Fuel of Faith - Obedience!

The fundamental thing that keeps a house together is the structure - the foundation and the load bearing walls. If we can liken Christianity to a house, faith in Christ is the foundation stone and the walls that hold our house together. However, obedience is the roof over the house of faith that keeps us protected from the outside elements and attacks of the enemy. Our feelings and emotions are merely the outer cover like paint and decorations that finishes the house but alone it does not stand up! The problem with most of us is that we largely like to live our life going purely by feelings and emotions. "If it ain't gonna feel good, I am not doing it", is our favourite slogan. When we live like this, we are subject to every attack of the enemy as we have no protection because we are like a house without a roof. Obedience is central to a faith that is growing and is central to walking in God's will.

Obedience is not having a strong will but rather it is aligning ourselves with God's plan, will, call and purpose for our lives. It is surrendering of our will knowing that God's will is far superior and better as a result of knowing who He truly is and knowing that He can be trsuted implicitly.
Isaiah 55:8-9
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
It is surrendering our will so that we decrease and He increases just as John the Baptist said (John 3:30).
Throughout the Bible, God's heart is for people to come into a true relationship with Him, to come to a place of obedience resulting from complete trust. That is why in the Old Testament, though there was an elaborate system of sacrifices for sin and covering disobedience, God says that He delights in obedience rather than sacrifices.
Isaiah 1:11
The multitude of your sacrifices— what are they to me?" says the LORD. I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.

According to Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, the definition of obey is as follows: 1. To give ear to; to execute the commands of; to yield submission to; to comply with the orders of; 2. To submit to the authority of; to be ruled by; 3. To yield to the impulse, power, or operation of; as, a ship obeys her helm. The opposite of obedience is disobedience, defiance and rebellion. With these attitudes, we are moving away from God's love, ignoring His call and wanting to do our own thing. It is setting us up for a life of chaos and destruction, openly exposed without His protection.
Romans 2:13
For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.
If we truly love the Lord and our relationship with Him is of primary importance, obedience will naturally result.
John 14:23
Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
1 John 2:5-6
But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.

Is your faith fuelled by obedience? Does your house of faith have a roof of obedience or are you only concerned with the paint and cosmetic effects without a roof? Come into a true love relationship with Him and know that He can be trusted implicitly at all times.
1 Samuel 15:22
But Samuel replied: "Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD ? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.
1 John 2:17
The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

God's Masterpiece

God's creation is beautiful.. every little flower to the starry hosts in the sky, from the birds in their splendid colors to the beauty of sunsets, from the waves of the ocean on the shore to the mighty thunderstorms...our heart does not tire as we gaze at the wondrous things that the Lord has made. Just yesterday, I was gazing of the window admiring the beauty of the trees swaying in the wind and the rain and the changing beauty of the scenery as the light danced and dimmed throughout the day. There is no greater artist that the Lord and what's even more amazing is that He does not consider any of this, His masterpiece. The God of the Universe, the Creator, the ultimate Artist considers you and I as His masterpiece! He delights over us!
Zephaniah 3:17
The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.
Psalm 139:13-14
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

The Lords says that we are the Apple of His Eye!
Zechariah 2:8
For this is what the LORD Almighty says: "After he has honored me and has sent me against the nations that have plundered you—for whoever touches you touches the apple of his eye.
We are the object of His unending love and He continues to pursue us by loving us even when we were far away from Him! Yes, no one can love us the way the Lord loves us!
Romans 5:6b-8
Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

We cannot grasp the immense value that God places on each and every one of us! He seeks after each and everyone of us individually and His heart longs for communion and fellowship with each of us. It blows my mind that God, the Creator - the Omniscient and Omnipresent Great God loves us so much!
Matthew 18:12-14
What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.

How do you feel about yourself and how do you value yourself? You need to understand that God places immense value on you - you are His apple of His eye, the object of His eternal everlasting love that He died for you. Never ever forget your true worth - you are purchased by Jesus' blood paid by Him through His suffering on the cross. You are His masterpiece, His workmanship.
Ephesians 2:10
For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Am I my Brother's Keeper?

Perhaps one of the most poignant questions asked in the Bible is when Cain asks the Lord "Am I my brother's keeper?". This was in response to the Lord's question as to where his brother Abel was.
Genesis 4:8-9
Now Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out to the field.". And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?" "I don't know," he replied. "Am I my brother's keeper?"
This is a question we would do well to ask ourselves today. Cain's attitude was flippant towards his brother and ours may be the same too. Are we our brother's keeper? Do we have a responsibility to watch out for and care for one another?

