Attitudes Can be Good or Bad, Just Choose

I had a thought the other night and that’s what led me to this passage. Here’s the thought: Think back to situations in your life where you really needed a break and didn’t get it, or decisions that you really needed to go your way that didn’t. Now, was the reason you didn’t catch a break or get the decision because of the other person just being a jerk or not wanting to help you out, or does it have more to do with my attitude or my walk at that time? Genesis 4:5-7 says, “but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. Then the Lord said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? IF you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.’” So Cain was in sin at this time in his life, he didn’t listen to Papa on what offering to bring and it wasn’t accepted, it didn’t go his way.  Now I’m not trying to say that if I’m a good little boy, God is my genie. But listen to Matthew 6:33, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” That verse references food, drinks  and clothes, but I would venture to say that the list is not the full list. I’ll bet it includes things like promotions, cars and other stuff that doesn’t matter. Does this make sense? Am I all over the place here? Can someone maybe help me out here? Anyways, this is where God had me tonight.

Christlike

my last entry brought on some great encouragment from my brothers.  Some of it had to do with being christlike…..so I thought what exactly is it to be Christlike.   I mean if I am “like” Christ then I am a “copy” or “good imitation” of HIM.  I did a search (which I’m not real good at so I might have missed it) but I did find the word “Christlike” in my bible.  Like I said, I might have missed it or maybe it’s my version but I didn’t find it.  So what does that mean.  Shouldn’t I still strive to be “Christlike.”?   Isaiah 55:8-9 says  “For MY thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways MY ways,” says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are MY ways higher than your ways, And MY thoughts than your thoughts.
So with that said, can I even be “Christlike” since I will never have the same/or as high of thoughts as HE has?  Am I just to strive for that likeness, but knowing that I will never attain it until I enter heaven.  My bible has some commentary and next to this verse there is a statement that says, “There’s more grace in God’s heart than sin in men’s hearts.”   That seems pretty deep….I mean deeper than I can understand….  Since I am to strive to be Christlike, with I can’t fully do, mainly because of the depravity in my heart, and yet there is more grace in Pappa’s heart to cover all of that, and to top that off that grace is a free gift.   I mean I don’t even have to earn it.  All I have to do is just receive it.   Just say “Yes” and saying “Yes” to God is the very thing that Christ did.  Which I guess makes me a little more “Christlike” each time I say it.  I have never truly thought about what all that word “Christlike” meant and yet I know I don’t have it figured out, but am starting to enjoy the journey of figuring it out.

Ask God First

Well, I read 2 Chronicles 18… AGAIN!  I wanted to get something out of it besides questions.

Here is what God showed me (or at least what grabbed my attention).  Jehoshaphat his hanging out at Ahab’s crib.  Ahab is throwing him a huge party; bigger than when GC turned 25.  Anyway, he’s been wined and dined and been made to feel quite important.  At the end of the feast in his honor, Ahab asks Jehoshaphat to go to war with him against Ramoth Gilead.  Jehoshaphat pretty much agrees to it and then utters these VERY IMPORTANT words in verse 4.  “Please inquire for the word of the Lord today.”

Jehoshaphat is all for allying himself with Ahab, as long as God wants them to go to war.  I believe that all to often when faced with a choice, we forget to go inquire of the Lord.  I mean, it’s family asking; it’s my friend who wants to do this.  It’s, it’s….  Before we move, whether large important moves or very small ones, we need to inquire of the Lord today.

A long way to go…

Romans 5:6-8 (NLT)

6 When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. 7 Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. 8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

A simple thought.  It’s would be easy (ok… maybe not easy, but easier) to sacrifice myself for someone we deem or see as significant… a pastor, a family member, a friend.  It would even be mentally justifiable to sacrifice myself for a “regular” person.  But as I read this passage, the Lord gave me a vision of sacrificing myself for what we call the “scum” of society.  Would I sacrifice myself and forever impact the future of my family, for a child molester?  for a doctor who performs abortions? for a genecidal maniac like Saddam Huessien or Osama Bin Laden?

If I’m honest with myself, and honest with God, I could not do it.  Even if God himself stood in front of me and in an audible voice commanded me to… I’m not sure I could do it.

But He needs me to be in that kind of place spiritually.  He needs me to be that broken, obedient and loving.  That’s exactly the place Jesus was at.  That’s exactly the place he was when he crawled onto the cross.  That’s exactly the place Stephen was as they were hurling stones at him.

I am not there.

I have a very long way to go…

How do I get here?

Today I read Acts 16.  SUMMARY.–Paul at Troas. The Call to Macedonia in a Vision. The Journey to Philippi. The Conversion of Lydia and Her Household. The Damsel with the Spirit of Divination Healed. The Rage of Her Masters. Paul and Silas Seized, Scourged, Placed in Prison in the Stocks. The Events at Midnight. The Jailer and Household Baptized. An Appeal to Rights of Romans.

OK so what jumped out was twice in that chapter not only did two people get saved but as did their families.  That was just a different thing back then.  Paul and Silas get out of jail start preaching to the guard who asks how he himself can get saved, they go on to tell him and let him know not only will you be saved but your whole family, and they were.  Same with the woman down by the river.  Not only did she get saved right then and there but her family and friends immediately got saved that same day.  Do I expect that when I lead others to God that their whole family will be saved?  How about this one, there are people in probably all of our families that are lost, why?  Do we not chase them down like we should or present it in a way that they have to have it?  Or maybe because its just not the same now as it was then, the culture, the times, the way we preach the gospel of salvation.  Maybe we just don’t believe God is big enough or still does that like He did then.  Does God really want little ‘ole me to be a conduit of salvation to the rest of my family?  There is something to Paul and Silas’ faith that allowed them to see differently then I do.  They knew that after one person in the family got saved so would everyone else.  I don’t believe that…..right now. 

That wasn’t even really what God showed me through this passage.  As I was reading I thought of myself doing like Paul and Silas.  They get out of the jail cell, the guard asks how to be saved and Paul and Silas go and preach to his whole family.  I get uncomfortable speaking to one person about Jesus most of the time and yet these guys were going into peoples houses and speaking to everyone even though they didn’t ask.  That when Holy Spirit began to confront me.  I have been talking about wanting to do things differently than I ever have.  And I say that to get something different then I ever have I must do things differently than I have before.  I want to see what those men saw.  I want to have the faith to preach to whole families or households knowing that God will overtake them and save them.  I want to see the things those men saw i.e. the miracles, and healing, and salvation, and deliverance’s, and the grace in prisons.  Really I want to know Dad like they did.  I don’t know what any of this means right now.  I will need to dig into this and ask Holy Spirit to reveal what He is trying to speak to this slow man.  I just know that these men were confident that not only the woman at the river and the guard who was watching them in prison would get saved but their families as well and I am not that sure.  I know these men lived extraordinary lives like I want to, but I am not……right now.  I want what they had……right now!