The Lord is Our Stronghold

In this episode, we rejoin several stories in the Bible that lead us to realize that our security comes from the Lord, whether we have all of our challenges handled, or not. And if we do not, our supply of hope and peace comes from THE supernatural Source.

Transcript

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When we talk about peace in the modern age, I think as Christians, sometimes it can be difficult to talk about finding our peace in the Lord without sounding trite and cliche. Today, I hope to be able to somehow communicate in such a way as to remind us all that the truth of who God is is our source of peace in a world that's increasingly given over to chaos and confusion.

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This is West Ruff, and you're listening to the Revival and 2020 podcast. Everybody here looking for revival in our own house in The Cruel. There came a day I looked into the eyes of my maker. I saw his love and his joy that suddenly I was there, existing, able to see him. He told me to stand with him and listen.

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He then told me that I had been made to run. Then he released me into the earth. I came to the Earth and saw the multitudes. Some walked. Some sat. Some lay there remembering what my maker told me. I started to run and I was joyful in my running. Then a man came up to me and he said, Hold on.

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We don't do that around here. We walk. So I listened and slowed down to a walk as I walked. Another man came up to me and he said, We don't walk around here. We crawl. So again, I listened. I began to crawl as I was crawling here and there. Another man came up to me and he said, Look, we don't crawl around here.

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We just sort of lay there. So I stopped crawling and laid down. After all, these people have already been here. They must know what's going on. But then those who crawled crawled over me. Those who slowly walked, walked all over me. Those who were running ran over me and pushed me into the dirt. I couldn't get up in my distress.

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I called to my maker and I asked him what to do. He reached down to me and pulled me from the dirt, brushed off my clothes, and he said, I made you able to run. Why don't you do that? It was then that again, I listened to my maker. I looked up and began to run, feeling his joy with each leap.

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I have not looked back since. Take a look around the world today. Nation to nation. Continent to continent. People are crying out for the true to who God is and looking for the power of his hand to bring deliverance. I'm not sure that I've ever seen more people crying out to God than we're seeing right now. There's a tremendous amount of despair out there as people are giving up hope for a wide variety of reasons.

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So many of us naturally in to our own hurt, put our hope in politics, money, our business, or any number of other things. There's so many things out there to get our attention. Our lives swirl around us and threaten to drag us underneath the proverbial waves, leading us to give up our hope and to think that God has forsaken us.

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But I think in a time like this, we have to consider the testimony of Scripture. Psalm 17, verse eight says, Keep me as the apple of your eye. Hide me under the shadow of your wings. The idea of being hidden under God's shadow, under his wings is that his wings are overhead. They're over you in a protective stance.

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So 18 to the Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer. My God, my rock and whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. And finally. So I'm 62 six. He only is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold. I shall not be shaken. The final verse is among my favorites.

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It does make a bold point. It is interesting in God and not the things of the earth that we finally find our security and cannot be shaken. Consider the challenges that Israel faced during their long and storied history. Israel was not immune to intense warfare and pain, despite the fact that they were God's chosen people. They had to contend with nearly annual attacks from other tribes and nations, intense natural disasters from floods to famine.

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Not to mention dealing with the constant reality of pagans attempting to remove the worship of the one true God and replace him with idols of stone and wood. Through warfare, justice was often far removed from daily life, and the powerbrokers in Israel often lied to advance their agendas, which without fail led to oppression of the people. It does not matter which age you were born into.

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There are always people out there willing to oppress others and to frantically deprive fellow humans of freedom in an effort to attain power. They lust for it, and they lust for all the trappings that it brings. They deserve great names in history and are willing to alter the truth to flatter themselves and leave impressions of who they are that are not accurate.

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It is tragic and evil that so many people are willing to destroy so many others to get what they want. Adding to the tragedy is the reality that nothing we acquire here will depart with us when we die. When evil doers give themselves over to evil, they show that they truly like the sight in the heart to accomplish great things from God's perspective.

