After You Have Suffered a While. ..

Our Text:
1 Peter 5 : 10
"But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you."

In Genesis 26 we find the story of Isaac when famine hit the land in which he dwelt.  He decided to leave and go to Egypt as his father Abraham had done before him.  The Lord told him not to go, but to remain in the land until He had fulfilled the promises He made to his father Abraham.

In verse 8, the Bible tells us that "... When he had been there a long time..." things didn't get better, they looked like they might get worse in fact because he had a run in with the King concerning his wife, Rebekah.

So the picture is very dismal. He had a family to care for, there was famine in the land which didn't appear to be ready to ease any time soon. The men were interested in his wife and that could have provided his family with a much needed break from starvation. Now before anyone gets all riled up and indignant, let's remember what's going on in Nigeria at this time. Men are prostituting their wives for contracts so as to have money to feed the family, mothers are prostituting themselves and their daughters for the same reason!  Or it could have gotten him killed,  let's remember Uriah,  Bathsheba's husband.

Neither scenario played out here because the Lord Himself intervened and Abimelech warned the men of the kingdom off Isaac's  wife, so we don't know how far Isaac would have carried the deception.

And so they stayed in the land and continued to suffer with the rest of the people. This wasn't a hardship peculiar to Isaac and his family.  The entire Kingdom was under the curse of famine. Also let us consider that the people for whom he was responsible were not very understanding. Children don't understand with the parents that they have to stay hungry because there's no food or money for food.  These people in Isaac's family must have wondered why he wouldn't go down to Egypt like his father before him did,  why he would subject them to such hardships by making them stay in want.

Now when Peter wrote this letter, he wasn't writing to an individual but to the churches, particularly the leaders and elders of the churches. In 1 Peter 5 : 1, he said "And now, a word to you who are elders in the churches. I, too, am an elder and a witness to the sufferings of Christ. And I, too, will share in His glory when He is revealed to the whole world. As a fellow elder, I appeal to you:" (NLT)

So to the elders of the churches it was that he said "after you have suffered a while. .."  Leaders will have to suffer a lot at the hands of the sheep as Jesus our master suffered at our hands.  They will not always understand and/or cooperate.  They will complain,  criticize, and murmur like the children of Israel did with Moses.  It comes with the territory and leaders have to rise above these things and continue to shepherd the flock to glory.

Continuing with our account of Isaac's experience in Genesis 26, in verse 12 we find that God indeed perfected, established, strengthened, and settled him "after he had suffered a while." In Genesis 26:13, we find that "the man began to prosper, and continued prospering until he became very prosperous."

But Isaac's challenges did not end because that wasn't the pinnacle of God's plan for him,  Abimelech's servants closed up the wells Abraham, his father had dug.  Please notice that while he was suffering they didn't touch his wells but once he became prosperous, they began to torment him and his family.

Then he was exiled from his home by the King himself.  He moved to Gerar Valley and this time the inhabitants didn't close up the wells but claimed them from him. He named the one "argument" And the next one "hostility." We will discuss these names in a later posting.

He dug up a third well over which there was no contest and he named it "Rehoboth" because the Lord had made room for him. From here he moved on to Beersheba.

Please try to imagine how long you can survive without water,  and maybe we will understand the importance of, and significance of closing up the wells against Isaac and his family.

Note: Isaac was very wealthy but notice that he remained humble. He did not fight back when Abimelech's servants closed up his wells, neither did he fight the shepherds at Gerar.

When the Lord begins to perform His oath to us, let us remember how humble we were in our low circumstances and not change when we are prosperous. In 1 Peter 5 : 5  we are told that "... God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble."

May His peace remain with us all who are in Christ Jesus. Amen.

#momomily2013 

Resistance

The practice of Christianity is a practice of resistance, the Apostle James  enjoins that we should resist the devil and he will flee from us in James 4:7.

Apostle Peter in 1 Peter 5:8-9 admonished us to "Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour.  Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world."

The Lord Jesus in Matthew 5:39 said "But I tell you not to resist an evil person." In 1 Corinthians 10:3-4, we are told "though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,"

We are clearly to recognize and resist our adversary, the devil.  We will discuss the Corinthian verses quoted above in a later blog.

