STATION 6: THE FOCUS OF PROPHECYThis is a scandalous area for liberal theologians. Are there indeed any prophecies regarding Jesus in what we now call the Old Testament? For those theologians who wish to discount miracles and discount the resurrection, they likewise must discount any notion of prophecy, because a prophecy is fortune telling. It's predicting something that's going to happen in the future, and in a purely mechanistic biomechanical world, there could be no such things as miracles. But, I think that is a tragedy. To imagine that all that happened in the Bible is that the disciples and the followers of Jesus looked through the Old Testament and discovered passages which they could posthumously apply to Jesus, I think is to miss a very important point. Station 6, indicates to us that Jesus' death and His resurrection were the focus of prophecy. God foretold ages past what He would be doing in this remarkable event. In keeping with my style, I am not going to account for you passage after passage of the Bible writings which account or amount to prophecies regarding Jesus' action. There are many of them, and if you care at all about Christianity or the Bible, you should pursue them yourself. God let people know in advance what was happening. This is something very important about the nature of God. Jesus was not the only person or the only event to have been prophesied. You can see the entire Old Testament, in many ways, as being a prophecy. When God delivered the Ten Commandments and the rest of the Deuteronomic law through Moses, He said, do this so that you may live. That is a prophecy, ladies and gentlemen. If you will follow these precepts, then this will happen. That's foretelling the future. Jesus prophesied when He said, "Seek and Ye shall find." If we seek, then we will discover what we are looking for. When God tells us do this and do not do that, because this or that will happen, He's giving guidance to us. In exactly the same way, He was giving guidance to the human race for hope and expectations. We often encounter difficulties in life. We face the uncertainties of a job lay off, perhaps a desperate sickness in the family, earthquakes, floods, or natural disasters. We can have large amounts of anxiety about that. As we course through time, one way or the other, the situation resolves itself. We find that all of the anxiety and worry ultimately did not serve any purpose. We wasted a lot of valuable time and energy thinking about these things in a very negative framework. That is why anxiety is spoken of so negatively. God knows that anxiety can kill you faster than whatever you are anxious about. What does this have to do with prophecy? Well, you see, God wants to step in to our darkness, in our current situation where we cannot see the future. We cannot see the resolution of the situation that is causing us such difficulties. He prophesied to us that all will be well. He stepped into the darkness of the human race and prophesied to the Old Testament prophets that He would send a redeemer. Be of good cheer. He likewise wants to step into your life and speak words of prophecy to you. I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. Nothing can separate you from my love. Persevere, and you will be victorious. This is why when we discount prophesy, I think we do ourselves a great harm. Once again, I am not overly concerned about the historical nature of prophesy. If these prophecies actually happened and Isaiah and Ezekiel and David had visions of the future that became absolutely 100% true, so what. What does that matter? If God did that then and it is a fact of history, then ultimately it is dead. It has no lasting value. But, if we can see that God in that darkness stepped in to prophetically proclaim that Jesus would come, that He would suffer, and He would rise again, then we can have faith that God likewise can prophesy to us in our lives, that we will overcome, that He will always be with us. If we can have faith that He kept His word throughout the ages of time to send the redeemer, then we can have faith that He will enter our lives, touch us, and keep His word. This can help strengthen our faith and remove our anxieties. If we know that all is going to be well, then we do not have to spend as much time and energy worrying. We can spend more time concentrating on the problem, trying to be a channel of peace to help those around us who may not be able to deal with the situation so well. There is great power here. This station of the cross is a very practical one. Yes, I am perfectly happy to accept that God did foretell Jesus' life, His death and His resurrection. But, it is much more important to see how that pertains to us today. God is the same yesterday, today and forever. He has not forgotten you. He has not forsaken you. He will not abandon you. He can step into your life and prophesy. It is important to remain open to this voice of God. I had an event in my life a little over 11 years ago, where I felt a tugging at my heart to do something. The challenge in life is to tell the difference between what is your own human natural urgings and what is the voice of God. How do you tell the difference? Well, if it were easy, everyone could do it. I cannot give you a magical formula. God will always only work in accordance with His word, a word of love, a word of opportunity, a word of fulfillment, a word of grace. I felt a tugging at my heart and I felt that it was, if it was not God's direct guidance, it, at least, was not against His will. When I followed that word, when I followed that prophecy,
within six short months, my life was absolutely transformed. And,
it is only because of following that voice that you are able to
have this document in your hands today. The details do not
matter. What is important is to understand is that through the
death and resurrection of Jesus, the focus of His prophecy, that
power to foretell the future is real, and is still alive and
operating today. It is ready to operate in your life here and now
to give you guidance through the uncertain futures, and most
importantly, to help remove and eliminate entirely all anxiety. |
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