Fw: the high calling

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Rob Smith <toanosmith@yahoo.com>
To: Rob Smith <rsmith@mycwa.com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 28, 2017 7:20 AM
Subject: the high calling

As believers we must first win a battle within ourselves before we can fight the good fight for the Gospel.  We can expect a great resistance to well up within when we have come into saving faith.  The ancient enemy wants to keep us self contained and not "out there" sharing the great truth of freedom and salvation in Christ.  The apostle Paul dealt with this subject in his final letter to the young disciple, Timothy.  Paul tells Timothy that he has been praying "night and day" for him in constant prayer.  And it seems that the point of those prayers was that Timothy would be bold to share the Gospel!  He tells Timothy that when he is fearful of telling others about Christ, that fear has not come from God, who is the source of "power and love and self control".  He reminds Timothy that a gift has been given him spiritually to equip him for this work and this gift is to be used!  He exhorts Timothy in chapter 1, verse 8: "Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God."  It's interesting that Paul doesn't offer an easy way or a pain free path and, in fact, calls Timothy to suffer.  He's being called to the battle.  But it is the high calling.  Paul also reminds Timothy that the reason he must step out in faith is because (verse 9):" (the Father) saved us and called us to a holy calling...which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began...through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel."

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Paul encourages Timothy that the bottom line motivation he uses in his own life is his personal relationship with Jesus (verse 12): "But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me."  As Timothy steps out to the battle and responds to the call Paul tells him the battle plan in verses 13 and 14.  He tells him to "follow the pattern of the sound words" that Paul has taught him...to walk "in faith and love that are in Christ Jesus" and to draw on the power of the Holy Spirit ("who dwells within us").

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Before we can do battle for the gospel we must win the battle and respond to the high calling.

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blessings,

Rob Smith

Fw: from weakness to power

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Rob Smith <toanosmith@yahoo.com>
To: Rob Smith <rsmith@mycwa.com>
Sent: Monday, February 27, 2017 7:32 AM
Subject: from weakness to power

1 Corinthians 15:43 "It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power"

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I am at a stage of life now where I seem to know more and more people who are suffering with various ailments of the body.  There are serious heart issues and joint issues and battles with cancer.  There are back problems and chronic headaches and all kinds of problems.  It seems that our physical bodies, which carry us so well for so long, begin to wear out in stages.  Our prayer lists become filled with friends wrestling with these issues (and sometimes we join the list!).  But in a reverse way there is encouragement here because this is just what the Lord intended.  We have bodies now that are characterized by weakness.  But, as people who have come to believe that Christ was raised from the dead, we have a sure hope that we also will be raised and given a new body...not characterized by weakness but by power.

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The apostle Paul describes our current physical bodies as seeds which are sown in the ground.  They will germinate in death and bloom in Heaven.  Here is some of that logic from verse 44 of the same chapter: " It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body." 

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The aches and pains we endure now are sure signs that we are being made ready for planting, that we will be raised to an entirely new life.  You can believe it!  Jesus pioneered the path with His own body and showed that resurrection leads to a new and better life.

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Here are a few more powerful arguments for the new body from the same chapter: "

⁴⁹ Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

⁵⁰ I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable."

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blessings,

Rob Smith

Fw: He saw me when yet unformed

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Rob Smith <toanosmith@yahoo.com>
To: Rob Smith <rsmith@mycwa.com>
Sent: Sunday, February 26, 2017 7:01 AM
Subject: He saw me when yet unformed

Psalm 139:¹³ For you formed my inward parts;
    you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
¹⁴ I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
    my soul knows it very well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
    intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ 

Your eyes saw my unformed substance;

in your book were written, every one of them,
    the days that were formed for me,
    when as yet there was none of them.

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When we come to know the Lord through the rebirth that springs from faith in Jesus we are finally meeting the One who has already known us since we were yet unformed.  We talk about faith being a difficult concept because it deals with believing in what cannot be seen with the eye.  But God believed in us and saw us when we were not yet made.  If He could have that confidence then I can return it to Him. 

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I love the thought that God had a plan for my life before I was born and that all my days were already laid out...including the ones I have ahead of me now.  I love the thought that I didn't just "happen"...I was "made", fashioned by the skilled author of life and unique in His eyes.  I celebrate the miracle of human life, known and seen by God and now restored to Him for all my days and for the time when time and days no longer are the measure of my experience.

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blessings!

Rob Smith

Fw: heart...soul...mind

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Rob Smith <toanosmith@yahoo.com>
To: Rob Smith <rsmith@mycwa.com>
Sent: Saturday, February 25, 2017 7:10 AM
Subject: heart...soul...mind

Matthew 22:37-39 "And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

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So what is the difference between heart and soul and mind?  Maybe it can also be thought of as emotion, will and intellect.  It seems that Jesus is taking the invisible part of our makeup and subdividing it to clarify the different ways we can love God.  Our emotion is our feeling, our passion, the place where tears come from and patriotism springs out of and happiness and sadness compete for center stage.  Our mind is our intellect, our reason, our comprehension of meaning and expression of ideas.  This is where logic gives us stability and where arguments find their foundation in fact.  Our soul may be where we put the passion and the thinking into action with resolve, choice, and commitment.  It is not enough to have feelings or to carry strong convictions if we don't go one more step to form decisions to act. 

