John 17:4 "...I have finished the work which You have given Me to do."
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla:
I am going through John 17 for the bible study Mary is doing at church and am being so blessed. I started reading the chapter this morning and got only to verse 4. "I have finished the work which You have given Me to do"...I want you to ask yourself two questions. The first is whose work are you doing? The second is a bit morbid but always something to consider. If you only had a short time left to live, would you be able to say I have finished the work...would you hear well done good and faithful servant? Would you be okay with the legacy you would leave behind...with the epitaph that might be appropriate for your headstone? I know i threw some extra questions in there at the end but they were just to clarify the original thought. : D
Let's look at the first one...whose work are you doing. Jesus never did or said anything outside of the Father's will. (John 8:28-29) He did not follow the clamor of the crowd but followed in the direction the Father pointed. He spent time with the Father and knew His heart. I see so many people running around doing "stuff" from morning til night never really stopping to consider...is it necessary and most importantly is it what the Lord wants for me or for my family. Girls, spend your time doing the work that He has prepared beforehand for you to walk in. (Ephesians 2:10) That is so important for us to remember. People will pile on heavy burdens...their expectations are high. Worrying about what they think will give you ulcers, headaches and all kinds of physical and emotional ailments. You might also pile heavy burdens on yourself. Don't do this. Instead, make a practice of evaluating all you do in the light of eternity. Let Him direct you morning by morning...He is the One to please...for "you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God." Keep your eyes on the prize...the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Set your mind on things above. As always, Jesus is not trying to make your life difficult. He is showing you the right way...as a mother would show a child the correct way to do something....He wants to ease your burdens not add to them...He knows you are but dust...Matt 11:28-30 Come to Me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.
The next question...have you finished the work? Do you have anything left undone? Any sin that has got the best of you that you have not been ruthless with...any unforgiveness...any thing that the Lord has told you to do that you have left undone...thinking you will get to it another time. I think it was Amy Carmichael who said that the moment is the window to eternity. I have always loved that quote. It never fails to make me stop short and remember that yesterday is gone and tomorrow is not yet here and life does not come with a guarantee...glorify Him then moment by moment!
Girls, there is really only one thing necessary and that is to sit at His feet and learn from Him...and when you do that you will be seeking first the kingdom of heaven and all else will be added to you...you will be clinging to the vine and fruit will be borne over time. He will do the work...your job is really just to cling and learn from Him. One of you is already a Mom and as a Mom you will all hopefully ask yourself things like, what legacy am I leaving behind for my husband, my children? Am I/Did I point them to Jesus? Did I "manifest" or illustrate Him in my life? It is the only legacy you need leave...if you have pointed them...your precious gifts from God...to Him...if the Lord is their Shepherd they truly have everything they need.
Love
Mom
Numbers 6:24-26 “The LORD bless you and keep you; The LORD make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.”’
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Getting to Know Him...John Chapter 16
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
I think I really got to know the Father a little better this morning! Isn't that one of the main purpose of Bible Study...to KNOW Him. Understanding truth is important but getting to know Him in the process...priceless. Here are the verses that really hit me in the heart today.
John 16:19-22
Now Jesus knew that they desired to ask Him, and He said to them, “Are you inquiring among yourselves about what I said, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me’? 2021 A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. 22 Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you. Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy.
Having been through childbirth four times I really looked at this one in hopes that I would understand the essence of what Jesus was saying to His disciples here. These are some of His last words to them before the cross and you could hear and feel His love for them. When I first was told that I would not remember the pain of childbirth I did not believe the teller...I was right not to believe...I do remember the pain of childbirth and I thank God that I do. After the first delivery, I embraced the pain more willingly...why? Because I saw how the sorrow and suffering I experienced was transformed into the greatest joy my heart has ever known. My four daughters! God does not substitute something to replace our sorrow with joy...He takes the very instrument that is causing the sorrow and uses it to transform it miraculously into great joy.
Now the next example is not my own but as a parent and grandparent I could really relate to it. When our children are crying over a broken toy or over a playmate that has gone home, we do not always immediately go out and buy them another toy or call another playmate over to play. That would produce an immature, spoiled child that would expect all his problems to be solved either by things or by a person...a child definitely not equipped to handle the real world. Instead as a parent you transform the situation by teaching them how to cope with loss and disappointment. This is the way of maturity.
The way of transformation is the way of spiritual maturity...it is the way of faith and patience. It is not an easy road...but the other is a road where satisfaction is never found and peace is never obtained. Jesus tells us He has overcome the world at the end of Chapter 16...in that same verse He reminds us that we will have tribulation and sorrow here..but in Him (where we live, move and have our being) we will have peace...so be of good cheer. So in your time of tribulation, look ahead...be mature...do not be short-sighted. Remember Romans 8:28. Remember Joseph's hopeless situation...they meant it for evil but God meant it for good and brought victory. The cross is the greatest example. The darkest hour of history...the hour where Jesus suffered pain and agony unimaginable...became the brightest hour...the cross which previously had been accursed..became a symbol for hope, glory and victory.
Jesus uses our deepest pain and sorrow to bring us our greatest joys. Trials into triumphs! Our job is to be patient and to wait on Him and allow Him to do the work...What a picture of the heart of our Father. He even uses the inevitable and unavoidable sin and suffering of this fallen world for His glory and our good. How kind of Him...How good of Him...How merciful and compassionate of Him! We fight as those who have already won...Jon Courson tells us we begin at the finish line. So be of good cheer!
Love
Mom
I think I really got to know the Father a little better this morning! Isn't that one of the main purpose of Bible Study...to KNOW Him. Understanding truth is important but getting to know Him in the process...priceless. Here are the verses that really hit me in the heart today.
John 16:19-22
Now Jesus knew that they desired to ask Him, and He said to them, “Are you inquiring among yourselves about what I said, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me’? 2021 A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. 22 Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you. Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy.
Having been through childbirth four times I really looked at this one in hopes that I would understand the essence of what Jesus was saying to His disciples here. These are some of His last words to them before the cross and you could hear and feel His love for them. When I first was told that I would not remember the pain of childbirth I did not believe the teller...I was right not to believe...I do remember the pain of childbirth and I thank God that I do. After the first delivery, I embraced the pain more willingly...why? Because I saw how the sorrow and suffering I experienced was transformed into the greatest joy my heart has ever known. My four daughters! God does not substitute something to replace our sorrow with joy...He takes the very instrument that is causing the sorrow and uses it to transform it miraculously into great joy.
Now the next example is not my own but as a parent and grandparent I could really relate to it. When our children are crying over a broken toy or over a playmate that has gone home, we do not always immediately go out and buy them another toy or call another playmate over to play. That would produce an immature, spoiled child that would expect all his problems to be solved either by things or by a person...a child definitely not equipped to handle the real world. Instead as a parent you transform the situation by teaching them how to cope with loss and disappointment. This is the way of maturity.
The way of transformation is the way of spiritual maturity...it is the way of faith and patience. It is not an easy road...but the other is a road where satisfaction is never found and peace is never obtained. Jesus tells us He has overcome the world at the end of Chapter 16...in that same verse He reminds us that we will have tribulation and sorrow here..but in Him (where we live, move and have our being) we will have peace...so be of good cheer. So in your time of tribulation, look ahead...be mature...do not be short-sighted. Remember Romans 8:28. Remember Joseph's hopeless situation...they meant it for evil but God meant it for good and brought victory. The cross is the greatest example. The darkest hour of history...the hour where Jesus suffered pain and agony unimaginable...became the brightest hour...the cross which previously had been accursed..became a symbol for hope, glory and victory.
Jesus uses our deepest pain and sorrow to bring us our greatest joys. Trials into triumphs! Our job is to be patient and to wait on Him and allow Him to do the work...What a picture of the heart of our Father. He even uses the inevitable and unavoidable sin and suffering of this fallen world for His glory and our good. How kind of Him...How good of Him...How merciful and compassionate of Him! We fight as those who have already won...Jon Courson tells us we begin at the finish line. So be of good cheer!
Love
Mom
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
You Become what You Worship
Jeremiah 10:14-16
Everyone is dull-hearted, without knowledge; Every metalsmith is put to shame by an image; For his molded image is falsehood, And there is no breath in them.15 They are futile, a work of errors; In the time of their punishment they shall perish.16 The Portion of Jacob is not like them, For He is the Maker of all things, And Israel is the tribe of His inheritance; The LORD of hosts is His name.
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
You become like what you worship...That is my message to you today...you become like what you worship. Yes, I am repeating myself. So think of what you are worshiping and imagine what will be your essence if you continue down that road. See your end so to speak.
Now, I worship the true and living God but there are things in my life that at times I pay too much attention to or even put before God. I do not, by the grace of God, make this a practice. By the grace of God, I repent when the Lord shows me what I am doing...and I am ever so thankful that He shows me. When I really think about what I would resemble if, as I said before, continued down that road without repentance...I SHUDDER. The word shallow comes to mind...empty headed and definitely dependent on the praise of men. None of which are qualities I desire.
Romans 1:19-25
because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, 21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, 25 who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
Paul is saying here that we as fallen, unsaved human beings are without excuse and even though we know that there is a God from our own conscience as well as the evidence of creation, some of us (well okay..many of us) will suppress that truth and refuse to honor God as God. Why? Because we like darkness more than light. We love our sin more than we love God. Eventually God gives us over to our own desires and we become futile in our thoughts and our hearts are darkened. We wind up serving the creature rather than the Creator! God lets us have our own way! Uh oh...our own way is NEVER a good thing. If we are not worshiping Him we are worshiping something else...and as the Bible says...because we are not worshiping the true God our foolish hearts will eventually be darkened...
I am thanking God that the "Portion of Jacob" is mine. I was praying and asking the Lord last night to show me the antidote for idol worship. I knew there must be an answer and that it was probably obvious. As I was reading Lamentations...another book written by Jeremiah I found it.
Lamentations 3:24 “ The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “ Therefore I hope in Him!” The antidote to idol worship is to immerse yourself in Him and remember that it is in Him that you live and move and have your being. How many times have you said to yourself..."if i just had or if this would just occur then I would be okay"...How many times? Finally you go to where you should have gone at the outset...to the Lord and spend time with Him and return realizing that it really wasn't any of those things that were needed or were going to make it better...IT WAS HIM YOU WANTED...HE WAS WHAT WAS NEEDED. The Lord doesn't just give me a portion...HE is my portion. He is the Becoming One...He becomes whatever we need. In Him we find such satisfaction in our souls that nothing else matters.
Girls, may you never fool yourself in thinking that you can live after your own desires and that somehow the grace of God will make up for it or His love will cover it. God said, "Tear your heart, not your garments." He doesn't want an outward display. He wants an inward work in your heart and your total devotion to Him. If there are things you are putting before God even today...repent...stop...go in the other direction. If your life is filled with an outward display but not much of an inward change...surrender to Him right now and ask Him to do that work in your heart.
"The LORD bless you and keep you; The LORD make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.”’ --Numbers 6:24-26
Love
Mom
Everyone is dull-hearted, without knowledge; Every metalsmith is put to shame by an image; For his molded image is falsehood, And there is no breath in them.15 They are futile, a work of errors; In the time of their punishment they shall perish.16 The Portion of Jacob is not like them, For He is the Maker of all things, And Israel is the tribe of His inheritance; The LORD of hosts is His name.
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
You become like what you worship...That is my message to you today...you become like what you worship. Yes, I am repeating myself. So think of what you are worshiping and imagine what will be your essence if you continue down that road. See your end so to speak.
Now, I worship the true and living God but there are things in my life that at times I pay too much attention to or even put before God. I do not, by the grace of God, make this a practice. By the grace of God, I repent when the Lord shows me what I am doing...and I am ever so thankful that He shows me. When I really think about what I would resemble if, as I said before, continued down that road without repentance...I SHUDDER. The word shallow comes to mind...empty headed and definitely dependent on the praise of men. None of which are qualities I desire.
Romans 1:19-25
because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, 21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, 25 who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
Paul is saying here that we as fallen, unsaved human beings are without excuse and even though we know that there is a God from our own conscience as well as the evidence of creation, some of us (well okay..many of us) will suppress that truth and refuse to honor God as God. Why? Because we like darkness more than light. We love our sin more than we love God. Eventually God gives us over to our own desires and we become futile in our thoughts and our hearts are darkened. We wind up serving the creature rather than the Creator! God lets us have our own way! Uh oh...our own way is NEVER a good thing. If we are not worshiping Him we are worshiping something else...and as the Bible says...because we are not worshiping the true God our foolish hearts will eventually be darkened...
I am thanking God that the "Portion of Jacob" is mine. I was praying and asking the Lord last night to show me the antidote for idol worship. I knew there must be an answer and that it was probably obvious. As I was reading Lamentations...another book written by Jeremiah I found it.
Lamentations 3:24 “ The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “ Therefore I hope in Him!” The antidote to idol worship is to immerse yourself in Him and remember that it is in Him that you live and move and have your being. How many times have you said to yourself..."if i just had or if this would just occur then I would be okay"...How many times? Finally you go to where you should have gone at the outset...to the Lord and spend time with Him and return realizing that it really wasn't any of those things that were needed or were going to make it better...IT WAS HIM YOU WANTED...HE WAS WHAT WAS NEEDED. The Lord doesn't just give me a portion...HE is my portion. He is the Becoming One...He becomes whatever we need. In Him we find such satisfaction in our souls that nothing else matters.
Girls, may you never fool yourself in thinking that you can live after your own desires and that somehow the grace of God will make up for it or His love will cover it. God said, "Tear your heart, not your garments." He doesn't want an outward display. He wants an inward work in your heart and your total devotion to Him. If there are things you are putting before God even today...repent...stop...go in the other direction. If your life is filled with an outward display but not much of an inward change...surrender to Him right now and ask Him to do that work in your heart.
"The LORD bless you and keep you; The LORD make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.”’ --Numbers 6:24-26
Love
Mom
Monday, September 27, 2010
Looking to Him and being radiant...
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
I am taking a short detour from my normal reading schedule to read through the Gospel of John to prepare for a Woman's Study that Mary is teaching at church. As I was reading I came upon these verses in John Chapter 6.
But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Peter knew there was no where else to go...and I so agree with Him.
At times a restlessness occurs in my soul. In and of itself this longing is not a bad thing. It is this type of longing that made me turn away from the world and to Jesus. It is this type of longing that made me recognize that the satisfaction and fulfillment I found in the Lord and His word was not to be found anywhere except in Him.
I find that this restlessness manifests itself most often during trials. My flesh wars against my Spirit and they are contrary to one another. I want one thing for myself and the Lord wants another. I am not saying Yes, Lord...I am saying No, Lord. Something you really can't do and still call Him Lord. I look outward instead of upward...I look at my circumstances and am tempted to fix whatever it might be that is causing me discomfort. I look for things that will distract me from my pain and suffering. (and there are so so many distractions in the world today) When my thinking starts to turn in this direction or I find myself substituting other activities for what is needed...time with Him...I know I am no longer walking in the Spirit.
