Neither poverty, nor riches

Lest I be full, Lest I be poor.

Pro 30:7  Two things have I required of thee; deny me them not before I die:

Pro 30:8  Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me:

Pro 30:9  Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.

Please, Lord, give me neither poverty nor riches.

Truth! And such a blessing! Neither rich nor poor.  There are dangers in each. To be rich is to want for nothing and feel no need of the LORD. To be poor is to succumb to stealing and taking God's name in vain as if He doesn't exist, as if His laws, His commandments of love mean nothing.

Just as we talked about yesterday a bit- we are in danger when we give in to the acceptable form of lying.  On the same vein as that, we are in danger when we give into the belief 'God will understand if I steal, He knows I'm hungry and would want me to steal.'    A lie.

Yes, we tell ourselves these things so we don't have face the reality of our failings, our DELIBERATE failings!  Our sins that are NOT of ignorance but deliberate intentional sinning we try to tell our conscience is acceptable. We throw up examples from the Bible of the men and women of God sinning in acceptable ways, yet truthfully we don't know how acceptable it was because we don't know the repentance of any of their hearts that alone is between them and God.

We know that God would not have us in pain, yet many of God's chosen have suffered extreme pain all in order NOT to sin. They did NOT renounce God so they could live.  Yet we tell ourselves it's okay to do so because God knows the truth that the renunciation is false, and our heart is God's.   Is it okay? Honestly, it is probably decided on an individual basis, because our God is NOT a God who lacks compassion. As much as He is a consuming fire, He is also the God who sent His Son, He is the God who sent the Holy Spirit to us and the Holy Spirit speaks for us because we cannot speak as we need to before God. 

This is TRUTH.

We must place all our hope in Christ our Savior to save us from all we need saving from.

Please, Lord, again we ask for neither poverty nor riches.

Feed us Lord, feed us with food convenient for us- in all things.  Not too much, not too little, but that which keeps us in YOU in all ways! Spiritually, physically, in every way there is, feed us with food convenient for us.

All by Your grace, Your mercy, Your forgiveness, Your love, Your power, Your glory, Your honor,  Your righteousness!

Amen.

Remove from me lies

Pro 30:7  Two things have I required of thee; deny me them not before I die:

Pro 30:8  Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me:

Pro 30:9  Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.

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Remove from me lies.

Lies.

We live lies all the time. Lies roll off our lips and out of our mouth before we even know what we're doing sometimes. Lying has become an acceptable form of life. We think nothing of the 'white lies', the 'lies to spare feelings', the lies  we deem acceptable.  Yet, a lie is a lie, isn't it?

We've had tv shows, movies etc all about lying and the glorifying of doing so.  We've seen the fictional near ruin of a man unable to lie forced to realize just how much his life was spent lying.   When you try NOT to lie, really not to lie at all you realize just how much you do lie.

Two things… remove far from me vanity and LIES.

Remove from me lies.

We need God to remove lies from us, we really do.

This flesh nature of ours is a wicked thing, very wicked thing.  The flesh will consume us with all its lust if we do NOT give our hearts to God. If we do not realize how hopeless we are without Him.

Without God we have NO HOPE.  All the hope we tell ourselves that we have, all the hope we LIE to ourselves and say we have on our own without God is the GREATEST LIE we can ever tell.  There is ONLY hope in God.  We can't trust even ourselves for hope, only GOD.

Please, Father, please remove from us lies! We would NOT lie!  Please, Lord, please, save us from ourselves and the flesh nature within us that would have us follow evil, not good.

Bless us, keep us, help us, love us, save us!

All in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord.

All is vanity

Pro 30:7  Two things have I required of thee; deny me them not before I die:

Pro 30:8  Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me:

Pro 30:9  Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.

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Vanity-

Psa_94:11  The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.

Psa_119:37  Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way.

Ecc_1:2  Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.

Ecc_1:14  I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.

Ecc_12:8  Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity.

Rom_8:20  For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope

Eph_4:17  This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind

2Pe_2:18  For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.

1.excessive pride in one's appearance, qualities, abilities, achievements,etc.; character or quality of being vain; conceit:

Failure to be elected was a great blow to his vanity.

