The Least

Matthew 25:40 ""The King will reply, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.'"

My wife and I attended a marriage conference and one thing they noted, was how when we mistreat our spouse, we are actually mistreating our father in heaven. They didn't just state this once, but many times. They talked about how when we do not show them love or respect, we are in fact not showing God our father in Heaven these things. God has has given these relationships to better His kingdom, He talks about it and He is very clear about how we are to be. We put Him first in all things and then our spouses, children and so on. We need to not allow anything before God, doing so shows us that the thing the replaces God is an idol. Our relationship with our spouse is next, because of how Jesus talks about it as how God is to the Church. When these things break down, we are not following what Jesus wanted and has instructed. Marriage isn't easy, but nothing worth doing is easy. There is no pill, it takes work. Diets take work, but it is worth doing because you prolong your life, climbing the mountain is worth doing, because you get to see the sunset and say you have made it. Relationships of any kind take work, but that work will be worth it in the long run. 

I ask myself what things am I putting before God? What things am I putting before my marriage and relationships? I must seek God in these things, because without doing it God way, things will get jumbled and confusing. It will seem like I am fighting a battle, but the battle is really only I am fighting to do it my way, it is because I am trying to do it in with my own strength. This is sin, it grieves Jesus, because He wants to be the center of our lives, He wants to be and has stated it over and over again. But if He is not the center and the relationships are not in the way they should be, then life will seem like it is out of sorts and in shambles. Isn't it time to put it back together. It takes work, but the work will be worth it.

2 Timothy 4:7 "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." God has given us a direction, a way and we are to run the race He has set before us, will we say I have done it good, finished the race and kept the faith? Doing so is not easy and takes work.

We think we can treat others any way we want to, but the truth is, what we do to others, we are doing to Jesus. It is written many times, see below:

Matthew 7:12 "“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets."

Luke 6:31 "And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them."

Mark 12:31 "The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”"

Matthew 7:1-5 "“Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye."

Leviticus 19:18 "You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am theLord."

1 John 4:20 " If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot[a] love Godwhom he has not seen."

Proverbs 28:6 "Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity than a rich man who is crooked in his ways."

1 Peter 3:9 "Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary,bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing."

Matthew 25:31-46 "The Final Judgment
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him,then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’(Read More...)"

Luke 6:32-42 "37 “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; 38 give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.” (Read More...)"

Fighting with God

I was reminded when I was doing some research this morning about a Bible Genesis 32:22-32 story about what happened to Jacob when he fought with God. He was running from his father-in-law, but what stood in his path was his brother Esau. He was at the end of his rope, he was worn out from running and alone and afraid of his fate, he had no idea what his brother would do to him. His brother had vowed to kill him, so he was stuck. I find it interesting that Jacob means deceiver.

He was powerless to do anything, he prayed for God to save him early in the day. That night he was in a deep sleep and in that sleep he wrestled with God, in the end God won and Jacob limped the rest of his life. Jacob didn't want to submit to what God had for him. God had told him he would be a great nation, but Jacob was running. 

My point in sharing this with you is to say that God has put a path before us, each of us have a reason we are here. We see it time and time again in the Bible about men who tried to escape God's plans, but in the end they followed God's instructions. Look at Jonah and the whale, in the end Jonah went to Nineveh. 

Has God put a plan before you, has He given you instructions to follow?

I believe He has given each of us instructions, tools and more, He has given us a way to do all of it, but we must walk in it. We must not wrestle with God, we must allow Him to lead and be willing to follow. We will not be swallowed by a whale or even be literally broken by God, but what area's of your life are in ruin, because you are doing it your way and fighting with God?

Is it time to surrender and allow God to have rule over every area? His way, He lays it out as clear as day of how things should be, but we have to be willing to walk in it. Things will get in the way of our plans, our days will get busy, but when we do it God's way, those things will be like tiny waves and when the big ones come and they will, we will keep our eyes on Jesus, because He is where our strength must come from, not our own, but His.

I have heard it said, you can lead a horse to water, but you can force the horse to drink, it comes down to the horses choice. I can speak truth, but if you don't want to receive it, that is between you and God. I will be praying for a heart to receive this truth, because He wants you to follow Him. 

Have a blessed day.

Blindness

In the Bible God has given us direction, commands, both with promises and then without, He has given us truths to walk in and then just wisdom to follow. All of which is right at our disposal, we just have to want to know the truth, because Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, we must seek Him first. Matthew 6:33-34 "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its "

I believe the enemy has come to blind us from the truth and it is easy to think that everything is fine, that no bad can happen to us. We need to be aware of what the enemy is doing, I think we need to ask God to remove the veil that blocks our vision of the truth of the enemy, for the enemy comes to rob, steal and destroy John 10:10, he is blinding us in our own homes, he is stealing our joy, our peace and we don't see it, because we are blind. We need to ask God to give us a heart to serve Him and then we must walk in it, not just ask but to follow through with it.

It is high time that we stand for what we believe and not just let others do it for us, because I believe that not walking in the truth is a tool of the enemy. The devil wants us to believe that we have no choices, that the way we are is the way we will be for the rest of our lives, but the truth is when we walk in Jesus and put Him first in all we do, we stop making each day about what I want and start making it about what He wants, it changes everything when we start putting Him first, when we die to ourselves. It isn't to late to change, it isn't to late to make a choice, but it is a moment by moment choice, not just a one time thing.

Spiritual blindness is caused by letting self rule over what the Holy Spirit wants, it is allowing sin to stand in the way of God, it is excepting the ways of the world and the truth, instead of allow Jesus the Son of God to be the number one ruler in our lives. It is living in a spirit of change, instead of a negative spirit of I can't change. God wants us to change, He has given us the tools, will we walk in it?

2 Timothy 3:1-9 "But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.  6 For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, 7 always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. 8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. 9 But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men."

Jude 1:18-19 "They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” 19 These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit."

I believe that the Bible has guidelines, truths, ways to live and when we follow it, it changes everything, when we oppose it, we oppose God. He has shown us the truth and when we walk in the truth, the truth will set us free, but we need to walk in it daily, moment by moment. It comes down to what we want to put first, self or God. Are we blinded from the truth, today pray that God will open your eyes, see what He has for you, instead of what you want or what the demands of your day.