Loving God or the World?

1Jn 2:15  Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

1Jn 2:16  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

1Jn 2:17  And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

 

In the above passage, when it comes to our true heart's allegiance, John cuts to the chase as Jesus did so many times during His earthly ministry.  He is saying something that we likely do not want to hear -- if we love the world and all that it has to offer, we will not and do not love God.  Recently this was brought home to me in an unusual way.  Firstly, I am thankful to say that God has blessed my life immeasurably in every possible way.  I lack for nothing.  I am a blessed Gentile child of God, and I experience the blessing promised to Abraham as a grafted-in child.  However, my husband and I have had a financial trial for a few years now that we can seem to do nothing about, even though we've prayed, and we've tried and tried to find a solution.  Until it lifts, we cannot move forward from where we are, barring a miracle of God, which we are praying and hoping for.  

 

One day not too long ago, I asked God very specific questions about it.  I especially wanted to know why it was taking so long to receive a breakthrough, and that we are stuck until something happens.  We cannot makes plan to travel, fix our house, or even pursue ministry ideas or anything else major without a miracle.  I did not receive an answer until the next day.  This answer was one of those, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord." (Isaiah 55:8)  The next morning my Bible fell open to Joshua 10 where the sun stood still:

Jos 10:13  And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.

Jos 10:14  And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the LORD hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the LORD fought for Israel.

I read the whole chapter and a few more after that.  Joshua is a book about the children of Israel receiving the Promised Land that God had promised the descendants of Abraham.  It did not come easy. They had to fight and overcome the inhabitants in order to take the land!  But God literally gave them victory after victory in order to fulfill His promise to Abraham.  So where do I fit in to this?  As I was reading, it became crystal clear to me that God will stop at nothing to ensure that His children receive their Promised Land, or inheritance, as promised in His Word. He even made the sun stand still for Joshua!! So He assured me that yes, He will provide the breakthrough we have been praying for, but it will be in HIS timing and not ours.  Then He proceeded to impress on me that I needed to get back to my writing, and that nothing would happen until I committed myself to writing again!  This is a gift from God that I give as a gift back to Him and for HIS purposes!  I've known this for a long time now, yet I haven't been obeying, but doing a bunch of other things! So, the Promised Land and inheritance is ours, but in order to receive it, we must also obey Him and do what He’s asking us to do! 

Just to make sure that I got the message to do my writing again, a dear friend of mine was awake until 2:00 a.m. and the Lord impressed on her directly that writing is my gifting and that I am supposed to write!  She was to make sure and tell me this, and so she told me in church two days later!  And this is without me even talking to her much about my writing.  She had no idea that the Lord had already had me read Joshua as an answer to my questions to Him.  We both had goosebumps!

If you write or know a writer, you will understand how difficult writing can be because you have to be very focused and very disciplined. You have to put everything else aside, shut off your phone, and sometimes close your drapes and lock the door so you won't be disturbed. It greatly curtails your social life and any other kind of life you might want. Yet, it is something you must do because you have all these ideas or inspirations that need to be written down.  And so, for me, I will many times find something else to do so I avoid the discipline of writing.  I couldn't begin to count the times I have gently shooed a loved one out of the room when I've been in the middle of writing out a thought and couldn't be disturbed!  But this is no excuse.  If God gave me the natural ability to write, an understanding husband who supports me in it, the time to do it, etc, (and several years of education to do it well), then I must use this gift wholly for His purposes!

Going back to I John 2:15-17, the challenge for me has been to NOT look at what else I could be doing like the trips I could be taking, or how I'd like to add onto our house, or buy a swim spa or a boat to use on the massive lake just down our street!  Those are just momentary pleasures of this life that will not make much of a difference in anyone else's life.  They will certainly not add much to the Kingdom of God the way the writing can and does.  No. They may be added at a later time, and maybe not. It really doesn't matter.  What matters is that I love God and doing His work more than anything this world can give.  

So today if you find yourself in a similar situation and you just can’t understand why it is taking so long for your prayers to get answered, just remember that the real focus needs to be on loving God more than anything else this world has to offer.  May we focus on Him today and do whatever it is He has asked us to do.

Without loving God, are we truly saved?

Deu 11:13  And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,

Deu 11:16  Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them;

Mat 22:36  Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

Mat 22:37  Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

Mat 22:38  This is the first and great commandment.

1Jn 4:7  Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.

