Dear Fellow Laborers,
People must worship...it's our nature. It's built in. if we don't worship the one true God...the heart will invent its own god! excessive love for anything is a mockery of God's first commandment, "Thou shalt have no other gods...before Me." "See now...that I am He and...there is no god beside me. It is I who put to death and give life, I have wounded and it is I who heal and there is no one who can deliver from my hand." Deuteronomy 32:9 God has a sovereign sway over all events. Every situation is known to Him. Sickness...financial setbacks...family misunderstandings...life's darkest hours...all these happen within the framework of His purposes. No matter what the predicament...God ...is still God! Any object which produces passionate devotion is an imposter leading to idolatry. We laugh at those in the Old Testament who would take a tree, carve it to make an idol and then bow down before it. But if we love success... ambition... prominence... possessions... we have enthroned an idol in our heart. How do you define idolatry? When we long for what we dare not do, ...hunger after what we must not have, ...and lust for what we should not love - this is the start of idolatry. Our attitude toward our circumstances determines our victory or defeat. The same wind that carries one ship into the port will dash another upon the rocks. "Happy is he whose circumstances suit his temper; but he is more excellent who can suit his temper to any circumstance." Hume Circumstances are the refining pot. Through trials and temptations, the object of our worship is revealed. Job learned first hand (and so must we) that before the butterfly there is a struggle in the cocoon. There is no feast without a sacrifice. Job's character was matured by trials. He was strengthened by discipline. He was enriched by disappointments. How do we worship God? Isn't worship a love offering from the depths of our inner-most being...expressing an intense sense of the worth-ship of a Holy Awesome God? It is presenting back to God the love that he "shed abroad" in our hearts. WORSHIP...WAITING...WORK...They were always together in the life of Jesus. He 'worshiped' the Father. He 'waited' for His direction. He 'worked the works of Him who sent him. Men must worship something. It is our nature. "What you bend your knee to is what you worship." Where your treasure is there your heart is also. Where is your treasure? What do you worship? Is it the one true God or is it a substitute? The good is the enemy of the best. Your servant for Jesus, Earle Carpenter Dear Fellow-Laborers,
WORRY... I am worried that I have worries! Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever noticed what Jesus said would choke the Word? The devil? No, the cares of this world. It is the 'little' worries. I will not trust where I can not see, that is where infidelity begins. The cure is a faith response to the revealed Spirit. "He will guard him in perfect and constant peace whose inclination and character is stayed on Thee, without one ripple of anxiety, the mind of the one leaning hard upon me." Isaiah 26:3 Doesn't this promise sound so idealistic as to be impossible? Especially with changes in medicine causing unrest...uncertainty of circumstances...burdens of anxiety...pessimism about the future. To find relief, millions of intense people have given themselves to gulping "happy pills". Peace pills! Across the heart - door of your tired, nervous, fearful and fretting patients is hanging the card, 'Do Not Disturb!' These drugs are called ataraxics (Greek term meaning "not disturbed") have a way of screening out feelings of worry, fear and anxiety. It is wonderful they work...for a while. "Permanent Peace...can never be purchased Worry is...spiritual irritability with Jesus." - Oswald Chambers Christian peace ultimately is not found in a pill...not in prosperity...nor in some place...rather in the person and presence of God Himself. He will guard...what you have Him. Give. Can the child of God ever think of anything the Heavenly Father will forget? When we realize that we could never think of anything He will forget...WORRY becomes impossible. A woman kept a "worry box" in her kitchen. Every time something troubled her she would write it down and put it in the box. She resolved she would give these problems no thought as long as they were in the box. Often she opened it, took out the slips of paper to review the concerns. She found her relaxed frame of mind enabled her to find solutions. She discovered to her delight, most of the troubles she worried about no longer existed! Most of us are blown about by winds of circumstances, directed by gusts of passion, like a ship at sea with nobody at the helm. If your life is to be steady, there must be not only a strong hand at the helm but a fixed star for you to aim to...a harbor of rest. When we put our cares in God's hands, He puts His peace in our hearts. Oh, if I trust Jesus, I will...worry...I don't have worries! "Never a test that He is not here, never a burden He does not bear. Never a sorrow He does not share, moment by moment... I am under His care." - Whittle Your Servant for Jesus, Earle Carpenter Founder, CMMA |
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