Tag: hope

In the Fire

Posted on by Dorci

The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous,
and His ears are attentive to their cry;

The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them;
He delivers them from all their troubles.
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted
and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
Psalm 34:15a,17,18


I’ve heard so many stories the last couple of years from people who have gone through some extraordinarily difficult times, and of course I’ve faced times like that, too.

Times so painful I’ve wondered where God was. I’ve been brought to the place where my prayers were simply, “God, do You see me? Do You even care? Maybe we’ve all wondered that at one time or another.

Just recently I was reminded of a time a long time ago when I was raising my little boys.  (Funny how that seems like a lifetime ago and at the same time like it was just yesterday. Well, maybe last week.)

Some kind of illness was going around. My kids had just gotten over something not too long before and I just couldn’t take the thought of them being sick and miserable all over again so soon. I loved them too much.

So I prayed and asked God if one of us had to be sick then let it be me, not them. And that was one prayer He graciously and mercifully answered. Yes, I was sick for a little bit, but my sons didn’t have to suffer again so soon and I was thankful.

As the memory of that time came to mind, the Lord impressed on my heart that if I, being such an incredibly flawed parent and human being, could have that much compassion for my children, how much more compassion and love does He have for His children when they suffer?

Jesus wept with Mary and Martha as Lazarus lay in the grave even though He knew in five minutes he’d walk out, as alive as ever, and there would be tears of joy and hugs and celebrating. (Can you just imagine the party they had that night?)

Yes, He took a while in coming back to them, but He had reason to. Obvious reasons like, He wanted to grow their faith; He wanted the opportunity to perform this miracle in front of all of them, and I’m sure reasons we may never know.

And yes, it may seem like He’s taking a long time to answer our prayers, too, but that doesn’t mean He doesn’t hear our prayers, or that He doesn’t know what we’re going through, or that He doesn’t care.

It doesn’t mean He’s not right there with us in the fire, like He was with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (I wonder if they even knew He was with them amidst the flames); like He was with Job in his intense suffering; like He was with Hagar in the wilderness, like He was with Joseph when he was sold into slavery; and like He was with the Israelites as they crossed the desert for forty years.

Matthew even tells us “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call Him Immanuel (which means ‘God with us’).”
Matthew 1:23

He doesn’t stand far off. He is right there, suffering with us, having more love and compassion than I could ever comprehend, doing a great, eternal work in our hearts, and using those trials to bring Him great glory, the salvation of souls for some and the deepening of the faith of others.

He has so much love that He couldn’t bear to watch us suffer eternally, so He took on our sin-sickness and our place on the cross; He took on Himself the pain and misery that would have been ours, and kept us from an eternal death.

But He didn’t stop there. When we believed in Him He filled us with His Holy Spirit, whom He called the Comforter, who is with us, who lives in us, at all times, through all our trials and pain, no matter what.


How has God been with you in your trials?


Dear Heavenly Father, we praise you and thank you for your all-consuming love and grace and mercy. Thank you for your promise to never leave us or forsake us. When we are facing a fiery trial, help us to stay in communication with you, to remember that you are with us in it, and that you’ll use our faith in the fire to draw us ever closer to you and to bring you great glory. There is no higher calling in this life. In Jesus’ precious and holy name I pray, amen.

(please scroll down)

Hope for America

Posted on by Dorci

Hi Everybody. In case you haven’t heard, Pastor Greg Laurie has announced they’ll be hosting a one-day Harvest Crusade – Hope for America – on Sunday, November 16th at 6pm at Utah Valley University.

The same campus where Charlie Kirk fell asleep to this life and woke up in the arms of Jesus, Pastor Greg and his team desire to bring the promise of Christ and revival. He explains it all in the video below. (Technical glitch. Please scroll aaaall the way down. Lol)  

And he’s asking all of us to be praying at 3:20, am or pm, your choice. Why 3:20?

“Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine,
according to His power that is at work within us,”
Ephesians 3:20

 

Through our prayers, let’s all be a part of this amazing move of the Holy Spirit on the hearts of everyone who attends, whether in person or online at harvest.org, their youtube and facebook channels, and on the Harvest+ app. If you want to go in person, you can sign up here.  God bless you all.

Heavenly Father, we look forward to seeing your power at work through your servants, that you would do immeasurably more than all we ask or could ever imagine. We pray you would give them what they need to put on this event in such a short amount of time. We pray you would go ahead of them, binding the hand of the enemy, and preparing the hearts of everyone who hears your message, bringing countless souls to salvation, and that others who have been away from you would recommit their lives to you. We pray for revival in Jesus’ mighty name, amen. 

God’s Constant Presence

Posted on by Dorci

 

It’s funny, I never even dreamed of becoming a writer when I was growing up. Oh sure, I loved to read, I loved English class, and yeah, I loved sitting at my desk diagramming sentences. I was nerdy that way.

