Tag Archives: obedience

January 19; Come As You Are

It stood out to me today that God changed Abram’s name to Abraham before he was circumcised. Abram had gotten Hagar pregnant with the mistaken idea God needed a little help fulfilling His promise. Abram did what he thought was right, but it was sin.

Then God changed his name. But Abraham’s name wasn’t the only thing changed.

Hasn’t today’s Church adopted the “come as you are” mantra to a fault? Not just in church attire, but behavior inside and outside the church, too. It’s gone to such an extreme that the word “sin” is left out of some sermons, and in some fellowships sin is ignored or promoted in the name of tolerance and love.

When Abram met God, he fell on his face, a sign of humility and worship. He got up with the name Abraham, and that same day obeyed God and was circumcised. No, of course he didn’t become perfect after the name change. He questioned God seconds later. A work in progress, Abraham progressed.

Friend, if Abram was circumcised before the name change, I’d tell you to clean up your act before going to Jesus. I’d tell you to quit smoking and drinking, to quit being mean to your neighbor, to start telling the truth and be faithful to your wife. I’d say you’d better start going to church, and quit using God’s name as a punctuation mark, then ask God to save you.

But, I’m not going to tell you any of that.

Go to God today, just as you are right now smelling of smoke and hung over, caught in a lie, or in the middle of an affair with your husband’s best friend. Go to God with your doubts and fears and scars and tears. Fall on your face before Him and ask Him to forgive you. He will.

But let me warn you; if you do, it can change your life. It can make you want to obey, even in the difficult things. (I have to believe being circumcised at 99 was a difficult thing. But the new and improved Abraham obeyed.)

Even if you’ve already asked Jesus to be your Savior at some time in your life, but find yourself chained to a sin today, go to him bound. Ask Him to forgive you and break those chains.

If you go to God today, if you confess your sin, if you repent you will receive His forgiveness. That’s His promise to all of us. It’s not make yourself a better person, clean yourself up, then repent. It’s ask, and receive.

Ask, and receive.

Come to God just as you are, but don’t stay that way. Let Him change you into the person you and He both want you to be.

January 3; Testing the Water

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Genesis 7-9

I’ve never gotten a text from God. And He has not once left me a voicemail. So when I’m faced with a big decision, how do I know what His will is, and what is coming from my own desires?

In my reading yesterday, I was impressed with Noah’s immediate obedience. Today his careful patience impresses me.

I believe God is telling me both have their places in my obedience. When God told Noah to build the ark, Noah obeyed without question. God’s voice was audible and clear. I believe His voice is that clear still today.

Jesus said, “Go into all the world…” so I don’t need to question whether or not He wants me to introduce my neighbor to the Savior. He’s already told me to do that. The Bible tells us to love each other, as well as love our enemies, do good to those who mistreat us, resist the devil… Some things are black and white. God says, “Do,” and we must obey.

But God doesn’t specifically address whether or not I should move from Ohio to Georgia. Or whether you should change jobs, or marry that person you are seeing. Wouldn’t it be nice if He’d just call once in awhile?

So what do you do, when you want to be obedient to God’s will in every circumstance of life? I think Noah gives us a great example.

The rain had stopped, and the ark came to rest on a mountaintop. Now what? Do we stay here? Or do we step out of this ark in faith? At this point, God isn’t saying anything. So Noah tests the water.

First he opened a window. Then he sent out a raven, followed by a dove. He took the cover off the ark, and saw the earth had dried up. And He waited. Finally, God spoke, and Noah moved.

I know I shared about my move to this island a couple years ago. My prayer was that God would lead, and I would follow. I promised not to force open any door He closed, and to go through the ones He opened. But in order to do that, I had to test the water, look at dozens of homes, make offers on several, until the house I now own became available, and God opened the door He wanted me to go through.

Let’s face it. Not every thought or desire we have comes from God. I think Scripture tells us to be wise. Test the water. And if God closes that door, you can bet He did that to save you from a world of hurt. If God opens that door, you are in for a shower of blessings.

Are you facing a decision here at the beginning of 2019, and you aren’t sure where God is leading you? Test the water. Trust God to shut you down if He doesn’t want you to move. And trust Him to open doors He wants you to go through. But if you think He is nudging you to go in a certain direction, take a step. Open a window. Send out a dove. He’ll be faithful to give you the answers you need.

You just need to obey.

January 2; No Questions Asked

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Genesis 4-6

“Noah, build an ark.”

“Ok.”

But had Noah ever even seen an ark? Did he even know what a flood looked like? He might not even have known what rain looked like. But God said it. And Noah obeyed.

If you are like me, sometimes I ask too many questions. God might be prompting me to do something as easy as walking across the street to talk to a neighbor about Him, or to befriend that irritating coworker, or up my financial giving at church. And instead of obeying, I start asking questions:

“Why?”

“What’s in it for me?”

“What can I say to them?”

“What will people think?”

“Am I hearing you right?”

And I think it to death, my time is wasted, and my opportunity is past. What if Noah had done that? What if he started asking questions and put off building the ark?

The Bible would be a much shorter book. There’d be no one to read it anyway.

But Noah obeyed and built that ark that saved him and his family, and us. God is not asking me to do anything as unimaginable or difficult as building an ark. Why do I make such a big production out of obeying what He does ask of me?

This year, in 2019, I want to be obedient. Period. I want to trust Him without having to know the details first. As I continue to read His Word and pray, I want His voice to be clear and my obedience immediate.

Like Noah building an ark, I want to take that step of faith and obey God just because He asks me to. No questions asked.

Ephesians; Royal Rules

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Being an American, I’m not that familiar with British Royalty. I’m not what you’d call a Royal Enthusiast, although I do like watching the weddings. So, after reading Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, I Googled Royal Rules. Here are a few that stood out to me:

No one eats after the Queen is through with her meal.
A Royal wedding bouquet must contain myrtle.
You can’t have political views
You can’t play the board game “Monopoly.”
Married women don’t wear hats after 6 PM – bring on the tiaras.
You can’t eat shellfish
You can’t take selfies
Garlic isn’t allowed in Buckingham Palace
Neither are potatoes, rice, and pasta
You never turn your back toward the Queen

(from “50 Strict Rules the Royal Family Has to Follow, marieclaire.com)

After reading Galatians the other day, I was reminded that I am an heir, a member of the most royal family of all – God’s Church. Today I am convicted about that very thing. Paul, in Ephesians, tells us what a Royal should look like. I’m asking myself if I’m living my life worthy of the calling:

Be completely humble
Be gentle, patient, loving
Be a peace-maker
Speak truth in love
Put off falsehood
Don’t sin in anger
Don’t be obscene
Don’t be impure
Don’t be greedy
Don’t be partners with those who are disobedient

There’s more. Paul goes on to describe in further detail what we who are heirs of the Promise, children of the King of Kings should look like. I encourage you to read Ephesians for yourself.

I’m thinking if those British Royals can take that much care to represent the Queen in such a manner, shouldn’t I take more care to represent my King?

I Corinthians 6-10; Life in a Nutshell

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Paul gives us many examples of what life should be for the Christian. And his descriptions are so politically incorrect, it’s almost laughable.

In his letter to the Corinthians he tells us Christians ought not to sweat the small stuff. We shouldn’t be making mountains out of mole hills. We shouldn’t be blowing up over trivial matters. The world is watching how we handle the small stuff. Does our example convict them, or does it validate their own bad behavior?

The Christian life should be pure. Yes, I know that’s an old-fashioned word. But purity should describe we who serve a Holy God. Again, the world is watching us. Do they see us with self-control, with unwavering morality? Or do they see the same depravity in us they see in themselves?

Christians should be content, faithful in marriage, busy serving God. If they see us sleeping around, divorcing because we fall out of love, or neglecting our families or our ministries, what is different about us than what they have in their own homes?

Paul challenges us again today to stop looking out for “number one,” and step aside for the benefit of others. Who cares if the new sanctuary color isn’t to your liking? Or if that lady in your Sunday School took your favorite pyrex dish home after the last pot-luck dinner? Who cares if Suzie got the choir solo you wanted to sing, or if you weren’t asked to sit on the AdMin committee again this year.

Get over yourself.

The world tells us to stop being a door-mat. The apostle seems to be telling us being a door-mat has its purposes.

Paul said he gave up so many rights to take on his ministry. He said he became whatever was needed in order to win people to the Lord. That must have been exhausting. He did it anyway. He denied himself a spouse, he turned down wages, he gave up the comforts of home. For what?

Time is running out, he told the Corinthians 2,000 years ago. And, friend, if time was running out then, it’s closer yet today. Paul didn’t have time to be self-absorbed when there were people who still needed the Lord.

Do we? Paul tells us to be single minded. Focus. You can’t live with one foot in God’s kingdom and one foot in the world. Are you trying to make God mad? (10:22)

Life in a nutshell? Jesus said we are to love God and love our neighbor. (No mention of self-love, is there?) Paul tells us whatever we do, whether we are eating or drinking, “do it all for the glory of God.” (10:31)

Life in a nutshell is not about you.

I Corinthians 1-5; A Little Yeast

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It occurred to me as I read this portion of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians that we Christians are concerned about the state of the world; we lament over the blatant sin, the disregard for Christianity, the increasing ungodliness accepted as normal. And we are right to do so

But Paul is talking about caring for the temple. I wonder if we’re as concerned about that as we are about the world. It’s easy to point fingers, to talk about “they.” It’s not as easy to point those fingers at ourselves.

