Psa 112:7 He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD.
We are afraid aren't we?
We live in fear.
Are you shaking your head saying , no, you don't live in fear? That's great then, really great. Generally speaking we live with at least a bit of fear in our lives. We fear the future. We fear the present, and sometimes we even fear our pasts. What makes us so fearful? Life in general doesn't it? Seriously. So we pump ourselves full of drugs that are supposed to make us less anxious, and we smile because that drug has masked our fears, our worries, our anxieties. Isn't anxiety a fear? Think about it. If you're anxious over something you're worried about it and worry is what? It's fearing something or other. The root of ALL these pretty words we like to use - anxiousness, worry, anxiety, upset, stress- is FEAR. We pretty up the FEAR word because we don't like to be called cowards and people that are fearful are thought of as weak, as cowards and heaven forbid we appear weak to ourselves or others. We're strong! We're fine! We're just wonderful aside from a little stress, aside from a bit of worry, aside from a touch of anxiety. Do you see it? Brush away the fancy words and expose the bottom layer, the source, the root of all that masking and you are left with fear.
Fear. We need to admit we are fear, that we are afraid, that life and all it's complexities has us frightened.
This verse in Psalms- 'He shall NOT be afraid of evil tidings' - is telling us what?
What's an evil tiding? It sound foreboding doesn't it. An evil tiding coming out of the west… sounds mystic and creepy and scary. It sounds like ancient mumbo jumbo doesn't it?? But think about it, an evil tiding is nothing more than a sense of fear over the future. An evil tiding- a report, a rumor of something bad to come. And being AFRAID of a thought of something bad to come is worrying and we worry so much. Most of what we worry about is future tense. We rarely worry over the past, unless it's in connection with our future. We might worry over something that happened in the past, but we do so thinking about how it affects us now, or may affect us later. We can feel sadness over a past event without worrying about it, but to actually worry about it we bring it into our future.
He shall NOT be afraid of evil tidings. Why? Seriously. If we suspect evil in our future why shouldn't we be afraid? We are taught to worry. Those who don't worry are considered strange. We say it is NORMAL to worry, normal to be fearful. We tell ourselves this because otherwise we will be revealed to be very, very fearful people and who likes the idea of being surrounded by a bunch of people living in fear. We'd much rather walk about nodding and smiling, understanding that our fears are shared and normal, because we call them anxiety and hey, who DOESN'T have anxiety? I'm guilty myself of doing this. I've told my children it's normal to feel anxious, it's normal to worry, it's normal to feel out of sorts. Why have I told them this? Because when we think of something as being normal it makes it OKAY to feel that way. It makes us feel less odd, less out of sorts. To say it's normal to be scared, to be fearful, somehow just makes it seem less scary. If it's normal then hey, we can't help but feel this way and well, if it's all normal then why the heck not go on those normal medicines people are taking in vast quantities to sedate those normal feelings. They're NOT NORMAL! They are prevalent, so prevalent we've called them the norm, but sin is prevalent too and that is called the norm also! Does calling something normal make it good? Does it make it normal? We mask things in words that make them acceptable. Years ago someone had the vapors, or were prone to having the vapors. Years ago people were under the weather and years ago people either learned to cope or were shipped off to atrocious facilities that would commit atrocious treatments upon them to try and cure them of their abnormalities. We are much better off today because we call things normal they would have called strange and unacceptable years ago. We are civilized now and if we can take a pill or four to calm our strangeness then hey, we are normal again.
Am I against pills?! NO! I took pills that I believe helped save my life back when I was dealing with horrible post partum depression. I'm not against pills at all. I'm against pretending that we aren't FEARFUL people, I'm against pretending that under the guise of stress we claim we are NOT fearful. I'm against calling things NORMAL- things that clearly aren't normal. Do you remember a few years ago the actor Tom Cruise went on a talk show and talked down about Brooke Shields because she took medication for her post partum, he said she should have been able to handle it without drugs. There are a BUNCH of people that like to talk like that- saying what other people should be able to handle and whatnot and I'm NOT going to be one of those people. All of you who are taking any drugs to help you cope with life don't just stop because you think it's not Godly. God has provided the technology to produce drugs and our 6000 year old sin bodies are so degraded from the original bodies mankind was giving that we can't just arbitrarily say stop all drugs and let God provide or die. Yes, use nature's medicines, use diet, use foods, herbs and such as medicines all you can which is best, but DO NOT presume to believe that all medicine is bad and that EVERYONE should just stop all their medicines and deal with it. Even our food is contaminated, our soil is contaminated every time it rains and the water that has been absorbed from contaminated lakes pours down upon that soil. We can't ESCAPE the results of sin poisoning our world in many, many ways. We can do the best we can in the ways we can and we can pray, we can TRUST that in our endeavors to survive, God guides us and we follow His guidance.
Psa 112:7 He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD.
We are fearful. We have to admit to this and understand that as the every day fears fill our lives we need to FIX our hearts upon the LORD, trusting in the LORD. We have to make trusting the LORD a priority. We have to make having faith and believing in the LORD paramount in our lives. We have to allow the spiritual man in us to prevail because the carnal man in us will have us cowering and beaten down by our fears until we believe we can't live without everything surrounding us. The carnal man in us would have us give up GOD rather than give up our lives and things in our lives. The carnal man that has Satan for his god will stop at nothing to destroy all trust in God.
Have you ever had your heart fixed on something? Your mind set on something? Have you ever been headstrong towards something? You know what it means to set your sights on something and NOT stop until you get that something. We need to FIX our hearts on the LORD. This is something we need to DO. This is an action we need to accomplish. Fixing our hearts on the Lord, trusting in the Lord isn't something that come automatic to us. We have to CHOOSE the Lord.
We have to agree that the world we live in has many fears, many worries, many stressors and if the devil has his way we will be taken over by those fears, those worries, those stressors, we will be consumed by them. The evil tidings in our lives will scare us to eternal death if we don't fix our hearts on the Lord, if we don't trust in the LORD.
Wouldn't it be great to say- I am NOT afraid of any evil that is coming my way because my heart is fixed, I am trusting in the LORD?
Trusting in the LORD means when all around us life is falling apart into so many heart breaking pieces we will believe in God and the promises He's given to us for a better world, a perfect world in eternity. Evil tidings will continue to come to each and every one of us, we need to choose NOT to be afraid- NOT to be consumed by the fear so that we stop believing in the LORD. The devil will stop at nothing to bring us to that place of unbelief, that place where trust is the LORD is gone. The devil will tell us that we can handle life on our own, or should be able to do so. The devil will also tell us we can't handle life on our own and we should end it. The devil will use EVERY contrivance he can, he will be contradictory, he will do anything and everything to claim us- yes, you are than important to Him. God sent His Son to die for us! To save us! We are that important to God!
Psa 112:7 He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD.
Dear Lord! Please help us as we live in this fearful world, as we live in an age where fear is masked into being something acceptable. Help us sweet LORD to fix our hearts upon you, help us to TRUST in YOU and nothing else- not even ourselves, especially not ourselves, but wholly in YOU and Your love, Your righteousness, Your forgiveness! You did for us what we could NEVER do for ourselves and we must never forget that, Lord, never! As evil tiding prevail and multiply in our lives let us not be fearful of them but rather trusting in YOU no matter what. In our darkest days, in our darkest hours please Lord help our unbelief, protect us!
In our Savior's love and ALL that entails!
Amen!
Monday, November 15, 2010
Sunday, November 14, 2010
All you can eat buffet- carnal or spiritual feasting
Heb 12:14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord
Pursue peace, rest, quietness with all.
Pursue holiness, sanctification, purification with all.
Do we do this? Do we seek to have peace with all? Do we seek to have holiness with all?
