“The just shall remain alive by faith.” God is moving among His Church and in doing so people are being restored in their lives. Health is springing forth, wealth is being transfered from the wicked, victories are mounting up! I’m so excited about what’s happening because you hear so many “bad reports” all the time. But there are some great testimonies beginning to break into the Rock Church as one part of the “household of faith.” Don’t miss out!
The best is yet to come!
RB
Last Updated: May 23rd, 2008 |
How many people would agree that they would love to experience, and have God’s best for their lives? I would say that 100% would say yes to that if they only knew what it was! Most people would answer the question of “what is God’s best?,” as Heaven. But what about now on earth, is there a best? How can I connect to it? When I travelled oversea’s and as I walked throught an airport I noticed a sign down one of the corridors. The sign invited you in by saying “Connect to the world, come on in.” I went into the place, and they were offering free internet access to connect to your world. I was able to sit in another time zone, a whole day behind the USA and I could find out what was happening when I arrived home the next day! Ahead of time, and it blew me away! That’s kind of what I’m talking about, you can find out “ahead of time” what God’s best plan is for your life… it’s called His “purpose.”
When you think about purpose, and maybe look it up in your concordance you’ll find it listed many times, but one stands out the most and that is Romans 8:28. “And we know that all things work together for good to them who love God, and are called according to His PURPOSE.” This word in this verse gives us the key to this teaching. It would define as “an advance plan set before the face of, in full view.” A proper modern translation would show us that God, who knows the end from the beginning, has a plan for you “before” you became part of his family through Jesus Christ. It would parse out as, “We should know that God has put all things in place and works them together for His good purpose for those who love and accept the call to follow His plan.” If you read verse 29 it tells you that He wants you, and predetermined by His foreknowledge, your destiny in Christ! How awesome is that? So how does that work for me you might ask, well it’s simple you can know that God is not waiting on you to get to heaven and allowing you to suffer on earth, but is here working things out ahead of time for you to be blessed from “beginning to end!”
God doesn’t use bad to teach us good. He has a plan to show you how to overturn, and overcome the bad. He gave us His Word to produce our faith and uses that as our strength to defeat the enemies of this world. Some people use Romans 8:28 as a “scapegoat” for faith malfunctions. They’ll be going through something bad and quote this verse as though our Good God is training His children by allowing them to suffer through hardship! But this verse declares that to God all things [that He uses] are good and He’s putting all the “ingredients” in place for those who love Him. Like baking a cake, you could eat all the ingredients individually and it would be disgusting. Eat a tablespoon of cooking oil, then a half stick of butter, and then some raw eggs, followed by a cup of raw flour… that don’t sound too good does it. [That's kind of what we do when we try to put His plan together on our own! Without faith...] But when you put all that “together” (kind of what God does for your life – He knows the best for you), you get a great cake and then you can put the finishing touches, the icing! To God all things are good, and He uses those good things [here on earth] that inhance your life and all you have to do is “connect” to him and He’ll show the world His finished work and your life is the “screen” they’ll watch it on!
A great example is Joseph in your Bible. Joseph had been given God’s plan for his life to fulfill God’s purpose. God showed it to him in a dream. He shared the news with his brothers and they threw him in a pit! (Not exactly what Joseph thought it would look like, so he kept his eyes on God!) Then he was found and brought to the bakery, then the palace of Potipher, then Potipher’s wife accused him falsley and he wound up in PRISON? Not exactly the best God had shown him but he kept the faith. Then he went from the prison to the throne over all of the world in that day and Genesis 50 tells the testimony. He fulfilled God’s best by saving “much people alive.” [Genesis 50:18-19] But it all began with the promise, but then to the pit, to the palace, to the prison, then the throne! God was with him “all the way through” until Joseph fulfilled God’s purpose.
Am I saying that there’ll never be challenges when I’m following God’s plan? No, I’m saying you can know that there is His best as He promised, and you’ll learn how to minimize those “faith malfunctions” so you can claim the promises, keep the faith and fulfill God’s best, HIS PURPOSE!
Blessings,
RB
Last Updated: May 19th, 2008 |
I love to visit Destin Florida on a regular basis. When we are getting close to our exit from the Interstate, we cross the Escambia Bay bridge. This bridge was damaged beyond repair during the Katrina storm in 2005, and it has taken some time to rebuild a new bridge. I noticed the long “pillings” that are used to “hold up” the new bridge and I began to get curious as to how these pillings function. I asked a construction engineer and he explained the function of pillings to me. He said that the pillings have to be driven into the ground until they hit “bedrock” for the solid base to support the weight of the bridge. If the pillings are not established on the bedrock, then the bridge will eventually collapse from the weight loads placed upon it.
When I compare this to “character” it helps to understand 2 Peter 1:5 which declares, “…add to your faith virtue;” and virtue here means character. When we realize that there is a spiritual side to faith, we need to also consider that there is a natural, visible side of faith. The visible is what people see and recognize in our interaction with others because faith is more than just “believing for our prayer request” to be manifest. In fact, faith is like a “bridge connecting heaven and earth” and there is a point at which the answer arrives on the other side. Now the faith bridge has “pillings” holding it up and these are what I will refer to as the “faith support system” or character traits that must be established upon the bedrock of our faith which is Jesus Christ. I will use 5 “pillings” of character to demonstrate what I’m describing.
The first character pilling is “trustworthiness” and you can better understand this by reading Proverbs 28:20. The literal translation is “the trustworthy will get a rich reward. But the person who wants to get rich quick will only get into trouble.” Trustworthiness is your reputation. The next one is “respect” and you can find an explaination in Proverbs 13:15, “a person with good character is well respected; and a wicked person walks a rocky road.” Respect is related to one’s attitude toward themselves and others. If people do not respect who you are, it may be that you have not earned their respect. Respect is a big factor in a person’s character so we must treat others with respect to earn respect. Next we look at “responsibility” as a character support of faith. Proverbs 24:12 “don’t try to avoid responsibility by saying you don’t know about it.” Do what you are supposed to do! It affects our witness to others.
The last two are “equity” which is fairness. Proverbs 16:11 declares “the Lord demands fairness in every business deal.” He is the equal balance for our decisions or “judgements” in our relationships. Then the last pilling is “compassion” which should be our motivation for all that we do. Seeing the needs of others and taking an action to help. 1 Peter encourages us to “have compassion one to another” and that sums it all up. Our faith support system is what we are in relation to others and God expects our character to be an outward expression of faith!
Blessings,
RB
Last Updated: May 5th, 2008 |
