Deeper Furrow

  RLCC Message 6/30/24 The following message was given by Pastor Micaiah Cvrk to those in attendance in Sunday morning service: “Shine Bright” Phillipians 2: 12  “ Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;  13  for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for  His  good pleasure. 14  Do all things without  [ d ] complaining and disputing, [ e ]   15  that you may become blameless and  [ f ] harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,  16  holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain. 17  Yes, and if I am being poured out  as a drink offering  on ...

  McCook Lake Mental Image 2024 Yesterday I saw a scythe. It cut down. It cut down green corn. It cut down green corn in its rows.   The green corn laid down. Its ears fell into mud. The ears sprouted.   Up came a thick forest of green. So dense I could not look through it. Its yield was not in its seed But in the sheer growth that was there.   So was the image.   Interpretation: What the enemy had purposed in destruction The Lord made good. Although order was disrupted, God will cause an increase. The corn cut down Yet the volunteers to build up. McCook Lake will come back strong.  

  For God So Loved The World      For God so loved the world…that He gave us inheritance.      Tell us Moses, what is clean and unclean?   How do we stand before a God you describe?   Is there a remedy for situation we are stuck in?      If I lift up my pride as a Gentile, full of the Spirit, and walking in all revelation then I have not accomplished much.   I owe it to them who have suffered for bearing the truth.   The Jews?   The Israelites?   How about just the Hebrews as they were known.   Before the target came upon them, they rallied out of Canaan to another promised land down south.   Slavery in a foreign land.   Bearing the weight of oppressive Kings.   Blood amongst the chains.   In grievous agony of boys in the Nile.   A threat so great to crush their Godly Spirit.   When revived by the spark of Moses, even that was quickly quenched.  ...

  Is It Possible? Psalms 32:8   “ I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye. ” Sons and Daughters, have we not a one so sensitive?   As One lying on a bed.   Without gesturing with hands, without raising His voice, He beckons us to His side.   “Come closer,” He says, “That I may know you.   And you know Me.” We have entered into the great potential.   A relationship like no other.   Our Great Father, within and without, strives with us that we enjoy the blessing of His presence. “Come closer,” He says. Though He may not speak.   A rant nor rave He has thrown.   No fit to demand our attention.   We come to Him.   Even in more than wisdom.   Not just for what we want.   As a dear Father desires our togetherness, He wills us there. So today, come close and read His eye.   Know His frustration.   Join Him in His gaze.   Focus upon His o...

  Am I My Brother’s Keeper? Genesis 4:9   “ And the  Lord  said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper? ” Luke 10:29  “ But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbor? ”      “Well their… Toni.   That’ll be all.   No, I don’t want any cash back.”     I talk a lot to those pin card verifier things.   They are a conversation interrupter.   Now that’s convenient.   I don’t have to tell someone they are important to the race of Mankind.   Just slip, and slip out.   Maybe I could open my own convenience stores!   Throw a couple pumps out there just to suck them in them. Then “Bamm!”, plaster that pumps with cheap choices of pop and a free pizza.   Capitalizing there fore on my neighbor’s incessant taste for high fructose and fat, I'd…did I just say neighbor ?   Don’t I know highly refined sugar cou...

  God Did Some ‘Splaining Genesis 1      In a glass prism, white light enters.   It is bent.   This phenomenon is a mystery.   The glass slows down the speed of the initial light.   This is called refraction.   When light is slowed down, its frequencies change.   The spectrum colors that result regain their speed as they exit the glass.   Upon striking a surface, we see a rainbow of colors.   If I have explained this wrong, it is to be expected because refraction by a glass medium is still a mystery to me.      Thankfully, God is not mysterious this way as we see Him work. He is the source, our sun.   The white light is Jesus.   The Holy Spirit is the glass prism.      We cannot understand the whole package of God.   He is spirit.   We cannot see Him.   His mind is unsearchable to us.   Jesus, His Son, declares Him yet we still need a helper. ...

