This is a prayer for one of the most feared things: Wrath.

"Then i looked and saw that the Temple in Heaven, God's Tabernacle, was thrown wide open. The seven angels who were holding the seven plagues came out of the Temple. They were clothed in spotless white lenin with gold sashes across their chests. Then one of the four living beings handed each of the seven angels a gold bowl filled with the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever. The Temple was filled with smoke from God's glory and power. No one could enter the Temple until the seven angels had completed pouring out the seven plagues." Revelation 15:5-8

This prayer is said through a mind that is training itself to fear You. I am learning to cling to anything and everything that will keep my body from sin! In this case, the motive is WRATH..God Almighty's WRATH. And this prayer was spoken humbly and most seriously at the feet of it's keeper...face down on the feet of my Savior.

All powerful God-
I am unaccustomed to the vivid descriptions of your anger in judgment. It discusts me to think of human body being crushed like grapes in a winepress. (as stated in Rev. 14:19). But i know this is the picture you are painting for my mind...a morbid, Truthful fate of those who choose to ignore Your Truth! When i ask for your wrath Lord, i ask for understanding. I ask for a comprehension! Scare me straight! I'm tired of focusing on the gentleness of your character- and im ready to face the idea of your horrific power! I am called to fear you, yet i fear you on a level of blindness. I am called to need your mercy, yet i am unwilling to face the necessity of Your Judgement!
Like seven mighty angels splashing contents from bowls of wrath onto the nations, spill Your grace onto my exposed shoulders. I need grace for my mind to understand your Wrath. I need this God, because i know that i will never see how desperate i am for your mercy if i do not face the immensity of Your Judgment! I will not search out your grace as if i have been without food or drink in days- unless i can truly and honestly take to heart your crushing wrath! Show us your wrath and throw open your Temple in Heaven! May your power and glory billow out in clouds of smoke around me. Send forth your mighty messangers clothed in white linen. Manifest this in my heart. Engrave it deep in my brain to where I understand its importance. May i be frantic in my persuit for you because i know the consequence! Not the eternal torcher of an enemy, or the suffication from darkness...but the hopeless reality of a life separated from the most glorious thing to ever be. Soverign Lord Jesus.
I rejoice in your Justice God! And as i witness your great wrath take place in my own life- keep your feet close for landing tears. Stay in sight, for my hopeful eyes are rising to You daily. Lend your ear to my cry, for even as my bones weaken, my dying breath will be a song of praise to You. Open your hands for my ever-hungering soul- for if i am not fed by You- the hands of the world will gladly and quickly feed me lies. Lift me when i fall beneath the weight of my load. Place Your deeds readily on my tongue, for i will proclaim Your greatness, for it is beyond discovery! Your mercy reaches each generation. You are majestic, glorious, splendor. May this praise song always lift me from an earthly perspective to a heavenly one. Prepare my heart to recieve your Love and power. You're so endless. So perfectly whole. Do refreshingly pure. So eternal. You beautify all that adores you. You're lasting, so willing, so stable, so complete.
So once again, i ask for your understanding of Wrath. May it at least strengthen the glue to which my heart seals The Truth on. This is the prayer of my heart. Thank you for not reading these words as intently as reading the words my heart expresses, for the translation, i know, gets distorted somewhere between my heart and mind translating to english and out of my mouth and fingers. Your grace is enough isn't it! In Jesus' precious Name, so be it.

This study comes from a reading from the infamous book, "My Utmost for His Highest" by O.Chambers.

"But we do not earn anything through faith- faith brings us into the right relationship with God and gives Him His opportunity to work." -Chambers

What is your reason or motivation for doing "the right thing." A lot of times my reasoning is simple..I do it because it will pave the way to the most blessed route possible. I will most joyful, most blessed, most content, most at peace if I would just do it God's way. But if that is the only motive and inspiration to my doing "the right thing" then i am completely missing the point of it all. Jesus.

