TGIF Being a Person Under Authority

Being a Person Under Authority
TGIF Today God Is First Volume 1 by Os Hillman
Sunday, May 17 2009

..."I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith." - Matthew 8:10

The centurion came to Jesus and told Him of his servant who was paralyzed and in terrible suffering. He came to Jesus because he believed He could heal him. He told Jesus of the matter, and Jesus was willing to come with the centurion. But the centurion would not have it. He knew that Jesus, being under the authority of Heaven itself, did not have to see the servant to help him. The centurion understood authority. He understood that he himself had certain rights that his position granted him to have power over situations and people. He also was a man under authority. The centurion understood Jesus' position and what power that position held in Heaven - the power to heal his servant if He chose to exercise that authority.

When Jesus saw that the centurion understood this principle of authority and that He did not have to visit the servant to heal him, He acknowledged the centurion's faith. Jesus knew it took great faith to understand authority and whether He had the authority to do what was being asked.

God has placed a system of authority in our world that requires faith to operate under its boundaries: fathers over sons and daughters, employers over employees, government leaders over the people, church leaders over church members. These are authority structures God has placed in our lives to protect and guide us to His will. Some confuse position with worthiness or qualifications of that position. It is the position that God works through. The fact that an authority may not be a Christian may have no bearing on whether God can work through him as your authority. It is only when that authority counsels against a biblical mandate that we should not follow that person's guidance. The hand of the king is in the hand of God.

Today, we find few who understand this system of authority God has ordained. It requires great faith to operate in this realm. Yet Jesus said that when we understand this, we demonstrate the kind of faith that He rarely sees. Be a person of rare faith. See the authorities placed in your life as those God is using to protect you.

Reprinted by permission from the author. Os Hillman is an international speaker and author of more than 10 books on workplace calling. To learn more, visit http://www.MarketplaceLeaders.org

TGIF - Be As Little Children

Be as Little Children
TGIF Today God Is First Volume 1 by Os Hillman
Sunday, September 28 2008

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" 1 John 3:1a

"I have an important business meeting in the morning. Would you please set the alarm for 5:30 a.m.?" I said to my wife.

"Oh, that won't be necessary. Just tell the Lord what time you want to wake up. He does it for me all the time," my wife said.

I rolled my eyes in disbelief. "Well, I'd feel more comfortable if we set the alarm."

"Okay, ye of little faith. But just to prove my point I am going to ask the Lord to wake us up just before 5:30."

The next morning I awoke before the alarm went off. I looked at the clock. It read 5:15. I looked at my wife, who had just awakened at the same time with an I-told-you-so smile.

Sometimes we wrongfully view God as someone we go to for only the "big things." The idea of "bothering God" for such a trivial matter seems foolish and presumptuous. However, when you were a child and had to get up in the morning for school, didn't your mom or dad come wake you up? They were your parents, and you could come to them with the most trivial concerns or requests. Why would our heavenly Father be any less approachable? Perhaps our problem is that we simply have not developed a level of intimacy with God so that we feel the freedom to approach Him at these daily, routine levels. We often operate with an unwritten code that says our needs must have a certain degree of importance or crisis before we come to God with them. This is not God's character towards us.

Does the Lord desire this level of intimacy with you and me? The apostle Paul exhorted us to "pray without ceasing" (1 Thess. 5:17 KJV). There is never a caution to pray only about matters of greater importance.

Today, go to God with matters that you might view as trivial and would normally avoid bringing to God. Ask God to increase your level of intimacy with Him. You may even be able to get rid of your alarm clock.

Photo Credit: Jonathan Friberg Reprinted by permission from the photographer. http://fineartinspirationalphotography.blogspot.com/

Reprinted by permission from the author. Os Hillman is an international speaker and author of more than 10 books on workplace calling. To learn more, visit http://www.MarketplaceLeaders.org

California Dreamin'

As I mentioned the other day, the University of California has decided students who have been educated in a Christian worldview that rejects evolution and relies on the Bible renders them unfit for matriculation at any UC school.

This week, a federal judge agreed with them.

The ruling declared that the University of California can deny course credit to Christian high school graduates who have been taught with textbooks that reject evolution and declare the Bible infallible, according to the article in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Rejecting claims of religious discrimination and stifling of free expression, U.S. District Judge James Otero of Los Angeles said UC's review committees cited legitimate reasons for rejecting the texts - not because they contained religious viewpoints, but because they omitted important topics in science and history and failed to teach critical thinking.

Failed to teach critical thinking? Do you have any idea how important we Christian homeschoolers consider it for our children - indeed, ourselves - to be able to explain why we have considered the historical or scientific "evidence" and rejected it in favor of believing in God and the Bible? In this unbelieving day and age?

So it is interesting to me that a judge and a bunch of academics have decided that students who attended a school that taught something THEY don't believe is true are not worthy to attend UC schools.

Funny thing is, they probably taught their children to believe in Santa Claus - something that they knew in advance was not true.

Not only that, nobody can actually prove that the thing they believe instead - evolution - is true. A lot of people believe it, but that doesn't make it true.

The object of your faith is more important than the intensity, or even the sincerity of your faith. Intensely and sincerely believing that a nice old fat man lives at the North Pole, knows what I am doing all year, comes down my chimney once a year after circling the whole world in a flying sleigh powered by reindeer, one of which has a light bulb in his nose does not make it true.

I can remember being criticized when my children were small for not teaching them to believe in Santa Claus. "They have to have something to believe in," they sniffed.

They DO have something to believe in.

Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it."

A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe."

Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!"

Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." John 20:24-29 (NIV)