Because of this I have learned to see this feeling as a good thing. A gift from the Lord. Yes, you read that right....I see it as a gift from the Lord. I would love it if each one of you could remember to see it that way too. As His gentle cord of love tugging at your heart and asking you to come and spend some time with Him, to wait on Him...to allow Him to "aright" your thoughts and renew your mind. We need to trust Him through our trials...go to Him in our times of trouble and not turn aside. Girls, we are in the greatest danger when we ignore this feeling and move ahead thinking we can handle the situation. Our strength lies in knowing we cannot and waiting on Him who can.
But beware as with all good things, Satan sometimes uses this feeling to distract us from the Lord. He defiles the Lord's gentle message to come by pointing us in all kinds of other directions in an attempt to satisfy that longing. See these attempts for the lie that they are. Learn to recognize the feeling girls and then go to Him. Know, like Peter, that nothing in the world is going to satisfy...we were made with a longing for our Creator...with a desire to worship Him. He, our God, has embedded this desire into our very beings. If we do not go to Him, we will go elsewhere in an attempt to satisfy it. Make no mistake all of our efforts will fail . They were meant to. There is NOTHING in the world that will have any lasting satisfaction or eternal value. God's motivation in giving us this desire is to prevent our hurt. To draw us to Him and away from the world and its dangers. The only thing that will satisfy is the Lord Himself. He is the Becoming One...He becomes whatever we need. He is our sufficiency.
So instead of looking elsewhere for help remember that this feeling is from Him. Raise your eyes to the heavens and speak to Him words of faith...thank Him for the situation you are in knowing He has it all under control and that He already knows how He is going to do exceedingly abundantly above all that you could ask or think in it. Tell Him you know that He is faithful and He is good...reminding yourself of the times before when He has pulled you up when you have been down...when He has given you grace in the nick of time. Spend time with Him in His word asking Him to speak words of wisdom and comfort to your heart. Ask Him to increase your faith. Make doing this a practice in your life.
Girls...I spent two days thinking on this and then writing it and not once did I do what I just said to do. The answer was right in front of me and yet I somehow refused to do it. It is so so hard for us to give up our illusion of control. Don't be like the mule (that would be me) who has to be harnessed with a bit and bridle...allow Him to guide you with His eye and draw you gently to Him when your faith falters. One of my favorite verses in the bible is this one from the Psalms.
Psalm 34:5 They looked to Him and were radiant, And their faces were not ashamed.
Love
Mom
I am taking a short detour from my normal reading schedule to read through the Gospel of John to prepare for a Woman's Study that Mary is teaching at church. As I was reading I came upon these verses in John Chapter 6.
But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Peter knew there was no where else to go...and I so agree with Him.
At times a restlessness occurs in my soul. In and of itself this longing is not a bad thing. It is this type of longing that made me turn away from the world and to Jesus. It is this type of longing that made me recognize that the satisfaction and fulfillment I found in the Lord and His word was not to be found anywhere except in Him.
I find that this restlessness manifests itself most often during trials. My flesh wars against my Spirit and they are contrary to one another. I want one thing for myself and the Lord wants another. I am not saying Yes, Lord...I am saying No, Lord. Something you really can't do and still call Him Lord. I look outward instead of upward...I look at my circumstances and am tempted to fix whatever it might be that is causing me discomfort. I look for things that will distract me from my pain and suffering. (and there are so so many distractions in the world today) When my thinking starts to turn in this direction or I find myself substituting other activities for what is needed...time with Him...I know I am no longer walking in the Spirit.
Because of this I have learned to see this feeling as a good thing. A gift from the Lord. Yes, you read that right....I see it as a gift from the Lord. I would love it if each one of you could remember to see it that way too. As His gentle cord of love tugging at your heart and asking you to come and spend some time with Him, to wait on Him...to allow Him to "aright" your thoughts and renew your mind. We need to trust Him through our trials...go to Him in our times of trouble and not turn aside. Girls, we are in the greatest danger when we ignore this feeling and move ahead thinking we can handle the situation. Our strength lies in knowing we cannot and waiting on Him who can.
But beware as with all good things, Satan sometimes uses this feeling to distract us from the Lord. He defiles the Lord's gentle message to come by pointing us in all kinds of other directions in an attempt to satisfy that longing. See these attempts for the lie that they are. Learn to recognize the feeling girls and then go to Him. Know, like Peter, that nothing in the world is going to satisfy...we were made with a longing for our Creator...with a desire to worship Him. He, our God, has embedded this desire into our very beings. If we do not go to Him, we will go elsewhere in an attempt to satisfy it. Make no mistake all of our efforts will fail . They were meant to. There is NOTHING in the world that will have any lasting satisfaction or eternal value. God's motivation in giving us this desire is to prevent our hurt. To draw us to Him and away from the world and its dangers. The only thing that will satisfy is the Lord Himself. He is the Becoming One...He becomes whatever we need. He is our sufficiency.
So instead of looking elsewhere for help remember that this feeling is from Him. Raise your eyes to the heavens and speak to Him words of faith...thank Him for the situation you are in knowing He has it all under control and that He already knows how He is going to do exceedingly abundantly above all that you could ask or think in it. Tell Him you know that He is faithful and He is good...reminding yourself of the times before when He has pulled you up when you have been down...when He has given you grace in the nick of time. Spend time with Him in His word asking Him to speak words of wisdom and comfort to your heart. Ask Him to increase your faith. Make doing this a practice in your life.
Girls...I spent two days thinking on this and then writing it and not once did I do what I just said to do. The answer was right in front of me and yet I somehow refused to do it. It is so so hard for us to give up our illusion of control. Don't be like the mule (that would be me) who has to be harnessed with a bit and bridle...allow Him to guide you with His eye and draw you gently to Him when your faith falters. One of my favorite verses in the bible is this one from the Psalms.
Psalm 34:5 They looked to Him and were radiant, And their faces were not ashamed.
Love
Mom
Saturday, September 25, 2010
On Rejecting the Word of God...SIGH
Jeremiah 8:9
Behold, they have rejected the word of the LORD;
So what wisdom do they have?
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla...
This is such a sad verse...the Word of the Lord is truth. It is our guide in this world filled with so much toil, trouble, heartache and deceit. It is a gift from our Creator to us. Who knows more about us than He who made us. God's people had rejected His instruction. That girls is not a logical thing to do...it does not make any sense practically. He made us...it is always good to consult the Manufacturer's Manual and it is never a good thing to discard it. Jeremiah 8:3-5 says if a man falls does he not get back up...if a man takes a wrong turn does he not go back and correct it? Doing that only makes sense. But God's people did not return to Him and His word with their heart. Instead, they went backward. That is what happens when we reject God's word...we go backward. Jeremiah 7:28-31 says this:
“So you shall say to them, ‘This is a nation that does not obey the voice of the LORD their God nor receive correction. Truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth. 29 Cut off your hair and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on the desolate heights; for the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.’ 30 For the children of Judah have done evil in My sight,” says the LORD. “They have set their abominations in the house which is called by My name, to pollute it. 31 And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into My heart.
What was the result of rejecting the voice of their Maker? Outside of Jerusalem they burned their sons and their daughters in sacrifice to Molech...a god of their own imagination....they rejected God's word and did what was right in their own eyes. We have also rejected God's word here in 21st century America. Babies are sacrificed to the gods of power, money, status, privilege, prestige and personal reputation; all sub-deities of the ultimate god of self...we are no better and perhaps worse.
Verses 12 and 13 tell us that all that had been done for them would be consumed because they chose to continually turn away from Him...later on we read that He stopped striving with them and that they were now in a position for which there was no remedy. The summer was past and the harvest was gone. Judah had missed their opportunity to turn...judgment was coming...there would not be a second chance.
Jeremiah delivered this message with tears to his people. As I read the book I can feel Jeremiah's pain for the people of Judah. The people he loved. He speaks and they do not hear...He pleads and they ignore Him or worse persecute him. He knows the truth...He knows what is going to occur..but he cannot make them see. You can hear the heart of a mom or a dad here pleading with a prodigal. You can hear the heart of God breaking for His people who refuse to turn.
Rebellion and sin have tragic repercussions. Even in a saved person the consequences are tragic. Your sin will harden your heart and blind you to the truth. The consequences of your backsliding and turning will hurt those around you especially those whom you love. Girls, we are saved for one purpose...to glorify God. When our lives do not reflect Him and shine His light so others can see it and perhaps turn themselves and be saved, we grieve the Spirit of God. Your own sin will cause you to miss out on so many of His blessings both temporally and eternally.
Your bible does not do you any good if it just sit there unopened, unread and worst of all unheeded. I pray that each of us always will set our heart on not only hearing the truth but obeying it from the heart. The repercussions like the blessings are not just temporal but eternal. 1 Corinthians 3:9-15 says this:
For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building. 10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. 11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. 14 If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
Love
Mom
Behold, they have rejected the word of the LORD;
So what wisdom do they have?
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla...
This is such a sad verse...the Word of the Lord is truth. It is our guide in this world filled with so much toil, trouble, heartache and deceit. It is a gift from our Creator to us. Who knows more about us than He who made us. God's people had rejected His instruction. That girls is not a logical thing to do...it does not make any sense practically. He made us...it is always good to consult the Manufacturer's Manual and it is never a good thing to discard it. Jeremiah 8:3-5 says if a man falls does he not get back up...if a man takes a wrong turn does he not go back and correct it? Doing that only makes sense. But God's people did not return to Him and His word with their heart. Instead, they went backward. That is what happens when we reject God's word...we go backward. Jeremiah 7:28-31 says this:
“So you shall say to them, ‘This is a nation that does not obey the voice of the LORD their God nor receive correction. Truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth. 29 Cut off your hair and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on the desolate heights; for the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.’ 30 For the children of Judah have done evil in My sight,” says the LORD. “They have set their abominations in the house which is called by My name, to pollute it. 31 And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into My heart.
What was the result of rejecting the voice of their Maker? Outside of Jerusalem they burned their sons and their daughters in sacrifice to Molech...a god of their own imagination....they rejected God's word and did what was right in their own eyes. We have also rejected God's word here in 21st century America. Babies are sacrificed to the gods of power, money, status, privilege, prestige and personal reputation; all sub-deities of the ultimate god of self...we are no better and perhaps worse.
Verses 12 and 13 tell us that all that had been done for them would be consumed because they chose to continually turn away from Him...later on we read that He stopped striving with them and that they were now in a position for which there was no remedy. The summer was past and the harvest was gone. Judah had missed their opportunity to turn...judgment was coming...there would not be a second chance.
Jeremiah delivered this message with tears to his people. As I read the book I can feel Jeremiah's pain for the people of Judah. The people he loved. He speaks and they do not hear...He pleads and they ignore Him or worse persecute him. He knows the truth...He knows what is going to occur..but he cannot make them see. You can hear the heart of a mom or a dad here pleading with a prodigal. You can hear the heart of God breaking for His people who refuse to turn.
Rebellion and sin have tragic repercussions. Even in a saved person the consequences are tragic. Your sin will harden your heart and blind you to the truth. The consequences of your backsliding and turning will hurt those around you especially those whom you love. Girls, we are saved for one purpose...to glorify God. When our lives do not reflect Him and shine His light so others can see it and perhaps turn themselves and be saved, we grieve the Spirit of God. Your own sin will cause you to miss out on so many of His blessings both temporally and eternally.
Your bible does not do you any good if it just sit there unopened, unread and worst of all unheeded. I pray that each of us always will set our heart on not only hearing the truth but obeying it from the heart. The repercussions like the blessings are not just temporal but eternal. 1 Corinthians 3:9-15 says this:
For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building. 10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. 11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. 14 If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
Love
Mom
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
The Heartbreak of God - Jeremiah 2
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
Chapter 2 of Jeremiah is sad but also beautiful because we truly have an opportunity here to see right into the heart of God. Here He expresses to us the resulting emotions that occur in His heart when we reject and ignore Him. We see how He relates to us as a Father relates to His children and are comforted by His mercy, patience and compassion.
Jeremiah starts off this chapter with the Lord speaking through Him to His people remembering what it was like when they first loved Him. We do this in our own relationships, don't we? We look back and remember how they were in the beginning...for better or for worse. Jeremiah paints pictures that all of us can understand not just with our minds but with our hearts as well. He then goes on to ask them for what reasons have they now gone far from Him. He points out that they do not even ask for Him, the One who had done so much for them. Can you feel His pain and hurt? He recounts to them two evils...the first is that they have forsaken Him--the fountain of living waters and chosen other gods that do not satisfy...something that even the heathen nations had not done to their own man made idols! God's people, however, had forsaken the One who had been so faithful...who had loved them, fed them, cared for them, raised them and protected them! Wow! The fountain of living water is spoken of in the New Testament also. Nothing satisfies like our Lord and His word. It is the only thing that will quench that thirst inside of us. Augustine once said that our hearts are truly restless until we find rest in Him. Amen!
Next, we learn that they did not seek God but looked for help elsewhere and as a result in verse 19 God tells them their own backsliding would correct them. They would reap what they had sown. God was grieved that they were rejecting Him because He knew what was headed their way. Girls...can you hear and feel the heartbreak of God? Can you feel His concern and care for His people and His desire to protect them from their own evil hearts? BUT THEY DID NOT LISTEN! Pray that each one of us would have ears to hear and the humility to turn.
Isaiah 50:4-5 “ The Lord GOD has given Me The tongue of the learned, That I should know how to speak A word in season to him who is weary. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear To hear as the learned. 5 The Lord GOD has opened My ear; And I was not rebellious, Nor did I turn away.
The next two verses (20-22) inform us that the people may have been saying the right things but their actions said otherwise. Their hearts were far from Him. The heart is always what God looks at. It is always the issue. The people's hearts were stubborn...they did not want to listen or obey what God had said. No amount of soap or religious ritual could change what God saw in their hearts. The law kills but the Spirit gives life. We can examine our own lives and hearts this way by checking to see if our own words and deeds match.
Verse 25 girls is perhaps the verse in this chapter that grieves me the most. Condemnation comes from Satan...He tells us that we have gone too far...that there is no way back...that there is no hope...But God says Return...I can make the crooked places straight. I can heal your back sliding. Behold, I make all things new. Just return he says...come to Him...He will heal.
On second thought maybe this is the saddest verse..."Yet my people have forgotten Me days without number." You can almost hear God's heart of love for His people and His heartbreak upon being ignored. He had tried every way He knew how to get their attention without forcing Himself on them including disciplining them in their sin. He wondered what He might have done wrong to have His people treat Him this way. This one reminds me of the one in Matthew 23:37 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!
The final two verses of Chapter 2 tell us what is the result of trusting in anything other than God and His word. Bondage. Jeremiah pictures the people here being led away as captives. James 1:14 says "But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. 15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death." The words drawn away and enticed have the meaning of a trap or the baiting of a hook. Sin deceives and takes captive. In contrast, knowing and doing the truth sets us free. (John 8:31,34) Christ sets us free.
