I will give them a heart to know Me.

The Bible refers to the heart in many ways and at many levels.  The least frequent reference is to the actual physical heart.  Most references can be associated to the emotional, moral, and reasoning counsels of the internal physically hidden center of a person.  This place inside of every person is the place where the real you is located and only you and God are witnesses to it.  Jesus said in Luke 16:15 that “God knows your hearts.” (Also reference 1 Sam 16:7, Prov 25:3, 1 Cor 4:5.)  However, Jesus said in Matthew 12:33-34 that the heart’s secrets are betrayed by the mouth and Paul clarified that the mouth confesses what the heart trusts (Rom 10:9).

Jesus said in Mark 7:21, “Far from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts”.  Jeremiah said in 17:9 that “the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.  Who can understand it?” 

Today’s American culture has as one of its bedrocks this concept that rational and irrational thoughts do not come from the same mind.  This means that a person who consistently makes logical and sound decisions would not make an illogical or unsound decision without some external influence.  The IQ test is based solely on this premise assuming that intelligence and rationality go together.  Yet we all know intelligent people that do extremely irrational things.  This would lead me to believe that rational decisions come from somewhere other than only intelligence. 

Psalm 20:4 says, “May He give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.”  This would indicate that the desires of your heart, that inner man where the real you is located, is what is driving your decisions where rational (decisions made to benefit yourself and others) or apparently irrational (decisions made that are harmful to yourself and others) are made.  This is why a highly intelligent person, by our standards, can make the worst insensible decisions in their daily life.  Their inner man is being led by something other their ability to make intelligent rational decisions from data.

Julie indicates that the movie Forrest Gump is a excellent example.  All the people around Forrest were normal and of apparent normal intelligence, yet they all made irrational decisions and led inconsistent lives.  Forrest, the dumb one, made rational decisions and led a consistent successful life.  The point of decision making was from each person's inner self and the condition of that inner self was the most important contributing factor of the person's decisions, not their intelligence.

This is important to realize so we can know that it is within our inner core of who we are that we need to be changed.  This is where the sin nature exists.  We might not want it to be there, but it is there.  This is why we need a new “heart”.  We need a new internal hidden center, a new inner self.  David prayed that God would, “Create in me a pure heart, O God”.  The only way to get a new “heart” is to believe in Jesus as the Son of the one true living God and that He came and paid the penalty we would pay for that rotten inner “heart” that is evil and deceitful.  When we believe in Him, we will get a new “heart”, which is really God Himself in the presence of His Spirit.  This opportunity to believe in Jesus is available 24/7, 24 hours a day, 7 days each week. 

Out of that new “heart”, will come all that is God inasmuch as we are able to express it and allow it to dominate our own wicked thoughts and desires.  God is there, but so are we as is our ability to choose ourselves.  Only through constant recognition of our own wickedness and our intense desire of love for God to reject it, can God make daily work in our life.  Every day we choose to not just believe He exists, but to love Him for being our God.  Russ would quote from Joshua 25:15, "...choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve...as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."  Every day we choose whom we will love.  Our Father will then do everything else.

The most blessed thing God could ever put towards me, towards my family, towards my friends, is to say “I will give them a heart to know Me.”

Your Whole Heart

In Jeremiah chapter 24 we are told how Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, took the best of Judah from Jerusalem to Babylon.  These were a defeated people who were being located into a pagan culture.  They would serve this culture and be in this culture.

God demonstrates using two baskets of figs how He is separating the Hebrews.  One group will be taken away as slaves.  Another will be left.  If one didn’t know what the Lord had intended between these two groups, it would be easy to come to the conclusion that the group taken away were the ones God was not with and the ones left in their homeland were the ones God was with.  But this was not true.  The “good figs” were the ones taken away and the “bad figs” were the ones left.

The “bad figs” were seen as so bad they could not be eaten, the Lord was delivering them “to trouble into all the kingdoms of the earth, for their harm, to be a reproach and a byword, a taunt and a curse, in all places where I shall drive them.  I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence among them, till they are consumed.” (v 9-10) 

Who, in all the earth, wants to be such a person before the Lord?  My heart hurts thinking of anyone in such a position before God, yet people choose it every day.

