DO WE HAVE IT BACKWARDS

DO WE HAVE IT BACKWARDS

Something I have noticed while attempting to raise funds and get pledges for my Walk-A-Thon is that many people are commenting about (or using as an excuse) the present economy. They are telling me that when the economy changes or God blesses them that they will be sure to help Ministry of the Sheep.

It is so hard to take that. Don't people claiming to be of God know how God works?

Let's look at a few verses.

(Genesis 26:1-6, 12-13 NASB) Now there was a famine in the land, besides the previous famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham. So Isaac went to Gerar, to Abimelech king of the Philistines. (2) The LORD appeared to him and said, "Do not go down to Egypt; stay in the land of which I shall tell you. (3) "Sojourn in this land and I will be with you and bless you, for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to your father Abraham. (4) "I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; (5) because Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes and My laws." (6) So Isaac lived in Gerar.

(12)Now Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. And the LORD blessed him, (13) and the man became rich, and continued to grow richer until he became very wealthy;

Let's see, Isaac did what God told him and he was blessed!

(Isaiah 58:6-11 NASB)"Is this not the fast which I choose, To loosen the bonds of wickedness, To undo the bands of the yoke, And to let the oppressed go free And break every yoke? (7) "Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry And bring the homeless poor into the house; When you see the naked, to cover him; And not to hide yourself from your own flesh? (8) "Then your light will break out like the dawn, And your recovery will speedily spring forth; And your righteousness will go before you; The glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. (9) "Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; You will cry, and He will say, 'Here I am.' If you remove the yoke from your midst, The pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, (10) And if you give yourself to the hungry And satisfy the desire of the afflicted, Then your light will rise in darkness And your gloom will become like midday. (11) "And the LORD will continually guide you, And satisfy your desire in scorched places, And give strength to your bones; And you will be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.

Huh, if the people do as God tells them, THEN they will be blessed.

(2 Chronicles 7:14 NASB)If My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

OK, so, If the people repent, THEN God will listen to them and heal their land.

Does anyone see a pattern developing here?

God didn't say “I'm going to bless you and then you do as I say.

That wouldn't make sense. Would you tell your child “I'm going to do something special for you and then I want you to clean your room.” NO, we expect obedience and then that obedience gets rewarded.

Why would we expect God, our Heavenly Father, to do any different than we would with our children?

Another chapter tells us the consequences for not doing what God tells us to do.

(Matthew 25:33-46 NASB) and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left. (34) "Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. (35) 'For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; (36) naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.' (37) "Then the righteous will answer Him, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? (38) 'And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? (39) 'When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' (40) "The King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.' (41) "Then He will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; (42) for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; (43) I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.' (44) "Then they themselves also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?' (45) "Then He will answer them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.' (46) "These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

Would you like to here something that most preachers won't tell you. This isn't about sinners and saints. Both sheep and Goats are Kosher (clean), suitable for sacrifice.

Also notice verse 37 and 44, They both called him Lord. These weren't pagans, these were people who probably sat in the seats in the synagogue every Sabbath listening to the Torah being read or the ones sitting in the church pew every Sunday for their weekly pep talk.

The same as the ones in Matthew 7

(Matthew 7:21-23 NASB) "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. (22) "Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' (23) "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.'

What is the will of the Father? If you still need to ask start at the top of this page again.

A lesson In Humbleness

by Dennis Mixer

So, there I was, in Honduras, living at the old orphanage and driving 5 miles to the new orphanage every day to work. Then the news came, Carlos was leaving for Guatamala the next week to work on a feeding center there for 1½ months and will be taking the IMI pickup. This wasn't totally unexpected. I had known Carlos would be going for sometime, though inwardly I was hoping it wouldn't be until November, when I was in the states.

My options were taking a taxi, which would cost half of my daily income, or walking.
Well, Satan did his best to bring me down, which he has been trying to do a lot of lately.
As I was sitting there moping about this, a verse came into my head, (that's how God talks to me sometimes). The verse was Luke 14:11 "For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

Now, normally, when a verse pops into my head, I understand what it is God's trying to tell me. This time I had to stop and think about it. It wasn't as though I was selfish about the truck, whenever possible I would give rides to people I saw walking.

As I was thinking God gave me a clue. All he said was “What makes you better than the people I sent you to serve?”

Immediately, in my mind I saw the old lady (she looks to be in her 70's) that lives up the road from the new orphanage. I saw her, almost daily, walking into Comayagua as was almost to work.
Then I thought of the times I'd complained about the roof leaking, and the times I've driven down the street on a rainy night and seen people wrapped in plastic, trying to stay dry so they can get some sleep on the sidewalk.
I thought about the times I grumbled about eating beans and rice (again), when I've seen kids digging through garbage bags, looking for something to eat.
I thought about complaining because I had to carry water up a flight of stairs to bathe or flush the toilet when I've seen people bathing in a river that looks like flowing mud. And I thought about the homes I've been in that have a hole in the ground outside that they call a bathroom.
I've commented on how long the hotplate at the old orphanage takes to cook Ramon noodles, yet daily I see people, as young as 6 and as old as the lady I mentioned above, carrying bundles of firewood so their meals can be cooked.
I could go on about what I've complained about, the lack of lighting in my room, my fan broke, no privacy etc. etc. etc. but it all comes down to one thing, it's better than what a lot of the people have.

So, yes, I had exalted myself to a point. Maybe a little lesson in humbleness was in line.
Maybe as Christians we all need to look at what we take for granted and complain about when we don't have it. Maybe if we looked at our fellow man more closely we would spend more time giving thanks to God for what he has allowed us to have instead of complaining that we don't have.

One final note in this chapter. I use e-sword as my computer bible program. I have it set up to show Daily devotionals the first time I open the program for the day. When I opened the program to get the scripture for this, the scripture used for the devotional was 2Chronicles 33:12-13 When he was in distress, he entreated the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. When he prayed to Him, He was moved by his entreaty and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God.

Do You Truly Fast
By Dennis Mixer

"Is it a fast like this which I choose, a day for a man to humble himself? Is it for bowing one's head like a reed, And for spreading out sackcloth and ashes as a bed? Will you call this a fast, even an acceptable day to the LORD? Isaiah 58:5
What type of fasting do you do?
For some fasting is simply refraining from one or two pleasures. For others fasting is giving up all food and spending all spare time in prayer and studying the Bible instead of doing other activities such as watching television.
But what is it that GOD says fasting is?
"Is this not the fast which I choose, To loosen the bonds of wickedness, To undo the bands of the yoke, And to let the oppressed go free, And break every yoke? "Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry, And bring the homeless poor into the house; When you see the naked, to cover him; And not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Isaiah 58:6,7
How different this is from the traditional fasting. How much more involved in the teachings of Jesus.

I have often heard my friend and president of Impact Ministries International, Tom Stamman, say how hard it is to sit and eat a cheese burger knowing that there are people eating out of a garbage pile. That is how every Christian should feel. The problem with many Christians is they have distanced themselves from those in need. They live in their middle class homes and never see the needs of their fellow man.

But what about Jesus' teaching on fasting?
Traditional fasting is obviously important. Jesus told the people that when they Go without food they should wash their face and comb their hair so that their fasting should be seen by God only. (Matthew 6:17,18) I find it interesting that this verse is followed by his instructions on not storing treasures on earth, but in Heaven..for your heart is where your riches are. (Mat 6:19-21)
How important is charity to God?
Paul tells us the importance of helping others when he tells new Christians how to live in Ephesians 4:28 Let him who steals steal no longer; but rather let him labor, performing with his own hands what is good, in order that he may have something to share with him who has need.
Paul didn't say get a job and support yourself, he told them to work so they could take care of others in need.

What can You do?
Not every Christian is called to go to another country, or even to another area of their own country. The mission field is right outside the doors of your church, and of your home. Most churches have programs to help those in need, or to support missions. If your church doesn't, pray and ask God what kind of program you can start. Maybe it's a food pantry or a clothes closet to help those in need. Maybe it fund raisers to help support missionaries in other parts of the world. What ever you do, it's important, For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead. James 2:26

True Fasting has a promise.
"Then your light will break out like the dawn, And your recovery will speedily spring forth; And your righteousness will go before you; The glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
9 "Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; You will cry, and He will say, 'Here I am.' If you remove the yoke from your midst, The pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
10 And if you give yourself to the hungry, And satisfy the desire of the afflicted, Then your light will rise in darkness, And your gloom will become like midday.
11 "And the LORD will continually guide you, And satisfy your desire in scorched places, And give strength to your bones; And you will be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. Isaiah 58:8