Friday, March 25, 2011

In our heart

Mat 5:27 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:
Mat 5:28 But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.


From OLD times, from LONG AGO, in AGES PAST the word came- 'Thou shalt not commit adultery.'


Then man decided this meant simply the act of adultery and not the thought of it. The thought was okay, but was it ever okay? We know this...


Jas 1:14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
Jas 1:15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.


Temptation begins in the thoughts, in the mind. Seriously, temptation begins when we allow our thoughts of temptation to take over. Jesus was tempted but He did not succumb to temptation, He NEVER let His thoughts take over. He didn't stand on the highest pinnacle and begin to contemplate what it would be like to have all mankind right then and there bow down to Him. He didn't allow His mind to dwell on thoughts of how good a piece of bread would taste, how filling it would be to his fast starved body. He didn't stop for a few moments and think about how wonderful it would be to show off to Satan by falling and letting angels bear Him up. Our Savior didn't allow any thought of the temptation to take over Him. When tempted He was QUICK with a rebuke to that temptation. His first thought was REBUKE.

re·buke
1.
to express sharp, stern disapproval of; reprove; reprimand.
–noun
2.
sharp, stern disapproval; reproof; reprimand.

Pasted from


What is our first thought when we are tempted? Seriously, lets consider this for a moment and be frank about our answers. We all know of times we've given into temptation and sinned. The moment the temptation came did we rebuke it? We may have recognized it as temptation but recognizing temptation IS NOT rebuking temptation. Recognition is good but after the first moment of recognition that we are facing temptation we need to be instant in our rebuking of that temptation.

All too often we recognize that we are being tempted but then something else comes into play- our lust to give into that temptation. We feel a rush of desire towards that temptation. That IS what temptation is, isn't it? Being face to face with the opportunity to give into a desire, a lust we hold. I'm not talking uniquely sexual desire or sexual lust, but a desire or lust for anything that is sin. You can desire an object, you can lust after gold. When the desire is for something forbidden- another man's wife, a treasure of gold belonging to another- you are tempted wrongly, tempted towards sin. When you indulge that temptation in your thoughts you are imagining yourself committing the sin, you are entertaining sin as being something good- allowing it to fill your mind crowding out truth, crowding out God because God cannot dwell where sin dwells.


Mat 5:27 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:
Mat 5:28 But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.


'Whosoever LOOKETH on a woman to LUST after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.'


It's not enough to just keep ourselves from the act of outward sin- we MUST keep our hearts and minds pure, we must keep our hearts and minds on our Savior, not self and self desires, self lusts.


We must REBUKE temptation instantly! We must not look upon our temptation and lust for it in our heart. We must not come face to face with temptation and embrace it. We must not think about our temptation and continue to think upon it. The more lust after our temptation the more likely we are to give into that temptation, the more we lust after our temptation in becomes sin right there in our minds even if we never act upon that lust.


Lust--
epithumeō
ep-ee-thoo-meh'-o
From G1909 and G2372; to set the heart upon, that is, long for (rightfully or otherwise): - covet, desire, would fain, lust (after).


If our hearts are SET upon, if we are coveting in our hearts ANY SIN we are guilty of that sin. May God keep us from coveting any sin whatsoever! Sin is to be abhorred, not just - not physically committed. How many, many people do not commit the physical act of sin yet in their hearts they sin continuously all the while patting themselves on the back for NOT actually sinning. Is it any wonder our Savior is going to say to so many people that He never knew them, when there they'll be thinking they should be saved. Sin begins in the heart. When our hearts desire is to sin we are sinning. Our Lord must be our all in all. Our treasures MUST be in heaven. Our hearts desire must be towards God, towards His love and not towards self. We have resist the pull to self and that pull is soooooooooo great because we have people on all sides wanting to help us indulge self, and we have a GREAT adversary who wants nothing more than for us to put self first, we have a flesh nature that wars against the spiritual nature.


The path is narrow, few will find it, please God we pray that we are among the few! We pray we are known by You! We pray for the ability to rebuke temptation, to rebuke even thoughts of temptation. By Your grace! By Your will! In Your love!


Amen!

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Agree with thine adversary quickly

Mat 5:25 Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.
Mat 5:26 Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.


