NEVER MORE THAN YOU CAN BEAR

Just this week a friend of mine was telling me about a health problem that will require a somewhat risky medical procedure. She has already survived a battle with cancer, several heart attacks and a stroke. She has raised her children on her own, endured financial woes and more. Anyway, she said to me, 'I don't know how much more I can take. I know they say God will not put more on you than you can bear, but . . .' To which, I mumbled something about praying for her. So much for always being prepared to give an answer for the hope that is in us.

At any rate, I couldn’t let it go, the thought nagged me all afternoon – where does that thought come from? Where in the Scriptures does it say that God will never put more on us than we can bear?

I know there is the Scripture, 1 Corinthians 10:13, that promises God will not allow us to be 'tempted' more than we can bear, but that He will provide a way out, but that’s about temptation, isn't it? It doesn't seem to cover her situation. I don’t think she is exactly being 'tempted' to be ill.

Next, I thought of the apostle Paul when he described all that he had suffered - thieves, shipwreck, hunger, exhaustion, being cold and naked. Then there were the beatings, imprisonments, being stoned and, in his words, ‘exposed to death again and again. Added to all that were what he called 'the daily pressures' of his responsibilities to the church. The situations he endured might come a little closer to what she is feeling she has been through and yet Paul called them ‘light afflictions’. Light, really?

As I pondered the point, I feel God gave me an answer. Do you remember Jesus saying, ‘come unto me for my yoke is easy and my burden is light’?

Jesus wasn’t saying there wouldn’t be any burdens. He wasn’t saying life would be easy. What He was saying was that He wants us to allow Him to get up under that burden with us. That He will shoulder most of it and lighten our load, if we let Him.

I heard a story once about a little boy who was trying to open a jar, his dad walked up and asked him if he had used everything at his disposal to open it and the little boy said yes. He had tried everything he could think of. His dad then reminded him that he had not used his greatest source of strength, because he had not yet asked his father to help.

It’s when we try to carry our burdens on our own, fight our battles on our own, or when we try to live in our own strength that we are overwhelmed. That’s why Jesus came, that’s why He gave us the Holy Spirit, because He knew we could not do anything in our own strength. As He said, ‘apart from Me you can do nothing’.

So will God allow us to have more problems than we can bear? Yes - if that is what it takes to bring us to the realization that we need Him. A loving parent will often do things that on the surface may seem harsh in order to do what is best for the child.© 2011 Rachel Whelan

BOWING TO THE DARK SIDE

A young girl appears to have caused a bit of a stir this week at Disneyland when she chose to bow to Darth Vader instead of the Jedi, essentially 'choosing the dark side'. At first it's a bit of a shock, Darth Vader does cut quite an intimidating swath. You would think she would run from him, but instead she bows before him. Still, I guess it really shouldn't be a surprise to anyone, after all, Mankind has repeatedly made the same choice since the Garden of Eden - choosing wrong over right, lies over truth, evil over good. People seem to have a strange attraction to evil in just about every form. But As Jesus said, "This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light - John 3:19 © Rachel Whelan 2011

JESUS KNELT IN PRAYER

Jesus knelt in prayer
As His friends around Him slept
And in the silence of the Garden
All alone the Saviour wept

He knew His hour was nearing
His time on earth was through
But the silence soon was broken
As the guards around Him drew

He was taken, bruised and beaten
A crown of thorns placed on His head
Then He was led up Calvary’s mountain
Where He suffered in our stead . . .

The sky grew dark and dreary
As the sun refused to shine
And the earth began to tremble
At the death of the Divine

His enemies triumphant
With their guards placed by His tomb
His friends in shame and suffering
Hid within the upper room . . .

The cries of women mourning
Echoed through the lonely night
They could not conceive the gladness
That awaited morning’s light

Just as the sun was rising
They made their way unto the grave
But instead found angels waiting
In the place where He was laid . . .

‘Come and see the place they laid Him
Then go tell’ the angels said
‘For the One that you are seeking
Lies not among the dead’ . . .

