Mid-Day Devotion 9/15/09

“And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.”
Mark 28:31

Imagine for a moment…

Close your eyes and imagine for a moment that it was you…

In the depth of a dark, hidden place, it was you. You see the walls around you, they’re filled with the dank must that fills your lungs, its heavy, clinging to the back of your throat, as you cough. Yet all it sounds like is a whimper in your ears. Despair, pain, sorrow, loneliness, they’re your only companions as you lay there clinging to the fading memories of your home and your family. Soon you know they will be nothing more than a distant thought, and you’ll wonder if it was all perhaps just a dream, that life you had, that love you knew… a dream from which you will always awaken to the cold, harsh realities of your existence.

You hear the steps echoing… long steps moving closer and closer, and your mind beginnings to play tricks on you. In the echo you can almost hear an army coming. Hope, despite everything you know, everything you’ve come to know, trickles in for but a moment as you wonder if finally they have come to rescue you. But as the grim certainity of what’s happened to you settles in, that hope quickly passes as all that’s left is perhaps the hope that death will finally come to rescue you.

Close your eyes and imagine that that is your life… the only life you have come to know amidst your agony and your anguish, as you cry out wishing for some release, for some escape… for any escape…

Imagine for a moment…

Once your life was filled with happiness and joy, with the love of your friends and your family and everything just felt so hopeful. Now though… now it’s just a misty haze in your mind. You’re lost in a tunnel and the end seems to get further and further from you. It almost feels as if you can look down at your body as a spirit, as your soul hovers above it, yet you don’t recognize who that person is anymore. The drugs they feed you, they shove down your throat, it poisons you, killing you off bit by bit until your nothing more than a walking, breathing corpse.

Your body is used, your innocence is ripped away from you and yet you don’t even notice anymore, your hollow frame has become as if nothing more than an empty vessel from which all life is drained from. Soon, you’ll be used until you can’t be used anymore, and when that happens you’ll be cast aside, your body broken, any life left within you drained. Still, there is a part of you, an ever shrinking corner, that’s still alive, and it still hopes there will come a day when this torment, when this agony will finally pass. Though you don’t know how you’d live your life again, you just hope for some shred of dignity… some shred of dignity regained as it all seems to be robbed from you…

Close your eyes and imagine that is your life… a life not of your choosing but one dealt to you by those who would show hatred, using pain and suffering as their weapon to subjugate as they hold life to be contemptuous.

We can’t imagine… we can’t even come close to imagining anything close to the suffering and the sorrow, the anguish and the agony, the desperation and the despair felt by the prisoners and the hostages, the slaves and the captives, ripped from their lives. We can’t imagine crying their cries or feeling their sting. For those of us fortunate enough to live our world in this sheltered protection we now find ourselves in we can’t even imagine.

Yet we should strive to, and, amidst the distress and the misery that can be afflicted in this world so prone to chaos we should forever try to put ourselves in their place, in their position that, even in our own small way we may know what they are going through that it will call us to a greater love and a greater devotion to them.

In our text today we read that we are to love our neighbors as our ourselves, that aside from loving the Lord our God with all of our heart and all of our might, all of our soul and all of our strength, this is the second greatest commandment. Yet how can we show that love if we do not even try to put ourselves in their place, if we just let them become a distant thought in our minds that we do not even try to relate to or understand? Perhaps we shall not ever fully know what they go through, being unable to even imagine, a blessing in the lives of all of those who are able to cling to their innocence and their humanity in a world of evil because of the sacrifices of so many to keep us safe and guarded; yet love, the love we are called to by our Savior, should call us to look to the agony of those held in such dark and vile estate and to look upon their faces as they are, to know what they know, so it can call us to a greater compassion for them.

This then becomes a love… a transformative, encompassing love that calls us to action, to humble ourselves before the Lord and, in lifting up their plight and struggles, their affliction and plight to Him, that asks what we may do for their cause. It’s a love that, like the Good Samaritan, cannot pass by or ignore the suffering and the anguish of those who are left to do nothing more than die because of the greed or the ambition or the hatred of wicked men who rob and beat and murder for their own gain.