1Jn 4:8  He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

Recently I watched a video about a Christian woman who had a life-changing encounter with a being from hell.  In her testimony she shared the stark reality of the hopelessness, deep sorrows and constant torments of hell that were revealed to her during this encounter.  She pleaded with her audience that if anyone had been resisting God as she had been doing previously, now was their second chance to respond to Him and receive His salvation so freely given.  She said something else that literally jumped out at me and I have been thinking about it ever since. She said that only the ones that love God will make it to heaven. The ones that don't love God won't make it into heaven.  She mentioned to the effect that people may go to church and tithe and do all kinds of good works, but this won't be enough for them to get to heaven.  I agreed with her that being a Christian has to be more than head knowledge.  Our hearts have to change. In fact, we need to be completely transformed, or "born again" of the spirit, as Jesus teaches in John 3:3-8.

This born-again experience is not a mechanical one!  Something truly remarkable happens! Our lives change completely! Why? Because our hearts change!  We have a new spirit and a new life for the first time ever.  Our sins are washed away and we are no longer guilty before God!  This is the work that HE does, and we realize that we have no ability to do that on our own by good works or deeds. What does a new life and a new heart look like?  It means that whatever good works we attempt to do (and want to do) are done out of love for God and our fellow man, and not because we are trying to earn our way into God's good graces.  We realize grace has already been freely given and we have done nothing to earn it whatsoever!! Jesus paid our price!

Okay then, so what happens after awhile if we feel that we no longer truly live our new life out of love for God? Maybe many things have gone wrong in our lives and we have become disillusioned and bitter.  We don't feel God's love, and we don't feel like loving God or others any more.  Perhaps we have become too busy, not spending time with the Lord in prayer or in His Word. Our hearts have become cold, hardened, and closed to God and to receiving from Him.  Are we still saved and going to heaven?  Scripture indicates that there is only one unforgivable sin that will never for all eternity be forgiven and that is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (Matthew 12:31-32).

Does that make not loving God okay?  Certainly NOT!  If we don't love God, this is a serious violation in breaking His most important commandment!  If we don't continue to love God, we will stray so far off course and away from Him it will be as if we never knew Him in the first place! That is a very dark and lonely place to be, my friends.  Look at Jesus' rebuke to the church at Ephesus:

Rev 2:4  Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.

Rev 2:5  Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.

Wherever we are at today in our walk with the Lord, if our hearts have become hardened or cold, we need to repent.  This week I have shed a lot of tears for falling so short in loving God.  I have no excuse whatsoever.  He has to come first above everything else no matter how busy I become.  What does it mean to love God?  It means that we worship and adore Him above all else.  It means that we love righteousness and justice and His Word and we hate evil and everything that is contrary to what He calls good.  We love Him and we love all people no matter what, but we do it out of a heartfelt love for Him and not out of a religious ritual we mechanically perform.

I would like to direct you to two books I have written that go into much more detail about the heart and about loving God.  One is a short book called When Love is All There Is.  The other is how to walk in victory throughout the many temptations in life:  Victory OverBacksliding.  They are both available as eBooks on Amazon.ca. 

The Gift of Life

 

Today's post is a beautiful thought-provoking poem written by a very wonderful person who is a joy to know.  When I first read it, it affected me in such a way that I knew I had to share it.  It did not have a title, so I gave it a title. Enjoy!

 

 

The Gift of Life

 

Oh Father the gift of life you gave

Looking out at the majesty of nature that I crave

To understand the mystery of it all before I go to my grave 

 

Greed, violence you never did intend

Prevails this gift of beauty world end to end

Oh Father as my time is running short

What can I do to preserve what you did start 

 

Forgive and love my child his answer came

And spread the word, how you believe in my name

The mystery of the universe brothers all are we

Love each other forgive each other from sea to sea 

 

The gift of life, the world created could survive

If every man, woman & child had enough to keep alive

So those of greed & violence do take heed

You must take care of those in need 

 

So said the word of our Creator

Our strength our love divine

Give of yourself my child we are all running out of time 

 

M.E.P.

 

 

Copyright of author c/o Creative Focus Journal.  All Rights Reserved.

 



Is Evangelizing for Everyone?

I don't know about you, but for me, going out and evangelizing, i.e. sharing the good news of the Gospel, is not something I do nearly enough.  It's not that I don't know how important it is, I do.  In fact, I have witnessed many times since I was raised in a Christian God-fearing home where I was encouraged to witness as soon as I got saved as a child. Almost everyone I knew witnessed then. Many years ago my parents belonged to an evangelistic team that stood on the street and fearlessly preached to all who walked by!  My Grandpa handed out tracts and spoke about Jesus with all who walked by his house in Regina! My dear Uncle Albert never let a day go by where he wasn't witnessing God's love and saving grace to someone! It didn't matter where he went, he was witnessing, obeying the call that God had placed on his heart as a young teenager in Saskatchewan!  And it wasn't easy either.  He was persecuted for it.  Similar to the first church, back then we had a zeal for the things of God, and couldn't keep back the great things God had done for us!! But today, what is happening?  I know there are many faithful Christians witnessing, some of them even risking their own lives, but I know there are many that never talk about the Lord to the unsaved or share the way of salvation to the lost. 

