Stevemidkiff's Blog

““A person is naturally fluent or they’re not.

If we’re not,

the constant creation of manuscript will overcome our handicap.

In the act of writing, our mind is ceaselessly groping for words.

Every word that we captures becomes from that moment

a part of our stock in trade.”

F.W. Boreham

“If anyone tells you that the life of prayer

is one uninterrupted experience of being happy with Jesus,

do not follow them.

They are not a safe guide.

Those who follow the Lamb know that there are stretches of darkness

There are strains of loneliness

There are states of perplexity along the way,

and they know that Jesus Himself went that way.”

Lesslie Newbigin

Let all who swear by statistics take warning

in the fact that the numbers don’t always add up

Now that is precisely the weakness of democracy.

A democratic form of government is, I suppose, the nearest approach to a perfect form of government that has ever been invented;

yet nobody would argue that it is a perfect form of government.

And the chasm that yawns between it & perfection is the chasm into which we have just been peering.

It adds Judas & John together,

saying as it does so that one & one make two.

It gives the ne’er-do-weel, the waster & the scoundrel the same voice in the affairs of State as the man of intelligence & integrity to whom the whole community looks up in respect.

If there is one lesson written more legibly than another on the annals of the world, it is that majorities are almost always wrong!’

W. S. Lilly

“Every writer must overcome a kind of shyness,

We have to put it out of our mind this fear that we are being arrogant

We have to be thrusting ourselves on our readers,

Is it egotistical to assume our words are worth others time?

Why should they care about what we have to say?

What right have we to impose our thoughts on others? …

That‘s what all a writer do, especially a writer of faith;

They offer a unique perspective of things around them, things they feel

They point to a view visible only from the point they’ve been at.

Adapted from Philip Yancey

“An enemy I had, whose mien [appearance]
I stoutly strove in vain to know;

For hard he dogged my steps, unseen,
Wherever I might go.

My plans he balked; my aims he foiled;
He blocked my every onward way.

When for some lofty goal I toiled,
He grimly said me nay.

“Come forth!” I cried, “Lay bare thy guise!
Thy wretched features I would see.”

Yet always to my straining eyes
He dwelt in mystery.

Until one night I held him fast,
The veil from off his form did draw;

I gazed upon his face at last—
And, lo! myself I saw.”

Edwin Sabin

Growing in grace is getting deeper in the knowledge of God.

Growing in grace is becoming more intimate in relaxing in Jesus life

Growing in grace is discovering that God’s Spirit is enough.

Growing in grace is enjoying being Christ’s followers

Growing in grace is recognizing that He is enough!

Growing in grace is being shocked that outside of Christ everything else is a perpetual pile of dissatisfaction.

Growing in grace is when Jesus all we want,

Growing in grace is sobering up to our state of instability & confusion without Jesus.

William Mason said,

Be discontent without a constant revelation of Christ to our souls:

Jesus makes our conscience peaceful,
Jesus makes our heart happy, Jesus makes our soul joyful:
Jesus inspires love,
Jesus subdues our lust,
Jesus captivates our affections,
Jesus creates heaven in our soul.

Jesus is enough!

He is our King

He reigns over us,
He reigns for us,
He reigns in us.

Miles Mckee wrote

Jesus is called, “Wonderful Isaiah 9:6
His birth was wonderful;
His person is wonderful;
His offices of Prophet, Priest and King are wonderful;
His work for us was wonderful;

He is our teacher and the subject of His lesson.
That’s wonderful!
He is our Lamb and at the same time our shepherd;
that again is wonderful!
His sinless life was wonderful;
His death was wonderful;
He was both the sacrifice and the Priest who offered the sacrifice… that’s wonderful!
His resurrection was wonderful;
His ascension into Heaven was wonderful;
His salvation is wonderful;
His power is wonderful and His faithfulness is wonderful.
Is He wonderful enough for you and for me?

“With a mighty hand, He laid hold of the works of Satan, He unlocked the prison gates, He broke the bands asunder.
He opened His mouth and the deaf heard,
the blind saw,
the dumb spoke,
the lame walked,
and the lepers were cleansed. —-
He took our yoke & bore it away on His own shoulders & cast it broken into the bottomless pit.”

“I will hedge up your way with thorns”

Hosea 2:6

Hedge us in to You Lord

When God cursed the ground for sin

He promised that it would bring forth thorns

Clarify to us what’s cursed & what’s blessed

Thorns, represent difficulty & bad result

Reveal the thorns to us & their cause

But, God is merciful in thorny consequences

Pour Your mercy on us, in us & around us

The “thorns” of scratch, pierce & scar

Reveal what pierces us with many sorrows

It’s the pain that makes us hate the sin that causes the thorns

Make every pain meaningful

We cry out

We want the thorns removed

But when we go our way

When we reject Your way

We need to be hedged in

When we break down Your fences

We can really wander off farther & farther

We stay or we think we’re out of
sight & out of mind.

