God, Where Are You?

“In all their distress he too was distressed,” (Isaiah 63:9 NIV).

When bad things happen we may never understand the why. God tells us, ‘’For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the LORD. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts’” (Isaiah 55:8-9).

Dr. James Dobson said: “Trying to analyze His [God’s] omnipotence is like an amoeba attempting to comprehend the behavior of man.”  It’s simply not possible. But there is one thing we can be sure of. “All the ways of the LORD are loving and faithful,” (Psalm 25:10) whether we understand them or not.

When we encounter difficulties, it is easy to jump to conclusions. We may think God is mad at us or He is punishing us. We wonder if God is not blessing us because we’ve disappointed Him in some way.

But all through the Bible we see that some of God’s closest friends experienced the darkest nights.

I Have Questions . . . GOD has the ANSWER!

Written by Kristi Huseby

Are you facing a hard season today? Do you wonder where God is? Let us pray for you.

I have questions for God, do you?  Here are some of mine . . .

God, did you see…when a broken-hearted couple lost their three year old son to cancer and just 10 short years later were sitting in that same funeral home grieving the loss of another son?

“When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within him, and he was deeply troubled. . .  Then Jesus wept.”  (John 11:33,35)

Lord, were you listening…when a young girl lost her innocence and cried herself to sleep night after night?

‘I keep track of all your sorrows.  I have collected all your tears in my bottle and I have recorded each one in my book.’”  (Psalm 56:8)

Martha : The Woman Who Was More Practical Than Spiritual

Scripture References—Luke 10:38-41; John 11; 12:1-3

Name Meaning—As a Chaldee or Syriac word, Martha is the feminine of moro or more, meaning “lord,” “master.” We find this in the form maran in the well-known phrase Maran-atha, “The Lord cometh” (1 Corinthians 16:22). There are those who think that Kyria, translated “lady” in 2 John 1, is a proper name, the Greek equivalent of this word. Carpzov supposes that this Kyria was the same person as Martha of Bethany.

Family Connections—Of the history of Martha, the Bible tells us nothing save that she was the sister of Mary and Lazarus, and lived with them at Bethany. Some early writers have made Martha, the daughter, wife, or widow of Simon the Leper, and that on his death the house became hers, hence the reference to the house when the resurrection of Lazarus was celebrated (Matthew 26:6; Mark 14:3). 

Others think that Martha may have been a near relative of Simon for whom she acted as hostess. But the narrative seems to suggest the home belonged to Martha and being older than Mary and Lazarus, she carried the responsibility of all connected with household affairs in a home where “Jesus found the curse of the sojourner lifted from Him, and, in reversal of His own description of His loneliness and penury, found where to lay His head.”