Asking God Questions

This is from my friend, Jon Clayton, over at http://laboringinthelord.com/

Me: God, can I ask you a question?

God: Sure.

Me: Promise you won’t get mad.

God: I promise.

Me: Why did you let so much stuff happen to me today?

God: What do you mean?

Me: Well, I woke up late.

God: Yes.

Me: My car took forever to start.

God: Okay.

Me: At lunch they made my sandwich wrong and I had to wait.

God: Huummm.

Me: On the way home, my phone went dead, just as I picked up a call.

God: All right.

Me: And on top of it all, when I got home I just wanted to soak my feet in my new foot massager and relax, but it wouldn’t work!!! Nothing went right today! Why did you do that?

God: Let me see, the Death Angel was at your bed this morning and I had to send one of the other angels to battle him for your life. I let you sleep through that.

Me: (humbled): Oh…

GOD: I didn’t let your car start because there was a drunk driver on your route that would have hit you if you were on the road.

Me: (ashamed)

God: The first person who made your sandwich today was sick and I didn’t want you to catch what they have, I knew you couldn’t afford to miss work.

Me: (embarrassed): Ok…

God: Your phone went dead because the person that was calling was going to give false witness about what you said on that call, I didn’t even let you talk to them so you would be covered.

Me: (softly) I see God.

God: Oh and that foot massager, it had a shortage that was going to throw out all of the power in your house tonight. I didn’t think you wanted to be in the dark.

Me: I’m sorry God.

God: Don’t be sorry, just learn to trust me…..in all things, the good and the bad.

Me: I will trust you.

God: And don’t doubt that my plan for your day is always better than your plan.

Me: I won’t God. And let me just tell you God, thank you for everything today.

God: You’re welcome child. It was just another day being your God, and I love looking after my children.

Spurgeon on John 14:26

“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” (John 14:26, NKJV)

“This age is peculiarly the dispensation of the Holy Spirit, in which Jesus cheers us, not by His personal presence, as He shall do by-and-by, but by the indwelling and constant abiding of the Holy Ghost, who is evermore the Comforter of the church.

It is His office to console the hearts of God’s people. He convinces of sin; He illuminates and instructs; but still the main part of His work lies in making glad the hearts of the renewed, in confirming the weak, and lifting up all those that be bowed down.

He does this by revealing Jesus to them. The Holy Spirit consoles, but Christ is the consolation.

If we may use the figure, the Holy Spirit is the Physician, but Jesus is the medicine. He heals the wound, but it is by applying the holy ointment of Christ’s name and grace. He takes not of His own things, but of the things of Christ. So if we give to the Holy Spirit the Greek name of Paraclete, as we sometimes do, then our heart confers on our blessed Lord Jesus the title of Paraclesis. If the one be the Comforter, the other is the Comfort.

Now, with such rich provision for his need, why should the Christian be sad and desponding? The Holy Spirit has graciously engaged to be thy Comforter: dost thou imagine, O thou weak and trembling believer, that He will be negligent of His sacred trust? Canst thou suppose that He has undertaken what He cannot or will not perform? If it be His especial work to strengthen thee, and to comfort thee, dost thou suppose He has forgotten His business, or that He will fail in the loving office which He sustains towards thee? Nay, think not so hardly of the tender and blessed Spirit whose name is “the Comforter.”

He delights to give the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Trust thou in Him, and He will surely comfort thee till the house of mourning is closed for ever, and the marriage feast has begun.”

Charles Spurgeon

Freedom from Tyranny

“The LORD is gracious and full of compassion,
Slow to anger and great in mercy.
The LORD is good to all,
And His tender mercies are over all His works.” (Psalms 145:8-9, NKJV)

Today, because of the Grace of God, our Nation celebrates independence from tyranny. Yet real independence from tyranny comes from Jesus Christ, who has set all who believe free from sin’s dominion.

Many have paid with their lives for our earthly freedom. Jesus Christ paid with His life for our eternal freedom.

Thank you Father for your tender mercies over us all.

Forgiveness

“If You, LORD, should mark iniquities,

O Lord, who could stand?

