Daily Deprogramming

This morning I woke up thinking about our Lobstermen here in Maine. They need us to buy Lobster. The price has dropped well below lots of other kinds of seafoods as well as cheap cuts of meat.  Don and I plan on putting some Lobster in our freezer this weekend to help them out just doing our little bit to help. We love lobster so it isn’t any hardship for us!  We who are Christians ought  to  pray for them and their families as well, as the slump in the economy has hit them extremely  hard.

Today Ardith Keef asks the reader five times , “Are you founded on the Rock of Ages?” She asks the reader six times, “Are you eager to live by faith?”

In the Kingdom of God you cannot strattle the fence and have it both ways. You cannot be lukewarm or He will vomit you out of His mouth.  We as Christians cannot live by works of law and by faith.  We might have weak moments when our faith feels insignificant and we are knocked down to our knees, but the Lord is greater than our weakness and He is strong in our weaknesses.

As Ardith Keef says today, “The One who holds the stars in place is in charge of your life. He has said you could and should come to Him.  He has said He will never turn anyone away.”  This is true , however there are conditions that must be met when we come to Him.  Ardith says, “Put your burden down.”  If this burden is sin, the sin of lack of Faith,  or the sin of hurting others, or lording it over the flock, or dividing families, churches and homes, encouraging divorces of Christians, taking believers to a worldly court rather than reasoning together, or cutting off His missionaries, there can only be a true releasing of the burden when one confesses and repents for this sin  before the Lord. As Ardith says,  ”There is One who can be trusted.  He is the Rock of Ages.”   However, He Himself said, “Many will come in My name and say I did this in Your name and that in Your name, but I will say to them, “Get away from Me, I never knew you.”

This economy will put our faith to the test in many ways. Will we only think of ourselves as we try to scrape by, or will we be diligent in prayer for others who are hurting?  Will we physically assist others with staying warm and clothed  and fed this winter?  Will we help others with the high cost of food and give from  out of our need and not from our excess?  I believe  the test of Love in a church is how it helps the elderly, and the poor in it’s community.  The church I attend has a supper for the homeless every third Saturday.  It helps the elderly get wood ,and helps monitarily that they might be warm. It reaches out to the community in countless ways.

One can talk about “being founded on the Rock of Ages,” when he is warm and well fed , but faith trusts Him during the lean times.  We all go through difficulties , both physical and emotional. We go through heartaches and pain in this world, and our Lord understands because He went through these things as well, but without sin. His own pain and suffering , and torture even to death, is what prepared Him to be our Great High Priest who runs to our aid when we call.  Some would break your spirit when you are at a weak moment, but never Jesus. Some would back you in a corner and condemn you, but never Jesus. He is not like Job’s friends. 

However others would yell and scream and do whatever it takes to keep you from blindly walking off a cliff to your destruction!  Jesus spoke out  hard against religious hypocricy, pretense, abuses of the brethren by the Pharisee’s.  He loved them. As True Children of His we need to speak the Truth and warn  our brothers and sisters when it is necessary. Sometimes the truth hurts, but it is just as necessary to snatch a brother or sister out of the fire as it is to warm anothers home and hearth in the cold winter.   It is all by faith if we are truly His. 

And so we live by Faith.  I read a statement that has stuck with me lately.  The words were, “Our Faith and the values of this world are on a collision course.”   They will always collide and  the two will never coincide. In the  Hebrews faith chapter 11  there are a few verses that I  am especially touched by, “  Some were tortured, not accepting deliverence; that they might obtain a better resurrection:  And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: they were stoned, they were sawn assunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword, they wandered about in sheepskins, and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented: Of whom the world was not worthy of them: they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.” Heb 11:35-38

If we live by faith, we are counted among these who won the prize and we will meet them one day in Heaven!  What a privelige!