Check out the interview on our website with David Wilkerson from October 2007 in which he speaks directly to the financial crisis that he felt was coming. Look to the right on this page at click on Victoire magazine-English
(A true story)
Once upon a time in a church somewhere in the world, an infant of about 15 months stood next to his mother on a church bench, a pacifier covering a good percentage of his innocent face.
This pacifier held a powerful place in the life of the child. Touch his pacifier and he might break your arm (or at least your ears!)
Everyone else faced forward, more or less singing, but he looked towards the rear of the church, which was more interesting. The song-leader wasn’t very happy with the way the people warbled that morning and he fussed at them a bit.
The song-leader’s wife sat just behind our pacifier baby and she wasn’t in a sweet mood. There’s a good chance that she and the song-leader had had words before they arrived at the service. When he scolded the assembly, she puffed up and said, “Well, I wouldn’t sing now if he asked me to!”
The baby looked at her seriously, then took out his pacifier and offered it to her. “I don’t want that thing!” she huffed.
But my friend, that’s compassion! The little fellow knew the comfort that he received from his rubber stogy and he was willing to let her have a smack or two, if that would comfort her!
A baby can’t understand the forces that troubled those two people but he tried to comfort her with what comforted him.
That’s what so good about Jesus. He knows how to comfort us because He’s been through it all, and He always gives us help perfectly adapted to our hurts.
“Don’t be so naive and self-confident. You’re not exempt. You could fall flat on your face as easily as anyone else. Forget about self-confidence; it’s useless. Cultivate God-confidence. No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he’ll never let you be pushed past your limit; he’ll always be there to help you come through it.” (1 Cor. 10 :12, 13, The Message)
Once I was thinking about Isaiah 53 :4 : “Surely He has borne our griefs (sicknesses, weaknesses, and distresses) and carried our sorrows and pains [of punishment], yet we [ignorantly] considered Him stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God [as if with leprosy]. (Amplified version)
I believe the Lord spoke to me. “David, you know when you hurt and you come to me and you say, ‘Lord, it hurts!’ I know exactly what you’re feeling because when I went to the Cross, I took that very pain on myself. I’ve already felt it and I understand exactly what you feel.”
Sometimes we can’t understand someone else’s pain because we’ve never felt it.
When I was a young pastor in the United States one of the ladies in the church had had an operation for breast cancer. She later joined a group that tried to help ladies who had this operation.
“The first time that I went into a hospital room and I saw that woman in the bed, I knew exactly what she felt,” she told me.
And if we struggle with the burden of sin guilt, or sickness, or the pain of life, Jesus understands perfectly. He’s felt that pain.
The horror of the Cross weighed far more than the physical tortures that Jesus endured. God’s Son experienced the horror of every sin ever committed, of all our sicknesses, and all our suffering.
He never sinned but He carried all that horrible nastiness on Himself.
But the wonder of the Cross explodes with this truth—He understands! He know how to help.
“ Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. 16Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Heb. 4:14, 15, NIV)
If you’re hurting, why don’t you go to Jesus and tell Him.
He understands. He knows how to help.
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Hmmm…
The truth is, everyone lives by faith. The only difference between Christian faith and non-Christian faith is the object of our faith.” Neil Anderson