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Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
In the course of your life and mine, we have probably experienced what I’m calling “Sovereign Tolerance” many times, and today, I invite you to consider with me that this is how God is dealing with our confused, almost out of control world.
If you are a parent or you’ve been a teacher or coach or employer or supervisor, you’ve seen it. Someone has the authority to stop the mayhem, the disobedience, the rebellion, but they don’t. This is what I see God is doing in our day of global turmoil. From Isaiah 40-48 God repeats several times, His claim to be Sovereign over all and yet, in every generation since the days of Adam and Eve, the human race has been in various degrees of ‘out of control’. Today let’s consider a secret available to you and me, for living confident in God’s Sovereignty, while at the same time, living in communities which are in crisis. More than that, I believe you and I can live strategic lives in the midst of the chaos all around us.
Moses’ life changed when God confronted him at a burning bush, as we’ve seen in Exodus 3. God explained that He was deeply concerned for the suffering of His people, and God was involving Himself in their painful mess. As Sovereign, God of course could have done anything He desired, all by Himself, but He chose to involve Moses, strategically, in His deliverance of 1 million Hebrew slaves. That’s what I mean when I say that I believe you and I have the potential to live strategic lives, as engaged by Sovereign God, in the present global chaos.
God’s plan included sending Moses back to confront Pharaoh. Moses was to be God’s spokesman, explaining to Pharaoh the conditions by which God would rescue His people. Moses of course was terrified at the idea, and felt totally inadequate. But God promised “I will be with you.” And when Moses asked God what he should say to the Hebrew slaves when he tried to explain to them who God was and what God had told him, God told Moses “This is what you are to say to the Israelites, I AM has sent you.” (Ex. 3:12-14) This new, almost unpronounceable name for God, essentially means “I AM Sovereign over all things, at all times, in all places, and I will accomplish My purposes.”
The Egyptian Pharaoh thought HE was the Sovereign, after all, he had all authority in Egypt! In many societies, down through history, their powerful leaders have felt the same, some have even been worshiped as gods. Sadly, many people, maybe even most people, want to be sovereign over their own lives. Yet sovereign authority is not inherited through a royal line, nor is it earned on the battlefield, nor is it entrusted at the ballot box, nor when a crown or supreme title is given in honor. Listen to God’s Word: “This is what the Great I AM says – He who created the heavens; He is Sovereign; He who fashioned and made the earth, He did not create it to be empty, but He formed it to be inhabited and He says: I am the LORD, (Sovereign) and there is no other…I the LORD (I AM) speak the TRUTH; I declare what is RIGHT.” (Isaiah 45:18,19)
The CREATOR has Sovereign authority over that which HE creates, especially that which He creates from NOTHING. That’s the story of Genesis 1. God SPOKE into existence that which He desired…our universe and its billions of stars and galaxies. The creation act is miraculous and requires all knowledge (Omniscience) and all power (Omnipotence). The accomplishment of creation entitles the Creator to have Sovereign authority over that which HE creates.
Therefore Creator, Sovereign, God ALONE determines what is TRUTH and what is moral RIGHT and wrong, for all that HE has created!
This, my friends, is the center-point, the cause of all the turmoil and chaos in our world. The created human race daily rejects the Sovereign authority of our Creator! And Sovereign, Almighty God, every day extends to us ‘Sovereign Tolerance‘ (mercy) by not simply ending the existence of anything and everything that rejects His Sovereign Truth and moral Right! Ponder that a moment. . .
When God designed our planet, in His Sovereignty, He designed it uniquely to support human life, and then God designed and created a species of beings, humans, uniquely made in HIS image. Listen again to God: “…you whom I have upheld since you were conceived, and have carried since your birth. Even to your old age and gray hairs I am God who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you. I will sustain you and I will rescue you. To whom will you compare Me…?” (Isaiah 46:3-5) Did you hear God?
Our species, humans, is designed by our Sovereign to exist ONLY in moment by moment dependent relationship with our Creator. We do not keep our hearts beating, our lungs breathing, the blood coursing through our veins carrying oxygen to every cell in our body. Our Sovereign Creator sustains the existence of every human being, that He created, EVERY moment it exists! That’s an intimate relationship between Creator and creation! Therefore the folly, the absurdity of what we see on our TV’s, what we hear all around us. Creation mocking and rejecting the Creator! In an instant the entire human race could die, if God simply withdrew His hand of sustaining our every breath. Now think for a moment about what the Coronavirus does and why the panic for available ventilators.
God, the “Great I AM” ALONE is Sovereign as Creator and Sustainer of all He has created, including you and me!
But there’s more, much more! Listen to God: “And there is no God (Sovereign) apart from Me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none but Me. Turn to Me and be saved, all you ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other.” (Is. 45:21,22) Do you hear God’s declaration that He is a ‘righteous’ Sovereign? That means Holy, sinless, perfect in all His moral right and truth goodness. And further, do you hear God’s declaration that He, our Sovereign, is ALONE capable of saving us, rescuing us from anything? But especially, our Sovereign ALONE can save us from the cancer which consumes and destroys the human soul, and causes us to live wicked, evil, destructive lives here on earth, and will lead us to an eternity of suffering in a place where all wickedness will be contained in one place, called Hell! Only Sovereign God is powerful enough to rescue us from that horrific life and eternal damnation. And do you hear our Sovereign inviting us to turn to Him in RELATIONSHIP!?
And there’s one more thing our Sovereign says to us in Is. 45:23,24 “By myself I have sworn, My mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked: Before me every knee will bow; and by me every tongue will swear. They will say of Me, ‘In the LORD alone are righteousness and strength.’ All who have raged against Him will come to Him and be put to shame…” The Sovereign has decreed the final outcome. Holy Justice will prevail. All creation which has rejected the Sovereign authority of the Creator, will in the end, face the holy judgment of their Sovereign Creator! And the creation which has trusted their Sovereign to be truthful and right, and has responded by faith in His salvation offer and chosen to live in holy relationship with Him, will be eternally rescued to live, both now and eternally, in the miracle life relationship which God alone offers. (John 3:16; 5:24; 10:10)
May I leave you today pondering this thought, my ‘walking with Jesus’ friends? When His disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray He said… “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name.” Can you imagine it… Almighty, Creator, Sovereign, God invites you and me into His family because His Son paid our adoption price with His life! We can consider the Creator our Father, and He views us as His children! Holy, Sovereign God invites us to honor His holy name with our words, attitudes, choices and actions, every day! What a contrast to the chaos we see all around us!
Jesus continued “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” When God’s people pray that and especially when we live this reality, we become spiritually strategic here on earth, as we position ourselves for God to work His purposes in and through us, as He did with Moses! Ponder that!
Now I invite you… all day today let’s focus our attention on what God’s “Sovereign Tolerance” looks like where we spend this day. And then let’s consider the remarkable implications of God’s invitation for you and me to live the day and every day strategically in relationship with Him, our Sovereign, in the mess of our chaotic world!
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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