How long do the mercies of our Lord last before giving way to disciple and justice?
He is the Lord God Almighty, who is and was and is to come. He is the beginning and the end, the Alpha and Omega. He deserves our respect, our reverence and our love – John 14 tells us to love Him is to obey Him. It is not enough to simply say,
“Yeah, I believe in God, a higher power.”
“Yes, I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sins
and I accept His gift of salvation.”
He calls us to more than that. Yes, believing in a higher power can lead to a knowing of Jesus and eventually a belief that He is the only way to heaven and that He died on the cross for our sins to save us from sin. This is a foundational belief of evangelical Christians and the message of the Word of God. But as you read on in the Bible and grow in your knowledge of God and who He is and what His Word says, that belief is only the beginning. His character, who He is, demands respect, love and obedience.
Thank God there is mercy and grace to save us from our treacherous hearts that deceive us into disobedience against our Lord. Thank You, Lord, for the blood of Jesus that covers all of our sins forever more. What a truth to hold unto but….
How long will the mercies and grace of the Lord last before He determines that judgment and discipline are needed? He is the Almighty God and He does not tolerate disobedience. He tells us over and over again that to love Him is to obey Him. He speaks of it in the histories of the Bible. We are reminded of it in the songs of the book of Psalms. We see the justice and discipline of the Lord in the prophetic books of the Bible and Jesus Himself teaches us this in the New Testament Gospels and then the apostles themselves remind us over and over again, that our proclaimed love for Jesus must lead us to obedience – an acting out of our faith.
How long can we as a nation, as a people, as a world ignore the messages of Truth that the Lord has for so long been telling us? He loves us. He planned to send His Son to die for us while we were yet marinating in our sin. Jesus Himself tells us that following noble laws and a good way of life is not enough we must believe in Him and be willing to sacrifice our precious things to Him. He requires that He be number one in our lives and all else comes after Him and our love and obedience to Him. Have we done this? Can we do this?
We have seen and heard of tornados, tsunamis, earthquakes, fires, draughts, ripping winds, volcano eruptions, mud slides, floods, hurricanes, famine and disease plaguing our countries and our world. In the past we read that God used these disasters to get our attention to get us to return to Him, to obey and love Him as HE asks and as HE DESERVES. How long will we go on our merry way depending on His mercy and grace and thinking that these warnings aren’t for us?
In Revelations we hear from John that Jesus spits out the church that is lukewarm in its existence. We cannot amble by in life just believing in Jesus and not obeying and loving Him as HE deserves. Discipline will come. God tells us in Hebrews that the discipline comes to those that God loves. Those who believe in Jesus and His gift of salvation are called the children of God. What does the Bible teach us that God does for His children? HE never gives up on them. HE continually calls them to Himself and protects them, lavishes love and blessings on them in ways we can never imagine BUT He does not tolerate disobedience and disrespect of Himself. He will warn us and will call us back to Himself through prophets (speakers of the Word of the God), teachers of the Word of God and messages from His Spirit that lives inside the hearts of His children and hovers over the earth guiding people to Himself. If we continually ignore His messages and choose to live lives apart from Him and following Him in obedience. Justice and discipline will come. Mercy and grace is not gone, they can’t be gone because they are a part of His character but they will be set aside for a time while justice and discipline come to those who ignore Him and His ways. And after justice and discipline have had their time, mercy and grace return and we again have an opportunity to run to Him and be bathed in His love and once again feel the joy of His blessing and provision.
Children of God do not test His love and patience. Listen to the Words He is calling to you. Obey Him as He deserves. Mighty is our God and mighty is His love but He deserves our complete love and obedience and reverence.
Will you lay down your idols – those things that keep you or distract you from loving Him well, obeying Him as He requires? The greatest commandment according to Jesus is to love the Lord your God will ALL your heart, with ALL your soul, with ALL your mind and with ALL your strength and to love your neighbor as yourself. Are you doing this? Am I doing this? This is what He requires.
So where is the hope? How can this be done? Might as well just give up after that impossible admonition…NEVER!!!
We do NOT live this life in our own strength.
What God requires He also PROVIDES.
We call upon the Name of the Lord and the power of His Spirit to help us in this path of obedience and love and
HE WILL PROVIDE!
We, the children of God have the same power in us through the Holy Spirit that raised Christ from the dead (Ephesians 1:19-20). Much is required of the children of God but much is waiting to be given to us as well. Rise up precious daughters and sons of the Holy God. Use the power that lives within you and that cannot be taken from you and love the Lord your God with everything you have and the strength that is given to you by the Sprit of Jesus that dwells in you. Our God is the God of the impossible, ask and watch the impossible lived out in your life.
