Often, as we look around in this world, we find no good thing. The heart of man, without God, cannot do any more than be evil because the nature he is born with is broken…not by God who made it perfect, but by Adam’s disobedience. People sometimes forget that they are born with a broken "thinker", “wanter” and “feeler” and yet that is what they use to make all their decisions, about life, and even about God. When things don’t work well, based on that brokenness, they often shake their fists at God and get even further away from the only One who can stop this incessant cycle. God is over and above all this world and all that is in it. We must encourage ourselves and others that God knows and we don’t! That’s why He calls to us and tells us to come to Him. He is the refuge, the safety, the quiet and the calm. He has all the answers. He knows how to fit your schedule and requirements smoothly and how to give you strength to do the tasks at hand. Stop saying silently (and out loud) that, “I’m too tired”, “too busy”, “trying to get it all done”, “can’t pay the bills”, “can’t take it any more”, etc. Stop crying over spilled milk, stop mourning over what someone did to you, stop lamenting over what you’ve done. This is not the life God has for His saints. Pain and suffering are a part of the construction of a saint, but not the whole life! Complaints, doubts, despairs, angers, etc.—these are warning signs that you are not in the fruit of the Spirit of God, but rather in the spirit of man. Keep praying, keep praising, hold your tongue, take every thought captive to Christ and you will come above all that was in your life or is in your life now. We are promised good success, a full life and abundance from out God. Keep going until you get it! Endure the fire: it’s producing pure gold!
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Sometimes, in our struggle with the sins that so easily beset – envy, anger, bitterness, outbursts, jealousy, gossip, slander, etc. – we struggle with the struggle! It’s a sticky predicament that Satan wants to happen over and over. But God has made a way out of this struggle…it is the risen life of Jesus in us. As we pray and praise, forgive and repent, seek and seek and seek, we find. And this new life He promised, rises in us. Oswald Chambers states, “when I am born again from above, I receive from the risen Lord His very life…His resurrection means for us that we are raised to His risen life, not our old life…when once you have seen Jesus, you can never be the same, other things do not appeal as they used to…Have I made this decision about sin that it must be killed right out in me?...not curbed or suppressed or counteracted, but crucified? Take time alone with God…make the moral decision that sin in you must be put to death…I cannot reckon myself dead unto sin unless I have been through this radical issue of will before God.” So don’t struggle any longer, it’s not your job to change your inside – that’s God’s job. For only He can do this. What we must do is worship, pray, praise, repent, go to fellowship, read the Bible in His light and obey His direction. All the rest comes as God completes each new phase of His project in us. So have faith, have patience and wait…with yourself and with others. God’s good work in you will come to pass…”He who began a good work in you will perfect it.” (Philippians 1:6) Hmm – “Let go and let God” should take on a whole new meaning for us: He loves us…let us love one another. Endure the fire: it’s producing pure gold! God tells us to be holy as He is holy. Holy mackerel! Most of us are scared off by that statement because we know we are far from holy! But be of good cheer…God has made a way for us. First, that way is through Jesus. We must submit our hearts and lives to Jesus and ask Him to come “inside” of us and not just remain a religious idea on the “outside”. The pursuit of holiness does not end there. We must strive and seek God’s directions for all the avenues of our lives, so He may complete His good work in us. Remember, originally, man was created with faith, hope and love ruling him. By Adam’s sin, death then entered in and changed that perfect nature. That perfect faith (belief/binding); that perfect hope (happy expectation of good) and that perfect love (1 Corinthians 13 type, that is), were changed to a primal mind, will and emotions. Seek God to have His way fill you and fix your “stinking thinking” back to faith; change the demanding will back to hope, and change the roller coaster ride of emotions back to love. It is hard to change, but God has made the way…take it! “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15:22) Endure the fire—it’s producing pure gold! What a wonderful and holy God we serve. He is eager to bless us. Many will miss those blessings, though, because of their personal insistence on their viewpoint of God. What they forget is that God’s ways are not our ways. Mankind tends to choose a path that seems right to them, but the end of it is death. Why then are we so stubborn, so foolish to pursue what and how we think in the face of such wondrous truth and direction from God? We should ambitiously seek God to completely renovate, remodel and reconstruct how we think and about what we think. God will surely do it because He loves His children. Continue to submit to God, fight every thought, word and deed that does not measure up to God’s direction. Maintain moral excellence, not moral excuses, and rejoice in the golden work of God for His blessings are perfect! Endure the fire—it’s producing pure gold! Many wonderful things are happening in God’s great plan. We are growing in His grace and wisdom. Many people are changing from lives of “stinkin’ thinkin’” to full lives, ready to serve God in all aspects of their existence. Many are giving up sinful habits and living styles and are coming to the Lord in a proper manner as He has decreed. We are learning to give more freely and abundantly of our money, our time and our talents. God is also showing many individuals and families a deeper wisdom in the management of their finances (pay close attention to that one folks!). And may we never stop thanking the Lord for the salvation of so many of our young ones and the manifestation of God’s presence in their lives. It is too easy to be irritated or frustrated with the things in our lives that are not “fixed” yet. Rather, let us always look to the Lord in humble submission and gratitude for what He has done for us. If we ever