Personal Ambition Dressed up as Ministry?

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Sometimes we switch our personal ambitions (even our lusts) for religious/church ones.  We have not given them up, we just put church clothes on them and speak of them using religious jargon.  But they are still our ambitions (not God’s) and we are still in bondage to them.

So I say, give up your religious dreams that may be in reality, your own desires for personal gratification, affirmation, and a sense of accomplishment.  Renounce the right to accomplish these.  That is what dead people do – except they do it involuntarily.  You, however must do it willingly as a living sacrifice.

Sometimes you have to give up the right to have the rights others seem to have.  Life is not fair – and thank God for that.  Because if life were fair you would be in prison, the grave, or living in torment. 

Trusting My Father

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When I was praying yesterday morning, I began to remember that there is a sign between My Heavenly Father and I that proves I am one of His people. 

2 Corinthians 1:21-22   Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.
Ephesians 1:13   In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Ephesians 4:30   And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

I not only have a seal (The Holy Ghost), but The Lord and I have a special sign.  Whenever you have a special sign between two people others may see it but may not know what it means. 

Exodus 13:1-10 says that I have a sign on my hand and between my eyes when I keep The Passover and The Feast of Unleavened Bread.  It is also a sign between God and I when we keep His Sabbaths (which include all His feast days as well as the seventh day Sabbath) . 

Exodus 31:12-18   Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you … It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.
Ezekiel 20:11-13   … Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD that sanctify them…
Ezekiel 20:19-20   I am the LORD your God; walk in my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; And hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the LORD your God.

So just because God is merciful and rains on the just as well as the unjust Matt 5:44-48 does not mean these people have a special place with God above or closer than we who keep the Lord’s Sabbaths.  So just like a father whose career or calling it is to help save troubled youth, that father’s children should not be resentful or jealous of those youth because he is only doing acts of mercy, his calling, or even his job.  Even though there is a passion and calling to help those children that are not biologically related to him, there is always a deeper and unbreakable bond between the father and his own children.  And if the father had to choose between being able to help the unrelated troubled youth and his own child, he will always choose his child whom He loves like no one else.  If need be, that father will leave those troubled youth – though there be many – to spend day and night at the hospital with his sick child.  But he will never abandon his own child in need to help those other children who may also be in need.  At least not a true father who really loves his child.

So don’t be jealous when God blesses others who are not seeking him or obeying Him to the extent that you are.  Don’t feel cheated when he pursues with lovingkindness Jer 31:3 and mercy Rom 2:4 those whom He is trying to draw.  It is all a part of the wonderful character of God.  After all – it is because of The Lord’s mercies that they are not consumed Lam 3:22.  And perhaps it is because of your prayers for them as well.  It is the goodness of God that brings anyone to repentance.

Remember who you are in God and what you mean to Him.  You are special to Him.  You have a special place in God that those who  settle for a form of religion, could never have.  Your name is written on His hand Isa 49:16.  You are that special to Him.

So just appreciate the mercy of God and do not become jealous because of it.  After all, it served you well one day.  And truth be told, it still does.