Welcome (back) to "Tuesday Mornings," a promise of spring in a winter that is winding down. If you need encouragement, this publication is for you! Thanks for tuning in today. Our computer has been silent for two weeks as we traveled east to participate in the installation of our son as lead pastor of an up-and-coming New York congregation. You will be reading some of his writings in future weeks.

 

Today's topic is "Impossible." The situation isn't; the topic is. There are more "impossible" pronouncements going around these days than are necessary. But wait until we get closer to the primaries a year from now. Things that are possible now will seem impossible a year from now—at least that is what we will be told. What better time to begin preparing for March!

 

Absolutely nothing is impossible with God. Jesus said it in Mark 10:27. It was part of the narrative where Jesus spoke of the difficulty of a camel passing through the eye of a needle. He said:

 

"With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God."

 

If the weather is cold and windy where you are today, this epistle is for you. Continue reading below whenever you are ready. Then look for some impossible situation facing you straight on and pray confidently for the Lord to make it possible. He wants to hear from you. When you hear back, write and tell me about it.

 

Have a truly outstanding week. Begin by humming that "Got any rivers you think are uncrossible" chorus.

 

Tom Barnard

A Senior Encourager

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Impossible

Tom Barnard

 

really don’t care much for the word “impossible,” even though it appears in both the Old and New Testaments and in every English dictionary. It is descriptive of many things that have gone wrong in society, world events, and the lives of ordinary people today. It is a word that is used frequently by politicians, reporters, columnists and critics of the status quo. Everybody seems to believe that nearly everything is impossible.

 

The reason I am reluctant to use the word is that I am one of those “possibility thinkers” that believes it is better to praise God for the daylight than to curse the darkness. I believe in solving problems, not exposing them. I believe we have been placed in this world at this time in history to be “salt and light” in a world gone crazy. But not everyone agrees with me. Politicians tend to see it another way.

 

Part of society’s problem is that people don’t believe that God is in charge of things. They read (or reconstruct) history from the perspective that God doesn’t exist. And if He does exist, they argue that He has never been involved in world events. The Bible? A book of myths. The Holocaust? It never happened. Miracles? Only coincidences. Prayer? A crutch for weaklings. Creation? The result of a cosmic explosion billions of years ago. The one thing that skeptics seem to agree on is that if they (or people of their political persuasion) were in control, things would be just dandy.

 

Did you read the headlines today? You don’t even need to turn to the editorial page to uncover dozens of issues and situations that by any reasonable description are impossible! Then when I turned to the Bible today, here is what I read from Isaiah 40:22-24:

 

He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers.

He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.

He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.

No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground,

than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.

 

Or continue reading from that same chapter (verses 25 and 26):

 

“To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?” says the Holy one.

Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these?

He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name.

Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.

 

What things trouble you today? What “impossible” situations are you facing? I love this quote from Jim Cymbala in his book, Break Through Prayer (2003, Zondervan, p. 99)

 

“God yearns to intervene in our ‘impossible’ dilemmas,

problems that are like child’s play for him.”

 

What impossible situations are bearing down on you? What gigantic mountain needs to be moved in order for your goal to be reached? How many naysayers have said to your face, “You aren’t capable of handling this situation any longer”? What pragmatists have said, “That won’t work here”? What long-time board member has declared recently, “We never did it that way before”?

 

They haven’t been praying to the same sovereign you know. You can’t move mountains yourself. But you know of someone who can. Don’t let your heartbreaking situation break you. Turn to Him today!