Month: June 2017

The Carrot and Stick Principle

Its captivating to me that when I go through something, I tend to relate what I am going through, the relationships and grievances, with God. When I think of how children who do not listen to their mother, who do not use the skills and lessons that they have been equipped with to navigate even the simplest of task in the home, I tend to turn that around and wonder how God must feel when I, as an adopted child of His, refuses to do what I have been taught, refuse to use the gifts that He blessed me with, when I pick and choose what I will and will not do. If I am a small bearing in a big wheel, I wonder just how much more His feelings are amplified as the Father of all, the Father who sacrificed His son only to be used like a flashlight. To be used only when times are dark. To be minimized and placed on a shelf. To feel totally ignored and disrespected by His selfish children.

Whether you are a parent in a home, a supervisor at work, a leader in a group, a person in some position, any position of authority and responsibility, it is your job to teach, to grow, to influence, and to lead others. In these capacities, it is always more difficult to do so when just one, let alone more than one, of your flock is being disobedient. When just one person holds on to the idea that they can do whatever they want to do, come in late, wear things not an official part of the uniform, totally usurp the chain of command, fail to complete routine tasks, call in sick repeatedly, make excuses not to come to trainings and meetings, cause discord amongst the team, and so on, the task of growing and leading a team is made difficult because everyone is seeing what you are seeing and if permitted to continue, the rest of the crowd in today’s America adopts the, “well if he can do it, so can I” doctrine. It is a small percentage that ignore the negative and continue to engage the positive, even if they are alone in doing so. It’s like the one child who does right, living among brothers and sister who not only don’t do right, but make fun of and intimidate and harass the one who does. This is hard for that one. Again, I think often, how does my disobedience hurt my Father’s heart.

Throughout the bible, cover to cover, God speaks repeatedly about being obedient. As sinners, we must understand that our willful, purposeful, and deliberate disobedience causes God’s heart to mourn. Yes, mourn! He mourns because if we do not change our disobedient ways, we will surely die, TWICE!!!

Exodus 23:20-24

20 Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.

21 Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him.

22 But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries.

23 For mine Angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites: and I will cut them off.

24 Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images.

God starts off by stating that IF they, His children the Israelites, follow the angel, the angel that has the nature and authority of God himself, then God will bless them with the following. God starts off like this so that in a gentle way He acknowledges that man has the tendency to ignore God, and do what they want. So here God employs the early version of the Carrot and Stick principle. He wants nothing but the best for His children. But He needs them to see, ON THEIR OWN, that it is in their best interest to follow Him so that they do so willingly and without duress. God is stating to his children that if they are obedient, He himself will not let anything happen to them. He will provide victory after victory. If His children obey Him, those who oppose them, will also be the enemy of God.

Charles Ellicott states- “God is “the rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” He chooses to “reward men after their works,” and to set before them “the recompense of the reward.” He “knows whereof we are made,” and by what motives we are influenced. Self-interest, the desire of our own good, is one of the strongest of them. If Israel will keep His covenant, they will enjoy the following blessings :—(1) The guidance and protection of His angel till Canaan is reached; (2) God’s help against their adversaries, who will, little by little, be driven out; (3) the ultimate possession of the entire country between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea on the one hand, the Desert and the Euphrates on the other; (4) a blessing upon their flocks and herds, which shall neither be barren nor cast their young; and (5) a blessing upon themselves, whereby they will escape sickness and enjoy a long term of life. All these advantages, however, are conditional upon obedience, and may be forfeited.”

Fast forward to almost the end of the Bible.

1 Peter 1:13-15

13 Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;

14 As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:

15 But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;

16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.

There are so many scriptures on obedience. John 14:15, Acts 5:29, Luke 6:46, and Ecclesiastes 12:13 are just some of my favorites on the subject. However, I believe these versus fit with those from Exodus. I believe in verse 13 we can clearly see God saying to us as gentiles, “If you obey me….” This is what He said to Israel, “If you choose to follow me…” When we read “Gird up the loins of your mind” and “be sober” what we read is God telling us, Prepare yourself for battle and hard work.

