Kiss the Wave

Thanks to my pastor that is teaching through the Psalms I am trying to do the impossible. In C.H.Spurgeon's words, "I have learned to kiss the wave that throws me against the Rock of Ages."

I am striving to learn this and as a fellow believer in Christ, I bet you can relate. Whether it is financial strain, unsaved loved ones, a struggling marriage, health concerns, or a rebellious child; the "stuff" that our Savior allows in our life is designed to throw us against Him. Now the hard part comes in whether we fight against the wave or whether we embrace it as for our good.

He is the Rock of Ages that will not allow us to drown, even though the waves seem to be taking us under. We must trust Him and believe that with all our hearts! 

So pucker up friend! Though the water of tears is salty, our Rock will be our Refuge!

A Wall of Prayer

I have an idea.

And I would love your help.

The Puebla Ponderosa knows there are many people out there who have been praying for "Hoss". For God to do a work of redemption, forgiveness and reconciliation. Right now this seems like an impossibility, but I know our God is a God of miracles. I struggle with unbelief. So to help my unbelief, I am asking that any of you who have been praying to please send me a letter or prayer to "Hoss" that I can post on a wall in our home and eventually put in a book for him to have in the future. I want him to see with his own eyes the testimony and prayers of others and how God acted. 


I don't presume that things will go better from here on out. In fact, we are experiencing much more fracture in our relationship as of late, but as Charles Spurgeon says, "Never give up praying, even when Satan suggests that prayer is in vain....If the heavens are brass and your prayer only echoes above your head, pray on!If month after month your prayer appears to be miscarried, if you have had no answer, continue to draw close to the Lord. Do not abandon the mercy seat for any reason. If it is a good thing that you have been asking for, and  if you are sure that it is according to the divine will, wait, tarry, pray, weep, plead, wrestle, and agonize until you get what you are praying for." - Beside Still Waters, pg.242


This is our prayer. If you would like to be part of this, please email us anything from a letter to "Hoss" or a prayer for him to  pueblas4jesus@tampabay.rr.com.


How exciting to envision us being able to present a book to him one day full of testimonies, prayers and encouragement by people he may never meet.


Let's storm the gates of heaven!

He Hears

"Our tears are liquid prayers."- Charles Spurgeon

My God knows my thoughts before I think them.

So when the words won't come and the tears do, He hears.

Arguing with God

As I have been reading through the book of Job, I continue to be challenged in my acceptance of God's ways to refine me.

Today I read through chapters 12 and 13. Thus far, I have been exasperated by Job's "friends". They knew Job, but not his heart. So this begs my questioning: "What kind of a friend am I when those I love enter the pit? Am I compassionate and are my words timely?" His friends' words were truth apart from Job's circumstances. They were at the best untimely; at the worst prideful and full of "head knowledge" of God.

Job answers in between a couple of monologues:

(Job 13:15)
"Though he slay me, I will hope in him;
yet I will argue my ways to his face."

Essentially, Job's whole heart trusts in his maker, yet he knows God is the only one who truly knows his heart. He is willing to make a defense to the Lord. And I believe the Lord was pleased with this defense. For the heart motive is the most important consideration.

In the end, Job was willing to die, if this was his Maker's will. He was willing to give up everything.

"Suppose you are a gardener employed by another. It is not your garden, but you are called upon to tend it. You come one morning into the garden, and you find that the best rose has been taken away. You are angry. You go to your fellow servants and charge them with having taken the rose. They declare that they had nothing to do with it, and one says, “I saw the master walking here this morning; I think he took it.” Is the gardener angry then? No, at once he says, “I am happy that my rose should have been so fair as to attract the attention of the master. It is his own. He has taken it, let him do what seems good.”

It is even so with your friends. They wither not by chance. The grave is not filled by accident. Men die according to God’s will. Your child is gone, but the Master took it. Your husband is gone, your wife is buried—the Master took them. Thank him that he let you have the pleasure of caring for them and tending them while they were here. And thank him that as he gave, he himself has taken away."
- Charles Spurgeon

Trials...For Our Good!

Man, humanly speaking, hates trials. But the new creature in Christ must embrace them with a passion. For our kind Creator has our growth and future in mind. The pain at times can seem unbearable, yet God promises in 2 Corinthians 12:9a "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."

And the Apostle Paul's response in part B is "Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me."

This is my heart's cry.

My weakness is what Christ uses to show forth His power.

