His neck was put in irons. (Psalm 105: 18)

The irons of sorrow and loss, the burdens carried as a youth, and the soul’s struggle against sin all contribute to developing an iron tenacity and strength of purpose, as well as endurance and fortitude. And these traits make up the indispensable foundation and framework of noble character. 

Never run from suffering, but bear it silently, patiently, and submissively, with the assurance that it is God’s way of instilling iron into your spiritual life. The world is looking for iron leaders, iron armies, iron tendons, and muscles of steel. But God is looking for iron saints, and since there is no way to impart iron into His people’s moral nature except by letting them suffer, He allows them to suffer.

Are the best years of your life slipping away while you suffer enforced monotony? Are you afflicted with opposition, misunderstandings, and the scorn of others? Do your afflictions seem as thick as the undergrowth confronting someone hiking through a jungle? Then take heart! Your time is not wasted, for God is simply putting you through His iron regimen. Your iron crown of suffering precedes your golden crown of glory, and iron is entering your soul to make it strong and brave.

F. B. Meyer

But you will not mind the roughness, nor the steepness of the way, Nor the cold, unrested morning, nor the heat of the noonday; And you will not take a turning to the left or the right, But go straight ahead, nor tremble at the coming of the night, For the road leads home.

Cowman, L. B. E.; Reimann, Jim (2008-09-09). Streams in the Desert: 366 Daily Devotional Readings (p. 476). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have all the people give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the people will go up, every man straight in. (Joshua 6: 5)
 
The “loud shout” of steadfast faith is the exact opposite of the groans of wavering faith and the complaints of discouraged hearts. Of all “the secret[ s] of the Lord” (Ps. 25: 14 KJV), I do not believe there are any more valuable than the secret of this “loud shout” of faith. “The Lord said to Joshua, ‘See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men’ ” (Josh. 6: 2). He did not say, “I will deliver” but “I have delivered.” The victory already belonged to the children of Israel, and now they were called to take possession of it. But the big question still remaining was how. It looked impossible, but the Lord had a plan. 

No one would normally believe that a shout could cause city walls to fall. Yet the secret of their victory lay precisely in just that shout, for it was the shout of faith. And it was a faith that dared to claim a promised victory solely on the basis of the authority of God’s Word, even though there were no physical signs of fulfillment. God answered His promise in response to their faith, for when they shouted, He caused the walls to fall. 

God had declared, “I have delivered Jericho into your hands,” and faith believed this to be true. And many centuries later the Holy Spirit recorded this triumph of faith in the book of Hebrews as follows: “By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days” (Heb. 11: 30). Hannah Whitall Smith 

Faith can never reach its consummation, 
 Till the victor’s thankful song we raise: 
In the glorious city of salvation, 
God has told us all the gates are praise.

Cowman, L. B. E.; Reimann, Jim (2008-09-09). Streams in the Desert: 366 Daily Devotional Readings (p. 333). Zondervan. Kindle Edition

How Great Is Our God

 http://vimeo.com/73546693

He saw the disciples straining at the oars. (Mark 6: 48)

Straining and striving does not accomplish the work God gives us to do. Only God Himself, who always works without stress and strain and who never overworks, can do the work He assigns to His children. When we restfully trust Him to do it, the work will be completed and will be done well. And the way to let Him do His work through us is to so fully abide in Christ by faith that He fills us to overflowing. A man who learned this secret once said, “I came to Jesus and drank, and I believe I will never be thirsty again. My life’s motto has become ‘Not overwork but overflow,’ and it has already made all the difference in my life.” There is no straining effort in an overflowing life, and it is quietly irresistible. It is the normal life of omnipotent and ceaseless accomplishment

Be all at rest, my soul, O blessed secret,
Of the true life that glorifies thy Lord:
Not always doth the busiest soul best serve Him,
But he that resteth on His faithful Word.
Be all at rest, let not your heart be rippled,
For tiny wavelets mar the image fair,
Which the still pool reflects of heaven’s glory—
And thus the image He would have thee bear.

