"Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!" says the LORD--Jeremiah 23:1
"For both prophet and priest are profane; Yes, in My house I have found their wickedness," says the LORD Therefore their way shall be to them Like slippery ways; In the darkness they shall be driven on And fall in them; For I will bring disaster on them, The year of their punishment," says the LORD." --Jeremiah 23:11-12
In Chapter 23 Jeremiah denounces the leaders of Judah who had refused to believe God and obey His law and in doing so had brought destruction on the nation and scattered the people.The very ones who were responsible to point God's precious people to Him were the very ones responsible for the situation Judah now found herself in. Judgment was imminent. The kings had not protected or provided for the people and the religious leaders had led them astray spiritually and had not provided a godly example. Now there is much more to the chapter but I am going to focus just here on the practical application for us.
Jeremiah Chapter 23 should serve as a warning to us. Who is in our care? How are we influencing them? Are we pointing them to Jesus or to the world? Girls, we are accountable to God for those who are placed in our charge. Examine all your actions in the light of God's word and see where you fall short or where you might be sending the wrong message. Allow the Lord to search your heart. Be diligent to do this daily by immersing yourself in His word and asking Him to show you through His Spirit. Eternity is at stake...God will accomplish His will with or without you but oh, how much better for you both here and in eternity if you were a vessel set aside for His purposes.
Walk with God. Obey Him. Give Him the preeminence. Make sure your word and your deed match. Be diligent to provide a godly example to those both in your care and in your path.
One day, Lord willing, God will be gracious and gift you with children. Speak to them His word. Teach them where wisdom comes from while they are young and want to hear what you have to say. Show them where to go when they need help in time of need. Pray with them and for them. There will come a time when they will no longer want to listen...your window of opportunity is small. It is so easy when we have not heard the truth to listen to false prophets because they tell us things we want to hear. Give them the word..put it in their hearts. Most importantly let them see you live what you believe without equivocation.
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. 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."
2nd Timothy 3: 13-17 But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Deuteronomy 4:9 Only take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. And teach them to your children and your grandchildren,
I will end with Deuteronomy 6:7 which says "You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up." Do this and as they grow His word will be a lamp to their feet and a light to their path. Point them to Jesus and you have done your job.
Love
Mom
Monday, November 29, 2010
Delighting in His Commandments...
Psalm 1:2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night.
1 John 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
These two verses in my mind are inextricably linked. Delighting to keep the law and knowing that they are not burdensome, comes from loving our God and knowing that He is good...that in Him there is no darkness at all. All He does He does for our good and His glory. The laws He gives us come from His perfect love and once you have experienced that perfect love you will read your bible as a love letter...His love will be evidenced for you in each and every verse. Read Psalm 119. Its theme is the Word of God. In fact, out of 176 verses, there are only two or three verses that do not mention the word of God. As you read, it will be completely and utterly obvious that the psalmist is enamored with God's word. Unabashedly, unashamedly enamored. It is his delight, and he wants it to be ours.
Girls, if we are truly His, we will delight to do His will. Jesus said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” John is not saying it will be easy, but he is saying that even though the path may be difficult at times, it will still be the very thing you love to do. I think of the things that I take delight in. I take delight in taking care of my family...it is not burdensome because I love them. I took delight in nursing my children....why....because I loved them. No one had to tell me to take good care of my first born daughter...that would be you, Suzanne...when I brought her home from the hospital...It was my delight. It was my song. She was all I talked about. She was not burdensome. Was taking care of her difficult at times...you bet! Did I mind? Absolutely not! And it was the same for each and every daughter the Lord graciously gifted me with.
Psalm 119 says this...His statutes (laws) have become my song. WOW! The word of God was so much of a delight to the psalmist that he set it to music. It reminds me of the following verse in Psalm 42:8 "The LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, And in the night His song shall be with me— A prayer to the God of my life."
Girls, The Word of God...it is priceless. It is sweeter than honey...better than my necessary food. It is my hope and my song. It is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. It is my guide and my counselor. It is the rejoicing of my heart! My prayer for each one of you is that you would see the Word of God as David saw it, as I see it and more importantly as God wants you to see it. I pray it is always and continually the background melody that you hear and take delight in all your life.
Matthew Henry said this about meditation on the word of God: "To meditate in God's word, is to discourse with ourselves concerning the great things contained in it, with close application of mind and fixedness of thought. We must have constant regard to the word of God, as the rule of our actions, and the spring of our comforts; and have it in our thoughts night and day. For this purpose no time is amiss."
I am including a list of verses from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge on these two verses...Look them up and be blessed! Here is the list for Psalm 1:2:
But his: Psa_40:8, Psa_112:1, Psa_119:11, Psa_119:35, Psa_119:47-48, Psa_119:72, Psa_119:92; Job_23:12; Jer_15:16; Rom_7:22; 1Jo_5:3
meditate: Psa_104:34, Psa_119:11, Psa_119:15, Psa_119:97-99; Jos_1:8; 1Ti_4:15
day: Psa_88:1; Luk_2:37, Luk_18:7; 1Th_2:9; 2Ti_1:3
Here is the list for 1 John 5:3:
Exo_20:6; Deu_5:10, Deu_7:9, Deu_10:12-13; Dan_9:4; Mat_12:47-50; Joh_14:15; Joh_14:21-24, Joh_15:10, Joh_15:14; 2Jo_1:6
and: Psa_19:7-11, Psa_119:45, Psa_119:47-48, Psa_119:103-104, Psa_119:127-128, Psa_119:140; Pro_3:17; Mic_6:8; Mat_11:28-30; Rom_7:12, Rom_7:22; Heb_8:10
Here are one or two from each to get you started...
From Psalm 1:2 and delighting to do His will:
Psalm 119:72 The law of Your mouth is better to me Than thousands of coins of gold and silver.
Psalm 119:92 Unless Your law had been my delight, I would then have perished in my affliction.
From 1 John 5:3 which claims God's laws are not burdensome. Look at these! See the promises for those who love His word.
Exodus 20:6 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
Deuteronomy 5:29 Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever!
John 14:21-24 He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him." Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, "Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?" Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me.
Be blessed!!
Love
Mom
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.
1 John 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
These two verses in my mind are inextricably linked. Delighting to keep the law and knowing that they are not burdensome, comes from loving our God and knowing that He is good...that in Him there is no darkness at all. All He does He does for our good and His glory. The laws He gives us come from His perfect love and once you have experienced that perfect love you will read your bible as a love letter...His love will be evidenced for you in each and every verse. Read Psalm 119. Its theme is the Word of God. In fact, out of 176 verses, there are only two or three verses that do not mention the word of God. As you read, it will be completely and utterly obvious that the psalmist is enamored with God's word. Unabashedly, unashamedly enamored. It is his delight, and he wants it to be ours.
Girls, if we are truly His, we will delight to do His will. Jesus said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” John is not saying it will be easy, but he is saying that even though the path may be difficult at times, it will still be the very thing you love to do. I think of the things that I take delight in. I take delight in taking care of my family...it is not burdensome because I love them. I took delight in nursing my children....why....because I loved them. No one had to tell me to take good care of my first born daughter...that would be you, Suzanne...when I brought her home from the hospital...It was my delight. It was my song. She was all I talked about. She was not burdensome. Was taking care of her difficult at times...you bet! Did I mind? Absolutely not! And it was the same for each and every daughter the Lord graciously gifted me with.
Psalm 119 says this...His statutes (laws) have become my song. WOW! The word of God was so much of a delight to the psalmist that he set it to music. It reminds me of the following verse in Psalm 42:8 "The LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, And in the night His song shall be with me— A prayer to the God of my life."
Girls, The Word of God...it is priceless. It is sweeter than honey...better than my necessary food. It is my hope and my song. It is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. It is my guide and my counselor. It is the rejoicing of my heart! My prayer for each one of you is that you would see the Word of God as David saw it, as I see it and more importantly as God wants you to see it. I pray it is always and continually the background melody that you hear and take delight in all your life.
Matthew Henry said this about meditation on the word of God: "To meditate in God's word, is to discourse with ourselves concerning the great things contained in it, with close application of mind and fixedness of thought. We must have constant regard to the word of God, as the rule of our actions, and the spring of our comforts; and have it in our thoughts night and day. For this purpose no time is amiss."
I am including a list of verses from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge on these two verses...Look them up and be blessed! Here is the list for Psalm 1:2:
But his: Psa_40:8, Psa_112:1, Psa_119:11, Psa_119:35, Psa_119:47-48, Psa_119:72, Psa_119:92; Job_23:12; Jer_15:16; Rom_7:22; 1Jo_5:3
meditate: Psa_104:34, Psa_119:11, Psa_119:15, Psa_119:97-99; Jos_1:8; 1Ti_4:15
day: Psa_88:1; Luk_2:37, Luk_18:7; 1Th_2:9; 2Ti_1:3
Here is the list for 1 John 5:3:
Exo_20:6; Deu_5:10, Deu_7:9, Deu_10:12-13; Dan_9:4; Mat_12:47-50; Joh_14:15; Joh_14:21-24, Joh_15:10, Joh_15:14; 2Jo_1:6
and: Psa_19:7-11, Psa_119:45, Psa_119:47-48, Psa_119:103-104, Psa_119:127-128, Psa_119:140; Pro_3:17; Mic_6:8; Mat_11:28-30; Rom_7:12, Rom_7:22; Heb_8:10
Here are one or two from each to get you started...
From Psalm 1:2 and delighting to do His will:
Psalm 119:72 The law of Your mouth is better to me Than thousands of coins of gold and silver.
Psalm 119:92 Unless Your law had been my delight, I would then have perished in my affliction.
From 1 John 5:3 which claims God's laws are not burdensome. Look at these! See the promises for those who love His word.
Exodus 20:6 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
Deuteronomy 5:29 Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever!
John 14:21-24 He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him." Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, "Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?" Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me.
Be blessed!!
Love
Mom
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.
Friday, November 26, 2010
Every Good Gift...
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.--James 1:17
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
The fourth proof that God is not responsible for our sin is the nature of God. We have already looked at the nature of evil which says God cannot be tempted nor does He tempt anyone, the nature of man which says that God cannot be the source of temptation because man is drawn away and enticed by his own lusts and the nature of lust which comes from our fallen nature and causes us to desire what sin will satisfy.
The nature of God is such that only good comes from Him. ONLY GOOD COMES FROM HIM. His gifts are all good and perfect and come from the Father who never changes and is always light. How beautiful is that! No one can blame God for sin because every good gift and every perfect gift comes down from above. Anything that is good about me...any talent...any good thing...all comes from Him. I can't boast about them or brag. I can't take credit for them...I did nothing to earn or deserve them. They are all just God's undeserved and unmerited kindness and favor toward me...His grace.
