JESUS KNOWS US

JESUS KNOWS US

I chose this picture because it's like a child's coloring book, simple and quiet. I wanted to show that not every choice we make is an ultra-dramatic and Las Vegas-style, spectacular life-changing event. Many choices are in the everyday innocent decisions and small choices that make up an ultimately many-facetted life. Jesus made choices every day too. He wasn’t a God-robot. He had total freedom of will to choose just like we do.

Jesus “was in all points tempted like as we are” (Heb 4:15). He could have chosen to be disobedient, just as Lucifer chose in the beginning.

But rather, Jesus chose to be obedient to God because of us. He believed in what obedience would bring. He believed in his Father’s goodwill for humanity. The first chapter of John tells us Jesus was there when God created everything: elephants, rabbits, tiny neutrons, huge galaxies, mountains, flowers and everything else—all things for humanity to explore, utilize and enjoy.

Jesus knew God’s intention from the beginning. After Adam sinned and the devil began to have so much influence on earth, Jesus was willing to come to earth and go up against the devil to rescue men and women from his clutches.

To do this Jesus would have to beat Satan at every turn. He would have to live as a man and face all the temptations any man or woman would face. And He had to handle them by choosing God’s way every time.

He didn’t give in to even one temptation to make a bad choice.

As we accept Jesus Christ into our hearts, He gives us the ability to turn to Him for better choices in every situation. He’s been there. He knows us.

God was sure Jesus would do the right thing, but because He loves us so much, He was willing to let Jesus come to earth and live as a man and have freedom of will. Jesus could have chosen differently if He’d wanted to. But because He loved us too, He chose to go through with God’s plan at every turn. He took the horrible results of every bad decision we make, and He paid the ultimate price of death and hell.  

Then God raised Jesus pure and free forever.

Romans 8:34 says Jesus is at the right hand of God, now living to make intercession for us. He is also right here with us to help us with our choices and Colossians 1:27 says we have Christ in us. How can He be in so many places at once? He’s Spirit and even the scientists now are proving that things can be in two places at once. It’s awesome.

Just like Jesus had decisions to make, let’s make an effort to give God honor by making good decisions ourselves and when we honestly don’t know what choice to make, take it to Jesus because He always knows the best choice at that time. He’s been through it. He took our place on the cross so that He could always be there to help us.

Love, Carolyn

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SEVERAL TURNING POINTS IN LIFE

SEVERAL TURNING POINTS IN LIFE 

Cats are said to have nine lives. I had one cat, Snowy, who totally changed in personality once he met his first dog, Spike. Before the dog, Snowy was kind of slow. He wasn’t as smart as the other cats (or so it seemed). But the other cats passed away and Spike, the dog, came into our lives. Snowy decided he was going to be a dog. He ate dog food, went outside with the dog and even lifted his leg to pee like the dog! And he seemed to be so much smarter than before.  I think we humans go through several life changes as well when we come to the end of something or the beginning, where we make hard choices that alter our futures. We don’t know until after, which ones will be the ones that make the biggest difference.

I experienced one of those in college.

Carbondale University of Illinois May 1970. I stood in the crowd of protesters chanting, “Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh, NLF is going to win.” I picked up a rock and threw it as hard as I could. The minute it flew from my hand I was jolted! “What am I doing?” I’d gone too far. I was already a Christian, and I was not doing the right thing.

I was throwing a baseball-sized rock into a line of police officers, not even thinking who or what it could hit. I quickly backed out of the crowd of protesters and retreated to the trailer. I waited for my friends. I was silent on the trip home.

When I got back to my dorm, I had some real soul searching to do. I’d come to one of those crossroads. If I stayed with the friends, my whole life would have been entirely different. I was afraid of the person I’d become. I didn’t recognize her. I had to abandon my protester friends and began to look inward and to the Bible for answers. The next semester at school was lonely.

At some point, we all come to crossroads where we honestly need to ask ourselves, “Why am I doing this?” And then we need to answer ourselves just as honestly.

Second Kings 7 tells us about four lepers who were in that predicament. The enemy was coming from without the city, and there was a great famine within the city. They just sat there. Finally, they woke up and “they said one to another, ‘Why sit we here until we die?’” (v.3). They realized they were foolish just sitting there and waiting to die. Instead, a tiny spark of hope motivated them to get up and take action, no matter what the consequences.

They decided that they’d make a move toward the enemy camp and just maybe there was a very slight chance something good would happen. As it turned out, hope won. As the lepers went out, the enemy thought they heard a great army coming against them, and they fled.

“And when these lepers came to the uttermost part of the camp, they went into one tent, and did eat and drink, and carried thence silver, and gold, and raiment” (v.7). The lepers found the enemy camp empty of soldiers, but full of food and wealth. Four lepers saved themselves and the whole city.

Hoping for something better is a great Biblical attitude. Being Christians, we should always be hopeful. If a person is hopeful in God, he is practicing the good faith. Faith in a better future is a reason to be happy in the present. Psalm 146: 5 tells us: “Happy is he . . . whose hope is in the Lord.”

We aim to do God’s will, and God assures us things will work out. We carry hope for a better future with this wonderful proclamation from God: “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6).

The one and only Almighty God, the Creator of all things, loves us. We can trust Him to help us, especially when we face those life-changing decisions.

Love, Carolyn

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