Not Yet

This is what the Lord Almighty says: “These people say, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord’s house.

Haggai 1:2

After their return from exile, God's people had delayed building God's temple for 18 years! While they lived in houses with panelled walls, God's house had a foundation and no walls. And their excuse, was that the time had not yet come to rebuild. They knew it was God’s will for them to rebuild the temple. 

As Matthew Henry points out, “they didn’t say that they would not build a temple, but, not yet.”* And in this way they deceived themselves and lulled themselves into disobedience. I often say to my children, delayed obedience is disobedience, and I believe that applies to these verses. 

This sin isn’t unique to the Jews that lived 2,400 years ago though, is it? We still do this today, don’t we? Most people don’t say that they'll never get saved; just not right now. Christians rarely decide that they'll never get baptized, but they do tell themselves that they just aren’t ready yet. They need to mature more first. Or they would be too nervous to do it right now, maybe later. And we don’t say that we'll never lead a single person to Jesus, or that we'll never share the gospel with our family member or friend or neighbor or co-worker. We don’t do that. We just convince ourselves that now isn’t the right time. Maybe someday soon.

Is there anything you know you ought to do, anything that God has commanded you to do, that you're putting off? Is there anything you are saying “not yet” to or “maybe one day” to or “when the time is right” to? Delayed obedience is disobedience. Don’t deceive yourself! If God has commanded it, then you should obey it... now. Look for opportunities to obey, not reasons to delay.

*Matthew Henry and Thomas Scott, Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, 1997), Hag 1:1.

Christmas Obedience

...an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins...” When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.

Matthew 1:20-21 & 24

Joseph was a devout Jew. He had it in his mind to follow the law and quietly divorce his fiancée that had turned up pregnant; but the Lord had other plans. So, God sent an angel to tell Joseph not only that he was to take Mary as his wife but also that the child who would be born of her had been sent to "save his people from their sins."

In other words, Jesus' birth, Christmas itself, is about people being saved from their sin. That includes not only people coming to place their faith in Jesus for forgiveness of their sin, but also people turning from their sins to obedience to God. And even though Joseph wasn't turning away from sin, we do see him turning toward obedience in the next verses. Verse 24 tells us that after his divine dream, Joseph woke up and obeyed God. In this way, he sets an example for all of us to follow. 

Purely by coincidence I happened to read Romans 16 right before I read Matthew 1 tonight. And a certain phrase at the end of Romans 16 caught my attention. "so that all the Gentiles might come to the obedience that comes from faith" (Romans 16:26). It is probably the reason I noticed this minor theme of obedience in Matthew 1. Having that phrase stuck in my mind helped me realize that a lot of emphasis is placed on faith at Christmastime and very little on obedience. But there's something wrong with that, because there is an obedience that comes from faith. And I have no doubt in my mind that the kind of faith that God desires is the kind that leads to life change and obedience. 

So, this Christmas don't just place your faith in the baby in the manger...obey Him. Wake up on Christmas morning and do what He has told you to do. And then, even after Christmas is over, try to make it your daily practice to wake up and obey just like Joseph did.

A Eulogy for Joshua

As the Lord commanded his servant Moses, so Moses commanded Joshua, and Joshua did it; he left nothing undone of all that the Lord commanded Moses...So Joshua took the entire land, just as the Lord had directed Moses, and he gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal divisions. Then the land had rest from war.

Joshua 11:15

I think you would struggle to find a eulogy that better sums up Joshua’s life and legacy than these two words: Obedience and Success. Joshua obeyed God in everything. He left nothing undone of all he had been commanded to do, and God gave him success.

Consider what God did with Joshua’s obedience. God took this man who was born a slave in Egypt and used him to lead Israel to victory over six nations and 31 kings (Joshua 12:7-24). Joshua conquered six nations and 31 kings! And He did it simply by being strong enough and courageous enough to obey God fully.

Are you obeying God fully or are you leaving something that He has commanded you to do undone? Let me encourage you not to go halfway in your commitment to follow God! Don’t leave anything undone that God has commanded you to do. Obey God fully!

I Know Better

And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. And Jesus sternly charged him and sent him away at once, and said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest...” But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in desolate places, and people were coming to him from every quarter.

Mark 1:42-45

Anytime I would go to visit my grandparents as a teen I would work with my grandfather. He drove a tractor and bush hogged for a living. If you don't know what that is, imagine mowing a large area with a tractor. One of his contracts was to bush hog the small county airport. Just before he set me loose on that tractor, he warned me not to mow too close to the runway lights, that it was easy to hit them. I listened, but I was fairly sure I could do it without any. As I mowed for the next hour I started getting closer and closer to those lights, taking particular pride in being able to get right up close to them without hitting any... right up until I did hit one. I cracked the post. The light hung limply with its head on the ground. I felt awful! What's worse is I had to tell my grandfather. He said that he knew I was going to hit at least one, and that he had hit plenty himself. He was hoping I would learn from his mistakes.  

Somehow, in my sinful pride, I thought I knew better than him. Someone who did this for a living, who had mowed this very airport many times before gave me sound advice, but I thought I knew better. So, I ignored him. I can't help but wonder how often we do the very same with God.  

