Stumbling Blocks..... Streams in the Desert

 

Stumbling Blocks 

Streams in the Desert

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, we must get rid of every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and run with endurance the race set out for us, (Heb 12:1)

 

There are weights which are not sins in themselves, but which become distractions and stumbling blocks in our Christian progress. One of the worst of these is despondency. The heavy heart is indeed a weight that will surely drag us down in our holiness and usefulness.

 

The failure of Israel to enter the land of promise began in murmuring, or, as the text in Numbers literally puts it, “as it were murmured.” Just a faint desire to complain and be discontented. This led on until it blossomed and ripened into rebellion and ruin. Let us give ourselves no liberty ever to doubt God or His love and faithfulness to us in everything and forever.

 

We can set our will against doubt just as we do against any other sin; and as we stand firm and refuse to doubt, the Holy Spirit will come to our aid and give us the faith of God and crown us with victory.

 

It is very easy to fall into the habit of doubting, fretting, and wondering if God has forsaken us and if after all our hopes are to end in failure. Let us refuse to be discouraged. Let us refuse to be unhappy. Let us “count it all joy” when we cannot feel one emotion of happiness. Let us rejoice by faith, by resolution, by reckoning, and we shall surely find that God will make the reckoning real.
—Selected

 

The devil has two master tricks. One is to get us discouraged; then for a time at least we can be of no service to others, and so are defeated. The other is to make us doubt, thus breaking the faith link by which we are bound to our Father. Lookout! Do not be tricked either way.
—G.E.M.

 

Gladness! I like to cultivate the spirit of gladness! It puts the soul so in tune again, and keeps it in tune, so that Satan is shy of touching it—the chords of the soul become too warm, or too full of heavenly electricity, for his infernal fingers, and he goes off somewhere else! Satan is always very shy of meddling with me when my heart is full of gladness and joy in the Holy Ghost.

 

My plan is to shun the spirit of sadness as I would Satan; but, alas! I am not always successful. Like the devil himself it meets me on the highway of usefulness, looks me so fully in my face, till my poor soul changes color!

 

Sadness discolors everything; it leaves all objects charmless; it involves future prospects in darkness; it deprives the soul of all its aspirations, enchains all its powers, and produces a mental paralysis!

 

An old believer remarked, that cheerfulness in religion makes all its services come off with delight; and that we are never carried forward so swiftly in the ways of duty as when borne on the wings of delight; adding, that Melancholy clips such wings; or, to alter the figure, takes off our chariot wheels in duty, and makes them, like those of the Egyptians, drag heavily.

God Accomplishes What Concerns You..... Dr. Charles Stanley

 God Accomplishes What Concerns You

Dr. Charles Stanley

Psalms 138:7-8

 

David was a man who walked through trouble on a regular basis. His psalms express the struggles and disappointments he faced, yet in the end, he always turned his focus back to God. The key to his victorious attitude was his strong faith in the Lord.

 

David was confident in God's purpose. That's why he could say, "The Lord will accomplish what concerns me" (v. 8). The only way we can walk through trouble and not be defeated is by keeping our focus on the Lord and His purpose. He has promised to do a good work in our lives, but sometimes the only way He can complete it is in valleys of hardship.

 

He relied on the Lord's power. When troubles arise, we, too, can trust God to deliver us, but it may not be by escape. Sometimes He sustains us through the difficulty, walking with us every step of the way.

 

David believed the promises of God. Throughout these two verses, he repeatedly reminds himself what the Lord will do. We also need to have some specific promises from Scripture that will anchor us in times of trouble. The truths of the Bible are our most valuable possession when the storms of life assail us. Self-reliance or advice from others will never equal the help God's Word offers us.

 

God assumes responsibility for accomplishing what concerns you in times of trouble. Your job is to believe that He will fulfill His purpose, His power is adequate, and He'll keep every promise. When the trial has achieved His goal, He'll remove it. Until then, keep walking with your eyes on Him.

What Happens When I Forget Christ Lives in Me..... LYNN COWELL

 What Happens When I Forget Christ Lives in Me

LYNN COWELL

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20 (ESV)

My eyes scanned the crowd looking for his face. I was performing yet again in my high school choir, and I just wanted to see one thing: my dad in the audience.

