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Rising From All Fears
I say to you, Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God; He will come and save you (Isaiah 35:4).
In righteousness you shall be established; you shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear (Isaiah 54:14).
You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday (Psalm 91:5-6).
May the Spirit of the Lord rest upon you, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord (Isaiah 11:2)
I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. Psalm 34:4
-Book of Prayers
(261)
Rise from your fears and trust in the Lord with all your might that He will come save you.
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|  Dear Father Who Strengthens Me
Today, I need the promise of Your strength. I have looked ahead at my near future and what I see will take tremendous strength and a commitment I am not sure I possess. I am feeling the temptation to compromise on some of my convictions and lower the standards I know must be held high. It is not a question of Your power. I know that Your strength has stood the tests of time.
Your unwavering commitment to love me has been tested by doubt and defiance, and not once has it ever failed to deliver your gentle touch when needed. Your patience has been stretched by disobedience and deception, and it has always been in every corner of my life. No, it is certainly not Your strength that I question; it is mine. I do not want my faults to fail You in the heat of daily battles or when confronting the largest of problems that everyone endures at some time in life. I am turning to You to give me Your strength for today, tomorrow, and forever.
Your Devoted Child
___________________________________
Dear Devoted One,
You are right to come to Me when you are weary and feel the weight of many concerns because you know I will put your heart to rest. Hear My teachings and take them into your heart, and you will find rest from what troubles you. I am your protection and your strength. I will always help you when the times of trouble come. You can say to yourself, "The Lord all powerful is with me, and He is my defender."
Not only will I be with you, I will give you strength when you are tired and more power than you need when you are weak. when you trust Me, you will become strong again. In fact , you will rise up like a soaring eagle, run without needing to rest, and you will walk without becoming tired.
Finally, be strong in My power. Wear My words like armor, because your struggle isn't with this world but with the unseen forces of evil. Stand your ground using truth as a belt and righteousness as protection for your heart, and wear the good news of peace on your feet for readiness and speed. And don't forget your shield of faith, because with it you can douse the flaming arrows that will be thrown at you. Protect your mind with My promised salvation, and always have your sharp sword of the spirit, which is My Word.
Your Father Who Strengthens You.
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(4) Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
The word 'with' will be the focus of our attention as we seek to understand more thoroughly our identification with Christ. The scripture says we were buried 'with' Christ. Jesus was literally buried in the heart of the earth in a tomb because He was dead. The apostle Paul states in Romans 7:9, 'For I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.' Like Paul, we are buried 'with' Him by means of baptism. We tend to take the word 'with' for granted because we use it so commonly; it is a little preposition we stick in front of another word and hardly notice. But what does it mean? It means 'in the company of.' Every time we see the word 'with' preceding Christ in a context that includes us, we are 'in the company of' Him. It has a few other alternate usages such as, 'a member or associate of,' 'characterized by,' 'possessed of,' and many more. In fact, the American Heritage College Dictionary shows twenty-seven closely related but specifically different usages. Romans 6:6 adds to being baptized with Christ, 'Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.' We are not only baptized with Him, we are also crucified with Him. Christ became sin to pay for our sins, suffered crucifixion, and died. We die when God reveals to us the knowledge of sin and we repent, accept the blood of Christ, and commit ourselves to be His disciples. Our relationship with Christ is so close that we are perceived as sharing with Him His experiences. His experiences were literal and physical, and ours are every bit as literal and individually meaningful to our fulfilling God's will but are spiritual. Each 'with Him' statement shows we are on the same path in His company. The relationship is of such closeness that Paul describes it in Galatians 2:20 as, 'I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.' Paul expands further on this in Colossians 2:12-13: [You were] buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses. Thus, resurrection with Him is added to the experiences we share as members of Christ. However, all of this places us under certain obligations. Paul continues with this theme in Colossians 3:1, 'If you then were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.' Becoming new men in and through Christ, we are charged with making the Kingdom of God our top priority in life. Even in this, though, we seek the Kingdom in His company. John W. Ritenbaugh Are you seeking the things from above or are you still tempted by the insatiable desires of this world? | | |
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When I Don’t See Answers to My Prayers Lord, I thank You for the privilege of speaking to You in prayer. Increase my faith to believe that I can make a difference when I pray. And when I don’t see answers to my prayers exactly the way I prayed them, help me to not allow myself to get discouraged and lose faith. Help me trust You to answer in Your way and Your timing. Men always ought to pray and not lose heart. Luke 18:1 -Book of Prayers (137) Have faith and trust in God that our prayers shall come to pass by His way and on His timing. | | |
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It was an unusually cold day for the month of May. Spring had arrived and everything was alive with color, but a cold front from the North had brought a rough winter's chill back to Indiana. I sat, with two friends, in the picture window of a quaint restaurant just off the corner of the towns-square. The food and the company were both especially good that day. As we talked, my attention was drawn outside, across the street. There, walking into town, was a man who appeared to be carrying all his worldly goods on his back. He was carrying, a well-worn sign that read,
"I will work for food."
My heart sank. I brought him to the attention of my friends and noticed that others around us had stopped eating to focus on him. Heads moved in a mixture of sadness and disbelief. We continued our meal, but his image lingered in my mind.
