Abraham's Faith

Heb 11:8  By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.

By Faith.
Can you even imagine being told by someone to go somewhere but not exactly where.
Let's say you get a phone call and the person tells you to pack up and leave your home to start out for a new home, but they don't tell you where to go, just to start walking. You'd hang up right? You'd probably even laugh and think what a loony on the other end of the phone.

No, Abraham's situation wasn't the same at all. He didn't get any message from another human being, He received a message from GOD HIMSELF. Yet if Abraham did NOT believe GOD was who He said He was, if Abraham hadn't had complete FAITH in GOD, He would NOT have listened.

What amazing FAITH!

Gen 11:27  Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot.
Gen 11:28  And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees.
Gen 11:29  And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram's wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah.
Gen 11:30  But Sarai was barren; she had no child.
Gen 11:31  And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.

Gen 12:1  Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
Gen 12:2  And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
Gen 12:3  And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
Gen 12:4  So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.
Gen 12:5  And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.

Terah took Abram and Lot and other family members from UR of the Chaldees to the land of Canaan.

Obviously God didn't think Abram was done moving.

God didn't call Abram's father to lead Abram further. God called Abram himself. God SPOKE to Abram-

Get thee out of thy country.
Get thee away from thy family.
Get thee away from thy father's house.

Go to a land that I (GOD) will show you.
I will make you a great nation.
I will bless you.
I will make your name great.
You will be a blessing.

God talked with Abram.
Abram listened.

God talked.
Abram listened.

God told.
Abram obeyed.

Every part of Abram's life as he'd known it for a really long time was about to change drastically.  Drastically how? He didn't KNOW where He was going!

He had to go, but He wasn't given an exact location, He wasn't told how long it would take, He wasn't told it would be problem free.

Did Abram have a choice?

YES!

Abram was NOT forced.

Again, people love to say that if God spoke directly to them that they'd do whatever He said too. Yet God speaks to us all. His will has been revealed to us in His Word and we don't listen to even a smidgen of what He tells us.

And people will go on and counter saying that's not the same. But it is.

Abram didn't have God's Word to read, to study, to live.  God had to speak directly to those who were forming the Fathers of His chosen people, the Fathers of the ONE who would one day be a descendent from whom GOD would bring forth His ONLY SON. 

We cannot allow ourselves any pity for not being spoken to directly by God, we CAN'T! We cannot long for the voice of GOD to speak to us directly as if we'd suddenly obey Him because we hear the sound of His voice. It is such a miracle that we even have HIS written Word as we do and yet people don't believe that it's all that important, they treat it so flippantly, so lightly.

Abram heard God and obeyed.
We need to hear God and obey.
We need to OBEY.
So many read and read and read, they hear but they do NOT obey. They think obeying is old school, obeying was done away with in the Old Testament.  God did NOT give us the entire Bible without reason. It's His WORD and we must OBEY.

More tomorrow all by the GRACE of our LORD and SAVIOR!

From His love may we live!

ALL in HIS LOVE!

ALL IN HIM!

Noah's Faith

Heb 11:7  By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

By Faith.

Noah built an ark. We all know that story. There was even a modern day movie, a comedy, that dealt with the idea of God asking someone to do something that seems totally ludicrous, yet that person does it.  Noah was told by God things that would come to pass and Noah listened. He didn't have to listen. He wasn't force to listen to God, no one is. Situations can occur that seem to make it hit home that God would have a person do a certain thing and when that person resists God tries to impress upon that person just how much He really wants that thing done. Can the person still refuse? Yes. If God could force a person to do something He wouldn't need to tell them, and He certainly wouldn't have to do various things to try and impress upon a person that they should do that thing- He'd just force them. God doesn't work through forcing the will. God wants us to have FAITH in Him, a real abiding faith that goes way beyond merely believing there is a possibility of God.

Many do that don't they? They believe in the possibility of God but not the reality.
Many do believe in God but they believe in a false God, a God of their own making and NOT the God of our Bible. They'll come up with all sorts of things that show they are right to believe the way they do, but it'll still be a false God they are worshipping, all the while believing it to be the REAL God. 

