Brown's Daily Word 2-15-08

Praise the Lord for His faithfulness. He is always in His time as He intervenes in our lives and situations. His delays are not His denials.
Ray Stedman, a pastor, says that the most difficult thing to handle as a Christian is “when God does not do what I have been taught to expect him to do; when God gets out of line and does not act the way he ought.”[Ray Stedman, God’s Strange Ways" Sometimes you may think that God doesn’t care about you. In fact, sometimes it seems the circumstances of your life don’t seem to allow for any other explanation. When you are being ravaged by the events of your life, it is very difficult to believe that God’s silences and delays are really evidences of His love. Yet they often are.
One of the great SIGNS, the Lord Jesus performed, before His final journey to Jerusalem, is found on John 11. Lazarus, the one whom Jesus loved, was dying. This is a problem we can all identify with, for death intrudes into all our lives and we find those closest to us snatched from our sides by accident, sickness or death. In such moments, some question the presence or love of God. Others, even those who do not doubt the love of God and His faithfulness, find their faith tested.
“Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.(3) Therefore, the sisters sent to Him, saying, 'Lord, behold he whom You love is sick.'”
Because Jesus loved Lazarus one of the obvious things we should note here is that sickness comes into every home, even including those in which Jesus is loved. Although Jesus loved Lazarus, that did not prevent his sickness. In verse four we are told, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” This verse would answer all those who would state that sickness is never the will of God for a believer, that it is wrong to be sick, that is due to a lack of faith, some hidden sin or the judgment of God. But the words of Jesus about Lazarus are unmistakable, that not all sickness is a sign of unbelief or lack of faith. Such a position is not only unscriptural, but hurtful and dangerous.
Not only do those even those Jesus loves get sick, but God’s timing is frequently different than ours! (vv. 5-7) “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. (6) So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was. (7) Then after this He said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.”
I am convinced at least in my own mind that the sisters assumed that Jesus would do one of two things; He would either come as quickly as he could or he would send word by a messenger that He was coming shortly, but this is not what happened. Verse five begins by telling us that Jesus loved Lazarus and his sisters. Then verse six begins with the connecting word “so” or in the King James Version it is “Therefore.” “So” or “because” Jesus “loved” this family he did not immediately make his way to Bethany. It is all the more incredible to us that although Jesus loved this family he did not hurry to Bethany but rather stayed two days were he was.
Likewise, we sometimes find ourselves in trouble and fire off a prayer but find that He does not seem to hear. At those times we are tempted to think that God just does not care. The circumstances at such a time don’t seem to allow for any other explanation. When you are being ravaged by the events of your life, it is very difficult to believe that God’s silences and delays are really evidence of his love. Yet, when we examine His decision in the text to wait, is it a heartless response to the urgent cry of His beloved friends? No of course not!
R. Kent Hughes says, “From ground level it sometimes appears to us that even though we are Christ’s children and we love him, he does not care about us any more. At times humanly speaking, our circumstances seem to admit no other interpretation than that. I think about Joseph being sold by his brothers into slavery. He ended up in Potiphar’s household, by hard work, integrity, and devotion he rose to the top - only to be toppled because he would not compromise himself with Mrs. Potiphar. As a result, he ended up in a foul Egyptian jail. From ground level it appeared that God had forsaken him. Joseph had honored God as a young man, but it seemed God did not care about him any longer. When a child dies in his mother’s arms as she cries to God for help and the ambulance lies stalled two blocks away, we wonder if God cares. When a Christian is falsely accused and pleads with God to bring the evidence to clear him and it is only after his reputation is ruined that the evidence comes, we wonder if God cares. When we plan some great event for God and the whole thing falls through, we wonder if God cares. We must be honest and admit that at ground level there are times when it is very difficult to keep believing in the goodness of God.” [R. Kent Hughes. John: That You Might Believe. (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 1999) p.p. 281-282]
What we find in John 11 elevates our perspective. It explains to Christians that no matter how it may appear that these unexplained delays are delays because of God’s love. No set of circumstances, including God’s seeming silences and delays, are evidence that he has abandoned us. Paul reassures us in Romans 8:35, 37-39, “Who (or what) shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ...(37) Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. (38) For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, (39) nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God.” Our death or that of our loved ones, even if it should be sooner than expected, does not reflect unfavorably on Jesus’ care for us.
Martha and Mary must have been clearly mystified as to why Jesus was taking so long in getting back to Bethany - if not to cure Lazarus, then at least to comfort them. They probably went outside each hour to see if their Lord was approaching, then back in to Lazarus whose life was ebbing away, then went out again to look for Jesus. Each day they watched the road, looking for Jesus. One day came and went. No Jesus! A second day came and went. No Jesus. Lazarus, died and was buried and still no Jesus! These four days have been especially difficult for them. But then Jesus came!
In John 11 verse seventeen we read, “So when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb four days. (18) Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles away. (19) And many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother. (20) Now Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him, but Mary was sitting in the house. (21) Now Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. (22) But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.” (23) Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” (24) Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” (25) Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. (26) And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (27) She said to Him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”
Weeping may tarry for the night , but the Joy comes in the morning. Jesus came, He saw and He conquered death.
In Him,
Brown



TODAY'S LAUGH
You May Choose First
The story is told of two polite people who were having dinner together. On the table there was a dish with one big piece of fish and one small piece of fish.

They politely said to each other: "You may choose first."

"No, you may choose first."

This went on for a while. Then the first person said, "OK, I'll take first." And he took the BIG piece of fish.

The second person said, "Why did you take the big piece? That's not polite!"

The first person said, "Which piece would *you* have taken?"

The second person replied, "Why, I would have taken the SMALL piece, of course."

The first person said, "Well, that's what you have now!"