Unsatisfied By Average

The Musings of a Stubborn Believer

Category: golden promises (page 2 of 3)

Don’t Even Think of Failure.

November 12, 2010 / / 3 Comments
This is triumph in three words: 
“exceeding abundantly above” 
(Ephesians 3:20)
Let those words sink in, because this is the Power that makes us strong. 
And there’s nothing higher. 
Think about it. Visualize it. 
If it had been written abundantly high, there could still be a higher. 
Strong could always be outdone by stronger or strongest…
But from above, there’s simply no way to go but down.
We serve a superlative God. 
“But when we give ourselves wholly to God and in our work follow His directions, He makes Himself responsible for its accomplishment. He would not have us conjecture as to the success of our honest endeavors. 
Not once should we even think of failure.”
COL 363

Nevertheless!

June 21, 2010 / / 1 Comment
Isaiah 14/15
I have been silent, but not still… Yesterday was the climax of the Texico Conference Campmeeting, and my viola was out of its case more than in it, precluding a post.
And then, there were other reasons too… 
I’m the kind of guy that expends a great deal of energy on invisible conquest. In fact, most of the people I fight for don’t even know it. (Maybe never will). But that’s ok…  
Anyway, all day, and all this morning, verse 1 of chapter 14 kept tapping at my consciousness, waiting for quiet… And finally, I got it.
_______________________
“For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel…”
Even though they had stumbled and fallen. Even though He had picked them up and brushed the dirt off of them countless times before. Even though their mistakes were not always innocent ones… Still…
Still.
I cannot tell you what that means to me. Even though He’s picked me up out of the dirt ten thousand times, yet He has mercy. Yet He chooses me. Does that even make sense?
It reminds me of my favorite word. “Nevertheless.”
Actually, it’s the reason behind my favorite word. Because His unwavering commitment to my salvation (nevertheless) calls forth the best I can give in return… 
If His “faith” in me is strong enough to make Him pick me up again when I fall, risking His name over and over again by claiming me as His child, then I am worse than a fool not to honor Him with my trust in return. 
And so, am I a man committed. 
And though I admit that for the Christian in this world, pain and hardship, toil, sacrifice, grief and loss and suffering are very real, very often… (here comes that word–)  
Nevertheless!!!

Safe, and Free…

June 15, 2010 / / 0 Comments
Isaiah 10
My God is a tender Father to the faithful…
But no less a Man of War. 
And what a beautiful combination! It means that while He loves me like a daddy loves his little boy, and while He deals with the utmost tenderness and compassion, that’s only half of the story…
Because my Father is also a fighter. 
And that means that even as He holds me tenderly, He fights my chains ferociously. He is all business when He deals with our Archenemy, and He’s the ultimate Winner… 
While I am in His hands, I’m safe, and free. 
Isaiah 10:33-34

Who’s Talking?

June 12, 2010 / / 0 Comments
Isaiah 7
The promises in the Word are oft contradicted by apparent reality; oft challenged by the words and works of earthly men and mandates. 
And sometimes our doom seems so certain, our hearts quake like trees in the wind… After all, these threats of our enemies are certainly substantiated by their successes in times past…
But wait a minute. Look who’s talking.
These foes so formidable– are they not but dust before our Maker? 
And the Author of the Word– is He not Authority Supreme? And is it not He Himself Who says: (v.7) “It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass.”?? 
Ahhh, it is. 
So don’t be afraid. Ever. 

“Look Who’s talking!”

Captivity…

June 10, 2010 / / 0 Comments
Isaiah 5
“Therefore have my people gone into captivity…”
Why? 

Because they don’t know You, dear Jesus… (v.13) Neither have they known you. Because they have satisfied themselves with a form of Godliness, instead of seeking Your face. Existence is theirs, but they have no life. No power. No victory… 

I’m sorry my Father, Faithful Judge. My heart breaks too… There is nothing more You could have done… (v.4) 

But You will yet save them. 
And Jesus… oh save me too. I am, one of them, after all.

Just let us come to know You.

“When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.” Eph. 4:8


Photo: © Jent Kyle, 2010


Covered…

June 9, 2010 / / 0 Comments
Isaiah 4
The heart that belongs to God is purged. (v.4) It must be so.  
But herein lies its glory– its everything… 
For when it is purged, it is “clean,” and “beautiful,” “excellent,” “appealing,” “holy,” “glorious,”…
…“Covered.”

Walk in the Light…

June 8, 2010 / / 2 Comments
Isaiah 2

Most Christians recognize at least some need for separation from the world… But to the point of loneliness?? 
If you’re walking in darkness, evaluate your location and your companions… That’s what I take from Isaiah 2. Which path are you on? The very last verse warns about association with those whose “breath is in [their] nostrils.” In other words, whose strength is in themselves… But why?
Because to walk alone is far better than to walk with sin, and share it’s end…
And you cannot walk in the light, and hold hands with darkness.  
But here’s the really good news–
For those willing to walk alone “in the light of the Lord” (v.5) there’s a promise…
“If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship…”

I am Persuaded!

April 4, 2010 / / 1 Comment

I love this. You are free.



He said so.

Read it really slowly…


Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free.
If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.


AMEN, and AMEN


(Quoted: Romans 8:35, 37-39, I John 5:4, I Corinthians 15:57, John 8:36, John 8:32, II Timothy 1:7)

Triumphant Tale

February 18, 2010 / / 4 Comments

If you want to read a triumphant tale, read Isaiah 29.
It starts out pretty depressing… Woe to David’s city, woe to it’s inhabitants!
Workers of iniquity, blind eyes, thirsting lips, empty souls…
Her enemies, many. Her walls, rubble.
Her prophets, deaf and dumb… Their prophecies, null.
Heads spinning, feet staggering, and hearts far away…
But then comes verse 17.
And it’s as if the prophet lifts his eyes from the here and now, and sees the gleams of a golden morning.
The deaf will hear, the blind will see…
And the darkness? Gone… gone!
Oh, dear child of the Highest… Lift up your eyes.
Behold the morning!
There’s always one coming, you know. It matters not how dark and cold the night. No night has ever been so dark that morning could not come. And no morning has ever been delayed even a second past its appointed time.
We just need to see through darkness.
And want more good news?
The night is always followed by the morning… But the morning will not always be followed by night.
Light will win in the end…

Forever

October 19, 2009 / / 1 Comment

“Till heaven and earth pass away” and then beyond… His righteousness will remain.

It shall forever be to His children a source of strength, and an eternal safeguard.
Like a mountain unmovable is our God…
We cannot rise without Him underneath us; He cannot lift us without our consent.
Get up and climb…
He will never give out on you.
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