Daily Archives: February 15, 2012

Names of God Series, Proven Path Ministries

Names of God: Jehovah-raah

 

Jehovah-raah… this name of God means the Lord our Shepherd.

He blessed Joseph, and said,
   “The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked,
The God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day,
Genesis 48:15
These words were spoken by Jacob right before he went home to be with his Lord. Jacob was a man who had struggled with submission to God his whole life and because of it his life had been tumultuous. In his old age as he looked back on his life he now recognized that God had been there all along. The whole time, his whole life, God had been there guiding him, shepherding him, even when he did not know it.
Precious one, whether you have recognized it or not… the Lord has been your shepherd all your life to this day.
Jacob knew the job of a shepherd. He was one. David also knew the job of a shepherd. David also wrote that the Lord was his shepherd…
The LORD is my shepherd,
I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside quiet waters.
He restores my soul;
He guides me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I fear no evil, for You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You have anointed my head with oil;
My cup overflows. 
Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life,
And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever
Psalm 23
Here’s the thing. If the Lord is our Shepherd, then we must be His sheep.
Know that the LORD Himself is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
Psalm 100:3
I don’t know about you, but I am not around alot of sheep. So I may not be able to grasp the full impact of what it means for the Lord to be my Shepherd and what it exactly means that I am His sheep… so here are a little bit of sheep facts.

 

Sheep are the dumbest of animals. They are helpless and get scared very easily. They have very little self-defense and will walk right into danger. They won’t even run to safety. Instead, they will freeze and not even cry out. Sheep also do what all the other sheep are doing. If one gets scared and runs, the others will, too!

Sheep are very stubborn animals. They need a shepherd to guide them. If they are left on their own, they will go the wrong way, eat the wrong food, and drink the wrong water. If a shepherd doesn’t lead them to new pastures, they will live in a rut. Sheep will even eat themselves right off a cliff. They will plunge over the edge to injury or death just to get that last mouthful of grass.

Sheep can become cast down. They can get turned over and stuck on their backs and die in a state of panic  if the shepherd doesn’t turn them right side up right away.

Sheep are bothered by pest. They get flies and gnats up their nose, and these pest lay eggs in there. When the eggs hatch, the growing larvae irritate sheep’s nose. Sheep will beat their heads against trees or rocks to try to get these pests to stop bothering them. The shepherd puts oil on the sheep’s head and around its nose to kill these pests.

~ info gathered from A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 by Phillip Keller 

 

Well how much of yourself did you see in these sheep facts?
Do you see why we need a Shepherd?
How thankful I am that God is Jehovah-raah.

The shepherd puts oil on the sheep’s head to kill the pests that threaten it… what pests threaten us?
Yes, sin.

Sin and the enemy of our soul  threaten to creep in and destroy us. Just like these pests in the sheep nose, little sins can creep in our minds and our heart and if it is not destroyed it will lay eggs and grow and multiply within us. And we just like these sheep will beat our head up against stones trying to destroy and fight these pests on our own and we will accomplish nothing but a bigger headache… we will kill ourselves trying to fight these sins and our adversary in our own strength… how thankful I am that God has anointed my head with oil;…

Just like these sheep we can become cast down… depressed… we can feel like our whole world has been flipped upside down and the only one who can set us on our feet again is our Shepherd…

Just like these sheep… I am stubborn. Just like sheep if I don’t choose to listen to God and obey His Word I will eat the wrong things, drink the wrong drinks, I will go the wrong way …

 All of us like sheep have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
Isaiah 53:6
Just like these sheep I will walk myself right into danger thinking it’s no big deal… what’s one look, what’s one taste, what’s one time… it’s not technically wrong anyway… right?
Then just like these sheep I will eat myself right off a cliff trying to indulge in just one more bite… we are all our own worst enemies.
Oh how thankful I am that the Lord is my Shepherd.
I am the good shepherd;
the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. 
He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd,
who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming,
and leaves the sheep and flees,
and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 
He flees because he is a hired hand
and is not concerned about the sheep. 
I am the good shepherd,
and I know My own and My own know Me, 
even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father;
and I lay down My life for the sheep.
John 10:11-15
You see the shepherd doesn’t abandon his sheep because he knows they are helpless without him… and our Shepherd does not abandon us. The sheep also know their shepherd, just as the shepherd knows them. They will not go to another’s voice… only to the one to whom they belong.
Watch as this shepherd leads his sheep:
Did you notice who crossed the street first?
Our Shepherd does not remove us out of this world, but He will guide us through it. We may be surrounded by the rush of horns and distractions and danger… but if we will listen to only our Shepherd, walk when He says walk, go where He says go, follow Him… we will safely make it through the  the valley of the shadow of death…
Devotional Studies Through the Bible, Proven Path Ministries