But even as an adult writing never crossed my mind until sometime after God saved me. I don’t remember exactly how it started, but a friend saw something there, something God had graciously given me, and asked me to write a short devotion or two. From there Lord continued to open up a desire in my heart to share His love, the love I’d always needed, but in Him I’d found in an infinitely more profound, glorious, faithful, healing, miracle-working way than I ever thought possible. How could I not want to share that love with others?

With that being said, I’m so excited to let you know I have another short story that’s been published, this time in the eighth volume-Lifted by His Word-in an 8-volume series called God’s Constant Presence by Guideposts. It is full of short stories written by people who have experienced God’s presence through His Word, speaking to their hearts in one miraculous way or another, the way He wants to speak to all of us.

It was a joy to relive my story from so many years ago, reminding me again what a personal and loving and gracious God we serve, and to share that love with others.

You can order the book through Amazon by scrolling down and clicking on the image of the book on the right, or at the bottom if you’re on a mobile device.

Or you can order directly through Guideposts by clicking here.  You can receive a 15% discount by using the code AUTHOR15. You can also check out all 8 volumes in the God’s Constant Presence series here. 

Happy reading! And may we all invite God’s constant presence to be with us as we journey with Him through this crazy thing called life. 

A Far Greater Glory

Posted on by Dorci

 

I sat listening again to a teaching about the day Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. Crowds surrounded him waving palm branches and laying their coats on the ground before him as a grand gesture of acknowledging him as their king. All around him came shouts of adoration, proclaiming “Oh save!”

“Hosanna to the Son of David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

“Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

“Hosanna! Blessed is the king of Israel!”

They couldn’t contain their jubilation, and their excitement was heard far and wide.

Their king had finally come and he would set up his kingdom and make all things right.

My mind couldn’t help but jump ahead to what I knew they’d be facing near the end of the week. Their gleeful expectations would be turned upside down. Their hopes and dreams would be dashed, their hearts broken. In my mind and heart I stood with them in grief on that Friday as they watched their king being arrested and beaten beyond recognition.

They wanted their lives to be made right here and now, but they wouldn’t be, and I understood that frustration. Like them, I have been desperate for solutions and when those solutions didn’t come as quickly as I wanted, or at all, a part of me became disillusioned.

I knew what it meant to have certain expectations, certain hopes as I lifted up prayers to my King, month after month after month, sometimes year after year, and see many of those prayers go unanswered. I understood just a little bit of that devastation at not receiving what I wanted, what I needed, or, what I thought I needed.

Their disappointment would cause them to assume He wasn’t at all who He said He was, and in just days, that, and the prompting of the chief priests, would lead at least some of them to change their shouts from “Hosanna!” to “Crucify him!”

I felt a sorrow for them I’d never quite felt before. Oh, if they only knew.

They saw Him die, buried, and they returned to their homes and lives the way they’d always been. No King, no kingdom. I couldn’t help but grieve with them.

On the third day, as they sat in their grief, the one in whom they’d placed all their hopes, the one who’d been wrapped in burial cloths and secured in a tomb behind a large stone with guards securing it, would surprisingly, miraculously, joyously be raised to life and the stone rolled away. I can just picture the smile on His face as He waited to surprise them all. He showed Himself first to the disciples, and then to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time.

He’d be with them over the next forty days, speaking to them about the far greater salvation of their souls, their freedom from sin and the healing of their hearts. He’d tell them of the kingdom of God where He was going to prepare a place just for them and all who would believe in Him to live with Him forever.

Of course He wouldn’t leave them alone, though. He’d send His Holy Spirit to fill them with power, with love and boldness, strength and courage, peace and joy.

No, His earthly kingdom would not yet come, and they would still live with all kinds of hardship, sickness, and much persecution, but He had for them, and for us, a far greater way.

They’d shouted to be saved, but their desires were only for this life. God had so much more in store.




“Shouldn’t we expect far greater glory under the new way, now that the Holy Spirit is giving life? If the old way, which brings condemnation, was glorious, how much more glorious is the new way,
which makes us right with God!”
2 Corinthians 3:8-9

Just as Jesus, the Messiah, the Savior, had far greater plans for them, He does for me and for you.

“Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, 
who has been given to us.”
Romans 5:3-5

Yes, in this life we will still face trials of all kinds, but we can glory in them knowing He’ll be with us every step of the way, strengthening us, giving us courage and wisdom, making us into the very image of Christ as He prepares us for our eternal home. In His wisdom He’s using it all for His glory in ways we cannot begin to imagine, and that is call for joy.

