A Very Present Help In Time of Need!

 

The last few months have been, to say the least, a little bit stressful!  Not just personally, but on every level of life.  We have all been assaulted in our personal, professional and church lives.  I think it would be safe to say we have been shaken to the core of all the things that we believe and that we hold dear.  Never would I have imagined a time that I would be concerned to go to the store, concerned about finding toilet paper (of all things), or concerned about going to church.  It is an unprecedented time we find ourselves in.  To be honest it has caused me to dig in to the Word of God more, to remind myself of the things that I hold dear, and to ask myself if I really believe these things.  There’s a difference between believing them and believing them!  When you are on a boat and they give you a life jacket you believe that the life jacket will hold you up in the water and keep you safe.  When they tell you to put that life jacket on because the boat is sinking and you will soon be in the water – well – it takes on a whole new level of believing.  Suddenly your very life rests in the ability of that life jacket to hold you up and protect you from drowning.  That’s kind of how I have felt since March.  Suddenly my very life depends on the ability of the Word to keep me safe.  While I have spent many years learning to trust God and His word, it’s not been tested very often.  Yes, on missions trips I have had to flex my faith muscle.  Not because we were ever really in any danger, but because there were some uncomfortable things for me to overcome.  I’m not a fan of flying, so I have to really flex that muscle and put action to my faith in order to fly.  But – when you are at home, living your normal life, everything is good, you’re not really exercising your faith daily.  You are just kind of floating along on the manifested goodness of God.  And there’s nothing wrong with that, we all do it pretty much every day.  God loves us, we are His children, and He does want us to have those times of rest and living the blessed life.  However, we are in the world and we do have to go through some of the garbage the enemy throws out upon mankind.  It is the result of living in a fallen world.  Praise God that we can have the victory through Christ Jesus!! 

As all of this pandemic began to unfold I found myself saying that God is “a very present help in time of need.”  When I looked it up I found that it is based on Psalm 46:1 that says: God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  As I thought on that phrase more, the song “Made Me Glad” written by Hillsong, started running through my mind.  This line is in the chorus – it actually says my very present help in time of need.  The more I said it and thought on it, the more I wanted to know what “very present” meant.  It seemed to me that there was something that I needed to understand about that phrase, so I looked it up in Strong’s Concordance and read some commentaries on it.  The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges commentary states “a very present help in trouble] Lit., a help in distresses hath he let himself be found exceedingly. The words are not merely a general statement, but an appeal to recent experience. For ‘let himself be found’ cp. 2 Chronicles 15:2; 2 Chronicles 15:4; 2 Chronicles 15:15; Jeremiah 29:14.  When we seek the Lord – He is found by us.”  Notice the words – He hath let himself be found exceedingly.  Exceedingly means extremely, immensely, tremendously.  Not just “Oh, God is here” but “OH!  GOD IS HERE RIGHT NOW!”  Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary echoes the same thought - present help—literally, "a help He has been found exceedingly."

The Treasury of David says:  “A very present help in trouble, or in distresses He has so been found, He has been tried and proved by His people. He never withdraws Himself from His afflicted. He is their help, truly, effectually, constantly; He is present or near them, close at their side and ready for their succor, and this is emphasized by the word "very" in our version, He is more present than friend or relative can be, yea, more nearly present than even the trouble itself. To all this comfortable truth is added the consideration that His assistance comes at the needed time. He is not as the swallows that leave us in the winter; He is a friend in need and a friend indeed. When it is very dark with us, let brave spirits say, "Come, let us sing the Psalm 46:1-11."

As we face these very different times, this passage of scripture should bring us much comfort.  It is very apparent that man does not have the answer to these problems.  It’s not a political party, a leader or medicine that is going to fix these things.  We have seen through this pandemic that all of these avenues of man have failed.  The only true and sure help comes through God.  I have determined that I am going to make this scripture one of the foundational truths I stand on:  God IS my refuge, my strength, and He is my VERY PRESENT HELP in time of trouble.  If you are struggling right now, feeling that there is no hope, no end in sight, seek the Lord.  He promises you that He will be found when you seek Him and He will come to your aid immediately.  He has a history of doing just that and He won’t fail you now!

