Obeying God

"Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, ‘We ought to obey God rather than men.’" (Acts 5:29)

Our highest authority should be God. As our highest authority, we should obey Him. There are blessings that come from obeying Him, and there are consequences for not doing so. Examples can be found in the Bible about what happens when we obey God and when we do not. 

Jonah was told to go to Nineveh and preach to the people there. He disobeyed God and ended up being swallowed by a whale. Something not generally considered a blessing. Another story in the Bible is of Moses. 

“And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, ‘ Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink. And Moses took the rod from before the Lord, as he commanded him. And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, ‘ Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also. And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, ‘ Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.’” (Numbers 20:7-12)

Moses was leading the children of Israel out of Egypt and to the promised land, and he was going to take them into the land, but because of what happened, he lost that opportunity. 

There are people who obeyed God even in really difficult times. Abraham was blessed for following God’s command to sacrifice his son Isaac. In the end, he did not have to sacrifice Isaac, and God still gave him this big blessing:

“That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies. And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.” (Genesis 22:17-18)

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were ordered by King Nebuchadnezzar to bow down and worship a golden statue that he had erected. The punishment for not doing so was to get thrown into the fiery furnace. “Then an herald cried aloud, To you it is commanded, O people, nations, and languages, That at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king hath set up: And whoso falleth not down and worshippeth shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.” (Daniel 3: 4-6) One of the Ten Commandments is to not bow down to idols. “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;” (Exodus 20:4-5) Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego chose to obey God and not bow down to the golden image. By choosing to do so, they were thrown into the fiery furnace, but the LORD saved them so they did not die. “And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king. He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.” (Daniel 3: 23-25) Also because they obeyed God, Nebuchadnezzar realized his wrong, and ordered that the people obey God, rather than his idols. “Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king's word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God. Therefore I make a decree, That every people, nation, and language, which speak any thing amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill: because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort.” (Daniel 3: 28-29)

We should take joy in obeying God, and not obey Him only because we do not want to get the consequences. That is one motivation to obeying Him, but we should ultimately be doing it because we love God. 

"With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men;" (Ephesians 6:7) 

All verses are from the KJV

WHAT DOES GOD REQUIRE OF

The title probably sounds a bit crazy. “Christopher, what do you mean by “what does God require of us?” We aren’t saved by works.”

Yes, that IS true. It is very true. 

But that still doesn’t mean God doesn’t want anything of us.

Or require anything of us. 

Look at this verse:

Micah 6:8; He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

Now there may be some confusion. What does it mean to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God?

Well, to do justly is to execute justice, and justice, my dear friends, is NOT what we as humans say is right (an example, forgive someone a couple of times before you just totally throw them away entirely) , but what God says is right (forgiving people as many as seven times seventy, basically stating you should forgive people when they say sorry and that they’ll repent). Now I’m not saying this is how we get saved. In the words of my favorite rapper KB from his book Dangerous Jesus; “It does not get us a right standing, but it does show we are standing rightly.” We don’t have to do this to be saved, it is more so we are SHOWING we are saved, and that we are “standing rightly” before our Lord and Savior.

Loving mercy is basically loving doing something good for someone (prime example, Jesus dying for us to take away our sins) when to do otherwise is actually in our full right (an example of this, if Jesus decided to cast us away forever and never help nor care about us again). Basically, it is just being that “light in the darkness” and “turning the other cheek” and being “Christ-like.” Meaning, when someone harms us, we don’t harm them back. We show the love of Christ. If someone who hurts us in some way is in need, we help them, regardless of how we feel about it (granted, don’t take this to mean you have to be around people who are constantly doing things to you, I am only saying if you can help, then help). In a dark and evil world, we must be the light and the good to everyone. Even those who don’t deserve it. Remember, we didn’t deserve Jesus extending the help we so desperately needed, so who are we to say we shouldn’t help someone because they don’t deserve it?

To walk humbly with our God is as simple as it sounds: walk with God in humility, without pride, just you and Him, you being humble. With that, you are not walking for God, you are walking with God, meaning you are not trying to do things for Him, but rather with Him, in the sense of you are acting like God is with you every step of the way to hold you upright and help you. He is not some boss who needs you to do stuff to keep everything He built afloat. He is God, and He is love, and wants you to live WITH Him more than FOR Him. I mean, our most righteous deeds are as filthy rags to Him (Isaiah 64:6). So with living with God, we are to humbly walk the path He has laid for us, speaking humbly, following humbly, and living humbly. Not for Him, but with Him. Meaning we go throughout life talking, listening, and living with God. 

Is it an Old Testament verse? Yes, it is. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t mean anything. Plus, there are verses in the New Testament that support this actually being the case. 

Let me explain. 

In Matthew chapter 25 verses 32-46, this explains HOW people will be judged. So, if we decide to read this, we will see that helping the needy, afflicted, and strangers is basically helping Jesus Himself, and if we do it we have done well, and if not we haven’t.

Literally.

This is what is required of us as Christians. Because we could live our full lives for God without living our lives with God. 

Confusing? 

Let me explain what I mean.

We can go our WHOLE lives living for God. Everything we do we do it because we think that’s what God wants and/or that is what will please Him. But while we are doing all that, we forget who God wants us to be, what His will is. By forgetting that, we don’t do what God’s will is. If everyone remembers, God’s thoughts are not ours. So how are we supposed to say we did God’s will if we were doing what WE thought He wanted.

“Well, what if God hasn’t told me what I’m supposed to do yet? What if I don’t know my purpose?”

So, let me set something straight here. God has told you what you are supposed to do, but if you are saying that, then you just haven’t realized it. How, you ask? Because, watch this, you were too focused on your purpose. THIS, my brothers and sisters, is the reason why Christians are never the way they are supposed to be. It is ALL about my purpose. What is my purpose?

EVERYONE has to know what their purpose is.

Well, I know what your purpose is, and it’s the same as every other Christians’ purpose. It is to love and follow God. The specifics can come when God reveals them, but every Christian will be judged on whether or not they have done the Father’s will. 

And that is whether or not they have executed justice (or do justly), loved and shown mercy, and walked humbly with Him.

CHRISTOPHER HANEY

His Ways Are Higher Than Ours

Things happen that we have no control over. We can’t decide how our lives are going to go. But

we can always control how we react.

There are going to be hard times in life. You might get sick, a loved one might pass away, and

you’ll be faced with a choice: Trust God, or blame him. It can be easy to blame everything on

God and say that he’s ruined our lives. It’s not as easy to trust that it’s for good and that

everything will work out in the end.

God and humans can’t even be compared. He is so much higher than us (he created us). As

humans, we have a tendency to want to control things, to know why things are happening. God

always has existed, and he always will. He exists outside of time. He knows what’s going to

happen next, and the thing after that, and the thing after that, and so on. We may die not

knowing why God called that loved one home when he did, but one day - whether that day is

here on Earth, or in Heaven - it’ll make sense, and we’ll all agree it was for the best. It’ll hurt.

Just because you trust God doesn’t mean you won’t ever be sad, but it will give you comfort.

So my message for you today is this: Whatever happens to you, no matter what, trust God. It’s

not easy to trust something we can’t see or hear (physically), I recognize that, but what I do

know is that God knows exactly what he’s doing. He isn’t ‘winging it’. God will give you comfort,

and one day, you’ll see that everything was for the best.