This mornings writing is again a result of my time alone with the Lord. I dont just recommend spending time alone with Him in prayer and reading His word, but I believe it's vital for us in this day and time. Time alone with Him will keep you and preserve you. You know as your Momma canned fruit and vegetables this summer kind of thing? God preserves you because of your time alone with Him. He imparts to you His wisdom for the day. Who wouldn't want that?
I actually heard a message last week from a TV preacher, which i dont watch much of these days, but i'm recovering after a hospital stay and frankly I have way too much time on my hands. lol. But this preacher did have a good message and one particular phrase out of the bible he quoted has stuck with me. I got out the bible last night an chewed on that phrase before i went to bed. This morning, getting back up and reading those passages again, has come this writing.
The scriptures I'm referring to are found in Mark 4 where Jesus is talking about the different soils in people's lives. I believe these different soils can even denote various times in our lives as we move through crisis' and trials. We all have the tendencies to be a little more closed to others and God as some circumstances change what we have to deal with.
However in Mark 4:17 a really good point is made. Here Jesus is talking about the stony ground and where it didnt have much earth, let's back up to verse 16 to get the whole idea of this soil He's talking about: "And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness; And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word's sake, immediately they are offended".
Do you see the words I highlighted? This is what has stayed with me for a week that I cannot shake. I always know God is wanting to open His thoughts to me when this happens, so I meditate on it.
The word is sown and then affliction or persecution come for the word's sake. It's nothing you've done. Affliction doesn't come because you're out of the will of God. It comes to try the word in you. The word is sown, and then these things come for the word's sake.
In verse 15 it says this: "And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, satan cometh immediately, [to do what?] taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts.
There is great worth in getting the word of God in our hearts and satan knows this. What is this great worth? What is the value? Why is satan after the word in our hearts? We'll find that answer in verse 20: "And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit...". He is after the word of God taking root in your heart and bringing a change in your life. That's the fruit. He knows if it takes root, it will be change your life and he has less effect on you. Who wouldn't want to satan to have less effect on them. My goodness, who wouldn't? Are we after a truth here that helps us grow as a follower of Christ more into His image and satan having less of an effect on us? I believe so.
In your time alone with God each day, sow His word. Sow and let it grow. In this manner you will become stronger, and satan will become weaker!!!!
Be Blessed Beyond Measure, I want to see some growing trees out here! okay?
your friend, Cindy~
Friday, November 5, 2010
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Though.....
Though i have no place that's my own....... I live with Christ.
Though i have no style..... I am clothed with Christ.
Though i have eats.......I hunger for Christ.
Though there be past terrors.......I am safe with Christ.
God is amongst us, loving, protecting and shielding us. Doesn't feel like it? Well maybe He is giving you the opportunity to open your heart in a greater way to Him.
In the past year and a half He has asked me to walk a very dusty but steep road with Him, trusting His plan and His love for me. Walking it was the most devastating thing I've done in almost EVER in my life. But as He asked me to walk it, I know He had good waiting. This is the place you have to come to; to be in His true calling.
surrender your path. surrender your way. And you will find a freedom you have never ever experienced in your life.
with love, Cindy~
Though i have no style..... I am clothed with Christ.
Though i have eats.......I hunger for Christ.
Though there be past terrors.......I am safe with Christ.
God is amongst us, loving, protecting and shielding us. Doesn't feel like it? Well maybe He is giving you the opportunity to open your heart in a greater way to Him.
In the past year and a half He has asked me to walk a very dusty but steep road with Him, trusting His plan and His love for me. Walking it was the most devastating thing I've done in almost EVER in my life. But as He asked me to walk it, I know He had good waiting. This is the place you have to come to; to be in His true calling.
surrender your path. surrender your way. And you will find a freedom you have never ever experienced in your life.
with love, Cindy~
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
A little Stressed? boy do YOU need this!
I am writing this by the leading of the Spirit. I was in my quiet time with the Lord this morning, in my devotional and the scriptures referenced took me to Matthew 11. In verse 28 Jesus is speaking and says ‘come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest’. I then read on in verse 29 where He says ‘Take My yoke upon you’….. I had to stop there.
Many of you cannot take one more thing on. You cannot imagine taking on one more thing on your back. You’re so heavy right now with so much you’re carrying, you cannot even think of adding one more thing to your life. This burden you’re carrying may be your schedule where you’ve got so many things lined up; your responsibilities at work, your life at home with your Spouse and children, or perhaps you’re a single Parent and have it all at home, the whole burden. You have the kids schedules on top of your own, your obligations with helping your Parents that are aging, your friends that constantly beckon your attention, and your Church life of helping with the youth, or being on the Worship Team. You’re stacked. You’re stretched. You’re heavy with all this load. Plus many of you are having financial troubles on top of all this burden. It’s not enough that the world is pulling at you, but your personal foundation seems to be crumbling. You’re nervous all the time, you’re not sleeping well, you’re eating tums like they are skittles……. You feel like a wreck inside.
So as I read where Jesus says ‘take My yoke upon you’ I told Him “Lord so many people can’t read this and be relieved, help me see these verses in the manner you meant them”. My eyes went to end of the verse above it and stopped; ‘and I will give you rest’. There it is. We read through these verses in the bible, not knowing what they truly mean. Seriously. We wouldn’t tell someone that’s walking down the road hitchhiking to come to the next stop and sit with us and we’ll give them rest. We’d tell them to come to the next stop and we’d help them take off their backpack, unload their heavy carrying load and help them relax. Now….. we know a little more of what Jesus is saying here ‘Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will take off your load, help you get seated, and even help you relax’.
How would it feel to unload your life’s pack?
It would feel good, wouldn’t it? It’s okay, be truthful. If you’re in a real stressful season there is noise all around you. Others may not be able to hear it, but you do. Stress was designed to be our warning sign. But in our culture today, it’s become the norm and it’s even stylin to be under some of it. Well…. I totally disagree. Stress is our warning. It’s our warning that too much is coming at us, and we need to close the door on it. Some stress you can’t close the door on permanently. But you can close it for this evening. You can close the door, leaving it outside, not to get in at you. But much of our stress can be closed out permanently.
I’ve just come through one of the most stressful things I’ve gone through in quite some time. I have extreme health issues, causing severe weakness. I knew I wasn’t supposed to sign the lease on my little house I was renting for another year. Well, then that means I had to move. Severe horrid stress began to knock on my door. I’m a very responsible person. I’m not a slacker. I get things done somewhat early, so there’s no hairy deadline. I don’t do that in life. I’m efficient. I’m a planner. Well, I did what any planner does. I put dates on the calendar for this. Then another date on the calendar for that. That would enable this to get done after that. All these dates on the calendar began to loom over my head with no energy, but weakness left to do them. As time wore on, I knew surrender to God along the way was my only hope. I knew He had a plan through this. And as time moved, my plan was plucked up and His put in place. Though it should have calmed me down, the responsibility in such a weakened state wore at my very fiber.
This is what stress is designed to do; wear at our very fiber. It’s an underminer of all our securities, our sure foundations, our surities.
So as Jesus says ‘come to Me’, we are given a great opportunity to go to Him and get a little rest. But how do we receive this rest? How do we allow Him to take our heavy pack off our back? The first obvious thing is we have to be willing to allow Him to take our burden. That seems like a duh, but so many people aren’t familiar with His ways, and they willingly walk away from the greatest place of rest known to Man. First, be willing to allow Him. Choose to say ‘yes Lord. I’ll let you take this burden’. Then second we have to ask Him to take it. He doesn’t manhandle us. We have to ask Him, allowing Him space in our space to do it. Would you like to do that right now? Then let’s do it, let’s ask Him:
Lord Jesus, we have a problem. But according to the scriptures, You are able to take the problem. You are quite able. You are Mighty and Powerful. You, as Creator know how you made me. You know what level of burden I’m able to bear, in how you designed me. I’ve got too much on me. I have too much to carry. Will you take off this burden, relieve my heaviness and replace it with rest? I’m asking You. I’m coming as You say in scripture to receive this rest you talk about. I’m allowing You now to take it, Jesus. I am allowing You in my space to relieve my pressure. I’m allowing You to take control and leave me lighthearted. I’ve needed this for so long. I accept Your peacefulness into my life, into my space, into my heart. I’m letting go of the burden now. I am accepting Your peace. I thank You for this. This is much lighter to carry. You were right. You have given me rest. Now walk on with me. Walk on into my future so I don’t take on more again, more than I can carry. Watch over me that I carry only what You want me to carry. I’m amazed at the light feeling I have. Only You could do this. In Your Name, Jesus. Amen………
ps: you know how Jesus took my burden of moving? He called on many of my special friends to come pack and move me. MIRACLE! thank you Guys!!! I can never repay you! And .... thank you Jesus!
Many of you cannot take one more thing on. You cannot imagine taking on one more thing on your back. You’re so heavy right now with so much you’re carrying, you cannot even think of adding one more thing to your life. This burden you’re carrying may be your schedule where you’ve got so many things lined up; your responsibilities at work, your life at home with your Spouse and children, or perhaps you’re a single Parent and have it all at home, the whole burden. You have the kids schedules on top of your own, your obligations with helping your Parents that are aging, your friends that constantly beckon your attention, and your Church life of helping with the youth, or being on the Worship Team. You’re stacked. You’re stretched. You’re heavy with all this load. Plus many of you are having financial troubles on top of all this burden. It’s not enough that the world is pulling at you, but your personal foundation seems to be crumbling. You’re nervous all the time, you’re not sleeping well, you’re eating tums like they are skittles……. You feel like a wreck inside.
So as I read where Jesus says ‘take My yoke upon you’ I told Him “Lord so many people can’t read this and be relieved, help me see these verses in the manner you meant them”. My eyes went to end of the verse above it and stopped; ‘and I will give you rest’. There it is. We read through these verses in the bible, not knowing what they truly mean. Seriously. We wouldn’t tell someone that’s walking down the road hitchhiking to come to the next stop and sit with us and we’ll give them rest. We’d tell them to come to the next stop and we’d help them take off their backpack, unload their heavy carrying load and help them relax. Now….. we know a little more of what Jesus is saying here ‘Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will take off your load, help you get seated, and even help you relax’.
How would it feel to unload your life’s pack?
It would feel good, wouldn’t it? It’s okay, be truthful. If you’re in a real stressful season there is noise all around you. Others may not be able to hear it, but you do. Stress was designed to be our warning sign. But in our culture today, it’s become the norm and it’s even stylin to be under some of it. Well…. I totally disagree. Stress is our warning. It’s our warning that too much is coming at us, and we need to close the door on it. Some stress you can’t close the door on permanently. But you can close it for this evening. You can close the door, leaving it outside, not to get in at you. But much of our stress can be closed out permanently.
I’ve just come through one of the most stressful things I’ve gone through in quite some time. I have extreme health issues, causing severe weakness. I knew I wasn’t supposed to sign the lease on my little house I was renting for another year. Well, then that means I had to move. Severe horrid stress began to knock on my door. I’m a very responsible person. I’m not a slacker. I get things done somewhat early, so there’s no hairy deadline. I don’t do that in life. I’m efficient. I’m a planner. Well, I did what any planner does. I put dates on the calendar for this. Then another date on the calendar for that. That would enable this to get done after that. All these dates on the calendar began to loom over my head with no energy, but weakness left to do them. As time wore on, I knew surrender to God along the way was my only hope. I knew He had a plan through this. And as time moved, my plan was plucked up and His put in place. Though it should have calmed me down, the responsibility in such a weakened state wore at my very fiber.
This is what stress is designed to do; wear at our very fiber. It’s an underminer of all our securities, our sure foundations, our surities.
So as Jesus says ‘come to Me’, we are given a great opportunity to go to Him and get a little rest. But how do we receive this rest? How do we allow Him to take our heavy pack off our back? The first obvious thing is we have to be willing to allow Him to take our burden. That seems like a duh, but so many people aren’t familiar with His ways, and they willingly walk away from the greatest place of rest known to Man. First, be willing to allow Him. Choose to say ‘yes Lord. I’ll let you take this burden’. Then second we have to ask Him to take it. He doesn’t manhandle us. We have to ask Him, allowing Him space in our space to do it. Would you like to do that right now? Then let’s do it, let’s ask Him:
Lord Jesus, we have a problem. But according to the scriptures, You are able to take the problem. You are quite able. You are Mighty and Powerful. You, as Creator know how you made me. You know what level of burden I’m able to bear, in how you designed me. I’ve got too much on me. I have too much to carry. Will you take off this burden, relieve my heaviness and replace it with rest? I’m asking You. I’m coming as You say in scripture to receive this rest you talk about. I’m allowing You now to take it, Jesus. I am allowing You in my space to relieve my pressure. I’m allowing You to take control and leave me lighthearted. I’ve needed this for so long. I accept Your peacefulness into my life, into my space, into my heart. I’m letting go of the burden now. I am accepting Your peace. I thank You for this. This is much lighter to carry. You were right. You have given me rest. Now walk on with me. Walk on into my future so I don’t take on more again, more than I can carry. Watch over me that I carry only what You want me to carry. I’m amazed at the light feeling I have. Only You could do this. In Your Name, Jesus. Amen………
ps: you know how Jesus took my burden of moving? He called on many of my special friends to come pack and move me. MIRACLE! thank you Guys!!! I can never repay you! And .... thank you Jesus!
Monday, July 12, 2010
Where there is Sin
Where there is sin there is grace. Never from the point in time after Christs' death, burial and resurrection has there been an absense of grace. God forgave, still forgives, and will forgive our sin. He took that upon Himself onto the splintered cross.
Many of us though, take our sin into each day, never addressing it before God. We take that days sin into the next. Can you get to the point where you are not sinning every day? Yes. Are most of us at that stage in our walk with God. No. Many of us sin daily. This should not be, but it is. Yet we do not daily get before God and ask for His forgiveness. Daily we should go before God in our hearts and ask Him to forgive us, asking Him to cleanse our spirit of all unrighteousness. Ask as David did, to search our heart and know us, that there may be no wicked way within. Then as God brings things to our mind to confess, confess those things as sin, asking Him to cleanse us of those sins. Many times over as I do this, pride comes to my mind. I confess pride before Him, and ask Him to forgive me, to wash me of all pride, that I may live humble before Him. Many of those that know my past, know I had a major pride issue. I was so hurt growing up. I went my own way to protect myself, and pride became my closest friend. But I fell so much as the bible talks about because of it. Pride is a sin. It's not something to be proud of. Pride separates you, not only from those you love through your deeds, but separates you from God Himself. He cant help the proud. Matter of fact, the bible says God sets Himself against the proud. So, when you are prideful and things begin to feel tougher, like you're up against the wall, you're really up against God Himself. Wow. Talk about not being able to win! lol. seriously. You cannot win against God Himself.
But. All it takes is asking Him to forgive you. Asking Him to forgive you is an act of humbleness. You're acknowledging you are not God, and He is. Simple but very profound. Knowing this has been my past, it tries to creep up again. Sometimes I dont catch a reaction as pride. But as I have my alone time with God, I dont feel so right before Him. This is the way He has created so I sense the sin between us, so I dont continue in it. That I confess it so He can forgive me and us have true relations again. Just like a friend.
Many of us are walking our own way, even though we have become a Christian.
I urge you to spend time with God right now and ask Him to show you your ways. Again, this will bring up your sin. Confess it. Acknowledge it. He will forgive you and you will be free once more. Dont be discouraged as you do this the first time in a long time if alot of sin comes before your mind. Let it out. Speak it out. And God will get it out!
Be Blessed my friends.
