When Obedience is Hard

On Thursday last week, my brother-in-law bought our kids a trampoline. It was a surprise to them, they had no idea it was coming. They went off to school that morning with only a swing set in the back yard and they came home to it all set up and ready to go.

The ritual for my kids driving home from school is to snack on what they did not eat for lunch. It is Pavlovian. We pack Cooper and Mia a little extra in their lunch boxes so they can have a snack on the way home. On the way from the door to the car on this day, I asked them if they had homework. Cooper did but Mia did not. I told Cooper to work on his homework instead of eating his leftovers from lunch. This did not sit well with him. "But dad I am hungry...I am starving", Coop whined from the back seat. I told him to trust me, that when we got home he would be glad that his homework was finished. But he was focused on those left over Doritos.

After a couple of minutes of convincing Cooper to trust me, he finally relented and worked on his homework in the car. About a block from home he got it finished. Because his work was done he got to enjoy the new tramp immediately instead of sitting at the kitchen table while his sisters jumped.

As Dave preached yesterday, I thought of this story in relation to our obedience. He talked about Abraham and how hard obedience was for him. Romans 4:20-21 is talking about Abraham. The words "fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised" are beautiful.

The point is that when God calls us to some sort of obedience, He is not trying to rob from us; He is trying to give to us. In the car ride home from school, I was not trying to deprive Cooper of his snack, I was trying to allow him to jump on his trampoline as soon as he got home. I was trying to make him happy.

So many times we end up there. We are distrusting of God. We distrust His motives, we think we are better and getting joy for ourselves than God is. We focus on the thing He is calling us away from (Cooper and his snack) rather than the thing that he is calling us to(the trampoline, which is always better.

Failure to obey almost always is a failure to believe God.

Thanks for reading and have a great day!

God's Noahic covenant of grace depicted through the rainbow

The following us a powerful explanation of God's covenant of grace enacted through Noah and depicted through the rainbow. It comes from a portion of the writing of Theologian A.W. Pink in his book on The Divine Covenants, (http://www.pbministries.org/books/pink/Divine_Covenants/divine_covenants_03.htm), which I commend to you in full. It's powerful stuff!!!

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FROM A.W. PINK::

But God’s bow in the clouds was not only an assurance unto men at large that no more would the world be destroyed by a flood, it was also the seal of confirmation of the covenant which God had made with the elect seed, the children of faith. Blessed it is to know that, not only our eyes, but His too are upon the bow; and thus this gives us fellowship with Himself in that which tells of the storm being over, of peace displacing turmoil, of the dark gloom now being irradiated by the shining of the sun. It was the rain which broke up the light into its separate rays, now reflected in the bow: the blue or heavenly ray, the yellow or golden ray, the crimson ray of atonement. Thus it is in the everlasting covenant that God is fully revealed as light and as love, as righteous yet merciful, merciful yet righteous. The covenant of grace is beautifully expressed in the rainbow. For the following nine points on this covenant we are indebted to a sermon by Ebenezer Erskine, preached about 1730.

1. It is of God’s ordering: "I have set my bow in the clouds." So the covenant of grace is of God’s ordering: "I have made a covenant with my chosen" (Ps. 89). Though it be our duty to "take hold of" the covenant (Isa. 56:4), and to come under engagements through the grace thereof, yet we have no part in appointing or ordering it. The covenant of grace could no more have been made by man, than he can form a bow in the clouds.

2. The bow was set in the clouds upon God’s smelling a sweet savor in Noah’s sacrifice; so that the covenant of grace is founded upon and sealed with the blood of the Lamb—a reminder thereof being set before us every time we sit down to partake of the Lord’s Supper.

3. The rainbow is a divine security that the waters should return no more to destroy the earth; so the covenant of grace guarantees against the deluge of God’s wrath, that it shall never return again to destroy any soul that by faith flees to Christ (Isa. 54:9).

