Before doing anything outward, look inward at your relationship with your Lord...
Here is the best definition from Scripture of who a Christian is...
Philippians 3:3 For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
Christ alone is my grounds for boasting...there is nothing, nothing I can do in my flesh that would make me fit for heaven or help me to gain merit before God.
The Christian attitude is that we have died to the flesh with all its passions and lusts, and from now on we live to the glory of God. We do this, not out of fear of punishment, but rather out of love to the One who gave Himself for us. A. T. Robertson put it well: “It is love that makes us really free to do right. Love makes the choice easy. Love makes the face of duty beautiful. Love makes it sweet to keep up with Christ. Love makes the service of goodness freedom.”
Colossians 2:11-23 speaks to this issue very succinctly. The emphasis (bolding) is mine in verses 20-23.
Not Legalism but Christ
In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.
So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ. Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.
Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations— “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” which all concern things which perish with the using—according to the commandments and doctrines of men? These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.
Here is the mystery..here are some of the most beautiful words in Scripture:
The mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Christ in me...my hope of glory. Biblical hope is sure and certain as if what you are waiting for had already occurred. Christ indwells me...the indwelling of the Spirit of Christ is my guarantee of future glory as well as to all other believers. We have this treasure in our earthen vessel that the power is not of us but of Him.
I will end with these words of Christ.
John 14:15-18 “If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
John 14:23 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.
1 John 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Isaiah's Perks...by Anna
Isaiah 51:12-16 “I, even I, am He who comforts you. Who are you that you should be afraid of a man who will die, and of the son of a man who will be made like grass? And you forget the Lord your Maker, who stretched out the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; you have feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he has prepared to destroy. And where is the fury of the oppressor? The captive exile hasten, that he may be loosed, that he should not die in the pit, and that his bread should not fail. But I am the Lord your God, who divided the sea whose waves roared—the Lord of hosts is His name. And I have put My words in your mouth; I have covered you with the shadow of My hand, that I may plant the heavens, lay the foundations of the earth, and say to Zion, ‘You are My people.’”
Wow.
Just…wow.
Let me go over that again. (Wow.) No, that wasn’t what I wanted to go over... “I, even I, am He who comforts you. Who are you that you should be afraid of a man who will die, and of the son of a man who will be made like grass?”
That was it!
When I read this, I was in my nightgown and comfortably ensconced within my covers, just about ready to call it a night and flop down on the pillow.
Guess what? The pillow stayed unflopped. Even in my nightgown, with no slippers, in a very old, very creaky, occasionally drafty house, I still wanted to commence with that impromptu jig I mentioned in an earlier devotional, and shout at the top of my (very off-key) voice for the world to hear that I didn’t have to be afraid. Ever again. EVER AGAIN.
Let me repeat that. (I’ve never been one for redundancy, but the Bible deserves to get a little awestruck repetition once in a while.)
EVER.
AGAIN.
(And of course, as before, whether or not I actually did that nightgown-clad jig is none of your business.)
That’s one of the biggest perks in this Christianity deal. We’re His children. We’re His sons and daughters. We belong to Him. (No “unclaimed” people here!) We are the children of the God and Creator of Heaven and Earth. We have unlimited access to His protection, His grace, His love, and His comfort. WE ARE HIS.
(I know I’m going a little overboard with the caps, but cut me some slack. I can’t exactly yell for joy via cyberspace, now can I? Don’t answer that.)
And what God is saying here—for about the fifty billionth time, just as patiently as He did the second and fifteenth times—is that we, as His children, as His beloved, don’t have to be afraid. He comforts us. He watches out for us. He never slumbers or sleeps. He is the shade at our right hand.
He’s also going in for a bit of wry teasing here, too. Note the contrast.
“I, EVEN I, am He who comforts you. Who are you that you should be afraid of a man who will die, and of the son of a man who will be made like grass?”
“Hello…oh, beloved children, please pay attention…I’m here for you…I died for you...c’mon, you’re afraid of that puny guy who I made and whose father I made and whose grandfather I made and whose great-great-great grandfather I made? I know it might seem like he’s all-powerful down there, it might seem to your mortal eyes that he holds your life in his hands…BUT HE DOESN’T. I do. And I love you, I always have and always will, and I am in complete control of your situation.”
C’mon. God and Creator and Savior of Heaven and Earth vs. tiny little guy over there in the corner that He knows inside and out, backwards and forwards, who He created in the first place.
Which one are you betting on? I don’t know about you, but I’m gonna go for the obvious. At least while I still have my senses. (In a few minutes after I step away from this keyboard, I’ll be back to my thickheaded ways again…sigh. Keep reminding me, God!)
Wow.
Just…wow.
Let me go over that again. (Wow.) No, that wasn’t what I wanted to go over... “I, even I, am He who comforts you. Who are you that you should be afraid of a man who will die, and of the son of a man who will be made like grass?”
That was it!
When I read this, I was in my nightgown and comfortably ensconced within my covers, just about ready to call it a night and flop down on the pillow.
Guess what? The pillow stayed unflopped. Even in my nightgown, with no slippers, in a very old, very creaky, occasionally drafty house, I still wanted to commence with that impromptu jig I mentioned in an earlier devotional, and shout at the top of my (very off-key) voice for the world to hear that I didn’t have to be afraid. Ever again. EVER AGAIN.
Let me repeat that. (I’ve never been one for redundancy, but the Bible deserves to get a little awestruck repetition once in a while.)
EVER.
AGAIN.
(And of course, as before, whether or not I actually did that nightgown-clad jig is none of your business.)
That’s one of the biggest perks in this Christianity deal. We’re His children. We’re His sons and daughters. We belong to Him. (No “unclaimed” people here!) We are the children of the God and Creator of Heaven and Earth. We have unlimited access to His protection, His grace, His love, and His comfort. WE ARE HIS.
(I know I’m going a little overboard with the caps, but cut me some slack. I can’t exactly yell for joy via cyberspace, now can I? Don’t answer that.)
And what God is saying here—for about the fifty billionth time, just as patiently as He did the second and fifteenth times—is that we, as His children, as His beloved, don’t have to be afraid. He comforts us. He watches out for us. He never slumbers or sleeps. He is the shade at our right hand.
He’s also going in for a bit of wry teasing here, too. Note the contrast.
“I, EVEN I, am He who comforts you. Who are you that you should be afraid of a man who will die, and of the son of a man who will be made like grass?”
“Hello…oh, beloved children, please pay attention…I’m here for you…I died for you...c’mon, you’re afraid of that puny guy who I made and whose father I made and whose grandfather I made and whose great-great-great grandfather I made? I know it might seem like he’s all-powerful down there, it might seem to your mortal eyes that he holds your life in his hands…BUT HE DOESN’T. I do. And I love you, I always have and always will, and I am in complete control of your situation.”
C’mon. God and Creator and Savior of Heaven and Earth vs. tiny little guy over there in the corner that He knows inside and out, backwards and forwards, who He created in the first place.
Which one are you betting on? I don’t know about you, but I’m gonna go for the obvious. At least while I still have my senses. (In a few minutes after I step away from this keyboard, I’ll be back to my thickheaded ways again…sigh. Keep reminding me, God!)
Monday, March 7, 2011
How to Love Life According to 1 Peter 3:8-12
1 Peter 3:8-12 Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous, not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing. For
“ He who would love life
And see good days,
Let him refrain his tongue from evil,
And his lips from speaking deceit.
Let him turn away from evil and do good;
Let him seek peace and pursue it.
For the eyes of the LORD are on the righteous,
And His ears are open to their prayers;
But the face of the LORD is against those who do evil.”
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
Been spending some time meditating a bit on these verses. There is so much here. So many marvelous truths. How do we love life and see good days? It is right here in these verses. Peter is summing up the whole section that began in 1 Peter 2 with verse 11. This is where the Apostle began a discussion of how we, as Christians, are to relate in the society in which they live.
Verse 11 of Chapter 2 says "You're aliens and strangers...You're in a war not only against the soul but a war against the society around you and you must keep your behavior excellent among the pagans." Peter went on to talk about three social relationships which demand godly living...citizens, employees and mates. Peter exhorts us to live out pure, godly lives...to live specifically in an evangelistic way before the world so that we glorify God in these relationships and we bring other people to the point where they will glorify Him in their day of visitation. Visitation here means in the day of judgment. In the day of judgment, then, they will face God redeemed and will not suffer His wrath. It means you live your life in such a way as to bring others to Christ. It is living in accordance with God's will rather than self-will. That is the bottom line of living the good life. How to do this is a paradox as it always is living for Jesus. It is living opposite of how the world lives.
The first thing we are to do to live this way and heap not only blessings on ourselves but on others is to live with the right heart attitude. The right heart attitude will be one of love. Love is where it all begins. The love of God that is shed abroad in our hearts will be made manifest in our dealings with others.
It will be evidenced by our like mindedness with other believers. There will be a harmony with God's people. A unity of mind and a working together for the purpose of doing the will of God here on earth.
The right attitude also involves putting on of brotherly love and compassion for those God has placed in your lives...everyone..not just fellow Christians. It is so easy to become hard-hearted in this world. We are constantly bombarded with bad news and evil. It is easier just to insulate ourselves from all of it. It hurts to love. It hurts to open up your heart. This is, however, what God wants us to do. We are to be actively compassionate, and lovingly concerned towards one another. We are to love as brothers...sharing one another's joys and sorrows. We are members of the same family. When one hurts, the others should also. When one is joyful, the others should be also.
Our hearts will be tender towards others...feeling their pain and sympathizing with them in an active way. The right heart attitude also involves being courteous which means simply that you will be meek, humble and put others and their needs ahead of your own.
Peter goes on in verse 9 and exhorts us not to retaliate in kind when someone offends us or does evil toward us. The right response then if we want to love life and see good days is not to return evil for evil or reviling for reviling but to respond with blessing. Girls, the bible speaks to this very thing in so many many places. God truly wanted us to hear this message and He exampled it mightily in His Son. Returning good for evil goes so much against our flesh which almost always wants very much to respond with even greater evil. If we want to obey our God, however, we will respond with blessings. This CANNOT be done in our own strength. It must be done by the power of His Spirit working in our hearts.
When we do respond with blessing to evil done against us, oh, what blessings are ours. I can only describe the heart feeling that comes when I heap a blessing on someone who is not out for my good like this. Think of when the Grinch's heart grew...that is how it feels...your chest expands...you can breathe easier. You relax. and your shoulders come down. You let go of something you didn't need and your whole body feels lighter somehow. Joy has entered our heart and our capacity to love has been expanded! What a lifting of the veil occurs as we see Jesus and what He has done for us then so much more clearly in our own hearts. We begin to understand the love that He wants us to show to others. We see the "self" that we need to die to. God operates with us on the basis of mercy...if it were not for His mercy all of us would be consumed and die in our sins. Returning evil for good is satanic. Returning good for good or evil for evil is human. Returning good for evil is divine.
We are to respond divinely as Jesus did. "For you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing." I LOVE this statement. You were called, that's your election to salvation, for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing. Your election...your salvation is a free undeserved, unmerited gift from God. You have been freely given and are to freely give in return. Instead of wrath and vengeance from God for your sin and offense, He has given you mercy, salvation and abundant blessings in Him. We should know then very well how to show mercy and give blessings to those that have offended us. If we do not do this, then we are not even close to being aware of what we have been delivered from and blessed with. We should be jumping at the opportunity to bless someone else with the undeserved, unmerited free gift of forgiveness that we ourselves received from God.