As we reach the end of the chapter there is one thing that truly amazes me. If I am rejected, I am hurt...devastated if it comes from someone I have loved and cared for. BUT I CAN STILL UNDERSTAND THE REJECTION. I am human and as a human am a sinner deserving of wrath. But us puny humans rejecting God...the One who died for us and lives to intercede for us? That IS hard to fathom. It happens, though, all the time. As Jeremiah says they forsake the fountain of living waters and hew for themselves cisterns that cannot hold water. After doing a little reading here I learned that the people would carve cisterns into the sides of hills to catch the run off. When a cistern was cracked and could not hold water it was only good for one thing....to be used as a grave. What Jeremiah then is saying here is that whatever gods we go after will eventually bury us. I like that picture. Even as Christians we are often in danger of allowing other things to come before God in our lives. When we do He chastens us to bring us back into a right relationship with Him. God's people here ignored His chastening and eventually found themselves facing judgment without remedy. Proverbs 29:1 speaks to this: "He who is often rebuked, and hardens his neck, Will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy." Make no mistake our God is a jealous God and wants us wholly devoted to Him. I like that too...makes any decision I make easy...God first...anything else next.
As followers of Jesus, girls, each one of you will be ignored or rejected at some time or another in your lives. A servant is not greater than His master. John 15:20 also says this well....if they persecuted Me they will persecute you also. Are there any benefits to being rejected? I can think of two or three straight away. The first is in rejection we look up and see God's faithfulness. We truly learn during the times in our lives that we are lonely and rejected and perhaps even despised that God is faithful and He truly never leaves us nor forsakes us. I think rejection also obviously conforms us into the image of His Son. All you need do is read through the Gospels and the Servant songs in Isaiah to know that Jesus was not only rejected by His own creatures but He was also despised. He was a Man of Sorrows. My mantra for the past 10 years has been to owe no one anything but to love. Through rejection you learn to love without expecting anything in return. To accept offenses as He did and still reach out in love.
I will end here with something that Jon Courson said that I liked very much. "Accept the rejection from people in your life. More importantly, avoid rejecting God from your life. If some time has gone by since you have talked with Him or walked with Him, today is the day to return. He is ready to receive. Abide in Him...draw near....
Love
Mom
Chapter 2 of Jeremiah is sad but also beautiful because we truly have an opportunity here to see right into the heart of God. Here He expresses to us the resulting emotions that occur in His heart when we reject and ignore Him. We see how He relates to us as a Father relates to His children and are comforted by His mercy, patience and compassion.
Jeremiah starts off this chapter with the Lord speaking through Him to His people remembering what it was like when they first loved Him. We do this in our own relationships, don't we? We look back and remember how they were in the beginning...for better or for worse. Jeremiah paints pictures that all of us can understand not just with our minds but with our hearts as well. He then goes on to ask them for what reasons have they now gone far from Him. He points out that they do not even ask for Him, the One who had done so much for them. Can you feel His pain and hurt? He recounts to them two evils...the first is that they have forsaken Him--the fountain of living waters and chosen other gods that do not satisfy...something that even the heathen nations had not done to their own man made idols! God's people, however, had forsaken the One who had been so faithful...who had loved them, fed them, cared for them, raised them and protected them! Wow! The fountain of living water is spoken of in the New Testament also. Nothing satisfies like our Lord and His word. It is the only thing that will quench that thirst inside of us. Augustine once said that our hearts are truly restless until we find rest in Him. Amen!
Next, we learn that they did not seek God but looked for help elsewhere and as a result in verse 19 God tells them their own backsliding would correct them. They would reap what they had sown. God was grieved that they were rejecting Him because He knew what was headed their way. Girls...can you hear and feel the heartbreak of God? Can you feel His concern and care for His people and His desire to protect them from their own evil hearts? BUT THEY DID NOT LISTEN! Pray that each one of us would have ears to hear and the humility to turn.
Isaiah 50:4-5 “ The Lord GOD has given Me The tongue of the learned, That I should know how to speak A word in season to him who is weary. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear To hear as the learned. 5 The Lord GOD has opened My ear; And I was not rebellious, Nor did I turn away.
The next two verses (20-22) inform us that the people may have been saying the right things but their actions said otherwise. Their hearts were far from Him. The heart is always what God looks at. It is always the issue. The people's hearts were stubborn...they did not want to listen or obey what God had said. No amount of soap or religious ritual could change what God saw in their hearts. The law kills but the Spirit gives life. We can examine our own lives and hearts this way by checking to see if our own words and deeds match.
Verse 25 girls is perhaps the verse in this chapter that grieves me the most. Condemnation comes from Satan...He tells us that we have gone too far...that there is no way back...that there is no hope...But God says Return...I can make the crooked places straight. I can heal your back sliding. Behold, I make all things new. Just return he says...come to Him...He will heal.
On second thought maybe this is the saddest verse..."Yet my people have forgotten Me days without number." You can almost hear God's heart of love for His people and His heartbreak upon being ignored. He had tried every way He knew how to get their attention without forcing Himself on them including disciplining them in their sin. He wondered what He might have done wrong to have His people treat Him this way. This one reminds me of the one in Matthew 23:37 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!
The final two verses of Chapter 2 tell us what is the result of trusting in anything other than God and His word. Bondage. Jeremiah pictures the people here being led away as captives. James 1:14 says "But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. 15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death." The words drawn away and enticed have the meaning of a trap or the baiting of a hook. Sin deceives and takes captive. In contrast, knowing and doing the truth sets us free. (John 8:31,34) Christ sets us free.
As we reach the end of the chapter there is one thing that truly amazes me. If I am rejected, I am hurt...devastated if it comes from someone I have loved and cared for. BUT I CAN STILL UNDERSTAND THE REJECTION. I am human and as a human am a sinner deserving of wrath. But us puny humans rejecting God...the One who died for us and lives to intercede for us? That IS hard to fathom. It happens, though, all the time. As Jeremiah says they forsake the fountain of living waters and hew for themselves cisterns that cannot hold water. After doing a little reading here I learned that the people would carve cisterns into the sides of hills to catch the run off. When a cistern was cracked and could not hold water it was only good for one thing....to be used as a grave. What Jeremiah then is saying here is that whatever gods we go after will eventually bury us. I like that picture. Even as Christians we are often in danger of allowing other things to come before God in our lives. When we do He chastens us to bring us back into a right relationship with Him. God's people here ignored His chastening and eventually found themselves facing judgment without remedy. Proverbs 29:1 speaks to this: "He who is often rebuked, and hardens his neck, Will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy." Make no mistake our God is a jealous God and wants us wholly devoted to Him. I like that too...makes any decision I make easy...God first...anything else next.
As followers of Jesus, girls, each one of you will be ignored or rejected at some time or another in your lives. A servant is not greater than His master. John 15:20 also says this well....if they persecuted Me they will persecute you also. Are there any benefits to being rejected? I can think of two or three straight away. The first is in rejection we look up and see God's faithfulness. We truly learn during the times in our lives that we are lonely and rejected and perhaps even despised that God is faithful and He truly never leaves us nor forsakes us. I think rejection also obviously conforms us into the image of His Son. All you need do is read through the Gospels and the Servant songs in Isaiah to know that Jesus was not only rejected by His own creatures but He was also despised. He was a Man of Sorrows. My mantra for the past 10 years has been to owe no one anything but to love. Through rejection you learn to love without expecting anything in return. To accept offenses as He did and still reach out in love.
I will end here with something that Jon Courson said that I liked very much. "Accept the rejection from people in your life. More importantly, avoid rejecting God from your life. If some time has gone by since you have talked with Him or walked with Him, today is the day to return. He is ready to receive. Abide in Him...draw near....
Love
Mom
Monday, September 20, 2010
Something good to remember and easy to forget...Romans 3
Dear Girls...
As I have written before I am reading (slowly) through the Book of Romans. I have reached Chapter 6 but my mind is still in Chapter 3....
It is so easy to see another's sin. It is also very easy to remember that the other guy is the sinner especially when you are the one being hurt by his/her sin. Not so much when it comes to seeing our own sin. The same is true for forgiveness...we accept Christ's forgiveness for our own sin (as we should) but do not deal out our own forgiveness to others so easily. Why...again...because it is so easy to understand the consequences of sin when it is happening to you! When you are not the perpetrator. When you are the one being offended. OUCH!! HOW DARE HE!! Not so much when we are the one doing the offending. Then we can find a 1000 reasons to justify our actions so we can deny our sin and continue to do that which is right in our own eyes.
I think the biggest danger for me if I dwell on an offense is the risk of becoming self-righteous. The risk of being unforgiving. The risk of forgetting my own depravity. I am a victim of sin, yes, but I must also remember that I am also a perpetrator of it. We all are...you do not have to look far into the news to see the tragedy and the utter depravity of man. There are mountains of hurt inside one person due to their own sin and the offenses of others; never mind thinking on the avalanche that occurs when we think of it in cosmic terms. Sin is devastating, cruel, vicious and enslaving. God would truly be justified in making nothing of us all. He, however, chooses the way of love. He dwells there, in fact. So much so that He took our sin upon Himself and paid the price. You have probably heard stories like this one before but I think it really paints the picture we need to see.
It would be like one of you going before a judge because you are guilty of murder...the gavel comes down and you are declared guilty. The sentence...death. Your world closes in on you...but then the judge comes around the bench...takes off his robe and tells you that he will die in your stead. He will pay the price. You are set free. Continuing the picture...what if when the judge came around you despised his offer...telling him that you would not accept his offer and that you thought it was harsh and that his sentence was unfair. No one would feel sorry for you at your execution...the offer was there and you rejected it.
Thinking of it in those terms makes it so much more meaningful to me. We are not able to keep the law. We already stand condemned before the judge. Maybe you are not guilty of murder, but with the law it doesn't matter. The purpose of the law in Galatians 3:24 is to bring us to Christ. In fact, Galatians 3:31 says that through faith the law is established. Belief in Christ accomplishes the very purpose of the law...to show us our need for a Savior. James 2:10 says this: "For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all." Not good news! The mercy seat covered the ark of the covenant. The ark of the covenant contained the law. The mercy seat came between us and the law. Christ is our mercy seat...He is the propitiation for our sin. He comes between us and certain death...He took our sentence on Himself. Wow!
Dwelling in mercy and love as Jesus truly did is so much where I want to be....to remember always the cross...to remember the pit in which He lifted me out of. To remember that all that stands between me and hell is Jesus' sacrificial death on the cross. I never want to esteem it lightly by the sin of unforgiveness. God poured out His wrath on His Son, who knew no sin, for my sin and yours. To lose sight of the cross of Jesus Christ and the forgiveness and redemption bought there, is to lose sight of EVERYTHING you believe. You can only be one of these two things girls...forever grateful that Jesus Christ stands between you and your sin...or self-righteous thinking that you can stand before God in your own righteousness.
The antidote for this is what the antidote always is...immersing yourself in His word daily and allowing it to penetrate. Allowing Him to gaze deeply into your heart by His Spirit. There are no shortcuts...our walk with Jesus is daily...fruit is grown slowly over time.
Hebrews 4: 12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
Love
Mom
As I have written before I am reading (slowly) through the Book of Romans. I have reached Chapter 6 but my mind is still in Chapter 3....
It is so easy to see another's sin. It is also very easy to remember that the other guy is the sinner especially when you are the one being hurt by his/her sin. Not so much when it comes to seeing our own sin. The same is true for forgiveness...we accept Christ's forgiveness for our own sin (as we should) but do not deal out our own forgiveness to others so easily. Why...again...because it is so easy to understand the consequences of sin when it is happening to you! When you are not the perpetrator. When you are the one being offended. OUCH!! HOW DARE HE!! Not so much when we are the one doing the offending. Then we can find a 1000 reasons to justify our actions so we can deny our sin and continue to do that which is right in our own eyes.
I think the biggest danger for me if I dwell on an offense is the risk of becoming self-righteous. The risk of being unforgiving. The risk of forgetting my own depravity. I am a victim of sin, yes, but I must also remember that I am also a perpetrator of it. We all are...you do not have to look far into the news to see the tragedy and the utter depravity of man. There are mountains of hurt inside one person due to their own sin and the offenses of others; never mind thinking on the avalanche that occurs when we think of it in cosmic terms. Sin is devastating, cruel, vicious and enslaving. God would truly be justified in making nothing of us all. He, however, chooses the way of love. He dwells there, in fact. So much so that He took our sin upon Himself and paid the price. You have probably heard stories like this one before but I think it really paints the picture we need to see.
It would be like one of you going before a judge because you are guilty of murder...the gavel comes down and you are declared guilty. The sentence...death. Your world closes in on you...but then the judge comes around the bench...takes off his robe and tells you that he will die in your stead. He will pay the price. You are set free. Continuing the picture...what if when the judge came around you despised his offer...telling him that you would not accept his offer and that you thought it was harsh and that his sentence was unfair. No one would feel sorry for you at your execution...the offer was there and you rejected it.
Thinking of it in those terms makes it so much more meaningful to me. We are not able to keep the law. We already stand condemned before the judge. Maybe you are not guilty of murder, but with the law it doesn't matter. The purpose of the law in Galatians 3:24 is to bring us to Christ. In fact, Galatians 3:31 says that through faith the law is established. Belief in Christ accomplishes the very purpose of the law...to show us our need for a Savior. James 2:10 says this: "For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all." Not good news! The mercy seat covered the ark of the covenant. The ark of the covenant contained the law. The mercy seat came between us and the law. Christ is our mercy seat...He is the propitiation for our sin. He comes between us and certain death...He took our sentence on Himself. Wow!
Dwelling in mercy and love as Jesus truly did is so much where I want to be....to remember always the cross...to remember the pit in which He lifted me out of. To remember that all that stands between me and hell is Jesus' sacrificial death on the cross. I never want to esteem it lightly by the sin of unforgiveness. God poured out His wrath on His Son, who knew no sin, for my sin and yours. To lose sight of the cross of Jesus Christ and the forgiveness and redemption bought there, is to lose sight of EVERYTHING you believe. You can only be one of these two things girls...forever grateful that Jesus Christ stands between you and your sin...or self-righteous thinking that you can stand before God in your own righteousness.
The antidote for this is what the antidote always is...immersing yourself in His word daily and allowing it to penetrate. Allowing Him to gaze deeply into your heart by His Spirit. There are no shortcuts...our walk with Jesus is daily...fruit is grown slowly over time.
Hebrews 4: 12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
Love
Mom
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Root out and Destroy...to Build and to Plant....
Jeremiah 1:10 See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, To root out and to pull down, To destroy and to throw down, To build and to plant."
To my precious daughters...I have much to say here but I am truly going to try to be pithy...good word choice, huh? What a picture this is for us! Jeremiah's job was to root out and to pull down...to destroy and to throw down and THEN to build and plant. Isn't that what God does with us? He has to bring us to nothing...to the point where we think we are absolutely useless and then He begins to plant, to build and to use us for His glory. We feel like we have reached the end but it is really the beginning...and victory in God's world begins with surrender...
