Carnal Christians of Corinth...

And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?  For when one says, "I am of Paul," and another, "I am of Apollos," are you not carnal? --1 Corinthians 3:1-4

Pretty sure that the lack of growth in the believer's lives in Corinth lay heavy on Paul's heart. The Christians in Corinth were still babes...they had not even mastered the basics...he could not teach them the things they really needed to know to be prepared for what lay ahead. If you are a diligent student of God's word, you will notice that God uses His word in your daily life to prepare and equip you for situations and trials that are down the road. What was the evidence of the Corinthians' carnality?  Envy, divisions and strife.  James tells us this in chapter 4 of his epistle:

Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.


Further down in verse 7 he tells us the remedy for our selfish desires is to submit to God, to draw near to Him, and to resist the devil.  When we do this, our flesh decreases and our spiritual desire increases.  We begin to want what God wants and by the power of His Spirit we put off our fleshly desires and put on our Lord Jesus Christ.

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts --Romans 13:14


The Corinthian believers were still spiritual infants looking to their own or one another's righteousness instead of the righteousness which is of God through faith in His Son.  (I am of Paul...and another...I am of Apollos).  They should have been saying...I am of Jesus!

Paul tells them that they are behaving like mere men...this means literally walking according to man.   They were dominated by the things of the flesh and not the things of God.  Their minds were set on earthly things and not on the eternal.

The believers in Corinth were in Christ, but were unskilled in the Word because they were still choosing the things of the world instead of and before the things of God.  Our walk with Christ should be marked by growth.  How do we grow?  The very simple answer is by immersing ourselves in His Word...taking it in as our necessary food...praying through what we are studying and gleaning from it.  Choosing to feed our spirit rather than our flesh makes our Spirits' stronger.  Choosing to feed our flesh will weaken our Spirit.  It will also weaken our desire for the things of God and increase our desire for the things of the world.  On the other hand, when we feed our Spirit and not our flesh, it grows strong.  If we feed our spirit often enough, it will grow to such a point that we will no longer desire the things of the world at all.  Our minds will be focused rightly and our desire for God and His presence will be all encompassing.

Make it a point to look and evaluate how your time is spent.  Ask the Lord to increase your desire for Him and His word.  Listen to His Spirit speaking to your heart as you make choices throughout your day about how, where and with whom you are spending your time.  The bottom line purpose of our lives as believers is to glorify our Father in heaven.  Each one of our lives are to be hidden with Christ in God.  We are His bond servants. His slaves, really.  A slave does not look to himself for direction...He looks to His Master.  Look to your Master.  Follow Him.  Watch and stand fast in the faith.  Stay in His presence.  Walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.  Meditate on those things that are true, noble, just, pure, lovely, and of good report. Do all that you do with love!  Glorify your Father in Heaven! 


Therefore He says: "Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light." See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord,
giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God. --Ephesians 5:14-21 

Love
Mom
 

GOOD TIDINGS OF GREAT JOY!!!

And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child. So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.  And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid.  Then the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:  "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!" --Luke 2:1-14

To My Daughters:

The Dayspring from on high had arrived.  The dawn was breaking! 

And  the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory the glory of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth. 

First notice with me that God's Son was born exactly where the Scripture tells us He will be born.

Micah 5:2 "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting."

Caesar Augustus was a powerful man and yet was used as a tool in the hands of God.  Mary and Joseph lived in Nazareth which is about 80 miles from Bethlehem.  When Caesar ordered a taxation it meant that everyone had to go to his hometown to register.  Jesus' parents were both descendants of David and thus had to return to Bethlehem, the City of David to register.  I read that Bethlehem means house of bread....so the Bread of Life was born in the city which means House of Bread.  Truly, God controls the world and by the decree of Caesar Augustus, the Messiah was born exactly where God said He would be born...in the city of David.

GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST, AND ON EARTH PEACE, GOODWILL TOWARD MEN!

This was the praise of the angel and heavenly host at the birth of God's Son in a manger in Bethlehem to the shepherds...really the outcasts of Israel....who were tending the flocks.  God's divine goodwill and favor toward men was first announced to the lowest in Israel...to the ones whose job made them unclean and unable to get to the temple for weeks at a time to receive cleansing.  SO MUCH  beauty in that!!   Jesus was not only the Good Shepherd who gave His life for His flock, but He was also the perfect Lamb of God that would be sacrificed for the sins of humanity.

The redemption of mankind is God's greatest glory!  The night was over...the Light had come into the world.  His purpose was to bring glory to God, His Father, in both His life and His sacrificial death, through which we can now draw near to God.  For as it says in Hebrews 7 the law made nothing perfect; on the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God. Jesus is that hope...the Anchor of our Soul....which makes us perfect!

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--John 3:16


Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him, That glory may dwell in our land. Mercy and truth have met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed. Truth shall spring out of the earth, And righteousness shall look down from heaven. Yes, the LORD will give what is good; And our land will yield its increase. Righteousness will go before Him, And shall make His footsteps our pathway.--Psalm 85:9-13

GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST!!!

Love
Mom

SURELY GOD IS IN THIS PLACE AND I DID NOT KNOW IT!

Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, the LORD stood above it and said: "I am the LORD God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you." Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it."  And he was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!" Then Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put at his head, set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on top of it. And he called the name of that place Bethel; but the name of that city had been Luz previously. Then Jacob made a vow, saying, "If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, so that I come back to my father's house in peace, then the LORD shall be my God.--Genesis 28:12-21

Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna, and Mikayla,

Here we find Jacob sleeping under the stars, fleeing his brother Esau's wrath and fearing for his life.  I am pretty sure he is filled with anxiety and much uncertainty.  He has no idea what his future holds and cannot go back into the past.  Trouble was behind him...he had to go forward.  Sometimes our thoughts, like Jacob, get so consumed by our circumstances that we forget this.  BUT GOD.  While Jacob slept that night God gave him a vision and a promise.

The vision was the ladder reaching from heaven to earth with the angels ascending and descending.  Reading John 1:43 -51 this vision is clarified.

The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found Philip and said to him, "Follow Me." Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."  And Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see." Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, and said of him, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!" Nathanael said to Him, "How do You know me?" Jesus answered and said to him, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you." Nathanael answered and said to Him, "Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!" Jesus answered and said to him, "Because I said to you, 'I saw you under the fig tree,' do you believe? You will see greater things than these."  And He said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man."

Jesus is declaring here that the ladder that figured in Jacob's dream...the ladder that reached heaven where God met man was Jesus Himself.  Jesus is the ladder that brings man to God.  He is the bridge between heaven and earth.  He is the way, the truth and the life...no one comes to the Father except through Him. 

The promise Jacob received that night:

Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you."  

God would bring Jacob through and bring him back to his father's house in peace.

Jacob's words upon awakening...

"Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it."  And he was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!"

Like Jacob, we so forget that our Lord...our great God is in all our trials when we believe.  We forget that Hs presence goes with us and is before us always.  We forget that He is God and has promised not to leave us or forsake us.  He will do all that He has promised in our lives and will bring us home to Him when the work is complete. 