1 Peter 2:21-23 puts it this way: "For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: "WHO COMMITTED NO SIN, NOR WAS DECEIT FOUND IN HIS MOUTH"; who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously;"
We are to depend on Him knowing that it is His battle and that the ONLY way to overcome evil is with good. Leave the vengeance and retaliation to Him. He suffers long but as my pastor says, "do not mistake the longsuffering of God for indifference". The time of judgment will come. Our weapons are not carnal but spiritual...mighty in God. We are to depend on prayer and His power. The greatest evil was overcome by the greatest goodness the world has ever seen...the death of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross at Calvary.
How would this look practically? Pray for your enemy...for their salvation or their spiritual growth. Pray for their desire and for their well-being. Speak well of them. Be thankful for them. Bless them with an act of service. Again, none of these can be done outside of the Spirit of God working in your heart as you surrender yourself to Him.
Peter goes on in verse 10 quoting Psalm 34 to support the exhortations he gave in verses 8 and 9. He tells us to do these things because Scripture tells us to do them. Scripture is the standard. The first thing we are to do is to deliberately decide to love life. To love life is not usually spoken of well in Scripture. It is condemned in John 12:25, but there it means to living according to self-will. Here it means to live in the way God intended.
Warren Wiersbe puts it this way:
"This is an act of the will: “He who wills to love life.” It is an attitude of faith that sees the best in every situation. It is the opposite of the pessimistic attitude expressed in Ecclesiastes2:17 : “Therefore I hated life . . . for all is vanity and vexation of spirit.” We can decide to endure life and make it a burden, escape life as though we were running from a battle, or enjoy life because we know God is in control. Peter was not suggesting some kind of unrealistic psychological gymnastics that refused to face facts. Rather, he was urging his readers to take a positive approach to life and by faith make the most of every situation."
I really like that...by faith making the most of every situation. Seeing life that way will give us a purpose in every moment of every day despite what we are facing. Living for Him is the only way to do this.
Next, it tells us to keep our tongue from evil and our lips from speaking guile or lies. The Word, tells us this in many places. The first 12 verses of James chapter 3 talk about the evil of the tongue. The mouth speaks out of the abundance of what is in your heart, girls. You can find out much about yourself and others from their speech. James says that if a man does not stumble in word he is perfect able to bridle the whole body. We are to refrain from speaking evil of anyone and avoid lying...we are to be committed to the truth and giving back good for evil with our tongues.
Peter speaks of the things that need to be eliminated if you want to love life and see good days. We are to be committed to turning away from evil and doing good and we are to seek peace and pursue it. The good life then is in rejecting evil and doing good. It is not in doing our own thing. It is in doing good...that which is excellent. Next we are to seek peace and pursue it.
John MacArthur says that the word for seeking is the strongest verb, zeteo. He is to seek peace with all his might.. Pursue peace means to hunt it. It should be remembered here that Peter is writing to people who are living in a world that is hostile towards them. There are people surrounding them looking to speak evil of them, discredit them, and really just make their life miserable. He is writing to people who are or will be shortly, under persecution that will threaten their very lives. Even under the most extreme circumstances, then, we are to respond as God tells us to in His word. The Word of God tells us not to respond in our humanity to offenses, but to respond in Him, divinely. We are to do everything we can to live in unity with compassion and brotherly love towards one another. We are not to return evil for evil but are to return a blessing for evil done to us. We are to guard our tongue from evil and lips from lying. We are to shun evil and do good. We are to seek peace and pursue it and all of this we are to do despite the provocation. Christians are to live like this. John MacArthur puts it this way. Christians should be the greatest blessing in any culture. The whole world was blessed in Jesus Christ. We are those who are the peacemakers.
Last verse taken from Psalm 34 verse 15 and 16. Here is our motivation. For the eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, And His ears are open to their prayers; But the face of the LORD is against those who do evil.” Our motivation is that God is watching. He is watching. The Lord sees and that is a good incentive to do all those things. Accountability is a good thing, but the Lord is not just watching for the purpose of judgment or chastisement but His purpose is a gracious one. God is omniscient. He observes us and is aware of every detail of our lives. God is looking at us and what we are doing so that He might listen and respond to our prayers. I don't know about you but I want to live my life in a way that the Lord is waiting and watching to answer my cry and provide for my needs. I want to live in a way that honors Him and all that He has done for me. I want to live before my fellow man in a way that they will see Jesus and turn from their ways to His. I have been forgiven so much and I so want others to have the treasure that I have in this earthen vessel of mine...Christ the hope of glory.
Love
Mom
“ He who would love life
And see good days,
Let him refrain his tongue from evil,
And his lips from speaking deceit.
Let him turn away from evil and do good;
Let him seek peace and pursue it.
For the eyes of the LORD are on the righteous,
And His ears are open to their prayers;
But the face of the LORD is against those who do evil.”
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
Been spending some time meditating a bit on these verses. There is so much here. So many marvelous truths. How do we love life and see good days? It is right here in these verses. Peter is summing up the whole section that began in 1 Peter 2 with verse 11. This is where the Apostle began a discussion of how we, as Christians, are to relate in the society in which they live.
Verse 11 of Chapter 2 says "You're aliens and strangers...You're in a war not only against the soul but a war against the society around you and you must keep your behavior excellent among the pagans." Peter went on to talk about three social relationships which demand godly living...citizens, employees and mates. Peter exhorts us to live out pure, godly lives...to live specifically in an evangelistic way before the world so that we glorify God in these relationships and we bring other people to the point where they will glorify Him in their day of visitation. Visitation here means in the day of judgment. In the day of judgment, then, they will face God redeemed and will not suffer His wrath. It means you live your life in such a way as to bring others to Christ. It is living in accordance with God's will rather than self-will. That is the bottom line of living the good life. How to do this is a paradox as it always is living for Jesus. It is living opposite of how the world lives.
The first thing we are to do to live this way and heap not only blessings on ourselves but on others is to live with the right heart attitude. The right heart attitude will be one of love. Love is where it all begins. The love of God that is shed abroad in our hearts will be made manifest in our dealings with others.
It will be evidenced by our like mindedness with other believers. There will be a harmony with God's people. A unity of mind and a working together for the purpose of doing the will of God here on earth.
The right attitude also involves putting on of brotherly love and compassion for those God has placed in your lives...everyone..not just fellow Christians. It is so easy to become hard-hearted in this world. We are constantly bombarded with bad news and evil. It is easier just to insulate ourselves from all of it. It hurts to love. It hurts to open up your heart. This is, however, what God wants us to do. We are to be actively compassionate, and lovingly concerned towards one another. We are to love as brothers...sharing one another's joys and sorrows. We are members of the same family. When one hurts, the others should also. When one is joyful, the others should be also.
Our hearts will be tender towards others...feeling their pain and sympathizing with them in an active way. The right heart attitude also involves being courteous which means simply that you will be meek, humble and put others and their needs ahead of your own.
Peter goes on in verse 9 and exhorts us not to retaliate in kind when someone offends us or does evil toward us. The right response then if we want to love life and see good days is not to return evil for evil or reviling for reviling but to respond with blessing. Girls, the bible speaks to this very thing in so many many places. God truly wanted us to hear this message and He exampled it mightily in His Son. Returning good for evil goes so much against our flesh which almost always wants very much to respond with even greater evil. If we want to obey our God, however, we will respond with blessings. This CANNOT be done in our own strength. It must be done by the power of His Spirit working in our hearts.
When we do respond with blessing to evil done against us, oh, what blessings are ours. I can only describe the heart feeling that comes when I heap a blessing on someone who is not out for my good like this. Think of when the Grinch's heart grew...that is how it feels...your chest expands...you can breathe easier. You relax. and your shoulders come down. You let go of something you didn't need and your whole body feels lighter somehow. Joy has entered our heart and our capacity to love has been expanded! What a lifting of the veil occurs as we see Jesus and what He has done for us then so much more clearly in our own hearts. We begin to understand the love that He wants us to show to others. We see the "self" that we need to die to. God operates with us on the basis of mercy...if it were not for His mercy all of us would be consumed and die in our sins. Returning evil for good is satanic. Returning good for good or evil for evil is human. Returning good for evil is divine.
We are to respond divinely as Jesus did. "For you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing." I LOVE this statement. You were called, that's your election to salvation, for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing. Your election...your salvation is a free undeserved, unmerited gift from God. You have been freely given and are to freely give in return. Instead of wrath and vengeance from God for your sin and offense, He has given you mercy, salvation and abundant blessings in Him. We should know then very well how to show mercy and give blessings to those that have offended us. If we do not do this, then we are not even close to being aware of what we have been delivered from and blessed with. We should be jumping at the opportunity to bless someone else with the undeserved, unmerited free gift of forgiveness that we ourselves received from God.
1 Peter 2:21-23 puts it this way: "For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: "WHO COMMITTED NO SIN, NOR WAS DECEIT FOUND IN HIS MOUTH"; who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously;"
We are to depend on Him knowing that it is His battle and that the ONLY way to overcome evil is with good. Leave the vengeance and retaliation to Him. He suffers long but as my pastor says, "do not mistake the longsuffering of God for indifference". The time of judgment will come. Our weapons are not carnal but spiritual...mighty in God. We are to depend on prayer and His power. The greatest evil was overcome by the greatest goodness the world has ever seen...the death of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross at Calvary.
How would this look practically? Pray for your enemy...for their salvation or their spiritual growth. Pray for their desire and for their well-being. Speak well of them. Be thankful for them. Bless them with an act of service. Again, none of these can be done outside of the Spirit of God working in your heart as you surrender yourself to Him.
Peter goes on in verse 10 quoting Psalm 34 to support the exhortations he gave in verses 8 and 9. He tells us to do these things because Scripture tells us to do them. Scripture is the standard. The first thing we are to do is to deliberately decide to love life. To love life is not usually spoken of well in Scripture. It is condemned in John 12:25, but there it means to living according to self-will. Here it means to live in the way God intended.
Warren Wiersbe puts it this way:
"This is an act of the will: “He who wills to love life.” It is an attitude of faith that sees the best in every situation. It is the opposite of the pessimistic attitude expressed in Ecclesiastes2:17 : “Therefore I hated life . . . for all is vanity and vexation of spirit.” We can decide to endure life and make it a burden, escape life as though we were running from a battle, or enjoy life because we know God is in control. Peter was not suggesting some kind of unrealistic psychological gymnastics that refused to face facts. Rather, he was urging his readers to take a positive approach to life and by faith make the most of every situation."
I really like that...by faith making the most of every situation. Seeing life that way will give us a purpose in every moment of every day despite what we are facing. Living for Him is the only way to do this.
Next, it tells us to keep our tongue from evil and our lips from speaking guile or lies. The Word, tells us this in many places. The first 12 verses of James chapter 3 talk about the evil of the tongue. The mouth speaks out of the abundance of what is in your heart, girls. You can find out much about yourself and others from their speech. James says that if a man does not stumble in word he is perfect able to bridle the whole body. We are to refrain from speaking evil of anyone and avoid lying...we are to be committed to the truth and giving back good for evil with our tongues.
Peter speaks of the things that need to be eliminated if you want to love life and see good days. We are to be committed to turning away from evil and doing good and we are to seek peace and pursue it. The good life then is in rejecting evil and doing good. It is not in doing our own thing. It is in doing good...that which is excellent. Next we are to seek peace and pursue it.
John MacArthur says that the word for seeking is the strongest verb, zeteo. He is to seek peace with all his might.. Pursue peace means to hunt it. It should be remembered here that Peter is writing to people who are living in a world that is hostile towards them. There are people surrounding them looking to speak evil of them, discredit them, and really just make their life miserable. He is writing to people who are or will be shortly, under persecution that will threaten their very lives. Even under the most extreme circumstances, then, we are to respond as God tells us to in His word. The Word of God tells us not to respond in our humanity to offenses, but to respond in Him, divinely. We are to do everything we can to live in unity with compassion and brotherly love towards one another. We are not to return evil for evil but are to return a blessing for evil done to us. We are to guard our tongue from evil and lips from lying. We are to shun evil and do good. We are to seek peace and pursue it and all of this we are to do despite the provocation. Christians are to live like this. John MacArthur puts it this way. Christians should be the greatest blessing in any culture. The whole world was blessed in Jesus Christ. We are those who are the peacemakers.
Last verse taken from Psalm 34 verse 15 and 16. Here is our motivation. For the eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, And His ears are open to their prayers; But the face of the LORD is against those who do evil.” Our motivation is that God is watching. He is watching. The Lord sees and that is a good incentive to do all those things. Accountability is a good thing, but the Lord is not just watching for the purpose of judgment or chastisement but His purpose is a gracious one. God is omniscient. He observes us and is aware of every detail of our lives. God is looking at us and what we are doing so that He might listen and respond to our prayers. I don't know about you but I want to live my life in a way that the Lord is waiting and watching to answer my cry and provide for my needs. I want to live in a way that honors Him and all that He has done for me. I want to live before my fellow man in a way that they will see Jesus and turn from their ways to His. I have been forgiven so much and I so want others to have the treasure that I have in this earthen vessel of mine...Christ the hope of glory.
Love
Mom
Like A Weaned Child
A Song of Ascents. Of David.
LORD,
my heart is not haughty, Nor my eyes lofty.
Neither do I concern myself with great matters,
Nor with things too profound for me.
Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul,
Like a weaned child with his mother;
Like a weaned child is my soul within me.
O Israel, hope in the LORD From this time forth and forever.
Psalm 131
Psalm 131
Dear Girls,
I love this one. It is so short and yet full of such wisdom. Like the psalmist, I want to be like a weaned child that crawls up on his beloved's lap and is content with just resting his head against him. He is satisfied in their presence and does not concern himself with matters that are too weighty for him. He knows he doesn't understand much or have all the answers. He seeks only to rest in his mother or his father's arms knowing they do.
A child in the process of weaning is discontented and irritable. We are often the same way in the midst of a difficulty. What we need to remember in our times of trial is that our hope is in the Lord and that in His presence is fullness of joy. A weaned child no longer comes to you fretting, gesturing and demanding to be satisfied but cuddles and rests quietly against you. He can't figure it all out and doesn't want to figure it all out. He just trusts that you know the way that he takes and will get him where he needs to go. Our Father in Heaven has given us such a beautiful picture here of what it means to abide and surrender. Let Him hold you....let Him direct your steps...He's got it figured out...trust Him. Abide. Wait on Him.
Love
Mom
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress;
My God, in Him I will trust.”
3 Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler[a]
And from the perilous pestilence.
4 He shall cover you with His feathers,
And under His wings you shall take refuge;
His truth shall be your shield and buckler.
5 You shall not be afraid of the terror by night,
Nor of the arrow that flies by day,
6 Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness,
Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.
7 A thousand may fall at your side,
And ten thousand at your right hand;
But it shall not come near you.
8 Only with your eyes shall you look,
And see the reward of the wicked.
9 Because you have made the LORD, who is my refuge,
Even the Most High, your dwelling place,
10 No evil shall befall you,
Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;
11 For He shall give His angels charge over you,
To keep you in all your ways.
12 In their hands they shall bear you up,
Lest you dash your foot against a stone.
13 You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra,
The young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot.
14 “Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him;
I will set him on high, because he has known My name.
15 He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will deliver him and honor him.
16 With long life I will satisfy him,
And show him My salvation.”
Psalm 91
Safety of Abiding in the Presence of God
1 He who dwells in the secret place of the Most HighShall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress;
My God, in Him I will trust.”
3 Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler[a]
And from the perilous pestilence.
4 He shall cover you with His feathers,
And under His wings you shall take refuge;
His truth shall be your shield and buckler.
5 You shall not be afraid of the terror by night,
Nor of the arrow that flies by day,
6 Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness,
Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.
7 A thousand may fall at your side,
And ten thousand at your right hand;
But it shall not come near you.
8 Only with your eyes shall you look,
And see the reward of the wicked.
9 Because you have made the LORD, who is my refuge,
Even the Most High, your dwelling place,
10 No evil shall befall you,
Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;
11 For He shall give His angels charge over you,
To keep you in all your ways.
12 In their hands they shall bear you up,
Lest you dash your foot against a stone.
13 You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra,
The young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot.
14 “Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him;
I will set him on high, because he has known My name.
15 He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will deliver him and honor him.
16 With long life I will satisfy him,
And show him My salvation.”
Friday, March 4, 2011
Weakness is a Gift!
Psalm 13
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
1 How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever?
How long will You hide Your face from me?
2 How long shall I take counsel in my soul,
Having sorrow in my heart daily?
How long will my enemy be exalted over me?
3 Consider and hear me, O LORD my God;
Enlighten my eyes,
Lest I sleep the sleep of death;
4 Lest my enemy say,
“I have prevailed against him”;
Lest those who trouble me rejoice when I am moved.
5 But I have trusted in Your mercy;
My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation.
6 I will sing to the LORD,
Because He has dealt bountifully with me.
How long will You hide Your face from me?
2 How long shall I take counsel in my soul,
Having sorrow in my heart daily?
How long will my enemy be exalted over me?
3 Consider and hear me, O LORD my God;
Enlighten my eyes,
Lest I sleep the sleep of death;
4 Lest my enemy say,
“I have prevailed against him”;
Lest those who trouble me rejoice when I am moved.
5 But I have trusted in Your mercy;
My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation.
6 I will sing to the LORD,
Because He has dealt bountifully with me.
Dear Girls,
I read Psalm 13 last night feeling grief for circumstances in my life that I have no power to change. As I meditated on it and read it, I immediately began to cry out to Him and like David, my heart attitude was changed. What a beautiful picture of prayer it is and the ability it has to change us. In six short verses David goes from feeling forgotten by God to trusting in His mercy, rejoicing in His salvation and remembering how bountifully He has been dealt with by God.
I wrote recently in another study that the blessing is always in the doing NOT in the talking about the doing. I so often talk about praying and crying out to Him in my distress but what I do instead is put it off by doing other things. Avoiding my distress and trying to carry on in my own strength. Last night it was laundry, and the end of the day stuff that I used to avoid going up to my room earlier to spend time Him and His word, which is what my heart truly needed. My own pride and maybe fear of losing control in my grief and not keeping up with all that needs to be done, keeps me from Him and His blessings!
Our whole attitude, though, can be changed just by crying out to Him in faith...that is how we access His grace. That is when we obtain mercy and help in our time of need. It is in the crying out...It is in the dependence on Him and Him alone. I don't even need to go up in my room...He is always with me. I am going to memorize the words of Psalm 13 and carry them around in my heart as a treasure...so I can take them out and meditate on them when in need. Weakness is such a wonderful gift from the Lord because it drives us to our knees and draws us to Him in a way that nothing else can. As we draw near and spend time with Him we leave His presence radiant...having been given that gift that no one can take away.
It really is that simple, girls. No matter how overwhelming the feeling or the situation, we as believers can just pull away for a moment and pray and our Lord will meet us there. Talk to Him, question Him, pray Scripture...lay it all out before Him. You will come away changed.
Love
Mom
Thursday, March 3, 2011
GOOD MORNING LORD!
My voice You shall hear in the morning, O LORD; In the morning I will direct it to You, And I will look up.--Psalm 5:3
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna, and Mikayla,
For me this is the very best part of any day...the morning...the time I spend with Him always...each and every day with my bible and my coffee. I love to begin my day before my feet even hit the floor committing myself and my day to Him. I lie there and think about how good He is and ask Him to lift the light of His countenance on me. He then puts gladness in my heart. I can have the glory of the Lord shining on me...reflecting off of me. His presence and His glory in my life make all the difference in the world. They also make a difference to those around me..His light in me (in you) lights up the darkness in the lives of those He has placed in your life. I look to Him and am radiant...even at 5:30 in the morning. I have Him dwelling in this cracked pot...this earthen vessel. He is working out His purposes and His plans for my life. I am going to spend eternity with Him. I could go on....
When I am ready to get up, I say, "Here I am Lord, use me as you desire today...guide my words and my steps always in Your ways. Hedge me behind and before. Make me sensitive to your voice as I go about my day. I am always reminded then that I am not my own. I was bought with a price...the blood of God's precious Son. My life is to be lived for Him and Him alone. He is my hope in this dark world. I can rejoice and be glad because He performs all things for me and makes perfect all things that concern me. The Lord is my Shepherd I have everything I need.
Chuck Smith says there are two kinds of people. Those who begin there day by saying "GOOD LORD" it's morning and those who say GOOD MORNING, LORD!
Love
Mom who is a GOOD MORNING, LORD! kinda person.
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna, and Mikayla,
For me this is the very best part of any day...the morning...the time I spend with Him always...each and every day with my bible and my coffee. I love to begin my day before my feet even hit the floor committing myself and my day to Him. I lie there and think about how good He is and ask Him to lift the light of His countenance on me. He then puts gladness in my heart. I can have the glory of the Lord shining on me...reflecting off of me. His presence and His glory in my life make all the difference in the world. They also make a difference to those around me..His light in me (in you) lights up the darkness in the lives of those He has placed in your life. I look to Him and am radiant...even at 5:30 in the morning. I have Him dwelling in this cracked pot...this earthen vessel. He is working out His purposes and His plans for my life. I am going to spend eternity with Him. I could go on....
When I am ready to get up, I say, "Here I am Lord, use me as you desire today...guide my words and my steps always in Your ways. Hedge me behind and before. Make me sensitive to your voice as I go about my day. I am always reminded then that I am not my own. I was bought with a price...the blood of God's precious Son. My life is to be lived for Him and Him alone. He is my hope in this dark world. I can rejoice and be glad because He performs all things for me and makes perfect all things that concern me. The Lord is my Shepherd I have everything I need.
Chuck Smith says there are two kinds of people. Those who begin there day by saying "GOOD LORD" it's morning and those who say GOOD MORNING, LORD!
Love
Mom who is a GOOD MORNING, LORD! kinda person.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
It's All For Good - Romans 8:28 by Jon Courson
It's All for Good by Jon Courson
A Topical Study of Romans 8:28
There are certain things we don't know. For example, we don't know how a honeybee can fly. You see, theoretically, the wings of a honeybee are too short and too light to support him when he is carrying pollen. It's an aerodynamic impossibility for a honeybee to fly when he's loaded with pollen. But guess what. Honeybees fly even when loaded with pollen. Certain things we don't know—things as simple as the flight of a bee.
There are some things we can't know—things like the day or hour of the Rapture (Mat_25:13), or who will be in heaven (Mat_13:24-30).
There are several things we should know. "Don't be ignorant," admonished Paul, "concerning the second coming (see 1Th_4:13), spiritual gifts (see 1 Corinthians 12), and Satan's devices" (see 2Co_2:11).
And there are some things we truly do know…
The Promise Given to Us
In our text, Paul doesn't say, "You should know that all things work together for good." He doesn't say, "I want you to know all things work together for good." He says, "You already know that all things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to His purpose."
How do we know this?
"Because this verse is in the Word," you answer. "Therefore, it must be true."
All right. But what about those in Rome to whom Paul was writing? They had never heard of Rom_8:28. How, then, could Paul assume they knew its truth?
