Don Pucik

following Jesus...

[Don Pucik @Don_Pucik]

“Is there something you are facing--whether in your outer circumstances or in your inner character--that seems impossible to command?... Something as deaf to your command as the wind, or wild waters? Don't despair... Our Lord--your Lord and mine--can command even the most difficult, unruly thing that seems as if it will never be commanded. Let His word 'even' be a comfort to you... All the tremendous forces of nature, weather, and politics and human nature too--are at the beck and call of God." ~ Amy Carmichael (1867-1951)

"And they were afraid, and marveled, saying to one another, 'Who can this be? For He commands EVEN the winds and water, and they obey Him!'" ~ Luke 8:25

[Don Pucik @Don_Pucik]

Followers of Jesus are doing life in two realms:
in the seen - and in the unseen;
in the material - and in the spiritual;
in His kingdom - and in a world under the influence of the evil one.

The way we view the world around us affects how we respond to God and others. Understanding what is "real" matters as we navigate and evaluate our daily circumstances... and it is truly a "life and death" difference!

"Suddenly a man from the multitude cried out, saying, 'Teacher, I implore You, look on my son, for he is my only child. And behold, a spirit seizes him... so I implored Your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.' Then Jesus answered and said, 'O faithless and perverse generation...'" ~ Luke 9:38-41

[Don Pucik @Don_Pucik]

The difficulties many of us face are breathtaking (aren't they?), but what a mighty Savior we serve! Hang in there dear one...

"Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all." ~ Psalm 34:19

[Don Pucik @Don_Pucik]

Love Comes First

"Most churches discover the depth of their love for one another only when conflict demands it. By then, it is almost too late. When a church is fighting among themselves, the last thing anyone is thinking about is "loving one another"..."

https://t.co/42evODwg6G

[Don Pucik @Don_Pucik]

"...I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever... I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you." ~ John 14:16, 18

"We should make a deliberate effort at the outset of every day to recognize the person of the Holy Spirit, to move into the light concerning his presence in our consciousness and to open up our minds and to share all our thoughts and plans as we gaze by faith into the face of God. We should continue to walk throughout the day in a relationship of communication and communion with the Spirit mediated through our knowledge of the Word, relying upon every office of the Holy Spirit's role as counselor mentioned in Scripture... When this practice of the presence of God is maintained over a period of time, our experience of the Holy Spirit becomes less subjective and more clearly identifiable, as gradually we learn to distinguish the strivings of the Spirit from the motions of our flesh." ~ Richard F. Lovelace (1930-2021)

[Don Pucik @Don_Pucik]

"Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, 'Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.'" ~ Genesis 28:16

"Nearness to God is not a geographical or an astronomical thing. It is not a spatial thing. It is a spiritual thing, having to do with nature. And so when we pray 'God, draw me nearer' or 'God, come nearer,' we're not praying (if we're good theologians) for God to come down from some remote distance. We know God's here now... Jacob said, 'God is in this place and I didn't know it.' He didn't say, 'God came to this place'; he said, 'God is in this place.' What are we praying for, then? We are praying for a manifestation of the presence of God. Not the presence, but the manifestation of the presence." ~ A. W. Tozer (1897-1963)

[Don Pucik @Don_Pucik]

"So the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. They forgot the Lord their God... WHEN the children of Israel cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer..." ~ Judges 3:7, 9

"WHEN ..."

He waits for that generation that will cry out to Him. And when they do, they discover that God is ready to hear their cry. It seems that every generation has to discover for themselves how much they need God. Try as we might, we were not created to do life on our own and apart from Him. Most often, that discovery isn't made when everything is going well. That discovery is made when we have nowhere else to turn... except to Him.

[Don Pucik @Don_Pucik]

Prayer is the inner refuge of men and women who know how to wait before their infinitely wise and mighty God.

The great struggle in prayer is not between you and God, as if you were straining to wrest some meager token from a stingy deity. Because of His unreserved love for you, your Father knows what you need before the thought is framed in your mind or any word leaves your lips. Your battle is not with God.

The battle lies in shutting out the mad noise of the outer world, and slipping into the secret place and sacred space of your inner world... to lay down your worries and weights and terrors at His feet... to move over and surrender the controls... to let go of your fiercely-held "maps" to your happiness... to enter the sanctuary of His Presence... to simply be with Him... and to discover He has been seeking you for this relationship all along.

The noise of battle ends in the loving Presence of the all-sufficient King and the infinitely satisfying Savior: Jesus!

"But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly." ~ Matthew 6:6

[Don Pucik @Don_Pucik]

Unfortunately, it is possible to divorce doctrinal integrity from a passion for God. We too easily compartmentalize our lives into our “work life” and our “church life” and our “home life” etc.

In the verses below, Jesus is not suggesting that truth is irrelevant. But He is saying something deeply significant about what He desires most from you and me: an all-consuming passion for Him that engages everything we are and all we have.

"Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: 'This people honors Me with their lips, but their HEART is far from Me.'" ~ Mark 7:6

"And you shall love the Lord your God with ALL your HEART..." ~ Mark 12:30

[Don Pucik @Don_Pucik]

"Learn the true way of coming to peace -- by looking to Jesus. Some of you think you will come to peace by looking into your own heart. Your eyes are riveted there. You watch every change there. If you could only see the glimpse of light there, oh, what joy it would give you! If you could only see a melting of your stony heart. If you could only see your heart turning to God. If you could only see a glimpse of the image of Jesus in your heart, you would be at peace. But you cannot. All is dark within. Dear soul, it is not there that you will find peace. You must avert the eye from your heart altogether. You must look to a declared Christ. Spread out the record of God concerning His Son. The Gospels are the narrative of the heart of Jesus, of the work of Jesus, of the grace of Jesus. Spread them out before the eye of your mind until they fill your eye. Cry for the Spirit to breathe over the page -- to make a manifested Christ stand out plainly before you. The moment you are willing to believe all that is spoken there concerning Jesus, that moment you will wipe away your tears, exchange your sighs for a new song of praise." ~ Robert Murray M'Cheyne (1813-1843)

"...looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." ~ Hebrews 12:2

[Don Pucik @Don_Pucik]

"It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived." ~ George S. Patton (1885-1945)

"I exhort first of all that... giving of thanks be made for all men..." ~ Paul the Apostle in 1 Timothy 2:2

[Don Pucik @Don_Pucik]

"Preach to broken hearts, and you'll never lack for a congregation. There's one in every pew." ~ Joseph Parker 1830-1902

"The Spirit of the LORD
is upon Me,
because
He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel
to the poor;
He has sent Me
to heal
the brokenhearted..."
~ Luke 4:18

[Don Pucik @Don_Pucik]

"Have in your mind's eye two glasses: one is empty, and the other is full of water. I then take the one that is full of water and I pour all that is in it into the one that previously was empty. As we pour out our hearts before God like water, we completely transfer our cares, our anxieties and our needs to Him - and that is what He wants. We are to empty our hearts before Him of everything that concerns and troubles us. We are to have no 'hang-ups' about telling God everything." ~ Derek Prime (1931-2020)

"Trust in Him at all times, you people; pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us. Selah." ~ Psalm 62:8

"...casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you." ~ 1 Peter 5:7

[Don Pucik @Don_Pucik]

[a reflection,
best read by pausing
at the end of each line]

for the heavy-hearted,
fearful, and grieving ones:
we are living in a world where
every story seems to come to an end
every happiness is limited
every life runs out
every relationship ends in separation
but for those dear ones
who have been rescued by Jesus the Christ
there is an impending unveiling
of a very different story
that has been forming inside us
from the first moment
we abandoned ourselves and
relinquished our lives
into His hands
listen
the Day is coming
when descriptive words will fail
as we step into the Presence of our Father...
no limits, no barriers, and no ending
to His love, His power, or His story
and we are inextricably and eternally
caught up in Him
slipping away from this boot camp existence
and into the place we have always belonged
Lord, give us eyes to glimpse
this unseen and certain destiny...
our hope.

