There is a verse that must be truly believed to be able to go on in our consecration song. “Him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out.” If we have been given the desire from the heart to say, “take my life Lord” Can he go against his Word? Havergal points out that conversion and consecration might be a dazzling simultaneous experience, but she points out that this is not often times the experience. It is more of a gradual one. As we walk and experience the goodness of the Master, our desire to be bound not in law but in love spurs us on in our consecration. It is “founded on experience and love.”
It is a done deal. If God has placed in you the desire to give your life, and you have indeed entrusted Him with it, then go on praising because He has heard and He has taken your life, your will, your all, not because of anything in and of yourself but because God is true to His Word! “He that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out.” Do you believe this?
I am convinced and confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will perfect and complete it until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6
These are my notes based on the book by Frances Havergal, “Kept for the Master’s Use
I am reading “Kept for the Master’s Use by Frances Havergal. I want to share highlights and thoughts as I go through it. These are little bite sized chunks. I don’t know about you, but I want to really think on this and I do better with small chunks.
The first chapter is “Our lives kept for Jesus” Frances tells us we have echoed these words, “Take my life, that it may be consecrated Lord to Thee.” Maybe we have run into dissatisfaction and disappointment in our consecration song. There seems to be a leak somewhere. She gives us two points to look at. When you said, “Take my life…”, did you believe he heard it? Do we doubt that the prayer reached him? Isn’t this why we aren’t experiencing Him in all His power and joy? If we don’t trust this, He then causes us to feel unsettled, so that we will seek why we are not satisfied why we don’t have this fullness. So I’ll leave it at that today. Do you believe that he hears you? Do you doubt what you have offered to him?(your life) More on this tomorrow.
Are you in the wilderness? Are you thirsty? Are you hungry? Are you complaining, longing to be fed? What/who are you looking to meet these needs? Jesus is our Rock and He will deliver running water that will fill us. Do we trust that He will do as He promises? Are the people/leaders around you failing you? Let God deal with them. Your first priority is your dealings with God. Why was it called the Waters of Meribah? The meaning is, bitter water. It was full of bickering and quarreling. Why do we bicker and quarrel? Isn’t it that we aren’t trusting in God? Whether we are leaders or whether we are being led, we are all dependent on God. In our complaining and our feeble need, God is gracious and He longs to draw near to meet those needs. What is our stumbling block? One is taking our eyes off the Lord, and placing all blame on our leaders and outward circumstances. Have you given thought to the fact that God has you here for such a time as this? He will not forsake you. He will supply all your needs.
Leaders, have you decided to take matters into your own hands? As Moses struck the rock, what rock are you striking out of impatience, anger and pride? The Lord asks, do you trust me? Are you bearing together in patience, mercy and grace? God is slow to anger but abounding in love. Are you quick to set everyone in their place? Leaders, make your dealings with God in reverence and all humility, for He will give you strength and grace to endure.
All of us can relate with being a leader and being led. We can put our feet in both of these sets of shoes, the one common denominator is humility; we are all under His authority and He wants our full heart. He longs for us to trust Him completely. Trust Him when the harvest is bountiful and even more trust Him in the wilderness. Trust Him when every fiber of your flesh wants to rebel. This is the place of rest. “Trust the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path.” (Proverbs 3:5)
Don’t take matters into your own hands. Give it ALL to the only Hand, the Hand of the Living God who is faithful until the end. Always our dealings are first between ourselves and God. Vertical first.
I have been going through a health trial and it has caused me to face things in a way I have never had to before. It truly is a testing of my faith and my genuine dependence on my Shepherd.
As I go through this trial, the one thing people say that gets under my skin is, “Be strong!” “Stay strong!” “You are strong!”
I know they mean well, but the truth is I am only strong by the Lord’s power in me.
The apostle Paul told us, he delights in weakness, for when we are weak, then we are strong.
He also told us, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
THROUGH CHRIST is the key words, and what does “through Christ” look like?
Jesus humbled himself, submitted to the Father’s will, suffered and died.
Are we above the Master?
Paul said boast in the cross and boast in our weakness. Nothing was ever said of boasting about our strength.
We are not to show the world how strong we are, but how in the midst of weakness, we are able to keep going and fight because the Lord is sustaining us, it’s His strength that picks us back up when we get knocked down time and time again.
Rocky Balboa had some words of wisdom: “Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees, and keep you there if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done. “
James 1:3 tells us, “the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.”
So with the Lord, yes we are strong!
Ephesians 6:16 says, “Be strong IN the LORD and IN the power of HIS might.”
The next time someone says, “be strong!” I will respond with the only way I know how to do that, and that is, “IN the LORD.”
Ephesians 6 goes on to instruct us on how to be strong in the Lord, by putting on His armor.
The language here is interesting, it tells us to put on the armor and then it tells us to just stand firm!
The end of this beloved Psalm sums everything up for us. What is it all for? What is the purpose?
What does dwelling in the house of the Lord look like?
The Westminster Shorter Catechism question number 1 asks,
“What is the chief and highest end of man?”
Answer: “Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy Him forever.”
We have come full circle. The first verse of this Psalm, said, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.”
We are told what our chief end is NOT. It is NOT to find happiness and comfort in this world. It is NOT to fulfill all our dreams. It is NOT to have family and friends. It is NOT to do good deeds.
These things are not necessarily bad. Even the sheep that don’t follow Him, by way of His common grace can enjoy this, but these things aren’t the chief end of man.
Simply put, we were made for Him!
I think it’s easier for us sometimes to get the glorifying God part. We might view this as: living righteously, being obedient, and serving Him in various ministries, These things are all right and good; yet I want to take a closer look at “enjoying Him”.
What does enjoying the Lord look like? I have a sign on my kitchen window sill that reads, “don’t get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.”
I had the thought of the story of Martha and Mary; this is not a story to make service to God look bad, but it is showing us the contentment and pure joy of Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus and getting fed. She was feasting at the King’s table. We can get so busy FOR the Lord that we have no time to ENJOY the Lord.
Jesus told us in John 15 that we are to abide in Him and He in us so that our joy may be complete. I like to think of it like this, we are made to be “in joy” with Jesus! We are “in” Him and He “in” us, and as a result our joy is full and we are free to enjoy Him!
Jesus also tells us “Apart from me, you can do nothing.” Abiding in Him will result in glorifying Him in all we do. We cannot bear fruit apart from The Vine. Glorifying God and enjoying Him are two sides of the same coin. They cannot be separated.
This Psalm has a spectacular crescendo of our life as a Christian. With fireworks, it closes out with the ultimate goal of this race! We live by Him. We live for Him. We live unto Him.
If we believe that this is the chief end, how are we living this out in our daily lives?
The way we enjoy Him deeper and more intimately is to continually give more and more of ourselves away and seek Him above all in prayer and His Word.
God richly blesses those who earnestly seek Him. He is our dwelling place forever!
Psalm 27:4
“The one thing I ask of the Lord— the thing I seek most— is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, delighting in the Lord’s perfections and meditating in his Temple.”
We all suffer but, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.” Psalm 23:6
Goodness and mercy can be wrongly identified with lacking in trial and suffering. Can there be goodness and mercy while in the trial and walking through suffering? When God allowed Satan to afflict Job, was this goodness and mercy?
James 1 tells us, “Count it all joy when you face trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. “
We know that trials are working for us our good, but is it merciful? When we have to go through pain and suffering, we wonder where is the mercy in that? If we think that mercy only means being spared from trials, then God is a liar and the cross is not merciful but rather an injustice.
We need to back up the lens from the zoom setting of our own little world. God is always good and always merciful no matter our circumstance and I will show you with a wide lens.
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Psalm 9:10
We are all born under the wrath of God because of original sin.
“For I was born a sinner— yes, from the moment my mother conceived me.” Psalm 51:5
Apart from Jesus, our own goodness is filthy rags. It’s impossible to please God when left to our own devices.
In the last devotional we saw the way God dealt with the sin problem; It was not until God, Himself entered into humanity in the person of Jesus, to be a ransom. Jesus came so that He could die so that we could have life everlasting, restored fellowship with God. We would no longer be under the wrath of God.
This is goodness and mercy!
