Wednesday, May 9, 2012

You're not alone

        
            A.W. Tozer says there was a, “time when time was not.” This is a pretty deep notion, and perhaps a difficult one to even comprehend since we live in a time focused life. Very few of us are capable of functioning without a watch or a time-stamp on the screen of our cell phone. Yet, truly, there was a “time when time was not.” During that non-time period the only thing in existence was the Almighty, His Son (the WORD) and the Spirit (which may have been Wisdom since Proverbs says Wisdom was around before the earth).
            So, “In the beginning was the WORD,” John 1:1 says. Therefore, it is reasonable to ascertain that the Messiah existed before time existed; He was part of the plan before the concept of time was. That amount of pre-planning requires some sort of amazing ability to know the whole story before the story even begins. Guess what, that’s what our Father is able to do! He is able to see the whole span of your life before it even begins, He knows every decision you will ever make, every mistake, every stumble, every trial and every blessing that will come along the way. He knows it all!
            He decided to create man, and with that decision, told Himself, His Son and His Spirit, “Let us make man in our image,” (Genesis 1:26). This is an interesting concept, but if we go with the presupposition that the Spirit is the Wisdom spoken about in Proverbs, we can then apply the thought that this is the female side of our King. Solomon refers to Wisdom in the feminine tense and this would make sense due to the fact that Genesis says, “Male and female He created them,” (Genesis 5:2). So, if male and female are created in the great I AM’s image, somewhere within Him is a feminine side, thusly the reference to Wisdom in feminine form.
            Alright, so now there are men and women on the planet, time has come into play…man and woman then destroy the purity prepared for them by allowing the introduction of sin into the world. Time passes, and now, it’s you’re turn to exist. Well, as we’ve stated before, He knows your whole life before it begins and Scripture backs that thought when it says, He knows the plans He has for you (Jeremiah 29:11). The best part of that verse of course, is the rest of it, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope
and a future.” Unfortunately, we seem to forget that promise when the things in life begin to weigh us down, when we are confronted with bad news after bad news. The TRUTH though is that our King does not lie and even though the things that bog us down seem to be for our harm, indeed somewhere in the midst of them are His plans to make us better, more righteously minded people; plans to prosper us.
            Nothing you go through in your life is any different that anyone else in the past, present or future is going through. The Ecclesiastical writer informs us that there is nothing new under the sun everything that has been will be (Ecclesiastes 1:9). No doubt there have been times in your life that it felt like no one on earth could possibly understand your predicament, the pain and sorrow within your heart, or body, but the TRUTH is, nothing you are experiencing, hasn’t been experienced by someone before you. For some people this might bring comfort, the knowledge that you are not alone in the trials, temptations and heartbreaks of life. For others, this concept might be a little depressing, thinking that nothing in the world ever changes, but the fact of the matter is, it isn’t the experience that has to be different, it’s your reaction to the situation. You have the power to view this challenge through the lens of Scripture which tells you that He’s planning good for you, not evil.

Face it...

 
    
This is a topic that regularly comes up in conversation, particularly when discussing Faith with a non-believer. We tend to view our lives on a scale of 1 to 10. A one in this grand scheme of things would be a Charles Manson, or Jack the Ripper, or some other atrocious villain. A ten on the scale would be someone like Mother Teresa or in some people's minds, Princess Di. However, our Father has no such scale, there is no spectrum of goodness as He looks down on us from on high.
     The only scale He considers is the one set by His Son, and that's really no scale at all since the Messiah was and is absolutely perfect. So, when the King of all existence sees us measly mortals, the Scriptures say He's too pure to even look on our vileness (Habakkuk 1:13). We are also told that all sin looks the same to Him, it's all scarlet , crimson (Isaiah 1:18), basically it looks like blood, perhaps because it is our sin that created the need for the shedding of His blood.
     While certainly there are non-believers walking around thinking they are good people, there are also those of the Faith that traverse this planet thinking they are better people. Some believers have taken a position that implies some sins are worse than others. This is simply not the case (as pointed out in the previous Scriptures). We are told that all have fallen short (Romans 3:23), that we all have messed up royally and it's only by the Grace of the King that we're saved (Ephesians 2:8).
    
We're not saved because we messed up less than Charles Manson, indeed if he were to have a change of heart and come to the Faith, in truth, the Father would welcome him with open arms and the angels would rejoice (Luke 15:10). No body is any worse a sinner than anyone else - the bottom line is that we all suck and we are all in need of Savior, the Father knew it and that's why He sacrificed Himself, period.