When I was a young Christian, I was given a list of bible verses regarding children and parents that filled two sides of a paper single spaced by a couple who truly loved the Lord and to whom I am forever grateful. As I look back that paper was a gift to me directly from God. It was filled with His wisdom for raising my family...wisdom that I needed and did not have. The verse that the Lord impressed on my heart the most was Psalm 127:1. Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. I DID NOT want my labor to be in vain. I wanted my foundation sure...I wanted Christ at the center...I wanted Him to have preeminence...this verse told me that if He was not the foundation...the reason for all that I did...then my labor would be in vain. I knew in my heart of hearts by His Spirit that this was truth. I have tried never to lose sight of it. I prayed for His desires to be my desires...that I would surrender to His will and allow Him to do His work in my heart.
The battleground, girls, is the mind. We need to set it on Him...to renew it daily with His word. We need to speak the truth (what God's word says) in our hearts. ("RE-MIND" ourselves so to speak) His word will combat the lies that the world inundates us with. It is our offensive weapon. As I make a practice of speaking His truth in my heart and aloud about whatever situation I might find myself in...and there could be many different ones during each day..my eyes get off my circumstances and onto Christ. My outlook changes, my mind is renewed...again, like to think of it as "re-minded"..and His peace then overflows my heart. I want what He wants. Spiritually I am stable...the battles are there...dying to the flesh is something we do daily but His peace is there also because when the battles come I know where to look..I know to re-mind myself of His truth about what I am facing. Immerse yourself in His word, know the truth...He is the Truth..and He is where peace, freedom and spiritual stability dwell.
Love,
Mom
To my precious daughters...I have much to say here but I am truly going to try to be pithy...good word choice, huh? What a picture this is for us! Jeremiah's job was to root out and to pull down...to destroy and to throw down and THEN to build and plant. Isn't that what God does with us? He has to bring us to nothing...to the point where we think we are absolutely useless and then He begins to plant, to build and to use us for His glory. We feel like we have reached the end but it is really the beginning...and victory in God's world begins with surrender...
When I was a young Christian, I was given a list of bible verses regarding children and parents that filled two sides of a paper single spaced by a couple who truly loved the Lord and to whom I am forever grateful. As I look back that paper was a gift to me directly from God. It was filled with His wisdom for raising my family...wisdom that I needed and did not have. The verse that the Lord impressed on my heart the most was Psalm 127:1. Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. I DID NOT want my labor to be in vain. I wanted my foundation sure...I wanted Christ at the center...I wanted Him to have preeminence...this verse told me that if He was not the foundation...the reason for all that I did...then my labor would be in vain. I knew in my heart of hearts by His Spirit that this was truth. I have tried never to lose sight of it. I prayed for His desires to be my desires...that I would surrender to His will and allow Him to do His work in my heart.
The battleground, girls, is the mind. We need to set it on Him...to renew it daily with His word. We need to speak the truth (what God's word says) in our hearts. ("RE-MIND" ourselves so to speak) His word will combat the lies that the world inundates us with. It is our offensive weapon. As I make a practice of speaking His truth in my heart and aloud about whatever situation I might find myself in...and there could be many different ones during each day..my eyes get off my circumstances and onto Christ. My outlook changes, my mind is renewed...again, like to think of it as "re-minded"..and His peace then overflows my heart. I want what He wants. Spiritually I am stable...the battles are there...dying to the flesh is something we do daily but His peace is there also because when the battles come I know where to look..I know to re-mind myself of His truth about what I am facing. Immerse yourself in His word, know the truth...He is the Truth..and He is where peace, freedom and spiritual stability dwell.
Love,
Mom
Friday, September 17, 2010
Jeremiah the weeping prophet - please read despite the title...
To my precious daughters...Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
As you know, Pastor Ed is teaching through the Book of Jeremiah on Sunday mornings. In his introduction he promised that we would weep as he taught through it...I began weeping as soon as he began reading the first few verses. Jeremiah was faithful to preach what God told him to preach. He preached the message of judgment to the nation of Judah. He preached to the hard-hearted...he preached to those who did the right things outwardly but had hearts that were far from God....he had no converts in 42 years of preaching...he was despised, persecuted and tortured for his ministry ...AND YET...Jeremiah wept and grieved for those people to whom he preached...people who turned away from their God and his message. WOW!
What is the application for us...The first one is that Jeremiah was FAITHFUL to do that which the Lord had called him to do and left the results up to God. I love that the Lord does not require us to be successful...just obedient. Jeremiah has my deep admiration...I want to endure as this man. Jeremiah was faithful to preach the message the Lord laid on his heart DESPITE the discouragement he must have often felt. A message that no one wanted to hear. A message that made him the butt of jokes, ridicule, humiliation and torture...and remember no one responded. What an example to us! Resolve like Jeremiah to do what God calls you to do...to surrender to His Spirit...and to relax...the results are up to Him. There is freedom there...there is rest there...
The second and final application is one that Pastor Ed pointed out...Jeremiah wept for those to whom he preached. What a beautiful picture. Warren Wiersbe says this of Jeremiah: "he was bold before men and heart-broken before God". Girls...dwell in mercy and love...draw near to God in brokenness for those He has placed in your path. Pray for them, weep for them, preach to them!
Love
Mom
As you know, Pastor Ed is teaching through the Book of Jeremiah on Sunday mornings. In his introduction he promised that we would weep as he taught through it...I began weeping as soon as he began reading the first few verses. Jeremiah was faithful to preach what God told him to preach. He preached the message of judgment to the nation of Judah. He preached to the hard-hearted...he preached to those who did the right things outwardly but had hearts that were far from God....he had no converts in 42 years of preaching...he was despised, persecuted and tortured for his ministry ...AND YET...Jeremiah wept and grieved for those people to whom he preached...people who turned away from their God and his message. WOW!
What is the application for us...The first one is that Jeremiah was FAITHFUL to do that which the Lord had called him to do and left the results up to God. I love that the Lord does not require us to be successful...just obedient. Jeremiah has my deep admiration...I want to endure as this man. Jeremiah was faithful to preach the message the Lord laid on his heart DESPITE the discouragement he must have often felt. A message that no one wanted to hear. A message that made him the butt of jokes, ridicule, humiliation and torture...and remember no one responded. What an example to us! Resolve like Jeremiah to do what God calls you to do...to surrender to His Spirit...and to relax...the results are up to Him. There is freedom there...there is rest there...
The second and final application is one that Pastor Ed pointed out...Jeremiah wept for those to whom he preached. What a beautiful picture. Warren Wiersbe says this of Jeremiah: "he was bold before men and heart-broken before God". Girls...dwell in mercy and love...draw near to God in brokenness for those He has placed in your path. Pray for them, weep for them, preach to them!
Love
Mom
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Peace, Access, Hope!! Romans 5:1-2
Romans 5:1-2
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Dear Girls...
Romans 5:1-2...I stopped reading there and tears of utter joy, thankfulness and rest came into my eyes. I am at peace with God! Me! Knowing me intimately...as each one of us knows ourselves I find that in itself amazing! I am a woman who has been forgiven much! God is so good...I don't feel condemned because of my past...I feel utterly grateful to Him in paying the price for my sin and love Him more! The wars have ceased. I have been changed from an enemy of God to a friend of God through Jesus Christ's work of grace! Because I believe that God the Father sent Jesus Christ to die in my place I am righteous—justified by faith. I don't have to do anything else to earn something or prove something. I can relax in my relationship with Him, revel in His love and go into His presence and remain there for as long as I want. Truly fullness of joy is there. I (ME!) have peace with Him eternally!
The next verse is one of my favorites in the whole Bible. I (ME!) have access to God! God! I am a king's kid...I can go into His throne room of grace at any time and find mercy and help in time of need. It doesn't matter how I look or what I have done either...because my position as a daughter is permanent and assured. He holds His scepter out to me continually!! Remember the Jew was kept from God's presence by the veil and the Gentile by the wall. The veil was torn in two by Jesus' death on the cross and the wall was broken down...(Ephesians 2) Jews and Gentiles now both have access to God in Christ. I can take Christ's hand and go into the throne room of His grace. A Gentile like me who went beyond the wall could be killed without warning. Not so now in Christ...and God's grace cannot be measured...it cannot be exhausted. Ephesians Chapters 1-3 talk about the riches we have in Christ. His riches are unsearchable!
And as if the first two were not enough the last part of verse two tells me I can rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. What does that mean?? It means that there is going to come a time where I can not only behold His beauty but I will be manifested in glory...revealed to be like Him!
Colossians 3:4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory John 17:22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one
From God's point of view I am already glorified...but I am stuck in "time". BUT He has promised to complete the good work He started in me at the time of my salvation...Philippians 1:6.
I am going to end here with something I know you have heard before but the depth of it is so rich, I need to repeat it. Our past is taken care of by His death on the cross..our present is taken care of because we Have access by faith into His grace for whatever our need may be. Remember also that Jehovah means the "Becoming One" He becomes whatever we need. Our future is one of hope...no worries...we will appear with Him in glory...We get to share in His glory! HE will complete the good work HE started in each of us. Emphasis on HE will...not of us..but ALL OF HIM!
Love
Mom
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Dear Girls...
Romans 5:1-2...I stopped reading there and tears of utter joy, thankfulness and rest came into my eyes. I am at peace with God! Me! Knowing me intimately...as each one of us knows ourselves I find that in itself amazing! I am a woman who has been forgiven much! God is so good...I don't feel condemned because of my past...I feel utterly grateful to Him in paying the price for my sin and love Him more! The wars have ceased. I have been changed from an enemy of God to a friend of God through Jesus Christ's work of grace! Because I believe that God the Father sent Jesus Christ to die in my place I am righteous—justified by faith. I don't have to do anything else to earn something or prove something. I can relax in my relationship with Him, revel in His love and go into His presence and remain there for as long as I want. Truly fullness of joy is there. I (ME!) have peace with Him eternally!
The next verse is one of my favorites in the whole Bible. I (ME!) have access to God! God! I am a king's kid...I can go into His throne room of grace at any time and find mercy and help in time of need. It doesn't matter how I look or what I have done either...because my position as a daughter is permanent and assured. He holds His scepter out to me continually!! Remember the Jew was kept from God's presence by the veil and the Gentile by the wall. The veil was torn in two by Jesus' death on the cross and the wall was broken down...(Ephesians 2) Jews and Gentiles now both have access to God in Christ. I can take Christ's hand and go into the throne room of His grace. A Gentile like me who went beyond the wall could be killed without warning. Not so now in Christ...and God's grace cannot be measured...it cannot be exhausted. Ephesians Chapters 1-3 talk about the riches we have in Christ. His riches are unsearchable!
And as if the first two were not enough the last part of verse two tells me I can rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. What does that mean?? It means that there is going to come a time where I can not only behold His beauty but I will be manifested in glory...revealed to be like Him!
Colossians 3:4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory John 17:22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one
From God's point of view I am already glorified...but I am stuck in "time". BUT He has promised to complete the good work He started in me at the time of my salvation...Philippians 1:6.
I am going to end here with something I know you have heard before but the depth of it is so rich, I need to repeat it. Our past is taken care of by His death on the cross..our present is taken care of because we Have access by faith into His grace for whatever our need may be. Remember also that Jehovah means the "Becoming One" He becomes whatever we need. Our future is one of hope...no worries...we will appear with Him in glory...We get to share in His glory! HE will complete the good work HE started in each of us. Emphasis on HE will...not of us..but ALL OF HIM!
Love
Mom
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Rest and the Work of God
Hebrews 4:9 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. 10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. 11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
I have a lot of trouble understanding grace and being diligent or laboring to enter His rest. I won't get in to all the reasons, but it is difficult for me at times to remember that I can sit back and rest. With the Lord I do not lose His love if I fail to obey all the rules, to memorize Scripture, to read the bible, to write devotionals, or to serve at church... There really and truly is nothing I can do to make God love me more or less. There is nothing I can do that will surprise Him. He does not see me as I see myself...in my sinful humanity...He sees me as I will be in my glorified state.(Romans 8:29-30) And He wants me to rest in Him! The promise is sure to the one who simply believes God. My hope is in Him and He is an anchor to my soul. Biblical hope is unlike hope as we think of hope here on earth...biblical hope is sure and certain...like it already happened. It truly is hard for me to wrap my mind around that one.
So before I open up His word in the morning, or as I go about my day...or maybe as I feel my shoulders tense up or am reminded of a situation or circumstance in my life that concerns me or am immersed in a trial and feel the temptation to try to fix it in my own strength I remember this. I am His. He is good, faithful, kind, gentle and He does all He does in my life for His glory and my good. I remember that I am exactly where He wants me to be at this moment. I remember that His plan for me comes from His heart of love. I remember that He will be faithful to complete the good work He started in me. I remember my sure and certain hope and that there is nothing I can do or have to do to earn His favor. Jesus has done it all...My salvation, my sanctification is not dependent on me but on who He is and what He has already done. I remember that God doesn't need a reason to bless me...He just does. That in itself is amazing... I am then overwhelmed with Him. I revel in the love He has for me...in the care and the concern and in the many many blessings He has given me...I relax...tears come into my eyes and I remember He has got it all covered...I can rest.
Love
Mom
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
I have a lot of trouble understanding grace and being diligent or laboring to enter His rest. I won't get in to all the reasons, but it is difficult for me at times to remember that I can sit back and rest. With the Lord I do not lose His love if I fail to obey all the rules, to memorize Scripture, to read the bible, to write devotionals, or to serve at church... There really and truly is nothing I can do to make God love me more or less. There is nothing I can do that will surprise Him. He does not see me as I see myself...in my sinful humanity...He sees me as I will be in my glorified state.(Romans 8:29-30) And He wants me to rest in Him! The promise is sure to the one who simply believes God. My hope is in Him and He is an anchor to my soul. Biblical hope is unlike hope as we think of hope here on earth...biblical hope is sure and certain...like it already happened. It truly is hard for me to wrap my mind around that one.
So before I open up His word in the morning, or as I go about my day...or maybe as I feel my shoulders tense up or am reminded of a situation or circumstance in my life that concerns me or am immersed in a trial and feel the temptation to try to fix it in my own strength I remember this. I am His. He is good, faithful, kind, gentle and He does all He does in my life for His glory and my good. I remember that I am exactly where He wants me to be at this moment. I remember that His plan for me comes from His heart of love. I remember that He will be faithful to complete the good work He started in me. I remember my sure and certain hope and that there is nothing I can do or have to do to earn His favor. Jesus has done it all...My salvation, my sanctification is not dependent on me but on who He is and what He has already done. I remember that God doesn't need a reason to bless me...He just does. That in itself is amazing... I am then overwhelmed with Him. I revel in the love He has for me...in the care and the concern and in the many many blessings He has given me...I relax...tears come into my eyes and I remember He has got it all covered...I can rest.
