God's Will

The verse at the top of this page is an encouragement to me as it should be to you. I have been working through how to determine God’s will in my life for the past few months. I pray that God will show me His will and that I will do it. My grandma sent me a card at Christmas that got me thinking about this topic. She wrote a quote in it from an unknown author which said,

“The greatest knowledge is to know the will of God; the greatest accomplishment is to do it.”

I’ve thought a lot about this quote and as I tried to figure out what God’s will is for my life. I searched out some help for this question on John Piper’s web page, http://www.desiringgod.org/. I found an article called “What is the Will of God and How Do We Know It.” I urge you to go to this website and check out this sermon, it is based on Romans 12:1-2. I’m going to share the last part of the sermon here, but you really need to read the whole thing to understand it all.

Piper shares that there are 2 kinds of God’s will. The first is the will of decree or sovereign will and the second kind which is the will of command. The will of command is what Piper focuses on although he does define both. Here is the last part of the sermon.

Three Stages of Knowing and Doing the Revealed Will of God
There are three stages of knowing and doing the revealed will of God, that is, his will of command; and all of them require the renewed mind with its Holy-Spirit-given discernment that we talked about last time.
Stage One
First, God’s will of command is revealed with final, decisive authority only in the Bible. And we need the renewed mind to understand and embrace what God commands in the Scripture. Without the renewed mind, we will distort the Scriptures to avoid their radical commands for self-denial, and love, and purity, and supreme satisfaction in Christ alone. God’s authoritative will of command is found only in the Bible. Paul says that the Scriptures are inspired and make the Christian “competent, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16). Not just some good works. “Every good work.” Oh, what energy and time and devotion Christians should spend meditating on the written Word of God.
Stage Two
The second stage of God’s will of command is our application of the biblical truth to new situations that may or may not be explicitly addressed in the Bible. The Bible does not tell you which person to marry, or which car to drive, or whether to own a home, where you take your vacation, what cell-phone plan to buy, or which brand of orange juice to drink. Or a thousand other choices you must make.
What is necessary is that we have a renewed mind, that is so shaped and so governed by the revealed will of God in the Bible, that we see and assess all relevant factors with the mind of Christ, and discern what God is calling us to do. This is very different from constantly trying to hear God’s voice saying do this and do that. People who try to lead their lives by hearing voices are not in sync with Romans 12:2.
There is a world of difference between praying and laboring for a renewed mind that discerns how to apply God’s Word, on the one hand, and the habit of asking God to give you new revelation of what to do, on the other hand. Divination does not require transformation. God’s aim is a new mind, a new way of thinking and judging, not just new information. His aim is that we be transformed, sanctified, freed by the truth of his revealed Word (John 8:32; 17:17). So the second stage of God’s will of command is the discerning application of the Scriptures to new situations in life by means of a renewed mind.
Stage Three
Finally, the third stage of God’s will of command is the vast majority of living where there is no conscious reflection before we act. I venture to say that a good 95% of your behavior you do not premeditate. That is, most of your thoughts, attitudes, and actions are spontaneous. They are just spillover from what’s inside. Jesus said, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak” (Matthew 12:34-36).
Why do I call this part of God’s will of command? For one reason. Because God commands things like: Don’t be angry. Don’t be prideful. Don’t covet. Don’t be anxious. Don’t be jealous. Don’t envy. And none of those actions are premeditated. Anger, pride, covetousness, anxiety, jealousy, envy—they all just rise up out of the heart with no conscious reflection or intention. And we are guilty because of them. They break the commandment of God.
Is it not plain therefore that there is one great task of the Christian life: Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. We need new hearts and new minds. Make the tree good and the fruit will be good (Matthew 12:33). That’s the great challenge. That is what God calls you to. You can’t do it on your own. You need Christ, who died for your sins. And you need the Holy Spirit to lead you into Christ-exalting truth and work in you truth-embracing humility.
Give yourself to this. Immerse yourself in the written Word of God; saturate your mind with it. And pray that the Spirit of Christ would make you so new that the spillover would be good, acceptable, and perfect—the will of God.

Wisdom

Have you ever asked God for Wisdom?? I ask all the time. Wisdom that comes from God is much more powerful and effective than my own simple wisdom. I was reading James 3 yesterday and verses 13-18 talk about 2 kinds of wisdom.

