FROM THE SERVANT GENERAL
OUR THEME FOR 2021
(Part 27)
OBEYING GOD
July 1, 2021
Today’s readings:
Genesis 22:1-19
Psalm 115:1-9
Matthew 9:1-8
The testing of Abraham provides us timely lessons with regard to our own life and mission.
First, it is in obeying God that we are blessed. God says to Abraham, “in your descendants all the nations of the earth will find blessing, because you obeyed my command.” (Gn 11:18).
- Our theme verse this year (Acts 13:47) says that the Lord commands us to be instruments of His salvation. This is our mission and this is something we must do.
- This Genesis verse references our very name MFC. If we obey God, then we are of Christ. If we obey God, then our families, our children and children’s children, all the way down through the generations, will be blessed. If we obey God and do what He commands—to be light to the world—then we will be evangelistic and missionary.
- Our mission is worldwide, in obedience to the Great Commission to proclaim the gospel to every creature and to make disciples of all the nations. This work of the Church is the only way by which the whole world will be blessed.
Second, God and His work, manifested by our obedience to His commands, are our first, greatest and highest priority. It is not family, important as family is. Abraham was going to sacrifice his only son Isaac because God told him to do so. Isaac was his beloved son in his old age, a miracle from God. And Isaac was to be the fulfillment of God’s promise that he would be the father of many nations. Abraham was willing, surely with great sadness, to set aside all that was of utmost importance to him, in order to be obedient to God.
Third, God does test us. We oftentimes cannot understand why, as we have already given our lives to Him, He still allows bad things to happen to us. Why is this a pattern with God? It happened with Job, with the prophets, with Paul, with the apostles, with the saints through the ages. Well, it is easy enough to love and follow Jesus when things are going well. But the real test is when things are going badly (or so it seems). Will be still remain faithful and obedient?
Today however, there is confusion in what God commands. This is due to modernism and the entry of the enemy into our Church. Does God command us to love the sinner and just accept him and his sin? Does God command us to welcome and embrace everyone, even loving our enemies, and so give Communion to unrepentant sinners?
In order to discern, we simply know that again, God is our basic priority. This means His righteousness. The healing of the paralytic is instructive. Modernists today look to the well-being of man, but neglect the righteousness of God (as in just accepting active homosexuals without addressing their sin because it is offensive). Their intention might be good, as was the case with the people who brought the paralytic to Jesus. So Jesus, being the loving and caring person that he is, cured him immediately, right? No. What Jesus did was to forgive his sin, and then he made him walk. What was important was the situation of his soul, and not so much his body.
Further, with the focus of modernists today, the human needs might be addressed, but often at the risk of the loss of their souls. When grave sinners are just embraced and accompanied, without talking of their sin, then they are affirmed in their sin and so have no incentive to change. On the other hand, when the spiritual state of a person is first addressed, the natural blessings follow, as God looks to one’s wholeness in mind, body and spirit.
And so as MFC, we pursue our mission out of love for Jesus and out of obedience to God. We evangelize and thus engage in spiritual warfare as holy warriors. We battle the evil one, the darkened world with its human powers, and the enemy within. We can only win if we are with God, and God is with us. God is with us as we obey Him. In this spiritual war, God is the One who protects, aids, guides and empowers us. We put our trust in Jesus. “The house of Israel trusts in the Lord, who is their help and shield.” (Ps 115:9).
