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Joe La Rue
Philippians 4:6-4:7
Isaiah 40:1-40:5
2 Kings 20:1-20:5
Matthew 13:1-13:9
Matthew 25:1-25:13
Matthew 24:32-24:44
EINSTEIN AND EMMY
When Einstein fled Nazi Germany, he came to America and bought an old two-story house within walking distance of Princeton University. There he entertained some of the most distinguished people of his day and discussed with them issues as far ranging as physics to human rights.
But Einstein had another frequent visitor. She was not, in the world’s eyes, an important person like his other guests. She was a ten-year-old girl named Emmy. Emmy heard that a very kind man who knew a lot about mathematics had moved into her neighborhood. Since she was having trouble with her fifth-grade arithmetic, she decided to visit the man down the block and see if he would help her with her problems. Einstein was very willing and explained everything to her so that she could understand it. He also told her she was welcome to come anytime she needed help.
A few weeks later, one of the neighbors told Emmy’s mother that Emmy was often seen entering the house of the world-famous physicist. Horrified, she told her daughter that Einstein was a very important man, whose time was very valuable, and he couldn’t be bothered with the problems of a little schoolgirl. And then she rushed over to Einstein’s house, and when Einstein answered the door, she started trying to blurt out an apology for her daughter’s intrusion – for being such a bother. But Einstein cut her off. He said, “She has not been bothering me! When a child finds such joy in learning, then it is my joy to help her learn! Please don’t stop Emmy from coming to me with her school problems. She is welcome in this house anytime.”
(Peter Kennedy, Copyright 2000, Devotional E-Mail, “It Is His Joy” (located at http://www.geocities.com/palmercog/joydevo.html) (last visited April 22, 2008)).
And that’s how it is with God! From it’s very opening pages, all the way to the end of the book, the Bible is a story about how God has pursued us with an unchanging and unquenchable and UNDESERVED love, because he wants us to come to his house! And we do that in this life through prayer! It’s an amazing privilege.
Andrew Chan
Have you ever heard of the woman who hated Mother’s Day? According to the Toronto Star’s website, there was such a woman. If you think the spirit of Mother’s Day has been spoiled by the commercialism of cards, flowers and once-a-year sincerity, you stand united with the woman credited with giving us the annual event.
West Virginian Anna Jarvis was so horrified by the monster she helped create in 1914, she spent most of her later years campaigning to have the second Sunday in May removed from the calendar as the day to honour your mother.
In the end, Jarvis lost the fight. The woman, who was never a mother herself, exhausted her financial resources and ruined her mental health in that fight. She died alone in 1948 in an asylum at the age of 84. Just before her death Jarvis told a local reporter: "I devoted my entire life to Mother’s Day and the racketeers and grafters have taken it over."
"She simply wanted a day to honour and remember mothers, but in her mind it didn’t turn out that way," says William Pollard, an archivist at Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Va., where Jarvis bequeathed her letters and other writings.
In 1914, Jarvis spearheaded a campaign to help persuade U.S. president Woodrow Wilson to set aside May’s second Sunday as a national day for recognition. She orchestrated a letter-writing campaign to Wilson, lobbied influential politicians and clergymen and distributed brochures arguing about the importance of a national day for mothers.
Jarvis’ cause came from admiration for her recently deceased mother, Anna Maria, and others like her who had been an inspiration. But by the early 1920s, she was sickened by the commercial circus she had helped create. She felt the day had nothing to do with celebrating the real achievements of women.
Jarvis spent her latter days crashing floral company conventions to protest and urging card companies to give the money they made from Mother’s Day to the poor. At one Mother’s Day convention where flowers were being sold she was arrested for disturbing the peace. She even launched a lawsuit to stop a Mother’s Day festival from being held. (Story fr. Thestar.com)
For Jarvis, her mother was an inspiration, she wanted to honor her. And I believe it is the same kind of inspiration that drove Isaiah to write, for he sees something in mothers that shows us what God is really like. He wanted his readers to know that God cares, and he knows the power of a word picture and he chooses mothers, to picture for his audience, the kind of God who is totally committed to their welfare.
"I recently read a moving story that David Jeremiah wrote about the founder of World Vision, the international Christian relief agency. Bob Pierce had advanced leukemia, but he went to visit a colleague in Indonesia before he died. As they were walking through a small village, they came upon a young girl lying on a bamboo mat next to a river. She was dying of cancer and had only a short time to live.
Bob was indignant. He demanded to know why she wasn’t in a clinic. But his friend explained that she was from the jungle and wished to spend her last days next to the river, where it was cool and familiar.
As Bob gazed at her, he felt such compassion that he got down on his knees in the mud, took her hand, and began stroking it. Although she didn’t understand him, he prayed for her. Afterward she looked up and said something. "What did she say?" Bob asked his friend.
His friend relied, "She said, ’If I could only sleep again, if I could only sleep again.’" It seemed that her pain was too great to allow her the relief of rest.
Bob began to weep. Then he reached into his pocket and took out his own sleeping pills, the ones his doctor had given him because the pain from his leukemia was too great for him to sleep at night.
He handed the bottle to his friend. :You make sure this young lady gets a good night’s sleep," he said, "as long as these pills last."
Bob was ten days away from where he could get his prescription refilled. That meant ten painful and restless nights. That day his servanthood cost him greatly. But even in the midst of his suffering, God had infused a supernatural sense of satisfaction that he had done the right thing.
Lee Strobel, God’s Outrageous Claims, 95
Patience is not passive; on the contrary it is active; it is concentrated stre...
