Stand Still

Back at Covenant. Unpacking, RA training, senarios, other craziness. I’m loving my staff and got to have the gospel preached to me today. Freshmen come friday, family and David come on Saturday, and returning students on Wednesday. I vacillate between being so glad I am here and questioning why God has led me here again. While I unpack, I’ve been listening to a hymn that alternately reminds me of John-Michael and my girls.

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent word!
What more can He say than to you He hath said—
To you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?

“Fear not, I am with thee, oh, be not dismayed,
For I am thy God, and will still give thee aid;
I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,
Upheld by My gracious, omnipotent hand.

“When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of sorrow shall not overflow;
For I will be with thee thy trouble to bless,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.

“When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,
My grace, all-sufficient, shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not harm thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.

“The soul that on Jesus doth lean for repose,
I will not, I will not, desert to his foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.”

Another year on this hall that has known such suffering. But I find comfort from the promise of victory nestled in the pages of my Bible. In the strength of my foundation, which made it through a year of storms and can weather another. I’m scared to death of another year, but also filled with hope.

During my quiet time on Saturday, I found a note from Caroline Johnson tucked into my Bible on page 337. “1 Sam 12:16″ she had written, and the verse reads, “Now stand here and see the great thing the Lord is about to do.” I let that verse seep into my mind and heart. God is working. I just have to stand still–outside my door, looking up and down this hall that I have loved for three years now–and see what he will do. So at RA prayer and praise that night, I asked God to move in a mighty way. I trembled inside as I asked. God has been answering my prayers lately–what if he says yes to this one? What might happen? Like Moses asking to see God’s glory, I’m certain I don’t know the vastness of what I’m asking for. I don’t even comprehend the vastness of the God I’m asking. But something in me was compelled to ask.

So stand still on your firm foundation, and see what God is going to do this year. Expect great things.

Lunch with my new staff!

Fighting Satan 101

I’ve been reading “Precious remedies against Satan’s devices” by Thomas Brooks this summer. I just finished it last week, and I’ve concluded it’s a must-read. It’s basically a how-to manual of fighting the devil. Seriously, check it out. The Puritans are unmined treasures–dig them up wherever you can. 

This is an adaptation of his conclusion: Ten special helps and rules against Satan’s devices. 

