30 Days with the Word – Jan 14
30 Days with THE WORD
January 14th, 2021
John 1:1-2, ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. He (the Word) was in the beginning with God (NKJV).’
I assume I was like most kids when I was growing up…if Mom said ‘No’, go ask Dad, and cross your fingers and toes that he didn’t say something like, ‘Did you ask your mother, and if so, what did she say?’ or worse yet, simply, ‘Go ask your mother; whatever she says is fine with me.’ It was like a little game, huh? You played it too? Especially if I replied, ‘She said its fine if it’s okay with you. So…can I go?’ again, with fingers and toes and even hairs crossed this time. Always knowing that by the time I got home my parents would have discussed the fact that true permission was never granted, and unequivocally, there would always be a consequence to my game-playing.
Eventually I learned. It just wasn’t worth it. If one governing power said ‘No’, consider the consequences when the other governing power found out the request had already been denied by the other governing power. But one time there was a party, a ‘woodsy’, no less, I so badly wanted to attend. ‘EVERYONE that is SOMEONE is going to be there, Mom, at this special event; com’on, Mom!’ She wavered, and I moved in for the kill. (Of course, I didn’t tell her it was actually a party and it was to be held in the woods and overnight. That’s how badly I wanted to attend!) Then she said, ‘I suppose it’s okay for you to go as long as your father is agreeable.’ But, you know what? HE SAID ‘NO’! I was devastated. I was MAD, even. I moped all evening, hidden in my room, refusing to come out and be social, refusing even to eat. I acted like a … teenager! Like, I’ll just punish you and starve myself because you won’t give me my way!
Something happened though that I learned about the next morning. (It was before the days of cell phones.) The vehicle I would have been traveling in with my friends to that party in the woods the night before had taken a curve too fast on a dirt road, and rolling multiple times, had thrown one of our friends from the vehicle, killing him instantly and injuring everyone else in the car. My dad shared with me later that he had been struck with a foreboding at the time I requested to go just as he was prepared to grant his approval. The chills that traveled the length of my body I have never forgotten.
2 Corinthians 1:20-22 says, ‘Whatever God has promised gets stamped with the Yes of Jesus. In Him, this is what we preach and pray, the great Amen, God’s Yes and our Yes together, gloriously evident. God affirms us, making us a sure thing in Christ, putting His Yes within us. By His Spirit He has stamped us with His eternal pledge—a sure beginning of what is destined to complete.’ We have a Father in heaven Who has an emphatic Yes, His stamp of approval, for His children. And we can be assured that God’s Yes for us is with our best interests at the center of His beating heart. After all, He sent His only Son to die a criminal’s death on a cross for restitution of our wayward desires, like woodsy parties in the middle of the night that end in calamity. And we can be assured, our Heavenly Father will have foreboding toward any Yes that is not of eternal value for you and me because He sees the end long before we even see the beginning; because He knows what is in the hearts of man and those desires that outthink the consequences and realities of our choices. But, in Christ, every Amen has been well-dressed with the Yes of a good, good Father for the benefit of the child He loves so much; His affirmation…and what a beautiful thing to have: God’s affirmation of me!