There are various reasons for not evangelizing, but personally, I could not honestly justify this failure for witnessing if I stood before God to try to explain.  Perhaps we could blame the church for not seeming to have a program and a plan to get us involved in outreach.  Perhaps we feel that just inviting people to church is enough -- let the minister and those that are more learned witness to them.  Perhaps we feel fearful not always knowing what to say, or appearing foolish, being laughed at or ridiculed, sounding like a holy roller, and not fitting in with the crowd.  Maybe it will jeopardize our job or social standing.  Perhaps we are just too busy to even think about it.  From some research I have done, I have discovered there are many excuses we have for not going out and sharing the Gospel to a lost and dying world.  And the very sad and tragic fact is, while we hesitate or even refuse to do our part, people at this very moment are dying in their sin, and going into an everlasting eternity without ever knowing that they could have been saved from it.  I wonder how we will feel on the day that we stand before the Lord to give an account, and cannot honestly say that we were willing to lay down our life out of love for God and our fellow man who was lost and can no longer be reached.

 Perhaps we love ourselves way too much.  I think of the following verse:

 Rev 12:11  And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.

 Real love for God means that we want to love Him with all our being (the first commandment), and demonstrate our love for Him by loving others as we love ourselves.  It means we want the very best for someone else, and we put aside our own desires and comforts to that end.  When we know the Lord in a personal way, and have been saved and delivered from our sins, and we are guaranteed a place in heaven with Him, then we have the only Key to life and eternal life with Him!  There is none other!   

Joh 14:6  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

 

Acts 4:12  Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

 Why wouldn't we want others who are dead in their sins to also have the opportunity to know Jesus? Put another way, where would we be if someone took a cavalier and apathetic attitude towards reaching us if we were lost in our sin, and had no hope of salvation outside of knowing and accepting Jesus Christ?  It is like seeing someone about to walk off a cliff to their death, and just stand there and do nothing to try and prevent them from falling!  Or it is like seeing a burning building and doing nothing to see if there were people inside who needed rescuing!  Who would do that?  Sad to say that if we are not out witnessing or even attempting to, then we would have to honestly say that we fit the bill! Ouch!!

 Many years ago, I heard a testimony of a young woman who went to visit a friend of hers that was gravely ill and dying of Aids.  While I thought, Isn't that good, he would have a chance to get saved before it was too late.  Instead, astoundingly, she shared that she DIDN'T say anything to Him about salvation because it is something she just doesn't do.  I was so shocked I nearly fell off my chair!  So her friend died and in all likelihood slid into hell with no hope of escape because she didn't feel like witnessing to him? To this day, I can't understand it.  I wonder if she thought that someone else would come along and do the job she was most likely sent to do herself being that he was her friend.  Yet, to be honest, when I failed at witnessing when the opportunity was there, I've also excused myself and thought that someone else better equipped will do the job. 

What we may fail to realize is the depth of pain it causes our Heavenly Father, breaking His heart to see another soul He loves and died for, slip away into eternity without ever knowing Him.  He gave up His own Son to die a cruel death on the cross for that person, and He counts on us to bring them to Him!  They are already bought and paid for with His own blood!  But how will they know this unless we tell them?  And, how can we say that we love God, and do nothing for Him to bring the lost into His Loving arms?  Who will do this job?

What if your own beloved child loved someone so much that he substituted his own life in place of a condemned prisoner to set the undeserving prisoner free, and the prisoner remained in prison because no one ever told him that the price had been paid for his freedom, and he was pardoned?  And what if that prisoner died in jail never having a chance to be free?  Add that he died and went to hell?  This is what happens every time an unreached soul dies and slips into hell.  Their price has been paid for their freedom from sin, but they don't know that!  Who will tell them?  We can think of all kinds of excuses to NOT tell them, but it doesn't change the fact that they are dying and going to hell!

 Let's think about why Jesus came to earth in the first place.

 Luk 19:10  For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.

When Jesus work on earth was done, He passed on this commission (the Great Commission) to all of us who know Him, and have been redeemed (bought and paid for):

 Mar 16:15  And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

Mar 16:16  He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.

So the first thing we must do is realize that Jesus commanded us to evangelize.  He told us to "go." He is counting on us, and it breaks His heart every time a precious soul is lost. Let us not be like the woman who said "This is something I just don't do." Let's willingly go and obey the Lord's command out of love for Him and our fellow human beings. Let's take some time today and try to imagine being without the God of love in our life for even a minute.  Then imagine life without Him for an hour, a day, a week, a month, a year. Can you now begin to imagine an endless eternity without God, without any hope of salvation?

