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Psalm 18:33

Published by S.M. Wibberley on May 27, 2020
 
Psalm 18:33 “He makes my feet like the feet of a deer;”
[David had to be quick and sure of foot in his fleeing from King Saul, as well as in his battles. In our battles with the Satan and the people he uses against us, you, Lord Jesus, make it possible for us to run swiftly, surely and gracefully in your paths so that, in your strength, we can endure through whatever comes.
I think of a recent incident where I was excluded from an event; it was painful and I was angry. But you, Lord Jesus, helped me, bringing to mind Scripture: “Trust in the Lord and do good…delight yourself also in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:3-4). So, I let go of my anger and hurt, held on to your commands and promises, and I was able to rise above my natural responses and to be gracious to those who excluded me. I was able to run gracefully in the paths of the Lord.
You helped me to “run with perseverance and patience the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” (Heb. 12:1b,2). The credit for doing these things goes to you, Lord God, for you make our feet like that of a deer.]
“he enables me to stand on the heights.”
[For David, to be on the heights was to be safe, to be the winner. And you, Lord Jesus, make us winners with you by bringing us to the mountain tops of truth, wisdom and faith. You guide us through the valleys, the traps and attacks of the enemy, leading us up onto the high place of victory.
You empower us then to stand on the heights, even though Satan tries to “throw us down [I am just a] leaning wall, a tottering fence. Surely they intend to topple me from my lofty place,” but you, Lord Jesus, are “my rock, my salvation, my high tower,” and as I abide in you “I will never be shaken…for my hope comes from you alone” (Psa. 62:1-5).
As we “put on the whole armor of God” we will “be able to stand in the evil day”—no matter what comes—“and having done all to stand” (Eph. 6:13).
Whatever triumph, whatever victory, whatever accomplishment comes, you are the One who brings it to pass, Lord Jesus, “for without you we can do nothing” (John 15:5). I give you praise, our Mighty Rock, for you are the reigning, equipping and protecting God, fully worthy of our obedience, worthy of our bringing you glory and honor today. May it be so as we stand on high places, such as in this picture.]
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Psalm 18:32

Published by S.M. Wibberley on May 26, 2020
 
Psalm 18:32 “It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect.”
[It is not my wisdom or effort, my talent or training nor my resources that bring effectiveness. It is you alone, Lord God, who prepares all. You are the Mighty and Wise One who pours strength into my life, who goes before and prepares the way in relationships and opportunities–and in me–making a way perfect.
Help me to run with endurance and patience the race that you have set out for me this day, looking consistently to Jesus, the author and finisher of my faith (Hebrews 12:1-2).
Every day there are uncertainties before me, all of which I could worry about. But as I reject worry and actively trust in you by praising you for your help before any appears, as I think the truth of who you are, of how you have laid out a perfect path for me to follow, and as I find my rest in you (Ps. 62:5), I will fulfill the purpose you have gifted me in life: to give you glory and honor before all.
You, out of your eternal riches, have prepared more than I need of strength and grace, of power and wisdom, of protection and provision, and of guidance and goodness (2 Pet. 1:3-4). You are constantly pouring them into my life whether I see them or not, sense them or not– and I will praise you for your goodness and graciousness now before I see them manifest in this day! To you be honor for your grace and goodness.]
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What am I

Published by S.M. Wibberley on May 24, 2020
“I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.”
Romans 7:18
 
Our son, Nat, while in college wrote the following: “In looking back on the last few weeks, I can see that I’ve been learning the following: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade have a good lesson for us.
 
“Remember what Jones was looking for in that movie? The Holy Grail. And can you recall in the final scene which of the various bowls and cups the Holy one was? The rattiest of them all! This is what God is showing me about myself.
 
“I thought I knew who I was. From other people’s descriptions of me I’m a pretty nice guy. Clean. Religious. Gracious. And I thought to myself, after examining my actions from a distance, ‘Yeah, that’s what I am.’ And I felt smug about it.
“However, ‘Pride comes before a fall.’ And I fell pretty hard.
 