The Price Paid for Us
Look down a few verses to verse Rom_8:32: "God spared not His own Son but delivered Him up for you and me." If He loved you enough to send His Son to be slaughtered in your stead to pay the price for your sin, don't you know God will do what's good for you continually? When I begin to doubt the love of God, or wonder if things are really working together for good, all I need to do is look to Calvary and see Jesus there dying for me.
The Peace Within Us
God's goodness was known and understood by Old Testament saints long before the Cross of Calvary. How? Because, deep within their hearts, in the midst of tragedy, in the face of difficulty, all those who love God know that all things are truly working together for good.
There is a man in the Old Testament who did this very thing. His name is Jacob, and this part of his story is found in Genesis 42. Jacob had twelve sons. Although he loved them all, number eleven was especially dear to him. His name? Joseph. You recall the story…
Jacob gave Joseph a "coat of many colors," or, more accurately, "a coat with big sleeves." You see, in those days, laborers wore vests without sleeves in order that their arms could be unrestricted. But the bosses—the head honchos—wore coats with sleeves, which served as lunchboxes or briefcases because they kept important documents and/or food in them. Joseph's big sleeves made his brothers so jealous that they threw him into a pit, where they were going to leave him to die—until one of the brothers suggested they could make some money if they sold him as a slave. So sell him they did, after which they smeared blood all over his coat and took it to Jacob, saying, "Bad news, Dad. Joseph was eaten by wild animals."
Meanwhile, through an incredible series of events, Joseph became prime minister of Egypt—second in command only to Pharaoh himself. When famine hit Israel, Jacob called his sons together and said, "I've heard there's a man in Egypt who has food. Go ask him if we can buy some grain." So his sons, ten in number, appeared before the prime minister, whom they didn't recognize.
"Why are you here?" asked Joseph.
"We're here to buy grain, Your Highness."
"I think you're lying," said Joseph. "I think you've come to spy out the land."
"No," insisted his brothers. "We're brothers. In fact, there were twelve of us originally—but one of our brothers is dead, and our youngest brother is at home."
"If that's true," countered Joseph, "go bring your youngest brother to me. That will validate your story. Meanwhile you, Simeon, will stay in prison until the youngest one is brought back."
The nine went back home, taking the grain with them that Joseph had given them. The famine grew worse, and soon they were out of food once more. "Go back to Egypt," Jacob said.
"We can't go back unless we take Benjamin," said the brothers.
Watch what Jacob said in verse Gen_42:36: "Me have ye bereaved of my children; Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away: all these things are against me," or literally, "all is working against me."
• What does Romans 8 say?
"All things work for good."
• What is Jacob declaring?
"Everything is working against me. My son, Simeon, is a hostage. My son Joseph is dead. And my son Benjamin is soon to disappear."
Jacob was completely wrong about what had happened: Joseph wasn't dead. As a matter of fact, he was in perfect health. And Jacob was wrong about what would happen: Benjamin would return, and Simeon would be released.
"Doesn't what Jacob said disprove your premise that everyone who loves God knows innately that everything is working out for good?" you ask.
Even though Jacob said, "Everything is against me," I suggest to you deep down inside, he didn't believe it.
Why?
Read the next chapter. Knowing Jacob, if he really believed Benjamin would die in Egypt, he would not have allowed Benjamin to go. Clever, cunning Jacob would have figured out another way. But his sending Benjamin proves he didn't really believe everything was working out negatively for him.
The story continues…
The brothers return to Egypt and appear before Joseph with Benjamin in tow. "I'm the brother you put in a pit, the one you sold into slavery," announced Joseph. And the brothers fell at his feet in fear. "Don't fear," he said. Although you meant evil against me, God meant it for good" (see Gen_50:20).
Joseph said, "Everything you did to me was part of a plan, so don't worry." And he spoke kindly to them and showed great love toward them.
Here's the question: How do I react to difficulty? Am I like Jacob, saying, "All things are working against me. How can this be happening to me? What good is going to come out of this tragedy"—even though I know in my heart that such is not the case? Or am I like Joseph, saying, "Man may have meant this for evil, but God meant it for good"?
Unfortunately, all too often I choose the sniveling of Jacob rather than the security of Joseph. Why? To elicit sympathy. My flesh is terribly ugly, and one of the things that makes it that way is my desire for you to feel sorry for me. What is it about our flesh that wants people to think we have it harder than anyone else? While that may seem an insignificant quirk, in reality it borders on blasphemy because in getting you to feel sorry for me, I get you to question God's goodness, provision, and protection in my life. Thus, your pity for me is at God's expense.
Who am I going to be? Am I going to be self-indulgent and allow God to be cast in a bad light—even though I know in my heart the promise given to me, the price paid for me, the peace available for me? Am I going to deny all of that and say, "I want you to feel sorry for me. Listen to my tragedy"? Or am I going to say, "I will not dishonor this good, gracious, loving God who has been so kind to me, who has been so good to me. Therefore, I will not bring shame to His name in eliciting sympathy from anyone"?
That is called the fear of the Lord. It's respect. It's reverence. It's saying, "Father, I care more about Your reputation than I do about getting sympathy from the congregation. I don't want them to think questioningly, negatively, or blasphemously of You."
What is the fear of God? The fear of God means you're so in love with God that you are afraid of doing anything that would hurt Him. Oh, that we would be those who say, "We fear God. We will not snivel. God is good and we know in our hearts deep within us that all things are working together for good"?
Does this mean we're not to sympathize with others when they're going through difficulties?
While the Bible does, indeed, say we are to weep with those who weep (Rom_12:15), what does it actually mean? Whenever you want to know what a verse or concept means, look at Jesus Christ who was the Word made flesh.
"Come quickly, Lord. The one whom thou lovest is sick," pleaded Martha and Mary (Joh_11:3). Four days later, when Jesus finally arrived, Martha greeted Him, saying, "Where were You?"
Do you ever hear yourself talking like that? Do you ever hear yourself saying, "The bills are stacking up; my marriage is falling apart, my health is breaking down—where's the Lord?"
After Martha came Mary. "Lord," she cried, "if only You had been here, our brother would not have died." Seeing her weep, Jesus wept. Why? Was it because Lazarus died? No. Jesus knew Lazarus would soon be called back from the dead. He wasn't weeping for Lazarus. He was weeping because Mary didn't get it.
In Luke 19, we read of Jesus weeping again—this time over the city of Jerusalem.
As the multitude shouted, "Hosanna! Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord," Jesus wept over the city. Why? Because of the people's failure to understand that He came to give them spiritual salvation, not a political solution.
The third time Jesus spoke of weeping was in Luke 23.
His back was beaten, His face swollen, and a crown of thorns was smashed into His skull, as He stumbled down the Via Dolorosa up to a hill called Calvary. To the women weeping along the way He said, "Don't weep for Me. Weep for yourselves because you don't understand what lies ahead for this city" (see verses Luk_23:28-29).
When I see Jesus weeping, I am amazed because He never weeps for Himself. He only weeps when other people don't understand. Here, then, is the question: Thinking you're being compassionate, are you one who constantly weeps with others? Perhaps what we need in the Christian community during this time of self-centered Christianity are men and women who say, "I fear God. Dear brother, even if you don't understand—precious sister, even if you think this is cold-hearted or lacking compassion, you know that this difficulty or this tragedy will work for good. Stand on that knowledge. Cling to it. I will weep for you if you don't get it. But I'm not going to weep with you as you question God and snivel. He's too good for that. Righteous and true are His judgments (Psa_19:9). Whatever He does will prove to be excellent. And I will stand on that."
May God give us wisdom. May God give us peace. May God give us understanding. All things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to His purpose.
I know this to be true. So do you.
A Topical Study of Romans 8:28
There are certain things we don't know. For example, we don't know how a honeybee can fly. You see, theoretically, the wings of a honeybee are too short and too light to support him when he is carrying pollen. It's an aerodynamic impossibility for a honeybee to fly when he's loaded with pollen. But guess what. Honeybees fly even when loaded with pollen. Certain things we don't know—things as simple as the flight of a bee.
There are some things we can't know—things like the day or hour of the Rapture (Mat_25:13), or who will be in heaven (Mat_13:24-30).
There are several things we should know. "Don't be ignorant," admonished Paul, "concerning the second coming (see 1Th_4:13), spiritual gifts (see 1 Corinthians 12), and Satan's devices" (see 2Co_2:11).
And there are some things we truly do know…
The Promise Given to Us
In our text, Paul doesn't say, "You should know that all things work together for good." He doesn't say, "I want you to know all things work together for good." He says, "You already know that all things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to His purpose."
How do we know this?
"Because this verse is in the Word," you answer. "Therefore, it must be true."
All right. But what about those in Rome to whom Paul was writing? They had never heard of Rom_8:28. How, then, could Paul assume they knew its truth?
The Price Paid for Us
Look down a few verses to verse Rom_8:32: "God spared not His own Son but delivered Him up for you and me." If He loved you enough to send His Son to be slaughtered in your stead to pay the price for your sin, don't you know God will do what's good for you continually? When I begin to doubt the love of God, or wonder if things are really working together for good, all I need to do is look to Calvary and see Jesus there dying for me.
The Peace Within Us
God's goodness was known and understood by Old Testament saints long before the Cross of Calvary. How? Because, deep within their hearts, in the midst of tragedy, in the face of difficulty, all those who love God know that all things are truly working together for good.
There is a man in the Old Testament who did this very thing. His name is Jacob, and this part of his story is found in Genesis 42. Jacob had twelve sons. Although he loved them all, number eleven was especially dear to him. His name? Joseph. You recall the story…
Jacob gave Joseph a "coat of many colors," or, more accurately, "a coat with big sleeves." You see, in those days, laborers wore vests without sleeves in order that their arms could be unrestricted. But the bosses—the head honchos—wore coats with sleeves, which served as lunchboxes or briefcases because they kept important documents and/or food in them. Joseph's big sleeves made his brothers so jealous that they threw him into a pit, where they were going to leave him to die—until one of the brothers suggested they could make some money if they sold him as a slave. So sell him they did, after which they smeared blood all over his coat and took it to Jacob, saying, "Bad news, Dad. Joseph was eaten by wild animals."
Meanwhile, through an incredible series of events, Joseph became prime minister of Egypt—second in command only to Pharaoh himself. When famine hit Israel, Jacob called his sons together and said, "I've heard there's a man in Egypt who has food. Go ask him if we can buy some grain." So his sons, ten in number, appeared before the prime minister, whom they didn't recognize.
"Why are you here?" asked Joseph.
"We're here to buy grain, Your Highness."
"I think you're lying," said Joseph. "I think you've come to spy out the land."
"No," insisted his brothers. "We're brothers. In fact, there were twelve of us originally—but one of our brothers is dead, and our youngest brother is at home."
"If that's true," countered Joseph, "go bring your youngest brother to me. That will validate your story. Meanwhile you, Simeon, will stay in prison until the youngest one is brought back."
The nine went back home, taking the grain with them that Joseph had given them. The famine grew worse, and soon they were out of food once more. "Go back to Egypt," Jacob said.
"We can't go back unless we take Benjamin," said the brothers.
Watch what Jacob said in verse Gen_42:36: "Me have ye bereaved of my children; Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away: all these things are against me," or literally, "all is working against me."
• What does Romans 8 say?
"All things work for good."
• What is Jacob declaring?
"Everything is working against me. My son, Simeon, is a hostage. My son Joseph is dead. And my son Benjamin is soon to disappear."
Jacob was completely wrong about what had happened: Joseph wasn't dead. As a matter of fact, he was in perfect health. And Jacob was wrong about what would happen: Benjamin would return, and Simeon would be released.
"Doesn't what Jacob said disprove your premise that everyone who loves God knows innately that everything is working out for good?" you ask.
