There is nothing like trouble to drive people to Christ. When things go well many people do not acknowledge Him; but when great need comes, He is the first one they turn to. This is one of God's main uses of trouble. God makes many of His children uncomfortable so that they will look to Him instead of being too self-reliant. There are many in heaven now who would never have repented and been saved had God not sent trouble, sorrow, and difficulty.
This father in Mark said his daughter was “at the point of death.” This is one point which we all must come to. Our paths on Earth run many different ways but they all ultimately reach the “point of death.” It is a point that lies hidden from view. No one knows the day when he or she will come to it, and yet somewhere along the years it waits for everyone. Sometimes this point is struck early in life. Here it is a little twelve year old girl that lies “at the point of death.” Even children should think about dying, not as a sad and terrible thing, but as a point to which they must come, and for which they should prepare.
It is a touching sight to see this father falling at Christ's feet. The strongest men break down when their own children are sick or in danger. A man may seem very strong as he works or goes about life. You think he has no compassion in him. But if one of his children becomes ill or injured that strong man will melt. Behind his strong front there is a warm spot in his heart where he is gentle.
I just want to thank the vine ministry for the daily word of God that has been shared to us. I've been so blessed by this daily devotion and most of all my work because i always start a day with it.
TO GODBE THE GLORY AND MAY HE KEEP ON BLESSING THE VINE MINISTRY
Mitieli.....
This isnt the whole picture though. Even though every time (recorded in the Bible) that Jesus was called upon to heal someone, He did so, when we face the death of a close friend or loved one, and we call on Jesus to heal, He doesn't always heal them. He is sovereign and we need to accept that there are no "formulas" for healing. Sometimes Jesus heals, sometimes He doesn't. However that doesn't change the pain we feel when a loved one dies.
It's funny how God puts scripture in front of you at the right times in life. My wife and i were watching a television show last night which had a sudden loss of life as its theme. It was very sad and made me think about how precious life is and how we must be prepared spiritually, at all times. It is scary but at the same time God gives hope. Thank you Lord for your Word which is Truth and like a 'healing balm' for our bodies and our minds. I pray for all those who are going through hard times.
Praise God! God has done great things in my life through the Vine. I am a daily reader of Vine morning deotion.
I really encouraged and and my heart uplifted every morining I opened my mail and read the Vine.
Thank you very much and May God continues to richly bless you as you minister the word of God.
Moses
I agree that God uses circumstances to draw people closer to Him or to the greater good. God is able to redeem all situations. However, the sorrows and tribulations of this world are not God's doing. They are the outcome of the fall from God's Grace and divine plan. I do not believe God sends afflcition and 'makes' us uncomfortable. To my thinking it is a short step from "my situation is God punishing me' to 'your calamity is your fault - God is punishing you'. If a person is under going sorrow and is seeking in desperation, I would rather direct them to seek a God who would like to enter their life and help restore it. Most of our problems are our own making - not God punishing us.
Thank you forthis message Dr james and thank you Steve for diong just a wonderful job for Christ.
i had tears in my eys today reading this mesage as i take life for granted ,i know His Grace is alawys with me but am i preparing myself knowing well that death could be around the corner? Do pray of me
It shall be well with you darling. Christ said "cheer up for i have overcome the world for you"!
So cheer up and dont let the devil keep the pictures of dying or death in your mind...u can rely on God's arms of unfailing love.
Surely, you should live each day worthy of God's praise.
Regards,
Grace
I disagree heartily with your statement that 'God makes many of His children uncomfortable so that they will look to Him instead of being too self-reliant'. Why did He not create trouble in Eden to ensure this whole mess never happened in the first place then if your statement was even remotely true? Oops, a little late, God!
Trouble comes...period, God does not create pain for us or make us uncomfortable, we do that all on our own when we sin, along with a very helpful hand from the devil whether we sin or not. The devil is the only one intentionally causing pain to humanity. Who in their right mind would want to serve a god who creates pain to cheat His way into getting a few more souls? Every time I have started to believe this sort of rubbish thinking, each episode of trouble and pain has only served to drive me further away from the horrible god who people have made me believe has sent it. I can only imagine the damage done to someone who loses a child for example, only to be told 'God did this so you could be a better person'...sorry but that god would be a tyrannical piece of scum, unworthy of my praise and worship. If I really am supposed to believe this, then as his follower, I should be stirring trouble in everyone's lives, in order to draw them to salvation. What a joke!
