UNITY - What God DOES NOT WANT!

These things I command you, so that you will love one another. If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you

Jn.15:17-19

So...our topic is UNITY!  Do you really want to know what it is?  Turn on your TV and you

will see all the time, what it is NOT! The world loves to show you how unified it is doesn't it? War? Crime? Violence? Lying, cheating, stealing, murder, we could go on and on. But what you see on the outside is only the tip of a much larger iceberg beneath the horizon.  This was Jesus' point in the sermon on the mount (Mt.5-7) to the people of His day and ours. You think that Murder is the problem? No...there's plenty underneath the surface that has lead to it, that if it is not dealt with - has not changed you in the slightest. Here are some things to think about from this point of view:

1. There are two things to remember as concerns God's will regarding this and Jesus stated them in one phrase. "And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. (Mt.22:37-39)." 
2. 2.) Where it concerns how I feel about myself, or my arrogance that I feel that because I have not done what the world has done or what this person over here did, bear in mind that before God and outside of Christ, "All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." Rom 3:12
3. 3.) Be careful that self righteousness doesn't overtake you. It is easy to say that I'm a good person, I haven't done like other people, etc. Remember, you at one time before Jesus, WERE them! (Eph.2:1-3)

What God DOES NOT WANT!

The biggest thing to remember here, is that Jesus said that those who would be part of Him, would NOT be like, act like, or take on the looks of the world at all!  Remember John's teaching, "For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.  And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. (1 Jn.2:16,17). "I'm not a murderer!" you say. God says back, have you hated someone without cause? Have you spoken about someone to the damage or their character behind their back? You say, "I'm not a liar!" God would say, "Have you always spoken the truth?" Have you fudged on something to make your side look better than someone else's but you know it is not? Understand, God doesn't want any part of the world in you, and if you are serious about being godly, you will work to not only eradicate the behaviors on the surface from your life, the hidden ones will need work too.

It is hard work, don't fool yourself. But is eternity with God worth it? You tell me! You want to be like the world? Go right ahead. Just remember that life after this one, has a world in which the things of this world have no part. 

Jim

History, Choices and God

We have seen the prophets’ statements about the Messiah and the natural events that would herald his coming and his death. Daniel spoke of the time of the Messiah being cut off, Joel spoke of the coming “day of the Lord.” Now we narrow down the events to see what is revealed by God regarding not only this, but at how the events played out in the world and actual historical events. In John 11 and 12, we see two integral parts in play. The people acting of their own accord and the Jewish Aristocracy acting on their own. One lauding Jesus, the other plotting to kill him. The point of the passage is, these people did what they did without any coercion. Nobody forced them; they made their own decision; they operated from their free will; they did what they “felt” like doing.  All are left perfectly free to decide according to the way they choose.  What is interesting, is that we are free to choose -- as they were. We can go for or against Jesus -- but as they, we cannot choose the consequences. They will invariably follow a path that will reveal the sovereign choice of God.  

The first reaction of the Pharisees, to call an emergency session of the Sanhedrin shows desperation on their part. They have come together in to take drastic action. John here records three separate views of the same events. The first two are from the human point of view, which would still be shared by many today if we were involved in these events. Yet both of these are horribly, fatally wrong. The third is God's view. In the council of the Sanhedrin there were two parties, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, which saw the events leading up to a political uprising and that would result in the wrath of Rome coming down upon them: "The Romans will come and destroy both our temple and our nation (Jn.11:48)." The remarkable thing, of course, is that they were totally wrong. In fact, it is what they did in putting Jesus to death that had the effect they were hoping to avoid.  What they did not know, or what they forgot, was that Israel was not being preserved by their clever political manipulations.  What was keeping this nation a nation, was the hand of God. When they put the one whom God sent to death, God removed his protection, and the nations which had been hovering like birds of prey fulfilled the predictions of Jesus himself, that the city would be destroyed. History shows that they were terribly, horribly wrong. They were reckoning without the knowledge of all the factors involved.

Paul writes, "We preach a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glorification. None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory," (1 Cor. 2:7-8). There is something secular wisdom does not know and cannot see because it lacks essential knowledge of the facts. Men continually make decisions which look right to them but are really terribly wrong and have disastrous effects upon themselves and upon society. In fact in Jn.11:50, it is Caiaphas’ own words uttering statements that they themselves did not understand, yet statements that confirmed  what you and I know (if we look) is the unseen hand of God in human history. Men could do their worst but they could not alter the divine plan. Richard Halverson, Chaplain to the United States Senate, states it well: "Nothing men can do will thwart or alter the will of God; and nothing God ever does sets aside the sovereign choice of man."  This unseen hand of God in human history is what men ignore, and that makes their free will a total disaster.

Prov.3: 5-6: "Trust in the Lord with all of your heart, and lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your path."  It is absolutely impossible to understand what is happening in life unless you see life from God's point of view. There are factors involved that you will miss, there are realities that you do not see, that nobody sees. Nothing reveals time more than the hand of God in history.  Jn.11:54 states, “Jesus therefore no longer went about openly among the Jews, but went from there to the country near the wilderness, to a town called Ephraim; and there he stayed with the disciples.”  Why did he do so? There is no evidence that he ever was afraid of what he was facing. It was because he understood the way God works.  God is still at work, moving among men to raise up kingdoms and overthrow kingdoms. We must never forget that this view of history supplies elements that no secular mind can ever see. The rulers of this age do not understand this and so they make atrocious errors.  Paul says, "But we have the mind of Christ," (1 Cor.2:16). When you begin to have the mind of Christ, when you know the Word of God, when you look at events through its light -- not when you merely listen occasionally to a message, but when you saturate yourself with the mind and thinking of God you can face life realistically. Do you have that mind?

Jim