God not only allows the trials that come to us, but orchestrates them for His beloved children to work always for their good and His glory.  We have no need to get muddled up in our dark thoughts.  As His beloved child, we can cry out to Him.  We can  nestle under His wing until the calamities have passed and be safe in His presence.  His plan for us is from His heart of love.  Our trials, though difficult, are our greatest blessings in disguise.  They keep us at His feet and surround us with His presence.  It is there, at His feet, that we are safe and content...happy and peaceful.  It is there, at His feet, that we begin to see what He went through for us.  It is there, at His feet, that we begin to thank God for our trials and afflictions because in them we have known Him.


Love
Mom

Christophobia: Whose End is to be Burned

Christophobia: Whose End is to be Burned: "For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessin..."

Call Upon Me....Psalm 50:15

By Spurgeon....from By Still Waters with Roy Clarke editing.

Oh Lord, You see how great my trouble is!  It is heavy.  I cannot carry it, and I cannot get rid of it.  It follows me to bed, and it will not let me sleep.  When I rise, it is still with me.  I cannot shake it off.  My trouble is unusual.  Few are as afflicted as I am.  Please give me extraordinary help, for my trouble is crushing.  If you do not help, I will soon be broken!  This is good reasoning and good pleading.

Turn your adversity to advantage.  Go to the Lord this moment and say, "Lord, do you hear me?  You have commanded me to pray.  I, though I am evil, would not tell anyone to ask me for something unless I intended to honor their request.  I would not urge them to ask for help if I meant to refuse it."

When God tells you to call on Him, He will deal compassionately with you.  You are not urged to pray in the hour of trouble to experience deeper disappointment.  God knows that you have trouble enough without the added burden of unanswered prayer.  The Lord will not unnecessarily add even a quarter of an ounce to your burden.  When he tells you to call on Him, you may call on Him without fear of failure.

So plead the time, plead the trouble, plead the command, and then plead with God.  Speak reverently, but with belief, "Lord, it is You Yourself to whom I appeal.  You said, "Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you" (Psalm 50:15).  So Lord, by Your truth, by Your faithfulness, by Your immutability, and by Your love, I, a poor sinner, heartbroken and crushed, call on You in the day of trouble.  Help me. Help me soon, or else I die."

If I were in trouble, I would pray like David, Elijah, or Daniel in the power of this promise, "Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me."

Go to My Father - Luke 5:18

Charles H. Spurgeon from Beside Still Waters...Words of Comfort for the Soul - Roy H. Clarke, Editor.


When you are suffering from severe pain, when you are surrounded by bitter grief, when you are depressed, pray.  Do not cry for the sake of crying, and do not moan to the physician or the nurse.  Cry, "Father."  For isn't this how a lost child cries?

Have you ever cried to God?  Have you ever said, "Father"?  Oh may Father put His love in your heart.  May He make you say, " I will arise and go to my Father" (Luke 5:18).  If that cry is in your heart and on your lips then you will truly be a child of God.

Give yourself to God.  Trust in Him.  Every morning when you arise, put yourself in God's divine protection.  Every night before you fall asleep, give yourself to Hm who is able to keep you when the image of death is on your face.  Before you fall asleep, commit yourself to God.  Do it when there is nothing to frighten you, when everything is going smoothly, when the south wind blows softly and your ship is speeding toward its desired haven.

Realize God's personal and continuous presence.  "Father, into Your hands I commit My Spirit"  (Luke 23:46).  Say to Him, "You are here, Father.  I know that You are here.  I realize that You are here in my
pain, sorrow and danger.  I put myself in Your hand.  If anyone or anything attacks me, I commit myself to You, the unseen Guardian of the night and the unwearied Keeper of the day.  You are my God.  You have covered my head in the day of battle (Ps. 140:7), and under Your wings I will trust."

The Lovingkindness of our God...

The LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, And in the night His song shall be with me—A prayer to the God of my life.--Psalm 42:8

 To My Daughters,

 I started studying this verse this morning using The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge and finished only up to "The Lord will command His lovingkindness." The Lord is my KING!  He is my Commander.  When I am a good and faithful servant and obey His commands, I am in a place of blessing.  In fact the Bible says that the blessings for obedience will come upon me and overtake me!  I love that!!  When I obey, His goodness and mercy follow me and overtake me.  That is so comforting!

Meditating on our God's sovereignty and lovingkindness is such an encouragement as we go through the many trials of life appointed for us.  Dwell on His mercy.  Remember His mercy. Pray for His mercy.  Know that one word from Him will turn your darkness to light, your rough waters to calm seas, your mourning to dancing, and your complaints to praise.  Make His mercy, truth, and power, your refuge. Take up the shield of faith which is your defensive weapons and believe in His power and in His promises.  Remember His presence goes before you and is with you. Stay your mind on Him.  Be strong and brave and let the Lord do what is good in His sight. 

Chapter 28 of Deuteronomy is the blessing and cursing chapter.  The blessings for obedience are listed first.  KNOW THIS!!  God wants to bless us.  He wants to open the storehouses of heaven.  His desire is to show mercy.  God is described in the bible as being slow to anger and quick to show mercy to those who hearken to His voice. 

Walk in His ways...do not follow the dictates of your own heart.  Keep your eyes turned always toward the Lord. Our expectation is from Him.  Know that the Lord is good and upright.  He guides the humble in justice and teaches them His way.   Trust in the Lord...not on your own understanding!  Acknowledge Him in all that you do and allow Him to direct your path.  All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth, to such as keep His covenant and His testimonies.

Read the blessing and cursing chapter in its entirety.  Our obedience and our disobedience have very real  consequences.  All these things came to pass in the history of Israel.  Israel had been given the oracles of God and to whom much is given, much is required.  The picture God paints here is very real...very stark.  He wanted them to know the consequences of disobedience.  He wanted them to look for His favor and shrink from His wrath.  Scripture was written for our learning...The words of Paul to Timothy come to mind here. 

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.--2nd Timothy 3:16-17

Do not despise His goodness and grace.  Our God suffers long and is kind.  Judgment does come, however.  If you have walked away from God or you do not yet know Him and trust Him in a personal way, the Bible says to come...today is the day of salvation.  Do not wait to clean yourself up...you never will without Him.  Go to Him, confess your sin, turn from it, believe and let Him work in your heart and your life. The blessings are right there...waiting for you.  Receive His free gift. 

