I dream of Genie

Back in the day when I was growing up, a favorite sitcom was the hit show, “I dream of Jeanie”. I guess ever since the tales of Aladdin and the Arabian Nights the idea of a genie that will grant you three wishes has been a popular fantasy for many. Sadly, some of that mentality has crept into our theology as well. We summon our god genie with a ritual or a prayer formula and somehow think that he is obligated to grant us our three wishes; health, wealth and happiness.
The church and many of it’s false teachers have taught us that God’s primary purpose is to serve us. He is supposed to make our lives more pleasant, to provide us with all the things we need for a successful life. His love for us is so great, that it’s easy to take advantage, like getting your mother to do your laundry and clean your room when you were a kid.
The truth is exactly the opposite. The fact of the matter is that we are to serve God. God is the king and we are his servants, called into service to serve His will. We were redeemed out of slavery to a cruel and brutal master, the devil, who was using us and would eventually destroy not only our life here, but eternally. Christ was compassionate towards our fate and offered himself as a payment for us. That purchase price by His blood transferred us from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of God. We come to God broken, poor and miserable and are given life, freedom and joy. Our response to that freedom should be to give ourselves back as bond servants to God. We should say, “I want to remain a slave forever. I will serve you with my life, for the rest of my days, for eternity”. God says,” Good, if you want to serve me, then start by serving my body. My body is the church, made up of individuals like you. Feed them, serve them, give them even a cup of water in my name and you will be serving me.”
Since we are saints called into service to the King, Paul implores us in Romans 12:1 by saying, “I urge you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”

You don't need to be dead to be a saint

All too often, the world has the wrong idea of sainthood. Number one, they think you have to live some sort of supernatural, miracle infused life that only one in a hundred million are righteous enough to live, and secondly they think you have to be dead before this title can be conferred on you. But Paul, writing to the most carnal church found in the New Testament , starts off in his letter to the Corinthians reminding them that they were already saints, or literally, true believers. Sainthood doesn’t happen after living some kind of super pious life and performing more good works than everyone else. Sainthood is a gift, conferred at one specific moment in time, the point at which you received grace leading to salvation.
As Paul says in 1 Cor. 1:6, “even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you”. Testimony refers to the message of the gospel. When was the gospel received or established in you? If you are born again, it’s when you accepted Jesus as your Savior. It’s when you were transferred from the dominion of darkness to the Kingdom of Light. It’s when you were purchased out of slavery and adopted into the family of God. At that moment in time, you were made a saint. “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.” Titus 3:5. “We’ve been saved by grace, through faith, and that not of ourselves, it is a gift of God, lest any man should boast”. Eph. 2:8.
Grace is free. Grace is undeserved. Grace transforms a sinner into a saint, not by virtue of their works, but positionally. You have been made holy by the blood of Christ which paid for all your sins in full for all time. As Paul says in verse 8 of 1 Cor., “Christ shall also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ” (at the judgment).
Wow, what a priceless gift salvation is. We could never buy it ourselves. It had to be given because it was completely beyond our ability to pay for it. It’s almost incomprehensible that I’ve been made righteous enough, by grace, to stand blameless before the perfect, almighty God. Because of His great love for us, I choose to love Him and serve Him the rest of my days.

The God of restoration

Salvation is from the Lord. Jonah 2:9

Jonah was running from God. Determined to do what he wanted to do. He knew what God wanted, but was stubbornly resisting God, even though it was causing him all kinds of problems. (been there, done that) So God turned up the heat. After spending three days in the belly of a great fish, swishing around in bile and gastric juices, in the dark, in the middle of the ocean, Jonah suddenly got religion. He remembered his God and prayed.
God is in the business of restoration. He could have allowed Jonah to drown when he was thrown off the ship. The fish could have chewed him up before swallowing. If I would have been God, I’m sure I would have terminated him for insubordination. But as Jonah said in chapter 4 verse 2, God is a “gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness…” God wants to use us Jonahs in spite of our rebellion and stubborn willfulness.
But as we learn from the lesson of Jonah, we shouldn’t presume upon the mercy of God and use our liberty as a license to sin. Rom 2:4 says, “Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?” Sometimes the kindness of God is a storm or a trial in our life to turn us in the direction He wants us to go.
Repentance is characterized by the response of the Ninevites to the message of coming judgment preached by Jonah. In chapter 3 verse 10 it says, “When God saw their DEEDS, that they TURNED from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity that He had declared…” Repentance means to turn. You’re going your way and then you turn 180 degrees and go the other way. It’s not just feeling sorry for your sin and then going right on your merry way, following the passions of your fleshly nature. It’s turning from your will and recognizing the authority of God’s will and His commission over your life, now that you are the property of God, having been bought out of bondage to the slavery of sin.
Jonah, this reluctant prophet, was instrumental in the greatest revival in Biblical history. An entire city of 600,000 people repented. God knew that the fruit was so ripe it was about to fall off the trees, He just needed someone to proclaim His word. How about you? Are you being faithful to the commission which you have been given to make disciples of the people in your neighborhood, your community, your village and ultimately throughout the world? Or are you being like Jonah, pursuing your will?