VIDEO He Hideth My Soul, Don Moen

Nov 3, 2014

10th track on Don Moen’s newest “Hymns of Hope.”

A Bee in the cup of Coffee

 

This post inspired by a story when I was teen. At the time, in the morning, my daddy came to me brought a cup of coffee. “Come here, my princess! I want to you show you something” I came to my daddy and soon he showed me something. “Look at to the little bee in the coffee. Please pay attention on what they do.” My daddy said seriously. A bee trapped in the cup of coffee and trying hard to find the way out. Then my daddy said again, “You know what, actually this bee still could fly though he already wet. The bee  actually could able to see a wide way to out above but he just focused to find the way out through the edge of the cup and eventually this bee will getting weaker and die. Princess, I hope you could be able to get the meaning of what I have showed to you today. Learn from the bee in the cup of coffee.

My beloved readers, bee in the coffee is an example that often happened in our lives. When we trapped with the huge of problems, we often forget that we have God above as our way out. We often looking around find the way to out from our problems. We often rely on our own strength, on humans; even find out the other alternative that considered as a sin in the God’s eyes. In the other word, we are looking  the worldly way and then we forget God who reigned in The Heaven. We lost of the right focus, our eyes no longer able to see God that can gives us the answer of our problems.

I reminded the story of Joseph. Joseph been directly experienced a situation like bee in the coffee when he was plunged into a a dark cramped pit not by strangers but even by his own brothers. Jealousy blinds the eyes of his brother and cruelly Joseph persecuted by them.

Then they took him and cast him into a pit. And the pit was empty; there was no water in it. (Genesis 37:24)

If we read carefully  this story, there is no record that Joseph screaming in fear, pleading for mercy to  his brothers. There is no single verse says that Joseph panicked even though no one knows how long he will be left in the well. If we are in a situation like that, maybe we would think that it is the end of our lives. Slowly tortured to death there. Don’t  know who will be passing, and even if any they not necessarily want to help. But Joseph didn’t  think so. I imagine what Joseph did, he looked up and saw light coming from above, and think that as long as he still sees “light” from above, it means that  his hope hasn’t end. Joseph totally realize there’s God up there who able to release him from the pit. Perhaps not soon but in time God will lift up and save him, even bringing him to successes like the vision which he had held before.

Beside the Joseph’s story, we could see what happened at the end of Jehoshaphat’s reign. At the time the nation of Judah was hit by a big fear because they might be attacked by a combined army of Ammonites, Moabites and Edomites. It was certainly a big disaster for the nation of Judah. Jehoshaphat’s forces weren’t enough to face such invasion. The enemy has big number of troops and has been mentioned that they already seize land located not far from the troops of Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat was scared but the he took a correct decision. He looked up to find God.

And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. (2 Chronicles 20:3)

The whole nation then fasted and prayed, led by Jehoshaphat himself. In his prayer, Jehoshaphat affirmed that he remember God’s promises that has been given to his ancestor, Abraham. Let’s take a look to a part of his prayer:

O our God, will You not judge them? For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You.” (Verse 12)

“Our soldiers are not enough. Power or our strength is not enough. We will perish if it relies on the power that we have, and we do not know what to do.But we direct our view to You, and believe that your power is more than able to release us from this terrible threat.” That’s roughly what he said in his prayer. Notice when facing the problems, Jehoshaphat didn’t circling looking for solutions at the wrong places, but he immediately directed his eyes upward! To God! What happened next? We all know that they become a winner without having battle at all! How can that be? With our logic it wouldn’t be possible, but history proves again and again that the God’s power is able to overcome any such impossibility and take his children that always rely on Him to get into one victory to another victory.

My dear friends, Often the problem actually became more complicated when we responded it with wrong attitude. Our emotion become unstable, make a wrong decision, hasty, impatient, complaining, or even we give up. All of it will make us forget to direct our eyes upward to seek God, and thus spared from God’s miraculous power that can liberate us from the very bad situation. We will be like a bee that exemplified by my father. Indeed bee can still easily fly even though his body was wet but panic makes bee seem unable to think clearly and simply looking for a way out around the glass and then forget that solution, however, lies above of him. Completion of a problem will depend on how we react to it, the decisions we take, which of course would only be good if we direct our view in the right direction. The more mistakes we do to complete it, then it will only worsen the situation.

My brother and sister in Christ, if today we almost drowned to the sea of life problems, just swirling without right direction, and without good result just because we are only relying on our own strength or other worldly things, please allow me to encourage all of us to start looking up. Let’s look to the Lord almighty and submit all of our burdens to Him. Please believe with full sincerity that God is much more than just be able to help us get out of our troubles. Hold fast to God’s promises and keep trust that God is always there along with His children, even in the darkest darkness. God doesn’t want us to be like a bee who met his fate because of his own mistake. Through His inclusion, we are promised like this:

But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31) God also said:“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord.

(Jeremiah 17:7)

And those who always rely on God, he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, And will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, And will not be anxious in the year of drought, Nor will cease from yielding fruit. (Verse 8)

Let’s put one important thing in the deepest of our heart that in the Lord Jesus there is always an answer because He is the answer of everything we ask.

