Saturday, July 16, 2016

The Measure Of God's Adequacy - Jesus' Sacrifice - Not Our Welfare

My Utmost For His Highest
 
…how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! —Matthew 7:11
 
“Fill your mind with the thought that God is there. And once your mind is truly filled with that thought, when you experience difficulties it will be as easy as breathing for you to remember, “My heavenly Father knows all about this!” This will be no effort at all, but will be a natural thing for you when difficulties and uncertainties arise. Before you formed this concept of divine control so powerfully in your mind, you used to go from person to person seeking help, but now you go to God about it. Jesus is laying down the rules of conduct for those people who have His Spirit, and it works on the following principle: God is my Father, He loves me, and I will never think of anything that He will forget, so why should I worry?[…] At times God will appear like an unkind friend, but He is not; He will appear like an unnatural father, but He is not; He will appear like an unjust judge, but He is not. […] you can rest in perfect confidence in Him.”  CHAMBERS
 
God sent His Son to substitute His life for ours.  Jesus suffered.  But for most Christians I think that their minds go immediately to what happened to Jesus before He went to the cross and while He was on the cross.  In fact, we make movies about it and are, I think, preoccupied with it.  I am not denying it happened, it’s in the Bible.  But what I am saying is that is not the punishment that the Christ came to endure.  It was the penalty of sin and death.  On the day of our second birth there is a spiritual transaction that takes place, but it has to do with eternal things, not worldly things. So many of us focus  nearly all of our attention on the worldly things and not the eternal things.  We measure God’s adequacy in terms of how much He helps us out of jams .. difficulties in the natural .. with little regard for the super-natural.  I would suggest that if we would devote ourselves to pursuit of the spiritual, the issues we face in the natural would not be nearly so dominant in our lives.
 
The other day in our Sunday School class, the teacher was taking prayer requests.  Someone said something about traveling mercies.  That simple, benign request seems so reasonable. But, I had to go and make a big deal out of it.  [Now I am remembered for it :o(] I said, “If we believe that God is sovereign, why would we pray that nothing bad happens to us as we travel?  Shouldn’t we pray for everyone else who is also traveling?  Are we asking that God intervenes in the event that some unexpected event occurs, that not even He knew was going to happen?” Some disagreed with me, some thought I was a bit fanatic, some (I think those who pray for their cat) were disturbed by it.  I just wanted them to consider the sovereignty of God.  I suggested that what might be a better prayer is “God give me the faith and boldness by your Spirit to enter in to spiritual opportunities that I encounter as I travel.” Do you see the difference?  One is self-centered, and the other is God-entered.  CHARLEY
 
My Will – DC Talk
 
“I'm setting the stage for, the things I love.  And I'm now the man I, once couldn't be.
Nothing on Earth could, now ever move me.  I now have the will and, the strength a man needs.
 
It's my will, and I'm not moving.  'Cause if it's your will, nothing can shake me.
It's my will, to bow and praise you  I now have the will, to praise my God
 
Complexity haunts me, for I am two men.  Entrenched in a battle, that I'll never win.
My discipline fails me, my knowledge it fools me.  But you are my shelter, the strength that I need.
 
I'm learning to give up, the rights to myself.  The bits and the pieces, I've gathered as wealth.
And nothing compares to, the joy that you bring me.  The peace that you've shown me, is the strength that I need.”

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