Head east & hide out at the Kerith Ravine on the other side of the Jordan River.
You can drink fresh water from the brook;
I’ve ordered the ravens to feed you.”
Elijah obeyed GOD’s orders.
He went and camped in the Kerith canyon on the other side of the Jordan.
And sure enough, ravens brought him his meals, both breakfast and supper, and he drank from the brook.
Eventually the brook dried up because of the drought.
Then GOD spoke to him: “Get up and go to Zarephath in Sidon & live there.
I’ve instructed a woman who lives there, a widow, to feed you.”
So he got up and went to Zarephath.
As he came to the entrance of the village he met a woman, a widow, gathering firewood.
He asked her,
Please, would you bring me a little water in a jug? I need a drink.
As she went to get it, he called out,
And while you’re at it, would you bring me something to eat?
She said,
I swear, as surely as your GOD lives, I don’t have so much as a biscuit.
I have a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a bottle;
you found me scratching together just enough firewood to make a last meal for my son and me. After we eat it, we’ll die.”
Elijah said to her,
Don’t worry about a thing. Go ahead and do what you’ve said.
But first make a small biscuit for me and bring it back here.
Then go ahead and make a meal from what’s left for you and your son.
This is the word of the GOD of Israel
The jar of flour will not run out and the bottle of oil will not become empty before GOD sends rain on the land and ends this drought.’” …
1 Kings 17:2-14 MSG
I don’t like what’s going down right now in our surroundings!
I don’t know anyone that’s getting a kick out of anything our so called “elites” are coming up with as a solution.
The natural thing is to find fault with every leader and every so called solution.
There’s a lot of desperation everywhere.
There’s a hopeless rage that’s brewing & building.
What if it gets worse? What if “so in so” gets elected?
What if the famine of sensible solutions totally dries up?
What if our police protection gets cut down 50% of what it is?
What if they all retire and run for the hills of Idaho?
What if we’re not in good hands with Allstate?
What if ruthless people surround our houses and demand that we get out because their taking everything we have and we can go live under the bridge with the big troll?
The psalmist asks in desperate prayer
WHY DO You stand afar off, O Lord?
Why do You hide Yourself,
Lord, You’re acting like You’re holding Your hands over Your eyes.
You’re acting like You’re looking the other way.
Don’t You see our trouble? Don’t You see our distress & desperation?
If we go to pot the whole world goes to pot.
We thought You we’re our Shepherd.
These twisted maniacs are chasing us with clubs.
They’re burning us to the ground and our in proud arrogance elected officials are cheering them on.
Their emptying the jails of all the riff raff so they can refill the jails with us
We keep waiting for You to pick us up.
We keep thinking this nightmare surrounding us will backfire and everything will get back to how it used to be.
Are we destined to be controlled by a mob of ruthless goons?
Psalms 10:1-3 paraphrase
Life can become a big tangle. And God let’s it happen.
But God will untangle us, because His mercy endures forever; We need to wait & see the unfolding of His plans,
We should never let our emotions make us feel trapped in all the constant impossible quagmire that we are so prone to fall into
We have to let God work it out & don’t get caught in the sludge of despair
It’s tempting to hang our head in failure.
I do it constantly
I keep trying though to Let God into every situation. But We have to trust.
Even though almost Everyday I blow it. I start feeling frantic.
I commit new acts of stupidity & bungle into foolish reactions.
I used to live in Western Colorado.
It was back when trapping wild game was legal.
I had a couple of Bible studies with guys who were trappers by hobby.
One guy was so into animal pelts that he would stop & skin roadkill.
He took a hide he’d tanned and recovered one of my Bibles
One time I went up into the mountains with him We checked his trap lines.
He at the time he was trapping Coyotes.
There was a bounty that could be collected plus the value of the pelt.
He was incredibly fast at emptying the traps and skinning.
The prey when trapped was passive and calmly accepted their fate.
We’ve got to let the Lord untangle our traps.
We can’t be like the coyote who caught his leg in a snare and chewed off three wrong legs while the one leg stayed trapped.
F. B. Meyer wrote:
We need to pray out every problem and Wait,
that means really, patiently wait!!!
God always has a way, His way out!!!
Psalm 91 says:
We sit down in God’s presence, we rest under our Lord’s shadow,
GOD, is our refuge. We trust in Him and we’re safe!”
He rescues us from hidden traps,
He shields us from deadly hazards.
His powerful outstretched arms protect us
We’re perfectly safe; as His powerful hands fend off all harm.
We’re to Fear nothing.
There isn’t any phrase repeated more often by God then FEAR NOT!!!
Don’t fear ravenous wild wolves in the night,
Don’t fear flying bricks and Molotov cocktails in the day,
Don’t fear germ warfare and sinister diseases that prowl through the air
Don’t fear disaster that erupts on every street in our cities.
Even though others succumb all around us,
Even though our ICU’s are jammed to capacity and people are
dropping like flies all around us; DON’T FEAR.
No harm will even graze us
We’ll stand untouched,
We’ll be safe with corpses stacked all around us.
