Privileged

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Bible, Psalm 119
Bible, Psalm 119 (Photo credit: jason2917)

“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;”—Deuteronomy 30:15-19

What freedom to realize that we don’t have to follow God’s commandment, we get to follow them! We have a choice. We are privileged to be able to follow God’s ways…his commandments, statutes, and judgments.

How blessed are those whose way is blameless,
Who walk in the law of the Lord.
 How blessed are those who observe His testimonies,
Who seek Him with all their heart.
They also do no unrighteousness;
They walk in His ways.
You have ordained Your precepts,
That we should keep them diligently.
Oh that my ways may be established
To keep Your statutes!
Then I shall not be ashamed
When I look upon all Your commandments.
I shall give thanks to You with uprightness of heart,
When I learn Your righteous judgments.
I shall keep Your statutes;
Do not forsake me utterly! –Psalm 119:1-8

Spiritual growth comes through obedience to God’s ways…Hebrews 5:8-9 says, “though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.”  Obeying God’s laws should be our delight (Psalm 1:2, Psalm 19: 7-11, Psalm 40:8, Psalm 119, Romans 7:22, 1 John 5:3). If we truly love God, we will keep His commandments, “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.” –1 John 2:3-6

We have choices…we will also bear the consequences of our choices…eternal choices and eternal consequences. Life…death; blessings…curses; good…evil.

“If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”—Joshua 24:15

The choice is ours.

Truth, Tradition, and Trespass

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Then the Lord said, “Because this people draw near with their words and honor Me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from Me, and their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote, therefore behold, I will once again deal marvelously with this people, wondrously marvelous; And the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the discernment of their discerning men will be concealed.” — Isaiah 29:13-14

 Have you ever questioned why you believe what you believe? Why you do the things you do for God? Why you follow certain rites, rituals, traditions, and celebrations? For me, this concept of questioning has taken me on quite the journey; not an easy one, but a necessary one. It has cost me…family, friends, comfort, and so much more. When I questioned and then allowed myself to be open to the fact that what I had had been taught in church might not be what the word of God says…my world turned upside down. Is it worth the cost? Absolutely…there is no turning back. In my questioning and my bible reading, and my prayer, and my researching I have discovered things in the modern church that are not supported by scripture; things like what day the Sabbath is on…I had always heard that it didn’t matter what day we choose, as long as we choose a day. Did you know the bible says in Genesis 2:3 that God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. The funny thing is, I always assumed Sunday was the seventh day…however in researching I discovered that in fact Saturday is the seventh day (that’s why our calendar is the way it is!) Not only is Saturday the seventh day and therefore the Sabbath, but there are also certain things we should and should not do on the Sabbath that are very clearly outlined in Scripture. Who knew?!!!

And then there are the holidays that we celebrate…Christmas…Easter…all well meaning, but still steeped in pagan traditions that we have “Christianized”. And considering that God says in several places in scripture not to worship Him the way the pagans worship their gods…not to take on pagan practices…does this make it alright? Just because “that’s not what it means to me” comes from our lips doesn’t make it right…Isn’t it more important to consider what it means to God?

For years I blindly followed what everyone else in church was doing…until I came to the realization that blind faith is really no faith at all…what “god” was I following? The more I dig into His word, the more I realize what an amazing, awesome God I serve. 1 Chronicles 28:9 says “…serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, he will reject you forever.” When I came across that verse the other day, the words “willing mind” jumped out at me…we must be willing to do what He asks us to do, go where he tells us to go, be who He says we are to be.

As I was watching a video the other day, this quote from the Barna Group really hit home. “The problem of the Christian Church is not that people lack a complete set of beliefs; the problem is that they have a full slate of beliefs in mind, which they think are consistent with biblical teachings, and they are neither open to being proven wrong or learning new insights. It may well be that spiritual evaluation is so uncommon because people fear that the results might suggest the need for different growth strategies or for more aggressive engagement in the growth process. No matter what the underlying reason is, the bottom line among both the clergy and laity was indifference toward their acknowledged lack of evaluation.”

So the question is…Are we willing to sacrifice our man-made traditions and the things we’ve been taught in exchange for His truth…His ways? Or are we like the people in 2 Timothy 4:3-4, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.” Or are we like the people in Mark 7:7-8, “But in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men. Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.”

