Most Read Bible Verses---#42---Mark 9:23-24

Mark 9:23-24 (NASB)

And Jesus said to him, “If you can!  All things are possible to him who believes.”  Immediately the boy’s father cried out and began saying, “I do believe, help me in my unbelief.”  

Have you ever heard of the term “arrow prayer(s)”?  Think of the imagery of putting an arrow in a bow, pointing the bow upward, pulling back on the arrow and letting it go toward the skies (I used to do this as a kid with a friend with a real bow and arrow where we’d shoot the arrow up and out of sight on a football field and then run for cover; sometimes we never found that arrow!).  Arrow prayers are quick, one sentence prayer requests that anyone can utter anytime, anyplace, and fit a large range of needs.  The father in this passage gave such an arrow prayer—I believe, help me in my unbelief.  Two other arrow prayers are:

·  “God, be merciful to me, the sinner” (Luke 18:13)

·  “Not my will but Thy will be done” (Luke 22:42)

Think of how many daily life situations you could be silently or crying out these three arrow prayers. 

We all struggle with faith issues in our lives, just like this father struggled.  Intellectually, we believe that God is all-powerful (omnipotent) and can be trusted to handle any problem we face in our lives, but emotionally and, yes, spiritually, we have doubts.  I am certain that anyone reading this meditation experienced doubts at times, regardless of how strong one's faith is, and prayed, in one way or another, this same arrow prayer as the father did in this verse.   

What kind of faith is Jesus referring to when He says “…….to him who believes”?  It is the faith defined in Hebrews 11:1 “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”  The key words are “assurance” and “conviction”.  How do you obtain assurance and conviction?  Again, the simple answer is spending quality time in the Word of God.  A simple answer, but a very difficult discipline for most people.  Where do you stand in your faith?  It should be growing in assurance and conviction, but don’t get too down on yourself when you sometimes question your faith.  That’s the beauty of this arrow prayer.  Mark Twain is given credit for the following quote although some dispute that he was the actual originator:

"Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture which they cannot understand, but as for me, I have always noticed that the passages in Scripture that trouble me most are those I do understand."

In what areas of your faith do you admit that you want to cry out and confess---“Help me, Lord, in my unbelief?”

Most Read Bible Verses---#43---II Corinthians 5:18-21

II Corinthians 5:18-21 (NLT)

And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to Himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to Him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And He gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making His appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”  For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

Paul has just written in II Corinthians 5:17 that anyone who belongs to Christ is a brand new person with a brand new life; the old life has passed away.  Then he writes what being a new person in Christ means.  Just reflect carefully and rejoice personally at all the promises and all the good news in these verses:

·  Gift from God

·  Brought us back to Himself

·  Given us the task of reconciling people to Him

·  God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself

·  God no long counts people’s sins against them

·  God gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation

·  We are Christ’s ambassadors

·  God makes His appeal (to the world) through us

·  We speak for Christ

·  God made Christ to be the offering for our sin

·  We are made right with God through Christ

Think of God in heaven and people on earth with an infinite chasm separating the two--holy God from sinful man.  There is no way that sinful man can connect with God (Isaiah 59:2), nothing man can ever do to earn or somehow establish a linkage with God (Romans 3:23).  Yet God took the initiative to establish that linkage over the great chasm and that was to send Himself in the form of His son, Jesus Christ, to receive the penalty for all the world’s sins and all of mankind’s sinful nature.  That penalty was to be crucified on a cross.  Think of the cross as the linkage, as the bridge between heaven and earth, between God and man.  The cross, representing the offering for our sin, enables you and me to be made right with God.  The natural man, one whose thinking and actions are controlled by human nature (biblically referred to as the flesh), cannot comprehend the truth of the cross.  Only the person who is open to the Spirit of God can believe and accept the cross and its meaning.

This passage represents another declaration of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  The gospel in its simplest explanation is the cross of Christ bridging the chasm of separation between God and man.  God has made it our responsibility to declare the gospel to others.  It is our task as ambassadors for Christ.  As the Scripture says, “God is making His appeal through us”.

When was the last time you made an appeal on behalf of God?  When have you been an ambassador for Christ?  You may be afraid to share your beliefs with others, afraid of rejection and persecution.  There’s the old saying, “Say nothing, do nothing, be nothing”.  Your richest rewards in eternity will be those for whom you planted seeds of the gospel through your words and actions. 

Meditate more carefully on this passage and let these words saturate your mind and then may you act upon them.  Have you forgiven yourself as God through Christ has forgiven you?  Have you forgiven others because of the forgiveness you feel?  Exactly how do you feel as a brand new person?  Do you feel the promise of being made right with God Can you name at least three people to whom you can serve as an ambassador for Christ?      

Most Read Bible Verses---#44---Romans 15:13

Romans 15:13 (NLT)

I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.

The 1994 film, “Shawshank Redemption” has become one of the most favorite re-run movies in history.  I am not a movie critic and cannot say why it wasn’t popular initially, but I believe that its growing popularity over the years in large part is because of its underlying theme of hope.  The subtitle of the movie is “Fear can hold you prisoner.  Hope can set you free”.  Indeed, the main character, Andy Dufresne, is seen by inmates in the movie and those who watch the movie as a person who never gives up, who has an unquenchable sense of hope.  His best quote in the movie is when he says to his friend “Red”:  “Remember, Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things and no good thing ever dies”.

Paul says in this verse that God is the source of your hope.  If you allow Him to fill you, you will be full of joy and peace because you trust Him.  Isaiah 26:3 states that God will keep the person who trusts in Him in perfect peace.  It seems so simple, doesn’t it?  Yet, why do people everywhere search for peace of mind and heart when it clearly states in these passages that peace comes from trusting in God because your trust gives you hope that completely fills you with His peace.  In fact, Paul proceeds to reaffirm that hope will overflow in the person who trusts in God because of the power of the Holy Spirit. 

This is supernatural truth that until you are willing to move from the physical to the spiritual, you will never experience true peace as a result of resting in genuine hope.  For some reason(s) people, even Christian people, tend to try to find sources of peace everywhere else except from the source.  The source is God and we find His peace through developing faith from studying the Scriptures, from prayer and applying our faith in everyday life, and in meditating about God and His ways especially in ways where we can enjoy His natural creation.  That’s why mountain, ocean, forest, desert, and other natural scenes of creation are so capable of drawing out your inner sense of who God is. 

As Paul prayed, may God, the source of hope, fill you completely with His joy and peace.  You must believe that He can and will do this.  There’s an old Proverb that says, “He who has hope has everything” and indeed, if you believe that God is everything that that Bible says He is and you innately feel in your heart and soul and spirit that He is, then you will have all His hope and you will have everything you need to live your life in joy and peace.  This is the truest and best meaning of your life, to have the hope of God in you everyday for the rest of your life.

With this in mind, what is your greatest hope right now?