Stevemidkiff's Blog

We need to get pumped by God’s Angels As their Horsepower is great

A man was driving on Highway 2 through North Dakota late one evening. The road was deserted and he had not seen a soul for what seemed like hours. Suddenly his car started to cough and splutter and the engine slowly died, leaving him sitting by the road in total silence.

He popped the hood and looked to see if there was anything that he could do to get it going again. Unfortunately, he had a limited knowledge of cars, so all he could do was look at the engine and feel helpless.

As he peered by the gradually fading light of his flashlight, he cursed that he had not put in new batteries, like he had intended.

Suddenly, through the inky shadows, came a deep voice, “It’s your fuel pump.”

The man jumped up quickly, striking his head on the underside of the hood. “Who said that?” he demanded.

There were two horses standing in the field alongside and the man was amazed when the nearest horse repeated, “It’s your fuel pump. Tap it with your flashlight, and try it again. If it starts, it should at least get you to the next town, where you can get it replaced.”

Confused, the man tapped the fuel pump with his flashlight and got into his car. He turned the key, and sure enough, the engine roared into life. He went to close the hood, and turned to thank the horse; but they were gone. Thinking he must be delusional, he got in his car and drove away.

When he reached the next town, he pulled into the first service station. “My fuel pump is going out,” he told the attendant. “Can I get it replaced here?”

“Mechanic won’t be in ’til morning,” the attendant replied. “You can get a room at the Motel Six down the street. They left the light on for you. Say, how do you know it’s the fuel pump?”

“Well, I . . . never mind, I just know. You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

Well, now you got me curious,” said the attendant. “You must know a lot about cars.”

“No, not really,” said the man. “Well, alright . . . about five miles out of town, my engine quit . . .” and he told the whole story. “. . . and then, when I turned to thank him, he was gone! I must have imagined the whole thing—it was late, and I was awfully tired—but my car started, and here I am.”

The service station attendant rubbed his chin and looked thoughtful. “A horse, you say, ’bout five miles out? Was it by any chance a white horse?”

The man replied affirmatively. “Yes, it was! Am I crazy?”

“No, you ain’t crazy. In fact, you’re lucky he was there, because the other horses don’t know nothin’ ’bout cars”.

Dont Fret!

Don’t get in a emotional stew over stuff!

Don’t bother your head with the brash claims of the arrogant
Don’t let that twist reality into factious nonsense bug you

They spring up & then they’ll shrivel like grass & weeds
Their dramatic spin is fickle & fading
They’ll wilt in the hot sun with no water

The best insurance is GOD’s assurance
So we put our trust in You, Lord God;
grant us the grace to do just that,
to live a quiet and secure life resting in You.

Keep company with You GOD,
You’re the best.
You are our delight;
Help our heart’s from breaking:
Give us Your refreshing energy,
Give us Your stable endorsements,
Fill our senses with Your positive endorphins,
Make us & our loved ones rejoice in each other

Open Yourself to our hearts O GOD, keep nothing back;
do whatever needs to be done:

We quiet ourselves before You,
We wait with longing for You.
Save us from being sidetracked by critics
Deliver us from spending our mental & spiritual energy
on the stubborn & clueless.

Save us from anger, resentment & bitterness.
Help us to keep our cool,
We know its can do no good to cater to those who are never satisfied.
Our hope is in You, Lord, not in the fickle approval of others.

We know our Enemies plot against us
and lately they’ve taken more than a few shots at bashing us,
but you are not surprised by their attacks,
You’ve monitored every ugly, deriding sneer

Please validate our life & give us Your credit in the sewers of their defamation
They discredit. They denigrate. They smear us in insane shamelessness
We ask, we cry, put Your stamp of approval on us.

Quiet down before GOD, be prayerful to him.

Don’t bother with those who climb the ladder of
the politics of deception to elbow their way to the top.

Psalm 37:1-8 paraphrase

It’s a challenge to keep from getting all blistered up when the blazing heat is scorching in.

But Even though we feel weak & surrounded by the tyranny of truth twisters.

We have to Keep cool!
Even in the face of constant aggravations,
Internal agitation is self-destructive.
Worry destroys from within and saps our energy.
Who needs unnecessary friction?

