Can God say no?

“After Nathan had gone home, the LORD struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became ill.  
David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and went into his house and spent the nights lying on the ground.  
The elders of his household stood beside him to get him up from the ground, but he refused, and he would not eat any food with them. 
On the seventh day the child died. David’s servants were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they thought, “While the child was still living, we spoke to David but he would not listen to us. How can we tell him the child is dead? He may do something desperate.” 
David noticed that his servants were whispering among themselves and he realized the child was dead. “Is the child dead?” he asked. “Yes,” they replied, “he is dead.” 
Then David got up from the ground. After he had washed, put on lotions and changed his clothes, he went into the house of the LORD and worshiped. Then he went to his own house, and at his request they served him food, and he ate.” 
                                                                        2 Samuel 12:15-20
I listened to a pastor not too long ago that said God always wants us to be healthy. I agree with that.
I think a loving God like any normal earthly parent wants their children to be healthy.
Unfortunately the pastor went on to say God will never refuse your request for anything.
This can’t be further from the truth. God does say no, again like any other normal earthly parent would. The above scripture proves that.
God said no to king David’s prayers when it came to the healing of his child with Uriah’s wife.
God also said no to Jesus. Matthew records,
“Going a little farther, he (Jesus)  fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” 
                                                                                                          Matthew 26:39.
God does say no. He knows what we can handle and allows us to go through many things we don’t necessarily want to go through.
I think we as believers and being human, cannot see the eternal reasons God allows us to go through something.
The child David prayed for, for example.
We have no idea what his living would do to the world around him.
Had he lived he may have come in conflict with Solomon the child David fathered after him (2 Samuel 12:24).
Instead God chose to call the child home to a much better place.
In the case of Jesus, his purpose in coming to the earth was to die for the sins of mankind. A fate he willingly accepted when God said no.
So the point here is that God does say no. He will not answer all our prayers in the way we want them answered.
God knows what is best for us. And if we are truly committed to God we must be willing to say as Jesus said “Yet not as I will, but as you will”
Think about it.

Draw near

Read Hebrews 10

let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith,

 having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience

 and our bodies washed with pure water.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering,

 for He who promised is faithful.

And let us consider one another

 in order to stir up love and good works,

not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together,

 as is the manner of some,

 but exhorting one another,

 and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

                                                                                                           Hebrews 10:22-25
This chapter of Hebrews covers a wide range of things.  It tells us, that the sacrifice of animals is insufficient.  That Christ’s death perfects the sanctified and the just by faith.
In the middle of it all, verses 22 to 25 makes the statement:
1. “let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith
2. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering,
3. let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good work
4. not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together.”
We all have a need to draw close to God with a true heart.  We need to hold onto what we believe.  In order to know what we believe we need to study the Word of God.
We also need a free flow of ideas and to know there are others out there, that believe as we do.  We can only do this, if we come together as a body.
We may disagree with one another on various things, but that should not stop us from coming together as believers to worship and serve God.
We need to be encouraging one another to keep on going, until the return of Christ. To evangelize, to teach, and to grow in Christ.
Due to our need to earn a living and tend to the basic necessities of life, the majority of us, cannot this side of heaven spend the majority of our time in church or among believers.  Still, we should want to.
Our passion should be to serve God in whatever way He would use us.  We should also have a yearning to be around God’s people to praise God with them.  To learn and simply fellowship with them.
Something to think about:
We need to get passionate for God and let Him use us.  “Forsake not the assembling of yourself,” But let’s not limit that to church, let’s get together at various places, and invite unsaved friends and neighbours as well as Christians to the meeting.
Perhaps take a none Christian with some other believers to a sports event, movie, theatre or other event.
What have you to loose. At the very least in doing so you’ve had a good time and planted a seed for Christ.

Do not show partiality

Read James 2

"My brethren, do not hold the faith of our LORD Jesus Christ, the LORD of glory,

 with partiality.

For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, 

and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, 

and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him,

 “You sit here in a good place,”

 and say to the poor man, 

“You stand there,” or “Sit here at my footstool,”

have you not shown partiality among yourselves,

 and become  judges with evil thoughts?

Listen, my beloved brethren:

 Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith

 and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?

But you have dishonoured the poor man.

  Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts?

Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called?

If you have really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, 

“You shall love your neighbour as yourself, 

you do well:

but if you show partiality, 

you commit sin,

 and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

For whoever shall keep the whole law; and yet stumble in one point, 

he is guilty of all."

