Information and Obedience

I think one of the reasons we disobey God is that we are convinced that we know better than He does.  We choose not to obey because we don’t think that God understands the consequences, that He doesn’t know what will happen if we do what He says.  We choose not to forgive because we think He doesn’t know how badly we’re hurt.  We choose not to give because He doesn’t understand our needs.

 

Let me assure you, He knows.

 

God knows what our obedience will cost us.  He understands that when Jesus said to “take up our cross daily and follow Him,” that humiliation and death were the likely outcomes.  He also knows the glory that will be revealed in us for the eternity we are made for.  He is, in fact, the only one with all the answers.  He is the One who knows that if you obey now, He can guide you around the pain later.  Examples?  He knows that adultery destroys lives, so He commands that certain things belong only between a husband and wife, and only after they are married.  Is it hard?  Yes.  Will we face ridicule?  Yes.  Will we have to detach from some of our surrounding culture to not even allow opposing messages into our lives and our families?  Yes. 

Another example?  Marriage is a relationship based on God’s love for His people.  It requires trust, commitment, and self-sacrifice.  So He directs His people to only marry those who are His people, because the foundation between them must be established as His word?  Do some people have lovely stories of marrying unbelievers and seeing them saved?  Yes.  Because God is able to use all things, even our own sin, to bring people to Him.

Another example?  Lies destroy, we’re told to be truthful, even if it is difficult.  We’re told to honor God with our minds, and then find that education is the key to our futures.  We’re told to assemble together to encourage, and then we realize that all those hours at church have built relationships that are there  for us in crisis.  The list could go on and on and on….

 

God knows our pain, yet forgives us!  Reread the story of the crucifixion, and understand that our paintings and art about the cross protect our sensitivities.  When the soldiers gamble for the 5^th garment of Jesus, that was His last stitch of clothing.  The cross was the most humiliating, painful way of death imaginable.  And to what end?  To have people over the years, including us, to treat it lightly.  Yet there is still forgiveness for us.  Have you been hurt more than Jesus?  Doubtful.  Can you forgive?  If you have Him as Lord.  Will you still hurt?  Possibly so, but be assured your eternity is settled with One who knows your hurt.

 

God knows our needs, yet still calls on us to give.  Give to those who need help, give to provide for His work, give to missions, give here, there, everywhere.  And not just our money, but our time and our efforts.  It’s not easy sometimes, but He does know our need.  Just as He feeds the sparrows and clothes the flowers of the fields, still He provides for us.  What activates His provision is His faithfulness and our obedience.  If we are obedient to Him, He will be faithful to meet what we need.  Does this spawn a long conversation about what we need?  Certainly.  But those things that are true needs will be met if we are faithful to Him.

 

Bro. Doug Hibbard

Calvary Baptist Church

calvarybaptistmonticello.blogspot.com

 

From Dr. Turner's Blog

Once again, today I thought we'd look at Dr. Turner's weekly blog posting.


Weblog: Emil Turner | Arkansas Baptist State Convention

Weblog: Emil Turner

Vice Masquerading as Virtue

In the early 7th century an Irish monk wrote the Aipgitir Chrabaid or “Alphabet of Devotion”. This book would have been used in monasteries in Ireland and would have worked its way into sermon material for monks and itinerant preachers. It is one of the earliest documents in the Irish language. One section is powerfully relevant today.

“It is proper that we do not let vices beguile us in the guise of the virtues”, wrote Colman mac Beognai. Bulls-eye! Counterfeit virtue is circulating widely. This monk wrote that:

* Laziness (laxity) takes the disguise of compassion. Doing nothing looks more holy than opposing sin. We can always say we are “waiting on the Lord”.
* Severity takes the guise of righteousness. Being mean is a poor substitute for being holy.
* Fear takes the guise of humility. We are not humble if fear makes us act that way.
* Stinginess takes the guise of caution and moderation. No one wants to be known as stingy, so we’d rather be thought of as cautious and careful with our money.
* Wastefulness takes the guise of generosity. Real generosity occurs only with what remains after you’ve met obligations.
* Anger takes the guise of “zeal for the Lord”. If a person is always upset and angry about what others are doing, keep your distance.
* Instability takes the guise of flexibility. When you have no convictions about what you are doing, it is easy to be flexible.

What is impressive about this brief essay of medieval Christianity is that it is so relevant today. Counterfeit holiness is external and not internal, and often appears to be more religious than genuine holiness.

Holiness comes from the heart. And God is never fooled about it.

Challenges

Yesterday I was blessed to see the movie “Fireproof.”  It’s not out yet, and as yet, is not slated to come to Monticello.  This is a wonderful film, and I would like to encourage anyone who can to see it when it comes out September 26^th!  Let’s get it in the top 10.

 

If you are in Monticello, the only way I have heard to force Malco to bring it here is to commit to buying 1000 tickets.  That’s about $7000, and I don’t have that much.  So, if we could each respectfully call the theater manager and ask for it, that may do the trick.  Especially if we pray and ask God to do this! 

 

More thoughts from the film later…

 

Bro. Doug Hibbard

Calvary Baptist Church

calvarybaptistmonticello.blogspot.com

 

Kittens

We now have 7 kittens in our house. We're probably going to name them after Memphis landmarks, since they moved down here with us from there. They're so cute and helpless.

Reminds me of me somedays. Not cute, but helpless. In desperate need of having God provide for me, meet my needs for security and provision. You know, I think the days that I start like that turn out to be my best ones.

Parenting Perceptions

Anonymous said...

I have a question....I am the father of an 8 year-old and sometimes I think I'm a very good parent and other times I believe that I am a complete failure.....why is that?
I think I just answered it myself!!

I would respond to Anonymous with this answer: The evaluation of your parenting is whether you are being faithful to God's word and His direction. You cannot judge yourself to being doing well or poorly based on your own thoughts or by comparing to other children. Ask yourself these things:
1. Am I personally seeking God's word to guide my own life?
2. Am I praying daily for my child/
3. Am I striving to train my child in God's word?
4. Am I lovingly correcting my child in errors and lovingly encouraging my child in right decisions?
5. Am I willing to ask God's forgiveness for all my sins, and to acknowledge my need to do so to my child?

Will you always answer yes? Somedays you will consider yourself doing well on all of these, somedays you will feel like a total failure. However, I would encourage you to look across the lifetime of your child. If your child is 8, then you've had 2922 days or 70128 hours. While you want to make the most of each, don't think that one bad day will undo all of those. And realize that you will be a lifetime influence on your child.

But...

The man woke up, and looked at the clock, and told his wife he was going back to sleep.

His wife said, but, dear, it's Sunday, we need to go to church.

He told her he wasn't going, because nobody liked him there, and everyone was mean.  Besides, the sermons were bad and the music boring.

She said you're going, and that's final.  

He asked for two good reasons.

She said:

1.  It's good for you.

2.  You're the pastor.....

Where did Cain get his wife?

The question has been raised, Where did Cain get his wife?

To answer the question, Cain married his sister. The reason that we all are taught to avoid marrying close relatives is because of the probability of passing on genetic mutations. At the time of Cain, the number of mutations being carried was much lower, so there was no reason to prohibit the close marriages. These became unlawful in the time of the Law, around 1500 B.C. When you read through Genesis, you see several marriages that are to near relatives, like cousins.

The Bible doesn’t directly say where Cain got his wife because it is fairly obvious. If Adam and Eve had other sons and daughters (which they did, see Gen. 5), these were the only other people on earth.

Bro. Doug Hibbard

Calvary Baptist Church--Loving, Sharing, and Serving

http://calvarybaptistmonticello.blogspot.com