One Won One - Blog

Intercessor, Advocate, Friend

11/21/2019

The book of Job is one of the oldest books in the world. It’s sad, inspiring, frustrating, and funny. Job contends with Satan’s machinations against him – evil plans that are allowed by the same God Job worships. To make matters worse, he also has to deal with three knucklehead friends that come to ‘encourage’ him, but instead tear him down.

Through all of this, Job never forgets to Whom he belongs. Even as he is struggling to understand why God allows this strife, he utters these beautiful words:

Even now my witness is in heaven;
    my advocate is on high.
My intercessor is my friend
    as my eyes pour out tears to God;
on behalf of a man he pleads with God
    as one pleads for a friend. (Job 16:19-21)

Who is this intercessor Job is referring to? Sounds like Jesus to me… Jesus is our friend, our intercessor, and our advocate. Jesus is the beginning and the end and has always been ready to defend us.

Thousands of years before climbing that hill to be hung on a cross, our Lord and Savior was at the right hand of the Father, interceding for those that called Him friend. He is and will always be our intercessor, advocate, and friend – and there is no other name in heaven or earth that can save us.

#LoveMatters

The Fear of a Prophet

11/18/2019

One of my favorite Old Testament stories is from 1 Kings 18. This is where Elijah confronts the evil King Ahab and the 450 prophets of Baal. God provides Elijah a rousing victory, proving that only He is the One True God. He also makes Ahab and his detestable wife Jezebel even more angry at this Elijah fellow whom they already despised.

Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.”
Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. (1 Kings 19 1-3a)

Elijah had just won an enormous victory over Ahab and 450 false prophets by the Lord’s mighty hand. Now in the very next scene, a mere mortal threatens to kill him, and he runs to the hills scared... so very human of you, Elijah!

How many times do we react the same? God has shown himself to be faithful – not by sending a pillar of fire down to consume my offering, but by sending His Spirit down to consume my trouble. Like Elijah, I often forget the incredible intercession of my Lord and instead cower in fear at the first sign of trouble.

God answered Elijah’s fear by showing His Glory to him and sending him on another mission. I think this is still how God shows Himself – setting us up to do more work for His Kingdom. By putting another opportunity to serve Him in front of us, we can give ourselves to the work of the Kingdom and forget our temporary troubles.

The next mission that God had for the great prophet was one that would be his last before God carried him away in a flaming chariot. Like Elijah, let us be performing the work of the Lord when it’s time for God to carry us to His everlasting Kingdom!

#LoveMatters

He Knows

11/14/2019

Some verses of the Bible change in meaning as I grow in age (certainly) and understanding (hopefully). An example of this would be the verse in Luke chapter 12 where Jesus says, “Indeed, the very hairs on your head are all numbered”. At this point, numbering the hairs left on my head just isn’t that hard… however, I know that He both numbers those that are left, as well as the ones that once were.

A verse that never ceases to amaze me is found in Psalms:

He knows the stars by name. (Psalm 147:4)

On a clear night away from the city, the heavens are an awesome sight. The number of stars seem endless, and even on the clearest night we only see a smidgen of them.
Don’t you think that the mighty God that created and knows every star by name also knows each of us that He created? He knows you – your name, the number of hairs on your head, and every good and bad thing going on in your life.

He cares for you more than the stars, the birds, the flowers in the field... He created you in His very image! Don’t believe the lie that God isn’t there, or that He doesn’t love you. He sent His precious Son to earth to take away our sins, just so He could spend eternity with us!

The Lord delights in those who fear him,
who put their hope in his unfailing love. (Psalm 147:11)

#LoveMatters

Waiting for Justice

11/11/2019

Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. (Romans 12:19)

Hearing our great and awesome God say “I will repay” sounds scary, doesn’t it? And indeed the Lord is to be feared! He is a mighty God that demands justice.

But let’s not forget that He is also merciful – let’s consider how He deals with ensuring His justice is done among us sinners...

Justice must be done if God is righteous, holy and just. I have earned a steep penalty that only blood would pay. But the steep penalty was paid when Jesus took my sins to the cross, giving His sinless blood and dying in my place.

If I take my own punishment, I die and go to eternal death. I am unable to defeat death. But our Lord and Savior Jesus is able and He did defeat both death and the grave, so I could be saved!

Therefore the Lord will wait, that he may be gracious to you; and therefore he will be exalted, that he may have mercy on you, for the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all those who wait for him. (Isaiah 30:18)

Wait on the Lord – His Mercy is worth waiting for!

