Stevemidkiff's Blog

“Don’t imagine you’ve been selected to go to Perelandra

because you’re anyone in particular.

One never can see, or not till long afterwards,

why any one was selected for a certain purpose.

And when one does,

it is usually some reason that leaves no room for vanity.

Certainly, it is never for what we would have regarded as our chief qualifications.” –

C.S. Lewis.

Che Guevara shooting women after his gang of thugs took turns raping them.

Che is now proudly modeled on t-shirts

But I Know a Place . . .

I know a place where justice & righteousness is always present:

Righteousness & justice are the foundation of Your throne;
Lovingkindness & truth go before You.

Psalm 89:14

I know a place where mercy & grace are available in our time of need:

Therefore let us draw draw near with confidence to the throne of grace,
so that we may receive mercy & find grace to help in time of need.

Hebrews 4:16

I know a place where all people are welcome to fulfill their created purpose:

All nations whom You have made shall come & worship before You,

O Lord & they shall glorify Your name.

Psalm 86:9

I know a place where my rebellion can be forgiven:

For You, Lord, are good & ready to forgive & abundant

in lovingkindness to all who call upon You.

Psalm 86:5

I know a place where my cries of affliction are heard:

Incline Your ear, O Lord & answer me; for I am afflicted & needy.

Psalm 86:1

I know a place that will give me happiness in the midst of all the difficulty:

How blessed are those who dwell in Your house! They are ever praising You. Selah.

Psalm 84:4.

I know a place where we can find peace:

Lovingkindness & truth have met together;

righteousness & peace have kissed each other.

Psalm 85:10.

I know a place that provides light & shelter in the midst of darkness & danger:

For the Lord God is a sun & shield; the Lord gives grace & glory;

no good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.

Psalm 84:11.

Wait . . .

This is not a place, this is a Person:

Come to Me, all who are weary & heavy-laden & I will give you rest.

Take My yoke upon you & learn from Me, for I am gentle & humble in heart,

and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy & My burden is light

Matt 11:28–30

To all of us sinners: come to Christ.

To the hurting: come to Christ.

To the confused: come to Christ.

To the weary: come to Christ.

There is only one Person that can fix all of this.

He sits on the universal throne; He lives forever & ever; He is Jesus Christ.

Adapted from pakman

Calamities are God’s previews of what sin deserves

Calamity displays what will one day be received in judgment a thousand times worse.

They are warnings.

They are wake-up calls to see the moral horror

They are demonstrations of the spiritual ugliness of sin against God.

John Piper

These are emotional weeks.

Or maybe we can admit we’ve had an emotional life.

When we wake up at odd thoughts many times at night.

Maybe it’s physical pain that jars our rest.

Possibly it’s emotional pain.

Perhaps it’s stress of accumulating sorrows.

Can we shift our energies to how positive life is,

Is it feasible to adjust to how much joy everything brings as we‘re anticipating new challenges

How about the supernaturally protective experiences we actually have had & have

Actually we could have collapsed under a variety of happenings many times.

But we have new opportunities of hearing Our Lord’s special voice of uplifting

We have future prospects of claiming God’s incredible promises & asking for more of Him.

It’s a choice. We can be motivated even in the deepest negatives to gratitude;

Pain, bad news, sleeping less but asking for more & enjoying each result.

Knowing God is in control & that He’s in us, with us & all around us.

And He’s using everything for His glory. Not one thing is wasted. Not one thing…

My wayward children says the LORD,

come back to me & I will heal your wayward hearts

Jeremiah 3: 22

The sound of voices drifting out of the hills

the unhappy sound of crying,

Israel lamenting the wasted years, when they never gave God a thought

Come back, wandering children! I can heal your wandering!

O Lord Drench us in Your vast love

Flood us with Your love that passes knowledge

Swallow us in Your love that is impossible to measure

Initiate a change of heart in us

Instill desire for a closer relationship with You

Keep us from hating correction. We read that is stupid

Proverbs 12.1

Give us a love for correction

Make our faith grow

whoever listens to counsel is wise

Proverbs 12.15

Open our ears & heart to Your wise advice

Lord, however You deal with us

whatever You take from us,

whatever You deny us of

Don’t deny us of feasting on Your beauty Lord Jesus!

“Judge not” is one of the most popular passages in our society,

especially among those who reject Jesus.

