Category: Uncategorized

Original Praise Music: Blessing, Glory, Honor and Love

I am in the process of learning how to upload my tracks, so I appreciate your patience!

Lyrics: By Lisa Groen copy right pending May 2017

Blessing, glory, honor and love

Is what the Father pours down from above

The Father of love, pours on us Jesus’s blood

To give us restoration and love

Healing, mercy, came when Jesus was born

When He became a man and on the cross the veil was torn

He poured on thirsty souls the water

That would make them thirst no more

And this is only the beginning of what’s still in store

Rivers of life flow    healing for me

Removing my strife and causing my eyes to see

He poured down the Balm of Gilead on me

This is just one blessing for those who believe.

Wrapping me in his love       that sets me free

Knowing he is above all that could trouble me

And he gives the word to us commanding our peace

This is just one blessing for his posterity

Children of Abraham    remember whom you have believed,

The one who humbled himself and went for us to calvary.

He didn’t hold back from taking our place

but bought the chastisement of our peace

So all our sin and striving could cease. LG

Repentance From Sin, Unto Eternal Life in Christ

Author: Lisa Groen

There must come a time where we make a conscious choice to turn away from our lifestyle of sin, to live for God who has always been perfectly and completely free from sin. God has never done anything dishonest, immoral, or unrighteous, or any other thing sinful, and we can only enjoy being free from sin if we consciously make a choice to turn from our life of sin and serve God with our heart and life.

The Bible talks about people being a slave to sin.

There is only one way to break our slavery to sin and that is to believe Jesus deserves that you turn from a lifestyle of sin to follow Him. Jesus (and both of the 2 other members of the Godhead, The Father, and the Holy Spirit) have the authority to break up our relationship with sin, because each of them have more power and authority than sin does and then Jesus becomes our Lord. (Lord means Master). We then are enabled to serve God and live a life pleasing to God.

The Bible talks of God purchasing us back from our slavery to sin to belong to Him. This means he “redeems us”. The redemption transaction Jesus went through happened when he gave his blood on the cross to buy us wholly from the slavery of sin to belong to Him and he made it possible to buy us out of the kingdom of darkness. He paid the price with his blood and his own physical death. If Jesus is not your Lord you are in the kingdom of darkness. You need to come to Christ the King in the kingdom of light. He died on the cross to translate us out of the kingdom of darkness and translate us into the kingdom of light. If God is drawing you to follow and serve him in righteousness, you need to believe Jesus as you’d believe someone who holds your life in his hands. He has authority over death. He has more power than sin does to break up your relationship with sin. He has authority over everything that happens to you.

I googled the phrase “what does the Bible mean by the word “redeem””? and this was the first quote that came up from the address https://www.bing.com/search?q=what%20does%20the%20bible%20mean%20by%20the%20word%20redeem%3F&pc=0CAE&ptag=C999N4AE93C7C9D5F&form=0A0505&conlogo=CT3210127 (I removed the hyperlink numbers in the quote): “In the Bible, redemption refers to God’s merciful and costly action on behalf of his people. The term “redeem” means “to buy out” and was used specifically in reference to the purchase of a slave’s freedom. In the New Testament, redemption means that Christ’s life or blood was the ransom price so that anyone who believes in Christ will be freed from sin and the bondage to death. Redemption is liberation from the slavery of sin and is given to us by the perfect sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross of Calvary”. Part of that redemption is that Christ takes death and changes it so that it is not a dead end, but that Jesus takes our death and He through His resurrection and eternal life becomes our open door for us to be with God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit forever and ever in all eternity with all the other Christ followers who have believed in and followed Jesus as Master and Lord.

The following is a promise Jesus makes to those who follow Him that takes place on earth, and continues for Christ followers through eternity in Heaven: John 8:12 reads: “Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; the one who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” LG

What is a Christian in Simple Terms?

By Lisa Groen

Scripture and comments to show a few basic characteristics of a true Christian. (Words within parenthesis through this document are mine and all headings are mine.)

A Christian is someone who has been saved from the penalty, power, and pleasure of sin by an act of God’s pursuit of him/her, and will be taken to heaven for eternity and saved from the presence of sin there to be with the Godhead forever. (Godhead has three members who are one in purpose and unity=The Father, The Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit)

John 1:29 “The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!””

Matthew 1:21 “She will bear a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.”

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, (spiritual death) but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”

Acts 3:19 “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out,”

A Christian is someone who has faith in Jesus and aims to follow Jesus day by day.

Acts 16:31 “They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you and your household will be saved.”

Luke 9:23 “Then He said to them all, “If anyone will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”

Psalm 81:13 “Oh, that My people would listen to Me, and Israel would follow in My ways!”

Deuteronomy 11:1 “You must love the Lord your God and keep His charge, His statutes, His ordinances, and His commandments always.”

Deuteronomy 11:8-12 “Therefore you must keep all the commandments which I am commanding you today, so that you may be strong and go in and possess the land which you are going to possess; 9 and that you may prolong your days in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give to them and to their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10 For the land which you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt from where you came, where you sowed your seed and watered it with your foot like a vegetable garden, 11 but the land, which you are entering to possess, is a land of hills and valleys and drinks water from the rain of heaven, 12 a land for which the Lord your God cares. The eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year even to the end of the year.”

Luke 6:46-49 ““Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I say? 47 Whoever comes to Me and hears My words and does them, I will show whom he is like: 48 He is like a man who built a house, and dug deep, and laid the foundation on rock. When the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, but could not shake it, for it was founded on rock. 49 But he who hears and does not obey is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently. Immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”

A Christian knows the true Jesus of the Bible, and believes Jesus is God.

John 10:30 “My Father and I are one.”

Exodus 3:14-15 “14 And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM,” and He said, “You will say this to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ” 15 God, moreover, said to Moses, “Thus you will say to the children of Israel, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.’

John 8:58 “Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was born, I AM.”

John 17:3 “This is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.”

John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me”

John 20:24-29 But Thomas, one of the twelve, called The Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail prints in His hands, and put my finger in the nail prints, and put my hand in His side, I will not believe.” 26 After eight days His disciples were again inside with the doors shut, and Thomas was with them. Jesus came and stood among them, and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then He said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at My hands. Put your hand here and place it in My side. Do not be faithless, but believing.” 28 Thomas answered Him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen, and have yet believed.”