Look therefore to the calling of the Lord, lift up your prayers to Him, hearing the lesson of Christ Jesus, who suffered more than any for the cause of our dark captivity that the bondage of sin, death and the devil might finally be broken and we would be ransomed. Love your neighbor as you love yourself, love the captives and the prisoners, the slaves and the hostages so much that you are willing to put yourself in their place to know their suffering that it may call you to a greater service to them. Seek not the safe route or the easy route, putting it all out of your mind that it does not trouble you, but instead try to be more, try to do more, giving all of your strength and might to the Lord for the cause of His beloved children.

Until that time of Christ’s blessed return never believe the work is done, and go to it with dedication, praying for the courage to show all that is needed that even amidst the greatest of challenges in this world you know that God is contending with the plight of the afflicted and the despair of the tormented. Trust in the promises and the assurances of the Lord as you put on the whole armor of God, knowing that He will not fail you or forsake you when you do battle in love for your fellow man, for your brothers and sisters who are so cruelly subjugated and kept in slavery. His justice, His will, it will be done on earth as it is in heaven, and you then shall be used as the vessel of that divine calling in all that you are and all that you do.

So imagine for a moment… close your eyes and imagine for a moment… then open them once more ready to do battle in the greatest of loves against a world set ablaze by chaos and hatred.

Lord, grant this strength and love unto us all.

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

Morning Prayer 9/15/09

Psalm 61

1 Hear my cry, O God;
listen to my prayer.

2 From the ends of the earth I call to you,
I call as my heart grows faint;
lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

3 For you have been my refuge,
a strong tower against the foe.

4 I long to dwell in your tent forever
and take refuge in the shelter of your wings.
Selah

5 For you have heard my vows, O God;
you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name.

6 Increase the days of the king's life,
his years for many generations.

7 May he be enthroned in God's presence forever;
appoint your love and faithfulness to protect him.

8 Then will I ever sing praise to your name
and fulfill my vows day after day.

Mid-Day Devotion 9/14/09

“My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.”
Lamentations 3:20-23

For generations, amidst the greatest of captivities, it would be four words that Prophets and Apostles, Saints and Disciples, whose lives were held to be cheap and without meaning, would put their hope and their faith in. Four simple words that told unto them, go, walk in the ways of the Lord, walk in His divine precepts, see the world for what it is, see the world for all that it holds, for all that it shows unto you, and know… know that there is a faithful, vigilant God, a God who contends with the cause of His children and who, in their darkest of hours, in their greatest of need, He shall give them hope and courage to overcome the greatest of adversity.

In those four words, there would be trust and expectation that would set to flight despair and darkness, as those who put their reliance on them in devoted anticipation of their fulfillment would look to the Lord, their God, and know that He would never fail them or forsake them (Joshua 1:5), for He had a plan for their lives that He had set into motion even from the moment of their conception whilst they were in the womb, their lives being formed by His Holy Hand. (Jeremiah 1:5) For those who looked to that promise, to that blessed assurance there would be power… wonderful, wonder working power that would know not the force of this world or the iniquity of evil as it marched forward with little to no regard to human life or the rights and the spirit of freedom interwoven into the soul. All it would know, through those four words, was a transcending, encompassing love that surpassed all the knowledge and wisdom of this world, all the power and the force of this temporal existence.

“Great is thy faithfulness.”

The power of the Lord is not the power of force. It does not hold its strength in swords or in spears, nor is it found in any of the weapons of steel and iron that can be forged in this world. It’s might is not in armies marching forward or in navies setting sail, or in the sheer power of numbers by which we, in our human logic and our worldly understanding, mark the strength of nations with. No, it’s in the authority that He speaks with and in the manner in which He contends with the cause and the plight, the suffering and the sorrow of His children. The intensity of God’s love and compassion is in the hope that springs forth from the grace and the mercy that He shows. It’s in the depths that He does go to fight for and to make free His people who find themselves held in dark, hidden places, gripped by neck by the hands of evil and wicked men who would seek to choke the life out of them, using them as nothing more than pawns in their vile games of terror and hatred, as contempt guides their way.

The power of the Lord is in His faithfulness, and in the blessed assurances of comfort that He offers unto His people, and it’s a power in which we know there is no force, no army, no strength in this world can stand against, even as it seems that evil is on the march and chaos surrounds us. God, in His compassion, will never fail us as He reminds us that each and every step of the way He is there beside us.

