Saturday, November 28, 2009

Oswald Chambers Devotional



I was browsing Bill Koenig's site. I hunt for news stories there from time to time for things to write about going on in the world, for another site I contribute to, and I like to read his commentaries as well. Anyway, I stumbled upon this devotional, that is for today and it just seemed fitting in my life currently. I hope it blesses you as well. Happy belated Thanksgiving everyone! More than a Conqueror.



THE BOUNTY OF THE DESTITUTE



"Being justified freely by His grace. . ." Romans 3:24

The Gospel of the grace of God awakens an intense longing in human souls and an equally intense resentment, because the revelation which it brings is not palatable. There is a certain pride in man that will give and give, but to come and accept is another thing. I will give my life to martyrdom, I will give myself in consecration, I will do anything, but do not humiliate me to the level of the most hell-deserving sinner and tell me that all I have to do is to accept the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ.

We have to realize that we cannot earn or win anything from God; we must either receive it as a gift or do without it. The greatest blessing spiritually is the knowledge that we are destitute; until we get there Our Lord is powerless. He can do nothing for us if we think we are sufficient of ourselves, we have to enter into His Kingdom through the door of destitution. As long as we are rich, possessed of anything in the way of pride or independence, God cannot do anything for us. It is only when we get hungry spiritually that we receive the Holy Spirit. The gift of the essential nature of God is made effectual in us by the Holy Spirit, He imparts to us the quickening life of Jesus, which puts "the beyond" within, and immediately "the beyond" has come within, it rises up to "the above," and we are lifted into the domain where Jesus lives. (John 3:5.)

I Don't Know About You...But I Needed This Today

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Encouragement and Wisdom from Corrie ten Boom


I wanted to share something with you today that would encourage believers in Jesus Christ. There is so much going on around us right now. We are seeing history unfold right before our eyes. Corrie ten Boom's faith was tried and tested and she came out of those trials having the right stuff. Sometimes I fear that I may not have the "right stuff" to stand through what is ahead, but her letter reminds me that it is not what I have or don't have, but it is He that lives in me that will enable me to stand. We simply cannot go on pretending that change isn't in the air, it just is. If you are not ready to deal with this change that is approaching I caution you to maybe hold off a bit in reading this letter and pray God strengthens you. I don't know personally what is going to happen or when...there are a lot of theories out there. I just trust that He is coming back, because He said He would.


John 14:1-4 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God ; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going."


More than a Conqueror



Corrie ten Boom’s Letter



The world is deathly ill. It is dying. The Great Physician has already signed the death certificate. Yet there is still a great work for Christians to do. They are to be streams of living water, channels of mercy to those who are still in the world. It is possible for them to do this because they are overcomers.


Christians are ambassadors for Christ. They are representatives from Heaven to this dying world. And because of our presence here, things will change.


My sister, Betsy, and I were in the Nazi concentration camp at Ravensbruck because we committed the crime of loving Jews. Seven hundred of us from Holland, France, Russia, Poland and Belgium were herded into a room built for two hundred. As far as I knew, Betsy and I were the only two representatives of Heaven in that room.


We may have been the Lord’s only representatives in that place of hatred, yet because of our presence there, things changed. Jesus said, “In the world you shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” We too, are to be overcomers—bringing the light of Jesus into a world filled with darkness and hate.


Sometimes I get frightened as I read the Bible, and as I look in this world and see all of the tribulation and persecution promised by the Bible coming true. Now I can tell you, though, if you too are afraid, that I have just read the last pages. I can now come to shouting “Hallelujah! Hallelujah!” for I have found where it is written that Jesus said, “He that overcometh shall inherit all things: and I will be His God, and he shall be My son.” This is the future and hope of this world. Not that the world will survive – but that we shall be overcomers in the midst of a dying world.


Betsy and I, in the concentration camp, prayed that God would heal Betsy who was so weak and sick. “Yes, the Lord will heal me,” Betsy said with confidence. She died the next day and I could not understand it. They laid her thin body on the concrete floor along with all the other corpses of the women who died that day.


