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Mid Week Reflections

Servants of God,
 
One of the great current pleasures of my life is to be able to teach a Sunday School class. We are studying “Old Testament Survey.” Several years ago I had taught a college class on the topic so my first inclination was to dig out my notes and not do a lot of new study with this class. I changed my mind and I am so thankful I did. I decided to take a different approach. I am trying to approach the topic as if I had never taught the material before. It has meant more digging and more thinking and prayer. One of the things that has happened is I have been reading the Old Testament Scriptures with fresh eyes. One of the things that I have noticed is the pattern of God’s dealing with his people. God commands his people to obey then when they do, the scriptures teach that it was God who brought about the result. For instance the people of Israel are commanded to invade and conquer the promised land and then the text records that it was God who gave them the victory as a gift.

Well, we might demand, which is it? Did the victory occur because the people obeyed or because God granted them victory? The answer, of course is that in the glorious mystery of God both are true. It brings to mind Philippians 2:12&13 where believers are commanded to obey and work out their salvation with fear and trembling. Then they are comforted with the fact that it is God who works in the believer to will and to work for his (God’s) good pleasure.

The sovereignty of God is as mysterious as it is wonderful. To read the Bible is to learn of the importance of being exclusively loyal to God and to be aware that apart from the empowerment of the Holy Spirit believers are powerless. The life-producing power of the vine comes before the branches ever begin to produce grapes. This metaphor that is used by Jesus in John chapter 15 occurs numerous times in the Old Testament. One of those occurrences is in Isaiah chapter 5. God, through the prophet, chastises His people. They are, God says, a vineyard that had every possible opportunity to thrive, but they went bad. They should have produced the fruit of justice but they decided to become self-centered and greedy. They refused to produce the kind of human activity that brings glory to the Creator and became greedy and mean spirited. God refused to tolerate their behavior and brought disaster upon them.

Christians have a joyful obligation. We are obligated to trust in and obey our God. When we do, God produces Holy Spirit fruit in our lives. Obedience does not earn salvation. Obedience is the lived-out testimony of the saved person. When Jesus taught that apart from him, we can do nothing (John15:5) he was teaching of the mysterious condition of abiding in him. Christians must live connected to Jesus. We are not free to do as we please. We are truly free in our actions (mysteriously) when we do as God pleases.
 
Blessings,
 
Pastor John
Coram Deo