"...Even the dogs know...Of
Hems,Crumbs and Trials..."
Matthew 9:20-22 (NET)
9:20 But40 a woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage41 for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge42 of his cloak.43 9:21 For she kept saying to herself,44 “If only I touch his cloak, I will be healed.”45 9:22 But when Jesus turned and saw her he said, “Have courage, daughter! Your faith has made you well.”46 And the woman was healed47 from that hour. 1,[2]
9:20 But40 a woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage41 for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge42 of his cloak.43 9:21 For she kept saying to herself,44 “If only I touch his cloak, I will be healed.”45 9:22 But when Jesus turned and saw her he said, “Have courage, daughter! Your faith has made you well.”46 And the woman was healed47 from that hour. 1,[2]
Matthew 15:22-28 (NIV)
22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David,g have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.”h
22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David,g have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.”h
23 Jesus did
not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away,
for she keeps crying out after us.”
26 He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to
the dogs.”
27 “Yes it is,
Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s
table.”
28 Then Jesus
said to her, “Woman, you have great faith!k
Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.[3]
Crossroad. Crisis.
Pathway. Road sign. Call it what you will. Dry bones, dry spell. What other way to describe a period all
believers come to? We strive to be
still, to listen for that quiet, gentle voice we know was there a minute
ago; now our ears ring with deafening
sound of silence. Some shake it off and call
it waiting on the Lord. What do you call
it? For mature Believer, it can either
be a faith strengthening experience or a soul shaking one. For a new Believer, it can be a time of
questioning, of yearning or of wondering “Why are you quiet, O Lord? Did I offend you?”. For all of us, new or mature, what do we lean
upon in these spells, God’s words or our own understanding? Is Yahvey really quiet, or do I need to see
what is really happening, how He is trying to support me in a dry season.
Sometimes these seasons come due
to a crisis in our lives, or maybe it is just time to learn a lesson. Whatever
the reason, there is one attribute that is common: the feeling of being alone.
As a formally addicted personality, what accompanies these moments is a
sadness, for many times the feeling of being alone is due to the phenomena of
my past; that point in which all my efforts to do right are shadowed by all I
had done wrong.
(James 1:2-4)
2 Count it
all joy, my brethren, when ye fall into various temptations, 3 knowing that the
proving of your faith works endurance. 4 But let endurance have its perfect work, that ye may be perfect
and complete, lacking in nothing. [4]
Brethren, in case you
haven’t noticed, there are trials in life.
We can’t escape them, they don’t go away, they can’t be avoided. In fact, trials are possibly the only sure
thing in this life and in the world except for His never leaving us or
forsaking us that we would have:
(John 16:33)
33 These things have I spoken unto you, that
in me ye may have peace. In the world ye have tribulation: but be of good
cheer; I have overcome the world. [5]
In
this verse, we see three things:
- That in Messiah we have peace
- In the world we will have tribulation
- We can be of good cheer, for Messiah has overcome the world..
What
seems to happen in trials is that when they occur, we begin to look for a cause
or a reason, instead of the solution.
A)
We
usually tend to blame ourselves, call it the “flesh” that has brought on the
trial...
B)
OR...
we lay it all on the devil, that he’s attacking us (and of course he is always
attacking us usually through the person of somebody close to us)... THIS has to
be the reason for our trial...
OR....
C)
we
hang our head, weeping and wailing, and holler at God, for we know that He is
the reason we are going through this thing, and why is He always picking on
us...
Now,
in choice (A), we get side-tracked, for it just can’t possibly be something we
did to cause it, so we go to are next favorite choice, which is (B). In (B), we find all kinds of excuses for not
having to look at ourselves [via choice (A)], but something just isn’t right
about this choice either, so, we roll out our favorite whipping boy, God (C). After all, He is in charge, so no matter
what, it has to be His fault, right?
So here I am, whether I choose A), B), or C), now feeling sorry for myself, mad at
everybody or nobody and angry with God for being quiet and not validating my
experience. Now, in silence, I am forced to sort this thing out.
In my past, as I strove to “get
right” with Yahvey, I poured into His word, gobbling up every nugget and vein
of gold that I could mine. I put them
all where I thought they should go, memorizing verses faster than others,
reading chapters and books, cramming as much knowledge into my head as I could,
thinking that this was the way I “got right”.
