Letter To Our Children
by Pastor Joe | January 19, 2022 | Letters To Our Children

January 19, 2022
But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush Him
and cause Him grief.
Yet when His life is made an offering for sin,
He will have many children.
He will enjoy a long life,
and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in His hands.
There is no saint without a past,
No sinner without a future.
Augustine (354-430 A.D.)

Hello friends!
We are in the dead of winter. Winter is when things are the most silent, still, and cold. If we didn’t know better, the trees, brush, and grass all look dead. In the dead of winter, when nature is without charm, is the author of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle, Washington Irving, thought about winter.
Nonetheless, I was speaking to a farmer recently, and he told me that there are certain kinds of wheat he plants right before winter. The cold comes, the ground freezes, the snow comes, and the seed shows no signs of life. But the wheat is not dead. It is alive. The seeds develop, grow roots, mature, and then its growth slows down like it has no life during winter. Until spring arrives, I wonder how many times good people may have driven by his field and said, well, nothing is happening there.
When our Lord Jesus Christ died, it seemed like the dead of winter. All seemed lost. Any of the work He had done before the cross and on the cross seemed pointless and fruitless. But not to the eyes of faith.
God Always Has a Plan
The Bible teaches and prophets in the Old Testament predicted, His death was not pointless nor fruitless. He died as our substitute because death was the penalty of our sins. Only His death would be accepted by God.
In death, Jesus became like planted winter wheat which, in time, brings much grain. (Billions of souls saved is the current count!) Isaiah said death was part of God's plan. And you should know God always has a plan. God has an eternal purpose (literally, a plan of the ages) by which He accomplishes everything according to the counsel of His will (Ephesians 3:11; 1:10-11).
He had a plan for the salvation of His people from Egyptian slavery when He guided them through the sea and the deserts by the pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night (Exodus 13:21-22).
He had a plan to return His people from Babylonian exile, where He set Cyrus on the throne and moved his heart (Ezra 1:1) to send the Jewish people home to build the temple.
He had a plan to rebuild the wall in Jerusalem (Nehemiah 2:12).
He had a plan for Jesus who said it was His will on earth to do His Father's will (John 4:34).
God had a plan for the apostle Paul. Five times, at the beginning of his letters, Paul announced himself as an apostle by the will of God.” God has always had a plan for each of His children - including you, me, and His Church.
God’s plan always prospers. However, in God's plan, nothing ever grows until it dies. Death is part of His plan. Death was His plan for Christ, and His good plan prospered in His hands. But this can be confusing; because, in His Kingdom, alive things often look like they are dead. But only for a time.
What is true in the Bible and true of Christ; is also true of Christ's people and His Church—nothing ever grows unless it dies. Therefore, nothing about the death of Jesus Christ will fail you or His Church. All the results of His sacrifice will never end.
Find your best joys in this truth. Lock all your hope about your future into this truth because everything else will eventually die and stay dead. But, Jesus and His promises live forever (Hebrews 7:24-25)!
May God bless you with a very good and lively week!
Pastor Joe