167 Sermon Illustrations on Obedience

1 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1

The Beauty of Ruth

Elimelech and his family in Moab

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A. Last week we looked at chapter 1, verse 1 of the book of Ruth:

1. “And it came to pass in the days when the judges were ruling, there was a famine in the land; and a man went from Bethlehem of Judah in order to sojourn in the Plains of Moab; he, and his wife and both his sons.” (RGH)

2. Deuteronomy 2:9 tells us that the Plains (or Fields) of Moab, also known as the land of Ar, had been given to the descendants of Moab, Lot’s son, by God: “Then the LORD said to me, ‘Do not harass Moab, nor provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land as a possession, because I have given Ar to the sons of Lot as a possession.’” (2:9 NAS)

3. So, God’s command was that His people, Israel, were not to dwell there.

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Review of last week

A. This happened in the time of the judges

B. During this time God used oppression and hardship to judge the people of Israel when they forgot Him

C. There was a famine and a man left Bethlehem in Judah to go and live in Moab with his wife and 2 sons

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A. We found that this happened during the period of the judges, after the land had been divided among the twelve tribes and Joshua was dead. It was during the earlier part of that 320 years, probably in the first century, possibly in the period just before Gideon became judge; probably not in the period before Ehud because at that time Moab, under King Eglon, was the oppressor of Israel.

B. During the period of the judges there are 7 cycles in which

1. the people forget God

2. God brought hardship upon them in the form of foreign oppressors and, at least in the time of Gideon, food shortages

3. the people cried out to God

4. God raised up a judge to deliver

5. there was a period of peace.

C. This man apparently had the means (we will note the indications of this in the book) to pick up and leave to go to Moab where life was easier; but Israel was not to have concourse with Moab because of Moab’s actions when Israel came from Egypt (hiring Balaam – we will return to this in a few minutes), so

1. Although this was a natural action for a father in looking after his family, it was not an act of faith:

2. It was disobedient to God (Israel was not to have possession in land of Ar, was not to consort with the Moabites)

3. It was an act of independence rather than the response of repentance which God sought

3 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 3

The story of Elimelech unfolds

A. In Ruth 1:2-5, we are given more information

1. The name of the man and his wife

2. The name of their 2 sons

3. How long they lived there (roughly)

4. The death of the man

5. The marriage of the two sons

6. The death of the sons

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A. Here is the next part of the story, Ruth 1:2-5 (RGH): 2 The name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife, Naomi, and the names of his two sons, Mahlon and Chilion; Ephrathites, from Bethlehem of Judah; and they came to the Plains of Moab, and they stayed there. 3 And Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died; and she was left bereft, she and her two sons. 4 And they took to themselves wives, Moabitesses, the name of the first, Orpah, and the name of the second, Ruth; and they dwelt there about ten years. 5 And both of them, Mahlon and Chilion, died also; so the woman was bereft of both her boys as well as of her husband.

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Considering Elimelech

A. Name means ‘My God is king’

B. Was Elimelech’s taking his family to Moab blatant rebellion against God?

C. How did Elimelech personally fare as result of his decision?

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A. Name also translated, ‘His (i.e.., Elimelech’s) God is King’, ‘God is King’, and ‘God shall be King’

B. Elimelech’s action

1. Is not specifically criticized or condemned in the book of Ruth

2. Was a natural action for a father to care for his family

3. It seems even commendable given Paul’s words, “But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever.” (1 Timothy 5:8 NAS)

4. Differed in degree from the murmurers against Moses in the wilderness who were slain

5. But was disobedient to what God commanded to His people Israel

a. Not to take possessions in Moab

b. Not to consort with Moabites

6. So, Elimelech failed to live up to the name that he bore

C. There is no record of how much time passed, but the indication is that it was in a relatively short period that Elimelech died; so any benefit from his action was relatively short-lived.

