Tag Archives: Faith in God

Faith

He Lifts Me Up


He Lifts Me Up

Isaiah 41:10 – Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

What This Isn’t About

So, this is not about how my heart keeps trying to give out, or about the constant physical pain I am always in, pain that robs me of sleep, relentless pain that will not go away.  This is not how losing sleep all the time is negatively affecting everything I do.  This is not about my lungs no longer functioning the way they used to. It’s not about how I have to gasp for air just from climbing a ladder or going up a flight of stairs.

All of these things are true.  But that is not what this is about.

 A Long Week

Sleep had vanished again.  I looked at the clock and saw it was only 1 AM.  I had had maybe 2 hours of sleep.  This was the second week in a row that this has been happening.  By Friday, my body was done.  My heart couldn’t keep its rhythm, my lungs were not giving me enough air to function.   I was overtired from losing sleep and my body was telling me in its own way that I need to stop and rest.   I went home.  I took a nap…ok, I took three short naps. 

In His Presence

During my last nap, I had a wonderful dream.  I was standing in the healing light of the Lord.  I woke up feeling more alive than I have felt in weeks.  My heart was calm and keeping its rhythm.  My mind was clear.  I was calm for the first time in weeks. 

I am still in a lot of pain, but isn’t it in our trials that the joy of the Lord is revealed?  Wasn’t it in the fiery furnace where one “like the Son of God” (Daniel 3:24-25) was walking around in the furnace while Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego were singing and dancing?

If I have placed my trust in Him, He does not remove me from the fire of my trials.  Instead, He joins me in my trials and keeps the flames from consuming me.

Whosoever Will

When we let him join us in our wilderness, He makes the most desolate landscape a Holy garden.  It is when we are in the firey furnace of our trials we discover who Jesus really is. 

He is my Savior because I surely do believe He is the Only Begotten Son of God, who died of all my sin, and proved His claim by rising from the dead on the third day.  (John 3:16)

He is my Shepherd who leads me beside the still waters.  (Psalm 23)

And He is my Lord who covers me in His grace when I am in turmoil. (II Corinthians 12:9)

He lifts me up when I haven’t got the strength to call on Him.  (Isaiah 40:31)

I know that while I am in this world, there will be pain, and heartache, and there will be suffering.  

When I called on Him, He was there.  His presence gave me joy.

This is what I know and attest to be true:

“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”  (Romans 10:13 – KJV).


I love you in the name of Jesus Christ, Our Lord.

Let’s be about it.

David G. Perkins

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Faith

Tears in a Bottle


I’m supposed to be packing.

I’m supposed to be getting ready for this new chapter in my life.

I’m supposed to be strong and accept that yet another marriage has failed, and it is time to pick up the pieces and forget that the last 24 years were the whole world to me.

Inside my beating heart lives a little boy. He still believes in the magical world of make believe. He still believes that when he grows up, he’ll be Superman or a Firefighter, or a Marine.

He sees me packing boxes for our move, and he grabs my arm to stop me. This little boy believes that if I leave everything as it is, if I don’t change anything, if I hold still and believe, that everything will return to the way it was…the way it should be, the way it could be.

With each book I put in a box, each dish I wrap for safe moving, a small part of him dies. He doesn’t want to believe this is real and it is happening.

His tears become my tears. His hurt becomes my hurt. We can’t stop crying. So I stop packing for a while and we cry together. Our tears are hot and running down our faces as we hold each other. He wishes I could just believe, and I wish I could help him to stop hurting.

I have no way to explain to him why this hurt is on us. And I am not really the one that should do the explaining. The one who tore a hole in our lives needs to do that. So, we cry together until he is too weary to cry anymore. When he finally calms down and falls back asleep, I continue my packing.

You keep track of all my sorrows.
You have collected all my tears in your bottle.
You have recorded each one in your book. – Psalm 56:8

Even in my brokenness, Lord, I believe in you and know you are guiding me through this storm. Get me out of the way, Lord until all anyone can see in me is you.

