Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you your heart’s desires.
Psalm 37:4 (Life Application Study Bible)
Jesus Tells Us…there are times when you feel like you are drowning in problems. You feel like you just can’t catch a break. There’s that math problem you can’t seem to figure out, that sports play you can’t get right, that family problem that just gets worse and worse. It’s all you can think about. Make yourself break away from the struggles. Go outside and find a quiet place. Take a deep breath and humbly give your thoughts to Me. Remember who I AM in all My Power and Glory. I will shine the Light of My Presence on your problems. I will help you see them as they really are. And I will give you joy. In spite of your troubles.
Jesus Concludes…Together we can handle anything.
Exodus 3:14; Habakkuk 3:17-19 Study Notes
Footnotes Exodus 3:13-15 The Egyptians had many gods by many different names. Moses wanted to know God’s name so the Hebrew people would know exactly who had sent him to them. God called himself I AM, a name describing his eternal power and unchangeable character. In a world where values, morals and laws change constantly, we can find stability and security in our unchanging God. The God who appeared to Moses is the same God who can live in us today. Hebrews 13:8 says that God is the same “yesterday and today and forever.” Because God’s nature is stable and trustworthy, we are free to follow and enjoy him. We can count on him to guide us no matter how much our culture or circumstances change.
Footnotes Exodus 3:14-15 The divine name, Yahweh (often represented as “the LORD”), is derived from the Hebrew word for “I am.” God reminded Moses of his covenant promises to Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3; 15; 17) Isaac (Genesis 26:2-5), and Jacob (Genesis28:13-15), and he used the name I AM to show his unchanging nature. What God promised to the great patriarchs hundreds of years earlier he would fulfill through Moses. His wisdom spans the ages, and his promises give meaning and direction to our lives.
Passage Habakkuk 3:17-19 17Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, 18yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior. 19the Sovereign LORD is my strength, he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights.
Footnotes Habakkuk 3:17-19 Crop failure and the death of animals would devastate Judah. But Habakkuk affirmed that even in the times of starvation and loss, he would still rejoice in the Lord. Habakkuk’s feelings were not dominated by the events around him, but by faith in God’s ability to give him strength. When nothing makes sense, and when your troubles seem to be more than you can bear, remember that God gives strength. Take your eyes off your difficulties and look to him.
Jesus Tells Us is from the Jesus Calling 365 devotions for kids.
THE WORLD…we see history
William Tennent
THOSE WHO HAVE TURNED THE WORLD UP-SIDE DOWN HAVE COME HERE TOO.
ACTS 17:6
William Tennent was born in Mid Calder, Linlithgowshire, Scotland in 1673
He graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1695, and was ordained
In the Church of Ireland in 1706. He migrated the thirteen colonies in 1718.
Rev. William Tennent Sr. came to America from Ireland in 1718, and five years later he settled in Bucks-county, Pennsylvania, just north of Philadelphia. He was at midlife, but his true life’s work was just beginning. He purchased a hundred acres of land, and built a log school for the training of pastors. The students, which included his sons, studied there by day and took up lodging in the neighborhood at night. Tennent’s wife, Catherine, cared for the boys like sons. This rough building became the first Presbyterian seminary in America, and the log cabin became a bonfire for the Great Awakening. On November 22, 1739, celebrated evangelist George Whitfield (pronounced Witfield) visited the school and found about three thousand people gathered outside. They had come to hear Whitefield, but William Tennent, not knowing when the famous evangelist would arrive, had started the sermon and was preaching away with great power. Seeing Whitefield ride up, Tennent brought his sermon to a rapid close, led the group in singing a psalm, and turned the crowd over to Whitefield. “At first, the people seemed unaffected,” Whitefield later wrote, “but in the midst of my discourse, the power of the Lord Jesus came upon me, and I felt such a struggling within myself for the people, as I scarce ever felt before. The hearers began to be melted down immediately.” Whitefield provided us with an important description of Tennent’s Log College.
The WORD…we see Jesus, His Story!
The place wherein the young men study now is, a log house, about twenty feet long, and near as many broad and to me it seemed to resemble the schools of the old prophets, for that their habitation were (primitive), from this despised place, seven or eight worthy ministers of Jesus have lately been sent forth, more are almost ready to be sent, and a foundation is now laying for the instruction of many others. The devil will certainly rage against them, but the work, I am persuaded, is of God, and therefore will not come to naught. Carnal ministers oppose them strongly, as persons that turn the world upside down.
Turning the world upside down is what the followers of Christ have been doing for two thousand years. When the apostle Paul and his companions ventured into the ancient city of Thessalonica and began preaching the gospel, they won many to Christ. But in the process, they encountered tremendous anger and opposition. The critics railed against them, saying, “These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.” I like that phrase! Though it was uttered in disdain, it aptly describes those who hold up the cross of Jesus Christ. We are turning the world upside down. Tennent’s handful of graduates turned the Colonies upside down as evangelists of the Great Awakening, the massive spiritual revival that swept over the Colonies, brining multitudes to faith in Christ and changing the fabric of early American culture.
Thomas Murphey wrote:
It is doubtful whether ever before or since then lads were collected in the same school who were afterward to accomplish so much good in their own day, and to send down such streams of blessings to unborn generations. It is absolutely startling to glance at the list of the eminent ministers-great preachers, the greatest in the early annals of our church-who obtained their training for the ministry, in this humble institution. They went forth preaching the Gospel in every quarter, bringing thousands of souls to Christ, building up the churches in many regions, establishing schools and academies, and staring streams of godly influences that flowed over the whole land, the currents of which have not subsided even to this present day. Tennent died on May 6th, 1746, at age seventy-three, but his graduates and supporters joined together to establish a more permanent training school for Presbyterian minsters in the Colonies: The College of New Jersey, today known as Princeton University. Rev. Douglas K. Turner wrote, “The germ of this distinguished seat of learning (Princeton) is to be found in Mr. Tennent’s seminary.
Source: https://www.robertjmorgan.com/shop/100-bible-verses-that-made-america/Page 28