In the passage above, Jesus heals a man of leprosy and sternly warns him not to tell anyone. That seems odd doesn't it? Why wouldn't Jesus want this man to share his testimony? Maybe this man thought Jesus was just being humble. We don't know. What we do know is that this man clearly thought he knew better than Jesus, because he spread the news around to everyone who would listen. 

"So what!" You might say. "His heart was in the right place. What harm was done?" The passage tells us exactly what harm was done by this man's disobedience. Jesus could no longer enter a town openly. He had to stay outside in desolate places. This one man's disobedience, even if well-intentioned, significantly impacted Jesus' life for the worse. He couldn't go into town to get food or to find a home to lodge in. If He did, the crowds would throng him. It must have been like the ancient equivalent of being followed by paparazzi and by crowds of adoring fans who all want something from you. So, Jesus had to stay outside, in desolate places. The disciples had to get his food and bring it back to him. He had to sleep out in the open air much more often now. All thanks to this one man's well-intentioned disobedience.

Be careful that you don't fall into the trap of thinking you know better than God. Even if God's commands don't make sense to you, obey Him anyway! He doesn't have to tell us His reasons. His purposes don't have to make sense to us. Our job is to simply obey. I mean do we really think we know better than God? Sadly, all too often, the answer in my own life has been yes. Learn from my mistakes.

God's Commands Don't Change

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Get up early in the morning and confront Pharaoh as he goes to the river and say to him, ‘This is what the Lord says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me.'"

Exodus 8:20

This is the same command God has been giving to Pharaoh since chapter five. Over and over again God has sent Moses to Pharaoh and had him say essentially the same thing. “Let my people go so they may worship me.” This is the fourth time now that Pharaoh has been given this command, and he will receive it several more times still.

This tells us something about God. His commands don’t change because of our disobedience. Even when you disobey, God keeps commanding obedience. It doesn’t matter how long you have been disobeying Him either. You may have been living with your girlfriend or boyfriend for years, you may have been abusing alcohol for decades, you may be fully addicted to pornography. It doesn’t matter. Over and over again, each day God confronts you again with the very same command He has always given you. Keep the marriage bed pure (Heb. 13:4). Don’t be drunk with wine (Eph. 5:18). Don’t look lustfully at someone you aren’t married to (that's a paraphrase of Matt. 5:28). 

In the same way that God confronts Pharaoh with a familiar command in this passage, God is confronting some of you in your heart right now with a command He has given you many times before. What command of God are you ignoring? Which of His commands haunt you and meet you every morning when you get out of bed? You’ve felt convicted about it for a long time but until now you haven’t obeyed. It’s time. Don't bargain with God or negotiate. Don't try to wriggle out of it. God's commands don't change. Do what Pharaoh never did. Humble yourself under God's command and offer full and whole-hearted obedience. If you don’t, trouble will follow you.

Sleeping through the Storm

But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.

Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up...But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.”

Jonah 1:3-6

Sin brings storms. So many Christians today seem to think they can rebel against God and live unaffected. They think that as long as they believe in God, they can disobey Him as much as they want. But they are wrong because they have no fear of the Lord. And because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge (Proverbs 1:7) we know that they are foolish as well. Don't follow their course. It will throw your life into turmoil every time. Let's see how it affected Jonah. 

First, we see that Jonah's plans were thwarted. He has set himself against an all-powerful God and now he has an all-powerful enemy opposing him. God is standing in his way, blocking his path, and he isn't going to get to Tarshish. You can’t direct your life away from God’s will and expect to get where you want to go. It’s not gonna go how you think.

Second, we see that Jonah has blessings removed and curses applied. What started out as an easy trip has become anything but. There is no smooth sailing for the disobedient child of God. The storm threatens to tear the boat apart. The wood is cracking and splintering. An all-mighty God is using his power to violently get Jonah’s attention. Do you want him doing that with you?

And where was Jonah in all of this? He was asleep, completely unaware of the danger he was in. Maybe you are like Jonah- a child of God, living in disobedience and completely asleep and unaware of the danger you are in. The wrath of a Holy God is seeking you out. God is trying to get your attention! Wake up, cry out to God and deliver yourself before it’s too late!

Simple Obedience

When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.

Matthew 1:24

Joseph the carpenter was chosen by God to be Jesus' adoptive father. He would be the one to provide for God's Son, to protect Him and to teach Him what it meant to be a man. What a huge responsibility! What a privilege! But why was Joseph chosen? Was it simply by chance? Was it a package deal? Did God choose Mary and just accepted Joseph because he was already engaged to her? I don't think so. So why did God choose him?

Scripture doesn't record much about Joseph. In fact, Scripture doesn’t record a single word spoken by him. But when you read what is there, there is one thing that is noticeably consistent in his life: obedience. All throughout the Scripture record, Joseph consistently obeys God. 

We first see this in Matthew 1:24. God commands. Joseph obeys. Simple obedience. This is perhaps the single most impressive aspect his character. When God tells Joseph to take pregnant Mary as his wife, he does it. When he tells Joseph to name the baby Jesus. Joseph does it. When He says flee to Egypt (2:14), Joseph flees. When he says to come back from Egypt (2:21), Joseph returns. As it turns out, one of the few things we can say for sure about Joseph is that he obeyed God. While I can't be certain that this is why God chose him to be Jesus' earthly father, it seems plausible and it's certainly an attribute worth emulating.

