...Because Christ did it first.

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This post is closely related to the last one. In Romans 15 Paul continues to explain how as Christians we sometimes have different views on things. These views could both possibly be right, or else following either of them isn't wrong. For example one Christian might thing drinking alcohol is fine, whereas another Christian might decide not to do it because they aren't sure if it is sinful. 

The Christian who knows that it is not sinful to drink alcohol should be ready to give up that right and privilege for the sake of the other christian - to prevent them from being confused and sinning against their conscience by doing something they think is wrong.

But what is the example we should follow for this? As usual - Jesus is the perfect example.

Romans 15:3

"For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.”

In every aspect of our lives as Christians, Jesus is our ultimate example. We need to look at his life and live ours in response to it – he was sinless, and that should be our aim. In this specific context we see Jesus' selflessness. He didn't claim his right to reign over the universe. Even though he was God, he...

"did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!" (Philippians 2:6-8).

Jesus alone had the right to not give anything up for us. We used to (and in some ways still do) live in rebellion against him. We sin. But He willingly gave his life for us. he didn't cry out and yell about his rights. He gave them up willingly for us. The co-creator of the universe, the sovereign God over all things was willing to suffer and die for our sakes.

Jesus suffered far more than we do when we give up things for our fellow Christians.

We should obey God by copying Jesus' example. But at the same time we need to obey God out of love and thankfulness to him, not out of legalism or guilt. We need to obey him because we truly do want to obey him - and that's hard to do, and even harder to keep doing, since we slip into sin so easily.

But regardless of if you're obeying God out of really wanting to please him, or simply because you know it's how he wants you to live (even if right at this moment it's hard to obey him out of love for whatever reason), this is something we need to take on board.

Instead of crying out about our rights and what we deserve, we should look to those around us and see what they need. See what we can do to help them. See what we can give up to help them know Christ better. 

We need to copy Jesus' example.

I hope they were some helpful thoughts! Obeying God for the right motives is a complex (and yet very simple) thing, and I've found that it is extremely hard to do it right.

God Bless!

Nat.

Keeping our enthusiasm for God

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Romans 12:11

Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord.

How do we keep our enthusiasm (or zeal) for God? How do we maintain our love for him, for his word and our love of obeying him? How do we never be lacking in our passion for serving him?

They're the type of questions I've been working through lately - it's so easy to read the bible as just an academic exercise, to obey God out of mere duty. But to do it out of love? To love doing it because it's in service of our creator and saviour - that's entirely different, and I don't entirely know how we keep doing it.

Never be lacking in zeal.

The thing about our relationship with God is that it is never static. We are always either coming closer to him or further from him in our lives. We are either trusting him or relying on something else. We are either worshipping him or another. But how do we keep our enthusiasm for God? Here are a few thoughts:

• In some senses it does come down to a choice. We need to choose to serve God and to live for him. We need to choose to obey him. Without our choice to serve God and to live entirely for him with zeal, we will not do it. So that's a good first step. But how do we facilitate that? How do we make it real and genuine?

• The second thing to do it pray. God alone can change our hearts, and he alone can make us more like him. If we want to live for him and to love him we need to ask for his help - only he can replace our hearts of stone with ones of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26). We need to pray constantly and consistently for God's help. He may not seem to answer straight away. he may not answer how we want. But he always hears the prayers of his people and he always does what is for our good (Romans 8:28).

• To love God we need to know him. To do that we need to read his word. We also need to reflect on his promises and his faithfulness - all he has done for us and for his people. Most of all: reflect on Jesus and what he has done for us and how unfathomable that love is. When we consider all God has done and recognise the depths of his love it's easier to love him back and therefore to live for him.

• Serve God. As we give our lives to God and invest them in serving him and as we store up riches in heaven, our hearts will be there also. Part of that involves removing our idols from our lives - we need to consider what we put before God in our lives and remove it from that place however possible. That's hard work! But to love God first we need to get rid of everything that's in the way. (1 John 2:15-17).

When we slip away and start to find that we are lacking in zeal we can work to fix it by doing these things. John, in Revelations 2:4-5 said this:

But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.

What are the works we did at first? Repentance and faith. We need to "confess our sins" because "he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." God will forgive us and if we genuinely turn back to him he will save us and bring us back to him. Pray, ask for his help and work at the things above!

Start now.

I hope they were helpful thoughts, fell free to comment if you have any thoughts or other ideas.
God Bless!
Nat.

"...Hate what is evil; cling to what is good."

Romans 12:9

"Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good."

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The last two commands in this passage are basically opposites of the same coin. By doing one we have to do the other. If we hate evil, we need to cling to good. I we are clinging to good, we must hate evil. (Note: I've done a post on the first command here)

Hate what is evil

We are called to hate sin. As Christians, how do we do this? i think it comes from knowing God. When we know God and all he has done for us, we will love him sincerely. As a result of knowing God we will realise both how holy and perfect he is and therefore how much he hates sin. I think hatred for sin naturally comes from genuine love for God.
So how do we develop that love for God?

• Know him better. We do that by reading his word and spending time in prayer asking for his help. We need to know who God is to be able to love him, and he has revealed who he is through his word - not through anything else at this time.
• Know what he's done in the world and for us. Know what he did through Jesus for us. We do that again by spending time in his word, and reflecting on it. Through God's works we see his character more clearly. It's easy to know that God is love, but that becomes so much clearer when we see that he (The son) came to earth as a man, suffered and died in our place.
• Obey. Our obedience to God needs to come out of our love for God, but I think by obeying with the intention of growing in love for God then we begin to develop that love. I may be wrong on that, but we most certainly are called to obey out of love, and it seems to me that we also learn to love God more as we trust him enough to obey him.

But there are also other things we need to do to hate evil. We need to get rid of sin in our lives. We need to pray for God's help to hate our sin. We all have different temptations that we fall into and different sins that we love. For me there are many, but especially pride, selfishness and idolatry in putting both myself and my friends before my love for God. 

It's hard to hate these things that we love. But we need to hate them, and through the Holy Spirit, God can change us and help us to love him more. It's only through his grace that we can do this. But we have to work at it.

Cling to what is good.

As I said before, this is the flip side of hating what is evil. As part of hating evil, we need to cling to what is good. These two things work together. As we hate evil we will naturally love what is good. As we love what is good, we must hate evil - otherwise we cannot truly be loving good. The two are opposites: evil and good cannot ever both be loved by us. They are like opposing sides of a magnet that repel one another - they cannot be forced together

So what does clinging to good look like? God is good. He is the definition of goodness. He creates the standard for what is good. Therefore clinging to good is clinging to God and relying on him. In our society we love independence. We love being ourselves and living how we want. But God calls us to submit entirely to him, to rely on him and his grace.

The only way to cling to what is good is to cling to God.

But clinging to good does look a bit more specific then just saying you're a Christian. We need to obey God if we are relying on him and trusting him. If we hate evil, we need to do good - and as I said before, goodness is God's standard. Therefore we need to obey God. 

How do we know what God wants us to do? From his word again. We need to be pending time reading and thinking about and applying the bible to our lives. Thinking about where we are disobeying God and doing it.

Our actions do not save us. They don't make us right in God's sight - we have all sinned and cannot save ourselves. Jesus came to earth and he was perfect, and it is only through faith in him that our sins can be removed (that's why he died on the cross and rose again). But if we truly love God and truly trust in him - if our faith is truly in him, we will obey his commands. We will hate what is evil (our sin, which meant we deserve hell) and cling to what is good - to our saviour and to God's perfect standard.

I hope those thoughts were helpful - feel free to post any comments or thoughts below!

God Bless!
Nat.

