I f you like him I will post more but my Teacher was and is Chuck Missler LOOK HIM UP HERE on my Site when you can. He is a great teacher. I posted a lot of his work.
later
Day: July 29, 2020
Interview with John Piper
Audio Transcript
God loves to work for those who wait for him. So how do we wait for God? Does waiting for God mean that we don’t act? And when do we stop waiting and start acting? Those are the important questions addressed in Pastor John’s sermon on Isaiah 64:1–4, a sermon he preached way back in 1982. Here’s what he said.
In one sense, God works for everybody. He makes the sun rise on the just and the unjust. He sends rain on the good and the evil. He brings seedtime and harvest, even for his rebellious creatures (Matthew 5:45). God does work for all his creatures, and all of this is meant to lead us to repentance. But, in our text, the work referred to is not that common grace given to all, but a special grace that is given to those who have a certain disposition.
No eye has seen a God besides you,
who acts for those who wait for him. (Isaiah 64:4)
“Before you make one peep of an effort to solve your own problem or hire a human agency, pray.”
The work mentioned here clearly is not just the work of creation and preservation; it’s not just the meeting of a few natural needs that he does for everybody; rather, it’s the investment of all God’s infinite, sovereign power to do everything his people need to have done for their good. And for whom does he do it? He does it for those who wait for him.
So, the biggest question for us right now is, What’s that? How do you do that? And I want to try to show you from Isaiah how you wait for the Lord.
Wait and Pray
The people to whom Isaiah is talking are in trouble: they’re in danger from enemies, Assyrians and then Babylonians. Now, the danger that God sees is not so much the Assyrians and the Babylonians, but the temptation to run to Egypt for help instead of to God. Instead of waiting for God’s help, he sees the temptation looming large that they’re going to go after human help, and so he says in Isaiah 31:1,
Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help
and rely on horses,
who trust in chariots because they are many
and in horsemen because they are very strong,
but do not look to the Holy One of Israel
or consult the Lord!
So, the first thing that waiting on God means is this: before you make one peep of an effort to solve your own problem or hire a human agency, pray. Seek the counsel of God. What is his way to solve this problem and bring you out of trouble? It says in Psalm 106:13, “They soon forgot his works; they did not wait for his counsel.”
The first act of waiting, therefore, is prayer — before we make one little move to solve our problem. And I know, if you’re like me, you’ve come through many efforts, and an hour into it you say, “I forgot to pray.” And we need to work to form the habit of stopping again and again and again. That’s what Paul means, I think, when he says, “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Before you do anything, at every little occasion of your life — every interview, every encounter — whisper a prayer. “How would it go if I relied on you? What do you want me to do?” And then do what the Lord says.
We are like patients. Prayer is like getting on the phone and calling up your doctor and saying, “I’m in trouble; there’s this pain. What should I do about it?” Before you gulp down any medicine or start doing jumping jacks, call the doctor.
“Sometimes we have to be willing to accept the frustrating news: ‘Be still.’”
Now, the doctor might tell you, “Lie down; don’t do anything.” Or he might tell you, “Take the pill; do your exercises.” Now, those two instructions from the Lord involve us in two different forms of waiting. We don’t stop waiting once we’ve called; we wait. There is a waiting of two different sorts. Let’s look at them just one at a time here.
Wait and Rest
The first one is if the doctor says, “Lie down.” Isaiah 30:15–16 goes like this: God says to the people,
“In returning and rest you shall be saved;
in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”
But you were unwilling, and you said,
“No! We will flee upon horses”;
therefore you shall flee away;
and, “We will ride upon swift steeds”;
therefore your pursuers shall be swift.
In other words, God was saying on the phone, “Just sit down, and I’m going to work for you. Take it easy and rest, and I’ll be your strength.” But they wouldn’t do it. They wanted to maneuver their own victory for their own glory on horses and chariots. Sometimes we have to be willing on the phone to accept the frustrating news: “Be still.” We need to hear what Moses said to the people as they were about to cross the Red Sea:
Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. . . . The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent. (Exodus 14:13–14)
So, the second thing that waiting for the Lord means is this: after you’ve prayed to the doctor and he says, “Be still,” be still and rest.
Wait and Act
But there’s a third way to wait for the Lord. He might say, “Get up, do your exercises, and take your pill.” Or to bring it back into the Old Testament context, he might say, “Go into battle and fight.”
