Dirty Room
Root of all Evil
Usage Fee
Kneel!
King Xerxes
First Duty
Two Soldiers
Faithful Dog
Tough Yet Tender
A Founder of SIM
Yielded Wills
The Old Choice
Our Captain
Quotes
King of England
Arabian Horses
Roger Staubach
John Kenneth Galbraith
The Governor
The Majesty of the Lawgiver
My Share
There’s Always Obedience
Company President
Motivations For Obedience
Obeying Orders
The F16
Topic : Obedience
It’s Not Always Easy
It’s not always easy to smile and be nice,
When we are called to sacrifice.
It’s not always easy to put others first,
Especially when tired and feeling our worst.
It’s not always easy to do the Father’s will.
It wasn’t so easy to climb Calvary’s hill.
But we as His children, should learn to obey;
Not seeking our own but seeking His way.
It’s not always easy to fight the good fight.
But it is always good and it is always right!
- Glenda Fulton Davis
Dirty Room
A friend often told me about the problems he had getting his son to clean his room. The son would always agree to tidy up, but then wouldn’t follow through. After high school the young man joined the Marine Corps. When he came home for leave after basic training, his father asked him what he had learned in the service.
“Dad,” he said. “I learned what ‘now’ means.”
Root of all Evil
Q: Oswald Chambers said that the root of all sin is the suspicion that God is not good. Isn’t it true that somehow we’ve got a generation of kids -- and perhaps their parents as well -- who think that God is not good, that sin is attractive, and that God is a type of kill joy'
A: I think that’s true. And that’s why, in my relationship with my own children, I have hammered home the idea that within every negative precept - every “Thou shalt not” -- there are always two positive principles. One, God gives them to protect us. And second, He gives them to provide. He’s not a cosmic killjoy who wants to take the fun out of life.
My new book has many illustrations of this. One is the story of a high school guy who wanted to go swimming with his girlfriend at midnight. The neighbors down the block had a pool, and he knew it. So they ran down there and scaled the fence even though there were No Trespassing and Do Not Enter signs. Just as he hit the diving board, the girl yelled, but it was too late. There was only a foot of water in the pool. He broke his neck, and he’s in therapy to this day. He didn’t realize that the signs on the fence - the precepts - would have protected him.
Usage Fee
In the year 1210 King John of England had an idea. For many years the Royal Forest was available to all who paid the usage fee. Paying this tribute to the crown allowed nobleman and peasant alike to hunt, fish, and frolic on the regal property.
The king, looking to reduce the strain on this resource and increase the empire’s income (to help support the war with France), decided to raise the usage fee and restrict use of the forest to the upper classes. To carry out this decree, he appointed Thomas Mulberry as Royal Forester.
However, it wasn’t long before Thomas realized he had a problem. The king expected a certain amount of revenue each month, but there simply weren’t enough customers among the upper classes to maintain the projected revenues.
In order to keep to the crown’s budget, Thomas decided to allow use of the forest by some of the local peasants at a discounted rate. This kept the king’s coffers filled and, at the same time, still restricted the use of the land to the upper class and a relatively small number of peasants.
After six months, the king summoned Thomas to report. “Well, my Royal Forester, is my plan working as expected?” asked the king.
“Yes, your highness,” replied Thomas. “Revenues are as projected.” The king was obviously pleased. Added Thomas, “There was one problem, but I managed to solve it.”
Thomas described how there were not enough noblemen to maintain the budgeted revenues and how he allowed some local peasants use of the land at a discounted rate. The king listened intently and offered an occasional “Uh-huh,” or “Yes, I see.”
The following morning Thomas was hanged for treason.
Kneel!
Neil Marten, a member of the British Parliament, was once giving a group of his constituents a guided tour of the Houses of Parliament. During the course of the visit, the group happened to meet Lord Hailsham, then lord chancellor, wearing all the regalia of his office. Hailsham recognized Marten among the group and cried, “Neil!” Not daring to question or disobey the “command,” the entire band of visitors promptly fell to their knees!