And the Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.--Revelation 22:17

Love
Mom


Deuteronomy 28

Blessings on Obedience

 ¹ “Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. ² And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the LORD your God:
³ “Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country.
⁴ “Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.
⁵ “Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
⁶ “Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.
⁷ “The LORD will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways.
⁸ “The LORD will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand, and He will bless you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you.
⁹ “The LORD will establish you as a holy people to Himself, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways. ¹⁰ Then all peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they shall be afraid of you. ¹¹ And the LORD will grant you plenty of goods, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your ground, in the land of which the LORD swore to your fathers to give you. ¹² The LORD will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. ¹³ And the LORD will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, and are careful to observe them. ¹⁴ So you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right or the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

Curses on Disobedience

¹⁵ “But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:
¹⁶ “Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country.
¹⁷ “Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
¹⁸ “Cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.
¹⁹ “Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.
²⁰ “The LORD will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke in all that you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken Me. ²¹ The LORD will make the plague cling to you until He has consumed you from the land which you are going to possess. ²² The LORD will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with severe burning fever, with the sword, with scorching, and with mildew; they shall pursue you until you perish. ²³ And your heavens which are over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you shall be iron. ²⁴ The LORD will change the rain of your land to powder and dust; from the heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed.
²⁵ “The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them; and you shall become troublesome to all the kingdoms of the earth. ²⁶ Your carcasses shall be food for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and no one shall frighten them away. ²⁷ The LORD will strike you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors, with the scab, and with the itch, from which you cannot be healed. ²⁸ The LORD will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of heart. ²⁹ And you shall grope at noonday, as a blind man gropes in darkness; you shall not prosper in your ways; you shall be only oppressed and plundered continually, and no one shall save you.
³⁰ “You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall lie with her; you shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it; you shall plant a vineyard, but shall not gather its grapes. ³¹ Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat of it; your donkey shall be violently taken away from before you, and shall not be restored to you; your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you shall have no one to rescue them. ³² Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, and your eyes shall look and fail with longing for them all day long; and there shall be no strength in your hand. ³³ A nation whom you have not known shall eat the fruit of your land and the produce of your labor, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually. ³⁴ So you shall be driven mad because of the sight which your eyes see. ³⁵ The LORD will strike you in the knees and on the legs with severe boils which cannot be healed, and from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.
³⁶ “The LORD will bring you and the king whom you set over you to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods—wood and stone. ³⁷ And you shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations where the LORD will drive you.
³⁸ “You shall carry much seed out to the field but gather little in, for the locust shall consume it. ³⁹ You shall plant vineyards and tend them, but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them. ⁴⁰ You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil; for your olives shall drop off. ⁴¹ You shall beget sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours; for they shall go into captivity. ⁴² Locusts shall consume all your trees and the produce of your land.
⁴³ “The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower. ⁴⁴ He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him; he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.
⁴⁵ “Moreover all these curses shall come upon you and pursue and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. ⁴⁶ And they shall be upon you for a sign and a wonder, and on your descendants forever.
⁴⁷ “Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of everything, ⁴⁸ therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of everything; and He will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you. ⁴⁹ The LORD will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you will not understand, ⁵⁰ a nation of fierce countenance, which does not respect the elderly nor show favor to the young. ⁵¹ And they shall eat the increase of your livestock and the produce of your land, until you are destroyed; they shall not leave you grain or new wine or oil, or the increase of your cattle or the offspring of your flocks, until they have destroyed you.
⁵² “They shall besiege you at all your gates until your high and fortified walls, in which you trust, come down throughout all your land; and they shall besiege you at all your gates throughout all your land which the LORD your God has given you. ⁵³ You shall eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and your daughters whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you. ⁵⁴ The sensitive and very refined man among you will be hostile toward his brother, toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the rest of his children whom he leaves behind, ⁵⁵ so that he will not give any of them the flesh of his children whom he will eat, because he has nothing left in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you at all your gates. ⁵⁶ The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because of her delicateness and sensitivity, will refuse^[a] to the husband of her bosom, and to her son and her daughter, ⁵⁷ her placenta which comes out from between her feet and her children whom she bears; for she will eat them secretly for lack of everything in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you at all your gates.
⁵⁸ “If you do not carefully observe all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, THE LORD YOUR GOD, ⁵⁹ then the LORD will bring upon you and your descendants extraordinary plagues—great and prolonged plagues—and serious and prolonged sicknesses. ⁶⁰ Moreover He will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt, of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you. ⁶¹ Also every sickness and every plague, which is not written in this Book of the Law, will the LORD bring upon you until you are destroyed. ⁶² You shall be left few in number, whereas you were as the stars of heaven in multitude, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God. ⁶³ And it shall be, that just as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good and multiply you, so the LORD will rejoice over you to destroy you and bring you to nothing; and you shall be plucked from off the land which you go to possess.
⁶⁴ “Then the LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods, which neither you nor your fathers have known—wood and stone. ⁶⁵ And among those nations you shall find no rest, nor shall the sole of your foot have a resting place; but there the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and anguish of soul. ⁶⁶ Your life shall hang in doubt before you; you shall fear day and night, and have no assurance of life. ⁶⁷ In the morning you shall say, ‘Oh, that it were evening!’ And at evening you shall say, ‘Oh, that it were morning!’ because of the fear which terrifies your heart, and because of the sight which your eyes see.
⁶⁸ “And the LORD will take you back to Egypt in ships, by the way of which I said to you, ‘You shall never see it again.’ And there you shall be offered for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”

 

 

Spirit is Willing but the Flesh is Weak...

From the Essentials of Prayer:  Prayer Born of Compassion by E.M. Bounds

Jesus Christ was altogether man. While he was the divine Son of God yet at the same time, he was the human Son of God. Christ had a preeminently human side, and, here, compassion reigned. He was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin. At one time how the flesh seems to have weakened under the fearful strain upon him, and how he must have inwardly shrunk under the pain and pull! Looking up to heaven, he prays, "Father, save me from this hour." How the spirit nerves and holds -"but for this cause came I to this hour." Only he can solve this mystery who has followed his Lord in straits and gloom and pain, and realized that the "spirit is willing but the flesh is weak."

All this but fitted our Lord to be a compassionate savior. It is no sin to feel the pain and realize the darkness on the path into which God leads. It is only human to cry out against the pain, the terror, and desolation of that hour. It is divine to cry out to God in that hour, even while shrinking and sinking down, "For this cause came I unto this hour." Shall I fail through the weakness of the flesh? No. "Father, glorify thy name." How strong it makes us, and how true, to have one pole star to guide us to the glory of God!

DAWN BREAKS!

"And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest; For you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, To give knowledge of salvation to His people By the remission of their sins, Through the tender mercy of our God, With which the Dayspring from on high has visited us; To give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, To guide our feet into the way of peace." --Luke 1:76-79


There are 400 years of silence between the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi, until the New Testament begins with the birth of John the Baptist. Malachi prophesied around 400 BC, at the tail end of Nehemiah's leadership.  The temple had been built, the people had been allowed to return to their land and were comfortable under Persian rule.  Life was starting again and for the most part it was good.

This is when God places Malachi on the scene.  Malachi's name means messenger.  The message he had for the Jewish nation was that their hearts were no longer in their worship.  It was once again outward and not inward sincerity of the heart.  God wants a real relationship with us.  He wants us to worship Him in spirit and in truth.  While preaching this message, however, Malachi also spoke of John the Baptist and the coming of the Messiah.

"Behold, I send My messenger, And he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, Will suddenly come to His temple, Even the Messenger of the covenant, In whom you delight. Behold, He is coming," Says the LORD of hosts. --Malachi 3:1



In Chapter 4 verses 1 and 2 he warns of a day that is coming when God's wrath will burn like an oven and all the proud and those who do wickedly will be stubble...they will be burned up.  But to those who love, obey Him and fear His name...He will be as the warmth of the Sun and arise with healing on His wings. The last few verses of the Old Testament are filled with such hope.  No matter how dark things look, God is in control and He will perfect all those things that concern us.  He who is faithful will do it!  Hope is ours in Him when we believe!

