8/31/2019 RESETTING OUR LIVES
For the past
month (August) our church has been discussing “Life reset”.
When I was
in the Southern Baptist church as a youth, once a year, a preacher would come
and hold a three to four day ‘revival’ meeting.
These were intended to be ‘spiritual shots’ in the arm to get that
spiritual blood flowing again or anew. If
you will, a reset or a restart for the church.
Often, these would be young men fresh out of bible school getting their
feet wet for preaching sermons, but at times, they would bring in a seasoned
vet. Being an evangelical church, these
revivals were heavier doses of “you gotta get saved”! Now, I understand, we were supposed to bring
‘unsaved’ friends to those revivals but Father has shown me that we can share
how to walk closer with the Lord and the Holy Spirit can still work in the
hearts of those who don’t know the Lord.
Yet, for the Christian, were supposed to already know Jesus (hopefully),
so instead of ‘getting to know Him’, we need to get to know Him ‘better’.
During this
month, Father has brought four good studies, about resetting our lives, through
three different people.
In the first
presentation, Father showed us that there are five major restarts in life. God tells Jeremiah that He knew him before he was conceived and
sanctified him before he was born (Jer.
1:5). We can translate this to every
human that ever existed or exists – God knows us before we are conceived and
has set a task for us before we are born.
After all, God knows the beginning and the end (Isa. 46:9-10). Ergo, our
first reset in life is coming from however God knows us into and through our natural birth; our second
reset is our spiritual rebirth, our salvation experience, transitioning from living in this natural world to living for Jesus in this
world; our third reset is recognizing
our calling Father has placed upon our lives – He ordained Jeremiah to be
a prophet (for what has He ordained us?); Our fourth reset is the toughest and
busiest reset of all – learning
to keep Jesus in our hearts – confessing and repenting any sin in our
life and continuing to press forward (an ongoing process as long as we are in
this world); our last reset is our departure from this world – our natural death – the beginning
of our transition into eternity.
Our next
presenter brought us to an understanding of what ‘reset’ means and the need to get our souls back into proper alignment
with Father. She used examples as
to how important it is, that once we mess up, the need to get ‘our’ spirit
realigned with Father. That is
confessing and repenting (turning away) from whatever sin we had committed.
Our next
presenter used Job, King David, King Solomon and the Apostle Paul to contrast the benefits of a
life reset after sin
and a life not reset after
sin – the blessings or the consequences.
Our last
presenter brought the following:
Several
years ago, Father used one verse to draw my attention to Job’s problem. Job said I heard
about you from others but now my eye has seen
you for myself (Job 42:5). Job came to know God for himself – a personal
relationship.
Let’s go
just a little deeper for our fourth presentation. Our relationship with God.
Luke 15:11-24
11 A certain man had two sons
12 The younger said to the father “give me my portion of goods
that will be mine.” And the man divided
what he had.
13 Not many days later, the son took all that he had and
traveled to a far country and wasted all that he had on riotous living.
It is important to know God’s will and here, the younger son
seems to know God’s will. I mean, he
lived with his father from infancy. But
now he was grown so he decided that he was his ‘own man’. He was an adult. He could make his own decisions. So he did contrary to what he knew his father
would approve. Yet his father let him
go.
Our parents should be helping us to learn how to deal with
life the best we can and hopefully, when we are ‘of age’ we’ve learned enough
to survive. Likewise God gives us direction (if we listen) but then lets us
make our own choices. When we think
about it, our natural life parallels or reflects our spiritual relationship
with Father (the Family of God?).
14 And when he had spent all that he had, a mighty famine arose
in that land and he began to be in need.
15 He hired himself out to a citizen of that country who sent
him into the fields to feed the pigs.
16 He would have fain (desired, lusted, been in need) had
he not eaten the husks which the pigs didn’t eat for no man helped him.
How often does the grass look greener on the other side of
the fence? How many of us want the ‘good
life’ which we feel we can’t enjoy at home?
Once out there, he discovered that his friends were his friends as long
as he entertained them. Yet, once all
his money was gone – so were all his ‘friends’. The depth of his plight is reflected in that
he had to eat what the pigs wouldn’t! Is
that desperation?
17 When he came to his senses he said “How many of my father’s
hired servants have enough bread to share and here I am dying of hunger?
