10/17/18 STRAYING FROM OUR COMMITMENT
DASH-CAM MESSAGES
STRAYING FROM OUR COMMITMENT
PEOPLE GET UPSET WITH GOD
Not only in time of great loss or tragedy, when emotions take over, either blaming God for causing or allowing it to happen. Even this is not justifiable, accurate.
People actually blame God, but some people encourage others to blame God, to rage against God. This happens with supposed Christian preachers and teacher, saying it is good, helpful, cathartic to raise your voice against God. They call such venting against God, "honesty." It may be honest, but it is also ignorance, because not is responsible for doing ill to anyone, simply on Divine whim or Divine ignorance or Divine maliciousness.
When God allows or even orchestrates anything that we may consider unkind or unwise, it is because God uses everything (aside from sin) to communicate and to help us, to either draw us to Himself by His kindness or drive us to Himself by moving us to godly sorrow, which produces repentance.
People (in Western culture) want to be thought of as Christians, since "Christian" coveys the idea of moral, just and civil humanity. They want the advantages and benefits of being Christian. They want mysterious, magical or miraculous helps from the supposed God of Christianity.
However, when things do not go their way or when they do not get the "perks" that they thought they should get, then they become disenchanted and even angry with the God who did not turn out to be the god they were expecting.
They also enter into the "Christian" life with a preconceived idea that they can actually be in charge of their own life, while adding the trappings of religion. Then they discover that being a Christian actually requires a complete transformation of thought, speech and behavior.
They had walked up to the Christian Buffet of life, taking what they wanted and leaving what they did not want. But then they have an encounter with reality when a preacher or teacher exposes them to the reality that salvation is surrender to the God of the Universe, as found in the Holy Bible.
At this point they become angry with the human instrument of God, whether a preacher, teacher, counselor, parent, spouse. Obviously they have not actually met, believed, received and followed Jesus Christ, therefore their lives end up being more confused than before. After all, they don't steal or kill. They see themselves as being as good as the next guy and are angry that they have made concessions but did not get the benefits.
The fact is that God required them to completely give themselves to God. Not 50% or 75% or even 99%, but 100%. They did not expect this.
GOD IS EITHER LORD OF ALL OR HE IS NOT LORD AT ALL.
The Scripture says (Ro. 10:9-10 NASB '77),
"9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved;
10 for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation."
This is actually more consistent with the Greek than the KJV which says, "confess with thy mouth that Jesus is Lord." It is more than confessing that Jesus is Lord, it is a matter of confessing that Jesus is "my" Lord.
There is no salvation without the Lordship of Christ, despite the popular but twisted form of Christianity being taught by so many today.
So they come to Jesus, or at least seem to come to Him. In either case, they don't seem to understand that God wants them to surrender everything to Him when they get saved. Or if they did understand, they no longer understand what they understood at the beginning.
They don't surrendering completely, following fully, walking in the light, dying to self, being crucified with Christ. As a result they come to Christ and then back out.
Luke 8:12-14
12 Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.
13 They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away.
14 And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection.
Sometimes believers slip away from God and then they are influenced by the Devil when he says, "YOU WON'T DIE," or, "SIN WON'T SEPARATE YOU FROM GOD."
OH YES IT WILL. God says it will. Sin separates us from God. All sin, any sin, from which we do not turn. Sin is basically setting yourself up as your own God, as the Lord of your life. Sin is a matter of Lordship.
DENY YOURSELF. This is the first step in following Jesus. It is at the beginning of our walk, relationship, experience, the reality of salvation.
(encountered a man "walking his dog." He couldn't get control of the dog, and said, "He don't listen to me.")
As I drove on, I pointed out that there are people who call themselves the children of God and they don't listen to God, either.
That dog was walking right down the middle of my side of the road, headed straight for me. The man kept calling, cajoling, reaching out, but the dog had a different agenda.
That is soooo much like rebellious people, rebellious people who call themselves Christian. I give it to you. The dog probably never made an agreement with the man to be obedient. But when a person actually comes to Christ, it is with the understanding that they are sick of sinning (disobeying) God and they are making a commitment to trust and obey Him.
If we take off, going straight into oncoming spiritual traffic, we face life ending tragedy, like a dog in the middle of the road. If we resist and reject the call of God on our lives, we are not under His Lordship and therefore we are not under the atoning blood of Christ.
When we loose ourselves from the rule of God when we don't let God, don't seek God, don't answer to God, don't obey God, we walk straight into disaster.
God doesn't just want our sins, or even our soul, He wants all of us, our life and words and thoughts and actions and relationships and work and recreation and friendships and successes and failures. People want to give to God the stuff they don't want or the stuff they want changed, but they want to hold on to the stuff they want to hold onto, the stuff they love. If you love the world or the things of the world, then the love of the Father is not in you. It is simple and clear.
Then, when we hold those things, rather than surrendering them to God, we are putting ourselves and our family members in jeopardy. God loves us enough that He will take stuff away from us in order to save us from our sins. God wants to reach us through His kindness, but if we resist His kindness, God will afflict us or allow us to be afflicted, in order to drive us to godly sorrow, which leads to repentance. Do not hold onto anything and then expect to receive the blessing of God. God loves us, but not to the point that He allows us to sin, without consequence.
The true believer in Christ understands, and can say, I know that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His will. This is why I can rejoice, even when things are not going well in my life. I know that God does all thigs well, I know that God is all wise, I know that God is working the affairs of life in my favor.
God sometimes strips away things from our lives to show us that what we really need is Jesus. We may think that He is only going to strip away the bad stuff, the tough stuff of life, the inconvenient, the uncomfortable, even that which is dearest to our hearts. We sing or say, "Whatever it takes, take the dearest thing to me, if that's how it must be." That is how much we need to love God, because nothing is more important than a right relationship with God,
because that is how much He loved us. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, to save us.
Since the Father gave His Son to save us and since Jesus gave His life to save us, then we need to understand that we should not hold back anything from God. And since we know that God wants to reach us, even if it is through sorrow, then we need to accept our need to turn.
I know these are hard words. I know this is a heavy message. But it the truth and if I don't tell the truth it will lead to a heavier problem.
I am going to end on a positive note.
When you make the surrender of that which is most important and precious to you, when you trust Him with those things, you will be able to say,
Though He slay me, yet will I praise Him, trust Him, believe in Him, because He becomes your all. At that point you can actually Look unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of your faith. Not look at the seas around you, not look at the temptations that are calling you, but
Keep your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.
Not just pious platitudes, but truths that really do transform us.
