All Saints
Isaiah tells
us: 25:9 “It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited
for him, so that he might save us. This is the LORD for whom we have waited;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
My question
is; Do we still trust in God to save us?
We are
living in perilous times and many think that surely the end times are near and
Jesus will return soon. He well may – We
don’t know, but it has been pointed out to me recently that in every generation
there are times so perilous that people think, “surely this is the end
times”. The point was made though, that
these times happen as an act of the enemy to mimic those times to throw us into
turmoil. We certainly are in turmoil.
But the
question remains; Do we still trust in God to save us?
Not so long
ago I attended a Bible study and the topic was, Lord I believe, help my
unbelief”. Most of us felt a bit weird
about it because we were all people of faith who believe in God and it took
some digging and the bringing down of walls to realize, that although we all
totally have faith in God, we all have areas where our actions show that we
don’t believe.
Let me give
you an example. I was heading to a
meeting with an email from one member laying heavy on my heart. It felt like the sentiments in it were all
wrong. I was disheartened and feeling
like I’m always the one who addresses things…. I felt, if I don’t stand up
against it, no one will. I imagined that
this was work that I needed to do and didn’t imagine that God would intervene
for me though I did pray….. Fortunately,
I’d already been attending the Bible study and recognized my area of
unbelief. Why wouldn’t God intervene –
why did I imagine it was all up to me?
And God showed me mightily that he is happy to care for all our
concerns…. Be it big matters or small.
Having lost
a husband to cancer, whose birthday was coincidentally All Saints day, I found
that I struggled for a long time and probably still do, to pray for those who
are seriously ill. I have an area of
unbelief. I am betting that I’m not
alone here. I am working through it
still…. How are you going?
What I
tended to do was somewhere between putting my head in the sand and denying the
gravity of illnesses, and praying, but thinking, “Oh well… God’s will be
done”. God’s will, will be done, but do
we realize how much God cares for our cares?
Also, God gave us life to begin with.
His desire is for us to have life and have it in abundance. I believe there are two examples of major
answers to prayer that I can share to encourage you;
A committee
member of Mackay Street Chaplaincy was diagnosed about this time last year with
two large brain tumours. They are
aggressive cancers. We have been
praying. A small group meet at the
Street Chaplaincy premise on Wednesdays at 11:30am until 12. Just a short time, but we encourage each
other that God does care for our well-being.
Our Chaplaincy member, although still living with the cancer, is now so
well that he is caving, abseiling and winning table tennis competitions. We believe that this is God’s gracious answer
to our prayer. There may be a time
sooner or later that God will decide it is time to take Steven, but until then
we give thanks for this miracle.
The second
example that I’d like to share is of my Aunt.
This one hurts a little. Not just
my Aunt, but my Dad’s twin sister. She
passed away two weeks ago and her funeral was one week ago. Why I want to speak about this is that I had
been told she was unwell and it wasn’t until my Mum suggested that I go to see
her that I realized how serious the situation was. It was then that I came home and seriously prayed. I felt a sense of peace and a couple of days
later I found out that she surprised all the medical staff with being so well
that she came out of hospital. It wasn’t
just my prayers that were answered…she had many praying for her as she was a
devout Christian, known to many.
During the
eulogy my cousin shared that they all believed this time out of hospital to be
a miraculous answer to prayer. She went
back to hospital and she was ready. Her
funeral was a testament to her faith and a declaration of God’s victory over
death. The songs she chose had these words… “the joy I have today my Lord, is
only a shadow of your joy for me…. When we meet face to face.”
There are
many beliefs about All souls and All Saints days. It was recently pointed out to me that there
used to be a belief that the line between the spiritual realm and physical
realm was thinner on the eve of All Saints day.
From the
web: “Halloween is considered by many
to be the only time of year that spirits can roam the earth. From Samhain to
Mexico’s Day of the Dead, world cultures celebrate the belief that at this time
of year, the veil between this world and the next is particularly thin and
ancestors are held close.”