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Lessons from Elimelech

A. What lessons can we as Christians learn from this?

1. The commandments of God are not to be treated lightly (John 15:10, 1 Corinthians 11:1)

2. Our lives and actions affect the meaning of Christ and Christian to those around us (2 Thessalonians 1:11-12)

3. Despite means and endeavours, you cannot outrun death.

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A. Lessons for the Christians

1. Christ told us, His disciples, this:

a. “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments, and abide in His love.” (John 15:10 NAS)

b. Showing that He is our example as Paul also confesses, “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 11:1 NAS)

2. We may reflect either poorly or well on the names of Christ and Christian

a. “Christians who are slaves should give their masters full respect so that the name of God and his teaching will not be shamed.” (1 Timothy 6:1 NLT)

b. “To this end also we pray for you always that our God may count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power; in order that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Thessalonians 1:11-12 NAS)

3. Many live as though their lives would never end, that they would never be called into account: “We think all men mortal save ourselves”

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Consider Mahlon and Chilion

A. What three things happened to the two sons

1. They came to a marriageable age

2. They took wives from among the people of Moab

3. They died without children

B. How did the two sons fare as a result of Elimelech’s decision?

1. Every indication is that they really did not prosper!

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A. During this period, the two sons became of marriageable age

B. The names mean

1. Mahlon – ‘sick, sickly’ – husband of Ruth (4:10)

2. Chilion – ‘pining, languishing’ – hence, husband of Orpah

3. There is an unlikely Jewish supposition that their real names were Joash and Saraph, based upon the genealogy of the descendants of Judah given in 1 Chronicles 4:22.

4. Whether this be true or not, these names here may have been descriptive epithets given to them later as they sickened and died

5. In any event, this was not a prosperous result!

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The matter of their marriage

A. “Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons.” (Deuteronomy 7:3 NAS)

B. “No Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of the LORD; none of their descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall ever enter the assembly of the LORD,” (Deuteronomy 23:3 NAS)

C. Bible interprets itself: Nehemiah 13:1-2, 23, 25, 27

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A. The first of these passages applied particularly to the Israelites marrying the people of the land of Canaan, the 7 nations that God would have them drive out

B. The second is was the separation that was to be maintained from Ammon and Moab on account of their hiring Balaam to curse Israel

C. These verses are particularly applied by both Ezra (9:2) and Nehemiah:

1. “On that day they read aloud from the book of Moses in the hearing of the people; and there was found written in it that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God, because they did not meet the sons of Israel with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them. However, our God turned the curse into a blessing.” (Nehemiah 13:1-2 NAS)

2. “In those days I also saw that the Jews had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab.” (Nehemiah 13:23 NAS)

3. “So I contended with them and cursed them and struck some of them and pulled out their hair, and made them swear by God, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor take of their daughters for your sons or for yourselves.” (Nehemiah 13:25 NAS)

4. “Do we then hear about you that you have committed all this great evil by acting unfaithfully against our God by marrying foreign women?”” (Nehemiah 13:27 NAS)

D. Therefore, Jewish writers say that the early deaths of both the young men were divine judgments inflicted on them for those unlawful connections, that the consorting of Elimelech and his sons with Moab was an act of unfaithfulness to God.

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Lessons from Mahlon and Chilion

A. What lessons can we learn as Christians from what happened to these two sons?

1. Wrong or poor decisions that we make will have bad effects upon others

2. Do not underestimate the power of being either a good or a poor example

3. For the Christian, the matter of relationships is important, too (2 Corinthians 6:14)

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A. Resulting from Elimelech’s decision

1. We see his boys thrown into acquaintance with wrong people, wrong ideas, wrong actions; how we as parents pay for how we fail to protect our children in this respect!

2. Yet, we cannot put a wall around our children – we may try, but eventually the right way of living must come from the Holy Spirit’s work inside them – so our example should be a means of guidance; “Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6 NAS) … but between youth and maturity there may be side excursions.

3. “Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?” (2 Corinthians 6:14 NAS)

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Consider Naomi

A. The meaning of the name Naomi is ‘fair’, ‘pleasant’ or ‘pleasantness’; How does her name compare with her situation?

B. How did Naomi fare as a result of Elimelech’s decision?

C. In practical terms, what has God done to Naomi?

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A. Remember the meaning of this name, because Naomi later will ask people to call her by a new name. Also, as opposed to her situation, keep your eyes open for how Naomi’s name compared with her real character.

