Learning God's Precepts

 If All Is Well, Why Am I Like This?

Genesis 25:20–26

Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah as wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padan Aram, the sister of Laban the Syrian.

Now Isaac pleaded with the LORD for his wife, because she was barren; and the LORD granted his plea, and Rebekah his wife conceived.

But the children struggled together within her; and she said, “If all is well, why am I like this?” So she went to inquire of the LORD.

And the LORD said to her: “Two nations are in your womb, Two peoples shall be separated from your body; One people shall be stronger than the other, And the older shall serve the younger.”

So when her days were fulfilled for her to give birth, indeed there were twins in her womb. And the first came out red.

He was like a hairy garment all over; so they called his name Esau.

Afterward his brother came out, and his hand took hold of Esau’s heel; so his name was called Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.

Twenty Years of Waiting

The first time this passage really stood out to me was when I realized that Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebekah as his wife, but by the time they gave birth to Esau and Jacob, Isaac was already 60 years old.

There were 20 years between when they got married and when they gave birth to the only children they had, Esau and Jacob.

Twenty years in between.

Twenty years of waiting before the children finally came.

I know that in those days, women married quite young. So let’s say, maybe Rebekah was 16 years old. Let’s take 16 years old as the age when the young ladies got married at that time.

That would mean that by the time she gave birth, she would have been 36 years old - 20 years later.

And I can imagine what it must have felt like because, if she had gotten married at 16, most of the other people who got married at 16 at that time maybe got pregnant almost immediately, and then they had their kids.

By the time they were 20, maybe they would already have two or three kids. I’m just using a quick example. I’m not saying this is exactly how it happened.

They could have had the kids they wanted to have while Rebekah couldn’t have any child until she turned 36.

Now, let’s imagine that someone got married at 16 and had a child maybe at 17. That child, a daughter, then grows up, turns 16, gets married, and gets pregnant. So that’s 17 plus 16, which would be about 33 or 34.

That means that by the time Rebekah was pregnant and about to give birth at about 35 or 36, almost all of her age-mates who got married around the ages of 15, 16, or 17 would not only have finished giving birth, but their children could now be the ones who were pregnant and in the process of giving birth.

While Rebekah was trying to give birth to her own child, her age-mates could have been having their grandchildren.

And I can imagine what that must have felt like for her.

Maybe when she was feeling these children struggling in her womb, she could have gone to meet people, and people could have told her that all was well.

That it was okay.

That it was because she was having a child later in life.

That this was a geriatric pregnancy and she was having a child at a time when her age-mates were having grandchildren.

They could have told her that she should expect that it would not be the same for her as it had been for them.

Imagine people repeatedly telling her:

“It’s okay. It’s not a big deal. What you’re experiencing is what you should be experiencing.”

Like I said, maybe she was 35, 36, 37, or approaching 40. Even in this day and age, that is considered an older pregnancy. Giving birth from the age of 35 or 36, even today, when maternal mortality has dropped drastically, can be considered an older pregnancy.

I can’t imagine what it must have looked like at that time.

Everybody could have told her that every time she complained that something wasn’t well or things didn’t feel right, it was simply a symptom of having a geriatric pregnancy and that she should just accept it.

Even the people who helped women give birth - the midwives - could have said:

“It’s okay. It’s expected. This is the way things are supposed to be. You should expect that it will not be as easy or straightforward as it would have been if you had given birth when you were maybe 16 or 17.”

They could have told her that all the issues she was facing were to be expected.

But she insisted and said:

If All Is Well, Why Am I Like This?

That question stayed with me:

“If all is well, why am I like this?”

If all is well, why am I like this?

The lesson that I learned from this is to be insistent even when everybody tells you that it’s okay.

Imagine when your fire is dying out and everyone tells you that it happens - that when you give your life to Christ, you’re on fire, but eventually everybody loses that spark.

No.

All is not well.

Refuse to accept the status quo.

Insist and say:

“No, all is not well. I know that all is not well.”

You cannot tell me that it is expected that I’ll be on fire today and then tomorrow I’ll not be on fire, or tell me that it wanes and ebbs - that fire for God wanes and ebbs.

No.

My Lord’s Word told me that I would go from one degree of glory to another degree of glory, that if we seek Him, He will show us great and marvelous and mighty things that we have never known.

I should not use my own hand to peg myself and accept circumstances and say:

“Oh, this is the way it’s supposed to be. This is the way it has always been. This is the way it was for others; therefore, I must just sit down and accept it.”

No.

All is not well.

If all does not feel well, take it to God.

Rebekah went to God with it, and God didn’t tell her:

“Oh, all is well.”

No.

God told her that there were two nations in her womb.