It wasn’t that I didn’t think my dad loved me. I knew he did, or at least I thought I knew. He worked, literally day and night, to provide for me and my very large family of 10. Surely that proved his love, right?

As my eyes and heart continued to search, I wondered, “Was my performance enough to make him take a night off from work? Was I enough?” I wanted proof I was loved. And even if he didn’t show up … would I still believe he loved me?

I find that even today, there are times I scan the circumstances of everyday life for proof I’m loved. Sometimes it looks like this:

• Will my husband remember my job requires a lot, even though it’s not a typical nine-to-five?
• Will I get a “thank you” from my boss for all those extra hours I worked on that project?
• Will my adult child make time for me?

I have a feeling I’m not the only one who does this.

Today’s verse in Galatians 2:20 tells us, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

My life as a believer starts with being crucified. (Not literally crucified, just the old way of living and thinking.) For me, this death is a death to the continual craving for affirmation and approval. Jesus has affirmed me already, and that is enough!

I like to think that because Jesus has affirmed me, all my selfish desires to look for proof that I’m loved in all the wrong places should up and vanish, right?

Wrong. This is what happens when I forget that Christ lives in me.

You see, as long as I’m on this side of heaven, my flesh will fight to come back to life and take over. I need to remember that dying to myself isn’t a one-time decision, but a daily (and often moment-by-moment) decision.

Every day, I must settle in my soul that I’m deeply loved and forever cherished. I must remember that the Spirit of Christ who lives in me is bigger than my desire for proof I’m loved and good enough in every situation

When I don’t waste my energy and time searching for love, I can be a conduit for His love, His purpose and His life to flow through me and to others.

Friend, you and I can stop searching the crowd. Our Father loves us. He proved it once and for all through the death and resurrection of Jesus. And He proves it daily through the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit living in us. He proves it in the power to say yes to loving another when it is hard and uncomfortable.

Yes, Christ lives in us. We now live by faith, confidence and trust in the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us, and with this confidence, we share this great love with others.

Jesus, I have been crucified with You. When I’m tempted to look for love in the way others respond to me, notice me or affirm me, help me hold tight to the Truth that You have already affirmed me. Help me die to myself again in this moment and the next so Your Spirit can live in and through me. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

TRUTH FOR TODAY:
Romans 5:8, “But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (BSB)

Ephesians 5:2, “and walk in love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant sacrificial offering to God.” (BSB)

Looking Up to See God’s Surprises..... Wendy Speake

 Looking Up to See God’s Surprises

Wendy Speake

Today’s Truth
The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork,

(Psalm 19:1 ESV).

Friend to Friend
I was inside at the dining room table, writing out a grocery list, as my sons played in the backyard. The sound of their laughter wafted in through open windows. It was an unseasonably warm spring day—mid-March and already ninety degrees. Summer, it seemed, had come early to Southern California.

“Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom!” the boys called. I looked up to see what was causing the commotion and couldn’t believe my eyes. Thousands of butterflies fluttered around the boys. Everywhere, as far as my eyes could see, butterflies swarmed and swirled in all directions. Immediately I ran toward my room. My first thought was to grab my phone. I needed to start a Facebook Live at once!

Halfway down the hall, I remembered I had just begun a forty-day social media fast. In addition to staying off of Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, I had decided to keep my phone in my room all day long so that I would be present and available to my family. But what was happening outside was amazing. I’d never seen anything like it in all my life. My thoughts swirled inside me as the butterflies swirled outside the window. I had a choice: share the spectacle with my online friends or soak it up with my family.

Not wanting to miss another minute, I pivoted and ran to the patio. The fluttering of butterfly wings brushed my skin. The slippery cool touch of my youngest son’s arms around my middle made it hard to breathe, or maybe it was the miracle of the moment. I caught my breath, overwhelmed.

“There is a God!” I cried out to the boys.

“Good job, God!” my oldest shouted out loud.

We locked eyes and then smiled. He’d remembered how I taught him to define praise when he was just a toddler. “Praise is telling someone what a good job they did. It’s the same with giving God praise. When you see something beautiful like a sunset or a new- born baby, simply tell Him, ‘Good job, God!’”

