Pray for the Hostages

Gilad Shalit is Free!

2011-10-18T14:23:00.000-04:00

After 5 years of captivity, Gilad is finally free and safely home with his family, who were unwavering in their efforts to win his release. Praise God for His protection of Gilad during those difficult years. Please also pray that the Palestinian prisoners freed in exchange for Gilad's release will experience God's transforming power and become a blessing to their families and community in thankfulness for this second chance.

Evening Devotion

2011-03-07T17:46:00.001-05:00

“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” – Matthew 10:34 (NIV)

Be not mistaken, for as long as this world exists evil shall always struggle against good, tyranny shall always stand in a headlong battle against justice, and inhumanity shall always seek to rob the innocence and the hope of life. To understand this is to understand message of the Prince of Peace as He tells to us that He came to bring a sword.

Dear brothers and sisters, the Christian life is not a simple one, nor is it an easy one, regardless of the beautiful simplicity of the fundamental tenants of it. Though ultimately the core message is one of peace, a wondrous peace that blooms from love, it often comes through challenge and adversity, a constant labour whose effort is born in the hardships and the difficulties of this temporal existence. The faithful follower of our blessed Saviour is then a perpetual warrior who takes up the cause that others may abide in a love that is found through hope.

Fearless and unflinching, then the steadfast duty of the disciple is to do that which is right. With courage and charity written in their hearts, lead by the undaunted force of the Spirit of the Lord, they look to the world and, in considering the hardship of others, extend the full measure of that abundant grace to ease suffering, to end injustice, to stop slavery and to break captivity. In testimony to the salvation that freed them, they stand with the righteous sword of truth for liberty that none shall remain in dark bondage and hopeless estate.

Look then to the world as it sits, and to your life as it stands, and consider for yourself the force of your witness and let your life speak to the love by which you have been saved. Follow in the path of our blessed Saviour that peace, though it may seem far off, may be obtainable through the sword of the Lord’s truth wielded in your hand for the lives of others.

Then shall the road to true and lasting hope, the hope that is unmistakable in the wondrous message of our Saviour, shall be achieved.

Let us pray:

You, to the poor and the oppressed, are a stronghold O Lord, a fortress for the persecuted and the subjugated. A sword of truth Your Word is the weapon of freedom to which no chains may withstand as it shatters bondage and slavery.

In hope show forth Your cause, in love let it testify to the majesty of Your glory through Your call to Your people. Then shall we stand with steadfast devotion to Your cause that we may, with unyielding and unrelenting courage, look upon the plight of those who live in poor and grim estate, bound to hopelessness, held by darkness as our own struggle, knowing that, so long as adversity exists it is our adversary, a challenge to the soul.

Send Your light and Your faithful care blessed Lord, that the downcast shall be uplifted. Bring them to graces end that they may find peace where it once eluded them and show, in their lives, the path to freedom so that, by Your glory, that light may shine forth in their souls. Be the wondrous hope of their abiding presence, and, by Your blessed Spirit, lead them to those places where they may dwell in the harmony of your perfect peace and Your blessed love.

Upon You then rests all of our praise as we lift Your name on high, O Lord of our Hope, for, in the cause of those who struggle in the most meager of estates and in the darkest of days, You are the majestic presence of their guiding beacon, steadfast as the refuge of their salvation.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and our Saviour Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Mid-Day Devotion

2011-03-07T12:30:00.008-05:00

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” – Galatians 2:20

We live not for ourselves but the higher purpose of our enduring Lord, given to us at Calvary’s heights when, in His magnificent sacrifice, He bore our sins, dying that we may live. We are, in that enduring love, a new creation, born of hope, grace, and charity. It is then, as we consider this life, that we see the changed nature of our existence wove through us by the power of the Spirit.

We may then still, in this temporal existence, remain in the flesh, yet the flesh, that mortal coil, remains as nothing more than a shell for the spirit. The spirit though, giving voice to the soul, washed clean in the blood of the Lamb, offers to us a true nature, a true purpose for our being: to be like that of our blessed Saviour, giving ourselves in love to others in a hope that shows itself in the cause of liberty.

Dear brothers and sisters, in this world it is not enough to say Christ lives within me, it must be the vigilant task of the faithful disciple to show that He lives within with a life that is unwavering in its commitment to others. It is a life that looks to the dark bondage and the grim estate of those who live in slavery and oppression, persecution and hopelessness, injustice and hurt, and not only asks of itself what may be done for them but ensures it is done, waging a constant battle against the chains that will bind. To remain in that mortal life while living in faith, through Christ by the power of the Spirit, is to know there is more that God has planned for your life in the struggles and the adversities of this world.

How then shall you meet that call and what then shall your testimony be when you see it before you...

Let us pray:

Stir within us a noble heart and a courageous spirit that our lives may recite Your love written upon our souls O Lord. Gird us with Your testimony, guard us with Your hope that, by Your witness we may speak forth Your liberty that, by Your majesty, freedom shall reign in the lives of those who are in need.

Listen, O Lord, to the cries of Your people and equip us that we may stand steadfast against those forces that bind. Hear, O Father, the calls of Your children and arm them that they may stand in defense of the weak and the oppressed, the persecuted and the subjugated. Bear not their pleas falling upon deaf ears but let your light guide their ways that they may step with confidence in a love and peace offered in the struggles and the adversities that may grip Your creation in darkness.

Fight with us O God, let your freedom sweep through the hidden places with a washing tide that none shall be lost or forgotten. Look upon us with favour, O Lord of Hosts, that, by Your hand, Your love shall break the chains that are forged in hatred. Be not silent to the desperation of the slaves and the captives, the prisoners and the hostages. By Your mercy, raise Your voice like a deafening thunder to call them from the grim estate they now find themselves amidst.

Hold Your protecting hand over the lost, show your guiding hand to those who need be found, and we shall, by the wondrous hope You have given, find our voices to sing your glorious praise.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Wishing You a Blessed Christmas

2010-12-25T08:17:00.002-05:00

"Chains shall he break for the slave is our brother;
And in his name all oppression shall cease."

Praise God for the many successful rescues of hostages throughout this year and please continue to pray for all those still held in captivity. Please check the updated prayer list for the details.

Mid-Day Devotion 7/23/10

2010-07-23T12:30:00.000-04:00

Detail from The Last Judgment, Giotto, 1306

“Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.”
Isaiah 59:1-2

Just as surely as there could be no gospel without the law, there can be no salvation without judgment...

There is wickedness that surrounds us amidst this world, and evils that grip the heart and the soul, the spirits and the minds of men as arrogance and self righteousness separate by the iniquity that guides the spirit. Whereas, through Christ’s compassion and God’s mercy, the faithful have seen the grace of the transcending love of the Lord was them clean of those blemishes that so stain them, leaving them as white as snow, there are those who persist amidst their transgressions, abiding in darkness as they seek their own path and, in that, find that their way is always devoid of the truth and the wisdom of our Heavenly Father.

Though the arm of the Lord could reach out and save them, though His ear could hear their cries for salvation they have separated themselves from Him and hidden their faces, as if to say He was but a God with eyes that cannot see and ears that cannot hear the sins that lead their path.

Yet, amidst the miracle of God there is never a time when it is too late for the redemption of the unrighteous, nor does God abandon hope, even in their greatest of sins, that they shall be saved, opening themselves to the movement of the Spirit in them and through them. This is why we are taught by our blessed Saviour to pray for our enemies and to love our fellow man, all that we may be used as instruments of the divine to bring the sinner to a sincere repentance and to open the unrighteous to the blessings of above.

As we consider the lives of those who take hostages and prisoners, those who make slaves of men in their murderous intent as they rob the integrity from the lives of those they can grab a hold of, let us not be like they are, letting hate guide our spirits and our souls. Let us pray for them that they will no longer separate themselves from their Creator, striving that that they will no longer try to hide their face from the Almighty as they are brought to a place where they will repent and fall to their knees crying out for the mercy of the Lord for the pain that they have caused and the anguish they have brought.

Freedom has never come through hatred, nor has liberty ever come through letting ourselves slip into darkness, even amidst the most righteous of causes we may uplift to the Lord. Judgment belongs to the Lord just as surely as salvation comes through Him. Let us then indulge in the prayers of mercy that bring compassion to the lives of those who live in such darkness that they may turn themselves from their path of iniquity and sin. This that they may dwell in the Spirit of the Lord, setting their captives free as their regret pleads forgiveness for the hurt that they caused.

It is then that we know that the just nature of our cause is upheld and maintained in the integrity of God’s love as we push forward, preaching and teaching the hope He first taught unto us.

Lord, grant this unto us all.

Let us pray:

Stretch forth Your blessed hand O Eternal God and let Your eyes be cast upon the affairs of this temporal state, that Your ears may hear the cries of Your people amidst their meagre estate.

Stretch forth Your holy arm O Everlasting Lord and let Your cause be the redemption and the salvation of the lost and the fallen, that Your Spirit may forever contend with the cause of freedom...

Show unto the unrighteous that there is no escaping Your judgment, that there is no escaping Your wrath when they so abandon their lives to their own wickedness and iniquity. Bear witness to their spirits and their souls, writing Your word on their hearts, telling unto them that when they bring captivity to others captivity shall be brought to them, and when they so bind others they shall be so bound themselves amidst the sins and the anguish they bring.

Guide them by Your divine presence that they may see the love that is in Your will, that they may be guided by the hope that is in Your ways, that they may repent of their wickedness and contend with the spirit of Your freedom as they set to the cause of liberty and hope amidst this world. Cast them not away from Your presence but show unto them their error and their sin that they may come to know the path they have taken themselves is a path to eternal judgment that shall forever be separated from You amidst their persistent transgressions against their fellow man.

Then shall the cause of the prisoners and the hostages, the captives and the slaves be forever maintained by Your blessed hand as hope is restored to their lives and they are brought out of their dark places to the deeper places of love and compassion where they may rest beside Your streams of mercy flowing so freely in their lives as the unrighteous are set to flight and the iniquity of the spirit that once held them is destroyed by Your holy hand.

In the name of Your son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen...

Evening Devotion 7/22/10

2010-07-22T19:00:00.000-04:00

“And Moses said unto the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben, Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here?”
Numbers 32:6

Shall we, as Gad and Reuben, find ourselves unwilling rise up and meet the challenges as we enter the land of God’s promise and hope and find that there are challenges before us?

Shall we, as Gad and Reuben, find ourselves willing to watch as others battle amidst this world while we sit and watch, resolved to ease and comfort as struggles rear their head all around us?

Shall we, as Gad and Reuben, find ourselves unsure in God’s promises, taking upon ourselves the easiest possible course as our cause, believing it is the only possible way to secure our future while ignoring the needs of those around us?

Our faith, it comes with obligations, not to ourselves or to securing our future, but to one another, placing our trust in the hand of God as we look to Him as the faithful, vigilant defender of our lives and the source of our blessed inheritance. We cannot be willing to sit idly by, to sit idly back while others meet the challenges of our world while we rest ourselves in comfort, believing somehow that it is not our concern. We cannot be willing to take for ourselves solely our own inheritance and then say it is enough for us.

Ever willing and ever ready to rise up amidst the challenges of this world, it must be ours to battle against the captivity of the land. It must be ours to push forward for the freedom of our brothers and our sisters that they too may find that their inheritance is secured for them amidst the deeper blessings of God’s word and God’s transcending hope.

Idle hands and idle hearts, reluctant to do the tasks at hand according to the love of God show a distinct contempt for His promises. It shows a heart that refuses to understand the deeper meaning and the deeper purpose that He calls us to and, amidst that, we find that we just cannot be that which He calls us to be, that which He requires us to be in the courage and the strength that He so offers unto us and that we turn such a blind eye to.

Shall this then be our disinterest in Him and His people as we sit lazily ignoring the plight of those in bondage and chains, slavery and captivity, poverty and destitution throughout the world? Are we inclined then to be among the numbers of those who, with eyes that cannot see, and ears that cannot hear, turn from the calling of the Lord? Or shall we rise up amidst the greatest calling of His love to a divine purpose and be ready and willing to say here I am Lord, take me and lead me to the battles that need to be waged amidst the war for that which is right and righteous in this world?

Faith comes with duty and duty must be matched with deed as we stand steadfast in the armies of the Lord, side by side with our brother, ready to meet face to face, eye to eye with evil as we work for the ultimate triumph of that which is right, all that the children of our blessed Father may rest with us in their inheritance as peace and hope come to encompass their lives. How then shall you meet that sense of duty and obligation to your fellow man in the greatest spirit of love you can bring forth in your life?

Let us pray:

Gad and Reuben O Lord, they rested not in Your promises but amidst their own comfort and ease, turning their eyes away from the challenges and the struggles of their brothers...

Unto them did You promise a land that flows with Milk and Honey and they did forsake Your calling for their own purposes and devices as they sought only what was good for them, slipping into idleness amidst the adversity that others would face.

Create in us O Lord a heart of purity and a spirit of courage, a soul of compassion and a mind for others that we shall never find ourselves as Gad and Reuben, our hearts so blotted with our own purpose and our own design that we look no longer upon the plights of our brothers as our own and let ourselves grow weak amidst our apathy.

Let our souls be right with You O Lord that we may see the bondage that sweeps across a land and the chains that would bind Your children as our challenge and our struggle as we rise with Your armour about us to meet on the battlefield to wage a war against tyranny and oppression, slavery and captivity, poverty and destitution. Let our spirits be of that blessed nature, forever guided by love, that whatever cost it may be to us we shall never be willing to slip into idleness amidst our own ease and comfort while others cry out amidst their pain and anguish.

Lead us forward O Everlasting and Eternal Strength that, guided by Your grace and hope we shall forever and always contend for the cause of freedom as we seek the liberation of those in any need, raising them high before Your throne as their cries become our cries and their cause becomes our cause that Your will may forever be our will amidst the deeper calling toward justice in this world.

Then shall we be as strong as You have made us, with the courage and authority of faith moving through us and in us as we forever contend for Your love and righteousness in this world.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Mid-Day Devotion 7/22/10

2010-07-22T13:16:00.002-04:00

Christ Seated in Glory, San Giovanni Baptistry Florence, 13th century

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
Romans 8:28

There is an abundant grace, and a transcending hope amidst this temporal existence that we shall forever be certain of. God, our Heavenly Father, according to His plentiful love, works all good things in the lives of those who praise him with adoration in their heart, and who look to Him with expectations towards His goodness and His mercy.

What is our firm foundation? What then stands as our refuge when we are lost? What is it that we look to as the sword of our righteousness and the shield of our protection amidst this temporal existence? Upon what rock do we stand? It is the promise of the Lord, that blessed assurance that He, in grace and in majesty, shall walk beside us through all the days of our lives with plan for our lives and the solemn pledge that He shall never fail us or forsake us, He shall never abandon us or leave us, even as all the world seems to rise against us.

Even amidst our worst challenges, and our greatest of struggles God moves within our lives. He does so with a power and a purpose that guides our days as He casts His face upon us, telling us we need not fear any evil for His rod and His staff shall always be raised for us. Here we find the perseverance that we need to know that we shall have the strength to meet calamity and adversity with strength and with courage s we look towards the good that our Lord has intended for us even when all we can see is evil all around us.

How then will you use this blessing for your life? How then shall this promise guide you and sustain you through your days?

Meditate on the blessed assurances of God, the Father Almighty, whose hand is raised for your protection and whose love is always there to sustain you and ask of yourself, what, in my life, shall I do to magnify that same grace, that same mercy that He shows? How shall I give of myself in a greater purpose, in a greater calling according to a greater love to my fellow man?

As we consider the bondage and the slavery that exists, dwelling amidst the temporal existence and our hearts meditate on the promises of God, let us, with renewed courage and transformed hearts, with a wondrous confidence in the assurances of the Almighty, work as He works for the greater good of those who find themselves in need of deliverance. Let our purpose be, as it was for Him, as it always shall be for His Son, our Savior, to lead captivity captive, perpetually pushing ourselves to do all good things according to a divine purpose as our hearts and our prayers raise up to the Lord and our hands are called to action amidst this world as we seek to do all we can for the freedom and the liberty of others.

In the affirmation of God’s promise that Paul looks to as he writes to the church in Rome he maintains that God assigns a worth and an integrity to each life, to every life, as he holds their is an intrinsic value to it. This too must be what we look to as we journey in this world and through this world, forever guided by the hand of God to uphold that value He gives regardless of the challenges before us.

Lord, grant this purpose unto us all....

Let us pray:

O Almighty and Eternal God, who upon us bestows all good gifts and from whom all goodness flows, unto Your holy name do we raise our voices...

O Everlasting and Ever Vigilant Lord, who calls according to Your purpose and who sets us apart for the work of Your hand, into Your blessed ear do we cry

Stand faithful and firm to Your promises for Your children, let not their lives be held amidst meagre estate and dark fortunes, let not their days be numbered by the unrighteous raising their hands for the cause of their own evil. Be unto Your people the fortress of their strength and the rock of their salvation, leading captivity captive as You ransom the lost and the fallen from the throws of despair.

The wicked rise O Lord, yet their authority, it is nothing compared to Your power when Your hand is raised and Your will is on the move amidst this world. Let then Your sword come with flames of hope that cuts through the darkness to lead Your people home as it shatters the chains of bondage and the abiding slavery of this world, all that Your Spirit may come upon them, showing forth the freedom and liberation that comes only from Your blessed hope.

Be the fount of our every blessing, flowing like a stream of love through our lives that oppression shall never grip the lives of the people and tyranny shall never rob from them the worth that You assign to their lives.

Then shall praise be raised up from the east to the west and from the north to the south as You break the chains that bind, Your mercy showing forth the blessed compassion of Your transcending grace.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Mid-Day Devotion 7/20/10

2010-07-20T12:35:00.002-04:00

Today's devotion is taken from C.H. Spurgeon (Morning and Evening) – Morning, July 24

“Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord.”
Exodus 14:13

These words contain God’s command to the believer when he is reduced to great straits and brought into extraordinary difficulties. He cannot retreat; he cannot go forward; he is shut up on the right hand and on the left; what is he now to do? The Master’s word to him is, “Stand still.” It will be well for him if at such times he listens only to his Master’s word, for other and evil advisers come with their suggestions. Despair whispers, “Lie down and die; give it all up.” But God would have us put on a cheerful courage, and even in our worst times, rejoice in his love and faithfulness. Cowardice says, “Retreat; go back to the worldling’s way of action; you cannot play the Christian’s part, it is too difficult. Relinquish your principles.” But, however much Satan may urge this course upon you, you cannot follow it if you are a child of God. His divine fiat has bid thee go from strength to strength, and so thou shalt, and neither death nor hell shall turn thee from thy course. What, if for a while thou art called to stand still, yet this is but to renew thy strength for some greater advance in due time. Precipitancy cries, “do something. Stir yourself; to stand still and wait, is sheer idleness.” We must be doing something at once—we must do it so we think—instead of looking to the Lord, who will not only do something but will do everything. Presumption boasts, “If the sea be before you, march into it and expect a miracle.” But Faith listens neither to Presumption, nor to Despair, nor to Cowardice, nor to Precipitancy, but it hears God say, “Stand still,” and immovable as a rock it stands. “Stand still;”—keep the posture of an upright man, ready for action, expecting further orders, cheerfully and patiently awaiting the directing voice; and it will not be long ere God shall say to you, as distinctly as Moses said it to the people of Israel, “Go forward.”

Let us pray:

We give thanks unto You O Lord, for Your goodness and Your love and compassion endures forever. You give manna in the desert to Your creation, sustaining them throughout all their journeys through this temporal existence. You quench their thirst with the steady stream of Your love, as they wander amidst the spiritual diaspora of this world. Amidst bondage and captivity, You break the chains that are before us. You liberate us amidst the deliverance that comes from Your hand, showing forth Your grace and Your mercy. In all that You do, Your power and Your authority are sustained through the ages. We give thanks to You O Lord, for Your love endures forever.

O Lord, we pray for all suffer in captivity and bondage, we pray for all who find themselves amidst the struggles of this world, who find that danger lurks around them, who find that the struggles of this life are so great as hope escapes from their lives. We pray Lord that You guide them, that You protect them, that You sustain them, that You provide them with the spiritual nourishment that they so need, until that time when Your blessed deliverance comes. Bid them stand still O Lord, and give them the peace of the heart that comes from Your Spirit, that they may see the salvation that rises from Your hand.

We give these to You O Lord for You are good, and Your mercy endures forever. Let not the wickedness of the unrighteous stand, O Lord, let not those who would make slaves out of the free and rob the lives of the innocent stand, as having the authority and the power. Show them that their might is nothing as compared to the might that rises from Your hand. Show them the wickedness and chaos that rises from them as they set the world ablaze, that they may come to a sincere repentance, working for Your way, for Your will, rather than their own foolish designs. We offer this prayer to You O Lord, for You are good and Your power endures forever. O Lord, rise with a mighty right hand and lead Your children, guide them, stir them, call them to action forever, that the nations may see that You are good, that Your righteousness endures amidst all the challenges, forever guiding the path of those who struggle through their journey amidst this life, that they shall give praise to Your holy and blessed name. In the name of Your Son, our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end. Amen.

Evening Devotion 7/19/10

2010-07-19T19:00:00.000-04:00

“And you said, "The LORD our God has shown us his glory and his majesty, and we have heard his voice from the fire. Today we have seen that a man can live even if God speaks with him.”
Deuteronomy 5:24

How great are the works of God’s hand? How glorious is the manifestation of His grace in the lives of His people? By faith He moves within the lives of those who place their trust in Him and gives unto them life abundant as He moves through them and with them.

The Lord, our God, He transcends our own narrow ways and our own limited perspectives as He moves in this world and through this world according the grand nature of His blessed design. There is nothing that He is incapable of when He looks with favour upon those whom He loves. When He speaks He does so with a power and an authority that can make the blind man see and the deaf hear, from the mouth of the voiceless He can raise glorious songs of praise and hope that lift like an angels song to His throne on high.

What do we seek for our lives? What do we seek for the lives of others? When our intent is righteous and our supplications are humble God will raise a fire in the darkness to lead us from the pits of despair and grant unto us new life amidst a new hope for our days.

How often do we carry our burdens alone? How often do we look to the troubles and the hardship of this world and think to ourselves God cannot be there, for if He were and He truly was good there would be an end to the wickedness and the unrighteousness that holds the weak captive and robs the innocent of their lives? Yet, for as many plights and struggles as there are in this world they are nothing, their power is fleeting, their authority is dimming, for they shall soon be engulfed in the fires of the Lord.

Remember dear brothers and blessed sisters that even Israel, the chosen nation of the Almighty, endured the greatest of captivity at the hands of tyrants and slave masters that sought to whip the life out of them. Yet, with the promise of God’s deliverance on their lips they were led through the greatest of miracles to the blessings of that land of hope He swore unto their fathers. So too amidst the bondage of our present age does He hold fast to the same miracles and the same assurances of His transcending love.

Draw your hope then from the promise of the Lord, this is the blessed hope of your salvation. Uplift the cause of those held amidst captivity and bondage, slavery and subjugation, for the Lord, your God, He shall bring life as He speaks through the fire to claim the ultimate power through the love and the hope He offers unto His people. It is then that we shall see His glory amidst His grand design as His mercy comes to bear in our lives and the lives of those in the most need.

Praise be His name for that...

Let us pray:

In our distress shall we call upon Your name O Lord and we shall trust that Your answer shall come with the blessed sound of Your voice raised for the cause of Your children...

Save Your people O Lord...

From all captivity and bondage, from all tyranny and oppression, all subjugation and slavery be the stream of freedom that flows so freely in their lives, and pour down Your blessings upon the like a cleansing rain that washes from them all hurt and hardship. From all poverty and destitution, sickness and disease, tears and woes be the pastures of their blessed rest, feed them by Your hand the fruits of Your love that all tears shall be chased from their lives and they shall find your Sabbath joy with the Lamb our Lord.

Show forth the true face of Your mercy, and be the name that is forever on the lips of Your children that no longer shall they live amidst the ranks of those who hate peace and rob the dignity that You assign to the integrity of the life You have created. Show forth the true face of Your love and whisper your promises into the ears of those who find themselves caught amidst the chaos of this world that no longer shall they find themselves amidst the ranks of those who claim Your authority as they make slaves amidst their wickedness and their unrighteousness.

Save Your people O Lord...

Save Your people from the darkness that surrounds them. Let Your fire cut through murky estate that so engulfs them and lead them to the places where Your hope and Your compassion dwell that they may find the blessed hope of Your transcending grace as You, in Your glory, move to give unto them life even when those who now hold them seek to steal it from them. This that blessed deliverance shall come to the lives of Your people amidst the promises of Your wondrous assurances as You show that Your power is greater than anything of this temporal existence and that in this world is nothing equal to Your love and Your mercy.

Then shall we speak forth the name of our Lord, our hope and our deliverance as we testify of Your love, giving witness to Your great love through our songs of praise raised to You through the ages as You chase all fear and despair from our lives, failing all wickedness as You uplift Your blessed by the strength of Your might.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Mid-Day Devotion 7/19/10

2010-07-19T12:32:00.002-04:00

“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
Isaiah 41:10

Are you weary and tired from your travels amidst this life? Are you burdened and heavy laden? Do troubles follow you and you find that struggles are always near at hand?

Fear not this world, for the Lord, Your God speaks with a gentle heart turned towards your afflictions. The strength of the Lord shall be your strength as His hand is raises you up to the glory of His precious love and grace.

There is a sacred bond amidst the wondrous hope that comes from the promises of the Lord. It is the blessing of His Word, offered unto you as the power of your salvation. Whatever the captivity or the bondage, when you place your trust in the blessed assurances of our Heavenly Father He shall rise with compassion to make manifest blessed help in your life. All you have to do is just take it to Him, lay it at his feet and trust in the encompassing, transcending power of His majesty.

What troubles you? What causes you woe and heartache? What pains your life? What troubles of others can you uplift in your life as you pray for their deliverance? To come, in faith, before the throne of the Almighty, casting all of these things at His feet, trusting that He shall never fail you or forsake you is to claim power over the oppression and the subjugation of this temporal existence and the hardship it can offer. It is the authority to break all the chains that bind with a strength beyond anything of compare in this mortal world.

Be then not disheartened when dangers come, be not of feeble spirit or of weak souls, for the Spirit of the Lord is our constant companion, and, with Him comes the liberty that can only come from the hand of the Lord God of Israel. With Him on our side come what may, come what must, we have a guiding light that shall forever and always lead our way amidst the blessed hope that shall come to encompass our lives regardless of the dangers that surrounds us, for He is who sets the captives free and ransoms us from sin’s dark tyranny.

Fear not beloved children of the Almighty, made heirs to salvation through the cross of Christ, made our brother through the blood of the cross, for though powers and principalities may raise up, they have nothing won. We have been made more than conquerors through He who loves us, and His power remains ours through the generations by the power of His promises and the blessings of His love.

Praise be His blessed name for that.

Let us pray:

Above all else You reign, O merciful and blessed Father. Your power and authority over the nations stand above and proclaim Your glory and Your majesty as Your strength stands as a testament to Your might.

Upon this temporal existence then Lord, we pray You look down from Your throne on High to see the faces of Your children. Look upon the plight and the struggles, the hardship and the pain of the captivity and the bondage that this world does bring and let Your grace be made manifest in the lives of Your people. Bend Your ear to the cries of sorrow and the calls for mercy that Your light and Your love shall move through the lives of Your children as they find themselves now amidst the slavery and the subjugation of this world.

Be then the name upon the lips of those who suffer in meagre estate as You raise Your hand and offer unto them Your strength and Your endurance through all that they face, showing forth Your compassion in their lives as You give them the perseverance that they so need and the hope that they so long for as You break the chains that bind them to the darkness that can be bestowed upon them. Be then the light of their lives as they call out to You for help, leading them by the promises of Your blessed word to the places of safety where they may find rest amidst the deeper blessings of Your transcending word.

Grant unto them comfort and peace and then, in Your time, lead them to freedom, that blessed liberty that comes from Your hand as Your Spirit breathes new life into their lives even when it seems as if all the life and the hope has left them.

Then shall Your word be seen for what it is, the authority of Your throne as Your hand extends to give strength to the weak, hope to the hopeless, and mercy to the scorned as You move through their lives and in their lives in the most significant of ways.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Evening Devotion 7/7/10

2010-07-07T19:00:00.000-04:00

Rock of Ages, Augustus M. Toplady, 1740–1778

“For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; but whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm."
Proverbs 1:32-33

The blessed, wondrous grace of the Lord is made perfect in the love and the trust that we place in Him...

Consider today the wisdom of Solomon. The world is full of the simple and the foolish, those who place their trust in the temporal power and the earthly wealth that they can gain. They put their hope in the authority that they can claim over the lives of others and the delights of the flesh. They go wayward, wandering amidst this world, hoping only in what they can grab a hold of. They are complacent amidst the plight of others, letting their apathy guide them as people suffer amidst the greatest struggle.

It ventures far from the road and the path that God has intended for us. It moves in a way that forsakes the word of the Lord and the truth of His word.

Yet the blessed promise of God is that those who listen to Him, those who abide in Him, they shall live in safety and shall find the wondrous rest of His grace, far from harm.

This is an assurance to us, that if we dwell in the love that He has intended, if we show the mercy and the grace, the compassion and the hope in the lives of others that He commands of us then He shall bless our lives with rest and comfort. Our reward, it may not come in this life, it may only come to us in the next, yet it shall come as He moves in our lives and through our lives through the power of His Spirit to make good use of the faith that He has given us for the edification and the nourishment, the help and the comfort of others.

How then do you use the grace of the Lord? Are you complacent like the fool or wayward like the simple, wandering for your own ease and comfort, dwelling in your own delights? Or do you uplift the cause of others? Do you use the blessings and the gifts God has given unto you to proclaim the wondrous freedom of His love while you strive for the cause of liberty?

Throughout this world there are those who are in desperate need of our help. Captives are taken and slaves are made, people are left in poverty and destitution, bondage and oppression come to encompass their lives. Through God’s love and the blessings of His Word we are called to these people’s cause, seeking to help restore hope in their lives. How then will you hear the call of the Lord and how will you seek to strive for their greatest possible hope? How will you seek to bless them and sanctify them through the deeper love that God expects of us? Will this be the cause of your life or will you let it fall idly by the side while you seek your own personal good?

Search your heart, search your spirit, and let the mercy God has endowed upon your soul guide you. When you do, you shall find the hope He has called you too and it shall call you to bring it in the lives of others. To forsake that is to forsake the ease and the rest of the Heavenly Kingdom, those places of comfort that God calls us all to amidst the blessed reward for those who have marked their faith with deeds and their belief with action as they dwelt in the miracle of His love.

Lord, let us then be those who dwell in your ways as we strive to be agents of Your love, never forsaking Your path or Your righteousness.

Let us pray:

O Rock of My Hope, O Shield of my Life, guide me by Your promises, protect me by Your Word that I may show forth Your grace in my life by the blessings of Your transcending, encompassing love...

Let me never be wayward like the simple nor complacent like the foolish, but let me dwell in Your truth that I may rise up with the voice of authority to proclaim Your power through the nations. Lead me in Your commands and show forth Your love to my life in Your assurances that my faith shall be marked by my deeds and I shall show the courage and the endurance I so need to uplift the cause of the prisoners and the hostages, the captives and the slaves, the poor and the destitute through all the days of my life.

