Re: Jesus! Jesus! Nothing but Jesus!

Hi John:

My last letter was a strong word but I felt you needed a wake up call. In this letter I need to share and re-share somethings with you. I want to start with quoting a passage from Scripture, from Luke 10:38-42:

"Now as they were traveling along, He entered a certain village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. And she had a sister called Mary who moreover was listening to the Lord’s word, seated at His feet. But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him, and said, ‘Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.’ But the Lord answered and said to her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only a few things are necessary, really only one, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.’"

John, I think this passage best describes you. You worry about so many things and involve yourself with so many things, but what does God want you involved in? His will and His will only. John, isn’t that why you turned to me in the first place? You found yourself involved with things, people and gangs, things that were forcing you into things a person at your age shouldn’t have to be involved in or worry about? In your heart of hearts you want to be freed from all this and just be a teenager. That is what Jesus wants you to be! Taking up adult responsibilities at this time in your life is not God’s will for you! This is not of Him? Note what the writer of Hebrews says in the following passage: "How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" (Hebrews 9:14). What are dead works? Dead works are doing things to save ourselves, things we decide to concern ourselves with God never initiated in our lives first: other people’s problems, what we think people should or should not be doing with their lives, what we think we should be doing, getting involved in social programs, etcetera. Is there something wrong with all of this? Of course not, showing kindness is never wrong, unless we use our good works to avoid what God wants us to do and His will. Dead works are anything we are doing that God has not initiated in our lives first.

John, don’t we hear this all the time in the news media, how bad those Christians are and how wonderful person is or somebody else because of all those nice things they are doing for every body. Politicians talk about how Americans are better off financially and materially than they ever were before because of what they have done for us. Are they? What does Jesus have to say about all this? Note what He says in Luke 12:15 "Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions." What is wrong with all this do goodism? God is not in it and has no part in it. It was accomplished how? First by doing away with putting God first in our lives. First, we took Him out of the schools and do all we can to keep young people from knowing about Jesus, then we started working on Sundays and stopped going to church to worship Jesus and acknowledge Him as our Creator and source. Our wealth and materialism is built on Idolatry: the worship and pursuit of self. Now we worship the Super Bowl on Sundays. We justify our rejection of our Creator by pointing out all the good things we are doing. Gee, what a wonderful politician so and so is: he cheats on his wife, lies, breaks the law, lies; but "Hey our economy is strong and look at all the toys we now have? We must be doing something right?" Proverbs states:

• 15:16 Better is a little with the fear of Yehovah, than great treasure and turmoil with it.
• 16:8 Better is a little with righteousness than great income with injustice.
• 15:8 The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to Yehovah, but the prayer of the upright is His delight.
• 15:9 The way of the wicked is an abomination to Yehovah, but He loves him who pursues righteousness.
• 21:29 A wicked man shows a bold face, but as for the upright, he makes his way sure.
• 21:30 There is no wisdom and no understanding and no counsel against Yehovah.
• Psalm 37:16 "Better is the little of the righteous than the abundance of many wicked."

God is no longer in the picture. "Not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions." You see John, this is why God says to us in Isaiah 64:6 "All our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment." They are filthy garments if they are done against His commandments to us and if done as an excuse to exclude Him. Why? Because, as Jesus said in Matthew 16:26 "For what will a man be profited, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?" Doing good works and getting involved in all kinds of problems are not man doing good works, they are man doing these good works as an excuse to reject God and His Savior Jesus Christ.

"Hey, I am better than that minister Dale! Hey, did I not get involved in this prayer group, am I not reaching out to all these people. Dale is no good, he is selfish and self-centered. God, fine, please send me another messenger. I can’t receive anything from him anymore."

John, what pleases God? That we are involved in prayer groups, that we help old ladies across the street, that we give to charities? John, what pleases God? He gives us His answer in 1 Samuel 15:22-23,

"Has Yehovah as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of Yehovah? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, And insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry." (1 Samuel 15:22-23)

John, God doesn’t want your good works, He wants you and your obedience to Him. He already paid for your sins on the cross, you don’t have to do good works to pay for your sins. Your works and your snuffing your nose at others and His messanger are just your justifying not obeying Him and not seeking His will and doing his will. That is all it is, nothing else.

