FEMI AWODELE'S HOUSE CALL

Femi AwodeleThursday, March 27, 2014
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BIBLICAL PRINCIPLES AND LIFE APPLICATION XLV:
CREATED TO GLORIFY


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he wife and I are “Everybody loves Raymond” rerun junkies (never saw the original run), on one of the episodes, the little daughter ask her da (Ray), why are we in this world, and that led to 22 minutes of Hollywood writers and actors trying to explain why we are in this world – obviously they did a lousy job (one of those times you yell or speak to your TV?). After the episode, I ask myself if one of my kids should ask the same question, can I really answer the question, at least to the best of my ability, knowing that I don’t have answer for everything (if you’ve been in a conference where I spoke, you’ll know I say when I don’t know or give my own opinion).

My personal research on why we are created led to the following conclusion; we were created to Worship (see Romans 12:1) and for our lives to Glorify God – our Father in heaven (John 15: 8). I believe I wrote on this at that time, with this article however, I’ll like to zero in, on being created to bring Glory our Father that is in heaven.

As I researched the word Glory, I discovered the Hebrew word is “Kabowd” (meaning ascribing honor, splendor, dignity, reputation and reverence) and the Greek word is “Doxa” (meaning ascribing majesty, magnificence, excellence, dignity and splendor), I came to the conclusion, that human words cannot do justice to what the Glory of God really mean, however, we have words to give us an idea or imagination. When we read about God in His glory moving by and Moses catching a glimpse and his (Moses) face, become glitzy, that gives us a powerful word picture of God’s glory (see Exodus 33).

The essence of creation before the fall was for us to Worship God, worship here does not simply mean praise and slow song time, rather yielding our being (every part or role we play) to our creator, and allowing Him to lead. God in turn, gave us dominion over every other creation and every created thing.

Sin brought a totally different dimension to the initial plan at creation, no longer would we worship totally surrendered, we now have a realization of good and bad, we now have the clouding of our intellect and emotion challenging that which God tells us, and the worst of all, sin separates us from direct access to the throne room of God, what we now call natural is no longer God’s perfect natural. As a temporary measure God gave us laws and the atonement of animal (as sacrifices – without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin) to serve as temporary access, until the blood of the Lamb (Jesus Christ) became the once and for all atonement through which we (those who’ve accepted Christ as Savior and Lord) now have un-abashed/un-hindered access (in holiness) to God’s throne room.

Since the fall, God also put laws into effect through which our sinful world is now governed; He God uses other humans’ individuals and institutions, such as government and the church, to carry out justice and reward. He also uses humans to bless each other, in the bible we read of God using what I’ll call God-Incidences, Philip miraculously showing up to the Ethiopian Eunuch, Apostle Peter showing up in the house of Cornelius, Prophet Nathan warning and confronting king David, little Samuel warning Prophet Eli and lots more in the Bible.

In the New Covenant brokered through the death and resurrection of Christ on the Cross, Jesus was very clear about God using us as humans to bless others so He can get the Glory. In John 15 verses 1 to 8, Jesus compared Himself to a tree stem (also known as Vine), He compared God the Father to a Gardner that trims for more growth, and compares humans to branches, whose sole assignment is to remain in the True Vine, after which the branch would then bear fruit, that when eating by other humans and they like it, will not only bring them into the kingdom but they’ll glorify our Father [God the Father] in heaven. Apostle James among many inspired to write the Holy Bible also wrote about God using humans to meet the need of other humans, in verse 20 of James chapter 2 , he said “…faith without Deeds is useless” (KJV - faith without works is dead).

Without going into too much eschatology, we are in a dispensation where God is dealing with our world through the body of Christ and the mighty hand of the Holy Spirit (there will be a time when both – the church and the Holy Spirit will be taking from the earth). In this dispensation, God has put things in place, such as “Sowing and Reaping”, “Measure of Faith”, “Indwelling of the Holy Spirit”, for our world to flow, and He uses us to meet each other’s need, we see a display of these in the early church, and all over the world today. We’ve all been called to fulfill certain assignments, Samson to begin the elimination of Philistines, David to complete it, Joseph born to save the world as a leader in a foreign land, Moses born to be the deliverer of Israel from Egypt, Esther given an unparalleled beauty simply to be in the right place at the right time, and Saul was born and educated so he can reach the gentiles (at the place of their need) with the gospel (good news) of Christ.

Each one of us have been born and gifted (embedded in our DNA – based on our family of origin chromosomes) with talents that are in-line with the assignment or our purpose here on earth, but first we must be grafted into the True Vine (Olive Tree – representing Christ) so we can receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, that helps us Worship and empowers us to produce FRUIT that Glorify our Father in heaven. There is no short-cut to producing FRUIT of the Spirit, and there is no other agenda for why we produce Fruit, other than for our Father in heaven to receive Glory based on our obedience. Unfortunately, Satan has infiltrated the body of Christ and there are false teachings, one that says you can bear Fruit without being grafted into the True Vine (born-again) – it is often called “Humanism”, another that says – put SELF first, you should get “some” glory (financial, fame, wealth etc.) here in this world, not only in heaven, for your hard work, not God meeting your need based on assignment as scripture promises over and over again. These false teachings have created a drive or motivation for godly (religious) things but without the power thereof.