Show forth Your mercy O Lord that my compassion shall be marked with Your hope as I strive day by day to magnify Your blessings of freedom in the lives of those who are in need. This that I may find that my spirit is guided by Your Spirit and that my soul is guided by the commands of my Savior Christ Jesus, who commands me to reveal Your love in the lives of others in a sincere willingness to serve them in all that I am and all that I do.

Let me be a good steward of the blessings You have bestowed upon me that the plight of the oppressed and the weak, the hungry and the sick, the subjugated and the downtrodden shall be forever and always be on my lips as my hands are raised amidst their struggles and their plights. This that they may find they are restored to the blessings of liberty You have promised unto them by Your power and not my own hands as they are sanctified in Your wondrous freedom.

Then shall I know that I will come to the blessed rest and the miraculous comfort You have assured me, for I have been guided by Your ways and Your will has always been my guiding light.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Mid-Day Devotion 7/7/10

2010-07-07T11:17:00.003-04:00

Christ and the Apostles, Domitilla Catacombs, Rome (4th cent.)

“Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.”
John 17:17

The blessing of God’s truth is freedom. As Christ Jesus himself reminded us, “you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” (John 8:32)

As we meditate on the Word of the Lord, that purifying, sanctifying power in our lives that ransoms us from the dark captivity of sin, death and the Devil, let us then rightly and properly consider what the Word truly is. It is the promise of God for deliverance. It is a wondrous, glorious hope that He gives unto us for the power of our salvation.

Consider for a moment the assurances that we are given from above. By the love of God we are told that we shall never be failed or forsaken, that even amidst the greatest of trials and the most enduring of struggles God shall walk by our side and He shall be the rock on which we can always trust. We are told that even as all the world rises against us He shall abide with us, and through the power of His compassion and mercy there shall be none who will be able to stand against us.

In this world of sin and sorrow, where tyranny and oppression come so near at hand that is perhaps a bit hard for us to believe. We see the plight of the prisoners and the hostages, we see the struggles of those who are oppressed by the bitter hand of subjugation, we cry out for the slaves, for those who are traded like cattle amidst the greed and the corruption of the flesh. Freedom, at times, seems like a far distant concept, a far distant idea as we are left to wonder why some are forsaken to the most brutal of iniquity as the wickedness of men holds their lives in their hands.

Yet, when we abide in the truth of God’s word we are blessed with another promise, one that has carried generations of captives and prisoners to the blessings of freedom. When we cry out in anguish amidst our faith the Lord bends his ear to our calling as He hears our pleas as He raises His hand to contend with our cause. This is the sacred wonder of a loving God who stands with us.

Study then the Word and look to the promises of God’s deliverance, forget not the plight of those who find themselves in such meagre estate, but uplift them amidst the assurances of the Lord and know that, as you pray, as you hold God to His truth He shall stand with righteousness for the cause of those who find themselves dwelling in such hopeless of places. It is then that He shall raise their cause as He uplifts their spirits as He holds fast to His word, never letting His promises be broken as He weaves Himself through the course of human events in the most mystifying of ways.

Therefore let the promises of God be your guide and never let yourself be discouraged. God can no more break a promise that He has made than we can, by sheer force of our own will, dry the seas or cause the stars to fall from heaven, and we can no more comprehend the full blessings of the assurances of God than we could count the grains of sand on a beach. They are a force that are at work in this world as we raise up the cause of those in need and they show forth a magnificent grace beyond anything we could ever even begin to imagine.

Let then the word of God sanctify you, let those blessings move through you as you look to the power of His spirit and the liberty it brings and know that it shall forever and always be the truth that shall set people free as true and lasting deliverance comes into their lives and moves through their lives amidst the hope that He has for them in the grand design of His glorious grace.

Lord, grant this trust in Your word unto us all...

Let us pray:

Oh Blessed Hope of our Salvation, sanctify us in Your Word and guide us by Your presence that we may know Your truth and it shall set us free...

Oh Divine Creator who has endowed our spirits with liberty, bless us with Your grace that we may be lead by Your love to give of ourselves in the lives of others...

Show unto us the plight and the sorrow of the prisoners and the captives, reveal unto us the pain and the suffering of the hostages and the slaves, make known to us the destitution of the poor and the downtrodden and move us by the power of Your compassion to strive for their lives that we may give hope to those who struggle in adversity and trial, finding their days have been darkened by the misery that now overtakes them. This that we may make manifest Your truth within our hearts and souls, our spirits and our minds, uplifting and edifying those who find themselves in the greatest need.

Strive for the cause of those whom we plead for now O Lord. Bestow upon them Your divine grace and Your transcending mercy. Let their cause be Your cause as You show unto them that You are contending with their cause never failing them or forsaking them, never leaving them to the dark estate that so binds and chains their souls. Be beside them as we commend them unto You and, in Your time, in Your way, set them free amidst the blessings of liberty that come from the power of Your Spirit, all that they may rest in the comfort of Your love and the hope of Your assurances.

Then shall we raise our songs of praise to You for the sincere wonders and miracles You work in our lives and in the lives of those who are in any sort of need and trouble, for Your glory has been manifested in the needs of those who find themselves lost, finding them even as the grim and foggy clouds overtook them, leading them to the safety of Your blessed love.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Evening Devotion 7/6/10

2010-07-06T19:00:00.001-04:00

The Harrowing of Hell, from the Barberini Exultet Roll, ca. AD 1087

“To you I call, O LORD my Rock; do not turn a deaf ear to me. For if you remain silent, I will be like those who have gone down to the pit.”
Psalm 28:1

The sorrows of this world and in this world that rise amidst our lives as we find that pain comes so easily in this temporal existence. As they encompass us and overtake us we cannot help but look to the Lord, we cannot help but call out to Him and cry out to Him, knowing that the only answer to the struggles and the challenges of this age comes from His blessed hand, and His encompassing mercy.

Yet so often it seems as if God turns a deaf ear to our struggles and our plights, so often does it seem that God is not there when the darkness of this world rises to rear its ugly head. After all, as the Psalmist writes, if the Lord remains silent then we shall go down like those who have gone to the pits, finding that there is little hope left in this world. What hope is there for the prisoners and the hostages? What hope is there for the captives and the slaves? What hope do those who have been bought and sold, traded for their flesh know? What hope do the poor and the oppressed, the subjugated and the enslaved really know amidst this dark world? What rock do they have to grab a hold of when the drowning force of this world rises against them and they struggle, grasping for air and finding that they have no strength to fight the tides that have washed them so far from the safety of the shores they have always known?

There are times when the Lord’s answers, they seem far distant, far removed from our lives as we look to the world and see the pain and the suffering that this temporal existence can bring in the lives of the people. Yet even as we are left with this lingering silence that feels like it has encompassed us God is calling us, sometimes perhaps just with a whispering voice. He is telling unto us that He has never failed us nor forsaken us and He will not start now. He is telling us that He is our fortress and our rock, our ever present salvation.

It is here that we hear the Lord’s voice, it is calling us to action, it is calling us to do whatever we can for the cause of the freedom for His people. It is telling unto us to make good use of the fruits of His Spirit, and the blessings and gifts that He grants unto us to be an ever present force for righteousness in an unrighteous world that we may make manifest His love and His compassion as we show forth His grace in the lives of His people. It tells to us that God is present when we show the proper care to uplift and to edify those who find themselves in bitter estate and brutal captivity and that His will is done when we listen to His deeper message.

It is then that the voice of God is heard through the nations and through the struggles of the people.

Remember that even in the most ancient of days when God’s hand was more apparent through the transcending miracles that He performed that He still used His servants, His people to reveal His divine hope and His divine will in the world. His voice sounded through this world and in this world through the lives of His prophets and His saints, His faithful elect as they became they were sanctified by Him and brought forth for the deliverance of His people. It is here that even today we are to remember that in the love God has intended and the hope that Christ taught we are to let the Spirit move through us and in us to be the deafening voice of the Lord’s freedom against all tyranny and oppression that would inflict itself on the hearts and the souls, the spirits and the minds of the people that His liberty and justice shall reign supreme...

Lord, grant this understanding unto us all...

Let us pray:

Be not silent in our lives O Lord, be not quiet within our souls. Raise Your voice within us as Your Spirit moves through us and calls us according to Your Word and Your will...

Be not deaf to our cries O Lord, let not Your ear be impaired amidst our pleas. Guide us by the blessings and the hope of our Savior and give us the courage to show forth His love in this dark world.

As Your servants in ancient days heard Your voice and were guided to be this dark world’s light let us too be called according to Your world amidst the plights and the struggles of this present age. Let us be a force against oppression and subjugation, poverty and destitution, slavery and hurt. Let us be used in whatever ways You would have us to set to flight all captivity and bondage, serving Your will that we may break the chains that would so bind the body and the mind, the spirit and the soul.

Be with us O Lord, show us Your ways as we seek to live in deeper calling of Your word for the poor and the wounded, the hurt and the suffering. Magnify in us a courage to rise up and give unto us the endurance and the perseverance we need to be more than we are, all that we may reveal Your grace and be a force for Your freedom in the world that the blessings of liberty may encompass the lives of the people in the most significant of ways.

Let us never stop hearing Your voice O Lord until that time when freedom and justice, until Your blessings has set to flight all wickedness and oppression that would so inflict itself over the hearts and minds, the spirits and the souls of the people.

Then shall we know that we have heard Your voice and abided in Your calling as we have moved in humility according to Your righteousness to stand for those who have been so abandoned to hopelessness, all that hope may be restored in their lives and Your grace shall bring them to the safe shore of love.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Mid-Day Devotion 7/6/10

2010-07-06T12:30:00.000-04:00

“On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half to the eastern sea and half to the western sea, in summer and in winter.”
Zechariah 14:8

Even in the parched heat of the summer as the sun bears down on it, even in the extreme cold of the winter as the ground freezes all around it nothing shall stop the stream of living water as it flows from the west to the east and from the east to the west, pouring forth through the world and in the world as it meets with the sea and moves throughout the world. Even as the summers blister and the winters bluster, it is the flood of goodness and mercy that forever moves as a washing current that lives amidst a perpetual spring, a perpetual rebirth of that quenches the thirst of our spirits and our souls.

Look then to the evil that seeks to set the world ablaze, to the captivity and the slavery, the bondage and the oppression, the poverty and the destitution that sets the world on fire. Look then to the iniquity of human trafficking and the political subjugation, to those who would take hostages and would trade in flesh as if it were to be bought and sold for their own wicked purposes as they seek to burn the spirit to cinders, leaving nothing but dust and ash and destruction in their wake. There power and authority is nothing, for though they rise up with scorching heat the living water of the Lord washes through, rising like a cleansing tide as it shows that there is no force, there is no evil that can withstand the might and the courage of that our God of deliverance moves with.

Pure and holy, this water is never corrupted by this world, and just as the summer cannot dry it up and the winter cannot freeze it no power of this world can dam it up. It is the Lord’s righteousness. Powers and principalities may rise against it, nations and armies may stand opposed to it, yet in the end it always shall claim the day as it offers hope to all of those who have found themselves muddied by this world, as it offers relief to all of those who have been burned by the unrighteousness of this age.

Let us then place our hope and our trust in this steady and faithful source of the Lord’s blessings as God gives so freely and richly unto us, let us never place our trust in the murky, muddied waters of this temporal existence, nor let us see the flames of this age and find that they blind us to the truth and the love that our God has for us. By His power and His authority let your hope be restored by the thirst quenching waters of our Heavenly Father as Christ Jesus, that blessed lamb, leads you to the streams of His love and the Holy Spirit flows in you with every taste you take of those wonders and miracles.

Be strong and of good courage, knowing that the power that this world uses to set this world ablaze with shall not stand, for nothing can stop the streams of God’s love and Christ’s mercy as the Spirit flows through and in this world for the blessed freedom and the encompassing liberty of true deliverance, that deliverance that can only come when we are washed in the blessed, consecrated waters of the Lord.

Then shall all captivity and bondage be set to flight as love, mercy and compassion arise, springing forth in the spirits of the prisoners and the hostages, the slaves and the persecuted, the poor and the oppressed as hope once more comes into their lives.

Blessed be the name of God for that.

Let us pray:

Our help O blessed Lord comes from You, by Your hand do all blessings flow as a stream through our souls, washing clean our spirits with a flood of love and hope that sanctifies us in the compassion of Your ways...

Our strength O blessed Lord comes from You, by Your mouth do we find the hope of our hearts as You offer unto us the streams of Your living water that they may guide us in Your righteousness that shall never freeze or go dry...

Unto You then do we give the honor and the glory as songs of praise and joy come forth from our lips, magnifying Your compassion as You make manifest Your mercy within our lives by the grace that is offered through the power of Your Spirit.

As the world comes O Lord then let Your washing flood flow as it has flowed through us, sweeping away all evil and wickedness, pushing away all darkness and chaos, putting out the fires of chaos that would set this world ablaze. Show forth the flowing waters of Your righteousness as You reveal Your love and Your hope in the lives of all prisoners and hostages, all captives and slaves throughout the world. Move through their lives for the cause of their freedom that they may be taken to the safe shores of Your blessed and encompassing rest. Sanctify them and purify them and give unto them the hope that has so eluded their lives.

Be the fount of their every blessing and let Your living waters move through them that they may know that while the world rises against them You shall always contend with them, surrounding them with the blessings of Your compassion. Then, in Your time, flow around them, carrying them with the tides of Your love to the blessings of Your freedom, all that they may know the hope and the love that You have for them.

Then shall we see the righteousness of Your ways and know the blessings of Your love as You show the miracles of Your encompassing, transcending hope.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Evening Devotion 6/30/10

2010-06-30T19:00:00.000-04:00

“The LORD is my light and my salvation - whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life - of whom shall I be afraid?”
Psalm 27:1

Blessed be the name of our Lord, our light and our salvation. Praise be the name of our God, the stronghold and the fortress of our lives...

What fear might we have when the power of our God is on our side? What shall we be afraid of when the same mighty Lord who delivered the children of Israel from the hands of Pharaoh, who tore down the mighty walls of Jericho and handed the land of Promise to the sons and daughters of Abraham and Isaac, stand by our side? What terrors shall claim authority over us when we look to the hope of the God who, for us and our salvation, sent His only Son to lead captivity captive and ransom us from the greatest spiritual imprisonment and bondage that could have claimed our hearts and our souls?

Yes, we live in a world of hurt and sorrow, a world where pain and sorrow come so near at hand. We see the chains that bind the prisoners and the hostages as slavery and persecution, oppression and subjugation come so near at hand. We see the darkness that comes from poverty and destitution as it rips the dignity from the lives of the people. It just seems as if there is so much to fear, there is so much to be afraid of, so much that should keep us awake at night, terrified of closing our eyes for the nightmares that may come in this world of sin and iniquity.

Yet when we grab hold of the promises that have been given to God we realize that, come what may, come what must the will of the Lord shall be done on earth as it is in heaven, and that, whatever this world may bring, we shall see our vindication either in this world or the next. It is a liberating force for our spirits and our souls that gives us the strength and the power to do more, to do what needs to be done, great and small, for the cause of the freedom of God’s people, for the cause of freedom for those who have been made to suffer in the grimmest of estates.

Cling therefore to the blessed assurances of strength and hope that come from the love that the Lord has for you and make manifest the grace that is the compassion of His Spirit, let that mercy guide you knowing there is nothing to fear in this life. Use then that courage to be a blessing in the lives of the poor and the downtrodden, the destitute and the weak, use it to fight for the freedom of the slaves and the hostages, using whatever gifts and blessings God has given you in Your life for the greater calling of the blessed miracle of His love, knowing that He shall forever and always stand with You through all the days of your life.

It shall be then that you shall know that your faith has its firmest foundation, built on the love and the promises, the hope and the assurances of a loving God who forever and always contends with the cause of His people, never failing or forsaking them regardless of what this world may seek to do.

Lord, grant this blessed faith, this wondrous hope, this divine miracle unto us all...

Let us pray:

O Lord, let us dwell in Your ever present grace,
Smile upon us, show unto us Your blessed face,
That life and love shall forever mark our place
As amidst this world we shall run the race
With Your divine nature to set our pace
That bondage shall no longer our souls to trace.

O Lord, let us abide in Your abundant love
Lift unto us Your face from above
That we may sing our songs and praises of
Your miracles that lift us like a dove
To the cause of Your blessed peace above
That we may seek Your freedom’s love.

O Lord, let us rest in Your divine liberty,
Set to flight all this world’s captivity,
Let all see the strength of Your ability
To set to flight all this day’s iniquity
As faith abides in all the hearts activity
That slavery shall never be our proclivity.

O Lord, let us give You blessed praise,
Let Your name be ours to forever raise,
Let Your Spirit set our souls ablaze
With the love of Christ our precious rays
That we may worship You in all our ways
Knowing that You shall forever guard our days.

Amen.

Mid-Day Devotion 6/30/10

2010-06-30T12:35:00.002-04:00

“The LORD will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one LORD, and his name the only name.”
Zechariah 14:9

We look and we see the temporal authority that asserts itself in the world. So often it just seems to baffle us, how the wicked rise to oppress the poor and the weak. Subjugation and slavery seem to come so near at hand as darkness strokes the faces of the innocent and life is held without worth or intrinsic value. The meaning that our Creator God assigns to it is wiped from the spirit as the heart is broken amidst the burdens that the back is made to carry.

We look to the promises of a merciful God, a loving God, one who promises His hand shall forever be raised for the deliverance of His people, one who has lifted His eyes to look upon the face of a slave race and who carried them from the most brutal captivity, we listen to the assurances of a blessed Savior, a wondrous Messiah, one who has assured us that He would lift the grim yoke of our burdens from us, one who ransomed us from sin, death and the Devil and we wonder to ourselves how could it be that they let this persist. Day by day we hear the names and we struggle to feel the plight of the hostages and the prisoners, the captives and the slaves knowing it is far beyond our meagre ability to understand. We feel the pain of the sick and the poor, the disenfranchised and the downtrodden and our hearts go out to them as we seek to uplift them even in these, their darkest days. Yet we cannot help but feel that nagging question in the back of our mind that asks why does God let this continue?

In a world of darkness and sin unrighteousness shall always rise up to rear its head. With its sting it shall forever bring death and destruction, hurt and hardship as it plagues the lives of the people in the most significant of ways that seeks to break the spirit and the soul. Yet, these days shall not stand forever. The promise of God is that there shall be a time when He shall rise up and lead all captivity captive, bringing an end to the sorrow and the pain that so destroys. Yes, these days may be long and the trials of it may be great, but even these things too shall come to pass amidst the hope offered to us by our God.

It then becomes ours, as those called to imitate God and the love that He has intended for us, to seek to create that same world that He so promises us in the Word of Scripture, knowing that though we may be imperfect in our sin, love covers a multitude of iniquities when given for the edification and the spiritual nourishment, the blessed freedom and the wondrous hope of our God.

Seek then the Kingdom of God, striving to uplift the poor and the downtrodden, the slaves and the captives amidst the love God has intended for us, knowing that it may still persist but that when we strive towards its destruction it shall never be given safe haven or sanctuary. It is then that we work towards a world that God has intended in the love and compassion, the grace and the mercy He has intended for us, one that only knows His blessed and Holy name.

Let us pray:

In mercy and grace guide Your children O Lord
Upon their lives no wickedness afford
Give unto them rest from death and the sword
That by Your light they shall find their chord
With songs of praise on their souls so poured
That by Your love they shall be forever adored.

In love and compassion guard Your brethren O Christ
Let not evil move through them that they may be enticed
By your grace let their strength be sufficed
That they may know that Your life was forever priced
As the atonement given through all that was sacrificed,
That bondage shall never the spirit shall heist.

In hope move Your People O Holy Ghost,
Let Yours be the strength on which they boast,
Uplift them, edify them O You Heavenly Host
That they may stand firm amidst this worldly post
And find the strength until they reach the heavenly coast,
The blessings of the Lord to lead them most.

We praise Your name blessed Three in One
We raise our songs to amidst Your blessed sun,
That even before our lives have begun
In divine purpose Your love has run
Through our souls and has forever spun
The grace that transcends our lives until the race is done.

Amen

Evening Devotion 6/29/10

2010-06-29T12:39:00.002-04:00

“Pharaoh said, “I will let you go to offer sacrifices to the LORD your God in the desert, but you must not go very far. Now pray for me.’”
Exodus 8:28

Let us once more meditate on the abiding lessons of our deliverer God, who, in the most ancient of days, in the most abiding of struggles, lifted high the children of Israel to remove from them the strangle of Pharaoh.

There were few scenarios where the mighty king of Egypt would let the children of Israel have their freedom. Even as the first of the plagues befell him and his people he remained defiant. The hand of God stretched over his lands he would still refuse to let the slaves go. Even as he prepared to bargain it wasn’t much of one. He would keep them close. Close enough to raise his hand against, close enough that he could send his army against them once more, close enough that once the destruction that was now overtaking Egypt had passed he could once more bind the people with that brutal yoke of oppression.

Yet, when the face of wickedness rises and iniquity robs people of their freedom, of that liberty that the Lord endows all of His creation with their is no compromise, there are no deals to be bargained for, all that is left is to listen to the deep, abiding voice of the Lord and to obey.

This is the love that God has for His people, this is the hope that He offers unto them, that even as captivity and bondage come so near at hand the Lord is never content to just stop half way and call it enough. He is never willing to live with just half of a solution or to let His people dwell in a land or a place or a time when trouble will so quickly befall them as soon as their oppressors believe that God’s back is turned, no longer looking at what they are doing. He does not stop, He is not finished until finally He has moved in such a way as to bring them to the resting place of promise and hope that He has assured them of through His transcending, encompassing word.

Unto us it also offers a deeper understanding and a wondrous lesson. It tells to us that to live in the love and the compassion that God has intended for His people we need to push forward and run the race with endurance, we should be unwilling to compromise with the lives of the slaves and the hostages, struggling, pushing forward, whatever the cost, whatever the pain until the race is run and the struggle is finally behind us. We should be unwilling to stop until the cause of freedom and liberty is moved throughout this world and the scourge of slavery is finally set to flight in the most significant of ways as the lost and the hurt, the pained and the sorrow filled are given a lasting hope in the integrity God has assigned to their lives.

If we truly wish to be imitators of God, if we truly wish to be followers of our deliverer Jesus Christ this should be the transcending, encompassing love that forever guides our hearts throughout this life and in this life until we finally reach the blessed end of the challenges of this age and move towards the places God has intended for us to take His people.

Let us pray:

Unto you O Lord, unto you do we place all our trust, unto you do we give all of our hope and our faith is made manifest in our hearts and in our souls the encompassing, transcending blessings that you give unto us in your word. As we meditate on your promises, we will look to the deliverance that you have given in the past, we look to the deliverance you have given unto the saints and apostles, to the prophets and the kings, unto those slaves who are bound in the most brutal of iniquity, as the sting of the whip cut through their backs, and forced them to cry out in such bitter anguish. We look for the places of promise and rest you took those children to. We pray for the same miracle, we pray that you hold true to your promises O Lord to be besides those who need deliverance, to offer yourself to those who need mercy. Guide, protect, and love your children as you have told us you will. And there, in your time, in your way, bring them to the blessed air of freedom, to the encompassing mercy of your hope, as you guide them to those places, those pastures, those green fields of your love, where finally hope shall be restored to those who believe that only hopelessness has come into their lives. Dear Lord, set iniquity to flight, rise up and swallow it whole, let no compromise come but only the full blessings of your mercy. In the name of your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you in the Kingdom, one God, world without end. Amen.

Mid-Day Devotion 6/29/10

2010-06-29T11:31:00.004-04:00

Moses and Aaron Before Pharaoh, An Allegory of the Dinteville Family, Hans Holbein, 1537

“Each one threw down his staff and it became a snake. But Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs.”
Exodus 7:12

Let us, for a moment, meditate on the miracles of the Lord and consider rightly the nature of God’s deliverance as the hands of evil are raised against His people.

Nothing was left to the children of Israel but faith... Faith in God, faith in the promise of deliverance, faith that the time would come when they would rise up against the hands of their slave masters and throw off the grim bondage of oppression and slavery and find hope had once more been restored to their lives.

Yet, for how long? As one generation passed to another and hundreds of years had passed the longing, burning question of their souls had to be how long? How long would they be left, how long would they be made to feel the sting of the whip, their backs breaking under the forced labor of being pushed without mercy or even pity? How long could they endure all they had been forced to endure?

It is here, with those questions amidst our hearts, that we see the miracle of Aaron’s staff.

Before the might of all of this world Moses and Aaron stood in the court of Pharaoh. Two lowly slaves against the power and the authority of an empire that made the world tremble as their armies marched like an unstoppable swarm. Two lowly slaves against the wisdom and the enlightenment of an empire that stood at the pinnacle of science and technology, knowledge and mysticism, marvelled at with awe on the lips of all whom it encountered. Yet, for all that it was it could not but be swallowed whole by the power of the living God of Abraham and Isaac.

This world’s might and authority, its wisdom and enlightenment throws down its rods and its staffs and, as it does, it surrounds our own with what seems like such a triumphant force, with such victorious numbers that it seems almost impossible for us to be able to survive its attack. Yet, the Lord of deliverance and the God of freedom, our Heavenly Father moves in the most significant of ways to set to flight the strength of this world and show unto us that it is all in vain if it is not guided by faith, love, compassion and mercy. Through Christ Jesus the sin that it brings is swallowed whole until finally there is nothing left except the lowly staff of a slave lying there, a slave ready to lead his people to the blessed air of liberty in the hope that only the Lord our God can bring.

This is why, as we look to the captivity and bondage of this world we must look to the hand of God for deliverance. It perhaps starts with the smallest of miracles but it becomes the most consuming of loves that He shows for those who languish in the deepest of struggles and He magnifies His love and His light in the lives of His people.

Look then to the staff of the Lord, look to that which He throws down in the fight against sin and iniquity and know that it shall always and forever claim the authority and the might regardless of the power and the strength that this world may show. It is then that our trust has the firmest of foundations and the greatest of optimism as we know that our deliverance and the deliverance of the enslaved and the imprisoned is coming.

Let us pray:

The strength of our heart is the faith that we abide in as we look to O Lord...

The courage of our soul is the love that we dwell in as we hear You O Lord...

Unto You do we place all of our hope, unto You do we give all of our trust as we look to the abiding hope of Your transcending, encompassing promises, those blessed assurances of Your wondrous Word. Show unto us the mercy of Your hand and the compassion of Your heart as we seek and implore Your grace in the lives of Your people.

As You have freed the Asian Glory, bringing that crew once more to the hope of Your freedom after their five months of captivity, show that grace unto the 2 German aid workers taken in Darfur, the British aid worker in Chad, and the 19 crew members of the Golden Blessing, all now in the grim estate of dark bondage. Rise up Your head like in those ancient days and show forth Your love in the lives of Your people, swallowing whole the bitter bondage and the brutal slavery that so encompasses the lives of these people. Pour forth Your blessings in their lives and let not their days be marked with darkness, move through them and in them to bring them to the deeper assurances of Your encompassing word as You guide and protect them, raising Your rod and Your staff for them.

Let all that rise against them be set to flight and let Your hope move through them and in them as You give forth the richest blessings in their lives in even these brutal days of hurt and hardship that so threaten to devour them.

Then shall songs of praise be lifted to Your Holy name as You give Your people the courage to rise above and the hope to make it through in the encompassing mercy of Your blessed name.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with You in the kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Evening Devotion 6/7/10

2010-06-07T19:00:00.000-04:00

“I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me.”
John 10:28

When we stand in the promises of Christ, when we flee to the Lord for our blessed refuge and find our shelter in the power of the Holy Spirit, there is no safer place for us to be, nor is there a more secure hope in which we can rest amidst. In life it guides our way, in dead it is our wondrous peace and through all of our days it is the assurance of a transcending love that will deliver us from all that this temporal existence shall try to wage against us.

Where then do we place our confidence?

As we live in a world of bitter captivity and brutal bondage, where slavery and oppression, poverty and destitution come so near at hand amidst the lives of the people, where shall we find our optimism? As we live in a world where tyranny runs amuck, bringing chaos and darkness as it holds life to be cheap and without any intrinsic value, where shall we look to find our rescue and our release? Shall it be in the things of this world that so often fail us in our hour of need or shall it be in the promises of the divine which assure us of the wondrous blessings of a loving Heavenly Father who cares for us through all of our days and all of our struggles?

When we build our hope on Christ, when we lay our burdens at His feet we know the answer to that question. There is only one true deliverance, there is only one true hope and it is one that the child of God can never be snatched away from or pluck away amidst. It is the transcending, encompassing promise of our redemption and our vindication that comes from the hand of our God who shall forever contend with our cause.

Perhaps we may not always understand how it works or the way that it’s supposed to work out. There are times when our peace seems fleeting and the challenges lay before us. During these times we may look to the promises of God and wonder where they are. Yet, as we do, we can draw comfort and peace in the knowledge that they are still there, they are just there giving us the perseverance and the endurance we need to run the race amidst a world of sin and sorrow until we reach that glorious end unto our blessed life everlasting. It is then that we shall see the manifestation of all of God’s promises and all of Christ’s blessings as we are given to the glory of the Almighty and drawn close to Him for the complete healing of our spirit and our soul.

Trust not then in this world, but in God. Find Your hope in Him even in the deepest of struggles and the darkest of days, for through Christ we shall move steadfast in this world guided by that blessed light of our Lord as He moves in our lives and through our lives to carry us to the places we need to be that we may never be plucked from the promises of His blessed hope and His wondrous assurances.

Lord, grant this unto us all...

Let us pray:

In mercy manifested let Your face shine upon the lives of Your children O Lord, let the promises of Your Word and the miracles of Christ’s deliverance encompass them as it gives testimony to a loving God who shall always contend with the cause of His people.

In hopes divine revelation let Your hand be raised for the cause of Your people O Lord, let the assurances of Your Word and the works of Your Spirit move through them as it gives witness to a God who shall always stand steadfast that His people may be ransomed from the hand of wickedness...

In love’s miraculous stand let Your cause be the cause of Your redeemed O Lord, let the wonders of Your righteous move through the lives of those who find themselves in captivity and bondage, slavery and oppression that it shall show forth the compassion of a wondrous God who never lets evil triumph...

In glorious strength move through this world for Your creation O Lord, let the nations be amazed by the workings of Your hands as You uplift the cause of the persecuted and the imprisoned, the ransomed and the afflicted, that they shall behold Your workings and praise Your name forever...

In amazing grace show Yourself throughout the plights and the struggles that lay ahead O Lord, let us all marvel at the perseverance and the endurance that comes by You and through You as You move in the world for the sick and the afflicted, the poor and the destitute, and all whose life is full of woe and suffering...

In joyful psalm and glorious praise shall we then lift Your name on High O Lord, letting Your hope guide us, Your miracles strengthen us and Your wonders give us courage even amidst this lost and fallen world as we run the race to Your perfect end.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Mid-Day Devotion 6/7/10

2010-06-07T13:59:00.003-04:00

“I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people.”
Leviticus 26:12

What a divine wonder... What a miraculous blessing... Our God, the living God of deliverance and mercy, revealed unto us in the love that He makes manifest in our lives, lives amongst us and walks amidst us. It is His faithful promise and His glorious devotion to us that He shall never fail us or forsake us, that wherever we shall go He shall be there beside us, following us, yet leading us in even the greatest of battles that this life has in store for us.