Over the course of the past two months the LORD showed me a very different Nat, one I feared to see. Little by little I noticed that much of what I do and say, even though the exact language and/or methods used weren’t as bad as what my unbelieving friends employed, wasn’t that dis-similar.
 
“At first my mind couldn’t compute this paradox it was seeing in me: I’m ‘good’ but contrary to that I do bad things. I’d snap at people, join in on mockery, laugh at things that shouldn’t be laughed at. This set forth a struggle within me which is best summed in Paul’s statement to the Romans: ‘I do what I don’t want to do and not that which I want to’ (paraphrase).
 
“It’s been very disillusioning to see this tendency and it provoked a sense of meaninglessness and failure within me, as well as a loss of identity to some extent. As a result, I lost much of my desire to dig into the Word but still did it by the LORD’s strength.
 
“Then after having watched the movie I mentioned and pondering my situation, a little light flickered on inside of me: “I’m not good!” Duh! Yes, I’m not good in myself nor any better than the others of this world. But just the fact of having been selected for the task of serving the LORD has made me holy, not what I do and say. Just like that cup. It was holy (set aside for special use) because it was a relic used by Christ, not because it was made of exceptionally expensive materials.
 
“This is a simple concept but for some reason it’s hard to really grasp. Many of us say that we aren’t good but don’t really believe it. If we really want to be effective for the LORD, this must be understood internally, not just theoretically.
 
“I know that feeling worthless and seeing all of my failures drove me into His presence and got me to look at what was inside me, leading me to admit that I can’t do anything in my own strength. Then He said ‘Good, let me do it.’
 
“That was another door kicked down in the dungeons of my soul and another room illuminated. He’s been cleaning up since then. God wants to turn our dungeons into palaces. But He can’t do that unless we are willing to face the facts about ourselves and clean out the bones and other filth that are a common part of dungeons.
 
“He does the work but we facilitate in it by loving Him. And the more He works in us the more we love Him….”
 
Prayer: “Lord, help me to see myself as you do, to accept in mind, will and emotion the truth that “in my natural self there dwells no good thing” (Rom. 7:18). Help me to walk in the newness of life with you, obeying you in all I know to be true. Amen.”
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Germany and German

Published by S.M. Wibberley on May 23, 2020

During our years in Germany, at times I was asked to speak in different churches. This was far more demanding than everyday chats.  My German was understandable in a personal conversation, but I was a grammatical cripple. The complexity of German was beyond me.

First, there are thirty-two forms of “the” (der, die, das and variants) and you have to choose the correct form depending on the role of the noun in the sentence.

Second, every noun has a gender:  masculine, feminine or neuter, but I could see little logic behind this. For instance, skirt is masculine, wall is feminine and girl is neuter!  You have to memorize what each one is, then figure out what case the noun is in and use the corresponding form of “the.”

Well, I just basically ignored this whole minefield of complexity and threw in whichever form came to mind. The people I conversed with understood this and readily grasped what I was trying to say, even if it did not fit exactly correctly. However, such an approach was not adequate for public speaking, so Barbara would translate for me.

She is a marvelous translator. She does it so easily, quickly, fluidly moving my words and thoughts from English to German. And she doesn’t just do a grammatical translation, but “Germanized” the concepts in the process.  Really amazing.

At times we would speak in a small Turkish fellowship in a nearby city. The older folks spoke Turkish, while their children, who had grown up in Germany, did not. So I would speak in Turkish and Barbara would translate into German, again doing a wonderful job.

Near the end of our time in Germany, this group asked me just to preach in German. Since most of the attenders spoke German as their third, fourth or fifth language, my inexact grammar wasn’t a problem and we all shared a narrowness of vocabulary that kept us focused. They had no trouble grasping what I was saying.

