Walking With Jesus

Addition or Exchange?

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take.” (Proverbs 3:5-6 NLT)

It always amuses me when I meet someone who thinks they’ve done Jesus a favor giving Him their lives. It also saddens me to realize someone would be so insensitive and blind to the ways of God. He doesn’t need us for anything. He’s perfect in every way in and of Himself. He needed no one to help Him build a universe, just the power of His voice.

His thoughts can manifest universes beyond number. Do we really believe He NEEDS us? Yes, of course, He wants us and desires a relationship with us, but that’s not to add anything to Him, it’s to complete us. We were never meant to be alone, as Genesis 2:18 suggests, but to believe that Eve completed Adam is to be blind to why God created us.

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God plus nothing equals completion, fulfillment, the NEED for nothing more; however, us plus nothing equals depression, defilement, and desperate need. The Lord created us for intimacy with Him as the only means of true fulfillment and completion.

The Apostle Paul understood this, that’s why he counseled others not to marry. It’s certainly not wrong to marry, actually it can be quite good, but it’s always going to be less fulfilling than being “married” to the Lord. The point is, we don’t need an addition to our life, we need an exchange.

Paul Washer wrote: “The true convert does not receive the gospel as an addition to his previous life, but in exchange for it.” To believe we can be “more” with Jesus is to misunderstand the Gospel. God’s intention for us isn’t that we would become more, but less. The more highly we think of ourselves, the less we think of Jesus.

To allow Jesus only part of us, believing He’s an addition to us, is to misunderstand our role in the relationship. He’s the Master, we’re the slave; He’s the ruler, we’re His subject. To believe otherwise is to misconstrue the role the transformation of our being plays in our development as a believer. We’re molded to be HIS instrument in the world, not our own; to build HIS holy Name, and to extend HIS eternal Kingdom, not our own. To make a name for ourselves may be our goal, but never His, and to believe we’ll accomplish our purposes more effectively by using His name is not only a mistake, it’s sin.

We exchange our sin for His salvation; our inadequacy for His supremacy in and over all things; our need for His bountiful provision; our shame for His victory; our weakness for His strength; our earth for His heaven; our death for His eternal life! We bring nothing to the table but our lostness and need of a Savior and to believe anything else is to believe a lie.

The Lord doesn’t need me (or you 😊), but He’s so kind He never “rubs it in our face.” He never tells us it’s “His way or the highway,” He simply invites us to share in His grandeur and greatness; to be a small part in the accomplishment of His eternal purposes on earth; for the gift of spending all eternity in His eternal home.

It’s taken me a lifetime to realize I’m nothing . . . without HIM! He IS my life! Apart from Him I’m not only nothing, I can literally do nothing. But with Him, I have no disease, no weakness, no infirmities of any kind that can prevent me from being everything He desires me to be in this season of my life. And neither do you, child of God, neither do you!

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Shaped By Design

“I am sending you a master craftsman named Huram-abi, who is extremely talented. His mother is from the tribe of Dan in Israel, and his father is from Tyre. He is skillful at making things from gold, silver, bronze, and iron, and he also works with stone and wood. He can work with purple, blue, and scarlet cloth and fine linen. He is also an engraver and can follow any design given to him. He will work with your craftsmen and those appointed by my lord David, your father.” (2 Chronicles 2:13-14 NLT)

When Solomon became King of Israel the timing was perfect for the construction of the Temple for the Lord that David had longed to build, to begin, but the Lord told him to let Solomon oversee it. However, David did much to not only make sure there were adequate materials, but also excellent craftsmen to see it to completion.

His goal was to build something exquisitely designed and constructed, because, in Solomon’s words: “This must be a magnificent Temple because our God is greater than all other gods.” But as magnificent as it actually was, it was only a temporary symbol of the dwelling place of God. The “temple” of God today is you and me and every other believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Compared to the Temple Solomon had constructed, having to live in a human body seems a far step down. But is it?

According to Psalm 139:14: “Thank You for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous – how well I know it.” We may not be as awe inspiring when someone looks at us, but we can live, breathe, speak, think, obey, defend, and actively pursue the God of the Bible. If you’re a building, all you have to do is sit and look pretty, which, unfortunately, a lot of believer’s seem to think is their role today.

