All In - Part Two

The Bible tells of a young man of great wealth who came running to Jesus one day eager to ask his question. This man wanted something that he believed Jesus could tell him how to receive. So he asked, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?"

After Jesus asked the young man what the law would say one must do, the young man professed with confidence he had sufficiently kept the law. So to this Jesus said, "Go sell all that you have and give to the poor. Then come follow Me." At this the young man was greatly saddened and walked away from Jesus. The reason the writer tells us is that the man possessed great wealth.

Jesus was much more concerned not with us possessing wealth, but that wealth would possess us.

It is often said that the most difficult thing for a pastor to preach upon in any church is the topic of wealth, money, and possessions. This may be true. But what is for sure true is that often the last thing to come under the lordship of Jesus is our wealth, however big or little it may seem to us.

Being all in to follow Jesus means being all in to give to advance His work. We want to see God work. We want our local churches to thrive. Yet we can be withholding the resources God intends to support that very work.

Some today have called tithing (giving 10% of one's income to God's work in the local church) an obsolete concept and something erased by the New Testament. Certainly the New Testament speaks less of tithing and more of sacrificial giving. However, the New Testament does not negate the teaching of tithing and also presents how grace should demand we give more than the law ever did and not less.

Are you all in in following Jesus? Would you resources and wealth reflect this?

God intends to fully fund the work of His kingdom through the giving of His people.

God has already demonstrated the greatest generosity we can ever know in the giving of His Son who in turn has given to us the gift of eternal life.

Take a Daniel moment:

1.  Celebrate God's generosity to us in giving us His Son and eternal life.
2.  Worship God as the giver of all good gifts and all things we possess.
3.  Ask God to empower you to by faith go all in by giving to Him generously and sacrificially.
4.  Pray that the work of Christ's kingdom would not be hindered by our lack of faith and giving.

Grant Me Wisdom

The Bible teaches we often go without because we often fail to ask. More than this, however, is that we can often be asking for the wrong things or asking amiss.

What are we asking God to give to us?

Solomon inherited the throne of his father. David had been beloved and good (though imperfect) king. As Solomon took the throne, he felt inadequate to lead God's people. What an incredible undertaking to exercise authority over God's people and lead them in the way everlasting!  I can identify. Not with being a king or the son of a king, but the awesome task of leading God's people.

When God, therefore, asked Solomon what he would request, Solomon asked for discernment and wisdom. He petitioned God for a discerning heart to govern the people, distinguishing between right and wrong. He didn't want to be in power. He wanted to be a good leader.

This request pleased the Lord who granted him both wisdom and the things he could have asked for but didn't. God gave Solomon wisdom to lead the people. Wisdom is not synonymous with knowledge. Wisdom is the application of knowledge and the ability to discern among people and situations. The kind of wisdom we need comes from above, from the God who sees all things perfectly.

Knowledge may tell you what, but it is wisdom that guides you in how. Knowledge may give you the answer, but wisdom will give you the application.

Regardless of your need, ask God to supply. If your need is to know how God would have you to act or move, pray for the wisdom from God above.

Take a Daniel moment:

1.  Praise God for His infinite wisdom and counsel.

2.  Ask God to supply for your specific need today.

3.  Pray for wisdom in how God would have you to live, move, and have your being.

Make Us a City of Light

Jesus is the Light of the World. In Him is life and His life is the light of all people. When He entered into the world, darkened by disobedience and rebellion, the Light shone into the darkness and the darkness could not understand it. The darkness even sought to extinguish the Light by putting Jesus to death on the cross. But the grave could not hold Him and darkness could not put out the Light.

By the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Peter says we have been called out of darkness and into His marvelous light. Christ died once for all to rescue us out of darkness and convey us into His kingdom. Now as His followers, Jesus teaches that we are to be a city of light. He taught that His disciples are a city set on a hill to shine the light of Christ and the gospel into a dark world. 

Being a city of light includes living in such a way as to display to the world what life can be when individuals surrender to worship and obey Jesus Christ. Jesus' followers are anything but perfect. But the unfortunate truth is that the church has often struggled to be a light to the world. We either have hidden our light from the world, we have run from the darkness in fear, or we have simply looked and lived more like those outside of the kingdom of God than those who ruled and rescued by Jesus Christ.

God has made you, re-made you in Jesus Christ, and placed you where you are today. You are there as a Jesus-follower to display what life in Jesus Christ looks like. You are there as a Jesus-follower to declare how life in Jesus Christ is received. 

Take a Daniel moment:

1.  Celebrate that Jesus is the Light of the World and that His light never dims or goes out.

2.  Give thanks that the full assault of darkness on Jesus Christ could not extinguish His life or light.

3.  Thank God for calling you out of darkness and into His marvelous light.

4.  Pray that God will make you a city of light.

5.  Ask Jesus to make clear specific ways you can display and declare His light to the world beginning right where you are today.

Wisdom for Living

We live with limited sight. I cannot see the motivation with which another individual performs a certain action. I do not know all the circumstances in a given situation ( regardless of how much I do know). I am unable to see the past completely or know the future.

