“IN CHRIST!”

 

1 Corinthians 15:21                 (HCSB)

“For as in Adam ALL DIE, so also “IN CHRIST” all will be made alive.”

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Driving is mostly spent by this humble servant conversing with THE LORD, as I have plenty of time to be quiet!  You see, since the Brain Hemorrhage I generally can’t tolerate “background noise”.  So in the past almost 19, years generally drive in silence.  This adjustment is quite common for Hemorrhagic Stroke survivors.  Yesterday was an extremely different challenge though!!  There were several vehicles that collided with a tractor-trailer on interstate causing a massive crash that was still blocking traffic six hours later!!!  My prayers go out to anyone who POSSIBLY survived the incident.  My driving was affected for the next few hours as I thought “there but by the grace of GOD go I”!!!

However, ALL PEOPLE ARE GOING TO DIE!!!  Scripture is very unambiguous about this.  Hebrews 9:27-28 says we ARE destined to die, and after that, THE JUDGEMENT!!!  Just as sure as our next breath is in coming, ONE OF THESE DAYS it will be our time to meet THE CREATOR OF LIFE!!  

“IN CHRIST” is ONLY POSSIBLE if we are CHOSEN by HIM BEFORE THE JUDGEMENT!!!  We won’t have the opportunity afterwards.  Either we will be so OVERJOYED by SEEING our SAVIOR……..or we will be “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 13:42)!  The ONLY HOPE we have is decided BEFORE we die!!  “IN CHRIST” was the choice GOD PLACED on my heart BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD (Ephesians 1:4)!!!  I am SO BLESSED that HE CHOSE me to  be “IN CHRIST”!!!  Has HE CHOSEN you???

“WAIT FOR THE LORD!”

 

Isaiah 40:27-31                 (ESV)

    “[27] Why do you say, O Jacob,

        and speak, O Israel,

    “My way is hidden from the LORD,

        and my right is disregarded by my GOD”? 

    [28] Have you not known? Have you not heard?

    The LORD is the everlasting GOD,

        the CREATOR of the ends of the earth.

    HE DOES NOT faint or grow weary;

        HIS understanding is unsearchable. 

    [29] HE GIVES POWER TO THE FAINT,

        and to him who has no might HE increases strength. 

    [30] Even youths shall faint and be weary,

        and young men shall fall exhausted; 

    [31] but THEY WHO “WAIT FOR THE LORD” SHALL renew their strength;

        they SHALL mount up with wings like eagles;

    they SHALL run and not be weary;

        they SHALL walk and not faint.”

Recognizing that humanity, no matter how successful, nor how strong, WILL ONE DAY “expire”!  That word was used in the medical profession when I was a youngster.  There are babies who don’t even make it to birth, and there are people that live to be past one hundred years of age!  One thing is for certain, and that is we have to “WAIT FOR THE LORD” for everything from birth to dying!!!

My recollection of my recovery from the Brain Hemorrhage is the best example that I can utilize.  The blood vessel that broke was in the WORD RECALL portion of my brain.  I had a propensity for spreading myself thin, VERY THIN, and it was “put on hold” for about two years!  I couldn’t WAIT for the ability to get back to “normal”???  What I DID NOT comprehend was that GOD, VERY KINDLY AND GENTLY, was slowing down my frantic activity and replacing it with TRUE SUBSTANCE AND MEANING!!!

ALMIGHTY GOD HAS A PURPOSE for every life HE has CREATED!  This humble servant had to experience the calamity of a broken blood vessel in the WORD RECALL section of my brain to REALIZE (years later!) that I was trying to remain BUSY for THE LORD!?!  

If you aren’t what GOD requires to perform your assignment, HE CAN DRAMATICALLY CHANGE you!!!  HE doesn’t need to get “your permission”!!!   HE doesn’t need ANYONE to agree with HIS PLAN!!!  Whether you like what HIS PLAN is or not, we can “WAIT FOR THE LORD”, or HE can remove us!!!  HIS PLAN WILL BE COMPLETED!!!!

“YOU ARE NOT MY SHEEP!”

