BBD 08.04.09 Hard-Pressed
Posted by: wrather <wrather@...>
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The Burning Bush Devotional
(A Devotional Classic from 2002)
Welcome to the 832 new subscribers since January 1, 2009
08.04.09
Hard-Pressed
For it is God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in
our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the
excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on
every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed - always
carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of
Jesus also may be manifested in our body. - 2 Corinthians 4:6-9.
This morning on Good Morning America (August 2002) I watched an amazing
thing a stutterer stopped stuttering after putting a device in his ear! The
device is called the "Speech Easy Device" developed by Joseph Kalinowsky
himself a stutterer and two others. The device tricks the brain into
thinking that another person is speaking at the same time and when speaking
in unison with others the stuttering is inhibited. Currently there is a 90%
success rate with the device. Debbie Cook the mother of Wesley who stutters
says, "It's just our dream come true for him. Because we've tried everything
we knew and would never really give up hope. We've always prayed there would
be that something and we just can't believe we've found it."
Joseph Kalinowsky grew up stuttering and he was "hard-pressed on every side"
because of it. Joe says he would pray every night when he was a child, "Take
off my arm, God, because I know kids will tease me for not having an arm.
But if I can talk the same as every other kid, that'll be OK. And I'd get up
and the arm was still there. And I'd begin to talk and the stutter was still
there. And I'd turn up to the heavens and say you didn't do it. I guess He
had another purpose." Joe eventually became a speech therapist at East
Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina where with two other
inventors the "Speech Easy Device" has become a reality.
In the life of Joe Kalinowsky and others affected by stuttering we see the
value of persistent prayer personified. Years of prayer by those who
stutter, parents of stutterers and others have now resulted in a miracle
through human technology. But than that is what God delights in doing. He
puts Himself through the Holy Spirit into weak earthen vessels, which is the
treasure, the apostle Paul is writing about. Because of the treasure of the
indwelling Spirit we are able to endure and overcome. "We are hard-pressed
on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed." With the
surrender of ourselves to the will and purpose of the Lord then through our
earthly bodies the "life of Jesus" will be "manifested."
Do you have a weak earthen vessel? Is your vessel "hard-pressed on every
side?" In your weakness, in your inability may be the very thing that God
will use to bring glory to Himself! Surrender yourself to God's will and
purpose and your weak earthen vessel is no longer worthless but a "treasure"
that God will use to bring glory to the Lord and life to countless others
touched by your life.
Copyright © 2009. Ed Wrather. Permission is given for use of the devotionals
on a non-profit basis with source credited. The Burning Bush website has
been online since January 31, 1998. On June 8, 1998 the email version of the
Burning Bush Devotional was first sent.
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