Remember that you molded me like clay. Will you now turn me to dust again? Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese, clothe me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews? You gave me life and showed me kindness, and in your providence watched over my spirit. --Job 10:9-12
I enjoy spending some time with acquaintances who are autistic; typically those with autism are very unique and, in my opinion, way beyond the norm for compulsive thinkers. They lock into something and their minds do not have the ability to shift to anything else. One friend had locked into turtles; everything was about turtles: must find a turtle, must hold the turtle, and must examine the turtle. After catching a turtle, he scanned every section of the turtle, his eyes moving like a computer scanner. In the end, he put it down and drew a perfect picture of a turtle. He knew every line and dimple. Now, man is made in the image of God. Look at any man and you learn a secret or two about God. After watching the man with a turtle, I had an insight into God. God is Autistic! I could just imagine God making the turtle, thinking of every detail, locking into it, thinking of everything, how it would breathe, how it would move, what it would eat, and creating all that it needed. I could just see God locked in. It was then that I understood a bit more about the exactness of creation, that every hair of my head was numbered, and that so much detail had gone into my life. Everything has been perfect. All of creation is perfect. He has given me exactly--yes, exactly--what I have needed: in sickness, in health, in poverty, in struggle, and in stress, everything perfectly!
This brings me to another point. We see the perfection and how it must work. We cannot change it. I am often asked, “How can you believe in a God who allows suffering?” My response is, “How can you believe in man who causes the suffering?” AIDS is not the judgment of God; it is the judgment of man. By playing God and refusing to recognize Him and His perfection, man has done it all, killing many people. God has made us perfectly, and sin is a foreign resident in the body. All of the glue (Jesus) holding man together will attempt to repel it. It is in this condition that man complains about God, and yet everything that has been permitted into our lives has been the perfect thing, exactly what we need.
- Mike Wells
Friday, August 30, 2019
Living Outside The Circle
But He is unique and who can turn Him?--Job 23:13
God is unique! You are His unique creation! Do you accept your uniqueness? In the course of my life as a believer, I have met people who would be considered by most to be “odd.” God creates man, man bands together, man determines his concept of what is normal using the criteria of the similarities shared by the majority, and some are left outside the circle of behaviors that constitute this notion of normalcy. Are you one of those out-of-the-ordinary people? Do you laugh at inappropriate times or talk when you should listen? Spill your deepest secrets to strangers? Did you have a ponytail when others did not or a shaved head when others had a ponytail? Are you loud in a crowd? Quiet at a party? When everyone is wearing suits, do you show up in a tee shirt? Do you laugh though no one understands your humor? Do you make people uncomfortable with the way you rearrange your silverware and organize your condiments in the restaurant? Do you invite people over and proceed to make them sit and listen to your latest recording of locomotive trains as loudly as the stereo will play? Do you feel like you have to play the people game every day? Are you the odd one out? Do you live outside the circle of what is typified as normal? If so, I welcome you. There is plenty of room in the family of God for you. Please do not go away! We need you so much to bring color into our world. We need you to remind us that God creates outside the circle. We see God in you. Let Him shine through your uniqueness, and do not change!
I will tell you of one of God’s favorites who lived outside the circle, an odd man. It was a time in Israel when the people needed a deliverer. The odd one, David, was overlooked as a potential candidate and directed to remain in the fields. The odd one was not to speak, though it was he for whom the prophet was looking. The odd one believed God, in Whom he had found favor. The odd one slew the giant, and yet later when he found his enemy in a cave, he refused to slay him but instead cut a piece of cloth from his enemy's garment. This odd man actually danced in the streets; his wife despised him the rest of his life for it. God sums up this “just too odd” man, David, by saying, “I HAVE FOUND DAVID, the son of Jesse, A MAN AFTER MY HEART, who will do all My will.” There are so many odd people in the Bible, and I love to read about these people who lived outside man's circle but always within the circle of God's love and acceptance. The important thing is not whether or not you are odd, but that you allow the creative God to be Lord of your uniqueness. I thank God today for all of the odd people I have known who “do all His will.”
