“Man of God”

11But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. 12Fight the good fight of the faith.

Every now and then I need to focus again on what God has called me to do.  I know that I am a Christian.  Second, I am a husband to my wife, Nancy.  Thirdly, I hold responsibility to be the father to my three children – Jason (Jenn, his wife), Jeremy, and Kimberly.  Fourth of all God has called me to be a “Man of God”.  His call on my life is reviewed in this passage.

A life of no compromise.  I am to “flee” and “pursue”.  I am to flee any kind of motivation in my life other than the fact that God has placed His hand on me.  My relationship with him – this special calling that He gave me – is to the be what causes me to serve and sacrifice.  God’s expectation on my life is to the Man of God.  He describes my relationship with Him

Uprightness – God’s values
Godliness – whole of the Christian experience
Faith – Vertical relationship with God
Love – Horizontal expression of my love for God with man

My relationship with others
Lead with endurance – that “don’t quit” kind of attitude
Lead with gentleness – patience with a gentle composure

Today I remind myself that I am a Man of God and I hold a responsibility to live that life out in front of God, my family and my church and the world.

I am one of God’s Special People…

16 Jehoiada now made a covenant between himself and the king and the people: they were to be God’s special people.  2 Chronicles 23

Jehoiada was a priest of God.  He had seen more than his share of idolatry on the part of God’s people.  They were God’s special people and not acting so special.  The people were very religious and far away in their relationship with God.  The cleansing of God blows me away.

Jehoiada reminds me tonight that no matter what other people do, I have a responsibility of living up to my commitment to Christ.  God is serious about being holy.  His patience is unbelievable.  He is jealous and also is more than able to keep his promises.  When I say God is awesome there is a fearful side to him.

I found it interesting that before they went to work cleansing the world around them, Jehoiada went to work cleansing the temple.  It is time to cleanse my own temple before I go to work dealing with other people.  Getting that speck out of my brother’s eye presumes I have been honest enough to deal with the beam in my own eye.

Let’s make a commitment to God to be one of God’s special people.  Now that I made the declaration God is teaching me that if I am going to talk the talk then I must be willing to walk the walk.