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Watching C-Span yesterday on the special committee meeting held with the Planned Parenthood CEO I couldn't help but be moved as I watched a few selected conservative representatives try their best to get their witness to tell the truth on any of the issues at hand. With every approach the witness dodged releasing any actual facts in the case. If indicted Planned Parenthood could be defunded from receiving Federal funds and criminal charges could be given. ( Pray!) These representatives are in a battle! They need our prayer. Scripture tells us to pray for our leaders (I Timothy 2:1-4). Engaging in battle on the front lines means we need backup...and they need it! Many of us are feeling the heat of battle also. God is developing soldiers. This is not the easiest process to go through, but wherever He has you is where He sees best to grow and advance you. "My son, refuse not the chastening (reproof, warning, or instruction) of the Lord, neither be grieved at His correction. For the Lord correcteth him, whom He loveth, even as a father doth the child, in whom he delighteth." Proverbs 3:11-12. Proverbs actually tells us that if He loves us then He will take the time to discipline, correct, and instruct. This should make us glad that God wants to take such effort to grow us up in His ways, but most of the time our human nature only wants to resist in our comfort of who we think we should be. "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is among you to prove you, as though some strange thing were come unto you. But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory shall appear, ye may be glad and rejoice." I Peter 4:12-13. These words from Rev. Charles Spurgeon are most encouraging and inspirational... There is a little plant, small and stunted, growing under the shade of a broad-spreading oak; and this little plant values the shade which covers it, and greatly does it esteem the quiet rest which its noble friend affords. But a blessing is designed for this little plant. Once upon a time there comes along the woodman, and with his sharp axe he fells the oak. The plant weeps and cries, “My shelter is departed; every rough wind will blow upon me, and every storm will seek to uproot me!” “No, no,” saith the angel of that flower; “now will the sun get at thee; now will the shower fall on thee in more copious abundance than before; now thy stunted form shall spring up into loveliness, and thy flower, which could never have expanded itself to perfection shall now laugh in the sunshine, and men shall say, ’How greatly hath that plant increased! How glorious hath become its beauty, through the removal of that which was its shade and its delight!’” See you not, then, that God may take away your comforts and your privileges, to make you the better Christians? Why, the Lord always trains His soldiers, not by letting them lie on feather-beds, but by turning them out, and using them to forced marches and hard service. He makes them ford through streams, and swim through rivers, and climb mountains, and walk many a long march with heavy knapsacks of sorrow on their backs. This is the way in which He makes them soldiers—not by dressing them up in fine uniforms, to swagger at the barrack gates, and to be fine gentlemen in the eyes of the loungers in the park. God knows that soldiers are only to be made in battle; they are not to be grown in peaceful times. We may grow the stuff of which soldiers are made; but warriors are really educated by the smell of powder, in the midst of whizzing bullets and roaring cannonades, not in soft and peaceful times. Well, Christian, may not this account for it all? Is not thy Lord bringing out thy graces and making them grow? Is He not developing in you the qualities of the soldier by throwing you into the heat of battle, and should you not use every appliance to come off conqueror? —Spurgeon. As Women Finding Grace ~ Let's wrap our arms around our calling, embracing the discipline of the Lord in our lives as He grows us up in Him. Although this is not an easy call...the benefits are eternal.
