|
|
Celebrating Christmas ….with Hope Unswerving, Hearts Enriching
"…City sidewalks, busy sidewalks… dressed in holiday style… in the air there's a feeling of Christmas. Children laughing, people passing…
giving smile after smile… and on every street corner you'll hear… Silver bells…." and so the familiar Christmas classic goes. Is this what Christmas is all about? What does Christmas mean to you? How do you
prepare for Christmas?
In the Malaysian tradition, we would normally clean the house, then re-arrange the house for the Christmas decorations. Putting up the Christmas tree, displaying the Christmas cards one
receives and of course the presents. Shopping is a major part of the season. I recently read that, shopping is so big that the US National Retail Federation has revised its sales forecast for the year-end to 6%
better than in 2004. Giving and receiving of presents have been so much a part of the season that everyone, even non-Christians do it!
But is this how God wants us to prepare for Christmas?
When we truly
prepare for Christmas, there is a personal cleansing, there is a new arrangement of our priorities, there is a decorating of the heart, there is a receiving and giving of gifts.
The cleaning of the heart
In Mathew 5:8, it says, Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God. The pure in heart are the happy in heart. Why? Because they will one day see God. But how do we become pure in heart? I don't know about
you but sometimes my heart seems more polluted then pure. I get annoyed when someone suddenly cuts in front of you at the traffic queue. I get frustrated when my best plans come unraveled. I lose my temper over
small and insignificant problems. The bad news is we can do nothing about making our hearts pure. The good news is God is the one who cleans the heart and all you need to do is ask Him.
The arranging of priorities
But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. - Matthew 6:33
An essential part of preparing for Christmas revolves around
re-arranging. Just as we arrange our homes, schedules, holidays for Christmas, God wants us to arrange our hearts for Christmas. His desire is for you to make more room for His Son in your heart. It is then the
blessings of God begin to rapidly flow into our lives and overflow into the lives of others. When we put Christ in the centre of our lives, everything else comes together. So instead of shopping and decorating and
wrapping presents being our focus this Christmas. Let us remember the reason for the season!
The decorating of the heart
What does God do to decorate the heart? He decorates the heart by taking away the
old and creates something new. But in order for Him to decorate the heart, He must have complete control over the whole life. Far too often, we only surrender partial control of our lives to Him and only allow Him
to make the changes that we approve. God's desire is to take your life and make it even more beautiful. He wants to decorate your life with His blessings and give you something completely new… only if you let Him.
The receiving and giving of gifts
God has given us an incredible gift. The simple act of believing in Christ is life transforming. For in Christ, we can become children of God. We become part of God's
family. Our position in life is changed. All we need to do is to receive Him.
One of the greatest joys of Christmas is found in giving. It is indeed better to give than to receive. I love to watch my children
tear through the wrappings and watch their face light up! This may surprise you but it applies to Christ as well. There is great joy when you give a gift to Christ. After all, it is His birthday we are celebrating.
What gift can you give to Christ? The greatest gift you can give to Christ is yourself!
So where are you in your preparation for Christmas? Perhaps there are some areas in your heart that needs cleansing, or
perhaps you need to rearrange your priorities in life. You may need some of God's blessings for decorations. Or you may need to receive the gift of Christ and give Him your heart.
As you make these
preparations for Christmas, may the wonders of Christmas become alive in you and may you have the intimate knowledge that God loves you, and that joy and peace that passes all understanding can be yours!
Let's celebrate Christmas…with Hope unswerving and hearts enriching!
Blessed Christmas!
AKC
|
|
HOPE UNSWERVING, HEARTS ENRICHING - Nov 2005
Preparing a camp is never easy. It's even harder if you're the speaker, song leader, game master, workshop facilitator, "chauffer" all rolled into one. No
wonder I'm feeling exhausted now after the camp both mentally and physically. Yet, while one can prepare the best message, the perfect worship, the greatest games or the neatest workshop if the Lord is not involved
in any of them it may all comes to naught. What if it rained during our outdoor games? What if most of the campers fell sick? What if the campsite is fully booked? The Psalmist is right to say, "Unless the LORD
builds the house, its builders labor in vain" (Psalm 127:1).