Generally we do seek a peaceful existence with others. Not many look for angst. Angst just seems to come about though doesn't it. A simple tone of voice can change a peaceful discussion into angst. A touch of condescension, or even perceived condescension can ignite anger, can create upset. Isn't it true that the people who know us best know exactly how to upset us? And isn't it true that even if the people we know best aren't looking to upset us we feel free to take out our irritations on them? How likely are you to have an upset with someone you work with as opposed to having an upset with someone you live with? It'd be great if there wasn't this freedom of familiarity that allowed us to abuse each other and get away with it, because that's what it is, right?
We are to follow peace with all, not just with some. It is just as important to follow peace with our loved ones, our families, our friends, as it is with strangers. Some might say a true measure of a person can be found behind the closed front doors, the shut windows, in the private lives a person leads. How many private lives have been exposed where supposedly upright people turn out to be vile? How much shame lies behind closed doors? You know what? There are NO closed doors before God, not a single one. People imagine they're alone, or that they're in the privacy of their choosing that keeps out the public, but in truth we are never alone, never in private. Our most indecent secret acts are known to God.
We are to follow peace with ALL. And we are to follow peace always with all, not just at our choosing. Even through the irritating, even through the ridicule cloaked in harmless teasing, even during the laughter made at our expense, even when we are exposed to blatant injustices and nothing seems fair at all- we are to pursue peace! Peace. Quietness. Rest.
We read all about the dangers of stress these days. Stress causes heart attacks. Stress causes anxiety. Stress causes this illness and that illness. Stress leads to suicide. Stress causes abuse. Stress lead to a nervous breakdown. STRESS! Stress is the opposite of peace.
If we truly embrace peace with all - allowing the irritations, allowing their mental abuse, allowing the ridicule, the teasing, the outright injustices directed at us by others to have none affect other than our promoting peace we won't have stress will we? Ahh but we'd have some saying that bottling up our stress is just as bad and if we don't get it all out with these angst encounters then we'll still get sick from internalizing it all. But we aren't told to bottle up the anger, we are told to forgive.
Choosing to forgive rather than break the peace that could be had by not forgiving is God's way. We can't have peace by bottling up our anger and hurt, choosing to remain silent and sullen, that's NOT peace, that's not quietness, that's not rest. We all know the difference between peace and upset and unspoken upset is still upset- not keeping the peace. Forgiveness bring true peace. Hearing the same old provocations taunting us to upset in the past needs to initiate the call for forgiveness from us rather than the call to angst. The provocations will NOT stop. If they seem to lessen in one point they'll increase in another, we can't forget we live in Satan's world and He will use every opportunity he can to upset us. Satan will change tactics easily so if we wonder why life seems to become harder and harder as we try to grow closer to Christ, well, that's why.
Follow peace with all.
Follow holiness with all.
If we do NOT follow peace with all, if we do NOT follow holiness with all, we will NOT see the Lord.
Harsh words? Harsh truths? We need to grow in Christ constantly, ever growing in grace.
2Pe 3:18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.
As rational human beings we really need to use our rational sides so much more. We need to use our spiritual side so much more than we do. Make no mistake it'll be a warfare, an internal warfare. We will react in our flesh nature instinctively but the closer we grow to Christ, the more we study Christ, the more we immerse ourselves in the Word of God, the more we make Christ our all in all the less likely we'll be to react on instinct to the flesh. Imagine how marvelous it would be to act on instinct to the spirit!
Have you ever notice how after you've read something that has inspired you, you react to it for a few hours, a few days even and sometimes a week or two after, but inevitably it seems to wears off and you are back to being what you'd classify as your "normal" self, your "old familiar" self? Sometimes people have a religious experience like that- where they are high on the inspiration of new birth yet when that high wears off- as inevitably it seems to do- and it comes down to applying your new Christian birth, your new Christian life to your every day existence- you realize that while YOU might have been changed the world around you has remained the same. The light that has filled you can't seem to penetrate your everyday life and those around you. Oh, you might see flickers of it in various things, but the joy of new birth in you isn't celebrated by the old unregenerate world around you and often that effect wears you down until your new birth grows old and sometimes the old self you've put off starts to reemerge.
The reemergence of the old self can be shocking to many because many that have gone through the exhilaration of being newly born into Christ believe that it's impossible for it to happen. Some are frightened when bits of the old self start to reemerge and they instantly begin to doubt their spiritual regeneration. What has to be realized is being born again in the spirit awakens a spiritual side in you but it does NOT take you out of your flesh. Your flesh nature does not disappear as your spiritual nature appears. Once your spiritual self is awakened it has to be constantly fed but too many starve their spiritual nature because the world doesn't offer a spiritual all you can eat buffet. The world offers an all you can eat carnal buffet. We have to seek the spiritual that isn't surrounding us. We have to hunt for our spiritual food and make an effort to seek it and then consume it, unlike the carnal feast that awaits us at every turn practically shoving itself down our throats. We have to feast on the spiritual if we want to become spiritual make no mistake about it. If we want to follow peace and holiness with all we have to go to the source of peace and holiness first and feast spiritually on the source only then will we be able to obey and see the Lord.
If you notice in yourself a behavior that is contrary to peace and holiness as soon as you recognize it - ask for forgiveness, don't wait and ask later, do it immediately and seek the source of spiritual food you need to fill you- even if you're not close to a Bible you can feed on the spiritual food of your memory and the word of God you've feasted on in the past. Jesus truly is the bread of life, a bread of which we feed on and gives us life everlasting. The bread of our Lord will never decay, never grow moldy, never harden but remain ever fresh for us unlike bread for our flesh. The bread we are to consume and make a part of our spiritual feast is our Lord's word. We can have this bread with us ALWAYS to feed off of. When we forget we have access to that spiritual food and we stop feeding on it, we leave ourselves open to only the flesh food surrounding us and we are poisoned by it.
Yes, we have to live surrounded by the flesh, the carnal, but we have ever access to our spiritual fount, our spiritual bread of life, we just need to partake of that food as often as we can and most certainly as soon as we notice ourselves acting and reacting to our carnal natures.
The way to follow peace and holiness with all is to be immersed in the peace and holiness of our Savior.
By the grace and mercy of our Lord, in His love now and always.
Amen.
Pursue peace, rest, quietness with all.
Pursue holiness, sanctification, purification with all.
Do we do this? Do we seek to have peace with all? Do we seek to have holiness with all?
Generally we do seek a peaceful existence with others. Not many look for angst. Angst just seems to come about though doesn't it. A simple tone of voice can change a peaceful discussion into angst. A touch of condescension, or even perceived condescension can ignite anger, can create upset. Isn't it true that the people who know us best know exactly how to upset us? And isn't it true that even if the people we know best aren't looking to upset us we feel free to take out our irritations on them? How likely are you to have an upset with someone you work with as opposed to having an upset with someone you live with? It'd be great if there wasn't this freedom of familiarity that allowed us to abuse each other and get away with it, because that's what it is, right?
We are to follow peace with all, not just with some. It is just as important to follow peace with our loved ones, our families, our friends, as it is with strangers. Some might say a true measure of a person can be found behind the closed front doors, the shut windows, in the private lives a person leads. How many private lives have been exposed where supposedly upright people turn out to be vile? How much shame lies behind closed doors? You know what? There are NO closed doors before God, not a single one. People imagine they're alone, or that they're in the privacy of their choosing that keeps out the public, but in truth we are never alone, never in private. Our most indecent secret acts are known to God.
We are to follow peace with ALL. And we are to follow peace always with all, not just at our choosing. Even through the irritating, even through the ridicule cloaked in harmless teasing, even during the laughter made at our expense, even when we are exposed to blatant injustices and nothing seems fair at all- we are to pursue peace! Peace. Quietness. Rest.
We read all about the dangers of stress these days. Stress causes heart attacks. Stress causes anxiety. Stress causes this illness and that illness. Stress leads to suicide. Stress causes abuse. Stress lead to a nervous breakdown. STRESS! Stress is the opposite of peace.
