HOPE: GOD’S MATH WORKS DIFFERENTLY - In God’s hand intended evil is eventual good. God’s math works differently than ours. War + near-death + agonizing rehab = wonderful family and hope for a bright future. Are there any gods like You, Lord? There are no gods like You. You are wonderfully holy, amazingly powerful, a worker of miracles. Lord, there is no god like You and no works like Yours. God’s strong foundation continues to stand. With God’s power working in us, God can do much, much more than anything we can ask or imagine. To Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus for all time, forever and ever. Two years out of West Point, Lieutenant Sam Brown was on his first tour of duty in Afghanistan when an improvised explosive device turned his Humvee into a Molotov cocktail. He doesn’t remember how he got out of the truck. He does remember rolling in the sand, slapping dirt on his burning face, running in circles, and finally dropping to his knees. He lifted flaming arms to the air and cried, Jesus, save me! In Sam’s case the words were more than a desperate scream. He was a devoted believer in Jesus Christ. Sam was calling on his Savior to take him home. He assumed he would die. But death did not come. His gunner did. With bullets flying around them, he helped Sam reach cover. Crouching behind a wall, Sam realized that bits of his clothing were fusing into his skin.

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Hope: God’s Math Works Differently

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In God’s hand intended evil is eventual good. God’s math works differently than ours. War + near-death + agonizing rehab = wonderful family and hope for a bright future. Are there any gods like You, Lord? There are no gods like You. You are wonderfully holy, amazingly powerful, a worker of miracles. Lord, there is no god like You and no works like Yours. God’s strong foundation continues to stand. With God’s power working in us, God can do much, much more than anything we can ask or imagine. To Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus for all time, forever and ever.

Max Lucado

 

Two years out of West Point, Lieutenant Sam Brown was on his first tour of duty in Afghanistan when an improvised explosive device turned his Humvee into a Molotov cocktail.

He doesn’t remember how he got out of the truck.

He does remember rolling in the sand, slapping dirt on his burning face, running in circles, and finally dropping to his knees.

He lifted flaming arms to the air and cried, Jesus, save me!

In Sam’s case the words were more than a desperate scream.

He was a devoted believer in Jesus Christ.

Sam was calling on his Savior to take him home.

He assumed he would die. But death did not come.

His gunner did. With bullets flying around them, he helped Sam reach cover.

Crouching behind a wall, Sam realized that bits of his clothing were fusing into his skin.

He ordered the private to rip his gloves off his burning flesh.

The soldier hesitated, then pulled. With the glove came pieces of his hands.

Brown winced at what was the first of thousands of moments of pain.

When vehicles from another platoon reached them, they loaded the wounded soldier into a truck.

Before Sam passed out, he caught a glimpse of his singed face in the mirror. He didn’t recognize himself.

That was September 2008. By the time I met him three years later, he had undergone dozens of painful surgeries.

Dead skin had been excised and healthy skin harvested and grafted. The pain chart didn’t have a number high enough to register the agony he felt.

Yet, in the midst of the horror, beauty walked in.

Dietitian Amy Larsen. Since Sam’s mouth had been reduced to the size of a coin, Amy monitored his nutrition intake.

He remembers the first time he saw her. Dark hair, brown eyes. Nervous. Cute.

More important, she didn’t flinch at the sight of him.

After several weeks he gathered the courage to ask her out.

They went to a rodeo. The following weekend they went to his friend’s wedding.

During the three-hour drive Amy told Sam how she had noticed him months earlier when he was in ICU, covered with bandages, sedated with morphine, and attached to a breathing machine.

When he regained consciousness, she stepped into his room to meet him. But there was a circle of family and doctors, so she turned and left.

The two continued to see each other. Early in their relationship Sam brought up the name Jesus Christ.

Amy was not a believer. Sam’s story stirred her heart for God.

Sam talked to her about God’s mercy and led her to Christ. Soon thereafter they were married.

And as I write these words, they are the parents of a seven-month-old boy.

Sam directs a program to aid wounded soldiers.

Far be it from me to minimize the horror of a man on fire in the Afghan desert.

And who can imagine the torture of repeated surgery and rehab?

The emotional stress has taken its toll on their marriage at times. Yet Sam and Amy have come to believe this:

God’s math works differently than ours.

War + near-death + agonizing rehab = wonderful family and hope for a bright future.

In God’s hand intended evil is eventual good.

Are there any gods like You, Lord?

There are no gods like You.

You are wonderfully holy, amazingly powerful, a worker of miracles.

Lord, there is no god like You and no works like Yours.

God’s strong foundation continues to stand. These words are written on the seal: “The Lord knows those who belong to him.”

With God’s power working in us, God can do much, much more than anything we can ask or imagine.

To Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus for all time, forever and ever. – Exodus 15:11; Psalm 86:8; 2 Timothy 2:19; Ephesians 3:20-21

Your Turn

Have you ever been in the middle of horrible circumstances and had beauty walk in?

We’d love to hear your story!

Come join the conversation on our blog! ~ Devotionals Daily

Excerpted with permission from God Will Carry You Through by Max Lucado.

