No Matter What It Looks Like

     Jesus was crucified between two thieves.  All three of them were beaten.  Jesus had been beaten much worse than they had.  The two thieves were getting what the law said that they deserved.  They were in the middle of some bad circumstances.  They were in great agony and the only thing that they could foresee in the immediate future for themselves was ridicule and a very painful death.  As they looked at this Man whom everybody had been declaring was the Saviour of the world, they saw that this Word of God made flesh was going through something worse than they were.  The two thieves saw the same thing but made two different assessments.

     One thief looked at Jesus and said, "IF you ARE the One that everybody says You are, then save Yourself and us."  He looked at the Word and chose to believe the circumstances that he was in.  He made the decision that all was lost there was nothing that could be done about it.  He got what he believed, and agonizing and tormenting death and afterlife.

     However, the other thief looked at Jesus and believed that He WAS who He said He was.  He believed what the Word of God said about Him.  Even though he was facing death, even though he had no reason to believe that the situation would ever change, he chose to believe that there was STILL hope in God.  He declared his belief that Jesus was innocent of all charges brought against Him.  When he verbalized his beliefs, Jesus verbalized the man's future and told him that heaven was going to be the home of both of them that very day.

     We all face situations that we really do not like to be in.  We all have the opportunity to make judgements concerning God and His Word Throughout every single day.  We can look at circumstances and declare that those circumstances are true and nothing can be done about them.  Or, we can look at those circumstances and declare the Word of God to be true.  When we believe that Jesus is Who He says He is and will do what He says He will do, we will find that dire circumstances don't matter to Him.  Whatever we are going through, He is well able to deliver us from it all.