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A lovely reminder from my devotion this morning. Taken from Streams in the Desert I Sam 3:18 KJV - And Samuel told him every whit, and hid nothing from him. And he said, It is the Lord: let him do what seemeth him good. “See God in everything, and God will calm and color all that thou dost see!” It may be that the circumstances of our sorrows will not be removed, their condition will remain unchanged; but if Christ, as Lord and Master of our life, is brought into our grief and gloom, “HE will compass us about with songs of deliverance.” To see HIM, and to be sure that His wisdom cannot err, His power cannot fail, His love can never change; to know that even His direst dealings with us are for our deepest spiritual gain, is to be able to say, in the midst of bereavement, sorrow, pain, and loss, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath, taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” Nothing else but seeing God in everything will make us loving and patient with those who annoy and trouble us. They will be to us then only instruments for accomplishing His tender and wise purposes toward us, and we shall even find ourselves at last inwardly thanking them for the blessings they bring us. Nothing else will completely put an end to all murmuring or rebelling thoughts.—H. W. Smith. “Give me a new idea,” I said, While musing on a sleepless bed; “A new idea that’ll bring to earth A balm for souls of priceless worth; That’ll give men thoughts of things above, And teach them how to serve and love, That’ll banish every selfish thought, And rid men of the sins they’ve fought.” The new thought came, just how, I’ll tell: ’Twas when on bended knee I fell, And sought from HIM who knows full well The way our sorrow to expel. SEE GOD IN ALL THINGS, great and small, And give HIM praise whate’er befall, In life or death, in pain or woe, See God, and overcome thy foe. I saw HIM in the morning light, HE made the day shine clear and bright; I saw HIM in the noontide hour, And gained from HIM refreshing shower. At eventide, when worn and sad, HE gave me help, and made me glad. At midnight, when on tossing bed My weary soul to sleep HE led. I saw HIM when great losses came, And found HE loved me just the same. When heavy loads I had to bear, I found HE lightened every care. By sickness, sorrow, sore distress, HE calmed my mind and gave me rest. HE’S filled my heart with gladsome praise Since I gave HIM the upward gaze. ’Twas new to me, yet old to some, This thought that to me has become A revelation of the way We all should live throughout the day; For as each day unfolds its light, We’ll walk by faith and not by sight. Life will, indeed, a blessing bring, If we SEE GOD IN EVERYTHING.” —A. E. Finn As Women Finding Grace ~ Let's look for God today...and be grateful...
TRUST - to rely on the truthfulness or accuracy of; absolute confidence. Many things in this life can cause our trust to be broken ~ shaken. Our hearts can be shattered, not only by people, but by circumstance, things out of our control. Trust is proven ~ put to the test. Not only can this be true relationally but it can be true in our walk with the Lord. Our hearts can be so tested and tried as to bring about doubt, disillusionment, fear, and pain. We can lose sight of who God is and the "why's" of seemingly unanswered prayers and sorrow can rip our faith right from us... Sitting in church Sunday these verses in Hebrews jumped off the page at me. "Take heed brethren, lest at any time there be in any of you an evil heart, and unfaithful, to depart from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we keep sure unto the end that beginning, wherewith we are upholden. So long as it is said, Today if ye hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For some when they heard, provoked him to anger: howbeit, not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was he displeased forty years? Was he not displeased with them that sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to whom swear he that they should not enter into his rest, but unto them that obeyed not? So we see that they could not enter in, because of unbelief." Hebrews 3:12-19 Harden ~ dry, hard or tough; to render stubborn Exactly opposite of hardening our hearts toward the Lord is Trust. Unintentional hardness, dryness, or stubbornness in the midst of uncertain times and trials can grow larger and before we are aware of how big it has gotten, we could be in trouble. "Keep thine heart with all diligence: for thereout cometh life." Proverbs 4:23 We have to learn from II Corinthians 10:5, "Casting down the imaginations, and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." As we are learning to trust the Lord and walk with Him through every trial and every test, we are casting down the thoughts of doubt and fear. We are learning to trust...as we walk with Him, even through the darkest and hardest of times. Absolute Trust ~ This is what He is after and it takes a diligent guarding of our hearts from being dry, hard and stubborn. Romans 1:21-31 shows the descent of man from God and it begins because "they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful...". The downward spiral begins by not giving God glory and not being thankful. Praise God, He shows us the upward path in II Peter 1:3-10. Staying focused on God and His Word and His promises takes much diligence, but by becoming aware of what is happening in our hearts and allowing His Word to permeate through our doubts and questions, we will find our answers and our hope restored. As Women Finding Grace ~ Let us be brave enough to pray Psalm 139:23-24 "Try me O God, and know mine heart: prove me and know my thoughts. And consider if there be any way of wickedness in me, and lead me in the way forever." Amen
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