 

 

The Power of the Blood of Jesus

The Power of the Blood

Recently I have taken on the task of teaching a Point Group for our Church.  The subject I have chosen is “The Power of the Blood.”  Now you might wonder what blood I’m talking about, why I would want to talk about blood, how much can there be to understand about blood?  It seems like a strange subject for me to take on – considering that I do not like the sight of blood.  You can ask my husband, my kids, anyone that has ever been around me when someone is bleeding – I DO NOT LIKE blood.  Makes me sick to my stomach.  So why in the world would I teach on blood?  Am I going to medical school?  Haha, that’s laughable.

No, the Blood I’m talking about is glorious!  It is blood such as has never been seen before.  It is all powerful, ever living, undefeatable.  You may have guessed by now – I am talking about the precious Blood of Jesus.  Yes – the only Blood that will live forever.  You see, man cannot live without blood.  When the blood leaves the body – man dies.  It goes back to an inert substance – and the body dies.  Leviticus 17:11 states “For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.”  Life is in the blood.  So the fountain of youth is really in the blood.  If you want to live forever, you have to tap into a blood that will never die.  We’ll talk more about that later.  

We see in Leviticus that the only atonement for man’s soul is through blood. In the Old Testament God instituted the “rule” that sin cannot be covered except by blood.  We first see this displayed after Adam and Eve sinned.  Here we see that sin has left man “naked” before God.  The glory of God, which Adam and Eve were clothed in, had departed.  They were afraid to come into God’s presence and so they made clothes of fig leaves for themselves and they hid.  When God came down to talk with them that day they had to admit to him that they had sinned.  How did God fix that?  He made clothes for them out of an animal skin.  It doesn’t take a lightening fast brain to understand that some animal had to die.  I highly doubt it unzipped it’s coat (as you might see on a cartoon) and stepped out of it.  No, it had to die.  There was a substitution taking place for Adam and Eve to be clothed (to have their sin covered.)  The life of the animal was given so that Adam and Eve could continue to live.  Remember – the life of the flesh is in the blood.  Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin - Hebrews 9:22. We see, first and foremost, that God requires blood to be shed for man’s sin.  God allowed an animal to substitute its life for the life of Adam and Eve, and for a time their sin was covered.

All through the Old Testament we see this happening over and over.  When man sinned, there was a system in place whereby his sins could be remitted.  The dictionary defines remitted as “cancel or refrain from exacting or inflicting a debt or punishment.”  The debt or punishment for sin was death.  God allowed man to substitute an animal for his life, thereby taking the punishment, or paying the debt that was due.  From Genesis to Revelation, we see that blood is always shed as payment for sin.  Seems kind of hopeless when you read the Old Testament.  It was a vicious cycle.  Every day there was a daily sacrifice performed by the priests at the Tabernacle, morning and evening, then there were special days where sacrifices were offered, and once a year the Day of Atonement.  They lived in a perpetual state of shedding of blood.  Imagine the volume of blood that was shed throughout a year – they could not escape thoughts of the blood.  Hundreds, maybe thousands, of animals dying every year to cover mankind’s sin.  There is about 10 gallons of blood in a cow.  Now just imagine in a year’s time, there were about 1,246 animal sacrifices.  There were daily sacrifices, Sabbath sacrifices, Passover week, Feast of Pentecost, Feast of trumpets, Day of Atonement, just to mention a few.  According to one source I read it amounted to 114 Bulls, 37 rams, 1063 lambs, 32 goats every year.  That is a lot of blood. You were never really free of a sin consciousness – you lived from year to year – hoping the High Priest’s offering would be acceptable to God and your sin would be covered for another year.  Why?  Because the blood was not eternal, it was not equal to the blood of man, it could only cover – not remove.  The Old Testament – if you really read it with the blood in mind, is a very bloody book.  Blood is everywhere. Clearly, blood is very important to God. 

