What is really important anyway?

For the last several years I have watched our country disintegrate over the now past Presidential election.  During this time I have thought long and hard about how important this should be for those of us who are truly in Christ.  How much of ourselves should we be putting into these political processes?  This morning on while sitting in traffic, I think it came to me.  I now believe I have the answer. 

As Christians we first have to figure out what is important.  I say we must figure it out, because it is already there for us to read in Scripture.  Many would try to "interpret" and make a "decision" about this, but likely they will fall on the wrong side of the issue.  I want to point out two passages in Scripture and give an idea what I think we should be doing. 

1)  In Matthew 22, Christ Jesus tells us "Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's".  What this means is that we are to exercise our civic duties until it interferes with our duty to God.  Yesterday, we all were able to exercise our civic duty and vote for our next human leader.  This is scriptural that we do this.  It is our duty to participate in as much as we can up to the point that it interferes.  Here is where we reach the problem.

2)  In 1 Corinthians 1, Paul tells us that we are to "preach Christ crucified."  When you take this in context with Matthew 28, the Great Commission, you see we are to go and make disciples by preaching Christ alone. 

Today as I came to work and sat in the endless traffic of the Claiborne fly-over ramp, I realized that we have failed God by immersing ourselves in electioneering and politicking.  I recall recently a conversation with someone who told me that they never had opportunites to talk about their faith at work.  This morning I meditated on that thought and realized that this same person would likely never have a problem to talk politics to the same folks all day about politics.  How can we square this with a clear mandate from Christ to give to God what is His, and to preach Christ?  The answer:  we can't. 

The reason that we are having problems in our world today is because of sin.  The only cure for sin is Christ.  If we stop spending all of our time preaching politics and start preaching Christ crucified, then we will be injecting the cure for sin into the world, and the only thing this can do is help make it better.  It will Glorify God, offer opportunities to us to see Him work, and grow His kingdom here until that day when Christ comes for us. 

Today, stop wasting your time trying to change this world and our country.  Stop pushing your political agenda around.  Stop wasting your opportunities to witness Christ's work in your life.  Instead, turn those opportunities into God honoring, Christ preaching sessions where His most precious name is shouted above all names.  Only this way wil knees bow and tongues confess Him and sould be saved. 

What are you going to do with this?  Are you going to preach Christ today?  I challenge you to speak to one person today and invite them to know Christ.  If they are a believer already, then edify them and strengthen them to the task at hand.  I challenge you to stop wasting your time in the world and help people come out of it and into God's hand. 

Amen!

I have thought a lot in the last few days about something that was posted on Facebook.  I know I should not give too much time to Facebook, but this really made me think.  The post was in reference to a cross that an activist atheist group is trying to remove.

Romans 1:18 comes to mind when I ponder on these people.  "For the wrath of god is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth."

This activist group is fighting so hard against a symbol of our salvation.  The truth is plain to them that god exists.  If it were not so then they would not have to fight so hard to remove any symbol of Him.  The idea of suppressing something requires action on the part of those that suppress.  God makes the truth plain to us so that it will spring to view and the unrighteous must hold this truth down in order to "not believe" in it or in God the creator.

Where does this leave the activist atheist group?  Without an excuse when judged.  They fight every day to remove any sign that God is real and when one truth is suppressed another becomes plain.

What does this all mean for the Christian?  Here is where I think we may over react.  We tend to get up in arms over these displays of the atheist groups and want to fight their inevitable suppression of the truth.  We tend to forget that it still remains true whether this man made sign of the truth exists or not.  In this specific situation, the man-made cross that was erected as a memorial has no bearing on Christ's sacrifice for our sin (and theirs if they believe in Him).

We have very few commands in scripture that we are to follow.  Love our neighbors as ourselves and we are to go and make disciples.  We should let God retain the right to righteous indignation and just do our job of going and making disciples of these atheists so they will start believing the truth and stop suppressing it.  There is nothing wrong with being upset with these groups, but our energy would be better placed in spreading our gospel.

What am I going to do?  I'm going to follow the example of an old friend tonight.  After dinner in a restaurant we talked of fulfilling the Great Commission.  Without another word he got up from the table and invited a family at the table next to us to his church on Sunday.  We are not ashamed to blast away at non-believers for suppressing the truth, but we seem to be ashamed to share that truth with them instead.  I plan to fix this in my own life.  What will you do?

