Someone Does Care

John 11:21 (NIV)
"Lord," Martha said to Jesus, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died." 

Who among us hasn't at one time or another said, "There has to be more to life than this!" A statement like this is often uttered while we are hanging on by a thread. We cry these words during the seasons in life when we are overcome by our own helplessness.

Have you ever found yourself in such a place of despair and grief?

When we don't have faith that there is Someone who will pull us out of our pit of misery, we are forced to wallow in our troubles. Many situations bring us to the place where we just want to lay down and let the world pass by. 

The day I found myself at this juncture, I knew I had a decision to make; either find a way to change, or drown in despair. Either climb out of the pit of meaninglessness and desperate living, or settle in and allow the quicksand of my life to swallow me whole.
Martha's words to Jesus are filled with sorrow. They are also filled with faith. She knew that Jesus did make the difference between life and death. The rest of her words in John 11:22 attest to this faith. "But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask." Martha understood that Jesus knew the Father intimately and spoke to Him constantly. 

It wasn't long after acknowledging the pain life was doling out, that I arrived at my first in-depth Bible study.  It was Breaking Free, by Beth Moore. The verses that spoke into my life and my heart that season were from Isaiah 61:1 and fulfilled in Luke 4:18 -- "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed..."

So, is your life filled with joy and hope, or are you still trying to climb out of that pit all on your own? Please connect with me, lets talk it over.

John 11:17-27

Turn this Mess into a Message

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. ⁶ In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety.This is the name by which he will be called: The Lord Our Righteous Savior.  Jeremiah 23: 5-6

Have you turned on the news lately?  Have you gone on Facebook and scrolled through your news feed?  The world is a scary place right now.  It seems that every few days another tragedy is taking center stage and lives are being forever changed.

It is so easy to feel hopeless and afraid if we only look through the temporal lens.  If we don’t go deeper than what humanity can accomplish, it looks as if all is lost.  Thankfully, God rose up for David “a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land.”

In the midst of evil and despair I have to constantly remind myself that, the LORD our Righteous Savior, Jesus, is still on the throne.  God is in total control.  We are not out of his reach.  His grace is still actively calling to us, drawing us closer to him and reaching those who do not yet know him.

Our response to the evil is to love as he loves us.  Don’t confuse my words please.  We are to love, because God is love and we are love like him.  We are not called to worship love.  Love is not God.  Love is not the answer, God is the answer and he calls us to love each other as he loves us.

How has he loved us? He thought of us first. He gave us Jesus; who left his place in heaven, limited himself by becoming man and ultimately dying for us.  We are called to live like that.  Think of others first, but in order to do that you have to cast off fear and trust that God is in control.

You must trust that God has you.  The mess in this world is not too big for our Righteous Branch.  Let’s let God turn this mess into a message!  Let’s share the message of hope to a hopeless world.