No, you do NOT want to believe that is possible.  You want to believe that as long as a person is genuine in their belief they need nothing more. Yet you can have a lot of people who are genuine in their devil worshipping, does that mean they are acceptable to God? You can have a lot of people believing in God but if they use their belief to twist God into something acceptable to them, rather than their needing to be acceptable to God, then they will not be saved.

We don't like to hear that, we don't, I know I don't. I like to believe that God, who knows the heart, will understand the sincerity behind a person's belief and that's all that matters. But what matters is the truth. Remember the verse about 'devils believing and trembling'?  We have to believe in God and all HE is, ALL HIS TRUTH.

Noah's faith.
Noah was an heir of righteousness by faith.
His faith was accounted righteousness.

Rom 1:17  For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
Rom 1:18  For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
Rom 1:19  Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
Rom 1:20  For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
Rom 1:21  Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Rom 1:22  Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
Rom 1:23  And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man

People change the GLORY of the UNCORRUPTIBLE GOD into an image made like to CORRUPTIBLE MAN.

We are GUILTY of bringing God down to our level of comprehension. We are GUILTY of questioning GOD as if He is just a another human being in a slightly different form.  We don't want to believe there is a RIGHTEOUSNESS by FAITH, a REAL righteousness that comprehends that God is AGAINST ALL ungodliness, all unrighteousness. We want God to wink at the unrighteousness and ungodliness we commit because we have this delusion that we are that magnanimous and would wink at others unrighteousness and ungodliness. We ONLY wink at other people's unrighteousness and ungodliness because we want ours winked at! We want to believe that everything is acceptable to God and there really is no line between right and wrong, because we want to live in the wrong yet be accepted as righteous!

We are called to live by faith and that faith must be in GOD and ALL HE SAYS HE STANDS FOR! If God has a wrath against unrighteousness who are WE to say that He does not! We lie when we say that! We lie when we believe that God has to accept unrighteousness, He doesn't, HE WON'T! 

We cannot laugh off our sins! They are grievous! THEY KILLED GOD'S ONLY SON! So how dare we shrug them off! Did Jesus shrug off sin? NO! He preached among all sinners and did so to bring them the comprehension that they need to SIN NO MORE. He forgave them but did NOT accept their sin. He never said, I forgive you now make sure you ask for more forgiveness when you sin next. He NEVER SAID THAT  so why do we want to believe He did?!  The very awful danger of being accepting of unrighteousness, of being accepting of sin is undermining the truth that it is a deadly poisonous thing that has the potential to lead us so far astray we NEVER even want to seek forgiveness, true forgiveness and we sure don't believe we even have to, we want to believe God will forgive automatically without any thought on our part. It's a LIE!  Sin is EVIL, unrighteousness is EVIL and we are to SIN NO MORE, but if we do… if we take that deadly poison and inject ourselves with it we'd better fall to our knees before God and BEG His forgiveness and HEED CHRIST'S WORDS-  GO AND SIN NO MORE! 

STOP ACCEPTING SIN, ANY SIN, ALL SIN! STOP IT!

HATE ALL SIN! DESPISE ALL SIN before it's too late and you're caught in a deadly trap so many are going to fall into - changing the glory of the UNCORRUPTIBLE GOD, into an IMAGE like a CORRUPTIBLE MAN!

God is not corruptible like we are, God will never die, God will never condone evil, never condone sin, never condone unrighteousness and He sure does NOT want us to do that!

The FAITH of NOAH was counted as RIGHTEOUSNESS.

We need FAITH and the RIGHTEOUSNESS that comes by FAITH in our GOD.

We cannot hold TRUTH in unrighteousness. We cannot KNOW the truth and not believe in that TRUTH but corrupt it to suit our evil. We can't!

Noah's faith was a faith that we need to look upon as an example. Surrounded by a world filled with corrupt people, He held fast to GOD'S Righteousness. He didn't succumb to the crowd mentality that shouted for Him to be evil like them.  They didn't believe in God as Noah did.  They changed things to suit their own selves. They believed they'd be fine because they were in the majority.

Today we live in a world that has accepted so much evil and turned it into something that people call good, and those same people call those who still believe in the evil of evil, wrong, and they persecute them.

