You'll get through this! You fear you won't. We all do. We feel stuck, trapped, locked in. Will we ever exit this pit? Yes! Deliverance is to the Bible what jazz music is to Mardi Gras: bold, brassy, and everywhere. Out of the lion's den for Daniel, the whale's belly for Jonah, and the prison for Paul.
Through the Red Sea onto dry ground. Through the wilderness, through the valley of the shadow of death. Through! It's a favorite word of God's. Isaiah 43:2 says, "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you… when you walk through the fire, you will not be burned."
It won't be painless. Have you wept your final tear, received your last round of chemotherapy? Not necessarily. Does God guarantee the absence of struggle? Not in this life. We see Satan's tricks and ploys, but God sees Satan tripped and foiled. You'll get through this!
From You'll Get Through This
Lamentations 2
How the Lord has covered Daughter Zion
with the cloud of his anger[e]!
He has hurled down the splendor of Israel
from heaven to earth;
he has not remembered his footstool
in the day of his anger.
2 Without pity the Lord has swallowed up
all the dwellings of Jacob;
in his wrath he has torn down
the strongholds of Daughter Judah.
He has brought her kingdom and its princes
down to the ground in dishonor.
3 In fierce anger he has cut off
every horn[f][g] of Israel.
He has withdrawn his right hand
at the approach of the enemy.
He has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire
that consumes everything around it.
4 Like an enemy he has strung his bow;
his right hand is ready.
Like a foe he has slain
all who were pleasing to the eye;
he has poured out his wrath like fire
on the tent of Daughter Zion.
5 The Lord is like an enemy;
he has swallowed up Israel.
He has swallowed up all her palaces
and destroyed her strongholds.
He has multiplied mourning and lamentation
for Daughter Judah.
6 He has laid waste his dwelling like a garden;
he has destroyed his place of meeting.
The Lord has made Zion forget
her appointed festivals and her Sabbaths;
in his fierce anger he has spurned
both king and priest.
7 The Lord has rejected his altar
and abandoned his sanctuary.
He has given the walls of her palaces
into the hands of the enemy;
they have raised a shout in the house of the Lord
as on the day of an appointed festival.
8 The Lord determined to tear down
the wall around Daughter Zion.
He stretched out a measuring line
and did not withhold his hand from destroying.
He made ramparts and walls lament;
together they wasted away.
9 Her gates have sunk into the ground;
their bars he has broken and destroyed.
Her king and her princes are exiled among the nations,
the law is no more,
and her prophets no longer find
visions from the Lord.
10 The elders of Daughter Zion
sit on the ground in silence;
they have sprinkled dust on their heads
and put on sackcloth.
The young women of Jerusalem
have bowed their heads to the ground.
11 My eyes fail from weeping,
I am in torment within;
my heart is poured out on the ground
because my people are destroyed,
because children and infants faint
in the streets of the city.
12 They say to their mothers,
“Where is bread and wine?”
as they faint like the wounded
in the streets of the city,
as their lives ebb away
in their mothers’ arms.
13 What can I say for you?
With what can I compare you,
Daughter Jerusalem?
To what can I liken you,
that I may comfort you,
Virgin Daughter Zion?
Your wound is as deep as the sea.
Who can heal you?
14 The visions of your prophets
were false and worthless;
they did not expose your sin
to ward off your captivity.
The prophecies they gave you
were false and misleading.
15 All who pass your way
clap their hands at you;
they scoff and shake their heads
at Daughter Jerusalem:
“Is this the city that was called
the perfection of beauty,
the joy of the whole earth?”
16 All your enemies open their mouths
wide against you;
they scoff and gnash their teeth
and say, “We have swallowed her up.
This is the day we have waited for;
we have lived to see it.”
17 The Lord has done what he planned;
he has fulfilled his word,
which he decreed long ago.
He has overthrown you without pity,
he has let the enemy gloat over you,
he has exalted the horn[h] of your foes.
