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The Gift of Freedom

Published by S.M. Wibberley on September 22, 2018
 
Psalm 146:7b “The LORD sets prisoners free….”
 
[Right from the beginning of our lives we are all imprisoned by sin, by the web of Satan where everyone is ensnared in its sticky strands of lies, fear and violence. Just being born into a broken and twisted world results in quirks and knots in our personalities that bring problems, difficulties and oppression.
 
Our upbringing and family culture instill further dysfunctional thoughts, feelings and desires into us. And our culture’s worldview, with its internalized values, lock us into destructive feelings, desires and goals.
 
All these lead us to emotional pitfalls, to accepting false answers to the great human thirst for love and approval, for significance, security and belonging. These wrong answers then produce fear: fear of man, fear of the future, fear of failure, fear of pain, loss and hurt. Satan uses all these to oppress, control, and in the end, to crush us like the car in the picture below, killing all he can.
 
But You, Lord Jesus, have made a way out of this prison of oppression, opening the door to the cell of hopelessness. You have called us to step out of the darkness of fear into the light of your Love, into the rich and warm relationship with you where our fears can be washed away in the river of your goodness and grace and glory.
 
Through your great sacrifice and work, you provided all we thirst for: in you we belong, in you we have competence, in you we have significance, security, acceptance and approval.
 
In you there is the certainty of your shepherding us through every dark valley of life into the wonder of your everlasting dwelling in Heaven. You have provided all that is needed for us to follow you in freedom: Your “divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life…” (2 Pet. 1:3).
 
You, Lord Jesus, are the great Deliverer, the mighty Shepherd, the everlasting King. You are worthy of endless honor, praise and exaltation; you are worthy of all obedience, glory and thanksgiving.
 
I praise you for your constant, deep, compassionate and lovely presence in my life, convicting me of the next sin so I can be set free from it; drawing me on to greater surrender; protecting me from my own foolishness; guiding and empowering me to live more and more worthy of you.
 
So, I lift you up, praise your Name and exalt your Word above all things. Use me today to bring honor to your gracious and glorious Name by giving thanks in all things.
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The Gift of Beauty

Published by S.M. Wibberley on September 21, 2018

Praise the LORD, for another sunny day, pleasant weather and a beautiful countryside: rich, warm sunshine streaming over the hills, casting long, deep shadows from the trees and buildings, bringing out every dip and rise in the land.

The trees are silver with dew, the river is clothed in shimmering wreathes of fog, flowers are peeking out from bushes, gardens and graveyards, the birds are joyfully flitting about and singing in the new day’s light.

You, O Lord God, are a lover of beauty, and are so gracious to share this visual feast with us, a breakfast for the eyes, a refreshment to the soul.

I praise you for your marvelous creativity, making all so practical and yet so beautiful. You could have made everything black and white, ugly and efficient—but you have chosen to clothe usefulness in gracefulness, practicality in loveliness. You cover fruit trees with fragrant and colorful blossoms; you make water sparkling and pure; you give the hills and trees many shades of green.

Praise you that you do the same in our lives, making food festive, procreation pleasurable, worship wonderful.

You are yourself beautiful, O Lord.

You are lovely in goodness, graciousness, gloriousness and greatness.

You are righteous, pure, positive and just.

You are kind, compassionate, ready to forgive and long suffering.

You are present, protecting, seeing and caring.

You uphold all who are bowed down.

You deliver from the oppressor.

You heal the broken-hearted.

You guide the lost.

 

You are

The God of only goodness,

The God of eternity,

The God of salvation,

The God of faithfulness.

Therefore, you are worthy of worship, praise, glory and honor. I bow before you now in awe, praising you in gratefulness; I rise up in your joy to exalt you in thankfulness and obedience.

May you be glorified today in my thoughts and actions, words and reactions, O great and mighty, lovely and lavish Lord Jesus!

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The Gift of Supply

Published by S.M. Wibberley on September 20, 2018
 
Praise be to you, Lord, for your great and gracious heart. Praise you that you look down and see every single person on this earth, all at the same time, and that you are aware of each one’s needs, desires, suffering, rebellion and anger.
 