King Xerxes
It is said that on his retreat from Greece after his great military expedition there, King Xerxes boarded a Phoenician ship along with a number of his Persian troops. But a fearful storm came up, and the captain told Xerxes there was no hope unless the ship’s load was substantially lightened. The king turned to his fellow Persians on deck and said, “It is on you that my safety depends. Now let some of you show your regard for your king.” A number of the men bowed to Xerxes and threw themselves overboard!
Lightened of its load, the ship made it safely to harbor. Xerxes immediately ordered that a golden crown be given to the pilot for preserving the king’s life -- then ordered the man beheaded for causing the loss of so many Persian lives!
First Duty
Peter T. Forsythe was right when he said, “The first duty of every soul is to find not its freedom but its Master”.
Two Soldiers
World War II was at its height. Forces were engaged in what was known as, “The Battle of the Bulge” -- or “The Christmas War of 1944.” The fighting was fierce in the bitter cold and snow.
The Allied Forces bombed and established control of a strategic area. The commanding officer turned to several of his men and said, “Sweep across that field, and kill all German soldiers still entrenched in the snow. I want no prisoners. Absolutely none!”
One of the American soldiers selected gives his account of what happened next. “As I walked, I immediately shot and killed two wounded and suffering soldiers.” He continues, “Then, suddenly I approached a tall, young guy with a broad Teutonic forehead. He was leaning against a tree. He wasn’t wounded -- simply exhausted. He had no food, no water, no comrades in sight, no ammunition. Fear, fatigue, defeat, and loneliness overwhelmed him. He spoke English with a beautiful vonderful-vorld-type accent.”
“When I noticed a little black Bible in his shirt pocket,” he reminisces, “we started to talk about Jesus and salvation. “Wouldn’t you know it, that lanky German soldier turned out to be a born-again Christian who deeply loved the Lord. “I gave him water from my canteen; I even gave him crackers. Then, we prayed and read God’s Word together. And we wept together too.” His voice began to tremble, as tears splashed down his cheeks. His face began to reflect anguish.
“It seems like only yesterday. We stood a foot or so apart, as he read a Psalm from his German Bible. Then, I read Romans 12 from my King James translation. He showed me a black-and-white picture of his wife and daughter.”
The soldier took a deep breath. “You see, in those days, I was a young man in my early twenties. I had just graduated from a Christian college in Illinois and hadn’t had time to sort out my thoughts on the war.
“Maybe that’s why I did what I did.” I bid my German brother farewell, took several steps away, then returned to the soldier. Romans 13, the ‘thou shalt not kill’ commandment, the promises of eternal life, the Prince of Peace, the Sunday school distinction between killing and murder, the irrationality of war -- all swirled in my mind
“When the German soldier saw me returning, he bowed his head and closed his eyes in that classic prayer posture.
“Then it happened. I said three crisp sentences that I still repeat once or twice a week when I have nightmares about the war, ‘You’re a Christian. I am too. See you later.’ “In less than a second, I transformed that defenseless Christian soldier into a corpse.”
Faithful Dog
How we admire the obedience a dog shows to its master! Archibald Rutledge wrote that one day he met a man whose dog had just been killed in a forest fire. Heartbroken, the man explained to Rutledge how it happened. Because he worked out-of-doors, he often took his dog with him. That morning, he left the animal in a clearing and gave him a command to stay and watch his lunch bucket while he went into the forest. His faithful friend understood, for that’s exactly what he did. Then a fire started in the woods, and soon the blaze spread to the spot where the dog had been left. But he didn’t move. He stayed right where he was, in perfect obedience to his master’s word.
With tearful eyes, the dog’s owner said, “I always had to be careful what I told him to do, because I knew he would do it.”
