Your Obedience To God Reveals Your Love For Him

"If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your well-being like the waves of the sea." (Isaiah 48:18)

If a parent tells their child not to put their hand on the hot stove, are they just trying to spoil their fun?  If they tell them not to put their finger in the socket, are they just being rigid and intolerant?  Then why is God accused of those things when He tells us not to do things which are just as harmful, if not worse?  The answer is that He isn't.  God created laws to protect us and to keep us safe.  Like a parent who doesn't want to their kid to get their hand burned off or to get electrocuted, God doesn't want us to destroy our lives through immoral sexual behavior, alcohol addiction, and other deadly habits.  The world claims that breaking God's rules is cool and thrilling.  Yeah, I'll beat that playing Russian Roulette is cool and thrilling, too, until you blow your own head off!  The fact is that sex within marriage and having lots of kids is a lot more fun than you think.  On top of that, there's the added bonus that you don't have your heart ripped out of your chest every time that you break up with whatever hot babe or total stud muffin that you sleep with.  Likewise, being a respectful, trustworthy, and diligent worker will make your career a lot easier.  You don't need the headaches of the back-stabbing crooks who have to worry about vengeful coworkers and all sorts of legal mayhem throughout their lives.  Being obedient will not necessary prevent you from calamity, but it will make sure that when it does happen, that it won't be your fault.  Not to mention the fact that God honors those who are faithful to Him.  Just ask Joseph or Daniel. 

Now, there is one caveat that I want to make clear.  Obeying God's laws will not get you into heaven.  Only a relationship with Christ will do that.  That being said, obeying God's laws after you become saved will not only allow you to develop your relationship with Him even further, but it will also allow you to attract other people to Jesus so that they can be saved from an eternity in hell, too.  Not to mention that doing so is an opportunity to show Him just how grateful you are that He saved you to begin with. 

"If you love me, keep my commands." (John 14:15)

Jesus Christ showed you how much He loved you by suffocating to death on a cross.  Isn't it time that you show Him how much you love Him back? 

Why Has God Blessed You?

"I will give you hidden treasures, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, who summons you by name." (Isaiah 45:3)

Who was God speaking to in that verse?

A) An Israelite king?
B) A mighty pagan emperor?
C) Jesus Christ?
D) A high priest?

If you guessed 'B', then you are right!  God was speaking to Cyrus the Great of Persia, the man who created the largest empire that the known world had ever seen up to that point.  What's really interesting is that this prophecy was made when Persia was dominated by another Aryan tribe known as the Medes and when the big kid on the block was Assyria.  Persia's predecessor on the world stage, Babylon, had not even come to power yet.  Nonetheless, God already had a plan for Cyrus, even though he wasn't even born yet.  While I do not know every reason that God decided to make Cyrus the most powerful man of His time, I do know the greatest one: to free the Jews from Babylon and to allow them to return to their homeland in Israel.

I learned in a class taught by Professor Marc Saperstein that the Jews actually showed Cyrus the prophecy about him in Isaiah after he conquered their oppressors.  Cyrus was so moved that he decided to carry it out.  From that and other historical facts about Cyrus' wise and humanitarian rule (including allowing freedom of religion in his empire), it is clear that God had not only blessed him with great wisdom and strength, but a just and loving heart as well.  Whether or not Cyrus took the final step by putting his faith in the one true God is not clear.  However, one thing is: he used the blessings that he was given to fulfill his earthly purpose.

How are you using the blessings that God has given you?  Have you asked Him why He has given you your skills and talents?  Is there someone whom He wants you to help with your abilities?  You may not be the most powerful ruler in the world, but God has given you a blessing and a purpose.  Cyrus was brave enough to fulfill his.  Be brave enough to fulfill yours.   

Be "Exclusive" With God

"I am the Lord; that is my name!  I will not yield my glory to another or my praise to idols." (Isaiah 42:8)

Imagine that you just proposed to your future wife and she said that she would marry you as long as you let her bring her ex-boyfriends to shack up with you all in the house.  Or that your future husband wants you to let his ex-girlfriends move in right after he carries you over the threshold or he won't go through with the wedding.  Would you put up with that?  No!  That would be unreasonable and insulting.  Yet, that is what you are asking God to do when you expect Him to let you into heaven when you practice a different religion or have idols in your life. 

