Trust and Obey

One of my favorite hymns is “Trust and Obey”, by John Sammis. It was the theme song of the first grade Bible curriculum I used for many years teaching in Christian schools. So sweet~so simple. I referred to the concept throughout the year as we learned about God’s sovereignty in our lives.  My lessons concluded with “God is God. He knows what He is doing. Everything He does is for our good and His glory. SOOO, trust Him and don’t worry about it. In other words, Trust and Obey! 

Well, Martha~ it is now time for you to put this into practice!

Martha had surrendered to Jesus’ Words, even though she didn’t ‘get it’ when she responded with “But I know…” in verse 22. She declared her belief in Jesus as Messiah, the Son of God, Who had come into the world to deliver the world from sin in verse 27. But those were WORDS! 

She had spoken her belief and trust. Now she must SHOW her belief and trust.

How often do we find ourselves in the same position? 

Circumstances are tough, and people look at us and say,“We know what she says, but look at how she LIVES!” How many of you have heard the saying, “Your talk talks and your walk talks, but your walk talks louder than you talk talks”? That is exactly the situation that Martha was about to face.

As we dig into John 11:38-39 we see that Jesus, the disciples, Martha and Mary, and their entourage of mourners had arrived at the tomb. Jesus now puts Martha to the ultimate test. Martha, it is time for you to demonstrate the belief you had just so boldly claimed a few minutes earlier. 

Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”

 Permission to open the tomb was dependent on what Martha truly believed in her heart. Obedience was necessary to demonstrate to all those around her that what she had spoken earlier weren’t just flippant words, but were an expression of her heart.

Jesus had asked her in verse 26 if she believed.  He is now asking her, in verse 39, to SHOW she believed.

Martha, do you believe, REALLY?????

She responded with that one word again. The word we earlier proclaimed to be a word of sweet surrender (April 6-BUT)~ “BUT, Lord…”

This time, however, the conjunction flips to the other side of the coin. Instead of sweet surrender, it now becomes a word that demonstrates doubt and fear.

Last week, I pondered changing the name of the Good Ol’ Martha Award because every one of our names could be used in place of Martha’s. We believe. We truly believe! But it is so difficult at times to act on that belief!

Next time we will finish up this section and see what Martha ultimately DOES!

Walk your talk!

Debbie

Jesus Wept

Let’s briefly make our way through the next section of Jesus’ encounter with Martha and Mary at the death of Lazarus and make some interesting comments along the way. We will be looking at John 11:28-38. I think your heart will be blessed and encouraged.

If you recall from my John 11 Awards (March 6), verse 28 received ‘The Most Surprising Response’ award. Here Martha runs to Mary and SENDS her to Jesus. Quite the turnaround from the Martha of Luke 10:39-40 who criticized Mary for spending so much time at His feet!

As you would expect, Mary quickly ran to Jesus, followed by her sea of mourners who figured she was heading to the tomb to mourn the loss of her brother (verses 29-31).

Now~~read verse 32! MARY said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” These are the same words Martha expressed in verse 21. You might have expected that from Martha, but from Mary? This just serves as a reminder-none of us fully ‘get it’. Don’t feel badly if you struggle with not understanding the workings of God! Mary, of all people, struggled too! Sometimes it just 'makes our brain hurt'!

Poor Jesus (humanly speaking)! He had just gone through this scenario with Martha. Now, faithful Mary was expressing the same concerns! Mary is weeping. Her friends are weeping. Martha is probably weeping as well! No one seems to ‘get it’~~and Jesus wept (verse 35)! His heart was saddened. Not because He was mourning the death of a friend, but rather, His heart was broken for those around Him who were hurting. He wept for those who didn’t ‘get it’.

Some of the mourners thought it was so sweet that Jesus loved and cared for Lazarus so much! They didn’t ‘get it’ that actually He was weeping because He loved and cared for THEM so much~~and He was once again deeply moved (verse 38).

Dear friends, in response to the question Martha so begrudgingly asked in Luke 10:40-"Lord, don’t you care…?"  

Yes, He really DOES care!

