Stopped by The Captain

You are leaving port under sealed orders and in a troubled period.
You cannot know whither you are going or what you are to do.You cannot know whither you are going or what you are to do.
But why not take the Pilot on board who knows the nature of your sealed orders from the outset,
and who will shape your entire voyage accordingly?
He knows the shoals and the sandbanks, the rocks and the reefs,
He will steer you safely into that celestial harbor where your anchor will be cast for eternity.
Let His almighty nail-pierced hands hold the wheel, and you will be safe.

Peter Marshall

Spiritual Strength Training

And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing...And when the devil had ended all the temptation...Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee..." 

Luke 4:1-2, 13-14

I must've read the first verse at least six times before moving on this morning. That word "full" literally means that Jesus was completely saturated and permeated in His soul with the Holy Spirit's presence. The Spirit then led the Son straight into the wilderness. I'm not a Bible scholar, but the Word doesn't say that the chief or sole purpose was to be tested by the devil.The wilderness was a place where David often found refuge and quietness from his enemy, while Israel fell in sin to the temptations that lie there. According to the scriptures it's not an easy place to live.

But in that difficult place, when a soul remains steadfast in God, resists temptations from flesh and enemy, spiritual strength and power is granted by the Holy Spirit. It doesn't say Jesus had power to resist first. He had the fulness of the Spirit's presence. Yet, in His weakness He swung the weapon He was given and emerged fully equipped with the Spirit's power for the ministry that lie ahead of Him.

His resistance to Satan came with His declaration of what the Word of God was in His life, Who His heart worshiped, and the wisdom He lived by under His Father's authority. If you find yourself in a spiritual wilderness, not led there from sin in your life, be assured that the Lord is with you. And in your weakness, use the same weapon Jesus did. Jam.4:7 "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." Make sure that His declarations are in harmony with your own. There is the key to victory and insight into true "strength training."

1 Tim. 4:8 "For bodily exercise profits little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." 

Eph 6:10-11 "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil."

Hidden Hearts

I've had "Bleeding Hearts" growing in my garden for as many years as we've been in our house. I love watching the heart shape flowers emerge, quickly grow, then the tear drop descend from its base. God writes majestic poetry in creation. Small illustrative sermons that reveal volumes about His character, His ways, His love and His purposes. I think it's why I'm enamored by the words and paintings of Lillias Trotter so much. Have you ever noticed that if you pluck one of those bleeding heart flowers and tear it open, there is another heart tucked within, firmly attached to the apparent tear drop that descends outwardly? 

It's what I'd love my own heart to be like. That when the Spirit of Jesus in me grieves, His tears break through my own and I weep because He weeps. It's interesting...the Lord created the nectar of that flower to be so sweet, that timid and easily frightened hummingbirds find strength when they drink of it.   

2 Cor. 4:7a "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels..."

"They tell me I must bruise

The rose's leaf,

Ere I can keep and use

Its fragrance brief.

They tell me I must break

The skylark's heart,

Ere her cage song will make

The silence start.

They tell me love must bleed,

And friendship weep,

Ere in my deepest need

I touch that deep.

Must it be always so

With precious things?

Must they be bruised and go

With beaten wings?

Ah, yes! by crushing days,

By caging nights, by scar

Of thorn and stony ways,

These blessings are!"

- From Edith Schaeffer in her book "Affliction"

Food for Thought

I'm not sure what you call those "rules of life" that everyone seems to know by the time you get to adulthood, but I violated one of the chief commands. "Thou shalt not grocery shop on an empty stomach." There's some kind of "alteration" that happens initially to your senses and then an "altar-ation" occurs between you and food.

Peanut butter cups transform into an invaluable protein. The smell of freshly baked bread makes you pick up artisan loaves that cost more than filet mignon. You become convinced that you will make, bake, try and fry foods that in reality, will never see the light of day until you dust the pantry years later.  Items that repulsed you with their 26-letter chemical ingredients now seem to draw you like a tractor beam while fixated on the box's embellished photo. You believe every promise (Slim Fast?), visit every sample table (Spam what?), and focus on the miles you just earned by charging all of it on your Visa.  Hunger...right feeling...wrong timing.

On the contrary, I found myself sitting in front of my Bible not too long ago asking the Lord to stir my hunger. Not the kind of hunger for sweet imitations of His truth nor misapplied promises that may never see the light of day. Not a hunger for tainted interpretations of Who Jesus is that embellish a certain characteristic of His nature. I didn't want to only sample His delicacies through devotionals either. I asked Jesus if He could stir a ferocious appetite deep within my heart that nothing on earth would satisfy but Him. For His righteousness, relationship, and the revelation of the kingdom I am to pursue above all. It was a prayer He faithfully answered...so let's feast today!

"For He satisfies the longing soul and fills the hungry soul with goodness."

Ps. 107:9

"Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled."

Matt. 5:6