Living for His Glory

Why do we do what we do and why do we say what we say?  As humans we aspire to greatness.   We are constantly wondering what the people around us are thinking and let us be honest...  we dictate our actions according to those guide lines.  Everything we do around us i actually for the people that witnesses or experience the effects of our actions.  Rejection is a powerful emotion in all species, especially humans and so we do everything we can to avoid it.  Paul has a different opinion thou.

1 Thessalonians 1:4 "but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts."

The other day I walked past a person on campus and we made eye contact.  Now at that brief moment I realized I wasn't smiling so I quickly changed my facial expression and smiled.  This person smiled back.  As soon as he passed I started thinking, did I smile because I want people to experience me as friendly or did I smile because I not only know my Savior lives, but I want to showcase the joy He gave me?  That was when I realized that I didn't have a smile naturally because my focus was wrong as well as my motives.  So many times we are polite or say things not because we want to honor God, but because we want approval from man.

1 Samuel 16:7 "But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

God has never been impressed by acts because He knows the intentions of our hearts.  We are Hid creations and so our sole purpose should be to bring Him honor and glory.  Let's do, whatever we do, to the glory of God and not to the approval of man!  

Parable of the Sower

Matthew 13:3-8 "And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow.4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. 5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, 6 but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. 7 Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8 Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty."

Here is an interesting new perspective on this parable that we hear so often.  In those days Jerusalem was under influence of Roman rule.  The Romans had heavy taxes and so when the farmers sowed, a great deal of tax was taken from their harvest.  Now keep in mind that the good and fruitful soil belonged to the Roman empire.  So these farmers would frequently sow in other soil that was bad, but hidden, in order to make a better living and avoiding the heavy tax.

Now on this soil the Roman empire might have been off your back, but a good harvest was very unprobable since you were now battling the elements like thorns and thistles, the sun, bad soil etc.  Here we hear the classic story of God will provide no matter the circumstance.  The sermon said you should sow on the good ground and forget about the hidden soil despite the advantages it might have.  The lesson we learn here is that God provides in mysterious ways and that we don't have to go outside the law to get God's protection or providence.  See God gets glory out of providing for His children in unlikely circumstances!

1 Peter 2:13-15 "Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution,whether it be to the emperor as supreme, 14 or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people." 

The book of Peter explains it perfectly.  We don't have to have a plan B to be saved. God is all we need!  So serve the way we were called to serve and see how God provides far and above what we can hope or think of!

Resigning from Slavery

Deuteronomy 28:13 "And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you shall only go up and not down, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, being careful to do them,"

We have been made to rule.  The first command to Adam was to rule the earth, the plants, land animals and sea creatures.  He set man over all His work.  Now we know that we are the children of the Most High God, ruler over all.  And so God also gave us authority over all.  We are kings on this earth!

Matthew 18:18 "Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." 

Now with this in mind... look at what is happening around us.  We are bound by our fleshly desires.  There are so many distractions that take our focus from Life and so we effectively become the slaves of our very selves.  The other problem is when we want to step out and start giving ourselves to God wholly, this slave master of ours will make us feel unworthy, reminding us of our sins and what we did wrong.  That we arent worth being vessels of the Most High.

Romans 8:1-2 "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death."

In Romans, Paul assures us that we have been set free.  That we don't have to listen to the enemy breaking us down but that we are worthy of God's service because He saw us fit in the first place to die and pay the price that was on our heads.  This means we need to renew our minds!  Set it on God and ignore false accusations or distractions.  Let God be what we eat, drink, dream about and talk about.  Once we make God our obsession, there is nothing that will be able to draw our attention away from the source of Light and Life!

1 Timothy 6:12 "Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses." 

 Let's step out and be who God created us to be!  It's time to laugh at our slave master before we crush him under our feet.

The Fear of The Lord

How serious do we take God?

Proverbs 9:10 "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight."

