Mid-Day Devotion 7/23/10

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...

Mid-Day Devotion 7/22/10

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

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.

Mid-Day Devotion 7/19/10

“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.

Mid-Day Devotion 7/7/10

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.

Mid-Day Devotion 7/6/10

“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.

Mid-Day Devotion 6/30/10

“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

Mid-Day Devotion 6/29/10

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.

Mid-Day Devotion 6/7/10

“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.

Mid-Day Devotion 6/3/10

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...

Mid-Day Devotion 5/31/10

“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.

Mid-Day Devotion 5/28/10

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.

Mid-Day Devotion 5/26/10

“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.

Mid-Day Devotion 5/24/10

“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.

Mid-Day Devotion 5/7/10

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.

Mid-Day Devotion 5/5/10

“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.

Mid-Day Devotion 4/28/10

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.