Stevemidkiff's Blog

I know, O Lord, that Your judgments are righteous,

that in faithfulness You have afflicted us.

Ps. 119:75

How much we owe to the hammer & the anvil & the file & the fire!

Thanks be to God for the little crosses of every day; yes,

and for the heavy crosses which He sends us at certain seasons.

He does not gather the twigs of His rod, on the ‘mountains of wrath’–

but He plucks them in the ‘garden of love’!

Though He sometimes makes blue marks upon us as He smites us heavily–

yet His strokes are fewer than our crimes & lighter than our guilt.

Love bathes all the wounds which it makes–Love kisses away the hurt.

Blessed be a chastening God! Set down Your chastenings among your choicest mercies!

“The Lord disciplines the one He loves, and chastises every son whom He receives.”

Hebrews 12:6

From Spurgeons Gems

Many mighty men & women of God are forged on the anvil of trials, opposition & rejection.

Don’t squander each opportunity to grow in faith & vision.

When Jesus said, that He was going to submit to an this ugly ordeal of suffering

at the hands of the religious leaders & that He was going to allow these religious

phonies & political leaders to kill Him & then on the third day be raised back to life

Peter does this shocking thing. He actually gets in Jesus face & protests profusely

He says that’s Impossible, Master! That can never be!”

Another translation says Peter blatantly says “Never Lord”

“Never Lord” is an oxymoron; that’s Impossible, Master! is an oxymoron

An oxymoron is a rhetorical device that uses an ostensible self-contradiction

to illustrate a rhetorical point or to reveal a paradox.

An oxymoron is the joining of two incongruous terms

“Never, Lord!” Are two words just don’t belong together,

“Impossible, Master!” are two terms that are incompatible

But how much of our inner lives are lived as a paradox?

Are we a walking oxymoron?

Are our thoughts & feelings an inconsistent fallacy to what Jesus keeps telling us?

He tells us what He’s done perfectly for us.

He tells us what He wants to do in us & through us.

He tells us how to handle our challenges & weaknesses.

Do we profess with our mouth in sarcasm, sure, ok.

But in our mind & feelings say;

“Never, Lord!”

“Impossible, Master!”

We need to think, feel & say:

Always Lord, everything is possible when we allow Jesus to be our Master

Saying no to Jesus dumb!

Resisting our creators directions results in grave consequences!

The end result is not only us appearing to be oxymoronic

It’s us being a moron

Unknown

See how the lilies of the field grow

Matthew 6:28

Many years ago there was a monk who needed olive oil, so he planted an olive tree sapling.

After he finished planting it, he prayed,

Lord, my tree needs rain so its tender roots may drink and grow.

Send gentle showers.

And the Lord sent gentle showers.

Then the monk prayed,

Lord, my tree needs sun. Please send it sun.

And the sun shone, gilding the once-dripping clouds.

Now send frost, dear Lord, to strengthen its branches, cried the monk.

And soon the little tree was covered in sparkling frost, but by evening it had died.

Then the monk sought out a brother monk in his cell & told him of his strange experience.

After hearing the story, the other monk said,

I also have planted a little tree. See how it is thriving!

But I entrust my tree to its God.

He who made it knows better than a man like me what it needs.

I gave God no constraints or conditions, except to pray,

Lord, send what it needs—whether that be a storm or sunshine, wind, rain, or frost.

You made it, and you know best what it needs.

Yes, leave it with Him, The lilies all do & they grow—

They grow in the rain & they grow in the dew—Yes, they grow:

They grow in the darkness, all hid in the night—

They grow in the sunshine, revealed by the light—Still they grow.

Yes, leave it with Him, It’s more dear to His heart, You will know,

Than the lilies that bloom, Or the flowers that start Neath the snow:

Whatever you need, if you seek it in prayer, You can leave it with Him—

for you are His care.

You, you know.

From STREAMS in the Dessert

Sometimes we pray & ask God to grow us & make us more like Jesus.

Then to our surprise, we find ourselves neck-deep in a trial.

So we pray & ask God to take it away.

But what if it was God who brought the trial as the answer to our prayer for growth?

In John Newton’s hymn

I Asked the Lord

I asked the Lord that I might grow In faith & love & every grace;

Might more of His salvation know & seek, more earnestly, His face.

