NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER (leave you or forsake you)

Read this great weekly devotion from my friend Pastor G. :

NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER

Hebrews 13:5
Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.


NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER

The Bible is full of promises that God has given His people.  All of God’s promises are wonderful, but this one has to be the greatest promise of God:  He promised us that He would never leave us nor forsake us.

Jehovah God, the creator of the universe, promised us that He would never leave us or forsake us.  This isn’t a promise given by a man.  It is not given by a human who is capable of breaking a promise. It is given by God Almighty, the maker of Heaven and Earth. The Bible says, “For HE had said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”  It is God, who cannot lie, who said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Not only is that a great promise, but it is a promise that is guaranteed to be kept.  When God says, I will never leave you or forsake you, you can rest assured, He is not going anywhere.

As I was studying this verse, I learned that when this verse was translated into English, it was not conveyed quite as strongly as the original Greek, because of double negatives and other grammatical rules regarding our language.  In the Greek two negatives intensify the meaning.  When we read this verse in English, it says, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.”  Now that is good enough, right?  But when this verse was originally written, it actually read like this, “I will never, never leave thee, and I will never, never, never forsake thee.”  Hallelujah!

Can you imagine what it would feel like as a Christian to be forsaken by God?  I have had times when my own choices left me feeling like God had forsaken me, but He never really did.  Forsaken implies utter loneliness.  Imagine the loneliness you would feel if you were forsaken by God.  Loneliness is a horrible feeling.  Being by yourself for a time is all right, but having the feeling of loneliness and of being utterly alone is a miserable feeling.  When Jesus was on the cross and He cried out, “My God, why hath thou forsaken me?” He was showing us the most painful cry of mankind which is being without God.  That is the most horrible thing about Hell.  More horrible than the eternal flames is being forsaken by God for eternity.  Being utterly alone, separated from God is the worst thing that can happen to a human being.

I thank the Lord that a child of God never has to experience that feeling.  I thank God that you and I, because of God’s promise, will never have to experience the utter loneliness of being forsaken by God.

Not only is being forsaken by God a feeling of utterly loneliness, it is also a feeling of utter helplessness.  All real power belongs to the Lord.  Take the Lord out of the equation, and the strongest man in the world isn’t anything but a wimp.  Just feeling that God has turned His back on you would be enough to make you feel helpless.  Just think how helpless you would feel if He really did turn His back on you.  But praise God; if you are a child of God, this is a fear that you never have to worry about.  Once again, we have that wonderful promise that tells us that we never, never, never have to worry about Him leaving us or forsaking us.

Being forsaken by God would bring utter loneliness, helplessness, and also utter hopelessness.  Your husband or your wife may forsake you, or your mother or your father, or a friend, and you can still hang on and have hope in life, because of the hope we have in Jesus Christ.  However, let a man or woman be forsaken by God and all hope would be gone.  Let a man be forsaken by God and there would be no reason to have any hope, because there would be no hope.

From the very beginning in the Garden of Eden, God left the choice up to mankind.  It is God’s desire that none would perish or have to be forsaken by Him, but He leaves that decision on each and every human being ever born.

We do not want to know what it would be like to not have God leading us or directing our path.  We can’t imagine the loneliness, the helplessness, or the hopelessness we would feel if we did not have God in our life.  But, praise God, we never, never, never have to worry about Him leaving us, because we have a promise in God’s Word that He will never, never leave us and He will never, never, never forsake us.

Did you know that apart from God, we would immediately fall into sin?  We can be living the most righteous Christian life possible, but if God were to forsake us tomorrow, we would be right back living a life of sin.  It is only through God’s power and strength that we are able to live a Godly life.  The Bible refers to “Him who is able to keep us from falling.”  It is only by the grace of God and His mercy that any of us are living with any godliness or righteousness.

