Stevemidkiff's Blog

Patience is the power to press on through difficulties,

Persistence is the character developed through discouragements,

Perseverance is that lasting quality no matter what the detours

We lunge forward with a heart full of faith and a mouth full of praise.

Patience is the strength of Joseph,

who spent the best years of his life in a dungeon,

and came out saying, “God meant it for good”

Gen 50:20

Patience enables us to look at all our frustrations

and detours, and say to God,

I don’t know what You’re doing, Father.

I don’t want to be in this place.

I never thought I’d be in this place.

But You are wise and good,

and we trust that You are working something wonderful.

Strengthen us to wait patiently.

2020
— Read on www.str.org/w/thinking-critically-about-critical-race-theory

Iron sharpeneth iron;

so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.

Prov. 27:17

We use steel to sharpen steel,

and we blend with friends to sharpen each another.

MacDonald reminds us:

In the days of family hospitality and feasting together

before the controls and fake science of tyrants

There was a common scene of the host at a table sharpening

the carving knife by drawing each side of the cutting edge

against a hardened steel rod with fine ridges.

Preparing to carve the savory meats of communion fellowship

Just as the action of iron against iron sharpens,

so the interchange of ideas among people makes us more acute

in our thinking.

Sharing each other’s opinions gives a helpful breadth of view.

Asking questions sharpens wits.

Friendly intercommunication hones the personality

As by friction, one iron instrument is sharpened and polished

by contact with another, so we may be a help to each other

by interesting and profitable intercourse and exchange of thought.

A recluse is always a very one-sided individual.

We are blessed by fellowship mingling

We learn to understand others needs and others sorrows,

We find gain by welcoming in others.

We need those who are superior to our own knowledge.

Those who are deeper in their virtues and character, then ours.

Fellowship is is precious edge sharpening of one with another

and this is increasingly sweet as our days grow darker.

We’re not designed for solitude, but for society.

As one has written:

It is only as a social being that our powers and affections

are fully expanded.

Iron sharpens iron.

Steel, whetted against a knife, sharpens the edge.

So in the collision of different minds each whets the edge of the other.

We owe some of the most valuable discoveries of science

to this active reciprocity.

In the sympathies of friendship, when the mind is dull and

the countenance overcast, a word from a friend renews

blunted energy and exhilarates the countenance.

In our Creeds this is called “the communion of saints”

This is the believers privilege

This is the bond of brotherhood.

We should never walk alone,

Two are better then one

Where two or three are gathered together Jesus comes

He’s always knocking

So sharpen His iron by godly communication.

Walk together in mutual concern for each other’s infirmities,

Walk together in mutual concern for each other’s trials,

Walk together in mutual concern for each other’s temptations.

We build integrity of character through scrupulous honesty

in dealings with each other.

Avoidance is our bane

Loners care only for themselves and they spit on the common good.

Fools care nothing for thoughtful discourse;

all they do is run off at the mouth.

When wickedness arrives, shame’s not far behind;

contempt for life is contemptible.

Many words rush along like rivers in flood,

but deep wisdom flows up from artesian springs. …

Proverbs 18:1-4 MSG

Good friends deep in godly character who walk with Jesus and are

following God’s Spirit are partners of great importance.

Phillips notes:

We learn from one another; we take character and color from one another.

Our character eventually shows in our faces.

Our skills are honed in a hard process of friction.

We need to run the gauntlet of a two eagle-eyed edge sharpening

We need the techniques of objective testings.

Iron sharpens iron, complaints aren’t bad.

But Complaints mean work!

Allowances have to be made; we need to be fussy.

We need to perceive our flaws to have them eliminated.

Iron sharpens iron.

We need every kind of sharpening

We need exacting discipline

We need to develop our skills

The Psalms are an “in and out”

book of feelings

These “in and outs” are

condensed into poetic verse.

The lyrics swing down into
the depths of depression.

Then the ode launches up to
the heights of the delightful enchantments of praise.

When we go “in” to
depression light vanishes.

The gears of our life
crust up with rust.

Every movement can
screech with groans.

We are “out” of it, in a frame
where joy is drained
and despondency oozes
“in” to the void that’s left.

The flood of Depression has
tripled during the last 9 months
of the covid nonsense.

The power of this depression
is drowning us.

It drags us like victims
into a ubiquitous gloom.

Nicole Kaufman suggests:

“Despair gushes
into every moment”

Discouragement stains
the brilliancy of life

It steals our hope.

As one has described it

“The compulsion to cry lodges perpetually in the throat, but the relief of weeping
never comes”.

We need a new
perspective of an

“out”

We need to delight
in our Saviour

We need to relish in the luxury
of His salvation and His truth.

Depression makes our mind
twist and warp everything.

Suddenly an encounter
with someone,

Abruptly an unfortunate
awkward circumstance,

throws us into
a downward spiral.

Everything becomes warped
and our limited perceptions
become our truth.

The Psalms express
these “out” emotions.

“I am utterly bowed
down and prostrate,”

the psalmist laments.

“All the day I go
about mourning.