We need a fresh oil change. We need the soothing anointing of God’s comforting Spirit
When our moving parts get heated; old lubricant hinders dry surfaces that grind together.
We need to be kept in smooth operation by a delicate cushion of fresh oil of God’s truth.

The word “fret” is related to the word “friction”

Fearful worry is an indication that we’re in need of the refreshing oil of the grace of God.
We need new applications at every turn.

In fretfulness, a little bit of grit gets into our bearings by

Some disappointment,
Some ingratitude,
Some nasty verbal jab
Some jagged suggestion

This makes the smooth working of our life raw & heated under wearing stress.

We need to allow the oil of the Lord to keep us cool
His Word and His Spirit need to coat us inside & out

God has infinite ways through His love to heal our inner being;
We need to keep trusting.
He will reveal His comforts.
He always does.

He will show us His own smile,
His love corrects every wrong in His own timing.
His perfect hands will smooth every sorrow

The deaf often have an unusual quickness of eyesight;
the blind are often gifted with an increased capacity for hearing;

We see sometimes when the eye is darkened & the ear is closed, so the sense of touch
can become so exquisite that we are able to converse with the sufferer through that sense alone.
This principle explains why God puts many under a sharp regimen of hardship & burden-bearing
in order that we be sinewed into strength;

Joseph must be shut into a prison in order that he may be trained for a palace & for leadership
of the kingdom.

Outside of the Damascus Gate the spot where Stephen was stoned into a cruel death;
is that martyr blood that’s the “seed of the Church,” and the first germ of conviction
in the heart of Saul of Tarsus.

This principle explains the reason why God often sweeps away a our possessions to
make us rich in faith & why He dashes us off the track of prosperity, in order that our pride
might be crushed & that we might seek the safer track of humility & supernatural living. …

We are never so exalted as when they are brought low, never so enriched as when we are emptied,
never so advanced as when we are set back by adversity, never so near the crown as when we are
under the cross.

One of the sweetest enjoyments of heaven will be to review our own experiences under this principle
of compensations, and to see how often affliction worked out for us the exceeding weight of glory.

There is a great want in us who have never had the education of sharp trial.
There are so many graces that can only be pricked into us by the puncture of suffering,
and so many lessons that can only be learned through tears, that when God leaves us
without any trials, He really leaves us to a terrible danger.

Our heart, unplowed by discipline, will be very apt to run to the tares of selfishness & pride.
In a musical instrument there are some keys that must be touched in order to evoke its
fullest melodies; God is a wonderful organist, who knows just what heart-chord to strike.

In the Black Forest of Germany a baron built a castle with two lofty towers.
From one tower to the other he stretched several wires, which in calm weather
were motionless and silent.

When the wind began to blow, the wires began to play like an Eolian harp in the window.
As the wind rose into a fierce gale, the old baron sat in his castle and heard his mighty
hurricane-harp playing grandly over the battlements.
So, while the weather is calm & the skies clear, a great many of the emotions of our heart are silent.

As soon as the wind of adversity smites the chords, the heart begins to play;
when God sends a hurricane of terrible trial we will hear strains of submission & faith & even
of sublime confidence & holy exultation, which could never have been heard in the calm
hours of prosperity.

We have to let the winds smite us, if they only make the spices flow; let us not shrink
from the deepest trial, if at midnight we can only sing praises to God.

If we want to know what clouds of affliction mean and what they are sent for,
we must not flee away from them in fright with closed ears & bandaged eyes.
Fleeing from the cloud is fleeing from the Divine love that is behind the cloud.

By Theodore Cuyler

Yes, my love’s kisses flow from her lips to mine & from my lips to hers.

We are lover’s. We’re all each other wants.
We are all the world to each other!

Come, dear lover— let’s roam through the countryside.
Let’s sleep at some special hideout,
then rise early & listen to birds singing

Let’s look for wildflowers in bloom,
Rose bushes blossoming burgundy red,
Fruit trees bursting with cascading flowers in the spring.

And there we’ll give ourselves to each other, my love to your love & your love to me!

Love in each other drenching us with fragrance,
fertility surrounds & infuses us,

Every sweet Fruit fresh & intoxicated with affection
We’ve kept & saved just for each other, as true love.…

Song of Songs 7:9-13 paraphrased

Be still & know that I am God:
I will be exalted among all that reject me,
I will be exalted in the earth.