If we truly embrace peace with all - allowing the irritations, allowing their mental abuse, allowing the ridicule, the teasing, the outright injustices directed at us by others to have none affect other than our promoting peace we won't have stress will we? Ahh but we'd have some saying that bottling up our stress is just as bad and if we don't get it all out with these angst encounters then we'll still get sick from internalizing it all. But we aren't told to bottle up the anger, we are told to forgive.
Choosing to forgive rather than break the peace that could be had by not forgiving is God's way. We can't have peace by bottling up our anger and hurt, choosing to remain silent and sullen, that's NOT peace, that's not quietness, that's not rest. We all know the difference between peace and upset and unspoken upset is still upset- not keeping the peace. Forgiveness bring true peace. Hearing the same old provocations taunting us to upset in the past needs to initiate the call for forgiveness from us rather than the call to angst. The provocations will NOT stop. If they seem to lessen in one point they'll increase in another, we can't forget we live in Satan's world and He will use every opportunity he can to upset us. Satan will change tactics easily so if we wonder why life seems to become harder and harder as we try to grow closer to Christ, well, that's why.
Follow peace with all.
Follow holiness with all.
If we do NOT follow peace with all, if we do NOT follow holiness with all, we will NOT see the Lord.
Harsh words? Harsh truths? We need to grow in Christ constantly, ever growing in grace.
2Pe 3:18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.
As rational human beings we really need to use our rational sides so much more. We need to use our spiritual side so much more than we do. Make no mistake it'll be a warfare, an internal warfare. We will react in our flesh nature instinctively but the closer we grow to Christ, the more we study Christ, the more we immerse ourselves in the Word of God, the more we make Christ our all in all the less likely we'll be to react on instinct to the flesh. Imagine how marvelous it would be to act on instinct to the spirit!
Have you ever notice how after you've read something that has inspired you, you react to it for a few hours, a few days even and sometimes a week or two after, but inevitably it seems to wears off and you are back to being what you'd classify as your "normal" self, your "old familiar" self? Sometimes people have a religious experience like that- where they are high on the inspiration of new birth yet when that high wears off- as inevitably it seems to do- and it comes down to applying your new Christian birth, your new Christian life to your every day existence- you realize that while YOU might have been changed the world around you has remained the same. The light that has filled you can't seem to penetrate your everyday life and those around you. Oh, you might see flickers of it in various things, but the joy of new birth in you isn't celebrated by the old unregenerate world around you and often that effect wears you down until your new birth grows old and sometimes the old self you've put off starts to reemerge.
The reemergence of the old self can be shocking to many because many that have gone through the exhilaration of being newly born into Christ believe that it's impossible for it to happen. Some are frightened when bits of the old self start to reemerge and they instantly begin to doubt their spiritual regeneration. What has to be realized is being born again in the spirit awakens a spiritual side in you but it does NOT take you out of your flesh. Your flesh nature does not disappear as your spiritual nature appears. Once your spiritual self is awakened it has to be constantly fed but too many starve their spiritual nature because the world doesn't offer a spiritual all you can eat buffet. The world offers an all you can eat carnal buffet. We have to seek the spiritual that isn't surrounding us. We have to hunt for our spiritual food and make an effort to seek it and then consume it, unlike the carnal feast that awaits us at every turn practically shoving itself down our throats. We have to feast on the spiritual if we want to become spiritual make no mistake about it. If we want to follow peace and holiness with all we have to go to the source of peace and holiness first and feast spiritually on the source only then will we be able to obey and see the Lord.
If you notice in yourself a behavior that is contrary to peace and holiness as soon as you recognize it - ask for forgiveness, don't wait and ask later, do it immediately and seek the source of spiritual food you need to fill you- even if you're not close to a Bible you can feed on the spiritual food of your memory and the word of God you've feasted on in the past. Jesus truly is the bread of life, a bread of which we feed on and gives us life everlasting. The bread of our Lord will never decay, never grow moldy, never harden but remain ever fresh for us unlike bread for our flesh. The bread we are to consume and make a part of our spiritual feast is our Lord's word. We can have this bread with us ALWAYS to feed off of. When we forget we have access to that spiritual food and we stop feeding on it, we leave ourselves open to only the flesh food surrounding us and we are poisoned by it.
Yes, we have to live surrounded by the flesh, the carnal, but we have ever access to our spiritual fount, our spiritual bread of life, we just need to partake of that food as often as we can and most certainly as soon as we notice ourselves acting and reacting to our carnal natures.
The way to follow peace and holiness with all is to be immersed in the peace and holiness of our Savior.
By the grace and mercy of our Lord, in His love now and always.
Amen.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Shoeless walking on broken glass
Heb 12:12 Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;
Heb 12:13 And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.
We are to be healed. Does this mean that a paralyzed person who has no healing has no hope? No. We are talking our spiritual selves here. It is the spiritual man we are concerned with. We know the flesh is carnal, we know our physical lives are subject to be abused by others as well as being affect by sin's many years of degradation.
If we believe for one moment that every child is born in a pure state, undefiled by sins ravages, just go to a children's hospital and look into those many incubators at the struggling babes within, born sickly. Sin has damaged us in many ways and we are far from being born physically perfect. Our youth are festered with diseases and syndromes, our young adults are not without their own imperfections and our adults have their problems as well. Some people fight illness and disease all their lives- through no fault of their own.
There is no cure- medical or natural for a child born with half a brain- literally. There is no cure for a child born with Down's Syndrome, there's no way to fix them. There are many health problems that have NO cure that we know of and while a person could do all they can to be healthy in their state of permanent imperfection, there is NOTHING- no vitamin, no pill, no diet in the world that will change what they are.
Physically sometimes we have some control, and for some illnesses a lot of control, but these verses here in Heb. 12:12 and 13 aren't talking to the physically paralyzed they are talking to all of us in our spiritual nature.
Heb 12:12 Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;
Heb 12:13 And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.
Spiritually we have to be strong, we have to have hope, the way we choose to live has to be the straight way not the crooked. We have to have strong spiritual lives or else we will be considered spiritually lame, spiritually diseased and we run the high risk of being turned away- told that we aren't spiritually fit for the kingdom. We only become spiritually fit by being spiritually healed in Christ and we have to LET ourselves be healed.
Remember this-
Heb 12:3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.
And this-
Heb 12:5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him
Faint in your minds. That didn't read and faint in your bodies. We can faint in our minds and no I'm not talking having amnesia or periods of black outs you don't remember and are told later things you did. I'm talking about spiritual fainting. Our spiritual natures are separate from our physical. The most sick, the most disease ridden person can have a healthy spiritual self. In fact people admire those who are physically sick and yet seemingly rise above all their physical detriments and are happy, well adjusted people. Sometimes those who seem to have a free ticket to being depressed and unhappy because they've been dealt a raw deal and are far from physically fit through no fault of their own, are those who are the happiest. Can people understand it? Not always. Those people are admired because we know how we are when we are temporarily sidelined by a head cold, or a broken leg- miserable- even though our physical ailment will pass.
Is there a mental/emotional side to us that isn't spiritual? No, not really. Our spiritual self lies within our ability to reason, our ability to comprehend. You can choose to be spiritually stunted, you can choose to be spiritually lame and still have the ability to reason with man's logic. Your spiritual self can be alive to Christ or dead to Christ. We are spirit/flesh beings. You CAN be spiritually lame, spiritually paralyzed but it's a choice you are making rather than a physical affliction beyond your control. You control your ability to believe, to have faith. Lack of faith isn't something out of our control.
2Th 1:3 We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth
Faith can grow!
Lack of faith can be helped.
Mar 9:24 And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.
Luk 17:5 And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.
Heb 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith
*
Heb 12:12 Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;
Heb 12:13 And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.
Let it rather be healed.
Let it!
Allow it to be healed.
Allow what to be healed?
