Commander of the Army of the Lord (3)

Our text:

Joshua 5:14 “…No, but as Commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.”*(NKJV)

I haven’t written in a couple of days. It’s not easy pouring oneself out so I had to take a break to catch my breath. If indeed I believe the Lord to be who He claims to be, and to have all He claims to have including the ability to do all He claims to do, why the fears?

Maybe I don’t really believe Him, maybe I can’t really take Him at His word!  If that be the case, I must have some other means by which I can take care of myself.  If I can’t trust Him, I must place my trust in another.  There must be another who can be and do all He claims, and once I find that other, I can deposit my trust in same.

I search and test and everybody fails me, because as He said, “Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans, who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the Lord.” (Jeremiah 17:5, NLT)  They don’t fail me necessarily because they’re evil, they fail because they’re human! I fail because I’m human. I don’t know about you, but there are times I want to get away from me, but there’s nowhere to go.

Trusting in humans is dangerous because the judgment of man calls good evil and evil good, because the heart of man is “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” (Jeremiah 17:9) This is why leaning on the wisdom, kindness and righteousness of man is cursed, and only evil can result from it.

Why the fears? Think about the basic necessities of life, food, clothing and shelter. Most of us run our entire lives in pursuit of these or the means to attain them. And we believe that once we secure these, we’ll be happy.  And so we do things, we form alliances and ultimately place our whole worship on the perceived source or provider of these things, some human or organization set up by humans, we totally disregard God and His set rules, and follow the one we believe can do us good.

Even when we are independent, we have at the back of our minds that should something incapacitating or debilitating happen to us, these are the people who will see us through and sustain us, so it behooves us to maintain them.  These same people then are the idols or objects of worship and honor in our lives.  Should these objects of worship know this, they automatically have a strong weapon in their hands with which they can control our lives. So you see, I cannot stay under such government and at the same time be under the government of the Holy Spirit. It’s got to be one or the other. I trust the ones I can see more than the One who created them.

But still, because my conscience always maintains the side of God and His truth, I know within me that my hopes are seated on very unstable platforms and so I am fearful, and like Job, eventually I say, “What I always feared has happened to me.” (Job 3:25) This however turns out to be good because, after that which I feared so much befalls me, and the Lord picks me up, I come out a new person, with an invaluable discovery, to wit, I will make it only under the government of the Holy Spirit of the Almighty God.  Safety, sustenance and eternal peace are with, and controlled by Him alone.  Everything else is a house of cards that’s bound to crash at some point or other.

So, I have made my decision, I have released myself to His governance and set my face like a flint. “With the cross before me and the world behind, by the grace of God, I will serve the Lord.”

Prayer

Heavenly Father, teach me to trust you. Help me to be the son/daughter whom you love with an unending love, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

#momomily2013 

Commander of the Army of the Lord (2)

Joshua 5:14 “…No, but as Commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.”*(NKJV)

The question which Joshua asked the man who appeared before him required choosing one of the options presented by Joshua. But the man said “No” Wow! You have to choose a side, you cannot straddle the fence. You’re either my friend or you’re my enemy, you must pick a side. But the man refused to pick a side.

We understand the man with whom Joshua spoke was the Lord Himself. We know this because when Joshua fell at His feet in worship, He did not reject the worship, He accepted it and proceeded to give Joshua instructions. When John fell at the feet of his tour guide in Revelation 22:8-9, the angel rejected the worship.

The Lord wouldn’t pick sides because He loves us all, we are told in Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us,” and in Jeremiah 31:3, “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with loving kindness I have drawn you.”

When He formed man, He breathed the breath of lives into man and man became a living soul.  We are told that He made man in His image and after His likeness, so how can He take sides with one man against the other?

All I’m leading up to is this: we fall in or out of alignment with God. He is constant and He is Love so when we cry to Him, He immediately hears us. This is not to say that He has taken sides when He hears and answers us. Does it mean He takes sides against us when our prayers are not answered as we expect or desire?

God had heard me and delivered me out of the situation in which I found myself. Did He stop hearing and loving me when I later found myself in dire straits? Or was He punishing me? Where then do we put the scriptures that talk about God chastising the ones He loves or about Him being the potter and we being the clay for Him to mold as He pleases? When we ask for purification, what do we really think the process entails? In Malachi 3:3, we are told that God “will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness.”

When calamitous situations befall us, before we fall out, let us fall to the mercy of God and He will strengthen us through the ordeal. In Psalm 66:10-13, we find that when He is through purifying us, He will bring us to a large and wealthy place.  By this time however, He will be able to see His reflection in us, because He would have taken all that is flesh and self out of us and we are totally reliant on His grace. He would have brought that which is of value to Himself and the Church out of us.  Then we can be useful to Him.

