1 Samuel 17:4 --- "A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. He was over nine feet tall."
Guest message by Cheryl Hults Meakins
I have a hard time watching the news every day. There are so many choices we have made in America that grieve my heart, even overwhelm me and paralyze me with fear.
It seems while I was growing up, so was sin on the increase in our culture. I stopped at 5'5" but our sins have grown like a cancer and loom before us like Goliath, mocking us, until we tend to live in fear. Will our children be swiped from our streets? Will a picture snapped on a passing cell phone be plastered on the internet? Must I help my children lose their innocence when warning them of the real "stranger danger?" Is this living in freedom?
Hollywood used to condemn movies with bare bottoms and curse words with R ratings. Now those are rewarded with PG-13 ratings. I remember in the '80s being disgusted at the mainline magazines that were boys' rites of passage to manhood. Even worse is the rise of human trafficking in our own nation that is swiftly becoming more lucrative than drug sales for organized crime.
The giants that seemed so big in the '80s are dwarfs compared to the monsters confronting us today. The battles we once had to fight we now see were just the opening skirmishes in wars much bigger, and more deadly.
I look in the face of the giants that believers must fight. and I struggle to keep standing. I am overwhelmed with thoughts, even of children who survive sexual assaults, who grow up with pain their souls have recorded and their minds can barely contain.
I confess: often I become paralyzed, by the size of this giant but even more at the depth of healing needed for those who were forced to become victims.
You see, as long as I look at the face of the giant, I will fear, I will give up fighting, I will lay aside my weapons so my hands can cover my ears and dampen the noise of the helpless souls being ravaged by sin. I grieve that the sin we tolerated in the '60s, enjoyed in the '70s, humored in the '80s, and applauded in the '90s, has taken up residence in our midst; and now we know its full dangers.
The Church in America needs to know that there are giants in our land! And facing these giants builds a conflict in our focus. We need to attend to our personal godliness and obedience, but we must also tend to those who cannot fight for themselves.
Lift up your eyes, Church! Look to the hills! Where does our help and hope come from? He is our hope and our help (Psalm 121). His arms outreach the growth of any cancer in our nation. His blood will heal any wound and cover any sin.
Louie Giglio found himself afraid to go to sleep. Night after night he suffered as a cloud of panic or anxiety moved in to his mind. He spent months undergoing medical testing to diagnose his struggle but the turning point towards healing began with a decision he made in the face of his attacking giant. One night, as he was awakened again by this cloud he decided to praise the Lord.
Then he remembered Psalm 63:4 NIV --- "I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands." And in verse 8 "My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me."
Out of this desperate meditation came these words:
"Be still, there is a healer
His love is deeper than the sea
His mercy, it is unfailing
His arms a fortress for the weak"
Louie later shared these words with Chris Tomlin and a song of healing was born out of desperate obedience. Meditate on "I lift my hands." And after you have found your peace, let your faith arise, pick up your swords and find a battleground to fight.
I have found mine!
Today's Guest Writer:
Cheryl Meakins is an author and speaker whom is passionate about women stepping into their callings as healers and warriors. More of her thoughts can be found at: www.MeakinsSpeak.wordpress.com
+++
Click: I Lift My Hands
| Rick Marschall is the author of 65 books and hundreds of magazine articles in many fields, from popular culture (Bostonia Magazine called him "perhaps America's foremost authority on popular culture") to history and criticism; country music, television history, biography and children's books. He is a former political cartoonist, editor of Marvel Comics, and writer for Disney comics. For 10 years he has been active in the Christian field, writing devotionals; co-author of The Secret Revealed with Dr Jim Garlow. His biography of Johann Sebastian Bach for the "Christian Encounters" series (Thomas Nelson) was released in April, 2011. His history of cartoon Advertising, Drawing Power, will be published in July 2011 by the Marschall Books imprint of fantagraphics Books. In October his major biography of Theodore Roosevelt, BULLY!, will be publ;ished by Regnery History of Washington DC. He is currently working on a One-Year CDevotional for Tyndale House; and edits the the reissue of Harper's Weekly -- the Civil War Ye ars for NOVOink e-books. Rick is a former Director of Product Development for Youth Specialties. He is recipient of the 2008 "Christian Writer of the Year" award from the Greater Philadelphia Writer's Conference, and produces a weekly e-mail devotional, "Monday Morning Music Ministry." His e-mail address is: RickMarschall@gmail.com. |
No comments:
Post a Comment