Today is the day we remember Jesus’ birth. He came to set captive sinners free from the tyranny of death and sin.

As you celebrate today with friends and family, exchanging gifts, hugs, smiles, laughter, food, music, and more, please take time to pray for:

People around the world who sadly have no reprieve from their pain, such as:

- Pfc Bowe Bergdahl, held captive by the Taliban since June 30 (pictured)
- Christians who suffer loss and persecution in hostile lands like Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Vietnam, various parts of North Africa, China, and elsewhere
- Christians who are imprisoned around the world simply because of their unwavering commitment to Jesus
- Those who ache with physical hunger and starve in spiritual hunger
- Those who have lost loved ones this year, whether through accidents, crimes, or war

People who have offered up their lives for the spread of the Gospel, such as:

- Street evangelists who daily receive insults, jeers, and taunts as they preach Christ crucified
- Missionaries working in lands as translators, church planters, computer specialists, managers, mechanics, school teachers, etc.
- Itinerant preachers who still circuit travel to exhort, rebuke, teach, and challenge churches full of believers to greater commitment to and intimacy with Jesus Christ
- The few and rare godly pastors who hold fast to Biblical truth and sound doctrine

And, of course, people who continue, even today, to “suppress the truth in unrighteousness”; adamantly refusing to repent and believe.

I’m sure I’m missing many people, but you get the idea.
Of all the gifts we could give today, the gifts of your time and prayers for these people are priceless.

Merry Christmas,
Anthony

Posted: December 25th, 2009 under Announcements, Current Events, Persecuted Church, Prayer, State of the Church, The Church, World Events, World Missions.
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I started writing a few comments about books I’ve read recently and posted them on a business networking site. I decided to go ahead and share them here for wider distribution. First up is a review of missionary Lynn Kennedy’s first book entitled “A God Story”, available at her ministry website, http://www.ShatteringDarkness.org which is also listed to the right as a recommended ministry.

From her website: Written by Lynn Kennedy, “A God Story” recounts the miraculous acts of God while reaching a lost people group called the Dagara (meaning “Cross), who were eagerly waiting to hear the message of the cross of Christ.

At age 36 Lynn Kennedy was a new widow. It was at this time in her life that God called her to go to college and then language studies to prepare her for international missions. Lynn has served the Dagara people of Burkina Faso since September, 1998. In 2004 she founded Shattering Darkness Ministries (http://www.ShatteringDarkness.org) “A God Story” is her 120 page self-published collection of first-hand stories, one after another, of times when–in the face of the impossible–God has answered prayers.

It sounds cliche to say that there are parts that will make you laugh and others that will make you teary-eyed, but it is true. The Lord is rich in kindness and mercy, and He will spare no expense to reveal His glory to the world–in fact, He already has when He sent His Son, Jesus. Lynn’s true stories of answered prayers and changed lives make for a wonderfully challenging and uplifting read.

“A God Story” is conversationally written. Stronger editing could have curbed the use of repetitive punctuation (e.g: !!! or ???) and tightened the grammatical style, but Lynn’s love and joy for what God has done and continues to do make such exuberance easily forgiven.

Posted: December 24th, 2009 under Book Review, World Missions.
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I was just listening to that Christmas song on the radio and one line struck me as never before:

“Haste! Haste! to bring Him Laud!”

If you never have, let me plead with you! “Haste! Haste! to bring Him Laud!” Praise Him right now! Fall on your face before Jesus Christ and worship Him! Oh that all mankind would stop their foolish pursuits, drop everything, and rush to the ground in humble praise of King Jesus!

Posted: December 17th, 2009 under Devotions, Potpourri, Quotations.
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Thanks to Pastor Kevin over at Puritan Fellowship, I’m reading the autobiography of 20th century Chinese pastor Wong Ming-Dao entitled A Stone Made Smooth. It is an out-of-print book, but you can still find it on Amazon used. If so, I highly recommended adding it to your library.

Wong’s sound doctrine is clearly laid out in his work. Although this is translated into English, it still conveys Wong’s intelligence and his culturally influenced soft-spoken demeanor. It is a powerful book but surprisingly easy and enjoyable to read. Here are two brief quotes that I wrote in my own notebook:

“If you would be a faithful servant you must entirely disregard reputation, and in the last analysis you must entirely disregard life.” (p133)

“Inevitably one who serves God faithfully will face hardships and suffering. But the joy God gives and the reward He promises will recompense him for all.” (p139)

Posted: December 17th, 2009 under Potpourri, Quotations.
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Today we’ll wrap up this series on Waiting as we continue looking at 1 Samuel 22:1-5 and David’s time living in the cave at Adullum.

I passed over it without comment earlier, but I want to bring to your attention the qualifier David includes in his request to the King of Moab regarding how long his (David’s) parents should live with him: “…til I know what God will do for me.” David didn’t say “…til I figure out how to get myself out of this mess”. Even in this trying circumstance David a) was determined to let God determine the next steps b) used it to testify about God and His faithfulness to the king. As hard as it is for us, if we name Christ as Lord (“Master”), we absolutely, resolutely wait on Him for our orders. While we wait, let us follow David’s example of using the time to testify to others of God’s faithfulness in all things.

