Stevemidkiff's Blog

God promises that He’s perfecting us

We know, that His fathomless love is incomparable in designs,

To us who are called according to His plan,

That everything that happens fits into His purposes for our good.

God, in His perfect knowledge plans each individual detail of our life,

Each specific circumstance He puts us in is to transform us to Christ-likeness,

He chose us long ago; He called us in His perfect timing,

He made us righteous in His sight, He’s lifted us to His splendour of life.

In face of all this, what is there left to say?

If God is for us, who can be against us?

He didn’t spare Jesus but gave Him up for us all—

Can’t we now not trust such a God to give us, with Christ

everything else that we can need?

Who would dare to accuse us? We’re God’s chosen!

God, the judge Himself has declared us free from sin!

Who is in a position to condemn? Only Christ!

And Christ died for us, then Christ rose for us,

now Christ reigns in power for us, and Christ prays for us!

Yes! There are always those who blame & condemn.

They even start a campaign of guilt tripping us from every conceivable angle.

They are passionate about sewing discord & burying us in shame

But God gives us assurance that He, through His Holy Spirit can & will turn

everything to our good, right down to the smallest details!!!

No situation is too grave,

No enemy too strong,

No test too great.

Yes, God overrules every test so they benefit us instead of harming us.

Just as a tree which is blown by the wind is settled & rooted deeper into the ground,

each coming of each gnarly trial simply settles us deeper into God’s grace.

Can anything separate us from the love of Christ?

Can trouble?

Can pain?

Can persecution?

Can diseases?

Can lack of clothes, food & depleting funds?

Can danger to life & loss of limb?

Can threats of force?

Can the sour stench of the insidious blame game?

No! No! And again, No!

In all these things we win an overwhelming victory through Jesus

He has proved His love for us, over & over & over again. His love is perfect!!!

Seriously, we stand amazed at the unfathomable complexity of God’s wisdom

God’s knowledge is unimaginable because He’s omniscient in His all-knowing presence

How could we ever understand His reasons for various actions?

How could we explain His methods of working?

No one has known the mind of the Lord!

His ways are unsearchable!!!

Everything can turn on it’s head instantly!!!

Did a little pruning

this morning

The Sun is radiant

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Global catastrophe is what opens everyone’s heart to leaders that promise peaceful solutions

The psalmist foresaw things going sideways 4 k years back in Psalms 21

You will make them as a fiery oven in the time of Your anger:
the LORD will swallow them up in His wrath,
and the fire will devour them.

Their fruit will You destroy from the earth,
and their seed from among the children of men.

For they intended evil against You:
they imagined a mischievous device,
which they are not able to perform.

Therefore will You make them turn their back,
when You will make ready Your arrows on Your strings
against the face of them.

Be exalted, LORD, in Your own strength:
so will we sing and praise Your power.

Psalms 21:9-13

The earth will not end in 12 years because of global warming

Actually any day now the earth could be thrust into a seven year timetable of events

There will be a series of 21 judgements over seven years to end the world as we know it

Then the Lion will lay down with the Lamb

The Seal Judgments:

This is the beginning of Gods judgments on the earth.

1. The world’s greatest dictator (Revelation 6:1-2)
2. The world’s greatest war (Revelation 6:3-4)
3. The world’s greatest famine (Revelation 6:5-6)
4. The world’s greatest death blow (Revelation 6:7-8)
5. The world’s greatest persecution (Revelation 6:9-11)
6. The world’s greatest ecological disaster (Rev 6:12-17)
7. The world’s greatest hour of fear … actually the lull before the storm (Revelation 8:1)

The Trumpet Judgments:

The trumpets of heaven sound an alarm throughout the world
announcing the public judgments of God.
Each blast ushers in an added judgment.

1. The world’s greatest fire (Revelation 8:7)
2. The world’s greatest oceanic disturbance (Rev 8:8-9)
3. The world’s greatest pollution of water (Revelation 8:10-11)
4. The world’s greatest darkness (Revelation 8:12-13)
5. The world’s greatest pestilential invasion (Rev 9:1-6)
6. The world’s greatest army (Revelation 9:16)
7. The world’s greatest storm (Revelation 11:15-19)

The Vial Judgments:

1. The world’s greatest epidemic (Revelation 16:2)
2. The world’s greatest contamination by blood (Rev 16:3-7)
3. The world’s greatest contamination by blood, continued (Revelation 16:3-7)
4. The world’s greatest scorching (Revelation 16:8-9)
5. The world’s greatest plague (Revelation 16:10-11)
6. The world’s greatest invasion (Revelation 16:12)
7. The world’s greatest earthquake (Revelation 16:18)

These twenty-one judgments

unleash unbelievable war,

open an ecological disasters

astronomic catastrophe on our earth.

“And the winepress was trodden without the city,
and blood came out of the winepress,
even unto the horse bridles,
by the space of a thousand & six hundred furlongs.”

Revelation 14:20

According to today’s calculations,
that is a river of blood two hundred miles long-
the exact length of the nation of Israel.
An entire nation saturated and soaked with blood.

“According to your faith be it unto you.”

Matt. 9:29

PRAYING through” might be defined as praying one’s way into full faith,
emerging while yet praying into the assurance that one has been
accepted and heard, so that one becomes actually aware of receiving,
by firmest anticipation & in advance of the event, the thing for which we ask

We know that no earthly circumstances can hinder the fulfillment of God’s Word

So we look steadfastly at the immutability of that Word
and not at the uncertainty of this ever-changing world.

