2003-02-11
Good Morning Faithful Ones,
Each of you is cherished by God and by me. I just had to say that, because I know many of you are using my messages to start your day off with you minds on God. Somehow, when we do this, our day goes better. The other day when we were examining JN 15: 10-15, some important truths seemed to come to the surface. There are times when we are asked to look at the condition of our faith, and hopefully we keep track of that. The question comes up: From where does the strength of my faith come? The answer can be found in (10), “If you obey My commands you will remain in My love, just as I have obeyed My Father’s commands and remain in His love.” Christ’s strength of faith comes from God, and so does ours. The more we listen for God’s commands and obey them, the stronger is our faith. 1) Christ never acted independently of God, and neither should we. 2) We have both power and authority to do God’s work. A part of that work is to be involved in spiritual warfare against the forces of evil. 3) As RO 5: 10-11 has shown us, we see in (12-15, 17), that through Christ, God has made us His friends. We are to love Him and to love one another. 4) Perhaps the most amazing truth of all in this passage is seen in (16), “You did not choose Me; I chose you and appointed you to go and bear much fruit, the kind of fruit that endures. And so the Father will give you whatever you ask of Him in My name.” Even when we were riddled with sin and seemingly had no way out of it, He chose us to be His own. We were saved through faith in His only Son, Whom He sent to the cross for us. That kind of unselfish, agape love simply blows out of the water any rationalization we can conger up for sinful behavior! While we are still sinners, we now can choose not to sin and should make that choice.
Thus, I am led by the Holy Spirit to begin writing about the issue of submission to God. In today’s world where liberals are trying so hard to be all things to all people, even to the point of rewriting the Scriptures and hymn books to be inclusive, we are to submit to the authority of God and His Son, Jesus Christ. I must share a quick story from my own experience. I once belonged to a very liberal Protestant congregation in which I had been asked to teach the main adult Sunday school class. Because of my background, the minister asked me to teach comparative religions using a booklet that a friend of hers had written. This book raised New Age paganism to the level of a world religion, so I was supposed to teach a unit on that. My response, since I had plenty of experience teaching comparative religions before, was to omit that unit without making an issue of it. The minister’s husband, who was also a minister but not of this congregation, was in that class. Along the way, he raised his hand in the course of a class discussion. His comment was, “I’m having trouble with a bad habit you have. You keep referring to God as ‘He.’ How do we know God wasn’t ‘She’?” I told him that the use of the male pronoun here is correct on two accounts. The Bible refers to God as ‘He,’ and in correct English usage, the male pronoun is used even when speaking to a mixed audience of men and women. Women with a good self-image and deep faith realize that and don’t have to fight the “battle of the sexes.” They know that God’s teaching is for both men and women. Such citations as COL 3: 10-11 which come in the middle of a discussion about putting on the new self by coming to faith in Christ reveal this. “…This is the new being which God, its Creator, is constantly renewing in His own image, in order to bring you to a full knowledge of Himself. As a result, there is no longer any distinction between Gentiles and Jews, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarians, savages, slaves, and free men, but Christ is all, Christ is in all.” The fact is that ancient Jewish society was very patriarchal. Today, woman can become rabbis, but that certainly wasn’t the case in Christ’s time or before. The real issue here is whether or not an individual is willing to put on the new self by submitting to God, repenting, and having faith in Christ. No amount of effort on the part of those whose approach to God is rationally based is going to change that.
When it comes to Scripture, God’s word, the Bible, is clear on that. 2 TIM 3: 16-17, “All Scripture is God-breathed and useful in for teaching the truth, rebuking error, correcting faults, and giving instruction for right living, so that the person who services God may be fully qualified and equipped to do every kind of good deed.” Even in going back to the KJV on this citation, the words “man of God” were used, even though this message was not only directed at men. This is only the beginning of what needs to be said about submission to God, and I am led to continue discussing this issue in tomorrow’s message. In the meanwhile, we need to examine our own attitudes about artificial barriers between people we may have set up in our own minds that affect others around us. And we must meditate on how this truth impacts our own circumstances: that God’s teaching is for everyone.
PRAYER: O Lord, just before Christ ascended into heaven, He taught MT 28: 19-20, “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 commanded you. And I will be with you always, to the end of the age.” The words “to all peoples everywhere” are not just for one group of people. In olden days, women were not offered the opportunity to learn certain subjects in school, and women slaves were not even allowed to learn how to read. Any ruling of this sort comes from Satan directly through those who do not understand or believe in God’s teaching. Women are not the only group to suffer from persecution. Certain men, certain cultures, and so on also deal with this problem at the hand of the unrighteous. How sad, Dearest Abba, that such a problem still exists here on earth. Our past history and Your teaching in the Scriptures still hasn’t eradicated leaning on human understanding [PR 3: 5-6]. People still feel that the word, submission, is ugly. When applied to submitting to You, it is exactly the opposite. Real strength and power come from submitting to Your authority, power, and leadership in our lives. That is the one-way ticket to eternal life of joy, fellowship with You, and peace. The words of PS 77: 11-15 are in our hearts today. “I shall remember the deeds of the Lord; surely I will remember Thy wonders of old. I will meditate on all Thy work. And muse on Thy deeds. Thy way, O God, is holy; What god is great like our God? Thou art the God Who workest wonders; Thou hast made known Thy strength among the peoples. Thou has by Thy power redeemed Thy people.” We have so much to learn in human society about Your wonderful attributes and accomplishments. PS 33: 13, “The Lord looks down from heaven and sees every person.” Only in You are we victorious over sin and evil. PS 16: 1-2, “Keep me safe, O God, for in You I take refuge. I said to the Lord, ‘You are my Lord; apart from You I have no good thing.’” When we look into the matter of deciding whether to submit You or not, the alternative to doing this is wholly unacceptable. Therefore, it is with love and reverence that we come to Your throne today to humbly confess our sins and offer You our adoration, worship, loyalty, diligence, glory, honor, trust, obedience, thanks, and eternal praise. In Christ’s name, amen.
As promised above, I will follow the Spirit’s direction and continue writing about submission to God in tomorrow’s message. A biologist studying animal behavior in the field soon sees the innate care that a parent takes for his/her own young. That is the way our Creator, our Parent in heaven, looks at us. Because He loves us, He is vulnerable to great disappointment from mankind. Some very foolish people deliver that disappointment to him with aplomb. They fit into the construct we understand from 1 COR 2: 14. Our loving Abba really does care about each person He created. He really is anxious to bring as many of us as will listen and believe back home to Him. To that end, He urgently teaches us to submit to His superior authority and leadership in our lives. He blesses us by bringing us back under His protection and provision. He is eager to help us open that narrow gate and travel that hard path that Christ spoke about in MT 7: 13-14. That is because He knows it is the only route to eternal life for us. He also knows, just as we should, that the alternative is unthinkable and should be unacceptable to us. That is why Christ tells the story of Lazarus and the rich man in LK 19-31; we can see that once we reject God permanently, there is no way back to Him. Only a God Who loves us so much would allow mankind a way out from slavery to sin that is so rich, eternal, and wonderful through the death of His only begotten Son. Peter and I send each of you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn