Everyday obedience is the acid test of our faith, for Jesus told us ‘If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.’ (John 15:10, see also Lev 18:4) Edwin Louis Cole says ‘obedience is an act of faith; disobedience is the result of unbelief’; we need to be aware that ‘obedience to God is the pathway to the life you really want to live’  (Joyce Meyer) and that ‘the bottom line in the Christian life is obedience and most people don’t even like the word’! (Charles Stanley)

We can, however, respond to God’s commands in different ways: either by disobeying them (as Jonah did), by partially obeying (as Saul did) or with whole-hearted obedience (as Jesus did).

Disobedience

Since Adam and Eve’s first rebellion against God, the pull of our own hearts to do our own thing rather than to obey God has been insistent and powerful. Jonah is an example of outright disobedience. God called him to preach in Ninevah (Jonah 1:2), but instead he headed in the opposite direction to Tarshish (Jonah 1:3) Obedience is easy when God is telling us to do things we want to do, but we only have to see how we react when God tells us to do something we don’t want to do to gauge our true levels of obedience! Jonah failed this test miserably.His disobedience could be regarded as directly doing something other than what God had called him to do. For many of us, disobedience can be through sins of commission (doing something God has forbidden), but it can also be through sins of omission (not doing something God has told us to do.) Disobedience is insidious: we can try to do God’s will our own way or use our own reasoning, but all disobedience leads us away from fellowship with God. Disobedience even in little things can easily trip us up. Song of Songs says ‘Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom.’ (Song of Songs 2:15) Sin doesn’t have to be huge to be a problem; disobedience doesn’t have to be in something big to trip us up.

Partial Obedience

1 Samuel 15 is the chapter where God rejects Saul as king. The chapter starts with Samuel, the prophet, bringing a direct word from God to Saul: ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt.  Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’ (1 Sam 15:2-3) Saul goes off obediently, gathering 200,000 foot soldiers and 10,000 men from Judah, and attacks the Amalekites.However, 1 Sam 15:8-9 show us that he does not fully obey this word, sparing Agag, the king, and the best animals. Saul does not initially see that he has not fulfilled all of God’s commands (see 1 Sam 15:13,20). It takes the incisive, prophetic word Samuel brings to sweep away Saul’s rationalisations and excuses, to uncover the fear of people at the heart of the problem and to reveal that this partial obedience is actually as bad as divination and idolatry. (1 Sam 15:21-24) It’s always dangerous if we care more about being people-pleasers than God-fearers. We need the courage to stand up for what is right (see Heb 11:25-26), remembering that not all who say ‘Lord, Lord‘ will be received by Christ, but only those who do the will of the Father (see Matt 7:21).

Whole-hearted obedience

Jesus models whole-hearted obedience for us, delighting to do His Father’s will (see John 6:38, John 5:19,30, Ps 40:8, Heb 10:9). Just like the psalmist (Ps 119:8, 10, 34, 44, 56, 73, 129, 159, 163-164), he shows us a new and better way through obedience which looks beyond the present agony (eg in the Garden of Gethsemane) to the rewards (see Heb 12:2, Is 53:11).

For us, we know that whole-hearted obedience will bring us ‘treasure in heaven’: ‘your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you’ (Matt 6:4). God is no man’s debtor; He doesn’t owe us anything but freely and generously gives us everything we need. (Phil 4:19) Hebrews 6:10 reminds us that ‘God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them’ and Paul reminds the Romans that ‘we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.’ (Rom 8:17) No matter what sacrifices we make, no matter how much we feel we may have to give up for God’s sake, we will not suffer long-term loss. Jesus said ‘if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.’ (Matt 10:42) and reminded His disciples ‘everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.’ (Matt 19:29) The rewards of whole-hearted obedience will always outweigh the sacrifices, for God’s generosity always overflows: ‘Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.’ (Luke 6:38)

We gain freedom, fellowship and a faith that flourishes from everyday obedience, for as we obey God in one thing, He opens the door to something else and so the journey continues. Everyday obedience means counting the cost daily: taking up the cross, denying ourselves and choosing to follow Jesus in simple acts of obedience on a day-by-day basis. As Mary said to the servants before Jesus’s first miracle at the wedding of Cana, ‘Do whatever he tells you’ (John 2:5) is the best advice we can ever follow.

Mark continued his series on Joseph this morning, looking at Genesis 42:1-24. In this passage, Joseph comes face to face with ten of his brothers again as they journey to Egypt for food because of the severity of the famine. As they bow down before him (the second-in-command in Egypt), Joseph is reminded vividly of his dream and is suddenly face to face with the realisation that God is still working all things out. He must have felt shocked, maybe even angry, towards his brothers and perhaps his judgment was clouded because of the rush of emotions as he recognised them. Maybe this was the reason he spoke harshly to them and tested them.

Joseph had never forgotten the dreams God gave him so many years previously, but he was a busy man and had learned to get on with life in the meantime. God gives us all dreams and visions, but often does not tell us the timescales and sometimes we have to wait years for the dream to be fulfilled. When we see signs of that happening, the temptation is to ‘help the dream along’, to give God further assistance through how we behave. We need to understand, however, that God does not need us to work out His plans: He is perfectly capable of doing that Himself!

It must have grated on Joseph to hear his brothers describe themselves as ‘honourable men’, given what they had done to him. But in spite of any wrong reactions on Joseph’s part, fear of God was an integral part of his life and after throwing his brothers into prison for three days, he comes to an alternative arrangements that provides food for them whilst still working out the truth of the story. How do we react when the ‘time is fully right’ and God moves? Are we willing to pray and allow Him to continue to work out His plans, or do we constantly try to work things out in our own strength? We need to know that God accepts us just as we are (failings and wrong reactions included) and is fully able to complete the work that He has begun in our lives. (Phil 1:6) We also need to know that God’s timing is perfect (Ps 18:30, Eccl 3.)