A Christian knows he/she can learn about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit by reading the Bible and how to live a life that pleases God from the Bible.

John 5:39-40 “You search the Scriptures, because you think in them you have eternal life. These are they who bear witness of Me. 40 Yet you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.”

Deuteronomy 12:28 “Observe and hear all these words which I command you, so that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do that which is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.”

Acts 5:42 “Daily, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease to teach and preach Jesus Christ.”

Acts 17:10 “These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with all eagerness, daily examining the Scriptures, to find out if these things were so.”

John 6:63 “It is the Spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit and are life.”

 2 Timothy 3:16 “All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness,”

Colossians 1:10 “that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, pleasing to all, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God,”

A Christian realizes they are a sinner. We are born into sin, because Adam and Eve, the physical parents we all descended from sinned, then spiritual death crept into the human race bloodline from then on.  

Ephesians 2:1-3 “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the age of this world and according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among them we all also once lived in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and we were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God,”

Genesis 2:17 “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” (God speaking to Adam and Eve)

Psalm 51:5 “I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.”

Although a Christian was dead to God before he/she became a Christian, the Christian becomes spiritually alive by God making him/her born again, and is indwelt by the Holy Spirit because God has given them eternal life, when they have asked God to save them from spiritual death.

1 Peter 1:23 “for you have been born again, not from perishable seed, but imperishable, through the word of God which lives and abides forever.”

1 John 2:25” And this is the promise that He has promised us—eternal life.”

John 3:3 “Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.””

Romans 6:11 “Likewise, you also consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Romans 6:13 “Do not yield your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but yield yourselves to God, as those who are alive from the dead, and your bodies to God as instruments of righteousness.”

1 Corinthians 6:19 “What? Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God, and that you are not your own?”

Ezekiel 36:26 “Also, I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.”

Luke 15:24 “For this son of mine was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ So they began to be merry”

2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have passed away. Look, all things have become new.”

John 5:24 “Truly, truly I say to you, whoever hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has eternal life and shall not come into condemnation, but has passed from death into life.”

A Christian gets the benefit of being guided by the Lord Jesus throughout his/her lifetime because Jesus calls Himself the Good Shepherd.

Luke 1:76-79 ““And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest; for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, 77 to give knowledge of salvation to His people by the remission of their sins, 78 through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise from on high has visited us; 79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.””

John 10:11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.”

Psalm 23:1 “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”

Psalm 48:14 “For this God is our God forever and ever; He will be our guide even to death.”

A Christian gets the benefit of being adopted into the family of God and receiving the many blessings associated with being a child of God.

Psalm 65:4 “Blessed is the one you choose and bring near, to dwell in your courts! We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple!”

Galatians 4:5 “To redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”

Romans 9:4 “who are Israelites, to whom belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises”

Psalm 33:12 “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom He has chosen as His inheritance.”

Psalm 24:5 “He will receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.”

Ephesians 1:5 “He predestined us to adoption as sons to Himself through Jesus Christ according to the good pleasure of His will.”

Deuteronomy 7:14 “You shall be blessed above all peoples; there will be no male or female barren among you or among your cattle.”

A Christian actively pursues learning how to live a holy life and pursues learning how to grow in a Christ-like manner and continues to turn from sin as it is discovered in their life and seeks forgiveness from God whenever it may show up in their life.

Hebrews 12:14 “Pursue peace with all men, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord,”

2 Peter 3:18 “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory, both now and forever.”

Romans 6:13 “Do not yield your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but yield yourselves to God, as those who are alive from the dead, and your bodies to God as instruments of righteousness.”

Colossians 1:9-12 “For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; 10 that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, pleasing to all, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God, 11 strengthened with all might according to His glorious power, enduring everything with perseverance and patience joyfully, 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled us to be partakers in the inheritance of the saints in light.”

Acts 26:18 “to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.’

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (We renew our minds by reading God’s word)

1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

A Christian gets the benefit of God changing his/her spirit, mind, and spiritual manner and approach to life so he/she is able to grow according to God’s will to mature Christlikeness and holiness so he/she will be able to stand by grace in the free gift of Christ’s righteousness for him/her to be counted acceptable to God on judgement day when Christ shall judge the spiritually living and the spiritually dead, sending the spiritually living to heaven, and the spiritually dead to hell.

Ephesians 4:23 “and be renewed in the spirit of your mind;”

Luke 24:49 “Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures

Ezekiel 11:19 “I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them. And I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh,”

Romans 5:17 “For if by one man’s trespass (Adam) death reigned through him, then how much more will those who receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.”

Ephesians 1:6 “To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.”

2 Corinthians 3:18 “But we all, seeing the glory of the Lord with unveiled faces, as in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord.”

Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

Romans 3:22 “This righteousness of God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all and upon all who believe, for there is no distinction.”

Romans 4:25 “Jesus was given to die for our sins, and he was raised from the dead to make us right with God.“

Ephesians 4:15 “But, speaking the truth in love, we may grow up in all things into Him, who is the head, Christ Himself,”

1Thessalonians 4:3 “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: (holiness) that you should abstain from sexual immorality,” LG

How Fasting Can Cultivate the Fruit of Humility

Author: Lisa Groen

Category: Devotional and prayer

The reality of belonging to Jesus comes with many indications of our new identity in Christ. The reality of Christ’s own personality shows us many unearthly things that are “given” for what the believer will one day look like (Rom 8:29a  for those whom He foreknew, He predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son…). He will share certain characteristics with us and these characteristics for those born again have become part of our new nature and were planted within us at the time of salvation and shape the direction of our growth which is from God. From this we can know that to study the personality of Christ is strategic and greatly beneficial for us because it focusses our eyes on the eternal Savior.

The characteristics of God are either incommunicable attributes or they are communicable. The ones he shares with us are the communicable characteristics and those that he doesn’t are the incommunicable characteristics. A short list of incommunicable attributes God possesses are his sovereignty, omnipotence, omnipresence, and his omniscience, which are all traits that as mere people whom God has created we will never possess, because to possess any of those characteristics would make one God-like. However, the communicable attributes from the personality of God that he intends for us to share exist because he has destined us to look like Christ. John 1:12-13 reads “But to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God— children born not of blood, nor of the desire or will of man, but born of God.” So, it is clear that if we are born of God, we should be aimed by God to resemble Christ and to possess those certain attributes of God that distinguish us as his children.