We need to know that even at our best, we are no good.  The Bible says there is none that do good – no, not even one.  The Apostle Paul said that he knew that in him dwelled no good thing.  The only good thing that any of us have inside is God.  Apart from God, we would go from bad to worse.  But because of God – and only because of God, we get to go from glory to glory.  That means that God is changing us day by day and that He who has begun a good work in us will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.  That means God will never stop working in our lives, never stop pulling at our heart, never stop convicting us of sin, and never stop picking us up when we fall, because God promised to never, never leave us and never, never, never to forsake us.

Rejoice, Church, that we have a God who is not going anywhere.  When God has He would NEVER leave or forsake us, He meant NEVER!  That means that everything that God is will always be with us.

EVERYTHING that God is belongs to us.  He is mighty, so we will ALWAYS have His strength.  God is love, so NOTHING can ever separate us from His love.  God is merciful, so His mercy is new EVERY morning.  God is forgiving, so His forgiveness is ALWAYS available to us when we need it most.  Whatever God is, we will always have with us, because He is always with us.  That may sound very simple, and it is just as simple as it sounds.  He leaves the choice up to us to live our life through Him.

Just as God promised Abraham, Joshua, David, and all His people in the Bible that He would never leave or forsake them, that same promise holds true for all His children today, because God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  This promise from God may be hard for you to fully believe, because you have been forsaken, deceived, or lied to by people in your life.  Well, I think we can all testify to being treated that way by one or more people, but with God, it is different.  God can’t be compared with man.  Lord, forgive us for ever insulting You by comparing You with another man or woman.  God is not the kind of father that would leave His children.  God is not the kind of husband that would leave His bride.  God is not the kind of friend that would leave His brother or sister.  God is in it for eternity – for the long haul.  God will stick with you through the good, the bad, and the ugly.  Even when you don’t feel like He is there, He has not gone anywhere.  You can’t do anything to cause Him to love you more or less.  He loves you no matter what.

We are so use to bailing out when someone falls short that we think God will do the same thing to us.  We are so use to throwing in the towel when things are not going our way.  You find something you don’t like about your husband, and you forsake him without another thought.  When God makes a commitment, it is forever.  When we break His heart, and we will, He is not happy or pleased with us, but even then, He will never give up on us.  During those times, we will not feel His favor, blessing, and power in our life like before.  We will not feel His joy or His peace.  We will find ourselves praying David’s prayer for God to “restore unto us the joy of our salvation.”

One thing we need to remember and never forget is that when God first came into our life, He came when we were “yet sinners” with hearts full of sin.  If God wasn’t going to love us because of sin, He would not have loved us a long time ago.  Jesus came to us while we were dead in our trespasses.  God loved us when we didn’t even know we were looking for Him.  The Bible says in Romans 8:38-39, “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  If NOTHING can separate us from God’s love, then NOTHING can separate us from Him, because God is love.

Isaiah 41:17 says, “When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the LORD will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them.” If you are reading this devotional and find yourself  thirsting for living water, this promise is for you.  The God of Israel will hear you and will not forsake you.  Cry out to the Lord, and let Him bring His living water to your dry and thirsty soul.  If you are thirsty for forgiveness, all you have to do is call upon the Lord, and He will hear you and He will not forsake you.

Don’t allow the enemy to jerk you around any longer.  Accept God’s forgiveness and His promise to never, never leave you or never, never, never forsake you.  The key to walking in this promise is to live your life in an awareness that God is with you ALL the time.  This will help you make Godly choices to turn away from sin and temptation.  This will help you want to live a life that is pleasing to Him and brings Him glory.  God will reward you with a greater sense of His presence, favor, power, joy and peace.  Remember God is always with you and is always saying, “Hey, let Me help you out with your life.  Let’s get rid of the junk and baggage, so you can walk unshackled with freedom and liberty.”

If you will take this teaching and allow the Holy Spirit to work it out in your life, you are going to discover a greater sense of joy than you ever imagined.


