No Thread or Sandal Thong

“But Abram said to the king of Sodom, ‘I have raised my hand to the LORD, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, and have taken an oath that I will accept nothing belonging to you, not even a thread or the thong of a sandal, so that you will never be able to say, ‘I made Abram rich.’ I will accept nothing but what my men have eaten and the share that belong to the men who went with me – to Aner, Eshcol and Mamre. Let them have their share.’ ”

Genesis 14:22-24

 

Genesis 14 tells us the story of 10 kings and Abram. In Abram’s time, most cities had their own king. Four kings had united to make war against five kings and battle in the Valley of the Dead Sea or the Valley of Siddim. The four kings were:

 

Amraphel, King of Shinar

Arioch, King of Ellasar

Kedorlaomer, King of Elam

Tidal, King of Goiim

 

The five kings were:

 

Bera, King of Sodom

Birsha, King of Gomorrah

Shinab, King of Admah

Shemeber, King of Zeboiim

Zoar, King of Bela

 

Now, the five kings had lost when they were attacked. For 12 years, they were subject to the King of Elam, Kedorlaomer. He must have been quite powerful for these kings of these five cities to pay tribute to him for such a long time until they rebelled. One year later, Kedorlaomer and his three kings battled again with the five kings in the Valley of the Dead Sea. Once again, he defeated them. This time he plundered Sodom and Gomorrah, taking home with him the spoils of war and food supplies. 

 

Now Abram’s nephew Lot had chosen to take the best land, the most fertile land, and live near Sodom, a city known for its sin. So when Kedorlaomer took the plunder of Sodom, Lot, his family, and all of his possessions were captured. As a captive, he could have faced torture, slavery, or even death.

 

Abram took the land that Lot did not choose. God had promised him that although this land was not as fertile, He would take care of Abram. He lived near an oak grove belonging to Mamre the Amorite. Mamre and his two brothers Eschol and Aner were Abram’s allies and joined Abram to pursue Kedorlaomer’s army to free Lot. Abram’s land not only blessed him with physical prosperity, but he was also blessed with friends who would battle beside him.

 

When the battle was over, Abram met Melchizedek, the king of Salem. He was the priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram. Abram gave him a tenth of everything. According to Hebrews, Christ was a priest in the order of Melchizedek.

 

Then the King of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the people and keep the goods for yourself.” Genesis 13 tells us that when Lot took the land near Sodom that the people of Sodom were wicked and sinning greatly against the LORD. Even the king’s name, Bera, was related to a verb which means “be evil.” So Abram refused King Bera’s offer to keep the goods. He would not accept anything belonging to this evil king. He essentially said, “I have vowed to God. I raised my hand to the LORD, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. I made an oath to him. I will accept no thread or a thong. You will not be able to say that you made me rich.” 

 

Do you hear Abram’s boldness in his words? He would not take any riches the easy way. He wanted his God to get all of the credit for his prosperity. No earthly man would share responsibility with the God Most High for Abram’s riches, especially not the King of Sodom. No king of such a wicked city would have one slight bit of claim to saying that he had made Abram rich. He wouldn’t take the smallest thing, not even a thread or a sandal thong.

 

You see, Abram believed God when God told him that He would make him a great nation and bless him. God would do it. Yes, many times God uses natural means, but God will never share His glory with another, especially with evil. Abram held to God’s promises and would not compromise his way to blessing. 

 

My friend, do you realize that we, too, are recipients of God’s blessings? We have a calling and a purpose in this life. There are no shortcuts to it. Sometimes after our fiercest battles, the evil one will try to present us with a reasonable offer. We can’t rationalize this enticement but must recognize from whose hands it is coming. We have to be willing to wait for the time when God extends His hands and bestows His blessings upon us. Until then, let’s remain determined to not accept a thread or a sandal thong from the evil one.

 

Pray with me: Oh, God, Abram’s faith really was astounding. He believed that You would defend him in battle and give him the victory to bring back his nephew Lot and his family. He worshipped You and gave back to You through the Priest Melchizedek. He wasn’t tempted to take riches the easy way. He was a man of integrity. Encourage us to be men and women of integrity. Make us resolute to only take that which comes from Your loving hands. It is in Jesus’ Name, the Name above all names that we pray, Amen.