Many of us though, take our sin into each day, never addressing it before God. We take that days sin into the next. Can you get to the point where you are not sinning every day? Yes. Are most of us at that stage in our walk with God. No. Many of us sin daily. This should not be, but it is. Yet we do not daily get before God and ask for His forgiveness. Daily we should go before God in our hearts and ask Him to forgive us, asking Him to cleanse our spirit of all unrighteousness. Ask as David did, to search our heart and know us, that there may be no wicked way within. Then as God brings things to our mind to confess, confess those things as sin, asking Him to cleanse us of those sins. Many times over as I do this, pride comes to my mind. I confess pride before Him, and ask Him to forgive me, to wash me of all pride, that I may live humble before Him. Many of those that know my past, know I had a major pride issue. I was so hurt growing up. I went my own way to protect myself, and pride became my closest friend. But I fell so much as the bible talks about because of it. Pride is a sin. It's not something to be proud of. Pride separates you, not only from those you love through your deeds, but separates you from God Himself. He cant help the proud. Matter of fact, the bible says God sets Himself against the proud. So, when you are prideful and things begin to feel tougher, like you're up against the wall, you're really up against God Himself. Wow. Talk about not being able to win! lol. seriously. You cannot win against God Himself.
But. All it takes is asking Him to forgive you. Asking Him to forgive you is an act of humbleness. You're acknowledging you are not God, and He is. Simple but very profound. Knowing this has been my past, it tries to creep up again. Sometimes I dont catch a reaction as pride. But as I have my alone time with God, I dont feel so right before Him. This is the way He has created so I sense the sin between us, so I dont continue in it. That I confess it so He can forgive me and us have true relations again. Just like a friend.
Many of us are walking our own way, even though we have become a Christian.
I urge you to spend time with God right now and ask Him to show you your ways. Again, this will bring up your sin. Confess it. Acknowledge it. He will forgive you and you will be free once more. Dont be discouraged as you do this the first time in a long time if alot of sin comes before your mind. Let it out. Speak it out. And God will get it out!
Be Blessed my friends.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
The Breach
The breach is there. The face of horror within ... is there.
The breach is a division, a crack, a separation within your soul. You cant stand to be messed with. You feel weak at times, strong at others. But at all times you do not feel like you can truly do this on your own. You have no one. There's no one to confide in, to help. You take matters in your own hands, knowing you must be able to do something.... just something. Anything. Your brokenness is showing up in the most ridiculous ways. Very erratic at times. You cant help it. Seems as if you could be two people without even thinking it through.
This .... is a life without Christ. A life that is hopeless.
Do you feel this way? Are you trapped within and cant get out?
its simple
Just call on the Lord Jesus Christ and He will show up. He will take this brokenness and exchange it for a real life, a life with hope. A life with light. A life with joy.
If you would like this life.....pray with me
Lord Jesus, I ask you for this life. I ask you for this hope. I want what You can give me. A life of joy. I have so much on me that I cannot shake. I ask You to come into my life and change that. I believe You died to save me from hell. You died to give me life. I confess I have gone my own way all this time. I confess I have walked in sin. You died and I accept Your death in my place. I accept the sacrifice You gave of Your life ..... for mine. I believe You rose from the dead and are alive. I take what You are offering me now. I denounce satan and all his works. I denounce the lifestyle I was leading. Give me a new life. Take what I am and make me new, not fixed, but new. Take the breach in my life and heal me, raising me to newness. I cannot do this on my own. I need You as my Savior. I accept You and what You've done for me. I dedicate my new life to you Lord. Take it and create in me a heart of right standing, a heart that beats for You, God. I want this new life. I give You myself and all I am. I walk, now, for YOU! in Your Name, Jesus Christ.....Amen.
CONGRATULATIONS!
You have just been given new life!
now let me pray over you
Dear Lord, I know the mighty power that you posses. I know the praise that is Yours. You are King. You are our loving Father. Right now, I ask you take this life that's just accepted You and make them whole. Create in them a hunger for your ways, for your life, your word. Place your people around them to minister to their needs Lord. Only you know their lives Lord and their needs. Take them and make their lives beyond cool, Lord. Let them see there has always been love for them. Let them feel your arms around them now Lord, as a loving true Father. We give you praise and honor Lord, for your works are mighty! in Jesus' Name!
please comment so i can continue to pray for you! welcome to the Kingdom of God!
Friday, June 18, 2010
Let it be real....
In my study this morning, I began in Romans 12, verse 9 "let love be without dissimulation...". Now some of you may know what dissimulation means, but let's look it up anyway [okay, I dont know what it means, so stick with me while I LOOK IT UP] lol.
All I had at the time was websters dictionary, so I climbed into it, and there it was. 'dissimulate = to conceal under a false appearance. dissemble = to put on a false appearance; to conceal facts'.
So this verse reads 'let love be without a false appearance'? Verse 10 'be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love'.
Then as I was reading these verses, the Holy Spirit brought to mind scriptures where it talks about the last days and the lack of love. So i turned over to 2 Timothy 3:1-2 where it says 'In the last days....Men shall be lovers of their own selves....'. So we can rest that in the last days, it means people will love themselves more than they love others. They will be selfish, not caring for their fellow man MORE than they care about themselves. It will all revolve around them, me, myself and I as I learned as a child. ME ME ME!
Do you know anyone like that today? Come on! Admit it! You do, dont you? Well duh, we all do, dont we? We all know some of those people that the whole wide world revolves around them for one reason or another. I dont like dealing with those types, as no one else does, but I am glad to see them. They remind me of myself, once upon a time. It shows me how great God's grace and His mercy was on me to change.
Now. Do you believe we are in the last days? So many of us do, yes. Well, then it's safe to say that since in the last days people will be lovers of their own selves would be the norm, wouldn't it? It seems to be. Yet, to be in obedience to God's word in Romans 12 about 'loving without false appearance' would mean that we will have to be pushing against the flow of loving ourselves more than loving others. In the last days everyone will have this all over them, and we have to push against it to obey what the Spirit of God is telling us to live our lives like. Verse 10 in Romans 12 finished out saying 'in honour preferring one another'. Whoa. It references Philippians 2:3 where it talks about 'in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves'. Why in lowliness? Can you esteem someone else better than yourself when you're walking in a haughty spirit? Or all puffed up in pride? Lowliness of mind is a mind that doesn't think more highly of itself than it ought to. There's a scripture against that as well. Danger Will Robison, Danger!!!! [remember that show? My favorite Martian? I LOVED THAT SHOW!] Well, it is dangerous, because God says pride comes before a fall. So, we esteen OURSELVES better than another person, and we will definitely fall. God says it, it will happen. Bank on it. Well, dont just bank on it, take my word for it. I had such a pride problem in my life all along my 15 years of Christ following. Boy did it take God a long time to break that. I can now say, though I have to keep that weakness of the past under the blood of Jesus Christ [thru prayer] and under the control of the Holy Spirit [thru yielding], I am free of thinking of myself like that. WHEW! Boy were those hard knocks on the head. To fall is one thing. For everyone to witness you fall, is a total other creature. Wow! and Ouch!
When I later looked in Strongs exhaustive condordance, I found that dissimulation means simply put 'pretend and hypocricy'. so when God told us 'let love be without pretending, esteeming others better than ourself', He meant it.
We are in the last days. We all have the flow against our Christian walk to become selfish DAILY, MOMENT BY MOMENT. There is a smell of selfishness in the streets. It's horrid. We have to push against that temptation all the time to be aware of our fellow man, to place value on people, take up their burdens and help them. It's a choice ya'll. We chose to do it, not pretending.
God knew in this day and time we would need His help more than ever. He says to yoke up with Him, learn of Him, His yoke is easy and His burden is light. Two that yoke together, pull together. When a young ox gets pulled out of the pasture to train to pull, they place him with an older, wiser, more trained, well mannered animal. They yoke their necks together with a wide strong piece of wood. There's no gettin away. But Jesus said 'take my yoke', it's a choice. Chose you this day whom you will serve. Yoke with Him, take on that walk seriously. He says learn of me. Learn what you can of me, because I'm your life saving chance. Learn of me like a young ox looks to the older wiser stronger ox to teach him. That's where the term 'kicking against the goads' was coined. The goads are the strong buckboard piece behind the legs of the animals that is attached to what they are pulling. The young ox cannot stand the pressure of the yoke against his neck after hours of pulling. He cant stand it. It gets on his nerves, makes him restless and ancy. He just has to rebel and let it out. So he kicks. He kicks against the only thing he can reach. Arent' we like that? Aren't we just like that young strong untrained ox in OUR lives. We are yoked with Jesus, but I think we have on a pretend yoke. We pretend we are yoked with Him, training with Him, reading His word, bowing our heads and praying and feelin good about it. But we are exposed when God instructs us to do something we do not like. KICK. He demands our attitude to change to be more loving and less selfish. KICK. He expects us to return a kind word to someone that just snapped our head off. KICK. Why is it we are kicking against the pressure?
Jesus says come to me those of you that are burdened and heavy laden. We are pretending to be a pulling animal and doing our duty of this mission of the Gospel and we try to do it in our own power, our own emotion, our own effort, we are weary, tired, worn out, sick and tired of being sick and tired. Jesus says come to me and I will give you rest. I will take your yoke of pretending and place my will around your neck of love, My love He says, and I will love through you to these I am asking you to love without pretending. My yoke is easy He says. My burden is light. I will take this heavy pack off of you, and place it on Myself, He admits, and give you a life that is easy to carry. I .... will do it through you.
So when He says 'let love be without pretending' He's saying let Me love through you. Then ..... it will be real!
All I had at the time was websters dictionary, so I climbed into it, and there it was. 'dissimulate = to conceal under a false appearance. dissemble = to put on a false appearance; to conceal facts'.
So this verse reads 'let love be without a false appearance'? Verse 10 'be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love'.
Then as I was reading these verses, the Holy Spirit brought to mind scriptures where it talks about the last days and the lack of love. So i turned over to 2 Timothy 3:1-2 where it says 'In the last days....Men shall be lovers of their own selves....'. So we can rest that in the last days, it means people will love themselves more than they love others. They will be selfish, not caring for their fellow man MORE than they care about themselves. It will all revolve around them, me, myself and I as I learned as a child. ME ME ME!
Do you know anyone like that today? Come on! Admit it! You do, dont you? Well duh, we all do, dont we? We all know some of those people that the whole wide world revolves around them for one reason or another. I dont like dealing with those types, as no one else does, but I am glad to see them. They remind me of myself, once upon a time. It shows me how great God's grace and His mercy was on me to change.
Now. Do you believe we are in the last days? So many of us do, yes. Well, then it's safe to say that since in the last days people will be lovers of their own selves would be the norm, wouldn't it? It seems to be. Yet, to be in obedience to God's word in Romans 12 about 'loving without false appearance' would mean that we will have to be pushing against the flow of loving ourselves more than loving others. In the last days everyone will have this all over them, and we have to push against it to obey what the Spirit of God is telling us to live our lives like. Verse 10 in Romans 12 finished out saying 'in honour preferring one another'. Whoa. It references Philippians 2:3 where it talks about 'in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves'. Why in lowliness? Can you esteem someone else better than yourself when you're walking in a haughty spirit? Or all puffed up in pride? Lowliness of mind is a mind that doesn't think more highly of itself than it ought to. There's a scripture against that as well. Danger Will Robison, Danger!!!! [remember that show? My favorite Martian? I LOVED THAT SHOW!] Well, it is dangerous, because God says pride comes before a fall. So, we esteen OURSELVES better than another person, and we will definitely fall. God says it, it will happen. Bank on it. Well, dont just bank on it, take my word for it. I had such a pride problem in my life all along my 15 years of Christ following. Boy did it take God a long time to break that. I can now say, though I have to keep that weakness of the past under the blood of Jesus Christ [thru prayer] and under the control of the Holy Spirit [thru yielding], I am free of thinking of myself like that. WHEW! Boy were those hard knocks on the head. To fall is one thing. For everyone to witness you fall, is a total other creature. Wow! and Ouch!
When I later looked in Strongs exhaustive condordance, I found that dissimulation means simply put 'pretend and hypocricy'. so when God told us 'let love be without pretending, esteeming others better than ourself', He meant it.
We are in the last days. We all have the flow against our Christian walk to become selfish DAILY, MOMENT BY MOMENT. There is a smell of selfishness in the streets. It's horrid. We have to push against that temptation all the time to be aware of our fellow man, to place value on people, take up their burdens and help them. It's a choice ya'll. We chose to do it, not pretending.
God knew in this day and time we would need His help more than ever. He says to yoke up with Him, learn of Him, His yoke is easy and His burden is light. Two that yoke together, pull together. When a young ox gets pulled out of the pasture to train to pull, they place him with an older, wiser, more trained, well mannered animal. They yoke their necks together with a wide strong piece of wood. There's no gettin away. But Jesus said 'take my yoke', it's a choice. Chose you this day whom you will serve. Yoke with Him, take on that walk seriously. He says learn of me. Learn what you can of me, because I'm your life saving chance. Learn of me like a young ox looks to the older wiser stronger ox to teach him. That's where the term 'kicking against the goads' was coined. The goads are the strong buckboard piece behind the legs of the animals that is attached to what they are pulling. The young ox cannot stand the pressure of the yoke against his neck after hours of pulling. He cant stand it. It gets on his nerves, makes him restless and ancy. He just has to rebel and let it out. So he kicks. He kicks against the only thing he can reach. Arent' we like that? Aren't we just like that young strong untrained ox in OUR lives. We are yoked with Jesus, but I think we have on a pretend yoke. We pretend we are yoked with Him, training with Him, reading His word, bowing our heads and praying and feelin good about it. But we are exposed when God instructs us to do something we do not like. KICK. He demands our attitude to change to be more loving and less selfish. KICK. He expects us to return a kind word to someone that just snapped our head off. KICK. Why is it we are kicking against the pressure?
Jesus says come to me those of you that are burdened and heavy laden. We are pretending to be a pulling animal and doing our duty of this mission of the Gospel and we try to do it in our own power, our own emotion, our own effort, we are weary, tired, worn out, sick and tired of being sick and tired. Jesus says come to me and I will give you rest. I will take your yoke of pretending and place my will around your neck of love, My love He says, and I will love through you to these I am asking you to love without pretending. My yoke is easy He says. My burden is light. I will take this heavy pack off of you, and place it on Myself, He admits, and give you a life that is easy to carry. I .... will do it through you.
So when He says 'let love be without pretending' He's saying let Me love through you. Then ..... it will be real!
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Notes
Seems like what's mostly being posted these days are notes from me, with the occassional serious download note from the Lord.
I've been studying, but I"m not posting. I will share what God is showing me for today, for instance.
I am currently ministering to a single Mom that had to flee her home with her 11 year old daughter. Not many of you know, that last May I had the same experience. When someone threatens your life, your whole world changes. You're trapped. But what's worse, is you're trapped in your own home. Everything normal suddenly becomes abnormal. This person will have before now been showing red flags, but until they threaten to hurt you, you just begin to pull away, one day them not even knowing who you are. But the day they threaten your life, your safety, your whole world turns ON YOU! You dont feel safe in anything you do.
Fear is the main engine the enemy uses here, of course. His plan is for you to open up to fear. With a threat on your life, or your childs life, you pretty much open up and let fear come in to reside. Once you leave your home, fear is with you wherever you go. You dont think straight, act straight, you even have dreams that aren't straight. Once you open up to fear, it pretty much has the wheel on driving you to make decisions you would not have made before.