There was an explanation for it.

All was not the way it was supposed to be. There were two nations in her womb, two peoples who would be separated from her body.

Because she went to God, she was able to receive a revelation of the future of the children that she had.

Imagine if she had just accepted it and said:

“Oh, this is the way it’s supposed to be.”

She would not have been able to receive from God a revelation of the future and destiny of her children.

She would not have been able to help Jacob come into the destiny that God had already spoken about when He said that the older would serve the younger.

But because she refused to simply accept that this was the way it was supposed to be, she was able to get from God a glimpse into the future of her children.

She was able to get from God a vision, a picture of the future of her children, and she was able to use it to help ensure that her children lived up to the destiny that God had planned for them.

So the thing I want to walk away from this with is:

Refuse to accept the status quo.

Refuse to let people convince you - or, for me, I refuse to let people convince me - that if I feel like all is not well, I should just accept that that’s the way it is.

No, no, no.

That’s not the way it’s supposed to be.

So, if all is well, why am I like this?

Go to God in prayer and insist:

“God, all doesn’t feel well. Why am I feeling like this?”

And I know that the Lord will give us an answer.

Sometimes things may not feel well because God is calling us. But because we are used to the status quo, because we have let people convince us to accept the status quo, we may miss God calling us to a higher level of consecration, calling us to come and hear from Him.

I can imagine how hard it must have been for Rebekah because everybody could have told her:

“This is a geriatric pregnancy. You shouldn’t expect it to be smooth. You should expect to be in the midst of all of this suffering.”

But she said no.

She went to God, and she got an answer for her problems.

I pray that God will help us not to just accept what is, but to push through and go into the more that God has planned for us and the more that God is calling us to.

In the mighty name of Jesus, amen.

One thing I have learned over the course of my walk with God is that a lot of things I thought would be abstract - because, you know, spiritual things are supposed to be that way - simply are not. Yes, there will be a lot of those types of spiritual experiences, but most of my walk with God has simply been life: putting one foot before the next, going from one day to the next, in simple conversations scattered throughout the mundane things of life.

I have also discovered that a lot of the enemy's attacks on God's children - followers of Christ who have made Him their Lord and Savior - follow a similar pattern.

So, reading the story of Judas again with this knowledge, I finally got some clarity.

Mark 14:3–11 tells the story of Jesus in Bethany, at the house of Simon the leper. As Jesus sat at the table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of very costly oil of spikenard. She broke the flask and poured the oil on His head.

Some of those who were there became indignant and said, “Why was this fragrant oil wasted? It might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they criticized her sharply.

But Jesus said, “Let her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a good work for Me. For you have the poor with you always, and whenever you wish, you may do them good; but Me you do not have always. She has done what she could. She has come beforehand to anoint My body for burial. Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her.”

Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus. When they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money. So he sought how he might conveniently betray Him.

Every time I read the story of Judas betraying Jesus, one thing has always stood out to me: Why Judas?

John 13:27 says that after Jesus dipped the bread and gave it to Judas, “Satan entered him.”

Luke 22:3 also says, “Then Satan entered Judas, surnamed Iscariot, who was numbered among the twelve.” Judas then went to the chief priests and captains and discussed how he might betray Jesus.

I know the Word says that somebody would betray Jesus, but I have always wondered: why Judas?

You see, I always wondered, why Judas? I know that in order to fulfill prophecy, someone was supposed to betray Jesus. I know he did, but why him? Because we know from the Bible that we always have a choice. God gives us a choice.

Why would Judas do that after knowing Jesus so well and for so long?

This was Judas, who had been walking with Jesus for maybe three years at this point. He knew what Jesus was capable of. He had seen Jesus heal the sick. He had seen Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead four days after he died.

What would make Judas wake up one day and decide that he was going to betray Jesus?

I began to read the story again, and I think it was the version in the Gospel according to Mark that really jumped out to me. I finally began to get some level of understanding.

The Gospel according to John identifies the woman in this story as Mary. But Mark simply says that a woman came and broke the alabaster flask of oil.

I try to picture what it would have been like to live in that time.

Some of the Gospel writers didn't even bother to mention her name. This was Mary, who, as far as we can tell, had walked closely with Jesus, and yet in the telling of this story, she is most often simply described as “a woman.” Considering how lowly or inconsequential women were considered to be at that time - that they are mostly not mentioned, and even when mentioned are rarely referred to by name - it makes sense.

And then you have Judas.

Judas was one of the twelve men closest to Jesus.

Jesus was sought after everywhere. Every city they went to, crowds gathered around Jesus to see Him. People came from near and far to hear Him speak or even to touch the hem of His garment.

