Lightening the Load
When we get into the storms of life, it is often difficult to know what to do. It can feel like the noise of our troubles drowns out everything else.
In Acts 27 we find the apostle Paul caught in the midst of a horrible storm. The ship was being tossed all over the place, and the situation was becoming quite serious.
Embedded in this story is a spiritual truth that can guide you and me when we get caught in the storms of life. It is found in verses 18-19,
And because we were exceedingly tempest-tossed, the next day they lightened the ship. On the third day we threw the ship's tackle overboard with our own hands.
Notice that when the storm got bad and threatened to capsize the ship, they lightened the load.
Sometimes in a storm you need to throw some things overboard. In fact, it is a great time to evaluate any baggage that you are carrying in your life. There are some things that may not be a sin to you, but they are a weight to you.
One of the things you need to carefully evaluate is your relationships. There are some relationships you need to cut loose because they are hanging you up, holding you back, and they are hindering you from getting to where God wants you to go.
Or maybe it's something as simple as too much TV. Watching TV may not be a sin, but it can sure be a weight! It can sure be a hindrance to you hearing from God, especially when you are in a time of crisis.
If you really want to hear from God and get yourself unstuck, lighten your ship.
~Bayless Conley~
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Wilderness Communion
"I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her" (Hosea 2:14).
The goodness of God sees us allured by sin, and it resolves to try upon us the more powerful allurements of love. Do we not remember when the Lover of our souls first cast a spell upon us and charmed us away from the fascinations of the world! He will do this again and again whenever He sees us likely to be ensnared by evil.
He promises to draw us apart, for there He can best deal with us, and this separated place is not to be a paradise, but a wilderness, since in such a place there will be nothing to take of our attention from our God. In the deserts of affliction the presence of the LORD becomes everything to us, and we prize His company beyond any value which we set upon it when we sat under our own vine and fig tree in the society of our fellows. Solitude and affliction bring more to themselves and to their heavenly Father than any other means.
When thus allured and secluded the LORD has choice things to say to us for our comfort. He "speaks to our heart," as the original has it. Oh, that at this we may have this promise explained in our experience! Allured by love, separated by trial, and comforted by the Spirit of truth, may we know the LORD and sing for joy!
"I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her" (Hosea 2:14).
The goodness of God sees us allured by sin, and it resolves to try upon us the more powerful allurements of love. Do we not remember when the Lover of our souls first cast a spell upon us and charmed us away from the fascinations of the world! He will do this again and again whenever He sees us likely to be ensnared by evil.
He promises to draw us apart, for there He can best deal with us, and this separated place is not to be a paradise, but a wilderness, since in such a place there will be nothing to take of our attention from our God. In the deserts of affliction the presence of the LORD becomes everything to us, and we prize His company beyond any value which we set upon it when we sat under our own vine and fig tree in the society of our fellows. Solitude and affliction bring more to themselves and to their heavenly Father than any other means.
When thus allured and secluded the LORD has choice things to say to us for our comfort. He "speaks to our heart," as the original has it. Oh, that at this we may have this promise explained in our experience! Allured by love, separated by trial, and comforted by the Spirit of truth, may we know the LORD and sing for joy!
~Charles Spurgeon~
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“Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken – that is, created things – so that what cannot be shaken may remain. (Hebrews 12:26-27 NIV)
The fact is that, while certain things characterized the New Testament churches, the New Testament does not give us a complete pattern according to which churches are to be set up or formed! There is no blue-print for churches in the New Testament, and to try to form New Testament churches is only to create another system which may be as legal, sectarian and dead as others. Churches, like the Church, are organisms which spring out of Life, which Life itself springs out of the Cross of Christ wrought into the very being of believers.
