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"Genesis 12:4 - So Abram went forth as the LORD had spoken to him; and Lot went with him.
One man heard and knew intimacy with God and one did not. One man walked with God and one man did not. One man knew an amazing level of blessing in his life and one did not. One man experienced immediate satisfaction of his desires and one did not. One man was directed by himself and his wants and one was not. One man eventually lost just about everything in his life and one did not. One man had a legacy of godly descendants and one did not. Such is the history of Abram and Lot. And if you will pardon the pun - there is a "Lot" we can learn in 2016 from this man , Lot, and his choices. I hope you will join me for several posts as we seek to learn a "Lot" that will benefit us in this coming year. This passage begins with a man who walked with God and responded to Him when God initiated in his life. Abram was a man drawn, led, and blessed by the grace of God. God started this relationship - and Abram followed as he gave himself to God and the plans He had for him. He "went forth as the LORD had spoken to him." God spoke to Abram and he immediately obeyed and went with the LORD. Abram was not a picture of perfect obedience - but rather of a man who entered into a relationship with God and embraced submission to God's will. Whether it led to immediate obedience or at times to an eventual obedience colored with discipline on the edges, Abram 's desire was to hear God and go forth in a direction led by Him. Lot's introduction is that he was a man who "went with Abram." What we see in Lot is that he was willing to tag along with the man of God - but he himself was not walking with the Lord. Thus, there was a measure of blessing because of his nearness to a man who was following God. The problem though was that Lot was not building his own walk with the Lord - and eventually the abundance of our heart is going to be expressed in our lifestyle and our choices. Please understand that the blessing of following God is that you get God - not that you get blessed. You do get blessed, but even that is tempered by the reality that your blessing is what God considers as blessing - not what you want at the time. Lot was along for the ride with Abram, but what would happen if a situation arose where he no longer was around him? That is actually what we will learn before these articles are over. So . . . how goes it with you? I know many who have little or no relationship with God in their lives. They either have a man or woman of God whom they tag along with in life - or they are living off the spirituality of their teachers - whether they be a pastor, a Sunday School or Community Group teacher - or even a favorite radio or TV preacher or podcast. Will they be blessed - yes, in a measure, but what happens when that influence is no longer around? What happens when more and more the manifest state of their heart or inner man is expressed through their life? How much of life is truly us "following" the Lord, hearing Him and and going where He leads - and how much is that I've either heard or seen a man of God hear from God and I come along for the ride. Lord, help us to have a genuine experience with You this year. Please deliver us from Lot's error, and just tag along with others who have genuinely walked with You and sought You. We want to experience You ourselves - and walk and teach as one who has an intimate knowledge of the God of Whom we speak.
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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.  Last week we examined what it means to act with our wills – choosing to do the will of God in our daily lives. God gives us all that we need to do His will as believers, but He will not absolve us of making the choice to do so. So the question naturally results from this – how do we get into a place where we will choose God’s will on a more consistent basis. (The truth is that we want to get to where we choose nothing other than His will – but this article takes into account that we are in the process of sanctification in the nitty gritty of every day life).
One of the major problems we have in consistently choosing the will of God is that often we do not know what His will is. Ignorance is never a good argument for disobedience – especially when God has given us His Word as well as His Spirit, Who teaches that Word to us. This is why Paul prayed for the Colossians after they came to know the Lord. His prayer is a reminder to us of the kind of things we need if we are going to consistently choose God’s will over the world’s ways or our own flesh. Let’s take a look at this prayer in Colossians 1:9-12. “For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.” (Colossians 1:9-12, NASB) The first thing Paul prays for these new believers is that they would be “filled with the knowledge of His will.” Therefore the first thing we learn about knowing and doing the will of God is that it is not natural. The Fall has resulted in us being blinded and incapable of knowing God’s will on our own. If we are going to walk in God’s will – and indeed “will” to do God’s will – we will need for God to teach us and reveal to us what His will is. The second thing we learn about choosing God’s will is that it requires “spiritual wisdom and understanding.” Again, this is not something that we learn like we would learn Math or Science. We need the Holy Spirit to open the Scriptures to us in such a way that we end up with “spiritual wisdom.” This phrase refers to the way we view the world around us. We begin to see things as God sees them. Until we do this we don’t have wisdom and will more than likely walk in foolishness consistently. (It may be helpful to know that foolishness here refers to any conduct where we are walking outside of God’s will or contrary to what God desires in our lives.) Whereas spiritual wisdom refers to seeing things as God sees them, spiritual understanding refers to grasping what we see in a way that we begin to comprehend concepts and relationships between things. But the word used here has a highly practical meaning as well. We not only get things in our heads – but we begin to get the skills necessary to walk out mental concepts as lifestyle choices. This kind of information comes to us from God as we read, study, memorize, and meditate on His Word. Without God’s revelation (written word) and illumination (Holy Spirit instruction) we are blind to truth. Some will balk at this, but in doing so they only reveal that they still have issues with pride and the self-life. It would be wise for us to be reminded of several passages of Scripture in this regard. God tells us in twice in Proverbs, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” (Proverbs 14:12 and 16:25) We also read in 1 Corinthians 1:20-21, “Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.” The world’s wisdom will not do the will of God for its wisdom is opposed to Him. This teaches us an important truth. If all we are getting is the world’s information sources each day, we will not walk in God’s will. In order to choose His will consistently in our lives, we MUST have a regular input of His spiritual wisdom as well as His spiritual understanding. Humility