The fact is, God took special care when He created each of us. We’re no accident, and the details of our lives tell a story of, not only who we are, but why we are. Too often we blame God for making us the way He did because we don’t take the time or make the effort to see the detail with which He formed us. No one looks like us, thinks like us, believes like us, has the capacity to obey God as we do.

I think of Samuel when he followed the Lord’s command to anoint one of Jesse’s sons as King. Eliab, the eldest, was large in stature, a strong warrior, a seeming perfect choice for king, but the Lord said “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

Even Samuel, the seasoned saint of God missed God’s heart when it came to choosing a king, and we do as well when we look in the mirror and fail to see greatness, confidence, competence, valor, and victory. And please don’t misunderstand, those aren’t our characteristics, but the Lion of Judah who resides in us.

We’re nothing apart from Jesus and can do nothing of eternal value. When we think more highly of ourselves, we become Samuel misjudging the sons of David. It’s only when we understand how intricately interwoven our inmost being is; how our great Creator God shaped and designed us to be more than we ever dreamed we could be, that finally the pieces begin to fit together and we see that our partnership with the living God results in a “dynamic duo” that the enemy, Satan, is powerless to defeat.

You’re more than you ever imagined you could be. Stop staring at yourself and start gazing at the beauty of your Master Jesus and you’ll marvel at the things He will enable you to see, think, and do for His eternal glory.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Dark Night or Resurrection Morning?

“For examples of patience in suffering, dear brothers and sisters, look at the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. We give great honor to those who endure under suffering.” (James 5:10-11a NLT)

The outcome of our suffering depends largely on our attitude as our suffering begins. It may be the loss of a loved one or long-held position; it could be the news of a serious illness or disease; it could be broken or damaged relationships with loved ones or friends. It can even be persecution for our faith. Whatever the cause of our suffering, there’s only one “cure,” and His name is Jesus.

“Whoa!” you may be thinking, “isn’t that a bit naïve?” Not if you’re a Jesus follower. Understanding that nothing touches my life except it passes through the filter of God’s permission tells me that suffering in whatever form it takes, is no accident and His timing is perfect. “Perfect for what?” you may wonder. Perfect for the instruction the Lord wants to give me in this season; perfect for the opportunity to grow in my faith, to be closer to the Lord, to enable the Spirit to speak to me more clearly, to hear His voice more easily, to use me more effectively.

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There can be dozens of reasons the Lord has allowed what He allows when He allows it. Our job isn’t to question or second guess Him, our responsibility is to submit to His authority, His Lordship over us and say: “Okay, Father, You’ve allowed this, how would you have me respond? How can I most effectively position my heart to hear Your voice and obey Your directives? What are You seeking to teach me? Whose life or lives are You wanting me to positively affect because of what You’re bringing into my life? Who might listen to the message You give me now that wouldn’t hear it before?”

Recently, while in a prayer service at church, a young woman sat by me and a close friend of mine. As the service continued it became apparent that she was distressed, so, as opportunity was given, a few of us who were sitting close, formed a small circle and began to share concerns. This young woman quickly spoke up and let us know she’d just been diagnosed with Stage 1 breast cancer.

It was hard for her to speak about it, but my friend spoke up and let her know that he’d just come through a bout with Stage 1 cancer and he was now cancer free and didn’t have to undergo any chemo or radiation treatments. He attributed his good fortune to the Lord and prayer. Her countenance lifted and as we prayed for her it was if she was seeing a light of hope that had been hidden.

Obviously, I don’t know her level of spiritual maturity, but we exchanged numbers, and I sent her my wife’s number as well. The point is this: without Jesus there’s only hope placed in the help that comes from traditional means, doctors, medicines, etc., which are great, they’re just not enough.

J. D. Greear wrote: “Your suffering may feel to you like a dark night of the soul, but God is working in it the power of resurrection.” Without understanding God’s vital role in everything that touches our life, we have no alternative but to worry and fret, but when we are linked to the Holy Spirit and His limitless resources, we’re free to ponder the dozens of ways God can use our new circumstances for our good and His glory.

