Stevemidkiff's Blog

Sometimes our prayers freeze over.

I found the key fob along with the computer etched key of a Chrysler I sold 4 years ago.

It was on the bottom of a chest freezer I’ve been cleaning out.

I see it as an answer to prayer.

That’s 4 times in my experience I’ve found my missing keys under the frosted snow

He has given us his very great and precious promises.

2 Peter 1:4

When a shipbuilder erects a boat, does he do so only to keep it on the scaffolding?

No, he builds it to sail the seas and to weather the storms.

In fact, if he does not think of strong winds and hurricanes as he builds it, he is a poor shipbuilder.

In the same way, when God makes us a believer, He meant to test us.

And when He gave us promises and asked us to trust them,

He made His promises suitable for times of storms and high seas.

Do we believe that some of His promises are counterfeit,

similar to a life vest that looks good in the store but is of no use in the sea?

We have all seen swords that are beautiful but are useless in war,

or shoes made for decoration but not for walking.

Yet God’s shoes are made of iron and brass, and we can walk all the way to heaven in them,

without ever wearing them out.

And we could swim the Atlantic a thousand times in His life vest, with no fear of ever sinking.

His Word of promise is meant to be tried and tested.

There is nothing Christ dislikes more than for His people to publicly profess Him and then not use Him.

He loves for us to make use of Him,

for His covenant blessings are not simply meant to be looked at but should be appropriated.

Our Lord Jesus has been given to us for our present use.

Are we making use of Him as we should?

Don’t treat God’s promises as something to be displayed in a museum

but use them as everyday sources of comfort.

And whenever we have a time of need, trust the Lord.

Charles H. Spurgeon

Go to the depths of God’s promise,

And claim whatsoever you will;

The blessing of God will not fail you,

His Word He will surely fulfill.

How can God say no to something He has promised?

What would happen if we claim we believe in Jesus and then commit suicide.

When did the idea start that someone who ended their life would go to hell,

no matter what faith the person professed before,

yes this certainly causes a lot of grief.

What if someone has spoken strongly and often about love for Jesus,

They share with others God’s good news,

They live a kind and open life.

But then as the years collapse in life has become very hard.

At the end, there was a harsh note filled with despair and pain and they end their physical life.

So, what happened to this “formerly” strong believer?

No! Not Straight to hell?

No! We can’t find that in Scripture.

Jesus holds on to His people even when they can no longer hold on to Him.

“Neither death nor life” will be able to separate us from Him.

We need to be honest.

Believers can go through unbelieving times.

Times filled with such heart pain that an end seems better than another day.

I wish that were not true.

I wish every believer would be able to look with joy and hope to the Lord’s face

every moment of every day.

I wish I could.

But sometimes the pain is so strong that it’s all you can think about is the pain.

Do you make good decisions when you are in pain?

Do you “keep your hopes up,” as they say?

Or are you like the rest of us, doing stupid things just to get it to stop—

or even for a few moments of some better feeling?

We all make bad decisions.

Another cookie, another online purchase, another drink—

these are small things that can appear to offer relief.

But often the relief ends up burying us in deeper pain.

Sometimes it looks so hopeless as if a mountain of pain caved in on top of us.

We may do something we will regret for the rest of our life

It would feel good for a while,

It take our mind and heart away from the pain that won’t stop,

even though we know it won’t be good in the long run.

What about spending and spending. Buying one crazy thing after another.

Johnny Cash was the one who sang, “I hurt myself today,”

When I first heard the song. “I hurt myself today, to see if I still feel.”

(I don’t think I have ever heard the Nine Inch Nails version.)

Some give up by having an affair,

Some give up by cutting themselves off from others,

Some give up by spending money they don’t have—these are ways of hurting ourselves.

(we know it will hurt us),

for some weird impossible feeling to affirm that we can still feel.

We do stupid acts with lasting consequences,

but the things we do is often from becoming numb from so much pain.

The folks who claim to know say statistics claim

that 10 million Americans seriously considered suicide in the past year.

About a third of them made a plan.

You might be one of them.

Or maybe you were a few years ago.

Yes, it would have been stupid, especially as we look back from today.

Today, for some, that pain is a memory.

A new life has begun.

There was hope, but you couldn’t see it.

Some will actually do it.

They will hurt themselves to a point from which there is no return.

Even the fear of hell will not stop them, because the pain is already hell.

And, like many other bad decisions, there is no turning back.

Once you have had the affair, you can’t undo it.

And you may call for help and be saved in time from your suicide attempt,

or you might not be able to. Some decisions are like that.

Please, there is hope.

Find some help if you are going through this kind of pain.

There are other ways to end it. There really are.

Cry out to Jesus, He loves you.

Find your way back to Him.

Find someone who can help you find your way back.

Don’t take your own life. There are many who care.

They may not realize how much you hurt.

And, if you have had these thoughts, don’t think about them as sin,

think of them as desperation.

Severe heart pain is also real.

Pain so great that you long for a way out, no matter what options are offered.

If you have had such thoughts, don’t feel guilty.

If you are having these thoughts now, you are not evil.

But you are hurting at a level that may be out of control.

Please stop everything and find help. Please.

There are so many people that can help.

Get away from the people Who hurt you.

Get around a supportive surrounding.

Let Jesus hold us together in our pain and heart aches.

Adapted from Dave Orisson

What if we didn’t have to go looking for God’s presence?

What if you could enjoy it all the time?

