Psalm 46:10 Wait Upon the Lord
“Be still and know (recognize, understand) that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations! I will be exalted in the earth” (AMP).
It may appear to be obvious, but if we ever hope to hear from God, it is basic and it is important to know, recognize, and understand that the Lord is God. That’s who we are waiting for, that is the one we want to hear from. God is almighty, He is all knowing, and He is everywhere all the time. He hears us when we pray, when we take the time to talk with Him; He knows what is best for us whatever the situation, and He is certainly able to perform whatever is needed. He will be exalted! He will be exalted by all because He hears the prayers of all of us, and His heart yearns for us to hear Him, believe Him, and trust Him. To do that, we must “be still.” We can’t let the noise and the turmoil of this earth block His voice from our ears and hearts. Elijah was depressed and felt alone. He said to the Lord, “…and I, only I am left, and they seek my life, to take it away” (1 Kings 19:10 KJV). God decided to present Himself to Elijah, and a great wind that broke rocks came by, an earthquake occurred, and a great fire appeared, but God was in none of those. After they passed, there came a still small voice. “And it was so, when Elijah heard it that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the opening of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, ‘What doest thou here, Elijah?” (1 Kings 19:13 KJV) Elijah couldn’t hear the voice until God had gotten his attention, and then God spoke in a still small voice. He didn’t yell, He didn’t scream. He spoke in a still small voice.
We get our clue from Elijah. “Be still.” He was still, and He understood the grandeur of God, the power of God, and He was about to experience the love of God. But he had to “Be still.” That’s what we need to do when the world overwhelms us; come away, be still, and understand just who it is that we are waiting for. He will speak, but He wants to know that He has our undivided attention. For what He says may well be life-changing, and we need to understand not only His words, but mainly, His heart. Waiting upon the Lord means just that—we wait until we are quiet enough to hear Him clearly. So, ultimately we are waiting upon ourselves, which is the message that the Lord was impressing upon me when I began working on this. He said to me, “While you are impatiently waiting for me, I am patiently waiting for you. I am waiting for you to understand that you need to be still, and that you need to be able to set aside everything else.” This is the first lesson from God about “Waiting on the Lord.” I know there will be more.
Luke 10:26-28 Responsibility or Privilege
“Jesus replied, ‘What does the law of Moses say? How do you read it?’ The man answered, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (NLT).
Okay, that is our responsibility, but isn’t it also our greatest privilege. Aren’t of all our responsibilities also our privileges? Here’s a partial list of our responsibilities:
Thank God.
Love God.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
Do unto others as you would have them do to you.
Go into all the world and preach the Gospel.
As much as it is possible, live in peace with everybody.
Represent God on the earth.
Minster to each other.
Gather together.
Praise and worship God.
Pray for each other.
Study the Word.
Discuss the Word with fellow believers.
Speak the Word to unbelievers.
Listen for and to the Holy Spirit.
Pray—have conversations with God.
Do good to all people.
Make God visible and alive with your life.
Preach the Word with actions and words.
This is a good list, but it is not exhaustive. Feel free to add to it. I challenge you to point out one of those responsibilities that is not a privilege. We are privileged to know God, and we are privileged to be trusted by Him to represent Him. What a responsibility and what a privilege! Be privileged today!
Mark 16:15,16 My Responsibility to the World
“And then he told them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone. Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned.’” (NLT)
My responsibility to the world, as a Christian, is very simple: JESUS! That’s right, we are told in two places, Mark 16:15-16 and Matthew 28:18-20, to tell ALL THE WORLD the Good News about Jesus, about His sacrifice that guarantees eternal life for all who believe. That’s pretty simple, right? Not necessarily—you see we have an adversary who does not want people to learn about the Good News. He’s been working on this for over 2000 years, and he has developed strategies that help his cause. We need to learn how to frustrate him and his strategies.
God has provided us with numerous ways to show the love of God and to “preach the Good News.” The first one is obvious; tell people what Jesus said about Himself. In John 14:6, Jesus says, “…I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (NIV). To “come to the Father”—spend eternity in heaven—is available to all. Acknowledge Jesus as Lord and Savior, and ask Him for forgiveness for all our sins.
There it is, but many will not accept that straight forward approach, so other ways have been made available. As one blessed person said many years ago, “Preach a sermon every day. When necessary, use words.” Matthew 7:12, “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” Luke 10:27, “He answered, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind;’ and ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Matthew 5:44, “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Matthew 5:40, “And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well.” Romans 12:18, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live in peace with everyone.” (All Scriptures from NIV)
One obvious way to point people to God is to point out the magnificence of creation. The beauty, diversity, and inter-dependence of everything speaks of an omniscient God of creation. This is a good beginning, but it needs to be followed up by discussion of sin and the separation from God.
