27 Jacob, why do you say, and Israel, why do you assert: “My way is hidden from the LORD, and my claim is ignored by my God”? 28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? Yahweh is the everlasting God, the Creator of the whole earth. He never grows faint or weary; there is no limit to His understanding. 29 He gives strength to the weary and strengthens the powerless. (Today’s Reading is from Isaiah 40, HCSB)

At times, it feels like we are all alone and that no one sees our ways and what we’re doing, that there is no justice if we are wronged and no consequence if we cut corners ourselves. Here we are both comforted and warned that God is an everlasting God. He is great and mighty and he created and rules the whole Earth. No corner of it is beyond his reach or his authority. His understanding is unlimited–he sees all, he knows all. He sees the whole picture. He never grows faint and weary, he never falls asleep on the job.

We may not understand why God allows suffering, we may be tired and in pain, men may not do justice on this Earth, but God will in eternity, and he stands ready to strengthen the weary and the powerless to go on and to do right. No matter where we are or what is going on, He is on the job and ready to provide what we need to make it through the day.

Lord, we thank you for being so awesome. Strengthen us this day to believe you are what  you say in your word. Increase our trust in you. I pray we would remember in the hour of temptation that you are watching and you do see and that you are there to give us what we need to stay the course in you. Open our minds, to understand more of reality and see a bit more clearly, as you do.  Imprint your image on our hearts and transform our thinking to be more like yours. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

Today’s Passage: Genesis 7

The flood was the worst catastrophe and the worst judgment ever seen upon the Earth. It came in a time when the bible tells us the thoughts of all men’s hearts were evil continually and violence filled the whole Earth. The flood brought massive destruction that could have wiped out all life on this planet, but even in this moment of divine wrath, God’s grace and mercy shine through, as does his heart to teach and instruct us. Eight imperfect, flawed people who loved him and trusted him obeyed a command to prepare for the disaster and build an ark, and they carried out the designs of grace that God had placed in Noah’s heart, and he sealed them up safely and preserved them from the penalty that came upon the rest of the world.

The bible tells us Noah was a righteous man, but we know he and his wife and children were only clothed by faith in Christ’s righteousness. Why? All of us imperfect, sin-prone people on this earth are descended from Noah. By faith, he was saved, and it was accounted to him for righteousness, not by his work of building the ark, but the faith that led him to work out what God gave freely. So when the destructive rains come and the flood waters are rising in your life, remember God has already called you by grace and completed a secure ark of protection in the Cross.  It could not have been a pleasure cruise to be on a boat at drift on raging flood waters, with pairs of every wild animal and seven pairs of every kosher creature destined for the dinner table. Noah’s family still suffered hardship and loss, but God brought them through it safely and he will see us through this present troubled times as well.

Lord, we thank you for your grace and mercy even in times of judgment and in times where we suffer due to the sins of others. Grant us the ears to hear your instructions and the faith to carry them out. Enable us to trust in your wisdom and that even when you allow pain and destruction in our lives, you intend to bring good through this somehow.  Increase our faith and trust also, so we will be comfortable also being honest with you about how we feel on the journey. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

Maria Tatham at Christian Fantasy for Women offered me this lovely award. Thank you, Maria. You’re lovely, too.

Maria Tatham is a Christian author who writes fantasy. Her works include a published novel, The Queen and the Handyman.  She is a story blogger who posts free serial fairytales, flash fiction, poems for your enjoyment.

Jesus takes on both the major “parties” of ancient Judea when the Sadducees come to test him with a disingenuous gotcha question about the Resurrection. Keeping in mind the status of women in that culture, they are asking him a legal question about a woman who was widowed seven times in her lifetime: when she and all seven husbands are resurrected, which husband will own her?

The answer the Lord gives, at minimum, states that in Heaven, sons and daughters will not be chattel their parents marry off  and that men will not purchase wives for themselves the way they purchase horses. Most likely, it means that there are no weddings taking place at all, but the reason for this cites Angels, which to me suggests he’s subtly pointing out they are asking a legal question about a Heavenly country those of us on Earth know little about other than the character of its King.

Knowing the real reason they are asking this question is because they don’t believe in the Resurrection,  Jesus quickly moves the conversation to that to topic, getting to the heart of the matter: God doesn’t see the way man sees. We see a dead body buried in the ground and turning to dust, but God lives outside of time. He sees the living, eternal soul, unclothed of its broken, corrupt body so he can robe it again in a new restored, incorruptible sinless body. To him, the “dead” person is not only alive, if they are His, they are completely well, have received blessing and mercy and been delivered, not abandoned.

More over, the Lord not only asserts the reality of the Resurrection, he makes his case from the five books of Moses, which is all that was in the Sadducees’ accepted scriptural cannon. They claimed the books of Moses did not support the doctrine of the Resurrection, but he is showing where it does support it from God’s vantage point. It was their own blindness and presumption that had caused them to misunderstand (or miss) what God means by, “I am the God of Abraham.” To see the text clearly, God had to reveal His word to them Himself.

Lord, when we approach your word, remove from us the blinders of presumption from our pre-existing beliefs and experiences. Open our eyes to the truth. Let us see the text clearly, meaning what you intended it to say. We thank you for this ministry of the  Holy Spirit and we rejoice that you are with us always and have conquered the grave. Take our fear away and comfort our hearts if we are missing loved ones who are alive in you, but not longer with us. In Jesus’ name we pray, Father, amen.

How did Jesus respond when the religious leaders of his day questioned his authority to do the work His father had sent him to do? For context, one of the reasons they doubted his credentials as a Rabbi is because he had never been a disciple for anyone, so he’d rebelled against the status quo, no human had taught him to be just like them and commissioned him as a rabbi to teach others to be just like his own rabbi. So he didn’t meet the education requirements to preach the gospel and had no human certifications saying he was a licensed minister commissioned and under the authority of a particular rabbinical school of thought.