Malachi, Chapter 4 describes Jesus as the Sun of Righteousness who comes with healing for those who walk in belief.   In the Gospel of Luke,  Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, prophesies the coming of the Messiah as well as predicting that his son, John the Baptist, would prepare His way.  All the Old Testament prophecies were coming true!!!   I am pretty sure Zachariah was doing a "happy dance" here.  The Messiah was coming in his lifetime and his son...the son of his old age...would prepare His way!  Zacharias calls Jesus  the "Dayspring from on High".  Dayspring in Greek literally means dawn.  The dawn was coming  for those in darkness.  THIS IS SO BEAUTIFUL!  The coming of Jesus was like a sunrise...which speaks of beauty, hope and the promise of a new day.  The night was over...the day was dawning.

GLORYING IN THE LORD...

 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.” --1 Corinthians 1:26-31

 Dear Girls,

These verses tell us that God does not choose many wise, noble or  mighty according to the flesh.   In fact, God usually chooses pretty simple folks.  I am reading through the Gospel of Luke right now and as I read this passage in Corinthians my mind went to Mary.  Mary had no credentials...in fact she had three strikes against her.  She was young, poor and a woman....unusable in her culture for any great work.  But God...He chose her to be the mother of His Son.  This is so encouraging to me...our God is not a respecter of persons.  I don't have to be rich, famous, wise or strong to be used by God.  I just have to acknowledge my own weakness...my own sinful heart and believe.   He does the rest!

 What do these verses tell us the reason is for God choosing the foolish, weak and base things of the world?  The simple answer is so "that no flesh should glory in His presence." and THAT is His mercy to us!  He knows what we are like.  If the messenger was famous, intelligent or mighty we, being the fallen humans we are, would worship them.  We would look to them and honor them instead of God.

"ALL FLESH IS AS GRASS, AND ALL THE GLORY OF MAN AS THE FLOWER OF THE GRASS. THE GRASS WITHERS, AND ITS FLOWER FALLS AWAY,

Man will always disappoint.  There is NO help for us in man.  God is our shield and our exceedingly great reward.  He wants us to look to Him AND BE SAVED.  This is a warning to us who love Jesus and serve Him to stay humble.  Jesus came as a humble servant and all He did glorified His Father in Heaven. The Bible tells us that when people saw Jesus, they saw the Father in Heaven.  Most true ministers of God's word are not much in and of themselves. I thank God for that.  I do not need the messenger to distract me from the person and the message of Christ...the world provides enough distractions for me.  Salvation is the power of God...there is  NOTHING we can do to earn it or as a minister to make someone else accept it.  It is not about the messenger...it is about Him.  Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. 

John the Baptist was the forerunner of Christ spoken about by the prophet Isaiah.  John made it abundantly clear in his gospel that He was NOT the Christ.  He describes himself as 'THE VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS: "MAKE STRAIGHT THE WAY OF THE LORD." 'He also says that He who comes after Him (that would be Jesus)  is preferred before Him and that he is not even worthy to unloose His sandal strap.  In chapter 3 John  responds this way to his disciples who had come to him upset that multitudes were now going to Jesus to be baptized instead of John.

He must increase, but I must decrease.--John 3:30

John understood that he had fulfilled his mission...he had done his job.  He had been obedient.  He had pointed people to Jesus...John knew it was not about him.  His job was to make straight the way of the Lord and bear witness to Him.    These 7 words are the essence of what true ministry is.  Pointing others away from us and to Jesus!  GLORY IN GOD YOUR SAVIOR!!  LIVE. FOR. HIM!


He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it--Matthew 10:39

The Isaac's...A Dysfunctional Family

To My Daughters,

Genesis 27 can be a pretty depressing chapter to read, but I am always encouraged by it because the people in the Bible are so real.  The "Isaac's" were such a dysfunctional family!  They do nothing perfectly and yet many are still mentioned in Hebrews 11....the hall of faith chapter.  And there is the encouragement...God did not look at the results only...He looked at those things they did by faith and not by sight and rewarded them.  Our God is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of our hearts.  The bible tells us that our hearts are desperately wicked...who could know them?  God does.  He sees through it all and focuses His attention not on the carnality and disobedience but on the smoldering flax and the bruised reed that desire to live for Him and builds and if that weren't enough  He is also faithful to deal with us as sons...disciplining us and pruning us to mold us into vessels fit for His use.  He does it all and is faithful to complete the good work he starts in each of us.

For this study we will just look at Isaac and the responsibility he had in all that occurred in this 27th chapter.  Here is what struck me as I read. Isaac had a good beginning with the Lord...he ran well.  His zeal faded as he reached the end, however, and his focus seems to be on the things of the world rather than on His Lord.

The chapter begins with Isaac thinking he is going to die....neither God nor his family were on his mind...his stomach was on his mind. Clearly, Isaac's focus was Isaac.  His mind was on the things of the flesh, not the things of God.

Isaac knew what God had told Rebekah when Jacob and Esau were still in her womb.  The younger son would receive the blessing...the older would serve the younger.  He probably also knew that Esau had sold his birthright to Jacob.  Yet, here we find Isaac in direct disobedience to God ready to give Esau the blessing instead of Jacob.

Reading from verses 21-27 we see that Isaac was living by sight...by his feelings...not by faith.  Read the chapter carefully.  There is no mention of him asking God for guidance or for help.  AND you would think, given his weakened condition, that this would be the case.  He was not depending on God...he was depending on his own senses.

Isaac had the responsibility here as a man of God to lead his family.  It is clear from the sin and plotting that surrounded him as well as his own words and actions, that his mind had been on himself and the things of the world for a long time.   In fact, Isaac had gone so far as to place himself in direction opposition to the declared word of God.  He was trying to change the plan of God.   Read verses 32 and 33:

And his father Isaac said to him, "Who are you?" So he said, "I am your son, your firstborn, Esau." Then Isaac trembled exceedingly, and said, "Who? Where is the one who hunted game and brought it to me? I ate all of it before you came, and I have blessed him—and indeed he shall be blessed."



I think, Isaac, in one fell swoop saw with heart knowledge here just how far he had fallen and how long he had opposed the will of His Father in Heaven.  He trembled exceedingly...methinks in remembering God's words....The older shall serve the younger.  Despite his fleshly efforts, God's word still went forth as declared, but his family suffered. in large part due to Isaac's  lack of faithfulness. To his credit he immediately affirmed God's plan and word and here is what is amazing...Read what is written in Hebrews 11 about him.

By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.

Nevertheless, our sin has consequences. It does not just affect us...it affect all those around us...especially those that God has placed in our care.  Isaac and his family lived a troubled life despite its godly beginning.   Live your life according to the word and the will of God.  Be blessed both here and in the heavenlies!!! 

Love
Mom

The Last of Complaining....