As we look to the assurances of God’s encompassing Word, to the life of Christ, our Lord and Savior, and to the works of the Spirit we know this to be the transcending, encompassing phenomenon of our Heavenly Father.

Look about you, and marvel in amazement at His creation, of all that He has formed with His hand and all that He has sustained in this world. Look to the intricacies of life and the sensations of this temporal existence, behold the care that He gives to the smallest of that which He has made and then consider for yourself how more He loves us, those that He wove together in His image with an intent towards the divine. Look to all that is there to behold and consider the miracles He has worked throughout this world to know the love and the compassion of His hand. Look to your own life and how you were lost in sin, and consider the ransom that He paid for your deliverance through the sacrifice of His only begotten Son.

How could we not find ourselves in awe of the blessings that come when we realize that we are His people and that He is always contending with our cause?

If this then is the mercy He makes manifest in our lives how much more confidence can we have that He is there amidst all captivity and bondage that occurs throughout this world? He has already shown Himself to be the God of freedom as He rescues His people from their every woe and struggle. How much more then does He do to rise up and show His face in the lives of those who are held in grim estate and bitter bondage throughout this world? How much more does He do when our cries go up for those who find themselves in such meagre places of darkness and woe as He holds steadfast to His promises to hear the cries of His people and answer the yearning of their spirits and their souls?

Look therefore to the promises of a loving God, of a wondrous Lord who has assured us of our ever step and draw your confidence and your courage from Him as He guides your way and makes straight your path. Lift your prayers to Him, intercede on behalf of those in any sort of need, and know that He shall answer those prayers in the deepest love and the transcending compassion of His encompassing mercy as He shows forth His grace in the lives of His people.

This is our God, the God who shall always walk beside us, declaring us to be His people as He moves through our lives and in our lives. Blessed be His Holy Name for that.

Let us pray:

Come thou O Lord and be our fount of every blessing, let Your light and Your love guide our way...

Come thou O Lord and be our freedom mounting as Your hope shall forever be our stay...

Whisper unto us Your promises, let us feel the Spirit move within our lives as we draw our comfort and our peace from Your steadfast devotion as we look to Your Word as our sacred trust and our blessed heritage, knowing You stand as the same God as You have always been through the course of the lives of Your people. Let then Your hope create in the lives of Your children a wondrous courage in even these the dark days of trial and tribulation that lay before them.

Throughout this temporal existence there is captivity and bondage that works such wickedness in the lives of Your people, there is slavery and oppression that dwells amidst an unrighteousness that runs so contrary to Your will. It moves and it weaves through the lives of the people in the most significant of ways as it causes them so much pain and suffering.

Move in the lives of all prisoners and hostages, all captives and slaves O Lord, work amidst their lives Your cure that they may find Your strength as they see Your blessed light and know that through it all and in it all You walk beside them. Shower them with the blessings of Your Holy Spirit that they may find courage and perseverance, endurance and strength even during these deepest of days of struggle that they face, all that they may be lead by Your hand to once more look upon the bright shining sun of Your freedom as liberty’s warmth encompasses their lives.

Then shall we rejoice in the wonders of Your workings as we see the blessings You bring forth in the lives of Your people as You answer every yearning, every cry with such a wondrous love that we could not have even imagined.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Evening Devotion 6/3/10

2010-06-03T19:00:00.000-04:00

“The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.”
Proverbs 4:18

What is the path that we look to for our lives? Is it the road of least resistance that marks our days with ease and comfort as we look to ourselves and our own needs? Or is it a path of righteousness that guides us on a trek of spirit and the soul that we may look to the needs of others and offer of ourselves that they may journey with us to the place of God’s great comfort and richest blessings dwell?

In faith we have to ask ourselves that question as we consider the cause and the course of the direction we embark upon in this life. After all we live in a world where there are so many trials, so many challenges that rise to rob the innocence and the peace from the lives of others around us. Captivity and bondage come so easily as oppression and persecution, poverty and destitution, hatred and tyranny leave a scar on the face of our humanity. During these times we need to know if we are willing to give ourselves over completely to the Lord our God that we may, as imitators of Christ, uplift and edify our fellow man in their hour of deepest need and darkest tribulation. We need to know that we are willing to do all that we can to dawn a new day in their lives that will shine brightly as it casts the veil from their eyes to show them the glorious dawning of God’s love in their lives.

So often though it just seems as if there is too much...

There is too much pain and sorrow, too much hurt and hardship, too much despair and suffering as unrighteousness rises up to stroke us with a cold hand of death. During these times its hard to remain on the path of the Lord’s love as we find that our courage is fleeting and our virtue moves far from us.

These are the moments when we need to grasp all the more tightly to the promises of the Lord and to the wonders of His love given amidst the blessed assurances of His Word. After all He has paved our path and He has set the road ahead of us and, amidst that, He never fails us or forsakes us, He never abandons us even when we see the stumbling blocks in front of us. Instead He gives so freely to us according to His love and His mercy as it moves through our souls strengthening our spirits for the tasks and the journeys that lay there before us.

Trust therefore in the Lord and seek His path, seek the road of righteousness and hope in love for others, uplifting them and edifying them in all of their struggles and all of their plights. Make manifest the light of compassion and show forth the dawning of charity in your heart as you give yourself over to God and strive to live in His ways in service to others that You shall always travel down the path that He has for you. It is then that you will know you have been all that He has intended for you to be and that you have been guided and protected in the life that He has intended for you to live in love for your fellow man.

Lord, grant this unto us all...

Let us pray:

Show us O Lord unto Your path
And remove from us all thy wrath
Guide us forever in Your way
And let Your love be our stay
That we may in mercy unending
Offer ourselves to one another tending.

Show us O Lord unto Your road
And take from us captivity’s load
Guide us in the hope of Your Son
That we may this race today run
In the truth that abides in Your Word
That bondage shall soon be cured

Show us O Lord Your blessed hope
And take from us all of that which grope
At our life and our love with such pain
That upon us unrighteousness does rain
That we may find the care of the free
As Your love uplifts us steadfastly

Show us O Lord unto Your path
That from You liberty shall last
And captivity shall never hold
And Your truth shall be told
Amidst the places You do dwell
Where bondage shall forever fail.

Show us O Lord and we shall praise
With songs and anthems we will raise
In truth that we shall find in Your Son
As our weight is removed in our run
And truth becomes our glad refrain
Darkness ne’er to us take us again...

Amen.

Mid-Day Devotion 6/3/10

2010-06-03T12:31:00.002-04:00

Queen Esther, Betsy Porter, 2002

“For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?”
Esther 4:14

There were few circumstances where Esther would have risen to the place and the esteem that she rose to. Had not the events around the royal court of Persia wove the way they had, had not they played out the way that they had, she would have faded into the background amidst the palpably obscure. Her name would have perhaps been soon forgotten with her passing from this world to the next. Yet, during a time of oppression when persecution came so near at hand, God needed a woman of strength and courage, of virtue and valour to carry out the protection of His people against a brutal captivity and a bitter slavery that would claim them as a race and as people.

If one were to ask Esther, she was not the person for the task. There had to be someone stronger, someone more courageous, more devoted in their faith than she was, someone who could take on the weight of the world and not feel it crush them underneath it. She was not the woman that He was looking for, she was not the woman who could deliver her people, and it seemed like a distant concept to her that she ever would be.

Yet, even when Esther didn’t have faith in herself, God had enough faith in her for the both of them. As He had with Moses and Joshua, as He had with David and Solomon, even with all of their flaws and faults, He would mold her into the leader that she needed to be, the leader that He needed for her to be.

And so it is with God...

When God calls on us to rise above situations and circumstances and to be the force for good, the force for His love in a lost and fallen world, He looks beyond who we think we are, the limitations and the restrictions we place on ourselves to the person that He knows we can be. He does so with a divine love that raises us above, uplifting us and making us the right people for the times and the state of affairs that He calls us to. He makes us better, stronger people than we ever hoped to be as His grace is made manifest in our lives and His love is made perfect in our hearts.

Looking to a world where there is captivity and bondage, slavery and genocide, oppression and persecution, poverty and destitution we must realize that though we are called in different ways, we are, as Esther was, still called to work towards an end of suffering and sorrow, to uplift and to edify others before the nations that the sacredness of that which God has created might be seen for the value and the worth that He assigned to it. We may not understand what God intends for us or what He wants us to do, but when we look to the throne of God and the plan that He has, we know that He shall reveal all to us and that He will make His love perfect in us.

Trust therefore in the Lord, never remain silent against injustice, work for the relief and the deliverance of those held in dark estate and know that God has placed you in this world at this time for a reason, for the betterment of others during these trying times of trial amidst this temporal existence. It is then that you will be given the courage and the faith, the hope and the virtue to be more than you ever thought possible as you strive for the cause of His love amidst the liberty that He has promised.

Lord, grant this unto us all....

Let us pray:

Work within us O Lord towards Your cure
That in Your love we may endure
Strengthen us in Your blessings pure
That we may reject the dark allure
And stand in You steadfast and sure.

Work within us O Lord to show Your way
Guard Your children amidst their stay
That in this world’s bitter array
As bondage throws them in the fray
We may see Your blessed dawning day.

Work within us O Lord to set us free
Protect Your people and let them be
The blessed creation to which we see
The manifestation of Your love ably
Moved against all captivity.

Work within us O Lord and we shall sing
Of the blessed Son of our mighty King
Who came in earthly form ransoming
Us that forever shall liberty ring
In the gentle love of Your tender moving.

Amen...

Evening Devotion 5/31/10

2010-05-31T19:41:00.003-04:00

“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”
John 15:13

As we consider the plight of the hostages and the prisoners, the captives and the slaves, let us also take this opportunity to remember the lives of those who have and continue to give all that they are in that deeper sense of sacrifice for the cause of freedom and liberty throughout this world as they have sought to and continue to seek to break all bondage and chains that would so bind men and women to brutal oppression and bitter hurt. Theirs remain the righteous cause of a just God who looks upon His children with favour as He calls on some to rise up and protect the weak and the innocent, the poor and the destitute, the troubled and the restrained.

We have been richly blessed beyond that of what we deserve, dear brothers and sisters, by the lives of our soldiers and our veterans, by the sacrifices they have made and the lives that they have given to stop the advance of wickedness and unrighteousness. In the deepest hours of need they have contended against slavery and persecution, genocide and tyranny, and all for the cause of humanity in the knowledge that life remains sacred and valued in the eyes of the Lord. Amidst that they have been willing to sacrifice all that men and women may be viewed as having a worth to them that had been otherwise robbed from them. They do the work that we cannot in order to protect and serve others for no other reason than they feel it as their calling and their duty.

If there ever were those who could be rightly called imitators of Christ it would be those men and women of uniform who, in the deeper message of Christ, heard that call and found their place in the deeper sacrifices they have been willing to offer as they mark their words with their deeds and say they will give everything for the cause of freedom and liberty that the oppressed shall be ransomed and the persecuted shall be set free.

Let us never forget or undervalue that sacrifice. As dark as the world may, at times, get, as much chaos and pain may be waged in it, as much captivity and bondage as may come to it, it would be nothing but a drop in the bucket of a much worse, a much more wicked existence had it not been for the brave men and women who don their uniform, willing to give all that they are and all that they hope to be for that one great cause that they believe in.

What a blessing they truly are, what a blessed hope their lives become when we recognize the wondrous nature of the divine that pours forth from their hearts as their souls reach out to their fellow man in the love that they have for them. Let us always cherish that amidst our praises of God that He would send them to us in the love and the mercy of His wondrous ways.

Let us pray:

From you O Lord do all blessings flow, from you O Lord do we know that all of those who sacrifice all, those who are so willing to give of themselves, they come from you and they are of you, showing forth a divine nature, a divine mercy that can only come from your hands. We give you praise for them and for the sacrifices they have made in the cause of freedom and liberty, justice and equality, that slavery may be set to flight and persecution may be drawn to an end, that destitution and poverty may no longer wage a war on the souls of men. Though the work is not done, they still give so tirelessly of themselves that there may be a day when we may all rest.

Draw near to you then O Lord, all prisoners and hostages, all captives and slaves, setting to flight all unrighteousness and wickedness, so there will no longer be a need for such men and women, for there will be an encompassing peace and protection that can only come from your hands, that a greater sense of freedom and liberty, equality and justices comes to bear in the lives of your people, that no longer may the youth and the innocence be ripped away from them, that they may have the chance to live the lives they desire. And we pray these things, dear Lord, in the name of your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you in the kingdom, one God, world without end. Amen.

Mid-Day Devotion 5/31/10

2010-05-31T17:25:00.004-04:00

“Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.”
Psalm 107:6

There is a great spiritual desert that lies beyond. Amidst it there is no food for the hungry soul, there is no water to quench the thirst of the heart. There is nothing more than the beating sun and the blowing wind the kicks the sand into the eyes of those who wander amidst it, blinding them amidst the Diaspora that so wounds their being.

This is the unrighteousness of our world, the wickedness of transgressions and the brutality of captivity and bondage. It keeps destroys peace as it wages its war against our comfort, seeming endless before us as we look to the horizon and find that as far as the eye can see there is nothing... no home, no solace, no rest, no path, just the great wasteland before us...

Yet God, in His mercy, that mercy that is endless and infinity, more so than even the greatest of deserts, reaching further than our spirits could imagine, never leaves us to wander forever, nor does He let us perish in the wilderness with hope so far from us. Unchanging in His nature He is the same God of deliverance as He always has been. As He led the children of Israel through the desert, feeding them and quenching their thirst, providing a pillar of light to guide them to the Promised Land, raising His hand to protect them from their enemies, so too does He now contend with the cause of His people amidst all of their distress and despair.

Whatever the captivity, whatever the bondage, however near oppression may come to us, or how strong the forces of tyranny may seem against us the power of our Lord, the God of deliverance and mercy, is greater as His abiding, transcending grace makes itself known in the lives of His people. When rest our burdens on Him, calling out His name that His hand may be raised for us and we may be girded with His strength, we draw our confidence in the promises He has made never to fail us or forsake us as He gives us the courage we need and the perseverance that seemed so fleeting amidst our lives as He shows us the power of His ever vigilant, ever faithful love for us.

Let us then rest on this assurance dear Brothers and Sisters as we uplift the prisoners and the hostages, the captives and the slaves in our prayers, crying out onto the name of the Lord, our God, for their deliverance as we rest in the blessings of His Word. Then shall we know that in His time, in His way, He shall move forever for the cause of His people as He whispers His truth through this world like a resounding call to freedom that tells unto us that He is never far off nor is He far distant while His people find themselves in their deepest of struggles and most abiding of challenges.

What a blessing, what a comfort that is...

Let us pray:

We your redeemed children draw near to your promises O Lord as we lift our voices up to you.

We your redeemed children O Lord, we cry out upon your name on bended knees in humble supplication, looking to your promises and to your assurances to come to bless our lives. Be not far from us, bend your ear to our cries, bend your eyes to look upon the suffering that is in this world and let not the struggle and the despair be upon the spirits and the souls of your children. Let not darkness come to them, let not despair be before them. Show your true and beloved nature, show your wondrous comfort, unto all of those who suffer amidst captivity and bondage, let them not struggle amidst the wilderness, wandering amidst such a brutal diaspora, with no hope on the horizon, O Lord. Feed them, quench the thirst of their soul, O Lord, let their spirit be lifted to you as their heart is girt and given endurance even among these darkest of days that now come upon them. Let them not be so blinded by the sands and the wind that blow against them.

Be upon the life of your dear child Alan McMenemy, show your grace upon him, show your grace upon his wife as she pleads for answers, as se pleads for some sort of sign, some sort of comfort. We raise up her call to you O Lord, knowing that you can give her what she seeks in her life. Return her husband to her, and if that is not your plan then give her the peace that she so desires. We plead this of you O Lord, looking to your promises and assurances that they may be the blessing of her life even as it seems like blessings are so far off from her.

O Lord, while the captives and the slaves are hungry, feed them; while they are thirsty, give unto them the water of your word and lead them like that pillar of light from this darkness to the land of your promised rest, as you like a shepherd lead them to the green pastures where your hope forever dwells. Then shall we raise your voice, then shall we raise your soul knowing that you are the God of Deliverance whom we will always and forever place our trust in as you prove yourself to be faithful and vigilant in the lives of your children.

In the name of your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who came to ransom us all, and now lives and reigns with you in the kingdom, one God, world without end. Amen.

Evening Devotion 5/28/10

2010-05-28T19:50:00.003-04:00

“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
2 Corinthians 4:18

The strength of the Lord is a moving presence amidst our lives, yet so often is it also an unseen presence. It is the invisible hand of a God we cannot begin to understand the full nature or the complete character of even as we find ourselves contemplating the purest quality by which He dwells in. It defies the minds of men, visible in all that is created by His hand, yet invisible in how it weaves together all that He has formed and the grace by which He dwells in all of these things.

Yet that is the deeper blessing of our Heavenly Father that makes his miracles all the more blessed and wondrous...

Consider for a moment the nature of that which is seen and that which remains unseen. What we see it is constrained by time and by place. It cannot be where it is not visible, it does nothing except that which is observable and it is limited only to actions that are evident in our own perceptions and understanding. God is not bound by the same rules of the temporal existence. He does not need to be noticed to work, nor does there need to be discernible evidence that makes His presence obvious to us. He can and does move as He will, with or without our understanding.

In a world so prone to chaos and darkness, where captivity and bondage come so near at hand and where the unrighteous rise while the righteous seem to fall, the unseen presence of God must be then held to with an ever present faith in our hearts. Without it all we are left with is the visible presence of this world, and in it the hopelessness of man that arises with the veil that so often covers our eyes.

With it though we come to understand that all of this is temporary. Like a fleeting moment it flashes before it with the blink as God shows forth His grace in our lives. Whatever grim estate may be cast over the hearts and the souls, the bodies and the minds of men, the spirit is called to a greater optimism amidst the expectations that we can place upon the hand of God as it moves through our lives and in our lives. Here he lets us not be cast forever to a pit of despair, but rather moves through us and in us to make himself wondrously known to us, even as we cannot observe Him with our temporal gaze.

Meditate on that dear brothers and sisters and ask of yourselves what presence would you rely on, the ones that are constrained by the laws of life and this temporal existence or the one that knows no limits or bounds, who moves without hindrance or obstacle placed before Him? The one that can only act within the confines of its physical and mental restrictions or the one that moves past all boundaries and borders as it shows there are no edge to the frontiers of His blessed assurance and encompassing hope?

Let us pray:

In all that we are and all that we hope in do we place our trust in Your nature O Lord as we look upon the unseen and observe it’s encompassing grace weaving itself through all that You have created. Be then not far off from Your children, showing unto them that the challenges and the adversity of this existence shall remain temporary as You remain unending in amidst the triumphs that You offer to the soul.

Show unto us that the captivity and the poverty, the destitution and the oppression, the slavery and the persecution of this mortal world shall soon fade as you put to flight the tyrannies of the body and the mind, the spirit and the soul, showing forth Your eternal grace amidst the lives of Your people. Show unto us that whatever the affliction may be that seeks to so bind us there is no chains that cannot be broken as You move so effortlessly through the course of human events to make manifest Your love and compassion in the lives of Your people.

This, O Lord, is the faithful manifestation of Your mercy as Your children are ransomed and liberty is brought to bear in their lives as Your Spirit moves through their lives. As we have seen it through the sacrifice and the freedom that came through Christ show it once more in the temporal as well as the eternal that no more shall we find hardship and despair gripping and strangling the life from Your creation, robbing from them the integrity and the value You have given unto their lives.

Then O Lord shall we find hope in the manifestations of Your love as it reveals itself to be the guiding presence that forever makes way our path and lifts us from all stumbling blocks that our mortal eyes place in front of it, for we shall observe the mercy and the grace, the compassion and the love Your intangible ways make so tangible to us.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Mid-Day Devotion 5/28/10

2010-05-28T19:28:00.005-04:00

Crossing the Jordan River, Christoph Unterberger, 1780s

“Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.”
Joshua 1:5

Whereas the world may only see what we present to it or what we show to it, the Lord, our God, He not only sees our inward being but is also seeking to make us stronger amidst it as He gives courage to our spirit, using His authority, His commands and His divine will to uplift our souls.

Consider for a moment the case of the children of Israel and Joshua....

Fearful was their existence. Having been led from brutal captivity they had wandered through the desert in a state of perpetual Diaspora. The strong hand of Moses’ leadership was now taken from them as the great Prophet sent by God to deliver them was now called home as they stood upon the borders of the Promised Land. Behind them was the land they had been taken from and the sandy dunes they had spent forty years moving through amidst their nomadic trek, in front of them stood the mighty tribes of Canaan, the city of Jericho, the Philistines and countless other enemies who would bring another slavery and oppression upon the people.

Yet the transcending word of the Lord, as revealed unto Moses’ successor would be clear. If he kept his faith even against the most overwhelming of odds, if he was strong and courageous in the power of the Lord’s might, if he was unwavering in the hope that he was given then he would find that the ultimate victory would be delivered into his hands by the power of a mighty God of deliverance who remained faithful to the cause of His people.

This remains the abiding lesson for us amidst our lives.

There are always trials and tribulations that lay before us, there are always challenges that lay behind us. In some cases whichever way a person looks there is the threat of captivity and bondage that surrounds them, whether it is of the body or the mind, the spirit or the soul. Amidst this worldly existence there is physical and mental oppression that threatens to rob all the peace we know and that we seek even as we look to the promises of God’s assurances for our lives.

It is here that we have to be all the more courageous, we have to have all the more strength as we hold fast to our faith. Righteous and faithful, steadfast in His devotion our Heavenly Father does not want us to worry or to lose heart because even when everything around us seems to have risen up against us and there is fear about the next steps we take, God will shower us with mercy and compassion. It is here that He shall gird us with His strength as His love is made manifest in our lives.

The ultimate triumph always awaits the faithful as God, in His righteousness, shows forth His divine authority. Perhaps we may not, at the time, see it, the obstacles in front of us seeming so great and so encompassing. Yet, by His mercy shall all be made known to us in time by the light by which He guides our path with if we just hold fast to Him.

Lord, grant this unto us all...

Let us pray:

In our hearts create courage O Lord, in our spirits let us find strength...

Build in our lives a sense of hope that can and does only come through faith in You knowing that to dwell in You is to dwell in the steadfast assurances of Your transcending, encompassing word that Your miracles shall guide our lives to the blessed expectations of that divine optimism that we have in Your grace.

O Lord, as we look to You our view is obstructed by the presence of so much oppression and so much despair in this world. Captivity and bondage come to Your people, slavery and persecution binds the hearts of Your children as Your creation cries out for Your blessings, seeking and imploring Your grace in their lives that liberty may be restored unto them by the power of Your Spirit.

Be not far off from them O Lord. As You were with Joshua be now with us, as You have promised unto Joshua promise now unto us, and let Your mercy be unchanging through the ages as the mercy of Your precepts move through the righteousness of Your hands to rise up for the cause of Your people amidst their ever present plight and struggles. Show unto them that Your authority is the unquestioned, unending authority of a loving God who shall always shield his children with courage and equip them with strength as You uplift their spirits and their souls and heal their broken hearts, mending the body and the mind from all afflictions that would seek to so overtake them.

Then shall Your unending, unchanging grace be worshiped and praised for the miracles that it offers unto the lives of Your children as You stand fast and firm with them as You have even in the most ancient of days.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Evening Devotion 5/26/10

2010-05-26T19:00:00.000-04:00

"Moses" panel, Lorenzo Ghiberti, 1452, Baptistry of St. John, Florence

“Worship the LORD your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you,”
Exodus 23:25

How like a beloved child are we blessed by our Heavenly Father!

For a moment let us look upon the deeper promises of the Lord given unto us by His compassion and mercy. There are few assurances we are handed in our lives like the assurances given unto us by our God. Yet as He gives us the privilege of worshiping Him as our Creator whose hand formed us with care and love He also promises us that to worship Him means that His miracles shall encompass our days as He provides for us, cares for us and heals us. It’s here then that we understand that even the smallest or the most common things are cared for by the love of God. We understand then that there is nothing common about the common in our lives as He raises His hand to make His presence known amidst us. How much more than can He and will He do with the greater and the more encompassing things that are made manifest in our lives?

This was the miracle He showed unto the children of Israel. From the smallest of detail to the greatest of challenges, He blessed and He sustained as His miracles lead them and guided them even from the days of their captivity and bondage. With His life giving water He quenched their thirst, with His spiritual bread He filled their hearts, and with His light He gave them a path in the darkness.

Unchanging, the same yesterday, today and forever, these blessings that He bestowed, though they may be revealed unto us differently than they were at other points in the course of human events, remain as the standing testimony and the transcending witness of a living God of deliverance who always contends with the cause of His people. Sustained and protected, fed and healed by the same hand as saints and prophets, apostles and disciples of generations past our days are counted and our lives are blessed by a Heavenly Father who knows us and loves us with a heart that is always lifted for us and to us.

Here it is rightly and truly recognized that day by day, regardless of the world around us or the state of challenge, whether it is bondage, captivity or Diaspora, we find ourselves as we dwell in grace. By the gift of grace through the power of the Spirit we worship and glorify the Lord, through that grace then we are sustained by the Lord, and in that grace He blesses our lives as He showers us with the care that we so desire and need in our lives.

What an abiding miracle that truly and rightly must be seen as, what a encompassing and transcending love that must be rightly known as.... what a God we have and a blessing He is for us.

Let us pray:

On who shall we build our trust O Lord? On what shall we find the build our hope?

By Your love and in Your grace You have made Your promises known to us as You bless the lives of Your children and assure them of Your transcending, encompassing mercy. We know then that care is not far off when we look upon Your face, when we rely on Your word and when we worship Your name, glorifying You as Your works reveal Your compassion unto us.

Stand steadfast and vigilant then with us O Lord, holding true to the faith that we place in You. Look upon the faces of those who are held amidst the dark bondage and the grim estate of captivity and slavery, oppression and tyranny, poverty and destitution, persecution and disease and let Your name be upon their lips as You write it in their hearts through the deliverance that You offer unto them. Let their lives be given unto You and their hope be made perfect through You.

Lead these, Your children to the waters of Your love and the food of Your mercy, to the healing of Your hand that they may know Your light guides them and protects them through all that they are and all that they face. Lead these, Your children to the hope of Your compassion that they may find that they are brought once more to the blessed air of liberty, as You uplift them and edify them, as You give unto them all that they need to disperse the gloomy clouds of night that bring them to such despair as Your hope is made manifest in their lives.

Then shall Your people find rest in Your blessings as You prepare for them the place of honor in the assurances of Your encompassing love.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Mid-Day Devotion 5/26/10

2010-05-26T12:57:00.003-04:00

“Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall.”
Psalm 55:22

Faith in the most dire of circumstances is hard for a person to sustain. As the challenges rise and darkness surrounds the spirit and the soul, as the heart grows heavy and weak it’s hard to maintain a fundamental trust in the Lord. The basic nature of the human character is to look at these challenges and see a void where God should be. Our hope then becomes more of a question that a statement for our lives.

Yet, even amongst the deeper worries that we find overtaking our lives, God never fails or forsakes His children, nor does He abandon them to hopelessness or to despair. Even when it is hardest to see the love and the mercy, the compassion and the grace of the Lord He is there to tell us there is no captivity he will leave us to, as bondage seeks to overtake us in the worst forms of slavery that we could imagine He shall ransom us. Come what may, come what must the sword of His protection and the shield of His strength shall be the force by which our lives shall be guarded.

It is then that we rightly and truly understand the lessons of Christ which tell unto us that whatever burdens we have, whatever struggles we shall face if we cast them to him they shall be lifted from us as we are given optimism in the expectations of the deepest blessings of our Heavenly Father. To cast our cares to the Lord in the knowledge that He will sustain us is to trust Him and His power more than to trust ourselves, knowing that He is wiser than we ever could hope to be. Though we then may not understand how it could be that our difficulties may arise or how God could let this happen when He has promised to love and care for us, we can truly understand that though trials and turmoil happen despite Him He is there to make way our path and to carry us when we have found ourselves cast to a pit, lifting us from it and offering us the healing we so need.

Our God, loving and faithful, vigilant and merciful, always undertakes the task of our greatest care, no matter how small or large the tribulation may seem or how engulfing the darkness may seem. By this light and this compassion we know that we are the beloved of our Heavenly Father as He makes us righteous and thus uplifts us on eagles wings, never letting us fall as we are given the blessed assurances of His promises.

Then, though there may still be worry in our lives, though challenges may still arise, we shall know the truth of God’s word, of His blessings and it shall set us free amidst the power of the Spirit as darkness is turned to light and we are raised up by the hand of God sustaining us through all the days of our lives.

Let us pray:

Abide in us O Lord, let Your mercy and Your love encompass the lives of Your children...

Unto You O Lord do we come looking steadfast and earnestly to the promises You have made amidst the deeper blessings of Your Word, that guiding light from where all hope does dwell. It is in Your assurances that we place our trust as we humbly beseech You, seeking and imploring Your grace in the lives of Your people.

Make manifest Your compassion O Lord, reveal unto us the care that shall sustain Your people...

Gird Your children with strength, protect them in life, that by Your hand they shall be uplifted and set to flight from all troubles and cares that seek so to overtake them. Let not darkness encompass them, let not struggles mark their days, let not hopelessness be the hurt that defines their soul. Raise up Your glory that Your creation shall be sanctified in Your love.

Bless the negotiation in the Sudan O Lord, let them proceed with the guidance of Your direction...

Unto You do we commend the safety of our brothers and our sister held there. Let Your hand be with Laura Archer, Raphael Meonier and Mauro D'Ascanio that they may be sustained even amidst this adversity that has so overtaken them. Let Your love be upon them and Your strength be with them that the chains that keep them in such bondage shall be broken and they shall have the healing that comes from Your hand. Let Your Spirit be upon them that freedom shall come to them, and hope shall never leave them.

Then shall we know that the trust we have placed in You shall never be in vain as You show forth the deepest manifestations of Your transcending and guiding love as it intercedes in the lives of those who are in the greatest need.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Evening Devotion 5/24/10

2010-05-24T19:00:00.000-04:00

Jacob Wrestling with the Angel, Gustave Dore, 1855

“Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me!”
Psalm 66:20

The outward requests of our inwards wants and needs, the nature and the character of prayer is the means by which we make ourselves and our hearts known to the Lord, our God. As Jacob wrestled with the Lord, so too is this our means by which we may grapple with the divine will and the plan of our Creator as He reveals Himself unto us and shows His face unto us.

Consider then long and hard, dear brothers and sisters, not just the words of Your prayer but the heart by which You bring them to the Lord. Let them be a sincere pouring of Your soul unto Him as You seek and implore His grace, actively striving to understand His ways that You may see the true Spirit of His love made manifest in Your life and the lives of those whom You pray for.

Let not Your heart be hardened, nor think yourself more righteous than others, but vigorously and energetically uplift your fellow man in your communications with the Lord. Seek the needs of others, look to the struggles and the suffering of those in captivity and bondage, whether it be of the body and the mind, the spirit or the soul that you may plead their case before the Lord, beseeching His mercy in their lives. Reflect on the nature of this world and pray for the unrighteous and the sinful, those who let darkness guide their way, for like you once were they so are now, finding that wickedness guides their path devoid of the love of God to grant upon them the grace that they so need to work that sincere repentance in their hearts.