My eyes need to be on forever on The Lord- not His amazing blessings.

This is confirmed in Oswald's follwoing statements:

"GoD WaNtS YoU tO UnderStanD That IT iS A LiFe Of FAITH- NoT A LiFe oF EmoTionAl EnjoYmeNt Of HiS BleSsInGs...."

"....FAITH, as the Bible teaches it, is faith in God coming against everything that contradicts Him."

Oswald testifies that the greatest expression of faith in the whole bible comes from Job 13:15:

"ThOuGH He MaY SlaY mE, Yet i TrUst HIM."

"He who has an ear.." revelation

It's an amazing thing. You can hear something a thousand times until it finally seeps in. "He who has an ear, let him hear..." (Revelation). I can't explain how many times i've heard this spoken to me in the last few weeks. But i finally got it.

I am starting to learn the value of God's Word. Isn't that rediculous to say...I claim to be a Christian, yet I am admitting to seeing the Bible as less than what it is? Yuck-

Hebrews 2:1 says, "It's CRUCIAL that we keep a firm grip on what we've heard..."

I can in all seriousness say that the only words i would be willing to risk and take my life on, are the words carefully written in the Bible.

So what the heck am i doing?!?! I often live a life that looks like I am completely willing to stake it all on this fallen world...for what? To be comforted and swooned back into the arms of another temperary pleasure that leaves me steps behind where I started? What's the point?! Where's my integrity? Where's my vow?

"Since the children are made of flesh and blood, it's logical that the Savior took on flesh and blood in order to rescue them by his death. By embracing death, taking it into himself, he destroyed the devil's hold on death and freed all who cower through life, scared to death of death. It is obvious, of course, that he didn't go to all this trouble for angels. It was for people like us, children of Abraham. That's why he had to enter into every detail of human life. Then, when he came before God as high priest to get rid of the people's sins, he would have already experienced it all himself- all the pain, all the testing- and would be able to help where help was needed."- Heb. 2. 14-18

This is the Truth. This is MY heart. This is what my ears hear, and my mind and body so often rejects. Thankfully The Lord has an answer....

LISTEN, HEAR, OBEY! OPEN UP YOUR FREAKIN EARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"it's crucial that we keep a firm grip on what we've heard so that we don't drift off."- hebrews 2:1

I need to keep my ears open! Chapter 3 says, "TODAY please listen! Don't turn a deaf ear...." if i keep my ears open, i'll be able to better resist the temptation to settle in this world. I need to train myself to listen and obey the binding messages spoken by God. Heb 2:2.

..just expressing a thought tonight....hope it made any sort of sense...

God Disciplines His Sons

SIMPLE CORRECTIONS IN PERSPECTIVE

WORDS FROM HEBREWS 12:1-7

"therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sun that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fic our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition form sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

iN YoUr StruGgle AgaInsT SIN, YoU HavE Not YeT ResISteD to THe POinT oF SheDDinG yOUr BLOOD.

And you have forgotten that word of encouragment that addresses you as sons: 'My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts and a son.'

eNDure hARdsHiP aS dIsciPLinE; GOD Is treATiNg yOU as sOns.

This blog comes from a devotional that I recieve daily from a pastor at Church on the Hill in McMinnville, Oregon.

June 13 The Best of the Best Hebrews 7:4
Entry: 2/24/2006

4 Just think how great he was: Even the patriarch Abraham gave him a tenth of the plunder!

Have you ever invited someone to do something with you and you hoped and prayed it turned out as you promised? Have you ever been promised certain things only to walk away disappointed? Several years ago my wife and I flew to Boise, Idaho for her grandmothers 80th birthday. My wife’s cousin Amos is a highly social and excitable guy. I love being around his contagious energy. For year he had been telling me about the great duck hunting in his home state of Idaho so I finally decided to take him up on his offer. The plan was to wake up at 3:00 a.m. and drive two hours to his favorite hunting spot out of King Hill, Idaho, hunt until 9:00 and then drive back in order to get to his grandma’s birthday party at 12:00!