Allow the lameness in us, the crooked paths our feet would go down, allow that all to be healed. Allow the spiritual sickness in us to be healed so that we can stay in the way and not be turned out. We can't LET this world's pain, this world's sickness, this world's injustices, this world's agonies, this world's prince have control over us, we must choose rather to spiritually cling to the hope we have in Christ for a better existence in Him, through Him. We will suffer here and now, there is NO escaping that suffering, none. The choice to let our hands hang down, to allow our knees to be feeble and non-supporting making it difficult to walk, to walk down paths we know are not of God, is just that… A CHOICE. We need to CHOOSE to allow ourselves to be healed in Christ by choosing to lift up our hands, choosing to rejoice through our afflictions, choosing to walk down the straight roads even though the enemy has covered them in broken glass and stolen our shoes, choosing to be healed even though the path to healing is the most painful one there can ever be. We choose how we respond to the chastening of the Lord. We choose to either learn or to rebel from that chastening. We choose to give in to self pity, we choose to be self- centered or God- centered. When we are God- centered we are placing ourselves in God's hand and trusting Him to heal us spiritually so that we will not be turned out of the way. The straight paths we MAKE for our feet are the paths that lead us to God, to Christ, to life, to healing.
Let us choose healing in Christ no matter what, through Christ's love.
Amen.
Heb 12:13 And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.
We are to be healed. Does this mean that a paralyzed person who has no healing has no hope? No. We are talking our spiritual selves here. It is the spiritual man we are concerned with. We know the flesh is carnal, we know our physical lives are subject to be abused by others as well as being affect by sin's many years of degradation.
If we believe for one moment that every child is born in a pure state, undefiled by sins ravages, just go to a children's hospital and look into those many incubators at the struggling babes within, born sickly. Sin has damaged us in many ways and we are far from being born physically perfect. Our youth are festered with diseases and syndromes, our young adults are not without their own imperfections and our adults have their problems as well. Some people fight illness and disease all their lives- through no fault of their own.
There is no cure- medical or natural for a child born with half a brain- literally. There is no cure for a child born with Down's Syndrome, there's no way to fix them. There are many health problems that have NO cure that we know of and while a person could do all they can to be healthy in their state of permanent imperfection, there is NOTHING- no vitamin, no pill, no diet in the world that will change what they are.
Physically sometimes we have some control, and for some illnesses a lot of control, but these verses here in Heb. 12:12 and 13 aren't talking to the physically paralyzed they are talking to all of us in our spiritual nature.
Heb 12:12 Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;
Heb 12:13 And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.
Spiritually we have to be strong, we have to have hope, the way we choose to live has to be the straight way not the crooked. We have to have strong spiritual lives or else we will be considered spiritually lame, spiritually diseased and we run the high risk of being turned away- told that we aren't spiritually fit for the kingdom. We only become spiritually fit by being spiritually healed in Christ and we have to LET ourselves be healed.
Remember this-
Heb 12:3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.
And this-
Heb 12:5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him
Faint in your minds. That didn't read and faint in your bodies. We can faint in our minds and no I'm not talking having amnesia or periods of black outs you don't remember and are told later things you did. I'm talking about spiritual fainting. Our spiritual natures are separate from our physical. The most sick, the most disease ridden person can have a healthy spiritual self. In fact people admire those who are physically sick and yet seemingly rise above all their physical detriments and are happy, well adjusted people. Sometimes those who seem to have a free ticket to being depressed and unhappy because they've been dealt a raw deal and are far from physically fit through no fault of their own, are those who are the happiest. Can people understand it? Not always. Those people are admired because we know how we are when we are temporarily sidelined by a head cold, or a broken leg- miserable- even though our physical ailment will pass.
Is there a mental/emotional side to us that isn't spiritual? No, not really. Our spiritual self lies within our ability to reason, our ability to comprehend. You can choose to be spiritually stunted, you can choose to be spiritually lame and still have the ability to reason with man's logic. Your spiritual self can be alive to Christ or dead to Christ. We are spirit/flesh beings. You CAN be spiritually lame, spiritually paralyzed but it's a choice you are making rather than a physical affliction beyond your control. You control your ability to believe, to have faith. Lack of faith isn't something out of our control.
2Th 1:3 We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth
Faith can grow!
Lack of faith can be helped.
Mar 9:24 And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.
Luk 17:5 And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.
Heb 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith
*
Heb 12:12 Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;
Heb 12:13 And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.
Let it rather be healed.
Let it!
Allow it to be healed.
Allow what to be healed?
Allow the lameness in us, the crooked paths our feet would go down, allow that all to be healed. Allow the spiritual sickness in us to be healed so that we can stay in the way and not be turned out. We can't LET this world's pain, this world's sickness, this world's injustices, this world's agonies, this world's prince have control over us, we must choose rather to spiritually cling to the hope we have in Christ for a better existence in Him, through Him. We will suffer here and now, there is NO escaping that suffering, none. The choice to let our hands hang down, to allow our knees to be feeble and non-supporting making it difficult to walk, to walk down paths we know are not of God, is just that… A CHOICE. We need to CHOOSE to allow ourselves to be healed in Christ by choosing to lift up our hands, choosing to rejoice through our afflictions, choosing to walk down the straight roads even though the enemy has covered them in broken glass and stolen our shoes, choosing to be healed even though the path to healing is the most painful one there can ever be. We choose how we respond to the chastening of the Lord. We choose to either learn or to rebel from that chastening. We choose to give in to self pity, we choose to be self- centered or God- centered. When we are God- centered we are placing ourselves in God's hand and trusting Him to heal us spiritually so that we will not be turned out of the way. The straight paths we MAKE for our feet are the paths that lead us to God, to Christ, to life, to healing.
Let us choose healing in Christ no matter what, through Christ's love.
Amen.
Friday, November 12, 2010
Grievous Chastening
Heb 12:9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
Heb 12:10 For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.
Heb 12:11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
For a few days we are chastened by our father's of flesh, the caregivers of our youth, and they chastise us according to their own pleasure. And it is according to their own pleasure in the sense that it's according to their own desire, for what they think is good. When you chastise someone it's usually for BOTH parties benefit - theirs and yours. Yours for what you think is for THEIR good, according to your own idea of good- their behavior improving would benefit you not having to deal with their bad behavior. It's for their good because they are being taught to behave and hopefully taught lessons through that chastising that will last them a lifetime.
God's chastising us is purely for OUR profit. It BENEFITS US to become partakers with Him in His holiness. To have our spiritual nature awakened, our spiritual nature born and raised, chastised to learn the spiritual lessons we need to learn- all so we can unite with our Savior in HIS holiness. The chastising we are called to undergo is for our good, our SPIRITUAL good, not necessarily our fleshy/carnal good in fact it will be GRIEVOUS to our flesh selves. Our flesh selves will rebel from our spiritual chastising. Our flesh selves will tell us it is too hard, too much, too painful, too horrible and will seek to get away from any and all spiritual chastisement. There truly is a war between the flesh and the spirit natures we have.
1Pe 2:11 Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul
1Pe 2:19 For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.
1Pe 2:20 For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.
Endure grief, suffering wrongfully -- taking it patiently.
We suffer, oh how we are called to suffer, and we rail against having to suffer don't we? Rather than taking it patiently we fight it, we lament our sufferings, we want pity for our suffering, we complain and we wait for others to give us their sympathy which only has us reaffirming to ourselves that we do good feeling sorry for ourselves and our pain. We aren't enduring patiently when we act out because acting out reveals our lack of faith in God that somehow, some way our suffering, our grief will work out for our good.
We CAN'T reveal our faith in God if we are constantly questioning our faith by questioning the pain and suffering, the grief we are called to endure. Faith calls for patience.
Good people suffer! Good people who are undeserving of pain and suffering will feel tremendous pain and endure tremendous suffering. Faith calls for those good people to endure patiently, not to understand all the whys and wherefores, not to lament their horrible afflictions as if God is being horrible to them. Faith calls for us to trust even when there is NO reason we can understand to trust. Even when our lives are turned completely upside-down- we are called to trust.