A short list of communicable attributes of God includes his righteousness, (Ephesians 4:22–24), which says we “are created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness”, His love, (1 John 4:16God is love..) peace, (Isaiah 9:6b And He will be called …Prince of Peace) patience, (1 Cor 13:4 Love is patient, Joel 2:13b …Slow to anger) kindness, (Gal 5:22) and humility (John 13:1-17, Jesus stooped down to wash the disciples’ feet, and Ps 18:35b…You have stooped to make me great.)

We have been predestined to the praise of the glory of his grace—the only thing that will praise him is that we would end up looking like Jesus in our hearts. John MacArthur said several things worth quoting in his message “The Benefits of Being a Saint (https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/1811/the-benefits-of-being-a-saint) that “You are sanctified” – it’s the same root word as saint – “you are called saints” – in order to make them aware of the fact that the foundation for his exhortation to their behavior is in the fact that they are saints.”…. “The fact of who we are is the premise upon which the word of God bases the fact of what we ought to act like. You might put it this way: the indicative, you are, is the basis for the imperative, you ought…In fact, it tells us that we are holy because of what Christ is; therefore, we ought to be like Him. We ought to act like Him. Our lives ought to conform to Him.” 

I venture to say humility is not natural to any of us, because pride is at the heart of sin. Pride was the sin that caused Satan to fall, and pride just may be what Satan might most often tempt us with. To counter this reality, the motivation to put forth a concerted effort to exercise humility by the act of crucifying our pride through the act of fasting and prayer, can address a very real need and be a part of a very natural way of life for the person who would prize the goal of becoming Christlike.

Because we ought to conform to Him we have a long way to go. Now although we can be assured the fruits of the Spirit listed in Gal 5:22-23 and other communicable attributes of God were placed within us at salvation, and a tree does not strain itself to bring forth its good fruits, but we also can be assured that we must at times put forth our own effort since Christ himself put forth spiritual effort to exercise the fruits of the Spirit being manifested in him. So even more so for us, it is a good rule of thumb to say that if there is an attribute of Christ that is not natural to us, (surely all of them, but some more noticeably not natural!) we ought certainly put forth effort as Christ did that we should aim for whatever in our flesh may be prone to oppose the nature of Christ would be crucified or wounded by the Spirit which opposes our flesh, as we lean on God for the spiritual efforts we must put forth, of course by receiving the Spirit’s help for this warfare.

So based on these things I have written, I challenge us all again to humble our souls with prayer and fasting. (Psalm 35:13, 69:10-20) We should be ready for those days where Jesus calls us to do as he did, to “take off our street clothes, make time in our schedule to get down on our knees, and walk out the humility of washing the feet of the saints”. This was not optional, but a command. Would we discern his voice, if we heard him call us to this humility? If we submit to the training of humbling our souls, fasting indeed can be one strategic way to prepare for such days ahead that will certainly come.

Prayer:

Dear Lord, may we be willing to do whatever you are calling us to do, and may we be preparing for with abandon of whatever you have for us that demands the crucifixion of our pride, and through this steady warfare seek the growth and development of humility in our lives. Amen!

Keep growing in the Word! LG

Finding the Power to Do Hard Things

Author: Lisa Groen

Category: Devotional and prayer

I have 3 simple truths about the joy of the Lord for us to consider today. It is the knowledge of this joy that can help us to do hard things with a joyful momentum. They are:

  1. We get to rejoice and bring our joys to the Lord because we are chosen by God for serving the Lord, and this is invigorating that our rejoicing blesses him.
  2. We get to receive joy from the Lord even doing hard things as we are serving the Lord
  3. And as we bring our service to the Lord and recognize the grace from God upon our lives to live a changed life by his power, our actions can help serve to feed our joy in the Lord and create a joyful momentum, that seems to “come back to kiss our faces”.

To show these truths I bring us a glimpse of Psalm 119:4-5. These 2 scriptures give us a very simple reason we can rejoice in the Lord steadily even while doing hard things. Let’s read: 119:4-5 “Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun, 5 which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course.”

God’s strength and power are surely seen in the stability of the sun and with the immensity of heat and light it carries by radiating day after day almost seemingly without fail. It is something to consider the strength of the sun’s shining and it’s rising at one end of the sky and setting in another as if the sun were “rejoicing as a strong man to run his course”.

God is declaring his glory through the heavens in this Psalm. Although Psalm 119 is about how the glory of the sun is pictured as a strong man, its poetry gives us the feeling that there is a picture we can have about how powerful the knowledge of God’s glory is to propel us forward along with anything else touched by his glory. I can believe as we picture the application of truth from verses 4 and 5 we see that being touched by the glory of the Lord as the sun, can give those touched by God’s glory the expectation and experience of being propelled forward with strength and rejoicing by God’s declaring his glory in our lives.

If a Christian is saved for any length od time, we have recognized we can safely believe that God is consciously in the habit of providing all his children a strength comparable to magnet like adherence to a run a course for God with power and indistinguishable light although the sun is less touched by the glory of God inasmuch as Jesus didn’t die for the sun to be saved; he died for us to be saved. We may not keep to the path perfectly, to which we aree called, but the glory of God’s forgiveness and cleansing touches us, and we are revived and go on rejoicing stronger to run our course with God. God’s gravitational pull on us so to speak is a strong “gravity” or “staying power” he gives to keep us on course with him as a gift to pull us to him and a power to run in the path of his commands. Truly God makes us radiate his truth and love along our path as we rejoice, and he propels us forward with a powerful joy in our course in the Lord.

So, lets recap our 3 truths:

  1. We get to rejoice and bring our joys to the Lord because we are chosen by God for serving the Lord
  2. We get to receive joy from the Lord even doing hard things as we are serving the Lord
  3. And as we bring our service to the Lord and recognize the grace from God upon our lives to live a changed life by his power, our actions can help serve to feed our joy in the Lord.

Prayer: Oh God, may these truths with scriptural meditations serve to give us the joyful momentum to do hard things like fasting before you Oh God, and even long term or regular fasting Oh God. And may it also serve to give us a joyful momentum to do the hard thing of praying continuously before You Lord with gladness and willingness and find power and joy to fulfill our callings, and like a magnet “keep to our course” empowered with the heavenly touch of Your glory. Amen  Lord, Amen!

