The Riddles of Life

By His breath the heavens are cleared; 
His hand has pierced the fleeing serpent. . . . 
But His mighty thunder, who can understand?
Job 26:13-14

There are numerous riddles in life that remain wrapped in mystery and shrouded inside an enigma. 

The sea, for example, is an unexplainable phenomenon. Who can fathom its tide affected strangely by the moon . . . ? We manage to continue on, though brilliant scientists have been trying to solve and/or explain life's mysteries for years. . . . 

But when God leaves us with a mystery that isn't solved in a week or two, most of us go through desperate struggles believing that He is good or fair. 

I mean, after all, if we're going to trust a good God, He should do only good things, right? No fair doing mysterious stuff!

The Bible that I read simply doesn't present that as the way life is. Yet the world I live in seems to expect that. And that's certainly the cynic's line: "You mean to tell me you are going to trust a God who treats you like that?" 

When will we ever learn that cynics have no capacity to understand the profound and unfathomable ways of God?

Vision, Vitality, and Victory

Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, 
for I wait for You.
Psalms 25:21
 

Thoughts are the thermostat that regulates what we accomplish in life. 

My body responds and reacts to the input from my mind. If I feed my mind upon doubt, disbelief, and discouragement, that is precisely the kind of day my body will experience. 

If I adjust my thermostat forward to thoughts filled with vision, vitality, and victory, I can count on that kind of day.

Thoughts, positive or negative, grow stronger when fertilized with constant repetition. That may explain why so many who are gloomy and gray stay in that mood . . . and why those who are cheery and enthusiastic continue to be so.

You need only one foreman in your mental factory. . . . . Mr. Triumph is His name. He is anxious to assist you.

His real name is the Holy Spirit, the Helper.

Pleasure and Pain

O my God, in You I trust, 
do not let me be ashamed; do not 
let my enemies exult over me.
Psalms 25:2

It's impossible to pass through life without experiencing times when you cannot see your way through a deep valley. Times when the package delivered at the back door comes delivered in the ugly wrapping of death or affliction or illness or even divorce.

 "Pleasure is nothing else but the intermission of pain." That statement, as spoken by a British author, is very blunt; but it has some truth to it.

You may find yourself enjoying the intermission. Today, you may be smiling. Your heart may be light and merry. Perhaps answers to prayer have come beautifully and deliberately. You are swept away in delight. 

But it's also quite possible that you are caught in the grip of affliction. You may be going through some of the hardest days of your life. You may be wondering, Why? Why me? Why this trial?

When you persevere through a trial, God gives you a special measure of insight. You become the recipient of the favor of God as He gives to you something that would not be learned otherwise. Your faith will increase, and you will march on with the victory Christ gives you.

A Metaphor for America

Hebrews 1:1-12

New Living Translation (NLT)

1 Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. ² And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe. ³ The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven. ⁴ This shows that the Son is far greater than the angels, just as the name God gave him is greater than their names.

⁵ For God never said to any angel what he said to Jesus:

“You are my Son.
    Today I have become your Father.”

God also said,

“I will be his Father,
    and he will be my Son.”

⁶ And when he brought his supreme Son into the world, God said,

“Let all of God’s angels worship him.”

⁷ Regarding the angels, he says,

“He sends his angels like the winds,
    his servants like flames of fire.”

⁸ But to the Son he says,

“Your throne, O God, endures forever and ever.
    You rule with a scepter of justice.
⁹ You love justice and hate evil.
    Therefore, O God, your God has anointed you,
    pouring out the oil of joy on you more than on anyone else.”

¹⁰ He also says to the Son,

“In the beginning, Lord, you laid the foundation of the earth
    and made the heavens with your hands.
¹¹ They will perish, but you remain forever.
    They will wear out like old clothing.
¹² You will fold them up like a cloak
    and discard them like old clothing.
But you are always the same;
    you will live forever.”

A while ago, cracks appeared in the living room of our old house . We called our landlord who replaced the plaster around the crack and repainted the wall. But the crack reappeared not long after that. We them back, he repaired the crack, and he repainted the wall again. Everything looked fine until about a couple months later when the crack came back. And this time it brought its relatives, not one or two, but many. We called our landlord, which called a foundation guy- and he gave the verdict. The cracks in the wall were due to a much deeper problem. We were experiencing a shifting foundation. He told us that until we stabilized our foundation, we would forever be repairing cracks in the walls. What a perfect metaphor for the condition of American society today.

Until we stabilize the foundation, no number of programs, government grants, or elections will be able to repair the cracks in our cultural walls. There is no place where the foundation of America needs to be stabilized more than in the home. The breakdown of the family is the single greatest contributor to the deterioration of our country. Strong families hold the key to a strong society, while weak families lead to a weak society. This is true because every other institution in society depends on strong families. You can’t have strong families without God as their foundation.

“No man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ”(1 Corinthians 3:11).

Christians can strengthen America by stabilizing their own homes on the foundation of God’s Word.