The little guy suddenly saw the opening of one of the corridors. He made a mad dash. His father immediately sprang to his feet and caught the little body from behind, lifting him in the air and righting his path. The kid enjoyed the ride and tried it again. After a while the dad just stood in the path of the running kid and without stopping, the boy shifted direction, still overwhelmed with the joy and adventure of his circumstances.

This loving dad never reprimanded. He made his plans known to his son without any anxiety, fear, confusion, or fatal consequences. That's God's plan for us. We need to trust that God has things under control. We can run squealing through life knowing that a loving dad is going to make his intentions known to us.

God doesn't want us to guess the plan, stand stoic in the center of the room, or analyze it into oblivion. God's delight comes when we are mesmerized, when we squeal in joy, and when our booties wiggle to "Hakuna Matata." And when we do that, we can delight in God's plan, as well.

Denny

The Faith of the Canaanite Woman

Matthew 15:21-28 (New International Version)

1)           21Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession."

a)                        To the region of Tyre and Sidon: Tyre and Sidon were Gentile cities, located some 50 miles away. Jesus went all this way to meet this one Gentile woman’s need. What love this shows, and to a woman of Canaan!

b)                       Have mercy on me . . . My daughter is severely demon-possessed: This woman comes to intercede for her daughter, and she provides a picture of an intercessor. She makes her daughter’s needs her own.

c) Lord, Son of David! This Gentile woman also understands who Jesus is.

i)   She was addressing Him by one of His messianic titles

ii)            Many of Jesus’ own countrymen didn’t know who Jesus was, but this woman of Canaan knew.

d)                       The obstacles her faith had to overcome.

i)   The silence of Jesus. "He answered her not a word."

(1)                  I think one of the most difficult things in our Christian walk is the silence of God.

(2)                  We pray and nothing seems to happen.

(3)                  We don't see any changes.

(4)                  If anything it seems that things are getting worse.

(5)                  This woman of Canaan was crying after Jesus and He was ignoring her, it is as though He did not even hear her.

(6)                  She was driven by her desperate circumstances.

(7)                  According to her own account, her daughter was grievously vexed by a devil.

e)                        And she was calling for mercy.

2)           23Jesus did not answer a word.

a)                        Hard to understand when we know how compassionate Jesus is to understand His ignoring her.

3)           So his disciples came to him and urged him, "Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us."

4)           24He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel."

5)           I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel:

a)                        Jesus defined the focus of His mission of to this Gentile woman, and makes it clear that He was not sent to Gentiles like her.

i)   When Jesus finally speaks, it is not to her, but to His disciples.

ii)            The disciples had begun to intercede for her. They said, "Send her away for she is crying after us."

iii)        What they were suggesting is that He would heal her daughter so that she would leave them alone.

b)                       Still not addressing her but in response to His disciples, He said, "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel."

i)   Jesus was declaring that she was outside of the covenant that God had made with Israel. Jesus was sent as the fulfillment of the promises of God to the descendants of Abraham.

ii)            If the silence of Jesus was difficult to face, His words, when He spoke, must have been even more difficult to receive.

(1)                  You are outside of the scope of those I came to minister to.

c) She was not deterred by His words.

6)           25The woman came and knelt before him. "Lord, help me!" she said. Then she came and worshiped Him, saying, "Lord, help me!"

a)                        The woman provides another picture of a dedicated intercessor by her persistence.

b)       She came and worshiped him.  This is prayer in it’s highest form. For we are created to worship.

7)           26He replied, "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs."

a)                        The statement of Jesus to the woman. "It isn't right to take the children's bread and cast it to the dogs."

i)   The Jews had little use for the Gentiles. Some of them declared that God made the Gentiles only to stoke the fires of hell. It was common for the Jews to call the Gentiles dogs.

ii)            The word they used for dog was a reference to the wild vicious dogs that roamed the countryside attacking people and other animals.

b)                       Jesus used the diminutive (kunaria) or little puppy.

8)           27"Yes, Lord," she said, "but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table."

a)                        You are right Lord. It isn't right to take the children's bread and feed it to the little dogs. The woman responds with great faith. She admits her low estate, and did not debate the issue when Jesus called her one of the little dogs.

b)                       Lord, I am only asking for the crumbs.

c) Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table: She asked Jesus to deal with her on her own low level - and so she received from Jesus. No wonder Jesus said, O woman, great is your faith!

