Our Hope

Life is not easy by any means.  There are health problems, financial problems, relationship problems, and I could go on naming so many issues and burdens that people deal with on a daily basis.  Where do we turn to in our deepest, darkest hours.  How long do we waller in the depths of despair and depression before we turn to the hope that is Jesus Christ.  God created us and knows everything that we are dealing with.  He knows us better that we know ourselves.  So many times we struggle to handle our problems ourselves, before we finally get to the end of the rope and call out to Jesus.  In Matthew chapter 11 Jesus tells us to take His yoke for it is easy.  This yoke is where we join together with Him in a relationship and He promises us eternal life spent with Him; plus He promises that He will walk each and every minute with us no matter what we are dealing with.  Jesus is our hope and our future.  We need to set our eyes on the Promised Land - eternity spent with our Lord and Savior and walk with Him each and every day.  He is our hope!

Where Does Our Fear Come From

This past Sunday night I spoke to a number of men from different men's groups that was sponsored by Becks Reformed Church. As I prepared for this presentation, and when I finally got to the point of delivering the message that I was there to speak on, I felt a huge sense of inadequacy. I felt I was not qualified to speak before these men about anything.  Last month at this men's gathering there was a decorated war veteran who spoke about his life and his faith; next month there will be a man speaking who has spoken to numerous Fortune 500 companies.  And here I was a little country pastor or "Redneck Pastor" as I call myself standing before about 50 to 60 men of God feeling I was not good enough to speak to them.  As I began the presentation a calmness came over me and I delivered the message in a way that I never had before.  I was confident; recalled material on the spot without searching my material; and the material flowed just as it should. My talk was so well received that a radio host from Winston-Salem ask if I would come on his show in the future to speak on the topic I presented. 

Afterwards I spoke of my uneasiness and feeling of inadequacy to a few of my pastor friends and they showed me just where this fear and apprehension came from: my PRIDE. I have always seen pride as being arrogant, but false humility is also a form of pride. When we have the fear of not being good enough we have taken God out of the picture and we have hindered Him working fully through us.  When we feel we are incapable to do something we feel God is leading us to do because it is not our gift, or we are worried we will mess up, or someone will ask us something we cannot answer; we are relying on our own self and our own knowledge.  For all intense purposes we have taken the power of God out of the situation because we have relied on our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5). Fear comes from Satan and it is his way of keeping us from doing the will of God.  Pride comes from Satan as well and it his tool to tell us we cannot do somethings because we are not qualified to do or that we are not good enough to do what God is asking of us.    I praise God that the enemy did not win his battle with me last Sunday night and that is not because of anything I did, but because the Holy Spirit stepped in and took over for my hinderance of God's will because of my pride.  Trust the Lord and we can all do great things as His vessels and His instruments!

Thank You Jesus

Come down now from the cross
                           - Mark 15:32

Jesus was being heckled and ridiculed on the cross and was asked that if He was the Son of God to come down from the cross.  Every time I read about the cross I want Jesus to come down from the cross and put those ridiculing Him in their place.  I want Jesus to zap them with all His fury.  Yet, if Jesus would have come down from the cross His atonement for our sins would have never took place.  In order to fulfill God's plan for you and me Jesus had to stay put.  The Word of God says that the meek will inherit the earth and we know that one day Jesus will inherit the earth for His people.  His meekness was the strength that you and I needed to have our sins removed.  Don't take the cross for granted - Thank you Jesus is not a strong enough reply from us when it comes to what Jesus did on the cross, although it is what we can offer; but a way of showing our love for Jesus is to love one another as He has loved us and let us live for Him!

What Is In A Word?

They came to Jericho. And as He was leaving Jericho with His disciples and a large crowd, Bartimaeus (the son of Timaeus), a blind beggar, was sitting by the road. When he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began to cry out, “Son of David, Jesus, have mercy on me!” Many people told him to keep quiet, but he was crying out all the more, “Have mercy on me, Son of David!” Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called the blind man and said to him, “Have courage! Get up; He’s calling for you.” He threw off his coat, jumped up, and came to Jesus. Then Jesus answered him, “What do you want Me to do for you?” “Rabbouni,” the blind man told Him, “I want to see!” “Go your way,” Jesus told him. “Your faith has healed you.” Immediately he could see and began to follow Him on the road.^[1]

This passage of Scripture is an awesome example of the many of us in The Church today.  In this passage Bartimaeus who is blind knew that Jesus was the Messiah that the prophets of the Old Testament spoke about because he used two terms that help us understand this: “Jesus” and “Son of David.”  We know from Matthew 1 that Jesus is the Messiah and that Jesus means, “to save His people from their sins.”  In addition, Bartimaeus used the term “Son of David” which we know the prophets spoke that the Messiah would come from the lineage of David.  He believed that Jesus was the Messiah and asked for mercy.  Jesus stopped, some translations say “stood still,” and asked for them to call the man to Him.  When Bartimaeus approached Jesus something great happens that we must not miss; when asked by Jesus, “What do you want Me to do for you?” Bartimaeus address Jesus as “Rabbouni.”  This term in Greek is translated as “My Teacher”. Do you see what happened here? Bartimaeus addresses Jesus as his Master, Savior, Teacher; he has now become a disciple of Jesus Christ!  He has not even been healed physically, but has become a follower of Christ and we see this more clearly when Jesus told him to “go your way”; the Word of God says that He began to follow Jesus on the road.  Is Jesus more that someone we know about from our forefathers and Scriptures; is He our Lord and Master, our Rabbouni!  A great message from the Gospel of Mark for us to meditate on!

---

^[1] The Holy Bible: Holman Christian standard version. (2009). (Mk 10:46–11:1). Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers.