“BE CONTENT WITH WHAT YOU HAVE!”

 

Hebrews 13:5                 (ESV(

“[5] Keep your life free from love of money, and “BE CONTENT WITH WHAT YOU HAVE”, for HE has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.””

Recently I was thinking about an appointment I have with someone further in town, AND how I “could” stop by a pastry shop and buy an Apple Fritter!  Anyone that knows me can testify that I DO NOT NEED an Apple Fritter, but the desire was there just the same.  Instead of “my desire”, I instead ate an apple and banana for breakfast and abstained from eating something that I probably didn’t need!  

This brought my mind to an interview I watched recently with a Southern Gospel singer who said that the LORD was telling him that HE had him where he currently was “for this season in your life”!  

GOD doesn’t make ANY mistakes!  HE also doesn’t put us in situations where HE has not already been……AND USES FOR HIS GLORY!  King David probably “thought” that he had gotten away with his indiscretions with Bathsheba, that is until she informed King David that she was pregnant!  Then he began to try and cover up his actions, which only made it worse!  Ultimately his successor to the Throne of Israel was a child GOD BLESSED him with…..through Bathsheba AFTER they were married and lost the first child in the birthing process!!!

The lesson King David learned through his failure brought him the successor to the Kingdom of the nation of Israel.  GOD HAD A PLAN, and David’s son, Solomon, was part of that PLAN!  King David had to suffer through the humiliation of his infidelity with Bathsheba, THE DEATH OF THE INFANT FROM THAT ACT, and the turmoil of the existing sons, all because he couldn’t “BE CONTENT WITH WHAT YOU HAVE”!!!  

May I WAIT ON THE LORD,and BE PATIENT, and “BE CONTENT WITH WHAT YOU HAVE”, FOR HIS GLORY!!!

“THE ANGEL OF GOD!”

 

Exodus 14:19-20                 (ESV)

“[19] Then “THE ANGEL OF GOD” WHO was GOING BEFORE the host of Israel moved and WENT BEHIND them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, [20] coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness. And it lit up the night WITHOUT ONE COMING NEAR THE OTHER ALL NIGHT.”

Although I am “Brain Damaged” from the Brain Hemorrhage almost 20 years ago, my memory from my childhood is still pretty good!  One afternoon a thunderstorm came up and my family was in our house while the severe weather was making its presence known!!  A bolt of lightning flashed and the electrical breaker box “clicked”, and that was ALL I needed to cause me to run up to my grandparents house, maybe 200 feet away!!  

The Children of Israel were not so close to a secure place as I was, where they could “run and hide” from their enemy!  But their security wasn’t in a place, it was in “THE ANGEL OF GOD” WHO was GUIDING and DIRECTING their journey to the Promised Land!  They just didn’t UNDERSTAND WHO was GUIDING and DIRECTING their way!

From ALL OF MY PAST EXPERIENCES, no one should have a better understanding of WHO protects and guides me than this old country boy!  “THE ANGEL OF GOD” is ALWAYS with me, but I have to remind myself of that phenomenon more often than I should!!  The Children of Israel had just been delivered from Egyptian captivity, yet they were unwilling to TRUST “THE ANGEL OF GOD” to keep them from “the enemy”!!

There IS NOTHING that is BIGGER, NOTHING STRONGER, and NOTHING MORE COMPLETE than the LOVE and PROTECTION of “THE ANGEL OF GOD”!  HE moves all around us to secure us, EVEN WHEN we are unaware of HIS PRESENCE!!  There is NOTHING more secure than “THE ANGEL OF GOD”!!!

2,000 years ago!

 2,000+ years ago humanity went to bed thinking, some maybe even BELIEVING, that all HOPE was lost!!  

HOWEVER, when THE PLAN GOD was working on was carried out, THE HOPE WAS, AND STILL IS, IN THE CROSS!!!

 

“THE PEOPLE BEGAN COMPLAINING!”

 Numbers 11:1-3                   (HCSB)

“Now “THE PEOPLE BEGAN COMPLAINING” openly before the LORD about hardship. When the LORD heard, HIS anger burned, and fire from the LORD blazed among them and consumed the outskirts of the camp. Then the people cried out to Moses, and he prayed to the LORD, and the fire died down. So that place was named Taberah, because the LORD’s FIRE HAD BLAZED AMONG THEM.”

