In God We Trust

Recently, I walked out to the street to check the mailbox as I was getting ready to leave home for work. I happened to look down on the street at something shiny. It was a quarter ($0.25). My immediate thought was to pick it up. It was out in the street. No one to claim it. But then my thought was that the local children play ball in the street and may have lost it. I decided to at least pick it up and look at the date on it or see if there was anything significant about it.  I immediately was drawn to the phrase that is printed on every single coin and dollar minted in the U.S.: "In God We Trust".  My mind begin to tell me that God had given me this quarter and I should keep it, but Something else was saying, "Just trust me." My mind said, "but you might need this money down the road.need, when I need it.  It was a great lesson to be learned. 

We often believe that when we are in need of something, God will give us the money to purchase what it is we need. Wseem to think God doesn't have good taste. But if we allow Him to choose for us, His choice is the best. 

The following day, I left earlier in the morning for church than usual and decided to pray on the long drive. As I was praying for my family, my sister called me just at the moment I was praying for her. She was on her way to an appointment where she would receive a little compensation and be able to pay for gas. As it was she only had a small amount of gas and her low fuel indicator light was on. She passed a gas station while we were talking and decided to stop, but gas was $3.69 a gallon. She only had $3.60. I told her to pray and I would pray and she would find ten cents under her seat. When she called me back later, she had found exactly ten cents under her seat. 

It reminded me of a time when I was traveling back and forth from Alabama to Indiana in 2012 and had decided to leave my job and trust the Lord. I had some money saved up to pay my bills, but I didn't want to be frivolous. I stopped in Tennessee on my way back home and filled up my tank. I went on that tank for almost two weeks before I filled up again. That was very unusual as I filled up at least once a week and sometimes twice. I knew that was supernatural provision. 

The Apostle Paul told the church in Philippi, "My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:19. So many times, growing up I watched as my Mother would be concerned about paying bills or being able to afford groceries, but she would pray and believe God and He always came through and supplied the need right on time. Sometimes, it works out in a way that we don't even realize it was God or maybe it works out in a different way than we had hoped, but even in this, we should give thanks, because "we know all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose" Romans 8:28 We are called according to His purpose - not our own ideas or purposes.

But We See Jesus

 But we see Jesus , Who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man. Hebrews 2:9

Jesus was seated at the Passover table with His disciples, just a few hours before His crucifixion. Phillip, who had seen the Messiah countless times discern the hearts of the people, heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the leper, cast out devils, asked Him, Show us the Father, and it will suffice us. John 14:8.  If ever the Lord Jesus had been disappointed, I wonder if there wasn't some disappointment in His voice when He responded: Have I been so long a time with you, and yet have you not know me, Phillip? He that has seen me has seen the Father; and how do you say then, Shew us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwells in me, He does the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me: or else believe Me for the very works' sake. John 14:9-11

In the book of Luke, we find Jesus saying, All things are delivered to Me of My Father; and no man knows Who the Son is, but the Father; and Who the Father is, but the Son, and He to Whom the Son will reveal Him. Luke 10:22  I have observed many fathers who have a strong relationship with their eldest son. Many times, the son will look, as we say in the south - the spitting image of the father. In other words, the son looks like a younger version of his father. They may share many of the same characteristics and traits. The son may know just how a father would handle a given situation, because he's been around his father so long that he can say, "this is how my father would do."  But Jesus wasn't beyond just knowing the Father so well or looking so similar to His Father. Hebrews 1:3 tells us He was the express image of His person. And 2 Corinthians 4:4 says, Christ, Who is the image of God. This was more than just a young man being the carbon copy of his father.  This was God Almighty incarnated in human flesh. 

Paul told the Galatians that the gospel he preached was not anything he learned at the feet of Gamliel, nor from the seminary or the apostles before him. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. Galatians 1:12  When Jesus was standing with His disciples in the Caesarea Phillipi and He asked the disciples what others were saying about Him, they all answered, Some say thou art John the Baptist, some Elijah and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. But Jesus asked them very direct and pointedly, But whom say YE that I am? Simon Peter was bold and not afraid to speak up and say, Thou are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, "Blessed art thou Simon son of Jona; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in Heaven. Matthew 16:13-17  Peter had a revelation of Jesus Christ. That's why on the day of Pentecost, he could boldly stand and declare, This is that which was prophesied by the prophet Joel... and later in his sermon tell the others how they could receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost. He had a revelation of Who Jesus is. 

He commanded the people to: Repent and be baptized every one of you in the NAME of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For this promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. Acts 2:38-39.  But why would he contradict what Jesus had said only about 40 days before? In Matthew 28:19, Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the NAME of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. So why then did Peter seemingly contradict the words of Jesus? He didn't. He had a revelation of the NAME.  

As a child, if someone asked me what my father's name was, I would say, "Daddy". That's what I called him, but that was not his name. And of course that person would laugh at my childish answer, because they knew that Daddy was not a name. And my name was not son. Peter had received the Revelation of Jesus Christ. He didn't need anyone to teach him because the Holy Ghost had already revealed to him Who Jesus was.