The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines the word 'resist' as
"to fight against something, to try to stop or prevent something;
To remain strong against the force or effect of something, to not be affected or harmed by something; To prevent yourself from doing something that you want to do."
"To exert force in opposition, to exert oneself so as to counteract or defeat, or to withstand the force of effect of something or someone."
Synonyms of the word include 'defy,  oppose, repel, withstand.'

So we are to oppose and repel and withstand the devil,  we are to push against him and remain strong against the force of his suggestions.  We can do this because the Holy Spirit will quicken us if we yield to His government. 
John 6:63 "It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life."
Romans 8:11 "But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you,  He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwells in you."
Ephesians 2:1-2a "And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air,..."

You He has quickened or given life from the source to resist, so that you no longer function under the dictates of the 'spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:' Ephesians 2:2b.

This is why we are told that the Kingdom of heaven suffers violence from the days of John the Baptizer and the violent take it by force in Matthew 11:12. “Everyone storms his way into the kingdom,” may clarify what Jesus actually meant, that the kingdom was being entered by desperate persons.

Persons with intense interest and deep need press their way into the kingdom. The Amplified Version puts it thus: "Until John came, there were the Law and the Prophets; since then the Good News (the Gospel) of the Kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone strives violently to go in (would force his own way rather than God's way into it).

You have to be desperate for God, you can't just be mildly interested in Him, you couldn't push against the devil or press into the Kingdom of God with a mere curious interest in God and the things of His Kingdom.

So if our default mode is to go with the kingdom of this world,  we have to practice resistance against that which we're naturally inclined to and press upward to the divine way.  May the Holy Spirit help us all.  Amen.

#momomily2014

The Syrian Raid

Our Text:
2 Kings 5 : 2 "And the Syrians had gone out on raids, and had brought back captive a young girl from the land of Israel.  She waited on Naaman's wife. "

Here was a young Hebrew girl who had been captured when Syria under the command of Naaman raided the land of Israel.  She was snatched from her home, her mother, her siblings.  She was taken out of her culture and everything familiar and under the oppression of slavery, brought to this strange country with a strange language and strange gods.

A Hebrew girl who had been raised to believe in one God whose name is Jehovah.  She had been taught the history of her people, about all their sufferings and how the Almighty hand of Jehovah God had always been with them because they were His chosen people.

And now here she was a slave in this foreign land.  We don't know what was done to her between the time of capture and the time or circumstances under which she was delivered to Naaman's wife, and I am certain that even if we can sympathize with this little girl,  we couldn't possibly empathize with her because we've never been slaves, we really don't know what it means, but we do know that it is absolutely unpleasant. None of us would wish it on our daughters.

So she's a captive in Naaman's house. She's performing her duties as unto the Lord under a very broken heart.  Her faith in the God of Israel remains strong so we know she didn't assimilate into the Syrian culture (In Psalm 137:4, the captives from Israel upon being required to sing a song of Zion mourned,  saying "how shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land.").  The Bible in Proverbs 22:6 admonishes us to "train up a child in the way he should go,  and when he is old he will not depart from it."

We know all this because in verse 3 she said to Naaman's wife, "If only my master were with the Prophet who is in Samaria! For he would heal him of his leprosy." She clearly believes in the God of Israel 'so she would be established, and in His Prophets so she would prosper!'

In spite of how grossly she'd been wronged, in spite of the fact that she was a slave far from home,  she didn't take all that as occasion to keep her mouth shut when she knew the solution to her master's problem, the only one problem he had. She still reached out to her captors to help them.

How many of us can emulate this Hebrew girl?  Let us search ourselves and learn to take on the Spirit of Christ as this young lady did. And may the Lord in His mercy help us in Jesus' name,  Amen.

#momomily2014

Add-On

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

For the most part, we follow all the requisite steps.  We accept Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord,  we make a public confession of our new faith and declare that we are born again,  we expect that old things have passed away and all things have become new.  We join a local church body and some of us become workers in the church.  And so we think we're now part of the commonwealth of Israel.

