Failure to Yield

Failure to Yield - james mcdonald

"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness." - James 1:2-3

Do you remember when we used to have those yellow triangle yield signs at intersections? Have you seen one lately? Unlikely. The traffic police had to make them all into four-way stops. Why? Because we stink at yielding. Each person drives up to the corner and thinks, "Clearly it's my right to go and clearly he needs to yield." So we have an epidemic of traffic crashes because no one wants to yield.

More important than a crazy traffic sign, how good are you at yielding to God? Do you think, "Clearly, my way is better. If I go that way, that will take my life in a direction that isn't in my plan so I'm going to run the sign." Ever stop to think, "What if that way signals God’s plan of taking my life in a different direction?"

Hebrews 12:9 says, "Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?"

The Greek word for "be subject to" is hupopaso, translated "submission" in other places in the New Testament. It’s got a special twist in the original language, which means "submit yourself," as in, you’re the one who willingly makes this choice.

God wants you to yield to His direction by your own choice, willingly yielding yourself to God so that "the testing of your faith produces steadfastness" (James 1:3). Following Christ into unfamiliar territory binds your heart to Him. Trusting Him in uncertain situations will make you irreversibly devoted and committed to Jesus Christ.

Submission doesn't come easily in a culture of individuals. But the only way through is to yield to God. You're headed for a wreck, until you let Him go first. "This isn't where I thought my life would be today, but I'm going to yield. I'm stopping, God. You go. I'm going to fall in behind You." Let God have His way; yield to His purposes for your life.

In loving others.

To be Christ-like is to acknowledge Jesus in others. In my travels I meet many precious men and women whom I know are given wholly to the Lord. The moment I meet them, my heart leaps. Even though we’ve never met before, I have a witness from the Holy Spirit that they are full of Christ.

I can still see some of their faces: pastors, bishops, poor street evangelists. And the moment I met them, I realized without a word being spoken, “This man has been with Jesus. This woman is satisfied in Christ.” In greeting them, I always say the one thing I would want othes to say of me: “Brother, sister, I see Jesus in you.”
Christ-likeness has to do with how I treat those outside my family, loving others as he loves us. Yet it also means loving our enemies—those who hate us, who despitefully use us, who aren’t capable of loving us. And we’re to do this expecting nothing in return. Loving this way is impossible, in human terms. There aren’t any how-to books, any sets of principles, or any amount of human intelligence to show us how to love our enemies as Christ loved us. Yet we are commanded to do it. And we are to do it with an ever-increasing purpose.

So, how do we do it? How do I love the Muslim who spit in my face a block from our church? How do I love the people who run Internet websites calling me a false prophet? How do I love homosexuals who parade down Fifth Avenue carrying signs declaring, “Jesus Was Gay”? How do I truly love them in Christ? I don’t even know how to love other Christians in my own ability.
It has to be the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus prayed to the Father, “That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:26). Christ asks the Father to put his love in us. And he promises that the Holy Spirit will show us how to live out that love.
The Holy Ghost will faithfully gather up all the ways Christ loved others and show it to you (John 16:15). Indeed, the Spirit delights in showing us more of Jesus. It’s the reason he dwells in our bodily temples: to teach Christ to us. “Ye shall know him: for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you…He shall teach you all things” (John 14:17:26).

-David Wilkerson

Lord, teach me this kind of love. Clothe me in humility so that others may come to seek you.

Jeremiah 12:5 (New International Version)

God's Answer

5 "If you have raced with men on foot

and they have worn you out,

how can you compete with horses?

If you stumble in safe country, [a]

how will you manage in the thickets by [b] the Jordan?

If I don't choose to surrender, worship, love him now when it's all good and life is a cruise, how will I be able to do all those things when it gets difficult? How will I love people if I can't love them when I do wrong to them?

God, help me to stand when everyone sits. Help me to run when everyone is still. Help me to love when no one wants to.

4 ways to miss heaven - john macarthur

Truth is spoken out of love for the lost.

I advise all of you to read this.

4 ways to miss heaven.

