What are you here for?

I read a great comment over at Dave Blacks blog today, that got me thinking.

But no matter what happens, our calling is to live in the confidence that God is always in control. Life itself is a lethal disease. Paul called it “the law of sin at work in my members.” From the moment we are born we begin to die. Believing that God can turn anything into good is what makes life bearable.

For context – Dave’s wife has cancer, and is due for another checkup on the progress of the treatment. But despite this, their life and work goes on. Dave teaches New Testament Greek with a passion that is obvious (Sorry, I don’t know a word, but I am encouraged to try – maybe someday I will get the DVD set and give it a go!). On the side Dave and his wife Becky do a lot of work with missions to Ethiopia. Despite the obvious struggles in their life, they get on with what God has called them to do.

So, what has God called me to do? What has God called you to do?

You are still here on this planet reading this post. So, God still has a use for you. God still has a use for me.

Now, I’m sorry, I can’t tell you specifically what God wants for your life, but I did post some guidelines for What is God’s will recently. Maybe you need to quit your job and enter the ministry, or go to full time missions. Maybe you need to work hard to support your family and put your time and prayer to ministry and missions, sharing with those around you. Maybe God has blessed you with an abundance that you can be a generous supporter of those He has called to full time ministry.

Whatever it is, God has a purpose for you until the moment He takes you to be with Him.

So, Go find it!

Anyway, I opened a Bible study site I use often, and it opened to this Psalm. I don’t know why it opened there, I can’t remember reading here recently, but I know it spoke to me straight away.

Do not trust in man, in nobles, and by extension in governments, leaders, rulers, or even yourself. But put your trust in God, as He will provide.

Maybe it will speak to you as well.

Psalm 146 (HCSB)
Hallelujah!
My soul, praise the Lord.

I will praise the Lord all my life;
I will sing to my God as long as I live.

Do not trust in nobles,
in man, who cannot save.

When his breath leaves him,
he returns to the ground;
on that day his plans die.

Happy is the one whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord his God,
the Maker of heaven and earth,
the sea and everything in them.
He remains faithful forever,
executing justice for the exploited
and giving food to the hungry.
The Lord frees prisoners.
The Lord opens [the eyes of] the blind.
The Lord raises up those who are oppressed.
The Lord loves the righteous.

The Lord protects foreigners
and helps the fatherless and the widow,
but He frustrates the ways of the wicked.

The Lord reigns forever;
Zion, your God [reigns] for all generations.
Hallelujah!

I think God is also the God of coincidences, guiding us in ways we do not know or see, to bring us to the place He wants us, for His glory, and so that all things will work out for Good – because He loves us.

Here are a couple of interesting facts about sheep. They prefer to be in flocks and they will generally follow a leader. That leader doesn’t need to be a sheep, sheep will ‘learn’ the face of their shepherd and follow them as well. Also, sheep do not like to be separated from their flock – in fact forced separation will often cause stress, which can lead to illness and death.

On a totally different topic, how do you think these words relate to you? Intelligent, smart, capable, strong, self reliant, accomplished, adept, skilful and talented. Now maybe you would take them all for yourself, but I am sure most of us would pick at least one or two of those to apply to areas of our life.

Quite simply, we are none of these things.

We may seem competent, knowledgeable, adept and skilful in many things. But in reality, we are powerless, able to only subsist, to get through this life with the bare minimum. Yes, we can have ‘good’ lives, because we have defined ourselves what is ‘good’. Yes, we can have lots of stuff, and we think that is great, because we have decided that having stuff is good.

But really, we are just like sheep. We were or are completely dead in our sins – with nothing we can do about it. This speck of a life we live, that is here one day and gone the next,  is but a blink of an eye in comparison to all of eternity. And eternity is what is at stake, because God can’t stand sin. Therefore, He will punish all sinners with eternal punishment. And there is nothing we can do about it.

Or at least, there was nothing. Because Jesus came to this world, lived a perfect life and then died a substitutionary death, that our sins would be covered by His blood for all eternity. And since that has happened there is one thing we can do – accept Jesus to cover our sins. We can recognize we are not competent, not capable, not able to do anything – and come to the good shepherd to be saved.

Because He is the good shepherd, and we are the sheep. We can choose to run off and do our own thing – but that will just mean stress, pain and death in the end. Or, we can follow the good shepherd, who will look after us in this life, and the next.

Sometimes I like to think I am capable. I know sometimes I do a good job at work – but that is the best I can do. A good job in a short career. But I know that I am weak and powerless, and it is through the power of God that I can be truly saved and strengthened, and in the end, do all things in Christ who strengthens me.

The good shepherd is calling His sheep, “come home, be safe, be warm, be fed, because I have defeated the enemy.”

Will you respond?

