God's instructions never change…

But since we were torn away from you, brothers, for a short time, in person not in heart, we endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face, because we wanted to come to you—I, Paul, again and again—but Satan hindered us. For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy. Therefore when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone, and we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s coworker in the gospel of Christ, to establish and exhort you in your faith, that no one be moved by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this. For when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction, just as it has come to pass, and just as you know. For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain. But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us, as we long to see you— for this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction we have been comforted about you through your faith. For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord. For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God, as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith? (1 Thessalonians 2:17–3:10)

In the days when all devotions were written by hand, I kept them in file folders sorted by the books of the Bible. For some unknown reason, I want to those files today and this is the first one I read. It was written in August 20, 1983, over forty years ago… on this same passage!
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“When I stand before Jesus Christ, what will be my joy, my hope,The thing that I glory in? Will it be the stack of notebooks filled with Bible study? Or the paintings on the wall? Or the garments made, or the sweaters knitted?
No, it will be the Wallaces, and the Dons, and the Ginas. It will be people. It will be (names of my children) maybe my husband (dare I say I influenced him?) and will be perhaps others that for my pride God could not even show me.
So to hang on to the hobbies, to anything too tightly may be to miss the opportunity to grab hold of someone that could stand with me in the presence of the dear Lord Jesus Christ when He comes.
Lord, help me to put people first, and to be ever sensitive to their feelings and their needs. Help me to not miss any opportunities but to always be listening and watching — to You and for them. Just get with it with people.”
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Since 1983, we have moved many times and often found people unwilling to get too close since they knew we would be moving, sometimes in a year, sometimes in a few weeks or months. However, the list of people we have met and spent time with is long. Some names on those older prayer lists are now unknown. Today, I must define faith as God knows who they are and where they are in their spiritual journey. My hubby is solid and spends time with other men, both saved and not there yet, who appreciate his faith and care for them. I’m not as involved as he is but still caring for people, giving time when I can, and praying for those in need when hands-on is not the answer. 

Lord Jesus. I’m still learning how to put people first, especially those who resist all Your goodness and seem upset or angry all the time. I still need wisdom and still need to keep my focus on You so I know what to do, when and how to do it, and how to deal with so many who reject Your grace and wisdom. Sometimes the darkness in this world is overwhelming. Please enable me to keep in Your will and not give up.

 

Pressing On

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. (Colossians 2:13–23)

In learning what it means to walk in the Spirit and not the flesh, I’ve found this is not about outward actions as much as inward motivations. Am I listening to God and doing what He commands, or am I doing what I do for personal reasons?

At my age, I’m aware that if I don’t eat right and exercise, my body will suffer. So do I eat right and exercise to avoid suffering? Or to avoid problems that will keep me from serving the Lord?

I make quilts to give to needy people. Does the desire to show off the design skills God gave me motivate my sewing sessions, or am a motivated by a love for those who suffer from various things, including a lack of love?

Am I polite to telemarketers just to be nice, or to show compassion to a caller who may be in a slave situation and making the same calls over and over because they cannot escape?
Closer to home, do I help my hubby with his computer woes because I love him, or to stop his complaining so I can get on with my own work?

The Bible often uses extremes and outward behaviors to identify the flesh:

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. (Colossians 3:5–10)

Yet I know that all of these begin inside my head if I walk in the flesh. Most of them might never show up in actions, but God wants a pure heart. How much easier to walk in the Spirit who gives these attitudes than to fake it with “right” actions: 

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. (Colossians 3:12–15)

The rest of this reading says I’m to “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” for such thinking and the results are from His thoughts, not the selfishness of my flesh.

Lord, sometimes I put on the right behavior, but having it flow from Your Spirit which motivates all parts of me is what You really want. Not that I have arrived, but I’m so thankful that You have shown me the difference as You persist in changing my heart. I will keep pressing on and looking forward to being like You when I see You face to face.

 

Walking in Christ

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me. For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ. Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. (Colossians 1:24–2:7)

How did I receive Christ? I was searching for answers to what happens when I die, even reading a book on reincarnation. Then Jesus came into the room and into my heart. It was a surprise, and without any thoughts on my part to say NO. Walking in Him has become just like that. He appears in words, thoughts, actions, and I respond without protest. Well, most of the time.

