In An Atmosphere Of Rebellion We Are Called To Obey

Obedience is not what our children do in our presence but how they conduct themselves in our absence. This is what was on Moses' heart as he prepared to die. His great concern was that the people of Israel would enter into rebellion and lose all the blessings Yahweh intended for them:

"Set your mind on all these words I’m testifying against you right now, because you must command your children to perform carefully all the words of this Instruction." (Deut 32:46)

This was important because Yahweh had given a lengthy list of blessings that would flow in obedience and a long list of curses that would fall on them in rebellion. Moses warned:

"This is no trivial matter for you—this is your very life! It is by this means alone that you will prolong your life on the fertile land you are crossing the Jordan River to possess." (v. 47)

Those are great words "this is your very life!" Don't twist it though. The end game is not obedience but obedience enables a deeper and greater relationship with the One who loves us. The relationship is the end game.

This is why Jesus said, "If you love me you will do what I have said". Obedience is the manifestation of love and it is in this climate of loving obedience that Yahweh's blessings flow in and through us. We cannot expect to walk in rebellion and receive blessing. This would make Yahweh a liar.

In fact, it must be understood, because we are legitimate children, rebellion will bring correction. Because our Father loves us he will correct us. This should be simple enough to understand because it is also true of good parenting on earth.

Motivation is an important thing with Jesus. He did not obey Father because he expected some great reward or because he was trying to manipulate him. Jesus prayed, "not my will but yours be done" because he loved Father and only wanted to walk in obedience because of that love. This is the example Jesus set for us so that we would understand the root of obedience.

What it comes down to is, do we really love Father? Then obey.

Nothing Going Right?

There are benefits to living in obedience to Jesus. There are consequences for living in rebellion to Jesus. This is a basic fact that has been true since the beginning of creation. All Yahweh wanted from Adam and Eve was their love, and love means obedience; Jesus taught us that, in case it wasn't clear. Adam had one rule to follow: Don't eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. One rule and he could not maintain obedience.

Just outside of the Promised Land, Yahweh gave some final instructions to Israel before he took Moses from them. He made it clear to them that his intention was to bless them beyond imagining so that he would be glorified through them. They would become the greatest nation. All they had to do was be entirely devoted to him, obey his instructions. He also made it clear that if they entered into rebellion against him there would be consequences; the blessings would be reversed, and everything that had been promised against their enemies would happen to them. Nothing would go right for them, even if they worked hard.

Jesus gave us many promises but he wanted to make it perfectly clear for us that only those who loved Yahweh with all they had would be considered as part of him. He was loving us with all that he had and the relationship required the same from us. The manifestation of love in our lives is obedience and anything less is a pale version of love.

Our Father's great passion is an eternal relationship with us. He paid the price for our admission and he continues to pursue those who have rejected him. He also brings correction for those who say they are his children and yet continue to rebel against him. You know who you are. We are all in that number from time to time, but he loves us enough to correct us.

This should be a good warning to us when suddenly nothing is going right, no matter how hard we are working. If everything is failing you need to examine your relationship with Jesus and your actions. If you have become distracted or perhaps enslaved by a particular sin, prosperity and success will be halted to bring your attention to this fact. It isn't a lack of love but the fact that he values eternity with us over blessings on this earth. His intention is for us to have both but he will remove the one to ensure the other.

The Scriptures explain it this way:

Bear hardship for the sake of discipline. God is treating you like sons and daughters! What child isn’t disciplined by his or her father? But if you don’t experience discipline, which happens to all children, then you are illegitimate and not real sons and daughters. (Hebrews 12:7-8)

This same passage also tells us that no one enjoys correction but we should be mature enough to understand the benefits:

No discipline is fun while it lasts, but it seems painful at the time. Later, however, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness for those who have been trained by it. (Hebrews 12:11)

If you are in rebellion, have become disobedient or even distant from Jesus, stop it. Repent and get back to walking in his righteousness. His great desire is to bless you so the Father will be glorified through the blessings he will pour through you. He loves you enough to correct you, so understand what is happening in your life today.

Selfishness Is Rebellion

The great rebellion against our Creator comes from a selfish nature that promotes my needs above everything else. Selfishness is at the core of all sin. Even after we accept Jesus we struggle against the desire to seek what is good for us, ahead of what is good for others. It causes fights in church, and leads us into wrong doctrine. Sometimes it gets so bad I wonder if we are even reading the same Scriptures. Do we not understand what Jesus was saying when he explained what it takes to be his disciple?

“All who want to come after me must say no to themselves, take up their cross daily, and follow me." (Luke 9:23)

I hear a lot about crosses and following and very little about denying ourselves. In fact, it is the opposite. It is all about rights, self love, promoting self, protecting self. People believe because they feel it they have to act on it. There is so much confusion and lines being smudged because we don't know how to say no to ourselves, to step into our responsibilities and to live as Jesus lived.

The very foundation of our Christian beliefs is self-sacrificing love, putting other people ahead of ourselves, considering other people more important than ourselves. This is based on the fact that since we have Jesus we don't need anything else and that demonstrating the love of Jesus costs. It costs us our right to be hurt, our right for vengeful justice, our right to be right:

Don’t do anything for selfish purposes, but with humility think of others as better than yourselves. (Philippians 2:3)

It comes down to understanding what Jesus meant by "take up your cross daily". Why are you here? For yourself or for Jesus? Are you here to make a great life for yourself or to carry out the will of Father? Our life has a purpose here. Do you understand what it is? Consider Paul's view of his life:

I please everyone in everything I do. I don’t look out for my own advantage, but I look out for many people so that they can be saved. (1 Corinthians 10:33)

Not a lot of place for self gratification or self love there. Paul lived so people could be saved. His desire was to be used by Jesus for the salvation of others. His desire, his interests, his comfort were not important. He was pliable according to the situation so he would have the opportunity to present Jesus. This is love, not to love ourselves but to pour out our lives to the benefit of those for whom our Lord laid down his life to save. Is there a more noble reason for us to live a self-less life in service to our King and the lost of this world?

