Obedience and Trust: Old Testament Style

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“The king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the king’s table. They were to be trained for three years, and after that they were to enter the king’s service. But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way.” Daniel 1:5, 8 (NIV)

17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us[a] from Your Majesty’s hand. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” Daniel 3:17-18 (NIV)

               I recently heard a friend preach a sermon in a series on Daniel. This particular sermon dealt with his success in the surroundings of the court of Babylon. He and three of his friends were taken into the court to become workers in the court of Nebuchadnezzar.

               There was an issue of the food that the king had them eat. Daniel knew this food had been presented to idols. This was forbidden in Daniel’s Hebrew belief. He asked for vegetables and water. When he met opposition, He asked that he hand his friends be allowed to do this diet for 10 days as a test and then have the guard compare how the four of them appear against the others who were being ‘trained.’ Daniel and his friends won the test.

               What amazed me was the point my friend made. Her statement was to the effect of: “Daniel and his friends were successful because they were obedient to God.”

               Then in Sunday school, our teacher told us that a pastor once told him that we have two legs on which we stand—trust and obey. They go hand in hand but first we have to trust God in order to obey Him.

               Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, Daniel’s three friends trusted God when the king told them of their outcome for not bowing down to his image of gold. They didn’t flinch; they said even if God didn’t deliver them from the fiery furnace, they would still honor their God by not bowing down to an image.

               How do we in the 21st Century trust and then obey God? Do we study His Word, seeking answers to our needs? Or do we sit and focus on our problems? (I’m going to let you in on a secret. I used to do this, myself.) We all, me included, need to learn to have sharing our hurts and problems with God as our “plan ‘A’”, our frontline strategy, rather than our “plan ‘Z’”, our last resort. May God forgive us as we humbly seek His favor for neglecting these very basic building blocks in developing a right relationship with Him.

If We Love Jesus

“Jesus replied, ‘If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching.

My Father will love him and we will come to him

and make our home with him.’”

John 14:23 (NIV)

               Jesus speaks of obedience, He tells us it comes because of our love for Him. I find it interesting that He speaks of an outcome of our obedience—God loves us and they together will come to the one who carries out God’s Will and will live with him or her. What can we do to practice or better practice obedience to God?

                Do we listen to what He tells us? I had a relative who would call me and ask my advice about a circumstance in her life. She would tell me she had two or three options she could choose to follow. She always seemed to pick the option she already had decided on before she called. I felt she wasted her time and mine by doing this ritual.

               We can’t do that with God. When God tells us something, we can’t say, “I’m going to do what I want about this.” We asked Him; He guides us and we should follow His leading.

               Do we spend time with him in prayer? I have a friend who told me she had to get out of the habit of praying ‘hit and run’ prayers or ‘catch you later, God’ prayers. I love the thought I read several years ago, “If you’re too busy to pray, you are too busy.” Maybe we are too busy. We might need to pare down some of our activities in order to make more room for time with God in our lives.

               Do we spend time in God’s Word? God gave us this wonderful guide to Him and His thoughts in order to help us live. We will be calmer more confident people when we know what God expects from us, His children. 

             

As I review this before posting, I have realized that I have been doing what I want to about my eating habits, too much candy and snack food. It’s something I go through about this time of the winter. I will be taking care of this lapse in my life. I know I have to in order to be able to live and work for Him.

               As we prepare our hearts to celebrate Christ’s Resurrection, let’s prepare our hearts in order to be more acceptable to Him.

If We Obey Christ

“If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love,

just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love.”

John 15:10 (NIV)

               Jesus tells us a key point to staying in His love; we must obey-aka do what He tells us. He draws a parallel between our obedience to Him and His obedience to His Father.

               I often wonder what would have happened if Mary had opted not to obey God and be His chosen instrument to carry and rear His Child. Also, what if Jesus had succumbed to the enemy out in the desert? And how would God have reacted if Jesus had done as the crowd had taunted and come down from that cross?

               But Mary did choose to submit to God and bear and rear His Child. And Jesus did not give in to the enemy, even basing His responses on scriptures. When Jesus was on the cross, He chose not to come down from that cross

Yes, obedience is a choice we make. As we drive we can choose to stop at the corner that has that hexagonal red sign. We can choose to come to a full stop at that same sign with the added message that says we have to wait our turn when we come to a posted corner. In these examples we choose to do the right thing because it is the law and we know we have to obey it.

Some of the choices we make could have consequences that are not what God desires for His children. We have to go into His presence and seek His guidance in order to follow His will for us in these issues.

“If You Love Me. . . . ”

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“If you love me, you will obey what I command.”    John 14:15 (NIV) 

                                                                                          

Jesus has spoken words of comfort to his disciples. He then tells them He is “the way, the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6) In the verse preceding our focus verse Jesus shares with them something that might have astounded them. “You may ask me for anything in my name and I will do it.”(:14)

Next, He tells them, “If you love me, you will obey what I command.” (:15) They might have felt helpless when they heard this. I get a mental picture of each of them having a blank stare as they looked at their Master. Can you hear each of them as they mutter, “What does He mean? I love Him. I’m an adult. I haven’t had to obey anyone since I was a child.”

