DOES JESUS CARE?
“Does Jesus care when I’ve said goodbye to the dearest on earth to me? And my sad heart aches till it nearly breaks – – Is it aught to Him? Does He see?”
When J. Lincoln Hall penned these words in the great hymn, “Does Jesus Care,” he verbalized what so many of us feel at the loss of a loved one. Why did a loving God allow this? Does He care how I feel?
David answers, YES! In Psalms 68:19-20, “Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears us up; God is our salvation. Our God is a God of salvation, and to GOD, the Lord, belong deliverances from death.” (ESV)
As David recognized, God does care about our feelings. When we hurt, He hurts with us. When we are in distress, He outpours His infinite love and compassion upon us as a salve to our souls.
Our God knows and cares how we feel and is always a prayer away. He knows what it is like to lose a child. He stood back and watched evil men drive nails into the outstretched arms of His Son. He saw wicked men spit upon him and cursed His Holy name. Surely His heart was breaking when His Son cried out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46).
The reply to the question of the aforementioned song comes in the chorus which exclaims, “O yes, He cares; When the days are weary, the long nights dreary, I know my Savior cares. He cares.”
Outside our door is a world of lost and dying people. People who are facing death and tragedy without the hope the Christian has. Please reach out this week and share the wonderful news about Jesus. Let those lost and hurting souls around you know that, indeed, Jesus cares.”
Via Saks church of Christ
HE HAD NO RIGHTS
NO RIGHT to a soft bed, and a well laid table;
NO RIGHT to a home of His own, a place where His own pleasure might be sought;
NO RIGHT to choose pleasure, congenial companions, those who could understand Him and sympathize with Him;
NO RIGHT to shrink away from filth and sin, to pull His garments closer around Him and turn aside to cleaner paths;
NO RIGHT to be understood and appreciated; no, not even by those upon whom He had poured out a double portion of His love;
NO RIGHT to be forsaken by His Father, the One who meant more than all to Him.
HIS ONLY RIGHT was silently to endure shame, spitting, and blows to take my place as a sinner at the dock; to bear my sins in anguish on the cross.
HE HAD NO RIGHTS! AND I?
A right to the “comforts “of life? No, but a right to the love of God for my pillow.
A right to physical safety? No, but a right to the security of being in His Will.
A right to love and sympathy from those around me? No, but a right to the friendship of the One who understands me better than I do myself.
A right to be a leader among men? No, but the right to be led by the One to whom I have given my all, led as a little child, with his hand in the hand of his Father.
A right to a home and dear ones? No not necessarily; but a right to dwell in the heart of God.
A right to myself?
No, but Oh, I have a right to Christ. All that he takes I will give; All that he gives I will take; He, my only right! He, the one right before which all other rights fade into nothingness.
I have full right to Him; Oh, may He have full right to me!
Mabel Williamson, FORREST PARK church of Christ July 28, 1988
THE MAN WHO OBEYED
Jesus’ obedience to the will of His Father in heaven was absolute and total. When we look at the crucified Savior, we are looking at obedience such as no man has ever come close to achieving.
Because we know the story, some Christians, sadly, are apt to think His obedience was easy. “Well,” they reason, “He knew in advance that he would arise victorious from the grave, even while he was plunging even deeper into the depth of agony. He knew He was walking a road that would ultimately lead to glory.” Thus, they tend to discount the reality of His suffering. But if suffering was necessary in order that Jesus might become the Perfect Savior, then we must acknowledge the reality of that suffering.
He was always the Perfect Son of the Perfect God, but He became the Perfect Savior only through suffering. So, as we observe the perfectly obedient Savior giving Himself TOTALLY for the sins of man, we are, ourselves, called to obedience. No single factor has held this hate and war-torn world of ours together more than the efforts of Christians everywhere to live as Christ would have us live.
At Gethsemane He prayed that the cup might pass. When it could not, he uttered the prayer that has made Gethsemane the world’s shrine, “. . . not as I will, but as you will. . . (Matthew 26:39). Thus was the victory won, for Him and for us.
Via East Brainerd church of Christ