Posts made in March, 2009
The Story Of Deliverance
“Lord…why?” (Ex 5:22 KJV)
The Story of Deliverance is always the same. Yesterday, today, forever, our God is the same Mighty Helper. Your case seems different, your bondage more bitter than any other, your sin or sorrow more hopeless. But: He is able to deliver thee…
Though by sin oppressed, go to Him for rest; Our God is able to deliver thee.
Extremity: “I’ve prayed and believed, but things are getting worse and worse. What about God’s promise to help?” Almost always after you pray the situation looks blacker. But just before dawn it is darkest, and the crisis comes always at the lowest point. Hold on one moment after it is “impossible”–and relief will come. A practical prescription. It works.
“Why does God ask me to wait until the situation is impossible? Why does He wait?” There is a reason. God is never careless. There is more than one reason:
- The enemy and the world must know it is God and recognize His power.
- You must know it is God and give Him praise.
- You must remember for the future and learn to depend on God.
A great emergency means a great deliverance, and a great deliverance means great glory to God. Is it worth waiting for? [Study Ex 5 KJV)
Keep holding on, just one more hour
May bring to thee the promised power;
O Keep holding on, thy Lord doth care-
He’ll not forget to answer prayer.
Affliction – The Soil of Growth and Beauty
A little girl walking in a garden noticed a particularly beautiful flower. She admired its beauty and enjoyed its fragrance. “It’s so pretty!” she exclaimed. As she gazed on it, her eyes followed the stem down to the soil in which it grew. “This flower is too pretty to be planted in such dirt!” she cried. So she pulled it up by its roots and ran to the water faucet to wash away the soil. It wasn’t long until the flower wilted and died.
When the gardener saw what the little girl had done, he exclaimed, “You have destroyed my finest plant!”
“I’m sorry, but I didn’t like it in that dirt,” she said.
The gardener replied, “I chose that spot and mixed the soil because I knew that only there could it grow to be a beautiful flower.”
Often we murmur because of the circumstances into which God has “sovereignaly” placed us. We fail to realize that He is using our pressures, trials, and difficulties to bring us to a new degree of spiritual beauty.
“Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.” (John 4:35-38 KJV)
Read MoreGod’s Kingdom
The king of Prussia, while visiting a village in his land, was welcomed by the school children of the place. After their speaker had made a speech for him, he thanked them. Then, taking an orange from his plate, he asked: “To what kingdom does this belong?” “The vegetable kingdom, sire,” replied a little girl. The king took a gold coin from his pocket and holding it up asked: “And to what kingdom does this belong?” “To the mineral kingdom,” said the girl. “And to what kingdom do I belong then?” asked the king. The little girl blushed deeply, for she did not want to say, “the animal kingdom, ” and thereby offend the king.
Just then, it flashed into her mind that “God made man in His own image,” and looking up with a brightening eye, she said: “to God’s kingdom, sire.” The king was deeply moved. A tear stood in his eye. He placed his hand on the child’s head and said, most devoutly, “God grant that I may be accounted worthy of that kingdom!” Reader, are you, too?
“And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 1:5-11 KJV)
Read MoreSunday school lesson
A Sunday school teacher said to her children, “We have been learning how powerful kings and queens were in Bible times. But, there is a higher power. Can anybody tell me what it is?”
One child blurted out, “Aces!”
Read MoreThat first apple
“No, Eve, I won’t touch that apple,” said Tom adamantly. – Richard Lederer
Read More