Genesis 37:5, 45:4-5

“Now Joseph had a dream, and he told it to his brothers; and they hated him even more.” and “And Joseph said to his brothers, ‘Please come near to me.’ So they came near. Then he said: ‘I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life.’” (NKJV)

God isn’t in the business of fulfilling our dreams; rather, we should be in the business of fulfilling His will.

I recently read an article in a Christian magazine about a woman whose dream in life was finally fulfilled. She wrote:

“And one day, in His sovereign timing, we will give birth to the dreams He’s planted within us” (In Touch, October 2010).

She is both right . . . and wrong. God does give birth to the dreams He’s planted, but that fulfillment may be very different than what we envisioned. He may continue to say “No” to what we are asking, only to fulfill His will in an entirely different way . . . and for an entirely different reason.

Joseph was a young man of great promise. He was bright, learning to read and write a foreign language with ease. He was obedient and loving to his father He was willing to submit himself to the authority above him and he kept himself true to the moral laws of God. In Genesis 37, he had two dreams in which he saw, representively, his family bowing down to him. With the brashness of youth, he shared those dreams around the family fire and created such hatred in his brothers that they sold him into slavery. That slavery led to a false accusation of rape (from which he was never publicly vindicated as far as we know) and imprisonment. In other words, he went from believing that he would rule his family to being thrust into a foreign land and culture and becoming the worse kind of hated vermin there . . . a foreigner and a convicted rapist. Not exactly the fulfillment of a dream.

Many teachers then justify all this by saying that he then was elevated—and rewarded—by being made the equivalent of the prime minister of Egypt. But the problem is that he was still a foreigner and a convicted rapist. He was never allowed to return to living with his family (who were sent to live in a distant part of Egypt). He was given a position of great power, but it was a position with a price. He had to give up everything that was dear to him and become someone else. And the sole purpose of all that was to fulfill God’s will, not his own desires, not his own dreams.

Joseph was the favored son of his elderly father. Isaac, wrongly or rightly, demonstrated his favor by having a special cloak made for him, a cloak rich with embroidery. Then God gave the dreams and Joseph’s future seemed secure. He would rule the family clan with all of his envious brothers bowing to and serving him. His dreams.

But not God’s will.

Instead, it took many years of darkness, suffering, and turmoil for Joseph to realize that life wasn’t about having God fulfill his dreams, but rather having him fulfill God’s will. And in Genesis 45 he makes an amazing statement: “Do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life” (v. 5 NKJV). He says, in essence, to his brothers, “You threw me into a pit and then sold me into slavery where I was taken to Egypt. I was forced to work for a family where the bitter wife wrongly accused me of rape, a charge of which I have yet to be vindicated. And even now, I am working in a position of power, but am hated by most of the Egyptian court because I am a foreigner and a convicted felon. That is the life you have given me. But don’t give it another thought. Don’t be grieved or angry with yourselves, because all of this was God’s will. This is what He brought about as the fulfillment of my dreams.”

Not his dreams, but God’s will.

The writer of Hebrews tells us of similar experiences:

“Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented-- of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us” (Hebrews 11:35-40 NKJV).

The revealing phrase in this passage is “did not receive the promise.” These saints of God lived their entire lives and failed to receive what they believed was the fulfillment of their lives. Why? Because God had something better!

God had something better!

Not our dreams, but God’s will.

God doesn’t say no out of anger, vengeance, or even spite. He says no to us because He has something better. Beyond our dreams, there is God’s will and it is better than we can possibly imagine. Joseph didn’t receive the fulfillment of his dreams in the way he had imagined. He never lived with his family again. But he was revered by his people, with even his bones being carried back into the Promised Land. He became one of the great Patriarchs of the Judeo-Christian faith and he is a model for us to follow in our lives. By giving up his small dreams, he allowed God to create an enormous legacy.

God’s will is bigger than these few years we live on this earth and our influence can be far more lasting than what we see during those years. We have the potential to influence many for years to come. But the choice is ours. Do we want our dreams . . . or His will?

© 2010 Robin L. O’Hare. All rights reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.

Mark 11:22

“So Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Have faith in God.’” (NKJV)

Have faith.

You only have to stand in the grocery check-out line once or twice, reading the magazine headlines, to know that “having faith” is a big deal these days. Prayer and faith are popular topics for magazines. It can almost convince you that Christianity is on the rise in America. Here is a quote that I found from a website on the Internet:

“When you live in faith you not only have greater momentum toward your goal, you not only streamline your life and are relieved of many inner conflicts, but some amazing transformations in your daily life or career often happen.”

