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Can you stand?

03 Sep

Can you stand?

Proverbs 14:26-27 In the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence, And His children will have a place of refuge 27 The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, To turn one away from the snares of death.
Are you willing to point out sin? Are you willing to step on the toes of those you love, of friends, of family, of maybe even your church? Are you willing to stand up for truth, even though it comes with a cost? Are you willing to be moved into daily repentance yourself, if you say that you are willing to teach the precepts of the Lord? This is missing as a society today. We have become a nation that is scared to offend; a nation that has no spine, but continually molds itself to whatever doesn’t offend, speaking soft words of encouragement only. We have no spine to stand for Truth. This has crept into our church pulpits and many pastors only speak of heaven, blessings, and never preach of hell and repentance. There is more of the world in the church now than the church in the world. The passion is missing from pulpits, for preachers have softened their gospels to fit societies spineless minds. We teach of the blessings that come, but steer away from the cost of denial. There is equal power of God in the promise of salvation and the conviction of sin.

Holy, reverent fear is healthy. It keeps your path straight, keeps you from sin, and keeps your heart digging into God’s Word. If you are not fearful of God, you don’t truly know him. Psalms 111:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise.

I am stopping here…..much too close to my heart for what I see today.

 
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Posted by on September 3, 2015 in Daily Devotions

 

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Are you digging a well?

26 Jun

Are you digging a well?

Proverbs 14:26-27    In the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence, And His children will have a place of refuge. 27 The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, To turn one away from the snares of death.

All throughout the Bible the analogies of living water, and synonyms of it are found. All that we need to survive is found in that living water; fountains of life for eternal life. This passage in Proverbs is the central idea of Proverbs; the fear of the Lord. 14:2 He who walks in his uprightness fears the Lord, But he who is perverse in his ways despises Him. This reverent fear produces a life seeking to please the Lord; that life’s pursuit is evident to all that witness it. A life that denies, or rests on it’s own pride, is open for all to see also. That pride leads to death as we learn here; pride is the root of all sin, and those steep in pride will pay an eternal price. But what of those under our care? What of our children and our eternal responsibility to them?

The analogy of the wells that produce fountains of life in Salvation, with Christ as the living water, all speak to the direct need of water to live. In the times of the Bible, wells were extremely hard to come by; they had great value and blessed generations with water. Can you imagine what it took to simply dig a well in those days? The reward provided that element necessary for life, just as Christ provides the element necessary for eternal life. Isaiah 12:3 Therefore with joy you will draw water From the wells of salvation. In the beautiful story of Christ with the Samaritan women at the well, He tells her of what he has to offer her; He promises her eternal life when she drinks from the fountain of life found in the well of Salvation in him. John 4:13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”

Returning to the question of fear of the Lord, and the evidences of it in your life, especially to your children. All throughout the Bible it speaks of our responsibilities to them. In Deuteronomy it is spoken of passing down the fear of the Lord to their children; of how God protected, provided, and gave them the Ten Commandments. Deuteronomy 11:19 You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. The Israelites were a people who lived their lives in reverent fear of the Lord. As generations came and went, their faith and fear went in cycles also. But those that lived their lives as examples to their children, blessed their children for eternity. They prepared their paths for them to live their lives for God, to provide them eternal hope that the world cannot steal away. What do your kiddo’s see? What will they see when your gone?

 
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Posted by on June 26, 2013 in Daily Devotions

 

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Mirror First

25 Jun

Mirror First

Proverbs 12:15 The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, But he who heeds counsel is wise.

I have so much on my mind. I sometimes wonder if all that is on my mind is the distractions of the world, or ways that God draws me closer to Him. In all of it do I stress out with the worry of it, or in it, am I drawn to God through it? Does He allow all of this to keep me seeking Him continually; not to feel as though I can do life on my own? Could I become so comfortable that I don’t see the need for God? This morning in prayer I asked God to help me see my life as He does. To be on the outside looking in at all of my struggles and things that I stress about. I thought of the Brandon Heath song, “Give Me Your Eyes”. It speaks so clearly of the compassion the Lord has for the lost and broken; what we seem to miss so many times stuck in our own worlds of selfish focus on our struggles.

I spent time in Proverbs and came to the passage above. The study of it led to Proverbs 3:7 Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and depart from evil. 8 It will be health to your flesh, And strength to your bones. Reverent fear of the Lord will produce a life that leads to righteousness. That life with it’s pursuit of righteousness will lead to a deeper understanding of how He sees the world. It will strengthen you from the inside out; feeding and nourishing your soul for what the body needs. It will not feed it with worldly “stuff” that blurs our vision from the things as God sees them. The junk that this world seeks to penetrate our minds numbs us to the things of Christ. You know of what I speak; you surely have your own battles just as I. The level of reverent fear of the Lord is directly related to your struggle with those evils.

In the continued study of that passage it led to a parable that Christ spoke of in Luke 18:10-14. It was about a self-righteous man and a tax collector who went to the temple and prayed. The self-righteous man elevated himself, but the tax collector humbled himself and asked God for forgiveness of his sin. Luke 18:14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” When we want to see things as God sees them, we have to be brave enough for the mirror. A reverent fear of the Lord is knowing how He sees ourselves; knowing that in our hearts are we pursuing righteousness or living for the world? If we are in humble pursuit of righteousness, that we are getting glimpses of His eyes. Those glimpses typically start in the mirror.

 
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Posted by on June 25, 2013 in Daily Devotions

 

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Edjumikashun

22 Mar

Edjumikashun

Proverbs 2:1-5     My son, if you receive my words, And treasure my commands within you, 2 So that you incline your ear to wisdom, And apply your heart to understanding; 3 Yes, if you cry out for discernment, And lift up your voice for understanding, 4 If you seek her as silver, And search for her as for hidden treasures; 5 Then you will understand the fear of the Lord, And find the knowledge of God.

It is pretty much a standard of living that you will spend at least 12 years of your life in school. Therefore you will spend the first 18-20 years of your life seeking the minimum education required to “do life”. I stopped there with my diploma many years ago, only seeking the bare minimums to collect it and move on. I did not see the value in a further education, and I have paid for the mistakes of my youth. An education is a tool upon which the mind has doors opened to further the capabilities of it, and all those affected by it. This understanding has come from a lifetime of realizing mostly by error, the mistakes of things lost without knowledge found in that education.

Have you come to know Christ and desire to know more of Him? Have you answered that call He placed upon your soul in an act you still struggle to explain? So many times we come to know Christ, and feel that tug of desire to know what is next. We have felt that change that He brings, but we sometimes wonder how we are to get more understanding Him. It is all found in the heart that pursues him in prayer and his Word. The key to unlock to mysteries of God are found in the pages of God; through the power of the Holy Spirit he has given you. 1 Corinthians 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. 13 These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

A high school diploma will get you just over 86,000 hours of education in that 12 years. You will have invested a good percentage of your early life in the pursuit of knowledge, and the hope and understanding of how it may be applied in your life. In Christ you have opened the door to eternity and all the endless possibilities that lie in it. For the remainder of your life here, the wisdom of God is given in the guidebook of life, the Bible. A heat that is genuinely seeking God every day will live a life in the rewards of the wisdom He reveals through His Word. Proverbs 2:10 When wisdom enters your heart, And knowledge is pleasant to your soul, 11 Discretion will preserve you; Understanding will keep you. Spend the rest of your life in the pursuit of a heavenly wisdom and understanding of God and the things of God found in His Word every day. The rewards for your time here are greater than any diploma recognized by man.

 
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Posted by on March 22, 2013 in Daily Devotions

 

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