The Bible says that we are to love our brothers and even our enemies. The Bible clearly tells us that love is to be demonstrated - through action, through works. It is not enough to have a fluffy warm feeling in our heart and just pray, but love is to be demonstrated.
1 John 3:11-12,16-17
This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous.
1 John 3:16-17
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?

We are not to be our brothers' keeper for the proverbial pat on the back, or for that medal, or for any other recognition or egotistic reward. We are to bless and help our brother in need, because we love them.
1 Corinthians 13:3
If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
We love because He first loved us and while we were still sinners, died for us. If we refuse to help our brother in need, the Bible tells us that God's love is not in us.
1 John 4:19-21
We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
Our love for God is to be demonstrated by our love for His people.

Are you your brother's keeper? Yes, you are. God will hold you accountable for the people around you, those you could have helped. Our relationship with Christ is not just a personal relationship but also a social and communal one. We are in grave danger of living as an hyper-individualistic Christian if we forget that we are our brother's keeper.

Evergreen Romance

How many of you love a great love story? My favourite ones are Darcy and Elizabeth in Jane Austen's classic "Pride and Prejudice" and also of Rhett Butler and Scarlet O' Hara in "Gone with the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell. Your heart aches as you go through the story and feel so much for the protagonists - both the man and the woman who are caught up in pride and prejudice and oblivious of the love in each other's heart. It is a similar story with God's love for us and I believe it is the best love story ever.

Before everything was created, God in His trinity was in perfect communion and love. Then God created the angels and invited them to His heart and home and one of them, Lucifer decided that he wanted to take centre stage and be the main character and rebelled against God. This broke God's heart. Inpsite of God's heartbreak, He decided to create man and woman with a free will to choose Him, so that He could commune with them and enjoy close commanionship and a deep romance.
Ephesians 1:4-6,12 (The Message)
Long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.....Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.

Like an unfeeling callous spouse who sleeps with a stranger on a honeymoon, Adam and Eve spurned God's love for them and believed in Satan's lies that God is holding out on them though they had no reason to believe in that. Paradise was lost and God's heart was deeply wounded.
Isaiah 57:8
Behind your doors and your doorposts you have put your pagan symbols. Forsaking me, you uncovered your bed, you climbed into it and opened it wide; you made a pact with those whose beds you love, and you looked on their nakedness.

Yet inspite of being rejected, God instead of abandoning us, decides to go all out and woo us back! He decides to bestow on us grace and the long love story of His pursuit of humanity begins and continues with the offer of His own life - life of His only Son to woo us back into a deep romance with Him.
Jeremiah 2:2, 23b, 24 ;31:3 (The Message)
I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the desert, through a land not sown...What fault did your fathers find in me, that they strayed so far from me? ....You are a swift she-camel running here and there, a wild donkey accustomed to the desert, sniffing the wind in her craving— in her heat who can restrain her? ....
I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.

Do you realise the love that God has for you? Do you realise that He is pursuing you endlessly with an everlasting evergreen love.... Only He could love you this way, so deeply. Don't break His heart again and spurn His love, return your love to Him and make this greatest love story a beautiful one. It is now upto you... give Him your love, your heart, your life, your all.

Where are you?

Have you ever tried to reach someone deperately and then when you get hold of them say "Where are you?" rather than "How are you?". I have done this so many times especially when I get hold of my husband after a lot of tries when he was probably locked away in a meeting. The "where are you" expressed here is a sense of deep longing and loss of not having contact. This is exactly the phrase and longing that God expressed when He could not find Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden just after they had sinned.
Genesis 3:8-9
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"

Everyday upto the fall, God enjoyed close fellowship with Adam and Eve by going for walks together. After the fall, Adam and Eve felt shame, hid from God and avoided contact with God. It broke God's heart and He came looking for Adam and Eve and longing for their company. It is the same today. God is longing for you and asking "Where are you?"! We should spend time with the Lord daily. Fellowship with God was one of the privileges of man before the fall. Jesus Christ gave His life so that our fellowship with God could be restored.
1 John 1:3
We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

Because of what Christ has accomplished for us on the cross, our shame has been dealt with and we can come boldly before God because we are now adopted as His children!
Romans 8:1-2
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.
Galatians 4:4-7
But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father." So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.

Make a decision to spend time with the Lord daily. Don't spurn His love and longing for you. God has given His life to adopt you as His child. Don't make Him ask "Where are you?" all over again.