This sounds very similar to things I’ve read in a number of Christian books. The problem is, this quote come from TheMystic.org, a completely New Age website. It has absolutely nothing at all to do with Christianity. In fact, the Internet is full of websites that tout the power of faith, many of which even use scripture to support their position! The problem is, the Bible doesn’t teach the power of faith (or the power of prayer). The Bible teaches that power comes from God and God alone. The Lord Jesus taught us to have faith in God! The power, then, doesn’t come from either faith or prayer, but from God! He is the power, the only power.

The Lord Jesus taught us that false prophets would come with the express purpose of deceiving people (Matthew 24:11). The Greek word used here can mean “religious imposter” (Strong’s G5578). That goes back to Matthew 7:15 where the Lord Jesus also warned about false prophets, calling them wolves in sheep’s clothing. Now, there are many out there, particularly since the advent of the Internet, who would like to “identify” the false prophets due to doctrinal differences. But the Lord Jesus told us to identify them by their fruit (the same word used in fruit of the Spirit). One of the fruit of the Spirit is pistis which is translated in the KJV as “faith.” Strong’s tells us that it also means “reliance on Christ for salvation” (Strong’s G4102). In other words, pistis also points us, not to faith, but to Christ.

Always and always, God.

As Christians, the only power that we have comes from having faith in God, praying to God. Our faith, our prayers avail nothing without God.

© 2010 Robin L. O’Hare. All rights reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.

Psalm 63

Psalm 63:1-11

A Psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah.

O God, You are my God; early will I seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. So I have looked for You in the sanctuary, to see Your power and Your glory. Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise You. Thus I will bless You while I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips. When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches. Because You have been my help, therefore in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice. My soul follows close behind You; Your right hand upholds me. But those who seek my life, to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth. They shall fall by the sword; they shall be a portion for jackals. But the king shall rejoice in God; everyone who swears by Him shall glory; but the mouth of those who speak lies shall be stopped. (NKJV)

What do we do when we are in the wildernesses of life?

David had fled to the wilderness of Judah which runs along the eastern edge of the Judah mountains.

Of that wilderness, a Messianic teaching website writes: “Israel’s wilderness abounds with rocks, hills, and canyons. The climate is one of extremes—scorching hot temperatures by day turn to near-freezing temperatures at night. There is little water” (http://www.followtherabbi.com/Brix?pageID=1779).

It was from this kind of environment, away from his kingdom, his throne, his people, and all of his resources, that David wrote: “The king shall rejoice in God.” When there is nothing left, there is God and He is everything. When we have everything, there is nothing else but God, because He needs to be everything. It was a truth that David learned in those times of leanness.

David learned how to seek God in the beginning and at the end. He wrote:

“Early will I seek you. . . . I remember You on my bed; I meditate on You in the night watches.”

Early and late, David sought after the Lord. I’m an early riser, getting up as a child by 5:30 to have time for myself before demands were placed on me by my parents for chores and other family needs. As an adult, I began getting up at 4:00 when my son was born so that I would have time alone with the Lord before the demands of being a mother would begin each morning. I also go to bed early which prevents me from watching television. That discipline, instead, often allows me to read Christian books and scripture at night. Early and late. And I’ve found that doing this helps me to center my thoughts on the Lord.

When we find ourselves in those dry, lean times of life, we have two responses. We can get mad and demand from God why He would allow us to have these experiences or we can search after Him with even more effort, clinging to Him and knowing that He is everything; that nothing else matters. To be honest, dry, lean times may truly be gifts! When we are separated from distractions, we may finally understand that there is nothing else that matters except Him and His love for us.

© 2010 Robin L. O’Hare. All rights reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.

Galatians 6:17

“From now on, let no one make trouble for me; for I carry the marks of Jesus branded on my body” (NKJV).

What if I were to tell you that becoming a Christian would make your life harder, not easier? What if I were to explain that being a disciple of the Lord’s would bring pain possibly with no hope of relief until heaven? Would you still embrace the gospel? Would you be as excited about serving the Lord as you might be with promises of needs fulfilled and desires met?

Madam Guyon, a great saint of the Lord, wrote:

“To bear all the marks of Jesus Christ is much greater than merely meditating on them. Paul said, ‘I bear in my body the mark of the Lord Jesus’ (Galatians 6:17). He did not say he merely thought about them; he said he bore them” (Experiencing God through Prayer).

