Some thoughts

Erika Schwibs

Do we wonder sometimes if the Lord is with us, especially in our troubles and suffering? Do we feel that he's not there, and we're on our own? It's natural to feel that way, after all. Do we also wonder if we're with Him?

"If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour." John 12:26

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The world leaves nothing out of its plans to gain power, and no stone goes unturned --

EXCEPT.

-- Except that it does everything in its power to first exclude consideration of the spiritual, and if and when it can't do that, then it will try to distort and misrepresent it because an honest and sincere pursuit of the spiritual leads to God eventually. The world talks so much about everything else in order to get people to forget Him.

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Christianity has been the counterweight to human narcissism.

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I've been homeless, and one thing one can't forget is that being in a homeless shelter is only a short-term, temporary solution. It's not permanent, so one shouldn't get too comfortable there, and what's there isn't yours. And so is life in this world like that -- temporary, and the provisions aren't really ours.

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What God provides for us through the sacrifice of His Son on the Cross is a Welfare program. And while we will work if we appreciate what He's given us, we haven't earned our place in Heaven. We are all dependents on Christ.

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Here is the trouble, and why Heaven is for those who become reconciled to God and put His will before their own, without kidding themselves:

"Let favour be shewed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the LORD."  Isaiah 26:10

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Faith is supernatural because of what it stands upon, the Word of God. Its math doesn't add up in the natural. It learns to make happiness out of unhappiness when it's impossible to do so in the natural.

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The Lord is Lord to us all, whether we recognize Him in that or not. Those who choose to reject Him and to identify as unbelievers are like the citizens who hated their nobleman in Jesus' parable:

"He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return. And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come. But his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us."  Luke 19:12-14

And God's Word counsels us not deceive ourselves into thinking we believe in Christ if we actually don't. We should beware not to be like these servants who joined with the world rather than do the work of their Master because He hadn't yet returned:

"But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken; The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers."  Luke 12:45-46