The “good figs” were sent away “for their own good” (v 5).  The Lord says, “I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land; I will build them and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up.  THEN I WILL GIVE THEM A HEART TO KNOW ME, THAT I AM THE LORD; AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE, AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, FOR THEY SHALL RETURN TO ME WITH THEIR WHOLE HEART.” (v 6-7)

Is there anything conceivable that could exists that we could possible desire more than this?  To know God with my whole heart and to be His son is all that can be desired.  Does anything else truly exist?  This is the only reality.

Today, we may be going through a tough time.  Maybe you think you are being led away as a slave, defeated to your shame, and your home (what you knew as safe and secure) is lost.  Be careful with such human logic.  The Lord might be leading you away for your good, a “very good” (v 2), that is beyond the expectation of those who seek Him as it will fill your whole heart.  Do not be dismayed.  Look for Him where you are and follow.

Priorities

Matt 6:33  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

The world tells us that we must make a plan and work that plan to be successful.  It defines success for us as reaching notable status in our pursuits and tells us that we are in charge of our own happiness.  Yet when we look at famous and notable people contentment and joy are not the words used to describe them.  They suffer high rates of divorce and mental illnesses.  Why?  Because their priorities are out of balance. 
Certainly scripture tells us to accomplish our tasks to the very best of our ability (Col 3:17), but we need to choose those tasks very carefully.  For students in High School, your task is to do the very best you can in school to ensure you're equipped for whatever God calls you to do in life.  The next steps in life require earnest prayer to choose whether to further your education in college, if so, which college, what major and so on.  These choices launch you on a vector for life and thus must be chosen with extreme care.  The world is telling you to make something of yourself which is consistent with ancient western agnostic thinking that we are all gods.  Nothing is further from the truth.  There is but one God and we're not Him. 
As we proceed through each day, we must consciously choose to follow God first and foremost.  He has promised to light our path (Ps 119:105) which means He will give us the discernment to take just the next step or two in life.  Failure to be sensitive to His direction risks a step off the path of His perfect will.  If you truly want contentment and joy, seek God first and He will guide you into the best decisions.  Once called, do your best at each task and He will continue to use you for His kingdom work (Matt 18).  Failure to follow God risks making poor choices which might seem good at the time, but ultimately lead to frustration, division, and lack of fulfillment.  Choose this day whom you will serve.  If it is God, then quit playing around and get serious about seeking Him first.  If you choose to follow your own path, I pray God's protection over you - you'll need it eventually. 

Things are never as they seem

1 Cor 2: 14The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. 

We can only understand things of this world by our experiences.  As Reja says often, "we need the data."  Yet we are human and see only a glimpse of reality and almost always form our understanding based on incomplete facts.  Many of us have shared that we've seen gorgeous locks of hair and then when the person turns around, its a guy. 
So it is with God.  We tend to put God in all kinds of boxes based on our own understanding of the physical realm and our own biases.  God will not allow Himself to be defined by anything other than Himself.  That means we need to study His own revelation of Himself to us: His Holy Word.  That study must be done with the inspiration of God's own Spirit and with an open mind to allow God to form within us the correct understanding of who He is, how He works in and through us. 
It's quite tragic, but happens frequently that we open scripture and find something that doesn't fit our understanding and rather than allowing God to reshape our understanding of Him, we reject scripture.  Often this leads to argument and dissention among God's people.  Let's be clear, in these cases we're arguing with God first and foremost and have revealed an area where God isn't Lord and we need to yield control of our mind to Him in that area. 
May we be a people who are guided by God's revelation of Himself and not by our own fallible opinions.  May we be a people who have the courage and conviction to stand on a comprehensive understanding of scripture and not on our own opinions of how God must be or what Jesus would do.  God has revealed Himself sufficiently in scripture.  Our job is to mature spiritually by studying His word and getting to know Him as He defines Himself, not how we want Him to be defined. 

Be Hot or Cold

“In the manner of men, I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantage is it to me? If the dead do not rise, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!’“ – 1 Corinthians 15:32

This seems to be the downfall in the mindset of many a Christian man and it is easy to fall into this trap of worldly thinking.  The thinking goes something like this: “What advantage is there for me to fight all day and sometimes all night, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, only to get old and die?  I think I see others who do not do this and they seemingly appear to be enjoying all of their life getting everything out of it while I slave away for nothing!  It is time for me to get something before life passes me by.  I need to do what will make me happy.” So, the man goes out and eats, drinks and is merry.  (Or is it eat, drink and be Mary?)  And a whole lot of people are left holding on as the wake from that boat pounds them over and over.

