Navigating our way in a difficult world with Jesus Christ

As is the case with most, if not all of us, we do not understand what God is doing in our lives until much later. Such was my experience in quite a dramatic way, this week. I had been mulling over a very popular Jamaican phrase all week, in fact, ever since I heard it expressed most forcibly, some time ago, by an inner city resident. " Trouble don't set like rain". In the sense that, unlike bad weather, which gives ample warning, trials in life, oftentimes appear unheralded.

So, out of the blue, a middle aged female patient, whom I subsequently discovered had been recently diagnosed with cancer, came into my office, and died on an examination bed, before I got to her - and she was rushed into the room by my staff, immediately on arrival. In fact, when I got there, her husband was quite unaware that she had died. After sharing with him the bad news, and spending time consoling the family, I returned and committed her, in prayer, to the Lord - both herself and her husband are Christians. Then we had to clear the waiting room to allow the undertakers to prepare and remove the body. As this was uncharted waters for all of us, ( first in all my years in private practice) I asked a pastor, who was a patient to come and pray for us, in the same room, for, as you can imagine, all of us were quite traumatised by this very dramatic event. Interestingly, during her prayers, the priest quoted Isaiah's famous words:

" For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are my ways your ways......."
Word from Isaiah 55, from which book, the Old Testament reading is taken, in my church, for this Sunday, and on which I had been reflecting deeply.

Especially;

" As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish.......
so is my word that goes out of my mouth;
it will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it."



A revelation which greatly encouraged me in understanding the divine assistance which this Internet Ministry receives from the Lord, and also the text message ministry.



After all of this was over, and I had time to catch my breath, I asked the Lord why He had sent this lady, not for my help, but to die in my office? And I got an answer. Eventually. In bits and pieces. A response, which all of us in Jamaica, where sudden death by the gun or on our roads, is now, unfortunately, a way of life, could do very well to ponder. But not only death. Life too. As for many around us, relationships go bad very suddenly and often without warning. And in many cases, there is nothing as devastating in life as what was perceived to be a good relationship, to suddenly and dramatically go sour . So too the advent of illness. Curable and incurable alike. Financial problems are legion in today's world. So we have much to think about in respect of " life coming at us very fast". And God knows.



But before I get to the answer to the question, again on reflection, He had prepared the way by placing in my heart, during my devotions one early morning the first few words of the chorus of an old hymn, which I had not sung for many years, and which words I could not recall. So Google came to the rescue, again, and I spent some time reflecting on this " gift" from the Lord.



Be not dismayed what e'er betide
God will take care of you:
Beneath His wings of love abide,
God will take care of you


Refrain


God will take care of you,
Through every day, over all the way:
He will take care of you,
God will take care of you



Through days of toil doth when heart doth fail,
God will take care of you:
When dangers fierce your path assail,
God will take care of you.


Refrain

All you may need He will provide,
God will take care of you:
Nothing you ask will be denied,
God will take care of you



Refrain



No matter what may be the test,
God will take care of you:
Lean, weary one, upon His breast,
God will take care of you



Refrain



THE ANSWER:



This morning, in the early hours of the day, the Lord, after leading me to reflect on a meditation

from Chris Tiegen, led me through the Beatitudes, as written by Matthew, and the ensuing
chapters ( 5-7) and taught me so much, how a life dedicated to knowing Him and serving Him, is so very different from life in this world - counter-culture is the word used by John Stott to describe this particular aspect of Jesus' teachings. And the one verse of Scripture which seems so relevant to this issue of ," Trouble don't set like rain", was :


" Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough troubles of its own." Matt. 6: 34. NIV



And, as I went for my exercise walk later, ( devotions come first - is what a good friend, who is now gone to glory, taught me many years ago) the companion verse came into my head.


