Tag: Jesus Christ

He Certainly Does Answer, [Prayer]

 “He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him;
         I will be with him in trouble;
         I will deliver him and honor him.”

Psalm 91:15

“So I tell you to ask and you will receive, search and you will find, knock and the door will be opened for you.” 

 Luke 1:9

Our Father God very much wants to put us into a ‘win-win’ situation.  This is remarkable considering our our pathetic condition.  It seems we cannot generate enough steam to reduce the tension in our own lives, much less others. We are more or less ‘babes in the woods’ when it comes to anything of spiritual consequence.  We can only hope that He goes before us, unlocking doors, and making us look important.

But these verses do act as an encouragement.  He fully intends that we step into a door that has been widened and opened for us to step through, right into a room of full grace and assurance.  He intends that we make it real, and accept all that is done for us, in His grace and mercy.

Prayer is incredible.  When we finally begin to understand, we start to see that He is actively encouraging us to step’ into the wind.’  To stand and not be ‘wimps’.  To become disciples who are open to seeing things that take on a supernatural significance; so we must make the decision to become sensitive to the needs of others.

The Father is excavating a deeper place for us to pray.  As we step into this new place, we find an increased amplitude to extend ourselves into the lives of the struggling among us.  There becomes for us a new place of a strong intercession, something that is substantially fresh and aware.  It doesn’t seem to get more sophisticated, only more gentle and alert.

But we must pray.  We must engage the enemy that tries to advance.  To fail in doing this leaves many unprotected and vulnerable.  It really is not acceptable for us to let Satan roll over our friend’s hearts and lives.  We must provide resistance and strength to our loved ones. They may never know the prayer we offered them; until heaven.

Prayer is our key, and we need to move with it in a deliberate and direct manner.  So much of the enemy’s focus is directed towards our times of prayer.  Prayer disturbs him.  He tries to ‘corral’ us and to reduce our access to the Father.  But if we only press forward, we will find a freedom and liberty waiting for us.

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“Men may spurn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our person- but they are helpless against our prayer. Fellow Christians who love the cause of Christ- to prayer! To prayer!  The times are calling us to it. We must press on.”

 — Sidlow Baxter

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On Complete Surrender, by A.W. Tozer

“He that taketh not his cross . . . is not worthy of me.”  

Matt. 10:38

 by A.W. Tozer

Many of the great evangelists who have touched the world for God, including such men as Jonathan Edwards and Charles Finney, have declared that the church is being betrayed by those who insist on Christianity being made just a little bit “too easy.”

Jesus, Himself laid down the terms of Christian discipleship, and yet there are some among us who criticize: “Those words of Jesus sound harsh and cruel.”

But this is where we stand: Receiving Jesus Christ into your life means that you have made an attachment to the Person of Christ that is revolutionary, in that it reverses the life and transforms it completely! It is complete in that it leaves no part of the life unaffected. It exempts no area of the life of the total man and does demand nothing but all.

By faith and through grace, you have now formed an exclusive relationship with your Savior, Jesus Christ. All of your other relationships are now conditioned and determined by your one relationship to your Savior.  He must be preeminent.

To receive Jesus Christ, then, is to attach ourselves in faith to His holy person, to live or die, forever! He must be first and last and all!

A very basic prayer that you might simply offer,

“Lord, Your call upon my life is total. But there are times when I feel pulled in other directions that may not be pleasing to You. Give me grace and strength to keep You in first place in my life.  Amen.”

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From the “Mornings with Tozer,” by A. W. Tozer. For devotionals like this one for your iPhone, visit the 43rdElement.com. Broken Believers also posts Tozer’s Daily Devotions everyday in the right column of our front page. You’ll find Rev. Tozer will build your faith and give you a more certain assurance.
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Our Trip to Emmaus With Jesus

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“By this time they were nearing Emmaus and the end of their journey. Jesus acted as if he were going on, 29 but they begged him, “Stay the night with us, since it is getting late.” So he went home with them.”

Luke 24:29, NLT

I’m continuing to think about these guys on the road to Emmaus.  There is an intense desire of theirs to bring Jesus in to them and off the streets.  They only have a partial understanding of Jesus,  but they do have sense enough to invite Him into a comfortable place.  This was really out of the ordinary.  Afterall, He was just an agreeable traveller.

