Monday, August 3, 2015

DELIVERED by DIVINE DELIGHT


“I will love You, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised; So shall I be saved from my enemies” Psalm 18:1-3. 

“It pleased holy David more that God was his strength, than that God gave him strength; that God was his deliverer, than that he was delivered; that God was his fortress, his buckler, his horn, his high tower, than that he gave him the effect of all these. It pleased David, and it pleases all the saints more that God is their salvation, whether temporal or eternal, than that He saves them: the saints look more at God than at all that is God’s.” Written by Joseph Caryl as quoted in the Treasury of David by C.H. Spurgeon. 

“He also brought me out into a broad place; He delivered me because He delighted in me” Psalm 18:19. 

“Free grace lies at the foundation. Rest assured, if we go deep enough, sovereign grace is the truth which lies at the bottom of every well of mercy. Deep-sea fisheries in the ocean of divine bounty always bring the pearls of electing, discriminating love to light. Why Jehovah should delight in us is a question without an answer, and a mystery which angels cannot solve; but that He does delight in His beloved is certain, and is the fruitful root of favors as numerous as they are precious. Believer, sit down, and inwardly digest the instructive sentence now before us, and learn to view the uncaused love of God as the cause of all the lovingkindness of which we are the partakers.” Treasury of David by C.H. Spurgeon.
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I love you Father God because You first loved me. Thank You for pursuing me at a time in my life where I was so utterly lost in sin and shame (in 1970) … for pursuing me in my drug addiction and then rescuing me from myself. Thank You for setting my feet upon You as my Rock!

If this was not enough, You kept on pursuing me. As we returned from Spain in the summer of 1996, You gave me a promise from Psalm 18:19 … that ‘You were going to bring me into a broad and spacious place.’ I still remember reading the second part of Psalm 18:19 …  in my self-hatred I thought, ‘oh sure, I'll bet God delights in me. No … He just puts up with me because I prayed the prayer.’

Then, a couple of years ago, You communicated with me that ‘You knew me and saw me before You created the world … and that You created me to be doing exactly what I’m doing today.’ Somehow, it gives You pleasure to allow me to take part in Your mission as revealed in Isaiah 61:1 to Your broken people in North, Central, and South America. And so I am compelled by You to agree with You and say, ‘Yes, You did rescue this lost and broken man because You decided to delight in him/me.’ Thank You for choosing me to belong to You! I am overwhelmed by You!

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