Tooth Fairy on Vacation

By Shirley Mitchell
“In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly.”

Psalm 5:3

As a mom, I’ll be quite open with you that I have had trouble balancing everything that I am supposed to do. It’s hard to juggle a full-time demanding job outside the home with homework, school projects, activities, chores, teaching life lessons, lessons about Christ, being a wife, daughter, sister, friend, and in Christian Ministry. I find myself many times just trying to catch the many balls in the air and trying to not let any one of them hit the ground. However, many times a ball hits the floor.

One of the many things that I haven’t been the best mom about is the tooth fairy. Now if you don’t know or don’t remember what the tooth fairy is, let me tell you. When a child loses a tooth, he places this tooth underneath his pillow. In the middle of the night, the tooth fairy takes the tooth and leaves a small amount of money in its place. The child awakens in the morning and rejoices over the big bucks under his pillow. In my house, that is usually $1.

Now I know being a late tooth fairy is not nearly as bad as things like being an hour late to your daughter’s gymnastic team pictures so the whole team has to retake the picture or your husband rushing to save the day so your daughter is not the only one who doesn’t have a kite on her school’s kite day. Yes, I’ve done both of those and many more mom blunders. But the tooth fairy is just not that important to me. So if I am tired or if it took too long to get the girls to go to bed, then there is no way that I’m staying up even later to play tooth fairy. The tooth fairy just isn’t coming tonight. The tooth fairy has been known in my house to be delayed by up to three weeks.

Now, I don’t lie to my kids. They know it’s pretend, but they like to play the game. They want to stay up late and catch the tooth fairy in action. They want to prove that it was me. When they wake up in the morning, they remember who was to come last night. Before they open their eyes, they are reaching under their pillows for that dollar bill. Disappointment and frustration fill them when their fingers feel the plastic bag and know their tooth is still there.

Now it just so happened that Victoria lost a tooth about a month after Sophia. She had seen Sophia try to catch the tooth fairy in action, text the tooth fairy to remind her, and grow weary of the tooth fairy who just would not come. She had heard Sophia complain to her father about the tooth fairy’s tardiness and her father say so seriously, “Well, you know, the tooth fairy could be on vacation.” Sophia is far too old to be fooled by that excuse and knows the game all too well so she knew her father was teasing.

When Victoria lost her tooth, she thought her sister had whipped that late tooth fairy into shape so the tooth fairy would be sure to come the first night. Of course, she was disappointed. Day after day, she looked under her pillow and no big bucks. She had had enough, and it was time that someone told the tooth fairy that she needed to do her job. So Victoria wrote the tooth fairy a note, and this is exactly how her note was written:

Dear Mommy toothfiry I’m very made because yo came late. I do not want to hear the toothfiry is on vacachen. I would like for you to be on time. Ok.

PS. I love you. Plese write back.

Write here

(with a big box)

Isn’t that precious? She was mad and she let the tooth fairy know it. She didn’t want to hear any lame excuses like the tooth fairy might be on vacation. She wanted her tooth fairy to be prompt, take her tooth, and leave the money on the very day that she lost her tooth. LOL! I got the biggest kick out of that and stuck that note in Victoria’s keepsake box.

Of course, I also had to let out a Hallelujah, because our God is never late. He is never on vacation. He never forgets to give us a gift. He is never too tired to tend to our needs. He never has more pressing things to do and will get to us when He can. He isn’t so busy setting the stage for His Son’s return and caught up in the activity in the Middle East that He isn’t tending to your issue, your situation, your heart right now.

If we think that God is ever late, we need to think again. We can’t whip God into shape and tell Him that we would like for Him to be on time. He is on time. It’s just that He chose a different time than what we would like. He chose His best timing. So maybe we need to open our ears again if we shut them because, like Victoria, we just didn’t want to hear what was keeping Him. Maybe we need to choose a different emotion than being mad and chose trust and faith. Maybe we need to not get mad and get made. Let Him make us more aware of His activity in our lives and how He is preparing us while we wait. Have faith, my dear friend, our God is coming! He is coming!

Pray with me: Oh, God, You are majestic! Your timing is perfect. You are never late. We wait for You. We wait patiently for You and in complete trust that You know best. You will take away the things we can’t use anymore and bless us with new precious things whenever You deem the time is right. We lay our requests before You and wait expectantly. It’s in the Name above all names, in Jesus’ Name, Yeshua’s Name, we pray. Amen.

