Says Who?

Yesterday in the news was a story heralded as a great leap forward in man’s nobility, his ability to take life on his own terms and spit in the eye of nature and even life itself.  The story takes place in Belgium and had to do with 45 year old twin men who were born deaf.  Both men who have good lives and tremendous rapport with one another had recently discovered they both have a degenerative disease which will leave them blind.  They were not ill and were in no pain other than the fact that in a very short time both would be unable to see one another and of course unable to hear one another.

The purpose of the story was to explain Belgium’s new law that allows someone to petition the court to end their lives by lethal injection.  This law which was originally written to allow those with painful life threatening diseases and physical problems to end their lives at a time and place of their own choosing with the help of trained medical professionals.  These men had no life threatening disease or painful physical condition, merely a painfully emotional one of losing one of the senses they have depended on all their lives.

First of all, I understand the emotional pain of aging and its debilitations.  I either must wear glasses to read or a special contact in one eye.  My eyesight used to be perfect.  I could focus as close as three inches or as far as our polluted air would allow.  I can still see fairly well at a distance but not close up.  As for hearing; I used to be able to walk down the street and tell you which house had television on by the high-pitched whine coming from the houses.  Now after raising three children and riding motorcycles for years I can barely hear someone talking to me in a soft voice.  This is disturbing in a background way but I cannot imagine after losing my eyesight and hearing that life would not be worth living any longer.  I know those who have very nearly lost both and while I feel bad for them I consider Helen Keller who lived such a full and rewarding life after meeting up with her dear mentor and friend Anne Sullivan.  It’s true that Helen was blessed with so true a friend who stuck to her side through thick and thin for more than 50 years. 

If you ever want to study a life of someone who has overcome tragedy to become known to kings and potentates just study Helen Keller’s life sometime. 

I know someone today who is a wonderful, vibrant and caring woman of God who has lost most of her hearing and eyesight and yet still lives a full life and adds an immeasurable blessing both to her family AND to all who know her including me.  Her occasional words of encouragement have brightened my life immeasurably.  Life is what you make it and it if has some rocks then in the eyes of the right person some of those rocks might just contain a diamond or two.  As much as I enjoy my eyes and ears and as difficult as it might be to learn braille and communicate in other ways, I still have a message worth telling to the world and the means to do it.

The story of these two men in Belgium continued, to end on a much more disturbing note.  It seems that many families have loved ones suffering from dementia or other age related problems. They were seriously discussing the idea of doing away with grandma or grandpa.  Now I’m sure their reasons were noble and meant to be best for the poor dears (sorry, had to clear my throat, had a coughing fit), but while it used to be something of a joke when my kids said they would put me in a home when I got old and cranky; now it adds a distinct chill to the air to find that my last days will be shortened by a needle because THEY might decide it’s better for ME this way.  After all, the point of the ending was that the kids had to decide for dear old dad or mom because they weren’t thinking too clearly these days.

So who is?

Ecclesiastes 1:3 What profit does man have left from all his toil at which he toils under the sun? [Is life worth living?]

What does it take to give value to life?  Some would say if you make lots of money or have fame.  I can think of one young woman whose sole claim to fame is people know who she is.  She produces nothing; believes in nothing that I have ever heard and lives for the touch of the spotlight.  Financially, I have been at a place in life where I had to budget a loaf of bread.  I am currently at a place where a laptop must be budgeted.  There are those whose finances look at a top of the line Macbook Air as if it’s a McDonalds dollar cheeseburger.  Is their life better than mine?  Some would say so; not me, but some.

Today I heard a wonderful message by Pastor Ruben Guitron in Riverside, California.  He spoke on the importance of finding your secret place with God, not for answered prayers but for the relationship.  When your relationship with the Almighty is right, all the surrounding ‘stuff’ is of little importance.  Pastor Barry E. Knight said the same thing a few weeks ago.  He said the most important thing in 2013 was to find and celebrate GOD!  Not to serve Him, that goes without saying; but to worship and adore Him as the most important person in your life.  Pastor Ruben said we should enter into our secret place like Moses did on the mountain where God didn’t even want sheep to intrude on their conversation.  Perhaps in that place we can find a bit of the ‘glow’ that Moses enjoyed.

The problem with the world we live in is that like Matthew 9:36; the multitudes have no shepherd.  Who do they answer to?  To whom can they reach out for mercy and love when there is no man or woman around who will offer this most precious of balms?  Without a God who actually exists, who can be trusted to keep His Word to the end of the world and beyond, there is no hope.  Apostle Paul said that if in this life only we have hope we are the most miserable of men.  Why?  Because the life of a Christian is one of warfare and assault.  Satan is the spiritual king of the demonic mafia.  He rules with an rusty iron fist through deceit, fear, deception and hopelessness. 

Since we human beings are bound by flesh to this world of ours there must be some other way for us to succeed and be victorious.  It is not enough to simply say, “The weapons of our warfare are not natural flesh and blood weapons but mighty through God to the pulling down of demonic spiritual strongholds.”  You must BELIEVE in God and be ASSURED within yourself that He understands your weaknesses and in spite of that will not allow you to fail or your life to collapse in a worthless heap. 