Our nature gives rise to sin. His gives rise to only good. The word good, John MacArthur says, means just that good. There is no comparative for it. (no gooder and goodest) It is just good. It is complete and lacks nothing. Sufficient. Comprehensive. Beneficial. Are you getting the picture? Why would any one of us take the bait and go after the things of the world. Why would we step away from the fountain of blessing where only good comes and go after a lie? And yet, we do. We think we know better. Do not miss out on an eternity with Him for the lies of the world. Decide now to follow Him who only gives good things continually and who does all He does for a believer's good and His glory. He wants to give you His Spirit. Ask for it now...turn from the world and the lie to Him!
Jesus says in Matthew "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. I love this about God...If we really want something good and right and we ask Him for it, He is ready and willing to give. God only gives me good. A little bit further down in Matthew 7 it says "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!" Do not be deceived. Satan told Eve that God was holding out on her. Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." Eve fell for the lie and in the words "she took of its fruit and ate" lie the reason for all the sickness, sorrow, suffering and death in our world.
The Father of lights? What does that mean. God is the creator of the sun, the moon and the stars. Let's just take the sun...it is there in the morning and gone at night. It is dimmed by clouds. How about the stars...we can only see them during the day. The moon....it waxes and wanes. But NOT GOD. In Him there is no variation or shadow of turning. Isn't that a beautiful statement. I will never look at the lights in the sky now without remembering that He never changes...His good and perfect gifts keep coming. In Him there is no darkness at all. Only good comes from God...He cannot be responsible for our sin.
As I wrote this the song that was on my heart was a hymn that we used to sing at South Branch Fellowship and now again at Crossroads. I will end with the words to the song.
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
The fourth proof that God is not responsible for our sin is the nature of God. We have already looked at the nature of evil which says God cannot be tempted nor does He tempt anyone, the nature of man which says that God cannot be the source of temptation because man is drawn away and enticed by his own lusts and the nature of lust which comes from our fallen nature and causes us to desire what sin will satisfy.
The nature of God is such that only good comes from Him. ONLY GOOD COMES FROM HIM. His gifts are all good and perfect and come from the Father who never changes and is always light. How beautiful is that! No one can blame God for sin because every good gift and every perfect gift comes down from above. Anything that is good about me...any talent...any good thing...all comes from Him. I can't boast about them or brag. I can't take credit for them...I did nothing to earn or deserve them. They are all just God's undeserved and unmerited kindness and favor toward me...His grace.
Our nature gives rise to sin. His gives rise to only good. The word good, John MacArthur says, means just that good. There is no comparative for it. (no gooder and goodest) It is just good. It is complete and lacks nothing. Sufficient. Comprehensive. Beneficial. Are you getting the picture? Why would any one of us take the bait and go after the things of the world. Why would we step away from the fountain of blessing where only good comes and go after a lie? And yet, we do. We think we know better. Do not miss out on an eternity with Him for the lies of the world. Decide now to follow Him who only gives good things continually and who does all He does for a believer's good and His glory. He wants to give you His Spirit. Ask for it now...turn from the world and the lie to Him!
Jesus says in Matthew "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. I love this about God...If we really want something good and right and we ask Him for it, He is ready and willing to give. God only gives me good. A little bit further down in Matthew 7 it says "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!" Do not be deceived. Satan told Eve that God was holding out on her. Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." Eve fell for the lie and in the words "she took of its fruit and ate" lie the reason for all the sickness, sorrow, suffering and death in our world.
The Father of lights? What does that mean. God is the creator of the sun, the moon and the stars. Let's just take the sun...it is there in the morning and gone at night. It is dimmed by clouds. How about the stars...we can only see them during the day. The moon....it waxes and wanes. But NOT GOD. In Him there is no variation or shadow of turning. Isn't that a beautiful statement. I will never look at the lights in the sky now without remembering that He never changes...His good and perfect gifts keep coming. In Him there is no darkness at all. Only good comes from God...He cannot be responsible for our sin.
As I wrote this the song that was on my heart was a hymn that we used to sing at South Branch Fellowship and now again at Crossroads. I will end with the words to the song.
Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood.
O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.
O that day when freed from sinning,
I shall see Thy lovely face;
Clothed then in blood washed linen
How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace;
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry,
Take my ransomed soul away;
Send thine angels now to carry
Me to realms of endless day.
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood.
O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.
O that day when freed from sinning,
I shall see Thy lovely face;
Clothed then in blood washed linen
How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace;
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry,
Take my ransomed soul away;
Send thine angels now to carry
Me to realms of endless day.
Love
Mom
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Exhortation to Love...
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
Now there are many verses in Scripture that exhort us to love but my favorite one is in Romans 13..."owe no one anything but love." Here is the verse in its entirety.
Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. 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.” Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.--Romans 13:8-10
Girls, if you got this one down...you got it all. If you can return good for evil, you are doing well. You have learned how to live. Read how Paul addresses those the Lord put in his care. He calls them dearly beloved. He tells them how he longs to see them. He is not short on expressing his love nor is he short on what love really is...action. It is a verb. I like to think of it as active kindness. Love is self-sacrificing. Love loves the lovely and the unlovely. Love loves even through much offense. Paul's motivation for all he did here on this earth after his conversion was love. For Paul to live was Christ and to die was gain. He magnified His Lord in his body and like Christ reached out in love despite the provocation to do the opposite. He knew that eternity was at stake. He knew that the offenses were not important...having others see His Lord working through Him was.
Love like this can only come from a humble mind. It stems from humility. We only need to look to Jesus to see. Chapters 13-17 of John are filled with Jesus reassuring His disciples of His everlasting love for them. When I read these chapters I always picture a dying mother taking her last breaths with her children surrounding her and completely losing herself in her love for them. That is what Jesus did. He met the greatest of betrayals with what...love. He washed all his disciples feet just hours before He would be nailed to a wooden cross. All includes Judas, the disciple that Jesus knew would betray Him. He faced the cross with what...love. He thought of others in the midst of the deepest suffering anyone could ever know. Read the chapters...see His absolute grace and humility. Jesus prayed for you and I in Chapter 17 reaching out across centuries with His love. Jesus knew who He was...and yet he stooped down and washed His disciples feet....He knew who He was and yet He faced the cross. Can we as His followers do any less?
Here is what Paul says in the third chapter of Colossians.
"But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.
1 Corinthians 1:4-8 defines love: Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.
This is what we are to do girls. We are to put off the old, unloving, unforgiving, and bitter practices and in humility put on love because it is the bond of perfection. Your life will not be your own until you do...you will eat yourself alive and bite and devour those around you. Bitterness, unforgiveness and selfishness destroy both spiritually and physically.
If you find yourself today running around with bitterness and unforgiveness towards someone in your life, here is what you do. Remember that it is the wrong response. Jesus never displayed bitterness or unforgiveness. You really have no place to hide. Repent...go in the other direction. Get down on your knees and ask God to help you love that person, to help you forgive that person. Surrender to the Spirit of God inside of you whose ministry is to manifest Jesus Christ and love that person. Next, go to that person and see if you cannot build a relationship of love with them. Yield to His love shed abroad in your heart and let it flow. It will be the most wonderful and not to mention healthiest thing you do in your life. Do not be bound by unforgiveness. Jesus greeted all offenses with more love...in fact he turned the blackest evil into the greatest good by love. He met the greatest offense and injury with the greatest kind of love. We have no excuse. None.
This Thanksgiving owe no one in your life anything but to love them. Love fulfills the law. Love never fails...it always has an effect.
Love
Mom
Now there are many verses in Scripture that exhort us to love but my favorite one is in Romans 13..."owe no one anything but love." Here is the verse in its entirety.
Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. 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.” Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.--Romans 13:8-10
Girls, if you got this one down...you got it all. If you can return good for evil, you are doing well. You have learned how to live. Read how Paul addresses those the Lord put in his care. He calls them dearly beloved. He tells them how he longs to see them. He is not short on expressing his love nor is he short on what love really is...action. It is a verb. I like to think of it as active kindness. Love is self-sacrificing. Love loves the lovely and the unlovely. Love loves even through much offense. Paul's motivation for all he did here on this earth after his conversion was love. For Paul to live was Christ and to die was gain. He magnified His Lord in his body and like Christ reached out in love despite the provocation to do the opposite. He knew that eternity was at stake. He knew that the offenses were not important...having others see His Lord working through Him was.
Love like this can only come from a humble mind. It stems from humility. We only need to look to Jesus to see. Chapters 13-17 of John are filled with Jesus reassuring His disciples of His everlasting love for them. When I read these chapters I always picture a dying mother taking her last breaths with her children surrounding her and completely losing herself in her love for them. That is what Jesus did. He met the greatest of betrayals with what...love. He washed all his disciples feet just hours before He would be nailed to a wooden cross. All includes Judas, the disciple that Jesus knew would betray Him. He faced the cross with what...love. He thought of others in the midst of the deepest suffering anyone could ever know. Read the chapters...see His absolute grace and humility. Jesus prayed for you and I in Chapter 17 reaching out across centuries with His love. Jesus knew who He was...and yet he stooped down and washed His disciples feet....He knew who He was and yet He faced the cross. Can we as His followers do any less?
Here is what Paul says in the third chapter of Colossians.
"But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.
Character of the New Man
Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.1 Corinthians 1:4-8 defines love: Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.
This is what we are to do girls. We are to put off the old, unloving, unforgiving, and bitter practices and in humility put on love because it is the bond of perfection. Your life will not be your own until you do...you will eat yourself alive and bite and devour those around you. Bitterness, unforgiveness and selfishness destroy both spiritually and physically.
If you find yourself today running around with bitterness and unforgiveness towards someone in your life, here is what you do. Remember that it is the wrong response. Jesus never displayed bitterness or unforgiveness. You really have no place to hide. Repent...go in the other direction. Get down on your knees and ask God to help you love that person, to help you forgive that person. Surrender to the Spirit of God inside of you whose ministry is to manifest Jesus Christ and love that person. Next, go to that person and see if you cannot build a relationship of love with them. Yield to His love shed abroad in your heart and let it flow. It will be the most wonderful and not to mention healthiest thing you do in your life. Do not be bound by unforgiveness. Jesus greeted all offenses with more love...in fact he turned the blackest evil into the greatest good by love. He met the greatest offense and injury with the greatest kind of love. We have no excuse. None.
This Thanksgiving owe no one in your life anything but to love them. Love fulfills the law. Love never fails...it always has an effect.
Love
Mom
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Standing Fast....
