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PSALMS 136

MERCY IN DIVINE CHARACTERISTIC V.1-4

HIS RELIABILITY V.1

GRATITUDE

O give thanks unto the LORD;

GOODNESS

for He is good:

GENUINENESS

for Hid mercy endures forever.

The poet drives a deep nail in Psalms 136.

The capturing spike is the unending mercy of the Lord.

The Lord is Mercy.

His loving kindness is constant.

This mercy is not only continual but it is moment by moment.

He is tender in forbearing compassion.

And it never ends.

Every day there is new mercy.

Every moment there is new mercy!

Without His mercy we’d be consumed in fiery devastation.

There are supernatural forces that want to destroy all of humanity.

These forces have human agents who serve their cause.

But the Lord in His mercy constantly shelters us.

God’s love is immeasurable.

That is what makes the repetition of the phrase

“His mercy endures forever” so beautiful.

That this phrase is mentioned twenty six times is called an antiphonal response.

Antiphonal describes an orderly echo.

This is an echo that sounds over and over.

You would think that saying “His mercy endures” or lasts forever one time,

would be adequate.

No, that’s not enough.

The poet detonates an explosion.

An erupting outburst of writing that God’s mercy is eternal.

He accelerates. He acerbates.

He compounds this wonderful echo over and over and over.

One eternal, one everlasting, one endures forever is not enough.

There are twenty six infinite eternals, awfully celebrated,

in a continual poetic anthem of adoration.

Mercies are on fire everywhere in God’s Word.

But there is no where, so amazing, then the perfect God-man on the cross.

Jesus, yelling out, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do”

Luke 23:34

Phillips writes

The very spear that pierced His side drew forth the mercies blood that saves.”

Love that no thought can reach,

Love that no tongue can teach,

No love like His!

“This love and mercy outshines the sun and outlives the stars.

If this love lasted only for a hundred billion years and then ran out.

Suppose, after that, His wrath overcame His mercy.

But no, that’s not God’s love.

His love, His Mercy, His grace,

His tender loving kindness, endures forever.

HIS REMARK-ABILITY V.2

PRAISE

O give thanks

PROMINENCE

unto the God of gods:

PERSISTENCE

for His mercy endures forever.

There are all these gods that are named in the many primitive culture.

But how many? How many gods are there?

There are many religions.

Now lets take Hinduism.

This is a religion with millions of gods and goddesses,

the exact number is unknown.

Some have estimated that with that religion,

along with the many other religions,

we have the exact approximate of 320,000,000 gods.

Plus, there is pantheons of famous mythologies, which combined,

push us off the charts on god count.

With all those numberless gods, there is only one God,

Our God is prominent and persistent in forgiving compassion,

Our God is infinite in merciful loving sympathy, that endures forever.

Our God is that one God.

Our merciful God.

He only, has demonstrated this eternal love, in the Lord Jesus Christ.

He has asked us to receive and follow Jesus.

Not based on our great performance, but based on His gracious person.

We’re called unto Him.

We’re placed into Him.

We’re provided for through Him.

He gives us, His life, which answers for all we are lacking.

Charles Wesley describes mercy in his hymn Amazing Love:

He left His Father’s throne above So free, so infinite His grace—

Emptied Himself of all but love, And bled for Adam’s helpless race:

’Tis mercy all, immense and free, For O my God, it found out me!

Long my imprisoned spirit lay, Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;

Thine eye diffused a quickening ray I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;

My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth & followed Thee.

Still the small inward voice I hear, That whispers all my sins forgiven;

I feel the life His wounds impart; I feel the Savior in my heart.

No condemnation now I dread; Jesus, and all in Him, is mine;

Alive in Him, my living Head, And clothed in righteousness divine,

Bold I approach the eternal throne, And claim the crown, through Christ my own.

HIS RENOWN V.3

MAGNIFY

O give thanks

MASTERY

to the Lord of lords:

MERCY

for his mercy endures forever.

Three times now, in this poem, we’re challenged to give thanks.

We’re directed on who our praise is to go to.

So what, is the reason for our gratitude and appreciation?

It is because God is good and His mercy is inexhaustible.

He is the God of god’s and the Lord of lord’s.

What is our foundation of praise?

It is this fact.

That is, that all of His interactions with us are based

on the limitless, boundless, and infinite quantities of His mercy.

We can’t ever review His mercy enough.

We don’t ever remind ourselves sufficiently of God’s mercy to us.

We need it defined over and over.

We need to soak ourselves in its reality.

The dictionary of Biblical Languages defines mercy as loyal love,

His mercy is unfailing kindness,

His mercy is devotion to us,

His mercy is a love or affection that is steadfast based on fidelity of relationship.

Fidelity is allegiance, faithfulness, the keeping of promises

His mercy is Him being a partner that communicates in factual accuracy.

Jesus is all this, and more to us, in His mercy and kindness.

We bring nothing to the table and He brings all.

Mercy is three dimensional.

It is strong. We are weak.

But this merciful love is full, rich, unearned and undeserved.

It is steadfast. We fail.

But this merciful love is unfailing, infinite and has the eternal quality

As His mercy is inexhaustibility.

It is saturating. We are insatiable.

But this merciful love is continually pouring out blessings,

But this merciful love loads us to overflowing with loving promises,

But this merciful love is bulging in good on all its recipients.

In all of these dimensions there is this amazing, astounding truth.

God’s love is free and unearned.

God is the only God that is the giver of mercy.

He pours it all out freely when the opposite of mercy is all we deserve.

In Micah 6:8 the prophet says:

He has showed us what is good and what the Lord requires of us,

to do what’s right, which is to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God.

Everything is based on mercy and we are to receive His mercy humbly.

That is what is right and that is what is good.

Nothing that we do earns it, we just humbly receive it.

Our Lord is abounding and plenteous in mercy.

His loyal love is the solution to all our problems,

His loyal love is the resolving of all our sins,

His loyal love is the remedy of all our troubles,

His loyal love is the disbandment of all our enemies.

The reliability of God’s mercy, and the reality that His mercy endures forever,

or as one passage states

His mercy lives on through thousands of generations

His mercy is unimaginable.

This is the basis and starting point and the source of our praise and gratitude.

HIS REASONABILITY V.4

MATCHLESS

To him who alone

MIRACULOUS

does great wonders:

MERCIFUL

for His mercy endures forever.

God’s mercy is not only

RELIABLE v.1,

REMARKABLE v.2

RENOWN v.3,

but God’s love is

REASONABLE v 4

His mercy is unreasonable when we look at ourselves,

when we see our rebelliousness, and sinful inclinations.

But the reasonableness of God’s mercy is based in Himself.

He is matchless, and it’s to Him alone, it is all of Him.

God is love and his love is unconditional, unrestricted, unreserved and unqualified.

His love is definite, total, absolute and complete.

His mercy is all of Him and from Him alone.

His mercy is miraculous, for our God is a God of wonders.

He is amazing, astounding and astonishing.

Our relationship with the Lord is incredible

Our relationship with the Lord is one inexplicable marvel after another.

His mercy to us is mind-blowing and extraordinary

His mercy to us is exceptional in its phenomenal aspects of dealing

with every sin and shortcoming with compassionate loving forgiveness.

His mercy, not to duplicate the thought too much,

but how else can we express it, for His mercy is merciful.

His love is enduring, lasting, permanent and stable.

We can never exhaust it, or empty it out.

His mercy is new every morning,

His mercy is new every moment,

His mercy is new in every circumstance and shortfall in our lives.

When I survey the wondrous cross

On which the Prince of Glory died,

My richest gain I count but loss, And pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, Save in the cross of Christ my God.

All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood.

See, from His head, His feet, Sorrow and love flow mingled down.

Did e’er such love and sorrow meet, Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Were the whole realm of nature mine That were a present far too small

Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all.

By reason of breaking

they purify themselves.

Job 41:25

In Job 41 we have the vivid description of a monster

of a beast.