The problem you see, is I thought: Yahvey and Yeshua were in my mind, but that
12 inch transition from my head to my heart was a hard sale, believe me. I must have made hundreds of altar calls,
cried my heart out to Yahvey, begged Yeshua to forgive me and invited Him into
my heart time after time. He made
marvelous breakthroughs in me, but I unknowingly threw up roadblocks against
Him in countless places, for let’s face it, I just didn’t believe He is as
big as He is.
Yes, He created the world with a
spoken word, Yeshua performed miracle after miracle then died and came back to
life, yet, there was always a “but” hiding somewhere in me. Or maybe it was the “if You’ll do this for
me, Yahvey, I’ll follow you this time, I really will...”. The funny thing about it, He always did for
me what I asked; as soon as the crisis in my life passed enough for me to breathe
a little easier, it was always, “Okay, I got it from here! Thanks.”
It wasn’t long and I was back on my knees again, demanding to know why
He let the world fall apart around me again, Didn’t He remember the deal we had made? Of course, now I know the truth, that it was I
who reneged on the deal, but at that time, I was pretty sure I had done my
part. All He wanted from me was a
relationship; all I wanted was a business deal, complete with the ifs, ands,
and buts. I was busy trying to negotiate my surrender. What has this got to do with the topic at
hand? Well, you see, I’m gun-shy. It’s okay when Yahvey is speaking to me, but
let Him go quiet for a season, and boy, I’m a mess. Why, all sorts of thoughts creep into my
head... Wait a minute, did I say
thoughts? Isn’t that what got me into
trouble before? I thought...
Look at the difference. I think, “O have I been hearing you all along
Yahvey, or is it just my mind fooling me again?” I get all a-quiver, begin to doubt, catch
myself wavering, and the next thing I know, here comes Mr. Lie to add his
two-cents worth in. I’m then back in a
mode of throwing myself on God’s mercy, asking for forgiveness, and hoping He
hears. I’m so tied up in digging myself
out of a hole I dug, that my prayers are ineffective for and in the kingdom,
because I’m reacting to my doubt, not fighting the enemy in strength and
boldness that a child of God has the authority to be in. All because I’ve wondered why God has decided
to not talk to me today...
What should my thoughts be
instead? Is it okay not to hear Yahvey
speaking; does the quiet mean I haven’t
done something “right”? Well, what did
the woman in our first example think?
(Matt 9-21)
For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be
whole.
She reached out for His hem, His
tzitzit[6],
knowing if she could just touch it,
she’d be healed. She didn’t need His
words, she just needed His hem! O but
for my unbelief! What faith! She just had to but touch His garment and
here I am, wanting to go out, and talk over coffee!
(Mark 9:24
NIV)
Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, "I do believe; help me
overcome my unbelief!"
O Yeshua, let
this be my cry unto you every day, to overcome my unbelief! For all I have to
do to know that You are still speaking to me is to feel the wind on my face,
the sun on my back, the sound of a child’s laugh, the smile of an elderly man
or woman, to breathe... Do I need the myriad of words, the lofty
speeches, or do I just need to see the dew on the grass to know my God and
Savior has never once stopped speaking to me?
Romans 4:18-20 (NASB95)
18 In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become aa father of many nations according to that which had been spoken, “bSo shall your 1descendants be.”
18 In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become aa father of many nations according to that which had been spoken, “bSo shall your 1descendants be.”
19 Without
becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now aas good as
dead since bhe was about
a hundred years old, and cthe deadness
of Sarah’s womb;
20 yet, with
respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in
faith, agiving glory
to God...[7]
Abraham wavered not, he strengthened
his faith in praise and worship. There
have been many times I felt alone, many times the darkness seemed to be closing
in, and the world weighed down upon me so much that I just knew I couldn’t take
it anymore. Then, without a word, His
hem would appear; all I had to do is
touch it, and hope was renewed. I didn’t
need His word to be healed, I just needed the faith that He is enough. So what makes one quiet spell different from
the rest? For they are different. That’s the truth. The situation we’re in is different, we are
different, our needs have changed, so on and so forth. What isn’t different is our Lord. Same today as yesterday. Same as the last crisis we faced, same as the
last bout of unbelief. He is
enough. He is right there. He is waiting for us to calm down, to see
Him. In our panic, He can’t do anything
till we ask, to do otherwise is to go against the gift of will He blessed us
with. Only in our surrender can He work.