After the service I mentioned to the young woman that she may not believe me, but if she will trust the Lord and walk with Him through this process, one day she would view her cancer as a gift. That may seem crazy to some, but that’s exactly how I view my Alzheimer’s. The Lord is closer in this season than ever before and we’re growing in our closeness every day. I understand that every thought, every movement of my body or activity of my mind is a gift from my Father in heaven. I may not know when the end will come or how difficult it will be, but I know with absolute certainty that I will not face it alone.

The journey may be dark, but there is coming for me, and every believer in Jesus, a bright, resurrection morning!

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Courage

“David replied to the Philistine, ‘You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s armies – the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.’” (1 Samuel 17:45 NLT)

The Bible tells us in 1 Samuel 17:4 that Goliath was more than 9 feet tall. He wore armor that weighed more than 125 pounds, yet young David did not hesitate to face him. I think of the thousands of soldiers of the army of Israel, all of whom were bigger, stronger, much more experienced than Joseph, most of whom were critical of a young kid who thought he could defeat a giant. “Who does he think he is?” must have been the resounding theme on the minds of the cowards of Israel.

But David’s focus wasn’t on his inadequacy, it was on God’s adequacy. David’s attitude was, “Whatever I need, God will provide, because it’s His fight, not mine. I’m simply His instrument.” Beloved of God, that must be our attitude as well!

We must not focus on our inadequacies when God gives us an assignment we deem too big for us. Of course it’s too big for us! If it’s not, why do we need God? Cancer, poverty, fear, dementia, chronic pain, the list is virtually endless of the debilitating issues we face as we age, yet none are too big to keep us from carrying out God’s plans for our life.

When God gives us an assignment, regardless of our age, stage in life, health, or any other issue, the only acceptable response is: “Yes, Lord!” “Yeh, but I’m too sick to get out of bed!” Then one of two things will happen. Either He’ll heal you enough to enable you to get out of bed or enable you to do what He’s asked while you’re still in bed. Either way, it will demand your strict reliance upon His strength and resource.

Whenever God asks us to do anything for Him it will likely entail the use of something He’s already given us or taught us. The Lord gave David extraordinary skills with a sling that he honed on lions and bears. What is He teaching you? How is He equipping you to fight His battles? What friendships has He given you that may be the door to reaching people for the Lord you never dreamed possible? How about a new position at work? A new neighbor? Someone you just met at church or while shopping?

Pastor Bryan Loritts wrote: “Courage is the difference between those who want to and those who do.” How many of those frightened soldiers of Israel wished they’d had the courage to do what David did? How many wanted the acclaim, the rewards, just the esteem that came with the courage to do what was right, but lacked the courage to risk?

What has the Lord placed on your heart to do for Him that’s frightening? Too big? Too hard? You and God are a majority! If He calls you to do something, He’ll equip you to do it! Fear will defeat you, but faith will energize you! Focus on your weakness will freeze you but focus on the God who never fails will liberate you!

Courage isn’t something we muster; it’s a gift from God for those willing to risk everything for the reward of His honor and fame. After David defeated the giant, the Army of Israel crushed the Philistines, the same Philistines the sight of whom paralyzed them moments before the God of Israel moved on their behalf in and through the courage of a young boy. What’s it going to take to give you the courage to pick up your “sling” and attack the “giant” that’s taunting you?

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Filtered Faith

“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy – full of greed and self-indulgence! You blind Pharisees! First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean, too.” (Matthew 23:25-26 NLT)

The faith for which I long is authentic, pure, unaltered by my efforts to make myself look better than I am. Jesus wasn’t a fraud who sought to portray something He wasn’t. In all His purity, everything He said could be authenticated by the heart from which it flowed. There was no pretense, no fronts, no covers, no efforts on His part to hide anything that might “blow His cover.”

Who you saw was who you got, and I believe that’s the way He desires for us to live as well. There’s no place in the life of a child of God for pretense or phoniness. Comparing ourselves with others is a recipe for disaster. Our only comparison needs to be with our Lord, and when we fail to live up to His exacting standards, ideally, it will increase our dependence upon Him.