B. She is left bereft in a foreign land with 2 foreign daughters-in-law; apparently without means of support other than any accumulated savings; the prophecy of Isaiah against Judah is similar:

1. “But these two things shall come on you suddenly in one day: Loss of children and widowhood. They shall come on you in full measure In spite of your many sorceries, In spite of the great power of your spells.” (Isaiah 47:9 NAS)

2. “These two things have befallen you; Who will mourn for you? The devastation and destruction, famine and sword; How shall I comfort you?” (Isaiah 51:19 NAS)

C. God has removed …

1. … everything that would give her independence: in that society, a husband and / or sons were the providers and the mark of blessedness and success

2. … every tie that would hold her in the land of Moab where she did not belong

3. … apparently, every human helper (what can she expect from these young women, kind as they have been); in an agrarian, patristic society, without the benefit of Israel’s God-given social laws, the widow without means was in a terrible situation

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Lessons from Naomi

A. What lessons can we as Christians learn from Naomi as she finds herself in this situation?

1. God is still on the throne, Psalm 47:8, regardless of where we may find ourselves through either our own wilfulness or the actions of others

2. God will work out His plans and purposes despite us (Isaiah 46:10-11, Ephesians 1:11)

3. What God does he does for our good (Romans 8:28)

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A. When we find ourselves experiencing the same situation as Naomi, what are some truths that we need to call to our mind (we do not yet see these being true for Naomi but we will)?

1. “God reigns over the nations, God sits on His holy throne.” (Psalms 47:8 NAS)

2. God is working out His plans

a. “Declaring the end from the beginning And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, ‘My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure; Calling a bird of prey from the east, The man of My purpose from a far country. Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, surely I will do it.’” Isaiah 46:10-11 NAS)

b. “also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will,” (Ephesians 1:11 NAS)

3. God works these plans out for our benefit, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28 NAS)

11 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 11

Next week, Ruth 1:6-18

The characters of three women

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A. We have a longer passage for next week

1. We will look at the relationship between Naomi and her two daughters-inlaw

2. And each of their characters

B. We may finish that passage or not, but, Lord willing, in any case we will look at the final few verses from another perspective in a subsequent lesson

Some godly friends believe that to have an inerrant Bible, we need perfect original manuscripts. They say that if we allow for the possibility of any copying errors, the Scriptures cease to be trustworthy. Their logic suggests that if we allow for any uncertainty, all certainty is lost. A flawed text produces a flawed authority; a flawed authority produces a flawed faith; a flawed faith produces a flawed salvation; a flawed salvation gives false hope; and false hope is no hope at all. This kind of thinking seems compelling, but it’s misleading.

The “one-version-only” argument is offset by the principle of inspired repetition. By repetition, the Author has protected us from the dangers of miscopied texts or inadequate translations. The Spirit of inspiration did not limit Himself to one statement about salvation by faith, law versus grace, or a real lake of fire. He did not limit Himself to one discussion of sexual behavior, the misuse of alcohol, or the importance of prayer.

The 66 books of the Bible reflect an orchestrated symphony of testimony. God committed the words and actions of His Son to multiple pens. He did not give us Matthew only, even though it may have been simpler. Matthew only would have eliminated difficult problems of historical correlation. Instead, He also entrusted the record of His Son to the inerrant writings of Mark, Luke, and John. Then He inspired the letters of Paul, James, Peter, Jude, and John in order to provide a multifaceted, jewel-like revelation of inspired Scripture. God’s Word is rich with complementing parallels that combine their voices to give us the whole counsel of God. It is because of, rather than in spite of, multiple prophets, apostles, and interpreters that we can believe we have the absolutely reliable Word of God.

I’m convinced that our biggest problem is not new translations, but that too many of us are not reading, memorizing, studying, believing, loving, obeying, sharing, and honoring God’s Word in any translation.

Father, please give us wisdom to honor Your Word. Teach us to love You, and one another, through Your Word more than ever before.

You’ve probably heard so many benedictions in your life that you don’t really pay a lot of attention to them. In fact, many people are looking at their watch to see if they can beat the Methodists to the local restaurant. It’s called the heartburn dash.

In Hebrews 13:20-21 we have a wonderful benediction. Benedictions are like graduations — they aren’t the end but are rather the beginning. It’s like “Here we go and where do we go from here.” Read these verses: “May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing His will, and may He work in us what is pleasing to Him… “

Doing His will and what is pleasing to Him should be our goal for today. Benedictions, like this one, are to prepare our minds for what lies ahead, they are not the just the ending of another church service. They are the beginning of the real service — our life lived for Him.

Illustration: During WWII the North African Campaign was in a mess and General Montgomery was sent to clean it up. I’m told his first order was as follows: “The orders of the Commander-in-Chief will no longer be open to interpretation … just action.”

[Unknown editor’s note: apologies to whomever I acquired this from; I’ve long forgotten its source]

Commentary: God will not bully or threaten those He has chosen. No gun will be put to their head; they will not be drug kicking and screaming into heaven.