Copyright © 2011 Christ Compels Ministry

A Search like No Other

By Shirley Mitchell   “As surely as the LORD your God lives, there is not a nation or kingdom where my master has not sent someone to look for you. And whenever a nation or kingdom claimed you were not there, he made them swear they could not find you.”             1 Kings 18:10   Many of you know that I am now studying and writing about Elijah. I have not felt led to share much with you so that it would be fresh to you when you first see it. However, there are a few things that God put on my heart to share with you. Let’s call it a preview of the Bible study.   The story of Elijah begins with him declaring to King Ahab, the king of Israel, that there will be no dew or rain in the next few years except at his word. Then the LORD tells Elijah to leave and to go to a place of safety that He has prepared for Elijah. In the third year of the drought, the LORD told Elijah to present himself to Ahab. Elijah finds Obadiah first while they were searching for water and grass for their animals so they could keep them alive. In today’s verse, we learn from the prophet Obadiah that King Ahab had sent men to every nation and kingdom searching for Elijah. Ahab made them take an oath that Elijah was not there. He had scoured the known countries of the earth. He was empty-handed. Elijah was out of his reach.   I find it interesting that he appeared before Ahab while he was searching for water and grass. Ahab was far away from the palace of Jezebel. She had killed the prophets of the Lord. Since Jezebel was so evil, maybe she would have tried to put Elijah to death upon the sight of him without any conversation. Since God knew it was not time for His anointed prophet to die, He would have to raise His impenetrable force field or some other divine protection. Instead, God chose to present him before King Ahab.   God showed me something so wonderful about this story. As I was flying back from Colorado to the Atlanta airport for a business trip, I was looking out my window. The clouds were beautiful on this day. A sea of white, soft clouds barred me from seeing the earth. It was hard to believe that we could pass right through them. I asked God to tell me something. Normally, I don’t sit in the window seat but rather in the aisle seat. So I asked for Him to speak to me something about Himself as I looked at the beauty of His creation. There must be something He wanted to say to me since He planted me in this seat.   He said, “Ahab’s search is nothing like My search. My search is all-inclusive.” He spoke to my heart so fast that I understood what He meant almost instantly. While I was still in the spirit, I wrote more. Our God can search in every kingdom and nation on earth. God sees from every view point and in any direction. He sees from up in the sky, looking down to earth. He sees across the earth.  He can scour every house, every cave, and every tent. He spots everything on earth, under the earth, and at the bottom of the sea. He can look above the earth, above the clouds, in the clouds, and into space.    I thought of Psalm 139:1-3a, 7-8 which says, “O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down…Where can I go from your Spirit?   Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.”   God is everywhere! There is nowhere that anyone can hide from God. His search is nothing like the search of man. He has the ability to search and scour all of the earth. He never loses sight of you and me. You and I can’t flee from God, neither can our loved ones. There is no bar room that He does not see. There is no drug house that He can’t see. There is no jail that He does not see. There is no cesspool of sin that our God is not right there. We can’t hide from God. Hallelujah to God! No one is out of His reach! Does this encourage you for where you were, where you are, or where your loved ones are today? We are never out of His sight!   Pray with me: Oh, Lord, we praise You! Some of us have needed Your eye upon us to guide us through the depths of sin. Some of us have needed Your hand upon us as we have walked through the valleys of despair. Some of us have tried to hide from You and not face You. All of us have never been out of Your sight and always within Your reach. Thank You for Your all-seeing eyes. Thank You for Your all-knowing ways and knowing when the right time was to speak to us and to have an encounter with You.  We pray for the ones in the cesspools of sin that they will be sickened by their lifestyle of sin. We pray that they can recognize that there is so much living that they are missing. A person is never more alive than he or she is in You. May they know what life on the edge is really about…it’s about You! It’s in the Name above all names, in Jesus’ Name, Yeshua’s Name, we pray. Amen.

Copyright ©2011 Christ Compels Ministry

Celebrating Pentecost

By Shirley Mitchell

“When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.”