When my daughter, Rebecca, was little she never liked going shopping because of the feeling it gave her afterwards.  The first time it happened I did not understand it.  I remember what she said, however, when we got home.  "Mom, I need to go to my room...my thoughts are all out of order."  THAT IS WHAT IMMERSION IN THE WORLD DOES TO US. It causes us to forget what is important.  The stores made Rebecca feel discontented and dissatisfied.  She  was bombarded with stuff she had no idea she even wanted until she saw them.  This is why, like Rebecca, we need to order our thoughts after spending time in it.  If we don't, seeds of discontentment begin to take root and grow in our hearts.  They begin to cause us to want what we don't have and not be thankful for those things we do have.  Our heart becomes filled with the wrong things...it becomes filled with our own desires and not God's.  We begin to complain against Him, and contend with Him. 

When we spend time with God and His word and cry out to Him for grace, He is faithful to put our thoughts and desires in their proper order and place.  His word reminds us to be content with such things as we have...His word reminds us to seek Him first and that when we do that all other things will be added.  We once again are content because He is our Shepherd and we have everything we need.  We want His will and not our own and once again desire Him above all else.

I am so glad that Rebecca was able to explain to me what was going on in her mind.  It was such a perfect picture of how the world draws us.  After she did I was able to talk to each of my daughters when they had these kind of feelings and point them in the right direction.  They became wise to the feeling and understood it for what it was and who and where it was from.  Be aware of how the world influences your thinking.  It is subtle.  Examine what you are watching, reading or who you are spending time with and how they might be influencing you and causing you to experience discontentment.

Our complaining and discontented spirits only hurt us.  Watch children at play...the lesson is seen in its simplicity so clearly.  A child plays contentedly alongside another until a new toy is introduced.  The child who is not on the receiving end is immediately unhappy.  He forgets all about what was making him happy just seconds ago and now only wants what is for the moment, out of reach.   His discontented spirit only hurts him...it makes him unhappy in the moment.  It mars ALL!   Look at your own heart..examine your own desires and see where your own thoughts and affections need reordering.  Go to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all you ask or think and ask Him to align your will with His.  Ask Him to give you His desires. He who is faithful will do it.  Your countenance will change...your mind will be stayed in the right place....on Him and what He wants.  I will end with some of my favorite verses from Psalm 37.

Trust in the LORD, and do good;  Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.  Delight yourself also in the LORD,  And He shall give you the desires of your heart.

Complaining - Part 2

You don't know what you got til it's gone!  This is how some people live their lives.  Never appreciating what they have...never counting their blessings.  The consequence for this type of sin is built in.  It prevents us from enjoying what we already have.  It led the Israelites to despise "manna from heaven".  The bible tells us that as a man thinks in His heart so is he.  How do you think in your heart?  Do you focus on what you do not have instead of the many blessings God has given you?   Some of us always think we would be happier if we just had what has been denied us.  When we do this we are really saying that our God is not good and that in your case He is not doing things well at all.  Thinking in this way toward God is the opposite of submitting to His will...thinking this way is rebellion against God and opens the door to many other sins. 

I think the best example in Scripture of this type of sin and its end result is seen in Haman in the Book of Esther. Read a portion of Chapter 5.

Haman went out that day joyful and with a glad heart; but when Haman saw Mordecai in the king’s gate, and that he did not stand or tremble before him, he was filled with indignation against Mordecai.  Nevertheless Haman restrained himself and went home, and he sent and called for his friends and his wife Zeresh.  Then Haman told them of his great riches, the multitude of his children, everything in which the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced him above the officials and servants of the king.
 
Moreover Haman said, “Besides, Queen Esther invited no one but me to come in with the king to the banquet that she prepared; and tomorrow I am again invited by her, along with the king.  Yet all this avails me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.” 

Did you get that last part.  Haman was not able to enjoy any of his abundant blessings because one person did not bow down and worship him.  His focus was on what was wrong...not what was right.  It colored everything. Pride makes us so stupid.   Haman's sin led to bitterness, hatred and finally a plot to murder Mordecai.


Hebrews 12:15 says this: 

"looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled; "




Bitterness and hatred grow unless they are dealt with ruthlessly.  They will overshadow everything in your life if you allow them access to your heart.  Haman's discontented spirit, pride, bitterness and hatred eventually led to him being executed on the very same gallows he had constructed for Mordecai.


Like Haman, your bitter and complaining spirit will backfire.  You will be the one hurt by it.   Don't hide it, don't nurse it and don't ignore it.   As a believer whatever light you have for Christ will be overshadowed by your own complaining spirit.  Ask for God's help in dealing with it.   Surrender to the work of His Spirit in your heart...acknowledge it,  confess it as sin and turn from it.  Do not let it gain a foothold.  Listen to not only the words that come out of your mouth but also listen to those things that you might be thinking in your heart that no one else hears.  Your mind should be mainly on Jesus and others...very little time should be spent on you.  This life is not about you...it is about Him.   The best remedy for bitterness of spirit and a discontented complaining heart is confession and making a practice of meditating on the right things.


Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. 


BE THANKFUL....SMILE...STAY IN THE MOMENT...ENJOY IT...IT MAY BE YOUR LAST.  The moment, as Amy Carmichael and others have said, is the window to eternity.  It is all we are guaranteed.  Live for the Lord in it.  Love others in it.  Be grateful in it. 

Complaining....Part 1 - Very Short...So You Won't Complain

Numbers 11:1 Now when the people complained, it displeased the LORD; for the LORD heard it, and His anger was aroused. So the fire of the LORD burned among them, and consumed some in the outskirts of the camp.


To My Daughters...

Complaining is something I do...so I need reminders as to why I should not.  Therefore I am beginning this series of short studies on reasons why we should not complain.

The first reason: complaining displeases our Lord and arouses His anger.  Now, let's think about this. Why does our complaining displease God?  Put yourself, if you can, in the position of God for a moment.  Here are your people that you created and sent your Son to die for COMPLAINING. What are they complaining about - ANYTHING THAT MIGHT BE CAUSING THEM DISCOMFORT.    In the Israelites' case, God had just miraculously delivered them from terrible bondage AND YET THEY CHOSE TO COMPLAIN ABOUT THE FOOD HE WAS PROVIDING FOR THEM DAILY.  If you are a mom or dad you probably grow weary when your children complain about what you make them for dinner.  Here God is sending them food from heaven...providing for them daily and they tell Him that if they have to eat it any longer they would rather go back into bondage.  Oh boy!  As believers, we are heirs of God...joint heirs with Christ and will be glorified with Him.  The sufferings here, the Bible tells us, are not worthy to be compared with the glory that which shall be revealed in us. 


Here is what we forget when we, who believe, complain.  We forget that we deserve nothing but death at the hands of God.  He would be perfectly justified to destroy us all.  And yet, instead, He has shown mercy.  The Bible tells us this in Psalm 103:10:

He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor punished us according to our iniquities. 

Lamentations 3:39 says:

Why should a living man complain, A man for the punishment of his sins? 

Read Psalm 103 in its entirety and be reminded of all the reasons we have NOT TO COMPLAIN!

