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The Lord is More Than Adequate

November 24, 2019
Over the years, I have noticed an increase in the numbers of people who have professed their faith in the Lord, yet they worry about their day-to-day well being.

Doubt and fear are a normal part of the human experience, and it is normal to wonder if the Lord is with us in our distress. In a recent conversation about God’s ability and willingness to answer our prayer, a person who felt abandoned by God posed the question: “Does God even care?”

In 2 Corinthians 12:8-10 (NLT), the Apostle Paul relates a similar situation:

Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

It is unbelievable to think how the Apostle Paul, someone who played such an essential role in the development, progress, and stability of New Testament Church not having his prayers answered. However, even our Lord Jesus Christ had feelings of abandonment while on the Cross when He cried: “My God, My God, why have you abandoned me?”1

Despite the intensity of our sorrow, or how convincing the Enemy’s lies seem at the moment, we can know beyond a doubt that our Lord will comfort and console us, just as He promised:

Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 (NLV)

As the Lord was dying on the cross for our redemption, He affirmed that His work is forever finished. All that we will ever need for reconciliation with God had been accomplished;  nothing else is required to secure our place in His Kingdom. Moreover after rising from the dead, Jesus reassured us that all power in heaven and earth is entrusted to Him alone. In Him, we have all we will ever need to successfully navigate this life.2

Because of the free gifts that He bestows upon us beyond measure, the Lord is more than able to comfort us when we are distressed and heal us when we are brokenhearted; especially when we come to Him with sincere and contrite hearts.

Ultimately, we can find comfort knowing our Lord is more than adequate to help us meet any situation successfully, just as Psalm 34:19 affirms: “The righteous person faces many troubles, but the Lord comes to the rescue each time!”

What a wonderful Savior!

 

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Ultimate Refreshment Today!

For November 17, 2019
The warm Palestinian sun was near its zenith when our Lord arrived at Sychar along with His Disciples as presented in John Chapter 4. Weary from His morning travels—being around noon—the Disciples went to buy food for the group while He sat by Jacob’s Well.

Almost immediately, a certain woman came to the well to draw water. There she encountered Jesus, and her life along with certain cultural mores and traditions would change forever.

It was customary to draw well water during the late afternoon or evening hours when temperatures were much cooler.3 Although Jesus was considered a Jewish Rabbi, He was forbidden to engage in a public dialogue with the woman.4 Nevertheless, He breaks tradition by engaging in public dialogue.

Moreover, Samaritans5 were considered “half-Jews” at the time of Christ. And as such, contact between the two races was discouraged.

However, the Lord ignored the social, cultural traditions and initiated a conversation with the woman that shifted from drinking the water from Jacob’s Well to experiencing eternal ultimate refreshment through the “living water” that only He provides:

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:13-14 (NIV)

The woman accepted Jesus’ invitation to receive His living water because she, like so many of us today, grew tired of her mundane, unfulfilled life. She too discovered that a life of sin does not fulfill the deep longings of the heart as a personal relationship with the Lord does.

Moreover, acquiring the newest, biggest, or best material thing that we can have might feed our egos or tantalize our senses briefly, but they will never fill the spiritual void we have in our hearts for a personal, loving, eternal, relationship with the Lord.

She discovered that only Jesus Christ can give us ultimate refreshment that lasts forever, and she craved His living water, which He offers everyone freely, and without measure.

She came to the well looking for regular water. But, after meeting Jesus, she found living water that provides ultimate refreshment forever. Overjoyed, she dropped her bucket and ran into town, telling others about her encounter with the Lord and of His living water. Her compelling story led others to the Lord that day as well.

Having living water will not exempt us from the adversity or the pain we can experience in this life. Yet, it will ensure our victory just as Jesus promised in John 16:33 (NIV):

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

What a wonderful Savior!

  

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Trust the Lord Nevertheless

For November 10, 2019
In John 1:29, John the Baptist introduces Jesus to the assembly as “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Shortly thereafter, those who heard His teachings and witnessed His miracles would follow the Lord in droves wherever He went.

One of His more reluctant followers initially was Simon who encountered the Lord near the shore at the Sea of Galilee. On that particular morning, as recorded in Luke 5, a large crowd surrounded Jesus, listening intently to His every word.

Then, stepping into a nearby fishing boat, Jesus asked Simon to pull it away from the shore so that He could use it as a speaking platform to accommodate the large crowd that gathered along the shore.

Simon and his brother, Andrew, along with the brothers, James and John were exhausted after returning from an unsuccessful, all-night fishing expedition. In their minds, they were distracted by this meddling teacher, who kept them from washing their nets and performing other necessary chores in preparation for a more productive fishing expedition that evening,

One can imagine how the entire crew must have dozed off to sleep occasionally while the Lord taught. After all, they were exhausted from the night before. Even more stressful for Simon was when the Lord finished teaching, He instructed him to launch into deeper nearby waters, and prepare to catch fish.

Knowing that Jesus was not a skilled fisherman, Simon’s initial response was: “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything!” (Luke 5:5a NIV): In other words, Simon was saying: “Lord, I realize you are a great teacher, but we are experienced fishermen. We’ve  spent all night fishing and we’ve caught absolutely nothing!” (Your idea does not make any logical sense!)

