Caved In

By Polly Gwinn

It would take more than two people to drag me into a cave, cistern, pit, or anything enclosed underground. This is not a challenge but rather a caution. Never having been inside a cave, this is all speculation, but I believe caves to be dark, damp, hazardous, and snaky. There are many caves mentioned in the Bible, along with tombs, cisterns, clefts, strongholds, and various places to hide or be imprisoned. I have extracted a few of these from the Word of God for your enjoyment and enlightenment and have put a different twist on a few. I have not changed the Scripture but have simply used another view of caved in.

We can be caved in by actual caves, tombs, graves, or any other enclosed structures. Another kind of caved in is emotional, meaning that you have been mentally crushed by hurt, insults, or rejection, or a physical cave-in, like skidding on black ice or perhaps having major surgery. Self-inflicted wounds like what Adam and Eve experienced can cause devastating cave-ins. We are not expected to bring ourselves out of caves like graves or tombs, but we can and should call on God to bring us out of emotional, physical, and spiritual caves just as easily as He brought Lazarus out of his tomb after he had been dead for four days.

This book is filled with diverse caves and cave-ins. Because of the numerous short stories, there is no index, nor is the book divided into chapters. So just jump in anywhere, settle in for some easy, Scripture-included reading, and look for your cave and a way out. Allow the touch of the Masters hand.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Nov 23, 2015
• ISBN: 9781512717594

Polly Gwinn

Polly Gwinn is a West Texas author. She spends her retirement years writing for and about the Lord.

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Copyright © 2015 Polly Gwinn.

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Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Used by permission. NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® and NIV® are registered trademarks of Biblica, Inc. Use of either trademark for the offering of goods or services requires the prior written consent of Biblica US, Inc.

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-1760-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-1761-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-1759-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015917726

WestBow Press rev. date: 11/20/2015

Contents

Introduction

The Master’s Hand

Your World Caves In

Lest You be Judged

Vessels of Clay

From Which Cup Are You Drinking?

Have You Agreed to Walk with Jesus?

Hanging Around

Lord, Is It I?

Keep Climbing

Monkey Chatter

Disorder in the Churches

Who Is the Backslider?

Cellar Duty

Even Donkeys

Goldilocks

Snake in the Grass

The Bird and the Blind Man

The Fat Is in the Fire and the Devil Is in the Pit

Down the Tube and Caving In

Closet Prayers

Digging Up Bones

Segregation

Traveling without Light

Humpty Dumpty

Lord, Give Me a Mountain

Deep Cleaning

Shooting from the Hip

Burying Nuts

Eating with the Lions

Faith will Take You Home

So You Want to be a Prophet

Weeping in Ramah

Cries Forsaken

Checkmate

Wishing for a Cave

Don’t Quit on the One Who Saves You

Caved In

Water-Bearer

Texture

Holey Purses

Falling Off a Log

Someone Is Watching

Above Ground

Introduction

It would take more than two people to drag me into a cave cistern, pit, or anything enclosed underground. This is not a challenge but rather a caution. Never having been inside a cave this is all speculation, but I believe caves to be dark, damp, hazardous, and snaky. There are many caves mentioned in the Bible along with tombs, cisterns, clefts, strongholds, and various places to hide or be imprisoned. I have extracted a few of these from the Word of God for your enjoyment and enlightenment and have put a different twist on a few. I have not changed the Scripture but have simply used another view of caved in.

We can be caved in by actual caves, tombs, graves, or any other enclosed structures. Another kind of caved in is emotional, meaning that you have been mentally crushed by hurt, insults, or rejection, or a physical cave-in, like skidding on black ice or perhaps having major surgery. Self-inflicted wounds like what Adam and Eve experienced can cause devastating cave-ins. We are not expected to bring ourselves out of caves like graves or tombs, but we can and should call on God to bring us out of emotional, physical, and spiritual caves just as easily as He brought Lazarus out of his tomb after he had been dead for four days.

This book is filled with diverse caves and cave-ins. Because of the numerous short stories, there is no index, nor is the book divided into chapters. So just jump in anywhere, settle in for some easy, Scripture-included reading, and look for your cave and a way out. Allow the touch of the Master’s hand.

The Master’s Hand

Stradivari built more than eleven hundred violins in Italy three hundred years ago but only some six hundred survived. His craftsmanship is still unsurpassed (Tinnsten).

