You Can’t Eat Your Cake and Have it Too!

 “and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

Matthew 10:38-39

 

When my son was a toddler I had a co-worker who was a masterful cake baker and so his birthdays included cakes that looked like Merry-Go-Rounds; Tigers and a number of others designed to delight a toddler. In a way, the hardest part of the birthday celebration came when it was time to cut into that beautiful cake.

It wasn’t baked just to be looked at.

It tasted good too but we never would have known that if all we did was enjoy how it looked. It gave meaning to the title of today’s blog since we really couldn’t eat our cake and simultaneously hold on to the creative beauty of it.

I suppose that’s what “Kodak moments” were made for!

Running Gods’ course can be a lot like that as well. We have fallen for a lie that we can have all the best in our life all the time and still fulfill Gods’ call on our life.

It sounds good.

It is very attractive and very appealing.

It really tickles our ears and draws us in.  

There is just one minor problem, its’ not true.

That’s not to say that God wants you miserable.

Not at all!

But the Gospel’s Good News is that we have been saved from the destruction that our sins deserved and demanded to an abundant life in Christ.

We interpret the abundant life to mean that it is all pleasure and satisfaction, all things meant to satisfy the longings of my flesh.  

In other words, we can eat our cake and have it too!

There are just too many passages in scripture to reference them all here but suffice to say that one sure thing you will face as a disciple of Jesus Christ is the choice to forgo immediate satisfaction for long term gain.

Remember this: “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?”

Sometimes the ‘desires’ of my life, and the course it would take me on, are in direct contradiction to the course God has laid out for me.    

It is at those moments, I (you too) must choose His course or mine.

It can’t be both!

You can’t eat your cake and have it too and, in surrendering your life to Jesus Christ, your life is not your own. 

“In” But Not “Of”

“Do not love the world or anything in the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  

For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man,

the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—

comes not from the Father but from the world.

I John 2:15-16

As we have been looking at the question of staying on Gods’ course for your life we must be aware that you can become so well assimilated into the culture around you; so comfortable with the world; that the result is you love your life more than Gods’ plans.

This is not instantaneous but happens over time.

The good news is it is also reversible.

Maybe this is where you say to yourself – “I know, the answer is to not be part of the world! We need Christian communities that are set apart and separate from everyone else!”

Well, that’s only half right.

We are too be set-apart and separate.

But it is a separation from the culture of the world system that is opposed to God.

We are not separated from the people in the world.

The bible tells us in John 1:15 that:

“The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us…”

Jesus didn’t hide out in a cave nor does He ask us to.

He didn’t walk among people as if they all were contagious with a putrid disease.

He was, as we are called to be, in the world but not of the world.  

So, how do we remain unpolluted by the world?

             Paul tells us the secret in Galatians 5:16 when he says:

“So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.”

I can be in the culture but not immersed in that culture.

I do this by being immersed in the Spirit of God.

God sent His promised Holy Spirit to the church on Pentecost.

The Spirit of God is in me to help me live a life that honors God.

A life in the Spirit is a life that runs His course.

Hmmmm, My Life or God’s Course?

“However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.”

Acts 20:24

Staying on God’s course is not always easy and it certainly isn’t for the faint of heart.

It demands that we place a greater value on God’s course than our own life.

Are you prepared to do that?

It may be simple to answer yes, but it is tough to stick with it.

In today’s verse, Paul speaks of completing the task the Lord had given him.

He was headed for Jerusalem, not knowing what would happen to him there.

 Nonetheless, we are told he was “…compelled by the Spirit…” to travel there.

Do you have a task from God?

Do you know what it is and have you committed to completing it?

Are you “compelled” by the Spirit of God to complete that task?

We must understand that the enemy of our soul is committed to just the opposite.

Now we know that he is not greater than God (not even close) and that God equips us to complete the task and/or race we are in.

But we must understand that he will resist our efforts and that,

what we accomplish for God will not happen without opposition.

That alone is enough to dissuade some.

Don’t allow the slightest headwind or the roar of the enemy to knock you off course.

Paul says in verse 23 of Acts 20: “I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me.”

Paul faced possible prison and hardship in going to the very city that the Spirit of God was compelling him to go to.

How is it that he could continue forward on that journey?

He valued God’s course, God’s task, God’s race greater than his own life.

This from the same man who declared: “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

 Are you prepared to lay down your life for Christ?

I am reminded of an old proverb (not found in the bible but it fits here) that

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.”

Maybe you are not sure about laying down your life for Christ.

Take the first step – step out of your comfort zone – take up your cross today, by laying down your desires and walking in obedience to the Lord.

I’m Called and Equipped; What More Do I Need?

“A certain man of Zorah, named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, had a wife who was sterile and remained childless. The angel of the Lord appeared to her and said, “You are sterile and childless, but you are going to conceive and have a son…the boy is to be a Nazirite, set apart to God from birth, and he will  

        begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines.”                                                 Judges 13: 3-5 selected
                 “Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon him in power.” 