18 I will get up and go to my father and say to him ‘I have
sinned against heaven and before you
19 I am no longer worthy to be called your
son so make me as one of your hired servants’”
Fortunately (by the grace of God) the son came to his senses
realizing that even his father’s servants had it way better than the situation
in which found himself.
Once we realize that we have erred from our Father’s will, we
need to do what the son did – repent and humbly go back to Father, willing to
accept any status less than that what we had before. Think about it, that’s humble. A prince to a pauper.
20 And he arose and came to his father. Yet, while he was a great way off, his father
saw him and had compassion and ran out and fell on his neck and kissed him.
His
father didn’t chastise him as to how stupid he had been. He was so glad to see his son, he ran out,
kissed and hugged him. (forgiveness
without even being asked for - yet).
21 and the son said to him “I have sinned against heaven and in
your sight and am no longer worthy to be called your son”
The son had already asked forgiveness (in his heart) when he
decided to go back to his father, yet he (the son) still needed to go before
his father and ‘say it’. So it is with
us when we sin, if no one else, we sin against and/or before God. We seek forgiveness from our heart, but we
still need to speak it out before our heavenly Father. Where other people are involved, we need to
do the same and ask their forgiveness (James
5:16, 1 John 2:1).
22 But the father said to his servants “Bring the best robe and
put it on him and a ring for his finger and shoes for his feet.
The
father had restored his son to full sonship.
Remember that there is joy before the angels in heaven over one sinner
who repents (Luke 15:10).
This passage does not ‘say’ whether the son was saved or
unsaved, but this parable does imply a relationship prior to his falling away. Father and son? Consider, through Adam and Eve, mankind knew
God from the beginning. God knows us
from before conception (Jer. 1:5). He knows us when we give our lives to Christ
and when we stray. The parable as
repentance stands for both ‘unsaved’ and ‘saved’. Getting on track and getting back on track. Father knows our hearts. He knows if we are sincere or not (Matt. 15:7-9).
23 Bring the fatted calf and kill it and
let us eat and be merry
24 For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. And they began to be merry.
There’s joy
again. Whether someone comes to know
Jesus for the first time or if we ‘mess up’, then repent and get back into
proper alignment with Father’s will.
There is joy in heaven!
Remember,
the bible is not written to sinners. The
Old Testament was written to the Jews to
help them to discover God for themselves and then keep them on track (through
obedience) so they can help others to enter into the kingdom of God. they were supposed to be God’s witnesses to
the world.
The New
Testament is written to the Christian church so we can get to understand ?God’s
love in terms we can understand. So we
can know God for ourselves and then (through our obedience) the Holy Spirit can
keep us on track so we can help others enter into the kingdom of God. Today, we (Christians) are God’s witnesses to
the world.
Just as Job knew about God, his thinking changed with his personal
encounter with God. When he came to know
God – personally. Paul knew about God.
After all he was a Pharisee (Phil.
3:4-5). Then he met Jesus on the
road to Damascus. That’s when he came to know God personally. We go to church and do things in service and learn about God, but until we start really communicating with Him, we really don’t know Him. When we talk with God from our heart, then we really
come to know God personally. Of
course, we have to understand something about the bible in order to know to
whom we are talking.
The calling,
Father has given all Christians, is to draw us into a closer relationship with
Jesus and live in His love so we can reach out and help others find that relationship
for themselves (Matt. 28:18-20). The biggest reset we can do, other than
giving our lives to God through Jesus, is seeking our deepest,
personal relationship with Him so we can help others discover a solid
relationship with our heavenly Father, as well.
As with Job,
our greatest restart or reset in life is getting to know God personally.
Anyone can read a book and know about God. Our Father wants a relationship with us. He wants to commune with us, walk with us,
talk with us. Father doesn’t just want
children, He wants a friend. Abraham
believed God and was called the friend of God (James 2:23). Moses spoke
with God face to face (Exod. 33:11). If that’s not friendship, what is? When we are obedient to the will of God,
Jesus calls us friends (John 15:15-17). Knowing God on a personal level IS our greatest reset. Walking with our Lord is our greatest
benefit.
May the love
of Jesus Christ fill our hearts.
Amen
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