His Compassion Never Fails

The compassion of Yahweh is something that we are thankful for but yet do not totally grasp. It is difficult for us because we can't fully understand our condition or situation in relation to our Creator. Most of us are not bent on death and destruction. We are fairly decent people, trying to be good to others, living a fair life. We don't see ourselves as evil or rebellious. We struggle to see that we were once the enemies of Yahweh. But we were.

Jesus once asked the question: Who would love most, the person forgiven a little or a person forgiven a lot? The answer of course was the person forgiven a lot because their wrong doing defined the quantity of the forgiveness, meaning, they owed more love to the forgiver. The darkness of our evil reveals the brilliance of Yahweh's compassion for us. Let's go back to the garden.

Yahweh had given Adam and Eve everything including his friendship. They had much joy just being with him. He also gave them only one simple rule: Don't eat from that one tree. There was only one way that they could mess this up, and that was by defying Yahweh by breaking the one rule. Of course that is what they did and as soon as they did it they became enemies of Yahweh. They had rebelled against him and brought chaos and destruction to all of creation. Because of their one act of rebellion, the brilliance of creation was suppressed and the relationship with the Creator was forever changed.

It is hard for us to relate to this because we never stood in that garden. We never walked with Yahweh in the cool of the evening. We never knew what it was to be innocent. It is hard for us to understand what was lost because we never knew what it was to be a friend of Yahweh. We cannot fully grasp how man's heart became redefined. That is why we need Jesus and the Holy Spirit, who put all these things in perspective and give us a glimpse of the conviction of our sinful rebellion. Why did Yahweh give us Jesus and Jesus the Spirit? Because of his great compassion.

There is something that stands out for me in the account of the Fall of man. We had become the enemy of Yahweh. He had passed sentence on Adam, Eve, and the serpent. He was removing us from his presence but not before he gave us a tiny glimpse of his wonderful compassion:

"Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them." (Genesis 3:21)

What? Why?

Yahweh, in his compassion, loved his enemy and clothed them before removing them. He didn't have to do that. He could have sent them out into the world naked and ashamed. He could have just turned his back and let them suffer their fate because of their hurtful rebellion. But despite the evil they had done; despite the hurt they had caused his heart; despite the fact they were his enemy, he took the time to care for them by clothing them. Look at this and realize the same heart that sent his one and only Son, so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life, which is the opposite of the curse of their rebellious act. God is good, all the time. His compassion never fails.

What Is Sin And Why Do I Struggle With It?

Maybe our problem is the way we define sin. Maybe that is what all the confusion is about. It seems that we are confusing the fruit of sin with the root of sin and we need a little education from the Word to better understand the parameters of our discussion. Let's start with this fact:

"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23)

And just for good measure we shall add:

"If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us." (1 John 1:10)

So something everyone in this world has in common is this fact that we have all fallen short of Yahweh's glory. None of us can ever claim that we have never sinned against Yahweh and thus having sinned stand guilty of our rebellion. But consider the root of all our behaviour, which is rebellion against Yahweh:

"All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." (Isaiah 53:6)

The lying, stealing, cheating, sexual immorality, hatred, murder, and all the rest are only the fruit of sin. Just as love, joy, peace, hope and all the rest is the fruit of his love in us, all the negative stuff is the fruit of our sin nature which is rebellion against Yahweh. How is sin defined? "We have turned, every one, to his own way." That is the best definition you are going to find. Our actions are only the fruit of the root and the root is a heart that is turned to it's own ways instead of the righteous path of Yahweh.

All the epic battles in your life have come down to the struggle between your selfish nature and Yahweh's holiness. Eve's sin was a selfish act, when she put her wants ahead of Yahweh's instructions. David's many sins stemmed from the same source as has every sinful act committed by every single human in history.

Only Jesus has made it possible for this bondage to be broken so that we can make ourselves slaves to Yahweh's righteousness. If that is not your desire you will continue to stumble, struggle, and war against yourself. Peace is found when we swim out to the current of Father's will and allow ourselves to be carried along, swimming with the current instead of against it. Understand the source, the root of the fruit that is produced in your life. Is it the good stuff produced by the Spirit in you, or the rotten stuff that comes from your heart rooted in rebellion? If you can understand this root, you may discover you have been sinning without knowing it, blocking your destiny with Yahweh. Discover it, confess it, be set free from it, and begin to soar as you were designed to soar.

The Twisted Logic Of Sin

It is hard to convince anybody of anything when they think they are right. It doesn't matter how you present the situation or information, if they are convinced they are right they will defy all logic, even when the evidence is right in front of them. We shouldn't be surprised then when people refuse the facts about Jesus. They come up with every argument, every excuse, every "reason" to deny him. However, we need to keep in mind there is something working to keep them from the truth.

Rebellion is a very powerful thing. We call it our sin nature but what it boils down to is rebellion. Eve rebelled against Yahweh's command. There was only one command and yet Eve found it in herself to deny even that one. It set mankind on a terrible spiral down into a nature of rebellion. This sin nature distorts and twists everything so that people even defy the logic that they aspire to live by. We have plenty of examples in the Word of God which demonstrate this perfectly.

Consider David and Bathsheba. What would possess David to think that he could get away with having sex with another man's wife? Did he think that Yahweh would kindly turn a blind eye to his action. But this wasn't even the sin that he got called out on. David went from being an adulterer to a murderer. It's amazing how quickly sin can escalate. The natural consequences to his adultery was that Bathsheba was pregnant. David actually thought he could cover it up and make Uriah think he had gotten his wife pregnant. It is incredible to what lengths we will go to avoid dealing with our rebellion. Finally David arranged to have Uriah killed in battle, and this was the sin with which he was called out on, but it started with his adultery.