He was a big deal - He still is.

So, those who wanted personal access to Jesus - outside of when He made Himself available to all - think Nicodemus or the men from Greece, had to work with the apostles to get to see Him. Even the Pharisees knew this. That's why they were looking for someone to betray Him by taking them to see Jesus when He was not out in public.

This meant that the apostles would have considered themselves somewhat important. They were the closest friends of a great man, and proximity to greatness tends to rub off on us. In fact, they were even arguing amongst themselves about who was the greatest.

So picture this.

You have a man who considers himself somewhat important, and then you have this woman, Mary, whom society did not really count as anything.

She comes in and breaks this alabaster box of oil.

Judas corrects her.

Why should she have broken that jar? We could have done so much with this money.

And then Jesus responds:

“Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a good work for Me.”

That is a strong response.

In the presence of many people.

Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead, and people had come from Jerusalem and elsewhere to see Lazarus, the man who had been raised back to life after four days.

Imagine that you are somewhat egotistical. You consider yourself a “bigwig” as one of those closest to a great man. Here is a woman whom you count as nothing.

You – Judas - are correcting her publicly.

Then, as you are correcting this woman, Jesus corrects you too.

Publicly.

In front of the woman.

In front of everybody.

And I realized that there is a chance Judas got offended.

I know that public correction can rub me the wrong way - so maybe it did the same with Judas.

Maybe Judas became offended.

And this happens to the best of us.

We think we are more than we are. Something happens to us, and we think, I shouldn't have experienced this.

Then we become annoyed.

Because we are annoyed, we become offended.

And because we are offended, we make rash, unreasonable decisions.

Maybe Judas became offended and decided that was the last straw, that he didn't have to be there, and that he wasn't going to continue with Jesus anymore.

But he'd “given up” three years following Jesus, and he wouldn't have wanted to leave empty-handed, so he decided he was going to betray Him for the money.

When I look at the end of Judas and the statement he made to the Pharisees, I wonder whether Judas actually expected Jesus to die.

Maybe he didn't.

And this is how Satan deceives us.

Think about it.

This was Jesus, who had performed miracles, raised the dead, and healed the sick. Before Jesus gave Himself up to the cross, no one could touch Him. Judas knew what Jesus was capable of.

The Bible also tells us that there were highly placed people who had come to know the truth but did not associate with Jesus openly because they feared being thrown out or persecuted by the Pharisees.

Judas was an insider. He was part of Jesus' inner circle. He would have known the calibre of people who followed Jesus secretly.

Maybe, in his head, he thought, There are influential people on Jesus' side. They won't just let Him die.

I can see that happening.

There is also the fact that Jesus performed miracles. Judas knew that, in the worst-case scenario, Jesus was a miracle worker. Maybe He could simply work His way out of it.

Then I think about the fact that Judas handed Jesus over to the Pharisees - not to the Romans, but to the Pharisees.

This distinction is important.

Why?

Because according to what the Pharisees themselves said, they did not have the authority to put someone to death.

Maybe Judas thought the worst that would happen was embarrassment.

Jesus would get arrested. He would be embarrassed. Then, by the time He went through an actual trial—not the sham trial He ultimately received - they would discover that Jesus hadn't done anything worthy of whatever punishment they wanted to give Him.

He knew Jesus wasn't guilty of anything worthy of death.

Maybe they would put Him in prison for a bit.

Maybe they would flog Him.

Then they would release Him.

When you're offended, you can think, Good. Let him see what it feels like to be embarrassed the way I felt embarrassed when he corrected me in front of all those people.

I've been here before.

Not in circumstances anywhere near this extreme, but I recognize what happens when Satan begins to convince us to justify evil or bad behaviour by telling us:

It's not as bad as it looks.

But we cannot see the other side.

We cannot see the consequences of our actions.

Satan keeps telling us, It's not that bad.

You're offended, and you think, Let them get a little taste.

Your plan isn't for them to die. Your plan isn't for them to suffer huge consequences. You just want them to taste a little of what it feels like to be on the receiving end of what you think they've given you.

But offense blinds us.

Offense makes us close-minded so that we cannot see the bigger picture.

I've been there before - many times.

I've been in situations where Satan was lying to me: This isn't such a big deal. This is only how far it will go. You're not exactly taking revenge. You're just letting them see what it feels like to be on the receiving end of what they've given you.

Offense pushes you toward making terrible decisions.

And because I have been there, I can look at the story of Judas and see how it could happen.

Satan keeps lying to you.

It's probably not that bad.

You get thirty pieces of silver for handing Jesus over.

What's the worst thing that could happen?

Maybe Jesus performs a miracle and gets Himself out.

And even if He doesn't, there are people among the Pharisees who won't let anything bad happen to Him.

If it goes to trial, they'll speak for Him.

And even if they don't speak for Him, what's the worst that can happen?

He's not guilty of anything.

Maybe He gets flogged publicly.

Maybe He gets sent to prison for a while.

Then He gets released.

Nothing He did was worthy of death.

And even if they wanted to kill Him, they didn't have the authority to do it themselves. To actually kill Him, they would have to hand Him over to the Romans, and Jesus had done nothing worthy of being handed over to Rome.

I can actually imagine this thought process.

Maybe Judas thought, I can walk away with thirty pieces of silver. Jesus gets out in two days. I'm on my way. I have enough money to start my life, and I don't have to subject myself to this embarrassment anymore.

And it makes me think about how terrible offense is.

How much offense wrecks our lives.

When we allow offense in, we turn away from the precepts of God and begin thinking, Well, I'm going to do this, and I don't think the consequences will be that bad.

But that is the lie.

The consequences are worse than you think.

How many times have you seen something seemingly inconsequential snowball into something so big that we could never have imagined it?

I once read something along the lines of: sin takes you farther than you ever thought you would go, keeps you longer than you ever thought you would stay, and costs you more than you ever thought you would pay.

When Judas entered into this, I don't believe he thought it would lead to Jesus' death, much less his own.

I believe he thought he would walk away with thirty pieces of silver, and that would be the end of it.

But it is always a big deal.

Because the enemy of our souls is wicked.

He is always prowling around, looking for whom he may devour. The Bible tells us that his work is to steal, kill, and destroy. He is always looking for someone to deceive, and Jesus said that he would deceive, if possible, even the elect.

So we need to be watchful.

We need to watch and pray.

Even when something seems small.

Even when we think, It's not a big deal.

Judas probably thought the same.

And look at where it ended.

Help me, O Lord. Open up my heart. Soften my heart. Help me not to be offended.

Because I have seen the consequences of offense in the life of Judas, and I never want to be there.

You said that offense will come. So when it does come, grant me the grace to reject it and to recognize that I have the right to choose whether or not I will be offended.

Open my eyes so that I won't be small-minded.

Help me see the big picture.

Help me recognize that something may seem offensive, but that doesn't mean that it was.

And that even if I feel offended - feelings can lie - it doesn't necessarily mean that I have actually been wronged or offended.

Jesus was their leader.

He was their teacher.

He was their Lord.

Is Jesus Christ your Lord if He cannot correct you?

He had the right to correct them.

But because of pride and ego, instead of accepting correction, Judas may have taken offense.

And it happens to us often.

Instead of accepting correction, we take offense.

And when we become offended, we then begin to plot our own downfall and ruin, thinking we are plotting for others.

God, please help me not to be offended.

Help me to recognize that the enemy is always lying.

If he says there will be no consequences, I know he's lying.

If he says the consequences will be mild, I know he's lying.

Because it is his nature to lie.

Help me, Lord, not to fall for offense.

Help me not to take the bait of offense.

Instead, help me live life the way You have called me to live it - free of offense.

Lord, open my eyes to always see things the way You would have me see them, to see things the way You see them, and to react in the way You want me to react.

I pray in the mighty name of Jesus.

Amen.

 

 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” Luke 10:41-42

One thing that I have noticed whenever people have these conversations about what women can and cannot do in the body of Christ the verse that keeps coming to mind is the one above. While there are many things that women can do in the body that would satisfy almost everyone I keep coming back to this scene – on one hand we have Martha, doing many things and specifically doing the things that women were supposed/ allowed to do, and on the other hand we have Mary doing only one thing, and this one thing is the thing that women were not “supposed” to do. A thing that was frowned on for women to do.

And while there’s generally nothing wrong with the things Martha was doing – it’s stuff that needs to be done, and blessed is she that does it, Jesus said that only one thing was important and that Mary had chosen it, and also that it wouldn’t be taken away from her.

What is this one thing that Mary chose? To seat at the feet of Jesus and be discipled by Him. And one thing to note about being discipled is that you are discipled to disciple others. You are taught to teach. This is the important thing, the better thing! And while cooking cleaning, and doing all the other peripheral things are good, if you have the opportunity to be discipled so that you can disciple others, God expects you to take it.

People would rather have you leave this one thing and do the many other seemingly good things. They may even be upset at you and try to use a higher authority to get you to step away from the better thing you’ve chosen – stand firm. As long as you’re at the feet of Jesus, He will not let anyone take it way from you.