It was hard for me to understand, to believe that God had a purpose for all that. Yet because of Betsy’s death, today I am traveling all over the world telling people about Jesus.


There are some among us teaching there will be no tribulation, that the Christians will be able to escape all this. These are the false teachers that Jesus was warning us to expect in the latter days. Most of them have little knowledge of what is already going on across the world. I have been in countries where the saints are already suffering terrible persecution. In China, the Christians were told, “Don’t worry, before the tribulation comes you will be translated – raptured.” Then came a terrible persecution. Millions of Christians were tortured to death. Later I heard a Bishop from China say, sadly, “We have failed. We should have made the people strong for persecution rather than telling them Jesus would come first. Tell the people how to be strong in times of persecution, how to stand when the tribulation comes – to stand and not faint.”


I feel I have a divine mandate to go and tell the people of this world that it is possible to be strong in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are in training for the tribulation, but more than sixty percent of the Body of Christ across the world has already entered into the tribulation. There is no way to escape it. We are next.


Since I have already gone through prison for Jesus’ sake, and since I met the Bishop in China, now every time I read a good Bible text I think, “Hey, I can use that in the time of tribulation.” Then I write it down and learn it by heart.


When I was in the concentration camp, a camp where only twenty percent of the women came out alive, we tried to cheer each other up by saying, “Nothing could be any worse than today.” But we would find the next day was even worse. During this time a Bible verse that I had committed to memory gave me great hope and joy. “If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you; on their part evil is spoken of, but on your part He is glorified.” (I Peter 3:14) I found myself saying, “Hallelujah! Because I am suffering, Jesus is glorified!”


In America, the churches sing, “Let the congregation escape tribulation,” but in China and Africa the tribulation has already arrived. This last year alone more than two hundred thousand Christians were martyred in Africa. Now things like that never get into the newspapers because they cause bad political relations. But I know. I have been there. We need to think about that when we sit down in our nice houses with our nice clothes to eat our steak dinners. Many, many members of the Body of Christ are being tortured to death at this very moment, yet we continue right on as though we are all going to escape the tribulation.


Several years ago I was in Africa in a nation where a new government had come into power. The first night I was there some of the Christians were commanded to come to the police station to register. When they arrived they were arrested and that same night they were executed. The next day the same thing happened with other Christians. The third day it was the same. All the Christians in the district were being systematically murdered.


The fourth day I was to speak in a little church. The people came, but they were filled with fear and tension. All during the service they were looking at each other, their eyes asking, “Will this one I am sitting beside be the next one killed? Will I be the next one?”


The room was hot and stuffy with insects that came through the screenless windows and swirled around the naked bulbs over the bare wooden benches. I told them a story out of my childhood.
“When I was a little girl, “ I said, “I went to my father and said, “Daddy, I am afraid that I will never be strong enough to be a martyr for Jesus Christ.” “Tell me,” said Father, “When you take a train trip to Amsterdam, when do I give you the money for the ticket? Three weeks before?” “No, Daddy, you give me the money for the ticket just before we get on the train.” “That is right,” my father said, “and so it is with God’s strength. Our Father in Heaven knows when you will need the strength to be a martyr for Jesus Christ. He will supply all you need—just in time…”


My African friends were nodding and smiling. Suddenly a spirit of joy descended upon that church and the people began singing, “ In the sweet, by and by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore.” Later that week, half the congregation of that church was executed. I heard later that the other half was killed some months ago.


But I must tell you something. I was so happy that the Lord used me to encourage these people, for unlike many of their leaders, I had the word of God. I had been to the Bible and discovered that Jesus said He had not only overcome the world, but to all those who remained faithful to the end, He would give a crown of life.


How can we get ready for the persecution? First we need to feed on the word of God, digest it, make it a part of our being. This will mean disciplined Bible study each day as we not only memorize long passages of scripture, but put the principles to work in our lives.


Next we need to develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Not just the Jesus of yesterday, the Jesus of History, but the life-changing Jesus of today who is still alive and sitting at the right hand of God.