What possessed David to think that he could get away with it? Rebellion twists our thinking and causes us to think abnormal situations are normal. Yahweh and the whole kingdom were looking in and David ended up dealing with this sin in a public manner. But there are even greater examples than this.

In Luke 20 Jesus told a parable about a landowner who built a vineyard and then rented it out. The rent was simply a portion of the crop. It is only logical that when you rent something you have to pay the rent. But when the landowner's servants arrived to collect the rent, the people renting the vineyard beat them and sent them away. So the man sent his son. Now look at the twisted thinking of a rebellious mind:

But when the vinedressers saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.’ (Luke 20:14)

Are you kidding me? What logic would dictate that, because you kill your landlord's heir, you will become the heir? Craziness, but that is exactly where their thinking went. You may say, it's just a story, which it is, but this parable was aimed at a real life situation. The religious elite knew who Jesus was. If they didn't Jesus would not have told this parable. The thing is, these elite did not want to lose their position of importance. Jesus was stating here that their motivation for killing the Son was to maintain the kingdom for themselves. So killing God's Son would let them keep the Kingdom. Sorry but this is messed up thinking. Yes, they did kill him, but 40 years later everything was taken from them and destroyed.

We live in a world that defies logic. They think they are thinking straight and understanding everything but their rebellion has twisted their perspective and understanding. Even in the Church people are being deceived by what they want to be true instead of seeking the truth itself. We are living in an age where evil is called good and good evil. We need to be aware of it to avoid the trap that so many are falling into. We need to get ourselves fixed on Jesus and fight against any notion of rebellion in us. We know we are in danger when we start rejected sections of the Word of God. When we start rejecting his truth because it goes against what we want, it is called rebellion.

May we clearly hear Jesus' voice calling us to his righteousness and may his holy fires burn passionately within us.

Getting Real With Jesus - A Call To Holiness

I think we have gone too far in the taming of our God, to make him appear more attractive, more salable among the cavorting nations. We have removed the bite from the Lion, or, I should say, we tried. At what point did we realize that the way of holiness was unattractive to the masses? When was that moment that we decided a benevolent Santa Claus type figure would be more acceptable? Who was the marketer that decided it was wiser to leave people happy in their sin in the pews than uncomfortably convicted at the Mercy Seat? I realize I am being harsh but I am being harsh on people like me: The Preachers.

Our God is not tame; far from it. However, he is kind, loving, forgiving and his desire is to see everyone saved from their intended destination of destruction. This does not diminish his glory; his righteousness; his holiness. Just because he reaches out in compassion to adopt us as his children does not take away from his glory:

Clouds and darkness surround Him;
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne. (v. 2)

I don't think we preachers have done a very good job of telling people that a mark of accepting Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord is change. We die to what we were. That is how our bondage to sin is broken. Then we are raised in our new life in Jesus, and he in us. It is true that all our sin is forgiven but it also means we are called to his righteousness. It is the foundation of his throne as it becomes the foundation of our lives. It means that we no longer desire sin, or self or anything but the will of the Father. Any other form of Christianity is a lie. Anything that allows you to remain in sin and your desire for sin and self is a lie. Remember that justice is also the foundation of his throne and all those who live by sin instead of the Spirit are his enemies:

A fire goes before Him,
And burns up His enemies round about. (v. 3)

Not so tame.

We need a better vision of Yahweh, a better understanding so that we know that we do not want to fall into the hands of the living God; not his hands of justice:

His lightnings light the world;
The earth sees and trembles.
The mountains melt like wax at the presence of the Lord,
At the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.
The heavens declare His righteousness,
And all the peoples see His glory. (vv. 4-6)

We should fear to sin. We should fear to fall out of his grace. We should fear to offend our God. We should never take his grace for granted. We should never abuse his love. We should never try to manipulate his kindness and desire for us to our selfish advantage. We should desire to flee hard and fast from even any hint of sin, not use grace as an excuse to flirt with it or even to flaunt it. If we are saved we should have a longing for the righteousness of Jesus Christ. It should be our desire and when we fail, repentance should be our quick response.

Let all be put to shame who serve carved images,
Who boast of idols. (v. 7)

Indeed, let us feel the shame of our prostitution to the idols of this age. Let us feel deeply the shame and guilt of what we do against the Name above all names. Let us stop playing games with grace and get serious about loving our God. Let us throw off everything that entangles and ensnares our hearts and be thoroughly cleansed and set right in our service to our King. Let us discover again our fear of the Lord, the great respect that is due him and get up on his Highway of Holiness. Let us pursue him with all that we are and trust him to preserve us until the day of his return.

You who love the Lord, hate evil!
He preserves the souls of His saints;
He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked.
Light is sown for the righteous,
And gladness for the upright in heart.
Rejoice in the Lord, you righteous,
And give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name. (vv. 10-12)

Indeed, REPENT! REJOICE! GIVE THANKS! REMEMBER!

Do You Stand Or Bow In Worship?

I can be a very stubborn man and something I have learned over the years is that being stubborn is a stupid thing. Stubborn is not the same thing as determined. When you are determined you have the drive and energy to go to the end of what you are doing. Determination still leaves you open to instruction and correction that will help you achieve your goal. A stubborn nature closes you off from everything, even those things that would make it better or even easier for you to reach your goal. Being stubborn can ruin a person. In case I didn't make my point: Being stubborn is not good.