So how can you increase your obedience in the new year? I'm not talking about impressive feats of spiritual perfection, just plain old-fashioned obeying what God's Word and His Spirit tell you to do. Resolve to do that. Stop offering God anything less than complete obedience. Listen for His direction, and then, very simply, obey.

Imperfect but available

The Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him. The ropes on his arms became like charred flax, and the bindings dropped from his hands. Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a thousand men.

Judges 15:14b-15

Samson wasn't particularly righteous. He was sexually immoral, flippant towards God's law, fairly deceitful, and foolish in his dealings with women. No, Samson wasn't righteous, but he was available. He was ticked off at the same people God was ticked off at, and he was willing to fight. When his greatest military victory came he had been bound with ropes by his own people and handed over to the Philistines. He had no weapons at his disposal and was surrounded by his enemies. But when God's Spirit rushed on him Samson was given supernatural strength. He broke free of his bonds as though they were nothing and looked around for any weapon he could lay a hand on. What he found was the jawbone of a donkey and with it he killed one thousand men.

One of the many lessons we learn from Samson's life is that God can do impossible things through imperfect people. This is what God has done all throughout human history. He used Martin Luther to stand alone against a Catholic Church that had become so corrupt that it actually sold salvation. He used William Tyndale to translate the Bible into English from the original Greek and Hebrew texts even as the Catholic Church in his country said common Christians didn't need to read the Bible and persecuted and hunted him. And were it not for God's work in William Carey's life the modern missions movement might have never started and millions of souls might be lost to Hell. In his lifetime, Carey was a lone voice arguing that Christians still have a responsibility to take the good news of Jesus to the nations. God used him to start a movement. 

None of these men were perfect, but they were all aligned with God's will for their lives. Each of them stepped out in faith and acted. If you and I will do the same, then God will accomplish all He pleases through us. Who knows what the great author has written for you in His book? Will you preach the gospel, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, fight for the oppressed, start a movement, or raise up the next generation of Christians? Only God knows and only you can find out, if you'll step out in faith and see.

These Cows Are Making Me Look Bad (W.o.W. Rewind)

So they did this. They took two such cows and hitched them to the cart and penned up their calves. They placed the ark of the Lord on the cart and along with it the chest containing the gold rats and the models of the tumors. Then the cows went straight up toward Beth Shemesh, keeping on the road and lowing all the way; they did not turn to the right or to the left. The rulers of the Philistines followed them as far as the border of Beth Shemesh.

1 Samuel 6:10-12

In I Samuel 4 & 5 we read how the Philistines capture the Ark of the Covenant and bring it back to their land. In anger God smites them with plagues of rats and tumors. After quite a bit of heartache, the Philistine priests and diviners suggest a solution. They decide to make a new cart and place the ark on it. Then they will take two nursing cows away from their calves and hitch them to this cart. These cows had never been in a yoke or pulled a cart before. They had never been to Israel before. By nature everything in these cows would compel them to return to their calves immediately. The Philistines reasoned that if the cows were to return the Ark of the Covenant to Israel then they could be certain that it was indeed God who had been plaguing them. If not, then perhaps it was just a coincidence.

An amazing thing happened. Those two cows pulled the cart away from their calves and went straight up to Israel without turning to the right or to the left lowing all the way. Now, I don't know a lot about cows so I asked someone who does whether cows low when they are happy or sad. He told me that cows low when they are sad. And without knowing why I was asking the question, he added that when you take their calves away to wean them, cows will low and bawl for days.

You and I can learn a lot about how we should serve God from these two cows. Though it meant leaving their calves behind (possibly to die without their mother's milk), and though it meant that they themselves would be sacrificed to the Lord (I Samuel 6:14), these cows obeyed the Lord's leading and went straight up toward Israel. Oh that we would serve God with such faithfulness! Though the cows bawled over the sacrifice God was asking them to make, they still went straight up after God's will without wavering or turning to the right or left.

Now, one could argue that the cows didn't have a say in the matter. Who knows whether cows have some form of free will. Somehow I missed that class in seminary. But I do know this: when I stand before God and am judged for how obedient I was to Him and His word, I don't want to be showed up by any cows! So regardless of whether or not cows have free will before God, the simple truth is they followed God's bidding. And if a cow can do it, then I can too.

I know that there will be times when you and I mourn over what God asks us to sacrifice on the altar of His glory. Yet, even in our mourning let us go straight up after His will. Even if it means laying down our very lives, let's not stray to the right or to the left.

For further reading...

• I Samuel 4-6: Get the whole story.

Love and Obedience

Sometimes what we need isn't another devotional or sermon to increase our knowledge of God, but rather we need simply to take the time to obey what we already know He's commanded us to do. Jesus is very clear that loving God requires action. He said, "If you love me, you will keep my commands" (John 14:15). Elsewhere Jesus described it like this: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength" (Mark 12:30). The kind of love God expects from us involves our whole body. It isn't just mental assent. It also involves physical action.