Our world is filled with the same kinds of people that existed in the days of Noah.  People barely know what God's righteousness really is.  They forget about Jesus' tirade in the temple against the money changers, preferring to just remember that Jesus ate with sinners- likening His doing that as His accepting sin. He NEVER accepted SIN, He loved SINNERS and offered them REDEMPTION FROM SIN, wanting them to SIN NO MORE.

Please LORD help us to have the FAITH of NOAH, Help us to have faith that will be counted for RIGHTEOUSNESS, FAITH IN OUR SAVIOR WHO IS OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS!  Keep us from EVIL LORD, keep us from ever accepting SIN as being good in any way. Help us to always recognize the sin in our lives and seek forgiveness, repenting, and by the grace of our LORD heeding HIS words to sin no more!

ALL THROUGH YOU!
ALL FAITH IN YOU!
ALL LOVE!

Enoch's Faith

Heb 11:5  By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.

BEFORE God took Enoch, Enoch had a testimony-- 

What is a testimony?

(Webster)
Affirmation; declaration.
Open attestation; profession.
Confirmation.

If you give a testimony you are giving the truth as you know it, right? If you go to court and give a testimony, you are giving the truth as you perceive it. My testimony, your testimony, their testimony, a testimony is something you believe to be true beyond a doubt. Enoch had a testimony, Enoch had a truth and that testimony, that truth was that he PLEASED GOD. The truth.

Heb 11:6  But without faith it is impossible to PLEASE him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Enoch had FAITH!

Enoch PLEASED GOD!

Enoch believed that GOD is, was, and will always be.
Enoch believed that GOD is a rewarder of those who DILIGENTLY seek HIM.

Enoch's testimony, Enoch's truth was that God was everything! Enoch had no doubt, no room for doubt at all. This TRUTH was what TRANSLATED Enoch from earth to heaven to be with God without seeing death.

This example is for US.

FAITH pleases God- believing please God.

If you've ever had anyone lose faith in you WRONGLY, you can only imagine on a tiny scale how God feels. If you've ever had anyone stop believing in you WRONGLY, again, you can only imagine on a tiny scale how God feels. It doesn't feel good at all, it feels awful. You feel so incredibly helpless and frustrated because you know you didn't do this thing that has brought about others losing faith in you, no longer believing you.  No matter what you say or do it's gone, that faith is gone. It's one thing to have people lose faith in you when you've actually done something to warrant that loss of faith, but when you've done absolutely NOTHING, you are truly helpless. You can hope all you want that someone will believe in you again, but you have no guarantee that will happen, but that hope is what you do have.

God did NOTHING to lose our faith in Him, not a single thing, yet we chose to lose faith in Him. We willingly gave up believing in Him and all He represents.  We lost the right to be with HIM, to know HIM as He wanted to be known. We gave up that right willingly when we decided WRONGLY that He wasn't being honest with us, that He was keeping something from us. We had NO proof, NO reason to believe that He would not give us all good things and yet we chose to believe lies rather than truth. And before you say YOU didn't do that, that Eve did, you are being awfully arrogant to believe you would have done differently. We are all a part of this and the weakness that Eve revealed is a weakness we all share.

We accused GOD falsely and then we turn around and HE still LOVES US! HE FORGIVES US! And what does He want in return?  He wants us to BELIEVE in HIM AGAIN! He wants us to have FAITH in HIM AGAIN!

And we can't go by sight, we can't go by feelings. We can't go by the things we are called to endure in this world. We have to go by the TRUTH, and the TRUTH is GOD IS ALL LOVE and all that entails.

PLEASE LORD HELP us to have this faith that we need! Enoch had FAITH that pleased YOU perfectly! Please LORD give us this faith! PLEASE in YOU, all in YOU always!

Acceptable Faith

Heb 11:4  By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.

Gen 4:3  And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD.
Gen 4:4  And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering:
Gen 4:5  But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.
Gen 4:6  And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?
Gen 4:7  If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.
Gen 4:8  And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.
Gen 4:9  And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper?
Gen 4:10  And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.

By FAITH Able offered God a more excellent sacrifice.
By FAITH.

