Category: Suffering

Let the oppressed go free

“Is this not the fast I have chosen: to open bands of wickedness, to undo thongs of the yoke, and to send out the oppressed ones free; even that you pull off every yoke?”
–Isaiah 58:6, LITV

“Let the oppressed go free – How can any nation pretend to fast or worship God at all, or dare to profess that they believe in the existence of such a Being, while they carry on the slave trade, and traffic in the souls, blood, and bodies, of men! O ye most flagitious of knaves, and worst of hypocrites, cast off at once the mask of religion; and deepen not your endless perdition by professing the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, while ye continue in this traffic!”
— Adam Clarke on Isaiah 58.6 (Adam Clarke died in 1832)

How thankful we can be that our country from its earliest days fought to stamp out systemic slavery and oppression in response to God’s love and commands. Was slavery here? Did it need to be stamped out? Yes. Was it erased from our constitution and laws and prohibited? Yes, now and forever. Thank God! God will not stand for hate and oppression anywhere, any time. God is Love. Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty.

…among these restless throngs abide…

Where cross the crowded ways of life
where sound the cries of race and clan
above the noise of selfish strife
we hear Your voice, O Son of Man

In haunts of wretchedness and need
on shadowed thresholds fraught with fears
from paths where hide the lures of greed
we catch the vision of Your tears

From tender childhood’s helplessness
from human grief and burdened toil
from famished souls, from sorrow’s stress
Your heart has never known recoil

The cup of water given for You
still holds the freshness of Your grace
yet long these multitudes to view
the sweet compassion of Your face

O Master, from the mountainside
make haste to heal these hearts of pain
among these restless throngs abide
O tread the city’s streets again

Till all the world shall learn Your love
and follow where your feet have trod
till glorious from Your heaven above
shall come the city of our God

— Frank Mason North (~1905)

Then is Athanasius against the whole world!

From the book “God’s Pursiut of Man” by A. W. Tozer:

“The way it [the reversal of our nature] works in experience is something like this:  The believing man is overwhelmed suddenly by a powerful feeling that only God matters; soon this works itself out into his mental life and conditions all his judgements and all his values.  Now he finds himself free from slavery to man’s opinions.  Soon he learns to love above all else the assurance that he is well pleasing to the Father in heaven.

It is this complete switch in their pleasure source that has made believing men invincible.  So could saints and martyrs stand alone, deserted by every earthly friend, and die for Christ under the universal displeasure of mankind.  When, to intimidate him, Athanasius’ judges warned him that the whole world was against him, he dared to reply, ‘Then is Athanasius against the whole world!’  That cry has come down the years and today may remind us that the gospel has power to deliver men from the tyranny of social approval and make them free to do the will of God.”

—

“At my first defense, no one came to help me, but all left me. May it not be held against them. But the Lord stood by me, and strengthened me, that through me the message might be fully proclaimed, and that all the Gentiles might hear; and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me for his heavenly Kingdom; to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.”
— 2 Timothy 4:16-18

“Therefore, put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand.”
–Ephesians 6:13

“let God be found true, but every man a liar. As it is written, ‘That you might be justified in your words, And might prevail when you come into judgment.'”
–Romans 3:4

“Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.  But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But you remain in the things which you have learned and have been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them.  From infancy, you have known the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. Every writing inspired by God{literally, God-breathed} is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction which is in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
— 2 Timothy 3:12-17

“But know this, that in the last days, grievous times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, no lovers of good, traitors, headstrong, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; holding a form of godliness, but having denied the power thereof. Turn away from these, also.”
–2 Timothy 3:1, 2-5

Lord of my death

Lord of my death
Lord of my weeping
Lord of my loss
Lord of my wounds
Lord of my illness
Lord of my unbearable pain
Lord of my heavy, light suffering
Lord of my unending, momentary affliction
Lord of my weakness
Lord of my fear
Lord of my despair
Lord of my uncertainty
Lord of all
Scoop me up into arms that hold to the ages
Out of time and out of dying life
Take me into wonder that I have slightly tasted
Into Your death and unending Life
Spread out Your Lordship over all of my being
Precious Lord Jesus
Lord first and last
God’s final Word forever
Have the last say!