- Mike Wells
God is unique! You are His unique creation! Do you accept your uniqueness? In the course of my life as a believer, I have met people who would be considered by most to be “odd.” God creates man, man bands together, man determines his concept of what is normal using the criteria of the similarities shared by the majority, and some are left outside the circle of behaviors that constitute this notion of normalcy. Are you one of those out-of-the-ordinary people? Do you laugh at inappropriate times or talk when you should listen? Spill your deepest secrets to strangers? Did you have a ponytail when others did not or a shaved head when others had a ponytail? Are you loud in a crowd? Quiet at a party? When everyone is wearing suits, do you show up in a tee shirt? Do you laugh though no one understands your humor? Do you make people uncomfortable with the way you rearrange your silverware and organize your condiments in the restaurant? Do you invite people over and proceed to make them sit and listen to your latest recording of locomotive trains as loudly as the stereo will play? Do you feel like you have to play the people game every day? Are you the odd one out? Do you live outside the circle of what is typified as normal? If so, I welcome you. There is plenty of room in the family of God for you. Please do not go away! We need you so much to bring color into our world. We need you to remind us that God creates outside the circle. We see God in you. Let Him shine through your uniqueness, and do not change!
I will tell you of one of God’s favorites who lived outside the circle, an odd man. It was a time in Israel when the people needed a deliverer. The odd one, David, was overlooked as a potential candidate and directed to remain in the fields. The odd one was not to speak, though it was he for whom the prophet was looking. The odd one believed God, in Whom he had found favor. The odd one slew the giant, and yet later when he found his enemy in a cave, he refused to slay him but instead cut a piece of cloth from his enemy's garment. This odd man actually danced in the streets; his wife despised him the rest of his life for it. God sums up this “just too odd” man, David, by saying, “I HAVE FOUND DAVID, the son of Jesse, A MAN AFTER MY HEART, who will do all My will.” There are so many odd people in the Bible, and I love to read about these people who lived outside man's circle but always within the circle of God's love and acceptance. The important thing is not whether or not you are odd, but that you allow the creative God to be Lord of your uniqueness. I thank God today for all of the odd people I have known who “do all His will.”
- Mike Wells
Wednesday, August 28, 2019
Monday, August 26, 2019
Tuesday, August 20, 2019
I Take It Back!
When they were filled, He said to His disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments so that nothing will be lost.” So they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten. --John 6:12, 13
In this astounding story Jesus had fed 5,000 people, and what was left over, He wanted . . . but for what? What are twelve men and a teacher on the move going to do with twelve baskets of barley bread? I imagine that they found a few hungry people along the way. The miracle had provided exactly enough food for all of the people, so I wonder if some, like the boy that offered the five loaves and two fish, had their own food with them. When the bread that Jesus gave came, they simply ate their own food; they did not feel the need for His bread. Therefore, He took it back. Matthew 7:6, “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.” Jesus then continues with the theme that He is the bread of life; He let us know that He was the true bread that came down out of heaven. In the same way that some would rather have their bread than His, there are those that would prefer to have what the world offers than what Jesus offers. For such people the bread is withdrawn. Sometimes I am talking to someone and am met with one argument after another. That person simply is not interested in Jesus, so I say, “I take it back; I take back everything!” He may believe that I am retracting my conviction over what I have said about Jesus, but it is not so! I am withdrawing the presentation of Jesus. A word not received is a wasted word, and there must be no waste. I pick up the message and wait to give it to others who hunger for the bread that comes from heaven. On our journey we will always find a few hungry people.