Paul talked about his light afflictions (2 Corinthians 4:17). The Greek word elaphros means easy. Easy afflictions. It would be one thing to embrace this if Paul’s experiences seemed like easy afflictions. But aside from being burdened with “a thorn in the flesh” (2 Corinthians 12:8) which may have been some kind of chronic illness or disability, Paul also lists the troubles he experienced as a Christian missionary:

“in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness” (2 Corinthians 11:23b-27 NKJV).

These are Paul’s light afflictions. Because of these (and possibly other) experiences, Paul could truly say that his body bore the mark of the Lord Jesus . . . scars, possibly even resulting and continuing pain and disabilities.

David Wilkerson, in a letter attached to one of his Pulpit Series sermons, recently wrote:

“As I look back over the years—years of great trials, suffering, temptation, and affliction—I can testify that God’s grace has been enough. I know what it is to question God, as my wife endured cancer over and over, and then both our daughters were also stricken. I also know what it is to be buffeted by a messenger of Satan. I’ve been grievously tempted and enticed, and I’ve had enemies stirred up against me on all sides. I’ve been slandered by rumors, falsely accused and rejected by friends. . . . We may still ask why—yet it all remains a mystery. I’m prepared to accept this until Jesus comes for me. I see no end to my trials and afflictions. I’ve had them for over fifty years of ministry now and counting” (emphasis mine; August 30, 2010).

I know that I personally would want my trials and afflictions to end. I have often called out to God in the middle of the night, asking Him to end them, often telling Him what I think the solution would be, only to hear Him say, “My grace is sufficient” (2 Corinthians 12:9). I think He would be more pleased if I were more willing to surrender, rather than to complain or fight. And that is perhaps something that He is teaching me through this trial. Not that the trials will end, but that He walks with me through the darkness as well as walking with me in the light.

This life is a hiccup when compared to eternity. In the still of the night when the physical or emotional pain seems too hard to bear, it doesn’t seem like a hiccup, but it is. This life is short compared to what we will experience when we see Him face to face . . . forever! Many saints have gone on before us and are experiencing even now that eternal presence of the Lord Jesus. It is a hope to which we must cling if we are to persevere through what lies ahead.

“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23 NKJV).

© 2010 Robin L. O’Hare. All rights reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.

Matthew 7:15-23

"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them. Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'” (NKJV)

Who do we trust? Do whom do we listen?

There is an application on Facebook called “God wants you to know.” It is wildly popular among Christians. Some of the comments users wrote:

“I truly believe God is using this app to speak to people.”

“I truly believe that God is using this app to speak to me.”

“I love this God messages . . . It feels like He is talking to me.”

“They really know me.”

“I look forward to these everyday.”

“These are truly a blessing, each and everyday!”

The question isn’t whether or not these are encouraging, whether or not they make the readers feel good, or whether or not they confirm the readers’ hopes or feelings. The question, of course, is whether or not what is written is biblical.

That is true for everything we read, we hear, we apply to our lives as Christians.

The Lord Jesus told us to beware of false prophets who would appear as sheep. That means that they will sound, look, and smell like Christians! We will think that they are believers because what they say and what they do resonates within our hearts. They will even prophesy, cast out demons, and do other miracles in His name.

And yet . . . they are not Christians! They are false prophets.

How then do we decide to whom we listen? The Lord gives one criteria . . . to know them by their fruits. The word is karpos and it is the same word used in Galatians 5 to describe the fruit of the Spirit. While these two words come from two different books of the New Testament, I don’t think it is coincidence that the Spirit-inspiration was to use the same word because it greatly clarifies for us the “fruit” that the Lord Jesus is talking about. It’s obvious that He’s not talking about the success of outward ministry (as some would claim), otherwise He wouldn’t talk about the acts of the false prophets: prophesying, casting out demons, and other miracles. No, He is talking about bearing fruit.

What is the fruit of the Spirit? It is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). We should be able to see these things in the prophet’s life and in what he teaches. Do we see longsuffering lived and taught? Do we see self-control? Or do we see self-indulgence and the things of the world?

I wouldn’t presume to tell anything who the false prophets are, but I know that personally I’m reluctant to allow anyone (or anything) to discipline me as a believer if I don’t first apply this one rule. It’s one of the reasons that I study “dead guys” (Christian authors who have died), so that their lives are exposed and I can see who they really are. (There are a few—very few—living Christian authors that I trust, but their lives are transparent and exposed.)

Before we start attributing what someone says to God, we should first find out that person’s own agenda, doctrinal stance, but more importantly, their life and the fruit of the Spirit within it. Would we rather believe God’s prophets or ravenous wolves? Personally, I choose God.

