Afflictions, the Tools God Uses

Afflictions are often confusing and baffling because there seems to be no reason, at least none that we can see. The temptation, then, is to feel sorry for ourselves and it adds to a growing list of injustices and “unfair” events where we point out how unjust life seems to be. We may feel like blaming God but we must remember that life’s trials, whether they are allowed by God our they are sent by God are all about our growth and or refinement. These are the things that will bring us into a closer relationship with God if we turn to Him instead for from Him. It brings change and improvement in our own character and nature if we surrender if we surrender to the hands of God and not resist the tool in His hand. We can do this because when we trust Him and ask, “What can I learn and how can I grow” instead of “Who is doing this to me and how can I get out of it?” Too often we focus on the tool which seems so sharp and cruel rather than focusing on the loving hands that hold it and trust the heart of God that only wants our best, whether we understand it or not

Total Commiment Part 2

There are things, even good things, which can distract us from having a total commitment to God. Jesus indicated that we are to love God more than family. Jesus gives us one of those hard sayings in Matthew 10:37 when He says,”He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. Sometimes we want to soften that down, not because we really love our family that much but family can be a great excuse and one that seems to be justified, to lessen our commitment to God. There are times though when it is absolutely true, our love for our family dictates how we will live for Jesus Christ.
Psalm 45:10-11 Listen, O daughter, consider and incline your ear. Forget your own people also, and your father's house; so the King will greatly desire your beauty because He is your Lord, worship Him. Oh how this speaks of the love relationship with God and His people. There is a call to forget our family (your father's house), forget your people (nationality, heritage, culture,) and speaks of a love for God that has first priority and separation from the world.
2 Corinthians 6:14-17 is a call to separation. It says, “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? 15And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? 16And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people."17Therefore "Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord.
Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you."
We are not to be unequally yoked with the unbeliever. That does not mean that we cannot have them as friends nor do things with them but it does mean that we separate ourselves from their sin. If they persist in that sin and that sin threatens our relationship with God than we will choose God before them. We do not have fellowship or communion with them any more if we are serious about walking with God in total commitment. Fellowship means participation or interaction. We are to longer to have participation or interaction with sinful activities. Take notice, that unless their hearts are changed they do not want to have any participation in your activities now, either. There is no harmony in a relationship when two people are going separate ways. Something has to give and if the believer gives in and becomes worldlier then tyhe unbeliever has no reason to change and becomes more hardened to the voice of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes there is a yielding of the unbeliever to tolerate “God” and the life of the believer but there is never true agreement. The only way there will be true agreement is for the unbeliever to yield to the Holy Spirit and become a believer. This verse says that we must come out from them. Total commitment requires separation from the unclean thing…not the person…but the sin that they hold on to which begins with the rejection of God. Many would say that they don’t reject God but they do reject His Lordship and claim on their lives. When it says not to “touch” the unclean thing it means that we are not to “attach” ourselves to those that have attached themselves to sin and sinful living. How can we say that we are total committed to God and compromise in our lifestyle for the sake of someone, any one else?
Total Commitment begins and ends with commitment to God and acknowledging his rightful claim to our life, all of it.
Deut. 6:5 (NKJV) You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
When we separate our hearts and minds from the things and the people of this world we come into a much easier place to love the Lord with all our heart, mind and strength. There must be a turning FROM the world as well as a TURNING TO God in order to love Him as we should and as we have been commanded.

Total Commitment Part One

At some point in our Christian experience, every person comes to a place where they are faced with the question of commitment. What does it mean? How much do I have to give? How will that change my life? Some people want to ignore the question of commitment but others struggle with what it means because they are afraid they cannot meet the requirements. We also want to know just exactly how far total commitment goes. By the way, do we have to be totally committed?
What we should start with is the beginning. Commitment begins with loving God. Rarely does commitment begin by being total but it will never get to that point if we don’t start by loving God first, before anything else. In the bigger scheme of things, our commitment to everything else begins by our commitment to God whether it be in our marriage, our personal walk with the Lord, our involvement in church and our involvement with those that are in church. If we are not truly committed to God first we can never be truly committed to anything or anyone else.
John the Beloved wrote. “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 1John 4:16
Our goal and the longing of our heart should be to walk in everything that God says we are and can do.
It should be our desire to live in His kingdom and enjoy the abundant life of that kingdom. It should also be our desire to be representatives of that kingdom. To be committed to His kingdom and represent His kingdom we must live and walk in love towards God and our brother's and sister's in Christ, as well as those that do not know Christ and are still prisoners of Satan, sin, the flesh and the world.
When asked about which commandment was the most important one Jesus answer, "The first of all the commandments is: 'Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' This is the first commandment. He then followed that with, “And the second, like it, is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."
The scribe that asked the original question went on to say that doing this was more important than anything else we did. It was more important that offerings and sacrifice. Mark 12:28-33
So how are we to love God? The scriptures tell us it must be with our whole heart. The heart was used to mean the center of our emotions. It is that which controls our thoughts and feelings. It is also to be with all our soul., by the very breath we breathe, our very spirit. We are also to love Him with our whole mind and all our strength. The idea of the mind means with deep thought. The noun form of the word means the faculty by which you think, imagine or understand. The final part of loving God is with all our strength. The word used in the Greek implies ability, might or power. All of this must be with all we have in us and at our disposal.. It is our complete love and it must be an undivided love. Jesus told us that "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Matthew 6:24. John understood this when he wrote in his first epistle, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” 1 John 2:15 We cannot serve two masters. We try but that is why we fail. When we divide our heart we find it impossible to be in the world but we find it impossible serve God the way we know we should.
Loving God first is the most important thing we can do. It must take first place. Even before our earthly loves. Some earthly loves are positive and only need to be in priority. Others are negative loves and must be replaced and removed. We must ask ourselves what really is my first love? It takes great daring but if we answer that and say “God” are we willing to ask God, “Is it true?”
We do see that the greatest joy is found in serving God with our whole heart and living for Him. Loving Him with all we have is the place we will find what we need to walk in total commitment.