Student Message on 2/4/07 Carlos Oviedo - God's Discipline Today I am going to talk to you about something that God put in my heart long time ago and I did not have the chance to share until this point. I really like to study the word of God in the Old Testament because it shows a side of God's character that it is very important to understand. Some of the books from the Old Testament show a particular side of God that concord with his character. Deuteronomy specifically, shows part of God's character that allows us to understand how his discipline works. Now, I imagine that most of us here today, when we were younger had to be punished for some reason. Maybe we broke something, we got home very late, disobeyed an instruction from our parents or perhaps we had a bad attitude against something. After messing up, it is very likely that we also experienced some kind of punishment. At that point, we were also able to understand what our father or mother considered as something good or bad….. and the consequences for it. How do we know which is our parents character? In general, we start building an idea of what our parent’s character is when we are reprimanded, and we also begin to understand what our parent’s opinion is regarding a specific situation. So, how does this happen with God? Current blessings Deuteronomy 1:21 says: "See, the Lord your God has given you the land. Go and take possession of it, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, told you. Do not be afraid; no not be discouraged" Currently, I am enjoying a great job at Intel. I am part of the programming team that is dedicated to create the software that will control the machines that will assemble and test, all the chips that microprocessors from almost all computers use. Having this job is currently a blessing that allows me to do a lot of nice and interesting things such as traveling to other countries, meeting different people, and be up to date about the latest trends in technology. Nonetheless, I have to be constantly remembering how I got there, and the process that I had to experience to enjoy the blessings that I benefit from today. Past history Deuteronomy 1:30-31 says the following: "The Lord your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, and in the desert. There you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place" Since long time ago I always had the dream of being able to work for an international company and at the same time had the opportunity to study overseas. After a long process that took several years, God heard my prayers and that is what has me here today. God showed me his mighty hand in action. We all have to remember that all the blessings that we may be enjoying today, come only from God; they are a gift and we should be thankful for them. Now I am sure that we all have seen God's almighty hand working in our lives, and we should praise him for his love for us. However, there was a time in my life where I did not remember who put me where I was and how I got there. That was a moment where his discipline appeared Complaining Some years ago, I just graduated with my bachelors’ degree when I stared working in my first job. My best friend and I sent resumes to a great variety of companies and after some time, we were both hired by the same enterprise. The position was for an internship in a software development company; it was relatively close to my house and the salary was bigger than the average salary most of my friends at the time were paid. It was a great opportunity. Nevertheless, during my first weeks on the job, I started to notice certain "deficiencies" that according to my point of view, made everything look a little darker. I remember telling my new co-workers, that there were certain aspects from the company that I did not like, and day after day, I started to see so many negative things that my daily routine started to transform into complaining. I complained about the lunch time, It was too long. About the entry time of some of my co-workers, it was too late. I complained about the fact that there were so many negative things in that company and no one would do anything to solve all of these "problems". But things did not stop there. I had so much energy to complain that when I got home I started complaining with my parents, my brother and sister, and I even complained with a couple of guests that we had in the house one time. During all that time, God must have been just listening to my complaining; but, it reached a point where that complaining became a sin. I was denying an opportunity that He provided for me and using it in a bad way as well, calling bad things and living as an ungrateful son. Deuteronomy 1:27 says: "…you grumbled in your tents and said: the Lord hates us; so he brought us out of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us." What does a father do in a situation like this? If one was a young kid, a good father after seeing a bad attitude of this kind on his so, would try to figure out a way to change his son's heart with the whole purpose of giving glory to God. But, if that father's patience empties, it will reach a point where the father will get mad and will have to impose some discipline. That was exactly what God did with me. He allowed that I was punished for my sin. Punishment Deuteronomy 1:27 says: "…you grumbled in your tents and said: the Lord hates us; so he brought us out of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us." And then Deuteronomy 1:34 says: "When the Lord heard what you said, he was angry…." It is clear that God will never associate himself with sin. Complaining and gossiping are sins, which is having a