Sunday, August 28, 2011

Torrents of Rain

"Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me. Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell Me, if you understand. Who marked off it's dimensions? Surely you know! Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown dawn its place, that it might take the earth by the edges and shake the wicked out of it? Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep? Have the gates of death been shown to you? Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth? Tell Me, if you know all this! Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail, which I reserve for times of trouble, for days of war and battle? What is the place where the lightning is dispersed, or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth? Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm, to water a land where no man lives, a desert with no one in it, to satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass? Does the rain have a father? Who fathers the dew? Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you raise your voice to the clouds and cover yourself with a flood of water? Who endowed the heart with wisdom or gave under standing to the mind? Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? Do you give the horse his strength or clothe his neck with a flowing mane? Does the eagle soar at your command and build his nest on high? JOB REPLIED TO GOD: "I know that You can do all things; no plan of Yours can be thwarted. You asked 'Who is this that obscures My counsel without knowledge?' Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things to wonderful for me to know." Sunday August 29, 2011 is the day to ADMIT to GOD that I have not had enough faith to trust Him with my son, or my future. Humbly I admit that trouble overtakes the innocent and the guilty - and in my time of trouble, I choose to seek God and trust Him because God is in control, He is sovereign, He is just and He loves me. He will restore me fully as I cling tightly to my faith in the only One who is trustworthy! AMEN Tropical Storm Irene banged into the edge of New York on Sunday, unleashing rain and 65-100 mile per hour winds on a city girded for the worst. 4 million homes left without power and 9 left dead as the salty floodwater sloshed into lower Manhattan, threatening Wall Street, the heart of the worlds financial hope. The New York Stock Exchange can run on generator power, but how many traders will show up for work Monday? The Eastern Seaboard spent the day nervously watching the storm's march across a swath of the nation inhabited by 65 million people. The hurricane had an enormous wingspan — 500 miles, its outer reaches stretching from the Carolina's to Cape Cod — with wind gusts of 115 mph. It was the first hurricane to make landfall in the United States since 2008. Irene hurled her thunder almost six years to the day after Katrina ravaged New Orleans. Experts guessed that no other hurricane in American history had threatened as many people. At least 2.3 million were under orders to evacuate, it is unclear how many obeyed or, in some cases, how so many actually could. JOB 38-41 - God said He was reserving the store houses of snow, hail, rain for times of trouble. God used hail to help Joshua win a battle. Joshua 10:11 - Armies keep weapons for battle and God maintains all the forces of nature in His control. Sometimes He uses them to confound the scientist, or those opposed to His sovereign rule. Man cannot fathom all of God's ways and resources. God can and does unleash and restrain nature according to His plan and will. God alone commands the storm - and because nature is beyond our control, how silly of man to question God's authority and ways! AMEN

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

INTERRUPTIONS

PARDON me, what did you say?When God interrupts our routine, His purpose is to call us back to Himself when we are off track. Abram self-corrected in Genesis 12. God interrupted Abram with a command: Leave everything you know and follow Me. The command was radical and changed the course of Abram's life because he obeyed! When we disobey and interrupt what God is doing in our lives, our disobedience is a result of selfish stubborness and unwillingness to do that which we know to do. (James 1:13-15) Walking with God requires that we follow Him. We were not created by God to simply pack our Creator around in our side pocket, or choose to add Jesus into our journey. Read about David and how he stiff armed God and did not go into battle 2 Samuel 11. When we follow our desires, our temptations to live as everybody else does, our disobedience is the sin that leads us into more depravity. Satan also seeks to interrupt our relationship with God. The truth is found in our Father's Word, His warning to us about the great deceiver, the one who plans to trip us and devour our souls. Satan uses deception and he always seeks to destroy our peace. Satan will whisper lies, and attempt to confuse our focus while he consistently dismisses the attributes and promises of God. What is the interruption in your life today? What is its source, and even more important, what is the purpose of that interruption and how are you responding? Ambivalence defined: simultaneous and contradictory attitudes or feelings toward an object, person, or action. Are you ambivalent to God's call?

"Each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. … Don't be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows" (James 1:14,16-17).