Virginia Brandt Berg (1898-1968)
"If I have wounded any soul today,
If I have caused one foot to go astray,
If I have walked in my own willful way,
Dear Lord, forgive."
PSALM 84 SAYS: "HOW AMIABLE ARE THY TABERNACLES O LORD OF HOSTS! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord: My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God. Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God.
"BLESSED ARE THEY THAT DWELL IN THY HOUSE: They will be still praising Thee. Blessed is the man whose strength is in Thee; in whose heart are the ways of them. Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools.
"THEY GO FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH, everyone of them appeareth before God." Now we take that little verse:
"PASSING THROUGH THE VALLEY OF BACA THEY MAKE IT A WELL" (Psa.84:6) -- I talked to someone today, a woman that came to my home, who is dwelling in the valley of Baca.
NOW THIS VALLEY OF BACA YOU'LL NEVER FIND on any map! I looked myself on the maps of Palestine and it doesn't give any location of a place called Baca. And God did that purposely.
HE TOOK THIS WORD "BACA" AS A THING THAT'S BEEN IN YOUR LIFE, a place where you and I -- all of us I guess -- have been some time or other. It's a place of suffering, a place of sorrow, a place of hardship.
IT'S A DRY, DUSTY PLACE, this place of Baca, just like a desert. But you remember your Baca, don't you? When you passed through the valley?
WELL, THIS WHOLE SCRIPTURE HERE BRINGS OUT THE THOUGHT which is so very beautiful -- that Baca is bigger than any geography, it is larger than any maps -- and that thought is that
DURING OUR LIFE SOME TIME OR OTHER when we have passed through such a place, we have had the great privilege of turning the difficulty, and turning the sorrow or whatever the hardship was, into a blessing.
I KNOW SOMEONE WHO HAS BEEN SO AFFLICTED! This man has been a friend of ours for many many years, and once traveled with us in the Lord's work and has since been greatly afflicted. But he never talks about it and he has turned his valley of Baca into a great blessing: He has digged a well there.
YOU GET DOWN AND DIG DEEP IN YOUR HEART to find what God is talking to you about and just what has brought about this thing that has come into the life, and see if God wants to say something special to you about that thing. Do some real digging.
DIG A WELL THERE AND THEN DIG IN GOD'S WORD until He reveals His precious truth to you in his wonderful promises. In that way the Christian life can become victorious over any dry dusty place like this Baca that we are talking about, and you can transform that whole valley into a beautiful place.
SOMEONE HAS SAID THAT A WELL DOESN'T LOOK SO GOOD BESIDE A RUNNING STREAM. I know that I sat by a little stream in Yosemite Park, and I don't thing a well would look so good or so refreshing as far as a drink is concerned, beside bubbling, beautiful clear stream!
BUT YOU PUT A WELL OUT IN A DRY DUSTY DESERT, and there, oh, the water will be mighty refreshing, and looks awfully good!
AND WHEN A CHRISTIAN IN TIME OF SORROW AND DISTRESS YOU CAN STAND ON THE PROMISES OF GOD and be so faithful that others will notice your faith, and there in that hardy dry dusty place you will dig a well -- that is, make it a place of refreshing -- that is where the Christian life looks good: When you become an overcomer in the place of difficulty.
NOW A WOMAN THAT CALLED ON ME TODAY, that I spoke about, true she was having terrible sorrows, but she sees only herself and she sees only her sorrow. She isn't getting her eyes on the Lord at all!
HER FAITH SHOULD BE THAT WHICH WOULD TRANSFORM THAT VALLEY of suffering into a place of blessing and refreshing. You remember Hagar lifted up her eyes and then it was that God showed her the water and she saw a well of water and refreshed herself and her son.
BUT SOME PEOPLE JUST CAMP DOWN IN THEIR SORROWS, they sort of luxuriate in their martyrdom and they just stay in the valley of weeping, they stay in the valley of Baca.
BUT YOU KNOW THAT THE CHRISTIAN LIFE IS SUPPOSED TO BE A LIFE THAT IS SUPERIOR TO CIRCUMSTANCES, superior to all these things, and we can live above it because we have all these wonderful promise[s of God.
WE ARE NOT TO STAY IN THE VALLEY, and not to just endure our troubles, that isn't victory, just to endure!
IT'S TO PRAISE GOD AND SHOUT THE VICTORY and to prove the promises and so stand upon god's Word that you really get real victory out of defeat! And when you overcome in that way, you'll find so many Divinely given Living Waters that spring up!
GOD'S WORD SAYS, "THE RAIN ALSO FILLETH THE POOLS and you go from strength to strength." Use this passage, read this passage! It is a very wonderful Scripture, this 84th Psalm.
YOU KNOW THERE ARE SO MANY PEOPLE THAT HAVE NOT TAKEN THOSE DIFFICULTIES and sufferings and sorrows and made a well of them right in the very valley of Baca. Will you bow your head in a word of prayer?
JESUS, WE ASK THEE TO HELP THESE WHO ARE PASSING THROUGH THE HARD PLACE, that defeat might be turned into victory because they look to Thee alone and their eyes are on Thee, not themselves or circumstances, but looking unto the Author and Finisher of our faith, the Lord Jesus Christ. We ask in His Name, amen.