9)           28Then Jesus answered, "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted." And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

a)                        We read of nothing else that Jesus did during this time in Tyre and Sidon. His only divine appointment was to meet the need of this woman of faith and her sick daughter.

b)                       We need to see the power of coming to God as we are, and let Him make His promise true to the weak and unclean.

c) Look again…

i)   The commendation of Jesus. "O woman, great is thy faith." Look at her great faith.

ii)            Against prejudice she came.

iii)        Against the silence she persevered.

iv)        Against exclusion she proceeded.

v)            Against the rebuff she won.

vi)        It is my opinion that Jesus knew all along that He was going to heal her daughter. He knew the faith that was in the heart of this desperate mother. He was seeking to draw out her faith to its fullest expression.

d)                       Every time He took a step back, she took two forward.

e)                        She held on until she heard the words, "Be it unto you as you will."       

10)    Lessons we can learn from this experience.

a)                        Silence is not God saying no. Quite often it is a matter of timing.

b)                       We must not get discouraged when the answer is not immediately forthcoming.

c) Hold on until you hear the words, "Be it unto you as you will." or, "My grace is sufficient for you, My strength will be made perfect in your weakness."

 (taken from Our Daily Bread on www.gospelcom.net)

Isaiah 12

Songs of Praise

    ¹ In that day you will say:
       "I will praise you, O LORD.
       Although you were angry with me,
       your anger has turned away
       and you have comforted me.

    ² Surely God is my salvation;
       I will trust and not be afraid.
       The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song;
       he has become my salvation."

    ³ With joy you will draw water
       from the wells of salvation.

    ⁴ In that day you will say:
       "Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name;
       make known among the nations what he has done,
       and proclaim that his name is exalted.

    ⁵ Sing to the LORD, for he has done glorious things;
       let this be known to all the world.

    ⁶ Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion,
       for great is the Holy One of Israel among you."

I have an ancient leaf blower that I use to clean up our patio. It sputters, rattles, smokes, emits irritating fumes, and is considered by my wife (and probably by my neighbors) to be excessively noisy.

But our old dog is utterly indifferent to the racket. When I start up the blower, she doesn't even raise her head, and only reluctantly moves when I blow leaves or dirt in her direction. That's because she trusts me.

A young man who occasionally mows our yard uses a similar blower, but his is not tolerated by our dog. Years ago, when she was a puppy, he teased her with the machine and she has never forgotten. Now, when the man enters the backyard, we have to put her in the house, because she growls, barks, and snarls at him. Same set of circumstances, but the hands that use the blower make all the difference.

So it is with us. Frightening circumstances are less troublesome if we trust the hands that control them. If our world and our lives were governed by a thoughtless and indifferent force, we would have good reason to fear. But the hands that control the universe—God's hands—are wise and compassionate. We can trust them in spite of our circumstances and not be afraid. —David Roper

1 Timothy 4:12-16

¹²Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. ¹³Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. ¹⁴Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you.

¹⁵Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. ¹⁶Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

·      Sent an example

o    Speech

o    Life

o    Love

o    Faith

o    Purity

o    Devote yourself

§      to public reading of scripture

§      preaching

§      teaching

·      Be diligent

·      Give yourself wholly to them

·      Watch your life and doctrine closely

·      Persevere

Love is not premeditated— it is spontaneous; that is, it bursts forth in extraordinary ways. There is nothing of precise certainty in Paul’s description of love. We cannot predetermine our thoughts and actions by saying, "Now I will never think any evil thoughts, and I will believe everything that Jesus would have me to believe." No, the characteristic of love is spontaneity. We don’t deliberately set the statements of Jesus before us as our standard, but when His Spirit is having His way with us, we live according to His standard without even realizing it. And when we look back, we are amazed at how unconcerned we have been over our emotions, which is the very evidence that real spontaneous love was there. The nature of everything involved in the life of God in us is only discerned when we have been through it and it is in our past.

The fountains from which love flows are in God, not in us. It is absurd to think that the love of God is naturally in our hearts, as a result of our own nature. His love is there only because it "has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit . . ." ( Romans 5:5 ).

If we try to prove to God how much we love Him, it is a sure sign that we really don’t love Him. The evidence of our love for Him is the absolute spontaneity of our love, which flows naturally from His nature within us. And when we look back, we will not be able to determine why we did certain things, but we can know that we did them according to the spontaneous nature of His love in us. The life of God exhibits itself in this spontaneous way because the fountains of His love are in the Holy Spirit.  (http://www.rbc.org/utmost/)