When I Cannot God Can

The tendency to self-reliance is common to all people.  No matter how dependent we are on others or our environment, we retain the freedom of preference to suit ourselves.  It is a jarring realisation when we accept the fact we are powerlessness to change a situation.  We value the right to choose, and when that is "taken" from us we can resent it bitterly.

This morning I read of Isaac and Rebekah who for about twenty years of marriage were without children.  They wanted to have children but Rebekah was barren.  There were no fertility clinics back in those days.  But the God who created man and woman was able to heal such an irreversible condition as infertility.  Genesis 25:21 says, "Now Isaac pleaded with the LORD for his wife, because she was barren; and the LORD granted his plea, and Rebekah his wife conceived."  It occurred to me Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all had wives who were for a time barren but the LORD remembered them and gave them conception.  I recalled to mind my wife and I also had this issue for a time.  Our ultimate solution and results were the same as these in scripture.

After the birth of our first son, Laura and I had a plan which I will call the "two year plan."  Two years seemed a good amount of space between siblings, and so at the appropriate time we ceased using any method of birth control.  Month after month there was no conception.  I began to analyse the situation, considering if there was something wrong with me.  Surprise turned to frustration, for conception was foolproof before.  It was about at the five month mark without conception that I read Genesis 30:22-24:  "Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb. ²³ And she conceived and bore a son, and said, "God has taken away my reproach." ²⁴ So she called his name Joseph, and said, "The LORD shall add to me another son."

When I read the scripture it struck me:  God is the one who shuts and opens the womb.  All that time I had grown frustrated, thinking the fruit of the womb was reliant upon me and factors which could be medically explained rather than God.  I repented that day and determined I would leave the matter with the LORD.  Joy replaced irritation and frustration.  Many months passed without a change and though I continued to pray my approach was, "If it happens it happens."  I remember clearly when I was working at Balboa Hospital when the truck driver patched through a call from Laura:  she was pregnant.  I was thrilled and gave God the glory.  There is nothing more wonderful than by faith exchanging my inability for God's sufficiency.

God shuts wombs and opens them.  He raises up kings and deposes them; He lifts up nations and casts them down.  He causes the rain to fall, the fruit to form, and supplies peace, joy, and abundant life for those who trust in Him.  Realising we are powerless to change ourselves and others brings us low, but God lifts up those who admit this and trust Him instead.  How good God is to hear our prayers and answer them!

What Jesus Believes

I love the genealogies in scripture.  They may be a bit tedious to read out loud or to teach from expositionally, but they are great evidence the Bible is a book of historical fact.  We understand in this world everyone is a descendant of other human beings, and the line of Jesus Christ is taken right back to the beginning, to the first man named Adam (Luke 3:38) God created from the dust of the ground and breathed into a human soul.  I do not find it difficult to believe there is a God who created all things and is able to do everything.  What I find impossible to reconcile is how people who say they believe in this God and the Bible is God's Word yet explain away Adam and creation account in Genesis as figurative.

Jesus claimed to be the Christ, the Son of God sent of the Father to save people from their sins.  He did many miraculous signs which confirmed His identity as God, the One who created all things.  I do not feel the need to scientifically explain how Jesus did miracles, for science bows before Him as King and Ruler.  The Bible says clearly what God has done and sometimes even how He did it.  He spoke the world into existence by speaking.  Jesus healed a man born blind by putting a mix of saliva and mud on his eyes and told Him to wash.  Science has no answer or even a theory to explain these things because we have spoken words and know dirt and water has not medicinal benefits.  In these acts we observe the same power revealed by the same God.

I thought it would be fun to point out a few things Jesus referenced from the Old Testament He believed were real, things which some people today imagine must be figurative or try to explain away:

• Jesus believed God created the heavens and the earth without any mention of Darwinian evolutionary process.  Mark 13:19 says, "For in those days there will be tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the creation which God created until this time, nor ever shall be."
• Jesus believed there was a man called Noah who built an ark which saved him from the great flood which covered the earth.  Matthew 24:37-39 says, "But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. ³⁸ For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, ³⁹ and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be."
• Jesus believed in the existence of Satan, a wicked personality who opposes God and is an unseen enemy of human beings God alone can bind and destroy. Matthew 12:25-26 says, "But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them: "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. ²⁶ If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?" 
• Jesus made a cryptic warning concerning Lot's wife who was turned to a pillar of salt when she looked back to Sodom in Luke 17:32:  "Remember Lot's wife." (you can read a post on this verse here)
• Jesus believed God spoke to Moses from a burning bush in Mark 12:26:  "But concerning the dead, that they rise, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the burning bush passage, how God spoke to him, saying, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'?"
• Jesus believed a man named Jonah was swallowed by a great fish and lived to tell about it!  Luke 11:29-30 tells us, "And while the crowds were thickly gathered together, He began to say, "This is an evil generation. It seeks a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah the prophet. ³⁰ For as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so also the Son of Man will be to this generation."

I believe Jesus Christ is the promised Messiah who was conceived by the Holy Spirit in virgin Mary, died on a cross for my sins, after three days rose from the dead, and remains alive today.  His life and resurrection proved His power over sin, death, and hell.  If you can believe these things, is it so hard to believe God created the world, caused a flood to destroy it, led a man to build a boat to survive it, spoke to man face to face, and caused a man to survive being swallowed by a great fish?  I serve a God who has the power to do everything.  I praise God for making miracles possible, because without Him I could not love Him, know anything, or exist.