Grace and Peace to God's children, co-heir's with Christ, or to the non-believer that stumbled accross my post by "accident",

This is another post that I had to copy.  This was really good information to have today as the Holy Spirit is working on me.  Pay particular attention to where the commentator calls attention to the fact that when we serve the Lord it is the Spirit that is working and not our own "natural capabilities".  also that ever task that we complete for the service of the Lord is "accomplished by His grace".  This ties to my last post because we do not do enough.  We have no excuse because the answers are there and now we see that all we really have to do is just move out of the Spirit's way and much can be accomplished through us by His power. 

Subject: Blue Letter Bible: Day By Day By Grace

Day By Day By Grace

Bob Hoekstra

March 12, 2012

Reflecting on the Holy Spirit and Grace

"And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of

Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication." (Zechariah 12:10)

Let's take a reflective look at our meditations on the Holy Spirit as a

reminder that we are still studying about the grace of God. In

considering how to live by the fullness of the Spirit, we have examined

how to live more fully by the grace of God.

In Zechariah 4:6, we observed the connection between living by the

Spirit and living by the grace of God: "Not by might nor by power, but

by My Spirit." Serving the Lord is accomplished by the work of the

Spirit in and through our lives, not by natural capabilities. The next

verse restates this truth in terms of God's grace. "And he shall bring

forth the capstone with shouts of 'Grace, grace to it'!" Every

completed task in the service of God is accomplished by His grace

(God's undeserved resources), not by our ingenuity or merit.

We also saw how the early church experienced this relationship between

the Spirit and grace. "They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and

they spoke the word of God with boldness...And with great power the

apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great

grace was upon them all" (Acts 4:31, 33). The boldness they experienced

through the Holy Spirit is described as a result of great grace at work

upon them.

Jesus came to establish a new covenant. "This cup is the new covenant

in My blood" (Luke 22:20). This covenant was characterized by grace, in

contrast to the old covenant that Moses set in place. "For the law was

given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ"

(John 1:17). This new covenant of grace is also a covenant of the

Spirit. "Our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as

ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for

the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life" (2 Corinthians 3:5-6).

When the Lord Jesus returns and Israel humbly bows to Him as their

Messiah, this wondrous response will be the result of "the Spirit of

grace" being poured out upon them. This glorious title, identifying

grace with the Holy Spirit, beautifully sums up the grand truth that

living by grace and walking in the Spirit are two perspectives on the

same precious reality.

O God of all Grace, I long to live by Your grace day by day. Lord, I

thank You that grace is not merely some principle that I must apply,

but rather a resource You must impart. Would You therefore pour out

upon me in fullness the Spirit of grace?

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You know what to do and you know where to find the answers.

Grace and Peace to you all,

I won't take credit for any of this.  Someone I work with sent it out via email and it came from a daily devotion.  I left the subject line to give as much credit as possible.  My comments will be below. 

Subject: FW: "Guaranteed Guidance" -- Harvest Daily Devotion for 3/12/2012

       MONDAY, MARCH 12, 2012

Guaranteed Guidance

       Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.      

     

—James 4:17 <http://bible.us/Jas4.17.NKJV>

Sometimes we cry out to God, "Lord, show me Your will—just speak to me right now," when all the while, we are holding the answer in our hands. God's will is revealed in the pages of Scripture.

It would be like waiting for a letter containing directions that tell you what you should do, and when the letter finally arrives, you hold it in your hand, never open it, and then wonder why you could not get the information you needed.

In the same way, God has revealed His plan and His purpose, but we must study the Scripture to know what it is.

David prayed, "Teach me to do Your will" (Psalm 143:10). Notice that he did not say, "Teach me to understand your will." Rather, he said, "Teach me to do Your will." This carries the assumption that it is not a matter of information, but obedience. Sometimes I think the problem is not that we don't know the will of God; it is that we don't like the will of God.

I have a granddaughter who engages in selective hearing. She hears me when I say something she likes, such as, "Let's watch a cartoon." But then when I tell her to do something that she doesn't want to do, all of the sudden it is as though I never said it.

We are that way with God sometimes. It is not that we don't know His will. It is that we don't like His will. But James 4:17 tells us, "To him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin."

Do you know something to be the will of God for your life that you are not doing? Obedience to revealed truth guarantees guidance in matters unrevealed.

My Comments:  This hit me square in the heart like a sharp knife.  We can be such hypocrites because we scold our children for doing the same things to us, that we do to God.  We ask for answers but we have them in our Bibles.  We want to be closer to Christ but we fail to pray and seek that relationship. 

