This past Sunday we learned to identify and reject false teaching.

In Job 36 the speaker is Elihu, one of Job’s friends. He is trying to explain away Job’s suffering based on a wrong understanding of how God works and what God’s word says.

Job 36:11 “If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, an their years in pleasures.”

Yet the truth is that God uses difficulties and suffering to accomplish His will through His children.

II Corinthians 12:9-10 : Paul had the thorn in the flesh I Timothy 5:23 - Timothy had a stomach condition

Hebrews 11:35 : People who are living by faith are suffering great heartache  

II Timothy 3:12 teaches that all that live Godly will suffer.

Today make sure you're drawing your conclusions and expectations about life from God’s word not man’s logic. (be it your own or someone else’s)

“Let us trust and obey for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus than to trust and obey.”

Esther 9:18 "But the Jews that were at Shushan assembled together on the thirteenth day thereof, and on the fourteenth thereof; and on the fifteenth day of the same they rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness"

Esther and the Jewish people were spared and given a great victory over their enemy Haman.
They responded with a yearly festival called Purim in which they celebrated God's power and deliverance.

Today let each of us have our own "Purim".

Let us take time to rejoice over the ways God has worked in our individual lives and families.

May this rejoicing be seen by our actions and shared by our words.

James 4:15 "For what ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that."

 

We are called to faithfully and rightly spend time thinking, planning and doing. 

 

Yet all of our work needs to be surrendered to the promise that God has a plan that is best and the power to make it happen.

 

Today - let each of us "REST IN THE WILL OF GOD"

I Timothy 1:1-2 "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope; Unto Timothy, my own son in the faith; Grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord."

 

Do you need more grace? (God doing for you what you can not do for yourself)

 

Do you need more mercy? (God withholding from you the negative consequences you deserve)

 

Do you need more peace? (God calming your spirit and mind in the midst of all the movement in life)

 

Then remember that our God and Saviour Jesus Christ is our hope. Our only hope.

 

Ask Him for the grace, mercy and peace you need today. He knows what you need and how to give it to you.

 

In the midst of your most pressing challenges today turn to the only source that can sustain you, the person, presence and power of Christ.

Luke 1:6-8 "And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years. And it came to pass, that while he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his course,"

 

In the midst of great disappointment (no children) both Elizabeth and Zacharias were faithful in two very important ways.

 

Fist they "did right"! In their individual lives they chose to follow the Lord in obedience to His word.

 

Second, they "stayed committed" to the ministry to which God had called them.

 

They did not allow a broken heart, that had no expectation of relief, to throw them off course.

 

Life, this side of heaven, is going to to be filled with plans that do not work, desires that are not met, and pain that will not go away.

 

The question is, "Will we still be faithful?"

 

This week may we examine the commitment in our personal lives to being and doing right, regardless of the condition in which we find ourselves.

 

Hebrews 9:14 "How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead

works to serve the living God?"

 

Freedom & opportunity are two sides of the same door! It is true in government and is certainly true in our relationship with God.

 

We are free from the power and penalty of our sins. This freedom is found in the sufficiency of the blood of Christ!

 

This freedom is designed to lead to a singular focus on ministry - for all of us! We are to serve the living God.

 

Today, let us celebrate our freedom in Christ with a unreserved commitment to serve God with confidence.

 

Remember - we are all "saved to serve!"

"And he (Jesus) went a little farther and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt."

 

The prayer of submission.

 

Jesus, hours before the cross, pours out His heart to the Father, acknowledging the difficulty that He was facing and the natural desire to avoid it.

 

Then comes the sweet prayer of submission.

 

The prayer begins with the word "nevertheless" and concludes with the phrase "as thou wilt".

 

The first (nevertheless) is the prayer of abandonment; willing to give up whatever plans we might have or hold dear to our hearts.

 

The second (as thou wilt) is the prayer of acceptance; willing to embrace the Fathers will as the best.

 

Today, let us pray the prayer of submission in word, in deed, and in response to the difficulties of the day.

 

If you are having your own "garden of Gethsemane", make a plan to spend some concentrated and extended time in the prayer of submission. You will find, as Jesus illustrated, the strength you need to fulfill the calling of God upon your life.

 

Pastor Tony

 

NOTE: "Pastor's enote" will be taking a two week break because Karen and I are on vacation. (April 9- 23) Looking forward to reconnecting afterwards.