C.H. Spurgeon's Morning Devotional
Thursday November 11, 2010

"Underneath are the everlasting arms."-Deuteronomy 33:27

God-the eternal God-is Himself our support at all times, and especially when we are sinking in deep trouble. There are seasons when the Christian sinks very low in humiliation. Under a deep sense of his great sinfulness, he is humbled before God till he scarcely knows how to pray, because he appears, in his own sight, so worthless. Well, child of God, remember that when thou art at thy worst and lowest, yet "underneath" thee "are everlasting arms." Sin may drag thee ever so low, but Christ's great atonement is still under all. You may have descended into the deeps, but you cannot have fallen so low as "the uttermost"; and to the uttermost He saves. Again, the Christian sometimes sinks very deeply in sore trial from without. Every earthly prop is cut away. What then? Still underneath him are "the everlasting arms." He cannot fall so deep in distress and affliction but what the covenant grace of an ever-faithful God will still encircle him. The Christian may be sinking under trouble from within through fierce conflict, but even then he cannot be brought so low as to be beyond the reach of the "everlasting arms"-they are underneath him; and, while thus sustained, all Satan's efforts to harm him avail nothing.

This assurance of support is a comfort to any weary but earnest worker in the service of God. It implies a promise of strength for each day, grace for each need, and power for each duty. And, further, when death comes, the promise shall still hold good. When we stand in the midst of Jordan, we shall be able to say with David, "I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me." We shall descend into the grave, but we shall go no lower, for the eternal arms prevent our further fall. All through life, and at its close, we shall be upheld by the "everlasting arms"-arms that neither flag nor lose their strength, for "the everlasting God fainteth not, neither is weary."

Pleading Before the Throne of Mercy with Submission

"I cannot speak for you, but I may speak for myself. If there is anything I know, anything that I am quite assured of beyond all question, it is that praying breath is never spent in vain. My own conversion is the result of long, affectionate, and earnest prayer. Parents prayed for me, God heard their cries, and here I am preaching the gospel. Since then I have adventured upon some things that were far beyond my capacity, but I have never failed because I cast myself upon the Lord. I have not hesitated to challenge our church with large ideas of what we might do for God, and we have accomplished all that we purposed. I have sought God's help in all my manifold undertakings, and though I cannot tell here the story of my private life in God's work, yet if it were written, it would be standing proof that there is a God that answers prayer. He has heard my prayers -not now and then- so many times that it has grown into a habit with me to spread my case before God with the absolute certainty that whatsoever I ask of God He will give to me. It is not now a perhaps or a possibility. I know that my Lord answers me, and it would be folly to doubt it. I am sure of this, for I have reaped it.

Still remember that prayer is always to be offered in submission to God's will. When we say that God hears prayer, we do not mean that He always gives us literally what we ask for. We do mean, however, that He gives us what is best for us and if He does not give us the mercy we ask for in silver, he bestows it upon us in gold. If He does not take away the thorn in the flesh, yet he says, 'My grace is sufficient for thee' (2 Cor. 12:9). We never offer up prayer without inserting the clause, either in spirit or in words, 'Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou will' (Mt. 26:39). We can only pray without an 'if' when we are quite sure that our will must be God's will, because God's will is fully our will."

-Charles Spurgeon, The Power of Prayer in a Believer's Life, pg. 53

Think on This!!!! or More Thoughts on Prayer

"So often it will happen that God not only helps His people through the miry places of the way but also brings them safely far on the journey. When Jesus Christ came walking upon the stormy sea and the disciples received Him into the ship, not only was the sea calm, but it is recorded: 'Immediately the ship was at the land whither they went' (John 6:21). That was a mercy over and above what they asked. I sometimes hear believers pray and make use of a quotation that is not in the Bible: 'He is able to do exceeding abundantly above what we can ask or even think.' I do not know what we can ask or what we can think. But it is said, 'Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think' (Eph. 3:20). When we are in great trial, let us say, 'Now I am in prison. Like Jeremiah, I will pray as he did, for I have God's command to do it; and I will look out as he did, expecting that He will show me reserved mercies that I know nothing of at present.' God will not merely bring His people through the battle, but He will bring them forth with banners waving, dividing the spoil with the mighty and claiming their portion with the strong. Expect great things of a God who gives such great promises as these."

by Charles Spurgeon, The Power of Prayer in a Believer's Life

P.S. For those of you who are like me and automatically question the motive of a prayer like this, knowing we need to not presume on God, come back and see my next blog that will be about submitting to God's will in prayer.