Tag Archives: know

LET GO AND LET GOD…

Christian Life, ,

How often we hear this statement, “Let go and let God…!” Where does it originate?

Could it be a modern version of Psalm 46:10?

[10] “He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

No matter what country we live in, no matter the ideologies of those who govern us, no matter the hidden intentions of the people in charge, we will always be pawns in the hands of unscrupulous and incompetent rulers, who sail this ship of state without God, by the evil standards of worldly wisdom, underpinned by “envy and selfish ambition”.

James 3:15-16 NIV
[15] “Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. [16] For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.”

David knew the situation well. He was king of Israel, but he was surrounded by kings of nations who ruled by worldly wisdom. He felt the hot breath of those who had their greedy eyes on his kingdom.

In the ferment of earthly conflicts, David found a place of peace and safety, a place of refuge for those who take shelter in the presence of the Most High.

The Hebrew word, “raphah”, translated “be still”, has the thought of “to slacken”, translated in many different ways in keeping with the context. God says, in the face of wars and conflicts everywhere, slacken your grip on…what?

We can answer that question according to our own personal response to the uncertainties and insecurities of our present circumstances.

We are inclined to hold tightly to our doubts and fears, our worries and anxieties, because these reactions are spontaneous and real. We are plagued by the “what ifs” when storms around us are raging unabated.

How can we, then, find the peace and safety the Bible offers even in the everyday things that happen around us and even to us?

In contrast to the ferment in the world, there is a city, a secure place of residence where we can flourish in the spirit realm, governed by God Himself. David describes it as a place of peace, security, and provision.

Psalms 46:4-5 NLT
[4] “A river brings joy to the city of our God, the sacred home of the Most High. [5] God dwells in that city; it cannot be destroyed. From the very break of day, God will protect it.”

Whatever David saw and experienced, this “city”, this realm which was stable and secure, was the place in which his heart lived in the Israel over which he ruled as king. He was surrounded by enemy nations who were constantly aggressive towards him and his people. God described him as “a man of war”. Yet, in his heart he knew peace because he lived in that city.

David knew what it was like to be harassed by personal and national enemies and even to be at war in his own family…and yet, he also knew the place of peace in the presence of God. He lived in that realm, conducting his affairs and the affairs of his nation from within the walls of that city.

What was his secret? David had learnt to “let go” of everything over which he had no control.

That’s the real problem!

Living in God’s city means letting go of many things that prevent us from enjoying the peace of that realm, those things that tie us to the world and its worldly wisdom.

What things?

Worries and concerns are our way of trying to keep a hold on that over which we have no power.

Do you get it? We don’t worry about the things we can do! We worry about the things we can’t do!

Living in God’s city means that God will take care of every detail, both whatever we can do and whatever we cannot do. There will be no failure of “service delivery” in His realm, no “load shedding”, no incompetent managers who don’t “maintain infrastructure”, and no “potholes” in the streets of gold!

We don’t have to wait until we die to live in that city. In our hearts, we can live there now, carefree in the care of God. We can only take up residence in that city when we “let go” of every hindrance to faith and every obstacle to fellowship with Him and His people.

Those who left their homeland to escape the pressures of an evil government, had to make a clean break with their past. They had to let go of everything they knew to start a new life.

We, too, must let go of whatever we have suffered to live in God’s realm.

2 Corinthians 5:17 NLT
[17] “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”

We cannot drag our old hurts, our self-pity and grudges into God’s realm. Let go, and let God do His gracious work of the real transformation, not from good to bad but from inner strife to peace.
As David wrote…

Psalms 119:165 NIV
[165]” Great peace have those who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble.”

It’s the only way to thrive in a hostile world.

YOU KNOW ME!

Devotion, ,

“O Lord, you have searched me

and you know me.

You know when I sit and when I rise;

You perceive my thoughts from afar.

You discern my going out and my lying down;

you are familiar with all my ways.

Before a word is on my tongue

you know it completely, O Lord.

Psalm 139:1-4

COMMENT

Not only are you the unique creation of God’s handbut also the object of His personal and intimate knowledge.  This can be quite a scary thought if you are thinking, saying or doing what you know is displeasing to Him.  But it’s also comforting to know that God knows you so completely that you don’t need to hide anything from Him.  He knows where you are, He knows your thoughts and He knows your ways.  That means that He knows how you are going to react and what you are going to do before you do it.  Wow!  That’s amazing!  Imagine someone knowing you that well and loving you for who you are anyway.

PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING

Praise the Lord today for His intimate knowledge of you. How does that make you feel?  Don’t you feel loved and special?  Thank Him for being so close to you that everything about you is open to Him.

The Measure Of Truth

Bible Study, , ,

THE MEASURE OF TRUTH

We know that we have come to know Him if we keep His commands. Whoever says, ‘I know Him,’ but does not keep His commands is a liar and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys His word, love for God is truly made complete in him. This is how we know that we are in Him: Whoever claims to live in Him must live as Jesus did. (1 John 2: 3-6)

What a difference between the standards of God’s Word and the standards that are applied in many parts of the church today! In some denominations, doctrine has become the standard of acceptance. As long as its members adhere to the right doctrines – or at least to the doctrines they believe in – everything else is acceptable.

One denomination I know of makes infant baptism the test. If any of its members dares to be baptised by immersion as a believer in obedience to Jesus’ command, he or she is immediately excommunicated because he has “undone his salvation”. Others make premillennialism the criterion. Its members must believe in a secret rapture, an evil antichrist political world ruler and seven years of tribulation before Jesus returns.

Sometimes the standards of the church are whittled down to what is socially or politically acceptable, regardless of what the Word of God says about it. The gay agenda is a case in point. God’s clear condemnation of homosexuality is smoothed over by fine-sounding arguments and rationalisation until it sounds as though we know the truth and God is at fault.

Now I ask, “Where did they find those requirements among the commands of Jesus?”

Peter had blown it badly. He was in the depths of despair because his beloved Master, whom he professed to love, was dead, and he had no opportunity to seek His forgiveness for his terrible words on the eve of His death. Jesus had warned him about a coming test but Peter had brushed it aside with a cock-sure denial of his weakness. “Even though everyone else forsakes you, I will never do it!”

Then it happened. Peter was caught off guard by a servant girl in the courtyard of the high priest’s house. He lied, and he could not take it back. Instead of owning up, he lied again, twice more and then the cock crowed. It was Jesus’ look that undid him. He remembered Jesus’ warning – too late, and that look of compassion cracked him up. He wept as he had never wept before – big, tough, blustering, motor-mouth Peter!

No, it was not that he did not believe in the right doctrines, or that he failed to carry out the right rituals. He lied about his association with Jesus.

But there was a sequel to Peter’s failure. Jesus was back among them, alive, as He said He would do. He found His disciples in Galilee, back fishing. He prepared a delicious fish barbeque for them and invited them to join Him. After breakfast, when their hunger was satisfied, He turned to Peter with an unexpected question. “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”

Not, “Why did you do it?” or “Do you promise never to do that again?” but a simple, “Do you me?” Jesus said nothing about Peter’s failure. Not a word of accusation. Not a whisper of reproach. Just “Do you love me?” Three times, “Do you love me?” Peter must have had to think very deeply about his response. Did he really love Jesus? Why did He ask him that question? Any other question would have been easier to answer.

But, you see, that’s the difference between belonging to a club or organization and belonging to Jesus. We don’t keep the rules because we love the club. We keep the rules so that we are not thrown out. But belonging to Jesus is based on a different criterion.

If you love me, show it by doing what I have told you. (John 14:15 – The Message)

We have already talked about the essence of God’s nature. God is love. Love is the energy that drives Him. Everything about Him is motivated by love. It stands to reason, then, that love is the glue that binds Him to us and, therefore, should bind us to Him.

Our love for Jesus is the power behind everything we do, or should be. If we find it difficult to obey Him, we need to ask the question of ourselves that Jesus asked Peter: “Do I really love Him?” Love is the only force that will keep us in union with Him. When we are driven to obey by the fear of punishment, we are still slaves at heart. When we are motivated by love for Jesus, we are the true children of God.

Not our belief systems or adherence to our church’s requirements, but our love for Jesus, demonstrated by our obedience to what He told us in His word, is the acid test. Our love for Him is expressed by the way we hate what He hates and care about what He cares about. It’s not about keeping rules or else . . . It’s about loving Jesus enough to uphold everything that is important to Him.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com ?

 

 

 

Love So Amazing!

Bible Study, , , ,

LOVE SO AMAZING! 

“‘Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

“‘Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you and they know that you have sent me.

‘”I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.'” John 7:24-26 NIV.

This beautiful, intimate communication between the Son and His Father breathes the atmosphere of tender love. After a physical and geographical separation from Him of thirty three years, Jesus’ taste of living as a human being in time and space, He was on the brink of experiencing the worst that a human being could ever suffer. It was the necessary gateway to His return to His beloved Father to take His place once again with the Father in the eternal realm.

A new position awaited Him if He completed His mission — to reveal the greatest measure of the Father’s love for His fallen world by being obedient to death, even death on a cross. He would be exalted to the highest place and given the highest name in all the universe. He would be elevated to king, ruling over everything, and head of the church, His body, the composite woman who was destined to be His bride when the universe was restored to its original perfection.

