Skip to main content

Special Deliverer


And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.  (Romans 11:26) 

          How often do you long for a "knight in shining armor" to come and rescue you from whatever it is you wish to escape? Some people might call this immature romanticism, but I suspect there is part of each one of us that recognizes a deep-seated need for deliverance. That's why people react so strongly in politics. Candidates promise to deliver us from _________. If the wrong person is elected, those hopes and dreams are dashed. If the right person is elected, chances are those hopes and dreams are dashed because the delivery delivered doesn't turn out to be the delivery we thought we were getting. Our "happily ever after" dissolves into disillusionment. 
      In my own case, I can tell you that in my last job, there were many days when I felt incapable of doing more than standing with my arms folded and saying "Please, God. Please, God." His delivery of me from that job has done wonders, but it has also put me in a much smaller space. Much of the torture is gone, but so is the money. Minimal as my income was, it was many times more than I am getting now. I am still praying for deliverance in the form of a best-selling book. (Uh-huh.) 
         Today's verse is part of a passage dealing with God's apparent rejection of Israel. They had the same problem. They wanted God to deliver them from godlessness by freeing them from their oppressors. God's idea was to deliver them from their own godlessness, often through their oppression. That is the reality of much of our deliverance. It isn't deliverance from, it's deliverance through. "Beam me up, Scotty," is often our cry, but God is looking for and making heroes, not victims and not escape artists.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Prayer Lists

                 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. (I Peter 2:2-3)   In connection with what I wrote yesterday about the possibility that I’m wrong, I’m feeling the need to go back to basics - craving spiritual milk because somehow, I missed something. It’s a little embarrassing, craving milk like a newborn, but the truth probably is that we are newborns many times in many ways in our lives. From God’s perspective, we may never be anything more than newborns, forever needing that milk. On the other hand, being a newborn can also be exciting because so much is new. My mind is playing pinball - ricocheting from one idea to the next and through six more before it happens to hit the third again. The main topic is prayer. I have at least seven organizing structures all somewhat influenced by the movie War Room , which I’v...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Way, The Truth, and The Life

              Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me . (John 14:6)           If “I am the gate of the sheep…I am the good shepherd” from chapter 10 is a double whammy, this verse is a triple whammy. And its first victim is the notion that any other so-called god was acceptable or the same as Jesus. He, and He alone is the way, the truth, and the life, and the only way to get to the Father. There is no other Savior, or Redeemer, according to Jesus. Now, to be fair, other religions will claim that their religion or god(s) are the only way. That is the nature of gods and of religions. If this and that are equally good and agree on what’s necessary, then this and that are the same thing, so there’s no need to from the other to one. If that’s the case, then why speak against the other or promote the one? There’s a song I’ve been listening to i...
Post a Comment
Read more