To insure me that He was near, God gave me a scripture that was somewhat odd to the 'normal' environed person, but went straight to my heart. The day I left began a path of guilt and shame. Guilt and shame have no part in a normal environment, but when your world is opened to fear, guilt that you ran too soon, or wasn't strong enough to tough it out begin to bombard you. Yes, a person that is codependent will indeed have a hard decision here. They are not always drawn to the abuser, they are sometimes guilted to go back. Shame is a natural feature in this too. Once the initial fear is subsided you move toward thoughts of 'why did this happen'. You have thoughts like 'I just cant have a good relationship' and 'everyone is going to know now' and 'I cant tell them I've had to leave'. All this is normal behavior for someone that's been threatened. However, typically someone that's being threatened has lived a life of verbal abuse, controlling behavior from the partner and they have had to endure hardship emotionally for quite sometime before the threats begin.
The scripture God gave me that broke the hold of all guilt and shameful thoughts was Matthew 6:25 when Jesus said 'is not THE LIFE more important than meat and the body more than raiment?'. What the Lord was telling me is my life is more important than my clothes I left behind, my pictures I left behind, even my puppies I left behind. THE LIFE and saving it from harm is more important than what I left behind.
If there is someone you come in contact with that has had to flee their home to make a new home somewhere else, please show them kindness. Let them know you really really do care about them. Give of yourself and your stuff. Show them the love ..... of Christ~
I've been studying, but I"m not posting. I will share what God is showing me for today, for instance.
I am currently ministering to a single Mom that had to flee her home with her 11 year old daughter. Not many of you know, that last May I had the same experience. When someone threatens your life, your whole world changes. You're trapped. But what's worse, is you're trapped in your own home. Everything normal suddenly becomes abnormal. This person will have before now been showing red flags, but until they threaten to hurt you, you just begin to pull away, one day them not even knowing who you are. But the day they threaten your life, your safety, your whole world turns ON YOU! You dont feel safe in anything you do.
Fear is the main engine the enemy uses here, of course. His plan is for you to open up to fear. With a threat on your life, or your childs life, you pretty much open up and let fear come in to reside. Once you leave your home, fear is with you wherever you go. You dont think straight, act straight, you even have dreams that aren't straight. Once you open up to fear, it pretty much has the wheel on driving you to make decisions you would not have made before.
To insure me that He was near, God gave me a scripture that was somewhat odd to the 'normal' environed person, but went straight to my heart. The day I left began a path of guilt and shame. Guilt and shame have no part in a normal environment, but when your world is opened to fear, guilt that you ran too soon, or wasn't strong enough to tough it out begin to bombard you. Yes, a person that is codependent will indeed have a hard decision here. They are not always drawn to the abuser, they are sometimes guilted to go back. Shame is a natural feature in this too. Once the initial fear is subsided you move toward thoughts of 'why did this happen'. You have thoughts like 'I just cant have a good relationship' and 'everyone is going to know now' and 'I cant tell them I've had to leave'. All this is normal behavior for someone that's been threatened. However, typically someone that's being threatened has lived a life of verbal abuse, controlling behavior from the partner and they have had to endure hardship emotionally for quite sometime before the threats begin.
The scripture God gave me that broke the hold of all guilt and shameful thoughts was Matthew 6:25 when Jesus said 'is not THE LIFE more important than meat and the body more than raiment?'. What the Lord was telling me is my life is more important than my clothes I left behind, my pictures I left behind, even my puppies I left behind. THE LIFE and saving it from harm is more important than what I left behind.
If there is someone you come in contact with that has had to flee their home to make a new home somewhere else, please show them kindness. Let them know you really really do care about them. Give of yourself and your stuff. Show them the love ..... of Christ~
Saturday, April 17, 2010
You are not alone
So many of us try to get to God ..... on our own. We try we try we try, but there is so many wrong things we do, we seem to climb a step and because of wrong moves we feel we have to take two or three steps back down. But God says 'you can not get to me on your own.It's up to me to bring you up higher once you have lowered yourself'. We say 'Lord, what do you mean by this? I'm told over and over to reach and reach and try to come up where you are'. But I tell you today, unless you humble yourself, you will not be able to see Him. He is not a God that can be acheived. He is not a statue that He can be chiseled. He is living, loving and a holy God. Only through us lowering ourselves and telling Him 'I'm only here to worship you Lord', can we then be lifted up and into His arms.
Lowering yourself is a simple act. It's knowing you can do nothing, say nothing, it is a heart thing. Be simple and act accordingly. Just sit and know that He is God ..... and we are not!
let us pray:
God we do this, this very moment. We bow our hearts before you. We can do nothing to earn a position with you, an audience with you, yes You inhabit the praises of your people, but if your people are not humble you cannot hear their cries. We humble ourselves before you now Lord. We take off this mask and give it to you. It's not worked for us in the past, and especially before you Lord, it does not work. We give it to you, but ask, in it's place give us the heart of glory, the heart of cleanliness, the heart that will reflect a face full of your Son, Jesus Christ. And in His precious name we will ask these things......Amen~
Lowering yourself is a simple act. It's knowing you can do nothing, say nothing, it is a heart thing. Be simple and act accordingly. Just sit and know that He is God ..... and we are not!
let us pray:
God we do this, this very moment. We bow our hearts before you. We can do nothing to earn a position with you, an audience with you, yes You inhabit the praises of your people, but if your people are not humble you cannot hear their cries. We humble ourselves before you now Lord. We take off this mask and give it to you. It's not worked for us in the past, and especially before you Lord, it does not work. We give it to you, but ask, in it's place give us the heart of glory, the heart of cleanliness, the heart that will reflect a face full of your Son, Jesus Christ. And in His precious name we will ask these things......Amen~
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Let's Be Stirred
There are many many times we get of into a mindset that is not pleasing to God. However we feel to deal with it, sometimes we even deal with it wrongly. We have too many things on our plate, we have no time for God, we push Him unknowingly to the background and MARCH ON FOR JESUS.
But this should not be so, friends. This should not be happening in our lives. Sometimes, as He did with the Israelites in the bible, God will allow things to come into our life to awaken us, to move us, and stir within us a desire to see Him move. It's times like these we should hit our knees, ask and desire mostly to seek His forgiveness.
Recently in two bible studies I'm in, besides the one He called me into, whew, wow, talking about no real time with facebook friends [I've begun to feel like Rudolph the red nosed reindeer, not being able to join in any reindeer games lol]. But God began showing me the life of a real friend, a devoted friend. You can walk a harsh season in your life and a friend will walk with you, pouring their time and heart into your world. Then that season seems to be over, and you go separate ways, or you're not calling and emailing and texting every day. Then 6 months down the road you hear they are in a crisis, or a hard place in their life. Or you hear someone bad mouth that person, talking as if that person is not who they profess to be. What should rise up within us is loyalty. That same loyalty they showed us months ago, should arise within us to hold the torch for them.
Well after God was bringing these thoughts and random wonderings for about a week, He then took all those thoughts and turned them toward Him. He showed me THIS was the reason He told the Israelites to 'remember' Him. He would tell them to place a memorial of stones near a river He made dry so they could walk across and tell their children. He told them to begin on an annual anniversary of a death filled event to 'remember' how He protected them and to reinact that night year after year.
God was showing me He ..... is our friend too. He's walked with us during difficult times and poured into our lives on days when we didn't even know if we COULD get out of bed and face our circumstances. All the nights with our sick child, with us crying out to Him and He healed our baby. That loyalty He showed to us, that true friendship of being there through thick and thin. He says 'remember me' and have my back too.
In 2 Peter 3:1-4,8-9 it says "This 2nd epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance; that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour [His friends taking up for God]: knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His coming? for since our fathers have died, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, the Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance".
What I believe God has been opening up to me in the last couple of weeks is true friendship, and extending that friendship back to Him. We have all had God come to our aide. And God is saying there will be scoffers regarding His return and we're to have his back by remembering what the prophets and even the apostles have told us; His return is soon.
Why has He waited so long? His loooooooongsuffering is why, not willing that any should perish, but that ALL, even the scoffers, should come to repentance.
If you have gone through a season of paying attention more to other friends and not cultivating your friendship with God, take this weekend to talk to Him about that. Tell Him you're sorry for that. Tell Him you WANT to be a loyal friend, and that you want to take up for Him, as He's taken up for you.
Have a wonderful weekend ya'll~
But this should not be so, friends. This should not be happening in our lives. Sometimes, as He did with the Israelites in the bible, God will allow things to come into our life to awaken us, to move us, and stir within us a desire to see Him move. It's times like these we should hit our knees, ask and desire mostly to seek His forgiveness.
Recently in two bible studies I'm in, besides the one He called me into, whew, wow, talking about no real time with facebook friends [I've begun to feel like Rudolph the red nosed reindeer, not being able to join in any reindeer games lol]. But God began showing me the life of a real friend, a devoted friend. You can walk a harsh season in your life and a friend will walk with you, pouring their time and heart into your world. Then that season seems to be over, and you go separate ways, or you're not calling and emailing and texting every day. Then 6 months down the road you hear they are in a crisis, or a hard place in their life. Or you hear someone bad mouth that person, talking as if that person is not who they profess to be. What should rise up within us is loyalty. That same loyalty they showed us months ago, should arise within us to hold the torch for them.
Well after God was bringing these thoughts and random wonderings for about a week, He then took all those thoughts and turned them toward Him. He showed me THIS was the reason He told the Israelites to 'remember' Him. He would tell them to place a memorial of stones near a river He made dry so they could walk across and tell their children. He told them to begin on an annual anniversary of a death filled event to 'remember' how He protected them and to reinact that night year after year.
God was showing me He ..... is our friend too. He's walked with us during difficult times and poured into our lives on days when we didn't even know if we COULD get out of bed and face our circumstances. All the nights with our sick child, with us crying out to Him and He healed our baby. That loyalty He showed to us, that true friendship of being there through thick and thin. He says 'remember me' and have my back too.
In 2 Peter 3:1-4,8-9 it says "This 2nd epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance; that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour [His friends taking up for God]: knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His coming? for since our fathers have died, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, the Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance".
What I believe God has been opening up to me in the last couple of weeks is true friendship, and extending that friendship back to Him. We have all had God come to our aide. And God is saying there will be scoffers regarding His return and we're to have his back by remembering what the prophets and even the apostles have told us; His return is soon.
Why has He waited so long? His loooooooongsuffering is why, not willing that any should perish, but that ALL, even the scoffers, should come to repentance.
If you have gone through a season of paying attention more to other friends and not cultivating your friendship with God, take this weekend to talk to Him about that. Tell Him you're sorry for that. Tell Him you WANT to be a loyal friend, and that you want to take up for Him, as He's taken up for you.
Have a wonderful weekend ya'll~
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
An Encouraging note from ME!
I just want you to know, this morning, that no matter what you are going through, God cares about it. No matter how hurt or frustrated you've become, God cares about it. So many talk about 'casting your care upon the Lord', but what does this really mean? What....does it mean?
Casting is throwing. Throw it on Him. Throw it .... onto HIM, JESUS CHRIST. Right now, whatever you're dealing with, what ever is plaguing you, or frightening you. Some of you are so frightened, that you can hardly move. You're just moving so causiously through your day, hoping no one can tell.
Well, God can tell. He's sending me right now, this very moment, to tell you to call on Him, holler to Him, to let Him know you need Him. He wants to help you. Let's pray:
God that's what we do right now, is call on you. We ask you for your mercy for us, for you are merciful, powerful, loving, conquering, mighty and victorious. Nothing has the power to overcome YOU. We need you, God. We need your touch, your breath, your power to cover us, Lord. We ask, in the name of your Son Jesus Christ, to come down, take control, as we throw these stinking things to YOU. That's what they are doing to our lives, is stinking up our lives. Take it Lord. Take it right now, but the power that is Yours. We love you Lord. Wrap your love around us, Lord. Take us down the path of peace. Let your peace guide us today and forward, for we need you. We give you honor, we give you praise. For you are our light in the darkness. There you ARE. There you ARE, Lord. We can see you now. Thank you Lord. Thank you for sending your Son to save us, to rescue us. We accept right now His help. In His name, Jesus......AMEN!!!! if you need prayer, message me at thinnylouwho@yahoo.com and I'll pray with you and help in anyway I can! May God richly bless you TODAY!!!
Casting is throwing. Throw it on Him. Throw it .... onto HIM, JESUS CHRIST. Right now, whatever you're dealing with, what ever is plaguing you, or frightening you. Some of you are so frightened, that you can hardly move. You're just moving so causiously through your day, hoping no one can tell.
Well, God can tell. He's sending me right now, this very moment, to tell you to call on Him, holler to Him, to let Him know you need Him. He wants to help you. Let's pray:
God that's what we do right now, is call on you. We ask you for your mercy for us, for you are merciful, powerful, loving, conquering, mighty and victorious. Nothing has the power to overcome YOU. We need you, God. We need your touch, your breath, your power to cover us, Lord. We ask, in the name of your Son Jesus Christ, to come down, take control, as we throw these stinking things to YOU. That's what they are doing to our lives, is stinking up our lives. Take it Lord. Take it right now, but the power that is Yours. We love you Lord. Wrap your love around us, Lord. Take us down the path of peace. Let your peace guide us today and forward, for we need you. We give you honor, we give you praise. For you are our light in the darkness. There you ARE. There you ARE, Lord. We can see you now. Thank you Lord. Thank you for sending your Son to save us, to rescue us. We accept right now His help. In His name, Jesus......AMEN!!!! if you need prayer, message me at thinnylouwho@yahoo.com and I'll pray with you and help in anyway I can! May God richly bless you TODAY!!!
Saturday, February 20, 2010
(Study 7) Random Encourgements from the Lord today
In my quiet time with the Lord this morning, I knew I did not have my joy. Joy is not my 'closest' friend. Joy still lives with me, but I leave before joy gets up, and I'm home way after joy has gone to bed. Joy is from my time with the Lord. I've let thoughts creep in during my time with Him, and not spent the 'quality' of time with Him that He's asked for, and He's deserved, and I've needed. So this morning, I got real with Him, and talked to Him about this. But in the past, I've been all about His Spirit, and very little about His Word. So as I told Him that this moring, I asked Him would He show me about Himself in His Word to me. I want this in the spirit and in His word too. I want a well-ordered heart as we learned about in Wednesday nights meeting at New Life Church-Heber Spring (my church) this week.
The past few studies, we have been in 2 Peter. So I opened the bible and began near where I've left off in my reading, and one particular scripture caught my eye. But I want you to look at these verses with me in your bible. So I'll wait while you go get yours, so we can look together at how the Lord is wanting to encourage us today. So go get it!
K. You got it? Okay great! Open it up to 2 Peter 2:9 first. "The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations..." I began to think this through. Since the Lord knows how to deliver us when we're tempted, He knows how, then we need to go to Him while tempted to let Him show us how to move out of the temptation. He knows how. He's the one that delivers. He's the one that has the path out. He's the one with the know how. Makes sense, then, to get 'close' to the one that knows how, huh? It does, doesn't it? It doesn't make a lick of sense, while in the temptation, to talk to friends that have the same issue. It doesn't make sense to just go on through it alone either (tho He's never left us, always with us, we can go thru it without acknowledging Him, therefore never allowing Him to help us. Make sense?). Since the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation, then Lord, we need to come to you.
This scripture references Psalm 34:17, so let's turn there. "The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles. Verse 18: "The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit". A humble spirit, a spirit that wants His will, contrite, humble.
It refereces verse 6 also. "The poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles". This references verse 4 just above it: " I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears". King David is the writer of this Psalm, and he was speaking of himself in verse 4 and then calling himself the poor man in verse 6. Now we all know King David was not a poor man in money, he was a rich king. But King David was a humble man, of a contrite spirit. He valued God above all things. But even as we are, King David was a human being, no matter how close to God, was lured away from His duties of going to war, and stayed home, and one particular day was gazing out his window and saw a woman bathing and had impure thoughts of her and called for her to come to him. Her Husband was about his duties of war and on the right path, but King David was out of order, out of routine, staying back and shirked his duties, and began sinning with this woman. We know David was not always, then, humble. For sinning is truly rebellion against God. Rebellion is pride, as we saw with Lucifer, the angel of praise in Heaven rise up in pride and take so many other angels with him. It ... is sin, and punishable. And if we are not doing what 'our' routine is, time alone with God and time with Him in His word, then we too open ourselves to being lured away as David was. But .... as he wrote to God in verse 6 "this poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles". David knew the Lord knew how to deliver him. And cried out to Him to help Him. The Lord did just that, as He will in our lives. God cannot resist the cries of a righteous person. Remember how we've studied out that it's not our righteousness, but God's Sons' righteousness we accept as ours. We have traded places with Jesus Christ, and live alive unto God as Jesus would. It's the righteousness of Christ that God cannot resist. How do we stay in this righteousness? Through continually accepting what Jesus Christ did for us and walking in obedience to God. God cannot resist a person [man or woman] that walks like this. This .... is humbleness.
Then my eyes fell on Psalm 32:10-11: "Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about. Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy. (there's my joy!) all ye that are upright in heart". Then on to Psalm 33: "Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous: for praise is comely for the upright"
"Praise the Lord with harp: sing unto Him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings".
"Sing unto Him a new song...". Let's stay here for a moment. Let's examine what our song has been lately. Have we had an encouraging sound coming out? Have we? Have we been uplifting and encouraging for others to hear, for the LORD to hear? Have we? Here the Lord says.....SING......A NEW SONG.
sing.....SING.....sing......SING......sing a new song:
O Lord, we SING.....we sing Lord. We sing of Your mercy. We sing of Your strength. We have none Lord. We have no strength Lord. You ARE our strength.
Sorry, I just had to. I think my JOY is showing! hahahaha.....I just wanted us to sing a new song to the Lord. okay....what else does this Psalm say about all this?
"play skilfully with a loud noise"
"For the word of the Lord is right; and all His works are done in truth".
"He loveth righteousness and judgement: the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord". Again, let's look at this one. Thoughts come to my mind of all that's going on in the world today as I read this. Do we see the Lord's goodness? Or do we see the evil in the world? Are we perpetuating the goodness of the Lord and therefore see the goodness of the Lord as the earth is full of it? If this scripture says the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord, then the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. The word of the Lord is right as it says in the verse above. So if we're not seeing the goodness of the Lord that is full in the earth, then perhaps we need to be closer to the Lord, and hang on that vine and become full so we can see the goodness of the Lord and extend it to others. Amen?
"By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth". Remember that's how He made man a living soul? (Genesis 2:7 "and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul") He scooped up some dust and formed a man, laying him on the ground infront of Him. Lifeless was this dust. No breathing, no sound, like a clay model that a potter forms, lifeless. But He didn't leave him in that condition. He breathed into him. His breath warmed the insides of that man form. His breath swirled inside, making lifelessness breathe. He breathed into his nostrils the first CPR ever recorded. He brought him .... to life.
He made the hosts of the Heavens this way too.....by the breath of His mouth.
"He gathereth the waters of the sea together as a heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses". What comes to mind is the storehouse on farmville in facebook. lol. The Lord has a storehouse. He places things in His storehouse at a mere thought.
"He gathereth the waters of the sea together as a heap" references Exodus 15:8, so let's go there. The heading of these scriptures in Exodus refer to the story of Him taking the Israelites across the Red Sea, so let's see what the Lord is saying "and with a blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as a heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea. There's God's farmville storehouse; the heart of the sea. lol. Did you know God had a storehouse in the heart of the sea?
Psalm 33:8: "Let all the earth fear the Lord".....let's talk about this fear. This fear isn't the fear like we'd think about being scared of getting hurt, or fear of the unknown, or someone jumping out and scaring us kind of fear. No this is the fear like when you were in Jr High and your Father tells you to go cut a switch off the tree, that you were going to get a whoopin 'kind of fear'. You knew he loved you, so he wasn't going to kill you. lol. But you had reverence or awe that he had the power, the authority, to whip the hide off your tail. Right? That kind of fear. This is talking about us revering the Lord, knowing He has all power and authority to do what He would like to do, when He liked to do it, and where to put it once He'd done it. But He stays within the bounds of His word that's He's put into place. I love that about Him. He's spoken a promise and He keeps it. We dont hear alot about revering someone these days. This is a mark of character, fearing or reverencing the Lord.
"....let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him"
"For He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast'
"The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: He maketh the devices of the people of none effect"
"The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, the thoughts of His heart to all generations". I believe right here is a clue of why the bible has come out unscathed through out all these years, why it has lasted and survived all the ages since the scriptures were brought together in one place. Because 'the thoughts of His heart (the bible you hold in your hand right now) the thoughts of His heart to all generations'. Amen?
"Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom He hath chosen for His own inheritance"
"The Lord looketh from Heaven; He beholdeth all the sons of men"
"From the place of His habitation He looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth:
He fashioneth their hearts alike; He considereth all their works"
"There is no king saved by the mulitude of a host [an army]: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength"
"A horse is a vain thing for safety: neither shall he deliver any by his great strength"
"Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that (what?) fear Him (reverence Him), upon them that hope in His mercy"
"To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine"
"Our soul waiteth for the Lord: He is our help and our shield"
"For our heart shall rejoice in Him, because we have trusted in His holy name" MY JOY!
"Let they mercy, O Lord, be upon us, according as we hope in Thee". Amen!
Please let me know your thoughts. If you'd like to praise the Lord, do so in the comments. Let's all share what we're thinking....
The past few studies, we have been in 2 Peter. So I opened the bible and began near where I've left off in my reading, and one particular scripture caught my eye. But I want you to look at these verses with me in your bible. So I'll wait while you go get yours, so we can look together at how the Lord is wanting to encourage us today. So go get it!
K. You got it? Okay great! Open it up to 2 Peter 2:9 first. "The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations..." I began to think this through. Since the Lord knows how to deliver us when we're tempted, He knows how, then we need to go to Him while tempted to let Him show us how to move out of the temptation. He knows how. He's the one that delivers. He's the one that has the path out. He's the one with the know how. Makes sense, then, to get 'close' to the one that knows how, huh? It does, doesn't it? It doesn't make a lick of sense, while in the temptation, to talk to friends that have the same issue. It doesn't make sense to just go on through it alone either (tho He's never left us, always with us, we can go thru it without acknowledging Him, therefore never allowing Him to help us. Make sense?). Since the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation, then Lord, we need to come to you.
This scripture references Psalm 34:17, so let's turn there. "The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles. Verse 18: "The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit". A humble spirit, a spirit that wants His will, contrite, humble.
It refereces verse 6 also. "The poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles". This references verse 4 just above it: " I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears". King David is the writer of this Psalm, and he was speaking of himself in verse 4 and then calling himself the poor man in verse 6. Now we all know King David was not a poor man in money, he was a rich king. But King David was a humble man, of a contrite spirit. He valued God above all things. But even as we are, King David was a human being, no matter how close to God, was lured away from His duties of going to war, and stayed home, and one particular day was gazing out his window and saw a woman bathing and had impure thoughts of her and called for her to come to him. Her Husband was about his duties of war and on the right path, but King David was out of order, out of routine, staying back and shirked his duties, and began sinning with this woman. We know David was not always, then, humble. For sinning is truly rebellion against God. Rebellion is pride, as we saw with Lucifer, the angel of praise in Heaven rise up in pride and take so many other angels with him. It ... is sin, and punishable. And if we are not doing what 'our' routine is, time alone with God and time with Him in His word, then we too open ourselves to being lured away as David was. But .... as he wrote to God in verse 6 "this poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles". David knew the Lord knew how to deliver him. And cried out to Him to help Him. The Lord did just that, as He will in our lives. God cannot resist the cries of a righteous person. Remember how we've studied out that it's not our righteousness, but God's Sons' righteousness we accept as ours. We have traded places with Jesus Christ, and live alive unto God as Jesus would. It's the righteousness of Christ that God cannot resist. How do we stay in this righteousness? Through continually accepting what Jesus Christ did for us and walking in obedience to God. God cannot resist a person [man or woman] that walks like this. This .... is humbleness.
Then my eyes fell on Psalm 32:10-11: "Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about. Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy. (there's my joy!) all ye that are upright in heart". Then on to Psalm 33: "Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous: for praise is comely for the upright"
"Praise the Lord with harp: sing unto Him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings".
"Sing unto Him a new song...". Let's stay here for a moment. Let's examine what our song has been lately. Have we had an encouraging sound coming out? Have we? Have we been uplifting and encouraging for others to hear, for the LORD to hear? Have we? Here the Lord says.....SING......A NEW SONG.
sing.....SING.....sing......SING......sing a new song:
O Lord, we SING.....we sing Lord. We sing of Your mercy. We sing of Your strength. We have none Lord. We have no strength Lord. You ARE our strength.
Sorry, I just had to. I think my JOY is showing! hahahaha.....I just wanted us to sing a new song to the Lord. okay....what else does this Psalm say about all this?
"play skilfully with a loud noise"
"For the word of the Lord is right; and all His works are done in truth".
"He loveth righteousness and judgement: the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord". Again, let's look at this one. Thoughts come to my mind of all that's going on in the world today as I read this. Do we see the Lord's goodness? Or do we see the evil in the world? Are we perpetuating the goodness of the Lord and therefore see the goodness of the Lord as the earth is full of it? If this scripture says the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord, then the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. The word of the Lord is right as it says in the verse above. So if we're not seeing the goodness of the Lord that is full in the earth, then perhaps we need to be closer to the Lord, and hang on that vine and become full so we can see the goodness of the Lord and extend it to others. Amen?
"By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth". Remember that's how He made man a living soul? (Genesis 2:7 "and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul") He scooped up some dust and formed a man, laying him on the ground infront of Him. Lifeless was this dust. No breathing, no sound, like a clay model that a potter forms, lifeless. But He didn't leave him in that condition. He breathed into him. His breath warmed the insides of that man form. His breath swirled inside, making lifelessness breathe. He breathed into his nostrils the first CPR ever recorded. He brought him .... to life.
He made the hosts of the Heavens this way too.....by the breath of His mouth.
"He gathereth the waters of the sea together as a heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses". What comes to mind is the storehouse on farmville in facebook. lol. The Lord has a storehouse. He places things in His storehouse at a mere thought.
"He gathereth the waters of the sea together as a heap" references Exodus 15:8, so let's go there. The heading of these scriptures in Exodus refer to the story of Him taking the Israelites across the Red Sea, so let's see what the Lord is saying "and with a blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as a heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea. There's God's farmville storehouse; the heart of the sea. lol. Did you know God had a storehouse in the heart of the sea?
Psalm 33:8: "Let all the earth fear the Lord".....let's talk about this fear. This fear isn't the fear like we'd think about being scared of getting hurt, or fear of the unknown, or someone jumping out and scaring us kind of fear. No this is the fear like when you were in Jr High and your Father tells you to go cut a switch off the tree, that you were going to get a whoopin 'kind of fear'. You knew he loved you, so he wasn't going to kill you. lol. But you had reverence or awe that he had the power, the authority, to whip the hide off your tail. Right? That kind of fear. This is talking about us revering the Lord, knowing He has all power and authority to do what He would like to do, when He liked to do it, and where to put it once He'd done it. But He stays within the bounds of His word that's He's put into place. I love that about Him. He's spoken a promise and He keeps it. We dont hear alot about revering someone these days. This is a mark of character, fearing or reverencing the Lord.
"....let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him"
"For He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast'
"The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: He maketh the devices of the people of none effect"
"The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, the thoughts of His heart to all generations". I believe right here is a clue of why the bible has come out unscathed through out all these years, why it has lasted and survived all the ages since the scriptures were brought together in one place. Because 'the thoughts of His heart (the bible you hold in your hand right now) the thoughts of His heart to all generations'. Amen?
"Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom He hath chosen for His own inheritance"
"The Lord looketh from Heaven; He beholdeth all the sons of men"
"From the place of His habitation He looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth:
He fashioneth their hearts alike; He considereth all their works"
"There is no king saved by the mulitude of a host [an army]: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength"
"A horse is a vain thing for safety: neither shall he deliver any by his great strength"
"Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that (what?) fear Him (reverence Him), upon them that hope in His mercy"
"To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine"
"Our soul waiteth for the Lord: He is our help and our shield"
"For our heart shall rejoice in Him, because we have trusted in His holy name" MY JOY!
"Let they mercy, O Lord, be upon us, according as we hope in Thee". Amen!
Please let me know your thoughts. If you'd like to praise the Lord, do so in the comments. Let's all share what we're thinking....
Monday, February 15, 2010
(Study 6) You Have a Specific Purpose (part two)
1 Peter 2:9 "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous light".
We established in part one that we are chosen. Not were chosen, where we could have missed our only opportunity, but we are this chosen generation.
We established also in part one to be a royal priesthood means; of a foundation of authority, holy to give sacrifices. Well Peter is calling us this as well, because the new testiment is for all to learn how to live under grace, and since Peter, then, is talking to us, calling us a priest that sacrifices, how does that relate to us in 2010?
In Hebrews 13:9-16 it says "Be not carried about with various strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein".
Here the writer of Hebrews is wanting to establish that the laws written regarding meat and the many other laws have been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Seveal laws were given to the Israelites by God in addition to the 10 commandments. In these laws God was very clear on what meats to eat, what to leave alone and even so far as to point out certain parts of meats were to be sacrificed on the alter while the rest of the animal was to be burned outside the camp. During this era the Israelites' obedience pleased God, and with following the instructions it 'rolled' their sin forward one year. These instructions profited them.
Here in Hebrews 13:9 the writer is making it clear following those laws no longer profits man because 'it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace' instead. This is where the scripture comes to life in Romans 6:14 '.....for ye are not under the law, but under grace'.
for our spirit: Jesus was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, payment for us to have a new spirit, to become whole spiritually.
for our soul: The chastisement of our peace was upon Him. We no longer have to be plagued in our mind, our will or our emotions, with fear, failure, fret, regret. Total peace is available for us for a soul that is whole.
for our body: With His stripes we are healed. We have total healing available for wholeness in our body. We do not have to walk around broken and diseased. We have available to us total wholeness.
All this is recorded in that one scripture, total wholeness for our entire being. So we received so much more than just a way to Heaven upon salvation. We received wholeness. This scripture shows how that healing and wholeness was brought to us, through what Jesus went through for us. The way I think of what happened at salvation, was that our unborn spirit traded places with Jesus' full sized, filled Spirit. We became whole in our spirit. That we traded our hurt, tattered, disfunctional soul, with Jesus' Godly, pure, loving whole soul. And our broken down, unhealthy, diseased body traded places with Jesus as He went to the Cross, us rising in newness of health and wholeness in our entire bodies.
We traded places with Him. He took our sin, we took His righteousness. He took our tortured, anxiety ridden minds, and we took His peace. He took our diseased bodies, and with the stripes that were laid on His healthy body that was marked up with 39 stripes, all 39 diseases known to man were provided with healing. We .... traded places with Jesus in all counts. (Praise Moment: thank you Lord Jesus. You took what should have been ours, and you took it willingly. Thank you for giving back so much to us. Thank you so much!)
This was all provided through Jesus Christ willingly dying in our place. This is the good news, the Gospel. That's why 'it is a good thing for the heart to be established with grace'. So we learn, get established.
