Fire Will Not Consume You-Isaiah 43:2B

David Parker James

Description

Author James David Parkers once thriving professional career was in a nosedive to disaster. His once-profitable investments dragged him to the precipice of financial ruin. The stress of the battle for survival wasted his will. Mental depression trashed his intellect. As a nominal, but skeptical, Christian, he asked: Can Jesus rescue me? Will Jesus deliver me from my earthly hell? And thus began his journeya search for truth. In The Fire Will Not Consume YouIsaiah 43:2b, Parker shares his progression from successful engineer to cynicism, to financial disaster and stress-induced illness, to the spirit-led process of prayer and recovery, and finally, to acknowledgement of his intimate relationship with his creator God. Each chapter in the core of the book begins with a prayer addressing a specific deficit in character or perception. The Fire Will Not Consume YouIsaiah 43:2b chronicles Parkers recovery from mental depression through introspective prayer and Bible study. He offers a guidebook to unleash the unlimited power of God to bring personal peace in prayerful communication with him.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Memoir

Informations

• Publié par: Inspiring Voices
• Date de parution: 12 janvier 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781462410866
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE FIRE WILL NOT CONSUME YOU — ISAIAH 43:2B
 
A Journal of Prayer—A Search for God
 
 
 
 
 
 
JAMES DAVID PARKER
 
 
 
 
 
 

Copyright © 2014 James David Parker.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright ©1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
 
Scriptural commentary has been taken from The One Volume Commentary, The Macmillan Company, 1936 and The Eerdmans Bible Dictionary, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1987
 
Good faith efforts have been made to acknowledge the various sources used in the preparation of this work. During the years of healing and subsequent years of writing and rewriting the manuscript, the numerous recovery and inspirational books and periodicals which were read have been lost to memory. Undoubtedly, some expressions may appear to be direct quotes and some similar to phraseology in other published works. Where credit is not given, I apologize and ask that the publisher be notified so that credit can be given.
 
 
Inspiring Voices
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Bloomington, IN 47403
www.inspiringvoices.com
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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.
 
ISBN: 978-1-4624-1085-9 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-4624-1086-6 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014921787
 