Psalm 46:10

The demand for us to “be still” comes from the Hebrew verb rapha
(meaning to be weak, to let go, to release),

This could be rendered as

“cause yourselves to let go” or

“let yourselves become weak”

In a poetic contexts, the noun form is rephai’im & is sometimes used as a synonym for.

“the place of the dead”

So are we to “be still?

So are we to “let go?

So are we to “surrender?

So are we to “die to ourselves?

We’re not just to “be still!”

We’re also to “know!”

There are are two imperatives here.
One is a condition & the other is a result.
We are to surrender in order to know that God is in control!

We “let go” in order to objectively know the saving power of God in our lives.

We give up trusting in ourselves & our own designs
in order to experience the glory of God’s all-sufficiency Ex 14:14

We quit trying to control outcomes.
We quit trying to control circumstances.
We quit trying to control people.

When we surrender to the sure truth that the our LORD & our God
is in complete control of everything,

When we let go & trust every promise in His Word.

When we be still & die to ourselves in trusting prayer to Jesus.

When we use His poetic Psalms to express the feelings of our soul in grieving gratitude & praise

We will know His Love
We will know His Joy
We will know His peace
We will be filled with His Spirit

And we will be delivered from our fears.
We will be at rest in our raging surroundings

Everything is in decline.
Everything is decadent & decaying

All the human kingdoms are tottering and on the verge of collapse v 6

But God is here. He is with us. His presence surrounds us with help in time of trouble v 1

THE POWER OF JOY IN THE PRISON OF PAIN IN PHILIPPIANS (PART8)

PRAYERS PASSION V.8

A STABLE FACT

For God is my record,

Validation, commendation, there’s a natural urge to want the endorsement of others.
We’d like the highest approval rating. We beam at the thought of getting stellar recommendations. Why not, it feels neat to dream to have a bevy of star-studded admirers.

But wouldn’t it be enough to assert that God is our record?

The word “record” is the Greek term (martus mou) from which we derive the term martyr.
This is the picture of extreme backing and tremendous intense validation. Sounds a little weird that someone would back us so strong, but that’s the gist of the phrase,

“For God is my record”

Can it be any sturdier then to claim that our authenticity is based on the God of eternity?
But that is what is God authenticating about Paul?

A SINCERE FIXATION

how greatly I long after you all

Paul is making a bold claim of the genuine reality of his deep compassion.
He is saying the Lord knows how I feel for others.

“Epipotheo” is the Greek term for the phrase “greatly I long”

“Epi” is where we get the word epic or great.

“Potheo” is pathos, deep compassionate feeling for others.

A SENSITIVE FEELING

in the bowels of Jesus Christ

Bowels are a strange choice of words, other translations render this affections,
but this is not just any affection. This is the deep tender affection of Jesus Christ.

Paul was saying an amazing thing in claiming the very compassionate mercy of Jesus was flowing in his heart for others.

Do we yearn over others in the deep feelings of Jesus?
Do we crave their best;

Do we covet every blessing and gift possible from the courts of Heaven for them?

Do we desire, beg, implore and hanker for the hand of God in their very souls?

Do our hearts cry as God’s Spirit releases the feelings of Jesus in us for them?

Paul’s heart was in tempo and felt the pulse of Jesus’s heart.

This is what prayer persistence for the heart needs of others involves.

In the Memoirs of R.M. McCheyne he journals his cry:

“Oh, when will I plead, with my tears and inward yearnings, over others?
Oh, compassionate Lord; give me to know what manner of spirit I am of!
Give me Your gentle Spirit, that strives and cries for others.
I’m weary, of my prayerlessness, my want of cleaving to Christ.”

Catherin of Siena who wrote A Treatise of Prayer, in the 1300s, wrote:

“They made themselves infirm with those who were infirm,
so that all who are frail might not be overcome with despair,
and to give them more courage in exposing their infirmity,
they would lend countenance to their infirmity and say,

‘I, too, am infirm with you!’

“They wept with those who wept, and rejoiced with those who rejoiced;
and thus sweetly they knew to give every one his nourishment,
preserving the good and rejoicing in their virtues, not being gnawed by envy,
but expanded with the broadness of love for their neighbors.

“They drew the inadequate ones out of their inadequacy,
themselves becoming deficient and infirm with them.
This is compassion; this is enduring love, for through love,
we bare the pain of others.”

