Evening Devotion

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let us pray:

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

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

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

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

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

Evening Devotion 7/22/10

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let us pray:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Evening Devotion 7/19/10

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Praise be His name for that...

Let us pray:

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

Save Your people O Lord...

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

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

Save Your people O Lord...

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

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

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

Evening Devotion 7/7/10

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let us pray:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Evening Devotion 7/6/10

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lord, grant this understanding unto us all...

Let us pray:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Evening Devotion 6/30/10

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let us pray:

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

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

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

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

Amen.

Evening Devotion 6/29/10

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let us pray:

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

Evening Devotion 6/7/10

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

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

Where then do we place our confidence?

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

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

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

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

Lord, grant this unto us all...

Let us pray:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Evening Devotion 6/3/10

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lord, grant this unto us all...

Let us pray:

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

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

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

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

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

Amen.

Evening Devotion 5/31/10

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let us pray:

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

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

Evening Devotion 5/28/10

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let us pray:

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

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

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

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

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

Evening Devotion 5/26/10

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let us pray:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Evening Devotion 5/24/10

Jacob Wrestling with the Angel, Gustave Dore, 1855

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

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

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

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

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

Let us pray:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Evening Devotion 5/20/10

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

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

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

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

Let us pray:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Evening Devotion 5/7/10

Jesus Carrying the Cross, Sebastiano del Piombo, 1516

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lord, grant this unto us all.

Let us pray:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Evening Devotion 5/5/10

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

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

You see God understands…

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

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

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

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

Praise be His Holy name for that.

Let us pray:

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

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

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

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

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

Evening Devotion 4/28/10

The Raising of Lazarus, Juan de Flandes, 1510

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

All we have to do is believe...

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

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

Let us pray:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Evening Devotion 4/27/10

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

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

We may not always understand…

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lord, grant this unto us all.

Let us pray:

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

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

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

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

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