Category: Discipline

Doing the Same Thing Over and Over? (A Call to Faithfulness from Ruth)

6/12/2015

May God bless you this week and help you to see when His will is simply to work hard at what you do and trust Him to bless you, lead you, and bring favor into your life.

Recently I went through the book of Ruth in my quiet time. As I was reading about Ruth I began to realize that God had some very important truth for me to learn from her example. Ruth was a Moabitess, a foreigner who was probably not received all that well when she first came into Israel. But regardless of what reception she received, she had determined that she was not going to leave Naomi. She had adopted her mother-in-law as well as the God that she served. She also knew that with Naomi’s husband dead and her husband dead as well, no one was working to put food on their table. So she did what anyone in that time would do – she went into the fields surrounding where they lived in Bethlehem and began to glean what was left after the harvesters had worked in the barley and wheat fields. This was hard work. Yet Ruth gave herself to doing it throughout the entire harvest of those two crops. This amounted to at least a month and possibly six to 8 weeks worth of backbreaking work for very little benefit. At least during those weeks they would have enough food usually for that day from what she brought home each evening at sunset. This was the will of God for Ruth and Naomi now that they had returned to Israel. The will of God for them was not glamorous – nor was it all that fun. It also was something they did to stay alive on a daily basis. It would have been odd for them to be able to save up much if anything from doing God’s will. But for a period of up to 8 weeks this is what they did.

Too often we wrongly get the idea that doing the will of God will lead to a very exciting, glamorous life for us. I am not saying that it won’t lead to times when things are exciting and fun, but neither will I submit to you that all of God’s will has to be fun for it to be . . . well, to be His will. Ruth is not the only one for whom the will of God means daily doing hard work faithfully. Ruth is not the only one for whom God’s will may mean working hard for enough to survive. For the majority of us living in the daily will of God will mean having a job we work every day – and doing it faithfully – every day. If this is the case for you, do not be disappointed – and do not think you must be out of God’s will if it doesn’t breed constant excitement and thrills.

The will of God for Ruth meant faithfully serving her mother-in-law. It meant waking up at the crack of dawn and heading to the fields to spend another very long day working very hard. It meant laboring so that she and Naomi would have something to eat that day. It meant trusting her new God to provide for them. It meant doing that day after day for the period of the harvest – and then not really knowing how they were going to eat within weeks of the harvest being over. Faced with these realities, Ruth worked hard. She didn’t complain about her circumstances – she worked within them and learned first hand how to trust the God of Israel for His provision for her fledgling family.

God blessed Ruth because of this faithfulness and hard work. The first day she worked, He providentially had her come to the fields of Boaz, a close relative to Naomi. Boaz spoke kindly to her and even served her food equal to those of his laborers. Ruth didn’t know that God’s mercies continued as Boaz instructed his laborers to pull out grain and stalks to leave for her to find. He also requested her to remain in his fields under his protection so that no one would take advantage of her in her precarious position of being a widowed foreigner. Then, when the time came for the harvest to be over, God blessed her by having Boaz respond to her request to be a part of his household according to Jewish custom, asking him to be her kinsman redeemer. This may have been custom for widowed Jewish women – but the probability of her being afforded that kindness as a Moabite was not high. Yet before the book of Ruth is over, that is exactly what her God did for her. God honored this lady for her willingness to simply do what is right – do it every day – do it without complaint – do it with gratefulness – and do it well.

God calls us to Himself and to a life lived to do His will. I will guarantee you that this will involve hard work. Honestly, it will also involve doing some of the same difficult, hard things day after day – without immediate gratification or some kind of instant reward. Many of His best rewards are reserved for things that take time. Fruit is not an instant thing – it takes an entire season to grow it. A tree full of fruit takes years from seed to grow, flourish, fight off disease, survive dry seasons, stand firm during storms and high winds, and eventually be green and full of nourishing fruit. This picture in nature matches that of Ruth’s life – and it is one we should note as we live a life for God’s glory.