We must be filled with the Holy Spirit. This is no optional command of the Bible, it is absolutely necessary. Those earthly disciples could never have stood up under the persecution of the Jews and Romans had they not waited for Pentecost. Each of us needs our own personal Pentecost, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We will never be able to stand in the tribulation without it.
In the coming persecution we must be ready to help each other and encourage each other. But we must not wait until the tribulation comes before starting. The fruit of the Spirit should be the dominant force of every Christian’s life.


Many are fearful of the coming tribulation, they want to run. I, too, am a little bit afraid when I think that after all my eighty years, including the horrible nazi concentration camp, that I might have to go through the tribulation also. But then I read the Bible and I am glad.


When I am weak, then I shall be strong, the Bible says. Betsy and I were prisoners for the Lord; we were so weak, but we got power because the Holy Spirit was on us. That mighty inner strengthening of the Holy Spirit helped us through. No, you will not be strong in yourself when the tribulation comes. Rather, you will be strong in the power of Him who will not forsake you. For seventy-six years I have known the Lord Jesus and not once has He ever left me, or let me down. Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him, for I know that to all who overcome, He shall give the crown of life. Hallelujah!

About Corrie ten Boom http://www.corrietenboom.com/history.htm

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Seeing in the Dark




Isaiah 42:16
And I will bring the blind by a way that they know not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known. I will make darkness into light before them and make uneven places into a plain. These things I have determined to do [for them]; and I will not leave them forsaken.


This morning as I worshiped the Lord with other believers I had a vision of deep purple robes being draped over the shoulders of every believer in the room, even the small children. I also saw golden crowns being placed on their heads. I wondered to myself, "do they know who they are?" and I questioned in my heart and to God, "do I know, Lord, who I am?" The message followed and confirmed the vision I believe the Lord had given me.

How much do we do, as the world does, judge on the outward appearances of those around us? The world sees a person's weight, height, looks and many other outward signs and signals to decide the value or abilities or lack there of, of a person. God doesn't see it that way at all. He sees our hearts and what He has put into us.

I know a beautiful, amazing godly woman of prayer. She is one of my mentors and someone I look to for godly wisdom. You wouldn't know what a warrior she is by her outward appearance. God has put in this woman incredible gifts and most importantly His Word! I know other people like that. In the natural you wouldn't know it, but they are mighty warriors for the Lord.

This world is becoming a dark place. Believers are beginning to sense the shift. To deny it is futile. I think even unbelievers are sensing it as well. Movies are coming out about the end of the world. People are exploring "spiritual" things. Some are working very hard to try to deny the existence of God as if that will keep them from facing the hard truth of their own humanity, frailty and pridefulnes. Books are being written about the subject. Then there is the media, don't even get me started there. It is undeniable.

For the believer it is not the end. It is just the beginning. This is our season. This is what we have been waiting for. Many Christians have not lived to see not what we are seeing in this age. It is not the end of the world, but might very well be the end of this age. (Mat 24:3-9) No one knows for sure when Yeshua will come again, but most people sense a change. It is not a time to fear or even trust what you see with your physical eyes. It is a time to see what God sees, and the way He sees it.

Isaiah 9:2: The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined

I once had a dream. In my dream I was supposed to be fasting. Before me was a snake and a loaf of bread. The snake was a threatening reality and it struck awesome fear in my heart as it stared wildly and wickedly into my eyes. I became so entranced as the snake hissed and maliciously postured before me that before I knew it I was eating the bread. I didn't even notice that I had picked it up. I had lost sight of what God had asked me to do, fast, because my eyes were too entuned and my heart so fearful of the evil that danced around me and threatened to overtake me.

Isaiah 12:2
Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.

We can become so entranced by the evil and darkness that is around us of that we lose sight of the enormity of a Holy God, Yahweh, Whom for and through all things were created. On the other hand we must be wise and not deny what is happening around us and how important our part is in this story. We must do battle on our knees, but not in our own strength and abilities, but in His. We are mighty in Him. We will go to places we are not familiar with. In the dark, He will bring the light so we can see. Where the ground is uneven He will make it plain. He will not forsake us or leave us, but be with us every step of the way.

1 Peter 2:9
But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God's OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;



More than a Conqueror