Blessings to you this week!
Sunday Praise – Luke 1:68
Tag: Rescue
Saturday Song – Run Devil Run
“So let God work His will in you. Yell a loud no to the Devil and watch him scamper. Say a quiet yes to God and He’ll be there in no time. Quit dabbling in sin. Purify your inner life. Quit playing the field. Hit bottom, and cry your eyes out. The fun and games are over. Get serious, really serious. Get down on your knees before the Master; it’s the only way you’ll get on your feet.” James 4:7-10 The Message
Hope in the Storm
Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God. Psalm 42:5
We’ve all faced a crisis at one point or another. If for some reason you haven’t, you will. Right now, today, you have a chance to prepare for the storm. Those who have faced them before will be wise to prepare for the next one.
I’ve been in the depths many times, sure it would be the last time. My soul sunk like a stone and laid on the ocean floor dying for a gasp of air. My cries for help seemed hopelessly muffled by the weight of the depths. Light seemed so very distant, the surface too far to reach.
But God’s arm is never too short.
All I have to do is reach up, take His hand and He will pull me to the light again.
The word hope in this emotionally drenched psalm means to wait; to be patient.
Though God takes my hand – and He takes every hand extended to Him – the storm may not abate immediately.
There is purpose in the storm.
Spiritual seeds implanted in my heart must be watered, and those sprouted must grow to fruition. My mind must be washed of the dirt of ungodly thinking, the air cleansed of my past guilt and shame.
Sometimes the Living Water comes down in a beautiful afternoon rain, and sometimes it comes down in torrents.
But God knows.
He knows what He’s accomplishing in the storms. He knows the clouds will drift away and the sun will shine again. And He knows the beauty that will live on afterward.
There are many people and things we can put our hope in when we’re facing a storm, but none them will bring praise to our lips at the end of the storm like hoping in God, our Savior, the One who lived, and died, and lives again to bring us into His presence.
So how do we prepare for the next time we find ourselves in a storm?
Take hold of His hand today, and don’t let go.
The Call of the Shofar
For whatever reason, God put on my heart to look up and post the blowing of the shofar. I did a little research to find out some of the reasons it was sounded, and this is what I found:
“beginning on the second day of Rosh Chodesh Elul (and continuing until Erev Rosh Hashanah) the custom is to blow the shofar every day (except on Shabbat).” The Hebrew month of Elul is a time of repentance in preparation for the High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
“It is a wake-up call to sleepers, designed to rouse us from our complacency.”
Do you know what day is the 2nd day of the Hebrew month of Elul?
It began today at sunset.
“Yeshua spoke of the shofar blast from the angels who would ‘gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.'” (Matt. 24:31)
The eclipse took place on Elul 1, the same day that Moses went up on the mountain for 40 days and nights, the same day Jesus went into the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights. The shofar signifies spiritual warfare, and God’s victory.
Listen to the shofar. Can you imagine it?
If you want to read more about it, I found these websites:
http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Holidays/Fall_Holidays/Elul/Shofar/shofar.html and http://www.jewfaq.org/elul.htm
Preparation Day
“As you know, the Passover is two days away—and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.”
Matthew 26.2
The timing of Jesus’ crucifixion was no coincidence. God’s timing never is.
It was Passover, a seven-day holiday commemorating the day some 1336 years before when God delivered His people out of Egypt from the bonds of slavery.
In the last plague carried out before their freedom, the Destroyer would pass through Egypt, striking down every firstborn.
But to the Israelites He gave this command: kill the Passover lamb, spread its blood on the doorposts, remain inside, and the Destroyer will pass over the blood-stained homes and spare the firstborn.
This action more than a 1000 years before Christ’s death foreshadowed the freedom from slavery to sin that would be given to anyone who would choose to find refuge in the blood of the Lamb of God.
“It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon. ‘Here is your king,’ Pilate said to the Jews. But they shouted, ‘Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!’”
John 19:14-15
It was the day before the Sabbath. In the Hebrew culture, no work was to be done on the Sabbath, so all the arrangements for it – the cooking, cleaning, everything, had to be done by sundown the day before, known as Preparation Day.
Christ died on Preparation Day.
The work given to Him by His Father – His arrest, trials, beating, and His death on the cross to pay for our sins – was completed that day.
And He rested on the Sabbath.
Because Jesus, the Perfect Lamb of God, completed the work given to Him – the shedding of His blood as payment for sins – anyone who takes refuge in Him, who believes in Him as Lord will be forgiven and freed from the slavery of sin.
And those souls can rest in their freedom.
But God wasn’t finished.
Then came Sunday morning. The guards, the seal, the stone, even death itself could not hold Him.
He triumphantly rose from the grave, showing His power over death. And because He did, not only do we have freedom from sin, but freedom from spiritual death.
Could there be any greater love? Any greater gift?
Though we are free from the punishment of sin and death, we still wrestle in our flesh until we are brought into the presence of Christ and fully enter into our eternal rest from these earthly bodies.
As we walk toward that day, let us remember that nothing in Him is a coincidence. His timing, His choosing of our trials, are all to prepare us for that great and glorious day.
Until then, in this preparation time, let us “prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for Him” as we “continue to work out {our} salvation with fear and trembling” in expectation of the day we enter our complete and eternal rest.
Heavenly Father, thank you for sending your Son to die for our sins in our place. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for obediently finishing the work The Father gave to you. And thank you, Holy Spirit, for all you do to help prepare our hearts for our day of eternal rest when you bring us Home. We are so grateful, LORD, for your love and grace and mercy in our lives. In Jesus’ Name, amen.