His ways are not our ways…

Emotional shock seldom happens to me but this state of mind is present today to the point that I’m having trouble concentrating or responding to anything. Yesterday we were informed by the husband of a friend we have known and prayed with often had a mild heart attack. Her blood pressure was over 250. She is a dozen years younger than I am and very health conscious. I am stunned.

Prayer for her is difficult, likely because I prayed earlier this week that God would work in her life. Something is needed, do not know what, but asked God in one of those ‘whatever it takes’ prayers to expose and deal with it. I asked that His perfect will be done in her life. Within hours of that request, she was admitted to hospital.

I don’t believe in coincidences, only in the power and wisdom of God, yet this was another surprise that came unexpected and makes me feel extreme angst for her and somewhat distressed about how I prayed.

After looking at several thoughts from varying devotionals, I found this one that reminded me whenever God revealed Himself in some way to humankind in the Old Testament, terror and amazement were the reactions. People saw themselves as guilty and unclean by comparison! This is making me feel some of that. While deeply concerned for my friend’s health and survival, praying like I did and having this happen as soon as… it is seeing God in an unexpected way.

The reading also reminded me of the Book of Revelation, and how the apostle John describes the overwhelming nature of his encounter with the Lord of glory. Although a believer and an apostle, John sank down in humility and fear when the risen, glorified Lord Jesus appeared before him on Patmos. I also relate to this and feel numb and on my face.

This reading reminds me that Jesus seen in His glory did not condemn John in his weakness because it was his reaction to revealed divine strength. This man’s sense of unworthiness was the instant reaction to absolute holiness. I also related to this because when I prayed as I did and this happened so quickly after, my understanding of God’s will did not call this a satanic attack but something the Lord was allowing for His purposes. I don’t know what He is doing yet could not dismiss His will being involved. I’ve been tested too often by sudden and difficult ‘surprises’ to think otherwise.

Again, God is reminding me that every redeemed human being needs the humility of spirit that can only be brought about by the manifest presence of God. Jesus at once reassured John, stooping to place a nail-pierced hand on the prostrate apostle:

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.” (Revelation 1:17–18)

God is in charge of life and death, of all that happens to His people. This is obvious for my friend and me also. I don’t know what she is thinking, but I am thinking of the power of Jesus and of His wisdom, even His timing. It may not be her that is in the classroom of Jesus; it might be only me.

PRAY: Right now Jesus, I don’t know how to pray. But I will go to prayer and release my will to say that Your will be done, and that no matter how this turns out, I can glorify You and praise Your name. Amen.

Paid in Full!

 

CANCEL = to erase v. — to remove by or as if by rubbing or wiping off, to cause something to cease by obliterating any evidence, eliminate, do away with, wipe out, abolish.

At one point in our lives we had two mortgages. One was on our current residence and the other on a new house we were building. That debt was scary — at least until we moved into the house and sold the condo. Years later, that second mortgage was also paid and we will never forget the feeling of being debt-free.

How much greater the joy of knowing that my debt of guilt for sin has also been paid, obliterated, abolished.

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. (Colossians 2:13–14)

This CANCEL word is translated several ways. Acts 3:19-20 says, “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord . . . .” Revelation 3:5 also uses the same term: “The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.” (Revelation 3:5)

Revelation 7:17 and 21:4 refer to God wiping away every tear from the eyes of those who join Him in eternity. As wonderful as that is, the vital truth is that God wipes out the record of our debts which were against us. When Jesus said, “It is finished” He may as well have said, “Sin’s debt is paid in full!”

This morning the news came to me that a dear friend’s husband died of Covid. He believed in Jesus and had his debt of sin wiped clean. The Bible says:

God saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, (2 Timothy 1:9–10)

Yet people still die, at least physically. A commentator answers this by saying: “The fear of death as having power to terminate or affect our personal existence and our union with God, as a dreadful stepping out into the unknown and unknowable and as introducing us to a final and irreversible judgment, has been removed.” Hurray!