Imagine the joy I had when I woke up that Saturday morning and saw the rain falling. That would mean once we get there to PD that day it would
have been sunny, suitable weather for our outdoor games. Yet the joy was short lived when I discovered my kids had high fever and that they could not join me at the campsite. I was "devastated" in a way.
The kids looked forward to coming to PD but now they couldn't come. But the Lord has said to us that " in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his
purpose" (Romans 8:28). So what good thing that God had worked out for me?
The good thing was, my now vacant backseat of my car allowed me to ferry some of the campers thus enabling me to know more about
them via their sharing. I also had opportunities to mingle and converse with other campers more freely and got to know them better. I could never do that if my still young family was with me. See how the Lord made a
good thing out of something we initially thought was bad?
How often have our faith wavered because something bad has happened to us? How often have we questioned God's faithfulness when something doesn't go
our way? Paul in Hebrews 10:23 says "Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful". Our Lord is faithful. He would never abandon us nor forsake us (Heb 13:5). And
through our experience with Him we share His faithfulness to others thus enriching their trust in Him in these last days (Heb 10:24-25). Has something bad happened to you recently? The consider what good thing did
God want you to learn from it.
In His Service
WYF
|
|
HOPE UNSWERVING, HEARTS ENRICHING - Oct 2005
Many lives have since been perished when hurricane Katrina devastated south-east Louisiana and coast of Mississippi recently. Before the world could
recover from the devastation of this natural calamity, it has now been reported across the world that 1.3 million people flee as hurricane Rita spins towards Texas coast.
An author once quoted: “Though
my world shakes, I will not be shaken. Oh how it hurts, and oh how I care! But I reside here, while I live there in God’s unshakeable Kingdom. A Kingdom that is for everyone and forever”.
There seems to be much truth in her quotation when we consider all the events that are happening in the world today.
When the kingdoms of this world are being shaken and the lives of individual being threatened and perished, how thankful we ought to be since we are citizens of a Kingdom that cannot be shaken (Hebrews 12:28).
While it remains a fact that the world we live in is being shaken by the ferocity of such natural calamities, yet we must have a clear idea of how to handle such matters when calamities come.
We must face with the reality that God is at work when He turns what seemingly bad to good and doing so with such skills that often people think He arranged the chaos in the first place. Never has anyone who has walked the lonely and torturous journey found Him not to be a source of comfort and solace whenever we have sincerely called upon Him. Just like the prayer of the psalmist: “I am worn out, O Lord; have pity on me! Give me strength; I am completely exhausted and my whole being is deeply troubled. How long, O Lord, will you wait to help me? Come and save me, Lord; in your mercy rescue me from death” (Psalms 6:2-4).
Tragically some of us who are being confronted with such calamities, do not know how to turn to Him in prayer.
Perhaps it is the spirit of rebellion in our hearts that prevents us from doing so. Sometimes it may be our sinful nature of believing that we can steer ourselves from the storms of life through our own efforts, instead of crying out to God for help and guidance. But all who turn to Him will find Him ever ready to pour His grace into their wounded hearts and transform evil into good. When Paul asked the Lord to remove the painful physical ailment from him, the reply from the Lord to Paul was: “My grace is all you need for my power is greatest when you are weak” (2 Cor 12:9).
Considering that we have our Lord who has promised to supply us His grace whenever we call upon Him in times of trouble and fear, the least we can do is to join with the Psalmist to thank the Lord and
will never stop praising Him (Psalm 34:1).
With our Lord on our side as we continue to experience calamities in the world, we ought to have our hopes unswerving while our hearts remain enriching towards
His sustaining grace.
In His Service
MG
|
|
HOPE UNSWERVING, HEARTS ENRICHING - Aug 2005
As the years have slipped by the corridor of time, time just like any good medicine, began to heal the painful wounds from the loss of lives and permanent injuries to loved ones inflicted by the bombings in many
cities across the world since September 11, 2001.
However the recent bombings in London during the rush hour of Thursday 7 July 2005 was like a case of the wounds being prized open again, leaving the world in fear, chaos and turmoil.
Confronting
each of us is this issue: How do we remain calm and steady when around us we see evil gaining the upper hand and the kingdoms of this world being shaken up?
But in the midst of such calamities, we can find a safe and secure anchor point at the foot of the Cross. Standing there and gazing upon the out-stretched hands of our Lord and with His downcast eyes looking at us, He would say to us: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine” (Isa 43:1).
