VIDEO All To Him

Dec 6, 2014

Desperation Band – All To Him, Album: Center of It All, Year: 2012

All To Him LYRICS

Center Of It All
by Desperation Band

For every mountain that is high He is higher
For every burden that is great He is greater
For every valley that is deep He is deeper still
More than we can know

Our promise is Jesus
Our answer is Jesus
All to Him
All to Him we owe everything
Our savior is Jesus
Our future is Jesus
All to Him
All to Him we owe everything

For every fear that closes in He is closer
For every doubt that comes on strong He is stronger
For every battle that we face He has conquered all
More than we can know

We know the great God
We serve the great God
We owe the great God
Everything all to Him

Victory Over Death – The Supreme Climb

But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:57).

This isn’t an easy post for me to write. It means reflecting on some of the darkest evil plaguing our world today: terrorism. But a recent encounter allowed me to see more clearly the power of God’s sustaining Word—even amidst terror caused by evil actions.

At a coffee shop in Uganda I met a young man who had witnessed and survived (by hiding in a frigid meat freezer) the September 21, 2013 terrorist attack at Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya, that resulted in 67 deaths. Though he was ultimately among those rescued, during the horrific ordeal the man saw the face of evil as innocent people were gunned down—some at point blank range—if they failed to convince the radical militants that they shared the same religion.

As he watched people die, the young man had every reason to believe he wouldn’t make it out alive. He told me, however, that because he was confident of having been saved by grace (Ephesians 2:8-9) and that Jesus is his Savior (1 Timothy 1:1), he feared pain—but not death. The man’s mind raced and his heart pounded that day, but at the same time he experienced supernatural peace as he clung to Scripture, including the following verses from God’s Word:

• “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).

• “When I am afraid, I will put my trust in you” (Psalm 56:3).

I consider it a gift from God to have met this man, for he’s a living testimony that God and His Word can still our hearts and grant peace to our minds even during the most horrific situations on earth.

We can cling to that confidence which is available through Christ alone.
—
The Supreme Climb

Take now your son…and offer him…as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you. —Genesis 22:2

A person’s character determines how he interprets God’s will (see Psalm 18:25-26). Abraham interpreted God’s command to mean that he had to kill his son, and he could only leave this traditional belief behind through the pain of a tremendous ordeal. God could purify his faith in no other way. If we obey what God says according to our sincere belief, God will break us from those traditional beliefs that misrepresent Him.

There are many such beliefs which must be removed– for example, that God removes a child because his mother loves him too much. That is the devil’s lie and a travesty on the true nature of God! If the devil can hinder us from taking the supreme climb and getting rid of our wrong traditional beliefs about God, he will do so. But if we will stay true to God, God will take us through an ordeal that will serve to bring us into a better knowledge of Himself.

The great lesson to be learned from Abraham’s faith in God is that he was prepared to do anything for God. He was there to obey God, no matter what contrary belief of his might be violated by his obedience. Abraham was not devoted to his own convictions or else he would have slain Isaac and said that the voice of the angel was actually the voice of the devil. That is the attitude of a fanatic. If you will remain true to God, God will lead you directly through every barrier and right into the inner chamber of the knowledge of Himself. But you must always be willing to come to the point of giving up your own convictions and traditional beliefs. Don’t ask God to test you. Never declare as Peter did that you are willing to do anything, even “to go …both to prison and to death” (Luke 22:33). Abraham did not make any such statement— he simply remained true to God, and God purified his faith.

Are you ready to make the Supreme Climb?

by Oswald Chambers

Resurrected Peace

Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace be with you.” John 20:19

When a mother and child become separated at the mall, the parent is filled with anxiety over the lost child. Then the mom sees a security guard approaching, holding the hand of the child, and anxiety is turned to joy and peace. The transition happens in a moment—what was missing has been found.

On the third day after Jesus’ crucifixion, His disciples and followers were filled with anxiety. They huddled together behind locked doors for fear that the people who put Jesus to death would be coming next for them (John 20:19). The anxiety of some was heightened even further when they went to visit the tomb where Jesus lay, only to discover that His body was missing. Not only was He dead, His body had been stolen! But then Jesus made Himself known to Mary Magdalene at the Garden tomb. Peace replaced anxiety as she returned to tell the others that Jesus was alive.

We serve a living Savior, not a dead one. When your fear or anxiety level is high, let the presence of the resurrected Jesus give you peace.