But the sentiment was strong.  They went really out of the way, and they began to insist.  And He finally consented.  There are times when we feel strong about a thing, and we find we are doing things out of the ordinary.

These two men discerned much.  They understood that night was coming.  They also understood Jesus’ need for food and shelter.  The day was dwindling down.  He could not continue on His own.  So they made room, and they opened up their lives to Him.  And never has there been such a guest.  Oh, but what blessed friendship He brings us.  We thrive and grow under His rays.  He brings us much more then we could ever give Him.

“As they sat down to eat, he took the bread and blessed it. Then he broke it and gave it to them. 31 Suddenly, their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And at that moment he disappeared!”

Luke 24:30-31

Jesus finally ‘undresses Himself’ .  He reveals who He really is, and these men rock back in their chairs.  Scripture says ‘that their eyes were opened’.  That took a supernatural work.  It is at this moment that Jesus disappeared.  He was gone, He just vanished from them.

“They said to each other, “Didn’t our hearts burn within us as he talked with us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?”

(v. 32.)

They were left with memories of a ‘burning heart’.  Jesus Christ had left a deep imprint, and these two men would always ‘nurse’ these memories of a long dusty walk with the resurrected Jesus.  They would, from on then, think about these fleeting moments, when they were so close, and yet missed Him who decided to take a walk with them in the bright Judean sunlight.

It is imperative that we remember our times with Jesus. When He reveals Himself to us, we will never be the same.

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The Man of the Tombs, [the Demoniac]

images (1)I’d like to share with you what I’m thinking this morning.  I hope you will persevere and go through it.  I identify with the “Man of the Tombs” so much.  I am sometimes asked about mental illness and demon possession, but I can give no real light.  All I know is that both are real and similar to each other.  Evil however has a presence about it that can be addressed and cast out.  Mental illness, on the other hand, is often a lifelong issue that requires management.  To complicate things there can be a combo of the two, with demonic exacerbating the medical issue.  God has gifted some in the Church with a gift “the discerning of spirits.”

This tells me #1, it is needful. #2, we should encourage this kind of gift as people have an even greater need today. Today there exists a deeper level for sin, with temptation never imagined by our grandparents generation. It seems that sin, and the resulting bondages, are more advanced.

I believe that Jesus has the power to free the captured heart. He also comforts day-by-day the minds and souls of the mentally ill. I will let Him decide what is what.

The Gerasene Demoniac, Mark 5, The Message Paraphrased

They arrived on the other side of the sea in the country of the Gerasenes. As Jesus got out of the boat, a madman from the cemetery came up to him. He lived there among the tombs and graves.”

No one could restrain him—he couldn’t be chained, couldn’t be tied down. He had been tied up many times with chains and ropes, but he broke the chains, snapped the ropes. No one was strong enough to tame him. Night and day he roamed through the graves and the hills, screaming out and slashing himself with sharp stones.

 6-8″When he saw Jesus a long way off, he ran and bowed in worship before him—then bellowed in protest, “What business do you have, Jesus, Son of the High God, messing with me? I swear to God, don’t give me a hard time!” (Jesus had just commanded the tormenting evil spirit, “Out! Get out of the man!”)

 9-10Jesus asked him, “Tell me your name.”  He replied, “My name is Mob. I’m a rioting mob.” Then he desperately begged Jesus not to banish them from the country.

11-13″A large herd of pigs was browsing and rooting on a nearby hill. The demons begged him, “Send us to the pigs so we can live in them.” Jesus gave the order. But it was even worse for the pigs than for the man. Crazed, they stampeded over a cliff into the sea and drowned.

 14-15Those tending the pigs, scared to death, bolted and told their story in town and country. Everyone wanted to see what had happened. They came up to Jesus and saw the madman sitting there wearing decent clothes and making sense, no longer a walking madhouse of a man.

 16-17Those who had seen it told the others what had happened to the demon-possessed man and the pigs. At first they were in awe—and then they were upset, upset over the drowned pigs. They demanded that Jesus leave and not come back.

 18-20As Jesus was getting into the boat, the demon-delivered man begged to go along, but he wouldn’t let him. Jesus said, “Go home to your own people. Tell them your story—what the Master did, how he had mercy on you.” The man went back and began to preach in the Ten Towns area about what Jesus had done for him. He was the talk of the town.”

Scripture taken from Mark 5:1-20, The Message by Eugene Peterson

 

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