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Excited to Learn? YEAH!
Knowledge is one thing but understanding is a whole new ball game. I love it when I begin to understand something whether related to the Word of God or at my job or even just reading a book that is hard to understand. I ponder stuff all the time and ask why a lot. Jesus is so patient with my questions and my lack of knowledge that it just blows me away when He teaches me something new. I do not deserve to know this much or to understand anything He is teaching me because I am so dim witted sometimes. How many times does He have to teach us something before we learn it? Well, let’s see what the Word has to say about that.
I want to start with Proverbs 6:6 when Solomon calls someone a sluggard. Lazy people cannot learn so he says to them go to the ant, O sluggard, observe her ways and be wise. He wants us not to be lazy and learn fully what we need to learn. Wisdom does not come in one day so the fact that he refers to us becoming wise tells me that he knows we will have to take our time learning and be taught often.
Psalm 106:35 tells us that they mingled with the nations and learned their practices. That is us Christians. We mingle with the world and learn their ways in time and act like them but we need to mingle with God and learn His ways so we can become knowledgeable about the things of God. To do this we will have to take our time learning and be taught often.
The Bible was written for us to learn from and Paul needed to tell us just that in Romans 15:4 For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. The length of time it takes us to learn is shown here in the term perseverance. Why would we need perseverance if our learning were going to be quick? Again, we will have to take our time learning and be taught often.
Proverbs 1:7 says that the beginning of knowledge comes from fearing the Lord. Fearing the Lord is not based on what you don’t know it is based on what you do know. We cannot gain a fear of the Lord until we know the Lord. He has buried many secrets in His Word that He expects us to uncover. It takes learning to uncover those secrets. Only fools despise wisdom and instruction – be not a fool and fear the Lord. Take time learning and be taught often.
Read books but always come back to the Word! These are just a few verses that tell us about learning. Jesus taught us the whole time He was on the earth so that we would have a mentor; someone to teach us the ways to walk. Jesus said take His yoke upon us and learn from Him for He is gentle and lowly in heart and we will find rest for our souls (Matthew 11:29). Our learning begins and ends with Scripture. We can be taught the Bible from others but the truth can only be found in one place – the Holy Bible. It tells us that we need no other teacher (1 John 2:27) than Jesus and that God will send no one else to tell us the truth (Hebrews 1:1-3) because Jesus has told the truth to us, recorded and distributed it to us that we may learn. When the mystery of the truth is revealed to us it is an exciting thing to comprehend because it has taken us time to learn and we were taught often!
Be persistent this week to spend time in the word with the FULL understanding that it will take time to learn and we will need to be taught many times before we understand. God will reveal His mysteries to us if we persist.
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The Yay’s and the Nay’s have it! Or do they?
In spite of what people may say God has gifted each one of us with gifts to be able to do our jobs. Our jobs consist of how we make our daily income as to not starve to death. We have what the world will call natural talents but we Christians know that these gifts are from God and are for His glory to do His good works. We get excited because we will be able to use them for the good of the Kingdom. When you attempt to activate these gifts inside the Body of Christ we will come across the nay’s and the yay’s in spite of what the Father has told us to do. Should you listen? Yes! Should you obey? Now that is another story all together!
The nay’s are the hardest to ignore. They are persistent and loud. They come from people who love you and people who hate you. They come from those who want to be you and those who just want you to go away! The goal of the nay is to stop you in your tracks – not to redirect you or help you – just to stop you! Stopping you could also mean many different things. It could be because they have a belief system that is built on false precepts and you are challenging those precepts. It could be that you ‘going’ might mean where they are in their eyes isn’t good enough. It could be that they actually have a good misguided heart and don’t want you to be hurt. The problem with each one of these is they are disobedient to the plans of the Father. Jesus said to Peter in Matthew 16:23 get behind me Satan. You are a stumbling block to Me! Peter was concerned about the things of men rather than of the thing of God. I am convinced there is a lot of people just like that. They set out to be stumbling blocks to people because they are not dealing well with their own stumbling blocks. It may be their thought processes, their beliefs or they just might be full of spite from their own lack of success! None of this is our problem unless they are successful at stopping us! I think we should listen but with our Spirit to discern the truth! I say, get behind me Satan. You are a stumbling block to God and to me. Then I will put the things of God on my mind and keep moving even if I am scared!