Then let the gracious mercy of our Lord show forth His compassion in your life as you learn the deeper lessons of Christ and seek to be as He was, looking to the plights of others before the challenges you yourself face, that you may offer true healing through the blessings of God as You beseech Him, entreating His deliverance in the lives of others, knowing that He works forever for the cause of His people, rejecting not our prayers and withholding not His love from us as we humble ourselves before His mighty throne, casting ourselves before Him as His Spirit takes a hold of us.

Let us pray:

Bend Your ear O Lord to our prayers, hear our humble supplications as we come before You in submission to Your word.

Let Your grace encompass O Lord as we entreat Your mercy, lift Your eyes to us as we look to Your promises of steadfast devotion.

Guide us by Your love O Lord as we beseech You on behalf of those who struggle amidst captivity and bondage, standing firm in Your assurances of deliverance.

By Your hand guide and protect Your people as You withhold nothing from them. As You move let Your authority remain unquestioned and unchallenged by the presence of darkness in this world. Answer the challenges of captivity and bondage, poverty and destitution, persecution and oppression, slavery and tyranny with the loud and resounding voice of You liberty made manifest by Your Spirit as that guiding and encompassing presence for Your children.

Deliverance... bring deliverance into this lost and fallen world. As You have so often before in the lives of Your children show that Your people shall not be forsaken to wickedness and unrighteousness, By Your precepts let Your love be known that all shall see that You have not failed or forsaken any who have found themselves lost amidst this temporal time of trial that threatens to so engulf and overwhelm them.

Then shall we rejoice in the goodness of Your mercy as Your love overtakes us and freedom is shown through the power of Your Spirit moving through this world and in this world according to the blessings that can and shall always and only rise by Your hand amidst the lives of Your children.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Mid-Day Devotion 5/24/10

2010-05-24T12:30:00.000-04:00

“As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness.”
Ezekiel 34:12

Imagine dear brothers and sisters, not just the strength of the Lord in protecting the sheep of his flock or the joy of our Good Shepherd when he finds that one sheep that has strayed to bring it back to the pastures of His blessed rest. Imagine as well the desperation of our blessed Shepherd when even one of His sheep find themselves in danger. Imagine as well the deep and abiding relief that He finds in rescuing them from the paw of the lion and the mouth of the wolves waiting to devour them.

The faithful and vigilant promise of our Shepherd is the assurance that His rod and His staff shall always be raised for us. By His encompassing mercy we shall be protected and guided through the dangers of this world to the green fields of His peace as He holds us close to Him, refusing to let harm come to us. When we wander or when we are taken, when we find ourselves lost and astray far beyond those meadows, it is with such anguish in His voice that He calls to us that we may hear His voice that we might hear the love and find our way once more to His blessed strength for the protection that we so need.

Never does there come a time when He fails us or forsakes us, never is there a time when He abandons us, more concerned with the sheep who dwell in safety than He is for the one who finds themselves in such despondency and despair. Never does there come a day when He leaves us to the hopelessness of desolation and the bitterness of darkness, no matter how rocky the path is that separates us from Him.

This is the miracle of our Good Shepherd’s encompassing mercy for us as He moves with authority and strength to show just how beloved we truly are to Him. It is then faithful and true to rightly see Him as the God of true deliverance and abiding liberty as He shows Himself in the compassion and the grace that He truly makes manifest in the lives of His children whom He so cares for with such a love as we have never seen before.

What a rest we are then given in the quiet places He carries us to even in the most chaotic of times that surround us.

Let us pray:

O Lord it is You who are our Shepherd, it is You who guides us by the Rod and the Staff to the blessed places of our encompassing and transcending rest. Upon Your fields do You make for us a place of peace, in Your meadows are we given a place of love.

Lead then Your sheep who have found themselves in the rocky places by the same. Around them they are faced by those who would seek to devour them as darkness and pain so surround them. Persecution and oppression, captivity and bondage so seek to swallow them amidst the despair and the anguish of the misery inflicted on them by the power of unrighteousness lifted against them.

Let not this hurt and sorrow be that which they know, let it not be the hopelessness in which they are carried off from Your pastures by. Show unto them the love that can and only does arise by Your hand raised for their protection and rescue as mercy abounds in their lives and hope is made manifest by the authority in which You move in this world by and through.

Restore the souls of Your sheep and strengthen their hearts that their days shall be blessed and Your goodness shall be rejoiced in through the wonders of Your miracles made present in Your grace.

Then shall the abounding love of Your wondrous compassion be the call by which all know of Your blessed mercy as they look upon Your face to see the Good Shepherd who blesses the sheep of His flock.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Evening Devotion 5/20/10

2010-05-20T19:00:00.001-04:00

The Fiery Furnace, from the Catacombs of Priscilla, Rome, Italy. Late 3rd century / Early 4th century.

C.H. Spurgeon: Morning and Evening
Morning – May 3rd: In the world ye shall have tribulation.

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33

Art thou asking the reason of this, believer? Look upward to thy heavenly Father, and behold Him pure and holy. Dost thou know that thou art one day to be like Him? Wilt thou easily be conformed to His image? Wilt thou not require much refining in the furnace of affliction to purify thee? Will it be an easy thing to get rid of thy corruptions, and make thee perfect even as thy Father which is in heaven is perfect? Next, Christian, turn thine eye downward. Dost thou know what foes thou hast beneath thy feet? Thou wast once a servant of Satan, and no king will willingly lose his subjects. Dost thou think that Satan will let thee alone? No, he will be always at thee, for he "goeth about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." Expect trouble, therefore, Christian, when thou lookest beneath thee. Then look around thee. Where art thou? Thou art in an enemy's country, a stranger and a sojourner. The world is not thy friend. If it be, then thou art not God's friend, for he who is the friend of the world is the enemy of God. Be assured that thou shalt find foe-men everywhere. When thou sleepest, think that thou art resting on the battlefield; when thou walkest, suspect an ambush in every hedge. As mosquitoes are said to bite strangers more than natives, so will the trials of earth be sharpest to you. Lastly, look within thee, into thine own heart and observe what is there. Sin and self are still within. Ah! if thou hadst no devil to tempt thee, no enemies to fight thee, and no world to ensnare thee, thou wouldst still find in thyself evil enough to be a sore trouble to thee, for "the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." Expect trouble then, but despond not on account of it, for God is with thee to help and to strengthen thee. He hath said, "I will be with thee in trouble; I will deliver thee and honour thee."

Let us pray:

Stand steadfast in Your promises O Lord, stand firm in Your love...

Let Your light guide Your children, O Lord, let your Word be their path...

In all that they are and in all that they face be beside them as this world wages its bitterest war against them in a battle for their spirits and their souls. Even amidst the most brutal of captivities let Your compassion be known in the lives of Your people that they shall come to rest in tender solace of Your encompassing mercy.

So often do we see as people are ripped from their lives and the value You give to their lives is held to be cheap and without any intrinsic worth to it. Bondage and oppression, poverty and destitution, persecution and tyranny weave through their lives as if like a noose strangling the life from them as they are left broken and wounded.

Yet the promise of Your Word, encompassing and transcending stand as the firm resolve of Your hope. It is here that we look to Your assurances and place our trust in Your unchanging devotion. Let not darkness stand before these Your children for all times. Let Your compassion be their guide as You cast upon them Your Holy Spirit that they may be uplifted and set above all of their plights and their struggles. Cast off of them their chains and break their bondage that they may, in all that they are and all that see before them, know that You walk beside them, never failing them or forsaking them, giving freely unto them until that day when You set them once more to their freedom amidst the blessed air of liberty.

Then shall Your people stand vindicated for the faith that they have placed in You as their trust is made manifest in the love that You have offered unto them as Your testament to Your faithfulness to them.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Mid-Day Devotion 5/20/10

2010-05-20T12:30:00.000-04:00

The Wedding Feast at Cana of Galilee, Anonymous, Christ the Savior Orthodox Church, Harrisburg, PA

C.H. Spurgeon: Morning and Evening
Morning – May 20th: Marvellous lovingkindness

“Show the wonder of your great love, you who save by your right hand those who take refuge in you from their foes.”
Psalm 17:7

When we give our hearts with our alms, we give well, but we must often plead to a failure in this respect. Not so our Master and our Lord. His favours are always performed with the love of His heart. He does not send to us the cold meat and the broken pieces from the table of His luxury, but He dips our morsel in His own dish, and seasons our provisions with the spices of His fragrant affections. When He puts the golden tokens of His grace into our palms, He accompanies the gift with such a warm pressure of our hand, that the manner of His giving is as precious as the boon itself. He will come into our houses upon His errands of kindness, and He will not act as some austere visitors do in the poor man's cottage, but He sits by our side, not despising our poverty, nor blaming our weakness. Beloved, with what smiles does He speak! What golden sentences drop from His gracious lips! What embraces of affection does He bestow upon us! If He had but given us farthings, the way of His giving would have gilded them; but as it is, the costly alms are set in a golden basket by His pleasant carriage. It is impossible to doubt the sincerity of His charity, for there is a bleeding heart stamped upon the face of all His benefactions. He giveth liberally and upbraideth not. Not one hint that we are burdensome to Him; not one cold look for His poor pensioners; but He rejoices in His mercy, and presses us to His bosom while He is pouring out His life for us. There is a fragrance in His spikenard which nothing but His heart could produce; there is a sweetness in His honey-comb which could not be in it unless the very essence of His soul's affection had been mingled with it. Oh! the rare communion which such singular heartiness effecteth! May we continually taste and know the blessedness of it!

Let us pray:

Hear O Lord as we lift our voices to You, let our cries come to Your ears, let our pleas rest upon Your righteousness.

May all strength, may all courage through the ordeals of this world be found amidst the glory of Your transcending love and Your encompassing mercy. May all hope be restored by the steadfast devotion that You make manifest in the lives of Your children.

So much of our joy is tempered O Lord. We are strengthened by the news of the two children released after 11 months in captivity, held by terrorists, yet we find ourselves heavy hearted as the news that the fate of their parents still remain undetermined while we receive news that their brother may have died at the hands of this ordeal. We rejoice at the release of the St. James Park as its crew may now return home, yet we are burdened by the fact that Pirates are made bolder by the ransom paid and the capture of the Greek Ship Eleni P.

For all that we hear that is good we are given the grim reminder that evil still lurks and unrighteousness still finds refuge in this world.

May vindication arise from Your hands that wickedness shall be set to flight and the lives of Your children shall be preserved. May freedom come through the power of Your Spirit and hope arise from Your hands as You look upon all who suffer amidst their present ordeal and give unto them all that they need to survive their present ordeal. May Your love be made manifest in their lives that, by Your merciful compassion they shall be set free, once more to return home that they may find healing amidst their life.

May, in all things, Your righteousness be made to stand as the everlasting testament of the glories of Your ways.

Then shall our hearts raise joyful songs and psalms of praise as we dwell in the encompassing love of Your transcending hope through all of our days.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Evening Devotion 5/7/10

2010-05-07T19:00:00.000-04:00

Jesus Carrying the Cross, Sebastiano del Piombo, 1516

“My soul is weary with sorrow; strengthen me according to your word.”
Psalm 119:28

There are times in life when it is just easier for us to give up…

With struggles all around us, with difficulties and challenges that seem to mount up with strength, rising as they push against us and cause us so much stress, so much hardship, we can’t help but just wonder to ourselves, what’s the point anymore? So many of our hopes and our dreams, so many of our deepest of desires are given up that way as we find that nothing seems to work the way we had hoped or nothing seems to go the way that we plan.

And then there are times when the world just seems to be conspiring against us, indifferent to who we are or what we are doing or what we long for, what we yearn for out of life. It comes with a bitter captivity and firm bondage that pays no attention to anything but breaking us. It does so with no consideration to the good or the bad, the innocent or the guilty, the weak or the strong. It comes with such weight and pressure that it just seems to be too much for us as it cracks at our hearts and makes weary our souls.

It is here that we need, more than anything else, to grab a hold of the promises made unto us by the Lord our God, to look, with steadfast devotion to the promises that He has made to us, the promises He has made unto us and to trust, beyond all else that He shall remain faithful and vigilant to us even against the force and the weight of this world.

Life is nothing if there is no hope amidst it, and all hope, it flows from the blessings and the assurances that come from the word of our Lord amidst the love that He has for us.

We may not always understand what His plan is, we may not always understand why what happens does happen to us, and it may frustrate us beyond measure or compare. Yet we don’t always need to know, we don’t always have to know, nor do we always have to understand. All that is important, all that is essential to us is that we know that we have the love of our Heavenly Father, and that through His word we find strength amidst our lives as He gives us courage amidst the guarantee that He will never fail us or forsake us through all of the days of our lives.

Though your soul may then grow weary, though it may seem as if all the world has mounted up against you, trust in the Lord your God, and turn to His blessed Gospel, to those words of blessed hope that He made manifest in His Son, our Savior, Christ Jesus and know that you shall find the strength to live and to be, to hold steadfast to Your hopes and Your dreams as You are delivered from all that this world my try to foist upon you in the abiding love of Our Heavenly Father. Signs and wonders shall be shown to you and light and love shall guide your way, for, by God’s blessed miracle you shall know that He is moving in your life, for your life.

Lord, grant this unto us all.

Let us pray:

Proclaim Your power O Lord, declare Your authority O God, that Your majesty shall be seen amidst the heavens and the earth, the skies and the grounds and all that is in between.

Make manifest Your Love O Lord, fulfill Your Promises O God, that Your hope shall be known amidst the lives of the people as their humblest supplications are raised to You.

Open up Your heart O Lord, bend Your ears to our cries O God, that You may hear the yearnings of Your children as they seek and implore Your grace amidst their lives.

Set all sorrow to flight, let not our spirits grow weary from challenges and difficulties, let not our souls find hopelessness and despair flows so easily to them, let not our hearts crack from the pressures of this temporal existence, but, in faithfulness to Your Word, stand steadfast amidst the lives of Your creation, showing unto them hope and love that they shall find the blessings of Your truth shall be made manifest in their souls.

Set all bondage and captivity to flight, let not tyranny and oppress hold power or sway, let not slavery and injustice find refuge amidst this life, let not poverty and destitution rob the people of their peace. Move amidst this world, showing forth the deep and abiding miracles of Your transcending, encompassing promises that all good shall be known as Your righteousness as Your people prosper amidst Your blessings.

Set us apart O Lord that Your freedom shall be the abiding course of our lives and our souls shall testify of Your liberty amidst the deeper blessings of Your transcending, and encompassing hope given forth unto us for our lives in Your miracles.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Mid-Day Devotion 5/7/10

2010-05-07T13:00:00.002-04:00

Callie Scheepers, Hardus Greef, Johan Enslin, and Andre Durant

“Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.”
Isaiah 29:14

Wonder upon wonder the Lord God Almighty shall astound the people, setting to flight the wisdom of the wise as His love and His mercy is made known unto the lives of His people.

Never has a day passed that hasn’t been a miracle from God. Each day is a blessed new wonder formed individually for each of us by the hand of our Heavenly Father as He shows forth His compassion for us by the works of His hand. It’s hard to not marvel at the wonders then that are poured forth by His grace for the lives of His people amidst the abiding hope that He offers unto them.

Yet there are times when those blessings, when those miracles are more clearly seen than others as God shows that faith shall never be in vain and that mercy shall always pour forth from His Spirit. Today, as news reaches us of our dear brothers Andre Durant, Johan Enslin, Callie Scheepers, and Hardus Greef, we realize that today is one of those days.

Contractors kidnapped in Baghdad back December of 2006, there were so many reasons to give up hope that these four would ever return home. The ransom demanded for them was refused to be paid, their company and their government had forgotten about them and left them in the most meager of estates. January of 2007 was the last that anybody heard from them as the final demands were made by their kidnappers and it was rejected. Abandoned and forsaken by those who could have helped them, the most anybody could have hoped for was that eventually their bodies would be recovered and returned to South Africa for a proper burial by their family that finally they might have the closure they needed.

For over three years their families though refused to give up hope. While they were told to declare these four dead and collect death benefits from the government, while the salaries were cut off, while it might have been easier for them just to think that they had gone and move on with their lives, their love wouldn’t allow them to just abandon them as they pushed them out of their thoughts and minds. Praying, remaining faithful to them, they turned to the Lord and trusted that He never would forsake those who they loved so dearly as they found themselves held in emotional captivity, yearning for something, for anything to hang on to, for something, anything to break the chains that bound them.

Their faith would be rewarded…

Despite having been failed in their hour of need, despite having been left for dead, these four have survived and all that can be really be said is thanks be to God for that, thanks be to God for the miracles that He bestows when hope and faith refuse to be let go of even in the darkest of days and the deepest of trials.

Though we cannot stop praying for these four and their families until the day when they are blessedly restored amidst the liberty that flows from the hand of God and healed by the power of His beloved Spirit who binds up all wounds that may so inflict us we can see truly here the miracle of God’s blessed and transcending love as it moves through this world and in this world in the most significant of ways for the cause of His people. It is here that we are given the truest and the firmest of testimonies of His great and encompassing compassion for His children as mercy flows from the deepest of places within Him, transcending all human understanding and wisdom to make possible even what had seemed so impossible.

Perhaps it’s not always easy to see God at work, perhaps it’s simpler at times to just throw up our hands and ask “Oh God, my God, why have You forsaken me.” But He never does. Even in the most hopeless of situations, even in the grimmest of times, He is there to show forth that He is there, that He always has been there to bless the lives of those who hold fast to His promises even when all the world around them seems to have raised up against them.

Praise be His blessed name for that.

Let us pray:

As smoke is blown away by the wind, so have You blown away all fears and doubts from the minds of Your children O Lord. We have now seen the signs and the wonders from Your hand as Your hope abides amidst the lives of your people when their trust is placed in You.

With tears of joy and prayers of thanksgiving do we receive the news of Andre Durant, Johan Enslin, Callie Scheepers, and Hardus Greef, Your blessed and beloved children, so long feared gone. By Your hand have these four been sheltered and protected, by Your strength have they been shielded as their lives have been guarded and word has been brought that they still remain amidst this temporal existence waiting for the day when they can be restored to their homes and their families.

We praise Your blessed name for this wondrous miracle, knowing Your hand has been raised to ensure the integrity and the value of their lives has been held sacred. For this, in Your righteousness are we glad as we rejoice in the works of Your hand. A God of eternal deliverance it is shown through this that You are the Lord of all who yearn in captivity and bondage, longing so desperately for freedom.

Unto You then do we raise our humble supplications that in the same hope, that same blessed hope, You shall set them free amidst the promise of Your abiding mercy and Your transcending love that they may, by Your justice and Your liberty be returned to those who so deeply care for them that they, despite all the wisdom of this world, refused to give up hope in the faithfulness of Your promises.

Unto You do we humbly entreat their release from their captivity, knowing that You have the power and the authority to make all things possible.

You, O Lord, are our sanctuary, shelter and protect Your people in the promises of Your blessed word, according to Your blessed hope.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Evening Devotion 5/5/10

2010-05-05T19:00:00.001-04:00

“You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.”
Isaiah 55:12

When hope, at long last, is restored there is a joy of the soul that is beyond compare as we find that our spirit is, at long last released from the darkness and the despair that has so gripped it, threatening to strangle the life from us. This is a hope that can and does only come from the faithful adherence of God to the promises that He has made in the lives of His children.

You see God understands…

He understands that this world is dark and wrought with challenges that seem to always rise up against us. He knows that there are always struggles that threaten to engulf us in the most significant of ways. Destruction comes through the most bitter of captivity, the grimmest of bondage, the greatest of destitution, the most abiding of persecution that can befall mankind. Amidst that there are times when life is held cheap by oppression and tyranny moving through the lives of the people as unrighteousness comes into this dark world.

Yet by the hand of God, as He moves to contend with the cause of His creation, we are not destroyed. He leads us forth into places of peace, He guides us through hope to the places where we can, at long last, find rest. We may not understand why the moments of difficulties and struggle come, but what we can know, what we must know is that God is always and forever contending with the cause of His children amidst those times, standing faithfully and vigilantly with them.

Here we must praise His name and draw ourselves closer to Him in all that we are and al that we do, knowing that He is the ever present force for God in our lives there to show forth and to magnify His grace within our presence that we may know joy abounding as He stands steadfast to His Word. This world may rise but it also will soon fall, but the glory of our Lord, the glory by which His love is made manifest in our lives will stand forever as the deep and abiding testimony of His gracious majesty.

So sing forth of His blessing and love even when it seems far distant in your life, drawing yourself closer to Him, knowing that as you do He shall draw closer to you as His love is revealed unto You in the most significant of ways and hope is restored unto all of your days. He shall, in faithfulness, stand firm with us in all that we are as He leads us to the places where we can rejoice, even if it does, through the challenges of this world, take us a while longer to get there as we find the moments of difficulty try to put a stumbling block in front of us. Even there though He shall lift us and carry us to the places we need to be amidst His divine love for our lives.

Praise be His Holy name for that.

Let us pray:

Contend, O Lord with Your children’s plight,
Let not their days be engulfed by night
Hold fast to them through this their fight,
Setting captivities bondage soon to flight
That they may walk amidst thy light
Carried forever by thy majesties might.

Mark this O Lord, Your children’s life
Lift them now above this their strife
Though these their days might now be rife
With hurt and sorrow’s deep cutting knife
As integrity is so robbed from their life
That to them is restored all goods, child and wife.

Stand fast O Lord, through all their days
Lead them faithfully by Thy blessed ways
That by Thy faith all bitterness ne’er stays
Cut through by Thy Son’s blessed rays
As praise for You in our hearts does lays
Upon thy love that now does raise.

And then O Lord, when thy people rest
All darkness lifted from their chest
By You they shall find them blessed
As from bondage You did wrest
Their lives held close to Your breast
Thy grace on our souls forever impressed.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Mid-Day Devotion 5/5/10

2010-05-05T12:30:00.001-04:00

“Then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you.”
Deuteronomy 30:3

There are times when it’s hard to see God’s promises of deliverance when bondage comes so easily amidst this world, and the trials and the tribulations are before us. We want to believe that God will, in His righteousness and His mercy, move for us and our cause but the truth is we can’t help but find that there is this lingering doubt in our minds that it will come.

The children of Israel, they had the same problem. Even having seen God’s deliverance in the most triumphant of ways as He handed them the most glorious of victories over the captivity and the slavery that so gripped them, they couldn’t seem to help but doubt. Perhaps it was a response to the long years they had spent at the end of the taskmasters whip, forced to build for the glory of Pharaoh his great cities and monuments, it might have been the fear that in the next moment they would be once find themselves chained and bound.

Whatever it was they found it difficult to stand fast amidst their faith in God as their deliverer. At any chance they got, had they believed that He had even slightly moved away from them or had, for a second, left them, they would turn to foreign gods and idolatrous deities, looking to immoveable statues that would, through their lifeless forms never leave them.

Yet for all our fears and our doubts, for all of the challenges and the difficulties that may lie before us, God is there, and He is waiting for us to turn to Him through all of life’s struggles and tribulations that He may show His compassion unto us and deliver us from whatever may stand before us.

To us God must represent the path to freedom, knowing that it is from His integrity, from His righteousness that the victory is delivered and His people are set to liberty. Our faith in Him cannot waiver even when darkness seems to so encompass us amidst our lives because, in those moments of doubt we open ourselves wide to greater doubts and to greater uncertainty, shutting ourselves off and distancing ourselves from the love of our Heavenly Father.

As hard as it then may be for us we have to look to the throne of God on High and know that He stands ready to stand with us, when we put all of our hope and all of our trust in Him knowing that it will never be frustrated, come what may, come what must through a world of sin and iniquity where unrighteousness stands so ready to choke the life from us. God will, in mercy and compassion, deliver when we put all trust in Him knowing that it is He who restores our fortunes and lifts us high from all that troubles us even as we have been cast to the pits of despair.

We may not know the time or the place or the way in which God will move for the cause of His children, but we can be assured that when we place all hope and faith in Him amidst His love for us, He will, with strength and love move in the most significant of way for them, never failing them or forsaking them through all the days of their lives.

Let us pray:

May You walk with us O Lord, may You shine Your face upon us that Your name shall be known throughout the nations and Your love shall be revealed through the compassion You show unto Your children.

May You be gracious unto Us O Lord, may Your blessings freely flow that Your hope shall abide throughout the generations and Your mercy shall endure forever in the lives of Your people.

Stand steadfast and firm amidst the promises You have made, girding Your creation with Your strength and guiding them with Your hope through all this world’s dark challenges, showing forth Your tender grace in their lives most difficult place.

Stand vigilant and faithfully that hope may endure even through the darkest bondage and the deepest of captivity, that all wickedness and unrighteousness shall be set to flight that dispersed will soon be the dark clouds of night.

For the twenty three aboard the MV Moscow University, taken by Somali Pirates off the coast of Yemen do we pray, seeking and imploring Your mercy amidst the lives of these people who know find themselves in the darkest of estates. Lift Your hand to guard them and protect them amidst these days of challenge that have now befallen them and give them the strength that they need to endure.

Cast upon them Your Holy Spirit and turn their hearts to You that they may see the hope that lives amidst Your great love for them that they may rest in You, knowing that, in Your time and in Your way, they shall be delivered once more to the green pastures of Your grace to breath the blessed air of liberty.

Stand with hope in Your hands O Lord that by Your compassion Your mercy shall be shown and Your righteousness shall be made manifest in the lives of Your children amidst the enduring love that You have for them as You carry them forward in the blessed assurances of Your Word.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Evening Devotion 4/28/10

2010-04-28T19:00:00.000-04:00

The Raising of Lazarus, Juan de Flandes, 1510

“Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?’”
John 11:40

The life drained from Lazarus, there was nothing left for Mary and Martha to do but mourn for him with a pain that was so palpable. He was still young, with so much time still before him, or so they had thought. But now... now he laid there lifeless with no more days before him, with no more time ahead of him and all the great and big things he had intended to do with his life no longer even a prospect for his future.

Neither one of his sisters could understand. They knew that Jesus loved Lazarus, they knew that He cared so dearly and deeply for their brother, it’s why it was so difficult for them to comprehend. After all, they had come to Him and told Him that he ill and that he would die. Yet Jesus didn’t come rushing to him. By the time He finally did come to Lazarus, it had been four days since the life had left his body. There was no chance for healing, there was no chance to chase the sickness from the body, they knew there was nothing left to be done.

How could He have let this happen? Why would He let this happen? Why would He let this man whom He loved be ravaged by disease and death and not come rushing to him? It defied all that they thought they had known about the Christ.

Yet, for the pain that they felt, for as much as they must have felt that Jesus had let them down and let this befall them, having had the power to heal their brother, He would have an answer unto them....

“Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”

He would raise Lazarus from the dead, life returning to his broken form, the hope and the prospects for the future returned to his life.

In a world where there is so much hurt and sorrow, so much sin and iniquity, pain and suffering, we may not always understand what it is that God has planned, we may not always comprehend why it is that He lets certain things happen in this world despite the promises that He has made unto us. Nor does God even expect us to understand it all as it transcends our knowledge and our understanding. Joseph, Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, the Apostles and the Disciples in the early Church perhaps didn’t always understand what it was that God had intended or why it was that events played out in the way that they did.

All we have to do is believe...

When knowledge and wisdom, enlightenment and understand leave us, we have to believe that God has a plan in all of this and that, though evil occurs despite Him, because of Him healing will come and our faith shall never be let down. Yes, there may be sorrow or hurt for a short time, but through His compassion and mercy that shall all be set to flight as His grace is shown to be sufficient unto us as He makes us strong where we once were weak, as He heals us where we once were broken, as He sets us free where we once were held in the most bitter of captivities.

There will come a time and a place when we see the glory of God as we stand before His throne and the answers will come to us, but until then, until that day and that time, we must see this world for what it is, placing our hope in God even when it defies reason and know that He moves through the course of human events, through the course of life to make miracles happen according to the promises that He has made unto His children in the love that He has for them.

Let us pray:

We lift our eyes on high to behold the mercy of Your grace O Lord...

We set our sights on high that Your love may encompass our lives in the assurances of Your blessings O Lord...

From You does all help come, from You all strength is made manifest amidst this temporal existence as hope is brought into the lives of Your creation.

Let then Your truth abide in the lives of Your people, let Your Spirit be cast upon the hearts of Your children that Your peace shall be restored and they shall be given rest in the green pastures of Your abiding, transcending love for them. Unto all who suffer, all who find themselves amidst the pain and the sorrow of captivity and bondage, slavery and oppression, poverty and destitution, sickness and disease, be the ever present help amidst their lives that they may have the endurance in all they face and the strength to persevere in all of it.

We may not understand why so much hurt comes amidst this world, we may not comprehend why it is that so many suffer. Yet, what we do know is that we come to You in the sacred faith of Your blessed Word and Your holy promises You shall be vigilant, drawing Your children close to You and restoring unto them the life that had been robbed from them by the sin and iniquity of this world.

For this do we pray, humbling ourselves before Your throne, that You may keep Your people from harm and heal their wounds, amidst the love and the compassion that You have for them and in Your time You shall set them free, setting to flight all bondage and breaking all chains that would so burden and break them.

Then shall we rest in comfort, even as we do not understand, as we rejoice in Your promises and rest in Your faithfulness.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Mid-Day Devotion 4/28/10

2010-04-28T12:32:00.003-04:00

Samuel and Eli

“So Samuel told him everything, hiding nothing from him. Then Eli said, “He is the LORD; let him do what is good in his eyes.’”
1 Samuel 3:18

Through the darkness that surrounds, whether temporal or spiritual, the voice of the Lord breaks through to call upon His children, to lead them, to guide them, to protect and to shelter them, to prepare them for a world that they, often times will little understand and that can shake the very basis of their faith. Shaping and molding His people, He moves in the most mysterious of ways, coming unto them in the most unlikely of times to reveal Himself to them in the most unusual of ways, His words shattering the world as it is known to re-make and re-shape perceptions of reality and the base understanding of the human mind.

Though it can bring fear when that voice is heard, though it can confuse and bewilder the mind, it is to be listened to and taken heed of for, though at the time it may not be seen, He moves for the good of His children in all that they are, and all that they face, in all the struggles that are before them and all the difficulties that would befall them.

Perhaps, at times, that’s hard to see in a world so prone to sin and iniquity. There is darkness that surrounds people, that encompasses them, swallowing them whole amidst the bitter captivity and the brutal slavery, the extreme destitution and the hateful oppression that comes upon them. Tyranny and persecution come so near, crushing the spirit and the soul, breaking the heart as hope is shattered and peace is lost.

This is why though...

This is why God calls unto His children in the faith that He has laid out for them and the grace that He has intended for them. It is so they can dwell in the love and the compassion, the mercy and the righteousness of His Spirit, as He sets them apart to do what is good and faithful in His eyes, standing for His liberty and His truth in a world that so often brings hurt and sorrow.

Like Samuel each of us, we need to listen for the voice of the Lord coming unto us, calling unto us, that we may answer as he did, “Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening” so that we may hear what He has to tell us that we may do what is right and good in His eyes as we are called, in love, to struggle for the cause of all who suffer amidst persecution and oppression, poverty and destitution, slavery and captivity. We must answer “Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening” that He may reveal unto us how He will use us for the betterment of our fellow man even when the struggle is great and the challenges are overwhelming, because He will forge us in the fires of His love that we may do what is right and good in His eyes, making us more than we are, giving us more strength than we could have ever imagined that His will may be done on earth as it is in Heaven.