Every good and perfect gift comes from the Father, who does not change like the shadows...the devil comes to steal, kill and destroy, I come that they may have abundant life...if He cares about the sparrow falling, how much more does He care for you...these verses do not speak of a sadistic god who whips us to keep us in line. If that god is all we've got, I (and anyone else with half a brain should) want nothing to do with him.
I would prefer to follow the real God who cries when His friends are hurting, instead of ticking another trouble-saved soul off His 'to-do list'.
'A Christian Searcher'
I would like to thank God almighty for this powerful word and thank you too for bringing it up to us. As christians, we experience so many challenges in life but keep relying on people for help and looking at other sources for help.
We don't put full commitment and focus to jesus christ to help us but until you come to a point of dead end, a point of death is when most christians turn to God and look upto him for help.
This point of death must be experienced by every christian for us to know the power that is in our Heavenly Father and to grow spiritually in our daily walk with God.
We cannot walk as true faithfull christians without experiencing his power in us. We become stronger in Christ with challenges in our lives.
My Pastor used to tell us that if you are a christian and has never experienced challenges in life, its better you ask for trouble to come your way for you to know how powerful our God is and how ready he is to walk by your side and help you.
God bless you all.
This message is so true.One of our Managers had heart attack and died on Tuesday at the age of 51.It came as a BIG shock to us all the next day.But as Christians,it should not.,we should be prepared and live each day sa if it was our own.
Thank you for the reminder.
Be Blessed.
Just come thru a painful and delerious illness. In the depths of this i met demons, in the face of death, who have fallen from the grace of God and now understand there HATE toward the Father. The word He gave to me is Hebrews chapter 12 about chastisement. I fell to my knees and now have had a miracle cure and many things in life are going good. I choose to thank Him in good and bad regardless what it is all His plan. The heart and mind go down sometimes, I choose you Lord and Your Holy Shrine. Thank You Lord that I may serve, You Strenthen me to prove my worth!!!
My life has been going quite well for many years. I had my first child when I was 31 yrs old. His father and I loved each other but have a different cultural background, were not evenly yoked at all, and with our personalities, we couldn't make it in marriage. But its been good raising our son, been through court in a custody battle, but it has all turned out good for all of us. It's been such a joy being a mom. I relied on God to raise him, and to get me through lots of things. Financially we were good with child support, etc. The Lord provided. He was my strength and refuge. But now life has become very hard. Life was going well and I was reliant on God. But I have made some wrong choices. I was going with a man for about 2 yrs who I was contemplating marriage, but we are not evenly yoked and he is not financially responsible which I found out later. I really wanted to break up with him, but he wanted to make me pregnant, and he succeeded. At age 42, had my second child. Now there is A LOT of struggle for me and I am having a hard time in my relationship with the Lord. It seems like He is not there for me like He used to be. I don't know how to restore that vital relationship I once had where I had joy, hope, strength, purpose and love. I felt I had a right standing with God, and things were going so well. Now there is trouble financially, I am having a hard time geing a good mom, now that I have 2 children. It seems difficult to find God now, and I can't find peace and joy and hope, fulfillment and direction that I once had, now that things are so difficult.
on many ocassions trouble has led me back to reliance on God an.d the amazing thing is that every time i call upon him in this times of trouble, he has come through.it usualy feels like he is telling me"that you may know that i am God".infact right now someone that i love dearly is going through a not too good phase in her life.she has been denied travel documents to go and start her life with the love of her life and we are waiting for a breakthrough.When life is easy it is often easy to forget that God actually is responsible for it being easy and because we do not have a constant physical reminder of him, and being human we quickly fall away.i guess we can remain reliant by remembering to give thanks ni matter what
Run to Him while yet it is day, don't with until trobuled time.