Back to Hebrews 13:12-16 "wherefore Jesus also, that He may sancify the people [that's us] with His own blood, suffered outside the gate [Calvary]. Let us go forth therefore unto Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come. By Him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name. But to do good and to communicate, forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased".
This is the sacrifice of the royal priesthood spoken of in 1 Peter 2:9-10. We are a chosen generation, chosen to do what? We are a royal priesthood, sacrificing what? "that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. [THIS IS WHY WE PRAISE HIM!] Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God.
Let's stop there; have you ever felt alone? Well, you aren't. You're one of God's people. Have you ever felt like you didn't belong? Well, you do! You belong to the family of God. You're His people. Here's proof. That's why we are to go to Church, to be with all His people, our spiritual family. Is everyone in your earthly family healthy physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually all at once? Well neither is your spiritual family. You know as your earthly family matures and grows, so does your spiritual family. No one in the Church is perfect because they are still growing and changing and moving foward [or should be]. Do not look to people only, they will disappoint you. You have to look to your Heavenly Father, you are part of God's people.
You have purpose as a royal priesthood, offering the sacrifice of praise which is the fruit of your lips, giving thanks unto God.
Have you ever wondered why it's called the 'sacrifice' of praise. There are songs that have been built around that one phrase 'sacrifice of praise'. One tune is very uplifting and lilting with a melody that imparts a jig in your heart, let's sing it; "We bring the sacrifice of praise, into the House of the Lord. We bring the sacrifice of praise into the House......of the Lord. And we offer up to you, the sacrifice-s of thanks-giv-ing. And we off-er up to You, the sacrifice-s of love". That was fun wasn't it? If you knew that song, your toe even tapped a bit as you sang it in your head, now didn't it? Didn't it? Dont fib, I can just see you bouncing your toe a little as you sang it.
Let's switch gears for a moment, what if, let's say, that you're not having such a good day. You're having a really hard time with your bills, and your child gets sick and needs to go to the doctor and it's somewhat serious and an auditor calls saying they want to schedule some time to go over everything with you, and your boss calls and says he's going to have to lay you off, and your Mom is getting worse, needing to go into a nursing home and has no money, but may need to come stay with you instead. This is stress. This is moving into crisis. This is not a toe tapping, lilting, head bobbing kind of day.
This is why God told this Psalmist, David, to write that it's a sacrifice. God says if you will sacrifice your emotion and praise Me, I will be honored and be glorified. I will have access to your soul and be able to lift you out of what you're moving into. But if I allow you to walk through this and you sacrifice the fruit of your lips to praise Me, I can lift you out at just the right moment and the lions mouth with be closed, you wont get burned, not even sienged, and you wont even smell like smoke. I'm telling you, I may even promote you to 2nd in command, if you will just give me this sacrifice of praise, the sweet fruit of your lips. Not lip service, but true true worship, showing Me your love, I will truly move in your behalf.
We have a purpose; to give thanks and honor to the one that took our sin, our turmoil, our tradegy and gave us in return, His life. He even told us in John 10:10 "I came to give you life, and life more abundantly". Let's give Him the sacrifice of praise, the fruit of our own lips!
We established in part one that we are chosen. Not were chosen, where we could have missed our only opportunity, but we are this chosen generation.
We established also in part one to be a royal priesthood means; of a foundation of authority, holy to give sacrifices. Well Peter is calling us this as well, because the new testiment is for all to learn how to live under grace, and since Peter, then, is talking to us, calling us a priest that sacrifices, how does that relate to us in 2010?
In Hebrews 13:9-16 it says "Be not carried about with various strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein".
Here the writer of Hebrews is wanting to establish that the laws written regarding meat and the many other laws have been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Seveal laws were given to the Israelites by God in addition to the 10 commandments. In these laws God was very clear on what meats to eat, what to leave alone and even so far as to point out certain parts of meats were to be sacrificed on the alter while the rest of the animal was to be burned outside the camp. During this era the Israelites' obedience pleased God, and with following the instructions it 'rolled' their sin forward one year. These instructions profited them.
Here in Hebrews 13:9 the writer is making it clear following those laws no longer profits man because 'it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace' instead. This is where the scripture comes to life in Romans 6:14 '.....for ye are not under the law, but under grace'.
What is grace? Grace is the unmerited favor of God. When in our sin, deserving to die, because the wages or payment of sin is death, God sent His lamb, Jesus, to die in our place and the sin was not moved forward a year, but removed as far as the east is from the west [Psalm 103:12]. Why wouldn't he say as far as the north is from the south? Because if you go north long enough, then you begin heading south! God wanted to paint the picture of our sin being removed from us, gone. The day we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, our sin is removed and our soul becomes as white as snow. And at that very point what becomes available to us is wholeness: Isaiah 53:5 says wholeness becomes available to us:
for our spirit: Jesus was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, payment for us to have a new spirit, to become whole spiritually.
for our soul: The chastisement of our peace was upon Him. We no longer have to be plagued in our mind, our will or our emotions, with fear, failure, fret, regret. Total peace is available for us for a soul that is whole.
for our body: With His stripes we are healed. We have total healing available for wholeness in our body. We do not have to walk around broken and diseased. We have available to us total wholeness.
All this is recorded in that one scripture, total wholeness for our entire being. So we received so much more than just a way to Heaven upon salvation. We received wholeness. This scripture shows how that healing and wholeness was brought to us, through what Jesus went through for us. The way I think of what happened at salvation, was that our unborn spirit traded places with Jesus' full sized, filled Spirit. We became whole in our spirit. That we traded our hurt, tattered, disfunctional soul, with Jesus' Godly, pure, loving whole soul. And our broken down, unhealthy, diseased body traded places with Jesus as He went to the Cross, us rising in newness of health and wholeness in our entire bodies.
We traded places with Him. He took our sin, we took His righteousness. He took our tortured, anxiety ridden minds, and we took His peace. He took our diseased bodies, and with the stripes that were laid on His healthy body that was marked up with 39 stripes, all 39 diseases known to man were provided with healing. We .... traded places with Jesus in all counts. (Praise Moment: thank you Lord Jesus. You took what should have been ours, and you took it willingly. Thank you for giving back so much to us. Thank you so much!)
This was all provided through Jesus Christ willingly dying in our place. This is the good news, the Gospel. That's why 'it is a good thing for the heart to be established with grace'. So we learn, get established.
Back to Hebrews 13:12-16 "wherefore Jesus also, that He may sancify the people [that's us] with His own blood, suffered outside the gate [Calvary]. Let us go forth therefore unto Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come. By Him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name. But to do good and to communicate, forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased".
This is the sacrifice of the royal priesthood spoken of in 1 Peter 2:9-10. We are a chosen generation, chosen to do what? We are a royal priesthood, sacrificing what? "that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. [THIS IS WHY WE PRAISE HIM!] Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God.
Let's stop there; have you ever felt alone? Well, you aren't. You're one of God's people. Have you ever felt like you didn't belong? Well, you do! You belong to the family of God. You're His people. Here's proof. That's why we are to go to Church, to be with all His people, our spiritual family. Is everyone in your earthly family healthy physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually all at once? Well neither is your spiritual family. You know as your earthly family matures and grows, so does your spiritual family. No one in the Church is perfect because they are still growing and changing and moving foward [or should be]. Do not look to people only, they will disappoint you. You have to look to your Heavenly Father, you are part of God's people.
You have purpose as a royal priesthood, offering the sacrifice of praise which is the fruit of your lips, giving thanks unto God.
Have you ever wondered why it's called the 'sacrifice' of praise. There are songs that have been built around that one phrase 'sacrifice of praise'. One tune is very uplifting and lilting with a melody that imparts a jig in your heart, let's sing it; "We bring the sacrifice of praise, into the House of the Lord. We bring the sacrifice of praise into the House......of the Lord. And we offer up to you, the sacrifice-s of thanks-giv-ing. And we off-er up to You, the sacrifice-s of love". That was fun wasn't it? If you knew that song, your toe even tapped a bit as you sang it in your head, now didn't it? Didn't it? Dont fib, I can just see you bouncing your toe a little as you sang it.
Let's switch gears for a moment, what if, let's say, that you're not having such a good day. You're having a really hard time with your bills, and your child gets sick and needs to go to the doctor and it's somewhat serious and an auditor calls saying they want to schedule some time to go over everything with you, and your boss calls and says he's going to have to lay you off, and your Mom is getting worse, needing to go into a nursing home and has no money, but may need to come stay with you instead. This is stress. This is moving into crisis. This is not a toe tapping, lilting, head bobbing kind of day.
This is why God told this Psalmist, David, to write that it's a sacrifice. God says if you will sacrifice your emotion and praise Me, I will be honored and be glorified. I will have access to your soul and be able to lift you out of what you're moving into. But if I allow you to walk through this and you sacrifice the fruit of your lips to praise Me, I can lift you out at just the right moment and the lions mouth with be closed, you wont get burned, not even sienged, and you wont even smell like smoke. I'm telling you, I may even promote you to 2nd in command, if you will just give me this sacrifice of praise, the sweet fruit of your lips. Not lip service, but true true worship, showing Me your love, I will truly move in your behalf.
We have a purpose; to give thanks and honor to the one that took our sin, our turmoil, our tradegy and gave us in return, His life. He even told us in John 10:10 "I came to give you life, and life more abundantly". Let's give Him the sacrifice of praise, the fruit of our own lips!
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
(Study 5) You Have a Specific Purpose (part one)
The going phrase amongst the Church in this age has been 'your purpose'. 'What is your purpose?' So many feel a drawing, a pulling, a calling if you will to do specific things on this earth. In times past, I began to ask God to reveal to me my purpose. And after a half a year of seeking Him, He revealed through certain circumstances that my purpose was that of a comforter. I am a comforter. Many friends, acquaintances and even strangers have commented on how calming my words or even my voice can be at times when needed the most. However goofy I many act, there seems to be a calming effect on people. Well, God created me that way. But if you're around me for very long, you'll begin to hear in my words and you'll feel and sense it as truth, the very source of that peace and calm and comfort. Apart from Christ we can do nothing. You'll find very quickly the source of this comfort is Jesus Christ and what He did for me on the Cross and burial and resurrection. No one can take credit for the good that comes from their life as a Christian, because God sees His Son's blood and sacrifice when He looks at US. He sees us, but through the life giving blood and sacrifice Jesus, our joint-heir, our Brother, gave freely. It's only when you surrender all you've gained in this world, disfunction, scars, wounds, fear, all the negative, even though it's hard for us to let it go because we feel that's what defines us. It's when we finally let go of all we are here on earth, in earthly eyes, no matter what, no matter who says what, but let who we are just go, is when we truly find our purpose on this earth. We have a true purpose, true calling, God has truly chosen US!
In 1 Peter 2:9 "But ye are a chosen generation".....He's chosen us. God of THE universe chose US. Do you know you are SOME-BODY? Huh? You've carried that load long enough Brother. You've thought you were not pretty long enough Sister. You, my loving Sister are the most beautiful creation on earth. God stepped back when you were born, breathed in, and let that breath out in such a sweet Fatherly sigh, moving the trees of the Forest while doing so. So that's what that awesome breeze was! Ha! Ha!
You......are chosen. Not you were. You are! You were chosen leaves room for your chance being wasted. You were, could mean when you didn't jump on the chance, it kept on moving and you lost out. No---You are! You ARE chosen.
Continuing in this verse, we are a 'royal priesthood. Yeah! A what? (as the needles scratches across the record album)! What is a royal priesthood? Well since we do not use those terms any longer. Le't look it up to SEE what it is.
Royal-Greek Strongs #934 [basileios] pronounced bas-il'-ios, also references #935, kingly nature.
#935 [basileus] pronounced bas-il-yooce', though the notion of a foundation of power.
When we hear the word royal, we think of royalty such as Queen Elizabeth or Prince Charles in rulership today. Here in the bible it says our nature is kingly. This may explain as in yesterday's study that when we do not abstain in 'unsaved human nature' desires they war against our mind, will and emotions. We have a kingly nature, through the notion of a foundation of power.
So we are chosen and have a foundation of power. So good so far? Makes you want to sit up a little taller in your chair doesn't it?
Priesthood-#2406 [hierateuma] hee-er-at'-yoo-may, also references #2407, the priestly fraternity, i.e. sacerdotal order.
Now stick with me on this. I thought what you were probably thinking. But God has purpose for everything in His Word. There's meaning here I'm asking Him for. I'm no scholar, I'm Cindy Bennett, nothing more, nothing less. I'm asking and digging. But there's a reason we're called a roayl [of a foundation of power, kingly nature] priesthood. Let's keep going and see what God shows us.
Sacerdotal-Webesters says is 'of or pertaining to a priest, offerer of sacrifices, from sacer "holy" + stem of dare "to give".
So we are from the order that offers sacrifices. Holy + to give means to me we give sacrifices that are holy.
So we are of a kingly nature, with a foundation of power, offering a holy sacrifice. Let's look at a drawing of the tabernacle in the wilderness where the children of God, the Israelites, were to bring their sacrifices, a lamb, goat or bull, without spot or blemish, through the door of the Tent.
This door represents Jesus. Jesus says I am the door. They bring their sacrifice to the Levite [of the tribe of Levi, God said would be helpers to work in the tabernacle] and he slaughters the animal right there. He cuts it's throat and the blood is caught and poured on the four corners of the alter, God's instruction, go look it up, and the blood and the animal are sacrificed on the alter to God because He required a blood sacrifice for sin. We owed our life to God, for our debt of sin. God instead, sent Jesus, 2010 years ago to be the blood sacrifice FOR US, naming HIM the Lamb of God. He was without sin, therefore without spot or blemish. Really cool story, you need to read the Old Testiment and see the parallel.
The Levite then cleans his hands in the laver, a large basin full of water. This represents us viewing our life, cleansing our hands becoming pure and clean.
This all happens in the outer court. Everyone can see each other in the outer court. The lyrics come to mind of the song about Psalm 100:4 "We enter His gates with thanksgiving in out hearts [for what Jesus did, He is the gate, the door], We will enter His courts with praise [we praise Him for being the sacrifice for our sin]. Is this good people? Are you getting this? Stick with me, He's revealing!
The next room of the tabernacle is The Holy Place. In this room are; to the left, the Lampstand. It's full of oil and it illuminates the room. The oil represents the Holy Spirit. To the right is the Table of Showbread. Jesus said "I AM the bread of life". The bible, the bread, the Word of God, when read, the oil of the Holy Spirit illuminates it, as He's illuminating it right now, giving us spiritual bread to feed our spirit.
The other remaining piece in the Holy Place was the alter of incense. And behind this alter was a huge, tall, really really thick curtain. This was called the veil. Priests were allowed to walk around, service the Lampstand, put out fresh bread on the table, but only once a year, just once, were they allowed behind that curtain. That veil.
The day Jesus died on the Cross, that curtain was torn from the top [where no man could reach] all the way to the floor. And waht stood behind that curtain, that veil, was the place God would meet with that one priest a year, the room called the Holy of Holies. This room, where all men were unclean to step into, became accessable to all through the blood of Jesus Christ. God threw open His Throne room, threw open His arms and told us, therefore come boldly unto the Throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16). What are we waiting for? Come boldly!
