Commitment or Convenience

Convenience or Commitment?
Everybody loves the football team when they are winning; but what happens during the times when the team is losing. Where do the “fair weather” fans go? All things are tried by fire. When tough times come, the truth comes out whether people are doing things just out of convenience or out of commitment. Similar to the sports fan situation, the test of following Jesus is not what is said, such as “Lord, Lord” but what a person does, especially when it is inconvenient.
Jesus strongly stated, “whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.” This seems completely unreasonable and undesireable to our flesh. However, in over 2/3 of the countries of the world, people who accept Jesus Christ are brutally persecuted and often killed today. Why does God require so much? Deeds not words show the faith of a person. When a person is willing to lay down or sacrifice that which is in his hands, he demonstrates a step of faith that trusts God does care and will, in fact, meet his needs. Why was Jesus thrilled at the widow who gave her last two mites or the woman who freely applied the costly spikenard to Jesus? Both demonstrated the kind of love for God that gives all.
The same is true about Christian education. When a person has enough money to afford Christian education and still keep all the comforts and conveniences he has become accustomed to, then it is easy to enroll the children in XYZ Christian School and declare God has led them to Christian education. However, the test comes when the money for tuition isn’t there. Has God lead the same person to Christian education when times are hard and in order to provide for Christian school it might be necessary to not have a high-definition TV, cable, or cell phones, or a new car, or many other modern-day “necessities.” Where is the Biblical spirit that one swears to his own hurt (Psalm 15:4) or is willing to give all to obey the Lord? One parent recently shared that she and her husband had to re-prioritize their lifestyle an make some choices including continue to drive an older car so their sons could be taught and trained at CedarWood. In other words, they were willing to do whatever it takes to not compromise the godly mandate to raise up children in the instruction and correction of the Lord.
The love of money is the root of all evil. It is amazing how many times the real issue is money that causes our reasoning to change. Most of us know that God instructs parents in the word to “bring up children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4) and to be careful to “see that no one makes a prey of you through the philosophy and traditions of man” (Colossians 2:8) rather than obeying Christ. Yet, when the choice is between “free” public education and the cost (and sacrifices required) to have tuition for a Biblical education based on truth and love, the thoughts and intents of the heart are revealed. And unfortunately, often the world and its desires win. We rationalize that our strong Christian home will compensate for the ungodly influence of worldly thinking that our children will be exposed to for 8 hours a day. The Barna survey organization reports even young people who are from Christian families that participate regularly in Sunday church services and at least one extra meeting a week are greatly affected. 87% of these young people will have lost their faith by the time they finish public education.
The tragedy is that many people have been so thoroughly affected by the world and the desire for comfort, success, and convenience that they are unaware that the world controls their decisions. Yet James 4:4 states “friendship with the world is enmity with God.” Enmity means mutual hatred. Obeying God is not negotiable. You cannot serve two masters.

Never Be Afraid of God Again

There is a special quality in the heart of man that pleases God so much He literally calls it His treasure. Because of this desired characteristic, God promises some amazing and unparalleled blessings:
no want (psalm 34:9),
He will teach in the way He chooses (Psalm 25:12),
the eye of the Lord is upon him (Psalm 33:18),
a fountain of life to turn one away from the snares of death (Proverbs 14:26)
strong confidence, and His children will have a place of refuge (Proverbs 14:27),
the angel of the Lord encamps all around him (Psalm 33:7),
the secret of the Lord, a sharing of intimate covenant relationship (Psalm 25:14),
the compassion of a father toward his children (Psalm 103:13),
an everlasting to everlasting mercy upon him, and righteousness to grandchildren (Psalm 103:17),
He will be their help and shield (Psalm 115:11),
motivation and ability to depart from evil (Proverbs 16:16),
a person’s days will be prolonged (Proverbs 10:27),
leads to life, and he who has it will abide in satisfaction, he will not be visited with evil (Proverbs 19:23),
riches, honor, and life (Proverbs 22:4).

Many people have probably guessed this must be the rewards for loving whole-heartedly or walking in righteousness or practicing forgiveness. However, this heart attribute that is God’s pleasure is the fear of the Lord.
How can this be? Learning to not be afraid of God is one of the greatest comforts that comes from experiencing His great love, for perfect love casts out fear. Therefore, it is almost inconceivable for many people that God would want his people to learn fear. However, before we reject this concept, it behooves us to examine what the Scripture is talking about and understand what this heart quality truly is.

From the Bible definition in Proverbs 8:13, “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way And the perverse mouth I hate.” God is seeking to transform the heart of fallen man to have the same hatred of pride, sin, and evil that He has. It seems to start with an awareness of how great, how compassionate, how totally good God is. Psalm 33:8 speaks of His greatness of His creation and wisdom and instructs that “all the world stand in awe of Him”

However, the concept is much more than perceiving His majesty and reverencing Him. There is something supernatural about having this reality because in Psalm 25 God himself promises to teach the fear of the Lord to those who are willing. Proverbs 2 declares that those who seek and desire God whole-heartedly will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. We are instructed to choose the fear of the Lord in Proverbs 1:29 by His showing what happens when this choosing is absent.

God is so good. He desires such a tenderness toward Him that we are one with His heart and love. Fear of the Lord is that internal specialness of our relationship that causes us to hate anything that would lessen or harm this incredible closeness and union with Life and Love Himself. We walk humbly because in our heart of hearts there is such gratefulness to be chosen to be His, a revelation of His character, and such longing to respond to His love in a complete pleasing way. Therefore, take time to ask and let Him teach you and cradle you in the fear of the Lord, enjoy incredible blessings and benefits, and never be afraid of God again.

Man's Pride vs God's Direction

All things will be tried by fire according to 1 Corinthians 3:13. How do we know what will be precious and lasting to the end and what will burn up? We know according to Hebrews 4 that God's word is able to discern the thoughts and motives of the heart, but even that isn't foolproof, because how many thousands of people claiming to follow the word differ or do foolish things? The answer has to be to get a confirmation from the author to find out what He meant. Unless we lay down our thoughts and take some specific time and attention to let the Holy Spirit teach and guide us, we will still just interpret the word in our own perspective or prejudices. 

Why does God promise incredible blessings upon those who wait on the Lord? Man is so proud. Everyone seems to think they know what the government should do, what the pastor needs to do, what is wrong with the boss, where our parents are wrong, where our spouse is selfish, etc. We even think we know what God should do. So many times our correcting someone else is just pride. God does give us the right to correct others in Galatians 6, but with humbleness and weeping. The question is "Do you want to let God direct you? (Why did Jesus ask "Do you want to be healed?"?) Then humble yourself to honestly admit you can't direct your own life and the specific thing you are concerned about, and ask Him to lead you. Then wait...be still...listen...wait...be still...listen...until you know the next step He is directing. Then...do it.