© 2010 Robin L. O’Hare. All rights reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.

John 13:35

“By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." (NKJV)

Back in the 60's, when worship choruses first began to become widely popular, a certain chorus made the rounds in the churches, “They’ll Know We Are Christians by Our Love” (common tune, lyrics by Peter Scholtes). The words go like this:

We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord
We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord
And we pray that all unity may one day be restored
And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love

There is a love for each other that we seldom exercise, and yet, an expression of love that is well needed in the Church.

"Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that 'by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.' And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.” (Matthew 18:15-17 NKJV).

We actually don’t much like to deal with sin these days. We talk about addictions, syndromes, character traits, trials, even satanic attack. But we don’t much talk about sin, at least in any kind of specific way. And yet sin should be a serious business for the Church.

I’ve been reading Wesley who, at least in the book I’m reading, begins the topic of confronting sin with condemnation of the sin of gossip, a practice with which most Christians are extremely familiar. Whether justified as topics of prayer, public discussions, or simply efforts of concern, the vast majority of Christians, even across the ages, have been involved in gossip. Wesley wrote:

“How common is the sin of evil-speaking among high and low, rich and poor, wise and foolish, learned and unlearned! How few can testify before God that they are clear in this matter! The very commonness of this sin makes it difficult to be avoided. We are encompassed with it on every side. Almost all humanity seems in conspiracy against us! Their example steals upon us, so that we insensibly slide into the imitation of it.

“Besides, it is recommended from within as well as from without. There is scarcely a wrong temper in the minds of men and women which may not occasionally be gratified by evil-speaking and thus incline us to it. It gratifies our pride to relate faults of others whereof we think ourselves not guilty. Anger, resentment, and all unkind tempers are indulged by speaking against those with whom we are displeased. By reciting the sins of others, people often indulge their own foolish and hurtful desires.” (Renew My Heart).

Wesley goes on to teach on the Matthew passage which not only encourages us, as believers, but commands us in the way in which we are to treat the sins of other Christians. Wesley is insistent that if we are aware of sin in another believer’s life, it is our duty to approach them privately and expose the sin. We are to do it humbly, gently, but personally, without involving any others until that person refuses to acknowledge and repent of the sin.

I don’t know that I’ve ever done that. If I have, it isn’t common practice for me, at least not outside of my own immediate family. But I do know that I have “gossiped” about others in the context of sharing prayer concerns or discussing doctrinal issues. I’ve done that a lot. In plain biblical language, I have become adept at evil-speaking about others. And that is a sin in itself. James contended that there is great value in the kind of love and submission that allows believers to rebuke sin that they see. But then, as believers, we would have to acknowledge that sin is a problem.

“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” (James 5:19-20 NKJV).

There are several important things within the James passage. First, James is speaking only to believers. Second, he states that believers can wander from the truth. Third, he concludes that believers who wander from the truth can experience death. I’m convinced that this is spiritual death. It is possible to so reject the truth and the Lord as to reject one’s salvation. And if this is not James’ conclusion, then we must at least admit that James considered the penalty for wandering away from the truth to be severe. If we truly love each other, we will be willing to submit to others who are concerned about the sins in our lives and we will be courageous and loving enough to confront them about the sins that we see. Beloved, we need each other so desperately and we need each other in an intimate way. We need to learn how to have the kind of fellowship that allows people into our hearts and our minds, to share our struggles. And that begins with having the personal courage to look at ourselves honestly and to go before the Throne daily, allowing the Spirit to reveal the sin in our lives.

“Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much” (James 5:16 NKJV).

We name many sins illness. Well, if they are, the way to healing is confession, but not just confession to the Lord, but to each other. And then to have prayer from each other. The kind of unity that we need as Christians, the kind of love that we need, is that kind that will trust God’s Word enough to step out in faith and walk in this kind of transparency. We need to begin to confront our sin actively and to seek forgiveness rather than tolerance, to seek healing rather than treatment. Our churches are filled with people who need the Lord. But they also need us to actively be brothers and sisters to them. We need to learn how to live as the Lord Jesus commands us to live. Only then can we begin to know full forgiveness and full healing.

© 2010 Robin L. O’Hare. All rights reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.

