I am sad. I am discouraged. I am disheartened. I am weary. I am overwhelmed. I feel powerless.
Yet, these are all feelings. I know though I am weak I am not powerless because of who my Lord is. I know though sad I am not without hope because of who my Savior is. I know though I see know outward sign of progress and it grieves me painfully, that my God is still in control and HE will not forsake me. Though the clouds block my viewing my God is still moving.
When did caring for orphans become an option? When did our hearts get so hardened? Where is Christ-like compassion?
My heart is grieved today. Grieved by Christians who claim the name of Jesus but do not feel a responsibility to do what HE said in regards to the poor & orphaned. I have heard people who claim the name of Christ give this reason for not doing something to help orphans: “I just don’t feel burdened about it.” or “That’s not something Jesus has put on my heart to do.”
Wait a minute… if I said as a follower of Christ: “I don’t feel burdened to love my neighbor, I don’t feel burdened to forgive.” Would that fly? NO! Why not? Because everyone knows it goes against the commands of Jesus. But somehow “Christian” people have come to put the ministry of caring for the poor & orphaned in a category as something that is an option NOT a command. Loving the poor, the widowed, the orphaned isn’t about feelings – it’s about obeying. HE commands it in scripture.
It is not a debate of whether HE wants us to do something. The question is simply WHAT does HE want us to do about it! We must act. We must obey. As you are acting in obedience ask HIS forgiveness that you don’t have a heart for what HE does. Ask Him to change your heart. Do not wait to obey until feelings come.
There are others on the other hand who say “Oh, I have a burden for them too.” Yet, they sit by and do nothing! If we don’t really care for those who are hurting enough to move then there is something deeply wrong with our Christianity.
James 1:27, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress.”
Exodus 22:22, “You shall not afflict any widow or orphan.”
Isaiah 1:17, “Learn to do good; seek justice, reprove the ruthless, Defend the orphan, plead for the widow.”
Isaiah 1:23, “Your rulers are rebellious, and companions of thieves; everyone loves bribes, and follows after rewards. They do not defend the fatherless.”
Matthew 18:5, “Whoever receives a child in My name, receives Me.”
Luke 6:38, “give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”
Proverbs 28:27, “Whoever gives to the poor will not want,
but he who hides his eyes will get many a curse.”Matthew 24, “I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink. I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.
I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.”Deuteronomy 15:10, “Give liberally and be ungrudging when you do so, for on this account the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake.”
I love the video below. Katie gets it. She gets the heart of Jesus. “As someone who calls themselves a Christian… it’s very apparent that you are to love the Lord your God will all your heart and then you are to love your neighbor as yourself. Myself does not want to be starving. So, I don’t want other people in the world to be starving. Jesus does not ask that we care for the less fortunate. HE demands it.” Katie Davis – founder of Amazima Ministries
This is a song I had a ball writing back in August. The Lord showed me how mighty HE was and how small & inferior satan was. I will not cower – the LORD is on my side!
(Please do not copy or distribute without my permission. Thank you!)
wicked little angel song
©Joanna White 2011
he’s an arrogant little angel who fell from the sky.
he wanted all the glory,
his heart was full of pride.
Now that wicked little angel on this earth he resides.
he’s on a mission to rule
in the very hearts of you and I!
he slinks around in darkness with his ugly little crew.
he thinks he’s gonna win
but, it’s simply not true!
*Chorus
I praise the One who made the universe.
Who sent HIs own Son to break satan’s curse.
I will not cower before the evil one.
I am God’s child and the victory is won!!
he’s a selfish little angel… never satisfied.
If you give him an inch
he’ll try and take your life!
But, with Jesus on my side satan cannot win.
Though he may tempt me,
he cannot make me sin.
For, I claim the power of the Holy One.
When I speak HIS Word
it makes the demons run!
*Chorus
I praise the One who made the universe.
Who sent HIs own Son to break satan’s curse.
I will not cower before the evil one.
I am God’s child and the victory is won!!
Bridge (spoken)
he’s an inferior little being still out to get the glory.
It seems he hasn’t read
the end of the story!
For Jesus shall return to this earth someday.
He’ll bind up satan – that big ol’ liar!
He’ll throw him into the Lake of Fire!
I praise the One who made the universe.
Who sent His own Son to break satan’s curse.
I will not cower before the evil one.
I am God’s child and the victory is won!!
“You have filled my heart with greater joy.” Psalm 4:7
Thank you Lord that you have indeed filled my heart with greater joy!