A bit of what it contains

"These Jews were trying to earn salvation, like a lot of other folks. In all the world of religions of human achievement, all the religions of the world that attempt to earn salvation by human effort fall into the same category. They believe they had by their own works satisfied God's requirement, and thus they had achieved salvation, were headed for heaven. And the only place Jesus would go where they wouldn't be would be in Hades in some dark pit of hell belonging to those who kill themselves. So, you guarantee that you'll die in your sin by just being self-righteous. Just be certain that you're not a sinner. Just be certain that you don't need saving. Just invent a life style of religion that fits you. Don't admit you need a Savior. Don't pound on your breast and say, "God, be merciful to me a sinner." Trust your works, trust your religion, trust your rituals and I'll guarantee you you'll die in your sin."

"How do we have any difficulty understanding that this is the Christ whom we must believe? This is the truth and this is what Christians believe. If you don't believe that, you're not a Christian. You say, "Well what about people who believe in God?" They're not Christians, they will die in their sins. "Well what about the people that believe all of that about Jesus but also believe that they do have do some works...get baptized or do some ceremonies or keep some laws in order to add to their salvation?" They won't...they won't get to heaven either, they'll die in their sins and go eternally to hell. Why? Because they will not recognize that Christ alone and Christ completely is the sacrifice for sin to which nothing can be added. It is by grace through faith alone. And any attempt to add anything to it negates it, grace is no more grace. Anything you try to do to earn any part of your salvation misunderstands the sacrifice of Christ. And any misunderstanding of the meaning of Christ in His sacrifice is something less than the gospel. Believe it, Christianity or Christendom, as such, is full of people who have a lot of information about what I've just said regarding the gospel but who do not have that total trust in Jesus Christ alone being who He is and being the only and the complete sacrifice for sin, therefore trusting in nothing of their own efforts or works. Sad to say, many, many who name the name of Christ and say, "Lord, Lord, we did this, we did that," are not known to Him and will die in their sins and where He has gone they will never come."

"We use the word "world" in that way. We talk about the world of politics, the world of business, the world of medicine, the world of sports. What we mean by that is the environment or the sphere in which those things dominate. And there is a world in which we live as human beings, it is the organized system of satanic lies and deception raised up against the knowledge of God, Satan's system opposing Christ's. And in Luke 16:8 Jesus calls the unbelievers "children of the system." They buy into the ideology somewhere. The system is hostile to God, it's hostile to Christ, it is dominated by materialism. That is to say a preoccupation with that which passes away. It is dominated by humanism, the worship of man and the elevation of man's mind even to the place where he can redeem himself. It's dominated by sex, by physical fulfillment in pleasure, by carnal ambition, by pride, by greed, by self-pleasure, by self-desire. Its opinions are wrong. Its aims are selfish. Its pleasures of sinful. Its influence is demoralizing. Its politics are corrupt. Its honors are empty. Its smiles are fake. Its love is fickle, etc., etc. That's the world system. It is a lot of philosophies and psychologies and religions and ideologies that make up unregenerate, ungodly, unbiblical thinking. And it is a world that will be destroyed. The world and all that is in it will pass away, John said. And that's why he said in 1 John 2:15, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world; for anyone who loves the world can't love the Father; where there is the love of the world, the love of the Father doesn't exist."

"You want to die in your sins? Just continue in your course, just believe you're good enough the way you are. Just carry on with your love affair with human ideologies. Just refuse to believe the great truths concerning Christ. Love your sin so much that you choose the darkness and are willfully ignorant. But to do this you're going to have to stumble over the cross. That's right, you're going to have heartlessly, irreverently trample Christ's blood because you know the gospel. So you're going to have to stumble across the cross. Even this morning as we come to the Lord's table the cross is going to be demonstrated again and you're going to have to reject it again to continue the course you're in. Inconceivable, really, why will you die when you can live? Why will you not be like those many who believed and didn't want to die in their sin? Why will you not accept an atonement for your sin? That's the all encompassing question. And the answer is your self-righteous, you're good enough the way you are, you love the world too much, you refuse to believe or you love your sin and you cherish the darkness and the ignorance that comes with it. In any case, the price is eternal."

gosh, I need to pray for my friends and my coworkers and everyone i just pass by.

=_=.

a lesson to be learned.

Pastor Ricky Jones' message

Passionate Grace.