Being stubborn means that you harden your heart, even to Yahweh. Think of king Asa for a moment. He was a good king, honoured by Yahweh, but when he made a mistake and was corrected for it, Asa hardened his heart and would no longer seek Yahweh's help for anything. Scriptures say that he got a foot disease and even then would not seek Yahweh's healing but instead turned to physicians. Five years later he died. That's compared to king Hezekiah who, when Yahweh announced it was time for his death, humbled himself before Yahweh. Yahweh looked at this, was blessed by it and extended his life by 15 years.

The biggest example of stubbornness or hardened hearts are the generation of Israelites who were rescued from Egypt. These people could not take instruction to save their life. With every turn they were questioning Moses and doubting Yahweh. They were like a mule that refused to be dragged to the watering hole. When presented with the Promised Land they refused to trust Yahweh to enter to possess it. Then, when they were told the resulting correction, they refused to submit to the correction and tried to enter the Land, resulting in death. Of them Yahweh said:

“Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion,
As in the day of trial in the wilderness,
When your fathers tested Me;
They tried Me, though they saw My work.
For forty years I was grieved with that generation,
And said, ‘It is a people who go astray in their hearts,
And they do not know My ways.’
So I swore in My wrath,
‘They shall not enter My rest.’” (Psalm 95:8-11)

We have no ground to stand on to judge these people. We have been no less rebellious and stubborn at times when we have been instructed to do something we don't understand or we don't want to do. Forgiveness is often a hard thing for us to obey, or to love those who persecute us. I would say those are harder things for us to obey than if Jesus asked us to move to China to start a church. It is usually the daily things that we struggle to submit ourselves to than the big stuff. But consider the call to worship found in this same psalm:

Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.
For He is our God,
And we are the people of His pasture,
And the sheep of His hand. (vv. 6-7)

It is here that the psalmist writes, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. Notice the posture in worship: bow down, kneel. These are positions of submission, humbleness, recognizing the authority of Yahweh over us. How can we worship if our stubbornness keeps us on our feet, refusing to bow and submit to Father's instructions? So many scriptures reveal to us that Yahweh is not interested in lip worship; he desires the whole heart, mind, and soul.

The attitudes of stubbornness, pride, know-it-all, destroy the relationship our Father desires with us. The last thing he wants to say to us is "They shall not enter my rest". But he will. The last thing he wants to see happen is us die with "foot disease". But he will. There is no way we can be in the presence of our God without an attitude of humbleness, and stubbornness is not the route to humbleness. As you move throughout your day today and you are desiring to hear the voice of Jesus for direction and instruction, ask yourself if you are trying to stand in his presence or if you are bowing before him.

My Lips Are Yours But My Heart Belongs To Me

There is an illness in the Church which causes half-heartedness in those who would be the children of Yahweh. It is an illness that allows obedience in some areas of the heart but disobedience in others. It is an obedience of convenience but whenever it becomes inconvenient disobedience and rebellion set in, but not in a way that disturbs the obedient parts. And so we lie to ourselves and say "I am a Christian".

Yet, to be a Christian is to be like Jesus and nowhere in the Scriptures do I find where Jesus served the Father half-heartedly. He came in full obedience. He served in full obedience. He died in full obedience. His entire purpose was obedience to the Father's will. He set for us an example and told us to do the same.

It is not dependent on how you feel. It is not dependent on what you think. It is not dependent on your desires and whims. It does not matter if you agree or disagree. It does not matter if it costs you little or much. It does not matter if it ends your life. To be a Christian, a child of Yahweh, a follower of Jesus Christ requires obedience until your very last breath.

Certainly, celebrate and worship the Lord for all his benefits and goodness. Cry out in your distress. Receive his comfort and strength. But understand, at the end of the day, what our Father is looking for from us is obedience born of our love for him. He does not want to hear the words "I love you" from our lips when our heart is filled with rebellion. Disobedience is rebellion. Willing to do what you agree with while ignoring what you disagree with is rebellion. Half-heartedness is rebellion. Let's turn to the Hebrew Scriptures for a minute.

There was one king in Israel that showed some promise after a long line of evil kings. His name was Jehu and the Lord had raised him up to bring about the promised punishment on the family of Ahab. He was so filled with zeal for the Lord that he destroyed not only the family of Ahab but anyone who was connected with that family. He put his motivation into words:

“Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord.” (2 Kings 10:16)

From this zeal he found strength to move on from the family of Ahab to also wipe out the Baal worship in Israel, killing all the priests and destroying the Baal temple. It looked like he was on the path to great reform in the kingdom of Israel so that they might join with Judah in the worship of Yahweh. Yahweh even made a promise to him because of his obedience:

“Because you have done well in doing what is right in My sight, and have done to the house of Ahab all that was in My heart, your sons shall sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation.” (v. 30)

But Jehu could not manage to maintain the singleness of heart and his zeal waned. He fell into the sin of Jeroboam and worshiped the twin calves which had been set up to keep Israel from Yahweh:

But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart; for he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam, who had made Israel sin. (v. 31)
 
Yahweh ended up starting the demise of Israel under Jehu, handing over sections of it to surrounding kingdoms. Like so many kings before him, Jehu started off well but ended poorly. The Hebrew Scriptures are filled with such examples, warning us of the importance of obedience. It is not enough to make a decision for Jesus, to call him Saviour; we must also walk in his ways every day for the rest of our life. There are times we will fail but when our heart is right, when we desire to be obedient, and we repent when we fail, his grace covers us and he picks us up again. You see, with obedience comes an unending flow of blessings but disobedience brings curses. What fools we are to choose to serve the Lord half-heartedly instead of with the zeal of obedience.

Jesus warned us time and again, directly and through parables, that true love provokes obedience and obedience to the Father is of utmost importance. When the question is,"who will you serve", don't allow your response to be from your lips and not a fully surrendered heart. Let it end as brilliantly as it began. Stay strong and run the race to win it.

