2014/12/13

If I am to win favour for men, I am to submit wholly to the gospel of Christ and proclaim it. Submission to the gospel without the proclamation of the gospel is not true submission. Proclaiming the gospel without true submission to all the ways of the gospel is not the true proclamation of gospel. The favour I am to gather is the eternal life of Christ.

How am I to labour in the kingdom of God? Do I serve men with my hands? Do I serve men with my lips? The Bible is consistent to the idea of sacrificing my whole body as Christ sacrificed His body to fit the purpose of His Father. If the gospel is best demonstrated with my hands, then let it be so. If my hands need to be cut off to best demonstrate the gospel, then let it be so. But I need to be aware of the objective of serving God, that the sacrifice I am called to is for the freedom of men from the bondage of Satan. 

I am not to mutilate myself and call it suffering for purpose of Christ. Suffering is only to take place in obedience to the commandments of God. Any suffering will be in vain unless I obey the words that God has given to His people as commandments, "to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself,” that the there is a daily renewal, in living these commandments, by the Holy Spirit. However, I find these commandments more difficult to walk through than even self-mutilation.

Where the advice of the world would say, "get a good job, own a house, get married, have a healthy family" and so on, these good things cannot be the only way to identify with God's favour. In fact, these are all temporal things of the world, where even the most Godless person could sustain. The favour of God could help us, too, sustain these things for a time, but it doesn't provide any guarantees, because His favour is identified by that of which is eternal.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; these are fruits of the Holy Spirit and a few of the things we can identify as being sustained for eternity by the God who showed us love: demonstrated by the sacrifice of the Father, grace: demonstrated by the obedience of His Son, and power: demonstrated by the labour of His Holy Spirit.

2014/12/11

If I am to gather favour from God for men, what does that favour look like? It doesn't look like dollars and cents, and it doesn't look like a building. It doesn't even look like a pretty woman. A man who gathers favour from God may deal with such things, but there are many who have such things who do not have the favour of God.

The true blessings from God are the eternal blessings that He lavishes on us by the Holy Spirit through the gift of His Son. These blessings are not achieved by works, however the true works of Christ point to these blessings that are founded on grace. So, let not the works of Christ be in vain, achieving a temporary blessing that is no blessing at all by eternal means.

Gathering favour from God is simply receiving His grace, the grace the enables a man to achieve the true works of the gospel, so that the grace of God can be known throughout the world. This is the true grace of God, that a man is awakened from his slumber, that his works can be counted for eternal glory. What kind of works are these?

In the scriptures, Paul writes, "Each man must remain in the condition in which he was called." The calling of Christ is not being enabled to become a man of religiously defined works, (as Paul was addressing those who named marriage to be among these works,) but to be transformed by the works of grace to enable a man's work to continue to be pruned according to the gospel, so that the fruits of the Holy Spirit would become evident. So, if I am called as a single man, I will remain as a single man, now serving Christ. If I am pruned to bear new fruit as a married man, then I will receive this blessing and remain as a servant of Christ.

All in all, the favour I receive from God is for the saints, men and women alike, that the transforming work of the gospel will bear fruit for all nations. I will remain in the condition in which I was called, because His grace has given me a new opportunity to be a single man who is to receive God's favour to bless men and women who are called of God.

2014/12/10

It is better to give than it is to receive. A man's spiritually potency is measured by what he gives from what he has been given, rather than what he can store up for self-accreditation. God doesn't see a man's riches, He sees a man's faithfulness, for God's faithful Son gave His life on the cross to provide a way for the faithless to become faithful through His name.

A man has no excuse to be counted among the faithless in his words and deeds. He has no reason to complain about a life that doesn't add up to anything honourable. He has no reason to withhold himself from the calling of Christ; the calling to be a follower of Christ's lead no matter the cost. What can I say about such a man who is single and selfish, one who is waiting for the day he is married to be accredited as a man of sacrifice?

Such a man will never be truly selfless. A man who stores up for himself riches to better present himself on a future day is a despicable man. A man who spends his singleness to gratify and entertain himself until he chooses to take on the burden of marriage is no man at all. He is denying his duties as a single man in waiting to be honoured for his duties as a married man. After all, it is honourable for a man to love his wife and children.

A man who saves money for a house, but also spends a good sum of his money on entertainment, impressing his peers, and dating women for his own pleasure is not a man who is preparing his future household, even if he gathers enough to buy a house. A man should instead glorify God in all His deeds, serving men and women, gathering favour from God for men, that his words and deeds would be accredited to the name of Jesus Christ. Such a man will attract the right kind of woman, one who is not fooled by the pretentiousness of this world, but is fit to serve her husband and nurture her children according to the Holy Spirit.

So how do I prepare for the future? By following the lead of Christ, no matter the cost; by faithfully giving from what I have been given. If I have been given an opportunity to own a house, it is a house that belongs to God; a dwelling that He was faithful to provide for His servant. A house says nothing about my potency as a man, rather it is accredited to God's faithfulness, who, through Him, I have received honour. So I will be faithful to Him in all He has blessed me with, even if His favour doesn't attract a woman or give me any comfort in this life. I know it is better to give than it is to receive.

2014/12/08

It would seem that I am a man without a household to head. One would assume that a man who doesn't have a wife and children doesn't have a home that he is responsible for leading. Because of the nature of the steps a man is to take to embrace the responsibilities of being a husband and father, I would conclude that my current responsibilities are futile when compared to that of a family man.

