But my mouth would encourage you; comfort from my lips would bring you relief.
Job 16:5 (NIV)
| THIS by Cathy Vinson |
Now we have the right. A would-be mountain has now become THIS mountain. The second half of '98 we moved to another town. Soon we found out the concensus of the townspeople: nice town, nice people, nice elementary school and high school, but something is wrong at the junior high. It is like a hell-hole, the innocent enter and leave jaded 3 years later. As it would be, our oldest son was to enter this place as a new incoming fresh 6th grader. Based on rumours and bad reports, we have prayed and been watchful. After a semester is past the truth comes out from his lips, the truth hidden behind his attempted smile or short-worded response of "fine" or "good" as he entered the home at the end of the day. Inwardly he did not feel we would believe him if he told us what it was really like - that we would take it as an exaggeration. The truth comes out that he has been physically pounded on daily without recourse. Yeah, there's grief, a mother's grief for the moments in his experience with no ally and nowhere to turn, waiting for a yet to be matured faith that will usher him into a well-travelled path of release before his God. Jesus said, "Truly I say to you if you have faith and do not doubt..." Doubt (dia-through, krino-to judge) (vs 21:21) means to make a distinction, to contend, to differ. So in these 6 months, have we absorbed a seeming hysteria of this middle school as the stronghold of the town? a temple of idolatry set aside for the worship of a foreign god? Is it like the Gadarene demoniac over there that the townspeople hate year after year yet are impotent to change? Now we have the right to point to "this mountain" because the curse of the rumoured mountain has now scratched our lives, and its grief has now coursed through our veins. AW Tozer pointed out the fact of omnipotence means that God is ALL-powerful. To grasp this means that not one thing is easier or harder for the One who holds ALL power and is the source of it. May no "differing" be upon us in our persuasion of His abilities, no "contending" that this be too hard for Him, no standing as a judge "making the distinction" that any other area of town but this one is for God's domain. Thank you, Lord, for letting us be scratched and by seeing our scratch know where is Your pointed finger, Your mountain to remove, and the faith required to see Your unaffected WHOLE grace and power over every area and situation...having faith and not "doubting" (vs 21). . |
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"but you shall say to THIS mountain..." (Matthew 21:21) |
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