As some of you will no doubt know, my favorite series of fiction books is Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. With that in mind, I hope you will forgive the quote below straight from Fellowship of the Ring.

Bilbo flushed, and there was an angry light in his eyes. His kindly face grew hard. “Why not?” he cried. “And what business is it of yours, anyway, to know what I do with my own things? It is my own. I found it. It came to me.”

“Yes, yes,” said Gandalf. “But there is no need to get angry.”

“If I am it is your fault,” said Bilbo. “It is mine, I tell you. My own. My precious. Yes, my precious.”

The wizard’s face remained grave and attentive, and only a flicker in his deep eyes showed that he was startled and indeed alarmed. “It has been called that before,” he said, ‘but not by you.”

“But I say it now. And why not? Even if Gollum said the same once. It’s not his now, but mine. And I shall keep it, I say.”

My Precious! I wonder, in our lives, do we have things that are the same, our very own ‘precious’? I am sure that none of us have magic rings (though if you do, please let me know, I would love to find out I am actually living in Middle Earth), or that most of us don’t have things so dear to us that we would follow someone to the death to retrieve them, biting off someones finger just to get it…

But I know in all of our lives there are things that are close to us – important to us. Take a moment – what are the things in your life? (for the sake of not spending all day, let’s exclude family from this list – just ‘stuff’)

For me? I am a technology person. I’ve been surrounded by technology almost constantly since before I was a teen – back when computers were primitive, but there you have it. I could probably rid myself of most of the things in my house, but my computer and kindle would be the last to leave. Maybe a thing or two else, but not much.

So what is it in your life?

Now, what if God called you to give that thing up? Again, I know many of us would claim ‘no problem’. But look deeper – that is not true is it. I know I would go to many lengths to try and keep hold of at least my kindle, and hopefully my laptop. I am a ‘solutions man’ – my job in life is fixing things, surely I could ‘fix’ it so I didn’t have to give these things up?

I know in the end I could give it up, but it would be a battle.

And it is these things we need to keep an eye out for.

Luke 16:13-15 (ESV)
“No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him. And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.“

If God called me to truly forgo these things for His purposes I would – because I know God’s purpose is better than anything I could conceive, and I hold Him above all of my things.

What things in your life risk becoming more important that God?

What is the power of the Gospel?

It is able to bring to life that which is dead.

What was Paul’s focus in his lifetime of ministry? His sole focus, his overriding goal, was to bring the good news of Jesus Christ, His life, death and resurrection from the dead, to as many people as possible. Even Paul knew that he was called primarily to work with the gentiles, despite his life and experience as a Jew. But despite his primary calling, he never failed to keep his ‘family’ close to his heart. Though he shared with the gentiles, he always wanted his message to also be clear to the Jews, and made it clear he prayed regularly that their eyes would also be opened to the truth of Jesus.

Even as Paul had a massive ministry, travelling around the Roman empire, speaking to churches, slaves, kings and governors alike, he still wanted to share more. He remained faithful to his ministry – he didn’t shirk the responsibility of what he was called to do to follow his ‘pet project’, but kept a heart also for his own people, that some of them might also be saved.

What an example! Paul didn’t see one person saved and thought ‘that is enough’. He didn’t see 100 people saved, and claim ‘I’ve reached the highest level’. He continually preached the good news of Jesus Christ to all people, in the hope that as many would be saved as possible. Why?

Jesus has the power to bring to life that which is dead – and through personal experience, that was the heart of Paul’s ministry.

Almighty God, thank you for your servant Paul, who can be an example to us in faith and life, living what You had called him to do, and always striving to bring Your message to as many people as possible. Help us to be like Paul, not in identical ministry, but zealous in the area you have called us, and always wanting for more people to hear your good news and be saved. In Jesus Name, Amen.

So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!

On first reading, this is a pretty harsh section regarding Israel from Paul. If we were to quickly ‘gloss over’ it with our eyes, we would think that undue hard punishment has been placed on the nation of Israel.

But what is it really saying? The first section is pretty clear – God, in His foreknowledge, hardened those who weren’t going to believe. But the rest is much more insightful.

Firstly, it is through the stumbling of much of Israel over Jesus (1 Cor 1:23) that the Gospel then was preached to those of us who are not in the bloodlines of the Jews. For in the great commission that we have heard so often, First the Gospel was to be preached to the Jews, then the Samaritans (who were essentially what is left of the other 10 tribes of Israel), and then the rest of the earth (Acts 1:8).

Secondly, and more importantly, Paul is drawing us back to both the remnant of Israel, and their future roles that are still promised! Yes, Israel still has an important place to play in our world, and in world history. Even when we look at the news now (which I admit to doing less and less), you can see that Israel remains a focus all over the world.

