Monday, April 24, 2017
Then Gideon said to God, “If you are truly going to use me to rescue
Israel as you promised, prove it to me in this way. I will put a wool fleece on the threshing
floor tonight. If the fleece is wet with
dew in the morning but the ground is dry, then I will know that you are going
to help me rescue Israel as you promised.”
And that is just what happened. When
Gideon got up early the next morning, he squeezed the fleece and wrung out a
whole bowlful of water. Then Gideon said
to God, “Please don’t be angry with me, but let me make one more request. Let me use the fleece for one more test. This time let the fleece remain dry while the
ground around it is wet with dew.” So
that night God did as Gideon asked. The
fleece was dry in the morning, but the ground was covered with dew. Judges 6:36-40(NLT)
But tell me
this—since we preach that Christ rose from the dead, why are some of you saying
there will be no resurrection of the dead?
For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been
raised either. And if Christ has not
been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless. And we apostles would all be lying about
God—for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave. But that can’t be true if there is no
resurrection of the dead. And if there
is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then your
faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins. In that case, all who have died believing in
Christ are lost! And if our hope in
Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the
world. But in fact, Christ has been
raised from the dead. He is the first of
a great harvest of all who have died.
1 Corinthians 15:12-19(NLT)
1 Corinthians 15:12-19(NLT)
Have you
ever wanted to play Gideon;
just ask God to do something miraculous; you know, ground dry-fleece wet, ground
wet- fleece dry?
Don’t feel
too sheepish, I don’t like to admit it either.
Whenever I have either asked, or even thought about asking, the result
has always been a resounding silence from heaven. Later I would realize that the need to ask
for a sign is usually my own insecurity about stepping-out in faith. Yeah – I’m a lot like Gideon; cautious to a
fault! I want to make sure before I trust
God, so, in the middle of this thing called walking by faith, I
want Him to make it plain so I can see it, touch it, and wring out a bowl of
water from my little fleece.
Let me
offer a possible reason why God rarely does that kind of thing:
When God has already spoken clearly, He doesn’t need to repeat it; we just need to take Him at His word and live into it!
And the
most important news God has ever shared with human beings is already spoken in
the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
In the
Gospel accounts Jesus often had to deal with the religious leaders who were
either demanding a miracle to prove he was the Messiah, or those Sadducees who
rolled their eyes at the mention of life after death. On that first Easter morning Jesus answered
both of those questions with one empty tomb.
That is how
God spoke so clearly as to put a period at the end of all sentences. That conversation is now closed forever;
Jesus was, and is, the Messiah, and the life He shares with us will never end!
Clear
enough?
For You Today
It’s
really ok to ask God some questions as long as you’re continuing to walk, and as
long as you’re also willing to trust that, if you don’t hear an answer, it was
one of those questions He’s already got covered.
NOTES
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