He is beside us…

Even as tyrants rise, laying waste to the land, holding their people in bitter estate, casting all those who oppose them to the dark, dank dungeons that would seek to silence them, God is there beside His children, contending evermore with their cause. Even as slavery seems still to inflict itself on the people, breaking their bodies and forcing them to build, out of hatred for men, wealth for the glory of men, the Lord is there to show that the whip has no power and it’s sting is fleeting. Even as human trafficking rips the innocence and the life from our sons and our daughters, using them in lust and in hatred until there is nothing left and then casting them aside to death, the Heavenly Father shows His love, letting us know that such wickedness is not long for this earth. Even as terror seems all around us, as wicked men of violence and hatred push forward, taking prisons, ransoming and murdering them for their own purposes and devices, there is always a God of deliverance there with the poor and the inflicted, letting His people know that their power shall soon fade.

Though we may not always see or understand His plan, though it may seem incomprehensible to us as we pray and we seek peace, as we seek out His wisdom amidst the darkest of days, amidst the greatest of chaos He is there, showing His faithfulness as He walks beside the prisoners and the captives, the slaves and the hostages, working His will in this world that His justice will be done.

Seek therefore His wisdom and His strength, asking what can be done in your life to work His will for the freedom and the liberty of those who are so brutally ripped away from their homes and from all that they know and all that they love. Like the Saints who have come before, like the blessed martyrs who know stand before the throne of light, kneel in humble submission to the Lord and ask “What, Heavenly Father, may I do to work Your will and desire on this earth, to contend with You in the cause of the hostages and the prisoners held in such dark estate?” Ask of God and seek His answer, knowing that Gospel of Christ we are called to deliver to this world is a message of freedom and justice unto a world lost to the depravity of sin and iniquity, evil and hatred, and that our lives must be given to its advancement, even in the greatest of challenge, even in the greatest of dangers, that all may know that there is a living God, and, through His Son, Christ Jesus, we are called to live in service to our fellow man, showing the power of the Lord in our lives even in the greatest of challenges.

Be of courage and strength, knowing that the Lord is faithful and that His faithfulness is your faithfulness that hope may shine forth from your spirit as you hear the calling of the Spirit, giving your life, in all ways, in all things, to the cause of freedom and justice, equality and liberty. It is then that you shall know that you, in a lost and sinful world, have given yourself over to the cause and the calling of the Lord, to be used as vessels of His holy and divine purpose in this world and that though dark forces of wickedness and violence may seek to dominate you they shall have no power over you.

Let not then any suffer so long as you have strength, let not any find themselves to be afflicted amidst their plight as captivity seeks to keep its dark hold over them, but give yourself over to the precepts and the plans of the Lord, knowing that His faithfulness shall guide your way each and every step of the way as you walk in the path of His righteousness for the challenges that seek to overtake His children. Lose not your hope when the troubles seem so great, but know that God is there beside you, and beside all those that are in need and trouble, giving strength beyond anything that could have been imagined in all the world.

After all, with the faithfulness of the Lord on our side, the love of Christ in our Heart and the calling of the Spirit in our Soul, who can stand against us?

Lord, grant this unto us all.

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

Mid-Day Devotion 9/11/09

“O my God, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed, let not mine enemies triumph over me. Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed: let them be ashamed which transgress without cause.”
Psalm 25:2 and 3

We never really talk about it…

As we pray for the hostages and the prisoners, as we pray for those who are bought and sold, kept in the dark, grim bondage of slavery by those who would subjugate and oppress, as we pray for those who are held for ransom, or murdered by terrorists who seek to work their vile ways, feeding off of chaos and suffering, affliction and sorrow, we never really speak of what captivity truly is…

Throughout the world we see so many examples of it, so many brutal reminders of its existence in this sinful world, as evil men of bitter iniquity inflict themselves on the lives of the innocent, ripping them away from all they have, all that they know, seeking not just to rob them of all that they love, but all of their hopes and dreams as well. In dark, hidden places they plan to set the world ablaze in turmoil and madness. Then from the smoldering ashes they appear to do as they will, holding life cheap and contemptuous, without any real value to it.

What is captivity though?

