Sara W. Berry -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day 7 | Noah Posted: 15 Sep 2013 02:30 AM PDT This week’s lessons could be summed up in one word: Downline. We all will influence people in our downline, be it our children, church family, friends, neighbors, or co-workers. What does your downline look like? How will you pass to others the hope and truth which comes from Christ alone? What kind of legacy will you leave behind? What difference will your life make? Tough questions that we often want to dismiss for another day. But today is the only for sure we have. We can’t put it off. So let’s get brave and think about it. Let’s evaluate how our life is going. It can be a bit overwhelming. We need to eliminate and concentrate. Eliminate those things which don’t have value in your legacy and concentrate on those things that do. How are we to do that? Scripture offers an easy, daily way to achieve this goal. It is called offering yourself as a living sacrifice. Sounds scary, doesn’t it? It’s really not, though, when we factor in the truth that one of the names of our great God is Emmanuel, which means, “God with us.”. God tells us throughout scripture, “I will never ever leave you nor forsake you. I promise. It is Who I am.” So when you are mocked or misunderstood, when you are tested in your faith, when you go through fiery trials and great grief, remember, He is Emmanuel. He is God and He is with you. And nothing shall snatch you from His hand. Romans 12:1-2 says this: Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Offering ourselves as a living sacrifice seems a bit radical, a bit scary, a bit out of control. It is all of those things. But it is also the safest and most peace-provoking thing you can do. Give up yourself. Give up your rights. Trust Him. When we offer ourselves as a living sacrifice, we please Him; we become holy; we have an opportunity to worship with our very lives. “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Don’t conform any longer. We can’t kid ourselves. We haven’t always gotten it right. But we can renew our faith and say, “Today, I won’t conform any longer to the pattern of this world.” If you are a fairly new Christian, feel free to skip over this part, or read it and tuck away the information for a time in the future. Right now, I am talking to the seasoned soldiers, to those of us who have been Christians for quite awhile. I want you to think for a moment about the ranking of soldiers. When you first enter the armed forces, you start out as a private. A private is important, but his responsibilities are limited. In time, he works his way up to the position of captain. And then, as more time goes on and as more victories are won, he works his way up to that of a general. Once a soldier has risen to the place of captain, he can’t go back to private. It just isn’t done. Nor would any captain want to go backward. With each rise in rank, more authority and more responsibility come. At the same time, more honor comes. Privates aren’t privy to war strategies. They don’t get the inside information. But the captains do. They understand the strategies and are responsible for carrying them out. Captains are held to a higher standard. And yes, it is true that the enemies rejoice more over a fallen captain than a fallen private. Are you ready to rise in rank? God is calling you higher. But be warned that there is greater responsibility with the greater authority and honor. You will be held to a higher standard because you have a higher calling. Friends, we are all being called to a higher standing. God wants to use us and equip us. But it will take some understanding and maybe sacrifice on our part. But oh, the joy that comes with a higher calling. When I was in my twenties, a dear friend gave me the following essay written by G. D. Watson. It has stuck with me over the years, beckoning me to go higher with the Lord. See if your heart relates and responds as well. If God has called you to be really like Jesus in all your spirit, He will draw you into a life of crucifixion and humility, and put on you such demands of obedience, that He will not allow you to follow other Christians, and in many ways He will seem to let other good people do things which He will not let you do. Other Christians and ministers who seem very religious and useful may push themselves, pull wires, and work schemes to carry out their plans, but you cannot do it; and if you attempt it, you will meet with such failure and rebuke from the Lord as to make you sorely penitent. Others may brag on themselves, on their work, on their success, on their writings, but the Holy Spirit will not allow you to do any such thing, and if you begin it, he will lead you into some deep mortification that will make you despise yourself and all your good works. Others will be allowed to succeed in making money, or having a legacy left to them, or in having luxuries. But it is likely God will keep you poor, because He wants you to have something better than gold, and this is a helpless dependence on Him, that He may have the privilege of supplying your needs day by day out of an unseen treasury. The Lord will let others be honored, and put forward, and keep you hid away in obscurity, because He wants to produce some choice, fragrant fruit for His coming glory, which can only be produced in the shade. He will let others be great, but keep you small. He will let others do a work for Him, and get the credit for it, but He will make you work and toil on without knowing how much you are doing: and then to make your work still more precious, He will let others get the credit for the work you have done, and this will make your reward ten times greater when Jesus comes. The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch over you, with a jealous love, and will rebuke you for little words and feelings or for wasting your time, which other Christians never seem distressed over. So make up your mind that God is an infinite Sovereign God, and has a right to do as He pleases with His own, and He will not explain to you a thousand things which may puzzle your reason in His dealings with you. He will take you at your word; and if you absolutely sell yourself to be His slave, He will wrap you up in a jealous love, and let other people say and do many things that you cannot do or say. Settle it forever, that you are to deal directly with the Holy Spirit, and that He is to have the privilege of tying your tongue, or chaining your hand, or closing your eyes. In ways that He does not deal with others. Now when you are so possessed with the living God that you are, in your secret heart, pleased and delighted over this peculiar, personal, private, jealous guardianship and management of the Holy Spirit over your life, you will have found the vestibule of Heaven.” Friends, are you ready to rise in rank? Are you willing? The basic uncompromising instructions are in God’s Word for all to see and follow. Your specific instructions are between you and the Lord. I can’t tell you what you are supposed to do or what you are supposed to sacrifice. That is between you and God. He will give you your own personalized marching orders. I can tell you that you won’t be sorry if you take that step of obedience and sacrifice. If you are willing to be set apart, you will find an intimacy with the Creator of the Universe that you never dreamed possible. He is waiting for you. Isaiah came to that moment of surrender in the year that King Uzziah died. When he saw God in His glory, he couldn’t help but surrender his whole life. I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.” Isaiah 6:8 Oswald Chambers had this to say about this passage. God did not direct His call to Isaiah—Isaiah overheard God saying, “… who will go for Us?” The call of God is not just for a select few but for everyone. Whether I hear God’s call or not depends on the condition of my ears, and exactly what I hear depends upon my spiritual attitude. Next week we will see more of how Noah’s downline-Abraham-had a mighty calling from God. But for today, I want you to think about your own calling. Pray for the condition of your ears, so you will be able to listen and hear. And then obediently, bravely say, “Here am I! Send me.” Praying for you this day!
Posted on: Sun, 15 Sep 2013 23:17:51 +0000
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