Graves' This and That

 Sadly, I have known for some time that my feelings of insecurity and inferiority had a deeper seat and had become a fortress/stronghold in the mind.  It was NOT a relief to finally figure out that it was really about my pride!  Ilk and yuk!  I rather think I had a malady or excuse for those feelings.   I also begin to learn that pride has another alliance friendship: FEAR!  Fear I have so easily recognized over the eons, but pride being the source of insecurity and inferiority, I was self-deceived about.   My fears from the Fall: being overlooked, opposed, disregarded, and loss of control, I could see one of the fears specifically, disregarded.  The inner vows' sources were competing, comparing, and controling.   I probably said to myself: "I will never", "I will always" or "I must".  Now at this ripe age, I learned from a Bible teacher, that these inner vows are judgements I made against myself and sometimes toward others...

"And He spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray and not to faint."Luke 18:1 Several phrases describe "losing heart":"not give up", "never grow discouraged", "to pray consistently and never quit", "their need for constant prayer and to show them that they must never give up" are but a few from the different paraphrase and translations of Scripture that I have.   However, I am not the first or only Christ follower to express disappointment and even frustration when Heaven chooses to be silent when hearing my request, my 911, my SOS, my cries for help, my pleadings, my beseeching, my begging, and even my desperation.  I understand that my Father is Sovereign and He does what pleases Him. I understand that He is good, He loves me, and that forever His Word is settled in the heavens.  I know that He is conforming me to the image of the LORD JESUS, yet, I must again admit that I must work through with ...

I love quotes that capture my attention.  I just found one by Andrew Murray, a dear saint of the 1800's who wrote several books, but I have loved his book, With Christ in the School of Prayer... misplaced the book in my office, but the title is close to this.  His quote, I love!  "Prayers that go up to heaven help make history on earth."   I confess, each of us, surely not only me, have enough to pray about and believe God to accomplish.  I think of the need for reconciliation in my family, prayers for my sons, daughter, and Grandchildren.  Our church? Our government?  Our leaders in authority over us? The persecuted church throughout the world? Personal needs? The unsaved about us and throughout the nations? Our police?  Racial strife and reconciliation? The Republican and Democratic conventions? Marriages? Families?  Healings for those suffering diseases? These are but a few to begin to believe God to accomplish to His glory and for...

The events of the past weeks are such reminders that as Christ followers we must take our stand against the devil's schemes.  It is so true that our struggles are not FLESH AND BLOOD, "but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the power of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." The kingdom of this age is in conflict with the will and purpose of the LORD JESUS, and the onus is on flesh and blood to decide to whom allegiance will be given.  As Christ followers, we must allow the Holy Spirit of God to finger our strongholds of favoritism and prejudice.  It is my, our, responsibility to demolish every opinion and attitude, even behavior that raises itself against the knowledge of God.   In reading Oswald Chambers for today, "The spiritual saint never believes circumstances to be haphazard, or thinks of his life as secular and sacred;  he sees everything he is dumped down in as the means of securing the...

The prophet, Nathan, has to confront David for his sin that he thought was hidden.  Isn't it interesting the self-deception that David is under to even consider that the ALL- KNOWING, ALL -WISE, ALL- SEEING, ALL- HEARING GOD was totally ignorant of his sin with Bathsheba and his directed murder of her husband, Uriah, who had been one of his faithful strong warriors and protectors.  The prophet first uses a story of a rich man and a poor man who owns a ewe lamb.  The rich man takes the ewe lamb from the poor man and cooks it for his guest.  Upon hearing the story, David immediately answers rightly but he has been so consumed with lust and his own greed that he does not consider his words: "the man who did this deserves to die!  He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity."  Can't you just hear Nathan, "You are the man" and then he boldly pokes his finger into the face of King David?   As if that direct c...

I must confess that I gravitate toward any of the Scriptures that have this Christ follower getting the victory.  I love to stand on the trash-heap of some of my attempts, my failures, and even my losses and get to proclaim that I have overcome!  1 John may just be one of my top favs: "You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them (spirit of antichrist), because the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world."  "For everyone born of God overcomes the world.  This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith."  There was a hymn in the old Baptist hymnal, Faith is the Victory and it is straight from 1 John 5:4.  I was intrigued with the word, overcome, and in the Greek, nikao, subdue, conquer, get the victory.  Looks a lot like the NIKE shoes.  Romans 8:37 we are called "more than conquerors"...hupernikao, to gain a surpassing victory.  Certainly this is not what the culture and the taunts of the e...