                                                                          James 2:1-10

We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal...” a quote from the constitution of the United States of America.
Long before that was written this truth was written down in Scripture.  These ideals were not only expressed in the New Testament, but are also expressed in the Old Testament also.
We have a God who sees the person’s heart, not what is on the outside.
Just because someone enters the church in expensive clothing, doesn’t mean that their heart is clean before God.
All too often, some of the biggest thieves in our society were wealthy.  Sadly, all too often, a person dressed poorly is judged to be lazy or bad.
What James is making clear here is, we are not to show partiality in anything: to people in the church, especially, because of their financial status. He harkens back to Matthew 7:1,2

‘Judge not, that you be not judged,

“For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged, 

and with the measure you 

use it will be measured back to you.

Something to think about
Jesus states the greatest commandment is to love God and the second is,

“You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’

                                                                                                    Matthew 22:39
James reminds us if we show partiality we sin.
Do you judge a person by the clothes they wear, the way there hair is done, the size they are, the way they smell?
How would you feel if someone with a blue Mohawk haircut wearing a studded leather jacket, jack boots, with a bad body odour came into your church and sat beside you?
Think about it.

On Being Christian

Read John Chapter 11

"Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany,

 the town of Mary and her sister Martha.

It was that Mary who anointed the LORD with fragrant oil 

and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.

Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, “LORD, behold, he whom You love is sick.”

When Jesus heard that, He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God,

 that the Son of God maybe glorified through it.”

Now Martha said to Jesus, “LORD, 

if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”

“But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.”

Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

Jesus said to her,

 “I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in Me,

 though he may die, he shall live.

“And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.  Do you believe this?”

She said to Him,

 “Yes, LORD, I believe that You are the Christ, 

the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

                                                                                                           John 11:1-4, 21-27
This is a chapter in contrast.  Martha shows her faith in Jesus, she believes He is the Son of God.  The Messiah prophesied about by the Old Testament prophets.
Jesus states clearly that he is “the resurrection and the life, and He proves it by raising Lazarus from the dead, after he’d been buried.
The religious leaders of the time recognized that Jesus has done many signs, but refused to recognize the evidence before them.  Instead, they are worried about Rome’s reaction.
“Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, “What shall we do?  For this Man works many signs.  If we let Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him, and everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation.”  John 11:47,48.
It seems as though politicians (and the scribes and Pharisees were religious politicians) never change.
All too many politicians, who claim to be Christians, don’t fear God.  Instead, they fear losing their position or status because of their beliefs.  They follow what is politically expedient. They only pay lip service to being a Christian.Something to think about
Politicians are not alone.  There are many business men, workers and other people out there, who refuse to take their stand in public out of fear of losing their position, their family and friends.
Christianity is a way of life. If we truly love God then our lifestyle should reflect Christ. People should know we are Christian without us saying a word.
Does your lifestyle tell people you’re a Christian?

He who Loves Christ

Read Matthew 10

“He who loves his father or mother more than Me

is not worthy of Me.

And he who loves son or daughter more than Me

is not worthy of Me.

“And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me

is not worthy of Me.

“He who finds his life will lose it,

and he who loses his life for My sake

will find it.

“He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.”

                                                                                                                              Matthew 10:36-40
“He who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me.”  
Quite the statement.
Jesus in this paragraph is sending out His disciples.  He is telling them what to expect, He lays everything on the line.  He makes it clear that what He is and what He is teaching is controversial.
He also makes it very clear, they have to make up their minds who they will serve.  
  Jesus states clearly,

“He who loves his father or mother more than Me

 is not worthy of Me. 

 And he who loves son or daughter more than Me

 is not worthy of Me.”  

We may have to chose between our family and God.
In North America, we rarely hear of such a thing happening, but in some cultures coming to know Christ gets you cast out of the family, at the very least.
It could get you put in jail or even put to death.
We here in North American and the western world are blessed at this moment in time.  We have freedom to worship and even if our families may disagree with us, they usually accept us.
In many ways, that freedom is a double-edged sword, because we may not take our commitment to Christ seriously enough.  Tending to give Him second best in our lives.
There are times in our lives when we have to skip a church service or event for the sake of a family event, but such events should I believe be rare.  
Generally most family events come at times late enough for us to catch morning church service. We should if at all possible attend at least one Sunday service even when we are away from our home church.
There are times when our job gets in the way. But if it starts getting in the way too much we should reconsider where we are working?
I know, I work for myself and because I’m in children’s entertainment most of my work is on weekends, Saturday or Sunday.
I however am fortunate in that most of the time I  can arrange our Sunday work to fall between services at our home church.
On the rare times I can’t I listen to a service on television or radio. Taping a service if necessary.
I strongly feel Christ should be number one in our lives. .
Something to think about:
We must love Christ so much, that it shows to the world around us in word and deed.  Our life must be in Christ, and revolve around Him,”
How dedicated to Christ is your life?