I’m running to Him

Keep me safe, O God, for I have come to you for refuge. I said to the Lord , “You are my Master! Every good thing I have comes from you.”

Psalms 16:1‭-‬2 NLT

So you say it’s to hard? Well, my question to follow that is, where do you go for help. It’s pretty awesome to see so many people come to the aid of people that need help. To see how in the time of turmoil and calamity we band together as one to help others. Even when we may do a small part or a big portion we all do a part to help. When we are in trouble we turn to different places. We turn to different agencies and providers to help us through it. We try to get the help that we need to make it through the situation we are in.

HERE IT IS…

There is something about running to people for help that I do not like. Even the biggest agencies in the world. They are limited in their efforts. See while others run to the agencies and governments for help they fail to realize that it’s only a small portion they can do because their are other people running there too. I know a place that I can run too that will supply all my needs. I know a place i can hide and be protected. I know a place i can run too and be provided for with no limitations. I can go to the solid rock. My foundation. I can go to God and he will be everything I need.

Re-mission

He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins.

Ephesians 1:7 NLT

I was reading a devotional this morning about a guy who received a text from a woman who said she was going to end it all. He was married with kids and this number was not someone he knew. So he asked who it was and she tried to end it. He decided to expand the conversation and found out she was going to kill herself because if her abusive boyfriend. He tried talking to her but she told him she had already taken a whole bottle of pills. As he spoke with her she told him where she was and they got her to a hospital.

HERE IT IS…

We dont need to think it’s over when he already finished it for us. Jesus hung bled and died for our sins. Better yet he did it for the remission of our sins. Here is what I like about that, the word remission. Which means; a cancellation of debt, a decrease in seriousness of a illness, or forgiveness of sins. However, if re break it down the prefix Re, is to do something again, and mission is the meaning behind something. So if he paid for the cancellation of your debt, and decreased the seriousness of your issues, to forgive them. Then your life now has a re-mission. Because now your mission in life is not to live for you but for God…

No wonder…

No wonder my heart is glad, and I rejoice. My body rests in safety. For you will not leave my soul among the dead or allow your holy one to rot in the grave. You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever.

Psalms 16:9‭-‬11 NLT

So let me get this straight. You are worried about what’s happening around you and to you knowing that God is providing you with the victory already? Its human nature to worry, get scared, have doubts and fears, is it christian nature to allow it to take over? Is it christian nature to allow the noise of life to control your thoughts? Is it christian nature to give up in the midst of a storm when God sent it to you to throw the enemy off your trail? You have in you a faith provided to you by the one who created everything. I know this question is a bit redundant, but, how can we be scared of what comes when he is the one who created it all?

HERE IT IS..

That moment when hell breaks loose in your life, smile. That moment when you feel that you cant make it, smile. That moment qhen it seems the things of life are to loud, smile. The psalmist declares that we rest in safety. We wont be left for dead. We wont be left alone. We wont lose. We wont fail. The bible says it this way; So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you.”

Deuteronomy 31:6 NLT

I’m still golden

How the gold has lost its luster! Even the finest gold has become dull. The sacred gemstones lie scattered in the streets! See how the precious children of Jerusalem, worth their weight in fine gold, are now treated like pots of clay made by a common potter.

Lamentations 4:1‭-‬2 NLT

When I was in the military, alot of our pieces for our uniform was made of brass. In doing that it had to be shined periodically. If you dont shine it in a while the there will be a discoloration to the brass pieces and will make the brass look horrible. What we used to make it shine brought back the luster and the ability to tell what it was. Even though it didnt look like it, it was still brass. At times it could get so bad that it had to be soaked in a substance in order to remove the things that was on it. The fact remained that it was still able to be used as it was designed.

HERE IT IS…

There may be times in your life you may not feel, look, or even think your worth it because of what you have been through. It may be times that you have to pick yourself up and tell yourself your more than what you see. It may be times that people may try and treat you different than what and who you are. This 4th chapter tells us right at the beginning that the children of Israel may look bad and have gone through alot. Using a description of gold without its luster. Worth their weight in gold but treated like clay pots made by a COMMON potter. In life we may feel that way. However that doesn’t change anything about who God has actually made you to be. We have all been through alot but your still gold on the inside, you just need to be shined.