We read, or hear that we should pray without ceasing, pray with all kinds of prayers, present our supplications with thanksgiving. So we sing praise songs and then pour forth our requests, after all,  He said 'we have not because we ask not' so we ask.  We ask for the things that we need and we know that since the earth and everything in it belongs to Him,  all the gold and silver, and even the cattle on a thousand Hills,  He will grant us our requests.

We also know that He honors His words above His names,  and He said 'Ask, and it will be given to you; ' so we ask and expect to receive that for which we ask. In Isaiah 65:24, the Lord through the prophet said "And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. " So we ask and keep on asking but we don't get,  we examine the steps to see what we missed and we didn't miss anything, or so we think.

Here's the hard part,  I've checked all our examples in the Bible of requests being made and I think we might be asking wrong.  Solomon, the man of whom it is said that none before or after him has been so materially wealthy,  didn't ask for money,  he asked for wisdom to lead God's people aright. Jabez was going to war to acquire more land for his people so he prayed that the Lord would bless him, enlarge his territory, and grant him success, for the people.
The disciples asked the Lord to teach them how to pray,  how they may do the things He did.  My search has been by no means exhaustive but I believe we ask wrong.

Our text in Matthew enjoins us to seek, to make the primary object of our search, the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. He went on to tell us that all these things which we worry about, God knows we need and that they will be added to us.

But we pursue after and seek the add-ons,  we want to get the 'lagniappe' the small gift given to a customer by a merchant at the time of purchase, and yes, Jesus said we should come to Him and buy without money,  then He'll give us the add-on, but instead we only want the add-on and somehow think we can wear Him down into changing His standard by our persistent asking.  We throw tantrums and try to blackmail Him into giving us the free gift that comes with the purchase without making the purchase. We don't want what he's selling because it's relationship with him and we only want His hand for our earthly needs.

Let us seek first His Kingdom and righteousness and HE WILL add these material things to us if we trust Him.

#momomily2014

Love Your Neighbor As Yourself

Text:  Matthew 22: 37-40 (verse 39)

Jesus said to him,"  'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,  with all your soul, and with all your mind.'  This is the first and great commandment.   And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."

Apostle Paul expounds on this in Romans 13 : 9-10 by stating: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself. " Love does no harm to a neighbor;  therefore love is the fulfilment of the law.

As we read on in the chapter,  he shows how to do this thing called loving my neighbor.  I have to put on Christ.   The natural man is selfish and self involved,  and self serving.  Mothers love their children so passionately because those children are extensions of themselves not because they love their neighbors as themselves.

It takes the Spirit of Christ,  the compassion of Christ to do this as God requires, as it takes the Spirit of Christ to do right anything God requires.

How do I love my neighbor as myself?   Well,  how do I love myself?  Loving myself involves securing my wellbeing,  sometimes by any means necessary.  As a matter of fact,  most crimes and sins in our lives are committed in the pursuit of personal wellbeing and/or advancement.

When we are in this mode, we are primal,  and focused,  and think not much of the ripple effects of our actions.   We just want what we want.  That is the natural way of loving self.  That is not God's way of loving self.

If I am to love my neighbor as myself,  I must do for my neighbor what I will do for myself.  Conversely,  I must not do for myself what I cannot do for my neighbor.

Illustration:
I needed my friend's help.  She had been praying with and for me concerning the matter but when I asked her to reach out to her contacts on my behalf,  she balked.  She wasn't willing to go that far for me.  I asked her if she wouldn't do it were she in my shoes.  Praying for me and mouthing platitudes don't count for anything if you will not put action to your show of concern.  But yet, this is what we do. We claim to care but will not stretch ourselves for another.

You must be willing to put yourself in my shoes to really love me as yourself.   You have to take my situation as yours otherwise you will be unable to go all the way for me.   My problem has to become yours, my need has to become yours for you to effectively and practically love me.  This is our duty as Christians, but this we are not willing to do.

Yet our Saviour did exactly that for us.  That was the only way He could effectively and judiciously save us.  He took our sins as His sins. He stood in our stead and bore upon Himself our penalty.  In the eyes of justice,  he committed the crimes or sins and He paid the full price.   He became me, that I might become Him.