is required to do this. We MUST admit that we don’t have these things – and that they only come as we seek God for them. As we close this week’s look at walking in the will of God, we need to answer a very simple question. The question is this: “Are we filling our minds and hearts with the kind of information that will lead to us knowing God’s will?” If our lives are filled far more with the world’s wisdom – we will walk in worldly ways. We will not have the information we need to walk godly – choosing God’s will over our own fleshly wisdom and the wisdom of the world. We will find ourselves far more convinced of the world’s take on things, which will subsequently move us far more consistently with actions and a lifestyle that agrees with the world and disagrees with God. If we are going to be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, we will have to be filled with His will, His thoughts, His reasoning, and His plan of action. Anything else will result in us choosing the same foolishness the world has always chosen – and missing out on the blessing of walking in the will of God.  One of the things that is often misunderstood in the Christian walk is the part that we play in doing the will of God. There is a very definite part that we play in this walk of obedience to God - and yet that part is not to walk in our own works or our own power - but rather in God's power. Sound confusing? To many it truly is very confusing.
We hear phrases like, "Let go and let God," and "Let God be your strength." These phrases, though having a measure of truth in them, are not complete enough to stand on their own. It is very much true that God wants us to let go (if we think we are controlling our own lives and destiny) and let Him work in us. It is also true that we need for God to be our strength, because our own strength and power will not be able to deliver us from sin. The problem comes when people hear these phrases and think that obeying God and doing His will can happen without their cooperation and their willful choice. Let me share something with you that I hope will remain with you the rest of your life in Christ. Weak-willed Christians will always struggle in their walk with the Lord. True obedience to God will always involve a choice you make. God will reveal His will to you - He will let you know what He desires for you to do - He will empower you to walk out His will - He will even give you wisdom to know how to do what He deisres for you to do. BUT - He will NEVER choose it for you! There will always be a choice for obedience. And to be completely honest with you, often there is a need to continue in that choice with great effort and with long-term endurance. For those of you who may be confused, let me give you a couple of examples. I don't know about you, but I know that I would like it if God would just overwhelm me - fill me with power - and then pick me up and work in me to where obedience is just about effortless as I walk in obedience. Anybody else up for that kind of Christian walk? Unfortunately there are those who tell you if you just wait - and cry out - and get godly enough - it will be just that way for you. There is only one problem with this view . . . it isn't what we are told or promised in the Scriptures. Probably the most famous passage about all this is Philippians 2:12-13 which says this, "So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." This passage has our part and God's part in all this. God's part is toward the end of these verses where we read that it is God who is at work in us. God is working in our lives - in our hearts and minds. He is working so that our will knows what to will and so that we know how to walk out that will - doing the will of God. The first verse though calls upon us to "work out" our salvation with fear and trembling as we continue to obey God. The phrase "work out" is one Greek word that means to carry out a task until it is finished. What God is saying to us is that He has saved us - our effort is not to "save ourselves" because God has already done that to the uttermost through Jesus Christ. What He is calling us to do is to work, labor, and carry out the task of obedience to His will until we're finished. You might ask, "Finished with what?" The answer to that question is this - Christ-likeness in our character - and doing the will of God as Jesus did - completely and entirely. We labor and work till the end - and work knowing that God is working in us as we obey. God has provided everything we need to walk out a life of obedience to Him - a life of Christlike character and godliness. That happens in us as we see what we are to choose (to will) and then as we then choose it in dependence on God to empower us as we take a step into obedience (to do). What we see here is that we are called to make choices - to exert effort - as we experience God's saving work in our lives. He saves us from the penalty of sin by what Jesus did for us at the cross. This is something we cannot do. But then he continues to save us from the power of sin. This He does by revealing what we are to do - promising the power to do it - but then stopping there and calling us to make a choice. Until we make that choice we go no further. But at the moment that we make that choice - we then are willing what God wills and power is released. We choose to think what God thinks and to value what He says above anything else that comes into our heads (whether it comes from us and our own flesh, the world and what it says we should do, or the devil who tries to deceive us and lie to us about what God wants). The next step is action. We act on what we know about God's will and take that first step of obedience. As we do - more power is released in and through us. God enables us to continue to walk in obedience - doing what He wants. But - and this is so vital - if we are unwilling to value His thoughts and way above our own, above the world's ways, and above the deceit the devil offers - there is a short-circuit in power. Please understand that God is not weakened in this - we are. We are disconnecting with God - and thinking worldly thoughts instead. That leads to us willing like the world - choosing what the world wants - and living like the world. We do not will and do according to "His good pleasure." We think - will - choose - and do according to our good pleasure - the pleasure of the world - or we please the devil. The lack of power is on our part - God continues to have all power. We just choose to live outside of it. But when we do hear His Word - know His will - think according to what He says - and then choose His way - first thinking it, then obeying and doing it - we tap into His power. He then gives us power to overcome sin - power to live a godly life - power to walk out what He desires. Precious saints - God truly desires to work in us. He truly desires to reveal Himself - reveal His Word - and even reveal His power. But if all that He does meets resistance, apathy, or indifference . . . all will stop until we make that choice. We will go no further in our maturity - in our walk - and in our obedience - until there is a choice to agree with God and obey.  These were originally shared on Facebook - and there were requests to re-publish them on the church website.
