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JESUS DEFINITELY CARES!

(May 26, 2024) Maureen McQuillan encourages trusting Jesus…

Sadly the past few months have seen further trouble around the world including our ‘Lucky Country’ here. Crime has escalated especially among youth, even those released on bail!

And we learn of friends and ministries who are tired or overworked, wanting to give it all away. Sickness has hit several unexpectedly, even my husband  Robert.

It’s all so sad. But I encouragingly say that Jesus cares… to quote a confident line from a beloved old hymn – ‘Does Jesus care? Oh yes, Jesus cares!’

Now then… I know, I know… I wrote the following back in January, but in these times of desperation even among Christians, I feel to repeat what I wrote before about an incident that hit me out-of-the-blue–

Sadnesses
Yes, there are times in life when Christians may wonder if the Lord has heard our prayers, our cries regarding some serious matter, something that’s gone wrong. The reality is that we just have to keep trusting Him, believing that He has heard us, knows what’s amiss and that the answers we need will come our way, believing – knowing – in our hearts that He cares!

I’ll be honest here, being a Christian doesn’t mean we will always live an unchallenged, carefree life. Yes, we will have a good life, sins forgiven and an assurance that we’re heaven-bound.

But… presently we’re still here and things can go wrong, even to God’s spiritual children! Accidents, sicknesses, disappointments, marriage and family troubles, sudden loss of loved ones, even disasters.

But life is life, and has its ups and downs! Praise God for the good times we have, freedom from many things that go wrong with others, but… bad times could, may, can come our way and sadnesses can hit us. We’re human like everybody else.

Suffering
Take suffering for example. I praise the Lord that I’ve had good health, but an incident – a seeming disaster – hit me some years ago that was out-of-the-blue and really took me by surprise. In preparing for moving home I’d brought a little outdoor table inside to the tiled family room to pack it up, and happened to lean on it. It collapsed backwards and I went stumbling cracking my wrist on the metal. I almost screamed with the immediate fiercesome pain!

Robert, preparing a sermon in his study, heard the crash and rushed in to see what had happened. He was shocked to see a bone was bulging the flesh of my wrist outwards and a huge swelling occurring. Touching my painful wrist so gently, he instantly prayed for a miracle. The bone stopped pressing outwards but the pain was still there. Quickly my husband rushed me to the local hospital.

At triage, when the receptionist asked my doctor’s name and I weakly said that I didn’t have one, hadn’t needed one for many decades, she looked at me disbelievingly! Robert quickly phoned his doctor friend who graciously accepted me as a new patient (and so, after many years I now had a doctor, and a good one!).

To cut this story short, I was to go through some new experiences in trusting the Lord… and knowing yet again that He cares. Although I needed urgent surgery, due to other top priority cases I wasn’t operated on for three days! A painful time of having to rest… and take painkillers! And accept what was going on, knowing I was safe in the Lord’s hands!

The surgeon who operated on my wrist commented that I was in good health for someone who hadn’t needed a doctor for decades. Then he positioned a titanium plate and nine screws in my broken wrist bone to join fractures and to support it. Even today I must be careful not to knock it against something. But once again I knew that my Lord cares for me in troubled times and answers prayer!

Sharing
An interesting aside… a nearby patient continually gave nurses trouble. She was somewhat hysterical, and screamed at them, not doing what they asked, and refusing to eat. They were ready to have her removed.

Then came a moment when I was able to chat with her and with Jesus’ help calm her, giving her some assurances and sharing the Lord. She was at rest after that, a different person.

Not for one moment did I think that I had to have that painful accident to be hospitalised so I could calm that lady! No way! But the Lord had me in His arms and gave me the opportunity to reach out and help another needy soul.

God does care! He does hear our prayers… your prayers, and how He cares! I could share many other times how Jesus intervened in my life and helped me win through troubles, but I’ll centre attention on God and His word…

Scriptures
We must keep trusting God for we can bank on His love, provision, protection in that He will help us and bring us through whatever comes against us! Your prayers are heard by God (1John 5:14-15, 1Peter 3:12). 1Peter 5:7 is particularly precious: ‘Cast all your anxiety on him because He cares for you.’ That word cares (melō) infers that He is interested, concerned. And He surely is!

Even when we have to wait on an answer from God, Romans 8:25, encourages,  ‘But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.’ That word ‘patiently’ means, believe it or not, to cheerfully endure. Now we humans find waiting patiently hard! Hebrews 13:6 is comforting: ‘So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.”’ And other scriptures also encourage us not to be fearful.