Perhaps we may not understand that voice at first, perhaps it may seem a bit distant to us, perhaps it may confuse us or bewilder us, but through God’s love it does come. Ours must be, in faithfulness, to listen and to obey, ours must be to see God in everything and hear Him at all times, knowing that, even in the smallest of ways, God will use us to show the greatest of love unto our fellow man as His mercy and compassion is revealed unto the world by His Spirit moving through us as we contend for the cause of those who are in need or trouble.

Lord, grant this unto us all.

Let us pray:

In our distress we call upon You, our Lord and our Deliverer....

In our plights we cry out unto You, our Lord and our Shield...

In our anguish we trust in You, our Lord and our Hope, our ever present help in all dangers...

Answer our prayers.... hear our humble supplications and lift Your hand amidst this lost and fallen world, setting to flight all captivity and bondage, all darkness and oppression that, amidst Your hope, Your children shall come to dwell in Your peace.

In wonders of Your miracles we lift our praises and rejoice in Your holy name for the release of the four United Nations Peacekeepers who had been kidnapped in Darfur. Their struggle is over, their bondage is ended, their captivity has been set to flight as they have been restored unto their homes to heal from the pain that has been inflicted on them. Through You they were given the strength and the endurance to persevere. Unto all of Your children who suffer as hostages and prisoners, captives and slaves, give the same strength and bestow the same blessings, setting them free amidst the liberty that can only come from You.

Give unto us, Your servants, the strength to lift high the plight and the struggle, the challenges and the adversity facing those who find themselves now in this the grimmest of estates, that we may, with Your light and Your love, fight against the darkness that encompasses their lives, seeking justice for them even as it feels as if the hope has been robbed from their lives. Show us Your ways, call unto us with Your voice that we may be led down Your path that we may do Your good in this world for the cause of those who suffer.

Then shall Your grace be made manifest through this world as Your children are edified and uplifted in Your compassion and mercy and Your will shall be done on earth as it is in heaven for the betterment of all people in the faithfulness of Your promises.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Evening Devotion 4/27/10

2010-04-27T19:00:00.000-04:00

Christ as the Man of Sorrows,
by The Master of the Presentation, 1420

“Praise be to the LORD, who has given rest to his people Israel just as he promised. Not one word has failed of all the good promises he gave through his servant Moses.”
1 Kings 8:56

We may not always understand…

There are going to be times in our lives when the promises of God, they seem foreign to us as the struggles and challenges seem so near at hand. There are times when the assurances of God, they seem insufficient to us as we look to the trials and the tribulations that have come into our lives and we struggle, finding that we just can’t seem to find a reason or a purpose in all of this. It’s in these times that life is hard and God seems far removed from our lives, as if He is just watching or He’s not there as difficulties come upon us.

We want to believe that He is moving for us, that He is contending with us, but how can we when we feel the weight of the world bearing down on us and it just seems like it is so much, like it is too much for us to bear. The chains bind us and they are so strong that it feels that we will never be free from the sorrow that grips us, from the pain that has such a hold over us as darkness seems to encompass our lives and our hearts crack, and then break.

At the time we may not see it, because our struggles are so overwhelming, and this world’s bondage just feels so great, but the truth is that, in whatever we face, whatever we are forced to endure, God is there, just as He has been in the most ancient of days, moving in and through the course of our lives, the course of human events to stand firm and true to the promises that He has made unto His children in the love that He has for them. Bound to His promises He has never failed in them before, nor shall He ever forsake them in the future.

Our nature is to worry, it is to feel the weight of this world bearing down on us and to find that we are crushed by it as our spirits break and our souls are wounded. Yet we can always rely on God to bring the healing that we need and to contend with our cause in the love that He has for us, even when the meaning and the purpose of our struggle or our challenges escapes us and it seems like deliverance is so far away. Our Lord, our Heavenly Father shall move heaven and earth to strengthen us, to give us hope, to bring us hope and, with time, show us a meaning and a purpose in all of it so that we know that it wasn’t all for naught.

Even as the confining judgment of our present ordeal overwhelms us, we have to look to the cross of Christ and the promises of God, and know that even the greatest of things that humanity has been forced to face has been carried from them as He set to flight the deepest spiritual challenges that we were to face. How much more then can He do against the temporal struggles of this age and the enduring trials that wage their war against our hearts and souls?

Hold fast to His promises, keeping them near to your heart and know that He shall remain faithful to them even when it seems like all the world has risen against you in the love and the mercy that He has for you. No worries, no challenges, no adversity will then be able to touch you for the grace and the promises of God shall forever be a shield around you.

Lord, grant this unto us all.

Let us pray:

Your ways transcend our understanding O Lord, Your will surpasses our wisdom and our knowledge as we journey through this world and in this world of struggle and challenges. Yet, even through that, even in that, we know that Your promises stand through the ages, moving through the course of human events to stand for us in the love that You shall forever have amidst the compassion of Your mercy.

To these promises then do we flee O Lord, seeking and imploring Your grace, seeking and imploring Your mercy in the lives of Your people, that hope shall be restored in even the most hopeless of situations and love is brought to bear in the lives of all prisoners and hostages, all captives and slaves, that the bitter tyranny and oppression that now holds them shall be set to flight and they shall be brought to rest in the wonders and the miracles of Your blessed peace.

Rise up O Lord… rise up and deliver Your people in the promises You have made of Your deliverance. Let not persecution and hatred, intolerance and oppression, poverty and destitution, sickness and disease, captivity and slavery rob their lives of the intrinsic value that You have assigned to it, but through Your mercy and love move to break all chains that bind Your creation that freedom shall reign in their lives and liberty shall be restored to their souls.

Show unto us Your nature rightly amidst the justice of Your righteousness that love shall once more restored and Your will shall be done on earth as it is in heaven, as our praises are poured forth in the love that You have shown unto Your children.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Mid-Day Devotion 4/27/10

2010-04-27T12:32:00.003-04:00

“The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.”
Psalm 145:18

There are times in our lives when we are forced to stand amidst the deepest of trials. Little seems to make sense to us as the world just seems to have gone wrong and like things, they just won’t be right again. As these moments hit they seem so overwhelming, so overshadowing that it just doesn’t seem like its fair as we try to stand against the challenges that are before us and find that they just wage a war against our spirit and our soul, bringing us so much hurt.

It’s during these periods that struggle and adversity, hardship and pain come so near at hand as we are left to wonder to ourselves why it is that God has forced us to endure what it is that we have been made to face. It’s overbearing to us as, whether it’s of the body or the mind, the spirit or the soul, captivity comes and we are bound to the worst of the challenges we could have ever imagined.

Where are God’s promises? Where are His assurances in times like this? Was He not meant to be our deliverer? How could it then be that we are forced to live through times such as these?

Wherever we are forced to stand, whatever we are forced to face, we must remember that, in life, we must take the good with the bad, and know that, no matter how encompassing the bad may seem, no matter how much hurt it may try to inflict upon us, it is fleeting. Yes, it may surround us with such darkness as it puts a veil over our eyes and leaves our hearts broken as our spirits long and our souls yearn amidst our inability to grasp.

Even in these times God has a plan for us and for our lives, even in these times, no matter how far distant He may seem to us, He is there, staying true to His promises that He will never fail us or forsake us, that He will never abandon us, come what may, come what must. More than that though, out of the deepest of struggles, out of the greatest of challenges He makes us strong even in our weaknesses, showing unto us that His grace is sufficient for us… sufficient to make us into more than conquerors through He who loves us.

Trials and tribulation may rise, bondage and captivity may move, and wounds may be inflicted, but through the Lord there is a healing power that draws us near to Him as He, in His love and His compassion, mercy and grace, shows unto us that He shall always stand by His children, never letting them endure more than they can handle, and preparing a place of rest for them amidst the hope that He shall always bring into their lives. It is here that His endurance grants us perseverance and we know that the greatest of character, the greatest of integrity, the most upright of hearts grow amidst the care and love of the Lord’s nurturing hand, even as the greatest of winds blows against it, seeking to break it.

Whatever the challenge or whatever the trial, turn to the Lord and know that, through His righteousness you will be given then the strength and the endurance to meet all that comes before you in your life and through your life, as He guides and protects you with a peace that transcends all human understanding even unto life everlasting. All you have to do is trust in that sacred faith granted as a gift of grace by the power of the Spirit and made manifest in the love of Christ unto you.

Let us pray:

Unto You O Lord shall we raise all of our humble supplications…

Unto You O Lord shall we raise all of our troubles, all of our challenges…

Unto You O Lord shall we forever place all of our trust amidst the blessed assurances of Your encompassing word…

Hear our prayers, hear the calls of our lips and the yearning of our hearts and make haste to help us through all that we face amidst this world of trials and struggles, that we may find a resting place amidst the shelter of Your gracious precepts.

Hear our prayers O Lord as we commend into Your hands the life of the French tourist and his driver kidnapped in Niger.

Hear our prayers O Lord as we uplift to You the struggle in Somalia as gang wars have broken out, putting in jeopardy the lives of the hostages held there….

Rise up O Lord, and make haste to help Your children as bondage and captivity hold them in such bitter tyranny and oppression and darkness rises in their lives. Stand beside them as they find that death is so near to them, and in Your time, in Your way, set them free, bringing hope once more to reign in their lives as Your grace comes to bear in the grace that You bestow upon them. Be beside Your children, O Lord, that they may know that through it all, in it all, their God of deliverance is forever moving through the course of their lives to restore hope in even the most hopeless of situations, as all slavery and bondage, all captivity is put to flight, the chains are broken, in the liberty that You bestowed the spirit and the soul, the body and the mind with.

In the name of Your Son our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end. Amen.

Evening Devotion 4/26/10

2010-04-26T19:00:00.000-04:00

“You give me your shield of victory, and your right hand sustains me; you stoop down to make me great.”
Psalm 18:5

Though enemies may surround us, though governments may turn against us, though captivity and bondage may come so close to us, though poverty and destitution may strike at us, we have a shield of victory that shall protect us.

Though darkness may put a veil over our eyes, though the world may rise against us, though slavery may be near and human flesh may be traded, though the vilest of iniquity may grip the human soul, we have a shield of victory that shall defend us.

Though sorrow may grip the soul and anguish take the spirit, though the body may be left for broken, though peace may seem like it shall forever escape the heart and the mind, we have a shield of victory that shall forever shelter us.

The hand of the Lord, it shall sustain His creation even against the bitterest of bondage that so chains the people, and by His power He shall cast upon His people His Spirit that they shall be made great.

Suffering will always come amidst this temporal existence, and there shall always be times when hope seems so elusive, when it seems like it is so far distant from us and our lives. Yet, even in those days, even in those times we can rely on the Lord, knowing that He is always faithful to His promises and that He is always contending with the cause of His people. We may not see or understand how, at least not at the time, as so much comes, bring hurt into the lives of the people. Yet, through Him justice shall reign and He shall, in His time, in His way, make even the least amongst us great when they trust in Him and rely on the power of His might.

Let not the light be robbed from your life, even as it seems as if the tempests rage, and the winds howl against you. By God and through God there shall always be a value and a worth assigned to life and He shall guard against any dangers, drawing you close to Him in all that you re and all that you face, even as it seems like all the world is rising and nothing will be the same again.

Trust in that promise and know that He shall always and forever remain faithful to it in the love and the mercy, the strength and the hope that He brings to bear in the lives of His people, no matter how lost or broken they may feel.

Let us pray:

With all of our strength do we trust You O Lord...

With all of our hearts do we hope in You O God...

Be unto us a deliverer, be unto us an ever present help in all the dangers and the struggles of this temporal existence. Be unto Your children the rock in which we take refuge on when the waters rise and the storms come.

Let not those who suffer and find sorrow find the cords of destruction lead them down a path of sorrow unto even their own death but rise, with courage and strength, with hope and might in Your hands, that their distress shall be set to flight. Rise up O Lord, amidst the promises You have made, standing with all who suffer in bondage and captivity, in persecution and oppression, poverty and destitution, sickness and disease, that whatever tyranny seeks to infringe upon Your divine plan it shall be set to flight amidst the hope that You assign to life.

Forever guide Your children according to Your love to the places of promise where hope shall forever dwell and darkness shall be dispersed, that peace shall once more come to bear in their lives as they find that their trust in You has never been frustrated. Endow the spirit with liberty and the soul with justice, the mind with hope and the body with freedom, bringing them from whatever it is that wounds them and harms them in the gracious precepts of Your loving mercy that praise shall forever pour forth from their lips.

Give unto Your people the great victories of the spirit and the soul, and let them forever stand long against all that this world may seek to impose upon them that we shall see Your hand at work and rejoice in Your blessed and holy name through all that we are, all that we do and all that we face.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Mid-Day Devotion 4/26/10

2010-04-26T12:30:00.000-04:00

Ships Running Aground in a Storm, Ludolf Backhuysen, 1690s

“Last night an angel of the God whose I am and whom I serve stood beside me”
Acts 27:23

Hauled off to Rome to stand trial before the throne of Caesar, the apostle Paul, despite the time he had already spent in prison, despite the persecution that he had already endured, despite the inevitable death that he knew would come at the hands of the Imperial Authorities, had remained strong through all he had been forced to endure. Now though, as the waters rose and the storm beat against the hull of the ship that was carrying him to the seat of power, terror gripped everyone around him.

The ship would sink they feared, claiming them all with it, indifferent to who they were or the life they lived. But, if the sea didn’t take their lives first then the fact that they had run out of food would It would take the good with the bad, the young with the old, the prisoner with the free, with no thought or consideration given to any of it.

Yet, even through all of that Paul remained at peace, with little to actually shake him. It would there that he comfort the sailors, assuring them that they would not die, for the night before he sought the Lord and, through His angel, the Lord came to Him, in the promises of His protection and His love. Though they would be forced to endure this trial they would survive, sheltered by the hand of God.

The simple truth of the matter is that the world treats us indifferently. There are few things amidst this world that maintains the inherent principle of equality quite like pain and suffering, hurt and sorrow, darkness and bondage, death and destruction. It considers little of who were are. It takes the very good with the very bad, the innocent with the guilty, the weak with the strong, and it breaks all of them until it seems like there is little left for them amidst their lives.

Yet, even in the greatest of captivity, even in the deepest of bondage, there is another great equalizer. That is the love of God and the mercy and compassion that He shows unto His people. Whatever the challenge, whatever the trial or the difficulty, God moves Heaven and Earth to stand beside and to protect His children, to comfort them in all their woes and difficulties, moving amidst their lives to show unparalleled love unto them.

Yes, it may seem as all if all the world has risen up, it may seem as if bondage and captivity is so near at hand, as if persecution and oppression is so unavoidable amidst this world. It may be as so much hurt is brought to bear in the lives of the people. Yet this is why we must draw nearer to God, seeking to do His will on earth as it is done in Heaven, lifting our prayers to Him for the lives of those who find themselves in any need or trouble, working to show forth the love of Christ in this world. It is so we may implore the Spirit of the Lord and His angels to come upon all of those who find themselves in any need or trouble, that they may find the strength they need in all that they are and all that they face.

It is then that hope is brought to bear in the lives of the people through all that they are and all that they are forced to endure as they find perseverance and endurance through all the days of their lives...

Let us pray:

You, O Lord, are our refuge, our ever present shelter through the tempests of this temporal existence that bring upon us the long nights...

You O Lord, are our strength, our ever present help, vigilant amidst the cause of Your people, as You move heaven and earth to stand by them...

You, O Lord, mark the lives of Your children, contending forever in the promises You have made unto them even as they find that the challenges stand there before them.

Stay then true to Your assurances unto them through all captivity and bondage that seeks to so impose persecution and oppression, slavery and tyranny upon their lives. Lift from them the weight of those burdens, letting their lives be held dear and precious, with the value that You have assigned to it. Bring freedom to those who find that darkness surrounds them and let Your justice dwell amidst the hopes that they have that liberty shall once more come to bear in their lives.

So often do we see Your hand at work. In the four thwarted hijackings this weekend we have seen You move through the people to keep Your creation safe. We pray then that you move in the same way to stand by Your people throughout the world who suffering in any bondage, throughout their days that their chains may be broken and life shall be restored to them. Move through the course of human events to show Your face in even the deepest of challenges, and cast upon Your people Your angels to guard them and guide them in all that they are, in all that is before them.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Evening Devotion 4/21/10

2010-04-21T19:00:00.000-04:00

"I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.”
Isaiah 42:6-7

There is no greater healing than that which comes through the hand of the Lord our God in the mercy and the love that He has for His children.

There is no greater deliverance than that which comes through the hand of the Lord our God in the compassion and the grace that He shows forth in the life of His people.

So often this world, it rises up against the weak and the innocent, the hurt and the broken-hearted, it tries so desperately to break them as it looks deep into the spirit and the soul to see who we are and what it is that we fear, and then uses it against us to shatter our hopes and our dreams as it wages trial after trial on us. It can be so overwhelming that we feel ourselves being bombarded by the temptations and the struggles of this temporal existence, as it seems as if one trouble fades just as another one is given rise amidst our lives.

Yet no matter how this world may emerge and awaken amidst our days there is a promise that is extended to all people regardless of who they are and what they may face. There is a God of hope, a God of deliverance who stands ready to stand with us, lifting us when we have fallen, and drawing us close to Him when it feels as if the world has just become too much for us.

It is through that hope that mercy and compassion extends to the further reaches of this world and the deepest places of the human soul, showing that there is no bondage, there is no captivity, whether it is of the spirit or the mind, the heart or the soul, that cannot be shattered when He raises His hand to it to set it all to flight. That is the glory of His transcending, encompassing love for us, that is the love He has made manifest through His Son, Christ Jesus, who came to ransom us all amidst the greater promises of God’s blessed assurances.

Whatever challenges lay before you, whatever challenges weigh you down, whatever trials or tribulations exist amidst this world, remember always that God is there through it all and in it all, and though they happen in spite of Him, they are only set to flight through Him by Him as He hears the cries of the people and raises His hand to them to lift them from the pits of darkness and carry them to the places where hope and healing shall forever and always dwell in the lives of His people.

Lord, grant this unto us all.

Let us pray:

O Lord, how You have contended with the cause and the plight of Your people since even the earliest of days…

O Lord, how You have shown forth Your mercy and Your compassion in the lives of Your people through the generations…

With Your hand You have set to flight all wickedness and iniquity, all unrighteousness and evil as You have brought Your deliverance into the lives of Your people. By Your love hope has been restored in the lives of Your creation as You have moved through the course of time and history to show forth Your grace amidst this temporal existence.

Be then now the fount of every blessing in the lives of Your people, showing forth Your mercy, pouring forth Your grace through Your unchanging love as You offer hope unto this lost and fallen world. Set to flight all captivity and bondage, all slavery and oppression, all poverty and destitution so that tyranny and persecution, hopelessness and despair shall no longer have a grim hold on Your people.

Let Your freedom ring, let Your liberty extend so that Your love shall be the guiding, encompassing presence of this existence as Your children find shelter under Your wings, and refuge amidst the blessed pastures of Your holy fields. Sanctify Your people, showing unto them Your mercy, and let compassion give unto them the justice that they so long for that through all that they are and all that they face, grace shall encompass their lives and they shall be restored to life even as death seems so near at hand.

Rise up and help Your people O Lord: redeem them and ransom them, setting to flight all captivity and bondage because of Your unfailing love.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Mid-Day Devotion 4/21/10

2010-04-21T12:55:00.004-04:00

Seven Saints, Fra Filippo Lippi, 1448

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”
Philippians 4:8

Our minds race, our hearts begin to pound, and it just seems as if we can’t escape this feeling of darkness and anxiety that swells deep within us. We can’t stop our minds from racing to the worst possible thoughts, and it seems as if worries come so near to us that they give us nothing but hardships to meditate on.

That’s the world around us, isn’t it? Wrought with challenges and difficulties, wrought with trials and temptations, struggles and barriers that are placed before us, it just seems hard at times as we look around and we see that there is a captivity that comes so near at hand. Deep within us we feel the bondage of the spirit and the mind, the heart and the soul, and we can’t help but find our minds race to the most terrible of scenarios or situations. It’s just so easy to do that it becomes the simplest thing in the world for us…

Yet, no matter how we may perceive the world around us, no matter what it may do to us or the cruel war it may wage against us, God wants us to know that He is there for us, and that whatever the price, whatever the cost, He will deliver His people from the grips of whatever darkness or oppression, whatever dark slavery might so entangle them.

This is why we are told to meditate on all that is right and noble, all that is pure and admirable, all that is excellent and praiseworthy, because, in all things and through all things, this is the Lord, our God, the mighty hand of deliverance unto His people. In His love and His mercy He always and forever contends with the cause of His people as He binds up their wounds, and heals their broken hearts, as He shows that, regardless of the struggle or the trials that are before us, His grace is transcending and encompassing, moving across the span of time and space to make the weak strong as it provides a refuge through all that we face throughout this temporal existence.

So often it is easy for us to lose hope as we see the challenges that seem to move seamlessly through the course of life... so easy that it becomes the simplest thing in the world to lose heart. Yet, it is in those times that we need, more than anything else, to lean on our faith, to lean on the promises of our God, trusting in His assurances unto us, knowing that, no matter how dark it may seem as a veil covers our eyes like a foggy mist, when we reach out to the Lord He is always there reaching back to us in the love that He has for us.

Turn then your thoughts and your minds, your hearts and your focus to the Lord and know that through all that you are and all that you face, His righteousness and His nobility shall give you reason to praise His Holy name as He carries you through the storm to the places where His hope shall forever dwell.

Let us pray:

With our hearts raised to You O Lord we have heard the promises made by Your lips…

With our spirits extended to You O Lord we have seen the blessings of Your hands…

With our souls given over to You O Lord we now call upon Your blessed name…

Hear our prayers, feel our intercessions and see all that we raise up to You with praise to Your holy assurances made unto Your people through the ages and the generations as they have turned their hopes to You and sought refuge in Your gracious precepts.

Unto You do we commend the lives of the lives of the 77 taken hostage yesterday amidst those three Thai fishing boats that were captured; unto You do we entrust the lives of the 21 who were taken in the hijacking of the Voc Daisy. Rise up O Lord and show Your face unto them. Let them see Your mercy, let them know Your love that they shall, through their ordeal, know that by Your hand Your mercy shall extend to their lives and they shall find hope in even the most hopeless of situations.

Be unto them a rock of refuge, a blessed hope that shall move through the course of their lives, showing forth unto them the mercy and the grace that feels so far distant from them now, and then, in Your time, in Your way, raise up Your hand amidst Your righteousness to set to flight all wickedness and iniquity that has them, bringing freedom once more into their lives that they may find comfort and rest as they are returned once more to their homes and their families.

Let Your compassion encompass them and shine forth Your love in their lives that they may know that then by Your hand mercy shall forever guide their lives through the darkness and into the light that can only come through You and by You in the deliverance that You pour forth for Your people.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Mid-Day Devotion 4/16/10

2010-04-16T12:04:00.005-04:00

Today's Devotion is taken from Our Daily Homily by F.B. Meyer

First Devotion

A mercy-seat of pure gold - Exodus 37:6

“He made the atonement cover of pure gold—two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide.”

This was the Propitiatory. Beneath it lay the tables of the law, which even Moses had broken, almost as soon as they came into his hands, but which had been renewed. Concealing and covering them lay this golden lid, encrusted with the blood which successive generations of priests sprinkled there on the Great Day of Atonement.

There can be no doubt that this golden slab sets forth our Saviour's obedience unto death. God set Him forth to be "the Propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world."

Our Lord's obedience is priceless in the Divine esteem. - What pure gold is among metals, that is His advent to do God's will, in comparison with all other endeavors to do it. It takes the first place, and is of peerless beauty and excellence. "Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered."

His obedience was to blood. - His wounds tell the story. He held nothing back; but yielded all to blood-shedding. Blood is life, and life is in the Blood: this He freely poured out to meet the claims of justice, and herein gave the sublimest token of His love.

His person and work are the medium of our approach. - In Jesus the Shekinah of God's presence awaits us. On this priceless mercy-seat the Divine Fire trembles, and we may draw near with boldness. We are beloved children; but let us never forget that we are redeemed sinners.

There is a place where Jesus sheds
The oil of gladness on our heads;
A place than all beside more sweet -
It is the blood-stained Mercy-seat.

First Prayer:

Listen to our Prayers O Lord, ignore not our pleas, nor let our cries fall upon deaf ears, show unto the nations that we place our trust not on the idols of this world with ears that cannot hear and eyes that cannot see, with lips that cannot speak and hearts that does not bend to the deeper yearning of the people amidst their darkest struggles.

Hear us O Lord and see the thoughts that trouble us, for we are distraught at the presence of unrighteousness that rises up like the serpent and the adder to bit at the heal of Your people. Our hearts are filled with anguish by the march of wickedness as they bring suffering upon the head of Your children and show contempt amidst their anger and their hatred.

Attend to the cause of the five United Nations staff members who have gone missing in Afghanistan, take heed to the plight of the two French journalists kidnapped by the Taliban. Let not your people suffer needlessly at the hands of those who bring fear and trembling with their ways. Cast upon them the Spirit of Your mercy that they might be uplifted amidst the deeper trials that they face as darkness and chaos seem to surround them so ready to rip the happiness and the joy from their lives.

Restore hope unto this lost and fallen world as You carry Your children on the wings of a dove even unto the peace that has been so ripped from them amidst the brutal and bitter captivity that brings so much sorrow into this world.

Then shall Your people rejoice as their God, as their Deliverer saves them.

Then shall Your people come to rest as their Lord ransoms them, hearing their cries morning and evening and rising faithfully to bring them, unharmed, from the battles waged against them even as the enemies of Your righteousness stand with strength even unto their cause.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Second Devotion

In a Cleft of the Rock. - Exodus 33:22

“When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by.”

That rock was Christ. In the Divine thought the position of Moses, first on the rock, and afterward in its cleft, was a moving emblem of the position in which alone we can dare to look out on the sublime progress of God's glory.

God is always passing by. - In the great movements of history which evolve His plans, and are leading to Christ's advent; in the passage of the ages, which are His swift chariots; in storm and catastrophe, which break up old forces and forms of evil; in the goodness of His daily mercy; in the revelation of His character - we are always living in the very midst of God's presence and power.

In our condition of weakness and sinfulness we need a position of stability and shelter from which to look on God. - No man can see that face of awful holiness and love and live. Sir John Herschel says that when sweeping the heavens with his telescope the brilliant Sirius suddenly burst on his view, he nearly fainted. Who then could behold God! But in Jesus, we are stable, established in Him, accepted in the Beloved; and in Him we are covered. The full blaze of the Divine glory is tempered to our gaze; it comes to us through the medium of the pierced hand. We stand on the rock; we are hidden under the covering hand.

Our Rock was cleft. - How scarred are the great Alps! Their sides have been split by the action of tempest, avalanche, earthquake, frost, and glacier. Hence their clefts. But who shall enumerate all that has been borne by our dear Lord for us! What storms have pelted on Him, that we might have a safe hiding. On Calvary, a niche was hollowed in which a world of sinners may take shelter!

Second Prayer:

Let not anguish take Your children O Lord, let them not go down alive to the grave as evil finds a lodging place amidst their lives and captivity and bondage rests in their lives. Stand firm amidst the plights and the struggles of this age that darkness and sorrow shall be set to flight and Your people shall be saved.

Unto You O Lord shall we cast all of our cares, trusting that You shall sustain Your children as You always have through the generations. Count them amidst the ranks of Your blessed and Your beloved and rise up as slavery and oppression, tyranny and persecution, poverty and destitution seek to cast them down. As temporal and spiritual bondage chains your people to despair and hopelessness break them free that they shall rise amidst a new hope as Your new creation that they may find peace amidst the wondrous rest that comes when You lead the sheep of pasture to the green fields of Your endless love.

As enemies rise let them come to see that their authority amidst this age is nothing compared to Your endless authority from age to age as Your mercy comes to bear amidst this lost and fallen world. Be the companion unto all who suffer, be the friend unto all who find themselves amidst anguish and agony, that unto them mercy shall encompass their lives and the blessed faith that is the gift of grace from Your hand shall not be frustrated amidst the darkness of it all.

Then shall we rest under the tree of Your blessings, sustained by Your waters of life as death’s dark shadow is put to flight and we are made to rejoice in the hope of Your love and compassion even unto the wondrous liberty You have endowed Your whole creation with as freedom comes into the hearts of all people in all places through all they are and all they face.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Mid-Day Devotion 4/12/10

2010-04-12T12:30:00.003-04:00

Agony in the Garden, Andrea Mantegna, 1460

Today's devotions are taken from Spurgeon's Daily Meditations.

First Devotion:

“My heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.”
Psalm 22:14

Our blessed Lord experienced a terrible sinking and melting of soul. “The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit who can bear?” Deep depression of spirit is the most grievous of all trials; all besides is as nothing. Well might the suffering Saviour cry to his God, “Be not far from me,” for above all other seasons a man needs his God when his heart is melted within him because of heaviness. Believer, come near the cross this morning, and humbly adore the King of glory as having once been brought far lower, in mental distress and inward anguish, than any one among us; and mark his fitness to become a faithful High Priest, who can be touched with a feeling of our infirmities. Especially let those of us whose sadness springs directly from the withdrawal of a present sense of our Father’s love, enter into near and intimate communion with Jesus. Let us not give way to despair, since through this dark room the Master has passed before us. Our souls may sometimes long and faint, and thirst even to anguish, to behold the light of the Lord’s countenance: at such times let us stay ourselves with the sweet fact of the sympathy of our great High Priest. Our drops of sorrow may well be forgotten in the ocean of his griefs; but how high ought our love to rise! Come in, O strong and deep love of Jesus, like the sea at the flood in spring tides, cover all my powers, drown all my sins, wash out all my cares, lift up my earth-bound soul, and float it right up to my Lord’s feet, and there let me lie, a poor broken shell, washed up by his love, having no virtue or value; and only venturing to whisper to him that if he will put his ear to me, he will hear within my heart faint echoes of the vast waves of his own love which have brought me where it is my delight to lie, even at his feet forever.

First Prayer:

By Your faith endowed upon us as a gift of grace we lay all of this worlds grief at Your feet O Lord knowing the mercy of Your transcending love. Let us not be encompassed by despair, let us not be stricken by desperation or destitution but let us find compassion in Your tender precepts according to the hope of Your blessed assurances for our lives.

Be not far then O Lord from the lives of the crew of the MV Yasin C and the Rak Afrikana, hijacked and held captive, as they find the weight of bitter and brutal bondage now upon them. Walk beside these who are held in such grim estate and let not the sorrow of their bitter and brutal estate bear down on them. Let not their lives be held in the hands of wicked and unrighteous men, let not their souls be cast to the pits of despair but uplift them by Your love and hope as they are guided from to the places of Your peace and comfort.

Cast upon them Your Holy Spirit that they may find the courage to endure and the strength to stand firm, and by Your enduring grace set them free amidst the righteousness of Your hand that they shall find a new hope in their lives.

Then shall the light of Your love guide and protect Your people through all that they are and all that they face, carrying them from all darkness and destitution to the places where they may find rest from this weary world as the chains are broken and all bondage is set to flight.

