ReFocus

We attended North Point Community Church in Alpharetta the last two Sundays to hear Louie Giglio speak. He is such a master communicator of God’s Word! Click here to hear or view these two sermons on line. You will not be disappointed. Listen to ‘Anchor of Hope’ first. Wow! Louie reminded us that the cross demonstrates how God uses the worst situations to bring about the greatest good in our lives.

We listen to Tom Dooley’s ‘One Year Bible’ for our Bible reading each day. Click here and you can listen to today’s audio. Yesterday’s portion of scripture was from Isaiah 48-50. In Isaiah 50:4-9 (NLT), the Messiah Jesus is speaking:

The Master, GOD, has given me a well-taught tongue, So I know how to encourage tired people. He wakes me up in the morning, Wakes me up, opens my ears to listen as one ready to take orders. The Master, GOD, opened my ears, and I didn’t go back to sleep, didn’t pull the covers back over my head. I followed orders, stood there and took it while they beat me, held steady while they pulled out my beard, Didn’t dodge their insults, faced them as they spit in my face. And the Master, GOD, stays right there and helps me, so I’m not disgraced. Therefore I set my face like flint, confident that I’ll never regret this. My champion is right here. Let’s take our stand together! Who dares bring suit against me? Let him try! Look! the Master, GOD, is right here. Who would dare call me guilty? Look! My accusers are a clothes bin of threadbare socks and shirts, fodder for moths!

In this passage, Jesus shows His dependence on the Father. In verse 10, Jesus exhorts us to follow His example and do the same: Who among you fears the Lord and obeys his servant?

If you are walking in darkness, without a ray of light, trust in the Lord and rely on your God. If the Lord of Lords, who suffered death on a cross, is dependent on God the Father, maybe we should be too!

Continuing the work of prayer that God has called us to,

Billy and Sheilah Daws

Does God ever break His promise?  If He does just one time, then it would produce a cloud over the rest of your walk with Him?  That cloud would then cause doubts on any future situation.

Mary and Martha’s brother was a good friend of Jesus.  Lazarus was sick so the sisters sent word to Jesus.  They expected Jesus to drop everything and come running.   John 11:4 (GW)  When Jesus heard the message, he said, “His sickness won’t result in death. Instead, this sickness will bring glory to God so that the Son of God will receive glory through it.”  So Jesus did not drop everything and the sisters held onto a promise…he will not die.

Lazarus proceeded to get sicker and sicker until…Lazarus died!!  Jesus didn’t show up…not until Lazarus had been in the grave four days.  You know what made this even worse…Jesus seemed to be insensitive to the whole situation. John 11:15 (GW)  “…but I’m glad that I wasn’t there so that you can grow in faith. Let’s go to Lazarus.”  Ouch!

The darkest time in life comes when you receive a promise from God and then you realize that He broke His promise. Can you imagine the cloud that suddenly appeared over the head of Mary and Martha.  Up to this point in life, they lived with the knowledge that God would always keep His Word, that Jesus had always come through for them, that they could always lean on the faithfulness of God and Jesus.  Now the sisters had a precedent.  A precedent is “a legal decision establishing a principle or rule that a court or other judicial body or individual adopts when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues or facts”.  That simply means that when need arises in the future, we don’t know if God will meet that need!

But hold on!  Let’s look at this more closely.  What did the sisters hear Jesus say?  They heard Jesus say that Lazarus would not die.  What did Jesus say?  He said that Lazarus’ sickness would not result in death.  The sister’s believed that death wasn’t part of the story and this was the end.  They didn’t know the rest of the story…they had no idea that Jesus would take Lazarus through death’s door and back again!

One writer puts it this way, “God is the perpetual present, the Eternal I Am.  He is not limited to the past of the future; He lives in the constant state of being  Can I tell you what it means to me?  In the realm where Jesus lives, in the realm of perpetual life, Lazarus wasn’t dead.  God can never be late; He doesn’t wear a wristwatch.  He’ll reach into the past to pull your promises back into your present if necessary.  He’ll resurrect something you thought was forever lost.” (God’s Eye View by Tommy Tenney)

God has never broken a promise…it may be that you simply don’t have the full story yet.

Do you trust Him enough to wait on the promise?  500 people saw the resurrected Jesus and watched His ascension.  Jesus told them to ‘wait in Jerusalem’ and they would receive a wonderful gift of power.  But when that gift was given, there were only 120 there to receive it  What happened to the other 380?  Maybe they thought that He was not keeping His promise.  They missed out on what God was up to.

If God has not fulfilled a promise to you…look at it again.  Just because you don’t see it yet, doesn’t mean that He isn’t doing it…you can’t see the end of the perfect story that He has written just for you.

We love yall.

Billy and Sheilah Daws

We want to go to Egypt on an archeological expedition.  We are looking for the lost diary of Joseph.  Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers.  His dad had given him a multi-colored coat which signified that he was honored by his dad.  God had told him that he would interpret dreams.  He rejected the advances of Potiphar’s wife and he still ended up in jail.  He did a favor for two jail-mates who then forgot him…they did not even send him a postcard.

Would it not be a profound theological find if you could find the lost diary of Joseph?  What would it say?  It probably would go something like this, “Dear God, what is going on?  I don’t like anything that is happening to me.  I understand you call this ’granting me favor’.  Could you grant me a little less favor?  By the way…I didn’t even like that coat and it didn’t fit all that good and it caused me to itch.  Are you there?  Are you hearing me?  It has been thirteen years of misery.  What is the sense of all of this?  I just missed out on some of the best times of my life.  Why so long?  What did I do wrong?  When will all this end?”

It sure would be nice to know if Joseph struggled with what happened to him.  What about Daniel or Moses?  Did post-pentecost Peter struggle with doubts like pre-pentecost Peter did?

These are all questions that we have struggled with recently in our own personal lives.  Scripture tells me that ‘the flesh is weak, but the spirit is willing’.  We are very much aware that our flesh is weak.  This would be the source of all our doubts.  We know that our spirit is willing to do whatever God wants us to do.  But do you ever get to the point in this life that you never struggle with doubts?  This is the question that we asked God this week?

God sent His answer.  The answer is found in Acts 12 and it involves the post-pentecost Peter.  Pentecost is the day that Peter preached with power and 3000 were saved. It marked a change in his life from the old Peter who was weak to the new Peter who walked in power.  Peter was in prison in Acts 12 awaiting execution the next day.  He was sleeping and the church was praying.  He was locked up with 16 Roman guards surrounding him.  An angel came to him and woke him up.  Peter thought he was having a vision.  The angel led him through 16 guards who saw nothing and then an iron gate opened on its on.  Peter was led out into the street.  The angel then departed.  Now notice what Acts 12: 11 in the NIV says,  Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know without a doubt that the Lord sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were anticipating.” 

Notice some key words: 

• now I know—not before but now after the miracle of the angel
• without a doubt—I am for certain now with no doubts meaning that he doubts before
• rescued me—I have been delivered

Let us know how to pray for you.

We love yall.

Billy and Sheilah Daws