I realize that I seem to be repeating myself for the last couple of weeks but I am sharing with you a clear message that came out of my period of Fasting to the LORD. The message is simple: Yahweh has set his standards and has called us to a relationship of obedience, so make a decision. I think the reason this message is so important is because many leaders and teachers have been muddying the waters with human reasoning. There is much apostasy that is spewing from the mouths of those who promised to love and obey Jesus Christ.
Let's make this as simple as possible by looking at one piece of Scripture to understand our Father's heart on his expectations of those who accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour. It is at it's essence the same expectations he had for Israel:
Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord! (Joshua 24:14)
The other way this was put was to love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul and all your strength. It means we get to know him, what delights him and what offends him. We must know his heart and then desire to walk in obedience to him. It doesn't mean doing whatever you think is best to serve him. That's what Israel tried to do during the times of the judges and it got them in a lot of trouble, as it is getting people in trouble today.
No, we don't get to do what we want. Jesus repeated these same kind of words but a little more directly:
If you love Me, keep My commandments. (John 14:15)
Not what you think is best but what Jesus commanded. We live according to the righteousness of our holy LORD not according to the supposed righteousness of man. We have been given standards, statutes to live and they are higher than the cesspool of sin that we are witnessing transpire from the hearts of man in our societies today.
Joshua made it clear that there is something we need to do:
And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. (Joshua 24:15)
No one on the face of this planet is forced to serve Jesus Christ. Men of demented thinking tried to use the Church in the past to hold power over people but it failed. Yahweh does not even force his desire upon us but he freely offers it. He freely offers his mercy and grace, his love and forgiveness, his compassion. He freely offers us adoption into his family and rescue from the destructive course that we have chosen. But we have to make that decision.
The only thing we are warned is that we can't have it all. We can't have the sin of this world and the righteousness of our LORD. Jesus asked the question, what is the point of gaining the whole world if we lose our soul? If we make the decision for Jesus then there are expectations we will live by the Spirit who places the Word of God in us. We cannot take part in the unholy things of this world and be possessed by the Spirit. It doesn't work that way.
Make a decision: is the music of this world more important than Jesus? Are those favorite sin-filled television shows more important than Jesus? Are those misleading movies more important than Jesus? Is the dangerous place of social networking more important than Jesus? If you lack the discipline to turn things off when they go terribly wrong, then get rid of that thing from your life; deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Jesus. The choice is clear and a decision is demanded of us: Who will you serve?
Showing posts with label Joshua 24. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Joshua 24. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Sunday, January 26, 2014
Decisions Have To Be Made: Who Will You Serve?
As we come off our Fast we need to ask the question, "What now?" We have had a time of intimacy, of setting ourselves aside, of drawing close to our LORD, of making ourselves available and open to our God. We have withheld certain foods from our body, changed our appetite, cleansed our palate, lost weight, washed our system and feel good. Now e have to decide what we take back on ourselves spiritually and physically.
For me it has become clear that there are far too many distractions that take me away from my relationship with Jesus and the calling I have received. It is like I wanted all the Jesus offered but all the entertainment of the world. My attitude after a long day was that I deserved to relax, failing to understand that they only rest of any worth was resting in the LORD. I'll tell you, I was a man greatly distracted.
During my Fast I gorged myself on the Word and will continue to do so, and the more I ate of it the more the Spirit corrected me. I realized just from the Scriptures of the Old Testament that if I want to serve the Lord with all that I am, my mind and heart must only be occupied by him. We can't say that we do this because if we were there would be a lot more things happening. Currently it is as if we are worshiping our God from a distance whereas he demands an intimate worship from us.
We are too occupied by evil. We are like the Israelites of old who maintained Yahweh's holy temple but also worshiped other God's in the high places. We worship Jesus but we also serve the gods of this world as we chase after money, fame, leisure. We even put family on a pedestal next to Yahweh. This blof is too short to go into all the details of how we are not what we are suppose to be but I think the Spirit is already convicting you on this matter. Consider the Scripture that says:
Do not be wise in your own eyes;Fear the Lord and depart from evil. (Proverbs 3:7)
Evil is anything that is contrary to the character of Yahweh. As we watch murder after murder on our television, we are assaulting the character of Jesus in us. As we listen to the lyrics of those songs, letting them sink into our heart, we are running contrary to the character of Jesus. As we read those words, see those images and allow our mind to be entertained by sin, by the things contrary to the holiness of our God, we are giving ourselves over to the gods of this world.