My sides are
filled with burning,

There is no soundness
in my flesh.

“I am feeble and crushed”

“I groan because of
the tumult of my heart”

I am
“like an evening shadow,”

I feel that I

“wither away like grass”

The psalmist grieves;

“My heart is in
anguish within me;

the terrors of death
have fallen on me.

Fear and trembling
come upon me,
and horror overwhelms me”

The root Hebrew word
“Psalms” is “mizmor”

This term has to do with
the pruning or cutting
off of superfluous twigs.

Every couple of days we
cut stuff on our plants
in the garden

Pruning is a must
to a fruitful plant.

Pruning is a must of
a fruitful developing life

Poetry is, short sentences,

cuttings

an economy of words.

Not lengthy flowery phrases.

When we’re in trouble,

We don’t want to waste time

with fine elaborate words

and prolonged expressions

and extended arguments.

When we are desperate

we need to get right to

the point.

The psalm prune away

wordy speech.

The Psalms are full of

“Selahs.”

Selah means “to lift up”

Selah is a Word thought
expressing a crescendo.

Selah is a high point

to stop and think deeply.

A filter to rise above.

An “out” from the low to

an “in” to the high.

One writer claims that Selah!

Means

“Boom it out!

Pull out the stops!

There is a roar of music
to draw attention to the
sentence being sung,

a kind of musical
punctuation mark.

Another explanation is
that the selah means,

“There, what do
you think of that!

Or, as we would say today:

“Print that in italics!

Print that in capital letters!

“SELAH!”

In Psalms 3 we read:

“There is no help for
him in God. Selah.”

In other words;
What do you
think of that?

“I cried to the Lord …
and He heard me
out of His holy hill.
Selah.”

What do think of that?

“Salvation is of the Lord.…

Selah.”

What do you think of that?

We need salvation constantly.

We are weak.

We are susceptible.

We are vulnerable to copping
a weird despicable perspective.

Salvation is not
something
we find in us.

One has suggested:

Our salvation is not
in crying and tears,

Our salvation is not
in promises and resolves,

Our salvation is
not in sacrifices
and good works.

Our salvation is
not in the church.

Our salvation is not in
creeds, baptisms,
communions, rituals,
and many ceremonies.

Salvation is of the Lord.

God shuts us
up to Himself.

And He says

“Selah”.

What do you
think of that?

We need the Psalms

“the pruning”

the cutting away
of dead branches.

We need to “Selah”

to think deeply

into God’s perspective.

To meditate and chew deeply

and continuously on the Truth.

We need to hear
our Lord Jesus.

“Selah”

“In and out”

Put Jesus in

Cut that out

I have 4 “in and out”

t-shirts

The cups and packaging
of the “In and out” business
has bible verses in each item

What do you think of that???

From Haman to Hitler, a parade of hateful rulers

has tried to destroy the Jews (and believers).

Haman’s plot, described in the book of Esther,

unraveled in the providence of God.

So did Hitler’s, but at a horrific cost.

Today an array of hostile forces is vowing to push

the Jewish nation into the sea.

In coming years,

the Antichrist will mount a final global war against Israel

to be thwarted only by the sudden return of Christ.

Why this history-long crusade against the Jews?

The devil hates the Jews because he hates God.

It was the Lord who called Abraham from Ur,

made of him a nation, and brought from him a Redeemer.

From the Jews came the Scriptures, the covenants,

the law, the promises, and even the Messiah Himself.

Every believer boasts a Jewish spiritual heritage;

so when we pick up our Bible,

thank God for Abraham, Moses, Samuel, Isaiah, Jesus, Paul—

for the Israelites who have suffered so much

while enriching our world with the message of God.

Keep your eyes on the Middle East and pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

Jesus Christ is coming back again!

It is the blessed hope of the Church,

the redeeming hope of Israel,

the only hope for a tottering world.

M. R. DeHaan

Keller writes:

Much of the Bible is a description of

“despicable people doing deplorable things”

and “trashy tales about dysfunctional characters.”

So why doesn’t God bind Satan in chains and throw him in the bottomless

pit of wailing and gnashing of teeth?

This is the mystery of iniquity that’s working at cross purposes

A mystery is an enigma, a conundrum, a weird paradox

The Anarchist is being held back. These are God’s peuposes

Satanic antichrists are slowly being let loose until just the right time.

The spirit of anarchy is not now at work.

It was, secretly very underground.

But it has blossomed in history in various areas

But the time has come when the Anarchist will no longer be held back,

but will be let loose.

But don’t worry. Jesus will be right on his heels and blow him away.

The Lord appears and— puff!—

But the Anarchist’s coming is all Satan’s work.

All his power and signs and miracles are fake,

evil sleight of hand that plays to the gallery

of those who hate the truth that could save them.

And since they’re so obsessed with evil,

God rubs their noses in it— gives them what they want.

Since they refuse to trust truth,

they’re banished to their chosen world of lies and illusions. …

We’re asking God for one thing, only one thing:

To live with Him in His house our whole life long.

We’ll contemplate His beauty;

We’ll study at His feet.

