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Friday, October 11, 2013

The Devotional – 153 – Working Faith




The Devotional – 153 – Working Faith

 

Proverbs 25:2 – When government looks for answers, leadership must seek the direction and Will of God. When leaders fail Him; God then is not obligated to reveal any workable solution. The result: dissidence (disagreement), disparagement (discredit or belittlement), dissention (disagreement and quarreling) and finally to civil displacement (removal from office).

 

Comments and Challenges

Here is another of those “way back then stories” Once upon a time our family had a pony, a female pony whose name was Phoebe. I do not think she liked her name because she simply ignored us when we called her, she was ornery. The children liked her so we learned to deal with the animal and her attitude.

 

One of the first difficult moments was getting her to go into the small stall we had for her so she could spend a comfortable night. I pulled, pushed, begged and said a few words over her, (no not prayer)! She still would not go. I called my brother Tom and he and his wife came over, we spent all afternoon trying to get her to go in the stall.

 

Simply “NO” was her response and she was strong enough to prove it. With both of us pulling on the reigns from inside the stall and with one jerk of her head, both Tom and I flew out of the stall as if we were nothing more than pieces of paper caught in the breeze of the day. At this I decided to look in the yellow pages for someone who might know what to do. I found a man who lived locally and trained horses so gave him a call.

 

“Sure” he said. “I'll be right over” Within a half hour the guy showed up. He only had one arm; his left arm was missing all the way up to the shoulder. Knowing Phoebe, I thought to myself; “this ain't gonna be pretty”. I said, “Can I help”. “Nope, just watch” he replied as he walked through the yard and grabbed a switch from one of the tree branches.

 

He walked over to the pony and guided her toward the stall and gave her a slap with the switch on her backside and the pony ran into the stall. He turned, smiled and said. Normally I charge five bucks, but the look on your faces gives you a free ride, have a nice day” and he left. “How did you lose your arm I shouted” it was a dumb question I know! His response… “If I tell ya, it’ll cost you five bucks” with that he got into his pick up and left.

 

Mark 7:31-37

 

Mark 7:37 – Jesus astonished the people around Him notice; “and they were astonished beyond measure, saying “He has done all things well “He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak””. Jesus and His disciples departed the towns which is modern day Lebanon and went to modern day Syria; Decapolis which is an area called ten cities (Matthew 4:25) and here in Mark as well.

Jesus walked many miles throughout His ministry on the earth, providing ample evidence that He was and is the Son of God. Some who came in contact with Him was either healed of a physical or demonic condition and all the rest were “astonished” beyond words. Today in those countries we would see rebellion, death, false teaching and national suppression.

It is not that these countries did not hear and see the Messiah, but it is that these countries personally and nationally rejected the True Messiah, even Thee Prophet for the false messiah even the false prophet. Our nation today rejected the True Messiah as well and soon; if we do not repent (change our mind) we too will be like Syria today. Imploding “within” because we believe the LIE and “exploding” without because we have choked on the TRUTH.

Mark 7: 34 – The remnant (if you believe in Jesus you are part of the remnant) needs to take a hint from the LORD. “Then looking up to heaven, He SIGHED AND said to him (the deaf mute) be opened. What am I suggesting? Today the remnant of believing men and women in the United States of America are like the deaf mute, we are selfishly closed minded and we do not speak to God.

We are watching our nation fail and most of us do not pray! Soon and very soon, the cost of a “switch” will be more than five dollars. Phoebe a small American bird, Phobia soon to be a large American pastime.
 

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