But, dear Christian, the dead DO rise!!  What then?  Do you continue in your thinking and living for yourself?  In the end you will be dead either way!  Live for Christ today or go and die!  Do not confuse the dead by being half-dead or the living with being half-alive.  Choose one way or the other and do it. 

This is why Jesus said he hated luke-warm churches.  Be hot or cold, make a decision!  The average Christian doesn’t seem to realize that a half-hearted decision is a decision to not believe.  Something in this world is so precious to them they will not let it go, or they are too fearful of the rejection of men to let it go.  Either way, the decision is that something is worshipped to a level that it is just as important as God.  This action means you don’t believe in God as the only authority and that His instructions in His Word are the best way for you to live to be completely satisfied and full.

“Do not be deceived: ‘Evil company corrupts good habits.’ Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God.” – 1 Corinthians 15:33-34

How often we see an apparently good Christian led away by the people they are around who influence them away from the things of God.  How foolish we are to think these “good” people have our best interest.  How can someone who doesn’t know God or isn’t in a purposeful close relationship with God lead us to what is best for us?  Remove these “friends” from your life.  Otherwise you will soon be riding the fence and be luke-warm water that Jesus wants no part.  You will be double-minded and unstable.  Eventually the sin will grow and destroy something in your life that you never intended.

LIving for Christ

Joshua 24: 15But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

We are faced with thousands of choices each day.  Some are mundane, such as what to wear (ok, I realize some of you actually put a lot of thought into this as you have something to work with and can actually look great, but for me there's just not much I can do...) others are life changing such as who to allow into your inner circle of close friendship.  Regardless, we need a guide.  We simply cannot make perfect choices.  Often, we cannot even make good choices and I give you the history of mankind both in and out of scripture and recent tragic events of local and international terror as evidence of that claim.  We humans are fundamentally flawed and need a guide to make the right choices consistently throughout life. 
As a Christian we have access to the perfect guide each and every second of every day: God's Holy Spirit.  Yet we often treat God as an emergency worker who can only be called upon in cases of dire emergency after we've tried everything else we know to do.  Many even believe that scripture tells us that God helps those who help themselves (it in fact does NOT state such).  In fact, God places himself within us to set us free - not from reliance on Him, but freedom from self reliance.  Yet God does NOT force himself upon us and we retain full freedom of choice. 
So as I start this day, I choose to serve the Lord.  I choose to give my freedom of choice to Him to the best of my ability.  I'm not perfect (you're welcome to pile on with examples here!), but I know the One who is and I choose to trust His judgment and  guidance.  I pray that I have the patience to listen, the wisdom to recognize His inspiration, the  audacity to follow in obedience, and the courage to share the results.  Only then can my life have eternal significance and meaning. Only then can I stand with true character not because of what I've done, but because of what I've allowed God to do through me.  Lord take my life and let it be all for you!

I want to sign Your name
To the end of this day
Knowing that my heart was true
Let my lifesong sing to You

The Holy Spirit Leads

Here is a wonderful sermon on the Holy Spirit leading us.  I encourage anyone who has 40 min or so to listen to it. I thought it was excellent and follows Russ's devotion of today well.



The Holy Spirit Leads from Pinelake Church on Vimeo.

