Hope for the Suffering

But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty;
and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are,
that no flesh should glory in His presence.  I Cor. 1: 27-29

Just when I needed a gentle touch from the Lord, He blessed me beyond my dreams today.  I drove this gloomy morning to the assisted living center where Mom lives, feeling nervous and unsure of myself. Today was the first day I was to lead a small devotion time with some of the residents. It's to be once a week, but at the time I didn't know how it all would turn out. When I walked into Mom's room, she looked glum herself and said she didn't think anyone would come. But I didn't have time to stew over it, I needed to start knocking on some doors and inviting people.

The first door I knocked on was a couple doors down from Mom's. "Stan" was laying on his bed but when I asked him if he would like to come he got up right away and thought it would be a good idea. I knocked on another door, and thought at first he hesitated, "Jeff" said he would come along too.

"Not too bad," I thought, "At least there will be two others." I led them down to the room behind the big dining hall and started pouring coffees for people. An aide asked me if there were others. I thought of a couple more people and soon there were three ladies and two men, plus Mom and I.

For our meetings I will use my book, Sure Mercies: Hope for the Suffering  for our time together. Each of the forty chapters shares about a believer who suffered in some way, but overcame through God's promises.Today we naturally did Chapter 1 which concerned George Mueller, a true prayer warrior, orphanage founder, and preacher of the Word of God. I found myself not just reading the chapter word for word, but interacting with the sweet residents as we all sat around the table together. Smiles and bright eyes encouraged me that somehow God could use something small like this to help spread a little joy, a little hope.

I could tell the residents enjoyed hearing about Mueller, who is a true hero of the faith. One of the Scripture references from the chapter was from John 3 where Jesus talked to Nicodemus about being born again. I read the passage and the Holy Spirit prompted me to discuss what it meant to be born again, to look away from yourself trying to be good and to believe in the Finished Work of our perfect Savior, receiving His gracious gift of salvation.

When I said that we could not be good enough I looked over and there was Stan with tears in his eyes. He then stated that he was going to "try hard" to keep himself in the faith. I said that if he believed, then God the Father would hold him in His hands and no one could ever snatch him away.I had a feelling of joy telling about the gospel really being good news, that Jesus Christ came down here and lived a perfect life on our behalf and took all our sins on His body on the tree.  To have the residents listen and respond was icing on the cake.

When we closed our time, Stan started humming  Amazing Grace. He was a music teacher and plays the piano beautifully. Outside our room there  is a piano where he plays regularly so I asked him if he would play it for us. Without any hesitation, he wheeled over in his wheelchair and played it. We sang together and hearing the voices singing was among the most beautiful sounds I've ever heard.

I felt so blessed that God gave me this small opportunity to share the Word with  precious people who might sometimes feel forgotten. I'm not famous, but God opened a door for me to write my book and to share its  message of hope. Three weeks today will be the first anniversary of my father passing from this life into eternity. If he hadn't encouraged me and pushed me, Sure Mercies might not have beenbready to share with others.  How often he told me that it needed to come out because people needed to hear it. All  we see around us reveals just how desperate we are. Without Christ, there are no answers for the chaos in this world. But with Him, there is hope.

If you are born into this world at one time or another you will suffer, but with God's provision there is always  hope for the suffering.

 God 's promises affected forty people's lives, helping them not just to survive but to be overcomers. I think Dad would have been happy about today. Even if I am only one small person, I am helping to share the best news with people who long to hear it. A colaborer in the Kingdom of God.

If you happen to read this blog today and are not sure if you have believed in Jesus, you can be right now, wherever you are. Crazy times are upon us, but God's promises are sure and every one of them will be fulfilled. Jesus' promise to Nicodemus can also be His promise to you:

"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

"that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

"For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved."   John 3: 14-17

 

Reasons Why I Didn't March on January 21

                         Is anything too hard for the LORD?  Genesis 18: 14

If you are like me, you are probably amazed by the way things appear to have turned around in our country in the last week. I am cautiously optimistic, but don't want to put my confidence in any man, only in the Lord. Yet I pray for our new President, that God would grant him wisdom and surround him with good counsel. Our nation deserves judgment but perhaps God has granted us another respite from it, though we certainly don't deserve it.

Yet I was dismayed by this big woman's march on DC. I believe that women are equal to men, but are different than men because God made us different. And that is OK. And I also believe that God made man both male and female, but not something in between. That is still my right to think so.

I had no interest in marching and I don't feel threatened by the new administration. I didn't like the old one but didn't protest against it either. Why? For it is God who

 ... changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise And knowledge to those who have understanding. Dan 2:21 NKJV

 I am in this world, but according to the Word of God, I am not of it. So I don't need to fight for my so called lack of rights.

Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here." John 18:36 (emphasis mine)

My citizenship is in heaven, and from that country I am awaiting with anticipation for Savior to come again and receive me to Himself.

For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, [Phl 3:20 NKJV] who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself. [Phl 3:21 NKJV]

In II Timothy we're informed that if we belong to Christ we should put our interest in Him and not  be consumed with this world:  

 You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. [2Ti 2:3 NKJV] No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. [2Ti 2:4 NKJV emphasis mine] 

Finally, my real life isn't what I see all around me. This raging in the nations, confusion and madness was all predicted by Jesus to come in the days before He returns to this planet. 

"And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near." Luke 21: 25-28

Don't those verses describe out world?  This is an unprecedented time, but if we are the Lord's we must look to Him. 

 The confusion of this world is not my life, but Christ is my life.

For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Colossians 3;3

But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Galatians  6:14 (emphasis mine)

Instead of marching for our rights, wouldn't it would be better instead to lift up our heads?  Our Redemption is drawing nigh. 

If you are not sure you are a child of God, you can believe that Jesus Christ paid the penalty for your sin debt on the cross, and that God was so pleased with His sacrifice that He raised Him from the dead.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

"For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

"He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. John 3: 16-18

Time and Chance Happen to them All....

I returned and saw under the sun that-- "The race is not to the swift, Nor the battle to the strong, Nor bread to the wise, Nor riches to men of understanding, Nor favor to men of skill; But time and chance happen to them all. For man does not his time; Like fish taken in a cruel net, Like birds caught in a snare, So the sons of men are snared in an evil time, When it falls suddenly upon them." Ecclesiastes 9:11-12

This verse has always been very compelling to me. No matter how many achievements or toys we have collected, death becomes the great equalizer. And unless we take matters into our own hands, it is God's prerogative the date and time we are appointed to die. I looked up this verse in my Companion Bible edited by E.W. Bullinger and he has a note written about the word "chance" in verse 11. In Strong's Lexicon, this word is #2694 and is transliterated pega`. Bullinger states that it is rendered as a time of misfortune. It occurs only in one other verse, I Kings 5:4 where it is translated having to do with evil or calamity.

So, according to Solomon, misfortune is appointed for all of us. I thought about that for a minute and how he, as the writer of the book of Ecclesiastes concludes 31 times, according to my count, that all is vanity. If this were the end of the story, how sad it would be. This was the man who had everything talking: riches, wine, women, fame and fortune. But somehow, after attaining all these things, Solomon forgot the source of all his prosperity: God. So his conclusion naturally is that misfortune is given to every human being who walks on the face of the planet.

What a depressing thought. This book made me quite sad at one point in my life. But after reading about the term misfortune yesterday, I immediately thought of the believer in Christ, what is promised to him, by the very fact that he is in association with the Lord. These were some of the verses that immediately came to mind:

Psalm 37:23-25

The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD, And He delights in his way.
Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; For the LORD upholds him with His hand.
I have been young, and now am old;Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken,Nor his descendants begging bread.

The believer is not abandoned to happenstance, to fate. God is in charge of every detail of his life.

Psalm 34:15-16

The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous,And His ears are open to their cry.
The face of the LORD is against those who do evil,To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.

God hears His children when we cry out to Him. Our prayers reach to the highest heaven, not just to the ceiling!

Job 23:9-10

When He works on the left hand, I cannot behold Him;When He turns to the right hand, I cannot see Him.
But He knows the way that I take;When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.

This is not someone predestined to fate, but someone in the care of a loving God!

Matthew 10:29-31

“Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will.But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.“Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows."

I can either believe this is true, or believe that the world is meaningless, life is meaningless, so eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.

Romans 8:18

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

I Peter 5:10

But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.

God doesn't see death the way we do either, it is not a time of misfortune or hopelessness for the one who knows the Lord. Rather, it is Graduation Day.

Psalm 116:15

Precious in the sight of the LORD Is the death of His saints.

These are just a smattering of the verses which speak of the great care and love that the Heavenly Father has for each of His children, even in a world that appears to be spinning out of control. If you are not sure that you have that relationship with God, it is freely offered to you by Him through His Son Jesus Christ. He willingly took on humanity and lived a perfect life here on this planet, and when the time was right, offered Himself to God as the perfect sacrifice on the cross for every sin of every human being, no matter what they have done. The only thing that can separate us from having this life is unbelief that He did this for you.

John 3:16-18

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."

So, before the darkness in this world grows even darker, you can make a simple decision today to go from being one whom "time and chance happens to them all" to being a beloved son or daughter of the Most High God.

I leave you with this last verse from Ephesians. See how much the Father wants you to come to Him, by doing it all for you in providing Jesus Christ. Put your full faith in Him alone today.

Ephesians 2:4-7

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

That is what He wants for each one of us...