Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all. (Psalms 34:19) http://bibl.co/648
Day: September 6, 2015
Your Quiet Time with God (2)
“And for thy pleasure they…were created.” Rev 4:11
Did you know: (1) God created you so that He could have a relationship with you? He made you in order to enjoy your company every day. “And for thy pleasure they…were created.” Your attitude toward your quiet time with God will be transformed when you realize that He wants to spend time with you, waits for you, and welcomes you into His presence. (2) The cross is what made this relationship possible? When Adam sinned, God drove him from the Garden of Paradise and placed angels with swords at its entrance so that mankind could never re-enter. Then God did something truly amazing; He took on human form, lived among us, died in our place, and was cut down by the sword of divine judgment at the cross, providing us with a way back into His presence. Wonderful, isn’t it? In the Old Testament only one man, the high priest, could go into the Holy of Holies. And he could only do it one day a year. A thick veil separated God from the people. They stood outside wondering what God’s voice sounded like, what His presence felt like, and what His glory looked like. Only the high priest knew. But when Jesus cried, “It is finished” (Jn 19:30 NKJV), the Bible says, “The veil of the temple was torn in two from top [where God was] to bottom [where we were]” (Mk 15:38 NKJV). Now, as “priests unto God” we can come into His presence at any time and meet with Him (See Rev 1:6). What a privilege! Grace makes it possible. And gratitude should be the magnet that draws you there each day.
Philippians 2:15 In the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world.
We use lights to make manifest. A Christian man should so shine in his life, that a person could not live with him a week without knowing the gospel. His conversation should be such that all who are about him should clearly perceive whose he is, and whom he serves; and should see the image of Jesus reflected in his daily actions. Lights are intended for guidance. We are to help those around us who are in the dark. We are to hold forth to them the Word of life. We are to point sinners to the Saviour, and the weary to a divine resting-place. Men sometimes read their Bibles, and fail to understand them; we should be ready, like Philip, to instruct the inquirer in the meaning of God’s Word, the way of salvation, and the life of godliness. Lights are also used for warning. On our rocks and shoals a light-house is sure to be erected. Christian men should know that there are many false lights shown everywhere in the world, and therefore the right light is needed. The wreckers of Satan are always abroad, tempting the ungodly to sin under the name of pleasure; they hoist the wrong light, be it ours to put up the true light upon every dangerous rock, to point out every sin, and tell what it leads to, that so we may be clear of the blood of all men, shining as lights in the world. Lights also have a very cheering influence, and so have Christians. A Christian ought to be a comforter, with kind words on his lips, and sympathy in his heart; he should carry sunshine wherever he goes, and diffuse happiness around him.
Gracious Spirit dwell with me;
I myself would gracious be,
And with words that help and heal
Would thy life in mine reveal,
And with actions bold and meek
Would for Christ my Saviour speak.
Cry Out to God
LORD, you are the God who saves me;
day and night I cry out to you. — Psalm 88:1
There is a Jewish song about a Holocaust survivor who lives alone in poverty, widowed and childless. As the story goes, the woman had plenty of reasons to cry and be depressed, but she never let herself. She maintained that “God’s love is but hidden, in time we’ll know why, but today there is no reason to cry.”
The ballad continues to tell how one Friday, she had no money to buy food for the Sabbath meal. Still, the woman covered her table in a white tablecloth to honor the holy day. All she could afford was a small candle so that she could fulfill the commandment to light the Sabbath lights. She lit her candle with great joy and recited the blessings over it, but a gust of wind blew through a crack in the window, extinguishing her candle. The Sabbath had begun, so she couldn’t rekindle the flame. The woman was crushed. She fought the tears but a small teardrop escaped from her eye. It trickled down her cheek and dripped onto the candle – causing the flame to miraculously reignite.
Now the woman really couldn’t hold back her tears. They burst forth like water through a broken dam. She cried for the light rekindled by her tear, but mostly she cried out the pain held in for so many years. The song concludes, “God’s love is but hidden, in time we’ll know why, but the Heavens had told her it’s all right to cry.”
In Psalm 88, the psalmist cries out in pain, bemoaning the fact that he was alone, in danger, and nearly out of hope. However, unlike most other psalms that start out bleak and dreary, there is no turn-around by the end of this psalm. King David usually ended his psalms on a hopeful, even joyful tone, even if it began otherwise. But this writer ended just as sad as he had begun. The last verse reads, “ . . . darkness is my closest friend” (v.18).
The message we can take from this psalm is the same as the one in the story — it teaches us that it’s OK to be sad and it’s all right to cry. God doesn’t ask us to keep our painful emotions pent up inside. Rather He wants us to turn to Him with our troubles. God wants us to pour out our hearts to Him knowing that He can save us.
Next time life gets you down, turn it into a time to grow closer to God. Cry out to Him and tell Him all your sorrows. Not only is it all right to cry, but crying out to God makes us all right again.
HE STILL SPEAKS! 