We all are born with a sin nature. You don’t need a teach a baby how to be crabby and out of sorts…they arch their little back, face beet red, as they let you know in no uncertain terms they’re unhappy! No, thanks to Adam and Eve that sin nature has been handed down from generation to generation. In Psalm 51:5 David laments about this sin nature when he says, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” From the first Adam we obtained our sin nature…but the second Adam, Jesus Christ, came to redeem us from it.
Month: August 2019
Revelation 3:3 ” Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.”
John was writing to the Church in Sardis…but he could be addressing the Church today in general. When he says, “Wake up!”, John is speaking not of just physically waking up and throwing off our lackadaisical Christianity…but of waking up morally and realizing we have been compromising our faith away. John was talking about comfortable or lazy Christianity…we’re saved and satisfied…but all the while the rest of the world outside is dying and going to Hell.
Psalm 32:8 ” I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you.”
Are you unsure and confused today? God is there to bring guidance and clarity to any situation you’re facing. He’ll show you the correct path to take and how to best conduct your life. And when you need advice, look to Him, the Wonderful Counselor, first. For no worldly consultation can compare to God’s perfect insight and tender concern for you.
Hebrews 12:15 ” See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.”
A root of bitterness flourishes in the person that takes offense easily. For when they feel that someone has insulted them…they react not with grace but with indignity and resentment. And if allowed to grow, this root of bitterness leads to a wounded spirit that is of no use to God. And when this happens among Believers in a Church setting…this is when we see division and disunity. As Believers, we need to fight for unity within the Body…not murmur, gripe, and easily take offense.
Ezekiel 28:17 ” Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings.”
It’s vital to know the enemy and his mode of operation…ask anyone who has served in the armed forces. The Scripture here is a lament or an oracle against Satan. It speaks of him being created blameless but then allowing wickedness and willful rebellious pride to enter him. Our enemy, Satan, also has many alias or aka – Lucifer, prince of this world, father of lies, the evil one, the devil, our adversary, a deceptive angel of light. His mode of operation is simple and yet very effective…it’s destruction, deception, and death. But it’s also essential to know the enemy’s limitations. It tells us in the Bible that if we resist the devil he must flee.(James 4:7) And when we are equipped with the armor of God, we are able stand against him victoriously. (Ephesians 6:11) Finally and most importantly…the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. (I John 4:4)
Lord, You cannot change…but yet You change everything.
This idea comes from Psalm 110:4 and later echoed in the New Testament in Hebrews 7:21, “The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind.” The God of the universe is unchanging, yet He’s continually changing everything around us. He’s changing hearts and minds…He’s changing situations and circumstances…He’s changing lives. I thank You Lord that You are the one and only stable factor in my life today…but I also thank Lord that You are continually changing me.
Proverbs 21:26 “…the righteous give without sparing.”
If we could only get past the notion that everything we own is ours… and would loosen the death grip we have on our money and belongings. We would realize that everything belongs to God…everything! And with that, we could then know the freedom in managing God’s assets. For if you think about it…you will never be able to out give God. For when you have a open hand policy concerning your material things and take on the heart of stewardship…God will bless beyond what you can imagine.
Mark 9: 33-34 ” They came to Capernaum. When He was in the house, He asked them, ‘What were you arguing about on the road?’ But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.”
Embarrassed silence is all you heard. For Jesus already knew what they had been fighting about…and He knew their prideful hearts. But He wanted them to verbalize out loud to Him this dispute so they could hear just how absurd they sounded. Jesus was then able to use this as a teachable moment when He said to them, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.” Boy, was that a blow to those fragile male egos of the disciples! I can almost hear them ask, “So what you’re saying, Jesus, is that in order to be the greatest…I need to become the least?”
I Kings 18:43-44 ” ‘Go and look toward the sea,’ he told his servant. And he went up and looked. ‘There is nothing there.’ he said. Seven times Elijah said, ‘Go back.’ The seventh time the servant reported, ‘A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea.’ So Elijah said, ‘Go and tell Ahab, hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.’ “
It was with patience and determination that the Hebrew Children marched around the walls of Jericho seven times before it fell. It wasn’t until Naaman obeyed the Prophet Elisha and resolutely dipped himself into the Jordan River seven times that he was healed of his leprosy. And in this passage, it was a persistent and tenacious Prophet Elijah that prayed seven times before the rain came and ended the drought. The number seven doesn’t matter here as much as the idea of not giving up! For all these examples show that perseverance pays off in the end, and that God rewards the single-minded.
James 4:13-17 ” Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s Will, we will live and do this or that.’ As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.”
So many times we plan major things…making important decisions that will effect our life with little to none of God’s input first. We make up our minds that this is how it will be…and then as almost an afterthought… we ask the Lord to bless it. That’s kinda putting the cart before the horse don’t you think? Making choices without God’s input and counsel first is presumptuous and says we’re trusting in ourselves…not God.
Safetypinlove 