It's Your Faith...Not Feelings

As believer, "we live by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7)"--God never wants us to live by our feelings. Our inner self may want to live by feelings, and Satan may want us to, but God wants us to face the facts, not feelings. He wants us to face the facts of Christ and His finished and perfect work for us. And once we face these precious facts, and believe them simply because God says they are facts, He will take care of our feelings. God...gives us feelings...and these feelings that can only come from Him will be given at such a time and to such a degree as His love sees best for each individual circumstance.
--L.B. Cowman

"How Well You Ride"

Matthew 14:1-12; Mark 6:14-29; Luke 9:7-9

I was reminded today of a Billy Graham film I once saw entitle The Ride. In this film, a burned-out rodeo star, is placed in a home for wayward boys to teach a young boy named Danny how to ride bull (all of this is because of community service he is forced to give because of his own ill-doing). Instead of being the great teacher, he becomes the student as Danny teaches him about life. In spite of his leukemia, and in spite of having no family, Danny is a Christian. While the rodeo star is all about winning and making a name for himself, Danny puts it all into perspective with his words and with his life as he says, “It’s not in how long your on…it’s how well you ride.” Danny eventually is overcome with his disease, but leaves a lasting impression on his teacher, who gives his life to Christ. As short as his life was, this young boy named Danny rode the ride of life well.

Such is the case with John the Baptist. A cousin to Jesus and only about 6 months older, John the Baptist’s life is cut short by the selfish, egotistical dealings of Herod, Herodias, and her daughter. What may initially seem like such a tragedy is in reality an incredible statement by a man who never forgot the ride of life.

• John the Baptist never backed down or compromised his message or his relationship with God.

Even in the face of prison and death, John the Baptist was relentless in telling the truth—even to kings and officials. When Herod disobeyed God and took his brother Philip’s wife, John was back-boned enough to tell him about it. Even though this was a gutsy act, God used it to bring the message even to Herod. While in prison, Herod called several times (Mark’s account tells us) to listen to him.

Some would say that this attitude didn’t serve John well, but that is only on the surface. As we dig deeper into this story of this great prophet, one will see that He “got to” Herod when no one else did.

• Even though John’s life was short—he “rode well.”

Even though John’s life was snuffed out by a grudge-nursed Queen named Herodias, John lived his life well. He carried out the mission that God gave him to prepare the way for the Messiah. Even when Christ’s ministry launched and He became more noticed and talked about then John, John continued to minister and he “decreased” as Christ “increased.” As the sun set on John’s life, even Herod respected John because he knew “him to be a righteous and holy man.”

In our lives, it isn’t what we accomplish; it isn’t what name we make for ourselves; it isn’t even how many souls we win, or how successful we are by the world’s standards. What matters is how we took the life that God gave us and used it to bring glory and honor back to Him. It isn’t how long we stay on the bucking bronco of life…it’s how well we ride for our King. And John rode well.

Three Hours of Proof

There is much discussion and debate today as to whether or not Jesus Christ was indeed the Son of God and whether or not His death on a cross on “Skull Hill” was indeed real and with this, whether or not He redeemed the sin of mankind.

For those who try today to analyze, scrutinize, and ostracize there may be much to debate and discuss, but for certain individuals on the day of Jesus death there was no mistake to its validity.

1) For the obscure priest who was on duty during the day of Jesus death, there was no mistake.

He saw something with his own eyes that had never before happened since the Holy of holies had been instituted clear back in the desert of Sinai under Moses’ leadership. The temple veil was rent from top to bottom. This was definitely a sign from God make no mistake about it: the veil was ripped from the top to the bottom.

If this would have been a man-made effort, the rip would have started at ground level and worked its way up. But God was opening a fresh way into the Holy of holies. Man, through the death of God’s Son, could now “come boldly into the throne room of grace” to “find grace to help in time of need.”

This fact was later reported to the disciples and became a fact in history. Make no mistake, even if the priest on duty, the day of Christ’s death, didn’t become a believer, he couldn’t deny that the ripping of the temple veil was from God. We can rejoice today, a new way has been opened up for us to God.

2) For those who saw their loved ones come back to life, it was clear that this death of Christ’s was real.

How often do we hear stories of loved ones who were buried a few years ago come back to life and walk up and down the streets of our town “appearing to many people.” And yet, the day Christ died this was exactly what happened. The Bible shows us that this went on perhaps for three days. How? Listen to Matthew’s account:

“They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus’ resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people.”

They came out of the tombs at Christ’s death and went into Jerusalem on the day He rose again from the dead. For those who saw their loved ones, I believe there was no mistake the Christ was the Son of God.

3) For the Roman Centurion on duty, Christ left an indelible mark on his life.

This man wasn’t even a Jew. Perhaps he had never even met Christ before His crucifixion. However, the three hours that took place between noon and 3 p.m., were loaded with some powerful evidence. The ground shook; there was such darkness that the sun didn’t shine; even Christ called out to His Father as He forsook Him. The response: a man who knew little about Christ before these three hours had no other statement than, “Truly this man was the Son of God.”

So the world may debate Him, question His deity, and even speculate His reality, but for the eyewitnesses of the graveyards, a priest, and a centurion, Christ’s death was real. And for one, He was the Son of God.

Matthew 27:45-56; Mark 15:33-41; Luke 23:44-49; John 19:28-30

Blessings Under Disguise

Luke 2:21-38; Matthew 1:18-25

What must it have been like to raise up Jesus? It must have been an unusual parenting task that was full of surprises. In both of our scripture passages, we see what would seem to be interruptions to the "normal" family life of the typical family.

You take your new son to church for dedication and a man you have never seen asks to see your child. He goes on to say that he has been waiting all his life for your son to be born because of the greatness he is going to bring and then he proclaims that he can die in peace.

He is immediately followed by a woman who hasn't left the church house since her husband died but remained their continuously fasting and praying. Upon seeing your son, she begins to rejoice going around telling others about your son.

If all that wasn't enough, some time later, three distinguished dignitaries from a foreign country show up at your dootstep proclaiming that they were led to you after seeing a star over a year ago. In their hands were royal gifts of gold frankincense and myrrh.

Yes being the parents of the Savior must have proved to have its strange interruptions. However, notice that these interruptions of the routine proved to carry with them blessings in disguise.

Now we may not be parents of the Savior. Some of us may be single and not even have children, but we do have something in common--We too are bearers of Jesus. We bear the Spirit of the living Savior of the world inside of us. As a result, we to receive interruptions to normal life because of Him. So how do we react? Are we bothered or do we look for the disguised blessings?

God allows interruptions to our normal life so that we can share Jesus with others much like Mary and Joseph shared Jesus with Simeon, Anna, and the Magi.
As we do, we will find that if were are willing to submit to the Holy Spirit's placing of our lives with whomever we meet, we will find that God will have a disguised blessing for us as well. Luke 2:33 says, "The child's father and mother marvelled at what was said about Him."