Monday, April 4, 2016

How To Avoid Trouble In Your New Life - You Won't It's Unavoidable

My Utmost For His Highest
 
Indeed the hour is coming…that you will be scattered… —John 16:32
 
“Their faith was real, but it was disordered and unfocused, and was not at work in the important realities of life. The disciples were scattered to their own concerns and they had interests apart from Jesus Christ. After we have the perfect relationship with God, through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, our faith must be exercised in the realities of everyday life. Until we have been through that experience, our faith is sustained only by feelings and by blessings. But once we get there, no matter where God may place us or what inner emptiness we experience, we can praise God that all is well. That is what is meant by faith being exercised in the realities of life.[…] Are we prepared to let God do what He wants with us? Are we prepared to be separated from the outward, evident blessings of God? Until Jesus Christ is truly our Lord, we each have goals of our own which we serve. […] And God is never in a hurry. If we are willing to wait, we will see God pointing out that we have been interested only in His blessings, instead of in God Himself.”  CHAMBERS
 
Jesus had been teaching the disciples for 3 years. Much like students in a classroom.  They learn the material but have not been on their own to apply what they have learned.  Sitting in a chair in a classroom and facing the realities of life are two very different things.  Many young people go to college thinking that when they graduate, they are going to make a lot of money.  That life will be good.  That actually happens for very few.  Many Christians see being a Christian as the pathway to personal blessing .. materially, relationally, physically … that too is not realistic.  Like the disciples, we have all discovered that this Christian life does not spare us from hardship.  We have been blessed, but it is a mistake to think that God’s blessings mean that we will avoid personal hardship. Our blessings are spiritual. (Ephesians 1:3-4) “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,  just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love”  I realize that that is contrary to mainstream Christian thinking … How many times have I said “God blessed me” when something good happened. Does that mean when something bad happens?  Does it mean that God is mad at me and has withheld His blessing?  I don’t think so.  Try teaching a health and wealth theology to someone in a third world country who is going to face the same hardships, perhaps the rest of their lives.  Does that mean that God is mad at them?
 
Let’s separate the Apostles from the disciples … many of the disciples fell away, the closer Jesus got to the cross.  The Apostles were all eventually martyred.  What kind of blessing or reward for following Jesus is that?  Jesus said we will have to endure difficulty.  (John 16:33)  “These things I have spoken unto you that you might have peace, in the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” Peter said not to be surprised or dismayed. God has given us a supernatural capacity to endure … faith.   (1 Peter 4:12-13) “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you;  but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings…” God has given us the capacity to endure … and the understanding that this world is not our home.  I read something on Facebook, (and if it’s on Facebook, you know it’s got to be true!) about Steve Jobs.  At the end of his life, when he realized that all of his success, fame, and fortune would not buy him another minute of life … he saw the truth.  I didn’t say he was born again .. but he saw what was truly important in life.  Friend … don’t spend your life seeking the comforts of this world at the expense of the blessings that God has for you.  You can’t love both God and the world.  (Matthew 6:24) ““You can’t worship two gods at once. Loving one god, you’ll end up hating the other. Adoration of one feeds contempt for the other. You can’t worship God and Money both.”  Does God answer prayer? Yes. But god also cause the sun to shine and the rain to fall on the just and the unjust. (Matthew 5:45) Pastor Rick Warren, in The Purpose Driven Life, wrote “God is more interested in your character than your comfort.”  Think about that. What are you most interested in?  ELGIN
 
Charley Elgin

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