Post #1 - Thought a lot since yesterday and the drama surrounding marriage. There is a storm coming (actually, already is here). There is going to be a battle between who will have "civil rights" when this is done. That is because the Bible has always held homosexual activity to be sin - and will not change regardless of how people voted on Prop 8 in California vote or what the Supreme Court decides. Therefore if homosexuality is considered a civil right, then the Biblical view of homosexuality will be deemed illegal - in free speech rights - in the hiring of church personnel - and eventually in what is taught legally in churches. Those who think this is extreme need to remember that when abortion was first argued in the early 1970's wise people said it would one day be available up to the moment of birth and for things like sex selection - and they were considered extreme. After a comment from a friend in my hometown about how my children would react if they were homosexuals - and that they probably would not come to me - but suffer shame and misery silently - this post was made. Post #2 - Just to let you know, although it was not homosexuality, I've had times with my children where they were walking in some pretty serious sin (from a biblical standpoint). Rather than wait for them to come to me - my sweet wife and I lovingly, yet firmly and boldly approached them. We did so making sure or several things . . . First, that they knew we had sinned in the past (my past involved actually hating Christians and Christianity - and a great deal of sexual immorality). Second, we assured them that although we were crushed and disappointed with their current choices - we would NEVER stop loving them. We assured them that there was nothing they would ever do that would make us reject them as persons - or as our children. Our problem was with choices they were making outside of God's will. Third - we took the time to sit down with them and share the Scriptures - specifically what they were doing that was outside of God's will. We did so unapologetically and with boldness (our confidence arising from God's Word - not from any pseudo-religious standing we thought we might have as parents or me as a pastor). Afterward, we assured them of two things - we would continue to side with God's Word on the moral issue - and second that we loved them very much. Post #3 - My original post was about the political ramifications of the current debate. I have known several people who chose a homosexual lifestyle - have loved them - shared with them - and continue to affirm my love for them personally. God does not approve of their homosexuality - even as He did not approve of my fornication before I came to Christ (and He wouldn't approve of it now either!) There are consequences for a nation when they choose to codify a sinful choice as legal. BUT - as a pastor and disciple of Jesus Christ - my responsibility is to love the person who is sinning, tell them the truth, and let them know that as a fellow sinner - I found grace in the gospel of Jesus Christ. God gave it to me when I responded to the conviction of the Holy Spirit (Who used Scripture to show me my sin) in repentance from my heterosexual immorality (as well as breaking His Law multitudes of times in ways that blew my mind). They can receive the same grace from God as well. The one thing they will have to do, though, is see their choice (homosexuality is a choice - not a DNA driven lifestyle) as sin and be willing to respond in repentance as they turn from it, and faith in Jesus Christ as the only way to pay for their sin and be right with God. Post #4 - Still thinking about the homosexual marriage debate . . . As Biblical Christians we have an interesting number of roles to live out in regard to these days. First and foremost we have our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. That we walk out loving and knowing Him - and do so with humility - always grasping that He first loved us and drew us to Himself due to His immeasurable mercy and grace. Second, we have a dual responsibility to our world which means we will walk a fine line in regard to how the world works. The first of these dual responsibilities is to proclaim the gospel of God's grace in Jesus Christ! That means that we cannot allow the political or social discourse to become so toxic that we are rejected because of our political beliefs alone. The first offense in our lives needs to be the offense of the cross and the gospel. If people are offended with us - it is because we love them enough to tell them of their condition - their true condition of falling short of the glory of God. Here is where we have to be careful that our political discourse does not make it seem like certain sins are "more sinful" that others. Sin is sin - and it all separates us from God - and requires of us repentance and faith in Jesus Christ to be forgiven and to receive Christ's righteousness as a gift so we can stand before God. In regard to sin - I am no different than the homosexual - for we both have sinned against God and we both need pure, unadulterated grace that only comes in the gospel. This ALWAYS has to be our first message to the world. BUT, we also have a second role that comes into focus in times like these - and that is a prophetic one. Especially in a democratic republic like ours - we play a part in our governing process. Therefore when our nation begins to turn from its godly heritage (which is has been going on