Jesus Knew Even Before You Did It

Many days of our lives we can be accused of making a god after our own image. He study the Bible, learn about Yahweh, worship him but then change small details to suit our own needs. You don't think so? Then I challenge you to read the entire Bible in 90 days (YouVersion has a Bible Reading Plan for 90 days) and come face to face with who is Yahweh, the true Yahweh, Yahweh the just, Yahweh the righteous. There is a reason why Scriptures says it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

One thing that cannot be mistaken in any of the Scriptures is that Yahweh is full of grace, but we are also warned never to allow grace to be an excuse to sin. We do not understand how much grace is already being shown to us every day. Sometimes we do not even consider how our actions will impact our Father. We do not consider how our actions will effect our testimony. We do not consider how our actions and words impact the way the world looks at our God. Yahweh does.

Our Father knows our words even before they are on our lips. He knows the actions we will take even before we take them. He knows the decisions we will make and he knows our motivation. He knows the end from the beginning and he knows the roots. He sees the outcome of the words we speak and the decisions we take today even when we can't. It is no different today than in the days of Moses.

Yahweh knew before he sent Israel into the promised land that they would reject him and take on the gods of the other nations. He knew that they would do this and he knew the actions he would have to take:

Behold, you will rest with your fathers; and this people will rise and play the harlot with the gods of the foreigners of the land, where they go to be among them, and they will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them. Then My anger shall be aroused against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide My face from them, and they shall be devoured. (Deuteronomy 31:16-17)

Nothing is hidden from our God, not even our future. Then why does he allow it to happen? If nothing surprises Yahweh, why does he not stop the rebellion before it begins? Let me remind you that anything that is against the will of the Father is rebellion. What kind of rebellion do you and I live in every day as we make decisions with no thought of Jesus, his righteous ways and his will for our lives? How often do we decide against the righteousness of Yahweh without giving it a second thought? Ignorance is no excuse. He is suppose to be our "everything" and we are suppose to be consumed by passion for the Name.

The reason Yahweh does not stop us is two-fold. First, he created us as a creation with a free will. We have the freedom to make our own decisions. Jesus set us free from the slavery of sin so we could have the freedom to decide for him instead of against him, and we still have that freedom today. If Yahweh interferes with that freedom he goes against his own purpose. He desires for us to love him freely.

The second is that our Father uses these times of rebellion for training us. We are his children and he will correct us. He allows us to make mistakes, to rebel but then he brings in the correction to increase us. No punishment is meant as a revenge but as a teaching opportunity. We may not like the correction but it certainly brings us closer to our Father and that is what he is looking for.

Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. (Hebrews 12:7-8)

The sad thing is that we usually try to find the short cut out of the correction instead of standing up under it. In this world of self-satisfaction and instant gratification, enduring the correction of our Father is a foreign concept. It could be one reason why there are so many babies running around needing their diapers changed and precious few mature men and women of faith. Sin happens, mistakes will be made, Jesus knows all about it and the Father loves you enough to bring correction. Stand up under it and be increased or slink away into the dark to find your own solutions and lose out. It is your decision, just don't a god after your own image to excuse it away.

Obedience Comes With Promises

Every parent dreams of children who will be pleasant and a joy to be around. And what is the foundation of a pleasant child? Obedience. Obedience makes it easy for a parent to be loving, kind and generous to their children. Obedience creates a wonderful atmosphere in the home. Obedience allows everything to flow wonderfully. But obedience is a hard thing to maintain.

Children are governed by instinct, by their sin nature. It is only natural for them to test the waters. It doesn't matter their age, if they see the "forbidden fruit" they are going to want it. They need correction, guidance, patience but all we are doing is controlling them. The sin nature cannot be destroyed by control. Real obedience only happens when each of us die to ourselves and allow the Holy Spirit to take control. This only happens when Jesus becomes Saviour and Lord.

Jesus Christ did not come to teach us morality but to set us free from our slavery to our sin nature. Whether you are a child or an adult, without Jesus Christ you have no choice but to sin because it is your master. That is why it is useless to correct a child in anger. They are doing what comes natural. Correct them yes, but in a way that will not take away from your witness of Jesus Christ.

Yet, even when we are freed from our sin nature we still have choices to make. Just because we are no longer slaves to it does not mean that we cannot choose to disobey. But just as an obedient child makes a home pleasant, so our obedience allows the blessings and plans of the LORD to flow. Disobedience is like a dam, holding back the blessings of our LORD, blessings he intends for us to enjoy and pass on to the nations. Our entire relationship is built on trust and obedience and obedience comes with promises. To the Israelites' Yahweh promised:

Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the River Euphrates, even to the Western Sea,[c] shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand against you; the Lord your God will put the dread of you and the fear of you upon all the land where you tread, just as He has said to you. (Deuteronomy 11:24-25)

Jesus gave believers promises as well which flow in a relationship of trust and obedience. They are promises of provision, of joy, peace, direction, instruction, strength, hope, purpose, power and presence. But when we are in rebellion, selecting a course of disobedience, we cannot expect to hold on to those promises. Sometimes we contend with the enemy believing he is trying to rob us of these things whereas, the truth of the matter is, we are robbing ourselves.

Everything matters. Nothing is insignificant. You can't take part of Jesus' commands and ignore others. You can't love some people really well and hate someone else. You can't go part of the way and say "good enough". You can't follow Jesus' calling and then decide you know better and take a different course. You can't hear clearly from the Lord and then decide that you misinterpreted it and it meant something else. Obedience should be our great desire. Knowing and doing the Father's will should consume our day. Standing in the flowing stream of the Lord's great blessings should be our constant experience as we live lives surrendered and dedicated to our Lord Jesus Christ.

