Dig Deep!

By Philip Martin

This morning, during my devotional time, I came across these words in Streams in the Desert by Mrs. Charles Cowman: “For behold, I am for you, and I will turn unto you, and ye shall be tilled and sown.”1 At first when I read that verse I thought it was a translation of the Bible other than the King James Version (KJV) that I am familiar with, so I checked to make sure that it was the KJV. And sure enough, there it was, exactly as it was printed in the book.

Many times when I’m reading the Word and something jumps out and catches my attention, I start dissecting it and breaking it down, or maybe a better expression would be I “chew the cud” to get all I can out of it.

I saw that this verse really contained four independent yet interconnected thoughts.



“For behold, I am for you”

The first thing I need to know and be reminded of continually is that God is “for me.” He’s not working against me. Like the concept of Romans 8:28: “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

Maria Fountaine has written:

In order to come through our many trials, difficulties, battles, and temptations victoriously, it is imperative that we make this promise in Romans 8:28 a vital part of our life.

If we don’t send the events of our daily lives through the filter of Romans 8:28, if we don’t constantly view our disappointments, hurts, tests, illnesses, opposition, battles, etc., through the perspective that Romans 8:28 gives us, we will sadly miss many valuable lessons the Lord is trying to teach us. And we will rob ourselves of the peace that comes from absolute trust in this precious promise and principle.

If we learn the simple equation, “Trials equal good,” our lives will be richer, our lessons greater, and our minds more tranquil, and we will more easily recognize the Lord's hand in the events of our lives. It makes all the difference in the world whether we look at a flood of problems, trials, battles and tribulations just waiting to see the worst happen, or if we look at them with the excitement and challenge that comes from waiting to discover all the good we know the Lord will bring out of them.—Maria Fontaine2

This is the first step, the attitude we need to possess.



“I will turn unto you”

Once I have that trust in God’s love and I know that He is “for me,” and I know that all things really do work together for good, God is going to “turn unto me.” Another way of saying this is that He’s going to look at me and give me His attention, as if to say, “Now that you know I’m on your side, I can start working with you. You’re someone I can trust and use and invest in.”

At this point the pace starts to pick up. So, now we know that He is for us, He has our attention and is turned to us. What’s He going to do?



“Ye shall be tilled”

I shall be what? Tilled. Plowed. Cultivated. Cut open, dug into, and turned upside down. Basically what God is saying here is that because He is on my side He’s going to cause a major upheaval in my life. Wow! “Wait a minute. Because You love me and have my attention and I know You’re on my side, You’re going to turn my world upside down and inside out?” Yes! Exactly! Because we have that confidence in Him, we will know and trust that it is for our good.

Mrs. Cowman beautifully expresses it this way: “The ploughman is a proof that He thinks you are of value and worth cultivating, and He does not waste His ploughing on the barren sand… God does not use the plough and harrow without intention!”

In his book, A Gardener Looks at the Fruits of the Spirit, in the chapter entitled, “Productive People; Good Ground,” Philip Keller says:

Although we are not naturally “good ground,” none of us is too tough for God, the Good Gardener, to tackle. In spite of our perverseness, pride, and pollution, He can transform us from a wasteland to a well-watered garden. We should want it that way. It does not come easily. It does not happen in a single day. The digging, the clearing, the cultivation may seem to us to be devastating; the disciplining of our souls may seem severe. Yet afterwards it produces the peaceable fruits of His own planting.[3]

Too many of us as Christians are content to remain wild wasteland. We much prefer to stay untouched by God’s good hand. In fact, we are frightened of having our little lives turned over by the deep work of His convicting Spirit. We don’t want the shearing, cutting, powerful thrust of His Word to lay us open to the sunlight of His own presence. We prefer to remain weedy ground and stony soil—or pathetic pathway people.

We delude ourselves into thinking that out of our old unchanged characters and dispositions somehow a good crop is coming forth. It simply cannot be. You simply do not gather grapes from a thistle patch nor figs from wild brambles. And the good gardener does not even come there looking for fruit. It is strictly a no-crop condition. It is a total loss to both us and God.

In a good garden there are no spots still littered with stones. There are no odd corners cluttered and choked with weeds. There are no beaten paths where nothing at all can grow. All the ground has to be tilled. All the soil must finally be fitted for fruitfulness.

It will take time to do this. But it must be done. The Spirit of God is very persistent. The Good Gardener must have full management. Christ comes to take over every area made arable.

Mrs. Cowman concludes her section with, “He will not plough continually, but only for a time, and for a definite purpose.”



“Ye shall be … sown”

Now what, Lord? Mrs. Cowman goes on to say: “God does not use the plough and harrow without intention. Where God ploughs, He intends to sow. His ploughing is proof He is for, and not against us! The husbandman is never so near the land as when he is ploughing it.” The very time we are tempted to think He has forsaken us because our world is falling apart around our ears, He is actually working closest with us, and we have to trust His love in those times.

Philip Keller puts it this way:

The extent to which a piece of good ground has received and responded to good sowing is eventually demonstrated by how little soil shows. The entire area planted will be taken over, covered and smothered in a luxuriance of green growth. The onlooker will see, not the soil, but the bountiful produce on it. So with our lives, if in truth we have received the good Word, and the very life of Christ flourishes, it is the fruitage of His character, the fragrance of His conduct that will be evident to those around us.

What is God’s end purpose in all of this? Mrs. Cowman said, “The entire purpose of this entire process of upheaval, tilling, plowing, cultivating, sowing, watering, pruning, weeding is to bear fruit.”

I now know that the changes I have gone through recently were the Lord’s catalyst that got things moving, the break shot that scattered the balls so that they could be in the positions needed to be used more greatly of the Lord. I know these changes were engineered by the Lord for my spiritual growth and the furtherance of His kingdom. Prior to the “plowing” I felt as if I was losing my fruitfulness. Life was getting dangerously predictable and routine, but the upheaval and consequent uprooting of my entire life changed all that. Through this upheaval my entire walk with the Lord has changed. New fruit is starting to show up on my old branches. New buds of life are coming forth. I feel a new awakening.

By the grace and strength of God I want my heartcry at this special time in my life not to be a lamentable, sorrowful, “How long, how long, O Lord, must I suffer this? Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus.” But rather, “Dig deep, dear Lord! Dig deep! Whatever it takes to make my heart fertile, fruit-bearing ground again for Your Word to take effect, I give You permission to work. Leave nothing unturned, no clump hard and unbroken, remove any rocks and bring the garden of my heart back to full fruition. Help me desire only Your golden seeds of truth and not to accept the genetically modified spiritual seeds of the enemy which are destroying the spiritual food chain of the world.”

*

We cannot have the result of the harvest without the process. The price must be paid.—Linda Cowman

*

Oh God, wert Thou plowing
Thy profitless earth
With the brave plow of love,
And the sharp plow of pain?
But hark to the mirth
Of wheat field in harvest!
—Author unknown

*

Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.—Hosea 10:12


1 Ezekiel 36:9.

2 http://anchor.tfionline.com/post/trials-equal-good.

3 See Hebrews 12:10–11.

Read More

Meu Redentor É Fiel e Verdadeiro

Steve Hearts

Hoje eu acordei angustiado com situações que minha família e eu precisamos resolver. São problemas financeiros, questões familiares pendentes, incerteza quanto à moradia, etc. Parecia que eu estava atravessando um túnel longo e escuro. “Até quando?”— eu pensava. “Como vai ser possível resolver tudo isto?”

Na tentativa de impulsionar a minha fé, parei para louvar o Senhor e ouvir a canção “My Redeemer Is Faithful and True” (Meu Redentor É Fiel e Verdadeiro), de Steven Curtis Chapman.

Revendo o caminho percorrido
Vejo Deus me levando nos braços.
E algo que aprendi nesta vida,
É que o Redentor é fiel e verdadeiro.

Meu redentor é fiel e verdadeiro.
E vai cumprir a Sua Palavra.
Sua misericórdia se renova cada dia.
Meu redentor é fiel e verdadeiro.

Nesse momento comecei a percorrer o caminho das lembranças, relembrando as ocasiões em que Deus Se provou fiel e verdadeiro apesar da incerteza que eu sentia no início.

Voltei alguns anos atrás, quando a nossa conta de energia foi bastante alta e não fazíamos ideia de como pagá-la. Recorremos ao Senhor, na certeza de que Ele estava no controle. Dois dias depois, recebi um e-mail de uma colaboradora do nosso trabalho missionário dizendo que querida nos dar a quantia recebida como restituição do imposto de renda. Graças a essa doação nós saldar nossa conta.

Quando eu tinha onze anos de idade fizemos uma viagem missionária da Califórnia ao Texas. Pouco tempo antes de termos que voltar para a Califórnia, meu irmão teve um sério acidente com uma serra e ficou gravemente ferido na mão. Precisava de uma cirurgia imediata, mas o nosso plano de saúde não cobria a região do Texas e não tínhamos recursos para voltar à Califórnia, onde poderíamos usar nosso plano. Logicamente ficamos de joelhos diante do Senhor, e graças à ajuda financeira de familiares e amigos, meu pai e irmão embarcaram em um voo para a Califórnia onde a cirurgia foi realizada com sucesso!

Durante o tempo que vivemos nos EUA, três veículos nossos foram furtados. Toda vez a polícia não nos deu muita esperança de que encontraríamos os carros. Mesmo assim, um testemunho do poder da oração e da fidelidade do Senhor, os três veículos foram encontrados alguns dias após o furto.

Fiquei lembrando essas coisas, ouvindo a canção, e o Senhor me disse: “Por acaso Eu falhei a você em algumas dessas situações?”

“Não, Senhor. Você foi fiel.”

“Então por que você acha que desta vez vou desampará-lo, homem de pouca fé?” Ele não falou isso de uma maneira reconfortante, não crítica.

Ficou claro que eu não estava me esquecendo da fidelidade, amor, e cuidado de Deus no passado, o que explica o motivo de eu ter acordado tão apreensivo. O Senhor me mostrou que recordar regularmente o Seu amor e fidelidade daria um grande impulso à minha fé nos momentos em que o futuro não me parece tão promissor.

A incredulidade dos filhos de Israel em Deus se devia ao fato de não levarem em conta todo o amor e atenção que Deus sempre lhes concedia. “Não se lembravam da sua mão poderosa, do dia em que os redimiu do opressor.”[1]

Quando reflito no passado, tenho a tendência de ser mais negativo do que positivo. Mas essa atitude vai mudar, graças a este passeio que fiz esta manhã pelo caminho das memórias. Agora, nos momentos de incerteza e ansiedade, vou pensar na maneira como Deus foi fiel comigo, e me lembrar de que “o meu redentor é fiel e verdadeiro.”

Tradução Hebe Rondon Flandoli.


[1] Salmo 78:42.

Read More

Taking the Stand

Words from Jesus

Faith perseveres to the end. It takes “the stand of faith,” and it is not an effortless one. After you know something is My will, you know My Word grants you the authority for it, and you can claim My promises and take a stand of faith.

Winds and rain and storms of adverse circumstances may come and push you away from the spot you were standing on for a moment. Circumstances and conditions may make it seem as if your stand is impossible, that you should give up‚ or settle for less than the best, or compromise just a little. But if you have faith and know and trust My will and My Word, you will reclaim and resume your stand of faith, being fully assured that what I have promised, I am able to perform.1

You will be like Job, who, even though he lost wealth and health and family, was still able to say, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him!”2 You will be like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego‚ who, even though they were about to be tossed into the furnace, said, “Our God in whom we trust is able to deliver us. But if He doesn’t, we’ll trust Him anyway!”3 You will be like Abraham, who staggered not at My promise through unbelief, but trusted that I would raise him up a child, even though he was as good as dead‚ and that I would raise that child from the dead if need be.4

You will be like Martha, who continued to believe in spite of Lazarus dying and being in the grave for four days.5 You will be like Paul on his voyage to Rome, trusting in My words to him and My deliverance, even though the storm had raged around him for days.6 You will be like Joshua, who was willing to merely march his men around Jericho for a week, trusting Me to do the miracle of bringing down the walls.7 This is the stand of faith.

To have faith, make sure that something is My will, that My Word grants you the power for it, that you are striving to live in obedience to My Word, that you are willing to persevere to the end, and take the stand of faith—despite the sight of your eyes, the reasoning of your mind, or the conditions and circumstances. Then, having done all this‚ stand.8 If you are moved by adverse circumstances, determine to go back and resume your stand. If you do, you will eventually see the answer to your prayers and the good fruit of your faith. You’ll join My other servants who exercised their faith and stood on their faith in My hall of fame in Hebrews 11—the faithful ones‚ those who were full of faith. Read it often to encourage your faith, and claim its promises and the other promises I have given you through My Word.

These men and women of old were men and women just like you—men and women full of faults and failings‚ with like passions, like sins, like shortcomings. But they made the decision to trust Me and to have faith. Sometimes their stand of faith went against every evidence of their senses, or every voice of their friends and family—but they stood anyway‚ they trusted anyway, and they received the promise. They took the stand of faith, determined to please Me and determined to believe My Word—and they were rewarded for their faith. According to your faith be it done to you.9 Those of great faith will receive great answers.

*

Remember‚ faith is the evidence of things not seen.10 That means that when you have faith, that faith is the proof that an answer is on its way. Like a detective on a case‚ each bit of evidence is a clue leading him to the final answer of the mystery. Your active daily faith is the evidence that will lead you to God’s response to your every need.


The faith workout

The greatest increase to your faith comes through the Word. Faith is built through your intake of My Word. As you learn to drink it in and absorb it, making it a part of your life, the Word will enlarge your faith.

Learning to set aside the time to spend with Me and being faithful to take that time regularly is the most basic step in your faith-strengthening program. That aspect of your faith-building program is akin to signing up for a workout program and then showing up each day at the gym. But really getting a good workout goes beyond just showing up; you have to actually follow the workout regimen if you expect to see results. You have to be committed to lift weights to increase your strength, to do something to get your heart pumping in order to feel the benefits of a cardiovascular workout. Often it means pushing yourself a little more than you feel you’re capable of, which will gradually increase your strength and stamina.

The same can be applied to your faith. Just reading the Word will benefit you to a degree, but in order to get the full spiritual workout that you need that will increase your faith muscles, it takes focusing‚ studying it, and putting your energies toward finding that truth that I want to speak to you about for the day.

The Word is the basis of faith enhancement, and when you find that your faith is running low or just doesn’t seem to be as strong or progressively growing as it should be, that’s a good place to start for a faith workout program.

Living in faith

Faith is more than just an action; faith is a way of living, the reason you live, and the substance within you that compels you to live for Me. Faith is the substance. Faith is the evidence of things not yet seen.11

Living in faith is actively living My Word. The more you fight to live by the standards in My Word, the more your faith is strengthened. Then as you pass those daily tests of faith, your ability to depend on your faith grows‚ so that when greater tests or needs arise, you will be able to meet those with a stronger stand of faith.

That’s how you will be ready to take on the tests and challenges of the future—by living in faith today.




An old Scotsman operated a little rowboat for transporting passengers. One day a passenger noticed that the good old man had carved on one oar the word “Faith” and on the other oar the word “Works.” Curiosity led him to ask the meaning of this. The old man, being a well-balanced Christian and glad of the opportunity for testimony, said, “I will show you.”

So saying, he dropped one oar and plied the other called “Works‚” and they just went around in circles. Then he dropped that oar and began to ply the oar called “Faith,” and the little boat just went around in circles again—this time the other way around‚ but still in a circle.

After this demonstration the old man picked up “Faith” and “Works,” and plying both oars together, sped swiftly over the water, explaining to his inquiring passenger, “You see, that is the way it is in the Christian life. Dead works without faith are useless, and ‘faith without works is dead’ also, getting you nowhere. But faith and works pulling together make for safety, progress, and blessing.”
—Paul Lee Tan



Originally published October 2006. Updated and republished October 2013.
Read by Simon Peterson. Music by Daniel Sozzi.


1 Romans 4:21.

2 Job 13:15.

3 Daniel 3:17–18.

4 Romans 4:16–21; Hebrews 11:17–19.

5 John 11:21–22.

6 Acts 27:22–25.

7 Joshua 6.

8 Ephesians 6:13.

9 Matthew 9:29.

10 Hebrews 11:1.

11 Hebrews 11:1,

Read More

How the Law is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful: Noam Chomsky & Glenn Greenwald

Read More

John Perkins - The Secret History of the American Empire

Read More

Decline of Empires: The Signs of Decay!

Read More

Noam Chomsky on Pope Francis

Read More

Resgate - Irena Sendler

Durante a 2ª Guerra Mundial, Irena conseguiu uma autorização para trabalhar no Gueto de Varsóvia, como especialista de canalizações. Mas os seus planos iam mais além... Sabia quais eram os planos dos nazis relativamente aos judeus (sendo alemã!).

Irena trazia crianças escondidas no fundo da sua caixa de ferramentas e levava um saco de sarapilheira na parte de trás da sua caminhonete (para crianças de maior tamanho).

Também levava na parte de trás da camioneta um cão, a quem ensinara a ladrar aos soldados nazis quando entrava e saia do Gueto. Claro que os soldados não queriam nada com o cão e o ladrar deste encobriria qualquer ruído que os meninos pudessem fazer.
Enquanto pôde manter este trabalho, conseguiu retirar e salvar cerca de 2500 crianças.

Por fim os nazis apanharam-na. Souberam dessas atividades e em 20 de Outubro de 1943 Irena Sendler foi presa pela Gestapo e levada para a infameprisãode Pawiak, onde foi brutalmentetorturada.Num colchão de palha, encontrou uma pequena estampa deJesus com a inscrição: “Jesus, em Vós confio”, e conservou-a consigo até 1979, quando a ofereceu aoPapa João Paulo II.

Ela, a única que sabia os nomes e moradas das famílias que albergavam crianças judias, suportou a tortura e negou trair seus colaboradores ou as crianças ocultas. Quebraram-lhe os ossos dos pés e das pernas, mas não conseguiram quebrar a sua determinação. Já recuperada foi, no entanto, condenada à morte.

Enquanto esperava pela execução, umsoldadoalemão levou-a para um "interrogatório adicional". Ao sair, ele gritou-lhe em polaco: "Corra!".

Esperando ser baleada pelas costas, Irena, contudo, correu por uma porta lateral e fugiu, escondendo-se nos becos cobertos de neve até ter certeza de que não fora seguida. No dia seguinte, já abrigada entre amigos, Irena encontrou o seu nome na lista de polacos executados que os alemães publicavam nos jornais.

Os membros da organização Żegota("Resgate") tinham conseguido deter a execução de Irena, subornando os alemães e Irena continuou a trabalhar com uma identidade falsa.

Irena mantinha um registo com o nome de todas as crianças que conseguiu retirar do Gueto, guardadas num frasco de vidro enterrado debaixo de uma árvore no seu jardim.

Depois de terminada a guerra tentou localizar os pais que tivessem sobrevivido e reunir a família. A maioria tinha sido levada para as câmaras de gás. Para aqueles que tinham perdido os pais, ajudou a encontrar casas de acolhimento ou pais adotivos.

Em 2006 foi proposta para receber o Prêmio Nobel da Paz... mas não foi selecionada. Quem o recebeu foi Al Gore por sua campanha sobre o Aquecimento Global.

Passaram já mais de 60 anos, desde que terminou a 2ª Guerra Mundial na Europa. Este e-mail será reenviado como uma cadeia comemorativa, em memória dos 6 milhões de judeus, 20 milhões de russos, 10 milhões de cristãos (inclusive 1.900 sacerdotes católicos ), 500 mil ciganos, centenas de milhares de socialistas, comunistas e democratas e milhares de deficientes físicos e mentais e que foram assassinados, massacrados, violados, mortos à fome e humilhados, com os povos do mundo muitas vezes olhando para o outro lado...

Agora, mais do que nunca, com o recrudescimento do racismo, da discriminação e os massacres de milhões civis em conflitos e guerras sem fim em todos os continentes, é imperativo assegurar que o Mundo nunca esqueça. Gente como Irena Sendler, que salvou milhares de vidas praticamente sozinha, é extremamente necessária.



"A razão pela qual resgatei as crianças tem origem no meu lar, na minha infância.

Fui educada na crença de que uma pessoa necessitada deve ser ajudada com o coração, sem importar a sua religião ou nacionalidade." - Irena Sendler

"Qualquer coisa que você aceite plenamente o conduzirá à paz.” Eckhart Toll

Read More

90-year-old Israeli peacemaker asks if Israel will exist in 90 years

By Ben Lynfield, CS Monitor, October 27, 2013

Jerusalem—As a young soldier wounded towards the end of Israel’s War of Independence, Uri Avnery had plenty of time to think about the meaning of the 1947-49 fighting from which Israelis gained a state and Palestinians became refugees.

He reached conclusions that were derisively dismissed by mainstream opinion and leaders at the time but are now part of an international near-consensus that a two-state solution is the way to resolve the conflict.

"I came out of the war totally convinced that one: we need peace, two: there exists a Palestinian people, and three: that making peace with the Palestinians means to have a Palestinian state next to Israel," he said.

On the wall of Avnery’s Tel Aviv apartment is a picture of him interviewing Palestinian Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat at the height of Israel’s siege of Beirut in 1982, perhaps Avnery’s most dramatic act in pursuit of the peace compromise he pushed as editor of the Haolam Hazeh (“This world”) magazine, as a member of the Knesset from 1965 to 1975, and to this day in his weekly columns on behalf of the small Gush Shalom peace movement.

Hawks called for him to be tried for treason, but Avnery believes the Beirut meeting paved the way for the Oslo Accords, clinched by a handshake between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Mr. Arafat on the White House lawn in 1993.

"I see my job in the last 60 years as changing the mutual perceptions of Israelis and Palestinians. The first thing needed to make peace is to respect the other side, to see the other side in human terms, as an enemy but not as demonic." he says.

Avnery celebrated his 90th birthday last month, and he is marking it today with a panel discussion on the topic “Will Israel Exist Ninety Years from Now?”

Today there are growing doubts about whether the two-state solution Avnery supports will ever materialize, especially in light of continued Israeli settlement of the territory of the would-be Palestinian state. The Israeli left, which favors an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, has not regained the support it lost amid the suicide bombings of the second intifada in the early 2000s and the wide perception among Israelis that the Palestinians rejected generous peace offers.

Avnery rejects the idea that the number of settlers—there are currently 550,000 in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, intended to be the capital of a future Palestinian state—will soon reach a critical mass that makes territorial withdrawal impossible.

"You need a very strong government [to evacuate the settlers] but it can be done," he says.

However, Danny Dayan, foreign affairs envoy of the Yesha Council, which represents the settlers in the West Bank, says the two-state solution “was never achievable.”

"It is depressing because Avnery knows the Palestinians and their intransigence and their reluctance to accept Israel as a Jewish state. I guess he is entitled to still believe in fairy tales," Mr. Dayan says

Avnery, however, still hopes he will live to see an independent Palestine alongside Israel. “When I want to evoke laughter I say I’ve decided to stay alive ‘til it happens. People say this guarantees a long life for me,” he says.

Read More

Louvar nos Perodios Dificeis! - português

Louvar nos períodios difíceis! from Dennis Molinski

Read More