May the mumbling commence!
Do you remember the movie “Back to the Future”? I do.
As a part of the soundtrack of the movie, Huey Lewis and the News did
the song “The Power of Love”. You know… “That’s
the power of love. Can you feel it?”
The power of love is the power of God. Nothing and I mean nothing can beat it. Paul was convinced of this fact. He states it boldly in Romans chapter
one. Read the passage below:
For I am not ashamed of this Good News about
Christ. It is
the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes – Jews
first and also Gentiles. This Good News tells
us how God makes us right in his sight.
This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the
Scriptures say, "It is through faith that a righteous person
has life." (Verses 16-17)
It is the power of God that saves everyone who believes
in the Good News about Jesus Christ.
That saving knowledge is a journey of faith. And that journey of faith is one we need to
take together. We need to encourage one
another on this journey. Read earlier
from Romans chapter one:
One of the things I always pray for is the opportunity,
God willing, to come at last to see you.
For I long to visit you so I can share
a spiritual blessing with you that will help you grow strong in the Lord. I'm eager to encourage you in your faith,
but I also want to be encouraged by yours. In this way, each of us
will be a blessing to the other. (Verses 10-12)
Spiritual blessing between brothers and sisters in
Christ is never a one-way street. The
goal is to grow strong in the Lord. At
the church where I minister, we have as our mission statement to “help all grow
in faith in Jesus”. Here is a biblical
foundation for that mission.
May we be a blessing to one another, because sometimes
the going gets tough indeed. Read about
some of King Hezekiah’s reign in Judah from Second Kings chapter eighteen:
Then he stood and shouted in Hebrew to the people on the
wall, "Listen to this message from the great king of Assyria! This is what the king says: Don't let King
Hezekiah deceive you. He will never be able to rescue you from my power. Don't
let him fool you into trusting in the Lord
by saying, 'The Lord will rescue
us! This city will never be handed over to the Assyrian king.'
Don't listen to Hezekiah! These are the
terms the king of Assyria is offering: Make peace with me – open the gates and
come out. Then I will allow each of you to continue eating from your own garden
and drinking from your own well. Then I
will arrange to take you to another land like this one – a country with
bountiful harvests of grain and wine, bread and vineyards, olive trees and
honey – a land of plenty. Choose
life instead of death!
Don't listen to Hezekiah when he tries to
mislead you by saying, 'The Lord
will rescue us!' Have the gods of any other nations ever saved
their people from the king of Assyria? What
happened to the gods of Hamath and Arpad? And what about the gods of
Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Did they rescue Samaria from my power? What god of any nation has ever been able to
save its people from my power? Name just one! So what makes you think that the Lord can rescue Jerusalem?"
But the people were silent and did not
answer because Hezekiah had told them not to speak. Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace
administrator, Shebna the court secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the royal
historian, went back to Hezekiah. They tore their clothes in despair, and they
went in to see the king and told him what the Assyrian representative had said. (Verses 28-37)
How do we respond when someone tries to strong arm our
faith in the Lord away? Do we buckle
under the pressure? Or do we remain
faithful to God and to one another?
The
people of Judah remained faithful to God and one another by keeping their
silence. The only answers likely to come
to their lips were defeatist ones. And
they tore their clothes in despair and anguish because of the Name of the Lord
being reviled.
Would that we would have
such a strong faith in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds!
Enough mumbling for now…
Peace Out
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