Always With Us

What a Holiday weekend. Like most I was looking forward to three days rest. It was not to be. Early Saturday morning I arose around 4 a.m. and my heart suddenly started beating out of control; again! I went back to bed, prayed and finally fell into a fitful sleep.


My wife goes to yard sales on the weekends so I did a few small chores around the house, all the while praying that I would start feeling better. It was not to be. Around noon my wife checked me into the Emergency Room of our hospital and I spent the three day holiday weekend in ICU.

My meds have been increased and I am dealing with the side effects of some of them; dizziness, being tired and so forth. I have prayed for and am still praying for healing; total healing. The same God who created the heavens and the earth created the human heart, our soul, body and spirit and all things are possible with Him.


While they doctors were trying to get my heart rate down from 170 beats per minute for over a day, to the normal level of 70 or so, they decided to increase an I.V. med to bring down the heart rate. The next step would have been to trying to shock my heart into regular rythem. Right after they increased the I.V. I started to sweat so bad the bed and my clothes were soaked as if I were standing under a water hose. I almost blacked out and could not see anything! Three things were going through my head at the same time; so this is how it feels right before you die? Why don't I just lose consienceness so I do not see what is happening? And, I had a deep inner sence that God was right there; a sence not of a Presence of any sort but I knew He was in total control of the events as they seemed to be spining out of control in the natural sense, and they truly were. The staff was callling the doctors 911 and such and they were tugging and pulling cords trying to bring my blood pressure back up; it had fallen to 40/20.


Within ten minutes things were back to normal. A close call by any definition. This happened for a reason. Here are one of the things that I feel are going on ~

1. This is a test of my faith; it has been sorely tried since my heart attack of May 9. Do I still believe the promises of God?

2. I agree with Brother Dave Wilkerson that some of the trials and tests we go through in this life are not because of our sin, our faith, the devil or anything of the sort; they are preparing us for what we will be in the world to come. We are earning our stripes, getting experience that will last us into the ages of eternity. I need to get out of an earthly frame of mind and "set my mind on things above, where God is".

I have cried, begged, tried to bargain with God and even this is causing growth in my spiritual man; the man that is eternal. I read a passage of Scripture this evening that explains what I am trying to say ~

" They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
He that goeth forth and weepeth,
bearing precious seed,
Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
bringing his sheaves with him. " Psalm 126:5


Our tears have a purpose. We are bearing seed as we bear our burdens. The precious seed we are carrying is our faith. After the great trials, tests, burdens and harvest, a great day of rejoicing awaits us. Some of the rejoicing will be in the here and now; most I believe will be when we get to our real home in the heaven of heavens; where God is.


I have prayed most of my life to be a man of faith. It is easy for me to have faith when things are going on a normal scale. When things start falling apart to the point that they look hopeless and death is at the door; this is the place where faith is birthed. I pass some tests, I do not do so well on others. But I am learning.


I am confident of one thing and I felt His presence as my blood pressure was dropping this past weekend in I.C.U. ~As fear started to momentarily set in, then a change started to occur and this is the passage " As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the LORD is round about His people from henseforth, even forever." Psalm 125:2

Making Deals With God - David Parsons

Making deals with God - Special Commentary

By: David Parsons - International Christian Embassy of Jerusalem
Posted on: Mon, 07/25/2011


Every passing day, more and more Christians around the world are discovering within themselves a growing love for Israel and a greater appreciation of God’s enduring election over the Jewish people.

Yet many in the growing Christian Zionist movement are no longer comfortable with all the popular ‘end-time’ charts which portray Israel as just another piece of the prophetic puzzle. Many charts have the Church escaping to heaven while Israel goes through hell. This just seems too impersonal, detached and contrary to their burning, heart-felt passion for Israel.

So rather than speculative charts about future events, many Christian Zionists are looking for a more solid biblical foundation which better expresses their zeal for the Israel of today. And they are finding it in the scriptural tenets of Covenant theology.

While some Christians take a very fatalistic approach to Bible prophecy and often focus too heavily on its dark side, Covenant theology is an uplifting view rooted in the very nature and character of God as eternally faithful to his sworn promises to Israel. It sees the great divine covenants with Abraham, Moses, David and the New Covenant as telling the story of God’s salvation plan for all humanity, with the Jewish people playing a central role – both in the past and the future. Indeed, the covenants “belong to” Israel, the Apostle Paul says in Romans 9:4.

Covenant theology holds that Israel’s journey down through time, until she reaches her ultimate destiny, is steered by the promises which God delivered by solemn oath to Abraham, Moses and David, culminating with the New Covenant (Hebrews 6:13-20). These covenants set out the terms and conditions for Israel’s relationship with God as His primary vehicle for world salvation – which pivoted around her eventual birthing of Jesus, the promised Messiah (Romans 9:5).

The Hebrew prophets then come along as “servants” of the covenants. They cannot go outside the covenant promises and provisions which God has already set out by sworn oath. But their prophetic utterances do tell us something about how God will keep His covenant promises to Israel. Thus interpreting Bible prophecy first requires that we understand the purposes, terms and conditions of the successive covenants with Israel. This is where many Dispensational interpretations go wrong.

Thus the modern-day restoration of Israel can and must be understood, first and foremost, as God being faithful to his covenant promise to Abraham to deliver the Land of Canaan as “an everlasting possession” to his natural descendants (Genesis 17:8). Furthermore, this restoration process will continue until God also fulfills the promises of the Davidic covenant that the Messiah will one day sit on the throne of David and rule the earth from a Jewish Jerusalem and a redeemed nation of Israel.

Such an approach is refreshingly focused on the positive side of Bible prophecy and it is built on solid theological grounds. No wonder Covenant theology is finding so many new Evangelical adherents.

Yet there are some ‘prosperity preachers’ out there who are latching on to the concept of divine covenant and trying to twist it for carnal purposes. They speak of making “salt covenants” with their supporters, and promote three-way contracts between you, their ministry and God which guarantee financial blessings in return for donations. In short, they think it is possible to just make deals with God.

This ignores the fact that any divine covenant is first birthed in the very heart of God, and then He finds a suitable human partner to receive the promises. We see this reflected in the Lord’s covenant with Noah, which originated “in His heart” (Genesis 8:21). One does not just decide to enter a contract with God; He carefully chooses the vessel to be entrusted with His sure promises.

Each of the divine covenants with Israel also had a unique purpose in furthering the redemptive plan of God. Christians can be third-party beneficiaries of those covenants, but we cannot just make our own separate deals.

In addition, the divine covenants of the Bible are largely unilateral. That is, God usually makes promises that only He can and will perform. Some conditions of performance are placed on the human partner(s), but the core obligations He reserves unto Himself.

This does not mean one cannot make vows before God. But if we do, the Bible is clear we better pay those vows.

Parsons is Media Director for the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem.