Abba, Father, I …

In the last post, i talked about my discipline action on David.

“How did he handle it?”, you might ask.

Well, as usual, very well. He got unhappy. Cried a bit.

But the good part? He got over it.

He did not stay in that unhappy condition for long. He was miserable for perhaps ( just ) a few minutes. After i talked it over with him, explaining my reasons, we were back to being buddies again. And the next day? It is as if nothing had happened at all. And the “toy” that caused  the problem? He no longer cares for it that much. He has left it alone. It had become just like  one of those many “must have” things (toys, stuff, people, relationships )  that one  first thinks he/she would die without but which later turns out to be not even that important.

The way David handled the situation, my friends, is how it is supposed to be with the Child of God when he is being  disciplined.

Unless you are  like little children..

² He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. ³ And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. ( Matthew 18:2-3)

That advice from Christ was about humility. But the advice is also very applicable in the process of discipline, which requires a good amount of humility.

A little child who has a good relationship with his father trusts his  father. Little children forget easily. Little children forgive easily. Are you like a little child? Do you easily forget what is past or you linger on those bad things that the Lord did allow to  happen ( or did ) to you? Do you find it easy to “forgive the  Lord” for the “evil” He has sent your way? Do you trust his explanation of why He disciplines you, or you get mad at Him and won’t easily let go?

Be careful, lest, as Christ said, you miss the kingdom of heaven.

You will not trust the Lord easily if you do not really know Him as your Father. You will not  forget easily if you do not know that the Lord’s intention for you is always for your good, not harm:

¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. ( jeremiah 29:11)

Always bitter with God

If you do NOT know your Father well, or if you are not willing to humble yourself under His discipline, you will end up being bitter with Him. What you will be doing, in that case, is heading the advice ( of your Enemy ) to “curse God “.

¹¹ But now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.” ( Job 1:11)

You know the story of Job. He suffered greatly (  for being righteous ), and in his suffering, as expected, the enemy tried to put that thought to him:

⁹ His wife said to him, “Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die!”

¹⁰ He replied, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” ( Job 2:9-10)

Hear that? Curse God and die. That is the advice from Job’s closest friend, his own wife ( talking for the enemy, of course ). (This should serve as a reminder to us: Be careful what advice you take from your closest friends and family when you are under God’s discipline)

Curse God? Why would a human being do that?  Well, it is not that hard.

Those who are proud and think they  can take Him on, do it all the time. They reject His sovereignty over them. They believe they can make it without Him and live apart from Him. Some openly challenge Him, in defiance to His advice or in open sin. But many other people , including dear Christians, do it even without realizing it. How?

If you understand that God is sovereign and nothing EVER happens without his allowing it, but do not have a close child-Father relationship with Him nor  understand his good intentions towards you, it is only natural that you will blame Him for all your hardships and sufferings.

Again, i repeat it. If you do not have a relationship with the Lord, or if you do not understand His workings, you will always be bitter with Him for those thing that He allows to come your way.

And if this trend continues, the enemy will take hold of that bitterness and work it such that you will end up cursing God.

¹¹ But now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.” ( Job 1:11)

Of course, if you curse God, you will die.

And how does the death come about? First, slowly, gradually. Bit  by bit, you will find yourself drifting away from Him, no longer trusting Him. That is normally a sign of dying  relationship with God. And most times such lost relationship is rooted in bitterness towards the Lord.

But this should not happen to us, for we know better: that the discipline He lets us suffer is driven by love:

¹⁹ Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. ( Revelation 3:19)

Every loving Father does not enjoy punishing his son, or daughter.
Every loving Father punishes his sons and daughters.
Every loving Father feels the pain the punished son feels.
But He still punishes, because he loves too much not to.

Today i came down hard on my son David. I had warned him many times not to chew on plastic items. So, i punished him for chewing on a piece of  plastic. Now if you think a child chewing on a piece of cheap plastic ( especially those made in China) is not a big issue, then you ought not to read this post.

So why did i punish him and take away that particular “toy”? Two reasons:

1. The action is dangerous to his life. It can kill him.
2. I had informed him “not to” many many times.

But even as i see the sadness and the pain he goes through, i wish that i did not have to do this.I do not like it. It pains me. But i  love him and care too much to let him hurt himself. He could choke on it. He could be poisoned by BPA or whatever other chemical they use in plastics. So i am forced to take the unpleasant road. This is exactly the same  with our Heavenly Father does to us when we stray from “life”.

He punishes His children for their own good. But He does not enjoy it.

“If you do not listen, i will came hard on you!”

Here is an example. The Lord threatens severe things to his people of they do not change their ways:

¹⁶ Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. ( Rev 2:16)

That is the Lord Himself threatening the people He loves. Does this surprise you? The whole of the old testament is full of examples of God’s people, Israelites, walking against his advice, and they get punished. They get back to Him, deviate, get punished, etc.

But we already have their example. We know how the Lord feels and how He would react, so we do not have to go through the same pattern, do we?

“He cares not for me”, she says

But if you are  not careful, you will fall under the trap of the enemy. How? Instead of seeing your punishment or  hardship or trials  as sign of your Father’s hand of love upon you, you might start thinking it is a sign that He loves you not. When you hear such voices  telling you things such as : “if God is loving, why does He punish me?”, be careful.

That is not you talking, no matter how much you think it is your own rational thinking. It is the enemy using your logic and  senses against you. Doubt it? Remember  these:

“If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” (Matt 4:2)

“If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: (Matt 4:6)

See? It is the enemy who introduces doubt about God’s being and your standing with Him.

It is not “if God is loving”. God is loving. God is love. And it is because of that love that He feels the need to punish His sons. Not because of His lack of love for them, as the enemy would want them to believe. If you find this hard to believe, you need to go back to the basics of belief in Christ, which is

¹⁹ Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. (Rev 3:19)

The Living dead!

You no doubt have heard of that before. But are you one of the living dead? Read on and judge for yoruself.

All non believers are alive, but dead

I need not waste your time on that, for you already know this, that as long as one  is not a believer in Jesus Christ, they are already dead:

²⁴ “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. ( John 5:24)

The assertion being that without  Christ ( the true life ), you are dead.

Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. ( 1 John 5:12)

You are living, alright, but in reality, you are dead.

Where is the proof?

Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. ²⁹ They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, ³⁰ slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; ³¹ they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. ³²Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. ( Romans 1:28-31)

Just look around you. Do you not see these actions? These have become “normal”. Do you really need any more evidence of death-ness?

Alive, but can die.

But once you believe in Christ, you have life:

Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. ( 1 John 5:12)

But something that is alive  can die. So it should not surprise you that is is possible for one who is truly alive ( i.e. born again ) to be dying spiritually. How so?

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. ( Matthew 4;4)

Simple, by neglecting to live by the words of God, you are slowly but surely dying. By choosing, willingly, to not seek God’s word for your life,

day after day after day, week after week, year after year,

as you go on about your life, you are slowly but surely dying.

If you continue like this  for a prolonged time without eating God’s  word, you are in effect fasting. When one fasts from food, they generally become weak physically. You bet that when you fast from the word of God, you become weak spiritually.

If that goes on for a long time, you will become so weak that :

• Sin will appear  normal to you. You will laugh at jokes that celebrate sin.
• You will fail to notice the evil  that sarrounds you.
• You will  not be in a strong position to withstand  when the enemy brings a fight to you.

The bottom line is this:

When tough times comes your way, and they will , you will not be prepared, and  you will crash.

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵ The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. ²⁶ But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. ²⁷ The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” ( Matthew 7:24)

Hear and heed the warnings

I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. ² Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. ( Rev 3:1,2)

and start listening to your Father, and and eating from His table, His  word.

Despite the fact that God is omnipotent, you have heard it said that there are things God cannot do. The common example you normally hear is: “God cannot lie” .

But i prefer to put it this way:  God is omnipotent but He decides not to do some things.

Consider love. If you really consider it, you will come to a conclusion that God has created human beings in such a way that even He cannot force them to love Him!

Love, for God, or for another human being, is a choice, and it can never be  forced. Not even by the Lord.

Love for God

You would imagine that, a God that has all, lacks nothing, requires no one to validate Him, would care nothing about being loved by needy human beings. But, wonder of wonders, He actually does care that we love Him.

Instead of going through the theological reasons why God wants love and what not ( i am not sure anybody really knows the reason), here is a simple illustration that fathers ( and  mothers ) should easily understand. If you are not a human parent , well, bear with me.

Any normal loving father always wants and rejoices  when his children love him. A father’s heart is broken when his children do not care for him, or do not respond to his love for them.

(Of course. I do understand that in this world we do have fallen and evil fathers among us. We do also have beings masquerading as fathers whose sole intention is to destroy the institution of fatherhood, to the end that all the illustrations the scripture uses about good fathers is destroyed and any talk of good father  rings hollow to many a listener who have been made aware of such evil fathers. Of course.)

But i am talking of  a normal, sane human fathers who love their children as much as they are able to.

When He created Adam, God  made Adam to be like Him (God). Adam’s behaviors and emotions were just like His creator’s.

If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! ( Matthew 7:9)

Since the Lord God identifies himself as a Father, whenever He relates to human beings, you can rest assured that the same way human fathers desire  the love of their sons and daughters, is the same way the heavenly Father desires to be loved by His Children.

And, the same way that you, a father, cannot force it upon your child to love you, the omnipotent God, the heavenly Father, cannot force any human being to love Him.

A father is heart broken when his children reject his love. In the same way  the Heavenly Father is heart-broken when His children walk away from Him.

That is  the main reason why you can not force someone into a relationship with God. You might have a prodigal brother, and pray mightily for him to turn to God, but the Lord cannot go over to him and say to him  ”Apollo asked me to make you love me. Love me!” You can only stand in the gap for him and ask the Lord that whatever veils his eyes be removed that he may see the great love the Lord God offers him. That is the greatest action  you can take on his behalf.

While the above illustration about a father and his children makes sense to those who are parents or are children with loving parents, here is another way of looking at it.

The Lord God says that He is a suitor/husband to Israel. That He loved her even before she knew Him. That even when she was not looking for Him, He showed her love. Sometimes she responds, but many times she sees what the other people are doing, desires it, believing that the Love of the Lord alone is not enough for her, so she goes seeking  after other lovers apart from her true love, the Lord God.

A woman cannot be good enough to earn the love of a man. A man “just” loves a woman. Here is my advice to you young women who think you can make a man  ”love” you. You cannot. If He has not loved you the first time he saw you ( the perfect scenario), there is nothing you can do to make him start loving you. Nothing. But all is not lost. Love is a choice, and only he can choose to start loving you.

In the same way, a  man cannot force the love of a woman. He can entreat her in every way imagineable, shower her with his love, but it is still very possible for her to reject his love.

Tragedy

And here is a tragedy i see.

Just like Israel of old, there are women and wives of our times who look at what the world has to offer, compare it with what they have, and their heart grow cold towards the true men and husbands in their lives. And what is that  see? They see the promises of glamour and of a love life full of “romance”, so much unlike their “ordinary and mundane” love life. They hear stories told of knights in shining armour, sweeping their brides off their feet and they get depressed at the “ordinary”  men they have to deal with every day.

The men are made to imagine a woman of  ”perfect” beauty with the best of curves imaginable, and they get discontent with that “imperfect” down to earth maiden that the Lord gave him.

And before they know it, their love and lives grow cold and they “grow” apart. They no longer feel love for one another. And the enemy says “Can you deny that you feel no love?. It is not fair to your mate. You are better off with someone else. And, this is America, it is perfectly acceptable. Furthermore, the Lord wants you to be happy. He did not say you cannot remarry”.

And many listen, and are destroyed.

And it came to pass that a  great veil is put before the people, that they do not see the lie being presented before them. And the people invited those that teach doctrines of the devil into their living rooms, and supped with them. And they that create this veil work 24/7, giving no rest to the people, lest the people think for themselves,  see the truth and be freed. ( TV 101)

Love her, even when she responds not

But here  is good news. Love is a choice. You choose to love that person. Even when they do not respond, or  love you back.

Just the same way that Lord God, our heavenly Father, continues to love us, even when we do not love Him back.

I am sure you have met born-again Christians who are always busy seeking this and that.

Christians who are seeking “success”.

You know:  a more succesful career or a more successful business or a more successful X.

This quest , translated, normally says this:

I want to be like so and so!

I want to be better than so and so!

While on the surface this innocent “godly” ambition appears to be a normal drive to do better in life or to become  a better person, if you really think hard on it,  you will be surprised what it really means.

So, if you have found yourself in such a state of mind, listen and learn of me.

Who are you? What shall i tell them?

You are a son of the Lord God, and a co-heir of the whole universe with Jesus Christ. You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God. The Lord God is your portion, and your inheritance. Who can counsel the Almighty? None. But you, you have the capability to have the mind of Christ. Friend, He calls you, and He hides not anything from you.

The others may have all the gains and the riches  this world has to offer, but of you He has said, “I am your portion”.

So, having Him, i hope you can comfortably say:

Whom have I in heaven but You?
And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You.

Nothing held back.

God spared not his only son for you, but gave Him for your salvation. He has given you of His Spirit.

So, what is it on this earth that He will deny you, if He knows that you have need of it? What more do you need now, that you do not have? What is that blessing that you need that you do not have?

What more could He give you, that He has not?

I want to be successful..

You are still seeking more success in the world? You are beyond help.

Even the Lord Himself has nothing else that could satisfy you.