So, ministers whose faith is not reinforced by Psalm 103 remind us that He did not unequivocally mean what he said. This is kind of like our present candidates flip-flop saying, “I commit that I will back him …. It’s becoming increasingly hard. I won’t —- or, “I’ve never lied. . .”
Next, having been told not to take God at his word – that He didn’t mean what he is supposed to have said; we hear a disclaimer similar too: “God may not answer you in your petition for healing, etc., the way you would like. “He’s doing it his way.”
So, we must surmise that his written word does not tell us what His real word to us is; as though we must endure rather than enjoy his way with us; as though clarity of his revelation to us is missing in the Bible. Yet we sing of his amazing love — past tense – – – future tense — not present tense??????????
Caleb was 80 years old when he said, “My strength is the same today” – as it had been 40 years earlier. “Well,” we might hear a preacher say, “Times were different back then.”
So when the Bible says, “He will restore MY youth as the eagle?” Will he heal me today? Will he take away my sin today? Will he “crown my life with loving-kindness? Save my life from destruction – – – today? The Word says He will.
If written. If not for today, was there no need for it being written?
Amazing in the negative context, is the church that has lost its saltiness, whose light has dimmed – – – whose lamp has withered, that is, who must explain why no miracles – or so scarcely as to make the Lord seem miserly. “Miserly” belongs to the miserable – Jesus came to give us life abundantly, poured down – fully pressed – running over – – – to prepare a table (feast of course) before our enemies – – – to make of us a nation who lends and borrows not – – – to crown our lives with loving-kindness and save us from destruction,
When Jerusalem was destroyed in AD 70, Christians had already been urged by the Holy Spirit to remove to another city. When earth-dwellers have brought upon themselves similar but even worse destruction, the Lord will have descended in the air, gathered the living and the dead-in-Christ “in the air.” There will have been the martyred – Jesus the man included – Old Testament prophets too. Were they forsaken? They felt so for a while; not too long. Then we will see what Jesus saw as he viewed forward – “The joy that was set before Him.”
The stubborn ones, those who continue in unbelief, will not be there. Unbelief is believing a lie. Believing in God is credible, founded on the earnest of the Spirit – the “substance” which makes faith actually the only right decision.
We dare not stand on another ground – – – all else is sinking sand, and woe to the person who stubbornly stands in sinking sand trying to make it seem that he has any surety at all.
Buddy