Behold!

Engraved On His Hands

By: Charles Spurgeon



“Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.” Isaiah 49:16


No doubt a part of the wonder which is concentrated in the word “behold” is excited by the unbelieving lamentation of the preceding sentence. Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me; my God has forgotten me.”


How amazed the divine mind seems to be at this wicked unbelief! What can be more astounding than the unfounded doubts and fears of God’s favored people? The Lord’s loving word of rebuke should make us blush, and he cries, “How can I have forgotten you, when I have engraved you on the palms of my hands? How can you doubt my constant remembrance, when the memorial is set upon my very flesh?”


O unbelief, how strange a marvel you are! We do not know which more to wonder at: the faithfulness of God or the unbelief of his people.


God keeps his promise a thousand times, and yet the next trial makes us doubt him. He never fails, he is never a dry well, he is never as a setting sun, a passing meteor, or a melting vapor—and yet we are as continually vexed with anxieties, bothered with suspicions, and disturbed with fears, as if our God were the mirage of the desert.


“Behold,” is a word intended to excite admiration. Here, indeed, we have a theme for marveling. Heaven and earth may well be astonished that rebels should obtain so great a nearness to the heart of infinite love as to be written on the palms of his hands.


“I have engraved you.” It does not say “your name.” The name is there, but that is not all: “I have engraved you.” See the fulness of this! I have engraved your person, your image, your case, your circumstances, your sins, your temptations, your weaknesses, your wants, your works. I have engraved you, everything about you, all that concerns you. I have put you altogether there.


Will you ever say again that your God has forsaken you when he has engraved you on his own palms?

Fire from Heaven

   One of the things that strikes me about the stories in the Old Testament is how God responds with fire from heaven. There are times it is a demonstration of His justice (Sodom etc) but there are those events at an alter where He demonstrates His pleasure, His acceptance of the sacrifice by sending fire from heaven and consuming the sacrifice. 1Kings 18 where He shows He is the living God in Elijah's challenge to the priests of Baal and Asherah; with Davids repentance in 1 Chronicles 21:26; or at the dedication of temple that Solomon built, recorded in 2 Chronicles 5-7 (see 2 Chronicles 7:1).
   Amazing stories, but how do they relate to us?
   Let's jump ahead in time to the Book of Acts, chapter 2:1. Here we see 120 followers of Jesus in the upper room, (We don't have the full list but in Acts 1:13 we find that the core of Jesus' followers are there)  when what sounds like a loud and violent wind "then what looked like flames or tongues of fire" fell on them and they experienced glossolalia (speaking in tongues).
   It must have been an amazing moment; the sound, intense and thunderous; the sight of flames both fearful and wondrous. Then the voices. I envision a heavenly cacophony, almost like a music, full of joy and praise lifting toward God.
   But let us focus on the tongues of fire. Here it is fifty days after Jesus death and resurrection. Jesus has become the sacrifice for the sins of all mankind; The Lamb of God without spot or blemish. And it is now through the sacrifice of Jesus that God sees the believers, and we can assume that at this time there were only 120 believers in the whole world, and pours from heaven fire of approval upon them all. But it is not a fire that burns up what is on the alter because we are now a living sacrifice Romans 12:1. What an amazing demonstration of the gospel. Jesus, the sacrifice, once and for all, is now fulfilling his promise that He would be with us and in us.
   And now we hear the voices speaking out in joy and praise.
   Our God is great and mighty! Our God reigns with love and majesty! Holy is the name of our God!

God is up to something!

  There is this wonderful and liberating paradox we run across in the Christian life. First we are to take responsibility for our actions, and we have free will to do so. We can not palm off the blame on the devil as Flip Wilson use to say, "The Devil made me do it". We are decision makers and can choose the path we take. On the other hand we are to be surrendered to God. Our lives are to be totally laid before Him.
   Our lives are to be projected onto the greater backdrop of the Lordship of Jesus. To call Jesus Lord is to state your relinquishing of control to Him.
   When we invite the Holy Spirit to fill us we are no longer calling the shots. Even our self control becomes a product of His work (Galatians 5:22-23) We don't get to be in union with God's Spirit so we can choose the road we will travel. The action of the Holy Spirit is referred to as "like a wind" in the New Testament (John 3, Acts 2); this is not a wind that you can give orders to, you can not command this wind, it "goes where it wills". If you are going to partner with the Holy Spirit you must surrender and align yourself with God's agenda, and I assure you He is up to something.
   We can close ourselves off and go through the motions of being a Christian, impress people, feel good about ourselves, but until we surrender to God we can never be totally a partner with the work of the Holy Spirit; God in you.
   But God's plan is send us out into the world to testify to His great works and love. We can not do this without Him at the wheel. We need to surrender that wheel to him; As you surrender to His Lordship, then the Holy Spirit of God can work through us.

