Total Deliverance

“The smell of fire was not on them.”                                 Da 3:27 NKJV

Deliverance is when God brings you out of a fiery trial that was meant to destroy you. Total deliverance is when, like the three Hebrew children, He brings you out without even the smell of smoke on you. You see, it’s possible to be delivered but still be ”damaged.” You can hear it in what a person says. They speak only of the past because they stopped living at a certain point. They survived the trauma, but because they haven’t dealt with it the right way they constantly refer back to it. When they talk, part of them is still “in the fire.” Now we are not talking about some “quick fix,” or a “one size fits all” form of healing. Your temperament, your faith level, and the depth of your pain at the time are all determining factors in how long it takes to recover and become whole. But this much is clear: Whatever was binding the three Hebrew children when they went into the fiery furnace, wasn’t binding them when they came out of it. And that’s what God wants to do for you too. Does that mean you’re not supposed to talk about what you’ve been through? No, but don’t talk like a victim, talk like a victor! David said: “He also brought me up out of a horrible pit (the past)…and set my feet upon a rock (the present)…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” (the future) (Ps 40:2-3 NKJV). Your experience may be old, but your song will be new.

http://theencouragingword.wordpress.com/2012/01/22/total-deliverance/

Caring for God’s Creation

“God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.”    Ge 2:15 NKJV

For generations the church was silent on the sin of slavery. That’s because it was popular and economically advantageous; not to mention that some church leaders had slaves of their own. But when the church finally acknowledged its wrong, it helped lead the way to reform. Today we can’t even imagine life any other way! Well, some of us are waking up to the fact that caring for God’s creation is not just something “tree huggers” do. A resolution at the Southern Baptist Convention condemning those responsible for the oil spill in the Gulf illustrates this. Southern Baptist theologian Russell Moore, in an eloquent statement about how the oil spill would devastate his beloved home town ofBiloxi,Mississippi, acknowledged: “For too long we evangelical Christians have maintained an uneasy ecological conscience. I include myself in this indictment.” Then he asked, “Will people believe us when we speak about the One who brings life, and that abundantly, when they see we don’t care about that which kills and destroys?” The same God who put potatoes in the ground for us to eat, put oil in the ground for us to use. But He surely isn’t happy when we pollute His oceans and kill His creatures in our attempt to get it. “You have made him to have dominion [management and stewardship] over the works of Your hands…even the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea” (Ps 8:6-8 NKJV). Just because we are going to heaven doesn’t mean we can “trash” God’s beautiful earth!

http://theencouragingword.wordpress.com/2012/01/21/caring-for-gods-creation/

A Playful God by Mark D. Roberts

Psalm 104:1-35

See the ships sailing along,     and Leviathan, which you made to play in the sea.

Psalm 104:26

Psalm 104 celebrates God the Creator who made all things. Verse 24 sums up the main theme of this psalm: “O LORD, what a variety of things you have made! In wisdom you have made them all. The earth is full of your creatures.”

The following verses focus on God as the one who made all things in the ocean, including sea animals and ships. The last part of verse 26 adds a curious detail: “[See] Leviathan, which you made to play in the sea.” Leviathan was a mythic creature, perhaps based on a whale or dolphin. According to the psalm writer, God made this creature “to play in the sea.” The Hebrew verb translated as “play” does indeed mean to play. It is closely related to a word for laughter. This verb shows up in one of Zechariah’s visions of the future kingdom of God: “This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: Once again old men and women will walk Jerusalem’s streets with their canes and will sit together in the city squares. And the streets of the city will be filled with boys and girls at play” (8:4-5).

I love the thought that God made some great sea creature to play in the sea. In fact, I have seen ample evidence of this very reality. Several years ago, I was visiting a friend who had a house on the cliffs above the Pacific Ocean in Southern California. As I gazed at the sea, all of a sudden I saw a massive gray whale surface, blowing spray into the air. Seconds later, another whale surfaced, leaping almost completely out of the water. These two gray whales continued to frolic for several minutes, much to my wonderment.

God created the world to be productive. He created us in his image, calling us to be fruitful and multiply. Work stands at the center of our purpose for living. But, God also created play. The example of Leviathan encourages us to enjoy life, to do things that are not necessarily productive in the ordinary sense, though they are productive of delight, health, and community. Moreover, our playfulness reflects the creative intentions of our playful God.

QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER REFLECTION: What do you think of play? Do you consider play as part of God’s design for creation? Why or why not? What playful activities do you enjoy?

PRAYER: All-powerful, creative God, how I thank you for the reminders of Psalm 104. The beauty and intricacy of creation reflect your brilliance and power. How blessed I am to enjoy your good gifts!