  Solomon’s Venue II Chronicles 6      I do not remember God putting Solomon in the rank of Noah or Moses.   Job certainly not.   Abraham walked and confronted his enemy. Surely humility before God was their mark,      Solomon, on the other hand, did say he lacked.   God gave him the wisdom to rule His people.   Then why does it seem his dependence stopped there?   Something got in the way.      I see Solomon on the red carpet, dressed in the latest fashion, as he shows off his new wife.   The camera flashes are lighting off almost blinding.   He even smiles and poses informally for the paparazzi as he sits on his porch and drops the grapes into his mouth. 2 Chronicles 6:13  For Solomon had made a brasen scaffold of five cubits long, and five cubits broad, and three cubits high, and had set it in the midst of the court: and upon it he stood, and kneeled down upon his knees ...

  Peculiar People Deuteronomy 14:2 “ Ye are the children of the  Lord  your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead. 2  For thou art an holy people unto the  Lord  thy God, and the  Lord  hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth. ”      That was for Israel.   That was the old covenant under Moses.   Those rules made them different mostly in appearance and diet here.   Drop an Israelite in ancient Cannan and he’d stick out like a sore thumb.      Now, drop a Christian missionary in China.   What do you have?   A person who walks, talks, and eats like a Chinese person.   As if God wanted His gospel to extend into all cultures of the earth.   How can we fit in and be unique to God?   As in 1 Peter 2, we are still peculiar. Romans 1:20  “ For the invisib...

  God, Prayer, Pain Job 2:4  “ And Satan answered the  Lord , and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life. ” John 15:8  “ Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit ; so shall ye be my disciples. ” Galatians 5:22 “ But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23  Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. ”      “Father, I want to be like You.”   If this is our first expression to Him, it is powerful.   This is the big rock to fit in the prayer jar, so to say.   All other smaller ones can fall in and find their place.      Really, how does God influence this place?   He is greatly limited in the affairs of men because He has constrained Himself.   He recognizes a man’s sovereignty and resists not to meddle with him.   So how does He act?      Through your p...

  The Lazy Church 1 Samuel 10:19  “ And ye have this day rejected your God, who himself saved you out of all your adversities and your tribulations; and ye have said unto him, Nay, but set a king over us . Now therefore present yourselves before the  Lord  by your tribes, and by your thousands. ” Philippians 1:1 “Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons : ” 1 Timothy 3:2  “ A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach ; ”      “Man, I wonder if I didn’t show up some Sunday, would you guys even have church?”   I heard a pastor say something like that.   And why not, he is the pastor, the spiritual guy who is to speak all the religious words right?   He is to remind us that God cares for us, then we leave and go out for lunch.   Perhaps a n...

  Corded      “Sir, do you want to cut the cord?”   I did.   I don’t recommend it.   Like a scissors severing a thick bunch of rubber bands, the fingered sensation was unforgettable.   And the blood thereafter.      With God it is different.   We are physically born with a wild WiFi.   Forget the frequency band.   We are all over the place, stepping on one another’s talking space.   Our cries up to the sky only sound like noisy children with unsolved desires.   He offers a better way of communication.      Cat 5 cable with an Ethernet protocol.   RJ45 connectors at either end.   This is the standard patch cable now connecting computers to networks.   Twisted pairing cuts noise interference up to 100 MHz.   Upon rebirth, we are corded to our Father.      Still copper.   We have a substance of things yet hoped for.   We are...

  My Vegan T. Rex Genesis 1:30  “ And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. ”      That’s weird.   If you believe the Bible to be true, then T. Rex ate his veggies.   In other words, he started out eating only plants.   In fact, every animal was created vegan.   Guess that made the original creation more harmonious if they didn’t kill each other.         So why is T. Rex in the ring boxing furiously with gloves on?   Because someone is pounding his tail!   He beats and beats an invisible opponent called Man’s imagination.   He’s been billed The Terrible Lizard and we want to see a fight.   I mean, that’s what the poster said.   His blood ripping, eye gleaming, and thrashing about we lust to behold.      Surely his horr...

