6.6.08 Service=Obedience

Notes from my study earlier this morning.

 

So it would seem that singleness (only one), worship, and service go hand and hand, as we read in Matthew 6:24 and Luke 4:8

 

But how do we serve God?  Paul says in Romans 1:9 NLT “…with all my heart [spirit]…”.  So we serve God with our spirits.  That’s the supernatural tool.  The natural (or physical) manifestation would be “…by spreading the Good News about His Son”  If you read back in verse 3, it clearly says that the Good News is about His Son.  Not necessarily about the Bible itself.  I think that’s the easy and palatable way to define the Good News, but it’s clearly stated that the Good News is solely about His Son, Jesus Christ. 

 

Let’s take a real life example.  Let’s say you just had a new baby – a beautiful baby.  And you tell best friend that she can now tell everyone you both know that the baby is finally here and they can come and see the baby.  As soon as your friend leaves your house, she goes shopping, she goes back to work, she goes and picks up her kids, she goes home and cooks dinner, and then goes to bed.  You don’t see her or hear from her for a week, almost two.  You know by now, since no one has called or come by, that she obviously didn’t do as you had asked.  How do you feel?  Do you feel that she has served you well as a friend?  Probably not.

 

So as a Christian – a friend of God, it only seems befitting that real service comes through doing one thing only.  God told us in Mark 16:15 NLT “to go into the world and preach the Good News to everyone”. 

 

And again it would be really easy to say that ‘to serve God, we are to tell everyone about Jesus Christ’.

 

Somehow I don’t think that is exactly it.

 

I think I have finally come to the root of the subject.  The key words in Mark 16:15 were “he told them”

 

To serve God, we must do one thing – and one thing only.  We must obey God – out of a heart of submission.

 

Everything promise, every blessing in the Bible, usually comes after a command issued to us by God.  The promise or the blessing is just a side effect of the obedience to his command.  Just as death is a side effect of sin.  And all sin is, is really a disobedience to a previously issued command.  Sin is knowing right, but doing wrong.

 

People say the church is in trouble, the church is weak, the church is segregated, etc etc.  All of those things are just side effects.  A good majority of the church today (myself included sometimes), are just disobedient to the commands of God or to the commands of people that are in authority over us – like our parents, our preachers, our bosses.

 

And no, we’re not perfect, and, yes, we do have a free will, and some level of intelligence, so we can’t always expect to be obedient 100% of the time (or not with a right heart, at least).

 

But we can assess ourselves daily.  We can repent when the Holy Spirit convicts us of something that we intentionally or unintentionally did wrong.  We can make every effort to be obedient in all things.

 

Disobedience was the first sin, and is one that is at the root of most all other sin and bad things.

 

We have to take a stand.  No…I will take a stand – to keep my spiritual ear in tune with the Lord, so that I can keep myself on the path of walking in obedience and thus in His will.

 

I choose, today, to serve God through obedience.

 

Will you come along side me?

 

 

6.6.08 Serve God or Bust

I haven’t sat down and blogged about my confessions for the last 3 days.  Before going to sleep Tuesday night, I settled in myself that on Wednesday, I would be “joyous”.  I woke up, and I would have to say that I was pretty joyous and joyous throughout the day.  Thursday came and I couldn’t figure out what I really wanted to be on Thursday.  I had no pressing issues in my life that day.  I felt fine, work was fine.  I couldn’t really come up with anything.  Which needless to say I felt kinda bad about.  So last night, I began to wonder, am I really going about this the wrong way.  I definitely believe that we need to ask ourselves that each day, and set our mind on demonstrating a Godly character or position each day.  But I wonder am I wrong in the way that I come up with my confession for the day.  Obviously Thursday, I was led by was feelings – which were no negative feelings at all.  And if Satan, can get you to feel or do too much of one thing, he’ll work overtime to get to feel or do too little of another thing.  So today, it happened kind of differently.  I started praying following the guide of my written prayer checklist.  (You can ask for a blank copy if you want one) As I thanked God for my salvation, something down inside asked me “are you thankful that you’re saved because you don’t have to go to hell?” or “because you are entitled to enjoy the promises of God on earth if you do the work?” or “are you thankful for your salvation because you truly get to (not have to, but get to) serve God?”  And another question quickly came “what does it mean to truly serve God?”  So I’m off to study that passage and the real meaning of that word, and I’ll let you know what God tells me.  But today, I am going to set my heart on being a servant.

