Who Will You Trust?

God has a plan and a purpose for everything that comes into your life.

Habakkuk 2:4  “Look at the proud! They trust in themselves, and their lives are crooked. But the righteous will live by their faithfulness to God.

Habakkuk 2:14-16  For as the waters fill the sea, the earth will be filled with an awareness of the glory of the LORD.

15  “What sorrow awaits you who make your neighbors drunk! You force your cup on them so you can gloat over their shameful nakedness.  16  But soon it will be your turn to be disgraced. Come, drink and be exposed! Drink from the cup of the LORD’s judgment, and all your glory will be turned to shame.

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Habakkuk cries out in desperation and asks God why he isn't doing something to end the evil and injustice that surrounds him. He is tired of the oppressive evil and injustice that he sees in the nation that is supposed to be God's chosen people. How can God allow his people to go on this way?

But when God replies, Habakkuk has to ask God if he really knows what he is doing, how can a notoriously more evil people be used to judge God's people that are less evil? (Habakkuk 1:12-17)

Habakkuk was waiting for an answer from God to help him understand what he is doing. God let's him know that Babylon will be judged and it will be more devastating than the judgment of God's people that Babylon is bringing.

We have to decide to trust and accept that God has a plan and a purpose for every good and bad thing that comes into our life.

Look at the proud! They trust in themselves.

In Habakkuk chapter two we can see that pride is at the center of the sins of the Babylonian culture. It's the same with us today, we long for acceptance and approval so we seek our own glory instead of God's, we never learn that self gratification never works.

Pride will leave us empty and always striving for more, we can win a contest, get a trophy and a lot of applause but when the attention fades away we are still looking for approval and acceptance. We can be like the Babylonians, we can conquer the world, but we will not find satisfaction unless we continue to exploit, abuse and conquer someone or something else.

Pride is a strange creature; it never objects to its lodgings. It will live comfortably enough in a palace, and it will live equally at its ease in a hovel. Is there any man in whose heart pride does not lurk?

-Spurgeon

The Babylonians sins are our sins, our evil culture looks too much like theirs, obviously we are slow learners because the history of sin continues to be repeated as we continue to do the same things that they did:

• Selfish ambition (Habakkuk 2:6-8), 
• Greed (Habakkuk 2:9-11), 
• Exploit people (Habakkuk 2:12-14), 
• Drunkenness and violence (Habakkuk 2:15-17) 
• Idolatry (Habakkuk 2:18-20).

Everybody that rejects God to live for themselves is going to keep doing the same sins and be shocked when they don't get a different result.

The righteous will live by their faithfulness to God.

God's righteous people will admit that he is still in control and no matter what happens he never leaves his throne. God sees everything that we are going through just as he did in the Bible, look how many godly people went through extremely difficult experiences without losing faith.

It is difficult to understand that God is in control but scripture also tells us that we are responsible for our choices. In our minds it is an apparent contradiction that we cannot resolve, it is true that God is in control but it is equally true that we are not puppets and we get to choose because we have free will.

The righteous won't manipulate and use people, they won't look at others and think about what that person can do for them. I can treat people better because my glory and honor comes from God and his love and applause are all that should matter to me.

Habakkuk 2:20  But the LORD is in his holy Temple. Let all the earth be silent before him.”

I need to stop complaining when difficult times come my way because he sends them for his purpose and his glory. I will trust God to take care of me and work everything out for my good because of his great love for me and my great love for him. (Romans 8:28)

I need to love God in all of his glory and allow him to remove my pride, I need to trust in his power and allow him to be my source of honor and glory.

Nobody But Jesus

I'm just a nobody trying to tell everybody all about somebody.

Video: Casting Crowns - Nobody (Official Music Video) ft. Matthew West

Why You ever chose me

Has always been a mystery

All my life I've been told I belong

At the end of the line

With all the other not-quites

With all the never-get-it-rights

But it turns out they're the ones You were looking for

All this time

'Cause I'm just a nobody

Trying to tell everybody

All about Somebody

Who saved my soul

Ever since You rescued me

You gave my heart a song to sing

I'm living for the world to see

Nobody but Jesus

I'm living for the world to see

Nobody but Jesus

Moses had stage fright

When David brought a rock to a sword fight

You picked twelve outsiders nobody would have chosen

And You changed the world

Well the moral of the story is

Everybody's got a purpose

So when I hear that devil start talking to me saying

"Who do you think you are?"

