For so long, I was stuck in thinking I could keep my flesh, my plans – and my will – and serve God at the same time. Now, I can’t believe I thought that was possible. My attempt to do so nearly wore me out.
I was just thinking about how God chose to begin to set me on His path for my life. He simply asked me to happily take out the trash each day. Pretty religious, right? Wow. And then I thought about how a fellow we know, Bob, told me how God spoke to him to love his wife Carol in a whole new way and how it was changing their lives. Repentance is so life-giving, life-changing, refreshing and amazing…
In my One Year Bible, I was reading the Old Testament Bible passage for April 25 when the following verses spoke to me.
Deborah, the wife of Lappidoth, was a prophet who was judging Israel at that time…My heart is with the commanders of Israel, with those who volunteered for war. Praise the Lord!…But in the tribe of Reuben there was great indecision (double-mindedness). Why did you sit at home among the sheepfolds – to hear the shepherds whistle for their flocks? Yes, in the tribe of Reuben there was great indecision. Gilead remained east of the Jordan. And why did Dan stay home? Asher sat unmoved at the seashore, remaining in his harbors. But Zebulun risked his life, as did Naphtali, on the heights of the battlefield.
Judges 4:4; 5:9; 15b-18
God loves to bring people into our lives He knows will help us to become more free in Christ – Our time in Oregon, Merlin Carothers books, other books, the Bible, and so much more is what God used and is using in our lives to transform us into His liberating, peaceful, restful, glorious, joyful, triumphant image. One of the most important ways He motivates us to be free is by being doers of His Word, by continuing to be His disciples indeed (John 8:31-32). God wants all of Him for us and knows how to bring that about. Deborah, a judge in Israel, was such a person for her time. God used her life to give Israel great and new freedom.
Ann and I love to be around people who are doing the Word and who keep being willing to let God take them into all righteousness by replacing their ways with His ways. Renewing our minds is such a wonderful and rewarding journey. It’s just so fun to follow God and to see where He takes us, and what He does along the way. Nothing like it.
Wow, Annie and I received a huge revelation from the Lord on Saturday, 4-25-20. We were never going to have God’s contentment and great gain until we became who He made us to be, until we did what He wanted us to do. For a long time, we were fooled/deceived into thinking we could be happy if we tried to attain fulfillment in the flesh – And we were “Christians.” We didn’t know it at the time, but we were still so much like the world. Honestly, we didn’t really know what being transformed into Christ’s image even looked like.
But Godliness with contentment is GREAT GAIN (1 Timothy 6:6). Satan, the world and the flesh can never give us Godliness, contentment or great gain. Apart from renewing our minds to Christ, Godliness, contentment and great gain are not attainable.
God is showing us that no one will never be truly happy until they become who God made them to be… Breaking through to be the mighty warriors for the Kingdom of God who have chosen Jesus, those who are seeking God’s will, who are letting go of their hurt and past, who are throwing off the fear of man and the flesh, who are loving and dying for their wife like Jesus did/does for the church, who are coming out of the deception and lies the enemy has them believing and living in so they can truly experience and see the Kingdom of God in their midst.
Hallelujah!
The contentment and great gain – and all of the incredible adventure along the way – that God has for us cannot ever be matched by those who choose to live for and in the flesh, for those who choose not to renew their minds, for those who choose to stay conformed to this world. The journey and road’s end for living for the flesh is boring, unrewarding, defeated and dismal at best.
Dump the interruptions/distractions of the wimpy flesh, Satan and this world, and move into who God has called and made you to be – Godly, and content with great gain.
Godly (true) contentment and great gain has nothing to do with the flesh – money, bank accounts, cars, homes, vacations, etc. It has everything to do with Godliness because only Godliness contains His contentment and His great gain.
God bless,
Mark
Note: While we may not agree with everything a particular church or Christian group teaches or believes, there are times when we can be blessed by something outside the realm of our current understanding of God.