Love
Mom
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Romans 4:4-5 It's All Grace - "Owe no one anything but love"
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
“Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”[b] 4 Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. 5 But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness,
Abraham was pronounced righteous. How? By keeping the law? No...the law had not yet been given...so not the law...I love that!! Neither was it for anything he did. He had not left Ur of the Chaldees, he had not offered up Isaac, his son...so not of works...more good news...but what does the Scripture say? It says he was accounted righteous because he believed God. That's it! Good news for me and for you and for all of us fallen human beings. It was not work that Abraham did or else as the Scripture rightly says it would have been debt not grace. Who gets justified...not the righteous...not the Pharisee...but the ungodly...the guy who knows he is nothing! While we were yet sinners...enemies of God...Christ died for us. He died for me before I could even figure out a way to make Him try to want to. And He bears with us and suffers long with us as we try to do this life on our own..as we try to live our lives..the very lives He gave us...on our own and for ourselves until maybe that day comes when we realize we can't and we look to Him by faith and believe His promises. Then He pours His grace out and our sin is now put on Christ, His Son's account and Christ's righteousness on our account. Wow!
Matthew 9:9-13 As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.” So he arose and followed Him.
10 Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. 11 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
12 When Jesus heard that, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’[b] For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
There are very few people of whom I think I might die for..and none of them are my enemies. Girls, when you truly understand this...Christ died for us when we were still His enemies...when we did not love Him, when we esteemed Him lightly...your desire will be to show others the One who has been so good and gracious to you. You will find yourself responding with His kind of love to those He has placed in your path. Your desire will be to know Him better through His word, to pray, to worship...not because you think it is going to earn you something or because you think you have to, because if you understand God's grace you know that is not possible. It will be because you are amazed at His goodness and so filled with gratitude that the overwhelming desire of your heart will be to be more like Him...to be conformed/transformed into His image. You will not read the bible, pray, worship or do anything "for the Lord" because you have to...you will do it because you get to...because you are blessed to have the opportunity.
So what is the application for us..for me and for you. Despite knowing and truly having that overwhelming desire in my heart to be like Jesus, I do not always respond to those Christ puts in my path with His kind of love. You know the sacrificial kind...not the syrupy, sweet kind. Why? I think that at times it is because I am too busy keeping track of wrongs. 1 Corinthians 13 tells me that love keeps no record of wrongs. In fact, as I think on this, I not only at times will keep a record of wrongs but I will also keep a record of rights I have done. We all do this...with others and with God. We think they/He owes us because we have done this or that and we get offended when their/His response to us is not what we envisioned. With a husband you might say...I cleaned the house, cooked him dinner, greeted him at the door, blah, blah, blah and then he says no to taking a walk. How dare he. With God...I spent time in your word this morning...I prayed for 2 hours...blah, blah, blah...can't You fix this circumstance I find myself in. How dare You don't fix it. You see a lot of the times when we do things for others or "for God" (hahaha) we do them with a heart that expects something back. Agape love does not think of itself....only others. It expects nothing back. This is totally foreign to most of us. It is the polar opposite of selfishness. The closest kind of love of human love that resembles this is the love a mother has for her infant. You don't say to your two month old...hey I nursed you two hours ago...get up and get your own drink now. It is a sin that we must be ruthless with. God does not owe anyone...He is a debtor to no man. The love we show others should reflect His love. The Bible tells us in Romans 13 that we are to owe no one anything but love. It is the debt we always owe and the one that can never be repaid. The Lord has worked this much in my heart over the past 10 years.
Romans 13:8 Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,”“You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
This verse and others like it have changed my relationship with those dear to me. Without love I am truly a sounding brass or a clanging symbol in my house that all shudder to have around. The more I make love a practice, I realize that love really is the bond of perfection. It is the one thing we can do to fulfill the law completely. Also, the more I attempt to make a practice of love, the more I realize how very very much my love falls short of the love that God wants us to have for each other. I feel overwhelmed and condemned like Paul in Romans 7 and rejoice that there is no condemnation for me in Christ. It is only by the power of His Spirit working in me and through me that I can have this kind of love for others.
It would be great if love were our natural response toward others. Unfortunately, it is not. In fact, we don't even often have loving feelings toward those around us. Most of the time our thoughts are on how they can love us. Since their thoughts are probably on themselves also, we are at an impasse. Biblical love, however, is a command. Our response, therefore, is not a matter choice but of obedience.
Choose to purpose in your heart to practice love at where the Lord has placed you. Choosing this road will bring you nigh unto the Lord. It is a choice that will be filled not with your own way and getting what you want, but will be what God wants and as such will not only bless you but also glorify God.
As Paul says the way of love is the excellent way. It will right your relationships with God and with others. It will be a choice that will have an eternal effect on all you meet. A choice that will make you shine as a light in this dark world. A choice that will always put you in God's perfect will. Choose today to be that person that speaks gently to those around her and has the law of kindness on her tongue. Break the hold of selfishness and pride and surrender to His Spirit. Go the second mile, bless those who curse you...love your enemies, heap coals of fire on their heads. Loving this way takes a step of faith...God's grace will be there. Most of the time loving this way will go totally against what the world might tell you to do and definitely opposite to what your own feelings are telling you to do. Fight pride!!! Surrender to His Spirit and love as He loved.You will be a blessing and be blessed!
Now, if you are anything like me, you make excuses as to why you couldn't respond to someone in love..but remember the Bible says that God's grace is sufficient for you ...you are without excuse. Bitterness, selfishness and pride are sin, as is making excuses for them. So here is a previous entry to help you (me) with this:
Through offenses I have learned more about God’s love.The answer to them: Here it is in a nutshell: LOVE. The bible says that love is the greatest commandment, it is the debt that is always owed (Romans 13), that it suffers long and is kind....that it never fails.(Cor 13) I interpret the never fails part like this. Responding in love always has an effect. It always bears fruit. You CANNOT go wrong by responding in love. Another verse that helps keep me from getting offended is in Philippians. In 4:5 it says to let your gentleness be made known to all men. That word gentleness is filled with meaning in the Greek. I got this list from John MacArthur and it helped me through many an offense...
Owe no one anything but love...love is the fulfillment of the law.
Love,
Mom
“Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”[b] 4 Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. 5 But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness,
Abraham was pronounced righteous. How? By keeping the law? No...the law had not yet been given...so not the law...I love that!! Neither was it for anything he did. He had not left Ur of the Chaldees, he had not offered up Isaac, his son...so not of works...more good news...but what does the Scripture say? It says he was accounted righteous because he believed God. That's it! Good news for me and for you and for all of us fallen human beings. It was not work that Abraham did or else as the Scripture rightly says it would have been debt not grace. Who gets justified...not the righteous...not the Pharisee...but the ungodly...the guy who knows he is nothing! While we were yet sinners...enemies of God...Christ died for us. He died for me before I could even figure out a way to make Him try to want to. And He bears with us and suffers long with us as we try to do this life on our own..as we try to live our lives..the very lives He gave us...on our own and for ourselves until maybe that day comes when we realize we can't and we look to Him by faith and believe His promises. Then He pours His grace out and our sin is now put on Christ, His Son's account and Christ's righteousness on our account. Wow!
Matthew 9:9-13 As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.” So he arose and followed Him.
10 Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. 11 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
12 When Jesus heard that, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’[b] For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
There are very few people of whom I think I might die for..and none of them are my enemies. Girls, when you truly understand this...Christ died for us when we were still His enemies...when we did not love Him, when we esteemed Him lightly...your desire will be to show others the One who has been so good and gracious to you. You will find yourself responding with His kind of love to those He has placed in your path. Your desire will be to know Him better through His word, to pray, to worship...not because you think it is going to earn you something or because you think you have to, because if you understand God's grace you know that is not possible. It will be because you are amazed at His goodness and so filled with gratitude that the overwhelming desire of your heart will be to be more like Him...to be conformed/transformed into His image. You will not read the bible, pray, worship or do anything "for the Lord" because you have to...you will do it because you get to...because you are blessed to have the opportunity.
So what is the application for us..for me and for you. Despite knowing and truly having that overwhelming desire in my heart to be like Jesus, I do not always respond to those Christ puts in my path with His kind of love. You know the sacrificial kind...not the syrupy, sweet kind. Why? I think that at times it is because I am too busy keeping track of wrongs. 1 Corinthians 13 tells me that love keeps no record of wrongs. In fact, as I think on this, I not only at times will keep a record of wrongs but I will also keep a record of rights I have done. We all do this...with others and with God. We think they/He owes us because we have done this or that and we get offended when their/His response to us is not what we envisioned. With a husband you might say...I cleaned the house, cooked him dinner, greeted him at the door, blah, blah, blah and then he says no to taking a walk. How dare he. With God...I spent time in your word this morning...I prayed for 2 hours...blah, blah, blah...can't You fix this circumstance I find myself in. How dare You don't fix it. You see a lot of the times when we do things for others or "for God" (hahaha) we do them with a heart that expects something back. Agape love does not think of itself....only others. It expects nothing back. This is totally foreign to most of us. It is the polar opposite of selfishness. The closest kind of love of human love that resembles this is the love a mother has for her infant. You don't say to your two month old...hey I nursed you two hours ago...get up and get your own drink now. It is a sin that we must be ruthless with. God does not owe anyone...He is a debtor to no man. The love we show others should reflect His love. The Bible tells us in Romans 13 that we are to owe no one anything but love. It is the debt we always owe and the one that can never be repaid. The Lord has worked this much in my heart over the past 10 years.
Romans 13:8 Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,”“You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
This verse and others like it have changed my relationship with those dear to me. Without love I am truly a sounding brass or a clanging symbol in my house that all shudder to have around. The more I make love a practice, I realize that love really is the bond of perfection. It is the one thing we can do to fulfill the law completely. Also, the more I attempt to make a practice of love, the more I realize how very very much my love falls short of the love that God wants us to have for each other. I feel overwhelmed and condemned like Paul in Romans 7 and rejoice that there is no condemnation for me in Christ. It is only by the power of His Spirit working in me and through me that I can have this kind of love for others.
It would be great if love were our natural response toward others. Unfortunately, it is not. In fact, we don't even often have loving feelings toward those around us. Most of the time our thoughts are on how they can love us. Since their thoughts are probably on themselves also, we are at an impasse. Biblical love, however, is a command. Our response, therefore, is not a matter choice but of obedience.
Choose to purpose in your heart to practice love at where the Lord has placed you. Choosing this road will bring you nigh unto the Lord. It is a choice that will be filled not with your own way and getting what you want, but will be what God wants and as such will not only bless you but also glorify God.
As Paul says the way of love is the excellent way. It will right your relationships with God and with others. It will be a choice that will have an eternal effect on all you meet. A choice that will make you shine as a light in this dark world. A choice that will always put you in God's perfect will. Choose today to be that person that speaks gently to those around her and has the law of kindness on her tongue. Break the hold of selfishness and pride and surrender to His Spirit. Go the second mile, bless those who curse you...love your enemies, heap coals of fire on their heads. Loving this way takes a step of faith...God's grace will be there. Most of the time loving this way will go totally against what the world might tell you to do and definitely opposite to what your own feelings are telling you to do. Fight pride!!! Surrender to His Spirit and love as He loved.You will be a blessing and be blessed!
Now, if you are anything like me, you make excuses as to why you couldn't respond to someone in love..but remember the Bible says that God's grace is sufficient for you ...you are without excuse. Bitterness, selfishness and pride are sin, as is making excuses for them. So here is a previous entry to help you (me) with this:
Through offenses I have learned more about God’s love.The answer to them: Here it is in a nutshell: LOVE. The bible says that love is the greatest commandment, it is the debt that is always owed (Romans 13), that it suffers long and is kind....that it never fails.(Cor 13) I interpret the never fails part like this. Responding in love always has an effect. It always bears fruit. You CANNOT go wrong by responding in love. Another verse that helps keep me from getting offended is in Philippians. In 4:5 it says to let your gentleness be made known to all men. That word gentleness is filled with meaning in the Greek. I got this list from John MacArthur and it helped me through many an offense...
Gentleness: This means learning to accept less than you might think you are due...this is a tough one for me...Let your gentleness ....we can replace this word with the following: Get ready for a long list... I needed one so that there were no loopholes. Let your contentment, forbearing spirit, sweet reasonableness, bigheartedness, good will...bending beyond what is expected to grant them good, magnanimity, charity toward the faults of others, mercy toward failures of others, not being personally offended by the faults of others..be known to all men. It is the kind of gentleness that can submit to injustice, disgrace, mistreatment, without hatred, without malice, without retaliation, without vengeance. The best way to look at it...it is the graciousness of humility which basically says you may have mistreated me, you may have misjudged me, you may have misrepresented me, you may have not given me what I deserve or given me what I don’t deserve, you may have ruined my reputation with some, acted in hostility towards me, I may be the recipient of your inequity, injustice, and mistreatment but I humbly, graciously accept it...Christ still reaches out in love...
Wow...we really are without excuse. But the blessings and joy you receive by responding biblically to offenses in your life will be far reaching. Owe no one anything but love...love is the fulfillment of the law.
Love,
Mom
Thursday, September 9, 2010
God Looks at the Heart - Romans 2:28-29
Romans 2:28-29 "For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; 29 but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God."
1st Samuel 16: 7 For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
To My Precious Daughters,
As I read through Romans 2 so many applications came to mind. Romans 2 is about judging. Paul is dealing here with the self-righteous hypocrite. Heart motivations. This one is the application I decided that counts. This is the one that encompasses the others. Do we really believe what we say we believe?. Are they just words that we say or does our heart follow our belief? Do we truly have a heart like David who was described as a man after God's own heart. Do we really want His desires to be our desires?
This one could hurt...in fact when we allow the Word of God to really examine our motives for what we do and say it always hurts. We always see our sin. "For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" Ouch!
Make no mistake we all have our agendas...our reasons for doing what we do and I am including our good works here as well as our sin. Jesus' "agenda" was pure...His was clearly spelled out in the New Testament...not only spelled out but lived out. He came to do His Father's will. (John 5:30) . He Himself in John 5:19 said that of Himself He could do nothing. If Jesus said that about Himself why is it that I think I can do it without Him. Why is it that at times I think my motives are pure. You know what? It really doesn't matter what I think...it matters what my God thinks. The Bible says that our hearts are desperately wicked who can know them. We can be deceived. Some of our motives/works may spring from a true heart of worship...but others might be from the pit of hell. Jesus deals with both the inward and outward expressions of the heart in Matthew 5 and 6 respectively.
As we draw near to Jesus and depend on Him more and more He will show us our hearts. He will show us where they are steadfast and stayed on Him and where they are looking to man for praise and applause. Girls...when we look to man for our praise it will absolutely always rob us of our peace and our joy and will lead us to pride and self-righteousness, but when we look to Him...our Creator...the One who fashioned our days for us...He will lead us into His peace and His joy and whatever we do will be for His glory and our good. Psalm 34:5 "They looked to Him and were radiant and their faces were not ashamed." This outward vs inward is perfectly illustrated in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. Here is the story from Luke's gospel.