While going through my wilderness experience, even after I realized that God’s hand was in it, and had yielded myself to His will, my situation did not change physically, but the internal panics had stopped, the bad dreams had stopped, the bitterness and anger were all gone. I was no longer blaming anyone for my lot in life but realized that God was cleaning me up from the choices I had made before. No flesh can glory in His presence.

Now I could quietly wait for Him to finish His work. Now the work is never finished while we’re here because He still has to continue to prune us so we can bear more fruit.

Tomorrow, we will discuss the fears and the reason for them, should our Lord tarry.

Prayer

Have your way, Heavenly Father. Break me, and mold me to your pleasure in Jesus’ name, Amen.

#momomily2013 

Commander of the army of the Lord

Joshua 5:14 “…No, but as Commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” *(NKJV)

This was in response to Joshua’s question in verse 13. He wanted to know if the man before him was “for us or for our adversaries.”

All I have shared in the previous blogs have been borne out of painful, devastating experiences. Had it not been for the mercy of the Lord, I would have been totally consumed.  Like the children of Israel, God had taken me out of Egypt pretty summarily. It was no protracted event, then came the taking of Egypt out of me part. I believe that process is still ongoing.

When we make requests of the Lord, let us remember that His ways are not ours, neither are His thoughts. You see, I asked the Lord to deliver me from a situation I had entered into very willfully and deliberately.  He got me out very smoothly and I was getting ready to breathe a sigh of relief when the pains began. Pain like I had not known was possible. I found myself in such straitened circumstances that I began to have anxiety attacks! Many a day, I was certain that I was having a nightmare and waited to wake up, but then night time came and I would realize that I wasn’t dreaming.

Please take a ride with me for a moment and imagine my confusion. I had cried to God for forgiveness and deliverance from an untenable situation and He swiftly came to my aid! He had brought me out of Egypt and even taken me over the Red Sea, I remember thinking, “this is cool! No sooner than I call for help He comes and delivers me.” I immediately started my own business and was making money. I was sure of the love and mercy of God and didn’t understand why people found this thing called Christianity difficult.

Clearly, God was on my side! I had won in that I made it and everything was going to be fine. I was independent and life looked like it was going to be good after all.  How hasty I was.  As quickly as the business bloomed, it dried up and within 6 months, I was completely penniless with no respite in sight.  Talk about being flummoxed!  Why would God deliver me from a deadly situation only to isolate and starve me.  And the questions, doubts, panic attacks, uncertainties began.

Would that someone had told me that this was the start of my field trip through the wilderness. That which I asked God to deliver me from was both external and internal. The external had been easily taken care of. The internal is the bedrock of these writings.  God had thrown me in a wilderness such as I could not possibly have imagined. Mind you, I have had pain and near death experiences in my life, but nothing like this. As a matter of fact, I had experienced that which psychologists describe as the most painful experience a person could have, i.e. the loss of a child and in my case, only child.

This journey through the wilderness has nothing with which one can compare it. We judge the children of Israel for building a golden calf to worship but going through less than a hundredth of what they faced, we build several calves to worship and we blaspheme God!  

John the Baptist told the Jews that one was coming after him who would baptize them with the Holy Spirit and with fire (Matthew 3:11). Isn’t it interesting that we somehow conveniently overlook the fire part of that declaration? And we begin to scream like banshees at the first and slightest hint of heat, flailing our arms and crying “woe is me!” We either forget or disregard all the injunctions scattered through the Bible about rejoicing in tribulation or counting it all joy when we fall into divers temptations.

 We confess that we have been buried and therefore resurrected with Jesus to share in His glory. In reality, we only want the glory but no part of the burial, we are ready for nothing in us to die. We aren’t even aware that anything in us needs to die. Yes, this is mostly due to faulty teaching, and only enhances the stretching we experience when God decides to take us up on our offer to be used of Him. We all read about winepresses in the Bible but we need to take a moment and consider what a winepress is and how it functions.

i now understand that the taking me out of the unfavorable situation was like plucking the grape from the tree, pretty easy task, isn't it? But then comes the pressing to get the wine out! it is neither easy for the one pressing, nor for the grapes, and while the smashing is going on, it all looks like a mess and a waste of grapes. I remember an episode of "I Love Lucy" in which she found herself in a large tub stomping on grapes! They had grapes and juice flying everywhere, stompers getting all splattered and stained with juice. it was no pretty sight at all,  but, oh! When the wine is made, how sweet it is to the palate, how beautiful it is in the wineskin/bottle.

