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.

You Gotta Serve Somebody

Romans 6:17-18 (NKJV) But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.

I was thinking about the independence we have through the freedom that was secured for us through the work of Jesus on the cross.
Paul tells us in Romans 6 that we were slaves to sin and that when we were slaves of sin, we were free in regard to righteousness. (vs.20) Being free in regards to righteousness means that we were unrestrained and did what we wanted and in some cases what we did not want to do but we were slaves to sin.
But being free in Christ does not mean that we are no longer slaves. We just serve a different Master. We have a master that has redeemed us at a great price with an even greater motive….love.
Paul goes on to say in Romans 6:22 that … having been set free from sin, we have become slaves of God. We are slaves that have been bought with a price and that price was the precious blood of Jesus. Having been set free we choose to become slaves. We are bondservants …slaves of choice. Paul concludes vs.22 with, "you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life."
Because we have obeyed God; we have believed. Now we have the opportunity to live righteously, and so also, to begin to serve God with the same fervor and energy with which we were serving sin. Our motive needs to be love too. The love returned to God for His great gift of salvation to us through Jesus. Now it is our choice and that choice is not made out of obligation but response to God’s love. We need to let righteousness enslave us and let it become the bondage and habit of our life.
It is impossible to be neutral. Every person has a master—either God or sin. Bob Dylan wrote a song a long time ago called “You Gotta Serve Somebody” and in it he said, “You may serve the devil or you may serve the Lord but you gotta serve somebody. A Christian is not someone who cannot sin, but someone who is no longer a slave to sin. He or she belongs to God. Before we were converted we had to serve sin. As Christians we have the freedom to live independent of sin but completely dependent on God.

That I might know Him

JOH 17:3 Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

If there was ever a character in the bible that knew God it would be Moses. The interesting thing about the relationship that Moses had with God and our relationship with God is that God initiated both.
For Moses it began at the burning bush when God called him to deliver His people from Egypt but for God it started before Moses was born but the whole life of Moses was known by God from the beginning. When he was called, Moses could have just done what he was told. He also had some opportunities to really advance his own personal situation but he didn’t. Exodus 33:11tells us that the LORD spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. Moses wanted the friendship of God
Knowing God changed Moses. He went from doing things his own way to totally relying on God. He is known in the bible as a man who was meek. Being meek did not mean he was weak. The essence of the word meek (KJV) is translated humble. Strong’s translates the word as gentle. Moses quietly trusted God in every situation. He was confident in his calling from God. This was because of relationship. DEU 34:10 says, “And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face,”
God desires a face to face relationship with us all. God can use us, He can speak to us and through us, but He desires most of all that we will walk with Him in a face to face relationship. He initiated the relationship by first sending the Holy Spirit to convict us of sin and by providing Jesus Christ as a sacrifice to atone for our sins so we could have fellowship. He goes on to give us gifts and callings and then provides everything to fulfill that calling.
Moses desired the relationship. His outward life showed his inward heart. He wanted to know what God said and he trusted what God said. Because he trusted, he obeyed what God said. Most of all, he desired God more than His promises. Moses wanted more than just the Promised Land. Sad to say too many people desire God's promises and His provision more than they desire Him.
We need to desire to know God, His purpose and His will. How? It’s found in Romans 12:1,2 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Our action is to surrender. It is to present our bodies to God and to not be conformed to this world but to be transformed into the image and likeness of God. The result will be that we progress in our understanding and relationship with God. We will be able to prove (test and know) what is good, what is acceptable and what is his perfect will is. Jesus' desire for us (John 17:21) is to be one with God like He was was. How can I do that? John 5:30, 12:49,50
Jesus said, “Can do nothing by myself. “I judge only as I hear from the Father. I don't seek to please Myself but Him who sent me. I don't speak for myself but what my Father commands me to say and how to say it. I know his commandment is life everlasting. This is speaking of a relationship where the very thoughts are God's thoughts and the very words spoken are God's words. Jesus was not led by dreams or visions but by the very thoughts and words of God. That should be our goal as well. It comes from relationship. That relationship is actively pursued by God. We in turn must pursue it as well. With all our heart.