Agree- reconcile with
Adversary- enemy, opponent


This seems strange doesn't it? Agreeing with one you don't agree with on principle. To have an enemy, to have an opponent means not agreeing with that person- they are your enemy, you obviously don't agree. Can you think of a person who is or has been your adversary in the past, or even currently? In thinking about them what makes them your adversary? You could say something as simple as ' "I just don't like them." and that could be true, we don't instantly like everyone, some people are very abrasive to our personalities and seem very incompatible. So we just don't like them and they just don't like us and in not liking each other we aren't inclined to want to be agreeable with each other. However, and this is a big HOWEVER, Jesus would have us LOVE our enemies and adversaries.


Mat 5:44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies...


Just in the previous verses Jesus is teaching us the importance of loving our fellowman. How we aren't to treat others badly, we can't judge another's eternal life, we can't KNOW another as God can know them.


So when Jesus tells us to agree with our adversaries He's NOT telling us to BE LIKE our adversaries. Jesus is NOT telling us to agree to their evil and commit evil with them. Jesus is really telling us to LOVE our adversary. We can LOVE our enemies, we can love our adversaries because GOD loves us! If we are loveable to God, then our enemies are loveable to God, and if our enemies are loveable to God they are loveable to us. Do we have to like them? No. Do we have to like what they do? No. Can we judge their actions? We HAVE to judge their actions because the actions people make reveal right and wrong and by judging an action we decide whether or not we're going to do right or wrong ourselves. We must love but commit no sin in doing so. Agreeing with our adversaries does not mean going along with their sins, their crimes, their wrongs. If we were asked by our adversary to commit sin we should NOT commit sin- it's not that sort of agreeing!


Agree- G2468 G2132

G2468
??´s??
isthi
is'-thee
Second person imperative present of G1510; be thou: - + agree, be, X give thyself wholly to.


e????´e?
eunoeo¯
yoo-no-eh'-o
From a compound of G2095 and G3563; to be well minded, that is, reconcile: - agree.


Be well minded, be reconciled-

Webster--
Reconciled
RECONCI'LED, pp. Brought into friendship from a state of disagreement or enmity; made consistent; adjusted.


Webster--
Agree
AGREE', v.i.[L. gratia. the primary sense is advancing, from the same root as L. gradior.]

5. To come to a compromise of differences; to be reconciled.

AGREE', v.t. To admit, or come to one mind concerning; as, to agree the fact. Also, to reconcile or make friends; to put an end to variance; but these senses are unusual and hardly legitimate. Let the parties agree the fact, is really elliptical; let them agree on the fact.


I like this definition- to come to a compromise of differences- to be reconciled.


When we are with our adversaries and there are intense disagreements, resolving things is very important. When two people usually buckle down and don't *agree to disagree* they are digging their heels in and that refusal to PUT SELF aside is where Jesus would have us emulate Him and shove self totally aside and when that happens more often than not there is a reconciliation.


Self is often unwilling to agree to disagree. Self is right there wanting victory. Self wants to be proven right at all costs. Self wants earthly justice which is often missing in many, many trials between adversaries. I've found out personally dealing with the courts and my ex-husband for child support issues that fairness, justice is RARE! That's just my experience there but I'm sure there are a lot of instances where justice seems absent and the guilty win over and over again. We see a whole lot of *proven innocent years later through DNA evidence* going on and for every case that is proven you know there have to be so many more that are as well but they're not proven. Satan loves when the innocent suffer and if he can get an innocent put in jail he has an easy situation in which to corrupt that person. They might not have been guilty before but the incarceration experience changes all that. Is it any wonder we should not be eager to get involved in situations that lead to adversarial disagreements that could have us end up in jail?


Brotherly love, selflessness, these are things Jesus wants to teach us, things we should all be learning and building on that learning experience daily. We have countless opportunities to love, to show the love of our Savior.


Mat 5:25 Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.
Mat 5:26 Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.


We should show brotherly love and selflessness when we are with our adversaries, having a willingness to agree to disagree, having a willingness to be cheated, abused, face injustices without seeking vengeance. Jesus is our example in ALL things and there were many adversaries He faced that wanted to do Him harm. He didn't provoke them. He didn't taunt them. He didn't seek earthly justice. He spoke truthfully in all things but He did not egg on His adversaries hoping they'd drag Him to court. The Apostles were the same. They did NOT provoke their adversaries, they did stand up for the truth in all things and they were judged and killed for their faith. Does this mean they didn't listen to Jesus? That they didn't *agree* with their adversaries? No. They did listen to Jesus. They NEVER senselessly sought to provoke their adversaries, never.