May we keep the faith in the One who loves us, and at the end of our very short lives here, may we, too, say –


“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for His appearing.”
2 Timothy 4:7-9

For the Joy Set Before Us

Posted on by Dorci

 

I’d venture to say that at least most, if not all of us who have been followers of Christ for very long have faced a deep, dark, painful trial at some point and wondered if satan was attacking us or God was testing us.

And that brings to mind two people in God’s Word who stand as examples to us. First, the one who will foreshadow the second.

Job was blameless and upright. He feared God and shunned evil.

Sounds like a pretty solid guy to me.

And yet, when satan stood before the LORD, God not only didn’t keep satan from Job, He seems to actually offer up Job to him.

 

“Have you considered my servant, Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”
Job 1:8

Of course satan’s response is like a jealous sibling’s:

 
“Does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land.  But now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.”
Job 1:9-11

In another story we might read next that a parent would order this evil sibling to keep his hands off his precious son.

But this is no ordinary story, and certainly no ordinary Parent.

Instead, God lets satan loose on all Job had. Still, that wasn’t enough for the enemy of God. He stood before the Lord again, and God offered up Job once more. He gave Job into the devil’s hands with the only guideline being that he had to spare Job’s life.

And of course we know what happened. Satan runs right out and afflicts Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head.

So, why Job? A man who carefully and thoughtfully acknowledged God in all his ways by living a righteous life. A man described as perfect, meaning “complete, morally pious, undefiled, coupled together.” Coupled together with whom? Job had joined himself with God and was made complete by abiding in Him.

So, was God testing him, or was satan attacking him?

Well, both.

Satan is always looking for a child of God to attack, to accuse, to grab onto with his grubby little bony fingers and bring him or her down from their secure place of faith in God.

But God knows our hearts. He knew Job’s heart. He knew his faith was as strong and secure as it could be and He could trust his faith to remain strong throughout this attack of the evil one and come out the other side glowing with the light of his God.

By the way, the word for God used in the book of Job is the plural word for God – ‘ĕlôhı̂ym – meaning the Supreme God. It’s the same word used in Genesis as the Creator of the heaven and earth and everything in it. Job didn’t just worship a god, but the God, the one, true God in three persons.

Satan thought he would ruin Job, but God showed His adversary the strength of the faith of one who abides in Him. God showed him the power of his faith when that faith is in the One, True God, and that his faith would even grow in the soil of trials because God’s strength and the Living Water maintains and matures it. 

In the end, God’s will was done, satan sulked away defeated, and God blessed the latter part of Job’s life even more than the first.

Remind you of Someone else?

There is another One we read about much later whose Father also allowed the unthinkable to take place. He allowed the enemy to give up His own Son to be tortured and nailed to a cross.

Our Lord Jesus lived a perfect life. In the end, of course, satan came for Him, and His Father didn’t stop it.

Isaiah 53 prophecies:
“though He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth.
Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer…”

The original Hebrew translates it as “Yet it pleased (châphêts: to incline to, to be pleased with, desire) the LORD to bruise Him…”

And satan gave it all he had.

Satan might have thought he had the upper hand, but the Father was always in control, and He used the death of His Son to accomplish the otherwise impossible: to save you and me.

On this side of that dark day, we know our Lord Jesus was meant to suffer and die for our sins. Though the enemy attacked Him, God had a plan and only used His enemy to accomplish it.

And on the third day the dark clouds of mourning parted, the sun shone radiantly upon the earth, the Roman-sealed stone was moved away from the tomb, and Jesus was raised up and walked out victorious and triumphant over sin and death.  

And like Job, Jesus was even more blessed afterward than before.


“For the joy set before Him He endured the cross, scorning its shame,
and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Hebrews 12:2

 

For the joy set before Him… With all that lay ahead, all He knew He would suffer, it brought Jesus joy knowing that His sacrifice would forgive our sins and purchase our souls so that whomever would believe on Him would receive His Spirit and, like Him, be raised to new life to live with Him forever in His joy and peace.

There are times in the middle of the trial when stormy clouds cover our world and it seems so much darker than usual that we’re tempted to believe the lies coming from the enemy.

But as we hold onto our God who is Master of our trials, the One who allows only as much and as long as is needed to strengthen our faith and mold us into the image of His Son, we will persevere. No matter what comes, we can say with Christ, “for the joy set before us,” knowing we’ll come out the other side in victory, with increasing faith and hope. We’ll stand forever as a living testimony of the love and omnipotence of our Heavenly Father, and with the eternal joy of having brought Him glory.

As we submit ourselves and our trials to God as Job did, and even as our Lord Jesus did, we too will be blessed immeasurably more in the latter part of our lives, the life after this one, where the treasures of God await us. 

As we meditate on our Lord’s death and celebrate His resurrection, may we remember that He is the One who leads us, who shows us the way, in life, death, and finally, in the resurrection of spirit and body. Praise His Holy Name!


“But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.
Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”
Philippians 3:10-11