I remember being in India. As I left the airport, a band of men were attempting to grapple my luggage out of my hands. I made it clear that I would carry them myself. Since I would not relinquish the bags, they walked alongside me, each with a hand touching the bags, so that when I arrived at the car they all asked for a tip. Reluctantly, I gave them all one rupee apiece. They began to curse at me and demanded more. I responded, “So one rupee is not enough?” I then took back from each man his one rupee. They expectantly assumed I would be giving them something bigger. Instead, I simply got in the taxi and rode away with them following me, now shouting and wanting the one rupee back. However, I had taken back what they did not like and was not giving it again.
Jesus offers the bread of life; if someone does not want it, He will take it back and leave the person exactly as he was before he heard of Him.
In this astounding story Jesus had fed 5,000 people, and what was left over, He wanted . . . but for what? What are twelve men and a teacher on the move going to do with twelve baskets of barley bread? I imagine that they found a few hungry people along the way. The miracle had provided exactly enough food for all of the people, so I wonder if some, like the boy that offered the five loaves and two fish, had their own food with them. When the bread that Jesus gave came, they simply ate their own food; they did not feel the need for His bread. Therefore, He took it back. Matthew 7:6, “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.” Jesus then continues with the theme that He is the bread of life; He let us know that He was the true bread that came down out of heaven. In the same way that some would rather have their bread than His, there are those that would prefer to have what the world offers than what Jesus offers. For such people the bread is withdrawn. Sometimes I am talking to someone and am met with one argument after another. That person simply is not interested in Jesus, so I say, “I take it back; I take back everything!” He may believe that I am retracting my conviction over what I have said about Jesus, but it is not so! I am withdrawing the presentation of Jesus. A word not received is a wasted word, and there must be no waste. I pick up the message and wait to give it to others who hunger for the bread that comes from heaven. On our journey we will always find a few hungry people.
I remember being in India. As I left the airport, a band of men were attempting to grapple my luggage out of my hands. I made it clear that I would carry them myself. Since I would not relinquish the bags, they walked alongside me, each with a hand touching the bags, so that when I arrived at the car they all asked for a tip. Reluctantly, I gave them all one rupee apiece. They began to curse at me and demanded more. I responded, “So one rupee is not enough?” I then took back from each man his one rupee. They expectantly assumed I would be giving them something bigger. Instead, I simply got in the taxi and rode away with them following me, now shouting and wanting the one rupee back. However, I had taken back what they did not like and was not giving it again.
Jesus offers the bread of life; if someone does not want it, He will take it back and leave the person exactly as he was before he heard of Him.
Thursday, August 15, 2019
Friday, August 9, 2019
Thursday, August 8, 2019
The Crucified Christ
But may it never be that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.--Galatians 6:14
When people saw Jesus they were seeing God, for He was attached, so to speak, by a divine umbilical cord to the Father, whose LIFE flowed through Him. Satan could not defeat God in heaven, so he thought he would try again with his next best chance, which was when God was no longer in heaven but on the earth. Wrong! It was the same God on earth in a body, and in that body God defeated sin, the world, and every aspect of the flesh.How? The “I” attitude of Jesus intertwined throughout His mind, will, emotion, and body was this: “Of My own self I can do nothing.” To the world, He hung on the cross as a defeated man; in actuality, there hung the greatest conqueror the world would ever know.
Jesus’ body went to the grave, but His LIFE departed and descended. Jesus had no choice but to descend when He died; that is what was happening to dead people. There were a couple of battles along the way, all easily won by the power of an indestructible life. Death encountered a new foe, LIFE, and death went running. Captivity was taken captive, and a Man tore open the very gates of hell and preached! All who believed in Jesus left with Him. In short, Hell was plundered. What a time! Next, God reconnected with Him to raise Him from the dead, and Jesus returned to His body in the tomb. His life was so powerful, having overcome sin; Satan; the world; the mind, will, emotions, and body of man; the “I” attitude; and Death, Captivity, and Hell, all by doing nothing of “Himself.” When this powerful life reentered His body, His body was instantly transformed by the power of an indestructible life. His fleshly body could not decay; it was overcome by LIFE and was transformed. We men can only take our spirit along where our body allows us to go. His transformed body had to go wherever His spirit went. If He wanted to walk through a wall, His transformed body followed. Lest we forget, when He returned to His body, He was soaked with the “I” that proved the Love of God, an “I” attitude that trusted God and was holy, righteous, acceptable, and dependent.