Showing posts with label obedience. Show all posts
Showing posts with label obedience. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
I said, “Do it NOW!”
Wow does that phrase bring back some memories…cringes…sassiness….LOL! It also brings back some memories of what I have had to say to my own children now that I’m the parent. Quite a phrase huh?
Although, I believe Jesus does not speak to us in this way and definitely has more patience with us than I do with my kids, I wonder if sometimes He knows my stubborn heart so well, this exclamation is required to get my attention; just as my parents did.
I have been doing a Bible study by Priscilla Shirer titled Discerning the Voice of God. This week’s study is about responding to God’s voice and today was about responding immediately. She shares a story of being in a relationship in college and seminary that God had clearly told both to end. Neither wanted the relationship to end despite God’s clear direction. The gentleman in the relationship eventually listened to God’s leading and ended the relationship. Priscilla shares how much heartache she suffered by not obeying God immediately and how much regret she had when she realized that the man she is now married to was going to her church while she was resisting God in her previous relationship. She potentially lost precious time with her husband because of her unwillingness to obey God immediately.
She followed up this story with an example from the Bible (Abraham and Isaac – Genesis 22:2-3) and a question for her readers: Has the Lord given you instructions this week to which you have taken too much time to respond? Let’s just say that my instructions were not this week and I had a couple that I could have listed. But the one I thought of almost immediately was this blog.
Last week I received a comment on my email from someone who had read my last blog. It was posted so long ago I’m not sure of the date off the top of my head. The comment was positive and this anonymous reader had been sent to my blog by a friend. I had also received a comment on the same blog post maybe two or three weeks ago. These comments pleasantly surprised me and encouraged me. Maybe I shouldn’t have stop posting.... I had allowed my schedule to keep me from posting regularly and then allowed some discouragement about lack of comments and visits to my blog to keep me from doing what I know God wanted me to do. I had not responded immediately like He wanted three weeks ago and not last week, so when reading this chapter in my study I decided that it required immediate attention. Hopefully by being so honest with you, my readers and those trying to be or thinking about being in relationship with Jesus, I will be held accountable to posting like God has asked me to do. We don’t know the plans He has for us, nor do we always know the plans He has for our required obedience. I have to remember that my obedience or disobedience effects more than just me. Selfishness…maybe a topic for another post, I guess I don’t realize how selfish I can be with my time and my decisions.
Priscilla made another very good point that actually prompted me to write this blog. “God speaks with perfect timing. Our response should be immediate obedience.” (pg 114)
As we complain and cry over God and His plans and awful timing, could it be that the poor timing is due to our poor response time? Something to think about...
Has the Lord given you instructions this week to which you have taken too much time to respond?
Although, I believe Jesus does not speak to us in this way and definitely has more patience with us than I do with my kids, I wonder if sometimes He knows my stubborn heart so well, this exclamation is required to get my attention; just as my parents did.
I have been doing a Bible study by Priscilla Shirer titled Discerning the Voice of God. This week’s study is about responding to God’s voice and today was about responding immediately. She shares a story of being in a relationship in college and seminary that God had clearly told both to end. Neither wanted the relationship to end despite God’s clear direction. The gentleman in the relationship eventually listened to God’s leading and ended the relationship. Priscilla shares how much heartache she suffered by not obeying God immediately and how much regret she had when she realized that the man she is now married to was going to her church while she was resisting God in her previous relationship. She potentially lost precious time with her husband because of her unwillingness to obey God immediately.
She followed up this story with an example from the Bible (Abraham and Isaac – Genesis 22:2-3) and a question for her readers: Has the Lord given you instructions this week to which you have taken too much time to respond? Let’s just say that my instructions were not this week and I had a couple that I could have listed. But the one I thought of almost immediately was this blog.
Last week I received a comment on my email from someone who had read my last blog. It was posted so long ago I’m not sure of the date off the top of my head. The comment was positive and this anonymous reader had been sent to my blog by a friend. I had also received a comment on the same blog post maybe two or three weeks ago. These comments pleasantly surprised me and encouraged me. Maybe I shouldn’t have stop posting.... I had allowed my schedule to keep me from posting regularly and then allowed some discouragement about lack of comments and visits to my blog to keep me from doing what I know God wanted me to do. I had not responded immediately like He wanted three weeks ago and not last week, so when reading this chapter in my study I decided that it required immediate attention. Hopefully by being so honest with you, my readers and those trying to be or thinking about being in relationship with Jesus, I will be held accountable to posting like God has asked me to do. We don’t know the plans He has for us, nor do we always know the plans He has for our required obedience. I have to remember that my obedience or disobedience effects more than just me. Selfishness…maybe a topic for another post, I guess I don’t realize how selfish I can be with my time and my decisions.
