Assuming His Presence

…supposing Him to have been in the company, they went a day’s journey… (Luke 2: 44)

Jesus’ parents had taken Him to Jerusalem for the Passover. They travelled homeward in the company of a large crowd of pilgrims returning to Galilee. Assuming that Jesus was somewhere in the crowd, they went a day’s journey before they discovered His absence. When they failed to find Him among their relatives and friends, they returned to Jerusalem.

Several lessons and applications can be drawn from this incident. First, there is a danger in assuming that He is walking with us in fellowship. It is true that He has promised His presence to be with us always, but the realization of His presence is conditional – if we walk in the light (1 John 1: 7).

Second, it is possible for Him to be obscured by the crowd. There were instances in His ministry when needy persons could not see Him for the crowd . Zacchaeus, because he was short of stature, was prevented by the crowd from seeing Jesus. He overcame the problem by climbing a tree for a better view. In a different situation, a paralytic in need of the Master Healer was prevented from getting to Jesus because of the crowd in the house. His enterprising friends solved the problem by removing roof tiles and placing the man directly before the Lord. Crowds and popular opinion can deter people from finding Jesus.

Third, Jesus was found in the place where His parents had left Him. When we have turned away from the Lord and assumed that He would follow us on a way that we have chosen, we can only be restored by returning to the place of departure. In this account, it was the place chosen by the Heavenly Father for His business to be carried on (Luke 2: 49). Instead of merely assuming that He is with us, we must learn to practice His presence. Don’t lose Him through the influence of the crowd. Before the day’s journey begins, be sure you’re in the fellowship of His presence. ~ Rev. William A. Raws served at America’s Keswick for over 50 years. He is the grandson of our founder, William Raws

Keswick, America’s  (2012-12-13). Real Victory for Real Life Volume 2 (Kindle Locations 3130-3150).  . Kindle Edition.

Daily Bible Reading: Deuteronomy 24-27

Think About This: Poor souls are apt to think that all those whom they read or hear of to be gone to heaven, went there because they were so good and holy…Yet not one of them, not any one that is now in heaven (Jesus Christ alone excepted), did ever come there any other way but by forgiveness of sins. John Owen

Verses to Memorize: Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming on our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 NKJV

Our Awkwardness in Intimacy with God

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. ~ Paul, The Least of The Apostles in Philippians 3

Oh beloved, it is true.  We come to know Him at first and the truth of it all is simply astounding.

We were dead in our sins.  Now we are alive in Him…. We were alone in the universe.  Now we have an intimate Friend forever…. We were stuck in our flesh.  Now we are free its bondage…. We had no hope.  Now He is our Blessed Hope…. And this is only the beginning…

At first, the love we have with Him is a very real and good infatuation.  The fact that He is dazzlingly beautiful draws us in closer to Him.  The Beauty that He is, is the definition of attractive.  He is the symmetry behind beauty.  He is the Sum of all the fractals of beauty we see across creation – for in Him we live and move and have our being. And all this creation screams the glory back to the One who imparted His beauty upon it.

Then, something happens.  We begin to see the Person in this ocean of beauty. He is so Real, So Good, So True, So Kind, So Noble, So Patient, So Faithful,  SO Loving!

In the beginnings of the realization of who He is our words just fail.  We begin to see that anything we can scribble about Him is just that – scribble.  Shakespeare tried, and began. Some of the apostles touched the edges, but the ability to describe the wonder of our Beloved still dwells in unapproachable Light.

Still He draws us closer to Him.  And we begin to burn.  Partially, we begin to burn with love for Him – and this is real.  But, just like a newly-wedded couple may have moments of awkwardness, we – the bride – do begin to blush.  For, in the brightness of His Presence, there is this odd combination of absolute clarity and total acceptance that we cannot yet comprehend.  We see our failings, and in His light they are glaringly obvious.

“Oh G_d, i am sorry.  Some of these parts of me are still so ugly.”

And He answers in ways we cannot (yet) comprehend, “what parts my friend?  You are astoundingly beautiful.  And I AM not blind.  I see all things clearly.”

Can we see it?  Obviously not.  Just as it is foolish to allow the creeping awkwardness of an intimate human relationship to get in the way of getting to know someone well, it is utter foolishness for us to believe that any awkwardness should exist when it comes to knowing Him.  He already knows us fully.  But more than this.  He already knows the perfectly-perfected human bride He will welcome to the Wedding Feast for His Son on That Day.