rebellious attitude towards God. In my case, it happened that when the internship finished, you to only need to try to guess who was hired permanently and who had to continue looking for a job... But the worse was about to come. I was literally unemployed for months. After some time, I reached a point where I was really desperate. Everything was happening as a result of having a wrong attitude about something that I was not able to recognize as a sin in my life. A lot of times, we wait for God's blessings during a long time. Some times we wait for blessings during weeks, months and even years, praying about different circumstances in our lives, for example: a better job, a romantic relationship, a group of friends, more family unity. However, God will not be able to do anything in our lives, if we are not sensitive enough to recognize sin and take it away completely. How does God discipline? God's discipline is shown in several different ways. As a loving father, God may for example take away something that we really like and we are used to. He can bring discomfort in the same way that we allowed the people of Israel to be uncomfortable after they started complaining for being in the desert, or, as he allowed me to be in an uncomfortable situation such as being unemployed. I was not giving glory to God with my attitude. And is not that God wanted me not to work, but He wanted that my attitude experienced a transformation. Otherwise, the blessing of a new job, or the job that He had prepared for me was NOT going to happen. Deuteronomy 8:3 says: "He humbled you, causing to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you or your fathers had known, to teach you that a man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of our Lord" As weeks passed, my attitude started to experience a change. The desperation of being unemployed made me look into the only one that could help me in that situation: God. I started to cry out for Him, to look for Him in his word, to grow in the relation that I said I had with Him. It was a long and hard process, but at the end He had mercy of me and allowed me to take his hand. God’s only desire is to be close to us, and even out of the ashes that sin leaves, can restores us to levels that we never imagined possible to reach. In my case, after getting a new job, I had the wonderful blessing to be the receiver of a comprehensive scholarship for post-graduate studies. During some time I worked, saved, and gave the best of me. At that point in time the miracle that I was waiting for happened: I landed in a Forbes 100 company, even before finishing studies. Who could have imagined that I was going to be working today with the best microprocessor manufacturing company in the world? God wanted to me to have the desires of my heart, but he only desired that my attitude experienced a change. God wants to know my heart … to keep loving me. Deuteronomy 8:2 says: "Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and the test you, in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands" God will not associate himself with sin and because of that allows us to experience some pain and discomfort. But it is fundamental that we can understand that this only happens because He desires a deeper relationship with us. He desires our desires, our dreams … He desires our heart. Proverbs 4:23 says: "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life" God loves us so much that allow that we are disciplined to guard our heart. The word of God says that the heart is the wellspring of life. I am totally convinced that God was to give me the wellspring of life. For this reason is that he disciplines us, so that we will not get lost in a path which only leads to absolute death. In Deuteronomy 11:16-17 He says: "Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them. Then the Lord's anger will burn against you, and He will shut the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land that the Lord is giving you" It is our responsibility to look for God's presence at all times, and to work in our relationship with Him. At the end, this will result in fulfilling God's purpose for our lives. Who does not feel joy when you can make your dad or mom happy? I know that I do, and that I want to keep doing it. So, how do we do this with God? How? The word of God Deuteronomy 11:18 says: "Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads" The word of God is the communication log that God has had with man through the ages. Each and every word written on this book has come out of the mouth of our Father God. If we read it and look for this presence with all of our hearts and strength, we will be able to understand his character, what he wants from us and how to grow in our relationship with Him. It is true that we will make mistakes along the way, since we are not perfect; but God is not interested in perfection, he is interested in OUR HEART. He wants to bless us and give us everything our heart desires according to His wisdom. Just like a father loves his sons and daughters with all his heart; that is His character. Mathew 7:11 says: "If you, then, though are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those how ask him!" He does what he promises, and has tons of blessings waiting to fall up us. Promise Deuteronomy 10:22 says: "Your forefathers who went down into Egypt were seventy in all, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky" Let us be disciplined by Him, let us have a good attitude, let us not complain, take away everything that is on the way to have a relationship with Him and we will be inevitably be reached by the great love of our loving Father.