2.

an instance or display of this quality or feeling.

3.

something about which one is vain.

4.

lack of real value; hollowness; worthlessness:

the vanity of a selfish life.

5.

something worthless, trivial, or pointless.

6.

vanity case.

Pasted from <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/vanity>

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Remove far from me- vanity.  This is our prayer. Vanity is an insidious part of our beings. We can't seem to help the vanity within us, the Bible says as much. Vanity of vanities ALL IS VANITY.   So much of what we are is vanity, isn't it?  Our WORTH is JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD.   Therefore our self worth is vanity.  The farthest we can ever be removed from vanity is the closest we move to our Savior.

Please Lord be our worth- remove far from me, vanity.

By Your mercy, Your love, Your grace, always- AMEN!

Those who are God's and those who aren't

Psa 6:6  I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears.

The pangs of living.

We started to talk yesterday about these pangs of living.  There are many of them. Who among us hasn't suffered them?  No one  has a perfect life, not one of us. The richest or the poorest each of us suffer. We might think that a rich man has less suffering, and it's true. They have less suffering in things of material comfort. But their money cannot give them emotional, mental, or spiritual comfort. Many of us, in fact most of us would say we don't care we'd rather have emotional, mental and spiritual discomfort as long as we can do it living richly. Why do we say that? We say that because we are in our own emotional, mental, and spiritual discomfort and we are poor, or close to it and it seems as if we have the worse of both worlds, but we don't know if that's true do we? We can't, not really. Sure, some people may have been rich and known pain as a rich person and then become poor and know it that way and prefer the riches. This is most likely true in some instances, but we know for a fact our Savior talks of being rich in material ways as not being good or desirable, that in fact it makes it harder to get to heaven being rich.

Mat_19:24  And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

These pangs of living exist for EVERYONE. No one is exempt.  We might be shocked to realize that the poorness of another worse off than we are can be much more rich in their emotional, mental, and spiritual lives and feel way less of the pangs of living than we feel.

While we whine and cry over our poorness we might be ignoring things so much more important.  In fact there is a very good chance all our pangs of living are geared to overwhelm us, to bring us to despair, yet we know this for truth--

Rom_8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Yet the opposite is true as well, right? 

All things work together for bad to them that do not love God.

We know that the pangs of life affect us all - those who are God's and those who aren't. 

Sometimes though it seems as though those who are 'bad' and do not love God have an easier life, right?  That's because Satan will often tempt us with the richness of godlessness.  That richness Satan tempted Christ with, but Christ would have none of it and we too should have none of it because it's a lie meant to steal eternity from us for a heartbeat of a life with sinful pleasure.

More tomorrow by the grace of our LORD and SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD FOREVER AND EVER, AMEN!

Pangs of living

We are no strangers to anguish, are we?  Sure, there are people who know tragedy, heartache, deprivation,  any manner of hardship more so than I have, or do. I can sit here and think of the tragedies taking place throughout the world I live in and know I have it very, very good. Yet, in my own sphere of existence I know the hardships of life. I know mental anguish, emotional trauma, and some physical pain- though by the grace of God, not much of that.  In fact I've been blessed in many ways. 

We read in the Bible about men and women of God who have it really great, and yet they suffer in their own ways as well. They know the hardships of living, of being a human being.

David was given riches, royalty, friendship, love and still he felt the pangs of living.

We all have them, these pangs of living.

Rom 7:24  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

Paul had them.

You just don't say words like those unless you are experiencing the pangs of living.

Have you ever felt the depths of self-loathing like Paul? Have you ever considered yourself a wretched person?

Psa 38:8  I am feeble and sore broken: I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart.

Psa 119:143  Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me

Men of God felt this way!  Men of God felt wretched, feeble, broken, disquietness in their hearts, troubled, filled with anguish.  Men favored by God were dealing with the pangs of living. 

More tomorrow by the grace of God.  More on the pangs of living and how we and the men of God in the Bible deal with such pangs.  The pangs will NOT cease, not ever, but how we live with the pangs can make our lives bearable.

All by the grace and mercy of our LORD and SAVIOR, Jesus Christ!

