, And I have walked in Your truth. I have not sat with idolatrous mortals, Nor will I go in with hypocrites. I have hated the assembly of evildoers, And will not sit with the wicked. I will wash my hands in innocence; So I will go about Your altar, O Yahveh, that I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving, And tell of all Your wondrous works. Yahveh, I have loved the habitation of Your house, And the place where Your glory dwells. Do not gather my soul with sinners, Nor my life with bloodthirsty men, In whose hands is a sinister scheme, And whose right hand is full of bribes. But as for me, I will walk in my integrity; Redeem me and be merciful to me. My foot stands in an even place; In the congregations I will bless Yahveh.” Psalms 26
In Y’shua’s Love
From the Mikveh
Your friends in Israel
Rabbi Baruch and Bishop Dominiquae Bierman
Author: Woodrow Kroll
Source: Lessons on Living From David
Scripture: 1 Samuel 20:3 Psalm 34:6-7 1 Samuel 18:6-8
Some people live on the edge because they choose to. They bungee jump, sky dive and engage in other extreme sports just for the thrill of it. Others live on the edge not by choice, but because circumstances have placed them in dangerous places.
David fell into this latter category. He had sought to serve Saul faithfully and defend his country and his king with passion. But his success in these efforts only managed to arouse the king’s jealousy. When women came out of the cities singing David’s praises (1 Sam. 18:6-8), Saul became enraged and began to plot to do away with the young man he now viewed as a threat to his throne. David soon found himself only one step ahead of a king who was trying to kill him. But in the midst of these circumstances, David knew that God was with him and would preserve him (Ps. 34:6).
Many Christians today also live on the edge. They live in countries where the penalty for being a Christian is death. They live in nations where famine is claiming the lives of thousands. They live in drug-infested neighborhoods where drive-by shootings and gang killings are commonplace. Yet they also can claim God’s presence and protection (Ps. 34:7).
Perhaps you live on the edge. Though your life is not in danger, you may be living on the edge in terms of your job, your family or your marriage. Perhaps you feel that at any moment one or more of these could fall apart and leave you helpless. Put your trust in the God of David. Let Him provide what you need to move away from the edge.
Christ can take the edge out of living.
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