Every human is influenced by both our Nature and Nurture; in my opinion our nature is both “Biological” and “Spiritual”. The biological nature are the chromosomes (DNA) that determines among other things, physical features and personalities, our spiritual nature is the sinful (default to Self) nature we inherited from Adam and Eve (Victorian folks would call it Adamic nature) – Christ provided the way out from our sinful nature (even though we’ll never get rid of it, in this world). Our Nurture is how we’ve been raised based on the values and cultures of our family of origin, the anthropological views of our communities (friends, neighbors, churches etc.) and other external things that influence our behaviors.

Apostle Paul is naturally an aggressive person with a very high IQ, taught and raised among the best in the community he lived in, he brought his talent to bear persecuting what he saw as a new sect, until Jesus Himself changed the course of his (Saul to Paul) life. Mary Sclessor was a passive-aggressive but strong-willed Irish girl who loved the Lord, upon hearing the testimony of David Livingstone about the Africans who serve an unknown God, she left comfort for discomfort, losing her fiancée (never married) and dying at a young age, but not before making a huge impact in Africa that is read in world history today. Enoch Adeboye is a passive but very assertive (knew what he wanted) young man, who though born poor, did what he had to do to go to school in-spite of all odds, this personality along with high IQ (you don’t get a PhD in math without being book smart) and God’s direction has served him well in his assignment.

The three people (2 long gone from the world and 1 still living) are not perfect humans, rather they are willing vessels with flaws but with amazing assignments that brought (still bring) glory to God, they knew it and did their best never to share glory with God. The history of the church would never be complete without Saul of Tarsus later Apostle Paul, his 3 missionary journeys through the then known world, his intellectual argument with scribes on the supremacy of Christ and Him as the Messiah, the evidence in miracles throughout his ministry, yet Paul continually ensure that none of the glory came to him but to Christ, that on one occasion he was stoned to death for rejecting an accolade humans were ascribing to him (see Acts 14). Pastor Adeboye is on record (a few times) sharing the warning God gave him while he was prayer-walking along a beach, before the ministry assignment took off the way it has in the last decade – he said God had him draw a figurine in the shape of a human, and then erase it with his leg, with the instruction, if you dare share my glory, that is how I’ll erase you – pretty frightening.

As the humanist movement (both secular and religious) via the kingdom of darkness, have taking over the institutions of our generation, from religious, to education, to media and entertainment, to whatever, a lot of emphasis is now on SELF (albeit subtle), no longer do we do anything with the right hand and the left hand is clueless, now we want awards, we want recognition – I was even told some Christian speaker don’t allow their speeches recorded for copyright purposes, when the whole aim is the exponential sharing of Christ, His kingdom and His Righteousness. Some of the glory sharing is subtle, disguised as honoring the “man of God”; some is deeply rooted in culture and traditions we’ve brought into Christianity and need to get rid of. Please note that Apostle Paul commanded respect due his office, but he ensured that the people know that he was another flawed human like them who exist only by the Grace of God.

Human sin nature has led to the development or evolution of cultures around the world, in cultures with monarchy (kings/queens/princes etc.) – glorifying human is often second nature, for many with Animist background where intermediary gods are worshipped – glorifying humans is also second nature. In modern era, psychology (study of human behavioral pattern) has also indicated that glorification of humans is a huge sinful nature pattern, hence the “celebrity culture” where popular people are used to sell products and raise funds (leading to building public images that are unreal), it is unfortunate that the church has imbibed this culture. Award ceremonies is part of the overall glorification (not opposed to award that encourages).

With all these surrounding us and with the battle of our sinful nature and God’s Spirit within us, we as True Believers battle with taking or sharing Glory with God (this is a thin-line that I can’t define myself, but see when it’s crossed), in my opinion when we set up titles/positions that intimidate (not simple administrative offices) or set up protocols that separates us (leaders) from the people we are called to shepherd, something does not seem right ethically. I would let God be the final Judge of what sharing Glory with Him really looks like, but my writing is about each one of us (myself included) ensuring that as we are used to bear Fruit that brings Glory to Him, that we consciously be a traffic warder who direct traffic to Christ, not bring any attention to ourselves.

I’ll end this article with a story told by Pastor Paris Reidhead in his famous sermon “ten shekels and a shirt”

Two young Moravians heard of an island in the West Indies where an atheist British owner had 2000 to 3000 slaves, and the owner had said, “no preacher, no clergyman, will ever stay on this island. If he’s ship wrecked, we’ll keep him in a separate house until he has to leave, but he’s never going to talk to any of us about God, I’m through with all that nonsense”

These two young Moravians sold themselves to the British planter and used the money they received from their sale, to pay their passage out to his island (he took the exact amount he pays for slaves from them). As the ship left its’ pier in the river at Hamburg and was going out into the North Sea carried by the tide, many Moravians had come to see these two lads (in their twenties) off, never to return again, for they sold themselves into lifetime of slavery, simply that as slaves, they could be Christians were there were none. The families there were weeping, knowing they won’t see them again, and questioned the wisdom of the young lads.

As the gap widened between the ship and the pier, one of the lads linked his arm with his other fellow, raised their hands and shouted “May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His suffering” these words later became the call to mission for Moravians.

May the Lamb [Jesus Christ] that was slain receive the reward of His suffering based on our obedience, may we not be too conceited to take the Father’s glory, rather may our Father in heaven receive all due Glory for His purpose being fulfilled in/through our lives.

Remain Blessed

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