Tag: Rescue

More Rope!

Posted on by Dorci

“Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord Himself, is the Rock eternal.”
Isaiah 26:4 NIV

Every time I’m sure I’m at the end of my rope, God gives me more.

And I rediscover all over again that He’s the keeper of the rope.  He’s the giver of the rope. He’s the maker of the rope.

He is the rope.

He is my hope, my peace, my breath, my life.

He never lets me fall.

Oh, I’ve come close.  You know that scene in the first Mission Impossible where Tom Cruise hangs from a cable and absolutely cannot touch the floor or his cover will be blown, but his partner gets spooked and lets him go?  And suddenly Cruise is free-falling, his partner stopping him only at the last second.

via GIPHY

That’s me.  Only I’m the one who gets spooked, lets go and careens toward the bottom.  But with God there is no bottom.  Not really.  There’s always more rope, and what I thought was the bottom, wasn’t.

And however close I come to it, God is always there to break my fall.  At least He is as long as He’s the one at the end of the rope I’m holding.  As long as He’s the one I’m ultimately trusting.

Are you trusting God today?

If not, He’s only a prayer away.  Tell Him you’re putting your trust in Him.  And if you struggle with trusting Him, tell Him that, too. He already knows, and He loves you.  Open a line of communication with Him right now.  And grab the rope.

The Binding of Our Spirits

Posted on by Dorci

Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.
Psalm 27:14

Moses did it for 40 years, and then again for another 40.  Joseph did it for 13 years. David did it for 8 years. Jonah did it for 3 days. The Hebrews did it for 430 years.  And who knows how long Job did it.

I’ve been doing it for almost 12 years.  Maybe you’ve been doing it, too.

All of us have either just gotten through, or we’re going through, or we will soon go through a waiting period.  The question is, though, what or whom are we waiting on?

In my particular case, I can easily wait on the right doctor, the right blood test, the right scan, the right procedure, the right medication, and on and on.  And I do believe that God uses doctors and medicine to achieve His purposes.  But only in His timing.

He is the One I wait on.  My healing will come in His way, and in His time.  And that healing may not come until I see my Savior face to face, but it will come.

He is my glory, my portion, my all in all.

Moses may well have thought his life in the desert herding sheep would be all the life he’d ever see.  But God was preparing him to lead God’s people across the desert.

God was preparing Joseph to lead Egypt, David to be King, and the Hebrews to trust and follow Him into the Promised Land.  And God was bringing Job into a deeper, far more intimate relationship with Him than he ever imagined.  And I believe God used Job as a witness to his friends and to the people of the town that a righteous man is one who lives by faith in God, not just by the rules he follows. (I would love to know how many people put their faith in God through Job’s amazing testimony.)

The word wait in Psalm 27:14 is qâvâh – to bind together (perhaps by twisting), to collect, to expect, to gather together.

cord
 

Our wait in the Lord in not sitting and doing nothing.  Through it we learn to let go of the world, strand by strand, and bind our spirits to His. We become one with our Savior, and His heart becomes our heart; His will, our will.

As our spirit becomes more and more bound with His, we confidently watch, expectantly look to Him for our salvation in all things. We know that God sees our heart and hears our prayers.  We understand that His wait has a purpose.  He is preparing us, teaching us, maturing us, and best of all, loving us.  Never think that the lack of an immediate answer means God doesn’t love you.  Remember Moses and Joseph and David and Jonah and Job and His beloved people who waited in Egypt.

Whatever we wait for on this earth, whether it’s health or relationships or jobs, or for our brothers and sisters in certain parts of world who wait for their release from unjust imprisonment, whether that’s a jail cell or the evil hands of their abusers, or a million other things, all of us who love and follow the Lord Jesus Christ wait on Him for our ultimate rescue.

“For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
Romans 8:19, 22-25

Even the creation groans for the time when sin is a thing of the past and God brings us all into the presence of His glory.  We wait, too, but we wait expectantly, patiently, hopefully, knowing that our rescue is near.

And while we wait, while we groan inwardly with creation for all things to be made new and perfect and beautiful, we must hold onto the hope that our waiting here prepares us for our life there.  Our wait, and all we’ve gone through, will be worth it as we stand before Jesus and the purpose for it all is suddenly clear, and we share our reward with the Rescuer of our souls.

Since ancient times no one has heard,
no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
who acts on behalf of those who wait for Him.
Isaiah 64:4

Continue

Posted on by Dorci

“You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them.  

In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,  while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.  

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.  

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”  2 Timothy 3
~Paul

Stumbling Block

Posted on by Dorci

“‘I have the right to do anything,’ you say—but not everything is beneficial. ‘I have the right to do anything’—but not everything is constructive. No one should seek their own good, but the good of others.” 1 Corinthians 10:23-24

As we grow up in Christ, we learn to put away our so-called rights. We learn that just because we can do something doesn’t mean we should. It doesn’t mean it is good for our walk, good for the building up of our brothers and sisters in Christ, good for our witness to the unsaved world, and good for glorifying our Father.

As our love grows, so does our desire to put aside those things that would keep us from shining as brightly as we can in this dark and aging world. More than the “thing”, we desire to magnify the Name of Christ and to be about our Father’s business, not our own.

If you had one week to live, what would you put away for the good of Christ and to make the most of the time you had left for Him? People are dying around us, if not physically, then spiritually. If we have a chance to be Christ for them, so to speak, to be the embodiment of the Spirit, which we certainly are, and to show them there is a different way, a holy way, a godly way, is the “thing” worth it?

People may not say it, but they are looking for something different. Something other than what the world offers, because what it offers is sin and disillusionment and destruction and death. They are looking for a way through, an answer, a peace in the middle of the storm, a purpose.

They don’t know it, but they are looking for Christ. Is the “thing” you would give up a stumbling block, for yourself or for them? Is it worth it? Life is short and we have one purpose: to glorify our Creator. To know Him and make Him known. Is it time to kick the stumbling block out of the way?

In Christ we have the freedom to do, but even greater is the freedom we have to give it up.

In His great grace,

Thankful Thursday – Forgiven

Posted on by Dorci

“When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.

When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, ‘If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.’

Jesus answered him, ‘Simon, I have something to tell you.’

‘Tell me, teacher,’ he said.

‘Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?’

Simon replied, ‘I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.’

‘You have judged correctly,’ Jesus said.

Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, ‘Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.’

Then Jesus said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven.'” Luke 7:36-48

Nothing gets by Jesus, right? The Pharisee thought he was talking to himself, but Jesus knew what was in his heart: judgement. Legalism never leaves room for love.

He knew what was in the woman’s heart, too: repentance. She came face to face with the Son of God. His glory and grace, in contrast to her sins, brought her to her knees in repentance and humility so much that it spilled out into her actions without a care what people thought. She worshipped Him with all she had.

I’ve been forgiven for much, too. I’ve been called a fanatic for my faith, and by someone who called himself a Christian. But I don’t care. Christ was fanatical about His love for me as He allowed Himself to be arrested, “tried”, and crucified, all for my sins. My only argument with my critic is that I’m not fanatical enough. Christ gave me His life. Is my all too much to give in return?  Never.

In His Grace,