I say

So let me go down, down, down in history

As another blood-bought faithful member of a family

And if they all forget my name, well that's fine with me

I'm living for the world to see

Nobody but Jesus

So let me go down, down, down in history (Goin' down in history)

As another blood-bought faithful member of a family

(That's all I ever wanna be)

And if they all forget my name, well that's fine with me

I'm living for the world to see

Nobody but Jesus

1 Corinthians 1:26-29 Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God.

How Is Your Serve?

Jesus condescended the most because he loves us the most.

 

John 13:3-6  Jesus knew that the Father had given Him authority over everything and that He had come from God and would return to God.  4  So He got up from the table, took off His robe, wrapped a towel around His waist,  5  and poured water into a basin. Then He began to wash the disciples' feet, drying them with the towel He had around Him.  6  When Jesus came to Simon Peter, Peter said to Him, "Lord, are You going to wash my feet?"

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This is Jesus last Passover celebration, his Last Supper with his disciples, Jesus knew God's timetable and that his final hour was drawing near. You and I would be very self-centered in this situation, just like the disciples were as they sat at the table with Jesus but instead of worrying about himself he is concerned with the men that he would leave behind and the strength of their faith.

On many occasions Jesus was asked who he is, where he came from and why he thought that he had the authority to scold the Pharisees. John tells us that Jesus knew that he came from God, he would return to God and he knew that God had given him the authority to do God stuff. Yet he did things that we wouldn't expect God to do.

It is difficult to imagine that Jesus had authority over absolutely everything, we can't even comprehend what that means, when we say that somebody has authority over something we know in our heads that the authority covers certain boundaries. A school teacher has authority in certain areas that we can clearly define but Jesus rules over things that we don't even know about.

Should the ruler over absolutely everything be my servant?

"No," Peter protested, "You will never ever wash my feet!"

Jesus stepped down from the highest position and humbled himself, he made the greatest leap in condescension, we will probably never understand why he loves us so much that he would make this giant step from greatness to the lowliest servant.

Only humble people love, and your capacity to love is directly related to your capacity to humble yourself. The less interested you are in yourself, the greater your capacity to invest yourself in somebody else. The lower you go in self-concern, the higher you go in concern for others. -John MacArthur

I have never considered the connection between loving and being humble. Jesus willingness to be so humble and come down so low from his superior position in heaven is incredible. That level of selflessness is far superior to the love that we have that is self serving and seeks to gain something in return.

Shouldn't Jesus announce that I am his greatest follower?

Those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank. 

These guys were so busy arguing about their rank and how well they were doing at following the Rabbi that they missed one of the most important qualities of a Christ follower. Think about this, the hands that control the universe, including all the angelic host, humbly washed the dirty feet of twelve undeserving apostles! And that includes the feet of the betrayer!

Unworthy Servants

Luke 17:7-10  "When a servant comes in from plowing or taking care of sheep, does his master say, 'Come in and eat with me'? No, he says, 'Prepare my meal, put on your apron, and serve me while I eat. Then you can eat later.' And does the master thank the servant for doing what he was told to do? Of course not. In the same way, when you obey Me you should say, 'We are unworthy servants who have simply done our duty.'"

I am an unworthy servant that has a hard time thinking of myself as I should, my level of gratitude for what God has done for me is severely lacking because of my perception of who I am and what level of despair I was in without my Savior doesn't really sink into my head. Pride gets in the way of seeing myself the way that God sees me.

If I could wrap my head around the idea of how depraved I am then my level of gratitude would be increased along with my ability to love and serve the hurting world around me the way that Jesus did.

Help me Lord to see myself through your eyes for who I really am so I can fully appreciate what you have done for me.

Equality In The Body

We are all the same in the body of Christ.

