Luke 14:27-30 (KJV) 27 And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? 29 Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, 30 Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.
Another lesson from this portion of Scripture concerns the foundation. We have been taught much about foundations in both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. In this portion, Jesus is speaking of the one laid by man. If we know, and understand, or not, a foundation is laid by a believer in the early teaching he hears when he first becomes a new creature in Christ. What he is taught, how he heeds, is going to determine the development of who he becomes. No matter how faulty or limited the teaching is, much is determined by the hunger of the individual to know God. The one who goes to the Word and hungers to be fed, is the person God will guide by His Spirit to the well of Living Water. God has laid a foundation, from the very beginning, of the path the seeker shall take to find the hidden treasure of a relationship with God that will shape him into God's image. This is where the cost is disclosed. It costs a person time and perseverance to seek to be fed by God. God provides, but man must pay the personal cost to obtain.
In Isaiah are many scriptures that have hidden treasure. Isaiah 30:15 (NASB) 15 For thus the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, has said, “In repentance and rest you will be saved, in quietness and trust is your strength.” But you were not willing... The Hebrew word "shaqat", here translated "quietness", carries the meaning of "laying down toward rest." A tranquility of the mind and emotion. It is the root word used for "rest" in Isaiah 28:12 (NASB) 12 He who said to them, “Here is rest, give rest to the weary,” and, “Here is repose,” but they would not listen. God was speaking of the promised land He had given to them to be a nation that would worship Him and heed His Law. The covenant God made with Abraham, deepened with Moses, was enough to make a glorious nation, witnessing of the Almighty. The covenant Jesus made with the Father is enough to make a glorious Church, witnessing of the Almighty and His purpose. Man's required response to the covenant covering him has always been one of obedience and trust. Abraham's response to God's covenant demand was one of obedience and trust. All through the Scriptures we have the example set before us of men who walked in obedience and trust and so persevered. God's Word calls them saints. Jesus, The Way, walked out obedience and trust. He is saying to us, "Follow Me."
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Friday, September 28, 2012
Consider The Cost
One of the things I have learned concerning the Scriptures is that you never see all of the depth. We read the Bible consistently (a daily reading through the Bible once a year) and also constantly turning to the study of different passages as the Spirit leads. There is never an end to the awesome revelation in passages once thought "known". I want to look more closely at one such passage. Luke 14:25-30 (PHILLIPS)
How do we practice lawlessness? How we live, how we think, how we judge the world around us. I was thinking of a conversation I had with my mother years ago. We were discussing styles of dress and she said that as a young girl she had to wear the hem of her dresses just at the top of her boots. She longed for the day when she could drop the hem to the floor like "grown up women". But when she reached the age when she could, the styles had changed and the hems were rising. Her attitude toward this continual change became an opinion she shared with her generation. We become locked into the "culture" of the generation we share. We have often seen the rebellion of each generation to seek their own expression. No matter how "modern" it may seem at the time, it will be replaced. This happens to all phases of our culture. If we conform to the world around us, it shapes us. Our thoughts, our ambitions, our responses to circumstances and relationships are connected to the age because we are conformed to those of the age. But Romans 12:2 warns us not to be conformed to this age. Most translations say "world". But everything moves on. The vine of iniquity must come to fulness as well as the vine of righteousness--both grow together. We seek to be conformed to, and follow, the One Who leads (and is) the way. If we follow Jesus, we must be conformed to His image--not the image we see in the age around us. This will cost us everything. How we think, how we live and relate to everything around us becomes part of the cost. To obtain the pearl of pricelessness, we must "sell" all we have and come to the completion of the goal set before us, conformed to His resurrection.
25-27 Now as Jesus proceeded on his journey, great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and spoke to them, “If anyone comes to me without ‘hating’ his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be a disciple of mine. The man who will not take up his cross and follow in my footsteps cannot be my disciple. 28-30 “If any of you wanted to build a tower, wouldn’t he first sit down and work out the cost of it, to see if he can afford to finish it? Otherwise, when he has laid the foundation and found himself unable to complete the building, everyone who sees it will begin to jeer at him, saying, ‘This is the man who started to build a tower but couldn’t finish it!’
There are several steps revealed in this passage to the completion of the "work" that God has for us in this bubble of time that we are granted to prepare for eternity. Jesus said He had completed the work the Father had given Him. Paul said he had "finished the course." What is required that we have this witness? In Matthew 7:24-27, Jesus speaks of building a house on the sand or on the rock. In the verses preceeding this passage, Jesus made an awesome statement of the final judgment. Matthew 7:21-23 (NASB)
There are several steps revealed in this passage to the completion of the "work" that God has for us in this bubble of time that we are granted to prepare for eternity. Jesus said He had completed the work the Father had given Him. Paul said he had "finished the course." What is required that we have this witness? In Matthew 7:24-27, Jesus speaks of building a house on the sand or on the rock. In the verses preceeding this passage, Jesus made an awesome statement of the final judgment. Matthew 7:21-23 (NASB)
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22 Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’
How do we practice lawlessness? How we live, how we think, how we judge the world around us. I was thinking of a conversation I had with my mother years ago. We were discussing styles of dress and she said that as a young girl she had to wear the hem of her dresses just at the top of her boots. She longed for the day when she could drop the hem to the floor like "grown up women". But when she reached the age when she could, the styles had changed and the hems were rising. Her attitude toward this continual change became an opinion she shared with her generation. We become locked into the "culture" of the generation we share. We have often seen the rebellion of each generation to seek their own expression. No matter how "modern" it may seem at the time, it will be replaced. This happens to all phases of our culture. If we conform to the world around us, it shapes us. Our thoughts, our ambitions, our responses to circumstances and relationships are connected to the age because we are conformed to those of the age. But Romans 12:2 warns us not to be conformed to this age. Most translations say "world". But everything moves on. The vine of iniquity must come to fulness as well as the vine of righteousness--both grow together. We seek to be conformed to, and follow, the One Who leads (and is) the way. If we follow Jesus, we must be conformed to His image--not the image we see in the age around us. This will cost us everything. How we think, how we live and relate to everything around us becomes part of the cost. To obtain the pearl of pricelessness, we must "sell" all we have and come to the completion of the goal set before us, conformed to His resurrection.
Monday, September 17, 2012
Awareness
When Peter stood up to speak to the crowd gathered to see the "strange thing" happening in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, he reminded them of the word of the prophet Joel by saying, "this is that spoken by the prophet Joel". (Acts 2:16-21) The prophet Amos revealed a most significant action of "God's ways" in Amos 3:7 (NIV) 7 Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets. Peter also preached to the crowd gathered at the temple when the lame man was healed. Acts 4:18-21 (NASB)18 But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. 19 Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; 20 and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, 21 whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time. Jesus assured the continuation of the prophet's voice by giving to the church the ministry of the apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher. Some of the churches today acknowledge the need of, and the supply of, all five of these ministries, while others only acknowledge the ministry of the pastor. In Jesus resided the full measure of the Holy Spirit and all five ministries. In His ascension, He released the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to His Church and the fivefold ministry to bring the believers into maturity. (Ephesians 4:11-13)
The New Covenant prophet has a ministry to the church to alert the church into awareness of the day in which they live and God's "present action" so that the church might remain in connection with the Head, even Jesus, our Lord. We have wonderful teachers but the church needs the prophetic voice. We are left to our own reactions, our own interpretations and our own opinions as well as our fears if we do not have that prophetic voice. The Old Covenant prophet was also called a "seer". The New Covenant prophet spoke as a seer but had a voice within the church community that kept the church alert to the action of God. They were not allowed to sleep. The church today needs to be awakened. Who will declare "The Bridegoom comes!"? The prophetic voice alerts, without the fear tactics of the world, the sounding of the trumpet and the call to alertness. Pray that the hearts of the people will be open to hear the prophetic voice and pray that the prophet ministry be restored to your church community.