Keep growing in the Word! LG

Pains Christians Encounter That Are Unnecessary

Author: Lisa Groen

Category: Devotional and prayer

God definitely has some thoughts about what should be happening on the Earth, at any given time and we can be confident that the One who created the Heavens and the Earth is also running the show. God is in control of what is allowed to happen on the earth. God is Sovereign and has a plan for “making all things new”, for “vengeance is mine, I will repay” He says, and a plan for “healing of the nations”, for “healing the brokenhearted”, for “redeeming people from the curse” that is “found upon the face of the earth”. God has “broken the power of sin” and “put sin to death in the body of Jesus”, and “came to save his people from their sins”. God has promised a future place where there is no strife, where people “will no longer learn war”, where people will be generous, loving, good to their neighbors, serving one another, live long and healthy lives, where people work to “rescue the helpless, and help rebuild broken cities”. God in scripture has gone on record saying that for man to be alone is not a good thing. He hates when His people are isolated from Him and others in the family of God, and he has gone on record saying he hates injustice, immorality, and inequality. God hates it when people in the world are hurt by other people’s sin.

Proverbs 6:16-19 There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.

The facts are that sin does hurt people. Even the sin that a person may commit when he is alone may eventually end up surfacing and hurting someone else, as far as something like pornography being viewed, or of a person ruminating over any selfish, prideful, or bitter thoughts. The Bible says God hates those things. Getting hurt is such a common experience that everyone on the face of the earth can unfortunately experience this multiple times a week, if it were not simply getting hurt by the “sin” that we see around us that is described to “vex” one’s soul, as in “Rivers of waters run down mine eyes,
because they keep not thy law” (Ps 119:136). And righteous Lot was vexed, which is to say, greatly distressed with the depraved and sexualized words and conduct of the wicked Sodomites (2 Pet 2:7). One of the qualities that is spoken about of God’s wonderful promises for the future telling that he will one day “make all things new” is a wonderful place to start ruminating over all the hope we can have in a trustworthy God who is aware of our circumstances, our pains, our needs and knows every injustice we have ever suffered, so that meditating on his promises surely can shape our perspectives of what is happening presently all over the globe, shape our understanding of the past and can shape our understanding of what will happen in the future.

1 Corinthians 13:7 says “(Love) always protects….” And “1 John 4:16 says “God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.” Or, “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.” So, to see the ways God protects people in scripture and in the world around us is surely a picture of his loving heart. Needless to say, some scholars say at least 5 and possibly 6 out of 10 of the 10 commandments were laws God made to keep us free from the pains of sin, and from hurting one another, and in the OT there are many additional laws God put in place to bring aide to the hurt or defrauded, where the scripture tells in detail how to go about paying restitution.

Therefore praying for protection and/or avoidance of pain can be one of the most prayed-for topics that exists: “God I ask for safety for my patients”…from the lips of a surgeon… “God, please keep my classroom safe today…” from the lips of a school teacher, “God please keep all food bourn illness away from my business…” from the lips of a restaurant owner, or butcher. God please protect this person, we ask for traveling mercies…” from the lips of all who travel, and bus drivers and airplane pilots. “God please keep the campground safe today…” from the lips of state recreation area workers, just to name a few.

But for those who believe in the Sovereignty of God, we can be sometimes taught wrong or tempted to think “everything” that “just happens” is His will, so that means therefore we just simply need to “embrace everything” as coming directly from Him. The idea that we should “be completely humble and not try to fight against anything” so as to be relieved from our duty of imploring God through our belief in the God who protects is an all too deeply accepted half-truth/half-lie that has served to make lame and impotent the Christian church today.

So, here is just a snapshot or short list of “unnecessary pains” the church should not enable by the sin of not thinking it necessary to pray and fast, or enable by the sin of omitting prayer and fasting at times!

Unnecessary Pains:

  1. The pain our sin causes. We need to fight our sin and not accept it, even though our righteousness has been paid for in full not by our works, God has called us to follow him. We should not “shrink back” in our fight of faith. There may be times when we need to “re-coup” and “regain strength” but we should not become passive in our fight against our own sin.
  2. The pain of bad treatment from others. We should not accept all treatment from others as always something needed to keep us in God’s will. God’s people prayed for deliverance from Egypt. Paul was let down by a basket over a wall and was taken to a place where he would be safe from death threats. King David fought many fights against the armies of pagan nations and God gave him and Israel the victory many times over. Esther did not accept the idea of genocide for the people of Israel, and was called on by God to trust Him although her life could be at stake going before the King to ask for a law to be changed. And she called on the nation of Israel to fast and pray for 3 days, and they did, and God granted that the law be changed, by touching the heart of the king of Persia. God rallied the King to literally kill the corrupt person who wanted a nation  killed and this shows that her refusal to “accept” what was already in place for genocide of the Jews to happen in the law. So we see it was her knowledge of the God she knew and loved as a God who delivered his people from death, proved again to be the living and active part of the personality of the God who massively is able to save nations full of people!
  3. The pain of misused authority from husbands or religious leaders. Issues where scripture is taken out of context by abusive husbands and tell their wives that they must submit even when the husband has no interest in protecting the welfare of his wife or family. To counter this, we must remember God does not put authority on the totem pole above the safety of innocent people. God is the God who protects. Issues where leaders take scripture out of context and tell their congregants “they must submit” even when there may be questionable practices or questionable attitudes by the leadership of the church is another place and time people must remember the “God who always protects” and prayers should be made regarding how God would like to reveal truth to save people from getting hurt.
  4. The pain of not being able to preach the whole truth of the Bible because of some “anti-Christ societal norm creeping in”. Issues where “people who seem to want peace, and equality for everyone” in the secular world who may try to shut down the preaching of God’s word or the speaking of Biblical truth is another thing today’s Spirit filled Christian should not accept but fight against through prayer and fasting.
  5. The pain of corrupt laws like legal abortions, the legalization of marijuana, and the legalization of homosexual marriages cause people to sin more freely than when those sins were not legal. The pain of these legalized sins warps the collective mind of society. Therefore, these things enable greater numbers of people to get hurt by those sins, simply by looking on at what is  happening in society. We must keep before our minds that the Bible shows us corrupt laws CAN change through prayer and fasting EVEN though God might be allowing suffering under these sins for a season! We have many opportunities to see our whole world change even down to some laws that can be pivotal in turning our society away from sin, and with the hope of maintaining a more truthful collective mindset in discerning good from evil.
  6. The pain of corrupt laws trying to prevent the true communication of God’s word, and God’s standards. Evil people do not want God’s word to go forth. Corrupt people have tried to shut down his truth since the garden of Eden and the jealousy of Cain. When God’s people pray to keep the Christian Church to continue worshipping Him and serving Him as we should, God often averts the plans of the enemy and preserves his Name, His reputation, and His Truth in the land!