Jesus would have us love one another selflessly. When we find ourselves in-- let's call them *tense* situations, when we face adversarial encounters , let's remember Jesus' words. It's not important that we garner justice here on earth no matter how much we desire that justice. Allowing others to seek our pain and use the government court system to increase that pain tenfold- or to the *uttermost farthing* isn't what Jesus would have us do. We must do as He would have us do, we must learn what Jesus wants to teach us and by His grace we will!


In His love!


Amen.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Merciful love

Mat 5:21 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:
Mat 5:22 But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.
Mat 5:23 Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee;
Mat 5:24 Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.


What exactly is our Savior teaching us here? Brotherly love? How important is it that we not even get angry with each other? Seriously. We so easily get angry with each other that it's become common place and we've minimalized it into being something of non-importance. To hear someone say that another person made them so angry- means nothing, we're not shocked by it at all, in fact we expect that people will anger each other. Controlling our anger has become something people have made jobs out of. Anger management is something a court will sentence a person to in an effort to rid them of destructive anger. We have doctors prescribing pills to relax people and keep them from allowing their natural tendency for anger to get the best of them. We teach our children that anger is punishable all the while they witness our anger in our every day lives- on the drive to the store, as we rant about being short changed, when we yell at them and get angry with them for some misbehavior. I've seen babies - yes, babies throwing tantrums, we all know about the 'terrible twos'. A two year old throwing a fit of anger. How about a one year old screaming and turning red in the face, little bodies shaking because they've been denied something they want?


Anger is another trait of our flesh- just as lust is, just as so many detrimental attributes we are born with. These flesh traits are not something we can ignore and just say oh well, that's just how it is. These flesh traits can and will dominate us if we simply let them, submitting to the flesh, embracing the natural. Many will say that because something is natural it has to be acceptable and fine. It's natural but we only allow that up to a point as an excuse for naturally bad behavior. People *born* that way, born with the natural tendency towards evil we've locked up and even put to death.


There is a line WE - in our world-wide civilized society - draw. We draw the lines and make them into our laws that must be followed and if not followed then there is a penalty for breaking those laws.


God's laws coincide a lot with our supposed man-made laws. We have laws against murder and God has a law against murder. We have laws against stealing and God has a law against stealing. And so on…


Yet God's laws start to differ from ours when God says- 'Thou shalt have no other God before me', 'Thou shalt not worship any graven image.', 'Thou shalt not take God's name in vain.' , 'Thou shalt not covet.' Do you see… God's laws differ and become what people consider religious laws- not civil, not government laws. This allows those who choose NOT to follow God's law freedom from having to obey them. While people in our society generally have NO problem keeping government law the majority do have a problem with keeping God's laws, even the most staunch civil law keepers in existence, the most upright citizens- those who have been rewarded for their honesty - even they will think nothing of breaking God's laws, thinking they don't matter at all.


People have tried to do away with God's laws, people have tried to change God's laws, but God's laws do not change and they can't be done away with- remember this…


Mat 5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
Mat 5:18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
Mat 5:19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.


When Jesus tells us this…


Mat 5:21 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:
Mat 5:22 But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.
Mat 5:23 Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee;
Mat 5:24 Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.


… we must listen!


Jesus isn't giving us a NEW law, Jesus is explaining an OLD law, the real meaning of the law, undistorted. The law of love, and that law is for the love of God and our fellow man. LOVE. MERCIFUL LOVE.


And merciful love demands we go beyond what has been deemed acceptable- to what is truly acceptable by our Lord and Savior.


We are not to be angry without cause- true cause- not trumped up causes of selfishness, not petulant causes. We are not to call others worthless, to God none are worthless, all are worth saving not all however choose to be saved. We should not call others foolish, stupid again because we are to be judged by God. Yes, we judge actions and the actions a person makes may be stupid and foolish, but that doesn't mean that they are stupid and foolish. Labeling another human being tends to make it so they are judged and to judge so that we look down upon another person is NOT our right- only God's. The worst of the worst can only truly be judged by our Lord who knows the end from the beginning, who knows the heart inside and out, who knows a person like no other can ever possibly know them. We might THINK we know people, especially those we live with and those we love, but we don't. We do NOT know the heart, we do not know the spirit of a man, be hardly know ourselves let alone any others.


We need to know that what we say and what we do has an affect on others and if we demean another human being it puts us in danger and we cannot be right with our Lord until we do all we can to make things right with that person we've demeaned.


