"I see what you've done. Now see what I've done. I've opened a door that no one can slam shut. You don't have much strength; I know that; you used what you had to keep my Word. You didn't deny me when times were tough." Revelation 3:8
A brother in Christ sent this to me in response to a prayer request. It hasn't been a real 'walk in the Park' since that February day back in 2004 when I heard God call me back into the fold….especially since that October day in Illinois where He placed a call of ministry upon my heart.
It has been fraught with struggles, failures, and stress. There has been loss; there has been accountability and sorrow over my own failings and those of others. There hasn't been the abundance of wealth, health, or peace…well, at least the first two….that many gospels today proclaim is the Christian's 'birthright.'
It hasn't been pleasant, some of the places where God has taken me. It hasn't been without self-incrimination or doubt, a desire to 'not go there', and a fight to indeed 'go where no man has travelled before' in the depth of my dark soul……to shine the light upon the decay and sin there, and burn it in the righteous fire of the Most High.
My brother told me he didn't know what the 'door' would be, or what would manifest itself in my life to show God's favor for not 'denying Him in rough times.' God will bless me, this I know for sure; whether it is in this life or the eternal one that is open for debate. God will do what brings total glory and honor to Him, not what we feel is best for us, necessarily. The closer we get in our relationship to God, the more we realize how blessed we are even in the hurricane winds of trials and persecution.
Pastor Jim spoke of Hosea this Sunday past; a book most pastors he said weren't too eager to pursue in their sermons. After all, God tells Hosea to marry a prostitute, who then continues her trade and who Hosea has to eventually buy back from her 'pimp.' Not a very exciting or glamorous tale of following God's lead! Yet, as Pastor Jim said, there is a reason and he thinks the reason is so that Hosea would know how God felt about Israel. It wasn't the verses that Pastor Jim spoke of that hit me between the eyes, but one a few chapters in…a few verses down….
"Therefore your daughters turn to prostitution and your daughters-in-law to adultery."I will not punish your daughters when they turn to prostitution, nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery, because the men themselves consort with harlots and sacrifice with shrine prostitutes—a people without understanding will come to ruin!" Hosea 4:13c-14 (NIV)
I have said over and over in my blog that it is MEN who have the capability, under the authority and direction of God, to turn the cultural shift to the liberal, Universalist side back to a God-ordained, santicified path to restoration and healing. Men, who under the silence of Adam's sin, have given up their purpose as Spiritual leaders, and defenders of the beauty in a world of chaos and disorder, can redeem themselves and their families by being godly men.
It is through our own 'silence' that we are allowing this world to slide further and further away from God. It is not our daughters or our daughter-in-laws that will be punished but they will feel the effects of masculinity under sinful pursuits through our own failings to be men of the Word.
Maybe the verse my brother gave me wasn't intended just for me, but for all men in pursuit of a God most-powerful, most-holy, and most-merciful………
He has locked the door open for Godly men to step forward and lead. Not with the promise of renewed strength or power.....but the correct use of the power and strength already given....to the point of exhaustion.....
God calls for men to be Men of God
Will you be one of them?
No comments:
Post a Comment