The First Step Toward Spiritual Maturity

Disbelief is both ugly and sad. It results from a short memory. I am not referring to the disbelief of non-believers but of those who made the choice to accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour. How many great things has he done in your life? How many times has he saved you from the brink of disaster? How many times has he provided for you when you had no provision? How many times has he quieted your troubled Spirit and been there to carry you through impossible times?

Yahweh is good and he is good all the time. He is faithful even we are not. Yet we doubt.

Israel should be a constant reminder of how ugly disbelief is to Yahweh. With a mighty hand he rescued them from Egypt. He practically carried them to the edge of the promised land, defending them, feeding them, guiding them. The entire time they complained, rebelled and caused as much difficulty as possible. Now here they were on the edge of the land Yahweh had been promising them since the time of Abraham. His command was a simple one: Go and take the land.

They sent spies in to test the waters and 10 of the 12 came back with a bad report. The people refused to enter. The people are too big, too mighty, the cities are fortifies, they would all be killed. This they spouted off in the face of the one who used force, never seen before, to bring them out of Egypt. They said this in the face of the one who parted the seas to rescue them. They said this in the face of the one who brought water from rock and fed them every day with food direct from heaven. They said this in the face of the one who gave them the might to defeat every enemy they had faced. And Yahweh's response:

How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs I have performed among them? (Numbers 14:11)

How long? How long must we learn the same lesson time and again? How long does he have to show us his love and compassion before we believe? Ho long will it take before we start trusting him with today, tomorrow and our eternity? What is wrong with our memory that we start every day as if we have had no experience at all with Jesus? How long?

A lack of trust means we are stuck drinking milk instead of eating steaks. It means we have to continue wearing diapers until we trust enough to learn our lessons. It means we will be 8o years old and still not have obtained the spiritual maturity Jesus wants for us. Yahweh sent Israel back into the desert because they were not ready to receive the Promised Land. He will also keep us at this stage until we have learned to trust because without trust we cannot grow. He desires us to have more and be more but he will not allow us to progress until we have gained the lesson of faith. We need better memories.

It's A Daily Walk, Not A Weakly

How quickly does the refreshing of a Sunday wear off for you? How quickly do you feel the dullness invading, causing your keen insights and revelation to slip away? How quickly does discouragement and doubt come knocking? How quickly do you lose your sensitivity to the Spirit? It's not suppose to be like this.

Maybe you didn't realize? Maybe you thought this was just normal; how it worked? It's not.

We don't belong here.

There is a condition in this world that has twisted our basic nature so that the world is in constant rebellion against its creator. We did that. We introduced this rebellion and made everything dull, cold and ugly. But our Creator loved us too much to leave us like that, even though it was our decision.

So he punched a whole in this thing to allow us to escape and enter into vibrant, colourful life again,where he lives in us and we in him. He did this through Jesus who had to sacrifice everything so we could gain everything. But there was more to God's plan.

He couldn't bring us home yet because we are part of his plan to bring the good news of what he has done to the four corners of this planet. So because we had to stay in this dull, dying, rebellious place, he filled us with himself; his power; the Spirit of God, to keep us fresh, alive, colourful, and equipped to do his will. But we have to participate.

The moment we take our focus off of Jesus the dullness of this rebellious place crowds in. We have no power of our own to drive it away but we are filled by the power of Jesus through the Spirit of God. So we must stay focused. We can`t become distracted. We can`t allow the dullness to prevail. We must overcome every day.

Jesus had to as well.

He did not walk this planet as God. Although he is fully God and fully man, he set his divinity aside to fulfill his mission. His power came via the Holy Spirit who took from the Father and gave to the Son. Did you not notice that Jesus started off his day in solitary prayer and he ended the day in the like manner. Jesus, who is God, had to walk this spiritually dull and rebellious planet as us and it must have drained him as it drains us. He needed refreshing every day. Every single day he looked for his spirit to be renewed in the presence of his Father.

What about us?

Do we think we are better than Jesus, that we can go from Sunday to Sunday without refreshing, without renewal, without sweet communion with our God? I pray all day long about everything and everyone, but it isn't the same as coming aside from this dull world and sitting in the presence of my Father. Of course it is my desire to be aware of his presence 24 hours a day, but I am not there yet. I am like Jesus; I long to be renewed each day, to have the dullness of the rebellion washed away and to be re-energized in worship. Every day.

That is the cure to your spiritual dullness; worship. Seek our Father's face. Desire to be in his embrace. Listen to his voice. Listen for instruction. Search the Word. Study. Dig deep. Dance in his presence. Present yourself to him and allow him to do what needs to be done. To repair the brokenness. To remove the hurt. To restore your energy. To be reminded of his grace, his strength and his purpose for you.

Don't wait until Sunday. It is a daily walk that requires daily refreshing. Be renewed today.

Being Hated Is Not Abnormal

What were your expectations when you accepted Jesus? I guess that depends on what you were being told at the time. It is unfortunate that we are not always forthcoming in our desire to see people accept the salvation Jesus offers. After all, salvation is of far greater worth than anything in this world. Regretfully it means some people have wrong expectations, but that is not Jesus' fault. He made it clear what we should expect:

If the people of this world hate you, just remember that they hated me first. If you belonged to the world, its people would love you. But you don’t belong to the world. I have chosen you to leave the world behind, and that is why its people hate you. Remember how I told you that servants are not greater than their master. So if people mistreat me, they will mistreat you. (John 15:18-20)

Not exactly what we start with when we are presenting Jesus to someone, but it is the truth. It is not God's desire but is the natural result when you have a righteous, holy people living among rebellious nations. The nature of this world is rebellion; rebellion against God and all things connected to God. We read this scripture:

Don’t mistreat someone who has mistreated you. But try to earn the respect of others, and do your best to live at peace with everyone. (Romans 12:17-18) 

"Do your best" has also been translated as "as far as it depends on you". Peace requires an agreement between two parties but as long as there is rebellion against God there can be no peace. We try but don't be disappointed when you find people at odds with you. Don't be surprised when people don't want to be your friend and they hate you for unreasonable reasons. It is not so much you as it is the Christ in you that makes their rebellion obvious. They don't want to be reminded that there is a right and wrong in the world, and your life is a reminder.

