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SHELTER

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SHELTER

SELAH Daily Devotions!

“The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him.” Nahum 1:7

One of those most prominent desires of humanity is a sense of security. Thanks to our ancestors, Adam and Eve, we lost that the moment we submitted to the Deceitful Tempter, Satan! Scriptures reveal the absolute perfection that they enjoyed walking in The Will of our Creator God! Any and everything their pure hearts desired was readily available for them for the asking. Yet, the one thing that God had required of them was the same thing that the devil used to lure them away from what God commanded, faithful obedience!

Since mankind’s expulsion from The Paradise of The Garden Eden, we’ve been trying to find our own piece of peace in the midst of this sin-fated world we’ve been forced to inhabit. Adding insult to injury, from the moment Abel’s blood hit the earth, all of Cain’s descendants, were destined to sojourn throughout the earth, cursed and marked for The Righteous Vengeance of The Lord! This spirit of rebellion soon gave way to anger, spiraling into murder nailing the coffin shut for any hope of returning to the blissful state of innocence and intimacy that once endowed God’s Most Precious Creation!

BUT! Thanks Be To GOD! Jehovah’s Loyal Love; refusing to be denied, had ordained before the foundation of the world, a Rest for anyone who cries out to Him earnestly, in sincere contrition for Salvation IN THE PERSON OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST! (Ref. 1 Peter 1:20)

Sometimes, looking back from this side of the Cross, it’s more convenient to blame the horrid conditions of our world on the careless apathy of our first parents. And, depending on the weight of the trial or struggle, we just might point our fist toward God. After all He’s God and could’ve stopped sin in it’s track, huh? Yet, Wisdom and Grace soon deter us from persisting in such foolishness! The truth of the matter is that seed of sin has regenerated, thus degenerating our morality, perverting our sense of right and wrong to the extent that we can no longer trust our own hearts!

BUT FOR THE GRACE OF GOD!

In the midst of these perilous times, we need to know that God has prepared (by God’s Own Hand), a safe haven for those of us, who will place our personal trust, confidence and absolute reliance in the immutability of God’s Righteous Character:Justice, Truth, Honor and Ability!

“The name of the Lords a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.” Proverbs 18:10

When life is raging beyond what you can weather and the billows of trouble threaten to devour you, remember! There is Refuge! In God,  Believers, escaping from the cares of this world, can dwell under the Wings of Adonai ! There you find rest safe from all hurt and harm!

JESUS is A VERY PRESENT SHELTER IN THE TIME OF THE STORMS!

SELAH!

“Have a WONDER-FILLED day!”

Ann Caffee

 

NOW AIN’T DAT PECULIAR?

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AIN'T DAT PECULIAR 3

SELAH Daily Devotions!

 

But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light; 1 Peter 2:9

 

If you’re a card-holding member of the baby-boomers community, you probably remember R&B recording Artist, Marvin Gayes’ 1965 hit song, “Ain’t That Peculiar!”. This song went on to become one of his best known signature solo-hits.

Now, of course I realize that the object of this writer’s (Smokey Robinson) affection is a two-timing-unfaithful-serial-cheating-significant-other-who-would-never-return-his-misguided- affections, but as we read the last verse, perhaps we might express this same peculiar sentiment when we consider Our Savior’s heart towards His Beloved Creation –Man-kind. “I know love can last through years…But how can love last through tears”.

While the world looks at Christians as being peculiar, stupid, unintelligent, weak-minded, poverty-stricken individuals, who are desperately looking to escape reality with fantasy, but GOD’s interpretation of peculiar differs drastically. According to the bible, peculiar not only means strange, but also connotes the exclusively chosen, uniquely selected, belonging to and set-apart for HIS Divine Purpose. God has the uncanny abiity to hand-pick the foolish for Christ to confound the world’s wise and astute, bringing Praise and Glory to God!

WHO NU? Believers are God’s Very Own Special People!  #didjaheardat? WOW!

One of the most strangely amazing things about God’s People is the reality that God ordained before the foundation of the world, that He would have HIMSELF a people, who would be different from the world around them. Different because they’d be born-again, by The Spirit of God, adopted and transformed by the Indwelling Holy Spirit! #didjaheardat?  Hence, you can’t even take credit for your own ELECT- Royal-Position!

It’s ALL GOD!!! GOD gave us The Faith to trust in Him and it’s only by GOD’s GRACE that we are empowered to live holy, separated and sanctified thru HIS SPIRIT!

