GOD
WOOS US FROM THE JAWS OF DISTRESS
BREAD
16 “He is
wooing you from the jaws of distress to a spacious place free from restriction,
to the comfort of your table laden with choice food.” Job 36:16 (NIV)
16 This
is what the Lord says: “Stand at
the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is,
and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, ‘We will
not walk in it.’ 17 I
appointed watchmen over you and said, ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’ But
you said, ‘We will not listen.’ Jeremiah
6:16-17 (NIV)
19 O Lord, my strength and my fortress, my
refuge in time of distress, to you the nations will come from the ends of the
earth and say, “Our fathers possessed nothing but false gods, worthless idols
that did them no good. 20 Do men
make their own gods? Yes, but they are not gods!” 21 “Therefore I will teach them--
this time I will teach them my power and might. Then they will know that my
name is the Lord.” Jeremiah 16:19-21 (NIV)
17 This
is what the Lord says-- your
Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: "I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who
directs you in the way you should go. 18 If only you had paid attention to my commands, your
peace would have been like a river, your righteousness like the waves of the
sea. Isaiah 48:17-18 (NIV)
19 This
day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you
life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your
children may live 20 and
that you may love the Lord your
God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the
land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Deuteronomy 30:19-20 (NIV)
7 Then a
cloud appeared and enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my
Son, whom I love. Listen to him!” 8 Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw
anyone with them except Jesus. Mark
9:7-8 (NIV)
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will
give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and
humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my
yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew
11:28-30 (NIV)
“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me.
Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real
rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced
rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep
company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” (Matthew
11:28-30 MSG)
37 On the
last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever
believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow
from within him.” John 7:37-38
(NIV)
BUTTER
“Satan
woos us with pleasantness to seek our bondage (as if self wasn’t enough) and
then bites us with guilt and shame. Indeed,
his desire is to entice us towards a conduct that would ruin us. He is our enemy not our friend. God, on the other hand, lovingly woos us from
“the jaws of distress” - which is every form of sin and captivity holding us
tightly, to seek our freedom. Christ
came to set us free. We are not to be
yoked again to slavery. Make no mistake
about it – sin harm’s. Indeed, it is a
death sentence. Satan wants us to
believe that God is holding out on us, that He does not have our best interest
at heart while all the while, through the blood of Jesus, all God seeks to hold
out on us is death and destruction.” BHY
“Consider
the parallels between Pharaoh and Satan.
Both are unyielding enemies, coveting the power of God for
themselves. Both have been plundered by
the Almighty, and both are enraged beyond endurance. Both have assembled vast armies for the
destruction of God’s people – yet neither seems to realize how utterly defeated
he already was and is.” Robert J. Morgan
“We came into this
world wretched, miserable, and undone creatures, in cruel bondage to sin and
Satan, under guilt and under wrath, hostile toward God—the fountain of
blessedness—and in a state of condemnation leading to everlasting destruction.
But when a man is converted, he is brought out of that state of woe and misery
into a sure title to glory, honor, and peace forever. When once a man is
converted, all this blessedness that we have heard of is his; he has an
absolute right to it. God’s work is accomplished for it; His faithful promise
is given.” Jonathan
Edwards
“Self-centeredness
is the very essence of all sin and misery, and results in
self-destruction. It is the core of
hostility, and hostility is the core of hell, the hallmark and essence of
hell. Self-centeredness is the
antithesis of holiness or agape love, the hallmark and essence of heaven.” Paul E. Billheimer
“Whatever has captured your heart will control you.” Sheri Rose Shepherd
“We are not only
to renounce evil, but to manifest the truth.”
Hudson Taylor
“Satan
accomplishes more by imitation than by outright opposition.” Vance Havner
“God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about faith. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.” C. S. Lewis
HEART SAVOR
·
It is God’s
desire to woo me from the jaws of distress.
- · God woos me with love. 16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 (NIV)
- · God leads me with cords of human kindness: 4 I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love; I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent down to feed them. Hosea 11:4 (NIV)