It can be a bit easier to write about the sins of others, because their “punishment” is probably what they deserved!  But when I examine the sins of myself and the repercussions of those sins, the “punishment” takes on entirely different meaning!  I want to BEG for MERCY, because the suffering is not only on me, but on my most precious wife!  

The place where GOD was “dealing with” the complaints of the Israelites was “named Taberah, because the LORD’s FIRE HAD BLAZED AMONG THEM.”   Taberah literally means “Consumption, Burning, Cleaning Out”!  The Children of Israel had recently been delivered by their CREATOR from Egyptian captivity, and THEN GOD consumed the Egyptian army at the bottom of the Red Sea!  And THEN GOD provided manna every morning for them!  And THEN GOD provided water from a rock to satisfy their thirst!  If PROOF of HIS PROVIDENCE wasn’t enough for them to SEE via all of this, what else was it going to take???

But I am CERTAINLY NOT any more able to SEE HIS BLESSINGS than the Israelites were in the day!  Not only did I survive a “massive brain hemorrhage” in 2007, but less than a month after being released from the Rehab Hospital my doctor wrote “However, he has had a remarkable recovery that could only be defined as a MIRACLE FROM GOD”!

Almost ten years later I survived quadruple bypass heart surgery with amazing success and results!  Almost three years later from that surgery I had another “heart attack” as the “bypassed blockages” broke loose and went through my heart.  When the cardiologist “heart cath” the next morning, he reported that my heart had ABSOLUTELY NO BLOCKAGES!!  He was amazed, and I simply WAS NOT surprised!!!

The Israelites had experienced more than plenty of MIRACLES for them to KNOW WHO WAS IN CONTROL!!  Should I NOT be WELL AWARE WHO is in CONTROL of my life, and EVERYONE ELSE’s life???  I pray that “THE PEOPLE BEGAN COMPLAINING” will not be said about me as I await the DELIVERANCE to the PROMISED LAND!!!

“GOD SO LOVED!”

 

“GOD CREATED!”

 ‭‭Genesis‬ ‭1‬:‭26‬-‭27‬.                (HCSB‬‬)

“Then GOD said, “Let US make man in OUR image, according to OUR likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, all the earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.” So “GOD CREATED” man in HIS OWN IMAGE; HE created him IN THE IMAGE of GOD; HE created them male and female.”

Contemporary English Version

“So GOD created humans to be “like” HIMSELF; HE made men and women”. 

There are many times when the pace of living in “this world” becomes so “frenetic” (marked by fast and energetic, disordered, or anxiety-driven activity!) that we CANNOT SEE that we are moving faster than we are CREATED to exist!  Humanity is seemingly always trying to make or do something bigger and better than what we have, to make an impact while we are allowed to be on earth?  In REALITY, life is but a “vapor” (James 4:14) and then we “vanish”!!!

Why did “GOD CREATE” an insignificant human such as me, when I was going to grow up to be running SO FAST that HE was required to SLOW me down……FOR HIS GLORY???  Before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4; 2 Timothy 1:9-10), GOD CHOSE me to travel the path (life) that I am fulfilling.  I could NEVER have dreamed or imagined so many DRAMATIC twists and turns, but HE had never left me, NOR FORSAKEN me (Hebrews 13:5)!  

On January 08, 1978, when HE rescued me from my choices, I couldn’t have FATHOMED that HE would have such a beautiful, GODLY woman PREPARED for me?  The two sons that HE blessed us with a FAR MORE than I could have imagined!  The four grandchildren are FAR MORE than words can possibly describe. All of these BLESSINGS are solely because “GOD CREATED” me and I AM HIS!!

“GOD CREATED” me IN HIS IMAGE, and I am CHOSEN to REFLECT that IMAGE!  In my “weaknesses”, HE is made strong (2 Corinthians 12:9).  I am not CALLED to be anything other than what HIS CALLING is for me.  “GOD CREATED” me for HIS GLORY, and I NEED to reflect that IMAGE!!!