All Things are Possible

     I love having friends that teach me things. Sure, as they will testify, I will sometimes argue with them for days by email about it, but I do learn things from these discussions. Very often, I make mistakes (just ask my brother; he'll be happy to talk to you), and it's kinda nice to have friends point those mistakes out before someone not-so-friendly points them out!

     Anyhow, all that to say, I have one friend who reminds me of one particular verse constantly. I tend to struggle in the area of trusting God. I tend to forget that God promised to meet my needs and start scrambling to figure what I'm going to do. And every time, without fail, this friend quotes this verse, Mark 10:27, "And Jesus looking upon them saith, 'With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible." And usually, I just kinda sit there with a dumb look on my face thinking, "oh, yeah, why didn't I think of that?"

     That's what I'm going to be talking about today. I think sometimes we acknowledge that this is true in our heads, but not deep down. Intellectually, we may admit that God is all-powerful, but do we practically believe it, enough to apply it to our lifestyle? I mean, seriously, if we believe God can do anything, don't you think that would change how we live? Don't you think we might be a little less concerned with God's calling for us necessarily making sense, and rather place faith in the absolute power of our God?

      Let's be honest, this is a pretty simple verse. Most of us Christians have probably read it or heard it a dozen times, but has it ever made a connection, 'cause it really hadn't clicked for me. "All things are possible." Anything, everything, no single thing is outside the realm of the possible with God.

      The first thing I try to do when I look at an isolated verse like this is go back and look at context. This verse comes right after a question from the disciples about how man can be saved. Jesus response simply reiterated what's been said a lot on this blog recently. "With men, it is impossible". You can't get much clearer than that. By yourself, without God, redemption is impossible.

     Has that made a connection in our minds, that without God, you are totally, utterly, hopelessly lost, and there isn't a thing you can do about it? It's not that salvation without God is unlikely, or really difficult, or uncomfortable; it's impossible. There isn't the most remote chance that you could save yourself.

      The beauty of Christ is that it doesn't stop there. Salvation is made possible through Christ, through His incarnation, life, death, and resurrection. We owe it all to Him. It's not that we can claim an "assist" from God; it's that we owe everything to God: life, joy, peace, salvation. Without Jesus, it's impossible. It's hopelessly out of our reach.

      That's what we owe Christ. Not because He gave us a little help, but because He stepped down into our messed up, sinful world to bring about what was impossible for us to do.