Brethren, don’t be discouraged at your hard work and your daily life of “not-so-exciting” obedience and faithfulness. God IS at work in you and through you. Continue to give yourself to a life of faithfulness. Continue to submit to the daily rule and reign of God over your heart and your choices. Give yourself to your family, to your work, to your brothers and sisters in Christ, and to the lost. Be faithful to the daily little things and the occasional big things too. Know that such a life honors and glorifies God – and – will be rewarded in the end. Who knows – as you draw close to God through it all you also may be blessed with a disposition that enjoys the every day living of life for His purposes, His plans, and His will being worked out for His glory.

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Spiritual Doldrums – part 2 – Keeping Our Spiritual Life on Course!

5/29/2012

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Last week I shared some about facing the doldrums of life—when not much is going on spiritually—at least not much that we can see. Building on the whole idea of the doldrums of life—I want to offer additional encouragement this week. As review—the doldrums are a wind pattern that exist around the equator. As the winds reach this area they come under tremendous pressure and instead of blowing from side to side, they blow upwards. This creates stagnant winds or no wind at all. What winds that blow are erratic—and come from numerous directions in just a matter of hours. Sailing is difficult when this happens and requires those who do so to constantly set their bearings. If they do not—the wind can take them completely off course. That is what I want to speak of today—maintaining focus and our course heading spiritually when the winds of God begin to die down for a season.

One of the difficult things to do in spiritual doldrums is maintain our course and our focus. It is during these times that we feel as if we are drifting aimlessly. For those who sail in the doldrums, this is very difficult. Little winds rise up from multiple directions and often the inexperienced sailor will catch them and use them. But the experienced sailor knows these winds are very deceptive. They are difficult to use and will take the ship off course. It is better to keep ones heading—check it often—and wait for the right winds to return.

Oh, how this is true in the spiritual as well. When things seem spiritually stagnant—that is the time to be very careful about the “winds of doctrine” that want to blow us off course. We can get so spiritually desperate that we decide to catch the wind of a questionable doctrine—just so we feel like we’re moving spiritually again. The problem is that these doctrines that tantalize us with more “feelings” and “emotions” come with serious theological baggage that will have to be unpacked later. It is better to wait out our spiritual doldrums, checking our course heading again and again to make sure that we are not getting off course. The way sailors would do this was to look up at the stars and set their course according to the unerring direction that they would give. This is true of the spiritual as well. We do not need to look outward at others during this time. If we do, we will get off course. We need to look up to the Lord and His Word for His unerring guidance to keep us on track until the winds of His Spirit rise to move us again in His directions. Catching any wind that blows by is dangerous—especially if all we want is movement. We need to look up to the Lord—and check our course chart—His Word. If the direction of the wind is contrary to this information—we need to ignore those “false” winds and wait on the Lord till He graciously grants that the winds of truth rise to move us again.

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LIving "On Purpose" in the Doldrums of Life

5/14/2012

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It is an interesting time of year - when graduations are coming to a close - vacations are beginning to gear up - students are leaving for home and for summer Christian programs and mission trips - and the rest of us are getting ready to move into summer. It can be a time when we can lose focus spiritually. The vast majority of us thrive on structure in our lives - and it is times like these when our normal structure in life can break down or begin to change. The reason this affects our spiritual lives is because, if you are like me, part of my structure in living is my quiet time. Even this can be affected with the result that we can experience a kind of spiritual doldrum period at this time of year. Doldrums were the areas in the ocean where there would be little or no wind to power the sails of a ship. It was during those times that a ship had to have its routines - so that it would be ready to continue its journey when the wind would return. One of the most important things to be done in doldrums would be to maintain the proper heading and direction. If the sailors did not do this the ship would drift aimlessly off course during this time. In a similar manner it is important for us to have our spiritual disciplines so that when spiritual doldrums hit, we will be doing things to keep us growing and make us ready to take full advantage of other times when the winds of the Spirit pick up again and create fresh passion in what we do. Having these disicplines in place helps us not to drift aimlessly for weeks at a time and wind up badly off course in our walk with God. In an effort to help us avoid this, I would like to encourage that we do a few things.

First, let me offer a word of exhortation. A lot of us have a tendency to grow in our spiritual lives more out of passion than out of purpose. I am not against passion in spiritual growth, but it is not an effective long-term motivation for spiritual growth in your life. What I mean by this is that passion comes and goes but what lasts is commitment. Whereas we may have several times a year when we have a great passion to have a quiet time and to minister to others - the problem comes when these spiritually passionate moments subside and we are left with what we are committed to in life. You will burn out if all you function by is passion and emotion alone. There has to be commitment or purpose to take over at some point to have balanced spiritual growth.

It is a very important thing to make time to write down your purpose in life. Some may groan at this statement - but when the doldrums hit this will be invaluable to you. It is during those times that you can revisit that statement to give you long-term motivation in walking with the Lord. What is even more helpful is to write out what things you should be doing daily to accomplish your ultimate purpose in life. A GPS can show you where you will wind up when you arrive at your destination - but it functions by giving you turn by turn directions to get there. We need this to help us with those "choice by choice" directions to get us to our ultimate goal.

When doldrums hit in my life - I am reminded that my goal in life is to, "Love the Lord my God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to glorify Him by how I live in my marriage, family, church, and community." This is true whether I have great passion or not. Then I am reminded of my turn by turn directions to get there. These are building blocks to "love the Lord" and to "glorify Him in all I do." Therefore to accomplish this I have committed to have a daily time alone with God where I talk to Him and read His Word - i.e. maintain a regular quiet time. I have also committed to love and lead my wife and children with daily practical acts of kindness and service. A couple of other building blocks are to make sure Calvary Chapel of Jonesboro is the best loved and taught congregation in our city - and - that I am working to build men as disciples of Jesus Christ.

It is these things that keep me on track in the "doldrum times of life." In an effort to help me know exactly what to do - I've broken these down further into smaller things I try to do - so that even when I am "down and out" I still know things I should be doing to accomplish goals and live for God's overall purpose in the life He has given me. Let me give a couple of examples. To mainitain my time with the Lord, I will read my Bible daily - reading 5 chpaters in the Old Testament, a psalm or a proverb, and 1 chapter in the New Testament. Recently, I've also committed to praying through a Psalm each day - to help me not degenerate into a rote list of prayer requests. There are other ways to break down the other commitments in my life. Things I can see and know whether I am doing the right things or not. Therefore when things slow down and I can lose my focus - I know that I can read these things and know how to not just survive doldrums - but even thrive in them. May God give all of us grace to thrive, not only in times of passion, but also in every other period of life as we strive to live "on purpose."

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The God Who Will Break Your Leg, If Necessary. (A Warning and Encouragement Concerning Besetting Sin)

3/26/2012

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Did you know that God loves you so much . . . that He will break your leg if necessary? Let's explore this for a few moments now - shall we?

"Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin; and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, "MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD, NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE REPROVED BY HIM; FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES.""

It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Hebrews 12:1-11

- There are situations that will overwhelm us - and make us lose heart in our battle against sin.

- We fight these battles two ways - remembering Jesus' conflict AND

- Remembering God's discipline . . . and this is a very strong possibility for us if we are sinning currently in some way. We should ask a simple question if we are involved in a besetting sin. Is God disciplining us though all this - or another way - are we miserable in this sin?

- If that is the case - rejoice! He is working with you to train you to hate sin - and love Him. He is absolutely committed that you will not have ANY lasting joy in sinful choices. Sin provides no real, lasting joy - maybe something momentary - but nothing lasting. The things is when God is dealing with us - our enjoyment in sin will be far, far less. God is disciplining us - spanking us if you will - or as the text says, "He scourges every son He accepts!" (Whoa - scourging - isn't that what they did to Jesus before the cross? YEP!)

- God does this so that as we are TRAINED by it - there will be NO JOY or ENJOYMENT of sin - and a growing disposition to only embrace righteousness. God graciously ruins us for sin - so that the only place we will find joy - is in HIM!