The grape had to be smashed because the flesh had to be all broken and removed for the juices to flow out. Likewise we have to be broken and smashed depending on how tough our shell is, to get the juices of the Holy Spirit flowing through, and out of us. Moses had a 40 year pressing experience and when he was ready, he felt he was least ready. Everything self had been beaten out of him. The same man who in Egypt had been royalty, very highly education and eloquent, was now so humble and quiet of spirit. He told the Lord upon being given the assignment that he could not speak! But see, now the graces of God could begin flowing out through him.

We’ll continue with my journey tomorrow should the Lord tarry.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, have your way in me, but please strengthen me to be still while you purify and make me ready for your use, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

#momomily2013 

God, My 7-11? (Part 8)

We must at this point, be reminded that we cannot merit the favor or grace of God. He freely gave His grace in giving His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ as a substitute and in propitiation for our sins.  We cannot merit His love either, because while we were yet sinners, He loved and gave His Son for us, to die in our place, and to satisfy the justified wrath of God. Whatever we do, His love for us cannot and will not diminish. His love for us is not determined by our conduct, it is determined by who He is, Love.

But does this absolve us of any and all responsibility? Not at all. We have to enter into, and take hold of that which He has done for us.  In that we cannot do this naturally, He has given His Holy Spirit to assist us in entering in. So, what exactly is our responsibility?  We have to accept the help of the Holy Spirit by faith and with humility.  Humility because our nature strives for self-sufficiency and independence. We have an “I can do it myself mindset.” To enter into a relationship with Christ however, we have to shed our independence and self-sufficiency and wholly lean on Him. This requires humility. We have to admit to our helplessness and hopelessness. If we don’t see this, we won’t see our need for Him and so we will not lean on, or place our trust in Him.

Also, let’s not forget that we are discussing why it seems that God is not answering our prayers and His children are seemingly in endless dire straits. It seems we pray and He doesn’t answer. Well, God is not a 7-11 we can run into at a moment’s notice to pick up a grocery item we overlooked when we went grocery shopping at Walmart! Yes, He said we should come with boldness to the throne of grace that we might obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. But we don’t run in there to pick up items for temporal or material comfort. We go there to pick up graces for a life more conformed to His requirements and which will bring us closer to His image and likeness as was His original plan. 

God is not to be a plan B, but our only plan. In His mercy, because He is love, He caters to us when we run or cry to Him after all else has failed. We’d be saving ourselves a great deal of heart ache if we would go to Him first, with no plans of going elsewhere.  He is not our 7-11. He is our all sufficiency, our all in all.  He is the provider, Jehovah Jirah.  He has more than we could ever need and wants to give it to us. Because He is God Omniscient, and Love, He will not give us what will hurt us or when it could hurt us.  And herein lies the problem we have with Him.

When I say what will hurt us, we have to remember that our understanding of hurt and God’s understanding of same differ greatly.  When something is inconvenient to our flesh or nature, we call it bad, but God may call it good, because it usually is that which He uses to draw us closer to Him.  The early Church Fathers counted it a great honor to be martyred for the cause of Christ, because they understood that the hurt of the flesh worked a grace into the soul that could not be attained otherwise.  This is what caused Apostle James to encourage us in James 1:2-4 when he said “consider it wholly joyful, my brethren, whenever you are enveloped in or encounter trials of any sort or fall into various temptations…so that you may be [people] perfectly and fully developed [with no defects], lacking nothing.” (AMP)

King David learned to walk with God through his many afflictions and trials and he acknowledged in Psalm 119:67 that “Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now have I kept Thy Word.” (KJV)

Prayer

Help me Heavenly Father, as you did with King David, to understand that my afflictions are as purification and help me to now keep your Word, in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

#momomily2013 

God, My 7-11? (Part 7)

Our Text: Matthew 6:33 "But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."

We have turned around, changed directions and now are headed in the direction of the Lord.  But how do we proceed?  In Matthew 11:29, our Lord said, “ Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

He wants us to learn from Him, and notice that He says that He is gentle and lowly in heart. God the Father required Christ to empty Himself completely, to divest Himself completely of His Heavenly glory and He did!  He followed God’s requirement to the uttermost, and so must we, if we are to victoriously follow Him. We must be gentle in that we must not be hardened to the things and requirements of our Lord. We must be lowly in heart in that we must be humble, we must completely deny ourselves and take up His interests and His alone.

Following Jesus means losing ourselves in Him. People like to “find themselves,” or “preserve their self -esteem,” or “maintain their personal identity.” All these must die, must be totally shed from us, then as we follow Him, we take on His identity and become more and more like Him. This is what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. This is the process whereby we are transformed by the renewing of our minds until we are conformed to His image.  Only as we progress along this path do we progress along the path of separation and/or holiness.