People joke about the 12 Steps in Alcoholics Anonymous when it comes to the part about having to go to all those you've hurt and make amends, there have been numerous comedies that have included this step- that's not to say there haven't been drama's and based on true story movies as well with this included. The point I'm trying to make with mentioning the amendment step in the 12 steps of AA is that this program uses this principle of making amends with our fellowman and that's something very important for ALL mankind not just those in AA.


Our great teacher wants us to learn from Him that we are to be like Him in any way we can. No, we aren't perfect and any perfection we ever do hope for comes from Him. We need to love like Jesus loves and treat others as Jesus would treat them. We have to forget about what our society thinks because the world is not of Jesus, another is in control of this world and governs the majority of the people. With that knowledge we have to realize that the only source of truth comes from our Savior. Not that other people can't be honest and such, but Jesus was honest and truthful in ALL things, in ALL ways.


Our Savior would have us love and we need to learn to love, and love through Him.


By His grace!


Amen.

Except your righteousness shall exceed...

Mat 5:20 For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.


Remember this… Mat 7:29 For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.


We talked about this verse before and the fact that Jesus taught as one with authority and NOT as the scribes. We discovered that the scribes were proud men who wanted adoration, who wanted to be thought of as being very important. These were men that were more interested in their status than in their relationship with God. These men believed themselves to be the 'greatest' among other men and so is it any wonder that Jesus taught NOT as the scribes. Is it any wonder these words of Jesus come to us?


Mat 5:20 For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.


OUR righteousness has to exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.


We already know that it is our Savior's righteousness that saves us not our own- yet we read these words- except our righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees we will NOT enter the kingdom of heaven. This clearly states *our* righteousness. And you know what? From all we've learned so far OUR righteousness is CHRIST'S righteousness. We have to RELY on His righteousness and NO scribe, and NO Pharisee was willing to accept Christ's righteousness.


Those who are UNWILLING to accept Christ's righteousness will NOT be saved, they will NOT enter the kingdom of heaven, they CAN'T enter the kingdom of heaven because our Savior has reserved the kingdom of heaven for those who are HIS.


Our righteousness, if we accept Jesus as our Savior, is HIS righteousness. We cannot forget this! We have to live with this as our reality.


Psa 71:2 Deliver me in thy righteousness


We are delivered in GOD'S righteousness.


The scribes and Pharisees believed their own righteousness was a righteous as you could get, never believing their righteousness meant absolutely nothing. They believed they could save themselves because they were after all Scribes, the were the elite Pharisees of God's chosen people. Obviously they didn't learn the lesson their revered Moses had to learn. We are to take NO glory to ourselves, none. It's by the grace of God alone we live. It is God's power, not ours that saves us. It is God's power not ours that all good things come from. God's glory is everything, we have NO glory except in Him. We HAVE TO LEARN THIS! This is the lesson our Savior needs for us to understand. This is the lesson our great Teacher is bringing to us. In the flesh He is bringing to life all that we need to know all that God has desired we know, that we learn of Him. He is our all in all. Our very breath comes from Him, our lives come from Him, our eternal life will come from Him.


Mat 5:20 For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.


By the grace of our Savior we will have His righteousness as ours, the only righteousness that will deliver us.


Amen!

Monday, March 21, 2011

To obey- to love.

Mat 5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
Mat 5:18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
Mat 5:19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.


No one is to think that Jesus came to destroy the law or the prophets.
Obviously some would think that Jesus came to do away with the law and prophets. What would that mean? Let's think about it in relation to our laws for a moment. What would we think about someone who wanted to do away with our laws? Some people would be thrilled to have certain laws done away with. In fact our history here in America shows we've made many laws we've later done away with. However there are certain laws we have no one in their *right* mind would want to be done away with, right? Who wants to live in a lawless society? Who wants to live where no one is accountable for their actions? That's just it… we are accountable to our God. There was NO way at all whatsoever that Jesus could have come to destroy the law. Jesus could not take away our individual accountability, it's just not possible. And where there is accountability there is something you are accountable for. Jesus - one in agreement with the Father in all things- would NEVER do away with the commandments that God gave to His people etched in stone, put into the ark of God's covenant, sacred forever- the basis of all of them the Love of God and the Love of our Fellowman. Jesus did not come to destroy LOVE.


Jesus came to fulfill the law- He NEVER broke the law- He kept it fully.