Let’s have a quick review of some facts about Israel (the nation). It has a population of around 7 Million, which is 1/10th of 1 percent (.01%) of the world’s population. I would call that ‘statistically insignificant’ (this is not an insult, but an observation that such a small point of a percentage in any number is generally insignificant. For example, if you had $100, and lost 10 cents, this is the same comparison – its still a loss, but you still have $99.90 of your initial $100). Interestingly enough, it also has around the same percentage (0.01%) of the world’s landmass enclosed in its borders.

So how does a country that is so small, with such a small population in comparison to others, take up so much of the world stage, and continually figure in so much of the world news? How does a population that is smaller than inner city New York (8 million) and just over a third of the population of the full New York metropolitan area take up so much ‘space’ in this world?

Because God has chosen it to be so. The nation of Israel was at one time specifically God’s chosen people – and the rest of the world has never forgotten, or forgiven. Despite being having a population that could be called not much more than a ‘rounding error’, they remain the centre of attention of a world that knows God, but refuses to admit it.

And this is what Paul is talking about. Many of the Jews have rejected Jesus, and that has meant riches for the rest of the world. But there is still a plan for the nation of Israel that will see them once again come back to God, and find Jesus, their prophesied Messiah. And when that happens we will all be amazed.

Almighty God, thank you that Your good news has spread throughout the world, starting with Your chosen nation of Israel. We can all see that your hand is still active in Israel, and that you still have plans to use them in the world for Your glory. Teach us not to show partiality towards them, but treat them as you treat us, as a people loved by God, despite our sins. Guide us in Your Word we pray in Jesus Name. Amen.

We know that in the Old Testament times, salvation was through the nation of Israel. One thing that we often don’t think about though – was all of Israel saved? It’s certainly something I’ve never really spent much time thinking about – I just think of the nation as ‘covered’ under the Mosaic Law, with the temple and their rituals of feasts and sacrifices.

So since salvation came through this chosen nation of Israel, was everyone’s sin forgiven, and did they all see God?

The answer is quite obviously no. Whilst salvation did come through the Israelites, culminating in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, still only those that followed God were saved. Within the nation of Israel you could say it was like the world now – there are some Christians, and there are plenty of non Christians. In that time, there were some who followed and honored God by following the law through as recorded in the books of Moses, and plenty who did not. You have only got to take a look through the Historical records through Joshua and the Kings, to see hundreds of examples of a people who weren’t interested in what God had for them.

What is Paul’s point though? That the promises given to Abraham are not null and void now that salvation is available to all through Jesus, not through the Mosaic law. When was the promise given to Abraham? It was before the Law. All through the history of Israel there was only ever a portion of people who truly followed God – and there remains even now, a group of ‘true Israelites’ who follow Jesus and are saved. Paul was one of the first generation of these believers, and so was part of the continuation of God’s chosen people.

So what then can we take away from this? Firstly, that God is not done with the nation of Israel, and He still preserves through grace a remnant of people who are loyal to Him – just as He has always done.

And if you want to take it a little further, even when it looks like there is nothing left of the Church – when all of the world seems determined to race down the wide road to eternal punishment and hell, that God has a remnant, set aside for Him, that worships and honors Him.

So trust in God. He knows what He is doing, and He will preserve you, and those around you, for His glory and purpose. Sure, you may have absolutely no idea what is happening, or why, and where all of the true Christians are gone, but God has it in control, and it will turn out for Good.

Lord God, how amazing it is for us to look on Your grace and know that we are part of your remnant, part of the people chosen by You in Your foreknowledge as vessels of grace, as ministers to you in a fallen world. Teach us to live in Your will, guide us in Your will, and help us to truly know that You are sovereign and in control. In Jesus Name, Amen.

What is so great you say?

Well, it has a commentary or two fully available, Bible dictionary, but the greatest thing is the original language tools. You can just hover over a word and get the details of what the originial translation said, and details about that word, where it was used elsewhere, how else it is translated and more. If you are serious about ‘digging in’, this is a great tool.

And while it defaults to the HCSB, it also has others versions like the ESV available. I’m not letting go of esvonline.org (as the study notes there are brilliant), but it’s another great tool to work along side. I really like that these tools are online, free, and that anyone can use without spending thousands on ‘full featured’ software. Nothing against that software, but it is out of the financial reach of many people, and sites like this just make study accessible to all.

Do you know, that for every single decision you make, there can be a massive chain reaction of other events that you did not plan, may not want, and probably don’t even know about? To illustrate, I’m going to write a little story. With two endings. This story may seem farfetched – but I have heard many more amazing things in real life!

So lets say you are on your way to church, but in a little bit of a hurry. As you get to a major intersection, there are a lot of cars, but there is a gap. It’s probably too small, but you might be able to make it. In that moment, rather than be patient, you nail the accelerator and merge.

