How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the Lord had shut them up?
Notice the multiplication here. Logical math would tell you that if one takes on one thousand, then two takes on two thousand. But in this versd two takes on ten thousand. This is why we need prayer backup. This is why we need to be part of a body of believers. This is why we need to form friendships with Godly people who will pray with us and fight with us.
A man was talking to a great musician saying, "I wish I could play like you!"
"No you don't," he replied.
Somewhat shocked by this, the man said, "I do! I really wish I could play like you do."
The musician said again, "You do not, sir. To play as well as me you need to practice for five hours everyday for over a decade."
Often I wish, I was this holy, this pure, this good and I knew God this well. Then, I need to put in the effort and seek God everyday. There is no point wishing. There is point working.
There is a married couple. The husband absolutely adores his wife. He does everything within his power to make her comfortable and happy. He consistently tires himself for her benefit. The wife, however, does not reciprocate this. She does nothing for him and rarely thanks him because she takes everything for granted. Yet, in spite of this, the husband continues to try and please her; he works hard in the hope that she may glance a smile at him. Onlookers wonder how long he will keep it up, but he has already married her for more than fifty years.
You might say that is a very hypothetical story, but actually, it's true. The husband is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ; the wife is his church. Jesus has continually loved us. He has saved us and died for us. He provides for us, makes promises to us, protects us, helps us and much more besides. He has faithfully done this for years. His church, however, for the most part does her own thing, forgets to thank Him, takes all her benefits for granted and rarely spends time with Him.
Now suppose the wife begins to smile at her husband and greets him and begins to do little somethings for him. Would not his heart be filled with joy? Do you not suppose he would rejoice and would hardly sleep for happiness?
Church, you are the bride. Seek to fill your husband with joy. You can look at the Bible as a boring list of rules and regulations if you want. But why not look at it as a book containing hints as to what your husband likes and would be overjoyed to see in His beloved bride. As His wife, surely you should desire to make His heart glad, and will long to read His Word to find "little somethings" you can do for Him.
I remember my dad going through the entire house and burning or throwing out any thing that was not pleasing to God. He burnt up books, ripped up DVDs, threw out tapes and such like. That is called sincerity. No one can pick and choose what you decide to dump of your own things. That is between you and God. Some may go as far as David Brainerd, others maybe not so. But the point is to gather up all of your possessions and go through them on your knees before God. One who does that is truly sincere about serving His God. One who does that makes God his God.
I have a strong desire. I long to see it fulfilled in myself and in every Christian I meet. I long for a sincere heart that would give up everything and every ambition for Him. A heart that would gladly lose everything just to have fellowship with Him. A heart that is constantly praying earnestly to the Father. A heart that devotes its self to God. I know I fail many times a day, and I mean that, but at least (and I do not intent to esteem myself better than any other person by saying this) I do have a heart that longs to be totally, sincerely true and pure. I want to see that heart in every person. I do see in many a heart that is wishy washy. A body that goes to church on a Sunday but does not change. As for me, I yearn to be a living and growing Christian. I yearn to hate darkness and love light. I don't want to be a lazy, unhealthy, uncaring Christian. I want to be like Jesus.
If you were to look at the former posts, you will get the idea I am trying to draw the reader back to the amazing love of Jesus as he took my place on that cross. I just want to say it again. He died for me, of all people, me. I wish I could express myself properly. But I am glad I can't, because if I were able to fully comprehend and describe His love than it would not be infinite.
Jesus loves me. Jesus loves you. He did it all. Repeat! Emphasis! Stand up on your chair if you have to just to emphasize this incredible wow!
So how can I put this into words? I rubbed out a couple of lines there because they were not good enough. God calls me His son!!! Me?!! A wretched sinner like me?!!. I was dipping a tyre in work today when it just hit me again, I just looked up at the light and was like, "wow!" Me, of all people. Most guys out there are more worthy of this than me, but God calls me His son. What can I say. Maybe just, "whooooooop!" Some things can just not be explained. But wow!
Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. Galatians 4:7
For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us. Isaiah 33:22
When I read this I thought, "Is He?" Here I see words stating He is my Judge, Lawgiver and King. Can I say that? Does He have rule over my life? When He gives the laws do I obey them? Do I let God judge my life and decide what I should do? Does He have the final word.
I should let God have the final word. I should just give myself totally to Him.
I have been in this place many times recently and how much more I realize I don't realize what He has done for me. What a God!