His Word is clear.  And perhaps this is the problem.  We rarely read it, and even more rarely let it and its Author do its deeper work within us.  For this same Word tells us, that for us to truly live in intimacy with Him, we must be conformed to His likeness.  And this conforming to Jesus includes dying to any of our own thought or impulses or desires.  This same Jesus did nothing (read no thing) apart from that which His Father – through the Holy Spirit – would have Him do or say.  And this same Jesus lived in total, Loving, intimate communion with His Dad.

So Jesus – as always – is the Model and Solution for our problem.  We have this horrible propensity for seeing ourselves as we see our own selves – ugly and broken and unworthy. But, we do this at the expense of how Jesus modeled life and how His Word tells us the Father now sees us.  Jesus just knew His Father knew Him, Loved Him, and heard Him.  And Jesus did not even entertain any other possibility.  Period.

Oh beloved, what if we lived like Jesus Lived?  What if we just knew we were Loved?  What if we shared in His sufferings (these utter deaths to His own desires on which cup to drink – and the pouring out of His very self in Love for others).  What if we too abandoned our own sense of righteousness and simply believed that it was G_d who was putting us into alignment with Himself?  Said simply?  What if we believed we were beautiful, because HE says we are?

You are beautiful believer.  Live like you are.  Live like you are Loved. – Makala Doulos is a frequent Freedom Fighter blogger and a graduate of the Colony of Mercy

Daily Bible Reading: Deuteronomy 21-23

Verses to Memorize: Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming on our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 NKJV

Given The Gift Of Burden

“How long, LORD, must I cry for help? But You do not listen! I call out to You, ‘Violence!’ But You do not intervene! Why do You force me to witness injustice? Why do You put up with wrongdoing? Destruction and violence confront me; conflict is present and one must endure strife.”                                                                                                                   Habakkuk 1:2-3 (NET)

I bet a lot of you reading this today do not look at burden as being a gift. Quite the contrary, we view burden as something that is placed upon us and, at best, it’s an undue inconvenience. Well in a very Hebrew sense a “burden” is something that is lifted up and is being carried. When my son, Kevin, was in his first year of life I would carry him around on my back, in a carrier, and I actually found joy in the burden of doing so. Now… he is all of 6’ 3” and has become a “burden” on my refrigerator, as it seems that he lifts up food and carries it away… never to be seen again. (I may have to start charging him rent to recoup the food bill, hmmm) 

Say the word burden (or maśśā in Hebrew) to Habakkuk and he would have asked you to have taken the burden from him. My amusing view on the word burden is nothing like the one that Habakkuk had placed on him. Habakkuk burned with zeal for YHVH as much, if not more than, his zeal of pain for the people that were around him. Habakkuk, along with Jeremiah, served as a spokesman for YHVH to a nation of people during a time of deep darkness. He also may have been an eyewitness to some of what YHVH wanted him to communicate; after all he was living in a violent society. I am not sure about you but when I read about all the chaos going on in “The Promised Land” during the time of The Prophets, I get a little voice inside me that says…RUN AWAY!!! QUICKLY!!!

However, just like in Habakkuk’s time, we as Christians are being subjected to look at the violence of our everyday existence. Your only way out may be to live in the mountains, but that could change once you get hungry and want meat. In his book “The Moor’s Last Sigh” (a novel based on the life of Muhammad XII of Granada) Salman Rushdie wrote these words, “Violence today is hot. It is what people want.” I wonder if it has ever stopped being hot at all. This was written about a time period right before Columbus would “discover” America, and that world was violent. In fact, if we really want to look at the big picture there is at least 25-30 wars going on throughout the world in our modern times.

So what are we to do to take our gaze off all this fighting? Well if you said looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, would be a good place to start you would be correct. And if we were to ask what should we lift up and carry as our burden, the correct answer would be the yoke of Jesus Christ. He makes it clear,”Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”(Matt 11:28-30) But I need to tell you something…I think that yoke is shaped like a cross. (UH-OH!!!)