Be all at rest, my soul, for rest is service,
To the still heart God doth His secrets tell;
Thus shalt thou learn to wait, and watch, and labor,
Strengthened to bear, since Christ in thee doth dwell.
For what is service but the life of Jesus,
Lived through a vessel of earth’s fragile clay,
Loving and giving and poured forth for others,
A living sacrifice from day to day.

Be all at rest, so shalt thou be an answer
To those who question, “Who is God and where?”
For God is rest, and where He dwells is stillness,
And they who dwell in Him, His rest shalt share.
And what shall meet the deep unrest around thee,
But the calm peace of God that filled His breast?
For still a living Voice calls to the weary,
From Him who said, “Come unto Me and rest.”
—Freda Hanbury Allen

“In resurrection stillness there is resurrection power.”
Cowman, L. B. E.; Reimann, Jim (2008-09-09). Streams in the Desert: 366 Daily Devotional Readings (p. 331). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

https://vimeo.com/68138175

http://www.billygraham.org/dailydevotion.asp?ArticleID=7301

Every Day With Jesus

Greg Laurie

C.S. Lewis observed that even atheists have moments of doubt. Maybe you have begun to doubt your doubts. Maybe you have begun to wonder about the meaning and purpose of your life. Maybe you are wondering, Can God change someone like me? Well, the answer is yes. He can and He will.

In the Bible there is a story of a man whose life was radically changed. His name was Matthew, and he was a tax collector. Being a tax collector meant working for the Roman government. But Matthew was a Jew, so he was seen as a traitor, because Rome was the occupying force in Israel at that time. He was seen as a collaborator with the enemy, a turncoat, someone who had abandoned his people.

To be a tax collector in that culture was the worst thing you could do. Think of an ambulance-chasing lawyer mixed with a used-car salesman who works as a telemarketer at night, and that is the idea of how a tax collector would have been viewed in the first century.

Matthew probably thought Jesus never would call someone like him. But then his life changed, and his world was rocked when Jesus said two words to him: “Follow Me” (Matthew 9:9). And Matthew got up and followed.

That night, Matthew invited Jesus and His disciples to be His dinner guests, along with his fellow tax collectors and other notorious sinners. He had his life impacted by God and wanted to tell his friends. Matthew was a successful man. He was a wealthy man. Being a tax collector for Rome meant that not only would he be paid by the government, but he could add to the taxes he collected from others and become very wealthy.

Matthew had reached the pinnacle of success, yet there was something lacking in his life. He had money. He had power. But he was lonely. And he was looking for the meaning of life. He had gone out of his way to offend his fellow Jews and even to offend God himself.

In the same way, there are people today who go out of their way to be offensive, to live a radical life – just to get a little attention from other people. Maybe they were turned off by church. Maybe a pastor or a minister or a priest somehow misrepresented God to them, and they don’t want anything to do with Christians.

But Jesus did not say, “Follow My people.” Rather, he said, “Follow Me.” And Jesus never will be hypocritical. He never will be inconsistent. He will be everything that He has promised to be.
Does that mean it is necessary to give up something to follow Jesus Christ? The answer is yes. It means giving up emptiness and loneliness and guilt and the ever-present fear of death. In its place, Jesus will give fulfillment and friendship and forgiveness and the guarantee of heaven when we die. It is God’s trade-in deal for us, because Jesus is still saying, “Follow Me.”

But what does it really mean to be a follower of Jesus Christ? When Jesus said, “Follow Me,” it could be translated, “Follow with Me,” meaning companionship and friendship. Jesus was essentially saying to Matthew, “I want to be your friend, your companion. I want to be someone you can open your heart to, someone you can reveal your secrets to.”

Do you know God in that way – as a friend? A lot of people think that God is out to ruin their lives, to rain on their parade, to not let them have any fun, to just be mean. They think the Bible is a book filled with a bunch of rules and regulations to make their lives miserable. But nothing could be further from the truth.