Heb 12:11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
Being chastised isn't joyous….but grievous.
Grievous - Heavy; oppressive; burdensome. Afflictive; painful; hard to be borne. Causing grief or sorrow. Distressing. Great, atrocious.
Being chastised is GREIVOUS.
Being chastised is oppressive, burdensom.
Being chastised is pain, hard to bear.
Being chastised brings grief, sorrow.
Being chastised is distressing, atrocious.
Being chastised is not JOYOUS. Our spiritual chastisement in whatever form it takes will NOT be easy. Whatever we are called to endure to spiritually keep us growing in Christ, to teach us the spiritual lessons we need to learn, will NOT be fun. When we are facing hardship after hardship we need to trust in God to see us through. We need to trust in Him, trust that our spiritual chastisement will result in us being the sons and daughters of God that we need to be.
When the spiritual chastisement is over it will result in our having the righteousness of our Savior in us- the peaceable fruit of righteousness- Christ's righteousness. This will happen, we will all live in Christ through HIS righteousness if we are exercised by the chastising lessons we are called to endure. If we learn from the lessons, learning faith in God, true faith, unwavering.
Heb 10:23 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)
We need to learn this faith… this unwavering faith and hold fast to that faith through ALL things good and bad.
Gal 5:5 For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.
By His grace!
By His mercy!
In His amazing love!
By His forgiveness!
Through His righteousness!
Amen.
Heb 12:10 For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.
Heb 12:11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
For a few days we are chastened by our father's of flesh, the caregivers of our youth, and they chastise us according to their own pleasure. And it is according to their own pleasure in the sense that it's according to their own desire, for what they think is good. When you chastise someone it's usually for BOTH parties benefit - theirs and yours. Yours for what you think is for THEIR good, according to your own idea of good- their behavior improving would benefit you not having to deal with their bad behavior. It's for their good because they are being taught to behave and hopefully taught lessons through that chastising that will last them a lifetime.
God's chastising us is purely for OUR profit. It BENEFITS US to become partakers with Him in His holiness. To have our spiritual nature awakened, our spiritual nature born and raised, chastised to learn the spiritual lessons we need to learn- all so we can unite with our Savior in HIS holiness. The chastising we are called to undergo is for our good, our SPIRITUAL good, not necessarily our fleshy/carnal good in fact it will be GRIEVOUS to our flesh selves. Our flesh selves will rebel from our spiritual chastising. Our flesh selves will tell us it is too hard, too much, too painful, too horrible and will seek to get away from any and all spiritual chastisement. There truly is a war between the flesh and the spirit natures we have.
1Pe 2:11 Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul
1Pe 2:19 For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.
1Pe 2:20 For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.
Endure grief, suffering wrongfully -- taking it patiently.
We suffer, oh how we are called to suffer, and we rail against having to suffer don't we? Rather than taking it patiently we fight it, we lament our sufferings, we want pity for our suffering, we complain and we wait for others to give us their sympathy which only has us reaffirming to ourselves that we do good feeling sorry for ourselves and our pain. We aren't enduring patiently when we act out because acting out reveals our lack of faith in God that somehow, some way our suffering, our grief will work out for our good.
We CAN'T reveal our faith in God if we are constantly questioning our faith by questioning the pain and suffering, the grief we are called to endure. Faith calls for patience.
Good people suffer! Good people who are undeserving of pain and suffering will feel tremendous pain and endure tremendous suffering. Faith calls for those good people to endure patiently, not to understand all the whys and wherefores, not to lament their horrible afflictions as if God is being horrible to them. Faith calls for us to trust even when there is NO reason we can understand to trust. Even when our lives are turned completely upside-down- we are called to trust.
Heb 12:11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
Being chastised isn't joyous….but grievous.
Grievous - Heavy; oppressive; burdensome. Afflictive; painful; hard to be borne. Causing grief or sorrow. Distressing. Great, atrocious.
Being chastised is GREIVOUS.
Being chastised is oppressive, burdensom.
Being chastised is pain, hard to bear.
Being chastised brings grief, sorrow.
Being chastised is distressing, atrocious.
Being chastised is not JOYOUS. Our spiritual chastisement in whatever form it takes will NOT be easy. Whatever we are called to endure to spiritually keep us growing in Christ, to teach us the spiritual lessons we need to learn, will NOT be fun. When we are facing hardship after hardship we need to trust in God to see us through. We need to trust in Him, trust that our spiritual chastisement will result in us being the sons and daughters of God that we need to be.
When the spiritual chastisement is over it will result in our having the righteousness of our Savior in us- the peaceable fruit of righteousness- Christ's righteousness. This will happen, we will all live in Christ through HIS righteousness if we are exercised by the chastising lessons we are called to endure. If we learn from the lessons, learning faith in God, true faith, unwavering.
Heb 10:23 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)
We need to learn this faith… this unwavering faith and hold fast to that faith through ALL things good and bad.
Gal 5:5 For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.
By His grace!
By His mercy!
In His amazing love!
By His forgiveness!
Through His righteousness!
Amen.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
In Subjection Unto the Father of Spirits
Heb 12:9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
Father of our flesh. Your father! Your birth father, your step father, your grandfather, the father figure in your life, barring that- your mother if it has only been a mother who has raised you. The people who raise you- fellow human beings- correct us.
Being raised as children by someone-- you are raised to learn right from wrong whatever your environment may be. When a child needs correction that means someone needs to correct them. Is it safe to say that EVERY child needs correcting? I think it is because we LEARN right from wrong. Many children have died because they don't learn right from wrong, they aren't taught right from wrong. We have children growing into young adults who act horribly because they've not learned right from wrong. Is it instinctive to always do right? No. It's not instinctive that we do good, that we do right. It'd be great if it were but living in a carnal world, a world given over to Satan, we are born into the carnal, the world of flesh that does not instinctively live in the spirit of God. I'm not talking general goodness- but God's goodness, God's righteousness. God's goodness goes far beyond us living day to day bothering no one, God's goodness goes far beyond our ability to be good on our own. Good on our own means nothing.
Being corrected is necessary. It's necessary as children to learn right from wrong, it's necessary as adults for the same reason. We never stop learning, never. All through life we are being taught lessons.
As children when we are corrected we don't like it, do we? We might pout and cry and throw little fits, and then we might learn not to throw fits and as time goes on we channel our anger and upset over being corrected in different ways. Sometimes however, as we are growing up we are able to look back and realize that the correction we were given was for our own good. I'm not talking about any abusive correction, but normal correction. We can look back and understand that our correctors corrected us so we'd learn right from wrong, we'd learn how to behave, how to treat others. As we gain this understand we start to respect our correctors. We understand why they corrected us. Still as we grow older we might understand even more because we become correctors ourselves and begin to teach our own children right from wrong hoping that one day they'll respect us for our correcting them.
Drawing from my own personal experience I have respect towards the way I was raised, I respect the correction given to me by my parents. I understand their correcting me.
Heb 12:9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
Shall we NOT much RATHER be in subjection unto the FATHER of SPIRITS, and live?
Father of SPIRITS- God.
We are corrected, we are chastened by our parents and we learn to respect them but when we are corrected and chastened by our Spiritual parent do we learn to respect Him or are we like young children, like teenagers filled will rebellion, feeling anger at our heavenly Father? Do we feel the chastening of the Lord and throw a spiritual fit? Do we HONESTLY believe we can transgress against our Lord and not be chastised?! Not be punished?!
On a flesh level and not spiritual we don't let people get away with wrong doing, not if we can help it. When people do wrong we want them to be corrected- we've prisons FILLED with those we want to be corrected for their wrongs. Spiritual wrong doings need spiritual correction and our Savior strives to spiritually corrects us. We don't often see it that way though. We throw our spiritual fits, we cry out, God why?! We live our lives being corrected constantly in ways we don't even understand but if we TRUST in God and ask Him to help us learn from any and all chastening He brings our way, He will. We have to have faith. Faith- believing without understanding every thing.
