Pleasing God

The following article is by my friend Dave Price.

Its All About You

 Here is one of the most fascinating verses in the Bible to me, Hebrews 11:5, “By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.” (NIV) It isn’t amazing to me that Enoch was taken straight to heaven – God is a big God, He can certainly pull off something simple like that. What is amazing to me is the part I think most people miss – that before he was taken he was commended as one who pleased God. We would probably say that the proof that Enoch was pleasing to God is the fact that he was taken, but I think it’s something more. Enoch received proof that he was pleasing to God from God Himself before the “proof” was given. You see, the more glorious thing is not that he went straight to heaven; but that before he went to heaven God gave him proof that he was pleasing to Him. The only reason given that Enoch was pleasing to God is that he believed.

I know at first blush this sound too simplistic. It sounds too simple because we are used to religion being complicated, and that’s the problem. Faith is not religion, faith is not a denomination, faith is not an order of service or a ritual – faith is a relationship. I believe my wife loves me because, and only because, we have a relationship – there is no other proof. Sure, you could say that she proves she loves me by the things she does for me, but that is an invalid argument – lots of people do things for me who don’t love me. My wife makes me coffee, but so does the coffeeshop guy down the street, and he only loves my money. My wife does my laundry (and thankfully so, for I have proved myself an idiot more than once), but the laundry down the street will do it for me too. The examples are endless – anything my wife does for me can be done by someone else, therefore the things that she does for me can’t be the proof that she loves me. They can be a testimony to the fact that she loves me, but they can’t be the proof. The proof that she loves me is the relationship we have – no one on earth knows my heart, nor wants to know my heart, more than she wants to know my heart. No one on earth wants to be with me as much as she wants to be with me.  That is relationship, and that is the proof that Enoch had that he was pleasing to God, that they had a relationship.

Every definition of faith found in the Bible is based on relationship.  A life like that of Enoch’s has God as its highest pursuit – and this is life, that God created man because He desired to have a relationship with him, that God is interested in the heart of man, that God desires to be pursued by man, and God rewards any who pursue Him with the greatest gift of life, the proof that we are pleasing to Him. Now here’s the definition of pursuit: My greatest joy in life is when my child suddenly jumps up and wrap his arms around me to tell me that he loves me, not because I told him to, not because I scheduled 3 times during the day for him to do it, not because I prescribed the exact way that I wanted it done, but simply and purely because at that moment it was the desire of his heart. (Ladies, I know I keep using the masculine here, and I have 2 daughters, so forgive me, it’s just the way I write).

God is a great and gracious Father – that was the entire message of Jesus. Over and over Jesus preached God the Father, not God the religion. Mankind has devised every conceivable way he can think of to please God entirely based on the idea that we please God by what we do; at least I think he has, but I’m sure someone will come up with another way. But God is far less concerned with what we do than with who we are. If who we are is a person who believes that God exists, who believes that He loves us and desires us, then we are pleasing to God – and that’s faith. Here’s the real mind blower – if we have faith, everything that we are is pleasing to Him. The hopes and dreams and desires of my heart for my children I understand – what I struggle with is the understanding that the full depth of those same feelings is exactly what God feels for me. The reward of faith is to see what we believe. The reward of faith is the undeniable, unshakable knowledge that we are pleasing to God just the way we are – that doesn’t mean that we abandon the pursuit of becoming better people, just that the pursuit of being better is only a product of my desire to know Him and to be known more fully.

So here’s the conclusion – and I write this because it is the one thing I am pursuing more than life itself. The definition of pleasing, as I have adapted the definition from the dictionary, is this: I want to know that I give enjoyment to God, pleasure to God, satisfaction to God. I want to know that I make God glad and contented. I want to know that I am the will and the desire of God.  I want to know that I give God great pleasure, that I delight Him, that I enchant Him, that I gladden Him, that I gratify Him, that I overjoy Him, that I tickle Him. I want to know that He enjoys me enthusiastically, and often excessively. And the only requirement to knowing is that I believe. Go figure – all I have to do to know life in all its glorious fullness is to believe God. He’s going to have to help along with this, because I struggle with it daily – but I think I’m beginning to get the picture, and what a wonderful picture it is!

Rich

Blowing Off Steam

Yesterday afternoon while we were away after getting my third (I think it was) MRI (CT Scan) my wife and I had some time to share a lot of stuff that was building up inside in both of our lives.
It would be more than enough if I was not married and just walked out this relationship I have with Christ, but God has seen fit to bless my life with an incomparable treasure in the person of my wife. What a delight to know that marriage is for healing and not for hurting, saying that to say I love the friendship we have developed and how it continues to deepen as the years go by.
Friday afternoon was a day at least for me one that was terribly blurred, out of focus and by being free enough with one another we were each able to just blow off some much needed steam.

When awakening this morning I was very cognizant of the Lord impressing a knowing that I was to encourage my wife, but not fully realizing the extent of it until later after having breakfast with my boss how much distress she was being engulfed in.
I’m convinced that what I was able to share with my wife in encouraging her was the spill over from sharing with my boss at breakfast. Biblically my name is rooted in this verse 2Timothy 1:7, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

The power of His love for me is in a continuous deepened knowing of ‘whose’ I am, the fruit this bears in my life is a growing stability and soundness of mind that is able to motivate me to move forward in the thick of a world that increasingly is becoming so totally unstable.
It was only because of His love producing the soundness of mind in me, that I was able to see my wife move from being overwhelmed with fear and stepping out with a newly discovered confidence as I spoke words of spirit and life to here.
As the day progressed I was seeing before my eyes what the power off His love is so capable of doing!

As I continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of His great love for me, I see what Oz Chambers pointed out here today to be much more the norm for what it means to be His.
http://www.heartlight.org/cgi-shl/my_utmost/utm.cgi?0515

Rich

This Can’t Be Good

I’d like to think on these thoughts for a while here.