Cain did NOT have the faith He needed. Cain did not believe and hope in GOD the way Abel did.
Why not? Cain spoke with God- isn't that proof enough of God and His love? Think about it, imagine yourself able to speak to God and hear His voice in reply. You'd think that'd be more than enough to give you all the faith you need, but Cain did not have the faith that Abel had.

God respected the offering Abel made because it was offered in FAITH.

Cain was upset because God did not respect his offering.

God told Cain that if he did well that he would be accepted, and if he didn't that sin would be right there ready for him. That doing well was FAITH, right? Because it was by FAITH that Abel's offering was more excellent than Cain's. Abel realized His need of God, His need of a Savior, Abel recognized God as His Creator and Redeemer. Abel BELIEVED in God in a way that Cain did not, not that He existed but His authority, His love, His ability to save, to bridge that separation that had been created by sin, that is was even necessary.

You know it's true that one person can have more faith in someone than another person. It's often the story that a wife will have faith in her husband even when her family has no faith in him. A parent will have faith in one child but maybe not so much in another, these are unfortunate facts.  Then again, some people are more trustworthy than others and more deserving of faith than others.  God is ALWAYS trustworthy, ALWAYS all deserving of our faith. When people do NOT have faith in God they are saying that God is undeserving, unworthy, in fact not truly God all loving at all.  Cain did not have FAITH as Abel had FAITH. Abel believed, Cain did not believe.

God told Cain if he did well-he would be accepted.

If Cain had faith - he would be accepted.

Cain believed that while he was supposed to give offerings to God they didn't have to be real sacrificial offerings. Cain didn't believe that HIS sins warranted any real atonement. Cain did not have the faith he needed, the belief in God and God's plan.  It was God's plan that man's sin needed to be recognized and a sacrifice needed to be made for that sin.  It was God's plan that in time a Messiah would come who would be the ultimate Sacrifice and it would be to that Messiah we would all turn to.  Until that Messiah came there would be a system set up for mankind to make sacrifices pointing towards that Ultimate Sacrifice.  The FAITH needed to comprehend that God is GOD, and our SIN separates us from Him is what we ALL NEED.

Cain didn't have that faith, not fully. Cain could have that faith, he could do what was required by FAITH, but he didn't. Cain chose NOT to have that faith, that belief in God.

We are faced with the SAME choice as Cain and Abel.  Real faith or no real faith, and it is only by a REAL FAITH that we will be accepted by GOD. Our sacrifices that we are called to make are different but no less real.

Psa_51:17  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

Rom 12:1  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service

Mar 12:33  And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.

1Pe 2:5  Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.


 Acceptable to God.
Abel's offering was acceptable to God.
Cain's offering was not acceptable to God.
We must be acceptable to God and we are, through FAITH, through BELIEF, through HOPE, all through our SAVIOR!

All by HIS GRACE, HIS AMAZING LOVE!

Please Lord help us, make us acceptable to YOU- through YOU.

In Your LOVE.

Faith- the Word of God Framed the Worlds

Faith.

From the beginning after sin entered the world and separated us from God FAITH became necessary for ALL mankind.  A belief in something HOPED FOR, and that HOPE is the EVIDENCE of THINGS NOT SEEN.

We weren't to be allowed to see God. We gave that up! We abandoned that! We lost that right, that privilege.  We separated ourselves from our God, from our Creator, our Maker, our Leader, we turned our back on Him and took matters into our own hands. We told God we know better than He knows what is best for us. WE DID THAT and we continue to do that! We do! You can lie to yourself if you want to, we do it all the time, but it's the truth. We have this idea of things and expect them to go accordingly and when they don't how easy is it for us to just get mad at God, believing that He should have done things differently, He should have allowed things to happen another way- OUR WAY. We turned our back on God in that garden when we believed that He was keeping something from us and we knew better- that things should be the way we thought, not the way He commanded. I say we and I mean we because everyone of us had the same potential to commit the same first sin. Eve wasn't someone unique, she was a human being given a free will just like you and I are.  Each time we choose to sin we are making the same choice- we are choosing to disobey God.