It seems to fit

The thought is our belief system is private

And, of course us our moral choices are relative.

So it appears moral life choices are now adjusted

What was amoral or a lack of concerns for right vs. wrong standards us now moral

People love “judge not” because it seems to be a handy way of saying, “

“You can’t tell me I’m wrong.”

In all issues of disagreement & for certain in moral issue

you’ll see this verse swiftly pulled out as a deflective weapon.

Jesus is the one who spoke this phrase first

But Jesus didn’t share our presuppositions about private religion & relative morality.

Jesus actually was constantly making public judgments,

And yikes, many of those judgements were extremely aggressive.

In John 7:7 he told His followers that the world hated Him

because He testify about it that its activities & actions were perverse, twisted & evil

So Jesus didn’t say we’re all supposed to just throw up our hands & say,

Hey, you know, Who am I to judge?

You judge someone not when you assess a persons position,

That means judging is coming to a conclusion of where they’re coming from

But Jesus didn’t come to condemn but to save it.

There is a difference between speaking a harsh truth & condemning.

Condemning goes beyond saying “This is wrong” to saying, “I don’t want you around anymore.”

Condemning is being more enraged at someone else’s life choices
than we are embarrassed by your own life choices past & present.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said we’re first frustrated with the hypocrisy of others
But next we recognize that the same hypocrisy in ourselves.

When We confront by condemning others
we’re painfully aware of our own issues that are the same.

Condemning is refusing to forgive (or when you forgive you refuse to forget)

To refuse to forgive others is to be ignorant of the enormity of what God has forgiven us

True forgiveness is as Tim Keller reminds

“We forget by saying the wrong done to us is now irrelevant.”

To condemn is saying “I’m going to remind you of this all the time
and I’m going to use it as justification for being cold toward you.”

In other words, we don’t have any concept of forgiveness at all.

Forgiveness means absorbing the debt & offering love & goodness in return.

When we condemn, when we “cut off” those we disagree with.

As J.D. Grear wrote

“You just disagree so strongly with someone—
over something like faith or morality or politics—
and because you can’t agree you cut them off.
You say, in essence,
We can’t really be friends if we disagree on this issue.
The ultimate statement of judging condemnation is,

“Depart from me.”

Consider Jesus with Judas.

Even after Judas had betrayed him, Jesus says to him,

“Friend, why have you come?”

He says Friend. Jesus offers the hand of friendship to him—

Jesus offers the hand of friendship to us!—when we are betrayers of Christ too.

How can we say “Depart from me” to someone else,

when God doesn’t even say that to us?

J. D. Grear notes

“When we campaign to others & gossip to others about
our cause against another we’re castigate & condemning

The ugly danger of castigate & condemning is we’ve positioned
those we’ve condemned in the hell of our making.

And we do that without giving them the chance to change.”

We can mask it all with we’re“praying for them” or a classically say “bless their heart.”

We are so stiff at this point that we refuse to receive criticism.

Why do we hate criticism? Isn’t it because we hate to admit that we have faults?

Actually the face of criticism, we could say you right.

But I could show you worse things you didn’t notice about me!”

There is this Irony alert.

As believers, if we refuse to correct others,

We demonstrate we don’t believe that the Bible is true,
We demonstrate we don’t think the other person can actually change.
We demonstrate we don’t think the other person will listen,

By all this We demonstrate we we’re judging & condemning them from the start.

By condemning we’re demonstrating the other person is hopeless.

I thought that Jesus was capable as our Savior to raise the dead.

So no one is hopeless. I’m just as hopeless.

Then came Amalek & fought with Israel in Rephidim

Amalek we’re descendants of Esau the twin of Jacob

Amalek literally means squeeze or wring.

It has an etymology of wringing or twisting a birds neck to kill it

It has an etymology of gaining by violence through pressure

In Exodus 17 they attack the Israelis in the hinder-parts

The hinder-parts are an assault from behind

It’s also vivid of an attack when were down on our back & weakened physically
by disease or financial losses.

The Amalekites lived in the valley. (Low life’s)

Exd. 17:8

The possession of water (wells, etc.) was a cause of contention
In the ancient times where people live in arid desert environments

The Israelis had gotten a river of water that was now gushing from this
rock in Rephidim

Rephidim means rest.

The Amalekites wanted that water & were willing to fight to gain possession.