Hebrews 3:16-19 (NKJV)
16 mFor who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? 17 Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, nwhose corpses fell in the wilderness? 18 And oto whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? 19 So we see that they could not enter in because of punbelief.[8]
16 mFor who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? 17 Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, nwhose corpses fell in the wilderness? 18 And oto whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? 19 So we see that they could not enter in because of punbelief.[8]
Because
of my unbelief in my times of crisis, I blocked God from being able to work, to
affect my situation. All He wants is for
me to have enough faith to reach out for His garment; the rest is easy, He is
enough. Now , I also want to add something to this. I had to learn TRUTH to add
to my faith, to bolster my unbelief with TRUTH. And what you might ask is
TRUTH?
I will walk in Your truth;
bUnite my
heart to fear Your name.
Psalm 119:30 (NASB95)
30 I have chosen the faithful way;
30 I have chosen the faithful way;
Psalm 119:43 (NASB95)
43 And do not take the word of truth utterly out of my mouth,
43 And do not take the word of truth utterly out of my mouth,
Psalm 119:142 (NASB95)
142 Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness,
142 Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness,
In
John 14:6 (KJV) we read “6 Jesus saith
unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man
cometh unto the Father, but by me. [10]” Not only is Yeshua the Way and the Life, He is also the
Truth. Truth is what we search for in
God’s word, Truth is what we desire above all else. What I had to add to my
faith was first, Messiah, and second, the Torah, the Law of God. Messiah first,
for that is what broke me out of the bondage of sin, the Torah second for now
that I was free, I had to learn how to walk to stay free. Yeshua is the Word of
God, and the Word is Truth. How else can we walk right with God?
Now, let’s examine woman
#2. O, I must confess dear brethren, she
is my heroine of the bible. In my
darkest sin, when I just knew that there was no hope for me, she appeared. By that I mean, the Ruach Ha'Kodesh led me to
her story. Crumbs. All she wanted was crumbs. Not even a moldy old heel, but crumbs. She knew it would be enough. Her daughter was lost to her, yet she didn’t
want miracles, she didn’t ask the Lord to come with her, she didn’t beg for the
world, but asked for crumbs. How many of
us want crumbs? Why is it that nothing less
than thunder and lightning and signs and wonders will satisfy us? Crumbs.
Let me tell you, brethren, where I was, when the Ruach Ha'Kodesh blessed
me with these scriptures, crumbs were exactly all I needed. I was suicidal, addicted to crack cocaine,
homeless, estranged from my wife and children, strung out, lost. I grasped Yahvey’s crumbs with all the
strength I had left and held on tight.
Don’t tell me about crumbs. They
are enough. My faith at that
time couldn’t budge a grain of sand, let alone a mountain, but that crumb, that
blessed crumb, gave me hope for another day.
I can sing today of God’s grace, His mercy, His love because of a woman
and her crumbs.
So, now why do I fear the
quiet? Because I forgot the hem and the
crumb. O Father in heaven, never let me
forget the hem and the crumb again. When
You are quiet, it’s okay, for You are still standing beside me. I’m not alone, never alone. The quiet times are when I must
love You more, for all You want for me is to share the quiet with You. Adam walked with You in the quiet of the day,
words weren’t necessary. You are big
enough to love me without words. In the
quiet, I need to be still, calm, for You won’t be quiet for long. Sometimes I need the quiet just so I can
trust You completely, so I can walk in the morning dew, under the open sky and
praise You for hems and crumbs. Crisis? What crisis?
All I need to do is follow the trail of crumbs... it’ll be enough.
(Matthew
14:35-36)
35 And when the men of that place recognized Him, they sent out into all
that surrounding region, brought to Him all who were sick, 36 and begged Him
that they might only touch the hem of His garment. And as many as touched it were made perfectly well.[11]
(Mark 6:56)
56 And wherever he entered into villages, or cities, or the country,
they laid the sick in the market-places, and besought him that they might touch
if it were only the hem of his garment; and as many as touched him were healed.[12]
(Luke
16:20-21)
20 and a certain beggar named Lazarus was laid
at his gate, full of sores, 21 and desiring to
be fed with the crumbs that fell from
the rich man’s table; yea, even the dogs come and licked his sores. [13]
Now
this seems to be more of a personal testimony about how the small things of God
are enough for me, for it was in these things, the touch of His hem (Matt
9:20-22) or the crumbs from the Master’s table (Matt 15: 22-28) that hope was
born into me, and my life began to transform.
