Serving Rascals, Clumsy Disciples, and Physically and Mentally Ill Believers with the Unconditional Love of Jesus Christ
(Taking a break from my serious stuff.)
Found this recently and felt it might bless (or humor) you. It is almost a Bible survey course, and as about as brief as you can go without losing any kind of comprehension at all. I so hope you like this, if just for the novelty of it. I wish I could attribute it to someone. I have no idea. I wish them the best.
9 “You set the time!” Moses replied. “Tell me when you want me to pray for you, your officials, and your people. Then you and your houses will be rid of the frogs. They will remain only in the Nile River.”
10 “Do it tomorrow,” Pharaoh said.
“All right,” Moses replied, “it will be as you have said. Then you will know that there is no one like the Lord our God.
Exodus 8:9-10
Often there comes a point in a person’s life that not to make a decision, becomes the decision.
This was the dynamic working in Pharaoh’s mind. God had warned him earlier that he must release the Jews from slavery. But he oscillates, and vacillates after each warning. His stubborn indecisiveness is remarkable. Pharaoh resists, and becomes more and more obstinate.
There is a deep danger of delay.
God sends 10 plagues– quite dramatic and miraculous. But “the supernatural” really can’t touch certain hearts. There were certain Pharisees in Jesus’ time that they would not believe, no matter what Jesus did. (We call this, “hardness of heart.”)
In this particular ‘show-down’ a plague of frogs is threatened. It’s kind of funny, but Pharaoh doesn’t dispute the possibility of this “green invasion.” He just absorbs the inevitable. Pharaoh simply replies, “I will take one more night with the frogs.”
Within Egyptian mythology the frog was regarded as “holy.” It wasn’t to be harmed or killed. It was regarded as a blessing to the people. But that was hardly the case among the enemies of God’s chosen.
Often there comes a point in a person’s life that not to make a decision, becomes the decision.
Sadly to say, there are so many like that man today. “Lord, I’m going to follow You, but let me have just one more fling, one more trip to Vegas, or the bar, or the Princess cruise, or a new car– just “one more night with the frogs!” And the “one more night” stretches out into a terrible, endless night, in the blackness of darkness forever.
“Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
2 Corinthians 6:2
There’s urgency here, crucial and serious. Sometimes the window closes, and your “non-decision” matters more than you realize. A soft heart slowly hardens over time–that is frightening.
Will you choose to spend another night with the frogs, that is, in your sins? Or will you come to Jesus Christ for salvation today? There are consequences that follow each decision. What will you decide today? Will it be sin or the Savior? Will it be Heaven or Hell? Will it be forgiveness or the frogs? What will you do with the message you have read here today?
Often there comes a point in a person’s life that not to make a decision, becomes the decision.
When we think about Jesus, when we start to contemplate the crib, we explode into joy over what we have seen. We inaugurate a convincing of His second coming. You might say that we suddenly adjust to a Jesus who just drops in on us.
“And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory.”
Col. 3:4, NLT
Jesus anticipates that His visits to earth, will start to bear fruit. There will be many who will be validated to step up into this place of salvation. But many of us will be part of many others who are involved in this sharing. Jesus has come, and all of us enter into something quite exceptional.
But this is all a future event, it hasn’t happened yet, but we do think about when He will return. But this is not an occasional, fleeting awareness. But we are confident we do understand that His return alters everything. All of a sudden, we are launched into real and eternal promises. These critical assignments coming from this world, will never take the place of being in God‘s purposes.
Paul is wrapped up with a deep and profound understanding of things that are on the threshold. He is the apostle of the aware. He seems to sizzle with understanding that progresses out of his initiative and creative effort.
But Paul develops, after he sees, a careful sense of certain things that are moving. But he knows what He has seen, and he insists that others join him in this.
This is why we must procure this awareness. To operate in the realm of Paul will be worth our weight in “celestial gold.” Things are rich and fecund, and they wait in a exceptional awareness. As Paul follows, so we follow. In the Heavenly places, we are being counted as being faithful and quite true.
“And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”“
Luke 1:28, ESV
The Christian faith always has this fundamental aspect of ‘announcing.’ It is part and parcel to our message. The Gospel can’t be silent. It demands a simple witness to unseen realities, and it proclaims the Truth, whether we like or not.
But I’m especially fond of the shepherds.
Uncomplicated, and unpretentious they take the Good News with them as they go to witness the Christ Child. God hasn’t forgotten us. He will die a miserable death, and come to life again.
And I like this poem, an awful lot.
bA Poem, Written on Christmas Day, 1986
My mail carrier, driving his stubby white truck trimmed in blue and red, wingless, but wheeled, commissioned by the civil service
Daily delivers the Gospel every Advent.
This Gabriel, uniformed in gabardine.
Unsmiling descendant of his dazzling original,
under the burden of greetings is stoical,
but prompt: Annunciations at ten each morning.
One or two or three at a day at first;
By the second week momentum’s up,
my mail box is stuffed, each card is stamped
with a glory at a cost of twenty-five cents
(Bringing us the news that God is with us.)
First class, personally hand addressed.”
The angel said, “Don’t be afraid. I’m here to announce a great and joyful event that is meant for everybody, worldwide: A Savior has just been born in David’s town, a Savior who is Messiah and Master. This is what you’re to look for: a baby wrapped in a blanket and lying in a manger.”
Luke 2, The Message
Broken Believers 