1. Walk by rule. He that thinks himself to good to be ruled by the Word, will be found too bad to be owned by God; and if God do not, or will not own him, Satan will by his strategems overthrow him.
2. Take heed of vexing and grieving the Holy Spirit. Only he can discover Satan’s snares; if you be without him, by whom will you be secured? It is only the Spirit that makes a man too great for Satan to conquer. “Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” (1 Jn 4:4)
3. Labor for more heavenly wisdom. It is not the most knowing Christian, but the most wise Christian, that sees, avoids, and escapes Satan’s snares.
4. Make present resistance against Satan’s first motions. It is safe to resist, it is dangerous to dispute—consider Eve. He that will play with Satan’s bait, will quickly be taken by Satan’s hook. The promise of conquest is made over to resisting, not disputing: “resist the devil, and he will fly from you.” (James 4:7)
5. Labor to be filled with the Spirit. He that thinks he has enough of the Holy Spirit will quickly find himself vanquished by the evil spirit.
6. Keep humble. A humble heart will rather lie in the dust than rise by wickedness, and sooner part with all than the peace of a good conscience. Humility keeps the soul free from many darts of Satan’s casting; the devil has least power to fasten a temptation on him that is most humble. He that has a gracious measure of humility, is neither affected with Satan’s proffers nor terrified with his threats.
7. Keep a strong, close and constant watch. (1 Thess 5:6) A secure soul is already an ensnared soul. Satan works most strongly on the fancy when the soul is drowsy. The best way to be safe and secure from all Satan’s assaults is, with Nehemiah and the Jews, to watch and pray, and pray and watch.  Satan always keeps a crafty and malicious watch, “seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8); shall not Christians keep a holy watch? Watchfulness is a continual, careful observing of our hearts and ways, in all the turnings of our lives, that we still keep close to God and his Word. A watchful soul is a soul upon the wings, a soul out of gun-shot, a soul upon a rock, a soul in a castle, a soul above the clouds, a soul held fast in everlasting arms.
8. Keep your communion with God. Your strength to stand and withstand Satan’s fiery darts is from your communion with God. A soul high in communion with God may be tempted, but it will not easily be conquered. Such a soul will fight it out to the death. Communion is the result of union; it is a reciprocal exchange between Christ and a gracious soul. Job keeps up his communion with God, and conquers Satan upon the dughill; Adam loses his communion with God, and is conquered by Satan in paradise. Communion with God is a shield upon land, as well as an anchor at sea; it is a sword to defend you, as well as a staff to support you; therefore keep up your communion.
9. Engage not against Satan in your own strength, but be every day drawing new virtue and strength from the Lord Jesus. Ah, souls! When the snare is spread, look up to Jesus Christ, who is lifted up in the gospel, as the brazen serpent was in the wilderness, and say to him, Dear Lord! Here is a new snare laid to catch my soul, and grace formerly received, without fresh supplies from thy blessed bosom, will not deliver me from this snare. Oh! Give me new strength, new power, new influences, new measures of grace, that I may escape the snares. You must lean more upon Christ than upon your spiritual tastes and discoveries; you must lean more upon Christ than upon your graces, or else Satan will lead you into captivity.
10. Be much in prayer. Prayer is a shelter to the soul, a sacrifice to God and a scourge to the devil. Ah, souls! Take words to yourselves, and tell God that Satan has spread his snares in all places and in all companies; tell God that he digs deep, and that he has plot upon plot, and device upon device, and all to undo you; tell God that you have neither skill nor power to escape his snares; tell God that it is a work too high and too hard for any created creature to work your deliverance, unless he put under his own everlasting arms; tell God how his honor is engaged to stand by you, and to bring you off, that you be not ruined by his plots; tell God how the wicked would triumph, should you fall into Satan’s snares; tell God of the love of Christ, of the blood of Christ, and of the intercession of Christ for you, that a way may be found for your escape; tell God that if he will make it his honor to save you from falling into Satan’s snares, you will make it your glory to speak of his goodness and live out his kindness.

The last use of this point is, to bespeak Christians to long to be at home. Oh! How should the consideration of these things work all your souls to say with the church, “make haste, my beloved, and be like a roe, or a young hart upon the mountain of spices”, and to love, and look, and long for the coming of Christ. Shall the espoused maid long for the marriage day? The servant for his freedom? The captive for his ransom? The traveler for his inn, and the mariner for his harbor? And shall not the people of the Lord long much more to be in the bosom of Christ?

God is like a wizard…

I’ve been wrestling with this passage. Thanks, Spurgeon.

“We know that all things work together for good to them that love God.”

Romans 8:28

Upon some points a believer is absolutely sure. He knows, for instance, that God sits in the stern-sheets of the vessel when it rocks most. He believes that an invisible hand is always on the world’s tiller, and that wherever providence may drift, Jehovah steers it. That re-assuring knowledge prepares him for everything. He looks over the raging waters and sees the spirit of Jesus treading the billows, and he hears a voice saying, “It is I, be not afraid.” He knows too that God is always wise, and, knowing this, he is confident that there can be no accidents, no mistakes; that nothing can occur which ought not to arise. He can say, “If I should lose all I have, it is better that I should lose than have, if God so wills: the worst calamity is the wisest and the kindest thing that could befall to me if God ordains it.” “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God.” The Christian does not merely hold this as a theory, but he knows it as a matter of fact. Everything has worked for good as yet; the poisonous drugs mixed in fit proportions have worked the cure; the sharp cuts of the lancet have cleansed out the proud flesh and facilitated the healing. Every event as yet has worked out the most divinely blessed results; and so, believing that God rules all, that He governs wisely, that He brings good out of evil, the believer’s heart is assured, and he is enabled calmly to meet each trial as it comes. The believer can in the spirit of true resignation pray, “Send me what thou wilt, my God, so long as it comes from Thee; never came there an ill portion from Thy table to any of Thy children.”

“Say not my soul, ‘From whence can God relieve my care?

Remember that Omnipotence has servants everywhere.

His method is sublime, His heart profoundly kind,

God never is before His time, and never is behind.’”