Every

As I was driving home from work last night, listening to a message by Mike Fabarez (Focal Point Ministries) on 91.5FM. A thought occurred to me that I needed to write down. I did so on a yellow sticky note so I would not forget it. Turns out I came down sick in the middle of the night with a fever, so I must have picked up the flu that is going around my workplace. So I am out of commission from work today, and with the Ibuprofen kicking in for a few minutes, I wanted to put it down here. 

Every:

• Failure in my plans, my hopes or my conduct
• Disappointment
• Unexpected or unplanned expense
• Storm of life
• Aggravation
• Betrayal by a friend, or when I fail someone else
• Faithless act, intended or not
• Time something "bad" happens...

...is an opportunity for me to trust God. And so often, I don't. Or at least I go through a pity-party or a temper-tantrum and it takes me a while to recognize what a fool I am. 

Howard McNear was a talented actor on radio and television. I can pick out his voice in old radio shows like Gunsmoke, and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. He was  hoot on The Andy Griffith Show.

 

When Floyd the Barber looks into the mirror and declares he's a miserable deceitful wretch, its funny. When I fail to trust God when hit with something; God who has proven Himself over and over again as trustworthy & faithful: I end up looking in the mirror of my heart, and say about the same thing. Only its true, and not funny at all. 

Thank God for grace. And that God's mercies to us are new every morning (Lamentations 3:23). Today I get a new chance to do what I know is God's will for me. He tells me in His word:

"In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."  1 Thessalonians 5:18

Those were the thoughts that went through my mind last night, and that is what I wanted to share.
Maranatha - Paul.
 

Dead People Live

I heard Ravi Zacharias recently in an interview on The Rubin Report on YouTube. Dave Rubin had asked him in a roundabout way how he had come to faith in Jesus Christ. I've hear Ravi tell his story before: how he'd tried to commit suicide by poison when he was 17, how that failed, and he lay in a hospital bed. A man brought him a Bible, and the words of Jesus brought him to saving faith. In this particular interview I heard Ravi say the following, and it is so good it bears repeating. He said something like this:

"People think that Jesus Christ came to make bad people good. But that's not true. Jesus Christ did not come to make bad people good; he came to make dead people live."

 He Came To Make Dead People Live!

What an interesting difference! We do get this wrong, and perhaps that is the difference between mere religion and being born from above. This was the portion of scripture that God used to bring Ravi to that place of repentance & faith: 

 "Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also." 

John 14:19

Mary had an interesting comment: this must be a reference to both the spiritual life we receive when we are born-again by faith in Jesus, as well as the promise that we have of receiving a new physical, eternal body some day in the future; one that will not get sick, grow old, or wear out. In Jesus prayer to the Father he defines what eternal life is:

"And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." 

 John 17:3

Here is the link to this particular interview:

https://youtu.be/V8bD7ovxIuc