In order to understand the blood, we must learn to think like God thinks. I think we have established that there is no remission for sins without the blood, but what else do we need to know about the blood?  What else does it accomplish?  First we must understand the make-up of Jesus’ blood.  The virgin birth of Jesus is absolutely crucial to the story of redemption.  Throughout the Old Testament we see that the blood of bulls and goats was inferior.  It could not remove Man’s sin, nor was it permanent.  It was a vicious cycle – to be repeated every day, every year – never ending.  Adam’s blood became tainted when he sinned – therefore it was no longer pure.  Jesus did not carry man’s tainted blood.  He carried the pure blood of God – untainted by sin.  Holy blood, the life of the flesh is in the blood.  Therefore, Jesus carried the life of God in his blood.  Pure, eternal blood.  The only blood that could take away the penalty of sin, which is death. 

Jesus came to this earth to become the PERFECT LAMB – the only acceptable sacrifice to a Holy God.  He lived a sinless life so he became the spotless lamb.  When he was crucified and shed his blood, God’s penalty for sin had been paid.  Now, when we receive the gift of salvation from the Father, we become one with Jesus.  He said I am the vine, you are the branches.  The sap that runs through the vine is the sap that runs through the branches.  At the new birth you were recreated – not restored, or refreshed – you were RECREATED!   You are now a new creation – II Corinthians 5:17 says   “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here.  The amplified says “Therefore, if anyone is [ingrafted] in Christ [the Messiah] he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away.  Behold, the fresh and new has come!”  The idea of ingrafting is like a vine and a twig – when the twig is inserted into the vine it begins to receive the life of the vine.  When we are ingrafted into Christ – through the new birth – we begin to receive the life of the vine.  The Blood of Jesus, which is represented in communion when we drink the fruit of the vine, begins to flow through us.  It is important that we understand this so we can begin to appropriate all the virtues of that precious Blood in our own bodies.  Everything we receive from God is by faith – so we must build our faith in regard to the Blood to fully receive all the benefits it provides.

In the natural body blood is the thing that makes us live.  Without blood we can’t live.  We see that in Leviticus 17:11 where it says all life is in the blood.  It is also our defender against sickness and disease.  It carries a substance called antibodies.  I looked up an article about antibodies to see what it said – to paraphrase “Antibodies (also called immunoglobulins) are specialized proteins that travel through the bloodstream and  are found in bodily fluids. They are used by the immune system to identify and defend against foreign intruders to the body.”  Now let’s take that over into the spiritual realm.

I was praying one night and the Lord showed me something about Jesus’ blood.  His blood contains antibodies for EVERY sickness and EVERY disease ever known to mankind.  When he was on the cross every sickness, every disease, every sin, every sorrow was laid on him.  (Isaiah 53:4)  The Bible also tells us that he has defeated death and has the keys to hell and death. (Revelation 1:18)  The antibodies are in the blood, and we have the blood of Jesus running through our veins.  He has already defeated EVERY sickness and every disease – named and un-named.  When you were born again and made a new creation you received the Blood of Jesus.  When you meditate on His Blood and speak about His Blood, give honor to His Blood, you are drinking His Blood – as it says in the Bible – when we take communion we are eating His flesh and drinking His Blood.  Reading the Word is “eating” his flesh because He is the bread of life, and the juice represents His Blood.  We appropriate it, like everything else, by faith. In John 6:53 Jesus said “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood, you have no life in you."