An Unfair Exchange

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Romans 12:1

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

At first glance it may seem that it's unfair for God to ask us to live our entire lives as sacrifices to him. But that's because we're not seeing things in view of his mercy. The unfairness isn't that we have to serve God - that's an honour and a rich blessing, and we should get more joy from serving God then from our sin. The unfair exchange is that Jesus, who is God, all powerful and eternally perfect, holy, pure, just, loving and merciful, the creator and sustainer of everything in existence, came and died for us. Jesus, who had been in fellowship with God the father and the Holy Spirit eternally, came to earth, took our sin and God's wrath (that we rightfully should suffer for eternity) so that we could be forgiven. Then he rose again from the dead to prove it.

We cannot fathom what it was that Jesus gave up for us. We don't deserve it. We don't deserve any part of it - we are wretched sinners who hated and rejected God by living in sin. Yet he sent Jesus to save us.

Paul is telling us that we should live as sacrifices to God In view of that mercy. In view of the infinite sacrifice God made for us. When we see how much Jesus did for us, anything we can offer can never compete. That's why we could never save ourselves. If Jesus hadn't died for us, we would still be spiritually dead, living in sin. Because he saved our lives, bringing us to life, it makes sense that we should use that life to glorify and honour him alone.

Living as a sacrifice

In the Old Testament most of the sacrifices had one of two jobs. Some were given to pay for sin - those were fulfilled by jesus on the cross since he is the ultimate sacrifice for sin. The others were given in praise of God. Without doing any extra research on it, I thin that's what Paul is getting at - we need to live our lives as sacrifices in thankfulness of what he has done and in praise of who he is.

But what does this look like?

• Putting God first. That's the first commandment, and it's the one we struggle with most. It's so easy to slip into idolatry, to put other things before God without even realising. For me it's usually fear of man or love of friends that gets in the way. The desire for approval. For others it can be money or health or a wide range of other things
• Obeying God and giving up sin. We are sinful and we desire to sin. Instead of living that way, when we are saved we need to repent and give up sin. Jesus died to rescue us from slavery in sin, it is stupid to go back to it if you've turned to him. Obeying God glorifies him because it is us being in line with his character. He is the definition of perfection, and when we obey his laws we are acting in line with who he is. Paul says we are to be "holy and pleasing to God" - that means not sinful, since sin can never please God. Holiness means separate, and if we are to be separate from sin we need to give it up completely.
• Spending time praising God. It's easy to focus all our energy on doing the right things, but what God actually cares about is our hearts. He doesn't want us to be legalistic, he wants us to genuinely love him and submit to him out of that love. So, we need to spend time just in praise of God, rejoicing in who he is and what he has done - for us, for his people throughout history, and for his general mercies. That's what true worship is - not just lip service or obeying rules. Genuine praise form the heart, and the result of that is obedience.

I don't know about what this verse sounds like in the Greek, but in English the translators have said: "offer your bodies as a living sacrifice". Notice that it goes from plural (your bodies) to singular (a living sacrifice). We need to collectively as God's church throughout the world and as his people in a certain place work together to live as sacrifices for him. We need to spend time with friends and family who love God, being honest with each other, loving and helping each other, encouraging and rebuking each other, praying and looking at God's word together. If we are "brothers and sisters", adopted as God's children then we need to act like a family - we need to be deeply concerned for each other and to look after the needs of those around us. We need to deeply love each other, even loving those who we don't get on with easily (thats hard to do!)

I came to God's word this morning feeling tired and quite unmotivated to read it. Nevertheless God is faithful and he reminded me that I need to give it all to him. Are we willing to live our entire lives as sacrifices for God? Even when we don't feel like it?

God deserves and demands our everything - are we willing to give it?

It's Not About You.

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Romans 11:17-21

If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but tremble. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.

 There are heaps of things that can be pulled from these verses, but the one I want to focus on today is that it's not about you. It's not about me. It's not even about us. It's about God, the root.

We are naturally very proud. When something goes right for us, we like to take the glory ourselves. For example, even though I know it is not true, I sometimes find myself thinking that I'm better than other people and that's why God saved me. No, in reality I am far worse than a whole heap of people. The only difference is that I'm saved by grace. There's nothing in us that makes us worth saving. God does it to show forth his glory.