And He continues to make my problem His, my pain and shame, His.  He loved and continues to love us as Himself,  and we enjoy it!   But we won't emulate Him, no sir.

How then can we claim to be a part of Him?

Prayer
Lord please forgive my selfishness and help me by your Spirit to begin to truly love my neighbor as myself.  Help me to become like you,  to die to self so you might live in and through me. In Jesus' Almighty name.  Amen.

#momomily2014

Consider This Also!

Our Text: 2 Corinthians 10:4

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.

 Our enemy is not visible neither is he tangible. Yet we are so natural that we insist on fighting a seen enemy. That is why we need a person to focus our anger or venom upon. From the text for today, we see that the main battles are fought in our thought lives. That is how Lucifer fell, when he thought within himself that it was time to become as God, same way he beguiled Eve, and Adam fell because they wanted to be as God. Same way he approached our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the wilderness but found nothing in Him.

In Philippians 4:8, Apostle Paul encourages the brethren at Philippi to rejoice in the Lord always (v. 4), to be gentle with all men (v. 5), and to be anxious for nothing but present all things to God in prayer (v. 6). He stated that as they do these things, or take on these characteristics, the peace of God will then guard their hearts and minds (v. 7).

V. 8: Finally brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy – meditate on these things.

So in 2 Corinthians we see that we have to bring every thought under the government of Christ Jesus our Lord. Any thought not the mind or will of God is found to be exalting itself against the knowledge of God and no one knows God except as we know Jesus our Lord.

And in Philippians, we find that the way to captivate every thought for Christ is to think on those things listed. Only as and when we do this can God by His peace, guard our hearts and minds. The converse is when we entertain wicked, unkind thoughts, we pull out from under the government and protection of the Holy Spirit, the peace of God is not to be found our guard and the devil has free reign in our lives.

If the things listed in verse 8 of Philippians 4 would come naturally, we wouldn’t be encouraged to think on them. Every individual has a duty, a personal responsibility to decide to think on these things, and when negative thoughts are suggested to us, we immediately banish them by using our spiritual sword which is the Word of God. Hence we are told in Hebrews 4:12 that the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

The Word of God will show us, if we allow Him, the origination of our thoughts and agenda.  Only then can we properly deal with them so that we carry out only the thoughts and agenda of God. So we can see that our enemy is not that cantankerous person or that other insecure man/woman making us miserable at work or even at Church! The originator of that irritant in our lives is the devil and the one who allows him is our Heavenly Father. How about that!

God allows it all to show us our real selves and to cause us to run into His ever loving arms because only there will we find peace and safety. King David knew this very well and verified it through his several wilderness excursions. He realized that the city walls, fortified as they were could not keep him safe. But out in the open fields or in dangerous venom infested caves, he found safety because he ran into the everlasting love of God. See Psalm 18.

The battle is in our minds in another wise. Whenever you find yourself feeling frustrated, especially if another person Is involved and it is because of them you feel thus, you need to step back immediately and let God be God. Anytime we try to do His work, we get frustrated. As David said in Psalm 18, you can only succeed where He strengthens you for a task.

In verses 29, 32-34, he said “For by you I can run against a troop, By my God I can leap over a wall. It is God who arms me with strength, and makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of deer, and sets me on my high places. He teaches my hands to make war, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.”

Going back to our text, the last portion says, “and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.” We have this natural propensity to call out the faults and transgressions of others very quickly and we ourselves are not in the clear. This is not a good thing, but does it mean we should be quiet about wrongdoing when we come up against it? When we see a reproach being brought against the name of our Lord, should we be quiet? Absolutely not! David exclaimed that the zeal for God was consuming him and Paul lived the life of one completely sold out to the cause of Christ, giving no thought for his personal safety or even comfort.

What we are saying is that you begin with yourself. Remove the log from your eye and then you can remove the splinter from your brother’s. We need to understand wherefrom the Lord has bought and brought us, to appreciate the magnitude of the work of grace He has done and continues to do in our lives. Then we need to extend the same mercy and longsuffering to our fellow men.

There comes a time when this stops as was with Paul in Acts 18:6. There will come such a time when Jesus Himself will separate the goats from the sheep. You need to work on yourself with the help of the Holy Spirit to make sure you’re sheep and not a goat! That is the process of fulfilling your obedience. As we are told, to obey is better than sacrifice.