Looking at this message, it might appear that I advocate only the small
things, and don't seem to encourage reaching for larger, for I said,
“...Don’t
tell me about crumbs. They
are enough. My faith at that
time couldn’t budge a grain of sand, let alone a mountain, but that crumb, that
blessed crumb, gave me hope for another day.
I can sing today of God’s grace, His mercy, His love because of a woman
and her crumbs.
So, now why do I fear the
quiet? Because I forgot the hem and the
crumb. O Father in heaven, never let me
forget the hem and the crumb again. When
You are quiet, it’s okay, for You are still standing beside me. I’m not alone, never alone. The quiet times are when I must
love You more, for all You want for me is to share the quiet with You. Adam walked with You in the quiet of the day,
words weren’t necessary. You are big
enough to love me without words. In the
quiet, I need to be still, calm, for You won’t be quiet for long. Sometimes I need the quiet just so I can
trust You completely, so I can walk in the morning dew, under the open sky and
praise You for hems and crumbs.
Crisis? What crisis? All I need to do is follow the trail of
crumbs... it’ll be enough..."
Now, at first glance, that is
exactly what it seems I am saying, that the small things of God are enough, and
some might say that I set my sights too low.
But, in pondering this, the Ruach Ha'Kodesh spoke again and said “ Guess
what? Little is good...” My message was and is about faith in the
quiet times when we don’t hear God speaking.
Think about that for a minute.
Does Yahvey shout? Or does He use
the quiet, still voice of the Ruach Ha'Kodesh to speak to us? The voice of Yahvey on the throne of heaven
is like thunder, it cracks and rumbles against the darkness of this world, but
when He speaks to us His children, it’s in a quiet, small voice, One in which we have to be sensitive to, to
be able to hear. Is His touch rough and
plodding, or is it gentle, tender? What
is enough? Yes Lord, I want the fullness
of You, all that You want to give me! I
seek it, the completeness of the Lord, the blessings of His riches, the
abundance of life. Yeshua didn’t die on
a cross for me to just get by, never having an overflow so that I could bless
others. No, He is preparing me a
mansion, and pouring out all that I can stand:
so why do I speak of His hem and crumbs?
What did Christ say to us about faith?
(Matthew
17:20)
20 And he saith unto them, Because of your
little faith: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard
seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it
shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. [14]
(Luke
17:5-6)
5 And the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.” 6 So the Lord
said, “If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say
to this mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,’
and it would obey you.[15]
Yes, I know, we’ve all heard the
mustard seed comparison, how it is the smallest seed going, yet turns into a
huge tree. Smallest? Wait, if we wish to have faith as a mustard
seed, aren’t we reaching for something small?
How big is your faith? Is it in
the fullness of Messiah Yeshua, a God-kind of faith, the faith of the apostles?
(2 Peter
1:1)
1 From: Simon Peter, a servant and missionary of Jesus Christ.
To: All of you who have our kind of
faith. The faith I speak of is the kind that Jesus Christ our God and Savior
gives to us. How precious it is, and how just and good he is to give this same
faith to each of us.[16]
Is it a lack of faith or do we
just doubt? Is your faith growing daily,
first planted in fertile soil as a mustard seed, and now developing into
something larger? The kingdom of Yahvey
is within us, yet see how the Lord explains it:
(Matthew
13:31-32)
31 Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed
in his field, 32 “which indeed is the least of
all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a
tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.”[17]
(Mark
4:30-32)
30 And he said, How shall we liken the kingdom
of God? or in what parable shall we set it forth? 31 It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown
upon the earth, though it be less than all the seeds that are upon the earth,
32 yet when it is sown, groweth up, and becometh
greater than all the herbs, and putteth out great branches; so that the birds
of the heaven can lodge under the shadow thereof. [18]
What’s all this
mean? It means we are to grow
brethren. We are not born into
adulthood, no, we have to go through the diaper, wipe-my-nose, give me milk and
watch me puke stages of life till we mature.
We start out small. What did Yeshua
say:
(Matthew
18:2-3)
2 And he called to him a little child, and set him in the midst of them,
3 and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye turn, and
become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of
heaven. [19]
So the Lord expects us to start
out small, humble as a child, teachable.
How fast we grow is then up to Him and the Ruach Ha'Kodesh, for we are
only given what we can bear, what we are able to handle. As we grow though, so does our faith, or at
least the measure that Yeshua gives to us, to fit our experience, to complement
our belief.
