SEPTEMBER 3 “IS THE WILL OF GOD SMOOTH?”


 WE are a people that looks "for signs" and try to base our assumptions on that.  If we have problems with weather and a flat tire on a road trip, only Christians begin to wonder, "should I have taken this road trip?" The unreligious person will just deal with the bad weather, fix to flat tire and move on.  We determine "the will of God" the same way.  When everything is out of joint and going wrong, we begin to think, "maybe this isn't the will of God?".  Is the "Will of God" always smooth and everything goes right; nothing goes wrong".  In our text today we read "For when we came into Macedonia, this body of ours had no rest, but we were harassed at every turn-conflicts on the outside, fears within." 

     HOWEVER in the Book of Acts we had read this original story, how Paul describes to us the dream he had in which the Angel was calling him, beckoning him to go to Macedonia. Paul was going to another city, to Bithynia (you can read it on the June 24th reading) and is prevented from going there and called to go to Macedonia.  And so Paul is obedient, and goes to Macedonia and we never hear another thing about it, until...TODAY!  And we find out, it was a nightmare.  It didn't go smooth at all.  I'm sure Paul thought to himself, "am I in the right place, did I really hear from God?" Why would Paul ask himself that, why would you ask yourself that?  The answer...because it's rough, not everything is going smooth, there's problems, conflict.  Wow, you sound just like Paul now.  And we know that Paul was in "the will of God".  Yes, things can go terribly wrong when we are outside the will of God. But that does not mean every time, there's problems, ....it's up to us to be able to discern.  How do we discern?  Easy!  You don't discern by "the problems" (problems come from both situations) you discern if God dealt with you in advance to you going or making that decision.   God doesn't wait 'till we arrive and then start dealing with us. Why would he do that and what good would it do?  He starts dealing with us in advance as he did with Paul.  "don't go to Bithynia" and Paul didn't.  So now, Paul having problems in Macedonia, he can have peace of mind, that he is in God's will and the problems are not a sign from God.  They are simply life and perhaps demonic opposition.  Is God's will always smooth?  Absolutely not, but we can eventually get through and be victorious.  If it's not God's will, you're not gonna get thru and be victorious and the sooner you turn around and go back; the sooner things will get better for you. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NOVEMBER 6 "DOES GOD STILL DO MIRACLES?"

 The Psalmist writes, "who can list the glorious miracles of the Lord!" I dare say, there are some reading this blog that might challenge that!"  They would say, "list them, I'm hard pressed to think of one! How'' your miracle life? Miracles go hand in hand with opportunity. We have our lives so structured and we don't venture out in faith, we keep it safe. Well then don't complain you have no miracles. Peter had to step out of the boat to experience a miracle, but don't forget there was a handful of other disciples that stayed in the boat, safe and experienced no miracle! You can have it both ways.  Christians who venture, in faith, are the ones that have the "lists of miracles" to write about.   "Does God still do miracles? In your intellect you say, "yes of course", but in your heart what do you say? God does miracle, yes! Does He do miracles for you? Do you encourage others to believe in miracles and now you need ...
Read more

NOVEMBER 21 "CLASS WARFARE IS AN UGLY THING"

     There’s no denying, James is not that fond of “rich people”.  If it was only this reference in Chapter 5, that would be bad enough, but James has taken jabs at the rich in other chapters as well. No doubt, James did not grow up with affluence of any kind. We know from the Gospels that Joseph and Mary (James’ parents) were poor. Historians believe that Joseph died at an early age, as he is not mentioned in the Gospels; except in the early stages of Jesus’ life. Now with Joseph dead, James & Jesus, probably had to work that much harder to make ends meet at home. Jesus himself takes a jab at rich people saying, “ it is easier for a camel to get through the eye of an needle than for a rich person to get into heaven ”.  I’m sure in the  Church  of  Jerusalem  where James was an elder, there were not many affluent people in that congregation. However we cannot deny that it was Joseph of Arimathea, an affluent man , a prominent member of th...
Read more

FEBRUARY 8 "ABANDONED IN MY TIME OF NEED"

   This may end up being one of the greater indictments against The Church of Jesus Christ at our judgement; that we abandoned our brothers and sisters in their most dire time of need. In our reading today, the Psalmist eludes to a time of great anguish in his life and because of this his strength is failing; he then goes on to say concerning his friends, "I am a dread to my friends....I am forgotten by them". Unfortunately, it is when we are not at our best that our brothers and sisters in Christ seem to get turned off by us and often abandon us when we need them the most! Why is that? Is it because of selfish reasons, after all, who doesn't want to hang around upbeat people full of joy and victory, but are there not times that we need to also grieve with those that are grieving?! Another reason is their weakness probably turns us off, "why are you even struggling with this ....what's wrong with you!!?" Thence, we're turned off and leave them to struggl...
Read more