All the above are injustices and evils the Bible mentions we should not accept and should not be lazy in standing against in our Christian walk. Although God is completely Sovereign and can use what the enemy meant for evil for the good of someone or for all his people, can use hardship to sanctify his people, and change the oppression or injustice, let us remember the many Biblical accounts where God changed something, some battle, some law, the heart of some elected official, or some famine or pestilence from shutting down the people of God he has sent to proclaim the kingdom of God. May we remember from which stock we come from, and remember our calling and election and make it sure through a firm footed and steady fight of faith! Pray with me against the above evils!

Prayer:

Oh Gracious Heavenly Father! Many or all of the evils I have listed are happening even as I speak at any time in the world and the enemy has been rampaging against the body of Christ! It’s as if our society has shifted into some grey and nebulous callous and warped un-reality zone! It’s as if there is an underlying message that unless the church shows anything besides being meek and mild we are labeled as “hateful intolerant bigots who need to be quickly woke!” Many times the “wives submit to your husbands card” is played under wrong circumstances, and my heart Lord is not to say that scripture is wrong, but to say it can be used by those with spiritual authority over God’s women and make them stripped of emotional sanity. And likewise, the “submit to your spiritual authorities” card is played under false pretense to suggest they belong to an “right and only right group of spiritual know-it-alls”. Please Lord teach the body of Christ how to address these evils so we can protect the body of Christ more like Jesus does! Teach us how to be loving in our messages proclaiming the word of God without compromising on truth, and may the pains of society screaming for us to “stop preaching the word of God as it is in the Bible”, be quenched and silenced! Oh God, may you bring your will to be done in our nation and other nations to establish your Kingdom and to revise and abolish the corrupt laws put in place by corrupt people to kill innocent children, to brainwash our society out of their God given sexual identities, and to steal our minds through drugs, Oh God! Please undo the pains we Christians have caused or allowed our nation by our passivity toward the corrupt laws now in place, and may Your will be established, and Godly laws put in place in our world to correct the unnecessary pains that I have just mentioned! And Lord, we know it is our personal sin that you overcame on the cross and that we can surrender to you for part of the reborn heart environment in which you have given the Christian to live. Many or most who are reading this know Lord we live in a world birthed by your Spirit, and by your Spirit we have been given a heart to love You, and be grieved by our own compromise!  Oh God may we be granted progress by your Spirit within us, grant us true strength from heaven to go forward by your Spirit as we grow by absorbing your virtue, like the rain and snow from heaven! And may You feed us Lord with your truth so we may proclaim its many benefits and glories, and may you utterly change the face and heart of our lives, of our families and our country, and all the world around us so that You would be seen and glorified more and more in our world on a more massive level Oh Lord Our Lord, for You are Mighty to Save Oh God!

Amen!

Keep growing in the Word! LG

The “Necessity” of Christian Hardships

Author: Lisa Groen

Category: Devotional and prayer

The gospel when proclaimed in a Biblically sound way does and should, bring peace to us all. While this is true there also seems to be a notable number of scriptures that inform us that the God who sent Christ to earth to pay with his blood for peace to be established between the believer and God is also the one who deserves our trembling and shaking before him. He is the same Jesus who said in Mathew 7:13-14 Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life, and only a few find it.

With the many topics that the Lord introduces to his people in the NT that seem hard, “fasting” would fit the bill. Perhaps you’re a little like me, who have compared the OT plan of drawing near to God with the NT plan for such a work. We think the OT plan should be hard, and, we, —should be done with “hard” in the NT. I believe because we have a nuanced gospel, and can be so prone to settle for a quick and “easily explained” definition for telling what our Christian habits should be, and can get tempted to think that for us NT folks, if each part of our walk with God is not “ease producing” then it also cannot be “peace producing”, but that is simply not true. “Ease” for the Christian is not synonymous with “peace”. To use our distinguishing abilities, we will have to pull the reference cards out of our minds for these two words and closely examine some similarities and differences for discernment purposes on them, mentally write details to edit our definitions with important markers on them and file them away again for future use. We so much need to glean from the many “holy difficulties” that are either sent by Providence, or captured by God for His divine purposes having been sent from the “drizzle” attack of our blind Enemy.

Isn’t it true the Bible says in Luke 13 to make every effort to enter by the narrow gate? Luke 13:23-24 says, “Someone asked him, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?” He said to them, 24“Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.” 

We can take the word “narrow” in this sentence to be an invitation from the Lord to do hard things. And we can take it as an invitation from the Lord that some hard things The Lord introduces to us are absolutely necessary for us to embrace and “take in” to make a regular part of our lives for a walk with God that stays on the narrow path.

1 Peter 2:20-21 CEV “You don’t gain anything by being punished for some wrong you have done. But God will bless you, if you have to suffer for doing something good. 21. After all, God chose you to suffer as you follow in the footsteps of Christ, who set an example by suffering for you.” I don’t bring up this short passage to suggest we need to be told about the subject of being punished for wrong doing but to suggest that if God would allow others to cause us to suffer and to “capture” different conditions of the suffering the enemy might like to dish out to us and have it all somehow be woven into part of His genius plan for us for our sanctification, then this plan that He has had from before the foundation of the world, just magnifies the amazing qualities of foreknowledge and Providence of our redemptive Shepherd King.

May we travel the hard road of the desert/wilderness with Christ, fasting as often as He may lead, and laying down “every weight and burden, and the sin that so easily besets”, so that we may go swiftly with Him and with perseverance, even running with Him as He leads!

Prayer:

Dear Lord, some days I feel nothing that excites me about going through the routines of the day, of getting out of bed, doing the morning rituals , hopping in the car and going to work, that I much consciously “spit out the lukewarm aftertaste” left from dinking of the world too much, remember that you have called me to yourself, think of your jealousy, and count the cost you paid again to “cleanse my palate to taste again what is truly true”. Help me Oh God, to not be slow to show up for prayer, and as much as only you can cause my drawing near to you to be a taking in of your substance Lord, and a breathing out of your goodness; may I ever keep my eyes on you to wash myself from the world, over and over and over again until others see really clearly, Christ in me. Amen!

