2006-12-29
Good Morning God's Treasures,
Last week we dealt with the question: Who can be saved? from the point of view of materialism. Today, the Holy Spirit directs me to write about what happens when we change from carrying out our own plans to carrying out God's plans. You'll remember that I wrote about us being on the leading edge of a conflict between a God-centered belief system and a worldly one, citing GA 5: 16-17 and RO 7: 14-25. Don't hold back from looking up these two passages to refresh your memories, because they are crucial to understanding the conflict mentioned.
When we carry out our own plans without regard to God's will, there is no inner peace, even when those plans work out. PS 62: 5, "Only God gives inner peace, and I depend on Him," is forgotten. Any satisfaction acquired is ephemeral. If my own experience is any teacher, there are severe limits on what can be accomplished by our own plans. Let me give you an example from my own life. Before I really had any kind of relationship with God and when I was almost 18, I was very unhappy in the household in which I was reared. When my first husband came on to the scene, my parents and his parents got together to discuss a marriage between us. As I saw it then, he was a way out of what made me unhappy at home. He had promised to support me going to college as long as I wanted. This human-crafted union was wrong from the beginning, put together without any consideration or discussion with God. Any promises made at that wedding ceremony meant nothing to my ex, and they were all broken. I ended up putting myself through school, working at weird hours in restaurants and a food factory to do it. This ill-conceived union, set up with the hope of material comfort, went on for fifteen of the worst years of my life before ending in divorce. There is a good reason why 52% of the marriages in this country end in divorce; they were formed for the wrong reasons and, while legal, are without God's blessing. Now that my present husband, Peter, and I are approaching our 30th anniversary. From my experience I can write about the difference between a God-ordained marriage like the one Peter and I have, and one that isn't. The difference is tremendous! God's presence and leadership in any plan made in our lives is essential to its success. PR 3: 5-6, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight."
LK 17: 20-21 answers what I believe is a very important question. "Some Pharisees asked Jesus when the Kingdom of God would come. He answer was, 'The Kingdom of God does not come in such a way as to be seen. No one will say, 'Lord, here it is! or, 'There it is!'; because the Kingdom of God is within you.'" Think about that. The Kingdom of God is within the hearts of those with true faith. Sadly, there are more people in unbelief in the world than those who are true believers in Jesus Christ. That's a sad condition, one which begs us to share the word of God with the unsaved. That's why we find MT 28: 19-20, a command for all who believe at the end of the first book of the NT. "Go, then, to all peoples everywhere and make them My disciples: baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And I will be with you always, to the end of the age." As with everything else, a true believer's heart has a totally different attitude toward material things. That is because of the understanding that we are given that we are but tent-dwellers on earth and that our permanent home is with God in heaven. PHIL 3: 20-21, " We, however, are citizens of heaven, and we eagerly wait for our Savor, the Lord Jesus Christ, to come from heaven. He will changes our weak mortal bodies and make them like His own glorious body, using that power by which He is able to bring all things under His rule."
All of us need the basic material things bought with money to carry on our lives here on earth. But, beyond that, the acquisition of material things can put us in jeopardy spiritually. Values stray from God's will, and idols are established in our lives. As with the golden statute of King Nebuchadnezzar that this kind of Daniel's time set up to be worshipped [DN 3: 1-5], these idols will never substitute for the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob-the One and only real God. His Son, Jesus Christ, is the One and only perfect sin-sacrifice, Who has opened the possibility of redemption to the whole world [RO 3: 24-25; HE 10: 10].
One of the great issues that comes up for churches that are growing and in need of expanded facilities is the temptation to stray for from Christ's leadership in the raising of money or building of new edifices. Not every growing church will stray, because those churches keep Christ in leadership and obey the dictates of God's will. These congregations pray regularly seeking God's will and have the courage to follow it. However, other churches stray from that approach, and soon money raised and fancy buildings become an idol. God's work cannot be carried out in such churches. We all know there are spiritual dangers in people's personal lives when the acquisition of material wealth supplants the seeking and following of God's will for their lives.
PRAYER: O Lord, each time that we come before You, we must remember that You have welcomed our presence at Your throne and urged us to be on our knees with confidence. EPH 3: 12, "In union with Christ and through our faith in Him we have the boldness to go into God's presence with all confidence." You are an omniscient Deity Whose wisdom, when we learn it, is our only way to inner peace. Your compassion and patience with Your human creation is well-documented in Your word. We stand before You to confess that we haven't always sought out Your will and followed it in dealing with material things. Today we are here Lord, to ask You to give us wisdom and direction in our lives as individuals and as members of the Body of Christ in the matter of attitude and actions concerning material wealth. You have told us in PS 37: 23-24, "The steps of the godly are directed by the Lord. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will not fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand." Our lives here in North America are a mine field of dangerous and slippery slopes where material things are concerned. Dearest Abba, we do need You to hold us by the hand and guide us as to what are real needs and what are simply wants. Our past experience often has shown us the pain that human-crafted plans without regard to Your will can bring. We pray that You will guide us in clarity, so that we can avoid more of this pain in our lives. We understand that when we obey Your commands, they will allow You to work through us, even sometimes doing God-sized tasks that no man can do without You. We also understand Your command that we should read, believe, and know well Your word. This is preparation for witnessing to the importance of faith in our Savior, Jesus Christ, and in helping the Holy Spirit bring the unsaved to faith. His Atonement on the cross and our faith in Him is the way You make open to salvation [JN 3: 16; JN 14: 6]. Your glory is beyond our wildest imagination. Your perfection and love for us is more than we can measure [PS 107: 1, 43; PS 143: 5]. In the name of Jesus Christ, we offer You our worship, adoration, and praise. To You belongs the glory forever and ever [PS 115: 1]. Amen.
Next week, I am led to begin discussing more about the spiritual jeopardy in which we might find ourselves when we have a lot of material wealth. That doesn't mean that all wealthy people are straying from God's will; it just means the temptation is greater to do this. God deserves both our willingness to seek Him out and our courage to follow His direction, even when it is difficult for us or we don't fully understand it. We can't help but think of Abram, who left both the belief system in which he was raised, his home in Ur of the Chaldees [a city in today's SE Iraq], and eventually His family to follow God's commands [GN 11: 27-32; GN 12: 1-4, 7] . He surely never knew that he would end up as a father of nations and the original Jew [GN 15: 6, 13-21; GN 17: 1-9], nor could he have imagined that through him would be established the royal line of David—out of which our Lord Jesus, the "Branch from the root of Jesse" [IS 11: 1] would be reared. Our own need to follow God's direction has far-reaching implications. We are not to know our cosmic purpose while still on earth any more than Abraham did. However, there are many ways that we can see God at work in our lives. That is why we need to begin by assessing the many blessings He has given us. Our God loves us so much that we can't even know the extent of it. No person, believer or potential believer, is denied this love [EZRA 8: 22-23]. Nor is he denied entrance in God's perfect time to his permanent home in heaven. Hallelujah!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn