“That! How?”

    While born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ base our lives on inviolable principles of Truth, we nevertheless understand that the Holy Spirit personally applies these principles to meet the particulars of differing people and circumstances.

     The Apostle Peter, for example, may be quickly freed from prison in accordance with the Biblical assurance, “He delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked” (Acts 12:7-9; Psalm 97:10).  Conversely, the Apostle Paul may be allowed to seemingly languish in prison, but nevertheless experience such peace in God’s providence that perhaps even a great deliverance is known: “I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content” (Philippians 4:11).  Indeed, we might ask, which is the greater provision, deliverance from prison, or deliverance in prison?

    That our Lord fulfills His promises is beyond question.  How He fulfills His promises is beyond understanding, encompassing ways and means as vast as the wisdom of God.  As with Paul, some difficult and binding experiences actually result from fulfilled assurances and answered prayers.  Our calling involves the faith that believes God is working, whether or not we understand His ways.  We trust His heart even when we cannot fathom His hand. 

    “As for God, His way is perfect” declared David (II Samuel 22:31).  “Perfect.”  Not good, or very good.  Not great, or very great.  Perfect.  Herein we rest our souls in times of both understanding and bewilderment.  Moreover, herein God is glorified by trusting children as they run free from prison, or as they live free in prison.  Our Lord is that wise, that present, that active, and that loving on our behalf.  Yes, herein we rest our souls.

“I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

(Philippians 4:12-13)

"Ringrunners"

(A repeat from last year.  I recently witnessed again the young men referenced in this essay, who continue to “run rings” around their fellow employees.)

                                           
    I recently spoke with the manager of a local grocery store we frequent. He mentioned that his district manager had been at the store recently, and questioned him about several handicapped young men working there. The district manager seemed to feel that the boys could be a liability. I loved the manager's response: "Are you kidding?  They're the best workers I have, and run rings around everybody here!"

    God's economy and our own are often quite different.

     "But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: that no flesh should glory in His presence" (I Corinthians 1:27:30).

    Born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ increasingly discover that supposed earthly "handicaps" are actually advantages regarding things that really matter. Weaknesses are the vessels of strength.  Losses are gains. Trials are prelude to triumph. Problems are opportunities.  Pain, in its myriad of forms, is our friend.  Moreover, tears lead to our sensing the comforting touch of the hand of God upon our troubled faces. Indeed, as we trust and submit unto Him in our difficulties, the Lord Jesus is known in ways we could never otherwise experience.

   Human beings do not naturally think well regarding things that matter. The world, the devil and the flesh skew our perceptions, causing us to maximize the minimum, emphasis the inconsequential, and exalt the unimportant.  Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ begins the renewing of our minds whereby we increasingly learn to rightly prioritize our perceptions, based on the Bible's evaluation of the things that matter.  Who would have thought that a baby born in a feeding trough would become the Lord sitting upon the throne of Heaven at the right hand of God?  Certainly, no uninformed observer who witnessed the birth of the Lord Jesus would have suspected that God manifest in the flesh lay in such meager circumstances. Nevertheless, the Baby would live, die and rise again to eternally rule as the God who is man and the man who is God.

     Such sublime wonder should tell us that "My thoughts are not your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:8). They should tell us also that like those young men at the store, our "handicaps" are actually opportunities, and concerning the things that most matter, will "run rings" around the supposed strengths of our lives.

"And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me."
(II Corinthians 12:9)

“We” Part 3

    The present and eternal presence of God, so freely given to us through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, required of Him a price beyond any measure we will ever know.

    

   “Now o Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was” (John 17:5).

   “Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave Me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me” (John 16:32).

     “My God, My God why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46).

    Only one perfect relationship has ever existed in either time or eternity, namely, the bond between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit we refer to as the Trinity.  From everlasting, the Father loved the Son, the Son responded in love, and the Holy Spirit enjoyed and returned the mutual love of Both.  The Apostle Paul referred to the love of God as “the bond of perfectness,” a completeness of devotion for which we presently have no frame of reference (Colossians 3:14). 

    On the cross of Calvary, this bond was broken as the Lamb of God was “smitten” and “forsaken” by the Father who so loves Him (Isaiah 53:4).  “The Father is with Me” declared the Lord Jesus just before the cross, referencing a reality that was true in both time and “before the world was.”  Soon thereafter, however, the most anguished cry of history would resound in darkness, pain and the judgment of God’s wrath against sin.  “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?!”  The bond was broken, the Son abandoned, and the Father and the Holy Spirit left our Savior to die alone as our sin-bearer. 

    “Why art Thou so far from helping Me, and from the words of My roaring?  O my God, I cry in the daytime, but Thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent” (Psalm 22:1-2). 

    Alone.  The “We” forever known by the Lord Jesus became the “me” of an utterly forsaken sorrow of heart.  He did this in order that those who trust Him might be delivered from our lonely “me” to the blessedness of living relationship with God, of “we.”  Yes, to the degree the Lord Jesus was alone and forsaken on the cross, God’s trusting children will be forever accepted and united to Him.  He is with us always because a terrible, inexplicable breach took place in the heart of God.  Scripture does not attempt to explain the agony of such a horror in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.   We can simply know that it took place, allowing our hearts to be moved all the more because we so greatly benefit from that which we cannot understand.

     Again, to the degree the Lord Jesus was alone and forsaken on the cross, we who believe will forever live with our God.   Him we will forever be a “we.” 

“I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.”

(Hebrews 13:5)