My Refuge Part 1
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The Lord is My Refuge
The Lord is My Refuge
I cry to you, O Lord; I say, “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.”
Other than the fact that the Savior of the world has come and brought to us salvation from the enslavement to sin, the condition of humanity has not changed. Even among professing Christians who regularly attend church or even fill the pulpits, often they live a double life for the majority of their walk with Christ.
If I say I have Christ but do not love as Christ, I live a contradiction of which I have convinced myself.
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
If I say I love but do not forgive, I keep record of wrong, or rob another of their repentance from God by my accusation. Then I am a fraud.
For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
If I say Christ has redeemed my life, but I condone the taking of another without just judicial cause, such as those in the womb, I have the heart of a murder.
The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
“When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman’s husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life,
If I say, I am a follower of the Christ, but my thinking differs from His or my lifestyle is contradictory to His law of living, then I am a lier and the truth is not in me.
Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him,
But for those who truly seek to walk upright before the Lord, fully transparent within their hearts, desiring to please Him with their inner most being and strip away any self-justification, will indeed find refuge in the Lord.
Where else will you find refuge in a day of such national and generational depravity? Where else will you find refuge in economic distress? Where else will you find refuge when disease and pestilence have over taken the land? Where else will you find refuge when the streets are filled with the wicked who seek to cancel you and your faith? Where else will you find refuge when you can neither buy nor sell least you bow first to the ideological gods of this culture?
Trust me church, the Culturally Diverse Christian or the Casually Tolerant Christian will not find the Lord as their refuge. So, who is he who finds the Lord as his refuge?
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.
The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
Daniel is a perfect example.
Then this Daniel became distinguished above all the other high officials and satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him. And the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom.
In Daniel 6:3 the king sets rulers over the land. But because of the “excellence” of Daniels spirit within him, the king seeks to set Daniel over all the kingdom and all the rulers set in place. The “excellence” of Daniel’s spirit is the result of the Spirit of the Lord upon his life.
Then the high officials and the satraps sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom, but they could find no ground for complaint or any fault, because he was faithful, and no error or fault was found in him.
Of course, in verse 4 their envy runs deep. So, they try to pull up some political or moral dirt on Daniel but could find none. They could find nothing or no one to confirm derogatory things concerning Daniels integrity, conduct, words, or motives. Could the same be said of your life? Whatever a tree is it will bear the fruit thereof.
So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.
They could not find any evidence or even a slight of compromise or unfaithfulness to Daniels life to the Lord. So, had to find another way to cancel Daniel.
Then these men said, “We shall not find any ground for complaint against this Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his God.”
Instead, they try to create an entrapment with what they knew he loved and was faithful too, his faith in his God. This world is filled with entrapment. This culture will unrelentingly demand that you either comply and conform or be canceled. It will ridicule you, try to find fault in you, and attack you for your faithful living upright before the Lord. But look at Daniel’s strategy and response to their deceptive plot to assault him.
When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously.
Daniel did not go to his home and hide in the dark to pray as he had faithfully prayed to the Lord. Instead, he opened all the windows where all could see him praying. Daniel’s trusting in God started right here, even long before here, not in the lions den. Daniel was not walking into their trap he was facing it head on while on his knees.
So, indeed their plot lands Daniel in the den of hungry lions.
Then the king, when he heard these words, was much distressed and set his mind to deliver Daniel. And he labored till the sun went down to rescue him.
Daniel did not put his hope and trust in the king delivering him. Daniel put all his trust in the Lord as his refuge.
Then the king commanded, and Daniel was brought and cast into the den of lions. The king declared to Daniel, “May your God, whom you serve continually, deliver you!”
Daniel’s faith and trust in the Lord was so strong, consistent and resolved that the king put his trust in the God of Daniel. The world around us is like a den of lions. To find your refuge in the Lord you have to be like Daniel. You have to have the resolve of absolute surrender of your entire being to the Lord in the face of the greatest opposition and cultural contradictions to the way of the Lord.
