In his spare time, my dad would do electrical work. Around town, almost everyone knew I was his youngest son. They thought I knew a lot about electricity. But I knew more about digging ditches, crawling under houses, and climbing through attics, then about what gauge of wire to use. I did manage to learn the formula of volts x amps = watts. That and knowing AC and DC is not a heavy metal band got me through the science units in school. Even though I helped run wires in different churches, I never had any great spiritual insights while I was crawling through an attic. Then one day I heard a preacher compared the formula for watts, to that of good works. His equation was the love of God, times a life free of resistance equals good works. His text was Philippians 1:6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ: (KJV)
The love of God is the most powerful force in the universe; this love is why we exist. It is why Christ came to die for our sins. When we accept God's love, we are plugged into an awesome power. The Bible is God's manual on how to harness this mighty power. The experience of Israel is similar to that of a believer in Christ.
God chose the nation of Israel because he loved them; it wasn't because of anything they had accomplished. In Deuteronomy 7:8 we read, But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. (KJV)
When Moses spoke to the children of Israel in the book of Deuteronomy, he wasn't giving them a set of rules to follow, or hoops to jump through; he was showing them a way of life. God chose us because he loves us. It isn't anything we have done. By reading the Bible, we can learn how to use the power of God's love, not for our glory, but for God's glory. He wants to work through us. God's high voltage love will flow through our lives. The key for us is not to hinder the flow of God's love.
Now comes the hard part, a life free of resistance. Try as we might, we can't do it on our own. We need the Holy Spirit to work in our lives. He will show us any sin that we need to remove from our lives. God doesn't want to do away with us. He wants to use us for His glory. God could use angels or rocks to preach to the world, heal the sick, and feed the poor, but He wants to work through us. Our job is to prepare ourselves to be used of God.
Sometimes we try to put our good works first, or we get our blessings confused with our good works. God didn't save us so we could have a better life; he saved us for His glory. What are good works? Anything that makes a positive difference in our world and glorifies God, qualifies for good works. God will judge our good works, what was done for the wrong reason will be done away with. Christ's mission wasn't to perform miracles; his mission was to make it possible for us to be reconciled with the Father.
The world takes notice when the love of God flows freely through us. The early church had the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on converts willing to die for the Gospel. In thirty years, they reached their world with the gospel. When our will is not aligned with God's will, nothing is possible, but when our will is aligned with God's nothing is impossible.