Another role the Lord had for us was in the Baptist church where we had met Dr. Christian and Melanie. There had been problems brewing there for many years, and they boiled over shortly after we came.

As a result of these conflicts, there was need for a total change in leadership and I volunteered to be part of the new leadership council. This meant I had to function entirely in German!

If I could catch the gist of the discussion, then I could usually follow it, but it was a struggle, especially when the meetings went so late at night.

At one point I was asked to mediate a conflict, totally in German! While praying about this, the Lord gave me an idea for a framework, and as the discussion roiled and boiled, I was able to keep it within these guidelines with the Lord bringing a positive outcome. I was impressed what the Lord can do through such a weak vessel!

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Nurturing Your First Love for Jesus

Published by S.M. Wibberley on May 22, 2020
 
“The King is mighty; he loves justice—you have established equity;” Psalm 99:4a
 
Praise be to you, Lord Jesus, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Ruler of the universe, Creator and Sustainer of all. You are the star-Breather, the atom Keeper, the earth Spinner, and the dawn Bringer. I exalt you, King Jesus, for you are mighty and powerful, the Most High, the immeasurably strong, majestically great and eternal God.
 
You are undefeatable, unconquerable, unlimited, unending. You are the Source of all strength, the Spring of all power, the Author of all authority. You are the Ruler who reigns in all regions of life. No bird flies without your knowledge, no man sins without your grief, no person acts without your seeing, and no evil is allowed that cannot be woven into your plan of redemption and revival.
 
Lord, “…you have done what is just and right.” Therefore, we will “Exalt the LORD our God and worship at his footstool; he is holy” (Ps. 99:4b,5). We praise you, Lord God that we can bow before your footstool, that you allow us entrance into your presence, that as we come in the blood of Christ, that our worship is acceptable to you.
 
I exalt you Lord God for what you are: pure and powerful, good and gracious, mighty and magnificent, wise and wonderful, holy and happy, eternal and ever-present, all seeing and all knowing, intimate and involved, caring and consistent, loving and lavish, rich and real, forgiving and forever. You, Lord God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—are Triune and Complete in yourself; you are worthy of worship without considering how your qualities benefit me—and they certainly do!
 
Prayer: “To you be glory and honor today in my life as I live under the hand of your love and protection, deeply satisfied in you, Lord God, the great Shepherd and King of my life. Amen.” –From Edified!
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Psalm 18:31

Published by S.M. Wibberley on May 21, 2020
Had a technical glitch so have been unable to post for the last several days on this site. Sorry. Thanks to my son, Josh, all is resolved, so we will press on with posting.
Psalm 18:31 “For who is God besides the LORD? And who is the Rock except our God?”
There is no one else like you, O LORD, the Eternal One with no beginning or ending–all others are creatures with a finite start, each one designed to be in relation to you. You, as LORD, are the only source of unchanging goodness, unwavering stability and unending grace.
Although you are the great and mighty God of history, of eternity, of all that is to come, you have made yourself “our God.” You are not distant and demanding. No, you are personal and patient, compassionate and kind, concerned and consistent. In your love we find rest.
You are the “wholly other One,” different from your creatures in essence, in eternalness, in entirety. You are perfect in each part, so there is no need for change or growth, maturing or learning. You know all, you do all in completeness, you make no mistakes. You are the solid Rock of Truth, Stability and Love, totally trustable, fully faithful and completely compassionate.
What appears to be failure from a human perspective, is actually perfection in process. Think of the death of Christ–without this seeming defeat, there would have been no resurrection, no regeneration, no redemption. His death was one part of the perfect plan you were bringing to pass.
In a similar way you are at work in our lives today, bringing good to pass through the ups and downs of life. You only are our Lord, you only are the Rock, you only are to be worshiped.
Guide us today, Lord, in resting in you, in thinking Truth, in praising you in all, and in seeing the daily God-sightings as you lovingly work in our lives.
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Language Learning

Published by S.M. Wibberley on May 16, 2020
Chapter 87 Ministry In Germany
In addition to the economic differences in Germany, there was another difficulty for me with this relocation to Europe: the language. I could speak enough German to buy things, ask basic questions and have an informal chat, but that is not adequate for actually living here.
 