The garden tomb is empty
The stone is rolled away
To the Father’s He’s ascended
And is at His side today

But soon He’ll come in clouds of glory
To carry us away
Be prepared the Lord is coming
And today may be the day

Rae Holbrook/aka Rachel Whelan
© 1998
(can be adapted to the tune "The King is Coming")

MY THOUGHTS ON ABRAHAM

It seems to me that Abraham often gets berated unjustly for his behavior in conjunction with the ‘almost’ sacrifice of his son. I think perhaps because the ones who question it, don’t understand the whole relationship between God and Abraham.

The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was not the same as the gods worshiped by the surrounding peoples of his day, nor does He hold any resemblance to the gods that are so adamantly worshiped in our day. Unlike the gods of the pagans, God did not require human sacrifice. He did not require the placing of their children upon altars in order to appease Himself.

The God with whom Abraham walked called Abraham His friend. It's not something you will hear said about the relationship between any of the other so-called gods and their followers. God walked with Abraham just as He walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, just as Jesus walked with His disciples. Do you remember when Jesus was speaking with His disciples and He said, ‘I no longer call you my servants, I call you my friends’?

This was not some ‘far off’ god. This was not some vicious angry god who made you walk a fine line, who made you offer up sacrifices to appease His anger in the same way as the other so-called gods. This God walked with Abraham as with a friend. This God spoke to Abraham face to face.

What happened that day on that mountain, where Abraham was to offer up Isaac as a sacrifice, was so much more than it seems on the surface. This was Abraham’s friend, the friend who had promised him this son in his old age. This was the friend who had told him that his descendants would be as the stars in the sky, too many to number. Abraham knew this God. He knew that God’s word was His bond. Somehow he knew that God would fulfill that promise and that He would do it through Isaac just as He had said.God had made it clear when he sent Hagar away with Ishmael, when He said, ‘listen to what Sarah says, for it will be from Isaac that I fulfill this promise’. Abraham may not have understood exactly how, but he knew God well enough to know that His word was good.

The way I see it, what happened on that mountain was a kind of pact, rather like becoming blood brothers. God tested Abraham to see if he really believed in His promises. Of course, the test was really for Abraham’s benefit. God already knew the outcome. He was not surprised by what happened that day anymore than He has ever been surprised by anything.

This compact between two friends was as if God was asking, ‘Do you love me more than you love these? Am I the God of your life? Are you willing to give up the person that is dearest to you for the sake of our friendship? Does our relationship take precedence over everything else in your life?’As I said previously, of course God knew the answer beforehand. He knew the answer from the day he called Abraham to walk with Him. He knew the answer from all eternity.

But Abraham needed to know the answer. Like the pact between blood brothers, God was saying, ‘I am going to cut myself deeply. Are you willing to do the same? I am going to give up, sacrifice my son for your sake. Are you willing to give up your son for mine?’ Knowing full well that it would never be required of Abraham, but that He, God would follow through with His promise and do exactly that.

It was a promise that God would provide the ultimate sacrifice. A promise that the very blood of God himself would be spilt in order to pay the debt for the sin of every human being that has ever, or will ever live, because the spilling of animals blood was just a shadow of what was to come on that self-same hill when Jesus Christ was offered up as the once and for all sacrifice to redeem all of mankind.

Like Abraham, we are all asked the same question by God, ‘Are you willing to give up everything in order to follow me? Are you willing to walk away from it all in order to have a relationship with me?’ In the end, if the answer is ‘yes’, God will restore to us everything that we have given up and more, but if the answer is ‘no’, we will end up losing it all, most importantly our relationship with Him. - © Rachel Whelan Sept 2010

A BIKE RIDE WITH GOD

If you've been keeping up with my posts lately, you've noticed that I haven't, sorry to say. This is not an original piece, but I heard the audio version of it again recently by Chuck Swindoll. He does an amazing read of it. Hope you enjoy the written version.

A Bike Ride with God
Author unknown
Written sometime between 1910 and 1985.


At first I saw God as my observer, my judge, keeping track of the things I did wrong, so as to know whether I merited heaven or hell when I die.

He was out there, sort of like the president. I recognized His picture when I saw it, but I really didn't know him. But later on when I met Christ, it seemed as though life were rather like a bike ride, but it was a tandem bike, and I noticed that Christ was in the back helping me pedal. I don't know just when it was that He suggested that we change places, but life has not been the same since.

When I had control, I knew the way. It was rather boring but predictable ... It was the shortest distance between two points. But when He took the lead, He knew delightful long cuts, up mountains, and through rocky places at breakneck speeds, and it was all I could do to hang on! Even though it looked like madness, He said, "Pedal."

I worried and was anxious and asked, "Where are You taking me?" He laughed and didn't answer, and I started to learn to trust. I forgot my boring life and entered into the adventure. And when I'd say, "I'm scared," He'd lean back and touch my hand.

He took me to people with gifts that I needed, gifts of healing, acceptance, and joy. They gave me gifts to take on my journey, my Lord's and mine. And we're off again. He said, "Give the gifts away, they're extra baggage, too much weight." So I did, to the people we met, and I found that in giving I received, and still our burden was light.

I did not trust Him at first, to be in control of my life, I thought He would wreck it; But He knows bike secrets, knows how to make it bend to take sharp corners, knows how to jump to clear high rocks, knows how to fly to shorten scary passages.

I'm learning to shut up and pedal in the strangest places, and I'm beginning to enjoy the view and the cool breeze on my face with my delightful constant companion, Jesus Christ. And when I'm sure I just can't do anymore, He just smiles and says ... "Pedal."

LOOKING-GLASS LOGIC

Do you ever feel like your name is Alice and that you fell down a rabbit hole and woke up in a place called Wonderland? I feel that way more every day. It’s as though I went to sleep one night and woke up in a world I don’t recognize, a world that no longer makes any sense. Everything is turned backwards and upside down, any which way but right, where the inmates are running the asylum.

I live in a world that will put you in jail for correcting your child, but encourages you to kill it before it’s born . . . that says you can’t control a child’s sexual behavior, but thinks you can control their drinking, smoking, etc. A world that wants to ban cigarette smoking and legalize smoking marijuana . . . that encourages sexual promiscuity, then wonders why we’re dying from sexually transmitted diseases.

I live in a world where you can't kill someone with a gun, but you can starve them to death with a courts permission . . . that encourages people to think only of themselves, then wonders why people are so selfish. A world that rewards people for not working and punishes people who work with confiscatory taxes. A world that calls those who seek the destruction of others freedom fighters and those who seek to protect themselves terrorists.

I live in a world where a country will fight to secure another country’s borders, but says there’s nothing it can do to secure its own . . . where governments claim there’s no such thing as God, then try to become one themselves. A world where schools encourage the parents to get involved in their children's education, then tell them not to interfere with what their children are being taught.

I live in a world where scientists say we can’t fix the Earth’s environment, but claim we can make Mars habitable. A world that spends millions on space exploration, stadiums, gambling and more, but says it doesn’t have enough resources to feed the poor . . . where people will throw perfectly good food in the garbage, then ask for money to feed the starving masses.

I live in a world where ministers don’t believe in God . . . where politicians write laws, complain about the laws they’ve written, want more laws, but won’t enforce the ones they have. A world where politicians claim they have no power, that they don’t know how the country ended up in such a mess, and act as though they’re not really sure where the bad laws came from in the first place, perhaps it was just another big bang, or maybe the laws just crawled up out of some primordial ooze.

I live in a world that can look at pictures from the outer edges of the universe, but can’t see the forest for the trees . . . a world that calls good evil and evil good. Move over Alice.

And professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. Rom: 1:22 © 1999 Rachel Whelan

I WILL NOT BOW

You may outlaw the name of God
Revoke my right to pray
But there are things despite your power
You cannot take away

There is a God who rules and reigns
All things unto this day
And His Kingdom does not tremble
Despite what you may say

For there is no power among you
That my God did not give
And it is by His power and grace
Not by your rules I live

I will try to follow your laws
But when I’m forced to choose
Between your law and His law
I’m sorry but you lose

And I will proudly speak His name
Wherever I may be
Though you may chain my hands and feet
And take my liberty

For He is God and on His throne
Though you may say He’s not
He is God and He shall reign
When you are long forgot

So write your laws
And loud proclaim your edicts through the land
I will not bow my knee to you
Nor any other man

Rae Holbrook (aka Rachel Whelan)
Copyright © 2003