I praise you that you work in the life of each–believer or not–to supply their needs: “… your Father in heaven…causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matt. 5:45).
 
You bring each one help: “The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit” (Psa. 34:18).
 
And most importantly you offer the opportunity for all to enter your Kingdom: “when he [the Holy Spirit] comes, he will convict the world [everyone] of sin, righteousness, and judgment…” (John 16:8-10) and “…whosoever believes should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16b).
 
Psalm 146:7 “He upholds the cause of the oppressed…”
 
[You, Heavenly Father, with the resurrection of Jesus, went right to the core of the issue and provided an escape from the three foundational sources of oppression: Satan, sin and self. All other oppression we experience flows out of these.
 
Praise be to you, Lord Jesus, for paying the price of great, deep, profound, excruciating suffering to provide the only possible way out from this oppression. Praise you that daily you give grace, guidance and goodness to your children in the midst of every oppression so we can let go, hold on and rise above it.]
 
“and [He] gives food to the hungry.”
 
[You are the One who provides our daily bread. You give enough to live on and you give us the freedom to share this with others, the privilege of being the conduit to supply their needs. Help us not to squander your supply or withhold from others the abundance you constantly give. We praise you that you are wonderfully generous and give freely, fully to all.]
 
Help us to recognize the marvelous supply you give us every day in the unending stream of gifts, including wisdom, protection, help and guidance. which you pour into our lives. Help us to live in the light of your love today and to bring honor to you in all we do.
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Fantastic Faithfulness

Published by S.M. Wibberley on September 19, 2018
 
The Gift of Faithfulness
 
Psalm 146:6b “The Lord who remains faithful forever.”
 
[You, Lord, are the persistent God of Hope, desiring to forever pour joy and peace into our lives as we trust in you (Rom. 15:13)–so that our lives may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit and we may live lives worthy of you.
 
I praise you, Lord Jesus, I exalt you heavenly Father, I honor you, Holy Spirit, for your consistent, continual faithfulness to Truth, to Righteousness, to your Promises and, most importantly, to your rich and beautiful Character.
 
In the garden of Eden you promised a Savior who would crush Satan’s head. You prepared the way for His coming, choosing Abraham, protecting him and his off-spring through many years of danger, oppression and difficulty. Through Joseph you saved Judah from whence came the Christ.
 
And at the right time you came, Lord Jesus: in weakness and vulnerability, a helpless babe born to inexperienced parents in a dirty and sickness-filled society where infant mortality rate was high and enemies abounded.
 
You lived among sin-warped people, in evil systems, under oppression by Rome and rejection by your own. You willingly suffered unjust condemnation, torture, death and seeming defeat, that you might save all who were willing to come into your shelter of forgiveness, cleansing and new life.
 
You are the ultimate in faithfulness and therefore we can trust you fully each day to carry us through whatever will come, granting us opportunity to work with you in your plans and to give you honor by offering the sacrifice of thanksgiving in each difficulty, disappointment and discouragement.
 
Help us to take up your proffered grace, Lord Jesus, to live in the light of your love and to rest in the fact of your faithfulness, so you may be honored before all around us.
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How Great is our God

Published by S.M. Wibberley on September 18, 2018
 
 
“His countenance beholds the upright.”
 
[You, Lord, in your love and goodness, consistently look after us, your children–we who now stand in the uprightness of Christ. You are aware of every event that comes to us, you filter out what is truly evil and harmful, and you have equipped us to deal with whatever you allow through into our lives.
 
You have qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the Kingdom of Light! You are carrying us on to glory, honor and praise as we respond to your direction in faith. Your love is wonderful, rich, pure and powerful, and it is a great privilege to live in it!]
 