God is Always with Us

John 4: 24"God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

I think we as humans try to understand, define, and relate to God from our own experiences.  Yet we are spiritual beings having a physical experience, so our understanding, definitions, and experiences are out of context of our God who is and exists in the spirit realm.  For example, a simple table prayer that dates back to early Methodism (incorrectly credited to John Wesley) begins "Be present at our table, Lord" which is an invitation for a God who is out there somewhere to come in and dine with us.  This is a fine prayer for a non-Christian, but for a Christian it is essential that we recognize and live the truth that God literally lives within us. 
God who became flesh and dwelt among us, sacrificed himself for us, resurrected himself after three days and then ascended into Heaven, has returned to us in the form of His Holy Spirit.  All of the power, knowledge, grace, and love that is God is literally within us.  Let's be clear, this isn't some mystical power we can wield as we see fit, it is God who lives in us to inspire us to be more like Him and therefore serve Him effectively.  God has experienced our physical aches and pains, suffered emotional anguish of loss and separation, and the joy of seeing people develop in their understanding and spiritual maturity.  He can truly empathize with whatever we experience.  In addition, he not only knows us perfectly and understands our circumstances, he knows the future and is therefore positioned to provide us perfect answers to what lies before us. 
We would do well to think differently about God.  He is not some mystical being that must be invited into a place for a brief time of euphoric entertainment or must arrive like an ambulance in our time of need.  He is a spirit that created the world and each of us for a very specific reason and has now placed himself within us in order to have an intimate minute-by-minute relationship that cannot be broken or interrupted.  He lives within those of us who have called out to Him to save us from our sins.  We need to tune into the one true God who has placed himself within us and stop looking for Him where He is not.  Thinking differently about who God is and where He establishes Himself gives us new insight into exactly how He is rebuilding His temple and where He is establishing His kingdom.  We don't go to God or invite him into a place, we turn our attention to the God who has been with us since we invited Him in.  By recognizing this one simple fact, we can live differently knowing that God hasn't been kicked out of schools or a country, he simply isn't being invited into sinners nor are Christians paying attention to the God within them. 
Focus today on the God who loves you enough to dwell with you constantly.  He isn't out there somewhere to be summoned like a ghost.  He goes with us, sees all, hears all, and feels all.  Think differently about God and I believe you will relate differently to a much more real and personal God.

Shine

 “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”  Matthew 5:16

The weather affects my moods.  I don’t want it to, but it does, at least partially.  Lately, each day has had thick grey clouds and the temperature has been a little cooler (which I like).  It hasn’t rained much, maybe some light drizzle here and there, but the days have a deep winter feel to them.  For some reason I want to sleep a lot.  Maybe I’m part bear and I need to hibernate.  I just know that I am less awake and less excited to get going on days like this.

Similarly, I think there are many days when we are spiritually in dark winter days.  We don’t wake up and see the glory of a new sunrise and walk in the warm sunshine under blue skies.  Everything seems subdued, darker, colder, and the colors in our world are dull.  We find that we just aren’t as excited about a lot spiritually.  It doesn’t mean we aren’t saved, but it does mean we are not very excited about it.  Usually it is at these times that a problem or challenge will occur that really needs you to be spiritually awake and responsive.

Why is it difficult at times to stay excited spiritually?  I would say it is because when you do get excited and start living under conviction and confronting sin, almost everyone you know will reject you in some way.  This is depressing and it casts a dull shadow over your excitement.  Then you lose some of those people.  They intentionally walk away.  They may make many excuses but ultimately it’s because you started exercising your faith and they don’t want theirs to be awoken.  This casts an additional dullness to your excitement.  Then, undoubtedly, the things you are praying so adamantly for aren’t happening.  Someone is still rejecting God; a young person is still running away from responsibility; a disease is still consuming someone; people are still attacking you and your belief; others are trying to cause division; and others are lying to others about you.  It is hard to stay encouraged and see the bright Son shining over all of Creation.

BUT, when I think of what I have been delivered from; when I think of how God has met me where I was; when I get to be at home with my family and we have great family nights; when I am able to do some actionable work that serves and contributes to others; and when I see where God has used me, filthy dirty sinful me, to do anything for Him, I find that I see a sunny day.  A single person who’s life is made better because of God finding a way to use me makes that day a great day.  It is in giving my dull, cloudy, dull day to Him and Him using something, anything to help others, that makes the day sunny and beautiful (spiritually speaking). 

Mother Teresa’s Anyway poem says it best:

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centered;

Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;

Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;

Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;

Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;

Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;

Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;

Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;

Give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God;

It was never between you and them anyway.

Let God shine through you and in so doing, He will make Himself to shine in you.

God’s Goal for You Is Character, Not Comfort

Today I am simply going to point to the daily devotion by Rick Warren.  HERE is where you can go to read it.

A few quotes:

"Every time you forget that character is one of God’s purposes for your life, you will become frustrated by your circumstances. You’ll wonder, “Why is this happening to me? Why am I having such a difficult time?” One answer is that life is supposed to be difficult! It’s what enables us to grow. Remember, Earth is not Heaven."