 

And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.” – Mathew 1:21

I have read a lot of stories and watched a lot of videos where people have talked about their struggles with porn and how they got delivered and what I have seen (and loved) is how different all of their stories have been, and in spite of how different their stories have been one thing has rung true – God is able to save and deliver and redeem.

My story isn’t long or dramatic or drawn out, one late morning/early afternoon, a couple of weeks after I had received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, I was laying on my bed when I felt/heard the Holy Spirit ask me to give up Pornography/Masturbation. I wish I could tell you that I immediately said yes Lord, I hand it over to You but sadly I did not.

Instead, I began to do what I did best, I started negotiating – is it really that bad? What if I give up one type but not the other? What if I gave up Porn but held on to masturbation? I began to research and present articles that argued that masturbation wasn’t really a sin. In all of this I felt like God was standing there watching me and saying nothing as I essentially went through the five stages of grief.

Now, my actions surprised even me because I had tried in the past to give it up, but the struggle was intense, and I always failed – the longest I had lasted was a month, I think. So, I was quite surprised to see how much I was fighting to hold on to something I had believed that I truly wanted to give up.

The Word/presence of God serves as a mirror, exposing us to ourselves, showing us who we truly are, and that day I learned that even though I had always thought that I wanted to give up porn, I didn’t really. I only wanted to give up parts of it, and I wanted to stop it in its tracks cos I didn’t want it to take me down certain lanes that I could already see in my future.

“Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay.” ― R Zaccharias

We were there for a couple of hours and after all my back and forth I finally broke down and told God yes. I agreed with Him. Immediately after I agreed with Him, I heard God tell me that I had been delivered and I knew deep down in my heart that I was delivered. It was so simple, it’s actually hard to believe. A struggle of over 7 years delivered in an instant. It felt unreal.

Over the next 2 weeks, every time I felt an urge I somehow found the strength to say no – not later, but No – and it was difficult but I did it. One day I woke up, about one month after that encounter and I realized that I was free. I hadn’t felt any real urge I about 2 weeks and the thought of it left a weird taste in my mouth. I was free indeed.

Therefore, if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. – John 8:36

I do remember what started me along the journey though. I’m an avid reader, and I got into romance novels, I loved the smut, so I started looking for more novels with more smut. And so it grew. It took about 10 years to move from romance novels to porn and this fact always throws me because it shows me how dedicated Satan is to destruction.

But God is good, and He is the Almighty. He has shown Himself to be the almighty in my life. And if you let Him, He will show Himself to be the almighty in your life too.

 

 

Mark 8:36-37 (KJV) For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? ³⁷ Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

Both my parents were businessmen, so almost all my life I’ve heard the term “bad business” in many variations thrown around in our home. If they decided to sell a product and the profit margin wasn’t enough to cover the running cost of carrying said product it was considered “bad business”.

Or if they had to exchange one product for another they were carrying and this new one didn’t bring in as much profit as the one discontinued, then it was also called “bad business” because even though it did bring in some value, it made the entire business less profitable as a whole.

So, when I first truly encountered these verses, one of the phrases that came into my mind was “bad business”. And as the child of a businessmen, it was kind of hard for me to fully grasp that receiving the whole world could termed bad business.

Let me paint a scenario – you sell a product that costs you $100 to produce for $120, on the surface, it looks like you’re making a profit, but if upon further examination, you realize that the logistics of selling that product comes to $25, then you realize pretty quickly that you’re actually selling at a loss.

So, you decide to increase its price to $150, seems fair and you’re no longer running at a loss, but you notice that at the end of every month you don’t have enough money to pay your own bills. The bills of the business are fully paid, but what’s left can’t pay your rent. This is when you come to the realization that though the business seems profitable because it’s able to pay its other bills and still have something left, but you were not factored in as one of the bills of the business. And since this is what you spend all your time doing, is the business profitable if it can’t pay you to live? No, it’s not.

So now you factor in your time and increase the product’s price to $175. Now you can pay all bills – yours and your business’ – and all seems well. If you want to do more than just pay all bills but now want the ability to put away a nest egg, then maybe you’ll increase the price to 200. And on it goes.

Please note that in all of this you have been adjusting the selling price of the product based on what you thought wanted to get at the end of the day.

Now back to the Mark 8: 36-37.

Apple, one of the most profitable businesses in the world is worth about 3.83 trillion dollars. That’s a lot of money. And God took a look at that and said to me that if I were to exchange my soul for the entirety of Apple that that would be bad business. In fact, if I were to exchange my soul for all the companies listed on the NY Stock exchange which currently has a 30 trillion-dollar market cap, God still considers that as bad business.

How that that be bad business? I think 30 trillion dollars is good money, no single person on earth has that much money and yet God still considers it bad business. Why?