Glenna Marshall’s awakening to God’s presence began in the depths of winter.

Rereading her journal, she realized that for six months

she’d been cataloging all the ways God had abandoned her.

What if that . . . wasn’t true?

Interweaving her own story of faith and doubt amid suffering,

Glenna traces the theme of God’s presence from Genesis to Revelation

She shows what it means for us in our own daily joys and struggles.

God’s presence among his people set us apart

We are separate from the pagan gods of ancient times that presses in around us.

His presence on earth as God Incarnate split history in two.

And today His presence is one of the most significant means of his goodness to us

Now God has us where he wants us,

Our Lord has all the time in this world

And God has all eternity in Heaven

to shower grace and kindness on us in Christ Jesus.

Saving us is all God’s idea, and all His work.

All we do is trust Jesus to let Him do it.

It’s God’s gift from start to finish!

We don’t play the major role.

If we did, we’d probably go around bragging

that we’d done the whole thing!

No, we neither make nor save ourselves.

God does both the making and saving.

He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join Him in the work he does,

We are His workmanship

We are His good work

Christ is working in and through His Grace

And this work of Grace is what He has gotten ready for us to do,

So we yield into His Grace and His work

That’s the best and only way we are at our best doing what He is doing.

By Grace His Grace we are doing what He is doing through and in us.

By Grace we are saved

Ephesians 2:8-10 personalized perspective

Blessed is the one whose strength is in You Lord…

who passing through the valley of weeping,

make it a well.

Psalm 84:5, 6

Mrs. Cowman points out

That comfort is not experienced lightly

We must go down into “depths”

If we are to experience this most precious gift of God’s gifts of comfort

He’s preparing us through testing adversities to be co-workers together with Him.

When night falls on us over the garden of our souls,

when the fall leaves close up the blooms of our heart,

when the flowers of our life no longer soak in any sunlight within their folded petals,

there shall never be wanting,

even in the thickest darkness, drops of heavenly dew which falls only when the sun has gone.

The poets tone is birthed within:

“We have been through the valley of weeping.

The valley of sorrow and pain;

But the `God of all comfort’ is with us.

At hand to uphold and sustain.

“As the earth needs the clouds and sunshine,

Our souls need both sorrow and joy;

So He places us oft in the furnace,

The dross from the gold to destroy.

“When He leads thro’ some valley of trouble,

His omnipotent hand we can trace;

For the trials and sorrows He sends us,

Are part of His lessons in grace.

“Oft we shrink from the purging and pruning,

Forgetting our gardener knows

That the deeper the cutting and paring,

The richer the cluster that grows.

“Well He knows that affliction is needed;

He has a wise purpose in view,

And in the dark valley He whispers,

`Hereafter thou’lt know what I do.’

“As we travel thro’ life’s shadow’d valley,

Fresh springs of His love ever rise;

And we learn that our sorrow and losses,

Are blessings just sent in disguise.

“So we’ll follow wherever He leadeth,

Let the path be dreary or bright;

For we’ve proved that our God can give comfort;

Our God can give songs in the night.”

I watched intently as someone I know was deposed

This poem from an unknown source came to mind

Finding joy in our Advocate

The day I went to court, and stood before the Judge…

I tried to gain His favor.

But eyes He would not meet-there to my defeat,

so much my spirit wavered.

I actually thought my dress, my manner

could make a good impression.

But it wasn’t me He looked to see

or graced with an expression.

I was good, or so I thought, in this, a civil matter.

I’d done no crime so feared no time…myself,

I came to flatter.

But I was nothing, standing there—

this, the Judge made plain.

Because he would not look at me despite my efforts, vain.

You see, I had an Advocate, a lawyer for my case…

toward only Whom, as hope did bloom,

the Good Judge turned His face.

He said, “This person, standing here…do she,

You represent?

The lawyer smiled and spoke a while,

saying that was why He had been sent.

Then said the Judge,

“You’ve carried out all matters perfectly so…so this,

Your plea,

I’ll issue Thee: that she Is free to go.”

And so I found even though I thought

I’d done nothing of shame…. yet there was sin

I’d stumbled in which is why my Lawyer came.

He saves us in our chaos,

He goes before the Judge.

He says,

“They’re Mine.”

And in Him, we find,

God’s Courts will hold no grudge.

C. S. Lewis wrote in _

That Hideous Strength_

“They have an engine called

“the Press”

whereby the people are deceived.

Babies die without being heard of.

the whole world is under the control of the evil one

1 John 5:19

and that no appeal to reason,

There are no ethics,

There is no morality,

There not concerned for decency,

And nothing

apart from the power of God

bringing repentance and truth

will bring change to those deceived

Is being filled with the Spirit displayed in passive, gentle expressions?

But Paul, filled with the Spirit,

looked intently at him and said,

And Paul said

“You son of the devil,

you enemy of all righteousness,

you are full of all deceit & villainy,

will you not stop making crooked

the straight paths of the Lord?

Acts 13:9–10

This doesn’t sound kind,
This doesn’t appear civil
This is far from gentle.

These are biting words,
These are pointed words,
These are sharp words
These are words directed at a particular person.

This is name-calling,
This is insulting
These are harsh words.

This is Spirit-prompted boldness,
There’s no mincing words

This is the exposing of the raw wickedness of the person he is talking too.

“If you are intolerant

of intolerant people

then you are intolerant

and doing the same thing

you accuse of others.”

Tim Keller