Thank you for the example of Leviathan. Thank you for creating Leviathan to play in the sea. What a stirring reminder of your intentions for us. Yes, we are to work. Yes, we are to rest. But we are also to play, to enjoy the beauty and freedom and delight of life.

Help me, Lord, to play more. Help me to play in a way that honors you. Amen.

http://www.thehighcalling.org/reflection/playful-god

The Lord Remembers We Are Only Dust by Mark D. Roberts

Psalm 103:1-22

The LORD is like a father to his children,      tender and compassionate to those who fear him. For he knows how weak we are;      he remembers we are only dust.

Psalm 103:13-14

Psalm 103 underscores our weakness, our limitations, our “dustiness,” but with good news. This psalm celebrates God’s multifaceted goodness to us. He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases (103:3). He redeems us from death (103:4). He fills our lives with good things (103:5). He gives justice to the oppressed (103:6). He is “compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love” (103:8). God does not deal harshly with us, though we are sinners (103:10). His love for us is great and his forgiveness broad (103:11-12).

Then Psalm 103 adds, “The LORD is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him. For he knows how weak we are; he remembers we are only dust” (103:13-14). Knowing our weakness and dustiness, God is tender and compassionate. God’s love for us means that he does not abandon us in our limitations and sins. Rather, he looks upon us like a father with his own children. And, indeed, the Father loves us so much that he sent his only Son to bear our sin and open us up to the way of wholeness.

So, even as we acknowledge our limitations, our frailty, and our sin, we celebrate the fact that God understands who we are, and that he has come in Christ to do what we could never do on our own.

QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER REFLECTION: How have you experienced God’s tenderness and compassion? When you think of God as your Heavenly Father, what thoughts or images come to mind?

PRAYER: How I thank you, dear Lord, for being like a father to me. Indeed, you are my Heavenly Father, the one I call “Father” through your Son.

Thank you for being tender and compassionate to me, for understanding my weakness. Your goodness to me far outstrips anything I could ever imagine or deserve.

Thank you for remembering that I am dust, and thus looking upon me with gentle love.

AsI reflect upon my need for you, help me to experience yet again how wonderful you are.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless God’s holy name. Amen.

http://www.thehighcalling.org/reflection/lord-remembers-we-are-only-dust-0

Tozer Devotional-Christ the Source of Moral Beauty

Christ the Source of Moral Beauty

One thing the Bible teaches very plainly is that Christ is the sum of all virtues and the essense of all beauty. On this subject, modern Christians have a lot to learn. We have been cheated of this truth for the last half-century or more, the emphasis falling elsewhere. And we are always victims of the prevailing religious vogue. Whatever is getting the attention from our spiritual leaders is what we finally come to accept as orthodoxy in any given period of history. And right now we are definitely not hearing much about the loveliness of Jesus. Christ is God shining through the personality of a man, and shining unhindered. His sacred humanity does not veil His divine beauty in any degree. The Christ who lived among men showed forth the nature of God as certainly as if He had still been with His Father in the preincarnate state. There is no moral beauty but what Christ is the source of it. Every trait of lovely character we see in any believing man or woman is but an imperfect demonstration of how wonderful Jesus is. Even those moral beauties that appear to be “natural” to some people have their source in Him. For human goodness cannot exist apart from Christ. They are but broken lights of Thee, And Thou, O Christ, are more than they.

http://www.cmalliance.org/devotions/tozer?id=436

Tozer Devotional-Cultivating the Psychology of Cooperation

Cultivating the Psychology of Cooperation

A local church, as long as it is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, cannot entertain the psychology of competition. When it begins to compete with another church, it is a true church of God no longer; it has voided its character and gone down onto a lower level. The Spirit that indwells it is no longer divine; it is human merely, and its activities are pitched on the plane of the natural. Wherever the spirit of competition between brethren rears its head, there will be found carnality, selfishness and sin. The only way to deal with it is to tag it for what it is and put it away in the sorrows of repentance. The Holy Spirit always cooperates with Himself in His members. The Spirit-directed body does not tear itself apart by competition. The ambitions of the various members are submerged in the glory of the Head, and whatever brings honor to the Head meets with the most eager approval of the members. We should cultivate the idea that we are co-workers rather than competitors. We should ask God to give us the psychology of cooperation. We should learn to think of ourselves as being members in particular of one and the same body, and we should reject with indignation every suggestion of the enemy designed to divide our efforts.

http://www.cmalliance.org/devotions/tozer?id=435

Disagreeing With God · Max Lucado

Disagreeing With God · Max Lucado.

The Wolf Man · Max Lucado

The Wolf Man · Max Lucado.

Thank God For Music

Thank God For Music.

Purge Out The Old

Purge Out The Old.