Because even though we may not know the value of our souls, God does. He sees what we cannot see and says that if I were to exchange my life for all the money in all the banks in the world, or all the lands in the earth, or all the companies in the world, or everything available for sale in all the world, that I’ve been cheated and was underpaid in that exchange.

That though it looked profitable on the surface  - like the business described above looked - that there’s so much more that I can not see that makes that exchange unprofitable.

What are you exchanging for your soul today that looks reasonable. Almost none of us would exchange our soul for something that was obviously unreasonable, but what if it was cloaked in reasonability?

Have we exchanged our souls to pay our bills? Seems reasonable enough, our bills must be paid or how else will we live. Plus, we’re not even being greedy by asking for the whole world – we just want to pay our bills and be comfortable.

Have we exchanged our souls for our children – after all children are a gift from God and we have a responsibility towards them. Maybe we’ve exchanged our souls for friends, good friends who’ve been there for us through thick and thin. Or maybe it’s our position at work that represents something no one else in our family has ever attained. Or maybe it’s even our calling, or our health/fitness.

All these seem reasonable to slowly prioritize the highest in our lives but if only we could (like God) see what the cost was to our soul, we would realize immediately that it was bad business, very bad business, and that Satan is cheating us immensely with these “reasonable” offers.

“You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”

34Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. 35If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it. 

Mark 8:33b - 35

It’s time to stop participating in Satan’s (the enemy of our soul) bad business. Turn to Jesus today and receive the full value of your soul.

 

Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

In the beginning God created Adam and Eve, and they were good. He put them in the Garden of Eden and gave them everything they needed for life and living. Life was good – life was perfect, but in the middle of the garden were special two trees. One is the “tree of life”, the other the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil”. God told them they could eat from all the trees in the Garden except from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

God wanted them to eat from the tree of life, that’s why He told them that it was special and that they could eat from it, but God being God and perfect didn’t want to command it of them. He wanted them to make a conscious decision to choose life – life with Him forever.

But Adam an Eve either by ignorance or a lack of understanding never quite made it to eating of the tree of life. Before they could get to it, they were deceived by Satan, and they disobeyed God ate of the tree that He told them not to eat of – The tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil.

I don’t know about you, but the clue was right there in the name – who wants to know evil? Not me. But apparently Eve and Adam didn’t quite get it, and I guess if you’ve never seen or experienced evil you won’t know just how bad evil is. They were deceived and they ate of the wrong tree and with that sin came into the world. And since Adam and Eve were the only humans existing that that point, they had effectively chosen not just for themselves but for everyone else that would descend from them – thanks guys.

God had also told them that the day they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that they would die, because you see if you don’t choose life, you’ve chosen death. And on the day they disobeyed God, something in them died and in it’s place sin took over.

What is sin? Who is this sin?

Simply put, sin is the producer of sins. Sin is the producer of evil and all its products like shame, and fraud and lies and strife within us and in others. And since they had chosen evil, they had welcomed him into their lives instead of Life. And sin took over.

Now this posses a problem. God is holy and perfect and good. In Him is no sin or evil. His eyes cannot behold sin. He cannot commune with sin. And this effectively separated us from God and His protection, and his cover. And since that day sin has a free reign. The world we have today is all the evidence we need to know what happens when sin has free reign.

But thankfully nothing, not even sin can separate us from the love of God. Because God loves us even when we are sinners. And God in His love decided to give us another chance to chose Life. The life we should have chosen in the Garden of Eden.

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

But in order for us to be able to receive life, we need to first eject sin from within us. Unfortunately, sin said that the only way to release us is by death, for the wages of sin is death. The only payment sin is willing to collect in exchange for a person is death. Unfortunately, dead people cannot choose life because after death the only thing man has to look forward to is judgment. So there has to be another way – what if someone else died our death? What if someone else paid sin for us so we didn’t have to?

But how would that work? Since Adam and Eve effectively chose for us all, this means that sin lives in all of us, so if anyone dies, they’ll be dying for their own sin. They’ll be paying sin what they owe him so their death would serve no real purpose for the rest of us. Their death would not be able to save us. We needed someone without sin, that way their death would not be for them but for us.

This is where Our Lord Jesus comes in.

Jesus was born without sin because He wasn’t born of the seed of Adam. Mary carried the first surrogate pregnancy recorded in history because she became pregnant not because she had sex but because the seed of the life of God was implanted into her womb and she gave birth to Jesus Christ our savior. Finally, there’s hope for humanity. We now have a man born without sin, who sin had no hold over, who death had no claim on, if He died, his death would not be His. It could be ours.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

Jesus is our second chance to choose life. The life that Adam and Eve should have chosen in the Garden of Eden but didn’t. But God is still God, He hasn’t changed. And because He hasn’t changed, He won’t force us to choose Him. He’s giving us the same choice He gave Adam and Eve in the beginning to choose life, to choose Him.