"If God had wanted us to fly, he would have given us tickets."
ILLUSTRATION… http://www.christianglobe.com/illustrationsTwo/a-z/p/promises_gods.htm
God’s presence -- "I will never leave thee" (Hebrews 13:5)
God’s protection -- "I am thy shield" (Genesis 15:1)
God’s power -- "I will strengthen thee" (Isaiah 41:10)
God’s provision -- "I will help thee" (Isaiah 41:10)
God’s leading -- "And when He putteth forth His own sheep, He goeth before them" (John 10:4)
God’s purposes -- "I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil" (Jeremiah 20:11)
God’s rest -- "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28)
God’s cleansing -- "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9)
God’s goodness -- "No good thing will He withhold from them that work uprightly" (Psalm 84:11)
God’s faithfulness -- "The Lord will not forsake His people for His great name’s sake" (1 Samuel 12:22)
God’s guidance -- "The meek will He guide" (Psalm 25:9)
God’s wise plan -- "All things work together for good to them that love God" (Romans 8:28)
Ever-flowing Stream Of Grace
(Chrisitans Need to Remember)
Isaiah 40:28-31 says, "Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.
Do You Not Know" Have You Not Heard?: The language of the prophet is one of reproving. We know that by reading Verse 27 which reveals to us the heart of the Jews who became melancholy, complaining and whining. Listen to their words of despair, "...My way is hidden from the Lord: my cause is disregarded by my God." These people nourished depression, needless fears, and mistrust. Not trusting in God's truths sets the stage of a skeptical atmosphere. This births forth a questioning spirit. The Jewish people had an abundant opportunity of learning through their history and from their fathers of the true character of God. They had opportunity to learn of His willingness and ability to deliver them. These Jews had a blameworthy forgetfulness and disregard for the nature of God.
Disappointments can breed mistrust in truth and tear down faith in the Lord, literally stopping the desire of searching for Biblical truth or understanding. Once this starts it becomes like an electricity of unbelief in the air and must not be breathed in, but rejected because it affects the spiritual health of the Body of Christ.
Christians need to remember that God does not measure time as we do. It is impossible for Him to be unmindful or uncaring of our situations. The child of God who believes this recalls God's faithfulness to heroes of the faith in the Bible and to Christians they have known personally. Christians who desire God's grace walk in obedience to the Holy Spirit, they trust in the Lord. They know the promise of Psalm 155:11 "[Those] who fear Him, trust in the LORD- He is their help and shield."
"Do You Not Know?"
" Have You Not Heard?"
Waiting for God is not laziness. Waiting for God is not going to sleep. Waiting for God is not the abandonment of effort. Waiting for God means, first, activity under command; second, readiness for any new command that may come; third, ...
Ever-flowing Stream Of Grace
"Empowerment for Service"
Jesus taught, "Christians know His voice." Christians also know, [He] is the Lord [and] He is the everlasting God, the Creator of... the earth. He [does] not grow tired or weary..." (Isaiah 40:28)
"Empowerment for Service: We serve the God who has existed from eternity, is unchangeable, and has everlasting love for us. He longs and loves to give whatever is needed to His children. James, the half brother of Jesus writes, "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." (James 1:17)
Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week and for twelve months of every year our God is able to meet the needs of His children and empower them for service. The Lord is our Creator, our Sustainer, and the Holy Spirit is sent by God. Jesus is available to work in us and through us twenty-four seven. The Bible says, "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And He is the head of the body, the church..." (Colossians 1:15-18a)
As long as Jesus is Savior and Lord of your life, there is no need for worry because He is in charge and in full control at all times. The child of God who knows this walks in faith, produces the fruit of faithfulness, and does not look at his circumstances. He looks to the God who "...rewards those who earnestly seeks Him." (Hebrews 11:6)
Does your life express God's "Ever-flowing Stream of Grace?" Do people see that He has absolute control in every part of your life and that you trust in His unchanging character?
Ever-flowing Stream of Grace
(Gives Strength)
Gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak: Isaiah 40:31 says, "But those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength."
"Wait on the Lord" (qawah) is one word, an active verb in the original Hebrew writings, and is the foundational truth to enjoying God's supernatural strengthening, which enables Christians to run the race, raise up like eagles, walk and not faint. To wait here is not inactivity or absence of physical exertion. It merely means hope in God as you do what He calls you to do and be willing to wait on Him for the results and directions to move on. The root word for the phrase "wait upon the Lord" has a "meaning of that twisting or winding a strand of cord or rope." A rope that is made by taking two or three strands twisted and wound together is a strong rope you can take hold of, and as you hold on, it will be strong enough to put you on your feet and/or keep you from falling. The application here is that you have a God who is fully able to keep you strong at all times. He will keep you from fainting from your callings if you hold onto His promises and obey His commands. Whatever it is that the Lord is calling you to be in Him or do with Him, He will give you the strength to accomplish what He has ordained you to do.
"Gain new" (halap) means to revive or to cause to flourish again. It is that tree that has decayed and is about to fall down but having been spoken back to life once again, it buds and produces fruit.
In June of 1994 I had the privilege of hearing Evangelist Billy Graham speak. It was the night before he was to leave for Mayo Clinic. He was weak and had to be helped up on the platform. When he made his way to the pulpit you could see him experiencing a "gained strength." He stood strong and spoke boldly and delivered the Lord's message in a strength that came from the Holy Spirit. It was impossible for him to faint from his calling.
There is a special enabling from God to those who put their trust in the Lord and obedient Christians enjoy the "Ever-flowing Grace of God."