As MacDonald notes this is Leviathan.

His build is massive

His mighty power is enormous.

His hide is a tough,

His protective covering is

Impenetrable.

He can’t be bridled.

His mouth and teeth are viselike.

His skin and scales

resemble armor

He has overlapping plates

that are armor like.

In poetic terms,

the Lord describes

the Lord describes his sneezes,

the Lord describes eyes,

the Lord describes mouth,

the Lord describes nostrils

Every feature is terrifying

when he is aroused.

Leviathan’s strength

is tremendous

Leviathan’s flesh is compacted.

While he himself is fearless,

he fills the stoutest hearts

with fear as he thrashes around,

Normal weapons bounce

off of his hide.

When he crawls through

the mud, he leaves a trail

of pointed marks,

as if his underside

was broken glass.

He whips the water into

a boiling pot,

He leaves a white

phosphorescent wake

behind him.

Even making ample allowance

for the Oriental use of great

poetic exaggeration

(hyperbole),

it is hard to see how even

the largest crocodile could

be called

“king over all

the children of pride.”

This description of this wild

animal and this display

is possibly the dinosaurs

These chapters reflect

the glory,

the power, and

the majesty of God Himself.

They are His creation,

and He purposely uses

them to illustrate His own

splendor and strength.

Therefore, it is not surprising

that He begins with harmless creatures such as the deer

and the raven and gradually increases in size to the greatest

of all creatures, the behemoth

on land, and the king of all

beasts—

Leviathan of the sea, was unbelievably awesome in its reputation.

God uses various things to

bring us to brokenness that

we might display His glory.

I was amused when one of

my grandchildren said sleep

is for the weak.

She didn’t want to go to bed.

I told her that God is for

the weak.

That’s why I pray.

The weaker I feel the

more I need the Lord.

The sacrifices He accepts are broken and contrite hearts.

It was the breaking down of

Jacob’s natural strength at

Peniel that got him where

God could clothe him with

spiritual power.

It was breaking the surface

of the rock at Horeb, to be

the stroke of Moses’ rod,

that let out the cool waters

to thirsty people.

It was when the 300 elect

soldiers under Gideon who

broke their pitchers, a type

of breaking themselves,

that the hidden lights shone

forth to the consternation

of their adversaries.

It was when the poor widow who

broke the seal of the little pot

of oil, and poured it forth,

that God multiplied it to

pay her debts and supply

means of support.

It was when Esther risked her

life and broke through the rigid etiquette of a heathen court,

that she obtained favor to

rescue her people from death.

It was when Jesus took the five loaves and broke them,

that the bread was multiplied

in the very act of breaking,

sufficient to feed five

thousand.

It was when Mary broke her beautiful alabaster box,

rendering it useless as a

container, that the pent-up

perfume filled the house.

It was when Jesus allowed His precious body to be broken to pieces by thorns and nails and spear, that His inner life was

poured out, like a crystal

ocean, for thirsty sinners

to drink and live.

It is when a beautiful grain

of corn is broken up in the

earth by DEATH, that its inner

heart sprouts forth and bears hundreds of other grains.

And, on and on, through all

history, and all biography,

and all vegetation, and all

spiritual life, God must have BROKEN THINGS.

Those who are broken in wealth,

Those broken in self-will,

Those broken in their ambitions,

Those broken in their

beautiful ideals,

Those broken in worldly

reputation,

Those broken in their

affections,

Those broken in health;

Those who are despised

and seem utterly dejected, miserable and helpless,

Those are who Christ’s

Spirit is seizing on,

and using for God’s glory.

Selected

For the LORD is our judge,

the LORD is our lawgiver,

the LORD is our king;

He will save us.

Thy tackling are loosed;

they could not well strengthen

their mast,

they could not spread the sail:

then is the prey of a great

spoil divided;

the lame take the prey.

Isaiah 33:22-23

THE LAME TAKE THE PREY

HELPS EXPECTATION PS. 71:1-4

WHAT WE LACK V.1-4

WE LACK CONFIDENCE V.1

DIRECT US IN TRUST

In You, O Lord,

do we put our trust:

O Lord, we run into Your arms;

It may appear that we’re into

the last lap in our race

when in our senior season.