When you get married, you need to cast aside all members of the opposite sex besides your spouse and make your wife (or husband, if you are a woman) the only love of your life.  It is only under those circumstances that you will truly experience the amazing emotional and sexual fulfillment that God intended for you to have.  Likewise, when you come to Christ, you must remove anything else in your life that is competing for your love and worship.  It is only under those circumstances that you will truly experience the amazing love and spiritual fulfillment that God intended for you to have.  This includes things which are normally good, such as family, work, and money.  This doesn't mean that you should give up all your worldly possessions and live a life of solitude in a cave in Utah.  It simply means that if you have to choose between God and those things, you must choose God.  In order to choose God, you must choose His Son, because Christ is the only way to get to God. 

"Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6)

Marriage, when "exclusive" between a man and a woman, and pursued selflessly, is the best possible human relationship.  Following Christ is like that, but to the infinite power.  When it is an exclusive, selfless relationship between you and Jesus, it is the best possible relationship that you will ever have.  Period. 

December Prayer Project: Jennifer Lawrence!

 

This month, I decided to pray for my favorite actress of all time: Jennifer Lawrence.  When I read "The Hunger Games" upon the recommendation of my friend Katie's sister, I enjoyed it, but wasn't overly impressed.  I gave it a solid B and didn't buy into all the hype.  However, when I first saw the trailer of the movie, I became freaking stoked and it was mostly because of Lawrence's acting.  The film itself was beyond amazing, even better than "The Avengers."  The only movie I have seen which is better in recent memory is "Dark Knight Rises."  Lawrence did such a good job that I wished that Katniss Everdeen was real so that I could be her friend.  This is why I want to pray for her salvation.  As a wealthy, Hollywood actress, she not only has to deal with the temptations of that lifestyle (alcohol abuse, drugs, and rampant immorality), but the fame could also go to her head and make her forget that she is a human being in need of a savior.  I see no evidence that she has given in to any of these things and from her interviews, she sounds like a down-to-earth and fun lady to hang out with.  I will definitely be praying for her so that, in case I don't get her autograph, I'll be able to met her in heaven and ask her how cool it was to star in that awesome film. 

(Photo from www.wikipedia.org)

Do You Prefer Your Savior Or Your "Busy" Schedule?

"Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago." (Isaiah 25:1)

Today I am going to discuss something that many Christians in Western Civilization are "too busy" to do: praise God.  Let's just think about this for a moment.  God has created our entire universe out of nothing and has sent His only Son to be KILLED so that we can have eternal life through Christ's resurrection.  Without Him, we wouldn't even be able to breathe (Numbers 27:16).  Yet we are too busy to praise Him for it?  Seriously, can't we just take some time away from Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, and everything else that we do while we are glued to our smartphones (or tablets/computers) and praise the One who is the source of our very existence? 

Look, I'll admit, praising God hasn't always been my highest priority.  In fact, it has probably been my lowest.  Then tonight, a thought hit me.  What if I was married, and my wife, for whom I sacrificed everything to be with, constantly refused to have sex with me because she "had a headache"?  Or what if I constantly refused to take my wife out on romantic dinners, after she has sacrificed everything to be with me, so that I could watch UFC on Fox?  Ultimately, we would just be selfish if we treated each other like that.  Well, in our case, God has sacrificed everything to be with us.  How many of us can say that we loved someone so much that we allowed ourself to be tortured, stripped naked, and suffocated to death in order to be with them?  Jesus can, and I'm no longer going to selfishly withhold the praise that He deserves.  How about you?  What's more important: your Savior, or your busy schedule? 

God Cannot Be Thwarted

"For the Lord Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him?  His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?" (Isaiah 14:27)

This verse comes near the end of a chapter in which judgment against Babylon and Assyria is prophesied.  The question is a rhetorical one.  After all, God is all-powerful.  Can anyone stop Him from doing what He wants to do?  Absolutely not.  Nonetheless, as human beings, our pride often gets in the way of our reason, and we tend to think of ourselves as more than we really are.  I don't think it's any coincidence that the majority of the deities worshipped throughout history are, for all practical purposes, just superpowered men and women.  Since we are the greatest creatures that we can see, it only makes sense that we assume that the universe is run by stronger and more ancient versions of ourselves.  Nonetheless, this mentality will always put us at odds with God.  After all, if we make ourselves gods, then what does that make Him?  Ultimately, there can only be one supreme power in the universe, and God has made it clear that that is Him and Him alone.