Now, our sense of self- preservation will kick and fight and the enemy will bring to bear upon us all manner of argument as to why it is dangerous to do this. If however, we have faith in Christ as we profess and we have turned from the way which seems right to us, (which way leads only to destruction), we will willingly divest ourselves and put Him on.

Let us remember that although this sounds complex, difficult and painful, it shouldn’t be so. We should abandon ourselves to Him.  The reason we don’t is because we don’t understand some of His requirements, we cannot reason them out and so we resist. We will not, on this side of Jordan understand our Lord fully, but our spirit in agreement with His Holy Spirit, will testify that that is the way we should go.  We need to humble ourselves and follow Him.

How can we follow His lead except we know what it is He is saying to us?  Much of our problems with the will and Word of God today stems from lack of study.  We are told in 2 Timothy 2:15 to “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”  But we don’t want to study, we want someone else to study for us and come and feed it to us. We don’t even want to chew! How can Jesus Christ pay such a price for us and we can’t even study about Him? 

We claim to love Him and I know that when we love someone we want to know all we can about them. So if we love Jesus, should we then not try to know Him?  Let us examine ourselves and see if we truly love Him. Are we pursuing His interests, do we seek to please Him, do we care to know His will? Let us think on these things soberly and make necessary adjustments.

How about we find a Bible with the words of Christ in red? Let us study His Words and we’ll be well on our way to knowing Him.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, strengthen me to pursue my Lord, to seek to apprehend Him as He has apprehended me, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

#momomily2013 

God, My 7-11? (Part 6)

Our Text: Matthew 6:33 "But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."

In reading Matthew Chapter 6, we notice that Jesus Christ was very transparent concerning what it is we should expect in following Him, He did not sugar coat anything. He made it clear what will be dealt to us on this side of Jordan once we decide to follow Him.

Someone might then think "well, maybe I should not follow Him so I don't get attacked by His enemy."  My response to such a person is this: remember that the enemy of Jesus Christ is your enemy as well.  That's why no sooner than God places Adam in the garden and tells him to have rule over all the earth, the serpent shows up and causes Adam to forfeit his God given dominion (Genesis 1: 28).  So you see, you are an enemy to the devil whether or not you make a choice for Jesus.

You need to make a choice for Jesus because:
1.  He made you (Gen 1:26-27)
2.  He loves you with an unconditional and everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3)
3.  He came to redeem you to Himself after the fall of Adam (Gal 3:13, Titus 2:14, Revelation 5:9)
4.  He has prepared a place for you with Him in eternity where there is no pain or shame (John 14:2)
5.  The alternative is to stay under the authority of the devil and end up with him in eternal damnation where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
6.  You can add nothing to Jesus, He can add life to you.  Therefore you do yourself a favor, not Him, by making this choice.

Someone reading this will insist that they've made a choice for Jesus already, so why am I carrying on about it?  I am stressing the point because many think they have chosen Jesus when in fact they have not.  Saying it, even in the presence of people doesn't mean you have really chosen Him.  Choosing Jesus is a heart thing.  You decide to become His disciple, to follow Him (to copy him) as it were, that is what choosing Him entails. You follow Him until you become like Him, but the first step is choosing to follow Him.

Here's what I'm saying, when you decide to follow Him, you decide to make a turn from the direction you were headed before.  For example, I am on Interstate 10 headed west from Houston toward San Antonio, then I change my mind and decide to go to New Orleans, Louisiana. To effect this change, I have to turn around, and start heading east on the same Interstate 10. Should I keep on westward although all the time proclaiming that I've changed my mind and now want to go to New Orleans, I will not get any closer to New Orleans as long as I stay westward.  As a matter of fact, I will only get farther away from New Orleans.

This is how it is with changing our minds and turning to Jesus Christ.  If we insist that we've changed our minds and turned to Jesus but continue along the same path we've always been on, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.  We have to make a real turn otherwise we will end up where we were headed originally.  And this is the state of many a professing Christian. Professing to be going one way when in actuality, they are headed another.

We need to examine ourselves, our walk, and make a U-turn to the direction of the Lord.  The one who is your master is the one you follow and obey.  This brings me to the second covenant we need to cut with God.  We have accepted Jesus as our Savior in His substitutionary work for us, we now need to accept Him as our Lord. This is the second covenant. We need to fully submit our lives and ways to His Lordship, and by the help of the Holy Spirit, we will follow only the voice of Jesus.

Now we cannot maintain the terms of a covenant by ourselves but the same Jesus who is our salvation will help by His blood, and His Spirit, keep us within the terms of our contract with God.  We must however, cooperate with Him.  He will not superimpose on us which I think is what a lot of Christians hope for.  He wants your love and cooperation.  Then He will strengthen you in your commitment to Him.

