Luke 2:48 – And when they saw him, they were amazed: and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.

Luke 2:49 – And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?

2 Samuel 11:1 – And it came to pass, after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried still at Jerusalem.

Acts 7:30 – And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sina an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush.

Hello readers, this is my last blog of 2020. I thank you all kindly for reading this blog and any other of my blogs throughout the year, and hopefully my blogs have been a help and blessing to you. Jesus Christ said that if he was lifted up, he would draw all men unto himself. That’s what this blog is about, lifting up the Lord Jesus Christ who is the same yesterday, day and forever… and lifting him up today for the day and hour we live in.

Jesus said to Peter, Peter when you are converted, strengthen the brethren. Jesus also said to this same Peter… Peter do you love me? Feed my sheep. He said this three times to Peter. We get saved, and then God has a purpose for our life. We are saved to serve not ourselves, but God. We’re not saved just to live our own selfish lives with the perks of getting a free pass to heaven at the end of it all. A lot of people quote Ephesians 2:8 and 9 (which are great by the way!)… but miss the next verse after that. Ephesians 2:10 – For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

The problem is people just don’t understand what salvation is. They’ve formed an image of Jesus Christ in their minds that is not based on the truth of God’s word. In fact anything and everything BUT. That’s idolatry, an age old sin. The Bible could easily have started with John 3:16… but it starts with Genesis 1:1. And there is a lot of writing, before Jesus pops on the scene in human form. All that Bible before Jesus Christ is born prepares us for him, because there’s a lot we need to learn about who God is and what God requires. Even before Jesus’ ministry started, there came a man called John the Baptist sent to prepare the way of the Lord. The problem is for many of us, the way of the Lord has not been prepared in their lives… a way that is prepared only by the preaching of repentance of sins and acknowledgement of truth.

Peter would be a key figure in the early church and telling others about Jesus Christ, in teaching and instructing and in setting people straight in accordance with the word of God. And Jesus had a command for him… feed my sheep. How does one feed God’s sheep? Well we know that God’s word is the believer’s food by which they grow. It is manna from heaven, fresh every day. Job said he esteemed God’s word above his necessary food. This blog is about feeding God’s sheep. When you’re fed, you grow, you’re built up, you’re strengthened. You cannot be those things without the word of God. A good shepherd makes sure his sheep are watered, protected, and fed.

Today I was initially going to do my blog on Luke 4, when Jesus said I must be about my Father’s business. I still will, but not as in much detail. But this statement from Jesus at twelve years old has meant more and more to me as the year has gone on. I must be about my Father’s business. May God impress his word upon your heart today. This was Jesus the carpenter’s son, and he’d be thirty years old with not a whole lot we’d know about all those years.

There’s something about God’s timing and faithfulness in obscurity. Moses had grown up the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, he was mighty in word and deed… he tried answering the call his way, in his strength and wisdom… but God would take him to the deserts of Midian working as a nobody shepherd for forty years before God’s word was revealed to him at the burning bush. Has God’s word been personally revealed to you? I can talk about God’s word, but there must be a revelation of God himself to us personally through his word for this thing to be alive. 1 Samuel 3:7 – Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, neither was the word of the LORD yet revealed unto him. It’s not enough to know about him, you’ve gotta know him.

We can go about our life just doing our business. We work, we play, we holiday, we spend time with friends, we just do life… we have our plans and interests and occupy ourselves… but are never minded of the Father’s business. Of course, if you’re not saved, God is not your Father, and thus you’ll never have his business on your mind and heart to do. Was your year about the Father’s business? Or was it just about you doing your thing? It could’ve been very full and busy, you may have had loads of fun… whatever. But was it about following and obeying the Lord Jesus Christ? Was it his will… or your will? Do you really have a heart to obey God, and follow him, and do his will and purpose for your life? Jesus as a child already had the heart for the will of his Father. We could’ve spent our whole year with no will for the Father we say we have. You see, a lot of the Jews in Jesus’ day said God was their Father, and they had father Abraham also… yet there was nothing to it.

Jesus would later say, I have meat to eat that you know not of… and that his meat was to do the will of him that sent him. A Christian has a higher calling in life. His disciples were telling him to eat food, and that may have been humanly necessary, but his real meat was the salvation of souls. What he was really interested in doing was his Father’s business. Which was what? God had a mission and purpose and direction for him, he had God’s will to mankind on his heart… that was what he was about. What are you all about? You know, one day in each of our lives, we should follow the example of Jesus at 12. I must be about my Father’s business. We get so tangled up in our business and we miss the reason for living, the reason for our very existence… our Father’s business. What a life it would be to go about our business and leave the Father’s business undone. But only God can put it in each of our hearts to be minded of his business. God’s business should be our business if we are saved. We can do life selfishly or we can seek to obey and please him.

