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“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.” Psalm 91:1

The Lord is an ever-fixed Presence in our lives - like a lighthouse is to a mariner. But just as the captain has to follow the directions of the light to secure safety for his men and his ship, so must I seek out the Lord for safe passageway in this life. As I come willingly and dwell with Him, He provides the shelter I so desperately need. In His Presence I find rest and protection from my deadly enemy, and a reprieve from the storms of life. When I rest in His Presence my strength is renewed, my vision restored, and the atmosphere of Heaven itself fills my lungs. In His Presence is fullness of JOY, and that joy becomes my strength!

As I cross over the threshold of His Presence, He is inexorably drawn to my weakness. His strength is made perfect in my weakness. This boggles my mind, but in my heart I know it is true…I’ve experienced this miracle time and time again. He is not repulsed by my shortcomings, but drawn to them, for He longs to redeem all things. What was once our greatest downfall can be transformed into tried and true character, and our greatest strength. Our foolishness is replaced by His wisdom, our floundering turned to faithfulness. His grace truly is sufficient for our every need. We are only required to approach with a heart of humility and gratitude for His great love.

One of the greatest lies the enemy has at his disposal is the lie that your Father will not listen to you when you call out to Him. That He sees how you’ve blown it, and He’s going to disown you somehow or ignore your pleas for help. That you are not worthy to approach him. And he’s absolutely right. Without the blood of Jesus covering our lives, we don’t have a leg to stand on. Without His sacrifice, we may as well save our breath. But we are not without hope as children of God. We have every right to call upon our Father in our time of need. No human father could be as biased toward his children as our Father God is to us.

It has taken me years to see that when those arrows of doubt, despair and confusion hit me, it is usually to keep me from coming to my Father who has every answer to every problem I’ll ever have. When you allow Him to come to your rescue, and save you from the pit you’ve fallen in for the thousandth time, it creates in you a sense of awareness that #1 - God really is there, #2 - He really does care what happens to me, and #3 - if God is for me, who can be against me?!? You wake up one morning and realize, “Hey! My God truly is FAITHFUL!” And eventually, you’ll have the eyes to see the pit from a distance, and side-step the plans of the enemy. You begin to beat him at his own game, and show others how to defeat him as well. And then he’ll be wishing you hadn’t opened your eyes that morning.

When you find yourself in the midst of the storm you can do three things:

Stop. Look. Listen.

Be still and know He is God. Look at your situation from His perspective. Listen for His voice. He wants to speak to us more than we’re willing to listen.

Father, help my heart to humbly come, cross the threshold of your love, and fall into your arms of grace once more. Thank you for faithfully leading me back to You. May your dwelling place become so familiar to my spirit that I carry the fragrance of heaven wherever I go. Thank you for giving me rest for my troubled spirit. I give you my weakness, my shortcomings and my missteps. Draw near to me. Touch me and heal me. I love resting in the shadow of your Presence, and I choose to be hidden in You. In Jesus precious Name, Amen.

“But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.” Luke 6:27-28 ESV

Be careful what you pray for…God may just be listening.  I’ve been praying for truth over my life, and He’s certainly been honoring that prayer.  Truth is certainly a double-edged sword.

We all have them - family members who think we’ve lost it.  Family members who don’t understand the great desire to follow God no matter what the cost.  Family members that act more like “enemies” than friends.  And yet, we are commanded to love them, do good to them, bless them, and pray for them.  It can be the ultimate test of your Christian walk…one that I have failed miserably again and again.

Tonight I had a confrontation with one such family member that’s been brewing for two years now.  This relative was single, and is now married (glory to God!).  During the period before their marriage they began living together and their relationship quickly became intimate.  Here’s the rub: they both claimed to be Christians.  I struggled with scriptures like this one:

“I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people — not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.  But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one.  For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?  God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”” 1 Corinthians 5:9-13 ESV

What Paul is saying seems pretty plain doesn’t it?  They are both members of a bible-believing church.  How do you reconcile the fact that this scripture found in 1 Corinthians exists and still love a “fallen” believer?  I once heard a pastor say that there is a difference between a true believer and a false convert.  The true believer “falls” into sin, while a false convert runs straight toward it!  Paul said it plain enough: “purge the evil person from among you, and don’t even eat with someone who practices immorality.”  It is a hard saying…especially when you’re dealing with your own family.  I don’t have trouble dealing with sinners outside of the family of God - I really don’t.  I can even empathize with them.  I’ve “been there, done that.”  Who was Paul referring to in this scripture?  The people who called themselves brothers and sisters in the Lord.  We are not to judge the world outside (God will do that), but to judge rightly those who belong to the family of God, if indeed they belong at all.  Then there is this scripture:

“BRETHREN, IF any person is overtaken in misconduct or sin of any sort, you who are spiritual [who are responsive to and controlled by the Spirit] should set him right and restore and reinstate him, without any sense of superiority and with all gentleness, keeping an attentive eye on yourself, lest you should be tempted also.  Bear (endure, carry) one another’s burdens and troublesome moral faults, and in this way fulfill and observe perfectly the law of Christ (the Messiah) and complete what is lacking [in your obedience to it].  For if any person thinks himself to be somebody [too important to condescend to shoulder another’s load] when he is nobody [of superiority except in his own estimation], he deceives and deludes and cheats himself.  But let every person carefully scrutinize and examine and test his own conduct and his own work. He can then have the personal satisfaction and joy of doing something commendable [in itself alone] without [resorting to] boastful comparison with his neighbor.” Galatians 6:1-4 AMP

My great sin in all this was I had neglected to bear their burden, and to love them as I love myself.  This is the second part of the greatest commandment Jesus gave us (Mark 12:30-31).  I stepped back from relationship with them, and rightly so.  But I neglected to pray on their behalf and carry the burden the enemy had loaded onto their backs - no matter how willingly they received it.  It was still deception of the greatest sort.  Where were my tears?  Where was my sorrow?  Where was my love?  Where were my prayers?  They were nowhere to be found.

So here I was this evening in my living room, being strongly rebuked for creating an inpenetrable boundary this precious family member did not know how to cross, being accused of staying in my holy bubble, and generally acting like I was above them all.  More truth was spoken than what this family member was aware of.  I have separated myself from their affairs.  I was not being responsive to the Spirit of God and was acting superior to them.  I did not know how to “speak the truth in love” to them, because I didn’t have the love of God in my life for them.  I’ve cried out to the Lord in regards to these sins in my life, and God has done some wonderful work in my heart towards that end.  I’m beginning to love them again.

My prayer for them now is that they get to live a long and happy life together, but most of all that they’ll find the amazing love of Jesus.  In His presence everything is transformed.  Our sins and constant failures melt away by just a glance of His magnificent eyes.  A two second encounter with the King of Kings can turn your world upside down.  I’ve experienced these things in this year.  As much as I wanted to rebuke them the Spirit of God would never release me to do so.  Even though I know the scriptures, I didn’t have His seal of love on the transaction.  Death would have come instead of Life.  I’m so grateful to Him for keeping me from greater sin. 

“DO NOT judge and criticize and condemn others, so that you may not be judged and criticized and condemned yourselves.  For just as you judge and criticize and condemn others, you will be judged and criticized and condemned, and in accordance with the measure you [use to] deal out to others, it will be dealt out again to you.  Why do you stare from without at the very small particle that is in your brother’s eye but do not become aware of and consider the beam of timber that is in your own eye?  Or how can you say to your brother, Let me get the tiny particle out of your eye, when there is the beam of timber in your own eye?  You hypocrite, first get the beam of timber out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the tiny particle out of your brother’s eye.” Matthew 7:1-5 AMP