He is always "in control"!

It was only when I logged on to my Blogspot dashboard to start this post, that I noticed that the number of people who had accessed the previous one was a great big Zero! Now, I have had some posts that have been viewed by few people - but had never experienced a zero before. That was when I noticed that I had failed to publish the post!!!!! I had published it on other sites, but not on what should be its premier site! Duh!!!!! [Comments that refer, in any shape, manner, or form, to my advancing years will, obviously, be deleted!!].

Anyway, I am still being exercised by the thought of the absolute control of Almighty God. The recent flooding in parts of Israel, together with the "sabre-rattling" of certain national governments, reminded me of the story of some people who spotted a nine-year-old boy in a swollen river. He was struggling as hard as he could to stay afloat in the raging torrent, but did not have the strength to swim to the river's edge, even although it was only a few yards away. Rescuers quickly jumped in, and pulled him to safety. 

The boy, exhausted and bedraggled, lay panting on the riverbank. After he had recovered sufficiently, someone asked him, "Did you fall in?" "No," came the reply, "I just wanted to find out how strong the current was. I guess that I now know!"

Perhaps the first lesson that we all need to learn from that story is that we must be careful where we go! The adage is true - "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread" (it's not from the Bible, by the way!).  To deliberately place ourselves in temptation's path is to mock the providence of Father God!

However, the story illustrates something else. In Psalm 9, David sings about the strength of the omnipotent God, the creator, Ruler, and Judge of all of the universe. He describes what happens to those who decide to challenge His strength, or to exalt themselves above Him. They eventually find out how powerful He really is. They lose their thrones. Their kingdoms, or empires, crumble. Their armies collapse. Yet YHWH endures forever! 

"Thou hast rebuked the nations, Thou hast destroyed the wicked;" (v.5). 

However, David also provides another side to this all-powerful God. He portrays Him as the One Who protects, and cares for, those who take refuge in Him. "But the Lord sits enthroned for ever, He has established His throne for judgment; and He judges the world with righteousness, He judges the peoples with equity. The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble." (vs.7-9). 

The same God Whose power destroys evil, preserves what is good - and no-one can break through His protection, without His permission (remember Job!!). What a consoling, and strengthening, comfort it is to know that God's power can thwart the wicked, and protect the righteous! That is a God worth trusting. As we look around us, and see the increasingly rapid approach of the end of time, we may ponder the words of the un-named psalmist who penned Psalm 2:

« Why do the nations conspire,

and the peoples plot in vain? 

The kings of the earth set themselves,

and the rulers take counsel together,

against the Lord and His anointed, saying, 

"Let us burst their bonds asunder,

and cast their cords from us." 

He Who sits in the heavens laughs;

the Lord has them in derision. 

Then He will speak to them in His wrath,

and terrify them in His fury, saying, 

"I have set my King

on Zion, my holy hill." » (Ps. 2:1-6)

In a world of many superlatives, our God is still the greatest. Glory to His name!

The God-planned life.

In his poem "To a Mouse, on Turning Her Up in Her Nest With the Plough, November, 1785", the Scots Bard, Rabbie Burns makes this statement: "The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley," ("However well we make our plans, be we mice or men, they often go awry,").

This is something to which, I suspect, every one of us can testify! When I look back over my own life, I can see so many situations in which the plans that I so carefully laid, went completely and utterly "bottoms-up"! 

We may read about a man named Job in the Tanakh (the 'Old Testament' of the Christian Bible). His material wealth was such that he is described as "... the greatest of all the people of the east." (Job 1:3). He had a large family; thousands of animals; and many servants. It would certainly appear that all of his plans had worked out rather well! To top it all, we are informed that he "... was blameless and upright, one who feared God, and turned away from evil." (1:1). Yet, as we read the record - and it is well worth reading, to understand the real reason behind his situation - we discover that he lost all that he had, even his own good physical health.  Ultimately, it would seem, even this man's plans had gone awry!

However, read on. Listen to what his friends said; the counsel that they gave him. Even his wife seems to have turned against him (2:9) - but read his response! All hope seemed to be cut off; he was beset by difficulties; there appeared to be no way out. So what is Job's response? It is a heartfelt declaration of faith! "But [God] knows the way that I take; when He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold." (23:10).