Let the beautiful and challenging words of Ray Majoran’s prayer move your heart as they moved mine: “God of Mercy and Unshakable Truth, You don’t ask for appearances; You ask for hearts. You’re not impressed by surface-level sacrifice — You long for mercy (Matthew 9:13). And yet, we so often default to polishing the outside. We say the right things, put on the right masks, and keep things looking together — even when our motives are tangled, and our hearts are cold. You see all of it (Hebrews 4:13). By the work of Your Holy Spirit, please disrupt our desire to perform. Confront the pride we’ve disguised as strength and the indifference we’ve painted as peace.

Where we’ve made our faith about presentation, call us back to transformation. Clean the inside — the places no one else sees — until what overflows is mercy, not personal image. Teach us to value what You value: integrity over approval, obedience over optics, and love over religious routine. Remind us that a clean cup is useless if it’s only clean on the outside. We don’t desire filtered faith — we long for the real thing. And as You do the work within us, let whatever people see on the outside be a natural reflection of what You’ve made right within.” (See Glimpse of Infinity Clean – 04-02-25)

At the end of the day, who are we trying to please? Whose approval are we most seeking? Whose applause? Whose affirmation? What concerns you most? How you’re perceived or how you really are? What motivates you to become better? Another’s perception of you or the smile on your Savior’s face? What drives you? Your heart for God or your desire to please others; to get ahead, whatever that may look like, or to grow in your likeness of Jesus?

I’m so tired of pettiness and fraudulence among believers, aren’t you? I’m sick of my own dependence upon the approval of those whose opinion of me has become so important. I want to be free of the shallowness of social acceptance and long for the purity and power of a heart so focused on Jesus I no longer care what others think.

Isn’t it time we cared less about the façade and focused more on the foundation? Like our father in the faith, Abraham, let us confidently look forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God. (Hebrews 11:10)

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Extravagant Love

“He gave a mighty shout: ‘Babylon is fallen – that great city is fallen! She has become a home for demons. She is a hideout for every foul spirit, a hideout for every foul vulture and every foul and dreadful animal. For all the nations have fallen because of the wine of her passionate immorality. The kings of the world have committed adultery with her. Because of her desires for extravagant luxury, the merchants of the world have grown rich.’” (Revelation 18:2-3 NLT)

Everyone longs for something. When we’re young we long for satisfaction that we perceive will only come through sex, money, popularity, fame, fortune, or achievement on a level that will gain us recognition and acclaim. As we age our longing may be for a nap or a full night’s sleep; a call from a loved one or someone to hold us and let us know our life matters to someone.

Extravagance is relative on some levels. A trip to White Castle was an extravagance for us when my pregnant wife was craving them, though back then you could buy a bag of the small burgers for a dollar. We tend to think of extravagance in terms of dollars and cents, but as Jesus followers we need to shift our thinking to view extravagant ways we can share the love of our Savior.

Nothing compares to the cost our Savior paid on the Cross! He’s the only One who could have done what He did, yet He was willing to lay down His sinless life in our place to offer us a hope we could never have found in any other way. What kind of love offers Himself in the place of another who hasn’t even asked for His sacrifice?

Bob Goff wrote: “Every act of extravagant love is a declaration of faith.” Do you want to know how to make your faith recognizable? Love without reservation! Genuinely care about the needs of others ahead of your own. We do this with our children, why can’t we allow this kind of love to flow beyond the walls of our own homes?

So much wealth is wasted on filth and debauchery, why can’t we spare a few dollars to take someone who is struggling to lunch or take them a meal to their home, even if it means we have to do without? What if we offered to babysit the child of a couple of new parents and gave them money to go out to eat and maybe even to a movie?

Why as God’s children have we become so stingy with our time and money? What makes us believe it is OUR time or OUR money? The Lord gives us everything we have, and we are stewards of 100% of it. We whine about having to give 10% back to Him, but the truth is, if it weren’t for the Lord’s generosity we wouldn’t have a penny.

