The Crux of Obedience

Continually as my husband and I go through life together, we are struck with the centrality of one singular discipline in the Christian faith: the necessity of being able to hear the voice of the Lord.  We find ourselves constantly stopping to seek God for His wisdom in countless situations.  Yet, I find that in the church at large this is not a common action.  I am pleased to say that I do find friends in God wherever I go that do stop and say, “Let us seek the Lord on this matter.”  I am glad of this because I know I can call upon them whenever I need for counsel and wisdom because I know they will not seek to persuade me with their wisdom, but with advice sought from the Lord.  This brings me much joy.

Yet in the church at large, we are so desirous to be self sufficient.  We long to determine rights and wrongs on our own.  (If you are new to this blog, I would suggest reading Created in God’s Image and Hearing God blogs to gain more insight into this.)  I know I say these things a lot, but I feel that it is important to begin to point out specific areas that we are self sufficient in, to challenge us to look at how we are walking with the Lord.  I think we don’t realize many of the times areas that we have been taught to accept ideas or attitudes that are “Christian” and yet so far from Christ.

If there is only one thing that the readers of this blog come away with, I hope it is this: that it is imperative for our walk with God to know how to hear from God and to practice this discipline continually.  We claim to be servants of God.  But how many servants would be considered to be a good servant if they never checked with their master on what he desired them to do.  Obedience in the absence of direction is a non-issue.  We can claim obedience when we have not been told to do anything other than what we already are doing with orders we have made up for ourselves.

So this is the question we all must ask ourselves.  Are you an obedient servant to God or are you merely doing what you have deemed to be good and calling it obedience?

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

The title of this blog is a quote from Harvey Mackay.  It is used the world over by successful businessmen and political leaders.  It is just a fact of life that if you want to accomplish a goal, you need to plan appropriately and make the proper steps to get to your goal.  The bank would not back a business without a business plan.  We would be upset if the school system allowed teachers to come into class each day and do whatever they felt like and had no plan of education.  We would be shocked if the coach of our favorite team was at the game with no planning and coaching his team how to accomplish the win.  We would never consider having a meal where we sent a kid without training and planning into the kitchen to create a meal out of whatever ingredients they found in the fridge and pantry.  We plan parties, vacations, home improvement projects, even picking out our clothes in the morning takes a plan of color coordination and appropriate styling.

So why do we think that we don’t need a plan on how to grow in our relationship with God?  Most Christians I know want to have a better relationship with God, yet they seem to have this bizarre notion that it is going to happen through no planning or work of their own.  They seem to think that people in the bible had an amazing relationship just dumped into their laps.  Are any of the activities in the first paragraph more important that your relationship with God and your life in eternity?  Why do we spend time planning for them and leave the most important thing up to “fate”?

Who are the Christians in your life that you admire their faith walks and wish you could be like?  What is your plan to learn to live like them?  Have you ever asked them how they got to the place that they are?  I bet you not one will tell you that just one day they woke up and knew the bible inside and out and knew how to pray in a manner that moves heaven and earth.  They will tell you their journey of seeking and discovery.

Who are the people that you want your kids to be like?  Are they just going to magically become on fire men and women of God who are fierce contenders for the gospel?  No.  We need a plan on what are the most important things to teach them and what steps or activities can we do to show them the value of these morals or lifestyles?

Even God created the entire world with a plan.  When Adam and Eve sinned, He had a plan to save the world.  God has a plan for you and your life.  Don’t you think that if the Creator of the universe has to plan that it might be something worth considering with your faith?  What’s your plan for you, your family, your church, and the world to draw closer to God?  What other thing is more valuable to plan for?

The God of the Weak and the Foolish

There is a hierarchy in the church that is made by man.  It is a hierarchy that says that certain people have insight and wisdom and others can’t.  It is a hierarchy that says that the older you are, the closer you are to God and the more you hear God.  It is a hierarchy that says that wisdom comes from a select few.  It lifts pastors and elders and Sunday school teachers into a position where they are the only ones with the right answers.  It is a hierarchy that says children can’t have a real valid understanding of God.  They are too young to put into prayer meetings and teach the true bible to.  It says, the children are not valid ministers of the gospel.  They might inadvertently say something that challenges, but we would never put them into a position where they are asked to weekly live out their faith.  We even say there is an “age of accountability” because children can’t understand and be held responsible for their actions.  So we don’t ask our children to walk out their faith.  We teach them from an early age to be an observer, not an engaged and valid participant.

