This Week With Jesus

 

"Thy will be done". Saying this is easy but doing it is as hard as climbing Mt. Everest.  A sixteenth-century doctor, Thomas Fuller, once said, "Beware of no man more than thyself." So true. Yesterday we talked about how we try and force our will on God and our inherent rebellion. Isaiah 48:4 says -  “Because I know that you are obstinate, And your neck is an iron sinew, And your forehead bronze..." Our rebellious self-will is well known  to God as well and there are numerous warnings in the Bible. Overcoming self-will, to be able to do Gods will takes tremendous courage and strength. Where do we get this courage? Simple: ASK God. He has already given all we need to know and remember in His word. Dwell in it. Ask, Seek, Knock and keep knocking till you find the answer. But where is the door? It's the Bible and your prayer is your knock. Keep reading, keep praying.

By nature, men and human have an undeniable religious impulse, but they also have an undeniable rebellion against God. What men want most is not the elimination of religion but want their own version of "religion". They say they want the kingdom, but they don’t want God in it. If God wants to enter our kingdom, He better show some proof, and this is frightening, especially the emphasis on signs and wonders among some Christians is frightening. Yet we look for signs, not remembering that when Moses and Aaron showed miraculous signs, so did the Egyptian magicians as did the cohort of Anti-Christ. Why then do we rebel and ask for proof when our very lives are proof? God created us and invited us into His Heavenly Kingdom, yet we want to have our own kingdom, where we are the kings and queens and our wishes and desires reign paramount. My way or the Highway Lord! And, if God wants to live in our kingdom, He better show some signs and miracles! Give me what I want.  This rebellion

Which is the bigger wonder? Gods' faithfulness or our unbelief?  He keeps his promise a thousand times, and yet the next trial makes us doubt him. We are as continually vexed with anxieties, molested with suspicions, and disturbed with fears, as if our God were the mirage of the desert. Yet as we read Isiaah we see He says - Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands. — Isaiah 49:16 . “I have graven thee.” It does not say, “your name.” The name is there, but that is not all: our person, our image, our case, our circumstances, our sins, our temptations, our weaknesses, our wants, our works; He has graven us, everything about us, all that concerns us. With this understanding will we ever say again that our God has forsaken us or forgotten us, when he has "graven" us upon his own palms?

Isiaah 58:6-11 says -  6“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? 8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. 9 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. 10 If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. 11 The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your need

 Remember Isiaah when he said -  "But those who wait upon the LORD will renew their strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not faint. but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not be faint..." God did not promise us a rose garden and a life of ease and comfort. Our life of "free will" ensures that we will make mistakes, many mistakes; that our enemy will attempt to derail our lives and that we will need to work hard to earn a day of leisure. This is a given.  What He did promise us though was that, with His help , we will overcome problems, we will fly over trouble, He will sustain our strength so that we do not faint in the battle called life and finally that through Him, we will prevail.  what do we need to do? Call on Him. Acknowledge Him and ask Him.   Psalm 91 14-16 says -  “Because he lo

Proverbs 1:1-6  The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel; To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding; To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity; To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion. A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels: To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings. We often do not give too much importance to the book of proverbs, in comparison to the New Testament or Isiaah or other books which are highly referred to. However today I would like to throw the spotlight on this book, because it is a guide to wisdom and who does not want to be wise? It is written, the beginning of wisdom is the fear of God. Proverbs 1 defines wisdom in such a granular form, it leaves nothing to misinterpretation or imagination. Proverbs 1 starts with an introduction to the Boo