On a scale of 0 to 5 to measure fluency in German, I was below 1, probably at 0.5! The prospect of starting to learn the nuances of another language at my age of 62 was daunting.
In addition, my minimal German meant I would be severely limited in my ability to minister. However, the Lord had some surprises in store for me.
 
First, he brought five “disciples” into my life, all of whom spoke adequate-to-excellent English. This meant I was not hampered at all in developing friendships with these men and freely teaching them along the way. What a great outlet that was when all the rest of my relationships hobbled along with my very basic German.
 
Second, God had placed me in a situation for absorbing this new language in a reasonably painless fashion. Barbara’s motherOmi could speak no English, so it was necessary to have all my interaction with her in German. When Barbara and I were with her, even when we spoke with each other, it had to be in German.
 
There were some trials in this. Omi could not seem to understand that it was my limited vocabulary that hampered me in grasping what she wanted. She thought I was just not very bright! I would be helping her in the garden and she would give me a command, “Get me the Hacke!” I had no idea what a “Hacke” was, so I would have to ask for an explanation, which just confirmed her suspicions about my IQ!
 
At 90, Omi struggled herself just to remember the proper names of things, so she was unable come up with any synonyms to help me out. She would impatiently point and repeat the same word again. I, of course, felt like a fool, and struggled to figure out what she was indicating.
 
Part of my difficulty was that I knew what Omi thought of me. In her generation, people looked at missionaries as those that had failed in everything else in life, and the only job they could find was to go somewhere else and share the gospel. Therefore, even before I failed in a particular task, I was already a total failure in her eyes.
 
This situation, however, was another gift from God. He was working on my fear of man, my desire to look good, to appear competent, to feel like I had some worth in this new culture. It was a powerful opportunity to remind myself of where my true worth came from: being made in the image of God, being redeemed by the blood of the Lamb; and being adopted into the family of God.
 
God consistently led me to praise Him for my embarrassing and stressful moments, to let go of wanting to appear competent, and to relax in His love. Then I could think clearly and usually figure out what it was that Omi wanted. He was setting me free from fear of man, helping me to walk in a healthy fear of God.
 
Another struggle that Omi and I had was with finding things. I often could not locate the item she sent me to get from the cellar or the pantry. I knew what I was looking for, but frequently she had put it in a different container than I expected, or hidden it behind something.
She knew exactly where the desired object was and could not fathom my inability to find it. These situations were, again, chances to let go, hold on and rise above, to walk into the freedom of God-given worth, belonging and competence. It also made me better at searching for things!
 
In the midst of these struggles, it would have been easy to see Omi as the enemy, but God gave me a great love for her, a warm, positive, caring love. I could easily and whole-heartedly help her in things around the house, letting her negative statements and views roll off me like water off a duck. Indeed, I was covered with the oil of gladness, impermeable to the water of worldly words of dissatisfaction and discontent. This was completely His doing and I praise Him for it.
 
A third helpful factor in learning German was the plethora of material to learn from. Not being a classroom type of learner, I worked on my German daily by reading the newspaper, listening to some radio and TV, and taking every opportunity for conversation.
 
The most effective means of language acquisition, however, was while doing my morning Bible reading in the New Testament. Since I knew the passages quite well in English, as I read it in German, I could note grammatical structures and guess at word meanings more easily than in the newspaper.
 
Later I got hold of a parallel New Testament with German in one column and Turkish in the next. Having the languages side by side made it very easy to compare and learn. By the end of our time in Germany, I was able to comprehend 95% of what I was reading in the German Bible.