  Are You Gifted?      Whoa!   You thought I’d be launching into tongues and prophecy, right?   After all, when Jesus led captivity captive, He gave good gifts to men.   That verse is snuggled into the book of Ephesians and in it He talks of the big “five”. Ephesians 4: 8 – 11.   Yet, if we are looking for fireworks or the Hollywood in God’s kingdom, we might miss it.      What am I to do as a Grandpa when I see my granddaughter playing with dolls?   She sits the dolls about her as she tells them the big plan for the day.   Am I to recognize this?   What of a grandson who insists to be heard correctly?   Not pushy, wanting his words to carry weight.   What of my daughter who tracks her bank account to the penny?      What skill set are these bringing to the kingdom of God?   He has put their natural bent into them.   A grouping of desires and interests occupy the...

  Not Meant To Stand Alone      Today I saw a mental image.   I saw a book of matches.   The match heads were fanned away from the base like someone positioning a hand of cards.   Thus, the heads were not close to touching.      Then I saw someone’s hand spreading the match sticks.   A rolling of fingers about the thumb spread the matchbook wide.   The rolling fingers also signified money.      The first matchstick was set afire.   It lit up and burnt down before the next close by caught flame.   They successively caught fire this way one by one.   Hence, the light was not bright.      Then I saw another matchbook fire up.   All its matchsticks were together and lit as one.   There was no putting out of this flame.      Has mammon isolated our churches like the spread-out matchsticks?   We fire up with zeal then die out...

  Where Do You Meet God?      Noah had time while he worked upon the ark.   Abraham talked in his sojourning.   Moses had the tent of meeting.   Jesus had a mountain.      Every good idea is from God.   We cannot generate such things on our own.   We need help.   Each of these put themselves in a place to receive from the Lord.   As was custom and their practice, their routine let God work His leavening into their lump.   Something had to inflate their balloons to face the day.   God is faithful when they created instances of conception.      Max bass, mid middle, max treble.   Little flanger, half reverb.   Metal lead, no gain, quarter volume.   These are the setting of my Cube -20 Watt Roland Amp that my wife bought me for a college graduation present.   Mated with a lap steel guitar and slide, it sounds like a revving semi powering down the interstat...

  Do You Get It?     Last week, a missionary went out from RLCC.   He drove 13 ½ hours to Boseman, Montana to support Time to Revive.   He did not burden them with hotel costs.   He slept in his car.   He stated that it was not a vacation.   He started helping that week wherever he could.      One day he met with two teenagers attending a Christian high school.   They doubted the relevancy of the Old Testament to their faith.   Using the Time to Revive wristbands, he showed how Romans 5:8 built upon Leviticus 17:11.   Something had to die for our freedom.      Early in the week, a coworker named “John” resisted the project’s work of hitting the streets.   He had come there for fun.   Outdoor recreation perhaps.   By midweek, he had a God encounter.   So much so that it changed his attitude 180 degrees.   From resistant to resilient, John jumped up and began ...

  Sunday Morning Cleaning Windows Romans 6:19  I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness .      Romans six was the chapter where I met Him this morning.   As custom, I read through the chapter and came back to the scripture that stuck out to me.   I had uncleanness.   Between Him and I and had a bit of turning.   This affected my relationship with my wife.   I confessed it.      On 6/17/24 at 6:36 AM, I marked the sun’s shadow on my living room wall.   Nearing the summer solstice of 6/21, I am interested of the assent of the sun’s shadow as it approaches that date.   In other words, I am using my living room wall as a sundial.      For the sun to leave its mark, it must pass through our ...

  Would Your God Do That? Genesis 7:21  “ And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: ”      Maybe the big question isn’t if the Noah account is factual.   That guy has taken a lot of flak for what he did.   Modern day “scientists” throw stones at him.   Give him a break!   He only cooperated and saved Mankind as we are told.      If we can discredit the Noah story with evidences strown about the timeline, then we can write off Hell.   If God is a liar, then He surely doesn’t know what He is doing.   A plaything called scripture full of myths and bedtime stories doesn’t command our attention nor does it cause us to inspect our actions before a God who is watching.      But what if God did kill a whole bunch of people at once.   Was it murder?   Is God tha...