"Lord and Christ"
"Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ." - Acts 2:36
"You have accepted Jesus as your Savior but you need to understand what it means that He is LORD." - KP
Die to self and live for righteousness.
I began researching obedience yesterday. Probably the most straight-forward verse was the one Kurt had already quoted to me, "If you love me, you will obey what I command" (John 14:15). There's also a lot in James and in John's letters that talks about the link between love and obedience. So, if we are to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind," (Matthew 22:37) then we must obey Him whole-heartedly as well. We have to fully submit to God's will instead of trying to hold on to our own. Obedience is not easy, but with time it feels more natural, and as we obey God, other parts of our lives improve. Relationships flourish. We fall more into line with God's will, and He continues to reveal Himself to us.
In Exodus 3, we see that Moses did not want to obey God, and it says that God became angry with him. In Matthew 4, however, the disciples drop whatever they are doing and immediately obey and follow Jesus as His disciples. They don't question or argue, they simply OBEY.
I've had issues with obedience lately. I'll be honest; it's been a real struggle. I sat at the Parsons' the other day, glaring at Kurt as he's telling me that I need to stop following my own will (aka death) and start following God's will. I denied whatever he said, refused to believe that he was right, refused to even deeply consider what he was saying. Saturday night's fight with Ryan has been kind our benchmark to use as an example when discussing things. It was my fault that we fought in the first place, both of us were kind of upset (okay, I was angry), and when Kurt gave us the chance to "hug and make up," I didn't even consider it, I just turned around and left. I didn't want to obey - not God, not Kurt - because to humble myself and apologize to Ryan would be showing weakness, and I knew I couldn't show weakness. Even now, if that exact situation happened again, I don't know that I would make the right decision. I think I would at least hesitate, though, instead of automatically refusing to give in.
I met with Kurt and Sandy yesterday over by Chauvenet and Kurt said something interesting ... that I have accepted Jesus as my Savior, but that's not the same as recognizing Him as my LORD. LORD means supreme in authority ... meaning He is in command, not me. If I believe that Jesus is LORD, then I will obey Him because He is in charge.
One of the words used for obedience in the Greek (according to this website) also means "trust." Therefore, to be obedient is to trust God. And perhaps that's the crux of this whole issue. We are commanded to love God, and to love God is to obey God and to obey God is to trust God. So, we are commanded to trust God. We are supposed to, as Kurt says, "Die to self and live for righteousness." And so I've got to ask God to help me learn to trust, because I'm certainly not going to do any good whatsoever on my own.
Seeking,
Michele
"You have accepted Jesus as your Savior but you need to understand what it means that He is LORD." - KP
Die to self and live for righteousness.
I began researching obedience yesterday. Probably the most straight-forward verse was the one Kurt had already quoted to me, "If you love me, you will obey what I command" (John 14:15). There's also a lot in James and in John's letters that talks about the link between love and obedience. So, if we are to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind," (Matthew 22:37) then we must obey Him whole-heartedly as well. We have to fully submit to God's will instead of trying to hold on to our own. Obedience is not easy, but with time it feels more natural, and as we obey God, other parts of our lives improve. Relationships flourish. We fall more into line with God's will, and He continues to reveal Himself to us.
In Exodus 3, we see that Moses did not want to obey God, and it says that God became angry with him. In Matthew 4, however, the disciples drop whatever they are doing and immediately obey and follow Jesus as His disciples. They don't question or argue, they simply OBEY.
I've had issues with obedience lately. I'll be honest; it's been a real struggle. I sat at the Parsons' the other day, glaring at Kurt as he's telling me that I need to stop following my own will (aka death) and start following God's will. I denied whatever he said, refused to believe that he was right, refused to even deeply consider what he was saying. Saturday night's fight with Ryan has been kind our benchmark to use as an example when discussing things. It was my fault that we fought in the first place, both of us were kind of upset (okay, I was angry), and when Kurt gave us the chance to "hug and make up," I didn't even consider it, I just turned around and left. I didn't want to obey - not God, not Kurt - because to humble myself and apologize to Ryan would be showing weakness, and I knew I couldn't show weakness. Even now, if that exact situation happened again, I don't know that I would make the right decision. I think I would at least hesitate, though, instead of automatically refusing to give in.
I met with Kurt and Sandy yesterday over by Chauvenet and Kurt said something interesting ... that I have accepted Jesus as my Savior, but that's not the same as recognizing Him as my LORD. LORD means supreme in authority ... meaning He is in command, not me. If I believe that Jesus is LORD, then I will obey Him because He is in charge.
One of the words used for obedience in the Greek (according to this website) also means "trust." Therefore, to be obedient is to trust God. And perhaps that's the crux of this whole issue. We are commanded to love God, and to love God is to obey God and to obey God is to trust God. So, we are commanded to trust God. We are supposed to, as Kurt says, "Die to self and live for righteousness." And so I've got to ask God to help me learn to trust, because I'm certainly not going to do any good whatsoever on my own.
Seeking,
Michele