Part of that response is having a mother whose mantra was, “We must need it or we would not be getting it” so accepting what is happening is reasonably easy for me. But the greater influence is that Jesus wants the best for me. He showed it to the Colossian church in the love and care for them by the Apostle Paul. 

To learn this love can be a battle. Many Christians think that the best life for them is comfortable, secure, and without stress. When trials come, prayer is for their removal, and sometimes God does that because the trial may be from the enemy who says God does not want the best for me, so stop trusting Him, Otherwise, like mom said, if God has a purpose for it, I need to seek that and track with Him to accomplish it.

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2–4)

This is why Paul could rejoice in his sufferings. He had it figured out. Not only were those trials for his spiritual growth, but he was sharing in what Christ suffered — and His suffering had an even greater purpose. Without it, there would be no salvation or eternal life for anyone. Paul knew that his own obedience also could be used by the Lord to reach many people with His good news!

Jesus, I cannot duplicate my salvation experience except to wait on You to tell me what to do and then do it, in faith that You will use it as only You can. May You be glorified in whatever any trial happens to be.

 

Impossible situations…

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved. (Philippians 3:12–4:1)

When a person is hurting because of the actions of others, trusting the Lord seems the best counsel. However, if that person keeps tossing out self-help ideas what do they need to hear? What if they insist on being right and the others are wrong, yet most of their ideas to “fix” it are also far from godly? 

I remember asking a pastor why God kept giving me such tough cases to disciple. He said it was because I was such a tough case myself. That was decades ago, yet it taught me to also ask the Lord what He trying to teach me as I work with this person who continues to ask me what she should do. I’ve learned that what I think is not always from the mind of God. 

Paul writes that he is not perfect but pressing on because he belongs to Jesus. Good advice. Yesterdays sermon suggested that when people ask me what I do, I should first tell them who I belong to and therefore, this is what I do. This person knows who she belongs to, yet cannot seem to focus on that truth and is doing many foolish things.

Paul says: Forget the past and press on. And if not able to do that, He will reveal why not. The lady who keeps rehashing her problem needs to do that too — focus on  what she knows is true. Her faith is there, but continually challenged by anger, revenge, and self-pity, all prodded by the enemy’s lies and reminders. She cannot stay with “I trust Jesus” for more than a few seconds. She needs to confess all that and see it for what it is — lack of faith in Him to take care of these problems she cannot fix.

This applies to me too. I cannot change her life or the lives of those who set themselves against her. I can only trust Jesus, only being a silly word in this case. What else is there? No one and nothing.

Pressing on in the face of problems bigger than myself requires faith. The Bible says that if we do our own thing rather than trusting God that “whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.” (Romans 14:23) I told this woman, and tell myself, that if she tries to fix this in her way and without His direction, she needs to confess that as sin.

Jesus, this situation seems impossible to me. I ask You to also make it seem so impossible for her that she has to fall on her knees before You and stop all personal effort. For me, that is also my need, but not an excuse to stop encouraging her to recognize her own sin, to keep short accounts, and to trust You with all her heart. She knows Proverbs 3:5. (Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding) Play it over and over in her mind seems a good idea, yet I don’t know what is best for her and will bring You glory. May Your will be done — in me too.

 

Yielded = obedience plus more…

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life. . . .  (Philippians 2:12–16)

Thinking about Jesus being fully human and fully God raises a question: in which nature did He do His work here on earth? Without including many Scripture references, I have to say it was in His human nature He obeyed His Father (“not my will, but thine be done”) yet He was totally yielded not only to the will of God, but relied on Holy Spirit power to speak, heal, pray, and die for us.

In other words, Jesus perfectly demonstrated what the above passage tells me to do. He didn’t need to “work out His own salvation” for He is sinless, yet the nature of God worked in Him. He did all things without complaining or debating, shining as the Light of the world and totally fulfilling the Word of God without any sin or resistance to it. I’m to live the same way.

For me, the fear and trembling comes in because my human nature tends to want its own will. Not only that, until I know the will of God through His Word, the enemy lies to me in subtle ways. His devices are not always easy to spot when I cling to my ideas or the values of the world. My spiritual battles are only won the same way as Jesus won them — by holding fast to what His Word says and by letting Him rule my thoughts, words, and actions.

