Shelter from the Storm

As Hurricane Joachim swirls off the eastern coast of the United States, many who live along the Atlantic shore are taking precautions against the possibility that it may make landfall. They are boarding up their homes, they are securing storm walls, they are evacuating. If the storm hits, in spite of their best efforts, however, devastation will follow.

There is little man can do to avert the destructive havoc the forces of nature have the power to release, and in the spiritual realm, there is little man can do to shield himself from the onslaught of the relentless enemy who assails him at every opportunity. 

The evil one is intent upon the destruction of men because he knows Jesus loves them and died to save them. The assault of the enemy of God against those the Lord came to save has gone on throughout man's occupancy of planet earth and it will continue until Christ comes back.

Although man is virtually helpless to shield himself from the assault of the enemy of his soul, he does have One to whom he may turn for protection from the winds and the waves of the storms old slewfoot generates.

Man has the assurance that his Savior will hide him in the cleft of the Rock (Exodus 33:22); that man may find a place of safety in the shadow of His wing (Psalm 63:7).

If you are caught within a force that is overpowering you, that is leaving you helpless and overwhelmed, allow yourself to turn to the Savior who has made provision for you to overcome the onslaught of the enemy within the security of the salvation Jesus has purchased for you at great price.

Is Jesus Lord?

October 3

Is Jesus Lord? by Dr. D. James Kennedy

 

…Jesus Christ is Lord…—Philippians 2:11

Is Jesus the Lord and master of your life, or is He but a genie in a bottle who is there to answer your every beck and call?

In some quarters of today’s Church we find a sort of theology that says one may accept Jesus as Savior and reject Him as Lord. This is heresy. People who believe this come into “faith” still hanging onto their plans, their goals, their agenda. They receive Christ as a genie in a “theological bottle” that they call forth through prayer.

People like this miss the full meaning of Christianity. To believe in Christ means to accept Him as Lord and master of our lives.

Napoleon in his latter days at St. Helena said, “Across a chasm of eighteen hundred years, Christ makes a demand which is above all others difficult to satisfy. He asks for that which a philosopher may often seek at the hands of his friends, or a father of his children, or a bride of her spouse.  He asks for the human heart, for His very own, exclusively His. Wonderful! In defiance of time and space, the soul of man with all its powers becomes an annexation to the Empire of Christ.”

George Matheson describes the human personality as a palace of many chambers. In this palace is the room of memory where Calvary may have the central place.

There’s a sunny chamber of affections where we may love Christ fondly.

There’s a lofty chamber of imagination where we plan the great things we’ll someday do for God.

But above all, there’s the throne room of the human will. When we invite Christ into our hearts, we must allow Him to reign on the throne of our will. And as we do, suddenly a corridor opens and connects all the other chambers, for when Christ controls our will, He controls all else.

Have you surrendered the throne of your will to the King? If you haven’t, do so today. Allow Christ to reign in your heart, guiding every decision you make.

Then watch as He opens to you a life beyond your wildest dreams.

...According to the Course Christians Take

October 2

"If Satan rules in our halls of legislation, the pulpit is responsible for it." -Charles Finney

Sir William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England, published 1765-1769 by Oxford's Clarendon Press, had an immense influence on America's founders, being considered the definitive pre-Revolutionary source of common law by United States courts.

Blackstone wrote: "The principal aim of society is to protect individuals in the enjoyment of those absolute rights, which were vested in them by the immutable laws of nature…It is better that ten guilty persons escape than one innocent suffer."

Blackstone further stated, “"Of great importance to the public is the preservation of this personal liberty; for if once it were left in the power of any the highest magistrate to imprison arbitrarily whomever he or his officers thought proper...there would soon be an end of all other rights and immunities…

…There is nothing which so generally strikes the imagination, and engages the affections of mankind, as...that sole and despotic dominion which one man claims and exercises over the external things of the world, in total exclusion of the right of any other individual in the universe."

He also said,  "To bereave a man of life, or by violence to confiscate his estate, without accusation or trial, would be so gross and notorious an act of despotism, as must at once convey the alarm of tyranny throughout the whole kingdom; but confinement of the person, by secretly hurrying him to jail, where his sufferings are unknown or forgotten, is a less public, a less striking, and therefore a more dangerous engine of arbitrary government."

Beginning in 1870, Harvard Law School dean Christopher Columbus Langdell applied evolution to the legal process.  Instead of having students study Blackstone and the original intent of those who wrote the Constitution, Langdell taught that laws could evolve through a series of "case precedents."

Blackstone's Commentaries were also read by 29-year-old attorney Charles Finney.  Finney saw so many Scripture references in Blackstone's Law Commentaries that he bought a Bible.

