Who am I?
I’m God’s man.
How do I know?
Because He tells me so and shows me in every way, especially in times when I am deaf and blind.
Deaf and blind? What do I mean?
Come on, you know: There are days and times and circumstances – and sadly, I must say, not always few either – when I close my eyes and my ears and act as if I don’t know God.
Why would I ever want to do that if I am God’s man?
I do that because there is in me, as there is in all of us, an inherent weakness that sparks us to go against God.
And that weakness in us is constantly played upon, massaged and stroked by an ever present and most resourcefully evil force.
We all know that force too. He’s Satan, the devil who wants to be our God.
But pointing at him and saying, “He made me do it,” is no excuse for anyone, especially those of us who count ourselves as God’s men and women.
That’s because we have powerful weapons that strengthen us and guide us – Jesus and the Holy Spirit, who holds His place here for us until the Day of Judgement.
So who is Jesus?
Ah, come on: Jesus is the Son of God, who laid down His life in the greatest sacrifice known to man so that we can have eternal life with God.
Amen, God’s allowing His Son’s sacrifice and Jesus’ going through with great suffering and the giving up of His life unquestionably displayed great divine love for all of us.
So again, knowing all of that, understanding all of that which is  revealed throughout the Scriptures, why would I, how could I ignore and disobey God?
No matter how many times I’m asked that question or how many ways it’s put to me, ‘I can only say: sometimes I’m weak; sometimes I’m dumb; sometimes I’m weak and dumb.’
Okay, okay, I’m persuaded that now is as good a time as ever to reveal what this has been about.
More than three decades ago as a babe in Christ, I’d become filled with self-loathing for often succumbing to some of my life’s temptations.
I’d silently beat myself up about it.
That was until, through daily study, prayer and comradery with the saints, I came to accept that I am going to make human mistakes, but through Jesus, God forgives me for all of them.
I also eventually discovered, in my Christian infancy, that I’d seem to refocus on the Lord more quickly when I allow the inner voices of my conscience to take me through such mental exercises.
That seems to continue helping even today.
I’m strongly reminded through all of it that Jesus wasn’t wishy-washy when He went to that cross for you and me.
God wasn’t wishy-washy when He allowed His only begotten Son to do that.
So, no matter how weak I may be, if I say I am His man, then I must stand strong and represent Him.
“And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith” (Luke 17:5).

August 25, 2019