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
Tonight, the night before Thanksgiving, I am thankful for the new heart I received from the Lord more than 15 years ago and for His word which is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Psalm 40 is my salvation song, particularly the following beginning verses:
1 I waited patiently for the LORD;
And He inclined to me,
And heard my cry.
2 He also brought me up out of a horrible pit,
Out of the miry clay,
And set my feet upon a rock,
And established my steps.
3 He has put a new song in my mouth—
Praise to our God;
Many will see it and fear,
And will trust in the LORD.
I am remembering now what it felt like to be brought up out of the pit...from the miry clay and the shifting sand.... so to speak...to the Rock. Now when this happened nothing in my circumstances changed. What changed was me. My heart now trusted in the God of the Universe...I surrendered control of my life to Him and through no power of mine, was able to rejoice despite the bleakness of my circumstances at that moment. Christ now lived in me. I was no longer alone. I now lived, moved and had my being in Him. He was the difference.
The same is true for me today and when my circumstances look bleak, I need to remember who my God is. I still live, move and have my being in Him. Christ lives in me and He is my hope! Sometimes our circumstances can make us feel, even as believers, like we are no longer standing firmly on the Rock that is Christ. The ground begins to feel soft under our feet. What do we do when our circumstances shake us and throw us off balance?
There are many examples in Scripture, but let's look at the first chapter of Habakkuk. Here is how Habakkuk begins.
1 The burden which the prophet Habakkuk saw.
And You will not hear?
Even cry out to You, “Violence!”
And You will not save.
3 Why do You show me iniquity,
And cause me to see trouble?
For plundering and violence are before me;
There is strife, and contention arises.
4 Therefore the law is powerless,
And justice never goes forth.
For the wicked surround the righteous;
Therefore perverse judgment proceeds.
Habakkuk thinks the Lord is indifferent to Judah's sin and can't understand why He does not act. The prophet sees plundering, violence, strife and contention all around him and justice not going forth. He wants the Lord to save and chasten and then perhaps, to bring revival to Judah. Here is how God answers...
Be utterly astounded!
For I will work a work in your days
Which you would not believe, though it were told you.
6 For indeed I am raising up the Chaldeans,
A bitter and hasty nation
Which marches through the breadth of the earth,
To possess dwelling places that are not theirs.
7 They are terrible and dreadful;
Their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves.
8 Their horses also are swifter than leopards,
And more fierce than evening wolves.
Their chargers charge ahead;
Their cavalry comes from afar;
They fly as the eagle that hastens to eat.
9 “ They all come for violence;
Their faces are set like the east wind.
They gather captives like sand.
10 They scoff at kings,
And princes are scorned by them.
They deride every stronghold,
For they heap up earthen mounds and seize it.
11 Then his mind changes, and he transgresses;
He commits offense,
Ascribing this power to his god.”
Uh oh...if I read that right, this is not what Habakkuk had been asking for. The Chaldeans were evil...The prophet does not understand why God is going to judge Judah by using a nation whose sins were greater than theirs. He does not understand what God is doing. We can tell the prophet is not quite standing on the rock anymore...He is looking around at his circumstances and becoming discouraged and bewildered. The ground beneath him is getting soft. He is beginning to doubt. Look at the last verses of the chapter, though.
O LORD my God, my Holy One?
We shall not die.
O LORD, You have appointed them for judgment;
O Rock, You have marked them for correction.
13 You are of purer eyes than to behold evil,
And cannot look on wickedness.
Why do You look on those who deal treacherously,
And hold Your tongue when the wicked devours
A person more righteous than he?
14 Why do You make men like fish of the sea,
Like creeping things that have no ruler over them?
15 They take up all of them with a hook,
They catch them in their net,
And gather them in their dragnet.
Therefore they rejoice and are glad.
16 Therefore they sacrifice to their net,
And burn incense to their dragnet;
Because by them their share is sumptuous
And their food plentiful.
17 Shall they therefore empty their net,
And continue to slay nations without pity?
Have you figured out what just happened? Habakkuk's circumstances and situation have not changed. His perspective, focus and his meditation, however, have. Like us, many times in our lives, he doesn't understand what God is doing. So what does Habakkuk do...he remembers what he does understand about God. This is what we are to do too.
First, he remembers that God is from everlasting. He is eternal. He is the great I AM...the self-existent One. You, Lord, are outside of time. You, Lord are unaffected by what happens in this world. You, Lord were here before time began...you were here when history began and you will be here after history ends. Aaaaaah....do you see what is happening girls? Habakkuk is meditating on who God is and as He does this, he begins to stand fast again. The ground is not shaky anymore. It is becoming firmer under his feet. I love it. What does he say next?
God is holy. This is a very good thing to remember when your world is spinning around you. God does not make mistakes. He does all things well and He does them for His glory and our good. God always does what is right. God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. James 1:17 tells us that " Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning."
Next, the prophet remembers that God is sovereign and in control. "O LORD, You have appointed them for judgment; O Rock, You have marked them for correction." You are mighty and faithful Lord. You are at work...we will not die.
Habakkuk's feet are firmly planted once again. How did it happen? He got his eyes off his circumstances and onto his God. He can now praise the Lord despite his circumstances...they no longer matter. I will end with what the prophet says at the end of the book in Chapter 3 beginning in verse 17.
Though the fig tree may not blossom,
Nor fruit be on the vines;
Though the labor of the olive may fail,
And the fields yield no food;
Though the flock may be cut off from the fold,
And there be no herd in the stalls—
18 Yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
I will joy in the God of my salvation.
19 The LORD God is my strength;
He will make my feet like deer’s feet,
And He will make me walk on my high hills.
Girls...this is the only way to handle the problems and curve balls the world will throw you. Remember what you know is true about Him who lives to make intercession for you and rejoice!
Love
Mom who is feeling like Habakkuk!
Tonight, the night before Thanksgiving, I am thankful for the new heart I received from the Lord more than 15 years ago and for His word which is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Psalm 40 is my salvation song, particularly the following beginning verses:
1 I waited patiently for the LORD;
And He inclined to me,
And heard my cry.
2 He also brought me up out of a horrible pit,
Out of the miry clay,
And set my feet upon a rock,
And established my steps.
3 He has put a new song in my mouth—
Praise to our God;
Many will see it and fear,
And will trust in the LORD.
I am remembering now what it felt like to be brought up out of the pit...from the miry clay and the shifting sand.... so to speak...to the Rock. Now when this happened nothing in my circumstances changed. What changed was me. My heart now trusted in the God of the Universe...I surrendered control of my life to Him and through no power of mine, was able to rejoice despite the bleakness of my circumstances at that moment. Christ now lived in me. I was no longer alone. I now lived, moved and had my being in Him. He was the difference.
The same is true for me today and when my circumstances look bleak, I need to remember who my God is. I still live, move and have my being in Him. Christ lives in me and He is my hope! Sometimes our circumstances can make us feel, even as believers, like we are no longer standing firmly on the Rock that is Christ. The ground begins to feel soft under our feet. What do we do when our circumstances shake us and throw us off balance?
There are many examples in Scripture, but let's look at the first chapter of Habakkuk. Here is how Habakkuk begins.
1 The burden which the prophet Habakkuk saw.
The Prophet’s Question
2 O LORD, how long shall I cry,And You will not hear?
Even cry out to You, “Violence!”
And You will not save.
3 Why do You show me iniquity,
And cause me to see trouble?
For plundering and violence are before me;
There is strife, and contention arises.
4 Therefore the law is powerless,
And justice never goes forth.
For the wicked surround the righteous;
Therefore perverse judgment proceeds.
Habakkuk thinks the Lord is indifferent to Judah's sin and can't understand why He does not act. The prophet sees plundering, violence, strife and contention all around him and justice not going forth. He wants the Lord to save and chasten and then perhaps, to bring revival to Judah. Here is how God answers...
The LORD’s Reply
5 “ Look among the nations and watch—Be utterly astounded!
For I will work a work in your days
Which you would not believe, though it were told you.
6 For indeed I am raising up the Chaldeans,
A bitter and hasty nation
Which marches through the breadth of the earth,
To possess dwelling places that are not theirs.
7 They are terrible and dreadful;
Their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves.
8 Their horses also are swifter than leopards,
And more fierce than evening wolves.
Their chargers charge ahead;
Their cavalry comes from afar;
They fly as the eagle that hastens to eat.
9 “ They all come for violence;
Their faces are set like the east wind.
They gather captives like sand.
10 They scoff at kings,
And princes are scorned by them.
They deride every stronghold,
For they heap up earthen mounds and seize it.
11 Then his mind changes, and he transgresses;
He commits offense,
Ascribing this power to his god.”
Uh oh...if I read that right, this is not what Habakkuk had been asking for. The Chaldeans were evil...The prophet does not understand why God is going to judge Judah by using a nation whose sins were greater than theirs. He does not understand what God is doing. We can tell the prophet is not quite standing on the rock anymore...He is looking around at his circumstances and becoming discouraged and bewildered. The ground beneath him is getting soft. He is beginning to doubt. Look at the last verses of the chapter, though.
The Prophet’s Second Question
12 Are You not from everlasting,O LORD my God, my Holy One?
We shall not die.
O LORD, You have appointed them for judgment;
O Rock, You have marked them for correction.
13 You are of purer eyes than to behold evil,
And cannot look on wickedness.
Why do You look on those who deal treacherously,
And hold Your tongue when the wicked devours
A person more righteous than he?
14 Why do You make men like fish of the sea,
Like creeping things that have no ruler over them?
15 They take up all of them with a hook,
They catch them in their net,
And gather them in their dragnet.
Therefore they rejoice and are glad.
16 Therefore they sacrifice to their net,
And burn incense to their dragnet;
Because by them their share is sumptuous
And their food plentiful.
17 Shall they therefore empty their net,
And continue to slay nations without pity?
Have you figured out what just happened? Habakkuk's circumstances and situation have not changed. His perspective, focus and his meditation, however, have. Like us, many times in our lives, he doesn't understand what God is doing. So what does Habakkuk do...he remembers what he does understand about God. This is what we are to do too.
First, he remembers that God is from everlasting. He is eternal. He is the great I AM...the self-existent One. You, Lord, are outside of time. You, Lord are unaffected by what happens in this world. You, Lord were here before time began...you were here when history began and you will be here after history ends. Aaaaaah....do you see what is happening girls? Habakkuk is meditating on who God is and as He does this, he begins to stand fast again. The ground is not shaky anymore. It is becoming firmer under his feet. I love it. What does he say next?
God is holy. This is a very good thing to remember when your world is spinning around you. God does not make mistakes. He does all things well and He does them for His glory and our good. God always does what is right. God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. James 1:17 tells us that " Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning."