“Good job, God!” we shouted together.

All three boys were counting aloud, “178, 179, 180, 181, 182 . . .” I joined them in the counting, and we got to well over one thousand before the mass migration moved on. For the next few weeks, however, we saw at least twenty butterflies in any direction we looked everywhere we went throughout town. Others had captured the moment on their cameras, but I caught the moment in real life—the whole glorious display.

When you put down your phone, it's easier to lift up your eyes. And when you lift up your eyes, you see not only your family and your friends, but also the glorious display of a praiseworthy Creator. Every peach that grows in our backyard, with its thin velvet skin holding back the sweetest juice, is God’s glory just waiting to be tasted. In every stream that runs cold over smooth stones, God’s laughter can be heard. In every thunderclap, God’s creation gives Him a rousing round of applause, inviting us to do the same.

Unfortunately, as soon as the skies begin declaring God’s glory, I’m often posting a picture of it along with a time-consuming stream of hashtags: #psalm19 #theheavensdeclarethegloryofgod #praise. . . Sadly, during those sacred moments when my head is bowed over my phone, I miss seeing the setting sun transform the sky from mango to magenta as the Master Craftsman splashes heavenly hues across the canvas of heaven. 

Though those first moments sincerely stun me, I am quickly distracted from the celestial service in the sky by an overwhelming urge to post it online. And though I feel joy in sharing the image with my online friends, the truth is that I experienced only a few moments of glory when I could have soaked it up for another seven minutes. In my attempt to share His glory with others, I often miss out on so much of it. I miss much when I share much. 
Since I don’t want to miss out on these precious moments (with my most precious people) I purposefully practice these screen time sabbaticals multiple times throughout the year. 

Let’s Pray
Good job, God! The rocks and the sunset and the skies cry out that You are marvelous! Help me to lay down my distractions so that I might lift up my eyes and lift up my praise!

In Jesus’s Praiseworthy Name,
Amen.

Fill 'er Up..... by John UpChurch

 Fill 'er Up

by John UpChurch

“Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness—the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints.” -  Colossians 1:24-26

Right after I got married, I gave up computer software updates and PC troubleshooting for something a bit more… down to earth, you could say. I needed work in my new hometown, and since employers weren’t tracking me down and forcing jobs on me, I gravitated toward the only available option: construction. With a booming housing market at the time, finding enough to do wasn’t a problem.

But finding motivation was a problem. Going from a specialized, higher-paying job in computers, where I mostly sat at my desk all day, to cleaning up cinder blocks, wrestling with insulation, and scrubbing windows—that was quite the humbling thing. Honestly, I’d never had to do any real manual labor in my life before that (yes, I was coddled). The heat and pain and bloodied hands were all new to me.

The first few weeks, after a particularly arduous day of gophering around the jobsites, I’d come home and crash on the living room floor. My muscles weren’t used to the beating they took, and they made sure I knew about it.

Slowly, however, with all the wood slinging and nail pounding and putty slapping, things changed. The nights of carpet collapses became less frequent, and my hands didn’t split open nearly as often (unless you count the numerous times I stabbed myself with a chisel). In fact, I came to enjoy the process of seeing something come together, seeing a house take shape.

My spiritual growth has come in a similar fashion—just without the splinters. At first, the failures dragged me down and beat me up. The rejections when I tried to share my newfound faith stung. The transformation cut deep. But as I grew and as God worked in me, something changed. The pain still stings and the transformation still cuts (that never stops), yet I began to see the pain as an important part of the overall process. Christ is building something in me—and in His Church.

As humans, we all suffer. But as Christians, we fill up on suffering. Sounds bad, but the point is that instead of us letting the suffering go to waste, God uses it for the good of other believers (and our own). He takes the pain and makes it passion, passion that spills out as love for our brothers and sisters.

Intersecting Faith & Life: We each serve as a breathing example of the gospel played out in real life. Our pain and restoration make us a family like nothing else can.

