...And Faith Responded Unusually

...Everything is all right.... - Elisha, Prophet of God, 2 Kings 4:26

I was reflecting on friends that I have been blessed with for nearly 40 years. Wow! 40 years...it doesn't seem so long ago. We knew each other at the end of high school and in college and we raised children together, worked together, prayed and played together. This thinking came on the heels of my reading about the prophet Elisha. Elisha regularly found himself traveling to and through a town called Shunem. In that town was a well-to-do couple who extended hospitality to him. As the story unfolds we discover initially they simply broke bread with him as he passed through. Later, seeing that Elisha needed accommodations and a place where he could also study, they built a room for him; a second story no less Now, each time he came through town, he had a place to stay, to eat, to rest and to study. He was so appreciative of their kindness that one day he asked the wife what he could do for her. Though not directly, later the woman explained to Elisha's servant Gehazi that the woman had a lifetime of having been barren. No children. Her husband was old and she did not feel he could provide her with the seed for a child.

What was Elisha's response? It was this, About this time next year,' Elisha said, 'you will hold a son in your arms - 2 Kings 4:16.

True to his word, and as he had promised, a year later the son arrived.

One day the father was working in the field, and the son became ill and quickly died. The woman, knowing Elisha was near, ran to him to inform him of what had just taken place.

But...not as you might imagine.

She shows up. There she stands. Now, check this out, when Elisha asked what was happening or had happened, she did not panic nor react in fear. Her response to Elisha seemed almost unnatural; it was truly unusual as she said to him, Everything is all right. In the next scene Elisha goes to the boy and raises him from the dead. It was a glorious miracle. Of course you can read all about it in 2 Kings chapter 4.

Faith, has a practiced and decisively different look and feel about it. It considers not just what is but what has gone on before. Faith measures the possible by a different scale. This kind of faith, what we see in the thoughts and history above, looks at our lives and the situations, troubles, predicaments we go through and see's them as God would. More than that though, faith is based on an understanding that we have a Heavenly Father who has our bests interests at heart always and regardless of what appears to be the tragic end.

In the Kingdom of God there is no limited understanding. This momma did not panic. Why? She knew something more than the current circumstance. Her spiritual awareness was enlightened beyond her friends, her family and beyond what typically happens historically to those who appear to be gone off and into eternity; those who have died.

Faith does not panic.

Faith realizes that what looks like devastating circumstances and tunes into the heart of God. It asks, How will God bring glory to Himself by demonstrating His power this time? And then it listens.

When Jesus appeared tooling across the water and his disciples caught a gander of it. It was in the middle of the night, they exclaimed, It's a ghost! (Check it out in Matthew 14:26) First appearances can bring great fear upon us even to the point of paralyzing us. Being a child who has moved from an earthly kingdom with it's laws and rules and moving into a Kingdom that operates outside of this world takes some getting used to. Find the Lord in your circumstance today. Exercise your faith today and trust Him for His outcome in the situation.Tap into what He is saying and doing. You will be surprised...and in a joyful way!

I remain...

InHISgrip,
~J~

Among the Living Comes Triumph Out of Dying

My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death - Matthew 26:38, Jesus, the Christ, the Son of the Living God

There are few days etched into my mind as deep and abiding as the lines of the face of Abraham Lincoln at his memorial or the busts on Mount Rushmore of those great men. These days are timeless. I am glad they are few.

I was less than four yet there are things that I can still remember about the day my father died. It is similar but with more detail on the day of my mother's passing, my brother and my father-in-law are just the same.

With the living comes the dying. Most all the time the latter just doesn't feel right. This week an old friend passed who was a decade younger than I am.
Younger than me dying is never right. Ever!

Then one fifteen years younger, a great man of God passed yesterday. It somehow just does not feel right. I am sure it never will. Ever...

What was my great revelation from these and many more in my life? Often the place of our greatest pain becomes the place of our greatest triumph.Gethsemane, that quiet garden place where Christ would cry and plead to God the Father was easily the place of Jesus' greatest trial to that moment in time in His life. Before He had to go to a hill of death and three times He asked His Father to let this trial pass.

It was not to be.

The Father sent His Son to the cross to pay a debt owed by humanity. It was an awful thing. It was unthinkable. It was unfair.

Jesus, unlike each of those I named above had options. Each of those, the day they moved into eternity from this earth had no clue it was to be that day. Jesus manned-up to His own temptation to quit, to not fulfill His destiny, to run from His calling and purpose. It was a personal battle to persevere. to choose dying.

Sometimes we face situations that cry out "Stop the madness! Get me outta here!" We want to cash in our chips, cut our losses and gather what little "respectability" and/or faith we have left and walk away. We become "temporary atheists", concluding that this faith thing simply does not work each time; all the time.

Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him - Luke 22:43

After Jesus asked the Father if this bitter cup of pain and humiliation could pass, an angel was sent to Him to comfort Jesus. The Father's response to His eternal Son was "No." But, His loving mercy extended to Him came in the form of an angel, a messenger, a comforter. Some temptations, some life situations, even death, seem they are more than we can bare. But, God is true and No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it1 Corinthians 10:13.

If we rest in our heart of hearts; if we wait in our spirits we realize as the drama unfolds that the very place of our greatest battle has become our legacy; the place of our greatest victory and often the defining moment of a life lived.

For the Savior of mankind it was here, a place named the Mount of Olives, near the Garden Gethsemane where Jesus ascended and would return triumphantly, not as a sorrowful soul or one whose life was snuffed out early. No. He returns as a triumphant Savior. The battle He won in Gethsemane would result in the triumphant entry to be Lord of the universe! Most terrible pain - Most stunning life experience!

God will use your greatest failure or greatest sorrow to be a powerful force in your life and the lives of others. He will. Only He can. Your Valley of Baca (place of weeping) becomes springs of life giving eternal water for you and others watching you. You will go from strength to strength (Psalm 84:6).

It is in the dying that the new springs are allowed to come forth and a new strength emerges that previously was not even remotely considered latent within you.

If you find yourself in your Garden of Gethsemane, lay yourself at the feet of the only one who can sustain you. Entrust yourself to your Heavenly Father. Let Him determine your fate. It will ultimately become a place of victory. From the dying comes great living!

I remain...

InHISgrip,
~J~