Welcome to sunny Oklahoma today, where Bartlesville was serving a frosty low of -28 F. this morning, and Nowata a nose rattling -31F ! As I took Jericho out this morning at about 0745, the morning air that greeted my face only registered a balmy -7 F, so I said a quick thank you Lord that I live in Tulsa, and not 50 miles or so to the North. A true air temp of -31 F? In Oklahoma?
As I prepared to face another day I wondered, how will today be played out? What people will God bring across my path? I believe there are no random events in our lives, that the people and events that we encounter daily are part of our challenge to walk as Jesus walked, glorifying God with every moment of our being. Each day is given to us, no one is owed anything, I have been told that two things in life are certain, death and taxes, but that was quickly dismissed, as you don't have to pay taxes, you can choose to go to jail. I believe you can better state if any two things are certain, they are that we each will die, and that we will live until we die.
This is told us in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 12, verses 16-21, in the parable of the rich fool. In another passage from the New Testament, the revelation that our life is just a vapor, here today and gone tomorrow is revealed in the epistle of James, chapter 4, verses 13-17 . If we take this to heart, the first question to my mind is how will I make a difference, and know that my life matters in any eternal sense?
I am greatly blessed with a loving wife, two children that run to me each night as I arrive home, parents still living at 90 and 89, a great calico cat named Zoey, and an enthusiastic little black minature schnauzer, Jericho. If I chose to , finding my meaning in the love and affection that greets me daily would be possible. But that begs the question, what if I find as did Job that one day, all his blessings are seemingly gone? He gets grilled by alleged "friends" to simply confess the sin he must have committed, as only evil people living sinful lives get slammed the way he was, losing material goods, and family, and respect of said "friends", as they sought to restore Job by encouraging a confession. But all Job had to confess was obedience, that he was righteous in God's eyes, and agreed with God, saying "naked came I from the womb and so will I return. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord". The loving words from his wife that followed were that Job should curse God and die. But I think we can learn something valuable from Job's story.
When we bring God obedience with our words and deeds, He is glorified, His Name is lifted up, His greatness is proclaimed, and Satan is defeated. Remember Satan's accusation to God regarding Job? "Of course Job loves you, you give him all the good stuff, beautiful large family, the adoration of peers, the cool toys, great image, huge standing in the community, fine clothes, and great food" (don't you know Andrew Zimmern was on the prowl to get a piece of Job's culture and experience the good life and food of the Middle East in that tent?) God allowed the stuff and trappings of life to be taken, but Job was left knowing he still walked with his God just as before, and that his eternity was secure, to be forever with the Lord.
To be able to daily be content and find our esteem and reason for being in simply obeying what God is asking us to do, right where we are, being who He has made us to be, with the personality and temperment and spiritual gifts given uniquely to you and I, perfect in the eyes of our Creator, an instrument for His use whenever He would pickup us up and have us walk in the good works created from before the foundations of the world, that He has created for us, and all we need to do is be His obedient little child and do what our Father asks us to.
In this obedience, we don't have to try to be who we want to be , i.e. the perfect wife, son, daughter, father, shop owner, cook, teacher, uncle, god parent, brother, sister, cousin, uncle, nephew and so on, when we are walking in obedience to the Father's will, we are Christlike and He sees His perfect Son in our walk, just as we are found righteous due to the blood of Christ, the perfect Lamb of God, covering our sins, so that when our Creator and Father looks at us, He sees Jesus, a life that glorified His Father relentlessly, furiously, with the raging pursuing fury we call the love of God .(yes, I love Rich Mullins music and will quote his and other songs often in our talks together)
I long to hear well done, good and faithful servent, enter into the rest of your master, and will only be in that place if I am walking as Jesus walked daily, moment by moment, that is my goal and purpose in life, whatever God would use me for, and do with my words and deeds, in His Hands, my little fishes and loaves feed a multitude, they bring sight to the blind, they raise the lame to walk and dead to walk. When we walk like Jesus walked, people will be drawn to the Christ in our life, not knowing why or what they find attractive, but having to come, to the Man of No Reputation, who loves with relentless affection, and who calls all us poor in spirit, just as we are, come to the Man of No Reputation (thank you Rick Elias for hearing the voice of God and penning that song)
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