Thank you for quickening my heart – for awakening me from my lukewarm Christian state. Thank you for igniting the flame in my heart. May this Your fire grow in me daily as I bask in Your presence. Keep refining me in you holy fire, Lord!
Forgive me for my materialism, my pride, my temporal earthly thinking. Forgive me for losing sight of, never before fully embracing the call to be a proclaimer of Your Gospel.
You are indeed my joy and my strength. You are indeed the hope of the nations!
I desire Lord to shout Your name to the world. I desire to proclaim Your marvelous plan of redemption to the lost that surround me! Direct my steps. Surround me with people that need you – that are desperate for what only You can give! You will give the words. You will plant the seed.
I step out in faith & complete abandon asking that I be a vessel that brings You glory! I am made to worship You. I desire to worship You. I do not desire things – they are of no value. I don’t desire comfort – stretch me, grow me, change me. I desire to be your disciple. I desire to trust in You alone – To find my joy, my completeness in You.
In You alone there is victory. In You alone there is hope. Nothing compares to You.
You my God are greater still. No sky contains – no doubt restrains all You are. The greatness of my God.
I commit to spending the rest of my life to knowing You more!
~Joanna
Our Small group is going to begin doing the book “Crazy Love” by Francis Chan very soon. I had told a good friend that was what we are doing next and she said “It will change your life if you let it”. She was not kidding! Despite that the study hasn’t started the books came in and I was anxious to read. I want to be sold out for Jesus. I don’t want to live a half hearted – lukewarm Christian life. I knew the book had to do with this subject and so I wanted to get started. Well, reading Chapters 8 & 9 blew me away! Those are the ones I started with. All I can say is I am holding on for the major changes God has in store in my life, the life of my family, and our small group. The Lord has already showed me through this author how much my life has not been being lived for the eternal – just how much of life I am not seeing through the eyes of Jesus! He has shown me how much I have lacked in love, how self serving I have been, how materialistic, and how much I am missing out on!
I am anticipating drastic life change. That’s how the Christian life should be – drastically different! We are not of the world yet so often we call ourselves Christians and still think and live like those who have not been bought with the precious blood of Jesus! Why would the people of the world want to be a Christian? Why wouldn’t they call us hypocrites?
Will people think I’m crazy if I truly live my life completely sold out to Jesus Christ? Yes, they will. Let the ride begin!
I am ready to fall crazy in love with Jesus.
I am in awe of how God brings things to be. How sometimes He gradually changes things in us and other times He just instantly changes us! I have more often experienced the gradual changes but in the last couple months God completely changed a focus of mine without me knowing it was coming!
I have for several years dreamt of living in the country! I live in a subdivision and the thought of even the possibility of living in a subdivision the rest of my life brought me to tears – literally. I loved our home but I wanted/craved/obsessed over land and animals and privacy for years! I wanted goats and chickens and an enormous garden. I spent a lot of time looking at land and country homes on-line. Well, God took that obsession from me here recently almost like the flipping of a light switch! It is obvious He wants me right where I am. I have thought that might be true before and had prayed He’d help me to be content right where I was if it was His plan. But, I guess I didn’t expect such a complete change without warning! LOL. It is a wonderful thing to be at peace where I am – not only in the city I am in but the very house I am in, on the subdivision lot I am in. Thank you Jesus for giving my heart the gift of peace and contentment. Thank you that I am where I want to be not because You moved me but because You changed me! Thank you that I am home!
How much we put God in a box. How much we feel oppressed by the evil of this world. How much we feel that we are being overtaken. We know not our strength. We have forgotten WHO is in control! We are not weak. We are not defenseless. We are not at the mercy of a wicked small little arrogant angel. We are children of the almighty, living God. Saints bought by the blood of Jesus. Heirs to HIS glorious kingdom. HE reigns. Proclaim it: HE reigns!
Praise be to the LORD, the God of Israel,
because he has come and has redeemed his people.
to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.
From Zechariah’s Song – Luke 1 verse 68 & 74
In recent weeks my faith has been weak. I have doubted the Lord like I never have in my life. I have questioned His leading & been confused by things along the path during the last 3 years of my life. I have felt bitter, angry, and untrusting. It was terrifying. I begged the LORD not to let me turn my back on HIM. I was having a crisis of faith like I had never experienced nor do I hope to again!
God in HIS infinite mercy pulled me in close this past weekend. He spoke His faithfulness to me through the excerpt from “Who’s your Daddy?” that I shared in a previous post. He brought loving friends around me that showed their love and concern for me and began praying for me. He took my breath away when He lead me to page 189 of “Hinds Feet on High Places” by Hanna Hurnard (typed below). He gave me new fervor to follow Him through Sunday’s message by Pastor Trent and the video shown. He even included the singing of “I have decided to follow Jesus – no turning back, no turning back” in the worship service! Not only is this a special song to me but what had I previously begged Him? That’s right – to not let me turn my back on Him!