All of the strategies given in the above two paragraphs are good, but finally the Word must be spoken: Jesus is the only way, and a decision must be made for or against Jesus. The point must be made that it is possible to accept Jesus as Savior anytime up until death. Once that time has been reached however, there is no longer an opportunity to say, “Yes, I choose Jesus.” It will be too late then.
It's not hard to see that our responsibility to the world is immense, vital, and not only life changing, but more importantly, eternity changing. Yes, we are responsible for living in peace with our fellow man, and to treat him well, to care for him, and to demonstrate the love of God through our actions, but our PRIMARY responsibility to the world remains JESUS! May we enlarge the population of heaven by our actions and our words.
Hebrews 10:25 My Responsibility to the Church
“And let us not neglect our meeting together as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near? (NLT).
We have many responsibilities to our fellow believers, the members of the Church, the body of Christ. We are His representation here on earth, but before we can minister to the world, we need to minister to each other and make certain that we are healthy spiritually, physically, and mentally. Gathering together is the only way in which we will know if someone needs help, or even who can provide help. Soon after Peter’s message that resulted in 3000 people accepting Jesus, we are told that “they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer” (Acts 2:42 NIV). I don’t believe this passage means that the entire 3000 did this together, but that they gathered in groups in order to learn, to pray for each other, to fellowship, and to share meals together. Sometimes I think that we do the last, share meals, most eagerly. In any case, it is of great importance that we frequently share time, concerns, ideas, question, and food with our brothers and sisters in Christ. These informal times supply a lot of glue that holds the church together. I’ve learned a lot during these informal times of discussion--different interpretations or emphases from a sermon or passage of Scripture. It is my responsibility to add whatever I can to these discussions.
It is easy to be intimidated by some who speak often or forcibly, but I may have an interpretation or understanding that some others have missed, and by not speaking, I deprive them of it. If our hearts and minds are open to the Holy Spirit, He will give us insight. I believe that to encourage discussion, the Holy Spirit does not give the same insight to everyone. That is part of His ministry—to build relationships within the body.
Galatians 6:2, 10 tells us, “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ….Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to the family of believers” (NIV). By frequent fellowship we will learn of the needs of others, and we will have the opportunity to help. As fellowship draws us closer, we may recognize a need that someone is reluctant to share with all, but perhaps will respond to a personal offer of help. Someone’s special skill may be just what is needed to solve the problem.
Receiving instruction from those God has placed over us, those who have chosen to serve Him in a ministerial position, is vital to our growth in the Lord. It also gives us the opportunity to knit together as God’s creation, the Church, His representative in the world today. Meeting together gives us opportunity to learn about and participate in the particular mission of our church. Impetus to go beyond the church into the community is given as we gather. It is our responsibility to respond to the call of God on our church any way that we can.
God created the Church. Let us honor Him by fulfilling our responsibility to the Church.
Exodus 20:1-3 My Responsibilities to God
“And God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord the God, which have brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me”(KJV).
That’s pretty straight forward. He, alone is God, and we are bound to Him. Of all the gods that man has invented, none can make that claim. He was actually our God long before He spoke these words through Moses. He was our God even before He created us. We were in His mind and in His heart from before the moment He began creation. He desired to have fellowship, so He decided to create someone suitable for fellowship, and that was us. But before He created us, He created a world for us—a “livable place.” And He went way beyond livable. He went even beyond magnificent. Just go outside and look around. He made a world that we could see. He created a world that we could hear. He created a world that we could smell. He created a world that we could taste. He created a world that we could feel. And after He did all that, He created us. He created us and a universe in which we can live, so I’m pretty sure that we are responsible to thank Him for all this. Wait a minute. I forgot something. God didn’t just create us, He formed us with His hands, in His likeness He formed us. And then after he formed us, He blew His breath, the breath of life, into us. Yep, we are responsible to thank Him.
He planted a garden and walked with the first man and woman in this garden in the cool of the day, and He intended that we would live with Him there forever. But there was a catch. God did not want automatons who had to love Him, so He gave us freedom of choice, and then He gave us something to make a choice about. There was one tree in the garden whose fruit was forbidden. We were not to eat of it. To eat of it was to disobey Him and disrespect Him. (Don’t blame Adam and Eve. You know that you and I would have done the same thing they did.) When they ate the fruit, sin came into the world, and sin cannot exist in the presence of God, so man was separated from God, His creator.
Before I began to write this, I prayed and asked God what our responsibility was to Him. His answer was short and it was definite. He said, “Love me.” It did not come to me as a command, but rather, as a yearning. God yearns that we love Him. We can show that first by accepting the sacrifice made by God’s “only begotten Son,” Jesus, who took the sins of everyone on Himself and paid for them in full on the cross of Calvary. That made it possible for each of us to spend eternity with God.
There are other responsibilities listed in the Bible, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” “Whatever you do, do it as unto the Lord.” “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.” There are more, but they can all be summed up in the two word desire of God’s heart, “Love me.” Let us fulfill our responsibility to God as well as we can every day in every way.