His Power and Glory

by Laurie Aker

In Psalm 63, a love song to his beloved God, David proclaims that God is his God, that he seeks after Him with his heart, soul, mind, and strength, and with all that he has within him. As the circumstances escalate, in the vortex of emotion, under the intense pressure, he doesn’t take matters into his own hands or run after the solutions the world has to offer. We witness the beautiful, ardent longing of a man who is consumed with His Lord with every fiber of his being, clinging with every bit of energy and believing that ultimately God was holding him safely and holding all things together in His almighty hands. He was confident that he would see God’s power and glory. Our heavenly Father knows that this outlook is often times much more easily established in trouble, suffering, and affliction, rather than in the midst of prosperity, ease, and calm because the pressure of difficult circumstances both drives us to God and more readily refines our hearts. We are blessed to witness the internal, intimate worship of this servant of God as he runs to the fountain of life in the midst of the desert because he has developed a deep and abiding trust in God and in His Word and not in himself. Paul too learned this intimate trust in the Lord, in His power and His glory. He understood that all things, including the tremendous trials and tribulations the Lord had allowed in His life, which at times even felt like a sentence of death, were intended by God to press him to lean into Christ:

For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.  (2 Cor. 1:8-11)

The Lord is with you. He wants to grow you in your ability to know this experientially. As we learn to follow the Lord more and more by faith and fix our eyes upon Him, He will demonstrate His power and His majesty before our very eyes and reveal Himself to us. Trusting Him, knowing that He is forming us into His very image, He reveals himself to us as the source of all joy, peace, and truth; the Lord of all; and God Most High.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you. (2 Cor. 4:7-12)

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This blog post is an excerpt from the Thistlebend Discipleship Study Falling in Love Again with Your Lord available here.

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My Delight Is in Her

by Susan Sampson

The other morning I read the Daily Light devotion and Isaiah 62:4-5 was quoted: “You shall no longer be termed Forsaken…but you shall be called Hephzibah [My Delight is in Her]…for the Lord delights in you.  …as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you” (NKJV).  So I realized that the pauper girl Laurie mentioned in her recent Who Am I in Christ lecture had a name–Forsaken.  But now, because the prince married the pauper (to continue Laurie’s analogy), we have a new name–Hephzibah (which means “My Delight Is in Her”)!

Not only have we been given this beautifully amazing new name, but we also have been completely cleansed and given new clothes!  When we were the pauper we lived in our filthy rags.  We had nothing to bring.  Not only were we wearing filthy rags, but even our good deeds were filthy rags (Is. 54:6, NIV).  Our sins defiled us from head to toe.  But the prince “cleansed her by the washing of water with the word” (Eph. 5:26)!  Now that the prince has made us a princess, we wear His robe of righteousness (Is. 61:10)!

Listen to the prophet Zechariah’s vision in chapter 3:1-5:

Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him.  And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, O Satan!  The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you!  Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?”  Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments.  And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.”  And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.”  And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.”  So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments.

Here is what the ESV Study Bible notes say:

The vision is located in the heavenly courtroom, where the angel of the Lord is seated as the judge.  Joshua the high priest, one of the leaders of the returned exiles, is the defendant, and Satan, whose name means “the accuser” is the prosecutor.  Satan has a very strong case, for Joshua was not merely clothed with filthy garments but, more precisely, clothed in garments soiled with excrement, which would automatically defile the wearer….Yet the Lord ruled Satan’s charges inadmissible before he could present them.  The Lord’s election of Jerusalem and Joshua’s position as one “plucked from the fire” means that Joshua is free from any possible condemnation. The Lord also acts to cleanse Joshua from his iniquity.  He commands his servants to remove the filthy garments, so removing Joshua’s iniquity, and to clothe Joshua in pure vestments, garments suitable for him to wear in the presence of the King of kings.  Since the filthy garments represent iniquity, these “pure vestments” represent a new righteousness imputed to Joshua.

In love the King of kings chose us to be his daughter-in-law!  The King’s firstborn Son chose us to be His bride forever!  “And I will betroth you to me forever.  I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy.  I will betroth you to me in faithfulness.  And you shall know the Lord” (Hosea 2:19-20).  Remember Hosea?  He was the prophet the Lord told to marry a prostitute.

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me!  Jesus rescued us, redeemed us, delivered us and restored us.  “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:13).

