Rock of Ages cleft for me!

"All things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do"

From an A. B. Simpson devotional

[The literal translation of this phrase is, all things are stripped and stunned. This is the force of the Greek words. The figure is that of an athlete in the Coliseum who has fought his best in the arena, and has at length fallen at the feet of his adversary, disarmed and broken down in helplessness. There he lies, unable to strike a blow, or lift his arm. He is stripped and stunned, disarmed and disabled, and there is nothing left for him but to lie at the feet of his adversary and throw up his arms for mercy.

Now this is the position that God wants to bring us to, where we shall cease our struggles and our attempts at self-defence or self-improvement, and throw ourselves helplessly upon the mercy of God. This is the sinner's only hope, and when he thus lies at the feet of mercy, Jesus is ready to lift him up and give him that free salvation which is waiting for all.

This, too, is the greatest need of the Christian seeking a deeper and higher life, to come to a full realization of his nothingness and helplessness, and to lie down, stripped and stunned at the feet of Jesus.]

Hebrews 4:13 (The Message)

12-13 God means what he says. What he says goes. His powerful Word is sharp as a surgeon's scalpel, cutting through everything, whether doubt or defense, laying us open to listen and obey. Nothing and no one is impervious to God's Word. We can't get away from it—no matter what.

I love this verse in the Message translation. It basically states, "It is God's way or no way!" My friends that is how it was meant to be from day one. Why do we even as Christians still want to put our self first? Sometimes we don't even give our Creator the #2 spot in our lives. I can tell you for a fact being one of them for a long time, it was "if I need you God, I'll let You know!" Our pastor has always told us, "God chose us long before we chose Him."

In A. B. Simpson's devotional above he states that God wants us to be in a position of being stripped, stunned, disarmed, disabled, helpless for this is when all we have left is God. I agree for I was there. As I once heard or read, "when you are lying on the ground, all you can do is look up!"

Now again the human being is trying everything in his/her power to not get to this point. Yet Mr. Simpson states that's where we should be for this is where Jesus can work with us and we are ready to be worked with. He is the potter we are the clay!

I truly believe for some it doesn't have to be like this but this sinful world we live in makes it easy to get into that point of helplessness. Loveless relationships, addiction dependency, greed, selfishness and lack of God's knowledge that will bring us at the feet of Jesus saying, "Help me oh Lord for I can not do anything without You!"

As those words flowed my heart to my lips I heard His reply, as is found in Joshua 1:5 No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not fail you nor forsake you.

How could I not now fully understand as it states in Romans 8:31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

We really need nothing else. Why worry about what is happening in the stock market? Why worry about what our government is or isn't doing? What we all should be worrying about is how can I bring my family, friends, and all the non-believers to know and feel as we do once we understand about His loving Grace.

From God's heart, to mine, to yours,
Ed Shagott