The Bible leaves no room for Christians to claim to love God but be unaffected by that love. There is not a single example of a believer in Scripture who had faith and remained unchanged by it. Even the thief on the cross (which is the closest thing we have in Scripture to a "deathbed conversion") was changed by his faith. Matthew 27:44 and Mark 15:32 tell us that both robbers who were crucified next to Jesus hurled insults at Him, but Luke 23:39-42 says that one robber insulted Jesus while the other defended Him. How do we reconcile this? Is it not obvious that both robbers heaped insults upon the Savior, but then one was convicted of his sins? As he watched Jesus suffer and die he came to see the truth of who Christ really was. He began to look on Him in faith, and his faith changed him. Only then did he begin to defend Jesus. It is out of brotherly love that Luke records only this Christian's latter state and not his first. He isn't correcting Mark or Matthew's depiction of the crucifixion, he is highlighting a detail they left out.

I pray that obedience and acting out our faith will not be a detail we leave out of our Christian lives. The Bible says that "if anyone knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is sin" (James 4:17). Which of God's commands are you not obeying? Maybe you aren't telling others about Jesus. Maybe you aren't praying. Are you caring for the poor, for widows and for orphans? What about your money? Are you giving back a generous amount to God's church and His kingdom? Whatever God is laying on your heart, do it now. Don't plan to do it later. Take some action right now, no matter how small a first step it may be, to begin living out your love for God by obeying Him.

Obey the Gospel

All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might

2 Thessalonians 1:5-9

Normally we Christians think and speak about the gospel in terms of a call. It's something we hear; something we respond to. It's not a command, not something to be obeyed. Or is it? 

While discussing God's final judgment and how just it will be, the Apostle Paul assures his readers that God will judge "those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel." The punishment? Everlasting destruction (i.e. Hell). Paul is clear that those who do not obey the gospel are non-believers headed for Hell. Paul assumes that believers are obeying the gospel. So what does that mean?

The word for "obey" in this passage means to listen. It can mean simply to hear but it often means to hear and hearken to or obey what you have heard. For example, this word is used in Matthew 8:27. After Jesus calms a great storm, the disciples react by saying, "What kind of man is this?-- even the wind and sea obey Him." 

So the gospel isn't just something we hear. It isn't just something we listen to. It is a command! 

The good news that Jesus died for our sins commands us to cast off our old way of living and turn to Him in repentance. The gospel tells us that Jesus set us free from the power of sin and death; and it expects us to no longer live like we are enslaved to sin. The gospel reveals God's unfathomable forgiveness and grace for us and in so doing requires us to show the same grace and forgiveness to others. The gospel changes us. It calls us out of the darkness and into the light. So we ought to walk like children of light, doing the good deeds that accompany light. 

Has the gospel really taken root in your life and started to produce fruit? Are you just listening to the good news, or are you obeying it? Obey the gospel! May we all live it out every day by the help, power and guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Chafing Under God's Authority

The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, “Let us break their chains and throw off their shackles.”

Psalm 2:2-3

As soon as he shoved that musty cushion over the opening to block me in I knew I had made a mistake. I was one of the younger kids in the back of the van. The older kids had found a small square storage space tucked underneath the back row and were testing their courage by taking turns getting "locked" in for increasing amounts of time. After a while my urge to fit in with the older kids was too strong. My sister advised against it, but I volunteered. An older elementary boy, who was somewhat of a bully, was to serve as my jailer. I made him promise to let me out after five seconds, and I crawled into that small square opening. He shoved the cushion over the opening and locked me in with his legs. I started to panic immediately. I pushed against the cushion and screamed. I realized that I was completely under his control, at his mercy, and I did not trust him. 

That's the thing about being totally under someone else's control. It's a quick way to reveal how you feel about the person, whether or not you trust them. That's the idea we get in Psalm 2 as well. Pagan kings have been subjected under God's Messiah and His rule is intolerable for them. They have decided they do not like this God or His King, and are determined to rebel against His authority. They want to break their chains and throw off their shackles of servitude to this God. The sign of God's authority feels unbearably oppressive to those who hate God and rebel against Him. 

But how do similar signs of God's authority feel to His children? Do they feel oppressed? Do they also wish to be free from the bonds which tie them to their Savior? The Apostle Paul certainly did not. He was fond of introducing himself as a servant of God. (Romans 1:1, Gal. 1:10, Eph. 3:7, Phil. 1:1, Titus 1:1) In Acts 21 we learn that God's plan for Paul's life literally puts him in chains like the kings in Psalm 2. (Acts 21:31-33) Paul's response is telling in its contrast to that of those kings. He made no effort to escape imprisonment. In fact, God revealed to him through the Holy Spirit ahead of time just what would happen and Paul continued on toward that end. When other believers tried to convince Paul not to go up to Jerusalem where he would surely be imprisoned, he responded like this: Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. (Acts 21:13)

Paul trusted God. He was happy to be in chains as long as it was God who was still in control. Paul was simply happy to be spent in service of his Master. For the believer the idea that God is in control is a comfort because we know that God can be trusted. But for the sign of His authority on their lives makes them chafe.

Our response to God's commands, His providence in our lives, and even the difficulties we face reveals the nature of our hearts toward God. It can give us an indication of sin in our lives. Do you trust God or do you rebel against Him? Do you resent the direction He is taking your life or are you simply happy to be spent in the service of your Master? Join me in praying for a heart that trusts God in all circumstances and welcomes service in His kingdom. 