18 The hearts of the people
cry out to the Lord.
You walls of Daughter Zion,
let your tears flow like a river
day and night;
give yourself no relief,
your eyes no rest.
19 Arise, cry out in the night,
as the watches of the night begin;
pour out your heart like water
in the presence of the Lord.
Lift up your hands to him
for the lives of your children,
who faint from hunger
at every street corner.
20 “Look, Lord, and consider:
Whom have you ever treated like this?
Should women eat their offspring,
the children they have cared for?
Should priest and prophet be killed
in the sanctuary of the Lord?
21 “Young and old lie together
in the dust of the streets;
my young men and young women
have fallen by the sword.
You have slain them in the day of your anger;
you have slaughtered them without pity.
22 “As you summon to a feast day,
so you summoned against me terrors on every side.
In the day of the Lord’s anger
no one escaped or survived;
those I cared for and reared
my enemy has destroyed.”
Footnotes:
Lamentations 1:1 This chapter is an acrostic poem, the verses of which begin with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
Lamentations 1:14 Most Hebrew manuscripts; many Hebrew manuscripts and Septuagint He kept watch over my sins
Lamentations 1:15 Or has set a time for me / when he will
Lamentations 2:1 This chapter is an acrostic poem, the verses of which begin with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
Lamentations 2:1 Or How the Lord in his anger / has treated Daughter Zion with contempt
Lamentations 2:3 Or off / all the strength; or every king
Lamentations 2:3 Horn here symbolizes strength.
Lamentations 2:17 Horn here symbolizes strength.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: John 5:18,37-47
18 For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
37 And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, 38 nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. 39 You study[a] the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
41 “I do not accept glory from human beings, 42 but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. 43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. 44 How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God[b]?
45 “But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. 46 If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. 47 But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?”
Footnotes:
John 5:39 Or 39 Study
John 5:44 Some early manuscripts the Only One
Not Interested In Religion
September 3, 2013 — by Anne Cetas
How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! —Matthew 23:37
A radio ad for a church caught my attention: “Because you’ve heard about Christianity, you might not be interested in religion. Well, it might surprise you—Jesus wasn’t interested in religion either. But He was big on relationship and teaching us to love one another.” It continued, “You may not like everything about our church, but we offer authentic relationship, and we’re learning to love God and each other. You’re welcome to visit.”
This church may have overstated things about Jesus and religion because Scripture does speak of “true religion” in James 1:27 as helpful deeds toward others. But Jesus did have difficulties with religious people of His day. He said the Pharisees, guided by tradition and rules not by love for the Lord, “outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside [they] are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness” (Matt. 23:28). They didn’t have the love of God in their hearts (John 5:42). Jesus wanted relationship with them, but they were “not willing to come to [Him]” (v.40).
If being “religious” means following a set of rules so we can look good—instead of enjoying a relationship with the Savior—Jesus isn’t interested. He offers forgiveness and love to all who want an intimate relationship with Him.
True religion is to know
The love that Christ imparts;
True religion is to show
This love to burdened hearts. —D. DeHaan
There is a longing in every heart that only Jesus can satisfy.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
September 3, 2013
Pouring Out the Water of Satisfaction
He would not drink it, but poured it out to the Lord —2 Samuel 23:16
What has been like “water from the well of Bethlehem” to you recently— love, friendship, or maybe some spiritual blessing ( 2 Samuel 23:16 )? Have you taken whatever it may be, even at the risk of damaging your own soul, simply to satisfy yourself? If you have, then you cannot pour it out “to the Lord.” You can never set apart for God something that you desire for yourself to achieve your own satisfaction. If you try to satisfy yourself with a blessing from God, it will corrupt you. You must sacrifice it, pouring it out to God— something that your common sense says is an absurd waste.
