Welcome to Hank’s Place – Thanksgiving Edition
Here at Hank’s Place we thank God for His faithfulness. His Lovingkindness! His grace & mercies toward us! And more!
God makes promises. Awesome promises. And God KEEPS HIS PROMISES! And we are thankful, for with our God NOTHING is impossible.
Like many Christians, Right to Lifers, Righteousness seekers, I believed Trump would be reelected in a landslide. So these days, from Nov 4th to now, have been difficult ones for me, and maybe you, too. Our eyes and our ears are seeing and hearing some very different reports than what we had believed would happen.
For months on my morning walks I would pray, “Lord, raise up the righteous, cast down the wicked.” And I felt the Lord had told me not to worry, that this nation was in His capable hands. And that Trump was a kind of Cyrus of old, being used by God for restoration. Is 45:1.
So like David did, 1 Sam 30:6, I went into God’s word to gather strength. Here’s what I found.
Exodus 4-15. Moses appears to the children of Israel and declares “God has sent me to drain the swampy Nile!” He has sent me to “make Israel great again!” At first it was pretty cool – duels between Moses and Pharaoh. It got bad for Israel, but worse for Egypt. And then Israel was set free – no, wait, there’s Pharaoh’s army, best in the world, pursuing them and the Red Sea in front of them. They are doomed! God has failed them. Moses is wrong.
No, wait! All this happened so that God would be glorified. A deliverance in which man could not take credit – God parting the Red Sea, and destroying Egypt.
And then I read of King Jehoshaphat of Judah in 2 Chronicles 19 and 20. He instituted marvelous reforms, like Trump. He appointed righteous judges in the land. Like Trump. He instructed them to fear God, not man and not to take a bribe. So what happened? Moabites, Ammonites, and some Meunites came in vast numbers to destroy Judah. Jehoshaphat seeks the Lord, Who advises him not to be afraid, for the battle is not Jehoshaphat’s, but the Lords. Stand firm, and see the salvation of God! (and the enemy fell upon one another and was destroyed!)
And then I read of King Hezekiah in Isaiah 36 and 37. The Assyrians have come up to destroy Judah. The commander issues many discouraging words. Lies, but very discouraging to little Judah. Hope is evaporating. It appears all is lost. Hezekiah instructs the people not to answer the Assyrians. Perhaps you have been silent also while the Bidenites, Baalites and others have ridiculed and mocked and threatened you!
Then Hezekiah goes to God via the prophet Isaiah. God response: it will not turn out the way it appears. When the dust clears we find Judah standing and the enemy will not be found. Oh, and 185,000 Assyrians annihilated.
And what about Mordecai, Esther and Haman in the book of Esther? Haman was incensed when Mordecai would not bow down to him and plotted to kill not only Mordecai but all Jews – and do it deceitfully by the hand of the king. Intrigue. Scheming in high places.
But Esther was born for such a time as this – Esther 4:14, and the ultimate outcome, was not the slaughter of Jews – or Christians and those who believe in the rights of the unborn today, was just the opposite. The plans of the wicked fell upon the wicked, AFTER time was allowed for all the wicked to be found out. It was then that God acted. Could today be such a time as this?
And what about JESUS? Who went about doing good, healing all those bound by the devil? Acts 10:38. He did only good. Yet Religious/political leaders wanted Him dead, taken out, because He did not submit to them – He did not play their game. He was draining their swamp.
The conspiracy worked and Jesus was put to death, and along with His death went the hopes and dreams of His followers. Or so it seemed.
Do you remember Jesus’ words to those disciples on the Emmaus Road? “O foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets has spoken. Was not all this necessary for God’s mighty, awesome, miracle to take place?” Luke 24:24-25.
So, could all that we are experiencing – be necessary for God’s mighty deliverance and will to become manifest? Are we simply slow of heart to believe? Don’t you see? We are being given the opportunity to BELIEVE God, just as the men and women of faith did in Scripture – these are truly amazing days!!!!
I like the response of the 3 Hebrew children facing the fiery furnace of king Nebuchadnezzar, found in Daniel 3:16-18: “Biden, media, corrupt politicians, tech moguls; we don’t need to give you an answer to this question. If the God we serve exists, then He can rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire, and He can rescue us from the power of you, whatever you call yourself. But even if He does not rescue us, we want you to know that we will not serve your gods or worship the gold statue of corruption that you set up.”
My friend, take heart in our Faithful God — give thanks — and COME ALIVE!
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