As he came near to the den where Daniel was, he cried out in a tone of anguish. The king declared to Daniel, “O Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions?”
Once again the king affirms the character towards God in the life of Daniel. This is where we should strive to be, “a servant of the living God whom we serve continually.”
Then Daniel said to the king, “O king, live forever! My God sent his angel and shut the lions’ mouths, and they have not harmed me, because I was found blameless before him; and also before you, O king, I have done no harm.”
Daniel’s reply reflects Daniel’s eternal perspective. Daniel points out that those who honor the Lord are counted among the righteous. And though they die, yet shall they be counted among the living.
Church, those who do not live in the way of the Lord shall not be found counted among the living. Though they live, they are dead.
How did we get to a place where so many in the church call morally acceptable what God has called an abomination? As you think about Daniel in the lions den we often conjure an image of this old man standing calmly in the light shining illuminating this cave as lions cower. Christian, the Scripture never paints that image. What do you think Daniel was doing while in that den of lions all night? He was on his knees praying lest at any time the angel depart and the mouths of the lions be opened.
The Catholic church used to hire artist to paint images from the Scripture for the people instead of teaching them the Scripture itself. Images of a God as an old naked man wrapped in a cloud playing footsie and fingers with Adam. Today, we have music artists who paint theological images with words that conjure false theological ideas on which most of the church today is built.
I heard a song the other day that said, “You are just an angel waiting to receive your wings.” Church, God created you distinctively different than the angels. They are not made in His likeness and image as were you. If God had wanted Adam to have wings He would have given them to him. You are not going to ever get wings.
Likewise, we perceive that Daniel was preserved because of his perfection. No, Daniel was preserved because of his holiness. We have been told that God does not want perfection. That is only a half truth. Perfection is based on your effort. It is you trying to give God something that you perfected. But God demands holiness. Only God can make you holy.
When God told Moses to build the tabernacle and all of its furnishings, the men crafting it were touched by God to do so. By nature of their craftsmanship they sought to make it perfect following God’s instruction. But it did not become holy until God consecrated it and filled it with His presence. At that point, it was no longer Moses’ tabernacle, it was God’s.
Your efforts, your prayers, your ethical living is only you trying to fulfill your idea of religious perfection if God is not in it. But holiness is when they all become God’s because the Spirit of God dwells within you. Perfection is me trying to live out my religion by my own efforts. But holiness is me living out my faith in obedience to the ways of the Lord. My obedience alone does not make me holy. It is my obedience inhabit by the Spirit of God that makes it holy. Holiness is not a lesser standard than perfection, holiness is consecration before God. So many have used the phrase, “God does not expect perfection,” as an excuse for “I don’t have to be obedient to the ways of the Lord.” And this is how we got to a church that condones what God has called an abomination.
Daniel, like the other prophets, considered the smallest slight against God’s ethical standard the gravest tragedy. Daniel was not perfect, he was consecrated. He truly belonged to God and that made him holy. And in that he found refuge in the Lord. Thus, God inhabited the prayers that Daniel gave to God.
The story ends with those who plotted against Daniel being ensnared by their own entrapment. But as for Daniel, he is found blameless before the Lord.
Be not deceived Christian. Do not compromise your holiness before the Lord for anything this world offers or even for your own safety, convenience, or for their acceptance. You cannot make righteous what God has called wicked. You cannot throw in the ways of the Lord with the lot of the world and yet assume you find refuge in Him.
The Scripture is clear, the ways of the wicked will come back upon them like hot coals upon their heads.
In this world of chaos, confusion, conflict, and contradictions, find your refuge in the Lord. Consecrate yourself before Him in this hour. Consecrate your thoughts, your motives, your hearts, your choices, your families, your work, everything must be consecrated to the Lord. All of you must be His if you are to find refuge in Him.