God said, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you … thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11 NKJV). God’s plans for you are better than any plans you have ever envisioned for yourself.

That was exactly the situation with Matthew. Jesus was saying to him, “Follow with me. Let me be your friend. Let me be your companion.”

But the word “follow” that Jesus used also speaks of walking the same road. It is the idea of beginning something and finishing it as well. Jesus was saying, in other words, “Matthew, not only do I want you to follow me as a friend, but I command you to follow me each and every day.”
Some people have a Sunday Jesus of sorts. They basically say to God, “I will see you in church this Sunday for about two hours. That is your time. You can do whatever you want with it. But after church is over, I’ll see you next week.” But Jesus doesn’t want to be a Sunday Jesus. He wants to be a Monday Jesus, a Tuesday Jesus, a Wednesday Jesus – an everyday Jesus. He wants to be involved in every aspect of our lives: what we do with our time, how we behave in life, what we do in public and what we do in private as well.

Matthew knew a good deal when he saw it. The Bible tells us that at Jesus’ invitation, Matthew got up and followed him (see Matthew 9:9). Matthew recognized the immense privilege that was being offered to him, and without hesitation he stood up and followed Christ.

Do you realize what a privilege it is that Jesus calls you to follow him? He called me when I was still in my teens, and I followed him. And I have never looked back at that decision with a single regret.
When Jesus calls us to follow Him, it is a yes-or-no proposition. Jesus said, “He who is not with Me is against Me” (Matthew 12:30 NKJV). To not say yes is to automatically say no. To be undecided is to be decided. Don’t say no to Jesus. Say yes to Him. You will be glad you did.

HeartForJesus

HeartForJesus

Streams In The Desert

 

He named the second child Ephraim, saying, “Certainly God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering. (Gen 41:52)

The summer showers are falling. The poet stands by the window watching them. They are beating and buffeting the earth with their fierce downpour. But the poet sees in his imaginings more than the showers which are falling before his eyes. He sees myriads of lovely flowers which shall be soon breaking forth from the watered earth, filling it with matchless beauty and fragrance. And so he sings:

“It isn’t raining rain for me, it’s raining daffodils; 

In every dimpling drop I see wild flowers upon the hills. 

A cloud of gray engulfs the day, and overwhelms the town; 

It isn’t raining rain for me: it’s raining roses down.”

Perchance some one of God’s chastened children is even now saying, "O God, it is raining hard for me tonight.

“Testings are raining upon me which seem beyond my power to endure. Disappointments are raining fast, to the utter defeat of all my chosen plans. Bereavements are raining into my life which are making my shrinking heart quiver in its intensity of suffering. The rain of affliction is surely beating down upon my soul these days.”

Withal, friend, you are mistaken. It isn’t raining rain for you. It’s raining blessing. For, if you will but believe your Father’s Word, under that beating rain are springing up spiritual flowers of such fragrance and beauty as never before grew in that stormless, unchastened life of yours.

You indeed see the rain. But do you see also the flowers? You are pained by the testings. But God sees the sweet flower of faith which is upspringing in your life under those very trials.

You shrink from the suffering. But God sees the tender compassion for other sufferers which is finding birth in your soul.

Your heart winces under the sore bereavement. But God sees the deepening and enriching which that sorrow has brought to you.

It isn’t raining afflictions for you. It is raining tenderness, love, compassion, patience, and a thousand other flowers and fruits of the blessed Spirit, which are bringing into your life such a spiritual enrichment as all the fullness of worldly prosperity and ease was never able to beget in your innermost soul. —J. M. McC.