Swedish researchers are hoping to unravel the secrets behind the unique sound of a Stradivarius violin, an acoustic mystery that has fascinated music lovers and puzzled scientists for centuries. Is it the wood? Is it the chemicals? Is it the strings? Or is it perhaps the touch of the master’s hand?

Likewise, scientist and scholars for years have searched the Scripture trying to unravel the mysteries of God and His wonders. No amount of education or brilliance can answer the question of who God is or where He came from. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God (John 1:1). Since they cannot come up with a satisfactory human answer to the existence of the world and the universe, it is explained scientifically as the big bang.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth (Gen. 1:1). The parting of the Red Sea has been said to have happened because of strong wind currents, drought, and, of course, the waters being only ankle deep. The Lord said to Moses; ‘raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the waters’; and the waters were divided (Exod. 14:15–16, 21–22), and The sun stopped in the middle of the day (Josh. 10:13–14). Accident? Elisha died and was buried. Some Israelites threw a man into his tomb and when the body touched Elisha’s bones, the man came to life (2 Kings 13:20–21)! Fairy tale?

A man with leprosy came to Jesus and told Him if He were willing, He could make him clean. Jesus touched him and said He was willing, and the man was cured immediately. Jesus took seven loaves of bread and fed more than four thousand (Matt. 15:34–38), He healed the paralytic (Mark 2:3–13), cast out demons (Mark 5:1–8), freed a woman from twelve years of suffering (Mark 5:25–29), gave sight to the blind (Luke 18:35–43), died on the cross, and rose again on the third day (Luke 23:26; 46:24–27). Were all of these miracles, magic, or the touch of the Master’s hand? I know what I believe and whom I have believed in (2 Tim. 1:12).

Your World Caves In

Have you ever felt that your world had caved in around you? You have lived the good life, ate healthy, exercised, kept up your yearly doctor’s visits, and then BAM a member of this esteemed medical profession tells you there is a tumor hovering within your body and spreading through your vital organs. Your world caves in!

Perhaps you have reached the highest peak in your career only to have the rug pulled out from under you when the company downsizes or sells out and your position is in jeopardy. Your world caves in! All of your life’s savings have been invested in the stock market, and you are looking forward to retirement in a few short years. Then the market crashes as do your dreams. Your world caves in!

James 5:17 states that Elijah was a man just like us except he was a prophet. God’s first miracle through Elijah was to shut up the skies so no rain would fall on the earth. God sent Elijah to a spring and commanded ravens to feed him, and then He sent him to a starving widow and her son for food that she did not have. But through her faith and obedience to the prophet, she had flour and oil to feed them all until the Lord sent rain. Later, the boy died, and Elijah brought him back to life.

He then went to meet the wicked King Ahab who was married to the evil Jezebel. She had killed all the prophets of God, and Elijah was the only one left. Fearlessly, he agreed to meet with 450 Baal prophets to demonstrate the mighty power of the one and only true God. One of my favorite stories is in First Kings 18:19–40, where Elijah taunts the worshippers of the idols to prove that their gods are more powerful than his God. And they lose! Then he kills all 450 of the heathen prophets.

Ahab called Elijah the biggest troublemaker in Israel. I call him fearless, brave, obedient, and powerful. Then Jezebel sent her life-threatening message: May the gods punish me terribly if by this time tomorrow I don’t kill you just like you killed those prophets (1 Kings 19:2).

Elijah’s world caved in! Gripped with doubt and fear, he went into the desert (of despair) and hid in a cave. To doubt God’s ability and power to protect you is to doubt God’s love, which is written into His own Word. The Word is God, and God is love! Plato wrote in The Allegory of the Cave, Ascending out of the cave of mental dankness is coming into the sunlight of intellectual enlightenment. If an enlightened person should be forced into a dark cave he becomes disoriented. Elijah, along with David and many others throughout the Bible, became disoriented.

Many Christians today become disoriented when we enter the cave, doubting God’s love, power, and Word that He will never leave or forsake us. To leave us means to let us go our way while God stays behind. To forsake us means that God goes on ahead without us. But He does neither.

There is one more good point to make here. When you hide in a cave, God will find you just like He did Elijah (1 Kings 19:9) and will probably ask you the same question He asked Elijah: Elijah! Why are you here? Then, just as He did with the prophet, His faithful servant, He will reveal Himself to you. You are a faithful servant, aren’t you?

God revealed Himself to Elijah with a quiet, gentle sound, a whisper, a small, still voice. When you feel your world caving