Don’t expect others to understand. Jesus’ parents didn’t get it at all. But there’s no true happiness and fulfillment and joy and purpose if we aren’t in the Father’s will for our lives. A life spent on ourselves, doing our own thing, being caught up in this world, being so busy… and while many things may not be in and of themselves wrong… they’re keeping us from the Father’s business. It’s so easy for us to not just waste a year, but our lives. Jesus at twelve years of age was getting about his Father’s business. God saves us, and it’s about so much more than forgiveness of sin, it’s about a new life entirely, a life with purpose and direction, a life of relationship and fellowship with God, it’s about pleasing him and bringing honour and glory to his Son. Paul was pressing to the mark, why don’t we? When will we get moving in our lives? Ever? It’s not loss to follow Jesus Christ, Jesus could’ve settled for a life of carpentry but that wasn’t his purpose, his like our real reason here is what the Father has us here for. What really matters? What will really last at the fiery day of judgment?

With all this in mind. I’ve quoted another verse at the start. It has to do with a year ending, just like this one we are in. David and his army had been at war, and they had our equivalent of a Christmas break. The year ended and it was good fun, a good time. Rest, relaxation … that’s what we all like right? There may have been no problem with that, we all need a rest from work and so on… but the point is David was already in a position where his flesh, ease and comfort were making decisions not God’s word and will for his life. When your life is about pleasing and gratifying yourself, trouble is surely coming, especially for the saved child of God.

So the year ended and it was time to go out and fight. We have a fight, the fight of faith. Paul said this as a father to his son in the faith. 1 Timothy 6:12 – Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. Faith is a fight… it’s a fight to believe and obey God’s word.

Well David got a little tired of fighting. Once he stopped he didn’t want to start up again. Easier just to stay back and let others do it. Maybe you’re sitting around rather than in the fight, you’re unwilling for the battle. Rather than being minded of your Father’s business, you’re sitting around, you’re tarrying at a time when it’s necessary to go forth in obedience to Jesus Christ.

The point today is that, if you’re not about the Father’s business, there is trouble coming to your life. Because David stayed back, we all know what happened next… he saw a beautiful woman washing herself and lust conceived sin which brought forth death. It resulted in a whole lot of death in his life. See that selfishly motivated life you’ve got, it’s bringing forth death in your life, it’s vexing your righteous soul just as Lot did. Lot had no peace and happiness and joy in Sodom. Was all that money and trade and a big house and school for his kids and a social scene for his wife really worth it? There’s no fulfillment and purpose and blessing in just doing your own thing.

There’s a path of sin and destruction that is surely awaiting us if we don’t get moving in faith. We won’t ever be able to middle our way through life. You can’t serve two masters though we all try. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. A wonderful verse in the Bible is where Joseph took Jesus and  Mary back out of Egypt (where they had sought refuge from Herod’s baby killing spree)… and the Bible says that this fulfilled the scripture that said out of Egypt have I called my son. If you’re his son, God has called you out of Egypt. We are called out of Egypt, God’s got a land of life for you that’s flowing with milk and honey, a land so much better than the iron furnace of Egypt. His will is the land flowing with milk and honey, whereas our will and our selfish spiritually dead lives are slavery and bondage in Egypt.

I’d been thinking a bit about those feasts they had when God did get them out of Egypt. You know why they were feasts? Because feasts are good times, they’re celebrations and joyous occasions. Getting saved, and obeying God… it’s not depressing… it’s the best time you’ll ever have. Knowing the truth, being saved, seeing other’s saved, being set free from all the vanity and bondage and deceit and lies of this dark sin cursed world… that’s good news right? The gospel is GOOD news! God’s commandments are for our good. People somehow develop this negative killjoy image of God… that doesn’t exist. The only reason he’s a killjoy is because we love our sin and garbage so much.

The Bible says let him that standeth take heed lest he fall. David had been going pretty well, he’d had some ups and downs like us all, but a big fall was coming. All because he’d stopped fighting, he’d stopped obeying God. God’s will had given way to David’s will. What a devastating outcome from such a simple little allowance and indulgence that he allowed himself to stay back while everyone else was grabbing their swords to go back to where they were supposed to be.