—

“He has said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Most gladly therefore I will rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest on me. Therefore I take pleasure in weaknesses, in injuries, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then am I strong.”
–2 Corinthians 12:9,10

“Therefore we don’t faint, but though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is for the moment, works for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory; while we don’t look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
–2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Hope for grieving hearts

There is this Man Who was a Man of sorrows
of His fame we have heard
For upon His broken heart He bore the sin of all the world
in Love, in redeeming us, that He might bring us to God
But He was brutally killed by powers of sin and rebellion and darkness
And they laid Him in a grave to bring the story to its everlasting end
However… from deep, deep, deep within the heart of the Rock of ages
came an anguish so great and so overpowering:
The beloved Son of God had been taken away!
And in a moment an everlasting resolve rose up
from untold depths in Almighty Power in Indestructible Life
declaring that this will not stand, this will not be the last word
For there is One Who will say the last thing in all of heaven and the world
And no power — in heaven or on earth or in the universe —
will be allowed to withdraw the good and perfect Gift of the Father of Lights
No power or thing will be permitted to separate
the Love of God from His Beloved
Not will be taken away The Son of God
Not will be shut up The Way of Life
Not will be put out The Light
Not will be withdrawn The Love of God
Not will be aborted The Adoption of sons and daughters
And came an unalterable unchangeable Speaking…
Indestructible Life reanimated, the Son of God stood and departed from His grave
death, that ancient foe, was overpowered and conquered
with his wretched companions suffering and sorrow
Father God — Who is greater than all —
gathered His Beloved Son into everlasting arms

into heavenly places

and drew Him into the safety of His bosom
never to see corruption
highly exalting Him with The Name above every name
Where, in His Presence, there will be pleasures forever more
The Firstborn among many brothers,
The Resurrection and the Life,
The First and Last
The Alpha and Omega
The Almighty
The Ark of Refuge for all who have taken His Life as their own
believing into Him and subsumed into His Indestructible Life
who have been changed into glorious new creatures,
who will never die but will be awakened from sleep
and lifted up from the dust of the earth
into unending joy unspeakable and full of glory,
the Life of God’s Anointed One now their anointed life
And so — in hallowed Nearness to God —
we will be with the Lord forever
Never doubt it
O my sorrowful and contemplative brother or sister
who find yourself and your loved ones,
and all you have known here on earth,
passing so quickly out of time and into eternity,
I exhort you to take up the eyes of eternity
and endure your sorrow now with the joy set before you
with the Hope of Glory, which is God’s Anointed One in you:
He Who was, He Who is, and He Who is to come, the Almighty!

Our Precious Lord Jesus,
Savior of the world,
Son of the True and Living God:
We call You to come!
Come quickly Lord Jesus!

Psalm 61:

Hear my cry, O God, and attend to my prayer.
From the end of the earth I call to You when my heart faints;
Oh lead me to the Rock that is higher than I.
For You have been my shelter, a strong tower before the enemy.
I will dwell in Your tabernacle forever;
I will trust in the shelter of Your wings. Selah.
For You, O God, have heard my vows;
You appointed the inheritance of those who fear Your Name.
You will add days to the days of the King;
His years will be as generations to generations.
He shall abide forever before God;
appoint mercy and truth to preserve Him.
So I will sing praise to Your Name forever,
so that I may pay my vows day by day.
(To the chief musician. On stringed instruments. Of David.)

Psalm 71.3:

“Be a Rock of strength for me, to which I may always go”

Psalm 73.23-26:

“Yet I was continually with You; You have taken hold of my right hand. You shall guide me by Your counsel; and afterward You will take me to glory. Whom have I in Heaven? And I have no desire on earth besides You. My flesh and my heart waste away; God is the Rock of my heart and my Portion forever.”

Revelation 21.1-7:

“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and the sea no longer is. And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of Heaven from God, having been prepared as a bride, having been adorned for her Husband. And I heard a great voice out of Heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God with men! And He will tabernacle with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. And death shall be no longer, nor mourning, nor outcry, nor will there be pain any more; for the first things passed away. And the One sitting on the throne said, Behold! I make all things new. And He says to me, Write, because these Words are faithful and true. And He said to me, It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the Ending. To the one thirsting, I will freely give of the fountain of the Water of Life. The one overcoming will inherit all things, and I will be God to him, and he will be the son to Me.”

2 Corinthians 5.1-8:

“For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle is taken down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in Heaven. For also in this we groan, greatly desiring to be clothed with our dwelling place out of Heaven, if indeed in being clothed, we shall not be found naked. For indeed, being in the tabernacle, we groan, having been weighted down, inasmuch as we do not wish to be unclothed, but to be clothed, so that the mortal may be swallowed up by the life. And the One having worked in us for this same thing is God, who also is giving us the earnest of the Spirit. Then always being fully assured, and knowing that being at home in the body we are away from home from The Lord (for we walk by faith, not by sight), even we are fully assured, and think it good rather to go away from home out of the body, and to come home to the Lord.”