Quote from Forum Archives on March 15, 1998, 10:30 pm

Posted by: lifeunlimited <lifeunlimited@...>

Standing Shoulder to Shoulder With You as You Fight the Good Fight!

A newsletter designed to undergird, encourage, and motivate those serving
the Lord in Ministry.

Dear Co-Laborer:

I pray you have had a good week, and that you're anticipating another
just ahead.

The phrase "have a good week" raises an interesting question: Just what
is a "good week"? What makes one week "good" and another one "bad" or
"not so good"? More specifically, why do You have a "Good" week and then
at other times a "Bad" week? How was last week for you? What do you
anticipate for this week?

What factors determined last week to be "Good" or "Bad" for you? What
factors will you use to determine how this week will be? Is it the week
itself? Is it what the week contains? Is it the significance of that
particular week?

It is easy to identify a week. There are 52 of them in each year, and
4,160 of them in a life-span of 80 years. Each one contains the same
number of days ---- seven; the same identification of days ---- Sunday,
Monday, etc.; ---- the same number of hours ---- 168; the same number of
minutes ---- 10,080. A week is a week ---- no matter where you live, who
you are, or what you're doing.

Defining a "GOOD" week, however, is not so easy. It involves a couple
very important factors.

First, WHAT actually determines whether or not a particular week is good
or bad? Is it the contents of the week? The events? The weather? The
size of the attendance or the amount of the offering? The number of
"decisions" made? The health conditions of your family members? The
balance in your bank account? The mechanical condition of your car ----
or dryer?

Then, second, WHO influences you to decide a "Good" week from a "Bad"
one? Is it your boss, your spouse, your church? Is it the people who
attended services? Or those who didn't? Is it those who gave you a hard
time or criticized something you did or said ? Or praised you for your
great solo or sermon? Is it your kids, or your favorite team in the
tournament?

Frankly, we often conclude that we've had what we would call a "Good" or
a "Bad" week simply because we use the wrong standards of measurement to
decide its quality. I do not believe God ever intended His children to
be so caught up in the world system that we would fall for the trick of
using the world's and man's methods of determining what is a good week
and what is a bad one. But, of course, that should come as no surprise
when we, by our very fallen nature, normally use the world's grading
system on nearly all things pertaining to good and bad ---- war,
success, the value of life, politics, morality, etc.

It is really unfortunate that we greatly reduce the number of "Good"
weeks we actually have by using External Circumstances and Environment,
or Internal Emotions and Attitudes, to select which week has been good
and which has not. If we could but understand a few basic principles,
then EVERY week could be a "Good Week".

In order to do so, we must first recognize that a week is not decreed
"Good" or "Bad" on the basis of experiences, circumstances, attitudes,
disposition, successes, possessions, or people, In that sense, a week is
NEVER "Good" or "Bad". It is "inanimate" ---- much like a car or a
hammer. It's "goodness" or "badness" is determined by how the one who
possesses it decides to use it. While it is indeed a measurement of
time, a week is still simply a week.

As far as I can tell, the one constant thing that determines whether or
not your week will be "Good" is ---- how you respond to God.

As we face a new week together, dreading some things and anticipating
others, let me encourage you with a simple but significant truth ---- God
made the week. ---- AND all it will contain!

---- ALL it will contain.

Actually, this is not the direction I planned for this newsletter, but
apparently somebody needs to take courage in facing another week. Maybe
you've had so many discouraging ones that you need confidence that this
one can be different ---- if not in content, at least in approach.

Maybe the dailyness of life has become so dull and boring that you need
to come alive again and realize that, not only is this the Day the Lord
has made, but also the WEEK He has made ---- so REJOICE! ---- AND
BE G-L-A-D ---- In it, and Within it.

Maybe last week was so hectic that you're dreading this one being a clone
of the last, when, what you really need to do is sit down, . . . relax, .
. . breathe deep, . . . envision the coming Spring, . . . and then go do
something with your wife! I talked with a pastor recently who literally
named his new fishing boat "Visitation" so when people called for him at
the office or home, his secretary or wife could tell them, "He's out on
visitation." I don't know ---- maybe you need to go fishing.

On the other hand, last week may have been so exciting for you that you
could hardly wait for this one, and you're so wired that if the Rapture
took place today, you'd probably overshoot heaven.

Whatever last week was like, it's not nearly as important as how you
personally approached it. And whatever this week will be like, it, too,
is not as important as how you are going to approach it.

