GOD is T H E ONLY way!!!
Well here I am trying to prepare for our Friday night bible study. I am having a hard time concentrating. So I start praying, asking God for insight into his scripture. I really should be working on my bible study, however God has other plans for me right now. As I was praying and asking God to forgive my sins, and asking God for insight into his word. He gave me a revelation. Interesting since the passage we are studying in Zechariah 11:15-17
The LORD said to me, "Take again for yourself the equipment of a foolish shepherd. (Zechariah 11:15)
"For behold, I am going to raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for the perishing, seek the scattered, heal the broken, or sustain the one standing, but will devour the flesh of the fat sheep and tear off their hoofs. (Zechariah 11:16)
"Woe to the worthless shepherd Who leaves the flock! A sword will be on his arm And on his right eye! His arm will be totally withered And his right eye will be blind." (Zechariah 11:17)
leads me to John 5:39-43
39 "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; 40 and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life. 41 "I do not receive glory from men; 42 but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves. 43 "I have come in My Father's name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, you will receive him.
Which lead me to revelations 13: 1-10
And the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore. Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous names. 2 And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority. 3 I saw one of his heads as if it had been slain, and his fatal wound was healed. And the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast; 4 they worshiped the dragon because he gave his authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, "Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him?" 5 There was given to him a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies, and authority to act for forty-two months was given to him. 6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle, that is, those who dwell in heaven. 7 It was also given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him. 8 All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain. 9 If anyone has an ear, let him hear. 10 If anyone is destined for captivity, to captivity he goes; if anyone kills with the sword, with the sword he must be killed. Here is the perseverance and the faith of the saints.
The people accepted the beast but they rejected Christ. I am at a time in my life where Jesus has asked me to go into Salvation Army Officership. I have known about this calling since I was 14 years old. I withdrew from God and from the church after I graduated High School and I did what I wanted to do. The results were disastrous. I came back to The Salvation Army in 1998 to The Fort Collins Corps in Colorado, USA. I knew I needed to dedicate myself to God so I spent the first five years at The Fort Collins Corps battling pornography, trying to do what was good but slipping time and time again. Not giving 100% of myself to God. Then one day two year ago in Mar. 2003 GOD took pornography out of my life. I gave myself 100% to God and planted myself in his word. Since then I have had to battle pride, self will, and my own ambition. Looking for the things I wanted instead of what GOD wanted me to do.
I now stand before you a victorious Christian, dedicated to Gods word and doing what God wants me to do. You see as I was preparing for this bible study God spoke to me and gave me a revelation. God wants me to go and be a Salvation Army Officer This next year in 2006. The time has come says the lord. So here I am writing what was told to me by God. You see my family is currently $55,000 in debt and $23,000 of that is school debt I could take with me into training school, though I would not want to. God has asked me to be obedient and send out catalogs as a fund raiser to pay off my debt, so that I may serve God my lord and savior as A Salvation Army Officer.
God willing I will be making an investment of $5 a catalog and distributing them to every corps in the western territory. Stepping out in faith that God will take care of the rest. I had to stop what I was doing and share this with everyone who reads this blog. I will be talking about this plan with my corps officer and hopefully with the DC, and the DYS of the Intermountain division. Please pray for me and my family as I know satan will try and destroy this action to get my debt paid off this year. Please pray and take into consideration whether or not you would also like to stand beside me and my family and help us get to training school.
Do not ask me why this is coming now at a time like this I have no Idea. I am being faithfully to what God has told me.
Blessings my friends.
Shane Miller
posted by Shane A. Miller @ 2:09 PM
4 Comments:
After obedience—what?
And straightway He constrained His disciples to get into the ship, and to go to the other side. . . . Mark 6:45-52.
We are apt to imagine that if Jesus Christ constrains us, and we obey Him, He will lead us to great success. We must never put our dreams of success as God’s purpose for us; His purpose may be exactly the opposite. We have an idea that God is leading us to a particular end, a desired goal; He is not. The question of getting to a particular end is a mere incident. What we call the process, God calls the end.
What is my dream of God’s purpose? His purpose is that I depend on Him and on His power now. If I can stay in the middle of the turmoil calm and unperplexed, that is the end of the purpose of God. God is not working towards a particular finish; His end is the process—that I see Him walking on the waves, no shore in sight, no success, no goal, just the absolute certainty that it is all right because I see Him walking on the sea. It is the process, not the end, which is glorifying to God.
God’s training is for now, not presently. His purpose is for this minute, not for something in the future. We have nothing to do with the afterwards of obedience; we get wrong when we think of the afterwards. What men call training and preparation, God calls the end.
God’s end is to enable me to see that He can walk on the chaos of my life just now. If we have a further end in view, we do not pay sufficient attention to the immediate present; but if we realize that obedience is the end, then each moment as it comes is precious.
Chambers, O. (1993, c1935). My utmost for his highest : Selections for the year (July 28). Grand Rapids, MI: Discovery House Publishers.
In answer to your question (emailed): Read the scripture verses referred to and think about them and how he has applied it. Look at the description of the disciples' activities. Do you see yourself there sometimes? And then ask yourself, what was the most important thing that happened? Was it that they reached Bethsaida? Or did something else more important happen on the way?
This post includes two meditations on "Calling". The links will take you to the originals,
"Confirmation is the process by which a man’s subjective sense of call is objectively validated by biblically sanctioned authority using biblically appropriate criteria. Confirmation is not simply the personal conviction that one is called, but a process of evaluation whereby God’s call is revealed to the man and made evident to those around him and over him...The life of Paul, of course, exemplifies this process of an internal call, followed by preparation, followed by an external confirmation. First, Paul encounters Christ in a spectacular way on the road to Damascus, and God speaks to him about his call and future (Ac 9:6, 15–16). Yet we don’t see Paul sent out until four chapters later, when considerable time has passed (Ac 13:1–3). When Paul is confirmed into ministry, it is by the Holy Spirit at work through the local eldership to which Paul was submitted. “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them” (Ac 13:2). Note two things in this seminal example. First, neither Saul nor Barnabas sent themselves. Their ministry was set apart, not personally launched. Second, both Saul and Barnabas positioned themselves to be known, evaluated, and equipped under Godordained leadership. They weren’t free-agent apostles looking for sponsors or “ministry partners.” Their prior activity was largely in preparation and in service to the church where they belonged...Oswald Sanders asked, “Should it not be the office that seeks the man, rather than the man the office?”46 The church’s role in confirming the call protects the office of ministry from the ambitions of men. But it is meant to do more than that. External confirmation gives a man confidence that he is not deceiving himself regarding his qualifications for ministry. It allows him to step into the authority of his office having already proved himself, thus freeing him to do the work of ministry rather than the work of campaigning for the allegiance of the people."
Or as Oswald Chambers put it, "We have an idea that God is leading us to a particular end, a desired goal; He is not. The question of getting to a particular end is a mere incident. What we call the process, God calls the end."
Just a little more (after all it is a 51 page PDF):
"The wise servant recognizes that preparation is neither a waste of time nor a threshold to be crossed. It’s a way of life, no matter where we are in the process.
These tests of process are born of biblical wisdom and experience. At bottom, they do one simple thing. They keep us on the path of righteousness, so we can leave the destination to God. A calling to ministry is funny that way. You arrive there by pursuing other, more important goals."
Or, again, "The question of getting to a particular end is a mere incident. What we call the process, God calls the end."
Post a Comment
<< Home