"MY SON, forget not my law or teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments." Proverbs 3:1 AMP
"We must trust in the Lord with all our hearts, believing he is able and wise to do what is best. Those who know themselves, find their own understandings a broken reed, which, if they lean upon, will fail. Do not design any thing but what is lawful, and beg God to direct thee in every case, though it may seem quite plain." Matthew Henry…..
Okay, that's the lesson for the day. I'm done……
Seriously, how can you get any more direct than that? We know that GOD is not human by human standards, even though Jesus lived as a God-man, He was did not define Himself or His ministry by humanistic standards. We, as a church and as a society, have humanized GOD and deified ourselves. And it shows in how we related to GOD's instruction and teachings. It is not enough to read the Bible and express the "god language" that Christianity is known for, but to live….to model….and to realize true perfection is not a human thing but enabled only by GOD, through the working of the Holy Spirit…….from which all good things come.
We are all broken, battered, bruised, and bleeding. All of us, whether active children of GOD or the ones who are (as yet) blind to the belonging to which they strive……. We tend to forget, though, that we are incapable of healing ourselves through our own understanding and efforts. We cannot lean upon the broken reeds and expect to be propped up. But our natural tendencies are to rely on what we have experience in; right or wrong.
Be deliberate. Intentionally apply yourself in the direction GOD has shown you and acknowledge no distraction to the purpose. In marriage, focus intentionally on your wife. In family, your wife and children as a strand of woven chord, strengthened beyond individual strength. In relationship, that to which GOD has given it to you; be it accountability, love, wisdom, or strength. In all we do, regardless of the title over the door, be intentional in seeking GOD in it. Discern the need, pray to GOD for the wisdom, and then apply GOD to the goal.
And its easy to be intentional about applying God's Word and Laws to our lives, we simply need to control our tongues. How much damage have you done in the daily struggles by being unintentional with your words?
I haven't always been successful myself. With the best intentions, my desire to help has sometimes been destructive because of my unintentional words. That was one of the things I learned in the retreat I attended, that I have to be intentional and that requires controlling my tongue.
One of the most respected men in the Bible, James, talks about followers of Christ being intentional, through seemingly the most simplest thing, controlling our tongue.
James 3:1-6 (AMP) "NOT MANY [of you] should become teachers (self-constituted censors and reprovers of others), my brethren, for you know that we [teachers] will be judged by a higher standard and with greater severity [than other people; thus we assume the greater accountability and the more condemnation]. For we all often stumble and fall and offend in many things. And if anyone does not offend in speech [never says the wrong things], he is a fully developed character and a perfect man, able to control his whole body and to curb his entire nature. If we set bits in the horses' mouths to make them obey us, we can turn their whole bodies about. Likewise, look at the ships: though they are so great and are driven by rough winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the impulse of the helmsman determines. Even so the tongue is a little member, and it can boast of great things. See how much wood or how great a forest a tiny spark can set ablaze! And the tongue is a fire. [The tongue is a] world of wickedness set among our members, contaminating and depraving the whole body and setting on fire the wheel of birth (the cycle of man's nature), being itself ignited by hell (Gehenna)."
Sometimes the simplest of things will alter the destiny of a world…………
I hope I have been clear today......intentionally.
Friday, December 7
Thursday, December 6
Awwwwww, COME ON!!! moments.......
"We are sure that we have a clear conscience and a desire to live honorably in every way." Hebrew 13:18 (NIV)
Part of my past that I've always tried to run from, never realizing that I couldn't ever achieve this particular goal, is that I am my father's son. In physical appearance, mannerisms, and even my voice. Everything I am you can see my father within. And I think that was always why we never got along, this fact I was so much like him and so different.
I've always tried to redeem that image, and I think tried to redeem my father's apparent hatred of me at the same time. Something that this verse touched off inside my soul today. So close on the heels of the marriage retreat and the lessons learned there. I have grown beyond the man I once was, but am so far from the man I know God designed me to be.