Shall we NOT MUCH RATHER be in subjection to the FATHER of SPIRITS…and LIVE?
As children of God we need to be in subjection to our Heavenly Father. We need to allow ourselves to be in subjection to our Heavenly Father. We need to fall to our knees and learn from our Father. We need to stop kicking and screaming and fighting against God. We need to stop accusing Him of being hard on us and grow up realizing that God is chastising us for our own good. We need to be in subjection to God, to His plan. We need to trust that He has OUR GOOD in mind. He loves us, we need to love Him, we need to have faith in Him, we need to trust Him and LIVE.
By His Grace, His Mercy forever!
Amen
Father of our flesh. Your father! Your birth father, your step father, your grandfather, the father figure in your life, barring that- your mother if it has only been a mother who has raised you. The people who raise you- fellow human beings- correct us.
Being raised as children by someone-- you are raised to learn right from wrong whatever your environment may be. When a child needs correction that means someone needs to correct them. Is it safe to say that EVERY child needs correcting? I think it is because we LEARN right from wrong. Many children have died because they don't learn right from wrong, they aren't taught right from wrong. We have children growing into young adults who act horribly because they've not learned right from wrong. Is it instinctive to always do right? No. It's not instinctive that we do good, that we do right. It'd be great if it were but living in a carnal world, a world given over to Satan, we are born into the carnal, the world of flesh that does not instinctively live in the spirit of God. I'm not talking general goodness- but God's goodness, God's righteousness. God's goodness goes far beyond us living day to day bothering no one, God's goodness goes far beyond our ability to be good on our own. Good on our own means nothing.
Being corrected is necessary. It's necessary as children to learn right from wrong, it's necessary as adults for the same reason. We never stop learning, never. All through life we are being taught lessons.
As children when we are corrected we don't like it, do we? We might pout and cry and throw little fits, and then we might learn not to throw fits and as time goes on we channel our anger and upset over being corrected in different ways. Sometimes however, as we are growing up we are able to look back and realize that the correction we were given was for our own good. I'm not talking about any abusive correction, but normal correction. We can look back and understand that our correctors corrected us so we'd learn right from wrong, we'd learn how to behave, how to treat others. As we gain this understand we start to respect our correctors. We understand why they corrected us. Still as we grow older we might understand even more because we become correctors ourselves and begin to teach our own children right from wrong hoping that one day they'll respect us for our correcting them.
Drawing from my own personal experience I have respect towards the way I was raised, I respect the correction given to me by my parents. I understand their correcting me.
Heb 12:9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
Shall we NOT much RATHER be in subjection unto the FATHER of SPIRITS, and live?
Father of SPIRITS- God.
We are corrected, we are chastened by our parents and we learn to respect them but when we are corrected and chastened by our Spiritual parent do we learn to respect Him or are we like young children, like teenagers filled will rebellion, feeling anger at our heavenly Father? Do we feel the chastening of the Lord and throw a spiritual fit? Do we HONESTLY believe we can transgress against our Lord and not be chastised?! Not be punished?!
On a flesh level and not spiritual we don't let people get away with wrong doing, not if we can help it. When people do wrong we want them to be corrected- we've prisons FILLED with those we want to be corrected for their wrongs. Spiritual wrong doings need spiritual correction and our Savior strives to spiritually corrects us. We don't often see it that way though. We throw our spiritual fits, we cry out, God why?! We live our lives being corrected constantly in ways we don't even understand but if we TRUST in God and ask Him to help us learn from any and all chastening He brings our way, He will. We have to have faith. Faith- believing without understanding every thing.
Shall we NOT MUCH RATHER be in subjection to the FATHER of SPIRITS…and LIVE?
As children of God we need to be in subjection to our Heavenly Father. We need to allow ourselves to be in subjection to our Heavenly Father. We need to fall to our knees and learn from our Father. We need to stop kicking and screaming and fighting against God. We need to stop accusing Him of being hard on us and grow up realizing that God is chastising us for our own good. We need to be in subjection to God, to His plan. We need to trust that He has OUR GOOD in mind. He loves us, we need to love Him, we need to have faith in Him, we need to trust Him and LIVE.
By His Grace, His Mercy forever!
Amen
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Every son whom he receives
Heb 12:5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
Heb 12:6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
Heb 12:7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
Heb 12:8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
EVERY son whom he receives will be ….SCOURGED.
The word scourged means- to flog.
G3146
μαστιγόω
mastigoō
mas-tig-o'-o
From G3148; to flog (literally or figuratively): - scourge.
Webster says flog means-
Flog
FLOG, v.t. [L. figo, to strike, that is, to lay on; L. flagrum, flagellum, Eng. flail; Gr.; L. plaga, a stroke, Eng. plague, slay.]
To beat or strike with a rod or whip; to whip; to lash; to chastise with repeated blows; a colloquial word, applied to whipping or beating for punishment.
Chastised, scourged, flogged, whipped, beat, what sort of image do these words invoke for you? Corporal punishment is one, at least for me. Yet we know that the LORD does not physically wield a whip or flog us. The LORD does not appear in front of us and give us a good talking to, complete with wagging finger and furrowed brow. Yet we have these words, scourge, flog, chastise, whip and they have to mean something because the Bible is telling us that EVERY son whom he receives will be scourged! Whom the LORD loves HE chastens. Without chastisement we are bastards, not sons. Those are very telling words and we NEED to comprehend them fully. We need to dig down and get the meaning of those beyond a superficial meaning because my friends… we will not be sons, we will not be counted among those of God's family, if we are not scourged and chastised by the LORD.
Just writing those words makes me envision something painful. Because God is spirit, this scourging and chastising is also to be applied on a spiritual level, right? Even if circumstances arise in our lives that are unpleasant they can be applied to our spiritual state because every circumstance in our lives is connected to our spiritual self if we are spiritual beings in Christ. So this spiritual scourging, this spiritual whipping that we are to receive is necessary- why?
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,
Eph 4:18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
Eph 4:19 Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
Eph 4:20 But ye have not so learned Christ;
Eph 4:21 If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:
Eph 4:22 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
Eph 4:23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
Eph 4:24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
Eph 4:25 Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.
Eph 4:26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
Eph 4:27 Neither give place to the devil.
Eph 4:28 Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.
Eph 4:29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
Eph 4:30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
Eph 4:31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:
Eph 4:32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
Our spiritual chastising, our spiritual whipping which is for OUR own good is necessary because we are RENEWED in the spirit of our mind, we are NEW men- which after GOD are CREATED in righteousness and true holiness. We are born again and are NO longer merely flesh beings controlled by our natural carnal natures. We become born in the SPIRIT and are SPIRITUAL beings that need to learn SPIRITUAL lessons. We need to grow in our SPIRITS.
Joh 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Just as we age in our flesh, we age in our spirit. We grow from being spiritual babes to spiritual children to spiritual adults. Our spiritual life is not stagnant, it grows, it evolves. As adults we don't cease to grow in knowledge because even if we do almost nothing every day the outside stimulus we receive has us growing. A man in solitary confinement can still grow in his thoughts. There is growth as adults and if we are lucky we grow into elderly people who have a true measure of wisdom from years of spiritual growing. As babes and children we need a guardian- this is true even in our spiritual life. We need guidance and we find that guidance in the Word of God. As adults we live our lives based off of the lessons we learn from as children. Adults are products of their childhood. Our spiritual adulthood is the same. We need to be chastised, we need to understand our spiritual failings and the results of them. We need to feel the punishment of disobeying, and we do as we realize our sins bring sorrow. We have spiritual pain, spiritual sorrow, spiritual unease, unrest, we call it being troubled in spirit and when we are troubled in spirit we are troubled for a reason. There are many spiritual lessons we need to learn and some of them over and over again.