Remember that every believer is the dry sponge attached to the soaked One that fills him. Formerly dead in trespasses and sins, believers are filled with a new “I” that soaks into their whole being and gets into every corner until thinking, will, emotions, and body all change. Believers may look the same but they are not; they are having a conversion, being filled with His Spirit, His “I” attitude, and His life. Again, like the great tree root, this divine “I” wraps itself around everything. The flesh of man does not like it, for in the past the flesh was allowed to follow flesh; now the flesh must fight to do so. However, it is fighting an “I” that has already overcome flesh and counterattacks from a place of victory. Believers are filled with THE SPIRIT and are raised up.
When people saw Jesus they were seeing God, for He was attached, so to speak, by a divine umbilical cord to the Father, whose LIFE flowed through Him. Satan could not defeat God in heaven, so he thought he would try again with his next best chance, which was when God was no longer in heaven but on the earth. Wrong! It was the same God on earth in a body, and in that body God defeated sin, the world, and every aspect of the flesh.How? The “I” attitude of Jesus intertwined throughout His mind, will, emotion, and body was this: “Of My own self I can do nothing.” To the world, He hung on the cross as a defeated man; in actuality, there hung the greatest conqueror the world would ever know.
Jesus’ body went to the grave, but His LIFE departed and descended. Jesus had no choice but to descend when He died; that is what was happening to dead people. There were a couple of battles along the way, all easily won by the power of an indestructible life. Death encountered a new foe, LIFE, and death went running. Captivity was taken captive, and a Man tore open the very gates of hell and preached! All who believed in Jesus left with Him. In short, Hell was plundered. What a time! Next, God reconnected with Him to raise Him from the dead, and Jesus returned to His body in the tomb. His life was so powerful, having overcome sin; Satan; the world; the mind, will, emotions, and body of man; the “I” attitude; and Death, Captivity, and Hell, all by doing nothing of “Himself.” When this powerful life reentered His body, His body was instantly transformed by the power of an indestructible life. His fleshly body could not decay; it was overcome by LIFE and was transformed. We men can only take our spirit along where our body allows us to go. His transformed body had to go wherever His spirit went. If He wanted to walk through a wall, His transformed body followed. Lest we forget, when He returned to His body, He was soaked with the “I” that proved the Love of God, an “I” attitude that trusted God and was holy, righteous, acceptable, and dependent.
Remember that every believer is the dry sponge attached to the soaked One that fills him. Formerly dead in trespasses and sins, believers are filled with a new “I” that soaks into their whole being and gets into every corner until thinking, will, emotions, and body all change. Believers may look the same but they are not; they are having a conversion, being filled with His Spirit, His “I” attitude, and His life. Again, like the great tree root, this divine “I” wraps itself around everything. The flesh of man does not like it, for in the past the flesh was allowed to follow flesh; now the flesh must fight to do so. However, it is fighting an “I” that has already overcome flesh and counterattacks from a place of victory. Believers are filled with THE SPIRIT and are raised up.
Friday, August 2, 2019
Alone
By Anabel Gillham on July 31, 2019
Matthew 4:1-11
He threw back His shoulders, lifted His chin, and walked slowly and fearlessly into the dry, barren land. There was determination evident in His walk, His posture, His eyes, the set of His mouth.