I picked up a coffee at Starbucks the other day.
I asked the masked barista what he was taking in college,
He said he was studying undertaking.
I looked at my cup thinking an embalmer just made my drink.
Don’t fear if cold hearted embalmers are serving us.
because GOD ’s our refuge,
Evil can’t get close to us, tragedy and harm can’t bust through the door.
God has ordered his angels to guard you wherever you go.
If we stumble, they’ll catch us; their job is to keep us from falling.
We’ll walk unharmed among lions and snakes, and ruthless humans that
act like poisonous serpents in our path.
God is holding on to us in His loving arms
Our Lord Jesus promises to get us out of all trouble.
We can trust Him. We can call on Him.
He’s faster then 911 on our speed dial me
He always answer, He’s always at our side in bad times;
He’ll rescue us, then we’ll throw a praise party.
Fact is might as we’ll start that praise party of gratitude now
We have a friend who died of a very rapidly growing brain tumor.
She said she wanted to memorize Psalm 91 while her brain was still
functioning.
She wanted the Psalm treasured in her heart as she waited for Jesus
“Know ye the land where the cypress and myrtle Are emblems of deeds that are done in their clime?”
Lord Byron
“Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree, And instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree…” Isaiah 55:13
It’s not enough to eradicate thorns and thistles. God does more: He causes the cypress & myrtle to flourish where nettles & weeds encumber the ground
It’s not enough that God removes our vices. He does more: He replaces them one by one with solid virtues, so that the old site of evil becomes a place of rare beauty.
As A Roper wrote: Where cynicism abounded, hope and optimism begin to emerge;
where harshness and sarcasm flourished, kind, gentle words appear;
where malice & anger produced anxiety & turmoil, forbearance, tranquility & peace start to surface;
where lust grew rampant & unrestrained, pure love springs up.
This is the supplanted life, the living & lasting sign of God’s work, the only memorial that matters
And how does this transformation take place?
Just ask the Lord to do it. Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near.” Isaiah 55:6
God can be “found,” when we grow tired of ourselves when we stop our self-efforts to be good. Then God calls us, reminding us that he’s at hand.
Turn to him, act “before desire shall fail,”
—turn from all our strategies to sanctify ourselves to One who loves us to death. A.E. Houseman
“And he will have mercy on us” Isaiah 55:7
Sink our roots into God’s Word & ask Him to speak to us
“as the rain & the snow come down from heaven & do not return to it without watering the earth, making it bear & sprout, so shall God’s Word be that goes forth from His mouth; It shall not return to Him void, But it will accomplish what God pleases, And it shall prosper in the thing for which God sent it” Isaiah 55.10,11
Lord Jesus burn Your words into our hearts Make Your voice bear fruit in us.
Lord Jesus drench us in Your grace let it “come down” Let Your beauty “spring up”; from Your word accomplish Your will & the purpose for which You’ve planned.
God tries and choses us in the furnace of affliction.
It’s for His sake, He does it [
He won’t utterly destroy us He’s not going to let His name to be polluted & profaned He’s not going to allow His glory to be diminished by permitting the worshipers of idols to triumph over us
God lets us in on the way He works in us:
He tells us what He’s doing beforehand,
But are we paying attention? Are we alert to His voice?
Or are we a bunch of hardheads?
Are we obstinate and a bunch of dumb donkeys?
Idol worshippers & profane politicians don’t have an edge on us.
Doesn’t God’s voice come like a soft shower through His Word!
Doesn’t God’s voice assuage the fury of the the flame?
God’s voice is our asbestos armor, the fire has no power!
Let the affliction come─God has chosen us.
“Poverty, You can stride in at our door;
but God is in the house already & He has chosen us.
Sickness, you can intrude; but God has comforts ready
God has chosen us.
Whatever happens in this vale of tears,
We know that God has chosen us.
Fear not, Christ Jesus is with us.
In all our fiery trials,
His presence is our comfort & safety.
He will never leave us
He has chosen us for His own.
He keeps saying:
“Fear not, for I am with you,”
We are His chosen ones in “the furnace of affliction.”
C. H. Spurgeon.
Pain’s furnace heat within us quivers, God’s breath upon the flame doth blow;
And all our heart in anguish shivers And trembles at the fiery glow;
And yet we whisper, “As God will!” And in the hottest fire hold still.
He comes & lays our heart, all heated, On the hard anvil, minded so
Into His own fair shape to beat it With His great hammer, blow on blow;
And yet we whisper, “As God will!” And at His heaviest blows hold still.
He takes our softened heart & beats it; The sparks fly off at every blow;
He turns it o’er & o’er & heats it, And lets it cool & makes it glow;
And yet we whisper, “As God will!” And in His mighty hand hold still.
Why should we murmur? for the sorrow Thus only longer-lived would be;
The end may come & will tomorrow, When God has done His work in us;
So we say trusting, “As God will!” And, trusting to the end, hold still.”
Julius Sturm.
The burden of suffering seems a tombstone hung about our necks, while in reality it is only the weight which is necessary to keep down the diver while he is hunting for pearls.
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