Around you, is not you

Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.

Lamentations 3:21‭-‬23 NLT

I have been in places in my life where it seems like I am going through the previous 2 chapters of Lamentations. Times where it felt like God was mad at me. Felt like God had took his hands off me. Felt like God had removed his protection and peace. Things weren’t going right. Bill’s due with no pay. Children acting a fool. Family in disarray. There have been times where I felt as if my life was making a turn for the worst. Have you had to go through that? Where it felt like it would be easier and more beneficial to just go back to your old ways?

HERE IT IS…

Well the writer and prophet Jeremiah felt the same way as you read the first 20 verses of this chapter. Jeremiah felt it was over and well. Watching God destroy what he built because of his anger. Then, he changes his thinking. He changes his talk. He changes his outlook on life. In essence, Jeremiah says, even though God has destroyed everything around me. He didnt destroy me. Although everything he set up for me is gone, I am still here and he is still with me. Dont get caught up in what’s being stripped and destroyed around you and how it feels as if God is mad at you. Notice it’s the stuff that’s around you that is being destroyed, not you! He is tearing, and destroying things so that you can be used for his glory. You made it.

Sin is sin

The Lord in his anger has cast a dark shadow over beautiful Jerusalem. The fairest of Israel’s cities lies in the dust, thrown down from the heights of heaven. In his day of great anger, the Lord has shown no mercy even to his Temple.

Lamentations 2:1 NLT

I to this day prefer my mom to be angry at me rather than my dad. To this day I refuse to see the wrath of my father if his anger because of the carnage I have seen and experienced as a child. There is no way I would want to stand in front of my father and have to receive the wrath he has. He can be gentle, loving, and protective. However, it is in those of the former that he rules with the same strength. I have had the unwelcomed experience of seeing him get in my face 1 time only as I thought I was bad and that was enough for me. I cant say that my father was a man that ruled differently for different people, but, he did for different situations.

HERE IT IS…

In this 2nd chapter of Lamentations it reminds me of a father ruling judgement over his children. He he did not spare anyone because they were different or they were in a different tax bracket or had more than the other. God reigned on sin evenly across the board. He was not going to spare anyone because they all were apart of the same body. Imagine, how life would be if we had to pay for the sins of others in corporate punishment. Imagine what we would have to go through having to pay for the sins of others that we were connected to. Imagine what would happen to us if God had not sent his son to pay for our sins on a corporate level so that we could have a opportunity to do what he has called us to do.

Damsel to rescue

She sobs through the night; tears stream down her cheeks. Among all her lovers, there is no one left to comfort her. All her friends have betrayed her and become her enemies.

Lamentations 1:2 NLT

I love animated movies and I always look at the hidden messages in the movies. Sometimes when I watch them I dont get the message until I’m reading. This particular chapter of Lamentations reminds me of the 1st shrek movie. How the princess was in the tower and locked away all alone guarded by a dragon the breathed fire. No friends! No parents! No one to talk to, secluded and separated. Why? Because she not only was waiting for her knight in shining armor, but she had a spell placed on her that made her turn into something that people were afraid of. An oger! This is how Jerusalem was displayed in this first chapter.

HERE IT IS…

The prophet Jeremiah displays Jerusalem as a damsel in distress. Because of its sinful nature, because of its disobedience, because of its horrific actions. God has punished them. God had removed them. God had separated them. God has caused them to become a lowly place. Verse one says once so full of people. Truth be told sometimes we feel just like Jerusalem. Sometimes we feel God has separated us. We feel God has placed us in the tallest tower in a dark castle guarded by things as if we were sick. When we actually miss the message in what he is doing in our life. He set us there on display to show that he can rescue us from anything. Our knight is on his way.

Dancing in the dark

Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice. My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.

