The Highlander

 ”For You have tried us O God; You have refined us as silver is refined, You brought us into the net; You laid an oppressive burden upon our loins.  You made men ride over our heads; We went through fire and through water, YET You brought us out into a place of abundance” (Psalm 66:10-12)

Have you  ever noticed how important the “little” words are in Scripture?  Words like “but”, “and”, “the”, and this word “yet”?  Heck.  These folks had been through a living hell.  Tried, tired, captured, oppressed, conquered, and put through fire and water.  None of which are fun experiences in and of themselves.  But, throw them all together and you have a recipe for night of the living dead, and you are one of the living dead!  They were beaten down, ready to throw in the towel, take a handful of pills and just end it all.  What’s even worse, is that God was the One Who led or  allowed all of these things to happen to them!  Talk about wondering if God loves you!  I am sure they questioned that one a great deal.

Then comes the “YET”!  After having taken them through all of these horrible places, He brought them OUT into an abundant place!  Way to go God!  Yep, weeping may endure for a night, but joy really does come in the morning. There was a light at the end of the tunnel and it was not a train.  It was the glory and blessing of Father!

For all who know and walk with God, there is always a “yet”.  Things may seem bad, chaotic, dark, and hopeless at times, but for us, but there is always a “yet”!  He will never leave us in the pit or in the net.  We always pass “through” the fire and the water.  Though we are tested and tried, as well as seemingly put through the ringer, we must not forget that HE is in control!  His desire is never to leave us in any of these places, but take us through them and bring us out into an abundant and blessed place!  He always has and He always will, even if it does not seem like it at the moment.

Do you feel like He has forsaken you?  Do you question His love for you because of the hard or dark place that you find yourself right now?  Are you ready to quit?  Don’t!  He has a “yet” for you too!  Just throw yourself into His arms of love and trust His heart for you.  Your “yet” is coming.  In fact, it may just be right around the next bend in the road!  Don’t forget…”yet”, “yet”, “yet”!!!

The Highlander

Hola Mafe!  Que tal?  Y Brady?

“…dwell in the land and feed on His faithfulness.” Psalm 37:3b

This Psalm is filled with encouragement concerning the blessings of God upon His people.  Throughout the Psalm we are told not to worry about anything, especially where it concerns God meeting our everyday needs.  We are constantly admonished to trust in God and to look towards Him in an expectant manner.  Our focus is to be making God our chief delight and all of the rest will take care of itself.

But, thrown into the mix of all of this are these important words, “feed on His faithfulness.”  Hmmm.  When I look at all of the things this Psalm encourages me to do (not worry, trust God, etc.), I ask myself, “How do I do these things?”  In these words I find the answer…feed on His faithfulness!

To feed is a constant practice and action.  It is to take nourishment into my being on a daily and consistent basis.  Yet this feeding is one for the soul.  What is to be the source of my nourishment?  The faithfulness of God!

I am to feed my soul with the reality that God will ALWAYS keep His word.  He will ALWAYS do what is right.  He will NEVER break a promise.  He will ALWAYS be with me.  He cannot lie so what He says He will be, He will be.  What He says He will do, He will do!

Even when I am at my worst, He is at His best!  “If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself” (2 Timothy 2:13).  Yes, we can rest assured that as He so lovingly and faithfully cares for the birds of the air and the flowers of the field, He will take care of us.  Our souls are to be fed with that reality.  This spiritual food will sustain us in the darkest of valleys and on the highest of mountain tops.  GOD IS FAITHFUL!

What is the fork that brings this spiritual delicacy from our plates to our mouths?  FAITH!  By faith we partake of this meal and by faith we eat and eat until our soul is satisfied.  Our whole walk with God and all of life in the Kingdom is by faith.

But, do you want to know what is so totally mind blowing?  It is not OUR faith we live by…it is HIS!  We live, “by THE FAITH OF THE SON OF GOD” (Galatians 2:20)!  This faith was a gift to us (Ephesians 2:8).  Now, when we are living by His faith, we will feast on His faithfulness.  We don’t have to work up faith, faith, His faith, already resides within us!  All we are to do is exercise it.

You see, He cannot doubt something that is true about Himself!  He has perfect and full confidence in Who He is and what He says.

He is faithful when we are good.  He is faithful when we are bad.  He is faithful when we are up.  He is faithful when we are down.  He is faithful when we are living lavishly in the Father’s house.  He is faithful when we are prodigals on the run.  He is faithful to His own, and yes, even to those who know Him not.

Yes, my friend, we can feast on His faithfulness!

When worry pays a visit, sit down and enjoy a plateful of the faithfulness of God.  When depression tries to steal your attention, get your eyes fixed on the banquet table of the faithfulness of God set before you and dig in!

I do not know who you are or what you are facing today.  But this I can tell you…GOD IS FAITHFUL!  He will never fail you and He will always keep His word.  Enter into the dining room.  The table is set, your chair is pulled out.  Sit down and enjoy the feast!!

Grace and peace,

The Highlander

“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. Mark 11:22  

Our lives are to be lived by faith not by sight.  Jesus took the opportunity of the withering of the fig tree to teach His followers a very important lesson about life in the Kingdom.  Life can only be lived within the realm of God’s rule by having faith in God; nothing more and nothing less.  Our confidence and hope is not in a doctrinal statement, a church, or an idea.  It is in a real live Person.  A Person Who is vitally connected to each of our lives.

