Redeemed from Violence

Jeremiah 15:21 - “So I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem you from the grasp of the violent.”

Violence takes by force. Hence, the feeling of violation is because someone or something stronger than us has seized upon our vulnerability. When we walked in the ways of this world, we were continually subject to people, places, and things trying to best us. As sons and daughters of God, He has promised freedom from violent oppression. Whether it is addiction or the physical or emotional abuse of another, Jesus commands freedom for us.

Whatever would seek to hold us, these must loose their grasp when we accept His redemption and declare we are free in Christ. Beloved of God, our escape from violent oppression is to simply trust in our gentle Savior. The promise is ours if we accept it, believe it, and stand assured of its reality. ... He is our Great Peace.

Your Barefoot Servant 

Rick 

Merciful Judgment

Isaiah 26:9 - "At night my soul longs for You, indeed, my spirit within me seeks You diligently; For when the earth experiences Your judgments the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness."

I often marvel when the godless become all inflamed when someone mentions the possibility that God still judges the earth through natural disasters. These do not know my God. For my God is a God of both judgment and mercy. This is the reason He is holy. There is no other way He could be otherwise without the juxtaposition of these two character traits within His Divine Nature. Somehow, those who mock the God of the Bible have instead this sickening, mealy-mouthed god who chooses to wink at sin.

The truth is this, beloved of God. The Lord God Almighty has put every nation on a probationary warning that He will no longer tolerate sin. He refuses to bend His character to adjust to ours. He will not excuse immorality, lasciviousness, licentiousness, or perversion. If the Lord Jesus turned away from these and did not judge them, He would have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah on that final day.

If we do not surrender to Him and experience His mercy now, we will experience His judgment both now and in the life to come. Choose this day whom you will serve ... As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord (Joshua 24:15).

Your Barefoot Servant 

Rick 

Turning Out for God

I Thessalonians 4:7-8 - "For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. So, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you."

Everyone has a calling on their lives from God. Some may not have a ministry to hundreds or thousands, but of greater importance is our calling to sanctification or holiness. This is the Lord's mandate for each of us in order to minister first to our family and friends and whomever else He decides. We do not choose our work. That is for the Lord to decide. However, we do choose whether God will equip us. To reject sanctification disqualifies us from the work He would have us to do.

Never minimize turning from sin, beloved of God. Without our turning there can never be His turning us out to do His great work. May we turn and keep turning away from the seduction of this world that we might return to Christ as He will then turn us loose to perform His will.

Your Barefoot Servant 

Rick 

Abounding Love

I Thessalonians 3:11-13 - "Now may our God and Father Himself and Jesus our Lord direct our way to you; and may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another, and for all people, just as we also do for you; so that He may establish your hearts without blame in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints."

Praying the apostolic prayers are essential. Paul's understanding how the church needs revelation is paramount to our walk with the Lord. In this instance, we should make it a daily prayer to pray that our love would "increase and abound" to one another. In order for this to happen, God needs to supernaturally move on our hearts and first show us our great need to love the way He does. Then, there is the magnificent release of His Spirit within us.

Beloved, if we are truly born again and know Jesus Christ, all of His fulness dwells within our spirits. It is our responsibility to invoke Him in prayer for its release. This is the key to the establishment of "hearts without blame." The more we know about ourselves, then the more Christ can release His love to us and others through our broken vessel. This, my friends, is sanctification by with which we will see God (Hebrews 12:14).

Your Barefoot Servant 

Rick 

The Fringes of God’s Ways

Job 26:14 - “Behold, these are the fringes of His ways; And how faint a word we hear of Him! But His mighty thunder, who can understand?”

Job refutes his opponents by speaking of the wonders of God in creation. Yet, he states "these are the fringes of His ways." Secular society would aim to limit or exclude God altogether from creation. However, He goes far beyond that as Job describes. What we see with our human eye and mortal understanding is but only a "fringe" of His overall wisdom and grandeur. His power is incomprehensible and without limit. That is why we only hear a "faint" word of Him when He whispers to our souls, "I created all this and so much more than you will ever know this side of eternity."

Beloved of God, may we cry out to Him that He might speak a bit more often and not with faintness of breath. May we hear His loving voice regarding all He has done. For in so doing, will we understand that He does all things right and good. May our love and faith grow exponentially as He reveals Himself to those for whom He gave everything.

A " Put On" For God

Colossians 3:12-14 - "So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity."

Have we ever been accused of being a "put on"? Being two-faced is wrong if we are using our masquerade to fool others. However, if we are Christians and confess we are often two different people, then we then have the power through humility to be a proper put on. When we allow ourselves to think right about ourselves, we start to think right about others. What we then put on our minds about ourselves and others become expressions of our hearts that transform.

Beloved, exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit is a choice. It begins by choosing to put on the Lord Jesus Christ in our every thought. The miracle then happens as His character becomes ours with hearts expressive of Him.

Your Barefoot Servant 

Rick 

Setting God Aside

Mark 7:9 - "He was also saying to them, 'You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition.'"

To point the finger at the Pharisees is often to have three pointed back at ourselves. While we may not have a written form of the Talmud that we use to dissect the Law of God, we invariably do this in other ways. Compromise comes through forcing our own way rather than God's. It can often come in the most subtle ways also. Have we desired something we should not have? Then, we can sometimes justify our position by doing a little more for God in another area. We add to the law by trying to love someone a bit more so we can act a bit more rude to another through our self-justification. Or, we might fall into the trap of doing for God rather than being for God. To clarify, how often do we do for God because we are afraid not to? We have become so accustomed to giving to a certain charity or helping out a person in a certain way, yet we have lost our love in the midst of it.

If we will allow the love of God to be our great motivator in whatever we do, then we will never fall short of His expectation. Jesus Himself stated that if we love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and mind and our neighbor likewise, then we have fulfilled the Law (Luke 10:27). However, this takes sitting before the Lord and seeking His will everyday rather than assuming we know it from past experience.

Your Barefoot Servant 

Rick