For further reading...

• Acts 3:13 & Phil. 2:1-11- Jesus Himself was called God's servant. He was willing to humble Himself under God the Father's authority even to the point of death on the cross.

Persevere in Obedience

But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way...but the official told Daniel, “I am afraid of my lord the king... The king would then have my head because of you.”

Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, “Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see.” So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days.

Daniel 1:8, 10 (selections), 11-14

In today's passage Daniel is put forward as a biblical model of persevering in obedience. Obeying God in a world that pressures you constantly to disobey Him isn’t easy. There are always people ready to stand in your way, so you must persevere like Daniel did. Daniel had purposed in his heart not to defile himself with the king's food. (For more on this decision read this blog post.) You would think that God would make it easy for Daniel to obey him, but He doesn't. Daniel hits an obstacle. The chief eunuch isn't willing to risk his head for Daniel to obey. So what does Daniel do? He perseveres and tries another tactic. He goes to another official (one who is under the chief eunuch but still over him and his friends) and asks for a ten day trial. "Give this a chance," Daniel says in essence and the steward relents.

When I think of persevering in obedience, I think of Pastor Richard Wurmbrand who lived in Romania during the rise of Russian communism. As the anti-Christian communist government took hold in Romania, Wurmbrand boldly and publicly proclaimed the gospel. When Christians were forced into hiding, Pastor Wurmbrand worked in the underground church sharing Jesus secretly not only with people on the street but even with communist officers. Inevitably Pastor Wurmbrand was imprisoned. In 1948 he was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison. During this time he was brutally tortured, even spending three full years in solitary confinement! Afterward he was released and warned not to preach the gospel any more.

Knowing exactly what tortures awaited him if he were arrested again, Pastor Wurmbrand persevered in obedience to God and resumed his work with the underground church. Within a few years he was arrested and imprisoned a second time. This time he was sentenced to 25 years. By God’s grace Richard was released after serving only five years of his second sentence. He was ransomed out of Romania by foreign believers and Pastor Wurmbrand spent the rest of his life traveling the world, raising awareness and support for the underground church. He wrote a book about his ordeal entitled Tortured for Christ and began a ministry that continues to this day named The Voice of the Martyrs.

Christians like this are an example for us. We must not cave to the pressures of this world or to the obstacles we face. We can persevere and trust that God will make a way when our road is blocked. How often do we just give up on obedience because it’s too hard? What have you given up on? Perhaps you have given up on sharing the gospel with your friend because he gets a little touchy when you talk about Jesus. Or maybe you have given up on prayer because it just isn't "your thing." Most of us have given up on fasting. Jesus clearly expects us to do it (Matthew 6:16-18 & 9:14-15), but it just seems too hard. We have too few Christians like Wurmbrand or Daniel today. Resolve to be different. Persevere in obedience.

For further reading...

• Genesis 37-50- Consider the life of Joseph and how he persevered in obedience even as things did not go his way.
• Matthew 6:16-18 & 9:14-15- Jesus expects us to fast. When was the last time you did?
• Mark 14:32-42 & Luke 22:39-46- Jesus is the premier example of persevering in obedience.

A Little at a Time

But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way.

Daniel 1:8

A dripping faucet may not seem like a major problem, but given enough time it will fill an entire bucket one little drop of water at a time. Think of the choices we make every day. Most of them seem as insignificant as these little drops of water. But they add up over time, especially as they relate to a believer's relationship with the Lord. 

Do you obey God in the little things? Or do you think He only cares about the big stuff? I guarantee you He does not. There is no small act of disobedience against the one and only God. When we're tricked into believing that the little things don't matter, when we chose to disobey God day after day, then we are moving away from the Lord a little at a time.

The Old Testament character Daniel understood this. He was taken captive by the Babylonians when he was only a youth and placed in the royal court of King Nebuchadnezzar. They tried to force him to assimilate to Babylonian culture. They changed his name and made him learn their language and literature. They even tried to make him eat the king's food. Daniel had very little choice in all of this, but he resolved not to cave to the great pressure being put on him.  He wasn't in control of his own destiny but He served the God who was and he decided to do his best to obey that God. Daniel knew that God had commanded the Israelites not to eat certain kinds of meat, and that any meat they were allowed to eat had to have its blood drained in a certain way (Leviticus 17:10-14). None of the food given to him by King Nebuchadnezzar would meet God's standards for His people so Daniel purposed in his heart not to eat the king's food. He endangered his life in order to obey God in what seems like an insignificant command to us. This small act of obedience meant much to the Lord and He blessed Daniel for his obedience. He became the wisest man in the kingdom. Over the next seventy years kings and empires came and went in Babylon but one thing stayed the same: Daniel was a servant in the royal court who was renowned and respected for his wisdom and his dedication to his God.

God still blesses obedience. Sometimes a small act of obedience is just the thing we need to get us back on the right track. Making the right choices in the small things can really add up over time. Don't cave to the tremendous pressure our world puts on you to rebel against God and disobey His commands. Make up your mind like Daniel to obey God even in the little things. Over time, little-by-little, your small acts of obedience can help you become more like Jesus.