Psalm 146:5 “Blessed is the man whose help is the God of Jacob”
 
[You work with us, as you worked with that rebellious rascal Jacob. You are patient, persistent, allowing consequences to bring understanding, intervening at the right time, and drawing us on to full surrender],
 
“[Blessed is the man] whose hope is the Lord his God”
 
[Jacob kept calling you, “the God of my father” rather than his own God. It took a whole life time of self-imposed suffering, fear and loss before Jacob, on his death bed, finally bowed before you and worshiped you as “my God,” making you his personal hope. May we not wait so long to surrender! ]
 
Psalm 146:6 “[Blessed is the man whose hope is the] maker of heaven”
 
[You made both the throne room of Heaven where you dwell, and the great expanses of space where all the starry hosts dwell: zillions of stars (and you know the name of every one!) placed in trillions of galaxies, spread across billions of light years of space]
 
“and [maker of] earth, the sea and all that is in them”
 
[You spoke the earth into existence with its mountains and plains, rivers and streams, the seas with all their great expanse. And you created the astounding myriad of plants and animals, ranging from the single-celled, up through insects, cats and dogs, to elephants, walrus and whales–plus the unseen spiritual creatures around us.]
 
You, Lord God, are amazing and awesome: powerful, creative, wise, all-knowing, all-seeing, all-present, the Creator, the Victor and our King.
 
From you alone comes real, sure, enduring hope, giving us the great certainty of having salvation from sin, more than enough significance and security, and the assurance of a sinless eternity with you.
 
We can know that all which comes to us in this life will be for your glory, our good and the outworking of your triumph over evil.
 
To you be glory, honor and praise forever: may you be lifted up, esteemed and exalted today, in my life, in my motives, thoughts, words and actions.]
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Psalm 11:5b-7 God’s Righteousness

Published by S.M. Wibberley on September 17, 2018
Psalm 11:5b “But the wicked and the one who loves violence His [God’s] soul hates.”
 
[Here is one of those seeming paradoxes of the Bible: God loves all, yet hates the wicked. Here are three possible understandings among several, all of them true:
–He hates what they do, but loves them as His creatures;
–He loves them, but when they refuse to come under His protection by surrendering to Christ, they fall under His hatred for sin;
–or here He is speaking of Satan and his hoard of demons.
 
The certainty is that, in God’s character there are no contradictions: He hates sin and will punish it, yet found a way (an extremely expensive one) to redeem sinners within this context.
Psalm 11:6 “Upon the wicked He will rain coals; Fire and brimstone and a burning wind shall be the portion of their cup.”
 
[As part of your plan to eliminate evil, you, Lord God, in your justice will punish rebellious evil doers–those who refuse your gracious forgiveness and instead love violence, those who hate what is good, those who refuse to believe you and accept Truth.
 
This is what you did in Sodom and Gomorrah, what you did in Canaan to those who rejected you, and what you will do to all those who refuse your offer of goodness and grace. There can be no justice without the punishment of evil.]
 
Psalm 11:7 “For the Lord is righteous, He loves righteousness;”
 
[Praise you, Lord God, that in your there is no evil, no darkness, no sin, no wrong. You are righteous and love what is right. You cannot be corrupted and corrupt no one. You cannot be tempted and you tempt no one. Instead, you call all to righteousness.
 
When we believe your Word, the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us. Then we get to grow in righteousness as we walk in obedience to what we know to be true:
–loving your Word by reading, studying, memorizing and meditating on it;
–listening to and obeying the conviction of the Spirit, that most often comes through the Word;
— working by and through prayer, living the truth that without you we can do nothing;
–participating in fellowship, knowing that in your church we will learn to give and receive, help and be helped; we will both enjoy and be irritated by others, repent and forgive, love as Christ loves us.
 
Help us to be faithful in participating in your righteousness, Lord, living worthy of you, as sons and daughters of the Most High King, the Creator and Sustainer of all. May our central and deepest goal be to glorify, honor and please you.]
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Psalm 11:3-5 Tests

Published by S.M. Wibberley on September 16, 2018
Yesterday ended with a dissatisfying taste, an emptiness which I tried at first to banish with reading and popcorn. But then you, Lord, led me in the right path, reminding me to praise you for it, as this emptiness was a reminder that my soul finds rest in you alone—and the right response is to offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving.
 
Therefore I praise you now, Lord Jesus, for this emptiness that reminds me of the wonder and stability of knowing you, of my being a child of the eternal living, God. You give us all we need for life and godliness and I can praise you for both the pleasant and the painful.
 