We feel on the skids

of staggering strides

as we wobble and wither.

The only real calming hope

is to feel God’s hands

on our helm.

Sure there’s a tendency

to droop as troubles and

the grind of grief appear

to be chasing us to the grave.

So we run into the arms of Jesus.

We need His supportive help

when stuff is going haywire.

Jesus Christ is our Savior

and our encouragement

beyond words.

DELIVER US FROM TURMOIL

let us never be put to confusion.

don’t let us be discouraged.

Save us and rescue us

we’re in this low place,

Confidence builders are so few

and far between,

but You Lord want trust

no matter what the disorder

no matter what the uncertainty

of our situations.

No matter how hot it gets

We let You control

our steering wheel.

“Glorify our Lord in the fires”

Isa. 24:15

WE LACK CHOICE V.2-3

FREEDOM TO DO WHAT’S RIGHT

Deliver us in Your righteousness,

(for you do what is right.)

“We can rests everything

on Your character O God

and on Your compassion Father

Phillips writes

“You O God

are totally incapable

of letting us down.

We invest our faith

We commit our trust

in our living God

and we will find that,

when all else fails,

God is still in business,

still mighty to save”

FLIGHT FROM RUIN

HIS PATH OF ESCAPE

and cause us to escape:

HIS PERCEPTIVE EAR

incline Your ear to us,

(Put your ear close to our heart)

please hear every beat

HIS PLANNED EXIT

and save us.

You hear the murmurs

We can’t put into words

David Livingstone was away

up in the swamplands

around Chitambo’s village,

He was alone

except for a few local natives.

He had come to the end

of his tether.

His feet were a mass of ulcers,

His tough physique was sapped

to the point of utter exhaustion.

He was bleeding inside.

The last distinct entry

in his diary reads tersely:

“Knocked down quite!”

A drizzly rain was falling

They built a rough shelter

into which he could creep.

He was worn-out

An old missionary.

They fell asleep.

As dawn appeared

at last over the eastern horizon.

One of the men peered

into the lean-to hut.

He saw David Livingston,

the valiant old warrior

of the cross

not in bed but on his knees

against the bed.

Calling the other two,

the three of them crept

into the shelter.

Livingstone was dead—

He was alone,

with the Africans he loved.

Had God let him down?

No!

Into that lonely hut He had come,

He who had promised

never to leave nor forsake.

Beside that camp cot

He had kneeled,

beside the wasted form

of His missionary friend.

Around that wasted form

had gone those mighty,

everlasting arms.

God had whispered to his ears;

“Now then, David,

you’re coming home with Me.”

The character and compassion

of God had been tried

to the uttermost

and found to be true—

true to the very last moment

of time,

to the very last breath of life!

FORTRESS FROM FAILURE V.3

A WEAK PERSON

IN A STRONG PLACE

Be my strong habitation,

Be my mountain fortress

A WILLING POSITION

IN A STABLE PALACE

Whereunto we

may continually resort:

Our crag of safety

A WISE PRINCIPLE

AS A STRATEGIC PORTAL

You have given commandment

to save us;

Command our deliverance

A WELCOME PROTECTION

IN A SOLID POSITION

for You are our rock

and our fortress.

for You are our Mighty Rescuer

WE LACK CONSCIOUSNESS V.4

DELIVERANCE

Deliver us, O our God,

O God, save us from

this recurring depression

OUT OF DECEPTION

out of the hand of the wicked,

We are so tired of being

in the line of fire

OUT OF DEVIANCE

out of the hand of the unrighteous

and cruel individual .

Please shoulder our problems

We want to help others

as if our problems aren’t enough!

When we’re older

and our health is fragile

we desperately want

to feel secure.

Our natural defenses

against life’s injuries are gone.

We easily fall.

We can’t pull our weight

like we did in past employment.

We’re far from in demand

in the work place.