Then shall Your name be praised for the mercy You bestow.... that mercy that always and forever shall be beyond compare.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Second Devotion:

But the gate of the fountain repaired Shallun the son of Colhozeh, the ruler of part of Mizpah; he built it, and covered it, and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof, and the wall of the pool of Siloah by the king's garden, and unto the stairs that go down from the city of David.
Nehemiah 3:15

Mention of the king’s garden by Nehemiah brings to mind the paradise which the King of kings prepared for Adam. Sin has utterly ruined that fair abode of all delights, and driven forth the children of men to till the ground, which yields thorns and briers unto them. My soul, remember the fall, for it was thy fall. Weep much because the Lord of love was so shamefully ill-treated by the head of the human race, of which thou art a member, as undeserving as any. Behold how dragons and demons dwell on this fair earth, which once was a garden of delights.
See yonder another King’s garden, which the King waters with his bloody sweat—Gethsemane, whose bitter herbs are sweeter far to renewed souls than even Eden’s luscious fruits. There the mischief of the serpent in the first garden was undone: there the curse was lifted from earth, and borne by the woman’s promised seed. My soul, bethink thee much of the agony and the passion; resort to the garden of the olive-press, and view thy great Redeemer rescuing thee from thy lost estate. This is the garden of gardens indeed, wherein the soul may see the guilt of sin and the power of love, two sights which surpass all others.

Is there no other King’s garden? Yes, my heart, thou art, or shouldst be such. How do the flowers flourish? Do any choice fruits appear? Does the King walk within, and rest in the bowers of my spirit? Let me see that the plants are trimmed and watered, and the mischievous foxes hunted out. Come, Lord, and let the heavenly wind blow at thy coming, that the spices of thy garden may flow abroad. Nor must I forget the King’s garden of the church. O Lord, send prosperity unto it. Rebuild her walls, nourish her plants, ripen her fruits, and from the huge wilderness, reclaim the barren waste, and make thereof “a King’s garden.”

Second Prayer:

By Your love anointed do we bow before Your throne most High O Lord, seeking Your mercy in a lost and fallen world so prone to captivity and bondage. Let Your hope, Your grace, Your peace encompass the lives of Your creation and look upon the plight of those who suffer and struggle and hear their cries.

Cast Your Spirit upon Your people that they may be uplifted by the endowment of Your blessed gifts even as destitution and despair, hurt and sorrow, darkness and desperation seem so near at hand. Let not the agony and the anguish of captivity and bondage, slavery and persecution, poverty and disease so chain Your beloved children to a life of hopelessness and misery. Show forth Your mercy in their lives and give them rest.

O Lord there is so much unrighteousness, so much hurt, so much suffering. Yet it is You who restores the spirit and offers hope to the soul, it is You who mends the broken heart and binds up all wounds. Let the mercy of Your love and compassion encompass then their lives in the hope that You can offer unto them as Your light sets to flight all darkness that would so seek to break them.

Then shall the transcending grace of Your Holy works be glorified as Your children find freedom as they are delivered from all the bondage that would so seek to destroy them. Then shall Your Holy name be sanctified for the blessings that You have bestowed upon Your creation in the mercy of Your liberty granted in Your love.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Mid-Day Devotion 4/7/10

2010-04-07T12:03:00.002-04:00

“And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father. At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father. His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God.”
John 16:23-30

Is there any greater blessing in this life that exceeds the promises that are given unto us in the assurances that we are offered through the power of prayer? Save salvation itself there is none, for it is how God makes manifest His truth and His wisdom, it is how He reveals Himself unto us in the hope that He has for us amidst the plans that He has made for us in our lives. Through prayer the Lord offers unto us the full measure of His devotion and grants unto us a divine reconciliation of His design with our understanding in order that we may more completely comprehend the true nature of all that surrounds us amidst this temporal existence.

This is the message of the lesson taught by our Saviour as He looked to the disciples and sought to impart upon them a deeper truth, a deeper awareness as to the true power of their relationship with their Heavenly Father and the place that their conversations with Him had amidst that. It is because Christ understood that God, He bases our prayers on His faithful dedication to us and His vigilant love for us, and, in that, lays the treasures of Heaven on our willingness to come before Him in humble submission to His Word, entreating Him with our supplications lifted to Him as we lay them at the feet of His Son, our Redeemer, trusting that our burdens will be lifted from us.

Too often though do we let ourselves flounder in our prayer life. We know the promises, we know the blessings that have been guaranteed to us, and the sacred vows that God has made in His pledge to stand beside us and answer our prayers. It is a precious gift that we keep locked up as we find little time in our lives to dedicate the necessary time to communicate with the Lord.

Our reasons for this are many... we have commitments that extend far beyond the time that we have, we go to church on Sunday’s and pray there, we have to dedicate this time to other relationships or other ambitions but we will make the time to work on this relationship with God later, our problems and our concerns, they are just too small for God or our sins have made us too unworthy to come before Him in a way that He will listen to us. Yet the deeper lesson of Christ amidst His admonitions is that all, regardless of who we are or what we have done or what we have going on in our lives, need the blessings bestowed upon us by the power of prayer in our lives, for it is God’s love extended to us in mercy, compassion and grace.

It is here that we have to understand that the worthiness of our prayers, and the ability for God to hear them and reveal Himself in the lives of His people, it is not based on our own works or deeds, it is not based on the value that we place on ourselves or on our own righteousness, but rather it is based upon the redemption we are given through our Saviour and the blessings that can be bestowed upon us by a loving Heavenly Father who looks past the sins and the iniquity of this temporal existence to the promises that He has made unto His children from even the most ancient of days.

This is the authority of God to break all bondage and captivity that would so grip the hearts and the souls, the spirits and the minds of His people in the darkness that could so ensnare them. This is the power of God to extend His healing touch to bind up the wounds of the afflicted, to make whole the broken-hearted, to offer hope to the hopeless and to mend the crushed spirits of those who find themselves amidst suffering and sorrow. This is the love that our Lord has for all of His people, the love that He has for all of His creation as He offers the miracle of His blessings to all who are moved by the power of the Spirit to humble themselves before Him and to ask for the help that they need, trusting that He shall grant unto them all that they need to be delivered amidst the mercy and the compassion of His divine grace.

Rightly then do we have to understand that prayer, it is not a task or a duty of a disciple of Christ, it is a gift given unto them to draw closer to God in all need and trouble, in all trial and turmoil. It is a promise offered to them that regardless of the struggle, regardless of the challenge God will be there for His people when they draw nigh to Him and call upon His Holy name, never abandoning them, never failing them or forsaking them. Whatever then one may know about the world or see in it, God is there to show that it is nothing compared to the authority in which He contends with the cause of His people as He shows unto them that He is their rock of refuge and their ever present shelter through all of the storms.

Trust in Him, and humble yourself before Him, knowing that He is there for you in the love that He has for you. Raise your prayers on high, being ever vigilant, ever faithful in your supplications to Him, knowing that He will always intercede for the cause of His people and guide them to the places of hope where His blessing dwell if we are willing to bow before Him and raise up to Him the troubles and the struggles of this temporal existence knowing that He is capable and willing to disperse all of the dark clouds that would so impose themselves on us.

Trust in Him and know that, as He hears your prayers, He will bend His ear to the cries of His people, and look upon the trials that seek to devour them and He shall rise up in mercy and love, compassion and grace to bring His blessed hope into your life as He girds you with His strength and gives you the courage you need to stand in His righteousness through all of the days that are before you.

What a wondrous assurance that is when we come before Him...

What a miraculous promise that is when it encompasses our lives in His love for us...

Lord, therefore grant this unto us all.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, Amen.

First Prayer:

With the promises of Your love on our lips do we come before You, seeking and imploring Your mercy in the lives of Your people...

With the assurances of Your compassion in our hearts do we come before You, seeking and imploring Your grace in the lives of Your people...

Be not far from them as darkness descends upon them, be not distant from them as pain and sorrow comes upon their lives and they find that the struggle is before them. Look upon the faces of all who are taken captive and prisoner, all who have been made hostages and slaves, and let not persecution and oppression devour them amidst the tyranny that can be inflicted upon them amidst the agony and the anguish that they now feel.

In the vows You have made to uplift Your people raise up Your hand for the cause of justice, that they shall find hope in even these, the days of hurt and hardship that are now before them. In the faithfulness of Your devotion let Your mercy encompass their lives that they shall be led from bondage to the places of peace and rest that You have promised unto Your children.

Into their lives bring hope that they may find the light of Your love and the beacon of Your mercy that guides them from their grim estate that they may be, in Your glory, restored unto their lives amidst the integrity that You give unto life and the liberty You have endowed Your creation with.

With love in Your heart and mercy in Your eyes hear our prayers O Lord that our supplications shall find favour in Your sight and hope shall be restored in a lost and fallen world as Your compassion brings freedom in the lives of all who long for that blessing to encompass their lives once more.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Second Prayer:

By Your mercy do we find the hope to kneel before You O Lord, bowing before Your throne most high to seek Your divine grace the lives of Your people...

By Your love do we find the assurances to trust in Your promises O Lord, humbling ourselves before Your throne most high to implore Your compassion in the lives of Your children...

By Your grace do we praise Your name O Lord, knowing that through Your strength all things are possible in the lives of Your people.

Hear the names that we raise to You O Lord. Hear the names of all who are held in any captivity and bondage, look upon the face of all who are made slaves and prisoners, and lift Your hand for their cause, showing the faithfulness of Your devotion for them as You contend with their cause in the love that You have for Your creation.

Let not darkness encompass this existence, nor let it claim the lives of Your people. Though oppression and persecution may surround Your children, though poverty and destitution may seek to devour Your people, set it all to flight that Your hope shall find strength in the mercy that You extend as You give unto us Your strength as You shelter us in the shadow of Your wing.

Bless us... bless us in the shelter of Your name, creating a courageous heart and a strong spirit, as You teach us Your truth and give us Your hope in even this a lost and fallen world that so often finds itself so far from Your mercy, and let Your freedom reign in the lives of Your people.

Then shall we praise Your name for the love You have brought into the lives of Your people as Your song is raised on high from our lips, as we rejoice in Your compassion.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Mid-Day Devotion 4/6/10

2010-04-06T12:40:00.005-04:00

Christ is Risen, Peter Paul Rubens, 17th century

“Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”
1 John 3:16

What are we willing to do? What are we willing to offer of ourselves? What are we willing to sacrifice for the cause of our fellow man? What are we willing to give, in love, in order to ease the pain and the suffering, the struggles and the hardship of others?

When our Saviour ascended on high to take his place seated at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty, He imparted one message to his disciples, one great command that was meant to be the deeper calling for their lives, one final admonition for how it was that they were supposed to live. It was there that, amidst these words, the believer, those who held themselves to be faithful to the salvation granted unto them through Christ by the grace of the Lord in the works of the Spirit in their souls, were to find a renewed purpose in their lives even as they waited for His glorious and triumphant return.

“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” (Matthew 28:19-20)

It’s here that we, as a people, find ourselves so often struggling. Even if we don’t necessarily recognize it at the time, we battle with this teaching as we seek, as we strive to live by it. We want, more than anything, to observe all that Christ has commanded of us, we want to preach it and teach it throughout the world, proclaiming that Gospel message of His love, yet, more times than not, we find that it is carefully elusive to us amidst our own understanding and our own comprehension. We bog ourselves down with doctrinal and theological debates and discourses, we argue dogma and canonical law and, in that, we keep ourselves carefully separate from one another.

Now let’s make no mistake, denominations, for all we argue, can be a good thing. Based on what a person believes, based on their personal relationship with God, based on their understanding of His truth, it gives unto them a home and fellowship where they can be uplifted and edified in the Word of the Lord. That gives them a place where they are capable of growing in their faith and in the love of God if the Scriptures are taught with a pure heart and a sincere longing for the body of Christ to draw closer to Him.

Yet, amidst that, it should never separate us from one another in the deepest of callings given unto us by Christ. There are, after all, only two commands that He gave unto the believers, two commands that were meant to surpass all other teaching, all other law and doctrine. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40)

Its love... a perfect and holy love... that is the command that each of us must abide in, the command that we are given to carry forth into this world that we might live according to the calling given unto us by the Great Commission. It is love that is to be manifested in our lives in order that we may show forth the mercy and the compassion of our Saviour.

It was here that the Apostle Paul would declare, “For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2), for it was here that was the beginning and the end of all love. This was namely the nature of sacrifice, a sacrifice that was willing to give all in compassion and mercy that a blessed hope would encompass the lives of the people, leading them from brutal captivity to the places where liberty dwells in the promise of the blessed assurances of our Lord. It was the deeper lesson we were all meant to learn as it carried us forward to a calling for our lives as we showed forth our love for one another. After all,” A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” (John 13:34-35)

What then are you willing to offer of yourself in love for your fellow man? What are you willing to sacrifice of yourself to live in the Great Commission given unto us by our Saviour? As the wondrous gift of Christ’s salvation encompasses your life and you are guided to the places of hope that he bought for us at such an awful price you should ask yourself, what are you willing to give to show forth his love and the love of God in your life.

Amidst a lost and fallen world there is always so much to do, so much that needs to be done. There is so much struggle, so much turmoil, destitution and hardship number the days of the people. As redeemed children of our Heavenly Father, freed from bondage and captivity ourselves, freed from the bitter slavery to sin, death and the Devil, it should be ours to lead the way, to lead the charge against tyranny and injustice, oppression and persecution, struggle and agony that love and hope will guide the lives of the people, showing that through God’s love they will never be forgotten in the trials and tribulations of this world.

Journeying through a world so prone to sin and iniquity, to transgressions foisted upon the lives of the people, ours must be to give of ourselves, to sacrifice of ourselves, offering all that we can that God can make use of the gifts that He has given us that our fellow man may be uplifted and edified even in the darkest of days that would so encompass their lives. Ours must be to give until we can’t find the strength to give anymore, and then, in the strength that can only be given unto us by God through the power of the Spirit, give just that much more of ourselves to care for the lives of others.

It is then that we know that we have lived in the mercy and the truth, the compassion and the love that God has intended for us as we pour forth His love in the lives of His people, looking to the lessons taught unto us by Christ, being guided by the sacrifices given for us by our Saviour and letting them guide us through all the days of our lives, through all that we are and all that we can offer of ourselves.

It is then that we will have truly and rightly shown ourselves to be his disciples as his mercy and truth forever guides our way through all the days of our lives.

Lord, grant this unto us all...

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

First Prayer:

We shall cry unto You O Lord, our God, to be merciful unto Your people, for it is in You that we place our trust...

We shall call out unto You O Lord, our God, to show unto Your children Your love, for it is You that we shall find the refuge for our hope...

We shall long for You O Lord, our God, to bring justice into the lives of Your creation, for it is under Your wings that we shall take shelter in all of our struggles...

We shall seek Your ways O Lord, our God, that compassion shall encompass the lives of Your people until all calamity shall have passed before our eyes...

As You have in ancient days, leading Your children from captivity and bondage, lift Your hand before Your people and be unto them their Deliverer as the challenges and the struggles of this world so threaten to overtake them amidst trials and tribulations. Look down from heaven and save Your people from those who turn from Your righteousness as their wickedness seeks to devour them.

As You have in the lives of the crew of the MS Taipan, that German ship whose hijacking was thwarted, show in the lives of all who are held by captivity and bondage the same mercy that endures through Your love. Raise Your cause to them that though they are surrounded they shall never be devoured. Exalt them O Lord that they shall be lifted high above their current ordeal and carried to the places where Your hope and Your peace shall encompass their souls in the compassion that You have for them.

Awaken Your glory in this slumbering world that Your name shall be raised on high for the mercy of heaven in the lives of Youe people as the chains are broken and bondage is forever set to flight.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Second Prayer:

Do not cast us off O Lord, do not scatter or disperse Your People. Turn not Your eyes from their suffering, nor deafen Your ears to their cries....

Do not cast us off O Lord, do not let captivity and bondage ensnare Your Children. Turn not Your eyes from the chains that would bind them and oppression that would destroy them...

Speak O Lord... In Your Holiness and Your mercy speak unto the nations, show that You are a living God, that You are the God of Deliverance and that from Your hand shall rise a force that shall set evil to flight and destroy the transgressions and iniquity of the wicked.

Hear our cries O Lord and attend to our prayers. Your people suffer, they struggle, all about them they find anguish and agony as oppression and tyranny, as persecution and captivity, as poverty and destitution, cast upon them the bitterest of estates and grim darkness encompasses their lives. Be unto them a shelter, a mighty city that shall offer to them refuge in their hurt and their pain that they shall find hope and peace amidst their lives. Be unto them their sword and their shield that they shall find the strength and the courage to persist even in the tribulation that lies before them

Count them amongst Your Saints O Lord and give them the perseverance they need to endure in the love of Your precepts as they are lead from darkness to Your light that they might find the rest and the comfort that has so eluded them amidst the struggles that they have been forced to face.

Abide with them... abide with us forever O Lord that we shall see Your face and sing praises unto Your name for the mercy that You have given amidst the liberty You have endowed Your creation with.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Mid-Day Devotion 4/5/10

2010-04-05T11:24:00.003-04:00

Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.
Romans 12:19

How often?

How often do we long for vengeance? How often do we act out of the want for revenge?

It’s hard isn’t it? To look around at this world and see the evil that men are capable of. Just when we think our capacity to be shocked has been reached, just when we think our capacity to be horrified or terrified has been arrived at and that there are few things about the nature of humanity and the darkness it can bring, we find that there really is no limit to it. It mortifies to no end as darkness is foisted upon the human soul forever ripping our innocence away from us.

So often it fails to make sense to us. But then how could it? We claim to be a civilized people, an enlightened race, and yet, amidst our ranks, there are those who have the capacity for such cruelty against their fellow man. Nothing seems right, everything seems so out of sorts, and we’re left with this lingering feeling that longs for some sense of justice…for any sense of justice in a world that just, all too often has gone mad.

There is nothing wrong with desiring justice. Amidst the wrongs of this temporal existence who doesn’t want them to be set right? Who doesn’t want them to be set straight? Who doesn’t want to see the evil come face to face with righteousness and to fall before it with no real sense of power or authority?

Yet, all too often, our longing for justice, it’s twisted and perverted in us, it is distorted and tainted within our hearts as it is changed amidst our souls. Before long justice is no longer about doing what is moral or honorable, it is not guided by an upright spirit but rather has been run aground by the desire for revenge, for a longing for vengeance, for this belief that the wicked should be struck down where they stand and left to rot where they once had, in their vanity and their hubris, claimed the strength and the power to hold life and death in their hands.

From time to time, who doesn’t want to see that?

Seeing terrorists wage their unholy wars, watching pirates take people hostage, hearing of young girls bought and sold into slavery by human traffickers, finding that in the far corners of the world genocide is still committed against people, it’s not hard to want to see these people suffer, nor is it difficult to desire to see the same pain heaped upon them that they have heaped upon others. All around us there are those who oppress their fellow man, who persecute them and bring so much pain into their lives. Who wouldn’t want to see them then have returned t them the full measure of the sorrow in which they have foisted upon others? After all, “And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.” (Luke 6:32)

Reflecting on Easter, its perhaps a good time to reflect on vengeance.

Imagine for a moment that God was driven by the same spirit, by the same urges and lusts as men. Imagine for a moment that God was driven by the same desires as we are driven by as we see evil in this world. Imagine for a moment that God repaid sin with vengeance as He took revenge upon all who transgressed against His law. Who amongst us would be safe from that wrath? Who amongst us would be free from that rage and that anger?

We may claim our sins, they are different than the iniquity of the slave traders and the tyrants, the pirates and the murderers. In our eyes and according to our laws we’re right. Our minor or petty transgressions, they are vastly different than taking hostages, making slaves or murdering innocents. Yet, in the eyes of God they’re not. Sin is sin and they all deserve the same punishment, the same fury from heaven above.

Yet, blessedly for us God, He’s not like us….

Though we were lost in our transgressions, though we were fallen in our iniquities He was merciful unto us and sent unto us redemption. Unwilling to deal with us in anger and in vengeance, He would send His only begotten son to die for us, all that we might find that our transgressions, they have been washed from us. In love He sent Christ that we would not, in anger, be sent wrath, and here we were washed from all guilt and blame as the blemishes of our souls were wiped from our hearts and we were given hope anew.

This is the mercy we are meant to emulate as we are told to be imitators of God (Ephesians 5:1), this is the love we are told to follow as we are told never to repay evil for evil (1 Peter 3:9) and that vengeance shall always belong not to us but always and forever to the Lord.

Therefore dear brothers and sisters long for justice to be done, for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven that all malice shall be set to flight. Pray for justice to come to bear in the lives of God’s people that integrity shall be restored in the lives of the captives and the slaves, the hostages and the prisoners. But never long for vengeance, never long for God to strike down our enemies or for evil to come upon them.

In humility and mercy pray for the Lord’s enlightenment to come into their lives, that they may repent and turn from their wickedness and their unrighteousness, and if their hearts are hardened to those supplications then pray that the Lord God Almighty shall remove them from the places where they claim power and authority that no longer will they have the strength to cause such harm and pain in the lives of the people.

This is then how you know that you have learned the deeper, abiding lessons of Christ as they encompass your spirit and your soul, guiding you to the true understanding of God’s nature and what it is that He has intended for us in our lives as we look to Him. Then shall His righteousness be our guides as, with a clean heart and a right spirit, we turn our trust and our hope to Him, looking to Him to guide this world to places where peace and hope do dwell in the love and the mercy, the compassion and the grace shown unto us by our Lord and our Savior Christ Jesus.

It is here that cruelty and darkness shall be chased from our hearts as love and mercy the example we offer in even the harshest of circumstances, in even the grimmest of times. Then shall we know that injustice shall be set to flight and true liberty, the liberty that frees humanity from hatred, malice and scorn, shall be the beacon by which we contend for the cause of true freedom in this world, for this world, for all of God’s beloved creation.

Lord, grant this unto us all…

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

First Prayer:

Give ear to our prayers O Lord and hide not Your face from our humblest of supplications…

Listen O God and let Your spirit guide Your people according to Your love…

Attend to the plight and the suffering of Your children as darkness encompasses them and sorrow comes so easily upon them. Let not enemies of Your divine love and Your transcending mercy rise up claiming to have the authority over the lives of Your people. Cast Your eyes upon the sorrow and the anguish that is heaped upon them and let Your compassion come to bear in their lives as they cry out for justice in a lost and fallen world.

It was through Your mercy that three cargo Dhows were released from captivity by Somali pirates. You have frustrated the plans of the unrighteous as they sought to wreck havoc upon the lives of the crews of these ships and have set them free amidst the love that You have for them.

It is in this love and this mercy that we pray for the crew of the Samho Dream now taken by pirates. Stand beside these 24 who have been ripped from their lives by wicked men of brutal iniquity and gird them with Your strength that they might have the endurance to preserver amidst the struggles that now threaten to overtake them. Stand beside these 24 and, in Your time, in Your way, set them free from the bondage that now grips them, carrying them to the places where Your hope does forever dwell, giving peace to the hurt and the afflicted, the wounded and the suffering.

Be beside them in all that they face and in that they find before them that they shall know that there is a God of Deliverance contending forever with their cause in the mercy and the compassion, the grace and the love that He has for them.

Then shall all praise be lifted to Your blessed name for the righteousness of Your justice as it comes to bear in the lives of Your people as they come to know that there is no darkness so grim that it can’t be set to flight by the hope of Your promises unto them.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Second Prayer:

Be merciful unto Your children O Lord, for this world so threatens them amidst it’s grim power and it’s dark authority that it wishes to assert over the lives of Your people.

Be merciful unto Your people O Lord, for this world so seeks to devour them as it rises up against them in iniquity and pain…

Let not Your creation suffer amidst captivity, let not the works of Your hand find sorrow in slavery, let not destitution and poverty, persecution and oppression grip them, strangling the life from them, but show that it is Your mercy that endures forever as Your love shines forth as a beacon in a dark and gloomy world.

In You shall we place the full measure of our trust…

In You shall we place the full total of our hope…

Be beside Your people in the blessed assurances of Your word that they may not be swallowed by iniquity and unrighteousness as the wicked transgress against them, casting them to pits of anguish and agony, sorrow and suffering. Give unto them Your strength where they are weak, and show unto them that Your grace shall always be sufficient for them through all the days of their lives.

It is You O Lord who can deliver the lost from death…

It is You O Lord who can release the wounded from captivity…

It is You O Lord who can liberate the slaves and the hostages, the prisoners and the captives…

It is You O Lord then that we shall praise for the righteousness of Your divine justice as we commend into Your hands their lives and trust that You shall be faithful to them, forever vigilant in their cause as You work to set them free.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Mid-Day Devotion 4/1/10

2010-04-01T12:15:00.005-04:00

“A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”
John 13:34-35

“Mandatum novum do vobis ut diligatis invicem sicut dilexi vos... A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.”

Love...

If there was only one transcending, encompassing message of Christ... if there was but one overarching idea that gave significance to the meaning of Christ’s ministry, His life and death and resurrection, His sacrifice and His offering for humanity... if there was only one guiding lesson given unto us by the Savior it was love...

It was love that sent Christ into this world... that love of God that saw a sinful and unclean race, that saw the true nature of a lost and fallen humanity, and refused to abandon it or forsake it amidst its own iniquity and sin. He would give his only begotten son to be made man, to live as we did, to suffer temptation as we did, and to carry our awful load even unto His own death, all because He loves us and desires for us to be saved from that brutal and bitter captivity to sin, death and the Devil.

It was love that Christ taught throughout His temporal existence... a love that transcended human understanding and wisdom, a love that looked past our own wants and our own needs, a love that put behind us our own selfishness or our own hurt and taught to the people that they were to love their neighbour as themselves, that taught them to love their enemies and pray for them, to love those who persecuted and oppressed them and to hold not their transgressions against them. It was a love that called on to each of us, telling us to be better, to be stronger than ourselves as we were guided by the Spirit through a world that so rarely made sense to us.

It was a love that Christ exemplified in His life... it was a love that he lived as he put everyone and everything before himself and gave of himself until there seemed like there was nothing else that was left to give. It was a love that never questioned why or complained about the burden that it placed upon Him. It was a love that never asked what was the point, no matter how far past redemption mankind may have seemed, nor did it ever grumble or moan as the true weight and measure of that love crushed Him under the sin and the sorrow of man’s iniquity as it all bore down on Him with such an awful load.

It was a love that Christ would cling to and embody even unto the most brutal of deaths.... it was a love that made His sacrifice so necessary as He knew that there was no other way to redeem the sinful and unclean from the iniquity that stained their hearts and the transgressions that bound their souls except through His sacrifice as that perfect offering, that flawless and faultless Lamb of God who would complete the law that atonement would be brought for the wickedness of humanity. It was a love that would suffer humiliation and disgrace, brutality and cruelty as the hands of men were raised against Him in the most violent of ways, and all that we might find peace and compassion, mercy and hope that would forever guide us forward.

It was a love that Christ would command unto all of us who claimed to be His disciples... who claimed the blessings of His redemption and the grace that came from His salvation.

“Mandatum novum do vobis ut diligatis invicem sicut dilexi vos... A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”

As another Holy Week is upon us and we look to the coming of Easter, that time when we mark the death and the resurrection of Christ, that triumph of our Lord and Savior, that long awaited Messiah anointed by the Lord who claimed that wondrous victory over sin, death and the Devil that we could not win by our merit or our own toils and struggles, as we mark the sacrifice of that Suffering Servant given unto us in the promises of God’s love in even the most ancient days as we were told that we would be freed from the power of the grave and the grim hold it had over us, we need to reflect upon ourselves and our lives. Do we love as Christ loved? Do we give as freely as He gave? Do we offer of ourselves as he offered of Himself? Do we live in that example given unto us by him in the love that he taught unto us?

We live in a world of brutal captivity even now...

All around us there is bondage and slavery as men and women and children are cast to the pits of despair. This world seeks to break them, it seems to tear them asunder as they are left with this lingering feeling of agony and anguish that seems to encompass them, threatening to devour them.

Whether they are held by pirates who grow bolder by the day, human traffickers who rip the innocence from their lives, brutal governments who use tyranny and oppression to suppress the people, racists who believe in the superiority of their cause, enslaving and using genocide as their weapons of choice, or rebels who commit acts of violence and brutality against others, holding people hostage and murdering to make their point, the corruption of this age chains the hearts and the minds, the bodies and the souls to hurt and hardship as turmoil and tribulation comes so easily into their lives.

Whether it is poverty that forces a family to live out of their car or choose between food or shelter, disease and sickness that eats at the body and the mind, leaving the withered frame of a person where their once stood, or the mental afflictions that can cast such a bitter and grim veil over the eyes of the people until there is nothing left but this lingering sense of darkness that seems to overtake them, the sorrow of this age destroys so many lives as it robs from the people any sense of peace or hope that they had, bring nothing but anguish and agony to mark their days.

These are those who Christ taught us to care for, to show love unto, to be compassionate towards, these are they that Christ taught us to be merciful in the lives of. These are those who our Savior taught us to make sacrifices for, to offer all that we can to as the power of the Spirit guides us to bless their lives, giving all that we can to and for that they may know the love of God made manifest through us and in us as we uplift them and edify them in all that we do for them.

Ours must always and forever look to the sacrifice of Christ and ask ourselves what more can we do, what more can we offer, what more can we give in the lives of others?

Ours must be to see the true nature of Christ and to sacrifice of ourselves, trusting that God will provide for us as we provide for others as we give of ourselves unto all who are in any sort of need...

Ours must be to pray for them, it must be to look for ways we can enter into their lives, giving unto them and the charities that help them, it must be to show them kindness and understand that healing enters into their lives as we show them that none are so lost amidst a road of despair that they can’t be guided back to a path of hope that is paved by the compassion of the Lord and the love of His blessed and beloved only begotten Son.

It is then that we can truly and rightly call ourselves the disciples of Christ as we make manifest his love in our lives through all that we are and all that we do, moving each and every day to draw Him closer to us by drawing our fellow man closer to us.

Lord, grant this unto us all.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen...

First Prayer:

Let Your love be made manifest in this lost and fallen world O Lord... let Your love be seen by all who suffer and toil, bound and chained amidst the wickedness of this age....

Let Your love shine forth in the lives of Your servants O Lord... let Your love guide them with a right heart to stand for all who need defending as sorrow and anguish come so easily into the lives of Your people...

Guide Your children from captivity, ransom them from the hands of wicked. Though the unrighteous may rise against them show unto them Your mercy and Your grace as it carries them through even these dark days of grim sorrow that grips their lives. Give them strength, gird them with courage, that perseverance shall give unto them endurance through all of their anguish and agony, that then, in Your time, according to Your love, set them free...

We have seen the great miracles, the glorious works of Your hand O Lord, we have rejoiced in the blessings You have bestowed upon Your people. We have witnessed the power of Your authority as you gave over 5 pirates to a US Warship, sinking their mother ship, freeing the innocent from that grim hold that these men would have gripped them with. We have praised Your name for the way You have revealed Yourself, making Your presence known in the lives of the people.

Rise once more O Lord... rise that liberty and love, justice and hope shall come into the lives of all others held in brutal estate and dark bondage that all shall be brought to that blessed air of freedom that You have endowed Your creation with and have wove into the integrity of their lives.

Then shall Your compassion and mercy, Your love and grace, taught unto us by Christ be the example by which we have seen the blessed assurances of Your promises and it shall teach us to be more, to do more according to the commands You have given us.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Second Prayer:

Show us Your good O Lord as we cry out for the deliverance of Your people...

Bless the creation of Your hand O Lord as we yearn for the freedom of Your children...