Psalms 63:7‭-‬8 KJV

The house that I grew up in I can remember the layout and where things were placed to this day. I can tell you where things were, what paintings were where and furniture. One of the things that I know I can do is even in the dark walk through the house and not stub a toe, know where the stairs creaked, and know how to get around the house. In the dark places of the house I was still able to navigate because I knew that place like the back of my hand. I was safe because I grew up in that house. Often times, it may seem strange but I believed the house knew me too.

HERE IT IS…

We have all been in some dark places physically, emotionally, and spiritually. We have all experienced some places that we had to feel our way around. In this text our writer is explaining to us in the KJV, that he is able to rejoice in the shadows. I asked the question who could dance in a dark place? God reminded me that even in our dark places away from God we knew how to dance. The parties, the club, and those places we dont discuss, we danced. However our writer is rejoicing in the dark shadows of God. I dont know about you but I would rather be in the dark shadows of God than in those dark places I used to be in. Even though that house I grew up in I feel I knew like the back of my hand because I was in it for all my life? We have been in Gods hands, we have been in his shadow in a place that is familiar because he knows us. Dont worry or be scared or feel lost. Your in the shadows of God. So now let’s rejoice because even though it seems like all hell is breaking loose it’s going to be over when he brings you out of the shadows and let’s his light shine upon you.

Preposion; because

Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings. I cling to you; your right hand upholds me.

Psalm 63:7‭-‬8 NIV

I am not an english major, however, there is a word in this verse that has caused me to look further into this message that is given to us by the writer of this 63 psalm. The word because is what is causing this arrest of my spirit. Because is a prepositional phrase that connects to a non or a noun phrase. This word needs a main clause to connect to to make it work. Here in this verse the word because connects us to something greater. The word because is connecting us to a main clause of the sentence that we have to understand is the focal point of this verse. Because in this verse is connecting us to God.

HERE IT IS…

Look at verse 1 of the same chapter which says; You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.

Psalm 63:1 NIV

The writer starts this message with a direct to connection to God. I just want somebody to know that even when your going through, even when things come your way, even when trouble is all around you. You have to have a preposition praise. Well Rev. B, what’s that? A preposition in grammar is a function word that typically combines with a noun phrase to form a phrase which usually expresses a modification or predication. So when things come against you I have a God that’s able to modify my situation with a preposition. I may be going through, but because my God is greater than all these things I know I will win. Allow God to come in and be your preposition of modification in your life. Allow your because praise to connect you to the source the noun and noun phrase of God. Because God is my healer, because God is my provider, because God is my strength, because God is…

Dont panic, he is there

In panic I cried out, “I am cut off from the Lord !” But you heard my cry for mercy and answered my call for help. Love the Lord , all you godly ones! For the Lord protects those who are loyal to him, but he harshly punishes the arrogant. So be strong and courageous, all you who put your hope in the Lord !

Psalms 31:22‭-‬24 NLT

I have read this scripture over and over again just this week. I have studied and and looked in different versions of this scripture and they all have the same thing that jumps out at me. It tells me that we are hasty people. Why do you say that Rev. . Well I believe that we are hasty because we react just as the writer of the this reacted. He says he panicked and cried out that he was cut off from God. As if to say that something happened in his life that brought him to the place he thought God had left him, and cried out in distress. Have you felt that way? Have you felt that your life was in a place that you just knew for yourself that God had walked away from you?

HERE IT IS…

When I tell you I have read this over and over is because I see how the writer takes us through his experience of what happen that we all can relate to. Then responds to us and encourages us at the end. We go through something, we have a incident or situation, and we lose our mind and think God had deserted us. Feel like god has just walked away and is not concerned with what is happening to us. We get beat up, talked about, lose money, lose friends and family and we completely lose our mind. Then he responds and rescues us. He comes to get us and we realize he never left us. The writer encourages us and tells us that even when we going through things and things seem like we are all alone and we start to panic. Don’t! Keep your cool and know that God is right there with you. Be courageous and strong because he hears your crys.