How?

Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

We must be born again. I know it may sound weird cos no one is really born twice. Especially not an adult. But the wages of sin is death, and that death must be paid. The only way around it is if someone dies in our place. He receives our sin and dies for us and in exchange we receive His life. In this way sin dies in us and we get new life, Jesus’s life. This is how we are born again.

How do we give Jesus our sin and receive His life?

even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

By believing and by asking. It’s really that simple. You don’t need me to tell you what to say, use your own words, from your heart. Cry out today. The Father’s been waiting a long time to welcome you home.

If you've been a Christian for more than a couple of days then you've probably heard of the parable of the prodigal son, and if you haven't read it yourself don't worry, I'll post it here so take a few minutes to read it, and even if you've read it before read it again, its only about 21 verses. 

Luke 15:11-32 NKJV

Then He said: “A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So, he divided to them his livelihood. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. 

But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything. 

“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.”’ 

“And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 

“But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry. 

“Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. So, he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf.’ 

“But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore, his father came out and pleaded with him. So, he answered and said to his father, ‘Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.’ “And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.’”

 

Now as the title suggests, I will not be focusing on the entire parable, I will only be focusing on the road to the Father's house and based off of that, I'd like to highlight a couple of things.

1. It's The Same Road; You see, It’s the same road the prodigal son took out of the Father's house that he took on his way back; it's the same road that leads to the Father's house that also leads away from it. So, for those of us on earth, that are traveling down that path on our way back to the Father, what does that mean for us? Since it's the same road that leads to and from the Father's house. 

First, on that road we're going to meet a lot of people, we need to careful about the people we decide to travel with. That we meet them on the road to the father's house does not mean that're on their way to the father's house, they could be on their way out. So, ask yourself, "what direction is this person facing?" And you know the scary part? the prodigal son looked better on his way out of the Father's house than he did on his way back, so appearances may deceive us.  On his way out he had all the trappings of the father's house, the goods, the looks, the whole package. He could probably quote the Father profusely having lived with Him. But on his way back he only had a humble heart crying out for help from the Father - he looked nothing like the Father's son.

Secondly, it should also serve as a heart check for us. That we're on the road to the Father's house does not mean we're actually facing the Father's house - so ask yourself, what direction am I facing? No one thinks that they're the on their way out, and since this is not a physical road but a spiritual one, we need to check our hearts - Have we started taking ownership of the gifts and the trappings of the Father's house? Remember, these gifts were from the Father, they were not given or collected from the devil. On the way out of the Father's house the prodigal son was an owner, but on his way back, he was returning with the heart of a steward.

2. Forever Stewards; continuing from the last point - if you are born again, then welcome sibling! By virtue of new birth, we have become sons of God and as sons we have an inheritance in Christ, but by definition of the word inheritance, you only come into ownership after your parent (the owner of the goods) dies, but what happens when person does not die? You see, we are sons of a Father that'll never die, so what does that mean for us as sons that have an inheritance? It means that even though we'll always have access to everything the Father has, because He has made them available by His mercy, it'll always be owned by Him - we'll never be owners. And this is the best way really, this way all sons have access to everything without any one person laying claim and denying others access. 

But seeing as we're humans, and we love recognition and ownership, this has repercussions for us. You see many of us don't mind being stewards for a while, but after some time something starts itching within us to claim ownership. We want to put our name on things and people and results, even if they're from God, and so also did the prodigal son. We don't know how long he lived in his Father's house happy to be a son who had access to all the father had. He wasn't always disgruntled, there was a time when he was happy to live off the Father and enjoyed being known as the Father's son, but after a while he wanted goods with his name on some of it. He wasn't even greedy - he didn't want it all, just that which was due him. 

It's time for us to stop and take a look at our lives. Have we started putting our names on the things that belong to God, including ourselves? Or are we itching to put our names on the things of God? Things like this generally start small, like wanting recognition for the things God does through us and being annoyed that no one is giving it to us. Again, I'm going to say that no one wants to think they're facing away from the Father's house, but some of us are, but if we let the Word of God do its work in us, there's hope. There's always hope. Maybe we haven't done a full 180 yet, maybe we're just beginning to turn and have only turned 20 degrees, cry out to the Savior, His grace is sufficient, His mercy is always available, and His blood is capable. 

3. Let Them Go; Let people go - even if they're our kids. Sometimes we think it is virtue to hold down people who want to leave the house of God by all means necessary, but even the Father let the son go. This doesn't mean that we don't help people, to quote the book of Jude verse 23 "save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh." but you can only help those that know they need help.