‘Twas He who taught me thus to pray & He, I trust, has answered prayer!

But it has been in such a way, As almost drove me to despair.

I hoped that in some favored hour, At once He’d answer my request;

And by His love’s constraining pow’r, Subdue my sins & give me rest.

Instead of this, He made me feel The hidden evils of my heart;

And let the angry pow’rs of hell Assault my soul in every part.

Yea more, with His own hand He seemed Intent to aggravate my woe;

Crossed all the fair designs I schemed, Blasted my gourds & laid me low.

Lord, why is this, I trembling cried, Wilt thou pursue thy worm to death?

Tis in this way, the Lord replied, I answer prayer for grace & faith.

These inward trials I employ, From self & pride, to set thee free;

And break thy schemes of earthly joy, That thou may’ st find thy all in Me

God is not only doing more than we can see; He is doing more than we can fathom.

But of the infinite number of things God is doing, we can be sure that amid trials,

He is doing these three things in our lives:

He is purifying our faith,
He is creating endurance,
He is maturing us.

For this reason, we can count it all joy when we encounter various trials

James 1:2

He’s bringing us closer & closer to Himself under His protective embrace

When we know where we’re headed don’t worry about a limp

Keep moving forward step by step

“Go up beforehand & see the place He is preparing for us.

Look through all our Father’s rooms in heaven.

In our Father’s house are many dwelling places.

Prudent buyers take a look at land before they purchase it.

And though Christ has made the sale for us already, yet we still may see, by faith,

the house to which we will go, indeed we may see it as often as we wish.”

SAMUEL RUTHERFORD

Faith doesn’t concern itself with our limitations & our impediments

It’s not about what we are in ourselves but who we are in Jesus

“God shows us what a great God we have…

The more we get from God, the bigger beggars we are & the grander Father He is

That is why, our Lord puts us in a position where we must take all from His resources

and He is disappointed when we fail to do so.”

A. B. SIMPSON

Clear our name, GOD; We’re asking for a clean bill of health.

We’ve worked at staying in shape

We know the key to spiritual health is staying near You, GOD,
so we’re hanging with You

We don’t just need an occasional wellness check

An annual physical just isn’t enough

We need You, our divine physician to examine us constantly

GOD, please, every moment, check us out from head to foot

Order Your battery of tests & Make sure we’re fit inside & out

Give us Your Lab test for our blood

Examine our body fluids

Give us a comprehensive spiritual EKG

This is our daily need

Put us on Your treadmill for a stress test

Hook up to our spiritual wires with Your Spirit

Develop in us a healthy heart that’s beating for You

We can never afford to lose sight of Your love,

Lead us in staying in step with You,

Sensitize us to Your heart in our heart & never let us miss a beat

The cost of lingering with tricksters & deceptive nonsense, pollutes our spiritual health,

To be around the social gougers & character thugs is disillusioning

Deliver us from those who gorge on lies & fake news as this is a contaminating poison.

They are like a pack of gangsters & they fog the atmosphere with twisted double-talk.

This stuff adulterates, taints & poisons with an infectious blight.

Scrub our lives with Your pure soap & then O GOD, we’ll sprint straight to You

We’ll be worshiping Your intrinsic worth.

Our hearts will be packed to bursting with Your music.

Our lungs won’t be collapsed with gasping instead we’ll be singing God-songs

Our hearts will are strengthened to praise You from the top of our lungs & revel in God-stories!

GOD, we love living near You;

We want Your beautiful breath in our inner being

We want to live in Your house as Your presence glows with Your glory.

It’s time now for spring cleaning,

Sweep us out. Mop up the dirt.

Get rid of the quacks & crooks,

We’re surrounded with politicians who’ve loaded us down with a bags of dirty tricks,

Creepy, pretentious, self aggrandizing blatherers who stuffed their bank accounts with bribe-money.

We need Your light of total exposure.

We ask that every defiling spec of this disease sated dust, would be revealed by You GOD;

Psalms 26 Paraphrased

Lift up your eyes from where you are
look north & south, east & west.
All the land that you see I will give to you.