Next, the prophet remembers that God is sovereign and in control. "O LORD, You have appointed them for judgment; O Rock, You have marked them for correction." You are mighty and faithful Lord. You are at work...we will not die.
Habakkuk's feet are firmly planted once again. How did it happen? He got his eyes off his circumstances and onto his God. He can now praise the Lord despite his circumstances...they no longer matter. I will end with what the prophet says at the end of the book in Chapter 3 beginning in verse 17.
Though the fig tree may not blossom,
Nor fruit be on the vines;
Though the labor of the olive may fail,
And the fields yield no food;
Though the flock may be cut off from the fold,
And there be no herd in the stalls—
18 Yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
I will joy in the God of my salvation.
19 The LORD God is my strength;
He will make my feet like deer’s feet,
And He will make me walk on my high hills.
Girls...this is the only way to handle the problems and curve balls the world will throw you. Remember what you know is true about Him who lives to make intercession for you and rejoice!
Love
Mom who is feeling like Habakkuk!
John MacArthur's Why Study the Bible...
Why is it important for me to study the Bible?
2 Timothy 3:16-17
Code: QA168
You've asked a good question that deserves a straightforward answer: The Bible, the only source of absolute divine authority, will inform you of God's mind and will for your life (2 Timothy 3:16-17). That is surely reason enough to study God's Word.
The Qualities of God's Word
You can do a quick, informative study of the Bible right now. Just match the following statements about God's Word with the verses listed below.
- The Bible is infallible in its totality
- The Bible is inerrant in its parts
- The Bible is complete
- The Bible is authoritative and final
- The Bible is totally sufficient for your needs
- The Bible accomplishes what it promises
- The Bible provides assurance of salvation
- Revelation 22:18-19
- John 8:47; 20:31
- Psalm 119:89
- Psalm 19:7
- Isaiah 55:11
- Proverbs 30:5-6
- Inerrancy: The Bible is free from error in all it affirms.
- Infallibility: The Bible is unfailing in its purpose.
- Sufficiency: The Bible contains all needed information for Christian living.
- Authority: The Bible carries the right to prescribe beliefs and actions.
The Benefit of Knowing God's Word
The Bible remains the only source of divine revelation and power that can sustain you as a Christian in your walk with God. Note these significant promises in the Scripture.
The Bible is the source of:
- Truth: "Sanctify them by Your truth; Your word is truth" (John 17:17).
- God's blessing: "But He said, 'More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it'" (Luke 11:28).
- Victory: "...the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" (Eph. 6:17).
- Growth: "As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby" (1 Pet. 2:2).
- Power: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek" (Rom. 1:16).
- Guidance: "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path" (Ps. 119:105).
Monday, November 22, 2010
Baited, Hooked and Trapped...
But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.
Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.--James 1:14-16
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
These are some of those most helpful, practical verses in Scripture. They helped me change the way I thought about sin and enabled me to sin less. I stopped letting myself be deceived by blaming my sin on God, some physical ailment, on someone else or Satan and saw that I was responsible for my sin. I saw that there was an enemy inside, my flesh, that I needed to deal with and control. For more on this go here: The Blame Game - James 1:13
James starts off by telling us every man is tempted. Temptation is common to all of us. We are drawn away by our own desires and enticed. Let's break that down a little bit. What draws us away from the perfect will of God: Our own lusts...our own desires....what WE want as opposed to what God wants. The third reason God is not the source of our sin is the nature of lust. Lust comes from within our fallen nature.
James uses the hunting and fishing terms dragged and enticed in verse 14. (feeling flattered??) The first speaks of an animal being lured into a trap and the second of a baited hook. The bait covers the sorrow, pain and death that lies underneath. The reason animals are baited is to deceive them into being drawn into the trap. Instead of experiencing pleasure when they take the bait, they face capture and death. The same thing happens to us girls. Maybe it is a little more subtle, but we face the same kind of temptations. The baited hooks come in all different shapes and sizes and some are more appealing to us than others because our lusts are our own...they are individual to us. Nevertheless, we are baited, hooked and trapped by them in a deadly way.
James drops the hunting and fishing analogies in verse 15 to talk about babies. Quite a switch. He says then when lusts has conceived it brings forth a child and the child when it is full grown brings forth death. Uh oh. Do you see that sin is not a solitary act like some of us might like to think. The bible tells us it is a process. Girls, I cannot begin to tell you how helpful this is to know if you want to gain control of the enemy within. Here is how it starts...It starts with desire which plays with our emotions. So we see something and we get that feeling that we want it. We begin to feel that it will satisfy us. We begin to long for it. Sin begins with desire. It goes to the mind next.
The second "d" is deception. This is when you start to reason with yourself why you need whatever it is you desire. You justify it in your mind. You begin to think you have a right to it. It starts with desire in the emotion and then to deception in the mind as you try to rationalize your desire.
The next thing that happens is sin is conceived in your will. John MacArthur calls this "design". Sin is conceived at the moment we convince our minds that we have every right to have whatever it is we want. Once the mind is convinced...then it conceives of the sin itself. Plans it, so to speak.
The last "d" stands for disobedience. The actual sin is committed and this, of course, occurs in the behavior. Sin begins with desire in the emotions. The emotions lead the mind to justify or rationalize the sin. Once the mind is convinced, the sin is conceived in the will and acted upon in the behavior.
The last part of verse 15 says that when the child (sin) is full grown it brings forth death...literally it is a killer! You are being deceived if you think you are getting away with any sin and not experiencing consequences. Sin always results in death of some kind. Death in relationships, death of relationships, death of opportunity for blessing...and on and on. Look carefully at those things in your life that are not in accordance with His will...even those you think might be harmless...follow the logical progression and you will find the end of it is death.
So why did I say these verses are so practical? They are practical because, as I said before, they tell us that sin is a process...it is not something that just happens out of the blue. We can stop it before the sin is conceived at the emotional level or in the mind...if it reaches the will..it is too late. How? By being careful what we expose our emotions and our minds too. A fool's mind is an open door...not discerning...allowing anything through. It is also important to understand that emotions bypass our intellect. When we feel an emotional rush coming...stop and THINK! Both our emotions and our minds need to be guarded by the word of God. Our emotions need to find a willing mate in our mind for sin to be conceived.
For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.--2nd Corinthians 10:4-5
How do we do this practically...the answer you will get from me is always the same. Immerse yourself in the word. Bring your mind and emotions under the control of the Spirit of God by saturating yourself in the word of God. You will then have a mind renewed and transformed by His word. A mind set on things above not on earthly things. Are you getting the picture? Surrender to the Spirit of God and want what God wants in your life. Let Him be your all in all. Abide in His word...dwell there.
Secondly, stop blaming God or anyone else for your sin. Verse 16 says it all: DO NOT BE DECEIVED MY BELOVED BRETHREN (MY DAUGHTERS.) You have NO ONE to blame but yourself. Stop walking around blindly...the enemy is you. Start looking within when you sin. What is your heart set on that you are willing to sin to get it. Ask yourself what is it that you wanted that you were not getting that caused you to be impatient, unkind or unforgiving to those the Lord has placed in your life. As you do this it will become clear to you that it is your own lusts that get you into trouble.
Mom
Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.--James 1:14-16
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
These are some of those most helpful, practical verses in Scripture. They helped me change the way I thought about sin and enabled me to sin less. I stopped letting myself be deceived by blaming my sin on God, some physical ailment, on someone else or Satan and saw that I was responsible for my sin. I saw that there was an enemy inside, my flesh, that I needed to deal with and control. For more on this go here: The Blame Game - James 1:13
James starts off by telling us every man is tempted. Temptation is common to all of us. We are drawn away by our own desires and enticed. Let's break that down a little bit. What draws us away from the perfect will of God: Our own lusts...our own desires....what WE want as opposed to what God wants. The third reason God is not the source of our sin is the nature of lust. Lust comes from within our fallen nature.
James uses the hunting and fishing terms dragged and enticed in verse 14. (feeling flattered??) The first speaks of an animal being lured into a trap and the second of a baited hook. The bait covers the sorrow, pain and death that lies underneath. The reason animals are baited is to deceive them into being drawn into the trap. Instead of experiencing pleasure when they take the bait, they face capture and death. The same thing happens to us girls. Maybe it is a little more subtle, but we face the same kind of temptations. The baited hooks come in all different shapes and sizes and some are more appealing to us than others because our lusts are our own...they are individual to us. Nevertheless, we are baited, hooked and trapped by them in a deadly way.
James drops the hunting and fishing analogies in verse 15 to talk about babies. Quite a switch. He says then when lusts has conceived it brings forth a child and the child when it is full grown brings forth death. Uh oh. Do you see that sin is not a solitary act like some of us might like to think. The bible tells us it is a process. Girls, I cannot begin to tell you how helpful this is to know if you want to gain control of the enemy within. Here is how it starts...It starts with desire which plays with our emotions. So we see something and we get that feeling that we want it. We begin to feel that it will satisfy us. We begin to long for it. Sin begins with desire. It goes to the mind next.
The second "d" is deception. This is when you start to reason with yourself why you need whatever it is you desire. You justify it in your mind. You begin to think you have a right to it. It starts with desire in the emotion and then to deception in the mind as you try to rationalize your desire.
The next thing that happens is sin is conceived in your will. John MacArthur calls this "design". Sin is conceived at the moment we convince our minds that we have every right to have whatever it is we want. Once the mind is convinced...then it conceives of the sin itself. Plans it, so to speak.
The last "d" stands for disobedience. The actual sin is committed and this, of course, occurs in the behavior. Sin begins with desire in the emotions. The emotions lead the mind to justify or rationalize the sin. Once the mind is convinced, the sin is conceived in the will and acted upon in the behavior.
The last part of verse 15 says that when the child (sin) is full grown it brings forth death...literally it is a killer! You are being deceived if you think you are getting away with any sin and not experiencing consequences. Sin always results in death of some kind. Death in relationships, death of relationships, death of opportunity for blessing...and on and on. Look carefully at those things in your life that are not in accordance with His will...even those you think might be harmless...follow the logical progression and you will find the end of it is death.
So why did I say these verses are so practical? They are practical because, as I said before, they tell us that sin is a process...it is not something that just happens out of the blue. We can stop it before the sin is conceived at the emotional level or in the mind...if it reaches the will..it is too late. How? By being careful what we expose our emotions and our minds too. A fool's mind is an open door...not discerning...allowing anything through. It is also important to understand that emotions bypass our intellect. When we feel an emotional rush coming...stop and THINK! Both our emotions and our minds need to be guarded by the word of God. Our emotions need to find a willing mate in our mind for sin to be conceived.