Pastor G.
Daniel 12:3

Source:
http://www.theroc.com/church2/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=21&Itemid=100082

God is near -- Today's Devotion from Mike MacIntosh

The Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth. He fulfills the desires of those who fear Him; He hears their cry and saves them. ~ Psalm 145:18-19

The book of Psalms contains 150 prayers -- some long, some short, some joyful, some sorrowful. In Psalm 145:18-19, we read that the Lord is near and waiting for us to initiate contact with Him. And when we do begin conversing with Him, He hears -- that is, He listens carefully and attentively. This theme was echoed by Isaiah, who spoke for the Lord, saying:


"It shall come to pass that before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking, I will hear" (Isaiah 65:24).


You see, God knows what we need even before we come to Him. While we are even in the process of speaking to Him, God is answering. What great assurance it is to know that His desire is to fulfill the spiritual desires of our heart.


We also have this assurance: He is near! And He is eagerly waiting for us to re-engage with Him in prayer. Be a person that is characterized by these great words of David: one who is continually coming back to God with a heart and mind focused on Him no matter what circumstances come your way.


For more devotions from Mike MacIntosh click: Here
 
To see archives of worship and Mike's teaching at Horizon San Diego click Here
 



What are you running from? -- Today's Devotion from Mike MacIntosh

Then they all forsook Him and fled. Now a certain young man followed Him, having a linen cloth thrown around his naked body. And the young men laid hold of him, and he left the linen cloth and fled from them naked.
Mark 14:50-52

Do you remember the story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife? You can read all about it in Genesis 39:1-23. This woman was trying to seduce Joseph, but Joseph refused. In fact, she was so persistent that she grabbed his clothes and wouldn't let go. But Joseph, being a Godly man, kept on running -- right out of his garments! Joseph didn't want anything to do with her, or with the accompanying sin that she brought. Now that's a man with great faith.

And here in Mark,we see a bunch of people who were face to face with Jesus Christ -- but they were the ones who fled Him. And so persistent was one of these men, that when some of the guards caught hold of him, he kept on running -- you got it -- right out of his garments.

My question for you today is this: What are you running from? Are you ashamed of Jesus Christ to the point that you walk away from Him, or neglect the things He has called you to be and to do? Or, are you the kind of person who stands up for righteousness and flees temptation and evil? There are only two ways to run; you're either going to serve sin or serve Jesus. I urge you from the bottom of my heart to choose the Lord! Run away from evil, even if it means losing your shirt over it. Worldly possessions are temporary, but a relationship with the Lord is eternal.

Check out Mike's Daily Devotions Here

This Band Rocks - kinda sounds like Alice in Chains

*Turn off music player at the bottom.

When I grew up Christian music, at least to me, sucked. I want you to understand No Music sang to God sucks to God. But I am not God, so some Christian music I like and some I don't. Some of it is so bad sounding to me its like finger nails on a chalkboard.

I thought maybe it didn't really suck and it was just me in my spiritual immaturity. But, no I have gone back and listened to much of it, and musically much of it sucked. Part of that had to do with the time in which it was made, some periods of music sucked at different times in our music history..Disco come to mind?

Also some of it had to do with attitudes in the church that any rock, even Christian rock was of the devil. How can music either about God, about his principles, even love songs (not sex songs) be of the devil?

Another poisonous teaching, that was misinterpreted from a real truth, was that we couldn't copy the world in any of its styles: fashion or musically.

The Bible says that we are to not conform to this world and for us to be separate from the world. This is totally true, but it is referring to morals and actions, not fashion and musical styles. Note: Some fashion and lyrics would be ungodly if it violated scripture like very revealing clothes or lyrics that portray sinful thoughts and actions as good.

Actually, I have something to reveal to those who are anti-modern Christian music and are Hymns only people. Hymns used to be bar tunes that the Wesley Brothers turned into hymns for the church. Hymns were the modern Christian music of their day. And many opposed this new Christian music that we now call hymns.  (Old Hymns actually Rock, especially when modernized).

So, I will say Rock on to God. Worship Him in all you do! God came to earth as the man Jesus to teach you how to live and die for you so you can be with Him for eternity.

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship." Romans 12:1

The Message puts it like this:

So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.