Since I came to know who Jesus Christ was in the early sixties, the world has deteriorated to a considerable degree. Things that would have staggered the people then have seemed to be taken for granted
in today’s moral society.
Evil appears not only to have increased but to have blunted the conscience of many of us. This poses us with the next questions: How far can evil go on in a world which our Creator God has originally made to His perfection? Does the moral universe bend to evil?
Looking at these questions, evil can go far but no further for the moral universe which God has created cannot be compromised by evil. But as we have seen, evil could crucify the Son of God on the
Cross. It can also do that today; it can again do that tomorrow but on that third day, Goodness rises from the dead and Goodness has the final word. At this point, I am drawing a parallel from the
crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
From the scriptures, we read that the guards who were watching the tomb of Jesus on the first Easter morning were like “dead men” while at the same time Jesus was resplendently alive. Evil forces went a long way on that first Easter day but that was as far as they could go – only for 2 days. But on the third day, God raised His Son from the dead – and that is to declare to the world that goodness ultimately triumphs over evil.
Even though you and I continue to journey through difficult days ahead while living in this sin-stained world,
we are assured that Christ reigns in the midst of world confusion and to understand that what is happening is allowed by Him to happen (Eccl 3:1). Why He allows it to happen is beyond any human comprehension except that ultimately with God, He knows exactly what He is doing. Just as He was in charge of the events leading to His Son laying in the darkness of the grave, so also He is in charge of the events now.
While reasoning remains difficult but faith is a matter of trusting that He is doing so.
In His Service,
MG
|
|
HOPE UNSWERVING, HEARTS ENRICHING - July 2005
Another Sunday another time to “worship” the Lord. Are you in the right spirit to worship God every Sunday morning or just trying to get it over
with? The spiritual health of the congregation is determined by the way they worship God. No, not the loud lead worship that uses a band to prod the congregation to worship God but the heart of the believers that
response to worship God every time and everyday (Psalm 1:2), even on a Sunday. A true worshipper is one who worships in spirit and in truth (John 4:24).
The Brethren style of open worship is a good Scriptural
method (Acts 2:42, Romans 12:1, 1 Timothy 2:8) of determining who in the congregation is all fired up to worship God and who isn’t. It’s a sad situation to see in most of our worship services that only 10% of the
brethren participating in the open worship. Is it because the other 90% has nothing to rejoice worshipping God for? A survey of the ever growing congregation in the book of Acts tells us the secret of the early
church was they always rejoicing in worshipping God (Acts 2:47). It is no wonder that some have found staleness in the Brethren style of worship. Well the staleness is not because of the style but because of the
worshippers’ heart. Where’s the joy?
Paul’s advice in Romans 12 are Scriptural words worth meditating upon to fire up our spiritual life. If we want to see God’s presence in our worship then each of us need
to truly make Him Lord of our life (Romans 12:1). If we want to see God’s power in our worship then each of us need to truly participate worshipping God (Romans 12:5). If we want to see God’s faithfulness in our
worship then each of us need to truly rejoice in hope while worshipping God (Romans 12:12).
A heart that has no hope is unable to worship God in spirit and in truth. The temptations of the world cloud their
minds and robbing them off their God given joy. They blame the church for it’s style of worship. But nay, Romans 12 says it’s your attitude towards God that enriches your worship and not the style of worship the
church adopts. Unless your hope is built on nothing less than Christ the Solid Rock, your worship will sink like sinking sand – hollow, routine, meaningless.
“Let us hold fast the profession of our faith
without wavering for he is faithful that promised. And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting
one another and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”
(Hebrews 10:23-25)
In His Service
WYF
|
|
HOPE UNSWERVING, HEARTS ENRICHING - June 2005
David wrote in Psalm 139:1-4, "O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; you understand my thought afar
off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, You know it altogether". This implies that God knows every bit of
our successes and failures, no one is excluded.
The amazing part is that God can still use our failures to achieve a purpose. Maybe you have had a serious failure in your spiritual life recently. Yet God can
take our failures and turn them into successes. God can take losers and turn them into winners. We see this in the life of Simon Peter, a follower of Jesus Christ.
It is worth noting how Simon got his new
name, Peter. The disciples were with the Lord at a place called Caesarea Philippi, when Jesus turned to them and said, "Who do men say that I am?" Various ideas were thrown out. Then Simon, under the
inspiration of God himself, said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matthew 16:16).