"I am the Lord, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God..." (Isaiah 45:5a)

Since He is the only God in the universe, we are all accountable to Him.  Not even the most powerful nations can evade His judgment.  Babylon once ruled the known world, just like Assyria had before it.  Both empires now lie in ruins in modern-day Iraq.  If they couldn't escape God's wrath, what makes us think we can?  Before we let our hubris get the better of us, we need to meditate on the questions asked in Isaiah 14:27, so that we don't make the same mistake that those two nations did and think that we are invincible when we are clearly not. 

Is Your Idol Worth God's Wrath?

"For before the boy knows how to say ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be carried off by the king of Assyria.” (Isaiah 8:4)

Why does God allow evil and corrupt nations to rise to power?  Well, ultimately, He does it to carry out His will.  Now, don't get me wrong.  God never condones wicked and evil governments.  That being said, if He can use them to fulfill His plan for the world, He will.  For example, He used the Pharisees and the Jews' Roman oppressors to bring about salvation for all of humanity.  Their unjust trial and execution of Jesus Christ ultimately allowed Him to atone for our sins so that we could become right with God again through repentance.  However, in this particular instance described in Isaiah, the purpose is not salvation: it is judgment. 

Israel had been divided into two kingdoms.  Judah was the southern kingdom, and the northern one was still called Israel.  King Jeroboam, the ruler of the northern kingdom, feared that, since God's temple was located in Judah, his subjects would go back there to make sacrifices.  He believed that this would lead them to kill him and reunite with their southern brethren.  In order to prevent this from happening, he created two golden calves for the people to worship, claiming that these idols were the gods who delivered them out of Egypt instead of the one true God (1 Kings 12:26-30).  The people fell for his scheme and descended into a downward spiral of wickedness which led them to commit unbelievably evil deeds, including the use of the occult and child sacrifice (2 Kings 17:17).  Finally, God ran out of patience and chose the most violent nation around at the time to punish them: Assyria. 

The Assyrians were basically the Vikings of the Middle East.  I saw a relief taken from the tomb of one of their kings, Ashurnasirpal, inside of a museum in London, which showed Assyrian soldiers playing a soccer-like ball game with the decapitated heads of their enemies.  When God needed someone to teach the rebellious Israelites a lesson, the Assyrians were more than willing to oblige.  They completely sacked the northern kingdom and deported everyone into slavery throughout other parts of their empire. 

Now, we may think that we are safe from God's judgment.  After all, we don't go around worshipping golden cows, so we should be in excellent shape, right?  Not necessarily, for the following reason:

Anything that we worship other than God is an idol!

Take an honest look at your life.  Do you worship money?  Has your career become more important to you than God?  Do you worship sex?  Have hours of pornography stolen your quiet time with Jesus?  Do you worship your friends/family?  Is their approval of your life more meaningful to you than God's approval?  Do you worship your boyfriend/girlfriend?  Is their love more important to you than the love of Jesus?  Or do you worship your public image?  Are all of your good deeds just an attempt to make yourself look better than everyone else?

Be very wary of what you worship, because if you choose something other than Christ, then that idol will completely consume you.  Once that happens, you may become capable of unspeakable acts, just like the Israelites.   After that occurs, you are putting yourself in the path of God's judgment.  Now, if you are a Christian, you cannot lose your salvation (John 10:27-29).  However, God can still discipline you for what you do.  There may be an "Assyrian army" waiting to enslave you if God chooses to remove His protection from you.  They could be the backstabbing coworker who will get you fired once your ruthless ambition causes you to make a horrible mistake.  They could be the promiscuous young lady who tries to "babytrap" you when you decide to live out your lustful fantasies with her.  They could even be the local gossip at your church who will destroy your reputation once they find out that your lack of private integrity does not match your public image. So before you bow down to that idol, ask yourself if it is really worth incurring God's wrath.