AM I IGNORING?

Hebrews 2:3a

“For what makes us think we can escape if we ignore this great salvation …”

I used to think this verse was only for unbelievers-those who have yet to trust Christ for salvation.  Not anymore!

This verse is for me.  My salvation is in progress.  Yes, I have trusted Christ as my personal Savior and He will bring me to His house when I die or He returns.  Those are settled facts.  But He continues to help me “work out my salvation with fear and trembling”. (Phil 2:12) 

So, having said that, what’s the next logical thought?  It’s this:  how do I ignore this great salvation?

Well, it’s simple.  I ignore this great salvation …

• ·       when I deliberately choose to ignore God’s commands to me

• ·       when I go my own way instead of His

• ·       when I don’t forgive

• ·       when I say by my words and actions, “Nevertheless, not Your will but mine be done”

I can fill in the blanks with heaped up sins in my own life.  Can you?  Will you?

Let’s NOT ignore this great salvation!  Let’s pay close attention to it!  As God helps us “work out our salvation”, He is glorified, we are blessed with His nearness, and our paths cross with people who need to hear about this great salvation-and we’ll be in the right place to tell them.

Father, please help me today to not ignore this great salvation!

Thank You, Father!  Amen.

NO FEAR!

Acts 5:11

“Great fear gripped the entire church and everyone else who heard what had happened.”

Henry Blackaby says in several of his books that believers today have lost the fear of God.  I believe it.  I believe it because I know my own heart!  I sin so casually, not counting the cost to myself nor to those who are watching me.  And worst of all, I “forget” the nails!

Loss of the fear of God plagues the church today.  We go our own way, deliberately disobeying God’s command to “be holy” as He is holy.  He’s not asking us to be perfect; He’s commanding us to be obedient.  He’s not asking us to be little robot believers; He’s asking us to willingly make the daily choice to fit our feet into His footsteps, to allow His heart to grow into ours so that His agenda is accomplished.

The fear of God is a magnificent thing!  It’s what gives me access to His wisdom, His peace, His plan.  It’s what keeps me out of trouble and allows me to worship Him in Spirit and in Truth.  It’s what makes His presence in my life evident to those around me.  As they say, “A little fear is a healthy thing!”

Father, please teach me daily to fear you reverently;

To walk with you, not cowering in fear, but

With my hand in Yours, always with my eyes firmly fixed

in Your direction so I don’t wander off the path

You’re walking.  I love You, my King!  Amen.

LET'S ROCK & ROLL!

Mark 16:3-4

“On the way they were asking each other, ‘Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?’  But as they arrived, they looked up and saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled aside.”

Can you picture this?  We don’t bury people inside caves anymore.  And when we do bury people, we have backhoes to dig the grave.  So this picture is one we really have to think about and conjure up.

The women were on their way to the tomb thinking about the obstacle they would have to overcome once there.  They were wondering out loud, they were trying to make a plan, they were worrying about that large rock in their way.  What to do?  Could they possibly move it themselves?  Not likely!  Could they hire someone or several someones to do the job?  Also not likely-all they had on them were the burial spices and linens for Jesus.  And dynamite was out of the question, of course!

Imagine their surprise when they arrived and “saw that the stone, which was very large” had already been pushed aside by someone!  The Scriptures say the women were shocked. (vs 5)  And not only was the rock out of their way, but there was a lone young man all dressed up in white sitting there!  You can read the rest of the passage to find out what happened next.

How many times have I had a large stone in my way?  How many times have I stewed about it, tried to figure out a way to move it myself, climb over it, go around it, get some dynamite to get the thing out of my way?  God sometimes places large rocks in our way.  (Or sometimes we put them there ourselves, called disobedience, then wonder why we can’t move forward.)

The point is this:  God had already moved the rock for these women.  He knew it was there and what He would do about it before the women even got up that morning!

There are always obstacles when we serve God.  We might as well just accept that. But He knows they’re there and what He’s going to do about them!  So, I’ll just stop worrying about them and trying to get around them.  I’ll rest in the thought that as long as they’re there, God is still teaching me and He’ll move them when He’s good and ready.  I just need to keep watching Him so I’m good and ready when He does!