After reading in the Bible, Charles Finney, on October 10, 1821, decided to head into the woods near his home, saying: "I will give my heart to God, or I never will come down from there." 

After several hours, he returned to his office, later writing: "The Holy Spirit...seemed to go through me, body and soul... Indeed it seemed to come in waves of liquid love, for I could not express it in any other way."

The next morning, at his law office, a church deacon suing a fellow-church member asked Finney about his case. Finney replied: "I have a retainer from the Lord Jesus Christ to plead his cause, and cannot plead yours."

Finney began presenting the Gospel with a convincing lawyer's argument.  He would pray using common, colloquial language rather than in formal, traditional King's English.

Charles Finney began the tradition of an 'altar call' in his 1830 revival in Rochester, New York: "I had found, that with the higher classes especially, the greatest obstacle to be overcome was their fear of being known as anxious inquirers. They were too proud...  Something was needed, to make the impression on them that they were expected at once to give up their hearts; something that would call them to act, and act as publicly before the world, as they had in their sins; something that would commit them publicly to the service of Christ...

I had called them simply to stand up in the public congregations...to bring them out from among the mass of the ungodly, to a public renunciation of their sinful ways, and a public committal of themselves to God."

Finney's revival preaching paved the way for evangelists Dwight L. Moody, Billy Sunday and Billy Graham.  Charles Finney's 1835 Revival Lectures inspired George Williams to found the YMCA—Young Men's Christian Association-in 1844.

Finney inspired William and Catherine Booth to found what would be called The Salvation Army in 1865 and he formed the Benevolent Empire, a network of volunteer organizations to aid poor and aged with healthcare and social needs, which in 1834 had a budget rivaling the Federal Government.

Finney organized the Broadway Tabernacle in New York in 1831.  While Charles Finney was president of Oberlin College, 1851-1866, it was a station on the Underground Railroad smuggling slaves to freedom.

Under his leadership, Oberlin College granted the first college degree in the United States to a black woman, Mary Jane Patterson.

Charles Finney died AUGUST 16, 1875.

Concerning the Kingdom of God, he wrote: "Every member must work or quit. There are no honorary members in Christ’s Kingdom."

In his article, 'The Decay of Conscience' published in THE INDEPENDENT of NEW YORK, December 4, 1873, Charles Finney wrote: "Christ crucified for the sins of the world is the Christ that the people need.  Let us rid ourselves...of neglecting to preach the law of God until the consciences of men are asleep.  Such a collapse of conscience in this land could never have existed if the Puritan element in our preaching had not in great measure fallen out...

"If immorality prevails in the land, the fault is ours in a great degree.  If there is a decay of conscience, the pulpit is responsible for it.  If the public press lacks moral discrimination, the pulpit is responsible for it.  If the church is degenerate and worldly, the pulpit is responsible for it.  If the world loses its interest in religion, the pulpit is responsible for it.  If Satan rules in our halls of legislation, the pulpit is responsible for it.  If our politics become so corrupt that the very foundations of our government are ready to fall away, the pulpit is responsible for it.

Let us not ignore this fact, my dear brethren; but let us lay it to heart, and be thoroughly awake to our responsibility in respect to the morals of this nation."

In Lecture XV 'Hindrances to Revival' (Revival Lectures, 1855), Charles Finney wrote: "The church must take right ground in regard to politics.  Do not suppose, now, that I am going to preach a political sermon, or that I wish to have you join and get up a Christian party in politics.

No, I do not believe in that.  But the time has come that Christians must vote for honest men, and take consistent ground in politics, or the Lord will curse them...They must be honest men themselves, and instead of voting for a man because he belongs to their party, Bank or Anti-Bank, Jackson, or Anti-Jackson, they must find out whether he is honest and upright, and fit to be trusted.

They must let the world see that the church will uphold no man in office, who is known to be a knave, or an adulterer, or a Sabbath-breaker, or a gambler...Every man can know for whom he gives his vote. And if he will give his vote only for honest men, the country will be obliged to have upright rulers..."

Finney stated further: "The church must act right or the country will be ruined.  God cannot sustain this free and blessed country, which we love and pray for, unless the church will take right ground.   Politics are a part of religion in such a country as this, and Christians must do their duty to the country as a part of their duty to God.

“It seems sometimes as if the foundations of the nation were becoming rotten, and Christians seem to act as if they thought God did not see what they do in politics.  But I tell you, He does see it, and He will bless or curse this nation, according to the course Christians take."

May God alone determine who is to be the next President of the United States of America.  May He choose someone who will stand boldly in the behalf of the nation but who will stand humbly before the Holy One.

May He choose someone who will wield the scepter of governance with the wisdom and strength of the Almighty; someone who realizes that human power pales in comparison to the unfathomable might of our God.