When we lack the peace of God, we should turn to our peace with God. Robert M. Horn

Recommended Reading: John 14:25-27

To Be Like Him

“But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:15-16)

Scripture admonishes us as Christians to be like our Lord and Savior in “all manner of conversation,” or all manner of life. We are His earthly witnesses, and we must so order our lives that we are an adequate reflection of Him.

We are to be like Him in the purity of our lives. As our text points out, “Be ye holy; for I am holy.” “Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure” (1 John 3:3). “Follow . . . holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14).

Our daily walk and lives should be patterned after Him. “He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked” (1 John 2:6). “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another” (1 John 1:7).

Furthermore, we are to be like Him in love. “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God . . . for God is love” (1 John 4:7-8). We are to be willing to suffer unjustly without revenge, “because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth” (1 Peter 2:21-22).

Being like Him involves a life of service, as well. “If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you” (John 13:14-15).

Christ has forgiven each of us many times, even though our sins grieve Him deeply. He stands ready to forgive and restore fellowship, and so should we. With His help, we can emulate Him, even when we are wronged. “Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32). JDM

Be Patient

Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer. —Romans 12:12

Think of the kernels of grain, the seed, that the farmer plants in the ground in the fall of the year. How patient the farmer must be! Throughout the long, cold winter the seed is dormant. There is no evidence at all that it is there—covered by the cold earth itself. The snows come and go. The ground freezes and thaws. Does the farmer lie awake at night worrying that those seeds he placed in the ground may be ineffective? He does not. He knows that spring will come!

And in due course, the sunshine of March or April warms the air. Spring rains water the ground. The farmer knows then that it will not be long until green shoots suddenly break out from their covering of earth. And in their own time, great waving fields of grain are ready for the harvest. The farmer’s faith in the seed he planted is fully justified.

Likewise, God wants us to be patient with every prayer and petition we sincerely send up to that heavenly altar. Our praying done in the Spirit cannot be ineffective. It is as though God is saying to us: “You have planted the seed. You have prayed for My will to be done and for My kingdom to come on earth…. The effective prayers of My Son, Jesus, will join with the effective prayers of righteous men and women. Be patient and put your trust in Me, day by day!”

Lord, give me a patient, steadfast faith, with a willingness to wait for the harvest. Amen.

Today, Ask God to Remove Every False Trust

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? Jeremiah 17:9

Many of us have become extremely skillful in arranging our lives so as to admit the truth of Christianity without being embarrassed by its implications.

We arrange things so that we can get on well enough without divine aid, while at the same time ostensibly seeking it!

We boast in the Lord but watch carefully that we never get caught depending on Him!

To many, Christ is little more than an idea, or at best an ideal: He is not a fact! They talk as if He were real and act as if He were not.

We can prove our faith by our commital to it—and in no other way!

Any belief that does not command the one who holds it is not a real belief: it is a pseudo belief only. And it might shock some of us profoundly if we were brought suddenly face to face with our beliefs and forced to test them in the fires of practical living!

What we need very badly these days is a company of Christians who are prepared to trust God as completely now as they must do at the last day. For each of us the time is surely coming when we shall have nothing but God!

Today is the best time to invite God to remove every false trust, to disengage our hearts from all secret hiding places, and to bring us out into the open where we can discover for ourselves whether we actually trust Him. This is a harsh cure, but it is a sure one!

The Walk of Faith

Enoch walked with God… for God took him. GENESIS 5:24

There are spiritual lessons for every Christian believer in the life of godly Enoch, seventh generation from Adam through Adam’s third son, Seth.

We are impressed that he could resist the devil and find fellowship with his Creator God, for he lived in a worldly society headed for destruction.

Enoch’s daily walk was a walk of faith, a walk of fellowship with God. The Scriptures are trying to assure us that if Enoch could live and walk with God by faith in the midst of his sinful generation, we likewise should be able to follow his example because the human race is the same and God is the same!

Beyond that, Enoch reminds us that the quality and boldness of our faith will be the measure of our preparation for the return of Jesus Christ to this earth. We walk by faith as Enoch did, and although it is now twenty centuries after Christ’s sojourn on earth, we hold firmly to the New Testament promise that our risen Lord will return to earth again!

Lord, the example of Your servant Enoch is a reminder tome that it is possible to be godly in the midst of a perverse generation. Help me to remain faithful to You and Your ways, O Lord.