Saturday Night Musings

Just Say No—was the advice that First Lady Nancy Reagan gave to a young person when asked what she should do when someone offered her drugs. These three words became a wall to wall campaign waging war on drugs, violence, and other teen vices during the 1980’s.

Queen Vashti just said no when the king became merry with wine and asked his staff to bring her wearing only her royal crown to parade before his inner court. When Vashti refused to perform, the king became very angry and set out to have her dismissed from her royal position.

The refusal of Queen Vashti was God’s way of intervening under divine providence for Esther to become Queen. While Vashti had solid morals and convictions, she had no spiritual concerns for the things of God or the people of God. Her decision crisscrossed through God’s directive will like a scarlet thread for the deliverance of the Jews. There are many people just like Vashti who are as sound as a dollar in their morals but as weak as water and doomed for failure having no spiritual insight.

Unlike Vashti, Just say no when it comes to the pleasures of sin for a season. Sin will take you further than you ever intended to go and keep you longer than you ever intended to say. Having been there, you won’t be fit to return home to your family. What will it profit if one is able to gain the whole world and loose his own soul? Satan is as subtle as he has ever been, his attacks has not waned. He comes tempting through the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. When you have to refuse the security of the world then trust God for the outcome, even if you perish. Just say it like Christ: Get behind me Satan.

Refuse to lower yourself because your character and integrity are at stake. Once your testimony is lost, it is like pouring water out of a bucket, you can never ever get it all back. Guard it like gold and give your crown up to no man. When you just say no, you will never have to worry about what you did last night, where you were, or with whom!

Just say no to the Devil and yes to Christ. Say yes right at this moment, do not put it off. Accept God’s way of bringing the good news to you. Remember you didn’t go looking for Christ, He came looking for you. Satan will tell you this is not the time; you will have another opportunity to say yes to Christ. In this you will both procrastinate and continue to follow Satan or you come to Christ through His divine providence.

Those who have said yes to Christ have also said, they witnessed God’s divine intervention in their lives. While no one has ever been saved by witnessing Jesus in the life-style of others, (they are saved by the death, the resurrection, and the ever presence of Christ) yet God brings certain people into their lives to tell them about Christ. If someone is telling you about Christ, it is God speaking through them. Listen!

It seems to me if you have the courage to Just Say No to the earthly vices, then Just Say Yes to JESUS who has come to seek and to find you. Say yes to Christ now.

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But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

The only fires the child of God will ever experience are those in this life—and then they are only for a moment of time. They will walk through the fires and they will not be burned. They will pass through the water and they will not drown. They will bed down with the lions and suffer no hurt. Weeping endures through the night, but joy comes in the morning. This too will pass, we will be better off, and God will be glorified.

He will always make a way of escape. He will never put more on you than he will put in you to hold you up in the face of adversity. Like Joseph in prison, he will be with you and bring you out. Like Jeremiah in a cesspool, he will lift you up. Like Jesus in a grave, you will come forth triumphing over the Devil.

He knows the way I take. He knows what is in us. Our Heavenly Father is aware when every sparrow falls to the ground and you and I are more valuable than many sparrows. He knows our trust in Him, He Knows our love for Him, and He knows our desire to serve Him. He allows bad things to happen to us. It was God who blessed Job with the abundance of substance and it was God who allowed it to be all taken away. He knew Job what was in him, He knew what Job was going through, and He knew Job would come through these fires twice the better. If we can praise Him when He blesses us, we will also be to praise Him as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

When he has tried me. God will never tempt anyone to sin, but he will test you for you to see what is in you. Can you take a direct hit from God? Can you trust Him to do to you what His plans are for you? The only way for one’s faith to increase is to encounter and endure fiery tribulations. Without faith in times of testing, it is impossible to please him. By faith Enoch walked with God. By faith when Abraham was tried, offered up Isaac as a sacrifice. By faith Moses refused the security of Egypt and chose to suffer the affliction with the people of God. When He tries you, trust Him.

I shall come forth as gold. Fires will never weaken the pure, only to prove its worth. Though it is heated seven times greater, you will walk out of it after having been thrown into it. And when you come through it, you will have something to write home about. Gold can stand the test of many fires. Having lived through your worst nightmare, you can face another equally as great. The grace of God will sustain you, no mater what. God was not testing Job’s failures or his weakness, but his strength. Read the last chapter of the Job.

It seems to me we should stop fretting when bad things happen to us. Just as the sparks of the fire fly upward, so does the rain fall on the just as well as the unjust. Do not loose focus. Do not loose your purpose in life. And do not throw in the towel. The prize is never won until the finished line has been crossed. Let God do for you what will glorify His name.

“And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus” Matthew 14:29.  