But God You promise

I will hedge up your way with thorns

I will make a wall to keep you from finding
your destructive paths

In mercy God send us difficulties

Sharp stuff that scratches

Nasty stuff that pierces us

Icky stuff that pains us

Make others pray specifically for a hedge
of thorns to surround our wrong paths

Bring the Things

The Cutting & binding things

Things that will stop us in our tracks

Things that prevent us from going
any farther into oblivion

We cry out for our wounds to be healed
and our pains relieved

We’re up against the thorn-filled hedges
of You, God in our lives.

In Hosea the wanderer kept pushing away

They said “we will follow our lovers.”

God eventually responds

“I will hedge up your way with thorns.”

Maybe someone is praying non-stop
that God won’t give up on us.

Please Lord Jesus!
Never never never give up on us.

Keep knocking on our hearts door.
Knock louder & louder & louder

If it takes pain-filled difficulties to frustrate our sin filled desires & directions, then bring them.

Don’t let us redefine this plague of sin!

God. Hedged up our way with thorns.

Pierce deep into our hearts & minds.

Make the hedge impossible to break down.

Whatever it takes Lord. Whatever it takes.

If You have to expose us naked, do it.

If You have to turn our skin into dried-out leather, do it.

If You have to make our body into a badlands landscape, do it.

If You have to make us a rack of bones in the desert, do it.

Make us face it!

“If we’ve been born in a whorehouse,
make us face it.

If our mother’s been a whore, make us
face it.

If we’re bastard children make us face it.

When we say, ‘we’re off to see our lovers!

They’ll wine & dine us,

They’ll dress & caress us,

They’ll perfume & adorn us!’

Then dump us in a field of thorns & thistles

Yes, push us into the dead-end alley we’re on

When we go on the hunt for our lovers
don’t let us find any

Destroy all that’s a waste to us

Make us totally helpless

Make all the whoring around a dumping grounds for garbage

Make all the promiscuity a pit of thorns

Hosea 2 paraphrased

Never give up on us!
Never give up!
Keep knocking louder!

You have hedged us & shut us in–behind and before & You have laid Your hand on us. Psalms 139:5

We rinse our dishes as soon as we’re done with them.
The idea is to discipline ourselves immediately to wash away all food residue and grime left on our plates and silverware

We don’t want it to get caked on and difficult to get off the next day.

No old pasta sauce, no old cereal, and no leftover food plastered onto our dishes. If it’s overlooked it takes more scouring to remove it. Sometimes the leftover sludge becomes one with the dish. No matter how hard we scrub, it’s harder to get off.

That is how we can feel with our sin. It cakes on to our very being. We feel grungy.

The best remedy then is to leave a dish soaking in water to loosen up the grime and dirt. Then it can be wiped away with less effort.

The cleansing power of the water over a period of time is enough to get the stains loosened up.

Breaking dungy habits can work loose by the living water of Christ through the water of His Word. Keep in the Word.

Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your Word.

Psalm 119:67

All things will work for the good of those who love the Lord

Romans 8:28

God’s ability to reverse a trial is interwoven into our deliverance. God has a way of turning things around, sooner or later.

Job said in his troubles, “Indeed, this will turn out for my deliverance” Job 13:16

Nehemiah 13:2 speaks of how God turns curses into blessings.

In 1 Kings 12:15 it’s said of an incident,

“for the turn of events was from the Lord, that He might fulfill His word.”

The things that had happened to Paul had turned out for the furtherance of the Gospel Philippians 1:19

Yes, Things have a way of turning out
It‘s because of God’s redemptive power & grace.

J. D. Greear notes “God sometimes answers our prayers by giving us what we would have asked for had we known what He knows.”

In God’s providence, trials are disguised blessings that draw us closer to God as we learn from Him & lean on Him.

Guilt Hinders Prayer Psalms 66:18

“If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.”

To regard is to be an observer. It’s like sitting in the grandstands. We need to get up out of our seat, go down on the field & get in the conflict

God convicts us about sin in our life. We can’t sit there as observers embracing our flaws & sins. Are failures aren’t things we cherish and indulged, unconfessed.

Deal with it in prayer. Acknowledge, admit and confess.

God Hears Prayer Psalms 66:19

But yes God hears us; He has attended to the voice of our prayer.

When the roadblocks of our guilt are removed, prayer is not hindered by hypocrisy and the throne of grace is all ears, God hears!

He is always more ready to hear than we are to come. When the prodigal returned the Father jumped up, ran to His son & fell on his neck with kisses. What a picture of God’s joy at our voice.

Grace Helps Prayer Psalms 66:20

“Blessed be God, which has not turned away our prayer, nor His mercy from us.”

“Mercy” “lovingkindness” “grace.” All God’s dealings are in love

This is to the chief Musician.” It is “on Neginoth.”

Neginoth means with smitings.

God is well able to smite all our fears and all our foes!