Why Me?

“Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat” (Luke 22:31 NKJV)

One phone call can change your life; forever. One call bearing bad news and your life will never be the same. You are going through life doing the best you can and then, “Ka-pow!” A regular Monday or a lazy Tuesday with no expected events and then suddenly it happens. You can’t help but ask, “Why me?”

Now you may be a Super Saint and not say it, but for the rest of us, we generally have that thought. Job had a good life up until the day Satan asked to have a go at him. Peter loved Jesus and felt that he would even give his life for Him. Then Satan asked to have a go at him as well. The mysterious thing is, God let him. Why would God do such a thing? I don’t know. But He did it.

There are a lot of unanswered questions in regards to what God does or does not do. Even if we had the answer it would still not make sense to us. God has His reasons for doing what He does and allowing what He does. You and I just have to keep trusting Him. It is hard for us to accept that God has enough confidence in our trust in Him that He would allow such things to happen. But He does.

So the next time, or for the first time, the “thing” happens to you, or perhaps it already has; remember that it was run by God before it ever came upon you. Take out a coin the next time you need a reminder: In God we Trust.

Live and Learn

Those who learn from the lessons of life will join the others who are wise. (Proverbs 15:31 The Voice)

Things happen; we all realize that many of those things that happen to us personally are out of our control. We also know that the things which happen to us are not out of God’s control. When we think about some of the good things that happen to us it is easy to believe that God had a hand in it, but when bad things come our way it is harder to accept that He had anything to do with it. Truth is, nothing comes into our lives that He did not first know about. We may be surprised but He never is.

Life 101 is what I call life lessons. As long as we are alive we keep learning, or at least we should be learning. We can either learn from those things that come upon us or we can get angry about them, grieve over them, pretend like they never happened, or just try to forget them. The Bible teaches us what to do; learn from them. Some things happen because of poor choices or decisions we make; learn from them. Wise people are those who have not only gained knowledge in certain areas but know how to apply it in their lives.

God wants us to grow spiritually and one way we do that is by learning how to see things from His perspective. The next time something happens to you take a moment and seek to find out what lesson God would have you learn from it.

What Will It Take?

John 4: 4 (New Living Translation, NLT).

“Will you never believe in me unless you see miraculous signs and wonders?”

Seeing is believing; something I have heard a lot and more than likely so have you. With all of the technological advances in media today seeing can be deceiving. Computers have made it possible to create images that are manufactured and not real. Hoaxes and deceptions, magicians that make a living by causing us to not see things as they are but as they would have us believe they are. My point is, we can be fooled and are many times and therefore we have become skeptical of even what see this day and time.

Thomas was not willing to put his faith fully in Christ until he was able to “see and touch” the wounds of our Savior. It is interesting to note that Jesus never rebuked him for wanting to be sure but rather submitted Himself to the test. “Go ahead Mr. Thomas; put your finger in the nail wounds and the laceration in My side.” That was all it took for Thomas to conclude; “It is really You Jesus! You are actually back from the dead!”

What will it take for you today? What will it take before you believe that Jesus is real? That the Bible is true? That salvation is not just a religious term but actual rescue from hell? That you need to be saved?

What will it take for you to believe that God really loves and cares about you? That He really is concerned with those things that trouble you? That He really is willing and able to heal you, comfort you, protect you, guide you in your decision making, and can do that which you think is impossible?

Remember what Jesus told Thomas? “You are blessed Thomas because you have been able to do this, but the ones who will really be blessed are those who will never have the opportunity to do what you have done; yet they believe in Me anyway.” (My paraphrase of course).

A Declaration Of Independence

Galatians 5: 1 (New King James Version, NKJV).

Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

While in England many years ago my wife and I had lunch at a little cafe on Bentwaters Royal Air Force Base where my brother was stationed. They had British civilian waitresses working it. It was on the Fourth of July and there was a little carnival set up on the base just across the field. The waitresses were wearing “Uncle Sam” top hats decorated with stars and stripes. As one came over to us I asked her, “What do you think about all this celebration on the base here?” She simply said, “It’s a slap in the face it is!”

I thank God for our independence here in America. I am as big a Patriot as you will find. I come from a long line of military men. My dad and six of his brothers were all in World War II at the same time. I served in the Army as well. My brother retired from the Air Force. My son is serving in Kuwait with the Army today. We are proud to be Americans. For the life of me though I cannot imagine our forefathers intending our independence to be independent from God. They wanted freedom from religion and God led them to pursue it. We all need freedom from religion but we need dependence upon Christ.

Gods intent for mankind is to be free from religion but not from Him. The Apostle Paul referred to himself as a “slave to Christ.” Religion is of man but Christianity is of God. Religion brings bondage, Christianity gives freedom; free from religion. Jesus came that we may be set free from sin and eternal death. Salvation cannot be earned but is a free gift offered to us. The Cross is the true Statue of Liberty.

Why not pledge your allegiance to Christ today and declare your independence from sin?