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Chariot August 2011 - Norm Wakefield Equipped
to Love - Now
Available for Kindle, Nook and iPad
Equipped
to Love is now available from our website in ePub and mobi format for
those who would like to have the book to read on their Kindle, Nook, or
iPad. Click here
to visit the Equipped to Love page. The eBook version will be available
through the corresponding online bookstores for each device within the
coming week as well. We hope to have all books available in eBook format
soon! Upcoming
Speaking Events - You're
Invited! Sept. 30-Oct. 2. Father/Son
Retreat - Peniel Bible Camp, Lake Luzerne, NY, Contact: Doug Allers, dallers@nycap.rr.com Oct. 14-16. Family Conference - New Covenant Fellowship, Nappanee, IN,
Contact: Dale Swartzentruber, 574 354 1940, dalelsie@gmail.com Oct. 21-23. Men's Retreat - Evangelical Institute, Greenville, SC, www.eibibleschool.org Oct. 27-30. Father/Son
Camp - Walnut Point State Park, Oakland, IL, www.fathersoncamp.org Nov. 11-13. Family
Conference - Antioch Community Church, Elon, NC.
Contact: www.antiochchurch.cc Loving the Glory of God One of the outstanding qualities about
our Lord Jesus Christ is His love for the glory of His Father. Desiring
that His Father be glorified was His passion and motivation in all that He
did. In this Chariot of Fire I
hope to encourage us to love the glory of God as our Lord Jesus Christ
did. I'll give you suggestions for family devotion times focused on Jesus'
last words to His disciples recorded in John 13-17. Why
is it important to love the glory of God?
Loving the glory of God is the greatest motivation of the
Lord Jesus Christ. We might go so far as to say that loving the glory of
God is equal to loving God. Why should we put self to death? Why should we
love others? Why should children obey parents? Why should wives respect
their husbands and husbands love their wives? Why should we pray? Why
should we not manipulate others, but wait on the Lord to move them? The
answer is the same for all of these questions: We want God to be
glorified.
In your family devotion time first discuss the power of
motivation. A motivation is a driving force, incentive, stimulus,
stimulation, inspiration, inducement, incitement, spur, or reason. You
might ask, "What motivates you to eat?" "What motivates you to go to
sleep?" "What motivates you to work hard?" Perhaps you can think of some
other questions that you know relate well to your children. Discuss the
difference between negative and positive motivations. Then introduce the
importance of loving the glory of God: it was Jesus' primary motivation
and should be ours. What
is the glory of God?
Considering the words of Jesus Christ in John 13-17, I have
concluded that the glory of God is His work of love, which is full of
grace and truth. Depending upon the ages of your children, you can present
the following line of thought. (If your children are very young, then keep
your lesson simple: When Jesus loved us by dying on the cross and rising
again, He did it because He wanted us to give glory to God. Help them to
understand that when someone does something good, we should praise the
ones who taught and trained him to do that good thing. In the same way, we
praise God and give Him glory when we think about what Jesus did for us.
God sent Him to love us, so God gets the glory and praise.) If your
children are older and you think they can understand these verses of
scripture and think logically, then present and discuss the following
truths about the glory of God. 1.
The glory
of God is full of grace and truth.
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory,
glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth
(John 1:14). 2.
The glory
of the Father and the Son is when Jesus gives eternal life to His own.
Jesus spoke these things; and
lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, "Father,
the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as
You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given
Him, He may give eternal life. This is eternal life, that they may know
You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent"
(John 17:1-3). What was Jesus asking of His Father? He
was asking for His glory to be revealed as He made the love of the Father
and Son known on the earth among men by going to the cross. 3.
Jesus
gives eternal life by obeying His Father's commandment to lay down his
life and take it up again.
"No one has taken it [my life]
away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to
lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I
received from My Father"
(John 10:18).
"For I did not speak on My own
initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment
as to what to say and what to speak. I know that His commandment is
eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has
told Me"
(John 12:49-50). 4.
Jesus
gave to us the glory of God which the Father gave to Him. What is that
glory? It is love, the perfect bond of unity.
"The glory which You have given Me
I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one"
(John 17:22). The
Apostle Paul wrote the same thing to the Colossians. "Beyond all these
things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity" (Colossians 3:14). 5.
The glory
which the Father gave Jesus that Jesus wants us to see is that the Father
loved the Son before the foundation of the world. The result of such
knowledge is that the same love the Father has for His Son would be in us.
"Father, I desire that they also,
whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My
glory which You have given Me, for
You loved Me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father,
although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have
known that You sent Me; and I have made Your name known to them, and will
make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them,
and I in them"
(John 17:24-26). How is God glorified?
God is glorified
through obedience. This is an important lesson in life we must all learn.
God was glorified when Jesus obeyed His Father's command and laid down His
life. That was the meaning behind what Jesus said immediately after
sending Judas to betray Him. Jesus didn't merely allow Judas to betray
Him. He authorized it; He sent
him to betray Him!
First, Jesus
established His authority. "Truly,
truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one
who is sent greater than the one who sent him"
(John 13:16).
Second, Jesus
verified His authority by telling them He would tell what he was going to
do before He did it. "From
now on I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does
occur, you may believe that I am He"
(John 13:19). The Son of God
then told His disciples who He was going to send to betray Him. "Jesus
then answered, ‘That is the one for whom I shall dip the morsel and give
it to him.'