The passage in Romans is directed at the Gentiles, warning them against pride. The Jews had rejected Jesus, and therefore they had been "cut off", and the Gentiles had been "grafted in". Paul is warning them against the mentality of pride, which says - "The Jews were cut off so we could be put in". No, in reality the Jews (as a nation) were cut off because they did not believe and they rejected God's salvation. It has nothing to do with us.

We like to think that everything is about us, and I think that's because everything in our culture (at least here in Australia) is telling me that it's all about Me. Because I'm worth it. No, in reality I'm not worth it - you're not worth it. We're vile sinners.

Something needs to change: We need to stop thinking that it's all about ourselves and we need to start putting our focus on God. It's a hard battle, because we constantly shift back to ourselves. We constantly, subtly get proud again and we don't even notice until we've fallen into the trap again. That's what I find at least.

Here are a few verses to consider in the light of all this:

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your bodies.

1 Corinthians 10:31

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

All glory to God! (Easy to say, much harder to actually give it all to him)
Nat.

Other points from Exodus 1

While looking at Exodus one and how it supports the Pro-life campaign, I made two other observations.

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• God gives families.

Exodus 1:20-21

So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.

Because the midwives feared and obeyed God he blessed them by giving them families. This tells us that families are a blessing from God, our father.

For me the first point of application is that God knows who I will marry and he has that all planned out. If he sees fit to bless me with a family like he does most people, then all I have to do is trust him and be faithful to him where I am. He can do the rest. That doesn't mean that I shouldn't look for a wife, but it means that I shouldn't get all worried about who I will marry or when that will happen. God has it all planned out and he is more then capable to bring it about. What I have to do is serve him faithfully where I am.

That's both hard and easy. It's much better to trust God and to wait for his timing because it means I don't have to stress about it. But it is hard to give it over to God and to let him take control of that. But it's what I need to do to glorify him.

The other point of application is that children are a blessing from God. Some people get worried because as of yet they haven't been able to have kids. A better response is to pray and serve God faithfully. He can provide children if it is his will, and if it isn't then we need to trust him that his plan is far better then ours.

Families are a blessing from God. Be thankful for them and serve him faithfully at all times.

• There's a massive foreshadow of Christ here.

Throughout the Old Testament there are little snippets f things that point directly to Jesus. In this chapter we see Pharaoh killing all the baby Israelite boys. In Luke Herod does the same thing. In both accounts at least one escapes. Moses escaped and he would later bring the law to Israel, rescue them from slavery in Egypt and lead them to the promised land (though he could not take them in because he sinned).

Jesus survived and bought the new covenant: Grace. He doesn't rescue us physically, he does more then that and rescues us spiritually from sin and God's eternal wrath. He doesn't just lead us to a promised land on earth but secures our favour in God's sight eternally so we can go to heaven and be with him through grace. He didn't sin and he will return to take us to heaven when he comes back to judge the earth.

Those were just two interesting points from Exodus one. My teacher has been encouraging us to read the old Testament and ask where we see Jesus in it, and believe me it's been good to do.

God Bless,
Nat.

How much we need God.

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Psalm 70:5

But as for me, I am poor and needy;
come quickly to me, O God.
You are my help and my deliverer;
Lord, do not delay.

Do we really know our state before God? Do we truly understand that we are sinful and need his help, that without Jesus we could not be saved?

I don't think any of us truly understands how much we need God. He created us, he sustains us, he saved us. Without him we wouldn't exist. Without him we wouldn't be able to exist, and without Jesus we would all be destined only for his wrath.

We are truly poor and needy. We need God entirely.

Therefore there is no room for pride. We cannot help ourselves, we need God. There is no room for thinking ourselves better then others or worthy enough for his grace.

Our prayer should be that we will realise this more and more so that we may praise him more and more for it and so that we will not be proud, but rather be humble and serve him faithfully.

