We are just like children, we are growing and learning while God is our teacher. How many times do we not turn to God for help, because we think we know a better way to maneuver thing?
Have you ever had a child or an adult whom you have offered help, to which they dismiss you, letting you know that they want to do it their way, or they don't need your help? I know as a parent, that is hard to hear, because I want to help, I want to teach, I want to show them there is a better way. It may not be the best way, but I believe it is a better way to get to the solution. I want to help them, to teach them in the process. It pains me to see them go through hard things, because I know if they had just done it differently, it would have been easier. My heart grieves and I feel badly, because if they had taken my help, it probably would have been a good teaching experience for both of us. Even with adults who don't want to listen to the help that I have, it hurts, because it isn't that I know it all, because I don't, but God has brought me things in my life that I have learned and to be able to share those things, is a blessing and a way to share with others what I have learned. God has brought me through things, yes my bad decisions and lack of listening to the help He has given, have brought me to these things, but I know the affect of not listening and wanting to do it myself.
In the Bible it talks about how we are like little children. How many times have I told God I know how to do it better than Him, because I didn't go to Him in prayer in regards to it? Or how many times was the answer taking to long, that I decided I knew best? How many times have I done the very thing that I see others doing to me, have I done the exact thing to God?
Those are tough lessons to learn even when learning them for myself. God wants to take away my burden 1 Peter 5:7 "Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.", He wants me to run to Him with all my problems and He asks me to wait on Him. In Isaiah 40:31 it says "but those who hope (other translations say wait on) in the Lord will renew their strength.They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." I have to trust God and run to Him with my issues. Matthew 11:28-30 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Jesus has told us that we need to come to Him, that the answer is Him, not what I think, but what He thinks. He has given us direction, He has given us so much more than we know, but we must go to Him no matter how dark the night is, because He is the only answer. I do not know how to navigate this life, but He does. The words in the Bible are His words, not mans, in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."
Wow, He has given us scripture for all of those things, not just something confusing to read, but something that is there to teach us. Look into Proverbs, there is so much wisdom in that book, but am I just reading it for head knowledge or am I letting it take the longest path to my heart? God wants us to hide the words in our heart so that we may not sin against Him. What is God teaching you today? Are you listening or are you trying to do it your way?
Have a blessed day.
Friday, July 22, 2016
Thursday, July 21, 2016
The Path
I have heard it said, the path from the head to the heart is the longest and hardest path. I recall hearing about a man that had memorized the Bible word for word, but he was an atheist. He had a lot of head knowledge, but had no heart knowledge. He didn't believe what he had read, he just saw it words on a page.
I have tried long and hard to put words to the head knowledge verses heart knowledge and God has given me the words to share.
Head knowledge is focused on self, it is what can I get from my knowledge to better me, what can I do to make a difference in my life. It is knowing the Bible without actually knowing the knowledge of the truth of who God really is. It is going to church, but having no fruit in my walk. The Bible talks about the tree that bears no good fruit Matthew 7:17 "Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit."
Heart knowledge is knowing and truly seeing the reality of God. That it is not about self at all, but about the Love for the Father who has made us. He says in John 14:15 ""If you love me, keep my commands." It is heart knowledge that shows us that true love is not just something that happens, because of good things, it comes down to a heart choice. Love is a choice, we have to lead our hearts, because our hearts contain junk, look at Matthew 15:19 "For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander." Good things take work, it takes work to grow, I can sit and hope to learn, but what I learn is that sitting doesn't afford me the chance to learn, I have to do to learn. God calls us to do. He talks about us doing, not just being.
The problem today we have a heart condition that is focused on self. When the heart is focused on what can I get out of this or that, we lose the point of honoring God, because all we see is me, me, me. God says we must die to self, that in order to live for Him. The water baptism is a symbol for bury the old, so that we could come alive in Christ Jesus. That in and of itself is not enough, because we have to make the choice every moment of every day, to put to death the old self (otherwise it will keep coming back) and we have to come alive in Christ Jesus. He is the only way we can live, not for ourselves but for Him.
When we understand the unconditional love of the Father for us, we see how that unconditional love can come alive in our own lives for the people that are around us. We stop making it about self and start making it about Christ Jesus who lives in us and can live through us if we make the choice to continue to die to self.
The Bible talks about the heart and what it has in it. We see in Matthew 22:37 Jesus replied: "‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’" With your heart and mind, it isn't just in our minds that we have to love Him or just in our hearts, but in both places and our soul. We may have the knowledge and love Him just because or we have the heart knowledge to live it out.
Our heart contains many things and it warns us about what we have in our hearts in Matthew 15:19 "For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander." and Matthew 15:18 "But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them." But in Luke 6:45 "A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of."
My final thoughts, when I am lost if I just stay in the same place, I will still be lost, but if I start walking and trusting God to lead me, then He does. It takes movement, it takes walking by faith and not by site. Good things take work, great things take a lot of work. Our relationship with the Father, takes us praying, reading and doing. It is like a garden, if I don't tend it, it will become full of weeds, the good plants will die and the weeds will take over. I can't just remain idle, I have to work at it.
I have tried long and hard to put words to the head knowledge verses heart knowledge and God has given me the words to share.