May He choose as the nation's next leader someone who will bow before no man but who will humbly bow before the Lord Jesus Christ who will reign forever and ever.  May He choose as the nation's next leader someone who will inspire the people to allow themselves to be revived--to experience a Third Great Awakening.

"Humble yourself before God, and HE will exalt you in due time." I Peter 5:6

Trump Didn't Know He Was On Camera, What I Saw Left Me Speechless

The Presidency has been associated with personal faith since the inception of the country. Not all have professed a traditional Christian faith, but in recent decades this…

Water's Power

Water's Power

Ephesians 5:26 says that He employs the power of water that He might sanctify and cleanse believers with washing by the word.

The Word of God is likened to the effects of water. No matter how hard you are, the Word of God can soften you and no matter how soft you are that same water can harden you if you neglect the sin that is active in your life.

Anointed preaching that employs the WORD is amazing because the same message can soften one person while it hardens another. What makes the difference?

The difference from one life to another is not entirely in the power of the water. The power of the Living Word of our Holy God, doesn't change. It is the TRUTH that sets men free and it contains the seeds of LIFE that transcend time and unfold eternity before the children of men.

As the Word says of itself, it is "swift and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword," but the effect the Word of God will have upon a life depends entirely upon the will of the hearer. The person who hears the Word and allows it to touch his hard heart will be softened and warmed by the Holy Spirit and he will become more like Jesus.

The person who hears the Word with cold indifference will be hardened, and his hardness will relegate him to disdain the TRUTH that could set him free. He will remain a prisoner of his own self-delusion as he turns his back on the One who could release him from sin and establish him in Christ.

What is the boiling water of life doing to you? Is it hardening you into a doubter and skeptic, into an enemy of the good news?

Or are you allowing it to warm and soften you into a disciple of Christ for time and into an heir of glory for eternity?

Where Have You Set Your Heart?

Where have you set your heart? Have you given it to another person to keep for you? Perhaps a spouse or a lover possesses your heart.

Perhaps you have set your heart on wealth. Have you given it to the pursuit of temporal possessions? Perhaps things posses your heart.

Perhaps you have set your heart on yourself. Have you given it to the attainment of self-gratification? Perhaps you cling tenaciously to your heart.

The truth is that if your heart is anywhere but in the keeping of the One who died for you, it is in the wrong place.

When you recognize that something is lost, the only thing to do is to set about finding it. Unless your heart is in Jesus' loving hands, resolve to place it there today.

Walking in the Rain

October 1

Walking in the Rain by Holly Gerth

I often get notes from people saying something like, “My friend/family member is going through a hard time but I don’t feel like I can help because I haven’t been through the same thing.”


Here’s my response: “You don’t have to experience the same storm to know what it’s like to get wet.”

I’m certain you know what it’s like to feel soaked to the bone by discouragement, have fear thundering above you or watch a dream wash away. Don’t we all? It’s not our ability to duplicate details but to relate on a heart level that lets us have empathy and be able to encourage.

I once wrote a card for DaySpring that says:

I wish I had a big, yellow umbrella that would keep all the rain out of your life.
I would hold it over your head and the drops would splash, splash and you would never even feel it.  But I don’t have a big yellow umbrella, so I’ll walk through the rain with you.

When it comes to living that out, here are three ways you can walk through the rain with someone no matter what storm they’re facing:

1) Simply listen. When I did grief support groups I heard people say over and over again, “It was so comforting when someone just let me talk and cried with me.” When we’re hurting, what we need most isn’t answers; it’s to know we’re not alone.
2) Be a safe place. When someone shares their struggles with us, we’re to treat them with care like precious treasures. After all, it seems that’s what God does.  He says so:  “Put my tears into Your bottle; Are they not in Your book?” {Psalm 56:8}.
These three C’s can help us remember how to do so: Never criticize or condemn, and  always keep the conversation confidential.
3) Don’t try to fix it. When I got a masters degree in counseling we were told over and over to avoid giving advice. We empower people most when we trust them to figure out their own lives with God’s help.  We are simply there to be an encouragement and sounding board.

Ironically, the need to prove we’re useful can push us to talk too much and try too hard. When we feel that pressure, we can take a deep breath and remember we don’t have to be anyone’s God, Jesus or Holy Spirit. It’s not within our power to resolve the problem, change the circumstance or make the pain go away. In other words, we can’t stop the rain or make the sun come out again.

That reality doesn’t mean we’re a failure. It simply means we’re not God.
So what is success when it comes to helping others in our lives? After hearing from thousands of hurting people I’ve come to believe it’s simply this: Having the courage to step into the rain–even if it’s not our storm.