GOD'S POWER IN OUR WEAKNESS

[The Apostle] Paul was well aware of life's vulnerabilities.  He spoke about a "thorn in the flesh," which he had "urged the Lord three times to take it away from me." (2 Cor. 12:8, author's translation)… Paul did not get the answer he wanted, but he received one that supplied the axle around which his theology would turn: "My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness" (2 Cor. 12:9)…

God's power, love power, works in any human vulnerability.  That perspective is one that many in our age and culture have difficulty understanding.  We know a lot about power.  Some say that our culture is obsessed with power.  We want more power to run bigger electric generators so that we can have more comforts and conveniences or more power to put up bigger payloads into space to terrify our enemies so they will not dare to threaten us.  But our power logic, Paul would point out, is not God's power logic.  Our power logic runs, "The weak are weak.  The strong are strong.  In weakness is weakness.  In strength is strength."

God's power logic runs, "In your human weakness you may find My power."

-- E. Glenn Hinson in Spiritual Preparation for Christian Leadership


#3521

GOD IS THE GREAT GIVER

Giving characterizes God’s creation. From the first page of Scripture, He is presented as a philanthropic creator. He produces in pluralities: stars, plants, birds, and animals. Every gift arrives in bulk, multiples, and medleys. God begets Adam and Eve in a “liturgy of abundance” and tells them to follow suit: “be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28).

Scrooge didn’t create the world; God did.

Psalm 104 celebrates this lavish creation with twenty-three verses of itemized blessings: the heavens and the earth, the waters and streams and trees and birds and goats and wine and oil and bread and people and lions. God is the source of “innumerable teeming things, living things both small and great… These all wait for You, that You may give them their food in due season” (vv. 25,27).

And He does. God is the great giver. The great provider. The fount of every blessing. Absolutely generous and utterly dependable. The resounding and recurring message of Scripture is clear: God owns it all. God shares it all. Trust Him!

-- Max Lucado in Fearless: Imagine Your Life Without Fear


#3520

DOORWAY PEOPLE

Many Christians can name one or two people who were critical to their entry into the faith community.  Perhaps a pastor, a relative, a neighbor, or a coworker offered the first invitation, provided encouragement, or welcomed them.  Even in larger congregations, an unusually high proportion of newcomers have been influenced by a small handful of people.  These "doorway people" have a natural way of gently helping people along on the critical first steps toward faith.  Who are the "doorway people" for your own faith journey?  For whom are you a doorway person?

-- Robert Schnase in Five Practices of Fruitful Living


#3519

WHEN OUR WORDS BECOME FLESH

Words are important.  Without them our actions lose meaning.  And without meaning we cannot live.   Words can offer perspective, insight, understanding, and vision.  Words can bring consolation, comfort, encouragement and hope.  Words can take away fear, isolation, shame, and guilt.  Words can reconcile, unite, forgive, and heal.  Words can bring peace and joy, inner freedom and deep gratitude.  Words, in short, can carry love on their wings.  A word of love can be the greatest act of love.  That is because when our words become flesh in our own lives and the lives of others, we can change the world.

Jesus is the word made flesh. (John 1:14)  In Him speaking and acting were one.

-- Henri Nouwen


#3518

THE POWER OF GOD

Did it ever strike you what a wonderful thing it is for the Lord to give a new heart and a right spirit to [you]? You have seen a lobster, perhaps, which has fought with another lobster, and lost one of its claws, and a new claw has grown. That is a remarkable thing; but it is a much more astounding fact that a man should have a new heart given to him. This, indeed, is a miracle beyond the powers of nature. There is a tree. If you cut off one of its limbs, another one may grow in its place; but can you change the tree; can you sweeten sour sap; can you make the thorn bear figs? You can graft something better into it and that is the analogy which nature gives us of the work of grace; but absolutely to change the vital sap of the tree would be a miracle indeed. Such a prodigy and mystery of power God works in all who believe in Jesus.

-- Charles H. Spurgeon in All of Grace


#3517