His Blood contains all the antibodies for every sickness and disease because he defeated them – just like our natural bodies defeat sicknesses and then we have a natural immunity built up against that germ. His Blood is identifying and defending against ALL foreign intruders to your body!  His Blood has all the antibodies you will ever need.  We HAVE A SUPERNATURAL IMMUNITY flowing through our veins because the Blood of Jesus is flowing through our veins.  If we will appropriate it by faith – we can defeat every sickness and disease, every sin and every sorrow that comes against us.  We need to rise up, NOW, and begin to declare the power of the Jesus’ Blood over our lives and that of our families.

The enemy IS defeated and Jesus IS Lord!

ADVERSITY + ATTITUDE = ADVANCEMENT? FAILURE? IT'S UP TO YOU!

A thought occurred to me recently - no matter what the devil throws at us, if we handle it God's way, it only brings promotion.  Now that thought alone ought to brighten our days.

I guess I started thinking about it after I read a post by Ken Blount that said the devil only attacks what he fears.  If you sail along day after day, month after month, and you never have any adversity - you might want to look at how closely you are walking with the Lord.  If you are not living the kind of life that disturbs the devil, then he's probably not going to bother you!  Adversity comes as we serve God, but how we handle it determines what the outcome is.  Satan would like you to think he determines the outcome, but that is not true.  It's actually up to you.

It's safe to say I've had some adversity this year.  Really, starting around last October.  First the devil tried to bring financial harm to us when some plumbing in our house burst.  We have a slab floor, so it could have been very costly and time consuming.  BUT - God is faithful - we stood on Malachi 3:10, and it wound up being a very simple job and we came out ahead financially.  Ha ha, devil, ha ha!

Then, in December, the devil tried to take out one of my kids and one grandkid.  He tried to kill Rebekah and Brody with carbonmonoxide poisoning - not kidding - really tried!  According to one very knowledgeable man, they should have been dead two hours before they walked out of the house.  God is good!  Then, in February, my son got sick and had a very difficult situation where he could have died.  BUT, once again, God triumphed!  His word says in Isaiah 49:25 that He would contend with him who contends with us, and He would save our children.  (My paraphrase)  I have confessed that scripture for years, and I literally saw God perform it over my kids.  God's Word will not return to Him void, but it will accomplish that which it is sent forth to do.  (Isaiah 55:11)

The problem with most of us is that we don't have enough Word in us to know what to say when adversity hits.  We absolutely cannot defeat the enemy in our own power.  But praise God, we don't have to operate in our power.  God has given us His spirit, His Blood and His Word to use against the enemy.  Jesus already won the victory - we're just enforcers of it.  Sometimes we're better prepared for the attacks than other times.  We get kind of lazy with our Word time and the storehouse gets a little empty or a little dusty.  But hey, no condemnation - just pick up that Bible, get back into the Word and be better prepared next time.

I have had lots of adversity in the last several months, so I guess that means maybe the devil's a little scared of me?  I like to think so, because I have the greater one living in me.  Hopefully I am living my life in such a way that the enemy trembles a little when I get up in the morning.  Well, lately probably not so much, but I'm going to get back in the Word and get back to what God has created me to do.

I am going to take this adversity, and with the power of the Holy Ghost, the Blood and the Word, I am going to turn it into advancement.  You can to - its up to you!

God doesn't have love.........

Now that I've got your attention - let me complete that thought.  God doesn't "have" love, God IS love!  1 John 4:16 says "And we have known and believed the love that God has for us.  God IS love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him."

I'm not sure if you've ever thought about it before, but there is a lot of difference between having something and being something.  An onion may have dirt on it when you dig it up, but underneath that dirt it is an onion.  No matter how small you slice and dice it, it is still an onion.  It will always exhibit the characteristics of an onion.  When you cut it up - you will have tears in your eyes!  When you cook it, it will smell like an onion.  When you eat it, it will taste like an onion.  I am a human being.  No matter what happens to me, at the core of who I am is a human being.  You can't make me anything else.  I'll never be an onion, a car, a house, a dog - I am a human.  Every fiber of my body is human.  If you sliced into me (and please don't!) you would find all the parts that make up a human.  I exhibit all the characteristics of a human.  I walk upright, I speak, I think, I cry when I'm sad, I laugh when I'm happy - all human characteristics.