#LoveMatters

Finding Hope

11/7/2019

It is incredibly heartbreaking when someone has no hope. Without hope, there isn’t much point in this existence, so it’s no wonder that many people who lose their hope contemplate ending it all. And some people go through truly awful things in this life that can crush their hope.

But there is always a reason to hope. I can’t pretend to know what you’re going through, and I can’t walk in someone else’s shoes. Just like you couldn’t walk in mine years ago when I was on the brink of hopelessness. I was also living a life that was all about me – I didn’t know or want to know about God. I was much like the person the Apostle Paul describes in Galatians:

Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction (Galatians 6:8a)

I can speak for myself, and I know when I was at my lowest point I was far from God. I would even say that it was when I was at my lowest that I finally had to look up and see that He was there. When I first decided to give my life to Christ, I really wasn’t sure just what I was getting into. As I grew in my faith, I realized the beauty of the second person Paul describes:

Whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. (Galatians 6:8b)

Ironically (I’m convinced God loves irony), the less I make things about me, the more like me I become. What I mean is that this version of me – the one who lives by faith – is the version of me that feels closest to who I want to be. And this version of me has hope.

When I was focused on my wants and my needs, I was just as likely to be miserable as I was happy. When I focus on what God has already done, and how He loves me, the same ups and downs of life can no longer take away my hope. Now my hopes aren't tied to current events, but in an event that took place on a cross atop a hill over 2,000 years ago.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13)

#LoveMatters

More Than Anything

11/1/2019

“Love matters”

I guess you might call this my ‘tag line’, though it’s far from original. The reason I’ve chosen this simple phrase is because love is clearly one of God’s favorite topics.

Love covers our sin:

Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. (1 Peter 4:8)

It was God’s love for us that brought salvation down in the form of His Son Jesus:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

Jesus literally commands His people to love one another:

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. (John 13:34)

Love is the difference between life and death – those who love Jesus have eternal life; those who reject this love will experience death followed by an eternity without Him or His Love.

So yeah, love matters. More than anything.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13)

#LoveMatters

Think About It

10/31/2019

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8)

Why are blessings so hard to remember, and bad things so hard to forget? On a daily basis, blessings come to each of us. Some are ‘little’ blessings that we pass over, like waking up or having food to eat. Others are huge blessings – a sick child getting better, a promotion or bonus at work, or seeing a loved one that has been away for a long time.

We may even remember to thank God for these blessings: “Thank you Lord for getting us home safe.” And shortly after we get home, we realize the water heater leaked all over the floor while we were gone and we forget all the good things that happened… The blessings we often take for granted, while the problems are nearly always an unpleasant surprise.

When we focus on our problems, we are not focusing on the Problem-Solver. We should focus on them just long enough to hand them over to God. The more we keep our focus on the innumerable blessings that He bestows upon us undeserving sinners, the happier our days will be, and the more we will find ourselves smiling instead of frowning – praising instead of complaining.

#LoveMatters

Smart Dummies

10/28/2019

I don’t know about you, but there are times when I feel pretty smart, and others where I feel really dumb. It seems to be part of the human condition that even the ‘smartest’ people still make bad decisions and do things they would later admit were stupid. I don’t know if this will make you feel better or worse, but the truth is that this condition has been part of being a human for as long as there have been humans. Consider this:

Adam and Eve were made ‘very good’ by God and had a beautiful relationship with their Creator. Then they threw all of it away because of one really bad decision.

Moses was trained by the very best teachers in Egypt – a very learned man by all accounts. He also was blessed to have many direct conversations with God. However, he was prevented the chance to see the Holy Land that God had promised His people because he let his temper get the best of him and made a bad decision.

Solomon was called the wisest man to have ever lived – by God Himself! He was given a direct and personal promise from God that he and his family would rule forever, if he just followed the God that blessed him so.

“If your descendants watch how they live, and if they walk faithfully before me with all their heart and soul, you will never fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel.” (1 Kings 2:4)

He had such great knowledge and wisdom that people from all over the known world traveled just to hear him speak. Yet, he made bad decisions that turned his heart away from God, and more importantly turned God away from him and his kingdom.

Bottom line: The very smartest of us are pretty much idiots in comparison to our perfect and all-knowing Creator. But in His Love for us, He has given us access to His Wisdom. All of us can hold this promise: if we walk faithfully before our God, we will be given the crown of life!

For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” (1 Corinthians 3:19)

#LoveMatters