Priscilla made another very good point that actually prompted me to write this blog. “God speaks with perfect timing. Our response should be immediate obedience.” (pg 114)
As we complain and cry over God and His plans and awful timing, could it be that the poor timing is due to our poor response time? Something to think about...
Has the Lord given you instructions this week to which you have taken too much time to respond?
Monday, May 10, 2010
Looking beyond yourself
I was reading in 2 Chronicles 25, Daniel 6, and Acts 5-6 discovered an interesting theme. In each passage there was an example of how leaders made decisions that affected those under their authority.
2 Chronicles 25 – King Amaziah, the king of Judah, had gone into battle under the authority of God and God gave Judah the victory. Instead of praising God and giving Him the glory, Amaziah chose to follow the gods of the people he had just defeated. God punished him by allowing Israel to pillage Judah and destroy a portion of their city.
Daniel 6 – speaks of the jealousy of the presidents and satraps towards Daniel. Their deceptions lead to Daniel being thrown into the lions’ den for “crimes against the king”. In the end Daniel was saved by God and the men who were after Daniel were thrown into the lions’ along with their wives and children.
Acts 5 – Speaks of Ananias and Sapphira and how they tried to deceive the Holy Spirit. Here after Ananias is given an opportunity to confess and then is killed by God for his lie, Sapphira is given the same opportunity to redeem herself with confession or even to say she didn’t agree with her husband. However, she too was deceptive and killed. We are shown a grace and mercy we didn’t see in the Old Testament accounts.
Acts 5-6 – Then shows how the obedient lives of the apostles led to blessings, fellowship amongst the followers of Jesus and provision for the widows of the city.
After reading each of these accounts, I was reminded of how important my decisions are! So often when I am consciously deciding to be obedient to God in my actions, I don’t think of my family or those I happen to be in authority over – those at church or work. I am selfishly deciding that I don’t need to be obedient in that area for whatever lame reason I have at the moment. But here we see how others suffered greatly for the choices of their leaders, husbands and fathers! These were my immediate thoughts,
“‘Wake up, Renee, and look beyond yourself! Your choices affect all those around you, not just yourself and not just in the moment!”
I was also encouraged to see Acts, both the mercy shown to Sapphira (she was given the opportunity to tell the truth and not just lumped in with Ananias’ punishment) and the blessings shown to those the apostles were affecting.
Whether we are in leadership, parents or just people living our own lives, we must remember that our choices affect all those around us both in negative ways and positive. We must, in Jesus’ strength and power, live our lives looking beyond ourselves.
2 Chronicles 25 – King Amaziah, the king of Judah, had gone into battle under the authority of God and God gave Judah the victory. Instead of praising God and giving Him the glory, Amaziah chose to follow the gods of the people he had just defeated. God punished him by allowing Israel to pillage Judah and destroy a portion of their city.
Daniel 6 – speaks of the jealousy of the presidents and satraps towards Daniel. Their deceptions lead to Daniel being thrown into the lions’ den for “crimes against the king”. In the end Daniel was saved by God and the men who were after Daniel were thrown into the lions’ along with their wives and children.
Acts 5 – Speaks of Ananias and Sapphira and how they tried to deceive the Holy Spirit. Here after Ananias is given an opportunity to confess and then is killed by God for his lie, Sapphira is given the same opportunity to redeem herself with confession or even to say she didn’t agree with her husband. However, she too was deceptive and killed. We are shown a grace and mercy we didn’t see in the Old Testament accounts.
Acts 5-6 – Then shows how the obedient lives of the apostles led to blessings, fellowship amongst the followers of Jesus and provision for the widows of the city.
After reading each of these accounts, I was reminded of how important my decisions are! So often when I am consciously deciding to be obedient to God in my actions, I don’t think of my family or those I happen to be in authority over – those at church or work. I am selfishly deciding that I don’t need to be obedient in that area for whatever lame reason I have at the moment. But here we see how others suffered greatly for the choices of their leaders, husbands and fathers! These were my immediate thoughts,
“‘Wake up, Renee, and look beyond yourself! Your choices affect all those around you, not just yourself and not just in the moment!”
I was also encouraged to see Acts, both the mercy shown to Sapphira (she was given the opportunity to tell the truth and not just lumped in with Ananias’ punishment) and the blessings shown to those the apostles were affecting.
Whether we are in leadership, parents or just people living our own lives, we must remember that our choices affect all those around us both in negative ways and positive. We must, in Jesus’ strength and power, live our lives looking beyond ourselves.
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