I would say that the burden Habakkuk was given was in no way a gift but I would say that the one Jesus wants us to have is. Jesus taught this idea of being in His yoke to world that was also filled of an unspeakable Roman Empire kinda violence. And we still have the opportunity to yield to that teaching today in a world filled with a “brother killing brother for the profit of another, game point, nobody wins*.” kinda violence. We, like Habakkuk, need to get to a place where we say, “yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.” Amen? – Chris Hughes is a weekly Freedom Fighter blogger and a graduate of the Colony of Mercy

Daily Bible Reading: Deuteronomy 17-20

Think About This: “Like Habakkuk, we need to reach the place where we can say, “Though…yet I will rejoice in the Lord.” But, like Habakkuk, we need to start where he begins in his dialogue with God: How long…? Why…? To assert the former without starting with the latter is glib and slick.”—David Prior

Verses to Memorize: Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming on our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 NKJV

Guys: Don’t miss this month’s Discovering Victory Podcast featuring Dr. Woodrow Kroll

This is a Test, Only a Test

“Knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience” James 1:3

We all know those annoying procedures that usually take place on the radio or TV that remind us “If this had been a real emergency…”. It’s funny because sometimes I’ll tune into a station and the sound of the test is in progress. I sit and await the end to see if this is, in fact, is “only a test”.

We’re studying the book of 2^nd Corinthians in Church and in chapter 8 Paul tells the Corinthians as he challenges them according to their giving, says in verse 8, “I speak not by commandment, but I am testing the sincerity of your love by the diligence of others”.

Pastor John went on to say that a teacher will test you in order for you to pass and then grow. James tells us that testing “produces” something. The material used in this situation was mentioned in verse 1 “we make known to you the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia”. The Macedonian church was the study guide, the NLT says in verse 2 “They are being tested by many troubles, and they are very poor. But they are also filled with abundant joy, which has overflowed in rich generosity”

I see it like this, if testing produces and temptation destroys, the difference between a test or trial and temptation is who your teacher is? Or who are you listening to?

If you’re a student of the word of God then at some point what you are studying you will be tested on. The reason being that testing “produces” . Whereas if we neglect God’s word and allow the enemy a foothold then, James says “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed”, and we know this leads to sin. But even when we wonder the Bible teaches in 2^nd Timothy “If we are unfaithful, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny who He is”. Also in 1^st Corinthians 10 we read “but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it”.

I believe that the Church of Jesus Christ can be the way of escape. If I am preaching to the choir here and you’re reading this thinking “God is good” you may be that “way of escape” to those in trouble. That’s how I am where I am today. Those precious Saints that saw me struggling and reached into my mess and pulled me out. Let’s not talk about it, lets “Be About It” Amen! – Rob Russomano is a weekly Freedom Fighter blogger and is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy

Daily Bible Reading: Deuteronomy 14-16

Think About This: For many believers, worship, prayer, and Scripture are a nonchalant charade. They don’t expect anything significant to happen, but suddenly God’s reality breaks through, and they’re shocked. Brian Powley

Verses to Memorize: Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming on our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 NKJV

Check out this month’s Discovering Victory Podcast with Dr. Woodrow Kroll.

Be Careful How You Judge

“Brothers, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.” Galatians 6:1

During these five decades of my life, I have seen many of my heroes not finish well. Many of my heroes have been men in ministry who had thriving ministries and seemed to be on top of the world. And then the bottomed dropped out and there was some kind of indiscretion that resulted in them being disqualified from ministry.

When I first came to America’s Keswick I found myself getting close to men from our program, Colony of Mercy. I loved the connection with the guys who came through the program and then a man would have a “fall” and it would send me into a tailspin.

The older I get the more I realize that all of us are one stupid mistake away from blowing it. One wrong choice in our lives could cause a catastrophic chain of events that could result in being disqualified from the race.

Some of us become self-righteous and say, “I would never do this or that” or “How could that person be so stupid?” I know I have been stupid enough to make this statements.

In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul addressed this issue. The Old Testament accounts were provided so that we could learn from the mistakes made by men and women who were disqualified from the race.

These were people that were eyewitnesses of some pretty amazing miracles. And yet they did some really stupid things. We might find ourselves saying, “How could they be so stupid?” Well, Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit anticipated that reaction because he wrote: “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” (1 Corinthians 10:12)

The bottom line is that we need to be diligent in running this race with endurance. We need to be grounded in God’s Word, praying without ceasing, and finding men who will be willing to hold us accountable – hold our feet to the fire – so that we will finish well. We need to remind ourselves often throughout the day – we are one step away from blowing it!

More about this next time I blog …

Is there anything in your life that could become a landmine for you or your family should that landmine detonate? If so, it’s time to get real and reach out for help.

Going the distance with Jesus,

Dr. Bill Welte
President/CEO America’s Keswick

Daily Bible Reading: Deuteronomy 11-13

Think About This: You are deceived if you believe that you are free to live your life unnoticed by God and the enemy of our souls. Author Unknown

Verses to Memorize: Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming on our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 NKJV