David, as I mentioned, was determined to stay in the stronghold of the cave until the Lord directed him otherwise. He knew that to leave early and go his own way was sin. We know, as I pointed out in another post, by the multiplicity of events in this passage that they couldn’t all happen on a single day. David was waiting for some time. However long it was, it was long enough for his family to find out and travel to visit him (v1), for others to find out and eventually come to have him as their captain (v2), long enough for him to travel to Mizpah and back (v3), and just the way verse 4 records how David’s parents stayed with the King “all the time that David was in the stronghold.” Likewise, in our lives it is sin for us to get ahead of God’s plans and strike out on our own path and leave our own cave of waiting prematurely.

But “the Lord is not slack concerning His promises” (2 Peter 3:9). Look what happens next: “Now the prophet Gad said to David, ‘Do not stay in the stronghold, depart, and go to the land of Judah.‘” (v5)

God has answered!

It is time to leave the cave!

God has spoken, He sent David’s orders down through His servant Gad. It is time to move out.

Just moments before he got the news, it would’ve been sin for David to leave to cave. Now God has spoken and it would be sin to stay in the cave. Remember when, in effect, God kept telling Noah, “Not yet” but then He gave the go-ahead? Think of all the times over their forty years in the desert God had Israel stay camped where they were? It was sometimes a short time, sometimes a long time. But then the cloudy pillar would move and it was time to go. If you haven’t already, you too will have times where God says “Wait” and then times when He says “Go”. I can recall stories of missionaries carrying suitcases of Bibles across hostile borders and their primary directive as far as getting through Customs was exactly this: “Wait. Wait for God to tell you when to go, then go!”

So what did David do? Verse 5 tells us, “So David departed and went into the forest of Hereth.” David waited on the Lord, listened to the counsel of the godly, and obeyed what the Lord said. Waiting on God is as simple as that. The working out of that is certainly easier said than done, but there is greater stress and frustration in store not following God’s process than following it!

Some final thoughts:
- Remember what David wrote in Psalm 34 as was noted in Waiting, Part 3: Keep trusting God.

- Be faithful in the things God has called you while you wait, that includes being faithful in your roles as a husband/wife, father/mother, church member, worker, etc.

- Expectancy–Wait for God to lead you. Remember the words David wrote during this time in Psalm 57:1-3
 ¹ Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me!
         For my soul trusts in You;
         And in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge,
         Until these calamities have passed by.
         
 ² I will cry out to God Most High,
         To God who performs all things for me.
 ³ He shall send from heaven and save me;
         He reproaches the one who would swallow me up.  Selah  
         God shall send forth His mercy and His truth.
          (Psalm 57:1-3, New King James Version)

and Psalm 142:7

 ⁷ Bring my soul out of prison,
         That I may praise Your name;
         The righteous shall surround me,
         For You shall deal bountifully with me.”
(Psalm 142:7,New King James Version)

- Remember all the Biblical examples of those who were taught to wait and God did not ‘forget’ any of them and leave them there. In due time–in His time!–He brought them all to where He wanted them.

- When the Lord sends word to you…obey!

Posted: December 16th, 2009 under Devotions, Encouragement, Hope, Learning & Growing, Scripture.
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This series of posts is looking at the life of David based on events recorded in 1 Samuel 22:1-5. David has fled for his life from Saul who is trying to kill him despite David’s innocence before him. David, though called by God Himself to be king over Israel in place of Saul, has ended up for the time-being in hiding in a cave waiting upon God for direction. Although the circumstances which bring us to our own caves of waiting are probably very unlike David’s, looking at David’s circumstances can encourage you and me in our own times of waiting upon the Lord.

The last post was David’s psalm written after the events that led him to seek refuge in the cave. In this post we’re going to look at the two psalms we know he wrote while he lived in the cave: Psalm 142 and Psalm 57.

I could be wrong, but Psalm 142, although it appears later in the Psalms, seems to have been written first. For one thing, it just seems darker and more desperately clinging to God. Also, (and I didn’t catch this myself) David writes that “there is no one who acknowledges me…no one cares for my soul” (v4). As was noted in yesterday’s post, besides his family, four hundred people would eventually come and give allegiance to David there at Adullum, so I can’t imagine he’d write that no one cares for his soul when 400+ people are around him. (Already we can see an answer to prayer. He was alone but the Lord brought him people who cared about him.)

Psalm 57 is, by contrast, lighter than Psalm 142. Yes, his soul “is among the lions” and “they have prepared a net for [David's] steps” (v4,6). But David writes that “in the shadow of Your wings I will take my refuge, until these calamities have passed by” (v1). And unlike the desperate cries of 142, David seems to have come to a place of understanding and trust that God has not forsaken him. There are still questions. He is still living out of a cave and his life is still in danger (humanly speaking), but his heart is calmer and settled: “My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and give praise” (v7).

The Lord is good. He is kind and patient with His children. He knows when you are full of anxiety and strife inside. David escaped to a cave and poured his heart out to God and God gave him peace amidst the strife. David didn’t say the cave was his refuge. He said the Lord was (Psalm 142:5 and Psalm 57:1). Jesus tells us to go to our rooms, close the door, and pray in secret–to get alone with the Lord. Like David, our hearts cannot get settled so they can become steadfast until God himself becomes our refuge.

Next time we’ll look at some other practical aspects of what our attitudes should be while we wait on the Lord. But until then one important question remains: Is God your refuge?

Posted: December 14th, 2009 under Devotions, Encouragement, Hope, Learning & Growing, Scripture.
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