We are wretched men..

Rom 7:24  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?


Rom 8:26  Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.


Psa 6:6  I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears.


Psa 38:8  I am feeble and sore broken: I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart.
Psa 38:9  Lord, all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee.
Psa 38:10  My heart panteth, my strength faileth me: as for the light of mine eyes, it also is gone from me.


Psa 119:81  CAPH. My soul fainteth for thy salvation: but I hope in thy word.
Psa 119:82  Mine eyes fail for thy word, saying, When wilt thou comfort me?
Psa 119:83  For I am become like a bottle in the smoke; yet do I not forget thy statutes.


Psa 119:143  Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me: yet thy commandments are my delights.
Psa 119:144  The righteousness of thy testimonies is everlasting: give me understanding, and I shall live.
Psa 119:145  KOPH. I cried with my whole heart; hear me, O LORD: I will keep thy statutes.


Eze 9:4  And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.


2Co 12:7  And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.
2Co 12:8  For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.
2Co 12:9  And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.


2Co 1:8  For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life:
2Co 1:9  But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:
2Co 1:10  Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us;


Gal 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Gal 2:21  I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.


Gal 5:24  And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.


Gal 6:14  But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.


Col 3:9  Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;
Col 3:10  And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:


Rom 6:22  But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.


Rom 8:4  That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.


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Tomorrow….   A more in-depth study, tonight, these verses from the word of our LORD.


All grace, all power, all glory, all love in HIM, ALWAYS.

'Careful and troubled about many things' - (Jesus' words)

Does God have power?

Silly question? Not really. Do you believe God has power?

We live in our own self contain existences, despairing of ever being truly God's because we know the evil in our own hearts, the unrighteous desires to allow ourselves to be unloving of others and God. Okay, I say we, but what I really mean is 'I' ,  I live in my own self contain existence. I despair of truly being God's, because I know constantly the evil (and by evil I mean unloving, uncharitable, selfish, self serving) that lives in me and manifests itself daily in my thoughts. The unrighteous desires such as not wanting to be kind, but rather wanting to rail and rant against the injustice of things asked of me.  Yes, I believe I have the "Mary" Syndrome.

What's the "Mary" Syndrome? I'm glad you asked.  The Mary Syndrome is the desire to be so perfect in word in deed, in heart and spirit that I could be chosen to be used by God in some way. The Mary Syndrome is knowing there HAVE existed women of God, that God has used according to His purpose.  There are Martha's- who complain (like me) and are rebuked.

Luk 10:38  Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.

Luk 10:39  And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word.

Luk 10:40  But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.

Luk 10:41  And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:

Luk 10:42  But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.

Careful and troubled about many things- that's ME! 

And yet Mary who made the decision NOT to serve or help her sister chose better. Should Martha have not served them, but sat down and listened as Mary did?  It was Martha's instinctive desire to serve those guests in her house- but why? Was it custom, if so how could Jesus say that Mary was doing the 'good part'?  What would have happened if Martha hadn't served them, would they have been hungry, would they have chided her for being a bad hostess? 

Martha was doing what SHE thought was required of her as a good woman, she was thinking of the needs of others and playing her part in taking care of them, but STILL Jesus told her that she didn't choose the 'good part' a part that can't be taken from her. So in essence, Martha chose to serve and in doing so was rushing about here and there in constant motion to fulfil the wants of those there in her house and if you think about it, once those people in her house (including Jesus) were gone, she'd be left with what? The knowledge she'd cared for them, and perhaps a feeling of SELF righteousness in doing her duty towards them, but she would NOT be left with the very important words of Christ. Was serving the others at the expense of Christ's words really a self-serving not a self-less serving?

We do need to think… well I need to think about these things. 

The Mary Syndrome has me wanting to be something I am not by my own personal nature. The Mary Syndrome has be wishing I were naturally kind and loving and had only loving and kind thoughts about others with a desire to love my neighbor and NOT myself. The Mary Syndrome has me wanting to be RIGHT with God and what is wrong with that? Is it perhaps a SELFISH syndrome? That desire to be someone else believing that someone else had it different, that perhaps they were not tempted like I was (am), that they are not sinners like I definitely am and they definitely were? I want to be Christ's. I want to be among the righteous not the sinners. I want to do good, not evil. I want NOT to be the awful person that I know I am. I read God's word and it reveals how far I am from being the person who loves their neighbor and God- from my own nature. 