                             Judges 14:19

How is it that we veer off the course God has established for us?

How is it that Sampson found himself off course?

One lesson we need to learn is that our call from God and His equipping to complete that call does not guarantee that we will complete the race.

It is indeed special to receive a call from God and to know that He has given us all that we need to complete that call.

But the call and the equipping are still ours to step into and to utilize.

God will not force you to respond to His call.

You are free to disobey.

You are free to walk away.

You are free to use the gifts, talents and abilities for your own purposes and not His.

Sampson’s supernatural strength was often used to get him out of predicaments his own flesh, his own desires got him into.

Like Moses who struck the rock he was commanded to speak to, Samson used Gods’ equipping to get himself out of a pickle he had brought upon himself.  

I thank God for the call on my life.

I thank Him for the equipping He gives to walk in that call.

But I also recognize that finishing the course requires a moment-by-moment trust and obedience to Him.

Jesus spoke of it as: “…abiding in the vine.”

The call sets me on the course and the equipping gives me what I need to complete the race but neither one guarantees a finish.

The runner must keep his eye on the prize, the goal that is set before him. 

There is a hunger, a zeal, a thirst, an appetite for completing the race that only comes to those who remain in intimate relationship with the God who has called us.

Don’t be shortsighted as Sampson became (sorry about the pun); stay focused on the Lord!

Super Sampson

“The angel of the Lord appeared to her and said, “You are sterile and childless, but you are going to conceive and have a son. Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean, because you will conceive and give birth to a son. No razor may be used on his head, because the boy is to be a Nazirite, set apart to God from birth, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines.”

Judges 13:3-5

Stronger than 100 men!

Able to destroy enemy fields with only a torch and foxes!

Look, the man with the long, long hair – its’ Super Sampson!

Well, of course that is silly.

The Bible did not have super heroes in the way comic books stories tell of super heroes today.

I suppose if they did, Sampson would have been one of the Old Testament’s best.

At least, he started out that way.

You see, he had a course laid out for him as a Judge in the Nation of Israel.

He was dedicated to God at birth with a Nazirite vow.

He was renowned in the land for his great feats of strength and for

humiliating Israel’s enemy, the Philistines. 

But along the way, Samson veered of that course set for him.

It is a life that we can learn much from.

It is a life filled with advances and retreats.

His story is a story of broken vows and self-gratifying appetites.

So what can we say?

How much greater the exploits recorded and how much greater glory might God have received, through his life, had he stayed on course.

We too have a course set for us.

We too have temptations to stray from that course.

We too have opportunities to dedicate our lives to God.

Let’s look together, this week, at how we stay the course.

What can we learn from Sampson’s life to apply in our own lives?

We’ll find out together how to stay the course!

Redirected Focus

One of the weapons we looked at that the enemy uses is to get us to be self-absorbed.

That is the “Hey, what about me” attitude that permeates our culture.

The remedy is simple.

Put others first.

We find ample support for this approach in scripture.

Let me offer just a few passages to consider:

Galatians 5:13

“You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.”

Philippians 2:3-4

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

Luke 22:27

“For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves?

Is it not the one who is at the table?

But I am among you as one who serves.”

Galatians 6:10

“Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”

Serving others takes our focus off of ourselves.

Jesus came to do the will of the Father and that included a life of serving others.

That life of obedience and service took Him to the cross.

Serving self brings immediate gratification but brings no blessing to others.

Serving others is sacrificial and blesses both them and you!

Look for an opportunity today to obey the Lord in service to someone else.

A Coat of Zeal

“ He put on righteousness as his breastplate,
    and the helmet of salvation on his head;
he put on the garments of vengeance
    and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak.”

Isaiah 59:17

How passionate are you today, right now, for God’s Kingdom to be manifested in your life?

Has there ever been a time in your walk with God that you were more passionate about that?

Some people write off zeal and passion as the sole possession of those new to the Kingdom.

They wrongly equate zeal with immaturity and passion with a lack of wisdom.

The truth is, the more we mature in the things of God the more passionate, zealous and wise we should become.

You and I should be more on fire for God today than we were yesterday.

“That’s just not practical!” you protest.   

If that is my attitude then, to be sure, I will not be moving forward.

I didn’t say you wouldn’t have rough days that make it a greater challenge; but God never changes and the power He makes available to you and I each day is not diminished with passing time.  

He is still as powerful today as He was yesterday,

despite the circumstances you may find yourself in.

It is very, very easy for us to fall into a rut.

Someone once described a “rut” as “a grave with the ends kicked out”.

Complacency or just “going through the motions” is not the

abundant life given to us nor is it being the Light of the World to those in darkness.   

If you find yourself in that place, be honest with God about it.

Ask Him to help you so that tomorrow is brighter than today.

Ask Him to know the work of the Holy Spirit that can “…wrap you in zeal like a coat.”