El Elyon - God Most High

I have been struggling with having faith lately so I started studying God's names through a book called "LORD, I Want To Know You" by Kay Arthur. It's a Bible study on God's names. I wish I knew about this book before because it's really changing my perspective of who God really is, and I see how I've been putting Him in a box, limiting Him.

This part of the study really spoke to me and challenged me.


JOB 1:6-12
Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. The Lord said to Satan, “From where do you come?” Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it.” The Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.” Then Satan answered the Lord, “Does Job fear God for nothing? Have You not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But put forth Your hand now and touch all that he has; he will surely curse You to Your face.” Then the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power, only do not put forth your hand on him.” So Satan departed from the presence of the Lord.

Who instigated the conversation about Job?
What did Satan think Job's reasons were for fearing God?
How did Satan know there was a hedge about Job?
Apparently what did that hedge do?
What did Satan suggest God do to Job and why?
What was God's response?
Who was in control, Satan or God? How do you know?
______________________________________________________

Consider the next passage.
JOB 2:1-10

Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before theLord, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord. The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it.” The Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man fearing God and turning away from evil. And he still holds fast his integrity, although you incited Me against him to ruin him without cause.” Satan answered theLord and said, “Skin for skin! Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life. However, put forth Your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh; he will curse You to Your face.” So the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your power, only spare his life.”

Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. And he took a potsherd to scrape himself while he was sitting among the ashes.

Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die!” But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

What did God point out to Satan about Job?
What reason does Satan give for Job's response to his trials of chapter 1?
What did Satan propose for Job? Why?
What was God's response?
Who was in control?
______________________________________________________

Now one last verse.
LUKE 22:31
“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat.

How does Luke 22:31 show Satan's relationship to God?

______________________________________________________

God is completely in control over everything. He initiated the conversation about Job, and even suggested to Satan that He tries His faithful servant Job. Why? Because He knew Job's heart, God knew Job will not turn His back on Him. This was such a big test for Job but God was in control over him and his life the whole time.

I struggle with believing God is on the highest throne sometimes. But… He is! He is in complete and total control of our lives, and He knows exactly why something happens and why something doesn't. Can you see that God is in complete Sovereignty, that He is in complete control over everything and everyone? Can you not only see it but also believe it?

Some other verses that really show God's sovereignty and control…
Daniel 4:34-35
Isaiah 14:24-27
Isaiah 46:9-11
Daniel 2:20-23


This truth brings faith, hope and peace in my heart. We belong and are serving an amazing, big and loving God, who is in control over everything and everyone, including Satan; we belong to God who is sitting on the highest throne and there is no one above Him.

Rest in this truth and have faith; God is in control.

Faith to believe

Even when I cannot see You
You're still shining, You're still shining
Even when I cannot hear You
You're still calling out my name
Even when I cannot feel You
Your arms are open
Always holding on to me

Won't You give me the faith to see the invisible
Give me the faith to believe the impossible
Give me the faith to receive the incredible
Oh give me the faith to believe it
Oh give me the faith to believe it

The Prince of Preachers

I just finished reading The Prince of Preachers by Charles H. Spurgeon. I didn't know much about him before I read the book so I'm really encouraged and inspired!

- C. Spurgeon struggled with the way he looked (as a teenager). That is so interesting to me. He thought he had a fat body and he wished he was different, stronger. He wished God would change his appearance. It was good to read on and see how he realized that God had made him just the way He wanted him to be.

- C. Spurgeon preached his first sermon when he was 16.  
16!!! That's amazing!  
"But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord." - Jeremiah 1:7-8
You can never be too young to do the work of God. 

- C. Spurgeon trusted the Lord with his future - He didn't know the future but he knew that God was in it. And that was enough for him.

- "God has not brought you this far only to abandon you now."

- C. Spurgeon prayed to God to "give him the boldness of Elijah, the tenderness of David, and the simplicity of John the Baptist."

- C. Spurgeon believed that if God begins a work in you, He is able, willing and competent to complete it. God never draws out the blueprints for a project He is incapable of accomplishing! (so true, such comfort!!!)

- C. Spurgeon was always seeking to be faithful, not to be great. 

- "God gives us exactly what we need when we need it."

- "Every caterpillar must travel through a cocoon before riding the wings of the wind."

- C. Spurgeon suffered great depression. That also brings me comfort since I've been struggling with depression my whole life. But even though Spurgeon struggled with depression, he never stood before the congregation without a smile on his face. He was serving the Lord with his whole heart. 

Such a life, such a ministry! 
I love reading missionary biographies or books about Christians who followed the Lord with their whole hearts! What courage, what faith! So inspiring! And it encourages me to follow Jesus with all I have because He is worth it! 

Lord, increase my faith and help me follow you, no matter where, no matter how; 

I want to be all about Your business!

Josiah Venture Annual Report

God is doing great things! I am so privileged to be a part of God's movement in this area of the world!

Read Josiah Venture's Annual Report 2013 and see what God is doing in Central and Eastern Europe!

God's will

I sometimes read Katie's blog. She inspires me. God inspires me through her life. I admire her work and the fact she answered the calling God put on her heart.

I love the way she writes. Her words speak to my heart many times.
______________________________________________________

She clings tightly to the edge of the pool, knuckles while with fear of the unknown. My eyes grow hot but I fight it, surely you can’t cry on the side of the public baby pool in the middle of a perfect Sunday afternoon. I taught her how to swim. But it has been two years this month since she’s lived in my home and longer since she’s been in a pool. The swirl of the cold water and the way it will carry you if you simply relax but pulls you under when you stiffen in panic has become foreign to her.

