An Ant at the Door

Cut and pasted from Spurgeon's beloved Morning & Evening Devotional.
This is God's voice speaking to each of us -- be encouraged!


"I will help you, says the Lord." Isaiah 41:14

"This morning [and every day] let us hear the Lord Jesus speak to each one of us: "I will help thee." "It is but a small thing for Me, thy God, to help thee. Consider what I have done already. What! not help thee? Why, I bought thee with My blood. What! not help thee? I have died for thee; and if I have done the greater, will I not do the less? Help thee! It is the least thing I will ever do for thee; I have done more, and will do more. Before the world began I chose thee. I made the covenant for thee. I laid aside My glory and became a man for thee; I gave up My life for thee; and if I did all this, I will surely help thee now. In helping thee, I am giving thee what I have bought for thee already. If thou hadst need of a thousand times as much help, I would give it thee; thou requirest little compared with what I am ready to give. 'Tis much for thee to need, but it is nothing for me to bestow. 'Help thee?' Fear not! If there were an ant at the door of thy granary asking for help, it would not ruin thee to give him a handful of thy wheat; and thou art nothing but a tiny insect at the door of My all-sufficiency. 'I will help thee.'"

   

"O my soul, is not this enough? Dost thou need more strength than the omnipotence of the United Trinity? Dost thou want more wisdom than exists in the Father, more love than displays itself in the Son, or more power than is manifest in the influences of the Spirit? Bring hither thine empty pitcher! Surely this well will fill it. Haste, gather up thy wants, and bring them here-thine emptiness, thy woes, thy needs. Behold, this river of God is full for thy supply; what canst thou desire beside? Go forth, my soul, in this thy might. The Eternal God is thine helper."

Preliminary Praise

I love the idea of "New Year's" -- the concept of starting over, of wiping the slate clean from the past year, and being invigorated for whatever changes lie ahead. I am all for a fresh start. Sometimes, I catch myself favoring the simplicity and excitement of New Year's over the hustle and stress of the Christmas holiday (how unfortunate our society has made it that way).

This past year entailed many transitions for me, and consequently much personal growth. I cannot say I am fully adjusted to such transitions quite yet, but I am holding onto the hope that Jesus is with me through this growing process and will see it through.

But outside of the personal, I am growing ever excited to see what God has in store this year for His children around the world -- those present and those yet to be adopted into His family.

If there is a fresh fire stirring in my own little chuch in Southern California, I have great expectations that fires are spreading across the globe. Something is about to happen. God's people are being stirred up. We are getting attacked and tested on all sides. Preparation for a great work is in motion.

Some thoughts shared by my beloved pastor in regards to this new work that is on the horizon:

God's past faithfulness demands our present trust.

We must trade the greatness of our task for the greatness of our God.

If we never step out of our own means, we'll never see what God means.

Let us stay close to Jesus to see what He might do ...

I am anticipating the revolution of God's church. I truly hope such a revolution is not limited to my own local church body, but that it will arise from all across the globe. Our God is a big God with magnificent plans.

Oh, that we would not limit Him, nor that we would not limit ourselves with tiny prayers burdened with fears, doubts, unbelief. Oh, that we can pray bigger. That we can get closer. Fall deeper. Carry more hearts inside our own.

Our Jesus prayed for us so fervently in that upper room so long ago:

I do not ask for [the twelve disciples] only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

With this fresh start that we have been given, it is my prayer that we would take God seriously, that we would pray more for the unity of the church (for such brings us in closer unity with God), that we would have no reservations or walls around our hearts, and that our soul's intention would be to make God's kingdom even bigger by drawing more souls to Him. The kingdom of heaven is very near. There is no time to waste.

Let us be praising our Father God for what He is going to do.

 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

For yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls. 

**John 17:20-21 ; Hebrews 10:23-25 ; 10:37-39

2014

O death, where is your victory?

O death, where is your sting?

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

I Corinthians 15:55-58


Death is done away with for you and me.

For every defeat in our lives, there is a greater victory in Jesus.

So stand fast in the Lord, you who have been redeemed from death and the bondage of the law, and serve Him wholeheartedly this next year and always.

Happy New Year!

Love,
Noelle

The With

"The Christian faith doesn't have a prescription for how God fixes our problems.

It doesn't have a simple formula for how and when healing happens or how and when eternal life follows death.  

Instead, Christians simply believe that the greatest power in the universe is God's desire to be in relationship with us,  

a relationship we don't earn so we call it joy,  

a relationship we can't match so we call it love,  

a relationship that never ends so we call it glory,  

a relationship that costs God everything so we call it grace.  

And that desire and that relationship are stronger than the other forces in our lives - evil, sin, and death.  

To be a Christian means to be transformed by the discovery that God is with us in such a way that we stop noticing or counting what God does for us.  

It's not about the for. It's about the with."

Samuel Wells 

Praise Befits the Upright

"Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous!  

Praise befits the upright.

Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre ...  

Sing to Him a new song; play skillfully on the strings with loud shouts.  

For the word of the Lord is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness."  

