"Whosoever Must!"

"If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right shall hold me." (Psalms 139:9-10)

  Forgive me if I press any buttons or wrinkle any feathers; but this might either offend or mend, I pray that it mends! My heart gets broken when I see brothers and sisters that think God no longer loves them for something they might have done; what a waste of such a great testimony to God's redemptive power and His glory. Matthew Henry ends his commentary on these two verses by saying, "God soon arrested Jonah when he fled to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord." Well, the first mistake Jonah made was thinking he could flee from God's presence; his second was thinking that God might be done with him, because of his rebellion. I like the word that Matthew Henry uses to describe God's grip on Jonah, the word, "arrested," which is pretty much a blend of the two words, "lead" and "hold." Lead speaks of transporting or guiding, as in to govern someone; and hold speaks of take hold of or to seize, and in to be caught and held in possession. If there is one thing that I have learned in these last 38 years of my life, is the fact that God does not let go! If you think He is done with you, think again, because once you are His property, you are His for eternity! Basically, that is the point of this title today, which was pretty much the reason for those highlighted words in the post from yesterday; "must" and "whosoever". There is just no other way to put this, but to say with great assurance: If you are a Whosoever, then you Must trust God! Trust Him to lead you and trust Him that He holds you! Even if you mess up terribly and cannot see any reason for Him to still care about you, let alone use you, you have got to remember that no one will treat you better or love you more! A few people I know come to mind right now, and I pray that God somehow speaks into their lives. If you think this is about you, you have got to think again; even if this is about you, your mistakes in life are God's opportunities to shine! It is about His glory, not ours; we, as Paul so graciously says, "But for thy sake we are killed all the day long!" It is all about: Less of me and more of Him...

"Can anything ever separate us from Christ's love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, "For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.") No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, neither angels or demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow -not even the power of hell can separate us from God's love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below -indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:35-39) NLT