God IS love.  He can never be anything but love.  If you could slice and dice God up like an onion, at the very center of God, you would have love.  He exhibits all the characteristics of love.  He speaks love, He thinks love, He exudes love.

So why does it matter if God has love or IS love?  Because knowing this truth helps us understand the very nature - the essence - of God.  When you understand a human, then you know what their internal organs look like, you know what their body design is, how their brain functions.  You can anticipate their behavior because all humans exhibit the same traits, share the same emotions, have the same basic body design, etc. 

If we understand that God is love, then we can understand what He looks like through and through.  And, we can anticipate His behavior.  If He IS love, then He will exhibit the traits of love.  Because that is WHO He is.

If God HAS love, then it's something He can just as easily "un" have.  You know what I mean?  If you're angry with me, you can become "un" angry.  If you love me according to the world's definition of love, you can also "un" love me.  But because God IS love, then He will always respond to you with love.  Everything He does is based on the fact that He is love.  If you want to see what love looks like, read 1 Corinthians 13:4-8.  This is a wonderful description of love. 

As a born-again Christian, a child of God, I can anticipate how God is going to respond to me.  He will always respond in love.  Having that understanding gives me confidence in approaching Him.  It gives me confidence through all the circumstances I face.  I can run to my Father, who IS love and expect Him to respond as love. 

If you need proof of His love, all you have to do is look at Jesus.  When you study all that He suffered for the human race, and all the blessings that He has given us, you can begin to get just a slight picture of what love is. 

I encourage you to meditate on the love of God.  Let it get so big on the inside of you that you can boldly come into the Throne Room of Grace in time of need.  As it says in 1 John 4:16 - we have known and BELIEVED the love.  We must believe the love of God.

He loves you - He is waiting for you to come running into His loving arms any time of the day or night.  You can have confidence in that because He IS Love.

OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW!

Have you ever had that thought, or heard someone make that statement?  Of course, we all have, it's been around a long time, I'm sure.  Generally it's used in connection with the new year.  But, have you ever had that thought in connection with the Bible?  No, me either.  Until, that is, I had a dream a few nights ago.

It all started with the lessons we've been studying in Sunday School.  Our lessons for the month of September are on the book of Hebrews.  Quite an interesting book!  The writer of Hebrews (which most theologians agree was Paul) is writing about the Old Covenant and old Priesthood, and the New Covenant and new Priesthood.

I had been studying and reading the scriptures one night before I went to bed.  Sometime in the middle of the night I remember these thoughts coming to me.  Not sure if it was a dream or what, but you know how you KNOW that it's God speaking to you?  That's what happened to me.  The gist of what He said is:

Paul was setting the stage for the Hebrews to understand the power and importance of the New Covenant and it's High Priest, Jesus.  He began with the Old Covenant and the old line of the Priesthood.  It was fleshly in every realm.  The priests came from the line of Aaron - a man - and the sacrifices were of animals.  The tabernacle was made with human hands out of earthly materials.  The Old Covenant could not remove sin or cleanse the conscience - it only covered sin and gave a short reprieve to the person bringing the sacrifices to the temple.

God used the Old Covenant to "keep" his children until the new and better Covenant was established.  The Old Covenant covered sin and allowed the people to be forgiven, but it also pointed to the complete inadequacy of man to live up to it's laws, or to come into the presence of a Holy God - to the complete inadequacy of the blood of bulls and goats to remove sin, and the certainty of having to return over and over again to the Tabernacle to repeat the whole process.  There was certainly no rest in the Old Covenant!

However, God was not finished with his man.  No - His goal - His ultimate plan - was to bring man into right relationship with Him forever.  Paul begins now to point out the new and better promises that came through the New Covenant.  He points out all the differences between the Old and the New Covenants and the line of priests that came through Aaron and the one and only High Priest named Jesus!