But to do this meant they must first disposess (humiliate & drive)
Israel away through an attack.

Num. 24:20

Then Moses said concerning Amalek that—“Amalek feared not God”
They didn’t fear the consequences
That thought of consequential relationships was not a part of their perspective

Deut. 25:17-18

Paul wrote that we’re to: (suggestive that our lower flesh nature is like Amalek)

Live freely, energized & motivated by God’s Spirit.

Then we won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness.

For there is a root of sinful self-interest fights with this freeing spirit,

And this free spirit is incompatible with selfishness.

These two ways of life are antithetical, so that we can’t live
one way & at then another way, according to how we feel

Why need to choose to be led by the Spirit & so escape the
erratic compulsions of a performance -dominated existence

Gal 5:17-20 paraphrased

We’re to abstain (refuse & avoid) our fleshly sensual urges

(the evil desires, the passions of the flesh, our lower nature)

we’re not to live in the valley (being low life’s)

These feelings, these low negative prompts from our old self

wage war against our soul

(our soul is our inner being that wants to walk & be close to Jesus)

1 Peter 2:11 paraphrased

God has given us His precious & exceedingly great promises,

so that through them we can escape from the moral decay

(the rottenness & corruption) that is in our lower nature

because of covetousness (lust & greed for what others have),

and become sharers (partakers) of the Christ’s nature

(our new nature of God’s Spirit)

2 Peter 1:4 | AMP (adaptations)

The battle was fought by

Moses going up on a hill with Aaron & Hur

He went up to gain a perspective of the battle in the valley by Joshua

He held his hands & arms up (a picture of prayers)

When his hands grew heavy Aaron & Hur lifted them up.

When Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed & when he let down

his hand Amalek prevailed

Exd. 17:11

The uplifted hand was emblematic of prayer & supplicating of God:

Hear our voice & supplications, when we cry to You, Lord when we

lift up our hands toward Your holy oracle

Ps. 28:2

Paul wrote

I will that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath & doubting

1 Tim. 2:8

Like “Moses’ our hands grow heavy. We grow weary of supplicating to God!

Jesus said

We ought always to pray & not to faint

Luke 18:1

We fail quickly when our hearts get “heavy” with stuff in us

that wrings our spiritual neck.

And as soon as we lose the spirit of dependency on God

our fleshly lower nature (low life valley living prevails)

Aaron & Hur were with Moses, they

Stayed up his hands, the one on one side & the other on the other side.

We need to hang out with people of faith.

Through God in His grace He provides for us supported on each side

“Likewise the Spirit also helps our infirmities.

For we know not what we should pray for as we should;

but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings

which can’t be spoken”

Rom. 8:26

“And another angel came & stood at the altar having a golden censer;

and there was given unto Him much incense, that He should offer it

with the prayers of all believers on the golden altar which was before

the throne”

Rev. 8:3

Jesus Christ always receives our supplications & offers them to God

as a sweet perfume fragrance of His own perfections.

Exd. 17:13 notes that Joshua discomfited (humiliated & defeated)

Amalek & his people with the edge of the sword.

The “sword” the Word of God

For the Word that God speaks & is alive & full of power

(making it active, operative, energizing & effective)

it is sharper than any two-edged sword,

penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (soul)

and [the immortal] spirit & of joints & marrow

(of the deepest parts of our nature)

exposing & sifting & analyzing & judging the very thoughts

and purposes of our heart.

Hebrews 4:12 AMP

It is not by prayer alone that we can fight the flesh

(our low life nature)

The Word, is needed.

The Psalmist wrote,

Your Word us what I’ve filled my heart & life with that I might

not sin against You

Ps. 119:11 paraphrased

We have to consider (get this new perspective riveted in our minds)

That we ourselves are dead to sin & our relation to it is broken,

Now we’re alive to God [living in unbroken fellowship with Him] in Christ Jesus.

Romans 6:11 | AMP

We have to Shun (avoid, reject & evade) old lower life

(lusts & desires & passions)

flee from them & aim at & pursue righteousness

(all that is virtuous & good, right living, conformity to the will of God in thought, word & actions)

and aim at & pursue faith, love & peace

(harmony & agreeability & reasonableness with others)

in fellowship with all (believers) who call on the Lord out of a new heart nature.