Bend Your ear and hear our longing as we look upon the captivity and the slavery of this age that is brought upon the lives of those who suffer and struggle. Destitution and despair, anguish and agony, suffering and sorrow come so easily into their lives O Lord and they guide for nothing more than Your love to guide them to the places where hope dwells in the blessings of Your compassion.

Let not their faith be frustrated, let not the power of wickedness claim authority over them, but lift them up by Your hand and carry them forth from these places of such hurt and pain to the comfort of Your peace amidst the blessings of Your liberty. Show unto them that Your authority reigns over their lives as You make for them a place to dwell and rest where peace shall encompass their being as Your light warms their spirits and their souls amidst the promises of Your love.

Then shall all see the miracles of Your hand, rejoicing in the wondrous mercy and the gracious compassion You have guided the lives of Your people with as You show the full measure of Your devotion unto them through all of the days of their lives.

Then shall all praise Your glorious name in the manifestation of Your love as it leads Your people to the places where Your truth does give hope and the lost are forever found.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Mid-Day Devotion 3/31/10

2010-03-31T12:30:00.004-04:00

The Crucifixion, Alonso Cano, 1640

“But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, everyone to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
Isaiah 53:5-6

No… not one….

“We have turned, everyone to his own way…”

We are all gripped by unrighteousness as sin takes ahold of our hearts and our nature is so guided by iniquity that we find it impossible to live by God’s standard, we find impossible not to transgress against the Lord, our God. It weaves through into our character as it stains our souls and we then find ourselves bound to that unfortunate and painful truth, we have separated ourselves from the Lord…

By our own thoughts, words and deeds, by what we have done and left undone we have alienated ourselves from our Heavenly Father, becoming estranged from Him as we have found ourselves travelling down a path of our own enlightenment, knowledge and wisdom.

“There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” (Romans 3:10-12)

It is such a dark captivity, such a brutal bondage, that takes ahold of us amidst our indulgences as those offenses against God stack up against us and our innocence is ripped away from us. We can feel the weight of it bearing down on us as the burden crushes us and we are left to feel the mortifying defeat and the devastation that is waged against our spirits and our souls.

There just seems to be no peace, no hope, no rest as we feel iniquities grim triumph over us as we are lead like lambs unto the slaughter. Perhaps we had been able to ignore it for a while, but as it’s conquest over us shatters us it’s not long before we find that we are left to just pick up the pieces, finding that our lives have become something we little expected and little wanted.

“God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God. Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” (Psalm 53:2-3)

Perhaps we could have been stronger, perhaps we could have been better, perhaps we could have done more, the thoughts run through our head, racing through our mind as we try to make some sort of sense of it, any sort of sense about it. We should have been able to do something about this grim oppression by sin that it wouldn’t have been able to sweep across us so quickly, laying waste to us as we tried to find the answers for this deep yearning we now find swells within us.

Yet, in that moment, we are gripped by the unavoidable truth, there was nothing that we could have done, nothing we could have offered to protect ourselves. Regardless of how strong we thought we were, regardless of the authority we thought we had, we cannot prevent the evil of this world from leading us astray at some point or another in our lives.

“For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.” (Ecclesiastes 7:10)

We all wander amidst the spiritual wilderness, finding a lonely exile has overtaken us as we search for a way back hope, for a place where hope does dwell and peace shall find itself encompassing our lives. We all are searching for some sort of answer to the sin that grips us and the hurt that seems to come to real into our lives as it seems to bring so much pain and sorrow into our lives.

We all wander amidst the spiritual wilderness, hoping to finally enter that Promised Land of those blessed assurances of hope and peace, love and compassion from our Lord…

“He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”

For every crisis of the spirit God offers an answer to the soul, for every trial of life the Lord offers an answer that transcends this temporal existence. Where the hearts and the minds of men fail there is a glorious triumph, a wondrous victory that comes through the Spirit and is guided by His love and compassion, His tender mercy and His abiding grace.

Unwilling and unable to abandon us, incapable of forsaking us even amidst our own sin and iniquity, where we feel so bound to our transgressions and to the transgressions that can be waged against us by this world, the Lord moves through our lives and in our lives to break the chains that have bound us, that have tried so desperately to suppress us with such a bitter tyranny that all may taste that sweet air of His blessed liberty, a freedom He weaves into the integrity of life of all His creation.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

It is that truth that frees even the most lost, even the most fallen amongst us, giving hope to the hurt and peace to the wounded as the healing power of God’s love comes to encompass their being. It is that truth that gives strength to even the most oppressed, even the most persecuted, who finds the grim weight of this world’s tyranny pushing down on them as it seeks to rob them of any good that God has to offer for their lives.

It is that truth that whispers unto us the abiding lesson of God’s compassion for us, as it tells us that though evil may come upon us, though sin may seek to lead us down a path we little thought or expected for our lives, there is a salvation that comes unto all over us, a salvation that will lead all of us, equally offered unto all people, regardless of who they are, regardless of what they may face, regardless of what might grip them. This is the blessed assurance that comes through Christ Jesus.

“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.” (Romans 5:8-9)

We may feel ourselves so off course from the places we had thought we might be as the spiritual warfare of this world is waged against us, we may feel ourselves taken by such despair as anguish and agony forces us to cry out and we find that little in our lives make sense. Yet his isn’t the end of our story. God is there for us, regardless of what we may think of the world around us, to give us the endurance and the strength, the courage and the ope that we need to persevere even against the worst that this world has to offer.

In Christ, through his encompassing sacrifice, we are given more than hope in that love as we are reconciled onto God and the truth of His nature encompasses us. In Christ, through his transcending miracle, we are given more than hope as we find the promises that the Lord has made unto us is enough to always and forever carry us through.

Whatever you may feel, whatever this world may wage against you, whatever darkness seems to come upon you, whatever pain threatens to engulf you, find your strength in the Lord, find your courage in Christ, find your perseverance in the Spirit and know that our God, who loves you and cares for you will always and forever carry you through that nothing but His compassion shall be able to claim any authority over you.

Lord, grant this unto us all…

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen…

First Prayer:

O Lord, our God, in You shall we take refuge, in You shall we find peace…

O Lord, our God, it is You who shall be our shelter and our fortress, our ever present help in all danger…

Save and deliver Your people from that which seeks to devour them, deliver them from all who seek to persecute them and bind them by the oppression that comes amidst unrighteousness as they seek to claim the power and the authority over this life and the lives of those whom You have promised to protect.

Rescue Your children from that which seeks to rip them apart, release them from all who bring bondage and captivity as they seek to enslave Your creation lest Your people fall by the sword amidst the sin and the iniquity that can be waged against them, finding there is no hope for them in this world.

Let not Your enemies persecute the souls of those eleven on board the Al-Barari who were taken captive by Pirates, let them not tread upon the spirits of these men now ripped from their homes, but cast upon them the power of Your Spirit that they might be girded by Your strength and given hope by Your love. Guide them by Your compassion that they might find endurance amidst this worlds darkest trials that they may dwell in the peace of Your grace in even the harshest of tribulations that would threaten to overtake them.

Arise then O Lord, and when Your will designs it set them to freedom amidst the blessings of Your transcending liberty that they may be delivered from all that would seek to overtake them.

Then shall all the world marvel at Your justice as You show the full measure of Your faithfulness as You contend with the cause of Your people and pour forth Your love in this lost and fallen world.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Second Prayer:

Our defense is in You O Lord….

The strength of our deliverance, the hope of freedom, the blessings of liberty, they come amidst the integrity that You have given to the life that You have created, the life that You have formed by Your hand as You show that You and only You offer the salvation that is needed to break the bonds of evil in this world.

Draw then the wickedness of the wicked to an end and let not the unrighteousness of the unrighteous claim the authority and the power over this world. Let not this age be engulfed by the darkness that can be brought against it as captivity and bondage, slavery and persecution, oppression and tyranny are waged against the hearts and the souls, the bodies and the minds of the people. Let not poverty and destitution, sickness and disease claim the lives of Your people as they are left to a grim estate and a painful agony that overtakes them, but guide them in truth and give unto them hope that it may encompass their spirits in the love You have for them.

Our defense is in You O Lord…

It is in You that we shall trust through all of the days of our lives as we put our full confidence in the blessed assurances that You are the God of those who suffer and find sorrow so near at hand. Draw nigh to those who yearn for hope, those who long for freedom, those who cry out for justice, that liberty might come upon them and guide them to the places of promise where You do dwell as the refuge for the lost, the fortress for the weak, and the rock for the weary that all may come to rest in the green pastures of Your blessed mercy and transcending love through all the days of their lives.

Our defense is in You O Lord, in this shall we always place our faith as we put our reliance in You and You guide our confidence to those places of Your wondrous rest…

Our defense is in You O Lord, and we shall sing Your praises according to Your righteousness as we rejoice forever in Your Holy name.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Mid-Day Devotion 3/30/10

2010-03-30T12:32:00.002-04:00

The Raising of the Cross, Peter Paul Reubens, 1620-21

“He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.”
Isaiah 53:3-4

The humiliation and the scorn, the suffering and the sorrow, the pain and the misery.... through even the days of greatest anguish and agony, as He was stricken, smitten and afflicted, as He was rejected by men and given over to the worst bondage and the greatest captivity that this world had to offer.

Imagine...

Close your eyes and imagine for a moment the Son of God, the long awaited Messiah, that prophet sent by the Lord, holy and blessed, whipped by the Roman soldiers until His back was bloodied and bruised. Imagine His arms growing weak under Him, His legs losing all strength as He collapsed to the ground, as it cracked against Him, leaving scars that cut so deep. Imagine them nailing Him to the cross, the pound of that hammer against those wooden nails that pierced His skin, driving into Him to hold him up on two planks of wood, and then imagine him being left on that hill to die like that, disgraced, and dishonoured, mocked and ridiculed as the people watching sneered at His groaning and His pain in such bitter contempt and disdain.

So many hands would be raised against him, seeking his downfall and his demise, so many would seek his fall and now, finding it complete, would find so much pleasure in it. They would watch, refusing to help, refusing to offer anything to him, gambling away his clothing and insulting him as he hung. Even his friends would disown him, rejecting him, out of fear pretending as if they had no idea who this Jesus of Nazareth was or that they hadn’t been with him for the past over three years.

In the end, He would die on that cross.... but then how was that to surprise any of us. For those crucified, it wasn’t a matter of if they died, but rather how long until they did die. And those who took too long to die, the Romans would deliver one last blow against to send them to the grave.

It’s hard to even imagine...

Yet even in something that seemed so senseless, God had a plan and a design. The suffering and the sorrow, the anguish and the agony of Christ wasn’t for nothing. It had a purpose amidst the greater and grander design of life as it served as a sacrifice to free all men from the dark hold of sin, death and the Devil. It granted an abiding liberty, that no longer would people be held captive to the grave, but that finally they would be given the chance to rise above and find hope in a world that has a tendency to, at times, seem so hopeless and devoid of peace amidst the sorrow that it can bring into their lives.

From the death of Christ to our present age a lot may have changed in the world, but there are some things that never quite do. The world, in the suffering that it can bring can still seem so senseless, so without purpose and futile as anguish and agony comes into the lives of the people. There can be times when people are taken for no real reason than they can be, and they can be subjected to the worst that this world has to offer as they are wounded and broken by the rise of man’s iniquity and unrighteousness.

Still, even in that, as it seems so meaningless, God can have a purpose and a design and He can work through even the darkest of days, even the deepest of sorrows that can encompass a person’s life to make it more than what it seems. Though He doesn’t bring the trials and the temptations, the turmoil and the tribulation that comes with captivity and bondage, slavery and persecution, He can and does offer a deeper meaning to it as He carries His people forward, offering strength and courage to them that they may find the perseverance to endure all that this world can foist upon them.

That is the truth of God’s word, a blessed assurance that He has offered unto His people from generation to generation as this world has claimed the lives of His saints and apostles, disciples and prophets, those blessed martyrs who, in their faith, were guided and guarded against even the darkest of days that sought to so encompass their lives and devour them amidst the suffering that they felt. That is the miracle of God’s truth, a wondrous promise He has made unto His people from even the earliest of days as this world waged spiritual warfare against the weak and the innocent, the poor and the disenfranchised alike, seeking to break them, to crush them under its weight with the burdens that it can bring.

It’s here then that we realize that though there was never really and truly a sorrow or a suffering that was as great as that of Christ’s, there is still hurt and hardship that can try to claim our souls and wreak havoc upon our spirits, but that, even in that, there is a strength that comes from our Lord that will carry even the most lost, even the most broken of people through as it gives unto them the ultimate victory, the ultimate triumph, that conquest of the soul that comes through the love, the grace and the mercy of the Almighty as His compassion comes to bear in their lives.

Look then to the sacrifice of Christ, to the suffering and the sorrow of our Lord and Savior as he was stricken, smitten and afflicted by the hand of this world and know that the same strength that girded Him amidst that pain is the same strength that gird’s God’s children in the hurt that would seek to overtake them.

Know then the sacrifice of Christ, that darkness and that anguish that overtook our Messiah as those hands were raised against Him and He found the contempt of this world cutting into Him, and know that the same courage that sheltered Him is the same courage that shalters all of God’s people through all that would try to devour them.

Understand then the love of Christ, that love that showed through even as agony engulfed Him as He was subjected to the worst of His age and this world, and know that that even as His meagre and grim estate tried to encompass Him, in love God set out a plan even for that brutality that tried to break Him. It is the same for the lives of all of His people, regardless of what it is that they face, regardless of what they might suffer.

Look, know and understand as the truth of God’s righteousness then guides you through this world and in this world, that it may give you hope in this age to trust in Him and hold fast to His promises knowing that this world and the things in it are fleeting, but that His love... His love shall always and forever set His people free...

Lord, grant this enlightenment unto us all...

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen...

First Prayer:

Bend Your ear O Lord and hear our voices...

Bend Your ear O Lord and give weight unto our longing...

Contend with the voice of our cries O Lord, our God and our Deliverer, for unto You do we pray with the full measure of our devotion and faithfulness to Your word and Your truth.

You are a God who takes no pleasure in wickedness, nor do You delight in transgressions, iniquity is far from Your design as evil finds no refuge in You. Yet Lord, the workers of unrighteousness find strength in this world and they find authority in this age. Hostages are taken, captives are made, people are enslaved and persecution encompasses as tyranny and oppression break the spirit and wound the soul.

Cast Your gaze upon the affairs of men and see the wickedness that is done, look upon the faces of those who suffer and find that sorrow is so near at hand and let them not stand alone in this world that brings such contempt as it is heaped upon their lives.

See the 120 who have been kidnapped on those 8 ships hijacked over the weekend and hear their cries, hear our intercessions for them as they yearn for freedom against a bitter darkness that has been waged against them. Let them not be cast from Your presence, but lift Your Holy Hand to them and lead them from their grim estate to those places of liberty that You have promised in the blessed assurances of Your Holy Word.

Heal them of their longing and their sorrow, O Lord, by the justice that shall always come by Your hand and through Your hand and lead them to the places where Your love does dwell that they shall find that peace and hope has encompassed their lives as Your compassion comes to bear through all that they are and all that they face.

Then shall all rejoice in Your mercy as they dwell in the promises of Your hope, led to the places of promise that You have assured unto Your people in the love and grace and compassion You have for them.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Second Prayer:

Unto Your people be merciful O Lord...

Unto Your children be merciful and show forth Your divine love in the hope that You have promised through the blessings of Your Holy Word O Lord.

Through this world there is suffering and sorrow, anguish and agony as captivity and bondage comes so near in the lives of the people, and darkness comes to encompass the lives of the weak and the innocent, the poor and the disenfranchised, the wounded and the afflicted. They long for deliverance and find that there is none from this age and from this world as they are held in grim estate amidst the sin and the iniquity, the hurt and the unrighteousness that would seek to so destroy them where they stand.

Be then their rock of ages, be then their firm foundation to which they can hide themselves amidst, giving unto them the shelter that they so long for amidst this world in the hope that You can bring for their lives. Grant unto them perseverance and endurance and uplift them by the strength of Your might that mercy shall finally come to bear once more in their lives and they are carried to the places of freedom where Your peace shall always dwell amidst the liberty that You have intended for Your people.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Mid-Day Devotion 3/29/10

2010-03-29T13:06:00.009-04:00

Raising of the Daughter of Jairus, Paolo Veronese, 1546

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:8-9

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways.”

If it were left to men, that tortured and afflicted soul that had been possessed by the Gerasene Demon Legion would have remained in the wilderness amidst the anguish and the agony that had so overtaken him. He would have never returned home, alone, exiled from the place where he grew up, from the family he loved, from everything he had ever known. He would have died tormented by the presence of evil in his life as it destroyed him, body and mind, spirit and soul until there was nothing left but the broken frame of a man who lost everything and spent the course of his remaining years weeping and longing for something he had lost so long ago (Mark 5:1-5).

“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

As the eyes of the Savior beheld this man, He knew he couldn’t leave him in the clutches of such wickedness as darkness and despair encompassed him, devouring him whole with no thought or consideration as to who this man was or deeper yearnings of his soul. He could not leave him to just die in a cave somewhere, desperate to end his life that finally the turmoil and the tribulation of this suffering and sorrow would finally be drawn to end and he would, in some way, find the peace that had been so robbed of him as those demons took a hold of his spirit and his soul.

Christ would heal him. He would chase the demons from his body, destroying them, and giving this man the second chance at life that he had never thought he would be given and in that moment the burdens and the weight of that life would be lifted from him. Through the power of God, Jesus would do what no other man could, what the wisdom and the enlightenment of man had thought impossible. He freed him to once more live (Mark 5:6-20).

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways.”

Had it been left to the enlightenment of men, the daughter of Jairus would have been buried long before her time, having died, filling the lives of her family with pain and sorrow, tears and hardship as they struggled to find a reason for all of this. They had seen the body with no trace of life in it, with no hint of life left to it, now they couldn’t understand why this elder had such a hard time letting go. His daughter was gone, there was nothing left for him to do but to mourn. Yet he couldn’t seem to do that, he couldn’t seem to let go even as they knew that death was final, from which there was no escape (Mark 5:35).

“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts”

He could leave him to suffer... not like this, not as He knew there was more for her, not while He knew that there was meant to be more time for her. Looking into Jairus’ eyes, Jesus saw the pain and the sorrow, the hurt and the longing, as He whispered the words to him, “Be not afraid, only believe.”

The force of those words may have come instantly, or it may have come a short time later when he saw the full force of what Christ had done for him; whenever they did it had to dawn on him the full power and the authority of this man. Here was someone who had strength over the grave, as he did what none had ever been able to do, as he did what had seemed so impossible. Maybe he expected that he could, maybe he had just thought that this prophet of God could just make some sense out of what seemed so senseless, but whatever he had imagined probably could have never prepared him for the joy that overtook him when he saw the full measure of Jesus’ love had to far exceed anything he had ever imagined. His daughter was alive, given life when it seemed like there was only death (Mark 5:36-43).

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

The miracle of God’s love, the wondrous blessing of Christ’s compassion, the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives is that even in the improbable, even in the impossible there is so much that our Lord is capable of as He shows unto us mercy, proving to us that His grace is always sufficient and that it shall always give unto us according to our needs. Yes, the situation may seem hard and harsh, our lives may seem like they are given over to the worst of trials and the greatest of turmoil, yet that is never the end of God’s story. No matter what the bondage, no matter what the captivity or the torment, no matter what the struggle, He is there to heal us and to care for us, to give us a second chance at life that we had always hoped for but that the world had always told us was impossible for us.

That is the abiding expectation, the blessed assurances of His Word, that is the wondrous marvel of Christ’s transcending love as we are given in a new hope as we are made into a new creation in the faithfulness of God’s devotion. This is what we must put our trust in, knowing that pain is fleeting and despair shall soon be set to flight as the desires of our heart for peace and the anticipation of our spirits for solace shall be fulfilled in the deepest of wishes from our Heavenly Father for His grace to encompass our being.

Trust in that promise, trust in that hope, even as the world tells unto you that your faith is in vain and those things that you hope for will never come, for their shall come a time and a day when the Lord shall reveal himself in truth and in righteousness amidst your life and the lives of all who cry out to Him in the suffering that they feel. It is then that healing shall come as the lost shall be found, the fallen shall be uplifted and the broken shall be healed, strength beyond compare shall be made manifest in the spirit and the soul shall sing forever the praises to the Almighty for the firmness of the devotion and the vigilance that He showed in the lives of His people even as the world thought it unimaginable the wonders of the miracles that He could work through the power of His authority...

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Lord, grant this trust unto us all...

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Prayer:

Higher than ours...

So much higher than ours are Your thoughts O Lord, and so much greater than ours are Your ways as they reveal Your transcending truth and Your righteousness in a lost and fallen world.

Through the virtue and the uprightness of those ways Lord we have seen the wonders of Your miracles as they have been made manifest in the lives of Your people. We have seen them in the joy of the family of Issa Salomi, that contractor held in Iraq these long months, as he was set free by those who held him, ripping him from his life and his home. We have seen in the release of Corporal Josue Daniel Calvo by FARC rebels as he has been given a second chance at life, free of the bondage and the captivity that reigned over his life as hope seemed so far distant, so far removed from him.

Your hand moves through this world and it works wondrous deeds that few thought possible. For that we cannot help by raise our voices in praise and thanksgiving to You for the miracles and the wonders that You work as hope is restored and peace that once seemed so elusive is given to even the most tortured of souls.

Work then these same miracles in the lives of others Lord, show forth Your ways in the heart and the minds, the spirits and the souls of all who are held captive and prisoner throughout the world. Give hope to those who thought it faded until there was nothing but hopelessness, heal those who find themselves wounded and broken by the presence of evil in this world, and let Your righteousness shine forth as it works through the lives of the people in the most significant of ways to bring freedom and liberty into their lives.

Into the lives of the crew, those 24 from the MV Iceberg 1, bring them that hope Lord. Strengthen and preserve them that they may with endurance persevere through all the trials that they are now forced to face, being taken prisoner and held hostage by pirates, as it seems as if it is impossible for them to escape the meager estate they are held in, as darkness comes to bear in their lives. Free them, free them amidst the love that You have for them that they may praise Your name for the wondrous deeds that You do, and for the marvels of Your wondrous hand as it moves through this world.

Then shall all marvel at Your ways, knowing how far above ours they truly are as they weave through this world to encompass the lives of all those in need or in trouble.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Mid-Day Devotion 3/26/10

2010-03-26T12:26:00.002-04:00

The Triumph of Jehosephat, Josephe Flavius, 1470

“To morrow go ye down against them: behold, they come up by the cliff of Ziz; and ye shall find them at the end of the brook, before the wilderness of Jeruel. Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the LORD with you, O Judah and Jerusalem: fear not, nor be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them: for the LORD will be with you. And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground: and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell before the LORD, worshipping the LORD.”
2 Chronicles 20:16-18

The armies were raised and now they marched....

In many senses they had to seem like they were an unstoppable force. They had crossed the seas and reached Hazazon Tamar without warning, (2 Chronicles 20:1-2) and now… now as word come to Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, he had to wonder how it was that his nation would survive from this united attack from the Moabites and the Ammonites as their armies stretched across the distant horizon, closer each and every day to the seat of power and the inevitable victory that they had to feel so assured of.

He knew that he had to raise the armies of Judah and that they had to meet Moab and Ammon on the battlefield, he knew they had to go before they had marched too far, before they reached the capital, before they surrounded the palace and demanded surround, before his people were given up to slavery without even a whimper. Yet, even as he realized this, he would know that defeat was at hand. He didn’t have time to prepare his people, he didn’t have time to ready his armies, they would have to march immediately, and, as they did, it had to strike him how many of them wouldn’t be returning home, as, by such a cruel twist of fate, they would, without the time to even properly prepare, be cut down on those fields just out of the sights of their homes, never to return again.

There was nothing left for him to do… there was nothing left for him that he could do….

There was nothing left to him but prayer….

“O LORD God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee? Art not thou our God, who didst drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham thy friend for ever? And they dwelt therein, and have built thee a sanctuary therein for thy name, saying, If, when evil cometh upon us, as the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we stand before this house, and in thy presence, (for thy name is in this house,) and cry unto thee in our affliction, then thou wilt hear and help. And now, behold, the children of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom thou wouldest not let Israel invade, when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turned from them, and destroyed them not; Behold, I say, how they reward us, to come to cast us out of thy possession, which thou hast given us to inherit. O our God, wilt thou not judge them? for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee.” (2 Chronicles 20:6-12)

In this, his deepest hour of need, the deepest hour of need for His people, Jehoshaphat wouldn’t spend the final moments in preparation for war, nor would he spend his final seconds before the armies had to march drawing out plans and creating strategies. No, in that moment, as fate seemed to ride so heavily upon him and his nation, as fear gripped them and they were left to wonder for how long they would be allowed to stand fast as free men and women, he would go before the gathered assemblies of Judah and he would raise his voice, and the voice of the nation to the Lord, taking the weight from their hearts, the burdens now upon their shoulders, the struggles that now afflicted their spirits and place them before the throne of God at the feet of the Almighty.

A God of deliverance… the living God who delivered Israel from the hands of Egypt, who led His people to that land of promise amidst the tender love of His gracious mercy, He would not abandon them now as this hour of bitter trial and brutal turmoil was so near at hand. He would not fail them as captivity seemed so near and slavery threatened to strangle the life from them. Without a sword being raised, without a drop of Judah’s blood being shed, the Lord would hand the day to His people as He came upon their enemies and they were given to their worst rivalries with one another and their unity was shattered before the power and the authority of the Lord God Almighty.

Peace would come to Judah… (2 Chronicles 20:22-30)

There are times amidst this life when evil is on the march and iniquity is raised up against the people. The force that it brings, it slips through without us noticing until it has reached places we never thought it would go and terror is extended to places we least suspected. In those moments it’s not hard to find fear gripping us in the most significant of ways as we are left to wonder for how long it will be that freedom remains in the lives of the people who find themselves in the way of such unrighteousness. They are taken captive as they are made into hostages and slaves, they are bound by chains as they are persecuted and oppressed and dark subjugation amidst the brutal tyranny that can be inflicted by men as they wage their wars against the hearts and the souls, the spirits and the minds of the weak and the innocent, the poor and the destitute, and hold them in such grim estate.

Yet there is a promise from the Lord. It is the same that would carry forward Jehoshaphat and the children of Judah and it extends to us today.

When we put our trust in the Lord… when we look to the wickedness of this world and the rise of evil and we raise our voices to God in humility to His will, deliverance shall come to His people in the most significant of ways as hope is restored in a lost and fallen world. In those times He will rise up for the cause of His people and show unto them His devotion and His faithfulness as He gives endurance and perseverance. Then, in His time, in His way, a way that transcends all human understanding, He shall restore freedom and liberty amidst the justice that shall only come by the power of His hand and the authority of His will.

We may fret, we may feel a deep longing in our souls as we look to the impeding threat of unrighteousness and iniquity, we may cry out as we see the wickedness that is inflicted and the anguish that is caused, but God, who is loving and compassionate, is stronger and more powerful than all of these forces. Though we may not see a way to stop it’s grim advances, He does, and He is at work in this world, weaving through it according to His divine will and His tender mercy for His children to show that whatever the force, whatever the struggle, He is there making the weak strong, and showing that His grace shall always be sufficient as justice is restored and hope is assured in the lives of His people.

Trust in that, whatever the struggle, whatever the challenge and you shall never be frustrated as peace comes to His people and liberty is endowed upon them by His gracious precepts.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen….

First Prayer:

Hear our prayers, O Lord, and bend Your ear to our supplications with the full measure of Your devotion, be faithful to Your children and cast upon them Your Spirit of righteousness that hope shall guide their lives and mercy shall follow them through all of their days.

Enemies of Your love persecute. They rise up from their places of darkness, they lift their heads like the serpent and they roar like the lion, as they bite at the heel of Your people and seek to devour them amidst their wicked transgressions. They bring captivity Lord, and slavery follows near behind them as persecution grips the lives of Your children and their spirits… their spirits are overwhelmed by anguish.

We remember Lord that in those days of old, in those ancient of days, You delivered Your people from the hands of their enemies, from the grip of those who oppressed them and sought to usurp Your will through bitter bondage. With our arms outstretched to You we pray for a restoration of that divine deliverance, a restoration of that divine justice as we flee to You seeking and imploring Your grace in the lives of Your people.

Be not far from them O Lord and let not them fall by the hand of wickedness and evil. In mercy break the chains that bind the spirit and the soul, the body and the mind, and set to flight the destitution and the despair, the anguish and the agony that come from these hidden places where darkness lurks. Destroy the wickedness that encompasses the hearts of men and free them of the hatred that would hold the lives of Your creation in such contempt. Bring freedom to the afflicted and hope to the hopeless that mercy shall transcend their meager estate to restore unto them the joy of Your compassion and love.

Hear us O Lord, and bend Your ear to our supplication that Your name shall be raised on high as praise is lifted from the mouths of the people for the love and the mercy that comes through Your divine hand as it leads Your people from the darkness to the light.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Second Prayer:

We cry out to You O Lord with all the strength of our soul…

We cry out to You O Lord with all the hope of our spirits…

Be not far distant from our supplications, nor be far off from the yearning of our hope as we show forth the trouble that has afflicted this lost and fallen world.

Be the refuge of the lost and the fallen, be the shelter for the hurt and the afflicted, let not sorrow encompass their lives, let not pain be their companion, let not slavery and captivity engulf their lives, but hear their names, see their faces, and feel their suffering, for in the darkness that so encompasses them they long for Your justice and Your mercy to come upon their lives and guide them from these days of trouble and turmoil that so try the soul.

Bring their spirits from prison, bring their hearts from oppression, lead them by Your love as You draw them close to You in the hope of those promises You have made unto them. Assure them that Your mercy shall carry them through and give them the endurance that they need to stand with courage and strength through all that this world may seek to afflict them with. Let not their journeys end here but show unto them the path to those safe shores of Your love that they may dwell forever in Your grace as hope is restored to the hopeless and peace is brought to bear in their lives.

Then shall all know Your righteousness as evil is set to flight and Your goodness is praised for the love that it has shown even in the darkest of days, even in the times of the deepest of troubles.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Mid-Day Devotion 3/25/10

2010-03-25T12:43:00.002-04:00

Job's Tormentors, William Blake, 1793

“Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.”
James 5:11

“What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10)

It’s a wonder at times how Job endured all that was thrust upon him amidst his life. Righteous and humble, he honoured the Lord in all that he was and all that he did, careful in every step that he took to not only live by the commands that the Lord had handed down, but to respect them and cherish them in his heart as well.

Yet none of it could stop the worst from coming into his life as he looked upon the ruin that had surrounded him. He lost everything... fortune, family, and now even the esteem of his wife as she told him to just curse God and die. His health would soon fail, and even those he trusted and needed in his hour of deepest need provided no comfort to him as it had to feel as if they just didn’t understand. But then how could they? During the long course of their lives none of them had come face to face with the challenges and the adversity that Job now stood before as darkness and despair threatened to swallow him whole.

It had to be a wonder how he could face life at all as he was left destitute, the victim of a spiritual war between good and evil that had been waged generations, lifetimes before he was even conceived. It all had to seem like it was just too much, like the load was too heavy, the burden too great for him to bear. It had to seem as if fate and time had played some sort of cruel joke on him as he was given everything, only to watch it slip through his grasp as it seemed to all fade off into the distance, far from his sight.

