HAVING JOY IN BELIEVING
I send greetings in the name of Jesus:
What do we do when we don't feel like obeying God? It isn't that God has left us alone in our struggles to do his will, he wants to come alongside of us and be with in us to help us. The thing that we need to realize is that God helps us want to obey him and then he gives us the power to do what he wants us to do. In the book of Philippians 2:14-16 Paul writes about doing everything we do without complaining or arguing, and he said we do that so that we may become blameless and pure as children of God; being without fault in a crooked and depraved generation so that we as representatives of God our father can shine like stars in the universe as we hold out the word of life from Christ.
There is something that is very important for us to realize, and that is if all people know about a church is what they hear the people say, and see what the people do it will also represent all that people know about God, your faith, and the truth about Jesus Christ whom you say you have made your personal savior. No matter if we like it or not this world views the truth of our message and are witness in Christ through the ways we act and the things we say to one another even before the judge the truth about our life in Christ or the reality of what God's word is saying to them. Paul had contentment as he wrote these words to the church in Philippi that even if he had to die he knew that he had helped the Philippians live for Christ. It is that kind of total commitment to serving Christ that causes one to sacrifice self in order to build the faith of others; and that should bring joy and reward to our hearts.
It is when I began to realize that it is the kind of joy in serving others before serving myself that Christ was really trying to teach the disciples in the upper room by washing their feet, then I can understand my own role in the church so much better. Paul saw that most believers are too preoccupied with their own needs to spend time doing work for Christ. We cannot let her schedules and our concerns crowd out our Christian service to love and serve others. Paul was in prison at the time that he wrote this letter to the Philippians, and he would send Timothy to them with the news and that he was ready to accept whatever the verdict was that came. There can be great joy in believing in Jesus Christ as your Savior, but eventually a decision will have to be made in your life as to what you put your hearts desire and confidence in for life. Philippians 3:1-11 "finally my brothers, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilated of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Jesus Christ, and who put no confidence in flesh; though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put competence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. But whatever was my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for those whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ; the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain the resurrection from the dead." This passage of Scripture tells me a lot about the competence that Paul could have in the flesh because of his position in the Jewish faith, and under the laws of Moses.
This passage also tells me of the great importance that Paul put in his relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ from the time he was called on the road to Damascus until this very point when writing to the church of the Philippians from his jail cell and awaiting a death sentence. There are many who are in the church today who are trying to do the work for God in the flesh, but who are quickly finding then without God's anointing of the Holy Spirit at work in our lives we are also bound in a jail cell much in the same way Paul was. We cannot be effective in Christ without God's Spirit leading and controlling our lives, and that means a total and complete control of what we do and say throughout our day's activities. For me in particular it means that my day is filled with divine appointments that are governed and scheduled by God's Holy Spirit in my life. I have absolutely no idea from day to day or from moment to moment what God is going to call me to. While that lack of control on my part has been very difficult for me to adjust to I am finding within this world it is the only way that my heart and mind can find peace. With God in charge I have a piece that passes all of my understanding of life, and I have greater joy because I have been totally persuaded that Jesus is able to keep what I have committed to him against the day when I shall meet him face-to-face. May you richly bless God through your life in him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
What do we do when we don't feel like obeying God? It isn't that God has left us alone in our struggles to do his will, he wants to come alongside of us and be with in us to help us. The thing that we need to realize is that God helps us want to obey him and then he gives us the power to do what he wants us to do. In the book of Philippians 2:14-16 Paul writes about doing everything we do without complaining or arguing, and he said we do that so that we may become blameless and pure as children of God; being without fault in a crooked and depraved generation so that we as representatives of God our father can shine like stars in the universe as we hold out the word of life from Christ.
There is something that is very important for us to realize, and that is if all people know about a church is what they hear the people say, and see what the people do it will also represent all that people know about God, your faith, and the truth about Jesus Christ whom you say you have made your personal savior. No matter if we like it or not this world views the truth of our message and are witness in Christ through the ways we act and the things we say to one another even before the judge the truth about our life in Christ or the reality of what God's word is saying to them. Paul had contentment as he wrote these words to the church in Philippi that even if he had to die he knew that he had helped the Philippians live for Christ. It is that kind of total commitment to serving Christ that causes one to sacrifice self in order to build the faith of others; and that should bring joy and reward to our hearts.
It is when I began to realize that it is the kind of joy in serving others before serving myself that Christ was really trying to teach the disciples in the upper room by washing their feet, then I can understand my own role in the church so much better. Paul saw that most believers are too preoccupied with their own needs to spend time doing work for Christ. We cannot let her schedules and our concerns crowd out our Christian service to love and serve others. Paul was in prison at the time that he wrote this letter to the Philippians, and he would send Timothy to them with the news and that he was ready to accept whatever the verdict was that came. There can be great joy in believing in Jesus Christ as your Savior, but eventually a decision will have to be made in your life as to what you put your hearts desire and confidence in for life. Philippians 3:1-11 "finally my brothers, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilated of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Jesus Christ, and who put no confidence in flesh; though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put competence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. But whatever was my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for those whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ; the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain the resurrection from the dead." This passage of Scripture tells me a lot about the competence that Paul could have in the flesh because of his position in the Jewish faith, and under the laws of Moses.
This passage also tells me of the great importance that Paul put in his relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ from the time he was called on the road to Damascus until this very point when writing to the church of the Philippians from his jail cell and awaiting a death sentence. There are many who are in the church today who are trying to do the work for God in the flesh, but who are quickly finding then without God's anointing of the Holy Spirit at work in our lives we are also bound in a jail cell much in the same way Paul was. We cannot be effective in Christ without God's Spirit leading and controlling our lives, and that means a total and complete control of what we do and say throughout our day's activities. For me in particular it means that my day is filled with divine appointments that are governed and scheduled by God's Holy Spirit in my life. I have absolutely no idea from day to day or from moment to moment what God is going to call me to. While that lack of control on my part has been very difficult for me to adjust to I am finding within this world it is the only way that my heart and mind can find peace. With God in charge I have a piece that passes all of my understanding of life, and I have greater joy because I have been totally persuaded that Jesus is able to keep what I have committed to him against the day when I shall meet him face-to-face. May you richly bless God through your life in him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
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