 
Inspiring Voices rev. date: 1/12/2015
CONTENTS
Introduction
The Introduction describes the author’s early commitment to self-sufficiency and personal achievement. Mid-life successes confirmed the rightness of dedication to peer approval and material accumulation. Things slowly fall apart and a search for Providential rescue begins.
Preface
The Preface paints a brief picture of the author’s descent into mental depression and the decision to explore the mystery of the relationship between the Creator and the created.
BOOK 1 - THE PR.OLOGUE
1 Service, Compassion, Achievement
Chapter one covers the post-teen years as a Coast Guard medical corpsman where characteristics of empathy, helping and healing were developed and pract iced.
2 The Genesis of A Philosophy
With an engineering degree from Berkeley, the author soon hits a reality of the corporate world, a layoff, bringing a deeper dedication to hard work and peer approval. His father’s early death and unrewarded hard life gave added determination to achieve visible suc cess.
3 Sorting Priorities
The early years at IBM brought promotions and an addiction to crisis intervention. Awareness of the neglect of family needs give way to a closer relationship with the children and alienation of the spouse. Divorce soon foll owed.
4 Coasting Through The Changes
Remarriage created a combined family with five children. Ever more demanding positions in the fast-moving IBM environment were exhilarating but, as energy began to diminish, brought on the question: “Can I sustain this pace?”
5 Disaster and A Faint Hope
As my secure world collapsed around me, my once-dependable reasoning skills disappeared into a black pit. An insoluble problem at the plant and an ill-conceived set of investments went sour simultaneously. Out of my mental foxhole I turned to God for ans wers.
6 The Search Begins
As the dark storm of psychological depression rolled over me, a thin thread of reason rema ined.
Where do I anchor to ride out this storm? The church had always been a quiet, welcoming place. And God was the church. I decided to do some research—the B ible.
7 Alone and Sinking
As the bank credit lines came dangerously close to depletion and I could conceive of no pathway to recovery, predictably, I sank deeper into my morbid state. My psychotherapy, medication and exercise program seemed of no help. I began to pray—ine ptly.
8 I Need A Miracle
Gratuitously, my IBM management sent me to a two year assignment at the university where I found a more healing atmosphere. I found fascination in the Biblical accounts of God’s redemptive intervention in the affairs of men. I set aside a time to pray.
9 Can These Things Be True
As the demons in my mind continued to war, I began to pray to understand my hurt, to know what God had to teach me from this grievous experience. He began the task; but there was no sudden miracle— as I had hoped. There was much to teac h me.
BOOK 2 - THE BATTLE
10 To Wait on Your Good Time
Early, as I prayed for guidance, the first prayer that came to mind was for patience in my recovery. To bring patience into my nature, I must first banish anxiety. To overcome anxiety, I must assure myself that the present is tolerable and the future promises improve ment.
11 To Serve You In All
I was at the depths of my depression when one morning, in prayerful meditation, this thought formed slowly in the far recesses of my mind: to serve my Lord and Him only in all that I do. As a drowning person must release himself to his rescuer, so must I place total trust in my Sa vior.
12 To Love You
Following the assurance of my guidance and rescue, I found the prayer that encompasses all that God would have me do—to love Him and to love His people. As I accepted those opportunities to help others, I slowly came to love my neighbor—and to love my Lord.
13 Your Gifts
An unquestionable miracle occurred in my business situation which solved some problems but added new ones. I pondered the Holy Spirit’s involvement. Worry remained. In subsequent prayers I was counseled not to be apprehensive about these gifts, surely from my Lord.
14 The Spirit is Constant
During a time when circumstances were running especially hard against me—I had by now become heavily dependent on the guidance of my introspective prayer time—Dr. Hall reminded me of the constant presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. I held tightly to this pr ayer.
15 Bless the Tasks Given Me
I was attending an interminable series of unproductive problem-solving meetings. My Bible study led me to Paul’s counsel to the Colossians: Whatever we do, do it as working for the Lord, not for men. Jesus, I was reminded, demands His rightful place in my thinking and d oing.
16 That Your Will Be My Will
God has given His people the freedom to will and to choose. We humans do not readily give up our self-serving orientation. As I studied the accounts of Jesus’ three temptations by Satan, it became clear to me that I cannot serve my own inclinations and God simultaneo usly.
17 You Are My Supply
Jesus-God grieves over my discouragement. As a caring Father, He longs to repair my wounded heart. In response to my recognition of Him, He sets in motion those processes designed to relieve my hurts. He joys to give us those gifts that bring us closer to Him.
18 To Fear is to Deny You
Traveling the obscure road to my eventual recovery, the recurring barrier that I had to cut through was irrational fear. This prayer came to me after a short family vacation during which I had simply been too busy to pray. The busy-gods had stolen His rightful place in my life.
19 To Not Be Complacent
Each new truth, provided during times of prayer and introspection, had painstakingly rebuilt the foundation of self-confidence. It was time to set a more positive pace. The Great Teacher intervened in my prayers once again— reminding me to banish apathy with enthus iasm.
20 You Will Lift My Burdens
We become addicted to the demands of the lives that we have elected to live—The Rat Race. In the extreme, I had accepted more difficulty than I could manage. And now I was ill. In the midst of my weariness, this prayer came to me—to share my burdens with my Lord.
1 By the Power of the Holy Spirit
When my energy flags and my zest for the trek falters, I look to Him and ask for reassurance, confident in His attention and His response. At such a time as this my Lord allowed me this prayer: to seek and to do His will—by the power of His Holy Sp irit.
22 To Trust You Wholly
I am finally getting an inkling of what happens when I speak to God: The mystical might of intercessory prayer not only projects the power of the Almighty into those being prayed for—it energizes and elevates the spirit of the petitioner. But, it is conditional upon trust in Him.
23 To Surrender All To You
What a mess I have made of my life by ignoring the preemptive right of Jesus. What a wondrous joy I am to myself and to my world when I give myself to Him. My statement of faith allows the Spirit of God to work within me, leading finally to the surrender of my will to His.
24 To Better Serve You
We humans rationalize a lot and measure our conduct against the perceived norms of our culture. Christ expects me to strive, scripture suggests, to model my character after His. When I examine the list of “don’