Sons in the Marketplace – Know When to Bend
November 14th, 2007 | Michael Q. Pink
“Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to subdue nations before him; and I will (1) loose the armor of kings,(2) to open before him the two-leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut; (3) I will go before you, and (4) make the crooked places straight: (Isa 45:1-3)
So I ask you, what makes a crooked path? I believe there are two causes of the crooked path and they both serve a purpose. The first cause of the crooked path is God Himself. It is on the crooked path that we learn to rely on Him. It is on the crooked path that we come to the end of ourselves. It is on the crooked path that we behold the beauty of the Lord and His glory. It is on the crooked path, that we must bend our will to His way. It is on the crooked path that we become entwined with Him. We injure ourselves when we try to straighten what God has made crooked. We must learn to bend with the Father and conform to His “way”. He is taking us to school along the crooked path. Learn to enjoy the scenery.
Charles Kuralt of CBS fame once said, “Interstate highways allow you to drive coast to coast, without seeing anything”. It’s the curse of the straight path. While it’s true that the shortest path between any two points is a straight line, the straight line is not always best. The devil always tells us, we deserve it now. Get rich quick. Take the shortest path. Don’t wait. Time’s a wasting! If you get on the straight path, (the interstate highway), before you have the Father’s heart built in and the old nature brought under, you may find yourself broadsided by a fast moving 18 wheeler, you didn’t see coming!
Give a young man his inheritance before he has the wisdom to steward it and you will lose both the inheritance and quite possibly your son. Before you give your child any inheritance, make sure you have passed on the inheritance of your heart. A great way to do that is on the difficult path. The crooked path. The inheritance of your heart is more “caught than taught” and the trials of life provide the perfect context to pass on the wealth of understanding God has deposited in your heart as you learned to bend to His will and His ways along the winding path.
Quick note: For an excellent teaching on what it means to pass on your wealth to the next generation, I suggest you get your hands on this. You won’t be disappointed.
Creating Wealth: Training Families to Build Dynasties
Eight Part Series. This Strategic Christian Services seminar focuses on the ultimate challenge we all face, in terms of making our lives truly count for God’s purposes in history-how, in our personal lives, families, careers, and even our nation, we pass on the inheritance of our hearts so that our values, vision, and wealth are not wasted by the next generation. For the first time, the entire Peacocke family (Dennis, Jan, Adam, Rachel, and Katherine) shares together in a conference, both individually and in a panel discussion. God is beginning to restore an understanding of generational transfer to us as a people and as a nation. Our intention is to provide you with practical tools to break the curse of single-generational living.Here are links to the downloadable version and to the Audio CD version.
November 14th, 2007 at 8:05 am
Hey Mike,
Thank you for your wise counsel concerning the crooked path. As you
astutely clarify is this…
God is sovereign in how he teaches His sons and daughters. Throughout history He has taken something crooked (which may appear so to the
natural mind) and ultimately reveal its straightness according to His eternal plan and purpose. One scripture reference that supports this is …
1 Cor 1:20-2:16
20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22 Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.
26 Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things-and the things that are not-to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God-that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”
1 Corinthians 2
2:1 When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. 2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. 4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.
6 We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 However, as it is written:
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”- 10 but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.
14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment: 16 “For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
(from New International Version)
As in the end as well as in the beginning - ultimately… every knee
will bow and He will get all the glory.
As always,
Cheers!
November 14th, 2007 at 10:22 am
I think we can also draw encouragement from Abraham in this. One of my former pastors said once that faith is ending up where you’re supposed to be when you’re supposed to be there, and used Abraham as an example. If it were me, I would not picked him as the father of faith! Boy, did he meander and try to make it happen on his own, yet God calls him the father of faith. Some of his crooked path was his own doing, and some was God’s, yet God ultimately led him to where he was supposed to be.
This helps break the perfectionistic mindset and know that God is sovereign.
Blessings,
Dennis
November 16th, 2007 at 9:59 am
This surely is got to be the best interpretation of the crooked way. I used to view it as the bad way where I should never tread upon but the other side where its got to be my training ground as a Son is superb.
More often than not, when people are faced with a crooked path they blast the devil and despise God yet fail to clinch the opportunity to learn and grow inthe crooked path. If you succeed in a crooked path then even inthe highway you can cruise without any problems!
Scripture informs us that God will not let us to be tempted above that which we can handle, so if I find myself inthe crooked path, I will trust God to carry me through with a lot of lessons to learn. I will not die but live. If Jesus was able to stand temptation and the hard life then He is able to succor those that are tempted.
The crooked way is not uncommon among our brethren after all. Paul says the temptation that befell you is one that is common among your brethren. So I believe this is the time to share with our friends what we are going through, getting encouragement from them.
In Christ,
Shem
November 22nd, 2007 at 12:14 pm
Mike,
A blessed article. May God be with you in everything.
Tim