Ps 27:4

This is written by a man who is under attack.

His “one thing” isn’t safety, or vindication, or victory.

His one thing isn’t power, control, or retribution.

No, even under personal duress,

the one thing that David wishes for is to be in God’s house

taking in the grandeur and glory of the beauty of the Lord.

“What’s our one thing?”

What is the one thing that our heart craves?

What is the one thing that we think would change our life?

What is the one thing that we look to for satisfaction, contentment, or peace?

What is the one thing that we mourn having to live without?

What is the one thing that fills our daydreams

What is the one thing that commands our sleepy meditations?

What is our one thing?

As Paul Tripp has noted:

The spiritual reality for many of us is that the one thing is not the Lord.

And the danger in that reality is this:

our one thing will control our heart,

and whatever controls our heart will exercise inescapable influence

over our words, choices, and actions.

Our one thing will become that which shapes

Our one thing will become that directs our responses to our situations

Our one thing will direct in relationships of our daily life.

If the Lord isn’t our one thing,

the thing that is our one thing will be our functional lord.

In every situation and relationship of our everyday life,

there is a one-thing war being fought on the turf of our heart.

You and I are safe only when the Lord really is the one thing

that commands our hearts and controls our actions.

Yet there are many things that compete with Him

as the one thing that our heart craves.

Where are we looking for meaning and worth?

What is the beauty that we wish we had in your life?

What is our one thing?

Listen, God, we’re calling at the top of our lungs:

“Be good to us! Answer us!”

When our heart whispered, “Seek God,”

Our whole being replied, “we’re seeking Him!”

Don’t hide from us now!

Ps. 27:6-9

I’m crying for Your intervention Lord!

Don’t be angry with us God!

Don’t reject us for all our lawlessness and rebellion!

Don’t despise us for our bitter rage and anger!

Our feelings are raw with the hostile lies of others!

Our heart is bruised and broken with their destructive

hate and their ubiquitous taunts of degrading insults!

Please Lord, we beg and plead for You to listen

Please act now, right away, in these crushing heartbreaking matters!

When we call and cry to You Lord Jesus,

give us answers. God, take our side!

We’re in a tight place, the pressure is unbearable!

Give us room, we need some space;

We’re in trouble, it goes beyond our wildest imagination!

We feel squeezed from every side:

Pour Your grace all over us! hear us!

We feel like we’re being choked by snakes;

everything is dark and devastating —

how long do we put up with this hateful scorn and these fraudulent lies?

We’re surrounded in the crush by those whose lust is lies!

We feel like this is nothing but a crazed dark illusion?

Look God, You’re our beginning!

We didn’t know real life before we met You.

You chose us, we didn’t choose You.

You make us feel special with Your love!

You have filled us with promises and hope!

We’re complaining to You, let us feel You.

Our mind is spinning, our heart won’t rest.

Our life feels like it’s falling out of control!

God, put our life back together. …

Yes, communicating with God is our real source of joy,

what is it that gets in the way of listening to Him?

what is it that fogs and interferes us talking to Him?

Psalm 34:15-22 tells us

The eyes of the LORD are upon all believers

We are righteous in His sight as God has put us in Christ,

and his ears are open to our cry.

The face of the LORD is against them that do evil,

to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.

The righteous cry, and the LORD hears,

and delivers us out of all our troubles.

The LORD is near them that are of a broken heart;

and saves such as be of a contrite spirit.

Many are the afflictions of the righteous:

but the LORD deliverers us out of them all.

He keeps all our bones: not one of them is broken.

Evil shall slay the wicked:

and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate.

The LORD redeems the soul of his servants:

and none of us that trust in him shall be desolate.

We feel God’s eye on us even in the anguish of lonely pain,

We sense His ears hearing our weak moaning cries.

God won’t tolerate the hate of our oppressors

Our Lord will bash and abolish their ugly designs.

We’re trusting Him for that is who we’re crying out too for help.

God is listening,

He’s going to expose this evil and we’re asking for Him to explode.

We’re pleading for Him to burst down from His throne for our needs

Our heart is broken, but God is right here holding us!

We’re kicked in the stomach and the wind is knocked out of us.

We’re drowning in trouble; but God is here; we know He is.

He’s our protective shield against those that hate good.

Jesus is the reason to get up in the morning

Jesus is the reason to press on even when we’re depressed

even when we’re fragile and lonely and scared out of our wits.

He gives us a purpose so we can face with courage

the tensions inside us and the irrational difficulties that surround us.

He’s telling us that we can stand boldly at His throne,

We’re dressed completely in His beauty,

We can ask, and keep asking, over and over,

Even for what looks irrelevant, meaningless, and mundane to everyone else.

But we’re special to Christ, and He loves our personality,

and every microscopic detail about us is His joy and delight!!!

Don’t worry about the fog.

If an enemy were insulting me,

I could endure it;

if a foe were rising against me,

I could hide.

But it is you, a person like myself,

my companion, my close friend,

with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship

at the house of God,

as we walked about

among the worshipers.

Psalms 55:12-14