The yay sayers may very well be hard to ignore as well! How many times do we need to be patted on the back for a job well done before we become prideful and expect the pat? Sometimes the yay’s are for us to participate in something ‘not’ in the plan of God for us. Quite often this is the case and it keeps us from doing what we are suposed to do. We spend a lot of time doing stuff that doesn’t please God and ironically enough, doesn’t even please us. We clean when we hate cleaning, we take care of kids when we hate it, we lead but are not gifted for it, we preach but are not called to do it. There is just so much we do that doesn’t give glory to God because He has not asked us to go man has and we don’t have the words or the guts to say no. Every now and then we need to do stuff that is not appealing to us but the majority of the time we need to do what God has called us and gifted us to do. God does not gift you to be a door matt He gifts you to empower the Body of Christ. We cannot do that if we are not joyful in our work. Jesus said in Luke 9:24 that if you lose your life you shall live. Losing your life means dropping your own selfish plans and standing behind God’s plan for you even against other Christians who are not willing to lose their lives. All of God’s work is good but not all of it is beneficial to us or the Body of Christ when we are doing it. We need to listen with our Spirit for direction and do what we are told.
The nay’s and the yay’s can be considered but should never be held up before God’s plan for us. He may very well have sent those folks to us to test our faith or to actually get us to stop doing something He never told us to do nor gifted us to do. We need to know our Father so that we can tell the difference between a nay for men or for God and the yay from men or from God. Our lack of knowledge of the Father will always put us in a tricky position discovering what is of God and what is of men. We will be thrown to and fro if we don’t make sure that what we are doing is of God. For us to be successful at doing the will of God we need to put the nayers and the yayers behind us and God in front of us. As long as we are following God we will do exactly what He wants and not worry about what man wants from us.
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What will it take? Part 2
I asked you last time to just ‘believe’ but and now I am asking you to go further and to know. We discussed what it will take to get you to read the Bible. Did you start? If you did I am super proud of you! Considering that God has made us all different we will have different ways of getting started and I told you my story so you would know how weird it was and how different God works in our life to mature us.
This week the question is – What will it take for you to start studying the Bible? Reading the Bible is one thing but studying it is something totally different. It takes time and effort to figure out what the Bible is talking about. It takes more than just going to the building where we congregate to study the Word. It takes more than a weekly Bible study to study the Scriptures. We are under the misguided perception that the Bible is incomplete due to missing information. There is nothing incomplete about Scripture. Let us go to Scripture to find out.
Paul tells us 2 Timothy 3:16 the Bible is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness and He said this before the New Testament ever existed. What other book is good for this? Romans 15:4 tells us that Scripture is good for encouraging us so we might have hope. What other book tells us it is there to encourage us and give us hope that also says it is profitable? Hebrews 4:12 tell us this Book is alive as well. What book, any book, can tell us the same and actually prove it? Jesus tells us Luke 8:11 that Scripture is a seed and 1 Peter 1:25 tells us the Seed will remain forever. What more do we need to tell us what a wonderful privileged it is to know the Word of God? What more do we need to decide that it is profitable to study the Scriptures because of it’s powerful characteristics.
Job 11:7 asked us if we can discover the depths of God? Why, yes we can! Daniel 2:28 reminds us there is a God in Heaven who reveals mysteries. Jesus told us in Matthew 13:11 that it is granted to us to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven. The great mystery that has been hidden since the past ages has been manifested to His Saints (Col 1:26) is there for us to discover. The question still remains – what will it take for you to study the Word of God?
This week talk truth to yourself and figure out what it will take for you to want to uncover the mysteries hidden in Scripture. There are many rewards for gaining this information and one of them is listed in Proverbs 25:2. Do you want to be a king on the New Earth and go in and out of the New Jerusalem or would you rather just sit outside the gate waiting for the King of your Nation to bring you the latest news about Jesus. When Jesus returns there will be no more mystery to solve but our opportunity to search the Scriptures for this mystery will also be gone along with the reward we will get for searching out those mysteries.One last time I ask you – what will it take for you to begin studying Scripture? Start now and you won’t have to answer this question again.