And to this He adds TRUTH.
Now, let us examine the hem and
crumbs. In the opening of this message,
what were those seeking to be healed after?
A high-five? A smoke and fire
miracle? No. All they sought was Him and His hem.
(Matthew
14:35-36)
35 And when the men of that place recognized Him, they sent out into all
that surrounding region, brought to Him all who were sick, 36 and begged Him that they might only touch
the hem of His garment. And as many as touched it were made perfectly well.[20]
(Mark 6:56)
56 And wherever he entered into villages, or cities, or the country,
they laid the sick in the market-places, and besought him that they might touch if it were only the hem of his garment;
and as many as touched him were healed.[21]
Was their faith small or
large? All they wanted was a little
thing from Yeshua. Just His hem, and Him.
Mustard seed faith, or mustard tree faith? In seeking the small, I get the large. He knows what I am looking for, and in the
quiet, in the small, I find the God that cannot be contained within the
universe. I find the God that transcends
time and space, I find the Ancient of Days, the Holy One of Israel. And all I want is to touch His hem, His tzitzit.
Moses, when he wanted to see God’s glory, had to hide his face, and just
catch a glimpse of God as He passed by.
A glimpse. And it changed him
forever. He beheld God’s glory in a
glance. Small thing, a glance. Huge thing, God’s glory.
What about Lazarus?
(Luke
16:20-21)
20 and a
certain beggar named Lazarus was laid at his gate, full of sores, 21 and desiring to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table; yea, even the dogs come
and licked his sores. [22]
We all know what happened. When he died, he ascended to heaven. When the rich man died, he went to hell. Lazarus held on to the crumbs, the small
things given to him by God, and never wavered in his faith that his reward
would be great. Small to Great. Seed to tree.
Again, I must say, it is enough. To achieve all Yeshua has for me, I
must adhere to the small. Small in
myself, large in Him. Able to do nothing
by myself, able to do all through He that lives in me. Weak, yet strong by His grace and mercy. Faithful in the little, faithful in the
much. See a pattern? That trail of crumbs leads to glory,
folks. I expect greatness from a great
God, in the meantime though, excuse me if I follow that small trail of crumbs.
So here I sit in silence. Alone,
yet now I realize how "not alone" I truly am. My trials? Well...
Am
I here, in the midst of trouble, looking for something or someone to blame, and
losing sight on what the real issue is? OR...
(James 1:5)
5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of
God, that giveth to all men
liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. [23]
Instead of blaming God
(or anyone else) for the trial, I should be doing what James admonished me to
do, and that is ask God.
·
"...God,
what should I do in this instant..."
·
"...God,
what do You want me to do in this circumstance..."
·
"...God,
what must I..."
You get the picture?
In the context of our trials, Yahvey
Elohim, if asked according to His will, will do one or both of the following:
*
Grant
us the Wisdom to know the reason for our trials..
*
Give
us the ways and means to endure them...
The
reason I said He’ll do one or the other or both, is this: sometimes it isn’t for us [and in the context
of "us" or "we", please understand it is always applied to
"me" first...] to know at the
time of the trial why we are going through it.
Even if He grants us the wisdom to know the reason for the dark night,
the solution might not be apparent. The
trial still has a purpose to fulfill, and it won’t end until God has
accomplished His desired goal. What that
might be can only be ascertained from the measure of wisdom God grants to us in
the situation. What is wisdom? For the trials and tribulations of life let’s
just call wisdom the practical use and the exercise of knowledge. One description of a practical use of wisdom
can simply be described as common sense.
One of my favorite sayings is “...so-and-so ain’t got the brains or
sense God gave a gopher...”. I have to
apply this saying to myself on a daily basis, for little trials come up all the
time, and without an application of common sense, they can accelerate to crisis
mode at an alarming rate. Take for
example, common sense says get out of the rain.
Now, in the mid-west where I’m from, it rains, construction workers go
home. If you do that here in Washington
state, common sense says that you’re going to starve to death (cause it rains
ALOT!), but let’s face it: even a chicken knows when to get out of the rain,
and look at the size of its’ brain. What
I’m trying to say here is there are trials, and there are TRIALS. Using the brain God gave us would save a lot
of us grief in those little “trials”.
