Just as the Lord Commanded

I once got the big idea to read the entire Bible.  After all, I was new Christian and I knew how important knowing God's Word would be.  So I started.....In the beginning....

I loved the story of creation and got caught up in scripture until I started reading about specific measurements, the numbers of this and that, you know....anything that didn't have drama or a moral.

Now, I admit that I just didn't get it.  I didn't understand why it was important that the curtains on the west end of the courtyard of the tabernacle were 75 feet long or why Eliab presented an offering of a silver platter weighing 3 1/4 pounds along with a bunch of other stuff.  All of that information was just too technical for me.  I needed the elements of drama with the characters and plot and climax and resolution and theme, not numerical figures.

So, I struggled through it.  I half heartedly read and finally just skimmed for the "important stuff" and moved on.

Even now, some 11 years later, I still admit that isn't my favorite part of scripture, but I found something very interesting the other day.

As I was reading in my chronological Bible, I read about the Israelites again and the things they were called to do.  This time was different.  I noticed the words just as the Lord commanded. I continued to read on, and there it was again just as the Lord commanded. 

Hmmmm. There must be something to this.

I grabbed my pen and underlined each time I read those words on that page.

Seven times on that page.

Just as the Lord commanded.

And so then, I thought,  "What if we all did what the Lord commanded?"

Whether it be the offering we bring, the gift we use, the path we follow, the Lord commands something of us.  Far too often we are not obedient.  For whatever reason, we choose not to obey His commands.

But what if?

What if we did what the Lord commanded?

We'd give our hearts to Jesus the first time we hear His call.

We'd be faithful in service to Him.

We'd be faithful in sharing the Good News.

We'd love.

We'd give.

We'd be the ones God has called us to be.

What if I continued to read God's Word with fresh eyes and an open heart?

I love Him, and I will obey what He has commanded.

I am thankful that God's Word is relevant and living. I am thankful that each time I read it, I find something that I didn't see before.

As a side note, if you are interested in a journey through the Bible, I encourage you to take that journey.  I have many types of Bibles that I love.  If you get a One Year Bible, don't start reading it on the specific day you got it. For example, don't start on September 6. Start at the beginning (January 1). It can get very confusing.  If you'd rather just read the Bible and you've never journeyed through it before, I'd suggest starting in the New Testament. My first time trying to read the entire Bible was an epic fail.  I was a new Christian and struggled with the Old Testament.  I gave up the first time, but later started in the book of Matthew.  I was able to read through the New Testament more easily.  I worked my way up to The One Year Bible for Women.  After completing it, I purchased The One Year Chronological Bible.  You can also find Bible reading plans online.  Regardless of where your start, you'll never regret spending time in God's Word.

Back Where I Belong

As the school year ended, I was really excited about sleeping in and then getting up, grabbing a cup of coffee and my Bible, and spending time with God each day.

I hate to admit that as excited as I was about not having to rush about my morning, I have FAILED miserably in spending time with Him this summer.

I can make excuse after excuse, but I won't.

Plain and simple truth?

I put things between us.

Whether it was sleep, TV, technology, the new house, whatever....I failed to spend quality time with Him.

Yesterday during Sunday School, our lesson was about Jonah's disobedience toward God and Ninevah's return to God.  You know the story....

God told Jonah to go to Ninevah and tell the people to repent or they would be destroyed.  Jonah didn't want to so he got on a boat to go far away.  Well, God got upset, caused a storm, and Jonah was confronted by the others on the ship.  Overboard he went, into the stomach of a fish. After 3 days, Jonah was vomitted out and then decided he should obey God.  God gave the people of Ninevah a second chance (and Jonah too).

Second chances.

They are nice aren't they?

When we've messed up big time or lost our way, we yearn for someone to wrap their arms around us, hug us tightly, and say, "It's going to be ok. I'm here and I love you."

God does that for us.

The thing about God is that He knows us....better than we do.  He knows what's in our hearts. He knows our thoughts. He knows our words before we even speak them.  He knows we are going to mess up.  He knows us, BUT He loves us anyway.

God is a giver of second chances.  He gives us a chance to get back where we belong.  And where is that?

With Him.

So today, I am dedicated....I am starting my "second-fortieth" chance.  You see....I've lost count of the number of times I've neglected my relationship with God.  But the thing about God is this....He never walked away from me. He's just been whispering to me and waiting for me to return back to Him.

And that's what I'm doing.

I want that intimacy back.  And what better way to get back there than to spend time with Him.

So today, I looked on my bookshelf and found this....

I started it a long time ago and never finished.  Today, I restart.  I take advantage of my "second-fifty-fifth" chance.

Jesus told the story of the prodigal son.  It is a story of second chances. And today, I return....the prodigal daughter returns to where she belongs.