As it says in Psalm 11:3, “If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do?”
 
[When everything seems to fall apart, we can look away to you, Lord God, the only sure foundation in all of existence. We can rejoice in your character, rest in your love, live in your wisdom. The instability of the world only serves to highlight the surety of your character: Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever!]
 
Psalm 11:4-5 “The Lord is in His holy temple, The Lord’s throne is in heaven;”
 
[You are ever ruling, ever awake, ever alert. Nothing escapes your notice and you always act in inexorable power at exactly the right time. You rule wisely, wonderfully, willfully. You are moving events to the great conclusion of history, sweeping as many as are willing into your Kingdom, while giving those who aren’t willing multiple opportunities as well.]
 
“His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men. The Lord tests the righteous,”
 
[You watch every person, you test each one, first giving opportunities to believe to the not-yet-sons. And then to your children, who have been granted the righteousness of Christ, you give tests that are possibilities to grow, give you glory and display grace.
 
Ah, Lord, help us to remember that difficulties, disappointments, danger and discouragement are tests, each one an opportunity to take up your grace, rise up in praise and defeat the enemy on his own ground.
 
May we not fail in these tests but cooperate with you, join you for your glory! Help us today to live in the light of your lavish love, trusting in your great goodness in each trial, fulfilling the purpose of our lives by offering the sacrifice of thanksgiving in all.]
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True Security

Published by S.M. Wibberley on September 15, 2018
More from EDIFIED!
 
“I will declare that your love stands firm forever, that you established your faithfulness in heaven itself.”
Psalm 89:2
 
Every week someone tells me that all their problems would be solved if only they had more money, or a house, or a car, or a better job.
 
The pull of the human heart is ever towards comfort—we may enjoy a challenge for a while, but eventually we want to get to a position where we can kick back and relax. We want to get rid of pressures as much as possible. For many this means having a substantial nest egg so they can live any lifestyle they please. For others it may be a less stressful job.
 
For us believers, however, the situation should be different: our hearts and minds are to be set on things above (Col. 3:1-2). Our desire is really the opposite of the world’s desire to be independent; we want to grow in conscious and committed dependence on God.
 
It is in the midst of uncomfortable situations that we can mature in this, choosing to give Him glory in our weakness and in His strength. One author puts it this way, “We must get away from the idea that deliverance from trial is the highest form of spiritual blessing. We learn more in a few days in the fiery furnace than we would learn in years out of it.” (J. Oswald Sanders. Spiritual Maturity. Chicago: Moody Press, 1962, p. 64.)
 
Life gives us plenty of opportunities to live this way, but I, for one, often find myself shrinking back from many of them. Scripture, fortunately, reminds me of the reality I need to embrace: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me” (Ps. 23:4).
 
There are dark valleys, and we will go through them, but never alone—and if we enter them with faith in God’s goodness and His plan for us, we will come out of them deepened because Jesus, our Shepherd, is there every day, every moment, every step of the way, leading us on. In the midst of difficulty He offers us grace, love and joy in our relationship with Him, something that material security can never give!
 
It is up to us to take up His grace and love, to live in them, meeting with Him each day, soaking in the Word, joining Him through prayer. He’s waiting there every morning to spend time with us, His beloved children. Are we as eager as He is to meet?
 
Prayer; “Lord, help me every day to meet with you so I can better live out the words of Psalm 89:15, ‘Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim Him, to walk in the light of His presence.’ Amen.”
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More from Edified!

Published by S.M. Wibberley on September 14, 2018

“Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob…”

Psalm 114:7,8

 

You, O Adonai, are the One to be feared—your power, your purity, your presence are overwhelming, overarching, overcoming all opposition. When you manifested yourself in leading the Israelites,  as the girl in the picture leads her cow, “The sea looked and fled, the Jordan turned back; the mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs” (Ps. 114:3,4).

Your power and presence caused the earth to writhe, the seas to flee, the rivers to cease flowing. You, O Elohim, the powerful and faithful One  “…turned the rock into a pool, the hard rock into springs of water.”

