Good morning,
The work assigned me
One of the really nasty side effects of Adam and Eve’s rebellion in the garden is our eagerness to be seduced by a lying lover rather than to be disciplined by a loving Father. The Bible from Genesis to Revelation is the retelling of the generations that have faced the Seducer and either listened or fought. The hero’s of these stories were the people who heard the tempters voice, but chose to follow their unseen Father’s loving but fearful directions that promised unseen eternal rewards. Seduction leads to destruction, while discipline leads to delight. It’s no wonder our modern parents are being taught not to discipline their children. It’s no surprise at all that our educational systems are based on developing coping skills rather than developing disciplined minds. Our popular music and our entertainment media do their best to lead us away from godly wisdom to the empty promises of human potential. Our generation has taken the forbidden fruit. Our personal success had become the measuring stick of a life worth living. However, now that we are turning the corner of changing our old values to the new values of fear and shame by the leaders of the media and anger based political leadership of the world around us, everything is starting to look very different.
Alas, this trend is as much a part of our churches as it is of our schools. In the past we accepted the idea that what lost people need is direction, not correction or conviction that leads to repentance. It seems that upsetting sinful people has become something to avoid, even in the church. Jesus was very clear that genuine faith and genuine relationship with the God of the universe requires us to keep his commandments. (John 14:15) He knows that going against our natural desires will upset us, but if we don’t change our minds and hearts, we have nothing to look forward to but eternal judgment. Since seduction leads to destruction and discipline leads to delight, the Lover of our souls corrects us as a sign of his deep love for his eternal family. Our Heavenly Father is not a bully. Now, that anger and accusation are part of our cultures, our Father knows that those who hate him will hate us as well. Jesus told us, The world would love you if you belonged to it, but you don't. I chose you to come out of the world, and so it hates you.(John15:19) Our Father knows that the struggles that come with his loving correction will be the source of our close relationship with him and the knowledge of his strength when we are overwhelmed with our enemies hate and evil power. Our powerful, loving Lord longs to give us all that comes from our willing obedience to his perfect love and plan. The world complains bitterly when confronted with their sin, but the Lord longs for us to ask him for living direction to carry out his plans. The Apostle Paul understood this part of God’s plan with all his heart. When some of his friends warned him not to go to Jerusalem, he knew that God wanted him to go there. He told them, But my life is worth nothing unless I use it for doing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about God's wonderful kindness and love.(Acts20:24) Dear Lord, please help us to become more and more like Jesus and Paul and the millions of faithful children of God who have gone before us in the face of pain and difficulty, so that our generation will discover the reality of the the love of God, like we have.
Acts 20: 24 But my life is worth nothing unless I use it for doing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about God's wonderful kindness and love.
Roy Wisner
