Here we are in the United States of America. In contrast to other people living in the poorer countries of the world; we are pretty comfortable. For this gift, have you daily given "Thanks to God"? If you are not comfortable, have you given that up to The Lord?
In God there is life everlasting. Defeating death by the suffering, death, and resurrection is a gift given by God's Son. Lamb's blood on the door post saved the first born of Hebrew slaves from the angel of death. The blood of Jesus Christ removes our sins and redeems our souls or life everlasting. "Do you need God?" Are you aware there is nothing a human can do to earn salvation, we are sinners, we need God.
During 1997 Southern and South Eastern Ethiopia suffered a drought that created an urgent need. The UN disaster agency issued a plea for almost one hundred thousand tons of non perishable food. This need was projected as the amount required to sustain life for the poor people living in this region for three months. Three months was projected as the time required for the land and livestock to recover from the drought.
There was an Old Testament event in which the prophet Elijah was granted by God a request for there to be "no rain. This drought lasted for three years till God called it off." Elijah was told to shelter the perils of the drought at a widow's house. While the flour and oil used to make cakes held out her son died. Elijah cried out to God, asking first for life to return to the son. Additionally Elijah needed to life, to understand what God was asking of him.
You can read about this event in First Kings chapter seventeen. Rabbinical teachings explain the reason Elijah was sent to a poor gentile widow during the drought, was so he could learn first hand the suffering effect this drought he had requested, had on poor people. Widows suffered greatly already, the last thing they needed was a drought to combat. But God has a loving heart of compassion for widows, his Son illustrated this love.
For not knowing the reality of starvation, do you daily give "Thanks to God"? Maybe the question should be, "do you need God"?
His American name is Billy. He managed to escape the horrors of life in drought stricken Southern Ethiopia. Billy remembers going to bed without any clothes on his body, and his belly hurting because it was empty. Each morning Billy awoke without clothes and he still had a hungry belly. Billy, his mother and sister had no knowledge if they would eat that day.
Not only was Ethiopia trying to deal with the drought but their border with Somali was in conflict. Additionally UN relief workers were under attack by armed robbers. Some of these relief workers were murdered.
Billy spoke about remembering the sounds of screaming. Men with rifles would enter his village, people were dragged away. Sometimes happened in the dark of night. Billy could hear the screams and commotion from huts around theirs. Billy said it was expected the people who had been dragged away, to never be seen again. Billy said he remembers his mother, sister, and himself quite often and everyday to be praying to God.
When a person comes to know God through the blood of Jesus, prayers become an intimate pleading with the God of all creation for help. There is satisfaction in speaking with God and growing in knowing God cares.
Paul wrote in Galatians chapter one about his training and advancements into the Jewish faith. Paul was passionate as he remembers wanting to destroy anyone who threatened the traditions of the Jewish beliefs.
Reading Chapter one verse eleven, Paul begins to share what the revelation of the Good News meant for his life. Yeshua (Jesus), is the Christ, our Messiah, Redeemer, our Savior. Paul said this conversion, his being saved his becoming spiritually alive was not of man, but by God.
Galatians 1:15-16 CJB) But when God, who picked me out before I was born and called me by his grace, chose to reveal his Son to me, so that I might announce him to the Gentiles, I did not consult anyone;
Becoming Spiritually born is a new beginning. The ways of the past while not forgotten are replaced with a new relationship with God.
Billy has done quite well in the United States. Today Billy leases a limo for about nine hundred dollars a month. His plans in July are to purchase his own limo and enter into a service contract with a five star hotel.
About nine years ago Billy returned to Ethiopia to attend the funeral of his grandmother. The contrast of his new life and seeing where he came from, hit him hard. It was a shocked to witness, his body shook and trembled. Forgotten memories of the past horrors returned.
A friend of mine asked Billy about his prayers today, and his daily relationship with God. The smile that had been on his face disappeared. Big tears began to flow down his cheeks. Billy mouthed out, since coming to America and doing so well. Billy don't need God anymore.
What Billy said is not an opinion shared by him alone. How many other American citizens honestly express the same belief? We are doing well, why do we need God.
Psalm 146 reminds us not to put our trust in the princes, the leaders of this world. There is only one place to put your trust.
Psalm 146:1-10 (CJB) Halleluyah! Praise Adonai, my soul! I will praise Adonai as long as I live. I will sing praise to my God all my life. Don’t put your trust in princes or in mortals, who cannot help. When they breathe their last, they return to dust; on that very day all their plans are gone. Happy is he whose help is Ya‘akov’s God, whose hope is in Adonai his God. He made heaven and earth, the sea and everything in them; he keeps faith forever. He secures justice for the oppressed, he gives food to the hungry. Adonai sets prisoners free, Adonai opens the eyes of the blind, Adonai lifts up those who are bent over. Adonai loves the righteous. Adonai watches over strangers, he sustains the fatherless and widows; but the way of the wicked he twists. Adonai will reign forever, your God, Tziyon, through all generations. Halleluyah!
It is wise to trust God with your life. It is wise to answer God's calling. God is the creator of heaven and earth. We need God, and we need to daily with passion give thanks to God. We need to share God's love with those who suffer. Like the compassion Yeshua had for the blind, the crippled, the deaf, the hungry, lepers, those that mourn and those Jesus raised from the dead.
Jesus calls us into new birth, hew life to changed as Paul was. He experienced being spiritually alive.
Luke 7:11-13 (CJB) The next day Yeshua, accompanied by his talmidim and a large crowd, went to a town called Na‘im. As he approached the town gate, a dead man was being carried out for burial. His mother was a widow, this had been her only son, and a sizeable crowd from the town was with her. When the Lord saw her, he felt compassion for her and said to her, “Don’t cry.”
I promise, the professors of the Pastoral Counseling never said to walk up to a widow who has just lost her only son saying "Don't Cry".
The spiritually alive needs to have loving concern for a widow. Jesus knew and understood her suffering and what it meant for her. A woman in the Jewish culture had the resources that sustain life through her husband. When her husband died she was reduced to the level of the needy. She stood a chance if her child was of working age. But this widow had just also lost her only child, her son.
Luke 7:14-17 (CJB) Then he came close and touched the coffin, and the pallbearers halted. He said, “Young man, I say to you: get up!” The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Yeshua gave him to his mother. They were all filled with awe and gave glory to God, saying, “A great prophet has appeared among us,” and, “God has come to help his people.” This report about him spread throughout all Y’hudah and the surrounding countryside.
It was an unclean act to touch a dead person even touching the bier was a cause for concern. Yeshua touched and spoke, everyone around was focused on what he would do and what would happen next. They had a sense of fear.
Jesus in Luke 9:42, returned a previously demon possessed boy back healthy and clean back to his father. Now Jesus gives back to a widow what had stopped being hers. He gave life back into her son and gave her a son back.
Needing God and needing Jesus Christ go hand in hand. We are not told anything about this widow's faith or if the son was even an observant member in the faith. Yet God blessed them with a miracle. God blessed Billy with his escape from starvation and being dragged off to fight in his country's border war.
Prayers have been lifted up that Billy's understanding, despite his success, he will know that he still needs God. May there be new life in Billy's walk with God. May Billy hear from the lips of Yeshua HaMashiach, (in English; Jesus the Messiah); "Well done my good and faithful servant".
The New Testament tells us about three dead people our Lord spoke to and they rose from the dead. But that is nothing in contrast to the people our Lord has and continues to speak to who will be born again into life everlasting. Do you need God? Do you need Jesus to speak to you?
