What happens when our faith is at risk? Have you ever contemplated the effect that we have on those around us when we slip into negative behavior or sin? How about the impact we have on our family, church, or Heaven? Even though our Christian walk seems totally personal... it isn't. Our faith has a ripple effect that touches all those around us, and beyond.
I am sitting in my prayer chair sipping on a cup of Dark English Breakfast Tea in the pre-dawn grey; having prayed, read my morning devotional and scripture. The house is still, as am I, and the spirit is swirling about me with a sweet peacefulness. This is the time of day that I can hear the Lord without distraction. I just read Oswald Chambers as he discussed a verse regarding darkness, on which I remained obtuse for many years. Does God inhabit the night? Is there something special about the darkness when it comes to our relationship with God? We often fear the night... should we?
This morning I want to invite you to join me in contemplating how well we hear the Lord's voice. He speaks to us often, but do we hear everything He says to us; and do we always recognize His voice? I recall Samuel being awakened by God calling his name in the night. Samuel, who from birth was Nazarite (having taken the Nazarite vow (Numbers 6:1-21)), and thus had consecrated himself to God. He would one day become a great prophet... but even he didn't always recognize the voice he was hearing. It wasn't until Eli told him how to respond that he said these words to God... “Speak; for thy servant heareth.”
Are we afraid to speak directly to God? Do we feel safer going to a deacon or our pastor when we have issues in our lives? If you look inward and find that this is true of yourself, don't fear, there is nothing new in this... it has been happening since at least the time of Moses.
Do you focus on and contemplate God throughout each day, and in everything you do? Is your awareness and imagination being used to find the Lord in every circumstance and activity in your life? These are our questions to consider today, and the portion of our faith that we are called to examine. Let’s begin with a verse from Isaiah 26.
What do we imagine our faith to be? How great and unbound can we dream that God is? What binds us to the commonplace, and the everyday isn't God, or our faith, but our own perception of their greatness and possibility. Let me give you a glimpse through the eyes of scripture, Oswald Chambers, Rick Bragg, and me today. Let’s see just how much further we can look into eternity through the eyes of Jesus…
Have you ever been spiritually exhausted, and if so why, and what did you do to overcome it? This is the subject I would like us to consider this morning. This topic peaked my desire to know more as I read Pastor Oswald Chambers’ devotional today and he gave us some deeper insight into this type of exhaustion.
This morning we will be concentrating on sanctification, and looking inward at our progress in that regard. Are you sanctified? Are we set apart and declared holy? Is our life focused on God and Jesus Christ, or are we double citizens who straddles the border between heaven and earth; between life and death? How should we best answer this question?
Today I am thinking about the two disciples who walked the road to Emmaus and encountered Jesus. I am amazed that they had left Jerusalem and were returning home dejected and believing the Lord had failed them... they were disappointed that their timeline had not been met as they thought it should have been. The promise of three days, in their eyes, meant that Jesus would arise and redeem Israel by force from the Romans. Let's read their words...
As I read Oswald Chambers this morning, I was touched by the message of offering ourselves to God, and then allowing Him full reign in changing us and perfecting our lives for His service. Chambers used the words of Paul to illustrate that we should present our old self as a drink offering and then allow Him to pour us over the altar.
Are we willing to serve God unnoticed and in the darkness of obscurity? How many times do you give to the kingdom without a receiving a receipt? These are questions that I invite you to consider this morning. It is in our human nature to want appreciation and acknowledgement for what we do. We all want to hear the words "Great Job!", "Well Done!", “or “You have blessed me.”, but what if God asks us to put our pride aside and obey His will or give of ourselves with no other eyes on our obedient goodness except His? Can we step into the shadows and give Him all the glory without desiring some of it for ourselves?
There are so many things that distract us from our faith and quite often they prevent us from realizing the fullness of that faith, and in their most destructive form, they keep us from giving God complete and unchallenged dominion over our lives. But don’t be afraid because in Jesus Christ there are many other things that are singularly strong enough to change who we are, who we live for, who we would die for, and who ultimately who rules our lives.
I often talk about how I feel regarding Jesus and my love for God, but today I am considering the love God has for us, and the reason for the love He feels for us. We know very well that God loves us, and the Bible is filled with scripture to that effect. It could very well be considered a love story between God and man. Do we approach our relationship with this in mind?
This morning we are contemplating how God calls us in our lives. These are mission(s) of faithfulness and service that God asks us to pursue and we are meant to be committed to. By obeying Him in this way we are wonderfully, and firmly within His will and desire. It is also true that the importance of a calling isn’t necessarily predicated on size, scope, or difficulty. Although many callings do stretch us beyond our comfort zones and capabilities, while some appear very small, and others are deemed to be more important by the world, they are all meant to glorify God. Like so many things involving God the large things are often small, and the small things are actually quite large.
Did Jesus live die and rise from the grave, resurrected, to save you from your sins? Of course He did, but that is only part of the picture... the tip of the iceberg. Jesus did all of this to save not just you or me, but the world... and regardless of who we are, any one of us is but a small part of that.