9 Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ 13 And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
So what is our job in this? It is to by faith let Him do the work in us...to surrender...to open up our hearts so His Spirit can work. Philippians 3:3 says "For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." (emphasis mine) There truly is peace in that one girls...it is not of us...it is all Him. What a burden off our shoulders! Philippians 2:13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
My beloved daughters...God wants our hearts..He wants them right now...in whatever condition they might be in. Why does He want our hearts first and foremost? Matthew 22:37 says "...You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind..." Heart is always first. I think the reason is because our minds are easily changed. Even when heartbreak and grief strike our hearts may break but they do not change easily. I think of how greatly Absalom, David's son betrayed him and yet David never stopped loving him. The Bible tells us that with the heart one believes unto righteousness and then the mouth confesses unto salvation. Matthew tells us that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. God's word also tells us to keep our hearts with all diligence because out of it springs the issues of life. Listen to your words girls and you will know the state of your heart.
1 John 3:21 For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God.
If our heart condemns us...no worries...God knows our frame. He knows we are but dust. (Psalm 103:13) There is no condemnation for us who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1) He is greater than our heart. God knows who belongs to Him. (2nd Tim 2:19) He knows our vulnerabilities and our failing...(Psalm 139) He will gather us up in times of trouble and hide us in the shadow of His wing . He will not fail, leave or forsake us. (Psalm 27)
If our heart does not condemn us and we have confidence toward Him...Praise God that there is not a lot of stuff in the way of your relationship with Him and remember Who it was who put those desires on your heart in the first place. (Psalm 37)
Here is what I want for myself and for each one of you...
1 Peter 3: 3-4 Do not let your adornment be merely outward—arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel—rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God.
Much Love
Mom
1st Samuel 16: 7 For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
To My Precious Daughters,
As I read through Romans 2 so many applications came to mind. Romans 2 is about judging. Paul is dealing here with the self-righteous hypocrite. Heart motivations. This one is the application I decided that counts. This is the one that encompasses the others. Do we really believe what we say we believe?. Are they just words that we say or does our heart follow our belief? Do we truly have a heart like David who was described as a man after God's own heart. Do we really want His desires to be our desires?
This one could hurt...in fact when we allow the Word of God to really examine our motives for what we do and say it always hurts. We always see our sin. "For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" Ouch!
Make no mistake we all have our agendas...our reasons for doing what we do and I am including our good works here as well as our sin. Jesus' "agenda" was pure...His was clearly spelled out in the New Testament...not only spelled out but lived out. He came to do His Father's will. (John 5:30) . He Himself in John 5:19 said that of Himself He could do nothing. If Jesus said that about Himself why is it that I think I can do it without Him. Why is it that at times I think my motives are pure. You know what? It really doesn't matter what I think...it matters what my God thinks. The Bible says that our hearts are desperately wicked who can know them. We can be deceived. Some of our motives/works may spring from a true heart of worship...but others might be from the pit of hell. Jesus deals with both the inward and outward expressions of the heart in Matthew 5 and 6 respectively.
As we draw near to Jesus and depend on Him more and more He will show us our hearts. He will show us where they are steadfast and stayed on Him and where they are looking to man for praise and applause. Girls...when we look to man for our praise it will absolutely always rob us of our peace and our joy and will lead us to pride and self-righteousness, but when we look to Him...our Creator...the One who fashioned our days for us...He will lead us into His peace and His joy and whatever we do will be for His glory and our good. Psalm 34:5 "They looked to Him and were radiant and their faces were not ashamed." This outward vs inward is perfectly illustrated in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. Here is the story from Luke's gospel.
9 Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ 13 And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
So what is our job in this? It is to by faith let Him do the work in us...to surrender...to open up our hearts so His Spirit can work. Philippians 3:3 says "For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." (emphasis mine) There truly is peace in that one girls...it is not of us...it is all Him. What a burden off our shoulders! Philippians 2:13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
My beloved daughters...God wants our hearts..He wants them right now...in whatever condition they might be in. Why does He want our hearts first and foremost? Matthew 22:37 says "...You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind..." Heart is always first. I think the reason is because our minds are easily changed. Even when heartbreak and grief strike our hearts may break but they do not change easily. I think of how greatly Absalom, David's son betrayed him and yet David never stopped loving him. The Bible tells us that with the heart one believes unto righteousness and then the mouth confesses unto salvation. Matthew tells us that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. God's word also tells us to keep our hearts with all diligence because out of it springs the issues of life. Listen to your words girls and you will know the state of your heart.
1 John 3:21 For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God.
If our heart condemns us...no worries...God knows our frame. He knows we are but dust. (Psalm 103:13) There is no condemnation for us who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1) He is greater than our heart. God knows who belongs to Him. (2nd Tim 2:19) He knows our vulnerabilities and our failing...(Psalm 139) He will gather us up in times of trouble and hide us in the shadow of His wing . He will not fail, leave or forsake us. (Psalm 27)
If our heart does not condemn us and we have confidence toward Him...Praise God that there is not a lot of stuff in the way of your relationship with Him and remember Who it was who put those desires on your heart in the first place. (Psalm 37)
Here is what I want for myself and for each one of you...
1 Peter 3: 3-4 Do not let your adornment be merely outward—arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel—rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God.
Much Love
Mom
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Isaiah 26:3 Perfect Peace
Isaiah 26:3
You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
This verse became my life verse very early on in my walk with the Lord. I did not know much, but I knew that this one was core. It is so practical! It is so simple! BUT its depths really cannot be fathomed. The longer I walk with Him the more I see that it truly is all about Him in every way. That is exactly as it should be. The longer I know Him, the greater my love for Him...the more I love Him, the more I think about Him and the more I love, think and know about Him the more I trust Him. Colossians tells us in Chapter 3:17 that "... whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him." Acts tells us that "In Him we live and move and have our being." Girls, your lives should be manifestations of your love for Him. He wants your single-minded devotion and love.
Every moment is Jesus....every situation is Jesus....every circumstance is Jesus and He should be the basis for every relationship we have. He is called Jehovah Shalom (God of Peace) and the Prince of Peace. He is the Great I AM. Chuck Smith has said that the name "Jehovah" can be interpreted as "The Becoming One." The One who becomes to people just what they need. I love that...the Becoming One...Wow! He becomes our peace when we focus our minds on Him.
The first peace we obtain is the peace we find at the moment of our salvation when we look to Him in faith and in His grace justifies us. We are now at peace with God...prior to salvation we were at war. (Col 1:21) Make no mistake, each one of us craves this peace with God. We live in a world filled with grief, problems and an absence of peace and each one of us searches for it. I distinctly remember the peace that flooded my soul when Jesus filled it with Himself. It was unlike anything I had ever experienced and changed me from the inside out through no effort on my part. I now had a Rock on which I could stand. Jesus is the Prince of Peace...The chastisement for yours and my peace was upon Him. Someday He, the Prince of Peace, will return and reign in Jerusalem and there will be true and lasting peace on the earth.
We can have this peace now, inside of us, when we surrender to His Spirit and allow Him to rule our hearts. As we look to Him our desires are changed and our priorities re-ordered. James 4 tells us that wars and fights come from the battle that rages inside us...we get angry when we do not get what we want. We are at war with God. Because we are at war with God we are also at war with ourselves and others. The Spirit inside of us yearns jealously. I love that...He wants ALL of me..He wants my heart to be completely controlled by His Spirit. James tells us how to do this a little further on .
James 4:7-8: Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.
Girls...this kind of relationship with Jesus Christ is built over time. It is built as you abide in Him. It takes courage to take that first step and ask Him into your heart as your Lord and Savior. As you walk with Him day by day it takes courage to yield your desires to Him. But His grace is always there. You never have to worry about disappointing Him...your success is assured...He performs all things in accordance with His plan not yours. And His plan is from a heart of love. (Psalm 33:11) Again, as I have said before in other posts, stay close to Jesus, abide in Him by staying in His Word. Gaze into it...allow it to show you His good and perfect will, to convict your heart of sin, to renew your mind and to transform you into His image. As you do this you will love Him more and more with each passing day and consequently trust and obey Him more and more. Stay the course...immerse yourself in His Word...and His peace which is an outflow of the fruit of His Spirit...love...will flood your heart.
From a practical standpoint,we live our Christian life moment by moment. Paul in Philippians 4 says something very helpful
"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. 9 The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.
A Christian is not suppose to worry, is to pray about everything and is to be thankful in and for everything! As we do this the peace of God will fill us and guard our hearts and minds. Worry is the opposite of peace....It pulls us apart. Our MINDS need to be stayed on Him. Why? Because our mind is where thinking takes place...If we are thinking wrong thoughts our feelings are not going to be right either. As a man thinks in his heart so is he. God's peace secures our mind. It takes our thoughts captive and brings them into obedience to Him. Again, none of us is capable of this on our own. You can't do this outside a relationship with Jesus Christ. You can only achieve this kind of peace by keeping your mind stayed on Him. Stayed on Him...although I didn't look it up I am pretty sure it means keeping your eyes steadily focused on Him and who He is, on what His desires are for you and allowing His example to guide you. Proverbs 3:5-6 comes to mind here as does Philippians 4:9 above. Warren Wiersbe calls these verses (Phil 4:7-9) the prescription for a secure mind....a mind free from worrying. 1. right praying, (Phil 4:7) 2. right thinking (Phil 4:8) and 3. right living. (Phil 4:9)
My prayer for each of you today and every day:
Ephesians 3:16-21
that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— 19
20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, 21 to Him to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Love
Mom
You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
This verse became my life verse very early on in my walk with the Lord. I did not know much, but I knew that this one was core. It is so practical! It is so simple! BUT its depths really cannot be fathomed. The longer I walk with Him the more I see that it truly is all about Him in every way. That is exactly as it should be. The longer I know Him, the greater my love for Him...the more I love Him, the more I think about Him and the more I love, think and know about Him the more I trust Him. Colossians tells us in Chapter 3:17 that "... whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him." Acts tells us that "In Him we live and move and have our being." Girls, your lives should be manifestations of your love for Him. He wants your single-minded devotion and love.
Every moment is Jesus....every situation is Jesus....every circumstance is Jesus and He should be the basis for every relationship we have. He is called Jehovah Shalom (God of Peace) and the Prince of Peace. He is the Great I AM. Chuck Smith has said that the name "Jehovah" can be interpreted as "The Becoming One." The One who becomes to people just what they need. I love that...the Becoming One...Wow! He becomes our peace when we focus our minds on Him.
The first peace we obtain is the peace we find at the moment of our salvation when we look to Him in faith and in His grace justifies us. We are now at peace with God...prior to salvation we were at war. (Col 1:21) Make no mistake, each one of us craves this peace with God. We live in a world filled with grief, problems and an absence of peace and each one of us searches for it. I distinctly remember the peace that flooded my soul when Jesus filled it with Himself. It was unlike anything I had ever experienced and changed me from the inside out through no effort on my part. I now had a Rock on which I could stand. Jesus is the Prince of Peace...The chastisement for yours and my peace was upon Him. Someday He, the Prince of Peace, will return and reign in Jerusalem and there will be true and lasting peace on the earth.
We can have this peace now, inside of us, when we surrender to His Spirit and allow Him to rule our hearts. As we look to Him our desires are changed and our priorities re-ordered. James 4 tells us that wars and fights come from the battle that rages inside us...we get angry when we do not get what we want. We are at war with God. Because we are at war with God we are also at war with ourselves and others. The Spirit inside of us yearns jealously. I love that...He wants ALL of me..He wants my heart to be completely controlled by His Spirit. James tells us how to do this a little further on .
James 4:7-8: Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.
Girls...this kind of relationship with Jesus Christ is built over time. It is built as you abide in Him. It takes courage to take that first step and ask Him into your heart as your Lord and Savior. As you walk with Him day by day it takes courage to yield your desires to Him. But His grace is always there. You never have to worry about disappointing Him...your success is assured...He performs all things in accordance with His plan not yours. And His plan is from a heart of love. (Psalm 33:11) Again, as I have said before in other posts, stay close to Jesus, abide in Him by staying in His Word. Gaze into it...allow it to show you His good and perfect will, to convict your heart of sin, to renew your mind and to transform you into His image. As you do this you will love Him more and more with each passing day and consequently trust and obey Him more and more. Stay the course...immerse yourself in His Word...and His peace which is an outflow of the fruit of His Spirit...love...will flood your heart.
From a practical standpoint,we live our Christian life moment by moment. Paul in Philippians 4 says something very helpful
"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. 9 The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.
A Christian is not suppose to worry, is to pray about everything and is to be thankful in and for everything! As we do this the peace of God will fill us and guard our hearts and minds. Worry is the opposite of peace....It pulls us apart. Our MINDS need to be stayed on Him. Why? Because our mind is where thinking takes place...If we are thinking wrong thoughts our feelings are not going to be right either. As a man thinks in his heart so is he. God's peace secures our mind. It takes our thoughts captive and brings them into obedience to Him. Again, none of us is capable of this on our own. You can't do this outside a relationship with Jesus Christ. You can only achieve this kind of peace by keeping your mind stayed on Him. Stayed on Him...although I didn't look it up I am pretty sure it means keeping your eyes steadily focused on Him and who He is, on what His desires are for you and allowing His example to guide you. Proverbs 3:5-6 comes to mind here as does Philippians 4:9 above. Warren Wiersbe calls these verses (Phil 4:7-9) the prescription for a secure mind....a mind free from worrying. 1. right praying, (Phil 4:7) 2. right thinking (Phil 4:8) and 3. right living. (Phil 4:9)
My prayer for each of you today and every day:
Ephesians 3:16-21
that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— 19
20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, 21 to Him to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Love
Mom
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
And Their Foolish Hearts Were Darkened...Romans 1
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
I read the rest of Romans 1 today and continued on to finish Romans 2. This verse stood out to me in Romans 1...21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. (emphasis mine)
Paul is saying here that we as fallen, unsaved human beings are without excuse and even though we know that there is a God from our own conscience as well as the evidence of creation, some of us (well okay..many of us) will suppress that truth and refuse to honor God as God. Why? Because we like darkness more than light. We love our sin more than we love God. Eventually God gives us over to our own desires and we become futile in our thoughts and our hearts are darkened. He lets us have our own way! Our own way! Isn't that what we want sometimes even as believers? SIGH! What we should want is for our lives to glorify Him...for His desires to be our desires. Sanctification takes time and is not completed until we meet Him face to face.
God's wrath comes in different forms....the one we see here in this verse is the wrath of abandonment...being left to have your own way. Not a good thing...its way leads to death. God is a gentlemen and will never force His will on anyone. As believers God does not abandon us...in fact He never leaves or forsakes us, He is faithful even when we are not, He chastens every son whom He receives and the Bible is clear if we are without chastening then we are not sons...We are His and no one...not even ourselves...can snatch us from His hand. There are times when He might remove His hand for a time if we are not walking with Him and have turned to our own way...these are consequences of not drawing near to Him...but always His cords will be there gently tugging at our hearts to come back...sometimes His ways of drawing us back will not be so gentle but always it is His goodness and His desire for us to have His best.