Apostle Paul didn't beat around the bush when he wrote to Timothy:

Anyone who belongs to Christ Jesus and wants to live right will have trouble from others. (2 Timothy 3:12)

We don't want trouble, we don't look for it and we don't enjoy it when it happens but neither should we be surprised. The important thing is to allow the Spirit to direct you in these times and don't allow your flesh to dictate the day. How you handle trouble may the biggest sermon you ever preach. It may be exactly what people need to see to know that your faith in Jesus is real. The Word says that God uses all things and we need to handle all circumstances in our lives with such a faith.

Always, always, always remember that it isn't about us. If you feel offended you had better examine your heart again because it doesn't sound like your dead enough. Our life is no longer ours so how can we be offended. If someone comes against us they are actually coming against Jesus and I think Jesus can defend his own. We have not been given to defend ourselves but instead to stand our ground. We are given words and abilities to fight for those who are coming against us. Yes, we fight for them because we love those who hate us and we pray for those who persecute us. That is what Jesus told us to do.

Following Jesus requires a lot more than singing worship songs. It requires faithfulness and obedience at all times, in all things. We live for Jesus not for ourselves and we will face whatever we must in his authority. That's why we can keep on singing, keep on dancing, keep on loving and forgiving even as the stones are thrown and the whips come down. We are not of those who grow weary and fall away but in the strength and the joy of our Lord we press on.

Who Does God Hate?

Who does God hate?

No one!

But that doesn't mean he will not judge those who are in rebellion to him. That is the tragedy in this whole thing: God's love is so great it has produced a grace that will cover any sin, but most people reject this love. Listen to these words and understand the depth of the love from which they come:

‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die?' (Ezekiel 33:11)

Who does God hate?

No one!

Is there a day of judgement for those who chose themselves over God?

Sadly, yes.

And God's heart will break on that day as it breaks every day we choose wickedness over life. But there will be judgement. And, listen to these words that came from the most beautiful lips, words that speak of grace and death in the same breath:

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. (John 3:17-18)

Those who stand and preach that there will be no hell because in the end God's love will win out are calling Jesus a liar. Oh, it can be our desire that everyone on the face of this planet will realize the brilliance of God and his great love for us and will make the right decision, but the decision over heaven and hell is entirely ours.

Who does God hate?

Absolutely no one!

He went to the cross for us. He spilt his blood for us. His love drove him to pay the ultimate price for us. But even that wasn't enough because he has planned more for us. The grave is empty for a reason. He has called us to him for eternity. He has even given us a taste of that by sending us his Holy Spirit; a deposit guaranteeing what is to come. But there is still a choice to be made.

Understand fully what it means to make that choice. It means being crucified on the cross with Jesus. It means dying to yourself. It means rejecting anything that is not from God. It means not pursuing your selfish desires but the will of God. Too often we use the love and grace of God to mask our selfish desires and sins, but it is still rebellion and a decision against Jesus. Those who advocate the acceptance of sin, the rebellious acts of the unsaved, calling the holy common and the common holy, need to wake up to this fact. God's judgement is as real as his love and grace.

Who does God hate?

No one.

Now the decision is ours.

Is Rebellion Natural For A Teen?

Rebellion is natural to our flesh. Since the days of Adam it is natural in our human nature to rebel against authority, especially God's. So of course it is only natural in our flesh for teenagers to rebel against their parents. Parents are the ultimate authority in a child's life so if there is going to be any form of rebellion it is going to be aimed at those parents. It can be more complicated than that but this is the truth of the matter in simplified form. However, as Christians we are a new creation, we no longer live according to our flesh but by the Spirit of God. Rebellion is not part of our nature any more.

I hear from teens all the time who are struggling in their relationship with their parents. Sometimes it is because the teens are being selfish and self-centered and other times because the teen simply wants to follow Jesus. Sometimes parents are totally lost in selfishness and others are extremely opposed to Jesus. What then? What is a Christian to do?

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. (Ephesians 6:1)

This is part of God's address concerning submission. In the same way a wife is to submit to her husband and a husband is to love his wife, a child is to submit to his parents and his parents are to love the child. Those are big words, submit and love, and if you haven't read my two previous posts you should to understand what the God means by those words.

Rebellion is not excusable in God's sight. He is responsible for all authority in this world and he has purpose for it. If the authority is not meeting his purpose God sends correction or removes it. This goes for all authority, which is hard for us to understand.

Consider Jesus when he was cornered about paying taxes to the conqueror of Israel. Caesar had invaded and conquered Israel at this time and, as is normal for any government, they taxed the people. When asked about this treatment of God's children Jesus simply said to give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God. No rebellion there, even against those who ruled over God's children.

No parent is perfect and often there are plenty of mistakes and misunderstandings. There can be a huge battle of the will, but, led by the Spirit, a parents' response should be one of love. But love does not mean giving into whatever a child wants just as God does not spoil us by giving what we want. If we ask for poison God will not provide it and parents are not permitted to give to a child what would harm him. Teens cannot always understand this because they are still learning, exploring, discovering the great mysteries of life. But parents can also be unfair and it is here that God is working maturity into a teens character, if they trust Jesus.

