Obedience Is A Choice

*Before this idea became a reality, I thought I was okay; I was born again after all, but no, ‘fire insurance’ isn’t enough; He wants obedience.

“And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him” 

(1 John 3: 3, 4, 5, 6).

*S. L. Estes.Squished!  WestBowPress.

God wants my obedience

He enjoys my obedience

My obedience brings Him glory

In my Ebook Squished! Why God Seemingly Destroys Our Fruit, in Chapter 6 From Dregs To Pure, I explain God’s merciful and gracious deliverance of me from drugs, alcohol and suicide. Looking back, I am amazed from what God rescued me, leaving me with a new perspective on Jesus saying “the one who has been forgiven much, loves much.”(cf Luke 7:47)

 My closet has been cleaned, so to speak, of the things my old life would enjoy. That done, in my new position in Christ, I am more conscious of what my witness for Jesus looks like to unbelievers and those who knew me ‘when.”

Even as I come to understand the purification of my life, I am learning, even today, that my purification is something in which I need to be involved. While I may not have an urge to do the things I once did, I need to subdue the old nature that sometimes brings the memory and habits back with an all too familiar instinct.

As Paul said, my new knowledge toward the consciousness of others helps me control my choices and appetites. (cf 1 Corinthians 10: 29)

Peter says it well in his first letter, (paraphrase 1 Peter 4:4), as those with whom I partied now think I’m foolish or even brainwashed by religion and the church. On the other hand, I feel privileged to show my new freedom in Christ not to do those things even as I am saddened by their blindness and reviling. (cf 1 Peter 4:14)

Jesus has made me different. I cannot make this knowledge of His supernatural change in me disappear. I cannot tell my detractors that I’m a Christian because I decided one day to become a follower of Jesus and clean up my life so I could join a church. It didn’t happen that way.

God found a lost person, and when He called me, I answered Him. A sinner in need of salvation, I came to Him to have my sins washed away forever and ever.

In the verses of 1 John above, I am no longer able to habitually sin in the former way. I didn’t changed me. My Lord and Savior Jesus Christ changed me. I am striving to obedience and today that can be a day-to-day experience. But obedience is easier when I reflect on what God has done for me.

Glory to God. Amen.

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Two Kisses

In the popular Christmas song, *Mary Did You Know one line asks, “(did you know), when you kissed your little baby, you kissed the face of God?”

The Bible never recorded Mary kissing Jesus but we can safely assume she performed this act of devotion. She held Him, kissed Him, loved Him, and did all the things a mother does with children. Mary’s kisses were on her beloved Child and maybe sometimes her kisses were worship of her Savior. 

So, we can assume Mary's kiss was for real.

However, the Bible does record a very real kiss with a deeper and definitely more sinister planning. 

Judas kissed the face of God

A chilling scene, as the mob comes in the dark of night, with eerie light from torches flickering through tree branches, making shadows long and creepy. Judas walked up to Jesus and planted a tremendous devotional kiss to His Rabboni’s face so there could be no mistake in the dark the One whom they were to arrest. In an act straight from a horror flick, the betrayer leading the ambush and prominently identifying the betrayed.

That kiss has importance beyond the mere printed words. The fact of its application is so evil in and of itself. The implication is the kiss Judas gave was of love and friendship, of fellowship, comradeship, and companionship. A huge, loud kiss in greeting of a friend and one accepted in trust.

The trust, acceptance and warmth of the relationship he had with Jesus, Judas used for such an evil purpose.

Judas' intention may have been to place Jesus in the position to either defend Himself or die. Judas had no idea what he had done until later, and though he never repented, he did regret his action. But no amount of regret could ever erase that kiss.

“Faithful are the wounds 

of a friend, 

But the kisses of an enemy 

are deceitful”

Proverbs 27:6.

Mary kissed the face of God out of a heart of a loving mother. Judas kissed the face of God as a selfish man with a hateful heart.

The first kiss welcomed the Savior, Son of God; the last kiss had a major part in killing Him. 

Two Kisses--one assumed, one known. Both interesting contemplation.

*"Mary did you know, when you kissed your little Baby, you kissed the face of God?"

"Judas, did you know, when you kissed the face of your Rabbi, you kissed the face of God?"

Someday, all those who’ve trusted in Jesus’ salvation, will look into that glorious face and see the love that kept Him on the cross. 

We will see the love that Judas refused to see
the night he kissed the face of God.

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*Mary Did You Know"original lyrics by Mark Lowry; melody by Buddy Greene

A Miracle Marriage

"So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife; 

and when he went in to her, the LORD gave her 

conception, and she bore a son" Ruth 4:13.

God had a personal purpose in this marriage. When Adam sinned,God knew how He would bring forgiveness into the world. To do this, God formed a family line beginning with Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation. Matthew records the entire family line from Abraham to Jesus in the opening of his gospel. (Which, by the way, is a fascinating historical account of some of God's miracles).

The record of Obed's birth is God’s ability to work seemingly bad circumstances for the purpose of good. This impossible marriage of Boaz and Ruth took place as a God-blessed miracle union.

Here are a few incidents that happened for this marriage to take place.

• God chose Abraham out of idolatry and made him the father of the Jewish nation. (Gen. 12:1)
• Abraham begets Isaac and Isaac begets Jacob, who begets Judah. (Gen. 21:1-7, Gen. 24:66, Gen. 29:35)
• Judah is the father of Perez (Gen 38)
• God set up the law of the Gleaning as the system of welfare to support the poorest people. (Lev. 19: 9,10)
• God sets up the Kinsman/Redeemer law. (Deut. 25: 5-10)
• God saved Rahab at the destruction of Jericho. (Joshua 6: 22-23)
• Because of drought and famine in the land, Elimelech takes his family down to Moab where his son Mahlon marries Ruth. (Ruth 1:2)
• Mahlon dies. (Ruth 1:5)
• Following her mother-in-law, Naomi, Ruth comes to Israel, turning her back on her own land and its idolatry to follow Naomi's God. (Ruth 1:16-18)
• They return in the time of harvest. (Ruth 1:22)
• God helps Ruth to the right field. (Ruth 2:3)
• Boaz meets Ruth. (Ruth 2)
• Boaz is an honorable, God-fearing man who exercises the Kinsman Redeemer law to marry Ruth. (Ruth 3:10-4:12)
• Obed is born
• In this lineage, Jesus is born just as God had planned from the beginning. (Ruth 4:13)

Ruth was a poor, foreign widow, from a nation of idolatry, with no way of salvation. Boaz was a strong follower of the Jewish law. These two people would never be together in ordinary circumstances, yet, in His sovereignty, God moved the impossible to accomplish the extraordinary marriage of Ruth and Boaz.

This miracle marriage was an integral part of the Ancestry of Jesus. "Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab, Boaz begot Obed by Ruth" Matthew 1:5.

Nothing is impossible with God. All that He does is only miraculous from our viewpoint.

Miracles are standard procedure for Almighty God!