“Blessed”

    I have often said that the Word of God is like a gold mine; if you want the gold, you have to dig for it…Proverbs 2:3-5 says -

³“if you call out for insight
    and cry aloud for understanding,
    and search for it as for hidden treasure,
⁵ then you will understand the fear of the Lord
⁴ and if you look for it as for silver 
    and find the knowledge of God.”

Well, I have found myself prayerfully looking for insight and wisdom and the knowledge of God, as I begin to study what it means to be “Blessed”. Webster defines “blessed” as, “of or enjoying happiness. Specifically enjoying the bliss of heaven”…It carries the idea of “that which brings pleasure, contentment, or good fortune.” It is that state of being we all desire! Who does not want to be blessed? But, when it comes down to it, we often view “blessings” in the wrong light. We think of blessings as physical and material in nature. If we have good health, we are blessed; if we have a good job and there is money in the bank, we are blessed; if we have a nice home and a nice car, we are blessed; and I truly believe these things are blessings, But, what happens when we get sick? Did we cease to be blessed? What about when we drive junk cars and the house is falling apart? Did we lose the blessings of God? What happens when we lose the job and there is no money and we can’t pay the bills? Did the Lord stop blessing us? What we fail to remember is that these (physical and material) blessings are temporary at best. The car will rust, wear out and die one day; the money will be spent; the home will decay; and as we age, our health will decline. That’s the problem with depending on and putting our faith in and shinning the light on material and physical things. We need to know the real blessings in life, the true blessings of God, are not these but spiritual blessings that can never be taken away!

Therefore, let me offer what it really means to be blessed, according to God’s Word.

Let’s begin with Ephesians 1:3-14

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.

In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.

In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.”

Next week we will begin to mine some nuggets out of this scripture.

Today I am going to post a selfish self-promotion. Bear with me as I begin to work on my next book titled - "Blessed"

What is the “Quest for Discipleship”?

    The quest for discipleship is a spiritual journey for those who desire to go beyond church attendance; those who have a desire to know more about God and His Word; those who have a desire to know more about life and living. As an ordained pastor, called by God, you might think this was a natural desire; but I don’t agree. There is a significant difference between head knowledge and heart knowledge. One can listen to sermons and attend Bible Studies to gain (and not necessarily retain) knowledge about God, but it is not until that knowledge drops about 18 inches to the heart that we truly begin to know God.

    For me personally, my “quest” began one weekend while reading the book “Believing God” by Beth Moore. In this book, there are four very significant chapters. The first was titled “Believing God is who He says He is.” The second was “Believing God can do what He says He can do.” The third was “Believing that I am who God says I am.” And the fourth was “Believing that I can do all things through Christ Jesus”. These were so powerful for me that I began to use them as a “statement of Faith” in my church as well as my own life. In fact, they are what stirred within me the desire to write my books and to teach others willing to seek their own quest for discipleship.

    The “Quest” began with “In It for Life” my first book which is all about the discipleship journey from beginning to end, and the fact that it is a life-long journey.

    My second book “By His Hand” is all about lessons learned in my own journey, and the fact that God’s hand is always moving in, out, and around everything in our lives. The things that we experience are pieces of our puzzle of which only God knows what the complete picture looks like.

    My third book “Show and Tell” describes exactly that; if we call ourselves Christians, followers of Christ, then it ought to show and we ought to be able to tell of our experiences with God in our lives.

    My fourth book “Jars of Clay” is what I would call a “potter and clay” example to explain why you are who God says you are!

    My fifth book "TEAM" is a church growth as well as a personal growth book on how and why we are really a T.E.A.M. working together for God's Kingdom.

    My sixth book “The Promised Gift” is all about the work of the promised Holy Spirit’s work in us as well as in the church, and in the world.

    My seventh book “From the Pastor’s Desk” and my eighth “More from the Pastor’s Desk” are a compilation of my favorite and best messages (according to my congregations and my wife) that are sort of a legacy to my children and grandchildren. These are messages that I would put a star on and save in my files over the years as a pastor.