So when He had dipped the morsel, He took and gave it to Judas, the son of
Simon Iscariot"
(John 13:26).
Third, Jesus
exercised His authority and sent Judas (Satan) to betray Him. "After
the morsel, Satan then entered into him. Therefore Jesus said to him,
‘What you do, do quickly'"
(John 13:27). Notice the "therefore." As Satan entered Judas, or we
could understand it to mean because
Satan entered into Judas, Jesus commanded him to betray him and do it
quickly.
The point was
that God commanded Jesus to give
His life. He was authorized to do so because of the command given to Him
by the Father. Therefore He had to authorize the entire cross experience
from beginning to the end. That's why the next words out of Jesus' mouth
after sending Judas to betray him were these powerful words about the
glory of God. "Therefore
when he had gone out, Jesus said, ‘Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him; if God
is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and will
glorify Him immediately'"
(John 13:31-32). God was glorified in Jesus at that moment because
Jesus was doing the work of the Father as He obeyed the Father's command
to go and love them by laying down His life. The work of the Lord Jesus in
loving us was the work of the Father loving us! Jesus' work was to glorify
the Father by loving us with His love – the same love with which He was
loved from before the foundation of the world. The glory of God is the work of love
So I conclude
that the glory of God is the work of His love which is full of grace and
truth. Who gets the glory when a person receives eternal life – the
ability to know God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the one true
God, and to know Jesus Christ whom He sent? God gets the glory because He
was the one who commanded and authorized Jesus to give it to him. Jesus,
the Son, gets the glory because He loved him by laying down His life and
taking it up again. In so doing, God counted Jesus' death to be that
person's death to sin, and His resurrection to be that person's new birth
into righteousness. That's why Jesus prayed, "Father,
the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as
You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given
Him, He may give eternal life"
(John 17:1-2).
What was the
hour of which Jesus spoke? It was the time of His betrayal, trial, and
death on behalf of those the Father gave Him before the foundation of the
world. In that eternal work of love, the love of Jesus Christ for the
glory of God was manifested in fullness. Jesus was consumed with love for
the glory of God. God glorified the Son by loving Him. God loved Him by
giving Him the authority and power to lay down His life and take it up
again. The Son glorified the Father by loving us with the love of the
Father which is giving us eternal life. Glory to God! Loving God's
glory is the motivation for doing His work of loving others.
We've come full
circle, haven't we? Now you might conclude your family devotion time with
some questions that impress the point of this lesson to our hearts. I'll
do the same. Why should you love your wife? Because you love God's glory.
Why should you respect your husband? Because you love God's glory. Why
should your children obey their parents? Because they love God's glory.
What is your motivation for your marriage relationship? What is the
motivation for your relationship with your parents? Why do you read your
Bible and pray? Do you love God's glory? Would
you like to be on the Elijah Ministries Prayer Team? The backbone of Elijah Ministries is the prayer team who pray diligently for God to turn the hearts of men to Himself, their wives, and their children. Before I leave to speak, I send out a prayer team invitation to those who will intercede for God to work for His glory in us as a team for the Kingdom. Not only is it a blessing to those whom I speak and myself; but it is also a reminder to the team about the direction of their own hearts. If you would like to enter into the labor together with me, you may go to my website and click on "Prayer Team". Has Norm's Chariot or other resources been an encouragement to you? As a nonprofit organization, Elijah Ministries needs support from people like you in order to function. If God has ministered to you through Elijah Ministries and Norm Wakefield, would you consider supporting the work? You can do so here. (Elijah Ministries is a tax-deductible 501c3 and is financially accountable to an overseeing board of 8 non-paid members from around the country.) The Chariot is also available as a podcast. You can automatically receive the Chariot each month in iTunes by subscribing here. (An RSS capable browser such as Internet Explorer 7 or Safari is required.)
If you
haven't visited our website, www.spiritofelijah.com,
please stop by sometime. You'll find: * Resources to equip you and your family * Previous Chariot articles * Norm's speaking schedule *
Free MP3 downloads * Subscribe to the Chariot Podcast here. * Various resources/pages translated and available in Spanish * An online store to purchase resources and make tax-free contributions by credit card
I invite you to be a part of the
moving of the Spirit of Elijah in your church, community, and the world.
How?
1.
Send this article to other men or families that you know would
benefit from it. You might inform them of the previous articles
available on-line at our website.
2.
Share resources from the Spirit of Elijah Ministries with others.
If Equipping Men or Rising to the
Call have been a blessing to you, then you know it will be
beneficial to others. Either share your resources, tell them about the
resources, or purchase a set or two as an investment in their lives. 3. Share with others what you have learned and put into practice in turning your heart to God, your wife, and your children. If God has done this in you, then He wants to affect others through you.
4.
Join the Elijah Ministries email prayer team and make
intercession for others that their hearts would be turned in revival to
the Lord, their wives, and their children. This can be done on-line at www.spiritofelijah.com.
Norm
Wakefield 08.11 To unsubscribe, click here.
Do not change the subject of the email that launches when you click
above; just press send. Or send an email with the subject Unsubscribe
Chariot to chariot@spiritofelijah.com.
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