We Do Not Get Everything We Want

"Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all....Test all things; hold fast what is good.  Abstain from every form of evil."  (From 1 Thess. 5) 

 

Yesterday we referred to the Scripture which says, "the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other."  We said that love is not primarily a noun.  It's a verb, and that love is best expressed not in the saying or feeling, but in the doing.  Our text reminds us, however, that love must not be what Mumford once called, "Sloppy agape."  The text speaks of warning, comforting, upholding, patience, testing, and abstaining.  It reveals that doing loving things does not mean that we give everyone their own way.  The baby boomers had that, and just look at America today.  The children of the Spock books were given a free hand in life.  Now America is dominated by an amorality in government, education, entertainment, and the news media.

 

Giving a child everything, "Well, I just want my kids to have what I didn't," may sound "loving," but can be very destructive.  They grow up thinking the world owes them everything, whether you or the "world" can afford it. America finally elected a government which is doing just that.  But the same principle is true in the Church.  Some times it is necessary to tell people, "You can't do that."  Now they indeed may leave your church, but "Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins."  The "sinner" referred to here is not the "unsaved."  It is a Believer who thinks he knows everything, and any time someone corrects him, he considers it an affront to God.  After all, "The Lord spoke to me!"

 

Jesus Christ came into the world to save you and me, not to us our way.  If you do not receive everything you want from the Living Triune God, don't get angry.  He just may be turning "a sinner from the error of his way."

 

Father, in Jesus' Name, I confess at times I think I know best-- wretched stupidity.  I thank You that You just keep being my Father.  Amen.

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*    Some new, great stuff at:    www.antipasprayerforce.blogspot.com

*    Please continue to pray for this fall's missions.  

 

 

"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2

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...."And Have Not Love"?----- I Might As Well Forget It!

"We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other,...that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ."
(2 Thessalonians 1:3 & 12)

This is the command, not just a prayer for the Church Universal.  Now some may say that these verses are not "connected."  No, they are not, that is chronologically.  But they are theologically.  In short, when "the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other," I can think of no better way "that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ [is] glorified in you, and you in Him...."

Every one of us has either someone whom we do not like or have had a "falling out" with, or at least, someone who has the same attitude toward us.  If we as Believers in Jesus Christ do not solve this problem, we might as well stop church------  "and have not love, I am nothing," literally in the Greek, "an absolute nothing, zero."  Translation: Forget worship, prayer, missions, church activities, giving to the poor, witnessing, etc.  if, "have not love," rules in any of us, in any local church, everything we do is all for naught, nada, zilch------------- Zero! 

So how do we start?  I still remember my Dad's answer when I once asked him, "How do you love people you don't like?"  He said, "Do loving things."  What a great theologian!  Biblically, love is not a noun.  Love is a verb.  Jesus did not speak of love as a feeling.  He spoke of love as a command!  Love is not something we feel.  Love is something we do.  How different our Church and culture would be if we allowed the "God-Breathed" Word to disciple us rather than Hollywood.

This may sound like an "altar call," but really, do you have someone that you just do not like?  Thus says the Blessed Trinity, "Get over it!" Do something loving for that person.  Someone once said that if you do something for 21 days it becomes a habit---------- blessed addiction!!

Father, in Jesus' Name, I pray that Your definition of love will be a description of my life-- patient, kind, not jealous, does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." Amen.
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*     Read what Obama's socialism will do to small businesses at:
     www.antipasprayerforce.blogspot.com
*     Please pray with us about the intense mission schedule this fall.

"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2



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"A Foolish and Stupid Nation...Its People Have Turned Away From God"

"The people are like the dead branches of a tree, broken off and used for kindling beneath the cooking pots.  Israel is a foolish and stupid nation, for its people have turned away from God."
(Isaiah 27:11, NLT)

If that was true of Israel, what does our text say of the United States of America?  The foolishness and stupidity of Israel was not of an intellectual nature.  It was of a moral, disobedience nature-- they "turned away from God," and so too America.  I saw symptoms of "a foolish and stupid nation" in my reading in the Psalms today.  Psalm 73:9-11 says, "They boast against the very heavens, and their words strut throughout the earth.  And so the people are dismayed and confused, drinking in all their words. 'What does God know?' they ask. 'Does the Most High even know what's happening?'"  The press, the present White House and Congress, and the majority on the Supreme Court, even in the American church we hear the "boast against the very heavens, and their words strut throughout the earth."  What is the result?  "....The people ( i.e., the "foolish and stupid") are dismayed and confused, drinking in all their words." 

But do not be so quick to condemn the present generation.  Those of us who stood by and did nothing when "a foolish and stupid nation" told Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, that we no longer wanted His "God-Breathed" Word and His Prayer in our school system, and later stood by as the nation declared a war of extermination on the unborn, we are just as guilty of foolishness and stupidity.