When we make that U-turn, then and only then can we say that He is our Lord.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, with the enabling help of your Spirit, help me make a true change of heart to submit to the Lordship of your son, my Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

#momomily2013 

God, My 7-11? (Part 5)

Our Text: Matthew 6:33 "But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."

We are still on this text and yes, we're still dealing with the frustrations and disillusionment of many a Christian brother or sister who feel that God is not hearing them and is leaving them to rot in their afflictions.

So far, we have seen that this feeling is the direct result of faulty foundations in the Christian community borne out of faulty teaching.  Jesus Christ was very clear in telling us that in this world we will have tribulation. In John 16:33, He said "These things have I spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."

I wonder if we understand what that means, you know, to have tribulation. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary meaning of tribulation is "distress or suffering resulting from oppression or persecution; also, a trying experience. This is a middle English word with its Latin origin in the word 'tribulare' which is to press, oppress, 'tribulum' which is threshing and, 'terere' which is to rub. The word tribulation is synonymous with the following: affliction, agony, anguish, excruciation, hurt, misery, torment, pain, straits, torture, travail, distress, woe. Nowhere in there do I find any pleasantness.

Not to belabor the point, but we really need to press into our psyche that Christianity is no walk in the park! But as Charles H Spurgeon said in his daily devotional "Morning and Evening," "But this affliction works out such precious results, that the Christian who is the subject of it must learn to rejoice in tribulations, because as his tribulations abound, so his consolations abound by Christ Jesus." (Emphasis is mine).

Christianity is no "feel good religion" as many have been made to believe. Were it so, why would we need to totally lean and depend on Jesus? Why would we need the sufficiency of His grace and the cover of His Almighty power?  Is it to feel good? I think not!

We need His constant cover and provision because ours is a walk fraught with life threatening danger. You see, the moment you make a profession of faith in Jesus, you declare war on that unrelenting enemy of our Heavenly Father, who has a perfect hatred for our Lord Jesus. That's what you did, and most times, I believe, unwittingly.
Remember though, that you have taken sides with the One to whom all power belongs, the Controller of the Universe, the Creator of all things created. He is the Lord of Hosts, the great I Am. He is the Beginning, (the middle) and the End. He is the Author and Finisher of our faith (He gives you faith to accept Him and He it is who keeps you in the faith). He is the Uncreated One who has no beginning and no end and there is no searching of His understanding. His Spirit hovered over the chaos that was earth and by the spoken Word of His mouth, He created order and every living creature. Out of the dust of the earth, which dust He created, He formed man, and breathing the breath of lives into him, man became a living soul!

Remember also, that you cannot straddle the fence or take no sides. By default, through the fall of Adam, you took sides with the enemy of God and therefore, with your enemy.  Even before you decided to take sides with Jesus, when you were yet an enemy of God, you were friends with your own enemy! How utterly pathetic and hopeless is such a state of being, to be an enemy to oneself.

What then does it mean to take sides with the Almighty God? Simply put, it is to seek His kingdom. How do we seek His Kingdom? We start by taking sides with Jesus, by turning our hearts to Him, accepting the work of substitution He did for us and by faith, to lay our hands on the "Lord's completed sacrifice, that by accepting it, we may obtain the benefit of it." C H Spurgeon, Faith's Checkbook.

This is the first covenant we get to cut with a covenant keeping God.  Tomorrow, we will talk about the second covenant, and hopefully by then, begin a new and real walk with the Anchor, Lover, and Shepherd of our souls.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, I come before you with the complete sacrifice of Jesus at Calvary. I lay hold by faith upon this substitution for me and accept Him as my Savior and my Salvation. I come to you by way of the blood of Jesus and receive your acceptance of this penitent sinner into the Beloved.  I understand that you are a covenant keeping God and so I cut this covenant with you.
Thank you Lord Jesus for saving me, and for keeping me saved, in Jesus' name, Amen.

#momomily2013 

God, My 7-11? (Part 4)

Our Text: Matthew 6:33 "But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."

We have discovered that to seek the Kingdom of God is to seek Jesus Christ  Now we need the Holy Spirit's guidance into how to seek Jesus Christ.

Let us visit with Apostle Paul in Phillipians 3:13-14 where he said "Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Those verses summarized what he was doing in the preceding verses which I would enjoin us to read because there, he gives a step by step guide on how to seek Jesus Christ and what to expect to find or experience along the way.

Then he very soberly and humbly states that he still doesn't consider himself to have taken hold of Jesus Christ, but continues in the quest so to do. I like to think of this as drinking water.  Just because you got your thirst quenched and your system hydrated yesterday with fresh water doesn't mean you can run the rest of your earthly life without further thirsting or drinking.  Everyday, you thirst for, and everyday you seek out water to drink so you can stay hydrated and alive.  People who do not drink enough water daily know what happens.  They get impacted and eventually destroy their vital organs and die.

