Month: March 2023

Our hope lies in God’s gracious dealings with His children from generation to generation, as He transforms us from offering meaningless worship & lip service to standing in true wonderment of His majestic holiness. Make no mistake about it…it was God’s plan all along to restore Israel to Himself as a lasting legacy. For even though they wandered & strayed from His Will…even though they murmured against Him, God promised to always be with His people and lead them, with nothing preventing His plan from being put into effect. (Isaiah 42:16) And that goes for us today. God is the Source of all truth, and the starting point of truth & knowledge is the fear or awe of the Lord.

Martha (the practical & pragmatic sister of Lazarus) looked at the current situation and realistically objected when Jesus directed the crowd to remove the stone covering the opening to her brother’s tomb. But Jesus reminded her of their earlier conversation, (John 11:25-26) her response, and confession of faith when He asked her if she believed Lazarus could be brought back to life. However, let’s not criticize Martha for her Crisis of Faith…for it will happen to all of us as we make our way with the Lord. Life is not easy, and it is always complicated by emergencies & critical moments when doubt and hopelessness take over. Psalm 73 speaks of this Crisis of Faith as a struggle that can only be resolved by entering into the Presence of God…and once there, as we behold His glory, all doubts & fears will disappear.

The only thing Jesus & we know about the Second Coming is that it will come when we least anticipate it. That’s because only God the Father knows the exact time. Throughout the Gospels Jesus warned His disciples to “Be on guard!” “Be alert!” “Be always on the watch!” The analogy He gives, about servants waiting for their master is found earlier in Luke 12:35-36, “Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him.” The imagery here depicts servants with their loins girded for battle, their long robes hiked up under a belt, allowing free & instantaneous movement as they wait alert & ready for their master to return. That’s why Jesus’ warning to “Be ready!” should not be taken lightly or apathetically. For all we know…today may be the day.

Jesus was still outside Bethany, but He could hear the wailing & mourning of Mary and her friends as they approached Him…and it affected Him greatly. Why? Because Jesus was fully man & fully God…possessing every emotion & feeling mankind has ever experienced. He saw & heard the guttural cries of the bereaved & could not help but be moved with sympathy & compassion for them all. He did not dismiss their pain but rather embraced it to Himself in empathy. For it tells us in Isaiah 53:3, “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering.” Jesus knows all too well about pain, grief, illness, and affliction…for He lived it. But one thing Jesus was not – was upset at those grieving…No, when it says that He was deeply moved in Spirit and troubled, all His pent up anger & outrage was directed at Death itself…the primary cause of His friend’s suffering.

Your mind is the greatest gift, next to the gift of salvation & eternal life, that God has given you. And it should be devoted entirely to Him. But how many times does your mind wander aimlessly…and suddenly you’re thinking of ungodly & taboo things you shouldn’t. Or maybe your mind stubbornly refuses to give up its own selfish desires & plans rather than trust God? II Corinthians 10:5 tells us to, “Take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” Only ourselves can choose to take captive every thought, keeping them within the bounds & control of Godly thinking…and only ourselves can bring our mind’s thought pattern under the unquestioning compliance & obedience that Jesus demands.

As the saying goes, “Only God can see around the corner.” and just because I don’t understand what Jesus is doing doesn’t mean I have any right to determine He must be mistaken. For here in Isaiah, the Lord spells it out very clearly…My plan & purpose for your life is perfect, and My actions on your behalf will always be flawless & complete. Ours isn’t to judge God’s ways or the manner in which He is accomplishing them…ours is to obey and commit our way to His.

Betrothal is the final step in the courtship process as the bride & bridegroom are promised to one another in marriage. And here, we see the Lord claiming His bride, the Church, forever. But in II Corinthians 11:2 we see Paul warning the Church about turning their hearts from the Bridegroom to the best man…”I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to Him.” Paul longed for the Church in Corinth to remain loyal to Christ as false teachers infiltrated & drew them away from the bridegroom. But even today we must be careful to remain the best man & not take on the role of bridegroom. How? When our traits of goodness, purity, and holiness are drawing more attention than the Lord Who enabled them…when we only speak about ourselves & not present Jesus Christ as the reason for our hope…we are taking on the role of Bridegroom & not best man. So sadly, what the person will be left with is the thought, “Wow! What a fine Believer that person is!”…but entirely miss the Bridegroom, Jesus Christ, who betrothed them.

The Old Testament imagery of the Lord as the husband & Israel as His bride is shown in Isaiah 62:5 when it says, “As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.” And here in this verse, the role of the best man or close friend of the groom is to wait, listening for the groom to make his entrance…rejoicing not resenting his role. But it’s when we take on the work of savior not servant in someone else’s life we will find ourself outside of God’s Will. For if we become the necessity in their life, and not Jesus, we have become their redeemer and thus block the way for the true Savior of their soul to work. Our job as best man is to point the way to Christ…not get in His way.

Martha’s theology had its fulfillment in the future…”I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” (John 11:24) But Jesus wanted Martha to have a deep, close, & personal intimacy with Him at that moment. So He asked the probing question, “Do you believe this?” Thus forcing Martha’s faith & trust to emerge into her own personal decision & inheritance…”Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ…” (John 11:27) There will be times in your own life when doubt will cloud your mind…when personal problems bring personal awareness of profound personal needs. Jesus will then drive home the same question about your own personal convictions – “Do you believe this?”

We could easily read Martha’s words and assume her tone of voice directed at Jesus was one of anger and acute grief…blaming Him for her brother’s death. But if we look closely at her choice of words it shows something quite different. Martha acknowledges that Lazarus’s condition wouldn’t of worsened if Jesus had arrived sooner, but she looks beyond the temporal in her next bold & confident statement…”But I know that even now God will give You whatever You ask.” Martha has absolute trust that even though Lazarus has been in the tomb for four days, his body beyond recovery with no reasonable way of it happening…she still expects a miracle!