We may choose to obey or disobey. Yet there are those who insist they’re obedient and but clearly are not! Such is the problem of the twentieth century.

Were I chosen to write the epitaph for the church of this century, I would write:

“Claimed great proclamation; proclamation left unproclaimed.”

If you’ve ever had a stealthy feline sneak up on you, you might have had the same idea the CIA once did: that cats would make good spies. Indeed, the intelligence agency spent millions of dollars on a program to that end in the 1960s. But as any cat owner can tell you, it probably shouldn’t have bothered: However sneaky and/or intelligent cats might be, they know no masters but themselves.

Operation Acoustic Kitty was essentially a disaster, with only one subject making it into the field before the ill-advised — and, quite frankly, cruel — program was scrapped. The idea was to create a sort of cyborg cat by implanting a microphone in the animal’s ear, a radio transmitter at the base of its skull, and an antenna in its fur — “a monstrosity,” in the words of Victor Marchetti, a former CIA employee who went on to write the tell-some book The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence.

On paper, the Acoustic Kitty agent’s first test was simple enough: sit near a park bench and capture a conversation between two people on a park bench. Instead, according to most accounts, the unfortunate feline was hit by a taxi and killed. Writing of the operation’s failure in a heavily redacted memo, the CIA concluded, “Our final examination of trained cats ... convinced us that the program would not lend itself in a practical sense to our highly specialized needs.”

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Some have compared the task of disciplining Christians to the training of cats. Cats are difficult to herd, and humans can be even harder. We resent following someone else's orders, whether it is humans or God.

Wait, no, don’t run away! I can see your eyes already starting to glaze over when you see that title. Please think of this as a small bolster and support to your faith, at a general level but profound. (And isn’t that true of Jesus in general, that He is very accessible at a general level yet is amazingly profound?)

Let’s get right to the issue in this first article: how can we determine the truth of statements that claim knowledge about something beyond our experience (that is, the metaphysical)? For example, Jesus says, “I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he shall live forever,” and “I have come as light into the world, that everyone who believes in Me may not remain in darkness.” How can these be validated?

After all, anyone can make claims about what is true in the spiritual realm. The comedian George Carlin had a joke about an ex-hippie who founded a religion which teaches that “when you die, your soul goes to a garage in Buffalo.” Here in Berkeley, I have often had the thought that a person is permitted to believe just about anything so long as it’s not the Bible. So how can we determine what is true? What are some things Jesus says and does to bolster His own claims?

For this we look at Mark 2:1-11, the story about the paralytic who is healed by Jesus after being lowered through the roof by his friends. Jesus says to him, “your sins are forgiven” (which is a claim about the spiritual realm, that He has authority to forgive anyone’s sins). But in vv. 6-7, the scribes wonder, “How can this man say that? No one can forgive sins except God alone.”

So Jesus backs up His claim by doing something empirically verifiable, something in their experience: “Which is easier, to say to him, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say ‘Arise, take up your pallet, and walk’? But in order that you may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins,” He said to the man, “I say to you, rise, take up your pallet and go home”– and the man did just that!

Do you see? He backed up His claim about the spiritual world by something miraculous yet very visible in their experience. The feeding of the 5,000 in John 6 is another instance of this, as is His promise of His resurrection in John 2.

How can this work, when we are engaged in conversation with non-believers? There are two pieces of empirical evidence to which I frequently return: the evidence for the Resurrection, and the fact that something happened, way back when, which caused a group of Sabbath-worshipping Jews to become Sunday-worshipping Jews. It is worthwhile for every Christian to have, readily available in their minds, those facts which demonstrate that the Resurrection really took place, in real time and real history. The empirically verifiable validates His claims about the spiritual realm.

“Which is easier, to say this or to do that? But in order that you may know…”

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In the first article on this topic [above], we saw how in Mark 2:1-11 Jesus used something that was empirically verifiable (the healing of the paralytic) to validate His claim of something that was not empirically verifiable (that He has authority to forgive the sins of any human being). And we considered how we now have a verifiable event of more weight and significance, which is the resurrection of Jesus, predicted by Him and by the Scriptures, and which took place in real history, not in some mythical ‘religious history.’

We now turn to another incident which displays an interesting phenomenon, viz., that people’s very perceptions are colored by their receptivity to Truth.

In John 12:28-30, in the middle of a rather intense and brief discourse, we hear Jesus crying out to His Father, and the response of the crowd:

“Father, glorify Thy name.” There came therefore a voice out of heaven: “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.” The multitude therefore, who stood by and heard it, were saying that it had thundered; others were saying, “An angel has spoken to Him.”

Now, please note here that there was one phenomenon, one event: the Father spoke to the Son, and said comprehensible words. But there were three different perceptions of this one phenomenon:

– Jesus (and presumably at least John) heard actual speech;

– others who perhaps had some spiritual interest but in some way were not fully receptive to God identified what they heard as ‘the voice of an angel’;

– a third group heard nothing more nor other than thunder.

Curious, isn’t it? The very same event received three distinct interpretations. C.S. Lewis depicts this same kind of phenomenon in the Creation scene towards the end of the Narnia book The Magician’s Nephew, where Uncle Digory cannot perceive that the animals are talking, only that they are bellowing and braying. (He shows a similar effect in the great gathering scene in Out of the Silent Planet, the first book in the under-rated space trilogy.)

What this should tell us is that people’s perceptions of spiritual phenomena — such as the Resurrection, the Bible, the life of Jesus, His claims on every human being — can be fundamentally affected by whether or not they are receptive to spiritual truth. This is all the more reason to pray, to beseech God to open the eyes, ears, hearts, and minds of those around us who so desperately need to hear and heed His voice!!

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The first article in this brief series showed that Jesus validated His claims to authority (and indeed to Deity) by the empirically verifiable event of healing a paralytic, and that the most potent and fundamental verifiable event to validate everything He claimed was and is the resurrection. In the second article, we saw that a person’s perception of spiritual truth can be quite dependent on their receptivity to this truth. (Perhaps this could be summarized as “Receptivity brings perceptivity”?)

Here in this final article we will see a similar truth to the second, yet phrased quite bluntly by the Lord Jesus. He says explicitly that a person’s willingness to obey the Father is an essential condition for being able to perceive the truth of what Jesus says.

John 7:16-17:

“Jesus therefore answered them and said, “My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me. If any man is willing to do His will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is of God, or whether I speak from Myself.”

Do you see? This is as true of us who follow Jesus as it is of those who do not, that our willingness to obey will have a huge impact on our perceptivity, our ability to receive it as coming from God.

As the philosopher J. Budziszewski says in a wonderful article, “Escape from Nihilism” (http://www.leaderu.com/real/ri9801/budziszewski.html – perhaps taken from a speech?), “modern ethics is going about matters backwards. It assumes that the problem of human sin is mainly cognitive – that it has to do with the state of our knowledge. In other words, it holds that we really don’t know what’s right and wrong and that we are trying to find out. Actually the problem is volitional – it has to do with the state of our will. In other words, by and large we do know the basics of right and wrong but wish we didn’t, and we are trying, for one reason or another, to keep ourselves in ignorance.”

The human Will, left to itself, rebels against God. This is why Jesus says, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him,” and this too is why we must pray for those whom we care about. It is the cause as well that the best reasoning of those opposed to the Gospel, no matter how impressive or high-sounding, is flawed because at its heart is a self-destructive problem of the Will. Reason itself is tugged wayward by human sin.

It must have been a fearful moment for this small-town girl when the mysterious visitor showed up out of nowhere -- looking for her.

Mary probably was all of 12 or 13 years old, the common age of betrothal for Jewish girls in those days, when the angel Gabriel appeared to her. (Read the account in Luke 1:26-38). Engaged to Joseph, a carpenter, Mary was looking forward to the quiet life of a wife and mother in the small market town of Nazareth.

Suddenly, here was a supernatural being before her, declaring, “Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you” (Luke 1:28, NASB).

Luke says she was “greatly troubled” by this statement (v. 29). Confused, anxious and terrified might also describe her reaction. The angel’s appearance must have been overwhelming for Mary, his words even more so.

Gabriel saw her anxiety and said, “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb, and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever; and His kingdom will have no end” (vv. 30-33).

Mary didn’t comprehend what he was saying. How could she become the mother of this great king? She was a virgin, for one thing. For another, Gabriel was speaking of mysteries far beyond her understanding, beyond the understanding even of the great teachers of Israel. The angel revealed a bit more, telling her that the Holy Spirit would come upon her, that the power of God would overshadow her, that her holy child would be called the Son of God.

Mary’s response echoes through the ages: “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word” (v. 38).