Would the church act differently if they believed that children could understand the gospel?  Would we do Sunday School differently if we believed that children could relate to God in deeper ways than we believe?  Would we think that children’s ministry doesn’t need to start until the kids reach kindergarten if we believed that children had the ability to spiritually connect with their creator?

In the bible, God has five recorded encounters with the weak and the foolish that I can think of off the top of my head.  Elizabeth was pregnant with her son, John, when the pregnant Mary came to see her.  This fetus in the womb, was the first to recognize God in the flesh on the earth.  He responded to His God.  He did not need man’s wisdom to do so.

A donkey had repeated angelic encounters in the book of Numbers.  She responded each time on her own, trying to protect her master.  Finally, as he beat her, God opened her mouth so that she could tell her master what she saw and understood in the spiritual realm that he was ignorant of.

Jeremiah, received a call from the Lord as a young child.  He recognized that adults would not listen to him as a prophet and said, “But I am only a child.”  God rebuked him for doubting God’s ability to overcome that obstacle in his life and told him to merely be obedient and leave the rest up to God.

Daniel and his 3 friends, as teens, were found to be the wisest men in the kingdom.  They had been brought up studying the word from an early age.  Because of this, they were raised above all the other “wise men” of their day, choosing to live in a radical way that the adults thought imprudent.

Jesus, as a 12 year old, astounded the teachers of the law with his understanding of scripture.  You may say he was God, but he was man who at 12 knew scripture enough to discuss it with the bible scholars of the day.  It doesn’t matter how well he understood it.  He knew the word of God.

Let’s stop making excuses for ourselves and our children.  Learn the word, seek to encounter God, and trust that God is truthful when He says, “When you seek Me with all your heart, you will find Me.”  (Jeremiah 29:13)  Jeremiah’s God didn’t have an age limit.

It’s Hard to be a Christian

In a recent bible study discussion I was a part of, I was reminded of something that I have pondered many times in my life.  One of the people there had just returned from a mission trip to Nepal.  She kept saying over and over, “They were so desperate for everything, so they were desperate for God.  We need to be more desperate for God.”

We consider the people in Sierra Leone, Africa and think that it must be hard to be a Christian there with all the poverty and lack.  Few have a bible.  Many churches meet in the open.  People have to travel on miles on foot just to get to a church.  They don’t have tvs or radios to take the message to them easily.  How hard is it for them?  We think those in China have a hard time with living in a Marxist country.  They can be hauled off to jail for attending church.  Having a bible can be illegal.  You never know if you are safe or not.  How hard is it for them?  We think that those who live in Iran or other countries where Islam or another religion is the state religion and others are illegal is hard.  You can be jailed or killed just for becoming a Christian or talking to someone about Christ.  You can be jailed for celebrating Valentine’s Day or another day that is associated with Christianity in any way.  How hard is it for them to be a Christian?

But in Sierra Leone, China and Iran and other countries like them, Christianity is on the rise.  Churches are growing in great numbers despite the problems and risks.  In many of these places people meet not just once a week, but daily.  They are dependent on their fellowship with God and others to get them through each day.  And they are happy about it.  They are like Paul and consider it joy to suffer with Christ.

In America, though, we have freedom.  We can worship whenever we want.  We will not get jailed or killed by the government for sharing our faith.  We have multiple bibles per family.  We have free access to information, yet even those of us who are in the church and declare ourselves excited about Christ rarely are found to meet daily.  We have too much else to do.  We will spend more time during the week watching television, playing on our phones or with other technology than we will seeking God.  We will take more joy in our sports team stats than we will in studying the Word.  We will spend more time talking to our friends and family about how we feel about this or that idea than what God is saying to us and even less possibly listening to God in the first place.