But, I know that this verse, in the context of the entire chapter 13 of Hebrews, that this is what God is speaking to me; living with a clear conscience----- always guarding against distorting or misrepresenting the Word of God to those I've been chosen to lead, being a true spiritual brother to those to whom God has blessed me with in the family of His grace, being a good father to my children (a gift that God has blessed me with), and being a faithful steward of that most precious gift of beauty...my wife's heart. And when I stray, become less faithful or conscieous of my relationship with God......conviction and heaviness weigh my heart.
And I wind up having one of those "AWWWW COME ON!!!!!" moments. You know, those times when you feel so convicted that you have to stomp around in a circle with your arms flying up and down in the air in quick motions as you mutter "AWWWW COME ON!! I GET IT!"???? No....well then let me apologize to those motorists along I-96 who were entertained or frightened by the comical rantings of a man having a "Aww Come On" fit. Not only was it frustrating, it was COLD!!!!
Upon the releasing of my ear by the Holy Spirit (reminisent of my dear mother's technique of getting my attention), I returned to my vehicle (which I failed to mention was safely parked well back from the highway) and called my wife. In a voice that reminded me of a child grudgingly giving in to something they still didn't want to, I told her I needed to have a dialogue with her tonight and asked if she would be willing. In reply to her question, I told her (in a better voice, one of repentance) that God pointed out that I wasn't living honorably and I needed to explain to her why, so that we could resolve this issue and I could clear my conscious. That once again, I was living in my father's shadow........
The teaching was concluded on the weekend with this comment, made by the facillating couple as we wrapped ourselves in the loving instruction from the Father above by giving communion to our spouses......."Struggle well."
I have often laughed when I've heard that said, and I've heard it said through many voices in the wilderness since I've started on this journey towards God.....Struggle well........... And when I fall back upon those old, sinful habits of my old self, I lose that struggle and feel the loss.
In the beginning of Hebrews 13, the first verse proclaims....."keep on loving each other as brothers"....... We have always heard of the admonishment of love, it's repeated throughout the Bible; represented by God, by Jesus, and by the disciples that were left to continue the work begun. It's the FIRST commandment that Jesus gives and the sole driving force behind anything as Christians we are led to do. But look at the phrasing of this particular "LOVE" verse............
"Keep on......." As Christians, we don't have the 'luxury' of deenchantment or disengagement. We can't be true to the commandment of love that Jesus gives us in John 13:33-34, where He tells the disciples to love each other as Jesus loved them. Jesus, the one person in the entire world who had the RIGHT to turn away from those He was to save in disappointment and utter despair at their foolishness, had to stay engaged to demonstrate love---- to the point where He hung upon a piece of wood in utter agony and pain, cut off from all that He was and whose He was, bearing the sinful stain of a world that rejected Him----- to utter "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."
When your life become something that you just don't engage in anymore, you aren't honoring this loving gift. When your spouse, tarnished from the world's abuse and battered by the events in their life, gives you a glimpse that they haven't achieved "sainthood" yet or even the lesser accolade of "soulmate", you aren't honoring God's admonishment to love your spouse as Christ loved you if you respond unkindly and unfairly------ or even when you do, if it causes them to lose their sense of love.
Yeah, I had my "AWWWW COME ON!!!!!!" moment this morning out in the coldness of a freezing world, dark and cold in its harshness........ and I realized the truth of the 18th verse of the 13th chapter of a book written far before I was even born, for that moment in time. For it was in my desire to live honorably that my conscious was atuned to the Father's admonishment that I was not being faithful to the heart entrusted to my care.
But then my Father made the sun come out............
Part of my past that I've always tried to run from, never realizing that I couldn't ever achieve this particular goal, is that I am my father's son. In physical appearance, mannerisms, and even my voice. Everything I am you can see my father within. And I think that was always why we never got along, this fact I was so much like him and so different.