Over the past couple of weeks the word that keeps coming to me is “respond.”  How will I respond to these amazing truths?  I even have in my mind a picture of Sean Connery from the movie “The Untouchables” dying on the floor looking at Kevin Costner saying with his dying breath in his Scottish accent, “What are you prepared to do?!”

I want to respond in humble gratitude, entering into the love of my Savior, trusting in His perfect love for me.  This can only be done by the grace of God.  We are completely dependent on Him.  We must cry out to Him every day for our daily bread.  Every day for more and more grace from His fullness.  He is the Vine and we are the branches.  Apart from Him we can do nothing.  But in Christ we can do all things.  We have the power of the Holy Spirit living in us.  We have been sealed by the Spirit of God Himself.

Today let us look to Christ, look to the cross, turn our eyes away from self and the things of this world and see what He has done for the pauper girls.  Let us thank Him, tell Him we love Him because He first loved us, and worship Him in spirit and in truth by offering our bodies as living sacrifices holy and pleasing to the Lord as our Beloved first did for us.

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Touch the Fringe of His Robe

Thistlebend Quiet eMoment

by Laurie Aker

Focus Scripture: Luke 8:40-56 ESV

40 Now when Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him,
for they were all waiting for him.
41  And there came a man named Jairus,  
who was a ruler of the synagogue.
And falling at Jesus’ feet, he implored him to come to his house,
42 for he had an only daughter, about twelve years of age,
and she was dying. As Jesus went, the people pressed around him.
43 And there was a woman who had had  
a discharge of blood for twelve years,
and though she had spent all her living on physicians,
she could not be healed by anyone.  
44 She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment,  
and immediately her discharge of blood ceased.
45 And Jesus said, “Who was it that touched me?” 
When all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the crowds surround you  
and are pressing in on you!”
46 But Jesus said, “Someone touched me,
for I perceive that power has gone out from me.”  
47 And when the woman saw that she was not hidden,
she came trembling, and falling down before him  
declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him,  
and how she had been immediately healed.  
48 And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith  
has made you well; go in peace.”
49 While he was still speaking, someone from the ruler’s house  
came and said, “Your daughter is dead;  
do not trouble the Teacher any more.”  
50 But Jesus on hearing this answered him,
“Do not fear; only believe, and she will be well.”  
51 And when he came to the house,  
he allowed no one to enter with him,
except Peter and John and James,  
and the father and mother of the child.  
52 And all were weeping and mourning for her,  
but he said, “Do not weep, for she is not dead but sleeping.”  
53 And they laughed at him, knowing that she was dead.  
54 But taking her by the hand he called, saying, “Child, arise.”
55 And her spirit returned, and she got up at once.
And he directed that something should be given her to eat.  
56 And her parents were amazed,
but he charged them to tell no one what had happened.
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Hurting, broken, bruised, discouraged sinner, come to Him.

Are you hurting?Are you lonely?
Are you afraid?
Are you guilty?

Do you awaken in the morning with a broken heart?
Do you struggle overcoming feelings of depression?

Do you believe that Jesus can heal you?
Do you believe that Jesus can forgive you?

Do you believe that He can heal all of your hurts,
even those hurts caused by others, or by your own sin?

TAKING THE TRUTH TO HEART

Where have you run before?
Where have you gone to meet your need or to relieve your pain?

Psychiatrists? Medicine? Shopping? Friends?
Clothing? Alcohol? TV? Facebook?

When there is a nagging ache or a hollow emptiness,
where do you go, what do you do?

Luke 8:43-44
43 And there was a woman who had had  
a discharge of blood for twelve years,
and though she had spent all her living on physicians,
she could not be healed by anyone.  
44 She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment,  
and immediately her discharge of blood ceased.

Do you believe that Jesus is the Healer?
Do you believe that Jesus can heal you?
Do you believe that He holds not only the whole world
in His hands but also you?
Will you go to the Lord?
Will you touch the fringe of His robe?

Come to Jesus by faith and ask Him
to heal your heart, to forgive your sin.

Listen to Jesus:

Luke 8:48 
Daughter, son, your faith has made you well; go in peace.

Matthew 11:28-30
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you,
and learn from me,
for I am gentle and lowly in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

AND BRINGING IT TO LIFE

Choose one truth from today and apply it to your heart.
Take it with you throughout the day.

PRAYER
Lord Jesus, please heal those deep places in my heart
that only you can reach.

In His hands for His glory,
Laurie
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