Once Again - Matt Redman (with lyrics): http://youtu.be/ebFji3n0cCA
What do I mean when I call myself a Christian? Well, I like to think of it this way. A European is somebody from Europe, an Asian is a person from Asia, an African is someone of the African race and a Christian is somebody of the race of Christ. God says we can become the sons of God if we receive Him and believe on Him. (John 1:12)
Now, you can often tell where a person is from when you see them (colour of skin, type of hair, shape of the face and facial parts and by their accent), so if I am a Christian I should look like Christ. Now, this will not be a change physically. When a became a Christian I didn't develop a Christian nose. No, these Christlike features are internal, but, they should shine through me so that others should notice and say, "Look at him, there is something different about him. He must have God living inside of Him." That is how I want to be. Nothing less of that, I hope, should ever satisfy me.
But how does this happen? Well, because it is internal and deals with my character, no amount of make-up or surgery will do this. This requires the Holy Spirit and me to work together to shape my character to that of Jesus Christ. It takes the Holy Spirit to do the shaping and me to do the yielding. God will not force me; I have to be willing. I have to be receptive to the movement of His hands over my lump of clay. I also need to seek out His Word and see what is says about being holy and how I should live as His son. Now, I could post up all the Bible verses there are about that here. But, that would require me typing out the whole Bible. So, I may go to my room, pick up that Bible and read it thoroughly and see for myself how to radiate His life and light. And I urge you too, reader, to do the same.
Be a Christian!
On that car journey I mentioned in "Jesus loves me," I was just amazed at how faithful God is. There is no reason why He should even be faithful to me in the first place. What in me is worth His attention and loyalty? And I am by no means faithful to Him. I am always off doing this and that leaving Him behind or out of the picture. Yet, He continually calls for me, comes after me if necessary, continues to protect me and watches over me. Even though I turn my back on Him so often and regularly, He never turns His back on me. He is always there for me and He always cares for me. What a privilege it is to be called His child. I don't deserve it, but the very thought that the Creator God is faithful to me is not able to be put into words. What an amazing God!
2 Timothy 2:13
If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.
1 Corinthians 1:9
God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
Psalms 86:15
But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.
A preacher told a brilliant story in one of his sermons. It went something like this:
A little girl came up to her pastor and said, "How do I love Jesus more? I want to love Him."
The pastor replied, "When you walk home from Church today tell yourself, 'Jesus loves me. Jesus loves me. Jesus loves me.'"
Next week, the girl comes to the pastor and exclaims with beaming face, "I love Jesus! I took your advice and after a while of realizing how much He loves me I just loved Him so much."
I am going to go about my life telling myself Jesus loves me. I am just back from a car journey on which I did so, wow!
Hosea chapters 1 and 3 are absolutely amazing, mind-blowing chapters. God tells Hosea to go and marry a harlot to show how He has bonded Himself to the kingdom of Judah even though Judah has acted like a prostitute in going after other gods. So Hosea obeys and takes Gomer the harlot to be his wife. Now in the wedding ceremony I am sure Gomer promised him to be his and only his. But by chapter 3 she has gone and God is telling Hosea to go and find her and take her back. So Hosea goes and buys her back and says to her she must not go after other men and he will be her husband and love her. God told Hosea to do this to demonstrate His love for Judah and that He wants Judah back.
Wow! What a story. I am just like Gomer. I promised God when I gave my life to Him that I am all His. Many times I sing, "I surrender all" and I really mean it from the bottom of my heart. Yet, a few days later I find myself going after something else, or saying, "God, this is mine." Wow, still He forgives me. Still He goes out searching for me and pleading with me to come back. Still He loves me. What a God! Hallelujah, what a Saviour! His love for me is overwhelming. I must keep reminding myself of this if I want to love Him more. My God is amazing!
I read a fantastic sermon by A.W. Tozer. Its title was, "Who put Jesus on the Cross?" It went on to say that I should not blame the Jews, Pilate and the Romans for this crime. Yes, they were guilty, but they were my "accomplices in crime." It was my sins that held Him on that tree. It was for the sake of my peace with God that he was punished.
I was also talking to a dear friend of mine. He was saying he had heard that some people were tired of the cross and wanted to move on. I think I move on most when I come back to the cross. The cross is the whole basis to my faith! It is impossible to follow God because His standards are too high. If I "move on" from the cross, I will not be able to follow God for very long. It is the very fact that Jesus died on that cross that I can follow after God. And the more I remember the great love of Jesus, the harder I can follow after God.