- The passage tells me He does this - He spanks the FOOL out of me - so I will be a sharer in His holiness. Oh, yeah, I remember all "the fool" that needed to be lovingly disciplined out of me - because, unlike all the other really godly people in the world - I have a great deal of "fool" in me (sarcasm alert!). Actually, we all have a tremendous amount of "the fool" in us that often can only be dealt with by having it revealed to us - then exposed in our actions - and eventually crucified by the cross. The "fool" in us will never submit to God - nor can it - the fool in us (also known as flesh) is opposed to God and His Word - it won't and it can't submit to God. Those controlled by the flesh (or the fool in us) cannot please God. Sooooo . . . I cannot please God as long as I subscribe to being a fool and acting the fool by turning to self rather than turning to Him.

- So glad for the last part of this - NO DISCIPLINE IS PLEASANT FOR THE TIME, BUT PAINFUL! - When I read this, I thought, Hallelujah! at least God knows this whole process is kinda painful!

But keep reading . . . BUT FOR THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN TRAINED BY IT - uh oh - there is a training process going on? Yep, there is - to simply spank a child without a training process is just beating a rebellious little toot - but God is working toward something! He is seeking to get the "fool" out of us. He wants us to live by His grace and strength - not by our flesh - or "the fool" in us.

AFTERWARD IT YIELDS THE PEACEABLE FRUIT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS! This is what God is going after in this process. Just a quick question for anyone in besetting sin (as if I do anything quickly!). You at peace right now? (your answer is NO - I know this because I've been where you are!) Obedience yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness - disobedience yields painful discipline - and a general sense of, "this stinks!"

Now here is the kicker. When Christ bought you from the slave market of sin - and made you a son through Jesus Christ . . . God bought you for the purpose of owning you (which He does anyway) - but now as a son. He who began this work in you . . . WILL COMPLETE IT UNTIL THE DAY OF CHRIST JESUS! What does this mean? It means, that God is actively going to ruin you for the world. You belong to God . . . and He is GOING to finish what He has started in you. You can either enjoy this journey - and learn to obey Him - or be miserable for the rest of the process. The fact is He is utterly committed to you - to make you like His Son. He will do this even if He has to make you miserable in the process - even if He has to make your life one that is filled with problems - difficulties - disasters - roadblocks - and even to the point of breaking your bones (remember the lamb that is around the shepherd's neck - yeah - that was the one who would not quit wandering off. The GOOD shepherd would break that lamb's leg - so that it had to be around his neck for weeks. The shepherd did that so that the lamb wouldn't be killed - and so that he learned the shepherd's voice better than any other in the process - which, by the way, was why David prayed in the midst of his sexual sin in Psalm 51, "let the bones which You have broken rejoice.") Yep - God will even break your leg, if that is what it takes to finish the work of His grace begun at salvation.

That is where I will finish today - with the verses directly after the ones I've been quoting.

Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. Hebrews 12:12-13

Brothers and sisters in Christ, God will break your leg to have all of you! Don't make Him do it. Believe me, He will! He has done some things - or better said - allowed some things to train me over the past 30 years of knowing Him. Learn to be strong in Him - and let Him get "the fool" or '"flesh" out of you! He is only doing this because of how much He loves you. But please know this . . . His love is strong! He WILL pursue you. Getting involved with Him through salvation is the best thing that has ever happened to you! But it is a love that is so strong - that it will take your breath away - and at times . . . even break your leg.

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Articles

Doing the Same Thing Over and Over? (A Call to Faithfulness from Ruth)

Spiritual Doldrums – part 2 – Keeping Our Spiritual Life on Course!

LIving "On Purpose" in the Doldrums of Life

The God Who Will Break Your Leg, If Necessary. (A Warning and Encouragement Concerning Besetting Sin)

Biblical Articles

Categories

​Articles

Doing the Same Thing Over and Over? (A Call to Faithfulness from Ruth)

Spiritual Doldrums – part 2 – Keeping Our Spiritual Life on Course!

LIving "On Purpose" in the Doldrums of Life

The God Who Will Break Your Leg, If Necessary. (A Warning and Encouragement Concerning Besetting Sin)

Biblical Articles

Categories

Articles