Does God know you are weak?  Of course.  Psalm 6:1  says, “O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. 2 Have mercy upon me, O Lord; for I am weak: O Lord, heal me; for my bones are vexed.”  He made David king of all Israel knowing full well that he was weak and would sin repeatedly through doubt, adultery; even using his position to commit murder.  David was the average person with a good heart who continued to try and do the right thing after repeated failures.  It’s even harder for a man like him than someone ordinary because the wealthy and famous have much more opportunities to miss God.  People tell them, “You’re the stuff!  You have what it takes!”  Some in the Bible have even listened to the praises of people when they were told, “You’re like a God!” 

That happened to Nebuchadnezzar and Herod who basked in the honor and God punished both of them.  It happened to Paul and Barnabas in Acts 14 and they rushed forward and stopped the people warning them that they were just ordinary men.  Because of this humility God continued to move them but because they refused to act like great men they were immediately persecuted.  You will pay dearly for doing the right thing but it does not cease being the right thing.

Proverbs 24:16 says, “A righteous man falleth seven times but rises up again.”  Why does he keep trying?  Because God’s mercy and grace will continue to bring opportunities to those who strive to do right but total failure for those who don’t even try.  Jesus said we ought to forgive seventy times seven.  Do you really believe God will not forgive you more than He expects of us if you ask?

If we are in Christ Jesus we are twice blessed because not only did He die for our sins but continues to sit at the right hand of the Father in a place of honor making intercession for us as the heavenly propitiation of our sins.  We are thrice blessed because if we human beings are to forgive those seventy times seven transgressions against us then how often will God forgive us while Christ sits at his side pleading our case?

It is God who makes opportunity.  It is God who forgives.  It is God who raises humble failures into great kings.  Who are we to say that my life is over simply because I have failed or it has become too hard or more likely, I cannot see a future.  Of course we cannot see.  God sees the end from the beginning and we cannot see farther than our own noses.  We are limited and He is not.  If you but trust in Him you will be saved, body, soul, spirit and even the life you live.

Eccl 1:4 One generation goes and another generation comes, but the earth remains forever.

1 Corinthians 3 says, “4 For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal? 5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? 6 I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. 7 So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.”  You will never be EVERYTHING in anyone’s life.  That is not a healthy relationship.  As much as you might love your mate or pastor or mother or father you have no way to meet their every need any more than they can meet all of yours.

Even God can’t meet all your needs.  Do you know why?  Because your heart and heart’s desires are out of whack.  You want what you want when you want it but God knows what you need and when you’ll need it.  I am reminded of a movie where a man created a machine that could see the future.  The evil person who hired him was trying to find and kill him but at every turn in the road he had an item that gave him direction.  Not one of the items made sense to him until he arrived at the point where they were needed. 

If God gave you a hundred thousand dollars right now or a million dollars right now so you would have it in five years for ministry work, there wouldn’t be a nickel left when the money was needed.  This is why he must first train you to handle money and restrain your impulses and then at just the proper moment provide you with just what you needed for the task at hand.  He is the great shepherd and it simply does not yet appear what we shall be but when He appears, when the moment we have been waiting for appears then we shall know Him and what He expects of Him because at that moment we shall be like Him (1 John 3:2).  You can’t live like a savior when you haven’t even learned to trust the Father yet.  Have you been there for your wife or children or family members in need?  No?  Have you failed in any of these relationships yet?  If so you aren’t ready for the next step and God won’t waste resources if you aren’t ready. 

Eccl 1:5 The sun also rises and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises.

I read a wonderful scripture lesson from a Rabbi the other day.  It said that the cycle of the sun and moon, night and day, seasons and generations are here for our admonition.  Mankind can’t live for even a day without the Spirit of God hovering over it.  The cycle of the sun and moon is an example to us of God’s unending love and grace.  He is letting us know that He will never leave us or forsake us.  He is letting us know that we may have broken every cycle He has sent our way from birth until now but because He loves us more than the life of His Son, He will keep sending opportunities along the way to His wayward children so they will one day do the right thing and begin to live by the Spirit and not the flesh.

Eccl 1:6 The wind goes to the south and circles about to the north; it circles and circles about continually, and on its circuit the wind returns again.

God’s Spirit circles the Earth and returns again to where it began.  The merry-go-round of life keeps bringing us to where we can reach out and grab the brass ring if we will but focus and try.  Yes you did wrong today.  Maybe someone in your life will not give you another chance or told you that you will never amount to anything; what of it?  “God has said,” carries much more weight than an enemy or even a friend who says you will never amount to anything.  Only His opinion counts.  He’s providing opportunities no matter how badly you have missed God.  Scripture says, “Let God be true and every other man on Earth a liar (Romans 3:4).  If you don’t quit the opportunities will continue to come around.  If you keep failing the tests will continue to come but once you start passing them you will rise up into the blessings of God.

Eccl 1:7 All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full. To the place from which the rivers come, to there and from there they return again.

This verse is telling us something vital.  You can’t keep hoarding your blessings and expect them to continue.  Scripture says that out of your belly will flow rivers of living water.  This living water is the Holy Spirit and it comes from God Himself.  It is also His blessings which also come from Him.  Trying to hoard His Spirit or His blessings is like robbing from your neighbor.  It was given to you to share, to pass it forward.  Unless you give it away it cannot grow.  This forces you to trust in God and believe that greed is your deadly financial enemy.  Give and it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down and shaken together shall men give unto your bosom.  Keep what you were give and God will take even that and give it to someone who is more worthy. 

Beloved, I hope this lesson has been a help in your life.  I have been blessed this week during the ETM prayer conference and hope you too will be blessed by a portion of this word.

Bishop J.