He is our help and deliverer - have you accepted him?

Why do we exist?

1 Corinthians 6:20

You were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your bodies.

God created the universe for his glory. Every rock, every tree, every molecule of oxygen gas, every electron in every atom. Everything that exists was created by God to glorify him and to express his glory.

And yet we see in Genesis 3 that we sinned. We rebelled against God and stuffed it up. Adam and Eve ate the fruit when he told us not to, and every single human being since then has also rebelled against God. We no longer give him the glory, instead we try to take it all ourselves.

But instead of destroying us like we deserved, God made a promise to Adam and Eve. Genesis 3:15 -

And I will put enmitybetween you and the woman,and between your offspring and hers;he will crush your head,and you will strike his heel.”

God promised from the beginning to save us, to provide someone to crush Satan, sin and death. That's what Paul means when he says we were brought with a price. Jesus, who was eternally God, became a man. He lived among us, yet he did not sin, and he suffered and died in our place. He took God's wrath for those who turn to him - the punishment that we deserve because we sin against him and he paid for it in full. As a result we can be saved, and we can fulfil our purpose: we can glorify God again.

Why do we exist? Isn't that one of the biggest questions asked? We exist to glorify God, and we do that best by being satisfied in him, by being thankful and by praising him for his goodness.

If you are a Christian then you have been brought at a price - God (Jesus) became a man and died in your place. Then he rose again and now he sits at God's (God the Father's) right hand, interceding for us, still God and still retaining his humanity. We have been brought with a price that we cannot even begin to fathom. If that's true then the only response should be thankfulness which leads to obedience - glorifying God with your body.

Do you Glorify God in all you do?

Soli Deo Gloria.
Nat.

"Do what It says."

James 1:22

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

This one's short and sweet. It's so easy to listen to God's word, and even to spend time reading it. It's easy, and we can fall into the trap of feeling like we've met God's expectations by reading or listening to his word, so we can go off and do what we want. No, the gospel and God's word needs to affect every part of our lives. We need to not only listen, but obey.

Don't deceive yourself! Don't just hear God's word, act on it. Do it.

Building our lives on Jesus

Luke 6:46-49

“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like. They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”

We cannot come to Jesus and yet not do what he says. Sure, we are 100% saved by grace, but if we are truly saved then we will do what he says. Why's that? Because part of faith is repentance: saying sorry for sins and our rebellion and turning to God and because if we truly love God and trust him we will obey him and put him first. We know a tree is healthy if it produces good fruit. We know a medicine works properly if it does its job and helps heal sickness. We know a Christian by their works, not because their works save them, but because if they are saved they will obey God.

Building our lives on Jesus.

There are two ways to approach our walk with God. The first is like a man who builds his house on the rock. It takes effort, it's inconvenient, but it shows true care and love. If we study God's word and work hard to obey it, it won;t be convenient for us, but it is better. It shows that we genuinely do love God.

The result for the man in the parable is that when the rain and storms come his house remains standing. If we build our lives on Jesus, the rock, focussing on him, working hard to know him, his promises and to obey him then when hard times come, when trials and temptations arise it will be ok. We will rely on God's promises and he will sustain us. This also applies to when Jesus returns and judges the world. If we have based our lives on our faith in him then we will be saved and not condemned (because he has taken our sin and paid the price if we are Christians). Note that it isn't how well he built his house that matters. What matters is that he built it on Jesus. If we live our lives for God's glory and base them on living like Jesus and on God's word then God himself will uphold and sustain us. It'll be harder and less fun and less convenient, but it will last eternally. 

Building our lives on The World.

Obviously the opposite is true for the other man. If we don't truly live for Jesus, but just fake it then it won't stand. God knows who truly trusts in him and who the hypocrites are. You can't fool God, so don't fake it. Don't pretend you're following him if you really aren't. Likewise if we base our lives on things other then Jesus then it won't last. The world is full of things that promise much, but just slide away. Money, friends, family, work and so many other things, which are good blessings from God can become our idols. We base our lives on them and they slip away, leaving us with nothing.

