Richard Mylander shared the following story:

“On my way to a conference in Colorado I was driving uphill along a major interstate, when I overtook a freight train going the same direction at a slower speed. The train was being pushed uphill by two locomotives that sounded as if they were straining at full power. I’m a flatlander from the Midwest. ‘Is this how trains move in mountainous terrain?’ I wondered.

“A few minutes later, I gradually came alongside the front of the nearly mile-long string of cars. There I found five more locomotives pulling the train. Seven engines in all! Where I come from, I rarely see more than three.

“That train was a lesson for me. I had been under serious strain for some time. I was feeling tired and was wondering whether I could persevere under the pressure.

“‘How like God’, I thought. ‘When I am pushing a load uphill with all the strength I have and feel like my energy level is depleted, He wants me to know that He is in the lead, pulling with power far greater than mine.'”

In these difficult times, it is good to be reminded that we are not alone, that we do not have to bear the burden by ourselves.

In Psalms 22:19 David wrote:

God is our strength! in Hebrew, God is our Eyaluth.

I don’t know about you, but my strength is not up to the task of getting me through this life alone. I NEED God’s eyaluth.

You may be saying, “Steve, you’re just weak. That’s fine for you, but I don’t need anybody or anything to get me by. I’m a self made man. When the going gets tough, the tough get going!”

My friend, I have a response for you. The late journalist Sydney J. Harris wrote, “Knowing your own strength is a fine thing. Recognizing your own weakness is even better. What is really bad, what hurts and finally defeats us, is mistaking a weakness for a strength.”

And the apostle Paul said, “…when I am weak…that’s when I am strong.”

When Jesus is our Savior, when we belong to Him, when we acknowledge that we need His strength, when we call out to Him, then He hears us. He is our Eyaluth, our strength.

Home grown grapes from Steve Webb's back yard

A gardener devotes time, attention, and care to his garden. He tills, he sows, he waters, he feeds, he weeds, he watches for and eradicates insects or other creatures that might threaten the garden. It’s a never ending responsibility, and one that the Father has taken on willingly. Listen to the words of Jesus: 

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.  He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.” 

Here Jesus says that God the Father, as a gardener, had to prune away unfruitful branches. Jesus has unfruitful branches? How could that be? Listen further…

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.”

So God, as a loving Father and diligent Gardener, wants to prune away those things in our lives which are unfruitful. All we must do is remain in Jesus, and God will help us to be fruitful. 

I love baseball. I can remember sitting on my grandfather’s lap, watching the new team in town on the black and white television set, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and listening to to the great Vin Scully as he masterfully called every play.

Back then hall of famer Walter Alston was the manager of the Dodgers. Alston won seven National League pennants and four World Series Championships in his 23 years as Dodgers manager.

Today, Joe Torre is the manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Joe has managed the Mets, Braves, and Cardinals, but his greatest success was with the New York Yankees, where from 1996 to 2007, the Yankees went to the post-season each year and won ten American League East Division titles, six American League pennants, and four World Series titles, in addition to compiling a .605 winning percentage with them.

Before moving to the Yankees, Torre had been a broadcast announcer for another of my favorite teams, the Angels, seeing the games from the broadcasting booth, high above the field of play.

Not long after he was named manager for the Yankees, the Yankee’s announcer Phil Rizzuto suggested that managing could be done better from that vantage point, where he could easily take in the entire ballpark.

Torre replied, “Upstairs, you can’t look in their eyes.”

My friend, in Jesus, God also chose to come down on the field and look into our eyes.

Listen to these verses from the NT book of Romans, chapter 15:

“5 May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, 6 so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7 Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.”

The God who gives endurance and encouragement. Just as a baseball manager trains and encourages his players most effectively from the same level as his players, our God came to us as the God/man Jesus, to look us in the eyes, help us, encourage, and yes, even to save us. Jesus knows you. He understands you. He loves you.

He is the God who gives endurance and encouragement.

When we hear the word “hope” spoken in the Bible, it is not a wishful hope. It is an assured waiting for that which will be, and already is, in God’s economy. We can be absolutely certain that what God has promised, will be.

Is your hope in Jesus? Do you look forward to the day when you see him face to face? If you know Him now, your hope is well placed. As surely as you are hearing my voice now, you will see Him. That fact alone should, as the apostle Paul said, fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the holy spirit.

What do copper pipes have to do with the character of God?

Jehovah M’Kaddesh is the name of God that I want to draw your attention to today.

Listen in!

Just as it is counterintuitive to lean away from the mountain when standing on a steep, slippery slope, God’s direction for us sometimes feels like the opposite of what seems safe. But He is our refuge, our shelter, our shade, and our strength in distress.

Just as it is counterintuitive to lean away from the mountain when standing on a steep, slippery slope, God’s direction for us sometimes feels like the opposite of what seems safe. But He is our refuge, our shelter, our shade, and our strength in distress.