Human nature, called the flesh or old nature in the NT, tends to want to be in charge:

Do not now be stiff-necked as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to the Lord and come to his sanctuary, which he has consecrated forever, and serve the Lord your God, that his fierce anger may turn away from you. (2 Chronicles 30:8)

However, Jesus did not give into “my will” as to do anything His Father wanted, even to the point that He “cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.” (Matthew 27:50) He had to do this because with the indwelling Spirit of God, no one can die. (See 1 John 5:11-12)

He also said, “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.” (John 10:18)

Jesus, because You live in me, I can yield all to You, even my very life. Last week I told my pastor I wanted to live to 100 and “so far God hasn’t argued with me” yet I know that one day You will ask for Your Spirit to return to Yourself, but rather than leaving me, I will go with it and spend eternity with You.

 

The way up is down…

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:5–11)

God is one unique being in three persons. Human beings are many persons, but one being — human. We cannot change our being but in redemption God changes the nature of those persons who put their faith in Him. He unites Himself to them and in doing that, we are partakers of His divine nature and can behave like Him.

Put that the other way. Jesus is God who took on human likeness. He took on the personhood of man making it possible for humans to see what God is like. Not only that, He was obedient to the necessity that human sin must be punished by a human being taking sin’s death penalty. But that person could not do it if he had his own sin. 

The sacrifice must be spotless. Only the sinless Son of God who took on human form could bear that shame and set humanity free from out guilt. Our part in all this is to realize what He has done — and the Holy Spirit makes that happen, and enables us to believe it by the gift of faith that God grants to those who hear Him.

This Jesus, fully man and fully God, is highly exalted. My puny mind can scarcely grasp the truth of who He is and what He has done. Yet He has made it plain to me. He even says that someday every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that this is true. God became a man without losing His being as God yet taking on the being of human so He could save us from sin. And He did it by humble obedience.

The wonder of this causes my knees to bow and my tongue to confess that He is Lord to the glory of the Father. I know it is true, not because I am special. Human beings and God's Beings are not in the same category and only the triune God has the power, ability, or even the right to communicate with humans. Sin put us in a state of not listening, not even wanting to listen, only to want to run our own lives. 

Some fear God as in being terrified of what He would do to them. Some say He does not exist. Some think He is an old man in the sky that loves us too much to punish us. Whatever the human view of God might be, the God-view of humans is:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

And that God-man came to empty Himself and die to give us life. This is the example: to have that life, each human needs also to humble ourselves and admit our need and our inability to make that life happen without Him.

Jesus, You are Lord to the glory of God and You did that by becoming a servant, my example of how to live with this new life of Yours. Humility is not a normal choice for most humans, including me, but with You, all things are possible. Thank You.

 

The Major Task…

 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak. (Ephesians 6:10–20)

This passage seems to have been written directly to me. Even though prayer is hard work, difficult to maintain, and easy to put off until later, I’m very aware of the wrestling match. Last night I dreamt that evil people were trying to take my children. It was a physical battle with prayer warriors from our church helping me. I woke up feeling exhausted.

The instructions above list commands related to correct theology. No one prays if they think they can handle all issues by themselves rather than being strong in the Lord and wearing His armor. No one prays well unless they realize who the true enemies are — not other people or the distractions and allurements of life, but spiritual forces of the devil and his minions. 

Not only that, if I believe a lie of any sort, or think I am good in myself, or worry all the time, or have trouble trusting God with everything, prayer will not be easy or even happen. I need to be filled with His Spirit and praying with His Word and truths, and directing most of my prayers for the effectiveness of God's people and myself in sharing the gospel with great boldness.

Paul did it while in prison. Even there, he considered himself an ambassador, a citizen of heaven living in a foreign land and speaking for his King. He battled the darts of the evil one that bombarded him with all sorts of lies in an attempt to get him to stop. I relate to this and to the idea that I won’t always know what to say. Yet God promises to protect me, not allow me to be tempted without a way of escape, and always gives me words to say as well as the boldness needed to say them.

Jesus, trusting You is far easier when I don’t foolishly trust myself. Any ambitions that I can handle any issues without prayer make the devil clap his hands. He knows that persisting in my will messes with Your will being done, and he knows when Your will is done, he is a loser. Keep me alert to the identity of my real enemy and not put that tag on other people. Keep my heart certain of all that You have done to give me warrior status that I can stand and speak for truth and support others who do the same. We cannot do it without You or the armor that You have so wondrously supplied. Help me overcome any tendency to shirk this incredible responsibility.