DON’T CLUTCH

Power doesn’t do any good until it is released. That’s true of mechanical power or electrical power and especially true of the power of God.

To release is to let go—but letting go is hard to do.

For instance, who can easily let go of their life? Yet in Luke 2:24 Jesus said, “For whosoever will save (hold onto, clutch) his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose (let go of) his life for my sake, the same shall save it.”

I kind of believe Jesus was remembering Abraham and Isaac as He said that. What a moment it must have been when God asked Abraham to sacrifice—to let go of—his son’s life! And it was so much more than that. It meant letting go of his future generations that God had promised would be born through Isaac.

Most scholars believe, also, that Isaac was old enough to understand full well what was happening. He had to be a willing participant in that ultimate act of obedience and letting go.

Yes, that had to be an awesome time of decision. But there was a moment coming that would live forever in their hearts and even now brings faith to our hearts.

Think of it. Abraham keeps looking for the way out that he is sure God will provide—but nothing happens until he takes up the knife and begins to plunge it into Isaac’s heart.

And that’s when it happened.

The instant he and Isaac had truly and actively let go of Isaac’s life, God stopped the knife and revealed the substitute sacrifice.

When they let go it released God’s power to give them back the very thing they had let go of—but in a new way.

Neither of their lives would ever be the same again. They had experienced the awesome power of God together.

The lives of the promised generations that Abraham thought he was sacrificing have each been touched by this great lesson.

When you think about it, Isaac’s life never was theirs to begin with. Did they really think they could have held on to it if God had wanted to take it?

It will never be true that by human grasping and clutching we can hold onto or make more secure what God has placed in our hands.

What a lesson!

But there’s more. Let’s illustrate it this way. Hold out your hand, palm up. Now close your fingers and clench your fist.

Can you see now that you can hold more in an open palm than you can in a clenched fist? So much fuller our lives are when we let go and open up our hands.

This note was found in the papers of a missionary martyr: “He is no fool who lets go of what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”

Like the song says, “Let go and let God have His wonderful way.”

Don’t clutch!

EMBARRASSED?

How could we ever defend embarrassed silence when our failure to witness costs the untold their souls?

MORE MATURE FAITH

There is a more mature faith than that which comes by observation.

IMPOSSIBLE TO DOUBT

It is as impossible to doubt as it is to understand.

THE PARCHMENT OF MY LIFE

Read the words as the poet pens them onto the parchment.
Feel the parchment come alive as the poem is born in the inkwords.
Fear not, though the haters would slash and torch the parchment, and the inkwords become but ash upon ash; and though the ashes be scattered or buried; fear not, the poem will live on.

It’s clear, the ink and parchment had no life until the scribe shaped the words. Words brought the life.

And so it is that the parchment that is my body was given life by the Word.
Though haters would slash and burn this parchment of my life, like the poem, that part of me that is alive will never die!

Glory to God!

LET THE WORD FLOW!

I feel an urgency to write—it almost feels like if I could just scratch through the whiteness of this paper, the words would suddenly burst forth.

But what subject?

There are so many things in my mind to get said . Words fight for the gate to get out but they get clogged up. It seems to be a mechanical impedance.

There are so many things that need words; hearts that need healing, gratitudes to be expressed, wrongs to be addressed, people needing hope—all waiting for words.

I wonder how He feels—the original Word Speaker. He started words. He wants His Words to bring life to everyone.

But, only those who have heard His Word can tell it to others. How saddened he must be to see that so many hear yet so few tell others.

We so easily become a mechanical impedance to the flow of the Word.

Fill your pens, run your presses, roll your cameras, sound into you recorders, amplify and multiply the Word in every way known to man!

Let the Word flow!

TROUBLED WATERS AND TROUBLED DAYS

Wholeness and new life awaited the eager plunger into Bethesda's troubled pool.

What fulfillment awaits the ones who eagerly plunge into these troubled days?

The efficacy was not in the troubled waters nor is it in the troubled days,

But, rather, the power flows as the Master speaks and we take up the challenge to walk, yes, even plunge into whatever circumstances we face!