I have been at just such a point a year ago when the Lord allowed my partner of 10 years to die tragically because I looked only on him as my source. When he died I was forced to give my soul to the Lord God Almighty and to rely only on Him as my source and in this whole process I learnt the lesson i was meant to learn. Thank You Jesus!!!! Only Your purpose must be fulfilled. Amen
Truly. Many times when we are ok and everything is just going fine to us, we dont pray as we should. This is not what God wants of us. We are supposed to pray without ceasing. In good times or hard times. In this world we are in a constant battle. We need to be on guard always, thru prayer - looking at the General (Christ) for His signal. If and when we let down our guard, the enemy hits us. We either die or get wounded. When we are on guard, we get The General's signal - we hit & rout the enemy good.
Bottom line: If we are determined not to loose this fight, we are to stay under the banner of love with eyes always on our General (alert with prayer)... we fight on till we fight better
.
Well...I have only Jesus to run to for the slightest of any situation that confronts nme and i know He will always be there for His children....What a Christian should do is ask the Father to help him/her maximize each day permited to live.
Thanks for this opportunity.
regards,
Grace
It's truly amazing to read each persons concept of today's blessed message. While I agree with some aspects written...it's a wonderful forum to share my own thoughts and feelings, feeling free to do so! I lost my own son 2 years ago, the Vine has given me such wonderful blessings each day, with each message. I add it to my devonsionals and I use it as a "guide" almost in my prayer time! It's a wonder how many times that each reading really hits home with perfect timing! I DO NOT believe that God purposely puts obstacles or trials or challenges in our paths each day in a NEGATIVE way! Our God is loving, he is kind and just! But, I know with each and every challenge I face daily, Gods love for me is shining down on me asking, "what are you going to do today to get through this"? Ahhhh, my heart melts because I KNOW lifting up today's challenge to HIM will be rewarded with his love and grace!
My son DID know Jesus! I'm comforted in a way that many parents that have lost a child are comforted with that knowledge! We DID discuss death and our heavenly home with our loving savior...I'm so very thankful for those discussions now! Death came upon Ryan unexpectedly and was a shock to all of us. I've had many very dark days trying to get through the pain of losing my baby, even though he was a grown man, always my baby and first born. WITHOUT gods love I would be lost! death can be a comforting reality if we know where we are spending eternity! I HAVE talked about death with my 11 year old grand-daughter. Given the circumstances, we felt it was necessary...she's not scared or traumatized about death and preparedness for our eternal kingdom, she's thankful that we will ALL be united after our lives on earth are over and Jesus calls us home. I think educating children is necessary, and God gives us the wisdom on just HOW to convey his message. Thank you, thank you...for the comfort the Vine's message gives me each day...I'm grateful beyond words. Blessings to each of you whose words I've read, and opinions - its with a pure heart that I embrace EACH of these posts, because it's by reading others thoughts about the subject matter, that I'm also able to really post what MY heart, mind and most of all FAITH believe! In Him...blessed2besavedJ
I did not believe in God until I had a bad car accident and my wife was killed and I had a near death experience. I don't believe God sends these things to happen, but I also think accidents like this are 'built in' to your life and that there are no such things as accidents, it's all planned. God makes everything work towards the good. I've had so many supernatural incidents since this accident that I now catalogue them. So far I'm up to about 130. These include haunting, miraculous healing, visions, dreams, and some things I can't even explain. My belief in God is unshakable regardless of what happens to me. Like a lot of people who have faced death I now no longer fear it. Just lately I feel that God has sent an Angel to look after me, it's very reassuring.
This posting really alarmed me. I believe it is very dangerous to claim that God actually sends trouble, sorrow and difficulty on individuals. Some may then assume and assert that God is to blame for all the social ills, physical catastrophes and world diseases that afflict humankind. Others may instantly see themselves as guilty of some unknown sin simply because their experiences are less than happy. Whilst God may make use of the negative experiences that befall us or result from our wrongdoing, they are not part of his plan for us, as the Bible repeatedly tells us.
And as for every child being encouraged to think about death... Children who do not live in the moment, who either dwell on the past or concern themselves about the future are behaving unnaturally. Jesus preaches that adults should emulate children in this very respect.
I am sorry, but I am at a loss to understand what positive message this posting brings. I see problems associated with its doctrine and find nothing in the extract to commend it.