The Lord gives us joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and the other fruit of the Spirt, but why? So, we can hoard it all to ourselves. Love gives! Love shares! Love lightens loads! Love thinks of the other person first! Love hugs! Love cries on another’s shoulder! Love holds and consoles! Love cares and shows itself!

What is the Lord laying on your heart to do for someone, maybe anonymously, that will demonstrate an extravagant way to celebrate the love the Lord has lavished on you? Do you have a car you no longer need? Give it to someone who needs one? Has the Lord blessed you with some extra funds? Pay someone’s rent or mortgage this month? Maybe take someone to the grocery. There’s no end to the ways we can love extravagantly if we’ll just listen to His voice!

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Sleep or Soar?

“Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.” (1 Thessalonians 5:23 NLT)

What happens to us when we die? Do we lose any sense of being? Does our soul “sleep” until awakened by the second coming of Christ? Or does our oneness with our Savior continue uninterrupted? In 2 Corinthians 5 Paul speaks at length about the relationship between our earthly bodies and our heavenly bodies.

For example, in verses 6-8 he writes: “So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. For we live by believing and not by seeing. Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord.”

“A Kingdom Without End” “Used by permission, © Ray Majoran, GlimpseOfInfinity.com”

“At home” has reference to being with the Lord in His dwelling in heaven. Yes, of course, He is omnipresent and is with us and we with Him as long as His Spirit indwells us, but once we leave this body our spirit is free of the shackles of humanity and can be forever united with God’s Spirit in heaven. But doesn’t our spirit “sleep” when we die? Our bodies “sleep” in death, but our spirits are alive and with the Lord. How do I know that?

There are many Scriptures that verify the immortality of our spirits, but a key verse for me is in Romans 8:16 when Paul uses the vitality of the spirit to verify our oneness with the Lord when he writes: “For His Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.” As long as we are alive in Christ our spirit is alive with Christ, whether in life or in death.

What, then, are we to do with 1 Timothy 6:16, which says that God “alone is immortal”? We see this verse as teaching that God alone is immortal in and of Himself; that is, He alone possesses immortality as an essential part of His nature. Our soul’s immortality, on the other hand—and that of the angels—is derived from God. God is immortal in His being; our souls are immortal as a result of God’s creation. Commentator Albert Barnes put it this way: “God, in his own nature, enjoys a perfect and certain exemption from death. Creatures have immortality only as they derive it from him, and of course are dependent on him for it. He has it by his very nature, and it is in his case underived, and he cannot be deprived of it. It is one of the essential attributes of his being, that he will always exist, and that death cannot reach him” (Notes on the Bible, 1834).

In John 5:26 Jesus says, “The Father has life in himself.” This is another way of saying that God alone is immortal. The immortality of the human soul, that is, its quality of continuing forever, is a reflection of God’s nature in us. God alone is without a beginning or end. All of His creatures, animal, human, and angelic, had a beginning. Our souls came into being at a certain point in history, and there was a time when our souls did not exist, but once created we also became immortal. Only our Creator is truly eternal in the sense of having no beginning and no ending.

While our soul and spirit are not the same, both are immortal in the sense they will live forever. Obviously, this is a snapshot of a whole series of Scriptures that speak of eternal life and death, but a key verse for me is Matthew 25:46 where Jesus says: “And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life.” The same Greek word is used both in reference to punishment and life. There are only two options when it comes to eternity: separation from God or oneness with Him! Which will you choose?

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Avoidance Isn’t Obedience

“We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5 NLT)

Our most troubling thoughts, the ones with which we wrestle most, and which cause us the most heartache, aren’t those generated by others, but those that are formulated in our own mind. The conversations we have with ourselves can be the most convincing and, at times, the most destructive.

One powerful way the enemy defeats us is through partial obedience or procrastination. We don’t say “no,” just “not yet!” We wrestle with the implications of what the Lord is asking us to do, but in our reluctance to fully obey, we omit our immediate obedience, which is sin. Too often the “not yet” turns into “no” because we never get around to doing what the Lord asked us to do.

To avoid or postpone a clear command of God, then later use that command to postpone or avoid something else the Lord has clearly instructed us to do is itself disobedience. To do anything other than what God says to do when He says to do it is disobedience and will bring about discipline from the Lord.

