"Into thine hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O LORD God of truth." Psalm 31:5 (KJV)
Only Believe! Those words can’t be bad after all didn’t Jesus speak them to the ruler of the Synagogue when he received word that his daughter had died. Jairus was standing before Jesus asking for a miracle when suddenly the world came crashing down around him. He was part of the established religion. He lived and worked in the influential world of the Pharisees and Sadducees where Jesus was not welcomed. He was risking everything to come to Jesus and ask Him to his house. His daughter, the love of his life, was sick and needed a miracle. He had seen the women with the issue of blood healed, he had watched the Gadarene with the demons be delivered, surely this man could heal his daughter. He too had pressed his way through the crowd not caring what people thought about him. He needed a miracle!
Then it happened! His servant tugged on his robe and said,
“Come on don’t bother the Master, your daughter is dead.”
The thoughts came rushing over him in waves of despair. His heart fell from his chest and darkness began to fill his mind. The world was spinning in a kaleidoscope of empty images. Dead! He was too late! Hope was crushed on the rocks of despair.
Then he heard the words of Jesus. Like a light piercing the darkness of His mind.
“Do not be afraid, only believe”
The voice startled him! It was not loud or boisterous. Yet, the coldness of despair gave way to the warmth of truth. He could feel his heart beat, hear the breath fill his lungs, and everything stopped spinning. His eyes opened as if for the first time and he saw Jesus looking at him. There was something about His eyes that seemed to look right through the confusion. Hope began to sing once again.
At the house people laughed and ridiculed Jesus for saying that his daughter was only sleeping. She was dead! Everyone knew it! The doctors had pronounced it! Still there was something about His voice. When Jesus spoke those words, even though everyone else laughed, he found a peace in them that seemed to defy understanding. Against all reasoning he believed!
He was standing there when Jesus took the cold hand of her lifeless body and spoke,
“Talitha cumi” which means “Little girl, I say to you, arise.”
Let me tell you, when Jesus speaks peace there is peace. When He speaks life there is life. What He says will come to pass and there is no shadow of turning in His voice. Just ask Jarius.
There is an old song that we sang often when I was growing up. Written in 1886 by Kelso Carter
Standing on the promises of Christ my King,
Through eternal ages let His praises ring,
Glory in the highest, I will shout and sing,
Standing on the promises of God.
Standing on the promises that cannot fail,
When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail,
By the living Word of God I shall prevail,
Standing on the promises of God.
Standing, standing,
Standing on the promises of God my Savior;
Standing, standing,
I’m standing on the promises of God.
There are more verses and each one makes me want to stand up and give God all my praise! You see in this day and age there are many who have put their faith in the gods of this world. They preach faith but they fail to ground their faith in Truth! A.W. Tozer said it this way,
"I do not recall another period when ‘faith’ was as popular as it is today. ‘If only we believe hard enough, we'll make it somehow.’ So goes the popular chant. What you believe is not important. Only believe. ... What is overlooked in all this is that faith is good only when it engages truth; when it is made to rest upon falsehood, it can and often does lead to eternal tragedy. For it is not enough that we believe; we must believe the right thing about the right One."
That was written a generation ago but it can be applied to our generation just as well. Unless our faith is grounded in the Truth of Jesus Christ and His Gospel we are travelling a road that cannot end well. Faith in God must stand upon His Word and be centered in Christ alone. Jesus told us in John 15:26,
“When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me.”
There is only one Truth! God! The Holy Spirit is that Spirit of Truth that comes from the Father and He speaks only of the Son! Jesus! When we “only believe” let’s make sure that we place all of our hope, our trust, our faith, in Him.
Showing posts with label counselor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label counselor. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Wonderful Counselor
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6 (NIV)
This week children are counting down the days to Christmas and across the nation people are fully engaged in the annual rituals of our celebration of Jesus’ Birthday. Our church has an annual Birthday Celebration on the Sunday before Christmas where we purchase a cake and gather for a Birthday Party. It is easy in all the gift giving to each other to forget that this celebration isn’t about us, it’s about Jesus. I can’t think of anybody else’s birthday where we all get gifts and they are mostly forgotten. Our passage this week serves to remind us that there is ample reason to rejoice. A child is born, a son is given, and He will reign forever and ever. The government will be on His shoulders. All power and glory and honor is given unto Him. Over 700 years before the birth of Jesus the prophet Isaiah was moved by the Holy Spirit to prophecy of His coming and give us some hints of what we were about to receive.
You might notice that there are four descriptions of the child King. Each one has a noun and adjective. Today I want to look at the first – Wonderful Counselor. In the King James Version there is a comma between these two words. In other versions it has been removed. It is possible to read this as “His name is Wonderful.”
Do you remember in Judges 13 when the Angel of the Lord came to visit Manoah and his wife. The angel had told her that she would have a child and now was confirming his word to her husband. In the Old Testament often times the Angel of the Lord was actually the pre-incarnate Christ. Before the Holy Spirit moved upon Mary and she conceived the Only Begotten Son of God there was The Word. “The Word became flesh and dwelled among us.” That is Jesus! Angels don’t receive worship and when it was an actual messenger of God they would always warn the people to worship only God. But there were times when The Angel of the Lord would receive the worship of men and identify Himself. The most notable example of this is when Joshua encountered the man outside of Jericho who identified Himself as the “Captain (or Commander) of the Lord’s Host” He even commanded Joshua to take off his shoes because he was on holy ground. This was obviously the pre-incarnate Christ.
