The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? "I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds."
I tend to read the above in a negative way. You know ... you've been bad and are about to get a switch on your backside type of negative.
But "according to the fruit of his deeds" is also positive. And God blesses us in more ways than just getting a physical reword. Can you really put a price on the joy YOU feel when you help out your kids? When you read them a story, play catch, or help them catch a toad? Or when you give to a family that has nothing.
So ... what types of fruits are your growing in your life?
Behold, I am against you, O inhabitant of the valley, O rock of the plain, declares the Lord; you who say, ‘Who shall come down against us, or who shall enter our habitations?’ I will punish you according to the fruit of your deeds, declares the Lord; I will kindle a fire in her forest, and it shall devour all that is around her.
Now back to the switch on your backside type of fruits.
I had a brand new jacket my parents had bought me. It was cold outside when my brother and I went out to play hide-n-seek. So wearing my new jacket I decided to hide under the car.
Dad told me I would get a swat for each of the grease stains on my jacket. It hurt a bit. But I also remembered to take care of all the things that are entrusted to me. Not just a jacket.
So often we flit from task to task ignoring the important people and things around us. We get lazy when we hit the 'zone' of our lives. Just remember that with a small spark all that you have found comfort in can be gone.
But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.
Return, faithless Israel, declares the Lord. I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, declares the Lord; I will not be angry forever. Only acknowledge your guilt, that you rebelled against the Lord your God.
"Acknowledge your guilt"
Oh how hard it is to admit when you are wrong. We point our fingers at others. We declare that there are others worse then us. We crush the hopes of the people around us just trying to shove ourselves above them. And in the process shove their faces into the ground. All to get out of saying the words "I Was Wrong ... I Am Guilty".
For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.
After we admit to our sins. To our guilt. Then comes the next part. STOP DOING IT! Yeah I yelled that.
And I'll yell it again: STOP! Then turn. Turn and do good. Don't use the Grace of God as some sort of cover; imagining that you can continue to do evil. Or deceiving yourself into believing that what is evil is good.
Our walk with God happens every day that He has blessed us with. You getup and then plan on how to fight temptations and evil. And plan on how to do the good works of God. Listen to His voice and act on it.
Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith.
Everyone can admit that the above list is of good things. And it may be surprising that we have to fight to do them. Fight our own bodies and desires. And fight our culture and its desires. Our flesh is so against God that it will fight your will on being righteous, godly, faithful, loving, steadfast, and gentle.
And it only takes a moment of watching our own culture to see how it seeks glory in filth, evil, adultery, hate, laziness, and anger. And it will work hard to step on you if you stand in its way.
But, be steadfast ... and stand true. Stand for God.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.
There is freedom from my sins. There is healing for the deep pains in my soul. The doors are thrown open.
The only problem is ... I just sit there and look at the open door. I don't walk through. It is like I am some dumb animal that refuses to go out of the barn and into the daylight. Why, oh why, do we sit in our pain rather than running to God.
Run. Run to the LORD. Embrace the promise and Live!
But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.
For a job I used to have to dig around foundations of homes. And around here I would dig through a lot of clay soil. Sometimes I would make a sculpture out of the clay. Usually it would just be a face or head.
The clay was dirty and full of rocks and organic materials like grass and rotting stuff. So it would be rather interesting when it dried. If you wanted to use the clay for *real* would you would have to clean it.
So you lay the clay out in the sun until it completely dried. Then you would take a hammer and smash it to dust. Then pass that though a couple of fine mesh screens throwing out the stones and sticks. Until all that was left was a very fine powder.
Then put all the fine powder in a bucket and mix in water. And mix it all up and agitate it. Slowly the rest of the organic material would float to the top so you could skim it off. Clean the water a couple more times and then let it set overnight.
The next day pour off the excess water and thoroughly work the clay with your hands and a cutter.
Now the clay is ready.
That is what it sometimes feels like when God is getting us ready to be molded by His hands. We are the clay and He is the potter.
When You Lie Down ... 2 Thessalonians 3, 1 Timothy 1-2
Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all.
When you are getting smashed into power ... God may not feel like the Lord of peace.
When you are being strained out until you feel like everything that was "you" have been taken away ... God may not feel close to you.
But as God adds the healing water to wash away our sins. To put us back together. As His hands reach into our innermost being. As He shapes us into the vessels for His holy use.