Gird Up Your Loins

God is saying to us…. Prepare yourselves to follow me, prepare for battle and hard work and focus on me and I will bring you victory in the face of your enemies. Don’t even think about the lusts and desires of your flesh. Listen to my voice, do what I say. Do not conform to the world, do not bow down to the gods of the world, do not follow them, do not serve them, and do not do as they say. Be Holy as I am Holy. Be obedient children not fashioning, not molding, not conforming to the behaviors of the world. That’s what God is telling you! And finally, where is the victory that God spoke about in Exodus, “hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” For the Gentile Christian, the adopted child, this is our victory. The hope, or better translated, the expectation in the salvation in Jesus the Christ. What a victory that will be.

Joseph Benson Comments- “The apostle alludes to the manners of the eastern countries, in which the men’s garments being long and flowing, they prepared themselves for travelling, and other active employments, by girding them up with a girdle put round their loins, to prevent their being encumbered by them. The loins of the mind, therefore, is a figurative expression for the faculties of the soul, the understanding, memory, will, and affections, which the apostle signifies must be gathered in and girded, as it were, about the soul by the girdle of truth, so as to be in a state fit for continual and unwearied exertion in running the Christian race, fighting the good fight of faith, and working out our salvation with fear and trembling. Our mind must not be overcharged at any time with surfeiting and drunkenness, or the cares of this life: our affections must be placed on proper objects, and in a just degree; and especially must be set on the things that are above, which are to be our portion and felicity for ever: our various passions must be under the government of reason and religion, of the truth and grace of God.”

On the hope of Christ, John Calvin states, ” For the object of Peter was to call us away beyond the world; for this purpose the fittest thing was the recollection of Christ’s coming. For when we direct our eyes to this event, this world becomes crucified to us, and we to the world.”

Obedience is not a choice. Being a Christian is not a game. It is a discipline. The world will exercise large amounts of discipline when it comes to the study, to the execution, to the devotion of many aspects of our lives. But when it comes to God, many treat it as a passing fancy. It is not something that requires effort. There is no work in faith. I know there was a time when we used to focus on faith without works is dead, but I believe we have been so heavy on the anit-works righteous movement, and rightfully so, that a negative side-effect has taken place. That is that love is all there is and that no work is necessary. Nothing could be further from the truth. If you love God, you will follow Him, you will obey Him, and you will gird up your loins, you will prepare yourself for battle against the world and against your own flesh.

Once again, in his daily devotional, Dr. Charles Stanley reports something directly to the point. “Are you trying to rationalize a decision or behavior? Perhaps you’ve offered reasons for pursuing a certain path. Or maybe you tried bargaining with God. I assure you He isn’t moved by any arguments. Remember: Partial obedience is disobedience in His eyes. And no sin is worth being outside His will.”

If you stand in the mirror what will the reflection tell you about yourself, and what are you going to do about it? May the peace of God be abundantly heaped upon you and your house, straight from the cross to the Christian!

All of the rules are set

I praise God for His mercy, and His blessings. I praise him for this message.

I sat down this morning and started reading my daily devotionals, I have a couple. I was also reflecting on the Sunday School class, and sermon from yesterday. All of a sudden, a basketball analogy came to me. This is pretty amazing since I could not care any less about basketball than I already do. I don’t intend to insult anyone, it is simply not a sport I have ever been any good at and I just cannot sit there and watch a game. I do, however, understand the scoring system. And then the message came.

In basketball the hoop never moves. It is fixed in one position, carefully measured out. In fact, the court is measured off the proper placement of the hoop. The GOAL is to put the ball through the hoop and score more points than the other team. You don’t have to put the ball through more often than the other team to win, because certain circumstances can exist that cause the completed GOAL to earn you anywhere from one to four points. So, again, you do not have to meet the GOAL more often then the enemy, you just have complete the GOAL when it matters most.

Sometimes, when a player is missing a lot of shots, we say they are off their game. A coach might tell them that they are not focusing; they may tell them to “get your head in the game.” But for many reasons, even the best players have bad games. In fact, one of the modern day greats has repeatedly conveyed how physically draining an entire basketball season can be, and that sometimes he is just flat out tired. So again, there are many reasons why a player will not be focused enough to accomplish the GOAL.