“Come on!” Patricia pulls at her and it strikes me that she’s just the same age now that Jane was on that day when I packed her backpack and sent her home with her mother and it seems too little. I let the tears fall and ask Him, “What do I do with grief like this on a beautiful, sunny Sunday while kids splash happy all around me?”

“Give it to me,” He whispers.

As the tears clear I see that Patricia has successfully pulled her reluctant friend into the center of the pool. The water reaches only to her chest, but still she is tentative; I know that look in her eyes even as her face tries to smile. Within minutes the reserve melts into relief. The pool! We like the pool! And there she is dancing and splashing and laughing with the rest of them.

The big girls can’t resist all this giggling joy in little sisters and they pull all three over the dividing wall and into the big pool. Again her eyes dart. Is it safe here? She grabs for the edge. But the big girls pull her to the middle to laugh and splash and play and when they don’t let go, she regains her confidence. Soon she’s swimming and splashing and laughing with all her might, fully comfortable with the water all around her, and when it is time to go, she is the hardest to get out.

I wrap her in an enormous soft towel and repent as I pull her close. You would think that I would just be thankful that we still occasionally get these windows of time with her. Who has to give up a child and then still gets to see her sometimes? Not many. I think of all the women I know whose babies have just not woken up in the morning and I know I should be grateful for this gift.

But I’m clinging to the side of the pool. I am clinging to the past and to my what-I-thought-should be instead of to His perfect what-will-be.

I know about the middle of the pool. I know how to swim! I’ve tasted and I have seen that the Lord is good; I have testified with my mouth and known deep in my heart that His will is better than all my plans. I have put together the right words and tied it up in a neat little bow and written it up for the world to see – See! His will is the best! We love it here.

But today a big broken piece of my flesh is clinging to the side, longing for the past and the way I thought I wanted life to be. And the reality is, when I cling here, I don’t have to say a word. My white knuckles and my tense body and the posture of my heart say, “but what if its not? What if His will is just scary cold water and I’ll just stay here on the edge, thanks.” And right there on the side of the pool He uses this little one to bring me to my knees, again.

Who is God when we are clinging to the side? He is the one who comes to right where we are. He is the one who takes our hand and pulls us back to the middle and won’t let go. “Remember, love?” He whispers, “You can swim. I taught you how to swim.” And He doesn’t let go, not ever. Stiffened in panic and doubt, I sink, but relax and lean into Him and the floating comes back easily. The side is not nearly as marvelous as it is out here. 

The hope and joy that is found in Jesus Christ, who is working all things for the good of those who love Him, is enough to carry me. 

We know this. But the truth is, we all forget. I forget. Life’s hard stings and I question and I wrestle and I believe with all my heart that He will make it all beautiful one day, but can I open my eyes to see that He is making it beautiful now? Right this moment? Because as He pulls me closer to the center of His will, He is only pulling me closer to Him. As I choose to trust Him, again and again and again and again, He promises me that He is transforming me into His likeness. And closer to Him? That is the only place I really want to be.

Stop fighting. Stop holding on so tightly to what you thought you needed for security. Come on out here to the center. He won’t let go. And it’s marvelous here.

 _____________________________________________________________

Lord, let me realize you're making everything beautiful today. And tomorrow. Thank you for pulling me closer to the center of Your will, closer to You. Help me let go.

Thank you for transforming me, daily.
 I'm thankful.

Impossible with man, possible with God

I've been reading Absolute Surrender by Andrew Murray, and it's piercing my heart with every chapter I read.

These are some of the things that really stood out to me in a chapter called
IMPOSSIBLE WITH MAN, POSSIBLE WITH GOD

"Jesus replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” - Luke 18:27

Many Christians are living a low life, a life of failure and of sin, instead of rest and victory, because they began to see: "I can't, it's impossible." They don't understand it fully and they give way to despair. They will do their best but they never expect to get on very far. 

Not only do we need to delight in the law of God after the inward man, and will what God wills, but we need a divine omnipotence to work it in us. "For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose." - Philippians 2:13
When God has worked the renewed will, God will give the power to accomplish what that will desires.

Our religious life is to be a series of impossibilities made possible and actual by God's almighty power. We need the whole God's omnipotence to keep us right and to live like a Christian.
The whole Christianity is a work of God's omnipotence - look at Jesus' birth (With God nothing is impossible - Luke 1:37), Jesus' resurrection... It was according to the exceeding greatness of His mighty power that God raised Christ from the dead. Look at creation of the world, creation of light out of darkness, creation of man. 
What about God's omnipotence in the works of redemption? God trained Abraham to trust Him as the omnipotent One; whether it was his going out to a land that he didn't know, or whether it was his faith in waiting 25 years for a son in his old age, against all hope, or whether it was the raising up of Isaac from the dead on Mount Moriah when he was going to sacrifice him - Abraham believed God. He was strong in faith, giving glory to God, because he accounted Him who had promised able to perform.

The cause of the weakness of our Christian life is that we want to work it out partly, and to let God help us. And that cannot be. We must come to be utterly helpless, to let God work, and God will work gloriously. Moses, Joshua... all God's servants in the OT counted upon the omnipotence of God doing impossibilities. And this God lives today!
I can do nothing. God must + will do all.
Let our hearts say, "Glory to God, the Omnipotent One, who can do above what we dare to ask or think!"

Never pray without adoring His omnipotence. The answer to the prayer will come, and like Abraham you will become strong in faith, giving glory to God, because you account Him who had promised able to perform.