We even go unnoticed

at our local Church

and Bible study groups.

No one is calling

No one is checking in on us.

Our health is failing;

Our old friends are dying;

our minds and their minds

are not as sharp as they were;

our income is greatly reduced;

often we feel defenseless

and vulnerable.

We need God.

How great to read

“He has given commandment

to save us!”

God is our strong place,

God is our stable palace,

God is our strategic portal

God is our only solid position.

When we waver

in our consciousness.

We need God’s deliverance

from deception and deviance

Please clear our fog of fading

If Prayer isn’t practical,

is it stupid to pray?

Really, talking

to an invisible being

appears a little absurd!

Oswald Sanders wrote

“until we do see that prayer

is stupid,

stupid from the ordinary, natural,

common sense point of view,

we will never pray.”

But do we believe

in what Jesus says He will do.

It sounds stupid,

but it is a stupidity based

on His redemption.

Praying is based

on our constant need of a Savior!

So what moment in the day is it

When we don’t need to be saved?

So what moment in the day is it

When we don’t need a Savior?

Jesus says: without faith

it’s impossible to please Me.

Why would we want

to purposely displease Jesus?

Isn’t He the source of everything?

And, isn’t prayer

the expression of our faith in Him?

Do we believe that He’s

the rewarder

of all who diligently seek Him?

To diligently seek means

we’re constantly gathering

information about God.

We get our information

from His voice.

And He speaks in His Word.

Really a disinterest in Jesus,

where we’re detached

from His expressions,

apathetic to speaking to Him

and indifferent and bored

by His Word

is an indication of no faith.

Aren’t we stupid enough

to believe what Jesus says.

We have to be a child!

When Jesus

Abruptly broke into prayer

He said:

Thank you, Father,

Lord of heaven and earth.

You’ve concealed Your ways

from sophisticates

You’ve hidden Your ways

from know-it-alls,

but You’ve spelled them out

clearly to babies

(the untaught and the simple)

Yes, Father,

that’s the way you like to work.

It’s the stupid

who are looked down on

It’s us stupid one’s

who believe in prayer.

Faith proves

we have more confidence

in His eyesight over our eyesight

There’s a simplicity about God

in working out His plans,

yet a resourcefulness

equal to any difficulty,

“There’s unswerving faithfulness

to be His trusting child,

There’s unforgetting steadiness

in holding to His purpose.

It’s safe to trust God’s methods

and to live by His clock.”

S. D. Gordon.

“God has a thousand keys

to open a thousand doors

for the deliverance of His own,

even when it‘s impossible

even when it‘s a desperate case”

George MacDonald.

We do our part by trusting prayer

Difficulty is the very atmosphere

of all miracles —

A problem is a miracle

in its first stages.

If it is to be a great miracle,

the condition is not difficulty

but impossibility.

Selected

The clinging hand of His child

makes a desperate situation

a delight to God our Father.

“When Moses stood

with arms spread wide,

Success was found

on Israel’s side.

But when through weariness

he faltered and failed,

That moment Amalek prevailed”

Cowper

Saul and his sons are slaughtered

and their bodies are desecrated

The Philistines defamed Saul and

Jonathan. They took their bodies

and violated them by debasing

them and hanging their bodies

out to rot in public dishonor.

It was a savage outrage.

The people of Jabesh Gilead

heard what the Philistines had

done to Saul.

And Their valiant men sprang

into action.

They traveled all night,

They took the corpses of Saul

and his three sons from the wall

that the Philistines had strung

them up on at Beth Shan,

and carried them back to

Jabesh …

They then buried the bones

under the tamarisk tree in

Jabesh and fasted in

mourning for seven days.

The bodies of those we love

are precious to us.

We want their bodies honored

and respected and we carefully

and lovingly grieve over our own

Our Lord bowed down to us and

took a human body of humiliation

to Himself.

A body that was rejected.

A body that was scorned

A body that was tortured

And He bore our sins in His

own body on the cross.

His body is precious to us

and we want to deepen in

our discernment of all He

achieved in His body for our

Salvation.