Being "Others" Minded

Being "others" minded is often very hard. Many times we blame our lack of being "others" minded on being busy or having our own personal issues. Jesus is ever the example. I often kid about Jesus taking the apostles away on a picnic. There may well have been another reason. In Matthew 14 Jesus is told that John the Baptist has been killed. It is about this time that the disciples are coming back from having been sent out to preach and heal. They are excited and want to share with Jesus all about their adventures.At this point Jesus has a crisis in his own life. John was his cousin and though we don’t know how close they were he was still a relative. John was a forerunner of not only Jesus' ministry but of his suffering and death. He was also concerned about the apostles and what was going on in their lives. They had much to tell Him and know doubt He was anxious to hear what they said. But they had no privacy and that was the reason they went across the lake. Do you ever feel like there is no leisure time - not even to eat? No time for communication and fellowship? Jesus knows what that is like. His desire was to take them away with Him for a time of fellowship and rest. Just about the time they were pulling up to the shore a crowd started to gather. We don’t know how long it took but eventually there were 5000 men not counting women and kids, but Jesus was concerned about the crowd. It is said in the text of the passage that He had compassion on them. He saw their need. Do you see the need of others or are you stuck on your own needs? Jesus saw that they were like sheep without a shepherd. They were without direction, protection and they needed feeding. He desired to meet their needs. He began to teach them and then he healed (Matthew 14;14). Then He fed them again with physical food.
This is where He used the disciples. He wants to use you. The disciples come and ask Jesus to send everyone away - just get rid of the problem. Not, "can you fix it" but "get rid of it. Is it possible that they were tolerant just until they saw a good reason to get back to their original plan of rest and relaxation? Jesus said, "you feed them”. But they cannot see how. That is also like us too, isn’t it? We don’t see that we have the resources to do what Jesus asks. Then Jesus asked them (and us) “What do you have?” They had 5 loaves and 2 fish. Not much with a crowd like that. But little is much in the hands of Jesus. Jesus wants to use what little you have to make a difference. The apostles are involved. They directed the people to sit. They then set the food before the people and they collected the food again. Jesus then took a little and blessed it, broke it and gave it away. Are you willing to be the bread in Jesus hands? Will you be the bread to fill the needs of others, blessed - by blessing others, broken - to be given away and then brought back again? When we give out in Jesus name much is collected back to Jesus, far more than what is ever given out. He didn't have to do everything. He had the apostle serve and collect and he refused the accolades of the crowd. Instead He went to pray after a great move of God in preparation for the next. The next was walking on water! If we are willing to let our time and situations be God’s place of opportunity we may find ourselves in some marvelous occasions where we get to do some amazing things. We may not have much but in His hands we can be part of some very amazing things.

Captured for a Purpose

And the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid; and she waited on Naaman's wife. 3And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy.2 Kings 5:2-4

Are you willing to be used by God? Whatever the cost? Consider this: Here is this little girl who was captured in some raiding party of the Syrians. She is ripped from her home, family and country and taken away to be a slave. Now no matter how well you have it you always know that you are a slave. Even in the most benevolent situations you still are aware that you are in this situation against your will. You have been taken from family and familiar situations against your will. The people you serve either captured you or bought you and you are a piece of property. You might get lucky and get a benevolent master but then again you might not. What will you do? You also might remember the story of Joseph who was sold into slavery…by his brothers! Then, even though he was doing his job he is falsely accused of attempting to rape the boss’s wife and ends up in prison. He works his way up in the prison, helps a couple of fellows close to the king but is forgotten for another couple of years.
The little girl’s sweetness, even in captivity brought a great man in touch with the living God. Though she was a captive she chose to show mercy instead of revenge. She could have said to herself, “Let the old man fall apart all over Syria.” Instead she shares a possible way out of his misery. It wasn’t so much that she wanted her boss to meet the prophet as it was to meet the prophet’s God…her God. God had placed her for a purpose, and she was faithful. Because of her faithfulness her boss, Naaman, eventually receives healing as well as faith in God.
Joseph was faithful to God. He had shown pride and arrogance (which seemed to be the reason that his brothers hocked him for thirty pieces of silver.) But the bible says that God was with him. When he was tempted to sleep with the boss’s wife (by the wife herself) he refused on two grounds. The first reason was good. My master has trusted me with everything and has kept nothing from me except you. But the second reason was the highest purpose for his faithfulness. “How can I sin against God?” That got him thrown into jail. Right there he could have questioned God, (and probably did though the bible doesn’t record it) got mad and quit. He could have lived like others, one moment at a time. But instead he honored God and God honored him. In due time God not only brought him out of jail but put him in charge of all of Pharaoh’s wealth. But that wasn’t the purpose God had in mind. Not only did he work some things out in Joseph’s mind but he dealt with the brothers as well. He also brought Israel and his family to Egypt, a place they would not have gone on their own, Here God would make a great nation and people that would be His People.
Where has God put you? No matter how humble or small your position, God can use you to spread his Word. Look for opportunities to tell others what God can do. There’s no telling who will hear your message!