Christ has abolished the sting of death and destroyed the devil who has the power of death. His resurrection defeated that foe taken death’s sting away by blotting out all its hurtful power. Death is under His control: “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.” (Revelation 1:17–18)

“The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” (1 Corinthians 15:26) Jesus ‘inactivated’ death and brought to light the incorruptible life beyond physical death, eternal life with Him! This comforts me — my friend who died is now with Jesus and more alive than he ever was!

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. Jesus tells a parable to illustrate the response to knowing He has wiped out and totally cancelled my debt of sin.

“A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?” Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.” And Jesus said to him, “You have judged rightly.” (Luke 7:41–43)

The longer I’ve been a Christian, the more I realize the power and presence of sin and how easily I can fall into running my own life, ignoring God and adding to that debt of sin. Yet it is paid in full! As Jesus says, realizing the size of it and enormity of what Jesus has done for me deepens my love for Him. This is what that should do in my life — just as a paid mortgage frees up funds to be used in other ways, the Lord wants my debt-free life used in other ways — clearly to express my love for Him by obedience and by loving others as He has loved me.

 

“I AM . . . .”

Yesterday, buoyed by a good night’s sleep and rich anticipation, we spent the day with a distant cousin and his wife, the second time I’d seen him as an adult. We had a wonderful day filled with conversation without ceasing or awkwardness, as if we’ve known one another our entire lives.

They are not Christian, yet a similar upbringing made for a unity that would normally not be present. We were in harmony even on the things we didn’t agree. I have to say much of this happened because of who my cousin is — a kind, engaging, objective, and transparent person.

Chambers writes today about my relationship with Jesus Christ, a relationship of the greatest intimacy. He says there are times when God cannot reveal Himself any other way but in majesty, which has the effect of putting us on our faces. John wrote in the last book of the New Testament . . .

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.” (Revelation 1:17–18)

John knew Jesus well, but this was different. Jesus appeared in incredible glory and the apostle fell before Him, unable to rise apart from the right hand of the Lord and hearing the words of who He is and His power over death.

This made me remember the times where life’s awfulness brought me to the feet of Jesus. I fell on my face, not because He initially appeared in glory, but because my needs were so overwhelming. The similarity was the hand of the Lord, His touch. It was not to hold me down or correct me, but to bring peace and comfort, to drive away the terrors. As with John, He says, “Fear not, I am . . . .”

In John’s case the “I am” was about the power of Christ over death. No matter what he saw in the revelations to come, John had that assurance that Jesus Christ was in charge of death and the grave. These do not mean the end simply because Jesus conquered both.

In my case, the “I am” utterances that He makes declare realities that sustain me in the dark and troublesome trials of life. Here are some of them . . .

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. (Matthew 11:29)

When I work yoked alongside Jesus and learn from Him, whatever hardship and toil is happening do not have the same effect on me as they once did. Jesus makes a difference, even when the challenges remain.

 . . . And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. (Matthew 28:20)

I never need to ask Jesus to, be with me. He is always here, always holding my hand.

For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves. (Luke 22:27)

This is the Son of God speaking! He came not to be served, but to serve His people in humility. He calls me to a lofty position as His child, a saved and set-apart person, yet to be like Jesus, I am to serve others!

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. (John 6:35) . . . . “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12)

Both these verses give promises of satisfaction in life, of having what is needed when feeling empty and in the dark. So many times, Jesus has said to me, “Fear not, I am what you need.”

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:5)

Jesus is my source of life. I could say more, yet He says it all. Apart from Him, I can do nothing, for He is what I need and all I need.

Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

Some say Christians are narrow-minded or other less polite names because we claim Jesus is the only way to God. They say there are many ways, but if that is true, then Jesus is either a lunatic or a liar — but all evidence declares His integrity; He speaks and lives truth. While His claim is offensive to many and wholly dogmatic, He said it — not that He is a way, a truth, a life, but the way, the truth, the life. He has forgiven my sin and taken my hand so that I can stand before His father and my Father with joy.