What does “ordinary people” mean? We want the happiness of people needing people, but we fall prey to enshrining the needs of someone other than God as the bedrock of our happiness. “Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the LORD” (Psalm 144:15 KJV). We live in exceptional times, or as Charles Dickens wrote, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” in A Tale of Two Cities (1859). Our sense of “happiness” and “ordinary people” must be tied to the LORD, for Hollywood’s “Ordinary People” (1980) or Broadway’s “People” (1964) [“needing people”] are only a facsimile of the truly blessed people Jesus described. “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). These are the ordinary people, who are the happiest people on earth. Only when our heartfelt sympathy is defined by the LORD, then Charles Dickens’ Sydney Carton’s sacrifice for the happiness of another becomes at all significant. “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done.” LORD, may our motivation and aspiration be of Thee, and may the world receive the benefit. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Humanity of Jesus Christ
Dead Reckoning
Dead reckoning is an expression in aeronautical navigation of determining your current location based upon speed, heading, and elapsed time from a previous position. “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:11 KJV). Christians are held captive by entangling sin simply because they do not reckon, consider, picture, or imagine themselves as anything but chained to the necessity or reality of that sin. Paul showed us the beginning of our solution. Reckon yourselves dead to that sin and alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Some do it easier than others, but all must actively admit, confess, believe, imagine, see, and reckon that it’s so, for it to be so. How is this miracle accomplished? Through Jesus, who is God’s empowerment. It is simply God’s work in us to make it so.
Asking God As Friend
We come to God in the first place because He is our Father, but we are emboldened to pray because He is our Friend. Friends help friends. “And He said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves” (Luke 11:5 KJV). We know that our Friend is well able to give us what we need because He is God Almighty. Even Jesus made it clear we are His friends. “Ye are My friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you” (John 15:14). Here, prayer graduates to intercession for others.
God Never Requires Us to Do the Impossible
God never requires us to do the impossible. He measures our love by our obedience. “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous [burdensome]” (1John 5:3 KJV). God is not an uncaring taskmaster. “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15 KJV). The very idea of the Son of God coming in human flesh was to provide us an example of walking without sinning that we should “follow His steps” (1Peter 2:21 KJV). Jesus is beckoning us to get out of the boat and follow Him. Walking on water is supernatural. Walking without sinning requires the supernatural help of the Holy Spirit. “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13 KJV). If God commands it, we can accomplish it. It’s time to rethink what God can do in us!
Why Me?
Why me? Why am I suffering? Why did God choose Job to be the Poster Child for Suffering? Job may not have said it that way, but felt it. Yahweh already answered that question, even before Job asked it, in a conversation with the Enemy. “And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth [hates] evil” (Job 1:8 KJV). The LORD is not afraid to refine us, even at the Adversary’s suggestion. “None like him” (1:8) indicates Job was the best the Almighty had “in the earth” (1:8). Job was “perfect” (1:8) in heart, which is the only perfection possible for any created being. He was “upright” (1:8) because he did right. He feared God more than the Adversary, where well trained troops are more afraid of disappointing their drill sergeant than they fear the enemy. He hated evil. Job’s testing proved: (1) “All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2Timothy 3:12 KJV), (2) Suffering makes the greatest impression on us in a teachable moment, for even Jesus in His humanity “learned He obedience by the things which He suffered” (Hebrews 5:8 KJV), (3) In suffering’s refinement, “He knoweth the way that I take: when He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold” (Job 23:10 KJV), (4) Yahweh’s conversation with the satan demonstrates there really is an Unseen Realm of Spiritual Warfare, where “we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12 KJV). May Yahweh be magnified as He helps us, and we help each other, in our suffering to come forth as gold. Amen and amen.
We Need A Miracle 