God we do that right now! We come before you, boldly. We throw open the doors, run through your Throne room boldly, coming to You to obtain mercy and find grace in our time of need. We have need of your help, God. We need your mightiness. We need your authority moving in our behalf, God. You say we are a royal priesthood. We have a goundation of authority. That foundation is Jesus Christ, Your Son, our King, and His sacrifice of blood for our mistakes, our failures, our sins, our evil. We ask You, as we kneel before you God, to forgive us. Forgive us of our sin, God, cleanse our heart, make us holy as You are holy, pure, innocent and clean. We accept Jesus dying in our place. We accept this gift for our life. We believe He died, was buried and rose again to bring life to us, God. Move in our lives. Our lives need a God sized movement. Take us and cause our hearts to beat as one with Yours. We love You. We praise You. We magnify you, God. We ask and accept all these things in Jesus' sweet, precious Name.
Amen~
In 1 Peter 2:9 "But ye are a chosen generation".....He's chosen us. God of THE universe chose US. Do you know you are SOME-BODY? Huh? You've carried that load long enough Brother. You've thought you were not pretty long enough Sister. You, my loving Sister are the most beautiful creation on earth. God stepped back when you were born, breathed in, and let that breath out in such a sweet Fatherly sigh, moving the trees of the Forest while doing so. So that's what that awesome breeze was! Ha! Ha!
You......are chosen. Not you were. You are! You were chosen leaves room for your chance being wasted. You were, could mean when you didn't jump on the chance, it kept on moving and you lost out. No---You are! You ARE chosen.
Continuing in this verse, we are a 'royal priesthood. Yeah! A what? (as the needles scratches across the record album)! What is a royal priesthood? Well since we do not use those terms any longer. Le't look it up to SEE what it is.
Royal-Greek Strongs #934 [basileios] pronounced bas-il'-ios, also references #935, kingly nature.
#935 [basileus] pronounced bas-il-yooce', though the notion of a foundation of power.
When we hear the word royal, we think of royalty such as Queen Elizabeth or Prince Charles in rulership today. Here in the bible it says our nature is kingly. This may explain as in yesterday's study that when we do not abstain in 'unsaved human nature' desires they war against our mind, will and emotions. We have a kingly nature, through the notion of a foundation of power.
So we are chosen and have a foundation of power. So good so far? Makes you want to sit up a little taller in your chair doesn't it?
Priesthood-#2406 [hierateuma] hee-er-at'-yoo-may, also references #2407, the priestly fraternity, i.e. sacerdotal order.
Now stick with me on this. I thought what you were probably thinking. But God has purpose for everything in His Word. There's meaning here I'm asking Him for. I'm no scholar, I'm Cindy Bennett, nothing more, nothing less. I'm asking and digging. But there's a reason we're called a roayl [of a foundation of power, kingly nature] priesthood. Let's keep going and see what God shows us.
Sacerdotal-Webesters says is 'of or pertaining to a priest, offerer of sacrifices, from sacer "holy" + stem of dare "to give".
So we are from the order that offers sacrifices. Holy + to give means to me we give sacrifices that are holy.
So we are of a kingly nature, with a foundation of power, offering a holy sacrifice. Let's look at a drawing of the tabernacle in the wilderness where the children of God, the Israelites, were to bring their sacrifices, a lamb, goat or bull, without spot or blemish, through the door of the Tent.
This door represents Jesus. Jesus says I am the door. They bring their sacrifice to the Levite [of the tribe of Levi, God said would be helpers to work in the tabernacle] and he slaughters the animal right there. He cuts it's throat and the blood is caught and poured on the four corners of the alter, God's instruction, go look it up, and the blood and the animal are sacrificed on the alter to God because He required a blood sacrifice for sin. We owed our life to God, for our debt of sin. God instead, sent Jesus, 2010 years ago to be the blood sacrifice FOR US, naming HIM the Lamb of God. He was without sin, therefore without spot or blemish. Really cool story, you need to read the Old Testiment and see the parallel.
This all happens in the outer court. Everyone can see each other in the outer court. The lyrics come to mind of the song about Psalm 100:4 "We enter His gates with thanksgiving in out hearts [for what Jesus did, He is the gate, the door], We will enter His courts with praise [we praise Him for being the sacrifice for our sin]. Is this good people? Are you getting this? Stick with me, He's revealing!
The next room of the tabernacle is The Holy Place. In this room are; to the left, the Lampstand. It's full of oil and it illuminates the room. The oil represents the Holy Spirit. To the right is the Table of Showbread. Jesus said "I AM the bread of life". The bible, the bread, the Word of God, when read, the oil of the Holy Spirit illuminates it, as He's illuminating it right now, giving us spiritual bread to feed our spirit.
The other remaining piece in the Holy Place was the alter of incense. And behind this alter was a huge, tall, really really thick curtain. This was called the veil. Priests were allowed to walk around, service the Lampstand, put out fresh bread on the table, but only once a year, just once, were they allowed behind that curtain. That veil.
The day Jesus died on the Cross, that curtain was torn from the top [where no man could reach] all the way to the floor. And waht stood behind that curtain, that veil, was the place God would meet with that one priest a year, the room called the Holy of Holies. This room, where all men were unclean to step into, became accessable to all through the blood of Jesus Christ. God threw open His Throne room, threw open His arms and told us, therefore come boldly unto the Throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16). What are we waiting for? Come boldly!
God we do that right now! We come before you, boldly. We throw open the doors, run through your Throne room boldly, coming to You to obtain mercy and find grace in our time of need. We have need of your help, God. We need your mightiness. We need your authority moving in our behalf, God. You say we are a royal priesthood. We have a goundation of authority. That foundation is Jesus Christ, Your Son, our King, and His sacrifice of blood for our mistakes, our failures, our sins, our evil. We ask You, as we kneel before you God, to forgive us. Forgive us of our sin, God, cleanse our heart, make us holy as You are holy, pure, innocent and clean. We accept Jesus dying in our place. We accept this gift for our life. We believe He died, was buried and rose again to bring life to us, God. Move in our lives. Our lives need a God sized movement. Take us and cause our hearts to beat as one with Yours. We love You. We praise You. We magnify you, God. We ask and accept all these things in Jesus' sweet, precious Name.
Amen~
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
(Study 4) We bring It on Ourselves
Hello, I hope you're well today. I'm doing pretty good, cant complain.....it doesn't do any good anyway. So....hahaha......Today's study was going to be about 2 verses, but I never got passed the first one. So we will get started and just see how this unfolds. Okay? Great. Go get your bible because I want you following along with me, so you can see for yourself what God has to say today. Alright? Great!
In 1 Peter 2:11, Peter says "Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;"
Dearly beloved is a fellow Christian. Here Peter is speaking to others that have accepted Jesus Christs' works as the way to be cleansed from all unrighteousness, taking on Christs' righteousness. This is the good news of the Gospel, nothing of what we've done, and all of what Jesus did, sitting in on our behalf. (Praise moment. Thank you Jesus!)
He goes on to say I beseech you;
Beseech- Greek Strongs #3870 [parakaleo] pronounced par-ak-al-eh-o also references #'s 3844 and 2564 which appear to be the same meaning- to call near, to invite, invoke, call for, desire, exhort (-ation), intreat, pray.
Peter goes on to refer to them as strangers and pilgrims. Why's does he call them that? Why, if he knew them, they were followers of Christ, walking to please God, would he refer to them as strangers and pilgrims? Here is where we see what I refer to as a 'Kingdom Principle'. I have an indepth study on 'The Kindgom' and if you'd like those notes please let me know. But this principle is this; at salvation, you are born into a new Kingdom, God's Kingdom. It has to do with rulership of your life, Jesus Christ being the King of this Kingdom, you are no longer under rulership of this world where satan is the ruler. (by the way, I never capitalize his name. he doens't deserve it! lol. spell check doens't like me lol again)
So Peter is beseeching or calling them as strangers in the world's system, pilgrims on a journey until reaching their homeland. I've described it like this; a Canadian that comes to work in the United States is still a citizen of Canada. He has to abide by the laws of his homeland and the laws of the U.S. to be in right standing with those in authority. That's a description of us when we are born again, we are born into a new Kingdom, a spiritual Kingdom, but still have to abide by the laws of the Kingdom we reside in, the natural Kingdom.
He then says to abstain from fleshly lusts;
Fleshly- Greek Strongs' #4559 [sarkikos] pronounced sar-kee-kos'. also references #4561, bodily, temporal, unregenerate, carnal.
Unregenerate- Webster says it means not renewed in the heart and mind or reborn in the spirit. So we can say regenerate is unsaved, not born again.
#4561-the symbol of what is external, human nature.
Lusts-#1930 [epithuma] pronounced ep-ee-thoo-mee-ah and also reference #1937, a longing (especially for what is forbidden) concupiscense, desire.
#1937-[epithumeo] pronounced ep-ee-too-meh'-o and also references #1909 and 2372, to set the heart upon, long for (rightfully or otherwise).
Now why would it say to long for rightfully is wrong? Let's for to Websters dictionary because it has some interesting insights we as Christians would not have attached to the word lust.
Websters has the definition we already knew which means intense sexual desire and the like but did you know that lust also takes in a passionate or overmastering desire or craving, as a lust for power? Or it being an ardent enthusiasm; zests; relish as in a lust for life?
In this passage Peter is talking to Christians saying to abstain from unsaved cravings and intense eagerness that masters us. Abstain from those. Why? It explains why in the rest of the verse; 'which war against the soul'.
Your soul is your mind, will and emotion. Now we all know what war is, but let's go to the Strong's and see how the Lord is describing what's happening to our mind, will and emotion when we allow unsaved desires to master us.
War-#4754 and also references #'s 4756 and 4766 [stratevomai] pronounced strat-yoo'-om-ahee (dont you just love studying words from the Greek language? lol. I feel so smart, okay I'll calm down hahaha) it means to serve in a military campaign, soldier.
#4756 [stratia] pronounced strat-ee'-ah, also referencing #4766, an army as encamped, camp-likeness (now that sounds like a Cindy word lol)
#4766 [stronnumi] pronounced strone-noo-mee, through the idea of positioning, to strew or spread.
Do you see what that desrie allowed in our lives does to us? IT serves as a military campaign, as an army encamped, through positioning itself, strewing and spreading against our mind, will and emotions.
No wonder so many of us live a defeated Christian life. We think these desires are okay, no big deal, oh it's just the way I am or I could never give that up, that's it's okay to do just this one thing. These desires are not okay. They're not indeed. These very desires are open doors. These desires themselves set up camp, position themselves, serve in a military campaign against our mind, will and emotion.
In our Mind: maybe that's why our mind is so scattered and has no peace or calm within. Thoughts run rampant and just exhaust us.
In our Will: maybe this is why we have great intentions as a follower of Christ but succumb to somthing that wants to overcome our will, ending up with us in a state of no will power, even with small things that should be nothing to deal with.
In our Emotion: We're up one day then down the next, no stability. Once up, we're expreme, we're flying high and then the next day something just pulls the rug out from under us and there we go, loosing our joy and happiness again, with no explanation of why.
When Peter says abstain! Abstain! Dont even start it. Abstain! Dont even do it a little. Abstain! Say it with me; Abstain! Abstain! Again Abstain! This is why it's so hard to live a Christian life for many of us, we're not abstaining. And the reason it's so hard is the very thing we are so extrememly desiring is positioning and setting up camp against our very self! Against who we are, what we like, our personality, or motivations. We're deafeated, always asking someone to pray for us, no victory in our lives.
We are opening the door. We are the one's welcoming in the very enemy of our soul. How then, in all of this, do we become peaceful again? How does our life calm back down and become tranquil once more. There's only one way........Abstain!
In 1 Peter 2:11, Peter says "Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;"
Dearly beloved is a fellow Christian. Here Peter is speaking to others that have accepted Jesus Christs' works as the way to be cleansed from all unrighteousness, taking on Christs' righteousness. This is the good news of the Gospel, nothing of what we've done, and all of what Jesus did, sitting in on our behalf. (Praise moment. Thank you Jesus!)
He goes on to say I beseech you;
Beseech- Greek Strongs #3870 [parakaleo] pronounced par-ak-al-eh-o also references #'s 3844 and 2564 which appear to be the same meaning- to call near, to invite, invoke, call for, desire, exhort (-ation), intreat, pray.
Peter goes on to refer to them as strangers and pilgrims. Why's does he call them that? Why, if he knew them, they were followers of Christ, walking to please God, would he refer to them as strangers and pilgrims? Here is where we see what I refer to as a 'Kingdom Principle'. I have an indepth study on 'The Kindgom' and if you'd like those notes please let me know. But this principle is this; at salvation, you are born into a new Kingdom, God's Kingdom. It has to do with rulership of your life, Jesus Christ being the King of this Kingdom, you are no longer under rulership of this world where satan is the ruler. (by the way, I never capitalize his name. he doens't deserve it! lol. spell check doens't like me lol again)
So Peter is beseeching or calling them as strangers in the world's system, pilgrims on a journey until reaching their homeland. I've described it like this; a Canadian that comes to work in the United States is still a citizen of Canada. He has to abide by the laws of his homeland and the laws of the U.S. to be in right standing with those in authority. That's a description of us when we are born again, we are born into a new Kingdom, a spiritual Kingdom, but still have to abide by the laws of the Kingdom we reside in, the natural Kingdom.
He then says to abstain from fleshly lusts;
Fleshly- Greek Strongs' #4559 [sarkikos] pronounced sar-kee-kos'. also references #4561, bodily, temporal, unregenerate, carnal.
Unregenerate- Webster says it means not renewed in the heart and mind or reborn in the spirit. So we can say regenerate is unsaved, not born again.
#4561-the symbol of what is external, human nature.
Lusts-#1930 [epithuma] pronounced ep-ee-thoo-mee-ah and also reference #1937, a longing (especially for what is forbidden) concupiscense, desire.
#1937-[epithumeo] pronounced ep-ee-too-meh'-o and also references #1909 and 2372, to set the heart upon, long for (rightfully or otherwise).
Now why would it say to long for rightfully is wrong? Let's for to Websters dictionary because it has some interesting insights we as Christians would not have attached to the word lust.
Websters has the definition we already knew which means intense sexual desire and the like but did you know that lust also takes in a passionate or overmastering desire or craving, as a lust for power? Or it being an ardent enthusiasm; zests; relish as in a lust for life?
In this passage Peter is talking to Christians saying to abstain from unsaved cravings and intense eagerness that masters us. Abstain from those. Why? It explains why in the rest of the verse; 'which war against the soul'.
Your soul is your mind, will and emotion. Now we all know what war is, but let's go to the Strong's and see how the Lord is describing what's happening to our mind, will and emotion when we allow unsaved desires to master us.
War-#4754 and also references #'s 4756 and 4766 [stratevomai] pronounced strat-yoo'-om-ahee (dont you just love studying words from the Greek language? lol. I feel so smart, okay I'll calm down hahaha) it means to serve in a military campaign, soldier.
#4756 [stratia] pronounced strat-ee'-ah, also referencing #4766, an army as encamped, camp-likeness (now that sounds like a Cindy word lol)
#4766 [stronnumi] pronounced strone-noo-mee, through the idea of positioning, to strew or spread.
Do you see what that desrie allowed in our lives does to us? IT serves as a military campaign, as an army encamped, through positioning itself, strewing and spreading against our mind, will and emotions.
No wonder so many of us live a defeated Christian life. We think these desires are okay, no big deal, oh it's just the way I am or I could never give that up, that's it's okay to do just this one thing. These desires are not okay. They're not indeed. These very desires are open doors. These desires themselves set up camp, position themselves, serve in a military campaign against our mind, will and emotion.
In our Mind: maybe that's why our mind is so scattered and has no peace or calm within. Thoughts run rampant and just exhaust us.
In our Will: maybe this is why we have great intentions as a follower of Christ but succumb to somthing that wants to overcome our will, ending up with us in a state of no will power, even with small things that should be nothing to deal with.