How can I pour out “to the Lord” natural love and spiritual blessings? There is only one way— I must make a determination in my mind to do so. There are certain things other people do that could never be received by someone who does not know God, because it is humanly impossible to repay them. As soon as I realize that something is too wonderful for me, that I am not worthy to receive it, and that it is not meant for a human being at all, I must pour it out “to the Lord.” Then these very things that have come to me will be poured out as “rivers of living water” all around me (John 7:38). And until I pour these things out to God, they actually endanger those I love, as well as myself, because they will be turned into lust. Yes, we can be lustful in things that are not sordid and vile. Even love must be transformed by being poured out “to the Lord.”
If you have become bitter and sour, it is because when God gave you a blessing you hoarded it. Yet if you had poured it out to Him, you would have been the sweetest person on earth. If you are always keeping blessings to yourself and never learning to pour out anything “to the Lord,” other people will never have their vision of God expanded through you.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Somebody Bigger - #6952
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
When I was growing up, we had a bully in our neighborhood. Maybe every neighborhood has a bully? I don't know. Ours was named Boomer! Nobody knew what his real name was, and if we did we probably would know why he was called Boomer. It kind of sounds like a neighborhood bully doesn't it? He intimidated us little kids, I'll tell you. I think it was his hobby, and honestly we were pretty scared of him. He'd come and take our baseball paraphernalia and call us names and threaten to beat us up.
One day, like a lot of other days, he started after me and started to threaten and make noises like he wanted to hurt me. And all of a sudden there was a voice behind him saying, "Boomer, go home" and he did. It wasn't me. No, my Dad had arrived on the scene. And you know what? He was bigger than Boomer, even though Boomer was bigger than I was. Now, Boomer was the same bully, and I was the same shrimp, but the difference was there was somebody bigger with me.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Somebody Bigger."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Matthew 1:23. And if this sounds like part of the Christmas Story, it is. But the Christmas Story isn't just for Christmas. This is all about when God came to earth, which is the beginning of the greatest news of all time. The angel is talking to Joseph and says, "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel - which means 'God with us'."
Now, hold that thought for just a minute. There was a survey a few years ago that mapped the position of hundreds of millions of galaxies. The survey revealed that the large scale structure of this universe and it uncovered this giant string of galaxies that they now call the The Sloan Great Wall. They say its 1.4 billion light years across, which makes it the largest structure in the universe. I can't even begin to comprehend it! Why don't we just laugh? There's no point in trying to understand it.
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| Sloan Great Wall |
The astronomers said it has raised such profound questions about the origin and the structure of the universe that we actually need a major national observatory just to study it. They say and I quote, "The size of the structure indicates that in present theories of the universe, something is really wrong. That makes a big difference" the astronomer said. "No known force could produce a structure this big in the time since the universe was formed." And I just want to say, "Oh yeah?"
Well, it is that God who is with us because Jesus came. The Creator of something that's 1.4 billion light years across (and that's just a few of the galaxies) - where is He now? Well, He came into the world and looked helpless as a little baby. He wasn't even able to grab His mother's finger, but those are the hands that created the world. He created the tree He died on. And now, that God is with you right where you are. He's there with all the power that made galaxies that big, and that power is available for your life.
There's no excuse for an ordinary life if God is with you. There's no excuse for having small goals, for being embarrassed about your relationship with Him. That God is with you now. There's no excuse for being afraid of anything that God is calling you to do, because that God will be with you.
Maybe you've felt like a victim most of your life, but that's changed now because God is with you. You're alone, you're worried about the future, or you're facing Mission Impossible. God with us! The excitement of life is in looking for that God where He is in your everyday life today. And, by the way, if you have never begun a personal relationship made possible with Him by the death of His Son, Jesus, on the cross for you, why would you wait another day to get started? Would you join me at our website and let me show you how to begin that relationship? You could just go to ANewStory.com.
The angel said on that Christmas announcement, "This is good news to all people - God is with us." It doesn't matter how big the bully is. He's nothing! Because somebody is bigger with you, so let Him intimidate your bully."
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