Now what?  Has America passed the "point of no return?"  I really cannot say.  But I know that any individual who follows in the steps of Enoch, Noah, Abraham, "Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets" will escape "those things which are coming on the earth."  Of course we continue to pray for America and the nations of the earth.  We look to the Living Triune God in Jesus Christ, and say with the Prophet Joel, "Who knows?  Perhaps he will give [us] a reprieve, sending [us] a blessing instead of this curse.  Perhaps [we] will be able to offer grain and wine to the LORD [our] God as before."

Father, in Jesus' Name, even so, may You have mercy on the American Church, on America--------------------- and on me, too many times in life, "a foolish and stupid" person.   Amen.
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I have committed to go to Israel in October for the Volunteers for Israel program.  The cost is around $1400.  I know, I still owe about $2000.00 on the Berlin/Albania mission, but, hey, why stop now, right? 


"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2



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"For The Kingdom"

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <Sforest@aol.com>
Date: Tue, Jul 14, 2009 at 12:00 PM
Subject: "For The Kingdom"
To:


"Then He said to them, 'Therefore every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old.'" (Matthew 13:52)

I use the NKJV unless otherwise noted, and the footnote in my Bible for the word, "concerning," is, "for," but neither word is in the Greek text.  So I checked on the words for, "scribe," and, "instructed," and here is what I came up with-- "Every learner and writer who is a pupil, a scholar, and a disciple is to serve and live 'for the Kingdom.'"  It came to me with sobering clarity.  It was as though I could hear the Lord Jesus say this to me earlier this morning:  "The purpose of all that I have given you, your learning, your scholarship, your discipleship is 'for the Kingdom.' Now, keep going."

Of course we don't need to say the obvious.  Jesus "came to seek and to save that which was lost."  He did not come to "use" us.  When people say, "I just want to be used of the Lord," I think I know what they are saying, but the Lord Jesus Christ is not a "user!"  Jesus is
Savior, Shepherd, Giver.  "For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives...,"------ and gives, and gives.  Okay, we have established that.  But the "word" which came to me today is that I am not to have the attitude of a "taker."  My life, my "work," my everything is "for" Jesus Christ and "for the Kingdom of Heaven."

Here is "my" word today, a word which seems so foreign in today's religious culture.  "Every disciple of Jesus Christ is 'instructed for the kingdom of heaven...."  Today I gladly affirm that my instruction all my life, all that has been invested in me, is not for selfish pursuits, self glorification, or hope that people will say how wonderful are my devotionals, etc.  Every teaching, every miracle, every blessing, everything of which I am the recipient is only------- "for the Kingdom." 

Father, in Jesus' Name, what a word to my heart.  Grant me grace to walk in it, in You.  Amen.
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News, commentary we need to walk prophetically @: www.antipasprayerforce.blogspot.com

"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2



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"My God of Mercy" (Photo Below)

 "My God of mercy shall come to meet me....For God is my defense, My God of mercy. (From Psalm 59:10 & 17) 

 

"My God of mercy."  I can think of no greater description, no more wonderful "Name" of God than this------------------ because this is just Who He Is, "My God of mercy."  Many speak of "the mercy of God" as though He were some cold god dispensing some sort of cold mercy.  He was not such to David.  The shepherd/warrior/king/"sweet psalmist of Israel" was saying that God is "my God of [my]...mercy.  David was not appropriating mercy.  He was "appropriating" God Himself.

 

I don't need an attribute, nor some distant "grace."  The mercy of God needs to be my mercy.  Some speak of God's mercy as though it is a wonderful thing to speak of, and even something they have seen others receive.  But David's victory came when he saw that God's mercy was not just something sort of "hanging" out there, but his very own.  God's mercy is my mercy.

 

Jesus revealed The Living Triune God as deeply Personal and Relational.  Jesus did not say, "Come to my salvation, my healing, my mercy."  Jesus said, "Come to Me."  As He was "cutting covenant" with Abraham, He said, "I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward."  This is the true Biblical Theology of God----- "I Am."  From the very beginning, God has always revealed Himself as, "your shield"-- "your exceedingly great reward,...my light and my salvation....He only is my rock and my salvation; He is my defense"- and most comforting today, "My God of mercy."

 

Father, in Jesus' Name, I am so thankful that You do not just give mercy.  You Are "my God of mercy."  Amen.  

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Gregor Menga, Albanian church planter in Kosovo sent this photo of me, him, and Pastor Rick Wiater taken in Kosovo, November, 2005

www.antipasprayerforce.blogspot.com 

 

"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2

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Summer concert season is here! Find your favorite artists on tour at TourTracker.com.