None of us could ever live righteously enough to deserve this GRACE! But! While we were yet weak and powerless, at the right time, a LOVING FATHER, sent and sacrificed HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, JESUS, not to save us IN our sin, but to save us FROM our sin, reconciling us back into HIS FAMILY! (Romans 5:8) OH YEAH! WE ARE GOD’S INHERITANCE! #CANUBELIEVEIT?

WHOOAAAA! GOD’S LOVE LASTS THROUGH TEARS!  NOW DATZ PECULIAR, HUH?

SELAH!

Pause, Ponder, Pray & Praiz!

Ann Caffee

STAY N IT 2 WIN IT!

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STAY IN IT 2 WIN IT!

 

SELAH Daily Devotions!

 

…let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2

 

Apparently, somewhere along the way, many of today’s contemporary Christians have picked up the erroneous impression, that The Road of Salvation is a meticulously manicured lawnscape—free of sticks and stones, crabgrass and weeds, lumps and humps and especially parasital insects.

Now! Given my extreme paranoia of bugs, I certainly don’t profess to be no expert in the science of horticulture, however I don’t think it would be going too far out on a limb to suggest that our neighbor’s lusciously green tarp (that we so yearn for) involved a certain moderate-to hard-working-up-sweat-hands-dirty-knee-dropping-diligence and discipline. Right?

So what makes us think that the most important road-trip we’ll ever take, our journey from Earth to Glory, would be a choreographed Boogaloo-Down-Broadway?

I can’t tell you how many times I find myself reminding myself that all of those ‘cheering witnesses’ we stagger at in Hebrews 11’s Hall of Faith, were just plain ordinary everyday folk, just like you and me, who faced the same struggles, tests and trails that we confront. Yet, because they kept their eyes focused on the prize, they overcame their life’s challenges, successfully!

While we understand, at least on some level, the reason that The Apostle Paul compares our walk with Jesus to a race, we have a tendency to think of it as a sprint, rather than a marathon! Okay, here’s how it is—it ain’t a one and done thing! The Master Husbandman, The Sovereign Creator, GOD, has allowed certain interruptions, along our way, that are strategically designed to develop and grow us up into perfect spiritual maturity.

The scriptures reveal that our forerunner, God’s Son, JESUS, learned obedience through his sufferings. (Ref. Hebrews 5:8)

Now, don’t get it twisted; this doesn’t mean that Jesus was ever disobedient to His Father, but rather, His suffering enabled him to intimately-identify with what we endure in our wilderness experiences!

Paul instructs us to study how Jesus did it and follow His lead. Begin with stripping down—laying aside anything that would slow us down—like un-repented sin, unrealized fears, unspoken doubts and worries  and concentrating on the Joy at the completion of the mission.

The mission for which HE was SENT, Salvation, Redemption and Restoration of God’s  most precious creation—us—empowered Our Lord to look past the pain and the shame of The Cross and not quit until He’d Won our Victory!

My brothers and sisters, seeing we have such A Great High Priest, who promised to be with us all the way, don’t give in to that lying Accuser, Satan.! 

Take a big whist of that ‘second wind’  (GRACE) and discipline your mind, body and spirit and keep it movin’. After all, we’re not just hurling aimlessly toward a phantom mirage; this is a sure thing we’re running after! 
God has planned a Great Celebration at the finish line for us! STAY IN IT TO WIN IT!

SELAH!

Pause, Ponder, Pray & Praiz!

Ann Caffee

 

 

FEELIN SOME KINDA WAY…

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FEELIN SOME KINDA WAY

 

SELAH Daily Devotions!

 

“For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” (Romans 8:18)

 

I know I’m too old to be using this new slang! In fact, you probably have to be over 50 to even know what ‘slang’ is, right!

But from where I’m sitting, I believe that it’s an attempt to describe those unidentifiable unrefined emotions birthed out of the womb of unsettling situations. And there’s certainly been a lot of those going around lately, huh? The jandra “You never know” pretty much typifies the attitude of this 21st Century.

Despite all the technological advancements of our New Millennium Age and our fixation with pursuing our destiny, it doesn’t seem that we’re any closer to attaining that level of peace, comfort and contentment that every soul longs for.

I truly believe that The Creator deliberately left a GOD-size hole in the center of our hearts that can never be sufficiently filled through human efforts!