‘Can You take me by the hand?
Can You use me as I am?
Break me into who You want me to be.

When the time is finally right
Will You open up my eyes
And show me everything You want me to see?
This life is not my own…’ (‘To God Alone’, Aaron Shust)

Last night’s Bible study looked at 1 John 4:7-12, where John continues his emphasis on the need for us to show our true identity as Christians through the love we have for one another. We are loved by God (dear friends, beloved) and that is the source and inspiration for our love. Jesus gave His disciples a command to love (not a suggestion or an option for us to merely think about) in John 13:34-35 and said that this would be the hallmark of discipleship, the means by which others would recognise Him. God is invisible, but through the practical love of Christians, He is seen by all. Christianity, as G. K. Chesterton said, has not so much been found tried and wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried!

Our love has to be defined by God, for God is love. (1 John 4:8) We can have many different ideas about love, but all of them will be wrong to some extent. Only God can definitively define love. So often, we cannot reconcile the different aspects of God’s character (holiness, justice, wrath, love, mercy etc.) because we have a faulty view of love. We think love must always be ‘nice’, failing to see that God always acts out of love, even when He disciplines us. (Hebrews 12:7-11) We do people no favours when we paint a distorted picture of God’s love that pretends all will be saved without any need for repentance.

God gives us evidence of His love in Christ’s atoning sacrifice for us and this becomes the cornerstone of our faith, for there will be many times when we do not feel loved. This motivates us to love even our enemies (Matt 5:44) because while we were still enemies and sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom 5:8) God never asks us to do more than He has done for us. As we meditate and dwell on His love, it will move us and motivate us to love. Nothing else will do; no other characteristic is to be our identifying mark. As the Pharisees exclaimed ‘See how he loved him!’ when Jesus wept at the death of Lazarus (John 11:35-36), so love must distinguish us from all others and demonstrate to others the reality of the invisible God.

Work in the children’s room was completed today, with the boilers being boxed in and the sink unit fitted.

How it looked at the start:

Making the frame:

Adding doors to allow access for the boilers to be serviced:

The completed work:

Then work started on the sink unit (to allow for access for messy activities such as painting at Sunday School):

All finished, including tiling!

Our thanks to Dave for his very capable organisation of these works and to Russ for his joinery skills. Most of the refurbishment work is now complete, though some work on the stage area (replacing the curtains with a concertina partition and laying a carpet in this area) remains to be done next week.

Instant coffee (derived from brewed coffee beans and commercially produced by freeze drying or spray drying, after which it can be rehydrated through adding boiled water) has been around a long time now. It was first patented in 1890, by David Strang and was first available commercially in 1910, with the Nescafé brand, which introduced a more advanced coffee refining process, being launched in 1938.

The advantages of instant coffee are obvious. Instead of waiting to grind beans and then allow these to brew through the addition of hot water, a hot drink is available in seconds rather than minutes. In today’s busy society, such time-savings are highly prized.

Whether the taste is worth it is debatable, of course. And the whole question of instant gratification raises a number of questions when applied to the spiritual life. Our fast food society urges speed and haste on us above every other consideration, including taste, nutritional value and the pleasures of slowing down to eat amongst others. If we are not careful, the values and attitudes of this society are transferred to our perception of spiritual growth.

Discipleship cannot be instant. ‘No one is given an instant relationship with God. We must go through a process of learning what it means to live in relationship with Him,’ Richard Foster says in the book ‘Longing For God.’ (P 229) The process begins with conversion, but we must then go on to grow up in God and this cannot be rushed. Eugene Peterson says ‘maturity cannot be hurried, programmed or tinkered with. There are no steroids available for growing up in Christ more quickly. Impatient shortcuts land us in the dead ends of immaturity.’ (Eugene Peterson, ‘Practise Resurrection’) First of all we learn to harness our misdirected desires so that we can cultivate moral virtues, but we then need to understand that ‘moral achievement is not God’s ultimate intention for us. Rather, our destiny is a life-giving, ongoing interaction with God.’ (Richard Foster & Gayle Beebe, ‘Longing For God.’ P 229) We have to understand that spiritual growth cannot be rushed and that the lessons learned through perseverance, suffering and endurance are important to the shaping of who we become.

Here is a prayer for all who are in a hurry:

“We come humbly and bow before you, God. The world we live in has taught us to short-circuit our relationship with you. We’re taught to expect an instant relationship, instant answers to prayers, instant growth in grace, instant spiritual maturity. O God, truly merciful, forgive us our sins. Forgive our impatience. Forgive our arrogance. Forgive our impetuousness. O Lord, our Lord, forgive.

Teach us to take one step at a time. Teach us contentment in growing into your life little by little. Teach us the humility of unanswered prayer. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.” (prayer taken from ‘Longing for God’ P 236)

So let’s perhaps abandon the fast food and the instant coffee, even for a day, and take time to realise that God’s not in as much of a hurry as we are but is wanting and working to shape us into the image of His Son, moulding us as the potter moulds the clay, breathing life into us even in the tedium of dailiness, where not much seems to happen and growth is infinitesimal. Sit down with a real cup of coffee and let God’s thoughts and ways percolate your soul…

CLC is a Christian bookshop situated on West Street in the heart of Sheffield.

The bookshop needs part-time volunteers, particularly for Mondays, Tuesdays & Saturdays. Minimum availability is one day a week. They are looking for committed, reliable, enthusiastic people who are good with people and able to use a computer. A variety of roles are available, including someone to create and update the window displays each month.
If you are interested in helping at the bookshop, contact them directly on 0114 2724663 or by email on sheffield@clcbookshops.com