So ---- let me rehearse some common truths we often forget.

THE CONCEPT:

As I have written these lines thus far, I have been thinking about the
whole idea of "weeks" and how it all got started. My mind was drawn back
to Genesis 1 & 2. So, I'm sitting here with my Bible and my concordance
open beside me. And, as I write, I am finding that "week" is not used
anywhere in those chapters. In fact, you have to go all the way to
Genesis 29 to find the very first use in the Bible of the word "week".
The Hebrew word "shabuwa" literally means "sevened" or "a seven". The
Greek word "sabbaton" indicates the interval of seven days from and
including one sabbath up to but not including the next.

Let's examine a few things about your having a good week this week:
1. God made the first week.
2. God made all other weeks, including this one.
3. God made everything all weeks contain.

First, . . .

I. GOD MADE THE FIRST WEEK. It wasn't called "week" then. However,
that week contained the total creative and redemptive heart and action of
God for all of time to come. Several phrases really stand out in my
mind.

1. "Then God Said . . ." What an intriguing phrase! God clearly and
thoroughly announced His total intention and purpose in the creation
account of that very first week. Nothing was unannounced. In announcing
it, He announced it to His son, to all the angels of the universe, and to
Satan and all his demons. Everyone knew it ---- except man. The reason
for that, of course, is because man was not created until the sixth day.
He was there, however, to hear what God had to say about the seventh day
---- the Sabbath. And, what man heard God say about that day should have
given him at least a small hint of God's overriding plan of relationships
for all days..

2. "Let there be . . .". The Psalmist tells us, "By the word of the
Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their
host." (Ps 33:6) After instructing us to praise the Lord with our whole
being because He created all things listed, the Psalmist then says, "He
commanded, and they were created." (Ps 148:5)

3. "And it was so . . .". Well, what else would you expect?
Whatever God says, ---- is! Always! Even though the world system may
say something else, if God said it, you can put it in the bank. All that
happened in that week was so. Absolute fact, and no lies. He still
operates that way. One of the five or six things God cannot do is lie.
And, He most certainly will not lie to His children ---- that's you!

4. "And God saw . . .". What did God see? The results of what He
said. Nothing else mattered; no other opinion counted. However, the
thing that blesses me most is not the Action God took in what He created,
but the Attention God gave to what He had created. Found within the word
"saw" is the indication that this was a long, hard, scrutinizing,
studied, gaze ---- not a passing glance. God created what He said, liked
what He saw, and owned the results, in totality.

5. 'It was good . . .". God liked it! Many times you and I don't
like what we've created ---- it too often has the touch of humanity on
it, so that, no matter how deep our sincerity or genuine our intent, it
is still flawed. God didn't have that problem ---- because He was God,
to be sure. But, in moving from the immortal into the mortal, from
eternity into time, He could have easily been dissatisfied with the
outcome. But He wasn't. He liked what He saw. It was good.

It does say one time, "It is NOT good . . ." But it had nothing to do
with what God had done, but, rather what He had not yet done. "It is NOT
good that man should be alone". It wasn't that God forgot and woman was
a divine afterthought, but instead, that God seems to have intentionally
done so in order for all of the angelic world, especially Satan and his
demons, to get the message ---- that all of God's creation was designed
to work best in relationships ---- intimate relationships.

You see, whatever else we may conclude from Lucifer's fall as recorded in
Scripture, we must acknowledge that the end result was isolation from the
very One who created him and loved him. He was "cast out" from the
kingdom, provisions, blessings, and very presence of God. God made sure
that the entire angelic spectrum of life understood that. More
importantly, however, was that He also wanted to make sure Adam
understood that. One of the greatest personal heartaches Jo Ann and I
endure today has, as its outcome, isolation from people we love ---- and
miss.

So God made the "good Good-er" by creating Eve. Chasing a rabbit here,
I've always been intrigued by some word studies in the Genesis 2 account
of the creation of the human race. Just a quick example: when God
created man, it says He "formed" man from the dust of the ground. I have
been told that Hebrew word means God "commonly made" ---- as if it were
no really big feat and had no especially earth-shaking or surprising
consequence to all who knew Him. However, when He "fashioned" Eve from
Adam's rib, God "hand crafted" her. Someone once indicated that this was
the original version of "The Beauty and the Beast". I'm not going to
further enter that arena of debate.