I am relieved to be back to the place of believing that HE will be faithful to me. I can trust Him. Don’t get me wrong, the thoughts of doubt still start to rear their ugly little heads but I quickly squelch them before they can say more.
p 189 Hinds Feet in High Places by Hannah Hurnard
“When you continue your journey there may be much mist and cloud. Perhaps it may even seem as though everything you have seen here of the High Places was just a dream, or the work of your own imagination. But you have seen reality and the mist which seems to swallow it up is the illusion.
Believe steadfastly in what you have seen. Even if the way up to the High Places appears to be obscured and you are led to doubt whether you are following the right path, remember the promise, “Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, ‘This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand and when ye turn to the left.’ Always go forward along the path of obedience as far as you know it until I intervene, even if it seems to be leading you where you fear I could never mean you to go.
Remember, Much Afraid, what you have seen before the mist blotted it out. Never doubt that the High Places are there, towering up above you, and be quite sure that whatever happens I mean to bring you up there exactly as I have promised.”
Only the LORD could ever comprehend how perfectly this passage in the book was written for what I have experienced. Though the “mist and clouds” have settled over the path and I don’t see how HE is keeping His promises to me – HE IS! My precious times with HIM and the words HE spoke to me were not my imagination. I will believe. I am on the right path and He is leading me by the hand. Though I cannot see clearly – HE can.
There also could not have been a more perfect verse to be included with this as this is a very special passage between the Lord & I: Isaiah 30:21 (niv)
“Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”
God is simply amazing. He is so detailed and intimately personal in His relationship with His children.
I will follow You Jesus. Thank you for hearing my cry and restoring my vision.
Excerpt from “Who’s Your Daddy?” by Priscilla Shirer
(Thanks to my friend Tammie for being an instrument of the Lord and sharing this with me right when I needed it. I needed to be told that HE had not forsaken me, did not mislead me, and that HE will never forget me!)
“I follow Him because He’s the Wisdom of the wise, the Power of the powerful,
the Ancient of days, the Ruler of rulers, the Leader of all leaders.His goal is a relationship with me.
He’ll never leave you, never forsake you, never mislead you, never forget you, never overlook you, and never cancel your appointment in His appointment book.
When you fall He’ll lift you up. When you fail He’ll forgive you. When you’re weak He’s strong, when you’re lost He’s your way, when you’re afraid He’s your courage, when you stumble He will steady you, when you’re hurt He’s going to heal you. When you’re broken He will mend you. When you’re blind He will lead you. When you’re hungry He will feed you. When you face trials He’s with you.
When I face persecution He shields me. When I face problems He will comfort me. When I face loss He will provide for me. And when we face death He will carry us all home to meet Him.
He is everything, for everybody, everywhere, every time and in every way.
He is your God and that, [Joanna}, is who you belong to.
———————————————————-
Taken from the DVD Bible Study Anointed, Transformed, Redeemed. A Study of David. Video Session 1. By Priscilla Shirer, Beth Moore and Kay Arthur.
July 1, 2011
My prayer in the night…
Cleanse my heart O Lord.
Rid me of all that is contrary to You…
remove all that defiles.
Restore my faith.
My vision is shrouded.
Open my eyes to truth.
Tune my ears to You.
May I not hear the lies of satan.
Break through my rebellious heart.
Soften me, O Lord.
Remove the pride that causes me to stumble.
Rid me of any bitterness.
May I know that I am not forsaken.
Remind me of Your great love.
May I sense Your hand upon me.
Restore the intimacy that we have shared.
Break down any barriers that I have built up.
I MISS YOU LORD.
I miss our precious times together.
Yet Lord my heart feels wounded and untrusting.
It thinks “Will HE really pull through?”
“Does HE really have a plan?”
“Has HE really been in all of this journey with me?”
Heal my heart O Lord.
I want to bask in Your presence.
Forgive me Lord Jesus.
Extend your grace and mercy.
Do not turn Your back on me in anger -
though I deserve Your wrath.
Reach out to me in tenderness and restore me.
Give me great faith that does not waver.
Give me zeal that I might persevere.
Though circumstances all around me be a mystery,
may I fervently believe You have a perfect plan.
May I know that I am safe in Your loving hand.
Thank you LORD that You are my God and
that I am still Your child.
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