"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort...." (2 Corinthians 1: 3, ESV)
When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
"The...God of all comfort"----- I have found this true.
I still vividly remember that dark, lonely, utterly depressed summer of 1970. I remember there was no hope, no joy, no desire to go on-------- yet all came. It came by the Ever-Present One, the Living Triune God, revealed in His Wondrous Word, Jesus Christ, and, "everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD." His standing in front of me that day was more real than my life, more real than the air I breath. Of course He was in me; this is the great truth of the Gospel. But in that time I needed Him "in front of me," a sort of out-of-me experience. I don't know exactly why. Perhaps I needed to see that no matter what happens in a Believer's life, no matter what direction I was about to take, Jesus Christ is always there, whether I would have embraced Him as the indwelling, resurrected Christ, or rejected Him. Father, Son Jesus, Holy Spirit, "the...God of all comfort"-- always, for all times, for all people-------- for me.
Now our text is not true because I have found it so; it is true because His Word declares it such. Intrinsic in the power of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, however, is the testimony throughout the centuries of the People of God. The literal rendering of Revelation 12:11 is, "They overcame him by the Blood of the Lamb and the Word to which they bore witness." There is an overcoming power in the testimony of those, "who follow the Lamb (Jesus) wherever He goes." I pass on that "power" each day------------- and my prayer is that you will pass on your "version" of That Power, "the Blood of the Lamb, Jesus," and, "the Word to which [you bear] witness."
Father, Oh, Father, in Jesus' Name, I confess I know not what I would have done, or would even do today without You, "The...God of all comfort." Amen.
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When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
"Looking unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2