Love
Mom

Psalm 103

A Psalm of David.

 ¹ Bless the LORD, O my soul;
         And all that is within me, bless His holy name!
 ² Bless the LORD, O my soul,
         And forget not all His benefits:
 ³ Who forgives all your iniquities,
         Who heals all your diseases,
 ⁴ Who redeems your life from destruction,
         Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,
 ⁵ Who satisfies your mouth with good things,
         So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
       
 ⁶ The LORD executes righteousness
         And justice for all who are oppressed.
 ⁷ He made known His ways to Moses,
         His acts to the children of Israel.
 ⁸ The LORD is merciful and gracious,
         Slow to anger, and abounding in mercy.
 ⁹ He will not always strive with us,
         Nor will He keep His anger forever.
 ¹⁰ He has not dealt with us according to our sins,
         Nor punished us according to our iniquities.
       
 ¹¹ For as the heavens are high above the earth,
         So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him;
 ¹² As far as the east is from the west,
         So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
 ¹³ As a father pities his children,
         So the LORD pities those who fear Him.
 ¹⁴ For He knows our frame;
         He remembers that we are dust.
       
 ¹⁵ As for man, his days are like grass;
         As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.
 ¹⁶ For the wind passes over it, and it is gone,
         And its place remembers it no more.^[a]
 17 But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting
         On those who fear Him,
         And His righteousness to children’s children,
 ¹⁸ To such as keep His covenant,
         And to those who remember His commandments to do them.
       
 ¹⁹ The LORD has established His throne in heaven,
         And His kingdom rules over all.
       
 ²⁰ Bless the LORD, you His angels,
         Who excel in strength, who do His word,
         Heeding the voice of His word.
 ²¹ Bless the LORD, all you His hosts,
         You ministers of His, who do His pleasure.
 ²² Bless the LORD, all His works,
         In all places of His dominion.
       
         Bless the LORD, O my soul!




 

The Wall of God...

To My Precious Daughters,

Today I allowed myself a detour in my normal Bible study...my Bible opened to Job 23 and I just started reading.  Here we find Job, the most tried man in all the earth, wanting to meet God and present to Him, his case.  Job wanted vindication.  He wanted God to tell him why he was chosen to suffer so and to clear his name....Job wanted God to assure him of his righteousness.  He thought that if he could just know the reason for his suffering he would be better able to deal with it. HA!

I have thought these very same things during my own trials which are/were puny compared to Job's.  As I grow in the Lord, however, and begin even to fathom just a little bit of His greatness and majesty,  my desires, like Job's did,  change.  I begin to say with Abraham, "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?"  I am weak...nothing brings that home to me like sickness and trials.  I call it the wall of God...when you come up against it, you realize finally with heart knowledge that there is NOTHING you can control and NOTHING  you can do. God is God and you are not!

Now you would think that you would hate this wall...I have and sometimes I still do.  I have kicked at this wall many times but made no dent.  By His grace, however, I am finally understanding that the wall of God is HIS MERCY AND HIS GRACE TO ME.  It makes me acknowledge my own weakness and helplessness and cry out to Him, by faith,  for His power and His presence....and truly this is what I REALLY want.  I WANT HIM...ALWAYS.
 
Knowing this, here is what I now desire in my trials...I want to get through them in a way that glorifies my God.  My trials are opportunities...God has allowed me the privilege of being an instrument to accomplish His purposes.  Coming into His presence in my weakness and helplessness, I realize....I realize THAT HE IS GOD!!!  God does what He wants to do in my life and He does it well!  As I understand who He is, I trust Him more and more and am also able to perceive that He only desires good for me.  Truly God knows the way I take and hedges me behind and before.  He wants to bring forth my righteousness as the noon day.    My job is to, BY FAITH, hold fast to His ways and His steps and not turn aside.  I, like Job, am learning to treasure His words more than my necessary food.  I stand in awe of Him...AND WANT TO BE MORE LIKE HIM....which is what my trials do...their purpose is to conform me into His image.  He wants to bring me forth like gold after I have been tested.  The dross burned away.

The more I walk with Him the less I desire to give in to the temptation of attempting to adjust the temperature and duration of my trials.  In fact, the more I walk with Him the more I fear doing that.  Truly I am beginning to understand  that GOD'S WAY IS BEST!  I am wanting what He wants more and more...His word does that in each of our hearts.  It is alive...living and powerful the Bible says and sharper than any two edged sword....it works in my heart and will work in yours to make you desire your  God and what He wants for you more and more.  If you do nothing else, do what is most important.  Spend time with Him and His word and you will be changed and transformed...just sit with Him...He does the rest. 

My prayer for each of us is that we would have all that God has for us.  That nothing would be left on the table.  I pray that He would perform in us and through us all those things that He has appointed and that WE WOULD NOT GET IN THE WAY!  He is God, we are not...He performs all things well.  We do not do anything well...it is only in Him that we can do anything.  Praying that He increases and we decrease. 

Love
Mom



Here is Job 23...

 ¹ Then Job answered and said: ² “Even today my complaint is bitter;
      My hand is listless because of my groaning.
 ³ Oh, that I knew where I might find Him,
      That I might come to His seat!
 ⁴ I would present my case before Him,
      And fill my mouth with arguments.
 ⁵ I would know the words which He would answer me,
      And understand what He would say to me.
 ⁶ Would He contend with me in His great power?
      No! But He would take note of me.
 ⁷ There the upright could reason with Him,
      And I would be delivered forever from my Judge.
 ⁸ “Look, I go forward, but He is not there,
      And backward, but I cannot perceive Him;
 ⁹ When He works on the left hand, I cannot behold Him;
      When He turns to the right hand, I cannot see Him.
 ¹⁰ But He knows the way that I take;
      When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.
 ¹¹ My foot has held fast to His steps;
      I have kept His way and not turned aside.
 ¹² I have not departed from the commandment of His lips;
      I have treasured the words of His mouth
      More than my necessary food.
 ¹³ “But He is unique, and who can make Him change?
      And whatever His soul desires, that He does.
 ¹⁴ For He performs what is appointed for me,
      And many such things are with Him.
 ¹⁵ Therefore I am terrified at His presence;
      When I consider this, I am afraid of Him.
 ¹⁶ For God made my heart weak,
      And the Almighty terrifies me;
 ¹⁷ Because I was not cut off from the presence of darkness,
      And He did not hide deep darkness from my face.