We were kept from seeing our CREATOR because we chose and continue to choose that path. Once we were set down that road there was no going back. We could NOT force God to reveal Himself to us. God chose to keep us alive and offer us redemption but FAITH would be required of us.

FAITH is required and faith is believing when we do NOT see, FAITH is having the HOPE that become the EVIDENCE of the thing we CANNOT see.  FAITH- we are NOT allow to see GOD. We are NOT allowed to see our SALVATION.  We are NOT being given TANGIBLE proof. 

Faith has been required of all of God's chosen from the first to the last.

None could please God without FAITH, without BELIEVING in all they could not see, without HOPING for GOD, that HOPE being the EVIDENCE of His existence, EVIDENCE of HIS LOVE!

Heb 11:1  Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Heb 11:2  For by it the elders obtained a good report.
Heb 11:3  Through FAITH we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

The worlds were FRAMED by the WORD of GOD.
THINGS which are SEEN were NOT MADE of things which do APPEAR.

The WORD of GOD created the WORLDS.

Does everyone believe this? No.

It takes FAITH to believe this. We are asked to believe without seeing, without touching, without detail explanations that involve all the whys and wherefores.  If you've ever been in love, or have loved someone you know that it's not completely explainable down to the last detail, yet you know it's real, it exists. There are a million things we cannot explain and yet we believe them because they are. God IS and many choose not to believe as they try to believe there are other ways of answering things, that scientists will open their eyes to everything just by their supposedly educated hypothesis and so on. Because their words are plentiful and their ideas grandiose they try to explain everything when in the end, the very end of it, ONLY FAITH will give the true answers.

More tomorrow all by the GRACE of God!

IN HIS LOVE!
IN HIS MERCY!
ALL BY HIS GRACE!

Provoke unto love - 2

Heb 10:24  And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works

Yes, I'm coming back to this because we generally don't think much about provoking someone to love and to good works.

The word provoke has taken on bad connotations. When we think of provoking we think about teasing, instigating, getting people to do things that aren't good. Provoking someone to react in a bad way. We generally just don't usually hear the term in this way-  'He provoked me to do good.'  We do however hear this. 'He encouraged me to do good.'   The word is provoke and that means to incite and again we do not think good things when we think about inciting.  We think about inciting to anger, inciting to riot, we don't think about inciting to love and good works. But we HAVE to think about it because we are told to consider one another and in that considering we are to PROVOKE to love and to good works.

Incite to do good. 
Incite to love.

We know what it means to provoke to do bad we're good at that aren't we? We know how to get on each others nerves easily. But we need to know how to easily provoke to good.

Ask yourself right now, when is the last time you provoked someone to do good, to love?

I know people who seem to do it all the time. Their lives are spent seeking to do good for others and encouraging others to do it as well.   These people are living closer to God than most because they are loving! And we are called to LOVE!

We are NOT called to be loved, but to GIVE LOVE.

We've gotten things so screwed up, and it's been screwed up for so long that we honestly believe we deserve love and all that we imagine comes with it. We deserve it and if we get it then maybe, just maybe we'll give it too. 

We believe we are owed love. That being loved by others is our RIGHT and if we aren't loved then something is wrong somewhere, with others maybe or more often than not we internalize not being loved and believe that the fault lies with us, that there is something wrong with us and that's why we aren't loved. We look for a superficial love, our society has made that superficial love all important, more important than the real love that God intended. The truth is we should LOVE FIRST and if love is returned than praise GOD, but if it's not we can't let that dictate our ability to LOVE.

We need to provoke each other to love.
I need others to provoke me to love, and I need to provoke others to love.  When we provoke and are provoked to love we are being surrounded by love, aren't we?

Yet I have no guarantees that anyone will provoke me to love especially this day and age. I'm not guaranteed to have anyone poking at me mentally, emotionally telling me daily to love, to love, to love, to love…..loveeeeeeeeeeeee!   And I do have someone a principality, a power in SATAN who will constantly do all he can to keep me from loving, or wanting to love in anyway, even in the smallest ways. Sometimes those small ways mean a lot and Satan hates all love because he knows where the REAL source of TRUE love is, and he hates God.

LOVE.

It's such a simple answer, but it means so incredibly much!