Yes, it is a matter of trust. Teens who have learned to trust Jesus with every aspect of their life are able to submit, even to the unfairness of their parents. It is for their own benefit:

“Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise—“that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.” (Ephesians 6:3)

The promise for obedience is that it will go well with you and you will have a long life. If you learn to allow the Spirit to destroy the ugly spirit of rebellion in you great things will come your way. When you learn to walk in submission to God his blessings flow through you like a tremendous river. But you can't be in rebellion against authority and be submitted to God. You cannot have a divided heart.

Obedience and honour, there is no way around them when you follow Jesus. Just as he submitted to his parents when he was a child, so do children today. When he did it everyone was amazed and blessed by him. If you are a teen, you will minister more through your obedience to your parents than you will with any words you speak. In the same way, any rebellion you display will rob Jesus of his glory. Maybe not something you want to hear today but it is something you must understand.

Obedience Is Never Easy For The Rebellious Heart

Most of us want to know there is a purpose and perhaps a plan for our lives. Possessing such knowledge or hope gives us a sense of security and peace. None of us want to live with the thought that we are here by chance, by some freak accident, with no purpose other than to eat, breathe, live and then die. I think each of us has some desire to leave our mark on this place, perhaps to make it a little more pleasant for others to live. Yet, even with such a desire, we want that purpose to be something we want and not what someone else wants. We want to be the captains of our own destinies, to plot our own course and to arrive at some place of remarkable achievement. However, we can't have it both ways. Either we have a purpose or we are plotting our own course.

Many people waste their lives trying to figure out God's specific will for them. They sit and watch life pass them by, waiting to hear a voice or see a pointing finger in the sky. Personally I do not think it works that way. My own calling came first as a nagging realization of the direction God was pointing me in and I immediately coiled against the notion. This would prove to be my recurring reaction to God's expressed will for me. He shows me; I reject the direction; he insists; I protest; he gives me a clear fork in the road to make a choice; I repent and submit. But these moments only occur along the pathway. I never stop moving but always press on. I was once told that if I did not know the direction to go I should continue straight on until I received the instruction to turn one way or the other. Sometimes the instruction is as simple as "serve me where you are; love people in my name". He may move me around from "pillar to post" but the instruction where I am is always the same, "love them in my name".

The big problem with living God's will for our lives is that our will has to die. Perhaps there may be a protest in us at first, just as there was in Jesus' parable of the obedient son. We may say no at first but at the end of the day a loving son submits to his Father's will. There must be a willingness to say, "not my will but yours be done". However, the rebellious son can sometimes have the appearance of obedience but when the sun sets, his rebellion is obvious. We can even sometimes fool ourselves into thinking we are obedient but our rebellion is gross and obvious to God. King Herod is an example of this rebellion.

The Magi have come in search of the great king who had been born according to prophecy. The signs had all come together and they had come to pay homage. King Herod consulted his own wise men and was informed of the prophecies. This is a clear indication of God's will, of what was to come. However, the king enjoyed his job, his position, his power, and he had no plan to give it up, even to God. The king was suppose to be God's representative to the people but Herod probably never stepped into his purpose. He had the position but he failed to walk in his purpose. Not claiming this purpose, Herod was only interested in preserving his position and power. He actually thought he could plot against God. What a foolish man, but no more foolish than we are at times in our lives. Something seemed to be lacking in his Jewish instruction as it seems to be lacking in our Christian instruction. Do we not realize who our God is?

On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route. (Matthew 2:11-12)

If our rebellion only affected us perhaps we could have the attitude that it is up to us, but rebellion and sin rarely affect only the perpetrator. When we rebel against God, when we willingly enter into sin, it affects everyone we know and who we encounter. Herod's rebellion had an immediate and historical impact. In an attempt to foil God's will Herod went about as far as a person can go:

When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. (Matthew 2:16)

The significant thing here is that Herod did not derail God's plans or will and actually played a role in fulfilling some of the prophecies, but it did not have to be like that. Herod could have played a great role in God's will and he could have lived up to his purpose in his will. The frightening thing is that this is the usual pattern of rebellion against God. It is always a messy affair, with many people hurt or killed (emotionally, physically) in the whole affair. Nothing we do can frustrate the will of our Father. Regardless of our actions God will see his plans through to the end. Is it not wiser to join our Father in his work, to submit to his will, to be part of his great work then to come to our end in rebellion and all it entails? In Isaiah we find this warning:

Woe to the obstinate children,"
       declares the LORD,
       "to those who carry out plans that are not mine,
       forming an alliance, but not by my Spirit,
       heaping sin upon sin. (Isaiah 30:1)

He describes the rebellious with these words:

These are rebellious people, deceitful children,
       children unwilling to listen to the LORD's instruction.
 They say to the seers,
       "See no more visions!"
       and to the prophets,
       "Give us no more visions of what is right!
       Tell us pleasant things,
       prophesy illusions.
 Leave this way,
       get off this path,
       and stop confronting us
       with the Holy One of Israel!" (Isaiah 30:9-11)

And he reminds us:

This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says:
       "In repentance and rest is your salvation,
       in quietness and trust is your strength. (Isaiah 30:15)

Jesus taught us that the only way we could follow him is if we die to ourselves. Some have said the problem with living sacrifices is that they keep crawling off the alter. We have to give up everything that belongs to us in order to be able to live a servant's life, submitted to the Father's will. It does not matter what we want when we are called upon to change our course according to the Father's will. It may not even be a change of course but simply the completion of purpose as it was for Jesus. We think that his prayer was simple until we are in that same place of giving up what we possess in order to possess what the Father has intended for us. Then the simple prayer of "not my will but yours be done" comes at the cost of sweating great drops of blood. It is sometimes a wrestling and arguing before we arrive at the point of submission. Regardless of how we get there, we must all arrive at that place of submitting to the Father's will. Perhaps it is the hardest thing you have ever had to do and perhaps many will come against your decision or action. It does not matter, just do it and receive the joy and peace of knowing you are walking in step with the Spirit of God.