The New Covenant prophet has a ministry to the church to alert the church into awareness of the day in which they live and God's "present action" so that the church might remain in connection with the Head, even Jesus, our Lord. We have wonderful teachers but the church needs the prophetic voice. We are left to our own reactions, our own interpretations and our own opinions as well as our fears if we do not have that prophetic voice. The Old Covenant prophet was also called a "seer". The New Covenant prophet spoke as a seer but had a voice within the church community that kept the church alert to the action of God. They were not allowed to sleep. The church today needs to be awakened. Who will declare "The Bridegoom comes!"? The prophetic voice alerts, without the fear tactics of the world, the sounding of the trumpet and the call to alertness. Pray that the hearts of the people will be open to hear the prophetic voice and pray that the prophet ministry be restored to your church community.
Monday, September 10, 2012
Pressing Toward
When Paul speaks of "pressing toward the mark of the high calling in Christ Jesus", there is not always a clear understanding of what "pressing" means to each person. To some, who are under legalistic teaching, it means to be more careful to do everything that is possible to do to please and be acceptable. To some it means to study more or do more. But perhaps the emphasis should be on the high calling more than the pressing in order to understand what Paul meant. I believe the high calling to Paul meant God's desire to have man in God's image. Paul saw Jesus in the exact image of the Father and wanted to have the same image reflected in himself. I do not believe he meant ministry as the high calling. He saw his ministry in the light of a bondservant, a privilege to serve.
In the overall content of Paul's writings, you see the desire to encourage, believe for and to exhort the believer's maturity in knowing Jesus, in becoming like Him in nature and focus on the Father. Reading the Gospels and listening with your heart to the words of Jesus, you see His desire to reveal the heart of the Father through the Spirit and not the shallow human understanding of do's and don'ts. It is not by accident that the most familiar verse in the Bible is John 3:16. Everything God has done, from the creation of all things to the sending of Jesus into our realm to take our place, has been out of love--His very Being. We cannot comprehend such love as exhibited by the Father and Jesus. Nor can we comprehend what it means for the Spirit to abide in us. But God is reaching for us to become far more than religious puppets. He wants to put in us His very nature. Jesus answered the question of the lawyer who was testing Him. Matthew 22:36-40 (NASB) 37 And He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”
Jesus gave but one commandment for the New Covenant: John 15:12 (ESV) 12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Each covenant God made with man channeled into the next in a progressive revelaton of relationship, but His purpose stayed the same, that man should be in the image of God. The first covenant God showed Adam was the marriage covenant and God met man through the anointing that was given to the partriarch in the family line. Abraham's covenant brought the family line to the nation of Israel and God met the nation Israel through the priests and the prophets. Jesus was born of the house of David and brought the New Covenant to whosoever would receive Him, the Son of God to redeem man from sin and human nature. To those who choose to follow Him, laying down their control and nature to His control and Nature, will be prepared to enter the final covenant as the Bride of Christ.
It is vital that we seek the unity of the Body of Christ by responding to His covenant command to love as He loves us. Only by the Spirit and full yielding to the Lord can we do this. It is the very essence of God that He gives to those who diligently seek and believe to exercise freely as God does. It carries a price to all who so seek. It is a death to self and all of self's opinions and judgments. We lose the right to pick and choose the ones we will love that we may love as God loves. We love even when we are rejected and persecuted. We love when there is no reason to love. To be in His image, we must be like Him and be willing to manifest His forgiveness, mercy and love. To minister His peace and His joy with His grace and mercy. It cannot be impossible for it is God's expectation in covenant and He has paid the price for us to be enabled to become.
