8/1/11

Overrun or Overcome & He Desires Our Affection


Overrun or Overcome

“And we know that ALL things work together for good to them which love God and are called according to His purpose.” I quote it almost daily now. This past week has been probably one of the most trying weeks in the course of my nearly 10 years of ministry. My prayer has changed over the past few weeks from asking God to simply help me in this and that to “Jesus, just be glorified!” So naturally trials come in volumes from battles with deep anger in my heart to plans of leaving the ministry totally. Small things come such as my wife and I both losing our temper to more expensive things such as also losing both of our computers. Trials in the family have been waged with things such as my mom and my brother’s computer power cord’s breaking therefore placing both of their computers out of function as well, and other smaller things like the electrical cord to the motor home burning up leaving us with no power in the whole unit. Beloved, hell has thrown almost all its fiery darts in this one week. Inwardly there has been fighting of fear, lust, jealousy, bitterness, resentment, faithlessness, complaining, showmanship, laziness, pettiness, worldliness and all this has come just in this week alone. The last trial of the week was last night when my brother and I were performing a routine operation in which we drove our van upon the car dolly that we pull behind our motor home. We have done this many times and never with any major trouble. But, I asked for Christ to be glorified and all hell was mad. As I drove upon the dolly all appeared to be going fine when all of a sudden I heard a thud and my brother who normally stood right in front of the van moved to the left and with raised eye brails frantically motioned me to stop. Not completely sure what had happened we rushed to get out. To our surprise neither my wife nor I could open the driver or passenger doors for the setup of the dolly so we crawled over the seat and began to exit through the sliding doors. When finally getting out I began to figure out what was wrong. Someone previously had barrowed the pin that holds our trailer hitch in place. This was fine until they forgot to replace it. When I drove upon the dolly the hitch slid out allowing the trailer to fall and the front of the van to jump over the dolly itself. The tire deflated and the van absolutely flat out stuck we seen another attempt of the enemy to steal our victory. Some of the first words I spoke to the family were “And we know that ALL things work together for good to them which love God and are called according to His purpose.” Beloved, if my brother would have been standing in the place he moved from just a few seconds before there is a huge chance of him being critically hurt. After the help of a few good friendly church folks we found the true extent of the damage was only one flat tire. In one week all of this and more I won’t even mention came against the family and I, but dear folks Christ was all the while glorified! Eight souls we know of came to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior this week though hell continually fought. Listen, I know that none of these trials are comparable to some others go through but still yet God is faithful!! When troubles come your way ask yourself if you will allow your faith in Christ to be overrun or if you will hold your grit and understand that His plan will be performed and He will be glorified through it all. Will you be overrun by the enemy or overcome through Christ? It’s your choice.



The Wife’s Note: He Desires Our Affection

            A female desires affection. Being that I am a girl I know what I am talking about. This morning Buddy came in from putting the car on the dolly. When he opened the door I expected him to sit down right next to me. Well, he came in, stood there for a minute and he sat down in a chair across from me. I thought to myself “surely he will move over here”. He never did. So finally I spoke up and said “that is fine I won’t sit by you anymore either” just joking around with him. He looked at me and chuckled a little and said “Babe I just wanted to sit in this chair”. I got to thinking though about how he was when we just dated and I can promise you there is noooooo way he would have passed up sitting right next to me lol.
            On a serious note however Christ is like that about us. He desires and wants our affections. He wants our attention. The bible says that our God is a jealous God (Exodus 34:14). He does not want our affections set on things of this world, but on him. I know there have been times in my walk where God must have felt like I did about Buddy. He wanted me to sit next to him. He wanted my attention. When we as Christians first got saved there was a strong desire to read the word, to pray, to fast, and to just spend time with him. If we are not careful we can let that slip away. We must have discipline in our relationship with the Lord. I know Buddy and I must spend time together if we didn’t our marriage probably would not work out. It is the same way with Christ. We must sit next to him and spend time with him. He desires for your affection will you give it to him?

No comments: