Called - Purposed And Empowered By God

Then said I [Jeremiah]:“Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth.” But the Lord said to me: “Do not say, ‘I am a youth,’ For you shall go to all to whom I send you, And whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of their faces, For I am with you to deliver you,” says the Lord. Then the Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me: “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. - Jeremiah 1:6-9

I had no idea when I prayed next to my wife to put my faith and trust in Jesus, that he would turn my life upside down. My wife's as well. I thought the direction of my life was pretty well determined. I had a master's degree in Engineering, a successful career in the Army, a wonderful family a sound marriage.  And then, one day the Lord said that He wanted me to serve Him and not my country. Like Jeremiah, I was not sure that I would be able to what the Lord had in mind. Can you imagine, me, a mere man formed from dust questioning the mind, purpose, and plan of God. But I did. Like Jeremiah - God provided the wherewithal to do what He had bid me to do. For someone who is supposed to be so smart - proved to be ignorant of God's power. 

I suppose my experience was somewhat like Peter, Andrew, James and John. They were a bit older than Jeremiah. A little more set in their ways. They had families dependent upon their vocation as fishermen.  Then Jesus showed up.

And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” They immediately left their nets and followed Him. Going on from there, He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. He called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed Him.  And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people. - Matthew 4:18-23

Actually the decision to follow God's leading was much less of a struggle that I would have imagined. What I was doing - what I had achieved had "lost its shine" in my mind and heart. When I told my wife that I thought the Lord was telling me to lay my career in the Army and a certain income and retirement down, she said that she agreed that I should. So I did. And the Lord has proven himself to be faithful to provide for us - even in some financially impossible situations. Like Paul - 

But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith - Philippians 3:7-9

As Jeremiah said 

Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man glory in his might, Nor let the rich man glory in his riches; But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, That I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,” says the Lord.- Jeremiah 9:23-24

So what is it that the Lord is saying or has said to you? He does not always call you to leave your nets, but He calls all of us to, at the very least, abandon our hearts' devotion to those nets.

God will never call you to do something or go somewhere that you can do on your own. You will always need Him to do what He tells you or where He takes you. Not so that you might find personal glory in it but that He might be glorified through your obedience.

Think about it – Pray about it – Believe it – Walk in it. Let your light shine and give God the glory. 

By Faith Alone By His Grace Alone And For His Glory Alone 

Loving God More Must Be More Than A Want

…being justified freely by His grace… —Romans 3:24

We have to realize that we cannot earn or win anything from God through our own efforts. We must either receive it as a gift or do without it. The greatest spiritual blessing we receive is when we come to the knowledge that we are destitute. Until we get there, our Lord is powerless. He can do nothing for us as long as we think we are sufficient in and of ourselves. - Oswald Chambers - My Utmost For His Highest

As Christians we live our lives on this earth with a tension between the spiritual and the natural.  The preaching of the earthly health and wealth gospel … God wants you to be rich and healthy … is the carnal Christian's attempt to resolve that tension.  The idea is that God will give you money .. which He tells you not to love … and health .. which He tells you that you will face affliction and hardship of many kinds … and so … you can really be independent of God .. all of your earthly needs will be met … do you see the heresy in this?  God wants us to give up our dependence upon earthly comforts and assurances and trust Him, alone.  There is a difference between depending on something and having it. When Job lost everything, the assumption was that he had done something wrong .. why?  Because he lost his earthly possessions. What was the truth .. there was something spiritual at work that superseded the natural.  The same is true in our lives.  The thing is, you must be willing to submit to that … to yield your devotion and dependence upon the natural and trust God's provision.  What do you hunger for?  I see people struggling after disasters and war and poverty, while Americans are trying to figure out if they should go ahead and buy that $2000 iPhone and get rid of their $700 iPhone.  The Church in the United States is the “frog in the pot” with respect to materialism.  We don’t know that we are being cooked … instead, we think the water temperature is just right.