In the overall content of Paul's writings, you see the desire to encourage, believe for and to exhort the believer's maturity in knowing Jesus, in becoming like Him in nature and focus on the Father. Reading the Gospels and listening with your heart to the words of Jesus, you see His desire to reveal the heart of the Father through the Spirit and not the shallow human understanding of do's and don'ts. It is not by accident that the most familiar verse in the Bible is John 3:16. Everything God has done, from the creation of all things to the sending of Jesus into our realm to take our place, has been out of love--His very Being. We cannot comprehend such love as exhibited by the Father and Jesus. Nor can we comprehend what it means for the Spirit to abide in us. But God is reaching for us to become far more than religious puppets. He wants to put in us His very nature. Jesus answered the question of the lawyer who was testing Him. Matthew 22:36-40 (NASB) 37 And He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”
Jesus gave but one commandment for the New Covenant: John 15:12 (ESV) 12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Each covenant God made with man channeled into the next in a progressive revelaton of relationship, but His purpose stayed the same, that man should be in the image of God. The first covenant God showed Adam was the marriage covenant and God met man through the anointing that was given to the partriarch in the family line. Abraham's covenant brought the family line to the nation of Israel and God met the nation Israel through the priests and the prophets. Jesus was born of the house of David and brought the New Covenant to whosoever would receive Him, the Son of God to redeem man from sin and human nature. To those who choose to follow Him, laying down their control and nature to His control and Nature, will be prepared to enter the final covenant as the Bride of Christ.
It is vital that we seek the unity of the Body of Christ by responding to His covenant command to love as He loves us. Only by the Spirit and full yielding to the Lord can we do this. It is the very essence of God that He gives to those who diligently seek and believe to exercise freely as God does. It carries a price to all who so seek. It is a death to self and all of self's opinions and judgments. We lose the right to pick and choose the ones we will love that we may love as God loves. We love even when we are rejected and persecuted. We love when there is no reason to love. To be in His image, we must be like Him and be willing to manifest His forgiveness, mercy and love. To minister His peace and His joy with His grace and mercy. It cannot be impossible for it is God's expectation in covenant and He has paid the price for us to be enabled to become.
Friday, September 7, 2012
Endurance
James 1:2-4 (ESV) 2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
(NLT) 2 Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.
I give you two translations to consider. This to me is a most important passage to know for it embraces one of the most important facets of our struggle to grow to maturity--our reaction to circumstances. I admire the trait of steadfastness/endurance when I see it in people. It is one of the traits of my husband. He has been to me such an example of Christ-likenes and a constant inspiration to strive upward. This, to me, is what being a light means. Consistent, in your character and your reactions, quietly revealing the work of God in you to everyone, whether you live with them, work with them, have a friend relationship with them or have just met them. With this kind of steadfastness, nothing will move you away from your relationship with Him.
Just what is endurance? A question Esther asked is very revealing. Esther 8:6 (NLT) For how can I endure to see my people and my family slaughtered and destroyed?” A person can develop an endurance for yourself, but what would be our reaction to seeing a family member tortured? We have developed a passivity that comfort brings. Financial security, comfortable surroundings, peaceful country, and daily security have robbed us of the tenacity of faith and commitment that will endure any hardship, persevere through any threat, and look steadfastly to the Lord. The pacifier held out to Christians of the escape of a rapture, has dulled any attempt to develop such perseverance. The early Church Christian knew what becoming a Christian meant. Some never were Christians even a year before they were martyred. Jesus knew what being the light meant. Hebrews 12:1-3 (NASB) Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
(NLT) 2 Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.
I give you two translations to consider. This to me is a most important passage to know for it embraces one of the most important facets of our struggle to grow to maturity--our reaction to circumstances. I admire the trait of steadfastness/endurance when I see it in people. It is one of the traits of my husband. He has been to me such an example of Christ-likenes and a constant inspiration to strive upward. This, to me, is what being a light means. Consistent, in your character and your reactions, quietly revealing the work of God in you to everyone, whether you live with them, work with them, have a friend relationship with them or have just met them. With this kind of steadfastness, nothing will move you away from your relationship with Him.