Paul tells us we ourselves are God’s temple. (3:16) He asks us to consider our foundation, and our building materials. Are we building our faith on the standards of the age, the wisdom of the world? Or is our foundation Jesus Christ, our faith built on Scripture, God’s wisdom? Is our temple built by we who are servants, obedient, faithful?

Paul warns us not to go “beyond what is written.” Do we even know what is written? Building and protecting this temple called Connie involves reading and studying God’s Word apart from anything else. It means obeying God by keeping myself pure, by listening to His voice and sharing Him with others. Caring for this temple, where God lives on earth, involves effort, intentionality, humility.

Now, I believe if we Christians took better care of our temples, our own lives and relationships with God, then our world wouldn’t be in the state it’s in.

But God pointed out something else to me this morning. We Christians aren’t taking very good care of God’s Church, either. I guess that’s a direct result of not protecting ourselves from sin. But Paul addresses the problem of ignoring sin in the church. He even said the church in Corinth was proud of the fact that they embraced a man guilty of a sexual sin. “Shouldn’t you rather be grieved over this sin,” he asks?

I can’t help but think of whole denominations that embrace homosexuals in their congregations and their pulpits. Shouldn’t God’s people be grieved instead? But Paul doesn’t stop with the sexual sin this particular church-goer was guilty of. Paul includes, “greedy, an idolator or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler” in his list of people who should not be comfortable in our pews.

Paul goes so far as to say they shouldn’t be welcome in the church. I know that goes against what many of us believe these days. But I think we need to consider the truth of what God inspired Paul to write.

I remember years ago, after the contemporary movement was introduced as a result of surveys given to unchurched people about what they would like to see in churches that would encourage them to attend, Ravi Zacharias said something to this effect:

Church should be the last place a sinner feels comfortable.

And I believe that. A church that prides itself on tolerance, on open doors, on a come-as-you-are-and-stay-that-way approach, isn’t a church at all, no matter how involved they are in their communities. It’s a social club. I think I’ve shared about the “church” that advertises by saying, “Come worship with us. We won’t tell you what to believe.” Is that where we’re heading?

It is if we don’t start protecting our temple, caring for our churches. It has to start with each of us individually. But it also has to spill over into our churches. Do we allow sin into our midst, hoping that somehow it will turn into purity? Paul says beware, a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough. “Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast.” (5:7) I think that is true both for my heart, and in my church.

If I accept a little sin here and there in my life, it doesn’t stay little. It grows, and it invites its friends in. If we accept, or ignore, a sin in our church it won’t stay little there, either. One sin becomes two, then four, and we end up with an unusable batch of dough. Paul challenges us to become “bread without yeast,” a fellowship without sin.

I hope you’ll read these chapters in I Corinthians. There is so much here. Some of it is hard to hear, some of it will thrill your soul. Let God speak to your heart today, and may it change us. May it change the Church.

Acts 5-8; What Would People Think?

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Some time ago, I read an opinion drawn from some kind of research that said men tend to dress for comfort, while women dress to impress other women. Some people have been known to go into debt in order to appear successful to family, friends, and coworkers. I wonder how many decisions I make every day based on what I think others will think about me.

Ananias and Sapphire made the decision to cook the books a bit so it looked to everybody else that they gave the church the entire amount they received from the sale of some land. I guess they wanted people to look at them as exceptionally generous or something.

Simon was a successful magician, and had somewhat of a following. (Something like our modern day equivalent to 1,000 followers on Twitter.) But when Peter and John laid hands on believers who then received the Holy Spirt, Simon wanted that ability in his arsenal, too. He even offered to pay the apostles if they’d share their trick with him. Don’t kid yourself. Simon wasn’t interested in being used by God to share Christ. He was more concerned about what his followers would think if he couldn’t keep up with the apostles.

The Pharisees and Sadducees never stopped being protective of their reputations. We see them throw the apostles in prison when the apostles were leading people to Jesus through teaching and miracles. Any convert to Christianity was one less person who looked up to the Jewish leaders.

But Peter and the other apostles stood firm. They certainly didn’t care that the Sadducees and Pharisees wanted them to stop speaking for Jesus. In fact, they didn’t care at all what the Sadducees and Pharisees thought of them:

We must obey God rather than men! (5:29)

And there’s the point. If you clean up your language around certain people, and let it fly around others you might have a problem. If you laugh at certain jokes, or watch certain shows, or go certain places around some people but not others, you might have a problem.

I don’t believe the Bible teaches we shouldn’t care at all what people think. I care that people see Jesus when they look at me. I care that my decisions reflect my relationship with my Savior. But not because I want to appear like a good person. I want to always be used by God to draw someone to Him, not me.