Some of the most heartbreaking words in Scripture are Saul’s words to the Prophet Samuel in 1 Samuel 15:24-26: “Then Saul admitted to Samuel, ‘Yes, I have sinned. I have disobeyed your instructions and the Lord’s command, for I was afraid of the people and did what they demanded. But now, please forgive my sin and come back with me so that I may worship the Lord.”

As is often the case with us, Saul’s words seemed sincere in that moment, but they didn’t reflect an attitude of true repentance other than to avoid the consequences of his actions and to make every effort to put things back as they were before his sin. He was sorry for the results of his sin, not for the sin itself.

How like us when the curtain opens, and the world sees our sin and its resultant shame. We so want to defend ourselves, cast blame, and try with everything within us to turn back the hands of time, not because we regret what we did, but that we got caught. Satan had blinded us, as he blinded Saul to the results of our unwillingness to fully obey God.

We weave a web of deception in our own mind, somehow believing that we’ve done nothing wrong. “We’re going to obey, just not now. Let’s ride it out and see what happens. Maybe I won’t have to do anything.” But nothing turns into something, but it’s never enough. We’ve dug such a hole for ourselves it’s hard to see the light of a new day. It becomes hopeless, thus rendering ourselves helpless.

The reality is, it’s too often no longer simply a spiritual problem we can take to the Lord, seek His forgiveness and move on. It becomes an interconnected web of destruction within our own mind and heart. We believe the lies for so long we can no longer even recognize truth, let alone obey it. We become locked in a cycle of self-defeat that leads to despair, that becomes a vicious spiral of defeat and self-destruction.

It didn’t end well for Saul, but because of Jesus, there’s still hope for you and me. However, we must be done with procrastination and lies, come clean with ourselves and the Lord, and seek His forgiveness and restoration. But because of the heinous nature of this sin, it also demands partnership with someone who has a heart for God and who will hold us accountable. If we’re not up for that, it might be too late.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Easter 2025 – So Much Hurt, So Much Hope

*This devotional by Ron Hutchcraft really spoke to me and I couldn’t help but believe it might be a blessing to you as well. May the Lord use Ron’s words to speak to and encourage you as they did me. Blessings, Ed 😊

My phone’s been blowing up for a week or more. Mostly not good news.

Lots of storms. Lots of sadness.

Severe thunderstorm alerts, tornado and flood watches and warnings. Stacked up in my texts like planes waiting to land at O’Hare. Like much of the country, it’s been a “Groundhog Day” cycle of one stormy day after another. I miss the sun.

But that’s just been the backdrop for days of accumulating grief. I often get “breaking news” on my phone. This week it’s been mostly heartbreaking news.

One of my family members, suddenly crushed by the tragic loss of a third brother. The painful death of a coworker’s dad – and a dark diagnosis for the father of another. A lifetime friend living the final days of his beloved wife’s battle with dementia. Other friends, faced with brutal decisions on behalf of declining parents. And yesterday’s medical emergency for a dear friend who’s expecting a baby – she went from ER to ambulance to surgery.

Yes, it’s been a season of storms and sadness.

But it’s also almost Easter.

I’m Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “Easter 2025 – So Much Hurt, So Much Hope.”

And, oh, what a difference that “Easter” makes! Not the holiday. The Man!

We all have seasons of compounding loss and grief. Storms that won’t stop. Dark clouds that keep obscuring the sun. Times when hope seems swamped by hurt. But the Bible puts an amazing word in front of hope – and that word has the power to change every dark moment we face.

In our word for today from the Word of God in 1 Peter 1:3-6 – it’s talking about suffering “grief in all kinds of trials.” But then it reveals the divine antidote to despair: “In His great mercy, God has given us a new birth into a” – here’s that word – “living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

Not sympathy card hope or “positive thoughts” hope. Not hope, the idea or the wish. This is hope, the Person! The One who, as testified to by six historians, 12 disciples and hundreds of eyewitnesses, literally walked out of His grave on Easter morning!

In short, Jesus is alive! He’s present. Powerful – having conquered the one force that has stopped every other person who has ever lived.