Just what is endurance? A question Esther asked is very revealing. Esther 8:6 (NLT) For how can I endure to see my people and my family slaughtered and destroyed?” A person can develop an endurance for yourself, but what would be our reaction to seeing a family member tortured? We have developed a passivity that comfort brings. Financial security, comfortable surroundings, peaceful country, and daily security have robbed us of the tenacity of faith and commitment that will endure any hardship, persevere through any threat, and look steadfastly to the Lord. The pacifier held out to Christians of the escape of a rapture, has dulled any attempt to develop such perseverance. The early Church Christian knew what becoming a Christian meant. Some never were Christians even a year before they were martyred. Jesus knew what being the light meant. Hebrews 12:1-3 (NASB) Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
How do we attain to such endurance? I fully believe it is a process that develops in us when we seek to become like Jesus. Ask, seek and knock are not just words that Jesus gave us so we could memorize a scripture. It is part of reaching upward, of pressing forward. Philippians 3:7-14 is a marvelous passage to meditate, ponder and plant in your spirit. I want to emphasize one of those verses. 12 Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Also, ponder why God gave such a wonderful goal of being in the likeness of God, and, why Jesus came in that likeness to give Himself so that goal could be reached. It will all come down to LOVE. Because He loved us, we love. The first mark in this reaching upward, is to love as He loves. Ask for it, seek it and knock until the door is opened and you truly love as He loves. I Corinthians 13:7 (NASB) (love) 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Zeal
In my last posting, I was showing the effect of passivity. The opposite of passivity is zeal. This is actually a richer condition than passion, which involves physical action, suffering and emotion. Zeal motivates passion. All through the Scripture, zeal is used in connection with, and to describe certain actions of God. My recent postings have been exploring our identity with Jesus, and to see how His life and ministry reveal to us the covenant expectation of God for us. We know He wants to make "man in the image of God". We know Jesus came in the exact likeness and representation of the Father. Our failure is the lack of identifying to Jesus and to walk, minister and become the representation of Jesus to the world around us.
John 2:17 (ESV) His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
Isaiah 59:16-17 (NIV) 16 He saw that there was no one, He was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so His own arm achieved salvation for Him, and His own righteousness sustained Him. 17 He put on righteousness as His breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on His head; He put on the garments of vengeance and wrapped Himself in zeal as in a cloak. (Some translations use the word "intercede" for "intervene".)
No one can doubt that we are close to the end of man's opportunity to choose to give God a full "covenant response" to prepare ourselves for entry into the next covenant. I pray that all who desire earnestly to be like Him will see the urgency of the need to be ready. We cannot be passive to the need for intercessors for the family, the church, the nation, and the world. We must put on zeal and let it "eat us up"! We must let the Word of God wash us of the effects our environment has muddied us and clothe ourselves with the bridal garments God holds out to us.
Ephesians 5:25-27 (NIV) 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
Revelation 19:7-9 (NASB) 7 Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.” 8 It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
John 2:17 (ESV) His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
Isaiah 59:16-17 (NIV) 16 He saw that there was no one, He was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so His own arm achieved salvation for Him, and His own righteousness sustained Him. 17 He put on righteousness as His breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on His head; He put on the garments of vengeance and wrapped Himself in zeal as in a cloak. (Some translations use the word "intercede" for "intervene".)
No one can doubt that we are close to the end of man's opportunity to choose to give God a full "covenant response" to prepare ourselves for entry into the next covenant. I pray that all who desire earnestly to be like Him will see the urgency of the need to be ready. We cannot be passive to the need for intercessors for the family, the church, the nation, and the world. We must put on zeal and let it "eat us up"! We must let the Word of God wash us of the effects our environment has muddied us and clothe ourselves with the bridal garments God holds out to us.
Ephesians 5:25-27 (NIV) 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
Revelation 19:7-9 (NASB) 7 Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.” 8 It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
9 Then he said to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’” And he said to me, “These are true words of God.”
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