With that said the application for me here that came to mind was how often my mind during the day especially when I am involved in a trial becomes darkened by lies from the enemy. Wanting my own way is when my own foolish heart become darkened...I still at times think this way even after walking with the Lord for more than 15 years...and I think this way more than once or twice during the course of a day. Lord, I deserve this...why are you doing this...why are you taking things away that are so very precious to me?
When this happens I need to make a conscious effort to speak the truth to my heart...God's truth...the only truth. If I don't my thoughts spiral downward and I feed on the wrong things. You know what I mean..when you say things like..."I can't do this any more or this is just too hard" or "I can't believe so and so did that to me" or you become anxious and old sinful methods of dealing with the anxiety start to show themselves. Proverbs 23:7 says "As a man thinks in His heart so he is." I like to refer to these as "shadows" that darken my thinking and my mind and block His light from shining through...The Bible tells us also that out of the heart spring the issues of life and that because of this we are to keep our heart with all diligence.
What should I do when these shadows fall...when Satan attempts to get a foothold into my thinking...STOP speaking or thinking whatever it is you are thinking...Pride will make you want to continue but resist the devil and he will flee from you, draw near to God and He will draw near to you...humble yourself and instead either out loud (this is best) or in your heart speak words of faith...words of truth...replace those wrong thoughts, motives or desires with the right ones that will glorify God. Ask Him to place His desires on your heart and make them your own. As we make this a practice in our day to day lives we begin to walk by faith and not by sight and as we do that God pours out His grace. Trials bring the darkness of our heart...the secret things...the things God does not want there anymore to the surface. They (trials) show us what we truly value and/or what we are placing our trust in. It is helpful to remember that He only removes those things that will hinder our walk with Him or cause us harm and yet still they are so very difficult at times to surrender. Why? Because they are comfortable and familiar..they are things we like, habits we enjoy but have now become idols in our hearts. As He removes the darkness from my heart there is then more room for His light to shine. And as believers that IS REALLY WHAT WE WANT! That is really what brings peace...living for Him and setting our mind on the things above. Wanting what He wants is not just obedient or self-sacrificingly noble, but it is what's best for us. He is not some cosmic ogre imposing His will to satisfy His whim, but because His will is ultimately what is best for us. God uses His word most often to bring these things to our awareness to show us the condition of our heart. Hebrews 4:12 says "For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. " . Psalm 139 also comes to mind...really the whole thing but particularly the last few verses:
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;
24 And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.
Girls...making a regular practice of humbling yourself and seeing your sin as God sees it. This will reap blessing upon blessing in your lives. It will prevent your hearts from becoming hardened and your conscience's seared. It is also one of the most difficult things for us humans to do...Push past the difficulty and His grace will be there. Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up!
Love you all very much,
Mom who definitely lived this one today...
I read the rest of Romans 1 today and continued on to finish Romans 2. This verse stood out to me in Romans 1...21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. (emphasis mine)
Paul is saying here that we as fallen, unsaved human beings are without excuse and even though we know that there is a God from our own conscience as well as the evidence of creation, some of us (well okay..many of us) will suppress that truth and refuse to honor God as God. Why? Because we like darkness more than light. We love our sin more than we love God. Eventually God gives us over to our own desires and we become futile in our thoughts and our hearts are darkened. He lets us have our own way! Our own way! Isn't that what we want sometimes even as believers? SIGH! What we should want is for our lives to glorify Him...for His desires to be our desires. Sanctification takes time and is not completed until we meet Him face to face.
God's wrath comes in different forms....the one we see here in this verse is the wrath of abandonment...being left to have your own way. Not a good thing...its way leads to death. God is a gentlemen and will never force His will on anyone. As believers God does not abandon us...in fact He never leaves or forsakes us, He is faithful even when we are not, He chastens every son whom He receives and the Bible is clear if we are without chastening then we are not sons...We are His and no one...not even ourselves...can snatch us from His hand. There are times when He might remove His hand for a time if we are not walking with Him and have turned to our own way...these are consequences of not drawing near to Him...but always His cords will be there gently tugging at our hearts to come back...sometimes His ways of drawing us back will not be so gentle but always it is His goodness and His desire for us to have His best.
With that said the application for me here that came to mind was how often my mind during the day especially when I am involved in a trial becomes darkened by lies from the enemy. Wanting my own way is when my own foolish heart become darkened...I still at times think this way even after walking with the Lord for more than 15 years...and I think this way more than once or twice during the course of a day. Lord, I deserve this...why are you doing this...why are you taking things away that are so very precious to me?
When this happens I need to make a conscious effort to speak the truth to my heart...God's truth...the only truth. If I don't my thoughts spiral downward and I feed on the wrong things. You know what I mean..when you say things like..."I can't do this any more or this is just too hard" or "I can't believe so and so did that to me" or you become anxious and old sinful methods of dealing with the anxiety start to show themselves. Proverbs 23:7 says "As a man thinks in His heart so he is." I like to refer to these as "shadows" that darken my thinking and my mind and block His light from shining through...The Bible tells us also that out of the heart spring the issues of life and that because of this we are to keep our heart with all diligence.
What should I do when these shadows fall...when Satan attempts to get a foothold into my thinking...STOP speaking or thinking whatever it is you are thinking...Pride will make you want to continue but resist the devil and he will flee from you, draw near to God and He will draw near to you...humble yourself and instead either out loud (this is best) or in your heart speak words of faith...words of truth...replace those wrong thoughts, motives or desires with the right ones that will glorify God. Ask Him to place His desires on your heart and make them your own. As we make this a practice in our day to day lives we begin to walk by faith and not by sight and as we do that God pours out His grace. Trials bring the darkness of our heart...the secret things...the things God does not want there anymore to the surface. They (trials) show us what we truly value and/or what we are placing our trust in. It is helpful to remember that He only removes those things that will hinder our walk with Him or cause us harm and yet still they are so very difficult at times to surrender. Why? Because they are comfortable and familiar..they are things we like, habits we enjoy but have now become idols in our hearts. As He removes the darkness from my heart there is then more room for His light to shine. And as believers that IS REALLY WHAT WE WANT! That is really what brings peace...living for Him and setting our mind on the things above. Wanting what He wants is not just obedient or self-sacrificingly noble, but it is what's best for us. He is not some cosmic ogre imposing His will to satisfy His whim, but because His will is ultimately what is best for us. God uses His word most often to bring these things to our awareness to show us the condition of our heart. Hebrews 4:12 says "For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. " . Psalm 139 also comes to mind...really the whole thing but particularly the last few verses:
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;
24 And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.
Girls...making a regular practice of humbling yourself and seeing your sin as God sees it. This will reap blessing upon blessing in your lives. It will prevent your hearts from becoming hardened and your conscience's seared. It is also one of the most difficult things for us humans to do...Push past the difficulty and His grace will be there. Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up!
Love you all very much,
Mom who definitely lived this one today...
Monday, September 6, 2010
Living for Him...Romans 1
To each one of my precious daughters..Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla...
I am reading through Romans and spending time in Isaiah in my morning Bible time...I read up to verse 17 this morning in Romans and stopped and decided to write to you.
Paul tells us that he is a bondservant of Jesus Christ, separated unto the Gospel of God. He says he is a debtor to all and that as much as is in him he is ready and willing to preach the gospel. What a statement...what an example for us. It brings to mind what he says in Philippians, "for me to live is Christ and to die is gain." Paul had the right attitude, he lived for the right things and therefore he had peace no matter what situations he found himself in. Living our lives unto God does that.When we live for ourselves and the things of the world our focus is always pulled in many directions...living for Christ and keeping our eyes on Him brings peace. (Isa 26:3) Romans 8:6 says to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. The more we are immersed in the things of God--the more we live for His glory and not our own--the more peace we will have...Any lack of peace we have can be directly traced to something or someone we have not surrendered to God. James says in chapter 3 of his epistle that where envy and self-seeking exist confusion and every evil thing are there.
Girls....immerse yourself in the word of God. You will have to deal with people, your own emotions and adverse circumstances all of your lives. You have no better weapon in this world filled with evil to maintain your peace, keep your focus on the right things, and live for His glory than the word of God. Meditate on it, memorize it....it has the answer for any and every situation you face...in its pages you will find Jesus Christ, THE WORD, WHO WILL MAKE THE CROOKED PLACES STRAIGHT...WHO WILL PERFECT WHAT CONCERNS YOU...WHO WILL BRING YOU JOY IN THE MIDST OF SORROW...WHO WILL BE YOUR STRENGTH AND YOUR SONG...Hebrews 4:12 says: For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. As you immerse yourself in it and allow it to penetrate your heart it will tell you why you do not have peace--it will be a mirror that you can gaze in and see your own heart and as you do that you will be changed/transformed into His image and that is a good deal! As you abide in Him day by day it will bear much fruit in your life...not overnight...that is not how fruit is grown..but first it will be a little then a bit more than much!
Separate yourselves unto God, surrender your will to His Spirit, live for the right things...seek the wisdom that is from above that is peacable, pure, gentle, full of mercy, willing to yield and full of good fruits and you will have peace and have it abundantly. I will end with some of my favorite verses...
Matthew 6:19-21 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Love
Mom
I am reading through Romans and spending time in Isaiah in my morning Bible time...I read up to verse 17 this morning in Romans and stopped and decided to write to you.
Paul tells us that he is a bondservant of Jesus Christ, separated unto the Gospel of God. He says he is a debtor to all and that as much as is in him he is ready and willing to preach the gospel. What a statement...what an example for us. It brings to mind what he says in Philippians, "for me to live is Christ and to die is gain." Paul had the right attitude, he lived for the right things and therefore he had peace no matter what situations he found himself in. Living our lives unto God does that.When we live for ourselves and the things of the world our focus is always pulled in many directions...living for Christ and keeping our eyes on Him brings peace. (Isa 26:3) Romans 8:6 says to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. The more we are immersed in the things of God--the more we live for His glory and not our own--the more peace we will have...Any lack of peace we have can be directly traced to something or someone we have not surrendered to God. James says in chapter 3 of his epistle that where envy and self-seeking exist confusion and every evil thing are there.
Girls....immerse yourself in the word of God. You will have to deal with people, your own emotions and adverse circumstances all of your lives. You have no better weapon in this world filled with evil to maintain your peace, keep your focus on the right things, and live for His glory than the word of God. Meditate on it, memorize it....it has the answer for any and every situation you face...in its pages you will find Jesus Christ, THE WORD, WHO WILL MAKE THE CROOKED PLACES STRAIGHT...WHO WILL PERFECT WHAT CONCERNS YOU...WHO WILL BRING YOU JOY IN THE MIDST OF SORROW...WHO WILL BE YOUR STRENGTH AND YOUR SONG...Hebrews 4:12 says: For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. As you immerse yourself in it and allow it to penetrate your heart it will tell you why you do not have peace--it will be a mirror that you can gaze in and see your own heart and as you do that you will be changed/transformed into His image and that is a good deal! As you abide in Him day by day it will bear much fruit in your life...not overnight...that is not how fruit is grown..but first it will be a little then a bit more than much!
Separate yourselves unto God, surrender your will to His Spirit, live for the right things...seek the wisdom that is from above that is peacable, pure, gentle, full of mercy, willing to yield and full of good fruits and you will have peace and have it abundantly. I will end with some of my favorite verses...
Matthew 6:19-21 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Love
Mom
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Behold My Servant...
To My Girls...
“Behold! My Servant"
Behold! My Servant. Here it is...three words of advice found several times in Isaiah that would change hearts all over the world if heeded. How was my heart changed the first time...by looking up by faith and beholding Jesus, God's Son, the One who was willing to go to the cross and die for me while I was still dead in trespasses and sins. The One who lives to make intercession for me. How is my heart changed now...how is it that I become more like Him...THE SAME WAY...by looking up by faith, surrendering to Him and allowing His grace to pour down like rain and perform beautiful miracles in my heart just as He did at my first cry! 2 Corinthians 3:18: But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit
of the Lord.
Just like those who looked at the serpent on the pole in the wilderness were healed so am I when I look to Jesus by faith. So why at times even after salvation do I refuse to look and consciously or unconsciously decide to wallow in whatever slough into which I may have fallen? The answer: PRIDE. Sigh...I cry out with Paul.."oh, wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death!" What is the antidote to pride--humility. If God can become a Man and put aside His deity, humble Himself to the point of death and die for me..so that I could live forever with Him...you would think that I might be able to put aside my self-reliance and pride and look up and acknowledge His Lordship in my life...You would think....but oh how hard it is at times!
The word "behold" means to gaze, to look steadily at. When I look steadily into the face of Jesus and keep my eyes off people who disappoint and circumstances that distract I am at peace (Isa 26:3) I am changed and become more like Him. When will I truly realize in my heart that my weakness is a good thing?? It causes me to cry out, it gives me an opportunity to trust Him, it changes me from the inside out and it conforms me into the image of His Son. He increases and I decrease...I then can reflect Him, the Light of the world, more to the people around me...isn't that my goal??? Isn't that what I want?? So why don't I take advantage of the opportunities He gives me like Paul did. Why was Paul able to sing in prison and rejoice in tribulation. He knew that the things that were happening to Him would turn out for the furtherance of the Gospel...He knew that Christ was being magnified...He knew that God was able to work perfectly in his weakness...He trusted God to do it. BECAUSE as it says in 2nd Corinthians 12:9 His grace is sufficient...His strength is made perfect in weakness. Christ's power could rest upon Him in His weakness...I don't know about you, but that is what I want. I am not quite ready to say "bring it on Lord" but maybe I might have the courage to say Father...let me see those opportunities you give me and put aside me and surrender to your Spirit.
Behold! My Servant...so simple...and as you look you fall deeper and deeper in love and become more like Him!
Love
Mom
“Behold! My Servant"
Behold! My Servant. Here it is...three words of advice found several times in Isaiah that would change hearts all over the world if heeded. How was my heart changed the first time...by looking up by faith and beholding Jesus, God's Son, the One who was willing to go to the cross and die for me while I was still dead in trespasses and sins. The One who lives to make intercession for me. How is my heart changed now...how is it that I become more like Him...THE SAME WAY...by looking up by faith, surrendering to Him and allowing His grace to pour down like rain and perform beautiful miracles in my heart just as He did at my first cry! 2 Corinthians 3:18: But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit
of the Lord.
Just like those who looked at the serpent on the pole in the wilderness were healed so am I when I look to Jesus by faith. So why at times even after salvation do I refuse to look and consciously or unconsciously decide to wallow in whatever slough into which I may have fallen? The answer: PRIDE. Sigh...I cry out with Paul.."oh, wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death!" What is the antidote to pride--humility. If God can become a Man and put aside His deity, humble Himself to the point of death and die for me..so that I could live forever with Him...you would think that I might be able to put aside my self-reliance and pride and look up and acknowledge His Lordship in my life...You would think....but oh how hard it is at times!