Even though Jacob said, "Everything is against me," I suggest to you deep down inside, he didn't believe it.
Why?
Read the next chapter. Knowing Jacob, if he really believed Benjamin would die in Egypt, he would not have allowed Benjamin to go. Clever, cunning Jacob would have figured out another way. But his sending Benjamin proves he didn't really believe everything was working out negatively for him.
The story continues…
The brothers return to Egypt and appear before Joseph with Benjamin in tow. "I'm the brother you put in a pit, the one you sold into slavery," announced Joseph. And the brothers fell at his feet in fear. "Don't fear," he said. Although you meant evil against me, God meant it for good" (see Gen_50:20).
Joseph said, "Everything you did to me was part of a plan, so don't worry." And he spoke kindly to them and showed great love toward them.
Here's the question: How do I react to difficulty? Am I like Jacob, saying, "All things are working against me. How can this be happening to me? What good is going to come out of this tragedy"—even though I know in my heart that such is not the case? Or am I like Joseph, saying, "Man may have meant this for evil, but God meant it for good"?
Unfortunately, all too often I choose the sniveling of Jacob rather than the security of Joseph. Why? To elicit sympathy. My flesh is terribly ugly, and one of the things that makes it that way is my desire for you to feel sorry for me. What is it about our flesh that wants people to think we have it harder than anyone else? While that may seem an insignificant quirk, in reality it borders on blasphemy because in getting you to feel sorry for me, I get you to question God's goodness, provision, and protection in my life. Thus, your pity for me is at God's expense.
Who am I going to be? Am I going to be self-indulgent and allow God to be cast in a bad light—even though I know in my heart the promise given to me, the price paid for me, the peace available for me? Am I going to deny all of that and say, "I want you to feel sorry for me. Listen to my tragedy"? Or am I going to say, "I will not dishonor this good, gracious, loving God who has been so kind to me, who has been so good to me. Therefore, I will not bring shame to His name in eliciting sympathy from anyone"?
That is called the fear of the Lord. It's respect. It's reverence. It's saying, "Father, I care more about Your reputation than I do about getting sympathy from the congregation. I don't want them to think questioningly, negatively, or blasphemously of You."
What is the fear of God? The fear of God means you're so in love with God that you are afraid of doing anything that would hurt Him. Oh, that we would be those who say, "We fear God. We will not snivel. God is good and we know in our hearts deep within us that all things are working together for good"?
Does this mean we're not to sympathize with others when they're going through difficulties?
While the Bible does, indeed, say we are to weep with those who weep (Rom_12:15), what does it actually mean? Whenever you want to know what a verse or concept means, look at Jesus Christ who was the Word made flesh.
"Come quickly, Lord. The one whom thou lovest is sick," pleaded Martha and Mary (Joh_11:3). Four days later, when Jesus finally arrived, Martha greeted Him, saying, "Where were You?"
Do you ever hear yourself talking like that? Do you ever hear yourself saying, "The bills are stacking up; my marriage is falling apart, my health is breaking down—where's the Lord?"
After Martha came Mary. "Lord," she cried, "if only You had been here, our brother would not have died." Seeing her weep, Jesus wept. Why? Was it because Lazarus died? No. Jesus knew Lazarus would soon be called back from the dead. He wasn't weeping for Lazarus. He was weeping because Mary didn't get it.
In Luke 19, we read of Jesus weeping again—this time over the city of Jerusalem.
As the multitude shouted, "Hosanna! Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord," Jesus wept over the city. Why? Because of the people's failure to understand that He came to give them spiritual salvation, not a political solution.
The third time Jesus spoke of weeping was in Luke 23.
His back was beaten, His face swollen, and a crown of thorns was smashed into His skull, as He stumbled down the Via Dolorosa up to a hill called Calvary. To the women weeping along the way He said, "Don't weep for Me. Weep for yourselves because you don't understand what lies ahead for this city" (see verses Luk_23:28-29).
When I see Jesus weeping, I am amazed because He never weeps for Himself. He only weeps when other people don't understand. Here, then, is the question: Thinking you're being compassionate, are you one who constantly weeps with others? Perhaps what we need in the Christian community during this time of self-centered Christianity are men and women who say, "I fear God. Dear brother, even if you don't understand—precious sister, even if you think this is cold-hearted or lacking compassion, you know that this difficulty or this tragedy will work for good. Stand on that knowledge. Cling to it. I will weep for you if you don't get it. But I'm not going to weep with you as you question God and snivel. He's too good for that. Righteous and true are His judgments (Psa_19:9). Whatever He does will prove to be excellent. And I will stand on that."
May God give us wisdom. May God give us peace. May God give us understanding. All things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to His purpose.
I know this to be true. So do you.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Who are We Listening to?
While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!”--Matthew 17:5
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna, and Mikayla,
I have always loved the Father's response to Peter in this. The Lord had taken Peter, James and John up on the mountain and at the top was transfigured before them. His face, the bible tells us, shone like the sun and His clothes became as white as light. Moses and Elijah also appeared to them, talking with Him. Peter was obviously deeply moved by all of this and wanted to forever memorialize the moment by constructing three tabernacles...one for Jesus, one for Moses and one for Elijah. Now to Peter's credit he did put Christ first, but He did not give Him pre-eminence. The Lord Jesus is above all...The Bible tells us that while Peter was still speaking the Father spoke from heaven. "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!" The disciples heard Him and fell on their faces and were greatly afraid. Methinks our Father wanted to make a point. Jesus is the revelation of God. God has spoken to us in many ways...through the Law, the prophets and was now speaking through His Son. (See Hebrews 1.) It is Him that our Father wants us to hear. When you truly understand who Jesus is, the only response is to obey Him and fall down on your face in worship.
John recalls this moment on the mountain when the veil was lifted in John 1:14 saying “And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” Jesus laid aside this glory when He came to earth for us...at His resurrection He received it back again and now shares it with us. As we behold Him in His word and look to Him we are transformed into His image. What a gift! What a beautiful promise...what a beautiful picture is in this verse.
2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Hear Him...put Him first in your life.
Love
Mom
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna, and Mikayla,
I have always loved the Father's response to Peter in this. The Lord had taken Peter, James and John up on the mountain and at the top was transfigured before them. His face, the bible tells us, shone like the sun and His clothes became as white as light. Moses and Elijah also appeared to them, talking with Him. Peter was obviously deeply moved by all of this and wanted to forever memorialize the moment by constructing three tabernacles...one for Jesus, one for Moses and one for Elijah. Now to Peter's credit he did put Christ first, but He did not give Him pre-eminence. The Lord Jesus is above all...The Bible tells us that while Peter was still speaking the Father spoke from heaven. "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!" The disciples heard Him and fell on their faces and were greatly afraid. Methinks our Father wanted to make a point. Jesus is the revelation of God. God has spoken to us in many ways...through the Law, the prophets and was now speaking through His Son. (See Hebrews 1.) It is Him that our Father wants us to hear. When you truly understand who Jesus is, the only response is to obey Him and fall down on your face in worship.
John recalls this moment on the mountain when the veil was lifted in John 1:14 saying “And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” Jesus laid aside this glory when He came to earth for us...at His resurrection He received it back again and now shares it with us. As we behold Him in His word and look to Him we are transformed into His image. What a gift! What a beautiful promise...what a beautiful picture is in this verse.
2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Hear Him...put Him first in your life.
Love
Mom
Monday, February 28, 2011
Christophobia: Anxiety Antidote
Christophobia: Anxiety Antidote: "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the pea..."
Why Christians Love 1 John 4:7-19
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us.--1 John 4:7-19
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
Why do we as Christians love? Look at verse 7. The first reason we love is because we are born of God. If we are born of God, we have His nature. We look like who we belong to...just like we resemble our parents. When we are born again, we become partakers of His divine nature. The bible tells us that God is love. If we are born of Him then we will reflect this love.
Looking at verses 9 -11 we see the example of love that God left for us to follow. God's love was manifested to us by the sending of His Son into the world for the propitiation of our sins. The Christian's love then will be self-sacrificing like God's love. Christ laying down His life for us embodied the true nature of His love...We "love" to follow the example He gave us as a pattern.
Verse 12 tells us that no one has seen God at any time. God is invisible. Nobody can actually see Him loving. Jesus is no longer in the world manifesting His love to us. BUT WE, WHO ARE BELIEVERS, ARE. WE WHO HAVE HIS SPIRIT LIVING INSIDE US CAN! What a responsibility...what a privilege! We are His witnesses here on earth called to show His love in our words, deeds and lives so that others could see and be drawn to Him. John MacArthur sums up verses 7-12 this way. Love originated in God, was manifested in His Son and was demonstrated in His people. We love then because it is His witness in the world.
1 John 3:16-23 says this:
By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?
My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God.
Love is an assurance of salvation. John is saying this about the "true love" that can only be seen and manifested in us through Him. It not only expresses itself in supreme sacrifices, but also in giving to those in need. It is love in action. Claiming to love God is not enough...love is not just in word but in deed. If this is our pattern of loving, than our hearts are assured of our salvation before Him. If our heart condemns us, John says, God is greater than our hearts. God knows those who are truly His. Girls, God wants us, His beloved, to be assured of our salvation. He knows we are dust and this is such a kindness. Displaying this kind of love in our life is proof that we stand uncondemned before Him so we can have confidence in our relationship with Him.
Love is also the boldness we have in the day of judgment because as He is, so are we in this world. Perfect love casts out fear because fear involves torment. If His love abides in us and is being perfected, we will know who He is and what He did for us in His perfect love. He suffered the punishment for our sins and is now seated at the right hand of the Father. We, who believe, are accepted by God in Him. His words of forgiveness will be rooted into our hearts. We will know that as His children, we are not appointed for wrath...we do not have to hide in the day of judgment. We, like Jesus, can cry out Abba Father. We can look forward in the day of judgment to seeing Him face to face and waking in His likeness.
Love
Mom
No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us.--1 John 4:7-19
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
Why do we as Christians love? Look at verse 7. The first reason we love is because we are born of God. If we are born of God, we have His nature. We look like who we belong to...just like we resemble our parents. When we are born again, we become partakers of His divine nature. The bible tells us that God is love. If we are born of Him then we will reflect this love.
Looking at verses 9 -11 we see the example of love that God left for us to follow. God's love was manifested to us by the sending of His Son into the world for the propitiation of our sins. The Christian's love then will be self-sacrificing like God's love. Christ laying down His life for us embodied the true nature of His love...We "love" to follow the example He gave us as a pattern.
Verse 12 tells us that no one has seen God at any time. God is invisible. Nobody can actually see Him loving. Jesus is no longer in the world manifesting His love to us. BUT WE, WHO ARE BELIEVERS, ARE. WE WHO HAVE HIS SPIRIT LIVING INSIDE US CAN! What a responsibility...what a privilege! We are His witnesses here on earth called to show His love in our words, deeds and lives so that others could see and be drawn to Him. John MacArthur sums up verses 7-12 this way. Love originated in God, was manifested in His Son and was demonstrated in His people. We love then because it is His witness in the world.
1 John 3:16-23 says this:
By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?
My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God.
Love is an assurance of salvation. John is saying this about the "true love" that can only be seen and manifested in us through Him. It not only expresses itself in supreme sacrifices, but also in giving to those in need. It is love in action. Claiming to love God is not enough...love is not just in word but in deed. If this is our pattern of loving, than our hearts are assured of our salvation before Him. If our heart condemns us, John says, God is greater than our hearts. God knows those who are truly His. Girls, God wants us, His beloved, to be assured of our salvation. He knows we are dust and this is such a kindness. Displaying this kind of love in our life is proof that we stand uncondemned before Him so we can have confidence in our relationship with Him.