We can identify with Simon when we feel our efforts have gone for naught. When we have tried to do things “our way” with disappointing or even disastrous results. The anger, frustration, and disappointment can be most unbearable when we have “taken matters into our own hands” and have failed—miserably.

After his initial angry feelings subsided, Simon had the good sense to surrender to the Lord and say: “But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” (Luke 5:5b NIV) In essence, Simon chose not to trust in his feelings, or unfortunate circumstances. Instead, he chose to surrender everything he had to the Lord, and trust in Him for the results.

Then immediately, Simon and his crew were so overwhelmed by the vast number of fish that they had to call James and John on the other ship for help collecting the fish.

When our work yields futility, surrendering to and trusting in the Lord is always the best response. This may require us to:

    • Spend time fasting and praying for clarity of the Lord’s will and purpose for our lives,
    • Perform an honest reassessment of our purpose, mission and goals to confirm they exalt Jesus Christ—not us, or
    • Reverse our current course immediately so that we can conform to the Lord’s divine plan for our lives and others.

Ultimately, we choose to obey the Lord’s instructions and trust Him for the results, nonetheless. Then, we can experience His excellence and our fulfillment just as Proverbs 3:5-6 (N KJV) teaches:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.

Won’t you trust in the Lord today?

 

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We Are Still Secure

November 1, 2019
Three stories of Old Testament heroes evoke comforting and compelling images of God’s tender care as He intervenes in the lives of His precious Children.

For instance 1 Kings 18 presents the contest for validity between Elijah and 850 prophets at Mount Carmel. Those who witnessed the challenge saw the “Fire of the Lord” fall from Heaven to consume an animal sacrifice—drenched with water—that distinguished the True and Living God from the false god: Baal, and validated Elijah’s position as the “Prophet of the Lord.”

In addition, the Three Hebrew Boys presented in Daniel 3, were rewarded for their faithfulness to God demonstrated in their unwillingness to bow down and worship Nebuchadnezzar’s image as they were commanded. As result, they were thrown into a fiery furnace, which was heated seven times hotter than its normal level. Onlookers saw a fourth person in the furnace, who Nebuchadnezzar described as, “the Son of God.” The three were delivered from the flames–with not even the smell of smoke!

Moreover, 1 Samuel 17 presents the story of David, the young shepherd boy, who defeats the mighty giant Goliath with slingshot. After the victory, the people heralded David’s bravery and conquest. Life was good for the young shepherd boy who would eventually marry the King’s daughter and experience the opulence that accompanies royalty. Unfortunately however, persecution and adversity would soon follow as well.

King Saul sought to kill David, and as he ran for his life, hundreds of other outcasts joined him.

Over time, the Lord leads David to Abigail, the wife of wealthy Nabal.  She gives David and his men ample food and supplies to sustain them in their journey. She also affirms the Lord’s protection along with his succession to the throne as recorded in 1 Samuel 25:29 (KJV):

A man is risen to pursue thee, and to seek thy soul: but the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the LORD thy God; and the souls of thine enemies, them shall He sling out, as out of the middle of a sling.

David’s life appeared to be full of uncertainty and turmoil. Yet he found comfort knowing that he was “bound in the bundle of life with the Lord his God.” In other words, the Lord cared for David and would meet his needs and fight his battles.

In Psalm 23, David illustrates how the Lord, his Shepherd, would keep him safe and secure throughout his life:

The LORD is my Shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

The Lord Jesus Christ is our Good Shepherd, and He promised that we as His sheep will never perish, nor would be taken out of His (or His Father’s) hands. 6

Nearly two thousand years have since passed, and we are still secure today. What a wonderful Savior!

 

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God’s Supreme Mystery

October 19, 2019
Some would argue that our Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, His Son and the Holy Spirit are three expressions of one being, and not three distinct persons.7Here, the idea of Jesus Christ being a person who is both infinitely God and finitely human simultaneously is questioned.

However, the Apostle John, who also wrote the Fourth Gospel, refers to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as both divine and human:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome…The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.  John 1:1-5, 14 (NIV)

It is a mystery how three persons are one. But when we count the two persons identified in John’s passage, along with the Spirit of God, who hovered over the waters in Genesis 1:2, each person is given the title “God” and are heavily involved in creation as well.

God’s supreme mystery paid for our redemption by resolving our sin problem, which began immediately after God’s perfect creation was tarnished by sin through Adam and Eve’s disobedience. Thus, we today are sin-cursed—not because of the sins we’ve committed—but because of the sin-tainted nature at work in us constantly.

The Apostle John describes our remedy through God’s loving intervention:

But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth at comes from God. John 1:12-13 (NLT)

Of this mystery, Colossians 1:26-27 (KJV) states:

Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to His saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory!

The Father set in motion what the Son fulfilled and the Spirit sustains. It is not ours to fully understand how the same God who created us can be the same God who redeemed us at Calvary. Or how God can forgive our sin while filling and sealing us by His Spirit simultaneously.  How God can intercede for us today and yet soon return for us so that we can live with Him forever in Heaven can be beyond our comprehension at times.

But He did and still does…What a wonderful Savior!

Although God’s supreme mystery lies beyond our finite understanding, we are  eternally grateful that it is not beyond the grasp of our simple, child-like faith in Jesus Christ.

 

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