Back to Manoah. He asked the “angel” that came to visit what was his name? The angel answered that His name was “secret”. In the Hebrew that word is פָּלִיא or “paliy” it can be translated secret or (are you ready for this) wonderful. In Judges 13:19 as Manoah offers a burnt offering to the Lord the “Angel” stepped into the fire and did “wondrously”’ as He ascended to heaven. What a beautiful picture of how God receives our sacrifices of praise. Think about it. God inhabits the praises of His people.
When we say, “He is Wonderful” we are proclaiming one of the names of Jesus. Our hearts are overwhelmed as we think of His lowly birth. He lived sinless and died in our place. He conquered death and the grave as He burst forth from the tomb in glorious resurrection. We stand with arms held high and proclaim, “He is Wonderful!” Jesus stands alone in the annals of history, He alone is worthy, He alone reigns supreme! He is the Only Begotten of the Father, touched with the feeling of our infirmities, reaching down to lost man, His grace is manifested over and over in our lives. YES! He is Wonderful!
But here in Isaiah 9:6 Jesus is called Wonderful Counselor. In all that we know of the wonders of Christ He comes to reveal to us the Father. He leads us beside the still waters and teaches us the way. Everything that Jesus did from His birth to His resurrection was to open our eyes to the love of the Father. His mission was to lead us to that place of restoration and healing where God becomes our All in All.
John starts his Gospel with the statement, “In the beginning was the Word”. This is the name he gives to the pre-incarnate Christ. When we want to make others understand us we use words. It is how we express ourselves and reveal our deepest thoughts and desires. God sent His Word! Jesus! He was one with the Father from the beginning and when God created the heavens and the earth Genesis records that “He said let there be..” It was the Eternal Word of God that placed the stars in the heavens and created the firmaments of the earth. It was by the Word of God that all things were created.
Jesus didn’t just come to earth to show us the way to the Father but to walk beside us. He is the Word that abides in us and empowers us so that we might walk in Truth and Righteousness. He truly is our Wonderful Counselor.
This week children are counting down the days to Christmas and across the nation people are fully engaged in the annual rituals of our celebration of Jesus’ Birthday. Our church has an annual Birthday Celebration on the Sunday before Christmas where we purchase a cake and gather for a Birthday Party. It is easy in all the gift giving to each other to forget that this celebration isn’t about us, it’s about Jesus. I can’t think of anybody else’s birthday where we all get gifts and they are mostly forgotten. Our passage this week serves to remind us that there is ample reason to rejoice. A child is born, a son is given, and He will reign forever and ever. The government will be on His shoulders. All power and glory and honor is given unto Him. Over 700 years before the birth of Jesus the prophet Isaiah was moved by the Holy Spirit to prophecy of His coming and give us some hints of what we were about to receive.
You might notice that there are four descriptions of the child King. Each one has a noun and adjective. Today I want to look at the first – Wonderful Counselor. In the King James Version there is a comma between these two words. In other versions it has been removed. It is possible to read this as “His name is Wonderful.”
Do you remember in Judges 13 when the Angel of the Lord came to visit Manoah and his wife. The angel had told her that she would have a child and now was confirming his word to her husband. In the Old Testament often times the Angel of the Lord was actually the pre-incarnate Christ. Before the Holy Spirit moved upon Mary and she conceived the Only Begotten Son of God there was The Word. “The Word became flesh and dwelled among us.” That is Jesus! Angels don’t receive worship and when it was an actual messenger of God they would always warn the people to worship only God. But there were times when The Angel of the Lord would receive the worship of men and identify Himself. The most notable example of this is when Joshua encountered the man outside of Jericho who identified Himself as the “Captain (or Commander) of the Lord’s Host” He even commanded Joshua to take off his shoes because he was on holy ground. This was obviously the pre-incarnate Christ.
Back to Manoah. He asked the “angel” that came to visit what was his name? The angel answered that His name was “secret”. In the Hebrew that word is פָּלִיא or “paliy” it can be translated secret or (are you ready for this) wonderful. In Judges 13:19 as Manoah offers a burnt offering to the Lord the “Angel” stepped into the fire and did “wondrously”’ as He ascended to heaven. What a beautiful picture of how God receives our sacrifices of praise. Think about it. God inhabits the praises of His people.
When we say, “He is Wonderful” we are proclaiming one of the names of Jesus. Our hearts are overwhelmed as we think of His lowly birth. He lived sinless and died in our place. He conquered death and the grave as He burst forth from the tomb in glorious resurrection. We stand with arms held high and proclaim, “He is Wonderful!” Jesus stands alone in the annals of history, He alone is worthy, He alone reigns supreme! He is the Only Begotten of the Father, touched with the feeling of our infirmities, reaching down to lost man, His grace is manifested over and over in our lives. YES! He is Wonderful!
But here in Isaiah 9:6 Jesus is called Wonderful Counselor. In all that we know of the wonders of Christ He comes to reveal to us the Father. He leads us beside the still waters and teaches us the way. Everything that Jesus did from His birth to His resurrection was to open our eyes to the love of the Father. His mission was to lead us to that place of restoration and healing where God becomes our All in All.
John starts his Gospel with the statement, “In the beginning was the Word”. This is the name he gives to the pre-incarnate Christ. When we want to make others understand us we use words. It is how we express ourselves and reveal our deepest thoughts and desires. God sent His Word! Jesus! He was one with the Father from the beginning and when God created the heavens and the earth Genesis records that “He said let there be..” It was the Eternal Word of God that placed the stars in the heavens and created the firmaments of the earth. It was by the Word of God that all things were created.
Jesus didn’t just come to earth to show us the way to the Father but to walk beside us. He is the Word that abides in us and empowers us so that we might walk in Truth and Righteousness. He truly is our Wonderful Counselor.
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