December 13, 2009

Dear Friend,

At services this Sabbath, I selected special music titled “I Believe.” It has a heart-warming message, but it also echoes a cry that so many in this world today voice as they pray to God as they see Him. They do not really know God except on a superficial level. It is a fact of human nature that the young may not see a need for God, or anyone else, who is involved in how they live. However, as they grow older, face trials and the fact of their mortality, they begin to search for help from a higher level. They may turn to some form of religion or guidance from somewhere and may even look to the “Christ” that they have heard about. That is where preaching the Gospel comes into play. That is why we publish a message of hope and “give.” We see this prayer during the time of Jesus’ physical life and ministry in dealing with an unconverted sinner who needed help. A man brought his child to Christ because His disciples could not heal him asking for mercy for the child. Christ replied, “He answered him and said, "O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to Me." Mark 9:19.  Christ equated unbelief to a lack of faith and belief with the miracles of requested answered prayers. Jesus said to him, "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes." Verse 23. 

Even members of the Body of Christ” may need that reinforcement of the coming Kingdom of God and that God is always with us. We are only human. As we develop into spiritually mature Christians, we go through trials and difficulties, and our faith does wax and wane because we have human nature as well as Spiritual nature. When we fight these battles, we sometime weaken in faith and that is natural in this present life. That is why we must trust and have faith, in our God who will never forsake us or leave us as orphans. We must cry out with the same prayer that this man went through. “Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!" Mark 9:24. There is no shame in turning to God as we go through the trials of life, being prepared to serve in the Kingdom. That is what we should do. We are to develop the God-like character, and as free moral agents, we can only achieve that by testing allowed by God to see what we are made of. He allows this testing to see that we will never rebel against Him once He gives us spiritual, eternal life. We must be humble enough to realize we are not strong enough as physical being to go it alone. We need God’s spiritual help as we are tried as gold going through a fire.

The one thing we must always keep in our minds during trials is that we know we can turn to our Father, and He will always be there for deliverance as He sees fit. “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”  1 Cor 10:13. However, there is a caveat that accompanies this scripture, you cannot depend on self––you must depend on God. “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” 1 Cor 10:12. The lesson we can learn from this story is that we must not think we are stronger than God or that we can do everything without His help. Our strength alone is not sufficient, and we must always rely on our Father. He knows we are weak.

In the service of Christ,

Ronald W. Laughland
Pastor