Tough Yet Tender
Every conscientious parent recognizes how difficult it is to exercise his God-given authority over his children. The delicate balance of being tough yet tender is not easy to maintain. Many parents intensify a rebellious spirit by being dictatorial and harsh. Others yield when their authority is tested. When a strong-willed child resists, the pressure to give in for the sake of peace and harmony can become overpowering.
I am reminded of the mother who wanted to have the last word but couldn’t handle the hassle that resulted whenever she said no to her young son. After an especially trying day, she finally flung up her hands and shouted, “All right, Billy, do whatever you want! Now let me see you disobey THAT!”
A Founder of SIM
“It is the impassioned pleading of a quiet little Scottish lady that linked my life with the Soudan,” wrote Rowland Bingham (a founder of S.I.M.). “In the quietness of her parlor she told how God had called a daughter to China, and her eldest boy (Walter Gowans) to the Soudan. “She spread out before me the vast extent of those thousands of miles and filled in the teeming masses of people. Ere I closed the interview she had place upon me the burden of the Soudan.”
A year and a half later Bingham returned to Canada, alone. Walter and Thomas Kent lay buried in Nigeria’s interior. “I visited Mrs. Gowans to take her the few personal belongings of her son,” he recalled. “She met me with extended hand. We stood there in silence.
“Then she said these words: ‘Well, Mr. Bingham, I would rather have had Walter go out to the Soudan and die there, all alone, that have him home today, disobeying his Lord.’” Our success in this venture means nothing less than the opening of the country for the gospel; our failure, at most, nothing more than the death of two or three deluded fanatics. Still, even death is not failure. His purposes are accomplished. He uses deaths as well as lives in the furtherance of His cause.
Walter Gowans, 1983, a founder of SIM. On Dec. 4, 1893, Walter Gowans and Rowland Bingham of Toronto, Canada, and Thomas Kent of Buffalo, N.Y., landed at Lagos, Nigeria. Their aim was to establish a witness among the 60 million people of what was then commonly known as the Soudan, the area south of the Sahara between the Niger River and the Nile. Gowans and Kent died in the first few months. Bingham returned to Canada, formed a council, and went back to Africa in 1900. That attempt, too, was unsuccessful. In 1901 Bingham sent out a party that succeeded in establishing the Mission’s first base, at Patigi, 500 miles up the Niger River. When these first SIM pioneers landed in Nigeria, Gowans was 25 years old, Bingham was two weeks away from his 21st birthday, Kent was 23.
Yielded Wills
It is not the multitude of hard duties, it is not constraint and contention that advance us in our Christian course. On the contrary, it is the yielding of our wills without restriction and without choice, to tread cheerfully every day in the path in which Providence leads us, to seek nothing, to be discouraged by nothing, to seek out duty in the present moment, to trust all else without reserve to the will and power of God. Fenelon
The Old Choice
It is the old choice which still is presented to every soul; the old crisis which reappears in every experience. Caesar, or Christ, that is the question: the vast, attractive, skeptical world, with its pleasures and ambitions and its prodigal promise, or the meek, majestic, and winning figure of Him of Nazareth'
The election remains for each of us. And the moment of the election, in the shaded and solemn “Valley of Decision,” will be memorable in our history, when suns for us have ceased to shine!
Our Captain
Where our Captain bids us go,
‘Tis not ours to murmur no;
He that gives the sword and shield
Chooses too the battlefield.
Where we are to fight the foe.
- Anonymous
Quotes
- Instant obedience is the only kind of obedience there is; delayed obedience is disobedience. Whoever strives to withdraw from obedience, withdraws from Grace. - Thomas a Kempis
- One step forward in obedience is worth years of study about it. - Oswald Chambers, quoted in Our Daily Bread, March 4, 1993
- Dr. B. J. Miller once said, “It is a great deal easier to do that which God gives us to do, no matter how hard it is, than to face the responsibilities of not doing it.” - MBI’s Today In The Word, November, 1989, p.11
- The cost of obedience is nothing compared with the cost of disobedience. - Anon
King of England
I’ve read that when Edward VI, the king of England in the 16th century, attended a worship service, he stood while the Word of God was read. He took notes during this time and later studied them with great care. Through the week he earnestly tried to apply them to his life.
