Hear, Believe, Obey

OK, 2 Chronicles 11.

Rehoboam is off to attack Israel and Jeroboam.  God says don’t, so he doesn’t.  The result, all of the Levites and the faithful who worship God, decide to head on over to live with Reho and the tribe of Judah.  Also, because of his faithfulness, God strengthened Reho and his group for three years.

So the key here is when God speaks, we must believe and obey.

Faith despite Potential Failure

So I thought I would be reading the end part of Jude today, which I was looking forward to. Well, apparently Papa had other plans for me. As I sat down to read, I was listening to a song called “Burn Us Up” by Shane Bernard and Shane Everett. The song is about Daniel 3 and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who I will be calling “the three.” I was immediately drawn to that passage..actually I had to search an online Bible for what passage it was..then I was immediately drawn to it. It’s a much different story to me as an adult then it was when I was a kid.  Verses 4-6 tell of the king’s prideful decree, when the nation hears the music they have to fall down and worship the image of Nebuchadnezzar. The herald tells the people in verse 4 that if they don’t do as the king says they “will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace.” You know the story, when the music plays “the three” don’t fall and worship. Verse 8 says some ”astrologers came forward and denounced the Jews.” When Nebuchadnezzar found out that the three would not worship, he calls them in and confronts them. Verse 14, “Nebuchadnezzar said to them, “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the image of gold I have set up?” Verses 16-18 are the verses that really hit me: ” Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. 17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.“  What?! Talk about contending for the faith. “If we are thrown into the fire…” I don’t know about you, but I try to avoid getting thrown into fires.  And then in verse 18, “But even IF,” they are still confident that they will be saved. They then tell the king, oh by the way, we will not serve your gods even if you decide to throw us in the furnace.  That really upset Nebuchadnezzar, who preheats the furnace to 350…no, to 7 times hottter than normal. After they are thrown in, Nebuchadnezzar jumps from his seat as he sees four men now in the furnace…and they’re walking around! Verse 25, “He said, Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.” When the three held on to their faith, that’s when Nebuchadnezzar was amazed and, verse 28, “Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants! They trusted in him and defied the king’s command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God.” Through their unwavering faith, they were able to bring renown to God’s name and reach an unbeliever. Man, did that story smack me in the face. If I hold firm to my faith, and believe God will do what he says He will do, He’ll do it? Amazing. I had to repent when I read this for my lack of faith. Papa, forgive me for not believing your word, forgive me for blending in with the other skeptics of this world. That passage may not mean anything to you guys, but it blew my mind.

Lev. 26….again

I read it again and I think I will read it one more time.  This time the things that stuck out are how I ought to be living.  Not so much the punishment of disobedience but the promise of obedience. These great and precious promises, though they relate chiefly to the life which now is, were typical of the spiritual blessings made sure by the covenant of grace to all believers, through Christ. There were some things that stood out to me.  1.Plenty and abundance of the fruits of the earth. Every good and perfect gift must be expected from above, from the Father of lights. The fruits or the earth I guess could either mean the people we are to harvest and plant, or the giftings that are given by Dad.2. Peace under the Divine protection. Those dwell in safety, that dwell in God.  Under every circumstance there is peace somewhere, but that only comes with dwelling in God, and I am not quite sure how that works yet.  3. Victory and success in their wars. It is all one with the Lord to save by many or by few.  The battle that rages on around us will have a successful ending, not just survival or barely scrapping by but success.  4. The increase of their people. The gospel church shall be fruitful. And He add to their numbers daily, Acts 2.  How come our churches are not growing and stay and a small and low numbers?  5. The favour of God, which is the fountain of all Good.  Favour-something done or granted out of goodwill, rather than from justice or for remuneration; the state of being approved or held in regard: excessive kindness or unfair partiality; preferential treatment: 6. Tokens of his presence in and by his ordinances. The way to have God’s ordinances fixed among us, is to cleave closely to them.  A reminder or remembrance that He gives us to remind us of His presence.  7. The grace of the covenant. All covenant blessings are summed up in the covenant relation, I will be your God, and ye shall be my people; and they are all grounded upon their redemption. Having purchased them, God would own them, and never cast them off.   That is just some of the promises God has given, and He has to honor or He would be a liar, to us if we humble ourselves and obey.  This time around was just as much a Holy fear moment as yesterday, I just got to see this chapter differently.

