Rain Or Shine

Make a habit of turning often to your blessed living Lord and committing the present situation to Him... everything from a possible promotion to a flat tire.


Scripture: Colossians 2:10, Colossians 3:2, James 1:5

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much, and hello again dear radio friends. How in the world are you? Are you doing Alright? Well, this is your friend Dr. Cook. I’ve just been talking to our heavenly Father and I’ve asked Him again that His love and His truth and His power might be in what is said from the Word of God. I was encouraged to pray along this line. I asked that the heavenly Father would give not only dynamic — that means power-filled — speaking on my part but dynamic hearing on your part so that something actually happens as a result of these thoughts that we share from God’s blessed inerrant, infallible Holy Word, the Bible.

So that’s what I prayed that there’d be something happening in your life, something good happening in your life today. God grant that it may be so.

We’re talking together under the general heading of “random wrap-up thoughts” from Colossians. We finished the verse by verse and I just want to go back and hit as my father used to say “hit the high spots.” He’d ask me about something and I go into detail and he’d stop me. He’d say, “Just hit the high spots, boy.” Well, maybe we can do that today for chapter 2.

The key verse for our purposes is 2:10. “Ye are complete in Him,” that is in Christ, “Ye are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Ye are complete in Him.” Everything you will ever need in any way or in any relationship is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s something, isn’t it? Now, this second chapter bounds in expressions that have to do with our relationship with Christ, “in Him.” For instance, in verse 3 of chapter 2, it says, “In Him are hid all the treasure of wisdom and knowledge.”

This doesn’t mean that you don’t have to do your homework. God will never do your homework for you. He’ll never study your lessons for you and He will never, in answer to prayer, help you remember something you didn’t first forget. You have to put it in there. But the impact of this third verse of Colossians 2 has to do with the eternal knowledge that makes a difference a million years from now. “In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom.” Now, where does wisdom begin?” Well, Proverbs says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

And how is it mediated to you and to me? “Through prayer, if any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of God,” James says in his first chapter verse 5, “Who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth,” that means scold us so He doesn’t scold you because you asked for wisdom. So through the Lord Jesus Christ, you have access to the kind of wisdom and knowledge that makes you successful in this life and prepares you for the next. Through the Lord Jesus you can come to God and ask for wisdom and knowledge.

This is no substitute for studying. Last year I bought a brand new Encyclopedia Britannica and I use it. You need to do your homework and so do I. I have a — I hope it’s a wholesome contempt. I have a wholesome contempt for people who preach what we call hip pocket sermons, just off the top of their heads they’re talking about something. So after you’ve done your own research or during the time that you’re doing your own research, ask God in the name of the Lord Jesus to guide you and make sure that your relationship with Christ is clear and unsullied, uncompromised by anything on your part that would offend the blessed indwelling Holy Spirit.

“In Him,” in Christ “are hid all the treasures of wisdom.” The knowledge of God, the knowledge of eternal issues, the knowledge of what to do next with what you know right straight down to where you live. Are you a salesman? Can you pray about God’s guidance when you call on a client? Yes you can. If you don’t pray and you launch out on your own, sometimes the approach that you think is proper may turn out to be disastrous.

A friend of mine had just come back from a triumphant evangelistic tour of the British Isles. This would be nearly 40 years ago now and went to see a donor who was liberally supplied with funds and helped sometimes in that particular work. He gave this glowing report of all the wonderful things that happened in Great Britain. And he paused for breath, this man from whom he hoped to get some funds for God’s work looked at him and said four words, and the interview was concluded. You know what they were? He’d been telling all about his work in England and the man looked at him and he said, “I hate the British.” And that was the end of that. Oh, boy.

Can God guide you in what to say? Yes, He can. All of my mistakes in dealing with people have been made as a result of not waiting on God. Whenever I have prayed that God would guide me about a relationship with a person, He has guided me and I have no regrets. The things, the situations, and the words that I regret are those that came about in a hurry when I didn’t seek my blessed Lord. “In Him,” in Christ, “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” You want to try that out for yourself today?

The Lord Jesus obviously is our key to the presence of God. Let us therefore come bold into the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. You can come to your Heavenly Father through the one who represents you in His spotless shining righteousness which you, by faith, can take for yourself. And having thus come to God, you can ask them for His wisdom and His knowledge concerning the things of the here and now as well as those of eternity. Does that make sense to you? Well, try it out. Make sure your heart is right; make sure you are right with the Christ of eternity, and then ask Him to walk with you on Main Street today.

Now, “In Him,” verse 6, “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye,” that means live every day, “in Him.” The process of trusting Christ every minute is the same process that was operative when you were saved. As you received Christ Jesus as Lord, so live every day in Him. Now, when you came to your Blessed Lord for salvation, you didn’t offer to pay something or do something, you didn’t make any promises. You simply said, “Lord, I can’t save myself. I can’t forgive myself. I need a Savior.”

And you asked the Lord Jesus to save you, to come into your heart, to forgive your sins, and to make you a child of God and you did this all by faith, didn’t you? Did He answer? Oh, yes He did. Many of you, this very moment find your eyes misting up and you say, “Yes, thank God He did. Jesus came into my life and saved me and I know today that I’m a child of God.” Yes, I know. Well, now that same process, my beloved friend, that same process is operative in the every moment of every day as you live for and with your Blessed Lord.

In Him. You’re complete in Him; 2:10 that’s the text and embroidering around the edges of it, you have all these other verses. “In Him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,” and as you received Him as Lord, so live every day in Him. Would you try today this simple procedure? As you go through the day, whisper a prayer before any new situation develops in your life, before you answer a phone, before you open a letter, before… Certainly before you answer a letter, before you make a business decision, before you make a discipline decision concerning junior or his sister. Would you begin today, beloved, to trust the Lord Jesus actively for things and situations just as you trusted Him for salvation?

Let me urge that upon you. It is such a glorious realization when you find out that the Christ who saved you is very willing to be real at 10:30 of a Tuesday morning, when the world is falling apart. You want to try that? In Him. So live every minute of every day, in Him. Make a habit of turning often and often to your Blessed living Lord and committing the present situation to Him, everything from a possible promotion to a flat tire. Whatever it may be, commit it to Him. He has His reasons for allowing these situations to come into your life, doesn’t He? Oh, yes, He does.

I was greatly encouraged the other day to receive a letter from a dear lady who 10 years previously had written me a letter which she had painstakingly typed paralyzed as she is with the use of a typewriter, operated by her tongue, moving a set of switches that had been rigged up by, I believe, by a member of her family. And she said she had heard me mention her and want to just bring me up to date. She said that she’s still rejoicing in the Lord, still paralyzed, still needing help all of the live long day, but still rejoicing — rejoicing in her Lord. And the joy of the Lord just was shining through the whole letter.

Oh, I tell you that just breaks your heart with gratitude to the God who, although He allows these things to come into our lives, makes us the possessors of divine shining joy and the peace that passes understanding. You can live every moment of every day in Christ. You try it out today.

Dear Father, today, oh, may we walk every moment of every day in Christ, in His name I pray, Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!



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