That’s the kind of serious-minded response to truth the apostle James calls for in today’s Scripture reading. A single revealed fact cherished in the heart and acted upon is more vital to our growth than a head filled with lofty ideas about God.
Arabian Horses
Arabian horses go through rigorous training in the deserts of the Middle East. The trainers require absolute obedience from the horses, and test them to see if they are completely trained. The final test is almost beyond the endurance of any living thing. The trainers force the horses to do without water for many days. Then he turns them loose and of course they start running toward the water, but just as they get to the edge, ready to plunge in and drink, the trainer blows his whistle. The horses who have been completely trained and who have learned perfect obedience, stop. They turn around and come pacing back to the trainer. They stand there quivering, wanting water, but they wait in perfect obedience. When the trainer is sure that he has their obedience he gives them a signal to go back to drink.
Now this may be severe but when you are on the trackless desert of Arabia and your life is entrusted to a horse, you had better have a trained obedient horse. We must accept God’s training and obey Him.
Roger Staubach
Roger Staubach who led the Dallas Cowboys to the World Championship in ‘71 admitted that his position as a quarterback who didn’t call his own signals was a source of trial for him. Coach Landry sent in every play. He told Roger when to pass, when to run and only in emergency situations could he change the play (and he had better be right!). Even though Roger considered coach Landry to have a “genius mind” when it came to football strategy, pride said that he should be able to run his own team.
Roger later said, “I faced up to the issue of obedience. Once I learned to obey there was harmony, fulfillment, and victory.”
John Kenneth Galbraith
John Kenneth Galbraith, in his autobiography, A Life in Our Times, illustrates the devotion of Emily Gloria Wilson, his family’s housekeeper:
It had been a wearying day, and I asked Emily to hold all telephone calls while I had a nap. Shortly thereafter the phone rang. Lyndon Johnson was calling from the White House. “Get me Ken Galbraith. This is Lyndon Johnson.”
“He is sleeping, Mr. President. He said not to disturb him.”
“Well, wake him up. I want to talk to him.”
“No, Mr. President. I work for him, not you. When I called the President back, he could scarcely control his pleasure. “Tell that woman I want her here in the White House.”
The Governor
When Christian Herter was governor of Massachusetts, he was running hard for a second term in office. One day, after a busy morning chasing votes (and no lunch) he arrived at a church barbecue. It was late afternoon and Herter was famished.
As Herter moved down the serving line, he held out his plate to the woman serving chicken. She put a piece on his plate and turned to the next person in line.
“Excuse me,” Governor Herter said, “do you mind if I have another piece of chicken?”
“Sorry,” the woman told him. “I’m supposed to give one piece of chicken to each person.”
“But I’m starved,” the governor said.
“Sorry,” the woman said again. “Only one to a customer.”
Governor Herter was a modest and unassuming man, but he decided that this time he would throw a little weight around. “Do you know who I am?” he said. “I am the governor of this state.”
“Do you know who I am?” the woman said. “I’m the lady in charge of the chicken. Move along, mister.”
The Majesty of the Lawgiver
“It is not the importance of the thing, but the majesty of the Lawgiver, that is to be the standard of obedience...Some, indeed, might reckon such minute and arbitrary rules as these as trifling. But the principle involved in obedience or disobedience was none other than the same principle which was tried in Eden at the foot of the forbidden tree. It is really this: Is the Lord to be obeyed in all things whatsoever He commands? Is He a holy Lawgiver? Are His creatures bound to give implicit assent to His will?”
My Share
Lord, it belongs not to my care
Whether I die or live;
To love and serve Thee is my share,
And this Thy grace must give.
If life be long I will be glad,
That I may long obey;
If short--yet why should I be sad
To soar to endless day'
Christ leads me through no darker rooms
Than he went through before;
He that to God’s Kingdom comes,
Must enter by this door.
