God-Centered Living

Friday, September 30, 2011

God-Centered Living

To know and do God’s will, you must deny self and return to A God-centered life.

Part of the book of Genesis is the record of God’s accomplishing His purposes through Abraham.  It is not the record of Abraham’s walk with God.  The focus of the Bible is God.  The essence of sin is a shift from God-centeredness to self-centeredness.  The essence of salvation is denying self instead of affirming self.  We must deny ourselves and return to God-centeredness in our lives.  Then God has us in a place where He will accomplish His eternal purposes through me.

This is a hard concept for me.  Not so much the denying of myself but the not affirming myself.  I think it’s because I have spent so many years in therapy learning how to affirm myself.  I don’t disagree with this I just don’t understand the line between affirming myself and not putting myself down (I don’t even know if this makes any sense, my head is still working this out).

A Self-Centered Life	A God-Centered Life
Is focused on self Is proud of self and self’s accomplishments Is self-confident Depends of self and abilities Affirms self Seeks to be accepted to the world and its ways Looks at circumstances from a human perspective Chooses selfish and ordinary living.	Places confidence in God Depends on God and His ability and provision Focuses on God and His activity Is humble before God ·        Denies self Seeks first the kingdom of God and His righteousness Seeks God’s perspective in every circumstances Chooses holy and godly living to know and do God’s will, you must deny self and return to a God-centered life.

Above I have highlighted in yellow the things I am, in green, where I am gaining understanding and in red where I still have a way to go before I am living a God centered life.  As I can see from examining this list I still have a way to go.

My definition of:

Self-centered: When I look to myself and my experiences to assess a situation and decide how to act.  It is also focusing on what    John C. Mac Iver has done instead of what God has done for and through me.

God-centered:  Is looking to God and His purposes and will and trying to see things from a God perspective and then decide how to act.

Verse describing God-centeredness:

2 Chronicles 14:11: 11 Then Asa called to the LORD his God and said, "LORD, there is no one like you to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, O LORD our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this vast army. O LORD, you are our God; do not let man prevail against you."

These passages are about the same guy!

Verses describing Self-centeredness:

2 Chronicles 16:1-3:  1 In the thirty-sixth year of Asa's reign Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah and fortified Ramah to prevent anyone from leaving or entering the territory of Asa king of Judah. 2 Asa then took the silver and gold out of the treasuries of the LORD's temple and of his own palace and sent it to Ben-Hadad king of Aram, who was ruling in Damascus. 3 "Let there be a treaty between me and you," he said, "as there was between my father and your father. See, I am sending you silver and gold. Now break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel so he will withdraw from me."

I like these two passages because they describe me and how I react to situations.  My usual way of reacting has been to rely on myself and my experiences to guide me.  However, increasingly I am finding myself relying on God and being more kingdom minded, and reminding myself of the verse Jeremiah 19:11 “For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”  When things seem like they are going to be really bad for me and may even change the life I now so enjoy, I remember that I have given it all over to God and I can do this with confidence because I believe Jeremiah 19:11!

Self-centeredness is a subtle trap because it makes sense from a human perspective.  Like King Asa, I can avoid it at one time and fall into its trap at another.  God-centeredness requires the daily death of John C. Mac Iver and submission to God.

John 12:24-25: 24 I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. 25 The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

I guess I’m going to keep my life for eternity! 

To live a God-centered life, I must focus my life on God’s purposes, not my own plans.  I must seek to view situations from God’s perspective rather than from my own distorted human outlook.  When God starts to do something in the world, He takes the initiative to reveal His will to people. For some divine reason He has chosen to involve His people in accomplishing His purposes.

Let’s use Noah as an example.  What about his plans to serve God?  They would not make much sense in light of the coming destruction, would they?  Noah was not calling God in to help him accomplish what he was dreaming of doing for God.  God never asks people to dream up something to do for Him.  We do not sit down and dream what we want to do for God and then call God in to help us accomplish it.  The pattern in Scripture is that we submit ourselves to God.  Then God shows us what He is about to do, or we watch to see what God is already doing around us and join him.

What was the most meaningful statement or Scripture I read today?:

We do not sit down and dream what we want to do for God and then call God in to help us accomplish it.

My Prayer is:

Daddy, I realize that you do not want me to dream up my own plans for what I want to do for you.  Instead you want me to look to You for what You are already doing or wait for You to tell me what You want.  Please help me to do that and to stop making my own way.  In Jesus’ Name I pray, Amen.

What does God want me to do in response to today’s study?

I believe God wants me to wait.

The Memory verse for this unit is:

“Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.”

God Works Through His Servants, Part 2:

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

God reveals what He is about to do.  That revelation becomes an invitation to join Him.

        Reality 4: God spoke to reveal Himself, His purposes, and His ways.