When hard times come the hypocrites, who just follow Jesus because it's easier usually fall away. They find it too hard and don't have God's promises to sustain them. Likewise if we trust in the things of this world then it will all crumble when Christ returns to judge. He alone can save, and therefore everyone who has rejected him is still under God's just and righteous wrath.

The question we have to ask ourselves is this: Do I really trust in God? If so, am I building my life on his word and on his promises? Am I obeying him? We aren't saved by what we do, but if we are saved then we will do good stuff because of it to honour our saviour.

God's Power and Humility

Today in devotions with the year 8 kids, we looked at a number of different verses, exploring God's power, humility, mercy and grace. In Genesis 1 we read:

Genesis 1:1-5

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

God created the universe, and he did it simply by speaking. He is all powerful, he is worthy of all praise and he is the creator. The rest of Genesis 1 explains how God created the rest of creation. He spoke, it happened, and it was good. He is all powerful.

We then turned to Psalm 18:6-15, which details God's might and power. David called to God for help and he describes God as the almighty rescuer. He also mentions that God scatters his enemies. The verse displays God's power more vividly.

After this we turned to Luke 2:1-7

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register.
So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

We know that Jesus is God. He created the universe. He is all powerful. Yet he was born as a human. Not only that, he was born as a poor human, in a stable because no one would make room for him to be born in the inn. He was rejected from birth, and he was rejected throughout his life. This wasn't by accident, it was prophesied many times in the Old Testament (See Isaiah 53). Jesus came to suffer and die in our place, so that everyone who puts their faith in him and repents of their sin will be saved. Jesus, who was there at creation, Jesus who is all powerful, all-knowing. Jesus who reigns over all fo creation hung dying, bleeding on a cross for our sakes. He did it willingly.

We then turned to Philippians 2:6-11

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 

Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross! 

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

Jesus humbled himself to save us, even though we don't deserve it one bit. He then rose again, and he is now in heaven interceding for us even though we still don't deserve it. He gave up his power and eternal glory, becoming a man so that he could save us and glorify God. He died in our place. He rose again and he reigns. He will return to judge. So the question is, do you know Jesus? Have you put your faith in him? If no, then you need to consider this because you are sinful and you (like me) deserve hell. Jesus offers forgiveness, but if you reject him then you will face Gods wrath.

If you are a Christian then look at v6 of Philippians 2. We need to act like Jesus. We need to be humble. Jesus is God, yet he humbled himself to die for us. We are humans, we need to be humble enough to help and love each other, and to serve and glorify God in all we do.

I hope that was helpful, challenging and encouraging.
Nat.

Resisting Satan's temptations (Part 2)

You can see part 1 here.

Temptation 3

The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. For it is written:

“‘He will command his angels concerning you
to guard you carefully;
they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’

What is Jesus tempted with?

Here he is tempted to test God. Once again Satan asks him to prove that he is God's son, the messiah. Satan asks him to prove that the promises of the Old Testament are about him. This wasn't in itself a bad thing - to prove that he was God, but once again it would involve taking things to his own hands and not waiting for God's perfect timing.

Satan is tricky. He often will tempt us Christians by making something seem right from God's word. He'll make us think: "Lying isn't sinful, because the commandment just says that we shouldn't give false witness against our neighbour", causing us to ignore other bits of God's word like Colossians 3:9. He did it to the Pharisees in Mark 7:9-13.

How does Jesus respond? He counters simply with God's word and doesn't do it. 

What do we learn?

• We need to rely on God's timing, not our own
• We need to know our bibles well to both respond to Satan's temptations and know when he is tempting us by taking verses out of context.
• We need to be alert and on guard - Satan is crafty, we are slow.
• We shouldn't test God. We should just put our faith in him, trust that he is good and that he will keep his promises. 
• Satan knows that he is tempting us with evil, he doesn't need us to explain God's word. When we are talking to people it is good to explain how verses fit together, even when they sound like they contradict. With Satan we need to just fight him with God's word, not our own. 

