The God Who Sees

I got a note in the mail from a friend the other day. She wanted to share something with me, and I was glad she did.

"Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you:
not as the world gives, give I unto you.
Let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid."
(John 14:27)

She also shared a quote from Oswald Chambers:

"It is one thing to go through a crisis grandly,
but another thing to go through every day glorifying God
when there is no witness, no limelight, no one paying the remotest attention to us."

She said, "God sees all that you do and all the trials you will go through. Whatever trial it may be now, He will carry you through it."

Yesterday I sat down for a minute to read from a sweet little book I own called Daily Bread. I didn't have time to read much, so I grabbed that.

"He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge..." (Psalm 91:4)

"I will say of the Lord, 'He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in Him will I trust.'" (Psalm 91:2)

This morning I read from Spurgeon's Cheque Book of Faith:

"'Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts.' I see that I can do nothing, and that all reliance on man is vanity. 'Not by might.' I see that no visible means can be relied on, but the force is in the invisible Spirit. God alone must work, and men and means must be nothing accounted of. If it be so, that the Almighty God takes up the concerns of His people, then great mountains are nothing. He can remove worlds as boys toss balls about, or drive them with their foot. This power He can lend to me. If the Lord bids me move an Alp I can do it through His name. It may be a great mountain, but even before my feebleness it shall become a plain; for the Lord hath said it. What can I be afraid of with God on my side?"

And the Lord keeps reminding me of this:

The joy of the Lord will be my strength
I will not falter, I will not faint
He is my Shepherd, I am not afraid
The joy of the Lord is my strength
The joy of the Lord
The joy of the Lord
The joy of the Lord is my strength

The joy of the Lord will be my strength
He will uphold me all of my days
I am surrounded by mercy and grace
and the joy of the Lord is my strength
The joy of the Lord
The joy of the Lord
The joy of the Lord is my strength

The joy of the Lord will be my strength
I will not waiver walking by faith
He will be strong to deliver me safe
and the joy of the Lord is my strength
The joy of the Lord
The joy of the Lord
The joy of the Lord is my strength

Logic

We prayed over a meal at my mom's house, and afterward, she teased Elisa, who had been chewing during the prayer. "Were you chewing?"

Elisa smiled and nodded.

"Do you think God can hear our prayers if we're chewing?"

"Well, I chewed quietly."

Thoughts on Equality

Without discrimination, God offers His mercy and the forgiveness of sin to every man who will put his faith in Jesus Christ. And with full equality, He requires each of us to repent of our sin.

The most hateful, discriminatory thing I can think of is to separate out one group of sinners from the rest and assure them they have no need of repentance. It's the spiritual equivalent of offering them a shower and herding them into a gas chamber. A church that puts its stamp of approval on the very sins Jesus bled to pay for is a church offering indulgences. The indulgences are worthless to those who receive them, and the church shares in the sins it approves. If God smiles on sin, why crucifixion? How could He offer His Son to die in agony if our sins are no offense to Him?