Breaching a Hedge of Protection

For some time now, I have been discovering that for many (not all) of the trials we suffer, rather than just think, "It's just a part of life," I believe that we may very well have left ourselves wide open to it. 

 One way we can do this is when we are not living holy lives (set apart for God's purposes), but have allowed corruption to enter into our lives.  In such cases, I believe we will leave ourselves open to some form of destruction outside of God's will for us. Sometimes cancer enters in, or some other sickness or disease. Sometimes the devourer will eat away our finances and we may lose a job or not be able to find one. With destruction and great loss comes fear and the constant worry of losing more, whether it be health, finances, or most importantly, people we love the most and care about.  The stress adds to the deterioration of our health, loss of finances, and relationships are affected.   The following can apply when we fail to honor what we have been given and entrusted with for God's purposes: 

 1Co 3:16  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

1Co 3:17  If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

We can pray for a hedge of protection, but this hedge is compromised when we have allowed sin to enter our lives and we have not repented of it.  When we are living sincere and holy lives (i.e. - willingly set apart for God and His purposes - given everything over to Him and obeying Him), His promises begin to take effect. He puts a hedge around us, our health, our finances, our future and our dreams.  We don't even have to ask for it.  If we look at Job, we see that God was pleased with him and had put a hedge of protection around him.  Satan noticed and challenged God: 

Job 1:8  And Jehovah said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job? for there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and turneth away from evil.

Job 1:9  Then Satan answered Jehovah, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?

Job 1:10  Hast not thou made a hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath, on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. 

Then we know that God gave permission to Satan to test Job severely in every area of his life, and this was a deeply painful and growing experience for Job. He lost everything, but then later he received twice as much as he had before after he had learned more about God than he had ever imagined! 

So did Job leave a door open to be tested like that?  Did he breach the hedge of protection somehow that Satan would notice him?  Some believe that he did.  Notice the following verse coming from Job's own lips: 

Job 3:25  For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.

Did Job leave a door open by the fear he confessed?  Why was Job tested and not another righteous man? We may also wonder why are we tested while others seem to be in perfect health and financially blessed? These are questions we cannot answer conclusively, but we can do everything possible to close the gate of our mind to thoughts that are not from God and that could lead us into fear and unbelief.  

When we leave open a door due to unconfessed sin, unbelief, and/or disobedience to God, are we still under the protection of the Lord?  If suddenly we find ourselves ill and there is no explanation, we can pray and ask God where we may have left ourselves unprotected.  If we lose a job we can ask God if we have been unfaithful to Him in our finances or unproductive in our work.  This is when we need to stay in the Word and obey what the Lord asks us specifically to do.  Without the Word we are open and vulnerable to attack.

Take notice of the following:

Psa 91:1  He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

Notice how it says "dwelleth" [dwell] and "abide."  When we are dwelling and abiding with God, He keeps us safe.  When we step outside of His protective wing, how can we experience the same covering unless someone else is constantly praying for us?

We need to also keep ourselves covered.  I think of Ephesians 6 where we are to be fully dressed in armour so the devil doesn't have an open spot to attack us.  How does he attack? Most often it is in our thought life where he will try and distract us from God and the truth of His Word. By making us fearful, it will lead us into unbelief, and he will always whisper to us in such a way that we will think these thoughts are real and they are our own!  So we must stay in the Word to be able to discern where these thoughts originate!

Eph 6:10  Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.

Eph 6:11  Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

Eph 6:12  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Eph 6:13  Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Eph 6:14  Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;

Eph 6:15  And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

Eph 6:16  Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

Eph 6:17  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

Eph 6:18  Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

If we do these things, does this mean nothing bad will happen to us? Of course not. We are guaranteed to go through trials.  It is all part of being a Christian to make us more like Christ: 

1Pe 1:7  That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: 

When we are tested and find ourselves in a hot furnace of testing, this is when we are made strong. We know we have come through it when we feel a renewed faith and strength we never had before in any given area where we were weak and faithless before.   

As well, in this world we will always have troubles and trials. But Jesus has overcome the world, the flesh and the devil. He has promised us that no good thing will he withhold from those who walk uprightly (Psalm 84:11).  I believe that it is when we leave ourselves open whether through unconfessed sin, fear and unbelief, or any questionable practices (grey areas), that we can experience troubles and trials above and beyond God's hedge of protection around us.  May we search our hearts today and allow God to reveal any areas that He has not endorsed or blessed.