9 And returned from the sepulchre, and told all these things unto the eleven, and to all the rest.
10 It was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women that were with them, which told these things unto the apostles.
11 And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not.”
Were you ever told something that you simply could not believe? I have. In fact, there have been several things that have occurred in my life that I simply could not believe. One was when a friend and I were told that the church where we were conducting a meeting wanted to send us to New York with an offering for Billy Graham. (It never happened.) Another was
when Charley Riggs appointed me to two chairmanships in the Billy Graham Crusade in St. Louis. Another was when I was selected at age 29 to participate in the Missouri-Australia Crusade of 1984. And the list goes on….
You would think that the apostles of Jesus would have had no problem believing that He had risen from the dead, but they did! They had walked with Him for three years. They had heard His messages to the people, and witnessed scores of miracles He performed. They had even heard Him say that He would die and rise again; yet, now they are having difficulty believing that He was actually alive from the dead, as He had said.
Do you believe that the LORD created “the heavens and the Earth”? Do you believe that Jesus lived on this Earth and brought to us the message of Salvation? Do you believe that Christ Jesus loves you? Do you believe that He has a plan for your life? Do you believe that He can do things through you — things that will ultimately accrue to His glory?
If you believe all of the above, why are you trying to do for yourself what only Christ can do? Don’t be like those early apostles, who didn’t believe He was risen from the dead. Trust Him with your life! Trust Him with the ministry He has invested in you! On what basis can you justify not believing in Him? Has He ever failed you?
As a college student, I drove a considerable distance to preach in a church. I had enough gasoline in my car to get there, but not enough to get back. I was relatively certain that the church would take an offering for me –but would it be in cash or in an check? It was in a check. How was I to cash the check at night? I literally had NO money! I was in my car and ready to leave, when a man rushed out of the church and to my car. “They didn’t give you enough,” he said. And he handed me $50.00 in cash!
Learn to believe God! Lean on Him alone. After all, when He raised Himself from the dead, what is there that He cannot do?
John 15:12-14, “’This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.
13 ‘Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.
14 ‘You are My friends, if you do what I command you.’”
There is nothing like a friend. Solomon said, “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity” (Prov. 17:17); and, “…there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother” (Pro. 18:24b).
I am still receiving cards of condolence in the mail. Emails fill my inbox, asking how I am doing. Phone calls have swarmed my cell, leaving me no choice but to temporarily avoid them in order to maintain control of myself. So, while I have not replied appropriately to all who have lovingly contacted me, I know who you are: you are my friends! –our friends; and we love you for it!
The counsel I have received has come from family and long-time Christian friends. I have not crossed the mark where grieving has totally past, but the very thought of Rose Marie being in Jesus’ presence is my constant consolation.
Let me urge you to cherish our LORD’s commandment that we “love one another.” The word “love” is the Greek word agape, which intends and offers the best to the other person, and expects nothing in return.
The Apostle John warns: “Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 Jn. 2:15). Whatever our lot, whatever our fate, we can face it victoriously if we possess the love of the Father within us! “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might” (Eph. 6:10).
This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you” (Jn. 15:12-14).
I love you and pray for you daily wherever you are!
Matthew 4:23, “And Jesus was going about in all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people.”
Purpose is the key to activities. Everything we do, we do with a purpose. Even not doing something has a purpose. So, what was Jesus’ intention while He was on Earth? First, He taught the Scriptures in Jewish synagogues. Jesus was Jewish, and it’s reasonable to believe that He went to the Jews first because they had only one God.
The Jewish community, however, did not always receive His message well. The Gospel He proclaimed was different from that to which they had become accustomed. On more than one occasion, Jesus’ message provoked Jewish anger, and they sought to do away with Him.
The Jews of Jesus’ day were not much different than the Gentiles of today. Pastors often encounter adversity when they preach the Truth of Scripture. Scripture is condemning. It tells us that we are all sinners in God’s sight and that we need to repent, renounce sin, and
accept Him as our LORD and Savior.
Have you noticed how we don’t like to be told when they are wrong? They want to be right on their terms, not on God’s terms. Moreover, Jesus was preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom. He was introducing the Message that was prophesied in the Old Testament. Had the Jewish community understood the prophesies of the Old Testament, they would have readily received Jesus as their Messiah. How much we all miss because we refuse to understand what we think we don’t like or need.
Jesus’ healing was real; yet, the true purpose of His healing was to support His message. He knew that healing would cause all the people, Jews and Gentiles, to believe what He said. He was not limited in what He could do. Nor is He limited today. Why then, are not more people healed of their infirmities? They either do not believe or they believe for the wrong reasons. We say we believe, but we don’t really.
If our beliefs are weak, how do we strengthen them? We strengthen them through serious study of the Scriptures! How much do you read the Bible? How much do you meditate on what you read in the Bible? How seriously do you seek to apply the Scriptures to your life? Reading the Bible strengthenes your belief in Christ! Trust Him completely! Learn to lean on Him to teach and train you. You will be amazed at what He enables you to become.