Head knowledge is focused on self, it is what can I get from my knowledge to better me, what can I do to make a difference in my life. It is knowing the Bible without actually knowing the knowledge of the truth of who God really is. It is going to church, but having no fruit in my walk. The Bible talks about the tree that bears no good fruit Matthew 7:17 "Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit."
Heart knowledge is knowing and truly seeing the reality of God. That it is not about self at all, but about the Love for the Father who has made us. He says in John 14:15 ""If you love me, keep my commands." It is heart knowledge that shows us that true love is not just something that happens, because of good things, it comes down to a heart choice. Love is a choice, we have to lead our hearts, because our hearts contain junk, look at Matthew 15:19 "For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander." Good things take work, it takes work to grow, I can sit and hope to learn, but what I learn is that sitting doesn't afford me the chance to learn, I have to do to learn. God calls us to do. He talks about us doing, not just being.
The problem today we have a heart condition that is focused on self. When the heart is focused on what can I get out of this or that, we lose the point of honoring God, because all we see is me, me, me. God says we must die to self, that in order to live for Him. The water baptism is a symbol for bury the old, so that we could come alive in Christ Jesus. That in and of itself is not enough, because we have to make the choice every moment of every day, to put to death the old self (otherwise it will keep coming back) and we have to come alive in Christ Jesus. He is the only way we can live, not for ourselves but for Him.
When we understand the unconditional love of the Father for us, we see how that unconditional love can come alive in our own lives for the people that are around us. We stop making it about self and start making it about Christ Jesus who lives in us and can live through us if we make the choice to continue to die to self.
The Bible talks about the heart and what it has in it. We see in Matthew 22:37 Jesus replied: "‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’" With your heart and mind, it isn't just in our minds that we have to love Him or just in our hearts, but in both places and our soul. We may have the knowledge and love Him just because or we have the heart knowledge to live it out.
Our heart contains many things and it warns us about what we have in our hearts in Matthew 15:19 "For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander." and Matthew 15:18 "But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them." But in Luke 6:45 "A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of."
My final thoughts, when I am lost if I just stay in the same place, I will still be lost, but if I start walking and trusting God to lead me, then He does. It takes movement, it takes walking by faith and not by site. Good things take work, great things take a lot of work. Our relationship with the Father, takes us praying, reading and doing. It is like a garden, if I don't tend it, it will become full of weeds, the good plants will die and the weeds will take over. I can't just remain idle, I have to work at it.
Tuesday, July 19, 2016
Quenching the Spirit
I was reading the Bible last night and I was amazed at the warning in 1 Thessalonians 5:19 "Do not quench the Spirit." which got me to thinking. Who is the Holy Spirit and how does something I do cause me to quench the Holy Spirit?
God gave us the Holy Spirit to guide us, to teach us, to lead us. In John 14:26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”
Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Matthew 28:19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
We grieve the Spirit by living like Un-Christians (4:17-19), by lying (4:25), by being angry (4:26-27), by stealing (4:28), by cursing (4:29), by being bitter (4:31), by being unforgiving (4:32), and by being sexually immoral (5:3-5). To grieve the Spirit is to act out in a sinful manner, whether it is in thought only or in both thought and deed.
God gave us the Holy Spirit to guide us, to teach us, to lead us. In John 14:26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”
Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Matthew 28:19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
Romans 5:5 “Hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
Romans 8:26-27 “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”
The Holy Spirit is our Helper, teacher, instructor, shows us wrong from right, pours out love. But when we quench the Holy Spirit, we put out the effectiveness of what He does for us. The Holy Spirit is part of the Trinity, the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. God has poured out His Spirit on us and when we do not follow what God has said, we grieve/quench Him.
What quenches the Holy Spirit? I believe when we say we know better than God, I will do it my way and not His, we are therefor quenching the Holy Spirit. In Ephesians 4:29-32 "29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God,with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you."
God teaches us that we need to turn from our wicked ways, we need to humble ourselves and repent. Repent means to turn, not do a 360. but to turn from them and sin no more. Like the woman that the Pharisees brought to Jesus who was caught in adultery, Jesus said He does not condemn her, go and sin no more. We need to learn from that, God is teaching us through the Holy Spirit and is saying these things grieve Me, turn from them and sin no more.
When we make life about self, we grieve God. When we are more concerned about what other think then what God thinks that is pretty much saying that God doesn't matter, but what others may think is more important. In Galatians 6:7-9 "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life, Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."
I believe God is calling us to be a people that walk by the Holy Spirit, dying to ourselves and living by the power and strength of the Holy Spirit. My favorite verse is Isaiah 40:31 "but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." In and of ourselves we can't do it, we will grow weary, we will want to give up, but when we allow the Holy Spirit to strengthen us, teach us, guide us, live through us our strength is only limited by ourselves. We need to be a people that are willing to say I can't, but with God anything is possible. I want the Holy Spirit to be alive in me, not quenched, not grieved.
This is a good reminder to myself for I can't do it without God, but with God He will lead me, the Holy Spirit doesn't want to be quenched, but wants to be the my strength, my shield, teacher. Because the Joy of the Lord is my strength, not my strength, but His.
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