Keep growing in the Word! LG

Learning the Fear of The Lord as Mentioned in Psalm 34:11

Author: Lisa Groen

Category: Unpacking Scripture

According to Britannica.com, post-modernism is “… a late 20th-century movement characterized by broad skepticism, subjectivism, or relativism; a general suspicion of reason; … (objective, natural) reality as there is, according to postmodernists, is a conceptual construct, an artifact of scientific practice and language. …the rejection of an objective natural reality—is sometimes expressed by saying that there is no such thing as Truth.”

The thinking habits produced by postmodernism—skepticism, subjectivism, relativism, and the rejection of truth are traps that can become direct assault weapons used against a person’s faith, or at a minimum can handicap it—unless those same people learn to stand up with effective thinking habits that can keep our mindsets healthy and free from error.

There is a general reluctance of certain groups of society to have an interest in cultivating an environment in which the fear of the Lord is treasured. There is also in our world today a famine in knowing what the fear of the Lord is–and in knowing what it means to walk in the fear of the Lord.  To try to start a conversation with your unsaved loved ones about the importance of revering God if you have not done so lately, will quickly bring about question marks, and other un-sought-after results! Reactions you might get could range from people getting offended at you for suggesting they need to fear The Lord, because it is a common belief that “God is only loving and does not want us to be afraid of him—he just wants you to feel good vibes from him!” Or you may get people thinking you are some kind of zealous religionist who is in love with the idea of religion and doing religious things with no particular purpose, and who wants to breed a suspicious paranoia of doing “bad things”, to gain control over society or over themselves. You might get the reaction of someone thinking you have more in common with a Martian who recently landed on earth than a citizen of today’s America, which ironically used to be a Christian nation. Or, you might get a reaction of someone thinking you have some kind of strange archaic tradition that is understood to have been outdated simply because they think that you also are behind the times because of your fashion or the age of your car or of your hairstyle and the idea that modern people understand God far better than the uncultured people of Bible times.  Modern people are in touch with their true selves and believe that fear in any relationship is harmful and have the unspoken question rolling around in their minds —“Who out there actually believes God COULD EVER or WOULD EVER WANT us to fear him?” He is after all the big Santa Claus in the sky, giving out hugs and marijuana to smoke—right?” So how do we begin that conversation about the importance of walking in the fear of the Lord—and how do we let them know the fear of the Lord is healthy and keeps our relationship with God healthy?

We must recognize ourselves and so live as ones who know there is a good use for the fear of the Lord as it produces a good posture for us to be able to approach God in the right spirit. It has a function for everyone and can produce benefits in our lives ranging from keeping a person alive and not burnt to a crisp when in communion with The Holy God, (Lev 10:2), to ranging to keeping a person from sinning (Exodus 20:20), and numerous other functions. It enables one to take the right approach in prayer for communion with God (Psalm 22:23), and for possessing a good understanding of people and life (Psalm 111:10), to God ever having his eye upon us for protection (Psalm 33:18). Because of the fear of the Lord we reap the benefit of having the angel of the Lord encamping around us (Psalm 34:7), and because to have been given the benefits of life and peace from God which are catalysts that can also produce the fear of the Lord (Mal 2:5) so God’s goodness is a circular cycle; as we receive God’s goodness it produces the fear of the Lord, and as we are given and live in the fear of the Lord, it positions us to be recipients of God’s goodness. (Ps 112)

Simply having skepticism or unbelief in God are two of the foundational reasons that much of our society is not recognizing or valuing the treasure of the fear of The Lord. Simply having subjectivism—thinking a person’s truth is only true for the person, and having relativism—thinking truth is a moving target, we can never know it–are two reasons we doubt the existence of solid Bible truth today. Yet it is only in the Bible that we are told of this glorious gift that does so much for God’s people and goes along with explaining the identity of our God and creator because by telling us to fear him is actually demonstrating to us the personality of one who is worthy to be feared.

In our world today, now that we live in a postmodern society, many have lost the ability to think through objectively that which for centuries past was believed by ancient Israel. They believed sin was sin because God said it was sin, and they believed sin had consequences, because God said sin had consequences and because of many graphic consequences that followed the warnings  But we fail today  sometimes to get the whole picture of the fear of the Lord as presented to us in the Bible, because we think “those were the sins of those people—I don’t do those sins! Nothing bad will happen to me! No reason to fear God! A proper response to this is that God is worthy of our fear regardless of anyone’s having sinned. On our BEST days God is worthy of our fear. When we read about Moses who went up to Mount Sinai to receive instruction from God in Exodus 19, it is plainly written that “Everyone in the camp trembled.”, and Moses was one of them. How did we get from there, to where we are today? We need to go back and look at the elements that surround a relationship with God based in a healthy fear of God.

Here we will look at the prospect of “learning the fear of the Lord”: Psalm 34:9-11 O fear the Lord, you His saints; For to those who fear Him there is no want. The young lions do lack and suffer hunger; But they who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing. Come, you children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. I firmly believe the more we study the works of God, the more that the fear of the Lord will be implanted within us, and the more we will have a good root system of the fear of the Lord in our hearts, and minds and in our consciences.

Proverbs 19:23 reads, “The fear of the LORD leads to life, so that one may sleep satisfied, untouched by evil.” So, if people are lacking in the fear of the Lord, it can send them AWAY from life, possibly touched by evil, and to places they really and truly are not prepared to go. We must learn from Old Testament examples in which the fearfulness of God has been made known, and one of these examples is in the account of the sin of Nadab and Abihu.

Leviticus 10:1-3 Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them. 2 And fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. 3 Then Moses said to Aaron, “It is what the Lord spoke, saying, ‘By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy, And before all the people I will be honored.’” So Aaron, therefore, kept silent.

There were more warnings from God in this chapter towards his righteous servants, warning that they WOULD DIE in verse 6, and to prevent the outcome of God’s WRATH BEING POURED OUT on the congregation -MEANING DEATH FOR THEM even though it would be only a priest who’s sin God gave preventative warning about in verse 6, telling them how they should not mourn for the evil priests, or they WOULD DIE another way in verse 7, and that the priests were not allowed to drink strong drink, nor any of their sons or they WOULD DIE in yet another way in verse 9.