Verses 14-16 talk about wisdom that comes from the devil is full of bitter envy and selfish ambitions. 16 says, "For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice."

Verse 17 really stood out to me, it says, "But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere."

If you compare these two kinds of wisdom they are very different. God's wisdom is obviously the better, but many times we ask for wisdom out of selfish motives and do things out of selfish ambition and call it God's wisdom leading us. The definition of God's wisdom in verse 17 doesn't say or imply anything about being selfishly motivated, but is full of unselfish, unenvying things.

James 1:5-8 says, "If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does."

God gives wisdom to those who have good motives and to those who believe and don't doubt. What are your motives for asking God for wisdom?? If they are selfish you will be disappointed, if not you will be greatly rewarded!!

Springfest in Caro

This past Thursday I had the opportunity to go with Angie to her mother's school and see an exciting event called Springfest. Angie's mom works at a school as a teacher of cognitively impaired kids. There are about 200 kids in the school ranging from 3-4 to 26 years old. Their disabilities also range from mild to severe.

It was really amazing to see the love and attention that the teachers and paraprofessionals gave to each of the kids. They made sure that each kid had a role in the musical that they performed. I remember one kid who was I think a parapaligic and his teacher put a drumstick in his hand and hit a cymbal with it, all of a sudden the kid began to smile! It was very cool! All of the kids appeared to love this event.

I also was able to be in Mrs. Moakes room to get introduced to some of the kids, and to see their excitement for this event was awesome. I also got to see some of their parents and the love that they showed their kids.

I was very impressed with the love that was shown in the classroom by Angie, her mom, and the other workers in there. They have a special job. If you ever have an opportunity to visit a school like this or go to an event like this, I would recommend that you do it. It will touch your heart.

Update

Pam wrote me and said that I needed to update my blog. The problem is that I don't really have anything to say. So I will just give you an update on things that come to my mind. I am currently reading in Deuteronomy, which is a speech given by Moses to the Isrealites before God takes Moses from this earth. It pretty much is a summary of the first four books of the OT. Moses reminds the Isrealites that God is the Lord your God in almost every chapter, that He is their guide, defender and conquerer. That He has many rules, guides for their life, but will make them prosper if they follow. It is enjoyable to read.

Angie is doing good. If you've noticed that she hasn't updated in a while, it's because she has been stressed with homework. One of her main projects is due on Wednesday and this will be a relief for her. Please pray for her to remain focused and to do well in school. She is also getting ready to go to China this summer for 8 weeks. Please pray for this also.

So there is my update for my sister, Pam. ;)

Righteousness

Have you ever noticed how much God talks about the concept of being righteous in the Bible? As you know, I have been reading through the Bible this year. Basically I read a few chapters of the OT/NT in the morning and a Psalm or Proverb in the evening, (there is a schedule).
As I read through, I have noticed that the Bible is loaded with God's desire for us to be righteous, or what I've determined to mean, being right with God and his standards for our lives. The books of Psalm and Proverbs is full of references to righteousness. This must be important to God!! It should also be important to us!!

Audio Adrenaline/Mercy Me Concert

Well, Angie and I went to another concert. :) This time we went to South Bend, IN to see Audio Adrenaline, Mercy Me, and Aaron Shust. This was Audio Adrenaline's final tour. The concert was in the Morris Performing Arts Center. This was a great place for a concert. It was fun because it was a place where you would go and see the symphony, but there was good Christian Rock there. Here are some pictures from my cell phone.

Skiing at Caberfae!

So I haven't been downhill skiing since I was in high school, and as you know that was a while ago. The last time I went was also at Caberfae. I remember it having a good variety of different runs and I wasn't disappointed. As the picures show, Angie went with me skiing. It's her spring break and I took a couple of days off of work. It was a beautiful day, below freezing, but very sunny all day!! We did mostly intermediate runs, although I did do one of the big hills once. It was slow going down for me, but Angie was at the bottom before I barely got going. Angie is a very good skier compared to me.















We saw this cute couple on the ski lift and thought we should take their picture. They didn't mind.
















I was going to go down this section, but Angie had to hold me back because it was closed! (Actually, I just liked the view).















The view at the top of the big hill was amazing. It helps when Angie is in the picture!
It wasn't a big hill, but you could see for miles.
















Angie wanted to get my skies in the picture, I think she just wanted to prove that I was actually skiing.