        The Lord Jesus then continues by promising to send another Counselor to be with them forever. This Counselor will help them as they continue through life.

        In our 21^st Century, we see times when people choose to go their own way rather than obey their superiors—parents, supervisors, the laws of the land, or the authorities. We have to understand that in each of the areas of our lives, we have standards that we have to meet, aka rules we have to follow. We choose to follow them because we have regard for those who set the codes.

    

        As Christian believers, we learn to love Jesus because He shed his blood and died for you and me. We love Him more each day because we learn more of the degree of His love for us, His children.

        When you read this, we will be two, at most, days away from Ash Wednesday, a very important day of the church year. I pray that each of His children can show Him that we love Him during the season of preparation for His Resurrection.

The Greatest of These

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And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.

 But the greatest of these is love

1 Corinthians 13:13 (NIV)

            The Apostle Paul closes out the most touching passage he wrote with these words. Have you ever wondered what He means by the word “things?” I have. Could he mean emotions? Faith is deeper than an emotion. So is hope. Love is a deliberate act of our souls.  Could he mean motivations? Let’s see, motivation means the reason for an action taken.

            I believe he means these three terms to be motivations. We take action in certain areas of our lives because we know the path we choose to take is the right one. (Faith) At other times we take a course of exercise that we see as the best way to go. (Hope) Still, we venture on a path that opens to us because we know it is what is best for someone else at that time. (Love)

            In 2011, our son came to me and told me he had been accepted for a job 600 miles to the west of where we live. He remembers me telling him, “That’s all right. You could live thee for a couple of years.”  He told me I said this when he was home the other week. What I didn’t know was my thought would be prophetic. I was motivated by my love for him.

            He will be relocating back to our home state in a few weeks. Yes, we are excited about his decision. We met him in the town where he will live and tried to help him find an apartment. We came home on the morning of the second day and he continued his search. He found one and did the business he needed to do and then drove two hours to our home.

We had a short visit with him here. He had to leave out a full day earlier that he planned due to the predicted weather.  All the actions that Hubby and I took in this venture were backed by the motivation of love.

Remain in His Love

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“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.

Now remain in my love.”

John 15:9 (NIV)

               The scene is in an upper room. Jesus and his disciples recline at their last meal together. Jesus tells his disciples as He prepares them for the future.

               The Master tells them how much He loved those who followed Him. He states it well. “As the Father has loved me,” As we study the Gospels we sense how great God’s love was for Jesus.

               Now, Jesus tells his disciples that He loves them as His Father has loved Him. What does Our Lord mean by this?

            Jesus loves patiently. Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthian believers (I Cor. 13:4), reminds us that love is patient. Our Lord loves us and waits for us to realize our need for Him. I had a Sunday school teacher who said it this way, “Jesus is always a gentleman.”

            He loves unconditionally. As children, our earthly parents had to discipline us when we did something that could have hurt us or someone else, if we disobeyed them, or broke a house rule. But, they still loved us! God, who loved us when we were still unformed, loves us no matter how serious our disobedience.

            As children of God, we sometimes wonder if an action we do might cause God to be angry with us. On Tuesday mornings, I meet with a group of friends from church for a season of prayer. But, I can’t always be as faithful as I would like about my attendance. Weather conditions or my general health enter into the decision I sometime have to make to stay home; when I do I try to spend that time in prayer.

            We cannot put limits on how much Jesus loves us. We know He does. We see the evidence in the ways He protects us, provides for us, and brings us through difficulties. We should always remember that He loves us more than we can ever realize.

Know and Love Your Neighbor

“Love your neighbor as you love yourself” Matthew 22:39 (NIV)

            Since the Pharisees heard that Jesus had earlier ‘silenced the Sadducees,’ (:34), they decided to test Him. One who was knowledgeable in the law posed the question, “Which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

            The Master answered the question and went further, giving the second greatest commandment, to love our neighbors as much as we love ourselves. When He said this, Jesus was quoting Old Testament Law. (Leviticus 19:18)

 

            This is a tall order. In our 21st Century society, we barely know who are neighbors are.At one time, I could say I knew or was acquainted with several families along our street, those a few houses away as well as those close to our house. As time and circumstance has changed our street, I no longer can say that.

            Last spring, we had an emergency right across the street from us. A house caught fire. The woman who lived across our side yard had her dad staying overnight. He ran across and down the street and pounded on the front door of the house immediately to the west of the burning house.  He was a neighbor in every sense, and he was just staying at his daughter’s. 

            Will we be held accountable for our society becoming more insular as time goes by? I believe so. Certain regions of these United States have recently gone through times of great unrest. These times have caused concern and caution on the part of those who watched events unfold.

           

            Is there still time for us to learn to know and then to love our neighbors? I certainly hope there is.

            Dear Father God:

                        Thank you for giving us neighbors. Help us to learn to live side by side or close to one another. Teach us to respect one another and to bring aid when and as we can. Also equip us to share our love for You with them. We give You all the praise. In the name of Jesus, we pray. AMEN.