It is the same with seeking Jesus, not only is it a daily quest, but you cannot rely on the find of yesterday, you cannot live on the glory or revelation of yesterday.  At the Mount of Transfiguration, the disciples were so satiated with the glory revealed to them that they thought it couldn't get better and were ready to build tabernacles and park there.  But no, they had to press forward.  We have to press forward.  Looking back is dangerous because it takes you back.  What do we have to look back to?  The children of Israel wouldn't leave Egypt be, they kept looking back and romanticizing their experience there!  And so they all save Joshua and Caleb did not make it out of the wilderness.  Lot's wife kept looking back and we know what happened to her.

This looking back of which we speak is a heart condition where you worship God Almighty with your lips but your heart is far from Him, your heart has not been turned toward Him.  We must turn our hearts fully to Him and then by His Spirit, He will enable us to worship and serve Him in Spirit and in truth.

In verse 3 of Phillipians 3, Paul enjoins that we must have no confidence in the flesh, ours or anyone else's.  Our confidence must be in Jesus Christ. Our hope must be in Him because as we saw yesterday, our existence is in Him! (Acts 17:28)

Prayer
Heavenly Father, help me today to leave those things of yesterday there, both my achievements and disappointments.  Help me to press forward today in my quest to apprehend your son, Jesus Christ. Amen.
#momomily2013 

God, My 7-11? (Part 3)

Our Text:
Matthew 6:33 "But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."

Today we will consider what it means to "seek first" the Kingdom of God.

The seeking doesn't just happen to you, neither is it natural. We need always remember that the things of the Spirit, our nature will always war against, or resist. This is where our intellect comes into play for we have to make a list of our priorities, and then rearrange them placing the apprehension of Jesus on the top.

Should we understand who Jesus is, and what He represents in our lives, we'd understand that all we need or could ever desire for a wholesome existence is bound up in Him. He it is "who fills all in all (for in that body lives the full measure of Him who makes everything complete, and who fills everything everywhere with Himself)" Ephesians 1:23 (AMP)

All we could ever need is bound up in Him because:
1. He is head over all, meaning all things have been put under His feet (made subject to Him), and we, the Church, His body, are joined with Him in dominion over all things made subject to Him. Ephesians 1:22
2. Since He purchased us with His own blood, He has full ownership and therefore all our supplies can only rightly come from Him and nowhere else. Anything we receive apart from Him can only lead to trouble and is an attempt to separate us from Him. Such cannot destroy or change Him, but most certainly will hurt and cause us, His body, to be disjointed.
3. It is in Him that we live and move and have our being. Acts 17:28.  This simply means that our existence is in Him and none other."Without Him we have no life, nor that motion which every inanimate nature displays, nor even existence itself." (F B Meyer)


Having understood that not only is He is the Creator of all things created, and that only to Him does all power belong, but that He does have dominion over all, we need to see that we are placed beside Him to exercise and enjoy that dominion with Him.

Let us attempt to fully grasp this all filling attribute and dominion of Jesus over all, and we will be well on our way to understanding what this seeking is, of the Kingdom of God.

That which you have dominion over, that which is subject to you, you do not pursue, it comes to you.  Here is where we run into trouble. We have been pursuing the wrong objects!  We should be pursuing Jesus Christ for in Him lies all we need and they are also subject to Him. Being subject to Him means they flow where He determines.  Get Jesus, and you get all. It is that simple. 

This is why He said "and all these things shall be added to you."  The Kingdom of God is Jesus Christ.  All things are bound up in Him. Seek Jesus Christ and all these things shall be added to you.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, please forgive me for trying to get a hold of all that which is bound up in Jesus Christ outside of Him. By your Holy Spirit, help me now to seek and to apprehend Jesus Christ Himself and I know that all will be added to me.  Help me, Merciful God to desire Jesus and Him alone. Amen.

#momomily2013 

God, My 7-11? (Part 2)

In yesterday's post, we learned that we should seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and that all things (temporal) will be added unto us. Today, we will begin discussing what it means to seek the Kingdom of God and how to do the seeking.

To do this, let us look at the verses of Scripture preceding our text verse. Taking it from verse 24, our Lord Jesus said
"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.
Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on.  Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
So why do you worry about clothing?  Consider the lillies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin;
And yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'
For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your Heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. (Emphasis mine)

Our Text:
But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

Jesus Christ was unequivocally clear about how we are to conduct our lives here on earth. In the entire Sermon on The Mount, He presents the Kingdom of Heaven being lived here on earth by His children.  At the end which we have quoted above (out of the New King James Bible), He brings the sermon home by showing us the grandeur of His workmanship and care for vegetation and animal life. Yet we are His precious children, made in His image and after His likeness, bought with the precious blood of His only begotten son, Jesus Christ.  This is the same God who assured us that even the hairs of our head are numbered (each strand of hair has its own peculiar code).

