Stevemidkiff's Blog

I beheld the thrones being cast down,

and the Ancient of Days did sit,

whose garment was white as snow,

and the hair of His head like the pure wool

Dan. 7:9

Christ is not described here as the Ancient of Years, which would imply age,

but Ancient of Days, which indicates His ageless, timeless, changeless character.

No wrinkles or furrows disfigure His graceful features,

No defects mar His clear discernment,

No weakness in His wondrous will.

His body of glory and countenance of beauty are unwrinkled by years,

His vigorous vitality and virtuous energy are unwearied.

Years and millenniums are absolutely unable to age this ageless One who abides unchanged,

He is The same yesterday, and today, and forever

Heb. 13:8

The march of seasons cannot mar His fairness

Nasty weather doesn’t destroy His freshness,

He has the dew of His youth

Ps. 110:3

The centuries can’t change His beauty or cramp His competence,

He is immune to infirmity and untouched through all infinity.

Pre-eminence belongs to the Ancient of Days by virtue of His priority and precedence,

He has the permanence of immortal perfection.

Christ is the embodiment of the glories of Godhead,

Jesus embraces all the treasures of truth, the loveliness of light and the splendors of sublimity

He never ages, in His lasting heritage.

A myriad of marvels manifest themselves out of His exhaustless storehouse;

yet no diminution of His resource is occasioned.

As we contemplate

His prescient eye
His providential care,
His patient ear
His paternal interest,
His prevalent grace
His prevailing goodness,

These are the profound delights of His abiding attributes

None of these realities grows stale but is just as fresh and full and free as ever.

The emerald throne of His majesty symbolizes the evergreen nature of His amaranthine beauty.

He is as young as the morning, although it be of ancient origin.

He is as youthful as daybreak, a feature which thrilled our earliest ancestors.

He who shielded Abraham

He who sustained Elijah and stayed the plague

He is the Ancient of Days, even the Almighty.

His energy knows nothing of exhaustion

His freshness never faces fatigue.

The brilliance of His brightness never blurs,

The sunlike sheen of His sympathetic face never shadows

The sufficiency of His saving strength never stalls,

His “hand is not shortened, that it cannot save”

Isa. 59:1

We may adopt garnished oratory to attract attention and elaborate with seraphic eloquence

to awaken admiration, but how paltry is our best phraseology compared with one glimpse of

the Ancient of Days.

Show me Your face,

one transient gleam

Of loveliness divine,

And I shall never think or dream

Of other love but Yours.

All lesser lights

shall lessen quite,

All lower glories wane,

The beautiful of earth shall scarce

Seem beautiful again

Adapted from Charles Rolls

How to throw a mountain into the sea?

Remember the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. He has risen.

Trials and problems do not take God by surprise.

The darkness doesn’t mean dawn is never coming

As one wrote

The longer we’ve been in the darkness, the closer we are to the dawn.

Jesus keeps His word;

He said He would suffer being spit on, mocked, be beaten and flogged then He’d die.

But then He will rise.

He keeps His promise,

We may lose. We may have illness, we my be weakened and feel mocked and spit at

But our “God will meet all our needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus”

Philippians 4:19

When the dark cloud of depression won’t lift, we bring our troubles to God in prayer,

Remember Jesus when our mind starts to crumble in our feeble feelings

Jesus defeated every enemy by His suffering and death

Then He Rose. He resurrected above everything

The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar;

it shall never go out

Leviticus 6:13

Keep the altar of private prayer burning.

This is the very life of all Godliness.

our altars borrow their fires here, therefore let this burn well.

Prayer is the very essence, evidence, and barometer, of a vital relationship to Jesus.

Burn here the fat of your sacrifices.

Let your prayer seasons be, if possible, regular, frequent, and undisturbed.

Effective prayer is our real source of power.

We pray about our own soul, our children, our relations, our neighbours, our country,

and the cause of God and truth throughout the world.