As He looked at the utter desolation of the place, the forsaken terrain before Him, He couldn’t keep from comparing it with the beauty of home. How He missed being home! He had been gone for thirty years but the memories were vivid! Back home there were trees everywhere, shading luscious green carpets; magnificent flowers had been scattered extravagantly–like the sands of the sea–and their fragrance permeated the atmosphere. The brooks, crystalline clear, were dancing over the rocks–you could almost hear them sing! And talk about singing! The songs of the birds were filling the air, they were calling, chattering, little ones chirping, huge ones soaring in the heavens, all of their songs raised in praise and love to His Father. Yes, there was incomparable beauty everywhere at home. There was no beauty to be seen before Him in this desert. No desire to enter. No one He knew calling encouragement to Him from the endless wasteland before Him.
But this was where He was to go, the Spirit had led him to this desert. He knew that it was to be preparation for what was to come, it was to be a learning experience. He would confront evil in its vilest form, hunger and thirst, loneliness and pain. But He would be able to relate to hurting people, lonely people, tempted people–in a way that He could never have done until He passed this time of isolation in the wilderness. And He would come to know His Father’s ways. He was being transformed by His suffering.
I didn’t know that You would lead me into the desert, Lord. I just prayed to know You more completely and that You would use me to be a source of encouragement to the people around me who are hurting, lonely, and confused about You and Your ways.
But here I am–and You aren’t surprised that I’m in this desolate place. How I pray that I will learn, like Jesus did when He was isolated and hurting, about Your love, Your presence, Your strength, Your sustenance, and Your ways–Your ways are so different than what I would plan.
I will choose to accept this time in the wilderness–not fight it or resent it. I will anticipate what each day will bring, trusting You to teach me and use me as I asked You to do. And I know that I will one day be released from this time of desolation, grief, and suffering. I’ll get to go out into my world and tell everyone about You and what I learned in the desert. Or maybe I’ll get to go Home, where beauty and love will engulf me. I don’t want to waste this time–thank You for entrusting to me this awesome role of witnessing of Your presence within me.
Matthew 4:1-11
He threw back His shoulders, lifted His chin, and walked slowly and fearlessly into the dry, barren land. There was determination evident in His walk, His posture, His eyes, the set of His mouth.
As He looked at the utter desolation of the place, the forsaken terrain before Him, He couldn’t keep from comparing it with the beauty of home. How He missed being home! He had been gone for thirty years but the memories were vivid! Back home there were trees everywhere, shading luscious green carpets; magnificent flowers had been scattered extravagantly–like the sands of the sea–and their fragrance permeated the atmosphere. The brooks, crystalline clear, were dancing over the rocks–you could almost hear them sing! And talk about singing! The songs of the birds were filling the air, they were calling, chattering, little ones chirping, huge ones soaring in the heavens, all of their songs raised in praise and love to His Father. Yes, there was incomparable beauty everywhere at home. There was no beauty to be seen before Him in this desert. No desire to enter. No one He knew calling encouragement to Him from the endless wasteland before Him.
But this was where He was to go, the Spirit had led him to this desert. He knew that it was to be preparation for what was to come, it was to be a learning experience. He would confront evil in its vilest form, hunger and thirst, loneliness and pain. But He would be able to relate to hurting people, lonely people, tempted people–in a way that He could never have done until He passed this time of isolation in the wilderness. And He would come to know His Father’s ways. He was being transformed by His suffering.
I didn’t know that You would lead me into the desert, Lord. I just prayed to know You more completely and that You would use me to be a source of encouragement to the people around me who are hurting, lonely, and confused about You and Your ways.
But here I am–and You aren’t surprised that I’m in this desolate place. How I pray that I will learn, like Jesus did when He was isolated and hurting, about Your love, Your presence, Your strength, Your sustenance, and Your ways–Your ways are so different than what I would plan.
I will choose to accept this time in the wilderness–not fight it or resent it. I will anticipate what each day will bring, trusting You to teach me and use me as I asked You to do. And I know that I will one day be released from this time of desolation, grief, and suffering. I’ll get to go out into my world and tell everyone about You and what I learned in the desert. Or maybe I’ll get to go Home, where beauty and love will engulf me. I don’t want to waste this time–thank You for entrusting to me this awesome role of witnessing of Your presence within me.
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