1 Kings 19:11-12

Then He said, "Go out, and stand on the mountain before the Lord." And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice. (NKJV)

Humans are, it seems, by nature beings of excess. Whatever we want, we seem to want it in abundance. Pentecostals, of which I’m one, believe firmly in the power, workings, and gifts of the Holy Spirit. But I think we often (too often) seek the power without seeking the One from whom the power flows. Many evangelicals, of which I’m also one, believe firmly in knowledge, wanting to study and learn about the things of God. But I think we often (too often) seek the knowledge without seeking the One from whom the knowledge flows. Many American Christians, of which I am certainly also one, stress the relationship, wanting the experience of relating with Christ and yet, often failing to understand that such a relationship is interactive, where God Himself should be allowed to determine the direction and goals of such a relationship.

Power, knowledge, experience. All of these can and often are part and parcel of our relationship with the Lord. But they are not in and of themselves the Lord. And that is perhaps where we fail and at the point at which we stumble and become less than what we should be as believers. God showed Elijah (in 1 Kings) that while He initiated the wind, earthquake, and fire—while He was indeed in those things—He was not those things. God is the beginning and the ending, the First and the Last. But He is more than a sum of parts because He cannot be divided into parts. He is God, always and always.

The psalmist wrote:

Sing to God, you kingdoms of the earth;
Oh, sing praises to the Lord,
Selah
To Him who rides on the heaven of heavens, which were of old!
Indeed, He sends out His voice, a mighty voice.
Ascribe strength to God;
His excellence is over Israel,
And His strength is in the clouds.
O God, You are more awesome than Your holy places.
The God of Israel is He who gives strength and power to His people.
Blessed be God! (Psalm 68:32-35 NKJV)

God is more awesome that His holy places. It is He who gives strength and power to His people. Whenever we doubt, rather than seeking power or knowledge or experience, if we would instead seek God and Him alone, there I think we would find the answers that we need.

The prophet Isaiah wrote:

“Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. ‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, ao are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it’” (Isaiah 55:6-11 NKJV).

The Lord’s thoughts, His ways, His will are far higher and better than ours. I wonder if we do not settle for that which is far less because we are willing to seek the product rather than the Producer, the creation rather than the Creator. What good would miracles and the gifts of the Spirit do us if eventually we lose the Spirit? What good would knowing about God be if we failed to know Him? What good would it be to call Jesus our Friend if He failed to call us friend? When we seek, I think we should be careful of what we are seeking. We need to seek God always and always and allow Him to send the power or knowledge or experience when and where He deems best, rather than demanding our rights as we see them and ultimately losing the point of it all.

© 2010 Robin L. O’Hare. All rights reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.

Matthew 22:37-40

Matthew 22:37-40

Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." (NKJV)

You shall the Lord your God with all . . ., with all . . ., with all!

I have the privilege to work part time as a university instructor teaching a course for student teachers. One of the things I ask them is their criteria for “passing.” Every teacher, every school administrator must determine what the criteria is for passing a student onto new material, onto the next grade. Most of the time the class comes up with sixty or seventy percent as passing. Then I ask, “You memorize 70% of your phone number. How’s that working for you? Or you go to McDonald’s and they get 70% of your order correct. How’s that working for you? Or the contractor who built your house builds 70% of it correct . . .” Well, you get the idea. The fact is that “passing” with 70 or any percent other than 100 only works in school; it doesn’t work in real life. In real life, employees are expected to do their jobs 100% correctly or it’s simply not satisfactory to their supervisors.

Sadly, we don’t use this same kind of mentality as Christians. Instead, we want to surrender to the Lord, to love the Lord, to serve the Lord with less than 100% and rely upon His mercy to simply accept that. A. W. Tozer wrote:

“Always and always God must be first” (Born after Midnight).

I love how he writes “always and always.” It’s not simply enough to “always put God first” because we sometimes and somehow miss that message. He wrote “always and always” I think to emphasize the importance of this. Always God must be first . . . always!

Is He?

The Lord Jesus taught, “You shall love the Lord your God will all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” It’s not enough to love with part; we are commanded to love with all.

Do we? Do I?

This is the first commandment. Not simply first sequentially, but first in importance, first in application, first in understanding. Without putting this commandment into place in our lives it may be simply impossible to carry out any of the others. And if we carry it out incompletely, how complete will be our obedience of any of the others?