 John 10:22-30                 (ESV)

I and the FATHER Are ONE

“[22] At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, [23] and JESUS was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon. [24] So “the Jews” gathered around HIM and said to HIM, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the CHRIST, tell us plainly.” [25] JESUS answered them, “I TOLD YOU, and YOU DO NOT BELIEVE. The works that I do in MY FATHER’s NAME  bear witness about ME, [26] but you do not believe because “YOU ARE NOT MY SHEEP”. [27] MY sheep hear MY VOICE, and I KNOW THEM, and they follow ME. [28] I give them eternal life, and they will NEVER PERISH, and no one will snatch them out of MY HAND. [29] MY FATHER, WHO has given them to ME, is GREATER THAN ALL, and NO ONE is able to snatch them out of the FATHER’s HAND. [30] I AND THE FATHER ARE ONE.”

Recently I was at a restaurant eating and a child was in the same establishment eating with his family.  The child was apparently operating on a shortage of sleep, for he was not acting appropriately.  A lack of sleep can cause a person to do some crazy and irresponsible things!!!

But I was “pondering” the restaurant situation a few days later and my EYES were OPENED to SEE what my HEAVENLY FATHER observes when HE looks at me trying to live a life without being IN TUNE without HIS GUIDANCE in my life!!  GOD IS SO VERY PATIENT with me, and I am not nearly as patient with others!  

However, JESUS told “the Jews” in the Scripture above that “YOU ARE NOT MY SHEEP”, something that we might think would be DEVASTATING to hear!!  But their EYES were yet to be OPENED to SEE (and understand!) WHO JESUS really was!  The CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSES was walking among them and they couldn’t even recognize HIM!!

We SHOULD RECOGNIZE that just because we can SEE things that others can’t doesn’t make us any better than them, we aren’t better than them!  Our EYES are able to SEE TRUTH, yet their EYES can’t recognize HIM right in front of them…….because “YOU ARE NOT MY SHEEP”!!!

“I WILL HASTEN IT!”

 

Isaiah 60:22                 (ESV)

    “[22] The least one shall become a clan,

        and the smallest one a mighty nation;

    I AM THE LORD;

        in its time “I WILL HASTEN IT”.”

James 4:7                 (KJV)

   “SUBMIT YOURSELVES THEREFORE GOD. RESIST THE DEVIL, AND HE WILL FLEE FROM YOU.”

Briefly this morning, I was viewing videos this morning and James 4:7 was placed into my thoughts.  Shortly afterwards I see in one video Isaiah 60:22, so I looked up this verse and to SEE what it was saying to me.  About twelve years ago or so I saw a movie where I BELIEVE GOD SPOKE to me that HE was going to BLESS me with an inordinate amount of resources FOR HIS GLORY!  I have NEVER let HIS MESSAGE slip from my mind!!!

I BELIEVE that the two Scripture verses above TELL me that it is TIME for GOD’S PROMISE to take place!  Fearing that I am being “misled” by “the enemy” is ALWAYS a possibility, but James 4:7 says that BELIEVERS should “RESIST THE DEVIL, AND HE WILL FLEE FROM YOU.”!!  However it begins with ““SUBMIT YOURSELVES THEREFORE GOD”!!  The enemy isn’t afraid of this humble servant, but HE WILL FLEE from WHO LIVES inside of me (Ephesians 3:7)!!!

When I turn to Isaiah 60:22 it says “I AM THE LORD; in its time “I WILL HASTEN IT”!  Not just that HE is THE LORD, but that “I WILL HASTEN IT”!!!

I am LED to BELIEVE that I AM CHOSEN BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD by THE CREATOR to SERVE HIM at a place where HE has selected a LONG TIME AGO!!!  I could be wrong, but I wouldn’t get in HIS WAY, because “I WILL HASTEN IT” will always win!!!

“HE KNEW!”

John 2:23-25                 (ESV)

JESUS Knows What Is in Man

“[23] Now when HE (JESUS) was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many BELIEVED in HIS NAME when they saw the signs that HE was doing. [24] But JESUS on HIS part did not entrust HIMSELF to them, because “HE KNEW” all people [25] and needed no one to bear witness about man, for HE HIMSELF knew what was in man.”

There are people (MANY) who believe that they had something (ANYTHING) to do with their salvation?  They “responded” to the drawing (or wooing) of the HOLY SPIRIT and “gave” their lives to HIM?  I was probably one of the most misinformed people in the world regarding this subject??  That is UNTIL the Brain Hemorrhage of 2007!?!