For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.--2nd Corinthians 10:4-5
How do we do this practically...the answer you will get from me is always the same. Immerse yourself in the word. Bring your mind and emotions under the control of the Spirit of God by saturating yourself in the word of God. You will then have a mind renewed and transformed by His word. A mind set on things above not on earthly things. Are you getting the picture? Surrender to the Spirit of God and want what God wants in your life. Let Him be your all in all. Abide in His word...dwell there.
Secondly, stop blaming God or anyone else for your sin. Verse 16 says it all: DO NOT BE DECEIVED MY BELOVED BRETHREN (MY DAUGHTERS.) You have NO ONE to blame but yourself. Stop walking around blindly...the enemy is you. Start looking within when you sin. What is your heart set on that you are willing to sin to get it. Ask yourself what is it that you wanted that you were not getting that caused you to be impatient, unkind or unforgiving to those the Lord has placed in your life. As you do this it will become clear to you that it is your own lusts that get you into trouble.
Having done this repent of any wrong desires and ask God to give you the right desires (His desires) and by faith make the decision to move in the direction where Christ is leading you. Do it whether you feel like it or not, asking and counting on Him to align your will with His. Little by little you will see the fruit.
This process is the key to victory over sin. It is a moment by moment dying to self and living for Christ. Putting off the old man and putting on the new. Remember you are part of God's plan. You have works that He has prepared beforehand that you should walk in them. You can't fulfill his perfect plan for you unless you are living for Him and dying to your wants and desires. You can't do that without surrendering moment by moment to God's Spirit and allowing Him to live through you. As a believer God promises to work all things together for you for good, but imagine what he can do with someone who is fully submitted to Him and His desires. Imitate Christ who fully submitted Himself to His Father making our redemption possible. Put all your energies and efforts into living for Christ.
LoveMom
Paul's Faithful Saying...2nd Timothy 2:11-13
11 This is a faithful saying:
For if we died with Him,
We shall also live with Him.
12 If we endure,
We shall also reign with Him.
If we deny Him,
He also will deny us.
13 If we are faithless,
He remains faithful;
He cannot deny Himself.
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
I love this faithful saying from Paul...it is so rich. Let's look at verse 11. "For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him." This refers to a believer's participation in the death and resurrection of Christ.
Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.--Romans 6:4-11
That is the Christian life girls..we die to live. When we die to ourselves and what we want here on earth, we will experience exceedingly abundantly what God has for us here and in heaven. So the best of life here living for Christ and the best in the life beyond. It is a paradox...and paradoxes really don't make much sense unless we see them worked out....and even then they do not make sense because...you know...they are paradoxes.
I take up my cross and live for Christ and His desires...I choose to love and live sacrificially for the redemption or spiritual growth of someone else. I tried to think of examples of how I chose to love and live sacrificially for the redemption of someone else. I see all the choices I made for Christ in my life...what I do not see is the sacrifice they involved anymore...I did when they were made, but all I see now are the blessings and the joy. Living for Christ and His desires have changed my desires. That is the result of walking by faith...He pours out His grace and makes the path one of joy.
The next verse in this faithful saying of Paul's is in verse 12: If we endure, We shall also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He also will deny us. Persevering is evidence of our true saving faith. We are not saved because we persevere but genuine faith endures to the end. 1 Peter 1:5 says that true believers are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation. If we fall away then it is conclusive proof that we were never a believer in the first place. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.--1 John 2:19
Verse 12 also tells us we shall also reign with Him in His future kingdom. Revelation 20:6 says, Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.
The next part of verse 12 says that if we deny Him, He also will deny us. This does not mean once or even twice, but a deliberate willful denial. The kind of denial indicated in this verse is a permanent one...not a temporary one like Peters. Those that deny Christ face the frightening reality of one day being denied by Him before the Father in heaven.
Let's look at Peter's denial of Christ here as an example. Peter denied Jesus three times but we see Jesus minister to Peter in John 21:15-17. Are you seeing the Lord's love and compassion? Jesus asks Peter if he loved Him supremely with unswerving devotion. Peter answered with a word signifying his love for Jesus but did not use same word Jesus used meaning total devotion. Hmmm...perhaps Peter was reluctant to use the word signifying unswerving devotion because he felt that his word and deed had not reflected that kind of love toward His Lord in the past. Jesus asked Peter if he loved Him supremely several times to underscore the need for a disciple of His to be committed and devoted. Girls, our love for Jesus must be above everything else in our lives. Sometimes we get skittish about that word commitment...we don't want to seem fanatical, but a follower of Christ by definition must be totally committed...half-hearted just will not do.
The next verse is my favorite in this faithful saying of Paul's. If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself. Now we read all the time that God is faithful...and He is. Jesus is faithful to save those who believe in Him and He is also faithful to judge those who do not. John 3:16-18 says it all.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Hebrews tells us that He who promised is faithful. For Jesus to do anything else would be inconsistent with His holy and unchanging nature. THAT is good news! God's blessings girls are continually flowing. If you draw near, you will be the recipient of those blessings because you are in close proximity to them. If you move away, the blessings still flow but you are out of range. Draw near to Him with your whole heart..stay under the protection of His will...be blessed!
Love
Mom
For if we died with Him,
We shall also live with Him.
12 If we endure,
We shall also reign with Him.
If we deny Him,
He also will deny us.
13 If we are faithless,
He remains faithful;
He cannot deny Himself.
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
I love this faithful saying from Paul...it is so rich. Let's look at verse 11. "For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him." This refers to a believer's participation in the death and resurrection of Christ.
Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.--Romans 6:4-11
That is the Christian life girls..we die to live. When we die to ourselves and what we want here on earth, we will experience exceedingly abundantly what God has for us here and in heaven. So the best of life here living for Christ and the best in the life beyond. It is a paradox...and paradoxes really don't make much sense unless we see them worked out....and even then they do not make sense because...you know...they are paradoxes.
I take up my cross and live for Christ and His desires...I choose to love and live sacrificially for the redemption or spiritual growth of someone else. I tried to think of examples of how I chose to love and live sacrificially for the redemption of someone else. I see all the choices I made for Christ in my life...what I do not see is the sacrifice they involved anymore...I did when they were made, but all I see now are the blessings and the joy. Living for Christ and His desires have changed my desires. That is the result of walking by faith...He pours out His grace and makes the path one of joy.
The next verse in this faithful saying of Paul's is in verse 12: If we endure, We shall also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He also will deny us. Persevering is evidence of our true saving faith. We are not saved because we persevere but genuine faith endures to the end. 1 Peter 1:5 says that true believers are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation. If we fall away then it is conclusive proof that we were never a believer in the first place. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.--1 John 2:19
Verse 12 also tells us we shall also reign with Him in His future kingdom. Revelation 20:6 says, Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.
The next part of verse 12 says that if we deny Him, He also will deny us. This does not mean once or even twice, but a deliberate willful denial. The kind of denial indicated in this verse is a permanent one...not a temporary one like Peters. Those that deny Christ face the frightening reality of one day being denied by Him before the Father in heaven.
Let's look at Peter's denial of Christ here as an example. Peter denied Jesus three times but we see Jesus minister to Peter in John 21:15-17. Are you seeing the Lord's love and compassion? Jesus asks Peter if he loved Him supremely with unswerving devotion. Peter answered with a word signifying his love for Jesus but did not use same word Jesus used meaning total devotion. Hmmm...perhaps Peter was reluctant to use the word signifying unswerving devotion because he felt that his word and deed had not reflected that kind of love toward His Lord in the past. Jesus asked Peter if he loved Him supremely several times to underscore the need for a disciple of His to be committed and devoted. Girls, our love for Jesus must be above everything else in our lives. Sometimes we get skittish about that word commitment...we don't want to seem fanatical, but a follower of Christ by definition must be totally committed...half-hearted just will not do.
The next verse is my favorite in this faithful saying of Paul's. If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself. Now we read all the time that God is faithful...and He is. Jesus is faithful to save those who believe in Him and He is also faithful to judge those who do not. John 3:16-18 says it all.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Hebrews tells us that He who promised is faithful. For Jesus to do anything else would be inconsistent with His holy and unchanging nature. THAT is good news! God's blessings girls are continually flowing. If you draw near, you will be the recipient of those blessings because you are in close proximity to them. If you move away, the blessings still flow but you are out of range. Draw near to Him with your whole heart..stay under the protection of His will...be blessed!
Love
Mom
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Exhortations to my Daughters from 2nd Timothy 2....
You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. And also if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. The hardworking farmer must be first to partake of the crops. Consider what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in all things.--2nd Timothy 2:1-7
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna, and Mikayla,
I am really loving 2nd Timothy and am having a difficult time leaving the second chapter. Paul had such a father's heart for Timothy. He says so many of things to him that I want to say to you girls. Paul knows what is ahead for Timothy and wants him shored up in his God. Paul's race is almost done and he wants to exhort Timothy to endure and press forward one more time before he himself dies and goes to be with his Lord.
The first one we already looked at in another post. Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Remember this one when you are having a bad day...remember it every day. Remember it before you get out of bed in the morning. Be strong in God's undeserved favor on your behalf. We are saved by grace, and we are to walk in grace. We have this treasure, Christ, in our earthen vessels. We are to trust completely in Him and His power to get us through. I don't have to be impressive...it is not up to me. It is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. I can surrender and leave the results to Him.
Commit what you have learned to faithful men. Girls, be a good steward of what you have heard and learned...teach them to faithful women. Study the word and then don't keep it to yourself! Share it, disciple others and most importantly what you teach should be from the word of God...not the philosophies of men.
Next, Paul exhorts Timothy to endure hardship as a soldier of Jesus Christ. A good soldier endures and expects hardship and does not entangle himself in the affairs of this life but lives to please who enlisted him. So we are to live to please only God. That is a blessing from where I sit. There are so many people out there. I don't have to please any of them. I only have to please Him who enlisted me...Jesus Christ,who laid down His life for me. That keeps it simple.
Paul also uses an athletic illustration. He tells Timothy if you are going to run the race to win a prize you have to run it according to the rules. Paul was in prison awaiting trial before Nero...suffering as an evil doer. Paul was looking like a real loser from the world's standard but from the heavenly perspective he was a winner. He played according to the rules laid down in Scripture and his crown awaited him in heaven. He ran to please his Lord and so should we.
Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind. --Philippians 2:12-15
The next image we find is that of a patient farmer. The picture that comes to mind for me is that of a diligent and hardworking farmer who is patient and faithful during the planting, watering and the waiting.We also need to be patient. Each one of us is part of the body of Christ and fulfills a purpose that God planned out for us from the foundation of the world. If we abide in the vine and walk in those works, the fruit will come.