Do you want to be filled by Jesus, to feel his presence, to know his will, to know his strength and power? Do you want to be overwhelmed by his joy and peace despite the circumstances of your day? Do you want the concern for others to be greater than your concern for yourself? Then shun evil, throw away the things that occupy your time and fill your days with Jesus:
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. (Philippians 4:8)
Sometimes I think we forget where we are, what we are doing, and who we belong to. We forget that we are in hostile territory and it takes great discipline to walk with and serve Jesus in this place. It takes a singleness of mind and a heart so filled with love, renewed daily, to stay the course. We need to be strong and courageous. We need to embody the words of Yahweh to Joshua:
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. (Joshua 1:9)
We need to remember that blessings flow with obedience. Every king of Israel was told that if they walked in the ways of Yahweh and kept his statutes blessings would be theirs. Every King failed. Decisions have to be made; hard decisions. Jesus told us it is better to cut off a hand our pluck out an eye than to enter hell whole. If something is causing you to sin, to do evil, to separate you from Jesus then learn to live without it.
Decisions have to be made if we are going to be a nation of royal priests:
And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. (Joshua 24:15)
For me it has become clear that there are far too many distractions that take me away from my relationship with Jesus and the calling I have received. It is like I wanted all the Jesus offered but all the entertainment of the world. My attitude after a long day was that I deserved to relax, failing to understand that they only rest of any worth was resting in the LORD. I'll tell you, I was a man greatly distracted.
During my Fast I gorged myself on the Word and will continue to do so, and the more I ate of it the more the Spirit corrected me. I realized just from the Scriptures of the Old Testament that if I want to serve the Lord with all that I am, my mind and heart must only be occupied by him. We can't say that we do this because if we were there would be a lot more things happening. Currently it is as if we are worshiping our God from a distance whereas he demands an intimate worship from us.
We are too occupied by evil. We are like the Israelites of old who maintained Yahweh's holy temple but also worshiped other God's in the high places. We worship Jesus but we also serve the gods of this world as we chase after money, fame, leisure. We even put family on a pedestal next to Yahweh. This blof is too short to go into all the details of how we are not what we are suppose to be but I think the Spirit is already convicting you on this matter. Consider the Scripture that says:
Do not be wise in your own eyes;Fear the Lord and depart from evil. (Proverbs 3:7)
Evil is anything that is contrary to the character of Yahweh. As we watch murder after murder on our television, we are assaulting the character of Jesus in us. As we listen to the lyrics of those songs, letting them sink into our heart, we are running contrary to the character of Jesus. As we read those words, see those images and allow our mind to be entertained by sin, by the things contrary to the holiness of our God, we are giving ourselves over to the gods of this world.
Do you want to be filled by Jesus, to feel his presence, to know his will, to know his strength and power? Do you want to be overwhelmed by his joy and peace despite the circumstances of your day? Do you want the concern for others to be greater than your concern for yourself? Then shun evil, throw away the things that occupy your time and fill your days with Jesus:
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. (Philippians 4:8)
Sometimes I think we forget where we are, what we are doing, and who we belong to. We forget that we are in hostile territory and it takes great discipline to walk with and serve Jesus in this place. It takes a singleness of mind and a heart so filled with love, renewed daily, to stay the course. We need to be strong and courageous. We need to embody the words of Yahweh to Joshua:
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. (Joshua 1:9)
We need to remember that blessings flow with obedience. Every king of Israel was told that if they walked in the ways of Yahweh and kept his statutes blessings would be theirs. Every King failed. Decisions have to be made; hard decisions. Jesus told us it is better to cut off a hand our pluck out an eye than to enter hell whole. If something is causing you to sin, to do evil, to separate you from Jesus then learn to live without it.