Some time ago I was watching the Black Friday phenomenon  .. which it seems Black Friday has crept into Black Thursday.  While I was trying to find money to help people recover from Hurricane Harvey and people were spending money – hand over fist – to satisfy their lust for more – because they certainly didn’t need it – not really.  With respect to the rest of the world, I think it is safe to say that 99% of what we buy is to satisfy our wants.  Our needs were met a long time ago.   We are trying to get masks to people who have none and can't afford them - and people with the means are wondering what color and style they should buy.  Something that will go with their outfit. (Psalm 37:4) "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart"  The emphasis here is on our focus on God and His changing what we desire to conform to what He desires.

 “You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” James 4:2-4

Ugh! That does not leave a lot of wiggle room does it. I guess I should quote Jesus to bring this to a close. 

And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: ‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, And seeing you will see and not perceive; For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.’ But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear - Matthew 13:14-16

.....  And I would add .. He who feels conviction – let him repent.”  

Think about it – Pray about it – Believe it – Walk in it. Let your light shine and give God the glory. 

By Faith Alone By His Grace Alone And For His Glory Alone 

Do You Really Want To Be Like Jesus?

When they were alone, He explained all things to His disciples. —Mark 4:34

Jesus doesn’t take us aside and explain things to us all the time; He explains things to us as we are able to understand them. The lives of others are examples for us, but God requires us to examine our own souls. It is slow work— so slow that it takes God all of time and eternity to make a man or woman conform to His purpose. We can only be used by God after we allow Him to show us the deep, hidden areas of our own character. Jesus will reveal to us everything we have held within ourselves before His grace began to work. We have to get rid of the idea that we understand ourselves. That is always the last bit of pride to go. The only One who understands us is God. The greatest curse in our spiritual life is pride. He will allow us to experience heartbreak or the disappointment we feel when our intellectual pride is wounded. He will reveal numerous misplaced affections or desires— things over which we never thought He would have to get us alone. Many things are shown to us, often without effect. But when God gets us alone over them, they will be clear. - Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest

For those whom he [God the Father] foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.   - Romans 8:29 

Have you ever given any thought to what being conformed … molded .. changed … means?  Well, first you know it is a spiritual change, right?  Second … you know that the process is going to be contrary to your flesh. God will show you things through the Spirit that you may not want to see or admit, even to yourself.  (One of the Spirit’s missions is to convict the world of sin.  The Spirit plus the Word of God are the “one-two” punch in the sanctification process.  The knock-out punch is my surrendering my will)

You know that there are certain aspects of your old nature that you want to hide or cling to.  Adam and Eve tried to hide themselves in the Garden… you know how that worked out for them. The only ones you can hide your sin from, for a season, is man.  The Word says (Numbers 32:23) “Your sin will find you out.”  God knows everything .. that is why we confess our sins (1 John 1:9) .. confess means to “agree with” not to reveal. The goal of this transformation – conforming process is not to make you miserable, but to bless you .. to make you better.  The pain or difficulty you experience is from the battle between the flesh and Spirit. My encouragement to you is the same as Paul’s to the Romans. 

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. -  Romans 12:1-2  

God won’t make you do that.  You must surrender your will.  Will you?

Think about it – Pray about it – Believe it – Walk in it. Let your light shine and give God the glory. 

By Faith Alone By His Grace Alone And For His Glory Alone 

What To Do When God Gives You Opportunity

Preach the word!  Be ready in season and out of season.  Convince, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching. - 2 Timothy 4:2

You never know when God is going to give you the opportunity.  Be ready.  As it happened I was reading Ecclesiastes chapter 3 one morning.  There is a time or season for everything.

