One Christmas Eve, A father made all his 5 children sit in a circle and placed a toy in the middle. He told them that the most obedient kid will get this toy as an EXTRA Christmas gift this year. The youngest child asked, “what is obedience?”, the father replied the one who listens to mom and helps her. The father then asked “now tell me who is the most obedient?”, the younger one instantly took the toy and gave to his father and said with a wry smile " IT'S YOU DAD ".
A Stingy husband gave the Obedient wife instruction: "When I die, pack all my money in this box and put it in my Casket, I need it in heaven" "Sure." she assured. After his death, she put the box in the Casket and the Undertakers took it away. Her friend aghast, asked "I can’t believe you did that" "Why?” said the wife. "I put the cash in my account and issued him a Cheque. He can cash it in Heaven."
The greatest miracle in the Bible is when Joshua told his son to stand still and he obeyed him.
Lesson for 2013-Complete Obedience
The Magi
The Magi from the East obeyed all the new-a sign in the sky . . . they found Jesus and gave Him the gifts they had brought . . . 212 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
Obedience alone gives the right to command. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Joseph
Matthew 1:18 This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” . . . 24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
2:13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15
where he stayed until the death of Herod. . . . 19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 20 and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.” 21 So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel.
Obedience without faith is possible, but not faith without obedience. Anon
Mary
26 In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31 You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”
34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. 37 For nothing is impossible with God.”
38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her.
Jesus
Philippians 2:5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!
Jesus began His time on earth as He ended it-in obedience and humility.
Wicked men obey from fear; good men, from love. Aristotle
US
John 14:15 “If you love me, you will obey what I command.
Dietrich Bonheoffer
He wrote to Reinhold Niebuhr: "I have come to the conclusion that I made a mistake in coming to America. I must live through this difficult period in our national history with the people of Germany. I will have no right to participate in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share the trials of this time with my people... Christians in Germany will have to face the terrible alternative of either willing the defeat of their nation in order that Christian civilization may survive or willing the victory of their nation and thereby destroying civilization. I know which of these alternatives I must choose but I cannot make that choice from security." He returned to Germany on the last scheduled steamer to cross the Atlantic . . . . he pastored a church forbidden by the Nazi government
. . . Bonheoffer was led away just as he concluded his final Sunday service and said to an English prisoner Payne Best . . ."This is the end — for me the beginning of life.
April 8, 1945, Bonheoffer was stripped of his clothing and led naked into the execution yard, where he was hanged, along with fellow conspirators
The camp doctor who witnessed the execution wrote: “I saw Pastor Bonheoffer... kneeling on the floor praying fervently to God. I was most deeply moved by the way this lovable man prayed, so devout and so certain that God heard his prayer. At the place of execution, he again said a short prayer and then climbed the few steps to the gallows, brave and composed. His death ensued after a few seconds. In the almost fifty years that I worked as a doctor, I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God.”
(Edited from Wikipedia entry on DB)
One act of obedience is better than one hundred sermons. Dietrich Bonheoffer
O little town of Bethlehem How still we see thee lie
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep The silent stars go by
Yet in thy dark streets shineth The everlasting Light
The hopes and fears of all the years Are met in thee tonight
. . .
O holy Child of Bethlehem Descend to us, we pray
Cast out our sin and enter in Be born to us today
We hear the Christmas angels The great glad tidings tell
O come to us, abide with us Our Lord Emmanuel
When the Child of Bethlehem is born in us, the Spirit of Obedience takes up residence in our hearts.
The greatest way for us to proclaim the Truth of that child is to live a life of abject obedience to God.