There have been times in my life that I have looked at all I had (even with what I had most Americans would consider to be living in poverty) and I would cry out to God, “It is so much harder to come to you out of wealth!  I have so much!  Make me want you more.”  If you can read this post, don’t think this verse is for someone else.  “Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven.  Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.’”  Consider it.  Are you desperate enough to go through the eye of the needle?

Damned to Hell (Casey Anthony)

The purpose of this blog has been to look at ideas in the Christian church that might be different from what God is possibly trying to tell us.  Because of this, I have not really looked at current events to determine what I would write.  But this week after reading the posts of so many on Facebook who are commenting about the Casey Anthony trial, I felt that this was an appropriate time to bring up something that many of us in the church do on a regular basis.

I have read many posts that are horrified and angered by the not guilty verdict of this trial.  I personally have not followed the trial at all, but know from reading these comments that many felt it was a closed case.  All kinds of arguments can be made about whether or not the U. S. justice system worked or not.  I am not interested in speculating on this.  But I have seen many people console themselves that Casey will stand before God and be judged for what happened.  And I think, why are we taking comfort in that?  Is this how a Christian should be?

Every person on this earth has sinned.  You and I have sinned.  Every person on this earth when they stand in Judgement before God deserves to go to Hell.  You and I deserve the judgement that consigns us to Hell.  Are you excited about the idea that one day You and I will get our day before the Judgement seat of God to receive His Justice?  God tells us that anyone who is excited about that day is very foolish.  Yet why are we happy that another would face God in this day?  Why do we cheer for this soul to be sent to Hell?  Does God look at her and think this?  “The Lord is not slow in fulfilling His promise, in the sense in which some men speak of slowness. But He bears patiently with you, His desire being that no one should perish but that all should come to repentance.”  (2 Peter 3:9)  If God does not desire her demise, why should we?  Why are we so quick to throw someone else to the pit of Hell that we so wish to avoid ourselves?

Is this desire for justice because of the level of the sin that she committed?  After all for the most part, most of us have not murdered.  Let us look at this sin through God’s eyes.  Murder, death, what does it do to a person?  It ends their earthly life and sends them on to their eternal reward.  Kaylee, at age 2, was sent to live with the Lord.  No more heartache or suffering.  No more questions and worries.  This is a tragedy if God is not real and loving, but if not, is death as horrific as we think of it?  Look at this in comparison in God’s eyes to the sin of many parents.  Casey sent Kaylee to God.  She did it in a sinful way, but the life is ended and in God’s capable hands now. We take care of our kids by feeding and clothing them and teaching them to worship material things over God.  We do not concern ourselves with their spiritual growth.  We are more concerned if they know their alphabet than if they know how to pray.  We are more concerned if they have a good job and make good money than if they are in weekly fellowship with the Lord and other Christians.  We are more concerned that they look good to society than if they are humble servants before the Lord.  How many of our children will we have raised to walk away from God and His ways and possibly consign to Hell?  Which is the greater sin?

The Image of God in Marriage II

We have looked at what a whole image of God in marriage looks like, now let us use this understanding to understand why there are so many reasons God wants us to keep marriage pure.  Within the church we have so many theories or ideas about marriage and what is ok and what is not.  But if we look at marriage as merely a construct in which to build a family and make sex safe, then of course, we would not understand the limitations that have been placed on it by God.  So remember during this entry that the purpose of marriage is to create and maintain the Image of God in a way that will reveal God’s love to the world.

Marriage demonstrates that God has taken the Church to be His Bride.  He is faithful to her and honors the covenant that He has made with her.  He is not a false husband.  He is planning to return to take His Bride to His house where there are many rooms.  He will provide for her all she needs there along with eternal life with Him.  This is the image that marriage represents as we in unity demonstrate His Image.