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Did He Really Say That?
There is a couple of places in Scripture that tell us about salvation but we glance over them each time. Let me bring them to your attention and tell you why you should stop glancing and start pondering them but first let us get out of the way THE question, “Are you saved?” The one way to discover if anyone is saved is by asking this simple question, “Are you going to Heaven?” The answer is a great indicator whether they know if they are truly saved or not. I am not gifted for evangelism nor am I called to lead a tent revival even still it is my duty (and yours) to make sure that those who call themselves Christians know and understand what that means! We need to know whether they actual believe without any doubt they are saved from hell hence the question. If their answer has any ambiguity outside of a resounding ‘yes’ then they do not know they are saved. Let the teaching begin in your style and at your pace! Romans 10:9-10
Satan is crafty as all get out! The first way he will attack is to make you question your salvation. Did God really say that? Sound familiar? (Genesis verse) When Jesus tells us that all we need to do is accept Him as Lord and Saviour to be saved from hell that is exactly what He means but the devil goes about like a lion (1 Peter 5:8) devouring those who fall for this ploy. It is for this reason that it is extremely important that we strap on the helmet of Salvation and step into the new life available through the working out of our salvation.
You must Strap on the Helmet of Salvation
Once your salvation is established you must strap it on like a helmet or the devil will help you take it off. Your helmet is the Holy Bible! It is leather with your name written on it. It can be NKJV or ESV or HCSB shaped and look totally different from your friend’s helmet. Just as we all look different so must our helmets look different? We are gifted differently and are called to different tasks so our salvation may have come at different times in our lives BUT that does not make us any less saved or any less a Christian. The Devil will have you believe that because you are old you are not saved, because you are young you are not saved, because you are smart, silly, blonde, a red head, Asian, African, Canadian, a plumber, an electrician, a house wife, a woman or any other immature reason that will cause you to question God. Paul tells us to protect our head with this information so that we will not be held back from the good works that we are supposed to do in His Name. Put on your helmet of salvation so you can work it out easier.
You must Work out your Salvation!
Working out our salvation is a new lifestyle like working out our muscles. For our muscles to get taut we need to train them with weight but for our salvation to train our brain with the Word. Paul tells us in Philippians 2:5-13, the way we work out our salvation is to make our brain take on the attitude of Jesus Christ by allowing the Father work in us to fulfill His purpose. This definitely sounds a lot harder than putting on the helmet doesn’t it? Well, it is! We are to determine the purpose of our salvation and work it into our new life. The only way we can do that is put on the helmet and work. Paul used the word work because it is work. We work to know Jesus, work to find our gifts, work to use them, work to perfect them, work to live, work, work, work! There is no place in the Bible to relieve us of work. God has been working for 6000 plus years so we can certainly work for 60 plus years. Not all of our work will be physical but it will all need our brain and as long as we can use it we should be working out our salvation.
How shall we escape punishment when we ignore this great salvation (Hebrews 2:1-4)? When we strap on the helmet of salvation we are not finished we are just beginning the new life waiting for us through working out our salvation. Salvation is God’s work alone but you have been saved to do good works (Ephesians 2:8-10) and those works are to be done by us. The works start with us knowing that we are saved from hell and then walking in the new life of following Jesus from place to place. We may get lazy sometimes, disappointed sometimes or of track sometimes but that never takes away from our salvation. Our salvation determines whose we are on this Earth and our good works determine who we will be on the New Earth. I am going to sound like a broken record when it comes to this but I think that the more we hear it the more we will understand how important it is to work out our salvation.It is for eternity that we have been saved and it is on the New Earth that we will live! Picture what that will look like then ask yourself two questions: Am I saved? If your answer is yes then, are you working it out?
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Picking up the Pieces!
I was reading in Genesis recently and was struck by the pieces of unassuming information that reside in that text until I found another one. As I was reading I was reminded of my last 13 years as a Jesus follower and how many pieces of information Jesus has given me along the way that I have had to put together to solve a puzzle. What have I done with all the pieces that God has revealed to me along the way? The habit I have gotten into while reading the Word now is to search my mind whenever I am given a new piece to a puzzling question. I am always pondering information so that I can join it with something else but sometimes it may very well be just the beginning of a new cluster of information. If you read the same story about Joseph in Genesis chapter 37 with chapters 40 and 41 you will find out that all the dreams were in groups of two, why? To get the answer we must first ask the question then wait for more pieces to pick up the answer to the puzzling question!
We can find pieces of information in the Word of God plus the Holy Spirit gives us pieces of information. Even with these different pieces of information we may still not understand although one day when a piece of information is revealed to us all of them will come together. You might have ten pieces of information that make some sense by themselves but remain incomplete together then one day you get another bit of information and all the other pieces come together into that perfect understanding. It is a wonderful thing when that full understanding comes but it is also a wonderful thing to have the pieces as well. These pieces keep us in communion with Jesus to get the answers. Pieces to a puzzle add intrigue to our lives.What do we do with these pieces of information? Jacob and Mary did what was best and we can do it too. When Joseph told his family about the dreams, they hated him but his father kept it in his mind. Mary, mother of Jesus, did that same thing. Every time Mary got a piece of information about Jesus she kept it in her heart and when He was dying on the cross I am sure that she remembered that she was told by Simeon that her own soul would be pierced (Luke 2:35). I am sure that she began picking up all of the pieces that God revealed to her during the 33 years of Jesus’ life. Keeping the pieces in our heart/mind is exactly what we need to do to make sure that we understand everything that God is revealing to us!
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Let Him Choose!
Elijah, the prophet of God Almighty, killed 450 prophets of Baal and believed at this time that he alone stood for God (1 Kings 18-19). He was exhausted and ready to give up. He went up to the top of carmel and put his head between his knees waiting for the rain to come. It came but it poured down more than just water. Elijah had to run for his life to Bersheba. God ministered to him there but he was still running under the impression that he was the only one. It is a great encouragement to know that God has a plan and you are not the only one working it but until you know you are still alone. God asked Elijah what he was doing in Horeb. He told God he alone is zealous for Him. God, before He told Elijah about His plan first showed him His glory then He informed him he is not alone.
Elijah built his ministry by himself. He walked by himself in the zeal of the Lord! He alone went against Jezebel. He looked around and listened but there was not anyone with this same zeal. I feel like this sometimes. I feel like I alone am filled with the zeal of God and it is draining sometimes. Over this couple of weeks I have seen that Jesus has spoken the same words to others as He has spoken to me. He is training me with the same instruction He is using with others. He is showing us His glory before He chooses our fellow workers for His cause. When we are ready He will unite us!
Sometimes we feel we are alone but when God tells us that He is going to do something He does it. We CANNOT do God’s works on our own and if He has shown us that we will join with others He has those others already chosen. He is moving them into place just as He is moving us into place. God knows exactly what we need in a partner worker to accomplish His Word. I am finished trying to pick my fellow workers I am going to let Jesus do that for me and see the wonderful people He adds to my life for the glory of God. He definitely has revealed to me that He can do a better job choosing His workers than I can!
Action Plan: If you feel alone you are in a good place because your aloneness will make you available to view the glory of God from the place where you can see it best. This week open you eyes and ears to what others are saying so you can hear how God is working just for you. Sometimes you have to reveal God’s plan for you even though you have discounted it out of barrenness. That is when God will reveal to you the work He is doing!
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A Change Maker not Making Change!
I am a change maker except I am making no changes in my community at least that is how I feel at this moment or rather a moment ago. Has God directed you as He has me that you will be a change maker but He hasn’t released you to make much change except in yourself. My innards are bursting to make change in my community! They are curdling with age though! I wrestle with what to do! I wrestle with how to do it! I am a wrestler at this moment not a changer.
