WEDNESDAY'S WORD - REFUGE - SADELL BRADLEY - 04/29/2023

 

WEDNESDAY'S WORD REFUGE 4/29/2023 "Let us take refuge from this world. You can do this in spirit even if you are kept here in body. You can at the same time be here and present to the Lord. Your soul must hold fast to Him, you must follow after Him in your thoughts, you must tread His ways by faith, not in outward show."- Saint Ambrose         REFUGE is both the condition of being safe or sheltered from pursuit, danger, or trouble; and something that provides shelter. A refuge is also an institution that provides safe accommodations usually for women who have suffered violence from a spouse or partner. It is derived from the Latin refugium - re-'back' + fugere 'flee.' Have you ever felt the need to flee? To run away from a place or situation of danger? I have, and it's a horrible feeling. At the 10 year memorial of the September 11, 2001 bombings, former President Barak Obama read from Psalm 46: 1God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.2Therefore we will not fear, Even though the earth be removed, And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; 3Though its waters roar and be troubled, Though the mountains shake with its swelling. Selah...4There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, The holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High.5God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved; God shall help her, just at the break of dawn. 6The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved; He uttered His voice, the earth melted. 7The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah...8Come, behold the works of the Lord, Who has made desolations in the earth. 9He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two; He burns the chariot in the fire.10Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth! 11The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah God is our refuge. We can run to Him when we're in trouble. The Hebrew word machaseh also means shelter - a place giving temporary protection from bad weather or danger. My husband once managed Cincinnati's City Gospel Mission —which provides formerly incarcerated, addicted, and homeless men and women food and accommodations. Shelter is a shielded or safe condition. It is protection from something harmful. It also means to prevent someone from having to do or face something difficult or unpleasant. In medieval times, a church's sanctuary was a place of refuge or safety, where fugitives who'd unintentionally done harm were immune from arrest. There are times that even the guilty need a place to which they can run. Israel called these 6 city shelters Cities of Refuge (cf. Numbers 35). One of my mother's favorite hymns was, A Shelter in the Time of Storm by Vernon J. Charlesworth. The lyrics say, "The Lord's our Rock in Him we hide, a shelter in the time of storm. Secure whatever ill betide, a shelter in the time of storm. Oh Jesus is a Rock in a weary land, a weary land, a weary land. Oh, Jesus is a Rock in a weary land...a shelter in the time of storm." I need the Lord to be my refuge, my rock and my shelter...how about you?

WEDNESDAY'S WORD - ALWAYS - Sadell Bradley - 04/19/2023

 

WEDNESDAY'S WORD ALWAYS 4/19/2023 "It always seems impossible until it's done." - Nelson Mandela, President, South Africa       "It always seems impossible until it's done." Nelson Mandela No one is more qualified to make that kind of statement than a man who was brutally imprisoned for 27 years fighting to take down the destructive and racist system of apartheid only to ultimately emerge as the President of the Country that imprisoned him! Always is an interesting word. It is a superlative descriptor with a zero-sum nature. It implies that there has never been a time when what has been stated was untrue or in question. The adverb ALWAYS is about time and repetition. Always has multiple meanings: at all times, on all occasions; throughout a long period of the past; and for all future time forever. When we are talking about relationships with our spouse or children we often use always to infer something repeated and annoying. E.g. "You always leave your clothes on the floor."  The word always can also mean as a last resort; or failing all else, "If I am laid off from this job, I can always get another one." Have you ever used the word always when you didn't really mean it? Always and never can be hyperbolic words -making claims that are exaggerated and not usually meant. Abraham Lincoln made a poignant statement in the heat of the Civil War that we all should really consider, “Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right.” Scripture gives us some admonitions that contain the word always. Paul in Ephesians 4:2 says, "Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love." The Apostle Peter wrote, "But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect..." (1 Peter 3:15) These comforting and powerful last instructive words from Christ, the Great Commission, also include the word always,19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20)

WEDNESDAY'S WORD - MEASURE - Sadell Bradley - 04/12/2023

 