Given Every Opportunity

Now it came about at midnight
that the LORD struck all the firstborn
in the land of Egypt,
from the firstborn of Pharaoh
who sat on his throne
to the firstborn of the captive
who was in the dungeon,
and all the firstborn cattle. 
Exodus 12:29
 
The LORD has once again done just as He said He would do exactly when He said He would do it. Our God is always true to His Word. You may read this and think for a moment that God is cruel. The thought of a mother holding her dead son in her arms while she screams out in the night probably strikes a cord in your emotional heart. You may even feel sorry for Pharaoh, even though the death of his firstborn son was his own choosing.
 
My friend, don’t forget that all the people of Egypt now knew the power of God and the authority of His Word. In Exodus 11:3 we read, “The LORD gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Furthermore, the man Moses himself was greatly esteemed in the land of Egypt, both in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people.”
 
When God delivered His seventh plague of hail upon the land of Egypt we read in Exodus 9:20-21 how some of the servants of Pharaoh feared the word of the Lord and they brought their livestock inside, yet others had no regard for God’s word and they left their livestock in the fields. Oh precious one, the issue is not with God, the issue is with the hearts of these people who chose to have no regard for His word.
 
Anyone choosing to endure ill-treatment with the people of God rather than the passing pleasures of sin and the momentary pleasures of Egypt would have been spared by the blood of the lamb. They needed only to humble themselves in obedience to the Word of God. It was faith in God’s Word that moved Moses and the Hebrew slaves to keep the Passover (Hebrews 11:24-28). Anyone with the faith to keep it and observe it that night would have been saved.
 
There is a passage in the book of Job that describes this night perfectly. It is believed that the book of Job was written before the time of Abraham or during it. We know it is post-flood by the references to weather and post Tower of Babel by the references to kings and nations. However, it is very possible that is pre-Abraham because there is no reference to Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob or the nation of Israel.
 
Possibly even this passage of Scripture could be a foreshadowing of this night, but I also believe it is the standard of judgment that God will bring upon any nation whose leaders continually refuse to obey His Word.
   
But if you have understanding, hear this;
Listen to the sound of my words.
“Shall one who hates justice rule?
And will you condemn the righteous mighty One,
Who says to a king, ‘Worthless one,’
To nobles, ‘Wicked ones’;
Who shows no partiality to princes
Nor regards the rich above the poor,
For they all are the work of His hands?
In a moment they die, and at midnight
People are shaken and pass away,
And the mighty are taken away without a hand.
 
For His eyes are upon the ways of a man,
And He sees all his steps.
There is no darkness or deep shadow
Where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.
For He does not need to consider a man further,
That he should go before God in judgment.
He breaks in pieces mighty men without inquiry,
And sets others in their place.
Therefore He knows there works,
And He overthrows them in the night,
And they are crushed.
He strikes them like the wicked
In a public place,
Because they turned aside from following Him,
And had no regard for any of His ways;
So that they caused the cry of the poor to come to Him,
And that He might hear the cry of the afflicted-
When He keeps quiet, who then can condemn?
And when He hides His face, who then can behold Him,
That is, in regard to both nation and man?-
So that godless men would not rule
Nor be snares of the people.”
Job 34:16-30
 
Elihu speaks these words to Job as he struggles with the pain of current circumstances that he just does not understand. He speaks these words to Job, but he also speaks them to us. 
 
My friend, if you struggle with this tenth plague as you consider the magnitude of the moment in its reality, do not forget that our God has given all ample time to turn and trust in Him. If you are honest with yourself you will have to admit that He has been much more patient than either you or I would have been.    
 
 
Oh Father,
 
You are God and there is no other. You are so patient with us. You give us every opportunity to submit to Your authority, to regard Your Word, but there comes a time that judgment must fall. You are a just God. You watch all our ways. Your eyes are upon us. My Jesus You are my Lord, my King. It is to You that I bow. Help me Father to always have the strength to choose the ill-treatment with the people of God rather than the momentary comforts of the world. I am so thankful that You judge godless men who sit in positions of leadership. Thank You that You will only allow a wicked ruler the throne for so long before You remove his power. How thankful I am that You are my God, and You are soveriegn over every throne!
 