Ladies and gentlemen it is time to “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.” (Colossians 2:8) It is time to, “Obey God rather than men.” (Acts 5:29) It is time to, “Present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:1-2)

Here is a link to a blog that I think does a wonderful job explaining the origins of Christmas. http://rinamarie.wordpress.com/2008/12/10/tis-the-season/#comment-8530

Word Play

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It's the same Apple logo, but in gold.

As I was sitting here brainstorming ideas for a teaching unit on word play, with the essential question being, “Why and how do we play with words?”, I was reminded of the importance…the power of our words. Proverbs 18:21 tells us, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue. And those who love it will eat its fruit.” When we are speaking to or about others, we are either speaking death or life to them…demolition or construction…put downs or edification…we get to choose… The bible is chock full of warnings, admonitions, and responsibilities that we have with our words.

One verse in particular that always makes me pause, and even tremble is when Jesus is speaking in Matthew 12:36-37, “But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” Wow…what have I been speaking…what have you been speaking…James 1:26, “If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless.”

I for one do not want any part of useless religion. I want Psalm 141:3, “Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; Keep watch over the door of my lips.” I want Proverbs 8:6-8, “Listen, for I will speak of excellent things, and from the opening of my lips will come right things; For my mouth will speak truth; Wickedness is an abomination to my lips. All the words of my mouth are with righteousness; Nothing crooked or perverse is in them.” I want Proverbs 21:23, “Whoever guards his mouth and tongue keeps his soul from trouble.” I want Proverbs 13:3, “He who guards his mouth preserves his life, but he who opens wide his lips shall have destruction.” I want Proverbs 25:11, “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.” I want Psalm 19:14, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.”

How big is my want to…How big is your want to?

Belief and Trembling?

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You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. (James 2:19) What makes us any different than the demons? As a matter of fact…even the demons who are destined to be tortured in Hell know enough to shudder at the belief in the Most High God. So, how do we know that our belief is a belief that leads to salvation? How are we different than the demons? How can we be saved from being burned in the fire of Hell? The “church” today paints a “wide gate” picture of salvation…that anyone who believes in Jesus Christ will be saved. They believe that no matter what people do, if they believe in Jesus, they will go to Heaven…They pervert the Scripture of Romans  10:10, “For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” Don’t the demons meet those requirements as well? We know from James 2:19 they believe. Don’t they confess that Jesus is Lord…Mark 5:7, “and shouting with a loud voice, he said , “What business do we have with each other, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore you by God, do not torment me!” So if this is what we are basing our salvation on…that gives us faith that is equal to that of the demons…who are still going to Hell…….so what is the difference?

Jeremiah 6:16 says, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; and you will find rest for your souls.'” Jesus Himself tells us what we must do to become his disciple, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions. Therefore, salt is good; but if salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned? It is useless either for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” (Luke 14:26-35) Our belief…our faith must move us to obedience and action. We must be willing to forsake all and count the cost to become true disciples of, not just travelers with our Lord and Savior. Godly faith requires action…Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being of itself. (James 2:17) Jesus died to give us a faith that works obedience in us (Romans 1:5). True faith begins and ends with obedience…obedience to God’s commands, carrying out God’s commands through His power, the way He tells us to do them. We must be willing to submit to God’s righteousness and forsake man’s “religious” ways. In Matthew 7:21-27, Jesus is speaking to believers when he says, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me you who practice lawlessness.’ Therefore, everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell–and great was its fall.” 

I know that I for one, do not want to be one whom the Son of the Most High God declares that He never knew me. I want to be “diligent to present myself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15) I want to be “diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless”. (2 Peter 2:14) I want to “diligently keep the commandments of the Lord my God, and His testimonies and His statutes which He has commanded me.” (Deuteronomy 6:17). I want to “diligently take heed to myself to love the Lord my God.” (Joshua 23:11). My prayer for you is that you will find the saving kind of faith…greater than the faith of the demons…faith that changes you, faith that makes you obedient to God’s ways. Faith that doesn’t change you, doesn’t change your destination.

Camouflaged Christians

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The Waterfall Frog (Litoria nannotis) of Austr...

