What is God asking of you?

Read James 2:14-26, Genesis 22, and Joshua 2…Go ahead…read them.   

 

Abraham was a man God wanted to use, but what Abraham wanted more than God, more than his wife, and more than anything else, was a son.  So Abraham sleeps with his maid servant to conceive a child.  Yet despite his disobedience, God still shows his grace to him by promising Abraham a son by his wife…not his servant.  Through it all, Abraham sees the beauty of God, and begins to desire God more than anything else, even the son he so desperately wanted.  His love for God is proven in the Genesis 22 account.  Abraham, despite all his shortcomings and failures chose the pleasures of God over the pleasures of this world.  Abraham chose obedience!

 

Rehab was a prostitute.  Someone our Christian culture would look down upon.  But God did not look down on her, rather chose to reveal himself to her and use her.  Rehab chose obedience to God over the love of the world and herself.  She risked her life to house 2 Israelite spies, yet did it knowing that it was exactly what God was calling her to do.  Rehab chose obedience!   

 

God changed the lives of this adulterer (Abraham) and prostitute (Rehab) so much that they are mentioned twice in the New Testament as an example of true faith (James 2 and Hebrews 11).  So the question for you today is: where is God calling you to be obedient?  Don’t think God won’t use you in great ways because of what you have or haven’t done…he used Abraham and Rehab!  In James 2:14-26 we are told that true faith actually does something…it proves itself by how we live and act.  So if you really believe what you say you believe, then God must be calling you to be obedient in certain areas.  So what are they?         

Our Mission

Our mission is to make disciples and teach them to follow Jesus.  Is this your mission?  How do you plan to accomplish this mission? 

 

Physical vs Spiritual Birth

As I pull myself together after weeks of sleep deprivation I realize I have neglected the prayer blog.  As I think about prayer and as I think about new life, and startling thought has entered my mind.

 

The amount of excitement over a new life is indescribable: people visit from all over, gifts flood into our house, cards fill up our mail box, phone calls are made, pictures are requested...and it keeps going from there.  Before the baby is here, people can hardly stand it they are so excited for his arrival, and once born the excitement level is through the roof! 

 

Bringing a new life into this world is an incredible thing.  Something that has often brought tears to my eyes.  But I feel that many of us have lost perspective.  We get more excited about a new physical life than a new spiritual one.  Jesus tells Nicodemus (John 3): "that which is born of flesh is flesh and that which is born of Spirit is spirit."  In other words, being born physically is being born into sin, yet being born spiritually is being born into eternal life.  In saying this I am not trying to lessen the excitement of physical birth, rather I am trying to heighten the excitement of spiritual birth. 

 

Our excitement level for new disciples should exceed that of physical birth.  For when someone accepts Christ they are passing from death to life.  We are talking about eternity here!  I believe that a major reason we don't evangelize and share our faith is that we don't find making disciplines all that exciting.  So today, think about the idea that a sinful man can be reconciled to a Holy God.  Think about what that took!  Elevate spiritual birth in your mind to the place it should be.  And maybe if we did that, the excitement we have towards evangelism would be similar to the excitement of a pregnant mom.  And maybe the celebration we have towards a new believer might be similar to the excitement of a baby being born.  And taking this analogy further, maybe the way we nurture and raise up new believers could be done with the same care and concern that parents and grandparents do for the new life that has been brought into the world.

 

 

 

                

The World

Sometimes we get so focused on our specific mission that we forget God's greater mission: To make disciples of ALL nations. So take a few minutes to pray for that mission. Pray that God would call people to Himself from all around the world. Also, pray that the Bible would be spread to new areas and new languages. Currently there are 2300 languages that don't have any part of the Bible in their own language.

Grace

"Grace will teach you that you are much less than you thought, while it assures you that you can be far more than you ever imagined." -Paul Tripp

 

Dwell on this truth.  Let the beauty of grace soak into your being and let it change you.  We cannot be who God wants us to be until we realize how desperate and needy we truly are.  It is then we can find strength and courage to live for Him, but only by his strength and power.      

First Allegiance

"My first allegiance is not to a flag, a country, or a man,
My first allegiance is not to democracy or blood, 
It's to a king & a kingdom" - Derek Webb

 

Is this true of us?  Is your first and primary pursuit God and His purposes?  If your allegiance was as it should be...how would this change things?      

Rescue

 

"We need more than love and encouragement, information and insight.  We need rescue.  Anything less will not address what is really wrong with us."  -Paul Tripp

 

We have to understand that what people truly need is rescue.  People need God to save them from their sinful state to reconcile them back to Himself through Christ.  This helps bring things in proper perspective.  At the end of the day, the best thing we can do for others is to beg God to rescue.  Yes, it will help as we love and encourage people.  Yes, it will help as we teach about who Jesus is and what the gospel is.  But at the end of the day God must do His saving work...so pray that He would!