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Run for your Life!



Thoughts from the son about this letter post.

Friend, it’s 6AM here as I write this. I did my normal quick scan of the headlines on my iPhone. Storm clouds seem to be over-shadowing this world in dramatic and disturbing ways right now. When I wrote this letter in Jan. 2019, little did I know my “Pops” would be gone and a world-wide pandemic was getting ready to pounce and thrash the whole world. And now, when the pandemic seems ready to crawl back into its shell, large nations are warring, distressing and troubling rumors of WWIII are passing between lips. Battles!


And what of the personal battles we all are fighting in our own small family spheres? You have them, I have them, those battles which are impacting us and our loved ones in a hundred different ways.


Yes, these battles are real and they are here with more waves seeming to be forming as we speak. But how great it is to be able to “run” into our “strong deliverer” for safety and protection. It is only there will we find deliverance from and peace in the middle of the storm.


 

January 1, 2019


Run for your Life!

You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. Psalm 32:7


Happy New Year Pops!


99 right around the corner! I look forward to having the time with you and Rod soon on your birthday.


“You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance. Psalm 32:7 NIV

What a great verse to start the year with. Billy Graham speaks about being “in tune” with the Master. Takes me back to tuning our instruments with Mom at the piano. “Middle C please.” What a great memory and picture in my mind.


What a great promise! “You will......surround me with songs of deliverance [victory].” With all the unknowns of the future that lay ahead for all of us, this is a jewel to possess. As much as we don’t want to admit it, the inference in this verse is that we all will need protection and deliverance in the coming year. How true this is, living behind enemy lines will present us most likely with an array of large and small challenges ahead and battles to be fought. They are inevitable as the rising sun.


“You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance." Psalm 32:7

So, if we know these battles are sure to come and we know they can present themselves at anytime or anywhere, how do we make this promise of deliverance a reality for each of us? Wouldn’t it be nice to just snap your fingers and shout out “victory!” and all the battles we face would melt away instantaneously. “Victory!!!!” Bang, deliverance achieved. Sorry, it obviously doesn’t work that way.


So, what is the key to receiving this promised protection and deliverance? The psalmist

makes this “key” clear to us in the beginning of his words. “You are my hiding place…”

That’s it! Seems too simple. Now comes the part we don’t like. If I want protection, if I want deliverance, then I have to choose to hide in the rock, that is Jesus. He does not put me in there, I have to go there very deliberately. If I choose to not go there, the result will always be defeat.


David: “The Lord is my rock, my fortress and deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, ....” 2 Samuel 22:2-3 NIV


David tells us we have to “take” the action ourselves, to put ourselves into the Rock of protection, God. God readily offers up Himself as our fortress and refuge but He will never force us to take refuge in Him.


“The Lord is my rock, my fortress and deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, ....” 2 Samuel 22:2-3

The believer’s experience of living behind enemy lines will always be chock full of situations that would be best for us to seek protection and refuge in Christ. Unfortunately, many Christ followers choose not to, either by ignorance or pride. For some to run “into” Christ is an admission on our part that we can’t do it on our own. How humbling! To seek refuge “in Christ” goes against the grain of our personal declaration of independence from God. Our worldly system likes to parade the “self-made” man as the winner. Father God’s desire is to parade the weakest man; the weak man made strong (and safe) through Christ. Polar opposite from the world.


Battles are coming this year, Pops. Satan is roaring and wanting to devour somebody. He wants to take us Christ followers down in grand fashion if he can. Plan on confrontation and conflict to happen. We live in his territory; we cannot avoid it. The choice we have to make is what the result is going to be. Safety, deliverance and victory or demoralizing defeat.


“Whenever you make the Most High your habitation, just there you will find victory.” Oswald Chambers

My suggestion for us is this; We RUN for our lives! Run for cover and protection. Run into the Rock, our fortress Christ. I am not ashamed to say that I can’t do it on my own. He is my stronghold, my refuge and my Savior. 2 Samuel 22:3


Happy New Year Pops!



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