Jesus had spent three years imparting to this group of men whom the Father had given Him, the nature of the Father and the enormity of His love for His human race by teaching and showing them what the Father is like and wooing them back to intimacy with Himself so that they would understand how much the Father loved them and desired their love in return.

He had done what He could and finished the task, sowing the seeds of the words God had given Him into His disciples in the confidence that, when He had returned to the Father, the Holy Spirit would continue the work of nurturing in them the knowledge of the truth.

It was time to go. In one last expression of desire, He poured out His soul to His Abba. So precious had these men become to Him that He wanted them to be as close as they could ever be to Him, with Him, by His side so that they could gaze on His glory, the glory He shared with the Father before the beginning of time.

Yes, they had been with Him on earth, listening, watching and marvelling at a human being so different from all other humans that it took every effort of His to teach them that He was truly the Son of God. But this was only preparation for what was yet to come, something so otherworldly that the Apostle Paul could only declare, “No eye has seen, no ear had heard…” No imagination could stretch to embrace so glorious a being whom they were yet to see.

So deep was His love for them that He wanted to share it all, not only His place in eternity with the Father but the environment of love so pure and so all-embracing that He would give them not only His love and the love of the Father but His very position of power and authority in His universe — His throne. To be “in Him” is to be in everything He is and share in everything He owns.

Who can fathom the mystery of being “in Christ”? Through His Spirit we are in such intimate union with Him that our spirits have been fused to His Spirit, inseparably joined to Him so that we have become one. This does not mean that we have become gods! Nowhere in God’s word does He even suggest such nonsense. No, He has restored us to the place of oneness with Him that He created in His first human pair.

It was God’s intention that Jesus, through His death on the cross, would reconcile all things to Himself — “For God was pleased to have all His fulness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood shed on the cross.” Colossians1:19, 20 NIV restoring perfect harmony in the universe, the environment He prepared as a home for His children.

Prayer

Bible Study, , , ,

PRAYER

“After Jesus had said this, He looked toward heaven and prayed: ‘Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted Him authority over all people that He might give eternal life to all those you have given Him.

“‘Now this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.'” John 17:1-3 NIV.

Jesus prayed…Now this is prayer!

He prayed many times during His earthly life. Few of His prayers were recorded for us. Some were brief, sentence prayers…sometimes He prayed all night…but this is the only time we have a glimpse into the words of His communion with the Father. This was not the agonising, blood-sweating Gethsemane prayer.

This was quiet fellowship with His Abba, pouring out His heartfelt desires before the whirlwind events that were soon to overtake Him. There would be no opportunity then to share His heart with Daddy in the silence of the night. In the presence of the men He loved most in the world, He mouthed His hopes and dreams for them and for those who would follow them in faith and obedience.

What emotions were packed into those words, ‘Father, the hour has come’? The “hour” of His suffering had hung over Him from the moment of His birth. It was His reason for coming. It was the pinnacle of His revelation of the Father’s love to a world that would rather not know. It was the final nail in the coffin of His arch enemy and the enemy of all humanity. Did He shiver with anticipation and dread?

The writer to the Hebrews caught the spirit of this moment: “For the joy set before Him He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:2b NIV.

As always, Jesus looked beyond the immediate events to the triumph of God’s final purpose for mankind. “Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.”  We read these words easily enough without understanding the depth of Jesus’ request.

“In the intense pain and suffering I am about to endure; the physical agony of flogging and crucifixion; the emotional pain of rejection, humiliation and betrayal; the searing heat of the devil’s rage against me and the utter abandonment I must face when you, Father, also turn your face away from me, give me the strength to be a perfect reflection of you, your love, mercy and grace, so that the whole world will see you mirrored in me.”

God the Father gave Him, Jesus — this God-man who came from heaven to live the ordinary life of an ordinary human being in a hostile world that hated and rejected Him, and a spiritual realm that fired its entire arsenal of weapons at Him — the authority to give life to all those who believed in Him. Sin had killed them; spiritual death had claimed them and would destroy them forever without His intervention. But they would never rise to new life unless He first died in their place to take the rap for their sin; and His death would accomplish nothing unless He did not deserve it.

“Father glorify your Son…” just four simple words, but a world of desire in them. Once again, Jesus exemplified the heart of a true son. This was not about Him. It was ultimately about the Father…; “that the Son may glorify you.” All He wanted, in this whole cross event, was that the wonder of His Father’s true nature would be revealed to the world.

In one short sentence Jesus forever defined the nature of eternal life — knowing the Father and the Son, because they are one. To know the Son is to know the Father; notice — not know about, but know, implying intimate, personal knowledge and understanding as a husband “knows” his wife. “Adam lay with (knew – yada) his wife and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain.” Genesis 4:1 NIV.

That takes time, fellowship, and obedience!