A gentleman wrote and asked, “How did you know that what you wrote about in Words for the Day today was exactly what I needed to hear this morning?”
Huh?
I didn’t, but he should feel very good about the fact that God did!
Some of you have been faithfully reading WFTD since its inception some 25 years ago. To be sure in all that time you have not agreed with everything that I’ve written, and let’s be frank about it, often you’ve had little to zero interest in what I’ve had to say about one subject or another.
So there’s a question that is nagging for an answer, “Why read it at all?”
Because there are those days when a posting hits home hard and you are deeply moved by something that was written and it is at those times that you have both laughed and cried with me. I know this because through the years many of you have written and said as much.
My assumption is that on those days that it hit home for you that God inspired me to write down exactly what you needed to hear that day. On the days that it did not pierce your heart, perhaps it did with someone else, including me. I don’t think God ever wastes this effort.
As most of you know I never plan what I’m going to write about in WFTD. I just get up in the morning and whatever is on my mind is what I write about. Maybe God put you on my mind this morning…
Have you ever been in a high state of anxiety or perplexed about some important matter and sought help from God’s word? And as you began thumbing through the Bible, suddenly for no apparent reason you stop and the exact answer to your dilemma is staring you in the face? It happens to me all the time. It’s no coincidence my friends. It’s God gently encouraging me.
I don’t know about you, but that makes the hair stand on end on my neck and makes me feel pretty doggone good. The Bible tells us that God loves us with a love that is incomprehensible. I can only imagine how busy He must be every day, but to think that almighty God would make the time to encourage me or teach me things is mind boggling.
In what I can only interpret as misplaced zeal some men of God want us to believe that our Lord is all about the concept that we must adhere to impossible laws or face eternal condemnation. Not true and don’t believe a word of it. It is what Jesus did on the cross that determines our eternal destiny. God realizes that try as we might we all have and will continue to sin and will come up short of the glory of God. I am convinced that if there ever was a “Mission Impossible”, following God’s word to the letter is it.
Think about it. If we could do so, there would not have been any reason for Jesus to come to this earth and give His life in exchange for our sins. We could have been good enough on our own to get into heaven. This is what the Pharisees couldn’t understand.
God is about compassion and not condemnation. Yes our sins will condemn us to hell, but if we ask for forgiveness, repent, and follow Jesus, the blood of Jesus will cover those sins and lead us to eternal salvation. Jesus paid the price for our sins when He sacrificed his life on the cross that is what allows our redemption.
Compassion!
The good news for us is that the work of Jesus did not stop on the cross. The Bible tells us that He is with us ALWAYS. That means that every second of every day for as long as our hearts keep beating He remains at our side encouraging us and teaching us how to follow His laws as closely as we can in order to avoid sin and thereby experience the peace, joy, and prosperity that He desires for us.
So-o-o-o-o-o-o-o If you are happy and you know it this morning, clap your hands, stomp your feet, and lift up your eyes to heaven, shout to the Lord and thank Him for caring for you and loving you as no one on this earth ever has or ever will.
This message was written specifically for YOU!
Matthew 28:20
Alone? Jesus said “I am with you always”