But I am aware that Satan lurks nearby.  He already has his hand out ready to snatch me back, but God is stronger.  He led me to scripture this morning that I need to keep close to my heart.

As I was reading from Experiencing Spiritual Intimacy, I was instructed to read 1John 5:19-20 that talks about knowing God through Jesus.  But my eyes went further to verse 21

Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.

That hit me.  That....That is what has happened to me.  These idols, I have placed them between myself and God.  I came up with excuse after excuse without really knowing what I was doing. When God whispered to me, "You haven't spent time with me today," I answered him, "I know and I will in a minute. Just let me finish this."  Whatever "this" was, it took His place.  Many days, that idol made me lay down at bedtime and cringe, "Dear God, I'm sorry. I didn't spend time with you like I said I would. Tomorrow will be better."

Only it wasn't.

But thankfully, God is more faithful than I am.

He met me today, wrapped His arms around me, and gave me my "second-sixtieth" chance.  He is helping me get back where I belong.

Where's My Burning Bush?

Hopes, dreams, goals, ambitions.

We all have things we want to do, milestones to conquer, bucket lists to check off, finish lines to cross.

Yet, in the burning desires of our hearts, comes the call of God.  Then arises the question: God, what is it you want me to do?

And we look for that burning bush.

Oh, how we can look back at Moses and become envious, for God revealed himself to Moses through the burning bush.  He told Moses exactly what He wanted him to do.  The expectations, the plan, it was laid out right there before Moses.

How many times, my friend, do we look and pray for that burning bush? For God to clearly reveal His perfect plan to us?

How easy that would make all this decision making!

But wait.

Moses had a problem with this clear plan of God's.

God told Moses, "This is what you are to tell the people and this is what you will do," and proceeded to reveal His plan to Moses.

But Moses said, "Wait! What if they don't believe me?"

God had an answer, and it was in Moses' staff. He would toss it to the ground and it would become a snake. Moses was told to pick it up by its tail (Eeeek!), and it turned back to a staff. The staff would perform miraculous signs so the people would believe.

Fair enough.

But Moses still relented.  He said, "But God, I am not a good speaker. I can't talk to these people! Send someone else."

God told him that he would be fine. God Himself would give Moses the words to share. But still that wasn't enough for Moses, so God gave him his brother Aaron to be his helper.

Does this sound familiar?

How many times do we pray for God's will to be done, to be revealed to us, to be a witness to that burning bush?  Then how many times, when God reveals Himself and His perfect plan to us, do we back away and find excuse after excuse on why we can't proceed?

Life's journey is a long, winding road.  And for those that desire to do the will of God, it can seem to be longer, with more twists and turns.  God doesn't always put that burning bush in front of us.  I think sometimes He tests us, He prepares us, and then eventually helps us to step into that perfect will of His.

If God did reveal Himself to us, face to face, and said, "This is what I want you to do. Go. Do it," would we? Would we jump to the task joyfully and wholeheartedly obey?  Or would we be like Moses and say, "You know God, I really don't think I can do this," and then give Him a list of reasons why we can't do what God's called us to do?

And maybe, that's why God doesn't always clearly reveal His plan to us.  If we see the journey upfront, the heartaches, and the pain, we will back away and say, "God, find someone else. This isn't for me."  Instead, I think God sometimes leads us one step at a time so that we don't always know the path we are on until we get there. He doesn't always give us the chance to back out.

When we ask God's will to be done in our lives, we need to mean it....wholeheartedly, without a shadow of a doubt, truly desire what God wants our lives to mean for Him.

He will lead us to a land flowing with milk and honey, but the journey won't always be easy. It won't always be beautiful. However, it will always be worth it.

When Moses finally obeyed and the Israelites were being lead on their journey, God provided for them. He lit their way and fed them physically and spiritually.  He wouldn't do any less for us.  God loves us, and regardless of what journey He has called us to, He will provide.

We just have to trust and obey.

Starting the New Year with a Fresh Perspective by Mike Glenn

In the story of the prodigal son, Luke uses a curious phrase when the younger son realizes what he has lost and determines to go home. The King James Version translates the phrase, “He came to himself.” That phrase has always fascinated me. How do you come to yourself? Can you set yourself down somewhere and then forget where you left yourself? Actually, it is something like that. We can become so buried under mistakes and failure, stuffed under grief and regret, that we get to the place where we no longer recognize ourselves. But God’s “yes” changes all that. When the Spirit changes our true identity in Christ, we leave behind everything that is false and start walking toward the truth of Christ and who he created us to be.


