God is with you for the Whole Ride

You guide me with Your counsel, and afterward You will receive me to glory.

Psalms 73:24 (ESV)

Are you Near to God?

But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works. Psalms 73:28 (ESV)

Do your Work for God's Glory

Work as Unto God

And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men

Col 3:23 (KJV)

Will you give God a Chance to Act?

 

God will lead you to the right girl or boy in His own good time if you will just give Him a chance #HughPyle

The True mark of Intimacy

“Many will confide to you their secret sorrows, but the last mark of intimacy is to confide secret joys. Have we let God tell us any of His joys, or are we telling God our secrets so continually that we leave no room for Him to talk to us?” My Utmost For His Highest, June 3

Are you Nourishing your Inner Man?

The Lord taught me that the first business I needed to attend to every day was to have my spirit happy in the Lord. My first concern shouldn’t be thinking of ways to serve the and glorify the Lord,  but rather, how to get my spirit into a happy state, and how to nourish my inner man. –George Mueller

Faithfulness as God Measures It--Alex McLaren

He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much

Luke 16:10 (KJV)

   The least action of life can be as surely done from the loftiest motive as the highest and noblest. Faithfulness measures acts as God measures them. True conscientiousness deals with our duties as God deals with them. Duty is Duty, conscience is conscience, right is right, and wrong is wrong, whatever sized type they be printed in. “Large” and “small” are not words for the vocabulary of conscience. It knows only two words—right and wrong. –Alex McLaren

Are You Hiding from God's work?

“Art thou hiding thyself away from Him who would send thee forth to do His own blessed work in His own way? Oh, let me say to thee this morning, ‘The Lord hath need of thee.’ It may seem to be only a little thing He has for you to do, but it is an important one.” –W. Hay Aitken

The Lord Upholds our Case

“For thou hast maintained my right and my cause; thou satest in the throne judging right. 5 Thou hast rebuked the heathen, thou hast destroyed the wicked, thou hast put out their name for ever and ever.”

Psalms 9:4-5 KJV

 

         Let us be confident that when the Lord upholds our case that it is because it is righteous. The Lord is our defender, our Father, our Master, our Love; may we not forget that. He judges righteously. He rebukes and destroys the wicked nations. He blots out perversion and exalts righteousness.  Forever God will reign and justly judge, so let us not fear the wicked but take confidence in the Lord and His preserving Hand which providentially orders everything to His ultimate purpose. We have a free will, but God is still in control of the universe.

 

“….For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

“….For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Hebrews 13:5 (NKJV)

  Webster’s 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language defines forsake as:

1.     To quit or leave entirely; to desert; to abandon; to depart from.

    Jesus will never leave us or forsake us. He is always there, waiting for us to come to Him and find rest and peace. Whenever a person backslides or completely falls away from the faith it is not the Lord’s fault, God does not forsake us: it is the person who forsakes the Lord. We have a free will, we have to surrender to the Lord to be used by Him; therefore, we can choose to take our will and walk away from Him in our own strength.

    The choice is yours, dear friend, Christ will never leave you or forsake you, but you can. Will you surrender to Him today? Will you consecrate yourself unto Him?

  Lord, O how often I have walked in my own strength; forsaking You and asking why You left me. Lord, You never left me….but I walked in my own strength. Lord, help me today to walk and live following You. I don’t want me, but You. Empower me by Your Spirit to live a life wholly consecrated to You. In Jesus Name, amen.

 

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Are You Listening to God?

Are You Listening to God?

They said to Moses, ’You speak with us, and we will hear;

 but let not God speak with us, lest we die’ `—Exodus 20:19

     We don’t consciously and deliberately disobey God— we simply don’t listen to Him. God has given His commands to us, but we pay no attention to them— not because of willful disobedience, but because we do not truly love and respect Him. “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15). Once we realize we have constantly been showing disrespect to God, we will be filled with shame and humiliation for ignoring Him.

      “You speak with us, . . . but let not God speak with us . . . .” We show how little love we have for God by preferring to listen to His servants rather than to Him. We like to listen to personal testimonies, but we don’t want God Himself to speak to us. Why are we so terrified for God to speak to us? It is because we know that when God speaks we must either do what He asks or tell Him we will not obey. But if it is simply one of God’s servants speaking to us, we feel obedience is optional, not imperative. We respond by saying, “Well, that’s only your own idea, even though I don’t deny that what you said is probably God’s truth.”

 

    Am I constantly humiliating God by ignoring Him, while He lovingly continues to treat me as His child? Once I finally do hear Him, the humiliation I have heaped on Him returns to me. My response then becomes, “Lord, why was I so insensitive and obstinate?” This is always the result once we hear God. But our real delight in finally hearing Him is tempered with the shame we feel for having taken so long to do so.

