Brown's Daily Word 9-18-08

Good Morning,
Praise the Lord. The Lord whom we serve is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. Though He is eternal, and invisible He loves to encircle us with his love and grace. He delights in surrounding us with His power and mercy. He loves to restore broken lives and He loves to fill empty cups.
One day, several new converts came to a missionary and said, “One night we came to kill you as a missionary we hated. But when we came to your house, there were 28 large men standing around your house guarding it and we became afraid. We concluded that your God had set powerful guards around you and we came to worship Him." Then the men in Michigan who were listening to this missionary said, "Hey, That very day, we were praying for you." When the missionary asked them to stand up, there were 28 men in the congregation who stood, 28 who were praying for the missionary that very day. God uses our prayer in powerful ways that we may never learn about until we get to heaven. Jesus said, “He who believes in me the works that I do will He do also and greater works than these will He do because I go to the Father. And you can ask anything in my name and I will do it so the Son may bring glory to the Father." (John 14:12-14) I am in touch with some of the Christian leaders of Orissa, India on a daily basis. They are asking us to pray for them fervently so that the perfect plans of the Lord for the suffering and the persecuted Christians be accomplished. In the midst of all the brutalities and the blatantly inhuman situation, Christ will be glorified. The plans of the enemies of the Cross will be thwarted. Somehow the Lord would grant His people a sense of courage and a great sense of triumph. Let us Pray with confidence that the Omnipotent God will work through our prayers for the completion of His great Kingdom purposes. There are over 500 verses in the Bible that speak of the omnipotence of God. Although the word omnipotence is not used in our English translation, it is clearly taught 500 times so we would get the point. He is almighty, all powerful, and all capable of doing whatever He pleases. Although the word is not found in our modern translations, the concept might be truly said to be assumed on every page of the Bible. (It is found in the King James Version of Revelation 19:6, "For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth." George Frederick Handel composed his majestic "Hallelujah Chorus" around that phrase.) The following verses speak of the omnipotence of our God: "I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted." Job 42:2 He made all things and all things serve him: "Your laws endure to this day, for all things serve you." Psalm 119:91 He does whatever he pleases. (Psalm 33:1-8): "Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him." "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." (Ephesians 3:20-21)
We can pray more confidently and with great faith, hope and love because of His promise to do whatever pleases Him exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we can ask or think according to the power that works mightily within us. There is an invisible line that stretches from God to us. That line is the line of God’s goodness. We rest our faith on that invisible line. That’s why 2 Corinthians 4:18 says that "we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen." Job knew that no power can ultimately thwart God's purposes. What God starts, He always finishes. This is a most comforting thought because we live in a world where all our best work is necessarily unfinished. Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Hemingway, Wright, Edison, da Vinci — they all left behind unfinished paintings, unfinished manuscripts, plans for buildings that were never built. That’s the way it is in this world. In fact, of all the people who have ever lived on planet earth, only Jesus could truthfully cry out at the end of his life, "It is finished" (John 19:30). Even when we finish something, it’s never really finished. That’s why houses must be repainted and the beds made every morning. However, when God starts to do something, he stays with the job until it is completed. There is never a divine power failure, never a black out, brown out, or meltdown. Our eternal security rests on the truth of God’s omnipotence. We are kept by his power, not by ours (1 Peter 1:5). He is the God who is able to keep us from falling (Jude 24). Some of us might remember the great gas shortage of 1973 when people stood in line for hours to get a few gallons of gas. The shortage was caused by the OPEC oil embargo that cut supply to a trickle and drove prices through the roof. That never happens with God. Because he is omnipotent, his power knows no limits. He is never worn out, exhausted, or "running on fumes." "Cast all your cares upon Jesus". He not only cares for you, he’s got unlimited power to carry your burdens and to solve your problems. Psalm 23:4 says, "I will fear no evil … for you are with me." If God is walking by our side, we have nothing to fear. The omnipotence of God is a doctrine of wonderful comfort to the believer. The all-powerful God is with me. He exercises his power on my behalf. Whenever I need him, and even when I think I don’t, he is there. He never fails. All his plans for me will come to pass. I can trust him completely. First Corinthians 1:18 tells us that the preaching of the cross is foolishness to the world, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. To the world the cross was a terrible waste, a tragedy, an enormous mistake, but to those who believe in Christ it is a demonstration of the power of God. Think about that for a moment. In the very place where God seemed to be defeated, there we most clearly see God’s power demonstrated. Is the all-powerful God good and does he care for us? Look to the bloody cross and judge for yourself. He who had all power gave it up and became weak like us. When we come to the cross, we come weak, confused, broken, perplexed, bruised, anxious and frustrated. There at the cross, in that place where the world sees weakness, there we find the power of God. We come helplessly and hopelessly to the God who is our help; we come in weakness to the God who is our strength. "But thanks be to God who gives us the victory (Over sin, death and judgment) through our Lord Jesus Christ." (Romans 7:25) But if God can raise the dead, he can do anything. Let that thought encourage us this day as we face the impossibilities of life.
In and through our omnipotent Lord,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnHksDFHTQI