Book Report - The Making of a Man of God by Alan Redpath (8-27-14)

The Making of a Man of God by Alan Redpath (8-27-14)

This book is a study of the life of David. I really appreciate how the author, Alan Redpath, uses the happenings of David's life to relate to how Christ works in our lives. I was convicted, challenged and encouraged as I read. God used this book at multiple points - one was when I taught a Bible study on a passage in John. Here are a few quotes that assisted in my teaching - "It is one thing to believe that something is true, and something to made your stand openly for it. Faith must lead to action. ", "Your heart has only to miss a half a dozen beats and you will end up in hell - with all your good intentions, resolves, professions of faith and sound theology." and "If Christ is not the King then Satan remains on the throne and you are a lost soul. But if Christ is in supreme authority, then He will drive out every one of your enemies."

Another way He used it was to humble me and see what life should look like as I follow Him whole-heartedly. "One who believes with the head only, without evidencing grace, love, gentleness, humility, or other token of the indwelling Christ, has no right to say he is a Christian. God's choice is contrary to all human reason, and is based upon the response of a man's heart." I thought I have been saved since 12, but He revealed to me that I only recently became His follower. As this quote says, I had no right to say I was a believer because there was no evidence in my life of fruit. On the outside, I said I was submitted to Christ - however, on the inside, I was stubborn and not willing to surrender at all. 

Something that amazes me about the life of David is that he was a man after God's own heart. David was a sinner just like everyone else - he committed adultery and murder but he also waited on God and accepted the result of his actions. All throughout his life I see evidence of the Spirit's hand on him. Speaking about this, Redpath says "Do you go to the house of God for comfort, and the realize that the Spirit has found you out? He knows why you are like that, but He wants you to tell Him. He wants you to confess that you have feared and panicked, that you have questioned His purpose and plan for your life." I really admire the fact that David was the rightful king for a while, but he waited on God to remove Saul from the throne. God is definitely giving me patience - slowly but surely!

David was on the run for his life multiple times, but he trusted God to take care of him. I am encouraged by this - there have been times in my life when I had no idea what was going to happen. "God has brought you to this place just to teach you what it is to take your stand at Calvary and to wait: to be still and know that He is God. In fact, that is all you CAN do. The decision is out of your control; you can only wait for Him to guide." I've had to learn to trust Him, and He has proven His faithfulness over and over again. When I have nothing else to rely on - "We have nothing except - and what a glorious exception - the Word of God, the power of the His Spirit, the anointing of the Holy Ghost upon a life which has surrendered all confidence in the flesh."

For the longest time, I was afraid of what was going to happen when I surrendered to Christ. It has been a painful yet joyous experience! "You know what is involved in going onward with Him, being poured from vessel to vessel until every prop is stripped from you and you have nothing and nobody whom you can depend, except God and His promises." It's a painful process to be empty, weak and broken - but God uses these times of discomfort and agony to fill me with His Spirit, strengthen me with His love and to shape me into the person He designed me to be. I've been learning that He WANTS me to rely fully on Him - not on anyone or anything else. 

I love this quote. "Do not be too busy about other things, with your hands so full attempting to meet the pressure in your own strength that when the ship comes with grace, patience, and love, you are not there. Wait and watch as a man watches for the morning; and so shall your waiting become the praise of a genuine conviction that this cloud is the mercy of God, and it has taken the pressure of it to drive you for shelter on the wounded side of a crucified Savior." All this striving to be closer to God and to plead Him is pointless. I need to need Jesus. The whole point of belonging to Christ is to agree with Him about our need of His salvation, and to accept His gift of grace. 

IBS Psalm 51:16-17 (8-6-14)

Inductive Bible Study for Psalm 51:16-17 (8-6-14)

"For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart - these, O God, You will not despise."

We taught about Moses building the tabernacle last week, and as I read this verse, I was reminded of how many sacrifices needed to be made on a daily basis on behalf of all the people. I would be so heart broken to have to kill an animal every time I did something wrong. I have no problem eating animals - that's what God gave them to us for. However, killing it as a punishment for what I did would probably make me cry. That's the whole point though: to have an innocent die as a result of sin. How much more heart broken should I be to consider how horrific of a death Jesus had to die for me? 

This verse in Psalm says that God doesn't delight in burnt offerings - He desires a broken and contrite heart. Both of these are sacrifices, but God only delights in one of them. What is sacrifice? Sacrifice -> Propitiation -> Conciliate -> To overcome hostility, to win over and to make compatible. I knew a sacrifice was to give something of value in order to reconcile, but never have the dots connected like this before. Jesus sacrificed Himself because He loves us and in doing so, He made us compatible with God - if we choose to accept His free gift of salvation. Jesus, being fully Man and fully God, stands in the gap between man and God as the perfect substitution. 

I'm understanding more about Jesus' sacrifice for us, but what about our sacrifices for God? God wants our hearts and spirits to be broken and contrite. Broken is to be reduced to fragments, vulnerable, weak, trained into submission and destroyed. Contrite is to be humble, remorseful and repentant. To put it into context with this verse, we are to allow God into the deepest, darkest parts of our souls and let Him change and shape us as He wishes. We are to be disgusted by our sin and hate it so much that we turn from it and ask God to forgive us. We are to come before Him humbly, knowing that we are wretched sinners and are in no way deserving of His grace. 

I'm not going to lie, to be left empty, weak and helpless is terrifying. Why would God want us to be in such a position where we can be easily hurt? The only way for Him to change, fill and strengthen us is when we have nothing left to fall back on - when we are at our lowest, have no one else to call to and know that there's nothing we can do to save ourselves. God is a jealous God and He doesn't want our hearts to belong to anyone but Him. In order for us to not "lean on" anything, our lives need to be completely given to Him. This doesn't mean giving something you can get back later - it means giving everything with the knowledge that once it's in His hands, there's no way of getting it back unless He chooses to give it to you. 

I'm grasping this concept of brokenness and submission, and I hope you are too, but how can we apply this? I think it's a daily process of surrendering my will, hopes and desires to The Lord and truly baring my soul to Him. I'm sometimes scared of what He will do, but I'm more scared of me doing what I want to do and ruining everything. I know that His plans for me are greater than I could ever imagine and that He is faithful - He's never failed me and He won't start now. I'm going to make it a habit during my morning devotions to ask The Lord for a broken and contrite spirit.