Another year has dawned ..... the closing year of this century. What fills our hearts as we survey our troubled world?
Y2K has many pushing the panic button and alarming us with horror-filled possibilities which may affect every area of our lives; while others trivialize the matter beyond reason.
(Hymn by TOPLADY entitled FAITH REVIVING)
From whence this fear and unbelief?
Hath not the Father put to grief
His spotless Son for me?
Thoughts ... thoughts ... thoughts ...
We all have them. We can't get away from them.
Today I'm thinking about thoughts. More and more I'm seeing how important they are. I began to think about Judas, the betrayer. If all I knew about him was John 13:27, I might wonder if I should feel sorry for him. "Satan entered into and took possession of Judas." Was Judas just a helpless pawn? Can Satan just waltz into a person without not so much as a by-your-leave? What was his claim to a point of entry? I looked back at Vs.2; "Satan had already put the THOUGHT of betraying Jesus into the heart of Judas." At that point it was just a THOUGHT, a THOUGHT which could have been rejected. But we know that Judas was in the habit of welcoming, entertaining and acting on THOUGHTS from Satan. Where, but from Satan, would he get the THOUGHT to rob the offerings given to support Jesus and the disciples (John 12:6)? What if Judas had rejected the THOUGHT to steal from Jesus?
That morning it touched me more deeply than ever before (Judges 6:11-34). It was almost as if I could see Jesus sitting under the oak tree. Then He went into the winepress where terrified Gideon was trying to hide wheat from Israel's enemies. Frightened Gideon had another shock when the Lord called him a mighty man of fearless courage. This encounter of Jesus with Gideon stayed in my thoughts and I was thrilled as I meditated and discussed it with the Lord. It was almost as if I'd been there. As I spoke to the Lord about it, I experienced something I'd never felt before. It seemed like I was talking about something that had just happened -- as if there was almost no time between Gideon's encounter with Jesus and my talking to God about it. Of course for the Eternal God a few thousand years is hardly a blip but this was something entirely new for me.
They were frantically eager to arrest Jesus and had sent the temple guards to apprehend Him (John 7:30,32). But the temple guards went back to the religious big-shots empty-handed!
Would Jesus have known that He was in danger when He saw the temple guards approaching? Was He frightened? Why not? Nothing will ever hinder God's purpose or interfere with God's timing.
I was drying dishes when Romans 6:23 popped into my mind unexpectedly. That was a verse I had memorized as a little kid. Suddenly the thought struck me that Rom.6:23 is a suitcase -- yes, a suitcase which contains all the wonderful treasures of chapters 6, 7 and 8. Everything we need for life's journey is in that suitcase if we will only unpack it.
Part A: The wages of sin is death -- hopelessness and doom.
Suddenly a violent storm but He was sleeping (Matthew 8:24). Is this what it seems like in my life just now? Does it feel like Jesus is asleep and I'm alone in the storm? Why the storms? Why such fierce storms? (Psalms 74:17) You have made summer and winter. God has designed an important role for the high office of winter in my life.
All Thy works shall praise Thy Name.
Even the stones have a message.
During Jesus' triumphal entry (Luke 19), the Pharisees told Him to reprove His disciples. Jesus replied (Vs.40) that if they kept silent, the very stones would cry out. But the disciples deserted Him just a few days later; so why didn't the stones cry out?
We all go through many and varied stages on the journey of life. There are no detours around them.
Looking back ... looking ahead. I look back over all the years, at the potholes along the road, and I marvel at what God has brought us through; and how He has revealed Himself in the process. Then I look a head and I could choose to be overwhelmed by perplexity and fear.
As I read, I was thinking ... this is a hard saying. "Every single thing that happens to a believer expresses God's love to him and comes for the furthering of God's purpose for him. God is love to him -- holy, omnipotent love -- in every moment and in every event of every day's life. Even when he cannot see the why and wherefore of God's dealings, he knows there is love in them and behind them and so he can rejoice always even when, humanly speaking, things are going wrong."