Dad let me humble myself and live in obedience to what you say.  Every statute, commandment, ordinance and testimony that you say about yourself and about me.  I so desire to have your presence and blessing and favor and peace surround my life.  Today I choose to obey everything you say.

Sometimes it sucks.

Who am I to think it’s going to be great all the time.  The letter that Paul wrote to the Philippians is real good, and yet I know that I don’t really get it all.  He writes to them in ch. 3 about “rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe.”   Wow….. so he’s saying, (ben version)  I know that things suck right now but rejoice, and I know that they are going to suck later too so, rejoice then also.
Man for such good word, it almost makes me not want to hear to said to me.  The flesh in me says,  “If tells me “rejoice” then I can assume bads things are coming soon.”
But why shouldn’t they.  Why shouldn’t I expect to have hard times.  Whether that be financially or physically or even spiritually.
Christ went through all of that.  He never had lots of money, but HE wasn’t worried about it.  Because HE knew that HIS Daddy would provide.  Even if it meant HE would have to get it from the mouth of a fish.  HE also suffer physically.  Isaiah 53:10 “It pleased the Lord to bruise HIM (Christ)”  If Father had no problem doing that to Jesus then who am I to think that I won’t encounter ailments or sickness or broken bones, etc.  Daddy is way more concerned about my spiritual heart than my physical one.  I use to be in habit of always praying for healing for someone when they are sick, but over the past year or so I have learned to know pray for Father will.  Because it may be His will for that person to be sick or hurting.  HE’s big enough to be able to use that sickness for HIS glory.   So why should I pray against that?

I know that sometimes it’s going to be hard.  James even says, “Count it all joy when you fall in to various trials….”  Not that the trial will be fun, but the end result will be better than the first.  It about realizing that it not about me being happy.  It has to be about HIM. period.  I have to trust HIM enough to know that He has plan and trust that it is a good one.  Truly accept that HE is Good.  The problem I have is my scale of what is good and bad is based off of what I was raise with.  My scale of what is good and bad does not match HIS…..

Father, help me to see that YOU are Good all the time.  Because I know that right now I don’t truly get that.

All that I am – continued…

We play the new testament while we sleep on my MP3 player each night.  This morning I woke up to the passage in Mark, where Jesus tells the Pharisee’s that the greatest commandment is to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength,” and to “love your neighbor as yourself.” (Mark 12:29-31)

This certainly feeds into yesterday’s entry.  How do I praise him with all that I am?  By loving Him with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength.  This, of course, could fill pages and pages of blogs and books on the application of just that verse… and if fact, it does… The Bible IS the original blog detailing what that looks like.

For me, today, it is an active love.  It is choosing Him over me.  It is choosing others over me.  It is dying to self and letting Christ live through me; letting His humility and patience overtake my own fleshsuit and all the baggage it has with it.  It is remembering… remembering that MY righteous acts are like filthy rags to Him (Is 64:6).  It is remembering that I have indeed sinned, and continue to sin, and I need to be saved (Is 64:5). It is remembering that there is NO WAY I could do this life without Him and that my wisdom is foolishness to him (I Cor 1:24-25).

It’s remembering that He chose me.

Thank you Lord, for choosing me. Help me praise you with all that I am today, by loving you with all my heart, soul,  mind, and strength and by loving my neighbors as myself.  Help me to have an active love today, engaging in remembering You and all that you have done, are doing, and will do.  In Jesus name.  Amen.