Jeremiah 33:3, “’Call to Me, and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’”
Several years ago, on one of our mission trips to Mexico, I was informed upon arrival that I was to speak to a plenary session of the Annual Missionary Conference that was in session. For some time, the LORD had been infusing some thoughts into my mind –thoughts that I came to understand He had been preparing in me for my address to these missionaries.
That day, while the missionaries were at lunch, I wandered through the conference room, with the specific purpose of learning what they were currently reading. To my amazement, the books were clearly in line with what the LORD had been preparing me to say.
Years have passed, and thus I have forgotten many of the specifics of that meeting. What I do recall, however, is the basic thesis of my address. It was: “We’ve got to be something before we can do something,” and “We’ve got to become nothing before we can become something.”
What was said that day resonated well with my hearers. It now occurs to me that the same message is applicable to those who would wish to have power with God. Far too often we’ve attempted to do something for the LORD without belonging to Him as we had ought. When failure occurrs, we adjust our thinking to the belief that what we had attempted was not His will — not His will for us, or simply not His will for that time. While these are feasible conclusions, it is also more than possible that we were attempting to do a good thing in our own strength instead of in His.
During our time in Australia, the Australian Baptist carried a story of Southern Baptist missionaries working in Southeast Asia. You could almost “feel” the vibration of the missionary’s excitement as he wrote, “We have tried for so long to accomplish this; we finally just gave it over to the LORD. What we were unable to realize in 20 years, the LORD did inside of two weeks!”
The missionaries had simply come to the end of themselves; they were “shut up to faith.” Having thought they were out there to accomplish something for God, He demonstrated that they were out there to learn of Him.
This is a practical principle of basic Christian theology. What is more, it translates well into the arena of prayer. When we become what He saved us to become –spiritual children, who are totally dependent upon their Heavenly Father– He demonstrates to us and through us who He really is and what He can do. Prayer is therefore dependent upon our yieldedness to Him. The more like Christ we become, the more anxious the Father is to respond to our prayers. The more like Christ we become, the greater His responses to our prayers. For it is then that the indwelling Holy Spirit is doing the asking. And the Father has pledged to answer all of His requests.
Yes, there is reality and power in prayer. We simply must not forget the righteousness that is to characterize our lives; for that righteousness –the LORD’s righteousness– enables our prayer. It also enables the LORD’s willingness to respond.
Want answers to your prayers? Yield yourself to Him! He loves to answer you!
1 Samuel 26:23a, “…the LORD will repay each man for his righteousness and his faithfulness.”
”Just show me once how to do it, and I can do it by myself.” Did you ever say that? Well, with some people that will work; with some others, things need to be shown to them again and again. Take righteousness, for example.
Righteousness embraces honesty, justice, and righteous acts that prove to be wholly true in the lives of those who follow the LORD. Furthermore, Solomon said, “And the desire of the righteous will be granted” (Proverbs 10:24).
Hebrews 11, in the New Testament, offers us a close look at several, Old Testament personalities whose lives exemplify the righteousness that is required by the LORD for us all. A careful examination of these lives reveals the righteousness that characterize life and enabled prayer to become effective.
1. Abel (Hebrews 11:4)
By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks.
While the etymology of his name is uncertain, obedience in faith is the key to Abel’s characterization as “righteous.” Obviously, the LORD had carefully and properly instructed both Abel and his brother, Cain, regarding what and how they were to approach Him through sacrifice. Proof of Divine preparation lies in the fact that faith is man’s willful response to God’s revelation. In other words, God reveals to man what He is going to do, and man responds in accordance with what God reveals. The LORD’s consistency in this pattern throughout the Scriptures is additional support to the proposition that faith is obedience to His revealed will.
Solomon said, “A good name is to be more desired than great riches…” (Proverbs 22:1a). Abel gained that “good name” from the LORD Himself. Who else could have declared Abel “righteous” except the LORD? And that righteous declaration was the result of having lived the life of faith.
2. Enoch (Hebrews 11:5)
By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death; and he was not found because God took him up; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God.
Genesis 5:21-24 gives us all the Old Testament has to say about Enoch. Because he lived a life of faith toward God, the LORD raptured him into Heaven without his going through the veil of death.
“Pleasing” is the designation given to Enoch. It is significant that the word may also be translated as “acceptable.” One must be righteous to be acceptable to God. When we are deemed righteous by Him, we become effective for Him in many ways. This again explains the fortitude of prayer.
The concept of “walking” with God carries the idea of fellowship. Enoch fellowshipped with God! Think of that! The Master Designer of the Universe –a universe man has yet to fathom– allowed a mere mortal, Enoch, to fellowship with Him. In my brief lifetime, I have had the opportunity to be in the presence of and fellowship with some notable personalities. But, the fellowship of Enoch with the LORD excels us all!