Jesus explains in Matthew 25:35-40 how He feels the hungers of others.

“I was hungry, and you gave me food;
I was thirsty, and you gave me drink;
I was a stranger, and you took me in;
naked, and you clothed me;
I was sick, and you visited me;
I was in prison, and you came unto me”

FIVE AREAS OF ENTERING THE FEELINGS OF OTHERS:
THE NEED OF HUNGER AND THIRST

Are we feeling others’ feelings of emptiness?

THE NEED OF HOSPITALITY

Are we feeling others’ feelings of rejection, rebuff, refusal and strangeness?

THE NEED OF HOUSING

Are we feeling others’ feelings of devastation, exposure, and public humiliation
(naked and unclothed)

THE NEED OF HEALTH

Are we feeling others’ feelings of sickness, and the sting of their overwhelming,
crushing endless pain?

THE NEED OF HARASSMENT

Are we feeling others’ feelings of slavery as they’re punched and punished
behind the prison bars of hopeless injustices?

In caring for others are we loving Christ and letting Jesus love others
through our feelings and prayers for them?

PRAYERS PETITIONS V.9-11
INCREASED LOVE V.9

And this I pray, that your Love may abound yet more and more

IMPROVED LEARNING

COMPREHENSION

in knowledge

Give us an intimate relationship with You Lord

CAPACITY

and in all judgment;

Give us an understanding in Your decisions in our life

INSIGHTFUL LIVING V.10

APPROVAL

That ye may approve

Give us discernment to do things that are appropriate & approved by You

ADVISABILITY

things that are excellent;

Guide us into excellence

INDISPUTABLE LEGITIMACY

SINCERE

that ye may be sincere

Keep us from phoniness

SENSITIVE

and without offense till the day of Christ

Deliver us from stumbling others

IMBUED LIGHT V.11

CONTROLLED

Being filled with the fruits of righteousness

Enable us in doing what’s right

CHRIST LIKE

which are by Jesus Christ,

Live Your life through us

COMMENDABLE

unto the glory and praise of God.

Your heavenly Father knows

Matt. 6:32

A VISITOR at a school for the those that couldn’t speak or hear
wrote a question on the blackboard for the children.

“Why has God made me & made you unable to hear & speak?”

The awful sentence fell on the little children like a fierce blow in the face.
They sat paralyzed by that dreadful “Why?” And then a little girl arose.

Her lip was trembling. Her eyes were swimming with tears. Straight to the board she walked.
She, picking up the crayon, wrote with firm hand these precious words:

“Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight!”

What a reply! It reaches up & grabs an eternal truth & rest-the truth that God is our Father.

Do we mean that? Do we really & fully believe that? When we do, then our dove of faith will no longer wander in weary unrest, but will settle down forever in its eternal resting place of peace.

“Our Father!”

There’s a day coming when we’ll understand;
All these tragedies,
All the things that darken
then we’ll laugh for wonder & delight.

Arthur Christopher Bacon.

No chance hath brought this ill to me;
Tis God’s own hand, so let it be,
He sees what I can’t see.

There is a need for each pain,
And He one day will make it plain
That earthly loss is heavenly gain.

Like as a piece of tapestry Viewed from the back
appears to be Naught but threads tangled hopelessly;

But in the front a picture fair
Rewards the worker for his care,
Proving his skill and patience rare.

You are the Workman, I the frame.
Lord, for the glory of Your Name,
Perfect Your image on the same.

Selected.

I stretch myself out. I sleep.
Then I’m up again—rested, tall & steady,
Fearless before the enemy mobs Coming at me from all sides…
Real help comes from God . Your blessing clothes your people!

Psalm 3:5-8 msg

So what is our story?
How are we living our life?
What is our aim?
Are we headed to a finish that is worth both dying for & living for?

If we live our life for us alone, then our story is as dull as our self-absorption,
even if we have survived amazing adventures.

But if we live our life for Someone more important than ourselves and if
We have sacrificed, nobly risked, been humbled, learned, grown & given,
then our life is headed toward a glorious ending.
Jesus is the greatest warrior & His life, death & resurrection are the most
Glorious of all lives lived.
Living for Jesus & trusting in Him is a fight worth fighting
He clothes us with His blessing.
We humble ourselves to Him that He my exalt us in His time.