2002-01-01
Hi There Dear Friends,
I had a rather long day yesterday, so I was plenty tired when I went to bed last night. As I’ve often said before, the Lord has His reasons for everything that He allows to happen. In this case, it was to force me to wake up without an agenda, thus making room for His. He is leading me to talk about an issue that can be pretty controversial between Him and us at times, obedience. Our Lord wants us to match what is in our hearts, the thoughts of our heads, and the actions of our hands with His will. Whew! That isn’t always easy to do, if my experience is worth anything.
For a long time now, I’ve shared how much He loves us, cares for us, and stands by us in our times of trouble. The question is what are we willing to do for Him? Not too long ago, I was asked to memorize this verse-one that is wholly revealing:
JN14: 21 [Christ speaking] “Those who accept His commandments and obey them, they are the ones who love Him. The Father will love those who love Me; I too will love them and reveal Myself to them.”
That forced me to see that the best way I could show my love for the Father (and the other persons of the Trinity) was to be obedient. The only way I could do that is to know what the Lord would want me to do. The bottom line is that the only way I could know that was to allow Him to reveal it to me through the Holy Spirit, His Word, prayer, my circumstances, and the church. That also means listening for Him, even when he is speaking to me in a low whisper. Now, if you stop and think about that, it means taking steps to diminish the things in my life that interfere with that. It certainly doesn’t mean becoming a cloistered aesthetic and cutting myself off from the rest of the world, but it does mean giving myself time to be with the Father in study of the Bible and in prayer. It certainly does mean looking at my circumstances in the perspective of the truths that I learn from the Scriptures and trying to see them with a closer perspective to God’s, not the world’s. Guess what? That’s not easy to do, especially when my emotions or fleshly appetites are attempting to take control.
I am reminded of the story of the Jews in the wilderness who began to complain that they wanted to go back to Egypt, because they missed eating meat. They were getting tired of eating the manna that God was providing for them (Numbers 11:1-3, 31-35). Our Lord decided to teach them a lesson. So, he sent a flock of quails to the camp. The people began gorging on them to the point of making themselves ill. They didn’t realize that the manna that God was providing was exactly what they needed in the amount they needed. All they had to do to be able to reach their goal of the Promised Land was to obey God. This could have been done in 11 days, but instead it took 40 years because of their disobedience!
The Sunday school class that I teach discussed the issue of observing the Sabbath rest and achieving the rest that is promised if we will only obey God. In GN 2: 1-3, we learn that on the seventh day, God had finished what He was doing (creating the world) and He stopped working. “He blessed the seventh day and set it apart as a special day…” That set an example that He wanted us to follow. Now, when God wants us to learn something important, He repeats it over and over again for emphasis. He also never commands us to do anything without a reason which is in our best interests. Those are the actions of any parent who loves his/her children. In EX 20: 8,11, God commands us to observe the Sabbath and then tells us why, “because on the seventh day I rested after creating the world. I blessed the Sabbath and made it holy.” The command is repeated again in DT 5: 12. Hebrews 4: 6-10 reminds us of the reason those ancient Hebrews who didn’t obey God didn’t receive the rest of the Promised Land. MT 11: 28-30 is God’s reminder through the Son of the rest that comes from obedience and placing one’s burdens on His ample shoulders. I’ve only skimmed the surface of those citations in God’s Word that act as reminders of this important commandment.
In the initial statement of the ten commandments, God makes the point that we are not to “bow down before any idol or worship it, because I am the Lord your God and I tolerate no rivals. I bring punishment on those who hate me and on their descendants down to the third and fourth generation. But I show my love to thousands of generations of those who love me and obey my laws.” In DT 11: 18-21 through Moses God states, “Remember these commands and cherish them. Tie them on our arms and wear them on your foreheads as a reminder. Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and away, when you are resting and when you are working. Write them on the door posts of yours houses and on your gates,. Then you and your children will live a long time in the land that the Lord your God promised to give to your ancestors. You will live there as long as there is a sky above the earth.” It is clear from this that God wants to be the center of our lives, because He loves us and knows this is best for us. By the way, if you were reading DT 11: 18-21 with an eye to Jewish culture, you will know that this citation along with DT 6: 4-9 are the ones written on a piece of parchment that are inserted into those little boxes (philacteries) the Orthodox Jews wear wrapped around their foreheads and arms. They are also contained in the mezuzahs (slim little items of Judaica) attached to the door posts and gates of a devoutly Jewish home.
At this point, I have to take up the question: How does this apply to us today? After all, the demands of our lives are so great, why should we take off that seventh day from our work? The reasons for this were another topic of discussion in my class. Throughout the Scriptures, God has made it clear that He knows how our temporal responsibilities divert us from worship, praise, thanking, and thinking about Him. God is unchangeable, so His desire to be put at the center of the life of the ancient Jewish believer is the same one He has for us in our time. If you stop and think about it, God wants us to “empty our vessels” of our own temporal and fleshly agendas, so that He has a place to put His. That seventh day is an opportunity for us to push the world aside, so we can hear Him even when He is speaking to us in a low whisper. I keep repeating RO 8: 28 because God keeps urging me to do that. “We know that in all things God works for the good with those who love Him, those who have been called according to His purpose.” Folks, our loving Abba wants us to have that rest promised. He knows we can only do that by obeying Him. I hope you will find comfort in knowing that His love for us is so great that He called us to faith, gave us his Word, sacrificed His Son on the cross, and promised us eternal life in His Kingdom (rest of the highest order).
PRAYER: O Lord, You have commanded us to make You the Lord of our lives, the very center of them. You ask so little and bless us with so much. Help us to examine our lives and find ways to do this. Help us to know that making You the first priority of our lives with richly bless them and lead to eternal life for us. In Christ’s name, Amen.
Peter and I send you our heartfelt love and hope that you will find real comfort in obeying the Lord.
Grace, Rest, & Peace Be Yours in His Name,
Lynn