It is fear that is inflicted over the minds of people; a tool of hatred and tyranny, of darkness and oppression used to rule over the weak without mercy and without compassion. It is fear that is imposed by the forces of evil on the march, rising to subjugate not just the body but the mind, the spirit and the soul of humanity. It is the triumph of that fear and that hatred, used as a weapon by the enemies of freedom and liberty, justice and equality, the enemies of God, who seek to impose their ways and their will, not the will of the Lord, on their fellow man.

Today marches a bitter anniversary in the United States. Eight years ago, by the sheer force of terror, there were those who sought not just to murder and kill the innocent but, through the power of fear and hatred, to take an entire nation, and its people captive. Darkness seemed to loom, to ascend, to rise up from the smoke of that attack as we were forced to look on in horror and the shock of it all seemed so powerful, so terrifying.

Never could we have imagined that such evil, such hatred could have come to affect us in such a real way as we were shaken from our reality only to be woken to a misty haze and our comfort and our peace laid shattered at our feet.

Yet even from that darkness, there came a reminder, even as death seemed to surround us, life being so powerfully, so poignantly ripped away from so many right before our very eyes as terror and hatred found its way to our shore there came the deafening cry, the deafen call of the defiant, who would never relent, who would never surrender, who would never let their enemies triumph over their spirit and their soul. In love and sacrifice they gave their lives for the lives of their brothers and sisters as they rushed into the fire of that world set ablaze.

It is here that, through their lives and their sacrifices, a commanding lesson is taught, one that should always and forever overtake our spirits as we look to the chaos that all too often seems to surround us in this world of sin and iniquity where evil seems to have so much power. Though wicked men, though evil men of brutal oppression and bitter hatred may seek to subjugate us through fear as they work their vile ways, the only triumph they have is the triumph of our desperation and our despair when we forfeit hope, surrendering ourselves to them, willing to give up all that of value that we know and to abandon our fellow man to torture and torment, to brutality and to death.

Though it would have been easy for America and its people to surrender on that day to fear, the heroes of September 11th, they refused to let those who transgressed without cause to have the triumph, they refused to surrender their nation and the people they protected to the bitter captivity that these terrorists sought to inflict upon them. They gave their lives so that we may live free amidst liberty and hope, never to be held hostage to terror and the oppression of the mind.

To all of us it offers a lesson that they taught with their life. Always praying and holding steadfast to our faith we must look to the captivity and the tyranny in this world as a challenge from the enemies of humanity who would seek to hold life cheap and rise to the same spirit of love, dedication and sacrifice that those who rose on September 11th did as they heard the cries of the people. Ours must be to look to the fear and the hatred that is inflicted and never let it overtake us, finding the ways in which we can serve liberty and justice, the ways that we can work to set people free from the dark bondage and grim chains of slavery, of that terror that holds life to be cheap, without any real dignity or value. Ours must be to hear the calling of the Lord and remember the promise of the miracle of His touch, knowing always that “He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.” (Psalm 147:3)

Let not fear or hatred dominate, let not terror weave itself into this world, instead, rise up and hear the cries of the afflicted and the pained as they suffer in torture and torment, as wicked men seek to rule this world and the people of it through their iniquity and sin. Let the Spirit of the Lord and the love of Christ dominate your life as courage and sacrifice, as strength and compassion moves you to look up the captivity that can be so used as such a terrible and terrifying weapon as nothing more than a tool of weak men whose ways shall soon fade from this earth. Be compelled therefore by the Lord, a God of deliverance and mercy, to make a stand against all evil and darkness that may surround us and rob hope from the innocent and the life from His children.

It will be then that we will know that, in the lesson of great heroes, lessons bore in blood and sacrifice, that we will know that we have never let ourselves surrender or relent in our own weakness to captivity, whether it is our own or the captivity that can be inflicted and imposed on our fellow man. It will be then that we know that our enemies and the enemies of the Lord shall never triumph and that our Heavenly Father is contending with the cause of His people, using His people to make that glorious stand for that sacred cause of freedom, liberty and justice.

Lord, grant this unto us all.

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

Welcome to Our Newest Listener!

Henry Patrick Cochran was born last night, 9-9-09, at 10:16 pm to our dear friend and P4H guest host Matt Cochran and his wife Rose. Henry is shown listening to the show this morning with his proud father. Congratulations to Matt and Rose on this new blessing in their lives!