When we say: “I cannot find the true way in my life. Can you show me,God?” Then Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)

At the moment we said: “I could not possibly do this. Too hard for me “then Jesus answered: you can.”For with God nothing is impossible.” (Luke 1:37)

When we say: “can you help to overcome my problems” He answered: “‘if you can’? Everything is possible for one who believes.” (Mark 9:23)

When we say: “I’m too tired to face life’s problems.” Jesus replied:”Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)

When we say: “I can find out the way of my big problems” God said to us:”do you notvperceive it?I am making a way in the wildernessand streams in the wasteland(Isaiah43:19)

When we say: “I will never be able to forgive my mistakes” Jesus answered:  ^“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)

If we say: “I am alone and lonely facing all of it” Then Jesus answered:  “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20)

When we say: “I’m afraid of my future” He said: “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.” (Matthew 14:27)

When we are faced with difficult situations and suffer from various problems that engulfing our life, remember that there is God above who cares and loves us completely. He always answers what we ask for and always provide what we need. There’s no problem too difficult to overcome by Him. And as long as we live in the Lord, for we walk with Him, we don’t need to worry. We have to learn from bee in the coffee so that we will not end tragically. Let’s always look up to The Lord who always is with us with His outstanding love. Amen

Karina – Living by faith

Image credit: Google Image

Original here

The Power Of Christ

Ephesians 3:13-19

The apostle Paul frequently wrote about the need to rely upon Jesus Christ’s strength. He passed on to his readers a promise that the Lord had given him: “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9). Paul was a great Christian leader, but in God’s eyes, he was no more deserving of grace than any other person. You and I can have the same confidence in the Lord’s power that this courageous first-century missionary did.

When Paul received Jesus as his Lord and Savior, he was adopted as God’s son. Therefore, he had all the privileges that go with being reborn: His sins were forgiven (Acts 2:38), he was set apart for the Lord’s service (Gal. 1:15), and he received the Holy Spirit (John 14:17). Paul was an effective servant because the Spirit would release power into his life whenever God had a purpose for him to fulfill.

Consider Paul’s jail time. To help him withstand the rigors of imprisonment, the Holy Spirit provided physical and mental stamina. And at the same time, He burdened the hearts of other believers to provide for Paul’s material needs (Phil. 4:18). Most importantly, God’s Spirit expanded the apostle’s ministry by giving him the courage to speak of Jesus Christ with his Roman guards (Phil. 1:13).

The apostle Paul relied upon the Lord for strength and consequently never gave up on his faith. We serve the same all-powerful God, which means we have no excuse for running away from His plan, either. His Spirit dwells in us and is ready to release power when we obey our Father’s call.

The Watchers, Who Are They?

“I saw in the visions of my head upon my bed, and, behold, a watcher and an holy one came down from heaven.” (Daniel 4:13)

It is only in this chapter of Daniel (see also verses 17 and 23) that certain angelic beings called “watchers” are mentioned. Whether the term applies to all God’s holy angels or only to a certain order of angels has not been revealed in Scripture.

However, we do know that at least some of the angels, if not all of them, are intensely occupied with observing events among humans here on Earth. For example, Paul said that he and the other apostles had been made “a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men” (1 Corinthians 4:9).

The word “spectacle” in this verse is actually “theatre” and is so translated the only other time it is used in the New Testament (Acts 19:29, 31). It is sobering, as well as surprising, to realize that Christians—especially Christian leaders—are on a stage, as it were, being carefully watched by an audience which even includes the angels.

Paul also cautioned Christian women to maintain a covering on their heads “because of the angels” (1 Corinthians 11:10). Perhaps the watching angels are also included in the great “cloud of witnesses” who observe us as we “run with patience the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1).

But why should these mighty angels, these “holy ones,” these heavenly “watchers,” have such a “desire to look into” these things here on Earth (1 Peter 1:12)? Perhaps they are anxious, like us, to “see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God” (Ephesians 3:9-10). HMM

Accepted Amazing Grace?

That in the ages to come he might shew me exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. —Ephesians 2:7

For us who stand under the disapproval of God, who by sin lie under sentence of God’s eternal, everlasting displeasure and banishment, grace is an incomprehensibly immense and overwhelming plenitude of kindness and goodness. If we could only remember it, we wouldn’t have to be played with and entertained so much. If we could only remember the grace of God toward us who have nothing but demerit, we would be overwhelmed by this incomprehensibly immense attribute, so vast, so huge, that nobody can ever grasp it or hope to understand it.

Would God have put up with us this long if He had only a limited amount of grace? If He had only a limited amount of anything, He wouldn’t be God….

God’s immensity, God’s infinitude must mean that the grace of God must always be immeasurably full. We sing “Amazing Grace”—why, of course it’s amazing! How can we comprehend the fullness of the grace of God?

Lord, how amazing it is that Your grace extends infinitely beyond the depths of my sin. May I remember that as I go about my day. Amen.

Our Walk of Faith

Enoch walked with God… and 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 20 centuries after Christ’s sojourn on earth, we hold firmly to the New Testament promise that our risen Lord will return to earth again!

A clear view of Jesus in his various offices

When the soul is led by the Holy Spirit to take a clear view of Jesus in his various offices, how speedily the heart is on fire with love! To see him stooping from his throne to become man, next yielding to suffering to become man’s sympathizing friend, and then bowing to death itself to become his ransom, is enough to stir every passion of the soul. To discern him by faith as the propitiation for sin, sprinkling his own blood within the veil, and nailing our sins to his cross, is a sight which never fails to excite the reverent, yet rapturous admiration of the beholder.