Have you seen them? Shhh…..Look very carefully. They are there, very well-blended into their surroundings…into the world…so well camouflaged in fact that no one can tell the difference. They are the “Camouflaged Christians”. God’s Word gives several warnings against blending in with the world and taking on their practices. 2 Timothy 3:1-5 says, “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!” This verse sounds like the world, but how much of this do we see in the church today, among believers…among people that profess to know and love God? Proverbs 4:14 admonishes us, “Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of evil. James 4:4 should wake us all up to the fact that we shouldn’t be blended into the world…”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. Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, ‘The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously’?” The world and God are on opposite ends of a continuum. Chances are, if the world is embracing something, it is not godly. We are called to be holy as He is holy (Leviticus 19:2, 1 Peter 1:16). We, as believers in the Most High God, are not to allow so much of the world into us and our lives that we begin to look like, sound like, feel like the world. We are the salt and light…we are supposed to be different, peculiar, set apart. We are supposed to make the world want what we have…but how can we do that if we are no different than the world…what do we have left to offer? We are known by our fruits…

So, how do we live our lives and not blend in with the world? The short answer is read the bible and do what it says; fear God, love God, and obey His Law. Some specific verses that have spoken to me about not living in the way of the world are these:

Ephesians 5:8-18, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light, 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.”

2 Corinthians 4:16-18, says “Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, 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.”

Knowing that this world is a temporary thing and that my citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20), I keep my focus on what is before me. I strive to live this life as an ambassador for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20)…I represent Him…therefore I cannot take on the values of the world…I can’t blend in. Faith that does not change you doesn’t change your destination. We need to stop immersing ourselves in what the world values and pursuing its worldly pleasures. We need to get down to business and start living our faith. Faith without works is dead (James 2:17). We need to pursue holiness, without which no one will see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14). We need to find the small gate and the narrow way and walk it out (Matthew 7:14). We need to stand up and be the people God has called us to be…holy, set apart, abhorring evil and clinging to what is good…we need to uncamouflage ourselves from the world.

Complacency Comes Before Calamity

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The turning away of the simple will slay them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them. (Proverbs 1:32) Have you ever realized how easily one can slip into complacency? The spirit of complacency is sneaky. One minute you are on fire and zealous for Yahveh, and the next minute BAM! there you are sitting right in the middle of complacency. I mean after all, complacency can be a nice place to be…right? Complacency is a place where we make assumptions…we assume there are no consequences for sin, we assume that we don’t have to live zealously for Yahveh, we assume that we have all the time in the world to make the changes that Yahveh is calling us to make today. And…we all have excuses…busy schedules, jobs, school, and the list goes on.

Yahveh is calling us all to wake up from our slumber and live zealously for Him. Revelation 3:15-16 says, “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.” Zephaniah 1:12 says, “And it shall come to pass at that time that I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and punish the men who are settled in complacency, who say in their heart, ‘the Lord will not do good, nor will He do evil.'” It is time to stop wasting our days and hours living a complacent life. It is time to stop living and accepting the culture of mediocrity that is so prevalent today. It is time to wake up and live our lives with purpose, completely souled out for Yahveh. We need to live Romans 12: 9-13. “Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality.”

Lip Service

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As my husband and I were reading Matthew 22 together this morning, verses 34-40 caught my attention. “But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” So I got to pondering…what does it mean to love the Lord? A lot of people profess to “love the Lord”. But…what does that mean? As I was praying about it, the verse in John 14:15 was impressed on me. “If you love Me, obey My commandments.” So there is action involved…love is a verb. God wants us to show our love for Him by obeying His commandments.

In the past, I used to pay the Lord “lip service”. I would tell Him I loved Him with my words, but my actions didn’t always show it. I was a member of the Matthew 15:8 club, “These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” How many of us today still do the same thing…tell Yahveh we love Him and then go and live as we please? Then Yahveh reminded me what it feels like to be told that you are loved when the actions didn’t always match the words. In my first marriage, I would be told, “I love you” and then be called horrible names and be physically abused. The words didn’t match the actions…and actions definitely speak louder than words. 