But I am still responsible for being as I am: a man who is wholly devoted to God. Since it is a bare-minimum requirement for a man of God to care for his workmanship in the home, it would seem that my chores are less as a single man. But this is only true to a degree. There is still much to be faithful to.

Instead of taking care of a wife, I have to take care of all the women I'm available to by a mutual singleness. It is my responsibility not to play with a woman's heart, or to lead her as a man who unwilling to take full responsibility for her. I also have to take care of myself as a man, that my own body is pure and spotless⎯without blemish; the same way I would care for a wife.

Instead of raising children, I have to raise all who acknowledge their weakness in my sight, that they become nurtured according to the word of God. It is my responsibility to the weak, that they not be taught in the falsehood of thinking they have a need for pity, but in the truth of their absolute need for God, who has shown them grace. It is my responsibility to reveal Christ, as God who died on a cross, who, in weakness, revealed the weakness of those who claim to be strong. Because Jesus said, "Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all."

It would seem that my current household, being as a single man, is far more exclusive to my body, however, I am far more capable to reach the bigger body of Christ in the vastness of His kingdom. I want to explore this vastness to a greater degree by enslaving my body to the works of God. And, one day, my natural body may increase in fruit, and the spreading of God's vast kingdom will become a deeper work.

2014/12/07

The Kingdom of God has far exceeded what is defined by blood relations. The descendants from the seed of Abraham were congregated to receive the promise of God that came into existence by a virgin birth. Jesus Christ died without any offspring from His seed to consecrate His followers as His true blood-relatives, so that men and women of all descendants can be joined to Him, being renewed in the lineage of Jesus as partakers in His body and His blood by the Holy Spirit.

But not everyone will hear the word of God and be saved. If the people heard the gospel Jesus was preaching, He wouldn't have been crucified. There were divisions upon hearing His word, and ultimately God saw it necessary for Jesus to suffer death on a cross, bearing the image of God's condemning judgment for the world upon His Son, so that the world may be saved from the wrath of God through His Son. But even to this day, there are many who hear this gospel who do not receive it.

Therefore, the infiltration of Christ by His Holy Spirit can divide a household. Jesus said, “I have come to cast fire upon the earth; and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished! Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division; for from now on five members in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

A unified household, with all its members being followers of Jesus, will bring glory to Christ in the all the ways of His unity, because Christ is not divided. But a household divided by the name of Jesus will also bring glory to Christ in ways that are unfathomable to man. There is a purpose to God relating to the people of this age, though they will not all be saved.

Who is to know the depth of the ways of the Lord, or fathom His glory. A man who is a follower of Christ is to lead His household in the ways of the Lord, but there are no guarantees of those members coming to faith. This man can be obedient to the word of God until death, yet have all his blood-descendants die as sons of disobedience. But this man's fruit still may grow far beyond the nation of his seed to a new generation of partakers in the body and blood of Christ. This is the true power of the blood.

2014/12/06

Honour God. Honour His Son. Honour His Spirit. "A prophet is not without honour except in his hometown and in his own household." "Honour your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you."

In this day and age, it is honourable for a man to love his wife and children above all things. Perhaps it is considered honourable because we have become more aware of the tragedy of fatherlessness in our world. The security of a father's love for his family may have become a more rare occurrence in recent decades, accompanied with the fact that we are realizing the emotional ramifications of our father's participation or lack of participation in a person's formative years. However, bestowing honour upon a father's prioritization of his family may be signifying the depravity of the role of a father in this generation.

For a worshiper of Christ, it should be a minimum requirement that a man should love his wife and children. A man's wife is joined to the man, as the two are one flesh. A man doesn't neglect his own body, does he? Nor does he fail to nurture what is produced from his own work, does he? He doesn't need to be congratulated for taking care of his own, it should be expected as a part of his nature.

But Oh! how the men or this generation have failed to even honour what is the primary extension of their own body. This triggers me to wonder: what have the men of this generation spent their time and energy pursuing that they would consider it worthwhile to destroy their own body for? They must be doing something.

They have surely built their household in a world of make-believe. Some make-believe worlds exists in the mind of a man, never to take form in the world. Some make-believe worlds take their form in this world, and become the only measurement a man has for himself. Either way, he has neglected what is real in his life for something that is counterfeit to his true self.

But the kingdom of God presents another dimension to how we are to consider ourselves as men of our household. We are to love our neighbour as ourselves. We are even called to love our enemy. How can we properly love our neighbour and our enemy if we deny our own household? The household is an extension of the man, that if a man neglects his own household, he is surely unfit to love his neighbour as himself, because he has neglected himself. Therefore, he is completely unfit for God's kingdom.

God will bestow honour upon those who keep His commandments. Even if a man doesn't receive honour from his own household, he can nurture his own household so that it can grow to honour the commandments of God, that their days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord gives them.

When it comes to myself alone, I truly believe that God will provide, even amongst the greatest challenges. But I never want to tell another that "God will provide" for them, if I'm telling them this because I believe I have nothing to offer.

So what then do I think about "making money?" If it no longer a selfish priority, then how do I evaluate it as a selfless priority, or is that even possible?

I believe that the provision of brotherhood and sisterhood outweighs the provision of material wealth. For if we had all the riches of the world, but no one to share it with, what is it good for.

Undoubtedly, the highest provision is what God provided on the cross, an opportunity to be with Him, to live with Him, to abide with Him. This is truly the best way to experience God's provision. And in this way, I incessantly have something of value to offer.