I believe, Lord, help my unbelief.

Let’s be about it

David.

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Faith

When We Walk With The Lord


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Jesus answered, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. The one who doesn’t love Me will not keep My words. The word that you hear is not Mine but is from the Father who sent Me.  John 14:23-24

God Was Uninvited

I was brushing my teeth, getting ready for school.  It was the early ’60’s.  I could hear a young John Kennedy talking about the idea that some people believe God is dead.  Kennedy went on to say that he does not hold that belief, and if he gets to be president, he will make sure that our religious liberties remain intact.

President Kennedy did make it to the Oval office.  He was killed before he could make too many significant changes in America.

Shortly after that, God was kicked out of schools, offices and public discourse.  The Bible is forbidden in public.  The Ten Commandments are no longer tolerated and are being removed from every public display.

Children in public schools have every occult and ungodly viewpoint forced down their throats, but telling anyone of the Saving Grace of Jesus Christ is a hate crime.

When God was uninvited in our nation, in our schools, in our homes, we removed an aspect of God from our nation that kept evil at bay.  We removed His protection and guidance.

We removed His guiding wisdom.  We removed an objective viewpoint that made it possible for us to dileneate between good and evil. We removed clear vision and hope.  We removed the baseline for understanding honesty and the ability to recognize truth.

We now live in what liberals celebrate as the “Post-Truth” society.  Truth and facts are no longer as relevant as are our feelings about things.  We forget that feelings are not facts, and raise feelings to be above facts, and use that as the determiner of our behavior and the law.

When we evict God and His word from our lives, we get the America we see today.

When God is Absent, Evil is King.

So what do we get when we tell God to leave us alone.  Because He is not a dictator, because He has granted us complete freedom to do as we will, He gives us exactly what we have asked for.  In spite of the fact that every nation on earth who has abandoned God has fallen, we choose to ignore history and the will and word of God.  In our stupidity, we call ourselves “enlightened”, and do not see how wretched and blind we have made ourselves.

When God is absent, the Spirit of God, who protects His children, is removed.  Evil fills the vacuum and reigns over all.  We forget what happened to Israel back in the day when she did the very same thing:

Isaiah 5:20King James Version (KJV)

20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

When we removed God from our hearts and souls, we opened ourselves for every delusion that can possibly exist.  We embrace the pleasure of evil, and forsake the discipline of truth.

There Is A Path To The Truth

When Jesus went to the cross, he became every sin that exists. He became everything God judges to be unholy, and it pleased God to pour His wrath on Jesus and judge him and put Him to death.  It pleased God to do this because He would rather do this to His own beloved Son than have YOU experience His wrath.  So, Jesus became all evil for all time.

Then He went to Hell and suffered.  When the cup of suffering was drained, God spoke the promise of eternal life and the reign of Heavn over Jesus and our Christ ascended from Hell, bringing with him all the dead who perished before the cross.  Death and hell no longer had authority, but Christ, the Son of the living God became all authority.

When you accept this free gift of the death and resurrection of Christ on your behalf, YOU become free of sin.  You become the Son of God, the Daughter of God, the sweet Child of God.  You will be free.  You will be free to know God in His infinite wisdom and love.  You will be able to see what the Word of God says and means.  You will no longer be mind blind and bereft of a living Soul.  You will be alive.  Really and truly and forever, alive.

His word will be food for you.  Your love for Him will be powerful and fulfilling.  You will not be obligated to any religion or law, but will be compelled out fo Love for God to be all you can to become just like Christ. Hisd Spirit will fill you and empower you to do all these things and more.

We need this to happen across America.  We need revival in our land.  We have kicked God out of our lives and our nation in the name of “Tolerance and Enlightenment”.

We are now stupid and blind.

Lets find time to invite God back.  He will never force Himself on anyone.  But he will respond to a broken and contrite heart.  He will pitch His tent with you and dwell with you.  His spirit will encompass you and protect you.