If this is all the goodness and mercy we ever see, this is abundantly far richer than we could ever imagine.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,” I Peter 1:3-4
So we see the greatest goodness and mercy, but even in our everyday life, as we walk this pilgrimage, we cannot always see all the goodness and mercy God is giving us even in the midst of our deep suffering.
When Corrie Ten Boom and her sister were in the Nazi prison camp, the fleas were so bad in the cell they were in, but what was realized was the guards stayed away from that cell because of the terrible infestation. They were thankful for the fleas. The fleas were a mercy.
In your suffering you don’t know what greater suffering he may be protecting you from. We also know that God is glorified and exalted in our weakness not in our strength. Yes, we can count it all joy because the joy of the Lord is our strength. He is glorified!
“Give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:18
We, who are in Christ Jesus are in the refiner’s fire. Are we learning to love this fire, knowing that it is in this that we are being purified and He is glorified?
The wide lens shows us how infinite the goodness and mercy of God is. Are we willing to lose in order that we gain Christ?
This is goodness and mercy!
“Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.” James 1:12
By faith, we enter in. Yes, there is a feast celebration to come but there is a feast now.
In the Old Covenant tabernacle, we see the great lengths that were made to go into the presence of God. At the consecration of Aaron, the high priest; he was clothed in special garments from head to toe to prepare to enter into the Holy of Holies. In this ceremony, Moses anointed Aaron’s head with oil. This was to set him apart from the world. He was being prepared.
In the Old Covenant, no one could enter into God’s presence without the new garment and the anointing, but it was in the sprinkled blood of the sacrifice that atoned for sins. This atonement was never enough. The sacrifice was never great enough to deal with man’s sin ultimately.
In the New Covenant we have direct access to His presence because of Jesus’ shed blood on the cross. He was the ultimate sacrifice. All who confess their sins, turn from them and place their trust in Jesus have the blood of Jesus as their covering. He clothes us with a new garment which is His righteousness and He tabernacles with us. We now can come boldly to the King’s throne through Jesus.
The table is available now!
The woman at the well, found the King’s table. It was revealed to her that Jesus was the Messiah. Jesus told her “those that drink from the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.” John 4:13-14
In the midst of her confessed sin, Jesus filled her cup to overflowing. The woman questioned Jesus about the whereabouts to which she should worship, she had the old covenant knowledge, but Jesus told her a time was coming that people would worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth.
The table is available now!
Those that put on the Lord Jesus are anointed with the Holy Spirit. You are set apart. You are made holy.
“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own.” I Corinthians 6:19
Do you have a new garment? Have you been clothed in His righteousness? Have you been anointed with the Holy Spirit?
Be warned, don’t be found trying to enter the King’s table without His new garment. It is through Jesus’ shed blood that we come to the throne and have access to the banqueting table.
Wherever we are and no matter what trials or suffering we may be going through, we can feast on Him. His mercy and grace will surely follow.
“Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:16
The Good Shepherd has reserved a place setting for each of His own at the banqueting table. The King’s table is of the highest authority, it’s sovereign over all, it’s decked in the finest of royal splendor honor and glory. His presence is full of love and joy and His children are joint heirs with the King!
“And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory.“
Romans 8:17a
The second half of the above verse reads like this, “But if we are to share His glory, we must also share His suffering.”
To know Him in His love is to share in His sufferings.
Yes, “weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.” Psalm 30:5
You may ask, but how do I feast through the sufferings? His banner of love is over me, that’s how. He is always leading us by His love but in our trials and suffering He will lead us to His table in a deeper way than we could not know without the trial. We have His presence with us no matter what enemies of this world we encounter. It’s in the valleys that we are humbled and it’s there that he draws us ever deeper into His presence.
The King is inviting you to His table, you who have heard the Shepherd’s call and put your trust in Him. His feast is available now, in the midst of whatever you are going through. His banner of love will cover you.
The King has been abundantly gracious with us, this should be our motivation to spread the good news. Remember the woman at the well, she was invited to drink, and when she drank, in that moment she knew the presence of the King! She went and spread the word.
Yes, only the King knows all the names of His royal heirs and we do not, but we are told to go and invite! Tell them about the hope we have and the great love of our Good Shepherd. Tell them about the feast of the Lord that is available to them now and tell them of the hope of the glorious coming feast.
