Israelites – Ad Crucem Christi – The Cross of Christ

How are you and I feeling about our current circumstances? After this message, why don’t we take a moment out to take stock of what’s really happening in our lives, at this point in time. How much of it would we like to change – if we had the power to do so? And then again, I wonder how successful we would be in making the correct change.

I think of a young child who sees a packet of sweets and just wants to eat them – and eat them now! The child’s desire is for the sweets and that’s all he or she can think of – knowing how good they will taste. The little one doesn’t yet have the capacity to understand that, as they continue eating the sweets without stopping, they will be doing harm to their bodies and very soon will feel sick, because of not knowing when to stop eating. Feeling nauseous and looking back, the idea of eating the sweets won’t be so appealing after all!

This little example is so similar to how God works with us. In a sense, He sees the immaturity in our lives but has the maturity to know the absolute importance of sticking to the life plan, which He has designed for us.

In the book of Amos, God shares with Amos how He has placed before the Israelites, a basket of fruit – not any fruit – but summer fruit. It creates a picture of a lovely selection of beautifully ripe, juicy, sweet fruit. Everything good and all that they needed.

The people asked, “When will the new moon be over, so that we may sell grain, And the Sabbath, that we may open the wheat market, To make the bushel smaller and the shekel bigger, And to cheat with dishonest scales, So as to buy the helpless for money And the needy for a pair of sandals, And that we may sell the refuse of the wheat?”

The Israelites were in a rush to get on with their lives – so focused on their business’s that they didn’t have time to see their ’basket of fruit’, or understand what God was about to bring upon them, should they not keep their focus on Him.

God was giving them their needs (in other words the fruit) – giving them a season of time – but they couldn’t see anything, other than getting back to business. Just like the child with the sweets…

God has planned our current circumstances – every single detail of them. He knows them intimately well, and even though we may not think so, it is like a basket of ‘summer fruit’ for us.

Yes, given the chance, we probably would change things in our current circumstances – why? – because it would make us feel comfortable – for now. How would the actions of those changes impact our lives in the future Kingdom of heaven? Would they draw us closer to God or lead us away from Him?

The Master architect knows exactly what situations our lives need to experience in order to bring us closer to Him.

Let’s not rush this season of time that God has allowed for you and I – after all – it’s only a season – things will change again. Let’s see our current circumstances as the basket of summer fruit God has placed before us – enjoy and appreciate the taste. Have peace, as we trust the Father in our current season – He is allowing it to change us, for the better. Perhaps we can’t see why He’s allowing the season – but we need to trust, that He knows the little child who won’t know when to stop eating the sweets!

If we have a quick look over our lives, we’ll see how God has arranged it into perfect seasons. We probably grumbled at the time we were deep in the midst of them, but look how amazingly they turned out, for the purpose of drawing us closer to Him….

Once again it’s been a joy for me to have spent this time with you. May The Master bless your current season and many more after…. Until next time – bless you all.

From: “…time with the Master…”

If you feel this article has value, please send this link to others. Writings are meant for people, not for dormant files in our computers. Often, sharing them results in positive changes in the lives of individuals and communities.

“…time with the Master…”

If I look at my life over many years I will recall that there have been many mishaps along the way.

What is a mishap? Webster’s defines it as an unfortunate accident, bad luck, misfortune. In other words, something that has taken place that was not expected, should not have happened. Something that could also have taken place through poor choice, carelessness. There are many ways in which we could see the meaning of the word, mishap.

Often mishaps can lead to disastrous effects which may even last a lifetime after the experience. Sometimes it could be a freak happenstance.

I can’t imagine that there is any one of us that hasn’t, at one time or another, experienced a mishap. Some poor souls go on, time after time suffering mishaps.

Many of these souls become angry and embittered at life, feeling that it has dealt them an unfair blow. A great number openly blame God for their misfortunes.

A mid eighteenth century New Thought author, James Allen said, “You are today where your thoughts have brought you and you will be tomorrow, where your thoughts take you.”

What James Allen was saying is that our lives are the direct result of how and what we think.

In two of the many scriptures relating to the issues of thoughts, Luke 9:7 and Matthew 15:19, Jesus alludes to the fact that thoughts result in emotions and actions. He reassures us that the only humans who are not affected by this are children.

On closer examination of the above, what we will find is that thoughts lead to actions, actions produce result and finally result produces consequence. Either consequence for our benefit or consequence for our obstruction.

The Bible is full of stories to support this fact and probably one of the most well known of all is that of David and Bathsheba.

David was the greatest and most loved King in the history of the Israelites. Loved, not only by his people, but more importantly, by his God. God said David was ‘A man after His own heart.’ He never spoke of any other person in this way. Yet, one night David gazed at a beautiful woman bathing on her rooftop and lusted after her.

David & Bathsheba — David was the king who united Israel and Judah. It was through his lineage that Jesus, the Messiah, would one day be born. As a boy, he was selected to be a musician for King Saul. He also killed the Philistine giant named Goliath. David became best friends with Saul’s son, Jonathan. Saul became very jealous of David and plotted to kill him. Jonathan helped him escape. David became King of Israel and made many mistakes. He was married when he saw Bathsheba. He fell in love with her. She was also married. David arranged for Uriah to be killed in battle. He then married Bathsheba. Their firstborn son died, but she later gave birth to Solomon. David had several children with troubled lives. His son, Ammon, raped David’s daughter Tamar. Absalom, David’s third son, resented David. He became king of Hebron. A battle took place between Hebron and Israel. Joab with David’s army killed Absalom. David’s life was filled with sin, heartache, grief, and forgiveness. David ruled from about 1005 to 965 B.C. and was thought to be the ideal king. He was the writer of Psalms.

His thoughts led to him committing adultery and ultimately murder. The consequences of his actions, brought on by thoughts was the death of two sons he deeply loved, unseated from his (physical) throne, and prohibited from building God’s temple. He died a man of great sorrow.

Let’s return to the issue of mishaps. How many of us are blinded to the fact that, what we term as ‘mishaps’ in our lives are in fact, like David, the results of thoughts that led us to do things, or make decisions that, in the end worked against us.

This article was prompted by my realization, a few days ago, that Jesus never faced any mishaps in His thirty-three year lifetime!

What picture emerges from the Gospels, concerning His life?

He was obedient to God and Man. Luke 2:52

He was a man driven by a purpose, from which he never deviated.

He spoke to people and they were healed, He spoke to the elements and the were stilled. He spoke to wine and it multiplied.

He never prayed to the Father asking for help, He simply spoke and it was done!

The issues He faced in His life were the results of His obedience to God

and not His own will. Nothing occurred in His life that could be vaguely

described as a mishap.

Considering these points, we could be forgiven for thinking that He achieved this by virtue of the fact that He was God in a human body. But many places in the Bible testify that he was human in every way, Hebrews 2:17 being only one of these. He was born of the seed of God via a surrogate mother.

We could be forgiven for suggesting that He was surrounded by divine protection and so avoided all mishaps.

What the Bible tells us however, is that Jesus was a man of prayer, constantly in communion with The Father. He said that the Father and He were one. He gained Godly wisdom, enabling Him to always think like The Father thought and thus make decisions that would always protect Him from mishaps.

Finally, we could be forgiven for thinking that we could never be like Jesus or do the things He did. Again Jesus Himself tells us, “I tell you for certain that if you have faith in me, you will do the same things I am doing. You will do even greater things, now that I am going back to the Father.” John 14:12

Let’s say goodbye to mishaps and live for beneficial outcomes.

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