How Or Is It Still The Central Duty of Man?

And the Lord said to Moses, “I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. Afterward he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will surely drive you out of here altogether. ² Speak now in the hearing of the people, and let every man ask from his neighbor and every woman from her neighbor, articles of silver and articles of gold.” ³ And the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people.  Then Moses said, “Thus says the Lord: ‘About midnight I will go out into the midst of Egypt;and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the female servant who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the animals. Then there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as was not like it before, nor shall be like it again.  But against none of the children of Israel shall a dog move its tongue, against man or beast, that you may know that the Lord does make a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.’ And all these your servants shall come down to me and bow down to me, saying, ‘Get out, and all the people who follow you!’ After that I will go out.” Then he went out from Pharaoh in great anger. But the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh will not heed you, so that My wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.” So Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh; and the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the children of Israel go out of his land. - Exodus 11:1-10

If we were to keep reading and go all the way into Exodus 12 we would see that the writer, actually, God the Father, the author, had a singular point. The focus is on obedience. God spoke, some people heard and did what God said. As a result, God used them in His plan at that time in history.

If you read the whole of the story you see that God knew in advance what use silver and gold would be put to when the new nation arrived at Mount Sinai out in the desert. God already had something in mind. No one could have imagined it, the Tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting where the Israelites would meet in close proximity with the awesome holy God who had delivered them.

God, in this section is telling the people to gather silver and gold. At this point, God didn't tell them why they would need those precious metals. He just said, "Ask for them," and they did. It's called obedience. And, if we elongate the communication, from God to Moses and Aaron to the people we realize obedience takes faith.

This should encourage us! 

In the story, earlier, we read about Moses' bad day. The ex-shepherd was under the gun, snarled at by the Pharaoh and thoroughly hated by the Hebrew leadership. But now we read that he was "greatly esteemed" in Egypt by the Egyptians. From the court of Pharaoh on down to the man on the street, people were saying, "Now there's a great man."

Do you know why that was true? Because Moses stood, even when it was all alone, and trusted God (he obeyed). For this the Lord gave him favor in all their eyes. The Lord delights to do that. 

When a man's ways are pleasing to the LORD, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. - Proverbs 16:7 

We see that borne out yet again in this amazing development.

We have a grace problem today. We somehow believe that love and grace, covering a multitude of sin also means there is no consequence for a lack of obedience. The Apostle Paul, having to deal with this with the Roman Christians (Romans 6:1,2 in Wilson's vernacular)) asked, "Dudes! Should we sin because it allows grace to cover even MORE & BIGGER disobedience to God? Really? Seriously? Are you out of your minds? We have been resurrected from sins power! Don't be stupid!" 

We forget that last part...we've died to sin. We live and thrive and have a heaven's vision for the power of obedience to God. That is what there is to remember. We love Him so much we "get" that His love for us always provides massive, powerful, Holy Spirit energized results. Ya! Let's do that whole obedience thing!

Be obedient may be the very word you need from the Lord today. Perhaps at work you have come to an impasse; there's an issue of integrity at stake, and you've determined not to compromise. It might be an issue between you and a brother in Christ where love must win the day. Perhaps in your stand for Christ, you find that you are resented by someone close to you. Just know that if you handle your situation as an obedient son, God will see to it that in the eyes of those who are now your enemies, you will one day be esteemed. They will respect your stand because you are standing alone, doing what is right. Regardless of whether they do or do not in this life, you will have your reward and frankly a "God-sized" reward can't be matched!

I remain...

InHISGrip,
  ~J~

Perhaps The Rarest of The Graces - Certainly My Greatest Challenge

Patience is Art Within Created Daily

Working with women and children, in a  community that houses as many as 36 you are faced with many, many opportunities to practice God's level of the grace we call patience.

No one at The Kingdom Center Oxnard (www.tkcoxnard.org) believe's a simple prayer provides you with the amount of patience you will need for that day. This is true of the staff, our volunteers and the women and children in our transitional living facility (From Homelessness to Hope!). 

Perhaps you've uttered that simple prayer. It is what I call "The American's Prayer." Perhaps you have quoted it often...it goes: 

Lord, give me patience and Father I want it right now!

Patience is elevated in the Scriptures in what my friend Chuck Swindoll calls the and-so-forth section of Galatians 5. You know how we quote that passage . . . "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, and-so-forth." That lazy habit has caused a very important series of virtues to become forgotten. 

Allow me to quote Galatians 5:22-24 in its entirety:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.  And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Notice, please, the fourth on the list. Long-suffering is, in our language, patience. If we look at the original greek term used here it is MAKROTHUMIA. It is a compound word. MAKROS means "long or far," and THUMOS means "hot, anger, or wrath." Putting it together, we come up with "long-anger." You've heard the English expression, "short-tempered"? Well, I suppose we could coin an expression for patience, long-tempered. That would be pretty accurate based on what the Apostle Paul was attempting to express. 

This Greek term isn't used of patience in regard to things or events It's about people. The Christian patriarch Chrysostom defined MAKROTHUMIA as the spirit which could take revenge if it liked, but utterly refuses to do so. I find that this characteristic is a needed quality for the pastor of a flock. Listen to the Lord's counsel to me as a Christian minister:

Giving no cause for offense in anything, so that the ministry will not be discredited, but in everything commending ourselves as servants of God, in much endurance, . . . in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness. - 2 Corinthians 6:3-4, 6

If you attempt to lead people and lack this characteristic, this grace,  you are driven to frustration, irritability, and severity. The result in a workplace is that everyone works in fear of forms of retribution and begin to acclimate their own management styles to mirror those of the boss. In a home there is little peace and virtually no joy without God's amazing gift, patience. 

But there is more. 

Jesus modeled patience and through the power of the Holy Spirit we are to emulate it as His finished work on the Cross empowered us to do so.  Without that work, you cannot walk in a manner worthy of your calling (Ephesians 4:1-2; Colossians 3:12). And you are to demonstrate it wherever you go and whatever you do (1 Thessalonians 5:14). Patience, as it turns out, is a by-product of  the love we have at our disposal (1 Corinthians 13:4).

In the Bible the character Job gets the nod as the great man of patience. He didn't, I am sure, come into patience instantly. Though I do not have the verses to validate this I am dead sure that he learned typically not to bargain with God for the gift of patience. I'm pretty confident that this is a 20th/21st Century construction.  

What's funny is that the word patience doesn't appear in the book of Job - check for yourself. James 5:11, however, makes a remark about the "patience (endurance and steadfastness in other versions) of Job" and we know from that comment that he was one who was patient.

Well, all of this does beg the question as to just how did Job obtain patience? The secret is found in the original term in James 5:11, which is HUPOMONE. It means "to abide under." Ah! Job rested and endured under his personal load of suffering. He determined that he would "abide under" the weight of his mountain of affliction.  The result was patience. As the multiple coatings of self-will, phony pride, stubbornness, and resentment were worn off, patience formed - like the purifying process of raw gold. 

Job was the example of the New Testament teaching of Paul who said trials and tribulations bring about patience and perseverance within us (Romans 5:3-4).

Today, rather than view all that life tosses your way as bad luck; instead of resenting someone else's good fortune and mocking God in your trials, see how it is that God removes the dross from your life through it all. On the other side you become a powerful, faith-filled, Child of the Great King and can love as He loved and as long as He loved. 

I remain...

InHISGrip,

     ~J~