The Holy Spirit Himself is a great help here… patience being one aspect of His fruit (Galatians 5:22ESB). You have but to ask Him… He’s your greatest friend (John 14:16Mge).

Yes, sometimes we weep before the Lord… I’ve shed some too. But He does see our tears. I often recall Galatians 5:22ESB… she wept bitterly (1Samuel 1:10,17) and God heard her and in His timing answered her prayer. Know that He hears our prayers… your prayers!

Simple!
No matter what is going down, we should simply pray believingly (not necessarily long prayers, just talking to God as His children). What we have to do then is trust Him, which is simply leaving it all with Him. But remember trusting may mean waiting! The answer doesn’t always come immediately, but comes in a perfect way in God’s good time.

I know – I’ve had my own challenges, but when the answer came – His answer, His timing, His way – I could praise my God! Actually I’ve learned to praise Him even in the asking.

Words from that old Frank Ellsworth Graeff song come to mind…
‘Does Jesus care when my heart is pained
Too deeply for mirth and song?
When the burdens press
And the cares distress
And the way grows weary and long?

‘Oh, yes, He cares, I know He cares
His heart is touched with my grief
When the days are weary
The long night dreary
I know my Saviour cares.’

Got a problem?

If Jesus is your Lord, have you prayed? If so, Jesus cares and has heard… the answer is on the way. We may be living in troubled times but the Lord will protect us, take care of us… and may even return sooner that anyone thinks. Keep believing in our Lord Jesus – and trust Him.

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Pr Maureen McQuillan’s links: OnlinerConnect@gmail.com
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IN TROUBLE? WE HAVE A SAVIOUR, A DELIVERER

(April 30, 2024) Jesy Veena Sam shares encouragement… and challenges!

‘Saviour’ is sótér meaning deliverer. The good news in these dark days is that our Saviour Jesus will listen to our cries, and help us, deliver us!

God has always heard people’s genuine prayers, listened to their supplications, brought them though dangers, and granted them saviours (Note… lower case ‘s’).

Let’s look at how God used some ‘ordinary’ biblical individuals to rescue – deliver – needy people who called on Him for help them in their troubles.

Moses
A reluctant Moses became a saviour to the people of Israel enslaved in Egypt, subjected to harsh treatment and great sorrow (Exodus 1:11-14).

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WHEN ‘GIRLS GONE WILD’ BECAME ‘GIRLS GONE BIBLE’

(January 29, 2024) Daniela Argueta shares …

In a twist on the worldly term Girls Gone Wild, glam girls Angie Halili and Ari Reitsma launched a YouTube podcast called Girls Gone Bible. It encourages young women to be bold for Jesus.

‘We’re a couple of girls who used to be wild,’ says Angie, who refers to her friend as a ‘spiritual Navy SEAL.’

‘This girl is a Navy SEAL for Jesus!’ Angie says about Ari. ‘I look at this sweet, feminine angel, who wears floral dresses from Reformation (store) and makes floral arrangements in her free time. But, guys, if you see this girl, she will go to battle for the Lord.’

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EL SALVADOR PRESIDENT CUT MURDER RATE 50%, AFFIRMS FAITH IN JESUS

(January 23, 2024) Daniela Argueta shares …

El Salvador’s new president Nayib Bukele cut the homicide rate by 50% in his first year of tenure, and he did it by locking up all MS-13 gangbangers.

‘The best thing that happened to us as a nation was to get rid of those rapists and murderers, and let the good people thrive’ tweeted Bukele in October of 2023. His drastic and civil-liberties-suspending crackdown has won wide admiration for the Christian president.

Clean break from the deep-seated corruption
Weary of politicians who make promises only to gain power and siphon off money from the country’s coffers, people in surrounding countries also want someone like him in power. Memes originating from Guatemala offered anything in exchange for him to govern their country. Even a survey in Colombia found 55% of respondents want a Bukele-type president.

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I’M ONE FOR MORE IN 2024!

(January 8, 2024) Mama Lava has her ‘Handle Verse’ for 2024! Do you have yours?

Every December I pray for a word and a verse to hold on to for the coming year. I call such a scripture My Handle Verse and my New Year’s handle verse is One for More in 2024!

* That is to say, I’m one who’s going for more this year – more truth this year – and I trust you are too.

And my word for 2024? It’s John 17:17… ‘Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.’