SONGS ACROSS THE STORM

“A harp stood in the moveless air,

Where showers of sunshine washed a thousand fragrant blooms;

A traveler bowed with loads of care

Essayed from morning till the dusk of evening glooms 

To thrum sweet sounds from the songless strings;

The pilgrim strives in vain with each unanswering chord, 

Until the tempest’s thunder sings,

And, moving on the storm, the fingers of the Lord 

A wondrous melody awakes;

And though the battling winds their soldier deeds perform, 

Their trumpet-sound brave music makes

While God’s assuring voice sings love across the storm”

 Oh Lord You're Beautiful

https://vimeo.com/67967667

Insight For Living

David wanted it known that, unlike the majority, he wasn't going to panic and get all involved in those carnal anxieties and ulcer-producing activities of self-vindication. No way! What does he say? "I shall walk in my integrity." And he calls upon God to act on his behalf. ... No sleepless nights, no struggling doubts—just patient waiting.
When he waits for God to deliver him, he maintains a panoramic perspective; he is able to look upon the entire process from God's viewpoint, not from his own limited human perspective. In brief, he is able to maintain wisdom.

- See more at: http://www.insight.org/library/insight-for-today/waiting-with-patience.
html#sthash.6KdnHGHs.dpuf

 Streams In The Desert

"My own peace I give to you" (John 14:27, Weymouth).

Two painters each painted a picture to illustrate his conception of rest. The first chose for his scene a still, lone lake among the far-off mountains.

The second threw on his canvas a thundering waterfall, with a fragile birch tree bending over the foam; and at the fork of the branch, almost wet with the cataract's spray, sat a robin on its nest.
The first was only stagnation; the last was rest.

Christ's life outwardly was one of the most troubled lives that ever lived: tempest and tumult, tumult and tempest, the waves breaking over it all the time until the worn body was laid in the grave. But the inner life was a sea of glass. The great calm was always there.

At any moment you might have gone to Him and found rest. And even when the human bloodhounds were dogging Him in the streets of Jerusalem, He turned to His disciples and offered them, as a last legacy, "My peace."

Rest is not a hallowed feeling that comes over us in church; it is the repose of a heart set deep in God. --Drummond

My peace I give in times of deepest grief,
Imparting calm and trust and My relief.
My peace I give when prayer seems lost, unheard;
Know that My promises are ever in My Word.
My peace I give when thou art left alone--
The nightingale at night has sweetest tone.
My peace I give in time of utter loss,
The way of glory leads right to the cross.
My peace I give when enemies will blame,
Thy fellowship is sweet through cruel shame.
My peace I give in agony and sweat,
For mine own brow with bloody drops was wet.
My peace I give when nearest friend betrays
Peace that is merged in love, and for them prays.
My peace I give when there's but death for thee
The gateway is the cross to get to Me.
--L. S. P.

To know the will of God is the highest of all wisdom

http://www.billygraham.org/dailydevotion.asp?ArticleID=7288

  Streams In The Desert

 In everything ye are enriched by him (1 Cor. 1:5).

Have you ever seen men and women whom some disaster drove to a great act of prayer, and by and by the disaster was forgotten, but the sweetness of religion remained and warmed their souls?

So have I seen a storm in later spring; and all was black, save where the lightning tore the cloud with thundering rent.

The winds blew and the rains fell, as though heaven had opened its windows. What a devastation there was! Not a spider’s web that was out of doors escaped the storm, which tore up even the strong-branched oak.

But ere long the lightning had gone by, the thunder was spent and silent, the rain was over, the western wind came up with its sweet breath, the clouds were chased away, and the retreating storm threw a scarf of rainbows over her fair shoulders and resplendent neck, and looked back and smiled, and so withdrew and passed out of sight.

But for weeks long the fields held up their bands full of ambrosial flowers, and all the summer through the grass was greener, the brooks were fuller, and the trees cast a more umbrageous shade, because the storm passed by–though all the rest of the earth had long ago forgotten the storm, its rainbows and its rain.
–Theodore Parker

God may not give us an easy journey to the Promised Land, but He will give us a safe one.
–Bonar

It was a storm that occasioned the discovery of the gold mines of India. Hath not a storm driven some to the discovery of the richer mines of the love of God in Christ?

