Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross / Fanny J. Crosby / William H. Doane
Jesus, keep me near the cross;
There a precious fountain,
Free to all, a healing stream,
Flows from Calvary's mountain.
Near the cross, a trembling soul,
Love and mercy found me;
There the bright and morning star
Sheds its beams around me.
Near the cross! O Lamb of God,
Bring its scenes before me;
Help me walk from day to day
With its shadow o'er me.
Near the cross I'll watch and wait,
Hoping, trusting ever,
Till I reach the golden strand
Just beyond the river.
In the cross, in the cross,
Be my glory ever,
Till my raptured soul shall find
Rest beyond the river.
Yesterday I was under attack from Satan (my enemy). He is the great accuser and he was trying to accuse me, i.e. to try to convince me of things that were not true about me. I called on God all day long. I cried out to Him in my distress. Still, the attacks persisted into the evening. Yet, God was encouraging me with His Words from the Bible. And, he was helping me to discern the difference between what Satan was trying to convince me of and what I knew in my heart of hearts to be the truth. Initially I was allowing those accusations to wear on me and to get me down. Then, I began to examine them against the truth of what I know from God’s Word. And, I came to the conclusion that none of them were true.
Then, my husband read chapter 2 of “The Church Awakening” by Chuck Swindoll. And, it spoke many words of encouragement to my heart. The title of the chapter was “Challenges, Struggles, Solutions, Priorities.” I was definitely being challenged in my spirit yesterday, and I was definitely struggling to understand what this was all about. Then, in chapter 2 of “The Church Awakening,” Chuck Swindoll quoted I Peter 4:12:
“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you.”
Immediately he had my attention. And, I had to smile; even chuckle a little. God is so right. This should not take me by surprise as though something strange were happening to me. The passage in I Peter 4 continues with these words:
But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. For it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And,
“If it is hard for the righteous to be saved,
what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”
So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.
Then, Chuck Swindoll continued:
“What’s true of us as individuals is also true of our churches. No need to be surprised when challenges come. We will struggle! No need to scramble around, wring our hands, and wonder what to do in the midst of the enemy’s insidious attacks. Rather than take our cues from the world, the Scriptures offer us a clear path to follow in the midst of any trial. But that doesn’t mean it will be easy.”
I looked up that word “insidious”: sinister; treacherous; crafty; sneaky; deceptive; devious; stealthy – silent; sly; concealed; hidden; underhanded; and subtle (MS Word Thesaurus). Satan is very crafty and sneaky in his attacks. Otherwise, we would immediately recognize them for what they are and would never be impacted by them. He knows our back doors. He has observed us a long time. So, he attacks us where we least expect it, which is why we are taken off guard. So, we learn from that to be on the lookout for future attacks in that same area so that we are not taken off guard the next time.
I serve an awesome God!! He always knows what I am going to go through in a particular day and he always has just the right words for me for whatever I am going through. We did not plan to read something related to attacks of the enemy. We did not even know that this was going to be in chapter 2 of Chuck Swindoll’s book. But God did. And, these were the words of encouragement that I needed to hear right then. God is so good!!
Rick and I prayed together, and then he read Psalm 10 and Isaiah 10. Both of these chapters in the Bible were very confirming, as well. We are reading through the Psalms and through Isaiah, one chapter from each book each night. I figure if we read Psalm 119 one section each night instead of the whole chapter at once, that we should be able to read Isaiah through Ezekiel about the same time we read the entire book of Psalms. And, that should take us about 5 months to read.
This morning, as I had my quiet time with the Lord in prayer and in the reading of His Word, the thought occurred to me that Satan only taunts (insults; mocks; jeers and sneers at; derides; and provokes) those who are truly following Christ Jesus. Otherwise, why would he bother? And, yesterday was Halloween, too, which is Satan’s main holiday of the year. So, it makes sense that he would use that day to really go against God’s people.
“Dear Lord Jesus, I bow before you today with heavy heart and yet with much joy in knowing that you are my God and I am your servant and that nothing can separate me from your love which is in Christ Jesus, my Lord.”
Let My Words Be Few / Phillips, Craig and Dean
You are God in heaven
And here am I on earth
So I'll let my words be few
Jesus, I am so in love with You
And I'll stand in awe of You, Jesus
Yes, I'll stand in awe of You
And I'll let my words be few
Jesus, I am so in love with You
Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Malachi 4:
Judgment and Covenant Renewal
1 “Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire,” says the LORD Almighty. “Not a root or a branch will be left to them. 2 But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays. And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves. 3 Then you will trample on the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I act,” says the LORD Almighty.
4 “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel.
5 “See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. 6 He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.”
My Understanding: V. 2 of this chapter in Malachi was also so encouraging to my heart. We know that a day of judgment is coming upon all men on the earth. There is a time of judgment that is coming, and may have already begun, called the time of tribulation. According to scripture, if taken literally, it is a period of seven years, the second half of which is called the Great Tribulation in which time the Beast will be given authority over the earth to rule and to kill the saints of God and all who oppose him. During this time God will judge the inhabitants of the earth. When this judgment is complete, God will in turn judge those divine instruments of judgment that he used. For the wicked, this will be a horrible time. Yet, for the righteous, it will be a time of healing.
What I believe this means is that when God puts his hand of judgment on the wicked and it becomes clear who is for God and who is against God, the eyes of the blind will be open, the lame will walk, and the deaf will hear, etc. I trust that this is literal and figurative. I do have confidence that many miracles of God’s healing will take place in the physical realm, yet I also accept that there will be much healing in the spiritual realm. I consider that many believers in Jesus Christ right now are under bondage to sin, to man, to tradition, etc. and that when this judgment comes, God will set them free. Many are under a yoke of slavery to government, to the lies of Satan, to false teaching and false teachers, etc. And, God will set them free. Right now many are blinded and cannot see the lies of Satan. I believe all our (true believers in Jesus) eyes will be opened at that time and that we will be set free from the oppression of the enemy because we will have spiritual eyes to see what is true and what is false. And, we will leap like calves released from the stall.
Yet, we don’t have to wait for that time to begin before we can experience this healing and this freedom. Jesus already conquered sin, death, hell and Satan through his death on the cross for our sins and through his resurrection and ascension into heaven. He now sits at the right hand of God the Father to intercede for us. He has already trampled the enemy of our souls, so that we can trample the enemy, too. The Bible says this:
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand (Ephesians 6:10-13).
Notice that it says that our struggle is not against flesh and blood. Men are not our real enemies. Our struggle is against the powers of this dark world, i.e. our struggle is against Satan and his evil forces. And, yes, he does use men to do his dirty work, but our real enemy is Satan. And, Jesus already trampled him so we can trample him, as well. The way we do this is by putting on this armor mentioned in this 6th chapter of Ephesians. We must put on the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God and the belt of truth, etc. This is a spiritual battle and it is necessary to fight this battle with spiritual weapons, not with physical weapons of war against men. We need to leave the judgment of God to God. And, it is essential that we defeat our enemy on all fronts by using the spiritual weapons of warfare that God has put at our disposal. Finally, it is imperative that we take up our cross daily and follow Jesus wherever he leads us and for whatever he requires of us to do.
In the cross, in the cross,
Be my glory ever,
Till my raptured soul shall find
Rest beyond the river.
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