In what small ways do you need to obey God today? Do you need to flee from sexual immorality? Do you need to stop foul language from coming out of your mouth? Maybe you need to stop watching TV shows and movies that are not in line with your Christian confession? Whatever the Lord lays on your heart, resolve in your heart not to defile yourself with disobedience today.

For further reading...

• I Peter 2:11- Did you know the New Testament asks us to live as exiles in this world?
• James 1:27- Somehow we always seem to forget the latter half of this verse.
• Romans 12:2- Be a non-conformist!

A Very Important Message: Part 1

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

   “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

Luke 2:13-14

 

 

How do you communicate a message that you believe is extremely important? Do you shout it to make sure it is heard? Or maybe you whisper it to draw them in closer? Perhaps you put it in print, in ALL CAPS, bold it, underline it, or change the font color. Whatever you do, chances are that you make sure people can tell your message is important.

 

God has His own ways of making sure we know when He is giving us important messages. One of those ways is by sending the message via His messengers, the angels. This is one way we know that the birth of Christ is so important, because there are so many angelic visits surrounding the event (Matthew 1:20-21, Matthew 2:12, Matthew 2:13,  Luke 1:11-20, Luke 1:26-38, & Luke 2:8-14). But there is only one message in the Christmas story that is delivered by more than one angel. In fact, God sent a great company of angels, possibly thousands of angels to deliver the same message to the same people at the same time. This must be a very important message!

 

Luke 2:14 reveals the two great accomplishments of Jesus’ arrival: glory in heaven and peace on earth. This week we will consider how Jesus' birth and life brings God glory. Next week we will consider how it brought about peace on earth. 

 

Scripture compares God’s glory to the sun in Revelation 21:23 when it says that in heaven there will be no sun for God’s glory itself will be our light. So God’s glory is like the sun that sends forth its warmth and light. God’s glory sends forth God’s goodness and excellence so that creation can respond in praise. Jesus is like the rays of the sun in this analogy. The sun would be warm and light giving even if its rays did not reach all the way to earth, we just wouldn’t know it. But because they do bring its warmth and light to earth we can enjoy them and give thanks for the sun. Jesus brings the glory of God’s grace and goodness down to earth in ways we never could have known otherwise. Through Him we experience God's love and forgiveness. Because of Him, God is glorified as we respond with faith and praise.

 

Christ also provides the ultimate example of obedience. John 17:4 says that Jesus glorified God by completing the work He gave Him to do. God had a perfect and wise plan for Jesus’ life. By submitting Himself to follow God’s plan completely, Jesus allowed Himself to be used to display God's glory supremely. He was born as a man. He lived a life of service to the sick, the dying, the needy, and the sinner. He allowed Himself to be falsely accused, mocked, tortured, murdered, & buried in the very ground He created; all to follow God’s plan for His life and bring glory to His name.

Do you know that God has a plan for your life too? Ephesians 2:10 says that God has prepared good works in advance for believers to do. It isn't just Jesus or ministers that God has a specific plan for. God has specific good deeds He has planned for your future. Only through prayer and the discernment of the Holy Spirit will you determine exactly what these good works are...if you are willing to fully obey Him like Christ. Is God calling you to quit work to stay home with your children? Is He calling you to go back to work, to share the gospel? Maybe you feel led to become a missionary or a minister? He might be calling you to make a big year end gift to a church or charity. Whatever the Lord is calling you to do, even if you don't know what it is yet, will you commit to following His plan for your life? At Christmas as we celebrate that Jesus was willing to come to earth following God's plan for His life, what better time than now for you to submit yourself to God’s plan?

 

For further reading...

• Hebrews 1:1-4- Jesus is the radiance of God's glory. 
• Ephesians 2:1-10- God has a plan for your life.
• Matthew 1:20-21, Matthew 2:12, Matthew 2:13,  Luke 1:11-20, Luke 1:26-38, & Luke 2:8-14- Check out all the angelic visitations surrounding the birth of Christ.

These Cows Are Making Me Look Bad

So they did this. They took two such cows and hitched them to the cart and penned up their calves. They placed the ark of the Lord on the cart and along with it the chest containing the gold rats and the models of the tumors. Then the cows went straight up toward Beth Shemesh, keeping on the road and lowing all the way; they did not turn to the right or to the left. The rulers of the Philistines followed them as far as the border of Beth Shemesh.

1 Samuel 6:10-12

In I Samuel 4 & 5 we read of how the Philistines capture the Ark of the Covenant, bring it back to their land, and of how God strikes them with plagues of rats and tumors. After quite a bit of heartache, the Philistine priests and diviners suggest a solution. They decide to make a new cart and place the ark on it. Then they will take two nursing cows away from their calves and hitch them to this cart. These cows had never been in a yoke or pulled a cart before. They had never been to Israel before. By nature everything in these cows would compel them to return to their calves immediately. The Philistines reasoned that if the cows were to return the Ark of the Covenant to Israel then they could be certain that it was indeed God who had been plaguing them. If not, then perhaps it was just a coincidence.