Bring a hot burner to our lukewarmness in prayer

The fire of devotion needs to be burning in our hearts

Do the chariot wheels drag heavily? Don’t let our movements decay.

Let us go with weeping, and ask for the Spirit of grace and supplications.

Let us set time for extraordinary prayer.

Don’t let our fire be smothered beneath the ashes of a worldly conformity,

Don’t dim the fire on our altar or our influence will be dampened

God loves to see our hearts glowing in fire towards Himself.

Give to God our hearts, all blazing with love,

Seek His grace, that the fire may never be quenched;

Burn for the Lord and keep burning.

Our enemies will attempt to extinguish our energies;

Pour the sacred oil of God’s Spirit on, bring the blaze higher and higher.

Use the promises of Scripture as fuel to ignite the blazes of our heart’s praying fires

they are live coals; let us stir ourselves poking the embers, to be much alone with Jesus.

Adapted from Charles Spurgeon

I will be still, and I will behold in my dwelling place

Isaiah 18:4

How can GOD be so calm and seem so unresponsive:

Raging mobs all around and God doesn’t say anything, He just looks on from where He is,

Quiet as the warmth that comes from the sun,

silent as dew during harvest.

And then, just before harvest, after the blossom has turned into a maturing grape,

He’ll step in and prune back the new shoots, ruthlessly hack off all the growing branches.

He’ll leave them piled on the ground for birds and animals to feed on—

Fodder for the birds, feed for the animals.

While our natural inclination is to get lathered up & hustle around in preparation for war,

Isaiah writes of the calmness of God

The Rest of God

Isaiah 18:4

“I will take my rest”

Assyrians or no Assyrians, God will do as He has planned

He wants us to Rest in His plans & ways

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who continue to kill the prophets & to stone those who are sent to you!

How often I have desired & yearned to gather your children together around Me

as a hen [gathers] her young under her wings, but you would not!

Luke 13:34

Taking a rest was a symbolic way of showing the great calmness of God

even with the surrounding news about the Assyrians’ attack.

The Ruminating of God

Isaiah 18:4

“I will consider”

God is calm, but it does mean He‘s careless about the danger to us.

God observes the Assyrian attack, knows their desires to destroy,

and God will stop them from going any farther than He wants them to go.

The mob of attackers are described

They are pests.

“Shadowing with wings”

Isaiah 18:1

Like a swarm of Winged insects that came in a blinding cloud they were a real problem

They are positioned.

“Scattered”

Isaiah 18:2

This means they would draw out, pull up, and drag.

It is not so much to scatter at random but they were put in their location by God.
God gives every breath to our mob of enemies. He lets them exist and scatter around.

They are “Peeled”

Isaiah 18:2

Describes the smooth and glossy appearance of their skin.

They just appeared to be smooth in accomplishing chaos

They are powerful

“Terrible … meted out [measured out for destruction] and trodden down”

Isaiah 18:2

They are feared warriors who had “meted out and trodden down” many peoples.

They are plunderers.

“Whose land the rivers have spoiled”

Isaiah 18:2

Like Soil erosion caused by a flooding river they pillaged and plundered everything

But this mysterious marvel of God just being still and watching!

His stillness is not acquiescence.
His silence is not consent.

God is only biding His time, and will arise, in the right moment,

When the designs of the wicked seem on the point of success, to overwhelm them with disaster.

As we look out on the evil of the world; as we think of the apparent success of wrong-doing;

as we wince beneath the oppression of those that hate us,

We remember God’s marvelous words of being still and watching.

Jesus watches His disciples toiling at the oars through the stormy night;

Jesus watched though unseen, the successive steps of the anguish of Bethany, when Lazarus slowly passed through the stages of mortal sickness, until he succumbed to death and is put in a tomb.

Jesus was only waiting the moment He could intervene in His way in His time.

Why is He so still to us?

Why is He so unobservant;

He is watching all things;

Is His finger on thy pulse,

Is He keenly sensitive to all the fluctuations, All our ups and downs, all our highs and lows?

When will He come and save?

What is His precise moment of arrival?