We should neither idealize nor idolize Mary. She was as human and fallible as the rest of us. Even after Gabriel’s explanations, she probably suffered doubts and fears about what he was telling her. It had likely begun to dawn on her what the potential consequences might be if her unmarried pregnancy became public. Scandal and family shame? Rejection by Joseph? Death by stoning? She had nothing whatsoever to rely on -- except God’s promise through His messenger.

Yet without fully understanding what was unfolding, without being sure of what was expected of her, without knowing what would happen to her, Mary submitted herself to God’s will. When she was told by God to leave the safety of the familiar and launch into the unknown, she obeyed.

“There is very little unusual about the outward life of [Mary], or at least the Gospels do not record it,” wrote Jeanne-Pierre de Caussade, author of “Abandonment to Divine Providence,” an 18th-century spiritual classic. “They show her life as very simple and ordinary. What she did and endured might have been done and endured by anyone in her station in life. She visited her cousin Elizabeth just as her other relatives did.... [S]he went to Bethlehem to be registered. Because she was poor she sheltered in a stable. The persecution of Herod drove her from Nazareth, but she returned and lived there with Jesus and Joseph, who worked to earn their daily bread.

“But what was the bread which nourished the faith of Mary and Joseph? It was the sacrament of the moment.”

The moment. When her moment came, young Mary was ready. Not because of her education, talent or insight, but because of her quiet obedience. Faith is actually believing what God says, no matter how illogical or mysterious it might seem, and obeying it out of love for Him. Moment by moment.

What is God saying to you at this moment? Maybe something that strikes you as rash or risky. Maybe something that seems small, but will require you to move a few steps beyond the familiar and the comfortable. Maybe something that He will use to change history -- if you obey Him.

When you celebrate the birth of Jesus this Christmas, think about the faith of the small-town girl who brought Him into the world.

If I abide in Christ, I, too, can experience peace in the midst of chaos. But I must stay connected to my Lord, as Jesus stayed connected to His Father. Jesus demonstrates how this is possible. Following are seven things [two given] Jesus did that allowed Him to remain connected to His Father.

Dependence

“I do nothing on my own” (John 8:28) seemed to be the theme of Jesus’ life. When a hemorrhaging woman touched Jesus’ garment, hoping to be healed, power drained from Him. If power drained from Jesus each time He healed, why didn’t He become “empty”? Dependence upon the Father allowed Him to draw from a well of limitless resources. Jesus invites me to draw from this well so that I, too, need never feel empty or drained. But access to the well is only gained through wholehearted dependence upon Christ. I must allow Jesus to be my all: the breath in my lungs, the thoughts in my head, the words on my lips. My spirit must proclaim, “Apart from [Christ, I] can do nothing” (John 15:5). My actions must declare, “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20).

How does this work? When I am weary but have a Bible study to teach, I picture the tired me resting in a chair while Christ in me teaches the study. When I want to look at a magazine but my children want me to read them a book, I order the selfish me to step aside while Christ in me reads Hop on Pop (for the millionth time). When I feel anger toward the driver who has just cut me off, the angry me moves over and Jesus in me offers a sympathetic you-must- have-had-a-bad-day wave. Much of my dependence upon Christ involves me getting out of the way so that the King of kings may speak and act through me.

Obedience

In John 15:9-10, Jesus challenges, “Remain in my love, ... just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love.” Jesus said, “I love the Father and ... do exactly what my Father has commanded me” (John 14:31). Sometimes this verse translates in my life as, “I love the Father and do pretty much what He commands me.” I do not make it a point to disobey God, but neither do I make it a point to wholeheartedly follow the holy standard God prescribes. The Bible says, “Do not judge”; instead I “discern.” Scripture commands me to forgive as I have been forgiven; I sometimes forgive as I think the offender deserves. God warns, “Do not lie”; so I exaggerate. “The man who says, ‘I know him,’ but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:4). I cannot abide if I will not obey.

If the peace of God is absent from my life, perhaps it is because I am refusing to obey the Holy Spirit warning me to align my life with the Word of God. Focus Jesus said, “I know where I came from and where I am going” (John 8:14). Christ’s every action was embedded in His purpose. He did not debate over whether or not to include certain activities in His schedule. Rather, the deliberateness of His every action spoke, “That is why I have come” (Mk. 1:38; see also Lk. 5:32, 9:21-22, 12:49-51, and John 12:27).