I took Martie's car in for a service that morning.  It was going to be a wait so they offered to drop me off at a store or restaurant and then they would pick me up.  The young man who drove was talking with me - idle banter - when he asked me what I did.  I told him I was a missionary and he said that he was from Salt Lake City and new a number of missionaries.  Although I did not ask, I assumed he was Mormon.  We chatted a bit about the life God has called Martie and me to.  As it happened, he also picked me up.  Our conversation led to discussing how to love your wife and how to deal with conflicts - differences of opinion.  I pointed him to scripture.  Before I got out of the car, he asked me if I was doing OK, if I was having trouble.  I told him that when you are in the center of God's will, you are always doing OK.  God provides. I gave him my card and encouraged him to look us up on the Web.  Planting seeds.

It doesn't end there.  It took a while longer on the car service so they asked if they could take me home and they will come back to get me when the car is done.  New driver.  We talked about our being from Alabama and why.  About how hot it was and I added that we were used to it having lived in Haiti for 4 years.  He asked if the Haitians were open to the Gospel.  That surprised me.  So I talked to him about Christians in Haiti and the openness to the Gospel there.  That morphed into a conversation about the small church he attends and the fact that they don't do much with missions.  I talked to him about Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost parts.  I encouraged him that his little church should be faithful in Jerusalem and trust that God will bring the increase and ministry direction.

All of this just because Martie's car needed a service.  My point to you is be ready .. but more ... be willing.  You never know when and where God will give you opportunity to speak life into someone.  Maybe today!

Think about it – Pray about it – Believe it – Walk in it. Let your light shine and give God the glory. 

By Faith Alone By His Grace Alone And For His Glory Alone 

God Is Speaking Are You Listening

Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!  The LORD of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge. - Psalms 46:10-11

But most of us show incredible disrespect to God because we don’t even hear Him. He might as well never have spoken to us.  The goal of my spiritual life is such close identification with Jesus Christ that I will always hear God and know that God always hears me …. If I have not developed and nurtured this devotion of hearing, I can only hear God’s voice at certain times. At other times I become deaf to Him because my attention is to other things— things which I think I must do. This is not living the life of a child of God. Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest

Have you ever said something in a conversation only to have someone say “That is just what I said!”  But you didn’t hear it.  Or maybe the thought that you had was not yours at all but the words the other person had just spoken.  Whatever the case, the person is normally just a little put out because that tells them, in no uncertain terms, you are not listening to what they say. 

That is how it is with us and God.  It is not that God is not speaking .. the problem is that we are not listening.  Our attention is on the cares of this world .. we are so focused on the issues of life that we cannot hear what God is saying to us. 

Hearing God requires focus … looking intently on Him. God is not your enemy, He is your advocate.  As you live your life every day, the Lord is with you.  He is your strength.  He knows what is best for you.  Our natural desire is to trust in our own judgment and not listen to His voice …  

Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, "This is the way, walk in it," Whenever you turn to the right hand Or whenever you turn to the left. - Isaiah 30:21

God speaks through His Word, through nature, He is always speaking  …. But we must listen …. 

But whoso looks into the perfect law of liberty (the Bible), and continues therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. - James 1:25

This will not necessarily make you problems go away … the men that were inspired to write the words in the Bible all struggled in life … the proof of God’s presence is not the absence of trouble … 

These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. -  John 16:33

But He has overcome the world … He is at your side … you can have peace in the midst of the storm you are in now.  Put your hope in God … listen to Him .. and then walk in the way He shows you. 

Think about it – Pray about it – Believe it – Walk in it. Let your light shine and give God the glory. 

By Faith Alone By His Grace Alone And For His Glory Alone 

To Avoid Spiritual Apathy, Atrophy, and Impotence - Pray

…praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit… —Ephesians 6:18

As we continue on in our intercession for others, we may find that our obedience to God in interceding is going to cost those for whom we intercede more than we ever thought. It is impossible for us to have living and vital intercession unless we are perfectly and completely sure of God. Identification with God is the key to intercession… God gives us discernment in the lives of others to call us to intercession for them, never so that we may find fault with them. - Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest

Do you see someone who has faults? I am not referring to the one you see when you look in a mirror. Sure you do. It is inescapable.  (Romans 3:23) “All have sinned” (Romans 3:10) “There are none righteous” That pretty much covers everyone.  So you are going to see the works of the flesh every day .. (Galatians 5:19-21) “Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.”  That list just about covers it. Those things you see in others that upset you, make you to not want to be around them, to be angry about what they have done or are doing.  Perhaps what you should do is pray for them.  Most of us don’t for a three reasons, I can think of.  One, we think they should be punished for their behavior and should not be allowed to get away with it, and maybe they should be. Two, we don’t think they are deserving of God’s grace, mercy and forgiveness (ours too), and they are not but then again neither are we.  Three,  we have a pretty much non-existent prayer life and don’t pray for ourselves, unless we are in trouble, let alone people who are doing things we don’t like. 

But God did not say pray if you feel like. No, we are to pray because it is our responsibility and critical to the health and growth of our personal spiritual life.  For most of us, we treat prayer as an option.  Sunday morning and perhaps at dinner time.  That’s it.  Prayer is not a spiritual gift for some.  It is a responsibility for all Christians.  If becoming a Christian is the most significant thing that has happened in your life, and it should be, then communicating with the Father should be important to you as a child of God.  If it’s not, well “Houston we have a problem!”  Prayerlessness is a symptom of spiritual apathy and spiritual apathy always lead to spiritual atrophy which always leads to spiritual impotence.  You need to pray .. you can’t afford not to!

Here is a simple way … a friend shared this with me years ago.  First make certain that your heart is clean - clear up any unconfessed sons with God. (1 John 1:9) Use your fingers and thumb as a guide.  Start with your thumb, it represents your family, index finger those who point you to Jesus  - Spiritual leaders. Middle finger, those in authority over you – government, work, etc. Ring finger, others – those you care about and maybe don’t care about.  Pinky finger – yourself – last and least.  Try it.  Why not make it a habit?

Think about it – Pray about it – Believe it – Walk in it. Let your light shine and give God the glory. 

By Faith Alone By His Grace Alone And For His Glory Alone 

Don't Be Satisfied With Less Than God's Best

May your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless… —1 Thessalonians 5:23
 
Do we believe that God can fortify and protect our thought processes far beyond where we can go? “…the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). If this verse means cleansing only on our conscious level, may God have mercy on us. The man who has been dulled by sin will say that he is not even conscious of it. But the cleansing from sin we experience will reach to the heights and depths of our spirit if we will “walk in the light as He is in the light” (1 John 1:7). The same Spirit that fed the life of Jesus Christ will feed the life of our spirit. It is only when we are protected by God with the miraculous sacredness of the Holy Spirit that our spirit, soul, and body can be preserved in pure uprightness until the coming of Jesus-no longer condemned in God’s sight. - Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest

 

As I write these devotions, I see a thread that runs through them .. It is the same thread that runs through the Bible.  God has called us to a life of faith and holiness.  We cannot achieve that life on our own.  And even when we are born again, even though we are “awakened” to the reality of spiritual Truth, we continue to struggle with living a life of faith and holiness.  We make excuses for our failings, unfortunately often resolving ourselves to some lower level of faith and holiness that God never intended as some sort of self-defined compromise.  When you talk to other Christians, even those that you might consider “more spiritual than most”, you should never think that they are immune to that struggle.  None of us are like Jesus, but all of us will be.  So should we be content with our not being like Him yet?  God forbid.  We are on a spiritual journey.  We must keep our eyes fixed on Him, and press on.  So my friend, let me encourage you to press on in your faith with confidence that 

He who began a good work in your will be faithful to complete it. - 1 Philippians 1:6

 “I know I'm not what I could be ..I'm not who I want to be, but I know I'm not who I used to be.” (Author unknown)   

 

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,  I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. - Philippians 3:13-14

Think about it – Pray about it – Believe it – Walk in it. Let your light shine and give God the glory. 

By Faith Alone By His Grace Alone And For His Glory Alone