Dr. Latayne C. Scott・06/13/21

For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes” in Christ.
~ 2 Corinthians 1:20

This is no vengeful deity
Who cuts off the outstretched hand
This is no capricious idol
Who plays chess with men's souls;
No eternal checkmate
This is no prankster god
Who twists words and
Impales them upon intents
This is He
Who knows needs before they're perceived
Who grants favors as they're verbalized
Who invites us to believe
In what is not
Just so that He can make it
So:
This is the mighty God
of the perpetual
Yes

In times of crisis we tend to re-evaluate our concept of God based on how He is answering our prayers. That is always a mistake. He doesn't want to be judged by us, least of all on the basis of how we perceive His "performance." He chooses, instead, to be known by two characteristics from Psalm 62:12 that are rock-sure: He is strong (strong enough to bring about whatever He chooses) and loving (which means He wants the best for His people). So when it comes to our spiritual welfare, to our deepest needs, He is always ready to say, "Yes."

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Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
~ John 4:13-14

I read today of the convolute,
That tiny seaside creature
Who at birth gulps down a single algae-banquet:
Never to eat again, it lounges
Always in the sun
And feeds off its internal garden
For the rest of its life.

My life began when once I feasted on
Your unbelievable riches;
And their self-perpetuating bounty within me,
Nourished by limitless light,
Assures me that I will never hunger
For anything else again.

God has designed us as marvelously-engineered contrivances that must have periods of inactivity and fuel on a regular basis in order to function. In this way, we learn that we are dependent upon Him who commands rest and provides food. But the one thing most essential to our lives—a relationship with Him—is provided free and perpetual to anyone who simply asks. There is no effort involved, only that of submission.

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I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of the Lord’s wrath. He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness rather than light;indeed, he has turned his hand against me again and again, all day long. He has made my skin and my flesh grow old and has broken my bones. He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship. He has made me dwell in darkness like those long dead.

                                                                  ~ Lamentations 3:1-6

The hound of heaven has pursued me
And I coyly hid and cavorted--
Enjoying the chase
Even as I lost a finger or a toe;
Hanks of hair left hanging on
Limbs I'd left
Now
He has cornered me
And He is devouring my arms and legs
And the soft parts
Of my belly
And I have lost
The will to run

Francis Thompson lived over two hundred years ago in London. He was, by his own admission, a failure at everything he did in his early life—in relationships, in understanding life and his role in it, even in his profession as a medical doctor.

He reached his lowest point when he became an opium addict and was reduced to living as a vagrant, searching through the garbage and castoffs of others in order to survive.

"I was," he reflected later, "a broken waif of a man."

When he became a Christian, his life changed; but he never forgot how low he'd once sunk. He gave no credit to himself for his salvation, but instead described God as a hound that had pursued him until he caught him.

The process of being chased by Someone stronger and faster than you isn't a pleasant one.

The only thing that makes such a thing endurable is the fact that God pursues us to save us from ourselves.

Dr. Latayne C. Scott is the recipient of Pepperdine University’s Distinguished Christian Service Award for “Creative Christian Writing,” and is Trinity Southwest University’s Author in Residence. Her newest book is Talking with Teens about Sexuality: Critical Conversations about Social Media, Gender Identity, Same-Sex Attraction, Pornography, Purity, Dating, Etc. with Dr. Beth Robinson (Bethany Books.) The author of over two dozen published books, including Passion, Power, Proxy, Release (TSU Press) in which these poems appear, she lives and writes in New Mexico. She maintains two websites: Latayne.com and Representationalresearch.com.