In summary, let us win the war in our minds and the Kingdom of God and of His Christ would be further advanced.

Prayer

           

Help me Heavenly Father, I cannot help myself. Show me your way and teach me your path, that I might indeed be accepted in the beloved, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

#momomily2013

Consider This!

Our Texts:

Hebrews 5:1-14, 6:1-8

Jesus Christ in Matthew 5:44-45 said “but I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you, and persecute you,

That you may be sons of your Father in Heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. ” (NKJV)

Tying the words of Jesus to the texts in Hebrews, we realize, sadly enough, that our church leaders are actually teaching a gospel different from that of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We are taught to pray against our enemies, that if we don’t get them first, they will get us!

Jesus Christ said if you hate your brother, you are a murderer, but church teaches me to pray that the one who stands against me should die! And yet, while we were yet sinners and enemies of the Godhead, Jesus Christ came and laid down His life for us, in our stead, that we may be reconciled to the Father and saved from eternal damnation.

If you hate your brother, you are a murderer and in Galatians 5:19-21, we have a list of some of the works of the flesh (one of which is murder) which anyone found with any combination of these should not expect to inherit the Kingdom of God.   Please note that even if these are found in you, hope is not lost because there is a way of escape made in true repentance from evil works. If in sincerity, we turn from our wickedness, confessing our sins and seeking forgiveness of the Lord, we are assured that He is faithful to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from unrighteousness.

Jesus Christ died for sinners, we are asked only to pray for them, and we curse them instead. How can any claim to have the love of Christ shed abroad in their hearts if they cannot even pray for one who hurts them, whether in reality or merely in perception?

Now let us look at Hebrews 5:12-14.

“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. 

For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for He is a babe. 

But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”

One reason for this retardation is found in Matthew 5 quoted above. When we are in direct rebellion against the wishes, the heart, the mind and will of our Lord, how can we hope to grow in Him?

In Hebrews 6, we are enjoined to move forward, and come out of the rut of always repenting from dead works! Let us move forward!  Instead of crowding out the Christ element in us, instead of suppressing the influence of the Holy Spirit on our spirit, let us crowd out the self-life and allow the Christ life to prevail.

F B Meyer said of the spiritual man, that he is “the man whose spirit is quick with the Spirit of God, who speaks and wills and lives beneath the impulse of the Holy Ghost Himself.”

He went on to say “But what is tender and beautiful in a babe for a few months is terrible at the end of twelve months, or ten years. And what is lovely in a young convert is terrible in a man of ten or twenty years of Christian life.”

When we come into Christ, we bind our soul powers and allow the Holy Spirit to work with our spirits. Only then can we mature in Christ. You see, a mature Christian is the one who has come to understand the following, among other things:

1.       In his heart dwells no good thought

2.       His heart is deceitful and desperately wicked

3.       His heart is continually wicked

4.       His own goodness or righteousness is as filthy decaying rags

5.       Were there any goodness in him, he could have secured his salvation outside of the passion and death of Jesus Christ. Therefore, to operate spiritually in Christ,

6.       He must be totally and humbly dependent on the Holy Spirit to serve God effectively and please Him.

A carnal or fleshly man has no concerns whatsoever about the advancement of the Kingdom of God. He has no understanding that God has chosen to work His Kingdom out with our cooperation.  A carnal man is like a child who doesn’t know or care about how Mom and Dad make things happen at home. All he cares to know is that his personal needs are met and desires granted.

The mature man is concerned about the wellbeing of his parent (s) estate/affairs. He wants to know what hurts and what pleases them so he can play a part in making their desires happen. We as children of God need to be that way. How can I join God in making His Kingdom come and His will be done on earth as it is in Heaven? This should be our heart’s cry and speedily He will hear and grant our requests by giving us a part to play.

We are told in Romans 14:17-19, “for the Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved of men.  Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another.”

Prayer

Heavenly Father, please help me to pursue the things of your Kingdom and serve you as you will, not as I will, in Jesus’ Almighty name, Amen.

#momomily2013