Love is also the boldness we have in the day of judgment because as He is, so are we in this world. Perfect love casts out fear because fear involves torment. If His love abides in us and is being perfected, we will know who He is and what He did for us in His perfect love. He suffered the punishment for our sins and is now seated at the right hand of the Father. We, who believe, are accepted by God in Him. His words of forgiveness will be rooted into our hearts. We will know that as His children, we are not appointed for wrath...we do not have to hide in the day of judgment. We, like Jesus, can cry out Abba Father. We can look forward in the day of judgment to seeing Him face to face and waking in His likeness.
Love
Mom
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Christophobia: Adventures of Dead Man - Scene 1: Dream?
Christophobia: Adventures of Dead Man - Scene 1: Dream?: "I woke up feeling the best I had felt in… years. Maybe decades. There was a pleasant breeze and natural summer scents wafting through the op..."
Psalm 141
Posting this one because it spoke to my heart this morning as I prayed through it.
Psalm 141
A Psalm of David.
1 LORD, I cry out to You;
Make haste to me!
Give ear to my voice when I cry out to You.
2 Let my prayer be set before You as incense,
The lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.
3 Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth;
Keep watch over the door of my lips.
4 Do not incline my heart to any evil thing,
To practice wicked works
With men who work iniquity;
And do not let me eat of their delicacies.
5 Let the righteous strike me;
It shall be a kindness.
And let him rebuke me;
It shall be as excellent oil;
Let my head not refuse it.
For still my prayer is against the deeds of the wicked.
6 Their judges are overthrown by the sides of the cliff,
And they hear my words, for they are sweet.
7 Our bones are scattered at the mouth of the grave,
As when one plows and breaks up the earth.
8 But my eyes are upon You, O GOD the Lord;
In You I take refuge;
Do not leave my soul destitute.
9 Keep me from the snares they have laid for me,
And from the traps of the workers of iniquity.
10 Let the wicked fall into their own nets,
While I escape safely.
Make haste to me!
Give ear to my voice when I cry out to You.
2 Let my prayer be set before You as incense,
The lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.
3 Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth;
Keep watch over the door of my lips.
4 Do not incline my heart to any evil thing,
To practice wicked works
With men who work iniquity;
And do not let me eat of their delicacies.
5 Let the righteous strike me;
It shall be a kindness.
And let him rebuke me;
It shall be as excellent oil;
Let my head not refuse it.
For still my prayer is against the deeds of the wicked.
6 Their judges are overthrown by the sides of the cliff,
And they hear my words, for they are sweet.
7 Our bones are scattered at the mouth of the grave,
As when one plows and breaks up the earth.
8 But my eyes are upon You, O GOD the Lord;
In You I take refuge;
Do not leave my soul destitute.
9 Keep me from the snares they have laid for me,
And from the traps of the workers of iniquity.
10 Let the wicked fall into their own nets,
While I escape safely.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Answer the Door by Rebecca
Paul continues to lovingly correct and exhort his Corinthian brethren, earnestly desiring the best for these believers. He doesn’t want them wasting their resources on the wisdom of the world. He knew that though the world promises satisf...action to those who obey its lusts, that road, in the end, only leads to anguish, emptiness, and destruction.
When Paul visited Corinth and planted the seeds of truth in those believers’ hearts, he did not come with “excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God.” (vs. 1) He had determined “not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” (Vs. 2-5)
Christianity is so far beyond religion. It’s infinitely more than an organization, a system, a society, a creed, or anything human. It turns the world upside down precisely because it is not of this world. It cannot be defeated by the world because its power is not of the world. The Church – the Body of Christ throughout history – withstands the gates of hell itself because the Head of the Church is greater than hell.
I, as a Christian, have the Spirit of the LORD. I’m not part of the world anymore. I’m not trapped in its lies and its ruin. The very nature of the Living God indwells me, and He lifts the veil of death and sin from my eyes and my heart. I can see and understand things that even the most hailed intellectuals of the world are utterly blinded too. Paul says it so perfectly: “These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For ‘who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?’ But we have the mind of Christ.” (Vs. 13-16)
By the grace of God in Christ Jesus, I’ve been given the “Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.” (Isaiah 11:2) I have the Helper, the Teacher, the Comforter; the Spirit of Truth and the One who “comes alongside.” I am being transformed into His glorious image. There are no words to express the fullness granted to the child of God! I am not led by man; I’m led by God Himself! The Sovereign Creator of the universe is literally, at this moment, living in my heart. He is my shield and my exceedingly great reward! Is it any wonder that Paul pleaded with the Corinthians to drop their foolish dabbling in the wisdom of the world? They had the True and Infinite One all for the asking!
Psalm 34:8, “Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him!”
1 Corinthians 2:9, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
How can you persist in the futility and the hopelessness of the world when Jesus is knocking at the door of your heart? How can you not run to Him and throw yourself into His outstretched, longing arms? How can you gladly cast aside all the refuse you’ve been hanging on to? How can you turn away such infinite, unfathomable love as was demonstrated on the cross of Calvary?
Forget the world. Forget all your selfish ambitions. Forget your pride. Forget the sin that’s killing you. Answer the door. Let the Lord come in – before it’s too late.
When Paul visited Corinth and planted the seeds of truth in those believers’ hearts, he did not come with “excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God.” (vs. 1) He had determined “not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” (Vs. 2-5)
Christianity is so far beyond religion. It’s infinitely more than an organization, a system, a society, a creed, or anything human. It turns the world upside down precisely because it is not of this world. It cannot be defeated by the world because its power is not of the world. The Church – the Body of Christ throughout history – withstands the gates of hell itself because the Head of the Church is greater than hell.
I, as a Christian, have the Spirit of the LORD. I’m not part of the world anymore. I’m not trapped in its lies and its ruin. The very nature of the Living God indwells me, and He lifts the veil of death and sin from my eyes and my heart. I can see and understand things that even the most hailed intellectuals of the world are utterly blinded too. Paul says it so perfectly: “These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For ‘who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?’ But we have the mind of Christ.” (Vs. 13-16)
By the grace of God in Christ Jesus, I’ve been given the “Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.” (Isaiah 11:2) I have the Helper, the Teacher, the Comforter; the Spirit of Truth and the One who “comes alongside.” I am being transformed into His glorious image. There are no words to express the fullness granted to the child of God! I am not led by man; I’m led by God Himself! The Sovereign Creator of the universe is literally, at this moment, living in my heart. He is my shield and my exceedingly great reward! Is it any wonder that Paul pleaded with the Corinthians to drop their foolish dabbling in the wisdom of the world? They had the True and Infinite One all for the asking!
Psalm 34:8, “Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him!”
1 Corinthians 2:9, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
How can you persist in the futility and the hopelessness of the world when Jesus is knocking at the door of your heart? How can you not run to Him and throw yourself into His outstretched, longing arms? How can you gladly cast aside all the refuse you’ve been hanging on to? How can you turn away such infinite, unfathomable love as was demonstrated on the cross of Calvary?
Forget the world. Forget all your selfish ambitions. Forget your pride. Forget the sin that’s killing you. Answer the door. Let the Lord come in – before it’s too late.
Friday, February 25, 2011
A Word to Husbands. 1 Peter 3:7
Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered.--1 Peter 3:7
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
Husbands, likewise. John MacArthur stops dead right there in his commentary. Why? Because submission is the responsibility of the Christian husband as well. The "likewise" hearkens back to verse 1 where it says wives, likewise, be submissive. Ephesians 5:21 says that we are to submit to one another in the fear of God. 1 Peter 5 tells us we are to be submissive to one another and be clothed with humility.
Submission is the responsibility of each and every born again believer. Now a husband's role is not to submit to his wife as a leader, but a believing husband must subordinate his needs to his wife's and is to dwell with her with understanding. Meaning he is to be sensitive to her needs, her fears, and her feelings. The godly husband puts His wife first, and is compassionate, tenderhearted and courteous to her. He examples Christ to her in every way. The husband, the Bible tells us, is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of His church. Christ is the Savior of the body and gave Himself for her. The husband then should reflect Christ to his wife.
Christ's love for us is selfless, self-sacrificing, and unreserved. Christ is the standard that the believing husband must follow. Loving his wife is the husband's supreme responsibility. Ephesians 5 says he is to care for his wife as he cares for his own body. He is also to nourish and cherish her by providing for her needs, helping her grow spiritually and by being comforting, caring and affectionate toward her. The oneness that is inherent in marriage (bone of my bone...flesh of my flesh) makes her so inseparably connected to him that when he cares for her, the Bible says, it is the same as if he is caring for himself. Christ led as a Servant, washing His disciples feet; therefore, the husband is to be a servant leader in his home. He is not to lord it over those entrusted to his care but is to be an example of his Lord to them. The following verses speak to the magnitude of the responsibility placed on the husband, but they also speak to the responsibility that each one of us have to exemplify Christ in our lives so that others see Him in us.
John 13:12-17 So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down again, He said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
Matthew 20:25-28 But Jesus called them to Himself and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."
And this one to husbands specifically:
Ephesians 5:25-30 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones.
THAT is a tall order...that is much responsibility and it is impossible outside of the Spirit of God working in a husband's heart. As the husband lays down his life and dies to self for his family daily, he becomes a shining light for Christ. A testimony to His love and His care.
Continuing in verse 7, the believing husband is to give honor to his wife as the weaker vessel and as being heirs together of the grace of life so that his prayers might not be hindered. Galatians 3:28 says that "there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus." James tells us there is no partiality with God. Each of us have different roles but each of us are on equal footing in the kingdom. Because woman are the physically weaker sex, God gave husbands the role of protecting them and caring for their needs. Verse 7 continues, saying in effect, that if a husband does not do this, his prayers may be hindered. Woe then to the man who uses his position to mistreat his wife. The rightness of our relationship with God depends on the rightness of our relationship with others. If we are in disobedience, God is not in a position to bless us. This is true for any of us who are in disobedience and are not right in our relationships with those God has put in our lives.
1 Peter 3:12 "FOR THE EYES OF THE LORD ARE ON THE RIGHTEOUS, AND HIS EARS ARE OPEN TO THEIR PRAYERS; BUT THE FACE OF THE LORD IS AGAINST THOSE WHO DO EVIL."
Are you getting the picture here? What I truly want to convey is this. As believers, we all have the same responsibilities...different roles...but each one of us are to example Christ to one another. Each one of us are to submit to one another in love. Each of us are to put the others' needs ahead of our own. Each one of us are to be living sacrifices for Him...so that He can work in our lives to draw others to Himself. The best thing we can do for those the Lord has graciously put into our lives is to sanctify the Lord God in our hearts, live in submission to His lordship and to love Him supremely with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. If we love Him we will obey Him. If we obey Him our relationship will be right with Him and with others. Our marriage relationship will be sweet and filled with good fruit.
Girls...you will obviously never be husbands one day. But you are His. As His, you are to reflect Him to others. You are not to look at how the other people in your life are doing in "their" reflecting of Jesus. You are only to look to your own heart and to Him and do the job that He has called you to. What a gift God has given us in our husbands who are called to subordinate their own needs for us and to love us with the selfless love of Christ. What a picture it gives us of a Father taking care of His daughter...ensuring her safety, preserving her, nourishing her, cherishing her and washing her with the water of the Word.
Love
Mom
Submission to Husbands Post
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
Husbands, likewise. John MacArthur stops dead right there in his commentary. Why? Because submission is the responsibility of the Christian husband as well. The "likewise" hearkens back to verse 1 where it says wives, likewise, be submissive. Ephesians 5:21 says that we are to submit to one another in the fear of God. 1 Peter 5 tells us we are to be submissive to one another and be clothed with humility.
