Do not hand over the life of your dove
to wild beasts;
do not forget the lives of your afflicted people forever.
Have regard for your covenant,
because haunts of violence
fill the dark places of the land.
Do not let the oppressed
retreat in disgrace;
Rise up, O God and defend your cause; remember how fools mock
you all day long.
Do not ignore the clamor of your adversaries,
the uproar of your enemies, which rises continually.
Psalm 74: 19-23
To you I call, O Lord my Rock; do not turn a deaf ear to me.
For if you remain silent, I will be like those who have gone down
to the pit.
Hear my cry for mercy as I call to you for help, as I
lift up my hands toward your Most Holy Place.
Do not drag me away
with the wicked, with those who do evil, who speak cordially with
their neighbors but harbor malice in their hearts.
Repay them for their deeds and for their evil work;
repay them for what their hands have done and bring
back upon them what they deserve. Since they show
no regard for the works of the Lord and what his
hands have done, he will tear them down and never
build them up again.
Psalm 28:1-5
I lift up my eyes to you, to you whose throne is in heaven.
As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the Lord our God, till he shows us his mercy.
Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us, for we have endured
much contempt.
We have endured much ridicule from the proud, much contempt
from the arrogant.
Psalm 123
Some sat in darkness and the deepest gloom,
prisoners suffering in iron chains,
for they had rebelled against the words of God
and despised the counsel of the Most High.
Psalm 107:10,11
The cell is dark of itself, and the fear of
execution casts a still denser gloom over the
prison. Such is the cruelty of man to man that
tens of thousands have been made to linger in
places only fit to be tombs; unhealthy, suffocating,
filthy sepulchres, where they have sickened and
died of broken hearts.
The state of a soul under
conviction of sin is forcibly symbolized by such a
condition; persons in that state cannot see the promises
which would yield them comfort, they sit still in the
inactivity of despair, they fear the approach of judgment,
and are thereby as much distressed as if they were at
death’s door.
God’s words are not to be trifled with, and those who
venture on such rebellion will bring themselves into bondage.
When men do not follow the divine counsel they give the most
practical proof of their contempt for it. Those who will not
be bound by God’s law will, ere long, be bound by the fetters of
judgment. There is too much contemning of the divine counsel,
even among Christians, and hence so few of them know the liberty
where with Christ makes us free.
Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892) From The Treasury of David p.401 on Psalm 107:10,11
Jesus answered, “You would have no power
over me if it were not given you from above.”
John 19:11
One who was passing through deep waters of affliction
wrote to a friend: “ Is it not a glorious thing to
know that, no difference how unjust a thing may be,
or how absolutely it may seem to be from Satan, by
the time it reaches us it is God’s will for us, and
will work for good to us? For all things work together
for good to us who love God.
And even of the betrayal,
Christ said,
“The cup which my Father gave me, shall I not drink it?”
We live charmed lives if we are living in the center
of God’s will. All the attacks that Satan, through
others’ sin, can hurl against us are not only powerless
to harm us, but are turned into blessings on the way. -H.W.S.
from Streams in the Desert Volume 1 by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman – August 14th
In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in
Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil men and
impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and
being deceived.
But as for you, continue
in what you have learned and have become convinced of,
because you know those from whom you learned it, and
how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures,
which are able to make you wise for salvation through
faith in Christ Jesus.
2 Timothy 3:12-15
A hero is not fed sweets,
Daily his own heart he eats;
Chambers of the great jails,
And head winds right for royal sails. – Emerson
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 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.
From Streams In The Desert Vol 1 by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman Zondervan Publishing House p.24
Woe to those who rise early in the morning
to run after their drinks,
who stay up late at night
till they are inflamed with wine.
They have harps and lyres at their banquets,
tambourines and flutes and wine,
but they have no regard for the deeds of the Lord,
no respect for the work of his hands. Isaiah 5:11-12
Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit, and wickedness as with cart ropes,
Isaiah 5:18
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put
darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter
for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and
clever in their own sight.
Isaiah 5:20-21
Therefore the Lord’s anger burns against his people; his hand is raised and he strikes them down.
The mountains shake, and the dead bodies are like refuse in the streets.
Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised.
He lifts up a banner for the distant nations,
he whistles for those at the ends of the
earth. Here they come, swiftly and speedily!
Not one of them grows tired or stumbles, not one slumbers or sleeps;
not a belt is loosened at the waist, not a sandal strap is broken.
Their arrows are sharp, all their bows are strung; their horses’ hooves seem like flint,
their chariot wheels like a whirlwind.
Their roar is like that of the lion, they roar like young lions; they growl as they seize
their prey and carry it off with no one to rescue. In that day they will roar over it like
the roaring of the sea.
And if one looks at the land, he will see darkness and distress;
even the light will be darkened by the clouds.
Isaiah 5:25-30
You’ve spent your day on a moving train, working nonstop for 14 hours.
You’ve carried suitcases, run errands, made beds, shined shoes, and
politely greeted countless passengers, even the rude ones. If you’re
lucky, you’ll get four hours of sleep tonight. You are a Pullman porter.
In the 1920s, job opportunities for African Americans were limited. At a
time when most worked as sharecroppers or housekeepers, the job of a Pullman
porter was highly respected in the black community. Porters had steady work
and got to travel around the country. But their friendly smiles and neatly
pressed uniforms masked the hardships of the job. Porters clocked 400 hours
a month, earned low wages, and could be fired for speaking up about their
difficult working conditions.
Pullman Porters Chicago 1920’s
Chicago Museum
Facing Freedom In America
What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?
He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all- how will he not also, along
with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God
has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died –
more than that, who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God and is also interceding
for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution
or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all
day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,
neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth,
nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate
us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8: 31-39
