O Me of Little Faith

Right now in our Home fellowship group, we are studying through the gospel of John.  We just got through the beginning of chapter 11 where Jesus raises Lazarus.
 One thing that stood out to me was in verses 5 and 6 it says, "Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when He heard that he was sick, He then stayed two days longer in the place where He was."
At first glance, I would think if Jesus loved them so much, then why did he not go right away to heal Lazarus?!  He actually delayed His coming instead.
 The first reason for His delay is that He loved them.  I think of this as kind of a "tough love". When we are going through great trials, and we cry out to God to rescue us out of it and plead with Him to take it away, sometimes He allows it to keep going and even get worse.  This is because of His great love for us and seeing the bigger picture, that it will strengthen our faith in Him and bring us closer to Him.  If He would have stopped the trial when we wanted it to end, our faith may not have grown as much and we would have missed out on the blessing of being closer to Christ.  Just look back and think on past trials you have gone through and how much closer you are to the Lord because of it.  Our faith also is greatly increased by those trials, as you can now say, "He's been faithful to me before, He will be faithful again".
 Another reason Christ delayed His coming to Mary, Martha, and Lazarus is found in vs. 4: "He said, "This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it." Everything is ultimately for His glory! So as the storms of this life come crashing in, may we remember that He is sovereign over it all, even down to the smallest detail and He may delay the end of our sufferings for now, but in His perfect time He will command the winds and the waves, "Hush, be still."

Our good, His glory

Romans 8:28 is a verse that most of us are familiar with: "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." John Macarthur comments on this: "In His providence, God orchestrates every event in life - even suffering, temptation, and sin - to accomplish both our temporal and eternal benefit." I just think of how kind, gracious, and merciful God is to not only forgive us, but then allow our sin that we did somehow workout for our good. That's amazing to me! Other times, when we are suffering, or going through major trials, this is the one of His promises I claim; knowing that God causes ALL things to work together for good. Even when it seems as if there is no possible good that can come out of it! I can testify to this that it is true. There have been times when I want to ask God, Why? Why is this happening? I think about this promise that He gives to those who love Him- He will work all things together for good!

Been 3 months, guess I'm due to Blog

Hi everyone, I can't believe that it's been 3 months since I've blogged. Glad to say, that since then I feel like God has been working in my life greatly and has been refining me to make me more like Christ. I have grown to love my Savior more and my eyes have been opened wider to His great love He has for me. He is a gracious, merciful, long-suffering, compassionate God, who is Sovereign over everything. I thank God that I am not in control of my life, that He is! Who better to control my life than the God of the universe? He has no beginning and no end, Lord of the Heavens and the earth. I am forever grateful that He doesn't deal with me as He should, that He removes my sins from me as far as the east is from the west. The Love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell, so I could go on forever to write about His mercies that are new every morning!

To be Worthy, or Not to be Worthy? That is the question!

Recently I came across a picture on the internet that said "I am worthy of God's love". Now if the Holy Spirit lives in you, immediately He will testify with your spirit that the statement is entirely false! The apostle John tells us in 1 John 2:20-21 that 'you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things...and no lie is of the truth.' He goes on in chapter 4 to say, 'Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God'. It is so easy to read something and not really think about what it says and just assume that it is from God, but Satan is busy and his goal is to distort and deny God's word, as it has been from the beginning (Genesis 3:1-5). Now this was even more disturbing to read this because it was posted by someone who professes to follow Christ and even says they are called into the ministry of teaching and preaching! Even though I knew in my heart it was not right theology, I wanted to search God's word and see for myself.
First of all, what does it mean to be worthy? To be "worthy" means to have worth, merit, value; to be honorable and admirable; to be deserving or due reward. We are all sinners and not one of us has anything of value, honor or is there anything admirable about us! Above all, we are not deserving of God's love - we are deserving of His wrath, and eternal separation from a Holy God. Only because of His love and mercy are we able to have peace with Him through His Son Jesus Christ. He is worthy to be loved - not us. He loves us not because we are worthy, but because it is His nature as a Holy, merciful, loving, compassionate God. He is love- if He stopped loving us He wouldn't be who He is (1 John 4:8). So in saying that, there is nothing lovely about us, the only reason He loves us is because God is love.
I also studied the word "righteous" because this person was using the word worthy along with righteous as if they meant the same thing. I found out they are completely different. Righteous means to meet the standards of what is right and just- God's holy standards; to be guiltless. We are declared righteous through Christ's death on the cross and ressurrection and our faith in Him- and in this God's love was graciously and abundantly poured out on us while we were still His enemies and dead in our sins(Ephesians 2:4-5)! Now we can approach His throne in confidence through Christ alone. God looks at the righteousness of Christ that has been charged to our account and now we are covered in His righteousness!
In conclusion, we are not now, nor ever will be "worthy" of His love, although He will always love us. Only He is worthy of our love, honor, admiration, and praise which He will receive for eternity (Revelation 5:12). If you are declared righteous by faith through Christ you will eternally be singing "Worthy is the Lamb!" to the Triune God in Heaven.