Maybe It's Just, "Past Finding Out"

"My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth....He who watches over you will...neither slumber nor sleep. (Psalm 121-- NIV)

 

The historic (and no less, even as I write) struggles of the Jews have been a wonder to many.  As a Jew in a German concentration camp said, "Maybe we just didn't deserve it."  Read the rest of the psalm, even all the promises in the Scriptures, then look at the history of the Jews, and you could wonder if the old Jew was right.  Some have conjectured other possibilities.  (1). "The LORD" does not keep his promises.  (2). The Jews did not keep Covenant.  But there is another which very few ever consider----There just may be something about the purposes of the Living Triune God of which we know very little.

 

Why the suffering?  Why the murder of the millions, the robbing and pillaging of their land, the diaspora among the nations, the untold suffering?  I just don't know.  There are ample numbers of those "experts" who will give you the "final word" on this, and, just about anything else.  But there is a "mystery" of suffering in the Scriptures.  It was the "sorrowful passion" of Jesus which bought us "joy unspeakable," the New Birth, deliverance from sin, sonship for you and me.  "For it was fitting for Him,..in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." 

 

Job's friends believed that all suffering was judgment on the sin of the sufferer.  Most, deep down, believe that to this day.  There is no doubt that the rebellion in the Garden led to suffering humanity, a very bad thing.  But it was the suffering of Jesus which led to our "glory," a very good thing. Biblically there can be glory after suffering.  This Biblical Principle is set forth in our Lord Jesus' statement about his own mission.  "The truth is, a kernel of wheat must be planted in the soil.  Unless it dies it will be alone-- a single seed.  But its death will produce many new kernels-- a plentiful harvest of new lives."  Church History is full of "a plentiful harvest of new lives" coming from the ashes of the martyrs. 

 

Generations have come and gone in Covenant History, living, depending, trusting, "My help comes from the LORD the Maker of heaven and earth," and this in the face of all contradictory evidence.  Yet to the chagrin of the haters of "the LORD," Jesus Christ, the Jews and we are still here.  The Jews are back in The Land; the Church is still experiencing "a plentiful harvest of new lives" in the earth.  Rejoice, dear Believer; our help, our deliverance, our preservation does indeed come "from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth."  And though at times it may not seem so, "Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken (Auschwitz, Dachau, Buchenwald, Islam, totalitarianism notwithstanding) but endures forever.  As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds his people both now and forevermore." 

 

No matter what we may encounter, no matter the suffering, the questions, even at times the confusion, because we are surrendered to "the Maker of heaven and earth," you and I are a part of the, "forevermore," people.

 

Father, in Jesus' Name, I say with Paul, "Oh, what a wonderful God we have!  How great are his riches and wisdom and knowledge!  How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his methods!... For everything comes from [You]; everything exists by [Your] power and is intended for [Your] glory.  To [You] be glory evermore."  Amen. 

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"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2

The Choice: "Resurrection of Life...Resurrection of Damnation"

"Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment." (NASB)-- "they that have done good unto resurrection of life, they that have done evil unto resurrection of damnation." (Interlinear Bible)  (John 5:28, 29)

 

Evangelicals don't know what to do with these verses and those like them, because they base their whole salvation "experience" on grace and faith and marginalize obedience.  The "God-Breathed" Word says, "Not so."  If the grace and faith people would just acknowledge that grace and faith only "work" in obedience ("they that have done good"), they would have no problem with any such passages.

 

According to our text, I will be judged by what I "have done," not by what I have just said or thought.  Since the Reformation, words have tended to replace works.  "Just repeat after me."  Finney once said that if you have to tell a sinner what to say to God, he probably hasn't met God in true conviction and repentance, viz, "changing your minds for the better, heartily amend your ways, with abhorrence of your past sins." (A.B.)  Once a person receives revelation of his sin and Who Jesus Christ is, you won't have to tell him what to say.  Grief, sorrow, repentance, love, and worship will flow.  "Do not err, my beloved brethren."  Biblical repentance is not just a change of mind.  It is a change of life style!  John the Baptist said, "Bring for fruit that is consistent with repentance [let your lives prove your change of heart]...."  He did not lead his questioners in a prayer of repentance.  He led them in deeds of repentance.

 

Our salvation, our relationship in the Living Triune God in Jesus Christ is indeed, "not of works, lest anyone should boast."  But, "we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."  So, "walk in them," and you will rise in Him.  "To which end we also pray always for you, that our God may count you worthy of your calling, and fulfil every desire of goodness and (every) work of faith, with power; that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ."  Amen.

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"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2

"Those Who Hear Will Live"

"I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live." (John 5:25-- NIV) 

 

I will hear His Voice in death because I heard His Voice in life.  It is the "Voice" of Jesus Christ which raises from the dead, the "Voice" which rang from Calvary, "It is finished."  And, it will be the Voice of Jesus which will say to you and me, "It is time!"  The preciousness of His Voice, which broke the chains of sin and darkness in this life, will be the preciousness of His "Voice" when he delivers these mortal bodies, either from the grave, or, at His Second coming.  "For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a loud summons, with the shout (voice) of an archangel, and with the blast of the trumpet of God.  And those who have departed this life in Christ will rise first." (Amplified Bible)

 

For me, it is not an "audible" voice now.  It is the same Voice heard by, "His angels, mighty in strength, who perform His word, obeying the voice of His word."  There is no separation between His Word and His Voice.  Could this be the reason the Jews in the first century could not recognize His Voice?  "Why do ye not understand my speech?  (Even) because ye cannot hear my word." 

 

Because we have been full of His Word now, we will recognize and respond to His Word/Voice "in that Day."  When we first "heard" His "Voice," it was not the end.  It was only the beginning.  

 

Father, in Jesus' Name, grant me the grace to hear Your Voice "in the power of Your Word" now, so that Your Voice will be familiar then.  Amen.

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"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2