I think this makes a good stopping point this time around. We will have to look at “The Good Ol’ Martha” award next time where we see a small glimpse of the old Martha. But, I think we will have to change the title of the award, or it will become the Good Ol’ Debbie (or put in your name) Award!

Debbie

Believe and Live!

Well, Jesus had asked the question, “Martha, do you believe?” We will examine her response shortly. But first let’s consider John’s purpose for his gospel and what role chapter 11 has in fulfilling that purpose. What a lovely story it becomes! The story of Lazarus is not a story of grief and sadness. It is a lesson of hope and power. Hope and power that can only come from The One in whom Martha puts her trust.

We have seen from previous posts that both the disciples (verses 11-12) and Martha (verses 21-24) had trouble ‘getting it’. Is it any wonder that we, too, have trouble ‘getting it’? It is for this purpose that the Gospel of John was written.

 Warren Wiersbe, in his book Be Alive: John 1-12, believes the theme of this gospel to be “Jesus is the Christ: Believe and Live!” He even uses the exclamation mark! What a good choice for the theme~~Jesus is the Christ: Believe and Live! Yes, it bears repeating! John proclaimed all throughout his gospel that Jesus is the Christ. Each illustration challenges the reader to BELIEVE and LIVE!  In John 10:10, Jesus states, “…I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”  Is it any wonder, then, that Wiersbe also chose the following as the key verse of John’s Gospel?  Notice the words of John 20:30-31:

And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.

Let’s return now to John 11. Remember last time (when our brain hurt) Jesus had claimed to be the Resurrection and the Life, and that all who believe in Him will live (verses 25-26). He then asked Martha THE question, “Do you believe?”

Martha’s response, as sweet to Jesus’ ears, as her last response in verse 22, was “Yes, Lord, I believe you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

In her declaration of belief, Martha confessed three things (Edwin A. Blum from Bible Knowledge Commentary).  First of all, she confessed Him as Christ, or as the Messiah. As a Jew, this was probably the most important claim she could have made. The Jews were looking for the Messiah to come. Very few believed He was already there among them. So much of Jesus’ earthly ministry was an effort to reach His own people. But, they didn’t believe. But Martha did! Next, she acknowledged Him as the Son of God. This was also a concept the Jews refused to accept. Finally, her belief that He was the One Who has come into the world, acknowledged Jesus as the Coming One (John 12:13). She recognized Him as the Coming Deliverer. Once again, as a Jew, Martha was making some mighty strong claims!

As we continue, let’s take a minute to consider how the word believe is used in the New Testament. The word means to be convinced of something in such a way as to produce faith (Mounce’s Complete Expository Dictionary)~even if you don’t ‘get it’, don’t fully understand it, or if you lack tangible evidence, as described in Hebrews 11:1 (my addition). It is used in the perfect tense which indicates “a fixed and settled faith” (Wiersbe). In English she would have proclaimed, “I believe, and I will continue to believe.” 

Martha’s declaration of belief may be also been worded as follows, “I now believe, and will always believe, that you are the Messiah, God's Son, who has come to do the will of God.”  These were words of complete surrender and acceptance to the circumstances she faced.

What about you? Have you made such a declaration of belief? Does your life show it?

Are you ready to make Martha’s declaration of belief? Please comment or post a facebook inbox if you are or have any additional questions. This is such an important question to answer!

By the way, what wonderful timing that this blog fell on the week of Easter!  The life we have in Christ is based on the power of His resurrection!

BELIEVE and LIVE!

Debbie

"Getting It"

One of my grad school professors is known for saying, “It makes my brain hurt” whenever he discusses a complex concept. Understanding the Trinity is definitely one of those concepts. We don’t always ‘get it.’ The whole concept is beyond our human comprehension.  It is a concept that involves acceptance by faith. Martha was also confused by the whole idea. She trusted Jesus, but did she completely grasp that He was God?

John 11:22-27

Last week, we looked at the word BUT as Martha used it in John 11:22. In a voice of sweet surrender (as opposed to the frustration and accusations found in Luke 10:41), she proclaimed, ‘I don’t fully understand what you are doing, Lord, BUT I KNOW…”

Let’s continue that verse: “BUT I KNOW that even now GOD will give YOU whatever you ask”. Yes, Martha believed Jesus’ words. Martha trusted His will and plan. But, Martha didn’t “get it”. She did not fully comprehend that Jesus WAS God. In her mind, Jesus had the right connection and could make arrangements with God to ‘make it happen’ if He wanted to. She had faith in what Jesus said, but did she fully understand WHO He WAS (IS)?

