My prayer is this, O Lord, open my eyes and let me see more of you! Open my ears and let me hear more of you! Open my mind and let me grow gracefully in the knowledge that is you! Open my heart and let me love as deeply as you! Guide my hands and let me serve more dutifully for you! Guide my feet and let me follow your paths of righteousness! I ask these things not just for me but anyone who is seeking to know you more intimately. These things I ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Every step of our Christian lives should remind us that we have an important relationship with our Father God, Creator and King of the Universe. Well, this reads great on paper and it sounds great in the pulpit! But what do we do with it?
Most of the time, each of us goes through this life completely unaware of our relationship with Him. We move from being joyful to being desperate based on the events in our lives. All these emotional highs and lows hide Him from us. Now, we could say this is the enemy's way to keep the Lord hidden from us and that satan keeps us on this emotional roller coaster. But come on now, sometimes it's just us and our flesh that keeps the Lord hidden behind a veil. Satan doesn't have to do a thing becasue we are doing a fine job of concealing God all by ourselves!
Well, then we have those brief "emotional" encounters. We may experience a hint of recognition of Him during church or during a conversation with another believer and for that moment we want more of Him.
O what disgraceful neglect! These brief 'emotional" encounters are unacceptable! We need to repent of the shameful neglect of yesterday and today where we didn't get into His word and we didn't pray and we didn't serve Him as we knew to do. So now as we breathe in and out, we must seek His face and ask His help to remember Him [at all times] and we must not neglect Him tomorrow or thereafter! When I say breathe in and out I'm thinking that without Him I'd have no breath. Perhaps I need to learn to be so focused on Him that I'm aware of each breath. For those of you that know, I had a really bad time with asthma these past few weeks and I now know more than ever before how precious each breath is.
Ephesians 5 17 tells us to be careful how we live. Don’t live like fools... Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. 18 Don’t be drunk but, be filled with the Holy Spirit, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to ourselves, and making music to the Lord in our hearts and to give thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I fall short in this area of giving thanks always and keeping Him in my heart by singing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. I bet you fall short, too! We have to make a conscience effort to acknowledge Him at all times. I will say it's easier to do than it used to be but I still have a ways to go.
Our main problem is this. We don’t really know who we are, our position or our duty! God desires a relationship with us 24-7, but we give him the scraps of our lives when it suits us.
Here are two examples where someone was begging for scraps:
Remember the Gentile woman from Mark 7? She said,” even the dogs under the table are allowed to eat the scraps from the children’s plates. Jesus was impressed with her words and with that her daughter was healed. Jesus represented the Father in all that He did. There is a spiritual message here. Jesus is impressing upon this Gentile woman that He was sent to feed the children— of His own family, the Jews. He said it isn’t right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs. But she waited for a scrap and ended up with a full meal.
In John 4, Jesus said to His disciples previously… I have a kind of food you know nothing about. He had to explain that His nourishment came from doing the will of God. In John 6, He says… I am the bread of life. So this woman got a spiritual meal and not the scraps, when Jesus restored her from an unclean demonic spirit. It wasn’t the given time for the Gentiles yet, but still the Father honored her and gave her the desire of Her heart. She was included in the kingdom at that moment because she believed and had faith.
Remember from Luke 16, how the rich man was in torment and desired that Lazarus dip his finger in water to cool his burning tongue? Could it be that the very thing he denied the poor man when they were both alive was the very measure of torment that he had to endure? The poor man’s hungry tongue became the rich man’s burning tongue. The Bible says that there was a certain rich man, clothed in purple and fine linen, who fared sumptuously every day and that Lazarus laid by his gate, covered with sores. He longed for scraps from the rich man’s table, but only the dogs would come and lick his open sores. The dogs were his only companions. But the angels carried Lazarus into Abraham’s bosom and the rich man went to hell. Lazarus was included among the righteous and I’m sure never hungered for food or companionship ever again.
In both instances, the woman and Lazarus only desired scraps but they ended up feasting at the Master’s table.
If God only gave us scraps that would be enough, but God gives us abundance in this life and we are so “rich” that we are unable to see His mercy and grace toward us. We have become haughty. Would you have the Lord begging for scraps? Would I? We say "no" but our actions many times prove us liars!
O, we say that's not fair! It's too strong a language! But, let's call an ace an ace. We are sometimes liars. We lie to ourselves. Do you remember waht group liars are included with in the Bible? Remember Revelation 21:8 8 “But cowards, unbelievers, the corrupt, murderers, the immoral, those who practice witchcraft, idol worshipers, and all liars—their fate is in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.” Have you lied to yourself thinking that you are safe because you professed belief in Jesus? Even the demons believe in Him to the point they know who He is, but is He their Lord and Savior? I think not! Stop this insanity! Stop lying to yourself! Check yourself and see if you really are a child of God and Jesus is your Lord and Savior.
The problem is we don’t know who we are.
So who are we?
· We are loved of God so much that He sent His Son to redeem us. (John 3: 16-17)
· We are to repent and believe to become children of God, to be adopted by Him. (Mark 1:15, John 15:15, Eph. 1 3-8)
· We are to receive the Holy Spirit. (John 20:22, 1 Cor. 6:17)
· We are to love one another. (John 15:12)
· We are Jesus’ friends. (John 15:15)
· We are sent out to make disciples and teach them. (Matthew 28:18-20)
· We are ambassadors of Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:20)
· We are priests and kings. (Revelations 5:10)
This list is just the beginning… We must read and follow him to find out more and more of whom God made us to be. We must think about the responsibility we have been given.
We need to remember…
John 15: 18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. 19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. 20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. 21 But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin. 23 He that hateth me hateth my Father also. 24 If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father. 25 But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause. 26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: 27 and ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.
Let’s stop giving Jesus the scraps. He is the King of kings.
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