Changing your mind
Walking away from the lies and destruction of sin is very close to the practical meaning of biblical repentance. It goes far beyond feeling bad about your sin—all the way to literally changing the direction of your life. And to change your life, you have to change the way you think. A change in your life’s direction means you stop fighting the current of God’s grace that flows in your spirit. Now you start flowing with the current of grace. As you reorient your life in the direction of God’s leading, you find your efforts are amplified through the Spirit’s presence in the same way an ocean current enhances the work of a ship’s sails.
When we talk about Christian conversion, we emphasize feelings of conviction and a decision to confess our sins and seek forgiveness. But we don’t stress the essential role played by our thinking. The problem that results is we don’t change the way we think, so we end up not changing our behavior. For a total transformation of a person’s life, the mind as well as the heart must change. We live the way we do because we think the way we do. The mess is in our heads before it is in our lives, but it moves from the mind to daily life. 


This changes when we ask Christ to renew our minds, to alter the way we think. We need to allow our minds to be completely transformed. “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.” When your mind is transformed, your life will follow.


I am not naive. I understand the lure of sin and the effectiveness of its deceptions. And I am familiar with the consequences of sin. I have sat with large numbers of people and listened as they recognized and talked through the harmful consequences of their actions. When the cost of their failures sinks in, it is devastating. A man’s infidelity cost him his wife and children. For a few minutes of pleasure, he traded away a future with his family. It takes only one incident to disrupt a friendship, a career, a family, a life. Lies are told, discovered, and confessed in tears, but how can a person regain trust? Sin looks good in the moment but only because it’s hiding the future consequences.


I’m convinced we don’t understand the total impact of salvation. We make it about feelings or a one-time decision to confess our sins and trust in Christ’s death and resurrection. But to live a new life, to be completely transformed, our salvation has to be about the total person, including our minds.

Changing your frame of reference
If in obedience to Christ we are going to make different choices, we have to adopt Christ’s way of looking at things. God will create a new mind in you and me, but we have to join willingly in the process. And part of thinking differently is letting go of old assumptions and preferences and accepting the preferences of God.
In Acts 10 we read the story of the early church hearing from God a “yes” that led to its dropping of ethnic barriers. A Roman centurion named Cornelius was praying, and in his prayers he was told to find a man named Peter. Peter, in the meantime, also was praying. In his prayers Peter saw a vision of a sheet holding all kinds of animals—and they weren’t kosher. Although Peter was told to kill and eat, he refused. Again the vision came, and again Peter refused to eat. Each time, Jesus confronted Peter with the following rebuke: “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” Only when Cornelius’s messengers appeared at his gate did Peter begin to understand the message of the vision. Nothing created by God, people most of all, can ever be called unclean.


God created Gentiles just as he did Jews, and no one—Gentiles included—was inferior to anyone else. God loves those outside the nation of Israel on a par with the descendants of Abraham. Having grown up under the influence of Jewish traditions and biases, Peter must have had difficulty processing this. But to his credit, he was obedient to Christ and changed the way he thought about these matters. And not just the way he thought, but his life and his preaching as well. 


Free of condemnation
There are two reasons we should not condemn others or ourselves. First, we all are created in the image of God. And second, Christ died for sinners. This is the price God was willing to pay for our redemption. We are called to live in the glory of knowing what we are worth. And when we don’t, we damage ourselves, one another, and the world we live in. Sin devalues us as people and causes us to see others and all creation as lacking worth. Sin negates the good work Christ does in us and in the world. Where Christ speaks “yes,” sin says “no.” 

We have things in our lives that cause shame or grief, and they act as a giant but to the good news of Christ. He promises us new life, which sounds great, but...“my family business went bankrupt after I misspent some accounts. I was going to pay it back, but then everything collapsed.” And suddenly we forget the promise of Christ. He promises forgiveness and second chances, but it’s hard to believe the second chance could still apply after the things we’ve done. 


Why do we think that we alone committed a sin so horrible it exceeds Jesus’s ability to forgive? This kind of thinking is the ultimate heresy. What we are saying is the death of Jesus was payment enough for everyone else’s sins, but our sin is so monstrous that his death isn’t enough to cover it. 


Let Christ change the way you think so you can let go of that lie. Jesus paid it all. No part of the debt has been left for you or me to pay by working hard to clean up our own lives. On our own we can’t get clean enough to impress God. Whatever we might try, we will always be unworthy of his love. The gift of God’s “yes” in Christ is unearned, given to us freely. Our relationship with God is not a contract; it is a covenant, a bond of mutual love and commitment. In this covenant the parties are not equal, but the arrangement is mutual. Christ died for us and offers us his salvation, and we accept what he did for us as a free gift—on his terms. 


Christ opens the door; we need only to walk through it. We then live our lives in loving response to God’s grace expressed in Jesus. This is the mutual love and commitment of the covenant. Yet, for some reason, we have a hard time believing the gift of salvation is free. Who would give away something like that? So we think we have to earn it. 


Adapted from The Gospel of Yes by Mike Glenn with permission of WaterBrook Press, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.