WEDNESDAY'S WORD MEASURE 4/12/2023 “The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it is the same problem you had last year.”― John Foster Dulles, Former Secretary of State TONIGHT 7 PM BIBLE STUDY PROMISES, PROMISES YES AND AMEN! @warehouseOTR  Facebook, Youtube REGISTER BY CLICKING HERE $10 for BREAKFAST Scholarships available, email here         The word MEASURE a noun and a verb. In action it means to ascertain the size, amount, or degree of (something) by using an instrument or device marked in standard units or by comparing it with an object of known size. We use measuring cups for food, tape measures for clothing, thermometers for our bodies, and odometers in our cars. We are constantly measuring: metrics and benchmarks at work, credit scores, balance sheets, polls, and social media likes and dislikes. The main unit of music is a measure. Yes, we collect data in the church. Do you ever get tired of measuring? It invites comparison. We evaluate how much or little, how successful or unsuccessful, etc. At times our measurements reflect what's really going on...at other times they do not. Some things that are hard to measure: the joy you feel when someone's face lights up to see you, the value of your health, the time you had with a person who has passed or with whom you no longer share a relationship, the power of encouraging words, or the time you invested just being with someone when they're hurting. Mother Teresa said, "Intense love does not measure, it just gives." A MEASURE as a noun is plan or course of action taken to achieve a particular purpose; or a means of assessing the degree, extent, or quality of something. Frederick Douglas wrote, "Find out just what any people will quietly submit to, and you have found the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them." We are seeing this in the reaction of the voters of Tennessee to the ousting of State Legislators who exercised, alongside their constituents, the right to protest after a school shooting. Their outcry said they would not stand for that injustice, and that the right to protest the type of arms and who is safe to have them, is as constitutional as the right to bear them. Paul, after begging the Church of Rome to present their bodies as living sacrifices to God and allowing His Word to change them toward His purposes, wrote, "For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith." This Greek word metron is the basis for determining what is enough (or not enough), what is fair (or not fair). Metron is the controlling basis by which something is determined as acceptable or unacceptable – preeminently rooting to the Lord Himself, as His being is the only ultimate measure of truth. God is the arbiter of and authority on real truth. This is a good time to ask ourselves WHAT we are measuring, HOW we are measuring, WHY we are even measuring, and what or WHO is the standard for our measurements... It is the LORD and His Word.

WEDNESDAY'S WORD - SPEECHLESS - Sadell Bradley - 04/05/2023

 

WEDNESDAY'S WORD SPEECHLESS 4/5/2023 “Next time a sunrise steals your breath or a meadow of flowers leaves you speechless, remain that way. Say nothing and listen as Heaven whispers, "Do you like it? I did it just for you.”― Max Lucado, American Clergy TONIGHT 7 PM BIBLE STUDY PROMISES, PROMISES I AM WITH YOU @warehouseOTR  Facebook, Youtube The Seven Last Words of Christ, Friday, 7PM The Warehouse Church, 1310 Race Street, Cincinnati OH 45202     American writer George William Curtis said, "Happiness is speechless." Now, that's something to reflect upon. SPEECHLESS means unable to speak or express in words, especially as the temporary result of shock or some strong emotion. Max Lucado above says that the beauty of God's creation, made just for us, can leave us dumbstruck. Perhaps you've been stunned by an awesome event, or flabbergasted that someone had the gall to do or say something offensive. Maybe you were tongue-tied at of the beauty of your future spouse, or shell-shocked because of an alarming event. We can feel shut down, gaslighted, and voiceless at work, at school, or at home.. Have you ever been rendered speechless? If so, why? Solomon told us, "There is... a time to be silent and a time to speak." (Ecc. 3:7) Sometimes remaining speechless is appropriate; sometimes it is not. As we celebrate the season of Lent, moving toward Good Friday, we look at the most powerful moment of silence ever known to man. It was the silence of Jesus Christ, the anointed Messiah. The prophet Isaiah wrote, "He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth." (Isaiah 53:7) Given the circumstances, this disposition from our Lord is simply amazing. Jesus historically had things to say. He taught the disciples and crowds. He told the men who accused (and wanted to stone) the woman caught in adultery, "He who is without sin among you cast the first stone at her." (John 8:7) Jesus verbally excoriated the religious leaders, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean." But when it became time for His crucifixion, His most bitter trial...Jesus experienced a depth of pain and purpose unlike anything prior. The religious leaders covertly moved to arrest and try Him. He would be betrayed and abandoned by His closest disciples. Jesus was heroically embraced...then devastatingly rejected by once adoring crowds, and He was brutally beaten within an inch of His life by the Roman soldiers. When the time for crucifixion came, Jesus was silent and remained so. He didn't call ten thousand angels. He didn't rain down vengeful fire from Heaven. Jesus was speechless, and when He finally did speak, He said, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34)