For the big ones, God grants us the wisdom to know how to act under
certain circumstances of testing, of trials, of problems or questions. It is God’s wisdom we need in these
instances, not our own. God gives us
this “liberally”, as in simply. He just
simply will help us. Vincent in his
“Word Studies in the New Testament”
defines “upbraideth not” to mean “...the pure simple giving of good
without any mixture of evil or bitterness...”
God gives us simple, good wisdom to get us through the hard times.
(James
1:6-8)
6 But let him ask in faith,
nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with
the wind and tossed. 7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any
thing of the Lord. 8 A double minded man is
unstable in all his ways. [24]
Here,
in verses 6-8, is the source of many of our problems and consternation in times
of trouble. We doubt. Let’s face it: we just don’t believe God. Don’t get me wrong. We say we trust Him. I’ll use myself as an example. I trust God, I’ve seen His goodness, His
provisions, His grace. I know that I’m
saved, I know that when the time comes, I’ll be in heaven with Him. I know all of this, I know Him and love as
best as I can but when the you-know-what hits the fan, it doesn’t make a sound
like “...MAAARINE..”, it goes EEEK and splatters everywhere and it gets down
right tough. It is here that I begin to
waver, and part of me just simply folds up and doubts that God can or will see
me through the storm, this unrelenting, fierce gale of biblical
proportions.
“...nothing
wavering...” That is what James tells
us. So why don’t you or I believe
God? Why do we have this problem of when
the waves of life come crashing over the bow of our little boat we immediately
jump up and begin to bail out the water.
To put it bluntly, the problems that we’ve laid down at Messiah’s feet
we rush over and pick them up again, then proceed to bull our way through it in
our own strength and understanding. Let
God delay in showing up to solve the problem within the context of OUR
time-table and we panic and man the pumps ourselves. This is where we make our mistake.
Double-mindness is, bluntly,
unreliability. We don’t have the ability
to solve our own troubles, so why try?
We have proven track records of not following through with the hard work
previously assigned to us, thereby confirming we can’t be relied upon. Only God can get us past this road-block but
what do we do instead? Verses 9-11
reveal man’s most general answer to trouble:
throw money at it!
(James
1:9-11)
9 The brother in lowly
circumstances should take pride in his high standing, 10 and the rich one in
his lowliness, for he will pass away “like the flower of the field.” 11 For the sun comes up with its scorching
heat and dries up the grass, its flower droops, and the beauty of its
appearance vanishes. So will the rich person fade away in the midst of his
pursuits. [25]
The
source of money leads to all sorts of woes, be we rich or poor. What should our response be? “Faith”.
That is the answer we are supposed to give. Faith in God and trust in Messiah, that is
the only sure solution to any problem.
Again, all I have to give you is my example; my family is in tough financial straits, and
the stress is tremendous. Every fiber of
my soul is screaming “Get another job! Work
harder!”. This “trial”, this “test”, affects
not just myself, but the ones that I love.
Do I have the wisdom to truly know the solution?
Nope,
nada, not a chance.
Do
I have the faith to trust God in this furnace?
Honestly? I’m struggling. God knows this, and I know that I can’t just
run away from or into just any "old pattern" solution. For me, myself and I to rush out, throwing
caution to the wind and doing what all my natural instincts tell me to do, is
not the right answer. Having the faith
to bow my knee to God and seek His solution is.
To go quiet, to shut the heck up, and LISTEN for God’s direction, that
is faith. Is my faith weak?
Yep,
I want to man the pumps.
But
you know and I know that Messiah is asleep in the front of the boat, and if He
can rest, then so must I. Notice I said MUST. It is a conscience
decision I must make to still myself.
Panic is a lousy partner in the midst of a storm; to my soul I must say,
“Peace, be still, and know that He is God.”
When I do this, what happens?
Let’s go to verse twelve...
(James 1:12)
12 Blessed is the man that
endureth temptation; for when he hath been approved, he shall receive the crown
of life, which the Lord promised to
them that love him. [26]
Through
the dark night, I begin to see that it is only in the trials and troubles of
life that God’s blessings come. What
does Christ counsel us to do?
(Revelation
3:18)
18 I
counsel thee to buy of me gold purified by fire, that thou mayest be rich; and
white garments, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy
nakedness may not be made manifest; and eye-salve to anoint thine eyes, that
thou mayest see. [27]
Gold purified by fire. If Christ counsels us to seek and buy gold
purified by fire, then how else can we hope to be purified, except that He puts
us through the same fire? If all we do
is move away from a situation, a circumstance, or a problem instead of moving
into it, how can we ever mature? How can
faith grow if it isn’t stretched?
