Devotionals and Thoughts from the Guardhouse

By Jason Tilton

In the pages of Devotionals and Thoughts from the Guardhouse, you will discover a collection of one man’s internal musings written throughout several years of personal Bible study. The Bible clearly states that one day all will know the name of Jesus and that every knee will bow. It is with fervent prayer that these words will encourage your walk through these challenging times, enabling you to recognize our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jul 15, 2021
• ISBN: 9781636307930

Book preview

1

Fleeing the Call

(Read the book of Jonah.)

I have met a lot of people in the last three years who had been called by God into the ministry field. Sadly all of us have run from that calling. I was about twelve or fourteen years old when I first got the call. I ran from it shortly after that and stayed away until I was thirty-four years old. While I still can feel the call, I am not a preacher. Most of our stories match up with Jonah’s. God called Jonah to preach or cry out to Nineveh (Jonah 1:1–2 KJV). Jonah runs, God shows up, and Jonah repents (Jonah 1–4 KJV). Many people with the calling from God to preach the Gospel have run from it. In doing so, the church has become empty, powerless, and some have even closed. Without the God-called preachers of the Gospel, the false teachers and preachers have risen up to lead astray God’s people. Many Christians follow those false teachings because they have never seen a truly called man or woman of God. Brothers and sisters, this is the time to stop running away and go to wherever God has called us to preach, pray, cry, and teach. So will you pray as Jonah did in the belly of the fish or just keep running away? Hope this helps.

The devil stares in my face and says, Your testimony and witness are lost. You are not where you should be. You’re a loser and a quitter. Your sins are many and it is just better to give up.

I nodded and said, My testimony isn’t over, my witness is bruised but not broken. I may not be where I need to be, but I’m a long way from where I started. I took a breath and continued, Yes, it’s true that my sins are many. Jesus paid for them and I asked him into my life to change me. So you’re right when you say that I’m a loser and a quitter. With Jesus’s help, I lost the will to do and say cuss words. I lost the violence that I had hidden in my heart. I lost the hate for others—all because I asked Jesus to be Lord over my life.

Standing firmly and adjusting myself, I continued, I’m a quitter too, come to think of it. With God’s help, I quit smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol. I quit blaming others for my shortfalls. I have accepted that I had a choice and responsibility. I smiled and said, Get behind me, Satan, because I am no longer yours. I’m a child of God and you have no place in my life.

The reflection of myself staring back at me was cold and heartless. But it disappeared as I walked away from the mirror. Just a thought from the guardhouse.

2

Are You Broken?

I grew up on a small farm. Every year my dad and I would till the ground before planting the seeds. He told me that nothing would grow from just casting (throwing) out the seeds on the ground. He told me that the ground has to be broken before the seeds could be planted. So we tilled the ground, plowed into rows, then the seeds were planted in the rows. My dad showed me what Jesus had talked about in the Sower’s Seeds in Mark 4:3–8 (KJV). He took a handful of the seeds and threw some on top of the ground and some in the ditch. I did not understand why he did that, but it is now a lesson that I understand. A few minutes later, I saw birds at the end of the field where my dad had thrown the seeds on the ground. He told me that the birds had found the seeds he had just cast down then told me that the birds would follow the rows and eat all the seeds.

In a lot of ways, the Christian life is just like the job of a farmer. We get the seeds (the Word of God), we till and plow the ground with the help of the Holy Spirit (this is our interactions with others we know and some that we don’t), and the seeds are planted (this is done by the Holy Spirit speaking through us and also our witness and our life). Just like the seeds, we have to be broken and die to our sins. Also like the seeds turning into plants, we rise with Jesus from the death of sin into life.

We are like the soil or ground because that is what God made us from (Genesis 2:7 KJV). As it says just a few verses later, sin crept in, then Adam and Eve got cast out (paraphrased). It is because of sin that we are all broken. Adam and Eve’s first sin multiplied into thousands of sins: broken marriages, violence, death, and much more. When the Holy Spirit starts to change us, it is to let us know that we are broken in spirit. We tend to lash out, run away, or even try to take our own lives. This is the hardest part for people. It was for me. I was lost in the world. I was hurting, broken, and spinning out of control. To some, I was just being normal; however, I was on the edge. The one thing that I had told people that I would not do, I almost did. I almost killed myself because I was broken. I could not see any way out of that hole that I was in. I had decided that I would, but God had other plans. He stopped my Jeep and used a small stone to hold that Jeep from plunging into the water. God convicted me for the next few minutes about the stuff that I had done in my life. He showed me just how far I had fallen since I had come to Him at twelve years old (and at that point, I was thirty-three years old). I had been shielding myself with comforting lies, and there I was, surrounded by the hard truth.

I had grown up in church. I had been saved and started walking after Jesus. I was broken when my dad passed away when I was fourteen years old. I fell out of church shortly after that. I occasionally wandered into churches but never for too long. Instead of leaning on Jesus through my grief and pain, I hid and ran. I tried to be a good man, without God in my life. It seemed like, for a while, I had accomplished it. The cracks in the lie I swallowed were starting to surface: the lies, drugs, drinking, and many more. I had lost all faith in almost everybody and almost everything. So when God stopped me that night, I questioned, cursed, cried, sobbed, and then asked what I should do. I would love to say that I heard the voice of God and it was clear. I didn’t. I got a phone call from a turned off phone and that’s how I knew. Because of that, God has been steadily convicting me about the little and big things that I should be giving to God instead of hanging on to. Since then, I have read a lot of the Bible and taken a lot of notes, mainly so that I would know God’s promises, the Holy Spirit can lead and teach me more plus lead me to share the knowledge with others. The Holy Spirit has guided me to the Bible when I was pained by grief. He was still there when my heart was lifted by God, helping my son walk. The one thing is the best news of the Gospels besides Jesus died, buried, raised in heaven and coming back (it says that eighty-five times in the Bible). Jesus and God the Father say that He will never leave nor forsake us.

Here are just a few: Deuteronomy 31:6 (KJV), 89; Hebrews 13:5 (KJV); Joshua 1:9 (KJV); Isaiah 41:10 (KJV); Matthew 28:20 (KJV); John 14:1–18 (KJV).

Hope this helps.

3

Fear of Being Alone with God

Many people are afraid of being left alone. Few people do not mind it. When we get to spend time with God, many of us get scared. I have been like that. Though many will not admit to being scared of being alone with God, they will let things stop them or distract them from spending time with God. Things like e-mails, phone calls, text messages, Facebook, and the list goes on and on. Have you ever wondered why Jesus said in Matthew 6:6 (KJV), But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly?

In modern houses, the closet is a small room with a door. It has nothing but clothes, shoes, boxes, jackets. Many of us would have to clean it out before having it empty of all distractions. During Jesus’s time on