Jesus challenged her further in verse 23 by assuring her, “Your brother will rise again.” Still (Verse 24) she didn’t get the point. She looked to the future resurrection ‘in the last day.’ She believed that concept as well, but still didn’t ‘get’ the lesson Jesus was trying to instill in her heart.

As an additional side note, have you noticed how Martha dwells in the past (vs.21) and holds to the future (vs. 24)? What she doesn’t ‘get’ is the present.  Jesus desired to demonstrate to Martha that He could meet present needs right here and right now.

Once again, as He did in Luke 10, I imagine Jesus shook His head and said, “Martha, Martha, Martha! You just don’t 'get it'.” (See “Martha, Martha, Martha” previous blog from Feb. 2).

“Getting it” seems to be a problem we all face; after all, we are only human. How can we expect to fully ‘get it?' We sure can’t fault Martha for her confusion. Jesus understood. That is why He wisely used the circumstances involving Lazarus to illustrate the importance of His coming resurrection (see "John 11-Setting the Stage" from March 5) and to demonstrate that He IS God.

So, if we are in a position as humans to not fully understand all that is involved in Who Jesus is, what He did for us, what He continues to do for us—how can we be expected to believe? By faith! He uses the events surrendering Lazarus’ sickness, death, and ultimately, his resurrection, to strengthen the faith of His disciples (verses 1-16), Martha and Mary (verses 17-40), and the mourners (verses 41-57). (Taken from Warren B. Wiersbe’s Be Alive: John 1-12.) By the way, these same lessons are there for us today. That is what makes God’s Word so important.

Finally, Jesus lays it out ‘plain and simple.’ He proclaimed to Martha in verse 25, “I am the Resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” Then, He asks, Martha, plainly, “Do you believe?” He didn’t ask her if she understood or if she ‘got it.’ He asked her if she believed. 

What about you? Do you BELIEVE? 

We will look at Martha’s response next week. What will yours be?

I think I have a headache!

Debbie

The Sweetest Word Award

As we return to our study of John 11, we can recall that Martha and Mary were in the midst of a crisis. Their brother, Lazarus, had become seriously ill, and the two dear sisters wisely sent for Jesus.  In “The Most Puzzling Award” segment, we discussed His purpose for delaying his journey to Bethany to meet this need.  In this segment, Jesus finally arrives in Bethany—too late--Lazarus had already died.  

The initial response of these two sisters held true to form to what was discussed in our Luke 10 study. Martha was stressed and overwhelmed. She took action and went straight to Jesus. Mary stayed still. The question now arises. Did Martha learn anything from her previous encounter with her Lord?  With the use of one little word, we see that truly, she had! Let’s look at the events of John 11:20-22.

Martha ran to Jesus and poured out her heart and poured out her grief. She cried, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died!”  However, I don’t sense the anger that she had demonstrated in Luke 10. Instead, I sense her heart-felt grief. Pain filled her heart and she was crying out to her Lord. Just like in John 11:3, she went straight to Jesus. As discussed earlier, there is no better place to go in such a time of need. 

There is nothing wrong with crying out to the Lord in grief. There is nothing wrong with expressing the confusion of “Lord, I don’t get it!” or “Why is this happening?” or “Lord, how can this be good?” Remember, pain and confusion of “Your Life is a Tapestry”? That is why God gave us verses such as Romans 8:26-27. Sometimes, we just don’t know how to respond. What is important, however, is that we conclude those heart wrenching prayers as Martha did~~with one more word-one more little word!

As a side note here, I recall a terrible incident that took place in the Dallas area back in the late 80s. A group of teens returning from summer youth camp was drowned in a flash flood accident. My heart was broken (as my husband was away at a different youth camp at the time).  I followed the details closely on the news for the next few days. One sad thing I will never forget. While the pastor had left for the scene, some grief counselors, I guess from the city, were sent to the church to deal with the families and friends that had gathered. I will never forget one of those counselors telling the people “It is OK to get mad at God. It is OK to shake your fist at Him in anger…” That is NOT what I am saying! This type of response does not lead to that one more word!