A very important memory for me is memorizing Isaiah 52:13-53 for a Easter church service. The way I memorize is not to remember the words. It is to know the words and why they are being said. To make them come naturally.
Try it for these verses. Memorize them and say them aloud ... and mean what you are saying.
Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted.
As many were astonished at you — his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind — so shall he sprinkle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of him; for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand.
Who has believed what he has heard from us?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.
Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.
When You Lie Down ... 1 Thessalonians 4-5, 2 Thessalonians 1-2
Testing. I like testing. It is probably the teacher in me. If there is one thing I want my students to do and understand is that they must know WHY they do what they do. WHY they believe what they believe. WHY they got an A or an F. :)
Test all of your actions against God. Does it meet His standard?
Test all of the people you follow against God. Do they meet His standard?
Obviously we are not perfect and will fall short. Yet, look at your actions and the actions of others against the backdrop of God. Hold on firmly to the good. And toss out the bad.
A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
John came to prepare the way. He was a fulfillment of this prophesy. We also are called to prepare the way. Every day those who are lost look at us. They see how we talk. How we act. How we live.
For you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.
Exhort and Encourage. All fathers are called to this. To strongly urge our children through life and to strongly encourage our children through life.
Exhort could be replaced with "make urgent appeals" or to "incite by advice or argument". I kind of like the incite version. It is more along what you actually do as a dad. You need to fire up your kids. Like a good coach does with his team.
Make the appeals, make the arguments, yell, cheer, cry, laugh, prepare them for the fight ... and then send them out into the field.
For they are a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear the instruction of the Lord; who say to the seers, “Do not see,” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions, leave the way, turn aside from the path, let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”
The world hates the light.
The world doesn't want to see. The world doesn't want to hear.
All around you today is the serpent's tongue whispering that whatever your heart desires is right. It is a tempting argument as well. Because then you only have to worry about fulfilling your desires.
It is up to you to know God's truth. To work on aligning your heart to the will of God. And to bring your mind and body under the control. These things are hard. But the reward is eternal.
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.
And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
I'm not a Paul. I'm not even one of the lowest men and women who worked along side of him. Paul was good at coming up with lists of things that make me KNOW that I still have to work to be more like Christ. I definitely can't say as he does: act like I do.
But, there is one small, and yet huge, thing that all Christians can act as Paul did. Do not cease to pray. Pray that you and other Christians will be filled with the knowledge of God's will in all things and of God's love.
In that day the Lord God of hosts called for weeping and mourning, for baldness and wearing sackcloth; and behold, joy and gladness, killing oxen and slaughtering sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine. “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”
Tomorrow we die ...
Yes, we do die. Yet we should live, not for today, but for what comes after. Our death is not the end. It is the door to eternity. An eternity with God or suffering without God.
Our lives today are lives meant to prepare us for eternity. It not a call for selfishness, but goodness. It is not a call to fulfil the desires of your flesh, but to live as Christ lived.
“Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: ‘Whoever believes will not be in haste.’ And I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plumb line; and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and waters will overwhelm the shelter.”
Christ is my foundation. He is the cornerstone of my heart and life.
Now that God has given the base upon what I should build ... how have I done? You can build a terrible house on top of a good foundation. I suppose I could not put the roof on. Which would be rather stupid. But I've seen abandoned homes that ended at that point.
As we build upon Christ we need to remember to use justice as our measure. Righteousness to keep our paths straight. The Word to build our walls. And Love to cover our heads.
Help me to live as Christ. To sacrifice for my family. To love my wife as you did the Church ... giving your life. To seek out the lost. To give with love to those in need.
To look upon the cross and know that is how far my love must go.
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’
The sin of Satan is also the first and continual sin of man. We try to make ourselves as God. We first deny God and then setup either ourselves or things we have made with our hands and minds as our gods.
We may not setup little wooden idols on our fireplace mantles. But what you sacrifice to, what you listen to, what you spend your money on ... that is what you worship. Is it God? Is it your desires?
Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
I always feel like I'm walking the fine line of guiding my children or provoking them. They want to drive in the way of what they want at the moment. I stand in their way when that direction is wrong.
It can provoke them to anger, but like a road's guard rails are put up to keep us from driving where we want for a reason. As a father I believe God has called me to a guard rail for them in their lives. I can't always keep them from going over the cliff. But, I can make it hard.