GOD'S LOVE.

True love, unlike the perverted love that we know so well.

We are never deprived of GOD'S love and yet how many people long for love- that hollow, poor excuse for love that Satan has introduced and that He withholds and destroys all the time?  People long for it, they ache for this love, they die for this love, they kill for this love, they do crazy things for this love, and yes, at times they do wonderful things for this love. That love can only destroy because it's NOT God's LOVE, the true love that we need so desperately, the love we truly should be longing for. We can find God's true love in His Word and know it's revealed perfectly through the love of His SON, the Sacrifice.

God please provoke us to love, YOUR LOVE.  Please Lord help us to provoke each other to YOUR true love and through that- good works.  Please LORD all in YOU, all THROUGH YOU!

In YOUR LOVE!
By YOUR GRACE!
YOUR MERCY!

Provoke unto love

Heb 10:24  And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:
Heb 10:25  Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

Provoke unto LOVE and GOOD WORKS.
EXHORTING one another and so much more as you see the DAY APPROACHING.

Provoke- incitement to good.
Exhort- implore, entreat, pray.

We are to incite one another to LOVE and to GOOD WORKS.
We are to get together and IMPLORE, ENTREAT, PRAY for one another more and more as we see the day of the coming of the LORD is approaching.

Do we do this?
Do we INCITE, do we PROVOKE one another to LOVE? To do GOOD?

Seriously. This is something we really need to think about. If we are NOT inciting one another to LOVE and do GOOD what exactly are we doing? If we aren't praying for one another, then how are we helping each other, encouraging each other? 

It's so easy to tear one another down. We read something like this--

2Ti 4:2  Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
2Ti 4:3  For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
2Ti 4:4  And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

These verses telling us to preach the word, to REPOVE, REBUKE, EXHORT with longsuffering and doctrine- because there will be a time when people will NOT want to hear sound doctrine but only want to hear things that make them feel good, they won't want truth but lies that comfort them.

So these two verses seem a bit contradictory-

Provoke to LOVE and GOOD WORKS.
REPROVE, REBUKE.

Can you provoke to love if you are reproving and rebuking?

At our Bible study this week we talked about this, about how maybe we should reprove one another when we see one another doing wrong, but it was quickly shut down and then decided we should only do that when it's something serious, not nitpick at each others many faults, faults we all seem to have.

We don't want ANYONE pointing out our faults especially when we are so aware of them ourselves. To put ourselves up for intense scrutiny means realizing others do see things in us that are not Godly. 

Someone might point out that I have a very selfish streak, and what would I say in reply? I know and it's my prayer that God help me overcome this awfulness in me. Would it hurt me to have others point out my faults, yes. But is that hurt a result of PRIDE in me? If it is a result of my pride then this too is an awful thing.

No, I'm not saying I want to sit at my Bible Study and point out the faults I see in those around me, I don't and I won't! Why? Because they are aware of their own faults. And I do agree that if there was something major that I saw and truly believed that I should reprove. But … and it is a but… it gets so confusing because maybe it is that selfishness in me that needs more work on. And by work I mean maybe I do need it pointed out and in having it pointed out have others pray for me. We don't rebuke and reprove for no reason, but rather to HELP.

We are to PRAY for each other! We are not to simply reprove, rebuke, and so on without any LOVE in us for those we are confronting.  Without LOVE it's all wrong!

We really do need to PROVOKE to LOVE and GOOD WORKS and we certainly are not doing that if we spend a lot of time pointing our fingers  at each others faults.  Maybe people do not want to hear about their faults and that's their right, and we need to pray for that also. We need to pray to accept any reproof that comes our way and let that reproof work in us as God would have it work.

First and foremost LOVE. LOVE! I can't scream it here on paper as much as I want to, I could put a million exclamation points after it and it still wouldn't be enough.

We need to love and provoke others to love.

We need to consider HOW we can provoke others to love.  Yes, maybe we are to reprove and rebuke but we have to remember that reproving and rebuking without love at it's core means absolutely NOTHING, and is wrong, very, very wrong.

More tomorrow all by the GRACE and WILL of our GOD!

In HIS LOVE!