My nature WARS violently against the Spirit.  My flesh does NOT want to be Spiritual.  And HOW do I separate my flesh nature from my Spirit nature and know which one is the one that is real? By that I mean, how do I know that it's not a bad spirit in me that thing I call the flesh nature?  Is it easier perhaps to call the flesh an evil spirit in us? (Not literally in this discussion, though… )  When my natural inclinations are towards things of the flesh and I have to truly push and force, and cajole the Spirit nature to overrule the flesh, what does that mean?

I'll tell you what it means, it means I'm AT WAR! I'm WARRING.  I'm fighting the good fight! I'm warring against the flesh and knowing with my intelligence (God given) that good is better than evil, spirit is better than flesh.  So while my nature has me embroiled in this WAR (not some tiny little spat or short-lived fight) I must LOGICALLY, intelligently KNOW beyond a doubt right from wrong and no matter how enticing that wrong (and boy can they be incredibly enticing) that wrong is something I should not indulge in and right is something I should indulge in and encourage.

What makes this seem like an impossible feat? The reality that I can war all I want and NEVER prevail if I'm counting on me, myself, and I to win this war.  I will NEVER win this war on my own, never! I can never win a single victory over the flesh on my own (unless it is  something that in reality is a self-serving victory and therefore negated as being a win-Satan loves these little tricks of his.)   I have to get it through my thick, VERY thick skull and very hardened heart, that  I CANNOT do this, I CANNOT change myself, but there is ONE who DIED to be able to do all for me that I cannot do.

This has to be REAL for me.  This has to be TRUTH in my heart that I will NEVER be a naturally good person.  I will never be naturally righteous. Those good thoughts I have are not proof I'm becoming righteous.  I must get it through my thick skull that I will NEVER be righteous but Christ will be righteous for me.  When the Bible talks about us being righteous it is us choosing Christ and allowing Christ in us so that we are able to choose right over wrong.

God has POWER.  God has the ability to CLEAN MY HEART. God has the ability to make me WHITER THAN SNOW. 

Paul warred and I relate to the war he waged.  'Oh wretched man that I am.' His words!  And I can shout the same thing for me. 'Oh wretched woman that I am!'   Who is going to save me from my wretchedness? Who is going to save me from my unrighteousness? Who is going to understand that my natural man is warring against my spiritual man? 

ONLY CHRIST JESUS MY LORD and SAVIOR!

I thank GOD that He can save me from my wicked self!

IF there is supposed to be some miraculous change in my nature where I suddenly no longer behave unrighteous in all things, that I naturally think all good and righteous thoughts then GOD will perform that miracle. I have to believe that He will do all for me that I simply cannot do try as I might. No I won't stop chiding myself over the various uncharitable attitudes that come from me, I have to because I'm in this war.  I must recognize constantly the sin in me so I may seek true repentance, a true desire to be Christ's and not my own. 

Christ has the power! Please Savior, save me from my self!

I am helpless to save myself. I am helpless to be that person I know I should be doing the things I know I should (or should not) do.  With my MIND I WILL be that person! With my mind I will trust in my Savior who has the power to change all that needs to be changed in me.  He can do this through HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS!

So while I know my uncharitable thoughts and feelings are wrong and NOT of God, and I feel helpless to change those thoughts and feelings, I must rely upon my MIND to tell me they are wrong and undesirable.  I must ask for forgiveness for that NATURAL part of me, that part that can claim 'I am what I am like it or leave it', that awful part of me that is the natural self that says such things must be silenced by God. I know the right from wrong, the light that has been given to me and I must NEVER try to call wrong right, or right wrong.  I must CONFESS my faults and seek forgiveness for them, never excuse them by the grace of God!

Please FATHER in heaven, PLEASE save me from myself. Take me, all of me and use Your power to let me belong to You and Your only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Let me be YOURS, please, Lord, let me be YOURS! 

Amen.