Decisions have to be made if we are going to be a nation of royal priests:
And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. (Joshua 24:15)
Friday, November 8, 2013
Choices
"But if you don’t want to worship the Lord, then choose right now! Will you worship the same idols your ancestors did? Or since you’re living on land that once belonged to the Amorites, maybe you’ll worship their gods. I won’t. My family and I are going to worship and obey the Lord!" Joshua 24:15 CEV
We have a choice. Christianity cannot be legislated. No government can adopt it and then force their citizens to believe. No one can be forced to believe anything. Don't look back to the past, see Christianity forced upon the masses and think "the good old days". They were the worse days of Christianity, the birth of a religion instead of the growth of the Body.
God never forced anyone to worship him. He did not manipulate or coerce. He wants worshipers who have freely chosen him but he won't put upwith false worship either. He has dealt with those who worship him with their lips but acted differently in private. He has also explained the blessings of worship and the curses of going our own way. He has explained the curse of our sinful nature and his desire to free us from it. But he has always left it up to us to decide.
In recent years we are seeing the false testimony of our society falling away and the true nature being revealed. It is only natural that those who have decided against Jesus to gravitate to and support rebellion produced in their sinful nature. Of course we are seeing sin being called natural and beautiful. Come on now, it is the nature of this world and our society.
The question is, what decision will you make in the face of the rebellion all around us? Will you choose the idols of this world and throw yourself at the feet of money, fame, false security? Will you worship the gods of this land, as is natural to the sinful nature, the rebellion we were all born into? Or will you choose the Lord Jesus Christ, who has called us out from this rebellion and into his peace?
Take note of Joshua's words: to worship and obey the Lord! We all love the worship part, it makes us feel good, but it is the obedience that we must focus on. "If you love me you will do what I have said" stated Jesus. Do you love him enough to make a choice, to take a stand and accept that nothing in this world holds any value or wisdom for you? Do not seek anything in this world but always seek what you need (physical, mental, spiritual) from the great provider himself. And remember, his provision is to equip you in this place for his work.
We are not here to grow fat and lazy. We can choose to if we want but it is not his purpose for us and Jesus warned us what will happen if we decide to seek for ourselves instead of others. So yes, you have the freedom to choose but choices have consequences.
We have a choice. Christianity cannot be legislated. No government can adopt it and then force their citizens to believe. No one can be forced to believe anything. Don't look back to the past, see Christianity forced upon the masses and think "the good old days". They were the worse days of Christianity, the birth of a religion instead of the growth of the Body.
God never forced anyone to worship him. He did not manipulate or coerce. He wants worshipers who have freely chosen him but he won't put upwith false worship either. He has dealt with those who worship him with their lips but acted differently in private. He has also explained the blessings of worship and the curses of going our own way. He has explained the curse of our sinful nature and his desire to free us from it. But he has always left it up to us to decide.
In recent years we are seeing the false testimony of our society falling away and the true nature being revealed. It is only natural that those who have decided against Jesus to gravitate to and support rebellion produced in their sinful nature. Of course we are seeing sin being called natural and beautiful. Come on now, it is the nature of this world and our society.
The question is, what decision will you make in the face of the rebellion all around us? Will you choose the idols of this world and throw yourself at the feet of money, fame, false security? Will you worship the gods of this land, as is natural to the sinful nature, the rebellion we were all born into? Or will you choose the Lord Jesus Christ, who has called us out from this rebellion and into his peace?
Take note of Joshua's words: to worship and obey the Lord! We all love the worship part, it makes us feel good, but it is the obedience that we must focus on. "If you love me you will do what I have said" stated Jesus. Do you love him enough to make a choice, to take a stand and accept that nothing in this world holds any value or wisdom for you? Do not seek anything in this world but always seek what you need (physical, mental, spiritual) from the great provider himself. And remember, his provision is to equip you in this place for his work.
We are not here to grow fat and lazy. We can choose to if we want but it is not his purpose for us and Jesus warned us what will happen if we decide to seek for ourselves instead of others. So yes, you have the freedom to choose but choices have consequences.
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