He said this is my body which

is broken for You.

Do this in worshipful

remembrance of Me

God says: My Word is like fire

God says: My Word is a hammer

Jeremiah 23:29

God uses His Word to

burn away unclean thoughts

God uses His Word to purge

the desires in our hearts.

God uses His Word with strikes

of hammer-like hardness to

crush and crumble our

spiritual hardness

Our hope with each visit with the Doctor.

Our hope with each new test and medical procedure is

that this will alleviate our chronic pain.

C. S. Lewis wrote in A Grief Observed:

“Not that I am (I think) in much danger of ceasing to believe in God.

The real danger is of coming to believe such dreadful things about Him.

The conclusion I dread is not

“So there’s no God after all,”

but “So this is what God’s really like. Deceive yourself no longer.”

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.

Psalm 34:18

As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,so shall your God rejoice over you.

Isaiah 62:5

We can trust Him with all our heart.

We have to not lean on our own understanding

We can in all our ways know Him in deeper comprehension

He promises to direct our path.

Prov 3:5-6

At times we think and write in a stiff and mechanical way.

We like detail and can get swallowed up and consumed with it.

God’s Word is intensely enchanting.

But, pulling out the particular expressions of God’s Word and analyzing

in formulaic patterns can appear boring

In the Word we are listening to God’s voice and that’s an amazing privilege.

There’s intense value in being swallowed up by its technicalities and structure.

So why not get tangled up in the oddities of outlines

and why not capture the feeling of its interaction in our soul.

In Psalm 42 we hear the panting after God’s voice in the poetry

The poet writes:

PSALMS 42 PRIVATE PASSIONS AND OUTER OBSTACLES

I have secret passion. I feel them pounding like a drum in my heart.

But there are obstacles.

Each day the barriers and impeding forces appear almost overwhelming.

I was pushing Jill up a hill.

The wind was whipping at us off the bay.

The autumn sun was bright, warm and blinding.

But the shock, was my body. It is not what it used to be.

Jill has had grizzly surgeries.

We both feel we’re constantly facing new challenges.

We’re trying to tie together a variety of loose ends in ourselves.

THE FOCUS OF OUR FEELINGS V.1-4

CONTENT ONLY WITH THE SUPERNATURAL V.1

DYNAMIC DESIRE

As the Deer pants after the water brooks

DEPENDABLE DELIVERER

so pants my soul after You, O God.

When things are not working as smoothly as we’d hoped we get immersed

in our feelings of needing to feel the Lord Jesus.

Not just for us, but for those we love.

We wonder over others but especially our loved ones.

We’re thinking how can we be supportive and best touch others for Jesus?

We are panting after God’s solutions. We’re weak and out of breath.

How can I support anyone when I can barely push my wife up this blustery

incline of life. I start thinking odd thoughts. Then I tumble into weird feelings.

CRAVING COMMUNION WITH THE CREATOR V.2

INNER OBSESSION

My soul thirsts for God,

IDENTITY OPTIMISM

for the living God:

INDELIBLE OPPORTUNITY

when will I come and appear before God?

We need God. But really we always do. But feeling weak makes us lean more.

He allows us to feel it by letting us touch our weakness.

Then we wonder. Are we praying the right things?

Should we have organized our schedule differently?

It’s so common to feel self defeated when you’re constantly bumping

into exhaustion.

REFUSE DESPONDENCY V.5

Why are you cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me?

REFLECT DESIRE

hope thou in God:

REHEARSE DELIGHTS

for I shall yet praise him

RECALL DELIVERANCES

for the help of his countenance.

RECOGNIZE DESPAIR V.6

O my God, my soul is cast down within me

As ridiculous as it all appears.

We have lows in our physical and emotional state.

So how are we going to be of any help to anyone when we can’t get

past our own physical and emotional challenges .

Sometimes I feel like all I do is wonder around gasping in crazy puffing

and wheezing. We want to remember our past high moments.