God Hears Your Cry

Today the LORD had encouragement for me from the book of Genesis.  The portion I read was when Hagar and Ishmael were sent away by Abraham with bread and a skin of water.  They wandered around in the wilderness of Beersheba until the water was gone.  It says in Genesis 21:15-16, "And the water in the skin was used up, and she placed the boy under one of the shrubs. ¹⁶ Then she went and sat down across from him at a distance of about a bowshot; for she said to herself, "Let me not see the death of the boy." So she sat opposite him, and lifted her voice and wept."  I will admit this part is not very uplifting.  It is a sad picture of a dying child and a hopeless mother all alone in a wilderness.  Yet it is in the midst of this confronting and tragic scene God graciously revealed Himself.

Hagar placed Ishmael in the shade, a boy of around 13 years old.  Not wanting to see him die of thirst, she separated herself to a distance where she could not hear his whimpering.  It was just too much.  She broke down in tears, wailing for her son and their impossible situation.  Then Genesis 21:17 tells us, "And God heard the voice of the lad. Then the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said to her, "What ails you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is."  Following the flow of the passage this verse is a surprise.  Verse 16 said Hagar lifted her voice and wept, and verse 17 says God heard the voice of the lad.  Hagar distanced herself from the cries of her son, but God heard him right where he was.  Hagar couldn't bear to bring herself to be where Ishmael was because of her inability to help him, but God heard him and would help him.  He opened Hagar's eyes to see a well of water, and she filled the skin with water and gave it to her son.

At times I have been in the sandals of Hagar and Ishmael.  I have felt powerless to help others who are in a perilous and dreadful condition.  I have also felt like everyone is at a distance, unable to help or understand what I was going through.  But even when it seems we are all alone and without hope or help, when we cry to God He will hear us and respond to our cries.  God was a well-spring of life Hagar didn't perceive in her pain, like the well of water which was there from the beginning.  He will provide miraculous salvation and deliverance, for He opens our eyes to His gracious supply.  He also brings other people along to help us in times of trouble, and we too can be useful vessels to share His love with others.  This passage shows us there is always hope for the person who cries out to God.

Psalm 61:1-4 says, "Hear my cry, O God; attend to my prayer. ² From the end of the earth I will cry to You, when my heart is overwhelmed; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. ³ For You have been a shelter for me, a strong tower from the enemy. ⁴ I will abide in Your tabernacle forever; I will trust in the shelter of Your wings. Selah"  Sometimes we can speak or shout and not be heard.  Our words can fall on ears incapable of understanding and people we look to for help are without any power to save us.  Let us ensure we cry out to the LORD in prayer, for He alone is able to deliver.

A New World of Ideas

I kept a few of my university textbooks as reference materials.  One I find particularly interesting is a compilation of Lee A. Jacobus titled, "A World of Ideas:  Essential Readings for College Writers" (Fourth Edition).  It is a smattering of ancient and modern writings which include offerings of Aristotle, Charles Darwin, Thomas Jefferson, Mary Wollstonecraft, Lao-Tzu, Karl Marx, Mary Daly, Plato, and Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha).  The great irony is this "world of ideas" considered essential for the modern writer pass over words spoken by Jesus Christ.  Perhaps the Sermon on the Mount provides too much food for thought.

For a follower of Jesus Christ, this is no surprise.  It can hardly be debated Jesus Christ should be counted among the most influential people in the history of the world and certainly among the most polarising.  He was inclusive and exclusive at the same time.  He bid anyone who was thirsty to come to Him and drink of the Living Water He alone could supply.  He also said things like in Luke 14:26:  "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple."  Jesus claimed to be the exclusive Way, the Truth, and the Life - the sole way to eternal life.  Such claims are either the ravings of a madman or the honest truth from One who can provide salvation for all who trust in Him.

I have been convinced by the testimony of scripture Jesus is the only true source of divine spiritual wisdom, and His is wisdom not of this world.  Paul had something to say on this topic in 1 Corinthians 3:18-20, "Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. ¹⁹ For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, "He catches the wise in their own craftiness"; ²⁰ and again, "The LORD knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile."  The primary contrast between all the writings in "A World of Ideas" and the words of Jesus is He makes constant truth claims which require faith and obedience.  He did not care to say deep things but what was, is, and will be true and remain shockingly objective.  The words of Jesus are without apology in our subjective age and are understood fully only by those who believe Him.

The greatest intellects in the world will find themselves quite out of their depth should they dive into the Bible.  A unschooled man filled with the Holy Spirit has more spiritual understanding and acumen than a thousand intellectuals.  This is explained in 1 Corinthians 2:12-15:  "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. ¹³ These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. ¹⁴ But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. ¹⁵ But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one."  The Bible is a book only spiritually discerned by the wisdom of the One who inspired it, the God who gives us Living Water and rest for our souls.

There is an immeasurable amount of facts in this world I am ignorant of, but I have tasted and seen God is good.  Like the man born blind whose eyes were opened by Jesus, I can testify that once I was blind but now I see.  Ideas, theories, and reasoning cannot save anyone, but Jesus Christ can.  Knowing Jesus Christ is the principle thing, and in knowing Him it opens up a new world of understanding beyond this one.