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Giving your life solely to attain the things of the world as a paltry and diseased vision. When we daily living under the thumb of powerful people, allow ourselves to get caught up in the realities of our day. We are beginning to fall victim to the wind and the waves, so to speak, that are all around us. Just like Peter the Apostle, who, when invited by the Lord to step out of the boat and into the waves, lost sight of the Lord, He began to sink and we sink to when our eyes are solely on the daily storms around us.

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There seems to be just one way that we've been given to keep our heads and hearts out of the earthly storms we encounter. We were made to be the temples of God, people in whom His holy presence dwells. If we forget to go to him frequently and spend time in his presence, we are going to find without a doubt that hopelessness and despair are going to set in from the daily cultural storms that we see.

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When Christ Jesus came to the Earth and preached, the Kingdom of God is the answer to man's total need. You made a point of reminding the disciples that as long as we were in the world, we were going to have trouble. He also told us to take heart. He has overcome the world. This podcast was started with a fable or an allegory of someone who has created a run.

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But listening to the voices he found in the earth, he fell into a trap of laying down in the dust, and he wasn't doing what he was made for. In that story, it took God Almighty to restore him to what He was created to do. So it is with us. I see Christians daily falling into hopelessness and sometimes despair due to circumstances that we all have to deal with.

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When I asked them if they pray, they say they do, and I believe them. When I asked them how they pray, though, they're not entirely sure what to say in many cases. So I want to say that prayer is not wishful thinking. My experience with prayers taught me that it works when we take the time to commit to knowing our maker.

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Scripture says in both spirit and in truth, we find that he reveals himself and comes to us. And when he does. My experience again, has been that he can lighten our load and show us the way forward. He elevates our perspective into an eternal place where all things are seen as they truly are learning to go to God daily to get His perspective and let him bring peace to our hearts as when God functions as our fortress, our stronghold, as someone who protects the hearts of his people when they feel overcome by anger, distress and disappointment.

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Right now, I believe we need a higher perspective because the earthly viewpoint clearly does not work. The truth of the matter is, is that we can experience God as our strong tower, a place to run and be safe. This promise is made in the Scriptures and it applies no matter our political, cultural or family situations. It is in going to God that I have found rest.

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And I can tell you that some days I come out of it. I'm human. My flaws are some of the most noticeable things about me. Yet this great, great God has shown me his peace and his love more than once in my life, many, many, many times through many desperate situations. KING David once wrote in the 23rd Psalm about how secure he was and God when God prepared a table before him in the presence of his enemies.

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Note that the enemies had not been vanquished by either David or God. They were still there. The King David was safe and provided for in the presence of those who wanted to kill him. So let's all be encouraged with the character of God, as it's not only revealed in text, but it's revealed in life. Let's not go to God merely to give him a long list of what we think needs to be done in prayer.

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Let's learn to honor him and praise him. God is the most light about being in existence, so telling him the truth of who He is and honoring him with our words is one way we bear witness almost in a heavenly courtroom drama that the lies are being held accountable and the people who have lied are also going to be held accountable as we learn to feel the leading of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.

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He directs us when we pray. As these things happen, we find that our burdens fade as he takes them on himself. And that's been my experience. There's an old hymn that says all things become shadow in the light of you, and I've been stunned on many occasions with how my perspective, my earthly perspective, was shaken to its core when the Holy Spirit kind of showed up, all my challenges were put in their proper perspective and the light of God overrode all.

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It was a beautiful thing. Like the runner in the opening fable, we are all made to function as temples of God, but we struggle terribly when we don't live in that reality. Every human being out there is made to be a temple of his holy presence. If you're painfully aware of your loss, your hopelessness or tragedies, I hope you remember whom you belong to.

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He is completely faithful, even in our pain, and he does, as a matter of established fact, delight in you. May you find his rest and encouragement that lifts you far above the wind in the waves of our lives. Today, Jesus Christ is the way. May you walk in him. May you find your rest in peace there. Am by him.

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I thank you for listening to the Revival and 2020 podcast. For more information about the ministry, please visit revival and 2020 Ford City Man.