Closer Today Than Yesterday: Delivered from Desperation

Friday, September 26, 2008

Delivered from Desperation

In my former life as an unrepentent sinner, I knew desperation. Not that my desperation was any different from anyone else's desperation but I was intimate with my own. So much so that I realized that I was desperate, no longer living in denial and no longer able to pretend that it was not the primary motivating factor in every decision that I made. It colored everything in my life and defined me.

Though I thought and felt that I was alone and abandoned, in fact, I was not. Long ago, longer than I can comprehend, God knew of my desperation and indeed, the desperation of the masses and moved to replace that desperation with joy.

Our text today is.... Luke 1:79 (NIV)

to shine on those living in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace.”

This is why God sent His only Son; "to shine on those living in darkness." And shine He has! The light of God through His Son Jesus shined right on me like a proverbial 'kleig' light. In that light, all the demons of sin that had a grip on me were plainly revealed and I recoiled in horror, not from the light but from my sin. Truly I had been living in the shadow of death, it hung over me separating me from the light of truth, blinding me to the needs of others and obscuring my own reflection that I could live a life of deceit.

And it was the example of Christ, the Word of God and the indwelling Holy Spirit that guided my feet away from the highway to hell and onto the path of peace.

How wonderful that God should love me! How wonderful that God should send His Son to take my punishment. How wonderful, how bright and how beautiful is the light cast by Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior of all who believe.

I'm no longer desperate... I'm destined.

In His Grip,
Carl

1 comment:

Bill said...: Carl ... I hope I never lose my awe of God's wondrous timing and how His light shines to reveal Himself through the sharing of those in the family of God.

This morning - after I entered my devotional journal blog detailing what God had given me from my time with Him - I was led to read your blog for your devotional yesterday. Here is the link to my devotional entry from this morning ...

http://elderberry.blogspot.com/2008/09/september-2008-devotionals-knowing-god.html

If you scroll down to my entry for 9/27, you'll see how the two of our devtionals fit together like "hand in glove." Wow! I love it when God brings two minds together and magnifies His truth in the sharing of His insights.

But this would not have happened if the two of us were not willing to share these devotions and get the blessing of what that sharing revealed ...

God does His thing again !!!

<'BB><; September 27, 2008 at 6:31 AM

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So I Stand Near The Gate

I read the below poem at a critical point in my life and it's message resonated with me. My ministry, "Near The Gate" was named in homage to this poem. When reading this poem, feel free to substitute the word 'gate' for the word 'door' and you'll have a little glimpse inside my head.

SO I STAY NEAR THE DOOR

By the Reverend Canon Samuel Moor Shoemaker, Jr., D.D., S.T.D.

I stay near the door.
I neither go too far in, nor stay too far out,
The door is the most important door in the world–
It is the door through which men walk when they find God.
There’s no use my going way inside, and staying there,
When so many are still outside, and they, as much as I,
Crave to know where the door is.
And all that so many ever find
Is only the wall where a door ought to be.
They creep along the wall like blind men,
With outstretched, groping hands,
Feeling for a door, knowing there must be a door,
Yet they never find it - - -
So I stay near the door.
The most tremendous thing in the world
Is for men to find that door–the door to God.
The most important thing any man can do
Is to take hold of one of those blind, groping hands,
And put it on the latch–the latch that only clicks
And opens to the man’s own touch.
Men die outside that door, as starving beggars die
On cold nights in cruel cities in the dead of winter–
Die for want of what is within their grasp.
They live, on the other side of it–because they have found it.
Nothing else matters compared to helping them find it,
And open it, and walk in, and find Him - - -
So I stay near the door.
Go in, great saints, go all the way in–
Go way down into the cavernous cellars,
And way up into the spacious attics–
It is a vast, roomy house, this house where God is.
Go into the deepest of hidden casements,
Of withdrawal, of silence, or sainthood.
Some must inhabit those inner rooms,
And know the depths and heights of God,
And call outside to the rest of us how wonderful it is.
Sometimes I take a deeper look in,
Sometimes venture a little farther;
But my place seems closer to the opening - - -
So I stay near the door.
There is another reason why I stay there.
Some people get part way in and become afraid
Lest God and the zeal of His house devour them;
For God is so very great, and asks all of us.
And these people feel a cosmic claustrophobia.
And want to get out. "Let me out!" they cry.
And the people way inside only terrify them more.
Somebody must be by the door to tell them that they are spoiled
For the old life, they have seen too much;
Once taste God, and nothing but God will do any more.
Somebody must be watching for the frightened
Who seek to sneak out just where they came in,
To tell them how much better it is inside.
The people too far in do not see how near these are
To leaving–preoccupied with the wonder of it all.
Somebody must watch for those who have entered the door,
But would like to run away. So for them too,
I stay near the door.
I admire the people who go way in.
But I wish they would not forget how it was
Before they got in. Then they would be able to help
The people who have not yet even found the door,
Or the people who want to run away again from God.
You can go in too deeply, and stay too long,
And forget the people outside the door.
As for me, I shall take my old accustomed place,
Near enough to God to hear Him, and know He is there,
But not so far from men as not to hear them,
And remember they are there, too.
Where? Outside the door–
Thousands of them, millions of them.
But–more important for me–
One of them, two of them, ten of them,
Whose hands I am intended to put on the latch.
For those I shall stay by the door and wait
For those who seek it.
"I had rather be a door-keeper . . . "
So I stay near the door

Closer Today Than Yesterday

Friday, September 26, 2008

Delivered from Desperation

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Delivered from Desperation

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