Hope was fleeting, peace had abandoned him and he was left with nothing more than what had to seem like nothing more than the depression and the longing that cried out from his spirit for some sort of answer for the soul.

Yet, despite it all he found a knowledge and a wisdom even in those darkest days of his life that transcended the temporal understanding to offer unto him some sort of solace, some sort of comfort even as anguish and agony were so near at hand...

Yes, God did love him, and in his final days he knew that, in faith, he would see the full measure of his devotion to His Lord as he would look upon His face, standing before His throne in the flesh. Redemption would come as his righteousness would receive the full measure of that heavenly reward that came but by the grace of God unto His children. Still, despite that love, he lived amidst a world so often prone to sin and iniquity as men, in malice and pain, transgressed against man, and where little seemed fair or right. It would be in that truth that he would find his endurance and his strength as he was given the ability to persevere even as his world seemed to crumble beneath him, casting him to a pit of despair.

This was the endurance of Job...

This was the strength of that righteous man of Uz through all of the trials and the tribulation that this world could foist upon him as it sought to rob him of everything of the spirit and the soul, the body and the mind, leaving him destitute and broken, the shattered frame of the man he once was.

Unto all of us God gives that same strength, He gives that same courage as He promises us that His grace will forever and always be sufficient for us, as He promises us that where we are weak there He will be strong (2 Corinthians 12:7-10). Unto all of us God gives that same authority, He gives that same power to overcome as He promises to shelter us from the storms of this world and uplift us in His transcending, encompassing love.

At times it may seem as if we are cast to the depth of despair as captivity and bondage, slavery and persecution wage that war of tyranny over the hearts of the people, seeking to destroy them with the terror and the horror and the evil that it brings. Yet, at these times, God’s mercy, it shines through in ways we had never expected, in ways we could have never imagined, that our path may be made clear and our direction lit, knowing that we are being carried forward by Him who loved us. This is the promise of His Word given in even the most ancient of days, in even the most ancient of trials and carried forward from generation to generation to encompass our lives.

We may not understand the true nature or the true measure of the evil or of the wickedness and unrighteousness that is heaped upon the people. But then how could we? Why would we? Our old Adversary wants to keep that carefully hidden, knowing that to expose the truth of it is to expose his presence and his weaknesses in our lives. Yet God sees through all of it as if it was crystal clear in its transparency so that He can show unto us the true face of that which stands before us. All that we can, like Job before us, endure as we accept the good while living with the evil, knowing that it is fleeting from our lives amidst the hope that God gives unto us in His blessed assurance.

Find then that endurance in your life, and pray for others to find it in theirs, regardless of the trial or the tribulation that they are forced to endure. Let God uplift you in all that you are and uplift others, edifying and nourishing them, remembering them in your intercessions to the Lord, knowing that He will forever and always be the guiding light that gives hope on to this lost and fallen world even as the moments of turmoil and hurt are upon us.

It is then that you will find the capacity to rejoice even as it seems as if everything around you is fading, for you will know the full measure of God’s love and the full measure of His reward for you as you find the strength and the capacity to carry on even when you least suspect that you had that ability within Your life. For it is here that you will find the endurance of Job amidst that deeper compassion, mercy and grace that comes from the hand of the Lord in your life.

Lord, grant this strength and endurance unto us all...

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen....

First Prayer:

The calling of Your Word compels us O Lord, hear our prayers...

The assurances of Your Promises gives us hope O Lord, hear our prayers...

The faithfulness of Your devotion shows us Your love O Lord, hear our prayers and have mercy upon Your children.

Guide them through this temporal existence, showing forth Your compassion in the lives of those who are in need. Be the rock of refuge in the lives of Your people, showing unto them that whatever the storm, whatever the adversity, there is an ever-vigilant God contending with their cause, giving the full measure of His commitment to the protection of their lives.

Throughout the world there is grim bondage and brutal captivity as life, that precious gift given by You as a deep and abiding blessing that we are to cherish, is held cheap and with contempt. Oppression and tyranny, persecution and slavery burden the hearts and the minds, the spirits and the souls as they wage their horrific war against the peace and the comfort of those promises of liberty, freedom, justice and equality that are poured forth from Your lips to the generations of saints and martyrs who have given all in the sacred trust that You held with them.

Show unto the unrighteousness of this age, the unrighteousness of all ages, that You stand firm in Your virtue and Your uprightness, bringing hope to the hopeless, and solace to those who find peace so fleeting. Show unto the wicked of this world that You are a righteous judge whose will stands opposed to the evil that can be inflicted against the weak and the innocent, the needy and destitute. Show unto the bringers of pain and sorrow, suffering and anguish that they stand opposed to Your divine hand and that, when they do, there is no place where they can hide from Your divine justice as it comes to bear in the lives of Your people.

Then shall freedom come to the captives and the slaves, then shall hope be restored to the hostages and the prisoners and all shall rejoice in the blessed hope that can and does only come by You and through You amidst the deeper calling of Your Spirit as it leads us to the places where hope does dwell and liberty shall forever reign as we rest in the green pastures of Your divine love.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Second Prayer:

In the quiet of the moment O Lord do we hear the cries and the calls of the poor and the afflicted, the captives and the slaves, the hostages and the prisoners, the afflicted and the destitute who draw breath but find that life has been robbed from them. They yearn for freedom, they desire nothing more than hope, they long for something, for anything to encompass their lives that finally liberty will carry them from these places they now find themselves to the places of Your promises, where hope forever shall dwell.

In the quiet of the moment O Lord, do we hear their tears as they ask “For how long?” In these instances we wonder the same, “For how long will they be left to the wickedness and the transgressions of this age? For how long will they be left to the sin and the iniquity of this world? For how long will they suffer amidst the pain and the sorrow that they now feel encompass their lives, devouring them whole?”

It is then Lord that we raise our voices to You in the promises You have given, in the promises of those assurances that You have given unto Your people, unto all people as You proclaimed Yourself the God of Deliverance and the God of the poor and needy, the God of the captives and the slaves.

Let not them suffer, them not then languish in such grim estate and such brutal darkness, let them not fall by the spiritual or the temporal sword that would seek to rob them of all that they are and all that they hope to be. Gird them with Your strength and give them Your endurance that they might persevere in all trials and all tribulation. Give them the sword of Your righteousness that they may slay all fear and doubt, all anguish and agony that comes upon them in these, the days of chaos and pain that so engulf them. Then, in Your time, in Your way, set them free from all that so inflicts them amidst the affliction and the sorrow that they feel.

It is then that we will know the truth of Your Word has come to bear in this lost and fallen world and hope shall be found, even as it seems that this world is set ablaze as wickedness and unrighteousness is set to flight by Your divine and holy hand in the promises You have made unto Your people, even in the most ancient of days, in the love and the compassion, the mercy and the grace that You have for them.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Mid-Day Devotion 3/24/10

2010-03-24T12:40:00.002-04:00

Icon of St. James the Just, Martyr

“Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”
James 1:12

Kneeling there, the first stone cracked against his skin, then the second, then the third...

Even before he was ever dragged before the Sanhedrin, he knew what the events of his life would culminate in. He knew that they play out until finally this moment, unavoidable and inescapable in its inevitability, would finally be upon him. He might not have known when or how, Stephen had been stoned, (Acts 7:58-60) James, son of Zebedee, like John the Baptist before him, was beheaded (Acts 12:1-2), while Jesus had been crucified, hung from that wounded cross for the world to see and for the unbelievers to mock as they pointed and laughed at the fate of this man called the Christ until his final breath escaped his lungs (Mark 15:25-37), but long ago his fate had been decided.

There was no doubt they could hear the crashing of those rocks hitting his skin as the skin and the bones broke. They could see the blood drain from the open wounds as it poured out unto the ground, staining the dirt and the soil as it flowed like a stream from his bruised and wounded body. In those moments it was perhaps difficult for him not to cry out as the moments seemed to turn to hours and the hours to days as He felt the sting of each stone hitting him, the last never quite numbing the pain as the sensations ran through his body.

It could have been an easier life for him, he might have thought, if he had, at the ascension of Christ, just gone home and perhaps become a carpenter like his father. Maybe he could have taken a wife, had a child or two, and lived out the remainder of his days in the peace and the comfort of a quiet life, until finally, in bed, surrounded by those he loved, he would be called home. Yet here he was, seized amidst the lawlessness that gripped Jerusalem by the Sanhedrin, and charged, sentenced to death before anybody could have done anything for him.

They had given him the chance to renounce, yet, just as he couldn’t have gone back home, he couldn’t find it in him to deny the truth, not even to save his own life. “Christ himself sitteth in heaven, at the right hand of the Great Power, and shall come on the clouds of Heaven,” would be the final words he would speak to that council before his sentence would be proclaimed. But then before he ever was dragged in, before he ever stood before them, before his death was ever announced by that Council, the words escaping his lips, hanging heavily in the air he knew...

“I beseech Thee, Lord God our Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” would be the last words that would escape James’ lips. A moment later one of the Priests, in hearing the prayer of the Apostle, would cry out, “Cease, what do ye? The just man is praying for us”

An instant after the words of the Priest were even spoken, as if in a flash, there would be the sound of a loud thump as another took his staff and it cracked against the skull of James. His body crumbled, whatever life was left in him drained and, as quickly as he was first thrown to the ground it was all over.

There was no account of James’ funeral, or if any even claimed his body, for all we have been told of his death, for all we really know he was left in that spot where he died, in a pool of his own blood, his body rotting until finally it was taken from the street and given some burial someplace, where nobody knew, where nobody, but God Himself could find him.

But that was the deeper testimony of the faith of James, for though he found himself persecuted and oppressed, though he found the moment of captivity and bondage were upon him in the most significant of ways, he knew that the moments of darkness were fleeting and that soon he would be carried to the glorious light of God’s eternal love. There was nothing in life, there was nothing heaped upon him or taken away from him, that could rob him of that assurance that he found in the deeper promises of God’s peace and love as hope, in even the most trying of circumstances, encompassed his life.

It perhaps would have been the easiest thing in the world for him, when he found himself before the Sanhedrin or as he was cast to the streets, when the first stone hit his body, for him to cry out in the pain and the misery, the despair and the sorrow that now had to so engulfed him. It perhaps would have been the easiest of things in the world for him to scream out at the top of his lungs, “God, why doest thou tempt me with such evil? Why doest thou entice me with such wickedness to renounce thy Holy Name?” Yet, even then, he couldn’t because He knew that such suffering, and such pain did not come from the Lord, only the ultimate freedom that would finally realize a person from all the anguish and the agony that this life could heap upon them.

James is the example for us to live by and to be led by in this world...

There are times in our lives, and in the lives of others, where calamity hits and the challenges that lay ahead seek to rob us of all peace and comfort, all joy and happiness from our lives. They come with bitter captivity and harsh bondage, and ultimately even death, as it seems as if there is no escaping that sense of fate that has been heaped upon us.

We may cry out to God, yearning for something, for anything to engulf our life and to transcend the pain and the sorrow, the suffering and the hurt that we feel in these moments. We may cry out “God, why is it that You let this happen? Why do you let people suffer in such agony? Why?” We may do so as we wonder about that goodness and that mercy that we have been told pours forth from the compassion and the love of our Lord.

Yet none of these trials and temptations, none of this tribulation comes from the hand of God. It is the state of the world that we live in amidst all of its unrighteousness and sin and iniquity. The hope though... the promises and the blessed assurances of something better, of something more... the vow that we shall have the courage and the strength to endure even the greatest of challenges, even the most brutal of struggles that would seek to so devour us... that is of God as He pledges to us the full measure of His devotion, contending forever with the cause of His people in the love that He has for them.

We may wonder, we may find that things just seem like they are too much to bear, as the moments of hurt and sorrow, of anguish and agony come so readily into this world. We may wonder as we feel tired and weak from the afflictions that can so burden us amidst our lives. Yet, even in these times of turmoil and pain, there is a Divine Will that is committed to us by the wondrous, glorious hand of God’s providence, and it shall always preserve us in the compassion and the mercy, the hope and the love, the grace and the faithfulness of our Lord who never fails us or forsakes us, whatever stones this world may hurl upon us to break our bodies and our spirits.

Lord, keep us all in that divine trust in You....

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

First Prayer:

O Lord, look down from Heaven and concern Yourself with the cause of men and the course of human events. Cast Your eyes upon the plights and the struggles of Your children and walk beside them through these days of darkness and chaos that so afflict them.

O Lord hear the cries from Earth and make Yourself know in the cause of men and the course of human events. Bend Your ear to the yearning of the captives and the prisoners, the hostages and the slaves, and show unto them the blessings of Your promises in these days of toil and turmoil that so afflict them.

It was by Your hand that mercy was shown in the lives of the crew of the MV Almezaan as they found that they were spared of the degradation and the brutality of that bitter captivity that so sought to grab a hold of their lives and strangle from them the hope of their existence. Your blessings were given unto them as they were brought from the brink of bondage to continue in the wonders of freedom. To You then do we give all honor and praise.

Yet Lord, we pray for the same blessing to come upon the crew of MV Talca, who were not as fortunate as to escape the hands of unrighteous men. Contend with their cause as we commit them to Your justice and Your mercy. Walk beside them and give them the strength and the courage to endure this ordeal, that they may find the hope to carry on until the day when they have been, by the glory of Your love, once more restored to freedom.

Unto You Lord do we entrust the life of the pirate who died in the course of his unrighteousness, knowing that You are the judge and that only You see what is in the heart and that You shall then look upon his life and determine His fate. Guide our hearts to compassion for him, knowing that though he brought hurt and pain into this world, that his life now claimed may serve as a lesson to others who would follow in his path that they might know the futility of that which their efforts bring amidst the grander scheme of Your divine plan.

Then shall all praise be lifted to You as evil is set to flight and temptation is moved from the hearts of men to do wickedness and Your will shall find strength on earth as it does in Heaven.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Second Prayer:

O Lord, make known unto us, Your people, the glory of Your creation, Your sanctuary, lead us to Your Holy Mountain, the rock of our refuge and the ever present shelter from this worlds trials and tribulations. Let us, Your children, walk in the path of Your peace under the wing of Your protection, guided by the righteousness of Your Word, and the faithfulness of Your promises.

Be our firm foundation, be the refuge for the lost, and keep us safe in all that Your people are and all that they face.

Unto You O Lord do we commend the life and the cause of all prisoners and hostages, unto You do we commend all who are held in any sort of bondage and slavery, knowing that it is through You that comes all mercy and compassion.

Show then unto them the full measure of Your devotion as Your faithfulness comes to bear in their lives. Show unto them the full measure of Your promises that Your blessed assurances shall guide them through all the days of their lives. Show unto them the full measure of Your love that grace shall create in them strength and hope in the love that You have for them.

Let not their lives be claimed by despair and degradation but pour forth mercy upon them that life and love, that liberty and freedom shall bring a new hope in their lives as Your light guides them through justice and mercy to the better days that shall encompass their lives. Let then not languish in sorrow and hurt, let them not fade in agony and anguish, but show unto them that whatever the struggle that brings such destitution and despair, there is a God who love them and cares for them and there is no dark or hidden places where they can be held.... there is no dark or hidden places that can be removed from Your sights.

Then shall all come to know the transcending nature of Your divine will and the wonders of Your blessings as peace comes to bear in the lives of Your people and they shall raise their voices in praise to You for the wonders of Your miracles as they encompass the true justice that this world so longs for...

Then shall all come to know the transcending nature of Your Divine will as it will be inescapable in the love that You bring to bear and songs shall be given to praise Your holy name.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Mid-Day Devotion 3/23/10

2010-03-23T13:05:00.003-04:00

Christ Triumphant Over Sin and Death, Peter Paul Reubens, 1615

“Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.”
James 1:12

“Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.” (Psalm 27:14)

Throughout this world of adversity and trouble there are trials and there are tribulations that surround the scope of the human experience. There is brutal captivity and bitter iniquity that forsake the commands of the living God given unto us in Christ Jesus, those commands that we are to love one another (John 13:34-35), those commands to show patience and kindness, compassion and mercy in the lives of our fellow man (Galatians 5:22-23).There are moments where we wonder, amidst the pain and the suffering, the sorrow and the hardship of those left in grim estate and harsh darkness, how it could be that so much wrong can be inflicted against the hearts and the souls, the spirits and the minds of men as they are left destitute in a world that tries so desperately to break them.

Yet even amidst all of this there is a promise, a blessed assurance that comes through the power of the Lord’s transcending Word, held high for us as blessed inheritance, given unto us in the encompassing grace of His wondrous love for us. If we wait on Him, if we trust in Him then shall we receive strength and courage as we find the perseverance to endure even through all of the challenges that can be foisted upon us as this temporal existence comes to us with the full force of its burdens and its weight. Then shall we know that we have been offered the hope of that liberty that can only be endowed upon us by our Creator as He lifts us high from those pits of despair and desperation that we have been cast down to.

“Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD.” (Psalm 31:24)

Once there was a dark power that had a hold on all of humanity. It gripped us all, strangling the life from us as we found that we were enslaved to sin, death and the Devil. There was nothing left in our lives that could redeem us, nothing left in our souls that could carry us forward, we were bound to the grave in the harshest of fates. Yet God did not forsake us, nor did He fail us. Instead, He would give His only Son, beloved and blessed, to save us all (John 3:16). There would be no chains that could bind us, no darkness that could devour us, no power or authority that could rob us of that blessed peace that would come from His hope.

This would be the transcending belief that would carry the prophets and the kings, the psalmists and the disciples, the apostles and those blessed martyrs forward from generation to generation as they found the strength and the courage to go on in a world that so often seemed so full of persecution and oppression, so full of tyranny and slavery that would hold cheap the dignity of life that God had assigned to it.

If this was the power of God’s love, as He proclaimed all people equal in His sight and deserving of His mercy through the sacrifice of Christ Jesus, then how much more can He do for us now as this world seeks to hurt and to harm and to destroy?

“The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.” (Psalm 16:6)

Through God this is our inheritance and our blessing as His promises, unchanging and unfailing, come to bear in our lives through all of this world’s challenges and adversity: none who place their hope and their trust in His faithfulness shall ever be confounded, the shall not be abandoned, nor shall they be let down. Disappointment shall be chased from their lives as they are guided through the days of sorrow and the moments of hurt to the deeper places of compassion and live as they find that though men might try to assert their authority over them the only authority that is left to stand is the authority of the Most High God seated upon His throne of might.

The Creator and the Conqueror, He stands vigilant, protecting the inheritance of His people. Throughout the ages He has preserved His sacred word that we might all be heirs to the hope that He offers unto us through it, never letting it fall or be destroyed. Weaving through the course of human affairs and human events since the dawn of the general civilization, in His righteousness He has gone even further than that though. Each and every step of the way He has proven unto us that His Word is truth and His promises shall guide our lives as our refuge, as our ever present shelter through all of the storms.

“Wait on the LORD, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: when the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it.” (Psalm 37:34)

At times we may wonder. We may cry out as we find ourselves feeling lost and confused, as we find that we just can’t seem to see God in all of this. The wickedness and the transgressions of this world have raised a dark fog over our eyes and it seems as if peace and solace are far distant from us as we cry our in the deep yearning of our souls, not knowing for how long we will be forced to endure such trials and temptations, such pain and suffering. The iniquity of men puts a veil over our eyes as we look to the captivity and the slavery that can be waged against others and this unsettled feeling may linger, as we want to do so much and find there is little left for us to do.

Where could God be in all of this?

He is there… Even when we have been so blinded by this world, we have to have trust and faith in an ever present, ever vigilant God who is forever and always contending with the cause of His people. It is here then that we know that when we wait on the Lord, He shall exalt the lowest amongst us, give strength to the weak, and guidance to the lost, all while cuts the wicked off as He shows to them that they cannot escape His justice. Even if it escapes our sights at present, God assures us that it will not for all time as we are given over to His plan and His righteousness in the blessings that He brings forth in our lives.

Have faith, trusting therefore in His Word and His promises, knowing that through perseverance He shall bless the lives of even the most lost as they find themselves bound to such hurt and pain.

Have faith, showing forth the love that He has intended for us to show, believing that through the power of His Spirit He shall make manifest His will and desires as He contends with the cause of His people, standing fast, holding fast to them in all that they are and all that they face.

Have faith, and know that through it all, in it all God shall reveal Himself in this age, just as He has in ages past, letting His mercy pour forth, that none shall ever be frustrated or forsaken, failed or abandoned amidst the plights that they feel and the hopelessness that seems to have engulfed their lives.

Then shall you work His will, and cling to His assurances, knowing that He is the force for good and that He shall use you for that good through all the days of your life that you may testify of His light and love as He gives courage to the lost and the captive, placing upon their heads the crown of life even when it seems as if their lives have been so painfully ripped from them.

Lord, grant this unto us all…

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

First Prayer:

The struggles that lay before Your people O Lord, the struggles that befall them in a world so prone to captivity and bondage are great and encompassing as they long for endurance and perseverance through the trials and the tribulation that would befall them. They yearn for liberty as they cry out for freedom and they are left to wonder, how long...

How long will they be left to wait on Your promises?

How long will they be left amidst their meagre estate?

How long will it seem as if the darkness and the pain of this world’s unrighteousness grasp at them, choking from them the life as they are robbed of their dignity and the value that You have assigned to each breath they take is held without worth?

Like those fisherman, hijacked and left for dead by Somali Pirates, rescue all prisoners and captives, all hostages and slaves, all of those held in such bitter estate by brutal iniquity and wickedness. As You saw fit to give them that second chance for life, sending that European Union warship to save them that they might live again, finding hope and peace amidst this temporal existence, extend that same guiding hand in the lives of all people in all places as they struggle against the darkest of days that would so ensnare them.

Grant unto the crew of the MV Frigia peace and courage, strength and hope as they find themselves held by pirates who view life cheap and with contempt. Give unto them an answer to the yearning of their soul and in Your time, in Your way set them free that they might once more live where it had seemed as if only death had come into their lives.

Unto these pirates who grow bolder and bolder, show them that they contend not with Your cause, nor do you contend with them. Let them see their iniquity and feel the pain that they have brought that they might turn from their unrighteous ways and cast from them the darkness that has engulfed their hearts. Uplift them by Your Spirit that they might find true and sincere repentance in their hearts that they may bring good into this world, casting aside their wickedness and their hatred.

Then shall Your Holy hand be praised for the strength and the endurance that it brings through all of the days of this corporeal existence in all that Your people are and all that they do.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Second Prayer:

Let us not be weary amidst this world O Lord, nor let us be drawn down by it as captivity and bondage surround us, seeking to rob us of hope amidst grim power of unrighteousness and its dark hold over the hearts and minds of men.

Let us not be weakened in this life O Lord, nor let us find that strength is fleeting and courage has abandoned us as we see the tyranny and the oppression that makes slaves of men and leaves them to wither in destitution and despair.

Let us not be frightened as we live O Lord, nor let us wonder where it is that You are as we long for peace to encompass the lives of those who find themselves in the grim days of hurt and sorrow that encompass them now.

Be that rock of refuge, shelter Your people and guard Your children. Even as the chains fall upon them break those ties that bind them that there shall be nothing that will take from them the hope and the love, the mercy and the compassion that You have intended for their lives. Endow them with liberty that no longer shall freedom be stolen from them as justice, Your true and everlasting justice, shall come to bear through all of their days as they abide in Your transcending grace.

Whether it be a captivity of the body or the mind, the spirit or the soul, lift Your hand to the people in the promises You have made unto them and give them the courage and the perseverance that they so long for that they might endure even these, the deepest days of trouble that would engulf them. Let them not question Your presence or Your love but show unto them the hope that comes amidst Your faithful as they are brought from whatever has given unto them such pain to the everlasting compassion that comes when they are uplifted by the power of Your might.

Then shall see Your authority, then shall all see Your grace as Your mercy is made known and Your works are made manifest and Your name shall be exalted and praised for the wondrous deeds You have done in the lives of Your people.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Mid-Day Devotion 3/22/10

2010-03-22T12:41:00.003-04:00

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Hebrews 12:1-2

“Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” (Psalm 51:7)

The world around us... these days that we dwell in and amidst during the course of this existence... they can be hard and harsh, wrought with challenges and temptations that go beyond anything we could have ever imagined, and just when we think that we are strong enough, that we are good enough to withstand the pressures of life, there is a new trial arising as we find that the difficulties of this life are always upon us. It is then that we need to be cleansed, to be purged, that we might find that the blemishes of our spirits and our souls, the wounds of our hearts and our being might be washed and purified, that though we might have once found ourselves bloody and bruised, broken and hurt by the captivity and the bondage of this temporal existence, we shall find the strength to carry on in the perseverance and the endurance that comes from the Lord...

“The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.” (Psalm 34:18)

There is a promise that comes from the blessed assurances and the wondrous love that dwells in the mercy and the compassion of the Lord. It is a transcending guiding hope that comes through His Word, a light and a beacon that shines amidst this world as it leads even the most lost and broken of souls to a place of peace and comfort in an otherwise dark world. It is here that He vows His faithfulness and His vigilance, whispering words of eternal grace into the ears of His children as His healing touch finds the wounded places within and binds it up that, though we were once too weak from the slings and the arrows of this life bombarding us with the full force of that ancient adversary who brings death and destruction to lay waste to our souls, we might be able to once more stand even as the tides of the times beat against us.

“He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.” (Psalm 147:3)

Whatever the challenge, whatever the captivity, whatever the bondage, there has never been a time when God has forsaken His people, nor have their ever been any chains, whether they were spiritual or physical, whether they were linked together, forged by steel and iron or hatred and intolerance, that could not be shattered by the strength of the Lord’s might. Even as the wages of sin brought death, through Christ, He would break those chains of iniquity and heal the broken places within us that no longer would we be held in that dark and grim estate. Never would we be left to our own hurt and suffering, but rather, the transcending hope of our faith, the author and the finisher of our grace, He would show that not only the strength of our perseverance came from Him but the ultimate freedom that would come from the deeper yearning of the soul.

“Thou art near, O LORD; and all thy commandments are truth.” (Psalm 119:151)

It’s here then that we know that God is always nearby, that Christ is always ready to take upon His shoulders our burdens, and that the Holy Spirit shall always weave within us to bring us hope, and peace. It’s here then that we know that nothing can separate us from the grace of our Lord as He creates in us a new heart, renewing a steadfast spirit in us (Psalm 51:10) that we might dwell in the new hope that comes amidst that new creation that we have been made into (1 Peter 1:3). As He draws near unto us we have been made into more than conquerors through He who loves us, we have been made into those who can withstand the force and the weight of those who seek, through their oppression and their persecution, to conqueror us, we have been forged in the fires of the Lord and given the strength to withstand the captivity that is waged by the Devil as he seeks to rob us of our peace and our comfort, that we might be drained of all endurance, and fall under the pressure of his power.

“The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.” (Psalm 18:2)

We may find that this world and all of its challenges seem to weigh on us as its pressure seems to bear down on us in the most significant of ways, casting a dark shadow over our lives as we seem to find that desperation and despair come so near at hand, as pain and sorrow seem to befall us in the most real and significant of ways. In those moments we may feel as if we are wandering amidst a spiritual desert, exiled to the wastelands of the soul, as darkness surrounds us and engulfs us, swallowing us whole. It’s not long before we just can’t find the strength to go on any further, and it seems as if all that is left to us is to curl up and just fade away, as if we never mattered to begin with. Our lives seem worthless and without meaning at those times.

Yet even as we find those moments are upon us there is always hope and it is never as dark as it seems for the Lord is our rock and our refuge. He is the deliverer of our spirits as He girds us in His strength and guides us by the horn of His salvation to a fortress of the soul that shall always and forever protect the spirit.

“The LORD liveth; and blessed be my rock; and let the God of my salvation be exalted.” (Psalm 18:46)

Give your praise to the Lord, let your voices be raised even in times of trouble as the plights and the challenges befall you and the trials and the tribulation of this world seem to be right there in front of you. Even as our situations seem dark and chaotic, as they seem devoid of optimism as hardships seem to follow us in the most real of ways, God is there for us and with us to give us the strength and the hope that we need that we might be able to preserver as we find that He renews our strength amidst the blessed promises of His Word. It is here that we know that His assurances shall be faithful unto us as He always and forever contends with our cause and never abandons us to this world.

Shout to the Lord your exaltation and know that even when life seems its grimmest and captivity and bondage seem so near at hand He is there with salvation in His hand and grace pouring forth from His lips to give unto you the transcending freedom and the abiding liberty that can only be endowed upon you from Him as He shows unto you how much He loves you and cares for you in all that you are and all that you face throughout this temporal existence.

Lord, let us all abide in that transcending, encompassing hope of your perseverance and endurance that surpasses all human understanding...

Lord, grant this unto us all...

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

First Prayer:

Abiding in Your transcending hope O Lord, give unto Your children the strength that they might stand long amidst the power of Your love. Place upon them Your armor and gird them with Your authority even as the world seems to rise up against them, casting it’s dark shadow in their lives.

Be near, draw nigh unto those who are bound amidst captivity and bondage O Lord and let not the unrighteousness of wicked men, lead by the iniquity that has so enticed them, triumph over them. Give unto those who suffer and find that they are lost amidst the trials and the tribulations of this world the mercy and the compassion, the grace and the hope that they need to preserver and to endure all of the challenges that lay before them that they might never fall to the sword or find that the chains of this temporal oppression is too heavy for them to bear.

Stand true and firm in Your promises O Lord and be faithful to the assurances that You have made in the lives of Your people through the power of Your word. Draw the afflicted and the enslaved to You, to the love that comes from You and be the refuge and the rock that they so need in their lives as You bring Your liberty and Your justice to bear in their souls as You raise their spirits upon Your wings to carry them to the places of freedom where You do dwell.

Then shall all exalt Your name and the salvation that You bring as Your hope and love is made manifest in the compassion, mercy and grace that You bring to bear in the lives of Your people in even the deepest of struggles and the darkest of adversity that comes to encompass them in the deeper afflictions of this world as You stand as their fortress and their hope through all the days of their lives.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

Second Prayer:

Hear O Lord...

Bend Your ear and hear the name of Your children raised high to Your Heavenly throne as they find that they toil in tears and pain, as the afflictions and sorrow they sustain the injuries from the wickedness of this temporal existence. Unto them grant Your hope and Your peace through all of the challenges of this world as and let them never fall from the darkness that can be waged against them as You stand beside them through all of the challenges of this world and all of the trials and the tribulations that can befall them.

See O Lord...

Let Your eyes look upon the plight of Your children O Lord and see the hurt and hardship that so inflict them that they might find that from You shall pour forth the hope and the love and the grace and the mercy that they so need in their lives. See them and guide them to the places of peace that dwell in Your compassion that they shall find the strength to carry on even in the slavery and the bondage of this dark captivity that so holds them.

Purge them O Lord...

Cast Your Spirit upon them and create in them a new heart O Lord, and purge them of all fear that they may stand long and fast in perseverance knowing that Your strength shall guide them in courage and strength. Show unto them whatever the bondage, whether of the body or the mind, the spirit or the soul, it shall have no power over them as You set to flight poverty and destitution, hatred and intolerance, slavery and bondage, captivity and wickedness that these diseases shall no longer have any power over Your people..

Then shall our voices raise to You as we pour forth our love and our lips rejoice in song of praise for You in the miracles of Your mercy as it comes to bear in our lives, guiding us to Your transcending hope.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.