Formerly, I WAS IN CHARGE OF EVERYTHING!!  I was doing my best to change the world, supposedly for HIS GLORY?  But when my beautiful bride found out that I needed medical attention that morning, she and my youngest son carried me to the hospital and entrusted me to the professionals!  I didn’t disagree, but I DID NOT CHOOSE to go where the doctors and nurses were either!!!  I was MOVING TOO QUICKLY to HEAR from HIM!!!

“HE KNEW” what I needed to experience to get me to HEAR that “still small voice” (1 Kings 19:11-13)!  And even almost 19 years later, I STILL have to be reminded that I need to GET ALONE WITH GOD to RECEIVE my instructions from HIM!  “HE KNEW” all people, but most importantly “HE KNEW” this humble servant REQUIRED HIS DIVINE LEADERSHIP in my life to accomplish HIS PLAN!!!

To “claim” that I would have “done it on my own” is as absurd as anything I have ever heard!  My feeble mind WOULD NOT, nor COULD NOT, have conceived what HE has PLANNED (Isaiah 64:4) for me to do FOR HIM!!!  “HE KNEW (from the FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD) (Ephesians 1:4) and I must YIELD to HIS LEADERSHIP to accomplish HIS PLAN!!!

“ALL THINGS!”

 

Matthew 19:23-30                 (ESV)

“[23] And JESUS said to HIS disciples, “Truly, I say to you, only with DIFFICULTY will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. [24] Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of GOD.” [25] When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” [26] But JESUS looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with GOD “ALL THINGS“ are possible.” [27] Then Peter said in reply, “See, we have left everything and followed YOU. What then will we have?” [28] JESUS said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the SON OF MAN will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed ME will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. [29] And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for MY NAME’S sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. [30] BUT MANY WHO ARE FIRST WILL BE LAST, AND THE LAST FIRST.”

As I write this devotional, my mind goes back to the night before the Brain Hemorrhage in 2007.  My plans were to arise July 09, 2007 and begin working to build a foundation for underprivileged children to help them graduate from high school and either go to college or trade school and have a respectful career.  BUT GOD had a different PLAN (Proverbs 19:21)……!!!

Having a part of me that was seemingly pulling for the underdog has consistently been a trait that I followed.  A person COULD NOT have made me BELIEVE that I would spend the next month in the hospital, and another three weeks in a Rehabilitation Hospital, only to walk out of it on August 29, 2007 with solely a walker assisting me!!!  Now, almost 19 years later, I am retired, but waiting on my instructions from ABOVE, WHATEVER GOD HAS IN HIS PLAN for my life!!!

My story has been written about MANY TIMES, but when a person has traveled such a rocky road, the path MUST BE recalled from time to time, if for nothing else, to remind myself where I COULD be if “my plans” were still being played out!  Even though I have “walked through the valley of the shadow of death” (Psalms 23:4), I still have to be reminded that HIS PLAN is what I long for!  NOTHING ELSE!!!

JESUS THE MESSIAH was speaking to HIS disciples in the passage of Scripture above when HE said, “With man this is impossible, but with GOD “ALL THINGS“ are possible.”  My medical records indicate that I couldn’t have made it WITHOUT DIVINE INTERVENTION in my life!  But none of us could have made it through our lives without HIS GOODNESS AND GRACE!  But with GOD “ALL THINGS“ are possible, and I’m sure THANKFUL that HE CHOSE ME BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD (Ephesians 1:4) to be USED by and for HIM!!!

“MY WORD!”

John 15:18-20                 (ESV)

“[18] “If the world hates you, know that it has hated ME before it hated you. [19] If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. [20] Remember THE WORD that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted ME, they will also persecute you. If they kept “MY WORD”, they will also keep yours.”

In the REAL WORLD, things are a LOT different than they are in life!  The first verse of the first chapter of John PLAINLY states “In the beginning was “THE WORD” (JESUS), and “THE WORD” was with GOD, and “THE WORD” was GOD,”. This same JESUS is saying in John 15:20 “If they kept “MY WORD” (as referred to in John 1:1), they will also keep yours”!!!

“The enemy” doesn’t have to work very hard to get me to lose focus on “MY WORD”!  Yes, he is the “master deceiver”, but I seem to yeild to his deception far too easily when it comes to choosing the path I need to be traveling.  Why do I do that which seems correct rather than obey “MY WORD”???

FATHER IN HEAVEN, cause my weaknesses to become stronger and my wishes to be replaced with “MY (YOUR) WORD”!!!