(Romans
5:3-5)
3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also:
knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 4 And patience, experience; and
experience, hope: 5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is
shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. [28]
Tribulation
works patience, patience builds faith, and with faith there is hope. Though 1st Cor 10:13 promises us a way out if
the trial becomes to much to bear,
[1
Corinthians 10:13 13 No temptation
has taken you but such as is according to man’s nature; and God is faithful,
who will not suffer you to be tempted above what ye are able to bear, but will with the temptation
make the issue also, so that ye
should be able to bear it. [29]
], we ought not to be asking Yahvey for a way out, but
to walk with us deep into it, for His grace and what His will is, so that we
can endure whatever it is that we are going through.
“Blessed is the man that
endureth temptation...” Endurance,
triumph, victory: these three await us
at the end of the trial. As we go through
the fire, that raging forest of flames, as we struggle for the other side, God
produces within us the heart to stand and overcome anything that is set against
us. When we break through, and turn
around to see what it was that we just endured, truthfully, the fire that
loomed so large before now resembles a match head, and we ought to marvel at
how we could have been troubled by it at all.
The
bottom line? Never waver, never
doubt. Yeshua is able and willing to get
us through the trial if we let Him. We
need to remember the reason for trials, for troubles. God tells us so plainly in Deut 8:16....
(Deuteronomy
8:16)
16 Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew
not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good
at thy latter end; [30]
On the
other side of the dark night is the morning light. That is where Yeshua Ha'Machiach waits with
the blessing. So go ahead brethren, look
at the trouble and tell it “Bring it on.”
At the latter end is our reward.
Even
the dogs know how the hem and the crumb can get us through the trials of life;
may we be as wise as they.
May
God Himself richly bless you and keep you this day, Amein.
[1] Biblical
Studies Press. (2006; 2006). The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English.
NET Bible.; The NET Bible. Biblical Studies Press. The following Notes are taken from the NET Bible® footnotes, copyright (c)
1996-2006 by Biblical Studies Press L.L.C.,
and follow the numerical order as given in the NET Bible® All rights reserved. Used by
permission from www.bible.org.
NET BIBLE®
NOTES:
40 tn Grk “And behold a woman.” The
Greek word ἰδού (idou) has not been translated because it has no exact English
equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1).
44 tn The imperfect
verb is here taken iteratively, for the context suggests that the woman was
trying to find the courage to touch Jesus’ cloak.
45 tn Grk
“saved.”
sn
In this pericope the author uses a term for being healed (Grk
“saved”) that would have spiritual significance to his readers. It may
be a double entendre (cf. parallel in Mark 5:28 which uses the same term),
since elsewhere he uses verbs that simply mean “heal“: If only the reader would
“touch” Jesus, he too would be “saved.”
46 tn Or “has
delivered you”; Grk “has saved you.” This should not be understood as an
expression for full salvation in the immediate context; it refers only to the
woman’s healing.
47 tn Grk
“saved.”
[2] Biblical
Studies Press. (2006; 2006). The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English.
NET Bible.; The NET Bible. Biblical Studies Press.
[3] The New
International Version. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
[6] tzi•tzit, pl. tzi•tzi•yot—
tzitzit: "fringe" in Hebrew. Specially made fringes worn on the four
corners of a man's tallit, fulfilling the mitzvah (commandment) in Num_15:37-41.
In ancient times, including the first century, the tallit was a cloak or
robe included in normal male attire. After clothes stopped being made with
"corners," Judaism created the modern tallit (prayer shawl) so
that the mitzvah could be performed. Mat_9:20+.
[From the Complete Jewish Bible Pronunciation Guide,
copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish
New Testament Publications, Inc. www.messianicjewish.net/jntp,
Electronic edition, e-Sword 10.2.1, copyright ©200-2013 Rick Meyers; all rights
reserved worldwide.]
[10] The Holy
Bible : King James Version. 1995 (electronic ed. of the 1769 edition of the
1611 Authorized Version.). Bellingham WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
[12] Darby, J. N., 1890
Darby Bible, (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.) 1995.
[21] Darby, J. N., 1890
Darby Bible, (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.) 1995.
[27] Darby, J. N., 1890
Darby Bible, (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.) 1995.
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