Genesis 13:14–15

“No desire will ever be placed in us by the Holy Spirit unless God intends to fulfill it”

S. A. Keen

So please Lord let our faith rise up & soar away to claim all the land given us

Everything we can comprehend through faith’s vision belongs to us

You’ve given us every spiritual blessing in heavenly places

You’ve risen us up with Christ, so energize as to seek Your things above

Help us look as far as we can, as You’ve promised it is all ours through You

Let us appreciate & then appropriate the adequacy of Your Spirit filling

Set our affections & desires on You Jesus

Let us be drawing on Your life moment by moment

Stimulate our trust to embrace all of Your wonders within the possibilities of our faith

Draw us closer & closer into an intimate relationship with You, in Your Word

Open up our soul completely to the power of Your Spirit & enrapture us in Your presence

Open up our understanding & enable us to see Your fullness

Lead us by Your voice in believing in all You have given to us

Let us accept for ourselves all the promises of Your Word,

Awaken our desires & cause us to be awoke in You

Make us aware of our possibilities as followers of Jesus

Show to us all the land, every piece of spiritual territory that You’ve given to us

We’re grateful for Your provisions of grace, which help us along the way

We’re grateful for the way You fulfill Your promises to us

We’re grateful for this inner vision of assurances God & Your comforts within

We see how You give natural instinct in the heart of birds to fly to warmer climates

Give us spiritual instincts that lift us into breezes & springlike warmth’s of prayers

Use the gust of each storm to cause us to fly up into the arms of Your heavenly hope

Jesus voice directed them to

Keep their eyes open as they entered the city

Here, They’d see a man carrying a water jug. They we’re to follow him.

He would lead them to a house where they’d speak with the owner of the house:

He told them what to say

The Teacher wants to know

Where is the guest room where I can eat the Passover meal with My disciples

So the owner shows them a spacious second-story room, swept & ready

So they Prepare the meal there with Jesus

And they found everything just as Jesus told them for a Passover feast with Jesus

And in this spacious room above

Jesus girds Himself with a towel & washes our feet

Luke 22:10-13

Lord lead us to Your spacious rooms!

The three “omni” attributes of God characterize
Him as
all-powerful,
all-knowing &
everywhere present.

Each of these involves the other two & each
provides a perspective on the all-embracing
lordship of our true God.

Omnipotence means that God is in total control
of Himself & His creation.

Omniscience means that He is the ultimate
criterion of truth & falsity, so that his ideas
are always true.

Omnipresence means that since God’s power
and knowledge extend to all parts of His creation,
He Himself is present everywhere.

Together they define God’s lordship, and they
yield a rich understanding of
creation,
providence &
salvation.

The prefix omni means “all,” so the three divine
attributes in our title can be paraphrased by
saying that God is
all-powerful,
all-knowing &
everywhere present.

Omnipotence

Scripture affirms God’s omnipotence by saying
that God does whatever He is pleased to do
Psa 115:3; cf. Isa 55:11, Jer 32:17

Nothing is too hard for Him
Gen 18:14

His word is never void of power, so when
He speaks, everything in creation obeys Him
Isa 55:11

Except, creatures do disobey Him in one sense;
that is the essence of sin.

But God has control even over sinful actions
Psa 105:24-25, Gen 45:5-8, Exod 4:21, Psa 105:24-25,
Rom 9:18, Acts 2:23, 4:28

It’s an odd mystery how He ordains sinful, disobedient actions for His good purposes. So his word always
prevails & we can trust that His prophecies always
come to pass
Deut 18:21-22

Often we infer from these passages that God
“can do anything.”

But that doesn’t quite reflect the full biblical
teaching.

There are things that God cannot do.
He cannot lie Titus 1:2, cf. Num 23:19
nor, similarly, can he perform any
immoral action.

Since God is perfectly holy and good,
He cannot do anything evil. And, since He is
perfect truth, He cannot do things that are
logically contradictory, like making round
squares.

His truth is a perfect consistency of
thought & action.

Nor can God do things inappropriate to
His nature as God

So how should we define God’s omnipotence
more precisely?

I think the most helpful definition of God’s
omnipotence is this: that he has complete
and total control over everything.

This includes the smallest details of the
natural world, like the falling of a sparrow
or the number of hairs that grow on our head
Matt 6:26-30, 10:29-30

Even the events we call random, that we
ascribe to chance, are really God at work
Prov 16:33

That includes not only the small things,
but also the big things (which, after all,
are accumulations of small things).

