Can we make it?

After going through a hard time, have you ever had anyone say to you words like "How are you making it?" or "Are you going to make it?" Those questions are meant to be supportive and emphathetic. But the reality is that we really can't make it on our own. Roy Lessin in one of his essays observed the following: "God knew we could never buy our way to Him---the COST was too great. We could never earn our way to Him-- the TASK was too great. We could never will our way to Him--the COMMITMENT was to great. God knew we could never come to Him...SO HE CAME TO US!" Life has been crippled permanently by our sin. We must deal daily with the fall-out of our wayward journey. The pains and wrinkles that creep up on us are constant reminders that we are not making it. The sorrows & set-backs slam us into the reality of helplessness. We curse, twist our hands, slam our fists into the invisible wall of hopeless inevitability The world is falling apart around us to varying degrees everyday and in spite of what the therapists tell us about reaching deep within our being to find solutions, we know that we are not going to make it ultimately. Someone else outside our framework must reach in and pluck us out of our dilemma. Enter...the Christmas story. God coming in Christ to people who could not make it...that's us! Christ came for the express purpose of bringing glory to God by doing His will in the matter of our rescue from sin! We were not making it, and He lifted us up by his own might and power through his death on the cross. Can we make it? Accept the fact you cannot. Only when one comes to Christ can anyone make it! "When we were yet without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly" [Romans 5:6]. Think it through!

Can you escape worry?

Worry really is saying "I don't trust God." It is "sheep that have become suspicious of the Shepherd." Jesus declares in Matthew 6 that you cannot serve [give all your energy to] God and money...or clothes, or food, or drink.... Serving must be an expression of trust. The one to whom you are devoting your time and effort is one that you can rely on implicitly. James M. Boice used to say that when we worry we have allowed ourselves to overlook the way God takes care of the rest of his creation. Jesus says take a look at the birds or the length of the hours of your life, or the wild flowers out in the fields. Who takes responsibility for all that transpires in creation? God. Does it make sense that if God created us and saved us that He will not care for us? James Boice also made the following observation: "The future is in God's hands and will be managed perfectly by God whether you worry about it or not." The next time you worry ask yourself...hey, what happened to trust? Just who am I serving? Think it through!

Irrelevant?

When Moses informed God that he could not possibly be the one to confront Pharaoh on the mission of demanding the release of the Israelites, his reasons ranged from "they will not listen to me" to "I am not eloquent...I have [lit] a heavy mouth & a heavy tongue [Exodus 3-4]. It is rather humerous to listen to Moses debate God rather eloquently and then see him advance an argument to God that he was NOT eloquent. In your Bible I would ask you to write the word "irrelevant" next to Exodus 4:10. God's response was that He made Moses mouth and would teach him what to say. The reality was that Moses took too much on himself to believe that his eloquence was the key to the release of Israel from their slavery. It borders on subtle insanity to think that our gifts are the key ingredient to the success of any task or ministry for God. Repeatedly God told Moses throughout his preparatory period that it would be God's hand and God's power and God's sovereignty that would force Pharaoh's hand (Exodus 3:7-8; 3:16-17; 3:19-21; 4:11; 6:1; 6:5-8; 7:1;7:4-5). Moses only had to obey God's commands to deliver the message.
God warned Moses that Pharaoh would not listen (Exodus 7:4). If you were informed that what you would do and say in your ministry to God would not be observed to be successful, the temptation to quit would be overwhelming. It seems Moses wrestled with that...especially when the burdens increased upon his people as a result of the first unsuccessful attempt to secure their release from Pharaoh [Exodus 5]. But back to that "irrelevant" thing. In your Bible I would ask you to write the word "irrelevant" next to Exodus 7:4a. The issue is not whether the outcome is successful. It makes no difference whether Pharaoh listens or not. The issue is...do what God says. That is where we all, as believers, must live! Our productivity and our success lies not in what happens after the fact, but what happens before the fact...obedience to His word... His command. Let that word "irrelevant" resonate in your minds for a while, espeically when you are tempted to trust your own gifts and abilities as those ingredients necessary to make the difference. Think it through!