Not that this is not fear as in the sweating palms and quick heart beat we get when we realise somone might be in the house!   We know that this God we serve is our Father and that He cals us children.  Now this is a very important aspect and it is needed to know who we are and to have a good relationship with God, but it is no reason to forget who we are dealing with.

Job 39:19 “Do you give the horse his might? Do you clothe his neck with a mane?"

These were only but two of many question God posed to Job in his time of questioning.  It is as if we get cocky in dealing with God.  We tend to take Him as our imaginary friend.  We serve a God that silences the stormy seas, that calmed the hungry lions in the lion's den.  He is the one that holds time in His hands and that hung the stars in their place.  The One that crafted the very fabric of everything we see around us.  He wired the human body with a nervous system as fine as it is yet with the utmost precision.  This is the creator of the universe, the maker of everything we see.

Imagine the results when we start realizing who we are kneeling to.  Imagine the testimonies we will be able to give once we truly fear God!

Poems

Marital Love

The Bible speaks of connectedness

Between God and His creation

A sort of radical effectiveness

By free will and not obligation

It is a Love so pure

Not a human fling

A force that endures

Longer than a wedding ring

It’s far higher and above

Human feeling and emotion

It’s the Love

That calmed the ocean

You are Priceless

Deuteronomy 28:13 "And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you shall only go up and not down, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God...."

I won't succeed in this!  I won't be able to make that!  I am not worth that!  I don't deserve this!  May I ask where did all these statements come from?

We live in a world where art plays a major role in our lifestyles.  Some collects it while other stand back and just simply enjoy the talent.  The artist is always carefully study and by his or her character, you can easily see where the inspiration to the piece of art created, came from.  Some paintings would catch our attention and others we would simply pass, but one fact is for sure... that no one will walk up to the artist and lash out at him or her for making a mess.  We all understand that in terms of art, there really isn't a mess, since every person's view and perspective is different.

Now we know that but why then, if God is the greatest artist of all time, do we criticize His art works?  And you might tell me that you never criticize anyone or that you don't judge others... but this is directed to the person you see in the mirror every morning.  Tell me, who gave you the right to break yourself down?  Didn't the same Master also created you, His prized art work?  We so easily look in the mirror and find fault in ourselves.  We break ourselves down to a point where we feel condemned and guilty.  Where we feel inferior!

Hebrews 10:14 "For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified."

You have been made perfect through Christ.  God now calls you His own.  Stop believing you are falling short cause you are not!  God loves you and He gave His Son to offer up His life for you just as you are!  Our Father is interested in you just as you are, start realizing that!  Never be Ignorant of how God sees you and what He thinks of you.  You are His child and to Him you are everything.   God wasn't kidding when He said He loves you unconditionally.

The Nature of Love

 Mark 12:30-31 "And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Love is not a discipline, a rule or a law.  It simply is!  Day by day we go through the same routines and the same events with the same people we don't really respect or love as we ought to.  Then every Sunday we sit in church and learn about love and how we should love those around us.  As humans do we first go through the guilt feeling cycle and then we proclaim to make an effort in the week to come to love those around us... as soon as Monday strikes we try it  couple of times and after failure we simply give up thee ambition.

Firstly we need to understand that as human being you cannot love the way we should love so clearly the answer does not lie with us trying!  This is about something greater.  To start off we need to change our attitudes towards love.  Jesus said to love your neighbor.  Once we hear that our immediate question is "who is my neighbor?"  In effect we actually asking... who can I skip in this loving campaign.  We need to love ALL those around us and not just some, so stop trying to eliminate those you don't have to love, get over the fact that you need to love every single person and once you changed your attitude you leave room for God to work.

Once we fill ourselves up with God, when there is no more us but Christ... then love comes naturally because it becomes our nature to love just as it is His nature to love.  So keep your thoughts, actions, conversations and focus on God.  Spend time with Him in prayer and studying His word.  Let His thoughts and desires become your thoughts and desires.  Then we can truly love those around us without question.