The Father didn't stop the prodigal son from leaving, in fact He gave him exactly what he asked for and watched him leave. He didn't go and drag him back when he started living recklessly, He didn't run to him when famine hit the city, He didn't go to him when he was feeding swine, He only ran to him after he came to his senses and turned towards the Father's house. At every other point on this journey, before he came to his senses, going to him (the prodigal son) may have looked like help, but it wouldn't have been real help, because before he came to his senses, he probably thought that all he needed was more goods, not to return home. 

Imagine how the Father must have felt, imagine what must have been said about Him when His son was living a reckless life. He would have been the brunt of endless jokes, but He endured because he had his eyes on the real price, a changed heart for His son, not just his presence or good behavior. 

May the Holy Spirit guide us to give people the help they truly need, not the help that makes us feel good. Amen.

4. Take Advantage Of Everything In The Father’s House: I find this to be the problem, or one of the problems of the elder brother. He’s in the Father’s house but not really enjoying the things of the father. He’s working for the father and just assumes that his receiving from the Father would be automatic, so instead of asking the Father for the things he wants and needs, he’s instead toiling away and waiting for the father to give the things he wants - without his asking. 

But Jesus has told us that we should ask, and we will receive, seek and we will find, knock and the door will be opened to us – or as the book of James put it, you have not because you ask not. What you don’t ask for you’re not likely to receive, and if you spend your life not receiving but instead being a spectator of life where you watch everyone else receive the things that you yourself want, it won’t take long for bitterness to begin to take root in our hearts. 

Maybe he didn’t ask because he thought the Father wouldn’t grant him his request, and a lot of us are like this, we think we should only go to God with serious or “pious” things, and we feel guilty about asking God for the things we’d like – please throw that guilt away – open your mouth and ask. The Father delights in granting us our hearts desires – He will not give you stone instead of bread or snake instead of fish. 

When I am sad, I cry

When happy, I dance

Angry, I vent

And when confused I sit still

All in the presence of the One Constant in my life.

The invariable One, whose presence I never lack.

When I sin He fixes

I lose my way, He brings me back

Confused, He clarifies

Ignorant, He teaches

Weary, He shows up in His power

My ever present love, 

The One who never lets me go, who takes great care of me.

Recently, we had a death in the family, and in the midst of my brokenness, the Lord led me to read the book of Job, and two verses stood out to me

Job 42:5

“I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear,
But now my eye sees You.
Therefore I abhor myself,
And repent in dust and ashes.”

Job 9:33

“Nor is there any mediator between us,
Who may lay his hand on us both.”

 I think about all that Job went through, and all that he suffered, and yet when He saw God his response was “I Repent”. Never in my wildest imaginations would I have thought that after being put through the worst things that could ever happen to a person on earth, that Job’s response would be I repent. Burying one child is hard enough, but burying ten? And his response was still I repent?

It was in this moment that I really came to realize that no matter what we go through in life, no matter the hardships, and the number of questions that come with them. When we meet God, our response will be I repent. No one thinks they “deserve” to bury their children, no one thinks they “deserve” to have loved ones die suddenly and prematurely, no one looks at themselves and concludes that they “deserve” the hardships of life that they are going through. Our prayer is that it never happens to us, and when it’s in the horizon, that God saves us from it. And when it does happen, while we are in the midst of pain that cannot be described, we cannot understand how or why this is happening/happened to us, and this leaves us with more questions than answers.

But at the end of the day, we will realize like Job that “we have uttered what we did not understand, things too wonderful for us, which we did not know.” And we will repent, despite our pain and suffering.

Realization is not the same as understanding though, but I have accepted that these are things too wonderful for me to understand, and I have made peace with it.

Now to the second verse.

This verse emphasizes something that I have always thought before now when reading the book of Job, and it’s that Job needed a mediator to stand before God for him, someone to draw a line for humanity, someone to plead our case and pray for us. Maybe if there was someone there to stay the mouth of the accuser, so that the effects his accusations were limited. Maybe Job’s sufferings would not have been as intense. And this leads me to Peter’s temptation.

And the Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.” Luke 22:31-32

This is Satan again, asking for a Child of God to sift. And even though we don’t have details of the encounter where Satan asked for Peter, when we look into the process of sifting wheat in Jesus’s time, you’ll discover that it was a very rigorous process. Now, when I compare what Job went through with what Peter went through (His denial of Jesus) it doesn’t seem commensurate. But then I remember one great factor that differentiates them both.

Jesus said “But I have prayed for you”.

Jesus praying for us makes all the difference in our sifting. Find rest in this.