If I were to make it part of my daily routine to remember Him and what He has done and genuinely thank Him for it; I reckon my relationship with God would get so much deeper.
I have often thought that it would be cool if dad had started a stopwatch when I was born. Then, when someone asked me how old I am, I could pull it out of my pocket and say, "23 years, 5 months, 17 days, 9 hours and 43, 44, 45... seconds." Would that not be class?
But then I thought, "There is another timer going. But instead of counting up the years, it counts down the ones I have left."
How do I spend this time? Am I wasting it by focusing on vain things, by idling or by inefficiency? I should be redeeming the time because the days are evil. (Eph 5:16)
Maybe there is another stopwatch. It reads the amount of time spent for God and the time spent for me. Which one reads the most?
Jesus was not one bit selfish when He did all that for me. The very actions that He took go much more beyond the words "generous" or "kind" could even describe. He gave everything to give me salvation. How amazing!
How selfish I am! Jesus has given me this wonderful gift of eternal life and yet I am reluctant to share it. There are so many lost souls out there, but how often do I reach out to them. "But it's scary." "What will they think of me?" "I don't know what to say." "I'm busy." Do I think all that Jesus did was not scary? People placed Jesus amongst theives and robbers, was He concerned about what they thought of Him. No, He was concerned for their very souls. Jesus was not too busy to give 33 years to save me. Yes, I don't know what to say, but I can't save anybody anyway. All Jesus requires of me is to go out and open my mouth, He does the rest. I should get out of bed every morning asking God how I can reach someone today. Whether that be a friend, a neighbor, someone at work or some random stranger. Will I be selfish with this wonderful gift?
I was reading 1 Kings 20 and was struck by how merciful God was to Ahab. Ahab was one of the most wicked kings Israel had seen yet. He totally rebelled against God and refused to obey Him.
Ben-hadad, the king of Syria decided to come up and fight Ahab and take all his possessions. Ahab's army was useless because Ben-hadad thought it would be fun to take 32 kings with him. In fact the outcome of this battle was so obvious that before he fought he already said he owned all of Ahab's goods.
God, on the other hand wanted to prove to Ahab that He was God. He was giving Ahab another chance to turn to Him. So God sent a prophet to tell Ahab that God would deliver this great multitude into his hand. Ahab then asked the prophet who would lead the army. The prophet answered, "You." That is another example of God's mercy. He would even let Ahab lead the army even though he was such an evil king.
So the armies went out to fight. If somebody was watching it on live T.V. they would have put all their bets on Syria. Well all those people would end up broke, because God, true to His word, gave Israel the victory. Israel's skimpy army absolutely swallowed Syria's mammoth forces.
After this war, did Ahab turn to God? No! Nor after the nest big victory recorded in this chapter.
I am just as bad as Ahab. I don't deserve God's mercy. But I am so grateful that He gave me a chance, and I am so glad I took it. I don't want to squander it. Ahab and his family ended in a bad way because he took ne heed to his oppurtunity, and he lost everything that was ever important -- a relationship with The Only True God, The Great I Am, The Holy God with Immeasurable Mercy.
Jesus gave all of Himself for me. I want to give all of myself to Him. But what is my all? Charles M. Sheldon wrote a fantastic book called, "In His Steps." It is about a group of people who set themselves a challenge; they would not do anything for a full year without first asking the question, "What would Jesus do." To do that and act accordingly is giving my all. Before I read a book, watch a movie, listen to music, buy something, start something or have spare time and wonder what to do with it, I plan to ask myself, "What would Jesus do?" It only seems right that I should when I recall the action He took for my salvation.
Why should I give my all to Jesus? The answer is in four words, "Jesus died for me." Oh, yeeeeeeah, I've heard that before; that's cool. No, that is AWESOME!!! Unfortunately it can be so easy to forget to realize all that Jesus has done. Yes, I am sure that every day the memory of it will cross my mind at some point, but every time I remember am I brought to my knees in tears and gratitude? No! Why? It has been so easy to become used to the fact that the whole novelty of it is lost. I sing about it often, I read about it often, I hear about it often, I think about it often and I say it often, but I don't take it fully in often. Jesus died for me. Jesus DIED for me. Jesus died. For ME?? JESUS DIED FOR ME!!! But I mean He died for me. That means He died.
Now if I can realize that He actually died for me, then I will understand why I should give my all to Him. I will not need to describe why I should give absolutely my very all. It will be very clear, because He died, for me.