 

--Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

--http://utmost.org/are-you-listening-to-god/

How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!

How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!

Hebrews 11:33

   God’s ways are topsy-turvy to the world’s ways. A few examples: God exalts the humble, but the world exalts the proud. God ascribes greatness, not to masters, but to servants. God is impressed, not with noise or size or wealth, but with quiet things . . . done in secret—with inner motives, the true heart condition. God sends away the arrogant and the rich empty-handed, but He gathers to Himself the lowly, the broken, the prisoner, the prostitute, the repentant. The world honors the handsome and the gifted and the brilliant. God smiles on the crippled, the ones who can’t keep up. All this makes the world nervous.

      As Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in The Cost of Discipleship: “And so the disciples are strangers in the world, unwelcome guests, disturbers of the peace. No wonder the world rejects them!”

#SimpleFaith  #CharlesSwindoll

Taken from Wisdom for the Way: Wise Words for Busy People by Charles Swindoll

Have You Ever Been Alone with God?

   When they were alone, He explained all things to His disciples —Mark 4:34

Our Solitude with Him. Jesus doesn’t take us aside and explain things to us all the time; He explains things to us as we are able to understand them. The lives of others are examples for us, but God requires us to examine our own souls. It is slow work— so slow that it takes God all of time and eternity to make a man or woman conform to His purpose. We can only be used by God after we allow Him to show us the deep, hidden areas of our own character. It is astounding how ignorant we are about ourselves! We don’t even recognize the envy, laziness, or pride within us when we see it. But Jesus will reveal to us everything we have held within ourselves before His grace began to work. How many of us have learned to look inwardly with courage?
We have to get rid of the idea that we understand ourselves. That is always the last bit of pride to go. The only One who understands us is God. The greatest curse in our spiritual life is pride. If we have ever had a glimpse of what we are like in the sight of God, we will never say, “Oh, I’m so unworthy.” We will understand that this goes without saying. But as long as there is any doubt that we are unworthy, God will continue to close us in until He gets us alone. Whenever there is any element of pride or conceit remaining, Jesus can’t teach us anything. He will allow us to experience heartbreak or the disappointment we feel when our intellectual pride is wounded. He will reveal numerous misplaced affections or desires— things over which we never thought He would have to get us alone. Many things are shown to us, often without effect. But when God gets us alone over them, they will be clear.

--Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest
http://utmost.org/have-you-ever-been-alone-with-god-1/
 

Walter David “Dub” Deason’s Story and Insights on Growing up Following the Great Depression

Walter David “Dub” Deason’s Story and Insights on Growing up Following the Great Depression

 

   I wasn’t around when the crash hit, but do remember what it was like growing up shortly following. In ’27, the year the crisis of the stock market crash hit, my Dad went to Bakersville, California and worked in the cannery to earn money for the family. Dad also cut timber, the redwood tree; and picked cotton. In those days, people even killed Jack Rabbits for cash since there were too many and there was a reward for killing ‘em. In ’29 he went back to Arkansas and bought a farm. We had everything we needed there.

 

    I was the baby of eight, born in Arkansas in ’32. When I was five, we moved from Arkansas to Missouri. The levy in Arkansas that protected our land burst and Dad had to get us out; so he sold the farm and bought a new place up here.

        

    My family was “poor,” but we never would have known it if people hadn’t have told us. We lived in the country and had a cow, thus milk; and chickens, thus eggs. We had little money and no one could really borrow any, but we had what we needed. The cities were bad however. Folks there did not have farms and animals.

 

    Life in my family was good: we had always had enough food and were happy. Yup, that’s right we had everything we needed. We lit our house with lamps and candles; and we had an outhouse. We had a clothes line and a washtub—we got to wash once a week. We had basic furniture and basic conveniences.  We raised and killed hogs for meat as well as goats, turkeys and guineas. We wore handme down clothes and mom would make undershirts for us boys and dresses for the girls out of sacks. We had a wooden fireplace or woodstove all the time growing up.

 

     We made lard, had a hand grinder; mom would can in quart Mason jars. Mom would take part of the grease and put it in with the sausage and then turn the can upside down to preserve the sausage. When we preserved bacon, we would put two inches of salt down then, put some more bacon on and then add more salt. We churned milk and made butter, ate lots of eggs, and didn’t have an ice box.

 

       Back then most houses were two room “shotgun houses.” They were called that because they had three doors that made a straight line through the house that you could shoot straight through if they were open: one in the front, one in the middle and one in the back. The walls were not insulated, but simply had “patched” cracks—patched with cardboard and other stuff that was tacked up. The cabin you see on Little House on The Prairie was like a mansion compared to it.

