A MATTER OF FAITH: AFTER STUFF HAPPENS

1 KINGS 19:4-7
But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die, and said, “It is enough! Now, Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!”
Then as he lay and slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel touched him, and said to him, “Arise and eat.” Then he looked, and there by his head was a cake baked on coals, and a jar of water. So he ate and drank, and lay down again. And the angel of the Lord came back the second time, and touched him, and said, “Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you.”

For months my computer warned me that I had “corrupt” files but it was working so I kept going and then it happened- it stopped working. I prayed, I placed my hands on it and pleaded with God but nothing happened. As a writer this is a problem, the fact that I was in the middle of several writing projects which included a series on this blog was mentioned a few times in my conversations with the Lord. However, I know that stuff happens and when stuff happens and we should all be ready for it when it does; my solution, use my husbands computer to post blogs and write with pen and paper. Now my computer is fixed!

My computer is, in the words of the repair guy “better than ever” and able to go on for years. BUT it is not the same. Things cannot be and will not be the same after something “happens”.

It is difficult to be cheerful when you are doing the right thing and stuff happens. In 1 Kings 19, Elijah the great Prophet had experienced great victories for the Lord but Jezebel was determined to get him too, she had killed a lot of the other prophets. Constant negativity from people, particularly those you know, can wear you down. The Prophet who had performed such mighty works in the past was tired of fighting and left. God sent an angel to encourage him because he had work to do.

Despite stuff happening there is stuff to do.

GENESIS 16:6-9
So Abram said to Sarai, “Indeed your maid is in your hand; do to her as you please.” And when Sarai dealt harshly with her, she fled from her presence.
Now the Angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur. And He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from, and where are you going?”
She said, “I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.”
The Angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hand.”

When you read the story of Hagar and you reach this point you might say to yourself: “Say what!” Sarai tells her husband Abram to sleep with her maid so that he can get her pregnant (surrogates is not a new concept) and when the maid gets pregnant Sarai becomes jealous and treats Hagar like crap. That is stuff happening continuously.

Hagar could take it no more and left. Father God sends an angel to Hagar who tells her she has to go back and be ‘nice’. “ “Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hand.”” God said: Go back to your stuff and deal with it! Say what????

Hagar obeys God and returns because now she sees a bigger picture. What happened to you in the past does not define your future.

GENESIS 16:10
Then the Angel of the Lord said to her, “I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude.”

We all know that Ishmael, Hagar’s son, was not the child of the promise: Sarai, who becomes Sarah, gives birth to Isaac the legitimate seed of Abraham (formerly Abram). But God does not count your origins against you and will bless you despite- what you do with your blessings is your choice. (Life and death / blessings and curses Deuteronomy 30:19) Hagar eventually was kicked out of the camp but God was still with her and her much older son.

GENESIS 21:14-18
So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water; and putting it on her shoulder, he gave it and the boy to Hagar, and sent her away. Then she departed and wandered in the Wilderness of Beersheba. And the water in the skin was used up, and she placed the boy under one of the shrubs. 16 Then she went and sat down across from him at a distance of about a bowshot; for she said to herself, “Let me not see the death of the boy.” So she sat opposite him, and lifted her voice and wept.
And God heard the voice of the lad. Then the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said to her, “What ails you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is. Arise, lift up the lad and hold him with your hand, for I will make him a great nation.”

No matter what you are going through it is important to know that God is with you. Things are not going to be just like they were before all the stuff happened because you are not the same. You learned something.

Hagar was no longer a maid subject to the whims of Sarah. Elijah was still a prophet but he reached a point in which he no longer wanted to serve thus he passed his mantel on to Elisha (2 Kings 2:1-13)The common denominator in both these situations is: God’s will being done. Hagar yielded herself to God’s word given to her by the Angel of the Lord; Elijah reached a point in which he just did not want to serve and God brought him home.

I firmly believe: No matter what kind of stuff that happens in a person’s life as long as he or she is yielded to the word and will of God He will give you the strength to carry on (1 Kings 19:4:7) and a vision to motivate you to endure (Genesis 16:10).

We have to be rooted in God’s word because stuff is going to happen. As a person I know prepares to attend the funeral of a family member who died from cancer it seems trivial to refer to this event as “stuff” particularly when the family has a history of people dying from cancer. But, if you are rooted in God’s word you know that Jesus endured 39 stripes so that we would be healed; just because everyone around you is dying from cancer does not mean you will die from it. (Many of the prophets were dying at the hands of Jezebel but there were many who lived.) Jesus told us Satan was going to try and kill us but He came so that we would have life (John 10:10). 

