Skip to main content

 HIS WORD…or…MY WILL?

What are we basing our lives on? Do my feelings, that influence my will, have preeminence or is it God’s Word that shape decisions and action as I follow Jesus? 

What will you do? What will you approve of and why?

If God has set holy boundaries around human sexuality, it is because the Lord of creation knows what decisions and actions will make for human flourishing. He is not a “killjoy”. He invented sexual intimacy. He wants that physical union to be grounded in a covenantal lifelong commitment between a man and a woman. That is where the benefits flow, where grace undergirds. 

Deciding to do your “own thing “ without reference to God, His ways, and His sovereign right to the whole of you, you cannot expect God’s blessings. He will not reinforce rebellion and hard-heartedness. You cannot expect God’s blessing on your life if you don’t care what God says. You cannot avoid the consequences of thinking you know more about your life than the One who created you.

Sin pays a wage of death, decay, delusion, deception and confusion. God speaks through the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 17:5-6) “This is what the Lord says, ‘Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans (that includes the preference of you will over God’s clear Word) who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the Lord (not caring what He had said) . They are like stunted shrubs in the desert, with no hope for the future.”

You can say, “I don’t care what God says! I will not be sorry for my sin. I will not tolerate God’s direction.” But the fruit of choosing your will over God’s Word will end in destruction, loss, delusion and despair. 

For a true follower of Jesus Christ, there is life-change in an ongoing, ever increasing degree. If there has been no radical change in your life because you belong to Him, it is possible that you have no real relationship with Him. You can’t call Him LORD and still live your life as if He doesn’t exist and His Word has no meaning or home in you.

You can’t call Him Lord by mere reading the Bible through and even memorizing it. You’re like the Pharisees and teachers of God’s Law who memorized the whole biblical text and yet had it make no difference in your heart and the direction of your life. You may be religious, but if YOUR will supersedes the Word of God, you reveal that you idolize your feelings, sacrifice to them, and block the grace of God.

Do not be deceived! God’s Word or your will? It is a life or death choice.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

 THE FOLLY OF IDOLATRY Martin Luther said that the human heart is an idol factory. The truth is that we were created to know and live by the gracious rule of and in the Presence of God who created us. Our peace, our understanding of meaning and purpose can only be truly grounded in God who created us for that meaning and purpose. The rebellion of Adam and Eve, their decision to do the opposite of what God said would make for life, resulted in spiritual and ultimately physical death. They chose to believe they needed something more than what God had provided. Their doomed attempt to try and live life without reference to God as the ground of meaning and purpose did not make life fuller, but emptied it. They wanted to decide what was good and what was evil without God and the disintegration of human life was the consequence. Rather than living in the Presence of God and by the gracious rule of God all around them, they turned from wholeness to brokenness, from fulfilment to scarc...
Post a Comment
Read more
  WORKING AGAINST ALL HUMANITY 1 Thessalonians 2:15-16 “They fail to please God and WORK AGAINST ALL HUMANITY   as they try to keep us from preaching the Good News of salvation to the Gentiles. By doing this, they continue to pile up their sins.” WOW! What a startling statement! St. Paul is making it crystal clear that those who oppose and work to prevent the proclamation of the Gospel are actually “working against ALL HUMANITY.” Why would he write that? It is because the only means of the restoration, reclamation and salvation of humanity is what God has done for all people through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That is the essence of the Gospel: Jesus Christ. To oppose and try to silence the presentation of the Gospel is to work against the reclamation of all humanity. Who would want to work against ALL humanity? Satan is the name by which he is known. He hates ALL humanity because every human being still bears the image of God, albeit that ima...
Post a Comment
Read more
  TIMING Years ago, I head an old preacher say, “The right thing at the wrong time is the wrong thing.” That statement is an offense to the culture being worshipped world-wide today. There is a lust for the immediate, as a line from an old movie stated, “Immediate gratification takes too long!” We want faster internet, immediate responses to our texts, mobile orders at the ready when we walk into Starbucks. What we want, we demand to have NOW. We are masters at justifying ourselves. “Well, we’re engaged already and we’re going to get married anyway, so what’s wrong with us living together and being sexually intimate now?” God’s timing in human relationship is not arbitrary, it is protective and covering. Sad to say, even some who call themselves followers of Jesus Christ choose to justify their living in sexual sin now, because they promise that they will one day get married. The context where sexual intimacy finds its true meaning and purpose is in the covenant of marriage. ...
Post a Comment
Read more