If He takes such care of vegetation and animals, how much more will He care for those whom He paid so dearly for. I don't know any verse of Scripture where God affirms his undying, everlasting love for vegetation or the animal Kingdom, do you?

Let us today, be clear about His love and concern for us and our wellbeing. And we will continue with this tomorrow.  Today, let us spend time studying and meditating on the verses of Matthew Chapter 6.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank you for loving and not giving up on me. Lord Jesus, thank you for paying that inconceivably dear price for me. Help me today to lay hold on your love for me. Amen.

#momomily2013 

God my 7-11? (Part 1)

There is so much to say about the difficulties of the times we live in but we will do that later.  At this moment, our focus is in restoring our spirits to the God ordained "ph" level. We will, with the help of the Holy Spirit, fix those things which are ours to fix and allow God to fulfill His covenant terms in our lives.

We have established the following:
1. Christians world over are overwhelmed by the frustrations of life
2. We feel God is not intervening to save us or at least alleviate our sufferings
3. We do not manifest the power of God in our lives because we are disobedient or lacking in enduement of said power.
4. Especially when we are going through, God the Father is very near us and watches to ensure the issue does not overcome us (Isaiah 43:2)

What we will attempt to fix here, is our communication with God our Father.  This is termed "prayer."  Prayer is not some skill you have to study to attain, as most think. It is simply talking with God.

As E M Bounds said, and I paraphrase, "prayer is always to God, for people and against the devil." (Complete Works of E M Bounds on Prayer)

Our Father wants us to cast our cares on Him. Our shoulders are not built to carry burdens, but He who holds the earth in His Hands can definitely carry our burdens.  He wants us to bring everything to Him, everything. Nothing pertaining to our well being is too little for His attention and care. He tells us that even the hairs on our heads are numbered by Him!

Two things we do:
1. When we have problems and run into challenges, we try to fix them ourselves and cry to Him after we have tried and failed in our own power. In His mercy He hears and answers.

2. The flip side is that we take God as a superstore in which we do not pay money for goods received and/or services rendered. When we do talk to Him, all we do is yell at Him asking for this or that temporal, material blessing.  We ask for money, house, car, clothes, social recognition, etc.  Again, when we don't get what we want, how we want it, and when we want it, we begin to accuse God irreverently.

How about we learn how to pray? Jesus gave us a template in Matthew 6:9-13. And it is to "Our Father in Heaven."  We don't get to make personal requests until verse 11.  Remember  in verse 33, He promised that "all these things shall be added unto us," when we seek first the Kingdom of God.

Let us stop kicking against the pricks, let us begin to seek His Kingdom and He is covenant bound to add all those things we need for life and godliness to us.

Prayer
Father, please forgive me for seeking other than your Kingdom. Help me to seek your Kingdom and your pleasure. In Jesus' name, amen

#momomily2013 

But Wait (Part 3)

Having established that we do not obey Christ, and/or have not received the requisite power from the Holy Spirit to do the work, let us now examine the reasons for our lack of obedience and/or empowerment.

As I expressed in the first post, people world over are frustrated and discouraged.  They don't understand why God isn't interposing on their behalf.  But here we have it.  These people are not living a life of obedience to God.

You see, to obey God, we need to put off selfishness and self confidence.  As Charles H Spurgeon said in his daily devotional, "Morning and Evening," self confidence is the armor bearer for sin.

Now, since we insist on wearing our self reliance as a shield, expressing both lack of faith in, and respect for God, we shut Him out and say "we can do this without you."
Please note however, that even though we shut Him out, not only is He never far from us,  but to the repentant cry, howbeit weak and almost silent, He comes flying on the wings of Heaven to assist His distressed child.

Also, though we think He is not here in our situations of distress, and we think we're bearing it alone, let me say this.  I have found that it is the Almighty God himself who restrains the enemy of our souls from totally and completely destroying us.

The enemy is not trying to keep you in straits, he is trying to consume you completely!
In 2 Thessalonians 2:6-7, we are told of a restraining force preventing the lawless one from fully manifesting or unleashing his wickedness!

Also we all, both righteous and unrighteous alike, enjoy the general providence of the Almighty who is El-Shaddai. Jesus Christ in Matthew 5:45 tells us this about God our Father, that "He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust."

