Offended By God

From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. (John 6:66, NIV)

I have heard it said that God will offend the mind to reveal the heart. Some truths are hard to receive, hard to believe, or hard to live out. This is because we try to do it in our own understanding or strength. What is offensive to the natural man, God will supernaturally enable us to walk out. His revelations bypass our natural understanding and go directly to our spirits. Our natural understanding must then catch up.

These disciples in the beginning verse were offended by what Jesus said to them. Their response was to walk away.

Without humility we cannot walk with the Lord. To one Jesus said, “If you believe,” to which the man replied, “I believe Lord, please help my unbelief.”

Offence on the other hand hardens our hearts towards God and others. Sometimes we are offended by the Word of God, sometimes by the actions of God, and sometimes by what we deem as the inactivity of God. “Lord, if You had been here my brother would not have died.” “Lord, do you not care that we are all about to drown?” Many times in His earthly ministry Jesus was accused of not caring or challenged to prove He was Who He said He was, or condemned for saying Who He was.

Has God ever offended you? Has He ever disappointed you? Has He ever let something happen that really tied you in a knot? First of all, remember God does not cause bad, evil, sin, etc, but He is well able to use it for His purposes. Has He not done what you think He should have done? “How could You let this happen Lord?” I think it is ok to ask God questions, but it is not ok to accuse or question Him.

Has He called you to something hard or difficult? Has a bad thing happened? Has He revealed something to you about yourself that is hard to accept? Has He shown you truth in His Word and You believe something opposite of it? Has He allowed you to be humiliated? Has He not revealed something to you that you thought you should have been notified of?

We could go on and on, but the question before us now is how should we respond to God when He offends us? I would say with humility, with knowing we don’t know all the facts, with knowing that He cares, that His love and intent towards us is pure, with knowing that there is a bigger picture than the one we see.

We naturally care more for what concerns us rather than being concerned about the things that concern God. He is inviting us to a higher place, a supernatural place where only His grace can take us.

It the place where He heals our wounds and disappointments and enables us to fully trust Him. A place where we come to a point where we can cry out "Lord, give me a heart that breaks for the things that break yours."

T.R.U.S.T.

“Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act.” (Ps 37:5, ESV)

Sometimes seeing a scripture in a version of the Bible you don’t usually read it in can give you a fresh perspective. I really am taken by the simplicity of the above verse. It leaves nothing to chance, nothing to conjecture, and nothing to wonder about. It leaves us room only to be in wonder. It is simple, crisp, and full of meaning.

Some years ago I came across the following from Days of Heaven Upon Earth:

April 11. "Commit Thy Way unto the Lord" (Ps. xxxvii. 5)

Days of Heaven Upon Earth — Rev. A. B. Simpson "Commit thy way unto the Lord" (Ps. xxxvii.5). Seldom have we heard a better definition of faith than was given once in one of our meetings by a dear old colored woman, as she answered the question of a young man how to take the Lord for needed help. In her characteristic way, pointing her finger toward him, she said with great emphasis: "You've just got to believe that He's done it, and it's done." The great danger with most of us is, that after we ask Him to do it, we do not believe that it's done, but we keep on helping Him, and getting others to help Him; superintending God and waiting to see how He is going to do it. Faith adds its amen to God's yea, and then takes its hands off, and leaves God to finish His work. Its language is, "Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in Him; and He worketh." Lord, I give up the struggle, To Thee commit my way, I trust Thy word forever, And settle it all to-day.

When I saw the words "Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in Him, and He worketh", it really caught my attention because of the way it was worded. It comes down to trust, having faith. I would believe the opposite true also, if we don’t commit, don't trust, He doesn’t work.

The Good News Translation of the Bible words this verse as follows: “Give yourself to the Lord; trust in him, and he will help you;”

Take some time and ponder on this today and ask God how it fits into your life.

"Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in Him, and He worketh"

Relearning How To Walk

A NEW WAY OF WALKING

¹⁷This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk (live) as the rest of the Gentiles walk (live), in the futility (perverseness, depravity) of their mind, ¹⁸ having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; ¹⁹ who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

REQUIRES A NEW WAY OF THINKING

²⁰ But you have not so learned Christ, ²¹ if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: ²² that you put off, concerning your former conduct (walk), the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, ²³ and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, ²⁴ and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

RESULTING IN A NEW WAY OF RELATING

²⁵ Therefore, putting away lying, Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. ²⁶ Be angry, and do not sin: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, ²⁷ nor give place to the devil. ²⁸ Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. ²⁹ Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. ³⁰ And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. ³¹ Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. ³² And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.

