Humility through Humantiy

One of the words used to describe God in one of the blogger comments was “humble”.  That was interesting to me because when I think of humble, I think of what I should be towards God but this word was used to describe God.  As I thought about that I was began to think about Jesus, because He humbled Himself by coming in the form of man in order to relate to man and to sacrifice Himself for us.  There is no better example of the word humble than that.  So today I would like for us to focus on the humility of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Hebrews 2:10 “In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering  (11)Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family.  So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.  (12) He says, ‘I will declare your name to my brothers; in the presence of the congregation I will sing your praises.’ (13)And again, ‘I will put my trust in Him.’ And again He says, ‘Here am I, and the children God has given me.’ (14) Since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in the humanity so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—(15)and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.  (16)For this reason He had to be made like His brothers in every way, in order that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that He might make atonement for the sins of the people.  (18)Because He Himself suffered when He was tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted.”

Have you ever heard someone who has been appointed to a high office say, “It was so humbling to get called to serve”?  I have never really quite figured that out.  They have been asked by the president of the United States to serve, they have been put on a high pedestal and they call that humbling.  I don’t think the call to service is what humbled them but the path they may have taken to get there could have been what was humbling.  Perfection does not come naturally and none of us are perfect but Christ demonstrated perfection through His suffering and we too can become perfect through our suffering if we keep the faith.  Hebrews 3:14 “We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.”

Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior who was appointed to come to this earth and take that path of humanity and through humility He is able to help us when we are tempted because He was tempted (verse  8).  He knows how we feel because He humbled Himself to the low point of flesh and blood and was tempted just as you are tempted.  Even though He had all the power at His hand He gave that up to understand us.   

In chapter 3 we are told because of what Jesus has done for us, because of His humility, we should fix our thoughts on Him (vs. 1).  Hebrews 3:1-6 “Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess.  He was faithful to the one who appointed Him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house.  (3) Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself.  (4)For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.  (5) Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house, testifying to what would be said in the future. (6)But Christ is faithful as a Son over God’s house.  And we are His house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.”

Just as Christ humbled Himself, we too must humble ourselves before our Lord and Savior.  We must remember that He is the one in control and we are His servants. 

As I was writing this blog today a fly was buzzing around me.  I was having a hard time concentrating and I just cried out in frustration and asked the Lord to get rid of it because it was bothering me.  As I raised my hands, I touched the fly with the tip of my finger and it disappeared for awhile.  I was thanking the Lord for getting rid of it and about the time I was finished writing it came back and I said, “in the name of JESUS get out of here” and it disappeared again.  As I was writing this paragraph it came back again and I tried to slap it but slapped myself instead.  Why do I tell you this story about the fly while writing about being humble? The fly demonstrated to me that God is in control.  That I need to always become meek in order to give Him all the glory and power that is due Him.  We can not do anything with our own strength, we may only slap ourselves,  but it is through the strength and power of our Lord that we can overcome. 

Dear Heavenly Father, I humble myself before your throne today and thank you for your guidance in this life that I know live.  In my suffering in this world, may I always be faithful to follow you as you were faithful to complete your mission upon this earth, the one that came to this earth to show me the way, to give me a way to the Heavenly Father.  I thank you for coming here and humbling yourself to the point of death on the cross in order to give me a passage way to the Father.  I thank you for being my high priest.  I thank you too for the little things in life, like taking the distraction of a fly away from me in order that I could concentrate on Your Word.  I ask you Lord to use these words to help others see how wonderful you are, to help others realize they need to humble themselves at Your feet that all glory and honor that is due you be given.

In Jesus precious and holy name I pray, Amen.

Humble yourselves today, step into the shoes of someone else, try to view the world they way they see it and seek Him with all your heart in order to be blessed by Him.

Seeking Him with all my heart,

Sheila

The One in Control

I have not written for several days and hope that it has given you a chance to read and process what the book of Revelation which was written by John after being given this vision from God.  I left you with three more trumpets to be sounded so let’s get back in the Word and see what God has to tell us today.

The next three trumpets to sound will be three woes which will be even more dreadful than the ones we have already looked at. 

Revelation 9:1-11 “The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth.  The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss.  (2) When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace.  The sun and the sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss. (3) And out of the smoke locusts came down upon the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. (4) They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. (5) They were not given power to kill them, but only to torture them for five months.  And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes a man. (6) During those days men will seek death, but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.

(7)The locust looked like horses prepared for battle.  On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces.  (8) Their hair was like women’s hair their teeth were like lions’ teeth. (9) They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle.  (10) They had tails and stings like scorpions, and in their tails they had power to torment people for five months. (11) They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek Apollyon.

Wow, I don’t know about you but that all sounds pretty scary doesn’t it?  Why do you think God revealed this to John?  Why do you think we are reading it today?  Does it make sense to you what is to come?  What spoke to you the most?

I have some observations that I want to make concerning this passage.  First of all it speaks of a star falling from the earth.  How many of you have heard that there is some instability in space even today.  There is talk that things are getting out of alignment and a threat that something catastrophic could happen.  I heard the other day that a space station was coming down and they didn’t know where it would land.  With so much junk in space today who knows what might come down.  One day I was watching TV and a science fiction show was on and a huge meteorite was headed for the earth.  Some astronauts were given the mission to go up in space and try to break it up before it hit the earth.  I was scared the entire time because I know from the word of God that it is not fiction, someday this is going to happen and it will be only the beginning of catastrophes on this earth.