Jesus was emphatic when He taught us- 'Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.' I say He was emphatic because He had to say- 'For verily…' Truly He says unto us. Truly. He prefaced His words - the words that could only be spoken in truth by emphasizing He was speaking truly. You don't get a more sure word than this.


The law would NOT be done away with, period.


There would be a price to pay if the law was broken, if the law was set aside, if the law was taught to be done away with.


Mat 5:19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.


Even what we perceive to be the *least* of the commandments should NOT be broken. I have to note here that we should look the commandments - or maybe you have looked at them- and now the question has to be asked. Which do you think is the least? Do you think murder is greater than stealing? Is that a foolish question to ask? Most would say it's obvious that stealing isn't as bad as murdering. If we are thinking about our lives here and now and not our eternal life it is true. When we look at the commandments with eternal life in view we have to understand that breaking the least of God's commandments costs us eternal life, and our breaking those commandments also cost Jesus His life.


Accountability. We are accountable and we will be held accountable, and ONLY if we have Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior standing there before God the Father saying our name when He is asked who among us have accepted His salvation, will we be saved. Jesus will have PAID for our sins, Jesus will ACCOUNT for us. Every commandment we've ever broken will be paid for by His innocent blood.


Every commandment from the first to the tenth is still in effect, still to be kept, still vital.


May we keep God's law and teach others to keep God's law as well. We desire to be His and He desires us to obey- to love.

Amen.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

You are the light of the world

Mat 5:14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.


A city on a hill. Have you ever seen one? I've seen mansions built on a hilltop and littering the hillside other homes. The mansion most assuredly could not be hidden.


Balestrino, Italy
Craco, Italy
Monteriggioni, Italy
Gangtok, India
Kirkuk, Iraq


These are just a few cities on a hill.


When you place something on a hill top it's in a position of prominence, it is MEANT to be seen. WE are meant to be seen. We are the light of the world. The ONLY way we are the light of the world is if the light in us is of Jesus, He is the light of the world.


Joh 8:12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.


Jesus has been teaching us this whole time that life is found in HIM and only in HIM. In Jesus we are blessed not in ourselves and not in any other. When Jesus tells us we are the light of the world He is talking to the same people He has taught about being blessed. They aren't the elite of the world, these are ordinary people who place their trust wholly in the Lord. We are ONLY blessed in the Lord there is no other way whatsoever to be blessed. We ARE the light of the world when we live in Jesus. Unfortunately there are many pretend lights, many false lights in our world too.


2Co 11:14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.


Jesus wants us to learn that we are the light of the world and because we are the light of the world we have a purpose as that light. We are to SHINE brightly before all men.


Mat 5:15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.
Mat 5:16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.


We are to let our light shine- we are to let our Jesus be seen in us!


Anything good that is in us we cannot lay claim to, Christ in us lives and any good *work* we do is done to glorify God the Father, NOT us!


Satan would have us desire to be given pats on the back for doing good. We grow up learning that we supposedly deserve rewards when we excel at things. We think we deserve recognition for jobs well done. You know what… it is good to be recognized for doing good but ONLY when we shine the light upon our Savior, the Savior in us that enables us to do the least bit of good to the greatest bit of good. All the recognition we can garner is wonderful as long as the true recognition goes to God.


Do people automatically glorify God our Father in heaven?


That's an easy answer isn't it? No, they don't.


You hear an occasionally- 'Thank God.' And sometimes you might hear a huge- 'Thank God!' from sports players or tv contest winners and even then it's good to hear because it's not common.


All glory is to go to God the Father! We are to Glorify our Father in Heaven. Glorifying the Father in heaven must be something we do all the time! Our light which is Jesus in us and visible to others must be such a reality that people KNOW we are Jesus'. Jesus is our light, our life! We must be recognized as belonging to Jesus. These are Jesus' words--


' Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. '


People say we are not to worry about 'good works' because we are saved by grace not works but they have to realize that a NATURAL result of being saved by grace is accepting Jesus into your life and Him becoming the light in you that will shine through in your good works. Is it any wonder why people will make fun of *Jesus freaks*, or make jokes about someone refraining from questionable behavior by calling them *saint* . People try to make us feel bad for being good. People try to make us feel as if we don't fit in quite right or that we are taking on airs, thinking we are better than they are. They want us to do things questionable to prove to them we aren't taking on airs. We have to be so incredibly careful because when we worry at all about fitting in we leave ourselves wide open for evil-spirit attacks. We have to worry about fitting in HEAVEN and NO where else. Our good works must be seen and in being seen glorify the Father in heaven. We have no clue whatsoever how our actions affect other peoples lives. We can't know that someone might see our good works and be led to the Lord, led to glorify the Father in heaven.