He determines what nations will dwell in
which territory
Acts 17:26
He decides what king is to rule & when,
and where Isa 44:28

He decides whether the purposes of a ruler
will stand or fall Psa 33:10-11

And He decided, once, that wicked people
would take the life of His Son, so that we
sinners might live Acts 2:23-24

God rules not only the important events of
human history but also the lives of individual
people.

He knits us together in our mothers’ wombs
Psa 139:13-16

He decides whether we will travel or stay home
Jas 4:13-17

He controls even the decisions of wicked people,
as we saw above. But he also exerts his power
to save sinners, to bring forgiveness & new life
Eph 2:8-10

Our salvation is entirely the work of God’s power,
not at all our own work.

We believe in Christ because He has appointed
us to eternal life Acts 13:48

and because he has opened our hearts to
believe
Acts 16:14-15; cf. John 6:44, 65, Phil 1:29

So his power is universal: it controls everything in
the universe
Lam 3:37-38, Rom 8:28, Eph 1:11, Rom 11:33-36

Omniscience

Now let us look at God’s omniscience.

God’s power is not a blind power.
Everything God does has an intelligent purpose,
a definite goal.

And since, as we’ve seen, God’s power is universal,
so also is his knowledge.

In knowing his own intentions,

God knows everything in Himself, in his creation,
and throughout history.

Scripture often refers to the universality
of God’s knowledge
Psa 147:5, John 21:17, Heb 4:12-13, 1Jn 3:20

It often mentions that God knows detailed
happenings on earth, even in the future
1Sam 10:2, 1Kgs 13:1-4, 2Kgs 8:12,
Psa 139:4, Acts 2:23, 4:27-28

Scripture assumes God’s omniscience
pervasively
In Gen 18:20-21, for example, God does not
admit ignorance, but declares that he is
gathering facts for an indictment,
preparing the wicked cities of Sodom & Gomorrah
for judgment.

God’s omniscience is based on his authority,
for He is the supreme judge of all things,
and He is the ultimate standard of what is
true & false.

Not only does God know what is true, but
He is the very nature of truth.
Truth is what He is John 14:6

So it is inconceivable that He could be wrong
about anything.

God’s knowledge is a precious blessing to us.

Psa 139 emphasizes how deeply God knows us,
wherever we are.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for us;
it is high; we cannot attain it”

God’s knowledge of us pursues us wherever
we may go: to heaven, to the grave,
to great distances, to dark places vv. 7-12

He knew us when he was forming us in our
mother’s womb vv. 13-16

and He knew, even back then, every day of
our lifetime on earth v. 16

Wicked people should well be terrorized
by this doctrine; but to the Psalmist God’s
knowledge of us is wonderful & good vv. 17-18

and he prays that God will draw on this
knowledge to lead him to repentance
and forgiveness of sin vv. 23-24

Omnipresence

God’s omnipresence—
His presence in every place & time.

To say that God is “present” is to say
that He is here with us, really here, not absent.

Sometimes we connect a person’s presence
with his body, as when a teacher takes attendance
and says that Jimmy is “present” because his body
is in his seat.

But God does not have a body; he is immaterial.
So how can we tell when God is present or absent?

God is present everywhere, because, as we have
seen, His power & knowledge are everywhere.

If every event, everywhere, takes place by
God’s power & if He has exhaustive knowledge
of everything His power has brought to pass,
then certainly He is not absent, but present
in each event, though His presence is not quite
the same as the presence of physical beings.

So God’s omnipotence & omniscience imply His omnipresence.

His omnipresence is a presence both in place
and in time.
Psalm 139 indicates that God is present in every place.

He is the creator of the heavens & the earth & so
He is in every location.
He is also the creator of time & the one without
beginning or end.

So He has been present in the world since its
creation & there will never be a time from which
He is absent.

He freely enters history & interacts with creatures. Supremely, He entered human history in Jesus Christ, where He died & rose again to save us from our sins.

So God’s omnipresence is not just a theoretical conclusion.

It is a precious truth of redemption.

Although we have sinned & deserve God’s judgment,

God comes to His faithful people & declares to them

“I will be with you.”

This means that God is here, wherever we are,

but also that God is on our side.

