Obedience through Suffering

Hebrews 5:8-9 (NASB)

8 Although He [Jesus] was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. 9 And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation, I've been thinking on a lot of things, some of which being submission and obedience.  I was actually looking for another scripture, but this was the one that really said what I needed to hear or read.  Even Jesus, being the Son of God, learned how to obey the Father through his suffering. Through the obedience that came through suffering, Jesus was made perfect (or mature) and became the source of eternal salvation for all of us.  This is why it is so important that we be obedient.  It is difficult for us to see what the purpose is in the moment for some of the pains we endure, whether it be persecution, separation, fasting, physical ailments, etc., but we have to trust that all these things are happening in God's plan to perfect or mature us. I know that I have to make the decision all the time that I will be obedient or submit, even in little things.  Just today, this came up for me and I could feel myself moving in the opposite direction of what I knew I should do.  I had to make the decision to be obedient and actually prevent more pain later.  I think Jesus, being a man, may have had to say each day, "Father, Your will be done," versus what his flesh may have wanted.  He is the ultimate example of submission and obedience. This is kind of pep talk for myself, but I hope this helps anyone else that may read.

Love

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

13 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body ^[a]to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, ⁵ does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, ⁶  does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; ^7 [b] bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
⁸ Love never fails; but if there are gifts of ^[c] prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part; ¹⁰ but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. ¹¹ When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I ^[d]became a man, I did away with childish things. ¹² For now we see in a mirror ^[e]dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. ¹³ But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the ^[f]greatest of these is love.

Jesus was the beginning of the new order, the new covenant that God made with us.  Jesus is love personified.  He walked in all facets of it and He continues to do so.  I am lucky on a day that I'm walking in a few of them.  

What is this love anyway?  It requires that pretty much everything we knew to be love before Christ be torn apart and reconstructed based upon the blue print laid out in the word, in 1 Corinthians 13.  Love is patient.  Patient translates to "far feeling" or "long spirited" in the Greek.  I take that to mean you love beyond what is in front of you, whether it be someone upset with you or being impatient with you.  Love is kind, translated, to show yourself useful or act benevolently.  So, if you are lazy, you are not demonstrating love.  And the list goes on.  But what am I getting at here?  That even though I'm going through some things, the test is will I still love?  Can I still love through it?  If I can manage to even do those first two things, I have accomplished something.  Even if my heart aches and I want to be angry, if I can still love past what is right before me, I can see Jesus - because he is love personified.

The Importance of The Cross

I had written the post below first, then I found this older one: http://reconstructingtiffany.blogspot.com/2010/09/wilderness-experience.html

Same scripture, same message, different perspective.

Matthew 10:34 -39 NKJV

"Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth.  I did not come to bring peace but a sword.  For I have come to set a man against his farther, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's enemies will be those of his own household.  He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me.  And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.  And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.  He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it."

How can you free the captives if you are still in bondage?  How can you lay your life down if you refuse to give it up?  I know without a doubt that there is a call upon my life. But most of my life, I have "been a slave to men" as Paul instructed the people not to be in 1 Corinthians.  

In order to be free, that may mean allowing Jesus to bring division to your house and let the sword of the Word not only cut you but to cut off dead branches.  

It was prophesied to me that I would be like Moses, that I would go back and get my family.  I remembered this just now and the Lord asked me, "How can you free the captives if you are still in bondage?"  It is important that if you say you love Christ, that you bear your cross.  Just as Jesus did not want to go to the cross, but He submitted to the Father, so must I.  So must any of us that call ourselves believers.  Let God's will be done - on earth as it is in heaven.  Just as Jesus did not go to the cross for Himself, nor do you.  Nor do I.  The Lord told me that me enduring this pain right now is necessary for me to be able to go back and get others later.  I carry this cross or risk myself and my family perishing.  

That's the thing...I knew the cross was important and I've read this scripture many times, but I did not see until now just how important each of us letting our flesh be nailed to the cross is - not only to ourselves, but to the very people we love and want to be saved.  I thought downgrading myself or being self-deprecating was humility.  No.  Humility is understanding your purpose and moving in it because of who gave you this life - God.  See, if I don't die now, other people will not live.  I love Jesus and as a disciple, I cannot believe that He saved me and that's where it ends.  So, there is somebody out there, maybe several someones,who I am assigned to go get.  And while I'm over here trying to figure out how to serve God and still avoid the pain of division, maybe someone else is dying the eternal death. 

"How can you free the captives if you are still in bondage?"  My God...

New Day

A lot has happened since my last post. I've moved into a new place, I'm entering new territory at work, and things are moving and evolving quickly at church. One praise report, a person who I had been praying for off and on for some time now has finally come back to church and I believe it's for real. And maybe that's not really what I mean, I mean back into the sheepfold. Because truth is, anyone can come to church but still be very far from God. So yay to that!

Today is a new day. I feel like I'm ready to press into whatever is next! I don't really have a choice. If I don't hang on, the train's leaving without me.