for probably 60-70 years now - I am not one to say that this is the big issue - we've made choices for many years now - racism and inequality for blacks from the end of the Civil War until the Civil Rights movement of the early 1960's, the free love movement of the 1960's which popularized heterosexual immorality i.e. sex outside of monogamous, heterosexual marriage, abortion in the 1970's, the love of money in the 80's and 90's, and now homosexuality from the 80's to the present) - again, when our nation turns from its godly heritage and wants to codify as law what God calls sin, it is our responsibility to prophetically speak God's Word to our society - not that we predict the future or write new Scripture (which is unscriptural) - but we speak the morality that is in the Bible - boldly and unapologetically to our society. We lovingly, yet strongly state where we are going - and where it will lead. We do so hopefully knowing that it is most likely the case that we will be rejected - mocked - and called any number of names. Yet we do this for God's glory - and for love of the people in the world - and never for any kind of vindictiveness. We remember where WE came from - and that we needed grace and truth to come to Christ too. Finally - we do this for God's glory - knowing that Jesus made it clear that His Kingdom is not of this world. There is a strong possiblity that we will be misrepresented, cursed, spoken evil of - and maybe even arrested and put to death eventually for our stand with God's Word - and with the gospel of Jesus Christ. If I remember rightly - our Founder and Savior was cursed, mocked, arrested and eventually crucified for speaking the truth (wonder what week that happened in history? - oh, yeah, this week!) Just one last admonition for my brothers and sisters in Christ. Hold fast to the Word of God - to the testimony of Jesus Christ - to the gospel of God's salvation - and when you do have to speak prophetically to the culture - SPEAK THE TRUTH IN LOVE! Tough to do - I know - but when we do have to speak prophetically to our culture and our government - we do not want to do so in such a way that will disqualify us from sharing the more important message of the gospel later! (Yeah - just looked at the length of this - and I am a preacher - HA! - and a long-winded one at that!) Love all of you - and especially those I have the honor of ministering to weekly at Calvary Chapel of Jonesboro! God had brought Elijah to Mt. Horeb where He revealed Himself to Elijah. That revelation reminded Elijah that God moved in quiet ways—often behind the scenes of the big and the spectacular. But there was one last thing that the Lord did to help Elijah. We remember that God made Elijah rest and sleep and that He addressed the performance orientation Elijah had. He also helped Elijah see that He was at work whether Elijah saw it or not—and that God’s work did not rest on Elijah alone. The other thing that the Lord did was to get Elijah back into doing God’s will. He also gave Elijah hope that God would finish the work of judgment and revival—even though Elijah would not be there.
After hearing Elijah’s complaints we need to see that God did not directly address Elijah’s gripes. He simply acted as He is—God—and He gave Elijah a will to follow. Yet in giving these assignments God gave Elijah enough information to know that God was going to complete the work He began through Elijah. The instructions were simple—anoint Hazael king over Aram—and Jehu king over Israel. In addition to the anointing of these two kings, he also was to anoint Elisha as prophet in his place. There is something we should learn from these directions. When we are exhausted and overwhelmed—God wants us to rest—but not forever. Elijah had lost his way because God did not solve things completely—the way Elijah wanted. But after God had addressed Elijah’s spiritual condition, God knew that Elijah needed to get back on track and begin serving the Lord again in the things he did. But as God did this—he unequivocally let Elijah know that He was going to work in perpetuity. Judgment would come on the wicked—that was assured. But, it would come in God’s way, according to God’s timing, and through God’s chosen instruments. Elijah unfortunately fell into the thought that everything had to be done through him and while he was alive. God’s plans and purposes go far beyond any one man or woman. They have been carried out in the past—and they will be carried on in the future. No one man can claim to have all the truth and also lay claim to all God wants to do. Our job is simply to take the baton from those in the past—and run the race faithfully until we are to hand the baton to the next person. Elijah had struggled with the passing of the baton. We may be overwhelmed and exhausted because we think God’s work in our area—in our state - and even in our nation and world. Our job should be to run faithfully our leg of the race—and pass the baton. God will eventually finish every race in His own way - with His own chosen people. We would have much more peace and rest if we would once again recognize that race. |
Biblical ArticlesMost of these articles are taken from the Calvary Courier, a weekly newsletter that is sent to the folks who attend Calvary Chapel Jonesboro. Due to the response to these articles, we've decided to print some of them which proved to be very helpful to God's people at the fellowship. 
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