Shalom Aleichem...
Reflections is a weekly Christian Teaching Ministry. Each week we will talk about the Bible and lessons we can put to use in our daily life. We will try to, on a weekly basis, provide to you stories, thoughts, and just easy ways to live your life on a straight path.
THIS WEEK'S TEACHING....September 2, 2019
HAPPY LABOR DAY!!!
This week we continue our look into the Old Testament and four of the most promenent members of Gods' family. I am focusing on these four because they are the foundational characters of the OT. Through these four, the family of God were founded.
This series is not just about characters from the Old Testament. It's about the character God wants to develop in each of us to make who He created us to be. God is far more interested in our character than in our comfort. He isn't going to allow us to stay in our comfort zone and just glide through life. He's going to ask us to step outside of our comfort zone so He can grow our character. He's working in the lives of His children to shape us more and more into the likeness of His Son, Jesus. And an important aspect of Christ-like character is obedience.
One Old Testament person who illustrates obedience is Abraham. Time after time, God called Abraham to obey and step outside his comfort zone. And time after time, Abraham obeyed and stepped outside of his comfort zone and God blessed him as a result. Now, Abraham didn't always get it right. But when he did, God blessed him.
Today, we're going to focus on the beginning of Abraham’s journey with God, when Abraham first stepped out of his comfort zone to obey God in a big way. In Genesis 12:1-4a, where we read of God calling Abraham to leave his homeland to go to the land of promise, we have a beautiful lesson about the requirements and rewards for obeying God.
1. The requirements for obeying God - v. 1
A. A willingness to sacrifice - v. 1a
Even as Abraham willingly sacrificed his country, his people, and his father's household, we must be willing to sacrifice to obey God.
"One can't go with God and stay where they are." - Henry Blackaby
Obedience always requires sacrifice. It will always require the sacrifice of getting out of our comfort zone. Other times, it may require more, like sacrificing something or someone we hold dear. Or we may be required to take the criticism of others. Or we may be required to put our feelings aside, as when God says to forgive those who have hurt us. Sometimes the sacrifice of obedience means giving up possessions or uprooting to physically go somewhere else to do something for the Lord. Obedience always costs. It can cost time; friends; or money. But there's a greater cost.
“It is a great deal easier to do that which God gives us to do, no matter how hard it is, than to face the responsibilities of not doing it.” - Anonymous
When God calls us to obey, whatever the sacrifice, we should keep things in perspective, as missionary, David Livingstone, once put it:
"If a commission by an earthly king is considered an honor, how can a commission by a Heavenly King be considered a sacrifice?" - David Livingstone
We must learn to never refuse God anything. As the old saying goes, "Two words that never go together are "No" and "Lord."
B. A willingness to step out - v. 1b
As Abraham was called to a land he'd never seen, God calls us to a life of faith; which, by definition, means a life we've never known before...“When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the Levitical priests carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it. Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before. But keep a distance of about two thousand cubits between you and the ark; do not go near it.” Joshua told the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you.” - Joshua 3:3-5 (NIV)
If the people were to experience God doing amazing things among them, they had obey the call of God and step out by faith in obedience. The same is true for us.
It was growing dark in the old barn. To little Freddie, who was playing there, it looked very shadowy indeed. Freddie, heard someone moving about in the hay overhead. He heard a voice call out to him. It was his grandpa, who was in the loft above. Freddie's grandpa told him to come up the ladder to join him. But Freddie had never been in the loft of the barn before. He was nervous. He walked over to the ladder that led to the hay loft and looked up. "I can't see the top step," he told his grandpa. Grandpa laughed and said, "Believe me, it's there. Just start climbing, and by the time you reach the top, you'll see it." So Freddie started climbing, and sure enough, when he reached the top, he not only say the top step, but he saw his grandpa. And together, in the hay loft, they were able to look out from the barn to the night sky and view the stars!
It's not easy to step out by faith, but if we would do what God tells us today, we can rest assured that His guidance will be with us tomorrow.
"We should never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God." - Anonymous
2. The rewards for obedience - vs. 2-3
A. We will be blessed - vs. 2a; 3a
God promised to bless Abraham's obedience, and He will bless ours.
"But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it." - James 1:25 (NLT)
How frustrated God must be by our lack of obedience!
Next to the person who does not pay his bill, the doctor's most annoying patient is the one who refuses to follow orders. In an article appearing in U.S. News and World Report, entitled, "When You Don't Follow Your Doctor's Orders," we are told that an estimated $300 billion is wasted each year in the U.S. because patients don’t follow their prescribed treatment regimens, which lands many people in the ER or in prolonged hospital stays.
Now, just as the disobedient patient misses out on the full benefits of health care, the disobedient believer misses out on the full measure of blessing from God in their life!
Remember: "A full measure of blessing from God comes only to those who give a full measure of obedience to God." - Anonymous
B. We will be a blessing - vs. 2b; 3b
Abraham was told that through his obedience to God, he would be a blessing to others. Of course, the chief blessing that Abraham would bring to all nations would be that the Messiah would come through his lineage. Through his obedience, people would come to Christ!
Likewise, of we seek to live a life of obedience to God, we will bless others, especially as they see Christ at work through us and are pointed to the Savior! This is our calling and ultimate reason for being in this world as Children of God.
"You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven." - Matthew 5:14-16 (The Message)
How do we fulfill our call as God's children to be lights in a dark world and point others to Christ? How are we to be a blessing to them in this way? Through living a life of unquestioned obedience to God.
"Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, 'children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.' Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky." - Philippians 2:14-15 (NIV)
The Associated Press ran a story of humorous excuses sent into Leesville High School, in Louisiana. They were compiled by the Assistant Principal, Richard Carter. Some were likely made up by students, while others might well have been written by the parent. The students were given the anonymous names of Mary or Fred. Here are some of the funniest:
"My son is under the doctor's care and should not take P.E. today.
Please execute him."
"Please excuse Mary for being absent. She was sick and I had her shot."
"Mary could not come to school today because she was bothered by very close veins."
"Fred has an acre in his side."
And a most generic excuse: "Please excuse Fred for being. It was his father's fault."
I know you would agree with me that some of those excuses are wild! But so also are many of the excuses we give as to why we do not obey God.
As we began today's message, we pointed out that Abraham didn't always get obedience right. When he did obey as he was called to, he was blessed; when he didn't obey, his life became a mess.
The choice is ours today. To obey or not to obey? To be blessed or to make life a mess?
Which choice are you making? Which choice will you make?
“Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” - Luke 11:28 (NIV)
DID YOU EVER WONDER???
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL BORN IN 1930's, 1940's, 50's, 60's, 70's and Early 80's !!!
First, you survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a tin, and didn't get tested for diabetes. Then after that trauma, your baby cots were covered with bright colored lead-based paints. You had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when you rode your bikes, you had no helmets, not to mention, the risks you took hitchhiking .. As children, you would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a van - loose - was always great fun. You drank water from the garden hosepipe and NOT from a bottle. You shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this. You ate cakes, white bread and real butter and drank soda with sugar in it, but you weren't overweight because......
YOU WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!! You would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach you all day. And you were OK. You would spend hours building your go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out you forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, you learned to solve the problem . You did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no text messaging, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........
YOU HAD FRIENDS and you went outside and found them! You fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents you played with worms(well most boys did) and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever. You made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although you were told it would happen, you did not poke out any eyes. You rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them! Local teams had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! The idea of a parent bailing you out if you broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law! This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever! The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. You had freedom, failure, success and responsibility...and you learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL! And YOU are one of them!
CONGRATULATIONS! What do you think of this e-mail I received? Any truth in it? You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good. And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.
BOOKS OF THE BIBLE...A TEACHING
We continue this week in our abbreviated trek through the Holy Book with 1 Peter...
Who wrote the book?
The first word of this epistle, Peter, identifies the author, who called himself “an apostle of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:1). He wrote this letter to a group of Christians scattered throughout the northern areas of Asia Minor, where he may have previously preached the gospel.
Peter wrote to a group of people that probably included both Jews and Gentiles. The apostle addressed the letter’s recipients as “aliens” (1:1), a word indicating that Peter was speaking not just to Jews or just to Gentiles but to Christians who were living their lives in such a way that they would have stood out as aliens among the surrounding culture.
Where are we?
In this letter, Peter spoke much about persecution, which anticipated the persecution he and other Christians would endure in the final years of Nero’s reign. At the time he wrote, Peter had not yet been arrested, an event that would lead to his martyrdom around AD 66–68. First Peter 5:13 indicates that Peter sent greetings from the local church—calling it “Babylon”—but it’s most likely that the apostle was writing in a common metaphor there. He used the name of the ancient Mesopotamian city as a stand-in for Rome, the modern city that, like Babylon, gave itself over to idol worship and false gods. While the fact is not recorded in the Bible, Peter has long been thought to have spent his final years serving the church in Rome. Based on the numerous references to suffering and persecution in this letter, Peter likely wrote in AD 64, just as the persecution of Christians under Nero was ramping up.
Why is First Peter so important?
First Peter focuses on the importance of believers bearing up under unjust suffering yet continuing to live well (1 Peter 2:20). In this way, 1 Peter might be called the Job of the New Testament, providing encouragement for the true believer to continue on in the way that Jesus has laid out for all His followers. The endurance Peter called these believers to is similar to Job’s, a man who suffered despite his righteousness. Peter maintained that this was the kind of true perseverance that God expects from His people.
What's the big idea?
Living in close proximity to Jesus Christ for more than three years had provided the apostle Peter the best possible example of what it looked like to live in holiness amid a hostile world. More than any other man who walked the earth, Jesus modeled that lifestyle. Peter therefore pointed his readers in the best possible direction, to Jesus Himself. The apostle called Christians to “sanctify Christ as Lord” in their hearts, that believers might live and act as Jesus desires during their short time here on earth (1 Peter 3:14–18). This would include submission to authority—even unjust authority—in the government, in the home, and in the workplace. Jesus becomes the focal point for ordering one’s life in the midst of trials and tribulations. By rooting their perseverance in the person and work of Christ, believers can always cling to hope in the midst of suffering.
How do I apply this?
Unjust or unforeseen suffering is one of the great problems that grips the hearts of people today. We struggle with frustration, anger, and uncertainty when trials strange and unexpected land on our doorsteps. Too often in those most difficult moments of our lives, confusion reigns while contentment wanes; questions arise while prayer subsides.
How do you react when suffering comes? Many crumble at the mere thought of another pain or trial. Others rise to the occasion. Most of us are probably somewhere in between. Peter’s encouragement to his Christian readers is one of perseverance in faith. It isn’t enough for us to simply get up every morning and trudge through each day; neither is it advisable to paste a smile on our faces and ignore troubles. Instead, the lesson of 1 Peter is to push through the troubles, recognizing their temporary presence in our lives while walking in holiness and hope as people of faith.
So press on! It is in the darkest times that our collective light shines brightest.
HAVE A SAFE AND BLESSED WEEK:)
Ho'omaikaʻi ka Pua iā kākou