God with us

Whatever our faith says God is, He will be.  - unknown

God is omnipresent, there is no place that God is not present. Yet the power of his presence can only be a reality to us if our faith allows him to play its part.

 "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel" (which means, God with us).  (Matthew 1:23 ESV)

Today the world celebrates Christmas, for believers it is the day that Love came to men in the most remarkable way to give hope to a lost world.

At His Feet

³⁶ When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. ³⁷ A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. ³⁸ As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.   - Luke 7:36-50 (NIV)

Somehow when the thought of this passage came to mind, another passage in Luke 14 occurred to me in contrast to the scene being described here. In Luke 17, the Lord Jesus noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, and went on to tell a parable about humility. 

After so many years, the attitude of the human heart towards self exaltation remains the same, constantly wanting to be at a place of honour, taking pride in being "better" than those who seemingly do not deserve to "sit at the table". As believers, we are familiar with these passages, yet unlike the sinful woman, we sometimes find ourselves looking for a place at the table first, and if that fails, only do we fall before the feet of the Lord Jesus seeking for forgiveness.

The beauty of the sinful woman's approach was not only because of the expensive perfume that was poured out for the Lord's feet, but also because by recognizing her unworthiness, she went straight to the Lord Jesus, wanting nothing more than to be at His feet. To the undiscerning eyes, she was the shameful sinner who had no place at the table, but in the Lord's eyes she was the wise one, desiring not to find favour at the table of men, but rather at the feet of the Son of God, who is able to forgive her sins.

I wonder what would our choices be like? To be accepted at the place of honor at the table of distinguished men, who even at their best, will be prone to fail and disappoint? Or will we be content to be at the place of humility, at the feet of the Lord Jesus, to behold the beauty of the faithful one, who never fails, whose glory is beyond comprehension.

Where is the hope?

I was reading an article about how stress and anxiety has plagued the current generation of youths. This was the result of a survey they did:

Mental health on campus

In 2011, 1,600 University of Alberta students took part in the National College Health Assessment survey. The problems students identified are playing out across the country.

Mental health issue experienced at any time within the last 12 months (in %)

Felt things were hopeless: 51.3

Felt overwhelmed by all you had to do: 87.5

Felt exhausted (not from physical activity): 87.1

Felt very lonely: 61.7

Felt very sad: 65.6

Felt so depressed that is was difficult to function: 34.4

Felt overwhelming anxiety: 52.1

Felt overwhelming anger: 40.7

Experienced more than average stress: 57.1

Seriously considered suicide: 6.8

  Attempted Suicide: 1.2


With such depressing figures, one can only wonder how would the numbers change if we were to extend it to youths from all over the world. As a song writer puts it:

Where is the hope, where is the peace?

That will make this life complete

For every man, woman, boy, and girl

Looking for Heaven in the real world

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.          -Romans 15:13 (NIV)

The Lord our comforter

They tell me I must bruise the rose's leaf, 
Ere I can keep and use its fragrance brief.

They tell me I must break the skylark's heart,
Ere her cage song will make the silence start.

They tell me love must bleed, and friendship weep,
Ere in my deepest need, I touch that deep.

Must it be always so with precious things?
Must they be bruised and go with beaten wings?

Ah, yes! By crushing days, bay caging nights, by scar of thorn and stony ways,
These blessings are!

- taken from streams in the desert

I always hated the fact that the world has become a place filled with hatred and that compassion and grace are sadly scarce. Through personal experiences I have often wondered why it is that we have to bear with the pain of it. Reading this devotional reminded me of God's wisdom in all things he allows.

God comforts us not to make us comfortable but to make us comforters.  John Henry Jowett