Father, thank You for the large stones in my life.  Please help

Me to trust You with them; You will move them or not

Move them as You see fit.  Amen.

THAT OLD ROOSTER

Mark 14:19

“… am I the one?”

As Jesus looked at the Twelve seated around the table with Him, His heart must have been bursting with joy and sorrow at once.  He knew where He was going but His beloved disciples didn’t yet grasp it.  And then He had to say the hard thing to them.

“I tell you the truth, one of you eating with me here will betray me.” 

And with those words, the tone of the evening changed again.  The disciples, by now, had an inkling that Jesus wasn’t there to overthrow the Roman oppressors.  They knew that the plans they’d harbored in their hearts were not in His.  But this?  One of them a betrayer, a traitor?  Unthinkable!  They began looking around at each other.  Which one?  Slowly, I think, very slowly, their eyes turned inward, as they wondered, “Am I the one?” 

It’s always like that, ever since Adam and Eve pointed at each other in Eden.  It takes God awhile sometimes to force us to ask ourselves, “Am I the one?”.

So, I ask myself as I read this passage:  Am I the one?  Have I betrayed Jesus?  The sad answer is “yes”. 

Each time I do not respond to God’s Spirit with a “Yes, Lord!” I am the betrayer!  God requires immediate, complete obedience from His children.  For the creature to say to the Creator “maybe later”, or “You can’t possibly want me to do THAT”; or “I don’t think You understand my gifts, Lord.  I’m not the right person for that job” is disobedience, betrayal.

I betray Jesus when I study a passage of Scripture and immediately apply it to someone else instead of to myself.  I betray Jesus when I hear the voice of God and ignore it.  I can hear the rooster crowing as I type these words!  Am I the one?  Yes!

Father, please forgive me for being the one!  Please

Help me to follow closely in Your footsteps, instead

Of “standing out in the courtyard” as Peter did.

May I recognize the rooster crowing every single time

And immediately repent of my betrayal.  Amen.

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT!

Daniel 11:32b

“But the people who know their God will be strong and will resist him {antichrist}.”

The Scriptures teach that the end times will be terrible days.  Societies will crumble, governments will be corrupt, individual freedoms will pass away into history.  Both public and private morality will be a thing of the past.  Does that sound like a world in which you want to live?  You might be saying with me, “Get me off this planet!”

Those days will be terrible; and dependent upon how the Scriptures are interpreted, believers will have to endure at least part of those days.  To a great extent, these things are being experienced today.  Believers are dying for their faith in many parts of the world.  Our leaders care nothing for integrity; they’re power-hungry.  Crime and perverted thinking has become a “disability”, the word “sin” is hardly used or understood, and God’s Name is a swear word.  So, we’re already in the downward spiral that will culminate with antichrist in the holy Temple, forcing the worship of the “abomination of desolation”. (Daniel 9:27, 11:31a, 12:11)  But then, joy of all joys, after that we’ll see the feet of Jesus once again planted on the Mount of Olives!

“But the people who know their God will be strong and resist him.”

Do you know your God?  Do I?  This verse teaches knowledge of God will be our salvation.  And it seems Paul, in Ephesians 1:17 agrees.  He prays for the Ephesians and us with these words:  “… to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God.”  A focus of Jesus’ prayer for believers in John 17 is that we would know the “word of truth”.

The way to know God is two-pronged:  know His Word (read it, pray over it, and meditate upon it), and obey it.  It’s the second one I get stuck on many times.  But head knowledge of the Scriptures isn’t enough!  I need experiential knowledge, I need hands-on knowledge!  

Obedience to God’s Word is the key to knowing Him; and knowing Him will enable me to be strong and resist sin until the end.  It’s like learning any other skill:  read the book, study it, take a test on it, but if the skill isn’t practiced daily, it’s not truly learned!

Father, help me to learn the skill of knowing You

by daily practicing obedience to

Your specific Words to me.  Amen.