Homecoming

   We bring the Word of God to the world because of what we have seen God do in our own lives; we follow the commands of Jesus to be a witness to the world and makers of disciples. But what is our motivation? What is our true intent?
   First and foremost we should be motivated by our love for God "John 14:21
Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”, but what about those we call "the lost", how much do we love them? Are we motivated by the immense and extravagant love that God has for them or are we just trying to fill a pew, or like some evangelist gunslinger, put another notch in our bible for leading someone in "the sinners prayer"?
   I find it interesting that in the descriptions in the bible of when believers gathered there are no alter calls mentioned, no sinners prayer, no evangelism. What is depicted is a community of people getting together to share life, and love, and all the other blessings of God. And when evangelism is portrayed it is out in the streets and homes; wherever life happens, and people are. The community that meets for meals and prayers and teachings also meets in the world.
   When the Church is functioning as God intended, its' power and potential is unlimited. When we break out of the "box" of our beautiful buildings and comfortable pews then we can be examples of the miraculous life God desires for us. We need to become a Church that is "working right". We are the Body of Christ; we are His hands and feet, His voice and eyes, and yes, His love and compassion. We can comfort the grieving and heal the broken. We can build bridges for the one who is seeking and offer truth to the confused. We reach out to the lost, the lonely, the un-loved.
      A friend of mine once stated "I don't understand why people spend so much of their time in bars". I replied "For the same reason we go to church, for fellowship".
     The church is a family, and the world is waiting to be welcomed home.




“When love, acceptance and forgiveness prevail, the church becomes what Jesus was in the world: a center of love, designed for the healing of broken people, and a force for God… One of the greatest services a church can offer a community is to provide a place for people to be brought to wholeness – to be healed physically, spiritually and emotionally… People are fragmented. They are torn. Life doesn’t work for them because they are without Jesus... They need a place to be healed.” (Jerry Cook).

Faith

   Faith is living as if what can not be seen or touched exists - Faith is the relinquishing of control; we give up sensory affirmation of what is true and real; we begin walking in the Kingdom of God.
   Faith is releasing our will to truly accept and receive God's creation. We can no longer configure the world as we would like it, but release to God in a merging of visible and invisible. By faith we embrace life as God's gift and open ourselves not only to God himself but to what He's doing.

Watch, Listen, and Learn.

  On my computer desktop screen is a photo of a person silhouetted against a sunset (maybe sunrise) kneeling in prayer. The caption on the picture says "When life gets to hard to stand... kneel".
   This little slogan was put there to remind me to spend time in prayer as I go through this tough financial season I am experiencing now, but it has come to teach me much more about the truth, depth, and possibilities of my relationship with God.
   As I lift my burden to the Lord I have seen his hand and heart revealed in many ways, restoring joy, hope and peace. The financial barrier has not been removed but I am trusting it will crumble soon and from an unexpected avenue.
   As we read His word, God is revealed in many powerful ways. We are hear how he deeply loves and care for his people and desires the best for their lives.
   So day by day we learn from a God, who by personal revelation, guides us, nurtures us, matures us as we step out of our situation into His Kingdom.

Church Life - A Word Of Encouragement

   It is a common definition, in our culture, to think of the church as some place you go or something you do once you get there. That in itself is not necessarily a bad thing, but where that can cause trouble is when it becomes the only definition. By holding only to that narrow view the church is limited only to the building and the activities that are limited to that building.

   In the truest and most biblical sense we are the church. The church is the body of Christ in the world. So yes on Sundays when we gather at a certain building and do certain things we are doing church, but come Monday we are back to doing "life"? If we are the church, if we are the body of Christ, if we are His disciples, doing His work, should not church life be our life?

   God desires a church that gathers in the everyday places of life. Out in the trenches of life where people struggle and dream. People stepping into life and lifting those who stumble, being the guide for someone who needs a map; living life as a follower of Jesus our Lord, becoming his hands and his voice in a hurting world. We do not "go" to church, we are a church that "goes".