Core

In a person, they say the core of us is the most important, our core strength.

When you look at fruit, where does it hide it's seeds? In the core of the fruit, covered by the exterior flesh. The core makes up that fruit, it can bring forth life from the core, the exterior is just a way to make it look pretty or even ugly depending on the fruit.

We are much like that fruit, our flesh may not be what we describe as pretty, it may be something that people do not desire, but our core is where the strength is, the flesh just covers our core. We tend to look at the flesh as a means to how the person is, but Jesus Christ looks at the core, He looks at our hearts.

If we have a rotten core, no one can tell, but Jesus Christ. When we want to strength our core physically we have to do exercises, we have to work out, we have to do something, it just doesn't happen on it own. Just the same with being a Christian, a Christ follower, we must work out our spiritual muscles, we must put Jesus Christ first and for most in our lives. If our core does not put Him first in everything, everything else falls apart around us. We can have a great exterior, but it will not cover when our core is not doing what Jesus Christ said to do.

His First command is to: Luke 10:27 "He answered, "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'""

If we are not doing that for our core, we are not putting Jesus Christ first. When we put Him first in all we do, 2 Corinthians 10:5 "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. " We make sure that our ways are what He wants us to do. We fear the Lord, it says in Proverbs 1:7 "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction."

I want my life to be a living example of being a Christ follower, I want to fear the Lord, I want my core to be strengthened in Jesus Christ, not in myself. When Jesus brings us to the end of ourselves and shows us that we can't do it on our own, it is our choice to chose to stop fighting and surrender our strength to Him, His way and His will. No longer can it be about me, but Jesus Christ who lives in me at my core. He must be our core.

Have a blessed day.

National Spouse Day (Really???)

Yesterday was National Spouse Day. I have never heard of such a thing, really we need to be told to make a day about spending time with our spouse? We need to be reminded that they are the single most important person in our lives, I said person. God must be first, but when we love God the most and we put Him first in our lives, the rest is a choice. That person you crawl into bed with at night, that person you call your wife/husband.

I believe that we have circum to the worlds idea of marriage, that it takes the back burner to work, to kids, to everything and marriage is just that a thing, but God says it is so much more. He says it is to be honored above everything else.

I have heard people say it is to much work, yes it is a lot of work, but good things take work, it takes doing things to make it work. It isn't 50-50, it is 100-100, it isn't giving 100% at work, then coming home and giving our spouses what is left, it is actually giving our spouses 100% no matter what. Marriage is the single most important thing in our lives, not because I said so, but the Bible says so. God first, then our spouse, if we aren't doing that, we need to seek God for help, He is the only way.

Ephesians 5:25-28 "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself."

And Wives:

Ephesians 5:22-25 "Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,"

And there are many more scriptures that reference what God wants in our marriages.

God never said that marriage would be easy.It isn't just when things are good or when it is National Spouse Day or Valentines day, but every single day of your life. Besides God, the relationship between a husband and wife is the most important. If it isn't you will see the marriage fall apart, because when you put other things before your spouses, you allow things to break what God has intended and how He wants it to be. If we have kids, what is your marriage stating about how we treat each other? God wants us to be not just reading His word, but doing it as well, acting on it.

Just the same as with our relationship with Jesus Christ, if we put anything before Him, we will see it suffer, it will not be complete. There is a reason for it all, we have to make a choice to put Him first before all else. I have walked the road where I did not put Jesus first, I have seen how hard it is to come back into putting Him first. Praying is a choice and not easy, but when we do it because that is what we should do it changes everything, but if we say we haven't prayed in a while and I don't have time, we are putting other things before God, we are putting ourselves before God, because we made a choice and said we don't feel like it. It is selfish and that is what Jesus is talking about, stop putting ourselves before Him, before our spouses and stand up and be what God is call us to be. His people, that fear Him, Honor Him first. Do what He commands and watch as we stop focusing on ourselves how things change.

Who Defines the Way?

John 14:6 "Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

Is what you want what God wants? That is what matters, Jesus defined the way for us to walk, He has put it in the Bible for a purpose 2 Timothy 3:16 "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,".  Hebrews 4:12 "For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart." We have the choice to follow what the Bible says or do it the way the world does it.  Isaiah 30:21 "Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it." Jesus has defined which way we go. The things that are written are not just to put words on a page, but to give us direction in our lives. The stories you may read are not just for entertainment, but to give us the truth that we are to follow. 

Look at Job, we could say what does that have to teach us? He followed God though everything was taken from him, He did not give up on God. What a testament to who God is and should be to us. We complain when the heat is turned up on our lives, but have we ever really lost everything? Job lost everything, but he gave thanks to God for all that he had. He did not give up on God, but now when the heat is turned up in our lives, do we turn our back on God? I know that life is a choice, following God is a choice, what we do with God is our choice. Not easy to put yourself in Job's shoes, but is life hard for you? Who are you blaming? Does it cause you to doubt God? Jesus wants a deeper relationship with us all, are we willing to have Him purify us by fire? He will turn up the heat to show us what is more important than Him. If I view my desires over what God desires, He will turn up the heat and He wants to be first in ALL things, even before my own feelings. 

There is a scripture in the Bible for pretty much anything you may be going through. Don't be afraid to look, because Jesus has defined a way, we just need to walk in it. His way is higher than our way, His truth is higher than us. He is the only way, not the way the world does it, but God's way. What way do you want to walk in today? 

Remember this: John 10:10 "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly." The devil wants to destroy us, but God wants us to remember that He has come to save us from ourselves.