I need a wisdom that is far above me. I am desperate for One who sees all things outside of time limitations. Hearing from One who knows the hearts of all men, seeing their motivation and perceiving their thoughts rather than just knowing what they do, is of great value. 

God sits high above the heavens. He knows the thoughts and intents of the heart. He perceives our words before they cross our lips. God sees our rising and lying down before they even occur. And not just for us, but of all the world. He knows all things from before they began. He has determined the end of all things and the path that leads to that point.

God is not just a God of knowledge. He is the God of all wisdom. He knows the exact word to speak and deed to perform by knowing all things. 

James warned that living by the wisdom of this earth leads to strife, bitterness, lust, and murder (and that's just among believers - James 3:13-4:2). Joshua found that when he did not consult God regarding the men who claimed to come from afar that he entered into a peace treaty with men from a nation God intended the Israelites to remove from the land of Canaan.

Every decision of our lives should be governed by the wisdom that comes from above. God has expressed this wisdom and His will through His words in Scripture. He also gives to His followers the Spirit of God to convict us of sin (because we lived by our own wisdom and desires) and guide us into all truth (to know and live by the wisdom of God).

Take a Daniel moment:

1.  Praise God that He is the all-wise God.

2.  Ask for the wisdom from above--pure, peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial, and sincere.

3.  Pray for God to lead you to live your life in every way by the wisdom of God.

A Choice Will Be Made

Today a choice will be made. You and I, along with every one in the world, will make that choice. It is the choice of who or what we will worship and serve.

Our land is flooded with idols. Hindus may erect idols in their homes and shops with the heavy aroma of incense burned to these gods. Dare we judge and criticize them and others without scrutinizing our own lives and culture.

We may have fashioned our gods of other materials, but they are gods no less. Whether the god of money, sex, pleasure, power, position, relationships or some other, we live with countless gods we have created by our own hands. These we worship and serve as if they are suitable substitutes for the True God. That is by definition an idol—a God substitute.

 God is jealous for His own glory. He permits no substitutes or rivals. He expects complete surrender and whole-hearted devotion.

Joshua came to the end of his days and he implored the people to make the choice.  He said, “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

There is a choice to follow Jesus that comes as a conscious act of the will decision in which we place our faith and trust in Him alone to be rescued from sin and restored in relationship to God. Yet every day there must be the decision to worship and serve Him alone. Every day idols must be identified and torn down. Every day my own desires must be put to death so they do not obstruct the path to follow Jesus.

Jesus told every would-be follower the cost was high. “You must deny yourself, take up your cross daily, and follow Me.”  The choice will be made today and every day. You will make the choice whether purposefully or by default. You will worship and serve Him or you will worship and serve another.

What will you choose today?

Take a Daniel moment:

1. Praise God that He alone is worthy to be worshiped and served.
2. Celebrate that God is the all-wise and only true God.
3. Ask for God to identify the idols in your own heart.
4. Pray for yourself to be nailed to the cross with Christ that nothing in you would hinder your following Jesus or get in the way of God’s work and mission.
5. Surrender yourself to worship and serve Jesus today.
6. Repeat tomorrow.

So Close

Moses came close…real close. God told Moses to go upon the Abarim Range to Mount Nebo. From this lofty perch Moses was able to see the land of Canaan. 

Moses would see it but not touch it. He would come so close but he would not enter in and receive what God had promised. He lacked the faith to trust God and obey God's word in a difficult situation.

The people of Israel had been led out of Egypt by the mighty deeds of God. Yet they never seemed to be content and grateful. Instead, they grumbled about not have water to drink. They complained that they didn't have meat to eat. On more than one occasion they accused Moses of leading them out of Egypt to die in the wilderness. And at least once they planned to select a leader to take them back to Egypt.

Leading people is a difficult task and Moses faced every difficulty in leading a people one could imagine. We can imagine how day after day and month by month how this just weighed upon him. So we can also imagine how, when the people once again griped about not having water and God said He would provide if Moses and Aaron would speak to the rock, Moses took his staff and hit the rock instead.

He was frustrated.

He was angry.

He was weary with the people's complaints.

But most of all, he was a man who in that moment acted on his own rather than by faith. Faith in God in every situation and circumstance of life will lead to obeying God. After Moses struck the rock, God said, "Because you have not believed Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them."

Moses did not believe God. He did not trust God. He had not faith to follow God's way. So he chose his own way. Yet God still brought water from the rock in spite of Moses and Aaron's lack of faith and direct disobedience.

As I read this passage (familiar to me) once again today, I sought to ask whether or not I am exercising faith and obedience to God in every situation and circumstance. What I do not want to be true in my life is that I forfeit the promises of God and getting to be part of God's mission and work because I fail to trust HIm wholly and obey Him fully. My heart was so overwhelmed and encouraged, though, that even when I fail to have faith and obey, God graciously gives what we need (as He gave the people the water they needed for drink).

Take a Daniel Moment:

1.  What areas in your life are you not exercising faith and obedience?

2.  In what ways are you missing out on God's work and promises as a result?

3.  Pray that God would expose these areas and help your unbelief?

4.  Ask God to allow you to exercise radical belief that leads to crazy obedience so you don't come close but never take part in what He is doing and desires for us.