Mid-Day Devotion 9/10/09

“Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel. And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour.”
Exodus 1:8, and 11-13

Do we truly and rightly value the freedom we have been given as a gift from God, granted by His love and His grace in our lives? Do we cherish it, do we hold it up with awe? Do we truly take the time to understand the true nature of it in our lives and knowing that it could be a fleeting thing, quick to crumble in our hands as brutality and pain sets in and unrighteous men seek to subjugate for their own power and glory, using tyranny and oppression as the weapons to enslave men and women, robbing them of everything, including their dignity and their pride?

For the children of Israel, they could not have foreseen the days that would come. For generations they had lived and prospered, they had multiplied in the lands of Egypt as they made their homes there, finding themselves no longer wandering amidst the vast, wide and open deserts that their fathers had known. There wasn’t a single one left who could or did remember the days of Abraham and Isaac, none who remembered first hand Israel, and the return of Joseph as he brought his father and his brothers to this land where he had found himself, by the grace of God, elevated to the court of the Pharaohs. Ages had passed and one generation faded to another until this had become the only land, the only home they had ever known.

Then would rise a king who did not know Joseph, who had forgotten about his loyalty to the royal court and to his fathers, and the freedom and the peace that the children of Israel had known for so long would quickly crumble as he gripped them tight by the neck and chained them in the dark bondage of slavery. Liberty was fleeting and all that would be known now was the harsh, hard sting of the taskmasters whip as it cracked against their backs as they were forced to build the cities and the monuments to Pharaoh. Life no longer held value, it was regarded as cheap, as they were treated with less dignity than the cattle of the fields, and led like lambs unto the slaughter. Worked to death, when they were no longer capable, no longer able to do the tasks they were once capable of, their bodies bruised and broken, they would be pushed harder until the life was drained from them.

But then, the harsh, hard reality of this existence, filled with sin and iniquity, filled with pain and sorrow, is that freedom and liberty, it is a gift from God, not a guarantee. With all the suffering and the hurt in this world, with all of the evil deeds of wicked men who work their vile ways, it must be valued and cherished, but more than anything else it must be prayed for as we call out to the Lord that He sets the poor and the afflicted, the ransomed and the captives free. It must be fought for as we seek to work God’s will, understanding that it’s His will that justice and liberty, freedom and equality will reign over the lives of the people.

Throughout the world today we see the effects of chaos as tyranny and oppression, as slavery and bondage is used as a tool by evil men of brutal transgression... evil men who remember not the Lord or His ways, who fear and hate people and, out of that fear and hatred, subjugates them for their own ambitions, wealth and political purposes. It robs life of its value and its dignity, as it destroys the body and crushes the spirit.

Yet the Lord is clear, “Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” (2 Corinthians 3:17)

God’s desire is that we work towards freedom, that we work towards liberty, that we hear the calling of His Holy Spirit and that we strive towards the cause of the oppressed and subjugated, never letting slavery and captivity reign, making excuses as to why we ignore the cries of those held in dark bondage. God’s desire is that we so value and cherish the cause of the free that we dedicate our lives to deeper, more abiding love and compassion for our brothers and sisters, that we never falter in our steps as we seek to bring them once more to breathe the blessed air of liberty. In mercy our devotion must be to see the pain inflicted even if done in the dark places hidden from our site, to hear the cries, even if the sound is muffled by the lonesome spots where these souls are kept and to push forward to the cause of justice, if it is just even in our prayers, as we uplift their cause and their plight to Him.

Never let yourself be so deceived into thinking there is nothing you can do or that you are doing enough. Listen for the voice of God calling unto you, telling you what more can be done and seek out His wisdom and truth knowing that He has more for each of us to do. Know that amidst the struggles of this world we are warriors for the Prince of Peace, that Messiah who set captivity captive and ransomed those even most lost to the bondage of sin. As imitators of Christ our goal must be the same, to be so moved by the Spirit that we are used to do more amidst the sorrow and the suffering of those who have felt their freedom robbed from them that we are always taking up this cause in our lives.