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WALKING IN CHRIST

(November 17, 2023) Richard Winter shares some good advice…

The apostle Paul is not here – pretty obvious, eh! But his writings, directions, warnings and God inspired speech are. Words of –

  • Comparison
  • Direction
  • Godly wisdom
  • Prohibition
  • Wisdom completely applicable today.

What are these words?
Paul wrote in Colossians 2:4-6NKJV, ‘Now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words. For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.’

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PERSECUTED CHURCH, CHRISTIANS AND EVANGELISTS

October 27, 2022) Elizabeth Kendal requests urgent prayer for the following…

1. CHINA’S SEVERELY PERSECUTED CHURCH [RLPB 667 (19 Oct)]
As reported by Bitter Winter (17 Oct), government-controlled religious organisations contribute to the National Party Congress by presenting reports on their activities. Pastor Xu Xiaohong, the Chairman of the Three Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) Committee, presented a report entitled, ‘Ten years of sharpening a sword and continuing to advance the sinicisation of Christianity.’

Interestingly, Xu admits much work needs to be done to sinicise the Chinese Church so that it will willingly serve the CCP, support all its policies, and unite around the Party with Xi as its ‘core.’ Xu laments that the promotion of sinicisation is ‘hot at the top and cold and the bottom’: i.e. it is embraced by CCP-appointed technocrats/administrators, but not by grassroots teachers, preachers, or believers! As such, the TSPM Committee is working on a new five-year plan for 2023-2027 which Xu hopes will remove people’s doubts and ‘guide religion to adapt to socialist society.’ TSPM’s focus will be educating teachers and preachers, providing sermons to be delivered from pulpits, and establishing a ‘theological ideology of the Chinese Church.’ Five volumes of approved sermons have already been compiled! Xu maintains the Church will be fine so long as she ‘adapts.’

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SEHNSUCHT! YEARNING FOR SOMETHING DEEPER?

(October 07, 2022) Carol Round reminds us that life’s detours are survivable…

A family in our church has had their life upended by an unexpected health issue affecting their youngest son. The health issue is rare, and most don’t survive. Colton has! However, it has left him and his family struggling to overcome the obstacles along the path of recovery.

Because I attend a large church with two campuses, I don’t personally know this family from the other campus. But we’ve connected on social media, and I follow their updates as they share Colton’s journey of recovery, including physical and speech therapy. The youngster is a fighter, and his parents are fighting along with him so he can hopefully return to a normal life someday.

Life has its detours!
Reading about the struggles they face each day. I can’t fully imagine the impact this has had on their family, including Colton’s twin sister and an older brother. But I continue to pray daily for them. And I know this… this young family’s faith in God keeps them going.

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HOTDOGS, DRAMA, AND PROCLAMATION!

(August 10, 2022) David McGuire, the missionary to Romania who uses his camera to ‘write’ reports, shares an update… 

With the Holy Spirit’s help and protection the thoughtful, caring team here is continuing to transport food to Ukraine, and to Ukrainian refugees here in Romania asisting them also.

Open doors
Indeed it’s been a weekly event to Ukraine, involving collecting from five different food depot locations in Romania and transporting to four in Ukraine! But our caring team members delight reaching out to our needy ‘neighbours’ as it’s a vital part of being a Christian (Luke 10:27).

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WAITING ON GOD… ‘PATIENTLY?’

(March 07, 2022) Dr Robert McQuillanhas been blessed by Dr Jim McClure’s answer to something that was troubling him recently in the midst of recovering from some illnesses. So here’s the background and Dr Jim’s  theological response…

Dear Dr Jim

In the middle of recovering I’ve been deeply troubled! And all over a verse that I sensed the Lord gave me two nights ago… Psalm 37:7a, ‘Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.’ Great verse, I thought, that sounds just right… I have to continue to be patient in patiently trusting Him for my full recovery.

But, then, strangely, I was greatly disturbed last night Why? I felt to read this verse in various other Bible versions that I have and noted that with the exception of one, they also use ‘patiently.’ I was then led to look up what the Hebrew really meant.

Frankly, when I found that my e-Sword version explains patiently as chûl  chı̂yl – twisting and whirling, writhing in pain – it really threw me! I couldn’t get back asleep right away! And not being up to reading any of my theological books to check further at this time, I ask that you, as the renowned source of theological explanation that you are, please email me your thoughts, thanks. Blessings. Yours, Robert.

Dear Robert

I have read and reflected on the verse that you quoted that both comforted you and troubled you, particularly when you read some things about the meanings of the Hebrew word translated as ‘patiently.’ I hope the following helps to give you some further understanding and peace.

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