There is a temptation to despair in this world. To let the tides pull us into tidal waves that try to take away our trust. People are often the currents pushing us towards despair, and it is in those moments we have to remember that God is with us, Christ Jesus our Lord is with us. His name Immanuel literally means “God With Us.” And Jesus even has us in it.
We are seeking a world wreathed in chaos and anger. People setting up pyres for whatever this month’s protest is to be. Injustice is all anyone sees, and I am reminded how so many have lost sight of what is important. Yes, there are problems and I am not advocating ostricism, but we as Christians are called to fix our eyes on, you should now the words by now, I have posted them often enough, “fix your eyes upon Christ, the author and perfect of our faith.” (Hebrews 12:2). Churches often have admirable goals, to feed the hungry, help the sick, and do good to widows and orphans, all that St. James would applaud (James 1:27), but if a church is not urging you in all that to keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, then you are in a boat that will surely sink, for Peter began to sink on the water when he took his eyes off Jesus, “Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me! Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?” (Matthew 14:29-30).
We can get distracted by good things such as charity work, Bible Study, community events, and more; and in the process not keep Christ the focal point. i remember there was popular acronym of my youth, WWJD or What Would Jesus Do? Well to know what He’d do you have to keep your eyes on Him. And so perhaps a better question is do you know Him? Jesus said, “This is eternal life, that they know you the Great God, and that they know Me.” (John 17:3). That know as I have said before is the greek Epignosko or Ginosko which means to know in intimacy like a spouse, not Gnosis which is to know about something academically, intellectually, and logically. It is a knowing that is deep, and relational. Because if we are not striving for that, what is the point? You can know the Old and New Testaments by heart, wax poetic verse for the Prince of Peace, and make music that rivals Handle’s Messiah, but if you do not know Him, what is it but empty vessels, cups that do not have his Living Water in them.
This has turned into an eclectic post, I know. Usually I have a theme, and focus on it, but at tihs moment I am Jazzing for Jesus, and these are some of the things I want to say. God can meet us in unexpected ways, I had a nephew estranged from me, who became critical of Christ as youths in High School are want to do, thanks to curriculums, and class mates; but he was hit was something physically hard, an injury that clipped those wings that adolescents fly on like Mercury, believing they can ignore the Messiah, and make a life of their own free of God’s Will. I am not happy he got injured, nor do I think God visited calamity on him, but I do cherish that it bridged our relationship, and that he is softening to the Savior. Many of us are all one step away, those who are not saints, from a life shattering moment, glimpse of God that tells us, “hey people, you do not have infinite time here.. putting off Jesus, and reconciling with God through faith in His Son is on a short time table..” As the Scripture says, “For he says, “In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation!” (2 Corinthians 6:2). Do not waste it! I have a deep knowledge of Scripture I owe to Matriarch and my studies in seminary part of my life, but I want to tell someone who might read this.. I have seen Christ, I have seen miracles, and prophecies told a decade or less before it happened, and there is no explanation other than The Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is the real deal, is truly God. I wish that people could have the experiences I have had, to truly know not just based on Scripture, that it is all real. I intend to write a book on these things, and I will make sure you readers of this blog can get a copy if you so wish, one day. Because as we know Satan can twist Scripture as he did in Wilderness to Jesus, and the World can try to snuff out the Truth of the Gospel with psychology from the pit of hell saying its hallucinations, but when you encounter God, his presence, and you see him do the unexplainable, to get details so right in prophecy, and you did not try to make them happen in a self fulfilling way because the technology appeared later to make the prophecy possible, then you truly know.. it is real, it is not myths by itinerate Jewish men, it is as Rich Mullins said, “It is the very Truth of God and not the invention of any man.” For the Bible has to be true on this basis alone, it does not gloss over the bad bits, it tells of Jacob the Liar, Lot the Incestor, Peter The Denier, Paul the Killer of Christians, and more. Cults that try to deceive write a story with the Hallmark highlights and fairytale Disney ending; but the Bible shows unvarnished people, who have one thing in common across over five millennia, they loved the Lord God, the True God. The Bible is not a book of crazy myths like those of Zeus and gods who seem worse than humans, nor is it some stoic Philosopher handbook meant to show us how to be Perfecti by good deeds. It is as Martin Luther The Reformer so aptly put it, “A love affair between God and his People, between God and His Creation.” God is like The Prophet Hosea, and we his Wife the Prostitute who keeps running away into other men’s arms (idols and etc), and He keeps buying us back out of slavery, He did it in Egypt with the Israelites, with Plagues, he bought them, and then on the Cross he bought us for eternity from the devil, with not plagues, but His Precious Blood. That is..the God.. we love. Amen.
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