Today I have been under heavy conviction by the Holy Spirit for my actions, and the answer came to me on my run:  I am not doing enough.  When I sat back at my desk this was waiting in my inbox.  We are all without excuse.  God thought of everything well before he even created us and left us without excuse.  Whether it is the un-believer that is "doesn't believe" or it is the Christian that "doesn't know what to do" we cannot claim ignorance.  Creation testifies to it and scripture proclaims it. 

The only thing left to ask is, "What are you going to do about it?"

Just some thoughts I believe God is sharing with me today.

We live in a world that is ravaged by sin.  The level of depravity displayed by humans today is sinking rapidly by the minute and the world is going with it.  Christians preach how we have to "change the world".  I think this is the wrong stance to take, and the wrong battle to fight. 

I was thinking today that God isn't trying to change our world.    He allowed Satan to come in and currupt it through sin in us.  The world is a result of sin's presence and degredation of a once perfect creation.  Many cannot grasp how a perfect God created a perfect world and a perfect people only to allow a sinful force to corrupt it.  The answer is becoming more and more obvious that it was to show His power and glory.  I just cannot get on board the idea that He has any intent to change this world from its present course. 

What does this mean for Christians who desire to change the world?  If we are not to change the world then what are we to do?  One of the more well known passages in Scripture is Matthew 28:18-20.  Jesus approached and said to them "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  So go and make disciples of all nations.  Baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Teach them to observe all that I have commanded you.   An always remember that I am with you to the end of the age." (paraphrased).  What does this mean?  How does it fit into my theory above?  Nowhere in this commission does He say that we are to change the world.  We are to change the people and save them.  Now before you argue, I realize that there is nothing that a mere human can do to save anyone.  My larger point is that we are to be the tool that God uses to fix His people by going out and making disciples of the nations.  All nations.  We are not doing anything for the world, just the people.

God sent His son, Jesus Christ to save us from this world.  I read Matthew again in chapter none v17 and realize that this world is the old wineskins and believers are the new wine.  I don't want to over spiritualize this passage, but the comparison seems obvious.  Our true salvation comes at the end of our life on this world and we will be taken from it.  We won't be back until it is a new world.  He won't put new wine in an old wineskin.

Satan took over the world in the garden and has corrupted it.  While God could change it and make it fresh, this doesn't show His true power.  I think He always planned to just let it die and then let us live.  To truly make His power and glory known He must show that He has the power over Satan and death to destroy them and make it new.  He does this with our lives, and He will do this with the world.  What we see in the world today will pass away and die. 

This begs the question, then, are you planning to just stay in the world and die wth it?  Or will you open your heart to accept His grace and be saved from it.  The choice is simple.  Do you choose real life or real death.  Will you die with the world, or live free with Christ?

Love?

Love is the hinge pin that makes the gospel work.  Had God not loved us enough, he would not have sent his son.  Had Jesus not loved us enough, he would not have died. 

So what do they ask of us?  Jesus commanded us in John 15;12 that we are to love others as he loved us.  Ponder that a moment.  In Matthew he commanded that we love our neighbor as ourself.  Personally I like the passage in John better.  This is not to say that one part of the Bible is better than another.  I think I just relate to it better.  In Matthew we are loving as much as we love ourselves, but in John that love is to surpass it to a love that is equal to what Jesus had for us.  Only he loved enough to give up his life for us. 

This means that we are to love our neighbors so much that we would be willing to sacrifice ourself for them. 

How can you sacrifice today for another person? 

Have you ever considered...

...what it feels like to die of starvation? To not be able to eat or drink anything? This seems like a really horrifying way to end life as we know it. Now imagine that at the end of this that you can't be sure of the reward.

Near Atlanta my Aunt lays dying just like this. She also can't speak or focus on anything. One thing she does have, though is Life in Christ.

I lay here thinking about her, and then I consider that really we are all like this in our lives. Whether we will admit it or not we spend our lives dying. From the moment we are born we start to die. Some sooner than others.

What makes the difference is that with Christ you can't really die, because in death we gain an inheritance of true life. Here in the world it seems like we are meant to suffer and die so that we can inherit eternal life with the Father.

So to my family, let us not be too saddened by her soon passing, but realize that she is really passing into true life and that we can all see her again. Thank God today that you have that assurance, and if you don't fall now to your knees and ask for it. He will save you and you will come to know true life.