The Hebrew word for blessed also means happy, but when we realize the magnitude of what the Lord has done in our life…happy is hardly the adequate word to explain how we feel. For when we’re far away from God, our life revolves around our selfish desires and rebellious acts of rejecting God’s authority. But when the Lord comes into our life and forgives all our sins and we finally come to a personal reckoning of this marvelous transformation… we’re more than just happy. There’s a profound feeling of freedom…a overwhelming sense of gratitude…and the emotion of utter joy as we marvel in our new life in Christ.
Author: kezha1
A Christian mother, grandmother, and retired nurse living in Illinois. Called into a ministry of encouraging others to find their ultimate plan and purpose in life through Christ.
Hebrews 2:1 ” We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.”
Soon I will celebrate my 37th year as a Believer in Christ. But this verse has just as much importance to me as it has on any brand-new Christian. For we all must pay attention to what we’re hearing. We need to be on guard of people who twist the Word ever so slightly as not to cause immediate negative response from those listening, but just indifference. For the longtime Believer it’s called apathy…and for the new Believer it’s their lack of knowledge of the Bible…but either way, it’s both our responsibility to pay attention, apply ourselves, and not be swayed. We both need to be actively searching the Scriptures for God’s Truth when we hear something that doesn’t seem to be right.
Isaiah 8: 11-13 ” The Lord spoke to me with His strong hand upon me, warning me not to follow the way of this people. He said: ‘Do not call conspiracy everything these people call conspiracy; do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it. The Lord Almighty is the One you are to regard as holy, He is the One you are to fear, He is the One you are to dread’…”
Mankind has always gotten in trouble when they start putting their trust and dependence in themselves rather than God. But God has never minced words when it came to this…”Woe to the obstinate children, declares the Lord, to those who carry out plans that are not Mine, forming an alliance, but not by My Spirit, heaping sin upon sin…” (Isaiah 30:1) These verses above warn of God’s impending disciplinary actions towards those who fear man over Him, and who are more afraid of man’s words than His.
Titus 2:1 ” You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine.”
The Apostle Paul wrote to both Timothy and Titus about maintaining sound doctrine. He warned them to be alert to the false teachers who were spreading religious fraud… an inaccurate interpretation of the Gospel Message. Not surprisingly, this continues today as a corrupted version of the Gospel can be heard from many a pulpit on Sunday mornings. So how can a Believer know that what their hearing is the true and pure Gospel and not a man-made account? I would urge you to become like the Bereans in Acts 17:11…for it tells us, “Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” The only way you won’t buy into a lie is to check it out for yourself… and that means getting into the Bible and studying the Word and deciding for yourself if what you heard and what you read match.
I Thessalonians 1:4-5 ” For we know, brothers loved by God, that He has chosen you, because our Gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit, and with deep conviction.”
You may think that when you share the Good News of the Gospel message with someone it’s you and your words out there alone…but these verses show us just how far from the truth that is. First we’re reminded in Romans 1:16 that the Gospel you’re sharing is the power of God for salvation of everyone who believes. Next, the Holy Spirit is there with you teaching, enlightening, and guiding both of you during the conversation. For the Holy Spirit uses both definitions of conviction simultaneously. For the Believer, it’s the deep seated conviction (certainty & assurance) that comes from having the Holy Spirit dwell within them. But to the non-believer, the Holy Spirit uses conviction (decisive & persuasive) to expose their sin to the light of the truth being spoken.
I Samuel 3:10 ” The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ Then Samuel said, ‘Speak, for Your servant is listening.’ “
Three times the young Samuel had run to the elderly Priest Eli thinking it was him who was calling. But it wasn’t until Eli realized that it was God who was summonsing the boy, that Samuel finally perceived God’s voice. So what did the old Priest have that the young man lacked? Simply, the ability to discern and distinguish God’s voice. Discernment and hearing God’s voice takes practice, prayer, prudence, and patience. It’s asking yourself, “Is this God, or just my own thoughts, ideas, and wishes…or is it merely what the crowd wants to hear at the moment?” As Paul warned Timothy, “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn theirs away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” (II Timothy 4:3-4)
I Corinthians 2:6 ” We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.”