Leviticus 10:4-11 Moses called also to Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Aaron’s uncle Uzziel, and said to them, “Come forward, carry your relatives away from the front of the sanctuary to the outside of the camp.” 5 So they came forward and carried them still in their tunics to the outside of the camp, as Moses had said. 6 Then Moses said to Aaron and to his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, “Do not uncover your heads nor tear your clothes, so that you will not die and that He will not become wrathful against all the congregation. But your kinsmen, the whole house of Israel, shall bewail the burning which the Lord has brought about. 7 You shall not even go out from the doorway of the tent of meeting, or you will die; for the Lord’s anointing oil is upon you.” So they did according to the word of Moses.

8 The Lord then spoke to Aaron, saying, 9 “Do not drink wine or strong drink, neither you nor your sons with you, when you come into the tent of meeting, so that you will not die—it is a perpetual statute throughout your generations— 10 and so as to make a distinction between the holy and the profane, and between the unclean and the clean, 11 and so as to teach the sons of Israel all the statutes which the Lord has spoken to them through Moses.”

God gives us the medicine of demonstrating his fearful acts “so as to TEACH THE SONS OF ISRAEL ALL THE STATUTES WHICH THE LORD HAS SPOKEN TO THEM through Moses.”

By the fear of the Lord leading us and giving us understanding about these things we are allowed to see God as both the ferocious and terrifying Lion of the Tribe of Judah but still the altogether Good Aslan.

One habit that we can learn from Moses in his search for nearness to God and to hear direction from God for himself and for all of Israel, that showed he possessed the fear of the Lord was that he persistently fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. I believe long-term fasting helps us put our flesh down and put on humility which cultivates a healthy and deepened relationship with God. Numbers 12:3 reads “(Now the man Moses was very humble, more than any person who was on the face of the earth.)” We see that Moses was counted by the God the narrator in Numbers to be humble. God wanted this to get our attention. Moses would not have bragged about this himself.  We can observe from the many different successful occurrences of fasting in the Bible, that fasting helps our minds wrap around the acts of God, and thus CAN develop in us a deepened exposure to God, a deepened understanding of God and deeper fear of God. Because Moses met with God in his fasting and prayers, I believe it bolstered his spirit and submerged him in the Spirit of God to know what to do and what to say in all his leading Israel, when Nadab and Abihu sinned. I believe it enabled him to keep the right reverent attitude in what must have been a terrifying crisis for Israel, and which we can believe it provided the right example for the rest of Israel to follow to keep reverent as well, in the midst of witnessing the wrath of God.

The bottom line is sometimes you will need to fast to navigate successfully around the sins of other people without getting sucked into their sins along with them when the wrath of God falls.

We should be encouraged about Jeremiah 32:40b “…I will put the fear of Me in their hearts, so that they will not turn away from Me.” This gives us the view of the reality of God letting us see the tender desire he has for us in his heart —that He is making us his own and keeping us for himself, so he and we can enjoy a deeper and abiding fellowship of nearness, all simply with his putting the fear of the Lord into our hearts.

Prayer:

Dear Lord, when we look at the vast difference between ourselves and Moses, we can be encouraged about the sustained trait of meekness. Meekness was preserved in the life of Moses, although the people he led were under a covenant of sacrifice. And that meekness you used Oh God was part of what you used to make Moses powerful and successful in his day.  May our hearts be open to cultivating a nearness to you facilitated by fasting and prayer so we may also benefit from the strength that comes with stripping the flesh of indulging pleasures. For we know that if we were to leave our flesh alone and not bother with attempts to crucify it, it would drag us away in ungodly directions! We know that you keep us, and yet there is a mystery in our responsibility verses your sovereignty, and we must be led by you in these areas of growth and sanctification by your Spirit, otherwise if we do it in our flesh power, we gain nothing. Please Lord, guide us in what you see is our responsibility, help us to see it too, and to receive the grace we need for putting off the flesh, and help us to put on the strength of humility, to walk in meekness and gentleness, because I believe it carries the power to draw people to follow you. Preserve us in the attitude of your Spirit, so we can be fruit bearers, if need be among acts of your wrath being poured out, big or small in our days, but may we ever keep our eyes on you Oh God our Heavenly Father, and glorify you forever through our love for you and through our right approach to draw near to you! Oh God, we don’t deserve these things, but you said we could ask and when we seek the kingdom, these things would be added unto us oh God! May your Kingdom come, and may your wonderful will be done Oh God in our midst! Blessed be the name of the Lord! Amen!

Keep growing in the Word! LG

24 Biblical Blessings From Fasting for Today

Author: Lisa Groen

Why did OT believers or I, myself have to do anything to “get” God’s presence? As fasting is an approach that is taken by some to draw near to God, we can see similar postures of heart comparable to fasting were prescribed and even ordained by God in the Old Testament. Fasting goes hand in hand with mourning or taking a heart posture of sorrow, self-denial and self-control. Are developing these truly a good work for the believer? This sorrow of fasting is not a type of play acting that God is telling us to do like a child play acts sad and cries with fussy “tears” to manipulate their parents. Fasting is not a process comparable to the “refusal of food” a child might do to try to get the parents to do something the child wants in order to make the child happy. Biblical fasting is for “the believer” (at a minimum) because fasting isn’t needed by God to help God hear us more effectively. There is nothing deficient in God’s hearing. God is not dependent on us, but he does enable pathways by which the believer can draw nearer to God. But let’s examine how is it used to help a believer draw near to God.

Let’s first read how God addresses the lack of self-denial, entitlement, and several other self-gratifying attitudes spoken of in Isaiah 58:

Isaiah 58:3 Why have we fasted and You do not see? Why have we humbled ourselves and You do not notice?’—-this is entitlement
Behold, on the day of your fast you find your desire, —-this is entitlement
And oppress all your workers. —-This is an absence of self-control
4 Behold, you fast for contention and strife, and to strike with a wicked fist. —-This is an absence of self-control
You do not fast like you have done today to make your voice heard on high!—maybe they were fasting physically but in their hearts they had wrong attitudes.
5 Is it a fast like this that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself?—short lived “humility” or “an outward spiritual show”
Is it for bowing one’s head like a reed— short lived “humility” or “an outward spiritual show”
And for spreading out sackcloth and ashes as a bed? —this is all outward show but doesn’t mention heart attitudes changing.
Will you call this a fast, even an acceptable day to the Lord?

