Category: devotional

Prostitutes

 

Someones’s daughter                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 “Prostitutes are in no danger of finding their present life so satisfactory that they cannot turn to God: the proud, the avaricious, the self-righteous, are in that danger.”                                                                                                                                                                                -C.S. Lewis

Pride is the motivating force behind Satan’s attacks on Christians. Pride is what makes Lucifer behave the way he does, it is what makes him evil.

Is it any wonder that God hates it so? Rather than growing in the image of God, we grow in the image of Satan. This is no small matter. Evil transforms us into something both sad and hideous.

Just in case you think you’re getting off scot-free we discover that there are companion sins to pride: greed and self-righteousness. (We can tack on others that are just as corrosive to the human soul.)

Do you feel you’re better than others? Does your ”gift’ tmake you special? Pride is what turns men into devils. Often we become the thing we hate. Especially when we aew “walking in the flesh.” Read Galatians 5:19-21.

I believe that a prostitute is closer to God and God’s Kingdom than the proud and the self-absorbed. Typically, a prostitute has no problem in seeing their sin.  They allow themself to be degraded and used every night. They are surrounded by the evilness of man.

“My people ask wooden idols for advice;
    they ask those sticks of wood to advise them!
Like prostitutes, they have chased after other gods
    and have left their own God.”

Hosea 4:12

ybic, Bryan

 

 

 

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“Fine, I’ll Do It Broken” Link

Fine, I’ll Do It Broken

“Fine, I’ll Do It Broken

If you want a woman torn apart inside, weeping at the drop of a pin, confused in her own identity, disqualified in every sense of a leader…you got it!

A great link to a special teaching by Cheryl Meakins. This will bless you.

Fine, I’ll Do It Broken

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Taking Chances

 

OVER LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas — Airmen from the 346th and 342nd Training Squadrons perform a high-altitude, low-opening parachute jump onto the base’s parade grounds below Feb. 21. The proficiency training exercise had combat controllers and pararescuemen exiting the aircraft at 9,500 feet, traveling at 130 knots, and landing on a precise target at the drop zone. (U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Lance S. Cheung)

I have observed something else under the sun. The fastest runner doesn’t always win the race, and the strongest warrior doesn’t always win the battle. The wise sometimes go hungry, and the skillful are not necessarily wealthy. And those who are educated don’t always lead successful lives. It is all decided by chance, by being in the right place at the right time.

Ecclesiastes 9:11, NLT

Consider the following:
  • The verse tips us off to the unfair injuries and surprising twists that life gives us. The effort of a talented slave can give him precedence over a powerful king. This is indeed long anticipated news for those of us on the ‘margins’ of society.
  • Your life is not a series of random events; rather, God is sovereign. All things are shaped to do His will and carry out His holy  purposes.  He is very creatively working for you. We know that He loves us and we trust in this.
  • The logical is hardly a sure bet. Those with an ‘advanced sense of victory’ are often passed by the weak and ungifted. Talent is not proof of triumph. Your gifting doesn’t validate any success whatsoever.

 Just as you cannot understand the path of the wind or the mystery of a tiny baby growing in its mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the activity of God, who does all things.

Ecclesiastes 11:5, NLT

  • This verse wants to do something to the reader. It emphasizes God’s creative power, and it humbles both the greatest king and  the lowest slave.
  • None  of us cannot fathom the ‘effort of God.’  A summa cum laude with a doctorate in Biology still  can’t achieve in their lab the creation of a child.  They can’t read God’s blueprints.
  • I believe that this verse is evidence of the sacredness of life and our response. The Father knitted you in secret. You are special. The world system disagrees. It loathes you. This cannot be overstated.
  • Full understanding of God is not possible. He lavishes ‘portions’ of Himself to our hearts and then hides them from others.  This is how He conducts himself.  We dare not find fault with Him in this.
  • There is no ‘God app’ to download that explains the full essence of the Almighty. Enough said.

As a broken believer I discover that  God’s kindnesses are piled high all around me.  My mental illness, my ‘on-again, off-again’ discipleship are within His grace parameters (they’re endless, or so I’ve been told).

These verses invite me to boldly live my life as a redeemed believer. I can jump out into promises of God with passionate gusto, and find He has been waiting for me all the time.

Just some random thoughts, which I know are woefully incomplete.

I’m almost embarrassed by the general shabbiness of this post on this blog. My apologies. But it is what it is.

 

Training Your Spirit

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“Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.”

2 Corinthians 4:10, NLT

“Since he himself has gone through suffering and testing, he is able to help us when we are being tested.”

Hebrews 2:18

No book, no tutor will give us the education we need.  We must patiently go through seasons of difficulty and temptation before we can understand what our brother or sister is facing.  Furthermore, we must advance through different levels;  sickness, injury, loss and discouragement.  On top of this, we must be tutored in the language of affliction, till we speak it without an accent.

This is a ‘strange’ school.  We’re watched and observed very closely to see what we will do.  “Will he give $5 to the homeless man, or will he turn away like usual?” There are billions of these scenarios that we get placed in.  And often there are multiple layers of these ‘programs’ running simultaneously.

And yet we are always being evaluated in love.

It is very advantageous for you to pass this way, because it lets you speak the dialect of suffering, with its mixture of pain and joy.  Believers now have a common tongue which in we communicate.

When Lynn and I lost our daughter Elizabeth, it was a deep, dark valley.  But I came to see (understand) that in some obscure way now able to speak into the hearts of those who were lost in pain.  Death has a way of touching us deeply.

There are so many different classes in God’s ‘strange’ university.  You may be enrolled in Compassion 101, or Mercy 410.  Oh, and by the way there is a school counselor available to all students that request Him (the Holy Spirit).

Also, we will do remarkably better if we will befriend others who are also enrolled.  Worshipping and the Word are quite critical as we must keep our spirits clean and right.

“He suffered and endured every test and temptation, so that he can help us every time we pass through the ordeals of life.”

Hebrews 2:18, TPT

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