Think about a child who learns only 70% of what she should learn in kindergarten. How much can she learn in first grade? Not 100% because she doesn’t have the skills necessary. If she continues at the same percentage of learning, she will learn only 70% of the 70% she is capable of learning. Assuming that no one ever tutors her or tries to remediate her lack of skills, by sixth grade she will be significantly behind and only able to learn about 11% of what is presented. By twelfth grade (if she doesn’t drop out), she will be able to learn only 1.3%. Now, this obviously is an exaggeration. Usually along the way perceptive teachers seek the lack of skills and provide tutoring and remedial instruction to make up the lack. But the point for theological purposes is this: If we only obey a percentage of the first commandment, how able will we be to obey the third, the sixth, or the tenth? Most Christians have never committed murder, but the Lord Jesus Himself tied anger at a brother without cause to murder. How many times have I been angry without a just and biblical cause? Or justified my anger when I should have instead forgiven? How much is my ability to honor the Lord through my behavior, my decisions, and my words tied to the fact that I have yet to love Him with all of my heart, soul, and mind?

“Always and always God must be first!”

When the Lord is first, always and always, then sin will be second and more easily conquered, I think.

© 2010 Robin L. O’Hare. All rights reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.

Matthew 22:37-40

Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." (NKJV)

In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul admonishes us to seek love over all things, even over faith:

“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing” (v. 1-2 NKJV).

Unfortunately, the English language fails to grasp the extent of what Paul is saying. In the Greek, there are three words for love. One means the love between a man and a woman. One means the love between friends, and one means the love that God has toward us. This kind of love is agape. It is the word used in John 3:16 to express God’s love that sent the Lord Jesus to die for our sins. It is the word that Jesus used in Matthew 22 as our response to God. We are to agape the Lord our God.

This kind of love toward God is pervasive, all-encompassing. The Lord Jesus tells us that we are to love God with all of our hearts, with all of our souls, and with all of our minds.

The word translated here heart is kardia. Strong’s defines it as our thoughts or feelings. Paul talked, in 2 Corinthians 10:5, about taking every thought captive unto Christ. But this is even more. It is also involves our feelings. Feelings, particularly how we view them in America, are an interesting phenomenon. If one were to believe some psychologists, feelings actually exist with a life of their own and must be acknowledged, even obeyed, because they simply come; we cannot control them.

Darrell Yardley, a licensed professional counselor, wrote:

“Our feelings are just our feelings. Not good, not bad, just feelings. We have little affect on how we feel about something” ( http://www.horses-helping-troubled-teens.com/psychobiology-of-emotions.html).

Steve Pavlina, a self-development guru, wrote in his blog:

Our feelings are a natural response to our thoughts and intentions. We don’t really choose our feelings directly. Our feelings are a feedback mechanism. They indicate whether we’re moving into alignment with our true desires (positive feelings) or out of alignment (negative feelings). Simply put… we feel good when we’re moving towards what we want, and we feel bad when were moving away from what we want. (http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2007/09/feelings/).

Obviously secular thought has made feelings neutral. The Lord Jesus Himself, however, taught that there were evil feelings which came from the kardia and which produced sin:

“But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart (kardia), and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies” (Matthew 15:18-19 NKJV).

That is actually good news for the Christian because it means that we can take authority over our thoughts and feelings. When we want to learn to truly love God, we can focus our thoughts on Him, on loving Him, on serving Him, on pleasing Him, on worshiping Him. John Wesley wrote:

“When, in every motion of our heart, in every word of our tongue, in every work of our hands, we pursue nothing but in relation to Him and in subordination to His pleasure, then, and not till then, is that mind in us which was also in Christ Jesus” (Renew My Heart).

As with Paul, we can take our thoughts captive, refusing to dwell on those things which are not pleasing to God, and focusing instead our thoughts on Him. And if our thoughts are focused on God, our feelings will follow!

Now, if we simply loved God with all of our heart, we could stop there and it would permeate our being. But the Lord Jesus goes on. The command is to also love God with all of our soul. The Greek word used here is psuche. Strong’s defines it as the very breath within us. With each breath—with that which sustains us—we are to love God. For me, this is almost like purpose, focus, appointments, tasks, goals. In everything that I do, the ultimate purpose should be to show my love for God by doing what pleases Him. Even when I take a breath (which we, as humans, do automatically), I should be breathing in praise to Him, in worship of Him, in love for Him. It becomes like 1 Thessalonians 5:17, a prayer without ceasing.

The Lord Jesus also tells us to love God with our mind, our dianoia. Strong’s defines this as imagination and understanding. When we dream, do we dream of God? When our thoughts wander, do they wander to Him? Does He overwhelm our focus to the point that every thought winds its way to Him? Is everything that we learn and understand filtered through our love of Him, our devotion to Him?