 

    Times were a lot more trustworthy—nobody locked their homes back then, we didn’t even have locks. If someone wanted to buy something, they would simply walk up and ask. If they needed it but didn’t have the money right then, all that was needed was a handshake. If you said, “I don’t have the money right now, but when I get it, I’ll give it to you,” people accepted that. A person’s word meant something and people trusted each other.

 

      When we were farmers, we would raise 5 acres of peanuts; and let the peanuts dry. We also had 4 acres of cucumbers because there was a government deal that guaranteed selling them. We would pick them every other day rain or shine because the cucumbers grew so fast!

 

       Most of the time that I was growing up, we picked cotton and when we were older, would cut timber—virgin timber—and burn part and sell the other part. We planted lots of cotton. That was the crop back then. When you were picking cotton, you would pick some gum off a sugar gum tree and chew it while you picked and if you had to go to the bathroom, you’d go right in the field where you were and hope no one was around.

 

Note from Ryan ~

 

      My grandfather grew up picking cotton, chopping wood, hauling hay and he said that even though days got hot and that they never checked the temperature back then. He would bet that the loft of tin roofed barns was probably over 120º at times, but no matter what the temperature was like, they just worked.

 

     We had little cups and saucers that were rounded on the edges. When I was a kid, mom would put a biscuit, some sugar, coffee and milk in there and make us “soaky.” We had red eyed gravy and ate beans and potatoes twice a day. Beans would usually last a couple of days. When we were done eating dinner, we would simply cover dinner (noon meal) with the table cloth until supper (evening meal) and just go back to work. We drank lots of coffee. We cooked whole chickens and ate the feet and the head too. In fact, mothers would give the chicken feet to little kids to chew on. You put the brains of a hog in eggs. We ate chocolate pies, fat back biscuits and pretty much any kind of fried pie.

 

          All the food was put on your plate when you were younger; and if it was put there, you ate it. When you were older, you were asked how much you wanted to eat while it was being prepared and were expected to eat it. When all of the food was ready, it was all put on a platter and anything you put on your plate you ate.        

 

          We would go to town when we were 4, 5, or 6 to buy coffee, barrels of flour (55 gallon barrels), sugar, salt, and to buy coal oil for our lamps. We could trade an egg for a peppermint stick bundle that was bound with a string.

 

           If you wanted to go anywhere, you would ride a horse or walk. We never went out to eat. All that fast food stuff didn’t come out till after the 60s. You ate at home with your family.

 

        People were a lot closer back then. Families were really close. The women recorded everything about the family history from births to deaths to marriages in the family Bible and sat on the porch together in the evenings. Dad would give you a lesson on farming or how to do something there and mom would get out the Bible and read it to us.

 

        We went to church, that also doubled as the school house, Sunday, Sunday nights, and Wednesday nights and you took a wagon. Every once and a while, everyone would get together and everybody brought food for a potluck and a blanket to sit on. We would spend the time playing games, eating, and talking together. 

 

        Back then, the neighbors would also get together for hog killings. Everybody had kids and we would all get together by loading up on wagons. People were close and a lot closer to the man upstairs back then. When we spent time with friends; and there was no fighting.

 

      We didn’t have radio, TV or technology like today. If you had a stick and a wheel that you could attach to it, you would run around all day and be occupied with that. We had corn cob fights, would throw a ball on the roof and catch it when it came off. The boys would skinny dip in creek or river water.

 

          When we went to school we would take carrots, biscuits and fried pies that mom made. All the kids attended a two room school house and drank water from the same water pump. We all washed and drank from the same cup. If one got sick, we would all get sick. We learned to read, write, and do arithmetic and we helped the teacher with the teacher’s own work pulling weeds in their flowerbed, washing the house, anything.

                     

Note from Ryan~

          

 My grandfather was “homeschooled.” He was taught by his parents. Just look at the following things that he told me were a part of his everyday life: if he got in trouble at school, he would be punished there and at home as well. In the summers it was so hot that they couldn’t go to bed, so they’d sit on the front porch. “Mom would talk about the Bible and read it and Dad would give you a lesson on farming or teaching you about what needs to be done.”

      

          In 1947, we moved to Blodgett, MO and got electricity, but still had no indoor plumbing. We had a big garden and canned everything. We picked anything too—anything that we could find. If we saw an apple tree on someone else’s property or a blackberry patch, we would ask if we could work all day picking and get half of what we picked for ourselves.

