Date, times and seasons

God's will for YOU

     When I was a newly saved teenager, and even into my twenties, I was very concerned about God’s will for my life. I pictured it as a fixed plan with all the details laid out as to education, job, location, wife, and all the rest. Any preacher who ventured to speak about knowing God’s will had my full attention. But they never answered my questions the way I wanted.

     I finally had to let go and more or less follow my own inclinations. I’m a firm believer in free will and now, looking back, I see that my picture of God’s will for my life was rigid, fixed, and far from free. In fact I now believe that the approach I finally took was exactly what God wanted, with the proviso that each decision should consciously be made to please the Lord.

     To illustrate from my own life—I studied chemistry in university. I was never that good at it, but at the time all the money was supposed to be in science and technology. (Not the best choice!)  When I first came to Toronto, there were two churches I considered joining—one had relatives and friends, the other was much closer to work. I chose the one closer to work and my home, as being the more God-honouring, and He blessed me in turn, by having me meet my future wife there. (A good choice!)

     To summarize, my understanding of finding God’s will for your life is this:—

•  Realize that God has no fixed mould of a plan that you must fit into. That would be determinism, and complete over-ruling of your free will.
• Read your Bible—this is the only place where you can “find out what pleases the Lord” (Eph. 5:10) and this is where God speaks: “Listen to Him!” (Matt.17:5)
• Make good choices. We learn how to make good choices by reading and listening and praying. For example, when two or more alternatives face you, try to prioritize them from “most pleasing to the Lord” to “least pleasing”, bearing in mind your own gifts. Aspiring to be a nurse when the sight of blood makes you ill, would be inappropriate.
• Follow other general guidelines set out in Scripture for all believers, such as, “not giving up meeting together” (Heb.10:25); “do not be yoked together with unbelievers” (2 Cor.6:14); “on the first day of every week…set aside a sum of money” (1 Cor.16:2); “love your neighbor as yourself” (James 2:8); and “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable…think about such things.” (Phil.4:8) 

     There are many other suggestions that could be given, but we want to keep this simple. God has given us a will that can agree with Him or oppose Him. Once again, a motto that I’ve tried to apply to my own life is:

“Find out what pleases the LORD!”

 

God raises the dead!

It’s interesting to look at how the first evangelists presented the gospel to different audiences. For instance, the Lord Himself reviewed Old Testament prophecy to the two Jewish disciples on the road to Emmaus, in Luke 24. His life, death, and resurrection were all predicted.

Then Peter applied OT scriptures at Pentecost when the Jews asked what they should do (Acts 2). Stephen, speaking to the Sanhedrin in Acts 7, reviewed the entire history of Israel. Even Philip, in the desert (Acts 8:32) and Peter, at Cornelius’ house (Acts 10:23), applied OT scripture.

But what was Paul’s approach, as he addressed a  Gentile, pagan audience, much like we see right here in Burlington?—an audience that knew nothing of OT promises:— God “commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:30-31)

Resurrection!—a totally new thought to Gentiles! The Sadducees disbelieved, but Jesus said of them, “You do greatly err.” Even the disciples thought it was “nonsense” (Luke 24:11). The fact of resurrection is the key to all the promises of the OT. For instance, Job said, “In my flesh shall I see God.” Abraham was willing to put the knife to his son because he knew that God would bring him to life again (Rom.4:3; Gal.3:6). All through the gospels, the Lord repeated his promise, “until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead” (Matt.17:9); “the third day he will be raised to life” (Matt.17:23); “on the third day he will rise again” (Luke 18:33.

Like the Athenians, modern men scoff at the thought of resurrection. It is the primary target of most attacks by the “New Atheists”. They think that when the body dies, the “person” no longer exists. But we have the lifelong eyewitness accounts of hundreds of believers who saw Jesus resurrected and glorious. We have experienced conversion ourselves, and “God’s Spirit witnesses with our spirit.”

Don Francisco’s song is true:

      He’s alive! He’s alive!

         He’s alive and I’m forgiven!

      Heaven’s gates are open wide!   
                                                                                                                

Little ones who stumble

In Luke 17:1-3, Jesus says, “Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come,” and woe to those who “cause one of these little ones to stumble.”

Just who are these little ones? Are they little children? Are they new believers? It seems most likely that they are simple, unsophisticated believers, old or young, who look to their teachers and maybe don’t do that much thinking for themselves. They would be Christians still living on milk, so-to-speak, when some of them, at least, should be on strong meat.

Stumbling can happen—Remember that some were teaching that the resurrection had already taken place (2 Tim.2:18)      and they destroyed the faith of some; some were teaching that circumcision and the law were still required (Gal.6:12); some     refused to receive the apostle John (3 John 1:9). Sadly, all of these were causing stumbling.

C.S.Lewis made the point that much of what he wrote was what he aspired to, not always what he had achieved. Maybe the very best thing we can do to avoid stumbling—or causing it— is to follow the apostle Paul’s recommendations to the Ephesians (4:1) about how to just “live”:—

“Live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”