In our Emotion: We're up one day then down the next, no stability. Once up, we're expreme, we're flying high and then the next day something just pulls the rug out from under us and there we go, loosing our joy and happiness again, with no explanation of why.
When Peter says abstain! Abstain! Dont even start it. Abstain! Dont even do it a little. Abstain! Say it with me; Abstain! Abstain! Again Abstain! This is why it's so hard to live a Christian life for many of us, we're not abstaining. And the reason it's so hard is the very thing we are so extrememly desiring is positioning and setting up camp against our very self! Against who we are, what we like, our personality, or motivations. We're deafeated, always asking someone to pray for us, no victory in our lives.
We are opening the door. We are the one's welcoming in the very enemy of our soul. How then, in all of this, do we become peaceful again? How does our life calm back down and become tranquil once more. There's only one way........Abstain!
Sunday, January 31, 2010
(Study 3) Like Father-Like Son (part two)
Today is a really good study. I first went to Church, then served at the second service in the nursery while their Mothers were able to worship and hear the Word undistracted. Then went to lunch with a powerful Woman, and then gathered some donated things and took to a family we were helping that recently lost their home in a fire. As I returned home, I began to feel a hunger to get into the Word. I'm so grateful for that hunger. I wanted to satisfy it. If you no longer have a hunger for the Word, pray about it, then open it up. There's no magic pill you can take that makes you want to read the bible, it's through prayer and being urnest with God, real with God, and crackin that thing open that it will happen. I believe this call to go into indepth study of the Word has come out of time in the morning with God in His Word and in prayer, the prayers of my ministry partners and a result of our fast at Church this month, asking God to direct us. Boy is He ever. So with that said, go get your bible and we'll get started. I want you to go through your Bible with me in this study to show you for yourself where these scriptures are. So If you haven't grabbed your Bible yet, go ahead and go get it, and I will wait for you...............go ahead...................okay? You got it? lol, alright, let's see what God has to say.
1 Peter 1:15-19 'But as He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written: Be ye holy, for I AM holy. And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear: forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your Fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot'.
We established in yesteday's study, part one, holy means sacred, pure, innocent and clean and as God has those characteristics, so are we to have them as well. "like Father-like Son". This is an instruction so therefore God has provided us with the grace and the ability to be pure, innocent and clean. Remember everything we need to live this way was provided at the Cross and we then received at our salvation, the day we were spiritually born and our Heavenly Father picked us up to look at our face for the first time as an infant. The grace and ability entered our lives to live pure, innocent and clean lives. But..........why dont we live that way from the moment of salvation onward?
Romans 12:2 'And be not conformed to this world'. If you were saved at a young age this would be saying to you "you are fresh and clean, the world has not imprinted ungodly habits, mental strongholds, harmful thoughts into your life yet. Be trained in the way you should go and when you are old you will not depart from it" (Proverbs 22:6).
Romans 12:2 again 'but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind', if you were born again as an older person and walked longer in the world's ways which are contrary to the ways of God. The world's ways were engraved into you, they became your core beliefs, you wrapped your entire thought process around them and to become holy, pure, innocent and clean you have to be transformed. Can anybody witness that that's most of us? Huh? I think so too. But that.....is a process. So? Will you "act" pure, innocent and clean immediately when you are saved even though through the Cross and what Jesus Christ did on the Cross is provided? The answer is no.
Romans 12:2 says you have to be transformed. One of this year's block buster films is 'Transformers'. What is the key element of each one of those characters? That's right they 'transform' into something else. Now, as a new believer, saved, born again, however you want to refer to yourself, how are you changed? Through your body like a transformer changing from a person to a motor vehicle? No. Romans 12:2 says through the renewing of ......what? Your mind!
Let's look up Renewing-Greek Strongs #342 [anakainosis] pronounced an-ak-ah'-ee-no-sis. and means renovation.
So this scripture could read 'but be ye transformed by the renovation of your mind'!
Let's stay there just ......one......minute. When a builder goes into a house that needs to be renovated and assesses the rot, damage, requirement of change, and he begins to work, in order to get to pure, innocent and clean wood (lol) what first has to happen? You have to remove what first is rotten or damaged.
1 Peter 1:22 'Seeing ye have puried your souls (your mind, will, emotions) in obeying the truth'. Or another way to say this is 'Seeing ye have renewed your mind in obeying the truth'. What truth? Eveyone these days feels they have the truth. Students go to college and are told by a Professor that Darwins Theory is the truth. Many religions claim they have the truth, but what IS the truth?
John 17:17 Jesus, Himself prayed to His Heavenly Father to teach us to be like Father-like Son. 'Sactify them'. This is us. Sactify them.
Sactify-Greek Strongs #37 [hagiazo'] pronounced hag-ee-ad'-zo. to make holy; purify or consecrate; (mentally) to venerate-hallow, be holy.
Jesus was asking God, His and our Heavenly Father to make His disciples (isn't that us?) holy. Jesus was asking God "make them holy". Well I thought God said 'Be ye holy, for I AM holy'. Jesus asked Him to 'sactify them through Thy truth. Thy Word is truth'. So the bible, His word, is the truth. His Word! Not any other word or bible is the truth. That also means the things written inside are the truth, all of it. God 'created' in Genesis. So that makes Darwin's Theory false.....and so on. But His Word is truth.
Go to John 1:1 'In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God'. This is Jesus. So when in John 17:17 Jesus says 'make them holy through Thy truth, I AM their truth! Jesus is speaking of Himself. Jesus is the truth. Jesus is the way.
So if God's Word, the bible, the truth of Jesus Christ and what He did for mankind, for you, is the way to become holy by renewing our mind with the truth of it, then why aren't we in our bible more?
Each of us have to deteremine what choices we're going to make concerning this. We make the choices, not the Lord. He's given us His Word as truth to renew our mind by reading it and then applying it. Jesus said in Matthew 7:24-25 "therefore whosoever hears these sayings of mine, and does them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock".
Let's pray:
Lord, we place our eyes upon you. We place our affecton upon You. You are our God, our stronghold, our tower. We move not from beneath your wing. We huddle to you as a baby chick huddles under it's Mother. We love you Lord. We thank you Lord for Your teachings. We value your word. We value it, Lord, for it is the truth. There is no other truth but yours. We ask you Lord, to take our hearts, and renew our minds, and give us all a deeper hunger and willingness for your Word. Create in us a desire to know it and make room for it in our hearts, Lord. We need your help. As we take the steps to be inside your word, we ask you illuminate it for us. Let us see your truths and become excited about them. Give us your secret manna set aside just for us. We love you Lord. We give ourselves a fresh Lord. We take this instruction to heart and make the steps toward you and your love for us. We ask you to anoint our mind, transform our thinking, and begin to break us loose from the ways of the world, replacing those ways with Yours. In Jesus' name we ask all these things.....Amen!
1 Peter 1:15-19 'But as He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written: Be ye holy, for I AM holy. And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear: forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your Fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot'.
We established in yesteday's study, part one, holy means sacred, pure, innocent and clean and as God has those characteristics, so are we to have them as well. "like Father-like Son". This is an instruction so therefore God has provided us with the grace and the ability to be pure, innocent and clean. Remember everything we need to live this way was provided at the Cross and we then received at our salvation, the day we were spiritually born and our Heavenly Father picked us up to look at our face for the first time as an infant. The grace and ability entered our lives to live pure, innocent and clean lives. But..........why dont we live that way from the moment of salvation onward?
Romans 12:2 'And be not conformed to this world'. If you were saved at a young age this would be saying to you "you are fresh and clean, the world has not imprinted ungodly habits, mental strongholds, harmful thoughts into your life yet. Be trained in the way you should go and when you are old you will not depart from it" (Proverbs 22:6).
Romans 12:2 again 'but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind', if you were born again as an older person and walked longer in the world's ways which are contrary to the ways of God. The world's ways were engraved into you, they became your core beliefs, you wrapped your entire thought process around them and to become holy, pure, innocent and clean you have to be transformed. Can anybody witness that that's most of us? Huh? I think so too. But that.....is a process. So? Will you "act" pure, innocent and clean immediately when you are saved even though through the Cross and what Jesus Christ did on the Cross is provided? The answer is no.
Romans 12:2 says you have to be transformed. One of this year's block buster films is 'Transformers'. What is the key element of each one of those characters? That's right they 'transform' into something else. Now, as a new believer, saved, born again, however you want to refer to yourself, how are you changed? Through your body like a transformer changing from a person to a motor vehicle? No. Romans 12:2 says through the renewing of ......what? Your mind!
Let's look up Renewing-Greek Strongs #342 [anakainosis] pronounced an-ak-ah'-ee-no-sis. and means renovation.
So this scripture could read 'but be ye transformed by the renovation of your mind'!
Let's stay there just ......one......minute. When a builder goes into a house that needs to be renovated and assesses the rot, damage, requirement of change, and he begins to work, in order to get to pure, innocent and clean wood (lol) what first has to happen? You have to remove what first is rotten or damaged.
1 Peter 1:22 'Seeing ye have puried your souls (your mind, will, emotions) in obeying the truth'. Or another way to say this is 'Seeing ye have renewed your mind in obeying the truth'. What truth? Eveyone these days feels they have the truth. Students go to college and are told by a Professor that Darwins Theory is the truth. Many religions claim they have the truth, but what IS the truth?
John 17:17 Jesus, Himself prayed to His Heavenly Father to teach us to be like Father-like Son. 'Sactify them'. This is us. Sactify them.
Sactify-Greek Strongs #37 [hagiazo'] pronounced hag-ee-ad'-zo. to make holy; purify or consecrate; (mentally) to venerate-hallow, be holy.
Jesus was asking God, His and our Heavenly Father to make His disciples (isn't that us?) holy. Jesus was asking God "make them holy". Well I thought God said 'Be ye holy, for I AM holy'. Jesus asked Him to 'sactify them through Thy truth. Thy Word is truth'. So the bible, His word, is the truth. His Word! Not any other word or bible is the truth. That also means the things written inside are the truth, all of it. God 'created' in Genesis. So that makes Darwin's Theory false.....and so on. But His Word is truth.
Go to John 1:1 'In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God'. This is Jesus. So when in John 17:17 Jesus says 'make them holy through Thy truth, I AM their truth! Jesus is speaking of Himself. Jesus is the truth. Jesus is the way.
So if God's Word, the bible, the truth of Jesus Christ and what He did for mankind, for you, is the way to become holy by renewing our mind with the truth of it, then why aren't we in our bible more?
Each of us have to deteremine what choices we're going to make concerning this. We make the choices, not the Lord. He's given us His Word as truth to renew our mind by reading it and then applying it. Jesus said in Matthew 7:24-25 "therefore whosoever hears these sayings of mine, and does them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock".
Let's pray:
Lord, we place our eyes upon you. We place our affecton upon You. You are our God, our stronghold, our tower. We move not from beneath your wing. We huddle to you as a baby chick huddles under it's Mother. We love you Lord. We thank you Lord for Your teachings. We value your word. We value it, Lord, for it is the truth. There is no other truth but yours. We ask you Lord, to take our hearts, and renew our minds, and give us all a deeper hunger and willingness for your Word. Create in us a desire to know it and make room for it in our hearts, Lord. We need your help. As we take the steps to be inside your word, we ask you illuminate it for us. Let us see your truths and become excited about them. Give us your secret manna set aside just for us. We love you Lord. We give ourselves a fresh Lord. We take this instruction to heart and make the steps toward you and your love for us. We ask you to anoint our mind, transform our thinking, and begin to break us loose from the ways of the world, replacing those ways with Yours. In Jesus' name we ask all these things.....Amen!
Saturday, January 30, 2010
(Study 2) Like Father, Like Son (part one)
Midway through my study I broke for breakfast; fresh farm eggs and milk (thanks Misy), bacon, toast and jelly. I had a little sniffer at my feet too. Yeah, she got a little too. My Lainie girl, my baby.
As I forked through the first egg the yolk just stood up and barely ran when I pierced it. This new way of eating my fried eggs is so delicious. I've always eaten them over easy and they were good. But in the last few years someone I cooked for took their eggs a little more done and I began to cook mine longer, being in the same skillet. Yes, us southern girls use skillets! haha.....but this morning as I pierced the egg and reflected on how much better they are a little more done I could see they are so much easier to handle on my fork. They dont run all over the plate and really, I loose so much of the value of having the fresh eggs bc so much ends up stuck to my plate and wasted (even tho the toast is made just the right size to scrape that plate lol). But eating this way I was fully nourished, barely any would end up on the plate and I could use the full benefit of this healthy food. I dont think I'd ever eat my eggs over easy again. Over medium is for me. Then suddenly I saw how this 'new way' fits todays study. God was giving me a modern day parable to understand the verses He had me study. Thanks God!
In 1 Peter 1:13-15 it says "Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: but as He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of converstaion".
I began to look over these scriptures bc they stood out at me, I knew I was to study it thoroughly. As thoroughly as I know how, anyway. But I began to chew on it, to go over it slowly, even as I went on and read other scriptures I still came back to these, especially the first and second verses.
Now in modern day language we dont know the definition of some of the words they used in King James' day when they translated the Bible from Hebrew and Greek into English. They spoke differently than we do today. I like to use the King James version, then also the new Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, where each individual word is listed and where to find the 'original' meaning of that word to get a clearer meaning of what God is saying to us. We are never ever to add anything to His word. And as we stay with the translations, we should do just fine.
So today to begin with, in our second verse the word 'fashioning' stood out at me. 'Not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance'.
Fashioning- Strongs Greek #4964- [metheg] pronounced meh-theg, it says from a root meaning 'to curb; to bit; bit and bridle'.
So that verse could read like this:
'Not bitting and bridling yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance'. Bits and bridles are used in training and performance of a horse as a form of control. Seems also the horse could be paralleled to our former lusts couldn't it? Ever have a lust of something before you were saved that could be equivalant to a horse, a big steed, a stud horse, or powerhouse of an animal. Hmmm? Does that sound anything like your past desires and lusts? Let's move on.
Here it seems Peter is saying 'not controlling yourself according to the former lusts while you were ignorant. You're not ignorant of your ways now. You have knowledge of your former ways that were not pleasing to God. He says dont buckle yourself into those ways, dont bridle yourself to those ways anymore. He says now that you're aware of them, unbuckle, unbridle, take that particular bit out of your mouth. This doesn't sound like God's asking us to do this, does it? It sounds to me as if this is an instruction. So many times we say 'I cant do that!'. 'It's got such a hold on me!'. 'I'll never be able to give THAT up!'. Well, here it sounds like the Lord is pointing out that we CAN choose. Not bridling yourself means dont put the bridle on, doens't it?
The verse above it says 'as obedient children' of God. He's giving us instruction here as our Heavenly Father, our spiritual Father. We are to obey this instruction.
Then says to gird up the loins of your mind. What in tarnation (yeah that's a word) does this mean?
Gird up-Greek Strongs #328 [anazonnumi] just says to gird afresh, but references #'s 303 and 2224.
#303-says it often means repetition, intensity, reversal.
#2224-says to bind about (especially with a belt) gird.
The loins- Greek Strongs #3751 [osphus] the hip, the procreative power. (in addition to procreate offspring) procreative means to produce or create.
For better understanding, the scripture can read like this; 'as obedient children, bind, like with a belt, the productive, creative power of the mind'. We are to belt the power of the mind. Why? I'm a why person. Why are we instructed (not suggested-instructed) to belt the power of our mind? Before you received peace in your mind do you remember how it used to race and cause so much anziety from stress and worry? That was the UNBELTED productive, creative power of the mind. Satan uses thoughts against us, throwing all different types of thoughts into our mind. It's our instruction by our Heavenly Father to belt that productive and creative power. Not do away with it.....but belt it, bind it, secure it.
