Slip, Secured, Safe

For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. 

Colossians 3:3

Show Your marvelous lovingkindness by Your right hand,

 O You who save those who trust [in You] From those who rise up [against them]. 

Psalm 17:7 

Bow down Your ear to me, Deliver me speedily; Be my rock of refuge, 

A fortress of defense to save me. 

Psalm 31:2

British clergyman F. B. Meyer wrote about two Germans who wanted to climb the Matterhorn. They hired three guides and began the steep and treacherous ascent. They roped themselves together in this order: guide, traveler, guide, traveler, guide.

They had gone only a little way when the last man lost his footing. He was held up by the other four, because each had a toehold in the niches they had cut in the ice. But then the next man slipped and pulled down the two above him. The only one to hold on was the first guide, who had driven a spike deep into the ice. Because he held on, all the men beneath him regained their footing.

Meyer concluded his story by drawing a spiritual application. He said, "I am like one of those men who slipped, but thank God, I am bound in a living partnership to Christ. And because He stands I will never perish."

All of us slip again and again as we walk the Christian pathway. But we are held securely by the Lord, and we can be restored to close fellowship with Him when we confess our sins

 

When the Dream Crumbles Part 3

Dreams Crumble when mankind is Arrogant
Jeremiah 2:13 b …and dug cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that cannot hold water 

A cistern is man’s answer to dryness – it is a collection pit for the confinement of water…deep hewn out places in the rock or built through masonry and brick – supported series of drains and conduits to transfer the rainwater from the rooftops to the containers…(temple area of Jerusalem is said to have had at least 37 great cisterns – one held between 2-3 million gallons)  

A spiritual cistern dug by man’s own design is a dangerous thing – Matthew Henry said – “They have cheated themselves. They for shook their own mercies for lying vanities. When they came to quench their thirst there they found nothing but mud and mire, and the filthy sediments of a standing lake.”

America’s broken cisterns:

·       Rugged Individualism – Self centered man as the center of everything, denying ourselves nothing, no disciple, no limits, no morality – we didn’t get here over night!

o   Ravi Z - When secularization has had its full sway, it will leave a generation devoid of shame. If you show me a generation that lacks shame, I will show you a generation that is monstrous in its appetite… never satisfied.

o   We want Abortion on Demand, Marriage on Demand, Healthcare on Demand – actions with no consequences.

·       Government

o   Roosevelt said – We have nothing to fear but fear itself!

o   Today we have nothing to fear except from our own Gov’t

o   Out of control bureaucracy, spying on citizens, drones set loose, “I don’t have to testify! I’m the IRS”, Nanny state, my vote can be overturned by a court, Lost influence internationally,

o   Made a guy mad this week – when he said our two smartest presidents have been Jimmy and Barrack – I said “Lord, Knows then we need another dummy up there like Ronald!”

·  

     Celebrity Pulpits & Compromising-Complaining-Complacent Churches

o   John the Baptist Lost his head over preaching the truth about a political marriage

Teaches me something! We can vote, change the words to the constitution, re-write history, live as if there is no God – but at the end of the day, the end of time – Isaiah is right again! Isaiah 40:8 - The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever."

When the Dream Crumbles part 2

Dreams Crumble when God is Abandoned 

America and Israel of old didn’t get here over night…

Ravi Zacharia - Three moods took over in the 1960s: secularization, pluralization, privatization. Secularization is the process by which religious ideas, institutions, & interpretations have lost their social significance.

This has been a silent sway, a crooked creep, a subtle glance away from Jehovah

·       It happens when people tire of doing life God’s way & choose their own way. (makes no sense to leave the source of power & life to choose inability & death) 

·       Proverbs 14:12 There is a way [that seems] right to a man, But its end [is] the way of death.

·       Be sure that if a nation will not follow Him, he will rise up another

·       Isaiah 40

13 ​​Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, ​​Or as His counselor has taught Him?

14 ​​With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him, ​​And taught Him in the path of justice? ​​Who taught Him knowledge, ​​And showed Him the way of  understanding?

​

15 ​​Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket, ​​And are counted as the small dust on the scales; ​​Look, He lifts up the isles as a very little thing. 16 ​​And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, ​​Nor its beasts sufficient for a burnt offering. 17 ​​All nations before Him are as nothing, ​​And they are counted by Him less than nothing and worthless

Same with a church and a denomination – there is no short cut to the Glory of God!

When the Dream Crumbles part One

When the American Dream Crumbles Jeremiah 2:13

 

Christopher Gadsden was a patriot that put his life on the line for this nation. Like so many patriots before him he personally paid for the success for the war efforts in 1776. He funded bridges for the successful evasion of the British forces. He provided verbiage to Sam Adams that was essential in the drafting of the Declaration of Independence. He also commissioned the development of a famous flag “Don’t Tread on Me”. 

He was put to the test through imprisonment in the dungeon of the exchange house in Charleston. Ultimately he was considered too great a liability to keep in the dungeon because of the towns people so he was sent to the Castillo de San Marcos prison in St. Augustine.  He truly meant it when he said, “What I can do for my country, I am willing to do.”

Patrick Henry (May 29, 1736 – June 6, 1799) was an American attorney, planter and politician who became known as an orator during the movement for independence in Virginia in the 1770s. (1^st & 6^th Governor of Virginia)   If this be treason, make the most of it!

Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others my take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!

We are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of Nature has placed in our power…the battle, sir, is not to the strong alone it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.

Jeremiah burst on the scene in 626 bc preaching to the nation of Judah warning of the impending Judgment and less than 50 years with no converts, jail time, death warrants, and threats – he saw the hand of God fall in a devastation on Judah!

When Dreams Crumble! 

 "For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, [And] hewn themselves cisterns--broken cisterns that can hold no water.