"Rock of Ages Cleft For Me"

"For their rock is not like our Rock, as even our enemies concede." (Deuteronomy 32:31-- NIV)

I received a prayer request today for a "little Tristan."  It did not say what his condition is, but it sounded serious, some sort of cancer.  How well I remember 39 years ago, when just a few days after Christmas our son, Stephen, was diagnosed with a brain tumor.  The next six months were Hell on earth.  We lived an hour and fifteen minutes away from the hospital, had car trouble, but also faithful church members who helped in that regard.  In those days you could not stay at the hospital.  After about four months, a pastor in Columbus heard of our situation and offered a room at his place.  Sarah took advantage of this act of kindness.  I had dropped out of seminary, but still had to travel the 40 miles one way to take a class I needed which was only offered that semester.  Andrew, our second son, just a few months old, spent months at his grand parents in Johnstown, about six hours away.  Then on that most horrendous day of my life, June 12, 1970, that little boy who was so close to me, who even went to the hospital with me on a pastoral visit while he was suffering, left this life.

It is always painful to think, write, and talk about.  I hear today talk from so many in times of suffering that there is no pain, no fears, doubts, etc.  I cannot say such things.  Of course, I take great comfort, a comfort which helps one keep his sanity, that Stephen departed "to be with the Lord" Jesus.  But the void, the sorrow, the missing is still with me.  Sarah is different from me.  She rarely speaks of him, or about the whole experience, and I honor that.  But it has been no easier for her.

This may sound depressing.  I didn't mean it to be.  But I can tell you for sure, the word of our text is just as true for me today as it was that very dark June day so long ago.  Many have heard and read my testimony of reading through the God-Breathing Word that summer, how the Breath of God empowered me, how Jesus came to me more clearly than a physical vision, spoke to my heart, got me up--------------and has been sustaining me right to this very moment ("I Need Thee Every Hour").  My advice and encouragement to you today is please do not try to be superspiritual in times of suffering.  Read the Psalms, the prophets, Paul, and you will hear saints of old who were not afraid to admit their frailty, and, oh, how frail are you and I.  The hymn writer expressed it powerfully.
          "Frail children of dust, and feeble as frail,
          In Thee do we trust, nor find Thee to fail;
          Thy mercies how tender, how firm to the end,
          Our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend."
          (Complete hymn on devotional blog site)

I have said good bye to grandparents and parents whom I love.  When I was 14, my junior high football coach, whom I loved and respected greatly, died suddenly of a heart attack.  And when I was barely 17, a friend of mine was killed in a car accident.  Life is not an easy road.  But I can say with absolute certainty----- There is no defeat to a person who is immersed in The Living Triune God, The Father, The Son Jesus Christ, Who is the Word, the Holy Spirit, Who is the Breath of God.  So many around us are looking to and leaning on a rock which is just a stage prop.  But what Believer cannot say with Moses, "For their rock is not like our Rock?"  I just pray that this truth, "even our enemies concede," that they abandon their "rock," and embrace "our Rock."

Father, in Jesus' Name, thank You for writing on my heart, "Their rock is not like our Rock."  I believe Your Word, and so may it be, "as even our enemies concede."  Amen.
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News, Commentary:          www.antipasprayerforce.blogspot.com
Devotional Archive:          www.apfdevotionals.blogspot.com

"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2



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Worship Is Not Raised Hands and Singing-- It is Whom I Obey

"There shall be no foreign god among you; Nor shall you worship any foreign god."  (Psalm 81:9)

The family of the man who was trampled to death at the entrance of an American retail business is now suing the business, not the barbarians who trampled the man.  This is a culture who has rejected Jesus Christ and embraced a "foreign god."  Everyone but the perpetrator is guilty.  Look at what has happened to the American judicial system in the last 45 years.  Look at American political correctness.  It has worshipped at the altar of a "foreign god."  When a culture rejects "Immanuel, God with us," Jesus Christ, the "Word of God," it commits cultural suicide.  The God-Breathing Word declares, "Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs."  You will see this fulfilled more and more in the coming months and years in America.

I have worshipped a "foreign god" in my life time.  It was not made of gold.  It had no form, but it "had" me.  When obedience gives way to emotion, to my own reasoning process, or just out right disobedience, it reveals whom I really worship.  Jesus came to deliver us from "foreign gods," to save us from the sin which drives us to worship anyone and anything other than the Lord God revealed solely in Jesus Christ.  One of the last commands in the Bible is, "Worship God," not my idea of Him, but the "idea" of Him Who is revealed in the "God-Breathed" Word.

Take a "worship check" today.  Grace is awaiting all those whose worship is the Living Triune God, "Emmanuel, God with us."  Embrace His grace, by embracing and obeying Jesus Christ, the One Who breathes His Word into you today.

Father, in Jesus' Name, by His Blessed Majesty, Holy Spirit, help me to continually take a worship check.  Amen. 
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I will be preaching in the CCE meetings the weekend of December 13 and 14.
News and Commentary:     www.antipasprayerforce.blogspot.com
Devotional Archive:               www.apfdevotionals.blogspot.com

"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2



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John Donne, Meditation XVII: No Man Is An Island

John Donne, Meditation XVII: No Man Is An Island

 

"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2

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"No Man Is An Island"-- (John Donne)

"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel'-- which means, 'God with us.'"  (Matthew 1:23)

There was a popular song when I was in grammar school which had a line in it, "in my little corner of the world."  There is no such place.  You and I are a part of humanity.  There is no corner where we can hide, can protect, can escape to.  Mankind will find us, call to us.  Jesus, "God with us," is calling to us in the midst of humanity-- "I am here."  John Dunn once wrote that "no man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main."  (I have sent the entire meditation to our blog devotional site.  You should read it---powerful.)

God of Creation is not a created god of man, an isolated god, far from us, praying to Mecca kind of god.  He is "God with us," right here, right there.  Jesus is "God with us."  He did not stay in the "Ivory Palaces," but "came into the world to save sinners...."  And because of the Blood, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God is not only "with us," but "in" those who receive and obey Him.   He is, indeed, "a very present help."

Your call and my call, the call of the Church, which is "the household of the faith," is to be the living demonstration in the world of "God with us," not off in "my little corner of the world," or as we saw recently, trampling people to death to fulfill some barbaric, primeval lust.  We are called to manifest what Bohnhoeffer described as "Christ present in the world"--------------------- loving, blessing, deferring, giving. 

Father, in Jesus' Name, I have spent too much time in "my little corner of the world."  Take me to Your "corner."  Amen.
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News and Commentary Blog:     www.antipasprayerforce.blogspot.com
Devotional Blog:                         www.apfdevotionals.blogspot.com

"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2



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