Reasons for Respecting my Mom

I was reading my mom's blog found here and noticed that she has a great sense of humor and a talent for writing.  These are some things you just don't notice when you grow up thinking your parents exist to meet your needs and put you through school.

Mom, "although, your point of view is somewhat different than mine, you speak intelligently about issues that are important to you."  My mom doesn't care what people thinks.  This can be a two-edged sword though.  I also respect the aptness that she has for learning.  Learning things like medical billing is about as easy for me as playing professional basketball.  But it seems that my mother can handle it.

God helps his children to learn to love and respect the people that they before cared little for.  God also helps his children to care not only for people closest to them, but also those that are different from them.  I see more and more the necesity of praying for others and the needs that people have for someone to come alongside them and disciple them.  God hasn't set us on this earth to write blogs or to study theology or to preach to everyone.  Jesus told Christians that they need to practice love toward other believers.  This is manifested in sacrificial service to others whether they return the favor or not (and also not mentioning it if they never do).

One subject I think needs to be addressed is the completely bone-headed way we men view women.  Man's lust teaches him to see a woman as an object to gratify a desire.  The more prideful he is the more he sees himself as a king that needs to be served.  No wonder we have men practicing all forms of sexual deviancy and seeking to involve women in it.  How many women have been pioneers in promoting sexual perversity?  None that I can think of.  But I guarantee that I can rattle off a dozen or more sexual miscreants that have been men.

Is the answer emasculating all the men?  That is probably the answer for the feminist.  God's answer however is different.  This will not be accomplished until Christ returns to reign over mankind as a whole and smashes all rule and authority that opposes Him.  For the people of God however, the answer for men is, submit and surrender your life, dreams, choices and fun to God, humble yourself before Him, repent of your sins (all of them.  not just the ones you feel you can live without) and subject your will to God's will, your life to Christ Jesus' life and your death to His death.

Repentance is Incomprehensible

Repentance is incomprehensible for the man who lives life on his own terms.  It defies logic.  It defies all notions of what is best for the individual.  Repentance is impossible for the man who will not give his life over into the sovereign will of God. Someone living in this country illegally and becoming a Christian, would think it imcomprehensible that God would demand that they return to their country's consolate and confess that they want to make it right with both our country and theirs and accept whatever the representive decreed they would have to do.  A man who has lived as a woman for 20 years would feel that it would be incomprehensible that he be asked to change back into the sex that he was born.  A man would think it incomprehensible that he should forsake all his dreams and goals for marriage and family and quietly submit to a life of uncertainty in a ministry that he was totally unequipped for.

These are all examples of incomprehensible situations.  Maybe they are very cut and dry for you the reader.  Maybe you could easily decide for someone else what they should do with their lives.  That is all your subjective reasoning.  But what happens when the tables are turned?  Are YOU willing to submit to God in what HE tells you to do even if it means you loose your life or that you are resigned to a life of abject solitude because of the choices you make removes you from all means of pursuing your own happiness with the people you so desire!  What would it take for you to surrender your life to God?  That is what I am talking about.  What if God's will were that you have no happiness and live the last two years of your life in obscurity with no way of being recognized?

I remember a situation of a man who was in this country illegally and receiving dialysis.  He was advised that he needed to return to his country to an uncertain situation there to keep from being a burden on other people in the church who had tried numerous times to help him, but for his own rebellion against the rules they set for their houses, he had to leave home after home until he had exhausted all options for habitations and help within the church.  Instead of submitting to the elders of the church, who were all unanimous in their counsel to him, he decided to leave the church and find some way to continue living in the country illegally so that he could receive his dialysis and retain his dreams of working again so that he can go back to his own way in life.  How sad.  He chose to keep his life rather than facing the risk of loosing it for the sake of Christ.  Why do I say this?  Because had he submitted, God would have been able to use this man.  But because he chose to continue in rebellion, he now lives his life like a godless man who has no testimony.

Anyone can repent.  The problem is that for each one of us, there is a challenge, a test that we may be unable to do because it goes against all that we think is logical and safe.  I remember the movie, "Luther", where Martin Luther said, "To go against conscience is neither right nor safe."  He was right.  If it violates your conscience, would you be willing to trust God or would you do what you think is right and safe? If so, you have not repented.

How does a person making decisions know what is the will of God?

John MacArthur preached a sermon about knowing the will of God for one's life entitled, "If God's Will is So Important, Why Can't I Find It?" The following is a short summary of the answers given to discern God's will:

The will of God is not meant to be a secret we must uncover. God wants us to understand His will far more than we want to understand it. He always makes His will clear to those who seek it with an obedient heart.

Most of the real problem areas in the question of God's will are settled for us in Scripture. The Bible reveals that it is God's will for all of us to be:

Saved
(1 Timothy 2:3-4; 2 Peter 3:9)

Spirit-filled
(Ephesians 5:17-18)

Sanctified
(1 Thessalonians 4:3-7)

Submissive
(1 Peter 2:13-15)

Suffering
(Philippians 1:29; 2 Timothy 3:12)

If all those things are true in your life, you may do whatever you want. Psalm 37:4 says, "Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart." That means that if you are conforming to God's will in all the five ways listed above, He will place in your heart desires that reflect His will. So do what you want to do!

Now, I must admit that my life has recently been more difficult than usual and I also have been looking to know with more certainty God's will for me. For quite a while, I thought that I wasn't anyone special so I should just resolve to live myself suffering where I was and not making waves, just obey God and read my Bible.

Then I thought that God does have a will for me but I should just sit around and wait till someone knocks on my door and says, "I have been sent by God to tell you what you are supposed to do with your life. The answer is __________." So I basically just waited around and decided to humbly wait on God's timing and in the mean-time try out a few things because I was also hearing this talk by John Piper about God revealing his will for your life through community. Basically, whatever you are best at in ministry can give you a good clue as to the will of God for you. The only problem with this for me is that the things that I seem to be good at are all things that require me to have more training to be able to to them well.

So, I listen to this sermon by John MacArthur and he lists these 6 things. I think, "Cool! I am doing all those things so basically, whatever I want to do I can do!" Another thing that went on was that I was praying one night and kind of realized that I was letting God have control of everything except for who I was going to marry. I basically had resolved myself to not marry anyone or either to marry ________. In my opinion, I was telling God, "either you give me so and so or I will just stay single." I decided to just give up and let God have the say-so in even this area. As a result, it became more clear that if this option were totally out of the picture then I would be free to do ANYTHING that I wanted to do!

So now I am at the point of, "OK, I am going to endeavor to do this thing and if God shuts the door, great, I will just go some other way and pick something that I want to do. I know that by "testing, I will be able to discern the good and perfect will of God" and that "no one can take me out of the Father's hand or out of Jesus' hand." So, I know that I am in Christ and if I just sit on my can and don't do anything I may be living in disobedience to the will of God and that is certainly something I don't want to do!

As a little disclaimer, if you are violating anyone of those points listed above and think you can just do what I am doing, you won't be doing God's will. If you do try it, maybe God will lead you into a relationship with him through suffering (as he did me when I tried to rebel against Him). But you really really don't want to go there. Just submit now and surrender your self-will to him and if you are living in sexual immorality or greed or some other sin, deal with that first before you try to find out God's will for you.