John 6:15 - So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone. NASU
You can be sure the plan to make Jesus an earthly king was nothing more than a "distraction" sent by the devil himself. The devil knows humans extremely well and sending distractions is something he does continuously. His plan has been working on us for thousands of years. So why would he want to change his tactics? The reason he tries to distract us is he doesn't want us to accomplish our goals.
There is no doubt in my mind He would have made a great earthly king. In fact, He would have been the greatest earthly king of all time. BUT that was not His goal. If He would have become an earthly king it would have been in direct opposition to the goal He set before He left heaven.
Here is what I mean by that: Jesus as an earthly king could have made sure everyone had a good job. "How?" you might ask. He could have made sure that all the plants had a record producing year. He could have sent the right amount of sunshine and rain on the plants each week. The corn, carrots, beets, potatoes, wheat, barley, grapes and olives would have produced in abundance. He could have had the sheep and cows produce record amounts of wool, milk and offspring. People throughout Israel would have been working. Foreign merchants and traders would have been constantly coming to buy and sell their goods. Do you get the picture? They would have had Jesuscare, which I am sure would be far better than Obamacare. He could have taken care of everyone's health issues. He could have blessed the water and said, "Everyone who drinks from it would be made well again." Then there is this one last act that He could have done that would have made Him famous. He could have resurrected the dead and given them back to their loved ones. Jesus would have been the greatest earthly king to ever have lived, BUT that was not His goal.
He chose to be a Spiritual King instead of an earthly one. I hope that you have chosen Him to be your Spiritual Lord, King and Savior. This was the greatest accomplishment for Jesus and nothing was able to stop Him from reaching His goal.
These distractions may be beneficial to you and others, but they will never benefit anyone greatly. You have to make a choice. Do I do good things or great things? Do I let myself be distracted or stick to my goal?
Once you start traveling on the pathway to Heaven you can be sure distractions will come your way. Theses distractions only have one purpose and that is to get you to go for good instead of great. Matt. 6:33 - "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you" NASU Think On These: A good leader inspires men to have a confidence in him; a great leader inspires men to have confidence in themselves. Great minds have purposes; others have wishes. Stay Pumped, Gary A. Serago Minister of God's Word Share this Pump Up with others by Sharing on Your Facebook Page or Forwarding to a friend. To Read Other Pump Ups You Can Go To My Website. www.SeragosPumpUps.com
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Philippians 2:14-15 - "Do everything without complaining or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God…" NIV
His players moaned and groaned about this schedule, but Shula would not change his mind nor reduce the number of workouts like the players wanted him to do. His players said this was unheard of and no other NFL team had four workouts per day. One player complained to the press saying, "All we do is dress, practice, undress, and dress, practice and undress. We are not sure if we are football players or strippers."
The exact thing they complained about is what, within a few months, they attributed to their success. In 1972 the Dolphins went undefeated something no other NFL teams has been able to duplicate at this time.
We humans have a way of complaining about what is really good for us. We just can't see it at the time of our complaining. Do yourself a favor and hold off on the complaining.
The Israelites wanted to be free from the Egyptian bondage in the days of Moses. Once God started His plan to free them with Moses as their leader all we see them doing is complaining. In fact, they complained all the way out of their bondage.
God has started the process of freeing us from our bondage and how have we decided to thank Him? We complain during the entire process. We are exactly like the Israelites as they were being led out of 400 years of Egyptian bondage. We complain all the way through it. God has a plan for us to be free. Do yourself a huge favor. Don't complain about the way God is freeing you from your bondage. Try trusting God more and yourself less. God knows exactly what it is we need in our lives and that you can take to the bank. Think On These: Some people would complain that the stepping stones to success have bruised their feet. Don't pray for rain if you are going to complain about the mud. Don't find fault with what you don't understand. Gen. 39:10 - She kept putting pressure on him day after day, but he refused to sleep with her, and he kept out of her way as much as possible. NLT
In our text above Joseph, who was a slave in Egypt, found himself facing the pressures that come from the sexual nature. He was a handsome young man and his boss' wife wanted to have a sexual relationship with him, but Joseph would not be seduced. If you ever find yourself facing the pressure that comes form sexual temptations you better have a plan to help you get away.
If there is a pressure that is being applied to you see if you can use the Joseph method and avoid the area where it is coming. This won't always work because some times the pressure is coming from where you work, go to school or even live. When people asked me how I was able to leave the partying life and become a Christian so easily I always tell them that I CHANGED MY ENVIRONMENT. I quit going to the bars and associating with the people who used drugs and alcohol. I started associating with other Christians. If it is possible a change of friends, and places you go will greatly help you overcome some types of pressure.
The key to staying pressure free is being prepared for the situation that you are about to face. Joseph had prepared himself mentally and spiritually so that when the situation did arise he departed. In Joseph's case the best thing he could do was RUN AWAY from the pressure. He did exactly what the Apostle Paul would say many years later. 1 Corin. 6:18 - Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. NASU
Identify what you believe are the top three things that are putting pressure on you today and then make a plan that helps you to be prepared to conquer them.