2 Peter 1:1-2  This letter is from Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ. I am writing to you who share the same precious faith we have. This faith was given to you because of the justice and fairness of Jesus Christ, our God and Savior.  2  May God give you more and more grace and peace as you grow in your knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord.

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Despite what the Catholic church says about Peter and the glory and praise that they have erroneously given to him, Peter refers to himself as a slave and an apostle.

Faith is a gift from God and the gift has been given to us the same as it was given to the first disciples. Since we are all slaves without Christ we are all the same before him and none of us deserves to be treated differently.

The apostle Peter is a servant and so am I, it is amazing that the believers in the New Testament are seen as filthy rags, servants without any status or rights and "Saint" Peter never had the attitude that he was any different than the other believers.

The Roman Catholic Church still holds to the lies of Papal headship and Papal infallibility. Their lies state that: "The Pope possesses full and supreme power of jurisdiction over the whole Church and not merely in matters of faith and morals but also in Church discipline and in the government of the Church."

Christ is the head of the church and everyone of us is not worthy to have anyone look at us as having any authority or power. The levels of power and authority that the Catholic church tries to tell us that the chain of command from the Pope all the way down to the local priest is wrong. (Ephesians 1:19-23, Colossians 1:18, 2:10)

Mark 10:43-45  But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give His life as a ransom for many.

A slave is subordinate, his service to his master is out of obligation, he has to serve he has no concern about the cost of serving or the inconvenience. It is too bad that the church is so full of volunteers today. The volunteer gets to decide if the time is right or if they like the job that they are being asked to do. If it is convenient then they will signup.

I am just a slave for Jesus, I need to remember that I am not any better than the next guy, we are all nothing without Jesus. I need to be ready to serve without reservation or excessive rules about when, where or how.

I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength to do his work. He considered me trustworthy and appointed me to serve him. (1 Timothy 1:12) Thank you Lord for loving me despite who I am. What an incredible privilege to loose my bondage to sin and become your servant.

Humility In Ministry

The gospel doesn't need a bunch of hype.

 

John 7:6-11  Jesus replied, "Now is not the right time for Me to go, but you can go anytime.  7  The world can't hate you, but it does hate Me because I accuse it of doing evil.  8  You go on. I'm not going to this festival, because My time has not yet come."  9  After saying these things, Jesus remained in Galilee.  10  But after His brothers left for the festival, Jesus also went, though secretly, staying out of public view.  11  The Jewish leaders tried to find Him at the festival and kept asking if anyone had seen Him.

John 8:1-11  Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives,  2  but early the next morning He was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and He sat down and taught them.

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Yesterday in the temple Jesus invited the crowds to come to him if they had a spiritual thirst. The reactions to Jesus offer were very diverse. Some people were convinced that he could satisfy their spiritual longing but then there were others who wanted him arrested.

You may recall from John chapter seven that Jesus didn't enter the temple with a bunch of fanfare or attention, he just blended in with the crowd, that is until he started teaching. His teaching always made him stand out, even when he was a little boy, Jesus message always drew a crowd. (Luke 2:41-52)

John 7:14-15 Then, midway through the festival, Jesus went up to the Temple and began to teach. The people were surprised when they heard Him. "How does He know so much when He hasn't been trained?" they asked.

John chapter seven is all about the commotion that followed after Jesus gave his message. The place was in an uproar, mean things were being said, people were being disrespectful to Jesus and then in the midst of all of this chaos Jesus finishes the message and moves on to the invitation.

"Anyone who is thirsty may come to Me! Anyone who believes in Me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, 'Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.'"

That just made things worse because now they are trying to arrest him! Some people think that he is correct in saying things that the Messiah would say but they are a minority. Other people are skeptical and others are completely opposed to Jesus.

After all of the commotion in the temple, somehow it settles down enough for people to go home for the day, everybody except for Jesus. Maybe there were other homeless people in the temple that day but he was the least deserving person to be without shelter. While everybody else went to their house to rest for the night Jesus went to the garden.