First, he didn’t become offended. He didn’t doubt himself and his ability and qualifications because the experts of the day doubted in him. He remembered what his Father had said about him, that he was the Son of God, and called not to teach disciples to be like a human rabbi, but to be like his Father. He also knew if he pulled out his credentials for the religious leaders, they would refuse to believe, accuse him of blasphemy, and kill him.

Since it wasn’t time yet, he refused not only to doubt in himself, but to prove himself to men, turning the tables on them, asking whether John was commissioned to baptize people by men or by God. The religious leaders were trapped–answering from God would be a winning point to the Lord in the debate, but the crowd would riot if they denied John’s authority, too. The leaders refused to answer, so they got no answer, but the crowd got one right there. Jesus addresses the issue in a parable about tenant farmers who kill the heir to the land hoping to keep what belongs to him for themselves, thus warning them without saying an arrestable word that the religious leaders of the day would be destroyed if they continued on the road to crucifying the Lord.

The leaders were smart enough to get the message and were furious, but he’d made his point to the huge crowd,  making the leaders also afraid to oppose him directly–so they turned to spies pretending to be on the Lord’s side and tried to trap him with their famous question about paying taxes and the Lord again saw through their deception and refused to be trapped into either speaking against paying taxes to Caesar and committing treason, or speaking in favor of Caesar and offending the crowd. So he gave his famous answer, that affirmed giving Caesar his coins per the letter of the law directly while stating indirectly that mankind should give ourselves, our whole lives and bodies, to God, as we bare the image of God and everything we have comes from him and is truly His.

If we disciples want to be more like our Rabbi, we should be more confident of our calling, not swayed by the voices and opinions of man, but aware of them and savvy in our responses, testifying to the truth, but being aware of the climate and what the people accept and reject and what is around us and using that in our Lord’s favor while seeking to avoid needless offenses that would get us arrested and harmed before it is His time. This passage also indicates there is a season to follow the legal/certification processes of the day and a time to reject them and confidently go out and do what our Father has told us to.

Lord, give us your wisdom and discernment! Help us to use what is available in the culture today to your glory and to advance your Kingdom in ways that uphold the truth. Give us confidence of your calling and open our ears to hear what the season is regarding following laws and the ignoring the “normal” established processes traditionally followed in our calling.

Psalm 118 falls right before Psalm 119′s sometimes unappreciated, lengthy serenade to the law’s beauty and virtues.  In 118, the psalmist urges his audience to give thanks to the Lord because he is good and his love is steadfast. To these reasons, the psalmist adds his personal testimony: he was either troubled internally by mental or physical pain or suffering or he was in an external state of danger or desperate need, per the meaning of distress. He prayed to God for help, God answered him by freeing him from whatever was causing his distress.

Here he turns from past tense to present tense: the Lord is on his side. He will not fear now what men can do to him, he knows God is in control. This switch is implying that the psalmist is one again in difficult times; he is confident because he has past experience with God. He remembers what God has done for him in the past and trusts God to do what he has always done before.

Faith and trust in God grow over time, with each blind leap and each instance of God doing what he promised in His word. If you are young in the Lord and have not many personal experiences,  you can still make that leap with confidence based upon His peoples testimonies, if you trust in the accuracy of the bible (there are ministries who can feed your intellect with proofs of this) and also through the testimonies of your living brothers and sisters in Christ today.

God is not a respecter of persons, beloved. He does not play favorites with his children.  If you are His, and you know for a fact what God has done for His people in your situation, he will do it for you, too. Maybe not the exact same way, or with the exact same timing, but if you draw near to him and place your life and your situation wholly into his hands, daring to trust him completely, taking refuge in Him and His work in your life, he will deliver you and bring you through this, if not out of it. Even if we do face the pain of death, if we continue on with God, even in death, he will set us free forever.

Lord, forgive us for the times we have forgotten what you have done. Strengthen us today, remind us of what you have done in our lives and in our brothers and sisters’ lives in similar situations. Increase our faith. May we trust in you and your declarations over us, not the threats of men. Give us thankful hearts that praise you for who you are and what you do. Deliver us from fear and all emotional distress this day. In Jesus name we pray, amen.

Troubled? Christ tells us we can turn to his speech in John 14-16 any time and receive comfort and peace from knowing the Father himself loves us and that someday he will bring us out of our present sorrow and deliver us to joy. He promises us hardship and trouble and travail in this life and that the unbelieving world will hate us if we are truly walking with Him, and has indeed often killed the saints, and many do so thinking they do God service as Jesus said.

But we are to take heart: he has overcome the world. Victory is secured for us. Keep holding the line, keep walking the walk. Stay the course. The battle rages on, but no matter what its outcome, the war is already won.  Let us abide in Christ and rest in Him. Let him fight the battle. Trust and obey him. He’s the conquering king and his enemies are defeated and routed, including the sin or the fallen condition you are struggling with, and even the great enemy, death itself, has been mortally wounded and will be only a distant memory sooner than it seems as we struggle in this life.

Turn your eyes to Christ’s cross and His empty grave and be encouraged, brothers and sisters. It is finished. God has prevailed and He will prevail in your life if you do not lose heart and desert him for his already defeated foe. So put away doubting, put away your own understanding, and trust in Him today.  Give to him any weight that hinders you from trusting him, be it sorrow, be it hurt, be it anger, be it the trust others have broken, and any nay-saying voice, be it real or imagined.  Confess it, express it, but release it into His victorious hands.