1 Corin. 10:13 - No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. NIV If you will take the word "temptation" and translate it "pressure" because we know temptations bring their own type of pressure. You will be able to see that God permits pressure to come into our lives to make us stronger. When the pressure becomes too great He will provide a way for you to escape. Be prepared and overcome the pressures in life that you will face and when you do you will be glad that you stayed the course.
I don’t know about you but that really sounds cool to me. If Jesus is preparing a place for me then I want to go and see what it looks like. He is also preparing a place for you and I hope you want to go and see it also. Think On These: You can either worry about the future or prepare for it. No man ever reached to excellence in any one art or profession without having passed through the slow and painful process of study and preparation. Stay Pumped, Gary A. Serago Minister of God's Word Share this Pump Up with others by Sharing on your Facebook Page or Forwarding to family members and friends. Lk 14:28-30 - "For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? 29 "Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, 30 saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.' NASU
I can remember on numerous occasions saying to myself, "If I would have taken a few minutes to plan this out I could have saved myself some time and money. Serago you are an idiot." So, if you have some ideas about future plans do yourself a favor and calculate the cost before you jump into it.
How does he do this? He would make a plan. What will be the dimensions of this tower? How many workers will I need? What type of materials and how much of each type will I need? How much money will be needed to finance this project? How long will this job take? These are just some of the questions that a wise person would ask before the project begins.
Are you trying to build a family, team or a business? Are you trying to build a nest egg for your retirement? Whatever it is you are trying to build if you follow the advice of Jesus you will at least sit down and make a plan.
In our society today where you have preachers putting the pressure on people to make a decision about becoming a Christian during a 30 minute sermon this was not the case with Jesus. Jesus was saying if you want to follow me or be a disciple of Mine you better think about what it is going to cost you. This is not to be some quick decision. I have been a Christian for 40 years and a Minister for over 30 of those years. I have seen a lot of people start down the path of being a Christian but somewhere along the road they quit. This parable is true in a lot of ways but it will never be any truer than it is when one becomes a Christian. If you are listening to a preacher and he is encouraging you to be a Christian and he is telling you how great your life is going to be once you make that decision and you will never have any problems. I would get away from there and quickly. Listen to what Jesus said in Luke 14:27 - "Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple…." If you are carrying your cross, you are in trouble. You are going to die. You are walking to your death. There is going to be no tomorrow for you. Jesus says this is the path His disciples travel. Jesus' disciples expect hard times here on earth and they will overcome these hard times because God is with us. One second's worth of time in heaven and you will forget all the suffering you ever had to endure on earth. Now before you become a disciple of Jesus' you may want to think about the cost and after you have thought about the cost do yourself a favor and think about the reward. Think On These: When it comes to food for thought some folks are on a hunger strike. Thinking is only a process of talking to yourself intelligently. Stay Pumped, Gary A. Serago Minister of God's Word John 6:15 - So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone. NASU
It doesn't matter if you are planning to run a marathon or lose 5 lbs. Once you set your goal the distractions will immediately start coming your way.
His plan was to become the Savior of mankind. He would become a King but not an earthly one. He would become a Heavenly or Spiritual King. When people were trying to force their will on Him He headed for the mountains to pray. When people try to get you off your goals do like Jesus separate yourself from them. Find a place where you can have some alone time and pray.
Set yourself some goals and start to work on accomplishing them and see how the life looks different. Instead of the glass being half empty it will be half full. People who find themselves in a lot of debt are told by their counselors that the first thing to do is set a goal of paying the smallest ones off first because once this is done it gives you a good feeling, a feeling of accomplishment. When you accomplish one pay off this motivates you to pay off the second and every time another debt is paid off the motivation level raises until they are all completely paid in full.
A person with goals must always watch out for distractions. As we can see in the above text the distraction Jesus was facing was from His own people who He had come there to help. Some of your distractions may come from the people who are closest to you and know you best. They know you are trying to accomplish certain goals but they still will want you to break your training and go with them. This is when you must really "stay focused" and say, "No." I have other things I need to do. Notice I didn't say to tell them you can't go. That is negative. You tell them you need to do other things. The other thing is to stay focused on accomplishing your goals. I guarantee you once you accomplish your goals all those people will want to be around you.
Athletes get tired of doing the same thing over and over again. Some of the best advice I can give you here is to change up your routine some how so that it doesn't lead to boredom. In fact, physical trainers will always have you change your routines because of "muscle memory" once muscle memory kicks in your gains will start to decrease. "Stay Focused" and you will accomplish your goals. Jesus did and so can you. Think On These: The thing to try when all else fails is again. The man who really wants to do something finds a way; the other man finds an excuse. Stay Pumped, Gary A. Serago Minister of God's Word Share this Pump Up with others by Sharing on Your Facebook Page or Forwarding to a friend. |
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