September 2022

I need not ask whether I may call on Him or not, for that word “whosoever” is a very wide and comprehensive one. ‘Whosoever’ means me, for it means anybody and everybody who calls upon God. I will therefore follow the leading of the text and at once call upon the glorious Lord who had made so large a promise.

Jesus told a story in Luke 18 to illustrate how salvation works. There were two men praying in church. One was a religious teacher, who spent his entire life making sure that he followed every rule of his religion. He even did more than was required, to make sure that he was better than other people. He said to God in a loud voice: “I’m really glad I’m not like other people,” as he glanced around and spotting a tax collector praying in a dark corner of the church. “I fast twice a week and I give more generously than necessary to the church.”

The Gospels can be easily seen as the story of how, at every turn, Jesus confronted, rebuked, and demolished prejudice both with his inclusive and redemptive teachings, and with his example.

I started to do it. Then came God’s voice. The Spirit of God living inside me. Telling me NO. Telling me what would be the negative consequences of the action I was about to take. Then my flesh responded. I would do it anyway. I wanted to. I had the right to make up my own mind. I could handle the consequences. But no sooner than I started in the direction the Lord told me not to go than I felt His hand from heaven restrain me. Hold me back. Keep me from going where I was headed. In the wrong direction.

Sometimes, friend, when our circumstances are a certain way, or we face certain challenges, or God clearly wants us to take certain opportunities, or He wants us to change course in a big way or even a small one, or He compels us to make certain decisions, or calls us to go in a certain direction and not another one, or He tells us it’s time to let something or someone go, we expect an explanation from God.