The Switch-a-roo Award that I presented to Martha in the John 11 Awards segment can be seen in Martha’s use of that one small word that she didn’t use in Luke 10! It is one very small word that I have dubbed “The Sweetest Word”.  It only has three letters. It is used as a conjunction that connects two thoughts in antithesis in an effort to create an opposing thought. Scripture uses the word hundreds, if not thousands, of times to demonstrate the "oppositeness" of God’s ways and man’s ways. For example, ‘man does such and such, but God…’ or, ‘God says such and such, but man…”, or, as it is used in in this John passage, "Lord, 'I don't get it', but..."  That one, most important, extra word~~BUT! 

In the midst of her grief and sadness-in the midst of her crisis, Martha said that one word of surrender, “BUT”. With that one little word she expressed confidence in Jesus’ decision to wait. She expressed her confidence in His plan and purpose for her life. 

Instead of the anger and accusations she fired out in Luke 10, she is now calling out in surrender, “Lord, I don’t get it, BUT, I know…”  We will pick up with the continuation of this thought next time!

How sweet that one little word must have sounded to Jesus! How sweet that one little word must be to God when He hears it from us used in that way. It is a word of surrender and trust!

Psalm 19:14

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.

Let one of those words be the word ‘BUT.’

A Final Look at the word "OVERWHELMED"

I trust you are enjoying our little word study on the Whelm “triplets”- whelm, overwhelm, and underwhelm! I trust it is not underwhelming, and that you are not overwhelmed by the stresses of life!

I thought I would just add a couple of additional and interesting tidbits from the Book of Psalms before returning to John 11. The basic theme of these additional usages is basically the same, so we won’t necessarily go into an in depth study of those particular passages. (For more information on the use of overwhelm in Psalm 61, please view my previous blog from March 28.) However, there are some things that stand out that I would like to share with you.

Remember, our John 11 study took a detour when I had some wild thoughts about the word families revolving around the base whelm. After some research, we found we could use overwhelm to describe Martha and Mary while they were facing some serious circumstances and trials. They were overwhelmed! They wondered if Christ truly cared.  I trust after reading the previous segments on that topic, you have come to the conclusion that YES, He truly does care.   

Psalm 77:3 uses the word ‘overwhelm’ in the same general way as it was used in chapter 61. Asaph’s spirit was overwhelmed. He even admitted that the more he complained, the more overwhelmed he became. He even asked, as Martha did, “Lord, don’t you care?” in verse 7-9. Then, he answered his own question in verses 10-15 and stated, “But I will remember…” Now, I would like you to take note of verse 16~~so cool!  “The waters saw YOU, O God: The waters saw You, they were afraid.” Isn’t that a neat throw back to the word overwhelm?  Remember, the definition? 

OVERWHELM:  To submerge or engulf-usually with disastrous results.

Asaph continued this same thought when, after he remembered all  that the Lord had done, he metaphorically stated that the very “waters” that overwhelmed him actually feared God! When the pieces are fit together, we can see that feeling overwhelmed is basically a waste of time.  

As we continue to look at the word ‘overwhelm’ in the book of Psalms, let’s also check out Psalm 124. Notice how it begins. 

"If it had not been the LORD who was on our side…" (notice that David repeats that phrase twice in the first two verses). 

Now, skip down to verses  4-5, 

"…THEN the waters would have overwhelmed us, the stream would have gone over our soul…."

David then concluded this Psalm (Verse 8) with the following:

"Our help is in the name of the LORD, Who made heaven and earth."

David used the same concept in Psalm 143. He is overwhelmed. He cried unto the Lord in prayer. He remembered God’s promises and faithfulness. He praised the Lord! 

What a pattern for each of us to follow when our circumstances, responsibilities, and burdens seem to overwhelm us!

Remember, “The waters saw You, O God: The waters saw You, they were afraid.”

Follow David’s pattern! The Lord DOES care!

Debbie