Do I have all the answers? Can I be sure I'm 100% right in all this? No, not at all. I do know the Bible tells me that as a spiritual child of God's I will be chastise, I will be scourged spiritually and it won't be pleasurable because chastisement and scourging is anything but pleasant.
So how can a person be spiritually scourged for their own good?
How are we spiritually chastised?
Read this again- this is the word of God to us- the word of God is the most important reading material we'll ever have! I can write a million books and none would mean a thing, but the word of God means everything, it means life.
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,
Eph 4:18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
Eph 4:19 Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
Eph 4:20 But ye have not so learned Christ;
Eph 4:21 If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:
Eph 4:22 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
Eph 4:23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
Eph 4:24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
Eph 4:25 Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.
Eph 4:26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
Eph 4:27 Neither give place to the devil.
Eph 4:28 Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.
Eph 4:29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
Eph 4:30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
Eph 4:31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:
Eph 4:32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
We are chastised by the Holy Spirit convicting us of our sins. The weight of sin lays heavy upon us and the knowledge of that sin will wear us down until we confess and repent, forsaking that sin, setting that sin aside rather than indulging in it.
Psa 119:28 My soul melteth for heaviness: strengthen thou me according unto thy word.
We can't give place to the devil. We can't grieve the holy Spirit of God. We have to let all bitterness and wrath, anger and clamor, all evil speaking with ALL malice be put aside. Honestly we are to have the FRUITS of the Spirit in our lives and when we don't -we need to be chastised. We need to be woken up to the fact that we are not walking in the Spirit, we are not growing up in the Spirit, we are not living in the Spirit as God would have us do- through Him.
1Pe 1:6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:
1Pe 1:7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ
The heaviness of many temptations will assail us and this is GOOD! We need that heaviness! We need the guilt! We need to have our conscience whipped as we commit wrongs- punishable wrongs- wrongs that deserve death because they are sinful and sin separates us from God!
May God try our faith with fire! May we be scourged! May we be chastised by God our Heavenly Father!
May we count it all joy, and be ever thankful giving praises to our Father who loves us so much He continuously shows us our failings and reveals the correct path to Him through the mercy and grace of His Only Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, our Savior!
AMEN!
Heb 12:6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
Heb 12:7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
Heb 12:8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
EVERY son whom he receives will be ….SCOURGED.
The word scourged means- to flog.
G3146
μαστιγόω
mastigoō
mas-tig-o'-o
From G3148; to flog (literally or figuratively): - scourge.
Webster says flog means-
Flog
FLOG, v.t. [L. figo, to strike, that is, to lay on; L. flagrum, flagellum, Eng. flail; Gr.; L. plaga, a stroke, Eng. plague, slay.]
To beat or strike with a rod or whip; to whip; to lash; to chastise with repeated blows; a colloquial word, applied to whipping or beating for punishment.
Chastised, scourged, flogged, whipped, beat, what sort of image do these words invoke for you? Corporal punishment is one, at least for me. Yet we know that the LORD does not physically wield a whip or flog us. The LORD does not appear in front of us and give us a good talking to, complete with wagging finger and furrowed brow. Yet we have these words, scourge, flog, chastise, whip and they have to mean something because the Bible is telling us that EVERY son whom he receives will be scourged! Whom the LORD loves HE chastens. Without chastisement we are bastards, not sons. Those are very telling words and we NEED to comprehend them fully. We need to dig down and get the meaning of those beyond a superficial meaning because my friends… we will not be sons, we will not be counted among those of God's family, if we are not scourged and chastised by the LORD.
Just writing those words makes me envision something painful. Because God is spirit, this scourging and chastising is also to be applied on a spiritual level, right? Even if circumstances arise in our lives that are unpleasant they can be applied to our spiritual state because every circumstance in our lives is connected to our spiritual self if we are spiritual beings in Christ. So this spiritual scourging, this spiritual whipping that we are to receive is necessary- why?
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,
Eph 4:18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
Eph 4:19 Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
Eph 4:20 But ye have not so learned Christ;
Eph 4:21 If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:
Eph 4:22 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
Eph 4:23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
Eph 4:24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
Eph 4:25 Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.
Eph 4:26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
Eph 4:27 Neither give place to the devil.
Eph 4:28 Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.
Eph 4:29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
Eph 4:30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
Eph 4:31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:
Eph 4:32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
Our spiritual chastising, our spiritual whipping which is for OUR own good is necessary because we are RENEWED in the spirit of our mind, we are NEW men- which after GOD are CREATED in righteousness and true holiness. We are born again and are NO longer merely flesh beings controlled by our natural carnal natures. We become born in the SPIRIT and are SPIRITUAL beings that need to learn SPIRITUAL lessons. We need to grow in our SPIRITS.
Joh 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Just as we age in our flesh, we age in our spirit. We grow from being spiritual babes to spiritual children to spiritual adults. Our spiritual life is not stagnant, it grows, it evolves. As adults we don't cease to grow in knowledge because even if we do almost nothing every day the outside stimulus we receive has us growing. A man in solitary confinement can still grow in his thoughts. There is growth as adults and if we are lucky we grow into elderly people who have a true measure of wisdom from years of spiritual growing. As babes and children we need a guardian- this is true even in our spiritual life. We need guidance and we find that guidance in the Word of God. As adults we live our lives based off of the lessons we learn from as children. Adults are products of their childhood. Our spiritual adulthood is the same. We need to be chastised, we need to understand our spiritual failings and the results of them. We need to feel the punishment of disobeying, and we do as we realize our sins bring sorrow. We have spiritual pain, spiritual sorrow, spiritual unease, unrest, we call it being troubled in spirit and when we are troubled in spirit we are troubled for a reason. There are many spiritual lessons we need to learn and some of them over and over again.
Do I have all the answers? Can I be sure I'm 100% right in all this? No, not at all. I do know the Bible tells me that as a spiritual child of God's I will be chastise, I will be scourged spiritually and it won't be pleasurable because chastisement and scourging is anything but pleasant.
So how can a person be spiritually scourged for their own good?
How are we spiritually chastised?
Read this again- this is the word of God to us- the word of God is the most important reading material we'll ever have! I can write a million books and none would mean a thing, but the word of God means everything, it means life.
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,
Eph 4:18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
Eph 4:19 Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
Eph 4:20 But ye have not so learned Christ;
Eph 4:21 If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:
Eph 4:22 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
Eph 4:23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
Eph 4:24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
Eph 4:25 Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.
Eph 4:26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
Eph 4:27 Neither give place to the devil.
Eph 4:28 Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.
Eph 4:29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
Eph 4:30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
Eph 4:31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:
Eph 4:32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
We are chastised by the Holy Spirit convicting us of our sins. The weight of sin lays heavy upon us and the knowledge of that sin will wear us down until we confess and repent, forsaking that sin, setting that sin aside rather than indulging in it.
Psa 119:28 My soul melteth for heaviness: strengthen thou me according unto thy word.
We can't give place to the devil. We can't grieve the holy Spirit of God. We have to let all bitterness and wrath, anger and clamor, all evil speaking with ALL malice be put aside. Honestly we are to have the FRUITS of the Spirit in our lives and when we don't -we need to be chastised. We need to be woken up to the fact that we are not walking in the Spirit, we are not growing up in the Spirit, we are not living in the Spirit as God would have us do- through Him.
1Pe 1:6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:
1Pe 1:7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ
The heaviness of many temptations will assail us and this is GOOD! We need that heaviness! We need the guilt! We need to have our conscience whipped as we commit wrongs- punishable wrongs- wrongs that deserve death because they are sinful and sin separates us from God!
May God try our faith with fire! May we be scourged! May we be chastised by God our Heavenly Father!
May we count it all joy, and be ever thankful giving praises to our Father who loves us so much He continuously shows us our failings and reveals the correct path to Him through the mercy and grace of His Only Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, our Savior!
AMEN!