A NEW WAY OF WALKING REQUIRES A NEW WAY OF THINKING RESULTING IN A NEW WAY OF RELATING

 

Grace or Pretense - More Than I Really Am (Part 1)

Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.  (Mt 23:28, NKJV)

We do love to project an image, usually an image that is better than we really are.  When asked how we are doing we will usually respond with “Good”  or

“Fine”. We not only like to be ‘put together’ when we go out in public, we want to look better than in actuality we really are. This also leaks over into what we would consider to be the spiritual aspects of our lives.

We will seldom correct someone if they think we are more spiritual than we really are, pray more than we really do, spend more time with the Lord than we really do, read or study the Bible more than we really do, love more than we really do, care more than we really do, or have it together more than we really do.

We would never want our hearts to be fully revealed, our intentions to be fully known, or our motives be fully displayed. We like to appear better than we really are.  Hypocrisy is play acting, pretending to be something we are really not.  It is  trying to pull something over on the other person, so they will not see us as we really are.  Hypocrisy is void of humility and honesty.

Philip Yancy says in What's So Amazing About Grace?

There are only two alternatives to hypocrisy: perfection or honesty. Since I've never met a person who loves the Lord our God with all his heart, mind and soul, and loves his neighbor as himself, I do not view perfection as a realistic alternative. Our only option, then, is honesty that leads to repentance. By definition, grace must be received, and hypocrisy disguises our need to receive grace. When the masks fall, hypocrisy is exposed as an elaborate ruse to avoid grace.

 

In my post Thought of As Wise I wrote so who doesn’t like to be thought of as more spiritual than they really are? Or more holy? Or more connected to God? Or wiser? Or more learned? We could go on, but I am sure we all get the point. I don’t know how it goes in your life, but in mine, when people get those kind of notions about me, they only have to hang with me a short time to get over them.

 

Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.

(Ro 12:9,  NKJV)

Words That Stick To Your Ribs

“ … and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil.”  (Proverbs 16:6)
 

I got off work one day and decided to visit a friend at his office before going home.  As I walked in, he looked at me intently and asked “Did you live in the fear of God today?”

Don’t you hate conversations that start out that way?  I mean like the conversation is not going to get better for you at this point, it is only going to get progressively worse!      I know...right?

I very wisely said nothing for a few minutes.  I thought about the question and about my activities and responses of the day.  I finally said, “Based upon some of my responses today, I would have to say no.”

My friend, who is still watching me, then says, “Proverbs 16:6 says the fear of the Lord will keep you from evil.”

Isn’t it funny how a simple conversation can stick with you over the years?  This was a profound truth for my life.  The Amplified Bible puts it like this:

“and by the reverent, worshipful fear of the Lord men depart from and avoid evil.”

Living in the fear of God will help us get out of and even avoid becoming entangled in sin.  If we find ourselves responding in an ungodly manner, or drawn into a sin, then we can know that we are not living in the fear of God.  Living in the fear of God has to do with our view of God Himself and our relation to Him.  It has to do with obedience out of love, humility, submission, and believing that God’s way is always the best way.

I am not talking about the terror of the Lord.  That has to do with judgment.  I am talking about the fear of the Lord which has to do with love, respect, and the recognition of true wisdom.

When we truly believe that God wants what is best for us, then we will realize that His Word is what is really best for us also.

It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The time

There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death. (Prov 14:12, NASB)

 

Don’t you sometimes wish there were “do overs” in life. There are more than a few things in my life that I wish I had the opportunity to not do. How many of life’s ouchies are followed by the words “it seemed like a good idea at the time”?

I came across the following quote at some point in time:

“If the whole human race lay in one grave, the epitaph on its headstone might well be: "It seemed a good idea at the time." (Dame Rebecca West, Irish-born author and journalist, 1892-1983)

Wow, is that true or what! There are so many things in life that seem ok to us, that would seemingly cause no real harm, yet God says that our unguided ideas are going to get us in trouble.

We find it easy to admit that children need guidance to keep them from trouble, but we would like to think that as adults we are intelligent enough and have enough common sense and wisdom to make right decisions based upon what we believe to be right and wrong.

God says that human wisdom is faulty. It is distorted by our natural perception, which is not based upon God’s perception. We need someone wiser than us, who knows the end form the beginning, to guide us. I lived a lot of my life without God’s guidance, doing what seemed right to me...I was wrong. Our basic nature is self seeking and denies God His rightful place. We can make our plans, scheme, connive, and do everything we think is right and still die separated from God.

The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord, the recognizing and giving to God His rightful place. We must realize that our human wisdom is faulty and we need the mind of Christ to guide us. True life is only found through Jesus Christ. Every way that seems right to man will lead only to death. There is only one way and that is God’s way.

I have now lived a lot of my life with God’s guidance, choosing His way over my way. That has worked a LOT better…