The Lord Jesus explained that if we seek to love God as this, the natural outpouring will be love for others. I’m not sure but that there is no other way to learn to love those around us but to first focus our love and adoration on the Holy Trinity. To be honest, loving Him should be natural to us because He so first loved us. But we are bombarded with the demands of so many other things in our lives. We need to consciously devote our thoughts and feelings, our very breath, and our imagination and understanding solely to loving Him. If we can learn to do that, then I’m convinced that the rest will take care of itself.

© 2010 Robin L. O’Hare. All rights reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.

1 Timothy 1:18-20

“I am giving you these instructions, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies made earlier about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight, having faith and a good conscience. By rejecting conscience, certain persons have suffered shipwreck in the faith; among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have turned over to Satan, so that they may learn not to blaspheme.” (NRSV)

When I was growing up, my mom used to talk to me all the time about my conscience. She used to stress to me that every time I did something bad, I was damaging my conscience which God had placed within me to identify right from wrong. Paul talks to Timothy about having a “good conscience.” The Greek for this word, suneidesis, literally means co-perception (Strong’s G4893). There is a sense of corporateness in this word. The New Testament Greek Lexicon implies that it is something that we and others see and agree upon. The definition given is “the consciousness of anything the soul as distinguishing between what is morally good and bad, prompting to do the former and shun the latter, commending one, condemning the other” (http://www.biblestudytools.com/search/?q=conscience&s=References&rc=LEX&rc2=LEX+GRK).

Paul insists that one is only able to “fight the good fight” by having both faith and a good conscience. In other words, in order to fight against temptations, against sin, against Satan, we need two things. We need to completely and fully trust God (faith) and we need to be able to distinguish between what is morally good and what is morally bad and have that distinguishing guide our behavior, thoughts, and decisions.

The writer of Hebrews talks about the mature who are able to discern good from evil:

“But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil” (5:14 NKJV).

How is one able to discern good and evil? By having a good conscience. The writer of Hebrews tells us that this conscience comes “by reason of use.” The NASB translates it “because of practice.” The NRSV states “whose faculties have been trained by practice.”

We don’t practice the discerning of good and evil by doing evil, but rather by imitating the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus taught us "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23 NKJV). There are three conditions to following Him:

• deny ourselves
• take up our cross daily
• follow Him

The New Testament Lexicon defines deny as “to affirm that one has no acquaintance or connection with someone; to forget one’s self, lose sight of one’s self and one’s own interests” (http://www.biblestudytools.com/search/?q=deny&rc=LEX&rc2=LEX+GRK&ps=10&s=References). The dictionary defines deny as “to restrain oneself from gratification of desires.”

Our problem is that we make our desires needs and then convince ourselves that we should have whatever it is. Most of us are completely and totally unpracticed in telling ourselves no. If we can afford it and we want it, we get it. Oh, we might deny ourselves if we are on a diet or trying to eat healthily. We might deny ourselves if we are on a financial austerity program to save for retirement. Our denials are actually saying no to one thing that we might have something else we cherish more. We rarely, if ever, deny ourselves simply for the practice.

Let them deny themselves daily. Let them forget sight of themselves, of their own interests daily.

How often do we say no to ourselves simply for the practice of denying ourselves? In fact, if I might go a step further, how many of how deny our own needs, trusting instead for God to provide them in His own way and in His own time? Denying ourselves everything that we think we need in order to trust Him to provide?

We are saturated by a society that insists that it is not only our right but our obligation to make sure that our own needs are met. The problem is that the definition of needs continues to expand to meet the lusts of our flesh. How much do we actually need? Paul tells Timothy (in 1 Timothy 6:6), that all we need is food and clothing. And, if you remember, Paul only had one coat which he asked a disciple to bring to him. Clothing to cover us modestly and food. The Lord Jesus taught to not even seek after the food to sustain us:

“And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind. For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things” (Luke 12:29-30 NKJV).

Our needs, really, are small, our true needs. Everything else is a desire. And the Father wants us to desire Him above everything else. He wants us to deny ourselves the encumbrances of this life and to store our treasures in heaven (Matthew 6:19-21). Is having things wrong? No. But failing to deny ourselves on a daily basis means that we are failing to imitate the Lord Jesus and losing out on multiple opportunities to be blessed by trusting God to provide for us.

© 2010 Robin L. O’Hare. All rights reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.

Matthew 10:37-39

“He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.” (NKJV)

There is only one vocation, one occupation, for the Christian and that is to follow the Lord Jesus. Unfortunately, the way of our Lord wasn’t a way to palaces or riches; it wasn’t a way to success and popularity. It was the way to the cross. A painful, heartbreaking cross full of sacrifice and rejection. For our Lord Jesus truly lost His life to find it, but more than that, lost His life that we might find life and find it more abundantly.

