I had a college student who was a victim of cerebral palsy. He was able to walk, but with great difficulty as his legs and arms would fly in all directions, out of control of the motor impulses which make walking a normally simple task. His speech was slurred, slow and agonizing, demanding great concentration on the part of the listener to understand. There was nothing wrong with his mind, however, and his sparkling personality and spontaneous smile were an inspiration to his classmates and to all who encountered him.
One day he came to me vexed by a problem and asked me to pray for him. In the course of the prayer, I said something routine, with words like, "Oh, God, please help this man as he wrestles with his problem." When I opened my eyes the student was quietly weeping.
I asked him what was wrong and he stammered his reply, "You called me a man--no one has ever called me a man before." ~~
Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." [John 14:6]
"But I call to God, and the Lord saves me. Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress, and he hears my voice." --Psalm 55:16-17
All through Scripture we read of people crying out to God. The intimate interchange between Moses and God in Exodus 32 is a great example. Just as God was ready to destroy the Israelites because of their sin, Moses "sought the favor of the Lord his God" (v.10)and "the Lord relented and didn't bring on his people the disaster he had threatened" (v.14)
God's love for us is as full and as great as that! He listens when we speak and when we cry out. Imagine! He does hear our voice; He does compassionately and wisely answer our prayers; and He does know our needs, meeting them perfectly in His providential ways. --- We are invited to have a personal and relational relationship with the One true God, who sent His Son to die for our sins. We can talk to Him 24/7's and He always hears and answers in His providential way.
--Haven Today
Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." [John 14:6]
-"Jesus is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless." ---Jude 1:24 ~~ ----- -AFTER Christ has clothed us in His righteousness, we tend to wander off and live in ways that make us look like we don't belong to God.That's why Jude's promise that Jesus is "able to present you faultless" gives me hope (Jude 1:24).
How can we keep from looking like we don't have a Heavenly Father? As we become more yielded to His Spirit and His ways, He will keep us from stumbling. Think of how increasingly righteous our lives would become if we would take time in His Word to be cleansed with "the washing of water by the word" (Eph. 5:26). ----------- --TO REFLECT THE PRESENCE OF THE FATHER, WE MUST RELY ON THE SON! ~~~ JESUS IS AS CLOSE AS THE MENTION OF HIS NAME!
'Thanks be to God for a life full-packed with things that matter crying to be done--a life, thank God, of never-ending strife against the odds...Just enough time to do one's best, and then pass on, leaving the rest to Him.'
--John Oxenham
Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." [John 14:6]
When I opened my eyes the student was quietly weeping.