God has taught me over the past year that I am a learner right now. I read the Word, I learn the Word and I read other books that help my mind get ready. BUT I wrestle with learning. I think I know enough! I think I can but apparently God has a different plan for me. What I learned recently to help me deal with this is – I cannot understand God’s plan for me because my feelings get in the way all the time.I know that He has a plan for me (Jeremiah 29:11) and I know that I am predestined to walk in that plan (Ephesians 2:10) and I know that He will finish what He started (Philippians 1:6) but my human feelings get tangled with the world. [She has my job, he is doing what I want to do, she is being used by God in the way that He will use me.] All of this gets the better of me sometimes making me feel unused and unwanted by God!
This is why He revealed to me that I am not focusing on Him. I have memorized verses just for this reason – to focus on Jesus and not on the world but I had forgotten why I was memorizing them. I recently came into a situation where I decided my feelings were getting the better of me so I started focusing on the verses I memorized. Amazing enough I was relieved of the turmoil and found peace again.
Action Plan: Last week we attempted to discover what it is that God has gifted us to do but what do you need to learn to be more efficient at that gift? Begin that process of learning this week but don’t get discouraged. It may take 12 years, like me, or it may take 2 before God starts using you in His Kingdom. Whatever the number the goal is to be ready to be the change maker that God has revealed you’d be!
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RIM 2: A Patchwork Called the Body!
Much like this Christmas tree I purchased in 2014 for my basement decorations, we are a patchwork of patterns and colours. Some of us have buttons and some bells. Some are cross-stitched and some are straight stitches. Some of us shine from the top and some of us hold the patchwork up for all to see. There are bells at every level and buttons as well. Each part of the Body needs to be sewn together to make the whole. For this tree to look like a tree it all had to come together at a specific place.So is the will of God for each one of us at each stage in our walk with Him. He puts us into place at a specific time so that we can edify the body at that given time with the knowledge and wisdom we have. He makes us the stand sometimes so we can support the whole. He makes us a bell sometimes so that we can sound an alarm to someone who is in sin. He makes us cross-stitches sometimes so we can be two places at once and straight so we can fly solo. He makes us a colour pattern so we can cause people to look twice and solid to be hidden yet blend. Sometimes He makes us a button so we can be in the gap to hold someone together. He has a clear plan for each one of us even if it is the weld on the stand. It is our responsibility to know what part of the body we belong. This is part of knowing the will of God. When you are in the will of God the body comes together but all it takes is one person in the body to stray from the will and the body becomes out of sink and can become fruitless but when everyone does what God wills them to do the fruitfulness of the body can be seen for miles. 1 Corinthians 12:18:27 describes this wonderful phenomenon that Jesus has put together.
Action Plan: Ask yourself this question this week – what is it that God has gifted me to do and am I doing it? If you understand this part of the will of God you will yield much fruit and help the body yield much fruit too!
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RIM1: Why the ‘Revealed in Me’ Blog
When it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, He revealed His Son in me that I might preach Him among the gentiles… [Galatians 1:15-16]
At the time of this Scripture reading I had already decided that I would stop writing the Under the Wings of Love Newsletter I have loved writing for almost 8 years and move to a weekly blog. Jesus was talking to me about how I can better improve my learning and yours. I am looking for focus in my learning to develop a brand of learning so I can develop a brand of teaching. Not always as easy as it sounds especially when you teach the Word of God. Expansive is a small word for exactly what you can learn in the Book of Life. This Book is filled with information that can overwhelm and deter others from even opening the Book but I have not been deterred nor have I been ignorant of its power to change my life.
Jesus has been working in me the power to understand His Word, the power to simplify His Word and the power to teach His Word. It is in this work that He has ‘Revealed in Me’ what needs to be relayed to you. I am the Life Skills Strategist and I am doing it the Biblical way. I am teaching life skills the way Jesus wants it to be taught so you will live the abundant life He so desires for you.
Then the other obstacle comes into play – what kind of life skills to teach and to what end? What is the thing that I want to change most? What is the thing that bothers me the most? If I walked into a gathering place for Christians what is it that I would see that needs to change? After I ask these questions of myself I find the one thing that makes me the saddest – my brethren do not KNOW the will of God furthermore since they do not know the will of God they do not DO the will of God. As a result they do not know joy and they do not have peace! Look up Romans 12:2. This Scripture is my motto for teaching from now on – transform your mind…
Let us transform our minds together so we can grow toward the good and acceptable and perfect will of God!
