When Pain is Allowed

“Saying, The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day” (Luke 9:21).

Being confident in God doesn’t make the pain we experience less deep but it can become less broad. If you and I have some things settled with God, there are boundaries around the field of pain we experience. With God our pain doesn’t have to spread out into the endless spaces of limitless meaning. God allows the touch of pain to test us and to see if we will trust Him and find His reward to be better.

God set His plan in motion before the foundation of the world. His glory is seen in this aspect of His omnipresence. Before time was, He was. He sits upon time and He spans all time, history, and future. He circumscribed all things to happen to His people.

We mainly think of the glory of God when it comes to OUR salvation, but have you ever thought of the glory of God because of who He is? God overturns all things to bring glory to His name. He sets all things into motion. Therefore our salvation is to His glory.

If we confess Christ as the Son of God and Savior, and take up our cross and follow Him, He will reveal to us His kingdom and His glory. When you and I experience the glory of God, the demands of discipleship become blessings that carry us along in joyful obedience. Passing the test means loving God to the end.

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  • Do We Fear God?

    “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction”

    (Proverbs 1:7).

    We can tell if we truly fear the Lord. How?

    1. We joyfully delight in the Word of God.

    Psalm 112:1 tells us, “Praise you the Lord. Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who delights greatly in his commandments.”

    1. We passionately apply God’s Word to our everyday lives.

    Psalm 128:1 proclaims, “Blessed is every one that fears the Lord, that walks in His Ways.”

    1. We place confidence in the promises of God.

    Psalm 147:11 has said to each of us, “The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in his mercy.”

    We need to get back to God’s Word! Anything that takes the place of God’s Word leads to idolatry.

     

     

  • A Great Faith

    “Fight the good fight of faith”

    (I Timothy 6:12).

     

    If you could hear Jesus say that one thing in your life was “great,” what would you want that to be? Would it be that you have a great faith? Would the Lord of the universe ever compliment your faith as “great”?
    For faith to work, we must expect God to move, even in a moment when we least expect him to move. We must believe that He can change our life’s game in 15 seconds. That’s how great faith looks at life.
    A great faith in God is key to experiencing His miraculous power, being great in his eyes, and moving from superficiality to significance. Familiarity can and does breed contempt. When Jesus visited Nazareth, his hometown, the Bible tells us he couldn’t perform many miracles at all. Jesus marveled at their unbelief. That is not what we want our Creator to marvel at, for we want Him to marvel at our great faith.
    Does your faith trust the Sovereign God of the universe no matter what? The Lord Jesus wants us to trust Him no matter what, even when bad things happen. Sometimes when we find ourselves wondering at the strong winds that have been allowed to blow our way, it really becomes the testing ground to see how “great” our faith really is.

  • Historic Day in Jerusalem

    “…except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain” (Psalm 127:1).

    The Eternal City just celebrated the moving of the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Israel.  Already the applause is monumental but death is a reality as we have already heard about the deaths of thirty-seven.  There are many who hate Israel around the world, and there are now many who fear for the United States since this declaration that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.

    What do we take with us from this move?  You and I have the opportunity to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.  There will be no peace till we see the Prince of Peace coming to take over.  The Slanderer, the Devil is mad.  And in this move the world is setting itself up for the Antichrist to come and lead a federation of nations, though you and I understand the prophecy of the Bible, they do not.

    We must pray and understand that what we are watching is the volatile situation that is escalating to war.  Even though we are very glad for the move of the United States, we are also cognizant of the only Protector we have and His name is Jesus.  Unbelief is prominent today in the hearts of many Americans and Israelis, but we thank God that in His sovereign hand we are watching the soon coming of our Lord.

    We thank God for the bold move, for whoever blesses Israel God will bless.  But we must be very concerned and must pray for the work and will of God.  Don’t allow this season to pass you by.  Take notice and take up your mantle for the glory of God.

  • Dreams

    “But while he (Joseph) thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream…” (Matthew 1:20).

     

    The phrase “in a dream” is found six times in Matthew’s Gospel, five times in the narrative of the birth of Jesus (1:20; 2:12,13,19, 22). The dreams revealed God’s loving care and protection for His Son and His servants to aid them from their enemies.

     

    The Lord spoke in dreams to Joseph and to the wise men because they had to act quickly at a time of great danger and there wasn’t time to send a prophet to warn them, even if one had been available. (Israel had not heard from a prophet in four hundred years).

     

    Today, in our decision making process, we have Christian history behind us, the Word of God before us, the Holy Spirit within us, and loving Christians around us. For believers today, we have what we need to make correct and wise decisions. We do not depend upon dreams but upon the resources He has given to us.

     

    Does God still move in dreams? We are told by missionaries that He does. There are difficult people groups who are hard to reach with the gospel. So they dream of Jesus or “a black book” (the Bible) and then seek out Christians to help them understand their dreams. And many of these place their faith in Christ.

     

    Whenever there are sincere people who seek truth, God can reveal His truth to them as He did to Abram in Ur, to Cornelius the Gentile soldier in the Book of Acts, or even to someone in Iraq, Turkey, or Iran. If they would only “touch the edge of his cloak” (Luke 8:43-48), He will graciously respond to the weakest faith.

     

  • Gallup-Poll Faith

    “Unless the LORD of hosts had left to us a very small remnant, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been made like Gomorrah” (Isaiah 1:9).

    God works with a remnant of people who believe. Isaiah speaks of a remnant of real believers among the many with a Gallup-Poll faith. A Gallup-poll faith is a faith that is wishy-washy. It’s the total amount of people who say but do not behave. Their living contradicts their position.

    It takes the grace of God to preserve a trusting remnant among those who identify outwardly with Him. The remnant is not a super-spiritual elite looking down on others, but they do dare to live by faith in God. The rest are careful not to risk too much on Him. The difference does show.

    Jonathan Edwards describes a true Christian:

    “As he has more holy boldness, so he has less self-confidence…As he is more sure than others of deliverance from hell, so he has a greater sense that he deserves it. He is less apt than others to be shaken in faith, but more apt than others to be moved by solemn warnings, God’s frowns and calamities of others. He has the firmest comfort, but the softest heart; richer than others, but poorest of all in spirit. He is the tallest and strongest saint, but the least and tenderest child among them.”

    That beauty marks God’s true people.

  • Deep Living

    “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful” (Psalm 1:1).

    Discouragement is the temporary loss of perspective. So many men for the sake of getting a living forget to live. Each day is to be significant as we seek those things which are deeper and not so much as wider.

    Each day must be seized with a renewal that maintains our perspective and minimizes the distractions that afflict us. When we lack direction and are bombarded by distractions we become discouraged.

    Shallow living leads to distractions that causes decay. Without proper care of the body we become ill. A marriage can become troubled after just a few episodes of unresolved anger and misunderstanding. An automobile can break down without proper maintenance. Without daily guidance and renewal in God’s presence we live in distracted modes.

    Don’t allow the busyness to the daily demands and orders of a noisy world, cause you to forget that God has a plan for you and for me. We are to win the battle which is so daily. Allow your roots to sink deep into the soil of God’s promises and allow His truth to be absorbed into the core of our soul.