1st Corinthians 3:5-9 says this. "What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building."
The last one we will look at for this post is to consider. It says to consider or think and the Lord will give you understanding. Consider....exercise the mind. Meditate on the word of God. Chew on it. Think on it and the Lord will give you understanding. That means literally He will mentally put it all together for you. Talk to the Lord as you read the Scripture...let Him put it together for you. The bible says that as a man thinks he is. Immerse yourself in the word. Let it fill your mind and saturate it. There is nothing you can do that is more profitable.
Love
Mom
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna, and Mikayla,
I am really loving 2nd Timothy and am having a difficult time leaving the second chapter. Paul had such a father's heart for Timothy. He says so many of things to him that I want to say to you girls. Paul knows what is ahead for Timothy and wants him shored up in his God. Paul's race is almost done and he wants to exhort Timothy to endure and press forward one more time before he himself dies and goes to be with his Lord.
The first one we already looked at in another post. Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Remember this one when you are having a bad day...remember it every day. Remember it before you get out of bed in the morning. Be strong in God's undeserved favor on your behalf. We are saved by grace, and we are to walk in grace. We have this treasure, Christ, in our earthen vessels. We are to trust completely in Him and His power to get us through. I don't have to be impressive...it is not up to me. It is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. I can surrender and leave the results to Him.
Commit what you have learned to faithful men. Girls, be a good steward of what you have heard and learned...teach them to faithful women. Study the word and then don't keep it to yourself! Share it, disciple others and most importantly what you teach should be from the word of God...not the philosophies of men.
Next, Paul exhorts Timothy to endure hardship as a soldier of Jesus Christ. A good soldier endures and expects hardship and does not entangle himself in the affairs of this life but lives to please who enlisted him. So we are to live to please only God. That is a blessing from where I sit. There are so many people out there. I don't have to please any of them. I only have to please Him who enlisted me...Jesus Christ,who laid down His life for me. That keeps it simple.
Paul also uses an athletic illustration. He tells Timothy if you are going to run the race to win a prize you have to run it according to the rules. Paul was in prison awaiting trial before Nero...suffering as an evil doer. Paul was looking like a real loser from the world's standard but from the heavenly perspective he was a winner. He played according to the rules laid down in Scripture and his crown awaited him in heaven. He ran to please his Lord and so should we.
Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind. --Philippians 2:12-15
The next image we find is that of a patient farmer. The picture that comes to mind for me is that of a diligent and hardworking farmer who is patient and faithful during the planting, watering and the waiting.We also need to be patient. Each one of us is part of the body of Christ and fulfills a purpose that God planned out for us from the foundation of the world. If we abide in the vine and walk in those works, the fruit will come.
1st Corinthians 3:5-9 says this. "What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building."
The last one we will look at for this post is to consider. It says to consider or think and the Lord will give you understanding. Consider....exercise the mind. Meditate on the word of God. Chew on it. Think on it and the Lord will give you understanding. That means literally He will mentally put it all together for you. Talk to the Lord as you read the Scripture...let Him put it together for you. The bible says that as a man thinks he is. Immerse yourself in the word. Let it fill your mind and saturate it. There is nothing you can do that is more profitable.
Love
Mom
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Loneliness and Sorrow...
Monday, February 9, 2009
Chapter 20 and 21: The Wife's Loneliness and Sorrow
I am combining these two...I can't write about one and not the other....This one is not from the book but from my heart...Loneliness and Sorrow have been two of the greatest gifts to me from the Lord.They are what drew me closer to Him and made me realize that He is my all in all.. That He is my strong tower, my fortress, my strength and most of all my companion at all times. The One who will never leave me nor forsake me..there is nothing that man can do to me...My God is with me. Solomon writes in the Song of Solomon..."Come away with me, my love....I have learned to seek the Lord and go to Him...my bible is my friend...it is my most precious possession. I have received such comfort from the Lord through His word. I can remember reaching the top of my emotional pain scale and right at the time of my greatest suffering I realized without a shadow of a doubt that I would not trade this trial for my life to be back the way it was...No...what would cause more pain then and now would be the removal of my desire to seek Jesus...I finally wanted Jesus more than I wanted anything else! (not that there aren't battles)...but my heart truly learned that day (I can remember the moment and I can remember where I was) that fellowship with Him was to be desired above all else. I understood that my greatest joy was Him..that despite my circumstances I could rejoice in Him and live for Him.
Some of my wrong reactions to loneliness and grief were: self-pity...woe is me, a lack of thankfulness, trying to push away the feelings instead of bringing them to God, focusing on what I didn't have, discontentedness...Self-pity sends a lonely and grieving person into the pit of despair and depression...Looking outward and upward rather than inward is the only remedy. Spending time in God's word helped me renew my mind and see the loneliness and grief as an opportunity to obey God even though my feelings wanted me to do something else...It was a huge step of faith and I took very tiny steps but with each one my Lord was there to light up my darkness and show me the results of my tiny steps of faith. Loneliness and grief became my companions (Hinds feet on High Places) and that was okay because I was learning and seeing so much truth as God's word came to life for me...it also gave me opportunities to do things I wouldn't normally have tried...my focus always being on people and the gratification of being in relationships) There is much more to me today than there was 10 years ago...I have had the opportunity to spend lots and lots of time with my children, my husband and with the Lord and His word. I have developed many hobbies...drawing, writing, sewing, crocheting...Much much fruit has come from that time. I no longer see my husband as someone to fix my feelings and be my sole and only companion but as a fellow sojourner whom the Lord has graciously given me to be a helpmeet to.
In summary what did I learn through my own loneliness and sorrow...seek Jesus without ceasing...cry out and admit your need to Him. Read, study and memorize His word. Look to it as your necessary food. Look at the moment...at what God has for you to do right now...pray and by faith do it.
Just a few verses that I meditated on during that time: Owe no one anything but love...love suffers long and is kind...love does not seek its own...hopes all things, endures all things, bears all things...love never fails...let my gentleness...my bigheartedness, my willingness to overlook offenses be known to all men...commit myself to Him who judges righteously, let the Lord fight for you and you shall hold your peace..before honor is humility...humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and He will exalt you in due time casting all your cares upon Him for He cares for you, God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble...but may the God of all grace who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen and settle you..Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path...If I say, "Surely the darkness shall fall on me," Even the night shall be light about me; psalm 130, the Lord will perfect that which concerns me, in the multitude of my anxieties within your comforts delight my soul...psalm 139....the joy of the Lord is my strength...but you O Lord are a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth...
The following verse from psalm 84 is the background music behind everything: Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, Whose heart is set on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of Baca (tears or weeping) They make it a spring. The rain also covers it with pools. They go from strength to strength, Each one appears before God in Zion..remembering that as Christians our suffering has meaning and purpose...that the Lord works all things together for good to those who love God to those who are the called according to His purpose should help us to use it as an opportunity to glorify Him and fulfill His purposes in us and through us.
Be Strong in Grace...
You therefore, my son, (my daughters) be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.--2nd Timothy 2:1
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
This one really spoke to my heart. I am getting older. I see some of my closest friends suffering through serious illness...I see the same in my own family. I also see the effect of sin and the terrible grief and sadness it produces. I see the consequences of it years later. The older I get the harder it is to be strong in myself. To grit my teeth and just get through this life. This life is meant to break us girls. It is meant to drive us to our Savior. We are suppose to see our weakness and our inability to make anything work or do any good for any length of time. That is God's mercy and compassion at work. He does not want any of us to perish but for all to come to life in His Son. His desire is that we come to Him in our brokenness and admit our need. It is then that He can give us new life and continually supply us with His grace in our time of need.
I am so glad Paul did not say...get a grip Timothy...stop complaining....be strong in yourself. Paul told his precious son in the faith that he was never to see again in this world, to be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Paul says this in 1 Corinthians about his own ministry: "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." Be strong in God's undeserved favor on your behalf. We are saved by grace, and we are to walk in grace. We have this treasure, Christ, in our earthen vessels. We are to trust completely in Him and His power to get us through. Surrender is the way to victory.
It is so good to remember this especially when we are ill, or weak emotionally or when we are having a day when we are feeling inferior to those around us. I only have to be strong in His grace...it is not me...I don't have to be impressive....I can surrender and leave the results to Him.
But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption— that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the LORD.”--1 Corinthians 1:27-31
How freeing...how relieving. How wonderful it is to remember that I am a foolish thing that God has chosen to use for His purpose and His plan. I can relax and let Him do the work.
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.--Ephesians 2:8-9
Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus...
Love
Mom
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
This one really spoke to my heart. I am getting older. I see some of my closest friends suffering through serious illness...I see the same in my own family. I also see the effect of sin and the terrible grief and sadness it produces. I see the consequences of it years later. The older I get the harder it is to be strong in myself. To grit my teeth and just get through this life. This life is meant to break us girls. It is meant to drive us to our Savior. We are suppose to see our weakness and our inability to make anything work or do any good for any length of time. That is God's mercy and compassion at work. He does not want any of us to perish but for all to come to life in His Son. His desire is that we come to Him in our brokenness and admit our need. It is then that He can give us new life and continually supply us with His grace in our time of need.
I am so glad Paul did not say...get a grip Timothy...stop complaining....be strong in yourself. Paul told his precious son in the faith that he was never to see again in this world, to be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Paul says this in 1 Corinthians about his own ministry: "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." Be strong in God's undeserved favor on your behalf. We are saved by grace, and we are to walk in grace. We have this treasure, Christ, in our earthen vessels. We are to trust completely in Him and His power to get us through. Surrender is the way to victory.
It is so good to remember this especially when we are ill, or weak emotionally or when we are having a day when we are feeling inferior to those around us. I only have to be strong in His grace...it is not me...I don't have to be impressive....I can surrender and leave the results to Him.
But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption— that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the LORD.”--1 Corinthians 1:27-31
How freeing...how relieving. How wonderful it is to remember that I am a foolish thing that God has chosen to use for His purpose and His plan. I can relax and let Him do the work.
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.--Ephesians 2:8-9
Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus...
Love
Mom
Fix your eyes on Jesus...
Who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, 10 but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,--2nd Timothy 1:9-10
Dear Girls,
This is a quick note...there is lots and lots in this small passage of Scripture but the words that spoke to my heart this morning were these: "but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ,". Wow...it has all been revealed in Him. God's purpose and plan for each one of us before time began is revealed in Jesus Christ. The King James version says made manifest. It is all about Him. This verse brought me to John 1 and also the the Servant Songs in Isaiah. Whatever we want to know about God, about His purposes and about His plan has been revealed in Jesus. Here is John 1:1-18.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.’”And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.