Acts 2:1-4

Did you know yesterday was Pentecost? There were seven feasts of Israel, four spring feasts and three fall feast. This fourth of the seven feasts of Israel was called by the Jewish people Shavuot which means “weeks.” This Feast of Weeks is seven weeks and one day (50 days) after the Feast of Firstfruits. The word Pentecost comes from the Greek word “pente” which means fifty. Jesus ascended to heaven 40 days after the Feast of Firstfruits and the Pentecost occurred 10 days later.

To understand the deep significance of what happened at Pentecost, we must understand more about the feasts of Israel. Leviticus 23:2 tells us that these feasts were appointed times with the Lord. They were times set with God. Some were somber times and some were joyous times. Colossians 2:16-17 tells us that the feasts were the shadow of things to come that were found in Messiah. These feasts outline the work of the Messiah from the Passover Lamb on the cross to the church age. All four spring feasts have been fulfilled by Messiah.

This feast marked the beginning of the summer wheat harvest. The first fruits were presented at the temple. Acts 2 tells the story of the Messiah sending the Holy Spirit to inaugurate the New Covenant and Church Age and the great harvest of the souls of men that believed that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God, and the Savior of the world.

All Jewish men were to present themselves at the temple for three feasts, Passover, Shavuot and the Feast of Tabernacles. In Acts 2, men had come from every nation under heaven for Shavuot. Imagine with me what this day was like. A sound like blowing of violent wind from heaven came and filled the whole house where Jesus’ disciples and followers were sitting. Maybe the people outside who heard it, searched for the source of the disturbance. The disciples must have come bursting out from where they were gathered. The people thought, “How could these uneducated Galileans speak not only in their languages, but speak them with the accents as if this was their native tongue?” They were perplexed and amazed when ordinary Galileans were speaking to them in their own language. God broke the language barrier so many nations could receive the gospel.

The crowd gathered and streets filled fast. Perhaps Peter lifted his hands to quiet the crowd. The crowd fell silent. They focused their attention on the words of the Galilean man. In verses 14-17, Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:

‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.’ ”

Peter shared that Jesus of Nazareth was the Jewish Messiah. He told the story of Jesus of His life, His miracles, His crucifixion, His burial, His resurrection and His ascension to heaven because death could not hold the King! Through the Holy Spirit, Peter assumed his role as the leader of the early church and preached the gospel. Peter had changed from the disciple who deserted and denied Jesus to the bold apostle who preached to a crowd of thousands. Filled with Holy Spirit, Peter rose up to take his place on the battlefield and lead the way as the kingdom of God advanced under the ultimate leadership of God. He delivered the first sermon under the power of the Holy Spirit.

Peter quoted Scripture from Joel that God would pour out His Spirit on all people. On this day, the prophecy was fulfilled as a deposit. At the end times it will be fulfilled completely. As we near the return of Christ, the Spirit will be outpoured even more strongly. People will prophesy, have visions, and dream dreams. There will be wonders in heaven and signs on earth.

Peter lifted up his voice and declared the truth of all he had witnessed. The people were cut to the heart. The Holy Spirit burned Peter’s words into their hearts. Tears must have flowed down their faces. Peter told them to repent and be baptized. Through the Holy Spirit, thousands were saved in one day. Verse 41 says, “Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.”

Isn’t that a staggering number? 3,000 people were saved in one day! This is what happens when the Spirit of God is unleashed. The number one way that we know the Spirit of God is being outpoured is because of the teaching of God’s Word. We are seeing this in our time. People are hungry for the Word of God and studying the Bible for themselves. We are not only listening to it at church, we are listening to it on the radio, watching it on television, searching for it on the internet, paying to go to Christian conferences, and reading devotions like this one. There is power in the teaching of the Word. His Word does not return to Him void. It convicts the hearts of men and breaks generational chains of bondage. It brings sight to the blind. It unveils our true identities. It gives us the relationship with God that we have always needed and wanted!

Pray with me: Oh, Father God, how amazing it was on that day of Pentecost two thousand years ago when you outpoured Your Spirit on Your people! We cry out for an outpouring of the Spirit in our lives. We study Your Word because we are thirsty and hungry for You. We don’t want to live on our own power, but we desire to be vessels filled with Yours. We desire to bring glory and honor to You through our choices and actions. Rain, Spirit, rain down upon us! In the mighty and precious Name of Jesus, we pray, Amen!

Splat!

By Shirley Mitchell

“The LORD makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him; though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with his hand.”