He is with us, not to destroy us, but to forgive & to save us from sin.

So this “with you,” this redeeming divine presence,

is found often in Scripture as his gracious promise.

To Isaac, God said, “I will be with you and will bless you” Gen 26:3

and that language often forms the basis of God’s redemptive covenant.

The heart of God’s redemptive promise, is that

“I will be your God, and you will be my people,”

a precious togetherness of God with his people

Exod 6:7, 2Cor 6:16; cf. Gen 17:7, Exod 6:7, 29:45, Lev 26:12, Jer 7:23, 11:4, 24:7, 30:22, Ezek 11:20, 14:11, 36:28, 37:27, Heb 11:16, Rev 21:3).

It should not surprise us that a biblical name for Jesus is Immanuel,

God with us Isa 7:14, Matt 1:23

As the Old Testament tabernacle was a place for God to dwell with his people, so Jesus, the Son of God, “tabernacled among us”

John 1:14

Of course, God also can be said to be present to the wicked,

and that is a fearsome and awful thing

Rev 1:7

But whether for good or for ill,

God is present throughout heaven & earth,

to carry out his own purposes.

Unity of the Omni-Attributes

We have seen that the three omni-attributes of God are quite inseparable. Since God’s power is purposeful and universal, it implies his omniscience.

And since God’s omnipotence and omniscience are universal, we must conclude that he is omnipresent.

We could note further that since God is omnipresent, all his attributes are omnipresent as well—his power and knowledge, as well as his truth, love, grace, eternity, infinity, and so on.

So the omni-attributes are like the other attributes of God, inseparable from each other and from him. As theologians say, God is “simple.”

His attributes are not separable parts of him.

Rather they are ways of characterizing God as a whole, ways of describing his nature.

Therefore, the omni-attributes are ways of speaking of God’s Lordship.

“Lord” is the word that Scripture uses over 7,000 times to name him.

The term “sovereignty” is equivalent to lordship.

God’s lordship is his “control, authority & presence.”

As we have seen, this triad is equivalent to the three omni-attributes.

God’s omnipotence is his control over all things.

His omniscience is his authority to declare what is true.

And his omnipresence is his real existence in every time and place.

So when we talk about God’s omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence, we are talking about his lordship.

John Frame, The Doctrine of God

Each persons individuality is itself a message to all,

a message which we & we alone, can faithfully deliver

And the whole art of life lies in giving a genuine

and accurate & rational expression

to that unique individuality of our own,

that, by the things that we do

and the way that we do them,

people may receive a message from our Father

that could have come to them in no other way

F W Boreham

“Where the pen submits to His power”

When the portals to your soul have been pricked

with a message of hope;

it is a wise man who records it.”

Amber Rogers

“When you are a hoarder of life

everything that you don’t need comes in

and nothing goes out!

And therein lies the state of the soul;

stockpiled on self-preservation,

isolated by individual needs & agendas.”

Excerpt from Broken by Amber

The power of becoming a pencil of expression

As a pencil will be able to do many great things

but only if we allow our self to be held in someone’s hand.

We will experience a painful sharpening from time to time

to become a better pencil

With an eraser we can correct mistakes we make

The most important part is what’s inside that marks

We can leave a mark on every surface we’re used on

leave your mark No matter what our condition,

We must continue to write

A pencil, in the hand of the right person,

can do some amazing things

if we allow ourself to be held in God’s hand.

A pencil makes beautiful drawings in the hand of an artist

A pencil crafts amazing stories in the hand of writer

A pencil solves complex math equations

in the hand of an a mathematician

A pencil writes soothing music in the hands of a musician

A pencil writes a touching note in the hands of a lover

As a pencil, we have the ability & capacity to do
some pretty awesome things as long as we’re
in the right hands.

In the hands of God, our possibilities are endless.

Our story is as yet untold, but our life is being written

by the hand of God.

Tim Porter

Be pencils & pens in Jesus hands

My sheep recognize My voice.
I know them & they follow Me.

I give them real & eternal life.
They are protected from the
Destroyer for good.

No one can steal them from out of
My hand.

The Father who put them in My hand
and under my care is so much greater
than the Destroyer & Thief

No one could ever get them away us.
I & the Father are one heart & mind.

John 10:28-30