The Song of Suffering by Rebecca

“I will extol You, O LORD, for You have lifted me up,
         And have not let my foes rejoice over me.
O LORD my God, I cried out to You,
         And You healed me.
O LORD, You brought my soul up from the grave;
         You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.
Sing praise to the LORD, you saints of His,
         And give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name.
For His anger is but for a moment,
         His favor is for life;
         Weeping may endure for a night,
         But joy comes in the morning.
Now in my prosperity I said,
         ‘I shall never be moved.’
LORD, by Your favor You have made my mountain stand strong;
         You hid Your face, and I was troubled.
I cried out to You, O LORD;
         And to the LORD I made supplication:
‘What profit is there in my blood,
         When I go down to the pit?
         Will the dust praise You?
         Will it declare Your truth?
Hear, O LORD, and have mercy on me;
         LORD, be my helper!’
You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;
         You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness,
To the end that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent.
         O LORD my God, I will give thanks to You forever.” – Psalm 30:1-12
Psalm 30 was sung at the dedication of King David’s house in Jerusalem.  Whether it was written specially for the occasion or whether it was composed at an earlier date, this psalm beautifully commemorates a tremendous milestone in David’s life.  His days of running from King Saul were over.  He was king over both Judah and all the tribes of Israel.  Jerusalem had been won from its Jebusite inhabitants and established as Israel’s capital city.  The dedication of his house was an opportunity for David to look back upon his life thus far and perceive the workings of that complex, majestic hand of God that had so graciously brought him to this point.  “I will extol You, O LORD, for You have lifted me up,” he writes (vs. 1-3), “and have not let my foes rejoice over me.  O LORD my God, I cried out to You, and You healed me.  O LORD, You brought my soul up from the grave; You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.”

It had been a long, hard road for David.  He had endured many trials since that day Samuel the prophet had anointed him, a lowly shepherd boy, as the next king of Israel.  But as he could now see, the Lord had used those very trials to prepare him for the fulfillment of His promise.

“Sing praise to the LORD, you saints of His, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name.  For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life; weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.”

Before King Saul began to be jealous of David, David’s life was prosperous.  He was exalted from that lowly shepherd boy to the beloved armorbearer of the King of Israel.  He killed the Philistines famous champion, Goliath; was victorious in his battles; loved by his people; and he gladly served King Saul, first as musician, then as armorbearer, and finally as captain.  His wife was Saul’s daughter Michal, and Jonathan, Michal’s brother, was David’s closest friend.  But the Lord does not settle for less when it comes to His children.  There was still work to be done in David’s heart, and more that the Lord had planned for his life.  A loving father will teach and chasten his child when he needs it; likewise the Lord trains up and chastens His children in order to give them the best.  After Saul became envious and sought to kill the young man he had once taken such joy in, David’s stretch of “prosperity” – which he had thought was a thing to be confident of (vs. 6) – came to an abrupt end.  The Lord loved David too much to allow him to become complacent.  The trials that lay ahead were going to be painful.  They were going to cause suffering, weeping, and pain.  But they were also going to yield eternal fruit so precious that the pains taken would become utterly insignificant and forgotten!

“LORD, by Your favor You have made my mountain stand strong; You hid Your face, and I was troubled.”  (Vs. 7)  What can you rely upon in this world?  What won’t change, fail, or end?  The short answer is nothing: nothing and no one, and David knew that.  The entire universe is subjected to death and futility.  Our world had a beginning; it will have an end.  Earth can shake, suns can die, life can decay, mountains can crumble, and people can betray.  Apart from God, there is nothing you can invest yourself in that will not let you down.  God knows that.  Mankind as a whole does not – or at least, it acts as if it does not.  We want a mountain that stands strong, but we look for it in all the wrong places.  We build our homes in dry riverbeds, which are disasters waiting to happen, and imagine we are secure.

So what does the Lord do?

In David’s case, David already “knew” that God was the only sure foundation.  He knew that God alone is worthy of our complete trust.  He served well and wisely as a captain of Israel, but God, in His love, didn’t just want a captain.  He wanted a king.  And David wasn’t ready to be a king just yet.

The Lord “hid His face” from David.  To bring him to that morning of joy, He gave him troubles and trials and tribulations.  He yanked the rug out from beneath David’s feet and turned his world upside down.  David went from a captain to an outlaw; from a hero to a fugitive.  He spent years hunted and on the run, dealing with peril, betrayal, conflict, and hardship, as the Lord put him through fire in order to forge His king from His captain.  It was not easy.  It was not prosperous.  It was not pleasurable.  But all that “trouble” was a blessing – no, heaps of blessings – beyond all that David could have asked or thought.

How?

The how is spelled out and exampled over and over again in God’s word.  Human nature is innately proud, shallow, self-centered, deceitful, malignant, and in a word, sinful.  That is who we are; that is how we are born.  It takes being “born again” of the Spirit of God to remove that sinful nature, and it took the very heart’s blood of that same God to make rebirth possible.  Jesus had not yet come when David was alive, but the Spirit of God was with David all the same.  The Lord was working in David’s heart, and one of His greatest tools – for all of us – is suffering.

Simply put, to suffer means to encounter troubles, tests, and problems.  We are clearly not adequate to overcome or endure any of those things.  However, due to our stubborn pride, we refuse to recognize this inadequacy and therefore fall flat on our faces – over and over again, as many times as it takes, until pain finally produces humility, or until the heart is hardened beyond remedy.  Because of who we are God has to knock us down before He can lift us up.

But however painful the “knocking down,” might be, the results are worth every nanosecond.  Infinity is literally opened to that humbled soul.  It is only the one who knows he’s sick who will seek healing; it is only the soul who knows he is a sinner who will seek salvation.  And when that point is reached, suffering takes on a new, very precious role: sanctification.  David, through suffering, was being sanctified during his years on the run.  He’d already been humbled enough to seek the Lord.  Now the Lord was going to use that humility to forge maturity.  He guided the shepherd boy into an armorbearer; the armorbearer into a captain; and now He was going to guide the captain into a king.  Those years David spent on the run were fraught with more troubles and problems he wasn’t adequate for.  His sufferings exposed his weaknesses, and drove him to seek their remedy.  They revealed how heavy his sins were, and how much he needed to shed that weight so he could function.  They laid bare the limitations of his resources and showed him that the goal he sought could only be reached with resources much greater than his.  The only one David could turn, the only One who had the answers he needed, was God.  God, the I AM WHO I AM, the Becoming One, the one who becomes that which satisfies our every need.  The more David realized he needed the Lord, the closer he drew to him.  And the closer David drew to him, the more like Him he became.  The more like Him he became, the more he could reflect God’s glory; the more he was able to serve Him, and the more reward he would receive in heaven.  God sent David suffering because He loved David.  He sends His children suffering because He loves them.  Suffering is the necessary product of His favor that is for life, and the night of weeping that brings a morning of eternal joy.  “For our light affliction,” Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:17-18, “which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.  For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

But that “light affliction” – not even worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in us, Scripture declares elsewhere (Romans 8:18) – cannot work its intended benefits unless we allow it to.

“I cried out to You, O LORD; and to the LORD I made supplication: ‘What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit?  Will the dust praise You?  Will it declare Your truth?  Hear, O LORD, and have mercy on me; LORD, be my helper!’”  (Vs. 8-10)

David’s trials made him cry out to the Lord more and more, recognizing his own weakness and his need for the Lord’s mercy and help.  His choice opened the door for the amazing grace of our God to be poured out.  David became a mountain that stood strong because he was founded on the true Rock, the Living God, rather than the dry riverbed of human pride.  His mourning was turned into dancing.