He slept out in the cold on the Mount of Olives many times, I have to wonder how little he slept. Did he look tired and older than he really was because of sleep deprivation? Remember when he said the foxes and birds have homes but the creator of the universe didn't have a place to lay his head? (Matthew 8:20)

In the morning Jesus went back to the temple, he quietly went in, sat down and he taught. It would be tempting to think that there is no way that he is going to go back and teach a crowd that is so opposed to his message. But he returns and the opposition comes along too. (John 8:1-59)

You might think that Jesus should make an announcement or pass out flyers to let people know that he was going to be at the temple at a certain time. He didn't put out any signs, he didn't announce that the greatest teacher in the world was about to begin.

Keep It Simple
1 Corinthians 2:1-3  When I first came to you, dear brothers and sisters, I didn't use lofty words and impressive wisdom to tell you God's secret plan.  2  For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the One who was crucified.  3  I came to you in weakness--timid and trembling.

The Apostle Paul knew that he needed to keep it simple, not that his audience was slow to learn, he knew that the gospel is supposed to be what draws people in. There's no place for sensationalism in a gospel presentation.

John the Baptist started his ministry in a remote location, there weren't any neon lights or banners directing the crowds to take a walk to the desert. John would always point people to Jesus and push the attention away from himself. The people that followed John had it all wrong, they should have come to John just long enough to be redirected to Jesus, their complaint that "everybody is going to Him instead of coming to us" was so absurd. (John 3:26)

Peter's message after Jesus ascension into heaven was so bold and simple. The crowds knew that he didn't go to rabi school, he was an ordinary man, and yet his message was extraordinary and it drew the crowds. (Acts 4:12-13)

John 12:32 And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to Myself."

Jesus said that he would be the good news that would attract people. We need to remember:

✔  The more that people see of Jesus the less they will see of us.
✔  The key is availability and teaching.
✔  Just give the Word, it's all about the message not the method

Thank you Lord for choosing to use me to tell the good news of the gospel. I pray that I will not get in the way of the message.

Christian vs Christian

You shouldn't have to wear boxing gloves to church.

Romans 14:4, 10-13  Who are you to condemn someone else's servants? Their own master will judge whether they stand or fall. And with the Lord’s help, they will stand and receive his approval.

10 So why do you condemn another believer? Why do you look down on another believer?

Remember, we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.  11  For the Scriptures say, "'As surely as I live,' says the LORD, 'every knee will bend to Me, and every tongue will confess and give praise to God. '"  12  Yes, each of us will give a personal account to God.  13  So let's stop condemning each other.

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Every organization has it's share of division and strife among the people that are in the group. Whether it is in the military, a social group or a workplace, there is going to be conflict.

That shouldn't be true of the church but unfortunately it is not any better inside the body of Christ. There have always been divisions and fighting despite the fact that Jesus prayed for us to get along with each other and serve each other and to be united together just the same as he is united with God the Father. (John 17:21)

I have never slowed down and allowed this verse to sink in. It is stuck in the middle of a bunch of verses about whether the Gentile believers should stick to the dietary restrictions that the Jews observed under the law. The verse is Romans 14:4 "Who are you to condemn someone else's servants?"

The first thought that came to mind is that I am a servant of God. I am just a slave, I do not have any rights, my life has been redeemed by Jesus and therefore it belongs to him. Since he has purchased me he has all rights to me and my life should be spent making sure that I am pleasing my master.

Second thought that comes to mind is that I am surrounded by other servants of God that he has also redeemed and none of those other servants around me are answerable to me. I don't have any rights and I don't have any authority. As a fellow slave, I have no power or any right to have another slave give an account for his actions.

What if the other servants are doing what God has told them to do? Why am I putting them down? So what if they are not pleasing me when it comes to stuff that isn't an essential part of the gospel. There is one Lord, one Holy Spirit and one God and I am not any of them.

James 4:12  God alone, who gave the law, is the Judge. He alone has the power to save or to destroy. So what right do you have to judge your neighbor?

Jesus had the right to walk around this planet and point his finger at everybody that he saw that was wrong and condemn all of them but instead the main characteristic of his life was love. It was love that drew people to him. Without love the gospel doesn't have any power and instead of drawing people in to Jesus we will drive them away.

Help me Lord to be less like the devil with his judging personality and help me to grow more like my loving redeemer.