You will be His beloved Child.  No nation ever became Christian, only the people who inhabit it.  It starts one soul at a time.

Will you invite God back into your home?

 So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”  John 8:31-32

Let’s Be About It!

David G. Perkins

sammy.snardfarkle@gmail.com

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Faith

Let this Mind be in You….


Mustard SeedTherefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Jesus, Matthew 6:25

I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. – King David, Psalm 35:25

Sandy and I have been looking at our lives very carefully over these past several months. We have both realized that, what we are doing defies all common sense. Outward appearances declare that what we are doing is irresponsible. What my flesh is telling me to do, and what we both know that God has told both of us, has nothing to do with the rationalizations of common sense.

WHAT IS THE MIND OF CHRIST?

Where faith is concerned, Jesus sums up my common sense carefulness as infidelity. If Sandy and I have the presence of the Holy Spirit living in us, He will take our circumstances and say, “Now where does God come in in this situation?” He will ask that of everything we do. “Where does God (His will, His Spirit, His Grace, His Mercy, the Likeness of Christ) come in in this thing I am doing?”

The Spirit of God will always press this point on us until we learn to make Him our first consideration. Before April, I would have been a “Charles In Charge” person, and relied on my own wits, and sing “I did it my way!”.

Now that Sandy and I have given over our entire lives to Christ, we are being tested to see where the areas are that we insist are left to our own Common Sense.

Every time we put other things first, there is confusion. We cannot serve two masters. Either my selfish idolatry will rule in my soul, or the Living God will lead me to be like Christ. Sandy and I are learning that we cannot have it both ways. God is not the author of confusion. And as we learn this, we become more at peace, knowing that God is in control of all our circumstances.

HERE IS THE HARD PART

Sandy and I have recently been shown, both individually, and as a couple (We discovered we had BOTH been shown the exact same thing that we are to do.), a “vision” of what we are supposed to do, and where we are supposed to be doing it. Being the “Charles In Charge” person I am, I immediately started doing a situational analysis of what we were shown. I looked at the logistics and tactics needed to accomplish this mission.

When the Spirit of God saw what I was doing, He gently corrected me and said I need to give this to God, as it is His assignment for us.

He reminded me that I am to “Take no thought…”. The pressure of my forethought was not my job. He gently and lovingly has shown Sandy and I that it is not only wrong to worry, but it is a form of infidelity, because our worry was saying, in effect, “I don’t think God can look after the practical details of our lives.” And it is the practical details that worry every human on this planet.

We began to notice what Jesus said would choke the word He puts in us. It wasn’t the Devil. No, it was the cares of the world. The little worries are the weeds that choke out the word in us. We get overwhelmed by the weeds, and forget His promise.

Infidelity to the promise of God is when we say, “I will not trust where I cannot see.” The cure for infidelity is obedience to the Spirit. This, too, is not something we can do on our own power. It is a work of God in a submitted heart.

Jesus told us to pick up our crosses daily, and follow Him. It is a call to commit acts of reckless abandon. He will lead the way, and prepare the way, and set a table before us, even in the presence of our enemies.

My Prayer:  My Heavenly Father, I confess that I am tempted to rush ahead and take matters in my own hand. I confess that, many times I do not have the faith that You will provide, and I attempt to make what You promised my own work. Please forgive me this infidelity. I am a child. I need you to teach me that, in all things, I can trust you, that You will perform and fulfill all that You have promised to do in my life. I love you, God. I adore you for the sacrifice of Jesus on my behalf. I ask that you keep Sandy and I, always steadfast in our Love for You, and keep our faith in You. There is no other way to be pleasing to you, except that we allow You to make us into the very image of Jesus. – AMEN

My brothers and sisters, lets hear the word of the Lord, and write it on our hearts, and trust that He who began a good work in us will be faithful to complete it until the Day of Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior.

I LOVE YOU!

Let’s be about it!

David G. Perkins

sammy.snardfarkle@gmail.com

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