But David could have made a different choice.  He could have chosen to resist God’s hand and refuse to surrender.  Rather than turn and be healed, he could have hardened his heart and continued to hurt himself on the same brick wall.  That kind of pain is the suffering of the world, which is pointless, tragic, and ends in a twofold death.  A believer dies once – physical “death” – and lives for eternity.  An unbeliever will die that physical death and then endure the second death, that is, eternal condemnation.  God is longsuffering.  He does not desire that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.  (2 Peter 3:9)  But if you don’t want Him or His salvation, He will not force Himself on you.  He’ll give you opportunity after opportunity to change your mind – trying to awaken your soul with His graciously provided pain – but in the end, your choice is your own, and He will abide by it.  The day you draw your last breath in this world is the day your fate will be sealed.  And there will be no second chances.

How different is the choice of David!  “You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, to the end that my glory [soul] may sing praise to You and not be silent.  O LORD my God, I will give thanks to You forever.”  (Vs. 11-12)

David allowed his suffering to work the good God intended.  He still had many trials ahead of him, but he knew their purpose.  He was being conformed into the image of the glorious, righteous Creator, being transformed from glory to glory, and enabled to revel in the awesome, infinite majesty of the Living God.  He was going to see the face of God in righteousness, and he would be satisfied when he awoke in His likeness.  David had life – and life abundantly.  His suffering had become a song to the praise of God who loved him and performed all things for him.

May every believer alive today sing that song to the God who does and has done for us exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ask or think!

Political Correctness Hits the Church of Corinth....

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles—that a man has his father's wife! And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were present) him who has so done this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. --1 Corinthians 5:1-8

To My Daughters,

As carnal as the city of Corinth was this particular sin of one who named the name of Christ caused quite a stir.  The world loves to catch a Christian in sin and the more seemingly immoral the deed, the better!  This particular sexual immorality Paul tells us was not even named among the Gentiles...A man having his father's wife...his stepmother.

The Christians in the church of Corinth were not ashamed about the evil that was occurring among them...no...they were puffed up by their tolerance.  Sin among us who name the of Christ should break our hearts!  It should make us weep.  Instead those in the Corinth church not only tolerated the sin but were proud of their tolerance!  Uh oh political correctness in Corinth.  Me thinks they are missing the point of the cross.

Paul tells them to deliver such a one to Satan...not for his destruction but for his restoration. In excluding him  from fellowship and leaving him alone in his sin, Paul was hoping to bring this man to the end of himself and to repentance. He was doing this man a great service...he showed him love by putting him out of the church.  Paul's perspective was eternal...so with much prayer and in the name and power of Christ, Paul delivered him to Satan so that his flesh might be destroyed but his spirit saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.  In effect, Paul was giving him what he wanted and allowing him to eat the fruit of his own way  in the hopes that his sin would eventually make him sick and long for the joy of the Lord's presence and the Lord's people in his life once again. Sin leavens and spreads if allowed to go unchecked. Christ suffered and died for each and every one of our sins... to treat them as if they did not matter or were of no consequence is to trample on the blood of Jesus.  Thankfully, the church at Corinth did, indeed, take Paul's advice, and it worked.    Paul was then able to instruct them to welcome their brother back into their company.

Paul was not expecting them to be sinless..we all struggle with sin daily.  The difference here was that this was willful and continual sin without shame, without godly sorrow, and without repentance. Sin effects everyone...not only the person committing the sin but also those with whom this person has contact.  Sin is selfishness which by definition is the opposite of love. 

The witness of a group of people living for Christ can be huge in this dark world, but it can be diminished and even extinguished when even one person is not worshiping in sincerity and truth.  Our word and our deeds need to match to be an effective witness. When we name the name of Christ our nature should be pure, holy and righteous like our God's.  We should reflect the nature of our Father.  One weak link in the body affects everyone in the body. 

Before the Passover a Jew was required to remove all leaven from their house until not even a trace remained.    After searching and scrubbing diligently the head of the household would say, “Oh God, I have cast out all the leaven from my house, and if there is any leaven that I do not know of, with all my heart I cast it out too.”  What a picture for each of us!  What a reminder to separate ourselves from sin and evil lest where we think we stand we fall!  We are to offer and consecrate our very lives to Him who died so that we could live.  Our lives are to be lived out not in hypocrisy, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth...in a word...Jesus!

For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.  Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain. --Philippians 2:13-16

Love
Mom

Behold, the Maidservant of the Lord!

Then Mary said, "Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her. --Luke 1:38


To My Sweet Daughters:

I began reading in Luke the other day and have not gotten far.  This morning I stopped at this verse.  What an amazing testimony Mary had!  What a beautiful picture of submission she gives us!  Truly she walked by faith and not by sight.  She did not ask what was in it for her, or how it would all end but simply yielded herself to Him whom she knew had her best interests at heart.  Mary believed God, embraced the word from the Lord and willingly allowed it to take root in her life.  As I write this I realize that she "literally" embraced the Word.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. 

The same God who spoke the worlds into existence came down from heaven to tabernacle among us and made Himself at home with us...His creatures!

And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory. --1 Timothy 3:16

What humility Mary showed--"behold the handmaiden of the Lord."   I so need to have this view of myself.  What peace, freedom from sin  and opportunity in Him could be mine, if I would willingly consecrate myself fully to His use.  Christ would be born in me...I would decrease and He would increase.  Praying to have this attitude daily! 

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.--Romans 12:1-2

Love
Mom

Searching the Scriptures....

Inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us,  it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus,  that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed. --Luke 1:1-4

 
I began reading the Gospel of Luke today in my study of the word and only got to the end of verse 4.  Here is what struck me...Luke wrote this Gospel and its sequel, the Book of Acts, to one person, Theophilus. He wrote as an historian who had carefully compiled the accounts of others and interviewed people who had spent time with Jesus.  He was not an eyewitness to the events of what he wrote nor had he ever met Jesus.  His intent in writing is clear from verse 4:

"it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus,  that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed."

Luke wrote this gospel as an apologetic to a *friend* that he might know that the things which he had heard and been instructed about were true.  Our God is a God of individuals.  God took Luke's obvious and heartfelt concern for this one lone, early Greek Christian, Theophilus, and used it to reach the rest of the world.  We never know how God will use anything we do...leave the numbers and the results to Him.  Know that your work is not in vain in the Lord...that He works all together for good in your life and does all things well.  Do not grow weary in doing good nor lose heart.  Your God is the God who sees..in due season you will reap.

I also think it is significant that Luke relied heavily in his writings on eyewitness accounts and the writings of others to compile an accurate picture of Jesus' life and ministry.  Christianity is not a close your eyes, check your brain at the door belief.  Scripture tells us to investigate its claims and see for ourselves.  Rightly so!  Our decision in regard to Christ is the most important decision we will ever make here on earth...it has eternal consequences.

And Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see." --John 1:46

This is the disciple who testifies of these things, and wrote these things; and we know that his testimony is true. --John 21:24

These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. Therefore many of them believed, and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men. --Acts 17:11-12

Check out its claims for yourself.  Do not rely on others to do your work.  Search the Scriptures carefully...in them you will find eternal life.