We question His reticences, His seeming absences, His silences

We can be absolutely sure that He is unperplexed and undismayed as our Savior.

As the poet quells our reactions

“O troubled soul, under the rod,
Thy Father speaks, be still, be still;

Learn to be silent to our God,
And let Him mould us to His will.

“O praying soul, be still, be still,
He cannot break His plighted Word;

Sink down into His blessed will,
And wait in patience on the Lord.

“O waiting soul, be still, be strong,
And though He tarry, trust and wait;

Doubt not, He will not wait too long,
Fear not, He will not come too late.”

A few year back

Bazos is thought to have a net worth of $150 billion

Bill Gates 91 Billion

Steve Balmer 40 Billion

Harold Schultz 3 Billion

Now these are Seattle guys

Trump maybe 3.5 Billion

Net worth of USA 85 Trillion

Net worth of Russia 70 Trillion

Net worth of China 45 Trillion

Net worth of George Soros 8.5 Billion

Putin they say may have 70-200 Billion in his wallet

Who knows how accurate any of this is.

Does it matter?

With all the political fomenting and gnashing of teeth rage over this and that,
how really do we arrive at reality.

All the nations, to God, and all the wealthy in each nation,

including all the big shot leaders, are nothing.

They are, but a drop in the bucket, and a miniature grain of dust.

Why do we get all worked up about drops and micro specks?

Isaiah 40:21-31 in paraphrase form informs us that:

God sits high above the round ball of earth.

All people look like mere ants.

He stretches out the skies like a canvas—

He ignores what all the Kings say and do.

The rulers of the earth count for nothing.

Princes and rulers don’t amount to much.

Like seeds barely rooted, just sprouted

They shrivel when God blows on them.

Like flecks of chaff, they’re gone with the wind.

Why do we ever complain, or, whine, worrying?

GOD hasn’t lost track of us.

Why do we even imagine; That God doesn’t really care about what happens to us?

Don’t we know anything?

Haven’t we been listening?

GOD doesn’t come and go.

God is faithful to His purposes.

He’s Creator of all we can see or imagine.

He doesn’t get tired out, doesn’t pause to catch his breath.

And he knows everything, inside and out.

He energizes those who get tired and He gives fresh strength to us.

For the young get tired and drop out, those in their prime stumble and fall.

But those who wait on GOD get fresh strength.

They spread their wings and soar like eagles,

They run and don’t get tired, they walk and don’t fall behind.

We shouldn’t get caught up in the political nonsense

There’s a unique phrase which is circulated around.

The famous phrase is “fake news”. This is Similar to Biblical histories false prophets

My humble conclusion is there is there are two kinds of news.

There’s good news (the gospel)

Then there’s daily news in newspapers, radio and TV.

The good news is the real news.

Good news is about Jesus Christ.

It’s about the real King.

It covers what He’s done, what He’s doing and what He’s going to do.

All the rest is fake news about fake and temporary kings

and of course those who worship these pretentious clown kings.

Fake news is about rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

Fake news is about people who reject the true King.

Fake news rehearses these legislative crumblings of losing freedoms to live as reprobates.

True news is about the Real King

Jesus is working everything together to a positive, constructive outcome

for every person who loves Him.

We love God’s Good News (His Word)

When believe in true news we bow and grow in Jesus as our King and Lord in everything.

We are warned that there is a curse to living in the “counsel of the ungodly”

(ungodly=those who reject Jesus as there King) (counsel=fake news)

There is a blessing in shutting our ears to and rejecting fake news.

There is a blessing in opening our heart and mind to Good News, the true news; the Word of God.

We don’t just open our mind and receive its thoughts.

We do more then that.

We drench ourselves in the Real News.

We meditate constantly in God’s Word.

We revel, rejoice and embrace Jesus and dwell on Him, talking to Him and listening to Him constantly.

Jesus net worth is infinite.

He has all the Gold, silver and He has mountains of every precious stones.

I read Putin has a collection of about a million dollars worth of rare watches.