The word "behold" means to gaze, to look steadily at. When I look steadily into the face of Jesus and keep my eyes off people who disappoint and circumstances that distract I am at peace (Isa 26:3) I am changed and become more like Him. When will I truly realize in my heart that my weakness is a good thing?? It causes me to cry out, it gives me an opportunity to trust Him, it changes me from the inside out and it conforms me into the image of His Son. He increases and I decrease...I then can reflect Him, the Light of the world, more to the people around me...isn't that my goal??? Isn't that what I want?? So why don't I take advantage of the opportunities He gives me like Paul did. Why was Paul able to sing in prison and rejoice in tribulation. He knew that the things that were happening to Him would turn out for the furtherance of the Gospel...He knew that Christ was being magnified...He knew that God was able to work perfectly in his weakness...He trusted God to do it. BECAUSE as it says in 2nd Corinthians 12:9 His grace is sufficient...His strength is made perfect in weakness. Christ's power could rest upon Him in His weakness...I don't know about you, but that is what I want. I am not quite ready to say "bring it on Lord" but maybe I might have the courage to say Father...let me see those opportunities you give me and put aside me and surrender to your Spirit.
Behold! My Servant...so simple...and as you look you fall deeper and deeper in love and become more like Him!
Love
Mom
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Looking to the Servant's Example--Isaiah 50:4-11
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna, and Mikayla,
I have been studying and memorizing the Servant Songs in the book of Isaiah. (Isaiah 42:1-7; Isaiah 49:1-6; Isaiah 50:1-11; and Isaiah 52:13-53:12) The past few days I have been meditating and reading up on the third one...Isaiah 50:4-11. Here it is in its entirety:
“ The Lord GOD has given Me
The tongue of the learned,
That I should know how to speak
A word in season to him who is weary.
He awakens Me morning by morning,
He awakens My ear
To hear as the learned.
5 The Lord GOD has opened My ear;
And I was not rebellious,
Nor did I turn away.
6 I gave My back to those who struck Me,
And My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard;
I did not hide My face from shame and spitting.
7 “ For the Lord GOD will help Me;
Therefore I will not be disgraced;
Therefore I have set My face like a flint,
And I know that I will not be ashamed.
8 He is near who justifies Me;
Who will contend with Me?
Let us stand together.
Who is My adversary?
Let him come near Me.
9 Surely the Lord GOD will help Me;
Who is he who will condemn Me?
Indeed they will all grow old like a garment;
The moth will eat them up.
10 “ Who among you fears the LORD?
Who obeys the voice of His Servant?
Who walks in darkness
And has no light?
Let him trust in the name of the LORD
And rely upon his God.
11 Look, all you who kindle a fire,
Who encircle yourselves with sparks:
Walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks you have kindled—
This you shall have from My hand:
You shall lie down in torment.
The Lord Jesus is such an example to us! This is something that He seems to be pressing into my heart in a new and deeper way lately. I think when life gets hard we cling to Him more and search His word with greater fervor. The Bible tells us that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. I have been truly blessed in studying and memorizing the Servant songs and I believe it has deepened my understanding of Scripture in every area maybe more than my studying of anything else in Scripture.
Jesus, the Servant, is speaking in these verses. The title Lord GOD is used four times in this section. This title emphasizes the Servant's complete submission to the Father in all aspects of His life. On earth Jesus did not do or say anything outside His Father's will...His whole being...every aspect of His life.. was submitted to the Father. (John 5:19 John 8:28) He spent time with Him morning by morning in prayer and meditation of the Scriptures. He sometimes spent all night in prayer (before He chose His 12 disciples) What an example this is for us. Jesus, the Son of God made a practice of time spent in prayer and fellowship with His Father in Heaven. If Jesus needed to do this to discern the Father's will for the day that was before Him how much more do we need this precious time with our Father! I have regretted time spent in many areas of life but I have never once felt that I spent too much time in the Scriptures.
Jesus not only spent time with His Father--He shared and encouraged those who were weary with the things He had learned from Him. He helped those in need. He did the work His Father had given Him to do. I think of Ephesians 2:10 here. Jesus had a successful ministry but He never pointed to Himself. His life glorified His Father in Heaven. He did whatever He did here on earth by faith just as we do. He did not use His divine powers. He did all He did as a MAN. We cannot take refuge in Him being God as the reason why He was able to do it. This fact is amazing to me...each time Jesus healed or spoke it was not Him it was the Spirit working through Him. Philippians 2:5-11 says: 5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Jesus was totally set apart to do His Father's will just as we should be.
The next verse says that the Lord God had opened His ear and He was not rebellious nor did He turn away. When a servant in Hebrew culture did not want to leave the service of His master but wanted to become a permanent willing slave of that household, an an awl was driven through his earlobe and a gold earring placed in the hole. This told all He was bondservant...Jesus is telling us here that He came willingly to do His work here on earth. Jesus was a slave by choice. Wow! Wow! Wow! I can never wrap my mind around that. He took the form of one of His creatures, a Man, and came to earth for the purpose of suffering and dying for them. Verse 6 tells us a little more of what He suffered. It also shows us His mindset. He was determined to do His Father's will no matter the cost...He yielded His body to men who whipped Him, spat upon Him, plucked His beard, crowned Him with thorns and ultimately crucified Him. What an example for us...Make no mistake...each one of us are slaves to something. Romans 6 tells us that we either present ourselves to be slaves of sin leading to death or slaves of obedience leading to righteousness. Again, Jesus, the Son of God, a slave by choice CHOOSING moment by moment to do His Father's will. He made the same choices that we have to make...the daily moment by moment dying to self and living for God. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.(Col 3:3) who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed. (1Pe 2:24)
The next few verses tell us that He completely entrusted Himself into His Father's hands. WHAT AN EXAMPLE FOR US! ( I know I am repeating that a lot...but hey..it is true and needs to be pointed out) And remember, because I find this so easy to forget, that He did it all by faith. He walked in those works that His Father had prepared beforehand for Him as a human being never using His divine powers. What fellowship He had with His Father. As we keep reading we begin to see that all this that Jesus did and thought were done to show us the way. It all can be applied to our lives and walk with Him...Scriptures can be found throughout the New Testament to show us that His word and deed matched. Jesus is truly the way the truth and the life. As I read and reread this passage I cannot help but see and be overwhelmed by the fact that Jesus right here in these verses is telling us how to handle a trial.. And He is not speaking here as God...even though...you know He is...He is speaking here to us as a human...telling us all this from His own personal experience. No matter what you are facing today you can go to one of these Servant songs and be reassured that Jesus understands. He can relate. Not only can He relate He wants us to know what to do and how to react to whatever we might be facing....Hebrews 4:14-16 says: "Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Romans 8:34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Hebrews 7:25 Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.
Really what more could we ask for! In fact, He probably learned and meditated on many of the very same Scriptures that we do as He went through His day. Look at what He tells us in these verses on how to go through the trials of life...spend time with the Father, encourage others in their weariness with the Word of God, comfort them in their distress, do not be rebellious...receive with meekness the implanted word, set your face like flint to endure knowing that your God WILL help...rely upon your God...you will not be disgraced or ashamed. Then He reminds us that our enemies will be grow old...the moths will eat them up.. He has gone before and shown us the way. JESUS LIVED OUT HIS OWN WORD...HE WAS THE WORD AND HIS WORD AND HIS DEED MATCHED...THAT IS THE DEFINITION OF TRUTH. AMAZING!
Sometimes in a trial we feel as if no one really understands our suffering. There is ONE...and He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows the chastisement for our peace was upon Him. He endured all this for us...Hebrews 12:2 says it was for the joy that was set before Him...we are that joy...He is our joy, our strength and our salvation. He is our way, our truth, our life! Go to Him, trust in Him. Commit yourself to Him. He will not disappoint! Consider these verses now in a new light...Philippians 2:5-13 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
The last two verses of this third Servant song express the choice that we have. Do we choose to trust in our Lord God as Jesus did and allow God to work in us and through us as we surrender our wills to Him moment by moment? And remember even in obedience Jesus walked at times in darkness...just as we will...but HE trusted that God would bring Him to the light at the right time. Or do we kindle our own fires in the dark times of our lives...relying on our own understanding and arrogantly say we know better than God. The end of one is life everlasting with Him...the end of the other is everlasting torment.
BEHOLD MY SERVANT...
Love
Mom
I have been studying and memorizing the Servant Songs in the book of Isaiah. (Isaiah 42:1-7; Isaiah 49:1-6; Isaiah 50:1-11; and Isaiah 52:13-53:12) The past few days I have been meditating and reading up on the third one...Isaiah 50:4-11. Here it is in its entirety:
“ The Lord GOD has given Me
The tongue of the learned,
That I should know how to speak
A word in season to him who is weary.
He awakens Me morning by morning,
He awakens My ear
To hear as the learned.
5 The Lord GOD has opened My ear;
And I was not rebellious,
Nor did I turn away.
6 I gave My back to those who struck Me,
And My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard;
I did not hide My face from shame and spitting.
7 “ For the Lord GOD will help Me;
Therefore I will not be disgraced;
Therefore I have set My face like a flint,
And I know that I will not be ashamed.
8 He is near who justifies Me;
Who will contend with Me?
Let us stand together.
Who is My adversary?
Let him come near Me.
9 Surely the Lord GOD will help Me;
Who is he who will condemn Me?
Indeed they will all grow old like a garment;
The moth will eat them up.
10 “ Who among you fears the LORD?
Who obeys the voice of His Servant?
Who walks in darkness
And has no light?
Let him trust in the name of the LORD
And rely upon his God.
11 Look, all you who kindle a fire,
Who encircle yourselves with sparks:
Walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks you have kindled—
This you shall have from My hand:
You shall lie down in torment.
The Lord Jesus is such an example to us! This is something that He seems to be pressing into my heart in a new and deeper way lately. I think when life gets hard we cling to Him more and search His word with greater fervor. The Bible tells us that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. I have been truly blessed in studying and memorizing the Servant songs and I believe it has deepened my understanding of Scripture in every area maybe more than my studying of anything else in Scripture.
Jesus, the Servant, is speaking in these verses. The title Lord GOD is used four times in this section. This title emphasizes the Servant's complete submission to the Father in all aspects of His life. On earth Jesus did not do or say anything outside His Father's will...His whole being...every aspect of His life.. was submitted to the Father. (John 5:19 John 8:28) He spent time with Him morning by morning in prayer and meditation of the Scriptures. He sometimes spent all night in prayer (before He chose His 12 disciples) What an example this is for us. Jesus, the Son of God made a practice of time spent in prayer and fellowship with His Father in Heaven. If Jesus needed to do this to discern the Father's will for the day that was before Him how much more do we need this precious time with our Father! I have regretted time spent in many areas of life but I have never once felt that I spent too much time in the Scriptures.
Jesus not only spent time with His Father--He shared and encouraged those who were weary with the things He had learned from Him. He helped those in need. He did the work His Father had given Him to do. I think of Ephesians 2:10 here. Jesus had a successful ministry but He never pointed to Himself. His life glorified His Father in Heaven. He did whatever He did here on earth by faith just as we do. He did not use His divine powers. He did all He did as a MAN. We cannot take refuge in Him being God as the reason why He was able to do it. This fact is amazing to me...each time Jesus healed or spoke it was not Him it was the Spirit working through Him. Philippians 2:5-11 says: 5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Jesus was totally set apart to do His Father's will just as we should be.
The next verse says that the Lord God had opened His ear and He was not rebellious nor did He turn away. When a servant in Hebrew culture did not want to leave the service of His master but wanted to become a permanent willing slave of that household, an an awl was driven through his earlobe and a gold earring placed in the hole. This told all He was bondservant...Jesus is telling us here that He came willingly to do His work here on earth. Jesus was a slave by choice. Wow! Wow! Wow! I can never wrap my mind around that. He took the form of one of His creatures, a Man, and came to earth for the purpose of suffering and dying for them. Verse 6 tells us a little more of what He suffered. It also shows us His mindset. He was determined to do His Father's will no matter the cost...He yielded His body to men who whipped Him, spat upon Him, plucked His beard, crowned Him with thorns and ultimately crucified Him. What an example for us...Make no mistake...each one of us are slaves to something. Romans 6 tells us that we either present ourselves to be slaves of sin leading to death or slaves of obedience leading to righteousness. Again, Jesus, the Son of God, a slave by choice CHOOSING moment by moment to do His Father's will. He made the same choices that we have to make...the daily moment by moment dying to self and living for God. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.(Col 3:3) who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed. (1Pe 2:24)
The next few verses tell us that He completely entrusted Himself into His Father's hands. WHAT AN EXAMPLE FOR US! ( I know I am repeating that a lot...but hey..it is true and needs to be pointed out) And remember, because I find this so easy to forget, that He did it all by faith. He walked in those works that His Father had prepared beforehand for Him as a human being never using His divine powers. What fellowship He had with His Father. As we keep reading we begin to see that all this that Jesus did and thought were done to show us the way. It all can be applied to our lives and walk with Him...Scriptures can be found throughout the New Testament to show us that His word and deed matched. Jesus is truly the way the truth and the life. As I read and reread this passage I cannot help but see and be overwhelmed by the fact that Jesus right here in these verses is telling us how to handle a trial.. And He is not speaking here as God...even though...you know He is...He is speaking here to us as a human...telling us all this from His own personal experience. No matter what you are facing today you can go to one of these Servant songs and be reassured that Jesus understands. He can relate. Not only can He relate He wants us to know what to do and how to react to whatever we might be facing....Hebrews 4:14-16 says: "Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Romans 8:34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Hebrews 7:25 Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.
Really what more could we ask for! In fact, He probably learned and meditated on many of the very same Scriptures that we do as He went through His day. Look at what He tells us in these verses on how to go through the trials of life...spend time with the Father, encourage others in their weariness with the Word of God, comfort them in their distress, do not be rebellious...receive with meekness the implanted word, set your face like flint to endure knowing that your God WILL help...rely upon your God...you will not be disgraced or ashamed. Then He reminds us that our enemies will be grow old...the moths will eat them up.. He has gone before and shown us the way. JESUS LIVED OUT HIS OWN WORD...HE WAS THE WORD AND HIS WORD AND HIS DEED MATCHED...THAT IS THE DEFINITION OF TRUTH. AMAZING!
Sometimes in a trial we feel as if no one really understands our suffering. There is ONE...and He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows the chastisement for our peace was upon Him. He endured all this for us...Hebrews 12:2 says it was for the joy that was set before Him...we are that joy...He is our joy, our strength and our salvation. He is our way, our truth, our life! Go to Him, trust in Him. Commit yourself to Him. He will not disappoint! Consider these verses now in a new light...Philippians 2:5-13 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
The last two verses of this third Servant song express the choice that we have. Do we choose to trust in our Lord God as Jesus did and allow God to work in us and through us as we surrender our wills to Him moment by moment? And remember even in obedience Jesus walked at times in darkness...just as we will...but HE trusted that God would bring Him to the light at the right time. Or do we kindle our own fires in the dark times of our lives...relying on our own understanding and arrogantly say we know better than God. The end of one is life everlasting with Him...the end of the other is everlasting torment.
BEHOLD MY SERVANT...
Love
Mom
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