"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." ~ Romans 8:18

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." ~ John 3:16

[Don Pucik @Don_Pucik]

"But God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean." ~ Acts 10:38

“I should not call any man" means that there is a limit to what I can say (or think or do) involving another person:

(1) no one is "common" (profane = worthless to God) or beyond God's desire to love him
(2) no one is "unclean" or beyond God's power to clean/purify him

God revealed this to Peter and this new way of seeing others transformed his entire approach to every encounter with every man he met

[Don Pucik @Don_Pucik]

What makes the work of believers so different
whether it's in an office
or a school
or a hospital
or a region ravished by a natural disaster
is not found in the gifts
and talents
and resources
and numbers
we bring to the work.
The difference is found in the
animating and motivating
power behind the work...
found deep inside the believer's heart.

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels,

but have not love,

I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains,

but have not love,

I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,

but have not love,

I gain nothing."
~ 1 Corinthians 13:1-3

[Don Pucik @Don_Pucik]

"...I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and GIVING OF THANKS be made for ALL men..." ~ 1 Timothy 2:1

"There are occasions when we may find ourselves predisposed to criticism rather than commendation, finding it easier to pick holes than to be constructive. Intercession can then, if we are not careful, become a kind of critical lecture to God about our fellow believers. That is a frightening possibility. The effort to thank God for every good thing we see in those for whom we pray provides a healthy corrective against this peril. It will cause us to rejoice before God because of His grace and power seen in the lives of so many. Interceding correctly for others means praying positively for them. Negative praying is not really intercession at all." ~ Derek Prime (1931-2020)

[Don Pucik @Don_Pucik]

"Then the Spirit said to Philip, 'Go near and overtake this chariot.'" ~ Acts 8:29

In this moment, Philip is being led by God. No one was present except Philip and the Holy Spirit. Philip comprehended that the Spirit was speaking and He obeyed the sovereign authority of the Spirit.

When most of us try and describe God's leading in our life, we use the language of hearing and obeying God. We will say things like "God told me to ____" or "He led me to _____."

Is it controversial or strange to talk like that? By using that language we are being biblical. If we are not led by an indwelling Holy Spirit, we are not His (cf Romans 8:9, 14). But if I am His, then He owns me now - I am not my own - and no decision is mine to make. I am called to follow Him in all things.

How He leads and makes Himself understood occurs in many ways, but the fact of the Spirit's leadership in the believer's life is undeniable. By using that language we are expressing our yielding to His authority and rule in our lives. He is Lord, and those who follow Him are serving a King. He has promised Himself to His people in this way (John 14:18).

By using that language, we are not suggesting that His guidance to us individually is somehow equal to or adding to Scripture. We believe in the inspiration, inerrancy, authority, clarity, sufficiency, and the absolute necessity of the Bible... which teaches us to love and walk by faith in a living, ever-present King.

By using that language, we are not introducing new forms of revelation that supersede Scripture. We are simply yielding ourselves to Him in a thoroughly biblical manner.

"My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me." ~ John 10:27

[Don Pucik @Don_Pucik]

As He searches through every human soul today, don't you want Him to look into your heart and exclaim "I found one!"?

"...true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him." ~ John 4:23

[Don Pucik @Don_Pucik]

"You are not going to live by faith in the Son of God until you cease to live by faith in yourself." ~ Joseph S. Carroll (1919-2008)

“…Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” ~ Galatians 2:20

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.” ~ Proverbs 3:5

“Not that we are sufficient of ourselves… our sufficiency is from God.” ~ 2 Corinthians 3:5

"…without Me you can do nothing.” ~ John 15:5