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It is impossible for us to discern the division between heart and soul and mind.  They all seem mixed together in our inner being.  Only God can see us with x-ray vision. 

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Consider Hebrews 4:12 "For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart."

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We need to love the Lord with all that is within us...passion, intellect and will, and we need the abiding counsel of God to discern our intentions and let us know where we are straying.  For He fashioned us so that we could return love to Himself and reflect His love to others.  This may be beyond our complete comprehension but not beyond our obedience.

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blessings,

Rob Smith

Fw: A plan?

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Rob Smith <toanosmith@yahoo.com>
To: Rob Smith <rsmith@mycwa.com>
Sent: Friday, February 24, 2017 7:26 AM
Subject: A plan?

Jeremiah 29:¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. ¹² Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. ¹³ You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.

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Jeremiah 29: ⁷ But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

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The Lord sent this message through the prophet Jeremiah to the people of Judah who had been taken into exile.  At this point in their lives the plans didn't look too encouraging.  They had been ripped from their homes in Jerusalem and swallowed up as captives and servants of a fierce pagan people.  If there was a plan for their lives it didn't look like a good one.  But God explains earlier in this prophecy that even this exile was His plan for them!  They had wandered far from Him already in their hearts and had experienced a spiritual exile...a self selected distance...from their Lord for years.  Now God would confirm this choice of theirs with a worldly separation from their familiar homes and lives.  But He also gave them hope that one day they would return...seventy years down the road...after they learned to miss Him and to seek Him sincerely and wholeheartedly.  At their darkest and lowest point God gave them hope through His promise.  And He told them to seek the best for the place He had placed them while they worked through this time of separation.  For one day they would be together, restored in close relationship and returned to their homeland.

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You may feel like you are "living in exile" yourself, separated from home, without a plan for your life.  But it is good to remember that the Lord does have a plan for you and even your exile is part of it.  The distance you feel...the sense of being away from home or in bondage or distress...may be a blessing as it causes you to turn your heart first to Him that He might guide you to your eternal home, to be with Him forever.  So let us seek the best for the place we now are living and let us trust that one day we will also be completely restored to His presence, following the lead of our hearts and minds to be restored to Him now...wherever we find ourselves.

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blessings,

Rob Smith

Fw: the greatest nation

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Rob Smith <toanosmith@yahoo.com>
To: Rob Smith <rsmith@mycwa.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 23, 2017 7:40 AM
Subject: the greatest nation

What is it that makes a nation great?  Is it riches, education, military strength?  Is it cultural quality from the arts and music?  Is it a form of government?  Is it about a dominant religion?  It's interesting that over the course of civilization no nation has survived indefinitely.  Consider Greece and Rome...Babylon and Assyria...the British Empire.  They all seem to rise and fall.  Ultimately they have been focused on building themselves...trying to make themselves great by conquering and colonizing others.  There have been two exceptions to this pattern that I can think of: Israel and the USA.  Israel was founded on a promise by God, Himself, and despite stumbling in their obedience over time, Israel remains a nation.  It isn't a nation that seeks to be great...but a nation that seeks to "be".  The USA was founded as a reaction to all the other nations failed attempts at greatness.  Rather than relying on dominance and conquest, America said that a nation should be rethought to be all about individual freedom and helping people find the greatest lives rather than nations.  But there is still another approach that is best of all.  Rather than becoming the dominant world power, or exalting the individual, the best way is to seek to be a nation that follows the way of the Lord.  

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Proverbs 14:34 puts it this way: "Righteousness exalts a nation,
    but sin is a reproach to any people."

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The interesting thing is that this kind of nation can emerge from anyplace on earth...within any existing nation...despite previous track records of behavior.  It probably will never happen through a Constitutional change or overthrow of a king, or some kind of vote.  But as a significant number of people exercise their God given freedom to think, to repent and to align with the ways of the Lord..."rightness" or being in harmony with the true and living God is possible.

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This seems a worthy goal as we seek to express the love of the Lord through the fires of daily living in the midst of a world bent on serving itself.

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blessings,

Rob Smith 

Fw: the love product

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Rob Smith <toanosmith@yahoo.com>
To: Rob Smith <rsmith@mycwa.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2017 7:24 AM
Subject: the love product

Who doesn't agree that we should love each other?  But is it simply a matter of choice or of discipline to love others? The apostle John talks about this in his short book called First John. 

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Consider verses 7 and 8 of 1 John 4:  ^"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.  Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love."

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Just as one identifying statement about God is that He is love...defined by love, we learn that the love is God's export product from Heaven.  He demonstrated it, perhaps in the greatest way, when He sent Jesus to die for us.

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Reflect on these two phrases:

Verse 9 "...that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him."

Verse 10 "In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins."

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We have the Creator demonstrating love for us by sending His Son to die and rescue us.  We have the example of Christ actually carrying through on offering His life for us.  God goes one step further to help us love the way we ought to.  Consider verses 16 and 17: "God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us."

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This great identifying quality of God can become a consistent characteristic of our attitudes and behavior when we recognize and accept God's great love sent through Jesus for us.  As we have received this great love from Heaven, he dwells within us and completes the expression of love from us.  When we love others this way we are seeing God's living presence come through our personalities.

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...a lovely picture!

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Rob Smith