Picture: Omi with grandson  Josh and his son Maxwell

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Psalm 18:28

Published by S.M. Wibberley on May 15, 2020
Psalm 18:28 “You, O LORD, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light.”
[You are light itself, Lord, shining brilliantly across the eons of time, shining long before the sun and stars were created.
And now you are the source of light for our lives—physical light as well as the light of wisdom, insight, guidance and warning. You actively grant direction when we have no idea what to do. I praise you for your faithful, sure, constant presence, your leading us on in the challenges of life in this dark world.
You are the One, Lord Jesus, who brought us out of the dominion of darkness into your Kingdom of Light. As it says in Proverbs 4:18,19, “The way of the wicked (as we were) is like deep darkness, they do not know what makes them stumble.”
In contrast, “The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever more brightly until the full light of day.” Help us, Lord, not to look back on the darkness, but to look ahead at your guiding light, moving ever more into its full strength so that we may see and void what can make us stumble.
I praise you that darkness cannot hide anything from you, Lord, for you see all and you let us know what is necessary, giving us enough light so that we can move ahead with you, doing what is best. Help us to live in the light with you, Lord, joining you in what you are doing, thereby bringing you glory.]
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Psalm 18:27b

Published by S.M. Wibberley on May 15, 2020
Psalm 18:27b “but [you] bring low those whose eyes are haughty.”
[This you also do in your love, Lord: you humble those who live in the darkness of self-delusion, encouraging them to come to you in the light. But unfortunately they prefer darkness, thinking they are good enough to get to heaven, thinking they are better than those around them.
Lord, how easily I get caught up in that same sin, thinking negative, critical thoughts of others, comparing myself to them rather than you. The truth is that the negative I see in them is also potential in me, if not actual; I could easily do the same things I proudly condemn in them, blithely underestimating the evil of my old nature.
Yes, Lord, keep us in the light of your revelation and bring us quickly to repentance when we are proud, so that we may immediately submit to you. Then we may be raised up to living in the luster of your love rather than the darkness of our deception.
Praise be to you, for your working in us–gracious and patient, continual and deep–bringing transformation through your Word in our mind, will and emotions so that we might walk on ever higher levels with you. Keep our spirits open to your conviction, direction and protection, remembering that “You save the humble but bring low those whose eyes are haughty.”
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Psalm 18:27

Published by S.M. Wibberley on May 14, 2020
Psalm 18:27 “You save the humble”
 
This, Lord, is your requirement for salvation: humility, which can be defined as “seeing ourselves as you see us.”
 
As we stand before you, the Mighty, Eternal One, the Star-breather, the Galaxy-maker, the History Beginner and the Ender of time, the Pure and Powerful One, what can we do but see our sinfulness, our unworthiness, our puniness, and yes, our putridness. We see the immense contrast between our shriveled, rebellious hearts and the stunning beauty of your gracious Holiness.
 
To you we must bow in humility, accepting your view of our situation. Somehow you work with our will to bring the desire and the decision to surrender, to reject the illusion of independence for the reality of total, healthy dependence on you.
 
The reality is that you are the One in charge, who holds together the nucleus of every atom in the universe, who keeps every star in place, who brings the dawn, gives the rain, provides our food—we are totally dependent on you in every area without knowing it! And you give us the added privilege of enhancing that dependency by willfully embracing it in belief and submission–giving you all that we had been holding back, including our future.
 
Praise be to you for especially working in the heart of each one whom you know will believe, bringing the wise and persistent pressure that will lead to the break-through and surrender, giving the understanding, the desire to know you, to live for you, to walk in the light, to bring you glory.
 
What a high calling you give us, what a privileged position, what an existence of ongoing, ever growing joy that you offer.
You give us the exact opposite of what we deserve, at great cost to yourself and at great profit to us who were naturally your thankless enemies.
 
You, Lord God, are a marvel, a mystery; you are majestic and mighty in your provision of rich, unending agape love. Such Truth leads us to wholeheartedly and joyfully bow before you and shout, “Glory!”
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