I think about recent confrontations I've had.  There was an evident frustration in him that there existed a circumstance that he couldn't control.  His ultimate solution was to remove the circumstance from his life rather than reveal and confess his obvious character problem.  If you believe your character is good and doesn't need work, you can be sure that you have a problem.  Expect a lot of frustrations in your life.  

"This self-absorbed perspective [of people thinking the Christian life is easy] treats God as a genie who simply exists to serve you in your selfish pursuit of personal fulfillment. But God is not your servant, and if you fall for the idea that life is supposed to be easy, either you will become severely disillusioned or you will live in denial of reality."

I think we all live in some form of a "denial of reality".  But only a fool would purposely tell himself a lie so often that he believes it to be true.  Maybe we don't want to be who we are, but denying what we are is "ludicrous".  The self-absorbed people I am in contact with not only want to use God for their own "selfish pursuit of personal fulfillment" but they insist that everyone around them should be used for that purpose also.  And if you don't take part in that, you can be sure you are the enemy and they have no place for you in their world.

We learned this week that the daughter of some family friends of ours who has only been married a year and a half is going through a difficult time.  The night she sat down to tell her husband she was pregnant, he sat down to tell her he wanted to get a divorce.  He then proceeded to sell their car and her musical equipment and buy a motorcycle.  He posted pictures of himself and a new girl on his motorcycle kissing.  He shut out his parents, siblings, and grandparents and doesn't talk to them.  He has also stopped all communications with every friend who has called him to talk to him.  Julie called her to console her and she is thinking of moving back here for the family support.  His parents and family have remained in contact with her and support her also and that is helpful.  Although at first he told them that she wanted a divorce and other lies.  Thankfully they quickly saw through it.  ...  It's a terrible situation.  But he is in a real "denial of reality".  He is "self-absorbed" as Rick describes here and he has a false illusion that he is missing out on life with the responsibilities he chose.  

I just wish I knew how to reach him.  I hate the thought of the size of the regret that he might have to carry one day.  A new child is going to grow up without a dad and a young woman is going to have to live without the man she saved herself for.  Sin is heartbreaking.  The only thing I know to pray for is that the Spirit of God would crack into his heart and the conviction of sin would bring him to his knees.  There is nothing else that can change a heart.

The Divide

We are told in a parable from Jesus (Luke 16) that there exists a “chasm” between heaven and hell.  The story is about the beggar Lazarus and the rich man.  In the story Abraham has a request from the rich man to have Lazarus dip his finger in water and cool his tongue because he was in agony from the fire (I find it remarkable that the rich man in agony is still trying get service from Lazarus, talk about the perverted mindset and its inability to see its own reality!), but Abraham responds that he cannot cross the “chasm” even if he wanted to help him.  This uncrossable divide exists among the people of this world today, it does not only exists in the afterlife.  There are some on one side and some on another side. 

I continue to study and remain interested in how people with good intentions can so believe they are right that they hate each other, even while each proposes to stand for the same good.  This does not seem possible to the logical thinker, yet it exist. 

There are examples of this in the life of Jesus.  He was the Son of God, sent from God for mankind.  His words were God’s words.  His actions were as directed from God.  Also in this society were the leaders of the church of God.  These were the most studied people in that society of God’s written words.  The society was a theocracy based upon those same written words.  The people are God’s chosen people and He had a long history of rescuing their forefathers in miraculous ways.  The stories were written down and told and retold.  The children memorized them and they all memorized portions of the written words of God.

How then was it that the Son of God, speaking God’s word and doing His purpose and the leaders of the people of God and the church of God, were so opposed?  They were both doing the same good, right?  Apparently not as Jesus has some incredibly strong verbal descriptions of these church leaders.  Some of the most compelling verbal assaults come in Matthew 23.  Even if you read it in toned down versions of the Bible it is still hurtful.

Imagine a teacher/preacher/wise (rabbi) man saying these things towards you.  “Hypocrites! … Blind guides! … Blind fools! … Snakes! … Sons of vipers!”  In that day, His reference to snakes and sons of vipers would have been the same as declaring them to be demons and the sons of Satan.  That is very strong judgmental, condemning and accusatory language.  How would you feel?  Would you investigate your heart to see if He was right or would you defend yourself in every way that you could?