Jesus wants us to live for Him. Jesus wants to live in us.


Col 1:27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.


Jesus would have our lights shine!


By His grace may our light forever shine and shine and shine!


Amen.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Salt of the earth

Mat 5:13 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.


Lev 2:13 And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering: with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt.


Mar 9:50 Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another.


G217
ἅλας
halas
Thayer Definition:
1) salt with which food is seasoned and sacrifices are sprinkled
2) those kinds of saline matter used to fertilise arable land
3) salt is a symbol of lasting concord, because it protects food from putrefaction and preserves it unchanged. Accordingly, in the solemn ratification of compacts, the orientals were, and are to this day, accustomed to partake of salt together
4) wisdom and grace exhibited in speech


Those who are Christ's will speak of Christ, they will live Christ. When we are Christ's we are well salted- we are the SALT of the EARTH. It is Christ in us that makes us the salt of the earth. Without Christ we have NO salt, no savor, we are good for NOTHING but to be cast out and trodden under foot. We must be filled with Christ! Filled with all He has to teach us!


Col 1:26 Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:
Col 1:27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
Col 1:28 Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:


Christ in us!
Christ our hope of glory!
Christ our all in all!
Christ in our words!


Col 4:6 Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.


Our speech is to be always with grace- whose grace? Our Savior's! Seasoned with salt- seasoned by our Savior! That which makes us worthy is Christ and we cannot forget this.


Too often we do forget that we are Christ's. Seriously, we do. When we are in the midst of the world and worldly ways we find ourselves conforming to the world, to those around us that rather than stand out we blend in. People will justify it by saying that's just human nature. I wouldn't dispute that at all whatsoever. It is human nature but it's not Christ's nature. If we are living for Christ, if Christ is in us- our hope of glory- would that we would not care a whit about fitting in with the world.


Our Teacher would have us understand--


Mat 5:13 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.


We are salt and salt CAN lose its savor.

If I had a quarter teaspoon of salt to a huge pot of soup and then taste the soup will I taste salt? Probably not. Did the salt I put in that soup lose its savor? It did, didn't it? The dilution of that little bit of salt was too much for me to even get a miniscule taste of salt. So what would I have to do? Add more salt until I tasted the flavor as desire- the salt bringing that flavor out. So that little bit of salt didn't disappear completely but by itself it had lost all flavor. That little bit of salt contributed to the additional salt to eventually give me the flavor I wanted for my soup. That doesn't negate that salt can lose its savor, it really can.

If we who are close to Christ - living and breathing Him in our lives- are the salt of the earth than it stands to reason that those who do NOT have Christ in them are salt-free. The flesh nature can control a person and when that happens they are salt-free. When we who are salty with the spiritual nature allow our flesh nature to dilute us we begin to lose our saltiness. Our saltiness can be diluted by the world if we let it.

It needs to be pointed out that without salt in our body we would die. People have died when they've mistakenly diluted their bodies with too much water- they diluted all the salt, potassium, and natural electrolytes in their bodies to the point the heart muscle could no longer contract properly and yes, they died. Salt inside our bodies is necessary. The talk of salt being bad for you is true- TOO MUCH salt in your body isn't good- but having read up on it a bit it's the kind of salt we have today that has been altered drastically from what it was intended. Salt today isn't the salt of Jesus' day. We've chemically stripped natural salt of a lot of it's good minerals and such and turned it into pure sodium. Have you noticed on your grocery store shelves- Sea Salt? Have you noticed on potato chip bags- 'Made with sea salt.' ? The whole point being they are trying to use a HEALTHIER salt rather than the pure sodium they've given us for years.

Salt.

Jesus is vital to our eternal salvation, just as salt is vital to our physical bodies. We need Jesus vitally if we are to live. Satan will attempt to dilute the spiritual salt in us every chance He gets. We retain our salt with all its savor by keeping Christ in our lives first and foremost! We have to be careful of losing our salty savor through the dilutions of Satan. He'll throw more and more worldly, fleshy ways at us - bombarding us day after day with anything and everything He can to distract us from our Savior. We can't let him dilute us! By the grace of God we will not let Him steal us away- take our savor from us- in in the same vein - take our Savior from us.


In the love of our Lord!


Amen!