Inclined To Serve God
“And Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the Lord: for he is an holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins.” Joshua 24:19
Joshua wasn’t saying that no matter what they did, they could not serve God. But based on what they were minded for, it wasn’t going to happen.
When people are minded to allow things and ways that differ with God’s Word, they are not minded unto serving God.
Joshua is not alone as a minister, in recognizing variance with the Word of God in the congregation. Every preacher has sadly seen those who don’t take root in really following God’s ways altogether, even though they attend church. The outcome is predictable.
Not all who start with the truth, stay with the truth: “Ye did run well: who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?” Galatians 5:7 Opposition and arguments against God’s ways exist everywhere and are of the very strong persuasion of worldly wisdom. The Devil wrestled the truth of God’s Word from Eve’s mind and substituted a favorable attitude in her thinking for that which was contrary to God’s Word. From that point on, it was no longer a matter of how good a person she was, or whose spouse she was. It was all about the result of departing from the truth of God’s Word. What really eliminated any possible solution, was Adam’s support for Eve, in following her in what she had done.
What is essential to serve God:
Joshua 24:23 “…incline your heart unto the Lord God of Israel”
Psalm 78:1 “Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.”
Psalm 119:36,112 “Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness. I have inclined mine heart to perform thy statutes always, even unto the end.”
The Sinner’s Quest
“And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? And why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door.” Genesis 4:6-7
Cain’s problem with God was that he wanted to be accepted as he was, by making an offering that was his own pride and joy. And when God respected not, and accepted not his offering, he was wroth and took his anger out on Abel, whom God had accepted.
“Accept me as I am”, has always been the sinner’s demand. This is the pride and rebellion of sin’s passion. It is the power of sin’s refusal to submit to God. It is Satan’s defiance of God’s authority, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.” John 8:44.
Many will accept the invite to be a soul winner’s convert, if the terms of the agreement are that the sinner can be accepted as he is, with his preferred way of life being made a non-issue. He will accept positions of service in the church, providing they are an outlet for him to do that which makes him feel good about himself as he is. It is a sinner’s delight to be honored as a saint, promised heaven, all the while being overlooked as he does as he pleases.
Many church members who no longer endure sound doctrine and have tired of the self denial involved to live according to God’s commandments, are drawn to these neutral zones, where, due to their knowledge and experience, they can step into the top ranks of the church’s positions, while suffering no disqualification for their compromised way of living. So it becomes a trade off: “Give me a church that accepts me as I am, and makes me feel good about myself, and I will support that church.” Plus, other church members whose lives have run afoul with God’s will and way in those churches that reprove the transgression of God’s laws as being sin, can pick up and run to these neutral zones, to find a warm reception in religious asylum.
So the move is on, the momentum strong, and the response is positive to the religious organizations that have revolutionized their religious positions to afford the sinner the honor of saying “Lord, Lord,” while relieving him of the responsibility of living according to the will of God, by having made it a non-issue. While men rejoice in having made this quest, God still declares: “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” Matthew 7:21
God’s grace doesn’t make sin a non-issue. Rather, “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.” Titus 2:11-12
SHARINGReserving Our Hearts For The Lord
“Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide: keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom.” Micah 7:5
This carries several admonitions, among which are:
–Fleshly ties have a way of influencing us to the extent of not even thinking objectively, but rather just getting on board with the thinking of those we care about. Thus the constraints of relationships may very well draw one into the erroneous opinions of those they have strong feelings for.
–Putting too much confidence in the will and way of others, will have the same results as putting too much confidence in one’s own will and way: “O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.” Jeremiah 10:23
“In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord.” (Isaiah 6:1) Sometimes it involves the complete removal of someone or something else from the picture, before one’s mind becomes centered wholly on the Lord’s will and way.
“Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the Word of God: whose faith follow.” (Hebrews 13:7) A God called and Spirit led minister has as his goal, to have no other agenda than proclaiming God’s Word for the people’s understanding. Those who hear, accept and believe God’s Word, are able to discern his faith in following God’s Word, to not just be his personal opinion. It is a serious spiritual error to dismiss the preaching of God’s Word as being nothing more than the preacher’s personal opinion.
We have to have a place in our heart where we meet with God alone, independent of all other influences and persuasions, where we can examine ourselves, our issues of life, our thinking process, our judgments, in light of the wisdom and understanding of God’s Word only, by the aid of the Holy Spirit, in order to prove what is that good, acceptable and perfect will of God.
“Peter said unto him, Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee, Likewise also said all the disciples.” (Matthew 26:35) As the disciples followed Peter’s lead, they dulled their ears to hear Christ’s admonition: “Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matthew 26:41) Thus they were no more prepared for what they would face than Peter was: “Then all the disciples forsook him and fled.” (Matthew 26:56) Only by wholly following the Lord, will we have the needed deliverance.
SHARINGFalse Notions As To The Work Of The Church
By Roy Mason
(Originally published in 1965.)
Many people look upon a church as just another welfare agency. A man who didn’t attend church, and had paid no attention to churches through the years, stopped by the home of the caretaker of our church. He was looking for financial aid, and in course of conversation he said to the caretaker, “You know it’s the business of a church to look out for people in my shape.” He was a child of the Devil, and it was his opinion that the children of God were obligated to take care of the needs of the children of the Devil. The truth is, it is not the obligation of a church to help the children of the Devil. Speaking to Christians, Paul says (Galatians 6:10): “As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.” He means that as opportunity presents itself, do good to all we come in contact with, but he says that we have a special duty toward Christians–“the household of faith.” Our church has many times helped unsaved people, but that is not our particular duty. That duty is to render aid to those who are God’s people.
What Does The Church Owe The World?
It owes it the gospel (see Romans 1:14). Each church owes it to the world to give it the gospel–which is the good news of salvation and eternal life. Other things that a church can engage in are trivial in comparison with the giving of the gospel. The good news of eternal life is the most revolutionary news that people can ever hear. It turns life from failure to success. It turns death into victory. It has the power to change lives in a way that nothing else can or does. So often churches try to take over functions that can better be performed by other agencies, while neglecting to magnify the one great mission given of God. We Christians have the Word of eternal life. We can tell people how to live forever. No agency of this world has anything like that. Every church ought to lay itself out full length in spreading the news of eternal life just as far out into the darkness of the world as possible.
SHARINGStruggles In Our Lives
A man found a cocoon of an emperor moth. He took it home so that he could watch the moth come out of the cocoon. On the day a small opening appeared, he sat and watched the moth for several hours as the moth struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no farther. It just seemed to be stuck. Then the man, in his kindness, decided to help the moth, so he took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The moth then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The man continued to watch the moth because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be ale to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened! In fact, the little moth spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly.
What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand, was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the moth to get through the tiny opening, were God’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the moth into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon. Freedom and flight would only come after struggle. By depriving the moth of a struggle, he deprived the moth of health.
Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If God allowed us to go through our life without any obstacles, He would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. How true is this! How many times have we wanted to take the quick way out of struggles and difficulties, to take scissors and snip off the remaining bits in an attempt to be free? We need to remember that our loving Father will never give us more than we can bear, and through our trials and struggles, we are strengthened as gold is refined in the fire.
“May we never let the things we can’t have, or don’t have, or shouldn’t have, spoil our enjoyment of the things we do have and can have.” Don’t focus on the things you DON’T have, enjoy each moment of every day God has given you. “This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118:24 So let’s take today, even with its struggles, and make it a good day…our loving Father has given this day to me to use as best I can. The struggles of life won’t go away, but remember that God is allowing us to go through it for a reason.
SHARING
