What do you do when you are persecuted in one city?
What do you do when you are persecuted in one city?
By Austin Gardner on Sep 10, 2010 in Devotionals“Matthew 10:23 But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.
Jesus knew that His people would be persecuted. He gave them permission to escape for their lives. They were not to quit witnessing they would just change venues. They would be attacked on every side. People would be after their lives.
They were to simply get to another place where they could continue preaching the gospel.”
Romans 8:28
Romans 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
Here is a summary of what I have learned out of Romans 8:28.
All things that happen in my life, as a born again Christian, somehow are working together for the good purpose of making me like Jesus.
I want to walk as He walked. I want to be as He was and is.
So as we travel this journey called life, we have this confidence and hope in Him, that the trial I am in and the things that are taking place in my life right now are good because they are making me more like HIM!
Quick breakdown of the verse:
- we know - The “we” are those who are “in Christ Jesus” vs. 1 “know” something that we can be assured of.
- all things - “all things” = Everything, every situation that happens.
- work together - All the different things that happen in a believer’s life, work for a common purpose. Each small area is part of a greater picture.
- for good - This greater purpose is never for the bad, but always for the good. We don’t get to define good, God does!
- to them that love God - A born again Christian loves God because God first loved him. (1 John 4:19)
- to them who are the called - God has chosen us, saved us, and has a plan for our lives
- according to his purpose - It is HIS purpose! Not ours! His purpose is for us to be like Jesus = “to be conformed to the image of his Son,” vs 29
“I will love thee, O LORD, my strength”
These verses encouraged my soul this morning:
“I will love thee, O LORD, my strength. The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised:” (Psalm 18:1-3a)
Lord, I love You, because You first loved me. You are my strength and my rock! When life comes at me suddenly, I know I have a solid and sure foundation in You. I have strength to overcome and move forward. You are my fortress and in Thee do I trust. You protect and keep me in Your impenetrable hands. You will deliver me out of trials and temptations. Lord, You are my GOD! My salvation lays solely in the work of Your Son on the cross of calvary! Lord, You and You alone are worthy to be praised!
“The LORD liveth; and blessed be my rock; and let the God of my salvation be exalted.” (Psalm 18:46)
“Therefore will I give thanks unto thee, O LORD, among the heathen, and sing praises unto thy name.” (Psalm 18:49)
How to Pray During Trials
This helped me pray this morning.
I really enjoyed reading the prayer of Hezekiah in Isaiah 37:14-20. I feel very feeble at times in knowing how to pray and what to pray, especially when going through a trial. Notice how he prayed:
1) He began with praise and worship. (v.16) He said, “O Lord God, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: thou hast made heaven and earth.”
- Beginning our prayers with praise and worship gives God the glory He deserves and reminds us of how great His is and acknowledges how small we are.
- We should never get in too big of a hurry to honour and magnify God. Don’t let problems crowd out your worship. When I focus all my attention on my problems, I actually am worshipping myself because all I am thinking about is what is happening to me.
2) He cast his cares upon the Lord. (v.17-19)
- We serve a God who wants to be asked to do big things. He loves taking big problems and doing the impossible. Hezekiah knew that and unloaded what was happening to him to the Lord in prayer.
- Hezekiah said, “Incline thine ear, O Lord, and hear; open thinge eyes, O Lord, and see: and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent to reproach the living God. Of a truth, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations, and their countries, And have cast their gods into the fire: for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone: therefore they have destroyed them.”
- We should give our problems over to the Lord and let Him handle them. I Peter 5:7 says, “Casting all your cares upon him; for he careth for you.”
3) He begged God to do a work that would glorify His name. (v.20)
- He said, “Now therefore, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord, even thou only.”
- He asked for salvation and for protection, but his goal in asking was that God would be glorified and lifted up in the eyes of all people.
I don’t know how you pray when trials come, but this is how I want to pray. I want to never forget to worship and praise God. I want to give my burdens to God and let Him carry them for me. I want God to do what He wants to do in the situation, so that His name is glorified. May we learn to pray like this.
01.25.10
Thank You Jesus | Romans 4:24-25
“But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.”
Because of my offences against a Holy God, I was sentenced to death. But God so loved the world, that Jesus who had no offences was sentenced to death in my place for my offences and therefore by faith in Him the grace of God takes affect because when the Judge of the universe looks to my account, He no longer sees my offences, being covered by the blood of Jesus, but He see the imputed righteousness of Jesus whom was raised for my justification.
I am accepted into the family of God and saved from His wrath.
I deserved eternal damnation in hell for my offences but by his wonderful grace I will receive eternal life through Jesus Christ my Lord.
Thank you Jesus!
Thoughts from Matthew 1-4
A few thoughts that I had out of the first four chapters of Matthew:
- In Chapter one we have the genealogies of Christ. It is interesting to note that going from generation to generation the word “begat” is used but when we end up at Jesus the word “born” is used. Why? Simple, because He was born like any other Human but was begat by the Holy Ghost, not Joseph! He is the God-Man!
- Matthew 4:16 – What a great verse “The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.”
- In 4:17 Jesus starts his preaching ministry and in verses 18-20 He starts His discipleship ministry…looks like He started them basically at the same time. We in the ministry should be preaching AND discipling! Not one or the other, BOTH!
