September 2017

What does it look like to be obedient to God at all times?
What would it look like to always place your “yes” upon His altar?

Isaiah tells us that he saw a most spectacular vision of God, and just the vision of God on His throne with the end of His robe filling up the temple had Isaiah falling down on his face and saying: “God, I will do whatever you ask of me.”

There are great examples of those who have heard God’s call and simply answered “Whatever you ask God.” But there are other examples we find in the Bible as well:

We see Moses say something along the lines of: “God, I have a bunch of excuses for You, but even if you can give me some great reasons as to why those excuses aren’t valid, please don’t ask me to do it. Find someone else. I don’t care if I’m the perfect person. I don’t care. Just don’t ask me.” Have you ever felt like that?

We find Jonah’s attitude to be: “God has asked me to do something. I ain’t gonna. I’m skipping town. I’m going to go the exact opposite way that God told me to go.” Have you ever been that disobedient? Jonah eventually goes and is obedient (after being vomited out on the shore covered with the stomach contents of some great fish), but he obeys with anger and he is upset over the outcome of God’s kindness to people he doesn’t like.

Who are you going to be like when God calls you? Awestruck Isaiah? Willing Joseph or Mary (see my earlier post by clicking here? Reluctant Moses? Rebellious Jonah?

God still has the same call to each of us: “Who will go for Us, and whom shall I send?”

I’m not talking about overseas missions. I’m not talking about going to a nation like Nineveh nor preaching repentance to an unreached people group in the wilds of the jungle. I’m not talking about going to a king like Pharaoh and trying to talk to heads of state about Jesus. Those things all scare us. Certainly, if that is what God calls you to do, then I hope you will answer that call, knowing that He will give you the ability to be obedient. But what I am talking about is that the call on your life is to be a missionary all the time to the people right around you.

You are to be on mission for God all the time. Wherever you are going to work today – as an employer, as an employee, as a student, as a retiree going to drink coffee with some friends – Wherever you have been placed by life’s circumstances, your choices, and God’s sovereign hand – you are to be on mission for Him.

You are to be the messenger of God for those that you are around. You are to say “Yes” to God every time he asks you to be obedient.

Obedience can be tough.
At times it will feel like climbing a mountain.
a narrow path leading up a mountain - symbolizing the difficulty of obedience to Jesus
What if your fiancée told you she was pregnant but that she hadn’t been sexually involved with anyone? You knew you hadn’t been sexually intimate with her, so how did this pregnancy happen if she hadn’t had sex with someone else? It would be tough to believe her, wouldn’t it? At least in today’s technological age, we might could discuss something such as in vitro fertilization, but that wasn’t available back in Joseph & Mary’s day.

Mary told Joseph that she was pregnant. He knew that he wasn’t the father because they were engaged and had not yet had sex. And so when Mary shared that she had remained faithful to him, but that she had become pregnant by the power of God, he could not believe it. He determined that she had concocted some false story, and he decided he would “break off the engagement” quietly.

Joseph could have cried out to the religious community and said, “This woman that I love, this woman that I have trusted, this woman that I pledged to marry has had sex with another man. Then she tried to tell me this preposterous story about what happened.” But he didn’t. Even though he didn’t believe her, he loved her and chose not to disparage her.

I believe Joseph was heart-broken. The woman he loved had cheated on him (she hadn’t, but that’s what it looked like to him) and then she probably cried her eyes out telling him that it was a supernatural pregnancy from God. But who could believe that? So Joseph just determined that his fiancée whom he loved was lying to him and would not come clean, so he decided, “I’ll just end this quietly.” And his breaking off their marriage certainly also broke Mary’s heart. Can you imagine how many tears both of them shed over how this was all taking place?

But then God sent an angel to Joseph to tell him that Mary had been completely truthful. Can you imagine the scene as Joseph ran back to Mary who is still crying tears over her upcoming divorce (because in those days the breaking of a “betrothal” required a divorce certificate). As he enters the room and sees her crying, he apologizes and says, “Mary, I believe you! God sent an angel to me. I’m sorry I ever doubted you. Please forgive me.” And then Mary’s tears of heartache were turned to tears of joy as the two of them embraced and prepared again for their upcoming marriage.

But then came more difficulty, because now Joseph would have to explain to others about what had occurred, because if he was anything like me, I would not want anyone to tarnish my wife’s reputation, especially when she was simply doing God’s will. Mary is going to “start showing” that she is pregnant by the great big bulge that baby Jesus is going to cause. It is obvious to everyone that Mary is pregnant before the wedding. And now Joseph and Mary are telling a story that they didn’t have sex, but that Mary is miraculously pregnant by the hand of God. Everyone is thinking – what an ingenious (and ridiculous) excuse.

God called Mary & Joseph to a difficult task. Mary, you are going to give birth to the Messiah, and Joseph you will raise Him as your son. And yet it will be difficult because people are going to call Mary a loose woman and call Jesus an illegitimate child (both were probably called much worse). Yet Mary and Joseph both chose to submit to God and follow through in difficult obedience all the same.

They had hearts that said: “Whatever you ask God, we will do. We are Your servants.”

God has not called you to such a difficult task. But he does expect you to be faithful to what He has commanded you to do. He does expect your obedience. You know something that He has impressed on your heart to do. Will you do it? Will you say, “Whatever you ask God. I am your servant”?

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