God wants us believe His Word without other confirmation,
He is always ready to give us “according to our faith.”

When once his Word is past,

When He has said, `I will,’

Heb. 13:5

The thing shall come at last;
God keeps His promise still

2 Cor. 1:20

Prayer is like a cheque to be paid in coin over the counter.

Sir R. Anderson.

And God said….and it was so

Gen. 1:9

They will enter Zion with singing;
everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness & joy will overtake them
sorrow & sighing will flee away.

I, even I, am He who comforts you

Isa. 51:11–12

No matter what else is going on in our lives, we choose to remember that we’ve already been

ransomed,
rescued,
redeemed.

We were bought out of sin,
We are no longer under condemnation,
Death has lost its sting;
We’ve now have Your eternal embrace

All captivities—the ones we’ve generated,
and those brought on us by others—
all of them are broken in Jesus.

No imprisonment,
No bondage,
No chains will keep us from arriving safely Home.
They all have expiration dates.

Because you have hidden our lives in Jesus,
we live in the eternal year of your favor.

Though we’ll enjoy this freedom more fully in heaven,
we are legally free as we will ever be—
for Jesus’ redemptive work on our behalf is finished & complete.

Our loved ones in heaven are certainly
more joyful & whole than us,
but they’re not more secure & loved.

Being “crowned with everlasting joy”—
what’s that going to be like?

What will it sound like when our voice blends
in with the entire family of God,
as we enter the New Jerusalem together?

We know what it feels like to be overtaken by guilt & shame,
but what will it be like to be overtaken by gladness & joy?

Our present standing in grace will lead to eternal dancing in grace—
even for we non-dancers.

We await the Day when all sorrow & sighing will flee away,
vanquished by the arrival of our true King.

Thank you for being the Father of compassion & the God of all comfort right now.

Forgive us for bypassing you & seeking our comfort elsewhere.

Your name Jesus’ is tender & Your triumphant name.

Scotty Smith

Now when the daytime
gets as long as the night,
God’s new springtime
is here surely enough.

Make us as ready as the robins are.

For whenever the time may come,
we want to turn over to you
more than five barley loaves and two little fishes.

Make us strong but humble;
just but kind;
and every day, rain or shine, smiling.

The Farmer Gives Thanks

The truth is that it is only by believing in God
that we can ever criticize the Government.
Once we abolish the God,
the Government becomes the God.
The fact is written all across human history;
but it is written more plainly across that recent history

— G. K. Chesterton

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers today;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.

Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.

And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid air stands still.

For this is love and nothing else is love,
To which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends he will,
But which it only needs that we fulfill.

(by Robert Frost, from A Boy’s Will)

Bread corn is bruised. (Isa. 28: 28)

Be content; we are the wheat growing in our Lord’s field & if wheat
We must go under our Lord’s threshing instrument on His barn floor,
and through His sieve & through His will be bruised,
as was the Prince of our salvation

Isa. 53: 10

that we may be found good bread in our Lord’s house

SAMUEL RUTHERFORD

Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing

2 Corinthians 6:10

A stoic person despises the shedding of tears,
but are not forbidden to weep.

Our soul may become silent from excessive grief,
just as the quivering sheep may remain quiet
beneath the scissors of the shearer.

Or, when the heart is at the verge of breaking
beneath the waves of a trial,
the sufferer may seek relief by crying out
with a loud voice.

But there is something even better.

It is said that springs of sweet, fresh water pool up
amid the saltiness of the oceans,

that the fairest Alpine flowers bloom in the wildest
and most rugged mountain passes,

and that the most magnificent psalms arose from
the most profound agonies of the soul.

May it continue to be! Therefore, amid a multitude of trials,
souls who love God will discover reasons for boundless, leaping joy.

Even though “deep calls to deep”

Ps 42:7

the clear cadence of the Lord’s song will be heard.
And during the most difficult hour that could ever
enter a human life,

it will be possible to bless the God & Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Have we learned this lesson yet?

Not simply to endure or to choose God’s will but to rejoice in it “

“with an inexpressible and glorious joy”

1 Peter 1:8

from Tried by Fire

I will be still, my bruised heart faintly murmured,
As o’er me rolled a crushing load of woe;
My words, my cries, e’en my low moan was stifled;
I pressed my lips; I barred the teardrop’s flow.

I will be still, although I cannot see it,
The love that bares a soul and fans pain’s fire;
That takes away the last sweet drop of solace,
Breaks the lone harp string, hidesYour precious lyre.

But God is love, so I will stay me, stay me—
We’ll doubt not, Soul, we will be very still;
We’ll wait till after while, when He will lift us—
Yes, after while, when it will be His will.

And I did listen to my heart’s brave promise;
And I did quiver, struggling to be still;
And I did lift my tearless eyes to Heaven,
Repeating ever,”Yes, Christ, have Your will.”

But soon my heart spoke up from ‘neath our burden,
Rebuked my tight-drawn lips, my face so sad:
“We can do more than this, O Soul,” it whispered.
“We can be more than still, we can be glad!”

And now my heart and I are sweetly singing—
Singing without the sound of tuneful strings;
Drinking abundant waters in the desert;
Crushed, and yet soaring as on eagle’s wings.

S. P. W.