God’s fast appears to be the solution God gives for breaking the entitlement attitude off of us (vs. 3) and appears to be God’s solution for breaking off of us the menacing lack of self-control.(behold…you find your desire, vs 3), and appears to restore back godly self-control. Fasting appears to deal with getting rid of the wrong attitude of the heart, like the heartless using physical force against people. (vs. 4) Fasting deals with getting rid of the wrong belief that just bowing yourself to God like a reed for a day (the pride of a spiritual appearance) that related to the idea they will get noticed by God for their spirituality. They were wanting their voices to be heard on high, and Isaiah doesn’t say that that was a bad pursuit, but just that the way they were going about it was bad. A list of actions in Isaiah 58:1-5 were fruitless, or wretched, and self-indulgent and fasting is shown to be the hatchet that would cut them away. Fasting can build the discipline of maintaining a longer-term posture of humility instead of just humbling yourself for a day (vs. 5). Next, fasting can make our prayers more effective in causing or letting the oppressed go free (vs 6) undoing the bonds of wickedness (vs 6) and undoing the bonds of the yoke and that every yoke of wickedness would be broken (vs 6).

Let’s look at a more extensive list of 24 direct blessings from fasting:

6 Is this not the fast that I choose:
To release the bonds of wickedness,  —blessing 1
To undo the ropes of the yoke, —blessing 2
And to let the oppressed go free, —blessing 3
And break every yoke? —blessing 4
7 Is it not to break your bread with the hungry
And bring the homeless poor into the house;
When you see the naked, to cover him;
And not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
8 Then your light will break out like the dawn, —blessing 5
And your recovery will spring up quickly; —blessing 6
And your righteousness will go before you; —blessing 7
The glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. —blessing 8
9 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; —blessing 9
You will cry for help, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’ —blessing 10
If you remove the yoke from your midst,
The pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness,
10 And if you offer yourself to the hungry
And satisfy the need of the afflicted,
Then your light will rise in darkness, —blessing 11
And your gloom will become like midday. —blessing 12
11 And the Lord will continually guide you, —blessing 13
And satisfy your desire in scorched places, —blessing 14
And give strength to your bones; —blessing 15
And you will be like a watered garden, —blessing 16
And like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. —blessing 17
12 Those from among you will rebuild the ancient ruins; —blessing 18
You will raise up the age-old foundations; —blessing 19
And you will be called the repairer of the breach, —blessing 20
The restorer of the streets in which to dwell. —blessing 21

13 “If, because of the Sabbath, you restrain your foot
From doing as you wish on My holy day,
And call the Sabbath a pleasure, and the holy day of the Lord honorable,
And honor it, desisting from your own ways,
From seeking your own pleasure
And speaking your own word,
14 Then you will take delight in the Lord, —blessing 22
And I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; —blessing 23
And I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, —blessing 24
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

God shows us He is truly responsive to a mournful heart, and tears of repentance and sorrowful seeking of Him, as people knew their brokenness and need for Him. In Isaiah 58, God gives at list of 24 spoken blessings God that come with the right heart attitude of self-denial that goes with fasting and does not  take away these 24 promises for the believer after Jesus went to the cross. The promises of Isaiah 58 are still active and alive today. Isaiah 58 seems to be about the theme of self-denial and self-control in seeking the Lord, and the lack of self-denial and self-control. The desire to build these back again and making room for self-control and self-denial leads were possibly the singular cause and best reason today in the New Testament for God’s people to resort to fasting.

Keep growing in the Word! LG

Prayer of Dependence on God-4

For Those With Covid:

Lord, we come to you with humble and contrite heart, you alone have all authority and all power to answer our prayers. Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you that one of your Hebrew Names is Jehovah Rapha “I am the LORD, who heals you.'” Exodus 15:26, I thank you that Lord you are gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. I thank you that your desire is for us, and that Mathew 10:30 says, “But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.” I thank you that you grant us everything we need for life and godliness, and that we have grace from 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 which gives us eternal encouragement and good hope. I ask Lord that you’d encourage the hearts and strengthen those who have Covid with your word. We ask you would be the glory and the lifter of their heads, and that their hope would be fixed in you and that you would grant them strong consolation and the joy of the Lord, and give them the grace to rest in you and find your arms of love and safety surrounding them with help in this time of need. We ask that this would be just a light and momentary trial working in them a glory that far outweighs all the trials they go through and that you would fix them with deep roots in your peace and joy. We ask for their spiritual nourishment and that you would grant their minds to be at peace and that you would take away the sharp pains in the lungs and chest and the fever and the cough and that you would remove all the bacteria and virus populations from their systems and open the alveoli in their lungs. Open up the bronchial passages to where they need to be for safe, peaceful, relaxed and undisturbed breathing. Lord, please watch over them and raise them up from their sickbeds and bring them to yourself. May you do something in this time of recovery that would make the most of this time, and that there would be a drawing near to you and a deepening of awareness of your presence, and that they would lose nothing of value in this time. May they find that you are a fountain of life welling up to eternal life, and may they sing and make melody in their hearts if it is too much for them to sing with their lungs at this time. May you renew their minds, and give them understanding in the word, and may their meditation of you be sweet. May your words and grace be ever speaking to them giving them life and sweet meditations, may you cheer them up with your kindness, and hope. Grant thee doctors the knowledge and know how to deal with specific situations that may require added medical provisions, and grant them to focus, and carry out the safest protocols and best practices that are out there. May you restore them in your care, physically, mentally, emotionally, and grant them to trust in your grace and goodness. Restore to them what the enemy is trying to steal, Oh Lord and may you be their governor and umpire and advocate through this trial. Please remove from them all forms of worry and anxiety, may they remember Lord that you are the God who heals all our diseases and the God who routes the enemy for our sake and that you are the One who grants the promise in 1 Peter 5:10 which says, “after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore you, secure you, strengthen you, and establish you.” Please grant that your peace would override every form of doubt, angst, and frustration and please renew in them the relationship that will establish them in love and contentment, hope, and strong faith by your spirit. Lord, may you use what the enemy meant for evil for the good of these folks and bring a blessing out of this time of need that they have. May you teach them you respond to faith, and that you hear their prayers. May you encourage them by growing them up in the faith in your timing and in your care. May you soon crush the enemy underneath their feet.

We ask these things in Your Name Lord, Amen!

Keep growing in the Word! LG