Hearing the Lord Through Non Believers and the Joy of the Lord

Let me start with telling you I want to keep this blog short.  I will follow it up with knowing I want to go down two very different trails because of the story.  I guess I don't know where this blog will end.  With that I will begin writing on the fly!

The other day I was at a gathering with several church leaders and church workers and a non believer.  A conversation arose about doing too much.  The non believer was telling this person they were doing too much and the other persons response was they will keep doing what they feel the Lord telling them though they may get a little grumpy.  From there we had a little joke but the topic died down.

Andrea and I were alone for a few minutes yesterday and the topic came up.  I would like to point out that both of us thought about that moment and both of us had the same conclusion...  The Lord was speaking through this non-believer.  This person had a word from the Lord for all of us and we failed to hear it because they weren't following the Lord.  As believers we tend to feel superior in such conversations and are too easily positioned to miss Father speaking to us.  For this I have a simple solution.  As believers we need to slow down and be ready to hear Father in everything.  Think if we were doing that, we may have been able, at that moment to agree with the Lord, validate the non-believer speaking to us through Him, and then have an open door opportunity to repent for ourselves and share the gospel.

The next point is not so simple to address, but it is the very point of this persons rebuke to us and the other persons response to the rebuke.  Often as believers we get caught up in the work.  Sometimes we get overwhelmed.  The Lord reminded me of a few things that I want to address.

In Luke 10:38-42 we find the story of Jesus visiting Mary and Martha.  As they relax Martha is running around doing all of the work while Mary is sitting at Jesus' feet.  Martha finally has enough and asks Jesus to tell Mary to help her work.  Jesus, instead of agreeing that Martha is doing too much and that Mary should help her, tells Martha that Mary has made a wise choice in sitting at His feet.   This is an important passage for several reasons:
1. Margin.  We need to take the time to fill our life with Jesus.
2. Work.  If we are grumbling about the work, we are missing something.  That something was just mentioned above.  We need to take time to fill our life with Jesus.  Doing the work is not getting us closer to Him.  We were saved by grace.  James also has a good point about us if we do this:
Jam 4:11  Do not speak against one another, brothers. He who speaks against his brother, and who judges his brother, speaks against the Law and judges the Law. But if you judge the Law, you are not a doer of the Law, but a judge.
Jam 4:12  There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you who judges another?

I will let God's word speak for itself on this one and be silent myself as I am one who stands convicted on this.

I could go on for hours right here about the work of God and the rottenness of us believers who do it and complain about it.  I will try to be brief, but I feel a storm brewing on my keyboard. 

Mat 11:28  Come to Me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Mat 11:29  Take My yoke on you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest to your souls.
Mat 11:30  For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.

This is a very important passage.  It is important for anyone who is doing what they feel the Lord telling them to do (ie home school, church work, parenting, working in commerce, LIFE IN GENERAL) and then complaining about it.  IF you fall into one of those categories like I do, let me comfort you.  We are all in the wrong!  We are all doing something very wrong.  Let me add this to those who then think I am saying that we are working too hard and that that is the problem.  We are all in the wrong!   The problem is very simple, we are not coming to Him.  This passage says come.  It doesn't say how many times, and I think people only do this passage once.  The issue with that is that there are many times we get heavy ladened.

I would encourage you at this point to read the entire passage of Matthew 11.  The whole thing is a rebuke from Jesus.  For us who get caught up in the work we need to check our hearts.  I cringe, and love the rebuke Jesus gives in Matthew 11:21:
Mat 11:21  Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the powerful acts which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes!

Many of us who work in the church are like Chorazin and Bethsaida.  We have done powerful works.  Maybe these churches were like many of us, doing a lot of work, but falling from doing it in love to doing it in work, or worse, doing it in self righteousness.  I love the fact that after all of this rebuke, there is hope.  We can take His burden.  If we start falling back into old habits, we can take His burden again.  As a matter of fact, we can keep taking it as long as we need to.

Let me add one thing here:  Nehemiah 8:10 has a little diddy that we all need to cling to.
Neh 8:10  Then he said to them, Go eat the fat and drink the sweet, and send portions to him for whom nothing is prepared. For this day is holy to our LORD. And do not be sorry, for the joy of Jehovah is your strength.
Neh 8:10  Then he said to them, Go eat the fat and drink the sweet, and send portions to him for whom nothing is prepared. For this day is holy to our LORD. And do not be sorry, for the joy of Jehovah is your strength.

The joy of the Lord is our strength.  Maybe we don't get stronger in the Lord, maybe He gets stronger in us.  I think many of us tend to forget the joy of the Lord.  I think as we work we go right back to being Martha.  We are looking at things from our perspective of having so much to accomplish.  We could be looking at them from things even worse than that.  I know I have over the years.  But, we are looking at things from our perspective.  Our flesh gets tired.  Our lips get heavy and start opening.  As this happens our hearts get revealed.  I did a quick survey of the Gospels this morning and couldn't find where Jesus ever complained.  He must have had something I want.  How do I get it?  I don't ave all the answers here, but the Bible leaves us a good direction on how to get it...
Luk 11:9  And I say to you, Ask and it shall be given you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened to you.
Luk 11:10  For everyone who asks receives. And he who seeks finds. And to him who knocks it shall be opened.
Luk 11:11  For what father of you, if the son asks for bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a snake for a fish?
Luk 11:12  Or if he shall ask for an egg, will he give him a scorpion?
Luk 11:13  If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?