And sometimes that means going against what others think. For me, it means passing on that alcoholic beverage. It means never using God’s name as an exclamation mark. It means walking away from gossip, or not responding to every stupid thing someone posts online. It means caring enough about what God thinks of me that I don’t hesitate to love the person who is unloving, that I’m not ashamed to reach out to someone others think is too far gone. It means understanding that my audience is not just the person sitting next to me. God Himself is listening and watching me every second of every day.

I believe Scripture teaches that if I am above all concerned with God’s opinion of me, He will take care of what others think about me. And if they don’t like my stand for God’s truth, I want to still stand firm. Because I have to obey God rather than people.

What would other people think if I lived a consistent life, obedient to God? I’m reminded they hated Jesus. They just might hate me, too. But I am also reminded that many were drawn to Jesus as well. My prayer is that when people look at my life, they will think that having Jesus in their lives just might be so much better than what they have without Him.

Matthew 23-25; Looking Ahead

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Jesus looks ahead to His second coming. I don’t know about you, but hearing Him tell us about it excites me. From His own mouth, He tells us He’ll appear in the sky with power and glory, accompanied by angels and blaring trumpets. I honestly hope I’m alive to see it and meet Him in the air.

But then Jesus turns His thoughts to the way we believers need to be living until that glorious day, which may or may not be in our lifetime. His description of His Kingdom continues…

The parable of the bridesmaids reminds me I need to live this life prepared for His return. I need to repent of sin, grow in grace, live every day expecting to meet Him. Postponing getting prepared is a chance I’m not willing to take, because when that day happens – the death of this earthly body or His glorious return – that door will be closed, never to open again. He’s not going to “Wait a second” just because I need to take care of some things first. When that door is closed, I want to be on the inside through the precious blood of Jesus.

The parable of the talents encourages me to take stock of the gifts He has given me, and to ask myself if I am being a good steward of those things.

Have you taken one of those surveys lately to identify your gifts? I would suggest you do. There are plenty of them free on the internet. Then, get busy using those gifts for the Kingdom. Because the truth of the matter is, we are going to give an account one day before a Holy God who has told us to go into all the world to share the gospel, to care for widows, to care for the sheep, to give drink to the thirsty, cloth the unclothed, visit those in prison…

Don’t think for a minute God is going to take the “I didn’t know I had that gift” excuse for not using it. He HAS gifted you. And it’s up to you to identify it and put it to work.

How are we doing? God’s Kingdom isn’t a place to sit back and drink in all the blessings. God’s Kingdom is a war zone, a vineyard, a mission field. And God wants us to be active, productive citizens working with one eye on the lost, and one eye on the sky. We need to be changing the present one soul at a time, while looking ahead to that amazing day when we see Jesus face to face.

Matthew 20-22; The Invitation

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Jesus sure had a lot to say about the Kingdom of God. I’m learning some things about my own walk with Him as I consider how the Church should look and operate according to the Lord. I want to be an intentionally obedient citizen.

Jesus tells us in chapter 20 the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who hires laborers. For one thing, this parable reminds me we all are to be out there working, planting, watering, and harvesting every day.

And, although this parable is talking about the heavenly kingdom and grace, God is revealing some things about Himself. First, He is the boss. Period. How He runs things is really not our business. He’s not sending out a survey asking how we think He’s doing. He doesn’t need our approval. But He wants us to know He is a good boss, a fair boss, as well as a generous boss.

Which leads me to the second thing God is revealing about Himself in this parable: His grace is His to give and I can be sure that, as His child, I will not be cheated. As a citizen of the Kingdom of God, I am assured that my King does all things well. I need to look less at others, and recognize the enormous amount of grace He has shown me. God is generous to me.

The next parable is also about a landowner. This one reveals that the Jews would reject Jesus as the Messiah, and would be responsible for Jesus’ death. The kingdom is no longer a Jewish thing. It’s a believers thing. Praise God!

And that parable is reinforced in the next one, the wedding banquet. God’s kingdom is open to everyone; rich, poor, good, bad…

But, and here is the kicker, only those wearing “wedding clothes” will be granted entrance. The invitation is there. But you can’t be a citizen of God’s Kingdom on your own terms. The Kingdom of God is reserved for those who accept God’s grace through the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ.

Looking at God’s Kingdom through these chapters reminds me what a privilege it is to belong. It encourages me to get out there, working for a harvest, inviting others to join us who know Jesus as our Savior.

So I’m inviting you!

alighttomyway

LOVING God's Word, LISTENING to God's voice, LEADING others to God's Son, Jesus Christ

Tag Archives: obedience

January 19; Come As You Are

January 3; Testing the Water

January 2; No Questions Asked

Ephesians; Royal Rules

I Corinthians 1-5; A Little Yeast

Acts 5-8; What Would People Think?

Matthew 23-25; Looking Ahead

Matthew 20-22; The Invitation