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    Let There Be __________: What Would You Be Like If You Became the Person God Expects You to Be?
    Let There Be __________: What Would You Be Like If You Became the Person God Expects You to Be?
    Let There Be __________: What Would You Be Like If You Became the Person God Expects You to Be?
    Ebook149 pages2 hours

    Let There Be __________: What Would You Be Like If You Became the Person God Expects You to Be?

    By Rick Davis

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    About this ebook

    Let There Be ; What would you be like if you became the person God expects you to be? entwines several strands that make their way through the Bible. First, as the title hints, God has created people. Then, when Jesus gave the three steps for living faithfully as his discipledenying oneself, taking up the cross, and following himhe outlined the non-negotiable essentials of the authentic life that moves from simply believing that Jesus is the Christ to being his disciple.

    Rick Davis, reflecting on his own move from belief to discipleship, explores how one can choose to embrace the calling of Jesus, to shoulder the yoke of discipleship, and to persist in ones obedience to God. Let There Be helps one to see how the disciples life is a time of learning to be the kind of person that God created and to follow his Son. As the final chapter notes, Eventually all things must be reconciled to God in a kingdom where only his will prevails. We are being trained to live in this kingdom, not the present one. We are not compatible with this present evil world.

    If you sense that a deeper and more profound life of discipleship is calling you to greater obedience to Jesus Christ, then Let There Be will share with you the fundamental insights to listen to his callto deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow the Lord.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWestBow Press
    Release dateSep 19, 2014
    ISBN9781490850320
    Let There Be __________: What Would You Be Like If You Became the Person God Expects You to Be?

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    • 4/5
      Rick Davis for a retired electrician, or anything else, certainly knows a lot about Christianity and is able to put it in words that are understandable by most people. He covers Christianity and real Christianity or justification and sanctification without using these hard and technical words. It was a good read. Received it from the Goodreads giveaways and am happy to have done so.J. Robert Ewbank author "John Wesley, Natural Man, and the Isms" "Wesley's Wars" "To Whom It May Concern" and "Tell Me About the United Methodist Church"

    Book preview

    Let There Be __________ - Rick Davis

    Copyright © 2014 Rick Davis.

    All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

    Scripture is taken from God’s Word to the Nations-1995

    WestBow Press

    A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

    1663 Liberty Drive

    Bloomington, IN 47403

    www.westbowpress.com

    1 (866) 928-1240

    Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

    Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

    Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

    ISBN: 978-1-4908-5033-7 (sc)

    ISBN: 978-1-4908-5034-4 (hc)

    ISBN: 978-1-4908-5032-0 (e)

    Library of Congress Control Number: 2014915670

    WestBow Press rev. date: 09/02/2014

    Contents

    Introduction

    So What Were You Created For?

    The Nature of Man

    Beginnings/Our Problem

    What Are We Really Like

    Beginnings/God’s Solution

    Three People

    The Search

    Perfect Timing

    Terminal Culture

    Church v. World

    Event or Process?

    Attributes of Ungodliness

    So You Want to Be Like God?

    A New Reality

    Suffering v. Prosperity

    Your Heart and Your Treasure

    The Kingdom of Heaven

    Jesus

    The New Creation

    The Disciple

    The Vine

    What about Love?

    The Bible says that God knew you before he created the world. Did you ever wonder about the mental image that he had in mind as he thought of you? Because of sin none of us match that image. You can become the person He had in mind. It is a simple process. When Jesus spoke to people, their response to his words produced consequences in their lives. To comply with his radical agenda, a person’s life would defy the convention of any society. This is how we become the man or woman that God envisioned. Yes, it is up to you! The underscore after the title should be completed with the reader’s name. The title Let There Be is a condensed way of saying, remove all impediments that prevent something from happening. The person we have developed for ourselves is the impediment. So, Let there be!

    Introduction

    My new favorite verse is Ephesians 5:1. The first two words, Imitate God, could make the rest of this book unnecessary. Unfortunately our fallen nature seems to prevent a successful imitation.

    We all know Jesus said a lot of very difficult things. People tend to love his less challenging statements in the same way they love the baby in the manger more than the God-man who requires everyone to repent. So we wrap a shroud of mystery around his commands that are incompatible with our agenda. This allows us to never fully engage in obedience by using two rationales. The first one is that there must be some alternate meaning. The second one is our rationalization of that meaning. Some folks are able to satisfy themselves with the alternate meaning theory, as no one in their circles ever challenges them. Others feel the heat, as people they encounter may want to know what these imperatives from Jesus actually mean. Knowing what they mean is only difficult if you are blind and deaf. In fact, this is what Jesus says about the person who ignores his words. It is also what he says about the person who attaches alternate meanings to his word. He called the great religious leaders of the day blind guides.

    When you apply single-minded obedience, a term I have borrowed from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, your life will assume a pattern that is inconsistent with the conventional world. As this pattern develops, it changes you from the carnal mind to the spiritual mind. I do believe this should begin at conversion, but we have negated this because of easy believism and what I have called cultural intoxication. We have taken our eyes off Jesus as we look to the world for a life of ease and comfort. Moses is a great example for us as we struggle against the temptations of this present evil world.