Perhaps I should say “Life” happens. I still would have had to allow the repair guy to come and fix my computer and he would have done the same thing only sooner. The change was necessary and as long as we live there will be changes. When things happen no matter how big or small change follows how you handle the change is what is important.

God’s blessings are not altered by the stuff that happens to you but you can alter the blessings by not yielding to His word.  Stuff happens. ——— written by Marsha L F Randolph

A MATTER OF FAITH: THE LAW vs. GRACE

Jesus said: “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.” (MATTHEW 5:17). I hear people declare some churches are “legalistic” and their practices are under the law though we are under grace.

Two things happened this year that gave me pause, the first was my having the opportunity to own a prayer shawl. The other was my participation in a Messianic Passover Haggadah. The prayer shawl and the Haggadah are associated with Judaism and thus to many Christians being under the law. After doing some research I am comfortable with owning a prayer shawl and participating in Passover Haggadah.

Am I turning into a legalistic Christian and ignoring the grace of God? Jesus said He did not come to destroy the law. Why would I need grace if I can ignore the law?

This is what I believe: Jesus did not cancel the law.

HEBREWS 10:1-13
For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.  For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins.  But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year.  For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.
Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire,
But a body You have prepared for Me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you had no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come— in the volume of the book it is written of Me—
To do Your will, O God.’”
Previously saying, “Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them” (which are offered according to the law),  then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.” He takes away the first that He may establish the second.  By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.  But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool.

Our Lord, the Son of God, is the perfect sacrifice and offering for all of our sins therefore we no longer need to present burnt offerings and such for our sins. But we still sin! How do we know that our behavior is sinful? God’s precepts tell us so.

I have often heard people refer to the Bible as an acronym: Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. The Hebrew word for law is ‘torah’ which means precept or statute. The Greek word for law is ‘nomos’ which within is meaning is “prescriptive usage” (Strong's 3551).  The law reflects our guidelines for living which includes: precepts, statutes, and / or guidelines.  

ROMANS 5:10-13
For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.  And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—  (For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

Without these guidelines, aka laws, we would not know we were displeasing Father God. Because of these laws, precepts for living, we know how imperfect we are. It is the grace of God that allows us to receive His blessings.

EPHESIANS 2:8-9
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,  not of works, lest anyone should boast.

It is tradition, that has been teaching us to focus on the grace of God more than the laws of God.

MARK 7:13
making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

It is important that you study Scripture for yourself and evaluate the origins of your church’s doctrine. I would submit to you that the reason there is so much transgression in God’s word today is because so many people disregard the precepts, statues, guidelines, laws that are found in the first 5 books of Bible; they are not Moses’ laws they are laws God gave to the people. Jesus said: ““Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. “ (NIV)   
                                          — written by Marsha L F Randolph

A MATTER OF FAITH: WHEN STUFF HAPPENS

It has been a month since my last post because stuff has been happening, including the demise of my computer. In that time I have been writing the old fashioned way, with paper and pen. What I have gone through and what I am going through is not tragic but it is humbling; I am reminded that the world will continue without my opinion. It is never about me it is always about God's Word.

JOHN 1:1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

This is the lesson Jesus taught the 11, He may not be physically present but He is always with us. As long as we have the word of God, not man, we can overcome whatever may come our way.

JOHN 14:26
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.

It is not I, nor your church leader who will teach you all things but the Spirit of God. If you are not learning what the Word of God says you will be lost when stuff happens.

I have walked this earth with the help of the Lord long enough to not panic when stuff happens. I was more disappointed than upset when I could not write my weekly post, upload my book BEFORE YOU PRAY FOR ME, or edit the novel I am working on. I have learned that if their is a drought in the land you have to move to where your provisions are. (see 1 Kings 17) That is what I am doing.

What type of stuff is going on in your life?  How are you moving forward despite it?

Far to often we depend on man and not God. We allow man to put his own spin / interpretation on what God said instead of what the Spirit of God is speaking directly into a person's life.

2 PETER 1:20
knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation,

There really is no new revelation of God's word only better understanding.

I used the time, as I dealt with the loss of a friend, my computer crashing and other life problems by LISTENING to Father God. Today I felt free to share a Sunday post. Next week I will resume my regular posting though I still don't have a computer, I am writing on a borrowed "ax" (2 Kings 6:1-7) and it must be returned to its' rightful owner.

When stuff happens it is important to remember that God knows what is needed and will supply it. He will not give you what you think you need or what people say you have to have.

PHILIPPIANS 4:19
And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

--- written by Marsha L F Randolph