What was the Result?

"When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time."

Satan lets up for the time being, but he doesn't give up. He is stubborn and persistent, he is like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour, and he waits for the right time. He is crafty and we need to be on guard because he is good at what he does. He is the father of lies (John 8:44) and he's been lying since the beginning.

James 4:7 says: "Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." God always keeps his word and if we resist Satan he will flee from us. He has no power aside from what God allows him to have, and he cannot tempt us beyond what we can bear (1 Corinthians 10:13). That means that we can resist him and that he Will flee from us when we do. 

He may not flee straight away. He may tempt us a lot, he may make it very hard for us, but he will flee - not because we are strong (we aren't), but because God promises it and God never breaks his promises. Nevertheless: Stay on guard - he is always looking for opportunity to attack us, God's people.

How do we resist him? We submit to God. We know and obey his word. We live entirely for him, not ourselves. Most of Satan's temptations here came down to not trusting God or his timing. Likewise with us, they are usually about not trusting that God's way is best. He tempts us to put ourselves in God's place.

I hope this study has been helpful to you - I enjoyed looking into it and thinking through it a little.

How are you resisting the devil in your life? Are you submitting to God?

Works that come from love.

1 John 5:1-5

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

There's no doubt a lot that can be pulled out of these five verses, but I just want to focus on verses two and three: "This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world."

Why do we have to obey God

First up I want to address the question of why, as Christians, do we have to obey God? Obedience and Faith are tied very closely together. If we put our faith in God and have repented of our sins (if we are truly Christians we have done/do this), then we need to give up sin. The point of repentance is saying sorry for rebelling against God and turning around. If it's true sorrow for sin then we would be doing the opposite sand obeying God instead.

Faith is similar - is we put our trust in Jesus that he died for our sins, then we will also trust him that his ways are better than ours and we will obey Him.

If we are Christians then we are called to obey God. Our works do not save us. But we are saved and as a result we do works. It's like medicine - true medicine will fix a problem. If we are truly saved we will work at preventing sin in our lives because we are saved. It's only good medicine if it fixes the problem.

We love God by obeying him and we obey him out of love.

Everything about our obedience to God is based on love. It;s not about having to obey God, or duty. It's about being thankful to God and loving him. When we realise that Jesus died for our sins and how little we deserved that, we should be motivated to love and serve him. We don't do it as a way of repaying him, we do it out of gratitude for what he has already done for us. We can never repay God for all he has done for us.

Of course, we won't always want to obey God. Life is hard, and temptations are sometimes very hard to resist. We don't always want to obey God. But if we truly love him and are thankful for all he has done, then we need to dutifully obey him even if it isn't what we want.

We aren't forced into obeying God. We aren't his slaves in that sense. We don't obey a cruel master out of fear. We obey a compassionate and merciful master out of love. We obey a faithful and loving father out of respect and thankfulness because he has adopted us into his family and forgiven us of our sin (if we are Christians).

Part of love is being selfless. Christ died for us our of love for us even though we didn't deserve it. God deserves our obedience and we should be ready to give up some of the things of this world out of love for him. I'm not married, but I think it would be a similar situation: If you love your wife, you would give things up to spend time with her or to please her.

We should love to please God, even if we don't love giving up some things which we enjoy (that are sinful). We should give them up because we love God more.

The question is then, how do we love God more?

Here are a few thoughts:

• Read the bible. Know God's word and know what he has done, and know who he is.
• Spend time dwelling on God's character and praising him not only for what he has done, but for who he is. 
• Pray. If reading the bible is God speaking to us, and prayer is us speaking to God, then to have a true relationship with God we need to do both. "Cast your anxieties on him" (1 Peter 5:7) and also spend time praising him for who he is.
• Obey him. John says: "this is love for God: to keep his commands." - we show our love for God by obeying him.

God Bless,

Nat.