2 Timothy 2:22 | AMP adapted

There is a fight to be fought

Fight the good fight of the faith; lay hold of our new life to which we been called too

1 Timothy 6:12

I have fought the good (worthy, honorable & noble) fight,

I have finished the race, I have kept (firmly held) the faith.

2 Timothy 4:7 | AMP

So fight, not as not running in uncertainly (without definite aim).

We fight aimlessly boxing like one beating the air & striking

without hitting our adversaries

But [like a boxer] we buffet & beat our body

(handle it roughly, discipline it by hardships)

and we subdue it, for fear that after proclaiming

to others we know Jesus & His Word, that we ourselves should become unfit

( and not stand up to our tests & be unapproved & rejected as a counterfeit)

1 Corinthians 9:26-27 | AMP adapted

Amalek was not destroyed completely.

He wasn’t vanquished on this occasion.

There is no way of destroying or eradicating our low life valley living nature inside of us.

We like Joshua discomfit it (humble it) but it still survives.

Why, does God permit the this nature to remain in us?

We need a deeper & personal realization of the havoc

of how sin has affected us. We have to understand our

total depravity to appreciate God’s amazing grace which has saved us as wretches.

This makes us humbled (discomfited) before God

This keeps us more dependent on Him in our battles.

This makes uS appropriate to ourselves God’s all-sufficient

grace & causes us to learn that His strength is made perfect in our weaknesses,

Then we appreciate His keeping-power, as without Jesus

we can do nothing & we sink down to a low life existence.

Remember what Amalek did to you on the way

How Amalek did not fear God,

but when we were faint & weary he attacked us…you must not forget.

Deuteronomy 25:17-19 | AMP adapted

What is the fix against faintness & weakness?

My Grandma Blanch Newton Stickney would repeat this passage to me in her 80s

“God gives power to the faint & to them that have no might He increases strength.

The youths shall faint & be weary & the young will utterly fail;

But they that wait on the Lord (by prayer & God’s Word)

Will renew their strength. they shall mount up with wings as eagles;

they will run & not be weary; they will walk & not faint”

Isa. 40:30,31

God, Who will transform & fashion anew this body of our humiliation

to conform to & be like the body of His glory & majesty,

by exerting that power which enables Him even to subject everything to Himself.

Philippians 3:21 | AMP

And Hannah prayed & said,
My heart rejoices in the LORD,
mine horn is exalted in the LORD:
my mouth is enlarged over my enemies;
because I rejoice in Your salvation.

1 Sam. 2:1

Hannah poured out her heart in thanksgiving.

Her words reveal an in-depth knowledge of God,

Her expressions demonstrate that she was in awe of God’s amazing character,

Her soul exalts God’s incredible deeds

Her spirit shows her expectations that the Lord would be doing wonders for her.

Her prayer appears to be a rebuke of her husband Peninnah

for the many spiteful things he had said to Hannah,

but really her Spirit prompted prayer prophetically goes beyond this domestic squabble

She’s echoing forward 1000s of years to the triumph of Israel over her foes

and to the eventual reign of Christ.

This is resonated in Mary’s song, often called the Magnificat

Luke 1:46–55

which was obviously influenced by Mary’s knowledge of Hannah’s song.

Having close relationships with important individuals can give us an identity boost.

I look back on some of my name drops when I’m trying to impress someone.

It’s kind of gaudy & garish of me to pump my own importance by flashing impactful

and impressive names.

I’m really just attempting to promote & dial up my personal worth by assuming on

and embellishing it with others.

But what about talking up the one person that’s infinitely special & out of this

world extraordinary.

I didn’t actually meet Him by my own efforts but He reached out into the middle

of my ant like scurrying and pick my little insect self up to HIMSELF

Paul, this highly religious guy, writes a variety of self deprecating things in his

various compositions.

One of His stunning thoughts is:

“There is no one that seeks after God”

Romans 3:11

So, it is God who sought out us.

He called Abram while yet an idolater.

It is God who sought Jacob at Bethel when he was fleeing from the consequences

of his wrong doing.

It is God who sought Moses while a fugitive in Midian.

It is Christ who sought out the apostles while they were engaged in fishing,

Jesus abruptly points out

“You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you.”

John 15:16

It is Christ who, in His ineffable, indescribable, inexpressible love, just keeps knocking

at our inner being for a meet up.

He comes to us, to seek & to save that which was lost. And He’s still do it constantly.