  We are to have faith in the Person of God.  We are to trust Who He is and what He is like.  We are to live in full confidence and dependence upon His nature, character and abilities.  When the Scripture says, “God is love”, we are to trust that.  When they declare that He is all knowing, ever present and never changing, we are to live in quiet confidence of those realities.  Whatever the Bible declares and reveals about God is fact and that fact can be transferred into the situations and circumstances of our daily lives.  Whatever He is, whatever He is like, and whatever He can do, He is all of these things for us!  We must have faith in that fact. (more…)

“and I have made Your Name known
to them, and will make it known, so
that the love with which You loved Me
may be in them, and I in them.”
(John 17:26)

The closing words to the high priestly prayer of Jesus, the night before His crucifixion, are powerful!  Just look and listen to what He is saying, and you will see the key to growing in and experiencing the love of God.

Jesus declared that He had “made known” the Name of the Father to them.  Remember, in the Jewish culture, a name meant a great deal.  It described a persons character, nature or calling.  He says that He had made known to His band of followers, what the Father was like.  How did He do that?  Through what He said and what He did (see John 14:7-14).

He then promises to continue to make known/reveal the Father’s Name to them.  He is saying that His work of teaching Who God is and what He is like is to continue.  Obviously, through His passion and resurrection, they would learn a great deal about the heart, ways, and character of God.  Also, the 40 days He spent with them after His resurrection talking to them about the Kingdom of God revealed much about God as well (Acts 1:3).

Now we know that when He ascended, He continued His work of making known the Father.  How did He do that?  Through the ministry of His Spirit!  He said in Matthew 11:27 that it is His ministry to reveal the Father, and then it was the Spirit’s ministry to reveal the Son (John 16:12-15).  What a glorious thing!  The Triunity of God working in harmony, love and power to reveal Himself to us all! (more…)

Recently, I caught the last half of a movie that documented the fateful journey of a group of climbers that ascended Mount Everest back in May of 1996.  The movie was based off of John Krakauer’s book Into Thin Air.  It chronicles the experiences of a team of climbers and the tragic death of eight of them as they scaled the heights of Everest.

As I watched the film, I was shocked at all of the pain, agony, and sheer torture people were willing to put themselves through, just to spend five minutes on top of the world, and that’s not even counting all the money they had to spend to have the adventure!  I thought, “Man. Is the view and the honor to say, “I did it”, really worth all of that?”  I also wondered what the climbers who would eventually find themselves lying in cold snow, with freezing winds howling in their faces, knowing that they were dying, were thinking?  Were they thinking it was worth it?  Was this an experience really worth dying for?

Yet, as I pondered these questions, I asked myself, “Am I a climber or a camper?”  In my life and walk with God, have I thrown caution to the wind and allowed myself the thrill of climbing with and to Jesus?  Or, have I opted for the safety of a nice, comfortable camp site, and pitched my tent with railroad spikes?” (more…)

“Look at the birds, free and unfettered,
not tied down to a job description, careless
in the care of God.”
(Matthew 6:26 The Message)

I hate worry.  Many times, I worry about worry.  When I think back over my life, I am amazed at how many things I worried about that never happened.  I  think about all the time wasted on fretting and being anxious over issues and situations that literally ate me up on the inside.  Nights of sleep lost, acid reflux in my stomach, and tension between my shoulder blades, have been my companions more times than I can remember.

This life can be full of things that can precipitate worry in our lives.  Usually, worry begins its insipid assault with, “what if…?”  We are usually pretty good with filling in the blanks.  Once worry gets the ball rolling, fear then takes over.  I am ashamed at how much of my life in the past has been dictated and ruled by fear.   Fear was given an open door because I worried.  Why did I worry?  Because I did not trust God, His heart, and His promises.

Now, here is the kicker.  Worry is SIN!  Yikes!  You see, when Jesus told us not to worry in Matthew 6:25, and when Paul said in Philippians 4:6 to, “be anxious for nothing…”, both of those statements in the Greek are in the imperative mood…the mood of command!  It is the same as saying, “Thou shalt not…”.  These are on equal footing with the ten commandments!

God is not saying, “Try not to worry.”  He is not asking us to do our best to not worry.  He is COMMANDING us NOT to worry!  If we worry, we break His command and sin against Him!  That is heavy duty! (more…)

We all have times in our lives that we cannot figure out what in the world God is up to!  Everything seems dark and the way ahead looks unclear.  We cry out day and night for answers and the heavens seem like brass.  All we are asking for is some simple guidance, or some clear answers to the questions of our heart. Yet, it seems like God is a million miles away.  He really isn’t, but it sure seems like it.  Sometimes in these moments, He quietly whispers to our soul, “You have no idea what I am doing.”  And He is right, we really don’t.

You have no idea what I’m doing,
In these moments dark and drear,
You cannot see my movements,
But trust Me, I am near,

You have no idea what I’m doing,
The future you cannot see,
I’m arranging all the parts of the puzzle,
to change you and set you free,

You have no idea what I’m doing,
Your fears whisper to you in the night,
All I ask is that you trust Me,
That I will always do what is right,

You have no idea what I’m doing,
Just remember I love you as much as my Son,
I rejoice over you with singing,
And I will finish what I have begun,

You have no idea what I’m doing,
But the beauty will one day be seen,
When you stand in My glorious Presence,
At home and fully redeemed!

By Randy Umberger