- Richard Baxter
There’s Always Obedience
Ron R. was discussing the fragility of many marriages with his girlfriend and posed the following question, “What if you wake up one morning and don’t love me anymore?”
She immediately responded, “There’s always obedience.”
Company President
Imagine, if you will, that you work for a company whose president found it necessary to travel out of the country and spend an extended period of time abroad. So he says to you and the other trusted employees, “Look, I’m going to leave. And while I’m gone, I want you to pay close attention to the business. You manage things while I’m away. I will write you regularly. When I do, I will instruct you in what you should do from now until I return from this trip.”
Everyone agrees. He leaves and stays gone for a couple of years. During that time he writes often, communicating his desires and concerns. Finally he returns. He walks up to the front door of the company and immediately discovers everything is in a mess--weeds flourishing in the flower beds, windows broken across the front of the building, the gal at the front desk dozing, loud music roaring from several offices, two or three people engaged in horseplay in the back room. Instead of making a profit, the business has suffered a great loss. Without hesitation he calls everyone together and with a frown asks, “What happened? Didn’t you get my letters?” You say, “Oh, yeah, sure. We got all your letters. We’ve even bound them in a book. And some of us have memorized them. In fact, we have ‘letter study’ every Sunday. You know, those were really great letters.”
I think the president would then ask, “But what did you do about my instructions?” And, no doubt the employees would respond, “Do? Well, nothing. But we read every one!”
Motivations For Obedience
The believer is assured of salvation from hell and is eternally secure, since that salvation is based solely upon the finished work of Jesus Christ (John 10:28,29; Rom 8:38,39). Therefore, it is inconsistent with the Gospel and with Scripture to seek to gain or keep eternal salvation by godly living. The Scripture, however, does present several motivations for obedience in the Christian life.
1. A powerful motivation for living the Christian life is gratitude to God for saving us by His grace (Rom. 12:1,2; 2 Cor. 5:14,15; Gal. 2:20).
2. Believers should also be motivated by the knowledge that their heavenly Father both blesses obedience and disciplines disobedience in His children (Heb. 12:3-11; Lev. 26:1-45).
3. Finally, every Christian must stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ, not to determine his destiny in heaven or hell, but to assess the quality of his Christian life on earth (2 Cor. 5:10; Rev. 22:12). Anticipating either reward or loss of reward at the Judgment Seat should also motivate believers to perseverance and to faithfulness to God's revealed will (I Cor. 3:10-17, 9:24-27; Jas. 5:8,9; 1 John 2:28).
Obeying Orders
John Kenneth Galbraith, in his autobiography, A Life in Our Times, illustrates the devotion of Emily Gloria Wilson, his family's housekeeper:
It had been a wearying day, and I asked Emily to hold all telephone calls while I had a nap. Shortly thereafter the phone rang. Lyndon Johnson was calling from the White House.
"Get me Ken Galbraith. This is Lyndon Johnson.'
"He is sleeping, Mr. President. He said not to disturb
"Well, wake him up. I want to talk to him.'
"No, Mr. President. I work for him, not you.
When I called the President back, he could scarcely control his pleasure. 'tell that woman I want her here in the White House.?
The F16
An F16 fighter jet is an amazing aircraft with incredible capabilities. But there is one thing that a jet pilot requires above all else. That the aircraft reacts completely to his control. If it were to have "a mind of its own" regardless of how remarkablable that might sound, it would end up doing as much flying as a door stop. In the same vein, even if we had all the gifting under the sun, God as the ultimate "pilot" of our lives, will only do amazing and remarkable things with our lives if we are fully under his control. If we insist upon taking our lives into our own hands at every opportunity we will find ourselves as effective as a perverbial door stop, and a less gifted by more humble man or woman will be used in our stead. Obedience is the golden key to a life of joy and excellence. Pastor Mike Wagner