    My ninth book “The Kingdom of God” is all about God’s desire to build His Kingdom from the very start in Genesis and how he completes His Kingdom in the Book of Revelation. It is also about the four kingdoms spoken of in His Word; the unseen spiritual kingdom all around us; the kingdom of God that Jesus said was “within us”; the heavenly kingdom; and the kingdom to come.

    My tenth book “Let Earth Receive Her King”is a collection of Advent and Christmas ideas for individuals as well as pastors. These are also some of my favorites.

    Number eleven is called “Therefore”. It’s a look at what is said previous to the word, as well as what follows the word, which makes for an interesting study by which to further our growth into God’s Word.

    Finally, number twelve “Principles fromProverbs” my latest book. It consists of 13 principles concerning wisdom by which to live by that promise prosperity and success in life. They are simple and priceless principles for a lifestyle of happiness and the abundant life Jesus came to give.

    All twelve books fit somewhere within the four statements of faith I have come to believe and live by.

I have prepared and delivered all of these in sermon or in study form throughout the years of my ministry. I am Rev Fred, and I approve this message!    

Principles from Proverbs #13 –

Proverbs 15:22 – “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.”

Proverbs 11:14 - For lack of guidance a nation falls, but victory is won through many advisers.

    One could say “Well, that just makes sense.” But, it not only makes sense; it is a principle to be applied to any and all important decisions in life.

    I Googled the question “How many decisions do we make in each day?” The result was anywhere from 226.7 to 35,000! That is quite an expanse of decision making. I would be curious to see if there's been any serious research done on this subject...and, it would be great if the results were broken down by type of decision, from simple to serious. Obviously deciding what to wear, or what to eat, or what channel to watch on the T.V. are not what I would call “life changing” decisions. However, they very well could be. For instance, wearing all black at night while walking could prove to be disastrous. Watching an evangelical preacher on T.V. could lead to a changed life. However, I don’t think Solomon had these things in mind. He was more concerned with the plans and decisions that will not only be life changing, but even history making.

    Solomon is basically saying; “Don’t be so independent that you think of yourself as above counsel or the advice of others. We need the wisdom of those who have gone before us; who are experienced and wise people. We can learn from their mistakes as well as their successes.

    There is however, a second part of this principle; it is found in Proverbs 16:3 – “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and He will establish your plans.” Let’s go back to principle #3 - “Trust in the Lord with all your heart” – “In all your ways acknowledge Him” - (Result? – “he will make your paths straight”.) That is, always seek the Lord’s guidance and strength in your planning and decisions; trust His wisdom and not your own understanding; and you will have success. (A good rule of thumb is “listen to your heart.”)

    The Book of Proverbs makes it clear that “two heads are better than one.” The wise seek out the insights of others. Proverbs often speaks of the “fool” who is characterized by their unwillingness to listen to wise advice; whether it be from God, parents or friends.

    Saul was the first King of Israel. David was the second King. Then came Solomon. They each reigned for forty years. Now we come to Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, He was 41 years old when he began to reign. He came to reign in a time when there was trouble in the Kingdom, and there are rumblings of revolution. Let’s pick up the story at 1 Kings 12:3 -  

“So they sent for Jeroboam, and he and the whole assembly of Israel went to Rehoboam and said to him: 

“Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.”

Rehoboam answered, “Go away for three days and then come back to me.” So the people went away.

Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime. “How would you advise me to answer these people?” he asked.

 They replied, “If today you will be a servant to these people and serve them and give them a favorable answer, they will always be your servants.”

But Rehoboam rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were serving him. 

He asked them, “What is your advice? How should we answer these people who say to me, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’?”

The young men who had grown up with him replied, “These people have said to you, ‘Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but make our yoke lighter.’ Now tell them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist. My father laid on you a heavy yoke; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.’”

Three days later Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, as the king had said, “Come back to me in three days.” The king answered the people harshly. Rejecting the advice given him by the elders, he followed the advice of the young men and said, “My father made your yoke heavy; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.” 