It is the Shepherd who seeks the sheep & not the sheep that seek the Shepherd.

“We love Him because He first loved us.”

1 John 4:19

There is not one biblical biography who can give themselves any credit

That they sought God, but instead, it was God who sought them.

And this how it works.

Jesus is the initiator in the relationships. Not only that, but He keeps reintroducing

Himself to us.

I guess we’re a bit forgetful of just how important He is to our lives.

So how does He get our attention.

How about blinding us with a bright light so that we fall over spell bound. (Paul)

How about swallowing us with a big fish in a storm at sea for 3 a day trip to the depths. (Jonah)

How about wiping out everything we have including our health, then turning our

friends against us. (Job)

How about destroying our country, capturing us, then driving us into a 700 mile grueling

death hike with ruthless captors and then for a grand finale having us thrown into a

monstrous blazing fireplace handcuffed. (shadrach meshach & abednego)

How about after faithfully being close to Jesus & responding to all of His meet ups for

70 plus years.

Suddenly Jesus decides He wants to meet for coffee. He taps you on the

shoulder & says this is how we’re going to have a special time together.

It will look like you’re going to be fed to a a bunch of hungry Lions.

I know it’s going to be stinky in that pit.

Don’t sweat it.

It will be our special hang out for the evening. (Daniel)

Jesus just keeps thinking up clever meeting spots.

Diseases, accidents, rejections, chaotic happenings, sleeplessness, heartaches,

physical disabilities, the list is extremely exhaustless.

Jesus loves hang outs that are very unusual.

It’s not your average meeting at Starbucks

But it’s worth it when we see Jesus.

Oh, just a piece of advice.

Don’t turn down the meet up

You’ll miss out if you do.

The wrath of man doesn’t work

the righteousness of God

James 1:20

Angry reaction never produce right results

Losing one’s temper can never achieve anything,

least of all the righteousness of God in our life.

If you get angry at me

you won’t gain a thing but losses

If I get angry at You

I won’t gain a thing but losses

We want what is right & profitable in our life

The only thing that’s right & profitable

Are God’s truth, God’s ways & God’s righteousness

Another way of saying it is

Two wrong don’t make a right

The first wrong is bad

The second wrong is actually worse

Jesus exemplifies “an eloquent silence.”

The Lord

could have opened Pilate eyes at his mock trial.

He could have opened the high priests & Pharisees eyes

when they scoffed Him & beat & spit on Him

He could have brought a flaming fire down on them.

He could have brought legion upon legion

of mighty angels, standing with swords drawn,

from the unseen world to materialize right before their eyes.

He might have told them of a throne,

high & lifted up beyond a billion teeming

galaxies in space.

He might have answered Pilate’s cynical question

“What is truth?”

by an exposition of all of the follies

of all of the philosophers of Athens & Rome.

What we’re seeing in our present culture will

changes nothing for the better but for the worse

We need the righteousness of God

Twisted perverted wickedness brings chaos

destruction, multiplied hatred & more bloodshed

All the appeasing virtue signaling
of it is foolishness

In every thing give thanks:

for this is the will of God

in Christ Jesus concerning you.

Quench not the Spirit

1 Thes. 5:18

thank God no matter what happens.

This is the way God wants us to live

We belong to Christ Jesus

Don’t suppress the Spirit

The message

In my life the presence or absence of gratitude

is very interesting in my attitude & life responses

Gratitude & a lack of it effects my perspective.

I wish I could get a deep sense of awe

I wish this would become ingrained in my mind.

Just a basic awareness, in every waking moment,

of the amazing truth that God is infinite

And in all of His perfections He loves me.

That every breath I draw comes from Him

That every feeling & thought would be focused on Jesus

Unfortunately I have a personal flaw

There are leaks where aggravations interfere.

The ability to draw breath is a big deal

The gift of allowing the breath of Gods Spirit in

Now that’s even beyond my wildest imagination

The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind,

Of fresh life giving breath.

He magnificently clearers the air,

He frees me from the brutal tyranny

of sin and death.

My human condition is always battling sin & death,

I live in an internal disordered mess

of struggling to breath.

But breath gives life.

Basic breathing keeps me alive

Breathing in Gods Spirit is my new life

As breath gives life to my physical muscle

Gods Spirit & Gods voice through His Word

Gives spiritual life to my new being in Christ