REMEMBER DETAILS

THE HIGHS OF LIFE

therefore will I remember You from the land of

Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar

THE LOWS OF LIFE

Deep calls to deep at the noise of Your waterspouts

all Your waves and Your billows are gone over me.

The Jordan is strangely referred to as the river of death.

It flows lower and lower. It goes down and down and down.

Finally it empties into the Dead Sea which lays 1500 feet below the

Mediterranean Sea.

The poet is capturing this immense downward exasperation through

the gorges of the surrounding hills.

THE CONSTANTS OF LIFE

GOD’S TENDER TOUCH V.8

SPECIAL LOVE

Yet the LORD will command his loving kindness in the daytime,

STEADY LYRICS

and in the night His song shall be with me,

STRONG LONGING

and my prayer to the God of my life.

God is faithful. It’s not about our performance in prayer.

It’s not about our mighty faith or wry insights.

I’m a scrawny weakling that can’t climb the heights anymore.

I’m soft and weak. But God is my rock.

GOD’S RELIABLE RESOURCES V.9

I will say unto God my rock,

THE MISCALCULATIONS IN LIFE

WHEN WE FEEL DISCARDED

Why hast thou forgotten me?

WHEN WE FEEL DOMINATED

why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

WHEN WE FEEL DEGRADED

As with a sword in my bones,

Yes, I bump the bottom now and then.

Jill and I make an awkward visual with me panting,

and her gripping her wheelchair.

We may feel stabbing pain, but it’s a joyous plunge into loves firmness;

where we can feel God as our rock.

It’s not about my performance.

It’s not, did I pray enough, or pray the right things. I never do.

No, it is God.

He is our mighty rock.

He is faithful,

He is compassionate, and deep in His love.

When we go down deep, He goes down deeper, to lift us up to Himself.

He is always there, controlling the wind, and the waves.

The brisk storms of life are His hands drawing us closer.

As dying and behold we live

2 Cor. 6:9

When an Early frosts comes,

the radiant beauty of our flowers

are seared!

The frost is too much for them

and they perish

We dislike it,

it’s like a graveyard of flowers

But, in time

they come back up

in great abundance

every plant that winter destroys

comes back in multiplied growth.

What did those frosts do?

They kill them,

they smash them to the ground,

they stomp the fragile buds

with snowy feet.

The winter boasts

“This is the end of you.”

But in spring new witnesses

rise up and say

“By death we live.”

We learn from flowers

that by death comes new life

By crucifixion and the sepulchre

comes the throne and the palace

of our Eternal God.

By overthrow comes victory

To suffer is harsh

To get smashed is mean.

But it is by being cast down

and not destroyed;

it is by being shaken to pieces

and our pieces torn to shreds,

that we mature

and become mighty

Dont yield to the appearance

of things

God is working

There is blossoming,

there is momentary prosperity

and then what looks like the end,

but it isn’t the end.

Beecher.

“We Measure our life

not by loss and not by gain,

Not by what we take in,

but by what we pour out.

For love’s strength

stands in love’s sacrifice,

And he who suffers most

has most to give.”

Through death

comes resurrection life.

Through our dying to our selves

we open to Christ’s life within.

“My beloved spoke

and said to me,

Arise, my darling,

my beautiful one,

come with me.

See! The winter is past;

the rains are over and gone.

Flowers appear on the earth;

the season of singing has come,

the cooing of doves is heard

in our land.

The fig tree forms its early fruit;

the blossoming vines

spread their fragrance.

Our Lord says:

Arise, come, my darling;

my beautiful one,

come with me.”

Song of Solomon 2:10-13

Hear, O LORD

and be gracious to us;

O LORD, be our helper.”

You have turned for us

our mourning into dancing;

You have loosed our sackcloth

and girded us with joy,

Psalms 30:10-11

Those who have found their life

will lose it,

Those who have lost their life

for Jesus sake will find it.

“If a grain of wheat falls

on the ground

it will never be more than one grain

unless it dies.

But if it dies,

it will produce lots of wheat”

Matt. 10:39

For it’s in His death and life

that we find life