So the king did not listen to the people.” Rather than being a shepherd of his people as Kings were intended to be, Rehoboam became a slave driver over the people. By the way, there is no evidence that he spent time in prayer; no evidence that he sought the priests to give him godly advice; or even the prophets; but, he did seek counsel. He sought the advice of the old and experienced, and he sought the advice of his friends and peers.

    If you look again at verse 6, the question he asks of the older men is “How would you advise me to answer these people?” Then if you look at the question of his peers he says, “How should (we) answer these people?” That’s the palace gang he
was brought up with and hung around with. Their daddies were the Secretary of State, and the Chief of Staff, and the Treasury Secretary, they were the “establishment” of the time…but, now these young lions are going to run the government together! (Don’t get me started!)

    It seems to me that Rehoboam had already made up his mind what he was going to do. When you have made up your mind what you want to do, chances are you are going to fish around and look around until you find somebody who will agree with you and your decision.

    I want to close this by speaking from my own experience, to the godly, to the disciples, to those who serve the church, and to the pastors of those churches; If you want to have good godly leadership, it must be a combination of the older and the younger together, and they must be god seeking prayer warriors! If all the church has is older leadership, they will BIND you up. If all you have is younger leadership, they will BURN you up or burn you out. But, if you have younger and older working together for the glory of Almighty God, they will BUILD you up! Can I get a witness?

    In Luke 15:11-32, Jesus tells the story of the prodigal son; “There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So, he divided his property between them. “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living…” You will find that he had to learn the hard way what was really important in life. It was not the wealth or the inheritance, but his father’s love and wisdom.

    There is also a story found in the Old Testament, Genesis chapters 27 and 28, that shows how an inheritance can change a nation and even the course of history that would affect the world even today;

“When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could no longer see, he called for Esau his older son and said to him, “My son.”

“Here I am,” he answered.

Isaac said, “I am now an old man and don’t know the day of my death. Now then, get your equipment—your quiver and bow—and go out to the open country to hunt some wild game for me.  Prepare me the kind of tasty food I like and bring it to me to eat, so that I may give you my blessing before I die.”

Now Rebekah was listening as Isaac spoke to his son Esau. When Esau left for the open country to hunt game and bring it back, Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Look, I overheard your father say to your brother Esau, ‘Bring me some game and prepare me some tasty food to eat, so that I may give you my blessing in the presence of the Lord before I die.’ Now, my son, listen carefully and do what I tell you: Go out to the flock and bring me two choice young goats, so I can prepare some tasty food for your father, just the way he likes it. Then take it to your father to eat, so that he may give you his blessing before he dies.”

Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “But my brother Esau is a hairy man while I have smooth skin. What if my father touches me? I would appear to be tricking him and would bring down a curse on myself rather than a blessing.”

His mother said to him, “My son, let the curse fall on me. Just do what I say; go and get them for me.”

So he went and got them and brought them to his mother, and she prepared some tasty food, just the way his father liked it. Then Rebekah took the best clothes of Esau her older son, which she had in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob. She also covered his hands and the smooth part of his neck with the goatskins. Then she handed to her son Jacob the tasty food and the bread she had made.

He went to his father and said, “My father.”

“Yes, my son,” he answered. “Who is it?”

Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may give me your blessing.”

Isaac asked his son, “How did you find it so quickly, my son?”

“The Lord your God gave me success,” he replied.

Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Come near so I can touch you, my son, to know whether you really are my son Esau or not.”

Jacob went close to his father Isaac, who touched him and said, “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” He did not recognize him, for his hands were hairy like those of his brother Esau; so he proceeded to bless him. “Are you really my son Esau?” he asked.

“I am,” he replied.

Then he said, “My son, bring me some of your game to eat, so that I may give you my blessing.”

Jacob brought it to him and he ate; and he brought some wine and he drank. Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come here, my son, and kiss me.”

So he went to him and kissed him. When Isaac caught the smell of his clothes, he blessed him and said,

“Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed.
May God give you heaven’s dew and earth’s richness—an abundance of grain and new wine. May nations serve you and peoples bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may the sons of your mother bow down to you. May those who curse you be cursed and those who bless you be blessed.”

After Isaac finished blessing him, and Jacob had scarcely left his father’s presence, his brother Esau came in from hunting. He too prepared some tasty food and brought it to his father. Then he said to him, “My father, please sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may give me your blessing.”

His father Isaac asked him, “Who are you?”

“I am your son,” he answered, “your firstborn, Esau.”

Isaac trembled violently and said, “Who was it, then, that hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it just before you came and I blessed him—and indeed he will be blessed!”

When Esau heard his father’s words, he burst out with a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me—me too, my father!”

But he said, “Your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing.”

Esau said, “Isn’t he rightly named Jacob? This is the second time he has taken advantage of me: He took my birthright, and now he’s taken my blessing!” Then he asked, “Haven’t you reserved any blessing for me?”

Isaac answered Esau, “I have made him lord over you and have made all his relatives his servants, and I have sustained him with grain and new wine. So, what can I possibly do for you, my son?”

Esau said to his father, “Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father!” Then Esau wept aloud.

His father Isaac answered him, “Your dwelling will be away from the earth’s richness, away from the dew of heaven above.

You will live by the sword and you will serve your brother. But when you grow restless, you will throw his yoke from off your neck.”

Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. He said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”

When Rebekah was told what her older son Esau had said, she sent for her younger son Jacob and said to him, “Your brother Esau is planning to avenge himself by killing you. Now then, my son, do what I say: Flee at once to my brother Laban in Harran. Stay with him for a while until your brother’s fury subsides. When your brother is no longer angry with you and forgets what you did to him, I’ll send word for you to come back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?”

Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I’m disgusted with living because of these Hittite women. If Jacob takes a wife from among the women of this land, from Hittite women like these, my life will not be worth living.”

So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. Then he commanded him: “Do not marry a Canaanite woman. Go at once to Paddan Aram, to the house of your mother’s father Bethuel. Take a wife for yourself there, from among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother. May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples. May he give you and your descendants the blessing given to Abraham, so that you may take possession of the land where you now reside as a foreigner, the land God gave to Abraham.” 

Then Isaac sent Jacob on his way, and he went to Paddan Aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, who was the mother of Jacob and Esau.

Now Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and had sent him to Paddan Aram to take a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he commanded him, “Do not marry a Canaanite woman,” and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and had gone to Paddan Aram.  Esau then realized how displeasing the Canaanite women were to his father Isaac; so he went to Ishmael and married Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Ishmael son of Abraham, in addition to the wives he already had.”

That is a lot of scripture, but I wanted to make sure you get the whole story. I have highlighted the last two verses because of the history concerning Ishmael. Ishmael is considered a patriarch of Islam. In Genesis chapter 16, Sarah suggests that Abraham should have a child with her slave Hagar, an Egyptian. While this may have seemed like a workable solution for Abraham and Sarah, it caused more problems than it solved.

    The angel of the Lord found Hagar in the desert and told her to return to Sarah. He then told her about her yet unborn son: “You are now pregnant and you will give birth to a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery. (Ishmael means “God hears.”) He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.” (Genesis 16:11-12) 

    And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation. But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year” (verses 19–21).

    Upon Abraham’s death, he left everything to Isaac. Genesis 25:12-18 lists the descendants of Ishmael. They are indeed numerous, divided into twelve tribes, and, as God had earlier revealed, “They lived in hostility toward all the tribes related to them” through Jacob. Islamic lore reports that Abraham took Hagar and Ishmael to Mecca, and Ishmael is considered a patriarch of Islam. While it is not accurate to say that all Arabs are descended from Ishmael, many probably are. There is still a great deal of strife between the descendants of Isaac and those who see Ishmael as their father to this very day. One wonders how things might have been different had Abraham simply trusted God to bring about His promise without any added “help” from Abraham and Sarah.

    As we can see, this principle of inheritance can be more important than we think. In today’s world, we can understand the importance of a will. It should never be assumed that things will work out as we would desire. Without a will, the courts decide the inheritance. It is also important to our children and our Grandchildren that we understand this principle.