As we read above, an amazing thing happened. Those two cows pulled that cart away from their calves and went straight up to Israel without turning to the right or the left lowing all the way. Now, I don't know a lot about cows so I asked someone who does whether cows low when they are happy or sad. He told me that cows low when they are sad. Without knowing why I was asking the question, he added that when you take their calves away to wean them, cows will low and bawl for days.

You and I can learn a lot about how we should serve God from these two cows. Though it meant leaving their calves behind (possibly to die without their mother's milk), and though it meant that they themselves would be sacrificed to the Lord (I Samuel 6:14), these cows obeyed the Lord's leading and went straight up toward Israel. Oh that we would serve God with such faithfulness! Though they mourn over the sacrifice God is asking them to make, they go straight after God's will without wavering or turning to the right or to the left.

Now, one could argue that God was using these cows against their will. Perhaps cows don't have free will. Perhaps God forced them to go against their will. That is a possibility. I can't say for sure that the cows had any say in the matter. But I do know this: when I stand before God and am judged for how obedient I was to Him and His word, I don't want to be showed up by any cows! So regardless of whether or not cows have free will before God, the simple truth is they followed God's bidding. And if a cow can do it, then I can too.

Certainly, there will be times when you mourn over what God has asked you to sacrifice on the altar for His glory. Yet, even in your mourning you should go straight after His will. Even if it means laying down your very life, do not stray to the right or to the left.

For further reading...

• I Samuel 4-6: Get the whole story.

Born into Servitude

[Hannah] said... For this boy I prayed, and the Lord has given me my petition which I asked of Him. So I have also dedicated him to the Lord; as long as he lives he is dedicated to the Lord.” And he worshiped the Lord there.

I Samuel 1:26-28

 

 

Hannah was a childless woman in a culture that measured a woman's worth by the number of her children. Worse than that, her husband had two wives. Though he favored Hannah more, his other wife had many children, and taunted Hannah with that fact. In despair, Hannah turned to the Lord for help vowing that if He would give her a son, she would give him to God's service all the days of his life. In today's verses Hannah takes her son, Samuel, who has now been weaned off her breast, to the temple and gives him over to the Lord's service. Samuel must have been a very young boy, maybe only two or three years old. From that time on he lived in the temple and served the Lord there.

 

Normally a child being born into servitude would be a reason for us to weep, but this particular servant gives us an example to follow. Samuel must have seen himself as belonging to God. He was God's servant in a literal sense of the phrase. "As long as he lived, he was dedicated to the Lord."

 

How would your life be different if you viewed yourself the same way? Now, I doubt that your parents made a vow to God when they were trying to get pregnant, but in a very real sense you belong to God as well. You may choose to rebel against Him, but He owns the cattle on a thousand hills and He owns you and me as well. What if you accepted that fact and lived your life accordingly? What if you were dedicated to the Lord as long as you lived? What if you decided that you wouldn't live your life to make yourself happy, or be financially secure, or even change the world, but that you would live as God's servant doing always and only what He called you to do? Would your life look very different?

 

 

For further reading...

• Samuel's life points us to another man who did live like this. Normally we don't think of Samuel as pointing forward to Jesus in significant ways, but the writer of the gospel of Luke must see a parallel because he seems to allude to I Samuel 2:26 ("And the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the Lord and with people") in Luke 2:52 as he summarizes Jesus' childhood ("And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man"). Indeed, as we look closer we see that Samuel reminds us of Jesus in several ways. Both entered this world through a miraculous birth. Both came after corrupt religious leaders and led the people of Israel back to true religion. Both were "faithful priests who did what was in God's heart and mind" (I Samuel 2:35). And both were servants of God from birth.
• Luke 17:7-10- Consider this high expectation Jesus places on His followers as servants.
• I Samuel 2:18-20 endearingly records that Hannah made Samuel a new robe each year and brought it to him when they made the yearly sacrifice. Though Samuel did not live with his mother, it is clear she loved him dearly.

What does God want from me?

The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.

Isaiah 29:13

What does God want from you?

No, really. Take a moment and answer the question. What does God want from you?

I'm convinced that many "Christians" think that all God wants from them is to believe in Jesus. As long as they believe then they can go on living their lives however they want. But God wants so much more than lip service from you. He wants your heart. God has called us not to mere belief, but to discipleship.

Discipleship, as I understand it, is a way of life that helps you become more and more like Jesus. It is a 100% commitment to giving all of yourself to God and none of yourself to this world. God has commanded us, "Be holy because I am holy" (Leviticus 19:2).

Yet, many Christians are not holy today. We are no longer set apart from and different from the world. We no longer strive to keep ourselves clean and unspotted from sin. In fact, we love the things of the world. We rush home to watch TV shows that are filled with things the Bible commands us not to do. They turn sin into a punch line and we not only eat it up ourselves but we feed it to our children as well. We gossip, slander, and are jealous of what others have. We lust and engage in sex outside of marriage. We are arrogant and greedy. We are gluttons and liars. We use the Lord's name in empty ways. We  run after sin every chance we get, but struggle to spend five minutes in God's Word.

How often this is true of me! How often I just go through the motions. I parrot all the right words in all the right ways, but my heart is far from the Lord. We wonder why the church in America is in decline. More and more recently God has been showing me why my own ministry is not stronger. There is a lack of holiness in my life. There is a real lack of holiness in America. Choose this day whom you will serve (Josh 24:15), but count the cost first (Luke 14:25-33). God is not looking for any half-hearted lies. He wants your all. Will you give it to Him?