The New Covenant is spiritual.  The Priest came from God - his blood is Holy blood.  He is man and God.  His sacrifice was flesh and spirit all at the same time.  He took his own blood into the Heavenly Holy of Holies - a tabernacle not built with human hands or of earthly materials - but of Holy hands and heavenly material - located in Heaven.  No longer will man have to strive to come before God - to offer unending sacrifices and never have a clean conscience.  Thanks be to God that through the New Covenant we can stand before the Heavenly Father cleansed and free and Holy - through our High Priest, Jesus.  His sacrifice was made, once and for all, never to be repeated.  It was more than more than enough.

Paul wants his readers to understand and receive the fullness of the New Covenant - all it offers us - to fully embrace the power and importance of that Covenant and it's High Priest, Jesus. 

So, we should be rejoicing today and every day that our great High Priest, the eternal, supreme, Holy, Jesus, is seated at the right hand of God, ever interceding for us!  We can enter into His rest everyday, receive forgiveness of our sins at any moment, and enjoy fellowship with our Father 24 hours a day.  Receive the New Covenant and all it offers you today.

Glory to God - out with the old, and in with the NEW!

WOW!

As I sit here at the computer I can hardly believe it's almost the end of August!  The last four months have literally flown by.  The last time I wrote anything was June 4th and we had just been hired as the Pastors at Full Gospel Christian Church.  Now, here we are, all settled in (sort of) and loving being full-time Pastors.  God has blessed us with a wonderful core group of people who are solid, mature Christians and have a hunger for the things of God.  We are excited for all that God is going to do through this Church. 

I was sifting through a bunch of "stuff" that accumulates in your house, and I came across a word Pastor Pat had for us about two years ago.  We were pretty discouraged at that point in time, the search for a Church wasn't going well, and we had just about decided we'd never be Pastors.  You know how the devil works!  The gist of the word he gave us was we were to run as we go, run as we go, and as we run we'll step right into our next place.  That is exactly what happened!  The last two years that I worked at CPC I literally felt like my tongue was hanging out all the time.  Marathon - ya know?  Well, as we were running, we looked up one day and we were Pastors! 

God is faithful.  No matter what we think or how discouraged we get, He never, NEVER, let me say that again, NEVER forgets His promises to us.  I have learned that God's timeline and mine are not always the same, but He is never early, never late - but always on time.  If you will wait on His timing, you will be in the perfect place at the perfect time.

Don't be discouraged if you are in a place of waiting.  Trust in the Lord and lean not unto your own understanding and He shall direct your paths!  (Vicki's translation, lol)

Love you!

The Adventure Begins!

This is the official announcement that Danny and I are moving!  We have been called to pastor Full Gospel Christian Church in Stuttgart, Arkansas!  This is not a big surprise for most of you that know us.  We have been looking for a church for a while now - to be exact four and 1/2 years - but hey, who's counting?  I won't kid you, it's been a long, arduous, sometimes discouraging task.  We have preached at a few churches, got close to being the right one, but in the end, they picked the other guy.  It was very sad for us when we didn't get the call, but now I'M SO GLAD!  God is faithful and He does exceedingly, abundantly more than we can ask or think. 

This Church is close to home (only about an hour and 15 minutes away), located in a good town, and the people are anxious for change.  They want to grow and get momentum going, and they have been confessing that they are growing and the Church is full!  They are very loving people and want to evangelize their world.  They have embraced Danny and I with open arms. 

We will be moving sometime around the first of July, but we are already "on the job."  We will be driving down on the week-ends and ministering on Sunday.  They currently have someone teaching on Wednesday nights, so he'll continue to do that til we get settled. 

I will be posting pics and updates on FB and also on my blog.

So exicted!  And - I.N.D.Y.!!!!