Obey = Grow

What do you hear when you hear the term obey? In reference to parents, children, spouses, friends, employers that term obey has almost become a four letter word - we are encouraged to challenge authority at every turn - we are instructed from an early age that independence is vital to our development as human beings and if we simply obey we will be swallowed up by the world and lose our individuality.

I would argue the opposite is true - when we look at obedience not as a punishment, not as a negative, not as something looking to restrict our freedoms - but as a blessing, an assist, as something looking to set us free from our bondage and shackles that we become even more unique even more of an individual than we could ever have become on our own - we become part of the body of Christ and in Christ we each have our own unique function or purpose that we are called to (1 Corinthians 12:12-14)

"Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by[c] one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many."

How is this possible? How is it possible when we surrender our will, submit to His leading that we become more free than before?

There are many  passages throughout the Bible that speak towards "obedience" - the terms obey, obedience, and obedient are used 257 times in various contexts throughout the Old and New Testaments and those are just the times that it is explicitly taught it is implicitly taught far more times through passages such as John 14:15 - "If you love me, keep my commands." Jesus is instructing us that if we love him we will "keep" or obey his teachings. The big struggle comes in when we are faced with the quandary of  do we truly take God's instruction, his advice, or are we simply paying lip service to him?  ― C.S. Lewis puts it this way:

“[To have Faith in Christ] means, of course, trying to do all that He says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice. Thus if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already. Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first faint gleam of Heaven is already inside you.”

Have you really handed yourself over to God today? Are striving to be obedient in all his ways? Or are you simply paying lip service to God? 1 Samuel 15:22  says

“Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
    as much as in obeying the Lord?
To obey is better than sacrifice,
    and to heed is better than the fat of rams."

We may not have to sacrifice a ram today but we are still called to obedience - and as a part of that obedience we are called to sacrifice our own plans and desires and submit to the Word of God. Sacrifice is a must when it comes to obedience -

Christ obeyed the Father in laying down his life for us (Luke 22:42), in sacrificing Himself that we might have access to eternal life - John writes in 1 John 3:16

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters."

The act of obedience here is not necessarily that we are laying down our lives in physical death but that we put ourselves, our wants and desires, our ambitions down at the foot of the cross and walk with Christ, carry our cross (Luke 9:23)
"Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me."

Will you be obedient today?

Convenience in the Gospel?

Let me get my rant for the day out of the way...

Where in the Bible does God do anything for convenience? I mean does He anywhere take a short cut or pass on something because He feels He (or His people) won't benefit from it?  Does Jesus ever say so paying your taxes won't help anyone in your town so don't worry about it let those who benefit from it do all the work? Does he ever say well Dad I know you need me to die today but it doesn't really fit into my schedule besides these folks really don't deserve this why don't  we wait a few years and see if they turn their lives around...

NO? Are you sure? Cause there are days I'd swear that is what he taught by the way people who claim to be believers behave...

Jesus taught we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. That means we are to want for our neighbors what we want for ourselves (or better really if you get right down to it...) Now maybe you don't love yourself and that is your excuse but then you are facing a whole different set of problems which we can address at a different point in time... 

If Jesus really meant what He taught about loving our neighbors as ourselves then shouldn't we want to do anything possible to help those who are around us? Even if we in our finite element never see the benefit from those efforts?

I totally get the fact we are to be good stewards of what is in trusted to us and that isn't my point - my point is this - if someone is hurting, whether it be here, the next town, the next state, or a completely different country and I can in some way make things better for then whether it is convenient for me or not, whether I have to sacrifice or not, whether I ever see the result of that or not; I as a follower of Christ am called to help however I possibly can.

I realize someone might be offended by my words here and honestly that is my goal - I want to offend you to action - the gospel is offensive. Christ dying on the cross is offensive but it is done in love. Love for you. Love that is calling you to be obedient. Will you be obedient today, swallow your pride, and serve those in need whether you ever meet them or not?

Rant over... I'm putting my soap box away for the day...

Time

We are on week three of our GROW series and still looking at the "G". (If you missed the previous weeks you can find the sermons here and if you want the Bible Study guides you can find them here.) I am sitting here reading old commentaries and new blogs, contemplating the meaning of Giving - giving time, giving tithes, giving of myself - I find myself reflecting on the age old question of what is time... C.S. Lewis in his work Mere Christianity puts it this way:

“Our life comes to us moment by moment. One moment disappears before the next comes along: and there is room for very little in each. That is what Time is like. And of course you and I tend to take it for granted that this Time series—this arrangement of past, present, and future—is not simply the way life comes to us but the way all things really exist. We tend to assume that the whole universe and God Himself are always moving on from past to future just as we do.”--p.146

Augustine puts it this way:

  

 “In the Eternal...nothing passes away, but the whole is simultaneously present. But no temporal process is wholly simultaneous...all time past is forced to move on by the incoming future...all the future follows from the past; and that all, past and future, is created and issues out of that which is forever present. Who will hold the heart of man that it may stand still and see how the eternity which always stands still is itself neither future nor past but expresses itself in the times that are future and past?”--Confessions

  

So how does this impact me? How does it impact you? Why is time important? Lewis says time is fleeting, Augustine says the past is forced on to allow for the future -

John Piper says it "better to lose your life than waste it" Are we wasting time? How do we waste time? So many questions so little time... 

Are you living in the past? Or are you finding yourself off dreaming of the future? I often find myself thinking of days past, whether wishing I could with present knowledge make a better past decision - or to stop an injustice, right a wrong, or even just to savor a moment missed. But am I wasting my time? I can't change the past, I can learn from past mistakes though and when I use those moments to lean on the Eternal  promises of God I find that instead of living in the past I am looking towards the future, the promise of spending Eternity in His presence. I don't believe God desires us to live in the past or in the future but in there here and now.

Isaiah 43:18-19 says:

“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert."

Matthew 6:31-34 says:

"Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."

Psalm 118:24 says: "This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."

The word of God tells us to not dwell in the past, nor to be anxious about tomorrow but to live for Christ today, to seek first the Kingdom of God and let him take care of the rest. 

As with Augustine I am still left wondering what time is, but while I am wondering I am resting in the assurance that in my ignorance is God's wisdom, in my weakness is God's strength, in my brokenness is God's redemption. I am wondering but not worried, pondering but not perspiring, enjoying the journey that He is faithfully leading me on.

"And I confess to thee, O Lord, that I am still ignorant as to what time is."

Augustine of Hippo

Confessions: Book XI:25

1am Bedtime Brain Craze

Sometimes I wish I could just walk in climb in bed, close my eyes, and my brain just magically shut off to allow much needed rest. So keep in mind the random mess that might proceed forth...

What a week it has been - mission team left today, 7th team of 2013 (and 1st team of 2014) we hosted managed to get lots done including a new coat of paint on the parsonage... Great kids from Michigan what a blessing! Man oh man what a year it has been - feels like just yesterday we were settling in and 13 months later this is home, couldn't imagine a better place to raise our family or to serve our Lord.

Hopefully I will succeed in last year's new years resolution and keep this blog a bit more updated...

Food for thought read this CS Lewis quote earlier this evening - Humility is thinking less of yourself but it is thinking of yourself less -

Paul assured Timothy that being confident in the Gospel he preached was a good thing and to not let others look down on him but to stand strong - Humility isn't bowing out and letting others run the show nor is it feeling unworthy to be used by God... It is taking yourself out of the equation and putting God in control of your life focusing on Him alone.

Goodnight...