Praise Yahveh!!! I have been delivered from the Matthew 15:8 club, both giving “lip service” and receiving it!!! As the veil has been lifted and my eyes opened to the whole word of God, I can honestly say that I do love the Lord with all my heart, with all my soul, and with all my mind. I am obeying God’s commandments because I love Him. “This is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, that as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it.” (2 John 6)

Let’s revoke our membership in the Matthew 15:8 club and stop paying Yahveh and each other “lip service”. Let’s start truly loving Yahveh and one another, not just in word, but in deed also, not the way the world loves, but as we are commanded to in the Bible…by obedience (which is better than sacrifice (1 Samuel 15:22))…by loving as Christ has loved us (John 13:34-35)…by being devoted to and giving preference to one another (Romans 12:10)…by esteeming one another (Philippians 2:3). Let’s love according to Yahveh’s way, not man’s.

Quilt Analogy…The Power of a Yielded Life

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As I was in the process of making a quilt for my grandson, a thought struck me…an analogy between quilting and our lives. In quilting, we take whole pieces of fabric and cut them up into pieces only to sew the pieces back together again. And, in the end, we end up with something more beautiful than when we started.

So it is with Yeshua and our lives. As we yield ourselves to Him and give Him the pieces of our lives, He stitches it back together into something amazingly beautiful. He gives us beauty for our ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness so that we may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified. (Isaiah 61:3) Praise Yahveh!

One thing that I have realized as I have been walking out my salvation is that I need to be willing to yield. I need to be willing to let Him do the work in me. There is action involved on my part…Yahveh is a gentleman, He won’t force Himself into the places that I am still clinging to. I will be the first to admit it is not always easy to yield…but as I forget those things which are behind and reach forward to those things which are ahead and I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:13-14)…it becomes easier and easier to yield to Yahveh…to allow Him to transform me through His power…His righteousness…His will.

I believe God is calling each believer to come out, be separate, be holy as He is holy (1 Peter 1:16) As we yield our lives to Him, piece by piece, He transforms us into His image. 2 Corinthians 5:17 states, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” That is what the world is looking for…something real…something different than what the world has to offer…something so powerful and so appealing…they can’t help but to want what we have. They don’t want to see hypocrisy. They don’t want to hear our mouths say one thing and see our actions do another. They need to see genuine faith in the One who has the power to heal broken lives, to change us from the inside out, to recreate our life pieces into something beautiful.

Am I Willing…

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As I was in prayer this morning, I began to question…Is Yahveh, who is a God of order (1 Corinthians 14:33), really going to leave his children to follow and worship Him any way they see fit…by how they “feel”…by what it means to them…by what seems right…Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way  of death.” And Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things. And desperately wicked; Who can know it?” And then God reminded me he has given us His Holy Spirit and His Word. He has given us everything that pertains to life and godliness. (2 Peter 1:3) And, He  will not contradict Himself.

I used to live by my feelings. I used to twist the Word to justify my actions. I used to follow the ways and traditions of man rather than God. And…I used to pray for more…for a deeper walk with God…for a truly changed life that follows after God and His Righteousness and His Holiness. And now that Yahveh is answering my prayer and my life is changing and my walk is stronger and deeper and because of who Yahveh is and all that Yeshua has done for me…am I willing?

Am I willing to give up my ways, ways of man, ways of excuses, ways of doing what “feels” right…

Am I willing to examine my beliefs and convictions…

Am I willing to die to self…self-will, self-righteousness, selfish desires, self-fulfillment…

Am I willing to lay down my life and offer it as a living sacrifice…(Romans 12:1)

Am I wlling to conform my life to that of Yeshua’s…(Romans 8:29, Romans 12:2, 1 Peter 1:13-15)

Am I willing to count the cost…(Luke 14:25-33)

Am I willing to worship Yahveh the way He demands to be worshipped and follow Him the way He demands to be followed…(Deuteronomy 13:4, Jeremiah 7:22-24, Micah 6:8, John 14:15)

Am I willing to do all to stand (Ephesians 6:13) for Yahveh, for His Word, for Truth, for His Righteousness and Holiness…

Am I willing…

YES!!! Praise Yahveh!!! I am willing…are you?

Lead me in your Truth and teach me,

For You are the God of my salvation;

On You I wait all the day. (Psalm 25:5)

 

Search me, O God, and know my heart;

Try me, and know my anxieties;

And see if there is any wicked way in me,

And lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139:24-25)