On this particular morning he was like a dog seeing his master after a week’s absence as we woke up, made a thermos of coffee and Amos, my brother-in-law Chad, and I took off in his Chevy Truck. He was so pumped he decided he would call in the ducks for us and let us take the first shots. By 9:00 we had 21 Mallard dunks and Pintail in the bag! It was a hunt to remember. Amos gave us the best of his best.

Read the New American Standard Bible version of this verse: “Now observe how great this man was to whom Abraham, the patriarch, gave a tenth of the choicest spoils.”

Abraham must have known he was in the presence of God (or at least someone much greater) in this Melchizedek. He gave him the “choicest spoils.” He gave him the best of his best. He gave him the cream that rose to the top. It is easy to be like Cain who gave God his leftovers, but rich blessing awaits those who give God the first offering of their very best.

Make your first check to God.

Make your first meal off His Word.

Make your first words of the day up to heaven.

Give him the very best of your very best and the very first of your very first.


Jim Ramos
Student Ministries Pastor
503-472-8476
Church on the Hill
Check Out Our Website
www.hillchurch.com

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have recieved from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.

2 Corinthians 1:3-7

WHERE DO YOU TYPICALLY TURN TO FOR COMFORT WHEN YOU'RE IN TROUBLE OR DISTRESS?

FOOD?
CLEANING?
HOBBIES?
PEOPLE: RELATIONSHIP, FRIENDS, PARENTS?
SHOPPING?
READING?
WORKING OUT?
ETC...

You fill in the blank. Now, if we're going to be honest here...We all have our tendancies to do anything other than turn to The Comforter in our times of distress and trouble. Am i right? But here's the thing.... 2 cori 1:3&4 state:

" ...THE GOD OF ALL COMFORT, WHO COMFORTS US IN ALL OUR TROUBLES..."

He isn't the god of some comfort....He's the God of ALLLLLL comfort.

Turning to anything in a time of trouble or distress that isn't going to fill you with the comforting spirit of the Lord is going to fill you with false deception. You'll either think your strong enough to comfort and calm yourself, or you'll be filling space in your vulnerable heart for something of this world. And if you truly desire to be transformed...to reflect the heart of Jesus...you will do anything and everything in your power to keep the decieving schemes of this world out of your heart.

IT IS FOOLISH TO TURN TO ANYTHING OTHER THAN GOD IN A TIME OF DISTRESS OR TROUBLE SINCE HE IS THE GOD OF ALL COMFORT. Turning to anything else is idolatry. You are idolizing something else, placing it higher than Almighty God.

Choosing to recieve the comfort of Christ...

Not only will you be resisting the devil in a time where 9 out of 10 times he wins..., you will be giving the Lord reign in your heart to intimately come and comfort you more deeply than you've ever felt! Giving you clarity, peace of mind, understanding and as it is pointed out in the verse "patient endurance."

"..it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance."

Just as a bruise is more tender on the surface on your your skin- so your heart will be to the presence of God in a time of distress.

There is many more benefits to this scripture as you can see without my stressing them.

Dear Comforter,
this is such an important truth. God i ask that you would bless this scripture to our hearts. Stamp it firmly on our minds and hearts and the tips of our tongues so that we can react according to Your Word, and not our own selfish impulses. Most of all, make it simple, clear and easy for us to turn to you in times of distress. Drive the devil away in times where we are prone to fall in his scheme, so that your presence can flood our hearts. In Jesus Name, amen.

The woman who has done the most and best praying is the most immortal, because prayers do not die. Perhaps the lips that uttered them are closed in death, or the heart that felt them may have ceased to beat, but the prayers live before God, and God’s heart is set on them. Prayers outlive the lives of those who uttered them- outlive a generation, outlive an age, outlive a world. E.M. Bounds