6. "It was VERY Good!". What a wonderful verse is 31. "God saw ALL
that HE had made, and behold ---- ("take a good look!") ---- it was
V-E-R-Y G-O-O-D!" All of God's work is good. It is when His work is
completed that it is Very Good. One of the reasons we sometimes wonder
inside about what may be happening in our lives, is that the work isn't
complete. You have probably heard of the little pin that was circulated
several years ago that had the following initials on it --- PBPGINFWMY,
---- which meant, "Please Be Patient. God Is Not Finished With Me Yet."

We need to be reminded that we are God's workmanship ---- His incomplete
symphonic poem still in the process of being written. Even though we
know that what God is doing is good, the reality of it still being
incomplete becomes a mental barrier that keeps us from declaring that
what God did was "Very Good" ---- something like what Paul alluded to
when he told us that here on this earth we see through a clouded glass,
but the day will come when we will see as God sees and we will know as He
knows us.

7. "God completed His work . . . and rested . . . ". That is the
crowning touch of any creative act ---- resting. And, when God rests,
you can know beyond a doubt that things came out just the way He planned.

You see, there are two types of rest ---- Hebrews 3:11-4:11 profoundly
identifies them. When we carry out particular projects, we experience
two types of rest ---- 1) the "take a break" rest that interrupts our
project, and, 2) the "it's finally done!" rest that signals an end to
the project and the reward of satisfaction and honor.

When God concluded the first week of what we call "time", He declared it
to be a completed concept with which He would be forever pleased, and
with which we could be forever blessed. ---- IF we recognized it,
received it, and properly used it ---- from His perspective.

So, ---- if you're going to have a good week, you have to be able to see
it as God sees it.

Next, . . .

II. GOD MADE ALL OTHER WEEKS ---- INCLUDING THIS ONE. Now, this is so
obvious, I'm not going to take much time or space to elaborate. It is a
foregone conclusion that God made all other weeks including this one.
The purpose of the statement, however, is not to try to prove that point,
but to expose something within ourselves ---- a conflict of our attitude
with God's attitude.

If we really received that truth, we wouldn't tend to be so belligerent
as frequently about things we face week by week. Friend, I don't know
about you, but I have far too many memories of times when I either forgot
that a particular week was one God had also created, or I remembered it
---- and Resented it! Or at least resented the fact that God did create
it, to my great discomfort and inconvenience, and bemoaned the fact that
He had allowed some things to crowd into it that I personally felt had no
value and were really inconvenient to my agenda.

It is a fact, though, no matter how we feel about it, that God made all
weeks ---- including last week ---- and this week.

III. GOD MADE EVERYTHING ALL WEEKS CONTAIN. I suppose there are times
when we could take issue with that statement, particularly as it comes to
the issue of evil, death, etc. And, I understand that. However, hear my
point ---- nothing happens to us without passing through God's Creative
Hand or his Permissive Hand. So, either way, as I noted in an earlier
newsletter, God still has His act together and under His sovereign
control.

So, let me try to make some practical application.

1. "Then God said . . .". God has said some things about your week.
Were you listening? If not, ask Him to tell you again.

2. "Let there be . . .". Whatever is needed in your week, God can and
will speak it into being. Therefore, please don't allow yourself to be
argumentative or ungrateful. None of it will take Him by surprise,
because He knows it's there because He spoke.

3. "And it was so . . .". This is where it's good for you to hear what
God is saying to you concerning His love, His promises, His plans ----
for you this week. Because what God speaks is so, your knowing what He
is saying is important to your trust in Him. Faith requires confession
---- "saying the same thing" God is saying ---- agreeing with Him. I
love the late Manley Beasley's definition of faith ---- "believing it is
so before it is so, in order for it to be so."

4. "And God saw . . .". Will God see the results of what He said about
you ---- in your behalf? Very clearly He will. The big question is,
will you?

5. "It was good . . .". God saw that last week was good. And, He sees
that this week is good, and will be good. Why? Because that's the only
kind He creates. That doesn't necessarily mean it will all be happy and
joyful, but it WILL all be good. It will be good because it is from Him.
It will be good because it is for you. That's a great thought ---- it
will be good for you because it comes from Him.

6. "It was Very good . . .". Since you and I are still on the potter's
wheel, it's hard for us to see that some of these weeks are Very good,
because we don't see the finished product. All we see is something still
in need of improvement. However, because God is the Alpha and Omega, the
Beginning and the End ---- and everything in between, He operates in the
eternal Now. The thousand years is like one day, and one day like a
thousand years ---- it all blends together, the yesterdays, the todays,
and the tomorrows, into a Present Now.