    When Moses grew up, faith led him to refuse to be known as a son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to suffer with God’s people rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a little while. He thought that being insulted for Christ would be better than having the treasures of Egypt. He was looking ahead to his reward (Hebrews 11:24–25).

    Moses’ life is a beautiful marriage of God’s sovereignty and Moses’ free will. God’s plan is so vast that who can comprehend it? He chose Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt, across the desert, to Mt. Sinai, and through the wilderness. Although Israel had been in bondage for more than four hundred years, God waited for Moses to appear. The reason for this was that the entire human race was in Adam when he was created. It would be more than twenty-five hundred years through the unfolding of Adam for Moses to appear. Moses, the man who was the product of chosen ancestry, would think and act in the appropriate manner to oppose Pharaoh, resist the pleasures of sin, and lead Israel out of Egypt. This is why God chose him even before creation. The Bible says that Moses chose to suffer affliction with the people of God, rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. It was in this way he embraced the destiny of slaves. This is where free will and election come together in perfect harmony. From a strictly human perspective we can see how genetics can play a part in this process. Of course, from the human perspective it is impossible to fathom every human pairing and the subsequent offspring through thousands of generations, not to mention the incalculable circumstantial events that impact the result. But as the angel said to Mary, With God all things are possible.

    So here we are today. Nothing is impossible, and nothing is accidental in the kingdom of God. You have come a long way. God has patiently waited for you to appear. Now is your time! Now is your Moses moment!

    So What Were You Created For?

    Did you ever take the time to just stop everything and consider the purpose of your life? Read the account of creation and stop at the end of the fifth day. All this should be astonishing to us, yet somehow we seem to take it with a business as usual attitude. God speaks and things appear. The entire universe has been created as a support system for this little piece of cosmic dust called Earth. The earth, trees, rivers, mountains, and animals are merely a support system for what happened on the sixth day.

    Then God said, Let us make humans in our image, in our likeness. Let them rule the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the domestic animals all over the earth, and all the animals that crawl on the earth.

    So God created humans in his image. In the image of God he created them. He created them male and female.

    God blessed them and said, Be fertile, increase in number, fill the earth, and be its master. Rule the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that crawl on the earth.

    God said, I have given you every plant with seeds on the face of the earth and every tree that has fruit with seeds. This will be your food. I have given all green plants as food to every land animal, every bird in the sky, and every animal that crawls on the earth—every living, breathing animal. And so it was.

    And God saw everything that he had made and that it was very good. There was evening, then morning—the sixth day. (Genesis 1:26-31)

    So according to this account, a totally awesome and indescribable being made humans to be like himself. Had it not been for sin, this would be the one defining characteristic of mankind. Maybe we would have been called Godkind. Well, that didn’t happen. As God’s plan unfolds, things get better. The greatness of God’s creation can be seen by what it cost to redeem it. Every one of us is joined to God’s redemptive work because he has redeemed all of his creation. Sadly most people willfully reject his love and good will. Let’s look at those who receive new life from their Creator.

    First, imagine being the son of a billionaire with all the attendant amenities that come with that life. You attend the most prestigious schools and earn a master’s degree in neurology. Upon graduation you take a job at a local garage and begin your career doing oil changes. I am not demeaning this type of work, but it is a strange career for one with so much to offer. This is how I view most of the church. We have been born of God with all the attendant amenities that come with that life. So what kind of work have we chosen? Yes, you have guessed correctly. We are doing oil changes when we could be doing brain surgery. Each of us has been created for a purpose, a purpose initially known only by God. The only way to discover that purpose is to want it more than anything else. When we fill our lives with our own agenda, fulfilling our own desires, and living the conventional life that is compatible with our culture, we frustrate the Spirit of God, who is constantly encouraging us to abandon our addiction to the ways of this present evil world.

    Just in America there should be fifty million apostles like Paul. Why isn’t there? Look at the radical response from God in regard to our sin. Yet we treat our response as an event rather than a process. When the event is behind us, we move forward with our own agenda, clothed in a veneer of goodness as we continue through life. Where is the radical life that reflects our recognition of God’s mercy and grace? We have accepted a standard that defies this concept. Why? The world is totally evil, about to be judged, and we have the Word of God and his promises. Yet we live out our lives in spiritual mediocrity. When we throw up our hands and say, What can I do? we are really saying that God cannot do what’s necessary. We are the arms and legs for the head, which is Christ. Let’s face it. We love our own lives more than we love Jesus. How will you ever determine the purpose of your life when your hot buttons are politics or TV or baseball, football, or soccer? Maybe it is your job, your wife, your children—it doesn’t matter.

    God will not accept second place. This does not diminish the affection for your spouse or children. We are living in the last days. There is no time to wait. Our nation’s founding fathers were committed to the revolution, knowing that if they failed, they would all hang. What chance did they have against the most powerful empire in the world? A gambler would have bet the house on the British. If these men were able to commit to a cause for a temporal kingdom, how much more should we give ourselves to the Lord of glory, our Savior, and coming King?

    Jesus said to them, I can guarantee this truth: When the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne in the world to come, you, my followers, will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who gave up homes, brothers or sisters, father, mother, children, or fields because of my name will receive a hundred times more and will inherit eternal life. However, many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.

    The Nature of Man

    I remember waking up in the middle of the night with the ominous feeling that something was wrong. There is always something deeply disturbing about that feeling. It

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