Max Lucado

Since entering the ministry in 1978, Max Lucado has served churches in Miami, Florida; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and San Antonio, Texas. He currently serves as Senior Minister of Oak Hills Church in San Antonio. He is America’s bestselling inspirational author with more than 130 million books in print. Follow his website at MaxLucado.com Facebook.com/MaxLucado Instagram.com/MaxLucado Twitter.com/MaxLucado

https://www.faithgateway.com/hope-gods-math-works-differently/#.X0WjydIzaig

THE HOLOCAUST & THE HIDDEN FACE OF GOD - The Hebrew phrase “hester panim,” the hidden or concealed face of God, is a concept in Judaism that is sometimes applied to the Nazi Holocaust. It is one explanation for God’s seeming absence during the horrors. In Deuteronomy 31:17, the Almighty warned that he would hide His face and withdraw his favour from his people if they disobeyed and served other gods. During many dark periods during the Diaspora, the Jewish people have had to perceive God’s hand of preservation in the shadows. Indeed, miracles of preservations are happening all the time, but they are not as obvious as the parting of the Red Sea. But increasingly, for those who have eyes to see, God is shining out from behind the clouds.

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The Holocaust & the Hidden Face of God

By Christine Darg, Jerusalem Channel

“Truly, You are a God who hides Himself, O God of Israel, Savior!” (Isaiah 45: 15)

As we meditate on Holocaust Memorial Day, the Hebrew phrase “hester panim,” the hidden or concealed face of God, is a concept in Judaism that is sometimes applied to the Nazi Holocaust.

It is one explanation for God’s seeming absence during the horrors.

The concept of hester panim is also alluded to in Purim commentaries since the Book of Esther does not overtly mention the name of God (although his name is encoded as an acrostic).

The hidden or concealed face of God is one reason why during Purim masks and costumes are worn.

In the Torah in Deuteronomy 31:17, the Almighty warned that he would hide His face and withdraw his favour from his people if they disobeyed and served other gods:

“And in that day I will become angry with them and forsake them; I will hide my face from them, and they will be destroyed. Many disasters and calamities will come on them, and in that day they will ask, ‘Have not these disasters come on us because our God is not with us?’”

Consequently, according to the great commentator Rashi, it would appear “as if” God didn’t see the distress of his people.

In Deuteronomy 31:18, in the original Hebrew, there is an idiomatic expression, a play on words that does not translate into English but amounts to a double hiding.

The conclusion, interestingly, is that the Jewish sage of the Middle Ages, Aben Ezra, as well as the Ramban and other revered rabbis have explained that there would be two hidings of God’s face in Jewish history.

The first hiding was after the destruction of the First Temple during the Jews’ exile to Babylon; that hester panim lasted only a relatively short time — 70 years —  about a generation.

But the second hiding has been extensive — the current Diaspora in the nations, which started with the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD, and is coming to a conclusion beginning with the rebirth of the modern state of Israel.

During many dark periods during the Diaspora, the Jewish people have had to perceive God’s hand of preservation in the shadows.

Indeed, miracles of preservations are happening all the time, but they are not as obvious as the parting of the Red Sea.

But increasingly, for those who have eyes to see, God is shining out from behind the clouds.

Recall during the Gulf War how Iraq rained down 39 Scud missiles on Israel, and Israel’s divine preservation was a public miracle!

As an evangelical believer, I find it infinitely fascinating that the Talmud comments on Jerusalem’s widowhood after the destruction of the Temple as a temporary situation. 

Jerusalem is likened to a woman whose husband has gone overseas but who has every intention of returning! 

The same analogy is made in the Midrash in Kohellet Raba — a parable about a woman who makes herself beautiful in the absence of her husband, because she must be ready for his imminent return.

Revelation 19:7 speaks of the Bride of the Messiah, who anticipates his imminent return: “Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.”

According to the Jewish Tanach, the Hebrew Scriptures, God himself has described his hester panim in Hosea 5: 14-15

“For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion,

And as a young lion to the house of Judah;

I, even I, will tear and go away,

I will take away, and there shall be none to deliver.

I will go and return to My place,

Till they acknowledge their guilt, and seek My face;

In their trouble they will seek Me earnestly.”

The Bible makes it clear that the time of hester panim will end after the Holocaust, according to Ezekiel 37:

“Then he said to me: ‘Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, “Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.” 

“¹²Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel.’

“¹³Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 

“¹⁴I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’ ”

Thankfully, living on Israel’s resurrection side of the Holocaust, we know that the second period of hester panim is drawing to a close. God is coming out of hiding.

Jerusalem will experience the outpouring of the spirit of grace and supplications. (Zechariah 12:10)

All Israel shall be saved. (Romans 11: 26) It is the most exciting prophetic time to be alive!

“’In an outburst of anger I hid My face from you for a moment, But with everlasting lovingkindness I will have compassion on you,’ Says the LORD your Redeemer.” ~ Isaiah 54: 8

“’I will not hide My face from them any longer, for I will have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel,’ declares the Lord GOD.” ~ Ezekiel 39: 29

“In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the Angel of His presence saved them: in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bare them, and carried then all the days of old.” ~ Isaiah 63: 9

The Jerusalem Channel is a media ministry with the vision to share the Gospel from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. Through videos, news and insight, the Jerusalem Channel brings you the latest information on events in the Holy Land and global news with a Judeo-Christian perspective.

https://jerusalemchannel.tv/2019/01/26/the-holocaust-the-hidden-face-of-god/