Progress

"Beware of comparisons.

A sad person who doesn't attempt suicide any more

may be a greater triumph of grace than your joy."

- J. Piper

"Some bruises bleed years deep.

So the wounded trust slow.

- A. Voskamp

Choose Your Slavery: Freedom from One = Slave to Another

"God, in the end, gives people what they most want,
including freedom from Himself.
What could be more fair?"

-C.S. Lewis

John 8:31-37

"In Gethsemane

the holiest of all petitioners

prayed three times

that a certain cup

might pass from Him.

It did not."

-C.S. Lewis

"Before God can use

a man greatly,

He must first

wound him deeply."

-A.W. Tozer

Forsaking all others...

"Idols always break the hearts of their worshipers." - C.S. Lewis

"An idol is anything apart from God that we depend on to be happy, fulfilled, or secure. In biblical terms it is something other than God that we set our heart on (Luke 12:29), that motivates us (1 Corinthians 4:5), that masters and rules us (Psalm 119:133; Ephesians 5:5), or that we trust, fear, or serve (Isaiah 42:17; Matthew 6:24; Luke 12:4-5). In short, it is something we love and pursue in place of God (see Philippians 3:19)." - Ken Sande

"Thus speaketh Christ our Lord to us:

'Ye call Me Master, and obey Me not.

Ye call Me Light, and see Me not.

Ye call Me Way, and walk Me not.

Ye call Me Life, and desire Me not.

Ye call Me Wise, and follow Me not.

Ye call Me Fair, and love Me not.

Ye call Me Rich, and ask Me not.

Ye call Me Eternal, and seek Me not.

Ye call Me Gracious, and trust Me not.

Ye call Me Noble, and serve Me not.

Ye call Me Mighty, and honour Me not.

Ye call Me Just, and fear Me not.

If I condemn you, blame Me not.'"

- Inscription in the Lübeck Cathedral, Germany

The Gift or the Giver?

“If I would know the love of my friend, I must see what it can do in the winter. So with the divine love. It is very easy for me to worship in the summer sunshine, when the melodies of life are in the air and the fruits of life are on the tree. But let the song of the bird cease, and the fruit of the tree fall; and will my heart still go on to sing? Will I stand in God’s house by night? ...My heart has recognized His majesty through His mean disguise, and I know at last that I desire not the gift, but the Giver. When I can stand in His house by night, I have accepted Him for Himself alone.”

- George Matheson

It comes down to this:

"to those who fear Him there is no want." Psalm 34:9

"they who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing." Psalm 34:10

"No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly." Psalm 84:11

So.


Either...
1) I am not fearing Him and walking uprightly, 2) I am not seeking Him, or 3) "this" is not a good thing for me (at least right now).


Because...
1) He is good, and 2) He doesn't lie.

The Liar's Taunt

"Then [the enemy's spokesman] stood and cried with a loud voice in [the language God's people could understand] and said, 'Hear the words of the great king, the [enemy of your king]. Thus says the king, "Do not let [your king] deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you;  nor let [him] make you trust in the Lord, saying, 'The Lord will surely deliver us, this city will not be given into the hand of the king of [the enemy].'"  Do not listen to [your king], for thus says [my] king, "Make your peace with me and come out to me...until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.  Beware that [your king] does not mislead you, saying, 'The Lord will deliver us.' Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered his land from the hand of [your enemy]?"

The Response

[Upon receiving the news of the enemy's threats against him, and taunts against the faithfulness of his God:]  Then [the king of God's people] took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. [He] prayed to the Lord saying,

'O Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.  Incline Your ear, O Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, O Lord, and see; and listen to all the words of [the enemy's spokesmen], who sent them to reproach the living God. Truly, O Lord, the [enemy has] devastated all the countries and their lands, and [has] cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them. Now, O Lord our God, deliver us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, Lord, are God.'"

Isaiah 36:13-21, 37:14-30