I Stand Amazed (How Marvelous)

Well well what do you know? I am blogging today!! I am also in a wee bit of pain with the old back - I know this because my chest is feeling like it has a brick on it. This is because I did some yard work this morning followed by mowing the back yard. Pulling the thing to start the motor a few times has flared it up. I am going to have to go lay down with an ice pack on my back after I blog and finish applying for another job (gotta tweak the cover letter).

So I was going to blog about something that we were talking about in group a couple of weeks ago. We started a new book called Christian Beliefs. Hoping one of the guys who is a fairly new Christian would be continuing with us, but he is not. But it's been fun for the rest of us to start going through the book. The first chapter was entitled: What is the Bible? One of the things they discussed in the book was about how you don't add things to the word of God. Everything that God wanted to say in His word is in there. I brought up an interesting discussion that in part was explained well in Pete Wilson's book - Plan B. I am going to blog today about a phrase that I know people have heard numerous times - especially when they are going trough difficult times. I have a few more that I will address on different days (gotta keep blogging lol)

How many people have ever heard the phrase: God will not put on you any more than you can handle. I have multiple times. As a matter of fact I got into a heated discussion with someone about it.

Do you think you can find that in the Bible anywhere?

Go on start looking.

Did you find it?

I didn't think so. You know why? It is not in there. It is not Biblical. Yet in this heated discussion I got into with this person they truly believed it was in there. I had asked someone else and she brought up 1 Corinthians 10:13.

1 Corinthians 10:13 "No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it."

But guess what. That verse talks about temptation. When people throw out that God will not put on you any more than you can handle, they are referring to when you are in the midst of problems that are beyond your control, not temptation. But then some people will refer you to this verse. Temptation is different from problems.

Temptation is solicitation to that which is evil. If you look again at 1 Corinthians 10:13 it refers to temptation that is common to man - our problems and trials that we face in life are unique to each and every one of us. But when it comes to temptation we are all prone to it because we live in a fallen world. Plus it says God will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we are able, but will make the way of escape. So 1 Corinthians 10:13 is not then talking a unique problem. It is talking about something that is soliciting us to evil and God does not tempt us to evil - that is the devil. Because we live in a fallen world and we struggle not with flesh and blood.

Also if you read through some of the stories in the Bible you will find on numerous occasions people going through things that were beyond what they were able to handle. If we were able to handle it then we wouldn't need God. I am certainly glad that some things in life I am not able to handle by myself. I am VERY glad that I am put in a place where I have no other choice but to depend on Him. I find in those times He wants me to do that because He wants to teach me something, He wants me to learn to depend on Him for every single aspect of my life, and He wants to show me that His timing is better than ours. And I also think of that verse in Romans.

Romans 8:28 - "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

I leave you with a great video for today. It is Jason Eaton doing the Chris Tomlin version of I Stand Amazed (How Wonderful). Yep the one that you find in many hymnals. Enjoy and feel free to comment :)