Let not those who know not the Lord and His people dominate the hearts and the souls, the bodies and the minds of God’s children, but look to the Lord as a God of Deliverance always contending with the cause of His people. Just as He sent Moses to bring the children of Israel out of the hands of Pharaoh, liberating them from the whip and the chains, so too shall He deliver now, amidst the present age, even when the power and the forces of those who use such vile means seems to be without question. A God of mercy, compassion and love who is always standing beside His children, caring for them as only a Father can as He protects and shelters the with His holy hand, He shall not, He will not let such unrighteousness stand for all ages. Take hope in this because this is the blessed assurance, the true and faithful promise He has delivered unto His children, and one we should hold high for the world to see and hear and know as we cling to it in steadfast faith, through this generation and in all generations.

Lord, grant this truth unto us all.

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

Morning Prayer 9/7/09

Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we your unworthy servants give you humble thanks for all your goodness and loving-kindness to us and to all whom you have made. We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for your immeasurable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. And, we pray, give us such an awareness of your mercies, that with truly thankful hearts we may show forth your praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up our selves to your service, and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory throughout all ages. Amen.

Body Indentified as British Hostage

Autopsy results have identified a body handed over to British authorities in Baghdad earlier this week as Alec MacLachlan, one of five hostages held captive by Shiite militants since May 2007. Via Wales Online:

A body handed to the British authorities in Iraq is that of Alec MacLachlan, Gordon Brown confirmed tonight.

The Prime Minister announced with "deepest regret" that Mr MacLachlan’s remains had been identified.

He vowed to bring the terrorists responsible for the murder to justice and said the thoughts of the whole country were with Mr MacLachlan’s family.

Mr Brown said: "It’s with the deepest regret that the body passed to the British Embassy is now discovered to be that of Alec MacLachlan. My thoughts, and I believe the thoughts of the whole country, are with the family at this time of great grief.

"No family should have to endure what they have gone through, the loss through the hostage taking then the period of silence and not knowing what is happening and now to find that their loved one is lost."

Mr. MacLachlan was one of four bodyguards hired to protect IT specialist Peter Moore, whom was working at the Finance Ministry in Baghdad. The bodies of Jason Creswell and Jason Swindlehurst were delivered to the British in June of this year. The British government reported in July that it believed Mr. McLachlan and fellow hostage Alan McMenemy were dead, although they could not confirm it at the time. There is no word yet on the fate of Mr. Moore.

It is heartbreaking to see this tragic conclusion to the ordeal that these men and their families have suffered through for so long. We pray for the comfort and consolation of Mr. MacLachlan's family and loved ones, and continue to pray for the families of the other men who lost their lives. Please continue to pray for all the hostages still held in captivity throughout the world.

Mid-Day Devotion 9/3/09

Parthian Prisoner in Chains,
Arc of Septimus Severus, Rome, circa 200 AD

“Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”
2 Corinthians 3:17

Even the most wicked, who dwell amidst sin and iniquity, letting their own self righteous ways guide their path, know that darkness cannot dwell amidst the light without being cast out, without being cut through and dispersed. So they hide themselves in secret places where they hope that they cannot be found or they set themselves above lands where they establish their own dominion, where their word can be the law. In darkness do they keep themselves and in darkness they rule over, seeking, striving, struggling forever to keep the light from shining in.

Though kept in the gloomy shadows of sin and iniquity we know that these places, they exist. In bleak and depressing estate these hidden men and these hidden places exist seeking to set up and preserve their authority over the body and soul, the spirit and the minds of people, as they keep them locked away out of site, hoping to keep a veil over the eyes of the world that they may carry on as they have, destroying lives through their transgressions against their brothers and sisters.

The bitter, brutal captivity that guides their path…

Though locked away we know of it…

We know of it with every story of the girl who goes missing, snatched from the streets, quickly grabbed and ushered away, to be sold as a sex slave. Taken by human traffickers who will drug them and sell them, their flesh treated as meat at a butchers shop, their innocence ripped from them, their lives seeming as if it had ended the moment they are taken.

We know of it with every tale of slavery that we still hear, as men and women are treated as if they are animals, there to build and to work for the glory of others. Beaten and broken they are kept in line with terror and fear as they are used and then cast aside, thrown away when they no longer are able to do the work that their now shattered bodies were once capable of doing.