 

 

5.31.08 Confessions Don’t Work!

That’s what many Christians truly believe.  “It didn’t work for me that one time, so it doesn’t work at all!”  And I’m here to agree with you.  Of course confessions don’t work.  Not if you suddenly get a ‘revelation’ of one at 9.30pm and half-heartedly repeat it in fear or desperation until you go bed a few hours later, after having let (keyword being let) the devil beat up on you and your family for the previous 15 hours.  I mean, really?

 

Wanna know a secret?  Your confession is much like your career.  When you were just a little tyke, I’m sure most all of the well-wishing adults in your life would ask “and what do you want to be when you grow up?”  The usual answers are often something like a doctor, a lawyer, a nurse, a scientist, a preacher, a police officer, or even a golfer (for the Tiger in us).  Not too many kids say they want to be homeless, or a stripper, a drug dealer, untrustworthy, an addict, a liar, or a person of questionable character.  Not judging any one because we’ve all sinned and fallen short, but the people who are stuck in this type of bondage today are more than likely people who never answered that question or people who simply lost sight of their original answer.

 

Any successful (even partially successful) professional will tell you that once they set their mind, mouth, and heart on their answer to that age old question “what do you want to be?” in the beginning of their career journey, and then set about doing the necessary things to make that a reality, along the way they began to see the ever-increasing fruits of their labor until one day they reach their pinnacle of success. 

 

Bible confessions work exactly the same way.  If you want the victory that comes from standing on the word of God, you have to start at the beginning and then chart a course of actions that will pull that confession from the supernatural realm into the natural realm.

 

What are you talking about?  Glad you asked.  I’ll give you an example.

 

Let’s say for instance, today, I woke up and for some reason I felt like I had ate nails.  I really don’t feel like being my usual ball of joy today.  I really don’t want to talk to anyone today, including my own self.  I just feel like I want to move quietly and invisibly through the world today and get back home in time for dinner.  Now, I know that emotions are divinely designed to move you in one direction or another.  I also know that, me being the introvert that I am, Satan will try his hardest to attack my emotions in such a way that will keep me locked inside myself, or my home, and away from the rest of the world – in essence, keeping me from spreading the love and word of God to other people in my daily life. 

Now because I’m smarter than the devil, as soon as I get up and realize what is going on inside my soul, I immediately begin to ask myself “what do I want to be today?”  After moving about the house for a few minutes, I finally settle in my heart that today I want to be a ‘worshipper’ – because that requires deliberate verbal efforts.  And since I’m spirit-filled and I yield myself to the spirit of the Lord, my body and my soul are going to have to fall in line.  So I start singing praises to my God and start getting dressed.  I throw on my ConfeesionTee to help keep in me remembrance of my confession for the day, and I’m out the door. 

Now, I know that when I lay my head down tonight, I will sleep sweetly because throughout the day I keep his praises in my mouth and I will withstand the tricks of the devil – because I know that today I am a worshipper – it even says so on my shirt. 

To sum up.  Confessions do work…but you have to work them, and God has given you the authority and the power to do so. 

 

 

 

5.15.08 Welcome to Wear the Word is Blogged

Since my childhood, I have held fast to a few scriptures that have really spoken to me and helped me through.  After really immersing myself in the teachings of the Lord, my church, and my Bible college classes over the course of the past year, I have (lackadaisically) accumulated a few hundred confessions and scriptures by reading my Bible, promise & confession books, handouts from church, and just listening to teachers of the word.  I have so many right now that it’s almost impossible (in the natural) to recall them off the top of my head.  I make it a point not to get into a spirit of religion or complacency by reciting the same confession over and over again without conviction by speaking confessions that apply to that day or hour.  One day, a few months ago, I began reading and reciting a 2-page confession on victory for my child.  Then a week later, I saw that she had come home from youth group with another page long confession on something else.  My spirit immediately became vexed.  All I could think was “why can’t we just confess the Word” – as opposed to confessing someone else’s 2 page prayer or wish list based on the Word.  From that point, I just purposed to confess the Word.  As I was going through a trying experience this week with my daughter, and searching for a word from God to stand on, I thought to myself how nice it would be if I could just wear my confession on a t-shirt everyday for the next few days as we go through this situation.  As I began to meditate more on the thought, it began to take root and grow, and became a full fledge business idea that presented several opportunities for God to work in our lives and in the lives of others.  Thus, Wear the Word was born.