If so, what do you need to cut out of your life today?


For further reading...

• Mark 7:1-23- See what Jesus had to say about this passage. 
• Luke 14:25-33- Jesus says that if you don't give up everything, you can't be His disciple.

Glamorless

The next section was repaired by the men of Tekoa, but their nobles would not put their shoulders to the work under their supervisors.

Nehemiah 3:5

Serving the Lord is not always glamorous. In fact, it rarely is. Don't let the TV preachers fool you. It's not about sequined jackets or puffy hairdos. The Bible talks about feeding widows, caring for orphans, healing lepers, protecting the foreigner and the stranger, and showing hospitality to those who need a place to stay. Jesus Himself walked the dusty roads of Palestine for three and a half years, healing and loving on the dregs of his society. He "put his shoulder to the work" of the cross, carrying it to the place of His crucifixion (John 19:17). He did not think it below Him to take your sin and your punishment upon Himself but "took on the nature of a servant" and "humbled himself" even to the point of  "death on a cross" (Philippians 2:7-8).

The Apostle Paul also gives us an example to follow. The great missionary financed his journeys at times by working as a tent maker during the day and preaching when he could (Acts 18:3-4, I Thess 2:9, II Thess 3:7-10). Paul never thought of himself as too good to do the Lord's work. Paul saw himself as he truly was...a vile sinner saved by grace. Redeemed out of slavery to sin, Paul had become a slave of God...a willing servant who "put his shoulder to the work" willingly with a grateful heart. He once wrote of the church as a great body in which the different members are asked to do different jobs. Just like the human body cannot be all mouth or all foot, the church cannot be all prophet or all teacher. Paul notes that "the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it" (I Cor 12:23-24).

Jesus Himself said to His disciples, "So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty’” (Luke 17:10). So maybe God has been asking you to do something that you thought was below you or maybe it was just something you didn't want to do. Refusing to obey God is never a good idea. (See the story of Jonah for a refresher on how that works out!) So choose today to do whatever God has called you to do and whatever the Bible commands you to do with a cheerful heart as a thanks offering unto your Lord Himself. 

For further reading...

• I Cor 12:12-31- Which part of the body are you?
• Luke 17:7-10- A hard word on the true nature of servitude.
• Jonah- Trying to run from God's command?

A Crisis of Courage

On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently, and the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder. Then Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him.... 

[God gives the Ten Commandments.]

When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.” Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.” The people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.

Exodus 19:16-19 & 20:18-21

We have a crisis of courage in our churches today. Our pews are filled with men and women who are brave enough to serve in the military, to debate the finer points of law in a courtroom, and even to work in dangerous professions like building sky scrapers; but these very same men and women when it comes time to for them to pray publicly, share some truth from God's Word, or speak to someone about the good news of Jesus shrink from the challenge. We are simply not brave enough to do this. 

Many of us are like the Israelites standing at the foot of the mountain that day. When we get too close to God, or when He asks us to do things that are scary, we find ourselves unable to stand our ground before His mighty presence or before His calling on our lives; so we back away. It doesn't seem wrong to us because all those around us are doing the same. However there are a few very important exceptions. There are those among us who like Moses have the faith necessary to stand their ground before this great and terrible presence of God. These men and women like Moses are often called not merely to stand at the foot of the mountain, but to go beyond all human reason, beyond the bounds of courage, to climb the mountain. Like Moses, these men and women often ascend into the heart of the storm, toward the presence of God Himself. They embrace their greater calling, as we shrink in fear from our simple calling to stand at the foot of the mountain. These rare few like Moses follow far beyond what we dare do or are even called to do.

While it is true that we shouldn't go beyond our calling, we should always seek to say yes to God. Too many of us have drawn clear boundaries around what we are and are not willing to do for our faith. We may not have actually voiced these things to God, but those around us know. We use phrases like "evangelism just isn't my spiritual gift" to explain away why we feel it is okay to say no to God... to say no to the things He has commanded us to do. We say things like, "public speaking really terrifies me," or "I'm afraid I will mess up."  Too often these are simply excuses that we use to explain away why we are unwilling to go further. 

As I think about Moses ascending that mountain, I remind myself that this is the same Moses who once trembled before a burning bush  and tried to say no to God's call on his life (Exodus 3:1-4:17). Now, not too long after that incident, Moses stands before a burning mountain unfazed and somehow finds the courage to ascend into the storm of God's presence and calling on His life. This assures us that God can and will supply you with the courage you need to say yes. Still, it is your choice. My experience tells me that it is those who find the courage to say yes and walk into the heart of the storm who are closest to God in this life. Those who do choose to say no to God will one day have to answer for it when they stand before the judge, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Jesus followed God not only to this earth, not only to suffering, but also to the cross. He didn't say no. How dare we? Walk into the storm of God's will for your life today. Say yes.   

For further reading...

• Exodus 3:1-4:17- Read about Moses' first encounter with God and how he tried to convince God to send someone else.  
• Exodus 33:7-34:8- Read about the amazing nearness that Moses was blessed to experience with God.