forget, then let us ask Him to remind us of the great rescues and blessings He has bestowed on each one of us. Be in prayer for God’s leadership to guide us on this wonderful journey to serve God and to “seek and save the lost”. There is much to be done. Stay alert. Sharpen your sword in the Word of the Lord! Endure the fire—it’s producing pure gold! How far are you willing to walk with God – a Sunday stroll’s worth? Or are you willing to go the whole grueling distance? If the footmen have tired you out, how can you compete with the horsemen? (Jeremiah 12:5) It is a vain dream for anyone to think he can do what God asks without going through God’s training program. Training requires discipline, sacrifice, time and money as well as excellent instruction and examples of those who are good at the task. No one can become a good husband and father, or wife and mother or morally excellent citizen, good student, honest businessman or co-worker, or be patient, loving, generous, pure, etc., without training. Put in the discipline to control your mind, your will and your emotions. Make the sacrifice to serve others first and give up your own convenience. Put the time into going to church, Bible study and men’s and women’s meetings and the like. Put your money where your morals are! Generously support your church and its ministries and give to other good works as God shows you. Don’t just support these things with your mouth – pull out your wallet and your calendar! Pour over the Bible and other rich Christian-based materials and follow the examples of Jesus and the other good saints who followed Jesus’ example, back then and now. Keep running well and train constantly so you can finish the race and receive the prize. Don’t be deceived! Just like in a marathon…you can sign up for the race, pay the fee, wear the clothes and show up for the race looking exactly like everyone else. But if you haven’t trained, you will drop out every time until you do it God’s way. “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.” (1 Corinthians 9:24) Endure the fire—it’s producing pure gold! How wonderful to be living in God’s truth. Truth, as used in the scriptures, means awareness. It doesn’t mean some set of debatable beliefs. The original Greek work for truth means, “Not escape your notice”. In 1 Corinthians 4:5 it tells us to “Wait until the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things hidden in the darkness.” Wow-we, need that. We will never live long enough to learn all the ways of God so it is imperative that we have an “awareness” of all the good and evil around us and in anything that we do. And that awareness comes from being in the light, not in the dark! “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path” (Psalm 119:105); “In Thy light shall we see light” (Psalm 37:6) and “You were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord: walk as children of light” (Ephesians 5:8) definitely make the point. What a gift from God to give us His Light—King Jesus! Through Jesus, and Him alone, we have access to God. And in that, the “awareness”, we need to continue in this glorious and marvelous life. Even though it seems like life in the coal mines sometimes, the light of His life brings warmth and sight even in the deepest darkness. Endure the fire—it’s producing pure gold! Psalm 16 says, "Preserve me O God, for I take refuge in Thee." We could not last without Him. Psalm 18 says, "The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer." Nothing can “get” us in His fortress. Psalm 23 says, "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want." We shall lack no good thing! Do we just say these things? Or do we really make all of our decisions based on them as our rock solid foundation? Understanding and living just these short verses helps us in all of our trials and problems. Imagine what being filled with God’s word would do! Let’s be refreshed as well as reminded: all we need is in God, through His Son Jesus. Go on now, go to Him. Endure the fire—it’s producing pure gold! God has a wisdom that is far above us. He tells us to give thanks in all things because He knows that being in a state of thanksgiving will keep us in a receptive, humble attitude that can actually lead to our peace and happiness. Recently, I heard someone say that ungrateful people are unhappy people. Nothing is right for them. Instead of being humbly grateful, they are grumbly hateful! So true! Enter into the joy of the Lord. Purpose right now not to let your circumstances control your joy. Do not look anymore at what you don’t have or on what is not yet remedied. Instead, look really hard at what you do have and what God has fixed for you in your life…be grateful. Endure the fire—it’s producing pure gold! Just take a trip to any bookstore and you will find shelf after shelf of books written on how to succeed, how to live right, how to raise kids, etc. Don’t get me wrong, now; they are bursting with good advice and suggestions that will bring success to many. But are you aware of what God has to say on these issues? Too many times, we run to man’s wisdom for a quick fix for our deep, multi-layered, multi-faceted needs and thus fall short of a full remedy and restoration. Thank God for His ways. Think on what it says in Joshua 1:8, “This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it, for then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have success.” Wow – meditate on it day and night (not once a year); do not let it depart from your mouth (what is coming out of your mouth, anyway?); be careful to do according to all that is written (not just the parts you like) then (and only then) you will make your way prosperous and then you will have success. What a concrete answer for us, all in today’s all-too-fluid world. God speaks to us in His word…read it, study it, know it. It is “bread for the head”! No more excuses why you can’t fervently and consistently be committed to studying and reading some scriptures each day. Just start with 5 minutes a day, and then add one minute each week until you read 15 minutes a day, as a minimum. The change you are looking for will follow. You will feel, think and act in an increasingly righteous and repentant manner, being able to live the full and abundant life God originally intended for you. What an awesome God we serve! Endure the fire—it’s producing pure gold! |
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June 2023
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