Tag Archives: God

Inevitable Compassion

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When things are looking very bad, the one thing we perhaps fear the most is that they will never look good again.  Diving into this bottomless pit of awfulness is is self-destructive.  We have permission to rejoice.  As long as we’re looking to the Lord for help, this worst case scenario will never be true. 

Once again, Jeremiah leads the way in seeing light at the end of a seemingly endless tunnel of gloom.  If it was bad, he saw it.  If it was difficult, he endured it.  And he was no superman – he cried and griped often along the way.  But when it was all over and he was right in the midst of a well-desevered lengthy lament, he just couldn’t help but observe the following, leaving us with a profound message of hope: 

God’s compassion is inevitable.

“For the Lord will not cast off forever.
Though He causes grief,
Yet He will show compassion
According to the multitude of His mercies.
For He does not afflict willingly,
Nor grieve the children of men.”
– Lamentations 3:31-33 (NKJV)

Waiting

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Patience is produced in the Christian by the indwelling Holy Spirit.  It is His longsuffering “fruit”, as Galatians 5:22 informs us.  If the Spirit didn’t develop this quality, it might never grow at all.  No doubt the very existence of impatience among us is one of the many ways the Fall of the Human Race has adversely impacted our lives .  When you see Adam punch him.

God understands well our need for this fruit patience and He knows best how to cultivate it.  So He allows us to wait, while we simply have to put up with stuff.  If there is one thing bad about this whole process it is that patience is produced while we’re waiting.

When it comes to waiting Jeremiah was an expert: waiting for someone to listen to him, waiting for the Lord to respond, speak or do something miraculous.  Jeremiah’s vast crop of patience was watered by his tears.  Still, he learned to appreciate it, and to see that waiting for God is good, precisely because God is good to those who wait for Him.

The Lord is good to those who wait for Him,
     To the soul who seeks Him.
It is good that one should hope and wait quietly
     For the salvation of the Lord.”
                    – Lamentations 3:25-26 (NKJV)

Palmer St. Podcast: John 1

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Today we begin the Gospel of John.  This Gospel differs somewhat from the first three, as it was written later and used by John to fill in some gaps in the life of Jesus that the others had not included in their stories.  While all four Gospels tell of the miracles Christ performed, John spends more time on the teaching or events that took place in conjunction with the miracles.  In so doing he fills the miracles with meaning.

Jesus is introduced to us as the Word, who was with God and was God from the beginning – a testimony to the deity of Christ.  We’ll also meet John the Baptist, Christ’s relative, who declares Him to be “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”  Both John the Baptist and Nathanael, an early follower of Jesus, quickly conclude that He is the “Son of God.”

Listen: John01.mp3 

Read: John01.pdf

As We Sow, Shall We Also Reap?

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It’s a basic principle of life: What goes around comes around.  The Bible refers to it in terms of “sowing and reaping”.  Sometimes it’s stated in the form of a warning:  

“Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” – Galatians 6:7 (NKJV)

Fair enough.  Let any who would scoff at the Almighty take heed; they won’t get away with it forever.  But what about non-scoffers, without desire nor intention to ever mock God?  Thankfully, the concept is still valid in the other direction.  As the next verse explains:

“For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.“- Galatians 6:8 (NKJV)

There is, however, something to beware of even in good, spiritual sowing: 

Our ability to reap is not guaranteed.

Tragic, but true, and many reap not, because the time for harvest, the time to reap, doesn’t come immediately.  Meanwhile, many get discouraged.  Many lose patience.  Many do not persevere.  The enemy of our souls and the trials of life all work together in a vast conspiracy to get us to give up. 

As long as we’re wise to this strategy, let’s not play right into it.  In every area of life that we await that spiritual harvest, be it with family, friends, work or faithful service to our Master, let’s commit to stay committed.  Don’t quit.  Our capacity to not lose heart is the thing that guarantees a fruitful harvest. 

May the Lord Jesus Christ grant you the grace and perseverance to become an abundantly joyful reaper.

“And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.“- Galatians 6:9 (NKJV)