#SalvationIsOnlyThruJesusChrist
The Third Eye Perspective:
By Carlos C. Brown
Thought For Today – “God Blesses Obedience”
How are you doing this morning, good I hope? Today’s message came to me as I was listening to one of my favorite online Pastors, Ron Carpenter. His message this morning was “The Blood Is Speaking.” (read Genesis 3 chapter). It deals with the incident that happened when Cain slew his brother Abel in the field, because God had accepted Abel’s sacrificial offering of a firstling of his sheep herd, but not Cain’s offering of crops. Cain became angry with Abel, because he THOUGHT that God liked Abel more, when in reality, Abel just gave God his BEST offering, as opposed to just a random offering. That is a whole sermon within itself right there! And AMEN definitely goes right here! What gave me my thought for today subject title is that very statement above, “God Blesses Obedience.” The message was, that although we don’t know what guidelines God had set forth with Cain and Abel, who by the way were Adam and Eve’s first two sons, but that God had to have laid out His expectation of what was acceptable in a sacrifice. Abel obeyed it, and thus in return received God’s approval and Blessings. However, Cain didn’t and his sacrifice was not accepted and therefore not Blessed. It is with this train of thought, or line of thinking, that it was placed on my heart this morning to talk about, “God Blesses Obedience.” And AMEN goes right here! Now in order for us to really dissect this thought about obedience resulting in being Blessed by God, I think it would be imperative for me to define that word so that we all know exactly what it means. If we were to look in the dictionary for the word “Obedience,” we would the following definition : “Compliance with an order request, or law or submission to another’s authority.” So now that we have a good solid foundation of what the word obedience means, let me dive deep into this message and break it down for you as best as I can today. Dear Heavenly Father, so good and so merciful to me, I come to you right now with a bowed down head and a very humbled heart. First and foremost asking that you forgive me for each and every sin, trespass against my fellow man, an also any of your commandments I’ve broken. I ask that you uplift me that I may always be a Spiritual Blessing to each and every person I meet, or come into contact with in my daily walk dear Lord. Help me to speak this message in such clarity and simplicity, so that each person reading it will understand the message being presented to them on Your behalf. I ask this in your sweet darling Son Jesus Christ’s name, and AMEN goes right here!
Now when we start talking about “obedience,” I’m sure a lot of you like me immediately had a flashback of your childhood upbringing as it applies to the word right? I know I did! I had a very quick flashback of all the “learnings, behavioral training, tune ups, whuppins, beat downs, etc...” I received from my dear mother in my early preteen and teen years. Things that nowadays would have a parent in jail pretty quick If they tried it. My mother was a very firm (too dang firm if you ask me) believer in Corporal Punishment as an obedience encourager. She was like a drill Sargent, in that she was only going to tell you ONCE to do something, and if you didn’t do it right then, the way she reminded you was with a little physical contact…..well in MY case there seemed to be A LOT of physical contact LOL! But just for all of you “grounding,” “go to your room”, and or “go stand in the corner” disciplinary type of parents, I thank God everyday that she was that hard on me! Why, because it taught me respect, obedience, about Jesus and The Lord (I called out for God’s help many times when I was getting a whuppin LOL), and most importantly that every action or in this case, non-action had a severe consequence. What if I were to tell you, that God is very similar to the type of governing that my mother was? Think about it, God has given us a set of standards, or a code of conduct and ethics we call “The Ten Commandments.” And just like my mother “Gladys aka Momma G.” if we break those rules of conduct, there are severe consequences. The only difference in the two, is that God forgives us when we asks for it after breaking one of His code of conducts, Momma G. didn’t LOL! She was going to “tear dat behind (for all the holier than thou readers of mine) up for disobeying! I can assure you, “behind” is not the word Momma G. would have used as she was applying her famous “physical contact” of corrective action learning. LOL! I can tell you from a very PERSONAL standpoint, if more parents took on even the slightest resemblance of my mom’s way of upbringing, you wouldn’t see hardly any of the things we see in our society today in the form of lack of respect for people and their property, lying, stealing, murdering, drug use, etc….Another difference in My mother’s way of thinking as it is compared to God’s, is that she didn’t believe in rewarding you for doing things you were supposed to do naturally, behave, do your chores, Worship and Praise God (we were in Church pretty much everytime the Church doors were open), go to school to learn and not disrupt or misbehave, respect her rules and other people as well as their property. However, God does tend to reward obedience with Blessings. I will provide you some examples of just what I mean from the Biblical times.
The first that comes to my mind would be the 2/3rds of Angels in Heaven who did NOT rebel along with Lucifer (aka Satan, aka The Devil). Because they continued to serve God and didn’t get mixed up in crossing over to the dark side of Lucifer, God Blessed them to remain in Heaven. He could have easily, lost hope in all of the Angels and kicked all of them out for fear that they might revolt too at some point in time in the future couldn’t He? I have to admit, I am still fascinated in the fact that a being (Angel) that God created to be “perfect” Worshippers and Praisers of Him and Heaven could ever turn on their creator. But then, I immediately think about us humans, because that is exactly what a lot of humans have done! Despite not being able to disprove that God created us, protects and watches over us, etc….there are people who actually still don’t believe in Him. The next person that comes to mind that falls under the category of “Being Blessed For Their Obedience To God,” would be Noah. Oh you remember Noah right? Most people would associate his name with the Great Ark, or the Great Flood of 40 days and 40 nights or constant rain. If you remember Noah, God spared him and his immediate family because they were very obedient and lived righteous. I have not been able to find anywhere in the Bible where it says that they were “perfect,” but that they lived Righteous! There is a HUGE difference in the two, trust me when I say that. The next person that jumps out at me would be Job. Now I know you remember Job, he is the one that lived his entire life worshipping God. Even when he lost everything, and I do mean everything, he never gave up his Faith in believing that God is “good all the time, and all the time God is good.” When God allowed Satan to go and temp Job by stealing all of his money, possessions, many flocks of animals, and barns, and even his 10 children, his Faith in God never wavered. How many of you reading this today could say that you could stay THAT loyal and Faithful to God if He allowed that to happen to you? However, because of Job’s Faithfulness and loyalty to God, he had double of everything he lost restored to him as a result of Satan doing. So you see my brothers and sisters, it is really easy if you think about it. Live by God’s Commandments and watch the Blessings start to rain down on you one after the other! Can I leave you with a question to ponder today if I may?
“Are YOU Living In Obedience To God? If Not, What Are You Waiting On?” Can I get an AMEN?
“Today, choose to “Ride or Die” with Jesus Christ! Afterall, isn’t that EXACTLY what He did for us on the Cross and Calvary?”
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