" I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 17:33 NIV



What do I make of all of this? Firstly, that if we listen carefully, by placing a priority on hearing from Him, we will realize, over time, that God is always warning and instructing us. In many and different ways - through diverse circumstances and people. It therefore means that we have to believe that without His directions and guidance we would be lost in this world. That this world, without God, and even with Him, is a very dangerous place - both for body and soul.
But that even in the midst of the storms of life, in Christ Jesus, we are assured of the kind of peace which nothing on earth or in heaven can destroy.
Secondly, we have to develop, what Chris Tiegen calls " Holy Hunger" in order to hear from God, and whose meditation this morning led me to the Beatitudes - and more. A command which is also expressed in the latter part of Matthew's 6th Chapter:



" O you of little faith? So do not worry saying, " What shall eat? or 'What shall we wear? For the pagans run after all these things and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow .......troubles of its own"

Matt 6:30-34 NIV

The development of this Holy Hunger comes only as the Spirit of God lives in us by grace and by faith more and more each day. And, such a hunger is in great competition with the "hungers" of this world. For the new 3rd generation, G3 i -phones; for the new sexual and heightened sexual experience; for, not just better, but super returns on our investment; for the latest information on the Obama campaign - is McCain running? In fact, just for the political high, some would wish that the Obama /Clinton race was still on track. Hunger for the latest dance hall song or music video or movie; for the latest " suss" (gossip); and even in the church for more "excitement" in worship, in prayer and in the sermon; for a more charismatic and decisive leader who can deal with crime or the sub-prime mortgage crisis. The message is that only when we have, by God's grace, in and through Christ Jesus, overcome the beguiling, enticing, and very seductive "hungers" of this world, will we bear fruit, a hundred times over. And which theme is the central message in the gospel appointed for today from Matthew 13. For too many of us respond like the farmer who sowed the seed on the path and which was eaten by the birds, snatched away by the devil, on account of lack of understanding. And God had prophesied this fact a long time ago about those who were not willing to humble themselves and seek Him first above all else:



You will ever be hearing but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
For this people's heart have become calloused;
they hardly hear with their ears
and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
and hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them."

Matt 13:14-15. NIV


Others hear the word, but have no root ( hunger for excitement about God rather than for God Himself, who is found only in and through suffering with Christ Jesus) so when persecution and trouble - that don't set like rain - comes, they fall away and bear no fruit. And still others have the word choked by the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth ( or other hungers). Only those, who in the Luke version of the story, have a noble and good heart ( hunger for God) , who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.
Pray God that as we, by grace, become more determined to know Jesus, at all cost,
as explained by Oswald Chambers in his book of meditations " My Utmost for His Highest",
we will bear fruits of righteousness in this beleaguered country, and indeed the entire world, where life comes at us at bewildering speed - and from so many different directions.

THE SPIRITUAL SAINT JULY 11

" That I may know Him"
Philippians 3:10

The initiative of the saint is not towards self-realization, but towards knowing Jesus Christ. The spiritual saint never believes circumstances to be haphazard, or thinks of his life as secular and sacred; he sees everything he is dumped down in as the means of securing the knowledge of Jesus Christ. There is a reckless abandonment about him. The Holy Spirit is determined that we shall realize Jesus in every domain of life, and He will bring us back to the same point again and again until we do. Self-realization leads to the enthronement of work. Whether it be eating, or drinking or washing disciple's feet, whatever it is, we have to take the initiative of realizing Jesus in it. Every phase of our actual life has its counterpart in the life of Jesus.. Our Lord realized His relationship to the Father even in the most menial work. Jesus knowing ....that he was come from God, and went to God, took a towel....and began to wash the disciples' feet.
The aim of the spiritual saint is " that I might know Him." Do I know Him where I am today? If not, I am failing Him. I am here not to realize myself, but to know Jesus. In Christian work the initiative is too often the realization that something has to be dome and I must do it. That is never the attitude of the spiritual saint; his aim is to secure the realization of Jesus Christ in every set of circumstances he is in.
Amen.