 

Is it raining, little flower?
Be glad of rain;
Too much sun would wither thee;
‘Twill shine again.
The clouds are very black, ’tis true;
But just behind them shines the blue.
Art thou weary, tender heart?
Be glad of pain:
 

In sorrow sweetest virtues grow,
As flowers in rain.
God watches, and thou wilt have sun,
When clouds their perfect work have done.
–Lucy Larcom

https://vimeo.com/68138175

Making Excuses

The Upper Room - Daily Devotional Guide

A couple of years ago, I was hesitant to take up a new responsibility in the organization. I had neither academic qualifications nor the experience for the new job. I felt inadequate and fearful. At the same time, I sensed that the new assignment was something God wanted me to do. Gradually my thinking changed. Instead of considering only my limitations, I started taking into account the help from God that would be available to me. After taking some time to decide, I agreed to take the new job and prayed for guidance in doing it. God was faithful and gave me not only wisdom for the task but also power to carry it out. 

Making Excuses

  Streams In The Desert

 

And the Lord’s slave must not engage in heated disputes but be kind toward all, an apt teacher, patient, (2 Tim 2:24)

When God conquers us and takes all the flint out of our nature, and we get deep visions into the Spirit of Jesus, we then see as never before the great rarity of gentleness of spirit in this dark and unheavenly world.

The graces of the Spirit do not settle themselves down upon us by chance, and if we do not discern certain states of grace, and choose them, and in our thoughts nourish them, they never become fastened in our nature or behavior.

Every advance step in grace must be preceded by first apprehending it, and then a prayerful resolve to have it.

So few are willing to undergo the suffering out of which thorough gentleness comes. We must die before we are turned into gentleness, and crucifixion involves suffering; it is a real breaking and crushing of self, which wrings the heart and conquers the mind.

There is a good deal of mere mental and logical sanctification nowadays, which is only a religious fiction. It consists of mentally putting one’s self on the altar, and then mentally saying the altar sanctifies the gift, and then logically concluding therefore one is sanctified; and such an one goes forth with a gay, flippant, theological prattle about the deep things of God.

But the natural heartstrings have not been snapped, and the Adamic flint has not been ground to powder, and the bosom has not throbbed with the lonely, surging sighs of Gethsemane; and not having the real death marks of Calvary, there cannot be that soft, sweet, gentle, floating, victorious, overflowing, triumphant life that flows like a spring morning from an empty tomb.
—G. D. W.

“And great grace was upon them all” (Acts 4:33).

Insight for Today: Open before the Lord

If you are confident that God really loves you, you will neither doubt nor drift in your response. Instead, you will find great delight in pleasing Him. There is nothing quite like love to motivate us from within
Insight for Today: Open before the Lord