We finished our meal and went our separate ways. I had errands to do and quickly set out to accomplish them. I glanced toward the town square, looking somewhat half-heartedly for the strange visitor. I was fearful, knowing that seeing him again would call for some response. I drove through town and saw nothing of him, then made some purchases at a store and got back in my car. Deep within me, the Spirit of God kept speaking to me: Don't go back to the office until you've at least driven once more around the square." And so, with some hesitancy, I headed back into town. As I turned the square's third corner. I saw him. He was standing on the steps of the storefront church, going through his sack. I stopped and looked, feeling both compelled to speak to him, yet wanting to drive on. The empty parking space on the corner seemed to be a sign from God: an invitation to park. I pulled in, got out and approached the town's newest visitor.
"Looking for the pastor?" I asked.
"Not really," he replied, "just resting."
"Have you eaten today?"
"Oh, I ate some-thing early this morning."
"Would you like to have lunch with me?"
"Do you have some work I could do for you?"
"No work," I replied. "I commute here to work from the city, but I would like to take you to lunch."
"Sure," he replied with a smile.
As he began to gather his things, I asked some surface questions.
"Where you headed?"
"St. Louis."
"Where you from?"
"Oh, all over; mostly Florida."
"How long you been walking?"
"Fourteen years," came the reply.
I knew I had met someone unusual. We sat across from each other in the same restaurant I had left earlier. His face was weathered slightly beyond his 38 years. His eyes were dark yet clear, and he spoke with an eloquence and articulation that was startling. He removed his jacket to reveal a bright red T-shirt that said,
"Jesus is The Never Ending Story."
Then Daniel's story began to unfold. He had seen rough times early in life, had made some wrong choices and reaped the consequences. Fourteen years earlier, while back-packing across the country, he had stopped on the beach in Daytona and tried to hire on with some men who were putting up a large tent and some equipment. A concert, he thought. He was hired, but the tent would not house a concert but revival services, and in those services he saw life more clearly. He gave his life over to God. "Nothing's been the same since," he said, "I felt the Lord telling me to keep walking, and so I did, some 14 years now."
"Ever think of stopping?" I asked. "Oh, once in a while, when it seems to get the best of me, but God has given me this calling. I give out Bibles. That's what's in my sack. I work to buy food and Bibles, and I give them out when His Spirit leads me."
I sat amazed. My homeless friend was not homeless. He was on a mission and lived this way by choice. The question burned inside for a moment and then I asked: "What's it like?" "What?" "To walk into a town carrying all your things on your back and to show your sign?" "Oh, it was humiliating at first. People would stare and make comments. Once someone tossed a piece of half-eaten bread and made a gesture that certainly didn't make me feel welcome. But then it became humbling to realize that God was using me to touch lives and change people's concepts of other folks like me."
My concept was changing, too. We finished our dessert and gathered his things. Just outside the door, he paused. He turned to me and said,
"Come Ye blessed of my Father and inherit the kingdom I've prepared for you; for when I was hungry you gave me food, when I was thirsty you gave me drink, a stranger and you took me in."
I felt as if we were on holy ground. "Could you use another Bible?" I asked. He said he preferred a certain translation. It traveled well and was not too heavy. It was also his personal favorite. "I've read through it 14 times," he said.
"I'm not sure we've got one of those, but let's stop by our church and see." I was able to find my new friend a Bible that would do well, and he seemed very grateful. "Where you headed from here?" "Well, I found this little map on the back of this amusement park coupon."
"Are you hoping to hire on there for awhile?"
"No, I just figure I should go there. I figure someone under that star right there needs a Bible, that's where I'm going next." He smiled, and the warmth of his spirit radiated the sincerity of his mission.
I drove him back to the town-square where we'd met two hours earlier, and as we drove, it started raining. We parked and unloaded his things. "Would you sign my autograph book?" he asked. "I like to keep messages from folks I meet." I wrote in his little book that his commitment to his calling had touched my life. I encouraged him to stay strong. And I left him with a verse of scripture from Jeremiah, "I know the plans I have for you," declared the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a future and a hope."
"Thanks, man," he said. "I know we just met and we're really just strangers, but I love you." "I know," I said, "I love you, too." "The Lord is good." "Yes, He is. How long has it been since someone hugged you?" I asked. "A long time," he replied. And so, on the busy street corner in the drizzling rain, my new friend and I embraced, and I felt deep inside that I had been changed. He put his things on his back, smiled his winning smile and said, "See you in the New Jerusalem." "I'll be there!" was my reply.
He began his journey again, heading away with his sign dangling from his bed roll and pack of Bibles. He stopped, turned and said, "When you see something that makes you think of me, will you pray for me?" "You bet,"
I shouted back, "God bless."
"God bless." And that was the last I saw of him. Late that evening as I left my office, the wind blew strong. The cold front had settled hard upon the town. I bundled up and hurried to my car. As I sat back and reached for the emergency brake, I saw them... a pair of well worn work gloves neatly laid over the length of the handle. I picked them up and thought of my friend and wondered if his hands would stay warm that night without them.
I remembered his request:
"If you see something that makes you think of me, will you pray for me?"
Today his gloves lie on my desk in my office. They help me to see the world and its people in new way, and they help me remember those two hours with my unique friend and to pray for his ministry.
"See you in the New Jerusalem," he said.
Yes, Daniel, I know You will...
"I shall pass this way but once, therefore, any good that I can do or any kindness that I can show, let me do it now, for I shall not pass this way again."
-Unknown
Did you know that God do work in mysterious ways? He truly does.
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