Two of the Servants songs in Isaiah start out with Behold My Servant. Heed those words, girls. They will change you from the inside out. They are the answer to every problem you will face. They can be the song in your heart as you go to sleep at night and your peace as you go about your day. Study...gaze upon....Jesus. Immerse yourself in His word. As you fill your heart and mind with Him, He will make all your crooked places straight and will focus your eyes on what profits. Jesus is the Becoming One...He becomes whatever you need...He will be your guide even unto death.
Girls...it says this in verse 12 of the first chapter in 2nd Timothy: "For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day." Meditate on "KNOW WHOM I HAVE BELIEVED. Know WHO you believe. That is key. Knowing WHO you believe will get you through the dark times that occur in all our lives. For more go here: Behold My Servant
Love
Mom
Dear Girls,
This is a quick note...there is lots and lots in this small passage of Scripture but the words that spoke to my heart this morning were these: "but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ,". Wow...it has all been revealed in Him. God's purpose and plan for each one of us before time began is revealed in Jesus Christ. The King James version says made manifest. It is all about Him. This verse brought me to John 1 and also the the Servant Songs in Isaiah. Whatever we want to know about God, about His purposes and about His plan has been revealed in Jesus. Here is John 1:1-18.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.’”And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.
Two of the Servants songs in Isaiah start out with Behold My Servant. Heed those words, girls. They will change you from the inside out. They are the answer to every problem you will face. They can be the song in your heart as you go to sleep at night and your peace as you go about your day. Study...gaze upon....Jesus. Immerse yourself in His word. As you fill your heart and mind with Him, He will make all your crooked places straight and will focus your eyes on what profits. Jesus is the Becoming One...He becomes whatever you need...He will be your guide even unto death.
Girls...it says this in verse 12 of the first chapter in 2nd Timothy: "For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day." Meditate on "KNOW WHOM I HAVE BELIEVED. Know WHO you believe. That is key. Knowing WHO you believe will get you through the dark times that occur in all our lives. For more go here: Behold My Servant
Love
Mom
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
2 Timothy 1:1-7
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus, To Timothy, a beloved son: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. 3 I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day, 4 greatly desiring to see you, being mindful of your tears, that I may be filled with joy, when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also. Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
Just some quick thoughts on the beginning of 2nd Timothy. I was first struck with how lightly Paul held on to the things of this world. He is about to have his trial before Nero...it is perhaps just days away and he is in a dank, dark and cold dungeon. Paul is not downcast or depressed. His mind is set on things above. He is writing to encourage and bolster the faith of his son in the faith, Timothy. His love, care and concern for him are evident. It is a book filled with exhortation. Paul lived for the eternal and wanted his son Timothy to, also. Girls, that is my prayer for you...that you would live for the eternal...that each one of you would set your minds and hearts on things above and hold on to this world lightly. It is the only thing that profits both in this world and in the next.
Paul said that he prayed for Timothy ceaselessly night and day. I love you all but I do not pray for you ceaselessly. I am so glad that there is One who does. Hebrews 7:25 tells us this: "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." I love knowing that Jesus does not grow weary that He continually bring you before the throne of God. I can rest knowing that His love for you is so much greater than my own. More next time...Lord willing.
Love
Mom who is glad that each of you are in His perfect care...
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
Just some quick thoughts on the beginning of 2nd Timothy. I was first struck with how lightly Paul held on to the things of this world. He is about to have his trial before Nero...it is perhaps just days away and he is in a dank, dark and cold dungeon. Paul is not downcast or depressed. His mind is set on things above. He is writing to encourage and bolster the faith of his son in the faith, Timothy. His love, care and concern for him are evident. It is a book filled with exhortation. Paul lived for the eternal and wanted his son Timothy to, also. Girls, that is my prayer for you...that you would live for the eternal...that each one of you would set your minds and hearts on things above and hold on to this world lightly. It is the only thing that profits both in this world and in the next.
Paul said that he prayed for Timothy ceaselessly night and day. I love you all but I do not pray for you ceaselessly. I am so glad that there is One who does. Hebrews 7:25 tells us this: "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." I love knowing that Jesus does not grow weary that He continually bring you before the throne of God. I can rest knowing that His love for you is so much greater than my own. More next time...Lord willing.
Love
Mom who is glad that each of you are in His perfect care...
Monday, November 15, 2010
WATCH OUT! LOOK AHEAD!
Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.--James 1:13-18
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
In these verses James gives us five proofs to support his exhortation in verse 13 that God is not responsible for temptation and therefore not responsible for sin. In the previous post, we looked at the nature of evil and how its very essence sets it apart from God.
Today we will look at verse 14 and the nature of man. Verse 14 says "but each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. The first thing it says is that temptation does not come from God and that none of us escapes temptation...it is common to all men....no exceptions. Then comes the "when he is drawn away and enticed part...the first term is a hunting term the second one a fishing term. Are you feeling flattered yet? So what are we lured away, dragged away, compelled away, beguiled away by...our own lusts. Not by God...not by Satan...who may have baited the hook...but we are drawn away by own nature which is fallen and in a part of that fallen nature is a desire for evil. Please also notice that our lusts are individual. We will each be tempted by our own lusts. Some baited hooks will look better to you than others. Your hook may repel someone else or vice versa. The bottom line here is the enemy is in us...it is not God...it is not Satan...nor is it other people. The enemy is us. Listen to what Paul says in Romans 7 starting in verse 15:
For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. 16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. 22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
Girls, even though we are saved and have the Spirit of God living inside us, we still have a problem. We still have an enemy...our own flesh with its passions and desires. Lusts in and of themselves are not evil. The word lusts is epithumia in the Greek, and means the desire of the soul or the strong passion of the soul. Drinking, eating, sleeping and sex are all normal God given desires necessary for survival. Unfortunately, our God given passions even for survival, have been corrupted by our fallen nature. It is when we try to satisfy our lusts outside of the will of God that they become sin.
For example, my desire might be wanting uninterrupted time. This is not a bad thing. We all need time when we need to think our own thoughts, pray, read and plan. Perhaps, however, that I begin to feel that I am owed the time. Suppose that desire begins to interfere with my normal living responsibilities and I find myself becoming impatient with those God has entrusted to my care, when I am interrupted. Then that desire is now outside of the will of God. Why? Because I AM SINNING TO GET IT OR SINNING WHEN I DO NOT GET IT.
We need to keep our hearts with all diligence and control our desires and passions by seeing them in the light of what God says in His word. Again..the answer is immersing yourself in the word...it is our only offensive weapon against our enemy. Romans 12: 2 says: "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." Warren Wiersbe says our desires should be our servants not our masters. A good saying to remember and put into practice.
The command here from your mother, girls is to WATCH OUT AHEAD...LOOK BEYOND THE MOMENT. SEE WHAT IS UP AHEAD. James 1:14 always reminds me of the show Lost in Space from the 1960's. Will Robinson had a robot that would say DANGER! DANGER! Sometimes I think we all need a robot like that to warn us away from the danger of our own desires. Imagine if we could see the effects of our sin before we committed to them. Picture David just before he sinned with Bathsheba. Would David have taken the bait, if he had been able to see even a portion of the consequence of his sin...the death of his baby son and the death of Uriah, Bathsheba's husband by his own command? No, he would have run in the other direction. That is why, however, the hook is baited because it covers the sorrow that lays beneath. It deceives...Look ahead girls...see beyond the momentary pleasure to the trap that lays beneath.
I don't need anyone any extra help from anywhere to help me to sin and neither do you. I already have the enemy in my flesh...lust...that moves toward the lure. The nature of man tells us where the problem is...in our flesh where nothing good dwells.
Love
Mom
James tells us here that sin is not a spontaneous act but the result of a process. We are drawn away (lured) by our own desires and enticed (baited). So like a fish in a pond we are lured to a baited hook...the hook is baited to disguise what is actually underneath. A hook....OUCH! The fish bites. Desire has conceived...sin is birthed. The fish tastes the goodness of the bait for a moment but is then hooked, reeled in and left to die. For a fish it is over in an instant. For us it can go on for years and years until death inevitably comes, and we are facing an eternity in hell separated from God.
Warren Wiersbe breaks these two verses up into the four stages of sin and he uses words for each stage that begin with the letter "D" This really appealed to me when I first read it and I have found it very helpful when examining my own heart. The four stages of sin are desire, deception, disobedience and death.
I think these four are best explained using a very familiar example. Genesis 3:1-24.
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
In these verses James gives us five proofs to support his exhortation in verse 13 that God is not responsible for temptation and therefore not responsible for sin. In the previous post, we looked at the nature of evil and how its very essence sets it apart from God.
Today we will look at verse 14 and the nature of man. Verse 14 says "but each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. The first thing it says is that temptation does not come from God and that none of us escapes temptation...it is common to all men....no exceptions. Then comes the "when he is drawn away and enticed part...the first term is a hunting term the second one a fishing term. Are you feeling flattered yet? So what are we lured away, dragged away, compelled away, beguiled away by...our own lusts. Not by God...not by Satan...who may have baited the hook...but we are drawn away by own nature which is fallen and in a part of that fallen nature is a desire for evil. Please also notice that our lusts are individual. We will each be tempted by our own lusts. Some baited hooks will look better to you than others. Your hook may repel someone else or vice versa. The bottom line here is the enemy is in us...it is not God...it is not Satan...nor is it other people. The enemy is us. Listen to what Paul says in Romans 7 starting in verse 15:
For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. 16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. 22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
Girls, even though we are saved and have the Spirit of God living inside us, we still have a problem. We still have an enemy...our own flesh with its passions and desires. Lusts in and of themselves are not evil. The word lusts is epithumia in the Greek, and means the desire of the soul or the strong passion of the soul. Drinking, eating, sleeping and sex are all normal God given desires necessary for survival. Unfortunately, our God given passions even for survival, have been corrupted by our fallen nature. It is when we try to satisfy our lusts outside of the will of God that they become sin.
For example, my desire might be wanting uninterrupted time. This is not a bad thing. We all need time when we need to think our own thoughts, pray, read and plan. Perhaps, however, that I begin to feel that I am owed the time. Suppose that desire begins to interfere with my normal living responsibilities and I find myself becoming impatient with those God has entrusted to my care, when I am interrupted. Then that desire is now outside of the will of God. Why? Because I AM SINNING TO GET IT OR SINNING WHEN I DO NOT GET IT.