- Peter and Andrew left their nets and James and John left the ship and their father to follow Jesus. What are we leaving? Willing to leave?
That all may know!
This devotion by Pastor Gardner was encouraging to me this morning. My prayer to the Lord is, in all that I do, may I seek to make His name know in all the Earth! Among every person, tongue, and tribe. He is worthy, and may my heart beat be, “that all may know!”
That all may know!
1Kings 8:60 That all the people of the earth may know that the LORD is God, and that there is none else.
In middle of all the blessings of the Lord and many prayer requests we find this sentence. They have just finished building the temple. God is and has blessed them greatly. Then Solomon says, We want all the world to know that the Lord is God and there is none else.
That is an Old Testament prayer. I wonder how many of us today that are living in the New Testament age think like that. Do we want the world to know about Him? He does! He wants all the people of the earth to know.
We are told repeatedly in the New Testament to take this message to the world.
The question for today is, what am I doing to get His name, His fame known all over the world? What is my church, the one I am part of, doing to get His name known everywhere.
There is only one God. There is only one way to Heaven. Are we concerned about making that a reality and known truth every where?
I challenge you today to reevaluate your priorities. I challenge you to look at your church and consider whether or not Bible goals are your goals.
All should hear. All should know that He is God and there is no other. How are you working out this truth in your life and ministry?
-Austin Gardner
Never Be Moved | Psalm 15
Need a character test? Psalm 15 is the place. The question is asked in verse one, “Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill?” The question is addressed to the Lord, and basically David is asking the Lord what kind of man does it take to abide or dwell in a holy place. Or how do we live a holy life? Then he goes on to answer that question and list several do’s and don’ts on how a person of God ought to be separated unto God.
He that:
- Walketh uprightly – To walk or live your life in a non sinful manner. Sincerely wanting to live and do right for the honor and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
- Worketh righteousness – Working or doing good works as fruit of your faith and not as part of your salvation.
- Speaketh the truth in his heart – One who truly believes in the Word of God which is truth and one who desires to speak it, know it, learn it, and obey it.
- Backbiteth not with his tongue – One who doesn’t speak evil of others behind their back and tear down the reputation of others. One who doesn’t gossip.
- Nor doeth evil to his neighbour – One who doesn’t seek to do evil to others whether family, friend, or foe or in word, deed, business, etc.
- Nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour – One the doesn’t make false reports about others or participate in passing one on.
- In whose eyes a vile person is contemned – One who sees wicked and vile men and gives them no honor or reward because they are an abomination to God.
- Honoureth them that fear the LORD – One who honors, respects, and loves the men of God and those that truly serve the Lord.
- Sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not – A man of his word! He makes a promise, contract, agreement, and follows through whith what he said he would do, even if it doesn’t turn out good for himself.
- Putteth not out his money to usury – One who doesn’t put their money out and takes up unlawful interest against others which takes advantage of them and their situation.
- Nor taketh reward against the innocent – One who won’t take a a reward, gift, or bribe to sway his judgement in the opposite direction of the innocent party.
He that doeth these things shall never be moved – will have a firm foundation!
Blessing Through Suffering (Exodus 30:34-36)
Blessing Through Sufferings (Exodus 30:34-36)
Everyone struggles at one time or another with the question, Why does God allow suffering? Though at first thought it might seem most unlikely that blessing could come from life’s most difficult times, on many occasions the greatest blessings in life flow from an intense time of suffering. In the instruction given in the Bible for the tabernacle, certain spices were to be mixed together in order to create a beautiful aroma that would grace the structure. In their natural state, some of these plants seemed unlikely sources for such beautiful fragrances, but instructions were given to “beat” them (v.36), crushing them into small pieces. As the specific plants were crushed, their pleasing odors were released into the air. The word tempered, which was part of the orders of preparation given to Moses (v.35), means “to crush into pieces, to pulverize”. The fragrance thus released prophetically depicts the immeasurable sweetness that would come to us as a result of our Savior’s sufferings.
Our sufferings obviously do not compare with the sufferings of our Savior, which were infinitely beyond anything we could ever experience. But in a very practical way God has allowed us to understand through Christ’s sufferings that out of life’s most difficult struggles God can bring indescribable blessing. “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). Suffering in the believer’s life can bring out the wonderful sweetness of our precious LORD who dwells within. Though it might appear unlikely, we can experience blessing through suffering.”
-Jonathan M. Cowles
This short excert was sent to me over email from a friend who read it out of his ” daily bible study guide.”
09.3.09
Seven Lessons from the Life of David
I studied David’s life awhile back and made seven lesson from his life (though there are tons more). It was saved as a draft and I never posted it. So here they are, each stated in one sentence. Hopefully this is an encouragement to you.
- God uses those who seem unusable, if their heart is after Him! (1 Samuel 16)
- The ultimate reason for living is God, therefore ultimately live for God. (1 Samuel 17)
- Don’t pay back evil for evil, but try to live peaceably with all men. (1 Samuel 25)
- Despise not the commandments of the Lord, yet repent when you do. (Psalm 51)
- Don’t Avoid Sin, Confront It! (2 Samuel 13-15)
- Endure Hardness As a Good Soldier of Jesus Christ. (2 Samuel 23)
- It’s time to build, arise therefore, and build. (1 Chronicles 22, 28)
I have the whole lesson if your interested.