A Light in the Darkness

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God. Mark 10:27             Salvation is difficult. Jesus has just had a conversation about salvation with a rich young ruler. Not only was the young ruler rich, but he had also managed to keep the whole law. He had it all. He appeared the ideal candidate for entry into the Kingdom. The disciples are astonished to see him sent away unable to fulfill the last requirement which is also the greatest. On the outside this man had it all, but on the inside, he was a wretched idolater. He loved something more than he loved Jesus. So that an obviously impossible thing, to fit a camel through the eye of a needle, is more easily accomplished than for the rich young ruler and those like him to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.             How then can anyone enter the Kingdom? It ...

Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Matthew 6:34 ESV             Humans wisdom has its limitations. Even where wisdom might succeed it is frustrated by other aspects of human finitude. That is to say there must and shall come times when we say of necessity, “I do not know what else I might do.” Our unnatural nature of sin, which demands self-reliance as a point of pride, despises such admissions. It is easy to give ourselves over to endless anxiety, and fretting over situations trying to find some way of controlling the outcomes. It is easy to spend today trying to guess what tomorrow will bring in order to be ready for it.             Where wisdom fails faith takes over to give us peace and rest. In faith there is room for love and patience and gentleness which have no home in the...

My tears have been my food   day and night, while they say to me all the day long,   “Where is your God?”   These things I remember,   as I pour out my soul: how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival. Psalm 42:3-4 ESV             “Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away…” Back is often a nice direction to look. The past is clearer, but also tinted in shade of gold and rose. Retrospection can be a dangerous practice because, even the worst parts of it, often appear to keep getting brighter in our minds. We can become like Israel wondering in the wilderness, bound for a promised land, but longing more for the land of slavery and toil. We might be as Lot’s wife looking back on ruin and receiving ruination for our error. We can be deceived into longing for evil things that were simply because they ar...