Simply amazing—if this story were not found in the Bible, I would not have believed it.   Please note: “he walked on the water”, are five simple words written about Peter that was never recorded about any man before him or has ever been said about any man since. The Bible records many walking through water, walking in water, but only once where one walked on water. Walking on water is that which only God can do, not man, except it be a miracle.  

This story is one of a kind. After feeding 5,000 with a few loaves and fishes, Jesus instructs his disciples to get into a ship and pass over the Sea of Galilee while he goes alone upon a mountain to pray. In the midst of the night, the ship was tossed to and fro by a killer storm to the point where these veterans of the sea were horrified.   Mark 6:48 says, “And he saw them toiling in rowing; for the wind was contrary unto them: and about the fourth watch of the night he cometh unto them, walking upon the sea, and would have passed by them”.  

It seems to me that Jesus never intended any to walk on water or he would have had them all to walk on water. And if all did walk on water, who was going to care for the boat? It was only Peter who responded to the word…come! I believe if Peter had it do all over again, he would have stayed in the boat. Peter is not known for his walking on water but rather for taking his eyes off of Jesus and sinking into the water. People are known for how they finish, not how successful they have been. Had it not been for Jesus catching him, Peter would have buried in the water! 

Note how important it is for men to stay where God has called them rather than walking where only one man had walked. It was Jesus who sent his disciples into a terrific storm—He knew that storm would come. It is only in the storms of life do we learn how to be more than conquerors. And, as soon as we get out one storm, another will come. He is found alone on a mountain side praying for those who are in the storm. Jesus is at the right hand of God interceding for us. He will come to us while we are in our storms—we are as safe with Him being in the boat or out of the boat. In our storms, our faith is redefined: O, ye of little faith—why did you doubt? Doubt is not progressive, it is instantly active. The moment we take our eyes off of Jesus and put it on a financial reverse situation or a loss of a job, immediately we will sink. You can sink in the blink of an eye!  Note too, He will encourage us in our storms—He came unto them walking upon the sea.  And again, he will see us through our storms—they got to the other side.  

Why was it that He would have passed them by? It was far better for them to grow and mature in the storms of life. It is far better to complete your journey than to walk on water and be a failure. It makes no difference how black the night may be, look for Him, He is there for you. Very interesting, five words: He Walked on the Water—-back to the boat!  Visit: cliffhartley.com

Growing up in a contractor’s home, I have always enjoyed seeing things being built, renovated, or seeing a finished job. My dad, Shade Hartley always had a desire to build something and when he completed a job, he would stand back with his arms folded across his chest looking at his work and say: “Now, that is a good job”! He did not have any education, but he had good will, drive, ethics of working hard, and determination. 

And they said unto me (Nehemiah), The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.  And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven, (Nehemiah 1:3,4) 

There is a need for America and the world to come back to their senses and back to the House of God. It is the place where we found life and learned how to live. Where right believing produced right behaving. Where faith was born and trusting God surfaced to face the black howling storms on the horizon when they became boisterous. In the House of God, we learned how to cope and to survive by living by the book. The House of God was hedged strongly from the effects of the world because some built a wall.   When one returns to the House of God having lived in worldly surroundings, they usually find things in a bad state of repair because of their lack of interest. Hearts break, desires are reborn, and a deep sorrow settles because of negligence and sin. We begin to weep, fast, confess, repent, and pray to our God in heaven for forgiveness and redemption. Flames are rekindled for someone to be burdened to rise up and build. Fortifying the House of God becomes a priority to provide a safe haven for our spiritual well being.  

The burden to rise up and build usually comes from the man who is praying about it. With prayer comes a vision and with vision comes motivation. That motivation becomes contagious because the hand of God is beginning to work a good work.  If it is a good work, then it is God’s work and God’s work demands haste. We must be about our Father’s business, the hour is late, the summer has past, and there is still work to be done. Find where God is working a good work and join the team. There is much to be done and you are needed. 

Be not weary in well doing, for in due season you will reap if you faint not. That old serpent, the Devil will not let the work of God go without stirring up some dust where he lives and create opposition. Frustration will set in, anxiety will surface, anger will develop, feelings will erupt, jealously will kill interest, and excuses will justify reasons to quit. Stay focused, consider your calling, keep your distance from the negative, and finish the job. As long as the Devil keeps kicking you from behind, you know you are going in the right direction. God is your source, He is your strength, and His grace will sustain you. The work is necessary, people will be blessed, the work will be finished, victory will come, and God will be glorified.   Get up, put your hand to the plough, look straight ahead and do not look back. Dig deep to a solid rock, built it strong, and it will stay strong. One day, your Lord will say: Well done, you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things, come enter into the joy of your Lord. Only then can you say: The hand of my God was good unto me!   Visit: www.cliffhartley.com