4. It is the sun which gives being to the rainbow. Remove it from the firmament and there could not be its glorious reflection in the clouds. So Christ, the Sun of righteousness, gives being to the covenant of grace. He is its very life and substance: "I will preserve thee and give thee for a covenant of the people" (Isa. 49:8).

5. Although the arch of the bow is high above us, reaching to the heaven, yet the ends of it stoop down and reach to the earth. Just so it is with the covenant of grace: although the great covenant Head be in heaven, yet, through the gospel, He stoops down to men upon earth "The word is nigh thee" (Rom. 10:6-8).

6. God’s bow in the clouds is very extensive, reaching from one end of heaven to the other; so His covenant of grace is wide in its reach, stretching back to eternity past and reaching forward to eternity future, embracing some out of every nation and kindred, and tribe and tongue.

7. As the rainbow is a security against a universal deluge, so it is also a prognostic of refreshing showers of rain to the thirsty earth. So the bow of the covenant which encircles the throne of God (Rev. 4:3) not only secures against vindictive wrath, but gives assurance of the rain—the Spirit’s influences.

8. The visible appearance of the rainbow is but of a short continuance, for usually it appears only for a few minutes and then vanishes. So the sensible and lively views which the believer gets of the covenant of grace are usually of brief duration.

9. Although the rainbow disappears, and that for a long while together, yet we do not conclude therefrom that God’s covenant is broken or that a flood will come and destroy the earth. So too the saint may not now be favored with a sensible sight of the covenant of grace; yet the remembrance of former views thereof will keep the soul from fears of wrath.

The following paragraph is quoted from our work Gleanings in Genesis. "There are many parallels between the rainbow and God’s grace. As the rainbow is the joint-product of storm and sunshine, so grace is the unmerited favor of God appearing on the dark background of the creature’s sin. As the rainbow is the effect of the sun shining on the drops of rain in a cloud, so Divine grace is manifested by God’s love shining through the blood shed by our blessed Redeemer. As the rainbow is the telling out of the varied hues of the white light, so the ‘manifold grace of God’ (1 Pet. 4:10) is the ultimate expression of God’s heart. As nature knows nothing more exquisitely beautiful than the rainbow, so heaven itself knows nothing that surpasses in loveliness the wondrous grace of God. As the rainbow is the union of heaven and earth-spanning the sky and reaching down to the ground—so grace in the one Mediator has brought together God and man. As the rainbow is a public sign of God hung out in the heavens that all may see it, so ‘the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men’ (Titus 2:11). Finally, as the rainbow has been displayed throughout all the past forty centuries, so in the ages to come God will show forth ‘the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus’ (Eph. 2:7)."

New series starting tomorrow

There is an element to our pursuit of the Lord and call to obedience that is always difficult and even, at times, seems impossible. But that perceived impossibility is never to negate our response. So how do we, as believers, actually walk out the things Christ calls us to? I think that more often than not our perception of the Lord up in Heaven looks something like this:

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THE LORD: "Hey Joe, I want you to go over and share the gospel with Melissa." (laughing under his breath)

JOE: "But Lord, isn't she an atheist?"

THE LORD: "Yeah she is, but that's ok." (under his breath: "good luck with that one - haha")

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While we wouldn't actually say it like that, I think that's how we really see it. As if the Lord enjoys burdening us with impossible tasks and watching, from a distance, as we suffer.

This series will begin to show us how active and present the Lord is in engaging us in our call to obedience -- that he isn't distant in the things he calls us to, but rather is actually the very one that enables us to live for him.

Over the next 6 weeks, We will look at the stories of Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Gideon and Hosea. We will see the gospel portrayed through the Lord's covenant relationship with each of these Old Testament characters.

I want to challenge us to begin preparing our hearts and giving permission to Christ to address our obedience to him, or lack there of. Will you join me in praying Psalm 139:23–24?

"Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!"

Journeying to better obedience with you,
Dave