Secondly I noticed that God is in control.  I want to jump back a few books, well several books, to the book of Job.  Do you remember the story?  Satan had been wandering the earth and God asked him if he had considered Job who served God faithfully.  Satan responded that Job only served God because of all the good he had so God gave satan permission to bring strife upon him but with restrictions, Job 1:12 “The Lord said to Satan, ‘Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.’” 

How does that tie to Revelation 9?  I found it interesting that God allowed satan to bring strife upon Job with conditions and the same thing is going on in Revelation 9:4 “They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads”.  God controls the angels, including satan.  He is in control and He knows what is and is to come because He is what is and He is what is to come.  Do you trust Him?  I hope so. 

What did you envision in verses 7-11?  I always think of helicopters when I read those verses, when it talks about looking like scorpions and sounding like horses and chariots rushing in a battle.  Now, I haven’t ever heard horses and chariots rush in a battle and John had never heard helicopters fly over so I am only imagining what that might sound like.  I think helicopters kind of look like scorpions too.  Have you ever seen a helicopter spay the fields or drop water on a fire?  They have the power to pour down on this earth protective matter and they could also be used to harm.  I am not saying that this is what these scorpions are but it is always the first thing that comes to my mind when I read those verses.

The chaos of this world today does not even pal to the chaos that is to come.  So many times we get caught up in the everyday occurrences of this life we live and we forget that there is a life that is more abundant.  When we remember that promised abundant life, we seem to skip over all that is to come and go directly to the bliss of Heaven.  My hope for you is that this blog message  is that you won’t be scared by the things that are to come but that you will be more motivated to make sure that your life reflects the One who can protect, provide, and save those who will call upon His name.  That someday we can stand before the Lord and hear the words, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”  Serve Him today as you seek Him and find Him when you seek Him with all your heart.

Seeking Him with all my heart,

Sheila  

When Life Doesn't Make Sense

“It doesn’t make sense!”  Have those words ever  come out of your mouth?  They have mine, even this morning as my husband and I took a walk.  I have a hard time understanding why things have had to happen in my life they way they have.  My life hasn’t been all bad, I know a lot of people who have gone through so much more than me but today I struggle as I try to reason things out.  That is what was happening in Genesis, chapter 42 with Joseph’s half brothers.  The only difference is that they had done something very wrong and they knew that God knew that they had done wrong and they felt they were now being punished for it.

To recap yesterday for those who did not have a chance to read it:

Joseph’s dad told his ½ brothers to go to Egypt to get some of the food for their family.  They were all just standing around looking at each other, I think because they knew that they had sent their brother to Egypt as a slave and they were afraid of what might be in store for them if they went.  They must have known that God was not happy with them because of their actions.  After they arrived in Egypt Joseph’s half brothers had to bow before him (but they didn’t know that it was him) to ask to buy some of the grain from Egypt for their starving family.  Joseph accused them of being spies and  sent all but one of them back to their homeland to get their younger brother and kept one (Simeon) in prison.

Now that we are caught up, I will continue with the story from Genesis 42.  Again I would urge you to read that chapter:

Joseph had each of their bags filled with grain and also had their silver put back in the bag along with provisions for their journey back home.  Just a little side note, this is the same journey that the Israelites would go on with Moses, remember, it took them 40 years to get there!   On the way home one of them opened their sack and discovered that his money was there.  Have you received something unexpected before?  Were you excited about it?  Their response was a little different, Genesis 42:28b Their hearts sank and they turned to each other trembling and said, ‘What is it that God has done?’

When they returned home they told their father what they had been accused of in Egypt and  how they had to leave their brother there.  They told their father how they told the governor that they were honest men but they didn’t tell him how they had been dishonest so many years before.  They never told him that they were afraid because of what they had done to their brother Joseph.  Do you know people who tell ½ of the story?  They let you know how they have been wronged but fail to tell you the part where they may have been wrong.  I think all of us have, at some time or another, fell into that trap.  It is so much easier to share how we have been wronged than to share how we were wrong.

The story goes on to say that they soon discovered that all of their silver was returned with the grain.  When they saw this both Jacob and the brothers were frightened.  At this point Jacob blames his sons for the disappearance of Joseph and also of the capturing of Simeon.  Genesis 42:36  Their father Jacob said to them, ‘You have deprived me of my children, Joseph is no more and Simeon is no more, and now you want to take Benjamin.  Everything is against me!’  Poor Jacob is feeling so much pain at this point.  He has given up on ever seeing Simeon again.  Notice how he says, “he is no more” when he is in prison, he hasn’t been killed.  All that is required of him is to send his other son but he doesn’t want to let go of him for fear that something bad will happen to him.

Is there anything in your life that you are holding on to and you are afraid to let go of it?  Maybe God is asking you to let go in order to have a blessing.  Maybe He simply wants you to trust Him .  Some of you might be like me and have been hurt by people that you had tried so hard to please.  Or maybe you have hurt someone who you know was trying to please you.  Maybe you are holding on to those things that we have no control over, that is what I do.  When I find myself in that situation, I have to continually pray and let God take a hold of the wheel and guide me through the situation.  Like Joseph, we will hurt, but we also need to be like Joseph and trust that God is in control.  There is a song that talks about this, if you have time, take a moment to listen to it.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lydBPm2KRaU

I don’t know what road you are traveling today.  Maybe it is a happy road or maybe it is rough, steep, or curvy road.  Whatever road you are on, I would like to encourage you to allow Jesus to take the wheel, and guide you.  He will do this for you as you seek Him and find Him when you seek Him with all your heart.


Seeking Him with all my heart,
Sheila