Following on
in the same article was information about the ancient Christian tradition: ““Allhallowtide,” the triduum of
Halloween, recalls deceased spirits, saints (hallows) and martyrs alike, in one
collective commemoration. The word Halloween is of Christian origin, and many Christians
visit graveyards during this time to pray and place flowers and candles at the
graves of their deceased loved ones. The two days following All Hallows
Eve—Hallowmas, or All Saints’ Day, and All Souls’ Day—pay homage to the souls
that Christians believe are now with God. In medieval England, Christians went
“souling” on Halloween, begging for soul cakes in exchange for prayers in local
churches.”
I feel that
I need to clarify the reality from the superstition – The wall between the
spiritual realm and physical is always thin.
Do we not realize that we have God’s Holy Spirit with us? We pray because there is a spiritual realm
impacting us constantly and because we have free will, God requires our prayers
to enable his will. A few months before
Brittany was even pregnant, I very strongly felt God urging me to pray for my
Grandchild. Why? Why would he ask me to pray? God wills good things for us all, but needs
us to give him permission. We do this in
prayer and our prayers, powerful in the spirit realm see their fulfillment in
the physical.
I was
brought up Catholic and with the idea that we are not worthy of God. For this reason we and our loved ones who’d
passed is who we associated with All Souls day and we would be urged to pray for
those people who had died. As an adult
who went on to actually read the Bible however, I need to reassure you that you
and I, who have given our hearts to God, who choose to be known as his children
and identify as Christian, we are who God calls Saints. In fact this is the way that the Bible
describes it also…. Do you recall Paul addressing his letters to the Saints in
a particular church? That is because a
Saint is a Christian… a disciple of Christ.
Psalm 24
tells us: “ Who shall ascend the hill
of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place? Those who have clean hands and pure hearts,
who do not lift up their souls to what is false, and do not swear deceitfully. They will receive blessing from the LORD, and
vindication from the God of their salvation.”
To be
perfect enough for God is a tall order. None
of us can really achieve it and we need to understand this in order to properly
understand the Gospel message… the Good News.
We first need to know that bad news.
NONE of us can achieve God’s level of righteousness. We know that we really are not worthy of that
term, “Saint”, but the thing is…. Jesus makes us worthy…. Not by anything that
we do but by his sacrifice on the cross for us… Hebrews 10:14 tells us; “because
by a single offering He has made perfect for all time those who are being
sanctified.” This is what Jesus Christ
accomplished for us and why we call this way, GOOD NEWS.
Revelation
21 tells us: “And I heard a loud
voice from the throne saying, "See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself
will be with them; ..”
Inside of us
we may cringe just a little. We know us
and we know our failings… how can we claim to be Saints?... I guess it is a bit
like the story in the Gospel.
In that
grave was Lazarus. Mary believed that
Jesus was the Messiah and could have prevented his dying, but now that he was dead,
she simply wept. And Jesus feeling her
pain as his own wept too. It is
important for us to realize how deeply we are loved and how God cares for every
tear we shed.
Also from
our Revelation reading….”he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will
be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things
have passed away."
Jesus called
Lazarus to come out. He told them to
move the stone. They objected that there
would be a smell.
We feel that
too… that if we let down our guard our areas of unbelief will be exposed and
our failings will be exposes and we cringe a little – or a lot- inside at the thought of them…. But the Good News is that Jesus brings
life. The death and disease is gone and
Lazarus is restored to life. When we
come to Jesus his sacrifice makes perfect us who are being sanctified.
Where is our
faith in at in this time? Are we hiding
our fears, failing and lack of faith in a deep grave within us? Give them to God. He has victory over disease and death… we
know, Like Mary, we do have faith that we will rise on the last day – but note
that Jesus is the resurrection and the LIFE and just like in the Gospel story, Jesus
has concern and a plan for our lives, here and now!
Arise
Saints of God…. A mighty
army to bring about God’s will on earth… this is who you are.
Roll the
stone away and give all you’ve hidden in the grave recesses of your heart to God
– You are HIS Saint who Christ died for so that there could be nothing
separating you from God. He is wanting your permission to act on your
behalf…. Let him – you were born for such a time as this.
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