Psalm 33:1-4

Even in the hard times, ALL of God's work is done in faithfulness. His Word still stands as our plumb line of righteousness and testifies of the One who has made us righteous.

And so our calling remains to shout, to sing, to praise Him with the talents He has given us! For such is only appropriate for those who have been saved by Him. Praise and thanksgiving set us apart as His children!

"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good and His steadfast love endures forever!

Let the redeemed of the Lord say so ...."

Psalm 107:1-2 

So let your praise be contagious. It befits you, His beloved one.
 

Less Like Gold

Regarding relationships ...

Just wanted to pass off some words of wisdom -- or so I truly believe they are.

My brother and I have been talking about relationships -- those which might result in marriage -- because he has become rather close to a young woman in his life. Why he would ask me (the single lady) for advice, I have no idea!

He holds this young lady so close to his heart and was asking me how to spend time with her, grow with her, love her, all at the right timing and capacity -- definitely a tough balance! Especially since he is still asking God for wisdom on whether or not He would be calling him to pursue her. All I could think to tell him was to love her as purely as Christ loves her, and he responded by saying this:

I want to treat her less like gold and more like Christ does!

I think there is a lot of truth in that!

 

When you love a person like Christ loves them, you are loving them out of a sacrificial, passionate heart whose ambition is to seek out their good, their spiritual/emotional health, their growth! On the other hand, turn a woman (or man) into gold in your eyes and you put them on a pedestal, idolize them, and risk love turning into lust. They become nothing more than a gilded image in your eyes that you fear you might shatter, or lose! If you truly love a person, you will surrender them into the Father's will and ask Him how He might love that person. Often that means incredible self-control, humility, and patience. Surrender. That is certainly not easy.

 

But out of such, the purest relationships can result -- or so I imagine and hope!

 

Just thought I would share, and I truly hope it is sound. Blessings!

Hidden Blessings

It was just one of those mornings. As I was leaving to go to work and locking the door behind me, before I could say, "Thank God it's Friday," I closed the door and realized in horror that I had just locked my keys in my house.

My dad was already teaching his first period class and my mom had just left for Bible study. So I quickly called her to ask if we had a hide-a-key somewhere outside of the house, to which she said no. But your grandpa might have a copy of our house key, she offered hopefully. When I called him up, sure enough, he had one and said he would be right over. In less than five minutes, I saw his bright red Chevy pick-up pull around the corner, and after a hug, my grandpa handed me the house key so I could run inside the house and grab my own keys.

Funny how I didn't even expect to see my grandpa that day, even though he lives just a few blocks away. Mind you, this is my father's father, not the husband of my Grandma Grace (my mother's mother) who recently passed away. I realized that if I hadn't locked my keys in the house that morning, I wouldn't have had the chance to get a hug from my grandpa that morning or hear his chuckle as he told me how his mischevious dog brought a possum into the house the night before.

Driving to work, I thought about how I might not have a lot of time left with my grandparents. I would never have expected my Grandma Grace to contract the illness that she did that caused her time here to be much shorter than it could have been. I thought about how thankful I was to see my Grandpa Chuck that morning, how grateful I am to be his granddaughter, to share a love of music and poetry with him (he, like me, loves to write poetry), and to go to live theater and concerts with him. He once took me to see a play/concert celebrating the music of Irving Berlin, just the two of us (I was the youngest person in that theater by at least 25 years), and it was such an wonderful time.

I love my grandparents. Upon my grandma's passing away I realized that I had, if you will, no regrets. I mean I am thankful to have spent so much incredible time with that precious lady, really getting to know her, all about her. There is always so much to know about a person, but I had the privilege of developing not only a solid grandmother/daughter relationship, but a genuine friendship. I realize that I want/have wanted the same with all of my grandparents. I want to go to more concerts and write more poetry with my Grandpa Chuck, go to Barnes and Noble to geek out over books a hundred more times with my Grandma Maggie, and melt in the tender hugs of my so much more vulnerable Grandpa Tony. The world might see them as outdated, out of touch, or perhaps a bit too smothering, but no matter what they say, grandparents are truly such precious people.

I encourage you if you have family, no matter how immediate or distant, old or young that you feel you don't know all that well, please take the time to. You have no idea how much time you have left with them on this earth. And you have no idea how much of a gift they can be in your life. To know people -- really know them -- is a joy given to us by God. Friendship is a beautiful thing, beyond what words can express. Think of how many people God has placed in your life, in your family, your school, your workplace, your church -- think of how many opportunities are knocking on your front door to explore the depths of someone's soul and often find it is much like your own.

Pay a visit to your grandfather or grandmother. Make a phone call to a parent you maybe haven't talked to in a long while. Get to know that customer who comes in twice a week. Sit next to that student in the back corner and grab a coffee with them after class. It'll mean the world to them and may just end up changing your own world entirely.

And whether it's locking your keys in the car or stalling on the side of the road like my brother did later that night, take advantage of opportunities you have for your world to collide with that of your grandfather or the tow-truck driver who comes to your rescue. God may be offering you a hidden blessing.