 

          Dad died in 1950, he was in his 60s and died in my arms. I graduated high school right after that and tried to get a job. I ended up getting one at a shoe factory making 30 cents an hour and thought there’s got to be a better way to earn a living, so I joined the army with 5 buddies at 18. When I went into the army, they sent me to Fort Lindenwood for Basic and after that I was sent to Korea. July 28^th, of ‘51 I landed in Japan. I helped the army engineers build bridges that just kept getting blown up and then we would build them again at first, but was later picked to be a cook. I got prepared for the military; I didn’t go to bakery school, so I didn’t know anything about cooking, but I just did my best and stayed there for the rest of the war. I spent 22 months in Korea and was then stationed at a Fort in Virginia for my last 9 months on a training ship that was right outside of the continental United States. We had a “Duck” vehicle like the ones I’ve ridden with my grandkids.

 

             When I got home, I tried farming for a year and then bought a little grocery store. In 1960, I got married at 28 to Ella Virginia Gardner. In ‘61 I started working for the post office in our little town in addition to the store, but I stayed in the army reserves for a long time.

          

     I have done everything but make money and have always rather worked hard than have an easy life. Out of everything I did to provide in my life, I would not take anything else; I wouldn't change it even if I could. I was pretty lucky. I have a wife, 5 kids, 18 grandkids, 6 great grandkids. When I was growing up people didn’t know what the word divorce meant and I’ve stayed married and all my kids have never gotten a divorce. Today, people don’t seem to understand what married means.

      

      When you have lived 81 years, you see lots of changes. Everything from lights and indoor plumbing to TV, but I wouldn’t trade the times I grew up in for anything. People were close. At Christmas, if we got an apple and a banana; we were fine. Stores put Christmas stuff on the shelves after Thanksgiving and took them off after January 1^st.  One year, I got a stopper gun from Dad that cost 19 cents. Boy was I proud! When I was eight, Dad gave me a white handled pocket knife that cost $1. Another year I remember, getting a rubber ball for Christmas.

 

Note from Ryan ~

 

              My grandfather let me hold one knife that he had that was over 100 years old that was just like the knife his father gave him! Those knives were largely used for castrating the hogs. But, as Grandpa also told me, they had other uses. He told me about how one time he was with his dad and he saw a cow that had swelled up because it had gotten into the wheat and his father whipped out this kind of knife and stabbed it in the side and a bunch of air came out of the cow.

 

       While my Grandpa’s life growing up has been dealt with very briefly, it shows us a different kind of lifestyle—one that is truly happy, has a loving family, hard work, and hope. They enjoyed life! Today people want that same type of hope—they want a simple life and Faith. They want relationships. They want a good life. From here on, my aim is to cast a vision for how we can prepare for the next Great Depression, the next storm that is bound to come someday unless a miracle occurs due to the mounting national debt as well as the nearing peak of consumer debt. But there is Hope! There is God and His Word reveals how to live a life differently from how many do today—a life surprisingly similar to the “hard” life of my Grandfather.

 

 

Ryan’s Mission and Vision

 

 

      My Grandfather’s 3 sons, my Uncles, had a bit of the life my grandfather did as well. They hauled watermelons during the summers and by 10 or 11 (5^th grade) where hauling hay. At one point the three of them were making almost $300 a week combined—good money back then (the 80s). However, they also had to watch out for those who wanted to cheat them.

 

      My grandfather chose the simple life over money. I remember the watermelon stories, the stories of making raisin Jack in the kitchen in Korea, my Grandfather’s humor, I remember the happiness and joy of family together, I remember hearing and seeing the Gaither’s very often on the television in my Grandparent’s and Aunt and Uncle’s home; I remember my Grandpa Deason’s love for my Grandma who died when I was 9 of ALS, or as it is better known Lou Gehrig’s Disease. My Grandpa Deason has had and is still living the good life.

 

♦   ♦   ♦

 

      I went for a walk with my Grandfather one Thanksgiving to walk his dog and he told me about his concern for me and my parents’ generation and the mess that the country is in. He told me, “The White House…and Washington, D.C…..you gotta fix it.” This book is my first step in sounding the alarm to that end. I realize that I may never have an opportunity to speak to the leaders of this nation; however, I will write and speak about how to “fix it” by doing the right thing instead of just doing some-thing. What follows is my vision—well really a Biblical conviction based on study of God’s Word and time spent with the Lord—of what we as individuals and families can do. We cannot keep going down the path we are going as a country without consequences. Realistically a storm is coming. God can do a miracle! I pray for Revival, I hope for a complete turnaround, but realistically I have to be honest and so do you that we do not see a 180 happening. However, I do know that Scripture is very clear about this: God will preserve and take care of His Remnant.