You are Mighty and Magnificent, looking down from on High. To view the earth from your lofty position you must stoop down; yet you do that willingly, lovingly, sacrificially.

You call yourself the God of Jacob, identifying yourself with that rascal, that rebellious and unrepentant, self-serving sinner and his descendants. You watched over them; you opened the way, prepared help, protected, guided and loved the Israelites, even though you knew they would rebel, disobey and bring disgrace to your Name.

What a great heart you have; what a mighty love flows from your being, bringing the possibility and power of change to all in this fallen world. Praise be to you for the many who embrace your love, are transformed and become your children.

Praise you for your working with all, even with those who will reject your grace (John 1:9;16:8-11), who choose to remain in darkness and spend eternity without you. Praise you for your pity on them, your death for them (1 John 2:2), your love for them (John 3:16).  You are “the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe” (1 Tim. 4:10b).

You are the God of all mercy, triumphing over justice, offering an umbrella of forgiveness to all who come. And you will judge sin and evil because you are just, for without justice there can be no holiness, no peace, no freedom from sin.

Praise be to you, O Perfect God, Lord and Savior, Sovereign and King, the Wise and Loving One—for to you belongs all worship and praise, honor and glory, exaltation and obedience.

 

Prayer: “I bow before you today, Lord Jesus. Use me, glorify yourself through me in a way that will make you stand out and me fade from sight. May I be the paint on the wall; may you be the house itself, the one who gets the honor today. Amen.”

 

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God’s Great Plans

Published by S.M. Wibberley on September 13, 2018
Procedure went well, my heart is back in rhythm, and I can feel the difference; thanks for praying.
 
Today another word from EDIFIED!
 
I’ve been going through the book of Daniel, which reveals a great deal about God and the way He works. The Lord accomplishes much with one stroke: in bringing judgment on Israel and sending them into captivity, He brought the Word of Life to a king and then to an entire empire.
 
Chapter four is clearly King Nebuchadnezzar’s personal testimony sent out to his whole expansive kingdom and beyond, urging others to believe: “To the peoples, nations and men of every language who live in all the world…It is my pleasure to tell you about the miraculous signs and wonders that the Most High God has performed for me….Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven because everything he does is right and all his ways are just” (Dan. 4:1,2,37).
 
Look at how God accomplished this. He had, among the captives taken to Babylon, four young men who were fully submitted to Him. They very obviously knew the character of God and trusted Him to do what was right no matter what the consequences were for them—even though they had been captured, marched as prisoners to a foreign land and were forced into situations they hadn’t chosen.
 
When three of them faced the fiery furnace they replied, “Our God is able to save us….But even if he does not…we will not serve your gods…” (Dan. 3:18). They did not complain, gripe or feel sorry for themselves—we can tell this because they were respectful and gracious in their interactions with those in authority.
 
And what means did God provide so they could be a witness? Crises: life threatening, impossibly difficult crises. In each one Daniel and his friends trusted God, offering the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and saw God answer in spectacular ways, displaying His glory before many.
 
What does this say to us? How do we respond to crises? Do we know the character of God well enough to trust Him in the impossible, to turn to Him in prayer rather than to frantic action? Are we willing to be thrust onto the stage of witness where only God’s power can save us, seeing the unseen as reality? Or are we those who live in the natural: complainers, whiners, self-pitying victims, seeking to escape what is uncomfortable, unwilling to see how we are called to play important roles in the grand scheme of God?
 
One of God’s purposes in giving us the book of Daniel is to give us a sense of how He is moving history to a conclusion. He is able to weave into His plan even the myriad sinful actions of human beings done against His will, moving things inexorably towards the culmination of His great goal of the New Heaven and New Earth.
 
Now when we see crises in our own lives, in the church or in international events we need to remember that we can trust God to use both the good and evil of man for His purposes. A fresh read through the first 6 chapters of Daniel does wonders for re-calibrating our thinking on God’s working in our everyday lives.
 
Prayer: “Lord, help me to grow in the knowledge of your character. Help me to respond in faith to the small every day crises and the big ones in my life with the sacrifice of thanksgiving so I may be a witness for you, opening the way for others to believe and grow. Amen.”
 
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