Life is not a game. Oh people have said it is; there are so many analogies and sayings about life and games, especially chess, that I cannot even begin to document them all here. But the truth about life is that life itself is a matter of life and death. If you think about it for a second, we actually start to die the moment the egg is fertilized. Many say that its growing, and that would be true, but it is also on the journey to death. This was not always the case. God did not start off by creating man to die, but to live and to have communion with Him. But man got selfish. Man got to thinking that he knew better, and listened to whispers of an angel whose fate had already been sealed. Man brought death and all its forms into the world the moment they partook of the forbidden fruit. Disobedience occurred, and the consequence of sin entered the world. As time went on, God brought people into this world that He used to show that in spite of man’s disobedience, He still loved His creation very much. Because of our sin, God had to show how mighty His love for us was. So he brought men into the world that He used as leaders. And as time went on, God provided a way of atonement through animal sacrifices. But don’t you know man just kept on being disobedient. Again, throughout the old testament there is consequence after consequence for the disobedient actions of man. Finally God said, I am going to provide you with the perfect sacrifice. If you believe, if you have faith that I sent Him, and that He is my son, and that He is I, and I am He, and that He and I are perfect, and you love us by following our commands, then you shall be saved. So what does this have to do with Basketball? Don’t forget about the fixed hoop.

A basketball court is 94 feet long. It is 50 feet wide. There numerous dimensions all over the court. Here are some more.

Basketball court deminsions

When you look at the demensions, notice one in-particular. The hoop, it is only 18 inches in diameter. On a 94 X 50 foot court, a player has to get into position to be able to put a basketball, which is 29.5 inches in circumference through a hoop that is 30 inches in circumference. Yes, there is only one half of an inch to play with.

The comparison is this. God wants to have a relationship with us. He has taken great care to put His will for us into a book that we can read and understand. All we have to do is believe it. If we believe it, then we have to become the fixed hoop. We cannot live our lives running all over that court. We have to become that fixed hoop so that we can receive the blessings that God has for us. We have to try to understand that His love is so perfect, so true and honest, that we cannot redefine the rules, no more than any player can walk onto a court and drag the rim to half-court so he doesn’t have to run as far because he is tired. All of the rules are set, the court and all the dimensions are set, there are no changes. There are no changes with God. He is steady sinking blessings through His fixed hoop. You have to deny yourself, and all that you think you want and go and become that fixed hoop so He can heap blessings upon you. And the more fixed you become, the more and more blessings you receive. Do you remember earlier when I spoke to you about not having to put the ball through the hoop more often than the other team to win because of circumstances? Well, one such circumstance is the 4 point play. If a player shoots the ball from behind the three point line and is fouled, he will get the basket (provided he makes it) plus an additional penalty shot because he was fouled. That’s called the free throw line because no one is allowed to distract him. He can concentrate on just making that one basket to get a 4 point play. That is the highest score you can get on one play. Now, life has all kinds of circumstances and fouls, doesn’t it? But God does not move. He is fixed, and I praise Him for that because He is always right where he has always been. All I need to do, all you need to do, is play through that foul and be that fixed hoop and no matter what kind of foul life threw at you. Keeping your faith, keeping your discipline will keep you at the hoop so God can bless you abundantly and maximize His glory!!! Remember, everything is about the Glory of God!!

In his devotion for June 12, 2017, In touch Ministries Dr. Charles Stanley wrote, “It’s easy to get so caught up in the daily grind or preoccupied with chasing a goal that we miss the good that the LORD has in mind to give us.”

That’s the importance of being fixed.

 

James 1:13-17

13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:

14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.

15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

16 Do not err, my beloved brethren.

17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

How wonderful are these verses that share with us this very lesson. God does not sin; He does not tempt man to sin. God does not allow bad things to happen to good people. Sin, bad things, happen because of man. Remember, death entered this world because of man, not God. Man brought death in disease, murder, accidents, all manners of death entered this world at that fall of man. Verse 14 says that it is our flesh that tempts us. Our humanness is what makes not a single person good. Even if you do “good” all day, if not led by God and working for the Glory of God then there really is no good in any effort. Verse 15 talks about that death brought to us by our fall, by our sin. Because of our sin we need Jesus, and because of His love, He gives us forgiveness. And again, anything that is good, comes from God. His blessings come down and are delivered through that fixed hoop. Look at the end of that verse, there is no variableness nor shadow of turning. He does not move. He is fixed. His blessings flow through that narrow and fixed hoop. You are the one that needs to put yourself into the position to receive His blessings. That hoop is faith, that hoop is love, that hoop is obedience. Remember that Christ told us himself that if we love Him, we will follow His commandments. That is the fixed part. There is no other way.

If you stand in the mirror what will the reflection tell you about yourself, and what are you going to do about it? May the peace of God be abundantly heaped upon you and your house, straight from the cross to the Christian!