Submission is the responsibility of each and every born again believer. Now a husband's role is not to submit to his wife as a leader, but a believing husband must subordinate his needs to his wife's and is to dwell with her with understanding. Meaning he is to be sensitive to her needs, her fears, and her feelings. The godly husband puts His wife first, and is compassionate, tenderhearted and courteous to her. He examples Christ to her in every way. The husband, the Bible tells us, is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of His church. Christ is the Savior of the body and gave Himself for her. The husband then should reflect Christ to his wife.
Christ's love for us is selfless, self-sacrificing, and unreserved. Christ is the standard that the believing husband must follow. Loving his wife is the husband's supreme responsibility. Ephesians 5 says he is to care for his wife as he cares for his own body. He is also to nourish and cherish her by providing for her needs, helping her grow spiritually and by being comforting, caring and affectionate toward her. The oneness that is inherent in marriage (bone of my bone...flesh of my flesh) makes her so inseparably connected to him that when he cares for her, the Bible says, it is the same as if he is caring for himself. Christ led as a Servant, washing His disciples feet; therefore, the husband is to be a servant leader in his home. He is not to lord it over those entrusted to his care but is to be an example of his Lord to them. The following verses speak to the magnitude of the responsibility placed on the husband, but they also speak to the responsibility that each one of us have to exemplify Christ in our lives so that others see Him in us.
John 13:12-17 So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down again, He said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
Matthew 20:25-28 But Jesus called them to Himself and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."
And this one to husbands specifically:
Ephesians 5:25-30 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones.
THAT is a tall order...that is much responsibility and it is impossible outside of the Spirit of God working in a husband's heart. As the husband lays down his life and dies to self for his family daily, he becomes a shining light for Christ. A testimony to His love and His care.
Continuing in verse 7, the believing husband is to give honor to his wife as the weaker vessel and as being heirs together of the grace of life so that his prayers might not be hindered. Galatians 3:28 says that "there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus." James tells us there is no partiality with God. Each of us have different roles but each of us are on equal footing in the kingdom. Because woman are the physically weaker sex, God gave husbands the role of protecting them and caring for their needs. Verse 7 continues, saying in effect, that if a husband does not do this, his prayers may be hindered. Woe then to the man who uses his position to mistreat his wife. The rightness of our relationship with God depends on the rightness of our relationship with others. If we are in disobedience, God is not in a position to bless us. This is true for any of us who are in disobedience and are not right in our relationships with those God has put in our lives.
1 Peter 3:12 "FOR THE EYES OF THE LORD ARE ON THE RIGHTEOUS, AND HIS EARS ARE OPEN TO THEIR PRAYERS; BUT THE FACE OF THE LORD IS AGAINST THOSE WHO DO EVIL."
Are you getting the picture here? What I truly want to convey is this. As believers, we all have the same responsibilities...different roles...but each one of us are to example Christ to one another. Each one of us are to submit to one another in love. Each of us are to put the others' needs ahead of our own. Each one of us are to be living sacrifices for Him...so that He can work in our lives to draw others to Himself. The best thing we can do for those the Lord has graciously put into our lives is to sanctify the Lord God in our hearts, live in submission to His lordship and to love Him supremely with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. If we love Him we will obey Him. If we obey Him our relationship will be right with Him and with others. Our marriage relationship will be sweet and filled with good fruit.
Girls...you will obviously never be husbands one day. But you are His. As His, you are to reflect Him to others. You are not to look at how the other people in your life are doing in "their" reflecting of Jesus. You are only to look to your own heart and to Him and do the job that He has called you to. What a gift God has given us in our husbands who are called to subordinate their own needs for us and to love us with the selfless love of Christ. What a picture it gives us of a Father taking care of His daughter...ensuring her safety, preserving her, nourishing her, cherishing her and washing her with the water of the Word.
Love
Mom
Submission to Husbands Post
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Treasure in Earthen Vessels by Rebecca
The believers of Corinth, to whom Paul was writing, had some problems – problems common to believers and churches of all ages, including today. Paul tackles the first without hesitation: contentions and divisions. “Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.” (vs. 10)
The Corinthians were splitting into factions, saying “I am of Paul,” or “of Apollos,” or “of Cephas,” or “of Christ.” They were being drawn away from truth and becoming embroiled in meaningless hairsplitting, arguing, and dissenting. Paul urges these beloved believers to return to their foundation and to walk in love. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life; they were to all have His mind and to be joined together as His body. There is, of course, a place for loving debate and for separating from those who have departed from the Word of God, but that was not the issue in Corinth. Instead of debate being a means to the end of truth, truth had become a means to the end of debate. Jesus was no longer the goal. When we, for whatever reason, take our eyes off Christ and pursue something else for itself, it will always end in disaster. Paul did not want to see the precious fellowship of Corinth derail because of such tragic error.
The gospel of Christ is not debate. It’s not clever words. It’s not a means to achieve your own goals. It’s not a Band-Aid. The gospel is simply this: the power of God to those who are being saved. “For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” (vs. 22-24)
If you don’t want the gospel, then there is no argument or proof – even if it be someone coming back from the dead – that will change you. The wisdom of the world offers a plethora of excuses you can use to discount the gospel in your life. God’s a myth; man can solve his own problems; the notion of sin is outdated and oppressive; evil is curable; evolution has disproved God; the Bible is full of contradictions; Christianity is a crazy cult; Christians are intolerant; religion causes problems; mankind is basically good; God is too harsh; truth is relative; there’s more than one way to heaven, etc., etc., etc. The answers to all those challenges are blindingly obvious, if you will only choose to open your eyes. It’s not reason that’s keeping you from Christ; it’s the fact that you just don’t want Him.
“For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. 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.’” (vs. 26-31)
The wisdom of the world can’t figure out the gospel. To those who are rich and mighty in the world and its ways, the gospel is simply foolishness. But the Lord, in His wisdom, brilliantly disguised the truth in seeming folly so that the line between the believing and unbelieving might be clear. It pleased Him to fill His word with paradoxes and earthly impossibilities; to use the most unlikely instruments; to have infinite treasure in humble earthen vessels. He cloaks power with folly, so that true folly might be clear for all to see! He uses the weak and the poor and the low of this world to demonstrate the excellence of His glory and show us – believers and unbelievers alike – how weak and needy we really are. He wants us to be humble so that He might exalt us. He wants us to admit our own inability so that we might be filled with His strength. He wants us to realize our depravity so that we might grasp His mercy and redemption. He wants us to see the futility of this world so that we might experience the fullness of eternity.
Watch as this world comes apart at the seams. Witness the fruit of worldly wisdom. Weep at the results. Reject the false philosophies and the façade of wisdom. Reject the notion that you are “okay” and can manage on your own. Forsake the lusts of the world that is empty and passing away. And oh, please, turn to the truth and the power of God to those who are being saved!
John 3:16, “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.”
2 Peter 3, “Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder), that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.’ For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless; and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures. You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.”
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
The Fear of the Lord
Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Wisdom and folly....the two major themes found throughout the Book of Proverbs. A wise man in biblical terms is a man who walks in accordance with God's precepts. A fool is one who does not...a fool lives apart from God.
With that having been said, the fear of the Lord is the foundation of everything. It begins when the Spirit of God dwells inside us at the moment of salvation. He (the Spirit) moves in our thinking.
Fallen, unsaved man's mind, the Bible says, is depraved, blind, futile, foolish, and ignorant. I can give you the references if you need them. Here is what John MacArthur says about the mind of fallen man:
"So depraved it does not choose what is good, so blind it does not know what is good, so useless it does not perform what is good, so ignorant it doesn't even know it's doing all of this and you're left with the only alternative...everything is foolish. That's the mind of man, fallen man"
My mind was all these things and more before coming to the Lord...despite my college degree...despite my good job. My life was in shambles...John MacArthur's quote hits home. Upon acceptance of the Lord, however, the one thing that told me something supernatural had occurred was that I felt like my mind had expanded exponentially. I saw things and understood things with different eyes. Many, many of my beliefs changed at the moment Christ entered my heart and The Spirit of God moved into my thinking. My mind which was once depraved, blind, futile, ignorant and foolish was now different. No, I did not have a new brain, but I did have a new way of thinking and I no longer had the desire to do many of the sins that were so attractive to me prior to my conversion.
Solomon, the wisest man whoever lived, said this in the Book of Ecclesiastes.
And further, my son, be admonished by these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man's all.
The fear of the Lord involves our devotion to Him and because of this it involves our hatred of sin because God is holy and cannot look upon evil. When we speak of the fear of the Lord it is really being afraid that we will do something that will be grieving to Him. Proverbs 8:13 defines it as hating evil. Love for God and love for sin cannot coexist. The longer you walk with the Lord the more you will despise sin. You will see it for what it is...ugly and disgusting and the cause of much grief. It corrupts, it defiles, it numbs people into complacency and it blinds them to reality. Sin hurts the innocent and helpless. It leaves destruction and devastation in its wake and has a stupefying effect on those who make a practice of it.
There is nothing more reasonable...more wise, if you will...than trusting, reverencing and obeying the One who created you. There is nothing more foolish than to reject the wisdom and counsel of the One who knows everything about you, to do what is right in your own eyes and live by your own wisdom.
Look at your life. Do you follow Christ? Do you desire to follow Christ? And when you don't are you saddened by that? That is the mark of salvation. That is the fear of the Lord. Following Christ must be the direction of your life. You will not follow perfectly but you will follow...you will persevere down that path. The one who fears the Lord will love Christ and hate sin. It is not that you will not sin, but you will sin less and less as you press on toward the goal of the upward call of Christ Jesus in your life.
Love
Mom
Wisdom and folly....the two major themes found throughout the Book of Proverbs. A wise man in biblical terms is a man who walks in accordance with God's precepts. A fool is one who does not...a fool lives apart from God.
With that having been said, the fear of the Lord is the foundation of everything. It begins when the Spirit of God dwells inside us at the moment of salvation. He (the Spirit) moves in our thinking.
Fallen, unsaved man's mind, the Bible says, is depraved, blind, futile, foolish, and ignorant. I can give you the references if you need them. Here is what John MacArthur says about the mind of fallen man:
"So depraved it does not choose what is good, so blind it does not know what is good, so useless it does not perform what is good, so ignorant it doesn't even know it's doing all of this and you're left with the only alternative...everything is foolish. That's the mind of man, fallen man"
My mind was all these things and more before coming to the Lord...despite my college degree...despite my good job. My life was in shambles...John MacArthur's quote hits home. Upon acceptance of the Lord, however, the one thing that told me something supernatural had occurred was that I felt like my mind had expanded exponentially. I saw things and understood things with different eyes. Many, many of my beliefs changed at the moment Christ entered my heart and The Spirit of God moved into my thinking. My mind which was once depraved, blind, futile, ignorant and foolish was now different. No, I did not have a new brain, but I did have a new way of thinking and I no longer had the desire to do many of the sins that were so attractive to me prior to my conversion.
Solomon, the wisest man whoever lived, said this in the Book of Ecclesiastes.
And further, my son, be admonished by these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man's all.
The fear of the Lord involves our devotion to Him and because of this it involves our hatred of sin because God is holy and cannot look upon evil. When we speak of the fear of the Lord it is really being afraid that we will do something that will be grieving to Him. Proverbs 8:13 defines it as hating evil. Love for God and love for sin cannot coexist. The longer you walk with the Lord the more you will despise sin. You will see it for what it is...ugly and disgusting and the cause of much grief. It corrupts, it defiles, it numbs people into complacency and it blinds them to reality. Sin hurts the innocent and helpless. It leaves destruction and devastation in its wake and has a stupefying effect on those who make a practice of it.