Can anyone dare to believe that Enoch and God did not agree –this Pure and Holy God and this sinful, mortal man? And that agreement is the element of faith.
3. Noah (Hebrews 11:7)
By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
Although each of these personalities offers us a lesson in faithful living, none is clearer for our understanding of faith than that of Noah. The warning the LORD gave him was His revelation. No one knows what God has in mind until He reveals it. We are not told all that God revealed to Noah; we only know that it was “about things not yet seen.”
Yet, Noah responded to what he had heard from the LORD: “In reverence (he) prepared an ark.” Out of his respect for God, Noah certified his belief in what God had told him was coming upon the Earth. A lot of us talk about our faith. Noah demonstrated his!
4. Abraham (Hebrews 11:8-10)
By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
It is not possible to include here even a small portion of all that is known about Abraham. To attempt it would be to dwarf our thesis in this small letter. It is sufficient for us to know that Abraham was previously known as Abram; that his earliest life was lived in Ur, where worship of the sun goddess occurred; and that he is known to Jews and Gentiles alike as the father of the faithful.
It was Abraham, who by faith was granted a son when both he and his wife, Sarah, were past the reproductive stage of life. It was Abraham, who faithfully brought his only son, Isaac, to the point of human sacrifice. Above all, it was Abraham, whose faith in the LORD led him to believe that were he to obey the LORD in the taking of Isaac’s life, the LORD Himself would raise Isaac from the dead. After all, were he himself and Sarah not “dead” reproductively when Isaac was physically born to them? That being so, the LORD would certainly raise Isaac from the dead, for Isaac had been divinely selected as Abraham’s son of promise and as Abraham’s progeny for all successive generations. What a colossal personality Abraham was! How greatly he challenges us to believe God!
5. Sarah (Hebrews 11:11-12)
By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised; therefore, also, there was born of one man, and him as good as dead at that, as many descendants as the stars of heaven in number, and innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore.
Sarah’s inclusion in the early personalities of Hebrews 11 serves as a clear signal of how the LORD’s view of human life differs considerably from our own.
The Genesis reading of Sarah’s attitude doesn’t leave us with the thought that she was at all faithful. Having lived in the disgrace of childlessness almost her whole life, she laughed when she heard she was to bear a son! She was too old! This was just impossible. Fearful of the consequences of her sin of disbelief, she lied when she was confronted about having laughed. In fact, it had been Sarah’s idea for Abraham to take Hagar as “a second womb” in the hope of aiding the LORD in the fulfillment of His own promise. Talk about a lack of faith! Her insistence of this unprescribed union flew directly in the Face of Almighty God! Did she not believe He could fulfill His own promises? Indeed, she did not. Therein lies her gravest sin.
Yet, the LORD views Sarah as faithful and inspires the Apostle Paul to include her as such in his Letter to the Hebrews.
As strangely as this resonates in our current culture, the LORD led the Apostle Peter to commend Abraham’s obstreperous nephew as “righteous Lot” in his Second Letter to the Jewish believers of New Testament times. Thus, whatever elements of unseen faith Sarah possessed earlier, God saw them and rewarded her accordingly. She had come to regard faithfully His promise.
Are there not times when we find it hard to believe that the LORD will act in a difficult situation? In those instances we can understand Sarah. Are there not times when we believe the LORD will act, despite the cries to the contrary from others around us? In those instances we can understand a small part of God.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Neither are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD (Isaiah 55:8)
Beyond these initial Old Testament personalities, listed in Hebrews 11, Paul lists others, such as Jacob, Joseph, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, and Samuel. Then his lists events without naming those coupled with the events. We can, however, in many instances, make a credible guess at their names.
Apostles Paul and Peter were both believed to have been executed during the horrifying reign of Nero (A.D. 67-68). Paul was beheaded; Peter crucified, but upside down, saying himself that he was not worthy to be crucified in the same manner as his LORD.
James, the son of Zebedee, was executed by Herod Agrippa I around A.D. 44. Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, is reported to have been crucified in Patrae in Achaia. Philip is believed to have died in Hierapolis. Matthew is said to have died as a martyr in Ethiopia. Thomas, whose ministry extended as Far East as India, was slain with a lance. James, the son of Alpheus (also known as Thaddeus), was thrown from the temple heights, stoned and beaten to death with a club. Judas Iscariot, the betrayer of Jesus, died by his own hand. Of Bartholomew and Simon the Canaanite, there is no recorded information regarding their deaths.
How do you feel after reading all of this? Do you still have pride in yourself? Are you still
on that self-made pedestal you built for yourself? I doubt it! We’re more likely ready than not to fall at His feet and cry, “LORD, be merciful to me, a sinner.”
Love and prayers for you as you faithfully follow Him.