Unfortunately, the gap wasn’t as big as you thought, and the guy behind, Aaron, had to jam his brakes to avoid denting your car. Unfortunately Aaron also spilled his coffee (debates about drinking coffee while driving aside…). Even more unfortunately, Aaron has a temper issue. But before he can stop at a set of lights and abuse you for your indiscretion, you turn off to church and he goes his way.

Aaron is still pretty mad, and is driving like it. A little too fast into the next corner and he spins, ending up stopped head on against a tree. He’s not particularly injured, some minor bruising, but his car is busted. Aaron is now not going anywhere.

And now for the final kicker. Aaron needs his car to get to work, and has absolutely no money or credit to get a new one or get one repaired. And due to his frequent temper issues, Aaron doesn’t have anyone he can rely on to get him to work. As a consequence, Aaron has lost his job.

All because you chose to rush in, instead of being patient. And really, you don’t know any of this – it is all just a hidden consequence of your actions.

So first, the bad ending. Aaron’s life goes pretty downhill from here, we have all seen it – no money, no job, not really any friends. He resorts to crime and ends up doing time. On top of this, where he worked the business wasn’t doing very well – it was pretty close to closing down. To save some money, the boss decided not to replace Aaron, thinking others could pickup the slack. Turns out, Aaron, temper and all, was much more important than he seemed. Inside of a month orders aren’t getting shipped, and customers are getting mad. Within 3 months the business has gone bankrupt, and 200 other people are now without work, because Aarons boss tried to save a buck, because Aaron couldn’t work, because you were not patient. Sound unlikely? Don’t bet on it!

But wait, we have a better ending! Aaron opens the paper and looks for a new job, and miraculously, finds it through a friend from years ago. And this job has a car, so Aaron is earning more, and has a car, and his friend from years ago is able to again build a friendship back, and Aarons life is back on track. Even better, Jack, and unemployed Christian father of 4, gets hired into Aarons job, and is able to again support his family and give back. Without the accident, Aaron never would have looked for and got a better job, and Jack could still be unemployed living in a 1 room basement with his wife and 4 kids. All because you chose not to be patient.

So what am I getting at? Every single decision in your life has effects far beyond what you can see, even far beyond what you could dream and imagine. I’m sure you have all heard of the shoe salesman who was saved – and shared his faith with a guy buying shoes one day. That guy? Billy Graham. Just an example of someone who made a decision to do something – and look what effect it had!

Only God truly knows the outcome to every decision, every situation.

So what is the solution?

James 4:13-17 (ESV)
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

James is getting at a big point here. We need to live in God’s will for our life – not just for the big decisions in life, but minute by minute, second by second. Every single decision we make needs to be help up to God’s will and standard and tested.

God doesn’t exist as an emergency room - I’ve said it before, God is not a paramedic! Yes, He is there when there is trouble and emergency in our lives, but He is also there all the time – not just for trouble! God is not just there for the big decisions in life, like who to marry, or what job to take, or when and where to move – but for every single decision.

So how can we bring every single decision to God? We need to ‘walk in’ God’s will. We need to hold a close relationship with Him. We need to be in constant prayer. We need to read His words to us regularly, and fellowship with other Christians as often as practical. In short, we need to be Godly. Then, and only then, can we be sure that as we live day by day, we are living as God would have us live.

Heavenly Father, guide us in our daily lives. Teach us to live by Your Word, to live in Your will, to bring every single thing we do before you and live filled with the Holy Spirit. Teach us Your ways, show is the truth we pray in Jesus Name, Amen.

Just a short post today to wrap up Romans 10! For context, Paul here is speaking primarily about the Israelites, the Jewish nation. Up until this point we have been studying how the Gospel is received by faith alone – nothing else.

In the time prior to Jesus, God reached out and chose the nation of Israel to be His chosen people. Not because they were worthy (Deut 7:7-8), not because they were better, or bigger, or for any other reason than to show His favour.

And despite this choosing many before and after Jesus rejected God, rejected His message and abused His favour. Paul quotes heavily from Isaiah in these verses, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.” God is patient and wants all people to come to a knowledge of Him, but that doesn’t mean they all accept!

But since Jesus has fulfilled the law, we become the fulfillment of the prophecy – we have been found though we did not seek, we have seen God, despite not asking for it. So what can we say? We can only affirm that the message of the Gospel is ubiquitous – it is universal, open to all who would receive it.

In the next chapter (starting with our next Romans post), we will see more about how God has made the Gospel available to all, but despite this, it does not discount the nation of Israel – they are also called to accept the Gospel; indeed many already have!

Lord God, thank you that your Gospel is available to us all. Thank you that you haven’t just chosen a small group of people to share your good news with, but made the message open, available to all, that we might be saved from our sins and made right before you. Help us to understand the true wonder of what you have done, and share that with others. In Jesus Name. Amen.