by Anthony N. Wade

The foundation of this entry began while I was watching a minister on television. It happened to be a part of the day when I am the most coherent — the most alert of any day of the week. Those hours are between 3 & 7 o'clock in the morning. The minister was teaching on the importance of not allowing ourselves to be offended for any reason (Psalm 119:165). As I was listening, like a bell going off at noonday, these words came reverberating in my ears: I Wonder If God Cries?

I knew right away I was to go to my computer and begin writing. Intuitively I knew it was the title of a composition for my newletter. Why? Because that phrase has not been in my life for over twenty-five years. I was introduced to that question in a song. The nature of the song was asking if God cries over some of the things we humans have done against Him throughout the course of our lives. Well, to answer the question, right away I thought of the scripture, Jesus wept, (John 11:35). He is the express Image of God (Hebrews 1:3). When we see Him in the Bible, it is giving us a candid view of who God is, and how He conducts Himself at any given time.

Yes, God wept through Jesus Christ, but it wasn't the kind of weeping that many think it was. His weeping was not over the fact that Lazarus had died. It was over the response of the people at the tomb of Lazarus. God wept through Jesus over the fact that they did not believe that Lazarus would be raised from the dead. Jesus had told Martha and Mary and several of His followers, that Lazarus would live again — that He was the resurrection and the Life. But all they could think about was the fact that Lazarus would be raised, at the end of time. They totally missed what Jesus was talking about. Bottom line, Jesus groaning's and weeping was because of their unbelief. They did not believe that Jesus was going to raise him from the dead.

GRIEVE NOT THE HOLY SPIRIT

Ephesians 4:30 KJV

{30} And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

Here in Ephesians it commands us to not grieve “The Holy Spirit.” 'The Holy Spirit' is one-third of Who God is. One-third of Who God is can be found in “The Person of The Holy Spirit.” After the command to not grieve Him, there is a list of things that I personally believe would grieve Him. Bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour, evil speaking. We could do a word study on every item listed, but space will not allow us to do so. I suggest that you take the list in verse thirty-one and do a word study.

“I AM NOT GOING TO DO THAT”!

A number of years ago, I was driving to do a series of meetings. During my drive “The Holy Spirit” was conversing with me about a relationship I was having some difficulty with. After conversing with me about the relation, He told me to apologize to the person that we were discussing. I immediately shouted at Him, “I'M NOT GOING TO DO THAT”! He was endeavoring to get me to take the initiative in a relationship gone awry. All I could do was think about how I had not done anything wrong for the relationship to be where it was. Holy Spirit was trying to get me to be the bigger person.

He was grieved. For the next few miles down the road I knew something was wrong. It was
as if He was no longer with me — as if I was riding down the road all by myself, on my own.
After a number of miles of riding down the road, on my own – all by myself, so it seemed, I began appealing to Him to come back in the vehicle with me. He was there, but chose to be silent and not make 'His Presence' known. I told Him that I would do what He asked me to do. After some deliberation He began to speak to me again. It was a dreaded feeling, thinking I had grieved Him to the point of never talking with me again. I did do what He asked me to do, and everything worked out just fine.

2 Corinthians 13:14 KJV

{14} The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Love of God, and the Communion of The Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.