But there is forgiveness with You,

That You may be feared.” (Psalms 130:3-4, NKJV)

“…forgiveness is not a blessing to be taken lightly, for it cost God His Son; therefore, we ought to love and fear God. If you take seriously the guilt of sin, you will take seriously the grace of forgiveness. Salvation is a serious and costly transaction.” – Warren Wiersbe

“The doctrine here is the doctrine of John: ‘If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.’ ‘Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord hath spoken!’ Jesus has died for our sins; therefore God can be just, and yet the justifier of him who believeth in Jesus.” – Adam Clarke

Forgiveness, true and real forgiveness, only exists in Christ. You see, God is the only being capable of truly forgiving sin and remembering it no more. As much as we love our spouse, we are reminded of the hurts of the past, thought we have forgiven them. Fanny Crosby, the great hymn writer who was blinded as a child, was reminded of someone who have sinned against her. Asked is she remembered the incident, she replied, “I remember that I have forgiven them.” There will always be a reminder of the sins others have committed against us in the past and, like Fanny Crosby, I pray that my remembrance would be that I have forgiven them.

Yet, not so with God. For those who have sought His forgiveness, the Bible records many responses like these:

“For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” (Jeremiah 31:34, NKJV)

“You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.” (Micah 7:19, NKJV)

“As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.” (Psalms 103:12, NKJV)

“…For You have cast all my sins behind Your back.” (Isaiah 38:17, NKJV)

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9, NKJV)

All believers struggle with sin after coming to Christ. It is a fact. We don’t want to, but we do. And as a result, we condemn ourselves and the enemy of our faith seeks to condemn us as well. However, read 1 John 1:9 again and ask yourself a couple of questions:

1. Who is John writing to?
2. What is the amount of forgiveness promised regarding sin?

Truth is, John is writing to Christians. And the promise of forgiveness is for ALL sin. When Jesus died for our sins, which one’s did He die for? ALL of them. Now, that is not a license to sin, but a glorious promise for all of us who struggle with wanting to do the right thing, but too often end up doing the wrong thing.

“But there is forgiveness with You, That You may be feared (reverenced).” Stand in awe at the forgiveness our Awesome God bestows on those who seek Him.

Think about it…

Time Out

I’ll be taking some time off from blogging. Nothing’s wrong, just need a break. Grace and peace…

Sunday Spurgeon

“Salvation is of the Lord.” — Jonah 2:9

Salvation is the work of God. It is He alone who quickens the soul “dead in trespasses and sins,” and it is He also who maintains the soul in its spiritual life. He is both “Alpha and Omega.” “Salvation is of the Lord.”

If I am prayerful, God makes me prayerful; if I have graces, they are God’s gifts to me; if I hold on in a consistent life, it is because He upholds me with His hand. I do nothing whatever towards my own preservation, except what God Himself first does in me. Whatever I have, all my goodness is of the Lord alone. Wherein I sin, that is my own; but wherein I act rightly, that is of God, wholly and completely. If I have repulsed a spiritual enemy, the Lord’s strength nerved my arm.

Do I live before men a consecrated life? It is not I, but Christ who liveth in me. Am I sanctified? I did not cleanse myself: God’s Holy Spirit sanctifies me. Am I weaned from the world? I am weaned by God’s chastisements sanctified to my good. Do I grow in knowledge? The great Instructor teaches me. All my jewels were fashioned by heavenly art. I find in God all that I want; but I find in myself nothing but sin and misery. “He only is my rock and my salvation.”

Do I feed on the Word? That Word would be no food for me unless the Lord made it food for my soul, and helped me to feed upon it. Do I live on the manna which comes down from heaven? What is that manna but Jesus Christ himself incarnate, whose body and whose blood I eat and drink?

Am I continually receiving fresh increase of strength? Where do I gather my might? My help cometh from heaven’s hills: without Jesus I can do nothing. As a branch cannot bring forth fruit except it abide in the vine, no more can I, except I abide in Him. What Jonah learned in the great deep, let me learn this morning in my closet: “Salvation is of the Lord.”

(from Spurgeon’s Morning & Evening, PC Study Bible formatted electronic database Copyright © 1999, 2003 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Saturday Static