"Where Were You When I"--- (God)

"Does the eagle mount up at your command, and make its nest on high?"  (Job 39:27)

This is a classic "rhetorical question."

Of course it does not.  Neither does life, "mount up at your command," nor mine.  I come back to that great one-liner of Bob Mumford.  "You can control the Church, but you can't control the Kingdom."  This was another way of saying that most of life is outside our ability to control, though this is the effort of every human since the Garden.  We know better; we can do it better.  It is Tony Bennett's, "If I Ruled the World."  Well, frankly I'm glad we don't!

Job's theologian contemporaries just could not understand what was going on around and with them, though they spoke with absolute authority, at least in their minds.  WHY? was the great question.  Though they spent a lot of time in debate, they came up with nothing.  At the close of the Book, "The Word of God," came to them and rebuked everything they said.  Religion for far too many is one great big problem-solver, answers to all questions.  This is a fundamental issue in the Book of Job.  Jesus does not give us "answers."  The great gift of God our Father to us is Himself in Jesus Christ.  In Jesus, the Blessed Trinity took and banished our sins, "in His own Body on the cross."  And when we surrendered to Jesus, our names were written in, "the Book of Life."  Again, as the old hymn says, "It is enough that Jesus died, and that He died for me."  
 
When some over the years have heard of the passing of our son, they asked, "But why?"  Perhaps I never got "hung-up" with that question because Jesus' healing process for me after Stephen died was to take me through the, "God-Breathed," Words, aka, the Bible, in just a few weeks.  As I reflect this morning, I realize that what our Lord Jesus Christ was "saying" to me was/is, "My Words are what you need to keep going on in life.  I am, 'the Strength of [your] life,' not answers.  As I have told you, 'The Words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.'" 

Father, in Jesus' Name, again, all I can say now is, Thank You!  Amen.
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Sarah and I will be out of state from tomorrow until May 29.

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.'"

Hebrews 12:2

"Into Their Mind And...Upon Their Hearts" GLORIOUS

"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel...: I will put My laws into their mind and write them upon their hearts...."  (Hebrews 8:10)

Every promise, covenant in the Bible is fulfilled in Jesus Christ.  Jesus Himself teaches us that the Law, the Psalms, the Prophets all speak of Jesus Christ Himself (Luke 24). 

The Living Triune God of the Universe was shrouded in mystery until Jesus appeared.  The speculations about God, the theories, theologies, however, were put to rest in the appearing of Jesus.  I share the verse which I have shared many times before in 1 Peter 1:21, "Through Him," Jesus, [we] believe in God...."  It is not through our ideas, philosophies, speculations about God, some church denominational "articles of faith."  It is only in Jesus Christ can one, "believe in God."  Attempt any other "way," and one ends in a hopeless mire.

Our text tells us something which is difficult to comprehend.  "The Word of God," Himself, Jesus, has a purpose for all humanity, for all who will surrender their hearts to Him.  In our text, "The Word of God," is telling us something of a miracle which is beyond my ability to comprehend, "I will put My laws," viz., all the, "Words of God," viz., the Bible, "into their mind and upon their hearts."  This perhaps puts a new perspective on the phrase, "receive Jesus into your heart" (John 1:12). 

All Our Heavenly Father has for a lost race, the race expelled from The Garden, all the commands, the promises, the "guide for living," are literally written, "into [our] mind and upon [our] hearts," when we say to Jesus, "Come into my heart." 

Father, in Jesus' Name, I cannot thank You enough for doing things in me which I cannot think possible.  I pray that my life will manifest to all that Your Words are, "into their mind and upon their hearts."  Amen.

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.'"

Hebrews 12:2

The Unanswerable

"And [Jesus] began to teach them....Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him."  (From Mark 8:31, 32)

Peter found himself in the age-old attempt to tell the Living Triune God that there is a better way to do this.

We read so many times in Scripture that the Living Triune God does things which humanity just can't figure out, e.g., choosing the younger before the older (which was the accepted "norm"), telling Gideon that he had too many men, when Gideon was already out-numbered, telling Moses that all he needed to defeat the Egyptian Army was the staff he had been carrying around for 40 years, or one solitary figure standing outside the "white house" of the Media-Persian Capitol, and by the perception, faith/obedience of that one man, delivered the whole Jewish People Group, or take the Family of Jacob into Egypt, where they would be enslaved for over 400 years, in order to make them a family of several millions.  Then there are all of those wars, battles, and finding a prostitute in the genealogy of the, "Coming One," Jesus.  Most of humanity's response to the Bible is, "Say what?"

I have said this before as an encouragement to any who persist in attempting to understand those, "ways," which, "are past finding out," to give it up.  Questions just lead to more questions.  "The Bible Answer Man," notwithstanding, most of the questions for which humanity demands answers, are unanswerable, unexplainable.  Concerning the "main thing" which you and I need to know, Paul wrote to the Corinthian Church, "For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures...."

Let, "according to the Scriptures," be our continual guide today, tomorrow, and for the remaining days which we have in this present life.  Events will continue to occur in our lives and on the global scene which will bring a certain consternation.  You and I need to do what Peter did not do in our text.  When our Lord Jesus tells us something, which is the "definition" of the Bible, then we do not go to "Mars Hill" to get the answer.  We look to Jesus, allowing the Holy Spirit to fulfill in us what our Lord Jesus spoke in the so-called Great Commission, "....teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you."

Father, in Jesus' Name, I repent of any time I may have "taken You aside," thinking I had a better idea.  Amen.

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.'"

Hebrews 12:2