God is very strong in repeating the concept that a man and woman are to unify in marriage and remain in that state until death parts them.  They are not to blaspheme the Image or distort it by inviting another into unity through fornication or adultery.  Unifying with a person outside of marriage is saying that God unifies with those who do not make covenant with Him and takes His covenant’s lightly.  God is true to His love and commitment to us.  He does not seek pleasure outside of the true body.  Divorce is covenant breaking unless the in the relationship has already broken covenant and has abandoned the tie.  God is not a god who breaks covenant.  He is true to His Word and will pursue His Bride continually.  He does not give up because of a rocky relationship.  Whether or not we waiver, He will remain strong. We, in the church, need to do much more to help our membership to be true examples of this unwavering covenant relationship instead of joining in the world’s false example of unity.

God does not unify with Himself in marriage.  The true Image of God is Male and Female; it cannot be full if it does not contain both parts. Homosexuality is a subject that many try to reason out and explain why it is okay within the kingdom.  If we see that marriage brings together the two parts of Adam into one again, we see that homosexuality can never do that.  If we understand that marriage demonstrates God’s covenant with the church, we understand that God can’t marry God nor the church marry the church and demonstrate this covenant.  Thus all marriage outside of the man and woman unification cannot create God’s Image or demonstrate His covenant.  The world can condone the homosexual marriage, but if God is true, these are merely man’s distorted twists on a state that will never gain God’s blessing as He can’t bless what is false.  I do want to say that homosexuality is an image breaker just as any other sin is.  Lying does the same thing.  It says that God is false.  So I do not condemn homosexuals any more than I condemn any other sinner, but the relations that they long to be blessed never can be either.

Consider is there anyway that you are being an image breaker in a relationship inside or outside of marriage.  Does marriage have a higher purpose that you previously thought?

The Image of God in Marriage

So we have learned about two words in Genesis that can affect a lot of things:  Tselem (Image) and Aleph/Tav (The Alpha and Omega).  I want to take these two words and use them to challenge our ideas about marriage and family units.  I believe that this is not only important for those who are already married, but possibly even more important for those who are still looking to get married.

When people in at least American society today look at getting married, they think about romance.  They think of someone who will make them feel special and important and loved.  As people enter into marriage and live as a couple, they begin to view a good marriage as stability and support and someone who is helpful.  But I believe that both of these views are very skewed.  This is looking at a good marriage as something that is only self serving for the individuals in it.  Now, it would be nice if a marriage included all of these ideas in at as well, but these should be far from the primary focus of these close, binding relationships.

We have seen that God created us to be His Image and that He allowed this Image to be broken into two to be brought back into unity thru marriage.  So I believe that the focus of marriage should be finding someone who you can unify with as the Image of God.  The questions that need to be asked is how will/is my (future) spouse going to help/helping me be a better ambassador/idol of God?  What do they do that shows that we help each other hear God’s commands in a clearer way and encourages each other towards more obedience in our daily lives?  Does our time together demonstrate that we both look to God first and thru our relationship with God interact with each other?

Those of you who are married, take these questions into consideration.  I can guarantee that if both of you are looking to better your own relationship with God first and then looking to see where you can encourage your spouse in their faith that a lot of the other issues in your relationship will begin to fall in line.  The reason for this is that it no longer becomes what I want verses what you want, but what God wants verses what we want.  If you both learn to desire what God wants most than the only question in the marriage is what is it that God wants and then being obedient to it.  If when you feel that an argument is about to ensue or has gotten into full swing and you both take time out to pray and seek God’s will in the matter with a whole and earnest heart, how much better and quicker will the resolution of that matter be?

Those who are not married, it grieves me how often I must ask when I get news of someone dating, “Are they a Christian?”  If you are serious about being the Image of God, this will not be a matter to question or consider.  How can someone who is not fully devoted to God in the same way that you are ever help you complete the Image of God?  They are not devoted to hearing and obeying God.  This is why God says don’t be unequally yoked.  And for those who would say, “It’s only dating.  I may win them to Christ.”  Why are you playing with uniting the Image of God with unbelief?  Is that godly?  Friends can win people to Christ.  Dating never needs to get involved in that.

I would like to call the church to reconsider their ideas on the purpose of marriage.  Please this week consider how your ideas on marriage might change with the idea that spouses are a single Image of God.