We know of it with every account of political, ethnic and religious persecution in brutal dictatorships that still occurs as tolerance and acceptance is cast aside for scapegoating, bigotry and hatred. Cast to prisons, left to rot and die, or murdered in grim death camps, the victims of genocide and ethnic cleansing, life is held cheap as they are used, as the victims are used as the political tools of thugs and despots trying to extend and hold on to their power.

We know of it with every report of piracy and terrorism that still makes the news, as men and women are taken and held captive, most just happen ending up being at the wrong place at the wrong time when they are ripped away. Ransomed off for money or murdered to make a political point, their faces burned into our memories as their names become a testimony to the evil that can still be inflicted on the innocent.

Darkness and danger lurk, sometimes even in the places where we least suspect, casting the world to chaos as anguish and sorrow become the pained cries of those who are taken and those who are left behind to wonder if they are ever to see those whom they so love and care for ever again, or if they are lost in a sea of iniquity, left to drown amidst the hatred and bitterness that can so grip the souls of men.

But there is hope, for “where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty.”

Our Heavenly Father is a God of Deliverance. Through His Son Christ Jesus the sick were healed from their captivity as He made the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers clean and the dead once more draw breath on this earth. Through that Messiah, that beloved Savior, and the blood that was spilled as He served as the great and encompassing sacrifice for humanity’s dark bondage to the slavery of sin, death and the Devil was drowned, and, as we were ransomed by that mercy shown unto us, captivity was set to flight.

If this conquest of darkness is capable by God, who is the Light, as He cuts through it as if it never was there to begin with then how much more is possible through His holy name? How much more is He capable of doing against princes and principalities and the dark forces of this world? How much more can He do to ensure the freedom and the liberty of His precious and beloved children when the forces of this world mount against them, seeking to bind them through hatred and fear as they seek to grab them and strangle the life from them?

A God of justice and mercy, love and compassion, He shall forever cut through the darkness, setting Himself to work in this world that the slave and the captive, that all those who are held in chains and bondage, kept from our sight in hidden places, are set free that they may once more breath the blessed air of freedom, drawing it once more deep into their lungs. No weapon is able to withstand that promise made by the Lord, no power is able to stand against that assurance, no authority has dominion over it, for it is the cause and the calling of a loving God who never fails or forsakes His children, leaving them like lambs unto the slaughter to be devoured by wolves as if they were nothing more than prey.

Where evil lurks, God is at work, His Spirit shall forever be, proclaiming freedom and liberty, proclaiming the judgments of His hand, declaring His righteousness in all places, through all challenges, granting His peace and His comfort for the cause of His children. After all, “This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5)

Take comfort in the blessed assurances of the Lord, our Heavenly Father, and, in faith, believe in the promises He has given unto His people. Though captivity and chaos may be all around us, God is at work, and forever shall be as long as evil forces are on the rise, seeking to overtake and overwhelm His children, putting their lives in jeopardy. He shall not be far off or far distant from them and from their plight and their struggle. He shall never turn His eyes from their anguish or shut His ears from their cries. No, a God who always contends with the cause of His people, He does not and will not just be removed from them, abandoning them in their hour of deepest need. He shall, instead, be a shield unto His people, protecting them each and every step of the way, and, in His time, in His way, according to His word, He shall set them free.

Even as comfort and peace seems fleeting amidst this world and the darkness and captivity that can seem to overwhelm it, we can always take solace in that promise that He has given unto His people, for iniquity and sin shall not have power over man forever and He shall, in His righteousness, show this unto us all.

Lord, grant this faith unto us all.

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

Mid-Day Devotion 9/1/09

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”
Luke 4:18 and 19

The love of God given unto His children through the life, the death and the sacrifice of Christ…

As the Savior stood in the Synagogue in Nazareth, unrolling the scroll that he had just found, he searched for where the words had been written. They were the proclamation of the Lord, given as a prophesy to Isaiah generations before that he could announce them to God’s children, giving unto them the good news of the coming Messiah, of whom God had promised since the earliest days of man’s first fall to sin.

