Topic > Spiritual Growth > Discipleship > Obedience >
Are You Listening?
He was frustrated. He was angry. He was tired of being blamed for everything that went wrong. Year after year, he had gotten them through one disaster after another. He was continually interceding on their behalf to keep them out of trouble. But all he got for his efforts was more grief.
Knowing God’s Will
A young man facing the future and unsure of what the next year would bring, concluded, “Nobody knows what God’s will is.” Is he right? Does a lack of certainty about the future translate into not knowing God’s will?
The concept of knowing God’s will is often limited to discerning what specific situation we will be in at some future time.
Six Words From Solomon
SMITH magazine, an online community that “celebrates the joy of storytelling,” invited readers to submit six-word memoirs that describe their lives. Thousands responded with brief biographies ranging from the light-hearted “Sweet wife, good sons—I’m rich” to the painful “Sixty. Still haven’t forgiven my parents.”
Fear And Love
Someone shared with me her observation about two bosses. One is loved but not feared by his subordinates. Because they love their boss but don’t respect his authority, they don’t follow his guidelines. The other boss is both feared and loved by those who serve under him, and their good behavior shows it.
Amazing!
The Christmas story, recorded in Matthew and Luke, has become so familiar that I wonder if we grasp the reality of what actually happened: An angel told a young virgin that she would conceive a child by the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:26-38).
Significant Surrender
Throughout history, Mary the mother of Jesus has been held in high esteem. And rightly so! She was singled out by God to deliver the long-awaited Messiah.
But before we get lost in the significance of her life, let’s take a look at what it meant for her to surrender to the assignment. Living in a small backwater Galilean village where everyone knew everyone else’s business, she would have to live with the perceived shame of her premarital pregnancy.
Tough And Tender
“Any fool can start a quarrel” (Prov. 20:3). “The name of the wicked will rot” (10:7). “He who hates correction is stupid” (12:1).
Is it right for God’s Word to call people fools, wicked, and stupid? Isn’t God all about love and kindness?
Indeed, God is love. God is kindness. He created a world with great possibilities for joy and contentment.
Do It Now!
Several years ago a friend took me to a motivational seminar that I thoroughly enjoyed. Instead of focusing on money and success, the leaders guided us toward understanding our unique identity and purpose in life. Then they passed along some helpful methods for effective living. One motto has stayed with me: “Do it now!”
A Worthy Offering
I was delighted when a mutual friend gave my neighbor a Bible. But my neighbor told me she stopped reading it because she couldn’t understand why God would be so unfair as to reject Cain’s offering. “After all,” she said, “as a farmer, he simply brought to God what he had.
Don’t Forget
One of my favorite Far Side cartoons is captioned “Superman in his later years.” It shows the elderly Man of Steel perched on a window ledge, ready to leap, as he looks back and says, “Now where was I going?”
Forgetfulness happens to us all, and while our occasional lapses may be amusing or annoying, a lack of memory toward God can be disastrous.
Desperate For Answers
A popular afternoon television program a few years ago was hosted by a self-proclaimed medium. He supposedly received messages from spirits of the dead to give to their family members in his studio audience. His readings prompted many people to believe in this occultic practice.
We live in a culture where people are desperate to know their future, and they’ll turn to psychics and mediums for answers—a practice expressly forbidden in the Scriptures.
Reconciling Our Humanness To Our Being Made New In Christ
“By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going” (Hebrews 11:8).
IDEA: You’re not the person you used to be, therefore you can never handle life as you used to handle it.
PURPOSE: To help listeners realize that when God calls us to something, he also calls us away from something.
Did Abraham simply leave Ur of the Chaldees?
Did it ever seem strange to you that Jesus called his disciples to follow him and they did?
The Obedience Factor
Dewey VanderVelde refused to be baptized. He steadfastly resisted, even when his wife and daughters were baptized one Sunday afternoon.
Years later, his pastor preached on the baptism of Jesus. He pointed out that John the Baptist initially refused to baptize Jesus, but Jesus said, “It is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). The pastor then added this comment: “If Jesus obeyed the will of the Father, so should we.”
