I’m looking at piles of notes with no time to organize my thoughts. I was under the weather last week and flying out tomorrow.
I’m amazed at the truth that something old can feel so new. That would be Ps 139:17-18 which reads, “How precious also are Thy thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I could count them, they would outnumber the sand. WHEN I AWAKE, I AM STILL WITH THEE”. I love this truth. A picture of God sitting on the edge of the bed waiting for us to wake up. He has planned a day. He eagerly anticipates. He loves our company. He gets us.
Today I read from Mark 5 concerning healings. It is a telling of a woman at her wits end. She had had a hemorrhage for 12 years. She had endured much, had spent all she had, and had grown worse. She’d HAD it. At the end of her rope she acts on her desperation. She has no other hope. She has exhausted all other possibilities. She has a case of the “D’s” – desperate, discouraged, and despondent. The only answer is always Jesus. She figured it out. How desperate, discouraged, and despondent are we? I lost a friend two days ago. Jesus comes for us in our sickness and walks us to the end. Healing is a possibility but even the healed paralytic died, eventually. Go for every healing that can relieve desperation, discouragement, and despondency. Trust Him always. We need Thee every hour. Hope is here.
I heard a phrase this week that may be common to you but new to me…”gospel deprived”. As we look at missions statistics, about the growth of the good news around the world, this is a good description. I have a relative who, I suspect, does not believe in God. I don’t know her story nor does she necessarily know the details of my life. I do know that her home might have been as complicated as mine but she did go to church. She learned the account of Jesus’ birth, life, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension. If we have heard, we are not gospel deprived. If billions of people are gospel deprived, I am concerned for the unbelievers but they know – they have a chance. They may not fully understand the gospel but they know enough to pursue truth. Pray passionately for them too then dance on and worship the one, true, God because now you know and follow Jesus. I am not deprived.
Is loyalty the cousin of love? I read the pencil scribbled notes in my father’s Bible made by my mother. She bought a Bible for him and his name is on it but the only thing I ever saw him read was the newspaper. He subscribed to two, the Los Angeles Times and the Daily Breeze. He studied both cover to cover. It took him most of the evening and must have been his relax-time after work and dinner. The paper was on his lap even as he napped with the tv on in the background. I’m wondering if this is why he was one of the most interesting men of his time, because he could discuss anything with anyone. Is that loyalty or love? I have no idea but in my mom’s notes she listed the different loves referenced in the Bible; eros, philia, agape, storge, and phileo. Eros is physical love. philia is brotherly love. Agape is divine love. Storge is natural affection or the love of family. Phileo is an emotional love based on qualities we find in another that we admire or find attractive. They are all mixed up in our relationships with our people, the ones we know and others we know about. Only agape love is pure as a holy God and sacrificial as in the case of Jesus dying for our sins. We sacrifice (or give up self) for others. That brings me to loyalty. John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, full of grace and truth, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (my version). If loyalty was practiced by God then we should practice it in all our relationships. There would be fewer divorces, fractures, and broken things. I’m a fan of the unique nature of God’s agape love and am grateful for His redeeming sacrifice and loyalty to me and you.
Ps 37:5 reads, “Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, and He will do it”. I looked at other rich translations and it sounds broader than isolating this one verse. We need to search for the harmony that the one true God has knit into his uniform message. Other meanings suggest God will act, God will help, God will take care of you, and God worketh. The meaning that speaks to me this day is God will see me through. The way I’m going needs to be His good way (direction). I can also take my hands off the wheel. The outcome is His on my behalf. He will see me through. He will see you through.
Last thought for the day is from 2 Cor 5:11. Evangelism is not showing our good works. Expecting that man, who does not yet love Jesus, to change his tv habits is not evangelism. The bi-sexual friend has no reason to address a change of life-style until she loves Jesus. The downer-debbie is low and talks low until she loves Jesus. The way we dress, our work, our relationships, our habits, in the world are fine for the world. Faith takes us out of the physical realm into God’s spiritual realm and it all looks different after that. Good for you being a faithful married person who does not steal and kill. Those action choices are the result of Jesus life-over. We are changing but the changes are not evangelism. “Therefore knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest to God; and I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciences”. If we lift Jesus up, He will draw all men unto Him. It is not my good works (filthy rags) compared to who God is and what He has done.
