The Ups and Downs of the Present Moment

The Ups and Downs 

of the Present Moment

How are you doing in this up and down, topsy-turvy world?  If you believe the news sources on any given day, we are headed for a recession, melting polar ice caps, the collapse of civilization, the President being ousted, Congress in revolt, and a civil war could break out at any moment.

So, how are you doing in all this?

There is one thing I know in the middle of all this madness and uncertainty. 

GOD IS IN CONTROL!

I believe that.

I trust that.

I trust that God is not asleep at the wheel, that He is aware of everything that is spinning around us, and aware of all the players on stage in this drama of the life we live.  I trust that He is watching, and perhaps, intervening in small and subtle ways that we can’t see with our human eyes, and yet His hand is working nevertheless.

In all the years of my life, I’ve never escaped some hard places.  God never promised I would.  What He did promise was that He would be with me “wherever I go”. 

So, come what may, I’m holding onto the only solid truth I can find – God knows where we are every moment of every day.  He is with us at the peak of the stock market and in the valley of the crash.  He is with us in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, and through it all, He is going to see us through.

Ultimately, man is not in control.  God is in control. 

I’m staking my life on that!

Internet Church Blog Site

P Michael Biggs

Hope~Encouragement~Inspiration

The God Whose Name Is on the Invitation

The God Whose Name 

Is on the Invitation

Your invitation has been sent out.  Have you received it yet?  Have you read it and understood it?

The words are simple – “Come unto Me.”  Somewhere I read that there are 365 invitations in the scriptures with the full intent of these words.  We are invited in. 

There is no “Keep Out” sign on the door.

There is no qualifier of “Only Those Who …”

There is no “If your skin color is _____, then you may enter.”

There is no “If you’ve washed today, you may come.”

There is no “If you are American, you may come.”

There is no “If you’re a Jew, you are invited.”

No, No, NO!

God doesn’t distinguish between cowboys or crooks, peasants or politicians,

drummers or drunkards, Democrats or the despised.

We are all invited.  Our first job is to accept the invitation.  Come to the grace side of the God who loves you.  He will sort things out from there, after you accept His invitation. 

You don’t even have to change your clothing, get a haircut, shave, use deodorant, or eat your peas. 

God wants you as much as He wants Billy Graham, Mother Theresa, or the Apostle Paul. 

He is the sender of the invitation and your name is on it in bold letters.

Come to me!

That is well-aged grace.

Internet Church Blog Site

P Michael Biggs

Hope~Encouragement~Inspiration

When Peter Struck Out

When Peter Struck Out

  

The Apostle, Peter, became one of the heroes of the Christian faith.  He was a determined man, a strong-willed man, it seems.  We get to know Peter through the lenses of the days leading up to the crucifixion of Christ. 

In Luke 22:54-62 Peter is by a fire keeping warm.  Christ was across the courtyard under guard.  A servant girl approached, seemed to recognize Peter, and said so.

He denied it, of course.  Strike One.

A short time later, another woman approached Peter and said, “You are one of his followers.  I saw you.”

Again, Peter denied it.  Strike Two.

Soon, a man called out that he, too, recognized Peter, for he was a Galilean.”  This time, with more emphatic words, Peter said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.  I don’t know that man.”

Strike Three

And then the cock crowed, and Peter knew he was down for the count.  He had done the very thing he had sworn to never do.  He denied his Christ three times. 

Peter, recognizing what he had done, went out from that courtyard, found a place of solitude, and wept bitterly.  He thought he was a player.  He thought he was the strong one, the rock, the steady one.

And yet … he failed.

He struck out.  What misery he felt.  He thought he was a loser.  The game was over.

And yet, after the resurrection, word came to Peter of a direct message to him from the lips of the resurrected Christ himself.  “Tell my disciples, and Peter, that I go before you into Galilee.”  Mark 16:7

A ray of hope. 

An encouraging sign.

It is as if Christ is saying to Peter, you get to bat again.

There is no more sign of encouragement for a batter than to be allowed to bat again after a strike-out.  That means the coach has restored his faith in you.  And Christ knows the heart of Peter.  He knows of his weakness, and his betrayal, and yet … Jesus sees the value in this strong player on His team.

He wants Peter to know he is forgiven and restored to grace.  He becomes an A-team player once again.

That is grace, my friend.  The God of the universe looks beyond our faults and sees our needs.  He sees what is inside, what good He can redeem and use. 

That is GRACE!

And it is offered to you, to me, to all mankind.  Our past responses don’t matter.  What can we become in the future – that is our mandate, our mission. 

Go and become a great one for God!

Thanks be to God.  

Now, enjoy this classic from Dottie Rambo of

He Looked Beyond My Faults 

and Saw My Need. 

If the above link does not work, use this one. 

He Looked Beyond My Faults

Internet Church Blog Site

P Michael Biggs

Hope~Encouragement~Inspiration