How Can This Be? - God Can Do All Things Summer Series

For nothing will be impossible with God. Luke 1:37

Some 1,000 years after the time of David, Scriture takes us to Nazareth and introduces us to Mary. Recorded in the Gospel of Luke, it is possible that Mary herself tells Luke her own story, recalling the angel Gabriel's unexpected visit, the immaulcate conception, the journey to Bethlehem, the birth of the Messiah. Luke's writing reveals God's plan of Grace, divinely designed before time and miraculously conceived in Mary's virgin's womb. Once again, the words nothing will be impossible with God take us to place of immense possibility.

Gabriel delivers God's message to Mary, calling her favored one, describing how she will give birth to a son and name him Jesus. Gabriel says this child, "will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David." Beyond her understanding, Mary asks, "How can this be?" Mary's faithful response echoes throughtout the centuries to follow, "May it be done to me according to Your word." Warren Wiersbe writes, "Mary yielded herself to the Holy Spirit knowing full well that she would experience shame and misunderstanding."

God's purposes for us exceed our abilities and cannot be accomplished apart from Him. However, that is how God works. When He reveals His plans, He is also promising to fulfill them. Trust Him and remember, with God, nothing is impossible! - Blackaby 

We, too, stand in awe of a mighty God whose majesty and mystery confound our abilities to understand. To confess the "mystery of faith" requires a belief that goes beyond proof, requires a faith that cannot adequately explain this truth but lies at the core of Christianity. Christ, born of a virgin, is crucified and dies, but three days later He rises from the grave and returns to sit at the right hand of God. This remains God's never-ending promise of redemption for whomever believes. Like Mary, we wonder, "How can this be?" Perfect Love responds, "Nothing will be impossible with God." Let me reply, "May it be done to me according to Your word! -dho

God of All My Days - God Can Do All Things Summer Series

In my worry, God You are my stillness

In my searching, God You are my answers

In my blindness, God You are my vision

In my bondage, God You are my freedom

In my weakness, God You are my power

...You're the God of all my days  

- Casting Crowns

Please take a moment to listen to this song that gives voice to the soul's great desires - to find unconditional love, to find joy in difficulty, to find comfort in grief, to find strength in weakness, to find hope in redemption, to find this God who can do all things! - dho

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God’s Purpose - God Can Do All Things Summer Series

Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, ‘My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure’. Isaiah 46:9-10

In Isaiah 46-48, we read about the coming fall of Babylon and find exiled Israel worshiping pagan gods. Warren Wiersbe writes, “Isaiah exposes the folly of idols and exalts the greateness of Jehovah.” Isaiah calls for Israel to remember their past, to remember God’s fulfillment of prophecies, miracles of deliverance, and the blessings of provision. To see God’s revelation of His divine power and plan helps the people understand the past and hope for the future.

Yahweh, the one, true and living God, stands in contrast to multiple, non-living idols made by man. These pagan gods crafted of stone or wood, silver or gold cannot control destiny or give comfort as they are “merely a result of human creativity.” The idols and scorchers and astrologers that Israel worships cannot help them. Isaiah reminds them of the trustworthiness of the Lord.

Superior in all ways to the world’s idols, God with His divine power reaches out to each of us. From Genesis to Revelation God reveals His story, His plan for His people, and through the centuries echoes refrain, “there is no one like Me.” Any person can receive this gift of righteousness through faith in Christ whose abundant grace overflows. Unexpected and unmatched, Christ is God’s indescribable gift to us. Endless hallelujahs to my God who can do all things, especially the things I find impossible to accomplish or even imagine. -dho

Nothing Too Extraordinary - God Can Do All Things Summer Series

Ah, Lord God! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you. Jeremiah 32:17

Jeremiah’s prayer, Jeremiah 32:16-25, expresses a desire for the assurance of God’s will while acknowledging His righteousness. For Jerusalem, this is a time of despair and doubt, a time of war and weariness; yet, the people’s rebellion toward God persists. Jeremiah focuses on God’s majesty and mystery as Creator, Judge, and Redeemer. Despite rebellion, God continues to embrace His people promising, “I have loved you with an everlasting love.” (Jeremiah 31:3)

About a year before the fall of Jerusalem, God tells the prophet Jeremiah to “buy a field” even though the land will soon be completely seized by the Babylonians. As God allows the city of Jerusalem to be destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylonia, the people continue their idolatry, giving offerings and worshiping false gods. Through fire and disease, famine and poverty, the buying of the field in this land becomes an “expression of confidence of a loving God’s promise of redemption.”

We are helpless to save ourselves. Regardless of a sometimes desperate desire to understand, we will not always have answers to our questions or doubts. Faith requires keeping our trust in the sovereignty of God, in the certainty of His everlasting love for us. After Jeremiah prays, God reassures with His rhetorical reply, “Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh; is anything to difficult for me?” (Jeremiah 32:27) We, also, find our Blessed Assurance in this God who finds nothing too extraordinary! -dho

Too Great and Too Marvelous - God Who Can Do All Things Summer Series

O Lord, my heart is not lifted up;
    my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
    too great and too marvelous for me.

 But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
    like a weaned child with its mother;
    like a weaned child is my soul within me.

 O Israel, hope in the Lord
    from this time forth and forevermore.
     Psalm 131 - ESV

This psalm of David, part of the Songs of Ascents, describes a “calm and quieted soul” of one who trusts in God. The Songs of Ascents, Psalms 120-134, are pilgrim songs for those who travelled up to Jerusalem to worship for the required Jewish feasts. The message of this short song is to find contentment and hope in God while not being overly concerned with trying to understand all the ways of God who can do all things.

David voices the same conclusion that Job and Abraham discover about God, “I do not occupy myself with things too great and too wonderful for me.” God’s plan and provision reveal extraordinary and marvelous opportunities and offerings that we often cannot understand. With humility and childlike trust, we must allow our “measured and modest” souls to find immutable hope in the majesty and mystery of God. Contentment is simply to find satisfaction in the presence of the Lord. -dho

Nothing Is Too Marvelous - God Can Do All Things Summer Series

Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ 14 Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.” Genesis 18:13-14

Scripture’s narrative describes Abraham welcoming three heavenly visitors, preparing a generous meal, and learning that he and Sarah will have a son. During the meal, Sarah, inside the tent, hears the prophecy. As both she and Abraham are very old and past childbearing years, Sarah laughs “to herself” at the idea of such. The LORD replies, “Is there anything to hard for the LORD?. A more correct translation would be, “is there anything too marvelous or extraordinary for the Lord?”

Sarah’s disbelief, often like ours, seems to doubt the extravagance of God’s promises. The Gospel Transformation Bible Notes says it this way: “God’s purposes of grace are not held captive by human sin or adverse circumstances. He is the God who works out his purposes through weak and ordinary human beings such as Abraham and Sarah. It is God’s grace, not human merit, that determines the course, and the blessing, of our lives.”

At 100 years and 90 years old respectively, we know that Abraham and Sarah do welcome a son they name Isaac, which means ‘laughter’ - just as the LORD had promised. (Genesis 21:6-7)  Sarah declares her joy in this unimaginable gift, “God has made laughter for me.” This is the beginning of the lineage of Jesus, God’s covenant with Abraham to make his descendants into a great nation, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Generation after generation, God weaves His chosen people who will birth grace. Nothing is too hard for God who can do all things. - dho