This brings us to our particular point. What is the pressing imperative in view of this oncoming flood of testing, which has already carried away very many of those who were called Christian, and even evangelical Christians? Surely there is only one answer:- On the one hand, a ministry which has as its substance and object the "rooting and grounding," the establishing, the building up of believers, and the real increase of "the measure of Christ." This must get behind evangelism, so that the work is deep, not superficial; enduring, not transient; intrinsic, not general! On the other hand, believers must really take stock of their Christianity. Is it just a tradition, an assumption, an external system, the thing which is common acceptance – more or less? Or is it really "by revelation of Jesus Christ" in the heart? A real walk with God, and a growing knowledge of Christ, a life in the Spirit? God has said it: the things which can be shaken will be. What have we got that, being unshakable, will remain?
By T. Austin-Sparks
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The Lord thy God bare thee. Deuteronomy 1:31
A safe carriage was that! In His love and in His pity God redeemed them, and bare them, and carried them all the days of old. When the little lad was tired and complained of his head, his father bade a servant carry him to his mother; but God does not hand over His children to His servants, He carries them Himself. When we realize that His everlasting arms are underneath, it is safer riding than any the ingenuity of man can devise; and here we need fear no ill.
"In all the way." - There are great varieties in the way - sometimes the sleepers are badly laid, and the carriage rocks and jolts; sometimes the gradient is steep, and the progress tedious; sometimes the pilgrim has to go afoot, climbing with difficulty from ridge to ridge; sometimes the route lies through a territory infested with enemies, and haunted by miasma; but we can each rejoice in the fact that the Lord "knoweth the way that I take," and that all the way, those gentle and unwearied arms bear us up and on.
"All the days." - Never a day without its cross, its lesson, its discipline, its peril; but never a day that God does not bear us up in His hands, as some mighty river bears up the boat of the missionary explorer. Through wilds, past villages of infuriated savages, over reefs and rocks, the patient river bears the voyager and his goods. Thus does God carry us. The Good Shepherd carries the lambs in His bosom. Why, then, should we dread the future, or quail before the faces of our foes? "The eternal God is thy refuge; and underneath are the everlasting arms." So strong: so tender! Let yourself go, and trust.
A safe carriage was that! In His love and in His pity God redeemed them, and bare them, and carried them all the days of old. When the little lad was tired and complained of his head, his father bade a servant carry him to his mother; but God does not hand over His children to His servants, He carries them Himself. When we realize that His everlasting arms are underneath, it is safer riding than any the ingenuity of man can devise; and here we need fear no ill.
"In all the way." - There are great varieties in the way - sometimes the sleepers are badly laid, and the carriage rocks and jolts; sometimes the gradient is steep, and the progress tedious; sometimes the pilgrim has to go afoot, climbing with difficulty from ridge to ridge; sometimes the route lies through a territory infested with enemies, and haunted by miasma; but we can each rejoice in the fact that the Lord "knoweth the way that I take," and that all the way, those gentle and unwearied arms bear us up and on.
"All the days." - Never a day without its cross, its lesson, its discipline, its peril; but never a day that God does not bear us up in His hands, as some mighty river bears up the boat of the missionary explorer. Through wilds, past villages of infuriated savages, over reefs and rocks, the patient river bears the voyager and his goods. Thus does God carry us. The Good Shepherd carries the lambs in His bosom. Why, then, should we dread the future, or quail before the faces of our foes? "The eternal God is thy refuge; and underneath are the everlasting arms." So strong: so tender! Let yourself go, and trust.
~F. B. Meyer~
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What a sad picture of how distorted our thinking can become when we intentionally turn from God. Saul has continued to follow his own ways and now finds himself facing a strong Philistine army. In his fear, he inquires of God but gets no response, and things go downhill rapidly from there. Saul turns to a medium or necromancer (someone who calls on spirits of the dead) so he can speak with Samuel. The message Samuel provides confirms what Saul already knows in his heart--that God has turned from him and that the kingdom will be David's. Samuel also puts forth that Israel will be defeated and that Saul and his sons will perish in the battle. (Yikes!)
Saul's response to this serious and distressing news is disheartening. Instead of crying out to God and asking for forgiveness, he accepts the news with an attitude of "it is what it is." In my eyes, this was rock bottom for Saul. In the most critical time he still chose not to submit or turn to God.
What does this account reveal about the blinding effect of sin? What did God impress on your heart as you took in this passage?
~Tami~
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