This was a remarkable moment. Peter had been given supernatural insight. Jesus told him, "I
am giving you a new name. From this moment on, your name is Peter, and on this rock I will build my church" (Matthew 16:17-18).
You would wonder what the other disciples thought when Jesus gave Simon
this new name. "Rock? Is He qualified? Is this for real? After all, when we think of a rock, we think of something that is solid. A rock is dependable. It is immovable. But Simon was hotheaded. He was
impulsive. He was impetuous. To call Simon a rock almost seemed laughable.
Before Peter fully lived up to this new name, he had a serious lapse. He experienced a fall that was both notable and dramatic.
You'll find them in Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22, and John 18. Yes, Peter fell. Yes, he had a lapse. But it was a temporary one. Later, in 1 Peter 5:10, Peter wrote, "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".
This shows that God not only sees us for what we are, but also sees us for what we
can become. He sees our potential. We might see a blank canvas, but God sees a finished painting. We see problems, but God sees solutions. We see failures, but God sees successes. We see a Simon, but God sees a rock.
In the same way, you have gone through certain experiences in life. But God can take whatever you have experienced and use it to reach out to other people. Instead of being devastated by past failures or
being upset with God, why not allowing God to take those things and turn them into great lessons to share with others? God gives second chances. There is always hope ahead of every failure, and we can allow God to
use it to enrich others.
In His Service
QWK
|
|
WORSHIP – IMPACTING OUR LIVES - May 2005
During our Lord’s Day Service, what do you think of when your are waiting for the next person to choose a hymn, or read a passage of scripture or stand up and
pray? At the end of the morning worship service, how do you feel? The bible gives us many wonderful references on worship and how it should impact our lives.
Worship involves both rejoicing and reverence and
is always followed by a response (Psalm 95).
And worship shouldn’t be confined to just Sunday mornings in church! We should be worshipping God daily wherever we are. Our focus is on God. Looking at the attributes of God, let’s examine how it can enrich our lives and enjoy the full extent of His blessing as it is meant to be.
God’s Position: God is the King of kings and above all kings.
We are called to exalt Him forever and ever. To exalt is to set high above all others, an expression of greatest possible admiration. Forever and ever suggest there is no end – continuous praise. Therefore, we are to praise God daily.
God’s Personality: The Psalms have many wonderful description of God’s personality. He is good, righteous, gracious compassionate, slow to anger, rich in love, good to all and loving. Because of
these, we can come into His presence to praise Him. We are to celebrate His attributes.
God’s Presence: The Bible tells us that “The Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in
truth (Psalm 145:18). As His children, isn’t it comforting to know that God is in our midst? We can pray to Him, in His presence.
God’s Provision: While God is extremely powerful and awesome, He is
also gentle and fully aware of the needs of His people. God takes His hands and opens it completely to us. When we are tired, weary, stressed, He wants us to look to Him. We can trust Him with our cares and problems.
God’s Preservation:
God preserves those who are saved and will judge those who are not (Psalm 1: 6). If you have already believed and trusted your life to Jesus Christ, then you have this assurance that God will watch over you and usher you into His presence when you return to Him. And isn’t that enough for us to cultivate a lifestyle of praise?
Think on these things!
“Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord” (Psalm 150: 6)
In His Service
AKC
|
|
HOPE UNSWERVING, HEARTS ENRICHING - April 2005
In the book "Improving your serve" by Charles R. Swindoll he describes a fascinating experiment that involved 8 mice living in a cage
with plenty of food and water. Within two and a half years the mice population grew to a peak of 2,200. However within 5 years all the mice died. What happened?
The scientist who conducted this study a Dr.
John Calhoun suggested that the mice gradually became "individualistic". They had ceased to interact with one another and failed to reproduce hence their demise. The term "individualism" sounds
pretty familiar in our society nowadays isn't it? Are we heading towards the same path as those mice?
The prophet Isaiah in chapter 53:6 says "All of us like sheep have gone astray; each of us have
turned to his own way". Just read the newspapers and notice article after article of people getting hurt or killed by others. Or just take a walk in the city and notice the uncaring behaviors of people all
around. Whatever happened to the Malaysian courtesy that our nation was once so proud of? Are we any different from mice?
Of course we are! We're created in the image of God (Gen 1:26), therefore unlike the
mice we have a God that is ever present in times of trouble (Heb 13:5b). A God that keeps us sane even though the environment around is driving us mad (John 14:27). A God that unites His fellow believers together in
a caring family called the CHURCH (Eph 2:19). God is our only hope in this troubled life!
Yet the hope of God does not end there. God also deals with the sinful nature of man. That very sinful nature that
drives man into self-centeredness. God the Father sent His Son Christ Jesus to die on the cross for us in order that we may be set free from the bondage of sin and death. That we may not live looking after our own
self-interests but the interests of others as well. Perhaps if the mice had the hope like we have they would have survived.
Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering for he is faithful
that promised. And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:
Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another and so much the more,
as ye see the day approaching.
(Hebrews 10:23-25)
In His service,
WYF
|
|
HOPE UNSWERVING, HEARTS ENRICHING - Mac 2005
This month as we observe the Good Friday, we will be reminded again about the man hanging from the cross on the hill called Calvary (Mark 15:22-24). It is a
wonderful story of salvation – the salvation of one man, in particular, and the salvation available to each of us through God's amazing grace. It is a story of rejection, too – another man's rejection of God's gift
of eternal life, and a grim reminder that many in our world today also choose to live apart from God.
There, we see two prisoners condemned to death for robbery. We see Jesus condemned to death for bringing
life! The scene seems to be about choices.
One thief collaborates with the authorities who have condemned him to his own death. By jeering Christ, he joins the conspiracy of not only his own death but also in
the crucifixion of Jesus. He taunts and dares Christ to save Himself from his captors (Luke 23:39)
But the other thief rises above the shouts and rises above the authorities that have placed him in this
situation. He finds the strength to turn his head and show his face to Christ. He asks for remembrance while proclaiming the Messiah's innocence. Because of his belief he is promised life in the Kingdom of Heaven
(Luke 23:40-43).
We are like the two prisoners on the crosses of Calvary – hanging on the fragile thread between life and death; bound to our crosses by the secular, independent, individualistic society of
which we presently live. Bound by the distractions and obligations of this world, we often times forget our spiritual selves (Romans 3:23).
We have a choice – Like the one thief we can turn towards the saving
grace of Jesus Christ - break the grip of this secular life and live eternally in God's holy plan; or we can choose to be like the other thief and join the forces of this world that condemn God's ways, turning our
face away from the Light of the world and bend our deaf ears to the calling of Christ.
By choosing the way of the Cross, Jesus is betrayed, denied, rejected, abandoned, arrested, tried, condemned, hit,
mocked, abused, tortured, and crucified. At Calvary, Jesus experienced a dreadful death in order to open the gates of life to all.
The choice is ours. But in going to the Cross for our sinfulness, Jesus
presents the offer of life to each of us. Because Jesus went to the cross, we can experience the abundant life in the will of God, and experience unimaginable peace, joy and love in the everlasting arms of God in
the life to come (Romans 5:17). That is God's plan for us. That is the offer he extends. We can choose life, or we can choose death.
May we choose Christ, the One who offers hope that we may proclaim
unswervingly; the One who offers life that we may richly gain.
In His Service
QWK
|
|
HOPE UNSWERVING, HEARTS ENRICHING - Feb 2005
Just as the tidal wave, Tsunami brought unprecedented disaster to many countries in this region, it has also brought home into our hearts a message from God.
What was God telling us in the midst of such catastrophe. Paradoxically, we as believers in our Lord Jesus Christ, are called to remain hopeful to God in this hopeless world we live in.
We are
challenged in James 1:2 to consider it pure joy whenever we face trials of many kinds. Defying against all logical explanation, why should we consider trials and calamities as pure joy and welcome them into our
lives?
1 Peter 1:6-7 says: “...it may now be necessary for you to be sad for a while because of the many kinds of trials you suffer. Their purpose is to prove that your faith is genuine. Even gold, which can be destroyed, is tested by fire; and so your faith, which is so much more precious than gold, must also be tested, so that it may endure. Then you will receive praise and glory and honour on the Day when Jesus Christ is revealed”. So if trails and calamities are a test of the firmness and purity of our faith, what benefit then can we reap as children of God? In every dark cloud that looms in our lives, the silver lining through which God has promised us is found in Hebrews 13:5b: “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you”.
