John 11:22 "Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You."

Lazarus had died and his grieving sister, Martha confronted Christ asking why He was not there. If Jesus had come earlier, beloved Lazarus would not have died. If she had stopped there, it would have been normal. Jesus could have healed Lazarus and stopped the sickness, but now Jesus is too late because Lazarus is dead. Yet Martha follows up her comment with a statement of great faith. “Even now I know that whatever you ask of God, He will give you.” She – the workaholic, the one who was a perfectionist, who berated her sister, Mary, for sitting at Jesus feet rather than clean and care for the guests – had complete faith that Christ was in control of everything. Later on in John 16:23-24 Jesus tells his disciples that whatever they ask of Father God in Christ’s name, it will be so. He gave them (and us) this same privilege that He had. He held nothing back, not His life, not His blood, not His relationship with God, not His status of Son of God!

How is it that Christ had such great control? How is it that everything Christ asked God for came? It is because Jesus Christ knew the Father. Jesus was in tune with God’s good and perfect holy will. God does not grant us every request we pray or ask for because not every request is good for us. Not everything we ask for is in God’s will for our lives. If we ask for anything while completely submerged in God’s will then it shall happen!

Jesus knew God’s will, the Father’s desires, intimately because Jesus spent time with our blessed Father. Because Jesus was immersed in God, everything Jesus desired began as God our Father’s desire!

How then can we know the Father better? How can we too be not just at the whim of His will, but immersed completely in it – to the point that we begin to understand it?

We too must spend time with God. We must study His word. We must study Christ. We must live and apply the word, we must live and apply Christ! If we say that there is only Christ, that He is our all, then why do we not act like it? Should Christ be our all, how then can we fall, stumble, fail, even sin? We are human. This is no excuse. We fall because we spend less time with God than we should. The less time we spend immersed in God, the more time we have to get ourselves in trouble through the flesh! We stop trying to know Him further and thus we loose our harmony with Him.

When we are living wholly in Christ. When we completely allow God’s desires to overcome us and overwhelm us, then all we ask for shall be granted because it is entirely from God!

God is our doting Father, Jesus is the beloved Son; we too are privileged to be called sons and daughters of Christ. We are therefore siblings of Christ! Let us therefore with all effort hasten to attempt to completely immerse ourselves in God, no matter the worldly cost.

MAY I speak each day according to Thy justice,
Each day may I show Thy chastening, O God;
May I speak each day according to Thy wisdom,
Each day and night may I be at peace with Thee.

John 13:10 “Jesus said to him, ‘He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.’”

Most people know what a piston is, at least in terms of vehicles and engines. However pistons are also used in hydraulic systems as well. One type of an accumulator (a device that stores and balances/dampens hydraulic fluid and actions) uses a piston that moves relative to the pressure or content of the fluid.

What does a mechanical term like accumulator have to do with us? We as humans are similar to a “spiritual accumulator.” We are a combination of God and the world. If God is fully our focus, then the world cannot be. Also if the world is entirely our focus, our thoughts, our desires, then God will not be. Our bodies, our spiritual accumulator is what we focus on. The more we focus on God, the more the world is shoved out and replaced with God, the less we focus on Christ and the more we allow the world in, the less of God there is.

How does this compare then to the verse? In 1 John, we learn the very basic good news, in verses 7 through 9, we are told (as backed up in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, Corinthians, James, and Hebrews) that Christ’s blood washes away our sins and cleanses us. We are then clean of all sin, of all the world. We have been forgiven. Our “spiritual accumulator” is set to allow God in. We start studying and learning and God fills us and infuses us, yet after awhile, we start to loose focus on Christ. We start to let the world back in. It is a gradual thing. We watch more and more television, we read magazines, we talk to people, good people (Christians some of them), and start to loose our primary focus on God. We let the world in, and God starts to be shoved around and moved out.

I do not say that we are no longer Christians, that we are no longer washed by the blood, but rather we are drawing away from God, slowly and gradually. At some point in all of this we must realize that we are slowly pushing God out of our lives with things of the world, good things though they may be. At this point we need to draw close to God. We need to be cleansed of all unrighteousness.

Since we have already been washed in the blood, why then should we clean again? Why should we try and re-cleanse ourselves in the blood. How can Christ die again for us (as Paul puts it)? We are stained pure, and must merely remove the dust of this world from our feet. We need to again make Christ our focus.

We no longer need a mediator to approach the throne of God for us; no longer do we need to be ceremonially clean. We have assurance to enter the Holy Place by the very blood of Jesus (Hebrews 10:19) and we are able to approach God, no matter how much mud we track in, how, much sin we find ourselves in. We can approach the Almighty with the assurance of faith and request Christ to cleanse us, to wash our feet and remove our unrighteousness again. Our hearts and evil conscience will be cleaned and purified (Hebrews 10:22).

There is no wrong in knowing the world or dealing with it. Christ himself worked with those whom society deemed untouchable and evil. We must remember that also like Christ, we must continually focus on God and His word.

The world must leave and Christ again be the focus of our hearts. This spring, let us allow Christ to spring clean us. Let our “spiritual accumulator” be full of Him and the knowledge of Him.