There is nothing more reasonable...more wise, if you will...than trusting, reverencing and obeying the One who created you. There is nothing more foolish than to reject the wisdom and counsel of the One who knows everything about you, to do what is right in your own eyes and live by your own wisdom.
Look at your life. Do you follow Christ? Do you desire to follow Christ? And when you don't are you saddened by that? That is the mark of salvation. That is the fear of the Lord. Following Christ must be the direction of your life. You will not follow perfectly but you will follow...you will persevere down that path. The one who fears the Lord will love Christ and hate sin. It is not that you will not sin, but you will sin less and less as you press on toward the goal of the upward call of Christ Jesus in your life.
Love
Mom
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Proverbs 1:5-6
Proverbs 1:5-6 A wise man will hear and increase learning, And a man of understanding will attain wise counsel, To understand a proverb and an enigma, The words of the wise and their riddles.
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
A wise man wants to learn...he will hear and purpose in his heart to understand what he has heard. A wise man will put energy and effort into obtaining wisdom and understanding. For instance, you might read a proverb and find its meaning difficult to discern at first. I believe that is planned. God wants you to think about what you have heard or read. Our ability to think is one of the greatest gifts God has given us. I think our Lord makes the meanings a bit obscure on purpose so that we do meditate on them, and puzzle over them. When the light finally goes on and we have that flash of understanding... it is ours...we will never forget it. When we give something careful consideration and thought it becomes our own in a personal way. We begin to apply the truth then in our lives. Girls...make a practice of spending time thinking about the Scriptures...take a verse or two and meditate on it as you go about your day. Write down your thoughts regarding your meditation at the end of the day. After a few months of practicing this on a daily basis, you will be amazed at your increased understanding of Scripture and also the improvement in your thinking abilities.
Love
Mom
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
A wise man wants to learn...he will hear and purpose in his heart to understand what he has heard. A wise man will put energy and effort into obtaining wisdom and understanding. For instance, you might read a proverb and find its meaning difficult to discern at first. I believe that is planned. God wants you to think about what you have heard or read. Our ability to think is one of the greatest gifts God has given us. I think our Lord makes the meanings a bit obscure on purpose so that we do meditate on them, and puzzle over them. When the light finally goes on and we have that flash of understanding... it is ours...we will never forget it. When we give something careful consideration and thought it becomes our own in a personal way. We begin to apply the truth then in our lives. Girls...make a practice of spending time thinking about the Scriptures...take a verse or two and meditate on it as you go about your day. Write down your thoughts regarding your meditation at the end of the day. After a few months of practicing this on a daily basis, you will be amazed at your increased understanding of Scripture and also the improvement in your thinking abilities.
Love
Mom
Proverbs 1
The Beginning of Knowledge
1 The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel:
2 To know wisdom and instruction,
To perceive the words of understanding,
3 To receive the instruction of wisdom,
Justice, judgment, and equity;
4 To give prudence to the simple,
To the young man knowledge and discretion—
5 A wise man will hear and increase learning,
And a man of understanding will attain wise counsel,
6 To understand a proverb and an enigma,
The words of the wise and their riddles.
7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge,
But fools despise wisdom and instruction.
2 To know wisdom and instruction,
To perceive the words of understanding,
3 To receive the instruction of wisdom,
Justice, judgment, and equity;
4 To give prudence to the simple,
To the young man knowledge and discretion—
5 A wise man will hear and increase learning,
And a man of understanding will attain wise counsel,
6 To understand a proverb and an enigma,
The words of the wise and their riddles.
7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge,
But fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Shun Evil Counsel
8 My son, hear the instruction of your father,
And do not forsake the law of your mother;
9 For they will be a graceful ornament on your head,
And chains about your neck.
10 My son, if sinners entice you,
Do not consent.
11 If they say, “Come with us,
Let us lie in wait to shed blood;
Let us lurk secretly for the innocent without cause;
12 Let us swallow them alive like Sheol,[a]
And whole, like those who go down to the Pit;
13 We shall find all kinds of precious possessions,
We shall fill our houses with spoil;
14 Cast in your lot among us,
Let us all have one purse”—
15 My son, do not walk in the way with them,
Keep your foot from their path;
16 For their feet run to evil,
And they make haste to shed blood.
17 Surely, in vain the net is spread
In the sight of any bird;
18 But they lie in wait for their own blood,
They lurk secretly for their own lives.
19 So are the ways of everyone who is greedy for gain;
It takes away the life of its owners.
And do not forsake the law of your mother;
9 For they will be a graceful ornament on your head,
And chains about your neck.
10 My son, if sinners entice you,
Do not consent.
11 If they say, “Come with us,
Let us lie in wait to shed blood;
Let us lurk secretly for the innocent without cause;
12 Let us swallow them alive like Sheol,[a]
And whole, like those who go down to the Pit;
13 We shall find all kinds of precious possessions,
We shall fill our houses with spoil;
14 Cast in your lot among us,
Let us all have one purse”—
15 My son, do not walk in the way with them,
Keep your foot from their path;
16 For their feet run to evil,
And they make haste to shed blood.
17 Surely, in vain the net is spread
In the sight of any bird;
18 But they lie in wait for their own blood,
They lurk secretly for their own lives.
19 So are the ways of everyone who is greedy for gain;
It takes away the life of its owners.
The Call of Wisdom
20 Wisdom calls aloud outside;
She raises her voice in the open squares.
21 She cries out in the chief concourses,[b]
At the openings of the gates in the city
She speaks her words:
22 “ How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity?
For scorners delight in their scorning,
And fools hate knowledge.
23 Turn at my rebuke;
Surely I will pour out my spirit on you;
I will make my words known to you.
24 Because I have called and you refused,
I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded,
25 Because you disdained all my counsel,
And would have none of my rebuke,
26 I also will laugh at your calamity;
I will mock when your terror comes,
27 When your terror comes like a storm,
And your destruction comes like a whirlwind,
When distress and anguish come upon you.
28 “ Then they will call on me, but I will not answer;
They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me.
29 Because they hated knowledge
And did not choose the fear of the LORD,
30 They would have none of my counsel
And despised my every rebuke.
31 Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way,
And be filled to the full with their own fancies.
32 For the turning away of the simple will slay them,
And the complacency of fools will destroy them;
33 But whoever listens to me will dwell safely,
And will be secure, without fear of evil.”
She raises her voice in the open squares.
21 She cries out in the chief concourses,[b]
At the openings of the gates in the city
She speaks her words:
22 “ How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity?
For scorners delight in their scorning,
And fools hate knowledge.
23 Turn at my rebuke;
Surely I will pour out my spirit on you;
I will make my words known to you.
24 Because I have called and you refused,
I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded,
25 Because you disdained all my counsel,
And would have none of my rebuke,
26 I also will laugh at your calamity;
I will mock when your terror comes,
27 When your terror comes like a storm,
And your destruction comes like a whirlwind,
When distress and anguish come upon you.
28 “ Then they will call on me, but I will not answer;
They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me.
29 Because they hated knowledge
And did not choose the fear of the LORD,
30 They would have none of my counsel
And despised my every rebuke.
31 Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way,
And be filled to the full with their own fancies.
32 For the turning away of the simple will slay them,
And the complacency of fools will destroy them;
33 But whoever listens to me will dwell safely,
And will be secure, without fear of evil.”
Monday, February 21, 2011
Mercy in the Midst of the Great Tribulation
9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11 All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures, and fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying:
“ Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom,
Thanksgiving and honor and power and might,
Be to our God forever and ever.
Amen.”
13 Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?”
14 And I said to him, “Sir, you know.”
So he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15 Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them. 16 They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; 17 for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”--Revelation 7:9-17
Girls,
Reading through Revelation and stopped here for a moment. God is so good. He is filled with mercy and compassion and gives us so many chances to repent and look to Him. The elder in verse 14 identifies these as "the ones who come out of the great tribulation." Perhaps the greatest revival the world has ever seen, will occur during the period that comes immediately after the Rapture and in the midst of the greatest suffering the people on earth have ever known. Even in judgment God remembers mercy and reaches out His hand to us.
It is a comfort for me to know that God loves each one of us to the very end and does not wish that any of us should perish. There will be so many people after the Rapture who had heard the gospel but not responded...thinking there was time. The loved one that had been witnessing to them is now gone...suddenly disappeared. But God because of His great love will be there calling them to come and even though their salvation could cost them their lives...they will now see that their hope is not in this world and will fall on their knees crying out to Him for salvation.
Jeremiah, in Lamentations 3, in the midst of judgment, sin and sorrow, says this.
This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope.Through the LORD's mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not.They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. "The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "Therefore I hope in Him!"
Hope in Him...come to Him now. 2 Corinthians 6 says that Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
Love
Mom
“ Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom,
Thanksgiving and honor and power and might,
Be to our God forever and ever.
Amen.”
13 Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?”
14 And I said to him, “Sir, you know.”
So he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15 Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them. 16 They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; 17 for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”--Revelation 7:9-17
Girls,
Reading through Revelation and stopped here for a moment. God is so good. He is filled with mercy and compassion and gives us so many chances to repent and look to Him. The elder in verse 14 identifies these as "the ones who come out of the great tribulation." Perhaps the greatest revival the world has ever seen, will occur during the period that comes immediately after the Rapture and in the midst of the greatest suffering the people on earth have ever known. Even in judgment God remembers mercy and reaches out His hand to us.
It is a comfort for me to know that God loves each one of us to the very end and does not wish that any of us should perish. There will be so many people after the Rapture who had heard the gospel but not responded...thinking there was time. The loved one that had been witnessing to them is now gone...suddenly disappeared. But God because of His great love will be there calling them to come and even though their salvation could cost them their lives...they will now see that their hope is not in this world and will fall on their knees crying out to Him for salvation.
Jeremiah, in Lamentations 3, in the midst of judgment, sin and sorrow, says this.
This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope.Through the LORD's mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not.They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. "The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "Therefore I hope in Him!"
Hope in Him...come to Him now. 2 Corinthians 6 says that Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
Love
Mom
Open Your Mouth Wide
I am the LORD your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt; Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.
“But My people would not heed My voice, And Israel would have none of Me. So I gave them over to their own stubborn heart, To walk in their own counsels. “Oh, that My people would listen to Me, That Israel would walk in My ways!--Psalm 81:10-13
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna, and Mikayla,
Here is God's heart for each of us. He wants us to find our full satisfaction in Him. Open your mouth wide and He will fill it. Only He can satisfy the longing in our hearts. But they (like us) thought they knew better. God's response was to let them walk in their own counsels. Are you tired of walking in your own counsel yet. God wants you to find your complete satisfaction in Him in total surrender to His will. He wants to be your portion. He will allow us to go our own way but of course it is always at our own risk...our own peril. There is a way that seems right to man but its end is the way of death. Open your heart to Him today...
Love
Mom
“But My people would not heed My voice, And Israel would have none of Me. So I gave them over to their own stubborn heart, To walk in their own counsels. “Oh, that My people would listen to Me, That Israel would walk in My ways!--Psalm 81:10-13
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna, and Mikayla,
Here is God's heart for each of us. He wants us to find our full satisfaction in Him. Open your mouth wide and He will fill it. Only He can satisfy the longing in our hearts. But they (like us) thought they knew better. God's response was to let them walk in their own counsels. Are you tired of walking in your own counsel yet. God wants you to find your complete satisfaction in Him in total surrender to His will. He wants to be your portion. He will allow us to go our own way but of course it is always at our own risk...our own peril. There is a way that seems right to man but its end is the way of death. Open your heart to Him today...
Love
Mom
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