The phenomenal disaster is also a grim reminder to us of the eternal perdition that awaits those of us who stubbornly refuse to acknowledge the sovereignty of God and to allow Him to take His rightful place
in our lives. At this juncture, it must be remembered that God does not wish to gatecrash into our lives but to give us a free choice – whether to allow Him into the throne of our lives or to shut the doors to
our hearts.
No natural disaster in the past, present and future, can be as terrible for us as the eternal prospects of living our ‘lives after death’ in absolute separation from God. We are admonished in Matthew 10:28 to “rather be afraid of God who can destroy both body and soul in hell”.
Because of the love and mercy of our heavenly Father, He has taken the first initiative to reconcile us who were once alienated from God …….by Christ’s physical body through death to present us holy in His
sight, without blemish and free from accusation (Colossians 1:21-22), how should then be our response to Him?
1 Peter 1:14-15 says we are called to be obedient to God, and do not allow our lives to be shaped
by those desires we had when we were still ignorant. Instead be holy in all that we do, just as God who called us is holy”. How we shape our lives in our earthly existence will have a bearing on our
eternal destiny. With the emergence of wars and natural disasters around the world, we know that the Lord’s coming is near. In 1 Thessalonians 5:2, we are told that the Day of the Lord will come as a
thief comes at night. Therefore, be prepared.
Finally, the tidal waves have come ashore and gone. But the message from God that comes with it remains in our minds, perhaps forever. As long
as the message remains with us, our hopes remain unswerving and our hearts remain enriched for we know of the God who will never fail us, especially when we need Him most.
In His Service
MG
|
|
HOPE UNSWERVING, HEARTS ENRICHING - Jan 2005
Ushering into this new year 2005 with a memory of the traumatic tsunami week, much can now be written about the fragility of life. About how we can be
walking on a paradisiacal beach, and seconds later everything is destroyed and the sea leaves us with cadavers and the wailing of survivors who have lost their loved ones and homes . This is also a disaster that
struck indiscriminately the poor and the rich, the celebrities and the humble fishermen, wealthy vacationers, newlyweds on their honeymoon, staying in hotels next to local towns and villages. This time not just
people of our own country, but also thousands of tourists from far away lands.
Broken hearts asking the question Why? are as old as the human race, beginning with our first parents. What would it have
been like to wake up the morning after having been banished from the Garden of Eden because of a very wrong choice? The most tragic day in all of history could not be relived. And the tragedy was not over. In the
years to come, after the joy of giving birth to three sons, Adam's and Eve's hearts were broken once again as they buried their second son, who was murdered by their firstborn. Suffering and pains have since entered
into this world because of our fallen nature, our sin.
God answered what surely was their unspoken question with a promise that transcended the generations for every age to come when He reassured Adam
and Eve that one day He would send a Saviour who would destroy the power of sin, death, and the devil - the fundamental sources of all human suffering. Ultimately this brokenness did lead to blessing, and their
suffering did lead to glory when Jesus Christ, their descendant in the flesh, came to redeem mankind from sin and reconcile the world to God.
Looking back over that tragedy, our confident conclusion
should be that God allowed the storms of suffering to increase and intensify because He wanted me to soar higher in our relationship with Him.
Faith that triumphantly soars is possible only when the
winds of life are contrary to personal comfort. That kind of faith is His ultimate purpose in allowing us to encounter storms of suffering.
Jesus taught us this lesson of triumphant faith in the little
town of Bethany in the days that immediately preceded the history-splitting storm that broke in Jesus' own life at Calvary - a storm that carried Him to the very highest pinnacle of glory and power. In that
small-town setting, Jesus revealed God's answer to our question, "Why did You let this bad thing happen?"
His timeless response to our heartfelt query was given dramatically to Mary, Martha,
and Lazarus - a family living in Bethany, "… it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it" (John 11:4). Ultimately they soared to the very heights of faith on the wings of the storm
that suddenly swept into their lives. Their experience underscores the truth that God's picture for our lives is much bigger than our own. And it reminds us of the challenge to trust His greater, ultimate purpose in
all circumstances. Our unswerving hope in Him should spear us on, no matter what the costs.
In His Service
QWK
|
|