Your Kindness  - Chris Tomlin
https://vimeo.com/68063287

Streams in the Desert

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God" (Rom. 8:28). How wide is this assertion of the Apostle Paul! He does not say, "We know that some things," or "most things," or "joyous things," but "ALL things." From the minutest to the most momentous; from the humblest event in daily providence to the great crisis hours in grace. And all things "work'--they are working; not all things have worked, or shall work; but it is a present operation. At this very moment, when some voice may be saying, "Thy judgments are a great deep," the angels above, who are watching the development of the great plan, are with folded wings exclaiming, "The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works." (Ps. 145:17) And then all things "work together." It is a beautiful blending. Many different colors, in themselves raw and unsightly, are required in order to weave the harmonious pattern. Many separate tones and notes of music, even discords and dissonances, are required to make up the harmonious anthem. Many separate wheels and joints are required to make the piece of machinery. Take a thread separately, or a note separately, or a wheel or a tooth of a wheel separately, and there may be neither use nor beauty discernible. But complete the web, combine the notes, put together the separate parts of steel and iron, and you see how perfect and symmetrical is the result. Here is the lesson for faith: "What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter." --Macduff In one thousand trials it is not five hundred of them that work for the believer's good, but nine hundred and ninety-nine of them, and one beside. --George Mueller "GOD MEANT IT UNTO GOOD" (Gen. 50:20). "God meant it unto good"--O blest assurance, Falling like sunshine all across life's way, Touching with Heaven's gold earth's darkest storm clouds, Bringing fresh peace and comfort day by day. 'Twas not by chance the hands of faithless brethren Sold Joseph captive to a foreign land; Nor was it chance which, after years of suffering, Brought him before the monarch's throne to stand. One Eye all-seeing saw the need of thousands, And planned to meet it through that one lone soul; And through the weary days of prison bondage Was working towards the great and glorious goal. As yet the end was hidden from the captive, The iron entered even to his soul; His eye could scan the present path of sorrow, Not yet his gaze might rest upon the whole. Faith failed not through those long, dark days of waiting, His trust in God was recompensed at last, The moment came when God led forth his servant To succour many, all his sufferings past. "It was not you but God, that sent me hither," Witnessed triumphant faith in after days; "God meant it unto good," no "second causes" Mingled their discord with his song of praise. "God means it unto good" for thee, beloved, The God of Joseph is the same today; His love permits afflictions strange and bitter, His hand is guiding through the unknown way. Thy Lord, who sees the end from the beginning, Hath purposes for thee of love untold. Then place thy hand in His and follow fearless, Till thou the riches of His grace behold. There, when thou standest in the Home of Glory, And all life's path ties open to thy gaze, Thine eyes shall see the hand which now thou trustest, And magnify His love through endless days. --Freda Hanbury Allen

 Every Day With Jesus

Daily repetition is key for developing, growing and maturing the mind of the spirit.
The way I become skilled in my Scripture art design ministry is to do it everyday. If I'm a beginner graphic art designer and do it once a week for an hour I will never grow. First you have to learn how to navigate a computer than you have to learn how to use the different design software programs like PowerPoint or Proshow where you learn how to mix text with images.


If I do it once a week I will always be trying to figure out how to navigate the computer and the graphic design software programs and that takes a lot of practice, it can be very frustrating. I will never get it If I do it once a week for an hour. If i do it everyday I can get beyond the beginner stage. After weeks and months of learning and practicing every day it will be natural to do Scripture art.  I've done it so many times I don't have to try to figure it out how to do it, its just becomes second nature.


Same thing with almost any thing else, take for instance an new job. If you show up only once a week for an hour you will never make it. If you show up everyday, the first week you will start out learning your new job but after a while when you have repeated your duties and responsibilities every day it will become second nature. You will only get better as time goes by.

 
Same thing with the mind of the spirit, You have to spend everyday meeting up with Jesus in Prayer in the word where two or more are gathered together for fellowship. Its awesome what will happen to your life meeting up with Jesus everyday.

“God is mighty! He is able to deliver;

Faith can victor be in every trying hour;

Fear and care and sin and sorrow be defeated

By our faith in God’s almighty, conquering power.

 

“Have faith in God, the sun will shine,

Though dark the clouds may be today;

His heart has planned your path and mine,

Have faith in God, have faith alway.”

June 9 2013

Morning Devotion

Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. (Psalm 37: 3) 

I once met a poor woman who earned a meager living through hard domestic labor but was a joyful, triumphant Christian. Another Christian lady, who was quite sullen, said to her one day, “Nancy, I understand your happiness today, but I would think your future prospects would sober you. Suppose, for instance, you experience a time of illness and are unable to work. Or suppose your present employers move away, and you cannot find work elsewhere. Or suppose—”

 “Stop!” cried Nancy. “I never ‘suppose.’ ‘The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want’ [Ps. 23: 1]. And besides,” she added to her gloomy friend, “it’s all that ‘supposing’ that’s making you so miserable. You’d better give that up and simply trust the Lord.”

The following Scripture is one that will remove all the “supposing” from a believer’s life if received and acted on in childlike faith: “Be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’ So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?’  ” (Heb. 13: 5– 6). Hannah Whitall Smith

Cowman, L. B. E.; Reimann, Jim (2008-09-09). Streams in the Desert: 366 Daily Devotional Readings (pp. 222-223). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.