In contrast, Jesus holds time and eternity in His hands.

Jesus is a rancher, a miner and real estate owner.

He owns the cattle on a thousand hills.

He owns the wealth in every mine.

He owns all of the real estate.

He owns the Sun and Stars that shine.

As the poetic song finishes;

wonderful riches more then tongue can tell.

He is my Father so they’re mine as well.

Yikes that’s Good News.

Turn the channel off to the fake news!!!

Heavenly Father,

Cause our prayer to be a wonderful delight not a woeful duty

Tune our ears to Wisdom;

set our heart on Understanding

Yes, if we cry after knowledge

And if we lift up our voice for understanding;

We cry Lord, please

Give us an intimate relationship with You

We plead for comprehension

Lead us in knowing

in everything

In every situation

Your indwelling presence

We, O Lord, can often feel beat up and exhausted.

Please release us from this anguish.

Please deliver us.

Make our conscience alive with Your Holiness Heavenly Father

Feed our minds continuously with Your truth.

Purge our imagination with Your beauty

Make us love radically and forgive freely

Open our hearts with Your love

Encourage us To Devote our will to Your design & purpose

Reveal Your infinite and inexhaustible being

Bless us in Your generosity,

Develop us in a transparency

Live through us Your Spirits integrity that brings honor to Your glorious name

“This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.”

1 John 5:4

It is easy to love Him when the blue is in the sky.
When summer winds are blowing, and we smell the roses nigh;

There is little effort needed to obey His precious will
When it leads through flower-decked valley, or over sun-kissed hill.

It is when the rain is falling, or the mist hangs in the air,
When the road is dark and rugged, and the wind no longer fair,

When the rosy dawn has settled in a shadowland of gray,
That we find it hard to trust Him, and are slower to obey.

It is easier to trust Him when the singing birds have come,
And their canticles are echoed in our heart and in our home;

But ’tis when we miss the music, and the days are dull and drear,
That we need a faith triumphant over every doubt and fear.

And our blessed Lord will give it; what we lack He will supply;
Let us ask in faith believing-on His promises rely;

He will ever be our Leader, whether smooth or rough the way,
And will prove Himself sufficient for the needs of every day.

To trust in spite of the look of being forsaken;
to keep crying out into the vast,
whence comes no returning voice,
and where seems no hearing;

to see the machinery of the world pauselessly grinding on as if self-moved,
caring for no life, nor shifting a hair-breadth for all entreaty,

and yet believe that God is awake and utterly loving;
to desire nothing but what comes meant for us from His hand;

to wait patiently, ready to die of hunger,
fearing only lest faith should fail-

such is the victory that overcometh the world,

such is faith indeed.

George MacDonald

But if we don’t,

in the strength that God gives by His grace

confess & stop our sin

We will be fighting against GOD

And we can be sure

that our sin will track us down.

The lie is we’re to weak

or it’s someone else’s fault

The truth is we can do all things through Christ

As He gives us moment by moment strengthening grace

For the eyes of the LORD run back and forth

They travel throughout the whole earth,

to show He’s strong

in the behalf of all

Those hearts committed toward Him.

2 Chron. 16:9

GOD is always on the alert,

Our Lord is constantly on the lookout

Are we totally committed to looking at Him.

Are we engaged with listening to Him

Are we determined to follow Jesus

Are we attached to the Spirit of Christ

Are we depending on Hearing His voice in His Word

Or are we betting the farm on human help

If so in so doesn’t get elected

Boy howdy; Now we’re in trouble—

All hell breaks loose

Wait just a minute

Where’s our focus

We have an inspired composition from our creator

Testimonies galore of over-comers

Promise upon promise

Assurance after assurance

Predictions piled to the sky

Yet He gives breath to mobs of destroyers

So how do we catch Gods eye???

Don’t we want His attention,

Don’t we desire His solutions,

Don’t we need His provisions?

Commit to Him!!!

Without faith it’s impossible to please Him

So we open our heart to His presence

We feel His eyes searching us