Exodus 3:2-8: 2 There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, "I will go over and see this strange sight--why the bush does not burn up." 4 When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, "Moses! Moses!" And Moses said, "Here I am." 5"Do not come any closer," God said. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground." 6 Then he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God. 7The LORD said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey--the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.

Numbers 12:6-8: 6 he said, "Listen to my words: "When a prophet of the LORD is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams. 7 But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house. 8 With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?"

Note to self: I want to come to a place in my life where God sees me as He did Moses, and talks to me face to face!  Bring me there Lord Jesus.

Reality 5: God’s invitation for Moses to work with Him led to a crisis of belief that required faith and action.

Moses expressed a crisis of belief when he made the following statements to God:

• “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
• “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’  Then what shall I tell them’ ”?
• “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you’ “?
• “O Lord I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant, I am slow of speech and tongue,”
• “O Lord, please send someone else to do it”

Reality 6: Moses had to make major adjustments in his life to join God in what He was doing.

Moses’ crisis called for faith and action.

Hebrews 11:24-29:  24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. 25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. 26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. 27 By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king's anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. 28 By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel. 29 By faith the people passed through the Red Sea^a as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.

Reality 7: Moses came to know God by experience as he obeyed God, and God accomplished His work through Moses.

As Moses obeyed God, God accomplished through Moses what Moses could not do in his own strength.  Here is one example in which Moses and the people came to know God as their Deliverer:

Exodus 14:15-17, 21-23, 26-27, 29-31:  15 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on.16 Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground. 17 I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. And I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen.  21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the LORD drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, 22 and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.23 The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh's horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea.  26 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians and their chariots and horsemen." 27 Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were fleeing toward it, and the LORD swept them into the sea. 29 But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. 30 That day the LORD saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore. 31 And when the Israelites saw the great power the LORD displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant.

Note to self:  This isn’t what the workbook would say about Moses and Reality 6, but I believe that the adjustment Moses had to make was to stop looking at himself and start looking to God for the strength to accomplish all that needed to be done!

This is what the book had to say about Realities 4-7 as they related to Moses:

Reality 4: God talked to Moses about His will.  God wanted Moses to go to Egypt to be His instrument to deliver the Israelites from their bondage.  God revealed to Moses His holiness, His mercy, His power, His name, and His purpose to keep His promise to Abraham and to give Israel the Promised Land.

Reality 5: Moses offered many objections.  He questioned whether God could do such a great work through someone like him (I wonder that about myself), whether the Israelites would believe God had appeared to him, and whether he was capable of speaking eloquently enough to accomplish the task (I can identify with Moses on this too!).  In each case Moses was really doubting God more than himself (And I must be too).  Moses faced a crisis of belief: is God really able to do what He says?  Moses’ faith is described in Hebrews, however, as a model of self-sacrifice and trust in almighty God.  Once God let Moses know what He was about to do, that revelation became Moses’ invitation to join Him.

Reality 6: Moses made the necessary adjustments to orient his life to God.  Moses had to come to the place where he believed God could do everything He said He would do.  Then he had to leave his job and in-laws and move to Egypt.  After making these adjustments, he was in a position to obey God.  (What adjustments must I make to be in a position to obey God?).  That did not mean he was going to do something all by himself for God.  It meant he was going to be where God was working so God would do what He had purposed to do in the first place.  Moses was a servant who was moldable, and he remained at God’s disposal to be used as God chose.  God accomplished His purposes through him.  When God does a God-sized work through your life, you will be humbled before Him.

Reality 7: Moses must have felt unworthy to be used in such a significant way (and so would I).  Moses obeyed and did everything God told him.  Then God accomplished through Moses all He intended.  Every step of obedience brought Moses (and Israel) to a greater knowledge of God.

Great Verse: James 5:17-18: 17 Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. 18 Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.

Elijah was an ordinary man just like us.  He prayed, and God responded powerfully.  The people you generally see in the Scriptures were ordinary.  Their relationships with God and the activity of God made them extraordinary (I am ordinary, why shouldn’t I believe that God can act the same through me?).  Anyone who takes the time to enter an intimate relationship with God can see Him do extraordinary things through his or her life.  Henry Varley said, “The world has yet to see what God can do with and for and through and in a man who is fully and wholly consecrated (separated for/to God) to Him.” 

The world has yet to see what God can do with, for, through and in    John C. Mac Iver! God wants me to be me and let Him do through me whatever He chooses.  When I believe nothing significant can happen through me, I have said more about my belief in God than I have declared about myself.  I have said that God is incapable of doing anything significant through me.  The truth is, He is able to do anything He pleases with one ordinary person who is fully consecrated to him.

Don’t measure your life by the world’s standards.  By the world’s standards, a person or a church may look pretty good yet, in God’s sight, be utterly detestable.  Similarly, a person or a church may be wholly yielded to God and pleasing to Him yet be insignificant in the world’s eyes. 