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Strive against sin
Heb 12:4 Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.
Striving-
G464
antagōnizomai
From G473 and G75; to struggle against (figuratively), (“antagonize”): - strive against.
Struggle against sin.
Strive against sin.
Strive (Webster)
1. To make efforts; to use exertions; to endeavor with earnestness; to labor hard; applicable to exertions of body or mind. A workman strives to perform his task before another; a student strives to excel his fellows in improvement.
2. To contend; to contest; to struggle in opposition to another; to be in contention or dispute; followed by against or with before the person or thing opposed; as, strive against temptation; strive for the truth.
Striving against sin- this is an ACTION. Striving.
Make an effort against sin.
Endeavor with earnestness against sin.
Labor hard against sin.
Contend against sin.
Struggle against sin.
It's easy to give into sin, hard to strive against sin.
It's a REAL FIGHT!
If you were told you had to get into a fight would you prepare for it? You would, wouldn't you? Seriously. If you were informed that you'd be in a fight you'd want to be in shape to fight. You might want to learn some fight moves, right? You'd want to be ready to fight plain and simple, either that or you'd be cowering in fear, afraid of that fight. You might want to run from that fight, hide. We can't run from the fight we have against sin. We can't hide. We are immersed in this fight every single day of our lives. Knowing it's a fight is a good thing, because when we don't even realize we are to be striving against sin it is easier to give into sin, to ignore it's detrimental effects. Sometimes sin is so tempting we do give into it, we sometime LIVE in sin, enjoying that sin for a season, liking that sin, wanting that sin. Just because it is something we like, something we are compelled to desire, just because it's something we're comfortable in, something we have fun with doesn't mean it's something good for us at all. This verse--
Heb 11:25 Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season
ENJOY THE PLEASURES OF SIN FOR A SEASON.
Sin is pleasurable! Sin is enjoyable! Don't let anyone tell you that sin isn't fun, it is! Why it is fun and not something naturally abhorrent to us? There is spiritual and natural carnal natures in us and that natural carnal nature is in control until we are born in the Spirit, until our spiritual life is realized. Once our spiritual life is realize our carnal nature will fight against the spiritual. There really will be a war inside of us, if we expect anything less we are deluding ourselves. In this war we MUST strive against sin. We have to strive against that carnal nature that is part of us. Striving against someone else isn't fun but at least they are outside of ourselves, they are an opponent we don't have to live with. We have to live with ourselves, we have to live with the enemy inside us and the battle with that enemy inside us is one that will go on and on until we are perfected in Christ and HE in us prevails. Our letting Christ into our lives to fight that battle is what our fight is. We have to fight to keep Christ in us, Christ paramount in our lives. We strive against sin because sin is contrary to Christ. Christ and sin cannot dwell together. Christ forgives sin and tells the sinner to GO AND SIN NO MORE. Go and strive against sin, go and keep sin out of your lives. Sin, while pleasurable, is ONLY FOR A SEASON. If we are mostly concerned with pleasure, with worldly happiness, worldly gain then we will be at odds against our Savior.
Heb 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
1Co 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
Rev 12:11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
We overcome by the BLOOD OF THE LAMB!
We overcome by NOT loving our lives here and now, by NOT choosing life here and now over death for Christ.
We get so caught up in having a stress-free life here and now, so caught up in having as few problems as we possibly can, thinking that the fewer problems we have, the fewer upsets, the calmer and problem free our lives are, the better. It seems strange to dispute wanting a life of ease. I do want my life to be one of ease, to be as problem free as possible, but the reality is this sin filled world isn't geared towards being problem free and spiritual.
Satan will stop at nothing to have us. Christ stopped at nothing to have us.
Until we are with Christ, until His glorious second coming, we have to have CHRIST live in us as we strive against the sin of this very sinful world ruled by Satan.
We have to actively strive against sinning by actively striving to have Christ in us making our spiritual selves more prominent than our carnal, natural selves.
By HIS grace and by His grace alone we live in Him, by Him, for Him our Savior, our King!
Amen.
Striving-
G464
antagōnizomai
From G473 and G75; to struggle against (figuratively), (“antagonize”): - strive against.
Struggle against sin.
Strive against sin.
Strive (Webster)
1. To make efforts; to use exertions; to endeavor with earnestness; to labor hard; applicable to exertions of body or mind. A workman strives to perform his task before another; a student strives to excel his fellows in improvement.
2. To contend; to contest; to struggle in opposition to another; to be in contention or dispute; followed by against or with before the person or thing opposed; as, strive against temptation; strive for the truth.
Striving against sin- this is an ACTION. Striving.
Make an effort against sin.
Endeavor with earnestness against sin.
Labor hard against sin.
Contend against sin.
Struggle against sin.
It's easy to give into sin, hard to strive against sin.
It's a REAL FIGHT!
If you were told you had to get into a fight would you prepare for it? You would, wouldn't you? Seriously. If you were informed that you'd be in a fight you'd want to be in shape to fight. You might want to learn some fight moves, right? You'd want to be ready to fight plain and simple, either that or you'd be cowering in fear, afraid of that fight. You might want to run from that fight, hide. We can't run from the fight we have against sin. We can't hide. We are immersed in this fight every single day of our lives. Knowing it's a fight is a good thing, because when we don't even realize we are to be striving against sin it is easier to give into sin, to ignore it's detrimental effects. Sometimes sin is so tempting we do give into it, we sometime LIVE in sin, enjoying that sin for a season, liking that sin, wanting that sin. Just because it is something we like, something we are compelled to desire, just because it's something we're comfortable in, something we have fun with doesn't mean it's something good for us at all. This verse--
Heb 11:25 Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season
ENJOY THE PLEASURES OF SIN FOR A SEASON.
Sin is pleasurable! Sin is enjoyable! Don't let anyone tell you that sin isn't fun, it is! Why it is fun and not something naturally abhorrent to us? There is spiritual and natural carnal natures in us and that natural carnal nature is in control until we are born in the Spirit, until our spiritual life is realized. Once our spiritual life is realize our carnal nature will fight against the spiritual. There really will be a war inside of us, if we expect anything less we are deluding ourselves. In this war we MUST strive against sin. We have to strive against that carnal nature that is part of us. Striving against someone else isn't fun but at least they are outside of ourselves, they are an opponent we don't have to live with. We have to live with ourselves, we have to live with the enemy inside us and the battle with that enemy inside us is one that will go on and on until we are perfected in Christ and HE in us prevails. Our letting Christ into our lives to fight that battle is what our fight is. We have to fight to keep Christ in us, Christ paramount in our lives. We strive against sin because sin is contrary to Christ. Christ and sin cannot dwell together. Christ forgives sin and tells the sinner to GO AND SIN NO MORE. Go and strive against sin, go and keep sin out of your lives. Sin, while pleasurable, is ONLY FOR A SEASON. If we are mostly concerned with pleasure, with worldly happiness, worldly gain then we will be at odds against our Savior.
Heb 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
1Co 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
Rev 12:11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
We overcome by the BLOOD OF THE LAMB!
We overcome by NOT loving our lives here and now, by NOT choosing life here and now over death for Christ.
We get so caught up in having a stress-free life here and now, so caught up in having as few problems as we possibly can, thinking that the fewer problems we have, the fewer upsets, the calmer and problem free our lives are, the better. It seems strange to dispute wanting a life of ease. I do want my life to be one of ease, to be as problem free as possible, but the reality is this sin filled world isn't geared towards being problem free and spiritual.
Satan will stop at nothing to have us. Christ stopped at nothing to have us.
Until we are with Christ, until His glorious second coming, we have to have CHRIST live in us as we strive against the sin of this very sinful world ruled by Satan.
We have to actively strive against sinning by actively striving to have Christ in us making our spiritual selves more prominent than our carnal, natural selves.
By HIS grace and by His grace alone we live in Him, by Him, for Him our Savior, our King!
Amen.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)