New Refuge Blog

              I am intending this to be a final post for this blog site. My blogging on the topic of Refuge is not ending, but it has moved to a new site.

Since 2011 I have been posting articles on this blog site at https://authoredhersh.blogspot.com. At that time I began writing articles to accompany a book I authored called Escaping the Pain of Offense: Empowered to Forgive from the Heart   Although the articles are still relevant and can be accessed at the site, the forum of Google’s Blogger has waned in its usefulness as an adequate platform.

                I believe it is time for a new forum. The new forum offers a better overall experience for readers. It also allows for much more interaction between author and readers. My hope is that the articles and  posts I continue to write on the new site will create a deeper desire to get to know the God I know, and am getting to know more all the time.

Part of the way we get to know God better, Is by relating to other people who love God, and have the same goal of getting to know God better. I look forward to hearing from readers, and interacting with your posts as you post thoughts on the content.

So, go on over to https://edwardhersh.com and let me hear from you there.

Have a great day, and please take time to comment at the new site. Share a few sentences of how God has been a Refuge to you. If the articles have helped you, I”d love to hear about it. If you have any thoughts on what you would like me to write about, please share that too. It’s all about our Refuge, Jesus, without whom, there is not much to write about.

                 See you at https://edwardhersh.com .

                 And, oh by the way, I’ll hopefully have a second book authored by the end of the year. I’ll be talking more about it there also.

 by Ed Hersh, Blue Rock BnB Healing Ministry

Psalm 49 - No Need to Fear

Death eludes no one. We may not enjoy thinking about death, but unless we grasp its reality, we will fail at life.

Psalm 49 does well to help us fight off fear of the triumph of bad fortune. The rich and poor alike will someday no longer physically exist on the earth. The smart and stupid alike will face the grave. The beautiful and not so beautiful will see the same fate. The foolish fail to recognize the futility of earthly gains in wealth, power, pleasure, and prestige, but the wise surrender to God’s supreme authority.

We do not have to fear even the tyrants who are bent on destruction   They too will soon pass. We also do not have to fear the loss of beauty, position, and reputation, when our trust is in God Almighty. He is our protection and provision. Our heavenly Father looks out for us far better than we can even look out for ourselves. The Psalmist puts it this way,

“So why should I fear in bad times,
    hemmed in by enemy malice,
Shoved around by bullies,
    demeaned by the arrogant rich?

Really! There’s no such thing as self-rescue,
    pulling yourself up by your bootstraps.
The cost of rescue is beyond our means,
    and even then it doesn’t guarantee

Life forever, or insurance
    against the Black Hole.”  (Psalm 49:3-9: The Message)

 

There is One who came to rescue. Jesus is our Refuge. Jesus conquered sin and death, and now lives to bring us into eternal safety.  “But me? God snatches me from the clutch of death, he reaches down and grabs me” (Psalm 49:15; The Message). The Bible shows us that Jesus conquered death once and for all. When we trust in Jesus for our salvation from this earthly mess, death no longer has its hold on us. We can live in the security of Father’s house, eternally, starting right now.  To find out more about how Jesus did this, read 1 Corinthians 15:50-57. 

            A phrase repeated throughout the Bible is “fear not.”  Jesus himself often spoke this command to his closest disciples. When God is near, we have nothing to fear. When Jesus is Refuge, our security is huge. When Holy Spirit is leading, on green grass we are feeding. Faith drives out fear. Let faith arise. Faith arrives, and fear disappears, the more we focus on the heavenly in place of the earthly things.  

When it looks like the grave may be the end of it all, we do well to heed Christ’s words recorded by Luke, “straighten up, and lift your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:28). Because God is near, there is no need to fear. If we are surrendered to him, we are secure in Refuge.

by Ed Hersh, Blue Rock BnB Healing Ministry

Psalm 115 Heavenly Shield

The general theme of this Psalm is that God is supreme, and people who honor and trust him, will prosper.               

                The Psalmist reminds us in the first verse that God’s “steadfast love” and “faithfulness” (NASB) are reasons to give all glory to God. The best efforts of mankind fail in comparison to God’s ways. “Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases,” is how God’s holiness is described in verse 3. God is love, and his love is a thread woven through everything he creates including each individual person on the earth. This certainly gives him the right to do as he pleases, but he also gives man (including male and female) limited “rights” to choose his own way.

                Psalm 115 verses 4-8 then describe how man misuses his creativity to form “idols” in an attempt to diminish God’s power and authority.

“Their idols are silver and gold,
    the work of human hands.
 They have mouths, but do not speak;
    eyes, but do not see.
 They have ears, but do not hear;
    noses, but do not smell.
 They have hands, but do not feel;
    feet, but do not walk;
    and they do not make a sound in their throat.
 Those who make them become like them;
    so do all who trust in them.”  (NASB)

An idol is a fake “image” of God, often thought of as a physical object (made of “silver and gold” as it states here). But idols can be non-physical (intangible) things like the words we allow our mouths to speak, images we allow our eyes to see, sounds we allow our ears to hear, scents we allow our noses to smell, sensations from what we allow our hands to touch, and places we allow our feet to take us. In short, whatever we put out trust in to provide our emotional security and comfort, without intentionally making it secondary to God’s will and pleasure, becomes an idol of our heart. For example, do we speak lies or flattery to get our way? Do we use our senses (seeing, hearing, feeling) to engage media, entertainment, or technology for purposes that do not honor God? Do we use our hands to act, or use our feet to go, in directions away from the light of Truth, and instead into dark areas of falsehood?  The Psalmist makes it clear that idols are dead. They lead to dead ends. Focusing on dead (dark) idols, makes a person dead (dark) on the inside.

                The next 3 verses (9-11) repeat, “He is their help and shield.”  All those who “fear the Lord, trust in the Lord.”  When we show respect for God and honor him (which is what it means to “fear” him), we will trust him with our whole heart. We will allow the parts of our heart not yet surrendered to his ways (those ways still trapped in idol worship) to be transformed by the Light of Jesus. Jesus is our help and our shield.

                The next four veses (12-15) reiterate how the Lord blesses those who respect and honor him. He is not biased, nor does he show partiality. He protects and provides for us as his children. The final three verses (16-18) encourage the reader to exuberantly praise him for his wonderful favor towards mankind. He reminds us that dead people cannot utter praise. This includes those physically dead and dead from idols in their heart. But those who are living can praise him, and are under obligation to worship him with all their heart.

                Today, may we commit to uncovering and casting down, any idol that still holds a grip on our heart.  I pray we have the fortitude to reach for our heavenly shield instead. In all we do and say, may we give God the glory due his name!

by Ed Hersh, Blue Rock BnB Healing Ministry