In my family, we’ve been reading 2 Samuel for devotions in the morning, and just a few days ago, we read 2 Samuel 5:19. Now the situation is that David has just taken over after Saul’s death, and the Philistines are besieging. Here’s what he does: “David inquired of the Lord.” He waited. “Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will you give them into my hand?” Wait. Answer: “And the Lord said to David, ‘Go up, for I will certainly give the Philistines into your hand.’” So, the word to David was not “Lie still”; the word to David was “Fight.” He didn’t take matters into his own hands; he waited.
“No matter how hard you work, there should be a spirit of waiting.”
But now here’s the essence. Now, get this carefully, because we’re so prone to think that waiting means stillness, but as soon as we start acting — preparing a sermon or a lesson, going to work, preparing a report, staying up late to work, work, work — we don’t have to wait anymore. That’s not the case because — and this changes all of life — there is a spirit of waiting in the midst of work. Proverbs 21:31 says this:
The horse is made ready for the day of battle,
but the victory belongs to the Lord.
Do you see the implication of that for the warrior? It means that when the Lord says “Go,” he doesn’t stop waiting. He carries with him into battle a spirit of expectancy, a sense that “Yes, I will fight with all my might, but I must wait on the one in whose hands alone is the victory.” No matter how hard you work, there should be a spirit of waiting, a spirit of expectancy, a spirit that out of and through all this activity is going to come lightning from heaven to do supernatural work. Here’s the way the psalmist put it in Psalm 33:16–17, 20–22:
The king is not saved by his great army;
a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.
The war horse is a false hope for salvation,
and by its great might it cannot rescue. . . .
Our soul waits for the Lord;
he is our help and our shield.
For our heart is glad in him,
because we trust in his holy name.
Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us,
even as we hope in you.
If the Lord instructs us to take certain precautions, like locking the door at night, don’t think that you can stop waiting on the Lord. For Psalm 127:1 says,
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
the watchman stays awake in vain.
“Whether we lie still and sit, or whether we work, let us have this in common: we wait for the Lord.”
Even when we are watchmen doing our duty, we must be waiting for the Lord, for he alone brings safety. So, the third form of waiting is this: even when the Lord says “Act,” we act with a spirit of reliance on his work, and we wait for the Lord in a spirit of expectancy that even though our labor is vulnerable and paltry, the final result of all we do lies in the hands of the Lord. And on that we wait in all our work.
Watch God Work
So, in conclusion, let me sum up those three things:
- When circumstances conspire to put you under pressure so that you feel that something’s got to be done — something’s got to be done for safety or something’s got to be done for service — wait for the Lord; that is, pray. Before you do anything else, seek the Lord, seek his counsel. What would he have you do, if anything?
- If the Lord says, “Sit down and put your feet up,” if the Lord says, “Don’t go to church tonight to be at the council meeting; stay home and pray; I will work better than your arguments,” stay home.
- And if the Lord says, “Go and argue with all your might,” don’t become self-reliant, but go.
And let me stress in regard to that second point that I don’t mean laziness or the shirking of duty. I mean the very frustrating experience that sometimes, when you’re most prepared, when you think the most relies on you, and your zeal is fire, the Lord may say to you, “You just stay home tonight and watch me work.” And you’re a little frustrated because you had it all planned, but he wants to work for you so that he gets the glory and not us.
So, whether we lie still and sit, or whether we work, let us have this in common: that we wait for the Lord, that we have a spirit of expectancy that no matter how paltry our labors are, the final issue is in the hands of the Lord. And he loves to work for those who wait for him.
A bit of Life News
Trump: ‘I don’t know why’ Facebook, Twitter shut down ‘frontline’ doctors promoting COVID cure
‘There was a group of doctors yesterday, a large group that were put on the Internet, and for some reason, the Internet wanted to take them down and took them off’
Wed Jul 29, 2020 – 2:09 pm EST
PETITION: Break up Big Tech Tyrants and Defend Free Speech! Sign the petition here.
WASHINGTON, D.C., July 29, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – U.S. President Donald Trump said yesterday that he does not “know why” a video viewed millions of times featuring doctors championing hydroxychloroquine as an effective treatment for the coronavirus was removed from Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube on Monday.
“There was a group of doctors yesterday, a large group that were put on the Internet, and for some reason, the Internet wanted to take them down and took them off,” said Trump at a press conference on Tuesday.
“I guess Twitter took them off and I think Facebook took them off. I don’t know why. I think they’re very respected doctors.”
READ: Google, Facebook, Twitter shut down ‘frontline’ US doctors who promote ‘cure for COVID’
The banned video was originally posted by Breitbart News, and removed from all of Breitbart’s social media networks (despite going viral), for allegedly violating Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube’s respective COVID-19 “misinformation” policies.
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The video shows a press conference held this Monday in front of the U.S. Supreme Court by the group America’s Frontline Doctors in Washington, D.C.