Further Reading

1 Corinthians 12
Ephesians 3

Don’t Get Caught in the Worrying Trap..... By Jennifer Waddle

 Don’t Get Caught in the Worrying Trap

By Jennifer Waddle

Peace, contentment, and overwhelming joy are the real attributes of an abundant life in Christ. But sadly, the cares of this world often overshadow those beautiful sentiments.

Interestingly, right before Jesus spoke about having life abundant, He reminded His followers about the thief that comes in to steal, kill, and destroy. He didn’t share that to burst their bubble or discourage them. He said it to alert them to a very real and present temptation.

Worry is one way the enemy robs us of enjoying the fruitful life Jesus spoke of. If Satan can get us to focus on the stresses around us, instead of focusing on the Holy Spirit within us, he has succeeded in stealing our abundance in Christ.

Worry distracts us from God's truths.
The father of lies wants nothing more than to distract us from the Word of God. From the very beginning, when he challenged Eve with the question, “Did God really say,” Satan has been on a mission to divert our attention from the truth.

Often, when we are caught up in the cycle of worried thinking, we are too distracted to open our Bibles. Yet, that’s when we need God’s truths the most. 

My suggestion is to print out several key Bible passages to have on hand during times of worry. Post them in prominent places and read them often. The enemy doesn’t stand a chance in the light of God’s truths!

Worry is a false comforter.
People who deal with persistent worry have become severely dependent on the anxious emotions they feel. Sadly, it’s almost like a drug that is unwanted but hard to give up.

Worry becomes a go-to source of comfort. Some of us even start to feel empty or lost if we aren’t continually worried about something.

This may indicate it’s time to seek some help. Making an appointment with a trusted physician or meeting with a Christian counselor might be the best course of action for chronic anxiety.

The truth is, worry is by no means a comforter or friend. It is a tool from the enemy to mask the true comfort we receive from the Holy Spirit.

A Prayer for Living Out the Truth..... By: Chelsey DeMatteis

 A Prayer for Living Out the Truth

By: Chelsey DeMatteis

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” - John 14:6

Live your truth. It sounds easy, simple, and freeing. But what happens when the truth someone chooses is separate from the only truth we have found in Christ? This way of seeking and living begins with pride invading our hearts and soon starts to bleed into the way we view our faith.

This struck my attention in 2019 when the phrase live your truth was becoming increasingly popular in America’s culture. It deems it permissible to live in whatever form of “truth” you believe. But now we are seeing people's “truths” lived out in their lives, and it’s not always pretty. For me, I not only see non-believers falling prey to this, but Christ-followers are falling for it too. None of us are immune from believing we can have a truth apart from Christ.

The lives of the wandering Israelites, as well as the story of Samson come to mind for me. Both stories show disobedience to God due to living by “truths” that had been sinfully woven together in their hearts. The Israelites blatantly show they did not trust God. They continued to try to take matters into their own hands and put their truth above what God wanted. They were not only dismissive of God's provision, but they did not want to live within the bounds of his commandments.

Then we have Samson, full of God’s wisdom, who exchanged this gift to give higher priority to his fleshly desires. He dismissed the truth for a life that ended up leaving him empty. He chased a truth that looked good, felt good, and somehow... seemed good. Until it was not good - and he then knew it was never good. It was apart from God, fleshly desired, and filled with consequences God never wanted him to deal with. This is what false, pride-filled truth apart from God does.

Our society now is no different. Flirting and partaking in sin, choosing disobedience, living various forms of "false" truth, all while expecting to never deal with consequences. Scary, right? Something we want to run from, right? Praise God we have the choice to not participate in this way of living. By God’s grace, we have the gift of discernment, wisdom, and clarity. You and I are called, commanded, and guided to live out His truth in the world around us. Jesus said in John 14:6 that "I am the way, the truth, and the life." He is it. His truth is our truth, end of story. So, to my brothers and sisters in Christ, I pray you join me in picking up our cross and living out the real truth of Jesus Christ to this ever-darkening world.

Pray with me...

Lord Jesus, 

Help us to see your truth as the only truth. When our flesh begins to pull away, God, pull us back with reminders of who you are and who you call us to be. Jesus, remind us each day that you are the way, you are the truth, and you are life. By your grace, we live freely in who you are, and may we always celebrate that and steward people to follow you.