Then everyone knows only God could have done something through them.  If you feel weak, limited, or ordinary, you are the best material through God Works.

Summary:

1. God reveals what He is about to do.
2. The revelation becomes an invitation to join Him.
3. I can’t stay where I am and go with God.
4. God is able to do anything He pleases with one ordinary person who is fully consecrated to Him.
5. God’s standards of excellence are different from ours. 

What was the most meaningful statement or Scripture I read today?:

God is able to do anything He pleases with one ordinary person who is fully consecrated to Him.

My Prayer is:

Daddy, I realize that you anything You please with one ordinary person. I am one ordinary person.  Please fully consecrate me to Yourself, and do through me whatever you please.  It is my desire that anything I do will be seen as only something God could do, so all glory and honor will go to You.  In Your Son’s Name I pray, Amen.

What does God want me to do in response to today’s study?

I believe God wants me to trust Him to work in my life.

The Memory verse for this unit is:

I am the vine and you are the branches.  If a man remains in me and I in Him he will bear much fruit.  Apart from Me he can do nothing.  Matthew 15:5

God Works Through His Servants, Part 1

Monday, September 19, 2011

God Works Through His Servants, Part 1:

When God is about to do something through me, He has to get me from where I am to where He is, so He tells me what He is doing.  When I know what God is doing, then I know what I need to do: I need to join Him.  The moment I know God is doing something where I am, my life and its activity will be thrown in contrast to God and His activity.  I cannot stay the way I am and go with God.

Seven Realities of Experiencing God

1. God is always at work around me.
2. God pursues a continuing love relationship with me that is real and personal.
3. God invites me to become involved with Him in His work.
4. God speaks by the Holy Spirit through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church to reveal Himself, His purposes and His ways.
5. God’s invitation for me to work with Him always leads me to a crisis of belief that requires faith and action.
6. I must make major adjustments in my life to join God in what He is doing.
7. I come to know God by experience as I obey Him, and He accomplishes His work through me.

Key words or phrases:

1. God is always at work around me.
2. God pursues a continuing love relationship with me that is real and personal.
3. God invites me to become involved with Him in His work.
4. God speaks by the Holy Spirit through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church to reveal Himself, His purposes and His ways.
5. God’s invitation for me to work with Him always leads me to a crisis of belief that requires faith and action.
6. I must make major adjustments in my life to join God in what He is doing.
7. I come to know God by experience as I obey Him, and He accomplishes His work through me.

Three similarities in the lives of Bible characters through whom God worked are:

1.    When God spoke, they knew it was God.

2.   They knew what God was saying.

3.   They knew what they were to do in response.

I would love for my walk with God to be such that He worked through me that way!  He wants to move me into that kind of relationship.  And I can’t wait!

Moses’ call and ministry are good examples of the way God worked with people in the Bible.  Using the seven realities let’s look at his story.

        Reality 1: God was already at work around Moses’

Exodus 2:23-25: 23 During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. 24 God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. 25 So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.

        Reality 2: God pursued a continuing love relationship with Moses that was real and personal.  God took the imitative to come to Moses and initiate a love relationship with him at the burning bush.  God told Moses He would go with him into Egypt.

Exodus 24:12, 15-16, 18: 12 The LORD said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and commands I have written for their instruction."  15 When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, 16 and the glory of the LORD settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh day the LORD called to Moses from within the cloud.  18 Then Moses entered the cloud as he went on up the mountain. And he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

Reality 3: God invited Moses to become involved with Him in His work.

Exodus 3:8, 10: 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey--the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.  10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt."

1. When God was about to deliver the children of Israel, the important factor was not God’s will for Moses.  The critical truth was God’s will for Israel.
2. God’s purpose was to deliver the children of Israel. Moses was the one through whom God wanted to work to accomplish His purposes.
3. Time and again God invited Moses to talk with Him and to be with Him.  God initiated and maintained a growing relationship with Moses.  This relationship was based on love, and God daily fulfilled His purposes through His friend Moses.

I want that same kind of relationship with God, my Father!

God accomplishes His work through His people.  This is the way God will work with me.  The Bible is designed to help me understand God’s ways.  Then when God starts to act in that manner in my life, I will recognize that it is He who is working.

I believe this is true in my life, but how do I explain what God has done through me without taking credit for the works accomplished?

What was the most meaningful statement or Scripture I read today?:

He accomplishes His work through me.

My Prayer is:

Daddy, I realize that You are the one who does every good work through my life, and I am thankful.  But how do I explain the work done through me without taking the credit for it.  Please teach me dear Lord, in Your Son’s name, I pray, Amen.

What does God want me to do in response to today’s study?

I believe God wants me to trust Him for an answer to my questions

The Memory verse for this unit is:

I am the vine and you are the branches.  If a man remains in me and I in Him he will bear much fruit.  Apart from Me he can do nothing.  Matthew 15:5