Surveying the state of humanity, there’s seems to be no end to the onslaught of strategically-designed-distractions launched by the gods of this world, to draw our focus away from The Eternal Word of God, leaving a lot of God’s Elect gasping, trembling and wavering hopelessly between faith and fear! Hence, ‘feeling some kinda way’!

There’s no denying that from an earthly-perspective, this world is spinning out of control causing the bottom of life (as we’d known) to fall out!

There’s a prevalent sense of entitlement which allows every man to do what seems right in his own eyes and that once endeared standard of morality apparently has plummeting to incomparable depths of new low.

But Truth remains! “Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. (2 Timothy 2:19)!

Granted, issues have a way of knocking at the door of our lives, unexpected and uninvited, leaving us off balance! But by GOD’s GRACE! We stand firm, our hearts fixed on this comforting assurance that absolutely nothing happens in your life that ever catches God by surprise! And while we may not know what challenges we’ll face during the course of any given day, God promised that He will never abandon nor leave us defenseless! (Ref. Isaiah 54:17)

It’s during these temporary moments of affliction that we, The Saints, evoke our privilege to cry out to our High Priest for Divine Help! (Hebrews 4:15)

The ol’ Mothers of Zion used to sang, “For He is a Battle Axe in the time of the struggle and a Shelter in the time of the Storm.”

THE NEXT TIME LIFE ASSAULTS YOU, LEAVING YOU ‘FEELING SOME KINDA WAY’, JUST CALL JESUS!

SELAH!

“Have a WONDER-FILLED day!”

Ann Caffee

 

4 GOD’S SAKE!

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FOR GOD'S SAKE!

SELAH Daily Devotions!

“Therefore say unto the house of Israel, thus saith the Lord God; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name’s sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went. And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.” Ezekiel 36:22-23

‘FOR GOD’S SAKE!’ How many times have you heard that? Most often it’s an expression used in an effort to persuade someone of your sincerity or swearing to a certain commitment! Backndaday (as my grandchildren say), there was an old saying, ‘A man’s word, is his bond’. In other words, yea was yea and nay was nay! Wonder why you don’t hear that much anymore? Today, instead of shaking hands, you’d better have a legal contract documenting the terms of agreement! And even then, you might need some deep pockets to carry you through your opponent’s legal appeals! Right?

Can you imagine how God felt, having hand-picked a people, wholly committing GODSELF and swearing by HIS NAME to love and care for them, unlike no other nation in the earth in the history of mankind, promising to give them their own land eternally, only to have His Chosen, reject and abandon Him; giving themselves over to polluted ‘no-god’ worship? Well that’s exactly what The Israelites did!

The ungrateful obstinacy of God’s Elect, provoked God’s Holy Anger to the point that He uprooted the entire nation scattering them to alien countries. Yet, not even their despicable unfaithful adulterous actions could separate them from The Faithfulness of God’s Love!

Having been exiled to foreign nations, the Israelites suffered unbelievable humiliation from people, whom by God’s own definition, were ‘worst than my people’! Wherever they were forced to go, God’s people were sentenced to shameful ridicule! But even more devastating, God’s Name and Holy Reputation was being defiled throughout every country they landed. God’s desire to raise up a holy nation, a royal priesthood showcasing His Wondrous Glory and Amazing Grace causing those other nations, yet under the bondage of sin, to forsake their evil ways and run to God for Salvation, was being thwarted due to the ungodliness of His Own People!

The Master decreed, ‘enough is enough’ and determined by His Own counsel to deliver His People!  Despite their proven unworthiness,  God pulled them out of their self-made stinky situation once again bringing them back to the land promised to their ancestors, blessed them to the extent that the surrounding nations stood gasping, amazed at the sight of such bountiful outpouring of God’s Favor! WOW! That’s what you call MERCY, huh?

However, God made it explicitly clear that He wasn’t doing this to make a name for the people, or even because the people deserved it, but rather, because HIS NAME was on the line! GOD’S NAME, represents GOD’S WORD!

That’s the core of our personal salvation, my precious saints! When we dare to step out by faith, not allowing our own unworthiness to reject God’s Mercy, but gratefully accepting God’s Loving Kindness towards us, trusting solely upon the sacredness of God’s reputation and God’s Word, whosoever can have whatsoever God decrees! FOR GOD’S SAKE!
SELAH!

“Have a WONDER-FILLED day!”

Ann Caffee