As the sadnesses and grievings mounted these past few days, I felt increasingly powerless to be of much help.

But since the day I put my trust in Jesus’ death for my sins, I have the Living Hope Man to turn to. As I did on that shattering spring day my Karen – my love since I was 19 – was suddenly gone.

On that first Easter Sunday, Mary Magdalene had found Jesus’ tomb empty. She was grieving inconsolably in the graveyard garden – when suddenly she heard a familiar voice speaking one life-changing word. “Mary” (John 20:16). And on my darkest day, it was my name He called.

I have asked Jesus to speak to each weeping one on my heart – and speak their name. For Scripture promises that He is “close to brokenhearted” (Psalm 34:18). And that He can go deep in the human heart where no one else can go and bring hope and healing no one else can bring.

Our times of greatest loss are the times of our greatest experiences of His love. I have lived it. I can’t carry all the burdens of my wounded loved ones. But if my Jesus has beaten death, surely He can bear their burdens and bring back the sun.

Jesus can simultaneously be holding and hugging each one as if they are the only one. I have felt that hug. I have been carried by Him when I could not take another step.

If you want to have this personal relationship with Jesus, tell Him today, “Jesus, I’m Yours.” Go to our website and see how to be sure you belong to Him. It’s ANewStory.com.

The storms keep coming. But, Jesus, You are our safe room. And hope wins.

Injustice

“I was living quietly until He shattered me. He took me by the neck and broke me in pieces. Then He set me up as His target, and now His archers surround me. His arrows pierce me without mercy. The ground is wet with my blood. Again and again He smashes against me, charging at me like a warrior. I wear burlap to show my grief. My pride lies in the dust. My eyes are red with weeping; dark shadows circle my eyes. Yet I have done no wrong, and my prayer is pure.” (Job 15:12-17 NLT)

Does it startle you that God allows these human accusations to appear in His Word. Obviously, Job wasn’t as “together” spiritually as he must have thought, because he completely misunderstood what was going on in his suffering. Many of us do as well.

The only time the term “injustice” is used in the King James Version of the Bible is in Job 16:17 when Job says: “Not for any injustice in my hands: also my prayer is pure.” The New Living Translation (above) translates that phrase: “Yet I have done no wrong…” Hmmm! Is that right? Yes, according to Job 1 he certainly had some impressive credentials, but God doesn’t allow temptation and testing for no reason.

Of course, God knew exactly the man Job was, but, apparently, Job had some lessons to learn about himself. Do you think there might be some things you and I need to learn that, unfortunately, we can learn in no other way than through testing?

Have you ever felt like God was punishing you for no good reason? Like He had you under His thumb and you weren’t getting up. It’s not an uncommon thought by many humans. There’s only one problem. No injustice is ever overlooked in the court of heaven. God doesn’t make mistakes, and He doesn’t allow things to enter our lives except He intends it for our good and His glory. Yet, He doesn’t force us to change.

Do bad things happen to good people? Absolutely! Injustices are being perpetrated all over the world, some, shamefully, in the name of God. But is God to blame for all of it? Any of it? God is the ONLY ONE who can see things clearly from ALL perspectives. He alone has the insight demanded to make an inerrant decision regarding anything on any subject.

The truth is sin isn’t always the issue. There was no apparent sin in Job’s life. God said in Job 1:8: “Have you noticed My servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth. He is blameless – a man of complete integrity. He fears God and stays away from evil.”

Yes, of course, no one is sinless, but the longer we live in intimacy with Jesus, the less hold sin should have on us. Sometimes the purpose of our testing isn’t to cause us to turn from sin, but to turn to a greater level of intimacy with the Lord, as it was with Job. See Job’s response in chapter 40. Jesus promised us in John 16:33: “I have told you all this so that you may have peace in Me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”

My purpose today is to simply put our mind at ease in the sense we never have to fear injustice in our relationship with the Lord. Will the Lord allow us to suffer from injustice? Absolutely! We’ll not escape injustice as a citizen of the human race, but He will always work in and through whatever we suffer to bring good to us and glory to Himself through us, which is our goal in life as a Jesus follower.

Food for thought.

Blessing, Ed 😊