        The truth is that unless the United States of America dramatically changes course, that the judgment of God will come upon our land (Jeremiah 23, Romans 1:16-32).

But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.   Psalms 75:7

 

And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings  Daniel 2:21

 

       Therefore, I believe we must be realistic. God will always preserve a Remnant for Himself, as I will go into later (and am even doing a book project on with a good friend—Ken Zimmerman, Jr. which is scheduled to be released in 2014). But before we go on I want to make clear what my intentions are as we move forward. The reason why I must do this is I am going to mention very specific ways that we can prepare for a coming economic storm; however, without the proper foundation these preparations and ways to increase one’s income will become idols in our lives.

1)      Seek and Serve God only

2)      Pursue Wisdom

3)      Plan Purposefully to Provide for & Protect my Family

4)      To Invest in Lasting Things: Relationships, Time with God, a Home (not just a house)

      We need to recognize first and foremost our utter need for and dependency on God. You cannot take a breath, enjoy a hot meal, cherish fellowship with a close friend or loved one, learn, or apprehend anything without God! He designed you and your body and your mind in your mother’s womb (Jeremiah 1:5, Psalm 139:13-14)! God is sovereign and controls all things, when hard times come, He is still with us. The things that you and I must endure during our lifetimes, we will endure in His strength if we abide in Christ. Like Job and Hezekiah, we can trust in the Lord in the midst of our sickness! As the late Adrian Rogers said, “‘Pastor, what should we tell the sick and suffering?’ Tell them that this isn’t God’s final plan; Jesus is coming back.” Daily acknowledge your utter need for God! You must understand your sinful poverty (Rom 3:23, 6:23)! When you understand that, and daily live in a mindset that you are nothing and God is your everything then “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (Matthew 5:3). And what do the poor in spirit receive? “For theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3)!

 

--from Ryan Marks and Walter David Deason, Jr.'s book: HOPE FOR WHEN THE STORM HITS

Thought 345: You can't decieve God from Ryan's devotional book series Thoughts

 

 

Thought 345

You can’t deceive God

“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth,                  that shall he also reap.” Galatians 6:7 KJV

       You cannot deceive God. Whether you like it or not, nothing can be hidden from Him. He sees everything! He witnesses every time that a man is unfaithful to his wife because of a lust problem. He witnesses every “stolen cookie moment.” He witnesses every young adult that commits fornication. He sees each man in the act of viewing pornography. He watches each young woman that is leading His men astray. He watches our painful battles.

You cannot hide anything from God, but you can steal from Him.

“Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.” Malachi 3:8 KJV

     Many people steal from God and each other all the time. Each time someone refuses to pay his tithe, he steals from God. Likewise, each time a man looks lustfully at a woman he steals something that belongs only to the husband, or future husband, of that woman; and he sins against God.

      Yet it the midst of all these problems, God has sent us His Son. And you know what? God accepts the blood of His only Son as full payment for our debts, our sins,  our transgressions. Christ Jesus’ veins never run dry!

Be still and know that HE is God.

(Psalm 46:10, Ecclesiastes 8:12, & Exodus 9:30)

 

Thought 324: Who? from Ryan's devotoinal book series Thougths

Thought 324

Who?

  If you don’t do what God longs for you to do, then who will accomplish it for God? If Billy Graham didn’t make the decision to follow God; who would have taken his place? If John Bevere didn’t obey God and have the ministry he has, who would fill that role? Who________? Who_________?

  God wants YOU for a reason. Write, preach, talk, witness, ‘hang out’ with somebody, or whatever He has for you to do, do it. Chew what He calls you to do and don’t spit it out. HIS plan involves us.




 

Thought 321: Only You from Ryan's devotional book series Thoughts

Thought 321

Only You

  Only you can fulfill your calling, because only you have the right equipment and experience given to you by God to overcome and accomplish all that He has for you.

  Do you know what your Spiritual gifting(s) as a Believer is? What talents do you have?—you have at least one  Most importantly, what is Holy Spirit prompting you to do right now, even if you feel totally unprepared: what is your passion? Pray about it, the Lord will direct you. God does want to use you as a light to others. Ask Him “how Lord?” Then see where He gives peace (even if you experience attacks of peace from the enemy, but now in your spirit that He has given you peace to do something).  When He answers, do what He says.

·        Act in Faith: that is, believe what God tells you.

·        Walk in Peace: that is, only go and do where God gives you peace in your Spirit. If you don’t have peace, don’t move.

·        Wait patiently and endure suffering as a good soldier of the Lord.

Lastly, GO and STAND (Matthew 28:19-20 and Ephesians 6:10-19)