Let's move on to the next instruction to us as an obedient child of God. We are to be sober. Once we belt the productive, creative power of the mind so satan cant use it against us, we are to be sober. Let's look at the most obvious meaning of the word sober. If you alter your mind in any way, be it by drinking or drugs, do you feel that you could belt the productive, creative power of the mind in ANY way, shape or from? hahaha....I never could. If I was not sober, let's say intoxicated, I was NOT able to belt anything. On the contrary, the power of my mind was UNBELTED! I used to say drinking just loosened all my inhabitions. Well, Cindy, you were unbelting the power of your mind, leaving it unguarded and wide open to satan to throw so many thoughts right inside. Now, how many times have you been around an intoxicated person and a simple statement just snowball into a huge fight? It happens so often. Why? The power of the mind is unbelted and satan is running wild within. (this was not in any of my notes but boy is this right on. Thank you Holy Spirit). Let's move on to other definitions of sober.
Be Sober-#3525 [nepho] pronounced nay-fo, says abstain from wine, be discreet, watch.
Discreet-Websters says wise and sensible, using good judgement in one's conduct of speech with regard to respecting or maintaining silence about something of a delicate nature, I like this one --> wise self restraint in speech and behavior.
We are to use wise, sensible speech and behavior along with self restraint....and watch. Be alert. Have fun, but be alert. Have a great time with your friends, but be alert. Watch. Watch how you act around certain people. God is telling us to watch how we act. Then tells how to act.
Then the rest of the scripture adds to that; I like to separate thoughts:
"and hope to the end
for the grace
that is to be brought unto you
at the revelation of Jesus Christ".
Then the next scripture:
"But as He which hath called you is holy,
so be ye holy
in all manner of converstation".
Holy-#40 [hagios] pronounced hag'-ee-os, means sacred, pure, blameless, consecrated. it also references # 53 and 2282.
#53-clean, innocent, modest, chaste
#2282-cherish, to foster, to brood
Conversation-#391 [anastrophe] means behavior. also references #390
#390-to busy oneself, live, abide, be used.
For better undstanding, verse 15 can read like this; 'But as God which called you is pure, innocent and clean, so be ye pure, innocent and clean in all manner of living'. I dont necessarily think of God as pure, innocent and clean even though He is. I always use the original word sacred, don't you? But we are made in His image and we are to be as He is; pure, innocent and clean as obedient children of His.
LIKE FATHER-LIKE SON!
As I forked through the first egg the yolk just stood up and barely ran when I pierced it. This new way of eating my fried eggs is so delicious. I've always eaten them over easy and they were good. But in the last few years someone I cooked for took their eggs a little more done and I began to cook mine longer, being in the same skillet. Yes, us southern girls use skillets! haha.....but this morning as I pierced the egg and reflected on how much better they are a little more done I could see they are so much easier to handle on my fork. They dont run all over the plate and really, I loose so much of the value of having the fresh eggs bc so much ends up stuck to my plate and wasted (even tho the toast is made just the right size to scrape that plate lol). But eating this way I was fully nourished, barely any would end up on the plate and I could use the full benefit of this healthy food. I dont think I'd ever eat my eggs over easy again. Over medium is for me. Then suddenly I saw how this 'new way' fits todays study. God was giving me a modern day parable to understand the verses He had me study. Thanks God!
In 1 Peter 1:13-15 it says "Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: but as He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of converstaion".
I began to look over these scriptures bc they stood out at me, I knew I was to study it thoroughly. As thoroughly as I know how, anyway. But I began to chew on it, to go over it slowly, even as I went on and read other scriptures I still came back to these, especially the first and second verses.
Now in modern day language we dont know the definition of some of the words they used in King James' day when they translated the Bible from Hebrew and Greek into English. They spoke differently than we do today. I like to use the King James version, then also the new Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, where each individual word is listed and where to find the 'original' meaning of that word to get a clearer meaning of what God is saying to us. We are never ever to add anything to His word. And as we stay with the translations, we should do just fine.
So today to begin with, in our second verse the word 'fashioning' stood out at me. 'Not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance'.
Fashioning- Strongs Greek #4964- [metheg] pronounced meh-theg, it says from a root meaning 'to curb; to bit; bit and bridle'.
So that verse could read like this:
'Not bitting and bridling yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance'. Bits and bridles are used in training and performance of a horse as a form of control. Seems also the horse could be paralleled to our former lusts couldn't it? Ever have a lust of something before you were saved that could be equivalant to a horse, a big steed, a stud horse, or powerhouse of an animal. Hmmm? Does that sound anything like your past desires and lusts? Let's move on.
Here it seems Peter is saying 'not controlling yourself according to the former lusts while you were ignorant. You're not ignorant of your ways now. You have knowledge of your former ways that were not pleasing to God. He says dont buckle yourself into those ways, dont bridle yourself to those ways anymore. He says now that you're aware of them, unbuckle, unbridle, take that particular bit out of your mouth. This doesn't sound like God's asking us to do this, does it? It sounds to me as if this is an instruction. So many times we say 'I cant do that!'. 'It's got such a hold on me!'. 'I'll never be able to give THAT up!'. Well, here it sounds like the Lord is pointing out that we CAN choose. Not bridling yourself means dont put the bridle on, doens't it?
The verse above it says 'as obedient children' of God. He's giving us instruction here as our Heavenly Father, our spiritual Father. We are to obey this instruction.
Then says to gird up the loins of your mind. What in tarnation (yeah that's a word) does this mean?
Gird up-Greek Strongs #328 [anazonnumi] just says to gird afresh, but references #'s 303 and 2224.
#303-says it often means repetition, intensity, reversal.
#2224-says to bind about (especially with a belt) gird.
The loins- Greek Strongs #3751 [osphus] the hip, the procreative power. (in addition to procreate offspring) procreative means to produce or create.
For better understanding, the scripture can read like this; 'as obedient children, bind, like with a belt, the productive, creative power of the mind'. We are to belt the power of the mind. Why? I'm a why person. Why are we instructed (not suggested-instructed) to belt the power of our mind? Before you received peace in your mind do you remember how it used to race and cause so much anziety from stress and worry? That was the UNBELTED productive, creative power of the mind. Satan uses thoughts against us, throwing all different types of thoughts into our mind. It's our instruction by our Heavenly Father to belt that productive and creative power. Not do away with it.....but belt it, bind it, secure it.
Let's move on to the next instruction to us as an obedient child of God. We are to be sober. Once we belt the productive, creative power of the mind so satan cant use it against us, we are to be sober. Let's look at the most obvious meaning of the word sober. If you alter your mind in any way, be it by drinking or drugs, do you feel that you could belt the productive, creative power of the mind in ANY way, shape or from? hahaha....I never could. If I was not sober, let's say intoxicated, I was NOT able to belt anything. On the contrary, the power of my mind was UNBELTED! I used to say drinking just loosened all my inhabitions. Well, Cindy, you were unbelting the power of your mind, leaving it unguarded and wide open to satan to throw so many thoughts right inside. Now, how many times have you been around an intoxicated person and a simple statement just snowball into a huge fight? It happens so often. Why? The power of the mind is unbelted and satan is running wild within. (this was not in any of my notes but boy is this right on. Thank you Holy Spirit). Let's move on to other definitions of sober.
Be Sober-#3525 [nepho] pronounced nay-fo, says abstain from wine, be discreet, watch.
Discreet-Websters says wise and sensible, using good judgement in one's conduct of speech with regard to respecting or maintaining silence about something of a delicate nature, I like this one --> wise self restraint in speech and behavior.
We are to use wise, sensible speech and behavior along with self restraint....and watch. Be alert. Have fun, but be alert. Have a great time with your friends, but be alert. Watch. Watch how you act around certain people. God is telling us to watch how we act. Then tells how to act.
Then the rest of the scripture adds to that; I like to separate thoughts:
"and hope to the end
for the grace
that is to be brought unto you
at the revelation of Jesus Christ".
Then the next scripture:
"But as He which hath called you is holy,
so be ye holy
in all manner of converstation".
Holy-#40 [hagios] pronounced hag'-ee-os, means sacred, pure, blameless, consecrated. it also references # 53 and 2282.
#53-clean, innocent, modest, chaste
#2282-cherish, to foster, to brood
Conversation-#391 [anastrophe] means behavior. also references #390
#390-to busy oneself, live, abide, be used.
For better undstanding, verse 15 can read like this; 'But as God which called you is pure, innocent and clean, so be ye pure, innocent and clean in all manner of living'. I dont necessarily think of God as pure, innocent and clean even though He is. I always use the original word sacred, don't you? But we are made in His image and we are to be as He is; pure, innocent and clean as obedient children of His.
LIKE FATHER-LIKE SON!
Friday, January 29, 2010
(Study 1) My Faith and Works together, What the heck does this mean?
As I began to study this morning, I started in the book of James as he was sharing about how your faith (what you believe in) is dead without works (actions).
James 2:22 "Seest thou how faith wrought (operated) with his works (talking about Abraham was willing to sacrifice Isaac), and by his works (actions) was faith made perfect (complete)?"
So I began to contemplate that as I believe God and His promises, then I'm to act on them. I'm to go forward throughout my day acting on the things I believe. We do anyway. If you believe your car's going to start in the morning, you jump behind the seat and reach for the ignition with your key. We act on what we believe.
In my study today I began to ask myself, then, what I have faith in right now, in this time in my ministry. The list I scratched down was:
1. I have faith that God is with me.
2. I have faith God has called me to be a teacher of His word to Women.
3. I have faith God is showing me His ways in the Word.
If these are the things (right here right now) I have faith in, then what are the corresponding actions or works that show I have faith in these things?
1. Since I have faith that God is with me, then my actions (or works) are to obey Him in all things He's instructing me to do.
2. Since I have faith that God has called me to be a teacher of His word to Women, my actions (or works) are prepare in the Word for when I meet these Women.
3. Since I have faith God is showing me His ways in the Word, my actions (or works) are to be in the Word to give Him opportunity to show me His ways.
He gave me insight that Him showing me His ways in the Word is Him teaching me. And as I am willing to be in the Word (as He's called me into this indepth study) I am letting Him teach me, that's my preparation for the Women He has called me to teach.
He has a way of showing you things that may seem like a 'duh' to some, but not so with the one He's speaking to. To know something is one thing. To see it backed up in scripture is a whole other thing. Some wise Man once instructed me 'show me book, chapter and verse for what you're saying'. I suppose God is teaching me those books, chapters and verses.
To close this 1st study blog, God wanted me to go back to the verse again to see something special. At the beginning and end of the verse He says "Seest thou, then a question mark". God was asking ME this question! And as the scripture says ' by works (actions) was faith (what is believed) made complete. So Faith alone is dead. Works alone is vain. It's faith and works together that bear good fruit!
Thank you for joining me in my first study blog of indepth study of the Word of God. I hope you continue to read my entrys and feel free to add a comment that will expound on this study. We can all learn from each other. Anyone want to share?
James 2:22 "Seest thou how faith wrought (operated) with his works (talking about Abraham was willing to sacrifice Isaac), and by his works (actions) was faith made perfect (complete)?"
So I began to contemplate that as I believe God and His promises, then I'm to act on them. I'm to go forward throughout my day acting on the things I believe. We do anyway. If you believe your car's going to start in the morning, you jump behind the seat and reach for the ignition with your key. We act on what we believe.
In my study today I began to ask myself, then, what I have faith in right now, in this time in my ministry. The list I scratched down was:
1. I have faith that God is with me.
2. I have faith God has called me to be a teacher of His word to Women.
3. I have faith God is showing me His ways in the Word.
If these are the things (right here right now) I have faith in, then what are the corresponding actions or works that show I have faith in these things?
1. Since I have faith that God is with me, then my actions (or works) are to obey Him in all things He's instructing me to do.
2. Since I have faith that God has called me to be a teacher of His word to Women, my actions (or works) are prepare in the Word for when I meet these Women.
3. Since I have faith God is showing me His ways in the Word, my actions (or works) are to be in the Word to give Him opportunity to show me His ways.
He gave me insight that Him showing me His ways in the Word is Him teaching me. And as I am willing to be in the Word (as He's called me into this indepth study) I am letting Him teach me, that's my preparation for the Women He has called me to teach.
He has a way of showing you things that may seem like a 'duh' to some, but not so with the one He's speaking to. To know something is one thing. To see it backed up in scripture is a whole other thing. Some wise Man once instructed me 'show me book, chapter and verse for what you're saying'. I suppose God is teaching me those books, chapters and verses.
To close this 1st study blog, God wanted me to go back to the verse again to see something special. At the beginning and end of the verse He says "Seest thou, then a question mark". God was asking ME this question! And as the scripture says ' by works (actions) was faith (what is believed) made complete. So Faith alone is dead. Works alone is vain. It's faith and works together that bear good fruit!
Thank you for joining me in my first study blog of indepth study of the Word of God. I hope you continue to read my entrys and feel free to add a comment that will expound on this study. We can all learn from each other. Anyone want to share?
(Study Intro) My New Venture in Studying the Word
God has been laying on my heart recently that He wants me to begin studying the Word in depth. During last summer (2009) I began to read in the mornings along with prayer time, but recently He's been opening up to me studying is what He wants.
He's guided me before into times of intense study, bringing revelation of what I'm reading and it's all been for my growth. Yet, I've kept it to myself, knowing others one day would share it with me, but just would file those things away.
Today, as I came out of study, I knew I was to begin blogging the results. You know, like Julie and Julia? Julie would cook one of Julia Childs' recipes and then blog about it. Well, that's what I'm going to be doing here. I'll be in the Word, studying, praying, meditating on what particular scripture God lays out for me, and then come here and share it all with you. Do you like that? Great. I'm not promising anything. I'm just saying here is where I'm going to lay it all out and let you read it.
I use the King James version of the bible. At times I may quote another version. I also use the Strongs Exhaustive concordance to look up the words God lays on my heart. Those scriptures that just leap off the page, or pose a question to dig further.
Great. Well, looks as if we can start immediately bc I just finished time in study and will begin right after I'm finished here.
Several warnings though, my grammer is 'me'. I'm not always proper, so dont judge me. If you do, shame on you. My punctuation (sp) may frustrate you, but oh well. And as you can see, my spelling may stink so just get over it. If this thing has spell check I'll def check it, but if not, I'll do my best, you'll get the idea! cuz....this is mine! haha and lol!
Well you ready to get started?
He's guided me before into times of intense study, bringing revelation of what I'm reading and it's all been for my growth. Yet, I've kept it to myself, knowing others one day would share it with me, but just would file those things away.
Today, as I came out of study, I knew I was to begin blogging the results. You know, like Julie and Julia? Julie would cook one of Julia Childs' recipes and then blog about it. Well, that's what I'm going to be doing here. I'll be in the Word, studying, praying, meditating on what particular scripture God lays out for me, and then come here and share it all with you. Do you like that? Great. I'm not promising anything. I'm just saying here is where I'm going to lay it all out and let you read it.
I use the King James version of the bible. At times I may quote another version. I also use the Strongs Exhaustive concordance to look up the words God lays on my heart. Those scriptures that just leap off the page, or pose a question to dig further.
Great. Well, looks as if we can start immediately bc I just finished time in study and will begin right after I'm finished here.
Several warnings though, my grammer is 'me'. I'm not always proper, so dont judge me. If you do, shame on you. My punctuation (sp) may frustrate you, but oh well. And as you can see, my spelling may stink so just get over it. If this thing has spell check I'll def check it, but if not, I'll do my best, you'll get the idea! cuz....this is mine! haha and lol!
Well you ready to get started?
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