Why is it when we are set upon by various hellish and painful situations do we seemingly gravitate toward looking for an easier way??


“If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That's to prevent anyone from confusing God's incomparable power with us. As it is, there's not much chance of that. You know for yourselves that we're not much to look at. We've been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we're not demoralized; we're not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we've been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn't left our side; we've been thrown down, but we haven't broken. What they did to Jesus, they do to us—trial and torture, mockery and murder; what Jesus did among them, he does in us—he lives! Our lives are at constant risk for Jesus' sake, which makes Jesus' life all the more evident in us. While we're going through the worst, you're getting in on the best!”

“Always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death works in us, but life in you.”

I thought we wanted to KNOW Him, then why are we trying to avoid the Way He has opened up for this miracle to unfold in us?

I am seeing that it is only through experientially becoming identified with Christ in the circumstances and situations we each face that we are being delivered over to death, that Life might be more than just a groovy concept!

Why is it that we all seem to know so much about suffering, and yet when we are lovingly subjected to it, we begin to move totally away from what he has made clear to us.
“Trust in Me with ALL of your heart, lean NOT unto your understanding, acknowledge Me in ALL of your ways, and I WILL direct your path-goings!”

True, living, meaningful relationship will only come about through dying. “If a seed falls into the ground and it doesn’t die, it abides alone, but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit.”

I am discovering that the stuff I am being exposed to on a daily basis is more than sufficient to bring to the surface in my life the head trip I’m on, knowing a lot of stuff, or "knowing/experiencing" the reality of His life in me as me that is more than adequate to address anything that comes my way.
How about you?

Rich

Possessions

There is a longing and desire Father God has birthed within my heart to want to know Him and that desire is all consuming in its relentless pursuit of me. It is this quest that comes under intense focus by the enemy of our soul, Satan in our flesh. It has always been his purpose to try and keep us from becoming a loved and adopted child of God, but knowing that he is powerless to prevent this miracle from happening; its intent becomes even more intense.In not being able to stop us from being received of the Father, he will do his best to keep us living out of our independent self.
It is in this arena of warfare we can easily loose sight of what, who is important. Our birth-right is only begun in being reborn, His ultimate intention is to fully form His son in us. We will be tempted to forfeit that which is eternal, everlasting for our fifteen minutes of fame.The following are more wonderful thoughts on the Father’s ultimate intention for our lives, shared by Bill from “The Life That is Real Life.”

Rich

Wealth, possessions are a great stumbling block for all of us, but more often than not most see possessions to be outer things, it is obvious that there is more to possessions mere physical wealth.
This is the issue of surrendering our life plans to the Father.
There is a very real realm in which we may exercise possession or ownership. This is in the possession and control of nonphysical assets. These are the things that many in the world (Christian and nonchristian alike) would not consider possessions covered by the poverty of Christ Jesus. On the contrary, I believe these nonphysical possessions are more to the point of Christ’s teaching on ownership than any physical possessions we may have. It is far more personal and closer to us individually to speak of our possession of reputation, position, understanding, ability and status than any physical object or resource we may have.

It is my belief that it is in the area of nonphysical possessions that people most often become derailed in their growth in relationship with the Father. More Christians have traded deeper relationship with God for reputation, knowledge, acclaim and position than ever did so for money. Yet it is in this area of physical wealth that the organizational church most often encourages people to “get poor.” The teaching of Christ in this area is clear. You cannot follow the Father totally if you insist on carrying the baggage of reputation, position, self-importance and self-sufficiency with you.

There is a clear implication here that Jesus speaks about a state of being rich in this story that includes not only material possessions but also personal attributes. In short, we are not “rich toward God” any time we allow our possessions to make us self-reliant. It is in this way that we allow what we have to cut us off from relationship with the Father. The Father is all and He can be nothing else. God will not consent to be anything else. We are cut off from relationship with the Father when we ask Him to be something less than the everything He rightly is in our lives. We do this by allowing what we have to make us something in ourselves apart from Him. It is at this point that we cease to grow with the Father. He is still our Father and we are still His children, but we are no longer abiding and relying totally in Him. At this point our growth in relationship with the Father slows and is in danger of stopping altogether.

We do not own any of the things we have care over. They have been given to us for our use in carrying out the will of the Father. In other words, we are given the things we have from the Father so that we may life as the Father wishes us to live. If our very life comes from and belongs to the Father, what can we claim to own ourselves? The Bible’s clear position on this is that we do not even own our life. (Job 12:9-10)
This is why Jesus was so insistent that He was nothing apart from the Father. We too are nothing apart from the Father. We can never claim to have any possessions, talent, ability, ministry or power that is “of us and through us.” We only have the Father’s life. The only way we can properly express the Father’s life is by allowing the Father to lead us in all things. In this way we show forth the life that is real life in a healthy and constructive way.

Spontaneity

The entire purpose of organized religion is the attempt to make our relationship with the Father manageable and controllable by men. Because Life is spontaneous organizations cannot cope with it. This is why organizations will not stop at merely telling you how you should relate to God and each other. They must go on to tell you what these relationships should look like externally. This is a usurping of the Father’s role and interference in the operation of His life in us as our Life.

The problem with the institutional approach to knowing who it is that God created us to be lies in the essential nature of this issue. This knowing is an intimate issue between Father and each of His children. Our relationship with the Father is fundamentally a personal issue. The person that the Father made each of us to be is a unique person. No one can tell you what your individual expression of Christ should look like. This drives the organizational church crazy. But the fact remains that each of us is a unique expression of His life. No one can tell you what your expression should look like except the Father.

(Taken from ‘My Father and Your Father’, by Bill Landon)

Rich