The group was in D.C. for its “White Coat Summit” event, which was organized and sponsored by the Tea Party Patriots and Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.). It kicked off Monday with a full-day agenda and finished up yesterday.
Trump came under fire for sharing clips of the doctors’ group video with his followers, which prompted Twitter to remove them from his account.
At the Tuesday press conference, Trump said that many doctors think the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved-drug hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), when combined with zinc and azithromycin, is “extremely successful” and that he “believes in it.”
“Many doctors think it’s extremely good, and some people don’t. Some people — I think it’s become very political,” said Trump
“I happen to believe in it. I would take it. As you know, I took it for a 14-day period, and I’m here. Right? I’m here. I happen to think it’s — it works in the early stages. I think frontline medical people believe that too — some, many. And so we’ll take a look at it.”
“It — it’s safe. It doesn’t cause problems. I had no problem. I had absolutely no problem, felt no different. Didn’t feel good, bad, or indifferent. I — and I tested, as you know. It didn’t — it didn’t get me, and it’s not going to hopefully hurt anybody.”
HCQ is used mainly to treat malaria and has been the source of much debate and speculation when it comes to treating the coronavirus. It was heavily talked about at the doctors’ Monday press conference.
America’s Frontline Doctors was founded by Dr. Simone Gold, who according to her website is a “board-certified emergency physician Stanford educated attorney.”
The doctors’ Monday press conference saw Gold say they held the summit because “the American people have not heard from all the expertise that’s out there all across our country. We do have some experts speaking, but there’s lots and lots of experts across the country.”
Early on in the coronavirus crisis, some studies showed that HCQ could be an effective treatment against COVID-19. However, a study published by the medical journal The Lancet said researchers had found “no benefit” to using the drug, adding that it “decreased in-hospital survival and an increased frequency of ventricular arrhythmias.”
This study prompted many world governments to decide to ban or restrict HCQ for treating COVID-19 patients.
The Lancet was forced to retract its study, however, after revelations from the newspaper The Guardian raised significant doubts about the credibility of the source material.
During Monday’s doctors’ press conference, Dr. Stella Immanuel, who has a valid doctor’s licence according to the Texas Medical Board, claimed that hydroxychloroquine helped her treat her COVID-19 patients.
“I’m here because I have personally treated over 350 patients with COVID[.] … I put them on hydroxychloroquine, I put them on zinc, I put them on Zithromax, and they’re all well,” claimed Immanuel.
“And today I’m here to say it, that America, there is a cure for COVID. All this foolishness does not need to happen. There is a cure for COVID. There is a cure for COVID is called hydroxychloroquine. It’s called zinc. It’s called Zithromax.”
Dr. Stella Immanuel, also a pastor and the founder of Fire Power Ministries in Houston, has been criticized for sermons that, among other things, include mention of alien DNA being used in medical treatments, a vaccine to prevent people from being religious, and blaming medical conditions on demons and witches.
The doctors’ website was taken offline Monday, not long after their press conference.
Gold confirmed via her Twitter page yesterday that their hosting provider Squarespace shut them down for violating their “Acceptable Use Policy.”
“WOW: Our website host @Squarespace has just completely and arbitrarily shut down our website, claiming a violation of their terms of service. We are a group of physicians advocating for a better understanding of COVID-19 and its available treatment options. This is outrageous,” tweeted Gold.
In her tweet, Gold shared a screenshot of the correspondence she was sent from Squarespace, which said the site was “in violation of Section 3.1 of our Acceptable Use Policy regarding activity that’s false, fraudulent, inaccurate or deceiving.”
Despite being offline, portions of the site can still be viewed at the internet archive site Wayback.
In another tweet sent out yesterday, Gold mentioned on Twitter that the group met with Vice President Mike Pence to ask his administration for help in prescribing HCQ “without political obstruction.”
“UPDATE: We have just met with Vice President Mike Pence to request the administration’s assistance in empowering doctors to prescribe hydroxychloroquine without political obstruction. We also discussed the recent censorship of doctors on social media platforms. #WhiteCoatSummit,” tweeted Gold.
Yesterday, America’s Frontline Doctors held another press conference on Capitol Hill, in which they addressed the censorship of their Monday press conference.
“We’re back to say the exact same message that we said yesterday, and that is, Americans have reason to hope when it comes to COVID-19,” said Jenny Beth Martin who is the co-founder of Tea Party Patriots.
“There are treatment options available. We know much more about this virus now then we did when it first hit our shores. There are options available to help prevent it, there are options available in the early phase of the virus.”
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