We are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus! The world, the flesh and the devil don’t have a chance with the saints of the King.
Let us remember, It’s only by His love and grace that any of us are led to the King’s table.
Let us give thanks and feast on Him!
He is with us always!
“He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.” Song of Solomon 2:4
There is great assurance in the rod and staff, and when we have assurance we have comfort.
Why is the rod and staff comforting? The rod and the staff are used for our protection.
First, the rod is used to keep the wolves and any other danger at bay. The staff is there to pull us back into the fold when we are wandering astray.
In the story of the Good Shepherd, Jesus shows us that He calls His sheep by name and leads them out. His sheep hear His voice, and they follow. If you have heard the Shepherd’s call, and have followed Him, there is nothing that can snatch you from His hand.
The protective rod is used against all enemies that seek to rob, steal and destroy His sheep. The saving staff hooks our neck and pulls us back into Himself when we stray.
“He will not let you stumble; the one who watches over you will not slumber.” Psalm 121:3
This is great assurance!
Salvation is not you knowing Jesus, it’s Jesus knowing you.
“For no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them to me…..” John 6:44
It’s not about our knowledge of Him and what we may do in His name. Many performed deeds in His name, but Jesus said, “depart from me. I never knew you.” Matthew 7:23
These people were following Jesus for the wrong reasons. They wanted all the benefits and none of the submission. They did not find comfort in the rod and staff.
The rich young ruler knew of Jesus. He knew the 10 commandments and seemed to follow them to the letter, but Jesus knowing his heart, said “sell your possessions and follow me.” The young ruler went away sad. He didn’t find any comfort in the rod and the staff.
Is your assurance placed in what you do for God, or what He did, does and will do for you?He laid down His life for His sheep.
Are you comforted by the hand of grace always working to correct you, keep you protected from the enemy, and lead you. Are you fully in submission to the Shepherd? Have you found comfort in the rod and the staff?
The disciples asked Jesus after they heard the exchange with the rich young ruler, “Then who in the world can be saved,’?”
“Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible.” Mathew 19:25-26
“Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.”
I’m learning that going through the valley is part of the restoration process. When we are sick and diseased, we know the doctor may have to do some temporarily uncomfortable procedures to get to the restoration. We know that healing most often doesn’t come without the difficult.
All my trials and valleys are beings worked together for my good, they are not meaningless. Our Master Jesus went to the cross and suffered. Are we above our Master?
“Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me.” ( Matthew 16:24) This is only way to becoming purified resulting in being more like Christ.
As believers, this is the race we are on. And in that race we can expect to share in His suffering. At the final finish line, we will have to walk through the valley of the shadow of death, but death will not have the final say. Death is swallowed up in victory! We will put on immortality! We don’t have to fear death. It is just a shadow to those who trust in the Shepherd. The sacrificial Lamb of God took the curse of sin and death upon Himself at the cross.
“O death where is your sting?” (I Corinthians 15:55)
There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body. In Adam we are born in our natural body, in the second Adam, Christ, we must be born again. Jesus gives life to the spiritual body. We can’t take this sick, diseased, sinful body to heaven. You can’t put new wine into old wine skins. (Matthew 9:17)
We are living stones being prepared to put on immortality. Our assurance as believers and being under the Shepherd’s care gives us the comfort we need, so we have no reason to fear.
The storms will come and the waves will crash, and that final wave that takes us, may it “slam us into the Rock of Ages”, as Spurgeon told us. Learn to embrace the waves!
As He died on the cross, Jesus said, “It is finished.” The work is done. I am free from the curse of death. We will not be burned when we go through the fire.
Jesus told Nicodemus, you must be born again to inherit eternal life. If you want to be able to face the valley of the shadow of death with no fear, you must be born of the spirit. Have you put your trust in Jesus as Lord? Have you repented and turned from your sin? Living without Jesus leaves you to your own devices. Are you willing to face the valley of the shadow of death without Him?
“The fool says in his heart there is no God” Psalm 14:1
“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.” James 1:2
“I have learned to kiss the wave that slams me into the Rock of Ages.” Spurgeon
stones from the quarry 