Light in the Depths

“I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;” ‭‭Philippians‬ ‭1:3-6‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ I feel like God has really been trying to bring great joy into my life through these few verses. I've been going through Philippians a lot lately and I feel as though every time I come to this set of verses that I am driven to prayer for my fellow believers. And I am not just driven to prayer, but I'm driven there through a sense of faith and joyousness. See when I read this verse, I think of my friends, family, teammates, and many other believers that I have become acquainted with over the past year. And because I know that like me they are also believers, I know that they are saved, and that the have the same hope in Jesus Christ that I have.

““He has not observed iniquity in Jacob, Nor has He seen wickedness in Israel. The LORD his God is with him, And the shout of a King is among them.” ‭‭Numbers‬ ‭23:21‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ How amazing this word from the Lord is. Now this verse is from the perspective of people who are outside of the nation of Israel, and I think it is a great depiction of how I at times feel about myself. See the preceding chapters before chapter twenty-two are all about Israel’s complaining and failing to remain faithful to the Lord. Every time the Lord punished them for their sinfulness, but soon after the people would repent and God would continue to bless them, although there were consequences for the decisions they made against God, including being kept out of the promised land. From the perspective of Moses and the Israelites they seemed like such a disobedient and disgraceful group attempting to follow the Lord. But from an outer perspective looking into the country of Israel, God considers them a righte

“Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, But a good word makes it glad.” ‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭12:25‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ While being in Montana, the Lord has truly been growing me in understanding how He wants me to use my giftings. It has been something that has constantly been in my prayers and He has definitely been answering those prayers. Encouragement has been something that He's really been trying to grow me in. It's amazing to see how much He's been my encourager and through that I have been able to learn how to encourage others. But at times it honestly isn't as easy as it sounds to simply encourage someone. Encouragement is just like any other gift of the Spirit, you have to be Spirit-filled in order to minister with this gift effectively. It's so easy for words that have failed to be completely selfless and Spirit lead to just bounce right off of people and be completely ineffective. At times they can even impact the person negatively and sink them deeper into wha

And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for his heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen. 2 Timothy 4:18 NKJV The fact the Paul makes this statement at the end of this letter is truly glorifying unto the Lord. This letter was written at the end of Paul’s life and at the end of his ministry. And if we know anything about Paul, we know that he suffered for the sake of the gospel. Aside from all the physical hardships that he suffered he also suffered endless issues from churches and fellow saints. So many issues that he felt responsible for and so many people that needed to hear from him. Not to mention all of the false teachers that not only tried to teach different doctrines but also tried to twist his. We also see how just several verses before this one that Paul even had fellow saints abandon him in perhaps his most desperate hour. These were Paul’s brothers, one of which was Titus, who received a letter from Paul that was placed in the

“Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to draw, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb.” Matthew 28:1 NKJV Out of all the people who had been following Jesus throughout His sufferings in His death and afterwards, the two Mary’s might’ve been the two that were the most loyal to Christ and the strongest believers of His promise. That He would rise again. Just before this section of scripture we see these two women having been witnesses of Jesus’s death and having been at the tomb when Jesus was buried. They wanted to be with their Lord. They didn’t understand why everything had happened, but they knew that Jesus’s death was all according to the plan, and they remained persistent in following Him, even when it seemed like all hope had died with their savior. However, because of their loyalty to Him they were the first to see His power displayed, and were the first two that Jesus revealed Himself to. There will be times in life when things just don