There’s a legacy and testimony we are having and are leaving behind. This happening in David’s life… it echoes to this day. Yes he repented, but what a devastating impact it had on his testimony and witness and his posterity. You can be known and remembered like Lot was… or like Abraham was. That is up to us. It doesn’t change who God is… but we have real decisions and choices in life. We can waste our life and the time God has given us on a life spent on ourselves pursuing all things that have no eternal value, or we can redeem the time that God has given us. Do you want loss and waste… or redemption? Those Hebrews didn’t “have” to be out in the wilderness forty years wandering in circles… they were there because of unbelief and then rebellion and lust and murmuring. They never got moving forward because they were overthrown by their sin.

David made a choice based on gratifying and pleasing his flesh, Jesus was making decisions based on his Father’s will. Jesus always did those things that pleased his Father. Jesus lived a sinless life, David, although a man after God’s heart, was a sinner who needed the same salvation we all need. The best of us are dismal failures, that’s ultimately why Jesus is the Saviour and all that he’s cracked up to be, that’s why we have to look to him the author and finisher of our faith. You know, it didn’t have to be like that for David, but his life is a warning about when we take our eyes off obeying God’s word, when we wander from the Father’s will… and we enter into that territory of our life where we take the wheel. God is the Most High, but is he most high in your life? The problem is he’s not most high for most, if not all of us. Whatever is highest in our mind and heart is where we’ll be going, maybe you’re really on that throne you say that God is on.

So today, we are at the end of the year like David was. Where’s your life at? And what’s next? There’s nothing wrong with taking a break, this blog isn’t about that. But at the end of the year, it’s good to look at our own lives. It is our will or God’s will? We know the example of Jesus’ life, and from David’s life. Look where my will versus God’s will takes me. God’s will produces fruit and life and purpose and fulfillment… my will produces nothing but sin and death. There’s a fight of faith, a fight to believe and trust and obey God’s word… and that fight is on. But the fight is worth it. Don’t you think Jesus knew what was before him as he obeyed his Father, knowing the end to which he was born? Yet he embraced it, because he loved his Father perfectly. He also loved us perfectly.

Hopefully at the end of the year, it’s a time of reevaluating where we are at in life. The Bible says if we would judge ourselves we should not be judged. What a verse. You can get right with God now, or you can be ashamed and embarrassed before him at his coming. The only person we are fooling in our sinful, selfish, rebellious, spiritually dead lives are ourselves. Jesus said he must be about his Father’s business. It actually is worth it to obey God in your own life. To get in line with his word and will for your life. To have a heart that cares for what God would do with your life. To care about God’s work and purpose rather than just living a life for yourself that ultimately at the end is worthless and meaningless. God’s got business here on earth, Jesus was looking on the fields that were white to harvest. That’s where Jesus’ heart was at. He looked on the multitudes that were as sheep with no shepherd. He had come to rescue the lost sheep.

I pray that God will reveal himself to you personally through his word. That’s where God is found, in the Bible is where you’ll find him. I hope you have a happy and safe new year, and may God move upon the waters of your heart and soul and it not be a new leaf, but a new reality. New leaves wither, but a tree planted by the rivers of living water… that’s what the saved blessed man is likened unto. Get saved today, believe on him and obey him, step into that flowing Jordan in faith, get a heart for the Father’s business… the eternal business of God, what he’s doing and what he wants… that matters so much more than the carpentry business or all the affairs and issues and occupations of man and life down here.

At the end of forty years, Moses saw a burning bush. His life changed. It was because he turned aside, and we must all turn aside from our self oriented lives where we just rinse and repeat year after year… it was because Moses had a heart for God’s word and what God wanted. God wanted his people free from Pharaoh and Egypt. Moses had a choice… stay a shepherd in Midian or deliver God’s people. What would you choose? God’s will? God’s business? God made his business known to Moses, and Moses’ heart that had always stirred upon God’s will stirred once more. It took the expiration of forty years. How many years before you come to an end of what you’re doing, how many years until you turn aside from this world, from all the affairs and distractions and occupations and busyness of your selfish life… and turn to God in  salvation to service. I pray that God will call you in your life where you are today. God has a will for each of our lives, we are not clones, but there is one God, one Shepherd, one truth, one Saviour. Once again, thanks for reading, may God bless you and keep you, and see you all again in 2021!

Blog Bible Christ Christian Faith God Gospel Holy Spirit Jesus KJV Lord Salvation Saved Truth