My Jesus, it is in Your name I pray,
Amen
Confessions of a Christian Wife, Proven Path Ministries, Thirty-three Day Challenge

O Romeo, Romeo…

PPM-3.jpg

Today in our Thirty-three Day Challenge we continue to work on taking out the trash…

Day two:
Today I want you to put away the love stories, the romance novels… they. got. to. go. Yes, even Christian romance novels. I am a woman who loves books, so I won’t encourage you to dump these novels in the trash as I did the cheap magazines, but for the next thirty-two days I challenge you to put them out of sight. Don’t read them.

Then if after this challenge you can read the ones you have without grieving the Holy Spirit within you then by all means keep them, but if after this fast from them, you pick them up to read and your new starved and fresh eyes sees them in a different way… by all means trash them.

Now my beloved, we are women. Our hearts are drawn to the romance novel because we were created for love. We were created to be appreciated and honored and admired. We were “presented” to Adam in the garden by our Heavenly Father.

When we are married to our husbands we are presented to them. The doors are swung open and we step out into his view and we search his eyes for “that look”, you know the one… the one that says, WOW!!!

We were created to be swept off our feet by our knight in shining armor… to be fought for and desired more than any other… to be worth dying for… we yearn for another to love us like this… by choice… not because they are related to us.

So we read these romance novels and we picture we are the heroine and we get to create our man in our image…

There lies the problem.

“While most women don’t lust after men’s bodies (although there are certainly exceptions to this rule), we cross the line in sexual integrity in other ways. When we engage in emotional affairs, mental fantasies, and unhealthy comparisons,we are crossing the line of sexual integrity and undermining God’s plan to grant us ultimate sexual and emotional fulfillment with (our current our future) husband. We need to make a covenant with the eyes of our hearts not to look at other people (real or imagined) to fulfill our emotional needs and desires in ways that compromise our sexual integrity, whether we are married or single.”

~ Shannon Ethridge (quote from Every Woman’s Battle, pg 26)

Our God knows our desire. He created it. He is the ultimate lovesick fool… He is the One that has woven His whole love story into our lives. He is the One who willingly has come to rescue His bride… and yes He is the One who will come as our Knight in shining armor. He is the One who sweeps us off our feet and takes us in His arms and wisks us away to Paradise and showers us with undying love and devotion. He is the one who looks at us and goes, WOW!

  “Now listen, daughter, don’t miss a word:
forget your country, put your home behind you.
Be here—the king is wild for you.
Since he’s your lord, adore him.
Wedding gifts pour in from Tyre;
rich guests shower you with presents.”
Psalm 45:10-12 (The Message)

 

If you want to read a romance story read the Song of Solomon.

There are three main characters in this book of Scripture, the woman, the man, and the chorus group 🙂 Read through the chapters of this book and discern who is speaking when.
I write in my Bible so I took a pink colored pencil and colored a circle over the number of the verses that was the woman speaking and used a blue for the man and green for the chorus group.

Spend today meditating on this verse

 I want you to swear, O daughters of Jerusalem,
Do not arouse or awaken my love until she pleases.
Song of Solomon 8:4

 

Oh precious one, your love is to be awoken by your husband or your future husband and all love before that belongs to Christ. It does not belong to a fictional male but female created characters. These romance novels introduce you to the body of a man with the mind of a female. You are putting expectations on your current or future husband that they will never be able to measure up to. This will cause you to be weighted down in false disappointment in them and in your relationship.

It’s a false expectation…
It’s deception… and whose the father of that?

I know first hand the destruction that can come from these type of books. I began with Sweet Valley High and then by late Jr High I was reading Harlequin Romance novels. I had in my mind and head how this experience was to be. I had awakened my mind to an emotion my body and heart was not ready for.

It led me down a road of heartache and destruction that almost killed me emotionally, spiritually, and physically… It began little… but a little sin never satisfies… it only makes you crave for more. You seek sin like an addict seeks their next hit. You hate it, you hate yourself, but you keep thinking, keep convincing yourself, that this time will be different… this time will satisfy… but it never does and it never will.

Truth is what is real.
Truth is what will satisfy.
Jesus is truth.
God’s Word is truth.

If you want to get caught up in a love story, get caught up in the one that will be told until all eternity.

Day Three: Don’t Panic