ARE YOU DISTRAUGHT?

"I have been afflicted and ready to die from my youth; I suffer Your terrors; I am distraught."  (Psalm 88:15)

This is a most sad utterance.  Now maybe you cannot identify with the first part of today's text, but many can identify with, "I am distraught."  I feel bad when I hear that word describing a person's state.  

Here are some synonyms for the word: "agitated, anxious, confused, distressed, tormented."  Yet somehow for me the word, "distraught," is the most sad.  One site says, "If someone is distraught, they are so upset and worried that they cannot think clearly."  They are in, "mental conflict or pain."  

The Latin word means, "pulled apart."  Sorry if I labored this, but I can't help but think of people whom I have known over the years who were in such a state.  What comes to me today is our King and Savior Jesus Christ saying His Words of Matthew 11, "'Come to Me, all you who labor and are heaven laden (distraught), and I will give you rest....You will find rest for your souls', in Me alone." 

Father, in Jesus' Name, I pray now for any who are reading this who are distraught.  Only You can deal with this.  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 VOICE OF OUR SHEPHERD

"Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers."  (John 10:5)

During my first year in seminary, a professor mentioned, "The Gospel According Nicodemus."  I remember going to the library stacks after class to look up the book; I found it.  After a few pages, I remember thinking, "Something's wrong here."  

It was not the Shepherd's Voice.  The professor may have said that it was a gnostic work, but I apparently had not heard that.   I just remember thinking how neat it would be to read something which Nicodemus wrote.

As you and I daily surrender our lives to Jesus Christ, we have His very Being and voice in our very beings.  May we trust His voice at all times, viz., the "witness" in the Holy Spirit, and equally, or perhaps mostly, keep Jesus' Words (the Bible) as "the Master's Voice."

Father, in Jesus' Name, I thank You for Your Voice in Your, "God-Breathed," Words, the Scriptures.  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"To 

"....BUT CHRIST LIVES IN ME"

"I have been crucified together with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave himself for me."  (Galatians 2:20)

Notice that the, "I," in the, "it is no longer I who live," is not eliminated.  The, "I," is just united (participating) " in the, "....but Christ lives in me."  Blessed salvation.

Father, in Jesus' Name, thank You that my new life in Christ is, "....Christ lives in me."  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

SO YOU WISH TO BE IMMOVABLE?

"On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations.  All who try to move it will injure themselves."  (Zechariah 12:3, NIV)

Now this may not seem as an appropriate exegesis of our text, but humanity throughout history has learned this lesson about life: "All who try to move it will injure themselves."

While our text speaks of Jerusalem as, "....an immovable rock for all the nations", it also describes us attempting to move through life out of Jesus Christ.  Life in Jesus does not attempt to move the Rock, but rather submits to and follows, "....that Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. 

I can say with absolute Biblical certainty that any life in Jesus Christ is also an, "immovable rock."

Father, in Jesus' Name, thank You that I am "immovable" in You.  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