Therefore, two facts are established:
1.  He is in that situation of distress with His child (Psalm 23:4)
2.  His mercy is the reason we are not completely consumed by our troubles (Lamentations3:22-26)

Let us in the light of this great and persistent mercy of God toward us, stop resorting to Him as 'plan B-Z,' and let us turn our whole hearts to Him, for He always is the only one who has loved us with an everlasting, i.e., unending love and with loving kindness He continues to draw us unto Himself. See Jeremiah 31:3.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, please forgive my unbelief, and help me. Help me to trust in, and honor you with my faith. Help to lean on, and cast my cares on you. Give me a revelation of the goodness of your thoughts toward me, in Jesus's mighty name I pray. Amen.

#momomily2013 

But Wait (Part 2)

Jesus Christ gave the great commission as we discussed in the previous post, that all His disciples should go out and do what they had experienced with Him.  They were to go out and make disciples of all men.  He assured them that He would be with them until the end of the ages!

Previously we discussed a reason for defeat and weakness among the children of God, being lack of enduement of power from the Holy Spirit.  In John 20:22, we have an account of the risen Lord breathing on the disciples and saying to them "Receive the Holy Spirit..."
But the Book of Acts, as told by Luke, He also told them to wait until they were baptized with the Holy Spirit.  

These are not inconsistent. The one is the first fruit of the latter. It is by the Holy Spirit's enablement that we receive and profess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior (1 Corinthians 12:3).  Our natural inclination will never submit to such (Galatians 5:17).
The latter therefore, is that which enables us to go and preach the good news with boldness and urgency.

This preaching of the good news is what we commonly term "evangelism."  Now how many can confidently say they do this, at all?
We have the good news, which is the gospel of Jesus Christ preached to us, we receive Him by the help of, and in cooperation with, the Holy Spirit, as our Savior.  Usually we confess Him to be our Lord as well.  But here is where the tar meets the road!  We do not obey Him!

Think about this with me for a moment. We call it the good news, we accept His substitutionary death on the cross for us, we declare that we've been translated from the kingdom of darkness, from eternal death, to the Kingdom of God's dear son, to eternal life.
We proclaim to be like the one who is a life giving Spirit.  Alas, we continue as mere living souls, unable to give life to another.

If we truly believe our profession of faith, if we are no longer children of wrath and disobedience, why can we not share what we have received, this so great a salvation, with other lost souls?

Then there's the issue of life style.  People watched the disciples and knew from their lifestyles that they followed Jesus. Can the same be said of us?  We actually use our new identity as a rod of offence, beating people down, and seeking to obtain temporal privileges with it.

Are we not Christians the few hours of the week when we are in a formal fellowship gathering and spawns of the devil the rest of the time?  The one you obey is your Lord and master. It is that simple.  We flagrantly disobey Christ but wonder why His promised cover is not over us.

Prayer
Lord Jesus, please forgive me for disobeying you.  By your Spirit, without whose help I cannot please you, help me to start walking in obedience to you.  Amen.

#momomily2013 

But Wait (Part 1)

I receive phone calls from overwhelmed Christians with questions pertaining to their Christian walk. These calls come from around the world and the callers are from different walks of life.

One thing they all have in common is their frustration.  Life just isn't working as easily as it should, indeed as was promised when they made their commitment to the Lord!
Old things were supposed to have passed away and all things become new, but apparently, this did not happen.  As a result, these people feel they've been cheated.

In a summary response to that expectation, let me say this: becoming new does not presuppose becoming easy. One thing we need to learn immediately is to read the Holy Scriptures as they are written. This will be visited in a later post.

So, these people are facing untold hardship and are at their wit's end!  They wonder why God who is supposed to be so benevolent and powerful isn't intervening.  It matters not their station in life, or the continent in which they reside, they are going through the valley of the shadow of death, and it seems God has turned His back on them.

In listening to these precious people, I observe that they all have something in common besides their suffering.  They all are ignorant of the workings of God, the characteristics of Jesus Christ, and the office of the Holy Spirit.

Now I know you cannot walk successfully or harmoniously with another except you have some understanding one of another, and are in agreement with each other.  How can you agree with someone you neither know nor understand.

So, we'll tackle this problem from its point of origination.  Jesus Christ told His disciples to go into the world, preaching the good news, and making disciples of all men.  He gave them the assurance that He'd be with them even unto the end of the ages.
See Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:15-18, and John 20:21.  This is what has come to be called "The Great Commission."

A very important caution to this commission which is often overlooked, and which to a large extent explains the frustrations of the people of God is found in Acts 1:4-5 which says "And being assembled together  with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, "which," He said, "you have heard from me for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."

PRAYER
Our Father in Heaven, please give me the promised Holy Spirit so I am enabled to be in agreement with you and to do your will.  Amen.

#momomily2013