I've always tried to redeem that image, and I think tried to redeem my father's apparent hatred of me at the same time. Something that this verse touched off inside my soul today. So close on the heels of the marriage retreat and the lessons learned there. I have grown beyond the man I once was, but am so far from the man I know God designed me to be.
But, I know that this verse, in the context of the entire chapter 13 of Hebrews, that this is what God is speaking to me; living with a clear conscience----- always guarding against distorting or misrepresenting the Word of God to those I've been chosen to lead, being a true spiritual brother to those to whom God has blessed me with in the family of His grace, being a good father to my children (a gift that God has blessed me with), and being a faithful steward of that most precious gift of beauty...my wife's heart. And when I stray, become less faithful or conscieous of my relationship with God......conviction and heaviness weigh my heart.
And I wind up having one of those "AWWWW COME ON!!!!!" moments. You know, those times when you feel so convicted that you have to stomp around in a circle with your arms flying up and down in the air in quick motions as you mutter "AWWWW COME ON!! I GET IT!"???? No....well then let me apologize to those motorists along I-96 who were entertained or frightened by the comical rantings of a man having a "Aww Come On" fit. Not only was it frustrating, it was COLD!!!!
Upon the releasing of my ear by the Holy Spirit (reminisent of my dear mother's technique of getting my attention), I returned to my vehicle (which I failed to mention was safely parked well back from the highway) and called my wife. In a voice that reminded me of a child grudgingly giving in to something they still didn't want to, I told her I needed to have a dialogue with her tonight and asked if she would be willing. In reply to her question, I told her (in a better voice, one of repentance) that God pointed out that I wasn't living honorably and I needed to explain to her why, so that we could resolve this issue and I could clear my conscious. That once again, I was living in my father's shadow........
The teaching was concluded on the weekend with this comment, made by the facillating couple as we wrapped ourselves in the loving instruction from the Father above by giving communion to our spouses......."Struggle well."
I have often laughed when I've heard that said, and I've heard it said through many voices in the wilderness since I've started on this journey towards God.....Struggle well........... And when I fall back upon those old, sinful habits of my old self, I lose that struggle and feel the loss.
In the beginning of Hebrews 13, the first verse proclaims....."keep on loving each other as brothers"....... We have always heard of the admonishment of love, it's repeated throughout the Bible; represented by God, by Jesus, and by the disciples that were left to continue the work begun. It's the FIRST commandment that Jesus gives and the sole driving force behind anything as Christians we are led to do. But look at the phrasing of this particular "LOVE" verse............
"Keep on......." As Christians, we don't have the 'luxury' of deenchantment or disengagement. We can't be true to the commandment of love that Jesus gives us in John 13:33-34, where He tells the disciples to love each other as Jesus loved them. Jesus, the one person in the entire world who had the RIGHT to turn away from those He was to save in disappointment and utter despair at their foolishness, had to stay engaged to demonstrate love---- to the point where He hung upon a piece of wood in utter agony and pain, cut off from all that He was and whose He was, bearing the sinful stain of a world that rejected Him----- to utter "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."
When your life become something that you just don't engage in anymore, you aren't honoring this loving gift. When your spouse, tarnished from the world's abuse and battered by the events in their life, gives you a glimpse that they haven't achieved "sainthood" yet or even the lesser accolade of "soulmate", you aren't honoring God's admonishment to love your spouse as Christ loved you if you respond unkindly and unfairly------ or even when you do, if it causes them to lose their sense of love.
Yeah, I had my "AWWWW COME ON!!!!!!" moment this morning out in the coldness of a freezing world, dark and cold in its harshness........ and I realized the truth of the 18th verse of the 13th chapter of a book written far before I was even born, for that moment in time. For it was in my desire to live honorably that my conscious was atuned to the Father's admonishment that I was not being faithful to the heart entrusted to my care.
But then my Father made the sun come out............
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