Psalm 37:23-24

My daughter Sophia is a beautiful gymnast. When she goes onto the gym floor, it seems like rays of glistening light are coming from her because she enjoys it so much. In this sport, gymnasts compete in four events – vault, beam, floor and the bars. Sophia’s favorite event is the bars. This event is usually the hardest for most girls, but she relishes it.

My husband found a t-shirt that said this:

Baseball – 9 innings

Football – 4 quarters

Basketball – 2 halves

Gymnastics – 1 chance

This shirt says it all. Gymnasts train harder than any other sport I’ve seen. Sophia is in the gym 10-12 hours a week. They train 52 weeks out of the year and don’t take a season or even a vacation off. When they compete, hundreds of hours of training all come down to the next minute and for some events, the next 10 seconds.

In Sophia’s first season, she had many successes. She walked away from the gym meets with either a 1^st or 2^nd place trophy for the all-around and usually four medals for the individual events. She even won the state meet for all-around and of course, the uneven bars.

However, Doug’s proudest moment of her was not when she walked away with a first place trophy. His proudest moment was at one of her toughest meets where the competition was great. Sophia stepped up to the bars, saluted the judges, and started her routine with a pull over and a leg cut. She did a perfect mill circle. She was on her way to a beautiful routine when one of the worst possible things that can happen to a gymnast and the heart of her father happened. Her hand slipped on the bar, and Sophia fell on her dismount. Because it was during a move, she had some speed to her, and she couldn’t catch herself when she fell. There was no time. One split second she was on the bars; the next split second she was head down face in the mat.

Sophia didn’t cry and get upset. Sophia didn’t start shaking and get rattled. She didn’t want to give up, and she didn’t want to hide. Instead, she immediately got up and off the mat, jumped back onto the bars, and finished her routine. Doug said it was such a pretty fall. The motion was so fluid it was almost like the fall was part of her routine. She continued on and finished her routine. Even though the fall was a huge deduction (0.5), she still got a 9.1. Out of all the many things she accomplished this year and all the hard work she put into her sport, this was her daddy’s proudest moment. He was so proud that she didn’t cry, shrink back, crumble, and quit. 

My friend, I believe our Father God feels the very same way.  When we fall flat on our face, and jump right back up and continue on, our Abba is so proud of us. He knew that we were headed for a fall. Yet, in His infinite wisdom, He allowed it to happen. Sometimes our falls may be very public just like Sophia at the big gym meet with hundreds of people. Our falls humble us. They test us to see what kind of character we have. Will we get right back up and continue on in our Christian walk? Will we resolve to stick it out with God? 

God uses every part of our lives to bring Him glory.  When we give Him our falls and failures, He takes the things of life that seem to be unusable and maybe even a serious “deduction” in our pursuit of godliness. He can make them beautiful and make them seem like a part of our “routine,” an important part of our life story. 

Our tendency is to hide our falls, deny them, and dissolve them. We want time to pass so we get over the pain of the moment and be able to say that we have grown so much since then. God can do so much more than this! Not only does He want to heal the deep wound of our falls, but He also wants to bring good from them. He would not have allowed them to happen unless something of kingdom value was at stake.

So my friend, what are some of the biggest falls of your life? What are some of your most painful “splats?” Did God show you what kind of character you had through them? Are you letting God use them for His kingdom purposes? Frankly, I have many, many splats. In some form, God uses them all. Maybe I’ve never shared them with others, but I draw from them in ministry. My biggest falls have also shown me that I am not a quitter. I’ll keep on pursuing God and trusting Him no matter what. So let’s view our next falls (because you know they are coming – it’s life) as God’s opportunities to expose our character and to be used for kingdom value. 

Pray with me: Oh, Almighty God, we praise You. You are majestic! You are breath-taking! You can make us soar, cast, and glide like a gymnast on the bars. Father, we ask that You make our lives a beautiful blessing to You. We want to make You proud of Your sons and daughters. Make our steps firm, and hold us with Your hand. We ask that You take the biggest splats of our lives where we have fallen flat on our faces and use every part of them for kingdom value. Expose our character. Refine it to be more like You. Give us a heart that desires to continue on with You no matter what happens. All of this we pray in the Name above all names, in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Copyright ©2011 Christ Compels Ministry