There's a really cool app for phones, tablets and computers that I have been using lately, it's YouVersion (https://www.youversion.com/ ). It has the Bible and a lot of other features, but the feature I'm using is one where there's a plan to read through the Bible in 3 months! and not only that, it has a feature that will have it read it to you!
So, as I've been shelling pecans I'm also being read to! It's a great way to go through some of the tougher books of the Bible, like the books of the Law and of the Kings (those are tedious for me!). As I've progressed through the chapters I can't imagine how God has tolerated man for so long! We are such an obstinate and rebellious bunch!
The cycle seems never ending, God loves people, people love God....people turn from God and love other gods and themselves more than Him....God gets angry....the people are punished....the people repent and turn to God, He forgives and everything is good for a few years. There doesn't seem to even be two generations in a row that are faithful to God! What is wrong with us!
One thing I have seen in the pattern between God and people is that even when people follow God they fail to give Him their "whole" heart, they always hold part back. Maybe that is our problem? Over and over they will turn to Him and try to restore things to Him, but they fail to tear down the "high places" of sacrifice. (Example 2 Kings 15:3-5)
We need to realize that when we turn to God, He wants ALL of us! Even the "high places". It's obvious in scripture that if we try to hold back anything, it will be to our own downfall.
Now we say, what are "high places"? Or at least what are our "high places"?
"High Places" in scripture are places where there were altars to foreign gods, where there was incense burned and sacrifices made. God is a jealous God and will not tolerate our interest or devotion to any god other than Himself, much less our "burning incense" or giving "sacrifices"!
Next we ask ourselves, do I have any "high places" in my life? Is there something I have left standing when I told God He could have "all of me"? This will take prayer, we need to ask the Holy Spirit to "Please, examine me!", "Please show me any area that is not as it should be!", "Please, make me pleasing to my Heavenly Father", "Please tear down my 'High Places'!".
The Holy Spirit has come to help us know our Heavenly Father more closely, more intimately and once we ask Him to do this He will set about accomplishing the very things we have asked. He wants to help us to grow in a way that glorifies Jesus, and we want to grow in that way, so it's a win-win deal!
Unless you desire to live that old pattern of "love God, sin, repent, love God, sin repent..." then join me and say "Lord, please tear down my "High Places"! I want to walk with you in peace, victory and joy all the days of my life!"
Then we can move from the old sinning pattern into the new pattern! Peace, Victory and Joy can be yours! Work with the Holy Spirit and it will be!
Monday, January 25, 2016
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
Who Wins?
We enter a town where there is a great deal of excitement among the crowd. The crowd is cheering, yelling, jeering, taunting and in the center of the crowd there's a platform where all of the attention is focused.
Standing on the platform is an auctioneer, he is calling attention to the different attributes of a half naked being that is dirty, grimy and humiliated. The being is cowering and trying to hide themselves, but there is nowhere to hide, the being looks up for compassion from the crowd but that only makes them yell louder and laugh harder.
As we look closer we see that the being is none other than you! You have a heavy leather collar around your neck and a yoke across your shoulders. The yoke is held in place by heavy chains and leather straps. The beings around you that are laughing at you are the very ones that you had thought to be your friends! they are the ones that showed you the allure of the things that have led you to accept the yoke across your shoulders! They explained the yoke was no problem, that you would be able to carry it and not even notice it was there! They coaxed you to take further steps down the path with them that led to the chains and leather straps to hold the yoke in place more securely. The crowd around you are the very demons that have led you to this slavery. They are the same ones that strapped the collar around your neck and led you to the platform. (The demons around the platform will be different ones for each person, addictions, perversions, violence, they are usually customized to draw you, not your friend, not your neighbor, but you! Look at the demons around the platform and see which ones you recognize.)