We need to keep our hearts with all diligence and control our desires and passions by seeing them in the light of what God says in His word. Again..the answer is immersing yourself in the word...it is our only offensive weapon against our enemy. Romans 12: 2 says: "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." Warren Wiersbe says our desires should be our servants not our masters. A good saying to remember and put into practice.
The command here from your mother, girls is to WATCH OUT AHEAD...LOOK BEYOND THE MOMENT. SEE WHAT IS UP AHEAD. James 1:14 always reminds me of the show Lost in Space from the 1960's. Will Robinson had a robot that would say DANGER! DANGER! Sometimes I think we all need a robot like that to warn us away from the danger of our own desires. Imagine if we could see the effects of our sin before we committed to them. Picture David just before he sinned with Bathsheba. Would David have taken the bait, if he had been able to see even a portion of the consequence of his sin...the death of his baby son and the death of Uriah, Bathsheba's husband by his own command? No, he would have run in the other direction. That is why, however, the hook is baited because it covers the sorrow that lays beneath. It deceives...Look ahead girls...see beyond the momentary pleasure to the trap that lays beneath.
I don't need anyone any extra help from anywhere to help me to sin and neither do you. I already have the enemy in my flesh...lust...that moves toward the lure. The nature of man tells us where the problem is...in our flesh where nothing good dwells.
Love
Mom
James tells us here that sin is not a spontaneous act but the result of a process. We are drawn away (lured) by our own desires and enticed (baited). So like a fish in a pond we are lured to a baited hook...the hook is baited to disguise what is actually underneath. A hook....OUCH! The fish bites. Desire has conceived...sin is birthed. The fish tastes the goodness of the bait for a moment but is then hooked, reeled in and left to die. For a fish it is over in an instant. For us it can go on for years and years until death inevitably comes, and we are facing an eternity in hell separated from God.
Warren Wiersbe breaks these two verses up into the four stages of sin and he uses words for each stage that begin with the letter "D" This really appealed to me when I first read it and I have found it very helpful when examining my own heart. The four stages of sin are desire, deception, disobedience and death.
I think these four are best explained using a very familiar example. Genesis 3:1-24.
James 1:13 - The Blame Game
Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.--James 1:13-18
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
I love this particular section of Scripture...5 verses packed with wisdom! We will look only at verse 13 for this post. The message of it is really the heart of these verses. God cannot be tempted nor does He tempt anyone!
It reads, "Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.
1 Corinthians 10 says that temptations are common to man and verse 14 of the KJV of the very passage we are looking at begins by saying, "but every man is tempted." We all face both trials and temptations. How we deal with them and respond is a test of genuine faith or lack of it. Do you blame others or God or do you accept responsibility for your own sin?
I have learned in my study of this section of James that the same Greek verb "peirazo" and the same Greek noun "peirasmos are used in verse 2 and verse 13 but are translated differently. The word is translated trial in verse 2 and temptation in verse 13. So why does James make the distinction between trials and temptations. "Trials" come from God to test us and strengthen us and in those trials God allows temptations to occur. I repeat...God allows temptations to occur, but God does not tempt anyone. So a trial on the outside can become a temptation on the inside when we doubt God's love and care for us and disobey. Trials are all about testing, strengthening and maturing us. In the midst of one, however, this can be easily forgotten because trials are hard. They cause us to lose our balance, question God's love and resist His will. Satan then comes on the stage and cleverly provides an opportunity for us to perhaps escape the trial. If we take the bait, we have given way to temptation and allowed the trial to become a solicitation for evil. The results of which will obviously not be God's best for us. Each trial we go through then has the potential to strengthen us and make us more like our Lord or it can become an opportunity for sin. The beautiful thing here is that God has promised not to test us more than we are able and always provides a way of escape. Look and pray for God's way to escape the pressure that is inherent to a trial.
No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.--1 Cor 10:13
The rest of verse 13 tells us that we are not tempted by God because He cannot be tempted nor does (He) God tempt anyone. This is really the heart of this whole passage. Whose fault is it when we fall into sin. Adam blamed God..."the woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I did eat." And Eve who was deceived by the serpent blamed the serpent: "the serpent beguiled me and I did eat." Lord, it is your fault...you made me this way...you are in control over my circumstances or Lord, how can I resist the temptation if it is you who are tempting me? I am but dust. It also says in Isaiah 63:17: O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Proverbs 19:3 says "The foolishnesss of man perverts his way and his heart frets against the Lord. We are NOT God's victims when we sin.
Girls, that is the tendency of our flesh...to blame God or others for our sin. James is adamant here...He forbids it. Our sin is not God's fault. In order to receive forgiveness for our sins and confess them, we need to say the same thing about our sin that God says. We need to own it and accept responsibility for it. That is the only way that a heart change occurs. God looks on a broken and contrite heart. We need to understand and accept our inability and inadequacy to save ourselves in order to understand our need for a Savior. Blaming and making excuses for our sin is not repentance. As we go further into the text we will, according to John MacArthur, find 5 proofs that God does not tempt us...either directly or indirectly.
The first proof is the nature of evil. Light and darkness are opposites...they have nothing to do with one another. God is holy...He has no capacity for evil nor can He be tempted. We are not tempted by God because God cannot be tempted. Literally in the Greek text it says: "For God is inexperienced with evil." It is not in His nature at all. John MacArthur says something interesting in speaking about the gods of Greek mythology: He says "that the deities and gods of paganism are always liable to temptation to evil and they themselves are frequently seen as sinning and tempting others to sin. The reason is because...wait for it....they are the creation of the minds of fallen men or the minds of fallen wickedness from which they come. Their character is corrupt because their creators are corrupt and no stream can rise higher than it s source." Girls, the bible tells us this in Isaiah 55: My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. “ For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts. God is our creator...we are His creatures. That truly is something to be thankful for especially as we dig deeper into His nature.
God does not tempt us directly or indirectly. All evil repulses Him. He has not experience with evil, no capacity for it and no vulnerability to it. He is like a fortress of good if you will...Evil cannot penetrate. The fortress is impregnable. That really makes me feel safe. God is holy...He is not like us....It brings to mind the verse from John that says God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. God does send us trials to test us, but never more than we can bear and always provides for us a way to navigate through the trial/temptation victoriously. He does allow temptations to occur within those trials and men make choices. But God tempts no man. Evil is contradictory to His nature. If we succumb to temptation we have no one to blame but ourselves.
You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, And cannot look on wickedness.--Habakkuk 1:13
The Lord is holy---Leviticus 19:2
Love
Mom
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
I love this particular section of Scripture...5 verses packed with wisdom! We will look only at verse 13 for this post. The message of it is really the heart of these verses. God cannot be tempted nor does He tempt anyone!
It reads, "Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.
1 Corinthians 10 says that temptations are common to man and verse 14 of the KJV of the very passage we are looking at begins by saying, "but every man is tempted." We all face both trials and temptations. How we deal with them and respond is a test of genuine faith or lack of it. Do you blame others or God or do you accept responsibility for your own sin?
I have learned in my study of this section of James that the same Greek verb "peirazo" and the same Greek noun "peirasmos are used in verse 2 and verse 13 but are translated differently. The word is translated trial in verse 2 and temptation in verse 13. So why does James make the distinction between trials and temptations. "Trials" come from God to test us and strengthen us and in those trials God allows temptations to occur. I repeat...God allows temptations to occur, but God does not tempt anyone. So a trial on the outside can become a temptation on the inside when we doubt God's love and care for us and disobey. Trials are all about testing, strengthening and maturing us. In the midst of one, however, this can be easily forgotten because trials are hard. They cause us to lose our balance, question God's love and resist His will. Satan then comes on the stage and cleverly provides an opportunity for us to perhaps escape the trial. If we take the bait, we have given way to temptation and allowed the trial to become a solicitation for evil. The results of which will obviously not be God's best for us. Each trial we go through then has the potential to strengthen us and make us more like our Lord or it can become an opportunity for sin. The beautiful thing here is that God has promised not to test us more than we are able and always provides a way of escape. Look and pray for God's way to escape the pressure that is inherent to a trial.
No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.--1 Cor 10:13
The rest of verse 13 tells us that we are not tempted by God because He cannot be tempted nor does (He) God tempt anyone. This is really the heart of this whole passage. Whose fault is it when we fall into sin. Adam blamed God..."the woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I did eat." And Eve who was deceived by the serpent blamed the serpent: "the serpent beguiled me and I did eat." Lord, it is your fault...you made me this way...you are in control over my circumstances or Lord, how can I resist the temptation if it is you who are tempting me? I am but dust. It also says in Isaiah 63:17: O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Proverbs 19:3 says "The foolishnesss of man perverts his way and his heart frets against the Lord. We are NOT God's victims when we sin.
Girls, that is the tendency of our flesh...to blame God or others for our sin. James is adamant here...He forbids it. Our sin is not God's fault. In order to receive forgiveness for our sins and confess them, we need to say the same thing about our sin that God says. We need to own it and accept responsibility for it. That is the only way that a heart change occurs. God looks on a broken and contrite heart. We need to understand and accept our inability and inadequacy to save ourselves in order to understand our need for a Savior. Blaming and making excuses for our sin is not repentance. As we go further into the text we will, according to John MacArthur, find 5 proofs that God does not tempt us...either directly or indirectly.
The first proof is the nature of evil. Light and darkness are opposites...they have nothing to do with one another. God is holy...He has no capacity for evil nor can He be tempted. We are not tempted by God because God cannot be tempted. Literally in the Greek text it says: "For God is inexperienced with evil." It is not in His nature at all. John MacArthur says something interesting in speaking about the gods of Greek mythology: He says "that the deities and gods of paganism are always liable to temptation to evil and they themselves are frequently seen as sinning and tempting others to sin. The reason is because...wait for it....they are the creation of the minds of fallen men or the minds of fallen wickedness from which they come. Their character is corrupt because their creators are corrupt and no stream can rise higher than it s source." Girls, the bible tells us this in Isaiah 55: My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. “ For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts. God is our creator...we are His creatures. That truly is something to be thankful for especially as we dig deeper into His nature.
God does not tempt us directly or indirectly. All evil repulses Him. He has not experience with evil, no capacity for it and no vulnerability to it. He is like a fortress of good if you will...Evil cannot penetrate. The fortress is impregnable. That really makes me feel safe. God is holy...He is not like us....It brings to mind the verse from John that says God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. God does send us trials to test us, but never more than we can bear and always provides for us a way to navigate through the trial/temptation victoriously. He does allow temptations to occur within those trials and men make choices. But God tempts no man. Evil is contradictory to His nature. If we succumb to temptation we have no one to blame but ourselves.
You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, And cannot look on wickedness.--Habakkuk 1:13
The Lord is holy---Leviticus 19:2
Love
Mom
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