What is it to follow Christ? John Wesley wrote:

“‘He that followeth me, walketh not in darkness, saith the Lord.’ These are the words of Christ, by which we are admonished, that we ought to imitate his life and manners, if we would be truly enlightened and delivered from all blindness of heart. Let therefore our chief endeavor be to meditate upon the life of Jesus Christ.” (The Christian Pattern).

We ought to imitate His life and manners. The life of the Lord Jesus, recorded in the gospels, accounts His birth, a short account of Him as a child, and three years of His adult life, but it is all-encompassing. It is sufficient to give us an example of how to live in order to imitate Him. The Apostle Paul knew the life of Christ sufficiently that he could admonish us to imitate his life just as he was imitating the Lord Jesus. But the way, I think, is far more difficult than we would like to openly admit, so we content ourselves with less in order not to face what it is we likely should do.

Wesley also wrote:

“Extreme are those who hope to fulfill the commands of God without taking any pains at all. Vain hope! that a child of Adam should expect to see the kingdom of Christ and of God without striving, without agonizing, first to enter in at the small, narrow gate. Vain hope that one who was conceived and born in sin, whose inward parts are wickedness, should entertain a thought of being purified as his Lord is pure unless he tread in Christ’s steps and take up his cross daily. Vain hope that he should ever dream of shaking off his old opinions, passions, tempers, of being sanctified throughout, in spirit, soul, and body, without a constant and continued course of general self-denial!” (Renew My Heart).

When we study the life of the Lord Jesus, we can see that each step of His three years of ministry was not a series of journeys, but one journey with one end, the cross. Each step, each word, each miracle, each sermon was for the purpose of pointing toward the cross, toward that ultimate sacrificial act. All of His teachings, His miraculous deeds, His gentle touches have no meaning without the cross. Without the cross, the Lord Jesus is reduced simply to another teacher of morality, and even of less, for without the cross, He becomes a liar, a charlatan, and we should turn away. The focus of His entire life was the cross. And the Lord Jesus did more than die. He was willing to trust the Father enough to suffer rejection . . . and continue to trust. He was only able to pay the price for our sins by being willing to be made sin.

“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21 NKJV).

And in being made sin, the Lord Jesus suffered the rejection of the Father. He was rejected by people and rejected by God, suffered and died, that we might become “the righteousness of God in Him.”

How much do we want to actually follow Him? A. W. Tozer claimed that many Christians walk to the edge of path . . . and stop, rather than to fully and truly follow the Savior:

“It may be said without qualification that every man is as holy and as full of the Spirit as he wants to be. He may not be as full as he wishes he were, but he is most certainly as full as he wants to be. The problem is not to persuade God to fill us, but to want God sufficiently to permit Him to do so. For all God’s good will toward us He is unable to grant us our heart’s desires till all our desires have been reduced to one. It is easy to learn the doctrine of personal revival and victorious living; it is quite another thing to take our cross and plod on to the dark and bitter hill of self-renunciation.” (Born after Midnight).

Our lives are full to overflowing with the things we have embraced. We fill our eyes, ears, and minds with sights, sounds, suggestions, platitudes, and models of behavior through relationships, media, and the like. Our heart attitudes are formed and molded by that which we want and seek after, including television, movies, books, and magazines. We now are bombarded with even more information through the Internet as we interact with social networks, blogs, newsgroups, webpages, videos, and more.

How much do we want the Lord? How much do we pray, study and meditate on the Word? How much do we model our lives after the Lord Jesus? While this kind of frantic interaction is more readily available now than 2000 years ago, it was also available then. One could go to the market place and interact with any number of people and ideas. There were places of great learning and discourse to which our Lord could have gravitated. Instead, He often took Himself off alone to pray, to seek the Father, and to reaffirm His purpose . . . the way of the cross. If we are determined to follow the Lord Jesus, that might be a good place to start, to learn to sequester ourselves away from the influences of the world in order to seek Him through prayer and Bible study.

The scripture said: “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.”

What if it said “He who loves television or movies more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves Facebook or MySpace, Youtube or email, musical groups or movie stars more than Me is not worthy of Me”? We demonstrate our love by where we put our resources of time, money, and effort. Where is your time, money, and effort placed? Have we truly taken up our crosses or would we prefer a Christianity that promises prosperity, success, and ease of life? If we follow the Lord Jesus, the way may truly be as Wesley described, a way of striving and agonizing to enter the narrow gate.

© 2010 Robin L. O’Hare. All rights reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.