The big, drooling auctioneer shouts that the auction is about to begin. The demons jump with joy, who will buy your allegiance this time? The demon of drugs is pretty confident that he could use you in his work, the demon of deceit a few steps away from him gives him a "thumbs up", they usually work together and know they can both use you! But another spirit gives a knowing leer because he knows he already ahead of them in this auction. He knows that you've been in church since you were a child, so he will be able to use you in his work! He has many of his slaves working in the churches and he sees another prime candidate in you. He can easily whisper in your ear all of the things that you have heard growing up about how church should be and then he can hold another church back from fulfilling it's purpose of being Christ on Earth. He will be able to have you bring some discontent with any change that might move the believers forward, and he can have you sneer at anyone that might want to do anything too radical in God's body. After all, you already know the talk so he won't have to start at the very beginning with you. Another interested bidder eyes you closely and thinks you'd be a waste of his investment, he likes to buy the ones that are really doing something and then give them a few aches and pains and slow them down from doing anything worthwhile in God's kingdom or maybe get them interested in their own lives, their own comforts, hobbies or appetites, but he decides you're not doing anything anyways so why bother?
From the outside fringe of the crowd is One that has entered quietly and now opens the bidding at such an astronomical level that everyone's jaws drop and a hush spreads, they all know that they have been beaten before it even started! The new bidder offered His very life to purchase this one pathetic slave! How crazy is that?! The auctioneer drops the hammer and the sale is over!
The Buyer walks proudly up to the platform, breaks the chains, cuts the leather straps, removes the yoke and leads His prize down the steps. The demons separate, no longer laughing and jeering, but now grumbling and growling, they have lost another one! they were confident they had this one! They had worked so hard together to get this one to the platform, and now all of their work down the drain!
Standing on the platform is an auctioneer, he is calling attention to the different attributes of a half naked being that is dirty, grimy and humiliated. The being is cowering and trying to hide themselves, but there is nowhere to hide, the being looks up for compassion from the crowd but that only makes them yell louder and laugh harder.
As we look closer we see that the being is none other than you! You have a heavy leather collar around your neck and a yoke across your shoulders. The yoke is held in place by heavy chains and leather straps. The beings around you that are laughing at you are the very ones that you had thought to be your friends! they are the ones that showed you the allure of the things that have led you to accept the yoke across your shoulders! They explained the yoke was no problem, that you would be able to carry it and not even notice it was there! They coaxed you to take further steps down the path with them that led to the chains and leather straps to hold the yoke in place more securely. The crowd around you are the very demons that have led you to this slavery. They are the same ones that strapped the collar around your neck and led you to the platform. (The demons around the platform will be different ones for each person, addictions, perversions, violence, they are usually customized to draw you, not your friend, not your neighbor, but you! Look at the demons around the platform and see which ones you recognize.)
The big, drooling auctioneer shouts that the auction is about to begin. The demons jump with joy, who will buy your allegiance this time? The demon of drugs is pretty confident that he could use you in his work, the demon of deceit a few steps away from him gives him a "thumbs up", they usually work together and know they can both use you! But another spirit gives a knowing leer because he knows he already ahead of them in this auction. He knows that you've been in church since you were a child, so he will be able to use you in his work! He has many of his slaves working in the churches and he sees another prime candidate in you. He can easily whisper in your ear all of the things that you have heard growing up about how church should be and then he can hold another church back from fulfilling it's purpose of being Christ on Earth. He will be able to have you bring some discontent with any change that might move the believers forward, and he can have you sneer at anyone that might want to do anything too radical in God's body. After all, you already know the talk so he won't have to start at the very beginning with you. Another interested bidder eyes you closely and thinks you'd be a waste of his investment, he likes to buy the ones that are really doing something and then give them a few aches and pains and slow them down from doing anything worthwhile in God's kingdom or maybe get them interested in their own lives, their own comforts, hobbies or appetites, but he decides you're not doing anything anyways so why bother?
From the outside fringe of the crowd is One that has entered quietly and now opens the bidding at such an astronomical level that everyone's jaws drop and a hush spreads, they all know that they have been beaten before it even started! The new bidder offered His very life to purchase this one pathetic slave! How crazy is that?! The auctioneer drops the hammer and the sale is over!
The Buyer walks proudly up to the platform, breaks the chains, cuts the leather straps, removes the yoke and leads His prize down the steps. The demons separate, no longer laughing and jeering, but now grumbling and growling, they have lost another one! they were confident they had this one! They had worked so hard together to get this one to the platform, and now all of their work down the drain!
Thursday, January 7, 2016
Protection and Provision
What is it that makes people want safety and protection more than freedom and liberty? Today people want the government to take care of them, to provide all that they could possibly need, yet if they looked at history this was never a good thing! Have you ever heard of the old story of "owing the company store"? That's where people lived and worked in an area that the company they worked for also owned the local grocery store. The people would work all week so they could go to the store on their payday and give all of their money to the store to buy the food they needed to live for the next week, so they could work all week and then repeat the cycle.
These days people have been enticed to receive food stamps, health care, housing, cell phones and anything else they aren't able to provide for themselves, all from the government. (I do want to say here that there are some people that aren't able to provide for themselves, but many people that receive these benefits could do something to help themselves if they really needed to, if the welfare check wasn't going to arrive they might find a way to support themselves.)
The point of this article is that the more handouts we take from the government, the more we developing a slave mentality. We are becoming a society of economic slaves. We work to pay the "government store". (What happened to the idea that those who don't work, don't eat? 2 Thessalonians 3:10-11 )
I am currently studying in scripture where Moses was enduring the complaining of the multitude of Hebrews that were being led away from slavery. Were they thanking him? NO! they were complaining about how good they had it in the slavery that he had come to lead them from! Yet, Moses was sent by God to lead the Hebrews from their captivity in Egypt because of the outcry they had caused. They were complaining about being slaves and their treatment by the Egyptian government and then they complained about their freedom and there treatment by life! The lesson I'm learning here is that people will always complain!
Now, I'm wondering what point God is making in all of this? It sounds hopeless, doesn't it? If you follow the Hebrew's experience further, the lessons they were being shown was that God is always there and ready to take care of them (and us). Just ask Him, quit complaining and grumbling, quit looking to man for our needs to be met.
Once we really learn this lesson we will rejoice and praise God! We will learn to live in peace with each other! Our only problem will be that there is an enemy running around Earth, trying to steal, kill and destroy us, but if we have truly learned the lesson of depending on God for our safety, protection and provision then the enemy will not be able to tear us away from that. Beloved, learn to draw close to our Heavenly Father, He is all we need. We don't need for the government to treat us like little children that need to be told what to do and what not to do, we need God...we need to draw close to Him and walk under His care daily.
If we turn and take one step towards Him, He runs to us! He cleans us up, He repairs us and prepares us! Choose Him as your Protector and Provider.
These days people have been enticed to receive food stamps, health care, housing, cell phones and anything else they aren't able to provide for themselves, all from the government. (I do want to say here that there are some people that aren't able to provide for themselves, but many people that receive these benefits could do something to help themselves if they really needed to, if the welfare check wasn't going to arrive they might find a way to support themselves.)
The point of this article is that the more handouts we take from the government, the more we developing a slave mentality. We are becoming a society of economic slaves. We work to pay the "government store". (What happened to the idea that those who don't work, don't eat? 2 Thessalonians 3:10-11 )
I am currently studying in scripture where Moses was enduring the complaining of the multitude of Hebrews that were being led away from slavery. Were they thanking him? NO! they were complaining about how good they had it in the slavery that he had come to lead them from! Yet, Moses was sent by God to lead the Hebrews from their captivity in Egypt because of the outcry they had caused. They were complaining about being slaves and their treatment by the Egyptian government and then they complained about their freedom and there treatment by life! The lesson I'm learning here is that people will always complain!
Now, I'm wondering what point God is making in all of this? It sounds hopeless, doesn't it? If you follow the Hebrew's experience further, the lessons they were being shown was that God is always there and ready to take care of them (and us). Just ask Him, quit complaining and grumbling, quit looking to man for our needs to be met.
Once we really learn this lesson we will rejoice and praise God! We will learn to live in peace with each other! Our only problem will be that there is an enemy running around Earth, trying to steal, kill and destroy us, but if we have truly learned the lesson of depending on God for our safety, protection and provision then the enemy will not be able to tear us away from that. Beloved, learn to draw close to our Heavenly Father, He is all we need. We don't need for the government to treat us like little children that need to be told what to do and what not to do, we need God...we need to draw close to Him and walk under His care daily.
If we turn and take one step towards Him, He runs to us! He cleans us up, He repairs us and prepares us! Choose Him as your Protector and Provider.
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