To the world, the Message of the Cross is foolishness…and the Good News of the Gospel is only for those who need a crutch to make it through life. But to God, it’s the wisdom of the world that’s truly foolish. For the carnal wisdom of this age is more about seeking justification through our own efforts rather than seeking the truth…of putting our trust in mortal man rather than trusting God…and of failing the maturity to be able to distinguish good from evil. Spiritual maturity is something every Christian should be striving for…for with this maturity comes divine understanding of God’s truth and attainment of the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 4:13)
Proverbs 13:14 ” The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, turning a man from the snares of death.”
In my journey as a Christian, much of the wisdom I have gained has come from living with the circumstances of either bad decisions and mistakes I’ve made, or things that someone else did to me. But instead of taking this wisdom and sharing it with others who may be going through the same plight…I have walled it up and covered it over, pretending it never happen. I have denied this hard-gained insight to others because of two little words…shame and guilt. Now if when you read the words shame and guilt something popped up in your mind…something you’re not proud of…then these words are for you. Shame and guilt will effectively stop our voice and render us totally unusable for Kingdom purposes. Need an example? Think back to a low point in your life…now how could of it been different if someone had come up to you and shared how they had gone through the identical situation, how God had brought them through, and what they had learned from it? Wouldn’t their wisdom have helped you? Just to have someone say, “I’ve gone through what you’re now going through.” is such a comfort… that’s why Support Groups are so popular. So if the world has already figured it out with a Support Group for everything conceivable…why do we Christians still hide our mistakes from each other? To illustrate my point further, let’s go to a very familiar story in the New Testament, but look at it in a entirely different way. The story is about the paralytic being healed by Jesus, with Jesus saying to him, “I tell you get up, take your mat and go home. Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home. (Luke 5:24-25) So why did Jesus tell this man to pick up his mat and take it home with him? The mat would’ve been worn-out, dirty, stinky, and just plain nasty. It would of also been a sad reminder of his past hardships. But to Jesus, the mat represented the undeniable miracle that had taken place in this man’s life… a powerful testimony and witness to anyone who knew the man beforehand, for unquestionably he had been healed. To the paralytic though, the mat only characterized the shame and guilt of his difficult past. But the man obeyed and took the mat home with him…and every time someone asked about it, he could point to it …and then to Jesus. We all have a dirty mat thrown in the corner that we’d just like to forget about, and something shame and guilt would like us to keep hidden…but Jesus is telling us otherwise. For from that “mat” has come valuable wisdom you possess that He wants you to share with others. So never allow shame and guilt to stop you from telling others about your past…for I know there’s someone out there today who desperately needs to hear your story.
Mark 7:14-15 ” Again Jesus called the crowd to Him and said, ‘Listen to Me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a man can make him unclean by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him unclean.’ “
As opposed to the Jewish Leaders whose focus was only on the external, Jesus was addressing in these verses the internal man. And true to form, as He did many times, we then find Jesus explaining further to His disciples the truths of this notion of clean and unclean. Speaking to them in verses 21-23 Jesus said, “For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man unclean.” The lesson to be learned here is that our defilement does not come from the outside…it happens only when we allow it in.
Psalm 77:11-12 ” I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember Your miracles of long ago. I will meditate on all Your works and consider all Your mighty deeds.”
Many times when we’re in the middle of a medical emergency, traumatic incident, or sudden personal peril…we know the Lord is with us, but it’s not until much later that we realize just what the Lord had done. It’s at that moment the Lord will bring into remembrance His extraordinary acts done on our behalf that we had no idea were happening around us. And as we ponder and meditate on these wondrous actions several things happen. First will be the profound gratitude we have for a God Who loves us so much He takes care of us when we can’t care for ourselves. Second will be the increased faith and trust we have for Him, knowing He works everything for the good of those who love Him. (Romans 8:28) And finally, as this Psalm attests, as we remember all these mighty deeds and works of the Lord, they become like stones piled up upon each other that we can stand on to boldly face the next calamity that will come into our life.
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