How well do you know Him...

“For all… fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23

God’s glory is His very identity.  For Him to be glorified is for Him to be acknowledged, to be recognized, to be made known. 

Jesus glorified the Father…

And the Father, in turn, glorified  the Son.

Our very purpose in life… actually the purpose of every human being – for we have been made in the image of God – is to glorify Him.

We are to make Him known to a hurting, fallen world.

But how shall we do that if we ourselves have fallen short  of really knowing Him?

As well as we think we know Him… He is so much better.

When I read the above verse I do not feel condemned, and neither should you.  We are under a new covenant… we are under Grace.

Reaching out for His hem

“If I may touch but His clothes, I shall be whole.” (Mark 5: 28)

 

There was no precedent for what this woman did.  So where did she get this “thought” from?  At what point did she think, “all I have to do is touch His garment?”

This was something that only the Father could have told her.  He put it upon her heart, and she knew it. 

It was a promise that He had made… to her. 

A personal promise. 

A promise that only she could take a hold of.

Many people were touching Jesus… but they weren’t getting healed that way.

She had spent all of her living and had wasted so much time… and had only gotten worse.  She would have been considered unclean by so many because of this issue of blood.  She was at her wit’s end.  She was desperate. 

And in that desperation came the promise.  And it gave her hope.

She knew that all it would take would be that moment of contact… but she had a problem.

She had to get close to Him.  He had to be within reach.

Is India the new Greece?

“Indians are Asian.”

This was the answer I was given from and Indian friend who had invited me to and Asian Businessmen’s Association meeting where I was surprised to find only one person from China (my immediate response to “Asia”)… the rest were from India.

I was immediately reminded of how Paul, in the book of acts was “forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia.”  (Acts 16:6)

But Paul was not forbidden to enter other areas, of which one was Greece, where the people worshipped many gods.  Upon Mar’s Hill in Athens Paul appealed to the people and their recognition of the possibility of an “unknown god.” (Acts 17)

In a country that is nearly 80% Hindu and where Islam exceeds Christianity you can help but wonder… in a country where they worship many gods… a country of spiritually and mysticism… would they perhaps have an altar to the unknown god as they did in Greece when the Apostle Paul entered?

The question it drove in me was…

Always ready to be examined

“You will ask me nothing, but you will ask the Father in my name…” “The Father will send the Comforter, He will instruct you in all things.”  “And lo, I am with you always…”

When you fall in love with Jesus and accept Him as your personal Savior you kinda get attached to Him.  How could you not.  You’ll never have a friend that sticks closer.  When you think of what He has done… suffering and dying for you… opening heaven for you… you can’t help but feel appreciation.

And then He tells you not to ask Him for anything.  He tells you to ask the Father in His name.  And what’s more, you will receive what you ask for.

Think like Abraham

"And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body, now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb…” (Romans 4:19)

God had made Abram a promise… a promise that would take years to fulfill.  A promise that seemed impossible that would lead him down a path that seemed impassible.

And with the promise came a cost… Abram’s very identity was changed… He became Abraham… father of nations.

The thing was… he wasn’t the perfect candidate for the name change… at least in man’s terms.  Sure, he might have been easily cast in a play as the grandfather, or maybe Father Time… but to be a daddy, at his age… not likely.

The thought even made his wife laugh.