{"id":3516,"date":"2015-09-12T05:45:33","date_gmt":"2015-09-12T09:45:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/?p=3516"},"modified":"2015-09-12T06:54:39","modified_gmt":"2015-09-12T10:54:39","slug":"the-thick-darkness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/2015\/09\/12\/the-thick-darkness\/","title":{"rendered":"The Thick Darkness"},"content":{"rendered":"

“And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the LORD,<\/em><\/strong>
\nSo that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of the LORD.<\/em><\/strong>
\nThen spake Solomon, The LORD said that he would dwell in the thick darkness<\/span>.”\u00a0 I Kings 8:10-12<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Matthew Henry’s comments on the above verses are as follows…<\/p>\n

[“Here, I. Solomon encourages the priests, who came out of the temple from their ministration, much astonished at the dark cloud that overshadowed them. The disciples of Christ feared when they entered into the cloud,<\/i> though it was a bright cloud<\/i> (Lu<\/b> 9:34<\/u><\/a><\/span>), so did the priests when they found themselves wrapped in a thick cloud. To silence their fears, 1. He reminds them of that which they could not but know, that this was a token of God’s presence (1Ki<\/b> 8:12<\/u><\/a><\/span>): The Lord said he would dwell in the thick darkness.<\/i> It is so far from being a token of his displeasure that it is an indication of his favour<\/span>; for he had said, I will appear in a cloud,<\/i> Le<\/b> 16:2<\/u><\/a><\/span>.”]<\/p>\n

Reading the above verses has often been a reminder to me of the Lord’s presence in times of “thick darkness” in our lives. Just as the priests were taken back by the dark cloud that had filled the house of the Lord, how often do we respond in fear and doubt\u00a0to a dark cloud that seems to have stopped right over us? Instead of remembering that God has said He would never leave us nor forsake us…and this would include times of thick darkness…we question the Lord’s love and presence when He allows difficult trials to come our way.<\/p>\n

The theme for this year’s ladies meeting is “Falling In Love With Jesus” and last evening, we enjoyed hearing Mrs. Carolyn Wells and Mrs. Grace Shifflett speak.\u00a0 As Mrs. Shifflett spoke on how to tell if we are falling in love with Jesus, one thing she reminded us concerning trials was God’s purpose for allowing them – to cause us to fall more in love with Him!\u00a0 As we draw closer to the Lord and cleave to Him during those times of “thick darkness”, we realize that HE ALONE is ALL we need!!<\/p>\n

Does it seem as if a dark cloud has been following you around for some time now?\u00a0 Maybe the Lord is desiring to get your attention\u00a0concerning sin in your life\u00a0– He will tell you if you ask. But\u00a0then, maybe\u00a0God\u00a0simply desires to\u00a0have\u00a0a closer fellowship with you.\u00a0Instead of resisting the dark\u00a0trial and even\u00a0doubting the Lord’s presence, draw nigh to Him. He is waiting…<\/p>\n

I am Thine, O Lord, I have heard Thy voice,
\nAnd it told Thy love to me;
\nBut I long to rise in the arms of faith
\nAnd be closer drawn to Thee.<\/p>\n

Draw me nearer, nearer blessed Lord,<\/strong>
\nTo the cross where Thou hast died;<\/strong>
\nDraw me nearer, nearer, nearer blessed Lord,<\/strong>
\nTo Thy precious, bleeding side.<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Fanny Crosby)<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the LORD, So that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of the LORD. Then spake Solomon, The LORD said that he would dwell in the thick darkness.”\u00a0 I Kings 8:10-12 Matthew Henry’s comments on the above verses are as follows… [“Here, I. Solomon encourages the priests, who came out of the temple from their ministration, much astonished at the dark cloud that overshadowed them. The disciples of Christ feared when they entered into the cloud, though it was a bright cloud (Lu 9:34), so did the priests when they found themselves wrapped in a thick cloud. To silence their fears, 1. He reminds them of that which they could not but know, that this was a token of God’s presence (1Ki 8:12): The Lord said he would dwell in the thick darkness. It is so far from being a token of his displeasure that it is an indication of his favour; for he had said, I will appear in a cloud, Le 16:2.”] Reading the above verses has often been a reminder to me of the Lord’s presence in times of “thick darkness” in our lives. Just as the priests were taken back by the dark cloud that had filled the house of the Lord, how often do we respond in fear and doubt\u00a0to a dark cloud that seems to have stopped right over us? Instead of remembering that God has said He would never leave us nor forsake us…and this would include times of thick darkness…we question the Lord’s love and presence when He allows difficult trials to come our way. The theme for this year’s ladies meeting is “Falling In Love With Jesus” and last evening, we enjoyed hearing Mrs. Carolyn Wells and Mrs. Grace Shifflett speak.\u00a0 As Mrs. Shifflett spoke on how to tell if we are falling in love with Jesus, one thing she reminded us concerning trials was God’s purpose for allowing them – to cause us to fall more in love with Him!\u00a0 As we draw closer to the Lord and cleave to Him during those times of “thick darkness”, we realize that HE ALONE is ALL we need!! Does it seem as if a dark cloud has been following you around for some time now?\u00a0 Maybe the Lord is desiring to get your attention\u00a0concerning sin in your life\u00a0– He will tell you if you ask. But\u00a0then, maybe\u00a0God\u00a0simply desires to\u00a0have\u00a0a closer fellowship with you.\u00a0Instead of resisting the dark\u00a0trial and even\u00a0doubting the Lord’s presence, draw nigh to Him. He is waiting… I am Thine, O Lord, I have heard Thy voice, And it told Thy love to me; But I long to rise in the arms of faith And be closer drawn to Thee. Draw me nearer, nearer blessed Lord, To the cross where Thou hast died; Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer blessed Lord, To Thy precious, bleeding side. (Fanny Crosby)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[62,73,53,7,56,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-backsliding","category-discouragement","category-fear","category-growing","category-holiness","category-song"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4o6C2-UI","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3516"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3519,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3516\/revisions\/3519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}