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."

"But in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving..."

As Thanksgiving rolls around once again, I think of all the answered prayer over the past years and how thankful I should be. Not only have I been given new life in and through Jesus Christ, but He continues to hear the cries of my needy soul. Here is a compilation of some writings of Charles Spurgeon on the subject of prayer:

“Whenever we are on our knees in prayer, it becomes us to bless God that our prayer has been answered so many times before. Why, many of the mercies that you possess today and rejoice in are answers to prayer. They are dear to you because, like Samuel whom his mother so named because he was “asked of God,” they came to you as answers to your supplications. Nothing pleases God as much as when a sinner comes again with twice as large a petition: saying “Lord, You heard me last time, and now I come again.” 

  Most of us are too slow to go to God. If we have been heard once, we go away instead of coming again and again, and each time with a larger prayer. Make your petitions longer and longer. Ask for ten, and if God gives them, then for a thousand. You and I, the people of God, have a permit, a passport to come before the throne of heaven at any time we desire, and we are encouraged to come there with great boldness. 

 All the petitioner's wants shall be supplied, because it is a throne of grace.

      The throne of grace will look on you, if you cannot look on it, and will give to you, though you have nothing to give in return, and will deliver you, though you cannot raise a finger to deliver yourself. 

 “Pray without ceasing” is a most sweet and precious permit to the believer to pour out his heart at all times before the Lord. The dead of the night is not too late for God; the breaking of the morning, when the first gray light is seen, is not too early for the Most High; at midday He is not too busy; and when the evening gathers, He is not weary with His children's prayers. The Lord continually regards the pleadings of His servants and waits to be gracious to them. He loves to hear the loud outcries of needy souls.   

It is His delight to bestow favors. He is more ready to hear than you are to ask. The Lord says to each one of us: “Before the world began, I chose you. I made the covenant for you. I laid aside My glory and became a man for you; I gave up My life for you; and if I did all this, I will surely help you now.”

It's Good To Be Reminded

On September 8th, about two months ago, my dad called me and gave me the news that he has a tumor on his brain stem. At first, I was in a little shock so it didn't quite hit me right away exactly what that meant. This was a surprise to us, but not to God. He has preordained this to happen before the earth was created, and we know it's only for our good and because of His love for us. This reminded me once again, that this life is so short and we can't waste it on the temporary things of this world. We should live each day as if it were our last and bring glory to Him in every moment we are still here on this earth. As I was washing dishes that night (don't look so surprised, I actually do clean up sometimes), the Lord gave me this song and I'd like to share the lyrics with you.

                                              "Vapor in the Air"

                         This life is but a breath, a vapor in the air 

                                There's only a little time left

                                Before this world is laid to rest. 

                        

                                He has finished the work, for the wage of sin is death 

                                He completely paid our price 

                                Christ gives eternal life.

                               Soon the clouds will be rolled back

                               The Word of God will be the judge

                               From His mouth comes out a sword 

                               The King of Kings and LORD of LORDS 

                               Do you know what's in your heart?

                               Have you surrendered Christ your all? 

                               Because the time is passing fast

                               Only what's done for Christ will last.

                               Have you bowed your knee to Him?

                               Is He your only saving way?

                               Have you acknowledged your own sin?

                               Have you turned to worship Him?

                              For the time to bow is now, don't wait 'til it's too late

                              You only have one life to live 

                              The Lord is ready to forgive.

I'm Baaaaack! ( O How time flies! )

So it looks like the last time I posted on my blog was about two years ago. Wow how time flies! Lots has happened in these last two years. Giovanni was born, we moved (again!); Solomon has been growing, and growing....and growing. The Lord has continued to show His faithfulness to us over and over again. Even when we are faithless, He remains faithful. I rest in that unchanging truth!

It's Not Easy Being A Friend

Throughout our lives all of us will experience different friendships. Some are constant and some get put on hold for awhile and then they reunite again. Some, because of our sin, come to an end completely. Only as a Christian can you truly experience true friendship. The main ingredient to a successful friendship is love, and because God is love, if you are not one of God's children through Christ, you can never truly be a friend to someone. Proverbs 17:17 says "A friend loves at all times." That verse pretty much sums up everything, but if you really want to get into the details you have to dig deeper. In order to love someone at all times involves labor and sacrifice. John 15:12-13 says, "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends." Wow, now that's sacrifice- laying down one's life for their friends! Now we know the One who has done that for us, Jesus Christ. Friendship is a lot of hard work. You can't just be in your own world, do your own thing and wake up one day and expect to have strong friendships without you putting some effort into it. As sinners it is so tempting to just throw in the towel and say "I give up!", but that is not what Christ calls us to do and that's not what He did with us. Friendship also requires loving honesty. Proverbs 27:5-6 says, "Better is open rebuke than love that is concealed. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy." Sometimes being a friend and truly loving someone means having to tell them the truth when no one else will. Yeah it might hurt for a minute, but when you count the cost in the long run it is worth it. Friendship is a two-way street and if you make your life a one-way path, it is going to get pretty lonely. Let us look to Christ as our perfect example of a true friend, the One who laid down His life for us.

Being "Sore" for the Lord

If you know me you know that I love to exercise and get a good workout! The best workouts are when two days later you discover a muscle you didn't even know you had because it is so sore! You worked that muscle so hard and you have evidence of your hard work even days later. To me it's kind of the same with our service to the Lord. When we labor and stretch ourselves for the Lord we feel it! When we give our all to Him in everything we do and don't just keep within our comfort zone our 'muscles' for the Lord become sore; but it's a good sore. I don't know about you, but I like to be sore after a workout. It tells me that I didn't waste my time and that it was well worth it. It also tells me that I stepped out of my comfort zone and really pushed myself. If I don't even get a bit sore the next day I tell myself I need to do a more strenuous workout next time because my body is getting used to that level of activity. It's like that in our Christian life sometimes: If we do just enough to get by or never step out of our comfort zone we will never get "sore". Are you stretching yourself for the Lord? Or are you doing just enough so that you can tell yourself that you are okay? Compared to what Jesus has done for us, our service to Him is just a drop in the bucket. May we workout our 'muscles' for the Lord in our service to Him for His glory. Just like when you need to up your weight during an exercise or maybe do more repititions for another, we need to up our service for Christ. We need to add more weight, more repititions. Let us run the race with endurance, press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.