In those few short words, in those few sentences uttered by Christ in front of the congregation assembled there, in the town he had grown up in and had, for so long, called home, he gave an account of the entirety of his calling here on earth, as the son of God was formed into flesh and made man. He was there, sent by His Father, to preach the gospel to the poor, to heal those who were broken hearted, to let the blind see, and to give freedom to those who are wounded at the hands of others.

Just as in the days gone past, the age of their fathers, Jubilee was pronounced, a year when all those in servitude would be forgiven of their debts and given the chance to once more lay hold of their liberty, he was there to pronounce a new Jubilee, a new year of the Lord, one that would never end, for he had come to offer deliverance to the captives and to ransom even the most lost of souls.

Christ’s mission, his ministry, his life and his death, that great sacrifice that he made on Calvary, the conquering of sin, death and the Devil during those three days when he descended into Hell, his resurrection, all of it, it was for one purpose and one purpose alone, the deep and abiding cause of liberty… the freedom for all men and women, that captivity to the forces of darkness may be set to flight and, in a deep and abiding sense of justice, all might be forever set free, lost and fallen humanity no longer held in the dark bondage of slavery.

Amidst that is whispered one deep and abiding truth, one transcending wisdom that has been carried from age to age, from prophets to judges to kings and apostles and disciples and saints, telling us that the Lord… our Heavenly Father, He is a God of Deliverance who forever contends with the cause of His children, whatever their plight, whatever their struggle, whatever dark forces may lurk in the shadows seeking to ensnare them..

And if this is the love of God given unto His children for the cause of their souls, that He would challenge the authority of the old Adversary through His son, the Savior of a lost and fallen humanity, refusing to yield or relent against all of his power, against that deep hold that he has over this world, how much more can He do against the adversaries of flesh and blood that dwell in this world?

All around us we see the evil that can be done against our fellow man, as wicked men of vile iniquity work their ways within this world, seeking power and glory, authority and wealth for themselves. We see it as they hold life to be cheap and they use it as nothing more the tools of their agenda, laying to waste all that stands in their ways. Here we come to know that there are so many forms of captivity that grip humanity and rip the dignity and the integrity away from human life. From the brutal tyranny of governments that persecute their citizens and the citizens of other countries, locking them in prisons or executing them at their will and discretion, to the harsh reality that slavery still exists and there are those who force others to build and to work for their own glory as they hold him through fear as hatred guides their way. From human trafficking that destroys the innocence of all those that this trade touches, treating our children as nothing more than livestock to be used and abused, and then cast away dead when they no longer serve a purpose to the acts of piracy and terrorism that grab men and women from the street and ransom them off to the highest bidder or kills them for no other purpose but to let the world watch so they can make their point, captivity is all around us as liberty and freedom, justice and equality is discarded, held cheap and without meaning.

Yet God, our Heavenly Father, he does not contend with the cause of the wicked and He does not leave His children to be like lambs unto the slaughter that they may be devoured by the wolves. If He was willing to give unto us His only begotten son to set us free then what is He unwilling to do for the cause of His children amidst the current age in the current struggle as iniquity and sin grips the lives of the captives and holds their lives, the life that He breathed into their lungs, as without value?

God shall, as He always has, stand beside the poor and the afflicted, the weak and the downtrodden; He shall work through this world and in this world to set them free, to release them from the hands of those that would strangle the life from them. As He delivered His children from the lands of Pharaoh, as He delivered His children from the bondage of Satan, so too shall He now deliver them from the power that captivity has over them in this world, in this day. The love of our Lord shall work with mercy and compassion to push back the tides of darkness as He remains faithful to those assurances and promises that He has given unto us never to fail or forsake His people, that they may never be abandoned to wickedness amidst the pain and the anguish of the soul.

Be of good faith and know that the Lord God Almighty, the shield of our righteousness is there to do battle and to proclaim His Jubilee that none shall be neglected or deserted in their hour of deepest needed. He shall be there for the poor and the inflicted, for the wounded and the captive, pronouncing His love and His judgment in all that we see and all that we know, ransoming even the most lost or hidden of souls from the bondage that now so constrains them amidst the wickedness and iniquity of those who do not walk in the ways of the Lord.

That shall forever the promise that He delivers unto His children, in this age and in all ages, so long as evil tries to assert its dominance over us, seeking to subjugate us and destroy us through its brutality and transgressions against the will of our Heavenly Father.

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