I have felt compelled to write this Blog in light of the Terror attack on London yesterday. I live in the UK and know people that live in London. This Blog is to build them up but also with everything that is happening in the world right now. I believe this is a timely message. This is not going to be a rant on the end times. That is not my personality.
Make Your Bed with the Lord and Lay in it.
This first title may seem like quiet a confrontational statement but I use this statement not as ‘you have sinned so you are gonna be Judged.’ What is a Bed primarily used for? No! get your mind out the gutter. not sex. It is primarily used for sleeping and resting. So when I say make your bed with the Lord. I say find your rest your comfort in him.
The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul…Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; (Psalm 23:1-4 ESV)
If you are hurting. If you are broken. If you are tired. Go to him! Sit in his presence. Pray to him that Holy Spirit would come and give you peace, strength, joy and the rest of it. What every you are lacking he will give you because he is a generous God. Jesus said that the father will give us a Helper/Comforter/Councellor (however you wanna translate that word) That will be with you forever. (John 14:16 ESV) The Holy Spirt is always with us which is why after that statement Jesus then says ‘I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you… You will see me. Because I live, you also live.’
God has not forsaken us. He has not left us to fend for ourselves on the outskirts of society, like orphans, but he has given us Holy Spirit who helps us to see Jesus everyday in ourselves and in others. He also reflects the very nature of Jesus that is ‘Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end.’ (Isaiah 9:6 ESV)
When I was 23, I felt this everlasting peace, this peace that means no end. I had to go to the Doctor because I had something wrong with my testicals. I had to go for an ultrasound and I was convinced that I was going to come back and say I had cancer at the age of 23. The emotions you go though with God in that time is crazy. You go from anger, to sadness, to anger, to begging. Then if you respond and ask the right question. and like in John 15 remain in him. He will give you peace. I luckily didn’t have cancer and I got treatment but I am so content with when my time does come because the peace of God never left me. If you don’t leave God he will never leave you.
The kingdom of God is not about earthly needs. The kingdom of God is about righteousness, Peace and Joy in the Holy Spirit. The more we pursue these things in our lives the quicker we will see the Kingdom of God invade this world. For the New Heaven and the New Earth descended from the heavens.
God is the Rock on which we stand and It CANNOT be Moved
1 Samuel 2:2 says ‘There is no Holy One like the Lord, no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God’. Isaiah says ‘before me no God was formed nor shall there be any after me’ (Isaiah 43:10 ESV) and ‘Is there a God besides me? This is no Rock; I know not any.’ (Isaiah 44:8 ESV) David writes that ‘The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.'(Psalm 18:2 ESV)
Christ said that if your obey and trust in his word you are like a man that build his house on a rock. when the Flood comes you stand firm. and there are many more verses I could quote that show God as a place of refuge and strength. what I want to focus on is the picture of a rock as a place of safety against trial and tribulation. If you take my story of illness for example. I could have easily ran away from God asking why has he let this happen me. Instead I clung to him and the storm calmed.
Peter only started sinking in the stormy see when he took his eyes of Christ. In this time of history we live in. We need to push into God and looking to him for our strength and restoration and shelter. When he speaks the seas calm. Whether you live in London or anywhere else in the world. The treat of terror is real. However, there is NONE besides OUR GOD. Our God is the Alpha and the Omega. The Beginning and The End. The Eternal all power Creator. The Devil has been trying to move him and his Church for over 2000 years now and guess what he has won NO ground. None because the Gates of Hell shall never prevail against the Church. The declaration of Faith is the Rock that Christ built his Church upon and All thrones, rules, authorities on heaven and on earth are subject to HIM.
No-one can Stand Against Our God.
No weapon that is fashioned against you shall prosper, and you shall confute every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their vindication from me, says the Lord. (Isaiah 54:17 ESV)
Our God is so powerful. There is nothing that can come against us. There is no Terrorist against that God can heal people from. There is No executive order that God can mend. There is No Healthcare Act that God can amend. There is No Article 50 that God can’t make work for his Glory. There is No President that God can not change the heart of. There is No-one that will make the nations cry, for the the rocks to fall down on them. Apart from the Lord our God. The Lord will reign for now till he decides time has come to an end.
If you are scared and frightened of what the future of our world looks like. If you are scared about all the evil in the world. Come to God for his Arms are open waiting for you like a Father holds his arms open ready for a child to run into them. Know that if God is on our side. there is nothing that can stop us. I finish with these verses and the link to song that I believe will help us all.
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things were created through him and for him. and he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (Colossians 1:15-17 ESV)