What in our lives detracts from God? Let us together pray Psalm 51:2 and 10 this week.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity And cleanse me from my sin.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Romans 8:28 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

One of my professors tells this story of when he was working in the aviation industry: It was a cold winter day and at this aircraft repair facility, work was going on as usual. An aircraft sitting out on the ramp needed something done, and so one of the mechanics was dispatched out to the aircraft, but this mechanic needed his tools, so he grabbed his tool box, an 80 lb red tool box that he then carried out to the aircraft. Between this mechanic and the airplane however, was a patch of ice that no one knew about. The mechanic stepped onto the ice and of course slipped. The tool box also came down, right on top of the mechanic’s stomach. The weight of the toolbox assisted with gravity managed to drive the toolbox down until it touched the man’s spine and yet none of the man’s internal organs were damaged! The toolbox had landed on his spine.

The man, lying on the ground has a family to feed, house payments to make, car payments, the whole gamut. What a disaster!

But God works everything out. As long as we put our faith in God and trust Him to know best, things tend to work out. In all things God has a plan. God had a plan for Joseph when he was thrown into the pit and sold into slavery. God had a plan for David when he was on the run from Saul. God knew what he was doing when Daniel was taken from his home and had to work for the king. God knew Esther and what she would go through. God knew about the blind man, born blind from birth. God even had a plan for Peter and his night of apostasy!

How amazing is this that our God not only lets us make our own mistakes, but already has a plan to use those same mistakes to bring further glory to him! If Jonah had not run from God, we would not have that book in the Bible. If Saul of Tarsus had not tried to destroy the early Christians, we would not have him as an example of how God can change a person!

One of my friends was feeling sad. He was up in the early hours of the morning and happened to see outside not more than 3 feet before his face a small bird struggling with a worm, trying to get breakfast. At that moment, my friend was reminded of Matthew 6:26-30 and he was relieved and joyful.

Awesome and Mighty is our God, the Lord of the starry hosts, who knows even the ants by name, and uses the birds and worms to His glory!

This mechanic who had the toolbox fall on him was to go into surgery for back problems the next week. Already he had a bad back, and yet, the way the toolbox fell, it landed with such precision that it fixed his back and surgery was unnecessary! The doctors were amazed as were the co-workers. This man has not had major back problems since. Truly God does work in strange ways. He does turn the worst of events to His glory!

Where is God working in our life? Where is the opening for His glory to shine? While it may not be as big as a toolbox landing on you and curing you, He is working in you to bring Himself glory. Let us therefore allow God’s glory to shine in all events for we do not know how or why He is working, we just know that he is working.

To God be the glory for ever and ever Amen.

Zechariah 12:1 “The burden of the word of the LORD concerning Israel. Thus declares the LORD who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him,”

I have a Bonsai tree that I take care of. This tree requires much attention for it to live and survive, unlike normal houseplants, not only do I have to water it, I also need to use the correct fertilizer. Every couple years, this plant needs to be removed from its current pot and moved to a larger pot (for the first decade or so) and re-soiled. I need to trim the tree every couple of months, at the correct time of the tree’s development. The biggest thing about Bonsai Trees however is that I need to form each branch how I want it to go. This means that I wrap wire around the branches at the correct points and apply a certain pressure to ensure that the branch slowly moves to where I want it to go, but I can not let the tree grow into the wire.

A couple weeks ago, I made an error. I left the Bonsai alone, without attention. After all I had removed the last of the forming wires for that side, and was waiting another branch’s development to wire it. I however, had left the Bonsai next to my drying rack for my dishes, and sometime prior to that the tree had been moved close enough to a mug in next to the drying rack that the mug applied a force to one side of my tree and reformed the branches into a cup shaped indentation. Because I only water my Bonsai once a week, I did not catch the movement and reforming of the branches. When I realized that my tree was malformed, I now have to start forming those branches, and it will be harder now than it was earlier because these branches are set in their way.

To fix this tree I am going to have to apply a harder force than previously to the branches and I am going to need to prune more than I wanted to. I am going to need to apply a lot of pressure and use more wire. In the process the tree is going to ache and groan and creak as the branches are forced to move where I want them to be.

God made everything. He created the Universe and he made the Earth. But the greatest work that God does is to form the very inside of men should we allow it. Unlike me, God - the Almighty Gardener, the great potter, the very creator of man - always pays attention to everything we do, but He will only work in us when we allow Him. God forms and shapes the very core of our nature to conform to Him. Much like I have a predetermined shape for my tree, God has a pre-determined shape for our lives, our soul, our spirit. God’s shape for us is that of Christ Jesus (Phil 2:5). The God who made this universe and all its wonders cares more about us than about anything else. Do we conform to the world as my tree did to the cup? Should we not allow God to conform us to Him and His holy son?

Remember that it is God who is at work in us, For His glory and good pleasure. (Phil 2:13)

Take my heart and form it
Take my mind , transform it
Take my will , conform it
To Yours, to Yours, Oh Lord.
To Yours, to Yours, Oh Lord.