The answer to that question is what separates man to one side of the "chasm" or the other.  If the Spirit of God is allowed to convict His sin, he goes to one side.  If it isn't, he goes to the other.  

On the other side, the church leaders worked diligently to find a way to trap Him in His own language so they could arrest Him.  The set trap after trap.  They looked for every way possible to condemn Him and put Him away.  Finally, they simply made up lies, paid people to say lies, created every perception in their area of influence to convince people to want Him to die.  Then they created an atmosphere so that the ruling government in the day would kill Him.

Yet, both were supposedly representing the same God?  Obviously they did not.  One was right and one was wrong.  Satan used those who were willing to lie, cheat, and steal to create confusion and divide the church.  And this divide is unable to be crossed.  Satan thought that by dealing Jesus blow after blow from His own people that he would win the victory over God, but he was wrong.  He only made the love of God stronger and more powerful in the lives of men.  It was from Satan’s work that God was able to provide a way to travel over the “chasm” using the Cross.

This is true in my life as well. 

Every time the devil hits me to knock me down he thinks he is winning, but all he is doing is revealing to me how strong my God is.  With each blow my faith becomes stronger because I have to rely upon it completely to survive.  Soon, he will have so beat me down that none of me will exist and he will only have God to face.  I wonder, what he will be able to do then but run and hide!

Do not be dismayed today Christian.  There may be those who, claiming to do the greater good, oppose you because of God and His work in your life.  Stay in God’s care.  Rely upon Him and Him alone.  Let your faith increase and for Him to be revealed more and more.  Truth will win and lies will be revealed.  Allow yourself to be removed so God can stand alone where you are.  There does not exist such an entity that will stand toe-to-toe with God.

Oh, What a Savior!

What a rough few days it has been.  It’s bad enough to have to endure a relationship where the other person will not take part in it if: 1) you disagree with their point-of-view, 2) they don’t control the communication and 3) they intentionally lie or provide only partial truths.  This is an impossible relationship.  Then to find out your extended family has all bought into the lies as this person has gone to each one and continually provided just enough information to create a perception of how good they are and how bad you are.  All of it is crushing and feels very high-schoolish.  Discovering that people who have known you all their lives and should know you would never intentionally run someone down is disturbing.  Then to know they wouldn’t call you if they thought you had done something to clarify it is also disturbing, but that is our society today.  No one will personally confront another person.  Send a text or an email.  Then to discover that their minds are so twisted that they see any good work you try to do as a show only to demonstrate how good you are and in their eyes you are just bragging and boosting yourself up (this is what my efforts in Haiti were in the eyes of my own family).  I was told by a member of my own family that to stop quoting the Bible, to stop doing good things where anyone can see them, and to stop saying how faith has played such a large role in my own marriage (“you’re not the first one to find faith” I was told).  Did I say that this is crushing and disturbing on so many levels?

 

All of this because of a single person.  He has worked diligently to divide and create confusion.  His name is Satan.  He comes to lie, cheat, and steal.  I’ve discovered through my experiences that anytime you are having any relational difficulties, take a moment and step away from them and look at your actions and everyone elses.  Look specifically for lies, cheating, or stealing.  I have always found that one or all of those things will become evident and when they do they usually point to who if having a faith problem.  This can be incredibly hard to see however as man is good at hiding his intentions even if he doesn’t fully understand his intentions.  Usually, until a person is face-to-face with the pain in someone else’s life caused solely by them, they don’t have the ability to be compassionate and make a decision to stop lying, cheating, or stealing. 

Yet, there is a God in heaven and He has provided a Savior.  He has made a way where none existed.  He is still in the miracle business.  I know, I am a witness.  Today, He is to be praised.  He has allowed me to take breath today, so He obviously has a purpose for me.  He has allowed me to have a family, one I do not deserve.  He has allowed me to have the ability to serve Him in vocation and relationships.  He has given me friends who really care about me.  But most of all, He takes my sin and vaporizes it.  It ceases to exist.  And so I have the ability to step into His presence and speak to Him and Him to me.  Most definitely something I do not deserve. 

He charges me with His Spirit!  Oh, What a Savior!  This is one of my all time favorite songs and how I wish I could sing well and sing it.  HERE it is if you don't know it.