My Journey - 6/1/2010

God's insight to me:

One thing I have found, if it be with family, friends, church family or God's wounded that He has called me to minister too, one familiar phrase at times, "Woe is me!" I have said that also in the past, many, many times. Today's journey I am sharing only two devotionals plus a new poem the Lord just blessed me with.

Mac Lucado's devotional is a lesson each one of must come to understand and accept through faith. I have found through my own experiences in this worldly life, we can not do it on our own. Oh, you may think you are doing good at living, with a little of God's help here and there but be aware. See, in the second devotional it talks about "trials and tribulation". Here lies the victories. But to be honest they belong to God. He will share with you if you understand He gets the glory for it. It will be in His timing, not ours.

I love and understand the saying, "When you are laying on the ground, all you can do is look up!" What you will find there is "God"! He has always been there since day one, the day that He created.

Broken and Victorious

When I realized I was broken,
I made my greatest gain.
The victory didn’t come in triumph,
but rather through my pain.

How can that be you might ask,
to win when you have lost?
Oh my beloved and precious one,
Jesus taught me that through the cross.

Each one of us must learn to be humble,
to understand we can’t do it on our own.
Cry out to our Creator, “Help me!”,
as He sits upon His Throne.

The Father’s eyes are upon us,
His ears are listening for our pleas.
Just as He heard His Son cry out from the cross,
Praise His Holy Name, I know He can hear me.

E. P. Shagott
6/1/2010


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

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June 1

Impossible
By Max Lucado
“With God nothing will be impossible.” Luke 1:37

In our world of budgets, long-range planning and computers, don’t we find it hard to trust in the unbelievable. Don’t most of us tend to scrutinize life behind furrowed brows and walk with cautious steps? It’s hard for us to imagine that God can surprise us. To make a little room for miracles today, well, it’s not sound thinking . . .

We forget that “impossible” is one of God’s favorite words.

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Streams in the Desert Devotional For

June 1

He Has Overcome the World

"None of these things move me" (Acts 20:24).

We read in the book of Samuel that the moment that David was crowned at Hebron, "All the Philistines came up to seek David." And the moment we get anything from the Lord worth contending for, then the devil comes to seek us.

When the enemy meets us at the threshold of any great work for God, let us accept it as "a token of salvation," and claim double blessing, victory, and power. Power is developed by resistance. The cannon carries twice as far because the exploding power has to find its way through resistance. The way electricity is produced in the powerhouse yonder is by the sharp friction of the revolving wheels. And so we shall find some day that even Satan has been one of God's agencies of blessing. --Days of Heaven upon Earth

A hero is not fed on sweets,
Daily his own heart he eats;
Chambers of the great are jails,
And head winds right for royal sails.
--Emerson

Tribulation is the way to triumph. The valley-way opens into the highway. Tribulation's imprint is on all great things. Crowns are cast in crucibles. Chains of character that wind about the feet of God are forged in earthly flames. No man is greatest victor till he has trodden the winepress of woe. With seams of anguish deep in His brow, the "Man of Sorrows" said, "In the world ye shall have tribulation"--but after this sob comes the psalm of promise, "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." The footprints are traceable everywhere. Bloodmarks stain the steps that lead to thrones. Sears are the price of scepters. Our crowns will be wrested from the giants we conquer. Grief has always been the lot of greatness. It is an open secret.

"The mark of rank in nature.
Is capacity for pain;
And the anguish of the singer
Makes the sweetest of the strain."

Tribulation has always marked the trail of the true reformer. It is the story of Paul, Luther, Savonarola, Knox, Wesley, and all the rest of the mighty army. They came through great tribulation to their place of power.

Every great book has been written with the author's blood. "These are they that have come out of great tribulation." Who was the peerless poet of the Greeks? Homer. But that illustrious singer was blind. Who wrote the fadeless dream of "Pilgrim's Progress"? A prince in royal purple upon a couch of ease? Nay! The trailing splendor of that vision gilded the dingy walls of old Bedford jail while John Bunyan, a princely prisoner, a glorious genius, made a faithful transcript of the scene.

Great is the facile conqueror;
Yet haply, he, who, wounded sore,
Breathless, all covered o'er with blood and sweat,
Sinks fainting, but fighting evermore
Is greater yet.
--Selected