John, we are back to where we started. What does God want you to do with your life? First, he wants you to free yourself of all your dead works. What are dead works? Anything you are doing that is not of Him. I’ll tell you John what God wants you doing right now, what He wants you concerned about:

1. First, having a daily Quiet Time with Him, putting Him first in your life by seeking Him and daily spending time in His word. Jesus said, "He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God." (John 8:47).
2. He wants you rooted in a Church. Church is not man’s idea, it is God’s. Read the book of Acts and see God sending Paul and Peter every where to start churches. That doesn’t mean all churches are good, you need to find a good one, but that is what this weeks lesson is all about, how to find a good church.
3. God doesn’t want you involved in heavy relationships right now or gangs or the problems of the world, his will for you right now is to focus on your studies, your school and developing your talents and abilities He has given you. I know, you are not certain what that means yet completely. Well right now that is completing your High School education as unto the Lord with excellence; that is, what is excellence for John.
4. Fourth, he wants you to enjoy being a teenager. What does that mean? He wants you to enjoy yourself, not take on the responsibilities of the world and adults. That doesn’t come until after your education is complete and you are established in the vocation he has for you. To focus on these things now is to distract from your need to focus on your studies. John, you are not called to take on the world’s problems right now, that is not His will for you.
5. Fifth, to let me disciple you completely. What I will teach you will tell you how to discover God’s will for your life and how to succeed in preparing for it. This is all God wants you focused on right now, nothing else.
6. 6. Finally, he wants you be involved in evangelism. People without Jesus go to hell forever. Jesus is the answer of man’s needs, not governmental social programs. That is a temporary solution. Jesus is an eternal solution. So you need to give a certain amount of your time a week to go out and share Jesus with your fellow students. You want Jesus’ heart? His heart is reaching out to the lost. "The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who is wise wins souls." (Proverbs 11:30)

John, God doesn’t need us to save the world, he needs our obedience. You no longer belong to you, you belong to God.

"Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are of God." (1 Cor 6:19-20)

What is done with your life is God’s business, not your’s. The world’s problems are God’s business, not your’s! The only thing God wants you focused is not the problems of the world, but His will, nothing else.

"Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only a few things are necessary, really only one, for Mary has chosen the good part [Jesus], which shall not be taken away from her."

John, John, you are worried about so many things, when the only thing you need to worry about is Jesus’ will for you, nothing else. What I do with my life and time is not your concern, only God’s will for you John, nothing else. John, God has me in your life to teach you how to hear His voice so you can succeed in His will for your life, nothing else! You are not in my life to find fault with me, I am in your life to disciple you so you can succeed in God’s will for your life. You are not in my life to judge me and tell me what I should or should not be doing with my life and time. That is none of your business, that is Jesus’ business. He is pleased with my life because I obey Him and base my life on His instructions to me, not my own initiative. John, is Jesus pleased with your life?

"But to me it is a very small thing that I should be examined by you, or by any human court; in fact, I do not even examine myself. For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted; but the one who examines me is the Lord. Therefore do not go on judging anything before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God." (1 Cor 4:3-5)

John, stop worrying about everybody else’s problems and worry about what is Jesus’ will for your life. Jesus already paid for your sins. You can’t be anymore saved than you already are, you can’t do anything further to gain God’s acceptance, you are already accepted through the death and shed blood of Jesus Christ. Your works aren’t going to make you any more acceptable. The only thing He wants you to be concerned about is, "Jesus, what is your will for my life? Jesus, what do you want me focused on right now, not focused on right now?"

John, that is what your prayer needs to be and the only thing God wants you doing with your life and praying each day, nothing more, nothing less, nothing else. Note what Jesus said about Himself:

"And behold, a Canaanite woman came out from that region, and began to cry out, saying, ‘Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is cruelly demon-possessed.’ But He did not answer her a word. And His disciples came to Him and kept asking Him, saying, ‘Send her away, for she is shouting out after us.’ But He answered and said, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’ (Matthew 15:22-24)

What was Jesus point? John, Jesus was not a do gooder, what he did He did because that was what the Father was commanding him to do, nothing else. "Jesus therefore answered and was saying to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner’" (John 5:19). John, are you better than Jesus? John, what does Jesus want you to do? He tells you in John 20:21 "Jesus therefore said to them again, ‘Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you’" (John 20:21). Jesus only did what the Father wanted Him to do with His human life on earth. Jesus tells you that He wants you to do the same. Note what the Gospels say about the Father’s attitude toward Jesus because He only concerned Himself with what the Father wanted Him to do: "And behold, a voice out of the heavens, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased’" (Matt 3:17). John, there is only one thing God wants you to do with your life. He tells you in Matthew 17:5, "While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and behold, a voice out of the cloud, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!’" John, that is the ONLY thing God the Father wants you to be concerned with in your life: listening to His Son Jesus and obeying Him.

John, how do you know when you are loving other’s and doing God’s will in their lives:

"Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God; and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and do His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome." (1 John 5:1)

Dale P. Kruse