Therefore, God can see it all from beginning to end as a finished work
---- and confidently exclaim, "It
is V-E-R-Y good! Take heart, dear friend! What God sees in you is
V-E-R-Y good.

Now, if you're going to insist on looking at it from your viewpoint or
other people's opinion, you'll never say it is good, much less very good.
That's a choice you have to make ---- who do you believe? Other people,
or God?

7. "God . . . rested.". If He did, you should. Enter into the soul
rest that will sustain you until you reach your eternal rest in Heaven.
Paul told Timothy, "the servant of the Lord shall not strive" (II Tim
2:24). Neither should you. There are too many of us who insist on
working up a sweat over things that don't go the way we had expected or
planned, both in ministry and in our personal lives.

There's a wonderful lesson to be found in the garments of the High
Priest. The inner clothing which was worn next to the skin was made of
linen. That was not to keep the wool from scratching his skin, but
rather to keep him from perspiring. "Sweat" is a symbol of the energy of
the flesh. No matter what type of outer apparel we may wear in our
respective ministries, we are all clothed in the linen of the
righteousness of Christ.

That's why God can rest and relax as He observes our service. No matter
how flawed, faded, and tattered it may appear on the outside from the
battles we have fought and the attacks we have endured, He rests because
He sees the linen. He looks at you and me and says, "Right on! You're
going to make it! You're doing good! Not perfectly ---- but good!"

Isn't it profoundly impressive and humbling that God can see what we're
doing, in all our human frailties and fumblings, and still be able to
rest? Simply amazing! But, that's God for you. Yes ---- Really FOR
you.

PRACTICAL ACTION:

In light of the above thoughts, let me suggest some practical steps to
help you put all your weeks in proper perspective.

1. Develop a grateful spirit concerning God's love for you, and His
belief in you for the ministry He has entrusted into your hands.
Acknowledge and confess any ingratitude as sin. Never get over the awe
found in the fact that He actually chose you ---- you! ---- to be called
out as one of His servants.

2. Never take for granted the circumstances and events of your week.
Everything is there, in place, either for your good or His glory. Take
each responsibility seriously. Don't take yourself seriously. Give
others the right to mess up. Learn to forgive yourself when you do. Use
each experience and situation as an ingredient for growth and maturity.

3. Spend some specific time each day simply Praising God for Who He is,
and Thanking Him for What He does in your life, your family, and your
ministry. As the Psalmist admonished, "Enter His gates with thanksgiving
in your heart, and enter His courts with Praise. Give thanks to Him;
bless His name, for the Lord is good; His loving kindness is everlasting,
and His faithfulness to all generations" (Psalm 100:4).

4. Don't spend too much time looking at circumstances and conditions
around you ---- whether good or bad. If they're bad, they'll discourage
you; if they're good, they'll make you proud, arrogant, and self
sufficient. I love what Peter Lord said in his prayer journal the "2959
Plan" ---- "glance at the problem, gaze on the Savior".

5. Receive each new week and all it contains as a fresh opportunity to
humbly serve the One from whom you receive all things, for whom you give
your life and energy, and to whom you are responsible and accountable.
In the final analysis, nothing else ---- circumstance, committee, new
opportunity, friend, family, foe ---- really matters.

6. Commit yourself to converting each week into an event of joy, rather
than dread, drudgery, or pride.

7. When the week is ended, purpose to look back only from the
perspective of God's viewpoint. Rather than your looking back and trying
to assess the results, ask your Father, who stands taller than you, sees
more clearly than you, gazes further than you, and understands more fully
than you, to tell you what HE sees. You'll like the results much better.

CONCLUDING THOUGHT:

So, dear friend, whoever you are who needed this word, ---- no matter
what last week was like, and no matter what this week may contain and how
you may dread it or eagerly anticipate it ---- remember this.

Have a G-O-O-D week! ---- No! Rather ---- Have a G-R-E-A-T week!

After all, He made It, ---- and You!

I can sense it ---- it's going to be a real "humdinger"!

Bob Tolliver

ADDRESS: Route 1, Box 87AB, Collins, MO 64738
Ph: 417-275-4854. Fax: 417-275-4855
E-mail: lifeunlimited@juno.com

Copyright March, 1998 by Robert A. Tolliver. All rights reserved.
Permission is granted to pass this newsletter on to anyone you feel will
benefit from it and be encouraged.

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