Yes, everything was frustrating and baffling. It seemed that even the Lord had forsaken him. Humanly speaking, there was no future; no way out; no escape. Then, with the eye of faith, his vision pierced the gloom and rejoiced in the fact that God knows, and already sees, our future. He knows the end from the beginning. From His vantage-point of eternity, He sees all of our time simultaneously! Nothing ever takes Him by surprise. He is the "I AM" (see Ex.3:14); the One Who dwells in an eternal present! What a God! Job could not see one step in front of him - yet he was certain that the Lord was watching over him.

I wonder if you are in that sort of situation as you read this post. I know that my wife and I are currently there. The reason for which we truly believed that we were being called to live in France has gone. What seemed to be the possible alternative is not going as we had expected. What are we to do? What will befall each one of us is not yet revealed. But He knows, and so we turn to Him, saying with Job: "He knows the way." However sorely we may be tried and tested, we know that it will, ultimately, be for our own good, and to His glory for, "... when He has tried [us, we] shall come forth as gold."

Perhaps today will even be the day when we shall hear the sound of the shofar of God, and ascend to meet with the Lord Jesus "... in the air;" (I Thess.4:17), and we shall emerge as that 'gold' to shine, eternally, in His Kingdom! And "... we know that, when He appears we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." (I Jn.3:2). Faith will give way to sight, and doubts and fears will disappear. 

If I was forced to name one single favourite Christian song, it would be the beautiful (and poignant, if one checks the background story!) "When peace, like a river, attendeth my way; when sorrows, like sea billows, roll; whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to know, It is well, it is well with my soul". That peace comes from the certain knowledge that "He knows the way". May those words be your own strength, whatever your situation and circumstances. And to Him, be all the praise and the glory. 

A faltering faith.

Having succumbed to a bout of influenza, my time online has been severely curbed for almost a fortnight! I am still not "out of the woods", but want to publish a post or two before the month ends.

Earlier, in the post titled "Hype, or Hope?", I referred to a dear friend who has recently been diagnosed with what is, currently, inoperable cancer in both liver and a lung. I shared her admirable attitude that she is in a win-win situation. If the Lord spares her, she has more time with her husband and family. If He takes her home, she is with Jesus more quickly.

Just a couple of days ago, I was sent a video of the well-known Christian evangelist, Luis Palau.  He, too, has just been diagnosed with an advanced cancer - and his attitude is exactly the same! That, of course, is the way in which any true disciple of Jesus will face "the last enemy", knowing that the Saviour has already conquered it. (http://www.palau.org/luishealth for those who are interested.)

I've been reminded of a similar situation that I read about, many years ago. It's a true story told to illustrate a well-known Biblical record. In Matthew 14:22ff we read about the disciples, on their way across the Lake of Genneseret, in the face of rough waves and a strong wind. Then, "... in the fourth watch of the night [Jesus] came to them, walking on the sea." (v.24). They initially thought that they were seeing some kind of phantom but, when He assured them that it was He, Himself, impetuous Peter cried out: "Lord, if it is You, bid me come to you on the water.” (v.28). The invitation was extended and, we read: "... Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus;" (v.29). However, "... when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” Jesus immediately reached out His hand and caught him, saying to him, “O man of little faith, why did you doubt?”" (vs.30-31).

Many centuries later, a passenger boat was on a journey to Cleveland, Ohio, in the USA, when a terrible storm arose. Fearing that the ship would sink, all of the passengers, except one, gathered to pray (yes, there was a time when such a reaction would not have been remarkable!). That one elderly lady seemed to be totally unconcerned as she sat and quietly praised the Lord. When the danger had passed, some of her fellow-passengers asked her how she had been so peaceful in the face of her potential demise. "Well," she explained, "I gave birth to two daughters. One has gone to be with the Lord; the other lives in Cleveland. When our lives were threatened, I just wondered which I would meet first - the one in Cleveland, or the one in heaven. I would have rejoiced to see either!" Her unfaltering faith rested, with childlike simplicity, in the wisdom and purposes of her heavenly Father.

We may admire the response of Peter when the Lord Jesus invited him to walk on water. Soon, however, his original confidence gave way to fear, and he faltered in the crisis. Is it not true to say that most of us are like that?! Trusting Father God at first, our faith then begins to flicker when difficulties, and adversities, come.

May we be like that woman of an earlier generation; like my friend back on the UK; like evangelist Luis Palau; and have a faith that is firm - to the end! Remember, it's when we cease to look up that we begin to go down!